Orange Nail Varnish Collection and Swatches

Orange is one of my all time favourite colours. It always perks me up to have a pop of orange in my look and nail varnishes are ideal for this. I think orange is one of the most lively and positive colours there is and I find myself picking up cosmetics in this shade far more often than I'm willing to admit! As I was packing away some of my things for my upcoming move (nothing dramatic, just going back to Grandma's before University so we can help each other out) I started idly scanning my polishes and a few really stuck out to me. So here are my five favourite orange nail varnishes!

From Thumb to Pinky: Models Own Fluro Orange, Nails Inc Porchester Place, Essie Fear or Desire, Rimmel Tangy Tangerine, W7 Pastel 16

Fluro Orange is ridiculously bright, no camera on earth could capture it's insane beauty. I didn't keep this bizarre (but kinda cool right? No? Just me then...) mani on for long but it's definitely the one that I couldn't keep my eyes off. If you're after some seriously attention grabbing talons I can't recommend this enough. It has a semi-matte finish but you could easily add a glossy top coat for a little more finesse. Porchester Place and Fear or Desire are fairly similar but Porchester Place has a touch more pink and is a little more muted. Both perfect for holiday toes! Tangy Tangerine is a classic apricot and was my boyfriends favourite of the lot for some reason. When I first asked his opinion he replied that they were all the same (my jaw nearly hit the floor at his blindness) but when pressed he claimed that Rimmel's offering was "more subtle and pretty."  I have to agree, it's a great transitional shade for Spring/Summer and won't offend your poor blind boyfriend. W7 is such a pain in the bum to effectively track down but I do so love them! I got a ten pack of pastels from TK Maxx and this is one of my favourites. Very delicate and cool and gorgeous with a tan.

I really hoped you like this! I have a real soft spot for colour-themed collections and adore seeing them on blogs so I couldn't resist! I think I may go for pink lip products next time. What do you think?

Which is your favourite shade? Any others that I have to try?

Lauren

NOTD: Models Own in Juicy Jules and Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine in Prickly Pear

It's taken me a long time to purchase any of the Gelly Hi-Shines from Barry M and I'm not really sure why... Fast forward from 3 weeks ago and I've now got a mini collection of six shades which I'll be reviewing once I've finished swatching but, spoiler alert, I really like them! Prickly Pear is a beautiful pastel lilac which is perfect for Spring. I decided to pair it with Models Own Juicy Jules just to inject a little girly glamour into the look. I've recently been on a week long varnish ban to give my nails a rest since they were beginning to get a little dry and even flaky in some places. I can report that after some intensive moisturising they're back on form and look lovely and healthy! I definitely recommend taking a week out and applying some thick moisturiser (I used The Body Shop Shea Body Butter) if your nails are looking less than perfect. It felt really weird having naked nails for so long and I feel much better now I have my colourful talons back!

I think this is a fab combo. Sadly the glitter wasn't photographing very well but I can assure you it looks lovely and catches the light beautifully with pink and green shimmers. I'm wearing two coats of Prickly Pear here and one coat of Juicy Jules. This is the first time I've tried to do something like this using a glitter polish but it was really easy and worth the little extra effort.

Have you been embracing the Spring shades lately (despite the weather not cooperating)? What do you think of my look?

Lauren

Review: Models Own Matte Hyper-Brite Lipstick in Orangeade

Models Own is a brand that I've only recently started dabbling in. I've picked up several of their nail varnishes in the past couple of weeks and I've picked up and put down a ton of their lipsticks. I didn't quite fall in love with any particular colour so did the responsible thing and bought more nail varnishes instead. It just so happens that fate intervened and I found myself the owner of Orangeade after I won a giveaway from the lovely Fiona at The Beauty Fiend, so thank you Fiona!

I did think about waiting for a more appropriate season to try this but decided that I'd be damned if I was going to let the weather dictate my beauty choices!

I was a little bit apprehensive about the packaging of this lipstick. Clear packaging is a bit retro for me and brings to mind the cheap, brandless makeup that you get from distant relatives when you're 11. But I've been proven wrong before and it's happened again. This packaging is extremely sturdy and the plastic is thicker and therefore heavier than all of my other lipsticks. I also like that you can clearly see how much product you have without the need for nerve-wrackingly twisting it up to breaking point. It actually makes a lot of sense to   package lipsticks in this way! It has an easy to use twist-up base and sits up-right comfortably.

It's a true orange shade. I had to have a little play to get this to sit the way I wanted it to. The first layer was quite sheer and even patchy in some places. After layering it up a couple of times to even out the colour, I love it! I've never in my life worn orange lipstick. It's something that I've always dismissed as being unsuitable for me due to my pale skin and I mostly just lusted after it when seeing it on gorgeous latina models. I now genuinely feel that this is a shade that can work for all skin tones. I'm not sure how bright it would be on more pigmented lips but it would definitely still be a gorgeous colour! I can't agree that it's matte though, there's certainly a shine to it. I think it's this shine that prevents it from being drying. I always condition my lips anyway but this lipstick was very comfortable to wear. Lasting time is quite good. It does transfer quite a bit but will stay on for around 4 hours. I wore this out around the shops in the day time (in the dead of Winter!) and felt very daring and edgy. I actually got a few smiles from strangers so I think Orangeade may have literally brightened their day!

Final Verdict: This is a lipstick that requires a bit of effort but I feel like the work pays off. Definitely recommend!

What do you think of this colour? Have you tried any other Models Own lipsticks?

Lauren

P.S. I had a comment from the lovely Naomi about seeing this on so here's a quick FOTD showing how I wore it:

Very simple eye make up and straight hair! Sorry for the poor quality.

Haul: No7, Models Own and much much more!

On Friday morning I woke up to my bank account looking plump and healthy after my very last pay cheque (boo.) I decided that I was going to go out in style. I passed a lot of it onto my boyfriend to cover some bills and to put some into savings. The rest was for me to spend on things that would make me happy. Queue teen movie style shopping. I've grouped the items into purpose.
First up, Skincare:

From L-R: The Body Shop Absinthe Hand Cream (sample), The Body Shop Mango Lip Butter £4, No7 Beautiful Skin Eye Make-Up Remover £8.50, No7 Beautiful Skin Hydration Mask £12.50, No7 Beautiful Skin Cleansing Balm £9, Nivea Daily Essentials Express Hydration Primer for Dry & Sensitive Skin £4.99

I tried out the Absinthe hand cream in store and really liked it. It has a light nettle scent that's really refreshing. It's thick and smooth and also comes in a hand butter which I'm quite curious about. I'm glad the assistant gave me this because I'm going to try and collect the little pots and one day mix Sleek Pout Paints in them (I WILL HAVE THEM ONE DAY!) The Lip Butter is my Holy Grail. I just finished up my Dragon Fruit one and it's lasted me absolutely ages and smells divine but I really wanted to try something new. It has a slight shimmer and more of a neutral tone to it which means I'll probably be able to wear this during the day more than my other one. Here's hoping. No7 Eye Make Up Remover is to serve as a replacement for the body shop cucumber cleansing milk which I find leaves a residue behind on my skin. Ick. I'm really excited to try the Hydration Mask. I've read some reviews and they all sound really promising. I suffer from dry patches of skin so this should help. Cleansing Balm is again to try and help my dry skin. I currently use the body shop aloe foaming facial wash, which I do love and recommend to anyone with sensitive skin, but I'm hoping this will give my skin the extra push it needs for moisture. I asked the #bbloggers a week or two ago during the chat to recommend a primer and the Nivea Express Hydration cropped up a lot. Since it was only £4.99 in Superdrug I couldn't really say no.

Nails:

From L-R: Models Own 3 in 1 (clear,) Golden Peach, Blooming Pink, In the Navy, Juicy Jules, Blizzard £5 each, Revlon Liquid Quick Dry £6.49

So I went a little crazy on the Models Own offers in Boots. I've never tried them before but they seem to be really highly rated by a lot of bloggers and I absolutely love the colours I picked up! The only one I've used so far is Blizzard which you can see here with Illamasqua's Caress. I've been a bit nail varnish mad recently and I think I'll be doing some collection posts soon which I'm excited about! Revlon Liquid Quick Dry is a product that goes on after the top coat to speed up drying time. It contains oils and vitamins which (apparently) help your nails stay healthy. I saw this and I was like omg if this works it will change my life. I'm one of those people that is just terrible for getting smudges and indents in my manicure. I've tried this once today and so far I'm pretty impressed. it definitely helped give me a rock solid mani. I'll give it a few more tries and review soon!

Hair:

Colour B4 Hair Colour Remover in Extra Strength £11.99 each

Eye wateringly expensive. I resent paying full price for anything so this was a struggle for me. I've been thinking about doing this for over a year now and I've finally decided to buy the stuff and take the plunge. The issue is that I'm currently trying to grow out my chemical-laden coloured hair and I can't deal with the bizarre colouring any more. It's dark blonde/light brown at the top, dyed brown in the middle, and auburn at the bottom. It could look a lot worse but I'm very aware of it and that's all that matters to me. By no stretch of the imagination do I think I'm gonna be blonde again afterwards but I'm hoping that this will make the divides less noticeable. I will definitely let you know what happens!

Miscellaneous:

The Body Shop Amazonian Wild Lily EDT 50ml £15, Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection Concealer in Light £4.19

I'm always on the hunt for another perfume that I like and I gave Amazonian Lily a spritz on a whim and fell in love. It's very fresh and light and the floral notes aren't overly strong. I dislike exptremely sweet/floral perfumes and I wasn't expecting to like this. Perfume scents are very personal but if your tastes are anything like mine I urge you to give it a try! I bought this with 40% off. £9 for a perfume! Bargain. Believe it or not I've never tried the Collection Concealer.  I have the illuminating touch version and I really like it, but I needed something a bit heavier for pigmentation issues. I swatched the fair shade but it is very very pale. I think Light will do nicely!

So that's everything! I did also snag a couple of the Apocalips today but it was after dark so no photos I'm afraid! I'm sure you'll see them here soon enough.

Have you tried any of the products I bought? What do you think to them?

Lauren

NOTD: Illamasqua Caress and Models Own Blizzard

As promised, my NOTD featuring Illamasqua Caress. Feeling inspired by the recent weather I decided to pair this with a glitter top coat by Models Own. Aptly named Blizzard.

Sorry about the random piece of glitter stuck to the lid. That stuff gets everywhere!

Caress is a beautiful powdery pastel blue. I'm wearing two coats here, the first one was mostly opaque but there were some small patchy areas. It has a fairly shiny finish but I used my Barry M 3 in 1 to create a high gloss shine. It's slightly thicker than some of the polishes I'm used to and I ended up putting too much on and had to wait an absolute age for it to dry! It was literally still squishy and susceptible to dents 6 hours later. That was totally my fault though and I'm prepared to admit that. The size of the brush is very comfortable. I utterly detest skinny brushes and this one was thick enough for me to get full coverage in 3 strokes, perfect!

Models Own Blizzard is a glitter topcoat containing silver and iridescent hexagonal and square glitter pieces of varying sizes. Application was okay. I had to blob it on a bit to get even coverage and it occasionally dug into the polish where it wasn't quite solid (I know, I know, my fault) which is how I got that sexy lumpy effect. I actually started on my right hand and put this over every nail but it was just too much! So I now have one full hand of blizzard and one hand of just index finger blizzard. It's an interesting look that I don't think I'll sport again... but oh well. I actually really like how cute it looks with just one nail! The colours are very pretty and cool and go well with Caress. Definitely a match made in Wintery Heaven.

As I was painting away I realised that I may have a potential dupe in my collection...

W7 in shade 11 is almost identical! It has a slightly thinner formula and leans a fraction and I mean just a tiny teeny bit, darker. Caress is a full on pastel blue. Both utterly beautiful and practically impossible to tell apart. W7 is of course a much cheaper brand than Illamasqua so it's well worth keeping an eye out for shade 11 if you like the look of Caress. I actually picked it up in a box set of pastels at TK Maxx in the Boxing Day Sales. Caress is still available in the Illamasqua Sale for £5. It looks a touch more grey to me in the stock photos which is why I was surprised to find a dupe. I was hoping for it to be more accurate to what was on the website but ah well, it's still a beautiful shade!

What do you think to this shade? Will you be buying Caress or looking for some cheap dupes like 11?

Lauren