Nails of the Day - Max Factor Fantasy Fire

If you are any part of the Bloggersphere, you'd have seen there has been a teeny bit of hype about Max Factor's latest nail polish, Fantasy Fire. I checked all stockists every time I passed, desperate to get my hands on it - and the fact I couldn't ever find it made me want it even more!

One of my lovely friends saw me mention it on Instagram (I'm supergorgeous on there, by the way), and picked me up a bottle in her local Boots, which had loads of them. As soon as it arrived, I couldn't wait to try it... and here are the results....

For starters, the bottle is tiny, it does say 'mini polish' on the bottle, and it definitely is - there's no details on the packaging so I'm not sure how much polish is in there exactly, but it's about the size of one chocolate from a box of Quality Street or Roses, perhaps a bit smaller.

Inside the bottle it looks like a multitude of colours - a bit like a petrol spillage - pink, purple, orange, turquoise and gold. Once it's on the nails it is definitely purple, and has some pinky-orange iridescence to it. It also has teeny tiny microglitter in it, making the polish multi-dimensional and a little shimmery.

Next up, it's sheer - very very sheer. I needed four coats to get it opaque on my nails. It's fine, I can cope with that. It also means that if you like that kind of thing, it's sheer enough that you can use it on top of other polishes.

I think it'll be good for the summer, as you can only really see the different dimensions of the polish in good light. I do like it but not sure it's worth all the hype that it's received!

What do you think - do you like it? Do you own it?

Max Factor Masterpiece Max Mascara

I was in need of a new mascara, I needed something I could get on the High Street, as I'd decided that day that I needed a new one and I needed it NOW! As I browsed through the make up shelves of Boots, I remembered a rave review I'd read about Max Factor Masterpiece Max - how it gave big, dramatic, lashes - so that was that. My new mascara.

Max Factor claims that Masterpiece Max can give you up to 400% more volume than your naked lashes, without clogging or clumping. I found the results slightly different....

It does deliver on the bold lash front, but I find it reeeealllly hard to work with.  It's very wet, so you have to be careful how you apply it or it ends up under your eyebrows. I also seem to constantly end up with mascara along my eyelid which I gather is due to the design of the wand.

The wand is plastic with shorter spikes towards the tip, to enable you to get to all your lashes. It is really good at separating the lashes and giving them definition but it takes a few coats to get your lashes looking fat; the more coats you apply, the fatter the lashes, but in turn, the more stuck together the lashes get, which can become an issue...

While I was applying the mascara for this pic, I ended up with some on my eyelid - I tried to sort it out but in doing so managed to stick loads of lashes together where they were so wet. When I then tried to comb through them again with the wand, they looked so ridiculous I had to remove all my make up from one eye and start again. Not so handy when you're in a rush in the mornings.

My lashes definitely look more voluminous using Max Factor Masterpiece Max, whether or not they're 400% more voluminous I couldn't tell you but there's definitely an essence of drama to them now. The other good thing about it is that it really does last all day long without flaking or giving me panda eyes.

I've used it for a good few weeks, so it's not even as if I need to get used to working with the formula... I just don't think it's for me.