Thursday 24 November 2011

new purchases

I thought I'd let you know what I've recently bought...

In time for Christmas I bought these, I thought it'd be nice to make them with my little brother!

I bought these from Whittard's the tea company, I've never heard of them before but they have a really lovely shop on Buchanan Street in Glasgow.

I also popped into Benefit in House of Fraser and bought their Silky-Finish lipstick in breathless, thanks to Jen for pointing it out to me!



Without flash

With flash. Neither really show the true colour of this but it's a pretty plum shade, but is quite warm. It's vampy and sexy! I love the packaging too.

Been shopping at Accessorize and I got these lovely shoes, I can't wait to wear them out, I thin they flatter my lipstick, if that's possible.

I got a matching necklace and earring set and they also match my shoesies, bad picture the metal looks gold but it's like an antique silver.

Do you like my little bracelet set? There's a bronze butterfly and bird and a little gold flower emblem type thing. Very cute and casual.


The Body Shop, I got The Sparkler All over body shimmer. It's very pretty but I squeezed the atomizer thing bit with the blocker still on and then I took it off and loads came gushing out, this was when I was on the train it was all over me and the floor, I didn't even do anything at first, just stared at it!

Such a pretty bottle!


I bought this brush set for £25, the contents are worth £42. I checked this out too and they did add up to that. Yay!


Also bought the hemp hand cream as I've heard good things. It smells really horrible but it worked really well and I've got this random patch of eczema on my hand and I've never had it before! This dries really quickly, so you can put your gloves back on straight away. Phew!

I also bought a foot file, because my feet are so dry and cracked, a nail file because I'm really enjoying having long nails, the vitamin e eye cream, which was great since under my eyes can get quite dry and Divide and Multiply mascara in black. I had accidentally bought it in brown a few days before as I didn't even think before buying it. Unfortunately, I had opened it but the lady in the body shop told me I could have returned it if I hadn't. This is my perfect mascara I like this kind of brush rather than the sort of fuzzy brushes that just coat it on with no definition.


Finally, to de-stress from all this shopping I bought some of these, I love them! Don't know how to pronounce them though... Montagne Jeunesse???
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So, what have you all been buying? x

Wednesday 23 November 2011

Weekend and November Glossy Box

This won't be a very interesting post, I am feeling sad and stupid and terrible and everything because I am going through a break up.
I got November Glossy Box in and I was kind of disappointed.





I didn't like the nail stickers, because red doesn't suit me I tried to use one but it wouldn't stick, maybe I was doing it wrong.




I am quite glad to have the dead sea spa magik bath salts. I think this box revolves round winter skin care.

I have never heard of Monu before and I was impressed with how quickly this sunk in, like a serum. I looked this up and for the 50ml which is what was sent in the box is £16. Normally after using something like this I hope to see a visible difference but I didn't really, I might persevere or use it under a moisturiser.
I have used the FC5 Cooling Foot Creme for two nights and I quite like it, it's nice just before bed because my feet are always so warm. It was a bit of a coincidence because before I got home I had just bought a foot file from The Body Shop because my feet are seriously dried and cracked, they look really good now but I think this is due to the foot file and not the cream as it's not very moisturising.


I had a really nice weekend, well, apart from Sunday night. My friend Jen took my out to cheer me up. We went to TGI Friday's and then this really gorgeous cocktail bar called Blue Dog in Glasgow city centre. It had a great pianist and even a guy going round doing card tricks, it was really entertaining and he went round every table.




Before I went out with Jen me and my mum went to the Christmas fair in our little town. I didn't get to see the lights getting turned on unfortunately, but I saw them when I got home later that night. I picked up a lot of food, cheeses, butterscotch shortbread, gingerbread and mince pies. I got some bars of soap too.





Just before I met Jen I bought some new shoes from M&Co. They can be quite surprising, and there was a 3 day period with 20% off so instead of paying £38 I got them for £30.40. Pretty good, I wore them out that night but thankfully I brought a pair of flats because I had to change eventually!


Hope everyone had a good weekend!

Friday 18 November 2011

on a health kick



Lots of smoothies, fresh juice, actimel, some sort of banana bread thing, it has dried fruit and stuff in it but it's all mushed, like it's pureed you would have no idea they were there, some banana chips mixed with walnut halves and little bits of fudge which I got the idea from when I ordered a Graze Box. First orders free, you have to set up a direct debit but you can cancel whenever. They send you different things the banana chips, walnut pieces with little bits of fudge was the only thing I liked but it was much cheaper to just buy all the ingredient to make it myself. Anyway, a great healthy snack. I also got some peanut bars, I've no idea what makes them stick together but they taste just like m&ms but with lots less calories and fat. It made me laugh when I read the back, 'This product may contain traces of peanut'. Haha, good! These are all perfect right now because I have completely lost my appetite recently, I'm just kind of thirsty, I'm hoping to have a nice healthy glow and to lose some weight for Christmas! BTW my Fifi Lapin bag was perfect for carrying it all in.
I normally try and have some sort of plan to look my best for Christmas and the New Year, do you all have health kick plans? I always think that this is the best time to eat less even though it's colder.
Christmas music has started playing on the music channels, it's freezing, I finish Uni in two weeks (I get the longest holiday ever because in first year there's no exams). I'm preparing my New Year look as Christmas day is with family and it's a day to be cosy in cute knits. I'll do a post soon on what I'll be wearing/using to make New Year sparkly and special.

Tuesday 15 November 2011

Bobbi Brown

Last week after Uni I walked over to House of Fraser which is conveniently a five minute walk between the two.
That morning I finally ran out of my Clinique Superbalanced foundation in Alabster, I could no longer bang any out of it without it hurting my hand.
So, I didn't really know what I was going to get, I just presumed I'd get the same thing again. However, across from the Clinique counter was a Bobbi Brown counter, I went over and had a look at the foundations and a Sales Assistant approached me, her name was Louise. I quite happily let her help me because I don't buy foundation without trying it and having a professional apply it and help you choose a matching colour is the least you should do.
We decided to use both a foundation and a concealer, I told Louise I am no good at using concealer, that it always looks cakey and sometimes flakey. So she said she'd show me how to use it properly.
Based on my skin condition which can get dry sometimes when I neglect it we went for the Moisture Rich Foundation SPF15 in Porcelain and the same shade for the Face Touch Up Stick. This is why it's important to test foundations, Bobbi Brown also has an Alabaster and I can't tell the difference in the online samples.





I love the packaging, nice and simple and I prefer the glass bottles.


Foundation and the concealer. They're pretty much an exact match in colour.



Blended in.


I thought that Clinique's Alabaster suited me really well but Bobbi Brown's is even better and far less drying on the skin. You can see they both look quite different, Bobbi Brown's has more yellow tones which is more flattering, Clinique, like other foundations I've seen have more pink tones and I don't understand because it makes me look more pale.


The finished product, just foundation and concealer.


Because my skin was pretty dry on the day I went to House of Fraser Louise used Buffing Grains around my eyebrows and she gave me a sample in a tiny tub but I used the smallest amount and the tub looked untouched.
Now this got me so excited when I used it. My skin was actually clearer than it has ever been and the pores on my nose looked so much smaller. It's the best exfoliator I've ever used and Louise says the full size jar should last about a year. All you do is mix with your favourite cleanser or water, I used water.
I think some people may find it too scrubby but my skin can take it.
So, because I loved it so much I went back and bought the full sized jar along with the Rose Shimmer Brick that she used on my cheeks on the first day and Pale Pink Blush which Louise suggested due to it's blue pigment.



Buffing Grains



Rose Shimmer Brick



Blush in Pale Pink



Sample Rose Shimmer Brick and Pale Pink Blush. They are perfect for me because I have a lot of redness and the blue pigments help disguise this.
These are perfect on their own, the Pale Pink Blush for the day and at night add the Rose Shimmer. This is so perfect for highlighting and you can use the individual colours as eye shadow. Beautiful! Oh and the Pale Pink Blush isn't as bright as that that is a LOT on my finger, it's actually really natural.

Louise showed me how to apply the blushers in the best possible way, if you are not confident in applying these then a make-up artist at your favourite brands counter should be happy to help. At House of Fraser with Bobbi Brown you can book different lessons for free, so Louise gave me the number to get to her as I spoke to her both times and feel confident with how good she is. So in a few weeks I'll be going back to have my eyes made-up for a perfect Winter party look. Stay tuned!

Sunday 13 November 2011

WHAT? WATT BROTHERS?

Yeah, Watt Brothers. They have make-up and skin-care and hair products and rain-coats and plates!
But I'm just interested in the make-up today (more on plates later...)

So I decided to hit my local Watt Brothers because on a previous trip I noticed they had Stila make-up which I thought was pretty great. Unfortunately there wasn't any there this time but there was a lot more premium branded products than I remember.

First of all I was quite surprised that there was Calvin Klein make-up, because finding designer brands in shops like Watt Brothers is very suspect. My only conclusion is it's there because no-one else wanted it. Which usually means it's not going to be very good. So I decided this would be a good opportunity to see if this was true or not.

I didn't want to try any of the face make-up because I decided this would be a waste of money, I don't like trying to find skin-matching colours and prefer to let a professional at a make-up counter do this.

I went for two nail-polishes, a candy pink colour called hint of pink and a a dark, shimmery red/black called Opus.


I showed this to my mum, she says it's childish. The woman tells it how it is. I have to agree, some people can pull this off in a quirky way but even if I could I don't want to wear it.


OOOH I loved this one. I am very impressed indeed. It left beautiful little black veins and it is such a vampy colour it's really perfect for winter. When I first applied it, it was really watery and looked kind of brown and you couldn't see of the shimmer I was disappointed. But I carried on and after a bad start it actually only took three coats to achieve what's in the picture. The pink colour took two.
My biggest grievance is how long it took to dry. Three hours later I managed to peel off all of Opus but I like it so much I'll be keeping my fingers in freezing cold water in between each coat next time, I don't mind doing the leg work for something that looks good.


The next branded product was a Revlon Beyond Natural Cream to Powder Eye Shadow in Prune.


I knew instantly that this probably wouldn't suit me as the colours seem a bit orangey which just doesn't suit my red face.



They do have a really nice shimmer though, but I didn't really notice the cream turning to powder on application, it just seemed to stay creamy, which is fine for me, I prefer that.

Bottom to Top: samples from palette clockwise, starting from top-right

I thought the palette was OK, I quite liked the bottom and top left colours, actually I really liked the top left colour it was much less golden and warm than I expected it to be and more an ivory sort of colour on the skin.

On the back of the palette it gives directions on what to use each colour for and where to apply.

Next there was a brand I'd never heard of, Wet n Wild, beautybenefits, BeautyBrilliance blush in plum. I know that for red faces like mine that you should use a blue toned blusher and this Plum colour has almost lilac undertones.




When I opened this I was really surprised it came with a brush and a mirror, pretty good of them and I only paid £1.99 for this!



When I first saw this I thought it was maybe like an own brand or something made specifically for Watt Brothers but it turns out it isn't. So, if you're on a budget you should really check out Wet n Wild. I'm actually certain you'll find something you like and it also apparently boosts hydration and has a powerful age prevention formula so it has it all for someone who's a bit tight on money.

This primer by technic is another brand I thought was Watt Brother's. But nope, although they don't seem to have a website. OH and does it look veeeerrryyy familiar??



Benefit's 'That Gal'.


I actually thought that it was benefit products at first and got very excited. Until I inspected further and realised that the product I was viewing was not called High Beam but 'Light Beam'.
I wonder if Benefit were angry or even know of this?

Well anyway, I did not like this at all. I've used several primers and this did not have the same texture or effect as any of them. I have never used 'That Gal' before but I don't think this is anything like it because it was such poor quality. It didn't make my skin appear nice and soft, it didn't even feel soft. And after several hand-washes I was still really glittery. Not good.

I think a few of these are pretty good to be honest, I paid less than £15 for the lot. However, I do know that most of it I won't be wearing because I own things that suit me better but sometimes you can really find something great in these types of shops. The one thing I will be keeping and I think wearing quite regularly is the Opus nail polish and the rest I'd really like to give away sometime.

What do you think? Have you bought this sort of make-up before? Is there any small brands that I absolutely need to try?

Have a nice night!