Products of the Month - May 2012

This is probably the most organised I've been with a monthly favourites video in AGES!

Products featured;
Moroccan Oil Intense Curl Cream,
Sleek i-Divine Palette in Au Naturel,
Maybelline Illegal Length Mascara, 
Topshop Nails in Waterlily, (not currently available on the Topshop site)
Angelica Nail Colour in Heartbreaker, (can't find this online so it must only be available from Primark)
Tokyo Milk candle in Let The Eat Cake,
Dove Summer Glow Moisturiser for Fair to Normal Skin,

NOTD - Pretty Pastels

I'm aware that this is another Topshop-centric post, but I couldn't not share these beauties with you. Milkshake and Waterlily are two of my absolute faves at the moment - perfectly pretty pastels that make me think of sugary sweet treats like sorbet, cupcakes and macaroons (macarons? I'm never sure...). I tend to go through colour phases with nail varnish; sometimes I'm all about the crazy brights, other times I'm into moody darks or neutrals. At the moment though, I'm love love loving pastels. Waterlily in particular, the palest lilac, is one of the rare colours in my collection that I'm quite happy to wear on my nails day in, day out. This never happens! I almost always get sick of a colour after a couple of days and venture back to my box of goodies to see what I can replace it with. Not so with this one though; I've worn it practically non-stop since I bought it two weeks ago.

Topshop Nails in Milkshake and Waterlily

In other nail news, my nail-obsessed friend Jenni and I ventured into Boots today to check out the Essie collection (we enable each other). It's a pretty impressive range; they really do have a lot of colours, although I felt that lots of them were quite samey - there were three dark reds that I couldn't actually tell the difference between, although they all had different names. Anyway, I restrained myself and just bought one colour, Peach Daquiri, which is a lovely bright corally pink. I realised however, when I got home that it is pretty much exactly the same colour as the Models Own Pro shade, Hot Salmon, doh! It has gotten to the point now that my nail varnish collection is so vast, I'm actually managing to forget what colours I already own. Ridiculous.

One more thing; if you're a blogger, I really recommend that you have a little look at this post from IFB. I read it last night and I'm feeling very inspired at the moment. I set up a Pinterest account a while ago but haven't really used it, but after reading that post, I've decided to make more use of it and pin some of my blog pics on there (hence the shiny new watermarks). If you're on Pinterest, follow me!

A small but passionate love affair with Topshop makeup

I think it's safe to say that I've raved about Topshop's makeup range on my blog a fair bit. While I don't own loads of the products, I've got a few items from each product type (nail varnish, lipstick etc) and I pretty much love them all.

I don't often do these kinds of posts, because, as you know, I'm embarrassingly crap when it comes to taking product photos and it ends up taking me forever just to get a few useable snaps. However, the products are all so pretty and I really wanted to share my collection so I bit the bullet and, armed with my camera, plenty of natural light and a floral duvet cover (these seem to be the requirements for successful product photos), I got snap happy...

From left to right: Stolen Sapphires, Milkshake, Mannequin, Grunge

Every time I go into Topshop and drool over the makeup stand, I get a bit overwhelmed by the sheer number of nail colours. They're so beautious! As you can see, I've only got a handful (I've actually got five, but Waterlily isn't pictured here as I'd left it at Joe's) but I fully intend to change that. The consistency of these polishes is fab, they're lovely and creamy and I love the colour pay off you get from them. Milkshake and Mannequin are two of my faves, as I'm really enjoying pastels and pale colours at the moment. I bought Stolen Sapphires ages ago and I do like the colour - it reminds me of blue biro - but I just don't wear it very often (along with about 90% of the other colours in my nail varnish box...). Grunge is probably the only one I'm not a big fan of; it looks gorgeous in the bottle, a sort of shimmery khaki-gold, but one coat of it is too thin and two coats of it make it too dark and the shimmer doesn't show up very well, so I don't really bother with it. It was a part of the Heavy Duty collection, which I've just realised came out in 2010 (that was ages ago!) so you wouldn't be able to get your hands on it now anyway, but to be honest, you're not missing much.

Blush in Pop (powder) and Neon Rose (cream)

The blushes have been one of the standout products since the collection launched in 2010, and with good reason. The cream blushes in particular have been a big hit, with bloggers raving about Neon Rose and Flush, which I also had, but used it all up and decided to give Neon Rose a go instead. I think I actually prefer Flush as it's a little paler and a little pinker, but Neon Rose is also lovely. Pop is  a very similar shade, but in powder form, so occasionally I layer the two to make my blush last even longer. Both are incredibly pigmented and blend really well, so you only need to use a little bit, which means they'll last for ages.

Left to right: Lips in Whimsical, Brighton Rock, Vamp and Confession, Lipstick in Flame

I've only recently really gotten into the lip products as I wasn't much of a lipstick wearer until this year. Whimsical is the newest addition to my collection; it photographed a bit more nude than it actually is; it's more of a pale pinky coral in real life, with a matte finish. All of the lipsticks are really pigmented and apply beautifully. Unlike other lipsticks I've tried, these are a lot less drying on the lips and while others tend to go a bit patchy as the day wears on, these just fade really nicely, making touching up your lipstick a lot easier. Confession, the lovely bright coral is one that I reach for a lot (you know I love my coral shades!) but Brighton Rock is also a great one for Summer.

Eyes in Mercury

The eyeshadow is probably the only makeup product I've been seriously unimpressed with. I bought this as I thought it'd be a good one to use for evening makeup but the colour pay off isn't great and it doesn't blend as easily as other shadows I've used so I've probably only used it once or twice. Disappointing! Maybe it's just this colour though? Has anybody else tried the eyeshadows and had a better experience than me?

Crayon in Sun Shower

While the eyeshadow isn't very good, the eye Crayon is absolutely brilliant! This was actually the first product I bought when Topshop Makeup first launched and I've still got a bit left even though this is something I've used time and time again. The pigmentation is amazing, it's super sparkly and you can either draw it straight onto the eye to get a really intense gold colour, or blend it out for a more subtle look. This was part of the 2010 Trend collection, so it's no longer available, but last time I was in the store I saw that they're doing Crayons in the normal black and white packaging and I'm sure there's one similar to this. Wahey!

So that's my collection - not small but not quite as massive as I'd like - believe me, I'd buy a lot more if I could justify it to myself. (which I most definitely can't!)

Do you use Topshop Makeup? What are your favourite products?

POTM - January & February

It's video time! (My hair looks really weird in this, I think I'd blow dried it but not straightened it yet, which is why it's so fluffy...)

I just love buying stuff.

Oh... hello!

Yes, I know it's been a while, over a month to be exact, which is never an acceptable amount of time to be away from blogging for, but I'm back now so you can stop panicking.

I've been in my new job for about six weeks now; it's crazy how quickly the time goes - I feel like one minute I'm waking up, sleepy and bleary eyed on a Monday morning thinking "and another week begins..." and the next minute it's 5pm on a Friday afternoon and everyone's going "bye, have a nice weekend!" Madness. It's knackering though, which is one of the reasons why I've not posted anything in a while; by the time I get all the way back home from Chester, I can just about manage to string sentences together, never mind start writing a blog post. Fortunately, I'm starting to get used to it now, so hopefully blogging will start to be a bit more frequent again. I've already get a Youtube video filmed, I just need to upload it, which I'll try and do this weekend too.

Anyway, last Saturday was the first time in about three weeks where I had absolutely nothing to do and nowhere to be, so I took a little trip into town to buy my Mum her Mother's Day present and while I was there I got a bit overexcited and bought myself a few treats...

Topshop Blush in Neon Rose, Topshop Lips in Brighton Rock, Benefit Tan About Town, Oilatum Natural Repair Face Cream*, Real Techniques by Samantha Chapman Core Collection

Proof that I'm still a bit amateur when it comes to this beauty blogging/photographing products malarkey; by the time I'd realised that I should take some photos for a haul post, I'd already taken everythig out of the boxes and tried them all out. Proper beauty bloggers wouldn't dream of doing something so gauche - your products have to be pristine and untouched when you photograph them! Sadly, I don't have that kind of self-restraint - I didn't even wait until I got home from town, I'd already started playing with them on the bus!

I think by now it's safe to say that I have something of an obsession for Topshop makeup. I may even like it more than the clothes, which are obviously lovely but just so frikkin' overpriced I could cry. The makeup, on the other hand, is beautious and very reasonably priced. I was so pleased to see that the Liverpool Topshop was stocking the cream blushes again; for a while I thought they'd been discontinued, and I'd never be able to get my hands on my beloved Flush ever again. They're back now though and since I've still got a tiny bit of Flush left (saved for special occasions only), I thought I'd give Neon Rose a try. I've been wearing it all week and I do like it, but still think I prefer Flush, which has a little less red in it. I also bought a lipstick in Brighton Rock, which is a lovely bright, slightly blue-toned pink. I'm slowly developing a bit of an obsession for the Topshop lipsticks - the colour range is always really on-trend, they're super pigmented, and not at all drying on the lips. I. Love. Them.

This was something of an impulse buy as it was cheekily placed right next to the queue for the tills in Boots. I never, ever buy Benefit makeup because, although I think the products are really gorgeous, I can never justify the price tag. This set, however, was just £9. NINE POUNDS! Obviously they're all minis, but still, three really good products for £9 is pretty bargainous I'd say. I knew I'd use the Hoola bronzer and the Bad Gal Lash mascara (which is one of the best mascaras I've used in ages, it has to be said) but I wasn't too bothered about Some Kind-a Gorgeous, which is a foundation, because I only use foundation quite rarely anyway and I didn't think the colour would match my skin tone. I've actually been really impressed by it though and have worn it every day this week. It gives my skin a nice dewy look and blends really well, especially when applied with...

My new Real Techniques brushes!!! (Again, you can see by the slightly stained bristles that I'd already had a play with them before taking the photo) As soon as I found out that these were being stocked in Boots I was ridiculously excited. I've been wanting the Core Collection ever since it was first released, but with the brushes only being available online, I just never got around to buying them. Now though, I've got no excuse as the entire range is available in Boots and I've got a feeling it won't be long before I've added the eye brushes to my collection. I only really wanted the Buffing Brush (the biggest one), but it's not available to buy on its own, so I obviously had to get the whole set instead. The other brushes are lovely too and really do make such a difference to the way I apply my makeup. I'm sure these will be making an appearance in my next Products of the Month video so I'll talk about them more in depth then.

So that's my little haul done and dusted. I doubt I'll be doing another one for a while because, along with a few other bits and pieces I picked up that day, I ended up spending a stupid amount of money. Joe and I will be moving into a new house in the next few months and, obviously, have quite a lot to buy, so no more frivolous spending on makeup for me, no no no!

Have you used any of the products above? What did you think? Go on, tell me!

*I didn't bother mentioning the Oilatum as I've talked about it tonnes of times before and it's not as interested as pretty makeup and brushes!

Products of the Month - September

Gosh I'm such a video-er lately! I'm really enjoying making vlogs at the moment (hope you enjoy watching them!). If you've noticed that this video is a much better quality than the last couple I've uploaded, it's because I have an HD video camera, and when I upload to Youtube it takes HOURS. So I've been experimenting with reducing the size to make the uploads faster, but obviously that means the quality is reduced too, boo. So I didn't bother with this one (it took about five hours to upload though - does anyone else have this issue?!)

Also, after all the trouble I went to attempting to keep my videos under fifteen minutes long, or editing them if they went over, Youtube have now informed me that I'm allowed to upload vids that are longer than fifteen minutes! Oh Youtube, you are a wiley devil. I'll probably still try and keep them below fifteen, because any longer than that and it gets a bit boring, but at least now I won't have to worry about my horrendous editing skills!

Products featured;

Models Own Pink Punch

Models Own Bronzing Powder in Sun Goddess

Models Own Eyelash Curler

No7 Eyeshadow Blend and Contour Brush

Bobbi Brown Corrector in Light Bisque

Bobbi Brown Creamy Concealer in Warm Ivory

Topshop Powder Blush in Pop

Products of the Month - July

Finally, finally uploaded this video to Youtube. I really enjoy vlogging but it is SUCH a faff at times! I actually filmed this right at the beginning of August but when I uploaded it to Youtube it was removed straight away for being too long (by a minute and a half grrr!) - why can't I upload videos that are longer than 15 minutes but other people can??? Anyway, I decided to have a go at editing it down, rather than filming it again so I downloaded some video editing stuff and then spent about five hours editing (would have been so much quicker to just film the video again...) Anyway, here it is, in all its glory... well actually, it's just the first part, I've still to film a second part because I've got loads of lovely products to talk about.

I've never edited a video before so if it's a bit jumpy in places, that'll be why - hopefully it's something I'll get better at...actually hopefully it's something I just won't have to do again because it took far too long.

Products featured;

Topshop Skin Glow in Light
Veet Hair Minimising Body Moisturiser
VO5 Miracle Concentrate
Sanctuary Polishing Hot Cloth Cleanser
Barry M Nail Effects in Pink Fizz

I hope everyone's had a lovely weekend, I've been mainly chilling today, had some time to catch up on returning blog comments and read some blogs, which is nice. As I mentioned in my last post, I went to the Jacques Townhouse yesterday and had such a good laugh, I wish I could have stayed there all evening. I'll do a full blog post about it soon, but if anyone is in/around Liverpool over the next few days, I'd really, really recommend going - you can register for tickets here.

Je voudrais s'il vous plaît - Makeup

[Don't forget to enter my giveaway here to win the Sleek Paraguaya Palette and some secret goodies!]

Clockwise from top left - Sleek True Colour Lipsticks in Papaya Punch and Coral Reef, Topshop Nails in Zenith, Barry M Nail Paints in Peach Melba and Blue Lagoon, Topshop Lipstick in Rapturous, Maybelline Eye Drama Gel Liner, Topshop Cheek Duo in Desert Sun

I mentioned back in April that I had been spending far too much money on unnecessary makeup purchases and had decided to go on a spending ban. It's been nearly two whole months now and I can honestly say, that apart from my Sleek sale items, I haven't bought any new makeup at all. It's killing me. Sadly though, I'm not even close to running out of anything, so the ban looks set to continue for the foreseeable future. Yuck. Such self-restraint is made even more difficult when there happens to be absolutely loads of gorgeous products out at the moment. Not only have Sleek released the new True Colour Lipsticks, but Barry M has brought out two pretty new colours (Peach Melba and Blue Moon) and don't even get me started on the Topshop Sandstorm Collection. I'm in physical pain here, guys.

Ow!

Bought anything pretty lately? Please tell me about it! I need to live vicariously through your makeup purchases!

This is a scheduled post as I'm currently in Lanzarote. La la la!

Marvellous marbling

Colours used - Barry M Nail Paint in Fuchsia and Bright Purple, Models Own Pink Blush, Topshop Stolen Sapphires

In my ongoing quest for crazy-amazing nail art, I decided to give water marbling a try. I'd been meaning to do it for ages, but it looked quite messy and time consuming so I kept putting it off. However, after MJ posted her amazing Topshop-inspired nails, I knew I had to give it a go, so after watching a couple of Youtube tutorials, I got to it.

I think the results look cool, (my favourite is the middle finger of my left hand - look how swirly it is!) but it really is quite a massive faff. There are absolutely loads of tutorials on Youtube, so if you do want to try this for yourself, I'd suggest checking those out, but basically, you take a bowl of water, drip some different colours of nail varnish into it, swirl them around with a toothpick (I actually used one of those mini umbrellas you put into cocktails because we didn't have any toothpicks...) then press your nail onto the surface of the water, so that the design sticks to it.

The most difficult thing about this method is that you have to work really quickly. The nail varnish dries on the surface of the water and forms a kind of film after about a minute, so you can only do one or two nails at a time, then you have to clear the water of any remaining varnish (using a toothpick/cocktail umbrella) and start over with more drops. Also, I found it really tricky to actually get the drops of nail varnish into the water - they just wouldn't drip! I ended up sort of waving the brush over the surface of the water to encourage a drop to fall from it, but in my panic and/or enthusiasm I managed to throw the brush onto my bed, thus resulting in a massive blue splodge on my bedcover. Doh!

Also, as you can imagine, it gets quite messy. You can't really avoid putting your finger into the water, so you end up having to do a lot of clean up afterwards with nail varnish remover. You can wrap sticky tape around your fingers as a guard, but I couldn't be bothered with that because I'm silly.

All in all, I really like the effect, especially because every nail looks different and unique, so I'd say it's definitely worth giving it a try, but only if you've got a lot of time, patience and tape on your hands.

Product review - Nail Rock nail wraps

It is safe to say that nails are the new black. (ok, it may not make complete sense, but it's still safe to say it)

With Chanel now in the habit of bringing out a couple of 'must-have' nail colours every season (hello Black Pearl), and brands such as Konad, Models Own and Barry M launching products to help you create quirky nail designs, it is now easier than ever to have on-trend, fabulous nails.

While there are plenty of nail salons out there, for me and many other folks, it's all about the DIY. When Gem posted her leopard print liquid eyeliner tutorial back in April, I think a lot of us suddenly realised that actually, while it might look complicated, nail art doesn't have to be that difficult to achieve. Fast forward a few months and every blogger under the sun has posted their own versions of leopard print nails, not to mention countless other amazing designs. DIY is definitely where it's at!

Enter Nail Rock wraps:

It was only a matter of time before someone came up with a way for people to Minx their nails DIY-style, and these are the first ones I've seen that do just that. They're £6.50 and were available from Topshop but I think they're sold out at the moment, however, you can also get them from ASOS. I actually posted about them in October and I've had a pack sitting in my cupboard for ages, but I kept telling myself that I had to wait until my nails grew to a reasonable length before I could actually use them. Sadly, being an ex-biter, my nails are fairly weak and tend to grow to a certain length before they just give up or snap or I accidentally bite them. Anyway, this weekend I decided that most of my nails were long to enough to justify me trying them, so I armed myself with a hairdryer, a cuticle stick and a whole bunch of patience and got to it.

This the 'studs' design. I really wanted the snakeskin ones, but they were sold out.

They come with fairly detailed instructions on the pack, but I thought I'd give do a kind of step by step tutorial, adding my two cents along the way.

1. Start by ensuring that there's no shine on the surface of your nail by using the 'smoothing' side of a nail buffer. (You can get a really good multi-sided nail buffer from Primark for about a £1). Easy.

2. Select a wrap from the sheet which most closely matches the size of your nail. There's a variety of different sizes and you can trim them if there isn't one suitable.

3. Place the wrap at one side of your nail, so that the edge lines up with the cuticle. It's much easier to start from one side of the nail and work across, rather than starting at the bottom of the nail and working up.

4. Apply heat to the wrap from your hairdryer (on a low setting). On the instructions it says for a few seconds, but I'd say do it for as long as you can bear. The wrap softens with the heat, and the softer it is, the easier it is to manipulate, so the more heat your apply the better. However, please don't take this to mean that your should burn yourself. That is not my intention. I don't want any hairdryer related injuries on my conscience. I just don't need that.

5. After applying heat, take the flat end of a wooden cuticle stick, and smooth the wrap onto the nail, going from one side to the other, ensuring there are no bumps and creases on the surface of the wrap. (if you do get a crease, apply more heat, lift the wrap off your nail and start over).

6. Rub the cuticle stick over the entire surface of the wrap, to ensure it is fully adhered to your nail. (you can apply more heat here if you want)

7. Trim most of excess wrap with nail scissors, leaving a couple of milimeters above your actual nail. File the remaining bit away, by filing your nails gently, in a downwards motion. This for me was the trickiest bit as you want to get the end of the wrap to line up smoothly with your actual nail. Just take your time with it and don't be too rough. I used a nail file from Boots that had different sizes of grit on it; use a really rough grit to remove most of the wrap, then a finer grit to neaten it all up at the end.

Voila, you're done! I just read back through those steps and realised it might be better to do a video tutorial to show exactly how to apply them. There could already be tutorials online, I've not looked, but if anyone would like to see one, let me know and I might just do it!

It may look like a lot of steps, but it's really not too difficult. You do need to be patient; it took me a least an hour, though I did take a break after doing the first hand as I was getting bored. As with anything like this, it would be easier if you had someone helping you, but it's certainly not impossible to do it on your own. The bits you've got to really be careful with are making sure there's no creases in the wrap as you smooth it onto your nail, and filing it all away neatly at the end. As you can see from the photo below, creases do happen, however this was my first try and after doing that one I got much better!

I've had the wraps on for a couple of days now and they've stayed on quite well; the corners are starting to lift on a few nails, but I'd be lying if I said I haven't picked at them a bit... I think I'm going to just wait and see how long I can leave them for before they start looking crap. I hope they last until the end of the week because I'm going out on Friday night, but we shall see...

IMO they're really cool and it's nice to have an intricate pattern on my nails for once, rather than my standard leopard print or stripes. I'd definitely be up for using them again and, having looked on ASOS I've noticed there's some other exciting new patterns available now which I'd love to try. For the price, they're definitely worth it, as you potentially get two applications out of a pack (there's 24 stickers of varying sizes).

Have you tried the Nail Rock wraps? What did you think? Are you into DIY nails or do you think nothing beats a professional manicure?

zig a zig ah

Although leopard print has been quite 'fashionable' for the last couple of years, it's really taken me some time to accept it as something I'd actually wear, as I've never quite been able to shake off the images of Mel B, lunging and flailing about in all her Girl Powered insanity, wearing a horrifying variety of lycra leopard catsuits, mini skirts and boob tubes...

Scary is an understatement.

I think most animal prints can quite easily fall into the trap of looking cheap and nasty, and for me, leopard print was especially something that I'd normally associate with naff, tacky clubwear and mutton-dressed-as-lamb-type women. Take, for instance, Bet Lynch from Coronation Street;

Please be aware, I'm not really old enough to actually remember when Bet Lynch was in Corrie, but she's someone I feel that we all, as Brits, should be aware of. Like the Queen. Or Ant and Dec.

Recently though, I've started to change my mind, and thanks to the abundance of leopard print that was on the Fall catwalks, I'm starting to see the joys of leopard. With designers such as Dolce & Gabbana, Gucci and Balmain all doing their take on the fierce fabric (alliteration is lovely, isn't it?), I've been persuaded to give leopard print another chance.

Dolce & Gabbana

Balmain, Gucci and Mulberry

With my new-found appreciation for leopard print fresh in my heart, I recently bought and wore a body con leopard dress from H&M on a night out. Clearly my apprehensions were completely unfounded because everywhere I looked, someone was wearing leopard print (either it is really trendy or I was right about it being tacky clubwear and I need to have a serious re-think about the bars and clubs that I go to). At one point, I was in the loos and every single girl around me had on a leopard print dress/top/skirt. It was like something from The Jungle Book. But sexier.

It's no surprise really that everyone is wearing leopard print, because all the high street stores are awash with it. Remember how I thought that maybe the reason why camel coats are so popular this season is because The Big Trendy Haberdashery has got a really good deal on camel wool? Well I think their leopard fabric must have just gone into the 50% section. Seriously, just type "leopard" into the search bar on Topshop, ASOS etc and a ridiculous amount of leopard print stuff appears.

I've picked out some of my favourite leopard print bits and pieces that are in stores at the moment. I think what's great about leopard print is that it's actually very versatile. It might seem a bit loud and 'out there' at first, but because the colours are neutrals, it actually goes with most things. So even if you're not too keen on going for all-out leopardy madness, you can just throw on a pair of leopard pumps or a belt and still be on trend.

Leopard Print Moccasin, £39.99 Zara

Leopard Vintage Faux Fur Coat, £98 Topshop

Seriously considering getting a leopard coat for my winter coat. I'm so over camel. A leopard would kill a camel. Just putting that out there.

Leopard Print Jersey Pencil Skirt, £24 ASOS

Truly Madly Deeply Animal Cross Tee, £28 Urban Outfitters

Leopard Cardigan, £32 Miss Selfridge

Leopard Print Jersey Culottes, £16 ASOS

Dress, £12.99 H&M (this is the one I've got - I love it!)

Which is your favourite? Have you been wearing leopard print? Am I the only one who was scared of it?!

Also, I've been writing this post in the ad breaks between X Factor - it's just finishing now - who are you loving? I've been a big fan of Cher throughout, but I thought this week's performance was a bit boring. Loving Rebecca and Matt though - think they were the two best performances of the night. And who are you hating?! Anyone who follows me on Twitter will know how I feel about Katie... GET HER OUT!

Je voudrais s'il vous plaît

Bloody typical. You put yourself on a spending ban for a couple of weeks, and suddenly it seems that all the shops in the world are calling to you, saying;

"oooh Franki, look what we've got! Look at all the pretty things! Look at them, aren't they pretty? Don't you want to buy them, Franki? Don't you want to buy them all? DON'T YOU?!"

I can officially say that Topshop's new Heavy Duty makeup collection is right at the top of my list of things I want to buy, but currently can't justify buying. Isn't it rubbish being skint? One day, when I'm a rich grown up, I'll buy all the Topshop makeup I want, you'll see, I'll be able to bath in the stuff, that's how much I'll have. For now though, I can only look longingly at the pictures on the website. Sigh...

Solid Gel Eyeliner in Ravine, £8

Lip Marker Pen in Berry, £7.50

Nails in Grunge, £6

In addition to the new Heavy Duty collection, they've also added some new products to their standard makeup line. I'm loving the new mono eyeshadows in a variety of earthy shades, and the Concealer Duo which, after having a very quick try of it in the store, looks like it gives fairly good coverage. Plus I think it's a good idea that there's two shades of concealer in one, so that you can blend them together for the perfect shade.

Eyes in Potion and Dirty Martini, £6.50 each

Concealer Duo in Light, £7

The other things I got super excited about when I was last in Topshop are the new nail wraps. I'd been thinking for a while about how I'd like to try Minx nails, but as I'm a DIY girl there's no way I'd pay to have them done in a salon when I could just learn how to do it myself instead. However, when I looked into it, I saw that you have to use a heat lamp on the Minx foils to soften them and help them adhere to your nail, and I figured, "well I don't have a heat lamp, so that's the end of that". You know what I do have though? A hairdryer, yes indeedy, and that's exactly what you need for the new Nail Rock nail wraps - wahey! As soon as I get my hands on a set of these, I'll do some kind of review on them, maybe even a video tutorial, who knows? I'm very excited though. I mean VERY excited.

Metalic Lizard and White Lace Nail Wraps, £6.50 each

Why don't you love me?

The last few days have been spent preparing for, and then attending Tash's parent's 25th wedding anniversary, (which took place yesterday at a seriously posh old manor house in Staffordshire), a seriously fabulous affair that involved lots of singing, dancing and generally getting more than a bit drunk. I wore a pink French Connection dress, which I am in LOVE with - I wish I could wear it every day. Might have to post a photo of it at some point - I rarely do outfit posts, but I'll make an exception for this dress, for it is simply beautious. Tash also wore excellent shoes, not sure I've got a photo of them, but I may have to track one down as they were epic.

Anyway, while I'm still recovering from my lovely (drunken) weekend, I thought I'd do a quick review of the Topshop tattoos. I posted about them in May and have finally managed to get my hands on some (they didn't have any in the Liverpool store so I had to buy them online). Actually, the ones I posted about previously are quite different to the ones that are currently available to buy in stores. When I posted back in May, there was maybe four or five different tattoo sheets available to buy; some just contained one large image while others had a few smaller ones. Topshop seems to have improved upon these initial designs, as there is now a pack available that contains three sheets of tattoos with lots and lots of different designs to choose from.

Temporary Tattoos, Topshop, £5

These are quite obviously Chanel-inspired, even moreso than the first batch they brought out, which did feature swallows and chains etc, but were still quite simplistic. These ones, however, are a lot more detailed and pretty, with lots of different 'bracelets' and jewelled charms to customise them with.

I wore two last weekend in London - a flower design on my foot and a bracelet around my wrist, and I was fairly impressed; the designs are very pretty and I especially like the little highlights of white in the 'jewels'.

Floral foot

Charm bracelet

Charm bracelet (other side)

When it comes to applying them, it's just the standard process of holding a damp cloth to the back of the design for about 30 seconds and waiting for it to lift off the backing paper and stick to your skin. Very easy. What was tricky though, and I imagine this would be the case for any other similar tattoos, was applying the bracelet tattoo, as you had to kind of wrap it around your wrist and hold it in place so that it didn't slip. It would probably have been easier if I'd gotten someone to help me, but of course, I never do things sensibly. You can also see, in the first picture of the charm bracelet, just above the star charm, where the two ends of the chain overlap a bit messily - I couldn't quite work out how to get them to line up, but again, I'd imagine if you had someone to help you it would be quite do-able.

Now the pictures above were taken straight after I applied the tattoos, and as you can see, the charm bracelet had already started to split a bit. They don't have great staying-power; don't expect them to last much longer than a day, especially not in the heat; I applied mine on the Friday afternoon and by the Saturday afternoon, the one on my foot had mostly been rubbed away and faded. I wore this swallow design on my wrist for the party yesterday and it seems to have fared a little better;

although, you can see that it's started to fade and the edges are rubbing away a bit.

All in all, while they don't last very long, I do still really like them; I think they're ideal for one-off wear, such as a night out. The designs are lovely, the pack has a really good range of images to choose from and they're only £5 - winner!

I've not changed my mind about permanent tattoos; I'd never get one as I'm certain I would eventually get bored and regret it, but I am a big fan of the whole temporary thing; there's just so many possibilities! Plus, I like the slightly rock and roll vibe they give off (let's be honest here, I'm about as rock and roll as Alvin and the Chipmunks, but just humour me, ok?).

So what do you think? Will you be sporting some Topshop tatts this summer?

from now on you can call me Mystic Meg

Ok, now I don't want to show off here, but, well I'm going to - I totally predicted this.

Back in March, I did a post about the Chanel temporary tattoos and suggested that high street stores such as Topshop and Urban Outfitters might take inspiration from them and bring out their own ranges. And they have!!!

This clearly means that I am psychic.

Except, not really, obviously, because this is just how fashion works - high street stores always copy take inspiration from the high-end designers. But still, I'm quite excited that the two shops I mentioned are the ones that have actually done it. I just had a quick browse through some other online stores (Miss Selfridge, New Look, H&M and ASOS) and can't find any other tattoos, though I'm sure they'll follow suit soon.

The Topshop ones are very clearly inspired by Chanel; some of the designs include birds (now I'm no ornithologist, but I'm pretty sure they're swallows), flowers and strips of chains. Funnily enough, the Chanel tattoos also had swallows, flowers and strips of chains. However, the Chanel ones were very pretty and feminine whereas I'd say the Topshop ones are little more edgy and kind of 'rock and roll' (if that's the right way to describe them - hopefully you can see what I mean from the pictures) There's five different sets available (some packs contain several small tattoos and some just contain one large one), and they're priced between £4 and £6.50.

images from Topshop.com

The Urban Outfitters tattoos are very different. Firstly they can only loosely be described as 'tattoos' as they're more like body stickers. They remind me a bit of those crystal tattoos everyone went mad for in the late 90s/early 00s. There's also only two designs available; a butterfly and a bunch of flowers. They're very pretty and sparkly and they're available in white, black and gold - I can see them being popular with festival-goers. Only problem is, Urban Outfitters have done their usual trick of going "right, new product, very pretty, quite eyecatching actually. Let's price it at something ridiculous!" The butterfly costs £14 and the flowers cost £18.

£18 for a glittery sticker?!

Sorry Urban Outfitters, but you just lost me. I know the Chanel ones were about £50, but there was loads of designs in the pack. And they were frikkin' Chanel! Anyway, maybe I'm just being a bit of a tightwad, what do you think? Would you pay £14 and £18 for these babies?

images from UrbanOutfitters.co.uk

Anyway, next chance I get, I'm heading to Topshop to get my hands on a pack - I'm particularly drawn to the chains. What do you think? Will you be sporting temporary tattoos this summer? And which do you prefer Topshop or Urban Outfitters?

Top of the shops (part 2)

We've already established that I'm a big Topshop fan. We also know that I'm obsessed with makeup. So now that Topshop's brought out it's own makeup range, I have to admit, I am a bit worried that any money I ever earn from this point onwards is quite likely to go on cute eyeshadows, nail varnishes and lipsticks.

I went in yesterday just to have a little look. I'd read a couple of reviews and people were saying mixed things, so I wasn't sure I was going to like it, but I have to admit, it's a really good little collection. There's a great range of products; lipsticks and glosses, eyeshadows, blushers, mascaras, bronzers, highlighters, pretty much everything you'd need really. The colour selection is varied and unusual, especially amongst the eyeshadows and nail varnishes, which I'm very excited about. I read somewhere that there wasn't many lipstick colours to choose from, which is true, I think there's only six, but they're all really good colours and there is also a selection of lipglosses and 'polishes' which seem quite heavily pigmented and vibrant so there is a lot of lip colours available, they're just not all in the form of lipsticks.

The prices are very reasonable, everything is (I think) £10 or less and most items are around £5/£6. You can see the full collection here on the Topshop website.

One of the big selling points is the packaging, which is really cute and very Topshop; trendy but in a kind of whimsical way - everything is decorated in sketchy polka dots and stripes. From what I can gather, there's a kind of basic collection and then there's extra stuff, which is in the SS10 Trend section, so I guess they'll keep adding to the range each season.

I allowed myself to buy one item, but there's no doubt I'll be buying more very soon. I decided to go for an eye Crayon in Sun Shower, which is part of the SS10 Trend stuff. It cost £7 and is absolutely gorgeous.

Not a great shot, but I just wanted to show the cute little bag it came in!

Here's a better image, from the website. There's also a silver eye Crayon, called Moonshine, which I'm also tempted to get.

The Crayon can be used as an eyeliner or an all over shadow, I'm wearing it today and I'm very impressed. Sometimes 'crayon' products like this can be a bit too hard and drag when you apply them, but this is really soft so it goes on and blends very easily. The colour pay off is excellent and it gives a really gorgeous metallic sheen. It does crease a bit, but all products of this nature do tend to crease anyway, and it's lasted all day, so all in all, I'm really pleased with it.

Hope you can get an idea of the colour from this picture - I blended it a bit, but you can build it up to get a more intense, gold effect. It's lovely!

These are some of the other products I've got my eye on;

Glitter in Gilt, Eyeshadow Duo in Oopsy Daisy and Nails in The Big Easy

All product images from Topshop.com.