A Haul of the Large Variety

As I write this, I sit angrily staring at my camera, that has temporarily decided to go kaput. Of course I'm not actually sitting giving a Canon camera stink-eye, I just do every time I'm stuck for words. I did promise quite a while ago to share another haul, which I just managed to shoot before my camera went to sleep. So there is some good news to accompany the bad.

Here's some of the things I've bought recently... (And pretty please do note, that some of these were birthday gifts, some bought with birthday money, a couple were gifted by companies, and some were bought with various reward cards). 

Naturally, there's a good dose of Chanel. I'm obsessed with the Destiny cream blush and the mascara, so they will be popping up here on ze blog, and on my face much more! Chanel Illusion D'Ombre in Utopia was something I felt completely smitten with, and it's pretty much the lavender version of Emerveille, but the purple tones are much more brightening on the eye area (apparently lilac lids are something we associate with children, hence the anti-ageing. Smart!)

I caved. After buying my first Charlotte Tilbury bits a few months ago, I had to jump on the Filmstar Bronze and Glow bandwagon, and BOY is it amazing. (I'll be reviewing all my CT bits on The Beauty Corner soon.) When you think Dior can't make even better nail polishes, they go ahead and reformulate to a gel-finish and release beautiful vintage red shades like Rouge 999 - I'm in love! And needless to say, I just NEEDED two more lip balms. 

I'm blaming the purchase of this wonderful bottle of Lani hair treatment on Steph, cause it's always much easier blaming it on someone else. This is an all-natural hair oil treatment, that smells like holidays, and does incredible things to your hair. I insist you try it. And as I found a LookFantastic discount code, and kept hearing about Shu Uemura's Art of Hair products, I am a bad person that doesn't need this many hair products had to make a purchase.

More hair products? I have a problem. Another oil? Yes. Neal and Wolf were darling enough to send me the blow dry balm to help me along the way whilst I'm introducing my hair to cleansing conditioner. FYI, the first stage isn't pretty, but when you get used to it, you feel like you're living a shampoo commercial. The lightening spray is 110% justified, if you could see my roots you'd be trying this too. My hairdresser is on maternity leave, so I wanted something to keep me going until she got back. Unfortunately I chickened out, and I'm still waiting on her return, just this time with about 2 inches of roots instead of 1cm. 

No haul is complete without a couple bits from Space NK. After running down my second bottle of REN Glycolactic Radiance Renewal I was impatiently trying to replace it - I love this stuff! I wish I could say the same for the He-Shit tan (That was HONESTLY a typo. It seems pretty darn relevant though.) which is the worst fake tan I've ever used. It soaks through mitts, smells of biscuits, and has zero benefits, whatsoever. BOO, what a waste of money.

This beautiful necklace was my Birthday present from my Nanna and Grandad. I love it so much. Dogeared has lots of jewellery with meaning, and the packaging helps make it so much more personal. I can see this becoming attached to my neck like no necklaces have done before.

What does anyone that's obsessed with fashion do with their birthday money? Ray-Bans of course! These are the small Clubmasters, and they're the perfect mix of classic styling, hippy influences, and the ideal amount of me in the reflection. Hey!

With my Waterstones card collecting money like there's no tomorrow, I went a tad book crazy. I love reading, so I like having a good selection to choose from when I'm due a new read. I'm currently reading Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children, and it really isn't the best book to read in bed, but it's definitely peculiar...

Hope you're not all wasting away by the time you've reached the bottom of this post. Congratulations though, you've made it, you can go and get a cuppa now and go back to the real world.

Lots of love.

Catch-up.

Hola everyone! How's it going? I'm currently in the middle of  one big mess, as I've started decorating my bedroom. You don't realise how much hard work it is until you start and have no furniture left, do you?

Anyway, before I trail off onto a completely different topic, I just wanted to share something with you guys. I've been spending some time writing for the amazing Stephanie new site, The Beauty Corner. It's so amazing, with beautiful photography, reviews, routines and so many products to drool over. So on occasion, you can find me over there.

Here's a sneak of the first two posts I've done. (And links to both)

I've now got the Benefit BeneBalm, because of course, being infatuated with the Benetint just isn't enough for us beauty addicts.

And the Chanel Les Beiges Tinted Moisturiser I haven't stopped raving about? Here's a full review. 

I'll probably be keeping you updated here with links to some of The Beauty Corner's articles. But if you scroll to the bottom of their page, you'll find all the relevant links to keep updated on all of our beauty goings on! Also, look out for my upcoming guest post on Crownbrush UK's blog... 

Lots of love.

Cheating Perfect Skin

If someone complements me on my skin, I always do a little snigger internally. Not that I can't take a complement, (I can't, but we'll leave that for another day) it's more that it takes me forever and a year using skincare products and various makeup products to cheat something not even close to "perfect" skin. These two products are the ones that are currently acting as real-life Photoshop for my face...

Given tinted moisturisers were my first venture into make-up (and that's something we usually wish to forget) I somewhat surprised myself with how much I liked this Chanel Les Beiges fluid when I tried a sample. So I took myself down to the closest Chanel counter and the rest was history. It offers a very light coverage, but covers everything you want it to. I'm looking at you, hormonal redness and spots. And being someone that prefers an unfragranced base product, the white rose scent of this is heavenly, and helps to protect skin from environmental damage, whilst offering boosts of hyaluronic acid to up the moisture levels of your skin.

And once again, I find myself revisiting the This Works Perfect Look Skin Miracle on ze blog, and I realise how big of a cliche this is now becoming, but I just cannot get enough of this literal miracle product. This "tinted skin perfector" is highly rated by Lisa Eldridge, and for good reason; it's sheer, hydrating, and has the good variety of natural ingredients, that collectively help to make us all beautiful. With the caramel and mica ingredients offering the colour, this is suitable for all skin tones, and will adapt to your natural skin colour.

These two products work amazingly together, and just as well on their own. The This Works perfector is ideal for light coverage, but won't cover any spots, at which point the Chanel offering will come in handy. Layering both of these products or using them singularly will perfect skin, depending on whether you want a sheer or heavier coverage depending on time of day and skin concerns. With each of them having no nasty ingredients, the only other thing you'll be needing is your SPF, then you're good to go.

Have you tried either of these products? And what products do you use to fake perfect skin?

Current Summer Favourites

I'm not sure what it is, but I'm totally repping shiny skin right now. I don't know how it happened but my nose is occasionally glossier than a mirror. Unrelated to this post, but there you have it. I'm shiny.

I've been obsessed with these products lately. Naturally I had to share them...

The always lovely Dave Lackie surprised me with this little wonder a couple weeks ago, all the way from Canada. This Chanel parfum is utterly beautiful, so feminine and something which really reminds you of the classic floral fragrances. Despite feeling a tad wary of whether or not I want to use it (just so this bottle never ends) I'm finding myself reaching for this more and more. Sorry, Jo Malone, you've got competition.

When something gains the Lisa Eldridge deal of approval you know it's a good 'un. This Works' Perfect Look Skin Miracle is no exception, with a very sheer and buildable texture, this tinted (dubbed moisturiser, I think it's a lot more like a primer!) cream perfects and brightens skin tone within seconds. It takes a lot for some people to fore-go the foundation, and this product is the one that helps you do so. This is the most incredible product, has zero faults and I recommend you buy it, now. (Sorry!) On the topic of beautiful skin, RMS Living Luminizer also helps the This Works product to perform miracles. It's an all-natural coconut oil based luminizer, with zero shimmer, just a beautiful dewy, glossy skinned finish. Completely incredible.

Dior Addict Lipstick in 571 Exotique was a limited edition from about a year ago, and given I managed to get the last one in the store, it was destiny (or so I tell everybody to warrant the purchase). This is the best lipstick for versatility, its sheer formula means you can have a light, rosy glow to your lips, or a full on hot pink pout. Charlotte Tilbury's Five Star Lashes meanwhile, gives you the most fluttery natural lashes, with added length volume and curl. Despite the fact it's somewhat of a pain to get hold of, it's completely worth it, and I'm also infatuated by the Wonderglow primer, but we'll leave that for another day...

For good reason, Homeoplasmine is one of those things I refuse to stop talking about. I dedicated a full post to this beauty, here. Sticking to the French theme, I've found myself reaching for Klorane's natural dry shampoo more than normal. I'm trying to introduce my hair to co-washing, and well, it's currently turning to the grease-side. Yuck! Klorane's dry shampoo is amazing for getting rid of minimal grease at the roots, has very little scent, and is so much kinder than the likes of Batiste.

As some of you may know if you follow me on Twitter I will be turning 20 tomorrow! I'm completely in denial that I'm no longer a teenager, so I will be henceforth calling myself "twen-teen." Of course the benefits of a birthday are that I'll be getting presents, and naturally, I've been treating myself more than normal, so expect a haul in the next few days.

See y'all when I'm filled with champagne!

Lets Be Frank

The social media presence of this pouch of body scrub is enormous, with the brilliant people behind the pages writing everything in first person as if Frank body scrub is, well, just that... A person. With the large amount of the Internet now raving about this little, somewhat dirty guy, I thought it'd only be fair to share my thoughts of the guy that's now showered with women all over the world.  

With an all natural ingredients list, including coffee, almond oil, coconut oil and grapeseed oil, this body scrub promises to help reduce the appearance of cellulite, stretch marks and skin conditions like psoriasis, eczema and acne. The premise of this scrub is quite the new one to me, which involves jumping in the shower to dampen the skin, then using the scrub in circular motions, and then getting out of the shower (I'm not going crazy) to let the scrub dry and let the caffeine get to work on evening skintone and helping any problem areas.

Honestly, I've not had any spectacular results from using Frank, and I still have pesky stretch marks on my inner thigh that refuse to budge. I have found that my skin has been really smooth, a couple scars on my legs and foot have slightly faded, but nothing compared to the results of some people. Maybe I was just expecting too much? I go through a lot of body scrubs too, to remove any old fake tan marks and to prep my skin for a new layer, but Frank just doesn't cut it for this purpose, I find it doesn't remove enough, and leaves me occasionally patchy. (My attractive level is exceptionally high right now, honest.) 

The smell of the original Frank (there's coconut and cacao variants at the moment) is heavenly, like the most amazing freshly-brewed coffee, and truly does make you lust after a trip to Starbucks.

I do find this quite fun to use however, and probably would repurchase when I run out, as I kind of enjoy the ten minutes spent drying off in a room smelling like coffee - is that weird?! But just a quick FYI, do take some music into the bathroom with you, and possibly a book. Also, be prepared for mess, EVERYWHERE.

And for those worrying that you still have to get Frank body scrubs shipped from Australia, worry no more... Frank is now available in the UK and with free shipping! You can find all three variants, here.