Author Archives: Kismet-Lola

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Fabulous Personalised Nail Polish From Nails Inc Couture

Put this on your wish list ladies! Nails Inc have launched Nails Inc Couture, a service which allows you to create a very personalised nail polish. Customised from cap to label. It would make an amazing present, but actually i’d quite happily create one for myself..so sad!
I gave it a go to see what my personalised bottle could look like.

 Step 1: I chose a cap for the bottle, sparkles or studs. I went for sparkle.

 Step 2: Next i picked a shade from over 70 options. I went for  Palace Gardens Terrace

Step 3: Customise the lable, you can write anything you like.

Step 4: Finally you can add some cute stickers to customise the packging. I picked out the lips and heart. There are also Christmas message stickers which are really nice too. 

All that remains is to pay. The service costs £20 which i personally think is reasonable considering it is such a customisable gift.
Totes love it ♥

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FREE Nails Inc Polishes With Dove Skincare

Dove have teamed up with Nails Inc this month to offer two free nail polishes when you spend £6 or more on Dove hand, body or deodorant products.

Named after festive drinks, Pink Fizz (pretty pink) and Mulled Wine (deep red) are a lovely winter treat to yourself or a cute xmas stocking filler.

The two Nails Inc shades are available now until 27th Dec at selected Boots stores. While Stocks last.

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NOTD: My Big Fat Greek Manicure

NOTD from Thessaloniki, Greece. 
Oly and I got our nails done today. 
We ♥ them!
Essie Carry On with China Glaze Solar Flare on my big toe
Essie Licorice with China Glaze Cosmic accent
Oly had Essie Carry on with China Glaze Nova
on her thumb and big toe

 Looking forward to a night out with my new nails x

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Nivea Launches Personalised Christmas Gifts

I’m loving Nivea’s Personalised Gift Wrapping Service. It is just too sweet. In fact i want someone to do it for me! I’m putting it out there to my friends, I’d like this for Christmas!

Nivea have launched an amazingly cute Personalised Christmas Gift Wrapping service via Facebook. Basically, you can order a delightful Nivea Christmas gift pack for your bestie on the Nivea Facebook page.
The gifts you can choose include; An Ultimate Girly Gift, A Handy Little Gift, A Pucker Present and a Lip-Smacking Stocking Filler. Once you have chosen your pressie, it will be wrapped in customised paper. Customised…how? Well, Facebook gathers a selection of photos and comments you and your buddy are tagged in, there is probably some techy magic involved at this point and then voila –  gorgeous, personalised wrapping paper is created. You even have two different designs to choose from; snowflake or bauble.
What a fab idea! I love personalised gifts, it makes me feel so special!
In case my over excited-ness has caused me to do a bad job of explaining what you can expect, take a look at the two examples i created using two of my facebook lovlies.

Gifts range from £6 – £13. You can order them here

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Jimmy Choo Limited Edition Parfum

I had a whiff and a squirt (or two) of the Jimmy Choo Limited Edition Parfum yesterday. OMG its totally amazing. I love sweet smelling perfumes, and this is just that. It smells deliciously opulent, and the pure parfume concentration means the scent doesn’t fade during the day. This truly is luxury in a bottle.

Angel and Flowerbomb are two of my favourite sweet scents and i would happily add this to it. Actually, I might have to ask someone else to add this to my collection seen as its a whooping £98 for 40ml.
Available at Harrods, Selfridges and all good perfume stockists.

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Handpicked Media Gets Social: Blogging Gold

I’ve had my blog for over 2 years now. I absolutely LOVE writing it, in fact i wish it was my actual job. I love my blog so much that i want everyone to be able to read it, know about it and love it as much as i do. That’s why i attended the Handpicked Media Gets Social event earlier this week and got on some serious blogging swagger. It was a place for the blogging community to get together to learn, share and make what they do into something more amazing.

The Handpicked team had a great line up of speakers who not only shared their experience and success but were genuinely keen to see their audience succeed. I found this encouragement really touching, its so nice to know people want to help. Some of my favourite speakers were Gary from Why Communicate, his techy SEO talk on ensuring blogs are ‘out there’ and reaching their greatest audience had me manically scribbling down notes. I also really loved Jane from British Beauty Blogger, herself a blogger she spoke about some of the challenges beauty bloggers and beauty PR’s face (and was also wearing a very lovely top!).

The fashion and beauty panel who took questions from the audience were all delightfully inspiring too. Bloggers and magazine editors who had followed their passion to become respected and brilliant at what they do. Some of the bloggers on the panel included; Fleur de Force, Coco’s Tea Party, The Beauty Button, A Beauty Junkie In London, The Grooming Guru (who was too funny for words), and For The Young Dude.
It was a great way to finish a super day.

Here are some key points from my fave speakers of the day:
Gary @whycommunicate

  • Understand where your readers are coming from, the searches that bring them to your site and where they go from there.
  • Use compelling content and post frequently. The more often you post, the more likely you are to come up in web searches. More content = more visitors.
  • Images are a great source of traffic. People use google images all the time and can find their way to your blog like this. Make sure you optimise your images by naming them rather than keeping the ‘img’ title.
  • Get blog post titles right and make them compelling – this can increase click through by 72%
  • Include RSS feeds and social media buttons on your site
  • Engage with your readers and the blogging community
  • and the most important tip gary had was include meta data. Tag your posts and blog well and this will help in searches.

Jane @britbeautyblogger

  • Don’t be a blogging diva. You will just get erased from PR databases
  • Beauty blogging isn’t about free samples, don’t expect them as PR’s don’t always have endless supplies
  • If you do sponsored posts then make it clear
  • There is nothing wrong in earning some money form your blog if you can
  • There are ways of saying things, even negative things. If you have something negative to say about a product, also try and seek out the good points (if there are any)

The overall message i got from Jane was to blog with integrity and have respect for PRs and vice versa. It was great getting advice from a blogger i really admire.

Gary has kindly posted his presentation on Slideshow, you can download it here .

Thanks so much to the wonderful Handpicked team Krista, Debbie and Dil (and anyone else i didn’t meet from Handpicked). It was an amazing day and i look forward to the next.

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Ojon Colour Sustain Protecting Cream

I’m a die hard hair dyer. Problem is, it tends to leave my hair needing a lot more care or it turns into a ball of dry frizz. Ojon have a new line of colour protecting products ‘Colour Sustain’ which help to combat the problems coloured hair faces. Apart from the Shampoo and Conditioner, the range also includes a protective hair cream – Ojon Colour Sustain Protecting Cream, which helps nourish and protect the hair and keep the colour looking vibrant. It contains hair gold ‘Ojon oil’ along with Tahitian monoi and Sunflower oil.

I am always a little bit sceptical about hair products that promise me glossy hair because the only time i have said gloss is when i walk out of a hair salon! However, i was quite intrigued by this product because of something i saw at the launch event for it.
Left: Colour Swab in oil, Right: Colour Swab in water
One bowl contains a swab of red dye (food colouring actually) in water (right), the other bowl has a swab in oil (left). The dye swab in water has clearly run and therefore faded, whereas the swab in the oil is still in tact (very science-y), but this simple experiment got me excited, and i have been using Colour Sustain ever since.
The product has a lovely ultra light formula, not at all greasy and you only need a small blob which is applied to damp hair. I’ve seen a definite improvement to the condition of my hair, it’s silkier, more manageable and easier to style (although the ends are beyond help). Not only does my colour look healthier and my hair glossier but it also smells delicious. The cream has a spicy-ish scent, it makes my hair smell like Christmas. I’m a big fan of the Ojon Restorative Treatment already, and was glad this lil baby didn’t let me down.
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Date For The Diary: FREE Lip Gloss Offer

If you pop down to Boots tomorrow (16th November), pick up 2 bottles of Diet Coke (500ml), you will bag yourself one of these gorge Models Own Lip glosses.

I had a fab time at the very girly launch of these lip lovlies, and was quite inspired by celebrity make up artist Lauren Parsons, who suggested getting creative with the glosses.
She used each gloss as a base, then applied either glitter, gems or other girly accessories to create some fun looks.

Sweets, glitter, gloss and a chocolate fountain. Bliss

Lauren gets creative with the Models Own glosses
Loving these sparkling lips, created with edible red glitter!

Hippy look, Glossy Pink with coloured flowers

I decided to have a go when i got home…

Red Lacquer gloss with coloured cake sprinkles – mmm yum

….yes, i did just lick them all off and eat them after taking this shot!

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Look Mag Launch LOOK BEAUTY Range

Look Magazine, the weekly must have read for beauty and fashion lovers have launched their own beauty range, ‘Look Beauty’. I was super excited to be at the press launch earlier in the week, not only because make up in general excites me, but also because i was super keen to see what the beauty insiders at Look Magazine have come up with for the range. It’s the first time that a magazine has ever launched a beauty range, and it also seems so much more worthwhile since they have teamed up with Cancer charity Look Good…Feel Better. Read more about the charity here.

The Look Beauty collection is mahoosive. A new make up range, let alone a high street one would rarely have such a large selection of colours and products to choose from, but that’s not the case here. With over one hundred beauty essentials including eye shadows, foundations, eye kohl’s, lipglosses/ lipsticks, mascaras, bronzers, blushers and an impressive 32 nail lacquers.

Yes, a whopping 32 nail shades, and they are all as bloody delish as each other. I haven’t had time to try out the make up so can’t comment on staying power or coverage, but i did very excitedly have a try of a few nails colours. I can see these being very popular, they go on creamy smooth and the strengthening top coat gives a gorgeous glossy finish. The choice of colours and textures is amazing. Look out for the glitters, Dorothy in particular is easily a dupe for OPI’s ‘Gettin Miss Piggy With It’ – awesome! I will be rocking these polishes for certain.

My nails in Mink with Fluro as an accent nail

The collection hits Superdrug stores across the nation from the end of November, prices start at £6. Be sure to check it out.

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Lipgloss Love: FREE Models Own & Diet Coke Lipgloss

Models Own and Diet Coke have teamed up to bring us some festive lipgloss cheer. The Christmas Kiss Collection includes four flavoured glosses in shades Pure Plum, Lacquer Red, Glossy Pink and Golden Nude.

To get your hands on one of these lush lip shades, just pop to Boots and purchase two 500ml bottles of Diet Coke. It actually would be a sin not to!
The offer is available from 16th November to 27th December. They would make superb stocking filers, so make some space and prepare to fill up the fridge with the Diet Coke!

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Some Recent Nails Designs

I love it when i get the chance to try out nail styles on my own nails. Here are a few looks i have been sporting recently ♥

Finger Mouse
Polka Dotty
Checks: OPI Sparrow Me The Drama with Congeniality Is My Middle Name
Lacey Nails: OPI Barefoot In Barcelona with Lace overlay
Animal Flash: OPI Come Diner With Me with a MINX Chettah accent
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Pudsey Bear Meets Couture

Pudsey Bear has had a designer make over! Usually sporting a bright yellow coat and a polka dot eye patch, this iconic bear is now looking rather different.

Instantly recognisable as the Children In Need mascot, Pudsey might not be the ‘coolest’ kid in class, however, this year, dear Pudsey has acquired some super cool couture friends who have created designer versions of him…and they really are something. The likes of Henry Holland, Giles Deacon, Mulberry and Louis Vuitton are just a few of the designers who have lent their style to Pudsey.

Henry Holland and Patrick Grant with their bears

They all look really stylish and very cool. I definitely wouldn’t mind one of these darls sitting on my bed! I particularly like the Giles Deacon metallic and Patrick Grant tartan versions, but i haven’t seen the Louis Vuitton one yet, which i am sure will be out of this world!

The Henry Holland Bear, The Mulberry Bear, The Patrick Grant Bear

The Jonathan Saunders Bear, The Giles Deacon Bear, The PPQ Bear

The eleven custom designed bears are on display at Liberty in London, and will be auctioned on Ebay for this years Children In Need show on 18th November 2011.

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OPI Holland Collection 2012: Red Lights Ahead…Where?

I was invited to the launch of the OPI Holland Collection last week, which you can read about here. It’s a lush collection, with some gorgeous shades to see you through SS12. 
I wore the red shade from the collection this weekend and have fallen in love with it. Below is a swatch of it.
There is nothing like a good red on your nails to make you feel like a classy lady, and this one did just that! Red isn’t an easy colour to wear, but ‘Red Lights Ahead…Where?’ was stunning against my olive skin. As with most OPI lacquers, its creamy texture applied smoothly, with a high gloss finish. 

The OPI Holland Collection will be available to buy at £11 each from February 2012

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Stila: Limited Edition Beach Palettes ♥

I am totally hearting these beaut Stila palettes that i received the other day.

Each limited edition Beach Palette takes you away from wintery days to exotic beach destinations; Wonderful In Waikiki, Striking In South Beach, Living The Life In Laguna includes four gorgeous eye shadow shades, two cheek shades and a mirror.

These not only make stunning presents, or secret santa gifts, but are also a pretty cool item to have in your clutch on a night out – they are super compact and v cute.

WONDERFUL IN WAIKIKI
LIVING THE LIVE IN LAGUNA
STRIKING IN SOUTHBEACH

The palettes are available from HQhair.com, Lookfantastic.com and Harveynichols.com for £10

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First Look: Holland Collection By OPI SS12

I had a cheeky little trip to Holland and back this morning. Well actually, Holland came to Claridges (and how absolutely stunning is it in there. #LOVE!), anyway, as i was saying, Holland came to Claridges courtesy of the fabulous OPI, who launched their SS12 collection.

 ‘Holland Collection‘ is a colourful assortment of shades that very nearly matched the pretty Tulips decorating the Drawing Room. Looking at the collection as a whole, it’s obviously a summer collection, but there are a few cheeky surprises in there. Of course there are the sunny brights, namely pinks and orange, but actually there are a couple of very nice, but much deeper hues too. Shimmering browns, deep purple and mauve’s which you might typically associate with winter collections. Nonetheless i am rather excited about getting my hands on them. Here is a quick first look at the range, i will be swatching a couple of shades later in the week, so look out for those.

I HAVE A HEARING PROBLEM

KISS ME ON MY TULIPS

GOUDA GOUDA TWO SHOES 
ROLL ON IN THE HAGUE
WOODEN SHOE LIKE TO KNOW
VAMPSTERDAM

DUTCH YA JUST LOVE OPI
PEDAL FASTER SUZI
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Want A Chance To Hang Out With Cheryl Cole?

L’Oreal Paris have launched an amazingly fun competition, ‘Cast Yourself’ which could have you starring in a TV commercial with the very glam Cheryl Cole…Oh yeh!
L’Oreal Casting Creme Gloss are looking for three girls; a blonde, a brunette and a redhead to be cast alongside the brand’s ambassador in an exclusive L’Oreal advert.

To enter, go to the L’Oreal Paris facebook page  and cast yourself for the role of either blonde bombshell, delicious brunette or hot redhead. Get your hair looking lush and strike your best ‘Because you’re worth it’ pose. You have until 27th November to upload your gorgeous photos.
After this get everyone you ever met to visit your picture and vote vote vote. Voting closes on 4th December, so spread the word and force/bribe i mean ask your family and friends to vote!
The most popular brunettes, redheads and blondes will be shortlisted for a live audition in front of a panel of judges where you will explain why you love Casting Creme Gloss. Think X Factor. Think Britain & Ireland’s Next Top Model. Hell think Miss Universe!

Good luck ladies!