Cargo Cosmetics - Suited to a Tea Cream Eye Shadow Palette// Review

It's not often the packaging for something sways my decision to buy it, but when I caught my eye on this Cargo Cosmetic's palette in TK Maxx, I knew it was something I had to have before I even saw the shades.

The packaging is made from cardboard and has everything I love on it; pastels, dainty illustrations and cake. The packaging doesn't actually close shut securely, unlike palettes with a magnetic clasp, etc, but this isn't too much of  a problem for me.

This cost me just £9.99 instead of the whopping £30 on feelunique. To be honest, I probably wouldn't have paid the full price for it,  but it does take a lot of thinking and persuading for me to buy anything make up wise that costs more than a tenner.

This palette is unlike anything I've owned before, due to the fact the shadows are all cream. I didn't actually notice this when I bought it and I did consider returning it. However, the shades are were just so pretty and curiosity got the better of me. I don't think I own any cream eyeshadows. I've had my eye on the Maybelline Colour Tattoos for a while, but never got round to trying them.

So what did I think? Honestly, a complete waste of money. I've tried using this about three or four times now, hoping each time I will realise why this palette is £30 full price, But nope. The shadows are really greasy and crease as soon as you apply them. Using a primer does not make any difference whatsoever. I tried setting the shadows with a powder and that made them last a little longer, but not much over an hour.

It's such a shame, because this would be such a lovely palette to own in the product was actually any good. The only pro I can think of, is that I tried using some of the shades as lip and cheek tints and it worked a whole lot better than on my eye lids. However, it's just not practical to carry this around and as you can imagine, it doesn't last that long on the lips either.

Overall, I do not recommend this product. I've seen it pop up in TK Maxx again, and it's just not worth the money. I will probably just use this as some sort of decoration when I move out and get a proper vanity, but until then, it will stay tucked away at the back of my other palettes.

The Perfect Contour Powder?

I think most girls either have a love or hate relationship with contouring. I love the effect it gives other people, but I wasn't sure it would suit me. I tried using plenty of different matte bronzers to contour my face, but I find brown shades create a sun tan look rather than a shadow or else they leave my face looking really muddy and streaky.

I was about to give up when I discovered the blush 'Taupe' by NYX. This is a grey colour rather than brown and is perfect for pale faced girls everywhere. It isn't overly pigmented but I don't have a problem with that as it means that the contour can be easily built up. I use my Real Tecniques contour brush to apply this.

NYX makeup is available on their site and also in Next stores.

Have you tried this product before? What did you think?

Soap & Glory Archery Brow Tint and Pencil // Review

I feel like I should post more reviews on this blog, but I like to use a product for months at a time to decide properly whether it's any good or not.

I picked up Soap & Glory's Archery Brow Tint and Pencil a few months ago in Meadowhall. It always seems to be out of stock in my local Boots, so I was glad when I finally got my hands on it. This costs £10, which I do think is a little steep for a 'high street' product, but did the price reflect the quality?

The product came in a small box, which I liked as it meant that I knew for definite it hadn't been tampered with. The look of the pencil is pretty simple; a standard black pen shape, with the two separate products either end.

The brow tint is by far my favourite part. It looks a little like a felt tip pen, and it isn't too dark, which makes it perfect to outline my brows and keep them looking natural. I've been using this for about three months now and it still hasn't dried up which was something I was concerned about.

The pencil part of the product doesn't really impress me. It looks a little off in colour and I don't know whether that's because mine is dodgy or that it is supposed to look like that. I have to press down quite hard to get any colour pay off, but when I do, my brows look quite natural.

I probably wouldn't repurchase this, as I think it's quite pricey for just the one element that I love, Hopefully, in the future, they will release the tint on it's own.

Left - Tint, Right - Pencil

Have you tried S&G Archery? What did you think?

HUGE Lush Haul

I don't know whether this can be counted as a 'huge' haul, but it's absolutely massive for me. I bought some of these at the Sheffield Beauty Blogger meet up, some were gifts and some I bought in Bristol when visiting family. I didn't see the point of three separate posts so I decided to haul them all together.

I'll go through the bath bombs first of all. I got two Lord of Misrule bath bombs. As I don't have a Lush in my hometown, I had given my nanna a list of products I wanted for my birthday and this was on it. However, after smelling it at the Lush stand, I decided to buy another. Unfortunately, this was a Halloween limited edition, but there were some still available at the Bristol store so maybe there's still some floating about. I much prefer spicy smells to sweet ones and this is the bomb I'm much looking forward to using.

If there was a mix of spicy and sweet, Cinders would fit that category. I've already used this, and I loved the warm toffee smell it gave off. Definitely a winter favourite.

I'll admit it, I bought the Luxury Lush Pud bath bomb because of the colours. With the little sprig of holly in the middle, this is one I'm saving for nearer Christmas time, for a relaxing bubble bath on a cold night. This has lavender in it, one of my favourite scents.

Northern Lights was another gift, but unfortunately, it snapped in half and by the time I travelled home with it, it had completely exploded. The demonstrations of this have me so excited to use it, and I reckon I'll get at least two goes from it, so it doesn't matter so much that it is currently in a hundred pieces.

If you're wondering why this is the best 'Ickle Baby Bot' you've seen, it's because I made it myself at the Sheffield event.

Butterbear, I bought in Sheffield. This is definitely one of my favourite smells, and my sister even bought one for my niece as they're not as strong and over powering as other bombs. This is a melt and supposed to make your skin feel nice and soft and at less than £2, it's a lot more purse friendly than some others.

The Sparkly Pumpkin was another Halloween bath bomb. This is absolutely covered in glitter so I'm not looking forward to scrubbing the bath out after using it, but it's so pretty to look at.

On the theme of glitter, Holly Golightly is another bubble bar, and also completely covered in sparkles. This is the most Christmassy scent of them all. I reckon I should get a few goes out of this.

And lastly, I got the candy mountain, which is another bubble bar. If you like really sweet smells, you'll love this. It smells exactly like snow fairy, which I also got a small bottle of.

I'm glad I only asked for a small, as the smell is very sweet, and actually has a weird after smell for me. This isn't something I could use every day, but it's nice for every now and then.

I've seen a couple of reviews of D'fluff, a strawberry shaving foam. I've never used a shaving cream before, but hopefully this will help prevent those nasty red bumps I get on my legs.

I love Lush cleansers and have tried almost all of them, but my favourite by far is Angels on Bare Skin. So when a Christmas variety was released, doing the same things but with different ingredients such as cranberries and satsumas, I had to try it. It doesn't smell as nice as it's non-festive dupe, but I'm enjoying using it.

If you're wondering why it's been put in a different pot, that's because I wanted to take advantage of the 5 Lush pots scheme. If you collect five Lush pots with the stickers, you can get a free face mask. I chose Catastrophe Cosmetic after taking the advice of one of the ladies and I'm loving it upto now.

Lastly, I bought a massage bar called Soft Coer. This has chocolate in it and smells delicious. I've used it a few times already, so expect a more in depth review in the future. 

That's everything I've bought over the last month or so. Hopefully, this should all last me a good while. Have you bought anything from Lush lately?

Zoella Beauty Haul

I don't know whether you can call this a haul as I only bought three things, but considering there isn't that much in Zoella's collection yet, I think it was a good start.

My local Superdrug is so small it hardly ever gets new releases, so imagine my excitement when I walked past and saw the Zoella Beauty products on a shelf. They had everything apart from the candles and the makeup bag with the eyes on. The main thing I was interested in was the body mist 'Blissful Mistful' which is £8. I love the bottle and it looks so pretty on my dressing table next to my other perfume bottles. Because it was so cheap, I thought it would look cheap, but as you a can see, it doesn't. I find it hard to describe smells, but I think this is a more Spring/Summer scent than Autumn/Winter, just because it smells really fresh and clean rather than musky.

I went back to Superdrug a few days later and picked up the Candle 'Let's Glow' and the Fizz Bar. I haven't used either yet, but the Fizz bar has such a familiar smell. I think it reminds me of washing powder but I'm excited to use it. The candle also smells lovely.

I'm excited to try these and glad I managed to get some of the range before they sold out. If you happen to see some of the stuff in your local Superdrug, be sure to pick some up because I was told that when they sell, it will be a while before stores get them in again.

Have you tried any of her range?

The Body Shop Haul

After running low on my Soap & Glory Cleanser for the second time, I decided to switch it up a bit and try something new. I recently got a sample of the Vitamin E cleanser from The Body Shop and decided to try that.

The Body Shop were having a 30% off event for 'Love Your Body' card holders on the 2nd and 3rd of October, which they kindly informed me by text. I had also been eyeing up their night creams and couldn't decide between the Vitamin E one or the S&G Wish Upon A Jar. Considering S&G was £16, I decided to go for the cheaper option. 

Together the cleanser and night cream came to £20.50 but with 30% off, it came to just over £14 which I thought was amazing. 

After paying for my items, I inquired about the birthday bonus card holders get. When it's your birthday month, you get £5 to spend in store. They informed me I could use this in conjunction with the 30% offer, so off I went browsing again. 

Gabby from VelvetGh0st talked about the Instablur primer, saying it was one of her favourites. This costs £14 on it's own, but next to it was a set featuring the primer and the bb cream for just £20! Bargains to be had everywhere. With the 30% off, this cost just £14, then with the extra £5 off it came to just £9. £9 for 2 products is amazing value. 

As I was about to pay for these, the lady informed me that if I spent another pound, I would get another £5 off as I had reached the first reward (basically every £10 you spend, you get a stamp. When you get 4 stamps, you get a £5 reward off any purchase.) 

I headed towards the £2 lip balms, but the lady showed me the Instablur Eye Primer. She applied a little on my hand, then swatched some eye shadow next to the primer then on it. It made it so much more vibrant! I was a bit unsure whether to purchase it or not, but the lady scanned it and told me I would be paying £12.50 for all three products! Which meant the eye primer cost me just £3.50. 

I decided then I better leave or I would be there all day. Have you bought anything from The Body Shop lately? 

OOTD // Comfy Jumpers and Vintage Dresses

This outfit isn't to everyone's taste (especially not my dad's) but I love pairing vintage dresses with big comfy jumpers, especially for the upcoming Autumn season.

I don't know how old the dress is, but I think it's probably 70's. I love dresses with the '50's' style; nipped in waist, mid length skirt. Because there's so much going on with the dress, I kept it pretty simple with plain accessories, although I did team it with my bright red duck bag!

The only issue I have with this dress is that the buttons strain against my giant B cup boobies, but it doesn't bother me too much. The strap on my bag has almost had it, but I think eventually I'll cut it off and use the bag as a makeup case or something.

Dress - I.luv.it.ireallydo.Vintage

Jumper - Primark

Bag-I.luv.it.ireallydo.Vintage

Shoes - TK Maxx

Necklace - Vivienne Westwood

How do you like to wear vintage dresses in the colder months?

Tanya Burr Vampire Kiss Lip Gloss // Review

I'm not a huge fan of lip gloss, only owning three in my entire collection. However, I was desperate to jump on the Tanya Burr bandwagon and try out one of her products.

You may remember the Bristol haul I posted a few months ago, in which I purchased a gloss in the shade 'Vampire Kiss.' There's an overwhelming 12 shades to choose from, and after staring at them all for a good five minutes, unable to swatch them on my wrist, I decided to play it safe and choose my go-to shade; a deep red.

I was also drawn to the name, being born on Halloween and loving any vampire film, program or novel, minus Twilight (although that's probably where she got the name from. I'm going to imagine she drew inspiration from something much cooler like True Blood.)

The packaging for the product is faultless and wouldn't look out of place on a high end makeup counter. The gloss itself is creamy and smells like sweeties. If there's anything I love more than sweets, it's makeup that smells like them.

The gloss has minimal stickyness. Maybe because I'm used to only wearing lipsticks, the gloss feels slightly heavy on my lips and I can tell it's there, although it doesn't cause any irritation or annoyance such as my hair sticking to it.

The applicator is doe foot which allows precise application. The shade of the gloss itself isn't all that I imagined it to be. I bought it assuming that it would be perfect for the Autumn/Winter season because of it's dark colour, although once on the lips, it's much sheerer, brighter and would be suitable all year round.

The only thing I dislike about this product is the short expiry date. Once it's opened, you have to use it within three months, although I like to go by the rule that if it looks, smells, and applies okay then it's fine to use.

I will definitely consider buying more of these glosses. I have my eye on Exotic Island  and Aurora at the moment. At £7.99, they're affordable, however I'm not completely converted to lipglosses and hope Tanya brings out a range of lipsticks soon!

Have you tried any Tanya Burr makeup?

July/ August Favourites

I didn't manage to write last months favourites so I decided to write a combined favourite post.

July Favourites

1) Mac lipstick- Girl About Town

This featured on my 'First Mac Purchases' post and is the one I've been wearing the most. I never thought this colour would suit me, but I'm in love with it. It was perfect for the summer, but now the nights are drawing in, I often grab this for nights out, paired with a nude eye. I have definitely started a full blown love affair with Mac, purchasing another lipstick last month and with another three on my wishlist.

2) The Body Shop - Vitamin E Sorbet

I bought this a couple of days after my holiday after seeing someone review it. I really wanted to give my skin a break from makeup and sun cream after wearing it every night for two weeks. This has a jelly like texture and is quite different to all the other skin care products I own. I'm trying to find a way to incorporate it daily into my routine, as at the minute, I just put it on whenever I'm having a makeup free day.

3) Soap & Glory - Hand Food

This is something I've had since Christmas, but after rediscovering it during a clear out of my drawers, I've been using it daily. I tend to wear this at night as it's a bit thick for my liking, for day time use. However, it's got rid of the dry skin on my hands, and smells exactly like Righteous Butter which is always a good thing.

4) Purple Lemon Bath & Body Co - Tee Tree Toner

Purple Lemon Bath & Body Co are a local company who sometimes attend local craft fairs. All their ingredients are natural (similar to Lush) so I ended up purchasing one of their toners to try out. I think it was about £3.50 which is a bargain.

5) Essence - Coral Calling Lipstick

I purchased a couple of lipsticks in Bulgaria, as Essence wasn't yet available locally. I loved this colour so much, I bought another one for my Hull Blogger Box Swap. Considering the price of these (about a couple of quid) the quality is amazing and I already have my eye on a few other shades.

August Favourites

1) Essence - All About Matte

Essence came into our Wilko's recently, and after trying a couple of their lipsticks that I purchased in Bulgaria,I really wanted to try some of their other products. I love my Rimmel Stay Matte powder but it's coming to the end of it's life, so when I saw this for £3.50, I decided to give it a go. The powder instantly takes away shine, and actually keeps my skin matte for quite some time.

2) Tarte - Rainforest After Dark Palette

I asked my parents to bring this back from America for me along with some other bits (haul soon, I promise.) The packaging for this is amazing and is definitely the most luxurious product I own. I want to write a more in depth review, so I'll leave you with a photo of what it looks like inside.

3) Bioderma Micellar Water

I bought this from a pharmacy in Bulgaria and it was £10 for 250 mls. I was curious more than anything because I've seen so many rave reviews from other bloggers. I wanted to try it to see if it was worth the hefty price tag, especially as it was a bit cheaper in Bulgaria. I'll probably post a more in depth review in the future, but whilst I'm not 100% sure I'll purchase this again because of the price, it definitely is a treat to use. It doesn't sting my eyes one bit and smells amazing.

4) Got2Be Oil-Licious Weightless Dry Oil Mist

I really like Got2Be products, and after my holiday, I wanted to invest in some more hair care. I hate getting my fingers greasy with hair oils, so this is perfect for me. I got it from Savers for £2.50, a lot cheaper than other places. This leaves my hair feeling really soft and smelling nice and is something I use daily.

5) Real Techniques Blush Brush

I bought this towards the end of the month, after discovering an amazing offer at Boots. All brushes were buy one, get the second half price. I also had a £2 off voucher through the Boots app if I spent over £10 on brushes. I bought the Blush brush and the Expert Face brush, but I've definitely been reaching blush brush almost everyday.