May 2014 Favourites!

It's time for my May Favourites! I've got some real crackers to share with you this month, and no repeated products from the last couple of months either. I felt like I discovered and re-discovered some new things over May.

 

Simple Vital Vitamin Day Cream (review)

 

I have been trying to use up my old tub of this Day Cream for a while, and by the time I finished it I realised how much I like it. So much so that I went out and got another one and i've been loving it a lot this month. I have been having a mad eczema flare up over May and still suffering now and this Simple cream, as well as the second one have been helping somewhat and are what I turn to when other things are making me react at the moment. A gorgeous light moisturiser for day time.
 

Simple Vital Vitamin Night Cream (review)

 

Linking on from the Day Cream, I have also been using the Simple Night Cream at night time. It is thicker than the Day Cream as you would expect, but it soaks in quickly and in the morning my skin isn't dry at all. My first ever night cream that i've tried and i'm loving it.

 

Rimmel Kate Moss Lipstick Shade '16' (review)

 

I've been going through a bit of a coral pink lipstick phase at the moment. And I realised I have a lot of lipsticks that are a similar colour, and I felt I had been neglecting this one a lot since I got it, which is a shame as it is a gorgeous colour! Perfect pink coral colour, very moisturising and lasts ages on the lips. Also cheap as chips to buy too. I've been wearing it a lot in May, and will continue to for the rest of the summer.

Sleek 'Rose Gold' Blush (review)

Oh man how I adore this blush! It is still one of my ultimate favourites in my makeup collection. I've not reached for it at all over the autumn and winter months but as the seasons are now changing, i'm using this a lot once again. A dupe for Nars Orgasm aswell, for anyone who didn't know and want a cheaper alternative.

Nails Inc 'Mayfair Lane' Gel Effect Nail Polish (review)

If you saw my review of this nail polish (along with the other 4 that came in the set) you will know how much I love them. And this colour in particular has been my favourite over the month, i've worn it the most out of them all. It's a gorgeous white based baby pink, almost like Essie Figi I would say. I love Nails Inc nail polishes in general, but the Gel Effect ones are even better, even if they are a bit on the expensive side.

 

 

Random Favourites

 

 

Yankee Candle Sun and Sand

 

Since I finished my Yankee Candle White Chocolate Bunnies Large Jar candle over Easter time, I decided to burn my Yankee Candle Medium Pillar candle in Sun and Sand, which is a lovely fresh, citrus sort of sun cream smell. Just gorgeous! As you can see I completely used it all up in May. Sadly it is now a discontinued scent, I was just lucky enough to pick it up at a Yankee Candle outlet shop in the discount section.

 

 

TV Show - 2 Broke Girls

 

 I watched this when it first premiered on E4, and kind of just went off it for some reason. But I watched a few episodes one night and got hooked back on it again. So much so that I watched all three seasons back to back in the space of about two weeks, I was hooked! Love the show and technically it could have been classed as an April favourite as I watched half of them in the last week of April, but I had enough favourites there so I thought i'd put it in this one.


What were your May Favourites?


Love
Amy
xxx

QVC - Nails Inc Be GELous Collection

QVC Collection - Nails Inc Be GELous Collection - £29.88

 

Are you as shocked as I am to see not one, not two, not three, not even four, but five nail polishes in one post from me? Because I sure am! And trust me, this was a total impulse purchase. After all I don't need anymore nail polish in my life at the moment.

 

I happened to come across this collection of nail polishes when I was watching QVC the other day. I watch it every now and again (especially when the Yankee Candle shows are on haha) but when a Nails Inc hour came on I was watching it and fell in love with these colours and as i'm already a fan of Nails Inc nail polishes, and I love the wide brushes that Nails Inc polishes have, I decided to make my first ever QVC purchase and get them.

 

The five colours of the Nails Inc Gel Effect colours avaliable in this collection are as follows.

 Soho Place - Aqua colour
 

This comes out a lot darker than it appears in the bottle I think, and the swatch is one coat on the nail wheel, which is pictured at the end of this post. I wish it appeared as a lighter colour, but oh well it's still very pretty. Turquoise is my favourite colour so i'm still pleased to have this in my nail polish collection.

 Downtown - A bright hot pink
 

One of my favourites from this collection. Such a great bright pink, easily opaque in one coat, and it will look great on my toes in the summer. I surprisingly don't own a bright pink nail polish in my collection (I hear you gasping in surprise) but this one fills that void perfectly.

 Regents Place - Powder Blue
 

A colour that is not even avaliable on the high street yet, i'm lead to believe. A lovely pale lavender blue colour and the swatch on the nail wheel is only one coat, it would need two coats to get an opaque even colour. I adore this colour in the bottle, but i'm not so keen on the colour on my nails with my skintone for some reason, I just don't think it looks right on me. But i'm determined to try and make it work as I just really love the colour.

 Kensington Passage - Coral Red
 

This was the colour I was least excited by when I ordered these, as I have a few colours similar to this. However, in the flesh it is gorgeous! And i've worn this on my toes ever since i've got it. Again this is opaque in one coat. Perfect for the summer, and it is coming out a lot more orange in the picture than it is in real life. It has a tad more of a red hint to it in reality.

 Mayfair Lane - Pastel Pink
 

The colour I was most excited by! It's one of Nails Inc's best sellers at the moment and I can see why. It's a lovely very pale pink colour, opaque in two coats and it looks so lovely on the nails. I think it will look even better when I have a tan, but i've worn this the most out of all the colours. Even my sister has repainted her nails with it two or three times!



From Left to Right -
(Soho Place, Downtown, Regents Place, Kensington Passage, Mayfair Lane)


Nails Inc Gel Effect polishes are beyond perfect! The effect really is like a gel, they are a bit thicker than general nail polishes, therefore they are good if you have any ridges etc in your nails, it will blanket over everything to give a lovely smooth, polished look.

After one coat I noticed how incredibly shiny my nails were! I've never had a gel effect manicure before, and with the effect these give, I don't plan and going out and getting one either. I only put a top coat over these to make them last longer, but if it weren't for that i'd happily go without. I wore Mayfair Lane on my nails for 10 days and it didn't chip at all, which was incredible! But then another time, it's chipped within a couple of days, it's just luck I suppose.

If you like the look of these five colours then you can still buy them as a set on QVC for the price of £29.88 & £3.95 p&p, this is currently the introductory price though so act fast if you want them. The collection really is a real bargain though in all seriousness, considering if you were to buy these polishes individually they would be £14.00! So you can almost buy two and get three free! Such amazing value. Also if there are a few colours, or just one, that you aren't that keen on, you could give them to a family member or friend as a present.



QVC - Nails Inc 5 Piece Be GELous Collection - £29.88

 

 

 

What's your favourite Nails Inc nail polish?

 

 

Love

Amy

xxx

 

 

 

 

 

***DISCLAIMER***

All views/opinions are my own, products purchased myself.

Rimmel Kate Moss Lipsticks

 Rimmel Kate Moss Lipsticks - £5.49

 

I've had these lipsticks since they first launched what feels like an eternity ago! I can remember having them before I graduated from university and that was in 2012 so i've had them at least three years which is mad. And I know some of you will be reading this in horror that i've had lipsticks for that long, but they haven't gone bad or anything so I intend to keep them for as long as possible.

 

Rimmel really are up there with some of the best lipsticks in the beauty industry in my opinion, their formulas are great as are their colour ranges and the packaging is divine. So good for such a cheap drugstore/high street price. And the Rimmel Kate Moss lipsticks are just as good, if not a tiniest bit better.

 

The thing that tips the Kate Moss lipsticks to the post, compared to the standard Rimmel lipsticks, is that quite a number of the original lipsticks have quite a bit of shimmer/frosty look to them I think and the Kate Moss ones don't have any of that at all.

 

They are very creamy and moisturising, a pleasure to wear on the lips. They claim to last 6 hours on the lips, and i'd say that they almost settle down to a stain when they have worn down over the hours. But if you are eating or drinking they will of course come off, but they just don't wear off completely.

 

The packaging is just great to all black with the classic Rimmel slanted lid. Also I like the little signature on the lipsticks too, the pink one was from the Spring collection she did, whereas the red ones are from the main original line.

 

I currently have three of the Kate Moss lipsticks, 08 which a natural mauve brown nude sort of colour, 16 which is a coral pink colour and 06 which is a dark pink. Something to suit all seasons and occassions really.

 

 08 is my favourite among the bunch as it is a typical everyday wear colour, and it holds a special place in my heart as I wore this lipstick when I graduated from university. I would also wear this to work or to a job interview or any smart formal occassion where you don't want to be wearing a bright lipstick.

 

The other two are perfect for spring and summer, and I do wear the pink one all year round and leave the coral one for the sunnier months, i've been wearing the coral one a lot this month which promted me to write this post in the first place.

 

Kate has also brought out a range of Matte lipsticks in the red tubes, I don't own any of those as matte lipsticks really aren't my thing, but if you love them then I would take a look at those.

 

If you haven't tried the Kate Moss lipsticks out yet then I suggest you do, as they really are one of the best drugstore/high street lipsticks that you can find.

 

 

Rimmel Kate Moss Lipsticks - £5.49

 

 

Love

Amy

xxx

 

 

 

***DISCLAIMER***

All views/opinions are my own, products bought myself.

Bourjois Volume Glamour Max Holidays Mascara

 

Bourjois Volume Glamour Max Holidays Mascara - £5.99

 

I remember receiving this mascara in a Bourjois gift box thing at Christmas time and I was going to blog about it in January, but with my rotation of mascaras I just never got round to it and now that i've finally used up the couple that I was working on i've been able to start using this one and I can finally give my opinion on it.

 

Firstly, how cute and small is this tube? This would definitely be perfect for travel, and when researching this mascara you can actually still buy this mascara in this size tube if you wish to. Or you can buy the full size for £9.99.

 

 

First of all, look at the size of the brush of this mascara! It's pretty big, and if you don't like the bigger brushes on mascaras then you won't be a fan of this. Bourjois claims this adds up to 10x more volume to your lashes. A bit of an overstatement in my opinion. It did make my lashes look volumised but 10x is a bit much really. It didn't make them look clumpy and it was buildable with a few coats. Bourjois also state that it will last for 16 hours. Now I don't know if this is true or not as i've never worn mascara for 16 hours without taking it off at some point in that time. Don't know why you would need to wear it for that long either to be honest, but each to their own I guess. It stayed on all day for the 9 hours or so that I was wearing it.

 

This is the first mascara i've ever tried from Bourjois, i'm a Maybelline girl at heart when it comes to mascaras, but I am enjoying using this. I suppose Bourjois are least well known for their eye products, i'd say their speciality are their face products, but having tried this mascara I will take more of an interest in their other mascaras next time i'm in Boots or Superdrug.

 

 

Bourjois Volume Glamour Max Holidays Mascara - £5.99
 

 

 Bourjois Volume Glamour Max Holidays Mascara - full size - £9.99

 

Love

Amy

xxx

 

 

 

 

 

 

***DISCLAIMER***

All views/opinions are my own,

product gifted to me as part of a Christmas giftset.

The Body Shop Coconut Shower Cream

The Body Shop Coconut Shower Cream - £4.00

 

You may remember from a few weeks ago I did a haul which contained a load of The Body Shop coconut range products, and i've already talked about the eau de toilette and now i'm on to the shower cream.

 

I've used quite a few of The Body Shop shower products in the past and enjoyed using them. I've always used the shower gels though rather than a shower cream like this one is, so this is something different to try.

 

Shower creams are better than gels in some sense, they may not lather up as much as the gels but I can say this shower cream does a good job at lathering up. Also shower creams are more moisturising on the skin, after all they are a cream based product. This is something I really like in a shower product, and my eczema and dry skin really appreciates it.

 

Talking of eczema, that hasn't flared up when using this product, so that's a bonus. And I am in love with the coconut scent. The only couple of negative points that I have is that the plastic bottle it comes in is so tough that it is hard to squeeze the last of the product out when you are coming to the end of it. I've always had that problem with Body Shop shower and hair products actually, and it puts me off buying them if i'm honest. Also £4.00 is a tad more than I wish to pay for a shower gel really, but that's just me being a cheap skate.

 

If you're after a coconut scented shower product then this would be a good one to try, but I still think something like Original Source Coconut shower gel would work just as well and it is at least half the price of this and more than that sometimes.

 

 

 

The Body Shop Coconut Shower Cream - £4.00

 

 

 

 

Love

Amy

xxx

 

 

 

 

 

 

***DISCLAIMER***

All views/opinions are my own, product bought myself.

Simple Kind to Skin Vital Vitamin Night Cream

Simple Kind to Skin Vital Vitamin Night Cream - £5.99

 

That really is a long name for what is essentially a moisturiser, isn't it? I do wish some companies would use shorter names for their products. But that's another rant for another time and we'll move past that and focus on this night cream, which is the newest addition to my skincare routine. (Which I promise I will do a post on very soon!).

 

 Night Cream was never something I took that seriously. I'm 23 now and when I was in my teens/very early twenties, I thought night cream was the kind of thing you used when you were in your thirties. I've not actually looked that much into if I should be using night cream or not by now, but I sure as am will be using it from now on. What harm can it do starting now, surely it's only going to do me good?

 

The reason I chose the Simple Night Cream was because I already use this exact moisturiser in the Day Cream, and I like it a lot so I thought why not try the night cream too. The only difference between the two that I have noticed is that firstly the day cream has an SPF in it, which is always handy, and obviously in a night cream it is not required so it doesn't contain that. And secondly the actual consistency of the cream is thicker, so it'll work it's magic overnight and take its time to sink into the skin. 

 

Not that this cream has that problem in the slightest, it absorbs very quickly. In fact I would even go as far as to say that if you suffered with very dry skin and you wanted a general daily moisturiser, then you could easily use this instead, if the day cream isn't working well enough for you. For the non-eczema parts of my face, my skin isn't that dry so the normal day cream will suffice for me. But it is lovely to use in the night time after cleansing my face and getting all the makeup off at the end of the day.

 

 Just like all Simple products, this cream does not contain any fragrance in it which is what I look for in my face products. And it comes in a nice little plastic pot, which I don't particularly mind as it's good to get the very last dregs of the product out when it's almost finished. And importantly this cream is a bargain too at £5.99 and it is almost always on offer somewhere, so it is easily affordable for everyone.

 

 If you're just dipping your toe into the night cream scene, and particularly if you're on a budget, then i'd suggest you give this a try. And it would suit any skin really as it is designed specifically for sensitive skins so everyone should get along with this. 

 

 

Just a quick question though, if you do have eczema or just sensitive skin and you have any good night cream recommendations, i'd love to hear them :)

 

 

Simple Kind to Skin Vital Vitamin Night Cream - £5.99

 

 

 

Love

Amy

xxx

 

 

 

 

 

***DISCLAIMER***

All views/opinions are my own, product bought myself.

Essie Allure Nail Polish

Essie 'Allure' Nail Polish - £7.99

It's not often I get excited about a nail polish, you know me nail polish isn't my favourite beauty item, but for someone who isn't that keen on them, I own quite a few. This Essie nail polish being a very new edition to my collection.

 

This is my first ever Essie nail polish, I have restrained myself from buying any due to the £7.99 price tag which is a tad on the expensive side for a nail polish I think. However I do love the Essie bottles, the packaging is just so sleek and clean looking and just perfect really. They are a very much talked about nail polish brand and I have been wanting to try one for so long, and so I finally caved and went for 'Allure' as my first Essie nail polish colour.

 

 I have to blame my little sister for this purchase, as she bought this and she painted my nails in it one day and I instantly fell in love with the colour. It's a very sheer milky white colour, perfect for people who don't want to make a huge fuss with their nails. Sometimes the simple basic almost 'your nails but better' (yeah I went there) kind of colour is just the ticket.

 

For anyone who doesn't like wearing bright colours on their nails, and also for people who have short nails like myself, then Essie 'Allure' is a great choice. I particularly think brides to be would love this colour. Talking of which, I read that the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton herself wore this very nail polish on her wedding day to Prince William, so if it's a hit with royalty then it's got to be worth trying, right? I must say Kate has very good taste, and for any formal occassion I would definitely choose to wear this colour over any other nail polishes that I own.

 

Overall I was impressed with my first Essie nail polish, the brush was very good. It was wide enough, which is sometimes my issue with some nail polishes (Barry M i'm looking at your here!) and the formula was great. The colour pay off was good for the sheerness of this particular colour, and the picture above is just one coat. And it lasted about 5 days on my nails which is pretty good going.

 

Also, I wanted to quickly wanted to add something, as you may be wondering why I have just put a picture of the bottom of the bottle on this post. Well the reason behind that is, if you want to see how opaque/sheer a light colour will be, then take a look underneath and sometimes you will see the little ball bearings at the bottom (that help to slow down the process of the nail polish going thick and gloopy over time, i'm lead to believe). And the more you can see the ball bearings the more sheer the colour of the nail polish is. Some nail polish brands don't have these ball bearings in them, for the most part they don't, but in the case of Essie nail polishes they do and it is very helpful when trying to decide which colour you want.

 

All in all, I'm impressed with Essie and see what all the fuss is about, and I want to pick up some more colours in the future.

 

 

Essie 'Allure' Nail Polish - £7.99

 

 

 

 

Love

Amy

xxx

 

 

 

 

 

 

***DISCLAIMER***

All views/opinions are my own, product bought myself.

Mini Mac Lipstick Haul!

I'm so excited to be writing this blog post, after all it's not everyday I treat myself to a Mac lipstick let alone two of them. But my reasoning behind getting two of them will be come clear very shortly.

I have been eyeing up these two colours for a while now, particularly one of them and it was about time I picked them up. Mac lipsticks for me are a real treat purchase, I have like a little mini wishlist of the colours I would like to pick up and I say to myself that if they have been on my wishlist for at least 6 months to a year then I will pick it up, because I am one of those people who goes through phases of things and will maybe love something for a month or two then after a while will go off it. So I want to make sure i'm spending my money on them wisely, especially when it comes to Mac products as they are on the expensive side.

 

 My reasons for finally picking these up was because Debenhams had £10 off beauty products if you buy two beauty products, but one of them had to be an Award Winner (a list of the winners was announced on their website) and Mac lipsticks happened to be one of the winners (no surprises there!) and so with doing the quick maths in my head I could get two Mac lipsticks for £20, which would work out a tenner each which is pretty cool.

 

Also to make it even more impossible for me to resist, I had £5.00 to spend on my Debenhams beauty card and I also had a £20 gift voucher which I had not spent yet! So technically I got these two for free! And I kept £5.00 on my gift card, so it all worked out very well for me. *happy dance*.

 

 The two shades that I picked up were Syrup which is a Lustre finish which means its more sheer and glossy. And the second one is Peach Blossom which is a cremesheen formula which means its pretty opaque colour pay off and it's nice and creamy on the lips.

 

Now i've been eyeing up Syrup ever since essiebutton mentioned it in her Top 5 Mac lipsticks video ,last year I think. It's a gorgeous pinky plum sort of colour, with a bit of mauve in it too, it's just gorgeous! Probably more suited to autumn and winter time, but I just had to get it now as i've been lusting after it for so long.

 

Peach Blossom is a colour I didn't expect to get as I haven't been wanting it that long, but every time I go to Mac I always pick up this colour and swatch it and think it looks nice and so I got it. It's not that popular of a colour really, but I think it's a lovely natural peach colour that's not very in your face, you could easily wear it for work or just for a natural makeup look - I love it!

 

So that is my mini Mac Lipstick haul. I have so many other colours in my wishlist such as Plumful, Chatterbox and Patiserie just to name three. But I think i'll wait until my birthday in September until I get another one or two...or three...or more! :)


MAC Lipsticks - £15.00

 

 

What Mac lipsticks are on your wishlist?

 

 

Love

Amy

xxx

 

 

 

 

 

***DISCLAIMER***

All views/opinions are my own,

products bought with giftcard

Makeup Inventory - May 2014

We're nearly midway through 2014, it's ridiculous how fast this year is flying by! I wanted to do this at the beginning of this year, but I forgot, so i'm doing it now. For those of you new to this concept, a Makeup Inventory is basically a list of how many makeup products you own. You then check back in a year to see how much your stash has changed over that period of time. Quite handy as you can keep track of how much you're buying and how much you're using up.

 

I've split the products up in to categories to make it a bit easier.

 

Face

 

Face Primer - 1

Foundation - 2

Concealer - 2

Bronzer - 1

Blusher - 13

Highlighter - 4

 

Eyes

 

Eyeshadow Primer - 1 mini sample

Eyeshadow Crayon - 1

Eyeshadow Single - 1
Eyeshadow Duo - 1

Eyeshadow Palette - 2

Eyeliner - 3

Mascara - 9

 

Lips

 

Lipbalm - 2

Lip Liner - 1

Lip Crayon - 2

Lipsticks - 25

Liquid Lipsticks - 2

Lipgloss - 2


Nails
 

Nail Varnish - 32

 

 

As you can see Blushers, Mascaras and Lipsticks are my three favourite makeup products and I also have a lot of Nail Varnish too, considering I don't wear it that often it's a bit too much I think. I'd love to scale down my collection a bit more, especially where the mascaras and nail varnishes are concerned. Only a couple of those mascaras are opened so they won't dry out, I just seemed to have stocked up and also a few of them are sample size ones so i'll quickly go through those.

 

I'm very happy with the other numbers of my makeup stash, paticularly lipgloss which has gone down a lot in the last few months, as I barely wear it and so I figured I may as well use up the ones I did have. Also you may have noticed that I don't own any face powders, as I have such very dry and eczema skin on my face, I don't require any powder.
 

What is the size of your makeup inventory?

 

Love

Amy

xxx

 

Beauty and Candle Haul

Not a very big haul, but I like to shop little and often. And half the time I don't manage to pick a lot up but we came across a discount beauty shop on our shopping travels and so bought a bit more makeup than I have done for at least a year!

 

Firstly we'll start with the Yankee Candles, in our local shop they occassionally do little sets all nicely wrapped and I went for the Clean Cotton scent in the small jar and the tealights. This is Yankee Candles best selling candle scent, it really does smell like fresh laundry. I like to use this after i've cleaned the house and changed my bedding, aka my sunday candle.

 

The L'Oreal Lipstick is one of the new ones all linked to celebrities, the one I have there is Eva's Nude which is a sort of orangey brown nude colour, gorgeous! I already have my eye on a couple of the other colours in the range.

 

The other four makeup items you can see are from the Beauty discount shop we found in Bridgened Designer Outlet. From Left to Right - Rimmel Lash Accelerator Mascara. I've used that before and love it and got it for £5.99. Secondly the L'Oreal False Lash Telescopic mascara - never tried this but for £5.99 you can't go wrong for a L'Oreal Mascara. Rimmel lipstick in Nostalgic which is a lovely pink coral and i'm already loving it, I think it will be in my May Favourites for sure. And lastly there is a Rimmel Glameyes Eyeshadow in Tribute which is a purple taupe sort of colour but with glitter.

Very happy with my purchases! Can't wait to get to using them.

Love

Amy

xxx