W7 Nail Polishes

On my trip to the Mac Counter to exchange some empty containers in exchange for some lipsticks, I found myself with a little time to spare before I had to catch a train and decided to check out the store New Look (for the first time since living in the UK... why? No idea).

Obsessed as I am with nail polishes, they were the first thing that caught my eye as soon as I entered the store. Could also have something to do with the neon pink colour or that the packaging looks exactly like OPI... who knows:-) They were £2.99 each, so I thought I should definitely check them out and even though I wasn't into neon colours since the 1980s, I thought it might be fun to have a bright colour to lighten up one of those cold winter days that lay ahead.

I painted one nail each to test the colours and I am actually quite impressed. I can't judge the staying power yet, but the colours are very true to the bottle and 2 coats were plenty and they went on very smooth. Not too thin, not too thick. For £2.99 I'm definitely loving them! The colours I got are Khaki and Fluorescent Pink.

A definite Thumbs up for now...

Nail Polish of the day - OPI by Sephora "Just a little dangerous"

It was time to give my nails some colour, so I decided to go with one of my OPI by Sephora ones that I got when I was in the States. The colour is "Just a little dangerous". I hadn't used them before, so I didn't know what to expect. The colour is definitely nice... blue-ish purple with pink shimmer in it, but the wand... guys, I tell you, the wand is a nightmare (for me). It is very thin, so you can't do the normal "3 strokes and done" technique, but have to paint and paint and that means it goes on thinker on some places and therefore definitely doesn't look good with one coat. A second coat however will make this particular colour go on so thick, that it takes forever to dry and even though I used a fast dry topcoat, I still damaged it hours after I put it on.

So, unfortunately a bit of mixed feelings with this one. I have some other colours from the OPI by Sephora collection and I will update you guys on what I think of them, but the wand problem will not go away, I'm afraid.

Check out my OPI by Sephora video on Youtube, where I show my other shades and swatches.

Logitech 9000 Review Update

I've been using the Logitech Pro 9000 for a few weeks now and unfortunately it gave me a lot of pain.

The first one I got started to have microphone problems after approximately 1.5 weeks (crackling noise). I called Amazon and they sent me a replacement. 

The new one had a problem with the autofocus from day one. Basically it didn't automatically focus on me when I sat in front of it and I had to wave and make myself known to the camera before it decided to work with me. It worked for a bit, but after putting something close to the camera and then taking it away, same thing happened and when I tried to use the cam next time same routine. It also never seemed to find the right settings for "autolight" and the videos looked quite awful.

Called Amazon again and they sent a replacement. This one actually seems to work fine from the hardware point of view, but since I updated the software, whenever I start the camera to film my laptop shows bluescreen and reboots. Sometimes after several reboots I get it to work, but I doubt my computer likes the permanent forced reboots (using Win Vista). Will try to download the old version or do some research if that happens to other people as well.

Conclusion: Good webcam for the price (if working), but there seem to be loads of lemons out there. Think I will start saving for a standalone camcorder.

Back to MAC - Depotting & Lipstick Heaven

Watched a Youtube video from MakeupGeekTV (check her out... she is awesome) two days ago about how to depot Mac eyeshadows and did a big depotting action yesterday. I depotted 24 eyeshadows/blushes and got quite excited, cause I'd heard you can bring the empty containers  back to MAC and for every 6 you get a lipstick. 

I had my eyes on a few of their lipsticks for quite a while now, but for some reason I just couldn't justify spending £13.50 on a lipstick so far. Therefore the prospect of being able to choose 4 lipsticks and not even having to pay for them was even more exciting. I was in lipstick heaven... BUT... now I had to decide which ones to take. What a task. Here's what I got (got 5 and paid for one in the end):
- Angel
- Hot Gossip
- Milan Mode
- Party Line
- Plumful

Some of them look really similar, but I decided to take some that I will actually wear a lot and not just on special occasions:

Check out Marlena's video on Youtube:

September Glossybox - What I got...

Based on the reviews I watched on Youtube, I decided to subscribe to Glossybox last month and got my first one yesterday. Here's what I got in it:

- Dead Sea Spa Magik (Exfoliator)
- Green People Fruitful Nights (night cream)
- HD Brows (eyebrow stuff)
- Neal and Wolf Glow Super Shine Spray (for hair)
- Plum by Mary Greenwell (Perfum)

Didn't like the fact that they added a perfume sample, cause those are usually free anyway and when they asked for my preferences, I explicitly said I don't want perfume, but what can you do... I will wait another month before I decide if this is actually worth it.

Unpack it with me on Youtube:

So far I tested:

Green People Fruitful Nights: still looked old in the morning, but at least it didn't break me out or cause allergies. Very neutral smell.

Neal & Wolf Glow Spray: Slight dissapointment. First of all it doesn't say on the botttle how to use it, so I used it on dry hair. It has a super strong smell... I don't mind the smell, but it may be too much for some people, cause it probably overpowers everything else. I didn't feel like it gave my hair the glow and shine it promised and it also looked a bit stringy/greasy until I brushed my hair quite a bit and I didn't use a lot. Don't think I will buy that one.

Dead Sea Spa Magik: I used this on my legs in the shower. It has a nice citrus smell and it made my skin nicely soft. Probably cause it also has oil in it, but that's also something to keep in mind, cause after I used it I still had some of the oil on my hands and accidently touched my hair to squeeze out the water... not so clever. Avoid doing that if you don't want to wash your hair twice!

I haven't used the HD Brow stuff yet, but I will update as soon as I do. I will not use the perfume, cause I don't like the smell

Sleek - Nude Collection - Review & Swatches

Got the Sleek Nude Collection about a week ago and thought I share my thoughts. I like the Au Naturel palette, cause it has some nice neutral colours... not very exciting colours, but still good enough to create nice looks with. I think the shimmery colours are my favorites... not a big fan of the grey and mustardy colours, cause they don't show up very much, even though I'm pale, paler, the palest.

The Suede Blush is a nice natural reddish brown (left finger, but right side on the hand)... wasn't sure if it may be too orange on my skin, but it's just about right for a bit of colour when wearing a natural look.

I love the Sleek Pout Polishes a lot and the Bare Minimum one is no exeption, but I love it just for it's lip conditioning and not for the colour, cause it basically has none. I have medium pigmented lips and apart from a bit of shine and a nice feeling it doesn't show up. I expected it to "nude" my lips as it is the nude collection and nude lipsticks/lipglosses normally do exactly that, but this one doesn't. Just be aware if you have pigmented lips...

Check out my Sleek Nude Collection video on Youtube:

Sleek Pout Polishes - Swatches

 

The Sleek Pout Polishes are affordable (£4.49 at Superdrug or sleekmakeup.com), smell amazing, condition the lips awesomely and are available in beautiful colours. The colours I own (apart from the Nude Collection, which I will talk about seperately) are: Raspberry Souffle, Pink Cadillac and Perfect Plum.

I heard that it is best to test lipsticks and lip glosses on your fingertips, cause the skin is the most like the one on the lips, so I did some fingertip and hand swatches.

Check out my Sleek Review video on Youtube as well.