My going out make up

Having just moved back to uni, I've been on a couple of night's out and I thought I'd share with you my usual night out make up.

I start with a moisturiser as a base and then use Benefit Porefessional as a primer, which makes my make up stay on all night. 

Then I apply Rimmel Stay Matte foundation using a brush and use Soap& Glory's Kick Ass concealer and then the Setting Powder all over my face.

I then use Benefit Eye Bright and Lemon Aid from my Confessions of a Concealaholic kit to brighten the eyes and prime the lids. Then from the Elf Smokey Eye book I use the lighter shade in the bottom left corner, then the grey next to it on the lid and the darkest powder on the crease.

I then use MUA Liquid Liner on my lash line and Blow Out Jumbo Eyeliner on my water line underneath.

Once the liquid liner has dried I apply the black cream eyeliner in my Elf Smokey Eye book with a slanted brush to soften the look. I finish this with lots of Blow Out Mascara!

Finally I apply Rimmel Blush and lipgloss. If you're wondering which gloss I use I'd struggle to tell you as It's a lovely dark plumping gloss I always have in my handbag and the label has worn off! I think it's Boots 17, but not sure.

 I'm stuck in a bit of a smokey eye rut as I like that it's quite dramatic. I need to experiment with other colours but I'm not really a nuetrals fan for a night out.

My Uni Room

I'm now all moved into my final year uni room with four other house and I'm loving it! I thought I'd show you some pictures of my room. I love reading these kind of posts as I'm very nosy so I thought you might too!

My bedside table

The top of my draws with my jewellery box, teacup vase, wax tart burner, Disney Wonder diffuser and my Italy collage.

My desk and make up station!

Too many folders :(

Cushion, Hot water bottle and scented Dumbo :)

If you're really nosy, my wardrobe!

and my toiletries storage (I'm obsessed)

My Uni Room

I'm now all moved into my final year uni room with four other house and I'm loving it! I thought I'd show you some pictures of my room. I love reading these kind of posts as I'm very nosy so I thought you might too!

My bedside table

The top of my draws with my jewellery box, teacup vase, wax tart burner, Disney Wonder diffuser and my Italy collage.

My desk and make up station!

Too many folders :(

Cushion, Hot water bottle and scented Dumbo :)

If you're really nosy, my wardrobe!

and my toiletries storage (I'm obsessed)

What's in my handbag?

I've seen a few 'what's in my handbag posts' and find they interest my nosey side! So for all my nosey readers I thought I'd do one. I think you can tell a lot from a person  by what's in their handbag, so let me know what you think it says about me!

So firstly, my handbag. This is a Jasper Conran satchel from Debenhams which I have used everyday since I got it for my birthday. It's a good size to stop me carrying around things I don't need! I also have a Lush Emotional Brilliance badge from when I had my reading.

Contents:

My Purse- from River Island, shown in top picture properly, sorry.

iPhone headphones

Chewing gum

No7 High Shine gloss in Smile- reviewed here, my current favourite. Only problem is I need a mirror to use it!

Soap&Glory hand maid- a handbag must have, it smells much better than most sanitisers too!

Soap&Glory hand food- a nice little hand cream 

Accessorize union jack sunglasses- I love these but haven't had much chance to wear them this summer, this week I replaced them with an umbrella!

Tissues

Vaseline- for when I don't have a mirror!

Nail File- accidents happen :(

Pen

and then my Keys with Mr Pricklepants, blockbuster card, uni trolley thing and a bottle opener. My phone would normally be in my bag too but that was taking the pictures.

What's in your bag? I think mine is pretty minimalist, don't you?

Betty Bouche Lip Scrub Review

The lovely people at Betty Buff sent me a prototype lip scrub to review. This isn't the final product because they wanted some feedback first. 

First Impressions: My first impression was that I like the little tin, handy for throwing in my bag whilst it also carries a lot of product as it was full to the top. The tin seals well and with the intended waterproof sticker I think it's perfect. I got strawberry sauce but a honey flavour is also available. The smell was nice but not too overpowering and certainly not a fake smell.

I love that the ingredients list is so natural, I had no worries about putting it on my lips or eating it! The product has a use by date of six months which I can foresee will be plenty of time as it's pretty addictive!

 Use: The first thing that struck me is that the product is very compacted and getting some on my finger for the first use was a little harder than expected. The mixture comes out as sugar granules which I found a little messy to use. However, once on the lips it distributed well and left a lovely soft feeling afterwards from the shea butter. I will say I think that it may be better to be a stickier substance so it's easier to pick up. The sugar is the main ingredient, giving a powdery texture, rather than being suspended in a liquid.

The product tasted yummy, sweet and subtly of strawberries. As someone who'd never used a lip scrub before I was worried about it feeling harsh and making my lips sting but it didn't they just felt smooth.

 One of the main things I noticed about this product was that it made my lips redder. The product claims to smooth, plump and give an even tone to the lips. I would agree with all of these as my lips felt lovely and looked a lot darker and redder in colour. I would even say I would use this on the go when I don't have a mirror to apply gloss or lipstick as it was effective and left them feeling lovely.

Before use

After use

This product will retail at around £2.99, cheaper than other lip scrubs and I think a very reasonable price for the amount you get.

This is perfect for using before I go to bed and throughout the day to refresh my lips. I will definitely be reaching for this in future as it's much more effective to solve flaky lips than my trusty vaseline.

Lush Soft Coeur Massage Bar review

I've been tempted by this for ages, sniffing it when I go into Lush. I normally end up going for a bath product instead, but as I've had more indulgence time recently I decided to finally give it a go!

Lush have a range of massage bars but I went for this one straight away, it's a nice little heart shape and has a chocolatey, vanillaey scent. There are actual chunks of chocolate in every one!

I've used the bar on most of my body three times so far. Initially, I was surprised that it took a while to start to melt in my hands (granted I have colder hands than most) so I needed to do it when I had plenty of time, maybe after a bath or shower would be a good idea. This bar was perfect for it's intention- massaging. I was, however, using it as a moisturiser before bed. It felt lovely on my skin but did stay greasy for a while and didn't absorb into the skin very quickly. I also noticed that the chocolatey bit didn't actually melt, it went a bit gritty and flaky when I was massaging the skin and sometimes left a brown residue. Nice idea, but I don't think the chocolate did much.

after 3 uses (the chocolate chunk is exposed!)

This is a lovely treat and I still smelt lovely in the morning but I'm not sure it did much for my skin in terms of moisturising. Great for a romantic massage session for couples though, but not me, sigh.

#bbloggers secret santa swap?

Ciao lovelies,

I know that it's Way too early for this but I had a brainwave last night that I wanted to share with you! I've had an idea and wanted to get feedback on who'd be interested and whether it's feasable.

My idea is a #bbloggers secret santa swap

How would it work?
1.Well, you'd let me know if you'd like to be involved
2. You'd be assigned someone to send a gift (once i'd matched everyone up) and someone would be assigned you!
3. You'd check out their blog and buys some things that they'd love. There would be a budget, thinking maybe £20 (cuz some of us are students!)
4. There would be a deadline to send them off so everybody had their package in time for Christmas.
5. Hopefully people would share the lovely things that they sent and recieved on their blogs.

What do you think lovelies? It may have to be UK based for the first attempt but if you'd be interested and you're outside the UK, do let me know.

Please comment my lovelies and let me know what you think and any problems you forsee.
Also follow me on gfc for updates.

How exciting? Also be sure to take part in the #bbloggers chat to meet new #bbloggers.

Lissele Jewellery

The lovely Lessele runs a jewellery website with many earrings only £1. She is currently running a free earrings offer for twitter and facebook users and guess what I got? Nope, I got a ring!

I was so pleased when I got this because I love the colour and it's just awesome!

How it works is you make a wishlist on the website then send it off, I put three pairs of earrings and a ring on my list and they chose the ring for me. Although something that did confuse me is that it's only open to UK residents yet my package said airmail from Thailand.

It's just chance that it matches my nails, thanks Lissele!

Check out Liselle's website here.

Lush Lusts

I just love Lush and I wanted to share with you some of the products I really want to try.
I'm really sad that my uni house for my final year doesn't have a bath! I don't know how I'm going to get through my final placement without a lush bath to calm me.

Yuzu and Cocoa bubble bar- I got through quite a lot of this last year and I just love the smell, this is the only thing on the list I've tried.

Vanilla Fountain bath ballistic- oh, how I wish I had a bath :(

Vanillary gorilla perfume- I really need to try this, because if you hadn't already guessed, I LOVE vanilla!

Creme Anglaise Hand and Body lotion - another vanilla product. 

Cupcake face mask- maybe face masks could replace my baths this year to pamper myself, who wouldn't want to put chocolate on their face?

Bubblegum lip scrub- I've never used a lip scrub, but if I'm honest, I just want to eat this!

9 to 5 cleanser- I've never tried a lush cleanser but would love to!

Emotional Brilliance lip colour in Strong- I'm sure this would make me want to take on the world!

Emotional Brilliance eyeliner in Drive- love this purple colour.

The contents of my lush lusts comes to £94.62. Oops! Anyone feel like treating me?

All images courtesy of lush.co.uk.

Essie instant dry oil protector- My First Use

I purchased this from The Original Factory Shop and it cost me just £3 instead of £10.50! I wanted a top coat that I could rely on as I constantly repaint nails after smudging or denting them. This isn't exactly a top coat, it's an oil.

I didn't really know what to expect from this but the application was interesting! It went on as an oil, it was thinner than I expected and ran down the sides of my nails and down my fingers (as shown in the picture below). After waiting a few minutes, my nails and fingers showed no signs of drying so I gave in and touched them, I found that the oil just wiped off and my nails were dry! Magical!

 

The feeling of the oil on my hands wasn't unpleasant and just felt like it was moisturising. I went on to wash it off and my nails remained intact! Then I moved onto the other hand and had issues. Because I was using the accessorize polish shown here, it was thin and water-like. Because I was too impatient and reached for the essie oil too soon, the stiff brush smudged the smooth coat of polish. This was my fault, I'm inpatient but this is the sort of thing that wouldn't happen with a thicker polish. 

'Not a problem' I thought and repainted over the mistake. NO! Do not paint over the oil because of course, the polish doesn't set and becomes bubbly (shown on second finger here). But I learnt from my mistake, I started again on those nails and the oil worked perfectly again.

I've learnt from my mistake and will be using this product again as it really does help my nails dry faster. The deception is that the oil doesn't soak up and you don't feel you can get on with things with wet nails but you can, it's just the oil coating. I feel that I may actually be able to have an accident free nail painting one day....maybe!

The most perfect my nails have been for ages!

My Everyday Make Up

Ciao bellissime,

Today I thought I'd show you the products I use on a daily basis for my everyday make up. 

In order of use-

Benefit Triple Performing Facial Emulsion- I actually love this little sample bottle I was given because it fits in my make up bag! I'm rubbish for forgetting to put moisturiser on but it's a good reminder before I start.

Benefit the Porefessional- This is also a sample size which fits in my bag nicely but I think I'll have to buy the bigger one as I love it! It makes me make up stay on so much longer and makes me skin feel matte and soft.

Rimmel Stay Matte foundation in Ivory- I've used this foundation for ages now and keep repurchasing, this colour is one of the only ones pale enough for me and it does stay matte!

Soap&Glory Kick Ass concealer- I use both shades of this concealer as intended and then the setting powder to finish the base.

Brushes- Ecotools concealer and blusher brush- love these, I use the foundation brush too but for everyday make up I tend to use my fingers.

 

Rimmel Blusher in Coral Rose- I'm currently using this but am not a massive fan, I'm looking for something a bit pinker.

17 Blow Out Mascara- Again, not taken with this, I'm using it for now but I've had better. Reviewed here, see what you think.

No7 High Shine lipgloss in Smile- I love this! Reviewed here.

And my make up bag, If you're interested....

I love this, got it as a birthday gift and it's from Object D'Art, just from a gift shop I think.

How much is my face worth?

Ciao bellissime,

I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon and do a 'How much is my face worth?' post. I already know that It's going to be a lot less than everybody else's, you see I don't use eyeshadow and eyeliner on a daily basis and stick to a simple look most of the time.

For more info check out my everyday make up post.

Benefit Porefessional sample(estimated value)- £7.80
Benefit Triple Performing Facial Emulsion sample (estimated size and value) £6.20

Rimmel Stay Matte foundation £5.99
Soap&Glory Kick Ass concealer £10.00
17 Blow Out mascara £6.29
Rimmel Blusher £3.99
No7 High Shine Gloss £8.50

Total: £48.77

A lot more than I thought! I did some estimated calculations of the value of the sample sizes to give a rough idea, however, if both were full sizes it would give me a total of £77.77!