Top 10 Favourite Products of 2011

Hey everyone, just thought I'd share my favourite products for the year seeing as it is the last day of 2011. I cannot believe how fast this past year has gone!! This time last year I'd finished the first semester of my final year in Uni and was just generally enjoying Christmas after the past few stressful, deadline filled months...now I've graduated with honours and I have a baby, madness!


There's quite a few things included here that I've still not posted about on my blog but I'm afraid I have one rather demanding child so I've just literally not had time. Hopefully now we're all in more of a routine I'll have a few more spare moments to dedicate to my blog :-) Anyways, here's my favourites of 2011!

Barry M Nail Polish in Peach Melba
I wore this to death over the spring/summer months and I'm yet to find a colour that suits my skin tone more than this.

 Estee Lauder Double Wear Maximum Cover Foundation
This is quite a recent purchase but I love it so much that it just had to be in my top 10. It's without doubt, THE best foundation I've come across for covering blemishes and acne scars which I'll be reviewing next month so keep an eye out for that.

Sigma F80 Synthetic Kabuki Brush
Another recent purchase that I fell in love with immediately. This helps blend foundation seamlessly whether your using it to stipple or brush normally. 

HD Brows Eye & Brow Palette
I've never really done much in terms of grooming my eyebrows until I received this in September's Glossybox. The shades are perfect for me and really pigmented.This has also been a true lifesaver recently after some silly woman got overexcited and threaded my eyebrows to within an inch of their life :-\

 

Make Up Academy Heaven & Earth Eyeshadow Palette

My daily used, go to palette, I love love love this! Full of neutrals, super soft, easy to blend and well pigmented for a bargain price...what more do you want?!

Maybelline Pure Cover Mineral Concealer
I've repurchased this soooo many times over the past year and despite purchasing the much raved about Studio Finish Concealer by MAC, I still reach for this every time.

Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion
One of the most raved about products amongst the online beauty community and I can certainly see why.

Hugo Boss Orange Perfume
As I mentioned in my Christmas gift post, I received this as a gift and I've not stopped wearing it ever since. A gorgeous floral scent with a hint of fruitiness.

The Body Shop Seaweed Ionic Clay Mask
I don't wanna say too much about this as I'll be doing a full review of it soon. This tightens my pores, extracts all traces of oil resulting in instantly mattified skin. One of my favourite face masks ever!

Maybelline The Colossal Volum' Express Mascara
Hopefully if you read my blog you will of seen my review of this so you can see the results for yourself! My favourite mascara ever, period!


And that concludes my top 10 favourites of 2011!! Hope you all have a great night tonight whatever your doing! 

Happy New Year Dolls!!

Christmas Glossybox

I was really looking forward to receiving the December edition of the Glossybox after seeing a few sneak previews via a few lucky bloggers who are sent the Glossybox a week early. To be honest though, I was really considering cancelling my subscription after being a bit disappointed with the last few offerings...thankfully the contents of my December box suited me to a tee and made up for the last few months slightly disappointing boxes.

As ever everything arrived beautifully packaged I thought it was a nice touch for the Christmas box to be red.

Above photo is what I received in a nutshell and because I was so impressed I've gone into a more detail below.

Rituals Foaming Shower Gel

"This unique foaming shower gel gently cleanses your skin and leaves it silky soft & smooth."
 

 I love receiving a full size product especially when its something I'm likely to get a lot of use out of so this was a perfect addition to my box. It smells lovely and obviously foams up really well without the need of a shower puff.

 

  Bionova Eye Wrinkle Treatment

 "This product is utilizing the technology based on Life Science Nanotechnology by treating the skin with the same ingredients in the same quantities and ratio naturally produced by a Human Body. The customization factor takes into consideration the body area, gender and age. The hyper-natural ingredients help the skin to self-restore and self-heal bringing the Beauty from Within."

 All sounds very impressive but this is another product that will no doubt be getting passed onto the mother. I appreciated trying this considering the price (£14.00 for this tiny sample jar!!) but unfortunately I couldn't tell you whether the product merits the price as I don't own any wrinkles yet...touch wood :-)

Cargo Lip Gloss

 "Perfect pay off, great wear and high-shine without being sticky, this gloss is packed with a lip-nourishing botanical cocktail. The next generation of our non-tacky and comfortable gloss."


It was nice to see a lot more make-up products being included in this months box so needless to say I enjoyed trying the lip gloss out. This turned out to be a very neutral shade on my lips but I did like the formula which wasn't sticky at all.

Deborah Lippman Razzle Dazzle Mini Nail Varnish

 "Razzle Dazzle is a dark raspberry sizzle glitter, long wearing, high quality nail polish from the Deborah Lippmann Collection perfect for the upcoming Festive season."

This is a brand I have heard about so I was really happy when I opened my box and seen this especially with it being Christmas and me having a complete lack of glitter nail polishes. Whilst I did love the colour and glitter payout of the varnish, I found the formula to be a bit gloopy and 3 coats were needed for it to look perfect. Having said that I do still love this polish and I'll be sure to post a NOTD featuring it some time soon. The varnish remover mitts were a nice but pointless inclusion in my opinion as they didn't do much at all to remove the polish, this may of been because I'd applied 3 coats but one coat would never of been enough for the varnish to look even on the nails.

Blink+Go Eyeshadow and Blush Palette 

"This radiant colour palette contains six wearable soft-metallic shades (brown, bronze, khaki, grey, silver grey and cream highlighter). These earth-inspired shades suit all skin tones and enhance your natural beauty. It also includes a coral and pink blush to define the cheeks and cheekbones perfectly."


I was really looking forward to trying this out as I was still yet to be sent a make-up product and this is a brand I've never heard of. The eyeshadow colours were perfect for me as I tend to stick with neutrals.

L-R: Cream Highlighter, Silver Grey, Grey, Khaki, Bronze and Brown. Eyeshadow swatches taken in natural daylight.

Eyeshadow swatches taken with flash.

The finish of the eyeshadows is really nice and shimmery and hopefully you can see how well pigmented MOST of the colours are from my swatches...I was slightly disappointed with the pigmentation of the olive green shade. When I swatched it on my arm it seemed to appear like more of a dark taupe colour and when I applied it on my eyes I could barely see the colour.

L-R: Coral One Layer, Coral Two Layers, Pink One Layer and Pink Two Layers. Blush swatches taken with flash.

Blush swatches taken in natural daylight.

I was slightly scared of the two blush colours at first, if I'm honest the colours looked like the sort of shades you would get in one of them huge, cheap palettes. However I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked the coral shade against my skin tone although I have to admit in my swatches the colours don't look much different to one another.

If you subscribe to any sort of beauty boxes, let me know your thoughts on the whole concept?

Christmas Goodies

Hey everyone, hope you've all had a lovely Christmas!! I love giving out presents at Christmas but this year I received so much great stuff that I just had to share my loot with you. I know many people hate haul posts/videos but as it's Christmas I thought I'd make an exception and I'm pretty sure theres also some people who love having a nosy at other peoples stuff...I know I do now & again :-)

I'm such a lucky girl and was soooo unbelievably happy with every present I received. My lovely boyfriend bought me the Clarisonic Mia which was the one thing I wanted more than anything but never thought I would get because it's stupidly expensive. Below, I've pictured all my lovely gifts and rather than blabbing on about each one I've just mentioned a few little tit bits about each thing. I also received a few pyjama sets & lingerie which are always nice to receive as you can never have enough really. Here's an overview of what I received anyways...

From left - right: 

Liz Earle Cleanse & Polish Starter Kit 

 First impressions are that this cleanses the skin thoroughly and my skin felt nice and squeaky and polished after using.

 Clarisonic Cleanser

 I have to admit I've not even opened this yet as I've been trying to use up my Clinique Anti-Blemish Solutions soap.

Clarisonic Mia Sonic Skin Cleansing System

I'm definately, definately going to be reviewing this sometime later in the year with photo results and all that shebang.

 Hugo Boss Orange Gift Set

This gift set included the Hugo Boss Orange Perfume, Body Lotion, Shower Gel, Mirror Compact and Make-up Brushes. This was never a perfume I'd immediately thought of trying but when someone bought me it in a gift set last year, I instantly fell in love! It's one of my favourite perfumes ever so I was very, very happy indeed to receive this. The brushes included are also surprisingly soft and will come in handy for nights out when bag space is pretty limited!

 

CK IN2U Perfume 

I love receiving perfume and this is a lovely fresh scent that I'll probably be wearing a lot over the spring/summer months.

N-Spa Hot Butter Fudge Body Polish 

This was one item I nearly ended up buying so many times in Asda and I cannot stress how tempted I was to eat this when I was in the bath earlier.

Avon Nail Enamel in Sequined Turquoise

As I have quite a lack of glitter polishes in my life this was a nice little addition in a colour I wouldn't of normally picked.

Aromatic Butterscotch Shortbread Candle 

 Another welcome addition to my growing candle collection! I haven't burnt this yet but it smelt gorgeous when I first opened the jar for a sniff.

Yankee Candle in Blueberry Muffin 

Okay, admittedly...I bought this for myself...before Christmas Day but I'm so glad I did as it smells bee-ay-uuuu-tiful and what's even better that it was only £10 in TKMaxx...winning :-)

Style & Co.Watch

I'm not a big watch wearer but strangely included two watches on my wishlist??? lol... Anyways, mummy dearest bought me this but I'll definitely be getting some wear out of it,once I have a couple links removed so it doesn't slide up & down my childlike wrists :-\

So was there anything you've been pining for that you were lucky enough to receive at Christmas?

Nail Rock Nail Wraps

I was quite happy when the November Glossybox included a full size packet of the Nail Rock Nail Wraps as I'd never actually tried applying wraps before. Despite my initial happiness at the wraps being included in the box I kind of forgot about them and they've been in the box up until the other day when I thought I'd have a bash at putting them on.

The design I was sent was the leopard print and as much as I love leopard print, I was a bit disappointed with the design I got and think I would of preferred a packet of the less fussy, monochrome striped wraps that other people received. That being said I think there a nice change and look kinda funky....

Nail wraps photo taken without flash.

Hoooowever as you can probably see in the photos, they are literally peeling off after less than a day of me having them on which is pretty crap considering Nail Rock claim these last up to 10 days! On the other hand, I'm pretty sure my technique of putting them was far from perfect which could of led to them not sticking properly in the first place. 

Nail wraps photo taken with flash (Sorry about the abundance of shadows!).

Unlike a lot of nail wraps, these don't require heat but I found that at the tips of my nails they wouldn't stick down especially around the edges where the nails naturally curve. Also, the instructions suggest filing under the nail to get rid of the excess bit of wrap....erm how is this supposed to work?! Sorry if I'm being completely stupid and if someone actually understands how to do this successfully please enlighten me!! I resorted to filing downwards at a 45° angle and I think this is exactly why they haven't lasted but I honestly don't know how I would of got rid of all of the excess wrap by filing under my nail. 

On that note, if you genuinely know how to apply these properly please feel free to comment as I would love to know the best technique to make these last. I think I would be tempted to actually purchase some in a different design if only they lasted a bit longer! 


What do you think of the whole nail wrap craze? Do you think it's a bit of a fad?

 

Oh Christmas Tag, Oh Christmas Tag

I've never actually done a tag post so when I saw this on the amazing Fee's (Make-Up Savvy) blog, I thought it must be a worthwhile tag post! Feel free to copy & paste this to your own blogs...

1.What is Your Favourite Holiday Movie? 

 I'm not a huge fan of watching films but watching Christmas movies is one thing I love to do with the family at Christmas. Theres so many I love but I'd have to plump for Elf and Nightmare Before Christmas which I used to watch religiously on tape (remember those?) at Christmas.

  2. Whats Your Favourite Christmas Color? 

I'm not sure Gold can be classed as a colour but if it was this would without doubt be my fave Christmassy colour, have to agree with Fee that if glitter was a colour that would also be my favourite!

  3. Do You Like To Stay in Your PJs Or Dress Up For Christmas?
Gotta rock a onesie for unwrapping pressies but when the rest of the family comes round I love to spruce myself up a bit & play with any beauty products or hair tools I've been given as presents :-)

  4. If You Could Only Buy One Person a Present This Year Who Would It Be?

Most probably my sister-in-law, she's done so much for me & my boyfriend over the past few years and I've literally never met anyone as generous as she is. To say my princess is spoilt by her is an understatement...so lucky to have such a thoughtful auntie!
 
  5. Do You Open Your Present Christmas Eve Or Christmas Morning?

It's safe to say I'm aware that Santa doesn't exist but I still quite like the fact that my mum tries to hide my presents until Christmas morning so it wouldn't seem right opening them the night before!

  6. Have You Ever Built a Ginger Bread House?
Funnily enough I have years ago and it was the best ginger bread house you've ever seen! So much so that I ate all of it within a day of making it...


  7. What Do You Like To Do On Your Christmas Break?
I do love decorating everything whether it be the house or presents, I love it all! This is gonna sound really cliched and cheesy but spending time with family is definately my favourite part of Christmas and this year will be extra special with my beautiful, new addition to the family :-) 

  8. Any Christmas Wishes?
To have a stress free 2012 and to finally find a nice home for me and my little family.

9. Favourite Christmas Smell?
I loooove the smell of a real Christmas tree which is pretty ironic considering we don't have a real one!

10. Favourite Christmas Meal Or Treat?
I'm not sure what these are universally called but when we have Xmas dinner, I can't get enough of the mini sausages wrapped in bacon, we call them pigs wrapped in blankets and they literally have to be rationed amongst the scavengers in my family. You can't beat passing round a tin of Quality Street after Christmas dinner watching Christmas Specials as well :-)

All I Want For Christmas Is...

 ...Wishful thinking I know, one can hope though!

1. Clarisonic Mia Cleansing System Pretty obvious why I might be wanting this much raved about face brush!

2. Michael Kors Gold Plated Watch I'm not a massive watch wearer, simply because I tend to wear gold jewellery more than anything and the only decent watch I have is silver so this would get plenty of wear but...

3. Michael Kors Gold Plated Bezel Chronograph Watch I'm so torn between the gold watch and this one (not that I'm going to be lucky enough to receive either), I've seen quite a lot of girls wearing the gold one so it would be nice to go for something different but can't help thinking I would be more likely to get more wear out of the gold, which one do you prefer?

4. Yankee Candle I'm obsessed with stinking my room out with lovely candles at the moment so this would be a nice festive addition to my small but growing collection.

5. Marc Jacobs Lola Perfume I have to admit, I have no idea what this even smells like! I'm a bit weird when it comes to perfume in the sense that I tend to be attracted by the bottle design first and foremost rather than the actual smell but this would fit in perfectly amongst all my other pretty bottles :-)

6. Liz Earle Cleanse & Polish I'm completely jumping on the bandwagon with this one as I've heard sooooooooooo many rave reviews about it but I can't quite justify spending anymore money on skincare for myself when I haven't finished anything I've bought over the past year!

7. Estee Lauder Double Wear Foundation I've been eyeing this up for a while now after testing out a bit of my Mums and loving it, hers is completely the wrong shade for me however although I'm pretty sure I will be close to the shade 2W1 Sand (I'm NC25 in MAC Studio Fix) I think I'm gonna have to pay a little visit to Debenhams to get colour matched.

What's on your Crimbo wish lists?

Xmas Treats for....Me ;-)

I'm so excited it's nearly Christmas and while I was browsing for pressies online, I think the excitement might of took over a teeeeny bit and I kinda bought stuff for myself instead of family & friends I should of been buying for...epic fail :-\ I have began to kinda hate when people do huge haul blog posts or videos because in a nutshell it's kinda annoying watching someone drone on about how they just "popped" over to the MAC counter and only bought "a few bits" which "only" cost them at least £50....BORE OFF with your indispensable amounts of money! Anyways, on that note I thought I'd share my haul with u haha....

 Witch Cleansing & Toning Wipes
These do the job in terms of removing make-up and freshening up the skin but I was especially impressed at how gentle they are on the eye area. With other face wipes that are marketed in a way to help fight spots, I've found them to be too harsh to use around the eye area so I was pleasantly surprised with these.

Nivea Visage Facial Cleansing Wipes for Normal & Combi Skin
My go to face wipes, basically because they always seem to be on offer in Asda. I have to admit I quite like the smell of them as well even though I'm sure all that fragrance is probably crap for my skin!

The Body Shop Seaweed Ionic Clay Mask
As I've mentioned in my previous post, I had a facial which included a clay face mask being applied and whilst I would've loved to shell out and buy the Dermalogica mask, I thought I'd opt for something cheap and hoped it would provide some cheer for my skin. Anyways, I am soooo happy with this as a cheap substitute and I would love to babble on about its merits but I'll save that & some before/after photos for another post :-) On a money saving tip, this costs £10 from The Body Shop but there's some great deals on fleebay *hint hint*

Stargazer Nail Polish in Silver Chrome
 I bought this specifically to do nail art stamping with as it's supposedly a good stamping polish. I was definitely impressed with how opaque it is and the consistency of it for stamping is spot on.

Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat
I'd heard good things about this top coat from one of my fave nail bloggers so was quite keen to try it out & it didn't disappoint too much. It's really shiny when dry & obviously it's an added bonus that it dries super fast but it's not exactly the longest lasting top coat I've ever come across. I'll definitely be doing a mini review of this soon anyways if anyone wants to know about the pros and cons of this much raved about top coat.

 China Glaze Nail Polish in Midnight Kiss
 This is another nail polish I bought with the sole intention of using for nail art stamping...unfortunately it's not quite thick enough to show the colour & pattern off that well but it does still create pretty enough designs that I'll be sure to upload in the near future.


Sigma F80 Brush - Flat Top Synthetic Kabuki
I bought this whilst Sigma were offering free worldwide shipping a few weeks ago during the annual Black Friday sales and I could not be more pleased with it, so pleased that I think it may even deserve a post dedicated to how much I love it!


Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion
Considering this is such a staple product in so many ladies make-up bags, I quickly snapped one up when my new favourite website buyapowa were offering them for £10. Yet again, another product that I think deserves a mini review as I did a little comparison against another eye primer I had the other day and this basically blew it out of the water so yeah, watch out for that soon.


Wow...I can waffle on sooo much but I hope at least one person got something out of reading this?!? Have any of you tried the products I've babbled on about and what did you think of them?

Bundle Monster Nail Art Stamping Plates

Hey everyone, hope your all having a good week so far?

When I came back from my baby honeymoon a few weeks ago, I think I may of mentioned that I was going to do a post on the Bundle Monster Nail Art Stamping Plates aka Fauxnads (Budget version of the Konad plates for those not in the know) so here it is! In a nutshell you get 25 stamping plates for £16.99 in comparison to one Konad plate costing around £5 so the attraction is pretty obvious if your a bit of a nail art junkie like me :-)

This image taken from Amazon illustrates the huuuumungous variety of plates that you get.

The images above were taken after one of my first little experiments with one of the Monster plates designs and if I do say so myself, I think there half decent....not bad but not Uhh-mazing. As you can see there are little parts where the stamp hasn't transferred onto my nail i.e. part of the stamp has stuck to the stamper although that may have been because I wasn't quick enough. I also noticed that the actual designs don't transfer onto the nail as sharp and crisp as Konad designs, if that makes sense. You see how the edges of the leaves look a tad fuzzy like I had a shaky hand when I was doing my nails?

If you have used Konad plates before you may of also noticed that these fauxnads have more designs crammed onto the plate which originally I thought was great because I'd have more designs to play with but in hindsight became a bit of a nuisance because you haven't got much space when scraping away excess polish and picking up the stamp with your stamper.

L-R: Stargazer Chrome Silver and Models Own Grey Day

I had read in a few places that it's not exactly essential that you own special Konad stamping nail polish to do nail art stamping and whilst I agree with this to some extent, I think it's a bit hit & miss with certain nail polishes. I found a great link here that details all suitable nail polishes for stamping, I would definitely recommend testing out your own as well though....it can be fun just to experiment sometimes and if it works that's great and if not, you've only wasted a minuuute amount of nail polish!


Although I think there are a few cons with these plates, all in all I think they are a worthwhile spend if you enjoy trying out new nail designs and having a little play around with nail art.

Where to buy: Amazon.co.uk

What do you think of fauxnads in comparison to the real deal?

Sigma Black Friday: Free Shipping Worldwide!!

Hey people, hope your all good!!


I received an e-mail from Sigma today informing me that today is their annual Black Friday event which means free shipping worldwide!! This might not seem like a big deal to a lot of people but for those of us that don't live in America, shipping costs can be really off putting when you want to buy something from Sigma so this is obviously a great opportunity to purchase some goodies without the HUUUUUGE shipping costs. Needless to say, I've took advantage and bought myself a little something!


So how do I get free shipping I hear you ask?! Once your at the checkout use discount code "BF2011" and shipping costs magically disappear :-) The Black Friday offer is only on until 5pm today however so if you've seen something you wanted then I'd act fast! There's some lovely gift ideas and offers on also which is especially good if your a last minute Christmas shopper like myself.

Anyways, I hope the discount code comes in handy for you :-)

Lots of Love

Dermologica Skincare Review

It was my birthday a few weeks ago so I decided to treat myself (seeing as I'm getting old) and redeem a voucher I had for a choice of beauty treatments. I decided to have a facial, actually my FIRST facial ever...I'm actually embarrassed I've never had one because they are a-mazinggg and I think my skin has definitely been desperately craving one. I'm not saying I came out and my skin was perfect or anything like that because I'm suffering with pretty severe acne at the moment but a lot of the redness that seems to surround my already unsightly spots had vanished. Long story short, I asked what products had been used and was given a few sachet samples targeted at oily and acne prone skin by Dermalogica. Here's what I was given and have tested out in the meantime...

Sorry I've used stock photos but I didn't think photos of little sachets ripped open would look aesthetically pleasing...I know I'm a geek! This is more of a collective review because the samples I was given were literally minuscule amounts. Now I'm pretty sure a lot of you will of heard of Dermalogica and you may also be aware that their products are pretty expensive BUT....having tried out the products above, I think the quality and effectiveness definitely justifies the price. After using the dermal clay cleanser, daily microfoliant and sebum clearing masque, my skin feels super soft to touch and as I mentioned earlier, redness is significantly reduced. The oil control lotion is equally as good, it kept oil at bay for longer than anything else I've tried in the past and I literally must of tried the majority of oil control lotions available.


Overall I was really impressed and I'm definitely a dermalogica convert! If you can't justify paying so much however but still feel an urge to buy something from the range I would highly recommend trying out the daily microfoliant which is without doubt THE best exfoliator I've ever used, it's surprisingly gentle on the skin as well. It comes in a powder form so you have to wet your hands then sprinkle about a teaspoon sized amount into your hands, rub together then massage in circles all over your face.


Prices range from around £20-30 but I've also just found out you can buy skin specific travel kits that contain small sizes of a selection of products for around £20 which is great if you want to road test everything before splurging a load of money on something you don't know will work for you. I've seen these kits on a few different websites such as Amazon and approved stockists websites. Here's a few examples of what they look like and contain...

I'm hoping someone will fancy buying me one of these for Christmas...that's if I can control myself until then :-)

Have any of you tried Dermalogica, if so what do you make of their products?

Konad Nail Art Stamping

Over the past few months I'd noticed more and more nail art designs using something called Konad...Intrigued, I decided to do some Googling and Youtubing and found out that in a nutshell it was almost like a cheats way of creating amazing nail art designs. Upon this discovery I decided to purchase a small Konad starter kit and a few image plates. 

And this is what I came up with on my first attempt and if I do say so myself, I was fairly impressed! Admitedly, it took a bit of trial and error to get the consistency of the polish on the stamp right but once I'd got the hang of that it was really quite easy.

This is the image plate I used and the design I used is framed with the pink dots.

I think these are actually quite Christmassy looking although that wasn't really my intentions I just loved the design and wanted to use a dark base colour that would make the white stamping polish stand out.



Sorry about the quality of the pictures, in hindsight I should of just waited till it was daylight to take photos :-\

What I Used and Where I Bought From:

Base Coat Colour: OPI You Don't Know Jacques about £9.99 from Sally Hair & Beauty (Pretty sure you could get this off somewhere like eBay or Amazon for cheaper though)

Konad Starter Kit and Image Plate M71 from http://ocnailart.com/
If your just starting up with Konad, I'd highly recommend purchasing from this website. The delivery is super fast considering it's from the US and the prices are relatively low in comparison to other Konad sellers and...they also add a little smiley face & note to your billing invoice which I liked, you may think I'm a bit sad for being excited over this I know but I think it just adds a nice little personal touch :-)

I can't wait to really go mad with my little kit and show you what I come up with! Have you tried Konad stamping and what are your fave image plates? I can't wait to sneak a few onto my Christmas wish list!!