NOTD: BeautyUK Posh Polish Topaz

I'm back! The Birmingham Made Me shop is finally open at The Mailbox, one week on and we're getting to grips with everything so please come visit!!

Anyway, here's a quick Nail of the Day for you. I discovered these in Superdrug recently and these are the first Beauty UK polished I've bought, I think they were on special offer.

This colour is no2 Topaz in their Posh Polish range of metallic colours. The picture shows 2 coats and 3 coats didn't make much difference. It's a very neutral metallic that goes with everything and a break from pastels if they don't float your boat.

April empties – Soap & Glory, Elemis, Batiste

This is the first time I’ve done an empties post, as I’ve seen so many bloggers doing these and I love having a peek at what you guys really use! So here goes, it’s not massive as I can never seem to actually finish my products, and those that I do are of the usual shampoo/conditioner/shower gel variety.

Soap & Glory Clean On Me

I adore this shower gel, not least for the gorgeous scent (I think this one is scented with the infamous Original Pink?). This 500ml bottle is amazing value for money at £5.50 and it’s lasted me 3 or 4 months which is amazing considering my £1 bottles last less than 4 weeks, and a little does go a long way with this.

Repurchase? Definitely, once I’ve got through my hoard of shower gels.

Batiste Coloured Dry Shampoo

I don’t even need to say anything about this, other than it’s great. Repurchased in a larger size before this one was even finished!

Elemis

The reason I have so many Elemis travel size products here is because I was gifted a BA in flight toiletries bag which contained all these goodies. They are small though so I couldn’t try them out for very long before they finished! I’ve never used this brand before but have heard great things about it so I’m looking forward to purchasing some full sized products in the future.

Elemis Balancing Lavender Facial Wipe

Just the one wipe, but this was a decent size and has a gorgeous relaxing lavender scent. As for effectiveness, it did remove my make up and left my skin feeling comfortable, but with a slight sticky residue.

Elemis Pro Collagen Eye Renewal

A tiny sachet containing 0.5ml of a semi opaque gel. This was quite good, but no match for my favourite eye cream, Origins GinZing.

Elemis Skin Nourishing Hand and Body Lotion

A decent quality cream that is more effective used on the body as it’s not quite rich enough for hands. Pretty good as a body moisturiser, a pleasant scent which is a bit old fashioned though (reminds me of something my aunt used to wear). Not up to my usual hand cream, Clarins Hand & Nail Treatment Cream as I love an intensive product for hands. Also prefer any of my usual body creams/butters.

Elemis Pro Collagen Marine Cream

This smells nice, moisturises well but I woke up with a very shiny face!

Elemis Lip Revive

Quite a sticky formulation, but it is very moisturising. Oddly, it does have a grainy texture, which I’d imagine is down to exfoliation purposes.

Sensodyne Total Care

This probably shouldn’t have been included in this post, but my empties were looking a bit thin on the ground and since we’re in a sharing mood… But yes, this is my favourite toothpaste and I will definitely be repurchasing it!

Birmingham Made Me - Coco's Closet shop opening

First off, an apology for not posting much lately. Now to tell you why. As you may know, I have an online shop called Coco's Closet. Thanks to an initiative at Birmingham City University and Idea Birmingham, I'm going to be part of something called Birmingham Made Me. As well as an exhibition that will be taking place on 15-22nd June 2012, there will be a shop opening this week called Birmingham Made Me in The Mailbox, Birmingham.

I'm really excited to have been selected to be part of this and excited to get going! Although we've been meeting for the last two months, the last two weeks have been crazy busy and the shop is now nearly ready to open. I thought I'd treat you to a few pictures of my area, and there will be nine other traders in the unit.

The shop will be open Wednesday 11-6pm, Thursday, Friday and Saturday 11-7pm and Sunday 11-5pm. It's located on the ground floor, opposite Shogun Teppan-yaki in what was used as the Zumba unit. Although the shop should be open until Christmas, I'll be there until the end of June if not longer.

If you're in the Birmingham/West Midlands area, it would be wonderful if you popped in! The Mailbox has some fantastic high end shops including Harvey Nichols, Hugo Boss, L.K.Bennett, All Saints, Emporio Armani and more so it's well worth a visit.

Some of the items on sale include vintage handmade jewellery, vintage handbags, teacup candles, vintage designer handbags including Gucci and Dior, modern designer items and more!

If you are planning on visiting and there's anything from the website you'd like to look at, let me know by emailing me on bellaandrobot at gmail.com or cocosclosetuk at gmail.com and I'll make sure it's waiting for you.

For more info take a look at the website and facebook page.

Glossybox Discount Codes

Want to get a Glossybox but don't want to pay full price? I've got two special codes for you to use to receive a discount.

For subscribers who have cancelled their box, there is a code to receive 30% off your first box; just use WELCUM30OFF.

Alternatively, if you're new to Glossybox you can get free delivery on your first box by using COSMOGLOSSYFS.

Enjoy!

Revlon Post Trauma Nail Treatment

This may not look exciting, but trust me, this is a little beauty. You know those days when it's not appropriate to be wearing mint green nail polish? Or when you just want to dress down, including your nails? Or perhaps you can't wear nail polish to work?

That's where Revlon's Post Trauma Nail Treatment comes in. Two coats of this leaves nails looking naturally gorgeous. It also fills in ridges a treat and can be used as a base coat, what a multi tasking wonder!

The best bit? I picked this up in Poundland of all places!!

Mid week beauty treats

Just a few beauty bargains I wanted to share with you, and all for under a pound!

Starting with haircare, I braved Home Bargains and got two 75ml travel sized Charles Worthington takeaways haircare products for 99p each. The frizz smoothing shampoo and conditioners are meant “for super shiny frizz free hair”. I've had a chance to use this now and it's left my hair feeling soft and silky, it straightened really easily and it was straighter than usual once I'd finished too! Will definitely be repurchasing.

Next is a gorgeous Technic nail polish in Mermaid. A hex glitter topcoat, I think this is as good as the famous OPI dupe, Carnival but I don’t think this is a dupe for anything. I've done a quick swatch on one nail to show you.

Lastly, this Primark beauty baked highlighter that I picked up for 50p reduced from £2.50! If you’re looking for a powder highlighter, you could do a lot worse than this and it’s actually pretty decent. There’s a fair amount of product in here and the bottom even has a mirror! The swatch shoes that it is a richly pigmented golden colour, although it didn't come out very evenly.

Have you picked up any cheeky treats this week?

May 2012 Red Magazine Liz Earle Cleanse & Polish freebie

I'm yet to sample the delights of Liz Earle, but lo and behold when I picked up this May's edition of Red Magazine to find a free 30ml sample of Liz Earle Cleanse & Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser inside. I don't usually buy Red but who could resist? It's consistently voted best cleanser and won a heap of awards; it even comes with a muslin cloth!

The magazine costs £3.90 and has also got an Estee Lauder Invisible Fluid Makeup and Clinique Repairwear Laser Focus sample sachet inside.

Best. Freebie. Ever. Unless someone starts handing out Mulberry handbags that is.