I hate duty free

I don't really, I LOVE duty free, but I hate the way it sucks me in magnetically. I don't think I've ever not bought anything in duty free. I nearly had a heart attack in Florida when I realised our terminal didn't have a proper duty free (no MAC, Bobbi Brown, Chanel or anything). I just get so excited, I love a bargain and you get the chance to wander, usually not being too harassed by sales staff like you are in a department store. The lights, the deals and being surrounded by gorgeous products all in one place. It's like I've died and gone to heaven! So I think you know where this is leading...

MAC Bombshell! It's my first frost finish and I knew I'd probably buy a lipstick so I wanted something different. I didn't count on Studio Sculpt winding its way into my basket also (oooops). I really don't need any more foundation at the moment, which beauty blogger does really? But I tried it in Harvey Nichols a couple of weeks ago and it wormed its pretty little way into my heart. But that's for another review :)

The first pictures were taken in my hotel in Camden on my Blackberry so sorry for the rubbish quality! I wanted to wear it for work the day after I bought it so wanted pics of the untainted bullet. I've always thought of frost finishes in a very 80's old-fashioned way, like blue eyeshadow and pink cheeks. However, as always MAC have hit the nail on the head. This shade is a dusky rose colour with the faintest metallic gold sheen to it, if I was to describe the formulation I would say it's more moisturising that either my satin or amplified creme lipsticks. It lasts well, doesn't feather and feels great on. It fades evenly, which my amplified lipsticks don't.

I love love love this colour. You really need to see it on in the sun to see the depth of colour and sheen. It's a deeply feminine colour that would match neutral eyes and a flushed cheek, great for shopping, work or a romantic dinner. It's not a POW in your face colour like some of my favourites, but I feel very womanly with this on. I don't think this is a well known shade either so I'm giving it a shout-out.

My lips feel very moisturised and plumped up, I hope you can see the golden sheen to this colour. It's like they've taken all the duller versions of this type of shade made by every cosmetics company under the sun, and perfected it. Let me know what you think, but I'm very happy with this.

Oh and incase you were wondering why I was in duty free in the first place, I was down in London for work. As it turns out I am far too old to shop in the city centre (Topshop was a massively stressful experience) and much preferred trawling through Camden market and haggling with the stall owners! I bought a pretty navy dress and found an Aldo sale shop so got some gorgeous sandals:

It was so warm that I HAD to buy these, honest...and then I wore them back to Scotland, and it was raining when I got off the plane so looked like a right plonker. Fabulous. As part of my job, we got taken to lunch to a lovely sushi/noodle place called Bento in Camden, look at my gorgeous flowering jasmine tea! I have to get some of this for the flat.

All in all a successful trip! I also managed to fall in love with Estee Lauder Double Wear light in the airport on the way back but managed to avoid buying any but I go away again next month so we'll see what happens then!!! Oddly I'm NC20 in Mac but the lightest shade in Estee. I'm never sure if it's the light in airports but I always seem to change shade. Oh and smell this the next time you're in Boots, it's beautiful and on my wishlist:

Anyway lovely readers, that's my little update, back in a day or so with my next review. Hope you're well and thanks for reading, as always :) xxx

Glossybox June 2012

Good day one and all! Now that the formalities are over, how've you been? I've been away at a wedding and my phone was being an IDIOT, and I've not been able to post or read blogs. I literally felt like I'd lost a limb. No joke. So anyway I'm baaaack, and ready to ramble at will. The only picture of Richard and I from the wedding isn't massively flattering but here it is anyway! For the record I am not that wide!!

As you can see we have our priorities right and are next to the bar, the cake, and the sweet table. Yes there was a big pic and mix table with paper bags to take away goodies with you! I stole all the Haribo eggs and hearts at the end of the night mmmm. ANYWAY, I got back to find my June Glossybox outside the flat door. Naughty postman, anyone could have stolen it!

Richard thought I said it was for him, I said the word "review" and he thought I said "for you", he was so disappointed when he realised otherwise. I was like REALLY? It's a big PINK box! Come on now. Last month's Glossybox was a massive hit with me, if you haven't read it you can do so here. I always knew it would be a hard act to follow, but to be honest I'm a little underwhelmed by this month's box. Let's see what I got:

It looks a little bare doesn't it :(

I have seen these Dermablend concealers before, I have a birthmark on my neck which looks a lot like a lovebite, when I was a teenager I was pretty embarrassed by it so tried everything to cover it up. A friend has this to cover her acne scarring and I used it, it is brilliant but just so thick. I'll use it for stubborn spots maybe but I don't really have a use for this anymore, might try to cover my birthmark and do a post for interest's sake.

We also got a brush, which is meant to be £15.00 full price. I hate to be cynical, but as it's made for Glossybox, they could really say it costs anything. I have a lot of high quality brushes and whilst not cheap looking, it doesn't strike me as a high end product.

If I didn't know these were made of 100% goat hair I would say they were synthetic, something about the plasticy gleam or the splaying of the brushes just shouts fake to me. It could be the way the hair has been treated as my MAC and Bobbi Brown brushes don't look so messy when they are brand new. I do like the fact that Glossybox are giving us products we can use and keep, this and the mirror from last month will be used, but I'd rather have quality over quantity.

I have wanted to try the Agent Provocateur perfumes for  a while so for me this set was a good additon. I do however think perfumes aren't the best thing to include as everyone's taste is so different! I have the original one on just now and I really like it. It smells very flowery and sensual, although (please bear with me) it does smell like a grown-up version of the "perfume" you used to get free with Barbies. Does anyone remember that? Nevermind, that's what it smells like and you get three fragrances, each 1.5ml.

Next up, a mineral bronzer from new cosmetics company BM Beauty, one of the founders of which is Pussycat Doll Kimberley Wyatt! Like her or not, she is a bit of a glamourpuss, and I am a latecomer to the world of mineral makeup so I am quite excited to give this a shot. The only thing is it does look a bit muddy! I'm very worried I will look awfully dark, will need to update you once I've tried it.

Last but not least, we have a Yves Rocher "Sexy Pulp" mascara which has a huuuuge curvaceous, sexy looking brush to match its name. I would have hoped for a full size one of these as this is a very small sample, but it's currently half price on their website here, so if I like it I might purchase the large one. The large one is normally over sixteen pounds so this should be a good product (totally on the you-get-what-you-pay-for premise).

Now I've written this review, I'm slightly more excited about the products I received but it still feels a little sparse, if you know what I mean. The only full size item was Glossybox branded so it seems like a bit of a cop-out and while the other items look good, they are all little testers. I don't feel like this box is particularly good value for money. I've just seen that Top Cashback are offering 15% discount on the monthly subscription, and I got £7.00 back on my first box, so I might need to cancel then resubscribe to get the best deal.

Sorry Glossybox this month you'd get a score of 5/10. What did you get in your box? Were you happy with it? xxx