Thursday 30 August 2012

August Wish List


Some products I'd love right now, I would make this a weekly wants but with my bank balance I think I'll be wanting them for a while! From left to right:

Lush Soft Coeur massage bar- I've smelt this in the shop and it smells delicious, I would just use it to moisturise after a shower, yummy.

Revlon Colourburst Lip Butter- I'm looking for a lovely moisturising lipstick with nice colours, this one has had excellent reviews.

Benefit Boo Boo Zap!- I've had terribly red and inflamed spotty skin recently and I want to see if this does the trick.

Essie 'Bikini So Teeny' Nail Polish- I've been eyeing up essie for a while now and this colour is lovely.

Benefit 'How to look the best at everything' flawless complection make up set- I love the benefit sets to experiment with the different products, this new one tempts me.

Benefit they're real! mascara- I love dramatic looking lashes.

Soup and Glory hand food- I love the smell and my hands are thirsty at the moment!

Essie 'Set in Stones' Nail Polish- I love this effect!

What products are tempting you at the moment?

Primark Nail Polish Review

I was tempted by these Primark nail varnish because I liked the look of the colours. Now, I know what you're thinking, what can be expected from £2 for four, really? Well not much. I didn't expect these to blow me away but have tried other budget varnishes like Natural Collection and been impressed so I thought I'd see whether these were up to much.

Sorry about the bad picture.


The shades don't have names or numbers but there is a pinky one, a purple one, a turquoise and a blue!

I tried them without a base coat or top coat first. They applied quite well and I liked the colours, the purpley one did lack pigment though and needed a few coats.
But the colours were pretty much all they had going for them, and the fact that they don't stain your nails. They went on shiny but dried quite matte and seemed to attract dust and show up ridges in the nails, not the glossy look you hope for.



They're not terrible but not surprisingly, you definitely get what you pay for. I did try using a top and base coat but it didn't really help.

Verdict- Not worth buying. I'll be spending more in future for a more luxury feel.

Has anybody else tried Primark nail polish?





Wednesday 29 August 2012

Wonder product: Bourjois Magic Nail Polish Remover

Yes, I did just say this was a wonder product! I have fallen in love with this.This product is a little pink pot which claims to remove nail polish at 1 second per nail without cotton. Now, before we continue I must agree with other reviews and say that it does not take 1 second, it's longer. However, the process of taking polish off with this is much simpler and cleaner than using liquid and cotton wool.


The pot contains a sponge soaked with the solution, there is a whole in the middle which you put your finger in and twist. 

A plus to this product is the smell- red fruit and vanilla. Smelling it directly out of the pot is too overpowering but once used on your fingers it settles to a really lovely smell, much better than regular remover. The product also has nourishing sweet almond oil and I do think my nails seem healthier after using it in comparison.

Product Test
I tested the product with some nail art I had on.


First twist in the pot- approx 3 seconds.

after second twist- again about 3 seconds


Not bad! I should point out I had 4 layers of polish (including base and top coat) and nail art on top so this was much quicker than it would have been.
I would recommend this to anyone as a quicker, cleaner and better smelling way to remove polish.

Note- other reviewers have claimed glitter polish is a no-no as it gets stuck in the sponge and comes off on your finger in future uses.

Note- Do not tip it! The liquid drips out!

Recent Purchases

Hello, Welcome again to my new blog!
This post is a review of some products that I have recently bought.

So the first thing is a concealer. I had been using Benefit's Confessions of a concealaholic set since April and was loving both shade 1 and 2 of Boiing concealer on different areas of my face. But it was running out so I headed to the Benefit counter, however, I wanted to carry on using two shades and didn't really want to spend £33 since Boiing is £16.50. So, I looked around and found this-

Soap&Glory's Kick Ass Concealer
 which incluses 'under eye brightening concealer with 'Puffease', Superwear face concealer and sealing powder.


The sides label steps 1, 2 and 3. So after I've put my foundation on I use the under eye concealer on the right, the face concealer on the left then use the puff and translucent setting powder.


(sorry the photo was taken after I used it!)

I actually really love this product, It's hard to tell whether the setting powder does make the concealer and foundation stay on longer but it makes my skin feel soft and smooth. I'm sold on this alternative as it is much cheaper.
Boots Price: £7 

Ecotools Bamboo foundation brush

So I bought this recently and love how soft and easy to use it is, the texture is brilliant for foundation and I can't see myself using any other brushes. I would say go and feel one in the shop, I don't think you'll be disappointed!



Boots Price: £7.99

Ecotools Bamboo 6 piece brush set

At the time I bought the foundation brush I also bought a cheaper brand blusher brush and found it really harsh on my face. So I returned and bought this set which contains- Blusher brush, concealer brush, eyeshadow brush, angled eyeliner brush and lash and brow groomer.





I was not disappointed! These brushes feel so nice and work really well for their purpose. The concealer brush is a different texture like the foundation brush but all are really soft and lovely to use. I think it's definitely worth spending more money on these, and the set is a good deal.


Boots Price: £15.99

Aussie 3 Minute Miracle Reconstructor Deep Conditioner 

I've had this before and it does wonders for my hair. However, using it too often makes it greasy so I only use it every 2/3 weeks, hence I got the travel size. This makes my hair smell yummy and just makes it feel all soft and nourished.

Travel size price: £1.69 (I think)

St Moriz Instant self tanning mousse

So I recently broke my fake tanning virginity. Well, kind of. I've used moisturising gradual tanners before but ended up with horrible orange patches and streaks so I was scared to try the real deal. Anyway, a friend told me she uses this and thinks it's as good as the more expensive brands (St Tropez.etc.) so at £4 I thought i'd give it a go.

Verdict- Pretty good! I used it with a mitt on my legs and it applied relatively easy and smoothly, I followed the instructions on the bottle about moisturing.etc. So I'm quite impressed, it dried pretty quickly and actually doesn't look that faded after a shower, since it is only temporary. I think I may get into the habit of using this. I bought it from a factory shop and my friend says you can get it from Home Bargains.etc. There is also a lotion and spray available.


Price: £4

There we go, I hope you liked this post and look forward to more!




Tuesday 28 August 2012

V Festival


Last Saturday I went to V festival, I made the conscious decision to get a day ticket to avoid camping! I've never festival-ed before but I really enjoyed it!

Highlights:
The sun- It shone for us all day
Everybody seems to be in a good excitable mood
Brilliant live acts- Olly Murs, Pixie Lott, Madness and the Killers
You can sing loudly and badly because everybody is!


Lowlights- 
Drunk people
Litter
Toilets and people relieving themselves against the fence (male and female!)
It's impossible to take good pictures so far away from the stage

Oh...and leave before the end and don't leave the car! It took us 2 and a half hours to get home (a 30 minute journey).



It felt closer than it looks...

Wednesday 22 August 2012

Welcome!

Welcome to my new Beauty Blog!
This blog is for reviews of beauty products I've been trying and what I think of them!

The name that I chose is Bellini Beauty as I discovered Bellini (the drink) in Italy last summer and I thought it was a unique name, what do you think?

I'm excited to enter into the beauty blogger world as I've been following other bloggers for a while now and it looks fun!

Thursday 9 August 2012

Acrylic painting

After a recent visit to the Rolf Harris exhibition in Liverpool I was inspired to paint with acrylics.
I bought a starter set and some canvases to have a play with. I decided to base a painting on 'Uluru Sunset' by him.


I started off my doing the background of the sunset using the colours he had used.


I was really pleased with how it turned out but then had to have a go at adding something in the foreground. I decided to only add one tree which started bare and almost symmetrical.


Then I added more spindely, uneven branches to give a more natural finish and decided to leave it at that! I could have added autumn leaves to make it softer but I liked the striking silhouette.


I'm very pleased with this as a first attempt, what do you think?



Yankee wax tarts


I recently purchased a very pretty Yankee Candle Wax Tart Burner. Now, I must admit I had a bit of a fail with this: I saw them in the shops and bought a few wax tarts to try in my current oil burner as I thought 'It'll do the same thing right?'. Well, yes it made the room smell lovely but the wax didn't evaporate or go anywhere! I also couldn't remove the wax disc so was a bit stuck.

But, because I loved the smells I bought myself one of Yankee Candle's own wax tart burners and gave that a go! You can see that the wax tart is melted by a tealight at the bottom (that lights up the pattern). It seemed to work the same as my oil burner by spreading the lovely smell but the wax not going anywhere! After googling this I found that this is supposed to happen, the smell runs out after about eight hours then you just pop the cooled wax in the bin and start another!

In the dark!

This being found, the wax actually comes out of this burner and the smells are so good that I don't mind! So I've been trying some of the huge variety of scents.


So I started off with Peach&Mango Salsa and Fruit Fusion which were nice and fruity. Then I had Passionfruit which was nice but not very strong. I'm now on my second French Vanilla because it's just delicious!

The other three in the picture are yet to be sampled, Right now I'm in heaven burning the Black Cherry wax tart which is definitely my ultimate favourite and is so so delicious!

I would recommend the tarts as they are quite good value for the amount of scent you get from them at £1.20 each. The only downside is that the wax doesn't actually evaporate, the scent just becomes lost. However, It's nice to be able to pop the disc out to swap the smell at any time.