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.

John Frieda Colour Renew Shampoo & Conditioner Review

So, a few months back, towards the end of last year I decided I needed a bit of a radical change and bleached my naturally medium-dark brown hair to become a blonde for the first time in my life. It took a total of three (!!!) bleaches until I finally achieved the result I was aiming for.
Chuffed that I'd managed to put my hair through such an ordeal without it falling out or snapping off (my hair is tough as nails, apparently), imagine how p'ed off I was when after every single wash it started turning distinctively more yellow. As it turns out, hard water can really enhance any brassiness on bleached hair and living in Southwest London the water here is so hard you could easily knock someone out with a splash of tap water. A few people recommended using a purple shampoo, so off I went to my local Boots and stocked up on the John Frieda Colour Renew Tone Correcting shampoo - and the conditioner as well, just for good measure.

To make a long story short, both of these completely failed me. The shampoo does have a distinctive  bright purple colour, whereas the conditioner is more of a lavender shade. It's recommended to use it once or twice a week to eliminate any brassiness.
After the first use, I noticed no difference whatsoever. I thought that maybe I hadn't left them on for long enough, so next time I left both the shampoo and the conditioner to work a little bit longer. Sure enough, some of the yellowness was eliminated, but instead, my hair had gone orange.

Naturally, it didn't occur to me to blame the products, but I thought it was just the water, or that the dye job had been botched somehow. So, in an attempt to get rid of the orange hue, I kept on using it more and more until one day it occurred to me to just try a regular shampoo. Lo and behold, the orangeness diminished.
As for hair conditioning properties, both the shampoo and the conditioner performed alright, though were nowhere near as nourishing as I'd expect for a product aimed at bleached (and therefore damaged) hair.
All in all a big fat thumbs down from me. If you want to eliminate yellow tones in your hair just to make it orange instead, go for it, but otherwise I wouldn't recommend these to anybody.
I've since tried a different purple and shampoo combo by Lee Stafford and they both perform brilliantly, so expect a review soon.

These retail at £5.89 each per 250ml tube. I noticed that both the shampoo and the conditioner have since been repackaged, though I don't know if they've been reformulated as well.

Do you have bleached hair, and if so, how do you care for it?

Rimmel Wake Me Up Concealer Review

As soon as it launched, Rimmel's Wake Me Up Foundation caused quite a bit of a stir in the beauty world, being hailed as a nice light to medium coverage foundation that gives a lovely glow to tired and dull skin. I haven't heard an awful lot about the concealer in the range, but was eager to find out just what it could do for my dark and tired undereyes after picking it up at the drugstore.

The shade I went for was 010 Ivory, the lightest in the bunch. The texture of the concealer is very light, but without being overly runny, which makes for easy application using the doe foot applicator. Three dabs under each eye, a little bit of patting in and I'm good to go.

The thing about this concealer is that it's not overly heavy, so it won't offer a ton of coverage. On the plus side, this also means absolutely no creasing or caking, though I did find it wore off after about four to five hours of wear, even when I set it with loose powder.
Instead of masking dark circles with heavy coverage it instead provides an iridescent glow that aims to draw attention away from them. And boy, as far as concealers are concerned, this is probably as iridescent as they come.

I hope the swatch gives you a slight idea of just how shimmery this product is. At first I thought I'd been experiencing fallout from my eye shadows, but then it kept appearing even when I was wearing matte shades or no shadow at all.
The thing that made me ruffle my imaginary beard a little is the fact that I've seen several supposedly professional make-up artists using this in their Youtube videos for covering up blemishes. I don't mean to be a bitch here, because I am by no means a trained make-up artist, but please do not use shimmery concealers on spots. It's like drawing a large fat sign on your face that says "Woooo I have spots! And I made them SPARKLE!!!", so why the heck are they doing it?!

Under the eyes a little bit of vampire sparkle doesn't hurt, but I would never ever use this on red patches or blemishes, which means that annoyingly I now have to use a separate product for those problem areas. On the upside this doubles up as a very subtle highlight on cheekbones and the cupid's bow when in a pinch.

Rimmel's Wake Me Up Concealer retails at £5.49 and is available in four shades.

Have you tried this concealer? What did you think?

March Wishlist

Mesh Leopard Print Top, Forever21, £11 // Fake Diamond "Wings" Double Ring, Romwe, £16 // Trudy Jumper, Monki, £22 // Large Jewellery Box with drawer, Urban Outfitters, £40 // Evil Twin Dry Lightning Skater Skirt, Urban Outfitters, £55 // Grey Studded Collar Leather Look Biker Jacket, River Island, £65

This month features a surprising collection of items I need, rather than just want. Like this gorgeous (faux) leather jacket. I made it through all of winter without a coat, just because I don't like the one I have anymore and I didn't quite get round to buying a new one. So instead I just layered up like crazy to stay warm and as a result my current leather jacket is extremely worn out (and not in the cool vintage-looking way). I love the studs on this River Island version and the light grey colour instead of plain ol' black.

Another need item? Some sort of jewellery storage. I've been buying quite a bit of jewellery lately, but without anywhere to store it properly, it's all been getting tangled up in a corner of my nightstand drawer. What I like about this one is that it doesn't take up ridiculous amounts of space like those jewellery trees/hands/mini statues and the gorgeous tiffany-esque blue colour. Not that I have any Tiffany's jewellery to put in there, but a girl can dream, right?

And lastsly, not strictly speaking a "need", but I've realised that I no longer own a single skirt since my recent wardrobe overhaul, and long sleeved tops are also a little sparse now. The thing that keeps me off buying either of those is the fact that they tend to just be so, well... boring. Fortunately, this can't be said about the tie-dye type print on this Urban Outfitters skirt, or the amazing neon green colour of the Monki sweater. Anything neon and you'll find me all over it.

As for the rings and the cut-out mesh top? I just think they're pretty amazing. And a girl can never have too many pretty things, right?

Monthly Favourites: February 13

Phew, February really whizzed past me and I had to seriously scratch my head to find some favourites to talk about this month. Fortunately there's been a lot of shiny new beauty stuff I got to try out last month and some of them have turned out to be real gems, even if the brand distribution isn't very wide this month.

1) Lee Stafford Bleach Blondes Shampoo & Conditioner

My hair's been bleached a total of three times now, plus one root touch up and every single time it went about three to four shades darker as well as incredibly yellow after a few hair washes. I was using purple shampoo and conditioner every single wash to get rid of the brassiness, but if anything, the one I was using only made things worse (John Frieda, if you'd like to know - full review will follow).

Finally, this is one that brings my hair back to a lovely, natural blonde shade, with not a hint of yellow in sight. It only takes one weekly application and my colour stays the way I want it to stay. I highly recommend it for anyone with bleached hair, it's a must-buy!

2) Biotherm Blue Therapy Serum

Unfortunately, this is just a sample and it is now well and truly nearing its end. I still haven't bought a full sized serum to add to my skincare routine, but I'm more than happy to use up any samples I get. This one's been doing a lot of good work with my skin. I felt a difference after the second application, which is pretty incredible. My skin felt softer and in a way more taut and... energised (???). It doesn't leave any sticky residue, but sinks into the skin immediately leaving it silky soft and smooth, a lot like a perfectly ripe peach. Mmmmmmmh, peaches..... 

3) Soap & Glory Sugar Crush Body Scrub

After a few not-so-scrubby duds I have finally met my exfoliation match. You see, when it comes to face and body scrubs I like it rough. Really, really rough, har har. This scrub is beautifully grainy and will slough away dead skin and any other rubbish that may be lingering around within seconds. It leaves my skin so, so soft, and leaves a hint of oil on the body, which personally, I love. Oh, and did I mention it smells like mojitos?

4) Soap & Glory The Righteous Body Butter

Another Soap & Glory product - as a matter of fact they were bought together. This is mainly a favourite because it just smells so good. It's not a fruity scent I would usually go for, but nevertheless perfectly sweet without being sickly.

Other than smell good, it's also got the perfect texture for dry winter skin: Rich, thick and creamy. Admittedly it does take a bit of elbow grease to really massage it in, but the results are definitely worth it and it sinks in fairly quick. Just don't try getting into skinny jeans straight after using it.