Leighton Denny Nail Varnish Review!

I have tons and tons of nail varnishes. Probably like most of you out there! I have a few that are cheap and the rest have been presents, some which would've been fairly expensive normally. One particular varnish of mine (which was a gift from my sister) is by Leighton Denny. On the Leighton Denny website their varnishes generally retail at £11.00 each, which is rather expensive from my point of view! This then led me to wonder whether the varnish is actually value for money. So I thought why not review it :-) 

Hanky Panky

No I'm not just saying it to be immature! I kid you not, this is actually the name of the nail varnish colour that I own. It is a bright metallic orange colour, and their varnishes in general are described on the bottle as being: "high performance nail colour. Easy to apply, longlasting and chip resistant. Apply two thin coats and allow to dry." But before that last bit, let's look at the bottle!


Well here it is! I've taken a couple of photos because in flash and without flash the varnish colour looks rather different. It's more like the top photo though. It is an orange colour that is quite vibrant, but not quite as vibrant as this top picture. In real life the intense colour of the varnish is toned down by the very fine glittery sheen that is within. This is what gives it its metallic edge.









I have no idea why this colour is called 'Hanky Panky'! Why orange has been associated with that phrase is just a mystery. Maybe it's just to be bold. There's nothing about hank panky that's orange . . . I'M NOT EVEN GOING THERE.




The picture is more to show the name of the brand. This one was taken without flash. I feel so bad saying this, but the colour in real life is a mixture if the two pictures!

This is the brush. I was quite surprised to find a brush in this £11.99-per-pot nail varnish that is just like most other varnishes out there. Even stupidly cheap varnishes have this brush! I was expecting a brush that was tapered for quick and accurate application, like the Bourgeois nail varnishes. Quite a disappointment on this front for me.

And here is the nail varnish on. It has a nice sheen to it, and it is a nice colour. However with the microglittery shine stuff you can end up a 'marbly' kind of effect which I don't like, because it means that you can't get just one nice shiny 'smooth' looking nail. But anyways.












It takes a fair while to become totally set and fully dry (i.e. you can press it with a fingertip and it won't have fingerprint imprinted on it, and your nail won't make a massive dent) but it takes no longer to dry than the average nail varnish. However this is another disappointment. I was expecting a fast drying polish to sort of try to justify the high price, but no luck.

Don't get me wrong, this is a lovely coloured nail varnish with a beautiful sheen. It lasts longer than others (i.e. doesn't chip as easily as long as it's fully dry etc). But for £11.99 per bottle I was expecting a faster drying product with a better quality brush, and the ability to create a smooth finish without the microglittery elements 'pooling' together to create a 'marbly' effect. Overall a good nail varnish but SOOO not worth the RRP! I would pay £4.00 for this personally, oooooh :S

See ya soon xxx

Make Up Academy >Lipstick< Review! :)

I, like many others, have been pretty fascinated by 'Make Up Academy', the fairly recent addition to Superdrug's make up aisle and online store. A lot of MUA's products look rather professional and the prices are so so so cheap! It does make you wonder whether the low prices actually buy you a quality product, but like many other bloggers out there, I am trying to find out.

So I started out with a MUA lipstick as my first product. I was wanting a pinkier colour anyway, and for £1 I though it would be silly not to buy one! My motto whenever I'm buying anything, particularly a cosmetic product, is:

"Try a cheaper one first. If the cheaper version of a lipstick (for example) is of the quality you want then you've saved money not buying something more expensive, and if it isn't any good then you've not wasted as much money as you would've done if you'd bought something more expensive that was no good! Then, once you find your favourite product, you've saved money doing it this way and via a slight bit of trial and error you've found the best thing for you." That's my philosophy, take note if you wish :)

...Anyway back to the lipstick! There were a fair few different colours to choose from, and I tested this one on my hand and therefore decided to give it a go.

Packaging
It looks like a general lipstick from the outside, and by that I mean one that cost more than £1! You might expect it to look worse than it does, for what you paid for it. The silver lettering on the side can be scratched quite easily, but that happens to the most expensive of products!

 



Smell
It has qutie a pleasant fragrance, that I'd describe as biscuits/sweets. Kind of a mixture of the two! In my opinion it's quite a nice smell.

Colour
I chose shade 12 - a warm bright pink. I wanted a nice girly pop of colour for my face (not that I'm the most girliest of girls to say the least anyway, but I do enjoy make up). On my hand it looks nice enough, and you can see that it has glitter in it. The glitter doesn't overpower the colour when it's on my lips which I'm glad about; it just gives that extra bit of interest when it catches the light. Sometimes glittery lipsticks can look a bit cheap and tacky - not in this case!

Before & After

Forgive my 'blogging beginners photography' on this post, it'll improve I promise! As you can see I have naturally quite pale pink-nude lips. However with a full coverage of this lipstick I think it's a little too much colour for my face. So what I like to do is blot it so the colour is toned down a bit. This way you can actually get more colours out of one lipstick, depending on how much you apply.





Characteristics

This does not dry out my lips, which is a relief! It's annoying when that happens, but if it does occur to you with certain lipsticks you can put some lipbalm on before lipstick which is what I do sometimes :) When you 'rub' your lips together it does feel like a lipbalm in itself, I'm wondering if it does indeed has lipbalm properties! However it doesn't have great staying power when eating and drinking etc. And you can end up with quite a lot of colour-loss in the middle of your lips. At least it's nice and creamy and easy to re-apply! I find there's better staying-power if you apply 1 layer, blot dry and then apply a 2nd layer to the colour intensity you desire :) Alternatively you could try applying a lip-sealant such as Lipcote (which I love).

So...
All in all, great value for £1. It has a couple of bad points but they're nothing compared to the good points. You could always treat yourself to a couple of extra colours! I'm a very satisfied customer and I'll certainly be buying from MUA again. Just try and remember not to get too carried away; only buy something when you actually need it/are running out of a particular item, and treat yourself every so often too! Not too often of course ;)

Hope you enjoyed my first review :D
See ya soon xxx