Mini Beauty Haul: Savers & Lush

Just a short post to share a little haul with you all, some are new products and others are repurchases, but either way I'm pretty excited to show you!

This is a beauty haul as opposed to a makeup haul, as I went into Superdrug and nothing actually caught my eye. I know right? I must be coming down with something as I usually need to be dragged out of Superdrug because I'd happily clear out my bank account/sell my soul for makeup. But instead of buying stuff for the sake of it, I went into Savers! I know, I need to calm down and get off my high-horse because SAVERS is just the classiest, high-end shop going. But in all seriousness, they do brilliant deals on perfume (nearly ALWAYS cheaper than Boots/Superdrug perfumes) and they sell pretty decent brands of beauty products for affordable prices. Plus the fact that I need to be saving money for christmas shopping... not treating myself. So don't hate on Savers. I also purchased some suuuuuper cute products from Lush. So let's get into it...


The first product you can see in that picture is actually a really strange purchase and honestly, I have no idea if it's going to work. It's called 'Snake Venom Eye Cream' by a company called Balance. I know, I know... snake venom?! This was less than £2 so I immediately knew that it wouldn't actually contain snake venom, and I was right. The back says 'Syn-Ake is a snake venom-like neuropeptide that softens the look of wrinkes and helps reduce expression lines.' I'm sorry but I actually find this hilarious. The snake-venom like ingredient is called 'SYN-AKE'. Hahahahaha I am genuinely laughing whilst writing this. But I need to explain why I bought this - not for the syn-ake venom properties but for the simple fact that it claims to rest tired looking eyes, -65% dark circles and -60% under-eye bags. I did look this up on amazon before I purchased and lots of people have said it genuinely has improved their dark circles. I suffer so incredibly badly with dark under eye circles, even with a good sleeping pattern, there's no getting rid of them. Even pictures of me as a toddler I have really dark circles. So I figured I'd give this a try for now as I have Khiels Midnight Recovery on my Christmas list as das expensive. I'll let you know if I see any improvement, and if synake venom really does work. ;)


The second item is pretty simple, it's a Clean & Clear dual action moisturiser and the reason why I bought it was because it said 'oil free'. In my previous post about face products I mentioned that my holy-grail moisturiser is the Body Shop vitamin E one, but when I saw this one and thought it wouldn't hurt to try something different. It also helps prevent spots and lately I have been getting some pretty impressive spots, so that's another reason behind this purchase!

I'm pretty excited about this next product as if you read my previous post I mentioned the fact that my go-to toner has been making me feel really oily after use and that I'd like to try the Garnier one. Well, voila... this is the Garnier 'Shine be gone' toner. It's for combination to oily skin, so if you have dry skin I'm not sure if this would work for you, but for me it sounds perfect as it also minimises pores. It claims to contain Moringa extracts as an anti-oxidant and green tea extract fo cleansing and tightening pores. Looking forward to trying this out and I will let you know the results.

The last two products in the picture are repurchases. I have naturally dark blonde hair with medium-blonde/light blonde highlights. I prefer my hair to be a really light blonde, and if I had it my way I'd have it all over platinum blonde/white blonde hair. Howeverrrr I have neither the time nor money to maintain that... hence why I have highlights. The Provoke 'Touch of Silver' shampoo has violent pigments which neautralises brassiness and brightens the blonde tones. It works really well and I've been using this for over a year now. You're supposed to use it twice a week but I tend to only use it once every week/once every two weeks as it does make my hair feel quite dry afterwards so I don't like to use it too regularly. But for me, the more you use it... the lighter the blonde goes. When I have used it more often, I get some really beautiful light, almost platinum toned highlights and it really makes a difference. Along with the shampoo, I bought a pre-toning primer which helps with the drying problem - you literally spray this on wet hair and then use the shampoo immediately after. It just preps your hair for the chemicals and helps you get a more even result when using the shampoo. All good stuff!

I treated myself to some products from Lush because I couldn't physically walk past the shop with those delicious smells flying through the wind. But lets face it, that's basically their plan right? Well it worked. I got a Twilight bath bomb, I've tried these before and the smell is juuuust  so incredibly sweet and scrumptious that I have to resist all temptation to not bite into it. It's supposed to help relax you for bed because it contains lavendar but the way it fizzes makes me really excited because of all the pretty colours... so if anything it wakes me up more. The other two products are first time purchases. I got a Magic Wand, it's reusable bubble bar and I'm NEARLY as excited about this as I was with the unicorn horn bubble bar. It's the cutest thing I've seen in a long time. It's on a stick with a little bell and silver bow and it smells like magic and it's all gliterry and and and*insert happy crying face here* okay... and breathe. Usually with bubble bars you crumble little bits under the running tap and it bubbles up, but with this you hold it under the running tap and swirl it around the water... when you're happy with the amount of bubbles you let the star dry and then use it again when needed. I LOVE the idea of this! Swirling a magic wand around a bath tab? That is literally my idea of fun.

The last product you see in that picture is called a Candy Mountain, and yes it literally smells of vanilla candy goodness. It's another bubble bar, and I must admit I first got excited because I thought it was another unicorn horn. But still. I can cope with a candy mountain. I haven't tried this before so like all my other first time purchases, I will keep you updated in future posts.

Last but certainly not least, is Lush's very popular Snow Fairy shower gel. Everyone rants and raves about this stuff and when I smelled it in store I could see why. It is like pure candy floss. There's not much more I can say about this as I haven't used it yet but it's safe to say... with all of the Lush products I've purchased I am going to be smelling sweeter than a... well, a really sweet thing.


Well that's everything for now. I hope you enjoyed reading about some of my recent purchases! As always, keep an eye out for future posts as I will be reviewing most if not all of these. Especially that syn-ake venom product. Very interested to see if syn-ake venom - like properties do any wonders for these dark circles (!)



Thank you for reading x

It's all about the face: My go-to products!

Hello fellow beauty-addicts!
This post is completely and utterly, 100% dedicated to my face. Yeah, that's right. I'm so self absorbed. 

Okay well that's not entirely true, it's more about the products I use on my face either on a daily or weekly basis to keep things healthy. As mentioned before in my older posts, I have combination skin. So I get super oily on my T-Zone whilst I also have dry patches around the edges of my nose and forehead. This puts me in a bit of a complicated situation because if I moisturise too often, I have to deal with my makeup ice-skating all over my face, and if I don't moisturise enough... my makeup clings for dear life onto my dry patches. *Sigh*

SO, these are my go-to products and my general routine when it comes to caring for my face. Some products are used every day, others weekly or even monthly. I obviously own more 'luxurious' products that I use to pamper myself or treat myself with but I'm leaving them for a separate blog post :) DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT A PROFESSIONAL. I'M NOT EVEN REALLY THAT GOOD AT ALL THIS MAKEUP STUFF. I JUST GO WITH THE FLOW AND ENJOY WHAT I DO. Therefore, this may be the 'wrong' way/order of doing things. But this is my general routine, it does change depending on how my face decides to behave (like now it's getting colder weather  I'm having to moisturise a bit more) and we all know our faces can be pretty unpredictable. Well mine is anyway. 

Right, this probably doesn't surprise many of you. But the Garnier Micellar Cleansing Water is now the only way I remove my makeup. I used to use makeup wipes because they were a lot more convenient however I love the fact that the micellar water doesn't pull at my makeup - it literally glides over my face and sort of politely scoops up the makeup without putting up a fight. (Why do I word things so strangely?!) In other words it's much more gentle to the skin.
As you can see I just use normal cotton pads. It doesn't leave my face red or irritated, and there's no scent so I just feel generally clean after using this!

Another plus side to this is that it's so affordable, it's only £4.99 for 400ml. This product is actually on sale in Superdrug for only £3.29 at the moment* and that's also for a 400ml bottle!

The next thing I use is
the L'Oreal skin protection 'velvety soft toner.' For those of you who are unsure of what a toner is used for, (like I was up until 7 months ago) basically it repairs and restores your skins natural goodness. It removes all of the extra crap that your cleanser may have missed, whilst giving your skin some extra TLC. Good toners tend to shrink your pores and leave your skin feeling generally smooth and healthy.

Anyway, I like this toner because it simply does what it says on the tin... (well, bottle). It does leave my skin feeling really revitalised, and the 'velvety' aspect of it is very much true. 

However - I have to admit, this toner is subject to change pretty soon - as for some strange reason it has been leaving my face feeling EXTRA velvety lately. And no I don't mean fluffy or hairy, I mean velvety as in OILY :( And believe me I do not need any extra oils on this face.

With this in mind, up until now it has been my go-to product and I've repurchased this three times, which is why I wanted to include it in this post. I am keen to try a rosewater toner as I've heard brilliant things about them. Orrrr I know Garnier have a 'shine be gone' toner which actually sounds perfect for me so I think I may be trying out some new products very soon. I'll keep you posted.

This next product is the Vitamin E moisture cream by The Body Shop. This isn't just my go-to moisturiser, this right here is my holy grail moisturiser. This is the only moisturiser that I can use on a regular basis without it a) making me really oily b) giving me spots. It has no scent which I really like, because if I'm slathering this all over my face I really don't want to be able to smell strawberries/vanilla/blueberries/chocolate/peanuts/marmite/whatever other scents exist etc for the rest of the day. This product is packed with vitamin E which is skin conditioning, anti-inflammatory, anti-ageing and also has lots of healing properties. This is good stuff. If I don't use this I can really tell the difference as when I apply foundation my dry areas are way more visible so the moisturising effects of this are honestly great. 

Lastly, I'd like to give a little mention to this Simple oil-balancing facial scrub. I don't use this often, maybe once every 3 weeks or so as I don't really feel I need to use this weekly. The main thing that attracted me about this product was the 'oil balancing' statement as, yes I'll say it again...
 I hate looking oily. I also have quite large pores along with dry patches (wow, I'm painting a beautiful picture of myself here aren't I? An oily, large pored, flaky young woman... hot).
ANYWAY, the first time I tried this I was really impressed. It simply scrapes away all the dead skin and makes my pores look a lot smaller. The oil balancing part? I'm not so sure as like I said, I don't use this regularly enough therefore I can't say I've noticed it balancing out my oil situation. It certainly doesn't make me more oily so that's a good thing.
I've tried facial scrubs before but all of them are usually really heavily scented and have made my face burn like a mofo. Smelling like a mango but burning like a chilli? No thanks, I'll stick to my unscented, Simple facial scrub.



So, those are my go-to face products. I didn't include luxurious products such as face masks as I want to dedicate a whole separate post to my pamper evenings. I hope this post wasn't too boring - but I wanted to share with you some of my regularly used facial products. Especially seeing as it's getting colder and our faces are going through some hard times. Well, mine is at least.

Thank you for reading! Let me know what your favourites for your face are, do you have any holy grail products?
x

First Impressions - Zoeva Cocoa Blend Palette

Today's blog post is a first impressions/mini review on a Zoeva palette I recently managed to get my hands on.

I was looking at some international makeup brands online as most of my favourite makeup products tend to be sold in the US (unfortunate but true). I decided to take a look at Zoeva cosmetics and honestly there's three main reasons why it was love at first sight with this palette.

1. The packaging... it looks like a freaking chocolate bar.
2. The delicious combination of warm-toned shades (both matte and shimmery)
3. Lastly... THE PRICE! (£15.50) :o

Basically I am a sucker for warm-toned eye shadows. And I'm a sucker for chocolate. Anyone that knows me is aware of how obsessed I am with the Too Faced chocolate bar palette. So it's really no surprise that I now own this. (Ignore the stila liquid lipsticks in the pic to the right - I shall write about them in a future post)


Okay, okay, I know what you're thinking, love at first sight is SHALLOW... it's what's on the inside that counts, never judge a book by its cover... or by a chocolate bar  by it's wrapping. Is this palette actually any good?

Well, yes. It's incredible. The colours are so pigmented it literally takes one swipe of a brush to pick up the colour. They apply smoothly and blend so easily. I did a simple warm-toned gold eyeshadow look (see pics) to test things out and it lasted for 6 hours. It could have easily lasted longer however I had to take my makeup off because I went to bed so 6+ is as far as I got to test it out.

Swatches (from right) > Delicate Acidity, Infusion, Freshly Toasted, Substitute for Love, Pure Ganache, Beans are White, Subtle Blend, Warm Notes, Sweeter End, Bitter Start.

I'm excited to try out different looks as it's perfect for autumn/winter. The warm autumnal shades can be used for soft simple everyday looks, but for more intense styles delve into the golden sparkles and deep shimmery charcoals. The shade freshly toasted is the PERFECT transition colour and I can see myself reaching for it regularly as the way it blends with other colours just gives me so much joy.

This is the first Zoeva product I've purchased so I really didn't know what to expect. I've heard lots of youtubers talk about Zoeva but I've never actually taken the time to watch specific product reviews. 

But as first impressions go, I am pretty damn happy and it has made me eager to check out other Zoeva products. I would pay double the price for this because I am honestly that impressed.


I purchased this via BeautyBay.com and because I bought some liquid lipsticks too, I qualified for 2 day delivery... and it ended up arriving the next day! YAY.
I hope you enjoyed this first impressions, sorry if it's a little all over the place... I'm still getting back into blog writing mode after taking a rather long break.

Let me know, what has really impressed you recently? Have you discovered any new brands? If so, leave a comment and let me know!

I have so many other amazing products to share with you so please keep checking back, thanks a million for reading.

x

I'm Back!

Hello readers,

Just wanna write a quick message apologizing for my lack of posting! After graduating university and getting myself a job I've been pretty busy getting used to my new routine.

Good news though... now I have a regular income I'm able to treat myself to many more beauty products, whether it's bigger hauls of drugstore makeup or the odd high-end beauty luxury - I'm expanding my makeup collection MUCH faster than I was as a student ;) ...  (When my Mum reads that she will NOT be impressed. It won't be coming out of your rent money I SWEAR)

I know my blog is still very small but for those of you who do read, I'm am back and still as crazy about makeup as ever. 

Stay tuned for some first impressions, reviews, and autumn-inspired makeup looks!
As always, thank you so much for reading

x