Is This A Dupe For Bumble & bumble Surf Spray?

I love beachy waves but sometimes a dip in the sea just isn't convenient so any products designed to help create that hairstyle, I need in my life. No doubt you are familiar with the Bumble & bumble Surf Spray. As my bottle is coming to an end I'm on the hunt for a cheaper alternative, especially as it's �21.50 a go for holiday hair.

The Schwarzkopf Got2b Beach Matt Mermaid Look Texturizing Salt Spray (love products with ridiculously long names) promises to create that windblown, tousled beach look without the crunch. I like to use salt sprays on dry hair. After spraying evenly all over I scrunch my hair with my hands until it's wavy enough. The Got2b spray offers a matt texture and more volume than the Bumble and bumble Surf Spray. I found you have to go lightly with the Got2b version as it can make your hair feel dry if too much is sprayed. The Bumble spray creates softer looking waves whereas the cheaper Schwarzkopf dupe gives more defined, messy waves. If you want to see the difference between them both I posted this photo on instagram.

If you have fine hair I'd stick to the Bumble and bumble Surf spray but If you have thicker hair like me try out the Got2b Texturizing Salt Spray. 

The Schwarzkopf Got2b Beach Matt Mermaid Look Texturizing Salt Spray* �3.00 200ml

Bumble and bumble Surf Spray �21.50 125ml Both available at Boots. 

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Is This A Drugstore Dupe For UD Naked Basics Palette?

Oh you know how much I love a good dupe. I'm all about neutral eyes and I reach for my MUA Undressed Me Too palette on an almost daily basis but this new beauty from COLLECTION has taken it's place. The latest Little Mix + COLLECTION collaboration comes in the form of an eyeshadow palette consisting of six neutral shades. When I first laid eyes on it I instantly thought it looked like a drugstore dupe for the Urban Decay Naked Basics palette. This is a more shimmery but less wallet-weeping version with incredible pigmentation. 

All of the shades have some subtle shimmer and has a buttery soft texture. There isn't a bad shade in the bunch and each one glides on smoothly with just one swipe. The eyeshadow swatches below were all with one single swipe - very impressive for a highstreet palette!

(L-R Feather, Sunkissed, Golden Sand, Dazzling Brown, Cocoa Dream and Blackbird)

My love for COLLECTION continues. The Little Mix 'All About The Eyes' Palette* will be available in Superdrug from the 30th of July. RRP �3.19

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Is This A Drugstore Dupe For Pixi Glow Tonic?

Pixi Glow Tonic is such a hyped up product which has cult status amongst many beauty bloggers. Pixi describes it as an exfoliating facial glow tonic. It helps to firm, tone and tighten the skin whilst removing dead skin cells for a healthier looking complexion. It's like a modern exfoliant and lots of brands have caught onto this hype by launching there own versions.

The All Bright range from Botanics contains hibiscus which has natural AHA's and act as a mild exfoliator leaving the skin brighter and smoother. The All Bright Cleansing Toner is designed to visibly tighten pores and instantly brighten skin. This bottle is actually my Mums. I nabbed it off her dressing table after she said she doesn't really use it. I absolutely love using a toner. I know it can be a bit of a forgotten step but I love the refreshing feeling it gives.

This has a pink hue to it and a subtle floral scent. I just pour a few drops onto a cotton pad and swipe all over my face post cleanse. My skin is left refreshed and prepared for moisturising however I wouldn't say it instantly brightens. I've been using this twice a day for a couple of weeks now and I do enjoy using it. It removes any traces of make up or dirt left on my face and my skin is definitely smoother. I would say the Pixi toner is stronger regarding it's exfoliating properties but this isn't a bad little toner.

Boots Botanic All Bright Cleansing Toner RRP �3.99 (this is normally on offer!)

Have you entered my Simple Skincare giveaway yet? Quick you only have until this Friday! Enter here.

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Is This a Dupe For By Terry Ombre Blackstar?

I'm a sucker for a highstreet dupe. After hearing Lily and Anna rave on about the ByTerry Ombre Blackstar I immediately added it to my mental wishlist. Then after heading onto the SpaceNK website to find out they are priced at �28 a pop my love for them lessened.

Not one to give up I marched to Boots in search for a Ombre Blackstar highstreet dupe. I was meet with the Max Factor Flipsticks which are a double ended eyeshadow stick. I wasn't too impressed with the pigmentation of these but the Revlon ColourStay Shadow Sticks were better versions with more colour pay-off but still quite different from what I was looking for. The new Seventeen EyeEye crayons look like a good budget buy. They are waterproof shadow sticks which are smooth to apply and come in 4 shades. The winner for me though were the No7 Stay Perfect Shade and Define Liners.These creamy sticks are really easy to use and come in 8 wearable shades. The two I have are Black Shimmer and Gunmetal Grey. You can use these all over the lid or the tip point makes it a great eyeliner. The more natural shades in the range would be good for highlighting and using in the corners of the eyes. The formula for these are impressively long-lasting and smudge-proof.

No7 Stay Perfect Shade and Define �8.00 available from Boots. 

I've got my eye on a few other shades from the range, are you a fan of these stick style eyeshadows?

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Star Spangled vs Runway Sparkle

While browsing through a beauty salon catalog I came across Venique and their new Holiday Collection. I immediately fell in love with their Twinkle Surprise gift box. It contained two of their three holiday reds � Runway Sparkle and Heels of Dazzle. Today I'm bringing you a swatch of Runway Sparkle and a comparison on how this shimmery red holds up against Orly's Star Spangled.

Here is Venique Runway Sparkle on my nails. It's a lovely rich red with a sparkle of bright red shimmer. I knew the moment it went on my nails that I had a polish very like this in my collection. It didn't take much digging since I don't own many reds.

I decided to use some fake nails to test these polishes against each other since I was already sporting some nail art. Here is how they hold up with one coat over clear fake nails. There's really not much difference at one coat except that the Orly is a much more sheer polish.

At two coats you really start to see that Venique's Runway Sparkle is a deeper shade of red. You also see that it layers much better than Orly's Star Spangled. Orly is still very much a sheer while Venique has turned nearly opaque with just two coats.

At three coats Venique has taken on a very noticeable, darker shade of red and has reached full coverage. However, you also begin to see a big difference in the amount of shimmer. Orly is packed full, with nearly every inch covered in shimmer. Venique isn't quite so lucky. The shimmer is more thin and spread out leaving it to get a bit lost under its darker red base.

Top coat is definitely needed as shimmer polishes almost always have a texture to them as the base settles around the shimmer. With some top coat the difference in shimmer is really noticeable as light gleams off the shiny surfaces.

The reason I chose to use clear fake nails was for just this reason. In the bottle, Venique looked to have a lot more shimmer than was showing on my nails. It left me wondering if the shimmer was sticking to the sides of the bottle. Flipping the nails over shows that, while Venique still doesn't quite live up to Orly's shimmer packed polish, it does have more shimmer than it shows. It doesn't stick to the bottle though, it just sinks on the nail!! When I buy a shimmer, I definitely want shimmer so I lean a bit more towards Orly for this reason but the deeper shade of red Venique uses makes me want to reach for it more during the holiday season.

In the end, the question is: Dupe or Dupe Not? The answer is that Venique Runway Sparkle is definitely not a dupe for Orly Star Spangled. Over all though, I'm happy to now own Runway Sparkle, and I do like the Venique formula a little bit better because at three coats Orly Star Spangled still wasn't getting full coverage. I just wish Runway Sparkle had a more present shimmer.

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Facets of Fuchsia

Today's polish was part of my birthday haul. I'm sure you all know by now how much I love purple on my nails ... and glitter, so this is really a perfect polish for me.

This is Revlon Facets of Fuchsia. I found this polish extremely hard to photograph. The glitter definitely turned more purple in this picture than the extra bright true fuchsia that can be seen in person. Facets of Fuchsia has a black jelly base with beautiful large and small fuchsia hex glitters. This is three coats of polish. The first coat went on very, very sheer, but it builds up quite nicely. I tend to use thicker coats and could have gotten away with two coats. I simply did the third in hopes of getting more of the larger glitters. Sadly, most of the large glitter refused to budge from the sides of the bottle and those that did wanted to stick to my brush more than my nail, but given more time and patience I'm sure I could have gotten more on my nails. I didn't have any problems with the glitter sticking up too far, but like most glitter polishes it did have a texture. A top coat smoothed everything out nicely though.

Some of you may be thinking this polish looks familiar. And it should! Revlon is the reigning Queen of the Dupes. Facets of Fuchsia is a near exact match for Deborah Lippmann's Bad Romance. I don't own Bad Romance, so I can't give you a comparison post myself. However, I did find a really great comparison post done by Fab Fatale. Find the post here: Bad Romance vs. Facets of Fuchsia and make the decision for yourself. Is Facets of Fuchsia enough dupe for you?

::Thank you, Vee of Masquerade Nails, for sending me on a search that let me know Revlon made Facets of Fuchsia (part of a limited edition collection) a permanent part of their polish line. They simply renamed it Scandalous.::

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Dupe for Essie Mint Candy Apple

 I'm not sure what your thoughts on beauty product dupes are, but i bloody love them! It's not often a nail varnishes becomes really, really popular in the blogosphere. I can think of a few like OPI Rainbow Connection and Barry M Peach Melba maybe?

Essie has become quite popular lately, especially their shade Mint Candy Apple. I love wearing pastels on my nails and that particular shade does look really nice. I've not tried any Essie products before but I've seen so many blog post's on Mint Candy Apple now, I think this is a good dupe!

This nail varnish only cost me �1.75 and it was from George at Asda! The Shade is called 32 Streamer. I've had this colour for over a year now (sorry!) So the consistency has gone a bit gloopy. It's a minty blue shade like Mint Candy Apple. It has a quick dry formula but doesn't have great staying power. With a good top coat on this lasts around 3 days. Overall not bad for a supermarket nail varnish!

I would recommend checking out Asda's own brand nail varnishes, they have a few nice shades. Sorry I don't have any comparison photo's to Essie's version - but I hope this helps!

Do you want to try Essie Mint Candy Apple? If you've tried it do you think this is a good dupe?

p.s sorry for my appalling nail painting skills, i'm so bad at it!


p.p.s what does P.S stand for anyway?!

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Twinkling Hot Tamales

First off ... whoa, what is up with the new posting feature?? Was anyone else horribly confused and panicking a bit? I thought I pressed the wrong button or something!!


Right, onto the post. I'm not sure how long I can keep this daily posting up. Maybe another day or so if I'm not too lazy to paint my nails today, so enjoy it while you can! Today, I bring you Twinkle and Hot Tamale both from Pure Ice.

This alternating mani is two coats of Hot Tamale, the darker polish, and two coats of Twinkle, the lighter polish. I'm just noticing now the slightly visible nail line on some of them. They could probably use another coat or three. I guess this means they're more sheer than I thought.

Twinkle showed up fairly dark in most of the pictures I took. I managed to find a handful of true to color. Twinkle is a simply lovely shade of coral pink or maybe a salmon. It contains a slight hint of orange but I'm not sure if that's just the gold shimmer playing tricks on my eyes or not.

Hot Tamale is a darker color that I think nearly overwhelms the delicate Twinkle. The closest I can come to describing Hot Tamale is an off shade of vermilion, sometimes known as cinnabar. I think this shade works best because vermilion is described as being similar to scarlet but with more orange and less red. Hot Tamale certainly has it's fair share of orange and mixes nicely with the gold shimmer the polish contains.

 Twinkle and Hot Tamale close-up shots.

You really get to see the true shades of these colors up-close in direct sunlight.

Hot Tamale shows it's gold shimmer much less than Twinkle. The gold shimmer blends too well with Hot Tamale's metallic finish to really pop. That certainly doesn't mean Hot Tamale doesn't pop all on its own. While pink is my favorite color I don't think I can wear a shade as delicate as Twinkle ... at least not without Hot Tamale to carry it along.


What I didn't know while buying this polish was how closely Hot Tamale resembles Riveting from the China Glaze Hunger Games collection. Riveting has slightly more depth to its color; the metallic finish of Riveting shifts subtly darker than Hot Tamale. However, Riveting leaves Hot Talame in its gold shimmering dust. Riveting has a much, much more present shimmer. The gold flecks are also bigger and brighter; they really shine out of the polish. As you can see from the picture below, Hot Tamale is not an exact match to Riveting but you might be able to make a fairly passable fraken dupe out of it by adding a thicker shimmer.

Will any of you be trying Hot Tamale in place of Riveting? What about Twinkle? Will it work better with your skin tone than it does mine?

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