Beauty | Barry M Matte Nail Paint

Barry M Matte Nail Paint - £3.99 each.

I haven't written a Nail Polish review in what feels like forever, even though I frequently wear it. Recently I picked up two new shades from Barry M's new Matte collection. I had never tried matte nail polish up until now and I love it. I love how the finish is so completely different to any other polishes which I've purchased before. I chose the colours Burgundy Crush and Mocha as I thought that they were perfect winter colours!

I've always loved Barry M Nail Paints as I think they're brilliant quality for their price. From the pictures you can tell that the polishes really do have a matte effect which I love, however in the daylight, naturally, it gives the polish more of a shine. The top photo is the day of application and the second photo is 4 days after I had painted my nails. I wanted to show just how great the polishes last, which to me is something which is really important that I look for in a nail polish and Barry M always keep me happy with their quality of product.

I think Burgundy Crush is going to be one of my new winter favourites with it's deep red colour and Mocha will be perfect for winter, but for spring too, as it's a very similar colour to their famous Mushroom Nail Paint, just in a matte finish. As you can tell I love both these nail paints, although I don't think I'll be purchasing the other colours in the collection as I already own a lot, and I mean a lot of dark nail polishes. However, I will always replace these two and may purchase other colours if they bring out a new colour range. I think Matte pastels would be lovely for spring!?

Have you tried Barry M's Matte Nail Paint?!

Beauty | The First 2014 Haul!

It may be awful, but when I'm feeling a bit down I got for a bit of a make up spending spree! Boots and Superdrug are both my bestfriends and also my enemies, as far as my bank account is concerned! I recently headed to both, and surprise, surprise brought things from both! So here's a little look at what I brought!

Firstly, a trip to Superdrug is never complete without buying something from MUA! MUA is like my holy grail beauty brand as their prices are incredibly affordable and the quality is really impressive for what you pay. I'm yet to come across a MUA product which I don't like. Their palettes have always been a favourite of mine, especially my much loved Heaven and Earth palette. I've also been dying to try out their new Colour Blast Eyeshadow Tint and chose the colour 'Stay'. I also picked up their 'Smokin' palette and their 'Ever After' matte palette.

Next, I headed to Boots where I embarked upon a new adventure. I don't know how it's possible to go this long without one but I picked up my first Bourjois blush in shade 35 Rose d'Or - Golder Rose and it is the most beautiful colour ever! I also repurchased an ever favourite of the Rimmel Stay Matte Pressed Powder in Translucent. This is currently one of my most used products and helping with any oilyness I've been having recently. I'm also always on the look out for that perfect mascara and after watching a video by Moree Milk, ages ago, where she swore by this Mascara as being the best I knew I had to give it a go. So that's how Number 17's Peep Show Mascara ended up in my basket! Finally, after hearing everyone endlessly rave about Barry M's matte Nail Paint I had to have some for myself, along with adding another Gelly Hi Shine to my collection. I brought the Gelly Hi Shine in shade 'Plum' and the matte Nail Paints in shades 'Crush' and 'Mocha'.

- MUA Smokin Palette - £6.00
- MUA Ever After Matte Palette - £4.00
- MUA Colourblast Eyeshadow Tint - £3.00
- Rimmel Stay Matte Translucent Pressed Powder - £3.99
- 17 Peep Show Mascara - £6.29
- Bourjois Blush Rose d'Or Golden Rose - £7.99
- Barry M Gelly Hi Shine Plum - £3.99
- Barry M Matte Nail Paint Crush - £3.99
- Barry M Matte Nail Paint Mocha - £3.99

So that's what I've been buying recently, and reviews will be coming as soon as I possibly can find time to write them, as it's starting to get hectic again being back at uni!

What are your recent favourite purchases?!

Beauty | Barry M Lipstick 146

Sorry, it had to be an iPhone selfie!

I am currently loving Barry M! In April I reviewed their lipstick in shade 140 which was a gorgeous glitter pink and seemed popular with my readers and with family and friends. Which then lead to me buying this beauty. Once I find something I like, I have to have it in all the colours. So this is the start of a beautiful Barry M Lipstick collection!...

Unfortunately Barry M didn't come up with very inventive names for their lipsticks and named them purely after numbers. However, I love their packaging so they score points for that. It's a very original, sleek and sophisticated packaging which I love. Yes, gimmicks can be fun, but sometimes they're too tacky and over powering. So call me boring, but I love their sleek look.

146, is a vibrant pink, yet again, a girl can never own too many! However, upon application it has more blue tonnes than I realised and expected, leaving me with a lovely fuchsia pink - not complaining! Some people say that they don't suit certain colours of they believe that certain colours don't suit certain skin colourings, but I believe that if you like it, then you wear it! No one has the right to say what does and doesn't work for you. What I love most about this lipstick is how creamy and moisturising it is along with the great pigmentation. I often suffer with dry lips, but with 146 I never worry, plus there are always lip balms on standby!

Finally, the last thing with Barry M got so right was the price. Each lipstick costs £4.49. What a bargain?! That's easily affordable to own one of each colour! I love this brand and find it hard to fault!

How do you rate Barry M?!  

Barry M Lipstick In Shade 140

A while back I purchased some Barry M lipsticks and only recently have I gotten around to trying them, and I wish I'd done it sooner, I love these lipsticks! This lipstick is shade 140, personally I think Barry M could come up with something a bit more inventive than numbers! The packaging is also very original which I love, I love the sleek black look, with the logo in gold.

This colour is a gorgeous bright pink which I've been using to spruce up my outfits as I'm seriously fed up of this weather now, I want it to be at least 15 degrees, but I guess that's typical of England for you!

This lipstick has flecks of glitter running through it, which some people might not like, but I do, especially for a night out. This is my first Barry M lipstick and I was amazed at how pigmented it was and how easy it was to apply as sometimes I find myself applying several coats and then I keep having to reapply it, but luckily this lipstick has great staying power. Another bonus to me, and this is another big factor as to why I  love it so much is that it doesn't cling to all those places which you don't want a lipstick to, to reveal all your cracks, chaps and dry lips. I find it really off putting when lipsticks do this, so always look for rich or moisturising formula's. I really cannot fault this lipstick what so ever, and it's even made it's way to the favourites pile which I think is great for a lippy that costs £4.49!

 

Have you tried any Barry M lipsticks?

 

Haulin'

I am such a sucker it's becoming ridiculous. As soon as I step into Boots or Superdrug they're laughing!! The majority of all these lovely beautiful things have been brought because there was some sort of offer on them one way or another, except the MUA, I just had to have the MUA! This post is bit picture heavy but that's because each photo shows the offer. So if you'd like the laugh at how easy I get sucked into buying things, then continue to read and then leave me a comment about how foolish I've been. But one way or another, I will justify each and every piece of this lovely beauty-ness!

First up is Soap and Glory. They are my biggest beauty weakness when it comes to beauty. I will one day do a post on my collection, it's just ridiculous, and I just keep on and on buying more. However, I did save myself a whooping £10 as when you spend £10 or more on beauty products you get the lovely tub of Butter Yourself free. It would just be point black rude really wouldn't it? One of the things which I don't have in my collection yet is Pulp Friction and I've heard so many people rave about it and it won a Stylist Skincare award in 2012. It smells incredible and its self and Butter Yourself have the same fragrance. Pulp Friction costs £8.00 and I didn't want to spend out on another full sized product so I picked up the last Hand Maid hand-sanitiser for £2.50, these are just perfect, they smell great and I take mine everywhere. So this little lot enabled me to get my free Butter Yourself. Yaay! The offer is not valid on Soap and Glorys skincare range, however on their skin care range they had an offer of buy one product and get another half price.

 Next up are the Barry M Gelly Hi Shines. Again I have succumbed to bblogger peer pressure after everyone saying how great they were and I have to admit, they really were. Superdrug were doing an offer on the Hi Shines of 2 for £6.00, which I'm not sure they're doing now, but do make sure you check if they are. However, Boots currently have their 3 for 2 offer on at the moment. So from left to right I picked up Blueberry, Dragon and Papaya. I don't really have very many pastel colours for summer so these are great and I've already tried Dragon and I was so impressed with the results!

More Nail Polish? Really? Well yes, because I don't have anything sort of like these colours. Told you I could justify everything and plus NYC in Superdrug have an offer of any two nail polishes for £2.99. As you could imagine the stand was verging on empty as it was across their whole nail polish range, but luckily these two are gorgeous and I picked them up in shades Lincoln Square Lavender and Greenwich Village from left to right.

More nail polish? Yes, I promise you this is the last one and again it was bblogger pressure, it looks so pretty and everyone says how good it is so I have to have it, but it's okay, because it was free with the 3 for 2 offer at Boots. Win, win! The L'oreal Top Coat Confetti is an amazing top coat to give your nails that speckled look and retails at £4.99. Next is Bourjois Effect 3D Lipgloss. I've been wanting to try out Coral lips but I'm too scared to go straight in with a lipstick so I thought I'd ease my way in with those gorgeous gloss which has hints of gold glitter throughout it. The Lipgloss retails at £7.69 and I brought the shade Corail Idyllic. Finally after falling in love with the Rimmel Apocalips I have added another colour to my collection in the form of Nova for £5.99.

Lastly, I had to feed my MUA addiction with a few pieces from their Undress Your Skin range. Of course I have to pick up the Undress Me Too Palette for a bargain of £3.00 as they currently have a pound off it at the moment along with the Undress Your Skin Highlighter for £2.00 as that also had a pound off it.

 

As you can see all these things were necessities! What have you been buying recently?!

 

Secret Santa - Bloggers Edition.

After reading people's posts last year about the Secret Santas they took part in within the blogging community I knew I wanted to take part this year. The Secret Santa is such a fun way for bloggers to come together, share blogs, bond and swap beauty products. The Secret Santa which I took part in was organised by Georgina at Makeup-Pixi3 and Laura at A Day In The Life Of A Scottish Lass both have amazing blogs which I recommend you should check out!

The spending limit for the Secret Santa which we agreed on was £15, I was put with the lovely Bex from Futures and it has been great to chat to her and go out buying gifts which I thought she might like. I also loved the parcel which she sent me as it contained one of my most favourite brands ever.. MUA!

Bex got me right down to a tee! I loved the cute box which it all arrived in, very festive! I've been meaning to try the MUA Lip Booms and BB Cream for ages and just haven't gotten around to it, so these are perfect! I also love Barry M lipsticks but haven't one in red yet. I love how Bex is sticking to the tradition red theme of Christmas, but you can also never go wrong with a classic red lip! I love the No7 Beautiful Skin Night Cream which I have had in the past and you can read my review here. Bex also sent me Superdrugs Vitamin E Gentle Eye Make Up Remover. I'm big on skin care and can't wait to try this properly, I wonder if it beats my all time favourite Simple Eye Make Up Remover?!? Finally, it really isn't Christmas without these.. Chocolate Coins, which really didn't last long at all!

Bex has been brilliant and has gotten me some lovely products. I'm definitely going to do another Secret Santa in 2013, and maybe I'll even try some international swaps. So keep your eyes peeled to see that happens in 2013!