Glossybox - June 2012

So here it is, my final Glossybox. I've just had a quick browse around and I'm pretty sure that you're slightly sick of seeing these posts popping up by now! I wasn't overly impressed by the last box I received and knew that although I'd cancelled my subscription that I'd be getting this box anyway and hoped it'd at least contain some products I could use!

Aren't I clever? I managed to restrain myself long enough to take a picture of the box before I opened it:

(not sure why my photos are looking a little blurry tonight!)

On opening it I was faced by this little array of products:

1. BM Beauty Summer Warmth Bronzer - just the thing I need at the moment! Since trying the Bare Minerals range I have always loved the finish that mineral makeup leaves. I'm always open to trying new brands so once I've made this slightly more accessible and have removed it from the little pot it has come in I'll be happily trying this.

2. Vichy Dermablend Ultra-Corrective Foundation Cream Stick - I'll be honest with you, I don't know all that much about this brand. However isn't the point of these boxes to introduce new up and coming brands/products? I think so. Anyway, in this little sample set there are a range of colours to suit several skin tones and I'm sure that this is worth a go at covering up my lovely imperfections.

3. Mememe Cosmetics Sensuous Nail Gloss - now I do like my nude nail polishes and what a cute little bottle! I think I'll be trying it when/if I have a bit of a tan this summer.

4. Caudalie Eaux Fraiches - no Glossybox would be complete without a fragrance sample! This one is slightly more impressive than the standard tiny tube with a top that's impossible to get off. It is a sleek, metal-topped cylinder that does look rather classy. The smell isn't bad either - a light zesty fragrance that makes me smell reminiscently of lemons.

5. Glossybox Serie Exclusiv Pro Beauty Brush - basically a synthetic makeup brush with no bells or whistles. A good size for makeup bags and on the go touch ups!

Although this box is significantly better than the last one I received, it will take a couple more months of being nosy and reading other blogger's reviews before I consider resubscribing. For now my beauty box allegiance has changed - watch this space.

She Said Beauty Box - June

If any of you have been reading my tweets, you may have noticed that I got rather frustrated at last month's Glossybox. The yellow eyeliner was the last straw for me and unfortunately I felt I had to unsuscribe. Too many perfume samples and products that I just wouldn't use made me wonder if my money could be better spent elsewhere. Introducing my first She Said Beauty Box:

Ok, that's not a terribly exciting or informative picture, but I like the colour of the box for starters. I failed at taking a picture of the Glossybox-esque presentation on opening the box (tissue paper tied with a ribbon and sticker).

First impressions were excellent. I actually said "oooh" when I saw that the box contained products from both Elemis AND St Tropez. Yes please! Here's a closer look at exactly what I received:

1. Balance Me Super Moisturising Hand Cream - another hand cream to add to the collection, but a great size for popping in your handbag. The little sticker on the tube states that this cream was a Beauty Insider's Choice winner.

2. St Tropez Gradual Tan Everyday Body Moisturiser - now this couldn't have come at a better time! I have a wedding to go to next Saturday and this (if it works) will make me look less like a Cullen in the photos. I'm very impressed with the size of this sample.

3. Ginvera Green Tea Nude Cover BB Cream - a little magazine sized sample but one I'll be trying. This claims to do so many things; if it does them all it really will be a wonderful product.

4. Let's Go lashes - finally some lashes that look vaguely wearable. I'm really not a fan of those thick lashes that make you look like a giraffe so given the right occassion these shall definitely be gracing my eyelids.

5. Yardley London Royal Diamond Eau de Toilette - a perfume sample yes, but from a brand I recognise and one with a Royal endorsement no less. This fragrance has been created in celebration of the Queen's jubilee and on first smell seems to be a light, pretty scent which could be perfect for summer.

6. Elemis Tranquil Touch Indulgent Bath Elixir - although this is essentially bubble bath, I will always be very keen to use products by Elemis. My local spa uses and sells this brand and I haven't been disappointed yet. This is something that'll make a bathroom look more sophisticated as well - a bonus!

On first glance the St Tropez gradual tanner seems to be the stand-out product of this box (in my opinion anyway):

Overall, I am really impressed with this box and I look forward to seeing what's inside next month. I'll be sure to review these products as I use them!

If you'd like to subscribe to the She Said Beauty box, just click on the link below, sign up and I'll give you a hug :)

https://www.shesaidbeauty.com/invite/XONWT

It is currently £9.00 plus postage and packaging and there are subscription packages for one month at a time, 3 months, 6 months and 1 year.

Let me know what you think of the products if you have received this box :)

Free Mini Benefit Products with Glamour Magazine

I may be a little slow off the mark here but I got rather excited earlier when I went to my local store and saw that Glamour magazine currently have one of their team-ups with Benefit on the shelves with their latest issue. For just £2 you can pick up a mini Porefessional, That Gal primer or Bad Gal Lash mascara - not bad at all!

This picture is slightly deceptive. I did look silly at the checkout by buying two identical magazines to get the two samples I wanted, but I left one out of the picture. I'd have got a third if one containing the mascara was there, but sadly it wasn't...ho hum.

I do love it when cosmetics companies do collaborations like this. Do you remember the past two Glamour/Benefit offers? Bad Gal liners, It Sticks, Eye Brights and Her Glossiness lip glosses spring to mind...brilliant.

Recent Empties: June 2012

Righty, I had the idea of keeping a log of the products I am using up for two reasons: so you guys can see what I've been loving/hating and also so that I can reassure myself that I'm making use of some of the many delightful things I find myself 'accidentally' purchasing.

Here are the products that are starring in my first post of this kind:

 

1. Soap and Glory Off Your Face Cleansing Cloths - I believe I bought these from Boots for around £4.50 for 25 cloths. I'm quite the fan of this range in general and I do love the smell of their lotions and potions, but something about these struck me as decidedly average. I tend to use face wipes for when I'm travelling or staying somewhere other than home for convenience. These do the job and left my skin feeling clean, but I found myself having to rub my eyes harder than I really should to get my makeup off (naughty) and they left my eyes a tad stingy too. It's a shame really as I really wanted to like these!

2. Rimmel Stay Matte Pressed Powder - again from Boots and purchased for a bargainly £3.99. I do love my MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural but occasionally I don't feel like splurging and when this happens, this is what I get. I usually get the transparent powder to set my foundation and concealer and find that I barely have to touch it up during the day (unless I rub my face excessively). A product I'll always recommend people try.

3. Nivea Invisible 48hr Deoderant - let's say I got this from Superdrug (I think I did!). That link takes you to the one with the blue lid which I really don't rate as it smells of old ladies. Get the one above :) This tends to be on a BOGOF offer quite a lot in several high street shops and I try to pick some up whenever this is the case. No marks, no stickiness, no overpowering smell, lovely.

4. Johnson's Daily Essentials Gently Eye Make-up Removal Pads - £3.29 from Boots. I actually went and bought these to use with the Soap and Glory wipes and I'm glad I did! These work wonderfully at getting stubborn mascara off and don't leave any oily residue on the skin after use. You get 30 in the tub which lasted me just over two weeks (1 per eye) and considering such a good job they do I'd say they're very good value for money. 

5. Boots Therapy Tropical Indulgence Smooth Me shower gel - good old Boots! To be honest I picked this up last year after I'd got back from my holiday in Corfu and wanted to hang on to the coconutty exoticness for a little longer (I should write my own dictionary shouldn't I?) This is a fairly bog standard shower gel, but smells absolutely wonderful.

That's all for now, if you're interested in any of the products mentioned just click the links above to be taken to their respective websites (or where I got them from anyway).

Let me know if you've finished any products recently that deserve a try :)

Human Weakness

Oops...

Yep, I may have strayed a little bit when out researching water filters. It turns out that Superdrug stock a bigger range of the oh so desirable Revlon Lip Butters and this time I 'accidentally' purchased the shade Pink Truffle. This is a slightly darker hue than Peach Parfait (as featured in my last post) and verges towards the plummy side of the spectrum. It is also free of any shimmer or reflects.

Swatch time:

Apologies for the veiny hand. It seems to be quite warm in the flat today. Hooray for vasodilation (big word of the day).

Hope you're all having a lovely weekend :)

Haul: Revlon, Elvive & Yankee Candles

I thought I'd start the weekend with a little trip into town to pick up some new shampoo and as usual ended up with a little more than I anticipated. At least I actually got the shampoo; most times I end up forgetting the item I actually went out to get in the first place.

I didn't really have any particular shampoo/conditioner in mind so I walked blindly into Boots and came across this new release from L'Oreal Elvive. The Nutri-Gloss Crystal range:

I picked up the big bottles because they were on a half price offer, quite a clever thing to do seeing as I haven't even tried the stuff yet.

This was a surprising choice for me because I usually tend to run a mile from anythin overly pink and glittery (no thanks), but something about the 'crystal' bit has me intrigued. The bottle states: "embedded with visible Micro-Crystals + Pearl, the sparkling formula illuminates and smooths the hair's surface for better light reflection and crystal shine." - Yes please.

As much as the thought of glittery hair makes me cry, I can't wait to wash my hair and see the results.


Next you can see that I caved and bought a Revlon Lip Butter and too many Yankee Candle sample tarts. I'm far too indecisive aren't I? Anyhow I hope I enjoy the choices I eventually did make:

What are your favourite Yankee scents? I'd love to hear your recommendations so I can go and buy even more.

So, on to the Revlon Lip Butter. I went for the shade Peach Parfait, which was an amazingly easy choice as I wasn't that impressed by the range my store had in stock. Plus I wanted to try one before going out and getting any more. Logical right?

 

I'd apologise about being late on the bandwagon here, but I'm not going to because these have literally only just become available over here in the UK! I do quite like the packaging; it's a little different. I suppose some might say that the translucent plastic case looks a little tacky, but I don't really have any complaints - it does the job.

Broken record time, yes the formulation is lovely and I am really impressed. This particular shade is a perfect everyday hue and is a nice cross between a gloss and a lipstick - perfect for me really because I don't always want the stickiness of a gloss or the solid block colour of many lipsticks. The added moisturising quality is a bonus. I think I'll be picking up some more of these...

Depotting MAC Eyeshadows

As you may have seen in my second to last post I recently purchased one of the MAC 15 shadow palettes with the ambition of depotting my loose shadows into it when I could spare half an hour. I thought I'd document what I did (injury-free thank goodness) so you can have a go yourselves in your own time.

Here's what you'll need:

• A towel or something similar to protect your work surface
• A candle 
• A sharp pointed knife
• Tweezers
• A MAC palette (obviously!)
• Some adhesive magnets - I bought mine off eBay
• Scissors in case you want to trim the labels 

So without further ado, let's get started!


1) Pop out the pan insert from the casing: Open the eyeshadow and VERY carefully wiggle the end of the knife into the groove where the pan insert meets the outer casing. Keep wiggling until the pan insert pops out. Make sure you don't press too hard and let the knife slip. Blood in your eyeshadows is not very becoming.

Once it has successfully popped out, you'll have something that looks a bit like this (note lack of blood):

Set the outer casing aside for now. You'll need it a bit later.


2. Removing the pan from the pan insert: Take your tweezers and hold the pan over the flame of the candle. Make sure you don't hold it IN the flame; you don't want to melt the plastic completely. Hold it there for around 30 seconds until you can see that it has softened.

Once you think this is the case, gently poke the bottom of the pan insert with the end of the knife to prise up the eyeshadow from the plastic.

If it doesn't want to come out, don't force it - the plastic just isn't soft enough. Hold it over the flame a bit longer and give it another go when you think it's ready. The plastic will be VERY hot when you do the poking so use the tweezers to hold it steady.

3. Stick on the magnet: Pretty self explanatory really. When the metal on the underside of the pan has cooled a bit and the glue on the bottom is still tacky, stick an adhesive magnet to the back (carefully so you don't damage the eyeshadow). Centre it by moving it on the tacky glue.

4. Removing the name label: This bit is optional, but I like to stick the label to the bottom of the shadow so I can keep track of the colours and finishes. As you can see this one is Modelette, a lovely matte brown.

The labels are usually very well stuck on so the best way of removing it without damaging it is to hold the casing over the candle at an angle to slightly melt the adhesive attaching it and a small area of plastic at the edge.

Make sure you don't hold it too close to the flame - burnt fingers/labels aren't amusing or attractive. As you can see in the clever split-picture below, once the plastic has softened you can take your knife and gently press down at the edge of the label to indent the casing. You should now be able to lift off the label causing little to no damage at all.

 The adhesive will still be sticky when you do this, so you will be able to place it straight over the magnet that you've just attached to the shadow. Feel free to trim it to neaten it up a bit.

5. Admire your handiwork!

It looks a little complicated at the outset, but the more you do it the more you'll get used to it. You'll be a pro in no time!

I suppose this means I now have to go and spend more money on seven more shadows to fill my palette. Any recommendations?

I hope you found this guide helpful - let me know if you have any questions :)