Some Bits From The Urban Decay Gwen Stefani Collection

So when I heard that Gwen Stefani was collaborating with Urban Decay to bring out a whole collection of products, I got a little giddy. I have a whole review on the Eyeshadow Palette from the collection here and while I wasn’t sure how much I’d like it just looking at the shades, it’s landed straight in my favourites list. So here’s my thought on the rest of the bits I picked up from the collection.

The Gwen Stefani Lipsticks were just one of those things that I had to have. There wasn’t a singe shade in the lineup that I wasn’t interested in so narrowing it down to a non-outrageous number was difficult and after trying the two I picked up I’m pretty sure I’ll be going back for more. In the end I picked up shades “714” (the Mega-Matte red) and “Firebird” (the vibrant blue toned pink). I love both of the shades and they’re colours I’ll get a lot of wear out of.

Out of the two I’d say the “Firebird” is my favourite, the texture is really comfortable with it being a creamy finish and the micro-shimmer is really pretty without being OTT or at all garish. I love the shade of “714” and the mega-matte finish is lovely and long-lasting but the comfort factor lets it down a little bit. I really like both though and I think I need to go back for “Rock Steady” and “Wonderland” in particular. The other stand-out quality to these is the packaging. While it can feel a little bit flimsy as it’s just plastic, the black and gold graphic print is really lovely.

When I picked up my first pieces from the collection I didn’t think I needed the Gwen Stefani 24.7 Glide On Lip Pencils and that I’d have stuff in my collection that would work. For some of the shades in the collection that’s definitely the case but there some do seem to be a bit more unique. I have MAC’s Lip Pencil in “Redd” and that’s a near dead-on match for “714” but “Firebird” is a bit more unique and I'm considering picking up the matching lip liner. The packaging is beautiful. You can really tell that Gwen had an input into every aspect of these products.

Finally we have the Gwen Stefani Blush Palette. XSparkage’s review on this piece sparked my interest in this (no pun intended - honest). The rest of collection came out in America before it hit the UK so when she said it was perfect for pale skin tones I figured I needed to at least give it a go and it IS pretty. After having actually used it, I’m not sure it’s exactly what I wanted it to be. The matte-bronzer shade is really warm so it’s no good for contouring, you’d need a separate contouring product. Then there's a shimmery bronze-y shade that’s really pretty to add a sun-lit glow. The highlight shade is really lovely too, a very intense highlight that’s great for pale-ys, and the 3 blush shades are really great but you need to be so carful with them because they’re really pigmented. Really I just wanted to see something that would work as a contour in here, that’s the thing that really lets it down because for me it’s not an “all you need for cheeks” palette without one. That being said, if you’re pale and not fussed with contouring, I can imagine you’d think this was pretty perfect.

What I Got For Christmas 2015

So I see a lot of bloggers and vloggers posting about what they got for Christmas and I find them to be such interesting posts. I really love seeing what non-beauty-obsessives buy for bloggers and vloggers for Christmas (and birthdays) so I figured I'd share. The typical disclaimer - This is not to show off, there's people in the world that get less than this but there's people that get more as well, this is just for those who might be interested.

So I still get spoilt by my parents at Christmas, even though I'm 23, I still live at home and I have siblings that are way younger than me and I think my parents just like to treat us all (I spoil them back, don't worry!). The créme-de-la-créme this year had to be a Tom Ford Eye Colour Quad in "Sahara Haze". It's neautral grey/cream/black tones wt a beautiful glitter top coat shade and it's just the perfect smokey eye palette. I'd actually go there and spend the £64 to own some more of these. Lush.

Another luxe beauty gift from the parents was Charlotte Tilbury's The Gift Of Goddess Skin gift set. This contains minis of her Wonderglow, the Goddess Skin Clay Mask and the famous Magic Cream. I haven't tried the Wonderglow and if I'm honest the Clay Mask doesn't seem too different to a standard clay mask but the Magic Cream is my new favourite. Will be buying a full size once I run out.

As for the other bits from the rents: I'll be doing a review of Sali Hughes Pretty Honest once I've read it, the Clarins Christmas Treat set was a cute little stocking stuffer with a mini Instant Light Natural Lip Perfector and a mascara and it's making me want to pick up everything in the "Instant Light" collection. I got a Babyliss Diamond Dryer hairdryer which is just such a luxury after having put up up with a broken hairdryer for the longest time (I'm so pants at choosing hair tools so my mum always comes to the rescue). And there's always the random bits: Some folding ballet flats for nights out, a Maybelline nail polish set and some matts for the floor of my car (I'm sure there'll be more on that once I actually pass my driving test...).

My sisters got me a little candle set and a cushion for my room that says "Oh! Wake Up" in white letter on the blue cushion and I love it. The cover is nicely made and the actual cushion is really nice and puffy.

My boyfriend and I don't go too crazy with each other at Christmas. This year he got me the Tata Harper Glow on Demand gift set and it's amazing. I've tried both of the cleansers and the Hydrating Floral Essence and I love all 3, can't wait to try the mask. I see a Cult Beauty order to stock up on these on the horizon. He also got me the cute fuzzy socks in the picture, he knows me well.

The boyfriends mother (there should be a title for that) got me a mini fragrance sampler set with scents by Jennifer Lopez, Paul Smith and Jimmy Choo. She also picked me up a chocolate handbag (which I'm slowly making my way through as I type this post).

My Secret Santa at work got me the Soap & Glory Bright & Bubbly set which contains minis of their Clean on Me Shower Gel, the Righteous Butter, the Hand Food and the Scrub of Your Life as well a body puff, none of which will be going to waste. He also got me a Twister Lolly air freshener for my car (and I know you're not supposed to know who your Secret Santa is, but it was a bit obvious this year. Thanks Chris!).

My auntie got me the Avon Far Away gift set, which contains a perfume, a body spray and a deodorant in the "Far Away" scent, which is actually really nice. I'm a bit rubbish with fragrance but I really like this one for a day-to-day scent (or any other occasion where it would be a bit ridiculous to be wearing Diptique or Viktor and Rolf).

Finally, my Uncle, Nana and Grandad all gave me money for the boxing day sales which I spent in the Birchbox shop - I picked up the Rituals Sakura Gift Set after testing some of the range and seeing a similar set that my mum had been gifted, and the Aromatherapy Associates Ultimate Bath Jewels, which didn't make it onto my Christmas list because I knew I'd find them somewhere for less than full price. Birchbox did a £10 off with a £50 spend and I had £10 in Birchbox points to spend so I managed to bag the set for £38 - bargain.

A Space NK Moment

2014 marked the first year ever that I have done a grand total of nothing to celebrate new years, why? Work. I'm a complete grump when I haven't had my 8 hours and so when I heard I was working a 10 hour shift on NYD, I promptly cleared my schedule for the evening before. So when my first-week-of-January pay check my bank, I figured a new-years treat was necessary. So lets take a look in my shopping basket.

So the product I was most excited to try was easily the Oskia Renaissance Cleansing Gel. A blogger-hyped product that per bottle works out a tiny bit cheaper than my beloved Emma Hardie Amazing Face Moringa Cleansing Balm? I just had to try it, and it really does live up to my expectations. The thick gel consistency is reminiscent of a balm cleanser as rather than foaming on the skin like most gel cleansers, this one turns almost oily in texture as you work it into the skin, making it easy to massage in for as long as you like. I use it as a second cleanse (so make-up removal, and then this) and work it into dry skin before removing with a damp flannel (wash-cloth - for any Americans wondering what a flannel is) and it leaves my skin clean but not stripped. It's another smells-amazing cleanser that has earned it's place in my cleanser cabinet for the rest of the foreseeable future.

The Caudalie Beauty Elixir is a super hyped product in the beauty-blogging hemisphere so naturally I'd been wanting to try it for a while, along with the Laura Mercier Foundation Primer so when I found the two products packaged up in a set that had ended up in the 50% off sale I had to give it a go. My mother did think I had lost my marbles slightly when she saw the "Best of Space NK" Christmas Cracker Set popping out of my delivery box but it was too good a deal to pass up. Along with the aforementioned products there was a mini Life NK Ultimate Unwind Body Wash, a Rococo Nail Apparel nail polish in "V.I.P Creme", a mini of Oribe's Supershine Nourishing Cream and a Lipstick Queen Big Bang Illusion Gloss in the shade "Cosmo".

Now you'll have already heard about the Lipstick Queen lipgloss in my "Three Ways to Valentines Day: The Dinner Date Edition" post last week, but it really was love at first swatch. With the exception of MAC's Dazzle Glass and Cremeshene Glass forumlas, I've never really been a lipgloss girl. But this was a turning point for me. The texture is smooth and almost balm-like on the lips, and with a sheer, sheeny slighty sparkley finish it makes a good fuss-free lip product that I've been wearing pretty much everyday since I got it.

While I'm a self-confessed non-hair-enthusiast, I surprisingly found the Oribe product lovely as well. It's a low maintenance hair product for the girl who likes some nourishment in her locks. I just work a pea sized amount into towel dried hair, blow dry and I'm done. It give that freshly-dyed shine to my hair and leaves it softer than I thought colour-damaged hair could ever be. It does leave the hair a little bit sleek looking but I think for a casual jeans-and-jumper day it's nice.

The Caudalie spray I'd been so interested in turned out to not be my favourite (check back on Wednesday for more info on that), the bottle produces a lovely fine mist that applies to the face wonderfully but the product didn't seem hydrating enough and was a bit too minty smelling for my taste. I'm not really into nail painting so the Rococo nail product will probably end up being passed on to a friend and the Life NK shower gel is a rather standard product (I still prefer my S&G shower products). I still haven't quite made my mind up about the Laura Mercier primer. It's a lovely formula that I'll definitely be cracking out and using up but for the price difference I think I may end up sticking with my Maxfactor Facefinity Foundation Primer when it's time to repurchase.

So Space NK's UK online store offers free delivery on orders over £60, and since I'd already spent £50+ I figured I'd drop a couple of sale products into my basket since the delivery charge would have taken me up to the £60 limit anyway. With this I picked up a mini of the Daily Fix Bath Soak and the Drift Away Milk Soak (Both form the Life NK range) and the Space NK Smoky Rose Candle, all for half price. The Space NK candle looks lovely on my bedside table, the packaging is lovely and sleek and the scent is exactly what you'd imagine, a rose scent with a hint of smokiness to it. While the burn time is great for a small candle this does mean it's a slow burner so the burn isn't as even and I can imagine that quite a lot of the wax will end up being wasted, but it kicks off a good scent never the less.

The bath products are another nice-but-pricey product, The Daily Fix Bath Soak is my favourite of the two as the scent is more to my taste but for calming sore muscles which is what the product claims to do I much prefer the Radox Muscle Soak Herbal Bath, the scent on the Radox isn't quite as nice but the effect is much better and at £2 for 500ml vs the Life NK's £6 for 150ml, it's a no brainer.

A cheeky add-on to this haul is the Sarah Chapman Skinesis Hydrating Booster, which I did purchase at Space NK, but in store rather than online with the rest of the products mentioned in this post. I went to the Manchester Beauty Chat Live a couple of weeks ago and picked this up as your entry fee was redeemable against purchases made on the night (there was also an epic goodie-bag for anyone who spent £50 or more but, again, more on that in my post on Wednesday). As I've already mentioned, I'm a big fan of Hydraluron and bloggers site the Sarah Chapman as a more sohpisticated, less tacky version. Oddly enough, I actually find it to be more tacky on my skin and, while it's a nice product, I still feel the loyalty to my original hydrating favourite and will definitely be repurchasing that over the Sarah Chapman when I run out.

A Boots Moment

So I had a bit of a moment in boots the other day. I had points boosters, there were offers on, it was dangerous territory and some serious spending may have happened. After wandering into the isles looking for a tube of my old favourite mascara, I ended up having to go back for a basket, and the contents of the final purchase looked like this:

Left to right, from top left corner: MaxFactor 2000 Calorie Curved Brush Mascara, Maybelline Colour Tattoo in "Eternal Gold", Bourjois Rouge Edition Velvet in "Frambourjoise", MaxFactor Miracle Touch Creamy Blush in "Soft Pink", Bourjois Healthy Mix Foundation in "No. 51", Maybelline Colour Tatto in "Vintage Plum", Bourjois Rouge Edition Velver in "Hot Pepper", MaxFactor Facefinity Foundation Primer

So I was a tad indulgent, but as I said there were offers on and most of these are products that I've been eyeing up for ages, and with my points boosters enabling me greatly I gave in to temptation.

My first base product purchase of the day was the MaxFactor FaceFinity Foundation Primer, and as mentioned in previous posts, I'm an oily-skin sufferer. This primer is intended to extend the wear of your foundation and claims to be an "all day" primer. I wouldn't say the "all day" claim is quite lived up to (at least not on my face) but I should say I can have some lengthy days, I can spend anywhere up to 11 hours in the office some days and I have a good 1.5 hour commute each way, so I didn't really expect it to last until I got home, but it definitely gets me through the bulk of the day. It smells a bit funny, slightly glue-esque, but since it pretty much glues your foundation to your face I guess that's slightly appropriate.

I'm not normally a girl to change things up foundation-wise, I have my Revlon Colourstay for everyday, Illamasqua's Skin Base for when I feel like something a bit more luxe, and I rarely buy any other foundations. That being said the Bourjois counter had an offer on so I picked up a bottle of their Healthy Mix Foundation in the original formula. It's more glow-y than I'm used to, but I was finding that layering a matte powder over a matte foundation with a mattifying primer underneathe, everything was just looking a bit flat, so the glow is definitely welcomed. It smells delightful when applying and when worn over a primer it lasts most of the day and adds a bit of life to the skin. And best of all? Even though I'm ungodly pale, they have a colour that matches my skin fairly well (the lightest one, surprise surprise).

A final complexion Product I picked up is the MaxFactor Miracle Touch Creamy Blush in "Soft Pink". This is kind of a blogger-classic product these days, so I figured I had to try it. I've tried it once to give it a test run and it's pretty, a sheer, sheeny, healthy pink on the cheeks. I personally apply it after foundation and then use my normal face powder all over my face to set everything in place. While I can't see it being something I'll reach for much in winter, come spring and sumer I think this might even make it into the makeup bag.

So while I did get distracted, I managed to pick up the product I was intending to get, the MaxFactor 2000 Calorie Curved Brush Mascara. While I love my Urban Decay Perversion, it is pricey, and for day-to day use, I wanted something a little more on the purse-friendly side of things. This one is an oldie but a goodie, I used it back in my poor-student uni days and it's definitely something I'm happy to have back in my collection. It's very black, holds a curl well and adds length as well as thickness.

Again a product that's so hyped here in the online beauty world, the Maybelline Colour Tattoos. They were buy-one-get-one-half-price so I picked up two shades, "Eternal Gold" and "Vintage Plum" and I can finally see what all the fuss is about. "Eternal Gold" is one of the standard more metallic finishes and blends in beautifully on the eyes, and while the leather-effect-finish "Vintage Plum" is slightly more sheer and requires a little more work to get the desired finish, I can say it's also a good'en.

So finally, we have my favourite category, lip products. I love a good bold and have heard a lot about the Bourjois Rouge Edition Velvets, so I thought I'd pick a couple up and see for myself. I picked up shades "Hot Pepper" (a statement orange-y red) and "Frambourjoise" (a slightly deeper bright pink). They're comfortable to apply and set down to a a lush matte texture (that, admittedly, can be a bit drying after a few hours) and haven't got any nasty smell going on. And while they're not quite as long lasting as I'd hoped (lets face it, I don't think the bold, all-day lipstick will ever exist - but a a girl can dream), they stick around for a good few hours and I find that only the centre of the lip ever needs touching up. If you're looking for an affordable, long-wearing bold, they're definitely worth a go.

Next post coming up on Friday - A Winter Skin Saviour. Hope you enjoy! - Jodie