L'oreal Studio Secrects Resurfacing Primer

GRRR!!! Hate this product!

Ok maybe hate is too strong of a word, but I really dislike it! Normally I use the Anti-Shine Primer from this range, but when no Boots near me had it in stock and I was in desperate need for primer, I thought, why not take a chance and give it a whirl...

Shouldn't have bothered! It retails for £12.99, whereas my normal one is £9.99, and its certainly NOT worth the extra few pounds!

It applies nicely to the face, very smooth, but its when I start to apply my make up, that the let down kicks in! Normally, I will get out of the shower, tone and moisturise my face and then prime a couple of minutes before I intend to start doing my make up, not with this, I need to leave it alot longer before I can apply anything else to my face.

I start off by doing my concealer, applying it under my eyes and to cover up any discolouration or blemishes, once I start to blend, it sticks to the Primer, and doesn't let go! so instead of blending it in and having a smooth finish to my concealer, it ends up streaky, and just being moved around my face, for the most part if you keep working with it, it will blend, eventually, but sometimes we just don't have the luxury of time! I'm glad I don't wear foundation in the summer, because goodness only knows what blending this would be like! Mayhem would be my guess! By the time I come to apply my tinted moisturiser it has been absorbed to my skin sufficiently enough not to cause any problems, but the amount of time between first application and when its "safe" to apply my concealer is ridiculous, I don't want to spend an extra 10 minutes waiting for a product to be absorbed into my skin, I just want to get the job done, and get on with my day!

I'm trying to finish the little jar up, but a little goes a long way, so in the month I have been using it, I have hardly made a dent in it! I definitely wont be buying this again, and in future if Boots don't have the anti-shine in, I will either find another brand, or wait until I can get my hands on a tube!

A bit of a waste of money in my opinion! if you have tried this product, let me know your thoughts, did you find the same? or could it just be my skin type/me not being patient enough!?

Pastel Love

This summer Barry M have released some gorgeous pastel nail paints, I have to admit, I may have got a little too into them, I have bought 4 out of the 5 pastel shades.

The first one I purchased was number 308 - Berry Ice Cream, I bought this one on the reviews of Lollipop26 and Fleur De Force, I have to admit before this I had never bought a Barry M nail paint before, as I wasn't sure of the quality, I can now say, I'm glad I went ahead and bought them! For £2.95 they are a real bargin! (Up until August 3rd they are 2 for £5 in Superdrug), the colour of this nail paint is gorgeous, I really love wearing it! It lasts a good amount of time as well before it starts chipping.

Since then I have bought and tried 304 - Mint Green and 306 - Blueberry Ice Cream, these colours are ones I'm not sure I will wear as often, on my fingers, as for me they are a little "out there", but on my toes they look good, especially with tanned skin! The application of both of these nail paints are very thick, meaning each nail only needs one coat to get a really good colour pay off! This makes painting my nails very quick and easy!

My sister then wanted to try the 309 - Strawberry Ice Cream, as she had bought me Barry M's Mushroom nail paint, I returned the favour by picking 309 up for her, but before I took it home to her, I had a quick go with it! This nail paint isn't as thick in consistency as the 304 or 306, and requires a couple of coats to get a really bold colour, it does however come across very nicely, and I can safely say my sister has been loving the colour!

Have you tried any of the Barry M Ice Cream colours? Let me know your thoughts!

xxx

Nothin' like a bit of Soap & Glory!

Since I moved to London I have become slightly obsessed with the Soap & Glory scent! My housemate had the shower gel in the first year we lived together and the smells was very suitble and fresh. In the new house, we are all a little bit in love with it, in the sense that 3 out of the 4 of us have/had the shower gel at one time. Here is a dodgey picture I took on my iphone >>

I recently ran out of my Boots Cranberry body butter, which I received in a gift set for Christmas, so on one of my trips into central London, I popped into Boots and picked up a large tub of The Righteous Body Butter, which would normally cost £9.79 for 250ml, but I used my advantage card points to pay for it! This body butter is awesome! It's thick, as you would expect from a body butter, but its not sticky, which I have found with some can be a problem. A little goes a long way with this as well! With all the heat and sun we have been having, I have been out in the sun tanning, and this has helped me maintain my tan and keep the colour glowing.

Speaking of tans, when tanning its best to have exfoliated before hand, as this helps the tan be more eve, particularly when fake tanning. Having used a sunbed for the first time the other week (tut tut I know, was only for 3 mins!) I decided it was time I got serious about exfoliation, I'm not going to pretend I have done it religiously in the past, but since buying Soap & Glory's Flake Away, I have been exfoliating every other day! This is a wonderful exfoliant that I find quite gentle, I concentrate on using it on the backs of my arms and on my legs, and when I'm shaving my legs, it gives a wonderful smooth finish! Before I forget to mention, a 300ml tub is £6.50, if you don't fancy buying a big one, try the smaller 50ml tub for £2.25 this is perfect if your going away, as again a little goes a long way!

So onto the product that got me into Soap & Glory, the Clean On Me Creamy Clarifying Shower Gel, as mentioned before my housemate had this for a long while, and it was only when I asked my sister for a bottle for Christmas I got my first "fix", using one pump and lathering it up in my loofah is enough to cover you nicely from head to toe in bubbles, with plenty left over, so needless to say I still have over half a bottle left after 6 months! This retails in Boots for £5.00 for 500 ml

You can buy Soap & Glory in most Boots stores in the UK, as well as Harvey Nichols, ASOS.com also stock it, and with international shipping, you can get your hands on it wherever in the world you are!

http://www.soapandglory.com/
http://twitter.com/SoapandGlory
http://www.asos.com/Beauty/A-To-Z-Of-Brands/Soap-Glory/Cat/pgecategory.aspx?cid=10593

Hope everyone had a great weekend! xxx

Magazine Madness!

As many of you will already know, UK Glamour magazine has an AMAZING offer on at the moment, the July edition came out yesterday and already its getting tough to find!

Why?

Because Glamour UK have teamed up with the amazing Benefit to bring you the ultimate freebie!

So what are the freebies? Well, you get one with each magazine, but if you're like me, and several others, you will end up buying all three (yes this means three copies of the magazine, but its well worth it!) First up is the "Badgal" eyeliner - supposedly perfect for a dark smokey eye. Secondly is the "It Stick", a cover all concealer, although only available in one colour could be a good base for eye shadows! and last but no means least "Eye Bright", a eye highlighter, designed to be used in the inner corners of your eyes to make you appear more awake! This deal is amazing, altogether the three products would normally cost you £45, and by buying 3 copies of Glamour you get all three for £6! BARGIN!

I did try to buy all 3 copies yesterday when the magazine came out, and that was tough enough! So today I went on a Glamour mission, not wanting to venture into central London, I went to nearly every newsagents and the 2 supermarkets near my house! Thankfully I found them in the last place I went to! I did feel a little weird buying three copies of the same publication, but I got talking to the newsagent, and he said I was by no means the first, and that out of this months quota they had been sent, they only have 9 COPIES LEFT!!!

If you want to take part in this AMAZING deal, I recommend getting in there VERY quickly! I'm sure that most places will get more copies in, but I can imagine these will fly off the shelves as quickly as they can be put on!!

To read 2 other Brit bloggers talk about their Glamour mission click below:

Fleur De Force: http://fleurdeforce.blogspot.com/2010/06/summer-freebies.html

Lollipop26: http://www.lollipop26writes.com/2010/06/glamour-and-benefit-go-go-go.html

Take care one and all, and have a fab weekend!

I've been a bad blogger =(

I have been back in London for over a week now, in fact pushing on for 2 weeks, so I must apologise for not blogging sooner!

Sorry!

Ok with that out of the way its onto the good stuff! So what have I been up to?

Well I returned to London on the 24th May, and met up with an old friend on the 25th, it was a really fun day! Then on the 26th my housemates finished there exams, which of course meant, MASSIVE NIGHT OUT!!! Starting at TGI Fridays for cocktails and then on to Zoo bar for plenty of dancing, and lots of very random photos!!!!

The weekend was then spent relaxing, shopping, drinking, the normal kinda thing!! Monday was a bank holiday so as always the day was spent doing a whole bunch of nothing!!! I have basically then just been bad and not got round to posting anything!

Tonight we are off to a house party, and then tomorrow I'm off to Guildford to visit my grandparents! I go and see them every month, and this past month seems to have dragged, so I'm looking forward to spending the day with them!

Its super hot here, which is not always a great thing, my skin blisters in the heat (I have no idea, and after yesterdays trip to the doctors it seems she doesn't either!) So I have been outside attempting to tan, and blistering my arms instead, I'm cool like that! Its very painful!!!

I'm going to try and come up with some more beauty related blogs to post this week! So be looking out for those!

Take care!

Slacker Alert!

Again, apologies for the lack of posts, I'm currently at home with my parents preparing for my grandfathers memorial party. I'm doing alot of the cooking so that then leaves little time to do much else!

I'm back in London on Monday, and no doubt with the current state of things there I will be posting several fairly lengthy posts...anything to avoid the avoidable!!!!

Hope everyone is enjoying the sunshine, its making me super happy!

xxx

5 Most wanted Lush products update!

In my last blog post I listed the 5 Lush products I most want to try, well already I'm needing to compile a new list!!! I visited a Lush store with my sister on Sunday, and I managed to pick up, either the product itself or a generous sample, as a result the R&B hair moisturiser is the only one i have yet to try!!!

As I have yet to use my Ceridwyn's Cauldron I can't really review that, I am however planning a rose inspired bath cocktail tonight, so i may update on that later tonight!!

The first item I was keen to try was the Grass Shower Gel - well well well, I just got back from my second trip to lush in as many days and I picked up another sample of this beaut! its AMAZING, it lathers great (using my loofah) and its the type of lather that sticks to your skin, it also smells amazing, it doesn't linger on your skin but its very refreshing in the morning. The sample I got I have used twice and I still have enough for one more shower out of it, so a little goes a long way, I have vowed to eventually buy a full size bottle!!!

Another item I was desperate to try was the Crème Anglaise moisturiser, this is Lush's most expensive single product, and as i stated in my previous post, one I'm unlikely to ever own a full sized tub of! The Sample is suiting me just fine though, again a little goes a long way, and it smells fantastic, its also a smell that lingers, so you can guarantee hours later you will still be able to smell it!!

Finally the last product I sampled was the American Cream conditioner, the smell isn't one of my favourite, however its by no means unpleasant, with the sample, it wasn't enough for me to get a real idea as to how this would work, so I may need to buy a small bottle in order to make my mind up on it!

As for my Ceridwyn's Cauldron expect an update very soon!!!!

April Favourites

Doing monthly favourites is a bit of a tough one for me, mainly because I have found my favourite products for most things, e.g Foundation/Mascara etc, so they don't change month to month, and also writing that they are my favourite every thirty days would get very dull, very quickly! As a result I have a few items, some beauty related and some random ones...

First up is my new Barry M nail paint in Berry (no. 308), I did a blog post earlier this week when I got it, and it was very much a first reaction type thing, I have been wearing it for 3 days now, and (touch wood) it hasn't chipped yet (BIG thumbs up from me for that!) I do top coat with China Glaze's No Chip top coat, but it can still go!

My next favourite is Lemony Flutter from Lush, I'm trying to get into the habit of moisturising my hands more often, and this is perfect, I only picked up a sample, and I have used it about 10 times and I haven't even made a dent in it! The sample alone with last me a long while! It also smells AMAZING! Very lemony (duh!)

This next favourite has been a bit of a life saver over the past week or so, with all the hot weather we have been having (ahh love it!) my feet have decided to develop heat rash (joy!) once it became obvious that the hot weather was here to stay (even though its raining now!) and that my feet were not happy, I bought a tube of E45 itch relief cream, this stuff has worked wonders! Whats now left of the heat rash is not itchy and when it is, i just slap on a bit more cream!

I'm not sure I can class the weather of the past week a favourite, but I'm going to put it out there and state that I LOVE THE HOT WEATHER!!! Phew, feels better to get that out in the open!!!!

Another thing I'm loving is listening to old songs on my itunes, alot of the time i will skip older songs, as i would much rather listen to newer stuff, but just recently, i have been listening to songs that were out between 2003 and 2005, I'm not deliberately seeking out these years, but they mean alot to me, and each song seems to have a brilliant story attached with lots of happy memories!!!

My final favourite is driving! I'm currently learning to drive (in London, I must be mad!) but I'm absolutely loving it! I get on brilliantly with my driving instructor, and crazy London mini cab drivers aside, i really look forward to each lesson! I now just cannot wait to get my own car...oh and my licence!

Hope everyone enjoys this bank holiday weekend!! xx