July Empties

I had decided to do this months empties post as a video/ post combination but who’s the idiot that threw everything away just after filming? Oh yes. That would be me. So no pictures or post as such, just a quick video. I actually got through a fair bit of makeup this month!

It’s Definitely Not A 10 (For me anyway...)

Last month I finished my mini quest to collect all of the Benefit Boxed powders. Most of them I love but it finished with a bit of an anti climax. If I’m honest it wasn’t unexpected, there is a reason I left it so long to purchase this! Firstly I’m not sure I quite get what Benefit are on about when they say ‘Be a perfect ten!’ on the back... 

This particular boxed powder contains two shades evenly split in the pan. The shimmery pale pink highlight shade is actually gorgeous! It is finely milled and gorgeously flattering on the skin. The half are just big enough that I can get a brush such as the ELF Studio blush brush in there to use the shades individually. The powder also has a soft sweet smell which while I don’t get the point of scented makeup products it is fairly pleasant.

My trouble starts with the bronzer. If you like shimmery bronzers you will love this. It’s downright frosty. I think this would make a gorgeous golden bronze highlight on someone with fairly dark skin but on me this looks awful. Used as I would normally use a bronzer it looks frosty and obvious. My back up plan was to use this as an eyeshadow but the back of the box stats ‘avoid eye area’ so that plan is out of the window!

So I’m open to suggestions here. In fact I’m practically begging for them! These things cost £23.50 each so I want to get my use out of it. Do you have this product? Does it work for you? What am I doing wrong?! X

*Bought by me*

Beauty Blog Link Love!

Phyrra shares her picks for the Best Wordpress Plugins for Beauty Bloggers.

 Ever wanted to know how to make a cheap and simple palette? Check out Midnight Violets straightforward DIY post!

 Hate purchasing without a lip swatch? Check out the Revlon Balm Stain megapost on My Lips But Better.

 Lisamarie from Beauty Crazed travels all the way to Germany to polish up her nails for the fall - okay, maybe not but she does swatch some of the OPI Germany Fall/Winter 2012 collection so check it out!

  Benefit Cosmetics is kicking class, with a slew of awesome new palettes. Check out the details, over at Krasey Beauty.

 Short and wimpy lashes everywhere can celebrate--Find out how Angela's lashes become sky-high with Marcelle Xtension Plus mascara on Do Want Makeup.

 Looking for a bright, poppy summer blush? Have a peek at Illamasqua Hussy Blusher at Adorable On Your Vanity & help yourself from falling in love!

 The Pink Sith uses the entire soundtrack from The Little Mermaid to talk about Deborah Lippmann Mermaid's Dream Nail Lacquer.

 The latest skirmish in the Makeup Wars is The Battle of the Summer Lippie. Prime Beauty's soldier in this battle is YSL's Vernis A Levres Glossy Stain in #15-Rose Vinyl. Find out how she fared and check out the other warriors entries.

 Are you ready for festival season? Check out Rae's floral braided hair tutorial and storybook daisies makeup look over at theNotice to add a bit of colour to your summer.

 Beauty Reflections thinks these mark. Make It Rich Lip Crayons are as good as NARS Velvet Matte Lip Pencils!
--- It's summer giveaway time! Enter to win an Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette from Audrey Dao!

What my nails have been wearing lately

I have close to 100 nail polishes which is frankly insane given that I haven’t worn any for a good couple of months. So I’ve been making an effort of late to actually paint my nails. Here we have the shades that have been gracing my fingers of late. There is a definite trend here. It starts off a little dark and dingy until I decided I’d had enough of the miserable so called summer we are getting in Scotland at the moment. So I decided to try wearing some brights. Frankly I’m not feeling them against the backdrop of rain ...

Barry M Silvery Lilac is a gorgeous silver with a green and purple duochrome in the bottle. Sadly the duochrome is harder to spot on the nails. This took 4 coats and there was still a hint of visible nail line but it did last well. I wore it for about 4 days.

Revlon Facets of Fuschia is gorgeous (this is 3 coats) but this was taken the day after I applied it and look at that tip wear! Not impressed! On the plus side I used this to trial the ‘foil’ glitter polish removal method which I can report works a treat. I wore it for 2 days.

You don’t get much more bright and cheerful than China Glaze Strawberry fields. It’s a hot pink with gold shimmer that just screams sunshine. Except there is no sunshine here. Do I sound bitter yet? I wore this for 3 days and this is 3 coats. 

Finally some Nails Inc Stanhope Gardens. I do not love this colour on me. I don’t know why, it’s just not doing it for me. The formula is pretty awful actually. It’s thick, gloopy and goes on with huge streaks and patches everywhere. This was 3 thick coats. Thus far I’ve had it on 2 days and there is only one chip which is ok I suppose.

What have you been wearing on your nails of late? 

July Faves, Fails, Meh

Seriously how is July almost over? I feel like 2012 is flying past right before my eyes. The next few months are going to be pretty hectic and I’m bracing myself! Without further rambling here are the things that caught my eye for better or for worse over the last month. 

Fave – My new makeup storage! After 4 years of living in my flat the husband and I finally decided that it was time to buy matching bedroom furniture that wasn’t hand me downs from kind relatives. The catalyst for this was the leg falling off the mahogany dressing table that was donated by my mum. Oops!  So a quick Ikea raid and an entire weekend of flat pack building later this is what we have. Would anyone actually be interested in an up to date collection video?

Fail – Bed Head Brunette Goddess conditioner. I bought this in TK MAXX  for a hell of a lot less than the retail price. Thankfully. It doesn’t matter how much I rinse this out it leaves my hair feeling like I’ve fallen head first into a deep fat fryer. Ick.

Fave – Dior Amber Diamond. I know it’s insanely expensive, I know it comes off a little bronze on my skin. And yes I know that this highlight is about as subtle as a brick to the face. I don’t care. It’s freaking gorgeous.

Fail – Actually nothing springs to mind. Must have been a positive month?

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

Fave – Nail polish! I keep saying this but I have a love hate relationship with painting my nails. Recently I’m loving it. I have around 100 bottles of polish so I’m making it my mission to get some use out of each and every one of them.

Meh – The Sleek V1 and V2 Ultra Matt palettes. My original review was lukewarm at best and my opinion seems to be cooling somewhat. Yes it’s nice to have some unusual matte shades. But a lot of the shades are just too much like hard work to get the effect I want. I keep trying to use them more, after all I paid for them! But every time I reach for them I cringe a little.

What have you been loving/ loathing/ couldn’t give a single gram of **** about this month? Have you done an empties video or post? Please leave a link below! x

July Glossy Box

I did it! I successfully managed to go for 2 days without reading any blog posts or seeing any spoilers about the contents of this months Glossy Box. I’m glad I did, it’s really nice to get a surprise! Now Glossy Box seem to have taken to giving their boxes a theme. When I opened this and saw the theme was Festival Beauty my heart sank. If I’m going to hell (and there is a very good chance I am) I will end up in a festival. Bleurgh...

Thankfully I actually am excited to try all of the products I received. I have no idea how any of them are supposed to be reminiscent of festival season mind. Here is what I received.

The HD Brows Eye & Brow palette is a repeat product that some people received last year. I wasn’t subscribed at the time and was gutted I missed out on this so I may have squealed a little when I saw it! I have the shade Vamp. You get a compact with four shades of brow powder in it. These can also be used as eye shadow so if certain shades don’t work on your brows they won’t go to waste. This is supposed to cost £19.95 so you get the price of the box back there already. I think this needs its own review so I will stop waffling.

Clynol Salon Exclusive Enrich Colour Shampoo (50ml sample bottle) is a somewhat dull but nonetheless useful product. I have colour treated hair but if you think I’m paying £9.35 for a big bottle you can go whistle. I don’t spend more than the bare minimum on hair care (as you can probably tell from the state of me).

Monu Golden Glow is apparently a fake tan product that will give a safe, natural tan in 3-5 hours. It does say it’s suitable for face and body but the 30ml sample isn’t going to go far on my body! I will try it on the face though. It will have to be pretty damn amazing to justify the £23 for a full 200ml bottle but that’s the joy of these boxes, I get to try things I would never normally think to buy!

Jelly Pong Pong is a brand I’ve wanted to try for a while but I ever saw anything I wanted to own enough to put in an order. This Lip Frosting is a multipurpose lip and cheek product. It smells like sweeties and is in the shade/ scent Irish Cream Pavlova. Again I think I may review this... This is the full sized 15ml product (bonus) and is normally £10.

Finally there are some Elizabeth Arden skin care samples in here.  I got a 5ml sample of their Visible Difference Skin Balancing Lotion SPF 15 (normally £32 for 50ml) and ‘bonus product’ sachets of their Visible Difference Skin Balancing line. I don’t know if it’s coincidence or if Glossy Box deliberately sent out a skin care line aimed at combination skin to people who have combination skin (you do a Beauty Profile quiz when you sign up) but it sounds like it would be a good line for me to try.

What did you get in your box if you got one? 

Yes To Body Lotions!

I’ve discussed my lizard legs before on here but just to recap: The skin on my body almost as dry as my sense of humour. I’m a body lotion fiend so you can imagine how excited I was to try out these goodies from the Yes To range. First up we have the Yes To Cucumbers Soothing Hypoallergeneic Body Lotion.

Not only is my skin dry it’s fussy too. Too much perfume? Stings and makes me go all red and blotchy, especially if I’ve just de-fuzzed my legs. This contains Aloe Vera which my skin loves so it really is very soothing. There is a hint of a light cucumber fragrance but it is faint, fades quickly and so far no angry red patches!

The lotion itself is quite thin and spreads across the skin very easily. If I apply too much (as I often do, told you I was a body lotion fiend) it can take a couple of minutes to sink in so use less than you think you need then you can apply more if you have to rather than prancing around your bathroom starkers waiting for it to dry (lovely image for you there of me prancing). Whilst of course this is moisturising it isn’t quite as moisturising as the next product I will talk about, I think this is more a summer product for me. For me this is the one I grab when I’ve just shaved my legs and they are looking angry. It does a great job of calming my irritated skin. This product is available from www.feelunique.com and costs £9.99 for a 170g (6oz) tube that will last me a good long while. Oh and this one is petroleum and SLS free for those avoiding such ingredients.

Swatched with the Yes To Cucumbers Hypoallergenic Body Lotion on the bottom and the Yes To Carrots Super Rich Body Butter on the top (just to confuse you). you can see the difference in texture, the Yes To Carrots is much thicker while the Yes To Cucumbers is much lighter. 

When my skin is feeling extra tight and horrible I do prefer to reach for this. The Yes To Carrots (the range sounds like a very strict diet doesn’t it?) Super Rich Body Butter. Now this is also suitable for sensitive skin, although I don’t find it quite as soothing as the Yes To Cucumbers body lotion, but it says super rich in the title and yes, it is. This one is housed in a plastic tub which some people think is unhygienic, I personally like it (my hands are clean, what of it?). Once again there is a scent which is ever so slightly stronger than the Yes To Cucumbers body lotion. I can’t quite put my finger on what it is. Maybe slightly like old school Nivea Crème? It fades quickly anyway and thus far no irritation.

The texture is fab. It’s very stiff (ooh er) so it holds its shape rather than slopping about but with the heat of your hands it melts almost instantly across the skin. It’s less hard than say the Body Shop Body butters which I like as it means it’s quicker to apply. It is as I’ve said incredibly rich and really does the trick on dry scaly patches. I even love it on my hands when my irritant dermatitis is flaring up. If you hate body lotions that you can feel on the skin after application you may not find this to your taste. Although it doesn’t leave you sticky or greasy you can feel it a little for a few minutes. I don’t mind at all as I just like to feel moisturised for a change! In the ingredients list you find things such as vitamin A in the form of beta carotene, dead sea minerals and shea butter. You can pick the Yes To Carrots range up from www.victoriahealth.com and this Body Butter costs £9.25 for 250ml (8.35fl.oz.).

If I were to buy another one from the range it would be another tub of the Super Rich Body Butter. It’s just really doing the trick for my skin just now  x

*Sent by PR for review purposes, this does not affect my opinions and I am not obliged to give a glowing review!*

Maybelline Color 24hr Tattoo – On and On Bronze & Permanent Taupe

I do love me some good cream shadows. They are fabulous multipurpose products. You can use them as sticky bases under less than stellar powder shadows and those that do not crease (like these ones) can be worn on their own for super quick and easy looks. I’ve been a huge fan of the Benefit Creaseless Cream shadows now for a couple of years but while they work well for me by the end of a long work day (i.e. 10 hours or so after I apply my makeup) they do start to crease. These do not. At all. Fab.

  

They product comes in heavy duty plastic jars. Maybe not quite as luxurious as glass but a hell of a lot more travel friendly! They cost £4.99 each (in comparison to Benefit at £14.99, that’s a big difference). Here in the UK we have 6 shades available. I happen to have On and On Bronze (a shimmery golden bronze) and Permanent Taupe (and almost warm taupe grey with a matte finish. It looks kind of like concrete).

The texture is soft and creamy but don’t let it fool you. Once these set that is it. They are on. You get enough time to blend out the edge with a clean finger but that’s it. I should say I do wear these over a primer, more out of habit than anything else. The colour is opaque enough that these work very well as liners too.

I think this is one of the best high street brand releases this year actually. I’ve been turned off buying any more Benefit shades when these just do the job better for a third of the price. Have you tried these yet? Any other shades you recommend? X

*Bought by me*

Swatch Sunday – Sleek Blues!

My little mini series continues in which I swatch all of the Sleek I-divine palettes colour by colour. This week we have enough blue eye shadow to bring back the 80’s! All shadows are, as usual, swatched on bare skin without primer and go in order from left to right.

Storm Light, Storm Blue, Ultra Matts V1 Light, Ultra Matts V1 Dark

Original Top Row from left to right (three shades). Acid Dark, Acid bright.

Monaco top row (2 shades), Monaco bottom row (2 shades)

Sparkle (2 shades), Curacao top row, Curacao Bottom row4

Ultra Matts V2 Teal, Ultra Mattes V2 navy, curious top row, Curious bottom row (2 shades)

Safari , Graphite, Chaos (2 shades)

Jewels, Sunset, PPQ, Bad Girl (2 shades)

Circus matte, Circus dark, Bohemian, Glory (3 shades)

I was thinking of doing yellows and oranges next week . Any other requests? Phew... that was almost 2 hours of photo's cropping and editing there. I'm going to a cup of tea!

No7 Summer of Dreams Bronzer

Dear No7, why make lovely products limited edition? This particular bronzer is part of their limited edition summer collection although I know my local Boots still have them in stock. So if it sounds like you would like it I suggest you pick it up sooner rather than later. The packaging is really quite pretty and feels pretty sturdy too. It has a good sized mirror too. Now at full price this costs £13 but we all know No7 almost always either have £5 vouchers going or some other sort of offer. 

The crazy shimmery design you see there is an over spray although there is a more subtle gold pearl running through the product itself. This is not a matte bronzer which is unusual for me, I do actually use this for bronzing rather than contouring. The powder is incredibly smooth and finely milled, it practically blends itself! And you get 10g which will last a very long time.

Now the shade itself is relatively light, really only light to medium skin tones will be able to use it I think (correct me if I’m wrong!). It is quite a warm shade so never looks muddy or ashy but I do tend to use a light hand as if I go piling it on eventually it does start to look a little orange. Lightly dusted along the high points of the face it gives a gorgeous warm glow, slap it on with a heavy hand and you will stray into Easy Jet territory.

I’ve used this several times now and the embossed design hasn’t really shown any signs of disappearing which is nice (I swept the overspray away with a fan brush before using, disco face is not for me). I really like it and definitely think this is one of those products that No7 did quite well. It’s just a shame it won’t be around for long! X

*Bought by me (with a £5 off voucher!)*

Panic Stations! What do you wear when you should have left 5 minutes ago?

I’m normally a full face of slap with as many products as I can pile on sort of girl but if I’ve hit the snooze button 1 (read 5) to many times then I have some fail safe products that I fall back on to get me out of the door ASAP. Today was one of those days when I threw on a collection of products with no real thought. Here is what I used! 

Yes I know I’m short of time but that doesn’t mean I can let the primer slide. I still had a long day at work ahead so I chucked on some GOSH Velvet Touch primer and H20+ Mattifying gel on my nose. Then I threw on some Estee Lauder Double Wear Light and with the same foundation brush very quickly used some of the Benefit Some Kind of Gorgeous foundation to contour (It’s too dark for me but it’s so subtle it doesn’t need much in the way of blending – hence being quick to use in these circumstances). Some Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection concealer under the eyes and on any scruffy bits just tapped in with a finger and then set the lot with Estee Lauder Lucidity translucent powder.

I’ve been really into doing my brows of late although I prefer using powder in them. If I’m in a rush though I reach for my Sleek Eye Brow Pencil (in Brown) then throw a bit of ELF Wet Gloss Lash & Brow Clear Mascara in to at least try and keep everything pointing in the same direction.

On my eyes I keep it super quick by avoiding eye shadow all together. I use my Laura Mercier Eye Basics in Cotton all over the lid to primer and then smudge on a cream shadow with a clean finger. I’ve been adoring the Maybelline Colour tattoos of late, today I used On and On Bronze. As a brow highlight I smush some Benefit Eye Bright on again with a finger (no brushes if I’m in a rush!) and pop some MAC I Get No Kick eye kohl in the tear duct to highlight. I’m not me without some sort of liner so today I popped some Stila Stingray (black) on the water line and a very thin line of Maybelline Eye Studio Lasting Drama gel liner along the top lashline. No winged liner if I’m in a hurry, I’d only fudge it up! Finally some mascara, today the YSL Faux Cils.

On the cheeks normally I like to do the whole blush/ highlight thing but when in a rush I use a shimmery blush that will do the job of both. Today that happened to be the MAC MSF in Brunette. On the lips I still haven’t plucked up the courage to wear lipstick again so I threw a gloss on. This is the ELF Hypershine Lipgloss in Pink Lemonade. Not one of my favourites I have to say but it’s the first thing I came to!

Looking back that looks like an awful lot of stuff for so called ‘minimal makeup’. Oh well, maybe I’m just high maintenance ;) It takes me 5-10 minutes to do this (in between downing coffee). What do you throw on when you’re running late? Do you just give it up as a lost cause to save time or will you make yourself even more late rather than leave without your war paint? Let me know in the comments! 

Guerlain Terra Azzura Emilio Pucci Collection Bronzer/ Blush

Firstly can we just take a moment to marvel at the beauty that is that gorgeous Pucci print purse? Go ahead. I will wait. 

LOVE IT. The cute little satiny feeling purse was definitely one of the things that drew me to purchase this product. The compat insinde it pretty lust worthy too. It looks like wood to me and feels incredible heavy and well made although I’m not too sure how I feel about the lid. It comes off completely and it help on by 3 magnets. I think if you were to have it in a makeup bag knocking around without keeping it in the purse you might be at risk of it being knocked off and the product getting damaged. You get 16g of product in total which is pretty huge.

(please excuse the flash bouncing off the wooden compact)

Inside you get four shades. The bronzer is somewhat yellow toned (on me at least). Then you have three blush striped with a bright tangerine coral, soft medium pink and a very pale baby pink. The blush striped are really too small to be used individually so I swirl them together to get a soft peachy pink which is how I have swatched them. All of the shades including the bronzer are not completely matte, rather they have a sheen to them which does give a very healthy look to the skin.

Did I mention the fragrance? Normally I’m not a huge fan of gratuitous fragrance but in this case I love it. It smells exactly like lily’s and I don’t even mind that the scent lingers on the skin for a good while after application. Obviously if you don’t like that particular scent this won’t be for you!

My one warning about this product is that if you like your products to be very well pigmented this isn’t for you. I was shocked at first at how much I had to work to get them to show up on my skin and I’m pretty darn pasty. But the more I’ve used it the less I’m seeing this as a problem. Basically I can slap it on with my eyes shut and still walk out of the door knowing it won’t look over done. It’s really hard to get the application wrong with this.

Now this is part of the Guerlain summer collection so you will need to move fast if you want it! I know it is still available in shops near me but not for much longer. The price is £51 which did make me think twice but I justified it by telling myself it is really a collectors piece (whatever, I use makeup, I don’t collect for the sake of it) and that wee purse will last a lot longer than the product! How else would I get my paws on Pucci print on my budget?! X

*I bought this*

Yes To Tomatoes Clear Skin Deep Pore Exfoliating Cleanser

Yes to what now? Tomatoes apparently. All of the Yes To range is pro all sorts of veggies. (Technically tomatoes are fruit but shh). Now personally I have combination, congested, somewhat spot prone skin so there is nothing I love more than a good scrubby cleanser to really give it a good clean and in the process get rid of any dead flaky skin. Does this deliver?

Yes. This is VERY and I do mean very exfoliating. The cleanser itself is a cloudy gel like liquid packed full of scrubbing granules (bamboo according to the tube) and they really are hard core. If you like your face wash to mean business this will fit the bill. Despite this is hasn’t irritated my sensitive skin at all which I suspect is because as far as I can tell it has very little noticeable fragrance in it. Do bear in mind though that if harsh exfoliators bother your skin you might want to avoid using this every day. Personally I’ve been using it daily for a couple of weeks and have had no problems.

In addition this contains salicylic acid which helps combat spots and I will say that I haven’t had any major break outs whilst using this. Could be coincidence but I like to think it’s the face wash doing its thing. It is free of SLS and does not foam which is a big plus for my skin and for those who are concerned about such things you will find no petroleum in here either. It’s also cruelty free!

Over all I really like this. It’s a properly good scrubby cleanser that leaves me feeling squeaky clean without overly drying me out. I like a scrub that means business. The Yes To range is available from www.victoriahealth.com The Yes To Tomatoes Clear Skin Deep Pore Exfoliating Cleanser (yikes... long name) costs &9.99 for a 4oz bottle x

*This product was sent free of charge for review purposes. My reviews are always my honest opinion no matter how  I come to own a product*