Kawaii Face Mask Wish List

Guys we are less than two weeks away from September. Can you believe it? It has also nearly been a month since the UK were told to wear face masks in shops. That month has flew by and it only feels like yesterday I was panicking about buying some more face masks.

Well, that mini panic is what inspired today’s post, which is all about face masks and which ones I have on my wish list (as well as one I bought). I know a lot of people went into panic over getting face masks before the 24th July, which thankfully wasn’t me. I was just panicking about which one to buy! I didn’t buy any funky ones, just a couple of black ones for both me and Dane. However, I would still love some funky and fun face masks, hence the wish list. These are also all going to be reusable!

I really hope this list helps people who may want to get some fun masks to wear during (and after) these times we are facing at the moment. Whether you believe in it or not, wear a face mask if you can and keep yourself and others safe.

• Firebox Smoko Pearl Boba Tea Reusable Face Mask (link)

This is the first cute face mask I found and typical it was after I bought my face masks in July, boooo! This one is sold by Firebox but is by American brand Smoko (who also made my Elodie ramen bowl – which you can read about here) who I love! They have three different designs on the website – Little Bao Dumpling, Tayto Potato and the one I’m mentioning here, Pearl Boba Tea. The little bubble teas are adorable and some have cute smiling faces on them too. They sound and look really good quality and I would love to pick one of these up in the future, especially as I love (and miss) bubble tea. 😛

• Society 6 Igor Canova Shadow Sneak Face Mask (link)

This is a face mask designer my good blogger friend Sarah (Raiin Monkey) has bought herself and told me about. There are so many face masks to choose from, all with adorable Pokemon themed designs, 21 to be exact! Out of all of them, the ghost Pokemon design jumped out at me and I really would love to pick it up in the future. The design itself has various ghost Pokemon – including Gengar, Misdreavus, Shuppet, Litwick and Phantump. Alongside the Pokemon there are some ghost type moves dotted around, which make for a good print overall!

• PaperandPotionsArt Soot Sprite Face Mask (link)

It wouldn’t be a wish list on my post if it didn’t contain something Studio Ghibli related! I discovered PaperandPotionsArt years ago at Comic Con and straightaway followed them on Instagram. When I saw they’d created this Soot Sprite mask I knew I had to add it to this list. It’s nothing too elaborate and is a rather “simple” design, which I like! It works with it being white too, due to the Soot Sprite’s being black. I have some black face masks similar to this style and to be honest, they’re not the best due to how thick they are and with how warm you can get whilst wearing one of these, this may get a bit stuffy.

• Sunflower310 Japanese Shiba Face Mask (link)

My Instagram friend Emily (Meimi132) shared some face masks stores and designs with me and this is one of them. It’s a gorgeous Japanese inspired design that has various Shiba in different poses, Mount Fuji, sakura, geta footwear and dango. The design just screams Japan to me and reminds me of my trip there, as well as my love for the country. This is a face mask I would really love to pick up in the future, especially for any future trips to Japan.

• ClumsyCritters Animal Crossing Celeste Face Mask (link)

This is another face mask that Emily shared with me and it is so adorable! Celeste is so precious and I’ve always adored her since Wild World but I feel in New Horizons she’s so precious and adorable. Walking around, give you recipes and more to do with the stars. It makes me smile. Aside from the design, one of the things I like about this face mask is how the ear sections have adjustable beads on them, which I think is such a good idea.

• LenacchiStore Pikachu in Space Reusable Face Mask (link)

Finally we have another Pokemon themed face mask that I would really like to pick up  in the future! It’s a gorgeous space themed mask, but with Pokemon! Pikachu and Pichu are in space alongside various Pokemon including Mew, Jirachi, Clefairy, Clefable and various more! Both the Pikachu and Pichu are dressed in little astronaut outfits, which look so adorable! It’s just gorgeous, I love it so much.

I thought I would mention below the face mask that Dane bought for both of us as it’s amazing and deserves a recommendation!

• AALTRADE Resuseable Face Mask (link)

I didn’t want to add it onto the wish list but these masks come in various different colours, but we picked up the black one above. We got 2 each to ensure we had enough and we certainly do. You can pop filters inside, but when we’ve gone to do that it’s really awkward, so sadly we haven’t bothered. We both wear glasses and personally I haven’t had any issues with fogging, but I think Dane has from memory. If you don’t want to go for a kawaii design, you can always go for one of these plain black ones. 🙂

So there we have it! My kawaii face mask wish list! I know this weeks blog post isn’t anything special, but I thought it was both cute and important considering the planets current situation with COVID.

What do you guys think of the face masks I mentioned? Any you like, or already own? Do you have any face masks you recommend? Make sure to let me know in the comments down below!

Until next time, take care all and keep safe. 🙂

Lush Rudolph Jelly Mask – Review

It’s almost been nearly a year since I last wrote a Lush review on my blog and I’m not in the slightest bit surprised (FYI it was this post). After Lush declared they would no longer hold their Boxing Day sales online I was a bit (very) pissed off. Not just for myself, but for people out there who can’t make it to the stores to grab themselves some bargains. It sucked and it was more than just that that annoyed me. Their scents are all the same lately (Le sigh – citrus) and the way their company has been lately it just put me off supporting them anymore.

On top of all that I just haven’t really been bathing as much as I used to. I think in my old job when I finished work at 1.30pm I’d come home and had a hot bath to relax myself after a shit morning at work. Now I get home around 5.30pm and cook dinner, chilling out and then sleep. 😛 Baths just aren’t fitted into my chilling out time lately due to a mixture of that time being taken up with playing games or blog writing.

However, since going to London in November that’s kind of changed. I went into the Oxford Street Lush and picked up some of the Christmas range for 2018. I LOVE some of the bits I picked up, but as of yet I haven’t actually used them… Oh dear.

I forgot to check out and pick one item up though that I was interested in, which I was gutted about. I don’t really go into Lush anymore as Dane doesn’t particularly like it and none of my friends are really arsed by it either. When me and Dane went Christmas shopping at the start of December he wanted to pop into Lush to look for some present ideas for people and I decided to pick up that one item I wanted to try!

I didn’t get chance to have a smell of it as the store was HEAVING! It wasn’t good really. The Birmingham store has now moved to a much bigger store (which is apparently bigger than Oxford Street!) so when we went shopping it was their tiny store. I just feel like the staff should have had a queuing system for the store as it was crazy packed. There were also members of staff standing around talking and to be honest, getting in the way of customers trying to look at items. I ended up barging past them all after saying excuse me so many times. We wanted to grab our items and get out of there.

RIGHT enough ranting!

The item I picked up, as you’ll see from the title is the Rudolph Jelly Face Mask, which I was inspired by Steffie over at My Lush and Stuff to pick up this jelly face mask as she made it sound so amazing! I may have gone off of Lush, but I’m all for a face mask that will do my skin wonders, whilst smelling amazing! 😛

Rudolph is a limited edition jelly face mask for Christmas and I already want it to stay around forever, I know I’m not the only one who feels this way. 😛

Although I’ve only owned it for a couple of weeks I’ve found that this face mask really has helped me after use and I KNEW I just had to write a review for it on my blog, especially with Christmas right around the corner.

As you can see from the image above it’s described as, “Rudolph with your nose so bright, won’t you cleanse my face with cocoa powder, orange oil and kaolin tonight?”

Oh the cringe, gold stars to whoever wrote it.

The jelly face masks come in smaller tubs than the fresh face masks do. They come in 65g tubs and costs £7.95, which to me isn’t cheap to be perfectly honest with you. This being said they’re not like the fresh face masks where you need to use them sooner rather than later and also need to keep them in the fridge. The jelly face masks don’t need to be kept in the fridge and have a long shelf life. The one I picked up has a 4 month shelf life on it, which is amazing!

The product itself reminds me of a chocolate mousse in both sight and scent! It smells so chocolately that I’m surprised I haven’t read of someone trying to eat it yet! It smells more rich chocolate scent, but due to the fact it contains orange oil you can get a hint of that. Either way it smells amazing! Of course the colour of this product is brown.

The look of the mask is clearly a jelly and when you push down on it it springs back. It reminds me of blancmange. In the middle is a cute little red shimmer piece of jelly, which is suppose to be Rudolph’s nose! I know you’re meant to pop it onto your nose to look like Rudolph yourself, but honestly I do not have a clue what else to do with it! 😛

This mask is said to be good for people with oily skin and also dry skin, so this sounds like it’d be perfect for combination skin to be honest. I haven’t been able to really find anywhere so I can go only go by the ingredients what this jelly face mask will do to your skin!

Kaolin clay is great for absorbing excess oils on the skin and also cleans out the pores and cocoa powder helps to soothe and moisturise the skin. This to me states how it is perfect for combination skin, which is my skin type. This would make a great gift for a teenager as obviously it smells amazing and will help them with their troubled teenage skin.

This is my first time trying a jelly face mask and it was definitely a bizarre and odd experience the first time I tried it. I wasn’t quite sure HOW to use it, well I did as I’d seen YouTube videos in the past, but I mean in the sense of how much I needed to use. I popped into a Lush store recently and noticed for their samples and DIY jelly face masks they’d cut the mask up into chunks inside the tub, which I think is a great idea! I wish I’d thought to do that before I’d started using it.

The one thing I really hate about the packaging for this face mask is the stickers around the packaging. You can read any of the writing! Why would you put black text against dark brown? Surely you would change to white writing so we can read the instructions and such properly? Alas this isn’t the case and whenever I want to read the side of the pot I have to get the torch on my phone.

How the jelly face masks work is you grab some of the mask out of the tub and with dry hands rub the jelly between your hands to create a paste. Apply to your face and leave for 5 to 10 minutes and rinse off with warm water or a cloth.

I don’t know if the first few times I used this I just didn’t use enough or what, but it’s such an odd product to work with, but not in a negative way. I grabbed (what I thought) was a big enough chunk to cover my whole face, rubbed it between my hands to make a paste and applied it to my face. The more I applied it onto my face and massaged it into the skin the more it seemed to move around and build up into jelly chunks, instead of smoothing my face evenly. It’s rather odd and I don’t know if I like it.

I gave up moving it around my face after a while and just settled with it on my skin. I love to use face masks in the bath 9 times out of 10 as it’s so much easier to rinse them off than it is in the sink. The shower is great too, but having a soak in the bath with a face mask on is definitely relaxing.

I usually leave this on for 10 minutes after it dries back to a jelly type form, which I find really odd. When dry if you rub at it with dry hands it starts to rub away and go back to a jelly type form, which I find really odd but somewhat satisfying.

I thought it would be hard to wash off due to the jelly but it’s actually pretty straight forward and after going over with a flannel, the mask is off and my skin feels baby soft to the touch!

I apply some moisturiser after I get out of the bath just to make sure my face is as soft as it can be!

Would I pick this up again? I would but at the same time I don’t know. It has improved my combination skin, but not for all that long. I feel like using this twice as a week is a good idea, but at the same time for how much you pay, twice as a week is such a waste of money! I’m going to use it once a week or once a fortnight and use it every now and then.

I do rather like this jelly face mask and would like to try the other ones in the future, but at the same time the others don’t really appeal to me all that much. This one is amazing and I wish Lush would make it permanent as it reminds me of the Cupcake face mask and I CANT STAND IT! The one time I used it it caused me to break out really badly. 😦

Don’t forget this is a Christmas limited edition product so it’ll only be available until (probably) Christmas Eve and then it will be gone!

SO! What do you think of Rudolph jelly face mask? Would you give it a go or give it a miss? Have you already tried it? What do you think? Make sure to let me know in the comments down below.

Until next time, take care all and I hope you’re having a lovely weekend!

Tokyo Direct – The Place To Go For Japanese Goods*

I’m bringing you guys a pretty cool post today that I’ve been excited to write about since I received my goodies last week! As regular readers will know, I love anything to do with Japan, especially the food, games and anime and manga.

A while back Tokyo Direct followed me over on Twitter and mentioned to me how they were looking for bloggers and vloggers to talk about their brand and some of the stuff they sell. Months later I FINALLY got back to them about this and they agreed to send me some goodies in the post to talk about on my blog.

Tokyo Direct are a UK-based online shop that sell Japanese products and ship worldwide.

Tokyo Direct is founded in 2017 to bring amazing Japanese products directly from Japan to UK, Europe and worldwide. Our products are carefully selected by our Japanese staff and imported from Japan so that genuine products and trends in Japan are guaranteed to deliver to you.

I was so excited for what they were sending me and let me know what I would be expecting. They sent me some Japanese candy, as well as a sheet mask. I’ll be talking about them on this post of course!

The first thing I took out of the package is this sheet face mask!

• Hadabisei 3D Mask Series in Ageing Care Whitening* – (link)

The first thing I want to mention about this product is that on the website they actually sell a box of 4, which is the item I’ve also linked in this post. So sadly if you only wanted to buy one, I don’t know if you could or not!

I noticed on the packaging that there isn’t any English on it, apart from a few little bits and pieces. This doesn’t matter though really as it’s fairly straight forward how you use a sheet mask, you know?

I was sent the ageing care whitening mask which contains highly pure vitamin C, which is said to help brighten your skin.

As of yet I haven’t given this face mask a go as I’m waiting for the right chance to use it, which will probably be during my week off work this month. I cannot wait to give this a go as I’m such a sucker for face masks to be honest with you, especially sheet masks on a warm evening!

The Japanese candy that I was sent are some old favourites of mine and I was happy to receive them!

• Morinaga Hi-Chew Green Apple* – (link)
• Morinaga Hi-Chew Grape* – (link)

I’m no going to sugar coat this when I say it, but to send a blogger stuff is amazing, absolutely amazing! But to send someone out of date stuff is pretty shocking. Sorry Tokyo Direct but whilst I’ll still eat these, it’s still pretty lame and it’s a tad disappointing.

I used to love Hi-Chew’s back in the day when I first discovered Japanese sweets and snacks and I would always make sure to pick up a tube of the grape flavour! I always buy these in my local Japanese supermarket if they have my favourite flavours too, which includes peach alongside grape.

Hi-Chew are fruity chew sweets and were first released in 1975. The sweets were created so that Japanese people could have an edible chewing gum which could be swallowed. This is because of the Japanese taboo against people taking food out of their mouth/

If you have never given Hi-Chew sweets a go then I HIGHLY recommend them, especially the strawberry and apple flavours, as I know so many people who love those flavours.

 

Also, the links above aren’t for single packets of the sweets, but actually for a pack of 12.

Overall I love my little blogger package that Tokyo Direct sent me, although very disappointed with being sent out of date products.

Would that put me off buying food products from them? Oh definitely and sadly I doubt I ever will due to that! I’d definitely love to try to order some of the beauty products from there in the future though, as well as the stationary items! I’ve already got my eyes peeled at some I’d love to pick up for work. 😛

I’ll pop all of Tokyo Direct’s links down below!

Website

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

What do you guys think of Tokyo Direct? Would you order any of your Japanese goodies from them? Make sure to let me know in the comments down below!

Until next time all, take care and I hope you’re ready for the weekend.

Coventry Bloggers – The Body Shop Event*

Oh man I have been M.I.A. this past week and I am so sorry! I’ve been a mixture of poorly and too busy with personal life to do any blog work.

FINALLY THOUGH I am here and I am talking about an amazing blogger event I attended last Friday, which the gorgeous Emily over at Drained Beauty organised.

As the title reads, this was for the Coventry Bloggers community, which I’m proud to be a part of! I know, I’m not from Coventry BUT Dane is so we both visit the area regularly.

I was so excited for the event and made sure to leave work early so I could get to the event in good time. This is my first (and hopefully not last!) blogger event of 2018, so I couldn’t wait for 4pm to hit so I could leave work and make my way to Coventry.

Can I just say, the weather was so shit as I got off of the train in Coventry, it was chucking it down so I legged it from the station to the town centre. Thankfully it wasn’t raining on my way home, even though I’d bought an umbrella as soon as I got to Primark. MEH!

Anyway! I got to the event with about 15-20 minutes to spare and got to meet the lovely ladies who would be attending the event. I just want to say, the Coventry blogger babes who were at the event are by far some of the nicest I have ever met! I’ve been to many events in the past and whilst I’ve met some absolute beauts, they weren’t as friendly and chatty as the girls were last week.

Not only were the bloggers at the event lovely, but the two members of staff were also amazing. They were approachable throughout the event about all sorts and were thorough whenever they were talking about certain products. So thank you so much girls for holding an amazing event!

Right, onto the event itself now! I’ll be talking about all the new products we heard about, as well as what I got in my cute little goodie bag and what I bought.

The event itself worked out that we would have a nose around the shop, talk amongst ourselves, to one another and the staff all whilst trying certain products.

The first new product we were shown and told about is the limited edition banana range! I’ve already spoken about this on my blog and even reviewed the body yogurt (which you can read here).

Although The Body Shop has banana hair care in their permanent range, the body care is sadly only limited edition and I assume will be around until the Christmas stock is out. I’ll be sad when it goes, especially the body butter and body yogurt.

In the range there’s three items shower cream, body butter and body yogurt. The girls were telling us how banana is great for dry skin due to how rich in potassium they are. This helps to repair and hydrate dry and damaged skin. After hearing about the banana range and how amazing it is, we were offered demonstrations with both the body butter and body yogurt. I would have had a go, but I already own the whole range so I already know how amazing it is!

Before the next demonstration and talk went ahead on another new product, we were left to take ALL THE SELFIES with the banana range! I did a couple myself with two of my favourite products from the range. I cannot tell you how amazing the banana range is and I swear we all need to get a petition started for The Body Shop to keep it forever!

The next products we heard about were new face products that The Body Shop have in stock, as well as some old favourites that not many people know about. The first item we heard about is their liquid peels and they showed us the Vitamin C Glow Revealing Liquid Peel, Drops of Youth Youth Liquid Peel and Drops of Light Liquid Peel. I had a go with the latter and it is pretty cool and yet gross all at the same time!

Sadly I didn’t get any pictures of the demonstration I had on the back of my hand, but I’ve used liquid peels in the past by Korean brands. It’s a gel consistency and the more you rub onto your skin the more it works on the skin to gently peel away any dead skin. It’s gross and satisfying seeing all the gunk that rubs off of your skin! I love using my Korean one once to twice a week and I honestly plan to buy The Body Shop one in the future! This leaves your skin looking and feeling fresh, as well as brighter. I love how there’s the two different liquid peels to choose from. I tried the Drops of Light, but I’m 30 soon so I need the Drops of Youth one me thinks.

Alongside the liquid peels, the girls were also telling us about the new face mask to join The Body Shop’s growing collection! We heard about a couple of the face masks, but the newest member of the family is Mediterranean Almond Milk With Oats Instant Soothing Face Mask.

This face mask is designed for people with sensitive skin and is 100% vegan! This face mask also acts as an exfoliating face mask and reminded me of porridge when I looked at it inside the jar. It helps dry and sensitive skin from feeling tight and itchy, all whilst gently exfoliating your skin to leave you with smooth hydrated skin! I don’t know about you guys, but this is very much needed throughout the winter months, so this will be great to dig out whilst having a hot bath as the weather gets cooler.

I gave this a go in store on the back of my hand and it felt so gentle and the sort of product you would use in a spa. I know one of my friends definitely wants to give it a go after I showed it her, due to the sensitive skin idea! There is nothing worse than having sensitive skin and not being able to use face masks due to that.

The other face mask that the girls were talking about is the Japanese Matcha Tea Pollution Clearing Mask. I’ve wanted to try this since it came out and I had a little look at this face mask on the back of my hand, which felt amazing! I definitely need to give this a go in the future, especially as autumn and winter will be here before we know it.

After we gave the face products a go that the girls spoke about, they were showing us this box with loads of things inside of jars that you can look at. Each jar explains what the item is inside and where it has come from in the world. They also have the cards which explain where EVERYTHING comes from that goes into our products, which I think is amazing! If you visit the Coventry store the girls told me you can ask to see this box and honestly have a look when looking at certain products! It’s really interesting to see where they come from.

BUT an awesome fact one of the girls told me has really stuck with me since then and I’ve been sharing it with everyone I know! Basically Hartley’s sell seedless strawberry jam. Someone at The Body Shop knew this face and asked Hartley’s what they do with the seeds. I can’t remember what Hartley’s said but now they give the seeds to The Body Shop, which goes into their Strawberry Softening Body Polish. How cool is that fact though?!

After that we again got to have a little look around the shop, give the face products a test and take lots of pictures! I went around the bath products and had a nose at what The Body Shop has to offer. I’ve bought some of the bath bombs and bubble bars to try and so far I’ve tried the strawberry one, which I’ll also be reviewing VERY soon!

The last products that the girls told us about were make up related and sadly I didn’t get any pictures of the girls talking about these. I can of course fill you in on what new products we were told about.

The girls were talking about the new Matte Clay Powers that have recently launched, which come in six different shades. Sadly I don’t wear make up like this so these didn’t interest me in the slightest! They look pretty good for the price though and I’m sure they give good coverage too.

Then we were told about the new lipsticks that have recently come into store. I feel bad that I can’t remember for the life of me what they’re called and I can’t seem to find them on their website! They’re matte style lipsticks but with shine and comfort that a matte lipstick doesn’t bring with it. They came in a lovely variety of colours, with mostly nudes, pinks and reds! I sadly didn’t give them a go as I didn’t want to end up buying loads of lipsticks. 😛

However, I did give their Shine Lip Liquid’s a go as the holographic style packing was bringing out the magpie in me!

One of the exciting things we learnt about from The Body Shop girls is that The Body Shop is rolling out 3 for 2 in some stores right now, including the Coventry store as a trial run. This 3 for 2 applies to pretty much everything in the store and will enable people to try all sorts of different products! The 3 for 2 works like most offers of the same name, you pick up 3 products and you get the cheapest free!

 

Sadly I didn’t make the most of this promotion as I’m trying to be good, but I did end up buying one of the Shine Lip Liquid’s, which I have fallen madly in love with and worn ever since buying. I’ll definitely be reviewing this in the future! I picked up Blueberry Chew, which is a gorgeous pink with blue tones and shimmer. It’s definitely a lip gloss. These come in nine different shades, some shimmery and some normal. I would love to pick up more of these in the future!

Then it was time to grab my goodie bag and make my way back to Birmingham. I ended the evening buying 20 chicken nuggets from McDonald’s and going around the local area playing Pokemon GO. Oh how the other half live. 😛

I thought I’d show you guys what I got in my goodie bag as it’s so lovely and perfect for myself. I did want to give some of the products in here a go before writing this post, but sadly I just haven’t had time to. Hopefully in the future I can give them a go and give a proper review!

First of all I’ll show you guys the gorgeous cosmetic bag* I got in my goodie bag! It’s a black bag covered in pink bunnies, writing which says, “Forever Against Animal Testing” and The Body Shop logo.

Inside the pouch are three products, a full size bottle of Strawberry Shower Gel*, a full size tube of Almond Milk & Honey Calming & Protecting Hand Cream* and a travel size bottle of Banana Truly Nourishing Shampoo*.

I’ve used the Strawberry shower gel for about 20 years now and it’s always a fond favourite to have in my shower. Dane loves it so much that he bought 2 massive pump bottles in the sale! So this will go down a treat in my bathroom.

I’ve grown to love the Almond Milk & Honey range SO MUCH recently and I especially love the hand cream. Sadly however it doesn’t do as much for my hands as it could and should. This being said I still use it and use it daily at work.

Finally the banana shampoo has been a love/hate product of mine and Dane’s since we started dating. One minute I love it and what it does for my hair and the next I feel a bit meh about it. Mostly because you pay quite a lot for the product and I don’t feel the price is worth what it does. Sorry The Body Shop! Dane loves it though and these little travel bottles are handy for have for weekends away.

The other goodies I got in my bag came in this cute little pink and white polka dot paper bag. Inside there are loads of little samples, including the Japanese Matcha tea Pollution Clearing Mask*, Mediterranean Almond Milk With Oats Instant Soothing Mask* Vitamin C Glow Revealing Liquid Peel*, Banana Shower Cream* and finally the Banana Body Yogurt*.

I honestly cannot wait to give the liquid peel and the matcha face mask a go over the weekend! I plan to have a proper pamper day on Sunday and these two will be used in that regime. 😛

As I mentioned I bought the Shine Lip Liquid in the shade Blueberry Chew and thanks to my £5 discount voucher, I managed to bag it for £2! Bargain!!! I honestly can’t wait to review this on my blog.

Overall I LOVED this The Body Shop event and I cannot wait to attend more Coventry Bloggers events in the future. Again I want to say a massive thank you to Emily for hosting the event, as well as allowing my brummy self to attend. 😛

I’m going to pop the Coventry The Body Shop Instagram down below, make sure to go and check them out and let the know I said hi! 😀

LoveYourBodyCov

What do you guys think to some of the newbies that The Body Shop are bringing out? Make sure to let me know in the comments down below!

Until next time all, take care and I hope you’re ready for the weekend.

What I Got For Christmas!

Christmas is nearly over and bloody hell it went by fast! I can’t believe we’ve had the three magical days fly by us and leave a coating of snow behind.

I hope all of my readers and blogger friends had an amazing Christmas and (although it isn’t important) I hope everyone got what they wanted for Christmas! I know I did and more!

So, (as pretty much most bloggers do now!) I thought I would write about what lovely gifts I got from Dane, my family and friends this Christmas.

I want to disclose here that this is by any means me showing off what I got this year and I never feel like when I read fellow bloggers posts, or watch YouTube videos about it that people are meaning to show off. I love reading and seeing what my fellow bloggers received (as I’m a nosey bitch! :P) as it’s nice to see goodies they’ve wished for throughout the year as well as special meaning behind them! If you feel this is me showing off, click off of this post now because, ain’t nobody got time for that!

NOW! On with the post!

When writing this post I haven’t actually received all my gifts and one of my best friends still hasn’t been able to give me hers, but I’ll be seeing her around my birthday so I can definitely mention it then!

The first gift I want to talk about is the gorgeous little Sylveon print that Sarah over at Raiin Monkey sent me in the post! I wasn’t expecting it and it’s so sweet of her! I’m going to pop it up in the office somewhere so I can look at it whilst doing blog work. 🙂

My friend Jacqui was able give me hers from both her and her boyfriend Chris and it was such a thoughtful and beautiful gift! It may not look like much to many, but we’ve had quite a few cocktail evenings together and my cocktail shaker isn’t the best. It gets stuck and then you struggle to get the lid off. So they bought us this Smirnoff kit, with a gorgeous red and silver shaker in (it matches our kitchen!) as well as a glass and measure cup in! I couldn’t be any happier with it to be honest.

My friend Sophi sent me a little box of goodies and I love them all so much! She sent us some little Japanese sweeties (which sadly we ate before I took my pictures! :P), a Pusheen tote bag and some Pusheen socks, as well as a pair of fox socks. I can’t complain at getting socks and I’ll be wearing them to work to keep my feet toasty over the rest of the winter months! OH and she also put in a cute little Pusheen keychain too, which I’ll pop on my tote bag!

Speaking of Pusheen! Dane’s brother and his girlfriend bought me a gorgeous boxed Pusheen mug with socks! I love it so much and am currently drinking some lemon green tea from it. The socks that came with it are so adorable and have paw prints on the feet. As well as that they also gave me a cute Minnie Mouse face mask as well as a Winky Lux flower balm in green. When you apply it to your lips it works with the PH and turns into a gorgeous light pink! I can’t wait to use this and I’ve wanted one of these since they first came out!

My aunt and cousin both bought me and Dane this gorgeous dachshund pillow which I’m going to have for the chair in the office! As well as that they also picked me up a gold fox keyring which was popped into my Christmas card.

Dane’s gran bought me a little something for Christmas and that’s a Bailey’s gift set with a little glass and some Lindt Lindor chocolates, which I LOVE! This will be enjoyed New Years Eve or on my birthday for definite! 😀

My sister in law and  my nephews bought me a cute little lip butter set, and it’s so strange! They’re lovely and you get three flavours, coconut, cherry and peppermint.. I’ve never used a lip butter like this before but I’ll definitely be keeping these for work and around the house!

Dane’s parents bought me some lovely gifts and one that really did make me chuckle! The first gift I noticed they’d bought me and one they get me every year is a Lush Christmas gift set! This year they bought me The Snowman gift set. This one contains The Snowman bubbleroon, Butterbear bath bomb, Man In The Moon bubble bar and Snow Angel bath melt. I’m super excited to try Man In The Moon!

They picked me up three hot chocolates on sticks! I LOVE these and they actually bought these from one of our friends coffee stalls in Coventry! These are so amazing and work really well! They bought me a normal one, a mocca one and a peppermint one! I can’t wait to try the peppermint flavour and I’ll definitely make it in my new Pusheen mug. 😛

One of my favourite presents from Dane’s parents has to be the Your Name Blu-ray that they bought me! This isn’t just the ordinary Blu-ray either, but actually a collector’s edition so it comes with both Blu-ray, DVD and also a CD of the films soundtrack! It’s such a beautiful film and was one of my favourites I’d been to see in the cinema last year. I definitely recommend watching it if you get the chance, or if you have Amazon Prime as it’s on there to watch in both subbed and dubbed right now!

Finally the present that made me chuckle is this little pom pom… That is actually a panic alarm! You pull the keychain and it makes a very loud noise! I doubt I’ll pop this onto my handbag but I’ll definitely keep it inside of my bag for emergencies! You never know to be fair. I get why she picked this up for me though to be honest! In my old job I would get to the car park at 5.30am, I would be the only one, it was dark and at one point we had issues with people hiding in the dark on the level of the car park I was on. It did frighten me! So this gift whilst being strange, as very thoughtful all the same.

Now onto the gifts that Dane bought me, I’m going to save the present my mom bought me until last. Usually I would save Dane’s until then, but wait until you see what she bought for me!

Since moving into our house we have a tradition now of making stockings up for each other, which consist of cute little bits and pieces, as well as Japanese sweets! This was no acceptation this year and we both gifted each other Japanese gifts!

He picked me up an assortment of Japanese treats, which includes some Puccho sweets in ramune flavour (Japanese soda), some sour candy sweets which are also ramune flavoured, some Pokemon grape gummy sweeties and some green matcha flavoured Kit Kats which are MY FAVOURITE! Finally he bought me a Gudetama DIY kit where you get to make a pudding version of Gudetama to eat! I cannot wait to do this and I think I’ll be saving it for my birthday. ^_^

Also in my stocking I had a few other bits and pieces such as a new refill for my Filofax and what a cutie he is, he bought me on in pink! I need to use my Filofax more this year!

Also in my stocking and presents overall was a couple of little Pokemon goodies, all of them are so cute! The first thing I opened was this Eevee pouch type bag, which is an official Pokemon Center item! I don’t know quite yet what I’ll use this for, but I can see it being for feminine products once a month and maybe some random handbag bits and pieces. This was a gift he’d asked me if I liked the look of when we were both having a nose online for gifts for one another. I wasn’t all that fussed at the time but all the same when I opened it Christmas Day I still loved it! It’s a little Eevee which you’re meant to rest over a glass, but I can see me sticking it to the PC monitor or even by the side of my bed. Another Pokemon gift he bought me was this blind box (although he knew which one he’d ordered) which contain desk buddies. Dane bought me this Pikachu one which holds your mobile phone for you. He bought me this to have for work but I want to have it for by my bed! It’s so cute and such a thoughtful gift all the same.

One of my favourite gifts from Dane just has to be this onigiri squishy keyring from Tofu Cute! I get anxious during long car journeys, as well as in other certain situations! This not only feels relaxing to squish over and over, but it’s also scented with (what I think anyway) strawberries! On the way to and from Coventry for Christmas Day I was squishing away at this, as well as whilst at Dane’s parents on the day! It’s going to end up living in my handbag for when I feel anxious or angry and need to relieve some tension.

One of the presents I had asked for for Christmas after discovering its existence are these Haku chopsticks. Haku is the dragon from Spirited Away and is my favourite Studio Ghibli character! I didn’t know if these chopsticks would be real or fake, but when I inspected the packet they are in fact real and Studio Ghibli approved!

The first main gift that I opened was this, The Manga Cookbook, which also came with a pack of chopsticks! I love cooking Japanese food, especially if I’m craving Japanese and I can’t and don’t want to go out and eat or buy any. This is a cute little gift and I can’t wait for me and Dane to cook recipes together from it.

The next gifts are these two little Pokemon Center plushies, which are like Beanie Babies! I’ve been collecting these for a few years now, thanks to Dane but they’re now so hard to get hold of! I found someone in the UK selling these 2 for a decent price and I didn’t know if Dane wou;d pick them up or not… Alas he did and they’re so adorable! We have a Flareon and a Raichu here and they’ll go so well with my other Eeveelutions, as well as with my Pikachu!

If you got back and take a look at the Christmas wish list I made on Christmas Eve (which you can read here) you’ll see that I wished for a lot of anime shows/films on Blu-ray and apart from one, all of the ones I asked for I got! Two of those being A Silent Voice and Your Lie In April part 2. Alongside Your Name, A Silent Voice was one of my favourite films from 2017 and I’m so stocked to have it on Blu-ray! The box itself is gorgeous and I cannot wait to binge watch it with Dane one of the evenings this week. This is the collector’s edition Blu-ray too, which also includes a DVD and a special booklet that tells you all about the film, as well as about the manga.

The second Blu-ray Dane bought for me is part 2 of Your Lie In April, which is the final part of the special collector’s edition! He bought me part 1 and the special box at the start of the year for my birthday, so now I’m so happy to finally have the box set completed! This is definitely the first thing I’ll be watching with Dane out of all of the Blu-rays I received as I want to binge watch all of this with him! I haven’t continued to watch anymore of it until I had all of the box set for us to binge watch!

Aside from my main presents this was probably one of my favourites to be honest! It’s The Art Of Persona 5 and I have been lusting after this book since they announced it way back in the summer! I’m so pleased Dane bought it for me to be honest as on Christmas Day after I opened it I had a good flick through the whole thing and I cannot wait to sit down with a cup of coffee and read the whole thing, cover to cover. This year I discovered Persona 5, as well as the Persona franchise! I haven’t fallen in love with a franchise this hard since Pokemon and I am so chuffed that back when it came out at the start of the year that I bought it.

Finally we have the main gifts from Dane and my favourites! These are the 2 Nendoroid’s that Dane bought for me this Christmas and I was so surprised to be honest with you! I mentioned on my Christmas wish list that I had a feeling Dane would have bought me Yuri but when I opened Viktor and THEN Yuri I was so happy! I couldn’t have asked for better Nendoroid’s to have received this Christmas and I feel like such a lucky girl. We have no room right now to put these up anywhere so sadly they’ll be staying in the boxes until we have room. But I love my 2 YURI!!! boys so much and I cannot wait to play with them and display them in the future! So many YURI!!! On Ice Nendoroid’s have been announced lately that we will definitely be getting in the future!

Dane really spoilt me this year and I am so grateful for everything I received! I know I have another present arriving that he ordered me, it’s nothing special but it’s the thought that counts! FYI it’s a Macaroon Treats Yankee Candle!

Now onto my final present and definitely the one that blew me away the most. I was so surprised when I opened it to discover my mom had bought me a Dyson hairdryer! I know these aren’t cheap to be honest and I’ve lusted after one since they were announced, so the fact that my mom bought me one makes me feel so loved and special. I still can’t believe she bought it for me and after trying it, I really do adore it. I wish she could read how thankful and grateful I am.

So those were all the goodies I got for Christmas and I am so, SO thankful to everyone who bought myself, as well as Dane gifts this year!

What did you get for Christmas? Big or small I would love to hear what you got from loved ones. You know where to tell me. 😉

Until next time, take care all and I hope you’re all resting after loads of Christmas and Boxing Day dinners!

How to Become a Unicorn with Nails Inc

Whilst I was on holiday and even shortly after I returned home, I saw this gift set EVERYWHERE and wondered what all the fuss was about.

I also came back to discover that stores are now releasing all their Christmas goodies, which I’m excited about! Boots and Lush are probably two of my favourite places for Christmas, due to all the amazing beauty products they come out with.

As many of you will know, Boots bring out a star gift every week or so and it’s usually an expensive gift that is brought down to half the price. I don’t know if this was the first star gift this year, but it’s proven to be a popular one so far!

This gift set being the one I’ll be talking about today is one that most got excited about. This being the Nails Inc Beauty of Dreams Deluxe Unicorn Beauty Gift Set. I picked this up last week and I wasn’t going to, but to be honest I felt shit and wanted a treat to cheer me up. It was still half price as well, so BARGAIN!

I won’t be reviewing anything in this gift set and sadly I won’t be swatching anything either, so I do apologise about that.

This set contains 7 products to help you become a glamorous, beautiful, unicorn. You get two nail polishes, two lip products and three face masks. I’ll go into detail about each one, as well as reveal the prices of them if bought individually. I want to show you what steals you get for £20! 😛

• Sparkle Like a Unicorn Nail Polish Duo Kit – £15.00 (link)

Already this kit is a steal when you consider that just 2 out of 5 of the products cost £15.00! The nail polishes in this gift set are what sold it to me in the first place. I’ve wanted these polishes since they were released not that long ago. You get the 2 shades in here, Rainbow Wishes (iridescent purple) and Dream Dust (holographic shimmer). You can’t buy these polishes on their own and even so if you did they’d probably be £11.00 each anyway. I don’t actually think I can pick a favourite from the two as they’re both as gorgeous as the other! I’ll definitely be reviewing these very soon. Wearing them has made me realise how much I love Nails Inc polishes.

• Show me the Bunny Sheet Mask – £5.00 (link)
• Sparkle like a Unicorn Sheet Mask – £5.00 (link)

These face masks are EXPENSIVE! You get both of these in the gift set, £10.00 for two is a lot, but when you think about it, the half price offer makes them sound like they’re free in comparison. I love sheet masks and I already can’t wait to try these, especially the bunny one.

Show me the Bunny is an oil-balancing sheet mask, whilst Sparkle like a Unicorn is an illuminating sheet mask. I have an oily t-zone so the bunny mask will be great to use as a pamper around my time of the month. 😛 Most of all though I can’t wait to take pictures of me wearing these, it’s going to be hilarious!

These are the only products you can buy on the Nails Inc website, the rest appear to be special limited edition items for the gift set(s).

• Silver Streak Brightening Silver Peel Off Mask.

This is a single use peel off mask which you obviously apply to skin until dry and peel off. I’m guessing it’s silver from the name. 😛 It says on the pod itself that you can use it on hands, face and body. I’m not a massive fan of peel off masks as I get so paranoid that they’ll peel all of my eyebrows off. I want to get a face mask brush soon so I’m going to wait until I get one of those to try this out.

• Lip Trippin Iridescent Lip Strobe in shade Busy Unicorning.

This is a gorgeous iridescent lipstick that is pink with gold shimmer throughout! It reminds me of the 00’s, which really does take me back to when I was a kid. It’s creamy to apply and feels like a lip balm when applied to the lips. I do have a few issues with it though. Whilst it doesn’t have a scent, when I’ve worn it on my lips it does smell a little plastic. It’s not as bad as I’m making out, but if you’re highly sensitive with smells you may not like this. The other issue I have is that I don’t think it suits me… Sadly. I haven’t looked at properly enough to see how I feel but I do think it washes me out. I’m not a person who suits light shades at all, I’m definitely more of a dark shade gal. Either way I like this though!

• In a Dream World Iridescent Sheer Gloss in shade Sleep Unicorn.

This lip gloss is stunning and it just reminds me of the lip gloss and lipstick shades I wore as a teenager! It’s an iridescent purple shade that when put in the right light shifts to purple. It looks exactly the same as the Rainbow Wishes nail polish, which would work perfect together at a Christmas party with a little black dress. The gloss isn’t stick at all to wear and feels like a buttery balm to wear. Again, like the lipstick this doesn’t have a scent and shares that same plastic scent, which is a little off putting. This is something I would wear alone or over a darker shade to make it pop.

I keep mentioning that this gift set was half price. I don’t know how long it’s going to be on offer for and to be honest I don’t even know when it went on the offer! This is supposed to be £40.00, of course on the offer it’s £20.00. This is way more than a bargain and to me is more of a steal for that price.

The best part about this gift set for me is definitely the nail polishes, which I know is probably what is making everyone buy this… That and people will buy ANYTHING that can help them towards their goal of becoming a unicorn or a mermaid. 😛

So, what are my thoughts about the gift set? First of all it’s definitely not worth £40.00 in my eyes. £30.00 maybe, but definitely not £40.00. I love it though other than that! This is definitely a gift you would buy for a teenager or someone obsessed with unicorns! It’d also make a really nice gift to get your girlfriends for a pampering evening in. I’d definitely get something like this for one of my friends and me to use on an evening in towards Christmas, or to use before an evening out.

I’m already wanting it pick up another one of these for gift ideas! You don’t have to gift the whole thing to someone! You can always pop one of each item into a stocking for a friend, or even as a secret Santa idea. The possibilities are endless with this sort of thing.

So, for £20.00 would you pick up this gift set? What do you think of the Beauty of Dreams gift set? Make sure to let me know in the comments down below!

Until next time, take care all and I hope you’re having an awesome week.

September Favourites ’17

I’m currently on holiday when this post will go live on my blog and although I’ve only really been in the UK for just over 2 weeks for the month of September, I can still write what products I loved throughout that time… Right? 😛

I do apologise for poor image quality… I took this the night before we left and was rushing to get so much done. 😦

• Garnier PureActive Intensive 3in1 Charcoal Anti-Blackhead.

This is a product I bought on a whim. I love any facial cleansing products that contain charcoal, as it’s great for oily skin and can really help pull any crap out of your pores. As the title suggests this is a 3in1 product which means you can use it as a facial wash, scrub and as a mask. This isn’t the BEST product in the world but it’s done some wonders for my skin so far! It’s not as scrubby as I was hoping it would be, but my skin has been having some sensitive days recently so this has really helped when I want to use a scrub but nothing too harsh. I definitely recommend giving this a go! I haven’t tried it as a mask to be honest, but it’s an amazing facial wash for sure.

• Lush Sugar Plum Fairy Lip Tint.

This is my tube of Sugar Plum Fairy lip tint from last Christmas and it’s a lip product I randomly just started using again this month. I think with all the excitement of the Lush Creative Showcase and the Christmas goodies of 2017 being announced, it jogged my memory of this lip tint. It smells amazing, leaves a lovely magenta pink shade on my lips and moisturises at the same time! I’ll definitely be buying more Lush lip tints this year, including Black Rose for Halloween and Santa Baby for Christmas.

• Paco Rabanne Lady Million EDP.

I’ve owned for a while and when I was first given it by my mom (it was originally a gift she had been given but didn’t like it, so gave it to me! :P) and at first I REALLY hated it, but after using it for a while I’ve grown to love it. The scent reminds me of Yankee Candle’s Fluffy Towels scent and I love it so much. I feel fresh and clean when I wear it and whilst ages ago I couldn’t wait to get rid of it, I now want to buy a new bottle as soon as it runs out. For ages it was my go to scent for work, which to be honest it was for the 2 weeks of September.

• Mandarin Spa Amber Heaven Gentle Hand Wash.

My mom recently gave me this hand wash after noticing I was running low on hand wash in my bathroom. I had a back up ready to pop next to the sink, but how cute is that??? When I lived at home I would often use this hand wash if either me or my mom had bought any. I love the scent of this hand wash so much as it smells so posh! I can’t really describe how it smells to be honest… Sort of musky but a floral musk… If that makes sense? Even though I really like this hand wash at the moment, I do have a hate/love relationship with this stuff. Before now this hand wash has flared up my eczema and I don’t really know why. I has flared up slightly the past month BUT it hasn’t been as bad as it has been in the past.

• Dove Pistachio and Magnolia Shower Foam.

Whilst I love this shower foam, I highly doubt I’ll be buying it again unless it’s on a special offer. I picked this up in Boots for £2.00 and even then I think this was expensive, FYI it’s usually £2.99. There are three different ones you can pick but I love pistachios so I had to pick this one. I have found that this softens my skin after use and will leave me smelling yummy for a while after use, but I just feel like you have to use loads of it to get a good lather going in a sponge or shower scrunch and that in itself is a con for me. This being said this was something new and fun to try and due to the scent I picked it’s also lovely to use as we go into the colder months. The pistachio has a lovely warming scent to it. As I said, when this is on offer again I’ll definitely pick one up!

So now my beauty favourites are done, time to talk about the miscellaneous favourites of the month!

Image taken from weheartit.com

Image taken from weheartit.com

Favourite TV Show – American Horror Story.

First of all, I know I don’t usually include 2 images when talking about my non beauty favourites, but I had to for this. I just want to get this out there that 1. I have a new favourite actor – Evan Peters and 2. The way he acted when playing Tate in season 1 of AHS was amazing and beautiful. I love the first gif I attached but the second one, oh my! Whenever he cried in that season I just wanted to cry with him. He’s one of those actors who nails crying scenes perfectly and those are some of my favourite to watch. Due to studying acting (as well as writing scripts) I love when an actor can be emotional and he’s just perfect at it (and may I add a perfect human being? :P).

ANYWAY… American Horror Story! Me and Dane have heard loads of good things about this, including from his own parents and we’re a little late onto the AHS wagon but it’s better to be late than never at all, eh? We are currently halfway through season 2 and we are loving it. I loved season 1 so much and his parents both said it’s their favourite to date! I have a feeling it’ll be mine too. If you don’t know much about AHS, every season pretty much has the same actors/actresses but each season has a different story behind it. BUT they’re all supernatural themed. They’re currently all on Netflix so I recommend going to watch it if you haven’t already. To be honest I’m really excited to see more of Evan Peters acting. He’s amazing. :’)

Favourite Film – The Girl On The Train.

This was recently on Amazon Prime to watch and I had heard SO MUCH about both the book when it came out, as well as the film. I wanted to watch it in the cinema but Dane wasn’t keen for it at the time. I’m glad I waited to watch it in the comfort of our own home but bloody hell, it’s good! I haven’t read the book so I can’t compare that to the film but even if you haven’t read the book like myself then I recommend you give it a watch. It definitely reminded me of Gone Girl, but in a different way.

Image taken from readeroffictions.com

Favourite Book – Erm…

Yeah I’m shit. I haven’t been reading anything AGAIN! To be honest I’ve been saving all my reading for my holiday. I do have shit loads of reading to catch up on though. I have all the K-ON! manga to catch up on, as well as many other manga books. I also have normal books to read and intend on taking 2 Bridget Jones books with me on holiday (as you’ve probably guessed I’m writing this JUST before I go on holiday…) as well as some manga, but we shall see. I’m sure I’ll do a post about what books I took at some point.

Favourite Song/Album – Porter Robinson & Madeon – Shelter and Rihanna – Te Amo.

These are both songs I discovered this month and ones I know I’ll continue to listen to loads, especially during and even after my holiday. Shelter was brought to my attention by Dane who mentioned that someone had used an anime in their music video. It’s an amazing song and the anime music video that accompanies it is lovely and sad all the same.

As well as that I also discovered this Rihanna song thanks to a beauty video on Instagram. I didn’t know of this songs existence, even though it’s been around for just over 7 years now. Bloody hell! I know my usual music genre tastes are in rock music as well as some electronic but I do have a soft spot for Rihanna. She just writes some catchy as fuck tracks and this is one.

Favourite Game – Life Is Strange: Before The Storm.

I completed this game in a day (including unlocking all the specials in each level of the episode) and I loved it, but at the same time I’m unsure what to think right now. I will elaborate without giving away any spoilers! This is a prequel to Life Is Strange where you play as Chloe, sadly she doesn’t have Max’s power but she has her own speciality. In this game you get to find out what happens with Rachel including how her and Chloe become friends and what happens before Max comes into the picture and Rachel goes missing. You get to be a little more rebellious with Chloe than you ever could be with Max and whilst I like this, I do find that both Chloe and Rachel are bratty. I’m not the only one who thought this either. THIS BEING SAID I can’t really say they’re acting bratty when Chloe’s dad recently died and Rachel has some stuff going on herself, which you find out about somewhat in the first episode. Overall it was really fun to play and I already can’t wait for episode 2 to come out soon! I bought the limited edition bundle so that I can get the bonus Max level, as well as all the episodes for Before The Storm.

So those are my favourites from the 2 weeks I was in the UK in September! It went by really quick and I already can’t believe I’m going away in just a couple of days (as I write this) and I’ll be back in 3 days when this post goes live on my blog (FYI hello future Nat! :P)

What were your favourites throughout September? Make sure to let me know in the comments down below!

Until next time all, take care! I hope you’re all well, I miss all my lovely readers! :’)

July Favourites ’17

Woohoo it’s getting closer to my holiday now which is really exciting! July went by super quick to be honest and it took me ages to remember what happened throughout the month, let alone what products I was loving. 😛

Finally I came up with some beauty products I loved, but it wasn’t easy! This also includes my non beauty favourites too!

• NSPA Fruits Blueberry Shower and Bath Gel.

This has been a shower gel I’ve really enjoyed using throughout the month, which I’m sure you can tell from the fact that it’s pretty much empty now! I reviewed this shower gel as well as two others here a month or two ago. Blueberry scented things are a definite must have for me, as it’s my favourite fruit! Also you can’t go wrong if the colour blue or purple comes with it too. This shower and bath gel has a light but fragrant scent to it and it’s really refreshing too, which makes it a perfect shower and bath gel to use throughout the summer. I mostly used this as a shower gel, but occasionally I did also use it in the bath which created some lovely soft bubbles. I have the strawberry one to use up next!

• L’Oreal Paris Pure Clay Blemish Rescue Face Mask.

This is a face mask I have really been loving using since I bought it and in a short period of time I have noticed such a huge difference to my skin! It’s made me really happy! I broke out so badly towards the end of July and I was gutted, but after using this mask again it really did help calm my skin down and pretty much make my spots go away in a matter of days. I cannot recommend this face mask enough to people with spot prone skin and oily skin. You can read my review for it here!

• Maybelline Color Drama Intense Lip Paint in Vamped Up.

You know when you rediscover a lip product you used to love? Yeah I did this  in July with this gorgeous purple lip paint! It’s one of my favourite purple lipsticks I own and it’s also one of the best types of lipstick to apply to! Granted due to the dark purple shade you need to use a lip liner with it. I wore it out for a day of shopping with Dane and popped some blue highlighter on the top to give it a pop of colour! I love the combination so damn much! I’ll definitely be packing this lipstick with me for my holiday as I really want to recreate the look whilst I’m in Fuerteventura!

• The Body Shop Peppermint Intensive Cooling Foot Rescue. 

Now as weird as it’ll sound I haven’t just been using this on my feet, but I’ve been mostly using this on my hands. I’ve heard of people saying they use it on their hands when they’re in need of some series TLC and I never got why. Now I do! I gave it a go randomly when my hands were really sore and dry and since then after using this daily before work my hands have really thanked me for it. They’re lovely and soft and to be fair after using my hands smell minty and gorgeous! Can’t go wrong with that. I’ve also been using this on both mine and Dane’s feet to keep them lovely and soft. I want to try and keep my feet looking good before the holiday! 😛

• Viktor & Rolf Flowerbomb EDP.

This is by far one of my favourite perfumes I own (it’s in my top 10) and it’s one I go back to once in a while. It’s one of those scents that just smells really good and is one that will get heads turning if someone walks past you with it on. I like to think that happens when I wear it in all fairness. 😛 It’s more of a winter scent for myself but I don’t know, I just fancied wearing it one day last month and it stuck for over a week. I try not to use it too much though considering it’s one of my favourites. I want to use my least favourite scents up first! 😛

So now my beauty favourites are done, time to talk about the miscellaneous favourites of the month!

Image taken from weheartit.com

Favourite TV Show – Preacher and One Punch Man.

Holy shit I have so much to say about Preacher! It’s a show I wasn’t sure I would like last year when me and Dane started watching it, but it’s fast turned into a show I adore. To be honest what got me to watch it was when Dane told me that Joseph Gilgun was in it as an Irish vampire. Was instantly hooked. 😛 For those of you who don’t know who Gilgun is, he’s in the gif above as his character in Preacher, Cassidy. He’s always Woody in This Is England and Ruddy in Misfits, as well as many more TV shows and films. I’ll pop a synopsis here because it’ll explain it better than I could. 😛

Fulfilling a promise to his deceased father, one-time outlaw Jesse Custer returns home to West Texas to take over his dad’s church. Jesse’s mission, however, becomes twisted when his body is overcome by a cryptic force that unleashes within him a highly unconventional power. Together with hell-raising ex-girlfriend Tulip and Irish vagabond Cassidy, the preacher-in-training embarks on a journey to find God in a world inhabited by holy, hellish, and everything-in-between characters. The darkly comedic “Preacher” is based on Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon’s popular 1990s comic book franchise of the same name. Executive producers include Sam Catlin (“Breaking Bad”), and Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg (“Superbad,” “Neighbors”).

It’s an amazing show based off of a comic book and if you’re up for watching a show with some dark humour and some talented British/Irish actors then I recommend you watch it! It’s only available on Amazon Prime however as it’s an exclusive for there, but it’s definitely worth buying alone to watch the show for a month or two.

Image taken from tumblr.com

Dane recently bought the One Punch Man blu-ray so OF COURSE we  had to binge watch it! I was never really into One Punch Man when the “craze” around it started, but I remember Dane putting it on for us to watch online and I loved it! So it was somewhat nostalgic when re watching it. We watched it originally not long after moved into the house so it reminds me of that time. I love the gif above of Saitama dancing. SO KAWAII!!!

Image taken from nerd901.com

Favourite Film – Spider-Man: Homecoming.

I was so excited about seeing this film because in comparison to the two previous Spider-Men I actually had high hopes for this one. I’ll say it, Tom Holland did an amazing job as Peter Parker and it’s just how I would have imagined back in 2003 when I was playing the PlayStation Spider-Man game. I just loved the movie so much, but not enough to get all die hard fan about it. I’m glad we went to watch it a few days after it came out too. We made a proper late night movie date night with it, which I loved. I can’t wait for Venom to come out now, I hope Tom Hardy does the part too. This is going to be an exciting part of Marvel!

Image taken from weheartit.com

Favourite Book – Your Name manga and Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid manga.

I said last month how I hadn’t been reading much, and that certainly wasn’t a lie. This month however I haven’t read LOADS but I’ve read more! I finished off the first volume of Your Name and I honestly can’t wait for volume 2 to come out in November!

As well as that I’ve continued on with reading the Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid series and I’m currently reading volume 3. I guess I’m trying to make my manga last as long as I possibly can. I still have K-ON! to read, which I was trying to save for holiday but I doubt I will now. I’ve also started to buy the Persona 3 manga series so I’ll be reading those as soon as I can get my hands on the rest of them!

Favourite Song/Album – Flyleaf New Horizons.

You know when you forget all about a band you love? Well I did that recently with Flyleaf. They’re a band I discovered during my final year of university and have followed them for almost 10 years now. My favourite album is definitely New Horizons due to how the songs all sound. You have a mixture of dancey songs in there as well as serious. I just find I love all the songs and I don’t even want to skip one to hear another. My favourite song from the album has to be… “Bury Your Heart”. Either that or “Stand”. That being said though I love all the songs off of the album.

Image taken from weheartit.com

Favourite Game – Persona 5…

YES PERSONA 5 IS STILL MY FAVOURITE. FUCK YOU! 😛

I’m sorry but yes I am still playing this game as I’m 1. taking my time playing it because I want it to last as long as humanly possible and 2. I fucking love it. I honestly haven’t loved a game for years and I am relishing in it right now. I have bought Persona 4 Golden to play when I’m on holiday and I can see me buying another Persona game on my PS Vita in the future. SPEAKING OF! I bought a PS Vita at the start of the month when I got paid and it’s definitely something I am so glad I bought. It means if I want to play Persona 5 when Dane wants to play on his Xbox One I can just pop it on the Vita. It’s amazing quality too, which makes me happy.

Now I’ve spoken about it I must go and play it… 😛

So those are my favourites from last month. What products were you loving? Make sure to let me know in the comments down below!

Until next time take care all and here’s to another month!

L’Oreal Paris Pure Clay Face Mask in Blemish Rescue – Review

These face masks by L’Oreal are still doing really well a year on and they recently added two new additions to the face mask range! When I heard about them on a trip to town with Dane a few weeks ago, I knew I’d need to have a look at them to see what they were all about.

As older readers will know I picked up the detox mask in August last year, not long after it came out and reviewed it on my blog, which you can read here.

The first three masks to be released were the Detox, Glow and Purity masks. Out of the three I have still only tried the Detox one and I still have to try the other ones! I was tempted to pick them all up when picking up the Blemish Rescue one, but alas I need to save money. 😛

So as I mentioned before, L’Oreal have recently released two new masks, including my new one which is Blemish Rescue and Bright.

Each mask does something different:

Purity deeply purifies and mattifies, detox cleanses and clarifies, glow brightens and exfoliates, bright evens tone and illuminates and blemish rescue clears and unclogs.

I’m a massive fan of charcoal face masks as I find they help my oily t-zone as well as fight against any blemishes I may have. SO when I heard the bright blue face mask that L’Oreal was bringing out was blemish fighting, I knew I’d be getting it.

Blemish rescue contains 3 pure clays:

Kaolin – A highly effective natural clay, known to absorb impurities and excess sebum.

Montmorillonite – Rich in minerals, a clay recognised for helping to eliminate imperfections.

Ghassoul – A pure clay highly concentrated in minerals renowned to help clarify complextion.

On the packaging for blemish rescue it states:

For the first time, the L’Oreal Paris Laboratories have selected three Pure Clays and combined them with Marine Algae extract, known for its anti-blemish properties. The creamy texture targets deep into the pores, to unclog blackheads and clear imperfections, leaving the skin pure and fresh without drying it out.

It claims that it immediately leaves skin feeling fresh, pores shrunk and blemishes reduced. After a week blackheads are unclogged and skin if mattified. Finally use after use will leave pore cleared and skin looking visibly transformed!

It tells you to use this face mask twice a week, which I’ve been doing whenever I wash my hair, so Wednesday (mid week) and Sunday (end of the week.

Like Detox the packaging is exactly the same with Blemish Rescue. The product is in a clear glass jar so that you can see the product inside. The lid is a different colour mind and instead of green which is was for Detox, it’s now white. Nothing major but I don’t know why they changed it.

As I mentioned on my review for detox I love how expensive the glass jar makes the face mask appear and it really does make a nice change to sachets and Lush’s plastic black pots. It also means you can see how much you have left after each use.

The mask itself is an awesome bright blue colour and looks almost metallic, but I think it’s just where it’s clay. I did feel like it went metallic when it dried on my face though…

You get 50ml of product and like the detox mask a little bit of this goes a hell of a long way! There’s supposed to be 10 applications in a jar but I can’t see this myself. I use my detox mask once a fortnight, I’ve owned it almost a year and yet it appears there is loads left in the packaging.

I like to pop this mask on all over my face before I jump into the bath or shower, as it makes it easier to wash off. I leave it on until it dries and then wash it off. It’s hard to tell with this mask when it’s fully dry as the colour doesn’t lighten. It’s more of a case of touching your face to see.

I stated up above how this claims to leave your skin after immediate use and I don’t know if it’s due to going to work straight after using it and rushing to get ready for work, but I didn’t notice a change straight away. A few days later I did notice that my blemishes had reduced, which is great! I also noticed that my t-zone was mattified too which is something I am forever searching for in a product.

I definitely want to try this mask on Dane’s skin due to his oily nose to see how it work with his blackheads and excess sebum.

I can’t wait to see what more use of this face mask will bring to my skin though. It’s definitely a mask for people to use with combination skin, as I didn’t find that it dried out my cheeks. That’s where the Glow or Brighten mask can be used alongside this one.

At the moment Boots have all these masks on offer at the moment for £5.99 instead of £7.99. Sadly I don’t know how long for, so if you want to grab one of the new masks to try then get one as soon as possible!

I’ll definitely be buying the other masks eventually as I want to try them all! Have you tried any of the original 3 masks, or either of the 2 new ones? If so what do you think of them? Make sure to let me know in the comments!

Until next time take care all and have a lovely weekend!

Elizavecca Milky Piggy Carbonated Bubble Clay Mask – Review

Boy has this review been a long time coming! Well any review lately considering I haven’t written one since February… Oops… If you’re curious why this is the case then make sure to go and read my latest post. It’ll all be explained there.

As the old saying goes, no time like the present and before I go to bed I am going to quickly type up this review! I’ve been thinking about what I’ve wanted to say on it for ages and after a lovely relaxing bath with a Lush bath melt and this on my face I know exactly what I want to say.

I picked up the Milky Piggy Carbonated Bubble Clay Mask by Elizavecca at the start of this year on my birthday. I had seen TK Maxx selling it online for months and at a bargain of £9.99 and I never bought one. I always left it thinking I would find one in one of their stores to pick up, but I never did. I’d always have a look for it as well whenever I went in! Of course I eventually found it and it was definitely worth the wait!

This face mask has been spoken about and raved by various beauty bloggers and I can see why. Not only is it a great mask for the skin but it’s really fun too! If you haven’t heard about what this face mask does I will of course be telling you in this review… As well as showing you.

First of all I’ll quickly go into detail about the packaging. As you can see from the first picture it comes in a cardboard box but the product itself is in a round pot. My box has a sticker on it that tells you all of the information about the product in English, but various people I’ve read and watched talking about this product haven’t had any English directions on their packaging. I know you can pick this up from Amazon so if you do that just be aware yours may be all in Korean. You can always Google search what to do, or even look it up on YouTube.

There are some fakes of these floating around so be careful when ordering online, or even picking up in store. Elizavecca products have a special sticker on their products that say “ELIZAVECCA ORIGINAL” and an original number you need to scrape off to reveal. Snazzy, huh?

It doesn’t state how much product you actually get in the tub but it does say that it lasts 12 months from the product being opened, which seems good to me!

Inside the pot itself you have a thick plastic lid that keeps the product protected as well as a white spatula for applying the mask to your face. I love that the mask comes with this tool as it makes it so much easier to apply to the skin!

The plastic lid is vital for this product as it needs oxygen to get it to activate and work. This means you have to be quick when applying this to the skin. The longer you leave the plastic lid off the more oxygen will get to the product, which could leave you with a ruined face mask. Not what you want if you’ve spent a tenner on it!

As you can see from the face mask it is a dark grey colour and looks airy, almost like a mouse affect. It reminds me of a thick gel when applying to the skin and has a lovely cooling feeling, which will be great for hot summer evenings.

On the directions it states to apply evenly onto dry skin. After a while the mask will bubble up to twice it’s size! It states that it’ll do this in 6 minutes. After this time you are to apply a tiny bit of water to the mask and massage for 2 minutes. Then wash off with warm water.

I like to apply this face mask before a bath or shower so that it makes for it being washed off easier.

I decided to take some pictures when I applied this mask, after 3 minutes, after 6 minutes and after massaging the mask with water for 2 minutes. I didn’t bother getting any after pictures as there isn’t a noticeable difference. I will go into more detail about that though. By the way, please excuse any silly faces I made when taking the pictures. How could I not when I look like a rain cloud? 😛

After application

3 minutes after application

3 minutes after application

6 minutes after application

6 minutes after application

After massaging for 2 minutes

As you can see from the pictures the mask does bubble up in a short period of time! I have to say when you first apply it to the skin and it starts to bubble, it’s really itchy! My nose always feels tingly and like I need to constantly itch at it. This is because the bubbles in the mask are popping and working to draw out any crap in your pores and skin.

Although this doesn’t show any visible evidence of doing anything to the skin, I do find that my skin feels lovely and soft after use, especially on my cheeks! I find it gives my skin a lovely boost of hydration too, which is what I needed throughout the chilly months at the start of this year.

I’ve used this face mask on Dane before as he wanted to give it a go himself. He was sort of my little guinea pig in seeing how it works on blackheads on the nose. Neither of us noticed anything different from before we applied the mask to when we washed it off, which was a shame. But even Dane said it made his skin feel lovely and soft which I was happy about.

Overall what do I think of this mask? I think it’s a fun addition for any face mask lover to add to their bathroom cupboard. I love using this once a month as a fun treat during a relaxing bath. I love Korean beauty products and I knew when I heard about this one that I would love it! Elizavecca is a great Korean beauty brand to try so keep your eyes peeled for her products in TK Maxx, they go for amazing prices in there!

If you want to pick up one of these masks for yourselves then that may be easier said than done. Whilst I even struggled to find mine I eventually did. These used to be available on Amazon quite a lot but sadly it now looks like the fakes have taken over. Make sure you’re not buying the fake mask! You’ll know it’s fake as that one has GREEN packaging whilst Elizavecca’s has GREY packaging. Same goes for the product itself. It will also have a completely different label and picture of the pig on the front.

What do you think of the bubble clay mask? Will you be giving it a go, or have you already? Make sure to let me know in the comments down below!

Until next time take care all and I hope you’re having a lovely week so far.