April Favourites 2017

These are the products I have been loving in April!

Radox's mandarin and lemongrass shower gel smells absolutely amazing. I love mandarin scented products and the lemongrass gives it an extra kick. I will definitely be buying this one again!

I have been using this pink jasmine lip balm from Avon this month and I love it. It is a great size for your pocket or handbag and the consistency is exactly as I like it. It is smooth and balmy with no nasty aftertaste and it prevents my lips from drying out.

I have been wearing my cushion cut peridot necklace a lot this month. I love the bright green colour!

This NYC City Proof Twistable Intense Lip Color is great. I have it in the colour Riverside Rose which looks quite natural on my lips. I think I'm going to have to make this one permanent in my make-up bag.

I have been wearing Jimmy Choo Illicit Flower a lot this month. It is a great, elegant floral fragrance. It is definitely worth a try if you haven't already checked it out.

My MUA lipstick in shade 2 has been another lip product I have been loving this month and it has already been upgraded to my make-up bag. It is a bit darker and more bold than the NYC lip colour but I think it looks lovely on.

I have been wearing my Avon Nailwear Pro+ nail polish in shade Barely There this month and I love it. It lasts impressively well. I also have this colour as a gel finish polish, but this one seems to be just as good!

I love Clarins Double Serum. I have raved about it in the past. It improves the appearance of my skin immediately. My skin looks hydrated and radiant after using it.

Ghost Moonlight is another fragrance I have worn a lot this month. It is a sweet and creamy but it has a darkness to it as well.

10 Of My All Time Favourite Make-Up Products!

These are the make-up products that I have gone back to over and over again, all of which can be found in my make-up bag.

I have bought Benefit's Lemon Aid numerous times now. I have been using it for at least 7 years. I use it as a eyeshadow primer. It is a light yellow colour so it is also great for covering redness, but I find it a bit too thick to use as a concealer. My eyeshadow looks a lot better with this as a base. I have tried other eyeshadow primers but this is my favourite.

I love matte eyeshadows and this Urban Decay Naked Basics palette is amazing. I use it almost every day. You can even use the matte black shadow as an eyeliner.

MAC's 217 blending brush is my favourite brush ever! I love it. The shape and density is perfect for blending out eyeshadow.

MUA's Undressed palette is my favourite shimmery eyeshadow palette. The shades in it are gorgeous and the eyeshadows are good quality and very pigmented.

I have been using MAC's blush in the shade, Melba for about 18 months and I love it. My previous favourite was by No.7.

Collection's Lasting Perfection concealer gives great coverage. It is quite thick so I sometimes mix it with a little bit of moisturising cream to thin it out a bit.

Barry M's Brow Kit is great! I use it all of the time and I even use the little brush that comes with it and find it to be quite good. I don't really use the tweezers as they are quite difficult to nip together. I love this kit though!

Nars Laguna bronzer is the best bronzer I have used. It is light enough to use on my fair skin without looking harsh or muddy. I don't use it every day, but I really like it.

Dr Jart's Regenerating BB Cream has been a favourite for years. It's amazing how a product with such a light coverage can really improve the look of your skin. I wear this daily and I love it!

MAC's lipstick in Ruby Woo is my most used red lipstick. It is matte and I find it really easy to apply. It is not my most used lipstick overall; just my most popular red lipstick.
I have found it difficult to choose favourites for some items such as eyeliner, foundation, lipstick or mascara because I tend to regularly change the brands I buy and I'm not in love with one particular product.

September Favourites!

These are the items I've been loving in September!

I love my cobalt blue dress from boohoo.com. The colour and the fit are gorgeous and it can easily be dressed up or down.

I find that Avon lipsticks can often be too shimmery and I recently went through all my lipsticks and found this one had never been used. The shade is called Divine Wine and there is no shimmer in it. It is a dark purple colour, but it doesn't look unnatural. I love it!

I've been loving my new handbag from H&M. It is a good size and it looks really smart. I have had large handbags before, but not with such a rigid shape to them so I am still getting used to this one.

I have rediscovered my MUA Undressed palette and I love it. I have been using my matte eyeshadows a lot recently so it's good to bring some shimmer back and I love the golds and browns in this palette.

I finally bought Garnier's oil-infused Micellar water this month and it is great for removing, even waterproof, make-up with no rubbing or scrubbing. I'm really pleased with this.

I have been using Sanctuary Spa's body scrub this month. I love the scent of it and it leaves my skin feeling lovely and soft.

My favourite Impulse body spray currently available is Sweet Smile. It has a scent of pear and jasmine and this has been my body spray of choice for September.

October Favourites 2015!

October is possibly my favourite month of the year. I love autumn!
Here are some of the things I've been loving this month.

Chloe by Chloe is one of my favourite fragrances and I have worn it a lot this month. I wear perfume every day, but people don't often comment on it. I have had two compliments this week about my perfume when I was wearing this. I think it is stronger and longer lasting than most of my other fragrances without being overpowering.

Clinique Comforting Cream Cleanser is my favourite cleanser at the moment. It easily removes all of my make-up and leaves no sticky or greasy residue on my skin.

MUA or MakeUp Academy's Undress Me Too eyeshadow palette has had a lot of use this month. I have been loving the gold shades. The pigmentation is great and the palette only costs £4.00.

I love Clarins Double Serum. It gives my skin a boost and makes it appear more radiant. I have been using this a lot this month. It is expensive, but I think it is worth it.

Lolita Lempicka's Minuit Sonne is another fragrance I have been using quite a lot this month. I love the intense liquorice flower note in it. This is easily one of my top ten perfumes.

I have been loving my elf professional eyeshadow brush this month. It has been my go to brush for applying eye shadow. It is good quality and only costs £2.00.

I have finally started burning my Yankee Christmas Cookie candle this month and I love it. It is a sickly, bakery-sweet scent, but nothing I can't deal with. I have to say although I love Christmas Cookie, I love the Snowflake Cookie Yankee candle more, which I had last winter. It was a light pink colour and it was also a sickly, bakery-sweet scent. I haven't seen that one in the shops this year, but it is available on yankeecandle.co.uk.

Huge Make-up Haul, Lolita Lempicka Perfumes And Christmas Shopping!!

** CHRISTMAS PRESENT SPOILERS - PLEASE DON'T READ IF YOU ARE MY SISTER! **

After my last post where I mentioned a few make-up products that I wanted, I decided to have a look online and treat myself.

As usual I went a bit overboard and bought all of this!:

and that lot led to free gifts:

I ordered half from Boots and half from Superdrug and they both arrived in the post today.

I ordered the Zoella Let's Glow fragranced candle which I mentioned in my previous post and I also decided to get the Zoella Blissful Mistful fragranced body mist.
The candle was smaller than I expected, but it looks very cute. I started burning it straight away when it arrived today and it has a lovely scent.

I also ordered some Sleek products. I have never used their products before, but their packaging is gorgeous. I absolutely love it and the blushes are so small and cute. I bought two; one in shade Flamingo shown on the top row and another in Pixie Pink.
The lipstick from Sleek (shown top right) is a bit smaller than your average lipstick and it also comes in lovely matte black packaging. I ordered a bright red shade called Vixen.

I also got Rimmel's Apocalips lip gloss as I've read some really good reviews about it. I usually prefer to wear lipstick so hopefully this will make a nice change.

I am really pleased with Barry M's brow kit. I've never seen tweezers so cute. I haven't tried this out yet though.

I bought Rimmel's Brow This Way brow styling gel, which I have tried out and so far so good.

I haven't bought new Barry M Dazzle Dust pots for ages so I bought two in shades Bronze and Aphrodite.

I got a really pretty blush from MUA in shade Marshmallow. I have used their blush in the past before they changed their packaging and I'm liking the new packaging and looking forward to trying this one out.

I also ordered an MUA Power Pout lip crayon. It is in a shade called Broken Hearted.

I bought a bright red Smash Box Be Legendary lipstick in shade Legendary and it looks really nice. I love the packaging for this lipstick. It is square shaped and matte black.

In the silver packaging we have the Barry M lip stain paint. I bought mine in a shade called Eternal Coral number 428. It is difficult choosing a shade from a website and I'm not sure if I'm going to suit this one.

I also ordered a lip crayon from the Boots brand 17 or Seventeen as they're now calling themselves. I got it in a shade called Back To The Fuchsia and it is very bright. I have been wearing this one this evening. It has a bit of shimmer in it, which I'm not really keen on. I only bought it because I am getting an addiction to lip crayons and this one was only £2.00!

On the subject of lip crayons I also bought two Bourjois Color Boost Glossy Finish Lipsticks in crayon form. I bought them in shades 05 Red Island and 06 Plum Russian.
I put the plum one on earlier and I love it. It looks lovely on and has a slight gloss to it, but it isn't sticky. I have a feeling these will be taking over in my make-up bag very quickly.

Finally I ordered a Chanel Rouge Coco Hydrating Crème Lip Colour lipstick in shade 19 Gabrielle. It is a shade of red so I'm looking forward to trying this one out as well.

I have never tried either of the free mascaras before so I look forward to trying them out. The Barry M Show Girl mascara tube feels quite heavy.
The other mascara is Rimmel's Lash Accelerator Endless mascara, which I tried out earlier on my bottom lashes only as I already had mascara on my top lashes. So far so good, but it is difficult to say without giving it a proper go.


Moving on from make-up I ordered the beloved shoes from New Look.

I said in my previous post that you'll either love them or hate them.. My sister said, "They are literally the ugliest shoes I've ever seen. I can't see an occasion that you'd be able to wear them in public where people can see you." Haha! That made me laugh! I don't mind that she hates them. I think they'll look great with a pair of black tights and a nice autumnal dress.
I ordered them from New Look's website 30 seconds after my last post and I used the click and collect service. When I got them home I couldn't stop looking at them.
I'm a size 5 in flats (4 in heels if you're thinking of buying me shoes) and these do look rather long and thin I have to admit, so if you're a larger size they're going to get more and more ugly the larger your feet are. I still love them though! I'm really excited to wear them!

I also went to Debenhams last week and tried on the coat I had my eye on.

I love the colour and I love the style, but it is too long for me. It comes past my knees and I felt as though it made me look fat so I had to leave it and the search continues for a beautiful coat for the winter. 

I mentioned my excitement at the new Lolita Lempicka release, Minuit Sonne in my previous post and I did attempt to buy it from Debenhams' website the other day, but it wouldn't allow me to pay with the £50 giftcard I have and I googled it and it has been a problem with their website for years and they haven't fixed it so that upset me. I have been to two huge Debenhams branches near me in the past week and neither of them had this fragrance and I can't find it anywhere else. It means I will probably have to order it online with cash and keep my voucher for something else that I can buy in store, which seems ridiculous.

To cheer myself up after such a tragic ordeal I bought a long term item on my Amazon wishlist: Lolita Lempicka Midnight Couture Black

I absolutely adore the other midnight fragrances from Lolita Lempicka so I really hope this one is as good. I'm so excited about it coming. I'm very wary about buying fragrances from Amazon as they're often sold by independent sellers who have feedback that suggest they're selling fakes and believe me there are more fakes out there than you think.
This fragrance is dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
I am so excited to receive this. I'm having visions of an email coming through saying it is unavailable as it feels too good to be true. I probably should have ordered this a long time ago.

I do find the midnight fragrances a bit confusing as the box just says, 'Eau de Minuit - Midnight Fragrance' on most of them and there are 11 different midnight fragrances in the famous apple shaped bottles, which is a bit crazy, but they smell so good. 

I like the idea of the black leaves on the top of the bottle.


My favourite Lolita Lempicka fragrance is Minuit Passion. It is sweet, but very powdery at the same time and it definitely has a midnight feel to it. Although it is sweet it is sexy, sultry and mysterious too. You really have to try it for yourself.
Something I don't like about Midnight Passion is the bottle.

It looks nice enough in this picture, but that's not what it really looks like. The bottle and the red metal detailing look much darker in real life. The photo below was with the taken with the flash on and the bottle still looks rather dull and lifeless; very different to the photo above, but the fragrance is amazing and that is what matters.
I actually wrote out my top 10 fragrances and this was one of them and I have over around 200 fragrances now (too many I know, forgive me - I'm a shopaholic)!

Finally I know it might seem a bit early, but I have been desperate to get the majority of my Christmas shopping done as I'm going to the German Christmas Markets in December and don't want to be watching the pennies while I'm away, worrying about Christmas shopping that I haven't done.
I started a while ago and yesterday I went to Lush to get my sister some goodies as she adores their range. I know some people might not think it's ok to buy bath bombs etc. over two months in advance of giving them to someone as a gift, but I think it is so hopefully she will too.

I looked on their website before I went to the shop because I wanted to have a good idea of what I wanted.

I got:

Candy Mountain bubble bar £2.95

Christmas Eve bubble bar £2.95

Dashing Santa bath bomb £2.95

The Christmas Penguin bubble bar £3.25

Northern Lights bath bomb £3.50

 Snow Fairy shower gel 100g £3.75/ 250g £7.50/ 500g £11.95

The bag of goodies smelled amazing! I'm so pleased with what I got. I hadn't planned to buy the Christmas Eve bubble bar and was instead going to get a bath bomb, but I couldn't find the one I had in mind and I was also disappointed that I couldn't find Sparkler bath bomb (£3.50).

I would love to try this one and the Northern Lights one. I love the shape, but I'd be gutted if my sister's broke before I give it to her. I've already packed all of the bath stuff up in a bubble wrap lined box and gift wrapped it.

I'm so excited to give them to her. She never reads my blog, but typically I bet she randomly logs on tomorrow and ruins her surprise!

Jimmy, Juicy and my MUA delivery!

Today I have been weak.
I was on allbeauty.com and when I saw that they had this year's Jimmy Choo Exotic in a hard to find 100ml bottle I had to have it. At the unbelievable price of £34.95 there is nothing I could have done to stop myself.

I thought I would be able to afford a little mistake like this, but then disaster struck. An email from Debenhams came through saying I could have 10% off with a voucher code if I paid with my Debenhams credit card and I made the mistake of having a look at their fragrances and noticing that Juicy Couture's summer releases, Juicy Couture Malibu and Couture La La Malibu were on offer.
The 150ml bottle, which usually costs £63.00 was only £42.00 plus with 10% off that would be £37.80 so I was going to buy both, but then it emerged that the 10% voucher code could not be used on beauty or fragrance so I just bought Juicy Couture Malibu - the orange one for £42.00. I also should be getting a free beach towel with it.

I noticed when I added both fragrances to my basket only one free towel was added, whereas I once ordered three DKNY fragrances from thefragranceshop.co.uk and three free bags were added to my basket and received so Debenhams lose points from me twice today.
I tend to put free gifts like these on ebay and I usually get quite a good price for them. I once got around £20.00 for a free Marc Jacobs umbrella, which makes my fragrance purchases feel a lot cheaper.

I received my make-up order from MUA that I mentioned in a recent post..
The eye palette looks amazing, but it's not for me - I'll have to get one for myself next time.
The matte lipstick (in white packaging) is great. It looks and feels natural and is better lasting than their normal lipsticks (in black).

The face primer is a bit weird. I'm not a fan to be honest. It feels a little bit greasy at first, but rubs into my skin easily and your skin still looks bare. I just don't like the texture.

The eyelid primer was what I was most looking forward to as a replacement for my Benefit Lemon Aid and it works well, but it seems to be a more intense yellow colour than Lemon Aid and I much prefer Lemon Aid.
I sometimes used to wear Lemon Aid on its own on my eyelids with no eye shadow, but I feel like this one is a bit too yellow to wear on its own. I suppose it isn't bad for the price and it does the job, but I do still want another Lemon Aid.

Here are my swatches - the top one is the primer then left to right the pro-base prime and conceal, number 16 lipstick and Fawn Fancy matte lipstick.

MUA!

Before my recent Avon order has even arrived I have managed a mini haul online at muastore.co.uk.

You can buy make-up by MUA or MakeUp Academy from Superdrug stores, but I couldn't find the eyelid primer I wanted in any of their stores so I ordered two online as the reviews are so good I'm convinced it'll be great. It is supposed to be just like Benefit's Lemon Aid, which I love, but costs £15.00 more.

I have tried a few MUA products. They are really cheap and great quality. I have the Undressed eye shadow palette, which is fantastic and only costs £4.00. The shadows are really pigmented. It is a dupe for the Urban Decay Naked palette, which I have used, but I don't own. I'd say MUA's version is just as good.
I have used worse eye shadows from the likes of MAC and Dior.
I have just bought MUA's Heaven and Earth Palette for my sister-in-law.

I quite like MUA's lipsticks (a bargain at just £1.00 each) and have nearly all of the shades that they make. I ordered shade 16, which I hadn't been able to find instore. It's a lovely deep peachy, pink colour.
I also ordered one of their matte lipsticks to try in shade Fawn Fancy. They are also only £1.00 each. To be honest I'm not expecting much from the matte lipstick.

I have also tried their blusher and lip pencils, which are also just £1.00 and I liked.
They make nail polishes, which are also £1.00, but I've read reviews saying that these are poor so I have never bothered with  them.

My final purchase was MUA's face primer, which was just £4.00. They do a few different primers and the one I chose has very cheap-looking packaging in my opinion, but I'll give it a go and let you know what I think.

Spring is in my step!

I'm loving pastel colours for spring. I really fancy the Pretty Pastels palette by MUA or MakeUp Academy.

It's available from Superdrug or online at muastore.co.uk for just £4.00.
I have the Undressed palette by MUA and the eye shadows are highly pigmented, transfer onto your skin easily and they are lovely colours.

The Pretty Pastels palette has lovely, pretty colours in it.

I bought these shoes from modatoi.co.uk today and I love them. They are such a pretty colour and aren't very high so they will be perfect for going shopping or for days out. I can't wait to wear them. They were only £11.70 reduced from £16.70.

I also ordered a new perfume today, Tous Touch. It's a lovely, floral scent.
Last year while we were on holiday in Europe my fiancé picked this out for me in a perfume shop, but we didn't buy it. It reminds me of that holiday. I can't wait to wear it!