30 September 2013

A Very Lush Christmas #1 Santa's Scrub and Santa Baby

Its that time of year again and all of the Christmas ranges are being released!
One of the most anticipated has to be that from Lush with devout Lushies asking in store for several months prior to the launch when it will be. Well this year its on 4th October (this Friday!) so I thought I'd give you a few sneak peeks this week to get you s excited about the range as I am.
First up are two items that I've already pretty much fallen in love with being a bit of a lipstick junkie. We have Santa's Lip Scrub which is a gorgeous, cherry cola fragranced scrub complete with edible glitter hearts and lip plumping lime and black pepper oils which is designed to not only taste amazing but get your lips beautifully soft and ready for those festive parties where you may want them kiss-ably soft.
There is also Santa Baby lip tint which is a vibrant holly berry shade of red with the same scent made up from cherries, dates, lime and pepper giving that cola aroma. A great festive lip colour to pair with shimmery eyes.
As you can see both have a lovely vivid colour. They're also both very soft on the skin.
Santa's Lip Scrub has a much softer base than some of the previous scrubs. It uses a blend of extra virgin coconut oil and coconut milk powder as the base to keep the texture light yet nourishing.
On the other hand, Santa Baby uses a lovely rich blend of fair trade shea butter, organic cocoa butter, capuacu butter and aster oil to give that lovely soft texture and stop lips from drying during wear making the tint great for wearing all day and evening without worry of lips getting chapped and sore.

What I like the most about these two products though is how well they complement one another. The combination makes a great little gift for a beauty lover that won't break the bank. I think the scent and taste of the scrub may divide a few people (as they all do) but the effect is lovely and the prodcts, as always, are great quality so for me, a big thumbs up :)

Tomorrow I have an ultra cute bubble bar to show you :)
Annie xx

27 September 2013

A Beautiful Birthday Box

As I mentioned yesterday, I recently did a birthday box swap with a lovely lady from the beauty group I am part of on facebook. We set a budget of £40, gave each other a good idea of the sort of things that we liked and set off to put together a big box of goodies for one another. Here's what was in my gift-my goodness I was excited to unwrap all of these lovely things :D
As you can see, Lolly the Grumpy Kitty decided she wanted to get involved with photo taking so please excuse the massive head n the foreground :P There was such a great variety of things in this box, just looking makes me excited.
Nichola put a fab selection of sweet treats into the box. There was also a melody pop and a love hearts dib dab...they got eaten before I took the photo though. I made a best friend very happy by taking the rainbow drops over when we had a girly evening.
Just throwing this out there, but these socks are loved a CRAZY amount. They remind me of what I think a Minecraft owl would look like. And also how thoughtful to pick up something owly because of my little obsession :) The Yankee tarts are gorgeous foodie scents and because they're discontinued scents I'm really going to treasure using them.
Skincare is one of my favourite things, I love trying out new products and if you read my post yesterday then you'll already know that since trying the Nuxe goodies, I have fallen in love with them. I haven't used the La Roche Posay or Melvita yet because I have so much on the go but they both also sound amazing.
Next up was some body products to keep me feeling beautiful all over. The square soap was brought back from Nichola's holiday which I thought was a lovely touch, it has a lovely clean, honey scent and as soon as I've finished up th bar I'm using (which fittingly is a big version of the little Body Shop Chocomania hearts here) I will be moving on to this. What excited me most out of these products though was the Betty Hula Anti-bacterial Hand Cream which is scented with champagne and spice. I haven't used Betty Hula products before and this smells and feels divine on my skin.

These three were popped straight into my handbag for their sheer usefulness. I was so excited to see the Bath and Body Works mini sanitiser in the box because I haven't had the chance to try the range before and I've heard so many amazing things, and I haven't been disappointed- it smells delicious! The peach body spray has a lovely scent too, very sweet and fresh which is perfect for a midday pick me up.
Its no secret that my biggest love is makeup so I was soooo excited to unwrap these goodies especially. I actually squealed when I opened the Illamsqua! The MAC lipstick was also a real excitement and I have a post on the way about that beauty. I wasn't as excited about the Baby Lips UK launch as a lot of beauty fanatics so hadn't picked one up before receiving my swap box but I really was missing out, I adore the silky smooth formula and light coloured finish so I have a review of that coming up too :)

So many amazing things. I really was spoilt with this swap and I cannot express just how grateful I am for everything I received and will love using them all. There were also a selection of samples nestled in among the gifts and the package was contained in a beautiful blue box with a peacock on the lid (another of my favourite animals :D)
I am a very lucky lady!

Annie xx

26 September 2013

Having a Love Affair with Nuxe

Hello, I'm back up and running on a shiny new laptop!

If you read my blog a lot then you'll know that I am a member and admin for facebook group Beauty Box Swaps. As a little birthday treat I arranged to do a birthday box swap with one of the lovely ladies in the group and we both put together a box of equal value to post to each other. I have a post going live tomorrow about the swap showing what was in my box but for now I couldn't wait to share some love for a brand that I've not really explored before; Nuxe.
It's common knowledge in beauty blogger land that the Nuxe Huile Prodigieuse dry oil is one of the most gorgeous body products out there with its beautiful smell and ability to leave skin looking and feeling amazing but I had never really paid much attention to other products from the brand so when I received the Micellar Cleansing Water and Hand and Nail Cream in my box along with a mini dry oil and some samples I was really excited to try them out.
One small problem... I'm now hooked on both. These are honestly two of the nicest, most simple yet effective products I have ever used.

I use a cleansing water twice daily; before applying makeup, and after removing it and have previously been using Lush Tea Tree Water, however after one use of the Micellar Cleansing water I was a convert. The gentle rose scent is soothing without being overwhelming and after running a cotton pad doused in the cleanser makeup just melts away and skin is left feeling amazingly soft and refreshed. Due to a little glycerin it also feels protected and is perfect even for sensitive skin. I just cannot knock it.

I'm a bit of a hand cream hoarder. I just love the feel of freshly moisturised mitts! I was instantly impresed with this hand and nail cream because of how little I used to originally test it. I squeezed a tiny amount from the tube just to get a feel for the smell and consistency only to find that's all I needed! It spread across my hands like a dream and melted away almost instantly leaving my hands feeling soft and the skin looking plumper and more even in colour and once again there is glycerin in the lotion which helps draw the ingredients into the skin and lock them in, creating a weightless protective barrier on the skin. The smell, like other Nuxe products is soft and feminine without being sickly and reminds me of warm sunny holidays with the gentle blend of coconut, sweet almond oil, avocado and shea.

I haven't given the sample sachets a try yet as I already have other products on the go but they're already at there waiting excitedly on my dressing table tempting me to use them. I can't remember when I was last this excited about a brand and I really am looking forward to becoming addicted to other things they sell too.

Annie xx

19 September 2013

A Forced Interlude

Hiya,
Its been a while since I last managed to post. The problem being that my laptop has died and I've never been a fan of the blogger phone app (although get me using it as I write this!) So I'm left a little blogging-deviceless. In the meanwhile I am going to be tweeting and instagraming like a mad person to vent my beauty urges and thinking about a blog redesign for when I'm back up and running which should be next week.
If you want to stay in touch with what I'm currently doing and loving then my twitter and instagram links are in the side bar.
See you soon,
Annie xx

5 September 2013

L'Oreal Line of Beauty Collection Review

Ok, so #blogyoursocksoffseptember didn't get off to the best start since I didn't actually have access to the internet properly but better late than never I say! Tomorrow (6th) is my birthday sdo there might not be a post then but other than that we are back on it!

I was recently sent the gorgeous Line of Beauty collection(*) from L'Oreal to have a little play with and review and I have to say that over all I have been fairly impressed. In the collection you can buy the Blackbuster Super Liner which is a thick, felt tip style liner designed to create big, bold lines, the Perfect Slim Super Liner which is the same felt tip style liner however it is designed to create beautifully neat fine lines, the GelMatic Super Liner which has the precision of a pen liner with the intensity of a gel and finally the Super Liner Brow Artist which is a 2 in 1 brow pencil and sealing wax.


The range was designed to create bold, catwalk inspired looks, which are set to be a huge trend during autumn and winter and I can't fault it on that front. Combined, the set really does equip you to master the perfect liner looks with relatively little effort. I've been using the Blackbuster to line the eyelid and then using the Perfect Slim to create cat eye flicks and edge the lower lash line. I then finish the look using the GelMatic along the waterline which over all creates a beautifully elegant but bold eye that I love.

I'll be honest, I've had a bit of a love hate relationship with the two pen liners. The design of the liners themselves is great and the nib allows you to create very precise lines and they really are very versatile and great for creating a range of looks, however I have had a bit of a problem keeping them on and in place. I don't have any trouble with oily lids or any other liner slipping off however I find these only too happy to creep onto my cheeks, forehead and nose during the day (god knows how) and even after setting with a little translucent powder they still transfer onto the eyelid above the crease so maybe a little work on the formula is needed.

I was originally most excited about the Blackbuster liner having seen it advertised on the tv and until the set arrived I wasn't even aware that the was a brow product in the range however after spending some time using the whole collection, I have to say that the stand out product for me is actually the Gelmatic liner. I simply cannot fault it. The colour is intense and long lasting, the formula soft and creamy and I haven't found it to smudge of crease so for me it has been the perfect gel pencil and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.

So all in all, a bit of a mixed bag for me, although I do stand by the collection being a good concept, and if it was sold as a set it would make a good gift.
The products are available nationwide, and are relatively low cost so I think they're all worth a try.
Perfect Slim £6.99
Blackbuster £6.99
GelMatic £5.99
Brow Artist £5.49

Have you tried any of the range? What have you thought?
Annie xx

1 September 2013

Annie in London- Day 1

Aloha!
I'm writing this from a super comfy hotel bed in Marylebone so ima keep things pretty short and sweet but as part of my #blogyoursocksoffseptember I thought I'd show you a little of what I've been up to today :)
Most of the day was spent wandering around Covent Garden looking at the markets and shops. I was excited to finally set foot in muji and pick up a few pieces and then got way over excited to find Cyber candy and spend too much there :p
We then carried on to Knightsbridge on a pilgrimage to Harvey Nichols because my beloved Ginvera bb cream ran out and needed replacing and of course it would have been rude to not look around the whole shop and harrods as well ;p
I'll show you my buys properly when I'm home and have a computer but for now heres a little collage of photos from today.
Annie xx