Review - L'Oreal Studio Secrets fibre lash primer

Has anyone else noticed that recently there has been a little bit of a boom in products being released that have in fact been out on the market years before? Well anyone remember the white lash fibre type products which were big about 6 years ago? Well L'Oreal have released one of these as a part of their Studio Secrets range.

I loved these products first time round, and yes I'm aware that there are still a few of these being sold now where you get the white primer and the mascara in one. My favourite product was by Bourjois and I was really sad when it then was discontiued but I never really looked for others until I stumbled upon this little beauty from L'Oreal.

You just get the white lash fibres, which act as false lashes to give maximum volume and length, as you can team it with your favourite mascara. The brush is the same as a normal mascara one and you just apply to your lashes before mascara.

(Left eye with the primer, right eye without) 

Once applied you wait for it to dry before applying your favourite mascara.

(Left eye with primer and mascara, right eye without)

You have to make sure you give a good coat of mascara as you don't want patches of white showing through!

(Both eyes with lash primer and mascara)

As you compare the photos I think you'll agree that the lash primer does add length and volume to lashes and then when mascara is applied you end up with amazing looking lashes!

The lash primer is available from Boots in the L'Oreal Studio Secrets range for £10.29.

Oh and I used Maxfactor False Lash Effect mascara and my eyeshadow is from the MUA Glitter Ball palette. 

My current favourite products

Over the last two months I have found a number of products that I simply love and thought I'd show you them in one post. There is a mixture of cosmetics, skincare and haircare.

Clockwise from top left:

Kleenex eye make up removal wipes - £2.99

A quick and easy way to get ride of eye make up at the end of the day and doesn't dry your skin out.

MUA Heaven and Earth palette - £4

A cheaper alternative to the Naked palette with a shade for every occasion, it's quickly becoming my most used palette in my make up collection.

Hello Kitty eyeshadow palette - No longer available, was £8

I've only used two colours in this eyeshadow palette, the third and fourth on the top row, but I love how pigmented the colours are. It's a bit of a shame this is no longer available.

Collection 2000 Cream Puff in Cotton Candy - £2.99

I don't go for pink lipsticks but that fact that this is a matte product appealed. You can build up the colour to how pink you want to go and I use this at least once a week.

Bourjois Flower Perfection foundation - £11.99

Simply the best liquid foundation I've used in years. Leaves your skin matte and lasts all day long. Amazing.

Organix Brazilian Keratin therapy flat iron spray - £6.99

As you've probably guessed this is organic and contains the moisturising ingredients cocoa nut oil and avocado oil as well as cocoa butter and keratin protein to help strengthen the hair. This smells amazing and my hair is left feeling lovely and soft once dry and styled.

Maxfactor mini polishes (colour shown Hot Pink) - £3.99

I love these polishes as for the same price as some 'cheaper' brands you get a much better quality product. I also love that they are quite dinky because who really ever gets to the end of a nail polish bottle? I have about 10 of these polishes.

Nivea Pure & Natural face cream - £5.10

A light cream that absorbs quickly and leaves your face feeling matte and is the perfect base for foundation.

Do you love any of these products or what would you recommend to try?

Dupe alert! Benefit Hervana and Rimmel match perfection blush

When Benefit released Hervana in January this year I couldn't wait to get my hands on it as Benefit blushers are simply amazing but at £23.50 they aren't cheap. Then Rimmel released some new blushers as a part of their Match Perfection range. I loved the colours of them and at a mere £5.99 they are great value for money. 

So typically I bought both Hervana and Rimmels blush and was kind of shocked when I found them to be perfect dupes for each other.

The colours in both are so similar and they both give a matte look, the Rimmel blush has a very slight glitter effect to it but not much.

In fact if I had the choice of whether to buy Benefit's Hervana or Rimmel's Match Perfection blusher I would hands down choose the Rimmel product. It's cheaper, gives the same results and I prefer the shape of the pan to the Hervana.

Do you know of any good dupes out there at the minute?

Review - Kleenex eye make up removal wipes

Last year it was announced that Kleenex were launching a line of skincare wipes and to say I was quite excited about his is an understatment. Actually I don't now why I was quite so excited but as I had quite a hoard of products I waited until a few weeks ago to purchase something from the range and the item I bought was the eye make up removal wipes.

I like the packaging of these as it's quite girly and clean looking. You get 24 wipes in the pack and they don't contain parabens or SLS and they are made with natural fibres so they are kinder to the environment than the average face wipe.

Each wipe is quite large and is thicker than a normal face wipe so you can remove the most stubborn of mascara and each wipe is sufficient to use on both eyes.

I'm really impressed with these and repurchased almost immediately. Each pack costs £2.99 and are available from Superdrug and supermarkets.

Wednesday Wishlist 13 - Dresses

ASOS Curve

Birdcage Dress - £38

Skater Dress in Ditsy Floral - £22

Mini Bodycon Dress in Leopard Print - £22

Next 

Geri Helliwell Colour Block Dress - £38

New Look

Koko Biscuit Belted Skater Dress - £32

Review - Good Things Deep Clean blackhead exfoliator

I love Good Things, all products are free from nasty things like parabens and SLS but they give the same results as products that contain them and they are purse friendly too!

I had previously tried Good Things Good Clean Fun strawberry and cranberry facial polish and liked it so had a feeling I would like their Deep Clean exfoliator.

It contains extracts of papaya and liquorice and it smelt really nice! 

Unlike the Good Clean Fun polish this one was more 'gritty', it's texture was what you would expect from an exfoliator and as a result it left my skin feeling lovely and refreshed. I even used this in the mornings sometimes before work to wake me up.

This is priced at £4.99 for a 150ml tube and is available from Boots and Sainsburys.

Review - Too Faced Lemon Drop shadow insurance

I suffer from really bad dark circles under my eyes and no matter how many hours sleep I have or how much water I drink they're always there. Yes I use concealer but sometimes it isn't enough. A few years ago I discovered Benefit's Lemon Aid, a colour correcting product, but as I now mainly use power foundation the creamy consistency doesn't work too well with powder and it can cake up. But a few months ago Too Faced launched their own version called Lemon Drop.

I couldn't wait to try this out so last month I bought a tube to try. At £16.50 you get a 11ml tube of product which is massive compared to Benefit's Lemon Aid where for the same price you get a teeny 2.7ml of product.  

When I first squeezed a bit of this out to try I was a little shocked to find it had separated and I got creamy product and water but regardless of this the product texture was nice and creamy and it was a subtle shade of yellow.

When rubbed in it definitely brightens up the skin and even though it doesn't completely hide my dark circles it does do a good job at calming down the darkness.

I'm not sure if I would buy this again, I would have to see how long the tube lasted but I am quite impressed with the results.

Review - Avon Color Trend lipsticks

We all love cheap cosmetics and Avon's Color Trend range falls into the purse friendly bracket. It is mainly aimed at teenagers and I have to admit I don't find myself looking at the Color Trend pages in the Avon book that often. That was until they ran a buy one lipstick get 2 free offer, so for £3.50 you could be the owner of three brand new lipsticks! Who could turn that down?! 

So after much deliberating I decided on Sequin, Berry Pink and Creme Caramel.

I love the pigmentation, for the price you can't complain but I found that they do dry my lips out. After applying my lips were feeling really dry and in need of a moisture boost. This is a real shame as I love the colours. I will keep using these but not everyday as I think they'd dry my lips out quite badly.

Have you used these lipsticks before? What other Color Trend products would you recommend?

Wednesday Wishlist 12 - Shoes feat. Next

It's getting to that time of year when we're getting out our summer footwear or like me looking at new ones to buy. Next have a great selection of shoes at the moment and here are my favourite picks.

Suede Curve Heel Slingback Court Shoes - £48

Suede Mid Heel Courts (Mint, Mint and Pink) - £38

Raffia Demi Wedges - £38

Espadrille Court Shoe Wedges - £36

All available from Next

Bourjois Flower Perfection foundation and primer

Ok so this is the second time I have written this post as Blogger kindly decided to delete it for me. Thanks. So here we go second time lucky.

About a month ago I bought Bourjois's new foundation Flower Perfection and the matching primer. I don't normally go for liquid foundations as I much prefer powder mineral ones but as this one was aimed to deliver a matte finish that lasted 16 hours I thought I'd give it a whirl.

With the foundation you get an applicator sponge but it's not really use nor ornament to be honest.

When I got it home I thought I'd picked the entirely wrong shade as it looked way too brown and dark for my skin but in fact it's a perfect match. 

It leaves a flawless finish and a smooth complexion. It does indeed last all day and in fact I love it that much I've used it practically everyday since I bought it and it has replaced my trusty mineral foundation.

As for the primer, I'm going to do a more in depth review in a couple of weeks but I do like it. It applies on the skin easily and doesn't leave it feeling cakey or like you've got a film on.

Overall I would without doubt buy this foundation again and if you have combination or oily skin I would recommend you try it hands down!

Both products are available from Boots for around £11.99 for the foundation and £9.99 for the primer.

Review - Nivea Pure and Natural

Way back in February last year I bought three products from the Nivea Pure and Natural range. I got the cleanser, toner and face cream for normal to combination skin.

Nivea was never a brand the appealed to me, it was always a brand that seemed to focus on older people but this rang caught my eye because it is free from parabens and SLS so I thought I would give it a whirl.

The cleanser is a creamy consistency that I use with cotton wool to wipe away my facial make up. I find that I have to use two cotton pads but it does remove almost all traces of make up. The toner is clear and doesn't leave your skin tacky or stinging like some other toners do. The face cream is quite light in consistency and skins into the skin really quickly. It also leaves my skin feeling quite matte so is a perfect base to apply make up. 

All three products smell really fresh and clean and not artificial at all. I really like the scent. I would really like it if face wipes were added to the Pure and Natural range for those days when you can't be bothered to do the whole cleanse and tone routine. Overall I would buy these again as I'm impressed with the results they give.

The cleanser and toner are £3.36 each for 200ml bottles and the face cream is £5.10 for a 50ml pot but currently at Boots these are all on a 2 for £6 offer which makes a great saving!

My make up storage

On my popular posts gadget which is over there >>> I saw that a post on my make up storage was quite popular, as this was from 2010 I thought maybe it was time to show you where I now store my products. 

As I no longer live in my own house I don't have anywhere near as much space I have used two shelves in my wardrobe to hide everything away.

I use my Sanctuary box from a Boots christmas offer of the week from 2010 and my Gok Wan drawer set from christmas 2011 to gold all my products in. They're great as you can separate products up and they're easy to find if you have to get ready in  rush like me. 

So what's in the drawers?

The bottom drawer in the Sanctuary unit holds all my blushers.

In the middle drawer are my eyeshadow palettes.

The top left hand drawer holds products that I don't use that often. The spoon is for when I mix mica powders with water in case you're wondering! The right hand drawer has my everyday products.

The bottom two drawers in my Gok unit  hold mascaras and eye pencils.

The middle two drawers hold lipsticks and in the right drawer it is a mixture of new products and odd single products.

The top two drawers hold new products that haven't been opened yet. As you can see I don't think I need to buy anymore products for a while! 

On top of these I have a few everyday products that need to be stood up so I have primers and foundations.

If anyone is struggling with their make-up storage I would highly recommend you track down some drawer units like these because they are so functional and it makes your life so much easier in the mornings when you're rushing about trying to get ready to go to work, school or uni.

How do you store your make up?

A year of nail polish - March

Maxfactor - Purple Haze

MUA Love Hearts - U R Fab

The month that was - March

March feels like it's gone on forever! Unfortunately due to lack of funds I think April will too :-( Talking of funds I emptied my piggy bank and didn't expect to find much in it but I started saving all my £2 coins and when I counted them I have £34 in £2 coins! I'm definitely going to continue saving them.

This month I've been using up the remainder of my annual leave and one week despite having a day off I still worked 33 hours, I was super tired at the end of it and my boss said I looked shattered! 

My friend also had her baby, a little boy that she named Archie!

I also bought some size 16 clothes for the first time in ages and they fit! And sadly I lost a wheel trim on my car and even though my dad went back to try to find it it looks like someone beat him to it because it wasn't there :-(

I took my mum out for lunch at McDonalds and we started collecting the Monopoly stickers, haven't won anything so far except a free McFlurry! 

And it was the start of The Voice last weekend and I loved it. It was nice to have a different concept of talent show. What did you think of it?

Also a bit random but something that is REALLY annoying me is people, mainly men in vans, thinking it's ok to take the right hand lane at a roundabout to take the second exit. Just be patient and wait like the rest of us! 

So that was my March, hope you had a good month!