30 July 2014

The Rimmel London Natural Bronzer

Hiya there everyone, i feel like i haven't written a blog post in forever, work and life have just caught up with me a bit and I've been enjoying it too much to sit down and write down my feelings. 

In my most recent haul I picked up a few bits and bobs as a lot of my makeup was running out and this happened to come free when you spent a certain amount on Rimmel cosmetics. I’m a bit wary when it comes to bronzers as I’ve seen far too many people just looking muddy and dark and I worry about that happening to me.  I used my RT Blush Brush to apply this and swirled it around the pan lightly to ensure I didn’t pick too much powder, I then applied it and built it up and necessary as the colour payoff is rather low but looks very natural. For darker skin tones it is very buildable and I can see this working for more or less everyone.

The packaging for this is the same as most of Rimmels pressed powders and is pretty naf and flimsy. I’m quite worried about travelling with this as I feel like the lid is just going to slip off and I’ll end up with powder all over my makeup bag. Call me sad, but I have actually attached a piece of tape to one side so it’s less likely to fall off. However I have pretty much fallen in love with this powder so I am taking it everywhere with me and wearing it pretty much every day.

I really love how this powder just makes my face glow and adds a lovely pop of colour which goes perfectly with a bit of a tan. It’s so easy to apply and wear especially for people who are a bit scared of bronzers like me! Overall aside from the packaging this really is a great product and definitely on that I’m going to use up and repurchase. What’s your favourite bronzer? I’d love to know what others I should try! 









22 July 2014

Rose Garlands // Home Decor

Since redecorating my bedroom with an all white theme I've been on a quest to try and brighten it up a bit with lots of little individual touches of color all around the room. I don't generally do home or lifestyle posts but redecorating my room is something I've really enjoyed doing and some of the things I've ended up with are so lovely that i just wanted to share them with you. If this isn't your type of post then just feel free to skip right past it! 

I bought the rose garlands off amazon for £7.49 each which I thought was pretty good as there were other sellers on there charging £10+ and received them the next day due to Amazons fabulous prime service. They came in a huge cardboard box full of paper trying to protect it, it was way over packaged in my opinion but hey, at least they got here safely! They were a little difficult to unravel as they came in this birds nest kind of weave but after a little bit of fiddling the unraveled and looked lovely. 

I just popped one of the garlands along the side of my bed and re positioned the roses to make them a bit more evenly spread and look a bit nicer. I think this really livens up the bed frame and adds a pop of color to the room. The second one is currently not being used for anything and I'm not entirely sure what to do with it but I'm pretty sure ill find a use for it! 






18 July 2014

Mini Boots & New Look Haul!


Its no secret i love Boots, after all i now have a job there, but i still love browsing the aisles and finding new products that i hadn't yet tried. When i went into Boots most recently i was looking for a powder and some bleach for my hair, i didn't quite expect to come out with as much as i did but i guess i needed it all.. or maybe i just wanted it.

Ive already done a blog post on the L'Oreal Paris Wild Ombres kit which you can find HERE and thats simply because i was so excited to use this that i did as soon as i got home. Ive had the same dull brown hair colour for almost a year now and i was so ready for a change, after all, last year i had pink, blue, black and blonde hair so brown for a whole year was simply not fun enough for me. I chose this after reading loads of rave reviews and thinking it would be best for a subtle change rather than going say, bright green or something like that. If you want to see my thoughts on this then click the link above!
Im so bad at looking after my hair, i only tend to take notice when I'm using heat or changing the colour and then i feel bad as it begins to break and start looking really unhealthy. I wasn't too sure what to buy but my friend assured me these were a good starting point. I picked up the VO5 Give Me Moisture Treatment Mask as hopefully it will restore a little life into my hair and also the VO5 Nourish My Shine all as my friend told me it would help. Im not too sure about these but ill get a post up with my thoughts when i do know!
Everyone and their dog knows about the Rimmel Stay Matte Powder so i won't go too much into it except for that i managed to grab it for £1.50 due to a crack in the lid and considering i still had two empty ones of these at home i could just swap the lids over and it would be good as new! I also picked up the Rimmel London Natural Bronzer as in summer i find i use less foundation and just powder and it gives me a very dull face, I'm hoping that this bronzer can help put a bit of colour back into it!
Next up is the Rimmel London Soft Khol Eye Pencil, i chose this in a Denim colour as i thought it would be a bit more wearable and less harsh than a black, i think this will be brilliant blended for an everyday look! I also picked up the Rimmel London Kate Mascara (can you see a theme?) as i have a thing for mascaras and the packaging just made it look so pretty, although fingerprints i can already see will be an issue. I also got another tube of the Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer, theres not much i can really say about this because i think just about everyone has tried it, what i do think though that is because I've got a bit of a tan now this might be slightly too light for me so i won't be able to use it. Never mind, just another excuse to go shopping again right? 
I love Barry M, its no secret. I have a pretty impressive collection of their nail polishes and while I'm not enthralled about their makeup collection when i saw these makeup brushes i simply just knew i had to have them. They're so girly and cute with their design and are possibly the softest brushes I've ever tried. I picked up the Powder Brush and The Concealer Brush.
Lastly, these. How gorgeous are these sunglasses and for just £4.99?! I picked them up in New Look and thought they were just so feminine and perfect. I love the look of round sunglasses but all of the smaller ones really dont flatter me at all, whereas because these are so huge they cover half my face and you can't really tell if they're flattering or not! Im not really selling these very well am i? Anyway, i love them, lets leave it at that.

Anyway, i hope you've enjoyed reading this post, if you've tried any of these things or if you have any tips with how to use them then i love for you to let me know! Hope you're all enjoying the weather!










15 July 2014

Summer Shades // Barry M

When the warmer weather rolls in i fancy wearing something a bit brighter on my nails rather than the pastels and pinks i stick to through spring, this is where my favourite Barry M gelly shades come in. Ive owned these for a while now and they've become a firm favourite within my collection! 

Barry M // Greenberry & Guava // £3.99


Greenberry has been featured a lot around the blogosphere lately but i dont often hear much about Guava. These two are my favourite summer colours, from the perfect formula to complimenting my skin tone there really is nowhere that they disappoint. The shades are fairly old and have been around for a while but i think they both deserve far more appreciation than they both get.

Barry M has been one of my favourite nail polish brands for as long as i can remember. They were the first branded nail polishes I bought and I've been an addict ever since. The bottle design is so simple yet chic, and the logo is something you'd recognise anywhere, and the brushes are just spot on. I was looking for a couple of shades that were a bit brighter to take me into summer and i feel these two are both perfect.

Opaque in two coats, these shades work so well on either long or short nails and draw the eye but certainly aren't too loud for everyday wear. I know what ill be wearing this summer on my nails, what about you?!



11 July 2014

L'Oreal Paris // Wild Ombres Kit Review

Its not often i find something to dislike about a product but from time to time i do get disappointed with results and sometimes its important to share it. Hair dye for me is a very big thing to do at home, its very important that you trust the creators to have gotten it right so that you’re going to come out with the desired effect. All too often do we see home hair dye catastrophes and if i can help prevent that with this post then thats what i intend to do. 

L'Oreal Paris Wild Ombres No 2 // Boots // £7.49


(please excuse the lack of makeup photos)

Ive experimented a lot with different types of hair dyes in the past but rarely have i ever used one from L'Oreal, after reading all of the raving reviews about this i decided to take the plunge and give it ago, and that was where I made my first mistake. Ultimately i was choosing between Bleach Londons offerings and this set however my local Boots only had this one in so this is what i ended up with.

I went into this with a positive frame of mind, if it didn't work i could just try again in a few weeks, so i eagerly mixed up all the different components. The instructions for this were very easy to understand and follow, i mixed up the dye and applied it to the supplied brush and started putting it onto the end of my hair, the smell however was awful and made me open three windows in my house to try and create a bit of a breeze. The leaflet says to apply it at about chin height and work down for long hair but in previous experience I've found that the ends take longer to bleach and started there instead so i could have more of a graduated effect. I worked my way up the hair with the bleach and took it just slightly higher than my chin as thats where i thought it would look best. I then left this on for 45 minutes.

When it came to wash all the bleach off i was slightly anxious because the ends of my hair weren't actually too much lighter than what id started with and i could already feel that i was slightly disappointed, but nevertheless i washed all the bleach off with warm water and then applied the conditioner. I left the conditioner on for about 10 minutes because in this kind of situation you can never be too careful and washed it off with lukewarm water in an attempt to stop damaging it further, next i applied a heat protection spray and blow-dried my hair on the cool setting until it was completed dry. 

That was when i realised the extent of my disappointment. Its looked like more of a dip-dye than an Ombre, there was no fading, no graduated effect and the ends certainly weren't much lighter than the rest of it. My hair had lightened only a couple shades to more of a muddy ginger than a dark blonde - brown like the box had said. I understand that these box dyes aren't always accurate but i can't rave about this when I'm just so disappointed with the result. Im going to get a Bleach London Dip Dye Kit and try and do half of the ginger bit in an attempt to get the ombre effect that I really wanted and until then i certainly won't be recommending this to anyone. If you want to do an ombre effect then in my opinion you're better off getting some bleach and just doing it yourself, that way you can be certain about the outcome!

Sorry for the negative Nancy review but i really am disappointed about this product, i know how i wanted my hair to turn out and its nothing like that even though the box said it would be. Maybe i did something wrong, i don't know, but i do know that i won't be using this box again. 

7 July 2014

A Dark Chocolate & Blueberry Lip Balm?!

Now this isn't a new purchase of mine, this is actually my second tube of this but i absolutely love it and thought i needed to rave about it somewhere on my blog. A lot of people tend to forget about lip care when it comes to summer as dry chapped lips don't occur as commonly in winter, but with all the hot sunny weather it really takes its toll on our lips so i try to make sure I'm doing the best thing possible for them and this is where Burts Bees come in. 


 This lip balm has probably one of the most acquired smells ever, i absolutely love it but i love dark chocolate and blueberries, but so many people i have asked have hated it. The scent certainly doesn't stop it working its magic on your lips though. It takes a little bit to work this onto your lips the first time but once thats done it's an absolute dream to apply and makes your lips feel so nourished and healthy with just a few uses. This comes in the most practical twist up tube that is common with the cheaper lip balms but it feels nothing but sturdy and protective; its also the perfect size to be kept in a pocket or a small compartment in your handbag which is where mine currently resides! 

In case you can't tell, i really love this lip balm, it's so practical and does exactly what it says it will. Its not the cheapest of lip balms, but it's certainly not the most expensive either and i think its well worth the price to keep your lips protected from everyday sun. Have you tried any of Burt's Bees products? Which was your favourite, id love to know! 






4 July 2014

Sunshine & Seahorses

Seahorse Crop Top // H&M
Shorts // H&H
Kimono // H&M
Sunglasses // Matalan

Im really loving H&M at the moment, in case you can't tell. All of their fashion seems to be absolutely spot on and prefect for this kind of weather, i recently picked up this little ensemble from the store on Oxford Street and I'm so glad i did as it's the perfect summer outfit. Im not a huge fan of showing off my belly but when paired with this kimono i don't feel like I'm showing off too much skin and the kimono isn't patterned so doesn't draw attention either.

As i live near the beach I've mainly been wearing this when i go to the beach, but i also wore it when i went  on holiday and the lightweight kimono and cropped top and shorts really helped to keep me cool but still covered enough to keep me from burning.  The seahorse print is just so adorable and the pink shorts i feel just liven up the whole outfit.

Have you ventured into the world of kimonos yet? What do you like to style with them?