High street picks 002 - pastels

Topshop

lace dress, purse, jeans, nail polish &nail polish 

New look

blouse, cropped top, jeans, bangle set & shorts

I'm really liking pastel colours at the moment, however the weather still seems a little dull yet for me to embrace these lovely bright colours. I've been after a pair of pastel coloured jeans for a while now, can't decide which colour I want, but they would look lovely with a white blouse and some wedges. New look has loads of pastel coloured clothing in at the moment, from jeans to basic tops and it's all really affordable too. Hurry up spring and summer! (oh and be warm please)

♥

Lilac

 17 woo me and elf glitter glam on accent nail

Apologies for the terrible nails and smudged polish

Literally every nail polish colour I own has been paired up with elf's glitter glam, it just really makes your nails stand out and goes with every colour possible. I've had the 17 woo me polish for a while now, and wore it all last summer and I've starting wearing it a lot lately, such a lovely lilac summery colour. 

♥

Nars wicked attraction

 Nars wicked attraction set £35 from asos 

When I first saw this set I just knew I had to get it, I've never tried any Nars products before but was desperate to try the Orgasm blush and Laguna bronzer and this set contained it along with other products. Even though the products aren't all full sized it is still great value for money considering the blush/bronzer duo alone costs around £30 and you get other good sized products in the set. 

Inside you get an Orgasm blush and Laguna bronzer duo, single eyeshadow in Fathom, larger than life lipgloss in 'spring break' and a eyeshadow base.

Top picture: left Orgasm blush and right Laguna bronzer 

Middle picture: Eye shadow in Fathom 

Swatches: left to right - Orgasm, Laguna, Fathom eye shadow and Spring break lip gloss

I am in love with the blush and bronzer duo the Orgasm blush is just the perfect golden pink shade and it looks beautiful on and the Laguna bronzer is a perfect matt bronzer. Both products look great together and seriously do last all day and I'm going to purchase the full sized products of both of these I love them that much. The eyeshadow is a gorgeous heavily pigmented glitter pink and the primer makes a great smooth base for the shadow, helping it last longer and stay in place. I like the shade of the lipgloss but really am not keen on the aplicator it's like a tiny nib and you end up having to apply the lipgloss in tiny amounts and keep going over it, it's also a little sticky so not so great for a windy day. Saying that when isn't a lipgloss sticky. The colour stays in place and even though it's a nude shade it does add colour to the lips. Overall I am really impressed with this set and it's introduced me to some Nars products and found my love for the Orgasm blush. 

♥

Wednesday wishlist 007

Playsuit, Eco tools expressions kabuki set, Nars wicked attraction set, Nars sheer glow foundation & Body shop lip roll on

I love this weeks wishlist, I'm really lusting over everything on it. My favourite items have to be the Nars wicked attraction set, which contains a orgasm and laguna duo along with an eye shaddow, eye shadow base and lip gloss. The boyfriend is buying me this today actually, so I'm very lucky and excited for this to be mine. My other favourite is the Eco tools kabuki, I love the beautiful patterns on the handles and it seems such a good set to have. I also adore the Miss Selfridge playsuit, playsuits have to be my favourite item of clothing. Hope you all had a wonderful valentines day yesterday.

♥

Valentines glossy box: a review

Products from left to right: Murad primer, FAB gentle body wash, Davines cleansing  nectar, Davines moisturisng balm, and Eyeko skinny eye liner: powder pink

Happy valentines everyone, hope your having a lovely day what ever you are doing. Decided that there would be no better day to post my January valentines glossy box review then on actual valentines. Yes it's another glossy box post I'm afraid, but I have been using all these products and wanted to post a review of them in case anyone had their eye on something and just to give my opinion.

Murad Primer
This excited me when I saw this, as I love receiving make up items. It claims to leave a dewy finish to the skin and comes out looking like a tinted moisturiser. Personally I found that it didn't leave a dewy finish at all, which didn't bother me as I don't usually go for the 'dewy look'. It left my skin soft and ready for make up.

FAB gentle body wash
Lovely body wash which lathered really well.

Davines cleaning nectar and moisturising balm
I really dislike the smell of both of these products, they smell really strong and just resembles aftershave, would of been nice if it had a nice floral scent. However you can't smell them in your hair after you have washed and dried it. I really like the products and they left my hair feeling soft, the cleanser is always lovely to have too. Both products can be used on the body but I wasn't to keen on trying this because of the strong smell and my skin can be quite sensitive.

Eyeko skinny eyeliner
This is my first Eyeko product and it is a full sized product, which is great! I received a dusty light pink shade and it has a lovely creamy texture. Personally I wouldn't wear this on my eye lid but I have used it in my tear duct to brighten the eye area and that worked great. Lovely little item for the collection.

Overall I am very happy with the glossy box, all the products are usable although I wouldn't repurchase anything but that's just because I'm always trying new things and only ever repurchase them amazing stand out products.

What are you thoughts on this box?
♥

Elf studio blush: twinkle pink

Elf studio blush in twinkle pink

Elf products have always been a bit of a hit and miss for me, there are some products which I love and are really great value for money, such as the cream eye liner and then there are some products which I'm not to sure off. This blusher is one of them, at £3.50 the price is amazing and you can't complain at that, even if you don't like the products you haven't wasted that much money. Although it would be really good if Elf had a section in a drug store, then that way we could test out products before we buy them. There must be a reason why they don't stock in stores, does anyone know?

I actually really love the colour of the blusher its a lovely light pink and as you can see from the picture it has little gold flecks in it. Now I don't mind shimmer/flecks in my blushers as it can really brighten and highlight your face. But this blusher once it's swatched no longer has them lovely sparkly gold flecks in it, they just seem to disappear and ends up looking like dry flaky skin, lovely. However when it's on your cheeks the gold just seems to come back and the 'flaky bits' are barely visible, however in certain light you can end up catching a huge gold fleck that just looks rather odd on it's own. Like you know when you get glitter on your face and you can see it in certain lights and you just can't get rid of it? Well it's very much like that.

I just really can't make up my mind if I like this product or not. I love the price and you can't complain at £3.50 for a blush. Swatched the blush looks crumbly and flaky and not appealing, but on your cheeks it's a different story and has quite a golden shimmery tone to it and often you find huge gold flecks on your face which isn't to great for me. The blusher surprisingly lasts a while, but I don't really find myself reaching for this one often. I actually prefer the cheaper Elf blushers at £1.50. Maybe this blush has allowed me to see that I prefer matt blushers or ones with shimmer rather than actual flecks of glitter.

Has anyone tried this before? What do you think?
♥

Current hair care favourites

From left to right: Dove nourishing oil care conditioner, Inecto pure coconut hair repair treatment and Organix moroccan argan oil

These are the current three products which I've been using nearly every day to keep my hair looking healthy and shiny. My favourite has to be the Dove nourishing oil care express treatment (full review here) it just leaves my hair so soft and I'll be forever repurchasing it. 

Next is the Inecto pure coconut hair repair treatment and I actually picked this up in home bargains for around £2 but noticed the other day that they are actually sold in superdrug too along with other products by them. With this product being quite cheap I thought it wouldn't do much or smell to great, but actually it's smells quite nice. This conditioner really helps to condition my ends and leave them feeling soft. The conditioner it's self has quite a strange texture, it claims to be 100% coconut oil but doesn't fully resemble an oil, it's abit like an oil mixed in with conditioner. But it does the job so it doesn't bother me, it's not like I spent a lot of money on it. I also have their glossing/shine spray and will get a full review up of that soon.

Finally is the Organix moroccan argan oil (full review here) and I've been using this everyday on wet hair to smooth out any frizz and just give it that extra shine. This product is a lot cheaper than the Moroccanoil  and is a great alternative. I think I'm still going to buy Moroccanoil as it's always been in the back of my mind, I may purchase the smaller bottle to give it a try then that way I won't be spending a lot of money on something which I could get a lot cheaper.

Using these products on my hair really help to keep it in good condition and looking healthy and they are all within a good price range, which is always a bonus. I'm currently trying out my Davines cleansing nectar and moisturising balm from my january glossy box. Will also post about that once I've used them for a little longer.

Does anyone have any recommendations of any other products I could try?

♥

Project perfect

A different type of post today, but one that I really wanted to do and that is Amy's from Flaws and all blog (click here for her blog link) 'project perfect'. The whole idea behind this is to raise peoples self esteem about themselves, as often, I am guilty of this myself, people always put themselves down and dislike things about them rather than focusing on the positives. Well Amy wants to change this and to help people to feel better about themselves and it's a lovely idea and something I certain need to do. 

Here's what you need to do...

1. Post a photo that you like of yourself and say in a couple of sentences why you like it.

2. State some things that you DON'T like yourself but say why others may love to be like that.

3. State 3 things that you DO like about yourself.

So here's my photo that I like about myself (excuse the awful webcam picture) 

The reason that I like this photo is because I like my hair in it. I have naturally curly hair, which I have a love/hate relationship with, but I think this photo shows it quite nicely.

Thing that I don't like about myself, but others do/might want
1. Like I said above, I have a funny relationship with my hair, I sometimes love that it's curly but most of the time I hate it and would much rather have straight hair. However other people and my friends say that they love my hair and wished they had naturally curly hair.

2. I really dislike my nose, I just see it as being quite big, but other people, especially the boyfriend say it's cute and not even that big. 

3. I'm quite pale and lack iron due to being a vegetarian (which doesn't help the matter) and I wish I had more colour to my skin. However pale is quite a desired natural look these days and is becoming more promoted with the likes of celebrities such as Nicola Roberts, therefore I should embrace this more!

Three things that I do like about myself

1. I actually really like my eyelashes, they are naturally quite long but with mascara they go super long and volumised.

2. I like my hazel coloured eyes. So to sum up 1 and 2, I basically like my eyes!

3. Finally I quite like my freckles, I have a few on my face and on my arms. But I especially like the tiny triangle of freckles I have on the top of my foot. A little random but true, I've literally shown everyone, well that I know. Whipping out my foot and showing my 'freckle triangle' to a complete stranger and someone I barely know would be a little strange!

So there we have it, my contribution to Amy's project perfect. I think this post really helped me to think about the positive things about myself for a change rather than what I don't like. If you fancy having a go at doing this, then go for it and just answer the same questions I did and post a link on Amy's blog (link here again) as I'm sure she would love to read it and see the involvement from others and she will also link the post to her 'project perfect' page.

♥

Sleek contour kit

I've never really contoured before yet alone use a contour kit so I was very excited when I saw and decided to give it a go. The kit comes in a lovely black elegant packaging and contains a bronzing powder and highlighting powder (pictured above).The bronzer is a matt bronzer, which is just perfect as I find matt bronzer can be quite difficult to find and it looks really nice against the shimmery highlighter. In the picture the bronzer looks quite orange, but it's really not, that's down to lovely winter lighting which I'm sure all bloggers are loving at the moment, hmm. 

If your like me and never tried contouring before then your probably thinking to yourself where do I start and what goes where. Well inside the box you get a leaflet which shows you where to put the highlighter and the bronzer which I think is very handy if your a little unsure. The kits comes in a choice of three colours, light, medium and dark. I purchased the light kit and the bronzer is perfect for my skin tone and doesn't show up to dark at all.

Only thing that I feel could be included with the kit is a brush to use, as it doesn't come with one and personally to me a kit should contain everything you need. Saying that I never usually use brushes provided in kits as they are usually too small and not that greatly produced, so this wasn't that much of a problem, although it would of been nice.

Overall this is a really good product for anyone, weather you know how to contour or not. It's cheap at around £6.50 and looks good on it's own or with a little blusher.

Have you tried contouring before, what do you use? What's your views on this kit?
♥

High street picks 001

Topshop
 jumper, playsuit, raspberry skirt, purse & contrast heals

New look
ditsy floral dress, jumper,  bangle set,  satchel  & scallop heals

Miss Selfridge 

colour block vest, green playsuit , scallop shorts , tassel handbag, green knot belt & court shoe

A bit of a different post today compared to the usual beauty ones, a post showing some of my current favourites from certain shops on the high street. Let me know if this is something you would like to see more often on here and i'd be more than happy to do more.

♥

Dove nourishing oil care express treatment

Dove nourishing oil care express conditioner

You've probably read thousands of reviews on this product, but if not read on as this has to be my new favourite hair care product of all time. I've always been into using deep conditioners on my hair, not because my hair is damaged but because it is naturally curly and quite dry and I find that conditioners alone don't help moisturise or de-frizz my hair. I've literally tried everything but since using a Moroccan argan oil on my hair I have finally discovered what my hair needs, nourishing oils.

With this in mind and having read plenty of amazing reviews I purchased the Dove nourishing oil care express treatment conditioner (mouth full). The product comes out from the bottle in two stripes, the white stripe container normal conditioner and the yellow stripe contains the treatment and together they work wonders. Your directed to use this instead of conditioner, due to the product already containing conditioner along with the treatment and leave it on for three minutes or more. The treatment/conditioner together smells beautiful and has a really thick creamy texture and literally works in three minutes so is great if your in a rush and don't have time to sit with a conditioner in your hair for twenty minutes. 

It is literally amazing, I can't stress how much I love this product and will be forever using it, every single day of my entire life. It makes my hair which is super dry and hard to manage lovely and soft. If there is one product you need in your life it is this one. Amazing. 

♥