Sk-EYE High Lashes Review

[packaging]

[curved brush]

[mascara]

Right, first of all, apologies for the order of these pictures, trying to move them was a disaster!! If anyone is wondering, the nail polish I am wearing is Barry M - Vivid Purple (£2.99 in Boots)

So, I picked up this mascara in bodycare in Leeds for the scandalous price of £1.49. 

Couldn't believe my eyes!!

This product claims to 'create sky-high lashes with this fibre-enriched lengthening mascara'

I was very excited to try this out, especially for the price

I will be honest, this product did not do what I expected it to BUT I loved the effect!

It gives lases that I would describe as naturally beautiful and you don't get too much product on the brush

which means you can add multiple coats without it looking clumpy.

Great for a last minute stocking filler!!

Merry Christmas :)

Hope you all get lots of lovely presents from Santa

V xxx

Homemade horror?

So, my assignment deadline is today and I have 450 words and referencing still to do. So what do I do? Decide to make a homemade face mask of course!!
My friends mum makes the most amazing green tea face mask that does wonders for my skin. So in my wisdom, I decided to try and make one myself by tearing open 2 green tea bags, squirting in some of my BOB BB cream and adding a little water. This is what happened . . . 

I look like a troll! Ok, the chunks of tea inside a teabag are waaayyyy bigger than i expected. Why are they that big??? That made it kind of difficult to apply. [May I add it was nothing like the mask my friends mum makes!!] It did make my pores cleaner and smaller though, so maybe there was some method in my madness. I might try this again but ground the contents of the tea bag down into a finer more powdery consistency which would be easier to apply and remove. I also did some googling and found out that you can buy green tea powder, maybe if I get this essay done I can go into town and look for some of that as it will be much easier than attempting to crush a teabag!
Now time to go back to boring essay writing :( lets hope I get it done by my 4pm deadline!
V xx

BB Creams - Do they work?

So, when I read about the Garnier BB cream I thought OH MY GOSH. This has to be the ultimate product, right? Blurs imperfections and makes skin look natural and flawless??? I thought I had just died and gone to skin perfection heaven. Anyway, as I was on a make up buying ban, I couldn't buy it :( then one day, in a moment of total weakness, I bought the 17 Blemish Balm in light. I figured as it was on offer, and was cheaper than the Garnier cream I would give it a go. Then I got home and started looking at BB cream on ebay and also bought BOB BB cream from Hong Kong. (£2.50 with postage, hardly even counts as spending!!) So here are my honest thoughts!

BOB BB Cream shade 3 - 17 BB cream light

What it looks like

Blended out a little

Cost - BOB cream was only £2.50 including postage which I bought here. The 17 BB cream was on offer for £5.99 when I bought it but is usually £6.99 and is available at most Boots stores. 

Colour - the BOB cream is white which was a bit of a shock to me. I chose shade 3 because I thought it would be suitable for my skin tone. I will say that when it is blended out properly it makes your skin look lighter but not white! The 17 cream is the perfect colour for my skin as I am quite fair. If you are dark skinned I am not sure what BB creams are available as most seem to suit light to medium skin tones.

Product quality - BOB cream is a very thick cream but blends out well. I did find that it sat in my pores though. The 17 cream is between foundation and tinted moisturiser in thickness. I had to use a lot more of this than I would use with a foundation with little difference in effects.

Other comments - I would say the BOB cream is more a skin treat to be worn under your usual foundation as a base. The 17 cream can be worn alone to provide medium coverage. It did cause me to break out really badly when I forgot to remove it at night :(

Scores - BOB 5/10  17 7/10

Would I repurchase these products? NO. Both products were really nice but they were not what I was expecting from a BB cream and the 17 cream is a little pricey. Garnier is still on my Christmas list :) the reviews on that are a lot better, so we will have to wait and see if the results are too!

Sebamed Review

Hello everyone! So as promised (and long overdue I know) here is my review of the Sebamed cleansing bar. I usually use a gel cleanser but was finding that it was drying out my skin and especially as winter is here I needed something new. I just stumbled upon this when browsing on the feel unique website but actually bought it off ebay for £3.99 including postage. I would share you the link of the seller BUT when I looked back the price has gone up to £5.99 which I think is unreasonable for a bar of soap!! I will not be paying that much for this product and I don't think you should either.

Sebamed sell a range of products from shower gel to shampoo all with a pH of 5.5, now I am no good at science but apparently this is nearest to the skins own pH and so is less damaging to the balance of your skin. Does that make sense? Well it doesn't to me but the results speak for themselves. As you may know from previous posts, I can suffer from quite oily skin and this has really helped. It has improved my overall skin tone and reduced the amount of oil my skin produces. I have less dry patches and the redness on my cheeks caused by spots has dramatically reduced. I would also like to think my pores look a little smaller than usual too.
I use this on a morning in the shower and follow with Astral light and creamy moisturiser. Afterwards my skin feels very soft and is a much smoother base for the application of my foundation. I think if you already have fairly clear skin, using this cleansing bar might mean you don't even need to use a primer.
I will 100% be buying this product again. Soap free soap is the way forward! If you have very very oily skin or acne, Sebamed also sell products in a Clear Skin range which may be more suitable for you.
I hope you have found this review helpful, even if it was a bit speedy!
V xxx

Neglected?

Hello everyone!
Just a quick update as I feel like I have neglected my blog. I intended to do a review post on my SebaMed cleansing bar which I am loving at the moment but I have had a bad day today. My little sister (well she is 18, not so little) has been in hospital today with suspected appendicitis.
2 train journeys, 2 buses, 2 taxi rides and a trip in the car later and I have finally got home.
I want to do a good review for you guys and not a crappy rushed one so I would rather not do it today.
Hope you are all well, reading your blogs is cheering me up after a long day
V xxx

ELF order and *mystery box*

Hellooooo! So the other day on the Beauty Baron facebook page I saw everyone talking about ELF mystery boxes, I immediately wanted one!! I love surprises! 

You had to spend £10 and enter a code to qualify.

So I made an order and got free delivery as well as a mystery box, so in total all the things in the photo below cost me £10. WOW!

What I ordered: Nail Polish in Purple Pleaser £1.50, Eye shadow brush £1.50, Complexion Perfection £3.50 and Blush brush £3.50.

What I got in my mystery box: Cream Eyeliner in Coffee worth £3.50, Nail Polish in Twinkle worth £1.50 and Beauty Book Neutral Collection worth £6.

So I only spent £10 and got £11 worth of products for free!! Bargain!

Onto the products I bought. 

I was really really excited to try the complexion perfection and thought if I am going to break my ban on buying beauty products then I'm definitely getting this! It has been raved about on blogs and on Youtube so I had to see what all the hype was about. 

Face before: no make up (sorry!!)

face after - only wearing complexion perfection

So, it did feel a bit funny applying a blue, yellow, green and pink powder to my face. I was scared! I just swept my brush over all 4 colours and applied to my face. As you can see there is not a great improvement to my two big spots I have at the moment, I was expecting them to look a little less red. You can't really see from the photos but there is a slight improvement in the general look of my skin but nothing to write home about. I would go as far as to say I look a little washed out by this. So tomorrow I am going to try this over my usual foundation instead of my Rimmel Clear Complexion powder to see how that goes. Expect a little update on here or on twitter. Overall, a little disappointed.

Love all the other products I ordered :)

On to the MYSTERY box!

I really wanted the cream blush in my box, but I suppose I will have to order that now! I can't quibble about anything I got. The cream eyeliner is a lovely shade and glides on well. Having never tried a cream eyeliner my first opinions are very good. The twinkle polish is not one I would have picked myself but it will be great layered over other colours for the party season as it is a clear polish with lovely glittery bits in.

My favourite product has to be this. . . 

I cannot believe this was FREE. I will be using this! I usually wear neutral colours day to day with a bit of mascara so I was chuffed when I saw this in my box! It would make the perfect present, and at £6 you can't go wrong.

Just a little pic of the 12 colours and eyeliner.

There is even a little page telling you where to apply which colours for the best effect. 

My only quibble with this is the applicator. I am not a fan of foam eyeshadow applicators, sorry ELF! But overall it is a great product and has been a welcome distraction from uni work! In my hurry to rip the mystery box open I did manage to rip a hole into a page of my law textbook, which I need for an exam!! 

OOOOPS!

Never mind, eh?

What have you ordered from ELF lately?

Have you got a mystery box?

V xx

October Favourites :)

Hello!
Where has this year flown? Hate to mention it but it's nearly Christmas!! Eeek! Unfortunately my camera and my laptop are not seeing eye to eye so I haven't been able to put a picture in this blog so I have put as many links to products as possible so you can check them all out (if you want to!).

Skincare
Good Things 5 Minute Facial  - this is an amazingly fruity fresh face mask I have mentioned in my blogs before so I won't bore you with it again. If you haven't tried it, then why not????? You can buy this from Superdrug here. It's currently on special offer so its even more cheap than usual!
Olay Face Wipes - I didn't pay full price for my Olay wipes, got them in a cheapie shop for 99p! I can't say I would pay full price for them but I ran out of my Osiris Avise wipes (you get 3 packs of those for 99p and they are similar in quality and effectiveness) and so I needed an alternative. The Olay cloths are really strong and they feel smooth against your skin. I hate wipes that feel scratchy and horrible on your face. Right at the end of the month I found my old favourite wipes in Boyes and so I will be going back to them next month, but the Olay wipes have been a lovely alternative while they lasted!

Hair Care
Superdrug Naturals Tea Tree and Peppermint Shampoo and Conditioner - My hairdresser suggested i should get some tea tree shampoo because I get a dry irritated scalp but greasy hair, which is a total pain - moisturising shampoos make the grease worse, shampoos for greasy hair make my scalp more irritated. So I was willing to give anything a go. You can get the shampoo and conditioner for just £1.75! There are a range of other types available to suit any hair type and they all smell divine! If you click here you will get through to the tea tree and peppermint shampoo I use but scroll down and you will find all the other lovely options available to try.
Wella Lifetex Volume Protein Mask - This mask claims to strengthen fine hair and provide it with more volume. I was a bit suspicious as it was only £1.99 from Home Bargains, but Wella is a recognised hair care brand so I gave it a go. It is lovely, just comb through hair after shampooing and leave for 3 to 5 mins before rinsing. It smells great and leaves my hair feeling smooth and silky (frizz almost eliminated!) and it does have noticably more volume than usual. I went back and bought a couple more of these as you can never guarantee how long something will be in Home Bargains!!

Make Up
E.L.F Studio Flat Top Powder Brush - £3.50 - I have tried a lot of e.l.f products but I was reluctant to try their brushes because I thought something so cheap couldn't possibly be good, how wrong was I???? This brush is amazing. The bristles are soft but strong (no bits falling out all over your face) and the brush is quite dense so you can use it to apply wet or dry products. Despite this being a powder brush I actually use it to apply my foundation as well as blush and bronzer. Its a great all round brush and at the price you can't go wrong. If you like e.l.f (think most people do!) then follow them on Facebook to keep up to date about when there are any special offers like 20% off or free delivery.
E.L.F Studio Eyebrow Kit - £3.50 - This is a useful little kit which is the perfect size to pop in your handbag. I have it in medium, with me having light skin but dark hair this is the perfect colour. I don't use this daily but I do use it to fill my brows in for a night out.
Witch Tinted Moisturiser - I havent been using this daily so I can't vouch for it's blemish fighting properies but it is a good tinted moisturiser. It gives more coverage than you would usually expect from a tinted moisturiser. The only bad thing about it is the lack of shades available - you have to get light or medium so you could probably get a better shade to suit you from a product like the natural collection tinted moisturisers but light does fine for me :)

Body
Mama K's Coconut Body Souffle - This is something a friend's mum, the lovely Carolyn, made. It didn't have a name so I made one up! This moisturiser feels moussey when you first get it out of the tub then as soon as you start to rub it in it 'melts' into the skin. It really is the best moisturiser! I put it on at night and the coconut smell is still going strong in the morning. I love coconut :) Unfortunately this isn't available to buy yet but if/when it is I will definately be letting you know!

Hope you have enjoyed this and maybe spotted some new products to try!
V xxx