Lancome Hypnose Custom Wear Volume Mascara and Cils Booster XL Super-Enhancing Mascara Base

I've had these two samples for ages and finally got around to trying them (over a month ago!). Anyway, I have even managed to type up this review now, so better later than never, I guess.

Lancome Hypnose Custom Wear Volume Mascara

I usually stick with my favourite mascaras, Guerlain Le 2 and Givenchy Phenomen'eyes, but of course I'm always happy to try out new ones. I have heard a lot of positives about Lancome mascaras, so I thought I'd give these a go.

Cils Booster XL is a white mascara base that helps to prime and protect your lashes, and enhance your eye make up. You basically use it under your mascara. I have found it very good for giving a bit more volume and length, although I can't really comment on exactly how it's helped to protect my lashes as I've only used it a few times. As much as I like it, I never have time to use it in the mornings.

Hypnose Custom Wear Volume Mascara in Noir Hypnotic is a volumising mascara and it also gives my lashes quite good length. I like it very much, the brush is very easy to use, it's a nice size with good bristles and the formula is just right too. I really cannot fault it. I have found that I get more volume with the mascara base under this mascara, but even alone it's very good. I haven't had any problems with clumping, smudging or flaking at all.


You can see two pictures of me wearing the base and the mascara at the bottom of this post, but if you'd like to see full face pictures and the breakdown for the looks, click on the pictures.

The full size versions of these products cost £21 for 5.5 ml (Cils Booster XL) and £22 for 6.5 g (Hypnose Custom Wear Volume Mascara).

See more pictures after the jump!

Inglot Under Makeup Base Review

I was given this sample when I went to the Inglot shop in Westfield shopping center last October and finally got around to trying it out and reviewing. To be honest, I always find reviewing products that are just so-so a bit tricky. The ones I love or hate I feel passionable about, the ones that are just a bit meh I don't feel very interested in reviewing.

So by now you might have guessed that I wasn't too keen on this. I didn't hate it, but I also didn't like it much at all. This primer has a very slippery silicone feel to it and it didn't do anything for me, didn't make my skin matte and it didn't help with keeping oil at bay either. I just didn't see much difference to my skin's appearance or how well my make up lasted. All in all, I prefer non-silicone based primers, so I am pretty sure I won't purchase the full size product. If you want, you can buy it from Inglot for £13 (for a 30 ml tube). 

Have you tried this primer? How do you feel about silicone based primers? Let me know in the comments!

See more pictures after the jump!

Finished! The February edition

Despite trying my hardest to finish lots of products, I only managed 4 this month,but there are a few nearly empty ones sitting on my shelves, so hopefully I can include them in next month's post.

Now I know I said I wasn't going to include shower gels in these posts, but since I featured the Body Shop Cherry Blossom EDT in last month's Finished! post, I thought I might as well include the matching shower gel and body butter this month.

They are both nice, but since I've gone off the scent now, I won't be repurchasing them. I still have half a bottle of the EDT but I will save that for later now, this month I'm using Givenchy Ange au Demon. 

See more empties after the jump!

Update on my Project Skincare Samples

You might remember this post from last month, so I thought I'd do a little update to show you how I'm getting on. I've used up quite a few of my samples, still have plenty to go, and so far there have been two products that I really liked, and so ended up purchasing the full sized article. Although the whole point was that I use up the samples before I purchase any more skincare products, in my defence, the products I bought I didn't actually own similar things to.

Firstly, I got Chanel Body Excellence Revitalizing Smoothing Scrub which is a lovely body scrub with a gorgeous scent that I just couldn't resist. Now unfortunately it doesn't seem to be available in the shops anymore (you guessed it, I got it on eBay), which is a shame, because it's very nice. Gentle enough, but effective, leave my skin really soft, and it smells gorgeous.

See more pictures and find out what other products I purchased!

Guerlain, you know I love you, but you and eye don't get on!

Guerlain is one of my favourite brands, but unfortunately when it comes to their eye creams, it's a different story. You might recall that I'm currently doing Project Skincare Samples which means I'm basically using up all my samples I've accumulated during the past few years. I started using Guerlain's Issima Succes Eye Tech which is an "eyelid lifter and wrinkle minimiser" eye cream. Unfortunately just after 2 uses I found that it made my eyelids extremely sore and very puffy. This is how my eyes looked the morning after the second application:

Not only my eyelid wasn't lifted, it ended up very saggy and puffy. I have naturally hooded eyelids, but they don't normally look like this. They were also very sore and sensitive. Really not what you expect from a high end eyecream like Guerlain's. Unfortunately the same thing happened to me a while ago when I was using the Orchidee Imperiale eye and lip cream, so I had to resort to only using it on my lips which considering that it cost me £50 was really not great! So it seems Guerlain and I are just not seeing eye to eye (excuse the pun). It makes me sad, but at least I can now stop lusting after their horribly expensive skincare products. Although I do need to add that their face serums and creams are still one of my favourites. 

See more pictures of my puffy, sore eyelids if you dare!

Project skincare samples!

I have a LOT of skincare samples that I have accumulated over the last few years by swapping, gifts with purchase, etc. I'd been keeping them in a bag not really knowing what to do with them, especially since I've not been doing a lot of swapping lately. Didn't want to throw them out, so I thought, why not use them?And not only that, why not set myself a challenge like I've seen other bloggers do (like 10 pan or 10 tube challenges) and not buy any skincare products until I use up ALL my samples.

As you can see I have a variety of samples (I didn't photographed all of them!): cleansers, serums, day, night and eye creams and primers from a variety of brands including Guerlain, Dior, Chanel, Givenchy, Estee Lauder, and loads more. I will not feel like I'm hard done by with all these lovely brands. So over the coming weeks (and months by the looks of it) I will be doing Project Skincare Samples!

Do you have a lot of skincare samples? What do you do with them? Have you ever set yourself a challenge like this?