Claire’s Top 5 Red Lipsticks – Guest Post

Hey everyone! Claire from All Mouth, No Spoons back again with another guest post for the lovely Natalee – this time, I’m here to talk about my favourite red lipsticks! Who doesn’t love a good scarlet pout? As Game of Thrones’ Maisie ‘Arya’ Williams once noted, you can look like a total mess in every other way, but slick on a bit of red lipstick? No-one notices anything else. It can make that much of a difference, so everyone needs at least one in their lipstick arsenal.

The problem with red lipsticks? THERE ARE SO MANY TO CHOOSE FROM. And which one to go with? A true red? What’s a blue-toned red? Is it too harsh against pale skin? Does it last? Well, I can’t answer those questions, as I still don’t have these answers. But what I can give you, is my personal top 5 reds that make me feel like a silver screen siren who is also capable of kicking ass and taking names.

5. Max Factor Colour Elixir lipstick in Ruby Tuesday – £7.99 from Boots

I am a huge fan of the formula of Max Factor’s range of Colour Elixir lipsticks – I said in my previous post that the pampering qualities are very beneficial, especially during the cold winter months we’re in. This true red reminds me very much of Marilyn Monroe’s signature pout, it feels amazing and looks stunning, and even leaves a long-lasting stain despite eating and drinking through the day. It’s a bold look, but if you want to take the plunge then this is a good place to start!

(Also a little interesting thing to note – Max Factor recently launched their Marilyn Monroe collection of lipsticks in four shades that are said to ‘flatter any skintone’. As well as three new shades, Marilyn Ruby Red is the exact same as Ruby Tuesday so if you can’t grab one, there’s always the other.)

4. Clinique Lip Pop Lip Colour + Primer in Passion Pop – £16 from Boots

Another Lip Pop as in my Berry post – and as I said there, although this product claims to be a primer as well as a lipstick, it does fail to deliver on that promise. However, with a liner and primer, it’s a ruby colour that feels very comfortable on the lips. This was the second colour that I purchased and it’s definitely a staple in my collection. It’s a good colour to throw on when you’re on your way out for the day. I’ve even worn nothing BUT this lipstick, no foundation or mascara, and honestly it still made me feel ‘made-up’.

3. Kat Von D Studded Lipstick in Underage Red – $21 from Sephora

We’re STILL waiting for Kat Von D’s range of make-up to be available here in the UK, and buying off the Sephora website is not easy or cheap. I was lucky to get this through an exchange subreddit page from someone in the UK and I was eager to try it out. The case looks fucking awesome – if I’d had this lipstick as a 14-year-old rocker, I’d have felt like Brody Dalle. It’s a shame that the lid falls off so easily in my bag, though.

The lipstick itself has a gorgeous creme brulee smell, and it glides on pretty nicely for a matte finish. According to Ms Von D, the shade is a ‘matte fire engine red’ and the shade’s name caused quite a stir… but regardless, this is a wonderful bold shade, this is truly a colour that calls for going into your ex-boyfriend’s place of work and making him feel awkward with your utter fierceness. Not that I’ve done that. The only real downside, is that like most other matte lipsticks it is quite drying. Moisturise before wearing, and you’ll be set!

2. Jeffree Star Velour Liquid Lipstick in Hoe Hoe Hoe – Limited Edition!

I feel guilty for including this in the list, as it was a limited edition release for Christmas 2015 and I had to grab it pretty fucking quickly as a wedding present to myself. Natalee herself was the one who convinced me to get it actually! But oh, it was so worth it. This was my first Jeffree Star purchase and I am truly desperate for his full range to be available here in the UK because this liquid lipstick is just perfect. I’ve always been wary of liquid formulas because they dry matte and seem to suck every last bit of moisture out of your lips, leaving them cracked and dry. This formula however, as well as being incredibly long-lasting, feels like a dream when it’s put on.

Then the colour… it’s a deep red with gorgeous red and purple sparkles throughout. As you wear it through the day, eat, drink and talk, the sparkle becomes more apparent under the colour – and it is noticeable! Sadly, this is completely sold out online now as you can imagine. There are sellers on eBay charging at least £25 for it, and although I think that’s a high price to pay for something that retailed originally at $18 (roughly £13) the quality and colour is definitely worth it. If you’ve got the spare change, then definitely consider adding this to your collection.

1. Urban Decay Matte Revolution lipstick in Bad Blood – £15.50 from urbandecay.co.uk

My most favourite red in my collection, for more reasons than one. The Husband got this for me as a treat when I’d not been well, and he was a big fan of the colour (he loves red lipstick on me, as I was wearing it the first day we met…) so I jumped at it. I wore it for our whole honeymoon weekend in Whitby and I felt beautiful the whole time we were away – and not just because my Husband kept staring at me!

I’m a fan of Urban Decay. I swear by their Eyeshadow Primer Potion as a staple in my make-up bag, I own the Naked 3 palette because the rose gold shades are just to die for, and I even had a Book of Shadows back in the day! They know how to make beautiful make-up, and although I was initially disappointed that they had discontinued their original lipstick range (the bullets were stunning enough on their own) I was intrigued to try their new matte formula. I’ve not had much luck with matte lipsticks, usually finding them drying and unflattering on my lips – but UD Matte Revolution knocks all of these stereotypes out of the park.

The colour is a gorgeous blood-red, hence the name. It’s incredibly flattering on my pale skin, but I imagine it would flatter on every skintone. The formula is creamy and incredibly pigmented. All it takes is one swipe from the angled bullet and you’re done. As for longevity – oh my god. I managed to drink many cans of Diet Coke, have a sandwich for lunch, talk my head off during the long drive and even have more Diet Coke. By the time we got to our B&B, the colour was still strong on my lips. I topped it up for dinner, and came home to find it was still on my lips! For a traditional lipstick bullet I was gobsmacked at the quality of the colour and lasting power.

Is it my go-to red? Well, as someone with so many reds to choose from, that’s a very loaded question…

(BONUS: After swatching all the products on my arm, I needed to remove them with cleanser and baby oil too! Red lipstick doesn’t like letting me go, clearly…)

I just want to say a massive thanks to my good friend Claire for writing this post for me! She was going to at Christmas, but we decided to go for purples, and plum shades instead. But now she’s finally got red shades down, and she’s caused me to want to buy myself an Urban Decay lipstick… NAUGHTY CLAIRE!

Which shade did you like the most? Make sure to let me know in the comments down below.

Until next time all, take care and have a great weekend!

Perfect Berry Shades For Winter – Guest Post

When Natalee said she was looking for some guest writers for her blog while she was on holiday, I jumped at the chance. Not only because she’s wonderful, but because it’s nice to write about something not related to my mental health! I write about my life with borderline personality disorder, you see – and it can get heavy at times with such a serious topic at hand. So it’s a nice change to write about something fun! Plus, I LOVE MAKE-UP. I really do. So I wanted to take this opportunity to write about it!

But first, a little story. I got married a few weeks ago, and my colour scheme involved rich berry tones along with purples and ivory. November is a month of change with autumn going into winter, the crisp colours of browns and golds going into plums and silvery whites, and being the totally non-traditional woman that I am, I was never going to be a traditional bride. I wanted colour to be a part of my look, I didn’t want to be all dressed in white. So, I took a part of my colour scheme and brought it into my look for the day… which brings me to this post!

As well as berry coloured shoes and sash on my dress to go with the berry coloured buttons in my handmade bouquet, I decided to be bold and wear a berry-toned lipstick. It wasn’t an easy decision. Here, I’m going to give you a rundown of my top five berry-toned lipsticks for winter, ending with the one I ended up wearing for my big day! So, without further ado…

Image taken from MAC Cosmetics website

5. MAC lipstick in Rebel – £15.50 from maccosmetics.co.uk

I have Natalee to thank for this classic making its way into my lipstick collection. On the site, it’s described as a ‘midtonal cream plum’ and it is seriously flattering on any skin tone. It does look more purple-toned on me, which wasn’t quite right for the wedding, but it did end up being worn by my bridesmaid! The Husband calls it my ‘going to war’ lipstick, as I always seem to wear it when I need that bit of confidence to get me through anything – and it seriously works. It is gorgeous, it feels amazing on the lips, and it smells heavenly and lasts for ages even without primer or liner. I usually have to remove it with baby oil as it always leaves a stain! Really worth the money and definitely a staple for the make-up bag.

Image taken from Rimmel London Cosmetics website

4. Rimmel The Only 1 lipstick in One of a Kind – £6.99 from Boots

The first ever lipstick I bought back in college was Rimmel Lasting Finish in Amethyst Shimmer. It probably would’ve looked fine on me, had I not insisted on the dark eye make-up along with it. Rimmel are touting this as a ‘lipstick revolution’ and while I usually guffaw at such statements, they have a right to brag. The quality is astounding, especially given the low cost and brand. It felt amazing on the lips, really creamy and soft, but it lasted a lot longer than expected from such a comfortable lipstick. The colour is a much more red-toned berry than Rebel, and I definitely will be rocking it over the winter months!

Image taken from Max Factor website

3. Max Factor Colour Elixir lipstick in Mulberry – £7.99 from Boots

I’m a huge fan of Max Factor. I swear by their mascara and foundation primer, and when I discovered their Colour Elixir lipsticks, I fell in love. Another creamy lipstick with added benefits – ‘A blend of 60% emollients, conditioners and antioxidants including vitamin E’ according to the Boots website. Mulberry is a vampy, dark shimmery shade that says “I’m here to party, and I will get off with that bloke I’ve fancied for ages because I am a goddess of the night.”

…or something like that, anyway.

With the added pampering benefits for your lips, I would definitely recommend it for the winter months when we could all do with a little help against the elements. And Christmas parties. Go get ‘em, tiger.

Image taken from Clinique website

2. Clinique Pop Lip Colour + Primer in Love Pop – £16 from Boots

There is a shade of this called Berry Pop which is very dark, which I imagine will be stunning for the season, but looked far too dark on me. The selling point of this lipstick is that you don’t need to wear primer underneath for it to stay on. A nice idea… but I didn’t think it worked out too well. However, with primer and liner, it upped the game. Love Pop is a soft, pink-toned berry which gives a very romantic look and is extremely wearable. It also feels amazing. I am a fan of this product, so much so that I have since purchased two more shades!

And in the number one spot, which made it to my face on my wedding day…

Image taken from Feel Unique website

1. Burt’s Bees Lip Crayon in Napa Vineyard – £8.99 from feelunique.com

PERFECT. WEDDING. COLOUR. I have seen people raving about these little crayons on reddit, and I can see why! The colour payoff is phenomenal, it feels just like a lip balm, and the finish is a very fashionable matte. It went perfectly with the colours we had, and it made me feel so glamourous and just finished the look in the way I wanted it to. The only downside is that it wasn’t very long lasting, even with primer and liner, but you know what? It looked perfect and I hope in the final photos you’ll be able to see just how much it made my final look.

So, there you have it! Thanks Nat for letting me write this for you, and I hope your readers go out and get their berry on – seriously, it’s a colour that looks good on everyone, and will never let you down.

If you’re interested in my blog about life with borderline personality disorder (BPD), visit me at http://allmouthnospoons.wordpress.com. I can also be found tweeting nonsense at http://twitter.com/MouthAndSpoons.

A huge thanks to Claire for writing this post up for me on such short notice! It’s the first of many guest posts that will be on my blog over the next month, which is pretty damn exciting! I love all the lipsticks she spoke about, especially Rebel which is by far my favourite lipstick. Which shades did you love? Make sure to leave Claire some love in the comments down below!

Until next time all, take care and see you when I’m back from holiday (I’ve officially been here a day now!)

What I Got For Christmas 2014

I first of all I would like to say that I am in no way shape or form showing off what I received for Christmas. I just thought readers may want to read and see what I received for Christmas this year. I did a post last year about this too and whilst I had no issues, I just wanted to say what I just did.

I really was spoilt this Christmas and I want to say thank you to my friends, family and my boyfriend for what I was given, I loved everything I was bought.

I still have a couple of presents to add to this post, as one of my friends has sent her over to me, and another I haven’t got a picture of so as and when I can get pictures I will update this post.

As you can see, there were lot’s of presents! Due to this, this post will be image heavy.

I’ll start off by talking about what my friend Poppy bought me.

My friend Poppy went over to America before Christmas and each time she’s gone over the pond she’s asked me if I’ve wanted anything brought back. Apart from the perfume and the lip balm, I asked her for all these goodies from Bath & Body Works. I LOVE their Pocketbac’s, as regular readers of my blog will know so the fact she picked these up for me and gave them me for Christmas was really sweet of her! As well as that she gave me a Chloe perfume sample, which I’ve grown to love, and a Burt’s Bee’s lip balm in Pink Grapefruit, which is really nice. I’ve been using this around the house and it’s lovely to use. I’ve never tried the foaming hand wash before but I have been converted and already eying some up to buy from eBay when I get back from my holiday. Thank you Poppy, I love my presents!

Next is a present from my cousin.

I wasn’t expecting anything from my cousin and when I saw her Christmas Eve she didn’t mention that she had bought me anything either. So Christmas Day when I saw the tag on this say “Saw this and thought of you.” I was really touched when I opened this and saw it was fox related. Everyone knows someone who loves foxes, or owls, or butterflies and will always pick them something up with that animal on it. Of course mine is foxes. I tried one of these out before I headed to my boyfriends for the weekend and they’re lovely! These will be perfect for my walks to uni and into work when it’s chilly.

Onto my nephews and sister in law.

They picked me up this lovely Sanctuary Spa wash bag with little wash sets inside too. I’m actually excited to try the hand cream! I’ll probably have these for my boyfriends house, as little bottles like this come in handy! I could also take some on holiday with me too, but I shall see. It makes me laugh how I picked up a Sanctuary Spa gift set for her too!

My boyfriend’s parents bought me some lovely presents this year too.

This is a Nintendo 2DS holder and one that my boyfriend had been trying to get me to buy for quite a while. He has a black and blue version and now I have the red one! This is a hard shell case which keeps your DS nice and safe. Inside it also comes with a USB charger, an in car charger, and a pen stylus. This is really nice and will definitely come in handy when travelling and definitely for our holiday!

My boyfriend’s parents were also lovely enough to pick me up a Lush Christmas gift box that I had been lusting after, as well as some Santa’s Lip Scrub which I had also been thinking about picking up in the sales! Before I even upwrapped this present I could smell it was Lush. For ages my boyfriend had told me that I hadn’t been bought anything from Lush, what a good liar huh? This box set contains some lovely little pieces and I’ll be making sure to enjoy some of those for my birthday in the New Year. I still have my Santa’s Lip Tint (review here), which will go perfectly with the scrub. They also both bought me a bottle of Black Tower wine, but that’s probably been drunk now. Hic!

I knew what I was getting from my Mom for Christmas as I went and picked them up with some money she gave me. Apparently she does have a few surprises for me, but they haven’t arrived in the post yet.

I’ve decided I want to start using Clinique’s 3 Step system again so I picked up the facial wash, the clarifying lotion and the moisturising gel. I’ve really missed using it, so I’m glad to have them back in my daily routine! As well as that I decided to pick myself up a new face powder. I’ve been using this one the past few days and it’s REALLY good! I need to get a little powder mitt for it, as whilst I thought you automatically got one with the powder, you actually don’t… Which I thought was bad. I’ll pick one up when I’m near a MAC counter next. I’ll be reviewing this at some point after my holiday, it’s amazing!

My Dad on the other hand got me some surprises, which I really loved! I knew I would be getting Pandora, but I didn’t know that he wasn’t picking something out for me that he liked, he usually just gets a list of charms I like and picks from those.

This one is definitely picture heavy and I did realise after taking the pictures that they aren’t the best of quality either… I will be doing an updated Pandora bracelet post soon mind so I can show them off properly then! My Dad got me this cute little angel and telephone box charms and explained the meaning behind them. The telephone box has such lovely detailing on it, such as the little Pandora logo about Telephone, as well as the red Union Jack print on the top and “Call me” on the bottom. They’re the most thoughtful charms on my bracelet to date and for that these are probably two of my favourite charms on my bracelet right now, I love them so much.

Finally I have the presents my boyfriend bought me. There’s loads!

My boyfriend spotted the Gorjuss range ages ago and asked if I liked it, which I admitted I had for years. So what did he do? He bought me some, some fox themed stuff at that. He knows I love my notebooks and he didn’t buy me one, he bought me two! These are both really high quality and I know already that I’ll be taking the larger of the two away with me on holiday so that I can do some creative and blog writing whilst I’m away. I love these so much, so nice that he picked them up for me.

I knew I had the stickers, badges and the little Pokemon charms as my boyfriend picked these up for me when we went to Comic Con in November, however I didn’t know I had the cute little box and it really did make me tear up when I opened it. As you can see the box says “Smile you are beautiful” which is a really nice message and one my boyfriend says to me quite often. He didn’t make the box himself, but the thought is still there. I’m not sure what I’m going to use it for yet, but I’m sure I’ll find some use for it soon. The charms that he bought me are official and from Pokemon Center in Japan! I love the Eeveelutions, (which also explains the stickers) and to have these cute little charms makes me smile. I don’t know what to use them for yet, but I would love to get a charm bracelet for them so I can collect more.

These were a cute little surprise, but I knew I had something from Sugar Bunny Shop as my boyfriend told me but it was a surprise as to what I would be receiving. These stickers are so cute that I can’t see me using them, it has however made me want to buy some more Doki fox items from the store as I’ve always loved this little guy, but never bought anything before.

 I had my eye on this coin purse for ages, and I should have known that my boyfriend would pick it up for me. One thing I have to say about this is that it is MASSIVE! I wasn’t expecting it to be like a mini clutch bag, but it really is. This isn’t a bad thing mind, as I wanted this for my holiday. It’ll be perfect for taking out in the daytime if I just want to pop down the road to the shops, as not only will this fit my money in, but my iPhone also fits in here really nicely. Can’t wait to start using this, especially as it goes with my wallet!

This is another present that I knew I was getting, as we both bought each other little alcohol gift sets. I bought him a Jack Daniels Honey set and he bought me Bailey’s. As soon as I opened this I ate the chocolates, which were amazing! I love Bailey’s and sadly didn’t have any this Christmas as we didn’t have any to enjoy. My little bottle is being saved for my birthday and the glass in this set is gorgeous and is going to be my wine glass.

 I love Nana and only decided to read the manga after watching the anime but for ages I couldn’t find books 8, 9, and 10 and when I did find them online to buy they were costing me a fortune! How my boyfriend picked these up for cheap, I don’t even know! Sadly I have book 7, which he sadly hadn’t noticed at the time but I was so happy to see that I had Nana as Christmas presents. I have been tempted to take these on holiday to read instead, but I would get through them in no time, which isn’t what I want really. I can’t wait to carry on reading this though as I’ve had it on hold for months though.

Another present my boyfriend knew I wanted, and I had a hunch that he had picked up for me. I saw this in Paperchase months ago and fell in love. I nearly bought it too, but I knew it would be a good Christmas present to receive from someone. This is a gorgeous organiser and I’ll be keeping it with me whenever I go out, as I’m terrible when it comes to trying to make sure I don’t “double book” things and know what shifts at work may clash with classes at uni! So this will come in handy and because Paperchase do their insert able yearly pages, I can use this year after year. The print is the best thing about this, as it’s a gorgeous woodland print, which of course includes foxes. I just love the colour scheme too, as I love a bit of blue.

Another present I knew I would be getting. Please excuse the use of presents to hold this down, but it worked! My boyfriend bought this for me at Comic Con and I’m now hooked on the artist who drew it! I don’t know what I’ll be doing with this picture, but I’d love to frame it in the future to put in my kitchen when I move out… But I do not know when that will be right now. But back to the picture, how cute is it, really? Little Pokemon characters eating rice balls and such? Adorable. Couldn’t say no to this picture. It’s by an artist called Ry-Spirit, whose work you can check out here.

This was a bit of a jokey present from my boyfriend, but a very apt one. Whenever I’m at his house I’ll constantly ask for a cup of coffee and this bell says, “Ring for coffee” on it. We’ve actually left it at my house as the bell is really quite loud, but when we move out I’ll be ringing this for ages. I can eventually see him burning this or throwing it away mind. 😛

This was a must! I’ve used the Simon’s Cat calender since it first came out in 2011, that’s 4 years of Simon’s Cat every month, how crazy is that?! I do really like these calendars though and I also pick up the diary to go with it… Although I don’t know whether to or not this year… I can see me picking it up though. Either way, amazing present.

I KNEW I had this present. I text my boyfriend the day I saw it saying how much I wanted it, so when he asked me what shop it was and such, I knew he was off to buy it. However this being said when I went to open said present I wondered what he had bought, as it weighed a ton! Was a lovely surprise considering I’d forgotten all about it. These smell divine though and I have had my eye on Candy Cane Lane for ages. I can’t wait to start burning this next week when I’m back home. As for Sugared Apple I’ve always wanted it, but never bought it. It smells delicious and I know I’m going to enjoy using it during the summer too.

I knew I was getting a Pop Vinyl from my boyfriend as we had eyed them up a lot at Comic Con and both made a huge list of ones we wanted. I had a feeling he had bought me Rocket from Guardians of the Galaxy and my suspicions were correct. He’s an awesome little character and my favourite from the film, but what makes this figure even better is that he’s a bobble head! The detail of him is really nice and he just looks so cute as well. I’m going to be keeping him in the box until me and my boyfriend move out together, as I want to have him displayed nicely. If I didn’t care I would keep him in my car, but he would get stained by the sun and ruined. He’s so awesome though, nice little character to start my Pop Vinyl collection with.

This was definitely the best present out of all the presents my boyfriend bought me. He had hinted he had a big present for me and when he showed me the present all wrapped up and such, it did look pretty big. I saved it until last to open and I had been guessing on and off that it was either a huge Totoro plushie or a huge Pokemon plushie. At one point I guess it was a huge Lady from Lady and The Tramp plushie but I was right with my first guess. He’s a very big teddy as you can see my the picture of me holding him, but he’s also very sturdy too which is really nice. We have been debating whether or not he’s real… We’re unsure at the moment but either way I don’t care as he’s bloody amazing! This was such a great present and I really love him. I nearly picked up a Totoro plushie when we went to Bristol for our anniversary in the summer but I left it. Glad I did in a way as I may not have this guy now.

So those are all my Christmas presents. I was really spoilt by my boyfriend this year and I feel so lucky because of it, but I would like to add, I spoilt him too. 😛

Thank you to everyone who bought me something, my friends, family and especially my boyfriend. I love you all!

What did everyone get for Christmas? I would love to hear what you got nice, so please feel free to do so in the comments down below.

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and although I will say it a little closer to the time, I hope everyone has an amazing New Year too.

Until next time, take care all and enjoy your weekend.

Christmas Wish List!

Woohoo it’s December and you know what that means… Christmas will soon be upon us! That also means shops will be packed full of crazy shoppers, the German Market in town will be overflowing with hungry people and every shop you go into will be playing Christmas music loudly… The joys of this month!

I’m actually REALLY excited for Christmas this year, I haven’t been this excited for quite a long time, too long for me to remember.

I’ve already bought all my boyfriends presents and I’m still needing to buy some more but that won’t be a problem. He’s been spoilt rotten this year!

But now onto what I would like for Christmas… I made up a list for my boyfriend and it was pretty hard to make up, as I really don’t/didn’t know what I wanted this year. It was pretty much my wish list of things that I either haven’t yet gotten round to buying OR haven’t had the money to buy.

SO! Without further ado, here is my wish list for Christmas.

• MAC Cosmetics Prep + Prime Transparent Finished Powder/Pressed.

A silky, colourless finishing powder suitable for all skin tones. Reduces shine while optically minimizing the look of lines & imperfections. Wear over makeup or on its own. Now in a pressed compact for ease & portability.

I love MAC Cosmetics but bar one product I’ve only ever owned lipsticks by them. This is set to change in the New Year though as I really want to try this finishing powder out. Although I don’t wear make up (apart from lip products of course!) I do like a finishing powder to keep my face looking matte and this looks like a good call. I currently use one by Bare Minerals and whilst I really like it, I would like to try something else to broaden my horizons. This comes in both a powder and a pressed form, but I think I would want the pressed version so that I could use it on the go. I get terrible shine on my nose and whilst the powder I put on my skin in the morning does the trick, it doesn’t last all day. This would also be ideal for taking with me when I go on holiday and to my boyfriends. I’ll probably ask my Mom for this, if not I’ll just pick it up myself with my Christmas money (if I get any!). I think this is at a decent price for £20.50 too!

• Guardians Of The Galaxy Rocky Raccoon Pop Vinyl Figure.

I don’t as of yet own any Pop Vinyl figures but I have wanted to. I have my eye on quite a few of them that I want and this is one of them. I LOVED Guardians Of The Galaxy when I went to the cinema to watch it and Rocket was definitely my favourite character out of the team. When I went to Comic Con a few Saturday’s ago there were hundreds of Pop Vinyl figures and whilst I didn’t pick one up… My boyfriend did and I have a feeling it’s one of my Christmas presents as he didn’t want to show me which one he picked up. This Pop Vinyl is a bobble head so this would be awesome to keep at a desk to play with when procrastinating. I don’t have a desk, but I’ve already decided that whenever I get any Pop Vinyl figures in the future I’m going to wait until I move out to take them out of the boxes, so they’re nice and fresh for my new home. I’d love a little collection of Pop Vinyl figures and soon enough in the future I will make a post of which figures I want, and why.

• Paperchase Dreamscape Woodland Leather Personal Organiser.

I spotted this in Paperchase back in September before I started university and was really tempted to buy it, but I stopped myself as I wouldn’t be able to use it until the New Year anyway! I’ve decided that instead of having my standard diary I keep at home, I wanted an organiser to have on the go. It’ll be handy with university, as well as work and social life too. This one has a beautiful grey and blue woodland design on it that includes various woodland animals such as foxes, owls, deers, rabbits and badgers. This will be perfect and you can add new years, as well as different sections to the organiser, which means I can use it year after year!

• Yankee Candle in Candy Cane Lane.

A favourite Christmas place where delicious dreams are made with tingly peppermint, sweet cookies and creamy vanilla icing.

Like most out there, I love Yankee Candles and whenever Yankee announce new scents I get super excited and this winter they have come out with a really yummy scent. Candy Cane Lane. Each time I go into a Yankee Candle stockist and they have Candy Cane Lane out for people to smell and buy, I give it a sniff. It’s a gorgeous creamy mint scent, which reminds me of peppermint hot chocolate and peppermint chocolate. I love mint themed foods (don’t even get me started on After Eights!) so this is really up my street. Although I don’t need anymore Yankee Candles (as a post in the next few weeks will reveal) I would burn this throughout the winter season and beyond as it would just remind me of Christmas, so it would be worth having it for sure. I have a feeling I’ve already been bought this for Christmas, but I’m not 100% sure… We shall soon find out.

• Clinique 3-Step in Dry Combination: Type 2.

I’ve been using Clinique on and off for over ten years now and it is always a product I end up going back to because I just love it that much. The only reasons I stop using it is usually due to lack of money. When I was out of work for a couple of months last year I couldn’t afford to re-purchase the moisturiser for the 3-Step so it resulted in me discontinuing use of the 3-Step once again. However my Mom has already suggested that she pick up the 3-Step again for me for Christmas, which would be lovely! As I’m going away on holiday in January and Clinique also sell a handy travel set, I can see me picking this up myself in preparation for said holiday. Although I have always been Type 2, which is dry combination I can see me going through the tests again when I visit the Clinique counter just to make sure I haven’t changed. It’ll be good to have my 3-Step routine back in the New Year.

• Wonderland Bunny Cotton Tail Cotton Wool Dispenser.

I spotted this on Truffle Shuffle’s Facebook page months ago and since then I have been lusting after it. I’m unsure if anyone has bought it for me for Christmas, but if not I intend to pick it up with my Christmas money, or my birthday money. I recently got a new set of drawers in my room and I would like something nice like this to bring a little life to my room. It’d just brighten up each day taking out one of the little cotton wool balls to use.

• Lush Rudolph Christmas Gift.

I love Lush and I know that I want from there this Christmas and some of the bits and pieces are actually in this cute little gift. It comes with Yog Nog Soap, Snowman Jelly Shower Jelly, Dashing Santa Bath Bomb and Golden Wonder Bath Bomb. I do have a bar of Yog Nog soap, but I’ve never tried the other products and would love them to use as a treat when I go on holiday. Plus look at the packaging for this gift! You can’t go wrong with a knot Rudolph cloth. Super cute and it isn’t exactly super expensive.

• Pandora Night Sky Openwork Charm.

I thought I would save the best until last, a Pandora charm. Last Christmas and birthday I received Pandora and once again my family and boyfriend have offered to buy me it again this year. I have made a short list of some charms I like and that I’m after, but I’ve recently spotted this charm and now I am in love. It would work beautifully with the blue theme I want to create on my university charm bracelet (I need to write a post about this someday…) which I often wear these days. The charm is just so beautiful isn’t it? It’s just loads of blue stars and a silver/clear gem in the middle. It looks like a night sky and I love those quite frankly. If I’m not bought this charm this year, I will for sure be buying it for myself as a treat!

So that’s my Christmas wish list this year! I don’t really have anything in particular I want for Christmas, probably just a few lovely little things from close family, friends and my boyfriend.

What’s on your wish list for Christmas? Make sure to let me know in the comments down below.

Until next time take care all and see you soon!

December Empties

The final empties post of 2013 is upon us and I’ve never had so many products used up before as I have done during December! I forgot I’d even used certain things up when I was looking through the bag to take pictures! I’m glad I’ve used quite a bit up, as it’s meant more room for new things that I received over Christmas.

So without further ado, let’s get on with this post!

• Head & Shoulders Anti-Dandruff Shampoo in Citrus Fresh.

For 2014 I have decided to stop using Head & Shoulders and since I stopped using it during December, my hair has improved dramatically and I’m not wasting nearly £5 every two to three months buying the shampoo. My Dad and boyfriend still use it mind, so that’s fine with me. Even though I usually used the Sensitive one, I picked up the Citrus Fresh months ago to try out and it was really nice! It left my hair smelling fresh and like lemons and it obviously did a good job of cleaning my hair too. I don’t really miss using Head & Shoulders and I don’t think I’ll ever buy it again, as in reality this stuff is probably one of the worst things you could buy and use on your hair so for 2014 I’m steering clear of this!

• Possibility Ultra Rich Shower Gel, Shampoo & Bubble Bath in Peppermint Ice Cream.

I rather like the Possibility shower gels, they remind me of a cheaper version of Philosophy and with all the talk going around blogs about Philosophy, Possibility is probably better for your skin too. This shower gel smelt just like mint ice cream, which I love! This is a multipurpose shower gel as you can use it on your hair and in the bath too! I often used this in the bath alongside a Lush bath bomb, I never used it on my hair as I didn’t feel the need to. As much as I loved this shower gel, I am glad to see it finished and in the bin as I just wasn’t enjoying using it as much as I had when I first bought it and to use it seemed more of a chore than a pleasure. I eventually used it up in the bath and that was that. This does leave your skin feeling soft and smelling sweet, but you would of course need to use a moisturiser alongside it. I would buy this again, but when that will be, I don’t know.

• Sainsbury’s Extra Care Alcohol Free Mouthwash in Sensitive.

I love my mouthwash and I keep trying different ones to try and find a favourite, but as of yet I haven’t seemed to find it, although this mouthwash was really nice for the money! Please excuse the mold at the bottom of the bottom! It’s gross I know. >.< Anyhoo! This mouthwash was lovely because it didn’t feel like it was burning the inside of my mouth when I used it, which is always a bonus for me! My mouth felt squeaky clean whenever I used it and when I popped into Sainsbury’s to pick up another bottle, I was saddened to see that the shelf these were kept on was empty and I was forced to try another one, which wasn’t such a bad thing. I would buy this again, but I need to find it first! 😛

• Dettol Honey Nourishing Hand Wash with E45.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this hand wash and everything about it! I wrote quite a lot about it in my top 10 favourites from 2013 post yesterday, which you can check out here if you’re interested. I’m already low on  my second bottle of this and have bought a new one, ready for when the current one runs low! I’m so glad that Dettol and E45 teamed up to make this hand wash, it really has been something sent from heaven for my hands.

• Royal Jelly Foam Bath.

I’m pretty sure this is from a gift set and I’m also pretty sure it was from Boots. One afternoon this suddenly turned up in my bathroom and I can only imagine my Mom put it in there for me to use. It smells really nice and reminds me of the Royal Jelly sets I used to buy my Mom as a child every Christmas, birthday and Mother’s Day. It’s not really something I would buy myself and people would know better than to gift this to me as I’m not the biggest fan of Royal Jelly, but this was really quite nice to use in the bath if I just wanted a quick soak. It left my skin feeling lovely and soft as well as leaving me smelling gorgeous too! I wouldn’t purchase this myself mind, it was a nice treat and that’s all it’ll ever be I think.

• Palmolive Nourishing Delight with Honey & Moisturising Milk Shower Milk.

I cannot tell you how much I love this shower milk and how many years I have been using it on and off for! I first discovered this shower milk in 2004 when my family and I went on holiday. We took a huge bottle of this stuff with us to use and I fell in love with it! I remember running myself a bath and putting loads in, only to discover it was creating so many bubbles that there were more of those than of water! Since then I’ve purchased a couple of bottles but only during the summer did I pick up this little travel size. I bought loads of them to take with me to my boyfriends for whenever I stayed over, to save using his shower gel. But eventually I just started doing that and this got put in the back of my cupboard, which I delightfully discovered towards the end of December. This shower milk smells just like honey and cream, which is something I love the smell of, it’s also a very thick shower cream and a little really does go a long way! It leaves my skin feeling as soft as a babies bum and smells just as delicious on the skin as it does in the bottle. I was rather delighted to see that the morning I finished this sample tube off, was also the day my Mom bought a huge 750ml version of this and popped it on the bath for me! I haven’t been able to stop using it and it’ll probably end up on my January favourites list at this rate! I recommend everyone to try this, it’s a must have, especially for winter.

• Sure Maximum Protection Anti-Perspirant in Sensitive.

I love this deodorant and it’s another favourite that found its way onto my top 10 favourites list for 2013! You can read more about it on this post here but I shall talk a little about it here too. This lasted me quite a long time, probably 6 months or more as you only need a little bit and it goes a long way. Since using this deodorant I don’t have to worry about sweating so much so that means no worrying about sweat patches or about horrible B.O.! This isn’t cheap at over £5.00 but for how long it lasts, it’s well worth the money!

• Clinique Dramatically Different Moisturising Gel.

I love this moisturising gel but sadly it finally came to the end of the tube and I was forced to throw it away, sad times, very sad times! For about two or three years all I used was Clinique but due to lack of funds right now, I can’t afford it and I’ve had to change down to somewhat cheaper brands, which appear to be working well for my skin! I loved this gel because it stopped my skin from feeling dry and not oily at the same time, which was lovely! Sadly this isn’t the cheapest moisturiser in the world and until I have a spare near £30 I won’t be able to buy a replacement tube. I recommend the gel to anyone who suffers from terribly dry skin but also suffers with oily skin too, so a definite must for people with combination skin.

• Decleor Hydra Floral Light Cream.

At first I loved this moisturiser, but now I actually quite hate it and I’m glad to see it in the bin! My Mom gave this to me after I’d run out of moisturiser and was in desperate need of some more so she suggested I try this one. At first I loved it and it made my skin feel lovely and soft but after a while I grew to dislike using it, mostly for the strange consistency of the cream, which to me doesn’t feel light at all, plus I don’t like the smell of this all that much. Actually I wouldn’t say I hated this, as it did a good job as a moisturiser whilst I was at my boyfriends, but I am rather glad to see this in the bin. It isn’t a bad product, just not one for me!

• Lush FUN in Pink.

I LOVE Lush’s FUN products and by the end of this year I want to have tried them all! I currently have a brand new bar of FUN Gold in my Lush box (yes, I have a box full of Lush products) that I dare not use incase I love it so much that by the time it’s finished I’ll need to cry due to wanting more. Okay, that was dramatic but I do love their FUN products because, they’re fun! They’re a multipurpose product which you can use as a shampoo, bubble bar, body wash and as it’s like Play-Doh, you can play with it in the bath, which makes this a great product for kids! Pink FUN smells has the exact same scent as Creamy Candy Bubble Bar and Rock Star Soap, which in turn are two of my favourite products from Lush! It smells like creamy vanilla with sweets and maybe some fruit in there too. It’s just so amazing to smell, it’s made my purple Liberty London bag smell amazing! I’ll be picking this up again from Lush, I’d be stupid not to.

• Montagne Jeunesse Face Masks in Deep Sea Mud Pac and Chocolate Mud Pie.

I thought I would include these two together on the same point, seeing as they’re both by the same brand, but they both do different things to the skin, etc. The first one I will be talking about is the Deep Sea mask, which I tried for the first time with this sachet. I had always liked the look of it, shamefully due to the fact it was a blue mask, come on, who else isn’t drawn to blue things, huh?! So anyway I thought for 99p I would pick it up to try and I’m really glad I did as this mask was amazing! It smells just like a aftershave and contains seaweed and kelp to leave your skin feeling clean and free from stress. The dead sea minerals in the mask work deep into the pores to penetrate and draw any impurities out of the skin and since using this mask I have noticed the blackheads on my nose look smaller, which is great! I’ll definitely buy this mask again as it really did feel nice to use whilst I was in the bath. Finally we have Chocolate Mud Pie, which is an amazing chocolate face mask! As I mentioned in my top 10 favourites from 2013 (which you can read here) this was one of my favourite products from the year and here I shall explain why! This mask smells just like chocolate and is a very thick mask, which was a nice change. It contains cocoa and shea butter which are great for softening the skin. This left my skin feeling soft and smooth and my pores looked a little smaller too, which was great! For 90p this mask was well worth the money and since buying this one to try I’ve already bought another two, one which I will be using the night before my birthday to ensure my skin looks awesome for when my boyfriend and I go out to celebrate it. I’ve tried the Cupcake Face Mask by Lush and I really don’t rate it. My skin broke out after using it and I was tempted to put in a complaint, but alas I left it and dealt with it. If you have the same issues with Cupcake as I do, then try Montagne Jeunesse’s chocolate face mask, it’s amazing and will leave you face soft and smooth with zero break outs!

So those were my empties from December! There was a lot huh? It’s taken me two hours just to get this post written, but I was getting distracted whilst writing it up! Either way I’m glad I was able to use up so many products during December as it means I have room for all the new ones I received over Christmas.

What products did you use up over December? Let me know in the comments down below!

Until next time, take care all!

 

Lip Wish List

Okay now I know the title of this post sounds odd but, bear with me. 😛

As regular readers or even friends of mine who read my blog will know, I don’t really wear make-up… Only lip products. Why? Because I like being this way.

When I was younger I always wore eye make-up and tinted lip balms but as I grew older I just didn’t like wearing make-up anymore and swapped pretty eye shadows and liners for gorgeous lipsticks instead. I’ve only ever worn concealer, foundation and blush once and it made me look fake and like a doll, I hated it and washed it off as soon as I could!

These days as well, even if I do see a pretty eyeshadow or liner that I would love to own, it would be a waste of money me buying it as eye make-up really hurts my eyes these days and as I wear glasses it’s pointless anyway. My eyelashes are naturally long (lucky me, eh?) so I don’t really need to wear mascara, but even if I wanted to I couldn’t. My eyelashes are so long they brush against the lenses of my glasses at times, so imagine how they would be with mascara on too?

So when I have a girly treat it’s usually on a lipstick or gloss or maybe even a new bottle of perfume and as I love wearing my lip products so much, I’m always finding new ones that I want to add to my collection… AND beauty bloggers don’t help that either! 😛

I’ve compiled a list of which ones I really want, both a mixture of expensive and affordable, so I hope you like this post, I thought it would be something different and you may even discover a lip product you never even knew existed! So enjoy!

L-R: NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream in Monte Carlo, Bourjois Paris Colour Boost Lip Crayon in Plum Russian, Clinique Chubby Stick Intense Moisturising Lip Colour Balm in Plushest Punch, Clarins Instant Light Natural Lip Perfector in Candy Shimmer, Revlon Lip Butter in Pink Lemonade & NYX Butter Gloss in Peaches & Cream.
BL: Korres Lip Butter in Wild Rose.
BR: OCC Lip Tar Stained Gloss in New Wave.

As you can see, I have a lot of products to talk about, so let’s get to it. There’s a mixture of lip creams, crayons, balms, butters, glosses, butters and even a stained gloss. It covers a bit of everything, well everything bar your standard lipstick, but I have plenty of those to keep me satisfied. I’ll be talking about these in the order they’re mentioned below the image, just to save confusion. 🙂

• NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream in Monte Carlo from nyxcosmeticsstore.co.uk – £5.50

I came to hear about this lip cream when searching for a duplicate colour for Lime Crime’s Red Velvet Velvetine. I looked at some beauty bloggers reviews for Monte Carlo and I was hooked on the shade. It’s a beautiful dark deep red shade that some beauty bloggers have commented saying that it’s more of a berry red, which is right up my street! I’ve never been a fan of the classic bright red lip, I’ve always liked my red lip shade to be dark and vampy looking and from checking out swatches of Monte Carlo online, it’s exactly that. As it’s a lip cream it will apply like a gloss but dries like a matte lipstick, but don’t forget it’s neither a lipstick or a lip gloss, it’s a lip cream. These are said to be moistursing and remind me of the lip creams by Collection 2000. I love my Collection 2000 Cream Puff lip creams (review for Fairy Cake here) but I would love to own more as they stay on the lips for ages and with the winter season coming up and dark lipsticks being all I wear during that season, I need this lip cream in my life as soon as possible. Plus it’s an affordable price and although I do need to shop around, NYX Cosmetics seem to have it at the cheapest price, however their delivery is £4.50, but as I want a few products from them, I may pay the postage fee… We shall see!

• Bourjois Paris Colour Boost Lip Crayon in Plum Russian from boots.com – £7.99

I eyed up these lip crayons by Bourjois when they first made their appearance over the summer. I’d seen them written about on most beauty blogs and Peach on the Beach caught my eye the most, however, when I went to swatch them in Boots one afternoon the colour no longer stood out to me, infact none of them did. The formula felt lovely and creamy mind and the type of product I would like to own in future. As if Bourjois heard my prayers that they would create some darker shades for autumn and winter, they brought out two new shades, one being Plum Russian. Many beauty bloggers described this as being a dupe of MAC Rebel (my review for that can be found here) but more creamy and upon checking out their swatches, I can see why they said this. After a week of searching for Plum Russian to see if these claims were accurate on my skin tone, I finally found it to swatch and it did look like a creamier version of Rebel on the back of the hand. As much as I love Rebel, it’s too dark for me to wear to work and its by far my favourite lipstick so it makes me a little sad, however I know this would be workable due to it being glossy and creamy. It’s not cheap at £7.99, so I’m going to wait until it’s on a 3 for 2 offer in Boots or Superdrug so I can pick up a few bits and pieces alongside it. I really do want to own a few more lip crayons, they’re easy to use and are really moisturising too, something we all need during the colder months.

• Clinique Chubby Stick Intense Moisturising Lip Colour Balm in Plushest Punch from clinique.co.uk – £17.00

I saw this reviewed on Temptalia’s blog in March and since then I have been wanting this lip crayon for a while. As I always say when I mention her, she always does the best swatches out there and some of the best reviews I’ve ever read, I always pop over to her blog when I want a good review on a MAC lipstick. It’s described as a raspberry pink, which is always a nice shade that can be worn throughout the year from spring to winter. I’ve come to notice that Chubby Stick’s have always had mixed reviews, some saying they were a waste of money due to lack of moisturisation and no scent or taste, whilst others have liked that they don’t have any scent or taste to them and commented how pigmented they are. Clinique are known for their products being allergy tested and 100% fragrance free, so of course they aren’t going to smell or taste of anything, they’re fragrance free! It’d make a nice change to have a lip product that didn’t have a taste of scent to it, just for a change as most days lip products taste of chocolate, vanilla, etc and that just makes me hungry! Especially Rebel, which reminds of warm doughnuts from those little huts in town centers. Anyway, I’ve digressed… I still need to swatch Plushest Punch as for all I know I could go to swatch it in store and find that I already have a lip product this same colour. Either way it looks gorgeous and is something I would like to have in my collection. I’ve actually been looking at buying a little sampler version of this from eBay for less than £7.00, but whether I do or not… We shall see!

• Clarins Instant Light Natural Lip Perfector in Candy Shimmer from clarins.co.uk – £17.00

In June my friend Poppy told me about this lip balm, which she also reviewed over on her blog so when I went over for a nose at swatches, as well as her thoughts and feelings on it, I got to see how gorgeous this is. I eventually popped into Clarins to swatch it and it’s a gorgeous pink with shimmer running throughout it. I nearly bought it there and then but I knew I needed to save money and put the tube back down and admired the swatch on the back of my hand for the rest of the afternoon. The applicator is made out of soft sponge and feels really soft, as well as feeling it, which will be really delicate on the lips if they’re sore. For a lip balm, it is a tad on the expensive side but I actually thought this was a lip gloss, but as Clarins describes this as a balm, I’ll go with that! This is the type of thing I would wear if I’m having an off day, or just for work! Have found this cheaper on eBay, but whether or not I buy it from there, I’m unsure but it’s in my watch list for now.

• Revlon Lip Butter in Pink Lemonade from boots.com – Was £7.99, now £5.99

I currently own three lip butters, Candy Apple, Sweet Tart and Wild Watermelon (reviews of these anyone?) so you wouldn’t think I’d need anymore, surely? Well we all thought wrong as I’ve seen at least four I’ve wanted, but I’ll be good and just want this one… For now. When Revlon released some more shades in June for the summer, Pink Lemonade was one of them and at first I didn’t like the look of it, it looked pale and just not my type of shade, but after seeing Maybe It’s Megan Leigh review this over at her blog (she’s love BTW!) I just fell in love with the colour. It’s a pastel pink shade but due to the lip butter formula it looks more like a sheer pink gloss, which can be wearable for any occasion. Like Clarins Candy Shimmer I’d probably wear this when I’m feeling a tad under the weather, as well as for work. I swatched this a few weekends ago and it looked lovely and I discovered it’s pretty build-able too, so if you wanted it to be a lighter pale pink you would only need one covering, but if you wanted a darker pale pink then pack it on (but not TOO much of course!) I was close to buying this when swatching it, but I’m not in any rush and I’ve found people put brand new lip butters on eBay and beauty blog sales for next to nothing, so I’m keeping my eyes peeled for now, but this being said, £5.99 isn’t a bad price for a Revlon Lip Butter.

• NYX Butter Gloss in Peaches & Cream from nyxcosmeticsstore.co.uk – £5.00

Another NYX product, but this one is a little different from Monte Carlo. I’ve never heard of a butter gloss until now and according to NYX Cosmetics website it’s a lip gloss that gives you a sheer to medium coverage on your lips and doesn’t leave being the sticky feeling that most of us dislike with lip glosses. It can be used alone or over a lipstick of a similar shade, I’d use this on its own though. Once again, I discovered this product through Maybe It’s Megan Leigh and you can check her post/review out about Peaches & Cream here. It looks like a gorgeous bubble gum pink, even though it sounds like it’s meant to resemble a creamy peach shade. Nevertheless it looks gorgeous and for £5.00 I would wear this butter gloss quite a lot. I’d wear it to work, when out and about, as well as when seeing my boyfriend. It claims to be nourishing too, which would be a nice treat during the cold winter days when my lips may feel chapped and dry. This sounds really thick and creamy and right up my street for the type of lip glosses I like.

• Korres Lip Butter in Wild Rose from feelunique.com – £8.00

I’ve never really seen the hype amongst beauty bloggers about Korres lip butters, until I looked closer at them. All the different scents have different shades too, Wild Rose is a deep berry colour, which reminds me of Illamasqua’s Magnetism lipstick (you can read my review of that here) Deep berry is one of my favourite shades I like to wear during autumn and winter but sometimes I want that dark lip, but at the same time I want to moisturise my lips. Most lip balms and butters won’t give the pigmentation that a lipstick or gloss will, but this lip butter appears to do just that and after reading Sparkly Vodka’s post about Wild Rose, I can safely say I NEED this in my handbag at all times! I’ve found this new on eBay cheaper, but I’ll be keeping my eyes out for this in future.

• OCC Lip Tar Stained Gloss in New Wave from love-makeup.co.uk – £12.00

Since Temptalia reviewed this in May this year, I’ve been after getting New Wave to add to my lip product collection. I have heard nothing but positivity about OCC Lip Tar’s, but I really want the gloss version of these, as whilst the normal lip tars look great, the added gloss just looks lovely! New Wave is described as a classy neon pink, which it looks to be from the swatches Temptalia shows on her post about it. It looks lovely and is the type of thing I would wear on a cold day to pick me up, due to its neon like colour. I reckon I would have such fun using this lip tar and it comes with a little brush so that you can apply it too. I wouldn’t use this for work as it sounds a little fiddly, it’d be more something I would use for evenings and nights out and probably days out shopping with friends, maybe for meals too. Either way, I know I’ll be getting myself a lip tar by 2014!

So that was my lip wish list! Technically MAC – Speak Louder lipstick should be on that list too, but that’s in my November Wish List, which you can find (here).

So do you own any of the lip products on my wish list? If so which ones and are they good or bad?

Do you have a lip wish list? Or even an eye-make up or nail polish wish list? If you do, please feel free to share some of the products you want.

Leave all this down in the comments. 🙂

Until next time take care!

MUA Power Pout Colour Intense Tint & Lip Balm in Broken Hearted Review

Another week, another lip product, another review. If you’re a regular reader you’ll know just how much I love my lip products and when a new type of lip product hits the shelves, I’ll try my best to get my mitts on one to try! The latest addition to lip products is of course the lip crayon.

Clinique were the first to bring out the lip crayons and eventually Revlon, Bourjois, Seventeen and even Rimmel are getting on the bandwagon!

I’ve wanted one of the Clinique Chubby Sticks for ages, but I’m in two minds whether or not I want one at the same time. I have my eye on shade Plushest Punch after seeing a review of it (here) a while ago. However at their £17.00 price mark I’m a tad put off for the meantime, especially as I’m pretty poor at this moment in time too.

A few months back I was wandering around Superdrug with my Mom, looking around the make up counters when I stumbled upon MUA’s stand and noticed they had their own lip crayons for sale. I tried out all the shades and decided that Broken Hearted was the shade I liked the most.

The Power Pout lip crayons come in six shades altogether, Broken Hearted, Crazy In Love, Irreplaceable, Justify, Rendezvous and Runway.

As I’ve already mentioned, I chose Broken Hearted. These lip crayons are only £3.00 each, so I was pretty good not to walk out with more!

MUA claim that the Power Pout’s are both a tint and a lip balm so they’ll make your lips look gorgeous, as well as be protected and moisturised at the same time. They do definitely give great colour pay off and they do make my lips feel soft and smooth and at the moment this has been the lip product I’ve been reaching for when going to work as it’s so quick and easy to apply and it lasts ages!

Broken Hearted is described by MUA as a deep rich raspberry, which is pretty accurate, it reminds me of a dull hot pink too, which will work wonders for anyone who it too shy to wear a hot pink lip colour.

Due to this being a lip balm it leaves a glossy finish, which looks really nice and it feels creamy too, perfect if you don’t like a matte or satin finish on your lips, which can feel really drying.

The lip crayon glides on easily with no tugging and as it is in the shape of a pen it’s easy to apply, especially if you have thin lips. When the product wears down you don’t need to sharpen it either as with a few twists at the bottom of the crayon the lip colour will just come up.

As well as looking great it smells lovely too. It smells somewhat minty and I’ve found when applied to the lips it’ll leave a slight tingle, but nothing like what a plumping lip product would do.

Whilst I have many positives about Heart Broken, I do also have some negatives that I know other beauty bloggers have mentioned in their reviews of the Power Pout’s too.

If left in a warm room or taken out when hot, they WILL melt. This happened to mine the last time I saw my friend Poppy and the crayon itself has moved so it’s ended up mushing against the inside of the crayon tube, which is really annoying! Due to this it’s hard to wind up to reveal more product and when applying the lip product you can see it hitting against the sides of the crayon tube, which just makes me cringe.

As well as this due to it melted a little once in my room one night when it was really humid, the lip crayons tip has gone a bit mushed, but personally this doesn’t bother me, as it’s molded in a shape that makes the product easier to apply on my lips than it was before.

I guess it isn’t so bad that this lip crayon didn’t break the bank at £3.00, I’d be really annoyed if it was one of the Clinique Chubby Sticks!

I really like this lip crayon though and so far it’s the only one I own, thus the first one I’ve owned so I don’t have much to compare it to. I’m hoping to pick up a Bourjois and Clinique one in the future, but we’ll see.

For £3.00 each, the Power Pout’s are worth picking up and the choice of shades is incredible too!

Will you be picking up one of these to try?

If you already have one, which shade do you own? Let me know in the comments below.

Until next time, take care all and I hope your week is going well so far!

January favourites

Okay I know this is 10 days late, I’m sorry about the lateness of this post, I’m never usually so late about getting these posts up on my blog. However the reason for this only being written up and posted now is due to how busy I’ve been with work. 5-6 days in a row and I’ll finally have a day off so I’ve not had much chance to take pictures and write the post up without falling to sleep or to be honest being too lazy and lethargic to do anything about it.

But the wait is over and finally, here are my favourites from January.

• Love Diane EDP by Diane Von Furstenberg.

Bless my brother he bought me this for my 23rd birthday at the start of January and since then it’s all I’ve used pretty much. At first I was rather disappointed with this perfume as I would spray it and no scent would linger, but maybe this is due to me using stronger perfumes for a while beforehand. Who knows! Anyway I decided I would use this for a month at work and see how I got on and due to being at work so much this is all I’ve used for the majority. I’m under halfway through the bottle now, which is a shame as it’s a 50ml bottle too but it’s lovely and refreshing. I’ll be talking about this some more in an updated perfume collection post towards the end of February. This is all I use for work lately so I’m not entirely sure what I’ll be replacing it with when the bottle runs out! We’ll soon find out eh? The 30ml bottle retails for £28.99 whilst the 50ml bottles retails for £43.99.

• Clinique dramatically different moisturizing gel.

I’ve noticed over the years that with the 3-Step products from Clinique that people either love or hate them. I can see why people love and hate this products, but I can safely say that I love the 3-Step system and have done since I was fourteen/fifteen. It was only last year when I decided to start the 3-Step again that I realised that maybe the lotion wasn’t for me, even though I am skin type 2. Whenever I put the lotion on it would sit on my skin all day and it would end up making me sweat due to it feeling too heavy on my skin, this ended up breaking me out more than I was in the first place. So upon talking to one of the lovely ladies at Clinique, she agreed that my skin was better suited to the gel, which is for skin types 3 and 4. Due to the cold weather and all the snow we’ve had lately this gel has been a saviour! My skin has been so dry on my nose and forehead that this has just been some sort of drink for my skin. I love it, it’s just a shame it runs out every 6 months, but so worth the money! The pump which I have costs £29.50 but a 50ml tube is £17.00. If you fancy trying this product but don’t want to pay a lot, ask one of the ladies at Clinique if you can nab a sample to try, is what I did when I first tried the gel!

• Tesco moisturising bath bubbles.

For a while now I’ve been craving a bubble bath full of Johnson’s blue bubble bath, but for over £1 for a bottle I thought sod it and walked away. However this and the normal blue-bottle of Tesco’s baby bath bubbles took my eye, they were on offer for 2 for £2 so I couldn’t help but grab a bargain! After a long day at work and in Wolverhampton visiting two of my closest friends I decided to have a long bath with this and it felt amazing. This is really moisturising and my skin felt silky smooth afterwards. Not just that but it smells identical to Johnson’s, which of course is a plus side of it. As well as putting it in the bath I’ve been using it in the shower before work to comfort me somewhat. It’s lovely and makes my skin feel silky smooth all over again! I recommend this for mothers with babies for sure, as well as for anyone of any age, especially if you don’t get time to moisturise due to a busy schedule, like myself.

• Carex strawberry laces handwash

I’ve been after this handwash for MONTHS after seeing people on their blogs and Instagram talking about it. There was also a chocolate orange one out (if I remember right anyway!) and that sounded delicious, but I couldn’t find that one when I looked. I was only wandering around for a mooch when I found this and snapped one up straight away. They were and are still only 90p each as they’re half price, but since using this I would for sure pay full price to have this by my sink. As I’ve mentioned many times, I have eczema but as well as that I also have sensitive skin, so as soon as my skin has got used to certain products it sometimes rejects them, my hands so this ALL the time. However they have got better and better since using this hand wash so I can only keep my fingers crossed it stays that way. As well as it killing germs and keeping my hands soft and smooth, it smells amazing! Having a cheeky sniff of it now as I type this up. If you can get hold of this and love sweet smells, do it! You won’t regret it!

• Nivea sensitive pure gentle care 48h deodorant stick.

I sweat like no ones business, especially at work. Half the time you never stop, you’re always on your feet and keeping busy. It was getting so bad with my sweating that it was making me rather paranoid and anxious. I decided I needed change and my Lynx deodorant wasn’t working for me anymore, so it was used up and binned and off I went to try to find something better. A spray was out of the question, I’ve learnt over the past 10 years that they don’t work for me and I needed something else. Thanks to my Boots advantage card I had a voucher that gave me 1/2 price on women’s deodorant so I thought I’d try a roll on, one of the dry ones as I’ve had many bad and embarrassing experiences with the wet versions. After a month of use I can happily say that I don’t sweat as much as I used to and I really do put it down to this deodorant stick. It’s lasting well and it’s easier to pop into my handbag than a huge can of Lynx or Nivea spray. I recommend these to anyone who suffers with constant sweating, mines not happening as much as it was before and I’m glad. Never been happier and feel more relaxed now and for £2.50 it’s worth feeling that.

• Philosophy purity 3-in-1 cleanser for face and eyes.

I received this back in the summer from Debenhams Beauty Club after entering a competition via their Facebook like page. I never really tried it until around Christmas time and I really love it. Due it only being a small tester it’s only used once in a blue moon, that being when I have a relaxing bath and I don’t wish to use my Clinique face wash. I put a little bit on my face brush and it really does go a long way. After scrubbing and rinsing off my face, my skin feels baby bum soft and I don’t even feel like I need to use a moisturiser afterwards! I’d love to start using this as part of my daily routine but I love my Clinique 3-Step system too much. We’ll see for in the future. My Mom bought a bottle of this back in 2011 and she uses it often, she loves it and uses it to wash her make up off, which is what this is for! It works as a cleanser, toner and make up remover. It’s amazing stuff and worth the money, even though I got my cute little bottle for free.

• The Body Shop chocomania body scrub.

I got this cute little tub in my chocomania gift set in the Christmas sales and I love it so much, I’ve not used a scrub like this that worked really well for years so I’m glad that I bought the tin for this alone! The tub is a 50ml and so far it’s gone a long way, although there is only a few more uses left out of it (one I’ll possibly be using tonight before I go to bed). To me it smells like chocolate, but to my friend Gabz and my Mom, it smells like shit (saying poo is so… youthful…?) but I can’t agree with them there! I use this scrub all over my body, especially my arms, thighs and bum and it leaves me feeling silky smooth! Can’t help but run a hand over my bum to feel what a great job this product has done. I’ll definitely be buying the 200ml tub of this, which is priced at £12.50. I recommend getting a sample from The Body Shop as I know for me with my sensitive skin, sometimes products can be too gritty or just the wrong ingredients for my skin, so I’m glad this works for me! I’ll be posting a review for this as soon as the tub is empty and I buy a new one.

So that was my January favourites! I apologise again for how long it took for me to write this post up, but at least it’s here now and there’s plenty of goodies I’ve spoken of and mentioned.

Look forward to seeing you next month for February! Enjoy this month guys, Valentines Day and Pancake Day are upon us this coming week!