Thursday 30 December 2010

Review: Pink Makeup Set by Red Herring at Debenhams


Palette once open

This is a gorgeous find at such a ridiculously low price! It is a makeup set available in both pink and black leather-like covers, and is shaped like a small diary. You can buy it from Debenhams usually for £5, but in their Christmas sale it is now only £3.75! I bought mine with 10% off so I think it was £4.50, which I think is still a low price for the amount of product available in the book.


Front of palette


It has 28 eyeshadows of various colours and pigmentation and 20 lip colours of which I don't think any are lipsticks, only glosses.In the set you also receive 2 double ended brushes, one of which has a sponge applicator and an eyeshadow brush and the other has a lip brush and an eyeshadow brush. Unfortunately the brushes are absolutely rubbish in my opinion, the hairs are constantly falling off, every time I've tried to swatch them on my hands at least, and they aren't very soft. This is all aside from the sponge applicator because it is a standard sponge applicator. However, I wouldn't expect to receive fantastic, high quality brushes due to the price of the kit.


Eyeshadows and Brushes

The shades of the lipglosses and eyeshadows are very varied; for the eyeshadows, they range from dark blackish colours, to browns, to blues, greens, pinks and purples and a single deep pink eyeshadow is also available. Some of the colours are very sheer which becomes annoying as you have to keep layering them on. The shadows are quite soft and for the pigmented shades the colour looks very opaque and pretty. There are shimmery shades, matte shades and I think a few frosted shades too. The colours which really stand out are the darker colours in this palette and my favourite ones are the deep black/grey and lilac on the top row, the gold/brown one in the 3rd row and the blue based grey shimmery one on the 4th row. They all come out very opaque and clear without a primer!


Lipglosses and Mirror

For the lipglosses, a spectrum of different shades again is available, there are sheer glittery glosses, deep opaque matte colours and shimmery opaque glosses. However on the lips none of the shades wear opaque but the colour difference is certainly noticeable. It also comes with a little mirror at the top of the glosses side which is a handy addition to the palette. There is also an "oily" - for want of a better word, smell to the glosses which I don't particularly like.

I think this palette will allow you to recreate a lot of looks for a very little price, but you'll need to experiment and swatch the different shades before placing them on your lips or eyes as part of a look.

The things I love about this palette are, the handy design, very small, so can fit into your purse, it has a fastener, so the shades do not cause a mess and the various shades available to create the looks. Shades present in the palette will allow you to create summer, winter, daytime and evening looks.

Overall I give this palette a 7/10 because of the value of products given in this palette, and I would recommend it as a small stocking filler (for next year obviously!) Or as a tiny gift to a young teenager as they would probably like to play around with the colours. I think it would also be nice if you are looking for something cheap that you can travel with and create quick looks.

Thank you for reading!

Back of palette

Thursday 16 December 2010

Top 5 Skincare Winter Essentials

Hi there,

With all the cold and miserable weather, we certainly need richer and more moisturising products than usual, here are my top 5 skincare items for the winter. It is in no particular order.

1) Handcream! - This is most definitely required many times a day by myself and is vital for keeping your hands comfortable, without it they start to feel very tight and dry as the winter takes all the goodness out of them! I like Soap & Glory's Hand Food, £4.75 at Boots

2) Moisturiser -  this is for night and day, a thicker moisturiser to make sure that your face and neck are getting all the moisture they need, preventing tight, dry skin and dull skin. I find my skin gets a lot duller and paler in the winter and am yet to find a moisturiser that fixes that unfortunately, but for the moment I do like Organic Surge Overnight Sensation Night Cream, which has a rich consistency - however I dislike the rosy/flowery smell...£7.99 at Boots

3) Body Moisturiser! - A must! Dry, flaky skin is unattractive and very uncomfortable, I get itchy and yucky when I'm standing next to the radiators trying to keep warm, my favourite at the moment is Strawberry Body Butter, £5-£12.50 at The Body Shop, keeps you moisturised and smelling A-mazing!

4) Lip balm - another vital item to carry around with you, preventing dry cracked lips, my favourite at the moment are the Carmex lip balms, in a handy tube so your hands don't get covered in it, available at many retailers for £2.59 at Boots

5) Lip Scrub - I hadn't ever used lip scrub before and after reccomendations of Lush's I am now addicted to Sweet Lips Lip Scrub for £4.50

And make sure you keep wrapped up warm and take care of yourself in the miserable weather!

Thank you for reading! :)

Review: Bourjois Une Seconde Nail Enamel (One Second Nail Polish)

These nail polishes and colours are amazing! I had to talk about them on here! Unfortunately I haven't been able to swatch them and I really want to get lots of posting done before the year is over!

Availability: Boots, Superdrug
Price: £5.99
Colours/Types: many!


Shades, L to R, 2, 9, 8
The nail polishes aren't named properly, they have just been given numbers, even though they are absolutely amazing. They claim to dry within a minute or just over and they do! This is shocking news for me because I always manage to get fingerprints on mine regardless of how many claims the companies make about drying quickly.

The flat brush is very innovative and very helpful during application of the nail polish - something I wish all brands would use, it becomes very easy to cover the entire nail in a few strokes and it is an efficient way to save time and yet look pampered.

I also like the packaging and the bottle shape, I think it allows the polishes to stand out from other brands. The colours are all very vivid with just one coat - which again is a pleasant surprise, do not chip for at least a week on me - without any top coat, and of course dry quickly. The texture of the formula itself I find to be nice too, as I don't find it to be heavy or too sticky as I have found with other nail polishes.

Overall I love these nail polishes and wish there were more colours and more brands adapting to the shape of the brush, formula and the quick drying time!

These are most definitely my favourite nail polishes, and at the moment Bourjois are 3 for 2 at Boots! And possibly Superdrug too if I'm correct...

Please do not hesitate to comment below with any questions or comments in general! Thank for reading as always,

Nav x

Tuesday 7 December 2010

Review: Hand Food - Soap & Glory Hand Food Hand Cream

YAY for this hand cream! Its smooth, quick-drying, non-sticky formula has certainly won me over! It retails at £4.75 for 125ml or £2.30 for 50ml, and is available at Boots.

You only need a very tiny bit and it is enough for both hands, keeps them moisturised for about 4-6hrs if you don't have much manual work to do otherwise apply frequently. During school days it lasted me about 4hrs without the need to reapply, but I love the smell so much so I used to anyway!

It contains gorgeous macadamia oil which softens and moisturises hands very efficiently, I love the packaging and the strange quotes and general feel about Soap & Glory, I've also read many interviews with the founder of this brand (and of Bliss) - Marcia Kilgore, a very smart woman who regularly gives skincare tips to magazines and so on.

Overall I love this cream and many more Soap & Glory products, I don't feel there is much more to say...In terms of comparisons, I much prefer this hand cream to Neutrogena's that I recently reviewed due to the creamy consistently of this one, the other in comparison is similar to petroleum jelly now! But I do like that hand cream too.

Thank you for reading!

Monday 6 December 2010

The Beauty Rant: Fake Adverts

Welcome to my new feature on this blog - The Beauty Rant, where I will talk about any products I find to be terrible or any problems I have with anything to do with beauty!

I'd like to talk about fake advertisements, I don't mean spoofs or anything, but brands that advertise their products using fake items and making models look x1000 better by editing in post-production, It does not give a true picture of the product or how it will look when applied, and is very misleading. This could result in disappointment for many people that do buy and try the product, and of course you cannot and shouldn't return beauty products once used as it's very unhygienic.

A typical example of this is mascara. Mascara on television and posters seems to be advertised using fake eyelashes and enhancing in post-production. I see why companies do this - to entice the customer into thinking that their eyelashes will look exactly the same as the woman on TV, which of course is completely untrue as we know thanks to the minuscule, nearly impossible to read writing on the bottom of the screen.

I'd like to think that products are so good that editing or fake eyelashes would not be required, but evidently they're not.

This is just something that has annoyed me for a very long time now and I'd love to know your opinion about  this, especially if you disagree with me, I'd love to learn why.

Thank you for reading,

Nav x

Friday 3 December 2010

Giveaway Update

Hi there,

Just a quick update with regards to the giveaway on this blog, I've decided to postphone it until I have a higher number of subscribers or followers because I don't feel it will be fair as I only have 5 - albeit my treasured 5 subscribers.

I will make the giveaway worth the wait though!

Nav x

Thursday 2 December 2010

New Makeup Launch! : Accessorize

I'm very sorry for the delay in this post but I'm still very excited about it as I still haven't had the chance to try all this out!

This is Accessorize's new makeup range, which has been available since September, I've posted pictures below from Accessorize themselves, please let me know if you have tried any products in particular that you absolutely love now or cannot live without!








Thank you for checking out my post! :) nav x

A HUGE HAUL

Hi everyone! :)

Today I'm going to broadcast everything I've bought that's beauty or makeup related thanks to encouragement from my lovely friend @paige_borda!

Please note, I have bought a lot of items and all that I've bought will be the majority of my makeup collection - as I didn't own very much, and I don't intend to buy anything more (apart from a few lipliners/lipsticks, lip brush, liquid eyeliner and blush!) Then I won't be buying more products until these finish because I already feel I've spent way too much!

I hope you enjoy viewing my blog-haul and I will try and provide as much detail as I can for each item, and hopefully in the near future I will review most if not all of these items for you :)


Urban Decay's original primer potions :)

The palette I have lusted for for way too long!

A very cheap body lotion from Boots, works perfectly though :)
Bobbi Brown's Longwear Gel Eyeliner in Ivy Shimmer Ink - a very beautiful colour that you can just about see in the picture, and I cannot wait to use this! It has tiny bits of shimmer in it too, which make it so pretty!

Bobbi Brown's Metallic Longwear Cream Shadow in Antique Gold - this looks very pretty in real life and I don't think I'd use other shadows with it, a very simple evening look can be done with this I think, layer this on, add eyeliner of choice, brown would probably go best and you're good to go!

Another Bobbi Brown item! It's her creamy lipstick in Rose Brown - I think a very pretty nude colour, that could be worn both day and night

Bobbi Brown's Metallic Longwear Cream Shadow in Chrome Patina - again for evening wear I think, but you could use lots of complementing colours with this bright bold silver and create a gorgeous look!
Bobbi's famous award-winning eyeliner in Black ink!
Mac's Liquid Eyeliner in Boot Black
My gorgeous brushes! By MAC obviously! From top to bottom - 217, 239, 219, 266, 242, 116
17 Cosmetics single eyeshadows, all very pretty colours I picked up quite randomly at Boots!
A slightly used 17 eye trio! Very wearable colours, day and night, brilliant combination and I wear them very often!
17's starry eyes trios especially for the holidays! :D
Lancome's quad of eyeshadows, I bought this because I don't have any smoky eye colours and want to practice and maybe do a smokey eye seeing as I am a moody teenager and all that ;)
These are Lancome's Juicy Tubes! In minature, I bought these in a gift set, they all look great :)
This bunch of items are again all from Lancome, I bought them in part of gift sets too, mini makeup-removers and khol pencils and their Hypnose Mascaras!
I got these as part of the larger set I bought, so an eyelash curler and 2 of Lancome's skincare products
I recieved a free cleanser and I bought the makeup remover within the set :D
OPI Lincoln Park After Dark
I'm sorry for the lack of detail in this, I bought lots of things and I forget prices and the sets that they were in! If you do want to ask something in particular please leave a comment below and I will get back to you with the correct answer, probably from a reciept somewhere!

Thank you for viewing my haul and sorry for the 2 used brushes and my eyeshadow trio I also used!

Please leave a comment below if you are already the owner of one of these items and let me know how they treat you!

Nav x

Sunday 7 November 2010

Sorry for the Lack of Posts :(

Hi all,

I'd just like to apologise for my random dissapearance over the past few months :( I've been incredibly busy and actually unable to try anything beauty let alone write about it! Which is upsetting, but instead of boring you with my life story, I'd like to say that I'm going to make a time where I can definitely post regularly as it's something I enjoy very much :)

Sorry again :( nav x

Wednesday 8 September 2010

Beauty to Watch: September 2010 Follow-Up

Hey guys!

I was wondering if anyone has bought or tried any of the products mentioned in Beauty to Watch: September 2010. If so, please comment and let me know! I'd be interested to find out what your opinions of the products are too...

Thank you for reading!

Nav x

Saturday 4 September 2010

Review: "Honey I Washed The Kids"...

This is a VERY popular hand and body soap by Lush. Named intelligently with a pun, it describes the soap perfectly.

As I'm sure you've gathered by now, Lush is a reputable retailer of gorgeous smelling bathtime products. This soap is of no exception and is most definitely a favourite of mine. It costs £2.95/100g or $7.95/3.5oz which I think is reasonable enough. It resembles honeycomb which is cute!

The soap itself can be of any size you choose, you will need to ask the shop assistants or just pick up a package that they've already wrapped. (Please note this can vary the price due to weight of product). It smells of honey and toffee, pleasant and not too strong to overwhelm the senses. It lathers up well and is like any other soap - apart from all the amazing, natural ingredients and the smell. I guess not like any other soap then!

The vital ingredients making it a lovely soap are:

- honey water
- rapeseed oil
- coconut oil
- beeswax
- sweet wild orange oil
- bergamot oil
- aloe vera extract
- gardenia extract

While bathing with this soap the skin does not dry out, even after your bath/shower. I think the reason behind this is the number of oils adding moisture to your skin and protecting it from dehydration. The smell of the soap is also lovely and remains on you for the majority of the day. Smelling of honey and toffee I do think is attractive... It also fulfils the purpose of a soap - to clean! Very well as I always feel very cleansed and fresh after using it.

Please leave a comment telling me about your favourite Lush product and why, I'd love to know!

Thank you for reading x

Friday 3 September 2010

GIVEAWAY! Coming soon...

Hi everyone,

I plan on having a giveaway very soon! I'm not sure of what exactly but I have a few posts planned and maybe the items in one of those posts,

If you do have any ideas please do comment and let me know.

RULES:

1) Only open to followers
2) Open internationally
3) To enter you must be 18+
4) Winner will be chosen by random.org (I will assign a number to each comment/follow etc)

How to Win:

You may leave a comment on this post or the following post related to this giveaway. You may leave as many as you like and each will be an individual entry, if you follow me on twitter that can also be a bonus entry but please leave me a tweet saying you're following me by Beauty Blogging Away so that I can count your entry.

The prize will be bought with my own money and I will discuss the shipping with the winner via email.

If you have won, I will create a post so keep checking back.

The giveaway is open for 2 weeks from the next post relating to this, once I have an idea of what the prize will be!

Review - Seaweed in a Skincare Range: The Body Shop Seaweed Skincare Range

I have been using this range now for 2 years or more, it's formulated for combination skin and works fantastically for my skin. Combination skin is dry on the cheeks and oily in the T-zone. I've found this range consisting of quite a few items to be very helpful for my skin.
My morning routine:

1) Seaweed Cleansing Facial Wash - This is a light creamy gel face wash which helps to remove all traces of makeup and other impurities found on your skin

2) Seaweed Clarifying Toner - This toner is amazing because once I've used it, I can see all the extra yucky stuff that it's pulled off of my skin on the cotton pad - it really cleans deep

3) Seaweed Pore Perfector - I cannot emphasise how incredibly accurate the description in the title of this product is, once used the difference in the size of your pores is immediately visible. They seem smaller and less visible to the naked eye, your skin is smoothed out and prepared for your moisturiser.

4) Seaweed Mattifying Moisture Lotion SPF15 OR Seaweed Mattifying Day Cream - I switch between these 2 items depending on whether the sun's out or not - even though I know I should use SPF all the time! The moisturisers both work fantastically, smoothing out my skin and I do think after prolonged use I have noticed a difference with my blemishes, but unfortunately they haven't completely gone yet!

There is also a cleanser available, but I like to wash with water and not just place the cleanser on my face!

Night Routine:

1) Seaweed Pore-Cleansing Facial Exfoliator - This is a great exfoliator, effective and yet mild enough for use everyday. It is recommended that you use it once or twice a week, but it really clears my skin and leaves it feeling so soft that I use it every night. I think this and the pore perfector are my favourites out of the entire range.

2) Seaweed Clarifying Toner

3) Seaweed Pore Perfector

4) Seaweed Clarifying Night Treatment - This treatment is a creamy gel which goes on a treat after the pore pefector, when I wake up in the morning, my face looks very oily but the blemishes seem to be lesser in appearance.

A complimentary treatment that I use is the Seaweed Ionic Clay Mask. This is a very strange product because I can actually feel my skin tightening and similar to that of a vacuum cleaning each and every pore or skin cell present on my face.

The only issue that I hold with this range is that in trying to balance my skin (combination skin type is the most difficult to cater for) is that during the day, only very recently my skin has started to become oily in the T-zone in the afternoon, at around the 4pm mark, making it a neccessity to use blotting paper. However I do think that this could mean that my skin has gotten too used to the range and I need to challenge it with a new range...

Either way I do feel this is a brilliant range for combination skin and it has worked for me for a very long time. The products are slightly more expensive in comparison to the average drugstore brand but worth it because they all last for a very long time too.

Please leave a comment telling me which skin type you are and which routine you are currently using and if it's been of any use, I'd love to know!

Thanks for reading :)

Tuesday 31 August 2010

Review - Yummy Strawberries: The Body Shop Strawberry Body Butter

This yummy butter has been in my body butter/cream collection since forever. It is truly amazing, on several occasions  I've had people wondering where that gorgeous smell of strawberries is coming from, and it's been me! :)

It costs £12.50 for 200ml at The Body Shop and currently they have an offer of "2 for £15" which means you save £10! If you are a member of their loyalty card club then that's another 10% off which is even better.

The colour of the butter itself is a lovely baby pink and the consistency is quite thick, once on your arm/leg/wherever it melts in smoothly as you rub it in. The smell is yummy - as mentioned before...and you smell like strawberries all day long. Although the concentration levels of the smell do decrease gradually throughout the day...It contains strawberry seed oil, cocoa and shea butter, increasing it's moisturising properties. The Body Shop say that it's for normal skin, but I think it'd be fine for dry skin or any other skin type too!

I'd like to share an experience where I've been the "smell of the ball"! I went out camping with my friends close to the countryside, as you know the hygiene facilities are disgusting and vile, so of course they were avoided at all costs. We were hiking along and someone spotted a much better set of showers and we all had a ball actually cleaning ourselves properly in maybe 2/3days. We then reached back to the campsite and as we were training for an award the examiner decided that we had visited a hotel because he could smell a strong strawberry scent! I then had to explain the reason I smelt the best - the body butter of course, and he was very hesistant to believe my story...although I did eventually get my award! Even though this little anecdote doesn't allow you to fully understand the amazing-ness of this butter, I highly recommend for you to try it out! :)

I don't really know what else to say about this butter, it's just amazing and definitely one of my many favourites. I want to venture out and try different flavours of it but I love this one too much!

Thank you so much for reading this post!

Beauty to Watch: September 2010

Hi!

Welcome to this feature of my blog which I will post at the beginning of each month, letting you know about 10 products I will (and you should! - if you want...) watch out for in the month of...and for this month it's September. It's not in any particular order of preference though!

1) Benefit's POREfessional pore minimiser

This is something I came across a while back online but didn't realise it would be out so soon, it is actually already available at Debenhams for £23.50, (but not yet at Boots).

WHAT IS IT?

Benefit have described this to be "A translucent, lightweight, silky primer that diffuses the appearance of pores and fine lines for an 'airbrushed' finish."

It can be used as a pore primer before makeup and for light touch-ups which should be handy. I have yet to buy and try this so cannot say whether it is worth trying or not.

2), 3), 4), 5) Revlon's Autumn Winter Range

OK so this is 4 different products that I think look interesting and I haven't rolled them into 1 otherwise I would be talking about 10 different ranges!
Eyeshadow quad in 'Silver Fox' £7.99 each
Revlon Superlustrous/Matte Lipsticks, £7.29 each

Nail enamel in 'Berry' and 'Emerald' £6.29 each

This isn't the entire range but a reasonable "swatch" of it, and it is available at Boots from now! I can't wait to try out the nail enamels...at the moment Boots have a "2 for £8" on the nail enamels and "2 for £12" on the eyeshadow quads and other selected Revlon. An even better reason to buy and try!

6) No7 Autumn Limited Edition Eye Palette

This is definitely a bold step from Boots, considering that this is an Autumn palette. With the weather becoming more and more dreary and miserable everyday, No7 have launched a "bright" eyeshadow palette.
From top left clockwise, "purple haze", "red lead", "chrome green" and "indigo blue".

Packaged in a lovely snakeskin textured compact
I think this is a very interesting launch as typically one would associate such vivid colours with summer, available only at Boots for a reasonable £10.50, equating to about £2.63 per shadow. Boots claim the shadows are very pigmented and soft so should be worth a buy.

7) Lady Million by Paco Rabanne



A new perfume by succeeding "One Million" for the man, now Paco Rabanne releases one for the woman.

8) Guilty by Gucci



A very seductive, sensual scent by Gucci for the woman...

9) Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion in a TUBE!
Urban Decay have finally heard all their fans and put the primer potion in a tube. Yippee! :)
This equates to 150% of product and is available on their website.

10) Origins Zero Oil Anti-Blemish Range
This is the new range from Origins to help clear up blemishes and oily skin. Origins is known for its use of natural ingredients over synthetic ones or chemicals. I haven't tried this range yet, but would like to sometime in the future. Its selling point is that it does not contain any oil and is available at Boots.


That's all for this month and I hope you enjoyed reading this feature, I'm very excited about it and I hope it has been of some use to you. Please leave a comment if you have tried any of these products or even if you haven't!

And as always, thank you for reading!

Review: Glittery Bubbly "Sunny Side"

I think I've found the most amazing bubble bar ever...or even bubble bath ever! (For the moment at least) It's called "Sunny Side" and it's from Lush.

It costs £3.30 in the UK and $6.95 in the US, which isn't too bad but there are many more cheaper products available in other retailers. But aside from the price, I do think this bubble bar is amazing! It smells lovely, obviously I won't be able to send the smell virtually (even though I can't wait for that day...) and I don't think it's worth describing it as who knows what I'll come up with! But I'll tell you what's in it so maybe you'll have a rough idea but I do think all noses will love the smell.

OK FINE! Basically it's a citrus smell...I tried to make it sound more incredible but yep, citrus smell. Everyone will still love it though! :)

It is a round, golden soap-like "bar" with lots of edible glitter on it - but don't eat it...

So it has the following ingredients in it, which make it even more gorgeous;
  • Sweet Wild Orange Oil
  • Lemon Oil
  • Tangerine Oil
All of these oils make the bath more moisturising but to be honest I don't think any bath/shower is very moisturising unless you're bathing with an oil/cream in it's natural form.

You place the bar underneath a running tap and crumble it with your hands, it feels very smooth and I enjoyed playing with it because it was so soft! It breaks and forms bubbles, bubbles and more bubbles. After you have the amount of water and bubbles you want, stand back to look at the water and it will have become golden and glittery. I thought this looked truly magical and couldn't wait to jump in!

The bubbles last for a very long time but bathing for as long as the bubbles last will transform you into a mermaid - fully.

It's an amazing, rich, gorgeously scented bubble bar and not just for bathing - I kept it in my wardrobe for fragrancing and even though I've used it now my wardrobe still smells of it.

I definitely recommend this bar, and I can almost guarantee everyone will love it.

Thank you for reading!

Saturday 28 August 2010

My August Favourites!

I thought I'd do a favourites blog because I love watching them on youtube! I'd also like to add that this will become a monthly feature on my blog and I hope you enjoy reading it :)

This month I have only had very few favourites because I haven't tried many new products that I absolutely love...I  also stopped taking care of myself for a period of time because I had the "I just cannot be bothered" phase...but don't worry I'm back to my usual self now!

1) Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in "Yeyo"
The reason I love love love this is because of the ease of application, the gorgeous colour, the simple-ness but fantastic effective qualities of the pencil. It's a shimmery white colour and looks very flattering on the eyes. I use it alone, I use it as an inner corner highlight, as a base, as an eyeshadow, on the entire waterline, only on the lashline, you name the use and I use it! £11 from Debenhams/Boots

2) Bourjois Kohl & Contour Eye Pencil in "Blue Virtuose"

This is an amazing shade of eyeliner especially on the lash line, however on the waterline it looks very similar to black unless you go over it about 4 times, which I don't want to do on my waterline all the time as it can cause infections and is very harsh for such as sensitive area of the eye. It is in my favourites because it's such a pretty colour and looks lovely on the eyes. £4.29 at Boots/Superdrug

3) Bobbi Brown blush in "Plum"

To read my post on this blush please Click Here

To be honest those are the 3 products I have used most this month and that I think are so lovely! :)

Thank you for reading!

(N.B I don't mention all retailers of prooducts because I'm not 100% sure if some stores sell them, as sometimes they are not listed on the internet)

Review: Gel or Cream?...Handcream?

This post is going to be about a confusing handcream, changing texture from a gel to a cream and then disappearing into your hands! The Neutrogena Norwegian Formula Handcream.

The feel of the handcream is that of "Vaseline" (an oily gel-like substance) and once rubbed together between hands changes into a cream. This then disappears very soon after another "rubbing" of hands and the effects are felt long after.

It retails for £3.49, and I got mine by using my advantage card points at Boots so was very happy with my "points purchase"! I must say it's very sad to watch the points go though...

Anyway, I think this handcream is a definite for dry hands as the effect lasts for a very long time, and over about a month I've noticed a softer feel on my hands and a lesser need to use it, however I still do try to use it often so the routine keeps going.

Overall I do think you should try it, and if you don't like it pass it on to one of your friends/family to try, it's a cheap product, works well, if you find you dislike it, move it on!

Thank you for reading my quick review :)

Wednesday 25 August 2010

Review: Bobbi Brown Blush in "Plum" (05)

Hi! :)

This award-winning blush is by far my favourite at the moment, Bobbi Brown's in the plum shade! It's very pigmented and soft to touch (like the shadows) and also most importantly for me easy to apply and a lovely colour. If you wear moisturiser before your makeup goes on, the blush blends into the skin really well. Depending on how dark you want to wear the colour, you can control the sheer-ness or deepen the colour quite easily; as this is quite a bold vibrant colour I chose to keep mine sheer for fear of being classified a clown!

The packaging is very much the same as all of the other shadows and blushes in the Bobbi Brown range, very sleek looking and slim so fits in easily into your travel makeup bag and into your larger home collection too. The Bobbi Brown blushes are slightly more expensive than the shadows retailing at £16.50 in the UK, and $22 in the US. I would definitely recommend this blush as I have no complaints and I think it is a blush that will work with every skin tone, fair to dark, and you control how deep you'd like the colour to be so no issues there either!

I'm sorry if my reviews are short, and if there's anything you'd like me to talk about more, please comment and let me know.

Overall I think this blush is a must-have for all, but don't hold me to it if you don't like it! (I'm 99.9999% sure you will!)

Thank you for reading,

nav x

Tuesday 24 August 2010

Review: Bobbi Brown eyeshadow in "Flint" (59)

Definitely a neutral brown colour and not as the website describes "a light grey brown", although you could say grey-brown, most definitely not a light colour! Retailing at £14.50 in the UK and $20 in the US it is most definitely over my regular make-up budget even if slightly.

The colour itself is a typical neutral colour, a regular shade of brown really, as you can see in the many pictures I've added. I tried swatching it on my fingertip then my hand but the colour didn't seem to show up very well in the pictures unfortunately. I've used it as a base eyeshadow and for the outer corner of my eye, and for those applications I've found it to work very well. I applied it with my fingertip and it seems to come off onto the eye well and stays put even without an eyeshadow primer. It didn't crease or become heavy on the eye and is pigmented enough for it to be very smooth on the eye as well as showing the colour well. This was one of my first purchases of Bobbi Brown makeup and I have to say I'm impressed.

I think this is a great basic eyeshadow to have and will come in handy for the autumn/winter months, unfortunately I can't offer a Mac dupe because I'm not familiar with their shadows as much!

Thank you for reading :)