My First Beauty Subscription Box - A Look inside my Lovemebeauty Box

So this lovely box of loveliness was dropped on my doorstep last week a LoveMeBeauty box. LoveMeBeauty is a beauty subscription box service where you pay a monthly fee for a box, however this one is slightly different as you know what you are receiving in your box. When you pay for your box you get credits that you then spend on items for your box, you get 6 credits a month and products range from 1-3 points each from what I can see, you than then pay an additional fee to have extra items in your box. The delivery was quick and the items were packaged nicely, firstly inside the box pictured above and then in a drawstring bag (pictured below). I can't compare the service to other beauty box subscriptions yet but I intend to check out a few more and see how they are.

While we're here, I guess I should have a quick run though of the products I picked for my box. I'd been interested in trying something from Malin+Goetz for a while so when I saw the full sized Malin+Goetz Mojito Lip Balm for 2 points I quickly popped it into my box. It's tastes lovely and the formula is quite nice, the packaging isn't my favourite as, despite it being a tube, you have to squeeze it onto your finger and then apply it and then I feel like I need to wash my hands, so it wouldnt be my first choice for on-the-go, but I keep it by my bathroom sink and use it when I do my skincare routine.

Another 2-point item I picked out was the Lord & Berry Eyeliner which, again, seems to be a full size. While it's not quite as good as my Urban Decay Perversion Liner for tight-lining, it's really nice for a smudgey eyeliner look and sets in place after a short amount of smudge time. All in all, I think this was my favourite item in the box.

Then for a point each, I picked up 2 sample-sizes from Melvita, the Pulpe De Rose and their Damask Rose Floral Water. I thought I'd be a fan of these, I love rose-scented products, I love hydrating mists, I love plumping creams, so these 2 should have been winners. While I don't think they're bad they definitely aren't amazing and I can't see myself repurchasing either. The cream is the better of the two as it is nice to use, smells nice, seems to give a more plumped look to the skin, but the floral water? No thanks. The mister on the bottle seems to spit the product onto your face rather than mist it on, meaning I've been going for a spray-onto-cotton-wool-and-wipe-onto-face approach which isn't my favourite. On top of that, the smell made me feel a little ill, it's not the rose-y, luxurious smell you would expect from a rosewater toner and I was just generally disappointed with it.

So there we have it, 1 love, 2 likes, 1 leave.

If you have any recommendations for beauty boxes then give me a shout, I've become very intrigued about this whole beauty-box subscription service thing.

An Introduction To Omorovicza (The 6 Piece Introductory Kit)

So in the beauty-blogging world, people seem to be going crazy for two products in particular: The Omorovicza Queen of Hunary Mist and their Thermal Cleansing Balm so when I saw that the 6 Piece Introductory Kit contained minis of both, I snapped it up pretty quickly.

This kit is currently available on Cult Beauty, where it seems to be an exclusive, and comes packaged up in a nice, decent-sized case that could easily be used for travel (either for skincare or for make-up). The white edges and the simple branding make it a sleek option and the clear front and double zip feature makes it user-friendly and practical. Another over-all comment is the smell. The majority of these products have that spa-like amazing scent to them (and we all know how much I love my nicely-scented products now don't we?). Even the lesser products feel slightly luxury because the scent is so... Expensive? I can't place the notes, but it's lovely.

So in the set you seem to get the bulk of an AM and PM routine packaged up into a nice, compact travel case. For AM I'd kick things off with the Cleansing Foam, spray hydrate with the Queen of Hungary Mist and finish with the Illuminating Moisturiser, and for PM I'd go for the Thermal Cleansing Balm, the Queen of Hungary Mist and then the Instant Plumping Cream. You also get a mask option in the kit (the Deep Cleansing Mask) which I'd recommend using in the evening, once or twice a week. If you were going to use the kit as the basis for your skincare routine, I'd simply add in a serum step for both AM and PM, and an exfoliating toner in the evening.

So overall, it's a nice set, I wouldn't say it contains any flat out bad products, although I definitely have some favourites and feel like a couple others were just a bit meh. While they're nice to use, I feel like the full size of the Cleansing Foam and the Instant Plumping Cream are expensive for what you get with the cleanser coming in at £44 for 150ml and the night cream an eye-watering £105 for a 50ml jar. If you want a foaming cleanser that wont strip your skin let me suggest the First Aid Beauty Face Cleanser for less than a third of the price of the Omorovicza, and for a night cream, I'm currently using the Origins Night-a-mins for a more purse friendly find. Additionally, the Thermal Cleansing Balm wasn't for me. It's similar to the Emma Hardie Amazing Face Moringa Cleasning Balm in consistency (in fact it may even be a bit smoother in texture), but the price is quite steep and the smell isn't as refreshing. My Oskia Renaissance Cleansing Gel is doing over-time right now and at almost half the price of the Omorovicza, I know where my money's going next time.

The Illuminating Moisturiser is a nice-but-pricey one that I'm using for a treat and may add to the list of "treat purchases". It's light but moisturising and I really enjoy using it, but at £85 for 50ml, it's far from my daily pick. I'm generally very non-commital with my day creams and have yet to find one that's as nice as this but I'm struggling to justify the investment. Another love-the-product hate-the-price one is the Queen of Hungary Mist, again I love it and again it's a budget buster. I've been using it on pamper nights and days that have been edging on awful as a pick-me up. Since I first tried this I'd been looking for a more budget friendly alternative and the Jurlique Rosewater Balancing Mist is a goodie, but isn't quite as nice on the skin.

My final mention goes to the Deep Cleansing Mask, again pricey (£57 for 50ml) especially for a clay mask, but it's a really nice pick. It smoothes on to the skin and sets down evenly, unlike a lot of other clay masks I've used that seem to set in some places much quicker than others. Generally when it comes to masks, I don't mind investing a little more and while clay is one of the cheapest ingredients you can use in a mask I think this one might just be special. I'll report back and let you know if I repurchase.

February Favourites

This month I've been testing out new products like a mad lady so quite a lot of my usual products have found themselves being neglected. However in light of this, I've found some real gems that I'm incorporating into my routine on a regular basis.

Firstly is the make-up things, I've already spoken about the two base products on here before but I just wanted to touch back and really hammer my love for them home. I picked up the Maxfactor FaceFinity Foundation Primer from Boots a while back and though I've used others in the past and even recently have been trying out some more pricey options, I think this one still comes out on top. It's basically the glue you need to keep your foundation on all day.

With that I've been wearing the Loréal True Match Foundation, I have the shade "N1 Ivory" which is the most perfect colour match for my skin tone I've ever found on the high street. In addition to being a better colour match for me, it's a little lighter in coverage than my usual Revlon Colourstay and it's a little more satin-y in texture which works better over the Maxfactor primer as I was finding that things were looking a bit flat when I wore a matte foundation over a mattifying primer.

I've also stopped being a lazy-bum when it comes to moisturising, the winter in England is getting a bit harsh on my skin and I've been finding that my usual Soap & Glory Whipped Clean Shower Butter just wasn't cutting it so I've been relying on their The Righteous Butter instead and it's made a world of difference to my skin.

I'm still religiously using and loving the Colorwow One-Minute Transformtion Styling Cream that I talked about in my "The Mother of all Goodie Bags" post. Incase you didn't catch that post it's basically a creamy texturing gel and I put a tiny blob through the ends of my hair to give it a bit more of a lived in look.

Another one from that post is the Jurlique Rosewater Hydrating Mist which has become my go-to evening second toner (so and exfoliating toner and then this) and it's just lovely. I spray around 3-4 sprays onto my skin before eyecream/serum/moisturiser and it's just very calming and hydrating on the skin. Smells lovely and provides a bit of slip for my serum afterwards. Love.

And finally, we have the Oskia Renaissance Cleansing Gel, oh my. The texture is amazing, the smell is amazing, even the packaging is amazing. I just love it. It's slightly smoother on the skin than the Emma Hardie Amazing Face Moringa Cleansing Balm, although I do still love that one too. The mask from this range is also really nice, but I haven't used it enough to call it a "favourite" just yet. I've been using the cleanser most nights as my second evening cleanse and it really gets on with my skin and has left me eager to try more from the range.

My New Favourite Concealer

So my Nars Radiant Creamy Concealer was starting to feel a little dried out, and as much as I loved it, I wanted to try something new and I stumbled across this: the Urban Decay Naked Skin Concealer. First of all, can we talk about the packaging? So sleek, so simple and so pretty. It just looks lovely in my make-up drawer. The texture is lovely, even more liquid than the Nars and just as good at covering.

The applicator is a bit strange. It's a doe foot like most liquid concealers but the nib is very bendy when you apply it to the face, this allows you to spread a thin layer over a bigger surface area if you apply a bit of pressure or for pin-point concealing just use a light hand to dot it onto the areas you need it. Its great. I usually apply it under my eyes and around my nose and then use my finger to blend it out (although you could probably use a brush or sponge). If i'm using it on blemishes I put the product onto my finger from the applicator and then dab it onto the spot for hygiene reasons.

The biggest selling point for this product for me is the shade selection. Being Urban Decay their base products go super pale and that was my main problem with the Nars. On a day where I was wearing a foundation that warmed my complexion up, I could just about get away with their lightest shade "Vanilla" but on a no-foundation day it came up so orange on my skin. I use the Urban Decay in the shade "Fair Neutral" and it's a pretty prefect match for my natural skin tone. Also works really well with my Loréal True Match Foundation, which is anothr one of those rare products that matches my skin tone pretty perfectly.

My Lush Stash

I love a good snoop around in Lush and have a box full of goodies from them on the go at all times really. Their Halloween and Christmas collections are always my favourites but I have developed quite the love for quite a bit of their permanent range as well. I'm always on the look out for more things to try so if you have any favourites that I haven't mentioned here - give me a shout.

So my favourite thing to pick up from Lush is bath products. Their selection is great and they have something to suit everyone. Like your bath full of silky, foamy bubbles? Try a bubble bar or a bubble-roon. Prefer something colourful and/or moisturising? Their bath bombs and bath melts will give you just that. I'm hooked.

My long standing favourite bubble bar from them is one I've mention on here before, The Comforter. It's a big pink bubblegum scented bar that, depending on the size of your bath, can give you up to 4 bath full of silky bubbles. Another bubble bar I've been using lately is their French Kiss. My boyfriends mum got me one as part of a christmas present and, while it's not a scent I'd normally have picked for myself, I really like it. It's perfect for a bed-time bath as the lavender-y notes really relax me and get me ready to sleep.

A bath melt I love is their You've Been Mango'ed, it's a super citrus-y smelling, oily bar that you drop into your bath. It works like a solid bar of bath oil and as it melts it leaves your bath feeling super moisturising. The scent for me is a little too citrus-y for a relaxing evening bath but for a morning treat i's lovely.

I guess I should also mention their Butterball bath bomb as I have about 5-6 in my collection (trust me, most of those bags in the picture above are Butterball). It's got little chunks of cocoa butter in it and so as it fizzes and dissolves in your bath it leaves the water (again) feeling really moisturising but smelling great too. On it's own I find it can be a little bland sometimes but I mainly like to use it as a moisture boost to other more bubbly bath products.

A more recent addition to my collection is their From Dust Till Dawn massage bar. I got this as a valentines treat for the other half as he was coming to my place for the weekend straight from work. It's a really nice one. The smell is refreshing and slightly citrus-y and it just gives a bit of slip to a massage. One thing to note is that the boyfriend did mention it left his skin feeling a little bit tacky after use, but it also calmed down some of the drier areas on his skin, so I guess it's swings and roundabouts really.

The last few bits I have from Lush are some of their soaps and shower gels. Pictured to the left I have their Snow Fairy shower gel and their Reindeer Rock soap, I'll skip past these as I'm aware that they're limited edition for christmas. Their Twilight shower gel was another one in the box set I got for christmas and it's lovely, it has notes of lavender so it's calming but it also has a bit of comforting spice to it as well. A great winter warmer. Their Rockstar soap is the one I have on the go at the moment I like the scent but I find the actual soap drying on my hands (I definitely don't have the driest of skins either). As Rockstar is almost on it's way out I've got some Godmother as a back up to use next. I haven't used it but the smell is the same as the Snow Fairy shower gel and I really like it.

An Old Favourite Revisited - Loréal True Match Foundation

For the last few years I've been pretty loyal to my Revlon Colourstay Foundation but recently I've been experimenting a little more. On my last trip into Boots I stumbled across an old favourite that I used religiously before my multiple repurchases of Colourstay, the Loréal True Match Foundation.

I use this in shade "N1 Ivory" and it's such a lovely foundation, I can't remember why I gave up on it. It's a a seriously thin liquid thats very water-y to apply and one full pump is more than enough to cover my whole face. The colour match is wonderful and, despite the thin texture, it covers redness and evens out the skin tone nicely. It lasts most of the day and doesn't wear off too badly (although with my long days, I do get a bit shiny in the nose-region halfway through the day - but that's nothing that a quick dab of powder can't fix).

It's not great for flash photography since it has SPF 17, but this is a nice level of sun protection for everyday and I personally love a bit of SPF. It's an in between formula, not too dewy, not too matte, and looks fairly natural on the skin when applied with fingers. I think it's jumped back in to the top spot in my slowly expanding collection of bases.

Also - the shade selection is great, one of the rare foundation formulas that I don't have to take down the neck. A perfect match for us pale folk but also goes quite deep and dark too.

The Mother of All Goodie Bags

So I thought I'd introduce you to the mother of all goodie bags. I was one of the lucky souls that managed to bag a ticket to Anna and Lily's Beauty Chat Live at the Manchester Space NK. The girls were lovely (and much more photogenic than I - see photo opposite for proof) and the Q&A session was really nice, but the goodie bag just sealed the deal. The £15 entry fee was redeemable against any purchases made on the night and on top of that everyone who made a £50 purchase (and lets face it, in Space NK, that's a very easy ask) received a Space NK tote-bag that when emptied, created the picture seen above. So with my haul from Monday in mind, I left with a big black bag full of goodies. From what I can tell the bag contained 25 products (3 full sized and 22 minis) as well as one of the full sized Tangle Teezer brushes, and while it ranged from make-up and skincare to hair and body products, it was rather heavy on the skincare (which I personally enjoyed). While in the week since the event I haven't quite had time to test out everything included, I have managed to test out a few and so I thought it would be a nice way to throw in a few first-impressions and mini reviews.

Now I hate to be a Negative Nancy, especially when things are free, but so we can end on a high note I thought I'd get the dud's out of the way. My biggest disappointment of the bag was that two of the full sized products were things I didn't see myself using all that much if at all. I've since passed the He-Shi Face & Body Tanning Gel on to my mother, I'm really not a tan-lover (case in point above), I'm just that awkward shade of pale that makes tanning products difficult, so the "medium" shade tanner definitely didn't float my boat. The Color Wow One-Minute Transformation Styling Cream also seemed like something I wouldn't use much. That being said I think an apology is necessary since I gave it a try and it's lovely. I think I may even be a hair product convert since I use this at least every time I wash my hair. I use a tiny dot of the creamy product and work it into the ends of blow-dried hair to achieve that "lived-in" look to the hair.

My only other quibble was that the Laura Mercier Eye Basics looked like something that I'd love, a liquid-y eyeshadow base that neutralises your skin tone and prolongs your eye-shadow wear time? All over it. But again the shade ("Tawny") was just so off for me. I have used it a few times and the formula is nice, a light, almost whipped texture that is easily applied using the doe foot applicator, the shade isn't too dark but it definitely leaves an orange-y tone to my lids (although under a cool toned shadow this can actually look lovely). Overall a nice product but if I was to repurchase I'd definitely pick up a lighter shade.

After trying the Sunday Riley Start Over Active Eye Cream I've found that the applicator on the sample is lovely, but the formula isn't my favourite. I like a good moisturising/nourishing eye cream as my early 20's skin just wants something preventative under the eyes, however I think for a more mature skin it might show results. Annoyingly, the applicator that I love so much doesn't actually seem to be present on the full size, but after a quick browse I've find a few alternatives that do like the First Aid Beauty Eye Duty Triple Remedy and the new Benefit Puff Off Eye Cream so I might try one of those next time.

The bag contained a lot of face masks but the one I was most excited about trying was the Oskia Renaissance Mask and it really lived up to my expectations. It doesn't tingle or sting but it leaves the skin incredibly soft and smooth (and the smell, need I say more?). Will definitely be repurchasing. Keeping with the rose-scented theme I have also really been enjoying the Jurlique Rosewater Balancing Mist, while it is a bit of a princess product I find it hydrating and calming on the skin and it has quickly become a staple in my skincare routine.

I found two oils in the bag and being a lover of facial oils I hopped straight into trying both. The NUDE  ProGenius Treatment Oil was nice on the skin, it sank in quickly and made my face feel lovely and silky smooth the morning after use, but the smell is a bit herbal for me. With the NUDE being a bit on the smelly side I can say that I much prefer the Caudalie Premier Cru L'Elixir which was also in the bag, sinks in just as quickly and feels amazing. It's an serum and oil in one product and so it really looks after your skin. In fact I think it may even make it into my weekly rotation. Now I still love my Sarah Chapman Morning Facial and my MV Organics Rose Plus Booster but this is really good stuff too. It definitely wont replace any of the oils in my collection but it has definitely earned a place along side some of my other favourites in my current skincare stash.

I have also been using the sample size of the Kiehl's Ultra Facial Moisturiser and it's been working really nicely for me. I have a lot of skincare categories where I have products that I love and can't be without, but I've never really found a moisturiser (day or night) that wows me. At £24 for 125ml or just £34 for the big 250ml bottle it's a super affordable, does the job day cream that I can see myself trying a bigger size of when i've finished the mini. Athough I would say I'm still in the market for a "Holy-Grail" moisturiser to add to my collection.

With all that being said for the other products, the star of the show has to be the Mio Workout Wonder. I started an intense workout class a couple of weeks ago and after my first class I was sore. On week  two I was still aching from the first class, so when I got home I slapped some of this on after my post-gym shower and I'm convinced that it may even be magic. It feels cold and slightly tingly on the skin (think walking in the wind and rain - that cold tingly feeling) which wasn't the nicest feeling ever but the results were amazing. I woke up feeling fine the next day and didn't suffer an ache all week. Amazing.