Monday 30 June 2014

May Empties


It's that time of the month again where I share all the things I've finished up, it's been a month of makeup empties! 

The first thing to talk about is the Bourjois Magic Nail Polish remover, I've had this a long time and it's started to dry out so it was time to say goodbye to this. I don't think I'd repurchase as I just didn't get the use out of it, I use a lot of glitter based polishes so it just wasn't suitable 99% of the time. It's a great product though and if you don't wear glitter I really recommend it. 

Next up is the Maybelline Colossal Volum' Express Mascara. I was really impressed with this mascara, it was the first Maybelline mascara I ever tried and I thought it was fabulous. I would repurchase it again, although if you could see my mascara stash, you'd know I don't need to anytime soon! Also on the mascara front I finished off the Sephora Outrageous Volume Mascara, it was a really good mascara, another great option if you like volumising mascaras.

Last but not least is the Maybelline Fit Me Powder, I wear shade 125. Again I really loved this face powder, it lasted so long, I've never had a face powder on the go for such a long time. I'd definitely repurchase this, I think I actually prefer it to the Rimmel Stay Matte Powder.

What did you finish in June?

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Sunday 29 June 2014

A Home Filled With Hearts | Haul







A couple of weeks ago I went and visited my little sister and we couldn't resist doing a little bit of home shopping. I've been pretty good when it comes to home shopping, I can't really buy a lot until we move in as there is no where for it to go, so I had a little splurge. I say splurge but all this lot came in at under £20, which I think is a bargain. 

For the longest time my sister had been banging on about a shop called 'B&M Homestores' which is basically a huge shop filled with homewares at stupidly low prices. You could spend literally hours in this shop, it's full to the brim with lovely bits and pieces. I tried my hardest but some things had to come home. 

First up is this 'Vintage Clock' which you can see was a tiny £4.99, I've seen these clocks in a load of places and I've wanted a similar one for ages. I think Next had one a while back which was around £30 so I think this is an absolute bargain. Next is the heart cushion which I bought for a tiny £2.99, I cannot believe how pretty this is, yet how cheap it is! I wish I had bought a couple more of them now! I also picked up these three little white hearts which love different quotes on them, I think these will look love on a windowsil. I couldn't leave these three little hanging hearts behind, I loved the colour of them and I think they'll look lovely in the kitchen! They were only £1.50! I also went to Wilkinsons and bought this little lantern which has a glass jar inside it for lighting candles, it was £5 and is going to look lovely in the bedroom! It was only when I got home that I realised that everything I bought had a heart on it somewhere, I must have been feeling a bit romantic that day haha!

Where is your favourite place to go home shopping?

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Saturday 28 June 2014

Well Loved Compacts


When it comes to palettes and compacts, I'm a big hoarder. I almost always *need* the latest one on the market and I have a lot in rotation! However there are some that I always find myself hoovering towards, on a day-to-day basis. 

The first big one for me is the Sleek Contour Kit in Light. I've used mine almost every single day since I picked mine up well over a year ago. It has two sections; contour and highlight. To be frank, what else to you need? This contour shade is just perfect for me, it's the right colour, you can add definition, but if you go too mad it's easy to fix. The highlight shade is pretty too, as you can see, they've both had a lot of love. 

The NARS 'And God Created the Woman Palette' was a Vivianna Does Makeup enabled purchase when it was first released and I never looked back. This little eyeshadow palette is perfect all year round as you can create a whole heap of different looks. It's cute, it's compact and so it's fantastic for summer holidays. On a daily basis I sweep the lightest shade all over the lid and put one of the brown shades through the crease.

I picked up the Tarte Airblush Maracuja Blush in Sephora when I went to America earlier this year and I've become completely obsessed with it. It's got such a unique cream blush formulation and the colour is so pretty. I've been applying it with my Expert Face Brush to the apples of my cheeks for a summer glow, it's just beautiful!

What compacts and palettes do you reach for on a daily basis?
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Friday 27 June 2014

A Week at Beaumont Estate




















Over a month ago, I went to the Beaumont Estate, my work was holding a conference there and my job was to go and film it. I wanted to share my photographs from my time there as it's just beautiful! The Beaumont Estate is in Windsor and is set in a massive 40 acres of land.The Beaumont has a lot to offer, two restaurants, bars, gym and pool, but we were there for a conference. Onsite there is actually a 14th Century Chapel which we used for presentations, which is just insane. It had a beautiful stained glass window which I couldn't resist taking a few pictures of!

On a practical level, the hotel is really close to the regal town of Windsor, Legoland, Thorpe Park and has easy access to London. I don't know how much it costs to stay there but it's well worth looking into if you're looking for a place to stay.
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Thursday 26 June 2014

Genius for Curly Hair | Aussie Curl Serum


A truly genius product for curly hair girls.

I'll set the scene: I popped onto Superdrug to repurchase essentials, one of which was the Aussie hairspray. I noticed that the Aussie haircare range was on a special offer when you buy two things, so I decided to try something new. I noticed that Aussie had a serum for curly hair and picked it up on a whim, I never ever expected to love it half as much as I did.

I've tried everything for curly hair since I had my hair permed, I'm talking between 12 and 15 different products, from different brands, all different kinds of products. Nothing had blown me away, from too sticky, too greasy, too messy, everything was just disappointing. I'd just given up that I was ever going to find something on the high street that would make light work of defining my curly locks.

"Aussie Dual Personality Styling Curl Definition & Soft Feel Serum is enriched with Australian jojoba seeds to condition and soften hair. A quick shake of the bottle, this silky serum deep conditions hair so curls bounce and dance all day long."

From the very first time I used this product I was completely blown away, you can use it on wet or dry hair. You rub two to three pumps of the serum between your hands and then your scrunch it into your hair. I'd just washed my hair, so I used it on wet hair before diffusing. I've never seen my curls spring to live in such a beautiful way, I had defined curly hair, without my hair being greasy or crispy. Seemed to good to be true and the next morning I used this on my dry hair to reactivate my curly hair. Again, my curls jumped back to life and looked freshly washed, I was just gobsmacked. Finally, a product on the high street which did exactly what I wanted it to do!

I've used this now basically every day for a month and it still hasn't disappointed me, I'm just so impressed with this serum, I don't think I'll ever look back!

The Aussie Dual Personality Styling Curl Definition serum retails for £5.19 and is available in lots of different stores.
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Wednesday 25 June 2014

Weekly Roundup #5

It's not been a bad week this week, there's been a lot going on and I actually took a good amount of pictures to share this week! We've officially had our kitchen delivered to our home, it's still in boxes in the living room as we're not ready to install it yet, but it's here! Wickes ask you to put a blue balloon outside your house so the lorry can find you easily, this confused our neighbours, one old boy thought we'd had a baby boy. We took the day off so Chris and I managed to spend the day together, we went for lunch in Simmons and went looking at ovens! It's been a good post week too, I had a bit of a haul on Look Fantastic plus my Birchbox and my Glossybox arrived. Both beauty boxes were not too shabby and you can see my reviews here on my blog! On Friday we went to Sainsbury's to grab some dessert and ended up hauling summer fruits! We picked out some raspberries, blueberries and strawberries and had them with vanilla frozen yoghurt, yummy! 

Here on the blog this week I reviewed and swatched Leighton Denny's Instant Abstract, a beautiful salt and pepper top coat! I also reviewed two Essie polishes which make up Essie's Mama Knows Best set, they are simply beautiful! I picked out my favourite products from Rimmel, although it was hard to pick just three things! I even shared a bit of a fashion post, declaring my love of summer scarfs!

My favourite product this week has been the Honeymania Body Butter from The Body Shop, it's such a beautiful scent and is perfect for summer moisture. Apart from being addicted to blueberries, I've also been loving Kopparbergs Elderflower and Lime Cider, it's just beautiful, perfect if you're a fan of fruit ciders. 

How has your week been?

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Tuesday 24 June 2014

Molton Brown Rhubarb & Rose Hand Cream


Everytime I go to John Lewis, I always have a sneaky peek in the Molton Brown section. I find myself testing all the different hand creams wondering which one I should buy. Chris and I decided that we'd pick up a full sized one for our bathroom when we move in, but that's still a long time away. So Naturally, I've had my eye on a hand cream from Molton Brown for quite a long time, so when I got this little sample of the Rhubarb & Rose Hand Cream in my Lulu Guinness Birchbox, I was really happy!

"A crimson summer tart. Freshly picked roses. Bowls of sugar, spice and all things nice."

Quite a lot of the hand cream scents can be quite savoury or even unscented, but Molton Brown do things a little differently. They create beautiful blends of scents which are just divine, what I love is they have a beautiful range of fruity scents, which is right up my street. What I love most about the Molton Brown hand creams is how quickly they get absorbed, it is literally instantly, within seconds there is no residue left on your hands. So I thought this would be the perfect hand cream to take to work - there's nothing worse than a greasy Macbook when you're trying to edit a video!

Although this hand cream gets absorbed into the skin so quickly, it leaves your hands feeling super soft and nourished. The smell lingers too, so your hands smell lovely for ages!

The Molton Brown Rhubarb & Rose Hand Cream was released as a limited edition scent but it's still available to buy. 40ml will set you back £10 which isn't horrendous, it makes for a nice little treat. The 40ml tubes come in much fancier packaging, which have a lovely silver lid, which also would make a lovely gift! I've got my eyes set on the cute trio set for when we FINALLY move into our new home!
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Monday 23 June 2014

Global Strikers from Birchbox





After seeing the spoiler for this months Birchbox on The Sunday Girl and Sailboat, I just had to subscribe. Both box spoilers quite frankly looked like my perfect box, in fact it seemed like it was too good to be true! The theme is 'Global Strikers' inspired by the World Cup the box has products from all over the world. Although my box was a bit different to the spoilers, I was still really impressed, in fact it's possibly the best box I've ever received! Lets look inside my box:

First up is the Original Beauty Blender WITH the Beauty Blender Solid Cleanser, clearly the most exciting product in the box and actually one I wanted to try. I was actually about to buy the solid cleanser as it's apparently good for all types of brushes. I will definitely be trying this out ASAP! I can't find the exact set online, but Birchbox claim it's worth £26 which is just fabulous!

Next up is the OPI Nail Polish with is one of the mini ones from the Brazil set. Another product I was about to buy, however this is probably the colour I'd least like out of them all. That aside OPI is a great brand to see in the box and I'm looking forward to trying this. I think this little polish is worth about £2.50.

The Balm is quite a great brand and I've been loving their products recently, so seeing the 'How 'bout Them Apples' Cheek and Lip Cream in the box is really exciting. I cannot wait to give this a go, it gets incredible reviews.

Next is the Naobay Body Radiance Lotion which is the only product in the box I haven't yet heard about! Birchbox say 'This is a lemony fresh organic body lotion with shea butter, olive and avocado oils for truly soft skin' - I've been enjoying using moisturisers recently so this will definitely join my 'to try' pile.

Last but not least is the Caudalie Vinoperfect which is a radiance serum. Notes online say that 'the serum reduces the appearance of existing dark spots such as acne marks, scars, and damage revealing a brighter, more even complexion" Sounds like the perfect product for summer, it even has an SPF of 15 packed in there too.

So there you have it, a box I am 100% impressed by. I will use and try everything single item in this box and I can't wait to try everything out. It definitely won the battle of the beauty boxes this month, it's been a long time since we had a box this good. 

Did you get a Birchbox this month? What did you think?

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Sunday 22 June 2014

Essie 'Mama Knows Best'




This duo set from Essie is dubbed 'Mama Knows Best' as Essie made it especially for mothers day. 

It's the second duo I bought when they were on 3 for 2 in Boots! The Mama Knows Best set comes with duo full sized nail polishes which Essie say are two of their most iconic. The first is a beautiful pastel purple called 'Lilacism' which will be beautiful for Springtime when it comes and stays. The second is called 'Peach Daquiri' which to me is a bright pinky colour, which will definitely be beautiful for summer!

A few people have said that their local Boots actually had this reduced for £6 so you should have a peek and see if you can find a bargain! If not I totally think it's still worth the £12.99 price tag, they are normally £7.99 each so you have a couple of quid!

Mother's Day has obviously been and gone but I think this would be lovely just for a gift for a friend! I think its going to be a lovely set when summer arrives!
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Saturday 21 June 2014

The Best From Rimmel


Rimmel are just one of those brands I'm constantly impressed by! The quality and pricing are just so on point, that I make time to browse their stands for new releases, on a regular basis.

I wanted to share my current top three favourite products from Rimmel, just in case you're looking to shake up your makeup as we approach the summer. First up is the Rimmel Match Perfection foundation, I've recently been reunited with this foundation and I don't know why I ever put it down. My skin just loves this foundation, it's got a good amount of coverage to hide skin sins, but it's not too dry or too oily. The colour is perfect for my skin and it even has a SPF 18 packed inside. Excuse the cliche, but it's my perfect match! The Scandaleyes Retro Glam mascara is a new addition to my collection as I recently got it in a Glossybox, but I'm really impressed with it. It's quite a wet formulation but packs a punch in colour, volume and length, perfect! The Salon Pro Collection by Kate are something I'm addicted to buying, they are so cheap and the formulation is incredible! These polishes just prove that you don't need to have deep pockets to have great colours on your nails!

What are your favourite products from Rimmel?
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Friday 20 June 2014

Bargain Summer Scarfs


I've got a bit of a fashion post today (if you can call it a fashion post). I really love wearing scarfs to work, as a little finishing touch to an outfit. I also love wearing them with my leather jacket, i just think it makes them look a little more finished. 

At this time of year I'm not really wearing scarfs for warmth, it might not be the height of summer but it's too warm for a fluffy scarf. Instead they are more accessories. For a little while I've been buying my scarfs on eBay for a very good reason. I'd been shopping around for some light weight scarfs, when I came across lots on eBay for £2-£3. 

Beautiful scarfs for £3 sound too good to be true, but they are not! They get shipped from China so they take a little while to arrive, but if you are not in a rush there are literally no disadvantages. Most recently I picked up this beautiful elephant scarf, but I've ordered lots of others too. I'll leave some of my favourite sellers below for you to check out!

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Thursday 19 June 2014

Leighton Denny 'Instant Abstract'



Leighton Denny 'Instant Abstract' is one of the nicest top coats I've seen in a long time. It's a beautiful matt glitter polish, which has a huge combination of different types of confetti. There's little tiny black and white specks, bigger black and white circles, as well as strands. Although you have both white and black colour in the polish, it's definitely heavier on black colour which a splash of white. The confetti is suspended in a clear polish, which means it doesn't influence your colour underneath. On the swatch you can see one coat on the left and two coats on the right, one coat is a little more subtle but it takes two coats to get a good coverage.

I love these 'confetti' type polishes, I think they offer something a little nicer than your standard glitter and something a little more subtle. I think it offers something a bit more sophisticated, if you like top coats but have to dress smart for work etc. I think this would look really nice on top of a pastel colour for summertime.

You can pick up Instant Abstract in a duo set from QVC here.

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Wednesday 18 June 2014

Weekly Roundup #4



It's back to Wednesday which means it is time for another weekly roundup! Last week felt really really long, so by the time the weekend came around I was desperate for some me time! I actually had a weekend full of lovely plans which was amazing. On Friday I met up with two of my oldest friends, who I hadn't seen for six years! We never had an argument or fell out, life just got in the way and we stopped chatting to each other. I was really nervous at first, I didn't know how things would go but we had a really lovely time. After six years you don't really know where to start! I'm hopeful that this will be the start of seeing each other more often. On Saturday I met with my friend Amber for lunch, we went to Zaza's and I had my normal food (breaded mushrooms and carbonara). I'm not going to bore you with another restaurant post about it though! On Sunday I just had a quiet day at home, I had planned on doing some blogging, but time just disappeared. Sadly there are not many photographs to show for my week, mainly because my brand new phone is broken. I have a swollen battery and the bloody thing will not turn on! 

On my blog this week I shared my love for the Timehop app, one I've been missing since my phone broke! Head over here to find out all about it! I also shared my brush cleaning routine, my Glossybox review and some skincare empties!

This week I have been loving Fleur De Force's Youtube channel, she shared her long awaited kitchen tour and I loved seeing what she had done! I am super jealous! Although yesterday my kitchen got delivered, I cannot wait for it to finally be installed! My product of the week goes to Essie's Lilacism, it is a beautiful pastel purple and I've worn it three times already. I cannot get enough!

How has your week been? What is your product of the week?
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Tuesday 17 June 2014

Summer Is Here | Glossybox






It's Glossybox time already and this months theme is 'Summer Is Here'. I really like the direction beauty boxes are going in, I feel like the competition is forcing companies to up their game. Of course, as always there are lots of box variations, so lets see what is inside!

First up in my box is the Nailgirls 3-in-1 base/topcoat and nail strengthener! Finally a nail product in a beauty box that I cannot wait to use! The retail price for this is £13.50 so I'm hoping it's pretty high end and is really good quality. My nails need all the help they can get!

Next in the box is the Teeez Trend Cosmetics and this is the 'Beautiful Flat Stiff Brush'. This claims to be a premium quality brush which applies both powder and cream eyeshadow with ease. I like experimenting with brushes so I'm looking forward to try this out. I haven't used it yet but it feels super duper soft!

The 'Embelleze Novex' is next in the box, which claims to be a Hair Food Therapy treatment. Apparently you wash and dry you hair, apply the treatment,  leave for 15 minutes and then rinse well. The packaging of this is certainly interesting, I thought it was some kind of protein powder at first! 

Next is the So Susan Cosmetics Concealer Quad, I've used So Susan Cosmetics in the past and I've been a bit disappointed, so I'm a little less optimistic about this. However, I do love trying out concealers, so I'll definitely be trying this out. They reckon the retail price for this is £20, which is quite a lot, so I hope the quality compares!

Last but not least is the Roger & Gallet 'Fleur de Figuier Eau Fraiche Fragrance. It's basically a floral and fig inspired scent. I've never tried a fig fragrance before but it's actually very light and summery, I think it might become a favourite of mine!

So that is it for the contents of my Glossybox, I've had a bit of a rough ride with Glossybox recently but I'm fairly happy with this box! Did you get a Glossybox this month? Link me to your contents in the comments if you've written a post about it!
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Monday 16 June 2014

Timehop

I love a good mobile app, especially those that let me look back on the past and relive some special memories. When I came across the 'Timehop' app I knew it was one I was going to love and one I'd use every single day. The idea behind Timehop is really simple, it just shows you what you were up to on the same day years ago. You can connect your Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and loads more to Timehop and it shows you everything you posted on social media on that single day. It allows you then to share those pictures, tweets and status' with all your friends, or just keep them to yourself. 

I just had to share this app with you in case you haven't heard about it. I've just been loving looking through and seeing everything I've done and even the tough days I've had. It's good to remember the good times and remind yourself how far you've come! Although in some cases you need to be prepared to be embarrassed by your 14 year-old self posting terrible Facebook status' - beware! 

Let me know if you give the Timehop app a try, and if you've used it already, what is your favourite memory you've uncovered so far!
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Sunday 15 June 2014

OPI Avoplex Cuticle Oil


I actually won this little OPI Avoplex Cuticle Oil back at Christmas time and I've finally got round to trying it out. A couple of weeks ago I'd been travelling with work and my cuticles got in really bad condition. They were super dry, flaky and needed some serious TLC. When I got home I cracked out this Cuticle Oil and applied it to my nail beds. It offered some serious INSTANT hydration to my cuticles, which really stuck around. 

This little tube is the 'to go' version of the OPI Avoplex, it's a little squeezy tube with a lid and brush inside the lid. You can squeeze the oil into the brush and apply it directly to your cuticles. It has a thick, gel-like formula which means that the oil is non-drip, which is important to avoid getting everything in a mess. The oil itself has vitamin E combined with nourishing avocado, sunflower, sesame, and kukai nut oils. I haven't tested this in my handbag yet, but OPI say that this little tube is leak proof due to its 'lock tight' closure.


This cuticle oil has really saved my nails and I don't think I could live without it now! If you want to try it yourself you can pick it up for £10.50 from Feel Unique.
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Saturday 14 June 2014

How I Clean My Brushes







I thought it was about time that I wrote a little post about my deep cleaning brush routine. There's nothing revolutionary here, and I think it's a popular way of doing things, but I always love reading this type of blog post.

So I'm not the best at getting round to cleaning my brushes that regularly. There's always something going on, so I try to deep clean my brushes on a Sunday every 3-4 weeks. I also spot clean them, but they can be pretty grubby when I get around to doing them. 

For this reason I tend to wash my brushes in two steps. So the first thing I do is give them a wash with Johnson's Baby Shampoo, I pop them under the tap and then whirl them in the baby shampoo in my hands. This gets rid of the first part of the dirt, I do this to all the brushes. Then for a more deeper clean I switch to the Dr Bronner's Magic Soap. I use the unscented soap as this means the brush has no scent, so then there's no risk of irritation to my skin. I drip the soap into the brushes and leave them for 4-5 minutes. This gives the soap some time to break down the makeup in the brushes. I then swirl the brush with the soap in my hands and rinse with water. I repeat this step and by now my brushes are super clean. I lay them out on a towel for 5-10 minutes, this allows any excess water to drip out on to the towel and then I lay them on my windowsill to dry.

And that's it, they normally are completely dry in a few hours (especially when it's nice and sunny) and then they are clean and ready to use. Nothing beats applying your makeup with a set of clean brushes, it's the best feeling! 
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