Review: The Body Shop Vitamin E range

Hello lovelies,

 

For those of you that don't know I have combination skin but my dry skin can be really painful and tight sometimes, particularly in the cold weather. I have used many different oils and creams over the past few years and have recently looked into using vitamin E products.

 

Benefits: Vitamin E is great for our health but not many people know just how good it is at looking after our skin. It has anti-aging benefits as it helps reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. Lotions containing vitamin E also hold some benefits in preventing and treating sunburn, by protecting the epidermis layer of your skin from ultra violet light damage. Creams containing the vitamin have also been promoted for the treatment of scaring from surgery, acne and stretch marks. It also helps maintain the skins oil balance. Vitamin E can be taken orally and holds many health benefits, however if you are looking to improve your skin, using lotions etc. are a better for allowing the vitamin to be absorbed by the skin and allowing you to apply it where you feel you need its benefits.

 

Moisturising Cream: This costs £10 for 50ml;  buy here. I was a little disappointed initially as this cream does not have a nice smell, it does not smell bad but I am so used to Body Shop products smelling lush that it is noticeable. Fortunately the cream itself is amazing, it is moderately thick and soaks in to the skin in an instant. It makes your skin feel really nourished and smooth and I have noticed that my skin has been much healthier since using this.

 

Cream Cleanser: This costs £8 for 200ml, and is also available in 60ml bottles for £2.50; buy here. This smells and feels like baby lotion, again it is relatively thick for a cleanser but it soaks up instantly. I love this cleanser, my skin is left looking clean, fresh and healthy. I have used other cream cleansers of similar quality but I think the combination of this product with the toner does give you beautiful skin.

 

Hydrating toner: This also costs £8 for a 200ml  buy here but can not be bought in a 60ml bottle which is a little annoying if you wanted to use these while traveling. This is unlike any other toner I have used, it also smells like baby lotion and instead of drying out your skin it too makes it feel nourished. After using this I don't feel the need to use a primer on my skin it just leaves it feeling lovely and smooth. This is defiantly worth a try, I will be repurchasing this.

 

I am really happy with the three products I chose, I have noticed a vast improvement in my skin compared to last winter. My skin is much less oily around my tee zone and I have not had trouble with the dry areas of my face and my hands since using the cream.

 

The Body Shop has a massive Vitamin E range these are just three products I knew I would use every day so I wanted to try these first, I will certainly be buying some more products from the range. Let me know if you use any of these products if you think I should try them or if you want me to review something.

 

Ciao

  xxx

Travel make up

Hello lovelies,

I think most of us ladies have to do some traveling at this time of year even if it is just for one night so I thought it was the perfect time to show you my travel makeup. I travel home every weekend for work so I am a bit of a pro :P of course you can switch these products up for your favourites.

As always, all products I have reviewed will be linked so you can see why I love them :)

Foundation: No 7 Beautifully Matte foundation

Powder Foundation: Estee Lauder Double Wear stay-in-place powder make up

Contour: Benefit Hoola bronzing powder

Blusher: bareMinerals Ready Blush in shade The One

Lipstick: MAC shades Hue and Honey Love

Mascara: MAC Studio Fix Boldblack Lash

Eye Shadow: bareMinerals The Epiphany palette containing A-Ha and Foreshadow (or/and Urban decay Naked palette depending leftover room)

Eye Liner: L'Oreal Super Liner in black lacquer

Eye Brows: YSL eyebrow pencil

Primer: bareMinerals Prime Time foundation primer + Urban Decay Primer Potion

Brushes: realTechniques blush brush for my powder foundation, my duo-fiber contour brush for my blusher, and duo-fiber face brush for my bronzer (duo-fiber review). I am only taking realTechniques base shadow and pixel-point eyeliner brush for my eyes. The rest of my make up I can apply with my fingers, but if I have room I may pack my Cosmo blend perfection sponge.

Other: Elizabeth Arden's All Gone Aye and Lip Make up Remover and visible Difference moisturising eye cream, I am taking these because they are the smallest ones I have.

Throughout the rest of the year I do carry around less expensive products just in case of damage, however, this season is prone to the odd group shot or selfie so I like to keep my best products close at all times.

Hope you enjoyed this post ladies, follow, share and comment bellow, let me know what type of posts you love reading I love getting requests.

Ciao
  xxx

Preventing Clothing Frays

Hello lovelies,

 

Not so much a beauty post today, but I thought this would be really useful for some of you ladies. Most of us beauty addicts tend to love clothes too so I hope this post is helpful to everyone.

I wear a lot of sheer fabrics, thin polyester for example. I have found that with a lot off my shirts the material sometimes tries to fray around the bust buttons and around the arm stitching. I do wear oversized but I am slightly top heavy and just from lifting my arms, playing with my nephew, general life etc. they do tend to fray. Even on expensive tops which is even more annoying! The material does not have any give in it at all so I started thinking of how to prevent this without having to wear 3 sizes to big instead of 2.

 

Hemming tape has been my saviour, I buy mine in wilkinsons its about £2 for 4.5m, you can buy this everywhere I think I saw it in Tesco as well so you don't have to go out of your way to buy this.

All I do is Iron a stip on to each side of my shirts overlapping the shirt and button panel (the shiny side needs to be face down on the shirt). This completely prevents fraying fabric. I have been doing this for about a year, it stays fine even once you have washed it a few times. It is just a really simple and cheap way to make your shirts last longer.

You can buy this in black and white, I have not seen it in another colour but ask your local sewing shop if you are in need of more shades. It comes with a little list of how long to iron this on. To be honest I ignore it completely and iron over a couple of times on a low temperature. You can not see this at all from the outside. One thing I would say though is if you ever plan on wearing one or two buttons open on a shirt do not iron it on this section, as not only will you see it but it will make the fabric stiffer and it would look a little odd.

Hope this has helped lovelies. Comment bellow if you like little tips and tricks I use to clean or keep things nice etc. I will try and do a few more in the future.

Ciao
  xxx

Review: Benefit They're Real mascara

Hello lovelies,

I have heard so many positive reviews of this  mascara, ladies with all kinds of lashes saying they love what it does, so seeing as I am a mascara junkie I had to test the hype...

Price: £19.50 for standard size (there are various promotional offers available as this product is so popular so ask in store before you buy for the best deal)

Good: This fans out your lashes and elongates them perfectly. One coat makes them look really long. From close up your lashes look stunning with this mascara. With really simple elegant makeup this can look really effective. I personally wear this with just a light dusting of darkhorse from the Urban Decay Naked palette on my lash line. This creates a shadow effect from your lashes making them look fuller.

Bad: So while this does look nice on my lashes, it does fan them out beautifully and elongates them I do feel that they look rather thin. I personally would rather have really volumulous lashes than really long lashes so for me this is by no means my favourite mascara. However, if you have shorter lashes with tons of volume then this is the perfect mascara for you.

If you already have long lashes and they are not that thick then from a far you will not be able to see your lashes with this product, I think it almost fans them out too much loosing the impact that great lashes should make.

Verdict: I would give this product 7/10 I think it is great in most aspects but I do think that volume is important so it is not quite up there with my favourite Maxfactor False Lash Effect mascara which is just £10.99.

Honestly ladies this mascara is not worth the price tag or the hype. I would recommend Maxfactor's mascara to all girls, they are reasonably priced and have one suitable for any lash type.

Hope you find this useful ladies, please bare in mind most blogs I have read have loved this mascara, I just personally really love mascara when it ups the volume and this just does not do it for me.

Ciao
  xxx

new lipsticks

Hello lovelies,

You all know by now I love lipstick! Not only can it complete a look but it can totally change it depending on the colour. Here are my 3new shades and a new gloss I have also fallen for.

They are all linked so that you can purchase them right away if you like them too.

HONEY LOVE

This is one of MACs matte lipstick so not for everyone. If you want to wear this texture of lipstick you need to have healthy, smooth and moisturised lips. Be aware that these lipsticks dry your lips, so if you have chapped lips then you really should not wear them. However if you do have healthy lips then this can look amazing and super mattified, more so than any other brand. I personally love this lipstick and adore this super neutral shade.

HUE

This I thought was really cute, most neutral shades are beige but this little pink is really sweet. It keeps your lips moisturised and looks great with a subtle blush and simple eye make up. MAC lipsticks are £15, they are high quality and boast a massive range of colours and textures.

Get Ready
This lipstick is really good quality, it has a thick creamy texture and has great long lasting pigmentation. This shade is perfect to vamp up natural day makeup into an evening look.

Sparkplug
The lipgloss is also amazing quality. It too has a thick creamy texture that I am yet to find from a drugstore gloss. The colour is beautiful and has high pigmentation; this is not a gloss to be worn over lipstick it is beautiful alone. Unlike most glosses this does not run at all, so you can get away with not wearing a lip liner if you do not want to. it smelly like mint and feels cold on your lips as you wear it which is supposed to make them fuller.

I have never used a bareMinerals lipstick before but I recently got their All The Faves gift set including both the MOXI lipstick and gloss. The set costs £36 and these two products cost £16 each so the set is really good value for money. 
 

Hope you like my new additions, I am seriously obsessed with lipstick so please comment bellow with your favourites I would love to try them. Don't forget to hit follow :)
 

Ciao

  xxx

 

Review: YSL Eyebrow Pencil

So it may have taken me a long time and numerous mistakes but I have finally found the perfect product for filling in my brows. 

The YSL pencil may not be as thin as the Anastasia Brow Wiz but as my brows are relatively thick it was more important for me to find the right shade than find something I can mimic hairs with. And if you keep this super sharp you can achieve the same precision as the brow wiz.  

Anyone else find most brown brow products to be a little too auburn in some lights? If you do then you may want to try this in shade 4 Ash, it is completely cool toned so your brows look super natural. 

I always run through my brows with the spooley before applying a little colour, but because it is a little creamy to begin with if you comb them through again the product will look super natural. And the pencil sets perfectly in place so there will be no awkward brow smudging.

It costs £20 and can be purchased from FeelUnique , it is costly but unless the drugstore manage to come up with a shade like this, I can't see my collection ever being without it.

Ciao
  xxx

MAC face and body foundation review

Hello lovelies,

At £21.50 for 50ml MACs face and body foundation is a little costly so I thought a little review may come in handy.

I use two shades mixed together to make it look a little more natural. With my olive toned skin I feel a mix of a N and a C matches better. The shades I picked out were N2 and C3. The C3 looks a lot darker unblended but as you can see below they are very similar shades. the C3 just has a more olive undertone that matches my mixed Spanish skin tone, whereas the N2 just warms it back up and makes your skin look fresher.

Coverage: This is not full coverage. If that is what you are looking for I suggest MAC's studio fix, or No7 Beautifully Matte foundation for a cheaper version. This simply perfects your natural skin. If you have nice clear skin and just want to look a little more polished then this is perfect.

Texture: This is a really watery foundation. It is super runny so be careful when you first open it! This really helps  to blend it in and as it is not creamy it stops it rubbing off and keeps it looking matte. It also means once it has dried it will not budge. It is the only foundation I trust to wear on my body knowing it will not rub off on to my clothes. I love to apply this to my heals when wearing sandals as it covers the redness from wearing rubbing shoes. 

As this is for face and body it is the perfect tool for blending into your neck and making your makeup look like your natural skin. I see so many young girls not blending properly. If you have used a full coverage foundation, powder on your neck is not going to cut it. This product really is amazing at looking natural.

Due to my oily T zone I have not really got in to the BB/CC hype like a lot of others have, so if you too suffer from the shine then this is perfect if all you want is the subtle coverage that these products provide. Note though that there is buildable coverage to a low medium, just allow one coat to dry then apply another if you do want to cover a little more.

I hope this has been useful ladies, I do love full coverage but the blending factor and the texture of this product just make it great.     buy here

Ciao

  xxx

Current Daily Routine

Hello ladies,

One of the most common questions I get asked is my daily routine, My skincare routine was one of the first posts I wrote. It has not really changed much since then; I am fairly loyal to products when I know they work. However I have started using some Vitamin E products from The body Shop also (review).

Here is a list of my go to products I have been using nearly everyday for at least the past month. I tend to keep products on rotation so I use them up but these are some I love at the moment. Reviewed products are all linked. Please comment if you would like a review on any of the other products featured.

Primer: -Smashbox Photo Finish Foundation Primer

Foundation: -Rimmel London Match Perfect in shade Soft Beige (for cheeks only)
-Revlon Photoready in shade Shell
-YSL Le Teint Touche Éclat in shade BD40 (for days I want to look extra matte)

Powder Foundation: -Estee Lauder Double Wear Stay-in-Place Powder Makeup in shade Pure Beige

Concealer: -No7 Stay Perfect Blemish Cover (applied with foundation)
-Elizabeth Arden Lift and Firm Concealer in shade Fair (to touch up foundation during the day)

Contour: -Soap & Glory Solar Powder

Blusher: -Natural Collection Blushed Cheeks in shade Pink Cloud

Eyeliner: -L'Oreal Paris Superliner

Mascara: -Elizabeth Arden Beautiful Color Lash Enhancing mascara
-No7 Extreme Length Waterproof mascara (for bottom lashes only)

Lipstick: -MAC shade High Tea
-Soap & Glory Lipstick in shade Super Nude (These are for university and work, this would change for evening wear)

Lip Liner: Bourjois Levres Contour in shade 11

If you would like to see my preferred make up brushes please click here. This has not changed much except for the fact I use beauty sponges to apply most of my foundation (click here for a review of the Cosmo blend perfection sponge).

Hope you liked this post, clearly I need to review more of my trusted favourites for you lovelies. Check out my 'beautiful favourites...' page for reviews of all of my most loved products.

Ciao

  xxx

Elegant Touch House of Holland Nails

Hello lovelies,

This post has been sitting in my drafts for so long, not really sure why I have not got round to posting it but here we go...

I am one of those girls that always falls into the retailers trap and buys random products they place near the till. A lot of the time I end up regretting wasting my money, but not this time.

The House Of Holland Nailed by Elegant Touch false nails are my go to false nails at the moment. Over the past few years I have applied so many different falsies including applying my own gel and acrylic nails. These are so effortlessly stylish they just have to be my favourites.    Price: £7.99-£8.99  Sold at: Boots

It is not always easy to personalize and express yourself when your budget only allows for affordable fashion. Products like these just dial up the personality of any outfit, and you don't even have to be that creative. I personally love experimenting with different nail art but if you don't have time or you just are not that steady with your non writing hand then these nails are great.

As you can see there are lots of designs to choose from and as you get 24 nails you can mix up the way you wear them each time. You also get a fairly decent nail file and really good nail glue in the pack.

There are so many nail products on the market at the moment, I love all of the nail wraps and different textured nail polishes that have been popping up over the past couple of years, but these really are my favourites if you are looking for something easy to apply that will funk up your outfit.

Don't forget to hit the follow button lovelies, and comment bellow if you would like more posts on nail products.

Ciao
  xxx

Lancome Beauty Set: first impressions

Hello ladies,

Last week I did all of my Christmas shopping (super organised), but as most of you beauty lovers will agree, you just cannot buy beauty products for other people and not treat yourself to a little something. So I decided to get this little Lancôme beauty set which was £50 as I had spent £30 on Lancôme products.

As you can see the packaging is just as lovely as the products. If I am being honest last year I got the Christmas beauty set for my sister and I do think its contents were nicer but I am still really happy with what I got and it is great value for money.

Starting with the make up... This Hypnose Doll Eyes shadow palette is so beautiful,  It is the Fraicheur Rosee palette, and I have to say I am in love! The deep purple is gorgeous, I can't wait to do some looks for you ladies with this. The 2 mascaras look a little clumpy at first but I have worn them all week and they do not look clumpy at all, they give your lashes tones of volume.

This lipstick I was a little dubious about. I am not much of a red lip girl. However, this is a really subtle red in that it is really pink sort of red. Not sure if you know what I mean by this, but it has a jelly texture to it, not glossy just feels like Vaseline almost which is really nice.

The lip gloss I will wear much more often, you ladies know I love coral shades. The texture of this is really nice also, again it is not too glossy.

 

Now I am not really a big fan of eyeliner pencils, I am so used to using liquid liners. This week I decided to give it a try and I have really liked it. I used to use dark shadows as eyeliner with smoky eye looks but using the pencil means u can smudge it in and not worry about it budging during the day. It has great staying power.

The blush subtle palette is so perfect, it is the 02 nectar lace palette. If you are going to get just one of these products, this is the one. The highlighter is really subtle. The blush is bright so just a light dusting is enough. My favourite though is the matte brown, this is so good at contouring! I don't think I will be using any other product for my contour again.

I love La Vie Est Belle already it is such a sweet smell and super feminine, but seriously, how cute is this tiny little bottle!! I have had it in my pencil case all week, perfect for carrying around :)

The skin care products are all really high quality, I have tried a couple of them before but I think I will review these individually once I have used them all more so I can give you my true opinion. Because the picture is awful quality, to clarify in the set you get (from left to right) Softening Hydrating Toner 50ml, Gentle Softening Cleansing Fluid 50ml,Non Oily Instant Cleanser Sensitive Eyes 125ml, Youth Activating Concentrate 7ml and Soothing Anti-Stress Moisturising Cream SPF 15 15ml.

I am getting super exited for Christmas ladies and this really is a good buy for someone you love or for treating yourself if you have been good this year. Comment bellow if you have found a great buy recently for your self or someone special.

Ciao
  xxx