Finished! The January Edition

Finally, January is over. Is it just me or did it feel like the longest month ever? I was really willing it to be over for a few reasons. Firstly, I want spring to come. I've had enough of the dark afternoons and mornings, I want it to be daylight when I get up and daylight when I'm cooking dinner by my south-west facing kitchen window. I want flowers in the garden, cherry blossoms on the trees down the street. Secondly, I couldn't wait for Guerlain's spring collection to be finally released. And thirdly, I'd already exceeded my monthly beauty budget by the middle of the month and I desperately needed it to be February to start again. Sadly it has turned really cold in the UK, so there's no sign of spring yet unfortunately.

At least, with January being such a long month (or at least it felt like it), I've managed to finish a few products, so there are some positives there too. A lot of the products I finished this month I have reviewed on here at some point, so I will just link them to the reviews instead of repeating myself.

First though here's something I've not reviewed before, this is Avon Skin So Soft Signature Silk Nourishing Body Cream. I used to buy lots of Avon products a while ago, and I'm still finishing some of them off. This particular body cream sadly isn't a good example of Avon's good quality products. Very pretty packaging, nice scent, but a pretty rubbish moisturiser. It sort of feels like body butter, at least it's texture, but it's not at all that creamy and doesn't really spread well, so you actually use up quite a lot of cream, and it's not even that moisturising. So it's a no from me I'm afraid.

See what other products I used up after the jump!

Finished! The December Edition

Another month over, another post about products I've finished. There are a few included that I have reviewed a few times on here, so I will just link them to some earlier reviews instead of repeating myself.

First up - a confession. I'm probably the only person in the blogesphere that doesn't know what the big fuss is about Clarisonic. I got a Clarisonic Mia a couple of months ago and I've been using it religiously, but in all fairness, I just can't see what it does to my skin. My skin isn't clearer, my pores are still clogged up, nothing has really changed to be honest. I don't hate it, but I do wonder what on earth I spent all the money on. Okay, there, I said it. Let the stone thowing commence. Right, onto the products. I got this cleanser with my Clarisonic and I didn't like it. Luckily it was only a small sample, so I used it up, but it smelled funny and it did nothing to my skin. Won't repurchase (I don't even know if you can).

 See what other products I finished after the jump!

2011's Favorite Products: Part 2 - Face

To continue from yesterday's favourites post I have the face products I loved the most this year to show you. Like I said in yesterday's post, it's hard to compose these lists because current favourites can easily make it in there even if you were using something  else for 11 months. Despite me not wanting to include products that have only recently made it into my most used and well loved products, I have gone against it and included a couple of products that are very new to me but have become firm favourites. Read on to find out what they are.

First up is my favourite face primer, Guerlain Meteorites Perles Light-Diffusing Perfecting Primer. It smells amazing and gives a smooth base, it's not slimy and slippery like some silicone based one, love it. I have reviewed it, so click on the link above.

Keep reading to find out which other face products I loved this year!

The Great 30 Day Lipstick Challenge - Week 4 and Conclusion

The Great 30 Day Lipstick Challenge has now come to an end. 30 days and 30 lipsticks later I'm very happy I decided to do this challenge. I managed to use lipsticks I'd not actually used at all, also rediscovered some old favourites and found that some I wasn't too keen on at first I actually quite like after all. I also ended up throwing out one very funny smelling one (it wasn't even that old, I don't know what happened there), and put 3 up for sale - by the way, check out my Blog Sale if you haven't yet done so! I think I will definitely do this again, but right now I need to give some love to my other lipsticks. So many lipstick, so little time!

This post includes the last 9 lipsticks and once again I managed to choose a good variety of brands and colours. The lipsticks I used this week are:

1. MyFace Gigabite lipstick in 155 Strawberry Fields
2. Revlon Super Lustrous lipstick in 457 Wild Orchid
3. Mac lipstick in Costa Chic
4. Collection 2000 Volume Sensation lipstick in 4 Plum Perfection
5. No 7 Moisture Drench lipstick in 30 Plum Beautiful
6. No 7 Mirrorball lipstick
7. Urban Decay lipstick in Naked
8. Lancome L'Absolu Rouge in Voile de Rose
9. Mac lipstick in Playtime

Find out what I thought about these lipsticks and see more pictures including swatches after the jump!

The Great 30 Day Lipstick Challenge - Week 1

Once again thank you to everyone who voted for which box of lipsticks I should be using for the next 30 days (you can see the "winner" box here). It's now been over a week and I have 7 lipsticks to show you. I have to say, it was a very good idea of mine to start this challenge as I often reach for the same lipsticks despite owning over 300 of them, so being restricted to choose from "just" 58 lipsticks is actually quite liberating. I also consciously trying to choose lipsticks I don't normally go for, there are quite a few unused lipsticks sitting in each box, so it's a great opportunity to try them out as well as rediscover forgotten favourites. Ah, the curse of having too much make up.

So here they are, the first 7 lipsticks. As you can see I managed to choose from a variety of brands and if you scroll down, you will see that I also managed to use a variety of shades. So shall we see which lipsticks I used this week? Find out after the jump!

My holiday make up bag

Since I really enjoy reading about what make up people take on holiday with them, I decided to write my own post about it. As you know (or don't, but will now), I was away in Florida for 2 weeks last month. I always struggle with packing, usually end up taking far too much, clothes, shoes and make up alike, and while I will not go into details about the clothes and shoes, I can assure you, I did the same again - both for me and my 3 children (my husband packs his stuff). I swear we could have left at least one suitcase behind and not be without anything. I mean who would've thought you don't need long trousers, sweaters and raincoats in Florida at Easter? I always pack warm clothes just in case, but honestly, I didn't even wear a light summer cardigan, it was always over 25 degrees even at 10 o'clock in the evening. Anyway, moving swiftly on, here's what I took with me make up-wise:

My 88 Shimmer and Metal Mania palettes

All other make up products I took with me

As you can see, all of the products are fairly cheap, drugstore or similar products. I'm always really afraid to take expensive high end and limited edition products with me in case they get damaged or lost in transit. I find the 88 eyeshadows palettes (especially the Shimmer palette) very useful as they contain all the colours (including some really good highlighters) you ever need. Although the quality of the eyeshadows isn't that good, with a decent primer they lasted through most of the day, and it was usually over 30 degrees, so I guess that's not too bad.

So what else did I take? I managed to photograph it upside down, but you can see my Maybelline Dream Creamy Foundation (reviewed here) which I actually managed to finish on the last day of the holiday, talk about great timing eh? I took my Collection 2000 Illuminating Touch concealer (reviewed here) as well as my  Mac MSFN & Shimmer in Medium, great for setting foundation and highlighting. Not sure why I needed an extra highlighter, but I took a Ruby & Millie one, not sure what it's called though, it's from a set. I took 4 blushes: First Kiss and China Pink by 17, Sleek Rose Gold (see review here) and Laura Geller Tropic Hues (a handy travel sized one, full sized one reviewed here).

I took numerous eyeliners, all Urban Decay 24/7 ones, as I love their eyepencils and I like the variety of colours. I also took 3 mascaras: L'Oreal Telescopic Explosion mascara (reviewed here), Max Factor More Lashes waterproof mascara and a Rimmel waterproof mascara (its name escapes me completely, sorry). For my brows I took my trusty Mac Brow Set in Show Off. And of course my favourite eyeshadow base: Barbara Daly for Tesco (I've reviewed it here).

I took 2 lipliners and 8 lipsticks, plus 4 double ended lipglosses as well as several of my GOSH eyeshadow brushes, 2 blush brushes and a cheepo noname face brush. Oh and a double pencil sharpener.

Now, do you want to see how many of these products I actually used over the 2 weeks? See after the jump!

Purple look with 17 Vintage Love Perfect Pastels Palette

Last week I reviewed 17 Vintage Love Palettes here and today I would like to show you a look I created using the purple shades in the Perfect Pastels palette. Unfortunately the pictures don't do the colours justice (I really need to get a better camera!), but here it is anyway. I would appreciate if you let me know what you think of my eyebrows, I've done some DIY work to them, I think they do look a bit better.

To create this look I used the following:

Eyes:

Barbara Daly for Tesco eyeshadow primer

17 Vintage Love Perfect Pastels Palette (see picture below)

Shade 2 (pinky purple) all over lid

Shade 1 (dark purple) in outer lid and crease

Shade 3 (light violet) inner lid and above crease

Marks & Spencer Jewels eyeshadow quad light pink shade below browbone to highlight

Urban Decay 24/7 eye pencil in Perversion on lower waterline

No 7 Candy Lavender eye pencil on lower lashline

DiorShow Black Out mascara in Black Khol

Mac Brow Set in Show Off

Face:

Avon Shimmer Swirls Face Illuminator

Collection 2000 Illuminating Touch concealer

Chantecaille White Tiger face powder

Accessorize Starlet baked blush

Lips:

Rimmel Moisture Renew Lipstick in Rose Sorbet

See more pictures after the jump!

My favourite high street (drugstore) make up / beauty products

As you know, I love high end make up, my favourite brands include Guerlain and Dior, and you can't get much more luxurious products than from these two brands. However, I also like products that work well no matter how much they cost or what brand they are. I am a make up snob, but not enough to pass on good bargains! :)

I thought I'd show you what my favourite high street (drugstore) beauty products are and if you like, please tell me in the comments which ones you like / work for you. 

Find out more about my favourite bargain buys after the jump!

Buy one get one free on Dior palettes! (Not really)

I went shopping today (I do that rather a lot) and this is what I bought:

5 colour Dior designer palettes in Navy and Nude Pink

Collection 2000 Mosaic Glow powder in Gold

The reason I ended up getting one Dior palette free is that after paying for the first one I realised that I had enough points on my Advantage Card to get the other one absolutely free (thank you Boots)! Which is just as well because I couldn't decide between the Nude Pink and the Navy palette, but as I'd just bought the Electric Lights palette which is blue, I opted for the pink one, but then HAD to go back for the other one. I absolutely love the shimmery powder on the top right of the palette, both shades are gorgeous and very wearable. To be honest, I loved the other two palettes too (nude and smokey), so will need to keep an eye out for those on MUA and eBay. :) I already own a lot of Dior 5-colour-palettes and I really like them, so am really looking forward to using these too. Here's my collection of Dior palettes as of April this year:

The other thing I bought is Collection 2000's Mosaic Glow powder in Gold. I already own one powder similar to this, which is a bronzy colour, and gives nice glowing finish, but it's not really a bronzer (which is just as well as I don't really do bronzers). This one is more gold in colour and gives a lovely shimmery finish, very nice. See close-up and swatch below: