March monthly empties....

Another good month for empties!

Products I re-purchased: I had a back up of the Botanics eye make-up remover, I'm a big big fan of this stuff. I also had a back up of my deodorant and Vitamin E moisturiser like every month. I re-purchased my Rimmel tan too - this is just a night out staple to give my legs a bit of colour! I actually finished a foundation this month which I was thrilled with! And even though I've got quite a stash of foundations sitting in a draw, I went back to Bourjois and re-purchased healthy mix which is quite something considering I hated it when I first bought it!

Products I've changed: You might be able to see the tiny stub of a Mac Kohl eyeliner pencil in Smoulder on the right hand side of the pic...this is my fourth re-purchase of this and sadly my last. I've got a spare sat in my draw and I will use it up when the occasion suits but it's definitely no longer my favourite kohl pencil, it's been blown out of the water by the Soap and Glory pencil which I did a review on here. Also, as much as I loved the Witch primer, I've recently purchased the new Revlon photo ready primer which I'll be doing a review on soon and so far I'm loving. 

Finally the last thing of note is the Str-Vectin eye cream. This stuff is INCREDIBLE! I got it in a GlossyBox ages ago and literally can't praise it highly enough, apart from the hefty £45 price tag so unfortunatly have had to settle for a cheaper alternative. One day though, I'll definitely be re-buying this! 

Anyone else had a successful empties month?

Loves

xxx

Weekly review....Clarisonic Refining Skin Polish....

I'm the first one to admit I'm not wildly into skin care, if I find something I like and it's a cheapy then I'm thrilled, and luckily my current skin care is all very reasonably priced and suits me perfectly. I got this in a GlossyBox a few months ago and it got pushed to the back of a draw with me thinking it wouldn't be any different to my current skincare. HOW WRONG I WAS...

This claims it's for all skin types. I have combination to oily skin and it suits mine perfectly. It's a polish rather than a scrub, and contains Jojoba beads that really gently polish and soften the skin. It's not harsh, has a really light scent, and foams lightly on the skin. They advise using a Clarisonic Body Brush and I guess this would really enhance it's foaminess (if that's a real word) but personally I fine it really effective just using my fingers. 

I've been using this for a couple of weeks now, you only need a tiny bit so it's lasting ages, and my skin really has cleared up from any little breakouts I was having, it's brighter, and I find my foundation and makeup going on a lot better after I've used it.

I've not yet looked at the price of this for a full bottle as I know for a fact I'll be repurchasing when my sample has run out, but I don't think I'm ready to know how much it's going to cost me!

Has anyone else got this as a sample and tried it? 

Would you recommend any other Clarisonic products?

Loves

xxx

Top products of 2011....

Well as my blog is still a baby and less than a year old, I've spent a lot of the past 10 months discovering lots of new things so here's what I recon come top of the 2011 class (warning: it's a biggie!)


Haircare: KMS California came in one of this years Glossybox's and has turned into my go-to product for putting through the ends of my (towel dried) hair to not only help protect it from heated appliances but to help lock in colour. Batiste XXL Volume needs no other introduction other than to say I LOVE this and were I to (painstakingly) put the entire contents of this blog into some sort of order, it would probably come out top! And lastly my good old tangle teezer: not just a normal hair brush!

Skincare: This moisturiser has been one of my products of the last few years but I'm still in a long term relationship with it therefore I though I'd better include it. No other moisturiser has touched my skin for the past 12 months. The Body Shop night cream has been a revelation after switching from an all purpose moisturiser to a separate one for day and night. Oh and as for a little extra in my skin care - Soap and Glory Scrub Your Nose In It. I challenge you to find a better drug store exfoliater! 

Makeup: I'll try and keep this simple as there are SO many. For face it has to be the Benefit Porefessional along with the Revlon Photo Ready foundation, my bobby brown corrector and the Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection concealer. I've loved Topshops bronzer in global for most of the year, and been blushing with the aid of Vivo blush (not sure on the colour) and MeMeMe in coral throughout the summer months. My favourite eye products of the year have to be HD brows thanks (again) to GlossyBox, Bourjois Volumizer mascara and the Maybelline gel eyeliner pot. Lips is a tough one but it has to be the Lush lip scrub which has been a life saver, along with my Mac lipstick in Saint Germain and Topshop lipstick in Brighton Rock. I've only just started getting into brushes, but my favourite are the stippling brush and powder brush from the Samantha Chapman Real Techniques range, and my Mac 217. 

Perfume: My signature scent has continued to be Burberry, but I'd say my ultimate perfume of the year has to be D&G 10. 

What has everyone else loved in the year of 2011? Have any of these products made your top lists?

Loves

xxx

Weekly review....HD Brow kit ....

I don’t quite know how to put my excitement into words…sad but true. I recently, like a lot of you out there, received the September GlossyBox which came to face some fairly mixed reviews. I myself wasn’t too sure when I opened it as only the HD brows stood out as being a ‘wow’ product.

My eyebrows are a ‘must do’ element of my face every morning. In fact they are a bit of a laughing point among my friends who enjoy hearing my tales of waking up next to boyfriends in the early stages of relationships and having the instant panic of ‘shit my eyebrows’ then having to carefully reach over to my bag to grab my eyebrow pencil for some DIY brow maintenance before they wake up (note: this was a while ago, I'm not as bad anymore!)

Considering I have such dark hair, my eyebrows are pale and half the length of most (normal) peoples so I definitely need to pay them a lot of care and attention and I’ve purchased many different products to help with this in the past. I recently had my brows waxed and tinted to try and define them a bit more and you can read all about that here. I always have swear by the Rimmel eyebrow pencil in either 001 Dark Brown or 002 Hazel depending on my makeup look, and swap between my Gosh eyebrow kit and Elf eyebrow powder and wax. All of this gets finished off with a sweep of the Gosh eyebrow gel and I’m (finally) good to go.

What I don’t enjoy is, after spending this much time on them of a morning, finding that they’ve smudged, disappeared, gone wonky during the day or, even worse, night out! So when I heard that the HD palette would last for 24 hours on my brows, and only come off when I wanted it to, I was more than a little bit excited. I wasn’t sure on the colours at first and immediately went for the darkest shade, carbon. This was probably a bit too dark but as it was a night out I got away with it. I danced, I sweated, I laughed till I cried. I even stayed up until 5am with mates, then was awake at 9am to watch the rugby. On waking up (next to a hot guy but I won’t go into the details of that….cheeky!) I thought ‘SHIT, EYEBROWS’. Peering into the blackened screen of my blackberry as some sort of mirror, I noticed that, shock horror and absolute joy! THEY WERE STILL ON MY FACE!

Anyway to cut the above (very long) story short, HD Brows do what they say on the tin. I used the palette again today in the lighter shade and it matched me perfectly so there really is a shade for everyone. They are seriously pigmented so maybe need a light hand and a bit of practice if you’re not used to doing your brows like this, and can also be used as eyeshadows or eyeliner. Bonus! I can’t rave about this product enough and I would like to thank GlossyBox for introducing me to a product I would probably never have tried otherwise!

Did anyone else love their HD Brow kit from GlossyBox?

Loves

xxx