Olympia Beauty

So finally, as requested, here is my post about the Olymipa Beauty show I attended on Sunday.  I described it in my previous posts (one of them) but for those of you that aren’t aware, Olympia Beauty is a trade beauty wholesale show held at Olympia London.  I managed to wangle a ticket through my friend Jo who is a beautician, and I was massively excited to attend because everything there was sold at trade price, meaning CHEAP NAIL VARNISH FOR ME!

Like a total spaz I could barely sleep on Saturday night as I was so excited.  Jo and I go up early, grabbed our oyster cards and managed (somehow) to get to the show by 11.30am.  It opened at 11 and it was MANIC when we first turned up, we couldn’t believe it!  It was worth the queue for the ticket printing machine though, because when I walked through the big open doors and saw the biggest OPI stand I have ever seen in my life I nearly cried!

LOOK AT ALL THE BOTTLES

I was hoping OPI were going to be showcasing the new Skyfall collection and hopefully letting us pre-order it – you can imagine how much of a total meltdown I had when I saw it was THERE TO BUY, 10 days before it’s official UK release date!  I spent about 30 minutes browsing the extensive nail vanish collections and picked up The Living Daylights, The World is Not Enough and Casino Royale from the Skyfall collection.  I also grabbed I Just Spotted The Lizard from the Spiderman collection, because I don’t own any polishes like that and I thought it was lovely.  It’s one of those colours that looks a bit like oil, where it’s blue but when you tilt the bottle it goes a greeny yellow colour?  Heart!  I then went and had a look at the back of the stall that housed all the other beauty bits you would need.  All the manicure and pedicure creams, tools etc.  I grabbed myself some OPI toe separators (they were like 60p a pack?) and an awesome product called Correct & Clean Up.  Basically a pen that is flat on one edge, so if like me you are rubbish at painting your nails without getting it all over your fingers, this tool is the right shape to remove the polish from around your nail, and not accidentally rubbing it off the nail too!  (P.S please excuse the picture of the nail polish, I know it’s like a 5 year old took it with a disposable camera BUT I took that at 1am this morning as it’s the only time I had to do it!  Forgive mee!)

Casino Royale, Just Spotted The Lizard, The World is Not Enough & The Living Daylights

I got a few other bits and bobs from a random wholesale nail polish store.  I grabbed a job lot of orange sticks as you can never have too many, a few decent buffers and nail files and some triangular nail polish guides (These come in SO useful for nail art it’s ridiculous!)  I also grabbed some nail decorations which were so cheap.  They came in a little box containing 4 designs; stars, balls, bigger but flat circles and small strips – they had these in silver and gold but I went with gold as I prefer that colour so much more on nail art!  I also got a little tub of brush on nail glue as that always comes in handy!

As Jo is in the trade she needed to get some bits, so next we went to an awesome stall called Roo Beauty.  It sells Beauty trolleys, bags, cases and tool belts for makeup brushes, nail polishes etc.  Jo LOVES leopard print and saw they had an entire leopard print range so definitely wanted to go and buy a new beauty case.  I wasn’t even looking but the nail polish cases were so cute and were massively discounted for the show so were only £10!  I bought one as I figured if I am travelling somewhere and need to take a selection of nail polish with me (for those indecisive moments) it’s a really handy case to have – look how cute it is!

Next we hit up Louella Belle, which is the UK distributor for Essie & Seche.  I got massively excited by the sheer size of the Essie section but when I actually looked at each colour I thought “I already own a colour like that” about pretty much everything, so left empty handed L Sad times for me, good times for my credit card company!  I then went and had a look at Seche, the creators of Seche Vite, probably the best top coat I have ever used in my life!  It’s thick, it dries SO QUICKLY, it makes nails super shiny and it also makes my polish last for days without chipping.  Seche have produced a line of nail polish that is supposed to be every bit as good as the top coat.  That is a strong claim to make as the top coat is so so so brilliant, but if it’s true then Seche will soon be one of the top contenders for popular professional nail polish, mark my words!

After having a walk around and looking at all the other stalls (I ummed and ahhed over Konad for ages but decided against it – so expensive and the designs aren’t even that nice?) I came across China Glaze.  This polish is all over the blogs and people rave about it, but I had never used it before.  They had some acid bright tropical colours that I fell in love with so I decided to pop my china glaze cherry and buy these two.  Haven’t tried them out yet, but i’ll do swatches of them soon J The names are Beach Cruise-r (the purple) and Love’s a Beach (the pink).

Lastly, I went back to Louella Belle and grabbed some Ardell lashes.  I have used these lashes before and I liked them but the glue that came in the packet was rubbish!  For a start it was in a little paper tube that you ripped the top off and it went everywhere!  I preferred the glue with Eyelure so always stuck to them (excuse the pun).  When I saw they were selling the Lash Adhesive in black I decided to get some of that to tackle the glue problem – my friend Jo swears by this and admittedly it’s so much easier applying black glue to your lashes instead of the white glue and waiting for the colour to fade.  I LOVE the lashes I got and can’t wait to use them - I know they are all pretty similar but I love big, wispy fluttery eyelashes – easier to bat your lashes at the lads ;)

Did any of you attend the Beauty show?  If so what bargains did you pick up? x

Swatch What You're Doing

What a bloody miserable Monday this is turning out to be!

Not sure where all my readers are based but in London it hasn’t stopped raining since I woke up this morning – as if Monday’s weren’t bad enough!

This weekend I was at the Beauty Show as described in my previous post.  I had a really good time, the stands were brilliant and I spent a hefty amount of time at my beloved OPI!  I will do a full post on the Beauty show tonight as I need to snap the bits I bought there etc... This will probably be up tomorrow so sit tight until then!  Just to let you know they had the Skyfall collection available to BUY, so I nabbed myself a few - you'll see in the swatches below!

I have been meaning to do this post for a while now, so when I grabbed some new nail wheels at Olympia Beauty it was the perfect opportunity to add my most recent polishes to them and then post swatches of all the colours i’ve got.  I often get asked how many polishes I actually own, if there is a colour I don’t have/like etc.  The answer to that question is probably no!  I have a rack in my room that is my pride and joy (saddo) and I also have boxes full of polishes that are either duplicates or won’t fit on the rack.  Today I have swatched the rack polishes as these are my favourites – they are also sectioned into brands and are all the polishes I have from this brand.  The spares in my boxes are other brands that I am not as keen on or don’t have room for etc.

As you can see from the rack, my favourite polish brands are Nails Inc, Models Own, W7, OPI and Essie.  I also have a few randoms on the top shelf, one off polishes that are my favourites (such as Jo’mina by Illamasqua, Barry M, Seche Vite and a couple of 17 Magnetic polishes).  I haven’t swatched the top rack, just the ones I have a decent amount of, but here’s a list of the top shelf colours - I haven’t written these down so this will all be done from memory... oops!

Random gold glitter from wholesalers // GOSH Silver Star // Illamasqua Jo’mina // Topshop Green Room // 17 Magnetized Gun Metal // 17 Magnetized Lilac // 17 Magnetized Teal // Seche Vite // Sephora for OPI Multi Glitter // Sephora for OPI Traffic Stopper Copper // Barry M Pink // Barry M Coral // Barry M Yellow // Barry M Orange // Barry M Raspberry // Barry M Chameleon in Purple // Barry M Grey // Barry M Pink Shatter // Barry M Black

I tried my hardest to show the true colours of each polish on the below nail wheels, but I had to take these pictures last night in my room in the dark when it was raining, so the lighting wasn’t the best – one of the problems of trying to snap nails in the winter when I spend most of the day light hours at work :(

Essie:

Models Own:

Nails Inc:

OPI:

W7:

I love looking at my nail wheels, I could literally sit on my bed and paint them all day.  I would probably need about 10,000 for me to be able to paint all my favourite combinations.  I think my favourite mix at the moment is OPI Lady in Black with Models Own Mirrorball Dancing Queen, the swatch of it is just UNREAL!  I've attached a picture of that below just because I love it!

What do you think?

Beauty is in the eye of the card holder...

This Sunday I am heading to The Beauty Shop at Olympia with my friend Jo (and potentially Charlie) and I am so fricking excited I just HAD to blog about it!  I LOVE having friends that are in the beauty trade as this means Jo can take me to all the places I can’t go on my own because I don’t have a trade card (hello birthday present trip to the wholesalers – I am easily pleased).  The Beauty Show is strictly for professionals but as I am going with Jo and listed under her salon I get to go too!  I’ll be sure to take lots of pictures, there will probably be a few of me having actual panic attacks next to the nail polish stalls too!  I feel sorry for my credit card, but this is classed as an emergency right?

Olympia Beauty is running on Sunday 23^rd September and Monday 24^th September.  Brands that are exhibiting are:

Bourjois, China Glaze, Shellac, Cuccio, Dermalogica, Elemis, Essie, Fake Bake, Gelish, HD Brows, Konad, Loud Lips, Minx, Nouveau Lashes, Nubar, OPI, Orly, Seche, Tigi

Plus loads more that I haven't ever heard of... The London College of Beauty Therapy also has a stand and I am going to talk tot hem about doing a Beauty Therapy course with them.  I think I would like to do it as a job, considering most of my personal free time is filled up with it, but finding the funds for this course is a bit of a problem at the moment.  I want to have a word with them and see if they have financing options or anything like that which might be able to help me..

Anyway, the reason I am MOST excited today is because I got a glimpse of the new OPI James Bond collection last night and it looks AH-MAZING!  They have 12 new colours coming out, 2 standard full glitters, a few shimmers and then some block colours.  Pictures below...

(L-R) The Spy Who Loved Me, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Live and Let Die, The World is Not Enough, You Only Live Twice and Moonraker

(L-R) Skyfall, Casino Royale, Tomorrow Never Dies, Die Another Day, Goldeneye and The Living Daylights

I LOVE the look of Live and Let Die, You Only Live Twice, Casino Royale and The Living Daylights.  You can now imagine I am googling away trying to find a swatch of each of them to satisfy my OPI craving until Sunday (they'll have this as a preview at Beauty Olympia, squeak!).  OPI also have a special polish coming out in honour of this collection and I nearly wet my pants when I woke up to a message from Jo this morning telling me to look at it.  It’s called The Man With The Golden Gun, and it’s a GOLD LEAF TOPCOAT!  It looks awesome on AND OFF nails and it’s made with real flecks of 18 carat gold.  The bottle nearly made me cry because of the sheer beauty of it and once I saw the finished outcome of the nails I knew this was something I had to get my mitts on.  The gold leaf will obviously be more expensive than the others (I estimate around £25 a bottle) but it’s genuine gold on your nails so can’t really complain.

I WANT 18 CARAT GOLD NAILS!

The lovely Michelle of labmuffin has swatched a few of the collection, click the link to see her thoughts.  I am a sucker for glitter polish anyway so was already beside myself when I saw The Living Daylights, but then once I saw Michelle had matified it?  *DIES*

What do you think of the James Bond collection?  Are any of you heading to the Olympia Beauty show this weekend?

Just as a little FYI, MeMeMe Cosmetics are currently running a Groupon deal – buy a voucher for £18 and that gives you a whopping £45 to spend online!!!  I haven’t ever tried MeMeMe Cosmetics but I have heard they are apparently quite good, so now might be the time to get involved!  Click HERE for the link... 

Living for the Weekend...

I’m back!!!!  If you’ve read my previous posts you’ll know that I was away at my last festival of the year this weekend (sob).  I went to The Zoo Project Festival, held at Port Lymphne Safari and Wildlife Park in Kent and I had THE MOST AWESOME TIME.

I went with Charlie and Jo, but met all of the Rejam crew there for 3 days of raving and bantering.  I couldn’t wait to get messy in a field with some of my all time favourite people and it certainly didn’t disappoint.  We decided that between us we would book a Pod Pad as it’s so much easier for us girls.  None of us owned a tent or a blow up bed so we would have had to buy one, pack it and take it with us, put the tent up and then take it down and carry it back and then someone would be tasked with having it cluttering up their house.  Instead we paid £300 for a pod and when we arrived at the campsite it was all ready and waiting for us, complete with 3 camp beds inside!  Perfect!

We chilled when we got there on the Friday and cooked ourselves some burgers (Jo, the mum of the group bought an epic camping stove so we had burgers, bacon sandwiches, hot water for hot drinks and pot noodles etc – everyone else on the campsite was seriously jel).  We went and met up with the Rejam boys in the festival about 5ish and spent the whole night dancing and bantering.  The festival had 3 different tents with different acts as well as lots of shops, food places and a Shisha tent.  Friday night was the night I first encountered Shisha Bob, literally the fittest guy ever who looked like Russell Brand and worked in the Shisha place.  We went back to our tents that night ready to sleep but unfortunately had a group of annoying northerners were next to us with a really loud boom box therefore we slept for about an hour total :/ Saturday we woke up and decided to go to the Safari park, as free entry was included in the festival ticket.  The safari was epic, we got on little trucks and got driven to the top of a massive hill and on the way we saw all the usual animals; giraffes, rhinos, buffalos, weird ginger deer things.  It was ace.  Once at the top I totally fell in love with the view up there.  Although it was in Kent, when looking out over the safari park all you could see were fields for miles and miles until you spotted sea (well, the Channel) in the distance and it really gave the impression that you were actually in Africa looking out over the plains.  You could hire out a tent/room thing called an Elephant Lodge which was basically a tent with a wooden decking floor but kitted out with a proper doubled bed etc.  When you woke up in the morning and pulled the tent wall back you were basically faced with the sunrise over the amazing view.  I can only imagine how beautiful it would be to sit on the balcony of an Elephant Lodge while the sun is setting and that has totally made me determined to stay there one day!

The festival once again was ace on the Saturday night, very messy.  I decided to stay sober on the Sunday and drive us home that night instead of staying a third night in the Pod.  Although it’s classed as VIP luxury camping (or that hateful word glamping) it still wasn’t the most comfortable of places to sleep.  Sunday ended up being my most favourite day – the music in the Secret Sundayz tent totally smashed it and we had such a laugh.  Ended up leaving around 11ish and arrived home about 1am.  I spent all of Monday either sleeping or throwing up (always signs of a good weekend) before going out for a massive Chinese and DVD session with Dutch in the evening.   I spent quality time with some of my favourite people and met some lovely new friends too.  It really was an amazing weekend and the perfect way to finish off festival season.  If Carlsberg did weekends, they would have done this one...

Highlights have to be the following: 

• Accusing Dan of having PILLY WILLY, and then having to tell Charlie and Ellie what it meant
• Wearing my cow onsie on the Saturday night and no one batting an eyelid
• Playing pot noddle bowling with a super size box of cigarettes
• Being part of the Famous Five <3
• Having it so much all weekend that I ended up vomming my guts up all day on Monday
• Saying “to be fair” ALL THE FUCKING TIME
• Seeing Shisha Bob and imagining what our babies would look like
• Drinking Panda Punch, the strongest cocktail I have ever had (god knows what was in it)
• Having a red lipstick moustache while sitting on NPD’s back while he is dressed as a horse
• Finding, opening, locking and indulging in the contents of The Chest with Jo

 Here are some of my favourite pictures from the weekend

Pod Pads!  Before the Northerners happened

Our little Pod for the weekend



Me being drunk and eaten by a lion while Eden observes

  

The view!

The Famous Five! xxx

NPD doing his best David Beckham impression

Caine and I rocking our animal hats - they had PAWS and everything!

Loving life in my cow onsie and a moustache (clearly)

Me, Jo and Charlie xxx



The Rejam Family <3



Thanks to my awesome friends, old and new, for making this weekend one to remember.  I love every single one of you xx

Models Own Mirrorball Collection

It's finally hereeeeeeeeee!

I ordered the Mirrorball Collection from Models Own on Monday and have been eagerly awaiting it’s arrival all week. You’ll have to excuse the rushed pictures in this post, but as of 5pm this evening I will be in festival mode and will not have any other time to post this, plus I wanted to show you how amazing and awesome the polishes are before every other blogger in the entire world does!

The polishes come in 5 different colours and if you buy the set for £20 (as I did) you get the standard free top coat with it. You can never have too many top coats! The colours are as follows:



Boogie Nights
Clear top coat with pink, purple, blue and red hexagonal
and round glitter pieces - Predominantly purple effect



Dancing Queen
Clear top coat with green, blue, gold & yellow diamond
and round glitter pieces - Predominantly green effect

Disco Inferno
Clear top coat with gold, green, red and bronze round
and triangular glitter pieces - Predominantly gold effect

Hayleys Comet aka Freak Out!
Clear top coat with blue, pink, red and mint green triangular
straight and round glitter pieces - Predominantly blue effect



Hot Stuff
Clear top coat with red, pink, yellow and orange triangular,
round and square glitter pieces - Predominantly pink effect



I love glitter nail polish anyway, but this is the first glitter I have come across that is similar to my beloved OPI Rainbow Connection in that the glitter is all different shapes and sizes. I love the effect this gives and love that each of these polishes has different shapes, they aren’t all the same but different colours! As you can see from the description some have triangular shapes, others hexagonal etc. Overall this gives the impression that you haven’t just bought 5 of the same polishes in different colours, but you have truly bought 5 different polishes.

I haven’t had a chance to swatch on my nails as the festival nails got done last night (leopard print FYI) but I did a bit on the box the polishes came in so you can get a general idea of how they apply. I think each of them will take a few coats to really achieve a decent look, but they aren’t bad as a topping or a subsection with additional nail art. I cannot wait to try these out when I get home!

From left to right:
Boogie Nights, Disco Inferno, Hayleys Comet, Hot Stuff, Dancing Queen

The Mirrorball Collection is available from the Bottleshop in London Westfield or online at www.modelsownit.com.  They will also be sold in Boots nationwide from October 3rd.  £5 per polish or £20 for the set including top coat - get it while you can!

From tomorrow till Monday i’ll be at The Zoo Project Festival in Port Lymphe Wildlife Park in Kent, so will pretty much be out of action until at least Tuesday (hopefully otherwise it’s a weekend wasted!) Hope you like the polishes and I hope you all have an awesome weekend! x

UPDATE:  I spoke to my sister on the phone this morning who worked out that I had been sent a differnet nail polish colour with my Mirrorball Collection - turns out that Hayley's Comet isn't a Mirrorball colour, I should have received Freak Out instead!  I've spoken to Models Own about this who have advised that the labelling on some of the bottles was incorrect - Hayley's Comet is a unreleased colour as of yet, so although the label on my bottle is wrong, the colour of the polish is actually Freak Out - just in case you wondered why I was calling my polish something different to yours!