Love Me Beauty Box January 14

After last month's slight disappointment with my Love Me Beauty box and the options they had on offer, the first box of this year got me excited again with some lovely menus to choose from. Four out of five items are full sized products and there's a nice mix of make-up, haircare and skincare. All the menus featured the Anatomicals shower gel, the Pureology styling mousse, the Cosmetics a la Carte mascara and the NYX eye shadow, albeit in different shades depending on the menu. Lastly, you got to choose between a Weleda body oil sample, a Weleda hand cream sample or a full sized Arran Aromatics soap. The menu I went for was Menu 3, as I liked the eye shadow shade the most out of all of the options.

1) NYX Cosmetics | Single Eyeshadow in "Sahara"

Full size: £5.00

NYX Cosmetics Single Eyeshadow in Sahara swatch in day light

The first item in the box was a full sized eye shadow by NYX - a brand I used to see quite a lot of when I lived in Germany, but that's not overly prevalent over here in the UK. This eyeshadow is the only reason I chose this particular menu, as the other shades on offer were a bright orange which I wouldn't really know how to wear and a dark smoky grey which I have enough of in my collection already. Sahara translates as a light sparkly champagne onto the skin and admittedly I'm not overly impressed with the pigmentation. It might work quite well as a base colour, however, or for adding a bit of sparkle to an everyday make-up look.

2) Arran Aromatics | Apothecary Wheatgerm & Vitamin E Soap

Full size: £2.75

As I chose my box by eye shadow colour this is a product that I was sort of forced to pick. I would have preferred the Weleda body oil sample to be completely honest, as it's difficult to get excited over soap. However, it's something we all need and I have no doubt that I'll use it. I haven't unwrapped it yet, as I want to leave it fresh for when we move into our new home, so I can't really comment on the scent of this product.

3) Anatomicals | Rose & Jasmine Body Cleanser

Full size: £3.00

I know there's quite a few people who don't like getting body wash in their beauty boxes and while I understand completely where they're coming from, I personally don't mind at all, as long as it's not too frequent. Shower gel is something everyone needs, but I usually get mine from the Pound shop or on special offer from the supermarket, so it's nice to have something a tad more special from time to time. Having said that, this one only comes in at £3 anyway, so it's certainly not a splurge product anyway! I really like the smell of roses, so to me this scent is pure bliss. Not to mention I'm a huge fan of Anatomicals' packaging design and cheeky slogans!

4) Pureology | Colour Stylist Silk Bodifier

Full size: £15.00 for 250ml / Sample value: £4.88

Well, admittedly it's been quite a while since I've used mousse on my hair and I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this sample. Memories of sticky, crispy hair come to mind, but perhaps mousse formulas have improved over the years and I'll fall in love with this product. I've heard a lot of beauty bloggers rave about Pureology and their sulfate-free products, so it's nice to try something from the brand for myself. This mousse in particular is also made for colour-treated hair, so should be perfect for my bleached tresses.

5) Cosmetics a la Carte | Divine Lash Mascara in "Black"

Full size: £23.00

Even after browsing their website, I can't quite fathom where I've heard of this brand before, but the name does certainly ring a bell. Hailed as this month's star product, I'm certainly excited to try this mascara. Which girl doesn't love mascara after all? This one has quite spiky looking long synthetic bristles - a bit like a hybrid between a traditional mascara wand and a lash comb. I can't wait to give this a trial run on my lashes and see how it performs!

Total value: £38.63

It feels like Love Me Beauty have certainly kicked off the New Year by returning back to form. Out of the five products I received this month, I can say with certainty that I will use each and every single one. I like the nice mix of product types and high-end vs. budget brands featured. Even though two brands have been in boxes before (Arran Aromatics and Anatomicals), they're completely different types of products, so I don't mind like I did with last month's Lord & Berry scenario. Now I can't wait to see what's going to be in next month's box!

Are you subscribed to Love Me Beauty? If so, what did you think of this month's boxes?

Love Me Beauty Box November 13

Another month, another Love Me Beauty box. I seem to be the complete opposite to most other beauty bloggers and was actually a tad disappointed to see a heavily make-up based beauty box this month. Give me skincare and hair care as much as you want, but with make-up I much prefer to pick my own shades after swatching them in a shop. Thankfully you were able to pick your preferred nail polish and lipgloss colours from one of three editions (formerly known as "menus"), so I still had some choice and opted for edition 1.

1) Absolution | Le Soin Purifiant

Full size: £24 for 50ml / Sample value: £19.20

I can't say I've ever heard of this brand before, so testing this was quite the novelty! The mask feels very smooth and soft on the skin and is nowhere near as messy and sticky as most other clay based masks I've tried. You can definitely feel this working, as it made my face a bit hot towards the end of the 10 minutes you're meant to leave it on for. Afterwards, my skin felt thoroughly clean and my moisturiser sank in in record time.

2) Jelly Pong Pong | 2-in-1 Bronze Shadow/Liner

Full size: £10.50

The colour of this shadow and eye liner stick is absolutely stunning: a deep rich brown that leans slightly cranberry red and is shot through with golden shimmer - absolutely perfect for this time of the year! The big pencil glides on without tugging the lid, but I found that on its own or even over a primer it creases very easily. It lasts much better if you set it with a powder eye shadow, but will still crease after about four hours. If it wasn't for the stunning colour, I would have been pretty gutted about this, as the quality simply isn't there.

3) Mitchell and Peach | Shower Wash

Full size: £20 for 250ml / Sample value: £4

Last month I received a Mitchell and Peach body lotion as an extra product and this month I found the matching shower wash in my box. Once again, the packaging may be pretty looking, but makes getting the product out a bit more difficult than it needs to be, especially when your hands are all wet and slippy from the shower! Thankfully the shower gel is runnier in consistency than the body lotion, so I am yet to give myself a black eye trying to squeeze this out. It's a nice shower gel with a very pretty herbal/floral scent, but I'm not sure I'd spend £20 on a full bottle of this.

4) Models Own | Nail Polish "Hot Pink"

Full size: £5

I'm a huge fan of Models Own polishes and would be quite happy to own every single shade in their collection, so I was rather excited to see their polishes pop up in this month's boxes. They're great quality and pack a lot of pigment at a very reasonable price. I have to admit that I was a tad gutted when I opened my box and realised that the colour I picked, "Hot Pink" is almost identical to another Models Own polish in my collection, "Pink Punch". I've not yet worn it on my nails, however, so it might look completely different on!

5) Art Deco | Hydra Lip Booster "36 Translucent Rosewood"

Full size: £11.50

Now, usually I get a little annoyed when there's too many repeat brands in a subscription box, but Artdeco is a brand I literally can't get enough of and this lip gloss only adds to that sentiment. It glides on silky and smooth, actually feels quite moisturising on the lips and is just the perfect shade of nude: opaque and milky enough to make lips step into the background and really bring out the eyes, but sheer enough to let some natural lip pigment shine through and prevent that "undead" look. Absolutely brilliant!

Swatches: Left - Artdeco Hydra Lip Booster in Translucent Rosewood, Right - Jelly Pong Pong Bronze Shadow/Liner

Everyone who received last month's Love Me Beauty Box also got an extra Lord&Berry lipstick to make up for last month's underperforming mascara and eye liner. Well, not everyone, because I didn't. And when I sent an email to customer services about that and the fact that I keep getting charged twice a month for my subscription, they sent me a rather moody email back which completely ignored the issue of my missing lipstick. Can't say I'm impressed!

Total value: £50.20

Once again I've more than made my money's worth with this month's box, but I can't help but feel a tad underwhelmed. The mask is really nice and the lip gloss is amazing, but the other products haven't really blown me away. Add to that my rather mediocre customer service experience and I feel my love for Love Me Beauty waning slowly. I hope they can get themselves back in the game with another knock out box next month!

Review: Soap and Glory Clean On Me

I pretty much never ever splurge on a shower gel - give me a supermarket's own brand or something from the pound shop any day and I'm happy, as long as it gets me clean. So, the only reason I got my hands on this massive Soap and Glory shower gel is because it came in a Christmas gift set. Yes, that's right, Christmas. That's how long it took me to finally use up this bad boy.

As with all Soap and Glory products the name is a bit tongue-in-cheek and oh my, did it get me singing under the shower, "Clean on meeeee, when you're not strooooong....". I actually got told off by my boyfriend for singing about my beauty products all the time, whoops! Now, the packaging of this really, really bothered me. You get a pretty enormous amount of product (500ml!!!) which means the bottle is pretty heavy to begin with. I think S&G assumed that we all have neat little ceramic shelves in our shower, where we can rest our goodies and just pump up as much shower gel as we need. Well, I don't. I have a wobbly metal stand that hangs off the shower pipe, with each and every product carefully arranged so as to not disturb the perfect balance and make everything tipple over. Now, try holding this massive pint of shower gel in one hand, a shower puff in the other (while everything is wet and slippy) and use the same hand to press the pump at the top. Yeah. No. Doesn't work.

That aside, it lathers up nicely and I can confirm that it got me, well, clean. The scent is typical girly S&G, but it's nowhere near as strong as I expected and doesn't leave a single trace on the skin once you've dried yourself. As for the claim about the in-built body lotion, forget it. In my experience these things never work and Clean On Me is no exception. My skin was no drier nor any more moisturised than after using conventional (cheap-ass) shower gel.

As I said at the beginning of the post, I never would have picked this up in Boots if I was just shopping for a shower gel and it really is no better or worse than the shower gels I usually go for. Come to think of it, however, £6 is pretty awesome value for money, considering it must have lasted me about 6 months (and I do shower every day if that's what you're thinking). Stupid squirty pump aside, I'd say that for any hardcore Soap and Glory fans this will be a great addition to their bathroom, but for anyone else it's more of a take-it-or-leave-it product.

Sample Summary #7

1) Clinique Repairwear Laser Focus Foundation (Shade 03)

Full size: £27.50 for 30ml

I’m used to foundation samples you get in magazines not fitting my skin tone, but this one looked ridiculously out of place. (Apologies, I did take a swatch picture, but unfortunately the file became corrupted) With Clinique, the problem isn’t just the colour of this sachet. I tried several times to buy a Clinique foundation, but none of their shades ever fit my light skin. Not only are they bright orange on application, they also have a tendency to oxidise during the day and become even darker and more unnatural-looking.

Nevermind, I picked a day where I knew I wouldn’t be leaving the house and covered myself in this orange goo, making sure to take it all the way down to my chest. The coverage is quite heavy with strong pigmentation, which made it a right pain to blend. You’d have to find a shade that exactly matches your skin tone in order to avoid this problem. It’s a shame then, that this turned out to be an excellent foundation. It felt incredibly lightweight on the skin considering the high level of coverage it gave and stayed put all day without transferring onto my clothes. It evened out my skin tone without completely hiding my skin’s structure and even the oxidisation problem I mentioned earlier wasn’t so bad. But it was still orange. If only Clinique could sort out their shade selection, this would be my new go-to high coverage foundation.

2) Biotherm Blue Therapy Serum

Full size: £38.00 for 30ml

I will admit right from the outset that I am a big Biotherm fan. Their products have never let me down in that they just always work with my skin and tend to get the very best out of it.

So it was with quite a bit of excitement that I tried this new serum which can be applied day and night. However, what came out of the tube did cause a short moment of panic. This is a sparkle serum. Yes, that’s right. It sparkles. And glitters. It reminded me of those glitter gels you used to get as a child to cover your skin and hair with for fancy dress occasions - anyone else remember them?

Thank goodness the obvious shimmer somehow completely disappeared on my skin and did not turn me into an extra from Twilight. As far as application goes it’s definitely in line with some of the nicer serums I’ve tried. Lightweight, but nourishing, it sinks in quickly and doesn’t leave my skin sticky in the slightest.

It was after the second or third application that I began to notice a different on my face. I’m sorry if this sounds ridiculous, but my skin felt somehow... bouncier? I really wish I had a better way of explaining this, because it’s not like my skin was sallow and wrinkly before, but in a way it became plumper, tauter and more resistant to whatever it is I throw at it. I imagine this would make it absolutely brilliant for more mature skin, but even as it stands now, I’ll be quite gutted once my sample runs out!

3) Armani Code Pour Femme Shower Gel

Full size: £29.50 for 200ml

As far as things that come with perfume go, I much prefer shower gels to the disgraceful body lotions I’ve complained about many a time. Granted, the scent ain’t going to last a long time on the skin either way, but at least it can make for an uplifting and, dare I say it, sensual experience under the shower.Unfortunately, this wasn’t my scent at all. It’s really rather woody and musky which is far from my personal preference when it comes to fragrance, but it lathered up nicely, a little went a long way and it did get me clean in the end. Even if you're a fan of the scent I would still consider this a massive waste of money. Actually, charging almost £30 for a tube of shower gel that does absolutely nothing differently than a product you'd get from Poundland makes me rather angry. It's a nice add on if it comes for free in a gift set, but on its own there's just nothing about it that would justify the price tag.

4) Just Cavalli Perfumed Shower Gel

Full size: £20.00 for 150ml

Another perfumed bath thingy... seems like I literally get showered in the stuff (geddit? Showered! Fnar fnar fnar...). This is one I really, really like. Unfortunately, my already very sparse scent describing skills completely fail me when it comes to this one. It just seems like a very young scent, something that makes me want to go out and have fun. It’s sweet, but not overly so and it layers beautifully with my Soap and Glory body butter, creating a delicious, comforting yet at the same time energising scent.Several hints have been dropped to the boyfriend about how much I like the scent and how I just got through another one of my perfumes...
Again, on its own I find the price tag completely unjustifiable, but if I got a tube of this in a gift set I'd be more than happy to use it up.

December Glossybox Contents

After last month's Glossybox turned out to be a bit of a dud I was really looking forward to this month's edition. I wasn't going to read any reviews until I got mine in order to avoid disappointment, but I just couldn't resist and had to have a sneak little peak, so I knew more or less what to expect.

I filmed a video of the unboxing of my box which you can find here: December Glossybox Contents Video. It's my first ever video, so it felt a little bit awkward talking to myself and I also dropped a lot of things out of nervousness!

Now, onto the contents of this months limited-edition Christmas Glossybox!

First up is the BLINK+Go Hi-Definition Mascara. This is a full size and the tube is absolutely huge! I don't think I'll be able to use all of this up before it dries out, but I'm very happy that I got it, as I do need a new mascara and I haven't tried anything from this brand before.
Sample value: £14.99

Next up is this mini Cargo lipgloss in the shade "Serengeti", which is a coral shade with pink undertones and gold flecks of shimmer. I wasn't sure where I'd heard of Cargo before until my boyfriend reminded me that we saw a Cargo stand at Boots which had been quite heavily attacked, so there was hardly any stock left. I'm not overly excited about this, as it looks like something I would have picked up as a teenager and I have gone off sparkly lip glosses in the mean time. But who knows, maybe I'll rediscover my love for long-forgotten products?
Sample value: £0.95

This next product had me quite excited. It's a mini nail polish by Deborah Lippman (another brand I've never tried) in Razzle Dazzle, an absolutely stunning fuchsia glitter shade. I'm not really one for glitter nails, but I've read so many posts on them lately that I am sort of swayed a little bit. I'd make an exception for such a beautiful shade any time anyway! It also came with a nail polish remover finger mitt, which I'll happily try out when I'm on the go and my nail polish has chipped to a disgraceful state!
Sample value: £8.57 for the polish / £2.33 for the finger mitts

I also got a little pot of Seventh Heaven by MeMeMe which is a moisturising face primer. This is again a brand I've never tried - not because I haven't heard of them, but simply because it never particularly appealed to me. However, I'm in need of a face primer, so I'm more than happy to give this a go. It smells absolutely lovely as well, which is always a bonus!
Sample value: £5.00

Lastly I also got a bottle of Rituals Foaming Shower Gel in Mandarin & Mint. I personally hate mint, but the mandarin scent is so overpowering that I can barely make it out, which is great! I wasn't too sure about getting shower gel at first. Yeah, it's a full size bottle, but it's... shower gel... barely a luxury product. Then again this does feel and smell very lovely and I wouldn't usually splurge on shower gel for myself.
Sample value: £6.50

The total value of my box comes to £38.34, which is not as high as some previous boxes that I received, but I still made my money back from the mascara alone! The one thing that I appreciate the most about this month's box is that there were no perfume samples, as they always felt like a little bit of a rip-off to me. All the samples are a very generous size and there are two full sized products which is amazing! However, there are no real luxury brands included this time, which is a bit of a shame.
Overall still a great improvement on November's box, so I'm happy. I'll let you know how I got on with this month's products and also all the things that I got in the November box in about two weeks or so!

Haul Alert! Westfield Stratford Shopping City

This is a bit of a belated haul post - I wanted to do it for ages, but just couldn't get around to it, so apologies for the delay. My boyfriend had to go to an exhibition for work and asked if I wanted to come down to London with him for a couple of days and as I had a bit of time off I said yes. It turned out that our hotel was a Premier Inn right on top of the new Westfield shopping centre in Stratford, so I made the most of my day alone and went on a bit of a spending spree.

First up is this dress I picked up from New Look. It's not actually by New Look but by a label called Mela Loves London, which had its own little section upstairs in the stores. I desperately need some more "smart" clothes that I can wear to the office and I totally fell in love with the cute polka dot print and the soft wool material. The cowl neck is also incredibly flattering. At £25 it was also a bargain!

I also picked up this ring while I was there, which was on sale for £1! I don't really know why it was in the sale section, as they also had loads of these rings for the full price and there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with it.

Next I popped into Forever21 where I just couldn't resist this sweater. It's got Beagle puppies on it (*excited squeal*)! They had these with all sorts of animals, but the Beagles have got to be by far the cutest. It's one of those things that's so cheesy it's great again and will make a lovely cover up for cosy, lazy weekends. I think this was about £15, but I don't really remember anymore.

I also went into a shop called Beauty Base which mainly sold cheap perfumes - not as in awful crappy perfumes, but normal perfumes for less money - and cheap makeup - as in awful crappy makeup. I picked up a pack of five mini nail varnishes by L.A. Colors, as I loved the shades in the pack. I haven't tried any of these yet, so I can't comment on their colour density or staying power, but seeing as it cost me a pound or so for five nail polishes I won't be overly sad if they turn out to be rubbish.

I also got this bath and shower gel as I was running out and this smells absolutely gorgeous. It's a very strong fruity and refreshing scent, which might not be for everybody, but it's something I really love under the shower as it always manages to wake me up, even on the bleakest of mornings. Again, at round about two pounds for a 500ml bottle this is a complete bargain.

I also had to keep myself entertained, so I popped down to WHSmith and bought two books which were on a "buy-one-get-one-for-£1" offer. I already finished reading "The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake" and it has already become one of my favourite books ever, I really can't recommend it enough.

I bought this blusher from Topshop after I read loads and loads of positive reviews about their blushes. As you can see I've already been using it quite a bit. This is a cream formula in "Pinch", a gorgeous deep pink / fuchsia colour. The colour payoff of this product is absolutely amazing (see swatches below), it looks exactly like it does in the pot which is so rare. It's a creamy formula that dries into a powder on your skin, so you've got to blend it quickly before it dries. It's easy to overdo it with this blusher as it's just so colour intense, so it's better to just carefully dab it on rather than swirling your fingers around the pan and then to build it up on your cheeks as you go along.
It makes my face look really fresh and glowing, as if I'd just come back from a winter walk in the snow, which was exactly what I was looking for, so I'm extremely pleased with this product.

As I went through my lipsticks the other day I noticed that I always buy pretty much the same shade: a slightly greyish nude pink. In all seriousness, all my lipsticks are pretty much the same and only differ in finishes - some are glittery, some are sheer and some are matte. So I decided it's about time I got something a bit more brave, especially as there tends to be a recurring trend for strong lips every winter.
I went for this super intense fire engine red by Dior. It's actually called "Rouge Dolce Vita" from the Diorific line. How amazing is the packaging? It's a long lasting formula, so it's a good idea to apply lip balm beforehand, though it's still relatively creamy compared to other long lasting lipsticks I've tried. Oh, and when I say long lasting I mean long lasting. This stayed on my lips for hours, despite several drinks and a two course meal. You'd still need to touch it up from time to time, as it lost its sheen after a while, but I sure won't mind to pull this beauty out of my handbag any time soon.

Top: Diorific lipstick in Rouge Dolce Vita
Bottom: Topshop blush in Pinch