I recently got brought Sensationail as a Christmas present off my parents, my mom allowed me to test it out a week or so before Christmas to make sure that it works. So far I have used it three times using a different colour each time.


'The SensatioNail™ Starter Kit contains all you need for 10 perfect Gel Polish applications including 

the exclusive Pro 3060 LED Lamp to cure to a glossy, damage proof finish in seconds. Depending on 

amount used'


I got the red starter kit which comes with:

Led lamp & cable

red gel colour (scarlett red)

clear gel colour

primer

cleanser 

lint free pads

nail file 

cuticle stick

instructions 

The kit was brought from Boots for £80ish I think it was, my parents also brought me the remover liquid (£6) and the metal tool that helps remove the gel (£5).

It says that the kit allows you to have gel nail polish on for 2 weeks, after 2 weeks you could take it all off or just fill in the growth gap. 

For the first application I used the scarlett red with fake nail tips as my nails were quite short. I found the application to be very quick and easy to use, the only thing that took ages to do was cutting down and applying the nail tips. 

You get a step by step instruction leaflet that comes with the kit, but here is a quick step by step on what you have to do:

- first to file and cleanse the nails with the cleanser and lint free pad

- then add primer around the edges of the nail in a circle shape

- add a base coat with the clear gel, cap off the nail and cure for 30 seconds (the machine will beep at 30 seconds and turn off after 1 minute)

- add the first coat of the colour, cap off the nail and cure for 60 seconds

- add second coat of the colour, cap off the nail and cure for 60 seconds

- add top clear coat, cap off the nail and cure for 30 seconds

- wipe away the moisture using a lint free pad and the gel cleanser

As the lamp is small I can only fit in 4 fingers at once, I found it best to do the one hand first then the other as you are not meant to touch the nails until you have finished as there is a moisture layer which you need to wipe away at the end. 

Here is a photo of my first attempt, scarlett red with nail tips:

Second attempt using Midnight Rendevous (black):

Taking off the gel polish, I didn't buy the kit you can get which has foils I just made my own. I put some of the remover onto a cotton wool ball put this onto my nail then wrapped my nail/finger in foil, I left this on for a while then removed all of this. The polish was loose I just had to use the remover metal tool to help get off any stubborn bits:

Third attempt using Miss Behave (dark red)

For me the gel polish lasts just over a week, the first time one of the fake tips came off so I just took all of it off after about 1 week. The second time it was chipping slightly on about the 9th day, but this happened while I was at work. As I work at H&M I am constantly using my hands to put clothes back onto the hangers etc so they get knocked about a lot. The third time I have only just put on yesterday, it did chip today I accidentally bent my nail back while opening the fridge and so I just had to redo one nail. Apart from this it works really well, it stays on for ages, keeps its shine and my nails don't seem to be breaking as much! 

I am also using OPI's original nail envy as I was told by my cambridge diet consultant who is also a nail technician that this is good to help stop nails from breaking. My nails were very strong which meant that they were heavy so when they got to a certain length they would easily break because of the weight of them. I put the nail envy on before I do my nails, I put on two coats of this. You are meant to put this on every single day but as I have polish on I just do it before I redo my nails. Sometimes I have left my nails for a day or 2 and applied it every day. 

I have noticed that my nails seem more flexible which it is meant to do, normally if I had knocked them like I did earlier my nail would have broken, instead it was just the polish. They are currently at the length they would normally get to before they break off. A couple have broken in the past few weeks but they are more flexible than they were then so I am hoping they don't break again! I have heard of the tea bag trick when a nail starts to break, you put a tiny piece of tea bag over the clip so it seals it and holds it together, so I will try this when it happens. 

boots gel nails home manicure nail envy opi sensationail

07:39

'BABY SKIN PORE ERASER

• Bye bye pores!
• Baby poreless skin comes in one second.'
• Quote from maybelline website. 

Yesterday I brought the Maybelline baby skin pore eraser primer from Boots at £7.99, I had wanted to try it since I saw it advertised as I have a bit of trouble with my pores on my nose. Everywhere else seems to be easily covered by my foundation however my nose is a problem area. I have tried other primers to see if they can cover my pores but I haven't be able to find one that actually works. 

I tried the primer this morning, it comes in a light blue squeezeable bottle with a nib and the end where the product comes out, the primer is 'clear' and goes onto the skin clear.

I only put a tiny amount onto my nose as I don't need it anywhere else. I was really surprised as it seemed to work straight away my pores seem to blur away. I then put on my normal Revlon foundation with my real techniques brush and my pores seemed to disappear! I couldn't believe it! Goodbye pores!!! I plan to leave it on for the rest of the day and see if it is still the same at the end of the night. 

Lighting was weird for the first photo, without makeup on, pores are visible

Primer with foundation on top, normally pores are still visible. 

The only thing that I don't really like about the product is the packaging graphics, I do think it looks quite tacky aimed at teenagers rather than adults. Which if that is the market they were aiming for then I would say it does work but for me it just doesn't seem very grown up. It is the same type of packaging graphics for the Baby Lips lips balm which I have in pink punch. I think the graphics are very 'youthful' and not aimed at older women from 18 onwards. I prefer simple graphics on the products I buy, not too in your face and bold like the ones maybelline have on the Baby Lips and Skin items. 


End of the day: 

It is about 10pm and I have worn the makeup for about 12 hours. The pores are still blurred but my nose is slightly shiny. I forgot to take photos of this as I have just took my makeup off. Overall I am very impressed with the product as it seems to do exactly what it says on the bottle! 

baby skin boots first impressions maybelline pore eraser primer

14:50

I recently went to Boots to get a couple of things:

I firstly brought the Bleach London Reincarnation Mask for £6. My mom actually got a small bottle of this in the Bleach toner she recently used as I put a lighter dye on her hair and she needed something to tone it as it was quite orangey (the toner is pretty amazing!) As for the mask, I have been using it with my normal conditioner mixing the two together then putting it all over my hair and leaving it for about an hour. It says to leave it for 10-20 minutes but I prefer leaving it for longer. Once dry my hair feels so soft and smooth like it hasn't been bleached at all! Even my ends which were really dry went like this which I have never been able to get so soft before! It is such a good product I highly recommend it!

The concealer I had been using was from Collection I had been using the lasting perfection one but I had run out in the creme concealer and had been using the stick. I decided to go back to the creme concealer as I found that it was a lot better as my skin had become dry it was a lot easier to put on. I got the concealer in the lightest shade fair £4.19. 

I normally use a gel eyeliner pencil with a brush to put on my eyeliner, however I was finding that it wasn't going on as good as it used to. I had tried a felt tip liner before but I never really liked it, it was when they first came out and the colour turned from black to a weird black/green only after a few applications. However I decided to try it again as the tips are so thin it is a lot easier to build up the line rather and make a thin line than I was finding with the gel eyeliner pencil. I decided to get the felt tip liner from Collection as well as Extreme 24h felt top liner in black £2.99. I found that this eyeliner did exactly what it said, I wore it yesterday and it didn't smudge, it stayed on my eyelid and I managed to get a really nice thin line with it (image below).

As there was an offer on with Collection you got a free gift when you spent over £5 which was the Supersize mascara £2.99/free. As I had spent over £5 I got this for free. I did use this yesterday (image above) you can't really see that well I have mascara on but I do. I wasn't really impressed with this product, it was free which was a bonus but I couldn't just use this on its own. I found that it gave really good length but it made my lashes look long and thin, it stuck quite a few of the lashes together. I found that I had to use another mascara brush to separate the lashes but even this didn't turn out very well. The lashes still looked thin but quite long, therefore it is good for length but not very good if you want thick lashes. It does say it creates big lashes, if they mean long then yes it does but the thickness wasn't there which is what I want out of a mascara as well. 

Here is a closer image, as you can see the length is there with the lashes but they just look quite thin compared to how they normally look. Also with the liner I can finally do a thinner line! 

bleach london boots collection haul makeup

01:07

As we are now approaching winter I have noticed that my normal foundation that I use L'oreal True Match in Ivory Rose was getting too dark for my skin tone. It is not really dark but I can tell it no longer matches my skin as well as it does during the summer.

I went to Boots today (16th Nov) to take advantage of their 3 for 2 offer while I was there I tested out a range of different foundations to see which would match my skin the best. I saw the new Rimmel foundation on adverts and this was my first choice of foundation to get this was before I tried it. The lightest shade matched my skin tone, however it does seem quite thick and cakey which the advert is saying to avoid. Anyway I decided not to get this foundation which was annoying as it was a very good price. I normally like to go for cheaper foundations as I have been unemployed since leaving university in July, however now I have a job which I am starting next week I will be able to spend a bit more money on things instead of always going for the cheaper option. I am not saying that some of the cheaper options are bad, most of the lipsticks that I now own are either Collection or Natural Collection and they are really good! It will just allow me to branch out and try different more high end high street products that before I never thought about trying.

So on this trip to Boots I decided to do this, I had a look at the Revlon foundation I decided to get the Revlon Colorstay Makeup in the lightest shade that they had which was actually slightly lighter than my normal L'oreal foundation. They have two different options in the Boots that I went to, normal/dry and combo/oily. Now normally I would go for the combo/oily because my t zone can sometimes be a little bit oily however lately I have noticed it has gotten loads better and my skin in some areas can actually be quite dry, it is probably just the cold air that is making it do this!

I still had a look at both of the bottles and tested out both onto my hand. I noticed that even though they were exactly the same apart from the face type, the combo/oily was actually a tiny bit darker than the normal/dry. I don't really understand why the one would be darker than the other if they are the same foundation but just for a different skin type? I decided to get the normal/dry foundation not only because it was lighter but also because of my skin type changing because of the cold.

The price of the foundation was £12.49 which is the most I have spent on foundation, I hope it looks good! I haven't tested this out yet but I do plan to use it tomorrow so I shall take some photos and upload them into this post.

I also brought three other things while I was at Boots, a birthday present for my aunt which I shall not post on here. I also brought some Lipcote at £3.69 (but actually I got it for free as it was the cheapest thing I brought). As I have been wearing a lot of lipstick lately I want to keep it on my lips and not have it rub off while eating, drinking etc. Most of all when I start work next week I want to be able to wear lipstick without having to worry about it! So I decided to buy this product as I had heard some good reviews about it.

I also brought Collection Shimmer Shades at £4.19 as I wanted a bronzer and highlight this comes with three types of bronzers and a highlight I guess? I did want to buy the Sleek Contouring Kit in light however the Boots that I went to didn't have any Sleek products. I do plan on getting the Sleek Contouring Kit as well as the Collection Shimmer Shades is very glittery, it is more of a going out kit rather than an everyday kit. I will try it out tomorrow but I do still want the Sleek kit as well as you get a lot more of the product for just a few pounds more.

I plan on getting the Sleek Contouring Kit on Thursday as there is an even bigger Boots by my work so it should hopefully (fingers crossed) sell it.

(images to be added)

boots collection foundation haul lipcote makeup revlon

06:55

After seeing a few things in Primark the other day I decided to go back after uni and pick them up.

I do not normally wear shorts but I have wanted a pair of denim shorts for a while now. I came across these high waisted shorts in Primark. They aren't as high waisted as a pair of black shorts I have as they come up to my belly button but they fit me quite well. The sizing however is not that good, I had to buy the shorts two sizes bigger than what I would normally wear. I always find that Primark sizes are not that friendly to the curvy girl. I do not have massive curves, I have an hour glass figure but my hips are quite wide and the girls are quite big. I find it difficult at times to find tops that are in my size that fit the girls and bottoms that fit my hips. I think this is one of the reasons I wear leggings a lot.

The shorts are a light denim which I do not normally go for I normally go for a darker colour but these were the only denim shorts they had in the size I needed. The shorts have a long zip at the front and one button. No pockets at the front but two back pockets. There was also high waisted denim shorts in an even lighter blue but these had 3 buttons and a shorter zip. I preferred the ones I brought as I didn't really like the even lighter blue shorts.

The shorts were £8 which I think for a pair of high waisted shorts is quite good. There was some none high waisted shorts for £10 which if you think about it you are getting more material for less money.

I also brought this grey boyfriend style crop top. Once again the size I would normally get looked far too small. They didn't have many sizes so I ended up getting the top 3 times bigger than I normally would. The crop top is therefore really baggy which I am not sure about, but I guess because it is a boyfriend style it would be a bit baggy than a normal crop top. I think that I will have to get some more crop tops or just make my own. The top was only £3 as it is a plain crop top they do have other ones which have patterns on but I liked this one. The grey is a darker grey almost black, they did also have a range of other colours for the same price.

I have needed a new bag for a while now, at the moment I have a huge bag which my boyfriend refers to it as a doctors bag because it is so huge! I have been using this to carry all of my uni work which is useful but I haven't got a smaller bag which I can use when I am not going to uni. I found this black bag for £9, it is quite unusual as it zips around the top which is a half circle opening. This opening then flops down to the side, so the bag is a lot bigger than what it looks. I will try to show this as best as I can in photos! This was the only bag that I really liked the look of, the other bags were not as big for even more money. So I just decided to get this one as I desperately needed a smaller bag.

I also popped into Boots on my way home from uni as I needed some shampoo, however I got side tracked and ended up buying things I didn't really need oops!

I sometimes use purple shampoo by Touch of Silve to keep my blonde a nice colour, before I have brought the once a week treatment but they didn't have any so I just brought the everyday shampoo. It was on offer 2 for £4 so I brought two and gave one to my mom because she wanted to try it out.

As I walked into my local boots there was a stand for this new product which I haven't seen in there before it was for a nail polish brand called Sinful Colors it is an American brand hence the spelling of colours. There were loads of different shades of nail varnish a lot of the shades reminded me of Barry M. I decided to pick up two colours a pale yellow and a pale blue. I have these colours in Barry M but in the textured effect I wanted them in a normal nail polish anyway so I thought I would try them out. The bottles remind me of the China Glaze bottles, I have never tried the China Glaze nail polish so I do not know if the Sinful Colors are as good or not. The Sinful Colors were £1.99. I think that the names of the colours are very cute, the yellow is called unicorn and the blue is called sugar rush.

I also have wanted to buy some exfoliating gloves for a while, I decided to get the Soap & Glory ones as I couldn't find any of Boots own make ones in the shop. The Soap & Glory exfoliating gloves were the same price as another brand which I can't remember the name of. The Soap & Glory gloves felt like they were rougher which would exfoliated more so I decided to pick these up even though I am not a huge fan of pink and they are very pink! These were £4 which I thought was quite good for Soap & Glory as normally I find their products to be a bit more on the expensive side.

beauty boots haul primark

12:31

Yesterday I popped into town with a friend to get a few things from Primark. I mainly went to get my mom one of her presents for her birthday, she wants some pj bottoms. I am not going to show the things I brought for my mom because I am not sure if she would want me to show them or not. Anyway here are the things that I brought for myself:

I brought myself some plain black pumps for £3 as I needed some new ones and a man's plain black tshirt for £3 I think it was, as I do not have any old clothes that I can stick on to do some painting in. These aren't very interesting so I didn't take a photo of this.

I brought this 3D manicure set. It comes with a nail polish colour and tiny beads with a funnel. The idea is that you paint on the nail polish colour and when the nail polish is still wet you pour on the beads and press down so the beads are stuck onto your nail. This was £2.50 which isn't that bad really. It comes in a few different colours, this one which is a more cream colour, a black and white bead and a pastel multi colour bead. I think I may go back for the pastel multi colour bead or even just order some beads off eBay and use them.

I also brought these nail wraps for £1 each, the rose ones where actually in a 50p section but apparently they weren't 50p they were £1. You get 20 in each pack so you can either do your hands and toes or two lots of hands and two lots of toes. I love the dot design, I am not 100% sure on the rose ones but I decided to get them anyway. There are also quite a few different leopard print ones and a glitter one as well. For £1 it is worth a try anyway!

I brought these earrings that were in the sale, I think that they look quite Egyptian which I love and they were £2.50 reduced to £1 so I decided to get them. 

I also went to Boots as I needed to pick up a few things for my mom, but it is also my friends birthday next week. She loves the Soap and Glory selection. I was going to get her a gift set which had 3 or 4 travel sized Soap and Glory items in it. However Boots were doing a 3 for 2 on Soap and Glory items so I decided just to get them individually as I could get 6 for the price of the gift set. The gift set was £10 and the Soap and Glory travel sized items were £2.50 each. So it worked out better this way. I got my friend a body scrub, shower gel, body butter and body wash, plus myself two of the body scrubs. I may keep these for myself as they smell amazing or I may keep them for presents. 

beauty boots haul primark

01:43

I have recently been to Boots a few times, Primark and H&M this is what I picked up:

From Boots it was still 3 for 2 thank god so I picked up two pots of the Lee Stafford hair treatment that I have been using as the product seems to be working really well for me I decided to get some more. Although I could of brought 3 pots for the price of 2 I decided to get something else as my free purchase.

I picked up a Aussie 3 minute deep conditioning treatment, my friends had told me that they are really good, I have never really tried anything from the Aussie brand so I thought I would get a hair mask as I do love a good hair mask. As soon as I got home I opened it to see what it smelt of. My god it smells beautiful!!! Can't wait to put this on my hair.

Another trip to Boots I decided to treat myself to some new nail varnish, I have been wanting some pale blue nail varnish for a while now so I decided to pick some up. I decided to get the textured nail effects in the colour Atlantic Road by Barry M. It is £3.99 which isn't bad for some nail varnish really.

I often go for the Barry M nail varnishes when I go to Boots because I find that they have a wonderful range of colours. I normally get them when they are on offer, which they were, if you brought two Barry M nail varnishes you got £1 off I think it was. I did like the look of the yellow and I was actually going to buy the yellow in the texture effect because I fancied something different to having normal shiny nails. However with the yellow it has tiny gold bits in it, I am not a gold person. Nothing wrong with the colour I am just not a huge fan, I would rather have silver jewellery or a vintage brass type colour. I wasn't so keen on having gold bits on my nails. So I therefore decided against it, I looked at the other range of colours that they have in the collection and none of them seemed to have any gold bits in it so why have this just for the yellow?

I decided to get a clear coat as well as mine had run out. I picked up the Base coat, Top coat and Nail Hardener as it was in the offer so I thought I might as well. I don't know if it does make my nails harder as well but we shall see! It is £2.99 normally.

I also picked up some blush, I have used the natural collection blush in Rose Cloud for so long now I don't actually know when I first started using it. I never used to wear blush when I was younger, as I quite liked being pale and not having much colour in my cheeks. I think that when I did put blush on my face I didn't have a nice shade that suited me. With this shade of pink it is just right, it is not too dark nor too light it is a lovely shade of pink that shows up just right on my face. It is also cheap which is a bonus! £1.99 for some blush.

Speaking of blush I did see this beautiful pinky/orange blush palette in H&M it was I think £2.99, I am not sure on the price but it is cheap. I am defiantly going to pick it up if I remember next time I am in there.

From Primark I just got a few things, I picked up a grey men's hoodie. I find that the men's hoodies are a lot baggier than the women's which I prefer. Also the men's seemed a lot softer than the women's for some reason. I was going to get it in a small but I decided to get it in a medium just so it is extra baggie. I brought it to wear around the house and maybe to the supermarket or something when it is warmer. It was £10 which isn't bad at all for a hoodie. It is so comfy to wear as well, I put it on as soon as I got home and changed into my comfy clothes, I do not want to take it off! It is quite thin and it has a thin fleece lining but it is so comfy and it does keep me warm so it is perfect. (I forgot to take a photo of this so I shall do another day).

I also picked up this letter top which I have seen a few of the beauty youtubers that I follow purchase. It is a square sort of shape with rolled up sleeves. I got it in a larger size than what I would normally get just because I prefer things to be bigger and longer. The material is very see through so you would need to wear a top underneath or one of those bandeau type tops. It still isn't as long as normal tops that I would buy as it is quite short but I thought I could put it with a maxi skirt or some shorts and it would be fine. The top was £12, I was surprised at the price as normally Primark tops aren't that expensive, their prices seem to be increasing lately. Has anyone else noticed?!

I picked up this orange maxi skirt as soon as I saw it I knew that I had to get it! I wasn't having much luck in Primark until I saw this skirt. Myself and my friend had gone around the bottom and first floor and this skirt was right by the escalator on the top floor and I loved it! I have two other maxi skirts that  are both black one is straight up and down and the other is pleated. The orange is quite bright it is almost sort of a burnt orange not too in your face but it is still a nice pop of colour to add to my wardrobe. I could wear it with some darker tops as I mainly do have quite dark tops anyway. The material looks as if it would be see through like the top I brought but it isn't at all. This is good because I can get away with wearing this in the summer with bare legs and some shoes or even on the colder days with some tights and boots. The skirt was £10 which isn't that bad for a maxi skirt that is quite thick.

On another trip into town I decided to invest in the yellow Barry M textured nail varnish, I know I said I wasn't too keen about having the gold bits in but it has been on my mind since I had brought the blue one. I found that nail varnish to be great, I really love it (I shall do a review on both once I have worn both). So I decided that I would give in and buy the yellow one, Station Road! I am glad I did and I can't wait to wear it! £3.99

I popped into H&M as well while I was in town getting a few things for uni. My cousin had posted on her facebook a photo of herself wearing a maxi grey dress. She told me it was from H&M and was only £10, she said it came in quite a few colours. I have wanted a maxi black dress since last summer. I remember seeing some in H&M but they never had my size so I never got a chance to get one. So I decided I would grab one while they might still have my size. I looked at the ones that my cousin had told me about but the material was thin, I did try on a grey one as the black the material was far too thin. However even the grey one you could see my underwear so this was a defiant no no for me! There was a slit each side of the dress as well but the material was so thin I didn't feel very comfortable in it.

While I was walking around H&M I saw this other maxi dress in their basics range, thicker material but a little bit shorter than the grey one my cousin had told me about with no splits. They have four colours in this dress, black, grey, blue and a white and blue patterned one. A basic straight up straight down maxi dress with a scooped neck. I tried it on and I loved it, I decided to get it in a bigger size than what I tried on just because it would be more flowy. I didn't want to be walking around in the summer with a not too tight dress on boiling hot I want it to flow and allow the air to circulate. I tried it on when I got home and I felt much more comfortable in it. I will need to invest in a plain black bra though because you can see a bit of my bra when I put it on. This dress was a bit more money, it was £12.99 but I am glad I found a nice black maxi dress at last!

While I was in H&M I picked up the blush I spoke about above. It was only £2.99 so not that expensive and you get a range of colours in the blush. Orange, corals, pinks and glitter! I opened it up when I got home as it was sealed in a little plastic bag at the shop. If you lift up the blush powder there is a mirror on the other side with a brush to apply the blush with. I won't be using this as I prefer to use my Real Techniques brush set to apply my blush with.

beauty boots clothes haul HM primark

07:03