My New Favourite Blush

This is a very big claim for me, I have a lot of blush and I love them all, but after just a few days of use I can safely say that this has jumped to the top of the pile.

• I am currently obsessed with Frozen, and spend 90% of my time singing songs from the film - much to the annoyance of everyone else
• I may have found the tastiest tea ever - Twinings Orange Crush - so delicious

Sleek - Pomegranate. This is so perfect I can't even explain. 

"These silky-fine and long lasting blushers create a subtle and radiant glow and suit all skin tones."

Pomegranate is a beautiful raspberry colour with a golden sparkle which gives such a gorgeous glow to the cheeks. Usually I prefer a matte blush but I am more than willing to make an exception for this beauty. 

WARNING this blush is ridiculously pigmented, even just touching the brush to the product and tapping off can leave too much on your cheeks. I would never have expected such strong pigmentation from a blush that costs less than £5.

As you can see, even when blended out on the hand there is still a strong colour. Luckily, this blends like a dream, so even if you put too much on and have two clown like circles of colour, it's easily fixed. 

The staying power on this is phenomenal! I wore it for a busy 9 hour shift and it still looked exactly the same at 2am when I got home. There was no movement and no fading, it still looked perfect.

I 100% recommend this product to absolutely everybody! and this colour would look particularly striking on deeper skin tones. I will definitely be checking out some other colours from this line.



What is your favourite blush?



BYEEEE xxxxx

Haulin' - Sleek, Models Own, Real Techniques

This morning, I decided I needed a treat, and the land of makeup was calling my name.

I was pretty well behaved and only bought four things (plus a hair dye and some clothes but shhhh!) although realistically I needed none of these things.


My first stop was Boots for two things I had been eyeing for quite some time.

I love Real Techniques brushes and own quite a few, but for some reason I never bought the powder brush. I finally caved because my Bare Minerals Full Flawless Face Brush has gotten a bit worse for wear. I'm looking forward to putting on my makeup for work later with this baby.

This was £12.99

Also from Boots was this nail polish from the new Models Own Egg Shell Collection in the colour Duck. I'm not sure how well this shows up in the photo (I will do a separate review soon) but the idea is that the speckles in the polish will make your nails look like mini eggs (NOM) and who doesn't want nails that look like pretty little Easter chocolates?! 

This was £5.00












Next stop - Superdrug! because I really wanted some things from Sleek, which isn't currently available in Boots stores (It is online). 

I'm a bit of a blush junkie, so naturally that was where I headed first. I originally wanted one of the Blush by 3 palettes, but they didn't have the one I wanted in stock. I ended up with this single in Pomegranate. The deep raspberry colour is probably more suited to winter, but it was just too pretty to walk past.

This was £4.49

My first Sleek eyeshadow palette! I could never justify buying them, I have so many Urban Decay palettes and simply do not need anymore shadows. That was until I saw this!

This is the Oh So Special Palette, and it is gorgeous! I probably didn't need this at all. But its just too pretty and with cute shadow names like Ribbon and Organza, it was just too much to say no to. I'll post swatches and a review soon.

This was £7.99 for 12 shadows, which compared to £37 for an Urban Decay Palette is awesome!

Have you bought anything new recently?

BYEEEEE xxxx

Lush Bubble Bar Review - Rose

It's no secret that I love Lush, it's my favourite shop ever, and in every store I've visited, I have been met by the friendliest most helpful staff ever. 

Lush has recently brought out their Easter and Mothers Day collections, which always excites me. In fact, every new Lush collection gets me irrationally excited and I usually end up in the store on the day of release, and occasionally the day before for the VIP preview and sale.

This year Lush has 9 new products for Easter and 8 for Mothers Day, so in total 17 new products!

One of the products in the Mothers Day line is the Rose Bubble Bar.

This is Rose, and my God is it beautiful to look it. It makes me think of the glowing Rose in Beauty and the Beast, who wouldn't want that! According to the Lush website "This exquisite bubble bar is a work of art inside and out. Fragranced like our Amandopondo bubble bar, with Turkish Rose Absolute to soothe the spirits, lemon oil to bring clarity and cocoa butter to soften the skin." 

So this isn't a new fragrance in the Lush line, I've never been a fan of Amandopondo, but I quite liked this, so maybe I should give it another sniff. 

At £2.95 this is slightly more expensive than Amandopondo (£2.75) and I believe it is a little smaller. However, it is much prettier.

My only complaint with this bar is that it didn't produce as many bubbles as I'm used to when it comes to Lush Bubble Bars.

My bath water was a pretty pink colour and the bubbles were nice and soft, I just would have liked a few more. This was using the whole bar, even though I originally intended to only use half. The scent was subtle yet lingering, which I enjoyed, I'm not big on floral scents so anything too strong would have been too much.

Overall, I probably wouldn't use this again, although I may repurchase purely for decoration, as it is very pretty to look at. If you like the scent of Amandopondo but wish it came with pink bath water, then this could be your ideal bubble bar, but for me there just weren't enough bubbles.

Have you tried Rose Bubble Bar?

Are there any other Lush products that you would like to see a review for?

BYEEEEE xxxx

Disappointing Products

Hey Guys,

I absolutely love hearing about what products people love and think are amazing. But I also equally love finding out what products people think are pretty shit useless. 

Since my last post...

• The lovely sunny weather has gone back to be typical British weather, i.e. it's raining.
• I got a new job which i start tomorrow :)

 Nobody likes buying things that turn out to be crap, especially when you've heard so many good things about them from others.

These are just my opinions on how I found these products, you may really enjoy these products, however they didn't really work for me as well as I'd have liked.



Why Do You Have To Be So Freaking Pretty

L-R: Mint Green; SNP1 White; Chameleon Pink; Blueberry Ice Cream; GNP Greenberry; Nail Effects 316; Nail Effects 315; TNP2 Station Road; GNP Passionfruit; Strawberry Ice Cream; Dusky Mauve.
Prices range from £2.99 to £4.99 depending on finish.

I am such a sucker for Barry M nail paints. The colours are so pretty and there is literally every colour and finish you could possibly want, which is probably why I continue to buy them even though I hate them!

I hear so many people rave about these, especially about the staying power. Maybe I have weird nails, but I cannot get these to last more than a day or two without chipping pretty badly, with or without a base coat and top coat. It's so irritating that they are so pretty for about 8 hours and then there is chunks missing. 


Why Do Your Lips Look Like That?

Maybelline Superstay 24hr Dual Ended Lip Color. I bought these on a recommendation from a friend, however I haven't seen much online talk about them.


I have the colours Red Passion and Creme Caramel, and as you can see from the swatches, they have good pigmentation. 

My issue with these is the texture. First you apply the coloured end, which is quite sticky and thick. Then once it has dried (which seems to take years!) you top it with the lip balm style end. This removes most of the sticky thick feeling...for about 10 minutes. Then the colour seems to ball up on my lips, and it is quite visible and it is not a good look. The only way to make these last all day without the horrid sticky lumps is to reapply the lip balm end every 5 minutes, which sort of defeats the purpose of a long lasting lip product. At £8.99 a pop I definitely regret buying two.


Waxy Lips...Sexy?

I won't talk too much about this Balmi lip balm, as I recently discussed why I dislike it in my Lip Balm or Lip Bum post. Basically from the smell to the texture, there is nothing i enjoy about this product. 











Over Hyped Foundation

The Rimmel Wake Me Up Foundation is probably the most talked about 'drugstore' foundation on the internet. So when my trusty Revlon Colourstay ran out I just had to give this a try. Now, I don't dislike this foundation by any means, it just doesn't seem worth the hype. It's nice on the skin and I would say it has light to medium coverage, I don't particularly notice any brightening qualities or anti-fatigue effects. 

So while I do like this foundation, it's nowhere near as good as I was expecting and I personally don't think it deserves all the hype it receives.

This retails for £8.99







It's Been a Month, and All We've Done is Make Regina's Face Smell Like a Foot

This is the Urban Decay Naked Skin Beauty Balm, and at £23, is the priciest product on my list. This claims to have INSANE benefits, such as anti-aging, inhibiting DNA damage (?) and instantly evening out skin tone. It also claims to be a universal shade. 

A lot of the claims are supposed to happen over time, so you wont look instantly younger when you first apply it. And I can't vouch for any of the claims because I didn't use the product for long enough.

The first thing I noticed is that this has a pretty strong peppermint scent, which is not something I want on my face, and reminds me of Mean Girls way too much. Also a tingly peppermint is not something I enjoy near my eyes, so the product was sort of off putting from the start.

I also do not find the shade to be universally flattering. I assume I am not the only one as Urban Decay have recently reformulated this product with a light, medium and dark colour, but I believe these are currently only available in the States. I'm not super pale, but I am in no way tanned (I'm between an NW15 and NW20 at MAC) and I found this 'universal shade' way too dark with a fairly orange undertone, and even when i apply the tiniest amount, I feel like I belong in Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory.

If you like the sound of the claims this makes, and a pepperminty face doesn't really bother you, then I would recommend trying this out in store to see if the colour is a good match.



Mermaid Skin?

It upsets me to have to include a Lush product here, as I love everything they make so much...accept this. 
Aqua Marina is one of their Fresh Facial Cleansers (just like the Let The Good Times Roll from my shower favourites post) and it is full of natural, good for your skin ingredients such as Nori Seaweed, Calamine powder and Irish Moss Gel. It is supposed to calm and nourish skin.

I have no idea if this stuff works or not, because it smells so bad!! Apparently it was inspired by Mermaids. Now i'm not sure what sort of horrid Harry Potter Selkies inspired this, but I don't 'imagine I'm a mermaid for a moment' when I use this. The smell has a bit of chamomile, some seaweed and then an overpowering something horrid that I can't even begin to describe, with a hint of something a little fishy, and it's making me feel sick just sniffing it now, let alone smearing it all over my face.

The few times I have used this, and tried to deal with the smell, my skin has felt soft afterwards. But this would need to do some super miraculous things to my skin for me to be able to cope with the smell, and even then I'm not too sure.

I'm sure this is a lovely cleanser, just like all the other Lush ones, I just wish it didn't have such an offensive smell.

This cleanser retails for £6.35 for 100g.



Have you had better luck with any of these products? What products have you been disappointed by?


BYEEEEE xxxx

Monthly Wishlist - March

Hey Guys,

I tried and failed to think of a more exciting name for this post, so instead I just got straight to the point. 

I NEED THESE THINGS!!!!

From left to right, top to bottom:

• Illamasqua Powder Blush in Tweak  £18.00
• Jo Malone Vanilla and Anise Cologne  £39.00 for 30ml
• Nyx Jumbo Eye Pencil in Milk  £5.00
• Hourglass Ambient Lighting Blush in Diffused Heat  £28.00
• Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette  £45.00
• Revlon Parfumerie Scented Nail Enamel   £6.49
• Benefit Gimme Brow  £17.50
• Tanya Burr Lipgloss in Exotic Island  £6.99
• Tanya Burr Lipgloss in Vampire Kiss  £6.99

What's on your wishlist for this month?

p.s. follow me on bloglovin :) 

BYEEEEEE xxxxx

Lip Balm or Lip Bum

Hey Guys,

I'm a bit of a self confessed lip junkie; there is usually around 12 lip products in my handbag, which is more than any one person requires. Any time that I don't have lipstick on, I am constantly reapplying lip balm (even when i don't need to).

• I'm currently in a big spring cleaning mood (for the first time ever in my life)
• The fancy dress theme for this weeks night out is Harry Potter, and i've spent the afternoon soaking clothes in a bath of tea for my Dobby outfit DOBBY IS A FREE ELF!!

Here are my three favourite lip balms plus one I'm really not a fan of. Can you guess which one it is?

The Handy One

Maybelline Baby Lips in Cherry Me. "Intense lip care and 8 hour hydration." This comes in 6 different varieties.

I like the Baby Lips for their lipstick style packaging. They're super handy to throw in your bag and use on the go.

The Cherry Me version has the slightest hint of colour, which to be honest I don't find to be noticeable at all and I have no problems applying this without a mirror. The scent is very nostalgic to me, it smells like fake cherry lip products I had as a child.

I'm not sure I agree with the 8 hour claim, but I do feel like this hydrates my lips nicely.

These retail at Boots for £2.99

The Unbelievably Amazing Scented One

Soap & Glory A Great Kisser in Juicy Peach. OH. MY. GAWD. This thing smells incredible, exactly like the inside of a peach, it makes my mouth water. I also have the chocolate cherry version, but it smells nowhere near as awesome.

The packaging on this is like a Vaseline pot, which I don't particularly enjoy as I find it can be very difficult to open.

It claims to be "Not too waxy, not too slippery, not too greasy or too sticky." This does have a strange texture, sort of like a thick lip gloss, without being sticky. I actually really enjoy the texture and I feel like it lasts a really long time on the lips. FYI it tastes as delicious as it smells

This retails for £5.00 in Boots.

The Most Perfect Lip Balm to Touch My Lips

Lanolips LemonAid Lip Aid. Smells Amazing. Tastes Amazing. Feels Amazing. Sold yet?

The main ingredient is Lanolin, which is a natural substance taken from sheep wool. Sounds weird huh? But this lip balm won Australian Beauty Awards 2011, British Beauty Blogger Awards 2011 and Women and Home Best in Beauty 2012, so i had to give it a try. 

It's super ridiculously moisturising and contains lemon oil which naturally exfoliates. It tastes like the most amazing cloudy lemonade you ever tasted and I truly feel that this lasts all day. I especially like to use this before bed.

At £9.18 this is pretty darn pricey, however it's so amazing and you need so little that in my opinion its definitely worth it.

The Gimmick

Did you guess right? Balmi Raspberry Lip Balm. I bought this in the hopes that it would be amazing, it looks like an EOS lip balm, which I am desperate to try (sadly they aren't available in the UK). With SPF15, Vitamin E and Shea butter, I had high hopes for this little ball of balm.

I was extremely disappointed. Not only is the scent and taste more plastic than raspberry, I find it hard to find even the smallest amount of moisture in this product. The texture on my lips is very oily and greasy, not at all moisturising, and frankly I had to remove it fairly quickly as I really didn't enjoy it. 

Balmi has changed the shape of this product to a cube, I'm unaware as to whether this has changed the product at all.

These retail for £4.99 in Boots

What are your favourite lip balms? Have you had better luck with a Balmi Lip Balm?

BYEEEEEEE xxxxxxx

Bath/Shower Favourites

Hello Lovelies,

• Its Thursday, which means until 7.30pm i'm a free (usually hungover) little bird, and most probably will upload a new post every Thursday, plus hopefully at least one other a week.
• On Monday we held a St Paddys Day fundraiser for my Cheer Team, it was such good fun and I felt like Peter Pan in my green tights
• I had a job interview on Tuesday so fingers crossed for me :)

On to the products.

Before I talk about each product individually, I thought it would be helpful to let you know that I have pretty dry skin and very bleached, over treated hair. 

The Solitary Bath Product

This little beauty is from Lush (the best shop ever!) and it's called The Green Bubbleroon. Lush says "this moisturising, citrus-scented bubble bar will put you in mind of a fresh summer meadow. 

This is definitely my favourite bath time treat, and whilst i do smell some citrus notes (nothing overpowering), the main scent is freshly cut grass. Now this might not sound too appealing, but it is heaven in bubble form. It really is like laying in a field in the sun.

Aside from its beautiful scent, this bubble bar is also super moisturising thanks to the coconut oil and shea butter. It also looks like a odd shaped macaroon, which is super cute.

These retail for £3.50 and you can get 2 baths out of one bar. 


The Facial Cleanser

Surprise!! There's another Lush product in my favourites. Let The Good Times Roll. Lush says "This face and body cleanser is a gentle treat for the skin, leaving you soft to the touch with a buttery popcorn fragrance." THIS STUFF IS AWESOME!

It leaves my abysmally dry skin feeling and looking soft and smooth even on my worst skin days. It has real popcorn pieces in, along with exfoliating ingredients such as polenta and maize flour.

On a serious note, who the heck doesn't want a caramel popcorn scented face!!!

This retails at £6.35 for 100g which is a little pricey, but I will continue to repurchase as my skin loves it.




The Shampoo

Although there is currently 4 open shampoos in my shower, the Herbal Essences Bee Strong Strengthening Shampoo is my favourite everyday shampoo.
Herbal Essences says "This formula works to repair the protective outer layer of each strand of hair to leave it strong against combing damage." 

I really enjoy both the formula and scent of this shampoo, my dry and damaged hair feels much more manageable and smooth, and I feel like I have noticed less breaking and hair loss.

The price of this varies from shop to shop, it can be found in most supermarkets and pharmacies. It's currently on offer in Boots for £1.99 rather than £3.99.






The Hair Mask

Whilst I don't really have a current favourite conditioner, I do have a favourite mask, also from Herbal Essences. This Strengthening Intensive Mask is also from the Bee Strong range, and comes with pretty much the same claims as the shampoo.

I use this mask about once a week, and my hair always feels ridiculously soft once I rinse it out, and my hair is more manageable and seems to dry much quicker. 

Like the shampoo, this can be found in most supermarkets and pharmacies, and is currently on offer in Boots for £2.39 instead of £4.79.







The Serum

I've only recently started using this Frizz-Ease Extra Strength Formula Hair Serum but I have already noticed a difference in my hair. This claims to "Instantly transform the appearance of extremely course, extra thick, frizzy, chemically-damaged hair." 

My hair is literally all of those things, so it really puts this product to the test. I use it every time i wash my hair, and my hair becomes considerably less frizzy and disgusting.

This currently retails for £6.29 in both Boots and Superdrug. They're 3 for 2 in Boots and 2 for £8 in Superdrug.







The Body Wash

Soap and Glory Rich and Foamous Body Wash is the most perfect thing to ever wash the day from my skin. "Super Creamy, Ultra Sudsy, conditioning on dry skin, it's everything you ever wanted in a wash."

Not only is this body wash super moisturising and luxurious to use, it just smells so damn amazing! Almond, oats and brown sugar make you smell like a bakery, and I literally cannot stop sniffing myself when i get out of the shower. The scent lingers but not in an overpowering way and I just love it so much!!

The recommended retail price for this is £6.50 for a huge 500ml bottle which lasts forever. Iv'e currently only found this at Boots.






The Body Scrub

The only thing that smells even more amazing than my Soap and Glory Body Wash...The Soap and Glory Breakfast Scrub. This stuff is full of oats, shea butter, sugar, bananas, almonds and honey. It has a maple scent and could quite happily sit and sniff this all day long. As you may have noticed by now, I love smelling like a bakery.

The texture of this is super scrubby, without being too abrasive and harsh. The shea butter and banana give it a moisturising aspect which makes this product awesome for dry skin.

If I was to only recommend one product from my favourites it would most certainly be this, then the whole world can smell like maple syrup!!

This retails for £8 for a 300ml tub.



The Hand Wash?

A quick addition to show how much I like to smell like food products. My favourite hand soap, the Carex Hand Wash in the Cola Bottle Scent. As cola bottles are my favourite sweet/candy, there was no way I could pass up on trying this soap.

It claims to kill 99.9% of bacteria and doesn't dry out the hands. It is also available in a Strawberry Laces Scent and a Chocolate Orange scent, along with the more traditional soap scents. 

The cola bottle scent does not appear to be available at Superdrug, but is available at Boots for 92p instead of £1.85






What are your favourite bath and shower products?

Hope you're all having an amazing week.

BYEEEEEEEEE xxxx

Dupe or Duped? Mac Saint Germain Lipstick

Hello Lovelies, 

Firstly I want to apologize for my severe lack of posts (it's been nearly 2 years) but now I am determined to get back into the flow of things.

So many wonderful things have happened since I last posted so I thought I would share a few with you before we start talking lipstick.

• I won a nice shiny first place trophy at the first cheerleading competition I ever entered. It was so much fun and is easily the best moment of my life.
• I am now president of the whole team, which is super stressful but super fun and a lot of hard work.
• I've moved house numerous times (ugh) which is to be expected as a student. And will be moving again in the summer. But it means i get to spend another year with my bestest girl chum Princess of Pretty (definitely check her out if you haven't already)

On to the main part of this post. This started as one post, and after finally managing to think of a name for it, I figured it would make a good series of posts. So here we have dupe or duped? Where I will be testing out products which are supposed to be a dupe for something else.

First off is MAC's Saint Germain Lipstick, which sadly I do not own, but the gorgeous Princess of Pretty does. 

This is one of my favourite lipsticks, but it retails for £15 on the MAC website, which is a little pricey in my opinion. It is an amplified finish, which MAC describes as ultra creamy, quietly shiny and colour packed, and I have to say I agree. 

I would describe the colour as a pale neon, it's the epitome of bubblegum pink, very cool toned with a blue undertone. I LOVE IT! 

It's super comfortable to wear and has that lovely vanilla taste scent that all MAC lipsticks have. It's not the easiest colour to wear but it makes a statement.

All this being said, I decided that before I bit the bullet and shelled out £15 for this beauty, I would search for a cheaper dupe.

Whilst there appears to be some Wet 'n' Wild dupes, here in the UK it was proving a little more difficult to come across anything even remotely similar. 

I read somewhere that there was a Stay Pout Lipstick from Seventeen (a Boots brand) which matched up to this awesome colour, so naturally I took a look.

The Stay Pout Lipsticks retail for £4.49, which is considerably less expensive than the MAC prices. The Boots website claims that these lipsticks are long-wearing, staining and provide hours of kiss proof colour (maybe someone should put that claim to the test). 

Whilst i haven't spent hours trying to kiss off this lipstick, I can vouch for its staining ability. The swatch was difficult to remove and left behind a faint hint of colour even after washing my hands. This particular colour isn't as creamy or vanillary as a MAC lipstick, but is still comfortable to wear and not unpleasantly scented.

Now on to the colour comparison 

 

L-Kiss Me Quick

R-Saint Germain

As you can see from the side by side swatches, unfortunately Kiss Me Quick isn't quite the same beautiful bubblegum pink as Saint Germain. However it is still a beautiful cool toned, blue based pink, it is just much deeper. I would describe it as more of a true pink, just out of the baby pink range, and is fast becoming my favourite lipstick for this early spring we are having in the UK. It is currently the only lipstick in my handbag, which is a big deal for someone who usually has around 12 horded in my bag.

Overall it appears I have been duped, and although I'll be keeping an eye out for a Saint Germain dupe, I think i may have to give in and purchase my own. 

Have you found any dupes for Saint Germain? Or any other MAC lipsticks for that matter?

BYEEEEEEE xxxxxx