I’ve heard a lot about By Terry over the past couple of years, but hadn’t actually tried anything – mainly as I was put off by the pricing of the products. This isn’t a range you’re going to see in Superdrug any time soon. However, listening to Terry talk about the science and groundbreaking technologies behind her products, I was rapidly sucked in. I’m hankering after a number of the face products now, as well as the amazing shimmery waterproof eyeshadows.

One product I was lucky enough to receive at the event was this, the Aqualip Jelly Tint. When Terry demonstrated it, I was immediately nervous about the colour of it. This looks fluorescent orange in the tube, and hot pink on the applicator. Eek! Considering I bought the most nude and natural shade of the Revlon lip butters, I had pretty much written off this as being too bright for me. However, once on the lip, it settles down to a very pretty pink – nowhere near the scary neon shade it appears in the tube. I only use a wash of one coat, but I know other people have been building it up with a few more.

OK, so its a pink lipgloss, so what, right? Well. it’s not actually a gloss – this is more of a stain. It isnt sticky or shiny or shimmery – it goes on smoothly and almost like a temporary tattoo for the lips. As such, it doesn’t really have any moisturising properties so you do need a good hit of lipbalm first, but it is far from drying. I did find though that if I applied balm over the top, it had more of a shine and its staying power was reduced. Sorry for the slightly blurry Instagram pic above but it was the best one I had to show the colour in its true light.

Used alone, this lasts on me for a good four or five hours. It stains the lips rather than make you feel like you’re wearing any product at all, which is brilliant for me as part of the reason that I shy away from wearing lipstick is that I hate the blubbery, greasy feeling of wearing something on my mouth. This is literally like you have nothing on at all. Brilliant.

It costs £22. I know that’s a lot of money but I would not hesitate to pay this again when it runs out. I don’t actually think it is going to run out for a while anyway as I only use the tiniest amount and it lasts for hours, so it’s a worthwhile investment. How many times do you spend £7+ on a lipgloss that you have to apply every ten minutes, only for it to go gungy and get lost at the bottom of your make-up bag?

Just what I need, another high-end make-up obsession. Still, friends and family, you know what to get me for Christmas now…

To find out more about By Terry and the range of products, click here. They are available exclusively to Space NK in the UK.

*PR sample*

Last year, Helen met the brains and beauty behind Rococo Nail Apparel, sisters Ange and Vernice Walker.  A couple of weeks ago at a very special evening hosted by Space NK, we met the ladies ahead of some fabulous product launches for the summer including some new colours and a trio of shades (red, blue and white) for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations.  As the big day is next month, you can really notice the buzz as London is draped in flags.

Any hoo, I was given V.I.P, one of the nail polishes from Rococo’s Rock & Royal collection to try which also happened to be my first time at getting better acquainted with Rococo.  The set comprises of three signature shades – Lab Nude 1.0, V.I.P and City Slick (a stunning metallic blue)  - the patriotic colours for the Jubilee celebrations, and I guess also, ties in with the Olympics in London.

V.I.P is a rich, creme red that layers on beautifully and leaves a smooth finish.  I’ve worn at least three times in two weeks and normally I steer clear of red on nails (not on lips, mind!) but find this one isn’t too terrifying.  It’s not a tomatoey red, but quite like a double decker bus red colour, which is slightly dark.  I’ve managed to convince myself red nails is not for me and have avoided until recently but this one kind of works.

Wear, however, I discovered was OK.  It dries really fast but I had some minor chipping after a day, which is a bit of a nuisance.  I have spotted some other shades I’d like to try though and will venture to Space NK next month because this month, the credit card has taken a battering!

Priced at £24, the Rock & Royal set launches in Space NK shops this month, which is very good value as individually they would set you back £12 each.

Rococo Nail Apparel is available in all Space NK stores as well as Space NK online.

*PR sample*

Another themed box, this one is the Natural Beauty edition. Now, I don’t really understand “natural” beauty. All these things that aspire to being “chemical free” or “100% organic” or just “derived from natural ingredients”. It all seems like marketing cobblers to me. But let’s put my cynicism aside for a sec and see what we have here (clockwise from L-R):

Caudalie Vinosource SOS Thirst Quenching Serum. Vinosource? Thirst quenching? Sounds like the average Friday night beverage rather than a moisturising serum for your face. My first experience of Caudalie although I have heard Good Things from other bloggers.

Inika Eyeliner. Funnily enough I’d never heard of Inika until I receoved this box but then only yesterday I saw a big stand full of the range at the newly revamped John Lewis Oxford Street beauty hall. It costs £11.75 which is a lot of money, although it is “certified organic”. It’s a nice black smudgy kohl although I’m still having a massive love-in with my Nars Longwear liners so it would have to go some to compete with those.

Figs & Rouge lip balm. This was the star of the box for me. A lovely creamy lipbalm that goes on easily and smells delicious, although not overly perfumed. It is 100% pure, natural and organic (can someone pleeeeeeease tell me what this means) and at only £3.29 for 8ml, I would definitely buy it again. I just wish it came in a stick form as I find the tins of lip balm to be a bit tedious and unsanitary.

Monu Moisture Rich Collagen Cream. I used this for a few days after receiving it and found that it was too rich for my psoriasis-ridden skin and was giving me pimples around my nose and lips. I’ve since been using it as a hand cream, with better results. I wouldn’t pay £17.50 for a full sized version though, despite my husband approving of the smell – “like hot cross buns” apparently.

Burt’s Bees Naturally Nourishing Milk & Honey Body Lotion. There was something in this that made my skin howl in agony so it went straight into the giveaway pile. I really need to isolate whatever ingredient it is and stay away from products that contain it. Natural it might be, but there was something my skin didn’t like. A shame, as Burt’s Bees lipbalms are lovely.

So, there we go, the Natural Box. I really enjoyed playing with the contents of this one, which is unusual as skincare doesn’t generally interest me but there were some lovely things in this box and I am really looking forward to seeing the next one.

For more information and to subscribe to Glossybox, you can sign up here!

*PR sample*

Well, this is an ancient photo. My nails are a fair bit shorter these days. As is this review, for I have said it a million bajillion squillion times before – these polishes are fantastic.

You can buy three for £5. OK, so apart from the lime green, the colours are all very work-safe but that is no bad thing. I use these all the time for layering as they dry fast and last a good 3 days or so before looking tired. I own the entire range, which set me back less than the cost of one Chanel nail varnish.

This is two coats of lovely smooth creme goodness. Perfect application, no bubbles, no dramas.

Still here?

What are you waiting for? Off to Superdrug with you.

It’s Hard To Find time! Here we have a lesser known OPI, called Dominant Jeans. For some reason I had an insane lemming for this, for the best part of a year, until it finally rocked up on someone’s blog sale. Plenty of bloggers told me that I didn’t really need this, as it was generally a bit rubbish, but like someone who thinks they know better, I held out and didn’t listen to them.

I really should have listened as, well, it is a bit rubbish. This is the sheerest, wateriest formula known to man. You see it here layered over a basic blue creme (Models Own Beth’s Blue, I think) as there was no way that it was going to build up to anything without just turning into a gungy mess. And there’s something a bit Silent Witness about having sheer, jellyish blue nails (in my mind anyway).

This is from OPI’s Brights collection of a few years ago. As you can tell, it is bright   – when layered anyway – and it also has some barely undetectable microshimmer that leans pink and/or green depending on the light.

It’s very pretty but in all honesty, if these types of shimmery blues are your thing, you’d be better off scoring a bottle of Color Club Pure Energy as it’s brighter, more opaque, and a darn sight cheaper.

What do you think?

I haven’t heard a lot about GOSH recently. Perhaps because I have moved slightly further out of town and so I don’t spend every Saturday prowling the aisles of Superdrug like I used to – these days it is a little bit more of an effort to pop down to the high street so I only tend to go once every few weeks now.

So aside from reading blogs, I haven’t seen any new GOSH colours for quite some time now. Have there been any?  Either way, I’ve got an older one here for you today. I’m not sure if Black Passion was a limited edition shade – can anyone confirm? I’m not usually this vague but it’s 8am on a Monday morning and I haven’t quite woken up yet.

Black Passion is a jellyish polish that, as you can see, is a black base that has silver veining and shimmer running through it. It’s more or less a dead dupe for Chanel Noir Ceramic that came out a few years ago, which I absolutely adored. I still have a very old and gungy bottle of Noir Ceramic somewhere, which I might dig out as I have the urge to swatch all my Chanel polishes for the blog.

Anyway, this is about GOSH, not Chanel. This is a nice polish. Perhaps a little too jellyish for my taste as it did take awhile to dry, but nothing that a good dollop of quickdrying topcoat couldn’t handle. It’s nice, wintery but nice. I do like the fact that the black didn’t engulf the silver shimmer as can often happen with these types of colours.

So what do you think? Do you like this one? And have I missed out on anything exciting from GOSH lately?

Ever the intrepid explorer, I set to trying these products out.

The pencils come in six different shades, and are formulated for sensitive eyes, like the rest of the brand’s products.

At £6.75 each, they are reasonably priced and I really do like the colour range. They take some warming up before putting them on the water line, but they showed up well and lasted nicely throughout the day.

Here I am wearing the Violet pencil, which goes nicely with whatever makeup I was wearing that day – I can’t remember but it looks a bit like Nars Lulu. At a guess.

Any way, they smudge nicely (once warm) and I really like the lighter and more vibrant shades – I think that the light green is particularly interesting.

I was also sent a little palette of eyeshadows to test out. Packaged in a magnetic case, this is a nice little item to take away for a weekend as much like a Z Palette, you can add in other pans should you wish to. The palette itself is made from a laminated cardboard that probably wouldn’t be that durable if you dropped it in the bath or something, but is a nice alternative to all of the plastic packaging you see everywhere these days.

The eyeshadows (which cost £7.45 each) are supposedly formulated for those with sensitive eyes, and contain Talc, Titanium Dioxide, Zinc Stearate, Magnesium Carbonate, Kaolin, Methylparaben, Orgasol, Paraffinum Liquidum, Pigments. Personally I try and steer clear of parabens and paraffin based products but I know it’s not always possible.

I found these eyeshadows a lot more difficult to deal with than the pencils. They are super hard and really not very pigmented. The look you see above took me a good ten minutes to achieve and I ended up scraping the surface of the shadows to try and pick up some powder as they were sealed so tightly that just sweeping the brush over them was doing nothing.

I also attempted to try and use them wet but this was a fail as all it managed to do was seal the shadows even tighter. It’s a shame really as I like the colours and the ethos of the brand, but in all honesty, I can’t recommend the palette, even for those of you that prefer a lighter make-up look. Not at £7.45 per pan. However, the pencils are definitely worth a look as the colours are interesting and they have some good staying power.

For more information about Queen Cosmetics, please click here.

*PR samples*

Photo: John Lewis

Costing over £7 million to revamp and a whopping 18,000 square feet of retail space, if heaven is all bright white lights and pretty things then this must be it. I defy you not to be marvelled by what welcomes you the moment you enter the double glass doors of the store’s entrance.

Designer gpstudio has carefully planned the concept of this breath-taking haven with precision and style and created an ambiance that soothes and relaxes customers.  It’s a complete turn-around from other beauty halls, which are usually very daunting and sometimes claustrophobic.  John Lewis’s epic beauty hall was completed in seven phases, with the final unveiling only yesterday.

Photo: John Lewis

Based on the idea of a Town Square, the premium cosmetic brands are positioned like ‘houses’ around a central area focused on fragrance and niche assortments such as haircare, skincare and nails.   It is a pleasure to stroll through and take in the sights, sounds and scents.  I think this was the first time I could stop and look around in without other shoppers pushing past or shoving me out of the way.

Photo: John Lewis

Major international names are neighbours with niche brands and some highly prestigious names. It’s wall-to-wall beauty with something for everyone.

You can make a bee-line straight for Creed, Tom Ford or Diptyque or drool over favourites Chanel, Nars, YSL and Dior. Both Lancome and Guerlain have treatment rooms but there is also room for firm favourites L’Oreal, Carmex, Neal’s Yard, Ojon, Origins, Elemis, Liz Earle, Clarins and Clinique (to name but a few).

John Lewis has also secured concessions with Burberry (the first one outside of Harvey Nichols), Top Shop (the only place other than Top Shop itself to stock their make-up range) and the jewel in the crown (in my humble opinion), a Jo Malone concession that blasts other JM concessions out of the water.

Photo: John Lewis

Photo: John Lewis

Photo: John Lewis

You also can’t miss the incredible OPI glass cabinet housing hundreds of OPIs (can we have one commissioned for Helen, please?) surrounded by Nails Inc, Jessica and Leighton Denny delights.

Even gadgets have been incorporated (such as electric toothbrushes, haircare electrical goods, hair removal and magnifying mirrors) so all your beauty needs are covered.

It’s the ultimate beauty experience and the ultimate beauty hall. Mind you, I couldn’t leave without actually experiencing it properly, now could I? So I picked up YSL lip stain and then had the pleasure of spending an hour or so in the company of Stephanie at Jo Malone. The purse is a bit lighter (as is my head) but John Lewis’s new beauty hall is amazing. There. I’ve made my point.  Now go and see it for yourself.

*This is a re-posting of an old blog post from June 2009 with an updated photo. I didn’t bother updating the review as it made me giggle. I do ramble on, don’t I?*

All day I have been humming “The Leader of The Pack” (vroom, vroom) to myself because of the name of this polish!

I didn’t need it. It’s not really that different to OPI’s Sheer Your Toys (which I MUST write about) or Give Me The Moon. Harley doesn’t have the copper flecks of Sheer Your Toys, or the green sheen of Give Me The Moon but I still love it. I cannot resist a grey, plus I’ve been meaning to try Zoya for ages.

Application wasn’t bad at all. This is three coats, which were needed to eliminate visible nail lines and to generally even it out. I always manage to balls-up the last nail I paint as the polish tends to gunge a bit by then, even if I work fast.

I loved the brush. Can you believe I had zero clean-up?? That never happens. Brilliant!

And here’s the close-up. It’s amazing. Flecked with silver and gold but still managing to be the perfect cool grey from a distance. What’s not to love??

All in all, a very happy first Zoya experience. Can’t wait to try the rest.

Now, on a side note. I’m not often wrong, misinformed or make errors. Sickening I know. But true (I wouldn’t tell you otherwise, would I?) You may remember a while back I was having a little whinge here about the omnipresent Myleene Klass. And the fact that she is gunning for global domination. Well, imagine my surprise (or lack of) when she rocked up on the American version of I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here. As a presenter. So now my new buddies from across the ocean can see for themselves what I’m on about. Your boyfriends/husbands/dads will love her. You won’t.

But yet I’m hooked already. Who are those idiots from The Hills? (never seen it). And Janice Dickinson AGAIN…she came top three in the UK version last year. And the obligatory Baldwin brother, you know, the one that isn’t in rehab or screaming at his daughter. Eating tarantulas and fending off rats. Compulsive viewing, I tell you!

I am having an absolutely mega love-in with coral polishes at the moment. As I write this (end of April) we are having the worst bout of rain that we have had in a long while… drought shmout… and I am cheering myself up by wearing hot and vibrant shades like this. It’s hard to believe that this time last year it was about 28c and we were entertaining ourselves with Royal Wedding street parties.

Barry M’s (imaginatively named) Coral is a stunner of a shade. It leans to the peach side of coral and is a good complement to the rest of my coral collection  – my favourites being OPI’s Shoot Out At The OK Coral, I Eat Mainely Lobster and Illamasqua Lament.

My only complaint about this one is that it has a jellyish formula and as such, I struggle to get it as opaque as I would like. I find I have to layer it over a nude base in order to eliminate that omnipresent visible nail line of mine.

Still, for £2.99 I am happy to layer this one as it’s a perfect summer shade. Now, if only we could do something about the weather to go with it!