July favourites

I could have put everything I own into this post this month, I've just been loving everything recently! Apart from the weather, that is not making it into my july favourites!

Skin care

I have been loving the balance me wonder eye cream, it literally is a wonder eye cream! It is super moisturising and I can feel it tightening the skin around my eyes! One thing I've also really being enjoying is smelling like cake. As fat as that sounds, it's true! The body shop's almond body butter leaves my skin super moisturised and smelling of cake, I can't get enough! My lips have been loving the eos balm spheres, as they are really moisturising! The packaging is amazing too!

Hair care

Just one little hair care item this month and that's the John frieda full repair perfect ends deep infusion*. This serum is really light weight and has helped to keep my hair soft, sleek and frizz free through the humidity this month! I'm going to use this a little more and pop up a full review!

Make up
Swatches, elf primer, mac creme d'nude and mac studio fix concealer in NC20

This elf primer has been used everyday since I got it, it leaves my skin so soft, a similar feel to benefits porefessional, although I wouldn't say it make a difference to my pores like the porefessional does. It helps to make my make up go on with ease and leave it in place for longer. Mac cream d'nude has been my lipstick of choice this month, I love wearing it with a brown smokey eye. I've dug out my mac studio fix concealer this month because I've been wanting the higher coverage and I've fallen in love with it again!

What products have been your favourite this month?
♥

Recently

This week, well for the whole two days it's been on I've become an Olympic addict! Usally I hate sports but there's something about it being in our country that has made it ten times more exciting! It's also made me think that the next time the Olympics are on that I will be 24 and hopefully a fully qualified teacher!

So this week my blog book fell apart, I tried to eat healthy, saw batman without seeing the other films first and got confused, I found Revlon and Stila make up for a pound in Poundland, looked after the cutest dog at the animal shelter and tried to get through my mountain of beauty samples which are building up! I start my summer job on tuesday as a nursery nurse at a holiday club at the old day nursery I used to work at! So going to be a busy and tired bunny!

Hope you have had a good week!

♥

Poundland finds

Stila SPF 30 sheer colour tinted moisturiser £1

This is my first ever Stila product because basically I haven't been able to afford them. That's why I can't get over the fact that I paid a pound for this! In the shop they only had one shade, shade light 03, which isn't to great as this is a teeny bit dark on my skin. But blended in well it does look fine and gives my skin a healthy glow and for a pound you can't complain. I'm not sure how much these were before they hit Poundland shelves, but I can imagine it was way over £1. I'll review this when I've used it fully!

Revlon sunshine sparkle £1

Lets just put it out there that Revlon nail polishes cost around £7 and I got this little beauty for £1. I've always had my eye on a yellow Revlon nail polish and I'm sure it was this one. I can't wait to wear this with my favourite white summer dress, if the sun comes out that is. It has a tiny amount of shimmer in it, which is really pretty!

So will you be dashing to Poundland?

♥

Simple eye make up remover

Simple eye make up remover

If there is one thing in life I really hate it's getting mascara on my muslin cloths, so I decided to get myself a separate make up remover to solve this problem. I've used a couple simple products before and love how gentle they are, so it didn't take me long to choose their eye make up remover. 

To use this you simply pour it over a cotton pad, hold it against your eyes and wipe away. It claims that no rubbing is needed and I completely agree, gentle sweeping several times is all that's required to remove all eye make up, even waterproof mascara. This doesn't dry out my eyes and actually if anything moisturises them. It doesn't contain any oil so is perfect for contact users too! I'm impressed with this and it only costs around £2!

♥

Lee stafford poker straight flat iron protection shine mist

Lee stafford poker straight flat iron protection shine mist

When doing a heat protection product review what more is there to say other than it protects your hair from heat? Well actually with this one I feel there is a lot to say about it. Now I've tried a lot of heat protectants and they have always left my hair feeling greasy and heavy, which often resulted in me not using them and saying hello to damaged hair.

With this one I can use it everyday on wet and dry hair as it doesn't feel like it's in my hair at all and doesn't leave that 'wet' greasy look. It contains green tea which protects the hair and prevents it from going static! It also protects the hair from UV and environmental damage! I've had this bottle for absolutely ages and use it daily and I've not even used a quarter of it yet, so it's really worth the money!

As for 'poker straight' claims I wouldn't say it makes a difference to how straight my hair becomes, however this may be because I have curly hair which refuses to stay straight for more than five minutes! Even though I use a heat protection spray I still get damaged hair from the high heat, but using this is definitely better than nothing so it's helping prevent damage to the hair, even if it's only a tiny amount! I will continue to buy this!

♥

Recently

♥ meeting a friend ♥ shesaidbeauty box ♥ elf haul ♥ running low ♥ bunny i want ♥ so not organised ♥

Recently I've not exactly been the busiest of bunnies. I'm due to start my summer job soon, so I'm sure I will feel like I took my time off for granted by then. I've started volunteering at the abandoned animal shelter near me at the weekend which has only resorted in animals being added to my wishlists! One thing exciting happened this week, I met a friend which I haven't spoke to for four years, well she was my best friend and it was lovely to see her again! I hope I get to see her more often, I've missed her. I've also just spilt a cup of tea everywhere, wonderful.

♥

Body butter love

I'm pretty much in love with anything from The Body Shop, but if there is one thing I can't get enough of it's their body butters. I adore fruity and nutty scents so when I saw these two in the sale for only £6 each I jumped at the opportunity and bought both!

It's a little hard to describe smells but oh my they both smell beautiful and the scent seriously lasts on the skin all day! The almond body butter makes me smell like cake and who doesn't want to smell like cake? They are also super moisturising and leave my skin nice and soft, although I sometimes put a little too much on which can leave my skin a little sticky, but that's my own fault! I also have the cocoa body butter which I posted about here, which was my favourite but almond has taken over! 

If these were in the sale does this mean they have been discontinued? I hope not because these won't last me long at all, I regret not stocking up!

What's your favourite body butter?

♥

Percy & Reed dry conditioner

Percy & Reed dry conditioner*

You may know that what's in my handbag do a really exciting thing known as a 'try' where you can register each week to try out beauty products completely free! Only a select few get chosen and I've entered a couple times and haven't been lucky, but this time I was selected and was sent the Percy & Reed dry conditioner.

I have never heard of Percy & Reed products before, yet alone dry shampoo so was excited to try a new brand and product! I'm a regular dry shampoo user so the concept of a dry conditioner to compliment the use of dry shampoo's made complete sense! The packaging of this product is beautiful and really stands out, but unfortunately this is the only good thing I've found about the product.

look at my poor hair :(

I look liked I've been attacked with gallons of dry shampoo, the ends of my hair look terrible. This product highlighted every spilt end possible and made my hair look and feel so dry. It completely did the opposite of what it's supposed to do which is to give hair 'healthy softness and shine'. I have dry hair and a few split ends from heat damage, but it normally looks okay and quite healthy, see here, but this stuff just made it look so damaged!

No matter how much I brushed my hair this white residue wouldn't come out until it was washed out. I'm really disappointed by this product and it's such a shame because I could imagine it would be quite a good and useful product to have! I have used this several times and the results have always been like this.

I don't like doing negative reviews, but I feel that honesty is very important on my blog, but I wanted to inform others and see if they had the same experience.

Have you tried this product? Did it work for you?

♥

Elf haul

As probably most of you may know, elf recently did a 50% discount code and it didn't take long for me to take full advantage of this offer and try some new products! Ill do reviews once I have used the products a little more.

Eyes

eye shadow in amethyst, eye shadow in charcoal, cream eyeliner & eye shadow 'c' brush

Up until about six months ago I never wore eye shadow and I think I'm making up for lost time as now I can't stop wearing it and going eye shadow crazy. I picked up two colours, a dark grey/black and a purple along with a new eye shadow brush. I also bought the studio cream eyeliner in black, which is a firm favourite of mine!

Lips

lipstick in seductive, lipstick in runway pink, lipstick in nicely nude & lip lock pencil

Just like eye shadows I've never really been a huge lipstick fan, mainly due to having really dry lips and ending up having croissant lips if I even go near lipstick. However, I've convinced myself that there are lipsticks out there that won't give me the croissant effect! Lets hope these aren't too drying and the lip lock pencil helps prolong lipstick wear!

Face

 make up mist & set, mineral infused face primer, blush in tickled pink & blush in peachy keen

I had a bad relationship with a studio blush once, so I wanted to put this all behind me and try out some more, even blushers deserve a second chance right? Due to having oily skin I prefer to set my make up with powder, but this instantly takes away the dewy finish of my foundations, so I bought the makeup mist and set to set my make up in a different way. So far I've sprayed this in my hair and eyes, missed my face completely and drowned myself in it, which made my make up melt away. Less is more Kelly.


Did you take advance of this amazing offer?
♥

EOS balm spheres

EOS balm sphere duo set: strawberry sorbet and passion fruit

Before I start talking about the product, lets get the most exciting thing out of the way first, the packaging. Never in my life have I seen such fascinating and funky packing on a lipbalm. They remind me of little easter eggs, I seriously love looking into my handbag and seeing these guys sat there all colourful and pretty. 

I couldn't decide which lip balm to get, so I decided to treat myself and buy the strawberry sorbet and passion fruit duo for £12. What I like about the spheres is the hygienic application, as you don't have to stick your fingers into a pot to get the product out, you just simple twist off the lid and apply straight to the lips.

To be completely honest I was expecting a lot more scent wise as the product has a very subtle smell of which ever flavour. However, I've decided that this is a good thing as it isn't too over powering, making you want to take it off straight away. The formula of the product is just beautiful, it's very smooth and quite creamy, but it's not thick or sticky. The balm applys clear and doesn't leave a shiny/glossy finish.

Once applied my lips feel instantly smooth and moisturised and this feeling seriously lasts a good hour or two. These are really comfortable to wear and are highly addictive which is probably why my lips have been so smooth. These two balms in particular don't contain any medical ingredients which could help repair sore or chapped lips. However, Holly from Holly Arabella made me aware that the medicated tangerine one does along with anti-bacterial properties!

I am really impressed with these balms, the packing is amazing, the product it self is really moisturising and long lasting and they have a wide choice of scents . I'm considering buying a lot more!

♥

Heaven & earth vs undressed

Ever since I bought my heaven and earth palette I have been in love with the quality, price and pigment of the eye shadows. When I started to see little reviews of a newbie in town, the undressed palette, I just knew I had to get it!

Both palettes costs the same price at just a tiny £4, contain twelve eye shadows and are both neutral nude palettes. However there are some differences between the two.

heaven and earth                                                                     undressed

The heaven and earth palette is a much more warmer palette, whereas undressed is much more cooler toned. Undressed consists of 9 shimmer shades and 3 matt shades, whereas heaven and earth is purely all shimmer shades.

What stood out to me the most about the undressed palette is the two blue toned shadows which compliment each other really well. Another thing which made me see these two palettes as completely different is the rosey gold toned shadows in the undressed palette.

As you can see from the swatches all of the heaven and earth palette is super pigmented. However, I've found with undressed that the matt shades (shades 1, 3 and 5) aren't that pigmented, especially shade 1. However, the shimmer shades are really pigmented 


Overall I think both palettes contain some similarities but mainly are quite different from each other. I guess it's up to you what you think about the two palettes, but I love them equally and shades from each palette can be mixed and matched however you choose!
♥

Body shop 'love your body' loyalty card

I don't know about anyone else but it's new to me that the body shop actually have a member card and I recently purchased one and ever since have been amazed with the discounts, offers and freebies it has given me that I wanted to share it with you guys.

The love your body card costs just £5 for a years membership and can be bought in store and online. Once you purchase it you automatically become a member and straight away can start enjoying the benefits of this card.

The best thing about this card is the amount of benefits that you actually receive.

♥  10% off all purchases both in store and online  ♥

♥  two free gifts totalling £15 on your 4th and 8th stamp  ♥

♥  a free gift in the month of your birthday worth £5  ♥

♥  exclusive discounts on certain products for members only  ♥

Whenever you purchase something in store or online you get the 10% discount. In store you collect stamps every time you purchase something over £10 and on your 4th stamp you can get a free gift worth £5 and on your 8th stamp you can get a free gift worth £10. Unfortunately the stamps can not be obtained through online shopping, only in store.

When I signed up for the love your body card I received a free full sized earth lovers shower gel worth the value of £5, which then made the card worth the money without even using it! However, I'm not too sure if all stores or online provide you with a free gift for joining.

I honestly think this card is totally worth the money, straight away I made back my money with the free gift for joining and then throughout the year the total in free gifts is £20 and on top of that you can get 10% off purchases! Amazing!

Disclaimer: I was not asked or paid to write this post, I just wanted to share something I think is amazing & such good value!

 ♥

Wednesday wish list 015

lace bow peplum top, nuxe lip balm, origins eye doctor & stila convertible colour in gerbera

First things first, where is summer? All this rain is making me spend lots of money shopping indoors instead of being outdoors enjoying the sunshine we should be having. Apparently I'm on a spending  ban (set by myself) but clearly this hasn't stopped me wanting everything or even buying anything, opps.  I really like peplum tops and blouses and this topshop one is really pretty and has bows on the back, it's beautiful. My constant battle with dry lips needs to come to an end, I'm hoping the nuxe lip balm will do the trick. My eyes have been so dehydrated recently and I've been recommended eye doctor, fingers crossed it works! I've been lusting over the stila convertible colours for ages, I want them all, the packing is so pretty and I love how it matches the product colour.

♥

Origins ginzing eye cream

Origins ginzing eye cream

I don't know why but a couple months back I thought I need to start using eye cream to protect and moisturise my eye area, as this is something I never done before. I decided to try origins ginzing eye cream as this claimed to help tired, puffy eyes with those lovely dark circles look brighter, less puffy and appear more awake. This is quite a big claim but I can definitely say it does the job well.

Ginzing is a thick cream with little scent which is suitable for all skin types. Once applied my eye area I instantly look more radiant and awake and within a couple of minutes my puffy eyes are much more calmer. I wouldn't say that the difference in dark circles is dramatic, but they do appear less dark though. The cream is really moisturising too and doesn't irritate my sensitive eyes.

Would I buy it again?

I would buy this again, but the £21 price tag is a little expensive and I now need a new eye cream which has more moisturising and firming properties rather than brightening.

♥

June favourites

Dermalogica clean start kit -  I got this in my june glossy box and this is so suited to my skin type. The cleanser foams up really well and leaves my face so clean and refreshed. The moisturiser is a matt moisturiser and really helps to control my oily skin, the smell of it though is not so great, very medical.

Noble isle summer rising bath and shower gel - Another glossy box item which I love. Shame that it costs £20 full sized, no chance ill be paying that price for a bubble bath. But it smells lovely and is so luxurious and relaxing.

Manuka doctor  repairing skin cream - Posted about my love for this here. I've really enjoyed using this and the results are amazing, my skin is much smoother, clearer and my scars have been reduced dramatically.

Uniq one hair treatment - Surprise, surprise another glossy box product that I've loved this month. My hair is a nightmare, it's dry, damaged, frizzy, tangled and generally a pain, but this hair product has been working wonders. It has ten hair benefits including heat protection, split end prevention and frizz control to name just a few and it just leaves my hair super soft and happy! This will be bought full sized for sure!

My face cosmetics, my mix foundation - I had to buy this after reading Corrie's glowing review of this foundation. The colour is just perfect for me, it leaves a lovely dewy, but not too dewy finish and best of all it lasts hours and hours, something which I really look for in a foundation.

The white company noir perfume - This along with viva la juicy has to be my all time favourite perfume. I've worn it a lot this month and it made me remember how lovely it actually is, I think they may not sell it anymore :(

♥