MAC "Dainty" Mineralize Blush

Hello lovelies! After a horrible day of being very unwell yesterday, I have recovered and am en route to Manchester with Richard, so sorry for being quiet! Anyway onto today's post!!

Incase you didn't get the memo (which is unlikely) Mineralize blushers are made from minerals baked to create a formula that goes on lightweight and is easily buildable. I already have one of these in "Love Thing" which is a very dark pink that was completely the wrong shade for me, and when I saw this on BuyaPowa it instantly looked more accessible and light for spring/summer looks. Now I bet you'll agree that on the MAC site, this doesn't look anything like it does in real life, it's described as a "light yellow pink with gold pearl" and looks like an antique pink shade. Surely for such a massive company MAC could get some better photography of their products?? This is what it REALLY looks like, out of the box and a bit grubby even though I've only used it twice.

Not that my photography is spectacular, but you can hopefully see it looks a bit more peachy pink than warm pink, and it turned up with a bit of a crack running through it, which I was worried would split but hasn't so far. I love the sparkle to all the Mineralize blushes, I tend to stroke them and lust over them at the MAC counter, much more than their duller counterparts. For application of all my powder blushes, I tend to use my favourite brush, my 129SH from MAC, which retails at £26.00 but is well worth the price tag. This layers on sheerly and builds up to a lovely lit-from-within look. This is without blusher, then the blusher just over my Garnier BB cream and a bit of moisturiser.

CLOSE UP TIME!

I quite like the fact that the glitter is finely milled and not too in-your-face, but still catches the light prettily. This is fairly heavily layered but you could go all-out clown face if you wanted (god forbid). It goes well with almost any eyeshadow and lip combo, maybe not silver based colours due to the glitter. For anyone looking for their first Mineralize buy, I would recommend this shade as an exquisite start to any collection!

10/10 even with the crack, and would recommend/repurchase

Is there room up there on the bandwagon?

Firstly, hello to my beautiful new followers! I really appreciate all your lovely comments and will reply to them asap!! Yes, I've been sucked into a trend. Again. This time it's the Revlon Lip Butters. I've seen these all over the blogosphere and drooled over other people's gorgeous pictures and descriptions, so eventually I picked up my own. Most bloggers seem to have gone for the fairly middle-of-road shades so I wanted to go a bit out there and get a bolder shade, Candy Apple, which is a pillar box red. The packaging is great for these products, I love the quilted effect and how you get a good idea of the shade from the colour of the lid.

The texture is very buttery indeed, creamy and thick, full of moisturising qualities. It goes on fairly sheer but you can layer it up easily. The only tiny gripe about this is it wears down quickly, I've used this three times and have made a dent in it already. Apart from that I LOVE this and want some of the other colours now. Here are a couple of pics of Candy Apple applied, please excuse the up nose shot and dry lips!!!

I think it looks a little more orange toned on the lips, and it smells fruity but not too strong.

Yuck scabby dry bits, sorry! But you get the idea anyway :) I hate to admit it but everyone really was right about this product, and for £7.99 I think it is a good buy.

10/10 and will be repurchasing

She Said Beauty Box May 2012

Is there anything more satisfying that the doorbell ringing and seeing the postie there with a spanking new beauty box for you? If there is then I don't know it. How cute is the little note on the packaging?

I'm such a sucker for sweet things like that, it really made me smile :) So, onto the goodies inside! This is the box with all the samples laid out, there were three full size products, which I thought was great this time round. I'll just feature pics of my favourites.

I am in LOVE with the eyelashes, from the Vintage Cosmetic Company, a brand I had never heard of which you can find here. The site and design is super cute and girly, very glam and 50s which is adorable. I got the Gracie lashes, which come with enough glue to wear them a couple of times and I am saving them for a night out with the girls. Check them out:

There was also this cute soap, it's meant as a relaxing soap based on yoga scents and beliefs, the packaging is nice and well designed. Not what I would normally buy but I reckon it will be nice to use in the bath, maybe with my Umi bath soak.

Last pic is of an Inika Lip Whip in "Apricot", these retail for around £14.00 so I was very impressed to get a full size one in my box! I have heard alot about Inika, specifically the eyeliners, but never tried anything by them. The product is billed as being vegan, cruelty free and halal, amongst other things which is great. The gold and black box is timeless and very classy, and I always love being able to see how much product is left in the tube. This shade is almost bronze in colour and has a stunning metallic shimmer, it is smooth but not sticky and looks fab on. I'm a massive fan already.

We also got some samples from Snowberry, another brand new to me, which I have not tried yet, a sun lotion (the weather won't permit use of this for some time yet!) and a Kim Kardashian perfume rollerball. Firstly the rollerball would not work, the packaging is very TOWIE and the perfume smells like you are being smothered with pot pourri. AVOID. So, have any of you received this box and if so what is your take on it?

L'Oreal Rouge Caress "Impulsive Fuschia"

I recently bought another of these lipsticks in the colour Nude Ingenue, and I loved the formulation, so when I saw this shade in Waitrose for £5.99 I snapped it up. This is a beautiful blue-toned fuschia, the main body of the product is a hot pink, and there are tiny purple flecks that are visible when you see it close up.

As in my other review of these lippies, I love the packaging as it is sturdy and the bullet is snugly protected. I'm a klutz so this is good for me! Onto how the product looks on my lips:

I love this colour for a day-to-day bright lip, and it's a great formula for a drugstore brand. I find it lasts up to 4hrs without application and is non-drying.
9/10 and would repurchase

Blog Hopping!

I have just found Blog Love Therapy which offers bloggers the chance to find new blogs they normally wouldn't, each blog hop lasts one week at a time. I'm a new blogger so any chance to get a bit of traffic and maybe some followers is fab :) Check out their site and find some awesome new blogs!

If it's good enough for Cleopatra...

It's good enough for me! I'm talking about the milk baths Cleopatra and Elizabeth I of England used to lavish themselves in, believing them to soothe the skin and have youth-preserving qualities. This isn't quite so luxurious, but I do love a good bath every now and then. Waitrose has their own range of body lotions, hand creams and bath soaks named "Umi". At first when I spotted this I didn't even realise it was made for Waitrose, as it isn't in their branding, and looks very high end.

I like the fact it is in a vaguely milk-bottle shaped glass bottle, that you can see the product through, and it smells divine! The actual smell is "Palm milk and Acacia Honey", which sounds a bit sickly sweet, but it is actually a very soothing, calming creamy sweet smell to soak in and ease your tired bones. The consistency is very thick but smooth and I didn't expect it to foam, being described as a soak, but lovely bubbles form a white cloud-like layer on the top of the bath which looks very inviting!

You don't need to use much, and you get 500ml for £4.00, or £2.72 at the minute as there is a third off (yep bargain hunting again!). If you're near Waitrose and you fancy a treat for your bathroom, or a nice pressie for your mum, they have this and a couple of other scents, linden blossom and chilli chocolate which also smell great. I'm really impressed and will be going back for something else from the range! What's your favourite bath bomb or soak?

10/10 and this might be a staple in my bathroom for the foreseeable future :)

CARGO "Cheekactivator" Blush

It's another blusher, and another MASSIVE bargain. I went to the Gyle shopping centre last week for petrol and fell into Boots to have a look for some bargains. For some reason, Boots are discontinuing their own brand Front Cover, the Fearne Cotton line, and CARGO, and all lines had 75% off (so I got this for about £4.00)! As expected, the sections looked like they had been attacked by an angry bear and there wasn't much left, but I managed to grab this liquid blush and their famous "lashactivator" mascara/primer, along with some FrontCover goodies to be mentioned seperately (if I remember).

This is another one of those magic products that starts off one colour and changes to another as you blend it, it is actually supposed to get darker the more that you blend it, which meant the first time I used it I used too much and ended up with bright red cheeks!

The packaging is quite sturdy and has a holographic shine to it, which is very attractive and looks quite futuristic. The tube is also nicely made, but is mostly full of air! The tube below has been used twice!!

This is the shade Rose Flush, and I  didn't read the side carefully enough where it says "to release pigment blend with fingers" so got a wee shock when it came out like this:

You can see the colour changing on the edge of the product where I've wiped the edge of the nozzle, cool huh? This is the before and after for the blending, I quite like the finished shade but I hardly used any product to get this shade, half of the product on my hand was not used. So it takes a bit of getting used to, but it is worth it in the end!

I quite like this colour, what do you think?

I would give this a 9/10 but would probably not repurchase at £18.50 a pop