Nails Of The Day - Milani 3D Holographic Nail Lacquer - 512 Cyberspace - Reshot And Rewritten

Before I start on a run of unboxings and reviews I thought I'd share another re shot and rewritten nails of the day post with you. I originally talked about, and bought this polish way back in 2010 from an American based website called Cherry Culture.

Cherry Culture was a brilliant site that used to stock brands like Beauty Blender, NYX and Milani, and ship them over to the UK, long before they available in UK stores. I bought quite a bit from the them but one of the brands that I really came to love was Milani. I was always really impressed with the quality and the prices were incredible. Alas Cherry Culture now only seems to stock their own brand of products but the good news is that we can get an all be it limited, and slightly more expensive than I remember, range of Milani products in the UK from various retailers including Boots, Beauty Bay and Just My Look.

Something that doesn't seem to have made the trip across the Atlantic though are their nail polishes, which is a real shame. I only own 4 or 5 of them but the quality was excellent and they were great value for money. You can still buy their nail polishes in a few countries but from the research that I've done, their 3D Holographic range seems to have been discontinued. As a result of that I wasn't too sure about whether I was going to share this with you again, but it's so beautiful I that think it's worth sharing.

Milani 3D Holographic Nail Lacquer in 512 Cyberspace, is a gorgeous light blue, that is crammed full of holographic sparkle. With a long thin brush, it applied like a dream, there was no bittiness, or patchiness, just a formula and a nice even finish. To achieve the full depth of sparkle and the colour that you can see here I applied around 2 - 3 coats on each nail. As a result it takes a little bit longer to apply but it dries quickly and it leaves such a smooth, glossy multi dimensional finish, that it's well worth taking a little bit longer to apply it properly.

Now being a holographic polish it changes colour slightly, and dances, and sparkles when it hits the light. I've taken all of the photos that you can see above in natural light, but like in the photographs below,  when you add a bit of sunlight, incandescent light or even a camera flash it comes to life

I really don't think any of my photographs do this polish justice, it's so sparkly and gorgeous, and the wear time was excellent too. In fact even though this particular bottle is nearly 10 years old now, it's as good if not better, than it ever was.

As I say there is probably no chance that you'll be able to get your hands on this one now, but thankfully holographic polishes are a lot more accessible than they used to be, so you should be able to get your hands on something similar. I actually have a few similar shades in my collection including a real beauty from Maggie Anne, that I'll be sharing with in some future nails of the day posts. It's still a shame that this particular range has been discontinued by Milani, and I really hope that they consider bringing not only this range back, but also bringing their nail polish range back to the UK. Are you an fan of holographic nail polishes? Let me know in the comments x

Nails Of The Day - Milani 3D Holographic Nail Lacquer - 509 HD - Reshot And Rewritten

I've got an admission to make guys, I'm a hypocrite! I'm always going on about how much I love the sun and the warm weather but I'm going to have to be honest, hold my hands up and say that I've just about had my fill of summer 2018. We just aren't used to the heat in the UK! Okay we haven't had some of the scary temperatures that they've had in mainland Europe but when it's constant like it has been lately, it's not normal for us and we just can't deal with it. My energy levels are at rock bottom and all I want to do is nap, admittedly I'm in a lot less pain than usual but even the tiniest little thing is stealing ever single spoon from my virtual drawer! Thankfully a month or so ago I had enough cutlery to be able to paint my nails, and shoot a few pictures for the blog; Since then though my hands and nails have gone steadily down hill but at least I have these pictures to remind me of just how nice my nails and hands can look, when they are a little less heat ravaged and dehydrated.

If you're a long time reader then you may have originally spotted a version of this post way back in 2010. Thanks to the Photobucket fiasco the original photos disappeared, and since I loved this polish so much I decided to dig it out again and re shoot it for you. The polish in question is one of the beautiful and unfortunately now discontinued Milani 3D Holographic Nail Lacquers in the shade 509 HD, which is a gorgeous, full on, holographic silver.

Packaged in a slightly retro looking bottle, these Milani polishes have quite a thin brush but they are really easy to paint with especially if you have smaller or thinner nails. I'm not going to lie to you this one needs a bit of effort but it's well worth it. The first coat gives a pretty, insipid, sheer wash of colour, but it dries quickly, and you just need to keep at it, the formula is a bit thin but it's buildable, and with just the 3 coats that you can see here, you can achieve a fabulous smooth, and glossy full coverage finish.

At first glance this polish maybe isn't quite as vibrant as some of the other holographic formulations on the market, but believe me it all depends on the light. The two pictures that you can see above are taken in natural light on a slightly dull day, and the result is a slightly subdued silver glitter, pretty but nothing special, play around with the lighting though and this polish literally explodes into life! Move you hands about and add a little bit of extra light with either bright sunlight, artificial lighting or even with a camera flash like I have here and then the magic really happens!

Get your movement and your lighting right, and you have hands that you can't stop staring at. Every movement or flash of the light results in the most amazing 3 dimensional colour explosion. The effect is amazing and although it takes a little bit longer to achieve than with some holographic polishes, it's well worth the effort. The wear time is also pretty decent which is not only unusual for a polish in the holo formulation but it's also pretty amazing when you consider that this particular bottle of nail polish is now over 8 years old, and it's as good now as it ever was!

As I say I originally bought this polish way back in 2010, and unfortunately like so many things in the Milani range that I've loved over the years, it appears to have been discontinued so it's now pretty unlikely that you'll be able to get your hands on a bottle of Milani HD :( Holographic nail polishes thankfully now though are a lot easier to get your hands on than they used to be. I'm a huge, huge fan of holographic nail polishes, and I'm always on the look for new ones. I've picked up a few recently from the Mark brand at AVON, and I've also got a few new shades from Born Pretty to try and a lovely blue shade from Maggie Anne to try (Check out my Instagram to see some sneaky peeks). There are now loads of brands out there that offer holographic finishes and formulations, and whilst they can sometimes take a little bit of tracking down, if you want eye catching and show stopping nails then they really are a must have! It's going to be a little while before I can try out any of my new colours, but in the meantime if you have any holographic nail polish recommendations I'd love to hear them, my nails may be non existent but I'm always up for buying new polishes so let me know your faves x

February And March Haul - Beauty Featuring Avon, Rimmel, Miners And More x

Hey Guys x It's time for the long promised, second part of my February / March haul, and this time it's all about beauty.You wouldn't think it but I'm actually trying really hard not to spend so much money on beauty bits. I could seriously stock a branch of Boots based on the amount of stuff that I've got but despite that I've still picked up a few things over the last couple of months

First up Avon, as I've said before my next door neighbour is an Avon lady, I don't feel obliged to buy anything from her but I just can't help myself especially when they produce items like this.

This Marbleised Powder Blush in Self Discovery is stupidly pretty, you could wear it as a shimmery blush but for me it works way better as a summer highlight colour.

I'm not sure how well this picture shows it but it's a beautiful warm, peach nude shimmer. It's so pretty and reminds me a lot of the finish the MAC MSF's give. I think it's limited edition so move fast if you want it x

Next from Avon something I've wanted to try for a while. I'm a huge fan of their Ideal Flawless Foundation, the shade Ivory and the texture works for me perfectly so I thought I'd try it in the cream to powder formulation.

I've never really got on with cream to powder foundations before but you never know this could be the one, I'll keep you posted xx

The next 3 things I got from Avon were all lipsticks. I'm in the middle of altering my make up storage, and to be honest I couldn't believe how many lip products I own. I've done a little bit of a purge but I really shouldn't be buying any more -whoops!

The first one that I went for is the Ultra Colour Absolute Lipstick in the shade Pink Renewal.

Excuse the hideous dry scaly lips but this is actually quite a moisturising sheer baby pink shade, which is quite a bit lighter than it appears in the bullet.

The other two lipsticks that I got were from the ColorTrend range. This range is super affordable and I already own quite a few of their Kiss 'n' Go lipsticks but these ones are a little bit different.

The major difference is the packaging; Instead of the usual white packaging, these limited edition ones have red tubes covered in pink hearts.

As you can probably guess from the hearts this collection is all about love, and that's something that's also reflected in the lipstick design and in the names of the lipstick. The first one I got was Loveable.

How cute are the embossed hearts? I almost couldn't bear to use but the colour is so pretty and spring like it's already had a few outings. I'm not sure it looks in in the tube but it's a brightish pink, with just a hint of warmth perfect for people, who are scared of brights.

Again please try and ignore the state of my lips, my throat infection had ravaged my personage in more ways than one x but I hope this gives you some idea.

The last lipstick that I went for was Smoochable.

I have to be honest and say the swatch in the brochure was a little bit misleading. From the picture I thought it would be a bit nuder - is that even a word? It's a lot warmer but it has more red, and pink tones than I thought it would.

It's still super pretty though and very wearable, but again yuck lips and apologies for the full face shot apart from the lipstick I'm completely bare faced x

The last Avon item that I've bought was a nail polish. I love Avon nail polishes so much so that I'm waiting for a couple coming eek but this one isn't a colour in the conventional sense. It's actually described as a top coat.

Destination Peach is one of those pearlised iridescent colours that you can use to change the colour of other polishes. I haven't had the chance to try it out yet properly but it gives the nails almost a opal like, satin finish.

Would you believe from this, that I'm also cut down on buying nail polish, some hope, I recently added another two to my huge collection including Pacific 404 from the Barry M Aquarium Collection

and this one from a brand called Jess at Poundland. They have some really pretty colours and for a pound they're worth trying. I'll definitely be having another look at their pastel shades if this one is any good.

Breathless by Jess reminds me a lot in the bottle of Indian Ocean by Models Own. I'm definitely going to do a comparison post when I recover from a cat related nail injury - hmmm

I've being a bit obsessed with Poundland lately stocking up on Popcorn and the likes so on another trip to my local I found these Nail Rock Frou Frou gems.

These are ridiculously cute lollipop, cake and ice cream shaped charms / 3D decals that you stick on your nails. I'm not sure if I'll use them but they were too cute to leave behind. I'm also lead to believe that ones shaped like animals have been spotted, and I'm gutted that I couldn't find them :(

From Poundland to Poundworld and oddly enough something that I didn't pay a pound for! I much prefer Poundland to Poundworld but my mum had watched a documentary on pound shops which featured a £1 comfort bra so in we went. She picked up her bra, (which she loves by the way) and I found a little something in their reduced section.

I didn't know that pound shops even had reduced sections but this one did and I managed to a Milani Runway Eyes Fashion Shadows Palette in Fashionista Pink for just 50p! I already have one of these in olive green tones that I got in a swap and I'm really pleased to pick up this one. Admittedly I'm not a huge wearer of pink eyeshadows but this was two good to turn down. One of my Instagram followers also suggested that it would make a nice blush palette, apologies that I can't remember who suggested it but yes, yes, thank you I've tried it and it's fab, so many different tones, and a highlighter all in one.

Speaking of cheek colours, the lovely Michelle from Butterflies and Lillies mentioned that the Co-Operative Pharmacy nearest to me stocked Miners make up. I've never really tried anything from Miners before so I just went for the one thing, a Blusher Brick in Pinks.

It contains three different shades, a creamy pink highlight, a cool, bright pink and a more mauve pink.

Unusually for a product with embossing detail the texture is very soft and silky and the colour pay off despite my not so good picture is really good.

Again I'm not sure how well this comes across here or in the full face Loveable post but this a very wearable cheek trio, I really, really like and I'll definitely be checking out Miners as a brand in the future.

One of my obsessions over the last few months has been the chubby lipstick, balm hybrids. So far I've managed to resist the lure of the new Revlon ones but I couldn't resist this one from Rimmel.

Why though do these things have such long and complicated names ? This ones full title is Rimmel Lasting Finish Colour Rush Long Lasting Intense Colour Balm! Really? I won't be spouting that out on a regular basis!

They were quite a few shades to choose from but my love of pink lips shone through again and the colour I went for was 110 Make Me Blush.

This is another one of those brights for people that don't like bright lips. It's a lovely cool toned bright pink, quite a bit brighter than it 's appearing which I'm in love with. For a better idea check out my haul video at the bottom of this post to see it on my lips x  The wear time is excellent, it easily survives drinking and eating, it feels nice on the lips and it has that vanilla, cocoa butter taste reminiscent of MAC lipsticks and glosses

I'll definitely consider picking a few more of these up - naughty LouLou x

It's been a little while since I've purchased anything from ebay but after seeing these on Venus Loves Virgo I thought I'd give them a go.

Yup a make up sponge on a stick, on reflection I wish I'd gone for a pointier / thinner shape but it looks fun and it didn't break the bank. It was just 99p including postage from this seller x

I also picked up a few skincare bits including some face wipes from Primark - I got some of my favourite tea tree face wipes

and I also picked up some new ones from their new beauty range  - the PS Love Your Skin Deep Facial Cleansing Wipes. Again you get two packets of wipes for a pound - I've used one pack of these already and they really aren't bad, I'm not too struck on the smell but they do the job.

Finally I jumped on the bandwagon and bought a bottle of the new Garnier Micellar Cleansing Water. I'll do a full review of this when I've had the chance to try it properly but first impressions are good.

The last three things that I acquired in February and March are magazine freebies. Like everything else I'm trying to cut down on the amount of magazines that I buy but a good freebie is a good freebie. The Model Co Eye Liner Pencil in Black 01 came with Glamour, the Percy and Reed Wonder Balm came with Elle and an unbranded mascara came with Company magazine x

So despite the fact that it's now the middle of April that's my February and March beauty haul x To find out a little bit more about the things in this post please watch the You Tube video below or you can see it here x



and if you want to know anything else please leave me a comment x Thanks for reading xx