February Wish List

Tropical Graphic Tee, Forever 21, £9.35 // Speckled nail polish in "Fragile", Illamasqua, £15 // "Shooting Firework" Leggings, Romwe, £20.14 // Maeve Pin Stud Flats, Missguided, £19.99 // Hot Pink Coco Nail Polish Phone Case, Phonefancy, $35.00

I'm loving big and colourful prints at the moment, so both the top and the leggings are right up my alley right now. There's just nothing to cheer you up on a dreary, grey winter's day than a big splash of colour all over your clothes.
I also admit that I am starting to develop an unhealthy obsession with Illamasqua make-up and their latest collection "I'mperfection" is another one of those where I just want to buy everything! If I had to choose just one item though, it would be this greyish blue speckled effect nail polish.
I've also gradually worn away pretty much all of my flats and these are exactly what I've been hunting for in high street shops, but could never ever find. I can't get enough of studs and spikes on shoes, bags and jewellery!
And last, but not least, the ultimate phone cover for pretty much any beauty blogger. As soon as I saw this featured in a post on makeupsavvy.co.uk I was smitten. There's also a dark blue version, but as these cases have become so popular, the manufacturer's actually on a backlog right now, so it would take forever to get one now - not fair!

Monthly Favourites: January 13

I haven't been very good with posting monthly favourites so far - mainly because I just don't get through enough products to think of any month after month! But I will try to be better about it this year, as I've found loads of fantastic products just from reading these posts on other people's blogs and I hope I can do the same for you!

1) Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette

I have to admit I was a bit weary about the hype surrounding both the Naked Palettes. In all honesty, how good can a bunch of brown eye shadows be? However, I found myself talking about it so much, that eventually I got it as a present (wooooo!) and even though it was no revelation of awesomeness at first, I realised that I've put pretty much all of my other eye shadows aside and now I'm only using this! It's just a really great selection of colours which will allow you to create a multitude of looks, the shadows are soft, very pigmented and last all day with a good primer. What's not to love?

2) Aussie 3 Minute Miracle

My hair has now been through a grand total of three bleaching sessions and unfortunately they have all taken their toll on my tresses. Trust Aussie to bring my hair back from almost certain death. It moisturises, repairs and just seems to undo all the damage I have caused through dying and heat styling. I cannot recommend this enough for anybody who has dry, brittle and/or damaged hair. I've already repurchased it twice and once this bottle is empty I'm getting another one. I'll write a full review on it soon.

3) Makebelieve Enhance Sunbeam Bronzer*

I've been reaching for this loads in the past few weeks, as my winter complexion is even ghostlier than usual. This bronzer gives a beautiful flush of colour and as it's not too shimmery it's the perfect contouring powder - I swear it makes my cheekbones as sharp as razorblades. What I love the most, however, is that it just settles to such a marvellously natural finish on my skin - no obvious bronzer or contour marks there at all. You can read a full review on this one here.

4) Simple Kind To Skin Cleansing Wipes

I can't believe I never wrote a blog post on these wipes. I think I may have mentioned them once in a Youtube video (haha, yeah....), but that's about it. Truth be told, I don't even remember how many times I've repurchased these. Let's be honest, sometimes you just haven't got the time or the energy (or you're just really, really drunk) to do a full skincare routine before bed, but the least you can do is take off your make-up. Nobody likes messy pillows and crusty eye lashes. I've tried a few other wipes from time to time, but none come close to these. They stay soft and moist forever, get all the crap off my face without being drying and most of all make sure I don't get breakouts caused by my laziness.

*PR Sample

What are your favourites for the month?

Sample Summary #6

1) Estee Lauder Double Wear Stay in Place Make-up

Full size: £27.50 for 30ml

Estee Lauder Double Wear used to be many a blogger’s holy grail foundation (I noticed it made a bit of a disappearance as of late) and I came close to buying it several times, so it was nice to get a little sachet to try it, even if it was only enough for one application and the colour didn’t match my skin at all.

Turns out I hate it. Thick, gloopy and pasty it looked like a mask on my face and felt very heavy while I was wearing it. I think I’ll stick to my light to medium coverage foundations for the time being. Glad I didn’t waste money on a full sized bottle, at least!

2) Dior The New Nude Foundation

Full size: £31.00 for 30ml

As opposed to 95% of foundation samples you get in magazines, this one was actually a fairly good match for my skin tone. I’m not entirely sure why, but I was hesitant to use this sample, expecting not to like it before I’d even given it a go. So upon application I was actually very surprised to find it’s a lovely product. It smoothed on perfectly, melted into my skin and gave a lovely matte, but natural look. Staying power was also quite impressive.

The only thing I’d say is that the name is a bit misleading. You’d expect light coverage from a foundation called “The New Nude”, but it was more of a medium coverage, bordering on heavy. Still, I think there might be a purchase looming!

3) Boss Nuit Pour Femme Body Lotion

Full size: £22.00 for 200ml

Now, I’ve got to be very frank here. I have absolutely nothing against sponsored posts, but when this fragrance launched, pretty much every blog on my reader had a sponsored post up about it and rather than entice me to buy the perfume, it actually put me off trying it. There’s a thing or two to be learnt about over-saturation in my humble opinion.

Now, that aside, I liked the fragrance when I smelled the body lotion, but there was nothing exciting about it, so even after having a whiff I won’t be running out to buy it. Moisturising properties of this sample were pretty much non-existant and it only served as a way to lightly fragrance my body.

4) Aveeno Skin Relief Moisturising Lotion

Full size: £5.40 for 200ml

This one, along with the Palmer’s cocoa butter, seems to pop up in magazines on a regular basis, yet I’ve never actually purchased a full size of either body lotions.

It doesn’t have the typical fruity scent I usually go for in body lotions and butters, but moisturised my skin well and despite being quite rich, sank in quickly and was easily spreadable. Again, I prefer scented body butters, but that’s just personal preference and I found nothing wrong with this lotion at all.

5) Jil Sander Everose Body Lotion

Full size: 17,95€ for 200ml (currently unavailable in the UK)

Another perfumed body lotion. I honestly don’t know, why cosmetics companies bring them out, because they’re frequently just plain awful. Just like the Boss one, this was runny, sticky, didn’t sink into the skin at all and for moisturisation I would have been better off rubbing myself with a carrot.

The scent was nice, quite summery, but again nothing I’d go wild about. I do find that a lot of Jil Sander fragrances are very samey and hey, if they’re your thing then that’s great, but personally, I think I’ll pass.

6) Annemarie Boerlind Naturoyale Biolifting Day Active

Full size: $229.99 for 50ml (currently unavailable in the UK)

This is a sample I picked up from a German magazine a while ago. The cream was way too rich and greasy for me and turned my face into a sticky, oily mess. To be honest, that’s something I’ve noticed with many German brands - their skincare is just so ridiculously rich that loads of brands I’ve tried have given me instant breakouts and/or a really shiny face.

This one was just horrible, so I’m not overly bothered that I can’t get hold of any of these products over here in England. Not to mention that the astronomical price tag gave me a little heart attack as soon as I found out how much people are expected to pay for this little tub of lard.

Boots Botanics Purifying Face Scrub Review

A few months back the Boots Botanics range had a major design overhaul from frumpy pharmaceutical looking packaging to new clean and more colourful packaging. I was on the hunt for a new facial scrub shortly after the revamp and while before I barely glanced at the range, it caught my eye straight away this time. Looks like the redesign was a bit of a success!

Pretty packaging aside, this one really caught my eye mainly due to the thick grains it contains. I like to use face scrubs while I'm in the shower, so if they're very gentle and mild they'd just get washed away without being able to do anything to the skin.

On that front, the Purifying Face Scrub certainly doesn't disappoint. It's chunky, rough and grainy, just how I like it. Sensitive skins might find it a little too harsh, but if you apply it on wet skin like I do, it gives a very pleasant deep clean.

It smells of pretty much nothing, so is kind on sensitive noses. Its aim is to brighten and smooth and though I didn't see any dramatic changes in skin tone, it did a very good job of making my skin clean and fresh. The scrubbing motions also made for a lovely, rosy glow, which made this a great pleasure to use.

I haven't even told you the best bit yet. The 75ml tube which you can see in the pictures lasted me about three and a half months with two weekly applications... and cost £2.49! You'd be very hard pressed to find a scrub this good at this price. If you're into rough, grainy exfoliators like I am and you're watching your wallet, then this couldn't be better for you.

Lush Melting Snowman Review

What better time to crack out this little bath melt than now that the country is covered in a white blanket of snow? I feel very old saying this, but few things are better in life than coming in from a walk / run / roll around in the snow and relaxing in a hot bath with a cup of tea and a good read.

The Melting Snowman is one Christmas Lush item I've been eyeing up last year but didn't manage to get my hands on. Diving into a bath of melting marzipan goodness just sounded too divine to pass up on for another year!
When I got this out while running my bath water I did panic a little bit. What do you mean, "Massage Bar"?? (Followed by the boyf's, "What do you mean I have to massage you!? The football's on!") Turns out it was just a printing error and this is a Bath Melt after all. Panic over.

Isn't he just an adorable little guy? He doesn't smell nearly as strong as most other Lush products, so he won't make your entire cupboard smell like bubble bath if you want to store him for a little bit. His nose is an actual piece of root ginger. The little buttons are made out of cocoa butter and smell and melt just like chocolate. (Yes, it was very tempting to pop one in my mouth to try it, but I resisted)

Little mister snowman won't cause an instant explosion of fizz like say a bath ballistic, but instead it will very slowly melt away in the water. If you're impatient like me it helps to crumble him into bits and pieces to speed up the process.

I had two major expectations from this bath goodie and unfortunately it didn't live up to either of them.

1) Loads of people raved about the Melting Snowman's delicious marzipan scent, but I couldn't make that out at all. According to Lush, he contains some orange essential oil and I did get a slight whiff of that - a bit like jaffa cake, but very faint and nothing like what I expected.

2) One of the differences between bath melts and bath ballistics is that the former are supposed to be more nourishing and moisturising for the skin. Again, I didn't really get any of that at all. While it was nice to soak in it, it did absolutely nothing for my skin. The good thing about that is that it didn't leave a nasty residue on the sides of the bath. The last thing I want to do after relaxing in a hot bubble bath is scrub the tub!

I did enjoy my snowman and he really made me wish it was Christmas again, but next time these pop up again I think I'll give them a miss. It seems he doesn't quite live up to the hype.