I'm Baaaack

I've been away from my blog for a while due to being incredibly busy but I'm back now and ready to get back into the swing of things. I thought I would start of with a little haul as I popped to the Trafford Centre last night.

First of all I went into Home Bargains and picked up some Vie products. I saw these the other day and picked up one of the Future Focus Age Prevention Day Lotion and the Above and Beyond Anti Ageing Elixirs, they were only 99p each so I thought they were worth a try. I've been using them for just short of a week and the day lotion especially is really good and left my skin feeling moisturised and soft and most of all no reactions so I went back and grabbed a couple more, they had absolutely loads of these on the shelves.

I also picked up the eye brightener, its just a light coloured eyeliner but again this was only 99p so I thought I would try it.

Next I actually went into the Trafford Centre, I went into Debenhams first and spotted these. I looked at these last year when they were full price at £29, I was really tempted to buy one but the urge to buy make up instead overtook and I ended up getting the Naked 2 palette instead. I'm glad I didn't now as they had a whopping 70% off them and now are only £8.70. Bargain or what? I picked up 2, I've tried this brand before and really like their products and again no reactions to my skin.

 

The Cleansing Facial Wash alone is £8.85 on the Debenhams website. The breakdown of the prices of these are

Cleansing Facial Wash - £8.85
Rich Moisturizer - £7.75
Mild Exfoliator- £7.75
Super Night Cream - £8.30
Algimud Face Mask £3.85 (I couldn't find this on the Debenhams website but it is this price on Holland & Barrett)
Total cost if bought separately - £36.50
I think I got a total bargain for £8.70 and I would definitely recommend having a look at your local Debenhams if you like products like this as they are really good products.

Finally I went into Boots as they currently have a 3 for 2 offer on make up and accessories.

I got the Revlon Photoready foundation in shell, the Real Techniques shading brush and a Revlon Lipgloss in Bellini. I haven't tried the foundation or the brush yet but I have tried the lipgloss. I love the colour and the fact it isn't sticky but the smell is vile. If your ever looking at these glosses I would say have a sniff of them first as I think alot of people may be put off by this, especially as it will be right under your nose when you wear it. 
The total cost for these items was £20.98

I'm pretty happy with my purchases, and I can't wait to try out the Revlon foundation. I've heard mixed reviews on this one so I will put a review up once I've given it a good go.

Have you found any bargains recently?

Wonder Foot Cream under £1.50?

I thought I would share my little foot care secret with you all today. I have a bit of a thing about feet (a thing as in I can stand them not can I touch your feet please) so I try to look after my feet really well, the thought of having bad feet does turn my stomach.
I've tried loads of foot creams over time and I needed a new one, I spotted this little pot of cream at Boots for only £1.29, its called Smith's Creamolia and claims to soften hands and skin with its non-greasy formula. I thought for £1.29 it was definitely worth a go. 

The packaging is nothing special and looks like something your grandma might have used when she was a young'un. The smell isn't overly pleasant either if I'm honest, it smells quite medicated to me so I wouldn't use it on my hands or anywhere else on my body but as my feet are the furthest part of my body from my face its fine for them.
The first time I used it I put a small amount onto my feet before bed, a little goes a really long way so you do only need a small amount, when I woke up my feet have never felt as soft I was so impressed. It really is by far the best product I have ever used on my feet. I now use it every night before I go to bed and my feet are touchably soft and ready for flip flops in summer.

I would definitely recommend giving this cream a go, apart from £1.29 what do you have to lose? I'm sure you wont be disappointed.

Do you have any cheap and cheerful miracle products?

Blog Sale

Here is my blog sale, if there is anything that tickles your pickle please comment below with the items that you would like and your email address and I will send you an invoice. Postage will be £2.20 regardless of how much you order. (Unless something small that will go as a large letter postage will be reduced) More will be added shortly as I have lots of nail polishes to add.

Rimmel Apocalips in Galaxy, Celestial and Apocaliptic. All swatched and Apocaliptic used once. £3.50 each

Barry M Shadow sticks, one brown and one black. Both swatched £1.50 each

Clinique Dramatically Different Moisurizing Loion 30ml £1.50

ELF HD Blush in Showstopper,one pump used -£2.00

ELF Blushed/Bronze used a few times - £1.25

Glow and Go Highlighter by Look, new and sealed - £3.50

Burts Bees Lip Shimmer in Watermelon new and sealed - £2.00, 17 Wild Metallics in Wild Purple used twice - £0.75

MUA Eye Primer x 2 new and boxed - £1 each

Nail polishes all used to do complete set of nails, £1 each

No7 Mini Beautifier, eyeshadows swatched - £2.50

Accessorize Eyeshadow Palette swatched - £1.50

Superdrug Vitamin E Radiance Moisture Cream, used once - £1

Topshop palette in Constallation, swatched - £5

New CID Highlighter in Marshmallow, swatched once - £5.00

NYX Jumbo Eye Crayon in Strawberry Milk, used couple of times £1.50, Urban Decay Eyeliner in Bourbon used a couple of times £2

As I said more will be added shortly but if there is anything you fancy please let me know in the comments below.

March Wishlist

After flicking through Twitter today and looking through lots of fab blog posts I spotted a wish list on a lovely blog called Shot Of Beauty check out her wish list, there are some amazing products. After seeing hers it inspired me to do my own. Unfortunately wishes are all that these will be this month as we are going away at the end of March so all my spare cash is for that, roll on March payday!

Here are just a few of the products that I have been lusting over either for the last couple of months or last couple of days as a few of them I have only just come across. 

Yellow Bambu Bdellium Foundation Brush Set these are priced at £34.99 which I think is great value for all these brushes, they seem to have some pretty good reviews too so I'd really like to try them. Picture from love-makeup.co.uk

Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturiser, this is priced at £33 which is pretty pricey for me for a tinted moisturiser, however I have seen some really good reviews on this and after watching some people on Youtube applying this I am dying to try it out. Picture from JohnLewis.com

Bdellium Studio Line Brush Set 12 piece eyes, priced at £38.50 again from Love-Makeup  for 12 brushes (just over £3.20 per brush) these are great value for a good selection of various brushes, another set I really want to get my hands on. Picture from .love-makeup.co.uk

Neve Cosmetics Blush Palette, priced at £21.95. I'm a sucker for a pretty blush and this palette has many pretty blushes, it has ten individual blusher, bronzer and highlighter shades. Picture from cocktailcosmetics.co.uk

Pop Peak Performance Mascara, priced at £12, I spotted this on Asos and purely out of intrigue I really want to try this mascara, its like nothing I have seen before. I actually thought it was an electric razor at first! Picture from asos.com

Babyliss Big Hair Hot Air Styler, priced at £44.96. I'm sure everyone knows what this little beauty is. I purchased the Enrapture Jumbo Waver last month and highly regret it. I wish I'd grabbed this instead as it would have definitely got more use. Picture from argos.co.uk

Mally Evercolour Poreless Face Defender priced at £34.56 + £3.95 P&P. I saw this on QVC it was being demonstrated by Mally herself. It looked amazing, I've read some fairly average reviews on this product but it looks cute and I'm dying to try it out. Apparently it helps to diffuse the appearance of pores and anything that does that is fine by me! Picture from qvc.com

Stila Limited Edition 'All You Need is Love' Cheek Palette, priced at a very reasonable £12, as I said I'm a sucker for a blush and I'm loving pinks at the moment and as this looks so cute I don't think I will be able to resist. I'm also loving Stila at the moment and have purchased quite a few products by them this month. Picture from asos.com

Hope you enjoyed my March wishlist, if you have any I'd love to take a look, please link them below for me.

NYX Give A Little Love - Soft Matt Lip Creams

I've always been a fan of matt lip products and love my Kate Moss by Rimmel lipsticks but I was incredibly intrigued when I spotted this little set on the NYX website. It retails for £12 and can be purchased here from their website. They retail for £5 each so its a little cheaper buying this set than individuals. 

When I saw the colours in person I thought that there was only 1 which I would be able to pull off which was Tokyo, a pale pink colour. The other two were Antwerp which is a warm coral pink colour and Addis Ababa which is a beautiful bright pink colour. 

Corals never look good against my skin and always wash me out and make me look quite ill and I never feel overly confident in wearing bright lip colours, however all 3 of these colours look amazing on. I can say that I will happily wear all 3 and so far since I purchased them I have.

I was incredibly surprised at just how long these lasted on my lips. I put on Antwerp at 12pm, did an hour long drive to Huddersfield, watched a whole football match (I drank 2 drinks and also had something to eat), did another hour long drive back, went out for some tea and it was still on my lips when I got home. I didn't reapply once and I didn't end up with that awful ring around the outside of my lips that I get with some lip products. That is quite possibly one of the most unattractive things ever! It just stayed on perfectly. I was also very very rough that day after having one too many bottles of wine at my mums house so I looked like crap that morning but as soon as I put this on it instantly brightened up my face and made me look alot healthier. The colours are near enough exactly as you would expect looking at the tubes.

They also didn't dry out my lips which I was expecting, my lips are a bit dry anyway at the moment so I did expect my lips to feel quite dry but they didn't - bonus!

I will definitely be purchasing some more of these in the other colours they offer. I think they are fantastic value for money and the quality and colours are amazing. I definitely recommend them.

L'oreal CC Cream and Giveaway

I'm not going to be doing a full review on this product, purely because at the moment I'm not wearing it on a daily basis so I feel that it would be unfair to give a full review on something I haven't had the chance to test properly. I will however be giving my initial opinion on the product.

As you all will know BB creams have become a huge thing recently with so many brands bringing out their own take on the 'miracle' product. I have to admit I was suckered in and purchased quite a few different BB creams, none of them really lived up to their claims and have now ended up in the cupboard of which we do not speak.

Well to stir things up a bit we now have CC Cream or Colour Control Cream. L'oreal have brought out a CC cream as part of their Nude Magique range, there are 3 options to choose from, Anti-Fatique, Anti-Redness and Anti-Dullness. I opted for Anti-Fatgue, I gathered that they would all do basically the same thing but Anti-Fatigue sounded pretty good to me.

The product itself is in the same style packaging as their BB cream and it still has the smart pigment capsules. Here is what L'oreal has to say about their product:

New Nude Magique Anti-Fatigue CC Cream works with your natural tone to help wake up tired looking skin. Smart Pigment Capsules in a feather-light apricot hydrator transform into foundation on contact with the skin. Weightless bare sensation. A perfect nude look with buildable, lightweight coverage. See the magic for yourself! 

Now I was really excited to try this product, and reading what they have to say about it, who wouldn't? Anything that helps wake up my skin  is ok in my book.

The first thing I noticed after putting a little on the back of my hand is that it was incredibly dark for my rather pale and pasty skin. 

After I started to rub it in a little I did get a little more worried about what this was going to look like on my face.

Now that is frighteningly orange! However after blending it out thoroughly the orange did fade and it did leave a rather nice glow to my hand and wasn't orange at all.

I did use it on my face and I have to admit it did leave my skin looking surprisingly healthy with a nice glow, the coverage wasn't too bad. I don't have awful skin but I do need foundation to feel comfortable going out but this was fine for me. If you have acne or scarring then this probably wont be enough coverage for you. There was a few areas on my face that I know I definitely like a little more coverage. 
This being said, the CC cream is definitely too dark for me, in summer when I have a bit of a tan I think this would be perfect when I don't want a heavy foundation but would still like a little bit of coverage but during the winter months I think I would just look nuts if I went out in this.

When summer does come round and I get to use this on a daily basis I will be giving it a full review but for now I will just say I'm on the fence!

I do have one of these CC creams to giveaway (brand new of course) in the Anti-Fatigue formula, all you have to do to enter is leave a comment below letting me know which BB creams if any you have used and your thoughts on it or your thought on BB creams in general if you haven't had the chance to try one. Easy as that!

The winner will be chosen at random a month from today!

Thanks for reading!

Pixi Early Bird Kit Review

Firstly I will start of by saying that I love Pixi make up, everything I have ever used from this brand have always been amazing, from the packaging to the quality of the product. I have never had a bad word to say. I was really hoping my review on this product would be the same, unfortunately not this time.

 

This is the Early Bird kit, I picked it up from Boots, it retails for £16 but has a value of £64 if you look at everything individually.

I thought the packaging was so cute and as I've always loved their make up I thought it was definitely a good investment.

 

Its really sweet and girly packaging and when I opened it up I wasn't initially disappointed with what I saw, you'll see what I mean with the next picture.

This looked like a whole lotta happiness in one small palette. It contains 3 blushers, 2 bronzers, 1 highlighter, 4 eyebase powders and 16 eyeshadows. That in my opinion is a serious bargain for £16.

However after looking a little more closely I didn't feel that the palette was of such good quality that I am used to with Pixi products, the pans were loose from the palettes and were lifting out of the palette for starters which slightly disappointed me. 

I overlooked this and just tried to push them all back in being careful not to break the powders, this helped slightly.

The blushers, such pretty colours and I love the printing on them

The eyeshadows and eyeshadow base colours (central) you can see slightly what I mean about the pans here.

Bronzers and highlighter again lovely colours and printing on the product, I really like that they do pay attention to small details.

Now, here is what let the product down, possibly the most important thing, the pigmentation. Some of them are as usual really good quality and have excellent pigmentation but others are just not good at all. Some of then I couldn't get anything from them at all and others were just picking up glitter and no colour. Here are a few swatches of the better colours.

I attempted the lesser quality ones but I was essentially just photographing my arm and that seemed rather pointless.

The reason I am being quite negative on this product is, although £16 for a palette containing so many products from Pixi is quite cheap, there are lots of other brands out there that offer cheaper products that are much better quality than the duff ones in this palette. 

Would I buy it again? No, sadly not but this hasn't put me off Pixi as a brand and I will still be checking them out on my next Boots visit.

Have you tried this palette yet, or any product from Pixi?