I love browsing through the my-wardrobe.com sales, often the goodies are still fairly pricey, but the discounts are huge and last year I nabbed a gorgeous pair of Vivienne Westwood flats, so it’s always worth taking a peek.

Here are my five favourite things from the current my-wardrobe sale…

My-wardrobe sale

1. Bruuns Bazaar – Giselle Linen Rayon Melange Top
   $115.50 Was $165.00 (30% off)
2. Sophie Hulme – Metal Tab Document Clutch Bag
   $423.51 Was $605.01 (30% off)
3. Sara Berman – Exclusive Skinny Leather Trousers
   $219.99 Was $314.87 (30% off)
4. Marc by Marc Jacobs – Fluoro Orange Haute Mess Rubber Turnlock Bracelet
   $33.00 Was $48.13 (30% off)
5. Carven – Floral Print Loafers
   $219.99 Was $440.01 (50% off)

I’ve been on the search for a good primer as my skin has changed over the last few years – I’m not the spring chicken I once was and I don’t just want to keep slapping on more heavy foundation to brighten up my tired skin. I need my tried and tested foundation to stay on throughout the day, without drying out and for my skin to be brightened up and smoothed out a bit.

So I have been using Benefit That Gal primer for the last couple of months, and I have to say I really like it. It’s really smooth and light to apply, only needing a small amount applied with fingers to cover my face. Like all Benefit products, the packaging is lovely as is the smell – the primer has raspberry and camomile in the ingredients, helping to sooth skin.

It can be worn alone to give your skin a bit of a glow, or under make up. It has given my complexion the lift it needs and when it comes to 3pm in the afternoon on a busy day at my desk at work, I no longer feel like I need to totally reapply my make up!

Benefit That Gal primer

That Gal primer can be bought from Benefit in store or online.

I’ve got a fabulous bright summery shade to show you today - Urban Outfitters Pom Pom.

This is a bright almost neon pink shade with almost a matte sheen finish. This colour definitely brightens up my nails – on my fingers and toes to make my skin look less pale! These polishes dry really quickly, so a good one for a speedy mani/pedi.

Urban Outfitters Pom Pom manicure

I put a clear top coat on my pedi to give it a shinier finish.

Urban Outfitters Pom Pom pedicure

Urban Outfitters nail polishes are on offer at the moment for 2 for £10, making them a steal!

Nails Inc recently ran their annual lucky dip on their website – where this year for just £18, you received a randomly selected 7 full size nail polishes. As they usually retail for around £11 each, I jumped at this offer!

Unfortunately this limited time offer has now expired, but as they have many promotions throughout the year, it’s worth signing up to their emails from their website to be kept informed! I was quite pleased with at least half of my randomly selected lucky dip selection so I thought I’d share some of the fab Nails Inc shades with you.

First up is a lovely matte shade – Nails Inc Gatwick. This is a bright red shade, that just requires 2 coats for great coverage and dries with a great chalky matte finish.

Nails Inc matte Gatwick nail polish

Secondly I’ve got Nails Inc Richmond Terrace – a deliciously dark plum shade, from the recent Autumn/Winter collection.

Nails Inc Richmond Terrace nail polish

Finally I’ve got Chester Street – a grey nude shade with a pearly finish…

Nails Inc Chester Street nail polish

Nails Inc polishes can be bought online.

Recently I tried out all 8 of the L’Oreal Shine Caresse lip gloss collection, beautiful highly pigmented, long-lasting, super-shiny glosses and here are all the pics!

L’Oreal Shine Caresse Lip gloss

You can layer these glosses really well to get an amazing depth of colour. Just check out Juliet and Milady – fabulous!

1. 501 Bonnie lip gloss
2. 200 Princess lip gloss
3. 300 Juliet lip gloss
4. 402 Milady lip gloss

L’Oreal Shine Caresse Lip gloss

The next set of four Shine Caresse glosses are the more neutral colours in the range.

L’Oreal Shine Caresse Lip gloss

1. 101 Lolita lip gloss
2. 102 Romy lip gloss
3. 400 Eve lip gloss
4. 103 Marilyn lip gloss

L’Oreal Shine Caresse Lip gloss

102 Romy is the perfect nude gloss for me – just the right amount of pink to not wash me out and 103 Marilyn is fast becoming a favourite as well!

I’m really impressed with these glosses. The colours are gorgeous and deep and I’ve never used a gloss where the shine was so long lasting!

OPI recently announced their upcoming autumn/winter 2013 collection – OPI San Francisco.

The range brings chic street style with West Coast flair – with a palette ranging from moody greys and blues to ruby jewel tones all inspired by the city’s most iconic elements. There’s 12 fab looking new shades, plus 3 Liquid Sand colours. I’ve got my eye on a few, can’t wait for these to be launched!

OPI San Francisco Collection

The first 6 shades (L-R) are:

• A-piers to be Tan
• Dining al Friso
• Haven’t the Foggiest
• Peace & Love & OPI
• Keeping Suzi at Bay
• Incognito in Sausalito

OPI San Francisco Collection

The other 6 shades (L-R) are:

• First date at the Golden Gate
• I knead Sour Dough
• Muir Muir on the Wall
• In the Cable Car Pool
• Embarca-Dare Ya!
• Lost on Lombard

OPI San Francisco Collection Liquid Sand

This collection also has 3 Liquid Sand colours in this range are (L-R):

• It’s all San Andrea’s Fault
• Wharf! Wharf! Wharf!
• Alcatraz…Rocks

The OPI San Francisco range is coming soon – and will be available in the UK at Lena White.

A wee while ago I posted about the new OPI Bond Girls nail polish collection and today I have two from the collection to show you. All of the nail polishes in the Bond Girls collection have the OPI Liquid Sand finish – a matte glitter.

First up are OPI Honey Ryder nail polish swatches:

OPI Honey Ryder nail polish from the OPI Bond Girls nail polish collection

OPI Honey Ryder nail polish is a pretty antique gold colour with quite a bit of sparkle in for a matte finish.

OPI Honey Ryder nail polish from the OPI Bond Girls nail polish collection

You really do need just one or two coats of these Liquid Sand finish polishes to get a great level of coverage and depth of colour.

Next is OPI Jinx nail polish from the Bond Girls collection – this is such a gorgeous nail polish…

OPI Jinx nail polish from the OPI Bond Girls nail polish collection

Jinx is  a bright peachy orange nail polish with gold glitter accents – so swoon-worthy! I’ll be perfectly honest with you – until I tried Jinx nail polish I was really unsure about this Liquid Sand finish, so if you want to try one out, make it Jinx!

OPI Jinx nail polish from the OPI Bond Girls nail polish collection

I’m also really keen to try out the OPI Vesper nail polish from the collection – it’s a beautiful dark berry colour.

You can buy the OPI Bond Girls nail polish collection online from OPI UK

I don’t know about you, but my ghd hair straighters are a core part of my ‘take to a desert island’ list. My hair naturally has quite a wave and without a proper blowdry it goes quite frizzy. For me, ghd’s were a game changer! For many years now, my hair has been sleek and manageable without any of those bad hair freak out nightmares!

In more recent years, I’ve used my ghd styler to create not just sleek straight looks but also other styles – from curls to up do’s. Rather fittingly, ghd have recently launched a new section of their website to give inspiration for hairstyles. They’ve put together a fab collection with lots of different styles, with images and videos of different on-trend styles, special occasion looks and various celeb styles.

I’ve been tasked by ghd to create a hair how-to on one of these styles, using their ghd IV styler from their new limited edition candy collection. The candy styler comes in 3 fab bright shades – violet, lemon and mint.

ghd candy styler in violet

I’ve used my lovely cousin Leigh as a hair model as she’s got nice long locks – and mine has recently been bobbed! From ghd’s hair inspiration page, I’ve recreated this plaited up-do as seen on the gorgeous Charlize Theron.

And here’s the simple steps I used to recreate the up-do…

1. To maintain some of the volume at the roots, roughly blow dry the hair.

2. Run the hair straighter over the top layer of hair to ensure it is sleek when put up

3. Separate the hair into 3 equal sections at the back – any shorter layers at the front can be left out if they aren’t long enough to pull back

4. Plait each hair section and secure with a thin hair band, ideally the same colour as the hair

5. Decide which side of the head you will create the up-do on, then pull the furthest plait across the others and wrap underneath the other two. You can secure underneath with a hair pin or kirby grip. Wrap each of the other two plaits around the others – doesn’t have to be really neat, just so the 3 plaits are secure across each other with hair pins around the outside

6. Then hide the ends with the hair band underneath with hair pins.

7. With any shorter layers or side fringe at the front, run the straighters over to ensure they are sleek and secure these back with pins, giving the style a bit more texture.

8. Add some hairspray to keep it secure and you’re done!

I’ve kept the style quite loose to be a more relaxed up do, but you could easily make it slightly tighter or higher up like Charlize at her red carpet event!

To get your own hair inspiration from ghd, take a look at their hair inspirations section of the website.

GHD Candy styler gifted by GHD.

Today’s spring inspired nail art is a little spotty number!

I’ve used Rimmel Tangy Tangerine for the base, which is a lovely light orange shade. To make the spots stand out more, I’ve then used Rimmel’s Matte Finish top coat to give the polish a muted matte coat. Then I’ve used a shiny white nail art pen in white from Rio.

Rimmel Tangy Tangerine spotty manicure

Rimmel nail polish can be bought in store or online at Boots.

Today I’ve got a lovely coral shade from Maybelline’s new Color Show collection – Coral Craze.

This is a great spring shade and goes on well with just 2 coats for good coverage. I love a coral shade, and would be fab for a pedicure if the weather ever gets warm enough for flip flops!

Maybelline Coral Craze

Maybelline nail polish can be bought in store or online at Boots.