This is not your regular beauty-related post…but wanted to share with you some of what I like to consider are touches of sunshine or touches of bright colors that I have scattered around my living room in an attempt to overcome London winter greys…
Beautiful pillowcase from India
(continue reading this post in the Travelogue page here)
I was given this beautiful metallic polish as part of a free shipping offer back in December when I bought products worth more than £10 in total.
This is what I bought:
There are several things in this haul that I like (actually almost everything!) and hopefully I will be reviewing them over the next few days.
But this post is about the metallic polish Metal Madness which I love!
The sparkles are fine and multicolored not all silvery like it’s shown on the first picture.
This is shown better on these next pictures (sorry for the blur…)
Love how the lights get reflected on the nails.
In terms of texture, this is much better than other ELF polishes and two coats are enough to give good coverage. Not a pain to remove either. And it lasted good solid 4 days before it started chipping (always with base and top coats, of course). And it’s only £1.50, well, actually for me it was free, even better!
So all in all this is definitely a winner for me.
So do you girls have this?
Which is your favourite nail polish at the moment?
Update: This is now on sale at only £1 at ELF’s website!
I wish! Specially at this time of the year!
In case you were wondering, no, I definitely don’t have it. Despite being Spanish I have a fair to medium skin and right now is more on the super pale side of the spectrum.
I tend to use sunless tan products from springtime till autumn, basically till is not conceivable any more that I’m tanned despite of the fact that there has been no sun out for ages and I just feel a tiny bit ridiculous.
It is not springtime yet but I’m fed up of being pale, which accentuates all my skin flaws and makes me look tired (and sometimes sick with people asking me if I feel ok!).
So I decided to get a moisturizer with a bit of sunless tanner which is how I gradually start getting a touch of colour.
I picked this at Boots because I had one of those 5£ off coupons on N7 products. I’ve used other moisturizers with sunless tanner.
No7 Gradual Facial Tan
Not that you can read anything here...
I have to say that this does give a touch of healthy colour but is actually lighter than I expected and definitely lighter than the previous one I was using (but haven’t been able to find that easily), the Olay Complete Care Everyday Sunshine Dark Glow.
The texture is quite rich so I’d probably stay away from it if you have oily skin but it quite works for me at least at this time of the year.
My only complain is that since it is that light I think I’m rubbing it off every night when I’m taking off my make up. So I really need to apply it every day if I want to see any result, which is a bit of a pain since I was intending to alternate it with my regular illuminating day moisturizer (also from No7, Light and Illuminate). But I guess it will do for the moment. Not ready yet to start with proper sunless tanner…at least till next month or so…before my next trip to warmer climates!
Do you guys use sunless tanner in winter? Or have you started again?
Please leave a comment!
This is not about an airline…
This is actually about shoes, well boots to be precise.
Fly London is a portuguese brand of shoes. They have one of the most comfort comfortable shoes/boots out there for a very reasonable price. They normally have good (which means high for me, being a shorty as I am) but very wearable platforms and the leather is very soft and of really good quality.
I bought these booties recently on sale (71£ instead of about 100£ or so) which is not a bargain but these shoes are really worth this price (I see so many shoes out there that are not even good quality leather).
Yarg Lace Up Boot Leather in Black
These are so comfortable that once you’ve tried them on you seriously don’t want to take them off!
I bought them online through Javari which have an impeccable service: free one day delivery and 365-day return policy. Hard to beat! Bought mine on a Thursday evening after 7pm and got them the next day.
They also have a store in Covent Garden in London if you want to see how they look like. I guess in Portugal and Spain they are quite popular and maybe not so much here in the UK but always foe promoting brands from the peninsula …
I’ve been wearing them almost non-stop ever since. Very happy with my purchase. Definitely.
Do you guys own any Fly London shoes/boots?
Sales at All Saints
Let me rant today a little bit about the customer service in this country (the UK).
I have to tell you, having lived in the US for 6 years were CUSTOMER IS KING NO MATTER WHAT, experiencing what customer service is like in the UK was a shock. Major shock. Or maybe I’ve just been having bad experiences all along. There also some exceptions of course…for some reason I cannot remember any now…
I mean, I don’t expect too much really from a sales assistant apart from the fact that I don’t really like to be ignored plainly by them when I need something and I don’t want to be bothered by them all the time if I don’t want to.
GOOD sales assistants know that and there are ways to do that in a well-mannered fashion. No need to be rude…
This specific rant goes to All Saints, and specifically the store in Regents St. I’m not even going to be bothered telling you about them and inserting the links because I don’t think they deserve it.
I was there last weekend, Saturday evening for a sale mini shopping spree. After Benetton (where I was surprised about their return/exchange policy: basically there are no returns and only exchanges and only within 14 days…I mean…not great compared to other High Street stores)
Anyway, back to All Saints. I like *some* of their clothes, the asymmetry works for me on some things but not everything. In general I think it’s pretty overpriced (almost everything regular price is about 100£, t-shirts for 40-50£) and I don’t normally want to spend that much on a single item unless I feel the quality calls for it.
SO…I hit the sale racks and was happy to see there were plenty of things at 40-50-60% off. I went to a rack with items clearly labelled (but not all of them, here comes the problem).
I specially liked their asymmetric waistcoats and went for one in marbled brown and another one in black that were originally 70 and 95£ I think but were 50 and 60% off.
Waistcoat in Brown
Waistcoat n2 in Black
Back of Waistcoat n2
One of the items didn’t have the reduction on the tag but there was an identical one in the same rack that had it so I just assumed it was misslabelled, seeing nothing different between them. This happens ALL the time at Gap for example and you sometimes get a nice surprise at the till/cashier when you find out you need to pay even less than you thought!
First, I think the brown one that was originally 70£ and was 50% off only had a “handwritten 70£ label. I asked when I was going to pay if it was really 50% off. The assistant didn’t know so she scanned it and the full price showed up and I told her about the same exact other one in the rack (but size 6 so was not going to get that one anyway!)….
Then she asked ME to go to the rack, find the item and take it to her. I was glad and lucky to find it. She didn’t like the fact that she had to enter a few codes in and because she didn’t know how to do it had to ask the manager to do it for her. Not ONCE the manager or the assistant apologized for the waste of MY time from the fact that the item was misslabelled…Great (To be honest they made me feel like I was trying to rip them off…hate it).
On to the second one. This gets worse…
I kept the label of the black one:
On Sale or Not On Sale? that is the question...
This was CLEARLY had the reduction on the label AND the 60%off tag that you can see in the first picture.
Again when the assistant scanned it the reduction didn’t show up.
Again she needed to call her manager to enter some code to modify it.
Again noone apologized for the mistake and basically completely ignored me. Even the manager complained that there were two items misslabelled and that this shouldn’t happen…without looking at me once.
SO SO RUDE!!!
To be honest it was only because I really liked both things and had tried them AND liked how they fit me that I put up with that…
The store was almost empty even if it was Saturday and there were plenty of clothes on sale…maybe there’s a reason why.
RETAILERS: IF YOU WANT CUSTOMERS TO LEAVE THEIR HARD EARNED MONEY IN YOUR SHOP PLEASE TREAT THEM PROPERLY!
You know I like Paperchase…
About 1-2 years ago I bought a collection of stickers to use on my travel notebook. I realized the other day that this hadn’t been opened yet…
Next thing I know I’m talking to my sister about customizing my dad’s and mum’s computers (we bought them one netbook each recently! Good daughters!) so that they know which one is which…
I ended up using some of the stickers on my blue-polish-stained-netbook
London-NYC
How cute are these?
I lived in NYC before coming to London and I love (almost) al things New York.
I realized this will be of noo interest to anyone but I just sharing how “teenagy” (sorry for making up words!) I’m behaving lately…blame it on the hormones…
Hope eveyone has a wonderful weekend!
I bought this Korres body milk while I was in Spain last Christmas (but you can get this brand also in the UK and the US as well).
Korres Body Milk in Jasmine
"Jasmine: a captivating aroma of newly opened jasmine buds"
I was looking for a hand cream with a pump to keep it next to my coffee table at home or desk at work…and didn’t find any that was not supergreasy or with a nice lingering scent…
Till I went shopping with my sister, who loves everything jasmine scented, and she told me she had bought this body milk for herself last summer and she really liked it but wasn’t using it for the body anymore because it was a bit greasy and she was starting to break out…
The next thing I know I tried it on in my hands and thought that this could make a lovely hand cream. It does take a tiny bit to absorb but it smells sooo nice that I forgive that. Afer a while the feeling is not greasy at all and you’re left with a truly lovely fragrance in your hands that lingers for quite a while. (**Just put some on my hands 5 min ago and keep sniffing my hands while typing!!**)
I was happy to see that others (like Laura from @lollipop26) also likes this as a hand moisturizer!
What do you think? Haveyou tried this or any other Korres products?
I like this designer A LOT. Her designs are retr0, simple and colorful. You can go to her website here. I’m sure you have seen her bags with the multi-stem design pretty much everywhere if you live in the UK.
Bags
Mugs
even on a bus!
Every season she comes up with new versions of this design and new designs that have nothing to do with the stem print. (I’ve blogged about my Orla Kiely make up bag before)
The bags in matt laminated fabric normally retail at around £130. They were at 50% off on sale so I decided to get one this year.
This is the one I got:
My new Orla bag
and this is the description from the website:
“Alpine Forest Midi Sling Bag
£128.00 £64.00
Matt laminated midi sling bag with coordinating large stem print cotton lining. Inside details include zip and mobile pockets and key chain. Magnet closure. Adjustable strap that allows the bag to worn as a shoulder bag or across the body.
Outer: 100% Cotton with PU coating
Trims: 100% Leather/100% Cotton
Lining: 100% Cotton”
As you can see this one is not particularly colourful but I like the pattern nonetheless.
I like the fact that all the bags have a key chain because I have a tendency to lose my keys.
See the nice ribbon key chain?
However, I don’t use the one that comes in the bag because I have my own one that I transfer from bag to bag (the fact that the keys are attached to the bag makes me less prone to forget them on the kitchen table…)
I’ve just checked the website and there are still bags on sale you you can still grab one of these for half the usual price (which I think s quite high eventhough the final quality of the bag is quite good)
I couldn’t help but check the SS11 bags and I love the new print!
Do you owe any Orla Kiely bag? Did you buy any in the sales?
Just I quick post to show you the most delicious lip gloss I bought recently (yeah! it actually tastes quite sweet!).
It’s from Rimmel London and it’s called, well Delicious!
Delicious Rimmel Gloss
Royal Gloss
It leaves a very subtle raspberry tint to your lips leaving them quite glossy and soft. Staying power is almost null but I really like the taste and how it leaves my lips. Word of caution: for those winter days when it’s supercold you would need a good lip balm as a base or better yet, just leave it for those other days when it’s not that cold!
This is an attempt to show how it looked on my lips although it almost unnoticeable…
Delicious gloss on my lips
This was under £5 so I’m thinking of getting more flavours (although don’t really know if they come in other flavours or just other colors…)
Do you also like glosses wich taste sweet?
Hey! I’m back!
Sorry it’s been two weeks since my last post…
Kind of got stuck in my Best of series and plenty of things going on at work interrupted my blogging that I had started after coming back from the holidays…
Anyway…I’ve been bad (or good for the UK retailers) and bought plenty of things in the sales. I will be posting plenty on that this week hopefully.
But today I wanted to share with you some of the MAC make up I’ve been buying on eBay from different sellers.
MAC via eBay
As you can see everything came in it’s original package (the one that’s not shown it’s because I threw it away before taking the pictures)
All the items came from 100% rated sellers and BNIB (brand new in box).
I have to admit I’ve started to buy on eBay only late last year. It’s actually kind of fun if you don’t take it too seriously when you don’t win (that’s a funny term ’cause you’re actually paying for it!).
I actually check first what’s the full price to make sure that I’m not being ripped off!
Regarding MAC makeup I think mostly the things you can find are some limited editions and past collections essentially although there are also regular items but the sold out and hard-to- find ones normally tend to go quite expensive so I stay away from those.
So without further ado let me show you in more detail what I got and my first impressions.
MAC Mineralize eye shadows: Devil-May-Care and Earthly Riches
Without flash (and crappy winter daylight in London)
With flash (closer to what they actually look like)
MAC Mineralize eye shadow in Earthly Riches
and in Devil-May-Care
I have to admit this are the first Mac products I own (I know, I know, I’ve waited all this time!) but I was definitely impressed by the texture and the colours and pigmentation which I found all superb (as everyone else).
They are £15.5 on the MAC website (at least the colors they sell now, these may have been cheaper at the time). I payed 8.75£ for one and 10£ for the other one. Not exactly bargains but a good price anyway I think.
This is what they say about this type of shadows in the MAC website:
“Two Mineralize Eye Shadows in one large compact. One shade features a mélange of three shades, the other provides a complementary or contrasting solid shade. Both provide medium buildable and lightweight application with a pearlized frost finish.”
I used Devil-May-Care a lot during the Christmas holidays over other shadows. It gave a festive sparkly finish. Igot Earthly Riches more recently but I really love the color (aubergines and metallic browns are my favourites for winter) so I’m very happy with it!
Moving on to the rest.
MAC Sheertone Blush in Ambering Rose
The color seems very dark in the pan which actually scared me a bit when I got it but since this is a sheertone it’s, well, very sheer (dah!) and buildable.
Here’s a swatch on my hand (I haven’t tried it yet on my cheeks).
MAC Sheertone Blush in Amering Rose
It looks very orange but actually these were more than a couple of strokes so I think if I go with a light hand it will be alright…Will wait maybe to be a bit more tanned.
This was 10£ including shipping (compared to 17.5£ in the website).
Finally
The lipglass is part of the “Mickey Contractor” limited edition. You can still find it on the website for 12.5£ and I got it for 8.6£.
This is a very nude color for me but I like the texture (very rich) so I will wear it anyway. I got it because I thought the color was more like a “dirty rose” which is how it looked in the pictures shown on eBay (without flash) and in the website to be honest.
MAC on eBay
So all in all I’m quite happy with what I got. I have to confess is a bit risky (I wouldn’t have gone for the blush and the lipgloss if I had seen the actual colors) but I guess as equally risky as buying from the website withought checking the products first in the store.
So for people like me that don’t mind having the latest collections and are always in the lookout for good quality products at a lower price I think this is an interesting option.
Do you buy makeup from eBay at all? And MAC in particular?
Please leave a comment!
Welcome to my beauty/shopping blog!
Hope you enjoy it!
Beauty Chic&Cheap 