Freebie Fursday: Mon petit bonbon

It is not without an intense feeling of awkwardness and shyness that I went to work today with my wonky slaughtered brows. (catch up on brow gate here). Fortunately, I was busy with a conference and that helped keeping my mind off my brows. However, I just couldn't help thinking about another thing: the free Ciaté nail polishes in the July edition of Marie Claire magazine (£3.70) out today, and I couldn't wait till my work day was over to check the 3 shades of polishes on offer: Jelly Bean, Purple Sherbet and Bonbon.



I am not sure how much the word bonbon is used in everyday conversation in standard English but in French we use it all the time, and it is the most commonly used word to mean 'sweets'. The name certainly helped, but ultimately, it was not my memories of sweets eating times in France which led me to buy Ciaté Bonbon: it was its delicious shade reminding me of Smokey Lilac (BeautyUK), Innocent (ELF) and Steady as she rose (OPI). I am not the best at describing colours. For me it's a dirty nude lilac, and it's right up my street.











Unlike My Fair Lady, the Ciaté freebie we got a year ago, Bonbon's coverage was much better and I achieved the opacity you see on my pictures in 2 coats. The formula was a dream to play with and the flat brush made the application even more dreamy. This polish is such a good quality, it's worth its £9 retail value and more. So you can imagine how chuffed I am to have managed to get it for a mere £3.70.










If I listened to my heart, I'd rush to the shop to get a back up. However I must stay sensible. I have nowhere finished the nail polishes in my collection that Bonbon reminds me of and having a back up of bonbon would just be pure gourmandise. I wish it had been sunny today, I like photographing my nail polishes using natural sunlight you see and I can only apologise for these indoor snaps, and inability to wait for a sunny day to capture and share my impressions on Bonbon. I like it so much, I want to frame it.

Check out Purple Sherbet beautifully captured by Nic (Strawberry Blonde) here.  

What: Ciaté nail Polish, in shade 'bonbon'
Where: a decent place which sells Marie Claire Magazines
How much: £3.70

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It's live. My five minutes of fame.

Please allow to indulge in this moment. It's not everyday that I am featured on the front page of a website. There is my photo and everything. Today, I have been featured by Spank the Monkey, aka the Buyapowa Monkey as part of the Buyapowa Blogging week.





This means that the co-buy for the Shu Uemura Smoky Layers False Lashes is live and that you get your lashes for half price (£10 instead of its usual steep RRP £20) if it reaches its best price on Buyapowa.


Buyapowa? CoBuy? Best price? What does all that mean? If you missed my introductory post about Buyapowa and the photos of what the Shu Uemura look like applied on me, you can catch it up all here.




Be quick though. The sale might be opened for the next 45 hours, but the stock is very limited. 
For my review and more photos of the lashes, click here or on the photo below:




p.s This isn't a sponsored post, I'm not being paid for this post, or compensated in any way for taking part in BloggaPowa Buyapowa Bloggers week, I am just addicted to BuyaPowa, I just love the concept and am beyond thrilled that little old me got invited to take part.

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Smoky, Stormy and ... Scenty from Revlon {notds}

When Revlon released its first scented polishes, I couldn't help but feeling very unimpressed. The concept of 'scented polish' make some people feel a big uneasy and uncomfortable. I was very much welcoming the idea but the concept didn't quite work out for me. I was faced with a huge dilemma: It had to be a compromise between the shade of the polish (which is essentially why you buy a nail polish for, right?) and the scent.


If I wanted the orange polish, I had to contend with the smell of papaya, which is by no means my favourite smell. I blame my mother for that and a childhood growing up surrounded by nauseatingly smelly overripe papayas. Then you had this gorgeous blue polish but which smelt of loo freshener. To add insult to the injury, they had my favourite scent in there (coconut) but Revlon decided to make a shade of silvery streaky shimmery off white mess. Since when coconut are shimmery? What a waste of potential good polish.









Revlon is back in 2012 with a new collection of scented polishes.This time round, all the polishes all have a jelly glittery finish and are based from fizzy fruity drinks to explain the existence of glitter rather than the fruit itself. Will 'Orange Fizz' smell of Fanta rather than a delicious fresh orange is only one's guess but I am disappointed again. Maybe scented polishes and me are not meant to be. If they are your thing and you want to try them out, they are on offer at Boots and Superdrug whereby you can get 2 polishes for £10 and make a little saving (Usual RRP is £6.49)







To make your time a bit more worthwhile, I wanted to show you some very quick 'swatches' of the two other 2 Revlon polishes I bought last year. I didn't think I would ever write about them: Smoky Canvas and Stormy leave me as cold as the thought of eating a lettuce leaf. But I'd figure I might as well show them you, as there is a special promotion on Revlon products at the moment.


This is Boring Concrete, Smoky Canvas














Both polishes applied easily enough despite a very runny formula. Opacity was achieved in 2 coats which is a good thing as I didn't enjoy applying them. Bottom line the design of the bottle puts me off: There is something so 80s retro about the gold ring on the cap of the bottle.









I mean it's a decent grey but nothing special about it.





I am not doing a good job at writing about products which leave me unimpressed, am I? Let's end the carnage here, shall we?


Let me know if you have purchased some of the new (or old) Revlon polishes. I’d love to hear your thoughts and see your pictures xx

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Electric Smokes NOTD featuring Beauty UK

I am a happy bunny. After endless week ends of rain, the sun finally came out today and I was able to take some pictures for my blog. I am still very busy with my YouTube contest at the moment but you should be able to see some more posts from me on here. Boy, I have such a backlog.
Today, I want to show you my latest acquisitions in nail polishes: Electric Blue and Smokey Lilac both from Beauty UK (£1.99 each) bought with my own pennies.







Move over beloved Eyeko indigo blue, here comes Beauty UK Electric Blue. I can't believe this is only £1.99. It applied very smoothly, the formula was very easy to work with. I was a bit apprehensive I would have a streaky results due to the intense shimmer but it didn't happen. These are my nails with 2 sloppy coats on it. Ooo I love it when I can apply a nail polish without too much effort. I am in love. I've taken millions of pictures, indoors and in the sun. Am I spoiling you or what?











and under the sun.








The other polish I got was smoky lilac. I am a big fan of purple taupy shades but I was scared it would end up a little bit too 'lilac', like Berry Ice Cream from Barry M, which I ended up giving to a friend. At £1.99, I was happy to take the risk and I am glad I did it.








The colour reminds me of nails inc london (my no.1 polish in the whole world) and a hint of berries a la Barry M. My photos don't justice to the lovely colour but I hope you get the idea. 'Smoky Lilac' was also very easy to apply and because of its pale colour, I could even go even more sloppy than with the blue. Don’t my nails look so elegant, prime and proper here!






 

I want more! Which shades should I get? I am tempted by these already:

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