November Nail Polish Haul

Hello lovelies!  Happy Monday to you all!  I'll get to the nail part of the post in just a second, first of all I have a tip for you to help you brighten up your Monday morning.

A Case of the Mondays

Several months ago I was in work, knee deep in updating a load of reports on a Monday morning.  I put my headphones on to get on with it and while I was looking for an album to play, I saw the podcast app on my phone, so I went into it and on the first page was a podcast called This American Life. I started streaming it not really expecting much from it, then an hour later it was finishing and I wondered not only where Monday morning went, but I was gutted my podcast was over.  It's now become a bit of a Monday morning ritual for me, I get in, make a cup of coffee, sit down, put my headphones in and turn This American Life on (I listen to it on a Monday morning purely because it goes live on a Friday afternoon/evening here).  I won't tell you much about it - but I'll just give you a link to their website (they have all their archives on there) - you can find them here.  Let me know if you like it :)

Nail Polish Haul

Now, on to what you came here to read :)  So... a few days ago I was in Boots purchasing a lovely Too faced palette (review coming over the next week or so) and I wanted to pick up an Essie Bahama Mama too.  Much to my disappointment it was sold out (no surprise there!) but I did pick up a couple of other lovely shades and an impulse glitter top coat!  Then I bought two copies of Glamour magazine to get the 2 different Nails Inc shades, pics below :)

L-R Essie Recessionista, Collection Dazzled Love Jewel, Nails Inc Elizabeth Street, Nails Inc Motcomb Street, Essie Smokin hot.

My Thoughts

As you may know, I'm a big fan of Essie, I love them!  I love the amazing shades they come out with, I love the packaging, the price (affordable at £7.99), the great applicator, then last but not least, a fantastic product.  These two shades do not disappoint!  Recessionista is the perfect shade to marry with a dark lip, like Revlon's Black Cherry - a perfect on-trend combination.  Smokin' hot is a great autumnal day shade, if you team it up with a glitter top coat like Rimme's Disco Gold, it makes a great evening shade.

When I was having a play with the shades... I had a bit of an accident with Smokin Hot :S

As for the Nails Inc shades.  They're nice but... I wouldn't pay full price for them.  The fact I paid £2 for each of them was perfect.  I'm not joking, my MUA shades for £1 I prefer.  The dark colour a lot of people think is black, but it's a deep dark navy blue, but when you wear 2 coats, which you need so it's not streaky it looks black... the light colour is ridiculously light and quite sheer.  On the nail wheel I can't even see it, on white paper you can see it a little... but it does look lovely with Rimmel Disco Gold (that's my favourite glitter top coat in case you hadn't guessed!).

Finally the Collection Dazzled in Love Jewel, this is stunning - lots of different shaped bits of glitter and colours, with the main colour being centred around purple (my favourite colour!).  I can't comment on how hard this is to remove as when I used it, I only put it on one nail, and two days later I picked it allo off by hand :p  It's a beautiful colour and only costs £2.99 :)

Whats your favourite A/W12 nail shade?

Cha Cha Tint

Hey Pixi3's!  A couple of weeks ago I picked up one of the magazines that had the free Benefit tint's in them, most of them I wasn't fussed to try, but I did want to give the mango coloured Cha Cha Tint a go,  so I picked it up, have a look to see what I think below :)

Available at Benefit counters £24.50 for 12.5 ml

They say "This mango-tinted stain beautifully blushes lips & cheeks with a tropical sunset hue. Smooch-proof & smudge-proof, this sheer stain will have you looking deliciously sun-kissed for hours."

A small amount of the stain applied to the cheeks

The stain applied to the hand, and left. This took around 6-8 hours to come off!

My Thoughts

Benefit is a funny one for me.  I've been passively boycotting them for years due to some really, really bad customer service I had from them.  I may as well share the story with you so it makes more sense!  I went to benefit one day, and spent a LOT of money on their counter (close to £100).  The sales assistant invited me back for a 'celebrity makeover', I loved the idea and signed up!  They said it would only take about 20 mins, that was perfect as I would get 30 mins for lunch.  On the day, I left there to get to my appointment on time, and as I approached the counter, the sales assistant (the same one who served me before) walked to a customer to check they were ok, and proceeded to deal with them for 40 mins!  Twice I walked over to remind her I had an appointment, she just kept saying to wait and she wouldn't be long.  That was it - no sorry, no offer to re-book, she completely ignored me and never said a word to me unless I approached her.  I left, never to return other than for one thing which was my Boi-ing concealer.  I always wore the lightest shade, and when I went to replace it the girl at the counter told me there was no way I was the lightest shade and should buy the next one up, so I did (taking her expert advice) and what do you know, it's was too dark).  I always find their sales assistants far too pushy for the sale, and that's why I don't buy benefit anymore unless it's free with a magazine.

Anyway, on to the product!  Parking my anti-benefit at the door, I do actually really like this product.  It smells lovely and fresh, the stain part of it lasts a really long time (make sure to blend it in quickly!), and it gives a lovely bright (but not too bright) glow :)  I can't say I feel comfortable buying a full size version given what my encounters at the counter are like... so suffice it to say, I will be sad when this is all gone as I do really like it.  But never mind, I'm sure MeMeMe have a good dupe of it :)  

It's a shame the staff I've dealt with ruined my Benefit experience, I'd love to try their 'They're real' mascara, but I just can't bring myself to go and buy it.

Do you like any of the tints?  Have you ever had bad customer service at one of their counters?

Revlon Black Cherry

Hey Pixi3's!  How are you all this fabulous Sunday?  Now that we're well and truly into Autumn/Fall, I thought it would be a great time to review this stunning colour lipstick by Revlon that I picked up the other day.  It's the Revlon Black Cherry lipstick, a very on trend colour for A/W12.

They say "Infused with mega-moisturizers to seal in color and softness. Find your lip color amongst a dazzling array of 82 fabulous, fashionable shades!"

Top left swatch several swipes from bullet, bottom right just one swipe

On the lips

Here's two applications for you, the first is just applied with a lip brush making sure all the lips are fully covered.  Then in the second picture (as annotated), on top of already applying it with a brush, I applied it straight from the bullet for a deeper darker colour.  If my lips look a bit weird in the second picture, it's because my lips are slightly parted but you can't really tell :)  If only my lips were that full!

1 Coat applied with a lip brush.

Straight from the bullet, applied on top of the picture above.

My Thoughts

I discovered this lipstick from watching one of Fleur de Force's videos and thought it was stunning!  Then when I was heading to a fashion event a couple of weeks ago, I thought this would be the perfect, on trend colour to wear (since my clothes weren't that trendy).

The consistency is similar to that of a more matte shade, but still being quite creamy.  It's not the most hydrating lipstick, but it's not drying at all either.  It's massively pigmented and buildable (as you can see from the two pics above).  I really love this colour, and I'm glad I have black hair, it really helps to carry such a darkness.  But blondes do not fear!  I've seen Fleur de Force wear this shade and other dark shades in her videos and it looks stunning on her, so go give it a try :)

Negatives.  The only real negative I could find was that if you have any dry skin on your lips, and you apply it straight from the bullet, it does emphasise those areas, so make sure you've used your sugar scrubs etc on your lips before applying it if there is any dryness.  The other tip would be if you knew you were going to wear this shade say, on a Friday night, wear a good lip balm all day and hopefully any dryness there was will be gone by the evening, or certainly minimised.

You can pick this up in Superdrug and Boots (and I'm sure, many other places!) for about £7.49.  I think both Boots and Superdrug have offers on makeup on the leadup to Christmas too.  I know superdrug are doing 3 for 2, and I think Boots are doing 2nd item half price.

Have you been brave enough to try this shade yet?