You Beauty Discovery Box - August 2014

Another month, another You Beauty Discovery box! I was pretty excited to see the options for this month's box and it didn't disappoint!

The box came jam-packed with goodies, there were lots of extra little samples this month as well as the items I picked out from the shortlist.

The first item I picked was this cute little lipbalm from Rose and Co. I love anything with a cherry scent so I knew I would want this in my box! The balm itself doesn't have an overpoweringly cherry scent, it's more a hint than anything else. There isn't a lot of colour to the balm either.

I also picked out this Louise Galvin Sacred Locks Masque. I had a go with this yesterday and even though I didn't leave it in for the full 10 minutes they recommend, it has made my hair so shiny and soft! This is definitely going to become a weekly treat for my hair!

We also received two Jimmy Choo perfume samples, one for her and one for him. I didn't like either of them so they went straight in the bin unfortunately.

I tried out this Face D 3-Luronics serum this morning and it's probably the weirdest thing I've ever put on my face! It sinks in ever so quickly, you hardly have to rub it in at all, but it leaves a sort of rubbery layer on your skin. I found that it was quite difficult to layer my make up over as well. Not so keen on this really!

We also received a four-sided nail file. I don't tend to file my nails at all so this might be the incentive I need to start taking better care of them!

Another great value box for the £6.95 a month price tag! I can't wait to see what's on next month's shortlist.

Do you subscribe to You Beauty Discovery? What did you pick from this month's choices?

Glossybox - July 2014

This box is the last one from my 3 month subscription to Glossybox, and I'm quite glad it's come to the end of it's run! I won't be renewing, out of the three boxes I've received this one was definitely the best, but I was really not impressed by the others.

The July box promised four full-sized products, all from American brands. I love the design of the box, with the stars and stripes!

I love me a nail polish, so I was pretty chuffed to see I'd gotten a box with a full-size Color Club polish. It's not a particularly summery colour, but it fits with the theme of the box really well and I love blue polishes so I didn't mind!

I'd never tried Carmex before, but I am a total lip balm hoarder so I tried this straight away thinking I would love it. Unfortunately it's one of those tingly lip products so I wiped it off more or less straight away and binned it. Bit of a disappointment!

Besides the Carmex, this is the only other product in the box that won't get used. I don't tend to use eyeshadow primers unless I'm going out and doing a bigger eyeshadow look than I would during the day. I shall be looking to rehome this with someone!

I hadn't heard of Mary Kay before, but I love trying new mascaras, and I was pleased to see that this had a thinner plastic wand. I find these much easier to use than bigger bristley wands, and having tried this out it definitely gives my eyelashes volume and definition. I'm pretty impressed with it overall.

The final item in the box that I think most people were super excited about was the Bellapierre lipstick. There were three different shades going out in the boxes (pink, orange and red), and I landed the pink. It has a very creamy formula and felt quite comfortable when I tried it on, but I didn't wear it for an extended period of time so I'm not sure what it would be like for day to day wear.

As I said before, this is the best box I have had from Glossybox since taking out my three month subscription. There was a really nice selection of brands and different types of make up in the box, I just feel like Glossybox have lost their touch compared to other beauty box companies. 

What did you think to this month's box?

June Favourites

 June was a great month beauty-wise. Lots of new products were introduced that I'd been dying to get my hands on, as well rediscovering some old favourites!

I've completely fallen in love with the Benefit lip balms this month, they've been especially helpful in keeping my lips hydrated as I've been recovering from a cold and hayfever which has left me feeling a bit rubbish at times! Luckily I haven't had to worry about chapped lips because these balms have been keeping them soft and moisturised, with a cute tint thrown in!

I've rediscovered my love for Urban Veda this month as well. This face wash in particular has really worked wonders on my skin, and I've decided that once I've used up my Simple face wash, I'm going to stick to this one from now on! It makes my skin feel so refreshed and clean, and even though £7.99 is more than I would usually spend on a face wash, this one is good enough that I don't mind paying a little bit more.

As it was (at times) a bit hotter last month, I've decided to ditch the foundation and BB creams and just use the Porefessional on my face to blur my pores and make my skin look a bit better than normal. It feels so lightweight on my skin and I haven't had to worry about my foundation slipping during the day. 

This Starry Night palette from MUA has been a recent discovery in Superdrug and I've been loving it ever since! I love a bit of shimmer in my eyeshadows and this palette more than delivers that. I don't find them too over-shimmery for daytime wear, and they have the usual gorgeous pigmentation you'd expect from a MUA palette! 

Have you tried any of my favourites? What did you think of them?

Beauty Box Buys #2

 May was another great month for beauty boxes! Birchbox in particular did a fantastic job with their Harper's Bazaar collab, and You Beauty's theme of the CEW awards resulted in a great selection of products too. Here are my favourite products from each of the boxes I received this month.

Love Me Beauty    

I wasn't overwhelmed by the selection from Love Me Beauty this month, however there were a couple of items that I liked. The Raw Skincare lip balm in 'Rescue Me' has been a life saver at times this month. I suffer from dry lips and this balm has kept them moisturised and soft. It's also a total bargain at £2.98, and you can find it here. We also received these cute notebooks from Go Stationery. I am a bit of a stationery geek so I was pretty excited to get these in my box! The patterns are really cute and I will definitely get plenty of use out of these at work. Having a notebook handy is always a plus! You can find these cute notebooks in sets of three here for £5.

You Beauty Discovery  

This month I've totally fallen in love with the Glamglow Supermud Clearing Treatment that I was lucky enough to get my hands on when the menu went live! The mask is applied quite sparingly, and dries to be quite solid. I could really see it working on my pores and after rinsing it off my skin felt and looked incredibly clear and refreshed. It's an expensive one, but if you're feeling flush I really would recommend it! You can find it here for £39.99.

Birchbox 
 

Birchbox managed to entice me back into subscribing by producing (in my opinion) thier best box to date. It's been incredibly hard to pick just two favourites from the box, but I've just about managed it! Firstly, Benefit's 'They're Real!' mascara. This mascara really is amazing. It's not a product that's new to me, it's just a fantastic mascara and if you don't have or haven't tried it yet, get it! It's available here for £19.50. 

We also received a sample of the Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser. I was intrigued to try this out after hearing so many bloggers rave about it, and it's definitely worth the hype. My skin feels so soft and clean after using this, it's definitely better than any other cleanser I've tried! You can find it here for £14.75.

Do you own any of these products already? Which are your favourites?

Benefit Tinted Lip Balms

As soon as I heard about these I knew my bank account was in for a bashing! If you've been reading this blog for a while, you'll know that I'm a huge Benefit fan, and I have a total weakness for lip balms so the new tinted lip balms from Benefit are like a dream come true!

I decided to pick up 3 of the shades for my ever expanding Benefit collection, Lollibalm, Chachabalm and Posiebalm. They all have a slight rose scent which wears off after application, and the packaging is just beautiful. The cardboard outer boxes are adorable, and the actual casings are gorgeously shiny and look really high-end.

The tints are all exactly that, just tints. This is what really appeals to me about lip balms, the fact that you can apply them on the go without needing a mirror, whilst also adding a hint of colour to your lips. Personally I think everyone will get something a bit different from each of these shades depending on thier lip colour. 

Below I've got some on the lip swatches, just to show exactly how tinted the balms are. This first swatch is for Lollibalm, and you can just about see the slight lilac wash it gives to my lips.

Next we have Posiebalm, which has more of a pink tone to it.

And finally, Chachabalm which is probably my favourite of the three.

The balms contain mango butter to soften and hydrate your lips, and they are incredibly comfortable to wear. There's no stickiness, and you can feel your lips softening after wearing the balm for a while.

You can find all three of these balms and Benebalm (the one I didn't get, but will be adding to my collection shortly!) here for £14.50 each.

Which shade is your favourite?

Love Me Beauty Box - May 2014

This month's Love Me Beauty menu was a bit of a surprise, as they decided to take their boxes in more of a 'lifestyle' direction. Each menu contained some tea bags and notebooks as well as some beauty items. Here's what I received!

First up, the tea. I don't drink tea, so I was a little bit disappointed to see tea bags included as one of the items in each box. I do have friends who are total tea addicts though, so these will be rehomed!

I loved the idea of including notebooks in the boxes, especially with these adorable prints! I can never remember things unless I write them down, and one of these notebooks has already found it's way into my desk drawer for taking notes in meetings. I've no doubt that these will come in handy while I'm on holiday too!

 I already have a lot of pink nail polishes, so I will probably be looking to rehome this as well! It's a very vivid shade of pink, as opposed to the baby pink it's described as, but the formula seems really nice.

We also received these cute little tubs from Suti. One of them is a foot balm, and the others (I think) are for your face. They all smell very herby which I don't mind but I know not everyone will like. They seem quite oily which I am always a little bit wary about with facial creams. They don't always tend to work well with my skin but I will try them out and report back!

Finally, we received this lip balm from Raw Skincare. This was the main reason for me picking menu number 3 this month, as the other options were mint and ginger beer flavour balms. This one should be perfect for me as it's meant to be super moisturising! 

Overall, I'm happy with the box but it could have been better. Love Me Beauty have recently been slightly slipping in my opinion which is a shame because they were my absolute favourite box for a while! I still really like them, but I think they need to up their game a bit in the next couple of months otherwise I will be unsubscribing.


What did you think to this month's box? Did you prefer the lifestyle theme?

Chapstick Lipsations Berry Shimmer

I've recently had a cold, and the weather hasn't been very kind, so my lips have been really chapped and sore recently. So when I was hanging around my local Superdrug (which I do a lot, I know) and spotted this new Chapstick, I had to grab it.

This is probably one of the tastiest lip balms I've ever owned. I think the flavour is a mix of raspberry and red currants and it smells almost like Ribena! It applies with a really lovely shimmer, nothing too glittery and mental, just enough to look pretty.

After using this, my lips felt much smoother and nowhere near as sore. The Chapstick has also got really good staying power. It managed to cling on for a good 4 hours before it needed reapplying.

I think this cost me £1.99, and it was on offer. I can't seem to find it on the Superdrug website though!

On a side note, I hope you all like the blogs new layout! I'm pretty much in love with it :)

Thanks for reading :) xxx

Superdrug Haul

I felt a bit down in the dumps on Friday, so I decided to go and have a little splurge in Superdrug at lunch time!

Following my recent introduction to New York Color, I decided to have a nose at some of their other products.

 

I picked up this lip balm, which has a cute little apple set into the stick, and also has a slight apple scent. This shade is 'Applelicious Pink' and costs £2.49. I also got this top coat. It actually looks really pretty applied on its own, I thought it was quite Halloweeny! The only shade I can seem to find on Superdrugs website is this black one. These are £1.99 each.

Next up is this mascara from Collection. I was mainly sucked in by the awesome packaging and font design on this, but I'm excited to give the mascara a go too! This was £3.99, and is available here.

Finally, I grabbed the new Sleek blusher in Antique. This is such a gorgeous dusky shade, with a slight glitter to it. This was £4.49, but I can't seem to spot it on Superdrugs website. It's available from Sleeks website, here.

And as an added bonus, one of my friends bought a duplicate of this Sally Hansen nail polish, so I've bagged another mint green to play around with! This shade is called 'Jaded', and is available here for £6.99.

Thanks for reading :) xxx