Colours Of The Rainbow - Tag

This tag has been flying around beauty blogs and YouTube for the last few weeks so I thought I would join in.

The idea is to work through all of the colours of the rainbow and choose a product of the same colour (the product itself or the packaging colour is fine) that you really like or use regularly.

I actually had a lot of fun with this tag, on some of the colours I struggled to find products, on others I had so many to choose from and narrowing it down to just one product was a task in itself. So here is what I came up with in the end...

Red

Red was a tricky one, I have so many gorgeous red lipsticks, lip butters, balms, stains, glosses and nail polishes to choose from. Products that deserve an honourable mention are the NYX Lip Gloss in Plush Red, Revlon Nail Enamel in Cherries in the Snow, Rimmel Apocalips Lip Lacquer in Big Bang and the delicious Red Velvet Yankee Candle, any of which could have made the cut. But none of these products work their way into my routine as much as the Schwarzkopf got2b 2 Sexy Collagen Hair Mousse. This product goes into my hair after every wash and helps to give my extremely fine hair volume and texture without weighing it down or leaving it feeling crispy. It has a lovely thick texture that doesn't go watery in your hands, a little goes a long way so a bottle will last you a while, it has a pleasant smell and only costs around £4. I have used this for a good few years now and I'm sure I will continue to re-purchase this in the future.
  
Orange

I absolutely love the product that I have chosen to represent Orange. I'm on my second pot which is rare that I even manage to use up one of a product of this type without deciding I no longer like it. I'm talking about the Origins GinZing Eye Cream. Origins isn't the cheapest of brands but this little pot of goodness really is worth the £21 price tag. I've had this pot since Christmas and use it almost every day and still have at least half left. You only need a small amount to hydrate and brighten under the eyes, and it does this without being greasy, heavy or sticky. It isn't an overly thick texture, nor is it watery. This eye cream feels light on delicate skin around the eyes and sinks in beautifully. I have tried a few different eye creams but so far nothing has compared. I am currently searching for an eye cream more suited to night time but so far none of the cheaper budget products have impressed, so I may need to look into what else Origins has to offer.

Yellow

The Whipped Clean Shower Butter from Soap & Glory was my choice for Yellow. To be honest I didn't have much else to choose from but even if I did it would be a clear winner. This stuff smells A-mazing! It's sweet and vanillary and buttery and nutty all at the same time and leaves my skin well moisturised after showering. If you find yourself in Boots at any time make sure you go and get a sniff of this. You may just fall in love...

Green

These Nip + Fab Body Butters are great. I'm not usually a body butter person as when I think of body butters I think of The Body Shop ones and I never liked those. I would buy them because the gorgeous scents would draw me in, but I'd never use them and a few months ago I through out about five that were almost full but had gone off. I always found them too thick and greasy and felt like I needed to re-shower after applying. These Nip + Fab ones are nothing like this. They don't sit on the skin, are non-greasy, sink in well and work wonders on my dry knees and elbows. At first I found the Pistachio scent a little overbearing and sickly but it has grown on me and it is my go-to if my skin is feeling in need of some TLC.



Blue

This was an easy one, although I am currently wearing a Maybelline Colour Show Nail Polish in Cool Blue which I absolutely love. But the Colours Of The Rainbow Tag Blue Award goes to... *cue flashing lights and dramatic music*... The L'Oreal Telescopic Waterproof Mascara. This was in my April Favourites and I haven't even considered using any other mascara since I bought this, it works miracles! I have never had such long looking, defined and curled lashes. It isn't very volumising but is great for day to day wear and something I intend to try is using it as a base to lengthen and separate and hold the curl, then applying a more volumising mascara over the top.

 Indigo

Let's be honest, there aren't that many indigo beauty products out there unless you love indigo eyeshadow. After much pondering however I did think of something for this, and it's actually something I use on a regular basis. It's the Nivea Daily Essentials Double Effect Eye Make-up Remover. I use this to remove my L'Oreal Telescopic Mascara as a normal eye make-up remover is useless on this. It removes my mascara quickly and easily without stinging my eyes. Great product.


Violet

Okay so the product I chose for Violet isn't so much violet as plum, but I loved this throughout the winter months. It's MAC's Rebel Lipstick. This provides good stain to the lips, lasts well, feels comfortable and not drying and is a satin finish.


Pink

Another MAC Lipstick made it into this tag, this time it's Girl About Town which is one of their amplified lipsticks. I have a lot of items that could have made it here, the Revlon Lip Butters in Sorbet and Lollipop are beautiful, as is the Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain in Lovesick. I also have some lovely pink blushers that I could have included as well. But Girl About Town just beat them two it by a tiny margin. I think it is the name that won out in the end, I love products with really cute or fun names.

 

Multicoloured

The final category in this tag is multicoloured. I couldn't find much for this but the product I did find I like nonetheless. This is the Ed Hardy Perfume in the fragrance Hearts & Daggers which is described as a blend of "Glittering fruits, florals, radiant woods and sensual musks".

 

I hope you enjoyed this post, it certainly gave me the opportunity to have a good rummage through my products and made me rediscover a lot of other products along the way. If you blog or make videos then give this tag a go and link me in the comments section.

xx

(A Very Late) April Favourites

Firstly, apologies for how late this is. It has been planned for weeks but I have only just got around to cleaning up and making space to photograph products. I'm just gonna go through these quickly as it won't be too long before I'm compiling my May favourites and I have lots of other posts to get round to.

First up are some Soap & Glory products. I've been loving Soap & Glory lately and will do a big S&G review sometime in the near future, but in April I particularly loved the No Clogs Allowed Deep Pore Detox Mask, The Fab Pore Hot Cloth Cleanser and The Breakfast Scrub Body Smoother. I will go into more detail about what I thought about these products in my upcoming review.

I also LOVE Yankee Candles. My favourite lately has been Red Velvet, it's so strong and sweet and vanillary when burning and I will be sooo upset when this one runs out, I will definitely be re-purchasing or buying something similar. These aren't cheap candles but are well worth the money, I've tried so many other cheaper alternatives and for what I've wasted on those I wish so much I had just invested in a Yankee Candle. Mine is the medium jar candle if you were wondering.

A nail combo I loved throughout April was the Barry M Glitter Nail Varnish in Rose Quartz Glitter (NP349) layered over Illamasqua's Stagnate Nail Varnish. It's super pretty but neutral so will go with pretty much anything you style it with.

Again Revlon has done me well with their Kissable Balm Stain in Lovesick. The colour is gorgeous and lasts and lasts. These are a great low maintenance option and have the added bonus of moisturising your lips at the same time. The photo below shows me wearing just one application but it can be built up to create a stronger colour.

Finally, and possibly my greatest find of the month, the L'Oreal Telescopic Waterproof Mascara. Not the false lash version. This is amazing and it worries me how hard it was to find in stores. I really hope it isn't being replaced or phased out because this is the first mascara I have ever found that holds a curl in my lashes. It's so easy to apply, the wand is a nice size and shape for getting every lash. It lengthens and separates, it doesn't volumise as much as a lot of mascaras but I don't think it needs to. It creates such lovely fluttery lashes and lasts all day, no flaking, clumps, fading. It is, for me, the perfect mascara. Just don't expect to be able to remove this with a normal make-up remover or wipes. You do need an oil based remover such as the Nivea Double Effect Eye Make-up Remover. Or you could always use baby oil if you can't get hold of anything else but it can be a little too much and make your face greasy the following day.

Forever21 Jewellery Haul

Hey there!

Something I haven't bought for a while is jewellery. A lot of my costume jewellery, while still very lovely, is quite dated in style. I also felt it would be nice to have a few statement pieces that can dress up an outfit.

I really like the Forever21 jewellery. I have visited the Trafford Centre store a few times and spent a long time looking at the accessory section but have never bought anything, I'm not sure why. Perhaps because they do a lot of gold. I was never into gold, but some of the newer jewellery that is available isn't as harsh or brassy looking. The prices are very reasonable and the quality looks pretty good. We shall see over time how long they actually last but I have faith.

So, not being able to go shopping in store, I put in an internet order. The items are shipped out from Holland and are delivered by UPS. You can track your package from start to finish, a relatively common thing these days but it's still something I like to be able to do. P&P was £3.95 or free with orders over £50.

I was very impressed with my items once they arrived. They look and feel very sturdy and I can't wait to start wearing them out. The only thing I will say is that the colours did vary slightly on a few of the items from the website but that is to be expected.  

I'm very happy with my order and thought I would share as Forever21 is relatively new to the UK and it's quite difficult to find a store. If you are interested in any of the products shown I will put links below or just head to the Forever21 UK website which can be found here.

xx

Items pictured above clockwise from top:

Rhinestone Rosette Necklace Cream/Gold £8.90

Sparkling Snowflake Studs Mint/Cream £3.90

Double Spiked Necklace Black/Gold £7.40

Bejeweled Faux Stone Earrings Purple/Gold £3.90

Braided Square Bib Necklace Pink/Gold £8.90 

(Unfortunately the last two items are already no longer available on the website, but there have been some new additions since I placed my order a few days ago so go take a look) 

April Glossybox Review

I was still hanging on in there! Waiting for a box that would get me super excited. I think the April Glossybox may have initially done the trick.

When I ordered this the estimated delivery date range was just after my op so the idea was that I would get this after coming out of hospital as a bit of a treat to myself. It didn't quite work out that way and I'm kinda glad.

The box arrived the day before my op and as I opened it I began to get excited. Over the box itself. Anyone who knows me well will possibly know I have a slight thing about boxes. I cannot throw out a nice or potentially useful box or piece of packaging. Maybe this goes back to my days as a graphic design student, who knows. I remember having sketchbooks with carefully broken down packages stuck in them, for no real reason other than I just liked them. Anyway, borderline box fetish explained, let me show you a photograph of the box.

This box is beautiful. A lot of the time when I can't part with a box I use them for storage around my room and this will look really nice. 

The contents of the box are as follows:

- The usual fold out "magazine" showing all of the products and info, interviews and suchlike

- Nip+Fab Dry Skin Fix Body Butter in Coconut Latte

(50ml travel size, RRP £9.95 for 200ml according to the magazine or £8.49 in Boots)

- Sleek Makeup Blush in Flamingo

 (Full size, retails at £4.49 for 8g)

A-Derma Intense Repair Lip Balm

(Full size, 15ml costs £7.95)

- Yves Rocher So Elixir Purple Perfume

(5ml sample, 50ml retails at £44)

- Essie Nail Lacquer in Sugar Daddy

(Full size, RRP £7.99)

I was so excited when I saw the contents of this box, everything was great at first glance, even the perfume sample as it was in a little bottle instead of one of those annoying vials that contain nowhere near the amount stated as they are never full. So lets look at the individual products and see how they fared.

         

I have wanted to try the Nip+Fab products for a while as I have heard good things about them, however I always thought they were quite an expensive brand. I guess the firming and toning products are but I never realised that they did other products like body butters. I am not a fan of coconut. Not the taste, not the smell. This actually reminded me more of Play-Doh, just not so heavy scented. You might think that sounds disgusting for a body butter but for me it's way better than coconut. Scent aside I really liked the product and found it left my skin feeling really soft and moisturised without leaving a horrible film that a lot of body butters do. It's quite light and absorbs well. I am definitely going to be trying this in a different fragrance.

Next up is the Sleek Blush in the shade Flamingo. I love Sleek products but haven't yet tried any of their blushes despite eyeing them up numerous times in Superdrug, including this particular shade. So I was stoked when I saw this was in my box. I haven't yet tried this blush as I haven't been anywhere post-op but it will be one of the first on my list of things to try out once I'm back on my feet, but I've heard fantastic things about these blushes with people comparing them to the quality of Nars and other high end brands.

Another brand I had heard of but never tried. This lip balm is really nice. I tried it out a couple of times when my lips have been quite dry and it feels instantly soothing. It's more of a creamy consistency and is nice if you don't like the tingling sensation products like Carmex have.

  

I think I liked this more for the packaging than the scent, it's not something I would go out and buy but I probably will wear this. It's an ideal size for those occasions you only have a small handbag or for travelling. 

  

The Essie nail polish was my biggest disappointment from the box. I had never tried Essie but really wanted to as the formula is supposed to be fab. However out of the 15 shades available the one I received sucked. There is no other way to describe it. It had zero opacity and was just like applying a slightly pink tinged clear polish. It took five or six coats to even begin to show signs of any colour and then it just wouldn't dry at all. It's such a shame as it has put me off the brand a little, the brush was nice, application was good. But I know nothing more about how the polish performs despite having a sample as the colour just wasn't worth messing about with finishing off applying to all of my nails. I just removed it in the end and chucked the bottle in my box, probably never to be used again. Maybe I will give another shade a go sometime.

So that's my opinion on the April Glossybox and it's contents. After the initial excitement I do feel it was a little bit of a let down although it did introduce me to some new brands and while the particular smell or colour of a product wasn't right for me I might go out and purchase something more suitable from those brands, which in the end is the point of this subscription.

If you would like to subscribe to Glossybox or just want more information click here.

Thank you once again for your time, please feel free to follow me, or comment, and I hope you will visit this blog again soon.

xx   

Crown Brush Purchase

It's been quite a while since my last post, for those who don't know I have had surgery which meant a night in hospital and a lot of time recovering. I'm finally starting to get up and about so I thought I would do a blog post.

Yesterday I decided to order some new make-up brushes from Crown Brush. I wanted some eye make-up brushes but didn't want to spend a lot of money at this time with me being off work sick, even though good quality brushes are a great investment. I knew Crown did some reasonable quality brushes quite cheap and have quite a few of their brushes already, so I put in an order. I was really quite surprised when they turned up today. 

In total, with postage (£2.99) and VAT included my order came to £24.15 which isn't at all bad for five brushes.

So the brushes are (from top to bottom):

- SS012 Deluxe Crease £3.49

- C431 Precision Pencil £4.39

- SS021 Syntho Blending Fluff £4.99

- BK45 Deluxe Angle Liner £2.19

- C433 Pro Blending Fluff £6.09

They are all excellent brushes but after trying them out I would love to buy a few more of the two blending brushes. I prefer the C433 brush for applying colour to the lid rather than blending as it is a little scratchy for blending but in shape it is very similar to the MAC 217 brush. I love the SS021 brush for both blending colour, applying cream eyeshadow and for applying concealer so will definitely have to order a few more of these. The angle liner brush makes for a great brow brush as well as liner so I may have to double up on this also. Overall a good order, the only brush I am unsure of is the SS012 Deluxe Crease brush, I thought it would be more of a blender as all of the other "deluxe crease" labelled brushes I own from crown are quite fluffy. This is very much a socket brush and I don't really have a defined socket. This would be fantastic for those who do so this one might have to make its way into my kit rather than my own personal collection.

If you are looking for good brushes at a good price you really can't go wrong with crown, particularly for smaller brushes for the eyes. I've never had a problem with service and with good care their brushes do last well.

If you are interested in placing an order they currently have a 10% off promotion running this bank holiday weekend (I was a little too eager and missed out on this). Enter the code "Sunshine10" at the checkout.

Thank you for your time and I hope you enjoy reading these posts. If you do please let me know, there will be a few more going up soon as I am playing a bit of catchup, so keep a look out for the April Glossybox review and my April favourites amongst other things.

xx

March Favourites

So with a new month now upon us it's time for my March Favourites. And there are quite a few.

First up if you read my review on the L'Oreal GlamShine Stain Splash lip products then it will be no suprise to you that these are being included here. If you missed that review check it out here. These have been my go-to lip product for the whole of March, in particular the shade Eve as it's just the perfect shade for popping on and going to the shops or to work.

 

I've been quite into my pink blushers this month and have been switching between Illamasqua Cream Blush in Sob (now only available in this set) and Urban Decay Powder Blush in Quickie (discontinued, only available as a cream blush now). I love the glow that the cream blush creates and use the Real Techniques Stippling Brush to apply this.

A new foundation I bought recently was Revlon Colorstay in the shade Ivory. This was the normal/dry skin version. What initially attracted me to this was the fact that it was much paler than most drugstore foundations. Almost all drugstore foundations I have tried in the past have been too dark or if they are light enough are too yellow or just don't work with my skin. This foundation is amazing. I really cannot fault it. It goes on beautifully, has the perfect amount of coverage, has a nice pink tone, matches my skin well and is great for everyday as it has SPF20. It also means I don't have to wear my more expensive Illamasqua Skin Base for work or general everyday errands.

I've reverted back to the Real Techniques Buffing Brush (available as part of a set) lately, mainly just for speed of application. I tend to switch between this and the Expert Face Brush (I love the Real Techniques brushes - if you haven't tried them I strongly suggest you do). 

I set my make-up using the Laura Mercier Loose Setting Powder in Translucent. I only bought this recently and it was super pricey, £29. It took me a long time to pluck up the courage to spend that kind of money on a powder but in all honesty it was totally worth it. It sets foundation beautifully, adds no colour to the skin and is so finely milled I can even use it right under my eyes to set my concealer and it doesn't sit in the fine lines at all. My skin feels really soft after using this, doesn't feel tight and isn't at all cakey. I wouldn't think twice about repurchasing this when it runs out, despite the hefty price tag.

On my eyes I have been loving the Maybelline Color Tattoo 24hr Eyeshadow. I have three of these but I have mostly been using the shades Pink Gold and On And On Bronze. They are quick to apply and last all day. I have also been loving the same eyeliner as in my February Favourites, the Rimmel ScandalEyes Waterproof Kohl Kajals, but as well as the black I have also purchased the purple and silver shades.

 

Hair products I have been loving this month are the L'Oreal EverPure Colour Care & Volume Shampoo and Conditioner. I have been wanting to buy these since trying a sample in a magazine but they are usually quite expensive, about £6 a bottle. I managed to get them for £3.99 each and have been loving them. I'm trying to use up a massive 2 litre bottle of Bed Head Shampoo and Conditioner at the moment and I'm almost there but I plan on alternating with the L'Oreal ones. They smell of rosemary and mint, the conditioner is particulary pepperminty and really wakes you up. You only need a small amount of this, a little goes a very long way and I find I haven't had to wash my hair as often as normal. I have also been using the Charles Worthington Salon at Home Secrets Collection Moisture Seal Intense Rescue Melting Balm maybe once or twice a week, sometimes as an overnight treatment and sometimes as a quick fix for 20 minutes or an hour before washing my hair. This stuff works wonders. It doesn't leave residue on your pillow or go greasy, you just take a small amount, rub it between your fingers until it becomes an oil then distribute through the ends of your hair and leave on for the desired time. Then just shampoo and condition as normal and your hair is super soft and shiny. Love love love this product.

Finally (phew I've liked rather a lot of products this month) is the TreacleMoon Warm Cinnamon Nights Bath & Shower Gel. I think this is a limited edition for winter and can be picked up in Tesco for £2.99 for 500ml, I think I got it even cheaper on some sort of offer so look out for it when doing your weekly shop. This smells amazing and is perfect for a nice hot soak after a long day at work.

Please let me know if you have tried any of these products yourself and what you think of them, or if you plan on checking any of them out. Or let me know your favourite products of the last month in the comments section below. Thank you for reading and have a great day =D xx