Pop Beauty : Peach Patfait Bright Up Your Life

Fresh from this months BirchBox or should I say BirchBAG is the Pop Beauty eye shadow trio.

I was a little apprehensive about this eye shadow set when I first pulled it out of the bag. Being a converted MakeUpGeek eye shadow lover, I thought 'argh I bet they are going to be so chalky' but I was so so wrong!

These colours are so far from chalky I almost couldn't believe it. The original palette comes with not 3 (like the BirchBox sample) but 10 colours for £15.50! That, is a bargain.

The full palette looks like this...

(https://www.birchbox.co.uk/shop/pop-beauty-bright-up-your-life)

The palette in my birchBAG however had just three colours and can be seen below. The colour on the far left is a beautiful opal/white colour and also makes an amazing highlight.

The middle colour is a pink shade with flecks of gold making it a stunning rose gold colour and then finally the colour on the far right is a warm brown, again with undertones of gold. 

Here are some watches of the three shadows.

I seriously cannot fault these eyeshadows. The colours are beautiful, the texture is creamy and not the slightest bit chalky and the pigment is great. Then there is the added bonus that the whole palette is just £15.50! I serious bargain I think.

I would rate these as being on the same level as the MakeUpGeek shadows. And they are my fav eye shadows so that's saying a lot!,,

Shock up ladies and gents. This palette is a keeper! 

DLJ

Xoxo

July BirchBox ... BirchBAG!!

July's BirchBox came with a little twist. Rather than being in the traditional box, this months products came in a super chic pool ready bag.

There were a selection of four different coloured bags, St Tropez (Orange), Hydra (Green), Somerset (Yellow) and Ibiza (Pink). Mine was this beautiful Yellow which personally I feel should have been named SunShine instead of Somerset!

I have to admit, I was pretty disappointed with my June BirchBox, so there was a lot riding on this months selection.

Of the 6 items in my box, I used 3 within the first few hours, which is a pretty good sign of a good box!

Soigen Nail Lacquer - The first thing I reached for was the nail varnish (shocker) which is this AMAZING baby blue shade. at £11 a bottle, I would defiantly by this baby again and have already been eyeing up some of their other shades. I haven't had any issues with my nails become weak or chipping like I have had with other nail products such as LOLA Barcelona.

SpaToYou Nail Buffer - The perfect accessory to go with this nail colour was also in my bag. It has four different surfaces you can use while giving yourself a mini mani. 

Pop Cosmetics Eyeshadow Trio - When I first pulled out this next item, I was a little apprehensive. After being converted to Make Up Geek eyeshadows, I was worried these eye colours would be 'chalky' and dry. But they are incredible. I was so shocked when I discovered how creamy and pigmented they were! All three colours are beautiful. I will be doing a blog about this eye shadow palette specifically on Sunday along with swatches!

There are still three products that I am yet to try which are below, mainly because I haven't had the chance / opportunity to do so

1) Unani Aloe Vera Gel - great for using after long exposure to the sun to add extra moisture back into your skin.

2) Indemne Eau De Genie - 100% organic skin 'spritz' to enhance your usual cleanser.

3) Benefit Cosmetics Dream Screen - ultra lightweight, matte finish sunscreen. I'm excited to try this when I go off on honeymoon in September. I always hate applying sunscreen to my face as it can be so oily, but is so important to protect your face from the suns dangerous rays! 

My only 'nag' is that I have seen other boxes that have a Beauty Blender instead of the Nail Buffer and personally I would have much rather had the Beauty Blender. So that was a bit of a bummer but hey ho. 

Otherwise I am pretty happy with this months box. I will be doing more specific product blogs over the coming weeks. So keep your eyes pealed! The first will be the Pop Beauty Eyeshadow Trio this Sunday! 

DLJ

Xoxo

Cowshed : Knackered Cow

The Knackered Cow relaxing body lotion is packed with essential oils which include lavender and eucalyptus.

The bottle itself is pretty cute. Normally, they come in 300ml sizes, but this bottle came in my June BirchBox so is a 3rd of the size.

    

   

I have seen these products a few times, mainly in John Lewis and have always thought the packaging was really nice but never actually picked up a bottle, so I was quite excited to try this product out. The Cowshed range is centred around the therapeutic nature of botanical oils and are produced in England.

The blend of lavender and eucalyptus is designed to help you 'slow down and unwind'. According to the bottle, lavender helps to restore harmony whilst eucalyptus clarifies the mind. So with this in mind, I have been using this lotion before bed.

The lotion itself smells divine and really does help to relax and sooth you. My mum has always used lavender products before bed, so the smell remind me of sitting in bed reading or watching TV with my mum as a little girl after her lavender infused baths.

In terms of hydrating and moisturising, I would say that it is okay. After application, I wasn't blown away by how soft my skin felt. My favourite body moisturisers are from The Body Shop and I just didn't feel like Cowshed provided as much moisture to my skin. Don't get my wrong, my skin felt soft after application, I just didn't feel like it was a 'wow' moment, you know what I mean?

Price : on the John Lewis website, a 300ml bottle os £20. To be 100% honest, I can't see myself going and picking up a bottle of this once I have finished it. The smell is incredible but can be achieved by using oils and the moisture just isn't good enough for me to part with £20 for a bottle. Sorry Cowshed!

DLJ
Xoxo

STYLondon Tattoo's

As it was Glasto this weekend, it seems like a perfect time to discuss these amazing temporary tattoos from STYLondon. These sorts of tattoos seem to be EVERYWHERE especially as been as were are well and truly into festival season.

I used mine last weekend when I was on my hen party. I applied two tattoos from the selection I had which came in my BirchBox. I applied one to my inner wrist and one to the outer wrist (below).

Applying these tattoos took me straight back to my childhood days of applying those 'cool' black shapes and swirls. 

I really liked how both of the tattoos came out and the one on my outer wrist lasted for a few days (even with showering every day). Below you can see the tattoo after 3 days. The other one, on my inner wrist, didn't last so long purely because of where it was. It lasted around a day but that was due to the fact that I wash my hands a LOT. 

Price wise, STYLondon have a large range of products fitting any budget. Smaller packs start from £3.99 while larger packs go up to £7.99 (which still isn't exactly expensive). 

If you have a wonder around their website, STYLondon also have their own range of nail wraps, 3D nail (press on nails), nail accessories and mink lashes.

Their 3D nails are pretty cool and they have a huge range between £9-£25, my personal favourite being Primrose Hill

(http://www.stylondon.com/product/primrose-hill/)

Final thoughts…

Although I really liked these and they lasted really well, I don't really know when I would wear them other than for a festival or maybe a night out I guess? As I got them in my BirchBox, I will defiantly try to use them all, but I don't really know when else I would need them?

I'd love to hear when other people wear them too. Maybe I just need push the boat out a little bit more?

DLJ

Xoxo

Pixi Shea Butter Lip Balm

When I first picked this lip butter up out of my BirchBox, I have to admit, I though 'oh, this is gonna be way to dark for me and I'm never going to use it' and then I saw the price and thought REALLY!? £8 for a lip butter. But then....I tired it and everything changed.

Colour wise, this lip balm looks like it's going to be mega dark, which I really didn't want from a lip balm, however, when applied it's so beautiful. 

As you can see, on application the colour is actually quite neutral but adds just a hint of colour to make your lips look healthy and full. 

I have mine in the colour Honey Nectar, which is described as 'true nude' on the Pixi Website. You can build up the colour if you keep adding a few layers. pix

(http://www.pixibeauty.co.uk/shea-butter-lip-balm)

As well as being a pretty in colour, these lip balms provide amazing moisture and are not sticky at all. The texture is so smooth and the colour stays on quite well. I topped up two or three times a day to keep my lips really soft. Sometimes I find that lip balms actually make my lips worse because when you stop using it for a day or so, your lips get SUPER dry and chapped. Does that happen to anyone else or is that just me?

Anyway, even when I missed a day of using this, because the moisture was so good from the previous times I used it, my lips stayed looking and feeling really smooth.

The packaging is also so cute. I love the pinks and greens together. It's quite playful but not too childish. 

The only thing left to discuss is the price. At £8 it is still pretty steep even though it does giver great moisture and a cute colour. Currently this balm is on special over on Beauty Bay for £6, which is so much more reasonable!! If they were always £6 I would stock up, and think I will pick up 1 or 2 while are on special.

DLJ
Xoxo

New make up geek colours!

Four new Make Up Geek (MUG) colours arrived into my life this weekend! I ordered a few colours and a Z palette for my mum to try and decided to add a few more to my collection. I mean, it would be rude not to as been as the parcel was coming all the way from America haha.

I have been trying to expand out with my colour range as I seem to have loads of blues and nude colours. I decided on Chickadee, Prom Night, Poison Ivy  and Burlesque.

As you can see below, I had a mix of the old and new style packaging in my order. The new style is the one with the lines and the older style is the swirls.

(far left Poison Ivy, 

top middle Burlesque, 

far right Prom Night, 

bottom middle Chickadee)

A little bit about the colours: (www.makeupgeek.com)
Chickadee is a Matte Yellow Orange shade.
Poison Ivy in a shimmery medium green
Burlesque is a metallic muted burgundy with warm undertones (and is my favourite out of the four)
Prom Night is a pale purple with hints of grey and a shimmery finish
                                                                

Below is a swatch of a four colours. I have to admit, if them all, chickadee seemed to have the least pigment. For the other three I just has to run my finger in them once to get the colour swatch you can see. With chickadee I had to rub it three or four times to get the colour and it isn't that intense. But to be far I see a lot of people use this as a transitioning colour so I'll see how I get on with it when I d a make up look. 

(With Flash.

Left to Right:

Chickadee

Prom Night

Burlesque

Poison Ivy)

(Without Flash.

Left to Right:

Chickadee

Prom Night

Burlesque

Poison Ivy)

First impressions:

I love Burlesque. Out of all four this is my favourite. It's so deep and instese. Poison Ivy has so really nice undertones and I think is going to be really beautiful on as I have a touch of green in my eyes. I really like Prom Night, but I'm not sure how it's going to look on me. And finally, Chickadee. This was the colour I was most looking forward to as its so different to anything else I own. The pigment wasn't a strong as I was hoping so fingers crossed it doesn't let me down when to comes to make up looks  

Short a sweet blog post today my lovelies. Cannot wait to start creating some new looks with these colours and those already in my palette! 

DLJ

Xoxo

Laura Mercier Smooth Finish Flawless Fluide Product Review

Over the past week I have been trying the Laura Mercier Smooth Finish Flawless Fluide foundation in Vanille.

I wanted to try out this foundation as I already use their primer (below) and have been really impressed with how much current foundation sits and stays in place.

I wanted a foundation that appeared matte as I have quite oily sections of my skin so hate anything that makes your skin look 'dewy' as it makes me feel like I have greasy skin. The lady at John Lewis recommended the Smooth Finish Flawless Fluide. To my surprise, I actually wasn't the lightest shade they had in their range! Normally when I buy a new foundation, I just go straight to the lightest shade and go with that. Not being the lightest shade for once was actually quite nice. 

                     (Sample bottle) 

This foundation is so light weight that it needs to be shaken very well before application or the formula with separate (which isn't pretty!). The colour match to my skin is perfect. I find that sometimes being so pale can make it quite difficult to find  good colour match as products that have too much of a yellow or pink undertone look REALLY yellow or pink on me. 

On application,  I found that when it dried it had a powder finish, which I really liked. It was also really easy to blend and can offer good coverage with build up. Even though I had to build up coverage, on days where I didn't apply so much, my foundation still lasted just as long. 

Before:

After:

I'm really in two minds about the formula. I liked the fact that it was light weight, so it does look 'caked' on when you apply and also that you can build up the layers. This is especially nice now that summer is well and truly here (for the time being) as it means for hotter days I can apply a thinner layer. It also means that when I am having a bad skin day I can build up the coverage. 

However, because the formula was so thin, I found that I needed to apply quite a lot when I as building up. The lady in the shop recommended using a pea sized amount as 'it spreads really far' but I needed more like 2 or 3 pea sized amounts. But when I come to think of it, did I really use that much more than I use of my current foundation? I don't think so. It was just significantly more than was recommended in store, which leads me to think that maybe I need a slightly thicker foundation which offers more foundation from their range?

Back onto the pros…I found that the foundation smoothed into my skin really nicely and I didn't get any spots where the make up clumped or stuck to and it didn't settle into my fine lines. With the foundation I use at the moment, I do find that by the end of the day, the foundation has set into my frown line, but I found that this foundation was far less obvious. 

I did think that fact that I was using it with their own brand primer will have also made a difference, so for blogging science, I also used this with the Benefit poreFESSIONAL primer and the results were pretty much the same. 

As I mentioned above, I think the only downfall to this foundation is the amount I had to use to build up to the coverage that I wanted. 

Price wise, this foundation is £35 for a 30ml bottle. I think that's pretty reasonable given the fact that it really does last well during the day. I don't work in an office, I am out and about visiting clients so I am constantly changing environments from hot to cold, sun to rain, and this foundation lasted well. 

All in all? I love the colour match and the holding power, but I am worried about how much I have to use and if I will go through this bottle too quickly.

I think for me, I need to head back to John Lewis and see if they have something a little thicker.

DLJ

Xoxo