January Wish List.

Unlike many other wish lists, which usually are fairly long, this wish list isn’t that long. Mainly because there are a lot of things I’m interested in, however wish to try them and test them in-store first. Therefore I have split this into ‘Wish List’ of products I most definitely want, and ‘Try List’ which are products I want to try first to see if I like them or not.

Wish List

Giorgio Armani Maestro Fusion Makeup Compact

‘Giorgio Armani Beauty introduces a new expression of Maestro Haute Couture foundation. Its revolutionary texture is now available in a compact. 
This multi-purpose product conceals like a foundation, offers precision touch-ups and camouflages blemishes. 

Maestro fusion makeup compact is a new sensual and enveloping step. 
Its extraordinary formulation transforms application into a unique sensory experience.’

Sigma F80 Flat Top Kabuki Brush

‘The F80 is one of the SigmaX High Definition face brushes made with Sigma's synthetic HD filament. The flat top kabuki brush from Sigma has a black handle and tightly packed dense head. The flat surface of the brush allows you buff products to achieve a flawless finish. Perfect for applying and blending liquid and powder products.’

Origins Mega-Mushroom Skin-Calming Face Mask

‘Dr. Weil for Origins™ Mega-Mushroom Skin-Calmin creamy treatment mask with Hypsizygus Ulmarius, Cordyceps and Reishi mushrooms along with Ginger, Holy Basil and Turmeric rushes to relief to challenged skin to help soothe signs of compromise. Chinese Black Bamboo Leaf Extract, celebrated for centuries as a symbol of eternal youth, helps quell and calms visible redness and reactivity. A unique blend of marine algae and moisture-replenishing plant extracts helps revitalise and restore luminosity to stressed skin and rebuild a protective barrier to help avoid future flare-ups.’

Fat Face Protea Check Pyjama Shorts

‘Cute check shorts with frill edges and lace trims. Pearl buttons, soft brushed cotton, frilled edge and herringbone drawcord.’

Try List

(Basically this is a list of products I want to really test this month and hopefully like and buy)

Origins Quick-Hide Longwearing Concealer

‘Shadows, wrinkles and redness will never know what hid them. Soft-focus filters diminish fine lines and flaws. And the creamy, fix-it-and-forget-it coverage floats over skin with the greatest of ease. No creasing, no caking, no stuck-in-one-spot. Long-wearing. Heat and sweat resistant.’

Too Faced Absolutely Flawless Concealer

‘Creamy, pigment-rich, buildable formula smoothes on easily to provide sheer-to-full coverage. A naturally powerful combination of Vitamins A, E, and Chilean Tree and bark extract moisturizes, fights puffiness, and firms skin to help reduce the appearance of fine lines and the loss of elasticity. An innovative blend of Natural Marine Peptides and hyaluronic filling spheres help to increase eye area's hydration level to smooth surface imperfections.’

NYX ND Photogenic Concealer Wand

‘This lightweight cover-up obscures imperfections, discoloration and under eye circles, without ever looking cakey or obvious. Little wonder the Concealer Wand is one of our best-sellers. The concentrated, emollient-rich formula goes on like a dream, and creates medium to heavy coverage. Use the lavender for sallow skin, the green to reduce the appearance of redness and the yellow for under-eye darkness’

As you can see, there are 3 different concealers on this list. The main reason for this is because I’m attempting to find the perfect concealer to help cover mainly blemishes without being overly heavy. Therefore these are the top 3 concealers I have found which don’t cost and arm and a leg.

Lancôme Gloss in Love – Shades 383 and 385

‘This moisturising lip gloss envelops lips in a brilliant high-shine, while our innovative double-sided applicator provides customisable coverage. Our unique curved Lip Shaper coats the lower lip while the pointed Lip Liner precisely defines the upper lip for a sophisticated look. Choose from 12 instantly addictive shades to create your own shimmering, show-stopping lip effects.’

Dior Addict Gloss – Shades 122, 382 and 771

‘Its magical formula gives lips unprecedented mirror shine and incredible comfort. Its secret: the Mirror Shine Complex with polarized crystalline micro-spheres that adjust the reflection of light to create the magic of a perfect mirror.  The gel lipcare formula, enriched with hyaluronic acid spheres, plumps and moisturizes lips for an intensified volume-boosting effect.’

Dior Pore Minimizer

‘A skin-refining primer that mattifies and refines the skin, minimizes pores and smooths fine lines immediately upon application. Its formula evens out the complexion and erases blemishes with a sheer and weightless finish.’

Maybelline Baby Skin Pore Eraser

‘Maybelline Baby Skin provides a matte finish and leaves the skin fresh, soft and protected. The gel texture in Baby Skin instantly helps to vanish pores and makes the skin feel light. 

Yes this is the battle of the pore minimizer’s…high end vs. drugstore.

Whats on your January Wish and Try lists?

Stylfile.

Stylfile -

S-File and S-Buffer

Tom Pellereau, the creator of the Stylfile collection, explains how one day he was watching his sister file her nails and he instantly came up with the idea of a curved file. 

The S-file is designed to follow the natural shape of the nail, making it much more easy to control and use. One side has a surface to shape the nail, and the other has a softer surface to smooth over them and with a specially selected abrasive finish, the S-file is supposed to last for 12 months. Now as someone that files their nails quite a lot when I changed to this from a standard straight nail file, however I could see that it gave the nails a more curved shape. So far I have found that the Stylfile does what it says on the tin – it’s has an effective filing surface which is not too tough and damaging on my nails but still enables me to shape my nails with minimal effort. The S shape of the file takes a little getting used to! At first it feels very strange filing with a curved surface but after a while you get used to it and I now find that it does offer a more logical way of filing my nails. You can really get a good rhythm with the curved surface rocking over the nails, the momentum making the effort small whereas a normal straight file can take more effort as you keep having to adjust the angle to better match the natural shape of the nails. However, sadly my problem is that not everyone wants rounded off nails and sometimes if you break a nail you just want to file down that side, which can be done with the S-File, but it isn't as natural as just using a standard nail file.

The second product in the range is the 4-step S-buffer. I love the glossy shine a buffer creates on the nail almost giving the impression you're wearing a clear coat of polish. This is a similar design to the file in the way that it's shape follows the natural nail bed curve, much easier to work with than the regular buffing blocks which usually leave me with hand cramp! I really like this buffer, maybe more then the file. It's much easier to use and I think the results are slightly better then my other conventional 4 way buffing block.

I really like these, I don't know if I will repurchase the s-file however I think I would definitely repurchase the s-buffer. 

Have you tried these, what are your thoughts?

Nail Must-Haves.

My nails are currently the best I have ever seen them. Their longish, strong and healthy looking, which is exactly what, I want my nails to be. There are a few products I really swear by to help keep my nails in good condition, and also keep my manicure (when I decided to paint my nails) looking fresh and fantastic. 

butterLondon Horsepower Nail Fertilizer

'This nail rejuvenator is one of our ALL TIME favourite products! Formulated with an herbal ingredient called 'Horsetail' that has been shown to strengthen and repair nails. When used properly, the results are really quite staggering! Apply one coat every day for 7 days, then remove and begin again. Use for one month. Horse Power Nail Fertilizer can be used as both a basecoat & topcoat.'

I totally swear by this nail strengthener. Its beyond incredible! When I wear nail polish for a while my nails become really quite weak, however a week with this miracle worker and their strong, healthy and incredible all over again. I know a lot of strengtheners state that in a couple of days they will help your nails to grow, and as someone who has tested this claim many times, I have to say this truly does stand 100% by this claim. My nails are incredible after using it once every day for a week, its unreal how strong they've become in such a short amount of time. At £17, I know its not the most cheapest nail treatment on the market, however the bottle is 17.5ml, which is larger then most other treatments and it truly will last you a long time. If you have trouble with your nails being weak, peeling or you just want a treatment to help keep your nails in top shape, then you definitely need to invest in this. You won't regret it.

butterLondon Holiday Handbag Cuticle Oil

'Coconut and Pineapple scented cuticle oil that will have you dreaming of your last holiday, as it heals and nourishes your cuticles.'
I’ve always loved using cuticle oil or balms. However I tend to swap and change a lot because I haven’t ever found one that is perfect, they either leak, run out too fast or just don’t do anything wow enough for me. However, due to recently falling in love with a lot of butterLondon products I thought I would try this. This is truly amazing. This has really helped make and keep my nails healthy and strong. It smells amazing, like coconut and pineapples, which reminds me so much of going on holiday and topical cocktails. Its mineral oil free and free from any other unnecessary nasties, which is fantastic. The brush is easy to use and makes putting a drop of oil on each nail super easy. You then simply just massage it into your nails and cuticles and it soaks in pretty much straight away. I would highly recommend this to anyone looking for a new cuticle oil or for anyone who hasn’t ever tried using one.

butterLondon Polish in Disco Biscuit

'A tropical hot-pink jelly with an undercurrent of tiny iridescent glitter particles.'
Disco Biscuit is a bright pink jelly packed with purple micro glitter. Lets face it, mostly wanted this for name reasons but it turns out that it's a gorgeous polish too! The glitter sparkles like crazy in the sun and is nice and visible inside and in low light also! Formula wise this beauty is a jelly! If worn alone it takes a good 4 coats to built it up, however I find it works amazingly layered over a hot pink shade. I find this is one of the longest lasting nail polishes I own, it very rarely chips which is amazing. One thing to not is that when this dries it is fairly dull, therefore it needs a good topcoat, but trust it definitely shines ones the topcoats on.

butterLondon Polish in Petrol Overcoat

'Sheer, tornate overcoat. Brush on top of any butter LONDON lacquer to transform the shade, or use alone. The opalescent sheen of oil reflected in rain.'
Petrol Overcoat is a shimmery turquoise to purple shifting "overcoat," meaning that it's sheer enough to wear over another colour yet opaque enough to build up on its own. I actually really like wearing this on its own, as it becomes opaque in just 3 coats, and application is just flawless. I think it would be really good over other darker colours such as deep blue or purple, bringing out those elements of the polish. I keep meaning to try this over black, however I’m worried that it may loose some depth to the polish. Never the less this truly does look like petrol in water and is just an incredible and utterly unique polish. One thing to note is that its rather thin, therefore if your used to quite thick polishes this may take a little getting used to, but will definitely be worth it.

Mavala Nail Polish Thinner

'A few drops of Mavala Thinner will restore thickened nail polish to its correct consistency making it easier to apply in thin coats: two to three fine coats will last longer rather than a thick coat of nail polish that will flake or peel within a couple of days.'
Before this I had never had any experience with nail polish thinners before, and until recently I hadn’t thought of buying one. I used to just throw away polishes once they went horrible and gloopy and repurchase them if I liked the colour enough. However, my nail polish collection is grown and this means I don’t always get to use them all the often, therefore they tend to go gloopy much more quickly. Therefore instead of just throwing them away I decided it was time to test out nail polish thinners…and I’m so glad I chose this one. You simply take any gloopy polish and add two or three drops of thinner, give it a good shake and leave to settle. I tend to this before I do my base coat, this means its all settled by the time I’m ready to use it. It works wonders for a gloopy polish and even those that are just a tiny bit too thick, one drop will make it easier to apply. It doesn’t affect the formula or colour of the polish at all; it just makes it much easier to apply. This is truly a godsend and a must have; it gives gloopy polishes a whole new life!

These 5 products are literally going to stay life long staples in my nail collection forever. 

They're amazing!

butterLondon Wish List.

butterLondon is definitely my favourite nail polish brands at the moment. Since discovering the brand I just can’t get enough of their polishes. They seem to last much longer on my nails then any other polish I’ve tried, and unlike some other brands they don’t seem to get thick quite as fast. Recently I’ve really loved nail polish, my nails are actually at a state where they’re long enough to look really nice in coloured polish instead of a clear polish, usually a treatment or strengthening nail polish. Therefore I thought I would share with you a few of the butterLondon shades I have on my wish list. I have included swatches alongside this post, however they’re what I have found on Google, not my own. This is the main way I find out what polishes I like. There’s nothing worse then it looking amazing in the bottle and being totally different when you get it home. So lets begin.

(from left to right)

Snog - A bright, hot pink shade with a slight red tone 

(a pink polish everyone should own)

Knees up – A flawless shiny metallic-red 

(not usually into red nail polish but this is just stunning)

Bluecoat – Opaque, navy shimmer 

(everyone needs a navy in their collection...don't they?)

Lovely Jubbly - A vibrant magenta nail lacquer flecked with red, blue and gold micro-particles 

(just stunning for all seasons)

Stardust - Sheer, silver holographic overcoat 

(a must have nail polish...so sparkly!)

Primrose Hill Picnic - A tropical, fuchsia pink shade 

(perfect for summer time)

*update* I recently bought Knees Up, and even though it is the most beautiful colour, it does chip so easily. However, because of the colour, retouches are super easy!

Favourites of 2013.

Firstly, I'm super sorry about there being no pictures in this post, my phone for some reason won't link to my laptop, therefore I can't upload them. 
Never the less, here are my 2013 favourites!

Make-Up

Best Primer – Too Faced Primed and Poreless Pure Primer

Best Foundation - Dior DiorSkin Nude BB Cream + Giorgio Armani Maestro Foundation

Best Concealer - Dior DiorSkin Nude Skin Perfecting Hydrating Concealer

Best Bronzer – Jouer Sheer Matte Powder and Bronzing Duo (only the bronzer)

Best Powder – Still on a mission to find the perfect powder (however I may have found it…watch this space)

Best Highlighter - YSL Touche Eclat

Best Contour - Still on a mission to find the perfect contouring product!

Best Blusher - Dior DiorBlush Vibrant Colour Powder Blush in Rose Cherie

Best Eye Primer - Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion in Eden

Best Eyeshadow – Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette (I was going to say Naked 3, however I thought as its only come out, it wasn’t fair to take the spot light away from the amazing Naked 2 Palette)

Best Eye Pencil - Rimmel ScandalEyes Waterproof Kohl Liner in Nude

Best Mascara – L’oreal False Lash Telescopic Mascara

Best Brow Product - Benefit Brow Zings in Light

Best Lip Balm - Dior Addict Lip Glow

Best Lipstick – Dior Rouge Dior in Rose Trafalgar 565 (now renamed as Vogue)

Best Lipgloss – Lancome Gloss in Love Pink Pampille 341 (definitely need to add more of these glosses to my collection)

Nails

Best Nail Colour – butterLondon Polish in Disco Biscuit + Chanel Le Vernis Nail Colour in Taboo

Best Base Coat - butterLondon Horse Power Nail Fertiliser 


Best Top Coat – I really want to say Seche Top Coat, however I’m not going to because I find it has a tendency of peeling/lifting, therefore I’m on a mission for the perfect top coat.

Best Cuticle Product – Burt's Bees Cuticle Cream

What are your favourite products of 2013?