Dealing with Dark Shadows Under the Eyes

Hi everyone! I've always had problems with dark shadows under my eyes for as long as I can remember and yes you can cover up with concealer but prevention is better than cure right? I'm no professional but these seemed to have worked for me so I wanted to share some products and tips for reducing those dark shadows.

The first tip everyone tells you is to get more sleep, which yes will help reduce those shadows but especially for me at the moment with my exams starting in less than a month and procrastination levels hitting an all time high, sleep is becoming a bit of a luxury! According to research as a teenager you should be getting 8-9 hours sleep a night... I'm lucky to get 7 most nights! You should also try and make sure you keep your skin hydrated by reducing the amount of caffeine and concentrated fruit juices and switching to water or squash.

A quick fix to dealing with dark shadows is before you go to bed run two spoons under the tap and put them into a freezer. When you wake up in the morning run them under some water again and gently pat them on the area under your eyes. You do have to be careful with this as sometimes the spoons might stick to you skin if you push them on too hard for too long.

As well as keeping healthy I've found a couple of great products that have really helped me! The first is the Revitale Collagen and Q10 Anti-wrinkle eye gel patches which I found on Fragrance Direct for a bargain price of £0.99!!!! I was a bit hesitant because I hadn't heard of the brand before but the reviews seemed to be good so I thought I would give it a whirl! Although they are designed for combating wrinkles I found they were really good at reducing the puffiness of my under eye area which in turn reduced the dark shadows. You just leave them on for 20-30 minutes before I go to bed and when I took them I could actually feel the difference straightaway!

Another product that I also picked up from Fragrance Direct was the Pretty Perfect Rejuvenating Eye Roll On also for £0.99! I tend to use this in the morning but I found it takes quite a while to dry/ soak in so I don't use it every morning because I don't really have enough time (I'd prefer the extra time in bed!) but when you first roll it on it does feel pretty good! The stick itself was a lot thinner than I had expected and you have to tilt it when you roll it on otherwise the liquid doesn't come out but it's got a very ergonomic design which makes it easy to hold. There are probably better products like this on the market but for the price I really can't complain!

I know this post was very short but I hoped it helps if you too are suffering for huge dark circles! Hope you enjoyed reading and let me know if you've got any tips or products that you use!

Review of 'L'Oreal Paris Color Riche Nail Polish' in '701 Midnight Mistress'

Hi everyone! To start with I'm really sorry that this isn't particularly a nail varnish for you if you are on a budget, but in my defense I did get it on the ferry back from Holland and it was around €3 so to me that seemed like a good deal!

It is a very deep blue almost black colour which is not the sort of colour I often wear but it was because of that reason I chose it, as I knew I had nothing already like it in my collection at home. It is also a lot smaller than the ones I usually buy. It is only a 5ml bottle so I'm not sure how long it will last? I also wasn't too impressed with the quality of the lid because as I peeled the plastic cover off it pulled off some of the gold which now I think makes it look a bit tacky!

Anywho, I applied my base coat which I think is really important especially when applying a dark colour like this one as you don't want it to stain your nails! I used my usual base coat from Barry M and as usual - it's nothing spectacular but it does the job!

I then applied the first coat of colour. At first I thought it was because I apply thin coats but then after reading other peoples reviews I was assured the first coat was very streaky for everyone! This surprised me because I sort of assumed that as it was such a small bottle and was made by a world famous brand that one coat would be enough but clearly I was wrong.

After applying the second coat a little thicker than usual just to make sure my nails had full coverage of polish it looks so much better! It did shock me a little how black it was as when it was just one coat the blue was quite strong although it was still a little opaque in some places. But it is incredibly glossy which is nice and is something I highly rate in nail varnishes.

I still applied a top coat just to give it a little more protection to chipping rather than to increase the shine. And here they are all done!

I have to admit I wouldn't really recommend this product as there are plenty of nail varnishes out there that are much cheaper and at the same time give you a much better coverage. I do like the colour but I have to be honest, I think it will be one I save for Halloween which is a bit of a shame as I had such high hopes considering the brand name. I would be quite disappointed if I had payed full price for this.

Let me know your thoughts on dark nail varnishes - do you love them or hate them? Thanks for reading!

Review of 'Gelly Hi-Shine Nail Paint by Barry M' in 'Pomegranate'

Hi everyone! There is so much hype surrounding the Gelly Hi-Shine range that Barry M brought out sometime last year from so many different people about how you only need one coat; how glossy it looks etc and to be honest I was a little bit skeptical because I apply quite thin coats, as you may know, so I thought I would give it a whirl and see if it's all it's cracked up to be!

I picked it up for £3.99 from Superdrug (although I think you can get it for around £2.49 from Amazon) in the colour Pomegranate because I really like dark pinky colours and it looked really nice and rich!

Please excuse the shortness of my nails but at the time of painting them I was a day away from embarking on my backpacking trip around Europe so I wanted to make sure they didn't break whilst I was away hence the shortness. I think when this is published I will be in Germany/Holland which is a little strange to think about!

Firstly, I applied my new favourite base coat, also from Barry M! It was £2.99 and I have been finding since switching to this my nail varnish has taken longer to chip and my nails haven't been breaking as much so thank you Barry M!

I then applied the first coat of colour and WOW! It glides onto the nail so nicely and it has really good coverage even with the first stroke. As it is a gelly nail varnish it is quite a bit thicker than normal nail varnishes which is probably why it gives such an even appearance on the first stroke. I honestly don't think I need another coat or even a top coat! It is super glossy and looks like I've already done two coats! The pictures seem to show it as a red colour when in fact it is exactly like the pink bottle so don't be fooled!

Well that was short and sweet! I would really recommend the Gelly Hi-Shine range as it is such great value for money and looks so professional! I will definitely be going out and buying more colours so you can look forward to seeing a few more reviews of this brand cropping up in the near future!

As it looked so great after the first coat I didn't feel the need to apply another coat which meant this review was very short! So I thought I would spice things up a little and add a sprinkle of glitter over the top and review that nail varnish at the same time! It's like killing 2 birds with 1 stone! So if you want to find out how this ended the continuing review will be up tomorrow! Thank you for reading (: