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!!

Clinique Haul/Review + Freebies :-)

Hey dolls, hope your all doing good? Just thought I'd share a quick review of some more Clinique products I purchased a few weeks ago as I think I've had more than enough time now to try and test etc! After trying a sample of the anti-blemish clarifying lotion I was pretty keen on trying out the formula for oilier skin as it hadn't really done much for me in that department, I also ordered the dramatically different moisturizing gel as I'd rediscovered a sample I had from years ago which I ended up finishing and loving finally!

Clarifying Lotion 4

I've been using this for a few weeks now and I have to say I'm not overly impressed by it taking into consideration the price of it. I use it after cleansing with a facial wash and whilst it does make my skin feel clean and smooth, I don't think it "sweeps away oil" as Clinique claim it does. 
 










As you can hopefully see...there isn't a huge difference in the amount of oil before and after using which is really disappointing considering this lotion is supposedly for very oily skin types. At £15.00 for a 200ml bottle, I think there are definitely better alternatives available for much less.

Dramatically Different Moisturizing Gel As I'd mentioned earlier, I had a sample of this with about half left over and I have to admit that it had just been chucked into the bottom of a drawer and forgotten about for years. Anyways in an attempt to get rid of my hoards of samples, I used the rest of this up and discovered that it was actually a really good product.  I thought this would clog up my skin and make it feel oily and horrible like most "oil-free" moisturisers tend to do but I was pleasantly surprised. As it's a gel based formula it feels really lightweight but moisturises just enough.    Considering I normally pay around £6 for a moisturiser, this is way expensive at £28.50 for the 125ml size but I honestly think its kind of worth it and I'm the biggest cheapskate ever just for the record! A little definitely goes a long way and I think I may of even used a bit too much when I took the picture on the right.  Freebies!!!  If you've bought Clinique before you may be aware that they are quite generous with giving out free samples and when I ordered there was a bank holiday promo to receive 3 sample sized treats plus 2 extra samples with online orders...PLUS they also threw in an extra sachet sample.       I have to admit, I haven't actually tested out all the samples they sent as I haven't quite found a use for everything yet for example the Repairwear Laser Focus serum. From what they sent I've started using the All About Eyes Cream which I love :-) and the mini lipgloss which is surprisingly lovely - not too sticky and a really wearable colour considering it looks quite a deep shade of pink in the tube. I've also tried the High Impact Mascara which is anything but IMO...nothing comes close to Maybelline Colossal for me at the moment!  All products reviewed available from:  http://www.clinique.co.uk/   I think this will be my last haul for a short while as I am now only 2 weeks away from meeting my precious bubba and spending £50+ on skincare just isn't going to be an option from now on, not when I have nappies etc to buy!! So what have you lovelies been hauling recently and are you constantly searching for holygrail skincare products like me?!?

Maybelline Mascara Crush

So I thought I would enlighten you with a short and sweet review about my latest Maybelline mascara :-) My HG mascara for the past year or so was the Maybelline Falsies mascara...I must of repurchased dozens of time and literally thought it couldn't get any better until I tried out this...

Maybelline The Colossal Volum' Express in Absolute Black

Yep I know it's been out for ages now but I honestly was slightly scared of the huge brush and the consequences of me rushing in the morning and ending up with it all over my eyelids! So as you can see below it is quite a large wand but once I'd used it a couple of times, I had no issues with it...I'm sure no one else would either, its just I'd literally gotten so used to my Falsies wand that my hand must of become so accustomed to the shape of it that it couldn't quite get used to holding another mascara wand so quick haha.

 

Anyways here's my naked eyes!!

 

Scary eh...my eyelashes are practically non existent without mascara as you can see :-(

And here they are with Maybelline's Colossal Volum' Express mascara applied :-)


Big difference I'd say? If I'm honest I don't think the photo does the real life results full justice hence why I cannot rave about this mascara enough. Just to note I haven't curled my eyelashes at any stage, I'm way too lazy to bother!


The best bit was that I paid less than £5 for and it normally retails at around £7...how you may ask? Well I actually purchased it from an eBay seller who was selling lots of other well known branded cosmetics at discounted prices, the mascara I purchased is a limited edition shade as well so I think that may explain why it was so cheap.


Let me know your thoughts on this mascara, whether you love or hate it!