Top 13 Products of 2013!

Hi guys!

 

      It's time for my favourites of 2013! Now I was considering doing a big post on all of my favourites in every category, but I thought i'd simplify it a bit and do my top 13 instead so that really narrows it down and will hopefully help any of you looking to discover some new products for 2014!

 

 

Clinique Even Better Foundation - I am just head over heels in love with this foundation. It is on the more expensive side, but it is so worth it. It makes my skin look so glowy and feels amazing on the skin.

 

L'Oreal Lipstick 'Sensual Rose' - This is such a great lipstick, it's almost as if Nars Orgasm was in lipstick form this would be it! I just love it, and I have worn it a lot this year. I can't get enough of it.

 

Maybelline Colossal Mascara - My favourite mascara, not only does it give incredible volume but great length to my lashes too. It's got a massive brush aswell, so if you aren't into those types of mascara wands then this may not be for you.

 

Burt's Bees Honey Lipbalm - My favourite lipbalm in a lovely honey flavour, very moisturising and keeps your lips moisturised for many hours. Wouldn't be without this lipbalm now. I have done a review on this lipbalm (here).

 

Sleek Rose Gold Blush - Sleek is one of my favourite blusher brands, and this is one of my favourite ever blushes! Beautiful coral pink/orange colour with gold shimmer! Oh it's gorgeous!

 

Estee Lauder 'Raisins' Eyeshadow Duo - Sadly this product has been discontinued now, but a very much raved about product and for someone who doesn't wear a whole lot of eyeshadow day to day, this has been my ultimate favourite.

 

Elizabeth Arden 'Rose Illumination' Highlighter - Definitely my most worn highlighter of the year, beautiful rose gold packaging and it's a rose gold highlighter too. It was a limited edition product though, so sadly unavaliable anymore. I do have a back up of this though, I love it so much!

 

 

Tangle Teezer - Given to me as a birthday gift this year, I cannot believe I managed to long without it! It's a godsend! I cannot be without this now. I have long and frizzy hair and it gets very tangled after washing it and this has made my hair routine a heck of a lot easier. One of my top favourites of the entire year!

 

LUSH Ultrabland Facial Cleanser - Another holy grail product that i've discovered this year, this has made such a difference to my skin in general and it's the backbone of my skincare routine. Wouldn't be without this now either. I have done a review on this cleanser (here).

 

Nails Inc 'Chelsea Square' Nail Polish - Such a beautiful pink glittery, which almost looks gold in some lights. The camera never does it justice, it's so beautiful! Also done a review on this (here).

 

 

 

L'Oreal Elvive Nourish and Shimmer Highlights Shampoo - I've barely used any other shampoo this year other than this, and if I have i've noticed my hair doesn't look as good. I have blonde highlighted hair and it just makes them look fresh and bright and just healthy looking when i've used this shampoo.

 

 

Aveeno Hand Cream - My favourite hand cream of the year without a doubt. My hand eczema has really calmed down a lot since using this, it doesn't leave my hands feeling sticky, just lovely and moisturised. On my third tube of this already and planning on buying more. A review on this hand cream can be found (here).

 

 

Dr Organic Manuka Honey Rescue Cream - If I had to pick my number one product of 2013 then this would be it. This has as good as cleared up my eczema, it's just incredible! I really can't say any more good stuff about it than I already have in my review (here).

 

 

What have been some of your favourite products of 2013?

 

Love

Amy

xxx

 

 

 

 

 ***DISCLAIMER***
All views/opinions are my own, products bought myself
or given as gifts.

Yankee Candle Gingerbread Illuma-Lid

 

Yankee Candle Gingerbread Illuma-Lid - £5.95

 

If you're a Yankee Candle fan, you may know what an Illuma-Lid is, but if you are new to the brand or just candles in general, or if you are just reading this thinking

"What the heck is an illuma lid?"

Well i'll tell you.

 

An Illuma-Lid is an accessory you put on the top of your Medium or Large jar Yankee Candles (or maybe other candles, i've never tried it on other ones). I must also stress these do not fit on their Small Jar Candles! This Illuma-Lid is specifically designed by Yankee Candle, and I don't even know if other brands of candles make anything like this.

 

The point of the Illuma-Lids are not just for decoration, they hold a purpose. They help the candle burn more evenly and cleaner as it holds the heat and stops it from escaping completely. So your candle will burn across evenly to the edges and more quickly too, i've found.

 

 

This is not the only Illuma-Lid that I have, I have the bronze leaves one and I think that is very pretty but it is not a patch on this design. It's got Gingerbread on it! (Which you know I love!). And all the sweet cakes and Christmas themed things and the almost icing sugar look to it, it's just too beautiful to leave in a shop, it needed to come home with me. I bought this and got my mum to wrap it up for me for Christmas this year actually, so i've been waiting for weeks to use it and now I can!

 

 

As you can see this is how it fits on top of my large jar, and I just love it. Beware that when burning your candle, after a while this Illuma-Lid will get very hot! But then again you might have predicted that yourselves.

 

I think these Illuma-Lids are very clever little accessories that every Yankee Candle fan should have for their candles, and they are reasonably priced too which is amazing considering the design and everything that went in to making it, it's gorgeous!

 

This is the last festive related Yankee Candle product that i'll be showing you, just needed to sneak this in now as I couldn't really blog about this in a few months, it would just be strange to be talking about gingerbread and Christmas in the Spring.

 

I bought this at an outlet near me, but i've found this illuma-lid online

for £5.95

here

Any questions/comments please leave below.

 

Love

Amy

xxx

 

 

***DISCLAIMER***

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

New Years Resolutions 2014!

Hi guys!

Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a great night last night celebrating with family and friends. Today i'm coming to you with my New Years Resolutions for 2014!

 



Everyone talks about this at the start of January, and I bet a lot of you say the same thing every year. You don't make resolutions anymore as you never keep to them, and I definitely fall into that category!

 

However, this year i've got four that I want to maintain throughout this year, and i'm really going to try and stick to them.

 

 

1.) Eat more healthily

 

I know this is a very obvious one, which all of us strive to achieve at the beginning of the year and always fall at the hurdle when we walk past a bakery or see our favourite bar of chocolate on offer in the supermarket. But I have a reason to eat healthier this year, not only for my health which is the most important thing, but my best friend of 20 years is getting married at the end of November this year and I am one of her bridesmaids. I know November feels like an eternity away right now, but it's very easy to put weight on but a nightmare to lose it and I don't want to be stressing about my dress alterations and fittings in the summer if i've eaten loads of junk food at the start of the year. So this year i'll be good and eat well.... see how far this'll last!

 

 

2.) Read more books

 

I used to be such a bookworn when I was a teenager, you could barely drag me away from a good novel but in the last year or so since I finished University I've barely picked up a book, which makes me sad and also angry with myself. Reading is so good and very relaxing and you can learn a lot from books. So I need to make use of my kindle or go to Waterstones or even my local library and pick up some books and try and ignite that passion for reading that I used to have growing up.



3.) Try to save and not spend too much

 
I made this resolution last year and stuck to it pretty well, I was very pleased with myself. I'll be trying to continue saving rather than spending in 2014 too.

 

4.) Keep working on my Blog

 

As i've really got into blogging since I started in November 2013, I want to carry on and continue to find new and fun ways to keep improving. A simple resolution but I will definitely stick to this one.

 

 

Have you made any New Years Resolutions?

 

 

Any questions/comments please leave below.

 

 

Love

Amy

xxx

 

 

December 2013 Favourites!

 

It's that time of the month again, it's December favourites!

 

Now I don't have that many products this month as I honestly didn't love that many things, I was so focused on the lead up to Christmas and all the organising and palava that comes with that I just grabbed whatever stuff was near me and used it. So this will be a shorter favourites this time round.

 

Estee Lauder Pure Color Eyeshadow Duo - Raisins

 

I know everyone and their cat was going on about this eyeshadow duo in the first half of the year before it became discontinued, I luckily managed to find one April or May I think it was and it's been one of my favourite make-up products of this year. It's just gorgeous! With a natural pink-champagne colour on one side and a burgundy sort of colour on the other. Gorgeous! And it's been the main eyeshadow look i've been going for this month.

 

Lip Products

 

My lips were quite dry this month, and so the two lip products I opted for were Maybelline Baby Lips in 'Cherry Me' (review here) and Rimmel Apocalips in the colour 'Celestial' (review here), both very easy and simple products to wear on the lips and they look great. I also wore a lot of Mac Hot Tahiti lipstick in the few days over Christmas, but I didn't wear it enough throughout the entire month to class it as a monthly favourite.

 

 

Maybelline Dream Touch Blush in 'Berry'

 

A very simple cream blush which I love to just quickly apply and go. It's a lovely everyday pink sort of colour and it's a proper cream blush, not a cream to powder formula which i'm not a hundred percent keen on. A foolproof product in my opinion.

 

 

Rimmel Wake Me Up Concelear

 

Again, another raved about product and I needed a new concelear this month and I really like this one. It's easy to apply, covers my dark circles and really brightens my under eye area. But i've used it on other areas of my face too and not had any problems with it. Gold star for this product!

 

 

 Random Favourite: Cheese & Beetroot sandwiches

 

Yes I know this is extremely random, but beetroot is one of my favourite kinds of food and my dad was having some with cheese in a sandwich and so I thought i'd try it and now i'm in love with it! So delicious and i've been eating a lot of them recently so I thought i'd just throw that little food favourite in for this month.

 

 

A short but sweet December favourites there. But i'll be posting my overall 2013 favourites in the coming days so keep your eyes peeled for that one.

 

 

In the meantime, Happy New Year for tomorrow, or tonight at midnight :D

 

 

Love

Amy

xxx

 

 

***DISCLAIMER***

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

LUSH Father Christmas Bath Bomb

 

Lush Father Christmas Bath Bomb - RRP £3.25 now on sale for £1.63

 

I wouldn't normally do a second post about the same brand directly after doing one on Lush yesterday, but this is a Christmas product and I wanted to get it posted before the new year. So apologies for that. Anyway, on to the review.

 

I'm not the biggest bath lover in the world, I much prefer showers as they are much quicker and with my eczema problems I just feel a lot more comfortable with showers. However, for Christmas this year I received this bath bomb from one of my best friends and so it is one of those rare times when a bath is needed.

 

One thing I do find is that baths are incredibly relaxing, I used this bath bomb and I was in the bath for well over an hour and I came out feeling very chilled out and slightly sleepy. I suppose that's the appeal to a lot of people. And if I ever do want to take a bath I always choose to take a bath using Lush products as they are so much fun and the ingredients they use are good for the skin, my eczema has yet to react to any of them.

 

The Father Christmas bath bomb is what you'd expect, a Santa Clause face on a bath bomb! Which is so fun and festive and perfect to use around Christmas time, or on the big day itself if you choose to do so. It's a lovely pink and white colour and gives off the scent of madarin oranges which is a very Christmassy scent. I have to be honest and say it wasn't a total orange scent, I couldn't smell too much orange it just smelt quite sweet and fresh, but it was a great scent nonetheless.

 

 

It's quite a large bath bomb too and I managed to salvage half of it in the bath to use again, you can definitely get two uses out of this bath bomb if you grab it out of the bath in time. I always do that with the Lush bath bombs to make extra use out of them, there's no point spending a few pounds on a bath bomb just for one use.

 

As you can see from the picture this is a surprising bath bomb in that when you first put it in your bath is turns the bath a milky pink sort of colour and then in the middle it is a dark green! So very festive! I wasn't expecting this at all, and that's another thing I love about the Lush bath products, quite a few of them have secret colours inside and you wouldn't know about it until you actually use it.

 

So the dark green on the inside of this bath bomb inevitably made my bath water also look green, it looked like I was bathing in washing up liquid! This colour of bath water may bother some people but it never bothers me. I just look at the scent of the bath bomb itself and if it helps my skin in any way.

 

 

I don't think this bath bomb actually did anything for my skin, unlike some other ones i've tried like Butterball. It did leave my skin smelling nice when I got out but that was all.

 

As this is a Christmas limited edition product you won't be able to get hold of bath bomb from now on until next Christmas time, but if you're quick they may have a few left there from the sales.

When Christmas rolls around again next year, and if I fancy getting myself a Christmas themed bath bomb, then I would definitely consider buying this again.

 

It is still avaliable to buy online for a great price of

£1.63 down from £3.25

here

 

Any views/comments please leave below.

 

Love

Amy

xxx

 

 

***DISCLAIMER***

All views/opinions are my own,

product bought for me as a Christmas gift.





LUSH Santa's Lip Scrub

 

LUSH Santa's Lip Scrub - Now £2.75 - Was £5.50

 

I remember back in November and maybe even as early as late October this year when Lush released their Christmas items again, and all the youtubers went mad and all did big Christmas Lush hauls. I absolutely love watching and reading what people got from Lush, as I am a Lush fan myself but I don't tend to go in there very often as some of the items are quite expensive.

 

Nonetheless the Christmas products intrigued me and I managed to resist the urge of going out and buying loads of things back in November and December, I was too focused on saving my money and spending it on everyones Christmas presents.

 

As Christmas is now over I hit the Boxing Day Sales, well I actually went with my sister and mum on the 27th as we always have family over our house on Boxing Day. I made a mental shopping list of what products I wanted from Lush and I got there today and they were all gone! That'll teach me for not shopping online on Boxing Day itself or for not picking up some products earlier. However I did manage to find one product that was on my list, and that was the Santa's Lip Scrub.

 

 

 

I first saw this on somebody's haul, and as soon as I heard the words it's cola flavoured I instantly wanted it! Coca-Cola is my favourite and I love the cola bottle sweets so I wanted to try this. Also I have never tried any lip scrub, let alone a Lush one, so this is totally new territory to me.

 

It's, as you would expect, a gritty consistancy and this one contains little red hearts in which is very cute. You just scrub your lips with this and then you can either wipe it off or lick it off, whichever your preference. It does taste like cola but there is some lime oil in this product i've seen in the ingredients and I can tast that. It is extremely sweet just so you're aware and the red colour of this lip scrub leaves your lips with a very slight red stain too.

 

This lip scrub will be perfect for the last few months of winter if your lips get dry like mine do. I will probably use this before I go to bed and then apply some lipbalm, or do that first thing in the morning maybe aswell.

 

I'll certainly be using this for a while, it's a 25g product and a little goes a long way and I was surprised to read it doesn't expire until the beginning of February 2015. With a fresh product like this with sugar and natural oils etc I would expect it to last 6 months, but no it is well over a year!

 

The only reason I didn't pick up this product earlier was the price, I think £5.50 for a lip scrub is a bit on the steep side, considering you could probably make your own for much cheaper. But as it was half price in the sales I couldn't resist.

 

I've been using the lip scrub for a couple of days now and even though the product works very well, I won't repurchase it again next year because i've gone right off the taste, its too much like a sweet cough medicine. It's just too sickly for me unfortunately. But I like the product itself just not the flavour, so next time I will maybe try the Popcorn one, I know I won't like the bubblegum one as that'll be too sweet aswell.

 

If you yourself still want to get your hands on this little lip scrub I suggest you act very fast, as there were only a few of these left in the Lush shop I went in on 27th December.

 

But it is currently still avaliable online

here

 

 

Any questions/comments please leave below.

 

Love

Amy

xxx

 

 

***DISCLAIMER***

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

What I Got For Christmas 2013!

 

I wasn't sure whether or not to do this post, but I really enjoy looking at what everyone else got for Christmas so I thought I may aswell show what I go too.

 

I'm not trying to brag, just putting that disclaimer out there for everyone, if you don't like these kind of posts then it's fine you don't have to read it if you don't want to. But like me, if you're nosey, then carry on reading :)

 

 

I'm actually missing a couple of things from this post, I misplaced them somewhere but they'll feature in a blog post at some point in the future if they are beauty related.

 

Anyway i'll start off with the Yankee Candle Gingerbread Illuma Lid. I love anything Gingerbread related as you may already know, and i've been looking at getting this for a while so i'm glad to have this.

 

The Christmas Cookie small jar, and the three Yankee Candle tarts in Cherries on Snow, Gingerbread and Macintosh are all from one my best friends who actually shipped the tarts from the US! Bless her heart, that Macintosh one i've been dying to get my hands on! I wish we could have that over here.

 

Thor on Blu-ray is from my sister, i'm a big Marvel fan and I loved the second Thor film, and i've seen this first one before but i've never owned it but now I do.

 

As you can see my biggest/most expensive gift was the iPod Nano (7th Generation) in Blue. Stunning! I'm so grateful to get this as my last one broke :(

 

The two scarves, one with a cat print and the other with a rabbit print on are incredibly cute! And I actually wore the cat one today when I went sales shopping.

 

The corner of the picture (or the top picture you can see it better) is the LUSH Honey Farm gift set, which was given to me by another of my best friends. I gave a squeal of delight when I saw this as I didn't expect her to spend that much on me, I love it so much!!

 

 

My sister got me the Mac Brush cleanser which you can see at the top, as well as the Yankee Candle Cranberry Chutney small jar.

 

The Minnie Mouse shower cap is a bit of a jokey gift, but useful nonetheless. As is the rose gold case which actually hold nail tools :) The Bourjois set contains a nail varnish, lipgloss, mascara and eyeshadow trio which is nice and I already have used the lipgloss.

 

 

The Sinful colours 'Cinderella' polish is from my sister. I bought the OPI polish in 'Ski Slope Sweetie' myself at the beginning of December and got my mum to keep it for me for Christmas. The top two Barry M are from the same friend who got me the candles. The bottom three are from another of my friends :) You can never have too many nail varnish! :)

 

 

Some more clothing related items now. Two packs of winter themed socks (notice the gingerbread again) from M&S, as is the Indigo 3/4 length top and the brown bag is also from M&S Indigo line. The Penguin pyjamas are from M&S too and they are very cute. There is also a little cat purse sneaking in there too.

 

There we go, those are my pressies for 2013. I also got the obligatory chocolates and a couple of gift cards but I didn't think they needed to be in the post.

 

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and got all the pressies you wanted :)

 

Any questions/comments please leave below.

 

Love

Amy

xxx