Nails Inc Autumn Winter 2013 Spills

These are really lush colours.. and on a wintery, horrible day like today where it’s hailing in May, they look just about right for now!

Nails Inc Autumn Winter 2013

Its a while since I used a Nails Inc polish and I’d forgotten how glossy they are.

Nails Inc Autumn Winter 2013

So from left to right: St Martin’s Lane, Old Bond Street, Regent Street and Oxford Street. Oxford Street I think will be the surprise hit – it doesn’t look much in the bottle but once out it’s a gorgeous deep nude suede shade. No further info for now, but I’ll keep you posted!

L’Oreal Nail Care Group

This is, I believe, L’Oreal Paris’ first foray into nail care, with the hero product being 7 in 1 Saviour with Argan that promises results in seven days. According to the info I have here, after 14 days nails feel 100% smoother, which is an odd claim. However, it’s the other products, Grow Beautiful, Diamond Force and 2-in-1 Protect which I am more interested in. The one that’s right for me is Grow Beautiful because it’s specifically for fragile, brittle nails, whereas Diamond Force is more for soft and weak nails. Mine are too hard, and the ends can literally just ping off! Urgh.

L’Oreal Nail Care

However, watch out for the old ‘big-box-small-bottle’ trick with these when they launch for £5.99 each in June.

Cinq Mondes Face Mask

I’m such a fan of Cinq Mondes – it’s lack of availability is very frustrating because it’s really a super brand: if you do want to get hold of it in the UK, it’s the old fashioned way – telephone 02078413578. Talk about making it hard for themselves.

The big sell for me is that it’s 3 minutes to a soft and brighter complexion. It certainly does work – you can feel it tingling – and it feels like it works powerfully. A combo of AHAs and glycolic acid gives an immediate brightening effect. It’s £49 which sounds expensive but believe me, you don’t need much!

Estee Lauder Nutritious Radiant Vitality Two Step Treatment.

This is such a great idea! Part of the new to the UK Nutritious range, this is a double action mask with two elements – detoxifying clay and then a nutrient infusion gel. The power ingredient is pomegranate and my favourite thing in the world, hyaluronic acid.

Estee Lauder Nutritious Radiant Vitality Two Step Treatment

I have put it out to try over the weekend because I could definitely do with some radiance! It’s £46 HERE.

Dune Jetsetter

I love a neon splash against nude.. it’s the perfect combination to be bang on trend and stylish at the same time. I’ve been eyeing up these Jetsetters from Dune but haven’t made the splash because I’m so short I need a little bit of a heel.. just a little one! Other than the heel issue these are just about perfect. They’re HERE.

L’oreal Sublime Bronze Exfoliator

Right, this is both good and bad. It’s easily one of the best exfoliators I’ve ever used (thanks to AHAs which really do leave skin feeling outrageously smooth and soft) but I really don’t like the message ‘Tan Optimiser’. There isn’t anything tan optimising about it other than exfoliated skin tans a bit better. I feel that by labelling it ‘Tan Optimizer’ it rather suggests that there might be more to it such as melanin enhancer or even some kind of self tan involved and there isn’t. It’s just an exfoliator, but oh my goodness, such a good one!

I totally recommend it although I’m finding it hard to identify the slight scent – I sort of recognise it but can’t quite put my finger on it. It’s both warm in a skin-scent way and rather fresh. The consistency is a gel-like formula with quite firm granules (so if you don’t like a brisk exfoliator then avoid – and also if you are sensitive to AHAs then you might also want to give it a miss).

It’s going into Superdrug and Tesco next week for £7.99. It’s stuff like this – that does a brilliant job for a decent price – that makes me raise my brows at the ‘luxury’ exfolitors knocking around for £25 and more. There’s definitely a ‘because they’re not worth it’ joke in there but …

Montange Jeunesse Body Products

More famous for their face masks, this is the first Montagne Jeunesse foray into body care. Montagne Jeunesse as it turns out translates as Mountain Youth. Who knew? !

So, I have to say they are extremely fruity smelling – but because they don’t follow the usual stereotype of fruity flavoured beauty, they aren’t as obvious as you might think. I mean, who knows what a Goji Berry smells like? I don’t. But they’re going to have a broad appeal I think for those who like sweet and fruity butters and scrubs. They’re quite inventive really, with Black Raspberry, Buriti, Acai and Goji and a change from the usual suspects, coconut, vanilla  or chocolate. In texture, they’re much like you’d expect from a Body Shop body butter (as a comparison) and they certainly do the hydrating job, leaving my skin feeling totally moisturised. I think a lot will depend upon whether you can live with the scents on your skin. My instincts tell me they’re aimed at a young market who like that confectionary-fruity combination, but it’s also a bit more sophisticated than that. Hard to put my finger on it really.

I should also add that this is a prime example of some very good marketing. It’s no secret that we (journalists and bloggers) are sent ‘incentives’ from time to time, usually in the form of a gift of chocolates, flowers, etc, but these body products came in a massive box full of fruit with a blender. I was sitting in my hall surrounded by bananas and blueberries thinking what a fabulous idea. Now, given that I don’t think I have ever reviewed a Montagne Jeunesse product in my life before, it certainly gave me the push to at least have a proper look at the offering.

And the reason I say that is that while I like to think I can’t be persuaded, I was and I’d rather be open about it. It didn’t make me feel obliged to feature them, but it did make me look and try which then led to me thinking actually, yes, these are worth talking about.

Generally, I prefer not to be pressured with incentives but in this instance it was a win-win because I hate the feeling of obligation but in fact this was such a wholesome thing, with fruit, not massively luxury whatevers, that the whole thing worked. Nice.

L’oreal Paris Neon Pop Nails

I love this collection of popping neons from L’Oreal Paris. I should say they aren’t exactly what I would put in a true neon category but they are colours that come to life on the nails.

L’Oreal Neon Pop Wheel

Love a nail wheel. It’s hours of fun, and if you ever wondered how to do the yellow nail look with a bit of style, this is it. I’m going to do it when I’ve finished my week long test of Vinylux.

L’Oreal Neon Pop Wheel

Or, forget the coloured French – go all rainbow like this (I think they were applied with a sponge) – I’m kind of tempted to try this look too but a little bit worried I might be mistaken for a children’s TV presenter .

I have to say that I really like the bottle sizes of these.. just enough to work the trend for the moment it exists and no more. I would far rather run out of polish than be left with lots that will never get used, and they’re £4.99 which is a good enough price point to make you feel you aren’t breaking the bank.

So, colour wise, the line up is as follows: Banana Pop (yellow), Flashing Lilac (purple), Acid Watermelon (pink) and Wasabi Hint (green) and Snow in Megeve (white). These all launch in June although some are already on the Boots site HERE.

Body Shop Honey Bronze Shimmer Lip Balm

This is the sweetest thing – a little hive style, honey infused balm from Body Shop.

Body Shop Honey Bronze Shimmer Lip Balm

It smells quite honey-ish and uses Community Fair Trade honey from the Western Ethiopian Highlands where bees forage on wild trees and plants.

Body Shop Honey Bronze Shimmer Lip Balm 004

The balm itself has the lightest of shimmers, but it’s definitely there and on the lip is almost see-through so you could add it over the top of lipstick to give some sparkle.

Body Shop Honey Bronze Shimmer Lip Balm

Directly on the lip it does make them slightly paler initially, but that wears away quite quickly and you are left with just the glitter (a no-no for me, but great for glitter lovers).

It’s £6 – not quite launched yet, but coming soon.

Philip Kingsley One More Day

I expect I’m in the majority of people who often leaves washing their hair that one day too long. I hate washing my hair.. it’s one of the most boring things I ever do. But at the same time I like having squeaky clean hair all the time. Dilemma!

So, while dry shampoo comes in handy, the newest launch from Philip Kingsley is a dry shampoo with a bit of a difference – it’s more than just a fast fix for the time poor – because it’s got active ingredients that look after the scalp and hair. Most dry shampoos are a blast of rice-starch or similar with nothing much extra added in – One More Day has Allantoin and Bisabolol to soothe itchy and flaky scalps and Zinc PCA for anti-flake and sebum absorption as well as rice-starch.

It’s launching into M&S Beauty in June for £13.50 (200ml) and a mini size (50ml) for £5.95.