Miller Harris and The Burgundy Portfolio Fragrance and Wine Evening

*Before I get onto this post proper, I wanted to say that this is going to be my last post for a couple of weeks - I'm going to Rwanda to teach children and teachers until the beginning of August so I'm taking a break from blogging whilst I'm away.  If you want to see what we're up to, we'll be blogging at teachinginrwanda.blogspot.com*

Last Wednesday my old school friend Liesl Lamare (who's an amazing wedding and event planner at Zouch & Lamare - go check out their website) and I went to a fantastic evening of fragrance and wine tasting hosted by Miller Harris and The Burgundy Portfolio.  Arriving at the Miller Harris Bruton Street store in Mayfair, we embarked on a whole world of smell and taste combinations we had no idea could pair so well.

Tami Beauty Nail Polish Review: Lady of Lomond and Skibo Sunset

Tami Beauty is a brand new Scottish company, with a focus on nail polish.  At the moment there are only three polishes in their line up - but from the two I have tried I can say I'm seriously impressed by the quality and beauty of the polishes and look forward to seeing future releases from them.

Lady of Lomond*

Lady of Lomond* (shown top in sunlight, bottom in shade) is a pale teal green holo polish with flecks of silver, blue and green glitter in it.  It paints on smoothly and the brush makes it easy to apply.  It dries quickly and only needed two coats for full coverage.  I think it is stunning and I couldn't stop looking at my fingers when I tried it on.  It'll be particularly beautiful around Christmas I think - but as it's a pale green it can definitely work for a bit of summer glitz too.

Skibo Sunset*

Skibo Sunset* (shown top in sunlight, bottom in shade) is a fuchsia holo polish.  This one also paints on really smoothly - and only needs one coat to get the coverage in the photo above.  I'm a two coats girl, as I always say, and yet I didn't feel any need to paint two coats!  A really lovely pale raspberry pink polish.

Overall then?  Love love love these polishes - and like I said, I can't wait to see what else they'll offer in future.  There's one more in this current collection - Gleneagles Glamour, a pink/lavender holo with green, purple, orange and blue micro glitter in it which also sounds stunning. 

I loved the chevron mani I posted on Friday so I did some more with these two polishes (using Nail Vinyls for the chevrons).

Tami Beauty is here on Facebook and the website will be here - www.tami-beauty.com (it's currently down but will be up and running again soon so I'll update here when it's back!) where you can order the polishes - all three are currently on sale as a collection for £25 at the moment (usually £32.50) or £11.25 each.

*PR samples

No 7 Gel Look Shine Summer Nail Colour: Lemon Drop and Mint Treat

This summer Boots No 7 have brought out four special edition colours to add to their Gel Look Shine nail polish collection.  There are four summery brights in the line up: Mint Treat* (green), Lemon Drop* (yellow), Orange Spice (orange) and Summer Holiday (pinky coral).

My First Outfit of the Day Post featuring Joules Sunglasses for Vision Express

I have never done an Outfit of the Day post.  There are a number of very good reasons for this: 1) I feel so awkward having photos taken of just me (do I smile?  Do I not?  How should I stand?); 2) I am so not a fashion blogger - I usually catch on to trends just as they're going out of fashion; and 3) since I live alone, I don't have a helpful assistant to take snaps and direct me (heaven knows, you'll see I need some direction).  However, I figured I couldn't not have a photo of myself wearing my new Joules Southwold sunglasses in a post about them so when I was at home earlier this week I took a deep breath and roped my mum into being my photographer... be prepared for a rather cheesy-photo-heavy post (and don't worry, I'm not planning any more OOTD posts any time soon!)

Joan Collins Nail Lacquer Review

Melanie, Lady Joan and Evelyn

"I don't feel dressed without nail lacquer.  It's as essential to me as lipstick." - Joan Collins

Ah, Joan.  How I agree that I feel naked without nail polish these days.  We all know I'm a nail polish addict - and therefore I'm always keen to try out new polishes.  Recently I was sent three polishes from the Joan Collins Timeless Beauty* range.  Now, I know what you're probably thinking - since when did Joan Collins have a range of beauty products?  Well she does and I have to say these polishes are great quality.  Admittedly the packaging and names of the polishes probably aren't going to appeal to the younger end of the market - and the colours could possibly be considered a bit too traditional for those who don't tend to wear shades of red and pink.  But a polish is a polish and once it's on your nails, who cares what the bottle looked like or what it's called - I just want to know that the formula is going to be smooth, opaque and last well. 

Born Pretty Store Rose Water Decals Review

I wrote about Born Pretty Store water decals recently here.  That was my first experience of water decals and I'm not sure how they worked so well.  These little roses* (which were item #12672-G124A but they don't seem to exist any more, so these seem to be the new version of them) I have been so excited about trying out because I thought they'd look perfect with Essie Fiji.

Dove Purely Pampering Nourishing Body Oils - and a Giveaway!

Dove just yesterday added to their Purely Pampering range of products: the Nourishing Body Oils*.  Everybody seems to be about the body oils at the moment - they're supposed to be more environmentally friendly than body lotions (there's a good article on the benefits of using body oil here) and they're more economical (because a little oil goes a long way when you add it to just-showered skin - the moisture on the skin also maximises the hydration of the oils).