Christmas presents... the toiletry edition

This is the second post in my 'What I got for Christmas' series (read the first post here), and it's a bit of a bumper category. I love toiletries of any kind so I was really pleased when I had so many for Christmas. Edwina bought me a huge variety with lovely explanatory gift tags on each one, and I also had some from my parents, Neil, Phillipa, Siân and Amy. You can just never have too many! I'm now nicely stocked up so I technically shouldn't need to buy anything for myself for ages... I'll see how long I last before I crack. I have a slight addiction to buying toiletries!

My favourites from the pile above are the Peaches & Clean face wash, Iced Strawberry Dream shower gel (smells good enough to eat!), the Minnie Mouse toiletry bag and the Palmolive shampoo for coloured hair. I can't wait to start using all these and they're already all standing neatly in line ready for when my existing bottles/packets run out. 

Moving on to the gift sets I received, I especially love the set of mini Body Shop body butters from Neil as well as the giant Strawberry shower gel. He bought me big bottles of Satsuma and Lemon shower gels from the Body Shop last Christmas and they're both amazing, so I'm expecting great things from the Strawberry edition. I also love the Soap & Glory set from Phillipa and am excited about trying The Scrub of Your Life for the first time as it's been on my wishlist for ages. I had the very pretty Guess Girl gift set from Siân and I'm already obsessed with the perfume scent. I'll definitely be buying more when this bottle runs out! While we're on the subject of perfume, Britney Spears' Curious perfume is an old favourite so I was very pleased when I found a bottle of Curious under the Christmas tree from my parents. I'll definitely be smelling lovely for the next few months!

Lastly, Neil bought me four bottles of Barry M nail varnish for Christmas... he knows me well! I love the limited edition glitter polish, and I always jump at the chance to extend my Gelly collection. These shades are called Blackberry, Blueberry and Plum and they all look really striking. I'll have to write another update on my Gelly collection soon... it's growing rapidly!

What toiletries did you have for Christmas? Do you love the Body Shop, Soap & Glory and Barry M products as much as I do?

My very first ImPress manicure

I'm not a particularly girly girl, but I do absolutely love nail varnish. As I explained in my very first post on this topic, you'll never ever see me without nail varnish on. I've even planned what shade of nail varnish I'll be wearing on my wedding day!

This year, while preparing for my office Christmas party, I decided to try something different with my nails. Neil's sister loves using ImPress press-on nails for special occasions like holidays and parties, and his mother had bought me two packets of the 'Working Girl' pattern a few months ago. I thought the Christmas party was the perfect opportunity to give them a go!

Each packet contains 24 stickers of different sizes, so firstly you need to select one sticker that's exactly the right size for each nail. Once you've lined up your ten nails, use the provided wipe to cleanse your nails before starting on the application. I've been advised that this step is vital, so don't leave it out!

I started with the little finger on my left hand, and left both thumbnails until last to make the application as easy as possible. The stickers were very easy to apply and fitted like a dream on all ten nails. I pressed each one firmly for a few seconds and they felt super secure. I thought they might feel odd because they're longer than my natural nails, but they felt perfectly comfortable and didn't get in the way. They weren't flimsy at all so there was no danger of them snapping or flying off.

They were really shiny and the glitter effect was very effective... perfect for a Christmas party! I was so pleased with the finished effect and couldn't stop looking at my hands for a few hours after I'd applied them. These nails really add a touch of glamour and make you look as if you've had a manicure in a beauty salon. They obviously don't chip like ordinary nail varnish, so there's no danger of having to redo one or two nails the day after you've spent ages painting them as you've had chipping issues!

I was a bit worried about removing the stickers as they were stuck on so securely, but they came off easily when I immersed my hands in hot water and peeled each sticker off, starting from the right hand side. They didn't leave any marks and didn't damage my nails at all. 

You can buy the ImPress range from Amazon and Boots as far as I know... let me know if you've found them anywhere else! I'll definitely be trying the ImPress collection again as I'm well and truly hooked after my first experiment.

Has anyone tried ImPress nails? What did you think?

More glitter!

I recently posted about my experiment with Barry M glitter nail varnish. I appear to have caught the glitter bug, and now I'm now wearing a totally different shade of glittery goodness. I had forgotten  one thing about glittery nail varnish though... it's an absolute nightmare to remove it so make sure you allow enough time, patience and cotton wool!

I wanted purple nails this time with some glitter, so I used these two shades:

Bright Purple and Silver Multi Glitter

I love this purple shade and use it very regularly, so it was nice to try a variation on the theme. I used the purple as a base coat, then painted the silver glitter polish on top.

The finished result!

I really love this shade, and it totally transforms the ordinary purple nail varnish into something a lot more sparkly and unique. The silver polish could also be worn by itself as it's very striking and won't always need a base coat. What combination shall I try next?

Glitter glitter glitter

As you'll have read in a recent blog post, I absolutely love nail varnish. I recently bought some new glittery Barry M nail varnish from Boots as it was on offer, and Barry M make the best nail varnish in the world. I haven't had glittery nails for ages, so I fancied a change. Rather than just using the glittery nail varnish, I decided to use a base coat too to add some more colour.

Aqua Glitter and Turquoise

I painted my nails with the Turquoise first, then painted the Aqua Glitter on top! Here's the finished result:

I've had the nail varnish on for three days now and it hasn't chipped at all yet. The picture doesn't really do the nails justice, as they're actually a lot more sparkly than they appear on the picture. I love them!

Can anyone recommend any other Barry M shades which I haven't tried yet?