Friday Favourites - Festival Ready Nails

Festival season is finally upon us. Everyone has their tents packed and their wet wipes at the ready, but are your nails prepared for a weekend of revelry? Here at The Amazing Blog, we have plenty of bright and beautiful polishes to keep your fingers and toes looking wonderful, so that your nails are looking preened and perfected at the end of the weekend, even if the rest of you looks a little worse for wear.

First on our festival wish list are the Organic Glam offerings from The Organic Pharmacy. With a collection of 29 unique and bright summer shades, we were spoilt for choice. This polish applies smoothly, keeps its vibrancy, and does not chip easily, perfect for a weekend of partying. Free from DBP, Toluene, and Formaldehyde, we loved the summery polishes, which were ideal for perfecting our ombre skills. Simply paint the varnishes onto a make-up sponge, and print onto your nails. Follow with your favourite top coat (read on to discover ours) and you're left with a beautiful gradient manicure. Our favourite pairings were Lemon and Tangerine, as well as Candy Floss and Pale Blue. Each polish is packaged into an 11 ml bottle and can be purchased here for £11.50.

We’re also a little smitten with FNUG nail polish. A Scandinavian company that offers 84 fun shades of nail lacquers, from holographic to glittery, there’s something for every occasion. Given that it’s festival season, we opted for some beautiful metallic hues. Our favourite was Beauty Editor, a lovely nude mink which would give the perfect understated addition to any festival outfit. We also loved Gold Stiletto; a wonderful metallic gold shade, and the epitome of hot summer evenings. The polishes are filled with  nourishing protein, strengthening silica and delicate caviar, as well as vitamins A, B, D and E, making them ideal for leaving your nails in great condition after a weekend of wear. Get your FNUG nail polish here from their UK distributor for £12, or order through Sarah Silvester at Sarah@touchmyface.co.uk.

For something a little more futuristic, we reach for our Make Up Store hologram varnishes. Available in four unique duo-chrome colours, in our opinion, there’s nothing is more cutting edge than a holographic manicure. Our favourite is Siw, a beautiful blue flecked with silvers, greens and golds. Reminiscent of space age themes and 70s disco balls, we’re in love with the effect it gives, and it certainly acts as a talking point among our beauty obsessed buds. It's the perfect way to add a touch of sparkle, and offset the boho chic look that so often dominates the festival scene. Make Up Store polishes are available to buy here for £11 each.

Of course, no manicure is ever complete without the perfect top coat. Our lacquer of choice is the Brilliance Top Coat from Jessica. 3 free and fast drying, it’s fantastic for giving ‘high gloss in a flash’, setting to a perfect finish. The polish contains UV inhibitors and reflective polymers, which act to prevent chipping, reduce smudging and combat yellowing. As well as this, the speedy drying time makes it a wonderful option for popping into your backpack to set any quick manicures, should the mood take you. The Jessica Brilliance Top Coat is available to buy for £11.95 here.

With all of these beautiful polishes, you have everything you need for the perfect festival manicure.

ARK Skincare - Derriere Facial

Although beach season in London is quickly coming to an end, there is still plenty of sun abroad for us to soak up. Here at The Amazing Blog we are seriously looking at all of those resort towns in Bulgaria, Greece, and the south of France to continue to live out our summer dreams. In order to properly enjoy that fun in the sun time, we need to have our beach bodies in tip top shape. Now, thanks to ARK we can start from the bottom up, literally! ARK skincare has a whole Derrière "Facial" that starts with a body brushing to boost circulation and diminish cellulite, followed by cleanser, and an invigorating body scrub. The scrub contains fruit acids and menthol to lift dead skin and unblock pores followed by a steaming and serums to lift, firm, and purify the skin. The last step is an application of nourishing body lotion to leave your bum plump soft and radiant. This innovative treatment will leave you confident and ready to strut down the beach! Perfect to boost your confidence and give you the courage to wear a barely there Brazilian thong bikini on some exotic beach.

Once your bum is in order for the beach, be sure to check out ARK's cleavage treatment and you will be good to go for a wonderful holiday full of envious looks and cocktail filled nights. . The ARK Derriere Facial, £49 for 45 minutes is available from July 1st at the ARK Flagship Salon in Putney. 

L’Artisan Parfumeur - Batucada

Here at The Amazing Blog we love new summer fragrances. So when L'Artisan Parfumeur sent us a sample of their new Batucada fragrance (in gorgeous packaging) we couldn’t wait to try it and get into the Brazilian carnival feel.

Getting its name from an African influenced Brazilian percussive sub style of samba, this fragrance is in perfect tune with Notting Hill Carnival 2014. The strong lime and mint top notes are reminiscent of the tropical, fruity drinks of a warm, sunny climate. The middle notes of ylang ylang subtly give the fragrance a beachy undertone. Finally, the bottom sea salt note, so reminiscent of holidays, purifies the senses with its salty fresh fragrance, as if we were on the famous Ipanema beach. Light fresh fragrances are available in abundance, but the citrus notes in Batucada transport you to the Brazilian beaches, giving this fragrance an edge on the competition.

L’Artisan Parfumeur is one of France’s most iconic fragrance houses and has been creating gorgeous scents to suit the seasons since its formation in 1976. L’Artisan Parfumeur’s Batucada is available here for £85 for 100ml.

Acqua Di Parma – Rosa Nobile

Here at The Amazing Blog, we love Acqua Di Parma and regularly feature them on our blog. We were thrilled when we heard about their new Rosa Nobile fragrance, and it quickly became our favourite summer scent.

Rosa Nobile is the newest fragrance from the Italian house. As the name suggests, the key note is Rose, a special sort of Centifolia Rose at that. It grows and blooms only in Italy, making the fragrance every bit the Italian gem we would expect. The composition of the fragrance means that Rosa Nobile opens with a luminous, juicy, Italian-style signature of bergamot and mandarin, which immediately emphasizes the fruity floral notes. This is then spiced up with a touch of black pepper to capture the attention and imagination of your senses. This mix of citrus, floral and tart notes is enriched with lily of the valley, velvety violet and gentle peony. As the ingredients suggest, this is a floral fragrance lover’s dream. Some floral fragrances can seem weak, however the sheer number of floral notes combined with the dry, sophisticated woodsy notes of cedar and ambergris means that this fragrance lingers for hours. This fragrance is one which all of us here in the office absolutely adore.

The new perfume Rosa Nobile comes in the same, recognizable bottle as the previous Nobile editions, and its pink fluid looks even more vivid in the golden bottle. The fragrance is available in 50ml and 100ml Eau de Parfum, accompanied by perfumed body care products. It can be bought here for £70 (50ml) or £98 (100ml).

Rani's Mixture

We are always in the market for a tasty new snack here at The Amazing Blog and we were delighted to come across Rani’s Mixture. A mixture of spicy fried noodles and various other ingredients put together to form a delicious and nutritious snack, the Bombay Mix contains some of the finest exotic ingredients, including peanuts, cashews, cassavas and fried curry leaves to delight your taste buds. Rani’s Mixture is often referred to as one of the ‘seven wonders’ because all the ingredients taste so good together! The mixture is hand cooked using pure sunflower oil, and they only cook small batches to ensure quality is maintained. The good people at Rani’s do not believe in doing things by half, which is why they won The Good Taste Award in 2013. If something doesn’t look, taste, or feel great in your mouth, then it is not good enough for them. Rani’s Mixture distinguishes itself from other Bombay Mixes in the supermarket because their mixture is fresh, simple, and does not contain any added preservatives or colouring. Suitable for vegetarians, Rani’s Mixture comes in a resealable bag so you can carry it around with you all day, and have a bite whenever you feel the urge. Although we wouldn’t count on it lasting long enough to be resealed!

We love to indulge in snacks during the day so it helps that Rani’s Mixture is healthy and packed with many different flavours to satisfy the snack urges of everyone in our office. Purchase a bag of Rani’s Mixture from their UK distributor here for just £1.50.