Time to prime, moisturise and shine!

Good miserable foggy Monday morning to you all! Now that the miserable weather has well and truly set in, I thought it was high time I invest in a good highlighter to give my skin the glow that the sun just won't do right now!

Also, my beloved Monu primer sample has in fact reached the end of it's legs so thought I'd have a look round for a primer as well. 

Of course I was in Tesco, and I came across these little beauties.

Along Came Betty, Prime of your life £3.49

This is a brand that is featured quite prominently in my Tesco, the bright pink on the aisle end always catches my eye. Since VIVO have sadly gone out of stock in store, I couldn't get the primer I'd actually went there to buy. This little tube was only £3.49 and promises to smooth and illuminate your skin. It's a pink formula, but blends into your natural skin tone (well, it did with me). I haven't quite seen a more illuminated look to my face, but it does certainly keep my make up sitting pretty all day, which is always a good sign with a primer.

Barbara Daly, glow-up highlighter £7

Barbara Daly always has such a sophisticated feel to the stand, and has been something I've pondered at many a time in the make up section. I've never used a highlighter before, so I don't really have anything to compare it to, but it's been working pretty well. It did take me a few tries to get used to the amount to use and where to put it, but it has been making a difference. The cream is actually a silver colour, not the yellow like in the picture, so don't worry, you aren't going to look like you've got a strange illness. I love the high end feel of the tub as well, and at only £7, it's definitely something I'd buy again.

Nivea soft Giles Deacon gift pack £3.75

After the success of the Nivea in-shower moisturiser, I thought that this Nivea soft moisturising cream would be great for my arms and legs over the winter, although it can be used on your face too! The cream absorbs really well into your skin and I think it could be a real winner. This is actually the gift pack which has been reduced from £7.50 to only £3.75 which is a real bargain considering the single 200ml tub is £2.60 on it's own and this is for double that! It's great for yourself to save a little money, or as a gift for someone for Christmas!

Well there's my three little purchases on moisturising, priming and highlighting your skin over the winter. Keep your eyes peeled for my 'what I'm loving this winter' post which will be out over the next few days with some new purchases on there as well.

Have a good Monday (well as good as a Monday can be!) 

XO.

Glossybox October review

So it's that time again, I must say I quite like getting my five little make up samples in the post each month. I like trying something new that I've never tried before, helps to broaden my make up horizons :)

The theme this month was Dark Romance and I, like so many other subscribers was pretty excited. We were all imagining the different lipsticks and eye shadows and what not we'd be getting through our doors come mid October.

Here's this month's box. It's just the standard pink Glossybox box, not like the fancy Union Jack one we got last month which is now home to my many eyeshadows (hmm may do a make up storage post, keep an eye out!). I was so excited for this box as I've recently just dyed my hair back to black (was supposed to be dark brown, don't get me started on these silly hair dyes and their reactions to my hair..) and I couldn't wait to use all the dark themed products. As you can see we didn't get many.

First up lets talk about the (in my opinion) worst idea of the bunch. Vita Liberata skin illuminator in Latte. It's £29.95 per 30ml bottle, so quite pricey, but Glossybox do promise us the more high end stuff as well! The reason this is the worst idea to me is not that it's just tan (and you all know my fear of fake tan as mentioned in Facing the Fear) but if you actually follow the link to the site it looks so so dark. I mean I'm not exactly Snow White (well I am a little more so with this hair) but I'm still pretty darn white. There's no way that this tan would not go wrong on my skin so I've not even opened it. It might be good you never know! If any of you not so pale people wanna give it a go be my guest and let me know how it is!

Next up is the Harmony moisturising smoothie serum priced at £22.50 per 50ml, again, a little pricey for such a small bottle. I'm not entirely sure if this is a primer or if it's a moisturiser as the card says it's to 'prep and prime your skin' but then it's a moisturising serum so god knows. I've only used it once and I used it as a serum before putting on my usual moisturiser. Harmony are a brand that caters to women between 25-60 who want affordable skin care that will help any skin type from sensitive skin to adult acne sufferers. This particular serum is supposed to help soothe redness which I'm  not really a sufferer of so I didn't really reap the benefits so to speak. It does smell pretty good though, made with Lemongrass oil and it's not a thick formula so it doesn't feel like you've caked on too much product even with your normal moisturiser and primer on top. 

Would I buy? I don't think so, mainly because it just isn't anything I really need and it's quite expensive.

The second primer type product of the bunch. Why we needed two I do not know. This is the Monu skin illuminating primer for all skin types with SPF 15, it comes in at £24.95 per 100ml, so not too bad. I'm pretty new to primers I'll admit, having only used my little Fashionista bottle I got in my MUA haul a couple months back, but I can find that one a little greasy when everything else has been applied. This  one I'll admit is pretty great. It reminds me of those little hotel shampoo and conditioner bottles they put out in the more fancy of establishments. It smells pretty good, the word that comes to mind is 'neutral', as in it doesn't really have a strong fragrance it's just fresh if you know what I mean? If not don't worry about it I'm just rambling nonsense again! I've been using this everyday since I got my box last Tuesday and although the formula is quite thick it's not greasy and it does make my make up stay all day. You only need a little splodge to lightly cover your face before applying foundation and you're all set to go!

Would I buy? Hmm, it is on my 'maybe' list for now, it's a pretty good product but I really want to try the clinique ones before I commit.

This is the Katy Perry Killer Queen perfume which can be found at boots for £22.99 per 30ml. Why are perfumes so darn expensive?! I'm pretty rubbish at describing fragrances to be honest, but this one has a real fruity smell to it, with a mix of some sort of flowery note. It does tell you in the card it comes in what it smells like but if you're like me, what the top and bottom notes are won't really help with your perfume purchase. Compared to the amazing smell that was the Elizabeth Arden Untold of last month, this doesn't come near. I am still in love with it and will be bribing someone to buy me it for Christmas! This Katy Perry one is a very small sample, I've only sprayed it three times and it's already a quarter finished! Like the majority of other perfumes made by singers is nothing really all too special. It's nice, yes, but it's not something that would have me rushing out to stores to pick up.

Would I buy? Compared to other perfumes out there it doesn't really make my top five.

Now for the Pièce de résistance of the box; the Cherub's blush lip and cheek tint from Mememe cosmetics. This is the only full sized sample in the box (which was disappointing, but the other products are a little more high end so I suppose we've still got our money's worth) coming in at only £5.50 per 12ml bottle. This is by far the best product in the box and I've been using it religiously this past week. I haven't actually used it on my cheeks as going by the colour in the second image, it is way too dark to be put straight onto my skin. I have quite dark lips anyway so this just brings out the colour a little and makes them pop. It's probably the only thing in the box that keeps in touch with the Dark Romance theme it supposedly has, unless you can count the dark tan! It's actually the first lip stain I've tried and I'm pretty happy with it. And it's also made me confident I can rock dark lips without looking too over done so expect some new lipstick posts in the near future!

Would I buy? Definitely would!

Overall verdict: 6/10

Mainly because I didn't think it was actually a 'Dark Romance' box. I didn't initially like the box at all but after trying out the products I was quite pleased. Hopefully you can do a little better on your contents next month though Glossybox!

Have a great weekend everyone xo.

MUA Madness!

Okay so remember me mentioning my little splurge on the MUA website the other night? Well it's finally all here! I was a bit wary of ordering make up online, as I didn't want to end up with any broken pallets but each item came individually wrapped in bubble wrap, so no need to worry at all! My only thing about this is that I had to wait about a week from making the order to actually receiving it. It's not a big thing, but I'm not the most patient when it comes to waiting for post.. Anyway here's what I bought, all unwrapped :)

First the eyeshadows: my make up obsession.

Left to right - MUA pearl eyeshadow £1 each

Shade 9

Shade 4 

Shade 2

I actually have about ten of these little eyeshadow pots now, they are pretty amazing, in fact most of my eyeshadow is MUA, come to think of it (may do a post on them all at some point!). I love purple colours and as mentioned in the last post, plums in for Autumn! I expected the first shade to be really really dark so was quite pleasantly surprised. The lighter purple is more lilac, but still pretty nice and I was happy with the white shade as I've bought quite a few before and they've not shown up at all. I actually think these would look pretty nice all together for a smokey eye, shall have to try this out.  

Fashionista Double take baked eyeshadow £1.65 each

Left - Exclusive Collection

Right - Trend setter

I mainly bought these because I liked the pattern.. I'm like a magpie for pretty things. I usually try and steer clear of these baked eyeshadows as I don't want to mess up the pattern of it, which yes I know sounds silly. The one on the left is pretty similar to the bronze/ gold ones I already have, so might not be using this for a while. I quite like the other one as it's sort of grey but with a purple hint to it so this will be getting used through winter :)

Fashionista Lipstick £1.50

I'm really trying to get into lipsticks as my lips usually look really pale after all my make up's finished. This is the fashionista double take lipstick in Atomic Tangerine. Now I know what you're thinking, 'tangerine'? Who wants orange lips? But it's kind of a blush pink colour, make up names never match, I think they do it to throw us off.. I haven't actually tried it on my lips yet as they're pretty dry from the hot weather, going to have to stick to my Carmex for a little while longer.

Fashionista Primer 

E1 eyeshadow brush

L1 Lip brush

I'm always buying new eyeshadow brushes, might be my laziness so I don't have to clean them so much but hey! This one is pretty good quality, despite the £1.95 price tag and none of the bristles pull themselves out as you're applying. I've read somewhere, think it was a Crownbrush blog, that applying lipstick with a lip brush gives it a smoother look, so again at £1.95 I thought, 'what have I got to lose?' It also splits so the bottom half acts as sort of a case which is handy for on the go! As for the primer, I haven't actually used it yet as the box came after I'd been out so my make up was already done, but it was reduced from £10 to £3 so can't complain, and it's always something I've wanted to try.

Nail polish 

This is a part of MUA's £1 nail polish range (I love how cheap their website is!) and is in Coral blush. I think I picked the wrong one, as I was looking for a pillar-box red kind of colour, but it's pretty nice. Excuse my feet, my fingernails are actually painted black from the weekend still and I've ran out of nail polish remover :(. Unlike other cheap nail varnishes I've bought, this one is pretty darn good. It's not thin like most I've got and the colour's really vibrant.

I did also order the cream blush in blossom, but for some reason it was crossed off of my order, I think they'd ran out of stock. So still on the hunt for a nice cream blusher that won't make me look like a rag doll. Now for the amazing bit, all of this only cost me £18.20 including postage! So if you're on the lookout for some inexpensive but still great quality make up check out the MUA store online or in Superdrug :)