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

My first BirchBox

This month saw the arrival of my first BirchBox! I decided to leave it right until the last minute to order the May box (31st May) but it arrived today (3rd June) so I'm really impressed with its speedy delivery. 

My only bug bear was that because I ordered on the last day of the month, my June subscription also came out on the same day. Not the end of the world. But I wanted to try a box first before committing to another one. However now I have my first box, I can say I'm not fussed at all as I'm really happy with what I received. 

I love the little bag inside the box with all of the contents inside. There seems to be so much thought gone into these little boxes. I'm hooked already!!

Before looking at what's in the box, I wanted to take a moment to look at the box itself. The theme for this months box was 'free your mind' and the design was the outline of some shapes ready to colour. Which I started colouring straight away (yes I'm that cool). It seemed like a great idea at the time, but oh my days the lines are so tiny and thin. After around an hour I ended up giving up haha. 

So now to the goodies. The contents of the box. 

Nails 

The first thing I was drawn to was the LOLA Barcelona nail varnish in the colour Rambla which is a BirchBox exclusive. It's a really beautiful coral colour and I can't wait to try it. Perfect for summer! 

Skin wise...

Next thing to come out of the box is the Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser. I've used this before, but it's so damn cute that I can't wait to try it out again. 

Nude Treatment oil with Omega 3, 6, 7 & 9. I already take Omega supplements and they have made a huge difference to my skin, so I'm looking forward to seeing the effects of this! 

Finally, Caudalie Vinperfect Radiance Tinted Moisturiser. I'm not a massive fan of tinted moisturisers, mainly because I've never found one I've actually like! But I'll give it a try and see what it's like none the less. 

Hair 

Number 4 Lumiere d'Hiver Reconstructing Masque. I've never heard of this brand before! Love trying something new.

Parlour Moisturising Sea Salt Spray. Again another brand I've not heard of before. I've used sea salt sprays in the past and loved them! 

Beauty/ make up  

A real blast from the past for me. I remember buying Jelly Pong Pong brushes many moons ago when I was still at school! I actually didn't think they were still going, so will be interesting to give this a whirl! 

I can't wait to start trying all of these products and doing some reviews! Roll on June BirchBox is all I say!!!

DLJ

Xoxo 

GOSH Cosmetics Velvet Touch lipstick

Another new GOSH product added to my collection comes on the form of their Velvet Touch Lipstick in Exotic ( number 82). After being pretty blown away with their cheap and cheerful lip liners, I thought it was only right to try one of their lipsticks too (especially as been as they were £2 off at Superdrug)  

I really love it when I see people wearing bold lip colours and rarely wear them myself. Not because I don't have the confidence to, but because they are high maintance. 

                         

      

But I loved this colour so much I just couldn't resist. I actually loved it so much I bought the lip liner to match (below). The lip liner I picked up is also from the GOSH Velvet Touch range and is in Flirty Orange. They are a match made in heaven! 

                                      

The lipstick is so smooth and glides on really easily and doesnt dry out or crack like some cheap lipsticks do. The colour also applies nice and evenly to give you a full, beautiful lip. I also found that they were not sticky. I absolutely hate sticky lipsticks and glosses, they drive me nuts as my hair gets stuck in them all the time etc. 

     

          

The colour lasted so well with these products. I was really impressed. Even with a few coffe breaks I found I needed minimal touch ups. 

One of the other things I liked about these products is their packaging. It's really simple but looks classic and understated. 

These really are a great little purchase. They are mega cheap and last as long as some of my more expensive lipsticks. 

Stock up while you can! These babies are here to stay in my make up collection!!

DLJ

Xoxo