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?

March Favourites

I haven't really bought a lot of beauty products this month, so my favourites are a bit sparse! It was my birthday on the 20th, and I mainly received books, dvds, and games for my new Nintendo 3DS. I'm not complaining, it's just meant that things on the beauty side haven't really featured much for me this month!

I've definitely been loving this Nip + Fab Viper Venom Eye Fix. You can see my full review here, and it has basically become a new daily staple. Not only does it feel super refreshing on application, it also visibly reduces my dark circles. I'm super pleased that I was introduced to this by Love Me Beauty this month! You can get the Nip + Fab Viper Venom Eye Fix for £14.95 here. 

Having finally finished up my Peaches and Clean face wash, I've been able to crack open this Urban Veda Radiance exfoliating facial polish. I really like Urban Veda, I've used their moisturisers before and loved them, so getting this sample in a recent Birchbox made me really happy! This face wash leaves my skin super smooth, and I really like the scent. It's quite floral but also a bit fruity, and quite hard to describe! If you've used their products before, no doubt you'll know what I mean. You can get it here for £8.99.

I've definitely been loving Benefit this month. The Porefessional has been tried and tested by me this month, and you can see how it did against Dr Brandt's Pore no More here. I know that a lot of people find the Porefessional to be a bit hit and miss, but I've found that it works really well for my skin, and I just absolutely love it. The Porefessional is available here for £24.50.

 I've also picked myself up a few extra Benefit goodies in the form of these gorgeous eyeshadows, a lovely blush, and a super girly lip gloss. You can read a more in-depth review about these here. I'm particularly in love with the lip gloss and the powder eyeshadow. The packaging is totally gorgeous too! All of these goodies are currently available on the Benefit website.

Have you tried any of my March Favourites? What do you think of them?



Dr Brandt Pores no More vs. Benefit Porefessional

I've only recently become aware of the magic of the Porefessional from Benefit. I received a sample at Christmas in a set with some other Benefit goodies and another sample from Birchbox and since then, I've been addicted. I recently received a sample of the Dr Brandt Pores no More in the March Birchbox, and decided to compare the two!

A full-size tube of the Porefessional will set you back £24.50 for 22ml. I only have my diddy sample sizes, but you can get an idea of the cute packaging which has become the standard for Benefit. The Porefessional claims to 'quickly minimise the appearance of pores & fine lines for smoother-than-smooth skin! Translucent, oil-free formula complements all skintones and helps makeup stay put. Contains a Vitamin E derivative, known to protect skin from free radicals.' Other than the part about Vitamin E, and all skintones, I can definitely agree with this. Personally I'm quite happy to slap on a bit of the Porefessional, and nothing else. It makes my skin look smooth and healthy, and it's a fantastic base for blush. The last time I wore it, I was going for a job interview and it was a really hot day. Even though I had quite sweaty skin due to being hot and nervous, my make up stayed 100% in place and my skin stayed looking great, which helped me to be a tiny bit more confident.

Dr Brandt hasn't had the gruelling trial of having to hold my make up in place on a hot day when I was super stressed, but it has had to hold my make up during a work day. A full-size tube of Pores no More will set you back £39 for 30ml. The texture and colour of this product is very similar to the Porefessional, which I always think is little bit like peanut butter! I have found that this product is quite oily, and after leaving it to stand for a few days, there was quite a lot of liquid that needed to be squeezed out of the tube before I could get any of the actual primer out.



Overall, I think the Porefessional is the winner for me. It always provides fantastic results, and compared to the £39 price tag for the Dr Brandt Pores no More primer, it's relatively cheap! I think once I get through my diddy samples, I will definitely be looking to buy a full-sized tube. 

Have you tried either of these primers? Which would be your favourite?

Birchbox-January 2014

It's finally here! After two emails and almost a month of waiting, my January Birchbox has finally arrived. Unfortunately, this has probably been my worst experience with a beauty box to date.

 

I had already decided that I was going to subscribe to Birchbox in January, but seeing that they were going to be including a Benefit product really spurred me on! I waited a couple of weeks and began seeing other people receive their boxes, but mine still hadn't arrived. I complained to Birchbox and they said they would send a replacement, which arrived over a week later.

The items in the box do not correspond to the surveys I have been given to fill out. I was meant to receive: Philip Kingsley Elasticizer, Laura Mercier body butter, Delarom Aquaconfort Mask, Benefit's Porefessional (which I did actually receive) and Premae Instant Renewal Body Oil. I'm not too bothered about this (apart from I will obviously be filling out surveys for things I haven't received) as the only thing I would have been really interested to try would be the Laura Mercier body butter. I'm just kind of irritated that I've obviously been sent a reserve box because Birchbox didn't plan ahead and think about how many extra subscribers they would have, after advertising that January would feature a Benefit product. Extremely poor planning on their part. I did eventually receive compensation for all the hanging around in the form of some extra points for my account, which I'm very grateful for!

Anyway, onto the contents of the box! The box comes with a super cute drawstring bag inside, and an adorable little booklet with ideas for tiny tweaks for the new year. Obviously this is kind of redundant, as it's now February. But still a nice touch.  
 

First up, Benefit's Porefessional. I already knew I'd be happy to get this in the box, as I've got a sample in my 'How to Look the Best at Everything' set. It is a small sample at 7.5ml, but if I like using this enough as an every day product, I can see myself purchasing the full size.

I also received yet another hand cream. This is the Lavera Basis Senstive cream, which features shea butter and almond oil. It smells and feels quite similar to sun cream, and it doesn't seem to absorb into my skin very well, leaving quite a greasy feeling. I'm not really a fan.

I did receive a Philip Kingsley product, in the form of this moisture balancing conditioner. I'm quite interested to try this out, certain conditioners can make my hair quite greasy though, so I'm hoping this will be a good one!

One of my favourite items from this box is this cute Beekind body lotion. A portion of the proceeds from this product goes toward supporting Honey Bee and sustainable pollination research which is super important. This smells fantastic, very lemony! Just testing it on the back of my hand, it sinks in very quickly and leaves behind that gorgeous scent. Very nice.

I also received a sample of Blanc Cachemire's Crème de Jour Protectrice. This came with a little card explaining in English how to use it and the ingredients as the packaging is entirely in French. This is a moisturiser, and I can't seem to spot any explanations as to why it's so popular, but apparently it's really big over in Paris at the moment!

Finally as a little extra, we received a little sachet of miso soup.This isn't really my sort of thing, so I gave it to a friend to try and she really enjoyed it. I like the idea of receiving mini food samples in boxes, I think it adds something a bit different and more lifestyle oriented, but hopefully next time it'll be something that I'll like!

The January Birchbox isn't a terrible box. These are all samples I can use or give away, but I have just been left with a bit of a bad taste in my mouth over having to complain and how long my box took to arrive. I think I'll stick around to see what February's box has in store, but if there's no improvement I may very well end up just subscribing to Love Me Beauty!

How to Look the Best at Everything Set

So this post is going to be a bit photo heavy, but I'm so excited about this set! Having not tried Benefit's make up before, this Christmas has been a complete bonanza! First off, how gorgeous is the packaging? The outer box is designed to look like a book, and it particularly reminds me of victorian manuals and guides. Clearly I was always going to love this.

 

 

 

 

I requested the set in the lightest shade available, as I'm pretty pale skinned. The set comes with a miniature Porefessional balm, a sample bottle of the Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow foundation in Cheers to Me Champagne, two Boi-ing concealers, and the Me Vain? Champagne powder. There's also a handy Tips and Tricks book attached to the lid of the set.

 

 

I'm going to take you through applying the set as laid out in the Tips and Tricks book, beware, there's a scary make up free picture coming up!

Cue screams of horror.

So, I started with no make up, and a clean face. The first step is to apply the Porefessional Pro balm. This feels and looks like peanut butter, which was a little bit worrying! But it smoothes onto the skin really nicely.

With the Porefessional Pro balm applied.

Already there's a slight blurring effect. It smoothed my skin pretty well. The next step is the Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow foundation. I applied this with a brush, as thats what I'm most comfortable with, but I'm sure using your fingertips is just as effective. I got this absolutely everywhere when I first used the pump though, go steady with it! I was quite nervous about applying this as I thought that it might be a bit too dark. Looking at the selection of foundations, I'd have probably gone for one of the ivory shades.

I was pretty pleasantly surprised though. It applied really nicely and blended well with the brush. I should really have moisturised first though, as it did cling to some dry patches of skin on my face.

With foundation.

The next step is the Boi-ing concealer. The Tips and Tricks book recommends blending these two shades together to create a custom concealer. I blended them on the back of my hand and then dabbed them under my eyes.

I'm not really sure if I applied enough, but I still felt that my under eye circles were quite visible.

After applying Boi-ing concealer.

The final step is the Me Vain? powder. I dusted this over my face with the brush provided, and I definitely think that this is the perfect finishing touch.

Below is the final look! Overall I'm pretty chuffed with this set. It's a great introduction to Benefit's make up, and enables you to use sample sizes of the more expensive products to get a feel for what you like and don't like. I think that the set provides a pretty decent coverage, but I did find it to be quite a bit heavier than the daily foundation that I'm used to. I would probably be more likely to use this set for a night out.

You can purchase the How to Look the Best at Everything set in Light here for £25.50.