Ironing Out The Wrinkles

This year I turned 30. Over time I have noticed my skin look a little sad and dull no matter what I tried or used. The ageing bug has not been very kind to me. Fine lines under and around the eyes, deep furrows appearing between the brows and either side of my mouth being the biggest complaints I have. My mother likes to call them laughter lines, it shows that I am enjoying life. I may enjoy life but I don't enjoy getting older.

I had been hearing about a product that other friends in the beauty industry have been using with incredible results, according to them it was 'Botox in a bottle' and this certain face oil worked wonders on plumping the skin giving a fresh, youthful, wrinkle free appearance. Not sure if this was true or just overly hyped up I thought it was worth at least trying.

The product is Helenere - Maitrise Du Temps. 

The price tag, £173 for a pack of 5 - 10ml bottles. I can imagine jaws dropping about now.
I had no idea starting this adventure to younger skin that it came at such a high cost. However, for the sake of looking ten years younger I took the leap in Feb of this year and paid the price. 7 months in and I regret nothing, I would repurchase this pack in a heartbeat when the time comes that I run low.
Stopping the ageing clock and winding it back, this succeeds with top marks, having never had Botox I cannot tell you if it is anything comparable but what I can tell you is my eye area looks the same as it did at 20; smooth, wrinkle free and it even helped with a hood that was sagging down over my eyelid.
My fine lines are perfectly plumped out and even, my pores look smaller in size which results in foundation and powders looking better (no cakey lines that I have to smooth out half way through the day anymore). Dare I say my skin look in healthier condition than it did in my 20's. I don't think I could ever go back after using this product.

So what exactly is it? It is essentially an extra rich intensive formula serum that moisturises deeply that you use prior to your usual day/ night time face moisturiser. (In my case Philosophy - Hope In A Jar.) So, very simple to slip it into your skincare routine. This treatment renders its elasticity to the epidermis, benefits the cell renewal process, restores firmness and brightness to the skin while re-balancing its hydrolipidic film, and diminishing wrinkles.

A visible and dramatic difference in skin texture and anti ageing results appeared after around a month of using this, so not immediate but with time skin slowly winds back time and eradicates those wrinkles.
Do I think it's worth the money? Yes! Every last penny is well spent on this. I will be repurchasing the pack when I get to my last bottle, which even after 7 months I'm not even close to. The pack of 5 will probably last me a full year, as you only need a few drops each time, a little goes a long way. Overall, it probably costs you less per year than a normal face oil does, so it's pretty well priced when you do the math and good value for your money.

I highly recommend this if you want to wind back skin ageing, and help to stop it in its tracks; I can completely understand why people recommended this and hyped it up so much. In turn I recommend it to you and hope you have as much success as we did with this product. It's cheaper than Botox and drastic surgeries, both of which cost a huge amount of money - which could be spent on shoes, bags, cosmetics etc!

Morgan Taylor Nail Polish - Spring Releases

Stocking up at my local beauty supply store this week, I saw a new stand at the till - always exciting!
I noticed Morgan Taylor had released new Spring shades (called 'Casual Cool'), so I added a few to my basket.
Impressed beyond words - Morgan Taylor never ceases to surprise me.
I have a huge nail polish collection, but this company seem to always create colours that I can never find a dupe too. They are truely unique shades.

Opaque in two thin coats, hard wearing, smooth easy to use formula and fast drying. They give their all.
The finish is not high gloss, so you do need a top coat to create that perfect salon glass like finish. The Spring shades I chose were:

• Ahead Of The Game - A very bold, creamy canary yellow.
• New Kicks On The Block - A medium bold pink/ purple.
• Varsity Jacket Blues - A bold aqua blue.

I enjoyed all of the colours but the one that stood out for me was 'Ahead Of The Game', it has such a unique finish; it has an almost metallic shimmer finish, I have never seen before in a polish - simply stunning!



I am very impressed by the Spring shades, I donned these shades for Easter and got many compliments. I already see these being my beach colours this Summer too.
I highly recommended checking them out, or asking for them in your local nail bar or salon, I highly doubt you will be disappointed!

Barry M - Gelly Hi Shine, Spring Releases

I adore the whole range of Gelly nail paints from this brand. If like me you change your nail colour like you change your clothes than UV gel nail polish is not something that you automatically think about investing in.
With this kind of polish not only can you change the colour when you wish, you can do so at a fraction of the price, while creating the same effect.

The Gelly nail paints are so easy to work with and with most you can even get away with one coat to full opaque coverage, they have an amazing high gloss finish just like professional salon UV polish. I've tried many different brands and I always come back to Barry M as they don't chip or wear as easily.
This year they have released three new Spring Gelly paints, which made me very excited, so excited I was at Superdrug the morning they were released; picking them off the selves as the staff was placing them on. Yes! I couldn't wait, I was like a child on Christmas morning.

The three new shades are beautiful, soft pastels, perfect Spring trend colours.

• Sugar Apple - A soft light mint green.
• Rosehip - A baby pink/ powder pink.
• Huckleberry - A soft egg shell blue.

The colours look great alone; but I like to mix the three colours on different nails, the colours look divine as a set. They are as hard wearing as the rest of the Gelly range and also have the same great finish. I can see me wearing these colours in the Summer months too.

Stunning new additions. I highly recommend all three, I honestly cannot choose a favourite shade. Well worth the money.

Barry M Nail Paint - Birthday

The high street store Superdrug are celebrating their 50th birthday. In honour of this event they have come together with several companies to create Limited Edition products, Barry M being one of them.
As you already know; if you are a regular reader to my blog, I adore Barry M nail paints.
Their products have brilliant staying power, great pigmentation (sometimes fully opaque in one coat), fab formula's and a huge range of colours and textures to try. Not forgetting they are affordable and easy to obtain.

The nail paint by Barry M for Superdrug's 50th birthday is aptly named 'Birthday' and is Limited Edition, so I suggest picking one up the first chance you get as they will not be around for long - and it's amazing!

The base is a beautiful hot pink/ cherise colour which has tiny black specks running through it.
It has a party popper effect to it, which is a mix of different shaped, coloured and sized pieces.
Pink, white and purple hexagonal shaped pieces with even smaller round shaped pieces of the same three colours are within the polish.

A true party on the nail, Barry M sure knows what they're doing when it comes to creating a great nail polish. I used two coats to create the layered effect with a clear base coat and a clear top coat, but I think you could probably intensify the effect with a dark or black undercoat if you wanted to. Well worth a few pounds, I highly recommend picking one up!

Paul & Joe, Eye & Lip Make-Up Remover

I've never tried anything by this brand. However, where I live I haven't seen anything I could buy from the company. I found this online and thought I should try at least one of their products. As I needed a remover this is what I opted for, although it says Eye & Lip I only used it for the eyes as I tend to use a wipe on the lips to remove excess lip product when removing my makeup.

The formula is rather odd; it has the consistency of oily water, that seemed to absorb straight into the skin with no residue or tackiness. With this I instantly thought that this would dry up too fast to remove any mascara or eye products, wet and removal go hand in hand in my mind. Shockingly, this did remove eye makeup rather well I would say three swipes of the eye and a little clean up and done!
The true test came when I tried the formula on waterproof mascara, this didn't fare as well as others have; it seemed to need lots of product on a pad and I did have to rub a little longer and harder to remove the makeup.
The smell was neutral, I'm sure there is some scent but I could smell nothing - so very inoffensive.
The after effect was lovely the eye area did feel really soft and the formula did not dry out the skin around the eye, very caring and gentle. I received no sting to the eye area and no burning.

Overall, this product is good on non waterproof make up, it's gentle and softening on the eye area and let's not forget the bottle is amazing. It looks so pretty on the dressing table and probably is refillable, so the price tag I paid did not really bother me too much. I probably would not buy this again as I know of better removers but in my opinion for the bottle alone I didn't mind buying it for the presentation aspect.

Barry M Silk Nail Paints

I very briefly touched on these in an earlier post here: 'The Monthly Nail'. However, I thought I would do a full review of the Silk collection.
The new silk nail paints come in 6 different shades, Meadow, Heather, Mist, Pearl, Truffle and Blossom.

They are all very Spring/ Summer looking shades. They have a very unique finish, A cross between a pearl and a matte effect. All are pastel hued and very attractive on both long and short nails.
The first coat dried in around a minute and the second coat took around three-five minutes drying time. So fast too dry and provides a nice even coat. I didn't need a third coat as it was fully opaque in two coats.

As I didn't use a top coat the polish only lasted only 4 days on the nails before chipping/ peeling. You could probably use a matte top coat and keep the polish neater for longer but you may lose some of the silk effect finish.

The one and only real problem I found with these polishes was the streaking effect. It was quite difficult to achieve a nail that did not have brush stroke patterns included. So you have to be very careful and neat when painting your nails with these paints.
It can be achieved but only if you have a while to do your nails, so if you're watching a movie these are the perfect polishes to be using whilst your relaxing.

I hope you have enjoyed looking at the new silk nail paints with me and have seen what the effect and colours are like. I would definately recommend these for Spring/ Easter. I really enjoyed these colours and the effect they created. If you want something different, these are definately worth a try!

Ciao x

Giveaway Time!!!

I have reached 100 followers on Bloglovin'. To many people this may not be many followers but for me personally I see this as a huge compliment, that this amount of people are actually interested enough in my blog to click that follow button. I love you all and to show you how much I love you I decided I would do a little giveaway showing my appreciation!

The winner will receive:

• Revlon Chroma-Chameleon Nail Polish in the shade Tanzanite.
• Korres Liquid Lipstick in the shade 28 Raspberry.
• Barry M Silk Nail Paint in the shade Pearl.
• Alima Pure Eyeshadow in the shade Paris.
• Rock Beauty - Nail Rock in Blue.
• Nourish Illuminating Face Shimmer in Golden Glow.
• OPI Mariah Carey - Mini Holiday Hits (From 2013) in the shades: Visions of Love, Warm Me Up, Wonderous Star and All Sparkly And Gold.
• ESPA Mini Kit.
• B. Gift Set. (Includes a full sized eyeshadow)

This giveaway is open Internationally. All are welcome to take part!
To make the giveaway fair I am running the giveaway through Rafflecopter (see box below).
Good luck and again thank you so much for taking the time to read my blog.

a Rafflecopter giveaway