You saucy mink

Getting back into blogging after such a long break is never going to be easy. To ease myself gently to it, I'd like to share with you a little bargain which has put a smile on my face.


I've always thought that when it comes to nail polish, and unless you're wearing a truly unique colour, that the general public don't generally notice whether the polish on your nails cost you 20 quid or whether you got it at the pound shop. In fact, there's nothing more satisfying when someone comments on your nails and you can say ‘It only cost me a quid, you know'. This is one of the main reasons I have been enjoying wearing MUA nail polishes. However, there have always been a few things which was spoiling my enjoyment of MUA nail polishes:


1) The terrible brush inside, making the application very laborious
2) The label is 99% of the time skewiff on the bottle, making the whole nail bottle of polish look really really cheap
3) Polishes have a number instead of a name, reinforcing the cheap look of the product.

To be fair, it was the brush which was my main bug bear. I was secretly hoping MUA would improve on their nail polishes but I was scared at the same time that improvements would mean an increase in price.


I had nothing to worry about. MUA listened to all the feedback and came back with 100% improved nail polishes, whilst selling them at the same price.Today, I have a lovely shade of polish to show you. It's called moody mink.





There's your first improvement right there. Polishes have a proper name now and everything. No risk of wonky label anymore, the whole label is ditched for a very sleek 'essie-esque' type of bottle. I won't be mad at you if you think MUA totally ripped off Essie's bottle design, it's understandable. MUA were definitely a bit cheeky there but the new design suits the new bottles so well, it feels so natural. Besides Essie have also changed the design of their bottles so I think there is definitely room for both brands to exist peacefully side by side in our beloved Superdrugs.

Without a doubt, the biggest improvement is the brush. It's nothing fancy, it doesn't fan out like the paddle brush in L'Oreal colour riche polishes but it finally performs its job perfectly.









If you have never tried MUA polishes before, there could never a better time to start. Own too many polishes already? How is a tiny £1 bottle going to hurt? Look at it, it's so cute and there's nothing wrong this new generation of polishes, this time. If you already own some first generation MUA polishes, you could even be a little indulgent, donate your first generation polishes and purchase your favourite MUA polish shades in their new format. I won't tell a soul if you did :)





What: MUA Cosmetics nail polish in shade Moody Mink
How much: £1
Where: Superdrug and MUA cosmetics online.
Purchased the product myself.

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Intensely Kissed

If you had told me 1 year ago that I would be buying vibrant lipglosses, I would have laughed at you. Apart from rare special occasions, I don't really do bright lips, you see. In fact, I don't really do lips products full stop. But somehow, out of the blue, and since February 2012, I have become a massive fan a MUA Cosmetics lip products. It started with the love hearts lip balms (I never used to carry a lip balm before) but the love for MUA cosmetics reached full bloom when I realised that I wanted to reach my mua lip boom (shade doin good) most days for work. So when MUA Cosmetics released a line of high intensity lip glosses, it was a no brainer and I just had to go and try some.

  




Like the name suggests, the 'Intense Kisses' high intensity lip glosses are very pigmented lip glosses. Like their little love hearts and lip boom sisters, they have the same vanilla scent which I am extremely fond of. But most of all, they fulfill my number criteria which I have now started to expect from all my lip products from MUA: not being sticky.

  



'Lips are sealed' and 'Kiss and Tell' are two lovely and bright shades, maybe too bright for me. I must admit that I have yet to pucker up the courage to wear them for work. My work people have never seen me with a bright lip, you see and I am a little bit shy. Outside work, at the week end, I have been enjoying wearing 'lips are sealed'. The world has yet to see me wearing 'Kiss and Tell' but it's only a matter of time now.






  






Not being a lip person to start with, I still can't believe how it happened but I need to face the facts: I have, most definitely caught the bug for MUA Cosmetics lip products but at £2 a pop, I actually don't feel bad about it.






What: Intense Kisses High Intensity Lipglosses by MUA Cosmetics
How much: £2 baby
Where: Mua cosmetics online and Superdrug stores
The collection comprises 8 shades in total. See them all here.
Bought by me

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Creamy Snow {nails}

As the sun set over my little town yesterday, I was wearing 'all  nude' on my nails, one of the newest shades of nail polish by Mua  Cosmetics. All nude was released around the end of July, together  with  'Frozen Yogurt', a bright purple nail polish. Those 2 new  nail polishes marked a new era: the time when MUA Cosmetics started to  name their nail polishes, instead of just a number. Of course,  this makes me happy but as usual, it doesn't stop me from wanting to  wanting to rename the nail polishes according to the feelings they  provoke in me. If anything, it's this nail polish (instead of the  bright purple) which I would have liked to call 'frozen yogurt'.





'All Nude' presents the usual application quirks that all MUA  polishes: the very basic brush which is responsible for a rather  uneven application but you know what? As usual, this doesn't matter  the slightest. Once dried the finish is absolutely lovely.





I wore 'all nude' at work today and was expecting my colleagues to ask me if I had tippex on my fingers. Instead I had compliments. I  think 'all nude' has just the right amount of beige/pink to make it  stand out from your (Lyreco?) average office correction fluid.






I  surprised myself at how much I am loving this shade. It reminds me of  cream, yogurt, eggnogg, and snow all at the same time and I want to  eat it. It takes me 3 coats to achieve a decent opacity but at £1 a  pop, I really don't mind.

   
What does this shade remind you of?
How would like to call it?



What: Mua Cosmetics Nail Polish in shade ‘all nude’
How much: £1
Where: Superdrug nationwide and MUA Store webstore.
Disclosure: bought by me

I am still struggling with motivation. Tonight’s post happened thanks to my lovely little blogging friend, blogging over at Powdered Almond. You can check out her post (along with the rest of the blog) here.
Thank you sweetie

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Boom boom boom boom, I want you in my room…

There are so many lipsticks and lip products around, how do you make a difference these days? You design 'Lip Boom' a versatile lip product which can give you 4 looks in once. The idea for the MUA Cosmetics Lip Boom comes from Alexandra Burke, winner of the popular singing talent show X Factor. The lip booms are not just another product where a cosmetic company has approached a celebrity to endorse. Alexandra Burke has been involved in every step of the creation process, the shades, the formulation, to the names of the shades which are taken from Alexandra's favourite expressions. British Beauty Blogger, who went to the rather fabulous launch a few months ago has got the details for you.








I am a massive fan of the MUA Love Hearts lip balms so I was really excited to find out that the lip booms had the same (if a little more pronounced, and with a touch of toffee) vanilla smell than the mua lip balms tins. One side of the lip boom contains a matte lipstick, the other contains a loud and vivid glitter gel base to add some drama and dimension to the lips.







On the photos, it looks like the chunky glitter is going to be like big metallic clumps of glitter, like nail glitter which are going to hurt your lips. They are surprisingly soft, I don't feel any grittiness AT.ALL. As for sticky factor, again they feel very similar to the love hearts lip balms, very creamy and not too sticky at all. I can't get my head round how MUA has managed to do a product so glittery but yet not gritty at all.












I hope you don't mind if I only lip swatch my favourite shade 'doin good' as I don't think the more paler shades will suit my skin tone.






The packaging explains that one of the ways to apply the lip boom is to wear the matte lipstick on all the lips and the highlighter just in the centre. (This is how I tried to do it on my swatch)  I don't think it's possible, you know. Once you have this drama going on in the centre, it naturally distributes on the rest of the lips but then again, this is what I expected with a product called Lip Boom: drama on your lips so that they do all the talking.



The lip boom might not be the smallest lipstick to take on a night out but it's 10x times more fun than my traditional Mac teddy bear lipstick and I don't need to root around my handbag another time to find the lipgloss.


Alexandra Burke: you did good there


 



what: MUA Cosmetics Lip Booms.
where: MUA Cosmetics online and bigger Superdrug stores
how much: £3 
disclosure: The lips booms were sent to me for review purposes

   

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Dupe of Chanel Frenzy Nail Polish?

I hope you will forgive me for this rather provocative title. If you've been reading my blog for a while, you will have noticed that I am a big fan of budget makeup. I will admit that many times, I end up being disappointed by the quality of inexpensive makeup, but there is nothing like the thrill of an inexpensive find which you fall in love with. I am a firm believer that when it comes to nail polish, once it has dried on your nails, no one but you can really tell whether the polish you're wearing is budget or very high end. People will notice your application skills, the colour and the finish of the polish, if you have some chocolate brownie stuck under your index finger but they rarely can't tell how much I've spent on the nail polish I'm wearing.



Now this is precisely why I love MUA nail polishes. Today, I have a little beauty to share with you. It's shade 19 and it's a gorgeous. Like other MUA polishes, the polish really feels budget. It's almost like the travelodge of nail polishes: there are no frills there, the brush is very basic and the formula applies a little bumpy at first. But once dried it's just beautiful.









Nude polishes are notoriously hard to find. It might look ok in the bottle but you won't know until you've applied it on your nails, set against your skin if it’s the right shade for you. The wrong colour will make you feel like you have corpse hands (nails inc caramel anyone?), the right shade will make you feel elegant, polished and give the illusion that your nails are longer. Shade 19, you are a beauty and I you.







You can see what Chanel Frenzy looks like on here.
what? MUA Cosmetics nail polish in shade 19
how much? £1
Where: Mua Cosmetics online and Superdrug stores nationwide

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Midnight Mint Mojito Manicure

In my head, I had imagined that my 'midnight mint mojito' manicure would be a french manicure, midnight blue as a overall colour and base and some mint tips. I am absolutely rubbish at french manicures and I just couldn't publish the result of my disastrous attempts.


This is shade 5 or mint as I have decided to call it, a lovely little bargain from MUA. The brush was a little bit basic, it took three generous coats to achieve the opacity you see on the nail but you cannot deny its beautiful colour and glossy finish.






Next, this is shade 1, or 'midnight blue' for me. Application was not straightforward and I experienced a lot of patchiness, but 3 coats later, I had forgotten all about it and everything was hanky dory.









You wouldn't think these would only cost £1 each, would you? This is one of many the reasons why I love living in the UK, you don't have to fork out a fortune to have pretty nails. And you know what? I bet the general public, or a even nail polish aficionado couldn't tell, from looking at my nails, as I walk by, whether what I am wearing costs £20 or £1. Win!



disclosure: these polishes were sent for review purposes

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Les petits poussins jaunes {nails}

When MUA released their love hearts collection, more than anything else it was their yellow polish which caught my lustful eye. I love  yellow polishes but there is one problem with yellow and pastel polishes in general: It's very difficult somehow to find a good new  one, whether you spend £20 (I am looking at you Chanel Mimosa) or a fiver. Yellow polishes tend to be hard to work with, patchy,  streaky and generally not worth the bother. I have found the yellow polish of my dreams but it is not quite the perfect shade of  yellow for me, and I couldn't wait to try 'You and Me' spelt U & Me from MUA to see if it could pass my fussy expectations.






After a love at first sight for the perfect 'Easter Chick' warm yellow, 'You and Me' didn't start on a good foot. First coat felt like  I was applying nail polish onto some cotton wool on purpose, with the nail polish trying to sit uncomfortably onto the nail bed. It  presented the typical woes I had with a nail polish: you're trying to apply nail polish in some place and while trying to even it out,  you're sheering that part out. At this stage, I asked myself whether it was worth continuing. Second coat was better but still a bit  laborious until the third coat where I finally cracked a smile.









Despite its decidedly budget brush, I really like this polish, and if I had to imagine my perfect shade of yellow, it would be just  that! It is never going to be the dreamy application of 'yellow peril' modelled here by one of my favourite bloggers ever but it is not hell on earth as Accessorize Sunny Days which has secured its firm spot in my top 10 worst  polishes.





If I was in a hurry, and wanted yellow nails, I would definitely choose to apply BeautyUK 'Yellow Peril' but if I had a little more time on my  hands, 'you and me' would be my preferred nail polish as the shade of yellow is just divine.

Despite a love at first sight, and some  disappointing 'first dates' the journey of 'you and me' has been a little bumpy adventure, but definitely one worth sticking with and  one which gave me a happy ending: lovely Easter chick nails, for the even lovelier price of £2.


Any yellow polish you like and would like to recommend?


What: Mua 'Love Hearts' U & Me Nail Polish
How much: £2 in selected superdrug stores and online
Disclosure: nail polish was bought by Myself & I

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My One Pound Love

The brush is a little bit scratchy, the label a little askew and the application a little bumpy but it dries to a smooth finish and I just adore this little bargain polish from MUA Cosmetics. It gives me the perfect khaki shade, with the perfect mix of green and yellow and it's just £1. What more could you ask for?

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Hello British Summer Time and a Giveaway :)

 

It's finally getting a little bit warmer outside and sunnier too. This calls for a little celebration, don't you think? I have 1 set of 3 MUA Glitter Quake (Crackle) Polishes to giveaway to one of you, my lucky readers. As usual, this giveaway is international and I will ship anywhere. Let's have a look at the prizes, shall we? MUA Cosmetics has recently released a collection of 6 Glitter Quake Polishes (Gold, Silver, Copper, Blue, Green, and Purple) and I have the following three to give away:

They say:

Nail Quake Crackle Glitter Nail Polish allows you to create a gorgeous finish with minimal effort. Pair these gorgeous sparkly shades with MUA nail varnishes.

Directions of use:

• The bigger contrast between the two shades, the better the effect.
• The base colour should always be lighter than the crackle colour.
• Apply two coats of your favourite MUA nail varnish.
• Apply crackle glitter thinly over your favourite MUA nail varnish for a crackle effect.

How to enter:

This giveaway is for all my blog readers from all over the world. It will end on Wednesday 4 April 2012, 23:59 BST (UK). All I would like you to do, to enter in this comment giveaway is to tell me: 

What are you looking forward to do this summer, or when it’s a little bit more brighter, sunny and hot?

--- your name
--- your email address
--- how you found out about this giveaway
(any additional entries you may ask? nah! I won't ask you to tweet about it. I'll be in charge of the pimping promoting. You don't need to do it.)

Rules

1.This comment giveaway is opened to all my blog readers, from anywhere around the world who follow me through Google Friend Connect, Google  Reader, bloglovin or by email
2.Please make sure to answer the comment giveaway question:

What are you looking forward to do this summer, or when it’s a little bit more brighter, sunny and hot?

3. This giveaway will end on Wednesday 4 April 2012, 23:59 BST (UK)
4. There will be 1 winner and the winner will be sent the trio set of MUA Glitter Quake Polishes
5. Winner will be chosen at random with random.org

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MUA – Glamour Night Palette

If I am not careful, this blog is turning more into like what makeup I would like to indulge into rather than makeup I actually bought and can share my impressions with you on. The truth is that money is a bit tight at the moment and while I have heaps and heaps of 'old' makeup to review, these take time and natural sunlight to be photographed at their best. I am working on this gorgeous beautyuk cosmetics new nail polish collection which I am dying to share with you but the sunrays are missing and the flash of my camera cannot cope with chrome and foil polishes.


Lame apologies aside, I wanted to share with you some swatches of 'Glamour Nights' a gorgeous eyeshadow palette designed by MUA Cosmetics. This palette is usually £4 but I managed to find it in a blog sale at half price. I had vowed myself to stop buying shimmery eyeshadows as I don't like wearing eyeshadow in the crease of my eye and beyond, but here am I with yet another mainly shimmery eyeshadow palette. I couldn't resist, the colours are too pretty.








We'll start with the positives: The shimmery shades are absolutely gorgeous. Minus the silver which produces a lot of fall out, the shimmery shades offer very good pigmentation and are easy to work with.






The matte shades however are very disappointing. The white (first from the left, top row) barely shows but then again, I am not too bothered. Sleek Makeup is not capable either at making a decent white and nyx white answers to all my white needs. The browny grey (5th colour from the left, top row) which was the colour I was looking forward the most to play with is nowhere near satisfactory in terms of pigmentation. No problem with the matte black (first shadow, bottom row) however the 4th and final matte eyeshadow of this palette, the matte purple (4th shadow from the left, bottom row) is really not happening: patchy, patchy, patchy and patchy. What a shame.








Matte lovers, this palette is not for you. Shimmery Lovers, eat your heart out, you really can't go wrong with so many shades for £4.

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And the winner is …

Last week, I was very excited to share you my impressions on 2 pairs of false eyelashes Mua Cosmetics had just released: the subtle day wear appropriate Flair and the full on volume Vixen. The company kindly got in touch with me to see if I wanted to give the chance to one of my readers to try Flair and Vixen for free and win them. A giveaway was born. 




 






Thank you very much for your all your entries and your tweets. I can now reveal that the winner is:

Valens       

If you have not won this time, please do not despair. I am planning another blog giveaway next week. In the meantime, why don’t you visit my other blog? It’s called ‘Les Petits Cadeaux’ and it’s a blog purely, solely and unashamingly devoted to blog giveaways. Pop over, there are some fab things to win this week. *And* you can always submit your own giveaway too. The blog gets updated every Monday or Tuesday, every week.

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