August 15 Glossybox

This month’s Glossybox, like all the others did not disappoint! It contained 5 products, 4 of which were full sized that were all very different but all really great! There was no particular theme this month, and the box was it’s usual plain pink and black Glossybox design. So here’s what I thought of the products.

Beauty Naturals Review

I have some lovely products from Beauty Naturals that I have been meaning to tell you all about for way too long. A couple of these have appeared in blog posts before so thought it was time I gave them a full review.

L’OREAL PARIS Micellar Water

I bought this a few month’s back after the gorgeous Toni Eaton tweeted about it (Check out her twitter and give her a follow: https://twitter.com/tonieatonx?lang=en-gb) and I have to say I have fallen madly and shamelessly in love.

My Very BIG News

So first off let me apologise. I have been massively neglecting my blog recently and haven’t posted for a while. I haven’t done my weekly weight loss updates, my Glossybox reviews or any other posts. So don’t worry I will try my best to get back up to date as soon as possible. It’s all due to being extremely busy and this is why.

Harvey Nichols Glossbox

As you all know, I am a very big beauty box fan. And my beauty box of choice is Glossybox. I absolutely love surprises, little surprises, big surprises. Love them all. And a beauty box is like buying yourself a lovely surprise every month! So naturally when I saw the advert for the limited edition Harvey Nichols Glossybox, I just had to have it. 

I Heart Make Up - Chocolate Desire

So recently I went into my town centres Superdrug to have a look at what I could pick up from Revolutions new I <3 Make Up range. The range they had in store was a little disappointing, nothing like what they have available online, so I only picked up a I <3 Bronzer in Chocolate Desire and a You’re Gorgeous Eye Shadow palette, which is definitely gorgeous. There are a lot of shadows to get through on it, so I won’t write up a review until I’ve given them all a good try.

Christmas Presents Review

I had a fantastic Christmas. I'm sure (and hoping) that you all did too. And just like every previous year, I received some gorgeous Christmas presents, and like all beauty fanatics, a lot of cosmetics! So I thought I would share them with you!

These are a selection of my presents this year - don't worry I won't bore you with a review of them all. My main (and favourite) present was my iPad Air 2 and my lovely purple spotty case from my parents. Which I am using right now to blog YAYYY! I also received some Nicki Minaj tickets from my boyfriend - super exciting. And a gorgeous river island bag from my sister which I'm sure will make an appearance in a blog post soon. And like everyone else I received a collection of wine, chocolates and vouchers. 

This is my new TRESemmè hair dryer from my amazing grandma. Complete with heat protection spray, 4 rollers and changeable heads. I was in desperate need of a new hairdryer as my old one was on the way out! And this one is perfect! It works really well and is really powerful. The heat protection spray has the usual TRESemmè scent - which I love. And I am yet to use the rollers but I'm a big roller fan so I’m sure they will greatly appreciated.

Here I have a vanilla candle from my mum, which is in a leopard print, glass holder. Absolutely love it and it smells gorgeous. I also received this glass tea light candle holder from my boyfriend which is from ASDA. I love it and can't wait to get some lovely Yankee tea lights to put in it. The cupcake bath bombs are from my boyfriends sister along with the wax melts. The melts are from Kaunis Koti candles, they are a pick n mix bag of handmade wax melts made from 100% Eco soy wax. They all smells lovely and come in a variety of different shapes. Can't wait to try them out! And finally my LUSH soap, I bought this myself using some Christmas money. It's called godmother and cost me £4.77 it smells lovely and has a slight sparkle to it. 

This is a perfume from Next which I bought myself using a voucher that my boyfriend's grandma got for me. It cost just £14 for 75ml and smells great it's very sweet like s fruity floral scent and smells a lot like Cacharel Amor Amor. It is very long lasting and would be a great day to night perfume.

This is my collection of No 7 goodies. The Eye Collection box is from my auntie it has a pair of eye lash curlers which are fantastic. A lash impact intense volume control mascara in black, a stay perfect amazing eye pencil in black and a stay perfect shade and define in gunmetal grey which is quite sparkly and I am so excited to try. It also has a built in sharpener in the base! Then I have my wonderful No 7 boxes set which is from my boyfriend. This contained a bath soak, cleansing lotion, body wash and a body lotion which is thick and creamy and extremely moisturising. It also contains a day cream and a night cream which are both fantastic. The day cream isn't too greasy so you can apply before make up. A dry skin rescue which you use on really dry patches of your skin which has been great after this terrible weather and hand cream which is great on the sensitive skin on my hands. And also a lovely lashes mascara which is lovely for the day time as it isn't too thick and a BB lips balm in baller in which is very shiny, neutral and keeps lips very soft. I was so impressed with this box and if any of you spot it in the sales make sure you pick it up! 

This Revlon bag I bought with my Christmas money which I plan on using in my bag to carry my on the go make up. I also bought two clay masks from Superdrug. I was also desperate to try the new B. range from Superdrug so picked up an eyeshadow in nougat which is quite neutral but sparkly and a blusher in sherbet. The bronzer is also from Superdrug from the I <3 make up range and is called chocolate desire. The lip gloss is from Benefit and is in ultra plush. It was from a cracker that my boyfriend’s sister made for me. It was a great idea and I love it. It smells lovely and the colour is a lovely neutral colour which everyone would love. 

These body butters I bought from Boots using my Christmas money. They were half price in the sale down to £4. They smell amazing and are really creamy. 

These I also bought myself using my Christmas money. The in the buff lightly toasted eye palette which I have heard so much about and am so excited to try. The I <3 make up you're gorgeous eye palette which looks great and has such a big selection of matte and shimmer eye shadows. A max factor lipstick in midnight plum which is a purpley red which is great for the rest of the winter months and Rimmel Kate lipstick in 33. It's very pink but applies do nicely and is very creamy. 

A MAC eyeshadow palette from my boyfriends mum which I absolutely LOVE. Its great for creating all kinds of looks. Definitely worth a buy. 

A ted baker nail varnish set from my boyfriend. It contains 3 varnishes, a set of nail wraps and a nail art pen. 

A revolution lip set also from my boyfriend. I love this. It contains 3 lip pencils, a gloss and a mirror. The pencils are in 3 very different colours. A bright red, a bright pink and an orangey red. Can't wait to try them out! 

This is a Retox pamper pack that I received from my friend in secret Santa. It contains eye gel pads, foot cream, a hair mask and a face mask. I am so so so excited to try these especially as I had never heard of it before. 

This benefit set is from my brother. I am so excited to try this as I haven't tried a lot of benefit products before but have heard some wonderful things about them. It contains the porefessional which I am yet to try, some eye shadows, hoopla which I am yet to try, and a lip gloss. It also contains the they're real mascara which I adore so I am very pleased to get some more of it. The tin is so cute! 

What did you get for Christmas? 

Have you received any of the same gifts. If so what did you think?

Clean Your Makeup Brushes

When it gets close to Christmas I start cleaning and organising EVERYTHING. As a kid I would spend weeks going through all my old toys, putting them into charity bags and making room for all the new ones that Santa was going to bring me. I think that has probably stuck with me for my whole life, and now with a few weeks to go I’m starting to get rid of old clothes, bags and shoes. This year I’ve asked Santa for some more Real Technique makeup brushes, the blush brush and the core collection to be precise – which I am veryyyy excited about. But this means that I need to clean my current brushes, find a new (bigger) home for them and sadly throw away my over loved ones.

I’ve been hunting for a new makeup brush holder for weeks – it’s a very serious commitment. And I’ve found lots of pretty ones and lots of big ones, but sadly none nice enough and big enough for me to buy. I chatted to my boyfriend and asked him if he would be able to make me one (he works in the metal industry), eventually he agreed, I’ve sent him measurements for 3 different size pots and I’m waiting patiently for them to be finished.

Now on to cleaning! I HATE cleaning my brushes. It makes me so nervous that I’m going to destroy them, so I’m constantly trying to find a new, convenient way to clean them that doesn’t mean I totally wreck the glue. And I think I’ve finally found it. (I lost a few bristles from my 17 bronzer brush, but let’s not mention that).

I was looking through Amazon and saw some Strictly Professional Cosmetic Brush Cleaner and decided to give it a go. It was only a couple of pound plus postage and thought that I may as well give it a go. It’s like an oily solution, that you stand your brushes in for 15 minutes then rinse with warm water. I decided to just use a normal bowl and used about a third of the bottle, but this cleaned all of my brushes. After the 15 minutes the liquid had all been absorbed into the brushes. Then when you rinse it the makeup just comes straight off, however the oil needs a few rinses before it’s completely gone. But it works  SO well. I rinsed them through once, left them out for a little while on a piece of tissue, then rinsed through again. The oil left them clean and really soft, they also smell lovely. However my bathroom sink was a little more difficult to clean after all that foundation!

How do you clean your makeup brushes?

Beauty Beam

I’ve recently tried out the Beauty Beam. Now this cute little devise is a small light that you can put onto your beauty tools in order to enhance your view of what you’re doing. A few years ago I tried a pair of tweezers that had a light fixed on to it. This made the tweezers really chunky and quite hard to use and most of all, once you started moving your hand and wrist around, swapping between eyes, you started blocking out the light, but the Beauty Beam is SOOO different.

It has a little elastic band around the back of the light, which means that you can move it between different tools, move it to different distances along the tool and more importantly also move it around the circumference. This means that you can adjust were the light sits depending on which way your hand is.

It comes in a variety of different colours and costs JUST £4.99. It’s fantastic. It fits on lip brushes, eye shadow brushes and even face brushes, because the band is so stretchy. You can put it on lip sticks and glosses, eye liners and eyebrow pencils and tweezers. I found that in the middle of the day, it doesn’t make a huge difference. But at night when you’re getting ready to go out to a bar or club, it’s a massive help, especially when applying false eye lashes!! I get up for work at 6am, so with these dark winter mornings it’s a great product to use. It’s also really good for plucking your eyebrows –there’s nothing worse than stepping into good light and noticing how bad your eyebrows are – you can see all the fine hairs that you sometimes miss.

This is a fantastic product, really works and is so easy to pop in your make up bag or hand bag and can be carried with you on the go. It’s light weight, easy to use and looks really cute. It also comes with a battery, which is great, so you can use it straight away.

On sale at yourbeauty247.com and amazon.

Have you tried the Beauty Beam, what did you think?

Miss Photogenic MakeUp Brushes

I know some people get set in their ways when it comes to make up brushes, only using the same ones, or from one or two particular brands, and I know you may think this is a case of ‘if it ain’t broke then why fix it?’ but sometimes you can miss out on some really great products because you are hesitant to try something new.

Recently I became the proud owner of 3 Miss Photogenic makeup brushes, there are 10 in their range. 5 for face, 4 for eyes and 1 for lips. They come in a range of synthetic, goat hair, pony hair or rubber (the term ‘goat hair’ put me off slightly too, but keep reading!) I received a Foundation Brush, Colour Diffuser and an Eye Crease Brush.

Now let me start by chatting a little bit about the packaging. I don’t know about you – but I love it. It looks so luxurious and gives the feel of high quality brushes before you’ve even opened the box. All packaging is really easy to get into, no scissors needed which is a bonus. Each brush is black with gold on them, with a small logo and the brush name – very minimal and very classy! Absolutely love how they look. Now onto what you really care about – do they work?

I’ll start off with the foundation brush, this retails at £15. It’s a synthetic brush but it is super soft. It feels really sturdy, not like some brushes that feel like all the bristles are going to start falling out as soon as you start using it. The brush bristles are shaped in a zig zag, this is to aid application so that liquid is evenly distributed, which helps to ensure it’s not applied too thickly. Now my first thought when I saw this brush was that it was going to leave streaks and brush marks all over my face and I was going to have to go over it with a buffing brush, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. It works like a dream, it really does keep your foundation thin and even, no brush marks at all! Gives a really gorgeous finish.

Next the Colour Diffuser Brush, retailing at £15. This brush is synthetic and can be used for buffing and blending colour, and can be used on liquid, cream or powder.  I tried this out, and it definitely works equally well on liquid, powder and creams. Creams need a little more buffing, but that’s just the nature of creams. It’s very soft and it feels very light, it’s great for buffing in blusher and great at contouring to give a seamless finish.

And finally the Eye Crease Brush also made from goat hair and retails at £9. This is my favourite! It’s super soft and fabulous quality. It’s great for applying mid-tone and darker shades and blending them out. This is the perfect tool for a smokey eye! It adds a lot of depth to your eye shadow. It’s also great for nude and golden eye shadows to give a more natural blend. Amazing brush!

Totally underrated brand and for such a great price, you can’t complain. You need to try them out, would make great tools for Christmas party makeup, or would make amazing stocking fillers. You can buy them from John Lewis or on http://www.missphotogeniconline.com/shop/beauty

Let me know if you’ve tried any of the other Miss Photogenic makeup brushes and tell me what you thought.