January Favourites

I'm actually on time this month with my January favourites.
I have quite a lot this month as I got lots of new products to try for Christmas and also because I skipped December favourites to do a 2012 yearly favourites so products I only started to use in December got missed out.

Soap & Glory

I have been absolutely loving soap & glory all month and have been using lots from my 'Best of All' set. 

Smoothie Star Body Milk- I absolutely love the smell of this, it's oaty and yoghurty. This leaves my skin feeling lovely and soft and I'm actually finding it easier to use than a body butter as it spreads much easier and soaks in like a dream.

Peaches & Clean Cleansing Milk- I have been loving this cleanser, too. I don't know how much it does to prevent spots and unclog pores but it certainly takes my make up off well. I have sensitive eyes too and have been impressed that my eyes don't sting when I use this. I don't actually love the smell of this as it's very sweet and fake but It's bearable.

Sugar Crush Body Scrub- I love the smell of this, it's limey and has brown sugar particles. It's great for exfoliating while not too drying. A shower must- have.

Lush Snow Fairy- My favourite shower gel ever! I'm trying to make it last as long as possible as it's limited edition for Christmas. It has a lovely sweet bubblegummy scent.

Aussie Mega Shampoo- as someone who is normally pretty cheap when it comes to my shampoo I thought I'd branch out and treat myself. I'm so glad I did as my hair is feeling and looking so healthy and smelling amazing. As I've been using this as well as my Aussie 3 minute miracle about once a week I thought my hair might get a bit greasy from too many heavy conditioning products but it really hasn't!

Aussie Mega Instant Conditioner- This is brilliant to use when I'm not using the 3 minute miracle as it's lighter but still leaves my hair feeling soft and nourished.

 Nivea express hydration primer- I reviewed this here and have been loving it. My skin is soft and less damaged and my make up stays on fantastically. I would recommend it to anyone.

Nip &Fab Spot Fix- reviewed here. This is great for drying my spots up really quickly, sadly it doesn't prevent others from arising!

MUA palette in Starry Night- I'm a big fan of the smokey eye and this palette is perfect. I love the formula and they last well.

Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain in Honey- reviewed here. Honey is the perfect shade because it's subtle but pretty, I've been reaching for it every day!

Collection 200 Lasting Perfection concealer- Weirdly the label wore off this but the product itself is so hard wearing. I'm very impressed and can see exactly where the hype came from, I love it!

That's it for this month, thanks for reading :)

Review: Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stains

I thought it was about time I shared with you my latest obsession! Everyone has been raving about these for ages and I had to try them! I got the two shades on the left (above) for christmas and then added another to my collection a couple of weeks ago.

I think these types of lip products started with the Clinique Chubby stick but this Revlon alternative has been very popular. As a balm stain these are designed to stain the lips without drying them out. 

I have tried matte lip products before and not got on very well with them, however, equally I hate having really sticky lips with gloss. I am still a lipstick virgin so this was a smaller step towards lipstick wearing for me and all I can say is I love them! 

These give the perfect amount of moisture and nourishment without drying my lips out or being too matte. They have great lasting colour and do not give any transfer. I sometimes apply this product after a lip balm and find the product still gives colour but not quite as dramatically as when I apply it to dry lips, either way works well.

The product has a nice consistency and has a slightly minty scent/flavour which gives it a slight tingle when applied. Applying as a large pencil like these is super easy and mess free, they also twist up from the bottom.

The shades I own are Honey, Lovesick and Crush.

Honey (shown on the left) is a perfect everyday colour with a slighty peachy tone, it is generally very neutral and is the shade I choose to wear every single day!

Lovesick, in contrast, is a bright pink colour which is dramatic and girly. This is a little more daring for me but I do still like it.

Finally, Crush is the shade I couldn't resist as it has a purpley shade and is the closest I get to vamp lipstick! It is gorgeous but did show up a little redder on my lips than expected.

Here is some swatches for you (excuse how weirdly asymmetrical my lips look!).

wearing Honey

wearing Lovesick

wearing Crush

I will eventually make the move into using lipsticks but with this gorgeous product, why would I need to?

Haul: Primark, Debenhams, Superdrug & Stead&Simpson

I've never actually done a haul post which includes clothes, I think it's quite hard to show them properly through photographs. However, Today I thought I'd give it a go as I love reading other people's hauls, especially Primark as you can't browse online.

Primark:

I picked up this thick, cosy cardigan in Navy because I liked the pattern (it's almost fishnet). It has cute little pockets and doesn't have any buttons or fasteners at the front so it just hangs at either side. This was £12.00.

I also got this blue peplum lace top for £6. It fir nicely and I thought it would be nice with jeans with a strap top underneath, I liked the detail at the back too.

I also picked up two stretch tank tops for £2.50 each in Black and Navy.

Debenhams:

I picked up these jeans in Red Herring, they are a tight fir skinny jean and are available in different leg lengths which is good. These were £24 and unfortunately student discount was not available.

I then fell in love with these black heels, I love that they are both patent and also suede material. The little bows are cute and mean that I manage to keep them on, they also have cushioned soles. These were originally £35 but are now £28. Available online.

Stead and Simpson:

I picked up these boots in Stead and Simpson sale for £19.99, they are black/dark grey and I got them to replace my worn out biker boots.

Superdrug: 

I then popped into Superdrug to see if they had the MUA Eye Primer and they finally did! I picked up four face masks on 4 for 3 too, 2 tropical peel off masks, one super fruit exfoliating mask and one deep cleansing fruit mask.

And that's all for my haul, thanks for reading :)

January Wishlist

Marrocan Oil: I've heard rave reviews about this and would love to try it.

Urban Decay Primer Potion: Again, I've heard lots of good things about this and I'm struggling to find a cheaper alternative that's as raved about. Any dupes?

Benefit They're Real Mascara: This looks awesome, I love Benefit and I love mascara, shame it costs so much!

Real Techniques Brushes: Another blogging influenced want, I really want to see what all the Real Techniques hype is about. I particularly want to try the Buffing and Stippling brushes.

Clinique Bottom Lash Mascara: I think this is a great idea and it is supposed to be really good for preventing dropout too.

Soap & Glory gloss sticks: I am loving Soap & Glory more and more and would love to try these as I love the Revlon Balm Stains.

Tangle Teezer: I think this would be good for my knotty, curly hair to prevent breakage.

OPI Rapid Dry Top Coat: I have a love hate relationship with top coats, I love how they make my nail varnish last longer but hate how they always smudge! I know OPI is supposed to be a good brand so would like to try this one.

Here's hoping I win the lottery! What's on your wishlists?

Essie for £1.99?!

I'm no longer an Essie virgin! I have been wanting to catch on to the hype for a while now but didn't want to fork out the money at £7.99 a pop.

So you can imagine how excited I was when I found them at £1.99 each at Fragrance Direct, so I ordered three!

The colours I bought were We're in it together, Lights and Bikini So Teeny. The pale pink and pale blue both have a bit of sparkle in them which is really pretty.

So far I'm impressed, the formula of Lights is well pigmented and of a good consistency, the brush is also amazing for neat and convenient painting. I'll let you know how it lasts.

wearing gloves cuz' it's cold!

Wonder Product: Aussie 3 minute miracle

This product is absolutely amazing! I love it and have for a while now. I use the re constructor deep conditioner as It's great for my frizzy hair to keep it smooth and soft. It's also good for my split/ dry ends when I've straightened my hair or blow dried it.

I'm also massively impressed with my Aussie mega shampoo and mega instant conditioner too, I tend to only use my 3 minute miracle once or twice or week so my hair doesn't get too greasy but it certainly does it a lot of good!

The best thing ever about this product is the smell, I just love to sniff my hair all day (in a normal way!).

Aussie 3 Minute Miracle is available from Boots for £4.99

Review: MUA Fur Effect Nails

I was a bit dubious to try this new nail trend, the swatches looked nice but the thought 'why would I want fur nails?!' does come to mind! I went for the fluffy puff baby pink colour as I thought it looked the nicest on the swatches. I already had a nails inc polish in a similar colour so used that underneath.

First of all I followed the instructions on the back of the pot which told me to paint my nails with two coats of polish and while the polish was still wet, roll it in the 'fur'. This involved tapping the pot upside down so that some 'fur' came through the sifter tray in the pot. Firstly, I found it difficult to get enough to come through leaving some half covered nails as shown on the thumb and third finger above.

I then decided to remove the sifter (with difficulty) to roll my nail directly into the 'fur' and this was much more effective at getting a better coverage.

The instructions then said to wait 30 seconds before brushing of the excess. I found it most effective to use a eyeshadow brush to brush away the excess from my finger first and then from the nail.However, sometimes this lead to the nail varnish also being brushes off as it was still tacky, not ideal.

Overall, once I got to grips with this the effect was pretty good, although a little strange. The nails felt velvety and soft. The fur gradually wore off and after about a day it was noticeably more bald! This would be good for a special occassion like a day or night out but not something that I will be trying all the time!

Fur effect nails are available in 5 colours from MUA here, usually £3 but currently £2.

Recent Purchases

I went to town today and became disappointment with the stock in Superdrug and Boots. The two things I went to MUA for were not there, the gel eyeliner and the eyelid primer.

MUA Fur effect Nails in Fluffy Puff: I've been wanting to try these for ages and was suprised they actually had it since the rest of the stock was shocking. I liked this colour best on the swatches so went for it.

Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection concealer in Light: As you know I'm still catching up with the blogger favourites from the last few months so I had to tick this one of my list. I haven't tried it yet but from swatching on my hand I must say it lasted pretty well on the back of my hand. If you're interested, I ended up getting the Collection 2000 stuff from Wilkinsons.

Collection 2000 Lasting Colour Gel Eyeliner: This is my first gel eyeliner so I hope it's a good one!

Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain in Crush: I have been obsessed with these since christmas, especially the Honey shade. This one is quite similar and I wanted a darker shade that would suit me as Lovesick is a little too pink for me. These are £5 at the moment in Superdrug and Boots.

Make Up Storage

Hey, so I'm stupidly excited to show you my new make up storage from Muji, mainly because my collection is growing fast but also because I like organisation. I got two of these draws from MUJI as I didn't have that much to put in them and my desk is only small.

Firstly, my make up brushes. Currently all ecotools posted about here. I also keep my current mascaras and eyeliners in here because I don't like to have too many open at once.

So just because they don't fit in I have my Nivea express hydration primer and my Lush Sweet Lips lip scrub on top.

Draw number one is lip glosses and balms (I'm still a bit of a lipstick phobe). My current favourites at the front, the Revlon balm stains.

Draw number two is mascaras and eyeliners in various different colours.

 Draw number three is eyeshadows, some Barry M and Models Own pots and some mua singles under the palette.

The final draw is foundation, powder, concealer, porefessional and blusher. This is basically my go-to everyday draw. So you may be thinking- where is everything else? well this is pretty much it for me! I have my sets and palettes in a draw and use my ebay blush palette the most. I feel my stash will continue to grow though, this is currently in use instead of a make up bag and I love how I have more choice and can see everything at once. 

If you're interested, I have recently put all my nail varnishes into the bottom and lid of a joliebox. I keep this inside another storage box I have, the first row is models own then the rest are random! The Barry M bag contains my nail scissors and files with my nail art pens.

2012 Favourites

2012 was a big year for me, beauty wise. Before starting my blog in the summer I was in a bit of a rut with the products I was using. Since then I have discovered lots of things that actually work a lot better for me. It was difficult picking things I have used all year since some of the things in my everyday routine now I have only discovered in recent months. Anyway, on to the favourites....

Vaseline: since I have only recently got into lip stains and glosses, I had to put this as a favourite as I always rely on it.

Rimmel Stay Matte foundation: I have used this for years and it lasts all day and doesn't break me out.

Rimmel Stay Matte powder: this is an addition to my make up this year as my skin got greasier, it helps keep my skin matte and gives a nice finish.

Soap & Glory Kick Ass Concealer- this is my first dual colour concealer and I love it! Full review here.

Nivea Express Hydration Primer: this means I don't have to moisturise too much and my make up stays on beautifully. Full review here.

Benefit the Porefessional: great for greasy skin!

Soap & Glory Thick and Fast Mascara: definitely a favourite this year, full review here.

17 Blow Out Jumbo Eyeliner- makes applying eyeliner so much easier, full review here.

MUA liquid eyeliner: I have found when comparing this to other liquid eyeliners that it is no different, so why pay more?

ebay Blusher Palette: I have loved experimenting with this so much. full review here.

My one and only brushes are from ecotools, I don't honestly think I could live without my foundation brush and the eyeshadow brush is so useful. To see the brushes I bought, see here.

Sally Hansen Double Duty base and top coat: much needed when I paint my nails so many different colours and so often. I have to say I favour it more as a base coat as it stays quite tacky on top, but it does make my colour last longer.

Bourjois magic nail polish remover: Still so much in love with this as it's so easy and mess free. Shame I can't use it with glitter polish though, full review here.

Models Own Top Turqoise: this colour just cheers me up, I only discovered models own this year but love the formula.

Aussie 3 minute miracle reconstructor: I love this product for lots of reasons, it's great for my hair and smells amazing.

Benefit So hooked on Carmella: I think I found my signature scent this year, this lovely vanillary perfume is my favourite!

That brings me to the end of my 2012 favourites, I would love to see other people's so send me your links in the comments below.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank my readers and fellow bloggers since this is still all quite new to me. I have a new found love of beauty products and have found lots of great things that work for me via other people's reviews and advice. Next year I imagine it'll be so much harder to decide on my favourites as if I carry on the way I'm going I'll have a much bigger stash and will have tried many more brands and products!