June ’16 Favourites

Okay so my two monthly posts have been rather different this month, with my wish list being first out of the two. I usually talk about my favourites from the previous month first, before talking about what I am hoping to buy the month we go into. Blame the house, honestly. It’s all the houses fault!

But better late than never as they say, and I apologise now because my favourites were nothing exciting last month, once again due to the house. OH and I actually have one extra item on my list this month too!

• Estee Lauder DayWear Advanced Multi-Protection Anti-Oxidant Creme SPF 15 in Normal/Combination skin

I got this moisturiser free when me and my mom bought some goodies from an Estee Lauder counter, and I didn’t even think I would end up using this, but since my Clinique moisturiser running out at the end of May (and me being too poor to buy anymore…) I decided to give this a go. I do really like it, but at the same time I do have my personal issues with it. The thing I love is how moisturising it is, and a little goes a long way too! The thing I don’t like about it is that it is a cream, which my skin doesn’t usually like. My skin often breaks out with thick moisturisers, which I worried would happen with this, but alas my skin hasn’t had any issues! The problem is due to how warm and clammy the UK has been the past month (as well raining!) it never felt like it was sinking into my skin, and due to that would cause me to sweat. It’s a good moisturiser though, and has done me good over the past month! It’ll especially be great for winter time.

• Liz Earle Botanical Shine Shampoo

This is an old favourite for me when it comes to shampoo and one I decided to pick up again a while ago as I was after a shampoo that didn’t contain sulfates. This only costs £10 from Boots, which I thought was a complete bargain for Liz Earle! This shampoo smells floral, and you don’t need a lot to get a good lather going. It leaves my hair feeling soft and smooth. I tried this on Dane’s hair just to see how it would make it feel, and he even said himself how lovely an soft his hair felt. Result! 😛

• Chanel Poudre Universelle Compacte Natural Finish Pressed Powder in shade Peche

I’ve owned this for over a month now and I love it! I don’t use it as much as I do my Laura Geller powder, as I just use this for days off work, or special days. BUT it is truly amazing and one of my favourite beauty pieces to use. Although it is a peach shade this doesn’t actually show up when applied to the skin, which is good. It makes my skin look matt for quite a long time, and I don’t feel the need to reapply during my 8 hour shift at work, which is the true test of a good face powder for me.

• Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair Eye

This is another freebie I got in my Estee Lauder goody bag and is something I have been using on warm mornings, and muggy days. It’s a cooling gel that is meant to be used at night, but I use it in the mornings before I go to work. I haven’t noticed a dramatic change in my eyes, but it really does help them feel cooled on hot days, and mornings when my eyes are still aching, and tired.

• Imperial Leather Shower Gel in Foamy Banana

This was a recent discovery towards the end of June and it is my favourite out of the bunch this month! I couldn’t wait to talk about it next month, so this is why there is an extra product being spoken about this month. It smells just like the foam banana sweeties that you would get as a kid, which I love. I can’t eat bananas due to my allergy, but I can get my banana fix with this shower gel! I bought a couple of bottles of these so that I know I have a bottle ready in the cupboard to use when my current one runs out.

• Lancome Juicy Shakers in shade Mint To Be.

My mom bought me another one of these when she went on holiday in May and I KNOW I wrote a somewhat bad review about the Juicy Shaker’s, but I do still like them! They just aren’t anything special like they’ve been made out to be. They are literally just pigmented lip balms with a bit of gloss. I love this one though, and when I’ve fancied something a bit more than a balm, but not a lipstick, this has come in handy! These aren’t sticky, and they feel really light on the lips when worn, which is something I like about it. It’s just been great during working on the house, as well as when I traveled to London. I might review this soon, but in the meantime you can read the review for the other one here.

So that is my June favourites! May be late, but at least they’re done now. 😛

What products did you enjoy using in June? Make sure to let me know in the comments down below.

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

High-End Beauty Haul & A Foxy Surprise!

Recently my family went on holiday and came back before the weekend. The three weeks they were away for has really flown by, and I was glad to see them arrive home safely.

When they got back they were bearing gifts, as well as with a surprise gift for me. I had asked my mom to pick me up some goodies whilst she was there, which I would give her the money for.

We have a home over in Fuerteventura, one of the Canary Islands, and due to it being a tax-free island it can sometimes work out cheaper to buy beauty related goodies over there, rather than here.

I only have four things she picked up for me, but they’re all amazing, and I couldn’t wait to show them off to you today!

• Lancome Juicy Shaker Lip Gloss in shade Mint To Be – £18.00

I already have one of these in shade Berry In Love (you can read my review here) and whilst I didn’t review it with all-stars and positives, I still rather like it for work if I fancy something light, which I can reapply without the worry I look like coco the clown. This is a rather odd shade considering it’s blue, but I love how it reminds me of my teenage years of wearing sheer blue lipsticks and lip glosses. This is just like the name too, it’s very minty and makes my lips feel tingly and feel fresh, which is nice! I can’t wait to rock this over the summer months on hots days out. For a while this was only an exclusive at Selfridges and Lancome’s official website, but it appears to be available everywhere now, although I think it is a limited edition shade.

• Chanel Poudre Universelle Compacte Natural Finish Pressed Powder in shade Peche – £33.00

I’m hitting pan on my current face powder, which means it’s time to think about buying something new! I mentioned to my mom that I wanted to get something new, and asked her if she could have a nose whilst on holiday for something fancy for me. She had a look around and found this lovely piece for me! A Chanel powder… Oh my! I wasn’t expecting this! I especially wasn’t expecting it to be a peach shade, I would have thought it would be white. This being said it’s only a subtle colour and doesn’t affect the colour of my own skin in any way. I cannot wait to start using this, it’s such a gorgeous piece to have in my make up collection now, especially with its beautiful velvet pouch that it lives in.

• Clarins Instant Light Natural Lip Perfector in shade Plum Shimmer – £18.00

I own two of these already, Rose Shimmer, and Candy Shimmer, both of which I bought from Fuerteventura last time I went in November 2015. This is one of the newer shades in the lip perfector collection and it is right up my street! It’s a raspberry pink shade, and when applied multiple times it gives a nice dark payoff to it. I will rock this loads throughout the summer, as well as every other time of year! I hope to review them all together soon, so keep your eyes peeled for that.

• Chanel Rouge Coco Stylo Lipstick in shade Roman – £26.00

This is probably my favourite item that I bought from the bunch as not only is it a new and exciting product by Chanel, but it’s also such a lovely shade. I wish I could have really swatched a variety of the shades before picking the one I had, but from looking at swatches and pictures from Tempalia’s post over on her blog, I knew I would love Roman. It’s a hot pink shade, and very me! Makes a change from purple shades, that’s for sure. It’s not like your normal lipsticks either, this one has a buttery and moisturising formula which is really nice! The thing I love the most is the tube, which is long and sleek, which as the name states, looks stylish. I cannot wait to review this beauty!

Finally I have the special gift that my dad got for me! When we went on holiday together in November I eyed up this cushion and fell in love with it. It has a fox on it, how could I NOT fall in love with it?! I don’t know what I’m going to do with it yet… Probably stick it on my bed and use it as a back rest. 😛 It’s huge though, probably half the size of my body. It’ll definitely be nice to use as something to lean on whilst I work on blog posts. This only cost my dad €27.95, which works out to £21.25. Bargain really considering how big it is, I mean look at the picture of it with my hand on top… That is how big it is!

So that’s my little high-end beauty haul! I do not know the prices in euros at this time, but when I find out I will update this post as and when. I hope to review the majority of the goodies mentioned on here soon as well.

Are any of the products I’ve purchased anything you would like to get, or have bought yourselves recently? Make sure to let me know in the comments!

Until next time, take care all and have an awesome bank holiday Monday!

Lancome Juicy Shaker Lip Gloss in Berry In Love – Review

I have been so damn excited for this Lancome launch since I heard about it before Christmas, so a few Sunday’s ago when I was in Selfridges with my friend Poppy, I knew I had to look at it. They had only been released in Selfridges at the time, and luckily the Birmingham store had them in stock a few days early. I had my eye on tw0o, and left with one of them.

I had my eye on Berry In Love since seeing the press release of the Juicy Shaker’s so I knew this was one of the ones I wanted to swatch on the back of my hand. I also eyed a gorgeous blue shaded called Mint To Be, which I would love to get my hands on as it’s limited edition!

The girl who served me was so lovely, and when I asked if I could try the product she applied it for me, and I really liked how it looked… So I was naughty and bought it. But this is my last treat for a very long time! So… Was it worth it?

I have mostly pros, but a few cons with this product, which I am going to talk about in this review. First of all I have to talk about the packaging.

How adorable is it? This is probably the first thing everyone is noticing about the product, it certainly was for me! It’s meant to be a little cocktail shaker, and as a huge cocktail making fan (is that even a thing???) I just fell in love with it. As you can see it’s silver, just like a cocktail shaker, and has the Lancome name around it, with the Lancome flower on the top. Not all of the packaging is silver, with the bottom part of the bottle being clear so that you can see which lip colour you have.

The applicator for this is very different, and I haven’t personally seen anything like it before. It reminds me of a little sweetie due to the cone, and sponge style shape. It was white when I first opened the product, but now it is sodden in the shade I picked up. Like most lip gloss products this has a screw top, which feels nice and secure when you do the top back up.

As I’ve already mentioned, I picked up Berry In Love which is a gorgeous purple shade, which has some slight purple and blue shimmer running throughout. All the shades are said to have their own unique scent to them, of course depending on the flavour. Mine being berries related, mine smells just like it, and it’s not an intense or strong scent, it’s just light, and perfect. You can’t taste it when it’s on the lips, but depending on the person, you may be able to smell it whilst it’s on the lips. I can smell it a little bit, but it isn’t anything offensive.

Image taken from lancome.co.uk

The shade I picked up is also the same shade that Lupita Nyong is wearing in the advertisements of the Juicy Shaker’s.

This isn’t like a normal lip gloss mind, and I don’t just mean about the unique packaging. This lip gloss contains nourishing lip oils such as sweet almond oil, omega 3, and cranberry oil! Meaning your lips don’t just look great, but they’re being nourished too, to make sure they stay in great condition. Due to what the lip gloss contains, it also means that it isn’t sticky or drying.

When you first get the bottle the pigment of the lip colour, and the oils will be separated in the bottle, so you need to shake it up really well to get them both merged together again. There’s a little ball inside that helps mix the two together, and it clicks around when you shake it, which I love! It really adds to the whole cocktail shaker style of the product.

There is both a lot of pros and (in my opinion) a con to this… I’ll go on to talk about the pros first.

One of the pros is how this feels on the lips. I wear glasses, so I hate when you wear a sticky lip gloss, your hair gets stuck in it, and then blows onto your glasses and you’re left with a lovely streak of your favourite gloss. Lovely! But with this it has a texture similar to water to be honest, and it feels really comforting on the lips, and hydrating. I love it for that, as it means if my lips are sore I can still rock a bit of colour whilst keeping my lips hydrated.

Another pro of this product is how it looks on the lips when applied. It’s nothing intense, which is to be expected with it being a lip gloss. It’s just perfect for spring and summer, for days when it’s warm outside and you don’t want to be caked in make up. Of course I only have one so I can’t compare the pigmentation to other shades. You’re meant to dab the product on with the applicator, and the more layers you apply, the more intense the colour will get. I find that dabbing the colour onto the lips work better than applying it like you would a normal lip gloss in a sweeping motion. I also found the longer I owned the product, the more product the applicator began to pick up, thus more product and pigmentation on the lips.

This is where I go onto the con. This cost me £18.00, and personally I don’t think it is worth that money. If you ask me, the majority of the price is for the packaging and the name, which sucks because I don’t want to be paying for the pretty packaging. I would expect to pay say £12.00-£15.00 for something like this. I know it’s Lancome but I never really remember their products being this much money! For a lipstick, yes, but not for a lip gloss.

Due to the consistency of the lip gloss, it doesn’t stay on the lips all that long. It might leave behind a slight stain, but it isn’t anything special. I’ll apply it before I drive to work, and by the time I’ve arrived there, walked to work, clocked in, got ready, and headed down to start my shift, it’s gone. Which annoys me. It shouldn’t have vanished in all of half an hour!

This being said, I do still really enjoy this product and I’ll probably start to use it over purple lipsticks, such as Rebel by MAC (review here) to give them a bit of a pop and some gloss.

As I’ve already said, I want to pick up the limited edition blue shade called Mint To Be. It’s a gorgeous bright blue shade, which when applied to the lips leaves a clear and slight blue shimmer. It’s great for making teeth look whiter!

Overall this is a great product, especially for young girls and teenagers who are just starting to experiment with make up. I know my mom bought me the Lancome Juicy Tubes lip glosses when I was first starting to wear make up, and I loved them (I still own them… They should probably be thrown away now…). These might be great for women who want a bit of colour on their lips, but if you’re expecting a lot of pigmentation from these, then you’ll be disappointed as these aren’t anything mind blowing… Sadly. These will make for a great present from a summer holiday this year, as I’m pretty sure they’ll be cheap as chips in duty free, and tax free areas.

As I said before, these retail for £18.00 each and are currently available online and in store at Selfridges, and online at Lancome’s website. I’m unsure if they are available in store at Debenhams, but at the time of this post they weren’t on the website. You can pick these up in 13 shades, with one being limited edition.

Check them out here on Lancome’s website.

Now time for some pictures of my Toby jug. 😉

Will you be picking up any of the Juicy Shaker’s by Lancome? Make sure to let me know in the comments.

Until next time, take care all and hope you’re having a great week.