12 Days of Christmas Presents - Day 3 - Lee Stafford

Afternoon lovelies, hope you are all ok and are going to enjoy whatever it is you will be doing this last evening of 2011

For my third day of christmas I received "Lee Stafford's Hair Growth Treatment" It states it is for "Hair that Never gets past a certain length.

Now unfortunatly for this review I don't have any before and after shots, which I was hoping to do way back when I first used this product. However I couldn't find the best angle to try and show you the length of my hair, and then I didn't think it was a fair test if I went to get my hair trimmed (which I did by the way) so you'll just have to beleive me on this one, sorry no proof!

The First time I bought this product was the beginning of the year when Lee Stafford Products were on offer at 2 for £8. I thought this a bargain cause this product retails at about £7 ish. I hae always wanted longer hair since getting mnine chopped off a few years ago, and now it just wont get past a certain length.. I thought this product was bloody made for me!! Also the cute pink packaging and the little dog on the front sold it to me too!

Anyway when I saw this product on offer for 3 for £12! I told my lovely mum and she bought me some for my christmas present. As you can see the packaging is rather lovely, and it is a generous amount. The conditoner is a thick gorgeously smelling product, and it comes in a little round tub. I am not sure which I prefer, tubs or squeezy tubes. At least with tubs you know you can scrape every last millicule out of the pot!

The label on the side of the tub explains how it works. It states that it improves follicle health to increase the ability of the hair anchoring to the scalp (reducing in less falling out) Improves tensile (whatever that is) strength to give body and texture by penetrating the inner hair cortex. Which I am summising means it helps the overall strength of the body of the hair resulting in less breakages, which in turn results in your hair being able to grow longer... So in actual fact it doesn't MAKE your hair grow longer, it just prevents it from breaking so it has the CHANCE to grow longer itself.. Geddit? p.s correct me if I'm wrong.

It states you should use the product every wash until your hair starts to improve then use once a week. Anyways after a month or two of using this product every wash I certaintly noticed a difference in my overall hair strength, condition and length. It feels silky soft and smooth smells gorgeous and looks noticeably longer. This product is amazing I want to bath in it haha! I love it. I would definatly reccomend this product to anyone with split dull, dry hair who wants it to feel full and vibrant and full of life. If you don't notice growth results initially don't be disheartned, persist and you will eventually, I know that sounds as if i'm just telling you to wait til your hair naturally grows but as with mine it actually got past the length it gets stuck at and stayed looking healthy!! Anyway enough of my rambling I am just loosing you with words haha.. Get this product NOW.

Overall rating 5/5!!

Charlie

xx

12 Days of Christmas Presents - Day 2 - Benefit

Evening Guys,

Welcome to my 2nd Day of Christmas Presents, Featuring Benefit Cosmetics

I received the "I am Glam therefore I am" mini set for Christmas form my lovely mum. I think a squeal escaped from me when I opened it along with "Powda Wowza" which will be reviewed another day. 

How cute is the packaging?? I love the bright colours and the design on the front.. The top bit is a sleeve which covers the main body of the product.. 

L- Sleeve, R- Box

 As you can see the image is still the same but the protextive sleeve means less damage can occur to the pretty little box it all comes in!

 

 Inside is a rather large mirror for on the go touch ups, and an "I'm glam therefore I am" Make up lesson. 

Make up Lesson

 This make up lesson idea is fabulous, a few pricuts I've seen have this in them, such as Front Cover and YSL, which shows you how to use their products. For me as I have not tried many benefit products this was perfect as I had an idea how to use them to their full potential. Particularly "Girl Meets Pearl" as I am a total novice when it comes to stuff like that!

So Inside we have a small75ml tube of "Girl Meets Pearl" na much sought aftr benefit beauty product. There also features 4 eyeshadows in shades (L-R) Pink Fancy, Icy Lilac, Posh Amethyst and Precious Pewter. These eyeshadows are bloody lovely, but I will discuss them in a bit. They include a little eyeshadow brush too so you aren't caught short! The blusher/bronzer you can see is just entitled "Glamming Face Powder" It also has its own brush. There is a small tube of Bad gal mascara which I have heard great reviews about, and a mini lipgloss.

Firstly let me start of by showing you the Glamming Face Powder. It is an intresting combo, and when comparing it with the other benefit blushers it is a similar mix betwee "Coralista" and "Bella Bamba" In the Swatch I had to spply loads so you could actually see it, I wouldnt put it that dark on my face! But as you can (kinda) see it has shimmery bits in it which makes your skin glow. I love shimmery things but I have noticed if you go overboard with it sometimes it can make your face appear more "dirty" than "glowing". Anyway just a slight subtle bit of this really enhances my complexion. As it is so small I think I will reserve this for night tie going out etc and use my "powda wowza" for general everyday use. 

Next Up is the lovely eyeshadows, as previously stated the colours are (L-R) Pink Fancy, Icy Lilac, Posh Amethyst and Precious Pewter, Now I dont think my camera has done these colours justice. They look amazing on the eye. I will have to do a FOTD with all this lot I think, so keep posted for that. All 4 colours work really well together and an amazing smoky eye look can be created, I think I will use these tommorow for NYE so I might do a FOTD for that. They have shimmery bits in and the light realy reflects, they also have fantastic staying power, and hardly smudged at all throughout the day. The shadow brush that comes with it is handy it has a larger end for blending and a smaller end for precision work however if you have your own brushes this little one will probably only come in handy for top ups through the night (not that you'll need it) as this little kit is small enough to fit in a medium sized handbag.

Next up is Girl Meets Pearl - This is known as a liquid pearl for the face, It is a highlighter which is meant to leave your skin looking "dewy". Well I am not a fan of highlighters but this one intrigued me with all the hype over it. So using the "make up lesson" info I applied it to my cheek bones and down the centre of my nose. Don't... well not the nose anyway, it made me look like I was rudolph the red nose reindeer, (i have a reasonable sized nose anyway and it just made it stand out more) but the cheek bones looks fabulous! I read a review where one girl used it in the inner corners of her eyes and I quite like this idea so that will be getting road tested tommorow! The actual cream itself glides on easily and only a tiny tiny amount is required or else it just gets everywhere! Even the size in the picture is probably too much for just your cheek bones. It is a must for any highlighter fan but for someone who isnt a fan I wouldnt buy it just because of the expense of the product.

The last swatch I have for you is the lipgloss, I love this on the lips, the colour is amazing, it looks so natural and it would suit any skin tone. The only problem I have with it is it sooo sticky! I have been wearing sleek pout paints for a while now, and I am used to the non stickyness of them, this just got on my nerves and all my hair was stuck in it! Use this when your hair is tied up, but not when its down! 

Finally one I didnt get a swatch of but should of, is the bad gal mascara! I will show you it on my FOTD. a word to describe this is WOW! I love it its amazing it makes my eyelashes look fuller thicker and longer. I have quite long lashes anyway but this makes them stand out much much more. The brush is thick with lots of fine bristles all bunched together, and when applied you can really tell the difference. No falsies needed here ladies!! Would reccomend this product and would buy it again.

Overall the little pallette is brilliant and I am so glad I got it as a present. It has given me the opportunity to try out some benefit products I would not have bought usually because of the price. 

Overall rating

5/5!

Charlie

XX

12 Days of Christmas Presents - Day 1

Hi Guys

Welcome to my first installment of 12 Days of Christmas Presents

This is not about me showing off my presents it is about me wanting to try out these new products and let you know if they are good or not. I know elsewhere others do not like present haul posts etc, and that is not what this is about... Now I've said that bit, lets get onto the good stuff

My First Present I'd like to share with you guys is the Andrea Fullerton Layering Polish

Now you cant tell the actual brightness of the pinky colour on this picture and it looks more orange, but trust me it is a very similar shade to Models Own - Pink Punch.

I had my glittery snowflake nails on prior to trying this out, and the glitter red had stained my acrylics red so I used a base coat of white - Sally Hansens Hard as Wraps.

The Andrea Fullerton has tgwo colours, and it says the you can mix them together (i.e paint one over the top of the other) to create a new colour. Now I was very excited to try this out when I first seen it in the shops, as I was intrigued by what colour it would make! 

Here are the two colours, it says to apply the darker colour first for a better effect, but to be fair which is the darkest?? I applied them like this to see if i could spot the difference in colour when I painted over the top.

That is it... whats that I hear you say? It looks no different!?

Well the thumb was pink, I painted the purple over it, and what did I get? ...... Purple... To say I was dissapointed is an understatement! I didnt even bother doing the other nails.. My first finger as you can see was purple, then after applying the pink it did go a nice darker red shade, but again dissapointed, it is something which can be done with your own polish you have already. 

If I was to do it again I'd paint them all purple then apply the pink over to create that deep red but I think I have a polish similar to that already - Barry M's Raspberry. However the two colours used alone are rather lovely, so all is not bad! But don't buy this if you are expecting magic colours to appear, cause it doesn't...

Overall rating 3/5

Have you ever tried this?

Charlie

xx

Violent Lips Review

Hi Guys, 

Hope you all had a lovely christmas and are looking forward to the New Year!?

Not had a browse through peoples posts since christmas, so I am looking forward to catching up on what you've been getting up to. I am going to start a new feature tommorow to get me back into the swing of reviewing. 

I'l be starting my 12 presents of Christmas tommorrow, involving showing you, and briefly reviewing 12 of my beauty related christmas presents each day for 12 days. I'm looking forward to doing this!

However for todays post I will give you my review on Violent Lips.

You may remember me a few months ago blabbing on how I got these for my birthday and wanted to wear them for Katy Perry and how I forgot to take scissors so couldnt wear them and had to paint my nails spotty instead! Yea Blah Blah Blah..At the start of the month my mission was to actually wear them at some point so I did...

image from weheartit

Firstly I'd like to show you the packaging

I'm quite impressed with the packaging, It is eye catching and striking. 

Inside the packet is 3 applications of lips.

 

Each application has these markings on the back

These are to help you find the shape of your lips. I Watched the Tutorials previous to applying these but not on the same day. No matter how much you have watched the tutorials watch them again! They come in handy.  You can find them at the Violent Lips website.

When I applied my lips I overlapped onto the WaterLine, which I think resulted in the many problems I encountered with them! I am trying them out again soon so I will update you following my second attempt, I am only assuming it gets easier with practice as the girls on the tutorial are experts! 

Here they are on my lips

without flash

with flash

So Pros and Cons

Pros

- They look AMAZING! 

- The Packaging is eye catching and noticeable

- They are reasonably priced for the uniqueness of the product for UK bloggers you can now get them in boots for £7.99

- They have loads of different colours and patterns and textures

- The instructions in the pack are useful as are the online tutorial videos

- You get 3 x applications in the pack

- You can eat and drink (I tried)

Cons

-They are a fiddly nightmare to get on, if you have no patience you will be shouting at the mirror

- I found when you did the "ah" shape and applied them, this meant they were perfect when you smiled but a bit crinkly when you didn't

- They feel awful, like you have constant dry lips, they are tight and uncomfortable but pain for pleasure so they say

- Where I overlapped mine onto my waterline it obviously didn't stick, but I couldnt pull the flappy bits off because the whole lip would come off so I had flappy lips which felt minging

I'm not going to leave it at that however because i suspect some of them cons can be rectified when they are applied properly. So I'll give them another bash and let you know!

Anyone tried Violent Lips? 

Would you now?

Charlie

xx

P.S I recieved my giveaway prize from Ulrika! Isnt it adorable!

MIA

Hi Guys, 

Firstly I'd like to begin by saying how sorry I am for being away so long!! I have missed blogging and catching up on what everyone has been doing, but unfortunatly as it sometimes does, life has gotten busy! 

However I am now back on form and back with a lovely lovely stamped nail design for christmas!

This design was done for me by my friend, she is doing nail art parties to make a bit of extra cash for a laptop she is after. So being the good samaritan I am I helped her out and she did some Christmas nail designs on me today!

I am intriged by stamping kits and as I am getting a bundle monster kit for christmas off santa claus I was interested to see if there was a technique.. 

Anyway here is the finished article! I hope you like 

These nails are beautiful I love them! They are really getting me in the festive spirit! I cant wait to try out my bundle monster stamps when they come down my chimney hohoho...

For anyone interested the Colours used here were Models Own Scarlet Sparkle, and Konads White Stamping Polish

The plate used was Konad M59

:) 

Happy Festivites my lovelies I am going very last minute shopping tommorow, hope its not too busy..

Have a very Merry Christmas, love to you all

Charlie

xx

Used & Abused #1

Hi Guys, I want to introduce you to a new feature I will 

be starting over the new few months

I'd like to share with you my used and abused beauty/make up

products and any products that I feel I should start using more of! 

Firstly of my used and abused list is 

Barry M Peach Melba

I love this nail polish, it goes with anything! and 

it looks so flattering on any skin tone.

At only £2.99 it is bargainous aswell!!

The only downside to this is it is quite a gloopy polish as with all Barry M Polishes 

4****

Fake Bake - Beyond Bronze £8.99ish from Superdrug

I use this every time I go out, I can't bear having pale legs!! So using my fake tan mitt

I slap a bit on! I find this type of tan much easier to use as it is instant, you can

see it when applying it, and it is easily blendable, the only downside to this tan is it stinks!!

I really smelt like cat wee for a few minutes after putting it on! I hope they will 

eventually make a lovely smelling fake tan!

4****

YSL Touche Eclait - £20 debenhams

I love this concealer, it works true wonders on under eye bags, if you haven't tried it, try it now! Amazing is all I can say about this product. It comes with little instructions on how to highlight your face with it inside the box too which I think is cute, like having your own little pocket make up artist! 

5*****

Nirvana Spa - Body lotion £2 Asda

I love this range, it smells good enough to eat, the lotion is lovely thick creamy lotion, and soaks in really well. For the price it is a gem!! 

5*****

Now onto the Unused & Unabused!

Lush Bubblegum lip scrub. 

I have had this a little while now, and everytime I use it my lips feel amazing, I just forget about it with my daily/weekly routine. I think its a little harsh to use every day but I might try using once a week, especially now the colder days are coming, my lips feel really dry and uncared for at the moment so this might be my saving grace!

 My Violent Lips! 

I got these aaaaaages ago for my birthday and was going to wear them to see Katy Perry but I forgot to take a pair of scissors to the hotel with me to cut them out!! So I never got to wear them :( so my mission is to find somewhere to where them too!! at £10.50 for 3 applications I am not just going to wear them to go shopping!

Have you got any of my used & abused list? would you try any now?

Charlie

xx

and the winner is......

Hi Guys

My Giveaway closed at midnight last night, after counting and checking everyones entries I finally had 110 entries! wow! 

Using the random number generator Random.org a winner was picked...

and the winner is.....

Number 106! Jazzqueen!!! I have emailed you for your address :D

Thank you all for entering and keep posted for a 200 follower giveaway!! 

Charlie

xxx


p.s check out Lauras Giveaway here

 

Good News!

Hi guys just wanted to share with you my good news!

image from weheartit

.......................................

I got the job I interviewed for last week...

I am now an Intensive Care Staff Nurse, and I can't wait to start!

It feels so good to say that!!!!

image from weheartit

Also please remember my giveaway ends at midnight tonight

Charlie

xx

Clothes Swap - OOTD

Hi Guys,

EEE it seems like such a long time since I spoke to you! 

I must apologise for that, however I do have to excuse of extreme busy-ness! 

I will try and make up for it over the coming weeks!

I would like to start by saying Hello! to my new followers! *waves* thank you for taking the time to read my blog and I hope you enjoy it! 

Todays post is in relation to something me and my friends do quite regularly, as we are all very similar in size when we have a good sort out of old clothes we send them to each others houses before taking them to the charity shop to see if we can recycle them that way!

I love doing this as it helps us get a new wardrobe for free, and to see different ways of wearing our old clothes, there has been many a time I've thought "bugger I shouldnt of got rid of that top!" because my friend has worn it in such a way that it looks amazing!

Anyway, I thought I'd share with you my newest items from the clothes swap. 

 Grey cardi, long length, can't remember where its from, I hardly own any cardis like this so I snatched it up straight away.

Floral Top - Next

I loved this to when she bought it, and shes hardly ever worn it cause she doesnt like the neckline, I love it and have worn it loads since! 

I teamed it with my sand chinos from new look 

and my DIY Feather Ring

Do you guys do any clothes swaps?

Charlie

xx

Pearly Nails and First Guest Post

Hi Guys

I Just wanted to share with you my pearly nails that I 

created for my bfs brothers wedding! 

I won't go into detail here as I did these for a Guest Post over at 

Polished Criminails so go check it out here!

Thanks guys!!

Charlie

xx

WIW .... Coral Dress

Hi Guys,

Hope your all well... 

I've not been well which is why I have not blogged for a few days! 

I have had that awful tummy bug that has hit the headlines if your that interested you can read about it here

Anyway, prior to the little blighter getting me, I enjoyed a night out with my uni friends to celebrate the end of it!!

I wanted to share with you what I wore, cause I freaking love it!

Unfortuantly I didn't take any proper outfit pictures for you to view so heres a couple from my night out! excuse the odd face hahaha!

 This dress is from Miss Selfridge, and the belt came with it, it is a gorgeous colour and is all ruffled and pleated all the way down. It hangs a little lower at the back than the front, it is gorgeous, I adore it!

My hair was done by my friend, she did the front all curly and the back in a scalp plait.. 

This is the back..

I did my nails to match the colours on my outfit, The Barry M Peach Melba is the exact same shade as the dress, and the silver from w7 is so pigmented and glittery only one coat was needed! I just sponged the glitter onto the tips of my Peach Melba-ed nails!

There you have it, hope you like it as much as I did! I felt like a million dollars in it haha! Then the next day was spent not feeling like a million dollars due to the BUG!

ahh well its easing off now, think I'll be ok for my interview tommorrow!! eeek!!

Did you all have a lovely weekend?

Charlie

xx

Celebrations!

Hi Guys

Just a quick one tonight

I firstly want to start off by letting you all know I have passed everything at uni now! and I am just awaiting my PIN number so I can start my career as a nurse!! WOOOP!

image from we heart it

 Secondly I'd like to show you my love for my YSL Lipstick, I got it as a gift for my Birthday from my Besties! I was so happy with it cause I can never justify spending loads of money on makeup and tend to get the cheapy versions.

giving YSL some love!

It is Rouge Volupte, now someone please tell me is this the make, or the colour?? Either way it is this intense pinky red colour, bloody lovely!

Couple of shots of my cheesy grin!! 

Finally I wanted to share with you a recent purchase

This little ear cuff/chain, I got it from ASOS in the sale, and I think its quite cute.. 

I am not a huge fan of the massif ones!! 

What do you guys think?

Do you like the ear cuff trend?

Charlie

xx

I Heart Nail Art

Hi guys!

First things first, if you havent tried the foiling technique to get stubborn glitter polishes off your nails try it!

I was amazed!! After my Galaxy Nails Tutorial I did wonder how I'd get all those layers of polish and glitter off so I tried this technique i cant remeber where I heard it from so if anyone knows its origin please let me know!

Cut some cotton pads in half

Soak them in nail polish remover

Apply to nails

Cover Nails with Foil

Leave for ten mins or so and no joke when you take it off all your polish will be GONE!

its like magic

Secondly, I thought it was time for a bright and fun tutorial, I was inspired by this tutorial from Sam from The Nailasaurus who is doing her 31 day challenge, she got the idea from Jane from Nailside so if you wanna check there manis out just click here for Sam, and here for Jane.

I used my trusty models own polishes for this mani!

Here I used a base coat of lemon meringue and applied barry m Black onto the yellow to provide the base for the heart. I then used Models Own Pink Punch for the centre of the heart!

I decided I only wanted an accent nail with the hearts on, so to continue the colour scheme I used pink punch as a tip, with my Claires Black Nail Art Pen.

These were taken before clean up so I apologise for the messy fingers!!

Hope you like my mani!

Charlie

xx

P.s Click Here to enter my Giveaway!