Nail Porn: My New Chrome & Holographic Nails!

I’ve always loved having long nails; they’ve always grown strong and long for as long as I can remember. I actually gave up violin aged 9 after playing for just a year, because I was fed up of being told every week to cut my nails, and every week being told that the slither I had filed off wasn’t good enough and so I took up playing the flute instead. Even at that age, I knew my nails were more important to me than a violin. 😉

However, recently I’ve been going through a lot of stress and have noticed the toll it’s taking on them as they’ve been snapping quite low down, so for the first time in my life I’ve had to have them repaired with a few acrylic extensions. I took this opportunity to head to a new salon that I’d seen and been impressed with on Instagram because of the variety of nail colours and designs they showcased on there and these petrol-like, holographic nails are what I came out with, and I couldn’t be more pleased with them. Plus, I think Cobi, the nail technician there made the acrylic tips blend in perfectly with the shape of my natural nails, don’t you think? 😍

I also tried to get a video to show you how holographic they went under a direct light, but my cat wanted in on the action, and she's cute so why not. ;-)

This post originated at www.thebeautyscoop.co.uk

eBay Introduces New Collections Tool - See My Collections & Tell me What You Think!

eBay to me has always been the place that I turned to when I couldn’t find an item in stock, or had baulked at paying, or just couldn’t stretch to paying full price for something in a shop/online. Yep, it’s hit and miss as to what you find on there, but that’s the beauty of it as, whilst at times it may not have what you’re looking for, you can set up alerts for these searches… and when you get that email saying something you had been looking for has been listed, it is game on!!

Sometimes though, eBay can be daunting, with the sheer volume of items on there that it can be hard to find the products you want, especially when running with a theme, or trying to match them up to other items in general. So, eBay have come up with a pretty cool solution with their new Collections tool, a way of saving, and showing items that you think work well together.

This is perfect for your own organisational reasons or for sharing with friends and family; and I can totally imagine this working well for things like birthday and Christmas wish lists, as when people are asking what you’d like, you can just point them in the direction of your collections. Clever, huh?!

In preparation for the launch, eBay asked me to make some collections of my own and so I spent a good few hours scouring the site to see what treats took my fancy. You could say this was just a more elaborate form of my usual way to window shop, where I add everything I would like to own into any given ‘cart’, see the total cost, laugh (and cry) before closing the tab in defeat – as attempting to whittle down any shopping cart like that is near on impossible for this indecisive lady. ;-)

Here are just a few of my favourite collections from all of the collections I have been making (all clickable):

Modern Twist on a Vintage Wedding

Natural Glamour.

GOLD...

Wild About Animal Print.

Girls Night Out!

All Hail The Nail.

The rest can be found HERE!

The collections format actually reminds me somewhat of Pinterest, and other similar sites in the way that you add items, and the way it appears overall, and I think it’s going to be a great addition to the site. I’m already making more collections to lust after, in the hope that I come into some money. Ha.

What do you think about the new addition? Have you seen or used the new collections tool? Could you make use of it? x

P.S: Apologies if you're using a mobile to view this post, if the images are a bit wonky - not entirely sure what has happened with that.

This post has been sponsored by eBay.

This post originated at www.thebeautyscoop.co.uk

Ciaté Feather Manicures!

Ciaté have really been bringing out the big guns in the at home nail art/manicure world in recent times, what with their Caviar, Velvet, Sequin and Chalkboard Manicure kits (to name but a few, all of which I have yet to actually trial) being released; and so I am not surprised to see yet another weird, yet wonderful kit from them appearing on my nail-dar.

Their new 'Feather Manicure' kits (£20 each) actually look like such good fun, and are definitely something different from the norm. I could see me using the feather manicure kits mostly on an accent nail or 2, as opposed to doing a full manicure on all nails. I think this way the kit would first of all last longer, but also stop it being too much of a good thing.

In the image above there are two out of the three kits available showing, but there's also a snow owl version, containing monochrome feathers that I couldn't find the full set of images for, but can be viewed on the Selfridges site, where the kits are available to buy.

What do you think about these kits? Are they something you could see yourself wearing, or do you think it's a step too far/too much faff?

This post originated at www.thebeautyscoop.co.uk

My £60 Party Preparation Package Challenge!

Christmas parties and nights out can often end up costing a fortune in pre-party preparations alone, with salon appointments for beauty treatments and other general pampering often taking up a large chunk of your budget. In fact, the Most Wanted team at VoucherCodes did some research and found out that 18-24 year olds are spending an average of £110 on their party season beauty bits!

So, they approached me and set me the challenge of reducing that outlay to just £60!! Yes girls, you did just read that right, 60 English pounds for a party package to last throughout all the festivities! And so this week, I’ve been getting creative and finding my favourite, fabulous products for you to reach for, instead of spending all your drinking money on salon treatments that could be avoided, leaving you enough money to buy some perfect presents for your nearest and dearest.

Tanning is an important one for a lot of people, and professional spray tans can be costly, but with a fab selection of ‘at home’ products widely available, there is money to be saved here.

Fake Bake ‘Perfection’ Instant Fake Tan & Mitt (£10.98) has been one of my staple products over the last year or so, it’s incredibly easy to use because the colour is instant, no development time is needed – just apply, and then get dressed (especially good for people like me, who never leave enough time to apply and then let a tan develop before they go out),  and the colour is great, not in the least bit orange… plus it smells beautiful; vanilla, girls, no biscuits!!

I generally just apply to the areas that will be ‘on show’ because there’s not much point in doing a full body application (unless your full body will be on show, of course) and also it lasts longer, giving you more applications this way too.

Pre-tan preparation is important if you want a nice, even colour - even when using an instant/wash off formula. Now, I could tell you to go and buy an expensive exfoliator from one of the tanning brands, but you really don't need to do that. You can achieve the same result, using a normal body wash with a pair of scrubby, exfoliating gloves for a fraction of the price. The pair in the image above from Boots, (£2.69) do the trick nicely, although if you go to local pound shops/discount stores, I reckon you'd get a pair for £1 or less.

Hair appointments are also quite costly to factor into your beauty budget when getting ready for a night out. I’m talking styling and conditioning treatments, rather than your regular cut/colour appointments (but if you want to find a way of cutting down those costs – pun intended, this post may be useful for you), so I’m not factoring that into the budget, since I expect those would come from your regular maintenance funds.

When your hair is in good condition, it is generally easier to style, so a conditioning treatment/mask is my first recommendation. I love Wella's System Professional hair masks (£12.71), they’re used by hairdressers and professionals in the salon I go to and in my book, if they’re good enough for them, then they’re good enough for me. Obviously you’ll be choosing the perfect mask for your hair condition and texture, but I love the Volumize on my hair, as it conditions without weighing it down!

To get the true salon feel of a head massage, I really recommend using the Denman BeBop Massage Brush (£2.87)  (also available from boots for about £3.80) to massage the conditioning treatment into your hair, and also to use when shampooing to make sure your scalp is squeaky clean - just don't massage too vigorously at this stage if your hair is longer than your chin, as it could make your hair a bit knotty.

For almost effortless styling, rollers are your friend as once in, they do the work for you! I'd love to to suggest some heated rollers here as there are some fabulous sets available these days, but this would completely bust the budget, so instead I’ll recommend 'Velcro Sleep-In Rollers' (£17.95) as my favourite non-heated variety instead as they're a cheaper option but without too much of a compromise in results!

I’m not including this in the budget as many of you will probably already have styling products, but I really rate Aussie’s 'Aussome Volume Conditioning Mousse' when I want a bit of oomph in my hair as it gives volume without being sticky and horrible – just remember to blow dry your hair when using it, it doesn’t work quite so well if you leave it to air dry. If you did fancy trying it, it’s available from Boots for £4.89. 

This, along with a spritz of hairspray (which I’m also assuming you’ll already have, but I swear by Elnett Very Volume available from boots for £6.49 for 400ml) will keep your hair looking great throughout the evening.

Finishing Touches & Handy Tips!

A manicure might be the next thing on your list, and whilst it's lovely to have your nails done for you, it's not impossible to do them yourself for less of a financial outlay - especially if you get a friend to do yours, in return for you doing theirs (which certainly makes your weaker hand application better - you know this dilemma, don't you?!). I love nail polish, from a whole host of brands, but I'm recommending ORLY Nail Lacquer (£7.50), as I've never had a bad polish from them and they also have some beautiful colours out right now that are perfect for party season - the polishes shown in the image above is their 'Naughty or Nice' collection. They're also currently on offer at Beauty Bay for £7.13 each.

If you're a fan of false lashes, you could pay around £15 having them applied at a salon... or you could spend just £3.20 (by using code SCOOP-20) plus £1 delivery for orders under £15 on a fab set of lashes from LoveLashes at Lashizzle (more styles being added on a regular basis)! This discount code is exclusively for readers of The Beauty Scoop, and will be valid at least until the end of December 2012.

Fancy a facial? Give yourself an exfoliating facial on the cheap by using your everyday skincare products and putting in a bit more effort. Massage your cleanser into dry/damp skin (depending on the texture of the products you're using), and then use a hot flannel to exfoliate the cleanser off, before massaging your serums and moisturisers in afterwards (if you have a face mask already, you could also use this in-between washing and moisturising). It's simple, but effective, and what's even better is that you can get yourself a flannel for less than £1, with the flannel in the image above, from Tesco costing just 75p(!), although you can get them from about 20p each from cheap shops like home bargains etc.


So there you have it, my budget saving products all in one handy post; and in total, these products come to a very reasonable £58.28 (excluding any postage costs), leaving you just under £2 to splurge on whatever you like, maybe a £1 product from the MUA range at Superdrug?

What do you think? Do you think you'd swap your salon treatments to save money? Maybe you have a few budget beauty tips of your own?!

This post originated at www.thebeautyscoop.co.uk

Wordless Wednesday - Ciaté Sequin Manicure!

Lots of lovely things coming from Ciaté!

This post originated at www.thebeautyscoop.co.uk

Ciaté Nail Polish Before Being Bottled!

I saw this photograph on the Ciaté Facebook page and fell in love with the glitter and sparkle, it's beautiful! I know at 31 I should be growing out of glittery/sparkly things, but I am just too much of a magpie for that to happen - my mum is 65 and she's exactly the same, so I expect there's no hope for me haha.

Just imagine having these big jars of nail polish! Do you think you could ever get through that amount of the stuff? I think I'd be tempted to paint my walls with it! ;-)

This post originated at www.thebeautyscoop.co.uk

Kooky Nail Wraps - Going For Gold!

Hello my lovelies, I'm having terrible internet connection issues at the moment, hence why I haven't been around so much for a while. I'm hoping this is starting to change for the better now that we've had some engineers working on it, so that I can finally get back to doing what I enjoy!

Anyway, I saw this in my inbox and thought they looked rather cool - perfect for the upcoming Olympics, and also for any other British celebrations - if I'd been online sooner, I'd have totally recommended these for your Jubilee celebrations! They're by Kooky Nails, who, in my opinion, come up with fabulous designs on a regular basis and whose nail wraps I get on really well with; and I think they'll set you back about a fiver per set, available from www.kookynails.com

Do we likey? x

This post originated at www.thebeautyscoop.co.uk

Kooky Nail Wraps - Upcoming/Newly Released Collections!

I'm a big fan of Kooky Nail Wraps, and I'm always pleased to see new designs coming from them as you can never have too much choice where Kooky Nails are concerned, in my opinion.

These 2 new collections are no different, I only have these images to go off (although there are individual pictures of the Lace collection on the website as they have just been released) but they look absolutely lovely. From the modern, geometric looking designs of the New York On My Mind collection to the pretty but bold lace designs in the Queen of Lace collection - both are looking fabulous, don't you think?

This post originated at www.thebeautyscoop.co.uk

Myleene Klass Nails! :-(

The pack contains a nail file, and a clear sheet of stickers too.

These were meant to make up my Valentine's day manicure, and I reaaaallly wanted to love them, but unfortunately they just don't work for me or my nails. I've had these kinds of things before, and honestly I've never had this much trouble with them.

For a start, they were too large for my nails, I really don't know who would have a thumb nail as large, or as wide as the biggest sticker in the pack, and whilst I know my nails are quite petite, I don't think they're so small that they wouldn't be catered for within a set of these stickers.

They say these can be used on fingers or toes, but in my opinion they should really make a separate pack for toes so that they can concentrate on getting better sizes for each, rather than trying to cram it all into one pack.

The stickers also didn't have enough stretch or flexibility in them to cater for my nails that have quite a curve to them, which meant that the sticker creased and folded at every opportunity, it hasn't even stuck down at all in some places because of this (and it's clearly visible too). This ultimately means that the nail sticker isn't properly stuck to my nail, isn't water tight and will probably fall off at the first trickle of water.

I also found that this caused the sticker to catch on my hair, even getting some stuck in it at one point - now these are meant to last for a few days and I can't imagine how much hassle it would be to have to do my hair on a daily basis with these catching on my hair in the process.

As you can see, it looks like I've literally just stuck any old stickers onto my nails - not a good look, and not something that I am used to with these as I've previously only had good experiences with them (I'm looking at you, Kooky Nails)!

Surprisingly it was my little finger that turned out the best (I say surprising because that was the first nail I did, and also because it's my smallest fingernail, and one that has a fair amount of curve to it too), although it wasn't without fault.

I'm wondering if I have a faulty set, or whether others have had similar problems with these as I surely can't be the only person in the world with dainty, curvy nails? I'm really disappointed as I was also sent a fabulous looking black and white polka dot set that I was really looking forward to wearing, not so much now though.

If you have fairly flat nails, I don't think that there'd be such an issue as they can be cut down to size if they're still too big - although it would be a bit of a faff! I did like that these nail stickers came with a separate sheet of clear stickers to wear over  the patterned ones to protect the design and stop it from fading. Unfortunately I never got that far though.

Have any of you tried these before?



PR Sample - Views & small nails are my own!

This post originated at www.thebeautyscoop.co.uk

ORLY Spring 2012 - Cool Romance!

What do you make of ORLY's spring 2012 collection, Cool Romance? It looks like a nice collection, but I'm a bit worried that the shades don't appear to be that inspiring on the image. I do like the look of the pink, grey, taupe and lavender shades in it (will find out shade names asap) but it's hard to tell if they have anything a bit more special to them, such as the finish etc. Will report back when I find out more.

What do you think about it s far?


This post originated at www.thebeautyscoop.co.uk

New Kooky Nail Wraps for Valentines Day 2012!

Yet more designs are being released by Kooky Nail Wraps for Valentines day this year and I thought I'd share the love (geddit) with all of you! I especially love Pink Passion, see below for a closer up picture:

These nail wraps are so easy to apply - especially as they are completely heatless, taking out what I see as a bit of a faffy step with normal nail wraps, and they last for a decent amount of time too. I only took mine off when my nails had grown too much and in turn had left a big gap between the wrap and my cuticle - the design was still absolutely perfect.

I think these are about £5 per sheet, and can be purchased from http://www.kookynails.com/

Gel Nail Swatches - Final Thoughts!

You may remember the gel nails that I had done at Professional Beauty North a while back?! Well I thought I'd do a quick update post showing the polish after 3 and a half weeks of wear and what I thought about how they left my nails after.

As you can see, all brands stood up well in how well they lasted, none of them chipped, wore away or changed in appearance at all - and that is pretty damn impressive. Nothing I did made any difference to how they looked. In fact, they were all still so very pretty, that I did feel a bit bad when I removed them.

Saying that though, I was definitely ready to remove them as you can see, my nails have grown quite a lot and there was a huge gap between my cuticle and where the polish started - and normally, I'd have taken the polish off way before I did, but this was an experiment, and so they stayed put.

After removing them, the only nail that appears to have suffered any damage was my thumbnail, which had the Calgel on. It feels so dry and is hugely marked, even buffing didn't smooth it out - I'll spare you the photographs I took, it's not pretty at all!

I'd certainly recommend the NuBar Gelicure and Artistic Colour Gloss without hesitation, and would just say to make sure that the Calgel system isn't going to damage your nails before you have it done as other than the damaged nail, I was still very impressed. I can't honestly say if this damage was a one off as this is my one and only nail/experience of it, just approach with caution and make sure you know everything there is to know.

Do you have gel nail polish? If so, which one and do your nails ever get damaged with it? x

P.S - The Kooky Nail Wrap lasted 2 weeks, although there was tip-shrinkage quite soon into that but it wasn't awfully noticeable!

A Few Gel Nail Swatches & A Kooky Nail Wrap From Pro Beauty North 2011!

 The ORLY/OPI combination is what I was wearing before the show, thought you might also like a little look at that too though?! Picture doesn't do it justice!

Whilst at Professional Beauty North on Sunday, I thought it would be rude to not partake in a few trial gel nails, since I've actually never had them done before(!) which frankly seems ridiculous, being that I am a beauty blogger! The gel nail polishes that I had applied were by Artistic Colour Gloss, Nubar Gelicure and Calgel Nail System and so far, I am impressed with them all!

I wanted shimmery, glittery finishes and I wasn't disappointed - the bonus of having gel colour and glitter is that you get a totally smooth finish. The Nubar Gelicure is by far the most blingy of the ones I chose, and consists of 2 coats of a grey polish (I think it's called smokey or something) followed by 2 coats of the silver glitter and I love, love, LOVE it!

The Artistic Colour Gloss is 3 coats of a shade called 'Hotness' from what I can remember and it is beautiful, it looks like it's lit from within with all the sparkles... totally stunning and I think would be perfect for Christmas, don't you agree?! It also doesn't look sheer near the base of my nail like the photograph shows it, think that must've been the flash playing tricks there.

The Calgel system is actually applied from a tub, rather than a bottle and is self levelling, which is great for those of you with ridges or pitting as it REALLY smoothes the nail (so do the others, but I feel this one does it a little more)... I don't know the shade of this one, but it is lovely all the same!

This gel is said to last 4 weeks, which sounds great... but honestly, in 4 weeks time there will be a big gaping hole between the colour and my cuticle that I really wouldn't want, so I think this would be coming off long before then!

I also had a heatless nail wrap applied (above), they're by Kooky and I've been watching them for a while, ever since receiving an email with some of their stunning designs on that really caught my eye (see below)!

I had the Snakeskin Brown & Gold design (second one in) applied on my middle finger, and it looks gorgeous... so I bought a pack whilst there (well, it would have been rude not to) - I forgot to add them to my haul post yesterday as my brain just wasn't functioning as it should, whoops!

I like that they're heatless, it's one less step for me to muck up so on that score they're a big win - I shall let you know how long they last when I do a full review as I'm not sure if the heat would make a difference in how long they last! There's also a MASSIVE range of designs available, I could have honestly bought a lot more than I did, but I was a good girl and stuck to just one!

Do you likey, ladies? x

A Love/Hate Relationship with Seche Vite!

First of all, sorry for the stock photo of the Seche Vite, it appears that my computer is a bit poorly as it’s now allowing me to do *anything* with my photographs, or photoshop – so whilst I am trying to fix it, I will do my best with what I’ve got already ready to go, picture wise. I'll change it once I can get my computer sorted.

I took my time getting around to trying out Seche Vite as a lot of the time, I don’t use a topcoat due to wanting to take photographs of the product as it is, without the use of topcoats for realistic swatches on here; so I’ve had a bottle sat there for quite a while, just waiting for me to make use of it.

Anyway, I finally put it to the test when getting ready for V Festival last month due to running late and generally being totally disorganised for it. I needed my polish to be dry very quickly so that I could get the rest of my stuff together and catch my train on time, so in stepped the Seche.

At first, when I used it, I could not have been happier, it dried my polish and made my nails super glossy to boot – what was not to love?

It was the next day when my love for it lessened; I first noticed that my polish had shrunk, like a woolly jumper fresh out of a very hot wash from both the top and bottom. I then noticed a weird finish to the previously glossy finish... kind of dull, but patchy and well... just weird, really. I could handle that, it wasn’t hugely noticeable at that point. However, later that day a whole nail of polish peeled off my nail, clean off – like I’d never even had polish on that nail.

Shrinkage, weird matte/patchy finish!

The polish I was wearing was a Nails Inc one, not that old and one that I had worn once previously with absolutely no issues at all! My nails had never been prone to this happening previously either, with any polish so it can’t have been them.

I had to put up with my nails like that for the rest of the festival, since I hadn’t taken polish with me as I never normally need it so soon after painting my nails (unless I choose to take it off in favour of a new colour) – bad times!

Since getting back from V Festival, I tried it with a different polish to try to make sure it wasn’t the type of polish, being in a field or just an unlucky coincidence that this had happened and again, I got the shrinking and peeling. I’m actually gutted about this, as I thought I’d found the answer to my running late/getting ready problems... I guess if I don’t mind the polish only lasting one night, I could still use it, but I’d like to wear polish for a couple of days at a time, ideally.

Has anybody else had this kind of issue with Seche Vite or have I just been unlucky with it? Is there any way at all of getting around it? I've read something about it being to do with 3 free polishes, could it be that causing all these problems? x

Free Manicure with Errrm... Certain Ladies Products!

Ok, this might not be the most glamorous post I've ever done, but it is one that I thought you lovely ladies would be interested in all the same.

Basically, if you buy specially marked packs of Always and/or Tampax Pearl, you'll be entitled to a free manicure at 'one of hundreds of beauty salons across the UK' - visit here or here to find salons close to you, but do this before you go out and buy these packs especially for the offer, just in case there isn't a salon close enough to you! You also need to be able to print off a voucher, but you can buy multiple packs for extra manicures!

For more information about the offer, you can use this link or the aforementioned links above!

Closing date for the promotion is 31st March 2012 (specially marked packs will be available in store until Decembre 31st 2011), so there's plenty of time to take advantage!