Friday 20 July 2012

Current Favourites


Hello! To distract myself from the horrendous weather we've been having here I thought I'd write a post about some of the products I've been loving lately. Without further ado I'll get started and show you a summary:



As you can see there are a few higher end products here. I promise this is just a coincedence and I'm not going all posh on you ;)


1. Kerastase Nectar Thermique - £16.10 from Feel Uniqe. I bought this after reading countless reviews on how wonderful this is and deciding that it would really suit my(fine, a little dry). I haven't been disappointed and despite the hefty price tag I'm certain that I will repurchase it. It protects my hair really well from the dreaded straightening irons, makes it so easy to style and incredibly soft. Although it's a creamy formula it doesn't weigh down my hair or leave it with any residue. Lovely stuff.

2. Benefit They're Real! Mascara - £18.50. I was a little unsure of trying this as I had a decidedly 'meh' experience with their Get Bent mascara, but again the rave reviews sucked me in. Oh and I'm glad they did! This is now the UK's best selling mascara and actually does lengthen, volumise, curl and separate lashes. I haven't experienced any smudging or flaking when wearing it either. Highly recommended!





3. Garnier Fresh Essentials Eye Makeup Remover - £3.15 from Boots. See, a drugstore product! I picked this up when I was in my local Sainsbury's doing a food shop and it was a half price steal. I'd run out of eye makeup remover and bought the first one I saw. This smells amazing and is so soothing to tired eyes. It claims to remove waterproof mascara and it does with a little persistance and a few cotton wool pads, but I wouldn't use it for heavy makeup unless I wanted to use half the bottle. Ideal for everyday use.

4. Bobbi Brown Face Touch Up Stick (in 00 Porcelain) - £19. I've been really impressed with this concealer, I haven't tried many Bobbi Brown products and this is the reason I might explore further into the brand in the future. It's a thick, full coverage product designed to cover up blemishes and uneven patches on the skin. As it's so thick I wouldn't recommend using it to conceal undereye circles as it may crease.


  
5. OPI Mermaid's Tears - £11. Quite simply this has to be one of my favourite colours. Just look at it. I love to add a coat of silver shatter polish over the top to make it look extra special. This polish is from the Pirates of the Caribbean collection.

6. Origins Checks and Balances - £17. This is a foaming face wash. I usually tend to use cream cleansers in my skincare routine, but I was looking for something a little different to use with my Clarisonic Mia. I have combination skin so a product that claims to soak up excess oil and moisturise my dry bits at the same time sounds too good to be true, but it's right here in this tube. It leaves my skin feeling fresh and smooth and as it's made from natural ingredients I can be happy knowing that nothing nasty is being massaged into my face.

 
I hope you've enjoyed this little update, let me know if you'd like me to review any of the products above in more detail. Have a lovely weekend!
 

Wednesday 11 July 2012

Review: LaylaD Natural Beauty Honey Moisturiser

In my last post I mentioned my slight annoyance at the fact beauty boxes often send out cards within them detailing products that aren't actually in the box. I was quite sad this month when I discovered that She Said Beauty had teamed up with LaylaD and were including their Honey Moisturiser in the boxes. It was however missing from my box :( I'd heard some good things about their products and I expressed my (lighthearted) distress in a simple tweet. Before I knew it they had tweeted back offering to send me out a sample themselves and of course I said yes. Hooray!


I'm @lucicouture on Twitter if you'd like to follow! :)


So this cute little pot very quickly found it's way into my life:



I tried it straight away and adore it. As a general rule I love honey based products (I'm still upset that MAC discontinued their Naked Honey Skin Salve), but this seems perfectly suited to my skin type and leaves it feeling soft, but not greasy despite the seemingly rich consistency. It has a very gentle fragrance and as the cream glides on so well I found that a little goes a long way.




From my experience of the company so far I'd highly recommend them. I really like that their products are organic, paraben-free and not tested on animals. They are also a family-based company and source all of the ingredients for their products locally in the UK.

A full size pot of this moisturiser costs £12.99 and can be ordered online. Check them out at their website www.layladnaturalbeauty.co.uk to browse their full product range and I'm sure they'd be happy to answer any questions you may have. You can also follow them on Twitter (@layladbeauty) for updates!

Let me know what you think if you have tried it!


Saturday 7 July 2012

She Said Beauty Box - July

It's that time of the month again! This week I found my second She Said Beauty box on my doorstep (well not actually, I had to go and pick it up from the Post Office).



I do love the colour of the boxes...

Anyway this month I opened it to discover the following awaiting me:



1. Miners Cosmetics Sunblushed Bronzer and Blush Blend - At last a make up product in a beauty box that I feel I could actually make use of. It's not too browny or orangy as some blushes can be, this seems like a nice mixture of a pale rose pink and a light shimmering brown. I can definitely see myself using this seeing as I have a rather pale complexion. Lovely.

2. Murad Time Release Blemish Cleanser - This looks familiar! I received an identical sample of this in one of my previous Glossyboxes. I've heard great things about Murad skincare products and I'm slightly gutted that I won't be able to use this. I have normal skin that's prone to dry patches and have never suffered greatly from blemishes or acne so I don't really have any use for this. I'll probably pass this on to a friend!

3. Stylefile - No doubt familiar to those of you who watch The Apprentice (UK). This is a product that has been invented by a previous winner of the series, Tom Pellereau. The S-shape of the file is designed to follow the natural contour of the nail, making filing easier. Apparently he got the idea from watching his sister filing her nails...aww.

4. Freeze 24-7 Ice Crystals Anti-Aging Prep & Polish - This is a mini-sample of an exfoliator. That's about it really! I'll give it a go when I'm having a dry face day. A full size tube of this retails for £33 so I have high expectations.

5. The Vintage Cosmetic Company Eyelash Curler - Well this is an eyelash curler. It came at just the right time as my MAC ones decided to ping apart the other day :(

6. Debenhams Beauty Club Reward Card - Basically a card like the Boots Advantage Card/Tesco Clubcard, but for Debenhams. Not something I'd thought about getting previously, but  I'll put this in my purse and no doubt it'll come in handy next time I make a purchase from there (if I remember I have it in there!)

Overall I'm pleased with this box and am looking forward to trying the products. I do however have a slight niggle. That is the fact that these beauty box companies obviously send out a variety of products to their subscribers and sometimes the cards in the boxes don't exactly match up to what's actually in the box. It'd be nice if they could do this so a little blurb of all the possible products is there to prevent the need for uneccesary Googling!

More on this in my next post... :)



Wednesday 4 July 2012

New Running Shoes: Brooks Vapor 10

I guess this is where I tell you all about my relationship with running! I'll summarise it into a few bullet points so I don't end up writing an oververbose boring essay (is oververbose a word?)

  • I first discovered running when I found myself signed up to do the 2008 Great North Run half marathon (13.1 miles). I ran this mainly for charitable reasons and didn't train anywhere as near as hard as I should have done. I ran cross country in high school so knew I was capable of long distance running to some extent.
  • I then ran the same race in 2010 again for charitable reasons and improved my time slightly. This time around there were moments where I felt like Forrest Gump where I could have run and run until someone told me to stop - a great feeling!
  • Over the months of training (and the fact I went back to do the second race) I realised that running really helped me de-stress, kept me fit and active and generally was something that I could DO.
  • One 10K later and I am again signed up to do the Great North Run! (It's an addictve race, the crowds are wonderful and the area is very close to where I went to university, a home from home).
  • Last week I realised I needed new running shoes and was potentially using some that were half a size too small...(numb toes anyone?)
...so here we are!

I went to my local specialist running store Runners Need, where I astounded the assistant by telling her I'd done two long distance runs in substandard regular trainers. Oops. I swiftly got my gait analysed on a treadmill, was told and shown on a video of myself running that I am a slight overpronator (where the feet roll slightly inwards as you stride) and ended up with these beautys:


 
Brooks Vapor 10 - £79.99

They look like they mean business don't they? These have a patented diagonal rollbar which will help support my running motion so that I run with as neutral a gait as possible, so not putting any undue stress on my joints.

I could tell the difference as soon as I hit the treadmill in the shop. I was literally bouncing and can honestly say that no other trainers I have owned have fit me so well. I can't wait to see what difference they make to my comfort when I break them in and start training in them!

Speaking of training, I have based my half marathon plan loosely on the Hal Higdon Novice Program and the Jeff Galloway training plan. I created my own purely so that I could fit it around my weekly schedule and cheeky holiday to Spain in August. Shhh...

I shall leave you with another picture of one of my lovely trainers. It looks really small doesn't it? I promise I'm a UK size 5.5!



I'd love to hear if you are a keen (or not so keen) runner. If you have any tips or tricks or have any questions for me, just leave me a comment :)