Superdrug Haul - featuring Makeup Revolution, Barry M and Maybelline!

I've been keeping my eyes peeled and waiting for my local Superdrug to bring out their Makeup Revolution stands, so I was pretty excited when I popped in last week and spotted some of newer I ♥ Makeup palettes and lipsticks. Obviously, I couldn't just walk out without having a quick look at the Barry M stands as well...

 

I've liked the look of the Aquarium polishes for ages but hadn't thought to buy any. Mermaid and Pacific jumped out at me straight away, I'm such a sucker for blue polishes. Pacific has a gorgeous metallic sheen to it, and Mermaid contains shiny gold, green and blue particles. I can't wait to try it out as a top coat for some of my other polishes!

I also spotted some of the new Maybelline Baby Lips Electro shades. I went for Strike a Rose which adds a bright pink tint to my lips, and smells like sour skittles. I haven't tried on for long enough to see how moisturising it is, but it definitely feels comfortable on my lips.

After seeing some reviews of Colour Overdose from I ♥ Makeup on various blogs, I knew I was going to have to add it to my collection at some point! It's a really vibrant coral-red, and I love it! I wasn't sure it would suit me at first but now I'm head over heels for it. Just make sure your lips are well hydrated beforehand though, these lipsticks cling to any dry patches!

I also couldn't resist picking up the I ♥ Makeup I am in Love palette, I think these are a really clever idea. You've got six eyeshadows, 2 mattes and 4 shimmers, and a lipstick all in a nifty little palette with a mirror.

The top row of shadows are lighter pinks, the darker shimmery pink is just beautiful.

And here we have the bottom row, the darker shadow has little bits of purpley glitter in it but I couldn't catch it very well. I really like that matte pink as well, it's got much more pigmentation to it than some of the mattes in Makeup Revolution's other palettes.

Unfortunately, the lipstick lets the palette down a little bit. It's a very pale pink and it really washes me out so I probably won't be using it. If it had just been a little bit darker it would have been perfect!

Now that I know Makeup Revolution have a stand in my local Superdrug I'll definitely be popping in more often!

July Favourites

 July has whizzed by and I'm starting to get very nervous about the first part of my degree with the OU! My study texts have arrived and everything seems to be falling into place, scary! Having said that, I've had some great products to play around with this month. 

I've been absolutely loving I ♥ Makeup this month, the Death by Chocolate palette has been gracing my eyelids nearly every day with it's lovely shimmery neutrals! I can't get enough of it. I've also been really enjoying playing around with my Lip Geek lipsticks, Cherry Bomb is still my favourite shade out of the three I own, but I might end up looking to expand my collection soon!

July was also the month that I discovered Memebox! I've already reviewed two of their boxes, and I've got plenty more on the way. This Aloe Vera gel from the Aloe Vera Superbox has been a life saver this month. The UK has had some seriously hot weather and being someone who doesn't deal with the heat well, I've loved being able to put this in the fridge and then smother myself with it!

I've also finally managed to get hold of some of the summer Barry M Gelly shades and I am loving Kiwi and Damson! They look great together or on their own, and are the usual quality you would expect from Barry M. You can find them at your nearest Boots or Superdrug, I was lucky enough to nab these in a 3 for 2 deal, bargain!

What do you think of my favourites? Are there any that you would like to try?

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?

Love Me Beauty Box - June 2014

After last month's Love Me Beauty box went off on a bit of a lifestyle tangent, I was interested to see where the June box would go. This month there seems to have been more of an emphasis on make up which I was happy to see, and I decided to go with option 3 (again).

To get the bad stuff out of the way first, I'm really disappointed with the shade of nail polish I received. I haven't tried any nail polishes from Nyx before, so I was pretty excited to see a shimmery gold colour pictured for option 3. However, it does say that colours may vary and unfortunately I've picked up a rather boring brown shade called 'Truffle'. I really don't like it, and I don't think I'll be able to rehome it easily.

With that out of the way, on to the good stuff! I received my second Montagne Jeunesse masque from a beauty box, this is a peel off formula with black seaweed. I have a lot of masques at the moment that have a 'clay' type formula that set on your face, so I'm intrigued to try a peel off one! I might be busting this out on Friday after work as a bit of a treat.

Initially, the colour of this lipstick from ModelCo really put me off. It looks so dark! But once applied, I actually really liked it. It feels quite creamy and comfortable on my lips and the mirror on the side is a really cute touch too!

I also received the Define-fx mascara from Beauty UK which is another brand I haven't tried before. The wand is exactly what I want from a mascara, not too big and unwieldy, with the smaller plastic bristles. I've had a quick go with this and it definitely defined my lashes, there was no clumping to be seen!

I also received my second Urban Veda sample for the month! This is the exfoliating version of the face wash I received from the You Beauty Discovery box. I absolutely loved that face wash, it left my skin so clean feeling and refreshed, so I'm pretty sure I'll love using this as well!

I think this was a birthday extra from Love Me Beauty, as I haven't filled out enough surveys to receive any extras yet. I like Jelly Pong Pong but I don't use eyeliners so I'll be giving this away, but a nice touch nonetheless.

I think Love me Beauty have redeemed themselves this month, I'm a little bit disappointed to only have a small sample of Urban Veda as they aren't an expensive brand and Love Me Beauty have always (in the past) provided bigger items in their boxes and that was what made me subscribe in the first place. The other items are full size though so I shouldn't really be complaining, but the value of the boxes have definitely gone down dramatically since I first started subscribing to Love Me Beauty.

What did you think to this month's box?

 

Birchbox - June 2014

Another month, another great box from Birchbox! Never have I been so glad to be resubscribed to a beauty box. Birchbox have been absolutely nailing it recently and even though I was apprehensive about a 'football' theme, they've carried it off with aplomb!

Having recently discovered OPI through my duty free bargains, I was pretty excited to see a mini bottle in the box! This is from the OPI Brazil collection and even though this isn't a shade I would have picked for myself, I actually really like it. It has a sort of carnival feel to it that fits with the theme really well.

Yves Rocher is a brand I've tried before, but I haven't tried out their make up. Initially, I thought this peachy lipstick was really not my kind of shade but once I swatched it, I immediately changed my mind. It doesn't add a full on peach colour, but it is pretty unforgiving on dry lips. It does say that it contains cherry oil to moisturise though so leaving it on for a while might do me some good!

This hair mask from Silk + Honey is pretty intriguing. It's a really decent sized sample so I should be able to get a couple of uses out of it, and it smells really nice too. I've not tried hair masks before so this is definitely something I'll be giving a go soon!

I also received a diddy sample of the Embryolisse Lait-Creme Concentre, which is an ultra soothing moisturiser, and can also be used as a make up remover and all over body moisturiser. I might give this a try on some of my dry patches to see how it handles them, French products are always pretty spot on though.

Finally, I received the Naobay body lotion. This smells really nice and I was pretty happy to see soemthing like this in my box as I 'm actually starting to run pretty low on body lotion! It's got a lovely lemony scent and contains shea butter, olive and avocado oils. 

For this months lifestyle extra we received this cute little flip flop keyring! I've already put this on my 

work keys, I think its a really nice little addition to the box.

Overall, such a good box! I feel like the samples are mainly really well sized, and everything fits the theme really well. I think this must be the third box in a row now that Birchbox have done really well in my opinion, I can't wait to see what they come up with next!

Do you subscribe to Birchbox? What did you think to this month's box?