Beauty Empties.

I have some beauty empties! Get the skinny on each of these products...

Birchbox, January.

January Birchbox.

Samples. I'm fairly new to the beauty world, having only just learned in the past year about proper skincare routines and how important (and enjoyable) they can be, how to apply liquid foundation most effectively and the joys of face transformation in the way of contours and crease (cringe). On my journey of beauty discovery helpful things have included blogs reviewing products so I can walk into Boots and make it look like I know what I'm looking at now, Youtube for teaching me how to clean my face properly and make it look good (cheers) and Birchbox for allowing me to try all sorts of wonders I would never find on my own. A few of my favourite things (stop singing, keep reading) I've had the chance to try with Birchbox so far have been the Egyptian Magic cream, oh my goodness it is literally magic and Laura Mercier long lash mascara - I struggle to find mascaras I like and this is my absolute daily favourite now. 

So I thought that from now on I would do a post about what I get in my monthly Birchbox, what I think of the bits etc. And because I have to rip it open as soon as it arrives at my door, the photos will be from my instagram for these posts!

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What I Want.

Burberry Coat

2014 Fashion. My new year's resolution to step outside my comfort zone definitely stretches to fashion. Being at uni in Oxford has really relaxed my style as most students dress super casually. When I first went to uni almost 3 years ago I was into 1940s style but gave it up pretty soon as I felt so overdressed wherever I went, even on nights out! Now that is all changing and I am getting back to wearing what I want, whatever I want!

REVIEW: SOAP & GLORY WISH UPON A JAR

REVIEW: SUPERFACIALIST TEA FLOWER DEEP CLEAN PORE PURIFYING MASK

REVIEW: MUA MAKEUP

REVIEW: MAYBELLINE THE FALSIES MASCARA

Maybelline The Falsies Mascara £7.99

I bought this mascara after I'd seen Tanya Burr loving it in many of her makeup tutorials. While I like the shape of the wand and the pigment of the product, I don't really like anything else about it...

But not because it isn't good! I think it's a very good mascara, it lengthens, it volumizes it gives you big beautiful lashes..

but it gives me far too full-on, almost spidery lashes. This is rather unfortunate, because I like the product in the tube. It might be the brush, it might be the consistency of the product and it might be a combo of the two, but it doesn't get on with my lashes.

The thing about my lashes is that they are naturally VERY long already and I could probably get away with clear mascara everyday if I wanted to. Having lashes like this is nice and not-so-nice, because even if I don't want any more length I still need some assistance in separating my lashes out and giving them a bit of definition, which this mascara just isn't designed for!

Can anyone suggest a mascara for me that will separate, define and perhaps curl my lashes rather than just a lengthening/ volumizing one?

REVIEW: THIS WORKS DEEP SLEEP PILLOW TALK SET

This Works Deep Sleep Pillow Talk Set £22

Hello! I originally bought this because I started having terrible trouble sleeping when the warmer weather bumbled in and brought all kinds of hay fever with it, which basically knocked me off me feet as I already suffer most of the year with it, but because our summer was delayed by the cold weather all the different kinds of pollen that would usually be released at different times hit us all at once, lovely! This meant I practically had a cold for about 2 weeks due to hayfever and this kept me up all night as I couldn't breathe properly. I have recently discovered a good tip for long, hard-suffering hay fever sufferers, which I will make a little blog post about!

The pillow spray smells like lavender and is lovely, although I don't know if it helps me to actually sleep any better! For this reason I wouldn't buy the pillow spray on its own to help me sleep. 

On the other hand, the rollerball stress less I have found very helpful! It says to roll it onto your wrists and inhale it when you are lying in bed gong to sleep. I did this at first but to be honest with you I found it a bit annoying having to keep my wrists at nose-level so opted to roller it straight under my nose instead! It just made more sense..

It can be described as a posh version of Vicks vapour rub that I was always given as a child. It smells similar but is much nicer because it isn't at all sticky and it really does the trick to help you breathe easier!

I would consider buying the rollerball again, but I think this was a one-off purchase because usually I'm a pretty deep sleeper by myself! It did come in handy when I was camping recently though and I spoke about it in this video!

Other products I would love to try from the This Works range are the Skin Deep Dry Leg Oil as I get horrendously itchy legs, especially while I'm asleep and wake up with awful scratch marks on my legs, oops! I find oils help this, though. And the In Transit Muscle Therapy as this week I am aching all over from doing a tonne of gardening and cleaning because I'm getting ready to move out of my house! 

What do you think of the brand? What is your favourite product?

REVIEW: CREST WHITESTRIPS.

Hello! I've been quite rubbish lately because I have been bouncing all over the country and going on holiday etc so blogging took a backseat but I am going to try and put that right today with a few posts to get back into the swing of things and start planning some posts to keep content regular!

Today I am reviewing the infamous Crest Whitestrips. I have heard a lot about these and have watched a few video reviews on them quite a while ago now and had always been in two minds about trying them out myself. This was mainly because in some of the reviews people had said they had quite a bit of pain and sensitivity when using these, which really put me off because I already have quite sensitive teeth and I don't want tooth pains for days, because the people said their pain lasted ages!

On the 'pro' list, however, were the actual whitening results, which were apparently amazing and long-lasting. In the end I decided to try it for myself and bought just 3 strips (each with an upper and lower strip, as pictured above) just to try it out, rather than spending a lot on more and either not using them or them not working! 

I bought them from an eBay seller who sells them as separate strips in different amounts, which is really good, especially for me as I can't get them in the shops here in the UK, I will link the seller here.

So, the result. I was actually really pleased with them, they are pretty easy to use, you put them on for just half an hour and after the 2nd time I used them I noticed a difference and definitely after the third time. I will be buying more soon to keep going as at the moment my teeth are less yellow, but not super white. I don't want my teeth to look unnaturally white so I'll stop using them once I have achieved the nice 'pearly' white look, I think 3-6 more uses should do it. 

I would recommend them if you want to whiten your teeth, but perhaps not to use them every day, because the only time I had more sensitivity than normal was when I used them two days in a row. I do think, though, that the experience will be a bit different for everyone and I have been lucky to get on well with this product! 

Have you used these or any other whitening treatments? What do you think?

REVIEW: LOOK BEAUTY MAKEUP: FOUNDATION & PRIMER

Look Beauty Airbrush Base £12

Look Beauty Perk Me Up Primer £12

Hello! Today I'm reviewing a couple of things from the Look Beauty range found in Superdrug. I shall begin with the foundation or 'Airbrush Base' as they have named it. I'm not keen on this one, especially for the £12 price tag, which is at the heftier end of drugstore/highstreet foundations. Luckily for me I made these purchases when they were in a half price sale so only paid £6. I hadn't used this one for a while as I've been loyal to my Rimmel Wake Me Up foundation, but this morning I used both the primer and foundation together. The foundation didn't give me a satisfactory coverage for the current state of my skin, I've got a bit of redness on my cheeks and this didn't help to hide it and didn't give the coverage I've gotten used to lately overall for my face. The colour range isn't the best, I think there is only 4/5 shades but for me the light one matches quite well, so that is one redeeming feature! On it's own this foundation is quite matte but teamed with the primer beforehand gives a more dewy effect, although I wasn't too keen as it looked too shiny and felt a bit tacky in places. 

The primer I actually quite like, usually I'm not too fussed by primers and only own one other from MUA as I feel they all do pretty much the same job no matter what you spend. This 'Perk Me Up' while coming in a cheaper plastic packaging as opposed to the glass foundation bottle is rather nice. It gives you a similar effect as Rimmel Wake Me Up but without the shimmery trait. Although slightly scarily pink-looking it blends in really naturally and is nice to apply foundation over the top of. Overall, I wouldn't purchase either again, especially at full price, because I just think my money could be better spent elsewhere. 

Have you tried these, or any other, Look Beauty products? What is your verdict? ...I think the blushers look quite nice...

MY TRAVEL MAKEUP BAG.

Hello! As I am currently travelling about I thought I would share with you the contents of my travel makeup bag!

REVIEW: GOOD THINGS FACE THE DAY MOISTURISER

Good Things Face the Day SPF15 Moisturiser £7.99 

I have been using this moisturiser for a while and have been really loving it. First off, it smells amazing, so fruity but not overpowering, just really delicious! The smell lasts quite well too. The main reason that I love this moisturiser though is because of how well it does its job. I find it really difficult to describe what this moisturiser is like, but I will try my best! My skin, while it doesn't look too dry most of the time, does love to just suck up moisture so that usually I would put a moisturiser on and 10 seconds later my skin would feel as dry as it did before I put moisturiser on. My skin is greedy for moisture! However, when I rub this moisturiser into my skin it goes quite wet, it is a fairly liquid-y solution, but then absorbs really quickly. At this point any other moisturiser would cease to be on my skin and I'd feel dry again but this one sort of retains itself on the skin so that it feels dewy but not greasy and really lovely and soft. When you rub it in, it goes from thin and easy to rub in quickly to feeling thicker and almost glue-like (but not gross!) as it absorbs but retains on the skin. That is the best way I can describe it! Basically, it is a really good one if you have dry skin, it is really nice under my make up and doesn't leave me looking or feeling oily or greasy. I will definitely repurchase this one as it is the best one I have found in years to suit my skin and the price tag isn't too bad at all! I have also been using the Good Things Fresh Start Creamy Cleanser and will be doing a review of that soon. 

Let me know if this is one you have tried and if you liked it and what other moisturisers I should try based on this glowing review (pun intended)!

REVIEW: TOPSHOP CREAM BLUSH

Topshop Cream Blush £6

I had been after a cream blush for ages and for some reason I just couldn't find any! I got this Topshop one because I had heard good things about their cream blushers. Of course since I bought this they have been popping up absolutely everywhere, and now I want to try the Bourjois ones so if you have tried those let me know what you think of them in the comments! Back to the Topshop one now, though! I am in two minds about this actually, as on the one hand it is a lovely colour and a nice consistency/formula (whatever you want to call it) but on the other hand it is VERY pigmented, which has made blending it in a struggle. Now I think that problem is only down to it being such a bright colour so it will always take a lot of blending to achieve a natural finish on the skin, but also I think a cram blush brush would make such a big difference, not particularly for the blush itself but in terms of controlling the colour. If you got this in one of the other colour such as this 'Rose' one it would probably be fine to blend with fingers. Overall I like it and would like to try the Rose shade because I think that looks like such a pretty colour!

Let me know what you think of this blusher or cream blushers in general in the comments (:

REVIEW: e.l.f 32pc EYESHADOW PALETTE IN 'BRIGHTS'

e.l.f 32pc Eyeshadow Palette £9 £5

The top strip of browns & golds is my go-to for everyday make up.

These grey & black ones are grey for the top lash line when you don't fancy eyeliner & I use the lighter brown to fill in eyebrows.

3 gorgeous colours on their own or blended together.

The first one to hit pan! My favourite for base all over lid colour, day or night. 

I bought this a while ago, maybe a month and a half ago, because I had a very limited eyeshadow collection that only had brown/gold colours. I wanted something with a variety of colours that wouldn't be for everyday but so that I always had the option of a quirky colour, should I need it. This palette definitely serves that purpose! While it does have a lot of great everyday colours, there are some vibrant ones for more special occasions. A lot of them are shimmery, but there are a few matte ones too, I'm not particularly more into one or the other, I tend to go through stages of loving matte eyeshadow or shimmery, currently I'm loving shimmer. The pigmentation of these shadows are really good, meaning you don't need loads of it, which is good because they are quite small. e.l.f also do this palette in 2 other colour sets, one being 'Natural' which looks really nice but they didn't have in stock when I bought mine. The only one left in stock now is 'Everyday', which isn't surprising when looking at the bargain price of just £5 reduced from £9. I paid £5 for mine and it is totally worth it and great value for money, although I don't know whether I would have bought it for £9. It is a decent size, I chuck it into my Zara Office City Bag when I'm going to stay at my boyfriend's house and it has never broken on the outside or inside. It comes with a double ended sponge applicator, which I haven't used because I just don't like them, even before I had brushes for eyeshadow I used to prefer to use a clean finger to a sponge applicator! I would recommend these palettes, assuming they are all the same quality and would buy other e.l.f eyeshadows in the hope that they are similar to these. Definitely one of the best e.l.f products I have bought and I have bought quite a few, because it is so cheap I tend to buy things from them to try out before buying similar products from more expensive brands to see if I would use it often enough/ if I like it! 

I hope this was helpful and I have been thinking of making a video about my best & worst e.l.f products as I have found that I either really love or hate their products, it can be quite hit and miss! Let me know if you would like to see that sometime in the next few weeks! 

TODAY'S MAKE UP

Rimmel London Wake Me Up Foundation £8.99

Topshop Cream Blush £6

This is just a quick post of my make up today because I like it! Quite a simple one using Rimmel Wake Me Up foundation and Topshop cream blush with a simple black liquid line. I am still getting used to cream blush, I wanted it for ages because I though I would love it but I'm finding it difficult to apply 'nicely' if you know what I mean?! I tend to blend this one a lot because it is SO bright when you first dot it on! Perhaps a cream blusher brush would be easier than fingers?

What do you think of cream blushers?