New Orly Primetime and Polishield

 There is a famous quote "By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail" and this is true of nails too. Applying polish to nails that have not been prepped is a chipped nail waiting to happen! In the past I thought that a good quality basecoat would be an adequate foundation for a lasting paint job. 

 This was until I was presented with Orly's new product Primetime. It is a primer for natural nails that balances out the ph levels of the nail and removes any oil or moisture for maximum adhesion. Now a primer has been used in nail extension process for years and it only makes sense that this product will help to make polish last longer.  I will give it a go and report back. 

Orly Primetime  is available for £6.24 inc vat.

  Orly have also introduced a new 3 in 1 topcoat called Polishield. Polishield provides UV protection, a high shine protective chip - proof finish and is also a quick dry treatment. I did have a sneaky try of this topcoat on my nails and it is really nice. It is a slightly thinner topcoat and goes on really smoothly, it has a nice high gloss and dry really quickly. It could become one of my hero products!  


Orly Polishield  is available for £6.24 inc vat.

I am going to have to try each product separately, to see how well each product works (in it's own right) but if you did want both products it is available in a Mini Mani Treatment Trio for £10.80 inc vat 

Soap & Glory Flake Away Body Scrub

For Christmas I was a very lucky girl and got the Soap & Glory Big Pink Tote bag, which was packed with goodies. So I thought I would review one of the exfoliating scrubs. I decided to try Flake Away which is described as "Skin smoothing spa body polish with Shea Butter, sweet almond oil, peach seed powder, sea salt and sugar".

So the scrub looks like sticky sand, but smells of almondy sweets I would say is smells girly. My other half actually commented on how nice I smelt after I used it so that is also a plus point. Its quite hard to say what the amount you should use as it all depends on what area you are using it on, but for a leg I would say a generous scoop. The grains in the scrub are not too rough and slowly dissappear as it is rubbed in.

 Gwyneth Paltrow must have tried it too.

The scrub did exfoliate my skin really well it did not feel to rough, but it felt like it was actually working. On the instructions it says you should rinse well and this is not suggestion. It left a greasy film on my skin and I assume it is just the almond oil, but it was not really a nice feeling. I did managed to get the film off my skin and it did feel smooth and soft to touch.

Overall the scrub works well to soften the skin while it exfoliates, but the sticky greasy residue means I cannot recommend this product.

If you really want to try this product for yourself Soap & Glory Flake Away is available from Boots and ASOS for £6.65.

Tigi Urban Antidotes

      In Jan 2009 Tigi was bought out by Unilever and instantly the rumours went round that Tigi would be put in supermarkets and Boots. A year has gone by and none of this has happened (yet!) What has happened is a big rebrand of their Bed Head & Catwalk range.

      Its seems gone are the days of unusual product names such as Moisture Maniac, Control Freak and Self Absorb. They are to be replaced with the more mature Urban Antidotes.
    
      The Urban Antidotes comes in 3 strengths; Re-energise, Recovery & Resurrection. Re-energise is for normal hair, it helps boost shine and strength. Recovery is for dry damaged hair, that needs a moisture kick and Ressurection is for really dry, brittle hair that needs saving! As with all of the new Tigi lines they are sulphate free and will not fade your colour.
  
  I decided that although my hair is bleached and highlighted regulary it is not yet suffering level 3 damage, so I have opted to test Urban Antidotes level 2 Recovery. The shampoo itself is very thick and smells of sweets, you only need a 10p size blob to get a really rich and creamy lather. The retail size bottle is 250ml so it will last a long time. The conditioner has the same smell and is a more creamy consistancy but you also do not need a lot of it to smooth through the hair. I always leave conditioner on for 2-3mins before rinsing to let it infuse the hair. As soon as I started to rinse the hair I could feel how silky and detangled my hair was, it also felt thicker and stronger. After blow drying my hair it was shiney and healthy looking and I was really impressed with the results. I would recommend the range and I was tempted to get some Level 3 Ressurection conditioner to maybe use as a weekly booster treatment, but as it seems to work so well I won't need it!
  

 Urban Antidotes comes in retail (shampoo 250ml & conditioner 200ml) and also in Value 750ml size.
Urban Antidotes Shampoo 250ml £5.76 (inc vat)
Urban Antidotes Conditioner 200ml £6.30(inc vat)
  
Tween 750ml Shampoo & Condtioner Duo Packs £16.80 (inc vat)

China Glaze Crackle Glaze.

Today I got an exciting email in my inbox, China Glaze are producing a crackle glaze much like the Barry M's Instant Nail Effects but this comes in Six colours!! Now the product has not been imported into the UK yet so it could be a couple of weeks before I can get my talons on it, But I just had to tell everyone about it! When it does arrive I will do a product review and I will do a comparison against Barry M's Instant Nail Effects.

Rather than just teasing you with just one crackle colour, there will be a total of SIX amazingly fun colours!  The six different Crackle colours will include: Black Mesh (black crackle), Lightening Bolt (white crackle), Broken Hearted (pink crackle), Cracked Concrete (grey crackle), Crushed Candy (teal crackle) and Fault Line (purple crackle).

Ibd Gelac - 14 day Manicure

So one of the most innovative products to hit the Nail market in 2010 is the hybrid gel polish. It is a UV gel polish which is applied like a normal polish, but is cured under a UV lamp, making it smudge proof, chip proof and lasts over 14 days! Nearly every brand has brought out there own version and today I am going to try IBD's Gelac.

It was quite a long process :

• Clean and prep nails
• Use ibd dehydrate
• Apply Gelac base coat cure for 1 min
• Apply Gelec cure for 2 min
• Apply 2nd coat, cure for 2mins
• Apply Gelac topcoat and cure for two mins
• Use uv wipe off to remove sticky film and finally finished.

The whole process took less than and hour and to be honest when you have it done at a salon it would be much less, as the nail tech can apply to one hand whilst the other is in the lamp.

Conclusion.
As this was a sample kit that I was sent I did not get to choose the colour and they sent me a dark burgandy red called Rich Raisin. It is not really a colour I would choose myself but it is acceptable. The high shine finish on the nails is pretty amazing and is nothing you would get from a standard topcoat. Also as soon as the polish is cured it is instantly dry so no smudging! I can't count the number of times I have perfectly painted my nails only to smudge it 3 mins later when I thought t was dry.
So overall it was easy to apply and gives a great finish, brilliant! Now it all depends on how long it lasts?

Hello World!!

I have decided to become a blogger and tell you about all the Beauty products and goodies that I have the good fortune of sampling and buying.
Depending on the product and how much I like it will dictate how much I write about it. I thought I could try and review one product a week but I'm not making any promises :).
As I said, some of the items I get as samples but this will not reflect on the review of the product.
I will also give you links to websites where you can purchase the items.
Thats it!
Hope you like it :)