Beauty Haul Vol 1

So yesterday after a whole day of not being able to eat, a lot of napping and drinking plenty of water, I was so bored of feeling ill that I went and had a little splurge.

Half asleep I went onto sephora.com and thought it'd be a good idea to review these "tester" beauty kits I see on there all the time. The first one was LORAC Rockin' Red Hot Lip Gloss Collection; until now I had never tried a LORAC product so I'm excited to receive and review these lip glosses. This kit was on sale at sephora.com for $20 (US dollars) with originalprice tag at $27. I thought it was a good deal considering LORAC lip glosses are between $10 and $15.

Next up was Benefit Cosmetics Feelin' Dandy Lip & Cheek Kit which contains a Posetint (never tried that before), Dandelion blush (also a first time for me), Highbeam (have tried, haven't learned how to use properly), Ultra Plush Dandelion Lip Gloss (also a first). I'm looking forward to reviewing these. I do have the option to go to a shop in town and try Benefit Cosmetics products but because of import costs; the price tag tends to go way too high for my liking. This kit however was only $28.

And finally; the Smashbox Try Kit. I have tried several Smashbox products in the past and their primers are by far my favorite ones out there. This kit contains: Photo Finish Foundation Primer, Photo Finish Eyelid Primer, Limitless Eyeliner, Full Exposure Mascara, & a Lip Enhancing Lip Gloss. The kit cost a total of $19, which I also found ideal to test the whole range.

I also got a free sample of Bobbi Brown's CC Cream which I had never even heard of.

I will be reviewing all of these products individually in separate "Kit" posts that way I don't have to flood you with my ramblings.

On a completely different day a couple weeks ago I made another purchase, a gift from me to me. I have gone through quite a few flat irons and curling tongs since I moved to the UK. Either couldn't afford a higher end one before or just never got around to reading reviews or looking into what would suit me best, so finally I took the plunge and invested in a NuMe curling wand and a NuMe Hair Straightner. Fortunately one of the beauty bloggers I follow on youtube had a discount code which she shared with her followers and I got a $120 discount off my order.

This too I will be reviewing as soon as I receive the package (USPS and MPS have been a tad slow lately) but I am very much looking forward to reviewing these products for you.

Empties Vol 1

Hi! Glad to be typing again :) I was going to start doing my empties on a monthly basis but I came to realize; I don't go through products fast enough to actually do that LOL. So I will be posting empties as soon as I have at least 5 of them and you'll be getting my opinion on them.

First empty: Mac's Fluidline Gel Liner in Blacktrack. Lives up to the hype, I can only think of one negative thing to say about it and that would be that it dries out a little tiny bit sooner than other gel liners I have used. In its defense; I used it almost every day for as long as I had it unlike the ones I've been using lately which I might use once a week. For some reason I've become this "ANTI MAKEUP" makeup junkie, how? I love makeup, I love playing with it, I love to use it, but I avoid it as much as possible. During the week (when I go to work) I'll put on a full face of makeup but I avoid eye makeup and on the weekends I don't even bother with BB Cream. And I'm going off on a tangent, sorry!

Fluidline in Blacktrack

Second Empty: Soap & Glory's One Heck of a Blot. I love this pressed translucent powder, I had been using Revlon's Photoready Translucent Pressed powder prior to this and it looked great in person but I had to run away from photography, no pics for me! It does that thing some finishing powders do that contain a lot of silica (not sure if I'm right on the ingredient) but with a camera flash it lookes like you're either a ghost or you've just done cocaine, and that's not good! I would buy this one again and again if they had it at my local Boots, but sadly they don't :(

Third empty: Estee Lauder Double Wear Stay In Place Pressed Powder. This has to be one of the first "high end" powders I ever bought along with MAC's Mineralize Pressed Powder Foundation, both really good, amazing finish. Estee Lauder was a bit on the cakey side if I wasn't careful with my application. I have repurchased this on several occasions but oh sadness... Since I decided to cut back on my office hours, my income has reduced in size quite considerably so higher end makeup is beginning to be out of my budget. Oh well, you win some and you loose some, I do have to admit I am way happier now that I work less hours and stress doesn't get to me as much anymore. Totally worth it. (And there goes me off on a tangent again)

Empty number four: Estee Lauder's Double Wear Stay-in-Place Foundation. I loved this foundation for the longest time but shortly after repurchasing I realized my face hates liquid foundations. For the longest time I thought I was just that acne prone skin kinda gal but OH SURPRISE! For some random reason I stopped using foundation and stuck to JUST my BB Cream for a month and TADAAAA! Acne gone. I still use liquid foundation on very rare occasions; the Air Force Ball was one, new year's eve, Halloween... that one doesn't count, I was a Mexican Sugar Skull.

Loved my makeup this night!

Fifth empty: Superdrug's Artificial Nail Remover (couldn't find a link). This lil guy is a life saver. On my spare time I do Shellacs, acrylic nails, makeup and hair for special occasions for girls that know me from work, friends, etc. I love this as a hobby and I enjoy myself when I do it (one more reason for me to cut back on my office hours). So I used to purchase the elegant touch nail remover at Boots for nearly £3 a bottle, one day I walked into Superdrug and stumbled upon a bottle that looked just like it and £3 for 2 bottles. I know it makes me sound cheap or stingy if you like but for someone who goes through at least a bottle every month and a half, it does save me a lot in the long run. 

Sixth empty! TheFaceShop's Green Tea Mild Body Wash. I loved this body wash, I got it as a free sample from A-Poly seller on Amazon.com. Great customer's service and always sending free samples, this was a part of a 3 piece luxury size kit. Love the smell, the texture, it doesn't dry out your skin horribly. All around lovely and perfect size for travelling around. 

Empty number seven: Laura Ashley's Shower Cream. I wish I could buy a huge tub of this all year around but it was a part of a Christmas box my mom got me at Boots. The smell is soooooooo mesmerizing.

(I forgot to take a picture of the mascara btw)

Honorary mention in the hall of shame: Pantene's Smooth Shampoo... says to fight and control frizz. 2 weeks after using this (I wash my hair twice a week) my hair was horrible!!! Frizzy, dry, dead. I needed a haircut ASAP. I know I've dyed my hair a lot, but I've always been very careful to not push my hair to those extremes EVER. I had blue hair quite a few years ago and my hair was horribly burnt and dead and dry, so I never want to put my hair through that again. 

Hope some of my comments help you in your moments of need when shopping, I know most are positive reviews but I honestly prefer to tell you about the good things in a product than to complain endlessly about the negative stuff.

:)

Soap & Glory Girl-O-Whirl Review

I have only just recently began to broaden my makeup horizons. I still remember the first time I bought my first mascara over $10; it was the summer of 2012 and my boyfriend had taken me to Mykonos, Greece as a present and on our way back I stopped by the beauty Duty Free area and just stood there and stared at Lancôme's Hypnôse Doll Eyes mascara. Approximately 3 minutes after my purchase, I curled my lashes and BAM! Fell in love.

Before that I was familiar only with higher end eye shadows, I had a tiny collection of MAC, a palette by Too Faced and a couple of Estée Lauder products, and a lot of expensive ass skin care products from all over the world (I'm a fan/junkie of Korean skin care products) .

Now that I've been living in the UK for over 3 years I have gotten into makeup a lot more. There is far much more to pick from, high street brands are known for being just as good as the high end cosmetics.

I've come to notice Soap & Glory gaining popularity in America lately, I've seen it ridiculously over-priced at Sephora.com but I don't blame Sephora of course, it's like trying to get San Francisco's Benefit products over here (I had a mini heart attack when I saw their boi-ing concealer at nearly £18 which is $30). My first Soap & Glory makeup purchase was the One Heck of a Blot face powder and I have been hooked ever since.

Over Christmas time Boots had several beauty and spa gift ideas that I was tempted on getting for myself... selfish you say? Not at all teehee! I merely was thinking about reviewing all of them to help my readers/followers decide what to purchase and what to avoid. Good save!

Anyway! I went to Boots today for a quick browse and stumbled upon the leftovers at 70% off! I went straight for Soap & Glory's "Girl-O-Whirl" set because I wanted to try a little more than just their face powder which I already loved. I had already gotten curious about their Sexy Mother Pucker glosses and their brow shaper/highlighter.

So here it is:

 


And what it contains:

Here is the package description of what it contains.

The mascara comes in black, the brush isn't anything extraordinary but it's good for and everyday use mascara. I don't think it's water proof (doesn't state otherwise anywhere on the packaging.

This one has to be my fav. The Sexy Mother Pucker Gloss Stick in Nudist, which is a beautiful sheer pink gloss. Smells of sweets and goes on like butter. It feels great on the lips, they feel moisturized and girly :) 

The eye shadows aren't really worth talking about. Top left very light beige color is actually very well pigmented
and serves well as a base color to prime your lid. The rest of the colors were very sheer
and didn't build up very well aside from the matte grey at the bottom right.
And as you can see the eye shadow brush was an embarrassment, almost as terrible as my grammar. 

The Solar Powder multi-shade bronzer was actually quite lovely,
a little on the shimmery side for my liking but I would still use it.

And this is the Glow All Out Luminizing Face Powder which to me looked more like an adorable peachy blusher. It too is a tad shimmery and sadly for me (acne scarring and all that shit) I can't really use shimmery things on my face without looking like a bruised peach when using too much shimmer.


Also it comes with 6 panned lipsticks which are identical to the previous year's lipstick gift set Boots offered.
I'll upload a picture tomorrow with both side to side.

Sounds great right? WRONG!!! There is one unforgivable flaw with this gift set.

THE PACKAGING! It's driving me insane. It comes in a large over-sized zip bag which would be great if the mount where they glued all the eye shadows and lipsticks on wasn't made of the flimsiest plastic on earth. I was terrified to take out the mascara and gloss in fear of breaking all the eye shadows and face powders!

I honestly think this gift set would have been worth those £40 YES 40 pounds if the packaging would've had a bit more invested into it. Like Tarte's or Benefit's cardboard packaging, it's earth friendly and "hellava" lot more sturdy!

I know, I seem far too upset for something so petty BUT in my defense; our house hasn't had heating for 6 days now and cheap ass plastic isn't worth 40 quid! 

I'm out, I need to get a hold of this damn plumber and kill him. It's Winter! In England! Dafuq!