I am still as in love as ever with the formula and finish of these polishes which are now available in Boots for £6.99, but I have to say I picked another shade up called “Angel Wings”, a pearly white with shimmer, and although it looked fab in the bottle it looked a bit “frosty old lady” on my hands. Twitter agreed , and I took it off to replace it with this shade. So unless you like frosty polishes, I’d say stick with the cream shades even in this range…

Anyway, this is shade 560 “Kook-A-Mango”. I love this for summer, and feel it would work equally well on toes or fingers…

This is a lovely bright coral-orange shade which stays away from being too neon or outrageous, but it’s still bright enough to make a statement. Love it! As always it’s just a shame I’m not slightly better at applying it and keeping application to the nails, and not slopping it all over my fingers and cuticles as well… oh well!

This shade gave decent coverage in 2-3 coats, and I’ve topped it off with Illamasqua’s top coat, which is great for adding a shine to the top of polishes.

From experience, I know these polishes last about three days before chipping on me, but I’m one of those careless types who can’t be bothered to put rubber gloves on to do the washing up and opens can’s with my nails etc. And I wonder why they break so often…

Have you tried any shades from this range? Are you loving them as much as me?

After seeing lots of vids on YouTube and blog posts about these (always littered with the information “sadly these are not available in the UK yet”), I was surprised and more than a little bit chuffed to finally see these in my nearest large branch of Boots.

My first impression of the range was that there are some lovely looking shades, however as with all new ranges, its all a bit of an unknown quantity isn’t it? And to be fair, nail polish sometimes feels a bit “unexciting” if you know what I mean? Anyway, I decided to try a couple anyway, so I picked out a couple of shades that are very “me” just to try the formula etc. I picked a Nude/Greige shade called “Commander in Chic”, and a Taupe/Gray shade called “Gray by Gray”

The brush on these polishes is one of those wide, flat doo-dads. Now sometimes these are great, but other times not so much, especially if they are very square at the tip, which often means that the polish slops over cuticles and looks rubbish no matter how much time and effort you put into applying. In this case however, the brush is a winner in my opinion, as the edges are tapered, so you can create a nice edge without too much effort.

Formula wise, I was impressed – You could probably easily get away with one coat of these on short nails, but on longer nails, you’d probably need two coats to avoid any shade transluscency at the tip. I applied two coats, purely out of habit, even though I have short nails right now, and I experienced no dragging or pulling on the (still damp  – I lack patience when applying nail polish) first coat. Drying time was also reasonable – touch dry in about ten minutes and completely dry in about half an hour.

Shade 350 "Gray by Gray"

Shade 370 "Commander in Chic"

So far I am unashamedly a fan of these polishes – the only thing left to consider is the amount of wear they give. I’m expecting good results so, as half an hour after applying these, I scrubbed out the cats food bowl, and emptied the bin – not a chip, smudge or ripple in sight.

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure is available in Boots for £6.99 per 14.7ml bottle.

Have you tried these? What did you think? Shade recommendations?

Expect to see more of these polishes around here!

Disclaimer – I purchased these products myself.

I picked both of these products up from Boots recently, where they have finally arrived, after waiting for months. I actually wanted the Lanolips 101 ointment, as a mutipurpose lip and cuticle treatment, and I’m still on a mission to get that too, but I’m still loving the two products I have so far from the range.

Lanolips is a brand based around one key ingredient – lanolin! (Major surprise hey – bet you never expected that given the name!). Lanolin is a by-product of the wool industry, and is basically a fatty substance extracted from fleeces. On the face of it that may sound a little bit ew, however lanolin is similar to substances produced in our own skin, however its just more easily available from wool… And the magic of lanolin is that its a great effective moisturiser, as it can hold up to 200% of its own weight in water. The lanolips range is cruelty free – no sheep are harmed in the process, although vegans and vegetarians may want to avoid the range of course.

Picture sourced HERE.

The lanolips tinted lip moisturisers come in a range of five shades – I picked up Rose, which is a pale pink. They all contain 60% medical grade lanolin, and spf15, so are great for summer. They retail at £8.16 for 12.5g of product. They are packaged in a squeeze tube, which doesn’t come with a slanted applicator – the product iss too thick to squeeze out and apply using a slanted type applicator, and you would probably end up using far more than you needed and wasting product. I squeeze a little out and use my finger to apply.

This is the richest and most deeply moisturising lip balm I have ever used – all the raves I have read on other blogs about the range are all well justified. You only need a tiny amount of this product, so each tube will last for ages. The product moisturises so deeply and richly that a lot of repeat applications are not necessary, and it adds a slight pretty tint to the lips. Its also very thick, and so adheres well to the lips. A great everyday product, and this is definitely set to be a staple for me.

After picking this up I was so impressed I went back for another look at the range, and saw that there are also two handcreams Rosebalm Everyday (£10.20 for 120mls) and Rosebalm intense for very dry hands and nails (£9.18 for 15mls). I picked up the everyday version.

This is a light pink lotion, with a light baby-powder/rose scent, which I find really pleasant, and contains medical grade lanolin as well as rose oil and keratin. I was expecting this to be really really rich, given how rich the lip ointment is, however this is an ideal everyday handcream, which sinks in really quickly, and doen’t leave any trace of a greasy feel on the skin. It leaves hands actually feeling really refreshed and clean, yet also very hydrated – its unlike any handcream I’ve tried before really in the way it sinks in so well. Its quite hard to describe but it almost leaves your hands feeling a little powdery, but not in a dry way (amazing descriptive skills hey?) I’m not going to labour the point, but I’d definitely recommend using the tester to see how it feels on your hands, as I find this really unique.  I also love the effect this has had on my nails – I often dot a little extra handcream onto the nailbeds and do a cuticle massage, and this leaves my nails really shiny, and my cuticles really moisturised – I’ve seen a definite improvement in them since I started to use this lotion a couple of weeks ago. I’m actually considering picking up the intense version to use in my manicure kit for this very reason.

Would I repurchase? Definitely. I already know I’ll be picking up the 101 ointment if it ever comes back into stock at my local Boots branches, and I also want to try the lemonaid lip aid, as well as the intense version of the Rosebalm. Definite thumbs up from me for the range!

Disclaimer – I purchased these products with my very own hard earned cash. As with all reviews on the site, this is honest and based on my own experiences with the products. Always read as many reviews as you can find before purchasing!

Just saw this in my inbox, and it put a smile on my face, so wanted to share.

I’m a massive fan of Orly polishes, but less so of having to buy it online, so I’m really pleased to hear that they are launching a range in 54 Boots across the UK (presumably the larger or more “flagship” style stores I’m guessing…) from the 9th March 2011. Even more pleasing to someone like me who never finishes a bottle of nail polish before it goes a bit funny, the Boots range will take the form of mini (5.3ml) bottles, retailing at £5 each…

A couple of people have commented recently on twitter
that my nails always look great in NOTD posts. I have to confess, they really don’t deserve the praise! I can never get my nails to grow very quickly, and when they do grow, they snap and break along the sides. I also suffer with dry and at times ragged cuticles.

My “secret” in pictures is to rub in a dot of cuticle oil prior to snapping a nail varnish on my nails, because that masks the disgraceful state of my cuticles… I’m also quite lucky because my nail bed is quite long, so even when my nails are cut down, they still look quite long.

So here are my nails in all their real “glory”…

I was, however recently sent a product to try and review called “Go Nails”, which claims it can solve all my issues – It promises longer stronger nails in ten days and softer cuticles.

Go Nails comes in a 15ml/0.5fl. oz. airless pump…

The cream itself is just a simple white lotion, which containss the following ingredients;

I’m liking the fact that there isn’t anything too toxic sounding in there!

The cream has a nice very light lemonish scent, which does fade quickly, so no lingering pong after use… It seems to absob quickly and easily into both the nail and the cuticle, so my first impressions are quite  good.

This is not a cheap product though – and currently I believe that this is only available in the USA, although the manufacturers have reassured me that they regularly ship to the UK, so this is available if you want to try it… The cream retails at $24.99 per tibe, although they have multibuy options which are cheaper – see the website HERE.

Check back in a couple of weeks to see if this lives up to its promises!

Have you tried this product? Did it work for you?

I am really taken with a couple of shades in this new collection from Orly;


L-R – Pure Porcelain; Gilded Coral; Fancy Fuscia; Ancient Jade, Sapphire Silk and Royal Velvet.

I am in love-at-first-sight with Royal Velvet, which from the picture looks like a sumptuous velvety purple colour with a blue duochrome to it… I just hope that blue sheen translates onto the nails!

I’m also attracted to the Pure porcelain shade for a clean manicure, and the Sapphire Silk shade looks like a great rich turquoise shade…

Orly is available for £8.75 from http://www.spicebeauty.co.uk/ (who post for free to UK purchasers) although no doubt a quick google search will reveal further sellers!

The Precious Collection Launches on Jan 10th! Will you be purchasing?