Category Archives: Beauty

Product review: Bahoma London fragranced body scrub

bahoma london body scrubGiven the lack of sun in London, I am very partial to a bit of fake tan – and there is no better way of preparing your skin for it than a good exfoliating scrub. even better if the scrub leaves your skin super moisturised – and that’s exactly what the Bahoma London body scrub does.

I used the Desire fragrance, which has some vanilla notes on it and it smells gorgeous! The consistency of this scrub is very thick, butter like, and full of grain. As soon as you dig into the pot, it melts in your hands and when scrubbing, the grains last enough for a few scrubbing movements, before melting.

After applying in my whole body, I rinsed it off and my skin was super soft, lightly fragranced and feeling really moisturised, as if I had applied a body oil (which I usually do after showering, but didn’t need in this case!), and this absorbed quickly, with no greasy after feeling.bahoma london body scrub

This really helped my tan to develop evenly and glowy and a few days after the scrub, my skin still feels super soft!

You can get more information about this and other products in the Bahoma London website.

Check out my review of the Bahoma London Vanilla Black candle

This post contains PR samples. This review, however, is based on my own true experience with the products and reflects my honest opinion on them.

Nails of the week: pink and purple gradient

pink and purple gradient nails - sonmaylovelythings

You may say “another gradient”? First, yes. I love them. Second, this one is a bit different; instead of doing it horizontally, I decided to do it vertically. Oh, yeah, the subtleties of life.

The technique was the same used before – sponging – and somehow I found this a bit trickier; getting the blending in the middle of the nail is quite hard! I really want to do a rainbow gradient, with different colours on all nails, and this was just a taster of how hard it will be…

I painted all my nails white (and for the first time, due to lack of time, had them like that for 24 hours – how 90’s, even though pure white nails is making a come back, it still takes me back to my teenage years!) then applied L’Oréal Color Riche Neon Pop nail polishes in Flashing Lilac and Acid Watermelon (pink).

Then I applied my all time favourite sparkling topcoat Electric Lane from Nails Inc and voilá!

pink purple gradient nails - somanylovelythings

Application was alright, both colours are pigmented enough not to make sponging a nightmare. My gradients usually last an awful long time, this one is 8 days and counting – just don’t want to remove it!

Rating:

5_star

Nails of the week: nude and colourful geometric

nude nails with colourful geometrical shapesThe L’Oréal Color Riche neon pop colours are so lovely that when I got the collection I couldn’t decide which colour to use first – so I went for all at once!!!

I love using a nude base and adding a splash of colour, and the collection lent itself nicely to that so I picked one of my trusthworthy nudes – Colorama Cipó, a very warm, tan beige  – to create this look.

I used normal sticky tape to create the lines (some a little bit wonky); it was the first time I did a variety of lines on my nails. I tried what I call the “asymmetrical French tip” before and chevrons, but always the same shape in all nails. I was quite pleased with the results, although for the thin line through the middle of the nail I will probably use a brush in the future!!!

nude nails with colourful geometrical shapes

Then I used the super bright Flashing Lilac, yellow Banana Pop, pink Acid Watermelon and green Wasabi Hint from L’Oréal’s Neon Pop collection (which I reviewed last week) to create the details.

Application was fine, all colours were solid enough to allow one coat for the detail and to cover the nude, as well as drying quickly. Durability was great – 8 days, no chips!

Rating:

4_star

Product review: Simple revitalising eye roll-on

simple eye roll-onMy poor eyes usually wake up feeling quite exhausted and a bit puffy. I suffer from allergies and when I get up in the morning my eyes are in a bit of a state, so I really welcomed the Simple eye roll-on to my drawer.

What I really like about eye roll-ons is the massage it offers around the eye; gently, if physically pushes away the puffiness, leaving behind some skin loving ingredients and a bit of hydration, complementing my night eye cream work. I love that the roll-on ball is metal, so it is quite refreshing too!!! After application, the area around my eyes feels calmer.

The Simple revitalising eye roll-on has cucumber extract (you know, you don’t need cucumber slices anymore!) and pro-vitamins B5 and B3, glycerin and lupin extract, so what stays after your mini massage is going to care for that all delicate eye-area!simple eye roll-on

Having tried similar products from premium brands before, I can say that this products has the same effects of something a few times its price and for me, works great for what I need!

You can find more information on the eye roll-on and other products on the Simple website.

Nails of the week: green marble with tutorial

Green marble nails

Always wanted to try marbling, but don’t really have time or patience for water marbling – just the thought of it makes me want to cry.

After obsessing over it in Brazil, where my manicurist gave them to me for the first time, I promised myself I would try the wooden stick marble myself – it seemed much more manageable than its water counterpart!

Well, I did, and I am chuffed with it! I woke up one morning obsessed with green (yeah, go figure!) so I used white (Collection 2000 103 French White), jade (Kiko 343) and mint green (Colorclub) to create this marble.

It didn’t tak me too long; I first applied a base coat on all nails and then started the marbling process one by one. It is important that steps 1-5 are done nail by nail, otherwise the bottom layers dry, the polish won’t mix and gaps will appear!

marble_tut

1. Apply a coat of the base colour in the whole nail (I used the jade green)

2. Apply a second coat of the base colour, but this time, apply generously – quite thick; a bit blobby even!

3. Put 3-4 drops of the other colours on it

4. Using a wooden stick or a toothpick, gently swirl it around as you please, creating different patterns and making sure you cover the whole nail

5. Clean the excesses (I use the same wooden stick, clean side)

6. Repeat on every nail

I then applied a topcoat and removed the excess using the wooden stick with cotton wool at the end, dipped in nail polish remover.

I love this. It took me 3 attempts on my thumb to get the hang of it, and the others were plain sailing. Just be careful not to rub the stick to hard and completely remove the polish, leaving gaps!

Application was much more straight forward than I though; and durability was ace – flawless for 7 days!

Rating:

5_star

Product review: L’Oréal Color Riche Neon Pop nail polish

loreal colour riche neon pop

How exciting to receive a big box at home only to open it and find four lovely shades of nail polish and a lovely balloon, delivering a true colour pop to my day!

The L’Oréal Neon Pop collection for the Summer 2013  is a fusion of Tropicana brights with arty colour block palette – and bright they are, even though they are not your conventional neon colours; they really pop when applied!!!

(more pictures at the bottom of post!)

The colours here are a purple, called Flashing Lilac, yellow Banana Pop, pink Acid Watermelon and green Wasabi Hint.loreal colour riche neon pop

As seen above, from left to right, first is Flashing Lilac, which I found the sheerest of them all, definitely needs two coats, but delivers a lovely finish, almost gelish.

Banana Pop is very pigmented but sometimes you can see the brush strokes, you must apply carefully and they will go away! It is really the colour of a very ripe banana skin!

Acid Watermelon is probably the closest to a true neon colour and also very pigmented, one coat is almost enough for solid coverage.

Finally, Wasabi Hint I think is my fave, very pigmented and a very peculiar shade of green with great shiny finish.

I find the colours are very wearable, even for those who steer away from anything neon. I like the brush and drying time was standard. I did the swatches and also played around with the colours a little bit, as couldn’t help myself – they are so pretty!!!

I will be posting my look using the colours on a mani next week! Exciting!

They will be available to purchase this month!

The mystery box
And the polishes on the inside of the lid!
The colours codes
The pretty ballon!
Colour matching!
Swatch
Playing with it a bit – quite sloppy but hey, just a test!

And yeah, if you are wondering, the pretty balloon is from Bubblegum ballons! Soooo adorable, it is looking lovely in my sitting room!

This post contains PR samples. This review, however, is based on my own true experience with the products and reflects my honest opinion on them.

Nails of the week: Pretty pastels

pastel nails - somanylovelythingsPastels… and to think at one point I would shun light nail colour in favour of dark ones… pah…What was I thinking?

Truth is, that lilac changed my life… and this week I went for a pastel colours manicure with a holographic glitter topcoat and bird details!

It had been a while since a painted each nail a different colour, so I thought it was tome I did it again: lilac from Miss Sporty (cannot see the number anymore!), pretty blue from Nails Inc, Oxford, pink from Kiko (376), green from ColorClub (no name or number on bottle, sorry!) and this amazing yellow from Nails Inc, Wimbledon. Add Nails Inc topcoat in Electric Lane and a couple of uber cute bird nail tattoos from Nail Art UK and voilà – spring ready nails!

Application was good, all applied evenly and with no streaking. Durability was great – 7 days perfection, no chips, then the cracks started to show; a couple chips in the pink and the birds lost a wing each. Tragic. As I am super busy with my essays, I just fixed the chip with a dot of polish and topcoat and filled the birds in with a Sharpie – gotta love it – to keep it going for a couple more days when I can finally do my nails. Desperate times, desperate measures!

Rating:

4_star

Selfridges London events

I am a huge fan of the brand events Selfridges holds at their stores – in London< Manchester and Birmingham – they are a cool opportunity to explore different products and have something done (most of the time) for free; the booking fee is usually redeemable against products!

In the next month a couple exciting things are going on for beauty lovers – specifically nail enthusiasts –  who might be around…

Chanel pop-up nail bar, from 31 May to 12 June

chanel nail pop-up boutique at Selfridge's London

Giant Le Vernis bottles and celebrity nail tech on the 06 June. £25 fee redeemable against any Chanel beauty purchases on the same day. Appointments with Sophy Robson are £30.

Ciaté Corrupted Neon pop-up, from 27 June to 04 July

Ciaté Corrupted Neon at Selfridge's London

Neon polish and glitter zing plus UV light topcoat! Complimentary manicure with any purchase!

From the 17-23 of June, Selfridges is also hosting a week long beauty festival with make-up artist Charlotte Tilbury. Make overs, as well as work shops and other activities are taking place!

And for whisky lovers, a tasting programme running in May and June – Whisky Rocks.

Events take place in other shops too, and you can find out more on the Selfridges website.

Product review: Chapstick Lipsations Shimmer

chapstick shimmerSo everyone want to have lovely soft lips, right? Of course we do. I wear a lot of matte lipstick and Lipcote, which dry my lips a bit, so I have a routine of exfoliating and applying a good lip balm, which I change from time to time, as my lips seem to be a bit temperamental.

chapstick shimmer

ChapStick has come up with a summery version of their lip balms we all know: Lipsations Shimmer.

I got two : Tropical, a piña colada type smell an flavour and Berry. They both smell amazing but it is not too overpowering. And the taste is alo very nice, again, not too strong.

The shimmer is very discreet, just a subtle gleam. My favourite, although I liked both is Berry – tangy smell and taste and a very light pink colour shimmer.

chapstick shimmer swatch

Both very hydrating and a great addition to any handbag!

You can find these beauties at the great price of £1.99 each!  Check out and like ChapStick’s Facebook page for more info on this and other products, as well as great promotions!

This post contains PR samples, however, this review is based on my own true experience with the products and reflects my honest opinion on them.

Summer 2013 collection L’été Papillon de Chanel

JUST TOO PRETTY!!!

20130531_SummerCollection_V2_r3_c1“A poetic beauty look that expresses all the energy, playfulness and lightness of summer” indeed!

Find the colour combination and the shimmer just stunning!!! Surprisingly, I really like the colourful bottom lashes in the video, in blue and orange!

And, surprise surprise, I am in LOVE with the nail polish, I believe it is Azuré. Ooooh.

See the collection on the Chanel website.