Revlon - African Tea Rose.

I must admit I am by no means a beauty fanatic - of course I like to do my make up and my nails, but I don't follow make up trends. I get very excited when new things are released on the cosmetics market however and a few weeks ago my friend and I stumbled across the Revlon scented nail varnishes in Boots. I had no money at the time but she bought a glittery mint infused varnish and once applied it smelt divine and so I knew I would be investing some money in the stuff soon. Flash forward a few weeks and here I am having bought African Tea Rose.

I am infatuated with the colour mainly due to the fact my favourite colour is pink, that being said I don't really own anything pink and so a little indulgence delights me. I started with a No7 base coat and then applied the varnish - you must note that it doesn't smell much until it dries! It dried pretty quickly though and then suddenly my nose was filled with the scent of wild roses, a rather calming flavour for a Wednesday evening. The colour is quite shocking in contrast to the smell, however that is true to the flower which, when it blooms pink, is quite a vivid shade. I imagine some will be hesitant due to the fact that fragranced cosmetics can be fairly overpowering and so you tend to get a headache after awhile. I can assure you however that the geniuses at Revlon have only added enough that you get a short whiff whenever your hand is near your face and even then it is mild. I would however recommend borrowing a friends first to check your tolerance with it though!

I'm not sure if it is the base coat or the varnish but it has quite a glossy finish which I particularly like and I personally think always elongates the nail. We will have to wait a few days to see how it fairs against my constant typing at work and the wear and tear my hands receive through out the day. I am also hoping that it is fairly chip resistant so that I don't use it up too quickly as the price tag does make my eyes water a little at around £6.50 a bottle! Overall with first impressions - I am extremely impressed. I may have to purchase more should my budget allow it and I recommend you all try it at least, it does leave me wondering though what they will think of next...?

Haul.

Obviously a major part of visiting your friends in another city is to go shopping! Especially when you've just been paid.....oh yeah. We were breaking our backs getting final pieces stitched together and after it was all shown to an industry panel we decided to take a little time to ourselves to go out and spend some hard earned money. Pretty sure we spent 6 hours trawling around every store we could find, but it was so worth it!!! Now one store that i need to commend for their current selection is H&M (two posts in a row!) there was sooooo much that i wanted, it was hard to just put it down to a few items otherwise i would have been busting my bank account. Regrettably, not all the money in there is for clothes, sigh. Here's what i bought -

Now you can probably tell i have a large soft spot, or maybe just a complete infatuated love for cats! I used to buy everything i saw that had a cat on it, however i have since trained myself to stand back and mull it over first. That being said i did buy two things that pay homage to our furry friends. The t shirt is far too cute to handle and i felt like i needed something a little more fun in my wardrobe and the bag came in a choice of black or leopard print. I went for the latter due to my collection of black items, i have far too many and i'm pretty sure my mother would disapprove at the thought of another black bag in our house. The blouse you can't see so well but it is sort of a snake print, i just thought it would be something sophisticated for work.

Moving on, we also took some time to look in some beauty stores where i purchased some new nail varnishes and also received a free No.7 gift set, yay! As well as some hair clips and some lipcote, which keeps your lipstick on fantastically. I spent so much money on everything i almost lost count but i'm pretty pleased with my new items, not so much getting them home however. My suitcase was already very heavy, oops.