Tried and Tested: Nail Rocks

We were rather intrigued when we came across Nail Rocks nail wraps. Nail wraps are a different way to decorate your fingers and toes. Instead of your standard pot and brush, you ‘wrap’ the desired print on to your nails for looks that are too complicated to achieve through nail varnish.

Different Nail Rocks styles

Let us say right here that these are probably NSFW (not suitable for work). In fact, other than in a club, we can’t think of many places you’d want to wear them! Nail art is a big trend in celeb land with Rihanna, Solange and Beyonce rocking looks that can easily be achieved through Nail Rocks nail wraps.

Solange with nail art

Nail Rocks Furry Cheetah

We tried Furry Cheetah and found the instructions easy to understand and carry out and that applying the product was quick with the help of a friend. When the product was actually on the nails though,  the look is more carnival queen than designer class! These wraps are not for the conservative or the office worker!

The wraps come in 24 different styles and are available from Topshop, Asos and River Island or online at nailrock.com. £6.65 for 20 wraps.

Tried and Tested: Simple Clear Skin Oil Balancing Range

Ajuma Nasanyana and her amazing skin

According to most dermatologists, black skin tends to more oily than its lighter counterparts so we were very interested to try out the new Clear Skin Oil Balancing Range from Simple. With ingredients like witch hazel to help reduce blemishes and natural zinc PCA to gently absorb excess oil; the range comprises a moisturiser, an exfoliating wash and a facial scrub. Our reviewer Leeanne (with oily skin) tried them out as a package for 14 days.

Exfoliating Wash
The wash was very smooth on the skin and made it feel very refreshed. She said this controlled the amount of oil her skin produced and that she managed to go the whole day without the skin feeling like it was suffocating.  Usually by midday her skin has produced a lot of oil and she didn’t find this happening while using the product.

Facial Scrub
The scrub felt more like face cream and left her skin feeling cleansed. It was creamy with scrub particles but wasn't harsh and didn’t irritate the skin. Again, she found it very good at controlling the amount of oil her skin produced.

Moisturiser
When applied to her skin it gave a cool refreshing feel. She doesn’t usually use face moisturisers thinking it would make the skin produce more oil but using this Simple Oil Balancing Moisturiser made her skin produce less oil than not using any moisturiser.

Leeanne found using the three products for 14 days definitely controlled the amount of oil produced and that her complexion was clearer.  She will definitely be purchasing all three products and gives the Simple Clear Skin Oil Balancing Range 5 out of 5.

Clear Skin Oil Balancing Moisturiser. £4.07 for 75ml.
Clear Skin Oil Balancing Exfoliating Wash. £4.28 for 150ml.
Clear Skin Oil Balancing Facial Scrub. £4.07 for 75ml.

Available from Boots.

Tried and Tested: Palmers Olive Butter

Lotion wise, things have come a long way since Astral, Nivea and when times were hard – Vaseline! Most of us have, at one time or another, used a version of Cocoa Butter; ours was usually the thick, hard stuff from Palmers.

Palmers have recently released a new alternative to Cocoa Butter - Olive Butter. Now we know what you’re thinking and we admit the thought of smelling like olives did not float our boat either, but the promise of silky soft skin with a nourished, youthful glow was a big claim that had to be tested!

Olive oil is the amber nectar of natural products packed with amazing antioxidants to boost the skin. So we think taking certified organic extra virgin olive oil and putting it into a lotion is a great idea. Include skin enriching vitamin E and an anti aging peptide and what more could a girl want!

But…do the results last? We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again - there is nothing worse than bathing or showering, moisturising your skin and then waking up to dry scaly skin. Or worse yet, white claw marks where you’ve had a good old scratch. So we decided to put it through the most rigorous of tests – our guinea pig was a gym using male!

He was reluctant at first but we let him smell the innocuous looking green goop beforehand. It actually has a subtle perfumed smell, slightly sickly but only very slightly. He said it applied really well. He didn’t have to spend 20 minutes rubbing it in like he was panning for gold (his terminology not ours!)

He liked the fact that it was a smooth application and absorbed into the skin well. It didn’t leave him feeling sticky or like he had been bathing in a vat of KFC (his words not ours). And the final test, the test of time? 10 out of 10. His skin looked and felt as supple and nourished as it did when he applied it. To be honest, and you’ll have to trust us on this one, we had no complaints either!

Available from Boots - 250ml for £3.56.

Tried and Tested: Mascara

As much as we like make up, there are some days we simply can’t be bothered with it all. You know the type of day – you’re tired, you wear your glasses instead of your contacts and you pull your hair back into a ponytail. As tired we may be though, we always bother with a bit of mascara. Only takes 2 minutes and we hope it drags us from dreary to mildly attractive. There are three we always have in our makeup bag.


Boots 17 Photo Flawless Mascara - £5.99

When we first came across this we thought it would be rubbish as it wasn’t from one of the big brands. How wrong we were! It left our lashes looking longer and separated. It does wear off slightly throughout the day and smudged a bit but we like to think that made us look ‘smoky eyed’ and not like we slept in our make up.

3 out of 5.











L’Oreal Lash Architect - £10.29

A great every day mascara. Over the years we’ve tried all the L’Oreal mascaras and this one is without a doubt the best. Lasts all day, leaves the lashes long and full and the brush doesn’t clog.

4 out of 5.


Lancome Définicils Mascara - £20.50

The best mascara ever. No doubt. Don’t waste it behind glasses – wear the No 7 Flawless if you’re having one of these days – your lashes deserve to be seen so put your contacts in. This made our lashes ridiculously long, full and separated. It comes off easily (Lancome do a nice remover too) and the waterproof version didn’t move at all when we blubbed our heart out at a wedding.

If we could give it 6 out of 5 we would. But we can’t because that doesn’t make sense, so we give it a well earned 5 out of 5.

Tried and Tested: Philip Kingsley Moisture Extreme Shampoo and Conditioner

Like many of you, we have been inspired by Solange Knowles and her natural hair journey. It can be tricky figuring out what products to use on transitioning or natural hair. Fear not! We are going to sift through the shelves of shampoos, conditioners and treatments and report back on what’s good, what’s bad and what you need to stay way from!

Solange Knowles

Our first review is of Philip Kingsley’s Moisture Extreme Shampoo and Conditoner.

Kingsley is a famous and well respected trichologist – an expert in the structure and function of human hair including the diagnosis and treatment of diseases and disorders of the hair and scalp – so we had high expectations of these products, especially as they are meant for, according to the packaging, ‘textured, afro, mixed, curly and porous hair’. It should even work on synthetic hair or extensions.

We weren’t disappointed!

The shampoo left our natural afro hair feeling fresh but not dried out and one application was enough for it to be perfectly clean.

The conditioner applied well. We found we had to use a fair amount to get good coverage but that may be more down to the length of our hair (past shoulders) than the actual product. Once the conditioner was on the hair we went through it with a wide tooth comb and after rinsing, found the hair easy to manage and hardly tangled at all. Plus it smelled nice!

We heartily recommend and give Philip Kingsley’s Moisture Extreme Shampoo and Conditoner 4 out of 5.

Moisture Extreme Shampoo £14.30 for 200ml
Moisture Extreme Conditioner £17.40 for 200ml

Visit www.philipkingsley.co.uk to buy online or to find stockists near you.

Tried and Tested: Fair Naturally

Fair Naturally is a luxurious new range of 19 Fairtrade certified beauty products. We see the Fairtrade mark on coffee, cotton, chocolate etc but what does it really mean?

According to The Fairtrade Foundation, ‘Fairtrade is a strategy for poverty alleviation and sustainable development. Its purpose is to create opportunities for producers and workers who have been economically disadvantaged or marginalized by the conventional trading system.’

Basically it means farmers and workers get a fair price for their goods/services instead of being screwed over as they have been in the past.


We’ve seen with our own eyes the good that has been done in St Lucia and Ghana when locals are paid a fair price and are able to work themselves into better economic conditions.

So we were rather pleased to hear about the new Fair Naturally product offering. We tried the Bath Cream, Body Scrub and Body Butter from the Cocoa and Walnut range (ingredients include Fairtrade cocoa butter, walnut oil and cane sugar) and were very pleased with the outcome!

With rather dry skin, it can be difficult to find products that don’t leave our skin feeling like we've just rolled around in a vat of lard and are leaving greasy handprints wherever we go. Thankfully that wasn't the case with the Fair Naturally Cocoa and Walnut range.

The Bath Cream left our skin feeling all silky  and made nice bubbles; the Body Scrub (when used with exfoliating mitts – 99p from Morrison’s) left us squeaky clean and the Body Butter left us all moisturised and hydrated (you know that feeling when you first get out of the bath and your skin starts to tighten with dryness? Well the Bath Cream alleviated that).

The true test comes next morning – is the skin still hydrated or has it turned sliver/grey with dryness? Pleased to say that next morning, everything was still looking and feeling good.

Besides knowing this range is helping workers in Pakistan, Paraguay and the Dominican Republic, the prices won’t break the bank either. The Body Butter and Scrub are £5.99 for 200ml and the Bath Cream is £3.99 for 300ml. What a bargain! When you think that The Body Shop’s butters are £12.50 for the same size tubs, we know which ones will be on our bathroom shelves!

So far the Fair Naturally range is only available online at www.fairnaturally.com and delivery is free if you spend over £30.

28th February – 13th March 2011 is Fairtrade Fortnight so a good time to invest in something good for you and the world around you.