Forks and Brushes

As summer has officially started, don’t we all want to spend our summer holiday by the sea? My Little French Riviera Box has brought us help to make sure we look chic on the beach!

Sorry for stopping at Blogmas Day 16 , work & life just got better of me that my Blogmas this year was a fail.  Anyway, it is Christmas Eve today so I want to show you what I got myself for Christmas! (Oh yes, I can find any excuse to treat myself! And it is Christmas!!)

I am loving this combo! Barry M Aquarium Collection in no 7 Persian and Sally Hansen no 706 Glitter Bomb . 

I haven't heard of HJ Manicure before, not until I stumbled across them on Instagram, entered their prize draw (which I'd never win anything), and I did win a bottle of their nail polish!

It is Jade from Leading Lady Beauty who introduces me to this nail polish. Well, not the exact same one. In fact Jade mentioned the Models Own Northern Lights shade , which is pinky purpley glitter, but I couldn't find it. Instead I found Southern Light .

When most beauty bloggers switch their nail colours to autumnal reds and wintry darks, I am obsessed with vintage pink at the moment. After searching high and low, I have found the perfect shade – Essie’s Innocent .

Hot pink seems to be on everyone's nail at the moment. And I think I have found my favourite shade of hot pink... Not from Essie or Nails Inc nor OPI, but in H&M!!

Essie’s nail polishes are not that expensive anyway (£7.99 each). However, every little helps when it comes to saving pennies on our wallet. The nail polish I am talking about is L’Oreal Color Riche Nails in Opera Ballerina (£4.99 each). It is their Spring Edition polishes (The lavender pastel blue called Nouvelle Vogue is gorgeous too! Check out my blog dedicated to all things pastel blue ). This nudy pale pink colour is very pretty and soft. The brush is wide that makes application so easy and smooth. The consistency is quite sheer, I put on 3 layers to give an opaque finish. Left: Essie Fiji   Right: L'Oreal Color Riche Opera Ballerina Compare to Essie Fiji, Essie Fiji has more pink in it where Opera Ballerina is more nude and has a peachy undertone, which reflects the soft leather ballet dancing shoes (which are peachy pink, not pink-pink) I love the L’Oreal bottle too! It is slim and compact, easy to store and product won’t be wasted! Honestly, when do you eve

Last year was all about mint green. This spring I am obsessed with everything pastel blue.

You can never go wrong with nude beige nails: effortless, elegant, classic and timeless. My favourite nude beige has to be Burberry’s Ash Rose . Recently, I just feel like change – I want an alternative to the usual beige. I looked through my nail polish drawer and noticed Nails Inc’s Hyde Park Place. Applied it and I love it!!

The bad news about having a sister living in another part of the world is that I miss going shopping together. But the good news is we can cover all bases in brands and products that are only available at certain parts of the world. The new Revlon Parfumerie Scented Nail Polish is one such example.

Despite we are still in winter, recently I am getting back to my nude nails. Like many beauty bloggers, I couldn’t stress enough about my love to Nails Inc Porchester Square for those “not-sure-what-colour-to-wear” days, the nude beige Porchester Square never fails.

Excuse my very short nails and my dry fourth finger (Nothing seems to be working on my dry cuticles at the moment, arrrgh!) The polish is very reflective to light If you don't wear sparkly nails in Xmas, then when? Recently, I have been loving the Maybelline Color Show Brocades in Knitted Gold.

Despite I have a whole drawer of nail polishes, I still can't help myself when I saw this glittery box in Boots! It is the Capsule Colours Collection by Nails Inc. It is a Limited Edition set and exclusive to Boots. The set contains 8 Minis and a full size of their Gel Effect Top Coat.

My current favourite accent nail combo is Rimmel Salon Pro by Kate in Rhythm & Blues ( Boots £4.49) and Essie's Winter Limited Edition in Stroke of Brilliance ( Boots £7.99).

Autumn in England (borderline drop us straight into Winter) has finally upon us. This has definitely put me in the mood of dark nail colours. The latest launch of Dior's Golden Winter (Holiday) Collection 2013 has four nail colours and a bottle of crystal pearls topping. The one I picked up is Dorific Vernis No. 995 Minuit.

When I was in Superdrug to buy the Tiffany colours (NYC nail polishes  - check out my blog post here ), as the offer was 3 for 2 across all nail polishes, I picked up a MUA polish as my freebie. I saw this pastel baby pink colour in Natural Days. The colour looks really cute in the bottle.

Never pay attention to the brand NYC in Superdrug. Perhaps it's because their products are so cheap in prices, that I automatically assume they are aimed at the teenage market. Not until recently I read  Fleur de Force 's post about their  Tiffany blue nail polish . I love Tiffany's jewelry & their packaging (who doesn't?!) I HAVE to check this out!

With the high end brands such as Dior and Chanel have gradually launched their summer collection/ limited edition recently, drugstore brands have launched their own limited editions too! The two brands that caught my eye are Sleek and Barry M.   Eye Palette from Candy Collection Sleek has launched a limited edition collection called "Candy". The Candy collection has a lip paint, an eye shadow palette & a blush palette. I am not a fan of lip paint. The colours in the eye palette are too colourful & too vibrant for my style, they are beautiful tho. However the blush palette are the star in the collection. I am a big fan of Sleek's blush palette, I have almost every palette. The colours are vibrant & they last all day.  This trio in Candy collection are as high quality.  Three blushes are in different textures too - cream, matte & shimmery! What a unique palette with all the textures in one place! Perfect for handbags or travel ki