Hi everyone,

I fail at updating this blog but thank you for still sticking around! Anyway, remember this post where I featured the E.L.F Lilac polish? Well, I was getting sick of the dark nail colours I've been sporting recently and decided to go back to it, but this time with a twist. Introducing the latest polish from the E.L.F christmas shop:

L-R: E.L.F Lilac polish, E.L.F Golden Goddess

On the right, we have the new polish from E.L.F's christmas nails collection. E.L.F recently had another free shipping code and I took the chance to place another order which included this. This polish is so gorgeous. It's more of a top coat because it's quite sheer and it contains gold glitters with gold-ish blue holographic flecks. Here are some pictures which don't do the real thing any justice at all:

In real life, my nails are really sparkly. Even my guy friends noticed them right away and complimented them. If you get the chance to try this out, definitely do so! I'll definitely be wearing this as a top coat for Christmas!

This polish is priced at £1.50. Visit E.L.F's Christmas shop HERE!

P.s: All you annonymous readers out there, please follow my blog to show your support and to get notifications whenever I update it! =]

*All items featured here were purchased with my own money!

I just finished a mammoth task of an essay and I'm here to do a quick post before I go to bed. I know I am am so bad at keeping up with blogging but I've been so busy with my final year at uni! Those of you at uni will definitely understand what I mean. Anyway, I went to Superdrug (UK drugstore) the other day and my main purpose of going there was to look for the Barry M Instant Nail Effects polish. These crackle polishes aren't new but since they aren't easy to get hold of, I jumped at the chance of being able to get one from my drugstore. Here's how it looks over the E.L.F Rosy Raisin polish:

I know the picture is quite washed out from the flash but it gives you an idea of how the crackle polish looks like. I succumbed to going back to having round nails as they are easier to maintain. Can't keep up with having squared nails whilst at uni! Also note that this picture was taken after about 4 days of wear. Looks kind of scary, doesn't it? I was thinking of wearing it on all my nails for Halloween this year! Not sure what I'm going to be yet but it will definitely complete the outfit.

Anyway, I should go to bed now, it's almost 1.30am and I've got to be up at 7.15am tomorrow for uni. =/ Grr. Night all! Thanks for reading =]

Hi everyone!

Just thought I'd share a little clothing haul with you guys since I've really done a post on fashion before. I've never really been one to shop at Uniqlo but during the recent sales, I popped into a few stores and found quite a few things I actually liked. These all only cost £4.99 (SGD$10.50) each! First up, I got these super cute Mickey Mouse tees from the Disney collection. The Mickey Mouse head in the first  t-shirt is actually made completely out of small round metal studs. Love it! I got the T-shirts in 2 sizes bigger because I like to wear them over leggings and they look better baggy.

This bright checkered shirt also caught my eye and I just had to get it after trying it on. It looks really cute, especially when worn with the pair of denim shorts I also bought below.

Now, these are the pair of boyfriend shorts that caused me the most grief. I went to so many uniqlo stores looking for my size as they had only had big ones left and was left disappointed. My mum finally rang me up from work about 2 weeks later and said she'd found them, and that they were the last pair in the store. That made me well happy!

I know they don't look very special but I really love the cut and how they are folded on the bottom. They're absolutely adorable and definitely worth every penny. Uniqlo carry some pretty nice clothes and I'm quite surprised since I always thought they were just abit 'meh'. My mum and dad both ended up getting quite a few things from Uniqlo themselves which pretty say alot as there are clothes for everyone there!

Anyway, hope this post too boring and I'll speak to you guys soon! :)

*All items featured in this post were purchased and paid for with my own money.

Hi everyone!

I was lucky enough to be invited to Eyeko's 10th anniversary event which was held at Islington in a rather snazzy bar/restaurant/pub called Wenlock & Essex. When I got there, I was greeted by many other beauty bloggers and it was so surreal seeing the other beauty bloggers whose blogs I read on a regular basis, in real life.

(Image source: fluidlondon.co.uk) Apologies for the sourced image as I completely forgot to take a picture of the place!

I took my Mum along with me as support as it was my first event and I was quite nervous but it actually turned out to be a lot better than I expected! When we got to the entrance of the event, they had a board up for everyone to sign (the pens were actually the Eyeko Graffitti Eyeliner pens!). They then took a polaroid picture of me and my mum to put up on the board in the shape of a heart, which I thought was really cute.

Ling (Moonbeamstarlight) accidently walked in front of the camera so the Eyeko girls took another picture of my and I and we got to keep the one with Ling's head in it. Haha!

Did I mention that Eyeko were amazing at making sure we were comfortable and welcomed. There had cupcakes and drinks laid out for us when we went into the event room. There were also lots of different canapes (which again tasted great) provided during the event.

Look at how adorable the cupcakes were!

Sorry for the blurry pic - Couldn't get my flash to work in the beginning

The cupcakes were A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. Seriously, they are the best cupcakes I've tasted ever! I believe they were from LOLA's Cupcakes, and I'm definitely going to be ordering from them sometime in the near future.

There was also a barman making cocktails and I had one (not sure what it's called so if you know, please tell me!) which tasted really good. It had a piece of life and mint leaves in it. It actually really reminds me of a Mojito except for the difference in colour.

Anyway, back to the event itself. There were tables laid with out with products from Eyeko for us to test out and play around with, and they also had some of their new products laid out.

New Eyeko Polishes, £3.50 each & Eyeko London Lips Lip Gloss, £6.50 each @ Eyeko.com

I didn't manage to take pictures of some of the other new products such as the new Eyeko Fat balms which are due to be relaunched really soon and the new blushes. I assure you that they all look fabulous!

They also had a manicurist and a makeup artist doing demonstrations and makeovers using Eyeko products.

I've never used Eyeko polishes before so I took the chance to get my nails done. I choose the colour Vampira and it's absolutely gorgeous. It's a black polish loaded with loads of dark red shimmer. This makes the polish look much more interesting than just a plain red or black as the shimmers really give it dimension in certain lights. I've tried to capture this in image but the bad lighting wasn't of much help.

Eyeko also gave us a goodie bag which was adorable!

There were lots of lovely goodies in the bag and it included an Eyeko Graffiti Eyeliner, 3 polishes, a magic mascara, duo ended eye pencil and 2 gorgeous lip glosses in Knightsbridge and Soho. The Eyeko tinted cream, glow cream and rest of the goodies you see in the picture are the things I took home to try out as we were allowed to take some of the items on display home.

I forgot to take a picture of the pink Eyeko T-shirt that was also in the goodie bag. It's got the super cute Eyeko logo printed on, will definitely be wearing it at some point! Also, look out for my upcoming reviews on all of the items featured above. I've also got a few Eyeko items that I purchased previously so I will be reviewing those as well. Can't wait to share it all with you!

Also, you can use the code E1977 at the checkout to get a free gift  if you spend over £10 / €12 / $15 at Eyeko.com!

Thank you to the lovely Ling and the people at Eyeko for letting me have the chance to experience this wonderful event. I look forward to being given the chance to visit any of the future events, if any! =]

EDIT: oooh! Look what I found on the Eyeko facebook page, a picture of me getting my nails done!

Hi everyone, I'm really sorry I haven't updated in so long. I've been really busy because I just started my 3rd year at Uni recently and it's been crazy! I'm going to be writing some posts this weekend hopefully and schedule them to be posted during the rest of next week. I really don't have the time to write blog posts during the week itself since I'm so busy with Uni! On another note, I got invited to Eyeko's 10th anniversary event and it's being held tomorrow so I'll probably do a post on that soon. I'm really excited about it!

Let's start off my first post for ages with Icefrost's 300 followers giveaway!

Here's what you stand a chance to win:

• SARAH JESSICA PARKER | Covet perfume/body wash/body lotion set
• DIOR | Poison miniature perfume
• ED HARDY | dark tanning lotion
• NEUTROGENA | moistureshine gloss
• ETUDE HOUSE | foundation brush
• MAC | zoom lash miniature mascara
• CLINIQUE | dramatically different moisturizing gel
• COVER GIRL | eye enhancer 4 kit in coffee shop cafe bistro
• L'OREAL | cosmetics addicts makeup bag
• Lots of samples

So what are you waiting for?! Click here to join now! Giveaway closes on 16th Oct 2010.

Anyway, I look forward to writing more blog posts soon and thank you for still following me despite the lack of updates! =]

P.s: I do apologise for not replying to comments because I haven't actually been receiving notifications from onsugar! Well annoyed by that. Sorry once again!

Hi everyone! I haven't mentioned it here but I made another order from the E.L.F UK website during the weekend as they were having free shipping again and I received my box of goodies today. Here's the polish I've got on my nails at the moment:

E.L.F Purple Pleaser Nail Polish

This polish is from E.L.F's Autumn nail collection and I got it as it's Autumn in the UK now and pastels/bright polishes (which I've been sporting) are more suitable for the summer. This has a got a creme finish with no shimmer whatsoever. There is also one other creme finish in the collection called "Rosy Raisin" which I also bought. If I'm not wrong, the rest of the shades have some sort of shimmer finish to them. I was getting abit tired with having long nails so I cut them down to the shortest possible length and squared them. I find darker polishes look better on short nails as well, but that's just my opinion! Here's how it looks on my nails:

To be honest, the polish does look a little more of a darker purple on my nails but by camera keeps trying to brighten the colours up. I decided to use Essie's matte about you top coat over the polish since it's been rather neglected. This top coat dries to a truly matte finish and I forgot how much I liked its effect!

I'm really loving the Nail Tek Foundation II! My nails are prone to splitting and breaking but since using this, they have been in really good condition. I'm even going as far to say that this is better than the OPI Nail Envy as that did nothing for my nails.

On a side note, do let me know if you want me to do a post on what else I bought. I don't know if my many recent haul posts have been too much. Let me know!

The postman has made me a very happy bunny today by delivering all these goodies to me! Before I go on, please tell me if you are getting sick of all these haul posts. I am not posting these up to show off but to simply just share with everyone what I think is relevant to this blog. I really enjoy reading haul posts and seeing what others have bought as sometimes I spot things that are new to me and I end up buying them myself (which might not be very good for my your bank account. :P). On to the goodies!

First up, if you have been reading mine/Michelle's blog, you would already know that I won her brush guard giveaway. I received them in the post today and I was wondering what was in the envelope until I opened it. Michelle even included a lovely note with the brush guards. I immediately put them to good use by placing some of my freshly washed brushes in them and so far, they're working really well to retain the shape of my brushes. They even fit my MAC 150 and Sigma SS150 powder brushes! I'm really happy with them. Thanks Michelle if you're reading! :)

Next up, I got some things to battle my enormous eye bags and dark circles. I bought 10 packs of these Crystal Collagen Gel Eye masks from eBay and the lot only cost me £1 (~SGD$2.10) because the seller put these up for auction. I have seen them with the Buy It Now option and they do cost abit more. These gel eye masks are supposed to work better than the normal paper ones as the ingredients are supposedly better absorbed due to them melting according to your body heat, or something along those lines. I've looked the ingredients up and they seem alright so I'm going to go ahead and use these tonight. They claim to "powerfully" reduce dark circles, remove puffiness and are enriched with moisturisers, prevent and refine ageing, are anti-wrinkle and firming. Hah! Claims that I'm used to seeing but not believing since they never work. Well, we'll see how this works tonight. I might be pleasantly surprised for all I know.

The little bottle you see next to the masks is a Haloxyl eye serum roll on which I use to battle my dark circles. Haloxyl has been clinically proven to reduce bags and circles under the eyes and it works by strengtening the capillaries under the eyes to prevent them from leaking which is apparently what causes the dark circles. This is my 2nd bottle as I had to tdiscard my first one due to my eye infection. I haven't used it long enough to comment of its efficacy but when it starts to work, I'll let you know! More info can be found here.

I also recently bought this MAC Ombre Blush in Vintage Grape off a blog sale. I missed out on the Spring Colour Forecast collection and I'm kind of kicking myself as I really want ripe peach now. I jumped at the chance of getting this as It was brand new and it was going at £13 (~SGD$26.80). The compact is huge, it's the same size as a MAC MSF so it's well worth it. It's beautiful!

Look how gorgeous the colours are! The first swatch is the lightest bit of the Ombre Blush, the second swatch is the middle bit, the third swatch is the darkest bit and the last swatch is all of the colours combined. Such a pretty pink/purple colour and the powder is so velvety and smooth. I can't wait to try this out!

Also, the UK website for DHC are having a 25% off sale on their Deep Cleansing Oil so I took the chance to stock up of my favourite cleanser. These cost £12 (~SGD$24) each and I know it's abit pricey for what is essentially a makeup remover, I absolutely adore these. I'm currently on my 3rd bottle of this and I bought these 2 as backups as I never want to be without it. It removes every single bit of my makeup with just 2 pumps and leaves my skin feeling clean and moisturised. I feel that it even removes the nasty hardened gunk in pores. Really good product IMO. These can be found here http://www.dhcuk.co.uk/dhc/

So that's it! Thank for reading and I hope this was somewhat of an interesting read. Till my next post! :)

Disclaimer: I will not be held responsible if the home-made lash growth gel causes any unwanted reactions or side effects. I haven't experienced any side effects since I started using it about 4 days ago but that doesn't mean it will be the same for you. We all react differently to products so try this at your own risk!

Hi! As you all know, I had an eye infection recently that lasted for more than 2 weeks, and during this period, I lost quite a lot of my precious lashes. I was left with a few gaps between my upper lash line. Bad times :( Well, at least that's all over now and I can start to accelerate the process of my lash growth.

Before my eye infection, I used to use Mavala Double-cils (a.k.a Mavala Double-Lash):

For obvious reasons. I had to stop using this after my eyes got infected as it probably already contained the bacteria that caused the infection since I had been using it prior to and for a few days during my infection. This worked pretty well for me when I accidently burnt most of my lashes off (Don't ask! HAHA!) last year. After a few weeks of use, my eyelashes were back to their normal healthy state and I found I wasn't losing any lashes and they looked much thicker and slightly longer. Noticing my lashes looked thicker and longer might have been psychological but I really do think using the Mavala Double-Cils helped to keep my lashes healthy and conditioned. The price of this varies but I got this on ebay for about £5 (~SGD$10.30) for 10ml. People in the UK can also find this in John Lewis retailing at £9.50 or http://www.mavala.co.uk/

I was only about halfway through my 2nd bottle of Mavala Double Lash when my eyes got infected and I really didn't want to buy another one, so I decided to do some research online about DIY lash growth serums/gels. The cheapest option I found was to go for natural oils, lots of people recommended castor oil, sweet almond oil, vitamin e oil and a few other types of oils that promoted their lash growth so I decided to just choose 2 of them. So I headed off to trusty eBay and bought a bottle each of sweet almond oil and pure vitamin e oil. They came up to about £7 (~SGD$14.50) in the end including p&p which is actually less than then the retail price of Mavala Double-Lash, and the bottles each contain 50ml of oils which is going to last me for a long time! Now let's get on to the how-to!

These are the things you'll need to make this lash growth gel:

1) A clean mascara tube

2) Sweet Almond Oil

3) Pure Vitamin E Oil

4) Aloe Vera Gel. Preferably 99.9-100%. (This is what I used to make it a gel consistency)

4) A funnel (I don't have one unfortunately! Would have made life much easier. haha. You'll find out why below.)

Method

I first cleaned out an old mascara tube washing it with water and soap making sure to get rid of every last bit of dried up mascara. I then soaked it over 2 nights in 99,9% isopropyl alcohol water followed by pouring boiling water into the tube to sanitise it and remove any traces of alcohol. After cleaning the tube out, I left it out to air-dry for 2 days just to make sure no water was left inside.

Next comes the fun bit, making the lash growth gel! You'll need to use a 1:1 ratio of the oils and a blob of aloe vera gel just to thicken the mixture up. I first tried to pour the oils straight into the mascara tube which resulted in major fail!

So I decided to pour the oils into the caps and used that as my measurement. I used 2 capfuls of each oil and I managed to pour them into the mascara tube without any problems. I then squeezed a small amount of the aloe vera gel directly into the mascara tube. The next step is to screw the mascara wand/cap back on and give the tube a really good shake to mix everything together. Open it up to check the wand to see if the mixture is evenly distributed on it (i.e. no blobs of aloe vera gel on random bits of the wand). Once everything's been properly mixed, you're done and you're now on your way to long luscious lashes! :) Apply this gel like you would a mascara and close to the lash line but make sure not to get into your eyes. It doesn't sting for me but it does cause a little bit of discomfort.

As i said, I've only been using this for 4 days but I have high hopes for it. The gaps are starting to not be as noticeable and my lashes look really shiny and healthy when I don't have the gel on. I've taken a picture of my lashes now but I will do an update sometime in the near future showing you my progress. I hope this was helpful and thanks for reading! :)

P.s: I have come across some articles saying vitamin e doesn't work at all and might be an irritant if applied topically but I have also seen other glowing reviews which said it worked wonders for them. It's your choice so please take note or do some more of your own research before using this gel!

Oh and please follow on twitter if you haven't already! @shandelsambeaut Thank you!

*All products featured in this post were purchased and paid for by myself

One (1) winner will win the following:

- ZA Skin Beauty Two-way foundation of your colour choice
- ZA Skin Beauty Foundation Case
- Alobon Bake Blush in No. 22
- 2 Cotton On Nail Polish (Light Blue & Black)
- Yifi Mini Brush Set in Pink
- CCUK Trio Eyeshadow in #89
- Leopard print makeup pouch with mirror

Giveaway closes on 30th September so click here to join! Good luck!

Hi! I know I've been hauling way too much recently but when I went to Portobello Market last weekend, I couldn't help myself. Haha, I'm sure you girls know what I mean! On to the mini haul:

There's 2 makeup stalls in Portobello Market that I usually visit whenever I'm there and I usually manage to find items at a really good price. Anyway, one of the stalls had just received a small stock of Maybelline stuff when I arrived and they were selling them at £3 (~SGD$6) each. Bargain!

So I grabbed 2 of the Maybelline Colossal Volum' Express Mascaras (they were going really quickly as practically all the women at the stand wanted one!), and a Maybelline Mineral Power Veil in Medium. I originally wanted the Dream Matte Powder but I couldn't find it in my shade so I settled on the mineral veil instead. I bought 2 of the mascaras in the end because I couldn't decide between the Absolute Black Limited Edition and the normal black one so my Mum made me get both. Haha, I know that's really bad but I'm not complaining! Obviously I haven't had the chance to try them out yet because of my eye infection but let me know if you want a review in the future. :)

Thanks for reading everyone! <3

*All items featured in this post were purchased and paid for by myself (and my lovely Mum! :) )

Hi everyone! My eyes were feeling slightly better today so I decided do my nails as the E.L.F Fire Coral I already on had chipped off quite a bit. I used the E.L.F polishes I showed you in my latest E.L.F haul here:

L-R: Mint Cream, Lilac

Here's how they look on my NC35 skintone (Pictures are clickable for larger versions):

Please excuse the untidy application as I can't see very well with the antibiotic cream in both my eyes.

On the whole, the 3 E.L.F polishes I've tried so far have been pretty good, although Mint Cream did go on a bit streaky as the formula was slightly thicker. It did settle down quite smooth in the end though. The colours, as you can see, are really pretty!

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

*All items featured in this post were bought and paid for by myself.

Hi everyone! Due to my eyes being infected, I've had to delay this but here are my E.L.F goodies that I purchased when the UK site was offering free shipping about a week ago:

Top Row (L-R): Nail polishes in Mint Cream, Fire Coral, Mod Mauve and Lilac. Brow kit in Medium, Cream eyeliner in Black

Bottom Row (L-R): Waterproof eyeliner pens in Black and Coffee,  Wet gloss lash and brow clear mascara, defining eye brush, Studio Powder Brush

L-R: Lilac, Mod Mauve, Fire Coral & Mint Cream (Please ignore the words "Lilac Dream" under the first polish. My mind was clearly somewhere else when I edited this picture! Haha!)

First up, I got 4 of the nail polishes. I didn't want to get too many because I wanted to see how the formulas were like. I've got Fire Coral on my nails now and I absolutely adore it. I don't actually own a coral coloured nail polish (Shock horror!) so I wanted to try one out. Sorry I don't have a picture of my nails because these pictures were all prepared last week and I'm not really feeling up to taking new pictures, transferring them into my computer and then watermarking them in my current condition. Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised with how well this polish went on my nails, it was really smooth and I only had to use one coat to get an opacity I was happy with. A little streaking did occur but it was all nice and smooth when the polish dried and settled down. It's also nothing a good top coat can't take care of! The colour is also amazing! It's exactly the type of coral colour I wanted /hoped it would be. I haven't tried the other 3 yet so I can't comment on their individual formulas, but I'll let you know when I do! I have high hopes for them after trying out Fire Coral! These cost me £1.50 (~SGD$3) each.

Here's how each polish looks like:

L-R: Lilac, Mod Mauve, Fire Coral & Mint Cream

Next up, I bought the eyebrow kit in Medium. I've used it a few times now and so far so good! It's got a coloured wax side on the left and a setting powder on the right, both of which combine to give a shade that matches my brows perfectly. The double-ended brush that comes in the compact is really handy too, as it has an angled side for shaping the browns and a c-shaped top brush on the other to using the setting powder to set the brows with. This lasts all day on me but I do have to use a clear brow gel to keep my brows in place. I'm currently using the E.L.F Wet Gloss Lash And Brow Clear Mascara which is also part of this E.L.F haul. The brow kit cost me £3.50 (~SGD$7.20), a little more than the usual £1.50 since it's from the Studio Line.

Top-Bottom: Eyelid Primer, Wet Lash & Brow Clear Mascara, Waterproof Eyeliner Pen in Coffee & Black

The eyelid primer is not from this order but from my first order from E.L.F. I only included it in this post because I wanted to to do a mini review on it. It's actually a really good primer IMO. I haven't tried the (in)famous UDPP but I don't think I'll have a need to after this! This primer leaves my lids feeling super velvety and smooth, and it evens out the colour of my lids. It also increases the vibrancy of my eyeshadows and they stay crease free throughout the day. Pretty good lasting power and definitely a great buy at £1.50!

The Wet Lash & Brow Clear Mascara is alright for what it is. It does keep my brows in place but can make them a bit "crispy" to the touch if I use too much.  A light hand works in favour of this! I think the clear mascara is basically the same thing as the brow gel so I'm going to use it on my brows once the brow gel finishes. I've tried it on my lashes but it doesn't really hold the curl. It does leave them looking really healthy and shiny though!

The waterproof eyeliner pens are pretty good IMO although I much prefer the Coffee one as the Black one I received had a felt top that wasn't shaped very well. The coffee one works really well and it's so simple to use. I'm glad mine didn't come dried out as I've read many reviews saying that they received pens that had already dried out and were pretty much useless! The black one is only alright due to reasons I mentioned before, I really wish I received one that had a felt tip which wasn't crooked. This has made it really hard to use as the liner doesn't flow out properly as a result. I have to really press quite hard sometimes before the liner comes out on my eye and I'm not really keen on doing this as it does hurt a little. It's a shame as I do like the intensity of the black liner.  Oh well, you win some and you lose some. All 3 products mentioned cost £1.50 again.

Swatches:

L-R: Coffee, Black

I also got the cream eyeliner in Black. I haven't had the chance to try this yet due to my eye infection but I'll let you know when I do! This comes with a handy little angled brush which I think is great! This cost £3.50 and is from the Studio Line.

I got 2 brushes, one of which I've been wanting for ages! I've heard many good things about the Studio Powder Brush and it hasn't failed to impress me! I've used it to apply both foundation, BB creams and powders and it works so well! It gives me a flawless finish and a non-cakey look as it really buffs the makeup into the skin. Love this brush! I've also washed this once and it didn't shed or leak any dye. 2 thumbs up for this! I also got the eye defining brush mainly to contour my nose and eyes with. It works pretty well for contour the eyes but it's a little bit too thin to use to contour my nose. Not too bad for £1.50! The Studio Powder Brush cost £3.50.

Lastly, I wanted to show you this bronzer/blusher duo I bought in my first E.L.F order a while ago.

A lot of people have compared this to the Nars Orgasm/Laguna duo. I do not own Nars Orgasm or Laguna but I do have the Nars Super Orgasm blusher and I've done a review on that here.  Here's a reminder of how Nars Super orgasm looks like:

Here are swatches of the E.LF Bronzer/blusher duo:

Blusher on left and Bronzer on right

I think they actually look pretty similar but the E.L.F blusher is less shimmery and it doesn't have big chunks of glitter like the Nars Super orgasm. I really like this bronzer/blusher duo and it's really handy for travelling when you don't want to bring a separate blusher and bronzer. The colours look great on my NC35 skin and the bronzer isn't too orangey which I like.This costs £3.50 and is part of the studio line.

That's it! That's the end of my E.L.F haul/mini reviews. Overall, I am pretty impressed with the products (bar the black waterproof eyeliner). If you'd like any indepth reviews on any of the products, do let me know! Thanks for reading!

On a side note, I've got a new twitter account! Please follow me @shandelsambeaut if you can! Thanks for all the well wishes in my previous post of my eye infection ladies.=]

*All items featured in this post were purchased and paid for by myself

Hi everyone, I know I promised to do a collective haul post but I've unfortunately been slowed down by an infection in both my eyes. They're really swollen and itchy at the moment so sitting in front of a computer screen is a big no no. It's been 11 days now and the infection still isn't going away! The doctor prescribed me an antibiotic cream to put in both eyes yesterday so hopefully they'll be better soon and I can start blogging again!

And I also found out today that I won Michelle's 250 followers giveaway. Can't wait to receive the brush guards because I've always wanted to try them. Anyway, take care and in the meantime, I'll try to get my E.L.F haul posted up soon!

Hi everyone, so it's been awhile since I did a review so here's one on a product I really love. If you've read my review here on the Vichy Normaderm Night cream, you'll know that was what I was using. I've long since finished that tube and have moved on to something which I think is much better for my skin.

The product I'm talking about is this:

This isn't available in the UK so I had to get mine off good ol' eBay.  I don't think it's available in Singapore either. The funny thing is, when I went to Switzerland (where this product is made in), I couldn't find it either. Really weird. Perhaps I wasn't looking in the right places. I love this so much I even have a backup because I don't want to be without it. haha. As proof, look at how my current tube looks like:

It's in a right state! I've had to go around it with scotch tape because the tube had split in a few places due to me being a little OCD and folding the tube up as I went along so as to not let any of it go to waste. I guess there's no way around the tube splitting because the tube is made out of metal. I need to say that this is just my opinion from my own experience and what works for me may or may not work for you.

P.s: Quick shoutout to Okameinko because I told her I would review this at some point! =]

Price

Price wise, it's not too bad. It cost me £13 (~SGD$27) for 50ml when I bought it off eBay but when I last checked, the cheapest listing was £21.99 (~SGD$46) including p+p. Not cheap! It pays to keep checking because sometimes, the sellers that sell it at a cheaper price do relist the items. I've also seen it on imomoko for USD$35.99.

Ingredients

What They Say

Here's a picture of the description (Click on picture to view it in a larger size):

Functions

• Acts as a coenzyme for normal DNA synthesis
• Promotes normal fat, carbohydrate metabolism and protein synthesis
• Promotes growth, cell and blood-cell developments
• Promotes manufacturing of nerve cell covering
• Maintenance of normal nervous system functions

Deficiency Symptoms

• Fatigue
• Weakness
• Bruising
• Difficulty maintaining balance

Benefits of VITACREME B12

• Stimulates renewal of skin cells
• Hydrates and Softens skin tissues
• Regains and Improves elasticity and firmness
• Revitalizes age lines and existing wrinkles
• Diminishes age lines and existing wrinkles
• Helps to prevent premature wrinkles
• Repairs and Rebalances the skin's natural defense system
• Relieves and Soothes chapped skin
• Smoothes or Attenuates new or old scars

(credits to imomoko.com for written description)

What I Say

I bought this because I mostly wanted to get rid of the acne scars on my cheeks, make my nasal-labial folds less visible and to prevent premature wrinkles. I've been using this for a good 6 months now and I feel I'm able to give a pretty good overview of what I think of this. When I first started using this, I was pretty dissapointed because I was expecting miracles due to all the other reviews I'd read. I didn't see much of a difference in my skin and I almost stopped using it. However, after a few weeks of using it, I noticed I didn't need to spend as much time covering up my acne scars. It was then I realised that my scars had been significantly lightened. The process had occurred so slowly over a period of time that I didn't even notice that my skin was looking better and better. I hardly have any scars left now apart from a few from recent spots so I must say that I owe it to this (and my 2% salicylic face wash).The secret to this is definitely persevering and being consistant with the application

To add to that, my skin feels alot smoother and more plump and my nasal-labial have become slightly less noticeable albeit still being there. Furthermore, I feel like this balances my skin out because it provides enough hydration withoutt adding on to the oilyness and greasyness. The result for me is less breakouts and a more even skintone. I must say that this is not marketed towards acne but I don't think it aggravates it in my own experience. I have suffered from really bad acne but I went to see a doctor and that helped alot. However, although my skin is pretty much 90% clear now, I am still constantly trying to prevent blemishes  from occuring and Vitacreme B12 definitely doesn't aggravate it.

The cream is pink in colour and it does have a slight floral smell to it but it doesn't bother me at all, so keep that in mind before trying it out if you're really sensitive to smells.

It's non greasy and works as a great base for my makeup. I started out using this both day and night but then I decided to try out another day cream so I've mostly only been using this at night. Still works great for me and I'm really satisfied with it. I haven't thought about changing my night cream at all since I started using this which says alot! I'll definitely be repurchasing this over and over again in the future, it has become a staple in my beauty regime.

Overall rating

I hope this review was slightly helpful to you some way and thanks for reading! Stay tuned for a collective haul post soon!

Hi everyone! So in my latest haul post, I showed you some nail polishes, one of which was the Sally Hansen Hard as Nails polish in Marine Scene. I decided to get this because I really want OPI's Catch Me In Your Net but I wanted to try other similar colours out first. Here's how it looks like on my nails (Pictures are clickable to see full effect):

Products used

Base coat - Nailtek Foundation II

Nail Polish - Sally Hansen Hard as Nails in 'Marine Scene'

Top coat - INM Holographic Top coat in Silver

I added the holographic top coat because OPI's Catch Me In Your Net does have a little bit of the holographic effect to it.  Here's an image of the real thing I found on the internet:

(Credits to Bambling Brooke at www.caracita.com for the picture)

Overall, I think it looks slightly similar but not quite. The textures look quite different and the sparkles in the OPI one look more silver toned. If you like marine blue nail polishes, the Sally Hansen one is definitely worth giving a try. My nails feel really hard at the moment so I'm not as worried about breaking a nail. The formula is also pretty good albeit a little thin. I had to put 3 coats on to get an opacity I was happy with. I'll definitely be getting the OPI one someday so I'll do a comparison then!

Anyway, my E.L.F package has arrived and I'm in the process of writing up a collective haul so look out for that! In the meantime, I'll be doing a review on my much loved Vitacreme B12. Take care and have a great day!

Right, I need really need to stop spending so much but E.L.F UK gave all their facebook fans a free shipping code today and I couldn't resist! Ordered quite a few bits and bobs so haul post to be up soon.

Also, my new camera arrived in the post today! Just need to buy a memory card for it and I'll be able to start taking much better quality pictures. Can't wait! =]

Remember this post?

Yes, I know it's been ages but here is my really outdated haul complete with swatches. I've since bought quite a few more things so I'll talk about that another time. If you've read my previous post on this haul, you'll know I bought 22 items in total and they cost me £29 (~SGD$62). I'm not mentioning the website because I'm not sure if they ship to other countries. Do leave a comment if you want the link to the website!

First up are the nail polishes. I bought 8 more even though I really don't need anymore. 5 of them are from NewYork Color (N.Y.C), and the other 3 are from Sally Hansen, GOSH and Rimmel. Here are some swatches of them with and without flash. Sorry I didn't swatch them on my nails, but I didn't want to wreck my freshly manicured nails! Pictures are clickable so please click on them to get a closer look at the swatches:

L-R: N.Y.C Nail Glossies in 219, 235, 229, 249B, 241, Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme wear in “Marine Scene”, GOSH Nail Lacquer in 'Ginger', and Rimmel Lasting Finish nail polish in 'Dancin''

The first 3 polishes are just various shades of pink, just because I so “need” about 20,000,000 different shades of pink polish in my collection. Haha! Anyway, I used the NYC Nail Glossies in 235 in my latest NOTW post here . 249B looks quite dull but it's actually a really pretty dark purple polish with gold shimmer in real life. Can't wait to try that out when Autumn/Winter comes about. As you can see, NYC Nail Glossies in 241 and Sally Hansen's Hard as Nails in 'Marine Scene' look really similar. I didn't realise how similar they were until I received them because the swatches look so different on the website! PAH! Oh well. The only reason I decided to get these Aqua blue nail polishes is because I don't own the OPI Catch Me In Your Net polish and I thought these looked like dupes of it. Does any one of you have the OPI polish? Let me know how different it is to these polishes I got! The last 2 polishes are just nude polishes which I think look really nice on short nails.

Next up are the lipsticks (Again, click on pictures to get a closer look at the swatches!):

I took a gamble by ordering these even though I've not seen any real swatches of them. Turns out I really like them all! Well, apart from the third one from the left, Rimmel Lasting Finish Lipstick in 330 Nude Bronze (FYI: I tried this yesterday and it's actually really good for a bronze goddess sort of look when applied with a light hand. So it turns out, my gamble was a 100% success!)

Here are the swatches:

Some of these lipsticks actually remind me of the MAC Viva Glam lipstick Cyndi, particularly No. 4 and No.5. I actually own the Viva Glam Cyndi lipstick so I'll do a comparison in the future! The Bourjois Brille lipshine in Rose Pareo is currently my favourite one of the lot and I have been wearing this almost everyday. In fact, it was the only lipstick I brought on my recent trip to France! It's a very pretty purplish pink shade which suits my NC35 Skintone.

Here's a closup of the Bourjois lipstains:

They are really easy to apply because the marker pen-like tips give alot of precision. I really like these!

Next, I got the Calvin Klein Duo brow pallete in deep taupe. They had another lighter pallete which I wanted as my hair is quite brown but I decided that this was the safer option. It actually matches my eyebrow colour quite well but I wish it was a little lighter and that it came with a small angled brush so that I don't have to bring my own one if I ever bring this pallete out.

I also got these:

Top – Bottom: Rimmel Bronzing Compact powder in Medium Matte, NYC Perfect and Reflect Kit (Cool) , Collection 2000 Eyeshadow Trio (Zenith (02))

Here are the swatches (Again, click on pictures to get a closer look at the swatches!):

No. 1-3 are swatches from the Calvin Klein brow pallete. No, 1 is a mixture of the two colours and No. 2 and 3 are just swatches of each individual colour.

No. 4 is a swatch of the Rimmel Bronzer in Matte Medium. Bear in mind this bronzer comes in different shades (Light & Medium) and different finishes (matte and shimmer)

No.5 – 8 are swatches from the NYC Perfect and Reflect No.5 being the green concealer, No.6 being a normal concealer with a peachy undertone which I use under my eyes, No.7 being the cream highlighter and No. 8 being the eyeshadow primer.

No. 9 – 11 are swatches from the collection 2000 eyeshadow trio in Zenith.

Just for fun, I wanted to see how well the eyeshadow primer in the NYC Perfect and Reflect kit worked so I used one of the eyeshadows from the collection 2000 trio to test it out. Here are the results:

It actually works amazingly well as you can see from the picture. The swatch with primer underneath is much darker and more true to colour. I haven't used this out yet so I can't comment on the staying power or whether it creases. Will let you know!

Phew! So here's the end of my not so recent online haul. I might do a post on my collection haul since then soon. My next post will probably be another review so look out for that. Thanks for reading and let me know what you think of these items! =]

On a side note, I just ordered a new camera. The current one I'm using is about 7 years old so just imagine how bad it is. Yay to much better pictures!

Oh and if you would like a review on any of the products featured, let me know in the comments!

*All items featured in this post was paid for with my own money.

Hey girls, I'm back from my holiday in France and I'm typing up my haul post at the moment. In the meantime, here's the link to Icefrost's 250 followers giveaway - Part 2.

Join now! Giveaway closes on 3rd sept.

Stay tuned for my next post! =]

Hi girls! Just to let you know I'll be heading to France with my family for a short holiday so I won't be able to write any posts! I'll be back Saturday night so I promise my next post will be on my (not so) recent haul with swatches. See you soon!

Hi girls! Youtuber and blogger cherrychan108 is having a giveaway. The winner will receive this:

A brand NEW Maybelline Eyestudio Mono Eyeshadow in 'I love Lilac'.

Click here to enter! Giveaway ends on sunday, 22nd Aug 2010. Good luck!

Hi! I know, I know. My next post was supposed to be on my recent haul but I'm still working on it. Here's a quick post on my current nails instead:

I recently just bought a new holographic topcoat as I had seen some gorgeous holographic nail colours on other blogs and I knew I had to get some holographic nail colours. I decided to buy the INM Nothern Lights Holographic Top coat in silver so that I wouldn't be limited to having just one holographic polish as it can be used over any nail polish. I got it off eBay for about £5 (SGD$10.60) including p&p. Oh, they also have a gold version of the holographic top coat but I preferred the silver one!

Here's a closeup as the holographic effect doesn't show up very well in the collage above:

I used the Nailtek Foundation II base I showed you in a previous post as my base and I really like it! It filled in all the ridges on my nails and gave a really smooth surface. It also dried matte so this can double up as a matte topcoat.

I also used one of the NYC nail polishes from my recent haul. It's called NYC Nail Glossies in 235 and i only paid a bargainous price of £0.59 (SGD$1.25). I'm really impressed with this nail polish as it doesn't streak and 1 coat really is enough to give an opaque finish. I applied 2 coats though, as I always do with most polishes regardless of how opaque they are.

Thanks for reading!

I am so excited! Not only has my Dad just arrived from Singapore to visit my Mum and I in London, he also bought me the 2 things I really wanted from the much raved about Hada Labo range.

(Sorry about the blur picture, been having a lot of trouble getting my camera to focus properly lately. I'm sure most of you know how these products look like though!)

So anyway, Daddy dearest got me the Hada Labo Super Hyaluronic Acid Hydrating Lotion (SGD$22.90) and the Hada Labo Tamagohada AHA/BHA exfoliating face wash (SGD$12.90). What I was most excited about was the hydrating lotion because apparently 1 bottle is sold every 4 seconds in Japan. Now who can resist something that has a claim like that?! I've used both of these products a couple of times now and I actually really like them both. A more in-depth review will be coming soon.

Does anyone have any other Hada Labo products to recommend? My Dad's going to be able to post us a parcel through my Mum's office when he gets back to Singapore next month so I could ask him to get me those!

Oh and I went to Sainsbury's (UK supermarket) yesterday and look what I found:

(I'd already taken the magazine out of it's plastic packaging and threw it away before realising I should have taken a picture of it first)

September's issue of InStyle Magazine came with a free full-sized tube of The Bodyshop's Lip & Cheek Tint which retails at £9.50 (~SGD$20) in stores. The magazine itself only cost £3.60 (~SGD$7.65) so that was a pretty good deal. I don't know if this is only available in the UK, any girls from Singapore seen this?

Most of the magazines didn't have the lip tints though, most of them had probably been stolen by cheapskates. They had 2 colours to choose from, Bronze glimmer and Rose pink, and I chose the latter.

I got one of these maybe 6 years ago and I loved it, I still have the old one but I thought that it was time to get a new one. Imagine the amount of bacteria in my old one! Well gross.

This arrived in the post today:

My OPI Nail Envy matte is running out so I decided to try this. I got this off eBay for about £5 (~SGD$10.60). I've read some pretty good reviews about this so I'm hoping it will work well. A more in-depth review to come soon if any of you want it. Let me know!

Oh, and remember my last post of my recent online haul? I've done swatches of all the products and edited all the necessary pictures. Now the only thing left is to write the actual post. That will probably be up soon so do look out for that.

Thanks for reading!

*Everything shown in this post was paid for by myself and my Dad =)

www.7bella.com is having an awesome giveaway!

Click here to enter now! Giveaway closes on 09/09/10. =] Good luck ladies!

All these cost me a grand total of £29 (~SGD$62). Pretty cheap in my opinion considering each Maybelline Moisture extreme lipstick (bottom right) costs £5 each, not to mention the Bourjois and Rimmel lasting finish lipsticks next to them. More details on the products in my next post!