2 Stars & A Wish #8

I hope everyone's having a good week! Today has been an odd sort of day for me. Have you ever had one of those days where the world speeds up around you but it feels like you're wading through treacle? That's the day I've had today. I woke up 10 minutes late and it just went downhill from there. I ended up having a freezing cold shower before slamming the door shut on my finger and missing the bus. The week is really dragging but in the words of the great Jon Bon Jovi 'OOOOH WE'RE HALFWAY THERE!' There being the weekend! (Sorry! Regular readers will already know I'm super lame. Newbies: Welcome to Lolarocknroses, I'm superlame! You have been warned!) 

My first star this week goes to Barry M's Gelly Hi Shine in Almond. 

The (beauty) world loves, adores and worships the ground this polish walks upon and for good reason. A beautiful greige - I have been waiting forever to use that word!- it's really neutral and understated but also really pretty. Being Barry M it has the gorgeous, thick and creamy but totally manageable, easy to work formula we've all come to know and love. It goes on lovely and smooth and only needs two coats to be opaque (although I like to use three just to make sure.) I'm not really a huge fan of neutral shades, don't get me wrong I like them but I do love my brights and like my nails to pop. Having said that I can see this one becoming a firm favourite. I've heard, on good authority, that Almond is a dupe for Portchester Square by Nails Inc. Portchester Square being one of the few Nails Inc polishes I haven't tried I don't know if that's true BUT having seen some swatches online I can see that the colours are incredibly similar with the price being the only real difference, it doesn't get much better than that!

My Second Star this week goes to Percy & Reed's Quite Frankly Flawless Finishing Polish 

Now when it comes to haircare I am fiercely loyal to the brands I love. I tend to stick to what I know purely because I know them and I know what they do. I know what works for my hair and because my hair is so incredibly difficult it doesn't really leave much room for any experimentation. But every now and then an adventurous streak comes over me -it happens every couple of months or so when I suddenly think it would be a really good idea to do a JLaw and get a pixie cut. Which, realistically, I would never, ever do! I could not pull it off - Anyway every now and then I will occasionally shake up my haircare routine a little bit. I picked this up during a moment of hair madness ages ago, and have had it so long now that I can't even remember where, when or how I got it. But none of that matters because I'm using it now and I love it. I've been using it everyday in an attempt to tame my hair and calm  the frizz. My hair can't cope in this heat and goes full on crazy in the humidity.  It is not a good look! Since using the Finishing Polish there has been a slight but definitely noticeable difference in my hair. It's less frizzy and easier to manage. The product is really lightweight with a smooth, creamy consistency that doesn't leave the hair looking greasy or crispy. It also somehow manages to hold it's own against my wild curls and I love it for that. 

My Wish this week goes to MUA Luxe Velvet Lip Lacquer in Funk 

I bought this a million years ago and promptly forgot all about it until I rediscovered it lurking (sounds so sinister) at the back of my dressing table earlier this week. MUA is a high street brand that I like quite a lot, the make up is really good quality for the ridiculously low price you pay, although it can be a little bit hit and miss. This was definitely a miss. Now because I only paid £3.00 for this I was obviously not expecting perfection BUT I was expecting/hoping for a better formula. The formula is the main problem because I love everything else about this product. It is a really gorgeous blue-toned fuschia pink, the colour pay off is fantastic and it has a doe foot applicator so it's ridiculously easy to apply. Even the packaging is quite nice and suggests that it cost more than it actually did. However, the important bit, the formula really, really lets it down. Being a liquid lipstick with a matte finish some dryness is kind of expected, particularly when the product is this cheap. However the formula for the Luxe Velvet Lip Lacquer is so drying that it actually irritated my lips to the point where they started to peel, which didn't hurt but was so gross and gave me the puckered pout of an old lady.  It also doesn’t last very long and needed to be reapplied a lot. By lunchtime it was really starting to get on my nerves and I wanted to take it off but, ironically, it was really difficult to remove and took me ages to get it off my lips. All in all I'm really not disappointed. It was so close to being amazing but the formula falls short. 

So those were my Stars & Wish for the week? What do you think? Do you agree? Disagree? Did anyone else have any problems with the MUA Luxe Velvet Lip Lacquer? I want to know. Let me know either by commenting below or on twitter, using the #2StarsandAWish hashtag. If you do comment I do always reply so be sure to check back :) 

Anyway guys I'll be back on Friday with Friday I'm in Love #7 but until then you can follow me on twitter, facebook. BlogLovin, instagram & pinterest for your daily dose of Lolarocknroses :)

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