Haul: Models Own & Elf!

I've not been too well recently, and in an attempt to cheer myself up, I decided to treat to myself to some Models Own and Elf goodies! I ordered both last Thursday evening, so they took a bit longer than normal due to the Easter bank holidays, but the fact they both turned up together made up for it; I've never had two parcels delivered at the same time before so as you can imagine I was very excited!

We'll start with the Models Own polishes, eight of which I ordered from the Models Ow website. They actually have quite a good deal on there, which I think is permanent. The polishes are all £5 each; (excluding the new 'Smash Up' polishes) buying three polishes saves you £3, and buying five saves you an impressive £7. I bought eight, and used the FACEFAN code from their Facebook page to get another 10% off. So the polishes came to £26, instead of £40! The extra polish in the photos I got this week from Boots, but thought I may as well include it with these.

After much deliberation, I settled on these colours.

Purple Passion and Purple Poppy look very similar in the photo. And they are, put I'd say Purple Passion is a slightly deeper version. Before I'd taken them out of the protective bubble wrap I thought they'd sent me two of the same colour! Purple Poppy is probably my favourite out of the two, and I'd have chosen this over Purple Passion if I was buying them in a shop and therefore could see the similarities. But purple and pink nail polishes are my favourite so having two so similar doesn't really hurt! Plus I've not tested them out yet, so they might look more different when applied!

Blooboo is one of Models Own's newer releases from their Spring/Summer collection It's a lovely pale blue, with just a hint of blue shimmer peeking through. I wasn't overly impressed with the last blue nail polish I bought, which was a Barry M one, but this is slightly paler so thought I'd give it a whirl!

Jade Stone - I've been looking for another mint green polish for a while. I normally love Barry M's nail polishes, but was also disappointed with their infamous Mint Green; I found it quite watery and difficult to apply. Jade Stone is slightly darker which I prefer.

Top Turquoise is more green than it looks in the picture. As the name suggests, it's a lovely bright turquoise. I think this will looks great with a tan (here's hoping for some sun!), and I'm looking forward to trying this out with the 'Crackle' nail polishes that are out at the moment!

Bronze Rage is another new polish in the range. This colour looks gorgeous in the bottle; a very shimmery rust colour with a slight gold sparkle. I've not seen many colours like this and think it'd be perfect for summer evenings.

Mystic Mauve is a gorgeous pinky purpley shimmery polish! I can imagine it may look more silver in some lights, but I think this could be quite a versatile polish and could be worn all year round.

Champagne is, like Mystic Mauve, a 'foil' nail varnish, and similarly I think it'll look gold in some lights, and silver in others. Again a really nice shimmery colour that will work all year round!

Finally, Golden Peach was the one polish not bought online. I got his in Boots, basically so I could take advantage of their current 3 for 2 offer on cosmetics. I'd already placed my online order, but couldn't quite remember what colours I'd ordered! I pretty much grabbed a colour that I knew as different to anything else I'd ordered. Although having said that, I really do like this colour! It's a pale, creamy orange which I wouldn't normally go for, but the subtle gold shimmer makes it really unique colour and I quite like how it's totally different to anything else in my collection.


To finish, here's a little peak at my Elf haul; which I'll blog about next time!

Oh and I just want to say a big thank you to everyone who has followed my blog so far - much appreciated! ;)

New Nail Polish Storage

Over the last few months, I seem to have acquired a large amount of nail varnishes, for me anyway. I work with food, so wearing nail varnish is a no-no for the most part. But recently, if I've had my days off together, I've been making the effort to paint my nails. Partly because I'm off work and therefore am 'allowed' to do so, but also with the weather getting warmer, nail varnishes seem so much more appealing - especially all the pretty summer shades!

I used to just store my polishes on my dressing table, places on top of and around my various palettes. As I bought more polishes, this became impractical and just looked messy. So for the past few months my nail polishes have been stored in a drawer like so:

As you can see, it's pretty boring and hard to find what your looking for! Then, last week, whist having a bit of a clear out I came across a rather pretty box, which I think was from a No7 Christmas gift set a few years ago. The lid is quite deep and has a nice floral pattern on. The front was a little grubby from where a sticky label had once been I guess, but this didn't matter as you'd only see the edges anyway.

I figured that when turned 'upside down' it'd make the perfect little storage box for my polishes, so that they're all contained, yet it's still easy to see where everything is, and looks prettier than just being shoved in a shoe box!

So far, my collection is only about 3 rows deep, so I have plenty of space to expand my collection; starting with the eight Models Own polishes I currently have on order! For now, the rest of the space is taken up with nail polish remover, brush cleaner and other random bits and bobs, which will need re-homing at some point, but for now everything fits in just nicely and it just shows that hoarding random stuff really does pay off!

Review: Babyliss Waving Wand

For years I have been on the lookout for a quick and easy way to curl my hair. I've tried with my trusty GHD's but I've never really been able to fully master the technique. I think this is partly due to the fact my GHD's are the older version, and aren't as 'rounded' as the newer versions are, thus making curling easier. Either way, I've never quite been able to do it. It starts off well, but as I work through more sections of hair, I just seem to get it tangled and my hair ends up... well, burned.

I faired slightly better with curling tongs, but often found I'd get the tell-tale 'kink' from the clamp which as you can imagine is not the best off looks!

However, way back before Christmas, whilst looking through the Boots Christmas catalogue, a new product caught my eye which made adding waves to my hair easier than I could've ever imagined!

The Babyliss waving wand is a relatively new product, that is similar to the conical curling wands that have become popular in recent years. The waving wand demands a similar technique, but the result is more natural, looser waves, perfect for summer I think. This is due to the unique shape of the barrel, which has flat edges, and looks similar to a very small straightening iron.

The styler itself is a lovely deep purple colour and is surprisingly light. The cord is a decent length and also swivels, which makes it even easier to manoeuvre. The ceramic barrel heats up to 200°c in about 30 seconds, but also has 4 lower settings if this is too hot for you; 140°c, 155°c, 170°c and 185°c. A heat resistant glove is also provided. This is especially useful as you get used to the wand, if it wasn't for this I'd have burned my fingers countless times! The glove is relatively thin, but is quite small, which is fine for my small hands but not sure if it'd be as useful for some people. I kind of wish two gloves were provided, as I alternate which hand I hold the wand in, and it's a bit annoying to have to keep taking the glove on and off. Having said that, I used the wand today without the glove and succeeded in not burning myself!

There's also a cool tip at the top of the wand, and it shuts off after 72 minutes which is extremely useful if you ever have that 'Have I left it switched on?!' feeling like I always do!

The technique is easy; simply wrap sections around the wand (minding those fingers!), hold for a few seconds, and voilà! It really is that easy. Use larger sections of hair for a looser wave, or smaller sections for a tighter wave. I tend to do a mixture of large and small seconds, mainly as I'm too lazy to do them evenly, but I think it also makes the over all look more natural. But this is entirely up to you.

I absolutely LOVE this product! I never thought curling my hair would be so easy. Like I said at the start, I've never been able to manage this sort of look with straighteners or conventional tongs, but with the wand I picked it up straight away!
The results last all day with a bit of hairspray, but I find the waves do drop as the day goes on. Although this depends on your hair type and/or what products you used. I'm sure mine would drop less if I used different products, and this is something I'm going to look into.

The Babyliss Waving Wand costs around £30 and is available from Boots, Argos and many online retailers.

Third time lucky!

I've decided to give blogging another go. Again. I know, I know, I do about three posts and then give up and/or forget about it. It is something I want to do though. I love reading other people's blogs, and I do have "blog envy" when I see massive archives of posts dating back a good two years or so. And I'd like to think I can create something like that, and have the dedication to stick to it. So here goes!

So that's me up there, and as you've probably guessed, I'm Sarah. I'm 28 and live in North East England. I look very young for my age, which I'm starting to appreciate, but if I'm honest it's a bit of a pain and kind of embarrassing to be asked for ID when I'm out with friends!

I'm a bit of a make up and beauty product addict, and will rant and rave about my latest finds and faves to anyone who'll listen. So I thought what better place to do just that than on my own blog! I know there's not much here right now, but please bare with me while I find my feet, and feel free to leave a comment, or follow me? Would be great to get to know some of the many beauty bloggers out there!

Sarah Xx