Nails Inc Snowflake Whitechapel Over Navy Nail Polish

Today's Nails Of The Day features one of my favourite ever top coats from Nails Inc - Snowflake Whitechapel over No7 Stay Perfect Nail Colour in Blue Patent. As I suspected it is utterly gorgeous!

*PR Sample

Boots No7 Christmas Look No3 - #TaDah

Today I am sharing my final Christmas Look - No3 from the contents of the blue package. This look features Navy & Nudes and I have to say a traditional smokey eye and nude lips is one of my favourite looks for going out in the evenings so I was only to happy to give this a go.

I wore this to an evening do last night and was incredibly impressed with its longevity. It lasted all evening (bar the lipstick).

For my base I used YSL Teint Touche Eclat Foundation in Shade BD40

Products Used 

No7 Stay Perfect Eyeshadow Trio in In The Navy
No7 Stay Perfect Amazing Eyes Pencil in Deepest Blue
No7 Natural Blush Tint Powder in Coral Flush
No7 Instant Radiance Highlighter
No7 Precision Lips Pencil in Nude (not pictured)
No7 Sheer Temptation Lipstick in Romantic
No7 Stay Perfect Nail Colour in Blue Patent (patent effect)
No7 Extreme Length Mascara

I applied the shimmery shade from the eyeshadow trio all over my eye and then the navy powder, I lined my eyes with the pencil for a more intense colour but navy was a nice alternative to the usual smokey shades. I have tried various shades of the Blush Tint Powders and have to admit to being a bit in love with them, they are so natural looking on the face and Coral Flush in particular really brightened my face. I have to give a special mention to the Precision Lips Pencil in Nude, it applied so smoothly and made an excellent base for the sheer temptation to go over and leave a glossy finish.

I matched my eyeshadow with dark blue polish which only needed one application and applied the Nails Inc Snowflake Whitechapel polish on my ring finger as a statement nail for extra party bling.

I loved this look!

What do you think?

If you want to find out more about any of the 3 No7 looks that I have featured then click this link http://www.boots.com/en/No-7/No7-make-up-inspiration/Get-the-look/

*PR Samples

Boots No7 Christmas Look No 2 - #TaDah

Hot on the heels of Christmas Look No1 comes my Ta Dah moment with Look No2.

This Christmas Party Look comes from the contents of the Red Package. I do associate Christmas with a strong red lip and so I was happy to see a red lip product featured inside this parcel. It also came with the Golden Sands nail polish that I have already shown but I fancied teaming the red lips with red tips so I swapped the polish for a red one for this complete look.

Once again I used the Stay Perfect Foundation in Cool Vanilla as my base.

Products used

No7 Stay Perfect Shade & Define in Glistening Ray
No7 Stay Precise Liquid Liner in Brown/Black 
No7 Lash Impact Mascara in Black
No7 Natural Blush Cream in Maple Silk
No7 Instant Radiance Highlighter
No7 High Shine Lip Crayon in Statement
No7 Stay Perfect Nail Colour in Devil's Delight

My thoughts 

I love this Christmas Party Look. The liquid liner frames and enhances my green eyes to stand out beautifully and it was easy to apply. The warm cream blush gives great definition to my cheeks. If you haven't tried the Lip Crayons from No7 I can highly recommend them. I have one in Daydreamer, a wonderful nude shade that is worn almost on a daily basis. If you are shy of a red lip or don't know where to start with wearing red lipstick I would say to get the Lip Crayon in Statement as it is so easy to wear without feeling self conscious.

Can't wait to try Look no3!

What do you think of this look?

*PR Samples

Boots No7 Christmas Look No 1 - #TaDah

Boots No7 recently sent me three parcels each containing a bundle of makeup to create a Christmas Party Look. In the next two days I will be sharing the looks I came up with and my thoughts on each of them.

This first look is using makeup from the Gold package.

The parcels also contained Stay Perfect Superlight Foundation in 3 different shades and a matching Match Made Concealer but unfortunately none were the right shade for me so for my base I have used No7 Stay Perfect Foundation in shade Cool Vanilla.

This look used the following products

No7 Midnight Lash Mascara 
No7 Stay Perfect Shade & Define in Glistening Ray
No7 Metallic Eyes Pencil in Camouflage
No7 Radiant Spheres Highlighter

No7 Instant Radiance Highlighter

No7 High Shine Lip Gloss in Plum Blush

No7 Gel Look Shine Nail Colour in Golden Sands

Stand out products for me from this look are the Midnight Lash Mascara (separate review to follow)
and the Golden Sands Gel Look Shine Nail Colour which instantly gave a sparkling party look to my nails. 

This look is quite natural and understated but with oodles of radiance. I am a highlighting fiend so I approve a lot. If I was to do this again I would pop a plum lipstick under the lip gloss for more definition to my lips to make the look more wow for the evening. 

The Radiant Spheres Highlighter is fab as it has three shades in it for definition and highlighting. I used the pink for my blush and then just swirled my brush all over the compact for a radiant gleam.

What do you think? 

*PR Samples

Hugo Boss Ma Vie Pour Femme - Perfume Review

Whilst I love so many of the Hugo Boss for Men fragrances, I haven't been a huge fan of Huge Boss fragrances for women in the past but the latest release has made me soften my stance. This perfume has already made it onto my bathroom shelf and I am wearing it daily.

BOSS MA VIE Pour Femme is described in two words as the essence of Modern Femininity 

Boss say

Inspired by an element of the BOSS woman's life that has until gone unnoticed. It draws on the pleasure she feels when she chooses to step out of her day to day routine, slow down, loosen up and simply enjoy a moment for herself. The fragrance captures the indulgent and fulfilling sensation of simply savouring life - her life.

Top note - Cactus Blossom

Modernity -Top notes of cactus blossom accord capture the invigorating freshness of the uncompromising desert plant, providing a unique and modern element to the fragrance. Known to demonstrate unconditional love of life in an condition, the essence evokes a lively and uplighting brightness.

Heart notes - Pink Floral Bouquet with Rose Bud

Femininity - A blooming bouquet at the heart of BOSS MA VIE Pour Femme unifies the key florals in this perfume. Suave pink freesia and jasmine petals are blended with delicate rose bud for a soft pink feminine twist. Rose buds are often perceived as tender and delicate but they carry the strength of the layered core of the rose, providing an elegant sensation of softness with strong femininity

Base note - Cedar Wood

Confidence - The intense warmth of sheer woods and cedarwood forms the base of the fragrance. Known to encourage an attitude of confidence and ease, it inspires the BOSS woman to take a moment to herself, grounding her with a heightened awareness of her feeling s and surroundings.

My thoughts 

Modern and feminine, this fragrance sums it up beautifully. It starts its story with a sparkling fruity freshness that I adore and is unlike anything I have owned or tried before. As the story unfolds the fruity freshness makes way to allow the floral bouquet to bloom. This particular blend of flowers is charming and unobtrusive. The chapter ends with the warmth and sensualness of the cedar woods bringing with it an end of elegance and sophistication that is hard to beat.

The dusky pink flacon is simple and straightforward, the modern woman is uncomplicated at her core and this is displayed nicely in the bottle design.

To sum up, a wonderful day fragrance. Put it on your Christmas list.

BOSS MA VIE Pour Femme Eau de Parfum 50ml costs £49

*PR Sample

Three Hand Creams To Protect Your Hands This Winter

Regular readers of BeautySwot.com know that I am a real hand cream obsessive. Currently I have three fabulous hand creams on the go. As we slip into Winter I thought I would share the ones I am currently using.

Dr. Organic Snail Gel Hand & Nail Elixir 50ml £14.99

This hand cream contains snail excretion which I must admit I thought was a bit yucky but having tried the facial serum and got an instant glow, I realised that actually if you didn't know, you wouldn't know. The hand cream has a lovely, fresh lemon scent and is more of a runny serum in texture than a cream.

It promises to provide up to 24 hours of moisturisation. Soothes and revitalises skin and improve skin elasticity. I find it to be really light and not at all greasy. It leaves my hands looking instantly younger, plumped and silky smooth and eases any tightness that may be there. I really like this hand and nail elixir and use it during the day.

L'Occitane Delicious Hand Almond Hand Cream 30ml £8

Well it is no secret that I adore the L'Occitane Almond collection. The Shower Oil is my holy grail bath product, the scent is the nicest I have ever encountered. Delicious Hands is enriched with Almond Milk and Almond Oil and features the same delicious scent. Just like the other hand creams from L'Occitane this is a light, lotion like cream that is easily absorbable with no greasy residue. The 30ml size is perfect to pop in my handbag which is where I keep this for some out and about softening action.

If Almond isn't your thing then check out the wider collection from L'Occitane as I am sure one of the other great scents will tempt you.

Bee Good Honey, Borage & Echium Intensive Hand Repair 50ml £12.99

The Bee Good brand as its name suggests uses honey as one of its key ingredients in its range of skincare.

Bee Good say

Bee Good’s natural Honey, Borage & Echium Intensive Hand Repair is our most intensive multi-use repair treatment to rescue and soothe even the driest skin.

Packed with naturally active ingredients this rich, hard-working cream is an everyday miracle for hands, feet, elbows and knees in need of a little extra TLC.

The active ingredients include moisturising British wild flower honey, British echium oil to replenish and calm and shea and cocoa butters to combat dryness. Protective antioxidant vitamin E is blended with skin-strengthening borage and antibacterial British propolis.

My thoughts

Unusually the cream is housed in a round pump action bottle so I keep it beside my bed to apply and treat my hands just before I go to sleep. As you would expect from a product that contains the word 'Intensive' in its description, the cream is thick and feels extremely nourishing leaving my hands feeling well nourished. I don't suffer from excessively dry hands or particularly dry skin so it is hard to assess it on those claims but I like to think that I am giving my hands a real treat through the night.. It has a lovely sweet scent but don't worry it is not overpowering, I find it to be most pleasant at bedtime.

*PR Samples

Three Sparkly & Glitzy Glitter Top Coats For Party Season

The fastest way to bling up your nails for a party is by adding a sparkly top coat.

I have three fabulous glitter top coats in my collection that I absolutely adore.

First up is Nails Inc Nail Jewellery in Diamond - Burlington Arcade. This is a silver based glitter polish and features glitter and flecks of silver that glisten like diamonds

Another Nails Inc beauty is the Snowflake Top Coat in Whitechapel. 

This is a stunning top coat that features silver glitter, strips and white hexagons that resemble frosty snowflakes and is just perfect for the winter season. It looks good over light and dark polishes.

And finally The Lacquer Lab has come up trumps with its Pocket full Of Jewels - this classy top coat contains gold glitter dust and opalescent flakes for an altogether grown up and elegant glitter top coat.

So whether you opt for a statement nail or fancy adorning every nail with glitter...Bling it on!

All that is missing from my collection now is a gold flake top coat that would look amazing over a black nail polish. I have spotted one from L'Oreal that is just £4.99.. watch this space!

Real Techniques - Nic's Picks Make-up Brush Set - Review

Real Techniques say 

Real Techniques by Sam and Nic Chapman introduce a new essential collection featuring five must-have brushes with a limited-edition silver metallic design and three exclusive brush cuts, including everything you need to create a flawless base, enhanced eyes and the perfect finish.This set contains all the brushes you need to create a complete look,  is perfect for contouring and each brush is hand cut for precise application.

The Five Brushes

Duo powder fibre brush: for lightweight buildable application of the face or pigment
Cheek brush: impeccably tapered, dense bristles that are perfect for applying cheek colour and bronze (set exclusive)
Base shadow brush: For all over eye colour
Angled shadow brush: To create depth (set exclusive)
Eyeliner brush: Adds definition at the lash line (set exclusive)

Made with 100% ultra-plush, cruelty-free bristles that help create flawless, high-definition results in any type of light. 

My thoughts 

I was really impressed with these brushes, I was a latecomer to the benefit of using decent brushes but once I tried them, I haven't looked back. 

This set does exactly what it claims to. I have heard people rave about the Real Techniques brushes and I can see why as I want to rave about them too. Handily on the other side of each brush is written what the brush is to be used for which I find really helpful.

The powder brush is so light and soft you barely feel a thing but you know that it is covering the face evenly and leaving no tell tales brush strokes. 

The cheek brush is firm and leaves an excellent finish to powder blusher. It applies so smoothly that it looks almost like you are wearing a liquid blush rather than powder. This is one of my faves. 

The base shadow brush picks up powder beautifully to evenly impart and give complete and all over colour to the eyes. I love it. 

The angled shadow brush makes crease blending light work. 

The Eyeliner brush is stiff and sturdy for precision lash line application.

If you are looking for a set of brushes for yourself or to give as a gift you cannot go wrong with this one. 

Real Techniques - Nic's Picks Makeup Brush Set £29.99

*PR Sample

Sanctuary Spa Box Of Delights - Bargain Alert!

If you have already started your Christmas shopping and even if you haven't ... I think this is one unmissable gift idea.

This week's Star Gift at Boots is the amazing Sanctuary Spa Box of Delights reduced from £45 to less than half price at £22. 

Containing:

Cleansing Burst Body Wash (250ml)

Luxurious Body Butter (300ml)

Gentle Polish Body Scrub (200ml)

Velvety Hand Cream (75ml)

Intensive Heel Balm (75ml)

Foaming Creamy Bath Soak (250ml)

Luxury Bath Float (75ml)

Silky Smooth Body Lotion (75ml)

Radiance Exfoliator (15ml)

All housed in a pretty presentation keepsake box.

Sanctuary Spa Box of Delights £22 until 13th November. Available from Boots stores, Boots.com and Sanctuary.com while stocks last.

Winter Skincare With Nivea - Lip Butters & Body Moisturiser

The weather has been a bit topsy turvy of late with the onset of Autumn. Biting winds and frosty weather one day and then fooling us into thinking Summer is back by warming right up the next. I don't know about you but I am struggling with my Winter wardrobe, I never know what to wear without feeling too hot or too cold so have resorted to layers being my solution.

The ever changing weather has been causing skin issues too. Drying out my lips and my body feeling like it needs some extra nourishment.

Luckily for me Nivea came to the rescue and sent me some of their Winter Saviours to try...

I was itching to try the famous Lip Butters, the slimline tins resembling macaroons made it hard to resist not storing them in a pretty teacup and I am pleased to say they haven't disappointed.

I was sent 4 'flavours' from the range - All the lip butters contain Shea Butter and Almond Oil, softening lips and leaving a slight gloss to them.

Original - This has no scent, is clear in the tin and leaves lips feeling moisturised and protected from the wind and cold and imparts a slight sheen.

Vanilla & Macadamia - This lip butter has the comforting scent of vanilla and is quite sweet. It can be a little overpowering but the scent doesn't last too long. As is true of all of the lip butters it does a good job of leaving lips feeling coated with moisture and soft.

Raspberry Rosé  - Sweet and fruity this smells just like a raspberries. I like it a lot.

Blueberry Blush - I am a blueberry fiend. I eat blueberries every day so I was pretty sure I was going to love this flavour and I do. This has a gorgeous fresh and fruity, true blueberry scent.  My favourite.

I was also sent a body moisturiser which I like to apply after bathing. I don't really suffer from dry skin so I am looking for a product that just keeps my skin feeling soft and moisturised all day.

Nivea Express Hydration Body Lotion in Sea Minerals does the job nicely. This is for normal skin and being a lotion it is light and absorbs fast with no greasy residue. Skin feels wonderfully soft all day and the fresh scent is present but not overpowering. An excellent moisturiser at a super price point, it retails for around £3.60. 

*PR Sample

No7 Lash Impact Mascara Review

Boots No7 Lash Impact Mascara has been my go to mascara recently. Featuring a more traditional brush it promises Intense volume control.

No7 says 

Turn up the volume for dramatic looking lashes with maximum clump-free layers.

Hypo-allergenic.

My thoughts 

This fibre brush is easy to use and the mascara leaves lashes looking fuller. The brush lifts and coats every lash, giving the effect of more volume and very decent length and as my after shot shows without clumping. It doesn't flake or smudge.

I like this as a day mascara as for evenings I like a bit of thickness in my lashes but this mascara does exactly what it says.

Before 

After

Boots No7 Lash Impact Mascara in black costs £13.50

*PR Sample

Nail Inc Snowflake Whitechapel Polish over Wild About Beauty Michael - NOTD

Nails Inc Snowflake Whitechapel top coat looks pretty over a nude polish but as I suspected looks stunning over a dark shade. I applied a black polish - Michael from Wild About Beauty - under this fab top coat. It really makes it stand it and the gold glitter really glistens and shimmers when the light hits it. I still want to try it over a midnight blue shade so watch this space!

Christian Louboutin Nail Colour The Nudes Just Nothing - NOTD

At the weekend I fell in love with this sandy beige nude nail polish shade - Just Nothing from the Christian Louboutin Nail Colour collection. The bottle is huge but actually quite sturdy and substantial, so different from the usual polish bottle and so it should be considering the price tag!

Super glossy this perfect nude took 2 coats to achieve opacity.

A perfect item to pop on the Christmas List :)

Christian Louboutin Nail Colour £36