La' French Skincare Haul

A lovely friend of mine in Paris sent me a a little box full of French skincare products I wanted to try. French skincare is known to be fantastic and they have a huge range of products to choose from. Some of them we can finally get in drugstores like Boots...mainly Caudalie and Nuxe but some are a little harder to get your hands on in England.
This is what I got...

First Up I got Caudalie Grape Water, I did some research and this sounded interesting. It's supposed to be moisturising which I like the sound of. I already have the Caudalie Beauty Elixir which I'm on the fence about at the moment so again I'd like to see how this is in comparison.

A Nuxe Lipbalm... I have never tried Luxe in general and nor am I a fan of lip balms which I have to dip my fingers in but this was an exception after the rave reviews I read about this product.

She also sent me a little travel size set of Caudalie products, mainly so I could try one of the Vinosource products which are aimed at dehydrated skin. This set also contains Cleansing water, body lotion, shower gel and shampoo. 

 I have heard a lot about Embryolisse products and their intensive moisturising elements. I wasn't sure what to get so I went for this mask which I thought would be hand for when my skin is feeling really dry.

 I also thought I'd try the Taaj make-up remover which again I heave heard people talk about especially Essie! I am intrested to see how this works out in comparison to Bioderma's Crealine solution.

 Then she sent me a ton of samples from Taaj, Bioderma, Caudalie and Waleda....sample heaven!!

Last but not least...edible goodies!

 Yum. This was a perfect little package to open and I'm looking forward to trying everything out.
What's your favourite French skincare product?
<3

My Jeffrey Campbell Edea hunt

I ventured into town to pick up my beautiful Jeffrey Campbell Edea shoes which I mentioned in my last post however instead of Solestruck I found them on the Harvey Nichols website the other day and they can deliver in store for free. I only just managed to get a pair as they sold out in a lot of the sizes rapidly, seriously like within a couple of hours. I was looking forward to picking them up, when I finally got my hands on them and tried them on they were incredibly comfortable with the hidden wedge inside but sadly a little too big and they didn't have a smaller size in stock. Well except in Manchester but I didn't fancy going there to get some shoes that may or may not fit me. They seem to be like gold dust to find right now. I also decided on getting a credit card  that gives you points as I thought if I'm spending on my card so much then why not collect points and get rewards at the same time? it's been a life saver at times and it feels good to know you get something in return.

Not sure why but they look so boyish in the picture.

 I then went to Starbucks and got my absolute favourite drink, a Caramel frappuccino...I love it when they make it perfectly too. The last time I had one it wasn't very sweet, I asked for them to make it again but it was even worse..icy and not sweet enough. Disappointments!

Lastly whilst waiting for my mum I went to Link's of London and splurged a little, I got a couple of thing's that were actually in the sale.

I will be sharing what I got soon, there seems to be sales everywhere right now...so tempting!
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Solestruck Wishlist- TBA and Jeffrey Campbell

There is seriously so many nice shoes on Solestruck it's lethal. 

It may not be to everyone's taste but these is my current loves, I'm a lover of studs and aztec/tribal.

First we have TBA (To be announced) 'Chains' Boots $219.95

Secondly Jeffrey Campbell Edea Spike $219.95 (I love that they has a hidden wedge which seems to be everywhere right now)

And lastly TBA 'Johnny' boots which are $149.95 (sale)

I'm so tempted to get at least two of the three pairs and as Solestruck have free worldwide shipping it is even more tempting but I just know I'm going to get a lovely letter from parcelforce asking me to pay a chunky sum of money for customs/tax/vat whatever it is before they deliver. Sigh. I know people have had to pay around £30 something for one pair so I double that for two? Super pricey!

Have you bought from Solestruck before? What are your current loves?

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Planet Blue Lookbook with Gillian Zinser

I just HAD to repost this lookbook. I adore Gillian Zinser and I admit I have a girl crush on her...she's utterly gorgeous and I've always loved her style in 90210. I love her boho/hippie and sometimes grungy unique look.
On top of that I'm a lover of Planet Blue's offerings when it comes to clothes although it's on the expensive side.
Plus how beautiful are these pictures? (Picture source) The whole vibe of them is definitely my kinda thing.

 Stunning.

<3

A quick look into what's inside the May Lux Box

Seriously people I have never gotten so much birthday mail in my life. I've been sat opening it all morning...Look at a little bit of the mess I have made!

I'm not going into a detailed post about the products today as I'm a busy bee today and will be expecting family members over to celebrate my birthday.
Anyway's back to Lux Box, it's the May box but unfortunately there's been various problems which has delayed the box but no worries, thing's happen. I'm pleased it arrived today of all day's!
I'm sure we all know what the packaging is like, if not check out my post with the first ever Lux Box here.

 1. The Rosebud Perfume Co Mocha Rose Tube 30ml (Full size £7.00) - Lip Balm with vanilla, I could smell this before I even opened it and it's a lovely but strong scent. I feel it smells more of cocoa than anything else it reminds me of Palmers Cocoa butter lotion. I love lip products so a great product to have, it's filled with Shea Butter, Vitamin E, essential oils and a secret blend of botanicals.

2. Di Palomo Hand and Nail Cream 25ml in Orange Blossom (£6.30 for 75ml)- Again I love the smell of this, gorgeous and inspired by Italy. It's strong of a scent at first but fades a little after a while (but you can still smell it if you sniff your hands as I have been doing) and is non-greasy. There's wild honey and olive in this cream.

3.Sensationelle Flicktips (Full size £8.99)- These are instant eyeliner extension tattoo type things that normally cost £8.99 for 5 pairs. I think this is an interesting product but not something I'd  personally use or think to pick up but I'm interested in trying it out (I'll always try new things) and would probably use the more extravagant ones for Halloween/fancy dress if I get on with them.

4. Murad AHA/ BHA Exfoliating Cleanser 30ml (£34 for 200ml)- Murad is more of a well known product and I have received a different cleanser by them in a beauty box before and I loved it. This is said to be their best selling cleanser containing Jojoba beads, salicylic, lactic and glycolic acids. These acids as scary as they sound I have heard Lisa Eldridge talk about and rave how good they are for your skin. I'm really looking forward to using this alot.

5. Papier Poudre- Rachel Booklet (£7.20 for 6)- A product developed in the beginning of the 20th century is described to cleanse the pores (not sure how), lifting oil, dirt and oil dust. These are basically powdered blotting papers which come in different shades, mine being 'Rachel' is for Dark/Medium skin types which is perfect for me. I like using blotting tissues and these will be living in my bag now!

Overall it's been a good box, not amazing but still good. I'm super glad that the Paper Poudre was suitable for my skin tone as so many times I have received products from other beauty boxes that aren't suitable for me. I do think boxes should have customers fill in beauty profiles to maybe tailor products a little better when it comes to skin tone shades. I think except the Flicktips I'm pleased with everything in the box.
What do you think?
<3

Beaut Maybelline 862 Turquoise Lagoon Nail Polish review

I was browsing around Superdrug the other day mainly to get Revlon lip butter in tutti frutti which seems to be annoyingly sold out everywhere right now when I came across this polish.
As soon as I saw it I knew I needed it, I have been wanting a tiffany's kinda colour for a long time but never really saw one in store but alas I have found one.
This polish is from Maybelline's new pastel range of nail polish's including lavender and a light pink. It's from the Express Finish collection and it's supposed to be a quick dry nail polish only taking 40 seconds to dry. This is Turquoise Lagoon...

It cost around £4.09 for this bottle (a strange number) and has a precision brush.

The first picture is from le Iphone and the last on my DSLR, I tried my best to get the true colour, in person you can definitely see more of the green in the polish and it's a little lighter.
Application
I unfortunately found application a little difficult, for my first coat of this polish it was streaky and uneven. For the second coat it was still the same but not as bad and I found the only way round the streaky and uneveness was to make sure you have plenty of polish on the brush, almost a little too much and using less brush strokes.
I'm taking a wild guess and assuming the formulation is difficult to work with as it's quick drying. Indeed it is quick drying, I tend to get impatient with letting my nails dry and ruin them often but this polish dried very quickly. In fact as I am sat here I just timed how long it took for one normal layer to dry on my toe nail and it's true! By 40 seconds it seemed dry.

Pros:I adore the colour and that it's fast drying, the price isn't bad either, the precision brush is handy and it's easy to find.
Cons:I don't like the formulation it is a little difficult to work with, I have used £2 MUA polishes which are better, although they aren't 'quick-drying'.
Overall
I feel that the positives outweigh the negative, I can live with using this polish happily as long as I use my technique to get even streak-free coverage.

Have you used tried any of the Express Finish polishes?
<3

A Birthday Wishlist

Picture credit to Amazon, Zara, ebay, Liz Earle and google.

1.A ticket to California to see him. (I'd trade everything for this one).
2. Liz Earle make up which I have been wanting to try for a while. Also the Liz Earle tonic as I'm almost out and absolutely love it.
3. I feel naughty for taking this picture from ebay but it's a fringed bag I am loving. I have a bag problem...a addiction.
4. Books! I have a huge list of books I want to read such as Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, Uglies, Sweet Shop of dreams.
5. A blouse with studded/spiked collars. I have seen someone on You Tube with a nice one from Urban outfitters but I can't find it/justify the price so I  may end up doing a DIY version.
6. A new DSLR would be amazing, not sure if I want a Canon or Nikon second time round but alas I can daydream about this one as I highly doubt I'll be getting it anytime soon.


So on the 2nd of June I'm another year older but I don't tend to care so much about my birthday anymore, it just feels like another day but I thought this would be a fun blog post to do. More of a general wishlist than a birthday one. Books are on the top of my list to get, I miss reading.
What's on your wishlist?

<3

A USA Beauty Swap Haul

This is a super long overdue blog post, I just haven't had the time and my beloved camera until recently to do a blog post this topic dserved. As many of you may have read I have been shopping for a swap for the lovely Andrea all the way in my favourite place called America. She got her package incredibly quick which is a shocker for Royal Mail. Anyway you can read her sweet post here if you want to see what I sent her. She also has an amazing blog so follow too if you like :).
 Andrea didn't have many specific items she wanted to try so I had free reign pretty much but as I love the US and I know what they have that we don't I of course had a list of things which she kindly got for me (along with surprises she picked).
So this lady got SO much into one tiny little box...skills right there.

Terrible picture but I lost the dslr pictures I had taken. Just wanted to show how she wrapped everything up in tissue and cute stickers! It was like opening Christmas presents but better.

 Some dainty little forever 21 necklaces with a spoon, bird and I think a moose.

 Bath and bodyworks pink chiffon body lotion, sephora OPI nail art pen, Nyx orange blusher Kerastase elixir ultime, and maybelline eye tattoos.

 A smashbox eyeshadow quad (I was SO surprised and excited she sent me this, my first smashbox make up) Sephora liquid eyeliner, a smashbox eyeliner, a presitage eyeliner and a lip brush.

 These products above are some that I requested and was super excited to try, Baby Lips lip balm, Eos lipbalm, wet n wild lipsticks and revlon lip butters (these weren't on sale in the UK at the time)

Some funny and random things like perfume samples, a fake fly haha, bobby pins...a letter..

My most anticipated product...Buxom lipstick in Bombay!

I'm so pleased with everything she sent me and superrrr grateful she did this swap with me and I can't wait to try everything. Yep, I've avoided using most of them till I had done this post.
I have done swaps before in the past and I love them, there exciting and fun. I'm one of those people that loves to shop for others, buying presents and making sure they LOVE everything.
Also like Andrea said, swaps are a great way to meet people and I too have felt like I've made a friend. Our never ending chats about shopping and make up...and everything else..priceless! If you have never done a swap before....do one! It's definitely a great experience.
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Nail Polish from Marks & Spencer's New Limited Collection Beauty range.

So I know M&S isn't the first place younger people think of to go for clothes or beauty products, I know many don't go at all but over the years they have definitely started to improve their range of products bringing in more to attract a younger crowd. I can honestly say they do sell some really nice things now which I probably wouldn't have found in the past.
Recently they have improved their beauty section by adding a lot of branded products such as Nuxe, Fllorga and many more.
They also now have a new beauty range branded the Limited Collection which seems like a more chic and younger generation targeted range just like the Limited Collection clothing they sell.
They have a great range of products and colours especially for lipsticks and the other thing that caught my focus.... their nail polish range, SO many pretty colours

I got a little carried away...just a tiny bit....

The normal price is just a fraction of the well known brands...at £3.50 a bottle but they have a introductory 25% off the entire range so at £2.63 I thought it's the perfect time to grab the colours I want. I got 6 of the 24 shades they sell.

These three are my favourites at the moment! I tried to steer away from the usual colours I get and these are what I came out the store with.
My thoughts so far...
I have only properly used one of them so far and I've not had any problems, I tried the lavender polish which is in the middle above and it took me two coats to get a good even and opaque finish, I could have gotten away with one but I wanted a really solid colour so two worked a charm. The consistency is great, I had no problems with application. I have had it on for about four days and there's barley any chip's in sight but then again that could also be because of my Sally Hansen topcoat. I work in an environment which tends to ruin my freshly polished nails within an hour but I managed to go a whole day without chipping it so that is success to me!
I also did swatch each colour on my toes and most of them have good colour pay off with one coat but are better with two, also the swatches on my toes I did last week sometime and no chip in sight (but I guess it takes a lot more for polish to chip on toes right?).
Overall I am very pleased with them especially considering the price. I'll be doing more blog posts about the different colours soon including swatches.
Will you be trying this range?
<3

Liz Earle Brightening Treatment Mask review + Upcoming discount.

Despite the fact that I love using face masks, I seem to never think to put one on or I don't have the time. I have used a lot of Lush's fresh face masks which I really like, I tend to get them every now and again as a treat soon as they have expiry dates.

Lately (especially after the much needed organising of my make-up/beauty products) I have been getting into a better skincare routine which at the moment has a lot of Liz Earle (surprise surprise!).

The Brightening treatment mask* is exactly what my face has been needing,

 'Reviving, fast acting mask for instant radiance'

It comes in a cute little pouch with a 50ml bottle and a muslin cloth with the price tag of £14.25 or £13.50 without the muslin cloth.

This mask contains: Organic Aloe Vera, Witch Hazel (you can really smell this!) almond oil, camphor oil and purifying white clay.

Usage: You apply 1 to 2 pumps to clean dry skin and leave it on for 30 seconds to 2 minutes and wipe off with the muslin cloth soaked in hand hot water. The consistency is a semi thick clay like formula and it's not suitable for sensitive skin and you may feel some tingling which is normal. 

I have been using the Brightening face mask a lot lately and there's a number of reasons why..

Firstly it's in a little pump bottle, this really appeals to me. I love that I can just quickly pump some onto my hand put it on my face and there we go. It just makes life easier, no squeezing and mess from those sachets, which seem put me off bothering sometimes.

Secondly I like that you can leave this mask on for 30 seconds to 2 minutes...quick fix indeed! I have been using it before work every now and again which is crazy for me as I tend to be in a mad rush most the time but because I don't have to keep the mask on for a long amount of time for it to be effective this is perfect.

Thirdly and most importantly I like how it leaves me skin feeling...soft, refreshed and yes radiant. 

Verdict: I feel like it does what it say's on the bottle. I love how refreshed I feel after using it and the results are  noticeable to me. It is pricey for a face mask treatment but you do get 50ml in super handy packaging and it should last a good while depending on how often you use it.

Would I recommend it? Yes! 

What's your favourite face mask?

P.S Just a heads up to the lovers of Cleanse & Polish Hot Cloth cleanser and to those who have been meaning to try it...on Wednesday 23rd of May till the 25th Liz Earle will be selling the 100ml bottle with 2 muslin cloths for the original launch price of £9.50 instead of £14.25. This is to celebrate how successful it has been and the amazing rewards it has received thanks to fellow users and experts! You can get it online and via telephone.