Essence Vintage District Nail Polish in 'Shopping @ Portobello Road' [Review]

Dear readers,

Shopping @ Portobello is the second nail polish I got from the Spring 2013 Essence collection called Vintage District.

Since packaging, price etc are the same as the other one I have, you can read about them here so I don't have to repeat myself.

This polish is a gorgeous, gorgeous blue shade which I fell in love with (especially because I am a sucker for nail polish), and for just Euro 2.00 you really can't go wrong!

Check out pics and swatches below.

Two coats of polish

Love,

Lorraine
xoxo

Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain in 'Lovesick' [Review]

Dear readers,

Happy weekend! Hope you will eat loads of yummy Easter eggs over the weekend (my weaknesses are Cadbury's Cream Eggs and Kinder eggs - yum!)

Today's review is about Revlon's Balm stain. If I'm not mistaken there are 12 shades in all - ranging from the lighter, nuder shades to the darker ones. I paid Euro 10.50 and mine is in the shade 'Lovesick'

The Revlon Just Bitten Kissable balm stains come is a cute chubby crayon type packaging with a twist up mechanism, so there is no need to fetch a huge sharpener to do the job (it certainly looks like Clinique's Chubby Stick, and for half the price too).

You get 2.7 grms of product which is not an awful lot (I did twist it all up to check out how much product there is and alas! there isn't even half the length of the tube)

Lovesick is a hot pink/magenta shade, and boy is it bright.

This glides smoothly over my lips and it does have a lip balm effect, but over time the shiny balm effect fades until you're left with matte lips which last a long, long time.

In fact, this stained my lips like crazy for a good couple of hours [and wouldn't budge after I ate/drank too]


What put me off is the strong minty smell that this has, which thank goodness fades immediately once applied.

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with flash

Love,

Lorraine
xoxo

Catrice Ultimate Colour in 'The Nuder The Better' [Review]

Dear readers,

Truth be told, I'm not really a nude lipstick kind of girl; give me my reds and pinks and you'll make me happy. And I normally pair smokey eyes with clear gloss.

But not using nudes is one thing.

Not owning any is another.

So yeah, I do have a couple of nude lipsticks. One of them is Catrice's The Nuder The Better. I think this cost me Euro 4.50 or thereabouts.

It comes in a standard black lipstick tube, the cover snaps shut and it feels weight-y too (it feels more expensive than it actually is) - I really like the classic design on these.

As the name implies, this lipstick is a classic nude lipstick (but with a slight pink undertone). Although in the tube it looks matte, this does have a slight sheen to it.

It glides effortlessly on the lips, and pigmentation is quite good too - although I do end up swiping it 2 or 3 times to get the colour I want.

It has normal staying power - between 3 - 4 hours that is.

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with flash

Love,

Lorraine
xoxo

MUA Sheer Finish Lipgloss in 'Happy Days' [Review]

Dear readers,

First of all I would like to give a warm welcome to all my new followers. I'm so stoked about reaching 200 followers!

Thanks for your support.

I want to start this post by saying that I'm not a lip gloss kind of person, especially not in Winter or on windy days because I hate it when my hair sticks to my lips....eugh.

But I do like the glossy, natural look for Spring/Summer or combined with a smokey eye.

MUA's Sheer Finish Lipgloss has a sheer, wash of colour with a glossy finish.

It comes in 7 different shades and costs just £1. You can get it from Superdrug or on their website here.

The one I bought is called 'Happy Days' and it is a cross between a coral and a pink shade with tiny specks shimmer. But since it is really sheer, you only get the slightest hint of colour once applied.

The gloss comes in a standard plastic, squeez-y tube with a slant tip applicator, and holds an impressive 15ml of product.

It doesn't have a thick formula, nor a thin...it's somewhere in the middle. It also has a slight sticky feeling which I find to be ok too.

The gloss has a sweet, fruity smell which I don't mind, but I do think that some people will find it a tad overpowering.

I normally re-apply this every 2-3 hours, which is quite good considering that this gloss only costs £1.

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with flash

Do you prefer lip gloss or lipstick?

Hugs,

Lorraine
xoxo

Essence Vintage District Nail Polish in 'Antique Pink' [Review]

Dear readers,

Sorry for going AWOL these past few days but I had a 2 day Post Grad Symposium which took up all of my time....

...but fret no more, cause I am back! ha ha ^.^

Anyways, today's post is about one of the nail polishes from the Essence Spring 2013 limited edition collection called Vintage District. There were 4 different polish shades, and I got 2 of them.

One of them is in shade #03 and it is called 'Antique Pink'.

It comes in a non-standard Essence polish bottle, but it still holds the same amount of product (0.27 fl.oz / 8 ml). I paid Euro 2.00 from a local store.

The brush is also a bit thinner than the normal Essence nail polish brushes, but works really well too.

The colour in question is a gorgeous, dusty rose pink which will be perfect for Spring (and I think it is wearable all year round too!). It also goes well with all kind of clothes so there's no need to panic if you're like me and you really like to match your polish colour to your clothes.

You only need a maximum of 2 coats to achieve perfect coverage (and even 1 coat is more than enough).

With regard to drying time, I really am not sure of it because I used the Essence Nail Express Drops which works wonders (and leaves nails really shiny too..)

I'm not sure about its longevity too - since I've used this on my gel nails (even though I didn't use a topcoat) and polish never chips off from extensions.

With 2 coats of 'Antique Pink'

Would you wear this colour?

Love,

Lorraine
xoxo

Schwarzkopf Intensive Colour Cream [Review]

Dear readers,

Let me start off by saying that my hair has suffered going through the process of being dyed a myriad of colours, and also through different styles. I've had highlights, lowlights, red, copper, purple, black, brown and all the colours in between...

...but lately I've settled for black, with layers on the front and one length at the back (I've been dying and trimming my own hair for a while now).

Now my hair is a tad weird: even though I always colour it with permanent dye (and normally black or blue black), I rarely ever get roots. The dye lifts from my hair (or washes out anyway) and so from black my hair turns to brownish red (you can see this in the before photo below).

That is the reason why I don't really bother dying it every month or so. Last time I dyed my hair was on November 4th or thereabouts.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, around December I was browsing in a new local supermarket, and the Schwarzkopf Intensive Colour Cream caught my eye.

Well first of all, if I'm not mistaken these cost only around Euro 5 per dye, which to me sounded really cheap. Secondly, you get a variety of shades to choose from.

Since my hair is now rather long, I bought two packs: one in 4-60 'Lustrous Medium Brown' and the other in 4-0 'Medium Brown'.

In each pack you get a pair of gloves, a 9% developer and the dye.

Unlike the more costly dyes, this obviously doesn't come with a conditioner.

You just use like you would use any other kind of dye - but you do need a bowl and a brush to apply it. Wait 30-45 minutes and you're done.

My problem with these two colours is that my hair turned out much darker than what I imagined. It did cover all the red parts so it did its job. It also left my hair looking smooth.

The smell of the dye didn't bother me: in fact it was rather mild so that's a plus.

What bothered me was how the instructions said that dye on skin is easily removable with soap and water - which is not! As a matter of fact, I still have a brown hairline. Thank God I now have a fringe to cover that. (and please note that I smeared my hairline, ears etc with Vaseline prior to dying my hair).

Still, I would repurchase this because of its price, and it is a good overall hair dye.

Top: Medium Brown
Bottom: Lustrous Medium Brown

before

after

Do you dye your own hair or do you go to a salon?

Love,

Lorraine
xoxo

Essence Vintage District Lipstick in 'Antique Pink' [First Impression]

Dear readers,

Vintage District is the new limited edition Essence collection for Spring 2013 (available as from January 2013).

As soon as I saw the new collection stand I couldn't resist not getting something, and I bought the lipstick and a nail polish (but I want to grab the blusher/bronzer because it looks gorgeous, and the teal gel liner).

There are 2 lipsticks/lip gloss duos in the collection: #02 Antique Pink and #01 Vintage Peach. Today I will be reviewing the Antique Pink one.

This lipstick/gloss duo cost me Euro 3.30. It comes in a plastic tube: on one side you get the lipstick, and on the other you get the lipgloss.

The lipstick side comes in a standard twist up tube, and the gloss part comes with a doe foot applicator. I haven't had any problems with the packaging for now.

What sold me with this product is that the lipstick is matte. The fact that the colour is gorgeous is a bonus. To me the lipstick is a kind of dusty rose colour which reminds me of vintage flowery wall paper. It glides on really easily (feels much like a lip balm as a matter of fact) but you do need a couple of swipes for it to show on your lips (on mine at least). In my opinion this makes it an excellent lip colour for day time use.

The lipgloss has the same tint as the lipstick but is much more lightweight (and not sticky at all!). It also appears very natural on your lips - in the tube it does look like it has shimmer but this is not noticeable once applied.

What bothered me with the product is the smell/taste. This smells of flowers and soap - a smell which I normally would love, but it is a bit overpowering with this lipgloss (I could only detect it in the gloss and not the lipstick). I hated it so much that I had to take it off when I was eating because the taste of the gloss was overpowering the taste of the food.

Secondly - this product doesn't have the best staying power - only 2 hours max before it faded off completely.

Having said that, I would still re-purchase this because of the colour of the lipstick

without flash

with flash

gloss only

lipstick only

lipstick with gloss

Would you wear this colour?

Love,

Lorraine
xoxo