June Favourites

First of all apologies for the lack of post on Friday - It was a hectic week and I just couldn't find the time or the brain power to crack out a post but I hope I'm forgiven. We're back today with my favourites from June '16 - so lets hop to it.

Let's kick things off with a lip combination that I've reached for most of the month shall we? I've been layering on some Maybelline ColourSensational Shine Gloss in "130 - Fuchsia Flash" over my Rimmel Lasting Finish by Kate Lipstick in "05" for an everyday lip this month. I love it because it's a mid-tone pink so it's understated and wearable but it's still bright and looks put together. I've thrown this on for work and play and it's such a lovely low-maintenance lip combination.

We've been pretty skincare heavy here recently so I'm going to try not to harp on about these too long but there's been a couple of skincare products that have absolutely brought my skin back to life (and unfortunately, both cost a pretty penny). I've re-discovered my MV Organic Skincare Rose Plus Booster and I have no idea how this fell to the back of the class. It's essentially good skin in a bottle, no matter how lack-lustre my skin is looking I find that a couple of drops of this massaged into the skin before bed has me looking like I've been drinking my water and sleeping a lot (which lets face it - usually I haven't been).

My Tata Harper cleanser obsession continues but this month I've been mad for the Purifying one. This is a lovely, thinner than most, gel cleanser that I've just been loving for my morning cleanse. The light texture makes it quick and easy to use and whenever I use this I feel like all of the grit and grime just follows it down the plug hole when I rinse. Also - the lovely sharp citrusy scent is great for helping you wake up in the morning and for me it just adds to that "super clean" feeling.

Finally a slightly less beauty-oriented product: I recently stumbled across Next's home fragrance selection and their "White Jasmine" range smells incredible. I got the Decorative Owl Reed Diffuser and it's so cute and smells amazing but I can't find it on the website (maybe it's in store only?) so here's the standard one. I'm awful at describing scents but the packaging says that the top notes are violet leaves and plum, the mid notes are jasmine and white lily and it has a white musk and amber base. It's just a nice clean, fresh, floral scent that's not overpowering or overly girly smelling (I tend to go for more gender neutral boarding on somewhat masculine home scents and this is more on the feminine side for me).

30 Lips in 30 Days - Fleur De Force Lipgloss

So while you read this I'm possibly landing in Amsterdam (yes I know, very wise to fly on Friday the 13th) and today we have a Fleur De Force Lip Gloss to look at for the 30 lips challenge. I already have another two shades of these and they were lovely so I decided to pick up the red from the range as well. The packaging for these is super cute with the colour of the min tube reflecting the colour of the product so it's easy to find the shade you want if you have a few colour from the collection. I also really like the dark metallic accents.

"Lucky Star" is much like the other two shades I have, quite thick in texture so the colour is opaque and, while they aren't super sticky, they will hang around for a while on the lips. This shade is a true red that, with it being a lipgloss, will require maintenance throughout the day but it has a nice glossy shine and is comfortable to wear. The soft vanilla scent is also a nice touch.

30 Lips in 30 Days - L’Oreal Infallible Mega Gloss

A 3rd of the way through now, day 10 and still going strong. Today we have the L'Oreal Infallible Mega Gloss. The packaging for this is simple but sleek and for £6.99 they won't break the bank, this product also comes in other formulas but the shade we're looking at today is one of the matte finish glosses.

The name here needs to be taken with a pinch of salt, I would simply call this a liquid lipstick, but it is a little different in the way that it doesn't 100% dry down. It applies to the lips nice and creamy and doesn't settle into any dryness you might have going on and has a nice sweet scent which I think is pleasant but not over-whelming. I also love the shade on this one "The Bigger The Better" is a lovely, bright mid-tone pink.

30 Lips in 30 Days - MUA Whipped Velvet Lips

So I'd seen the "30 Lips in 30 Days Challenge" on Miss Budget Beauty's Channel (clicky link here) and being the lip-product junkie that I am, I figured that this would be a great opportunity to justify buying lots of new lipsticks share my thoughts on some lip products I've picked up recently. So lets get started.

When MUA first launched in Superdrug, I was all over trying the range but they had since fallen off my radar a little. So I figured I'd try out some of the things they had to offer and I really liked this one. Annoyingly, the shade names aren't on the packaging but I'm fairly certain that this is the shade "301 Ritzy".

The texture on this is lovely, it;s a nice light "whipped" texture. They are quite liquid in texture and feel really balmy and comfortable on the lips. the moisture content does come through in the finish of these and they have a pretty muted gloss type of look on the lips. At £3 a piece these are definitely a good affordable option but the packaging doesn't look particularly cheap and the applicator is nice.

Because the formula is so creamy and moisturising, they don't last particularly well on the lips so you'll need to keep it with you to touch up throughout the day if you plan to be wearing this for any length of time. I will note though that the range doesn't seem to contain any out-there bold shades, it does seem to be very neutral and light and so I find that it fades nicely on the lips and doesn't leave you with any crazy lip-line effect as it fades.

October Favourites

I can't believe October is pretty much over already (I know this is a bit earlier than I normally post my monthly favourites but that's the way the schedule fell due to other posts I've got lined up). I've been testing out a few new bits this month and I think I've found some good picks for this one.

On the make-up front, I know I gave these an honorary mention last month but I just wanted to mention that the Fluer De Force Lip Gloss has been a true favourite this month, I've worn the shade "Written In The Stars" at least twice a week since I picked it up and it's just a great fuss-free everyday neutral.

With me keeping it simple on the lips I've been going for a bit of a stronger look on the eyes and have been gravitating towards my Charlotte Tilbury Colour Chameleon in "Golden Quartz for Hazel Eyes Day" it's a great rusty bronze with golden shimmer that seems to give a subtle hint of green to the lids and I love the uniqueness of the shade. The formula is great too, nice and quick to apply and lasts well.

My final makeup favourite for the month is the Bourjois Sourcil Precision Eyebrow Pencil. I have the shade "07 Noisette" and it's a great eyebrow pencil. It's a bit waxier than other formulas and I find that I don't need to use a brow gel with this one as it's got a little hold to it and my brows aren't particularly unruly. My only bug-bare with this is that the brush on the lid is a bit pants, if they swapped that out for a good spool-y brush this would be perfect.

Possible TMI here: as it's been getting a bit colder I've been finding that my feet have been getting a bit gross looking/feeling. I've been popping on the Soap & Glory Hell Genius Amazing Foot Cream under my socks on a daily basis and it's sorted out any dryness or general winter-woes pretty quickly. A great SOS product.

For skincare I have two new favourites, one high end and one budget. For high end I've been loving the Skyn Iceland Pure Cloud Cleanser. It's a lovely, cooling creamy cleanser and while it can be used both day and night I find that the cooling sensation is just exactly what I want in the morning to wake me up.

My budget skincare find is the Nspa Oil-Free Moisture Gel, this is an insanely good product. I'd moved on to using oils instead of moisturisers 9 times out of 10 because moisturisers just weren't cutting it for me. Having oily but dehydrated skin made it really hard for me to find something hydrating enough but that wasn't too heavy or greasy to wear under makeup but this product has it down. It's a nice hydrating cream that sinks in almost immediately.

And there we have it, I still can't believe how fast this year is going.

Fleur's Lip Launch

When Fleur De Force announced that she was releasing a makeup line I headed straight to feel unique and signed up to the waiting list. In her videos her lipstick has always been something she gets right and I just had a feeling that the lip products in the range would be something worth trying. While the eyeshadow quads looked nice they weren't really unique to me and I decided against picking them up but maybe I'll give them a go if she releases some more unique combinations in the future as they did look nice.

While they're currently only being sold on FeelUnique.com the price £6.99 each price point puts them as a high-street product for me so I thought it would be fair to include them in skint-tember and for the money they seem to be really nicely though out products, I can see myself possibly trying out some more shades in the future.

So I just picked up two shades to begin with, and the shades I have are "Starry Starry Night" and "Written In The Stars". I like how she's got a clear theme with the product names but I do think that it will be hard to continue with the "star theme" if she goes on to release more products but I like the amount of thought that's gone into the products. I picked up a light shade and a darker shade to see if there was any difference in the formula and from what I can see it's a nice consistent range and both the lighter and darker shade show up glossy and opaque as the mentioned in the description for the products. The packaging is also nice, a gun metal top and doe-foot applicator and the "Fleur De Force" logo on them, and the lipgloss tubes reflect the colour of the product inside which I like.

In terms of the actual formula, the glosses are thick on the lips and you can feel them during wear but they are a smooth texture rather than a super sticky gloss. The thickness gives them a decent lasting power on the lips and they're comfortable and moisturising on the lips rather than sticky feeling. Fleur describes them as "somewhere between a lipgloss and a liquid lipstick" and I can see why she'd use that description, they're glossy in finish but are also opaque on the lips and don't need too much building-up. I will mention with the darker shades, I did experience a slight bit of bleeding with "Starry Starry Night" and that's not something I get very often with lip products so if that's something you struggle with I'd keep that in mind.

New To Me Make-Up Products

This post isn't necessarily a haul, these products are just a pick of things that I happen to have acquired over the last month through mini shoppings trips and through beauty-box subscriptions. They're the type of products that would pretty much fall through the cracks with my regular posts and so I'm going to try and do these random little group reviews every now and again so that the little bits don't get left behind.

I've been a big fan of Urban Decay Primer Potion for a long time and while I'd heard a lot about the Too Faced Shadow Insurance I hadn't found a reason to ditch my UDPP for this when it was time for a repurchase to be made. That in mind I was quite excited to receive it in a LoveMeBeauty box recently. After all the anticipation, I'm glad I'd never purchased this over my Urban Decay. While it's a nice primer and definitely does the job in keeping your eyeshadow in place all day, the formula seems to separate and become very watery if not used for a few days. Meaning if you aren't wearing powder eyeshadows everyday (which I definitely don't) this one maybe isn't for you.

Another beauty box find was the Caudalie VinoPerfect Radiance Tinted Moisturiser, BirchBox sent me a sample of this product last month and again it's one of those neither-here-nor-there products for me. It's nice and light on the skin but it's a super light coverage meaning I'd only ever really use this for a weekend face when I wasn't going to be wearing much make-up. A nice product but just not something I'd reach for all the time.

I got a miniature eye-shadow as a gift-with-purchase from No7. No7 is one of those brands that I'd seen a lot of in Boots, but nothing had every really caught my eye until a friend started mentioning some of her favourite products this weekend and No7 cropped up a couple of times. I kept that in mind on my most recent trip to Boots and picked up a couple a couple of things and this eyeshadow was in the gift bag that I'd gotten, it's one of those super wearable taupe-y shades that I get a lot of wear out of and I was excited to try it. It's not got the best lasting power and the finish is a tiny bit on the sparkly side for me but I'm continuing to experiment with different types of bases and will update you if I change my mind.

Another No7 product I picked up recently was their High Shine Lip Gloss SPF 15, I love products like this for summer. A sheer, shiny lip gloss with a hint of SPF that you can reapply at your leisure throughout the day. This one is very similar to others but has a pleasant taste and a teeny bit of wearable shimmer to it that I tend to go for more in the spring and the summer and while the bright, orange-y shade is something I'm loving at the moment, I find as it's a sheer gloss it doesn't over power a look.

And finally, I picked up Soap & Glory's Hocus Focus Instant Flaw-Softening Illuminator. It looked a lot like a possible Benefit High Beam dupe but I wasn't sure if it would end up just being the type of product I'd use mixed in with a foundation to amp up the glow a bit for the sumer time. I've only currently used it mixed into Revlon Colourstay Foundation but I really like the effect it gives, these two products work well for an oily/combination skin type as the Revlon gives the coverage and controls the oil but the Soap & Glory adds a bit of glow without taking the make-up into the greasy zone.

A Face Fit For A Wedding

The other half and I found ourselves at a wedding last weekend and with it being the first time the two of us were going to that kind of event I got really excited about getting to really dress up and obviously, I anted to share that with you guys.

While I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to wear black to a wedding, I saw this gorgeous black dress in River Island and I couldn't resist, I figured since we were only actually attending the reception it wouldn't be so bad and tried to drop a bit of colour into the mix with the oil-finish clutch bag from Whistles.

The bag was pretty much where all my colour matching came into play because the oil slick made it pink and green and I found it quite hard to match but I found a good match for my fingers and toes in Butter London's Nail Lacquer in "Knackered" which has that same pink/green effect with a tiny bit of glitter that in 2-3 coats builds up to a beautiful finish on the nails.

I then played up the eyes using a mix of MAC shades - "Petina" and "Greensmoke" to create a really subtle, light green smokey eye just as a nod to my chosen colour scheme. With green on the eyes I went for a more nude lip and went for a light layer of The Lipstick Queen's Big Bang Illusion Lip Gloss in the shade "Cosmic" and then Maxfactor's Creme Blush in "Soft Pink" helped give my skin that healthy glowy skin you'd hope to have at a wedding.

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.