Essie Mini Heroes

Every time I go into Boots I swoon over the Essie stand but I can't part with £8 for one single nail polish. I think it's a tad expensive so when I saw a little stand of these Essie Minis in 'Hubby for dessert' and 'Sugar Daddy' near the till for £3.99 each, I thought I could get my Essie fix and get two, quite decent sized polishes, for the price of one full-size one.

As I stood in the queue I thought these polishes did look a little bit thin but I thought it wouldn't matter as a few layers of polish would build up the colour a bit more. The layers dry quite clear and it took four or five to build up any sort of colour, which usually means they're much more likely to chip and peel because the layer is so thick. This is a real pet peeve of mine, at the very maximum, I want a polish to look great at three layers and no more. However, the layers seemed to stand up pretty well, even passing the washing up test (which is usually wear my polish chips off) with flying colours.

The brushes of the polishes are fab too and really wide so you can cover the whole nail in one go. They do dry quickly as well. The finished look of the 'Hubby for dessert' is more of a pale, milky lavender shade while 'Sugar Daddy' can produce quite a nice, natural, almost not there type of look if that's the sort of thing you're after. They do look pretty together as well.

For £3.99 these aren't too pricey, they're just a bit of a pain due to having to put so many layers on. I'd be interested to try a couple of darker shades to see how they apply.

Have you tried the Essie Mini polishes? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Before you go, why not nominate Cherry Pie in the Cosmopolitan UK​ Blog awards here under the 'Best Beauty' category.

First impressions: Lottie London

I love discovering new brands so thought this would make a nice little regular feature for products that don't take too much time to test.

I'm pretty sure Lottie London is relatively new, at least it's new to my local Superdrug store here in Weston-super-Mare and I have to say, we are a bit behind the times here. I noticed the stand on a recent visit and it immediately grabbed by eye as it was packed full of colourful products. There was so much to choose from and in the end I decided on a nail polish and two brushes.

I don't exactly need new brushes but I do like to try different ones to see how they work for me. I picked up the red eyeshadow brush and pastel yellow blend brush as I thought these might work well together. The eyeshadow brush actually has a really big fanned out brush, which is great for applying your eyeshadow in one nice swoop, you can then blend it in with the yellow brush. Both have super soft bristles and for £4.99 each they're very budget friendly. I noticed a brush set also on offer alongside lots of other brushes so they are a great budget alternative to higher end brushes.

I picked up the polish 'As If', which is a gorgeous, bright sky blue colour. For £5.99 it's a little more expensive than I usually like to pay for a nail polish but it's a nice big chunky bottle and the application is brill thanks to the super wide brush. It dries relatively quickly and only needs two coats to get the finish above - it looks lovely and shiny and stays in place for a good few days before chipping. It's pretty much everything I want in a nail polish.

I'd definitely recommend checking out Lottie London if you haven't already. It's a great way to brighten up your makeup bag!

Have you tried Lottie London before? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Rimmel London Salon Pro Nude Nail Polishes by Kate Moss

Why did nobody tell me about this collection sooner? I think I'm pretty late to the bandwagon just because I moved house, didn't have Internet for two weeks, which meant these sat in my 'to be reviewed' pile for absolutely ages. At the weekend I FINALLY pulled them out and dusted them off ready for photographing and I am so, so impressed.

Now I do love a nude nail polish and it was tricky to pick between all the shades in the range but I went for 'Goddess,' which is a nude with peachy undertones and a very subtle hint of shimmer and 'Mistify Me,' which is a more chocolatier beige/greige shade. They both work beautifully well together as well as individually. The reason I didn't photograph the shades on my nails was because my nails aren't in great shape at the moment, but I am wearing the polish and have been for a couple of days.

The shades are lovely to apply and I love, love, love the wide angle brush. It just makes application so much easier and I can evenly apply the polish to all my nails. I was also pleasantly surprised to find that they weren't too thin in consistency, which can often be an issue with nude shades. These just needed around two coats and voila! It also boasts a 'lycra' formula, which helps it be chip resistant, anti-fading and long lasting.

They dry pretty quickly and don't stay sticky/tacky afterwards. The polish claims to be chip resistant and I have to say it is one of the very few polishes that hasn't chipped after a day or so. It's remained fully intact for the majority of the weekend and this week, which I'm very impressed about!

Have you tried the new nude range of polishes from Rimmel London and Kate Moss? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Waterstones Stationery Haul

I might be 26 (nearly 27, no!) but I still get the urge to buy pretty, pretty stationery. I don't know if it's because of the time of year and all the shops are pushing their 'back to school' lines of notebooks, pretty pens and pencil cases, but today while I was in town something sort of took over and led me to the stationery stand, in Waterstones of all places.

As I milled around Wilkinsons I was really disappointed by the lack of stationery that wasn't too childish. The same went for WH Smith, all full of silly characters and not very grown up at all. Waterstones on the other hand have some lovely bits, of which I grabbed just a few. There's so much to choose from, I had to stay very far away from the Orla Kiely notebooks but happily browsed the little tables of to-do lists, pens and notebooks of all shapes and sizes.

I came away very happily with the above, which isn't really much but my bank account was kind of restricting and pay day isn't until next week so I think I did pretty well. I've noticed stationery these days is much more than just notebooks and pens, these days you get to do lists and entire books dedicated to list making, colouring books for adults, organisers, the list goes on!

You could say I didn't really need any of this as I'm not going back to school or Uni but I thought of it as a sort of back to work on Monday sort of treat. Also, the fact I've just got a brand new, shiny desk for my blogging is a good excuse!

Do you ever get the urge to buy new stationery? Let me know in the comments what you've bought recently.

Battle of the corrector palettes - Makeup Revolution Ultra Base Corrector vs Freedom Makeup Pro Correct

I'm not sure if it was intentional but these two products from Makeup Revolution and Freedom Makeup seemed to be released at similar times. They do similar things and contain similar colours for correcting so I wanted to see if there were any differences between them when it came to use and how they worked.

At £6, the Makeup Revolution palette offers eight different shades for all your correcting needs. The pinks brighten, lavender neutralises yellow tones, green neutralises redness while the orange neutralises blue tones. The peach will help balance discolouration and the white adds a natural highlight as well as brightens. The cream covers dark areas and the brown balances ashiness in medium to darker skin tones.

The colours I'm mainly interested in are the green, white, peach and cream. There are a few too many peachy colours for me and the description of a brown shade isn't too accurate, as it's more of a dark peach.

The £5 Freedom Makeup palette contains six shades. The product description on the website doesn't actually tell you which colour does what and I can't see it on the packaging anywhere either so for a normal, non-blogger person, this might be a bit confusing. I'm following along the same lines as the Makeup Rev palette and assuming the shades do the same things.

I'm not usually too keen on creamy palettes like these as they tend to pick up odd little bits of fluff and hairs from the brush, making them look very unappealing. I would prefer if the palettes came with proper concealer brushes too as nothing from my own stash really worked.

My skin isn't the best at holding foundation as it is. I usually have to use a VERY light layer otherwise it ends up drying and going crumbly so I was hesitant about using these correctors under my foundation. I was hoping they'd conceal and correct nicely and that my foundation would sit on top looking smooth and lovely but alas, it did not! The shades from both palettes didn't sit too well with my foundation and I found them difficult to blend. In particular the green, which was still showing through as I put such a light layer of foundation on. For someone with a lot of redness, that's not great. I also found that the dark under my eyes wasn't really covered either so was a little disappointed.

Personally I think the products are pretty much the same but in different packaging, the brands are sister brands after all and made by the same people. I've read lots of positive reviews all over the net recently so just because they didn't work too well on me, doesn't mean they won't on other people. I personally think they work better under a heavier layer of foundation than what I use.

When it comes to comparing the palettes, it's difficult to choose an overall winner. For the £6 palette you do get more shades but the £5 one still has pretty much everything you need. The Freedom palette would fit nicely in a small make-up bag or your handbag so if I was to go into a shop and buy either one, it would probably be the Freedom one because of this very reason.

I will soldier on with the palettes and see if I can get them to work for me. I will report back.

Have you used either of these corrector palettes yet? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Top tips: Moving house

So recently I moved house and before the big day I thought I had it all sussed. 'It'll be fine' I said, 'we'll be done in no time'. Wrong. It took SO much longer than I anticipated, it was 10x stressful and tiring but I have learnt from my mistakes and thought I'd put together a few helpful tips for you to save you going through the same cardboard box hell.

Get organised
Oh my God get organised. I can't stress this enough and during moving week I was really annoyed at myself that I was a lazy slob and basically did nothing before the big day. When I say get organised, I don't just mean pack things into boxes either, there's so much de-cluttering and cleaning to be done as well. If I had gotten off my butt and got this done BEFORE moving I wouldn't have had to spend the entire week going back to the old house and sorting and cleaning it.

Lists are definitely you're friends - write down every job you need to do. Walk around the house as you do it as it will help you to imagine and remember everything that needs doing. Sort wardrobes, dismantle furniture, clear out garages and do the gardening. This will absolutely save you so much time at the other end of your move.

Save as much money as you can
Our move was all very last minute and we had zero money saved - thank God for overdrafts! If you have lots of notice of your move or you're looking to move out of your parent's house for the first time, I would definitely advise you get your saving hat on. Moving always costs so much more than you think. I'm talking from a renting point of view in this post so there's not only lettings agency fees but also credit check fees, first month's rent in advance plus a deposit and as if that wasn't enough you might need to hire a van on moving day as well as buy lots of new bits and bobs for the new place. When you're switching addresses for things like phone lines/gas/electricity or animal insurance details, some of these places will charge you so be warned! We had to pay an extra £100 deposit for having our cat so it all adds up.

Clean, clean, clean
One good thing about moving out of a rented house is that you should get your deposit back...however the place has to be left in the same condition it was when you moved in. This means you need to clean it from top to bottom, fill in any holes in the walls you've made, touch up any marks, clean the carpets and make sure the garden is clean and tidy.

Stupidly we left all of this until after we had moved out. It's tricky to get lots of cleaning done while there are still boxes all over the place and you're still living in the house but things like the garden, windows, kitchen and bedrooms can be cleaned and sorted prior to the move, then once you're all moved out you can come back and give the carpets or floors a good clean.

As we were at the old house for most of the week it meant we weren't getting much sorted in the new place. It also meant lots of late nights and LOTS of car journeys to the local tip...and I mean LOTS.

Keep details up-to-date
You may not realise but there are so many things you'll need to update once you've changed addresses. Not only your bank details but also gas, electricity, driving licence, TV licence, council tax, doctors surgery, vets, microchip details and insurance details if you have animals, passport, car insurance, internet, SKY tv and phone to name but a few.

You also need to make sure you cancel phone lines at your old place as well as taking meter readings for water, gas and electricity. If you get a lot of post it might also be a good idea to look into the Royal Mail's postal redirect service, personally I didn't do this because it cost £30! I made sure all addresses were changed a few days prior to moving day and informed anyone I knew of that regularly send me parcels.

So these are my main pointers and things that really stuck out in the run up to moving day and the actual day itself. There is probably a lot more I can go into both pre and post the big move but this is the most stressful section of moving so I thought it was probably the most important post.

If you're organised I think you'll save yourself hours, even days, in the moving process and will be all smug and settled into your new pad in no time.

If you have any tips for moving day, please leave them in the comments!

Debenhams Summer Sun Bouquet

Is there anything better than receiving a bunch of flowers? I'm not just talking about a bunch of flowers from the local supermarket either, but a proper, gorgeous bouguet such as the next day flowers service from Debenhams flowers.

I was very kindly sent a beautiful bouquet to feature on the blog and I am so, so impressed. My sister recently bought me some sunflowers, which were gorgeous so I was going to buy myself some more, until a very exciting email popped into my inbox asking if I'd like to try Debenhams' flowers by post service.

I actually had no idea Debenhams did this kind of service. There are lots of different bouquets to choose from ranging from around the £20 mark up to the £40+ mark. There's the option to make your bouquets bigger for a few extra pounds too, so you can really get something showstopping!

I received my flower delivery via Royal Mail the very next day after ordering. They came in a huge box, were well wrapped and protected and even came with a little instruction booklet.

On opening the box I was greeted with a super sunny and amazing smelling display of flowers, from roses to sunflowers and lots of greenery inbetween too. I absolutely made the right choice, the bouquet is perfect for brightening up any space and they look fab in my nice new home!

I would absolutely use this service again, not just to order flowers for myself but for someone else for a special occasion or a birthday. You really get good value for money with these bouquets, even if you go for the cheaper ones, they're still stunning.

If you fancy getting yourself some flowers to brighten up the place then use the code DFBLOG25 for 25% off a bouquet, excluding the 'flowers by post' range.

Will you be trying the Debenhams Flowers service? Let me know in the comments.

*This post contains a PR sample.

Zoella Beauty Fresh Fizz Fragranced Bath Fizzer

I'll start off this blog post by saying I realise I'm not necessarily the target audience for Zoella's beauty range but there's no denying she's fast becoming a household name. I bought the original fizz bar when it was first launched and I actually really liked it so when a new, updated 'fresh' version was released I thought I'd give it a try.

This one comes in four big blocks instead of eight smaller squares. I actually preferred the eight small squares as you could break them off easily. Breaking the four blocks in half and possibly half again is a bit tricky and a lot messier.

The original fizz bar was really fresh and simple but this one has a bit of a fresher/fruitier edge, which is very me. It dissolves nice and quickly in the bath and you can use as much as you like depending on the strength of scent you want. Overall I really enjoy using these fizz bars and they leave a really nice, fresh and fruit scent in your bath, which really helps you to relax.

Have you tried the new Zoella beauty range? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Matalan Splash Print Trainers

I thought the days of me buying proper trainers were long gone. I remember when I was younger and pestered my mum for the 'latest' trainers, which were so ridiculously priced. Some kind of Reebok if I remember correctly. Oh dear.

These days I'm more of a skinny jeans and ballet pumps or Converse kind of girl, until I started exercise classes earlier this year. It started as some kind of unofficial New Year's resolution to get myself out of the house for an evening and now it's Yoga as much as I can and aerobics once a week.

I was doing spin classes from around February until very recently but got a bit bored of them if I'm honest and thought I'd try something new. The trainers I had for spin weren't 'proper' ones, they had quite soft soles so I needed something a bit sturdier for aerobics. I knew I didn't want to splash out stupid amounts so I headed straight to Matalan as I'd spotted trainers in stock earlier in the year, unfortunately there weren't many still in so I headed to the website and the Splash Print trainers caught my eye almost immediately thanks to the graffiti/paint splash almost Aurora lights-esque patterning.

They really stood out on the website and funnily enough stood out in my aerobics class too! They're super bright and funky and I love the bold colours against the black trim.

I've never reviewed trainers before but these are super comfy while still being supportive around the ankles. I know they're not exactly your high end training/running shoes but they're in keeping with this new breed of 'fashionable' trainers and for the price they do the exact job I need.

What do you think of the Matalan Splash Print Trainers? Let me know in the comments.

Sunday Summary #23

Well good evening! It's been a little while since I wrote one of these summary posts. I have quite missed them!

Since last week's post I've not been up to too much. Most week days consist of work and coming home and sitting infront of the TV or laptop. The weekends do get a little more exciting though, I must say. Yesterday I had a bit of a lie-in until 10 and a lounge around the house before going to get a new tyre put on my car and buy a few new bits for the house.

The best thing about moving house is 'having' to buy all those little bits and pieces that you need. I got some nice new cushions, bath mats and just bits and bobs. I also managed to have a good old browse of Boots and Superdrug as well as pick up a couple of new tops for myself. I'm feeling much more flush than usual as our rent for August was paid prior to us moving in so I have been all spend, spend, spend, when I should probably be paying off my overdraft. I promise I will!

Unless you read in my last post, you might not know that I've taken up aerobics! I decided to start going in place of my spin class as spin wasn't really interesting my anymore. I signed up for what is supposed to be 'low' impact aerobics but it definitely isn't low impact at all. My sister and I are probably the youngest ones there but definitely not the fittest! I was absolutely knackered after the first week and my thighs hurt for days afterwards. Last week's class was quite enjoyable and I wasn't in so much pain after, so that's good. During both classes I did feel dizzy and sick when doing a certain part of the routine - I'm not sure what they're called but we use these stretchy rope things, put them under our feet and pull on them in certain ways. This seems to make me feel really lightheaded and weird so I have to sit down and have some water. Not quite sure what's going on there...

I've also got back into my yoga after not having Internet for nearly two weeks. I completed my 30 day challenge before moving so now I'm sort of picking and choosing which videos to follow based on how I'm feeling that day.

Today has been a very bloggy day. It's been nice to get back into it again but I am missing having a dedicated spot for photo taking. Taking photos in this new house definitely depends on the weather/light on the day as I don't have a big, bright conservatory here! I did well today on the lounge floor as it is decorated in nice light colours.

Vince and I are going to enjoy a lovely Chinese takeaway for dinner and then before I know it, it will be Monday morning again! My crochet classes start up again next week, which I'm weirdly looking forward to. I have been really bad at doing crochet in my spare time so need to get back into it again!

Hope you've all had a great weekend, let me know what you've been up to in the comments.