Barry M Coconut Infusion Nail Paint

Barry M is one of our go to nail polish brands with their Gelly Hi Shine formula being a particular favourite. The drugstore brand are so affordable that you can treat yourself to numerous shades without it breaking the bank! As you cannot get hold of Barry M in the USA we like to take a few shades to Florida with us when we visit for family and friends out there!


L-R; Tiki Hut, Bikini, Surfboard

We were very interested to hear that Barry M were releasing a new range of polish the 'Coconut Infusion' line and we couldn't wait to get hold of a few shades to try out.

Spring Polish Picks

We love it when springtime comes around and we can start to bring those pretty spring shades of nail polish out of hibernation! Of course, there are no laws to say you can only wear pretty pastels in the spring or summer however when winter draws in bright nails are usually banished and the deeper colours come out to play. Once Easter arrived we decided to dust off some of our favourite shades for spring and share them with you all!

Essence The Gel Nail Polish Review

A couple of years ago we tried some Essence Nail Polish and after just one day it chipped quite badly so we gave it up as a bad job and moved on to more long wearing brands. Over the past couple of weeks, however, we have been hearing some good things about Essence The Gel Polish formula so we picked up a few shades to try out. Essence have a really wide range of colours so we were spoilt for choice but we settled on 37 Serendipity - a pale greyish lilac, 30 Let's Get Lost - a deep sea green/blue, 08 Whatever! - a bright baby pink, 51 Miss Captain - a dark grey/blue. At just £1.60 per polish Essence The Gel Nail Polish is so affordable you can stock up on a variety of colours without breaking the bank! Gel polishes seem to be all the rage right now with every brand having their own take on a long wearing gel manicure so we were really interested to see how these polishes wore.  

Maybelline Dr Rescue Nails

While browsing the aisles of Superdrug this week we stumbled upon some Maybelline products that we had not seen before. We have been fans of the Baby Lips and Dr Rescue range of products in the past and when we saw more goodies from the range we started to throw them into our basket as we wanted to show you what we had found! We are not sure if this is a new range or if we've been living under a rock and it passed us by, but we are excited to give all of the products a try as they are soooo affordable! Most of the products are only £2.99 and readily available in Boots, Superdrug and Wilkos right now.

Dr Rescue Nailcare

Dr Rescue Nail Care All In One: This is described as a base coat and top coat in one and also acts as a treatment/strengthener. Should be a good multi tasking product!

 

Dr Rescue Peel Off Base Coat: We can't recall ever having used a peel off base coat but we are curious to give this one a try!

 

Dr Rescue CC Nail Care Base Coat:  A colour correcting base coat that conceals and whitens nails. We always use a base coat before polish so we are interested to try out this super affordable option. 

Dr Rescue Gel Effect Top Coat: Who doesn't love glossy nails! We are big fans of the glossy nail look and for only £2.99 this could be a perfect budget option for a gel effect finish.

Dr Rescue SOS Nail Balm: This is a new one for us! We've never heard of a nail balm but if it's anything like a lip balm then bring it on!  This is a pale blue coloured stick with jojoba oil and shea butter that nourishes the nails. Intriguing!

Dr Rescue Quick Dry Drops: We have tried some quick dry drops from Essence in the past but were not too impressed as they seemed to dull the look of the polish so we are keen to see how we get on with these interesting looking drops!

Have you tried any of the Dr Rescue Nail Care line? We'd love to hear what you think in the comments below!

The Big Autumn Makeup Purge

Let us start by saying that yes, we have waaaay too much make up and yes, we are suckers for shiny new products. Because of this we found ourselves in a situation where makeup was spilling out of drawers, cupboards and cabinets and action was needed!

 

Within our home we both own our own make up but we also share nail polishes and some palettes. As Mimi will be getting married and moving to the USA early next year we felt that it was time to sort the makeup stash and get rid of some of those items that hadn't seen the light of day for months or years!

Before the Great Purge!

 

The Lip Products:

 

This was one of the largest collections we had to organise. We started by tipping EVERYTHING out in a pile and started to go through each lip product by type e.g. lipstick, lip gloss, lip balm. Lets put it out there....the pile was ridiculous. We painstakingly sorted through each one and asked ourselves some questions:

1) How old is this product?

2) How long since I wore it?
3) Is it a colour I would wear now?

Once we had asked ourselves these questions it was easier to start throwing things away. If we had not reached for a product in over a year the chances are we would not be reaching for it again. We ended up with swatches all over our hands and arms (tip: keep some make up wipes handy!) Here is our 'before' (hangs head in shame) and 'after': We used the Muji storage drawers to organise the lip products so now they are easy to find and sorted into category.
 



The Lip Product Stash - Before

The Lip Product Stash - After

 

The Nail Polishes:

Another mammoth task! When sorting through our nail polish collection we started with those really old bottles that were beyond redemption. You know the kind; the top is glued on, the polish is thick and gloopy and you last reached for it in 2002! They went the journey first and then we took stock of what was left. We both have a certain colour that we gravitate towards and then we buy the same colour in 20 different brands. For Elle it is the neutral beige/sandy colour and for Mimi it is a soft pink. This MUST stop as it means that we have soooo many nail polishes in almost the same colour. We kept our very favourites -  Essie Sand Tropez and Essie Fiji and a couple of similar shades (don't judge) and the rest went into the 'give away' pile. We then utilised our nail polish stand from Ebay to display the polishes that remained. A still slightly ridiculous but more manageable collection.

The Greens

The 'they're not really all the same shade' neutrals

The Baby Pinks

The Final Result

 
 The Powder Products:

By this we mean the powders/bronzers/blushers etc. We are not really collectors of single eye shadows and any that we have are nicely stored in a MAC or Z Palette so this was an easy edit to make. The other powder products were a different story. We had a lot of pretty old products that needed to be tossed as they were way past their best. We then tidied the remainder into an Ikea box giving us easy access to the products and making us much more likely to use them.



The Powders, Bronzers and Highlighters

The Blush

 The Palettes:

We both love a good eyeshadow palette and have some great ones from Urban Decay, IT Cosmetics, MAC and Revolution. We had nothing that we wanted to lose therefore we tidied the products up and displayed them in an Ikea Godmorgon box for easy access.

The Paletts

 
The Conclusion

A sort out was most definitely long overdue and it was amazing to find some little hidden treasures that we had forgotten about! Since we purged we have started to use some products that had been relegated to the back of the cupboard and have a new found love for them! The IT Cosmetics Naturally Pretty Palette has been brought out of retirement and Elle has been using it daily since its rediscovery.

We have also pulled out some great forgotten about lip options and brought them back into circulation such as Bourjois Rouge Edition Lipstick in Rose Tweed and Bare Minerals Marvellous Moxie Lipstick in Speak Your Mind.

Have you ever had a giant makeup purge? Did you find any old favourites? We would love to hear about your rediscoveries in the comments below!
 

USA Beauty Haul - Sephora and Ulta

While we were holidaying in Florida during August we could not resist a trip to the beauty stores (lets be honest we made about 5 trips but who's counting!) We always like to check out the products that are US exclusives or difficult to come by in the UK and we got our hands on some treasures!

Lets start with Sephora (also known as the Mother Ship!). Our first trip to Sephora was at our favourite Orlando shopping destination, Mall at Millenia, where we picked up some of the excellent Sephora brand make up brushes. We have tried some of these brushes in the past, I own a crease brush and a blending brush, but we had not tried the Pro Brushes nor the Value Sets so we were interested to take a look at what was on offer. I had the Sephora Small Pro Stippling Brush on my must have list and snapped up one of those up along with the Pro Tapered Crease Brush which is amazing for a precise crease shadow application. Another must purchase was the legendary Beauty Blender. Now I realise I am a little late to the party on this one and I know it is available in the UK but it's sooo much cheaper in the US and for this reason I thought it was time I gave it a whirl. After 3 weeks use I can safely say that it has changed my foundation/concealer life! I am loving it for blending foundation, CC cream, tinted moisturiser, under eye concealer - you name it! I also picked up a new Beautyblender Solid Cleaner as Mimi said I used all of her last one (!). Another potentially life changing item was then secured - the Anastacia Brow Wiz. Until tragedy struck! On the flight home the holy grail item was safely packed in my make up bag in my case however when I got home I noticed that it has somehow snapped in half during the journey. I see a repurchase on the horizon.

I really wanted to try one of the Fresh Sugar scents and after smelling all of them settled on Fresh Sugar Lemon which is a lovely blend of their traditional sugar sent with lemons thrown in. I love it! Finally, when approaching the cash register and making my way through the aisle of temptation I grabbed hold of the Elizabeth and James Nirvana perfume duo and the cute Sephora TSA Approved Travel Bag to use on the flight home.

Next it was off to Ulta where I stocked up on my favourite L'Oreal Color Riche Balms which I now own in every colour with duplicates of my top two! I was very restrained in Ulta and only picked up a couple other items including the NYX Skinny Mascara that I wanted to try as a bottom lash mascara. So far so good! (lets be honest here, I bought two!) Of course it wouldn't be a trip to Ulta without throwing in a few - okay SIX - nail polishes into the mix! I love these L'Oreal nail polishes and Essie is our favourite nail polish brand so we had to get our hands on some new shades.

Special mention to the Covergirl Ready Set Gorgeous Foundation. I have seen some Beauty YouTubers praising this product and it is so affordable I thought I would give it a try. It is now my daily go-to foundation and I wish I had picked up a spare!

Since having LVL Enhance lash treatment I have steered away from waterproof mascaras. Therefore, when the new Covergirl Super Sizer Mascara caught my eye I was tempted to give it a whirl. You are supposed to 'twist' the brush as you apply at but that seems a bit weird to me so I have stuck to the traditional application method! The fine wand grabs hold of and makes all of your lashes stand out and it holds a curl nicely. So far, so good!

Usually when we travel to the US we find lots of things that are not available in the UK however I think that the UK beauty market is getting much better and we seem to be able to get our hands on most things and most brands that they have in the US with a few minor exceptions. This meant that I did not purchase nearly as much as usual - good for my bank balance!

Look out for our Bath and Body Works haul coming soon!

Have you tried any of the above mentioned products? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

Elle x