Nail colour of the week

I've not done a nail colour of the week in ages. This is Essie's Too Too Hot and it's a lovely coral with red in it. Gorgeous. 

Maintenance

I need these medicinal looking women to spend about 48 hours making me gorgeous again. Work is rather intense at the moment and I have spots, yes, spots. My roots need doing and my nails are a mess. I need to be dipped in a vat of wax, pummelled with massage, hair coloured and cut, a facial and a mani/pedi.

Today I had five minutes free at work and so I spent them usefully. I booked in for a Bliss Spa Fully Loaded facial. I got a very generous Bliss gift card for my birthday so it's free! I am very excited about it, especially the Hair Dew treatment. I am going next weekend.

Then I booked a leg wax - not very exciting but the South of France calls and I can't turn up looking like a yeti. I booked in for a cut and colour with my hairdresser too. I call that five minutes very well spent. I topped it off with buying a pair of shoes online.

Sometimes you need to just spend money on yourself. Now I am 21, this is more important than ever...

Another day, another shampoo

My quest for the perfect shampoo is always ongoing. Sometimes, you just fancy a change so the other week I ordered this Fudge Colour Lock shampoo and conditioner. It smells heavenly and is really rather nice. My hair is now officially quite long and naturally enough, having grown it for some time and worked through the painful 'difficult' length I am now considering having it chopped.

Cell Food Elemental Herbology

In my SpaceNK haul was a sample of this little beauty so naturally I gave it a go. It's really nice, it smells all medicinal like it must be doing you some good. I put it on this morning before my VitaZing and this evening by itself. It's quite rich, it doesn't sink in immediately but once it has sunk in, it leaves your skin quite matte and ready for make up.

I have some more left so will be finishing it off tomorrow. Of course it is expensive - £140 so I won't be splashing out on the full bottle, I'll just have to blag some more samples!

Late birthday haul

Just when I thought all the fun was over my boss sashayed into my office carrying a SpaceNK bag for me today.

In it was a Jemima Kidd Iris Enhancer Kit.  Three colours designed to bring out your eye colour so the website says. She got me the blue shade and I have brown eyes but no matter! I am sure it will be gorgeous. They are very decadent and you can use them wet or dry. And hot off the press, they only came out in July!

That wasn't all. Also a Terry nail varnish in Trafalgar Red, it's divine. And, little samples of this and that which she said she always gets when she shops at SpaceNK. I am impressed as I can never seem to get any samples out of them. My other boss got me Bliss vouchers by the way which weren't mentioned in my rundown.  I think we can agree, I work with lovely people.

Excuse me while I go and paint my nails...

New moisturiser

Summer is here and my need for a lightweight moisturiser became urgent. I've always loved Elemis products so I thought I'd give this a whirl and it's really rather nice. As always with Elemis, it smells lovely and sinks in like a dream but no greasiness. No SPF though which I forgot about as I went on my annual walk (I am not a walker) yesterday and burned my face. Probably about 10 years of ageing right there. Oh well.

Body Shop Satsuma Body Polish

As always I am on a mission to find the perfect body scrub and I was in The Body Shop the other day having a browse and thought I'd give this a go. I don't know when TBS got so expensive - £12 for a scrub? I think that's quite a lot.

Recently I had a revelation when I realised that you are meant to put a scrub on dry skin before you get in the shower. It's far more effective. Obviously you all know that and I am slow. I used this scrub yesterday morning and can report it smells lovely - very zingy and pleasing. The results are pretty good but not life-changing, I probably wouldn't buy it again.

Birthday Beauty Haul

Happy Birthday to me. I just had a significant birthday - 21 again - and my lovely friends bought me some delicious delights.

Benefit Bathina. This is in a beautiful tin so easy to take away for weekends and holidays. It's a satiny smooth solid moisturiser that you apply to your body with the little pouf. It smells very retro and 50s which is a good thing in my book. I tried some last night and it was lovely. 

Nails Inc - I Can Paint A Rainbow. How fun is this? Six very cute little bottles of bright and summery colours. I love it. Not played yet but I can see many hours of fun ahead.

Essie - Meet Me At Sunset. It's like my friends know I love nail varnish! This is a truly bright orange. I can't wait to apply it.

Guerlain - Mitsouko. Please pay attention, this is a parfum. A parfum. Now I feel like a proper grown up. And look at that packaging. It's heaven in a box. I am deeply in love.

Jo Malone Grapefruit. I asked for this but my friend being ever so generous super-sized it. I adore this and have just run out. Yay.

These are some of my presents - they didn't all fit in the picture. You may be able to see a gorgeous Mulberry make up bag nestling in there. Oh so stylish. And a wonder woman mirror! And yes, that is a Selfridges box with a gift card inside...

Truly life does begin at 40. Thank you to my generous friends - love you all.

17 Falsifeye mascara

I saw this today in Boots and thought I had to buy it with such a brilliant name. I was preparing for disappointment as I always do when trying a new mascara and it didn't start off hopefully as it's a very thick brush and quite cloggy. However, I have to say it was easier to apply than I was expecting and it stayed put through glasses of champagne and laughter with my mate.

It's cheap as chips so give it a go.

July shower gel

Mmmmmm - lovely. Bliss is my favourite.

Three eyeliners, one look

I've not bought any new products to tell you about for a while. Sorry about that, not sure what's happening. Maybe I've found skin and make-up nirvana although I doubt it.

I thought I'd tell you about the eye make-up I wore last night. All courtesy of Urban Decay. The 24/7 Glide On Eye Pencils are The Business as I've said before. I have a fair few of them. My fall back colour is Graffiti and I wear this most days.

But last night I thought I'd experiment a bit more. I am fairly obsessed with navy blue and had just seen a feature in Red magazine about navy blue eyeliner. Of course their model looked impossibly perfect in it. I dug out my Deviant liner.

By itself it looked a little harsh. So I added a line of Dime.

It still wasn't quite right so I used Yeyo in the corners of my eyes. I really recommend this - it opens up your eyes and makes them look bigger. 

Three eyeliners! Usually one is a bit of an effort to be honest. After layering on black mascara, I was pleased with the result. With the help of the magical properties of Urban Decay primer, it stayed put all night.

Where was I going with such glamorous eye make up you ask. To a friend's to help look after my goddaughter (who is three) and a nine month old baby who doesn't sleep through the night yet. The sleep-deprived mum noticed. No matter the occasion, Cover Girl always makes an effort darlings.