The bodyshop - shimmer cube: Hot pink. (part one)

 

This is the BodyShop's Shimmer cube palette 26 "hot pink" from their spring collection.

01 garden rose

02 deep fuchsia

03 light coral

04 champagne pink

Their website says:

 "A palette of four subtle iridescent shades to mix and match. Crease-resistant and suitable for contact-lens wearers.

• Iridescent finish
• Crease-resistant
• Dermatologically tested
• Ophthalmologically tested
."

As you can see here, each of the four eye shadow cubes come out of the main cube  separately and has it's own lid, which is both awesome and a pain all at the same time. It does mean that if you have several of these you can mix and match your own palette if you want, or just take one colour with you in your make-up bag. 

I really like these bodyshop shimmer cube, I have another one in green too.
The colours come out well, but not too bright, so they are good for a variety of purposes. At the moment this shimmer cube is the front runner for my wedding day eye shadow, although there is still time to change my mind! 

At £16 each they aren't the cheapest eye shadow palette on the market, but there is a lot of product in each of the four cubes, and the quality of the body shop make-up to me is worth it.

I don't have any looks to show you guys yet, but as soon as I have a will post a part two so you can see how they look on. 

-Jessica.x

You beauty discovery box - clayspray review.

It's time for this months You beauty discovery box.

This month was about natural products, I wasn't sure what to pick to start with as natural is a big decided for me when it comes to beauty products. After a little thinking I decided to go for both of the Clayspray face masks - which I didn't think I would be able to do. A little research tells me that the RRP of each mask is £15 for the 30ml spray - while this isn't a "full size" it is a size that you can buy, It makes for a good trail size.

Once again this box was well worth the £6.95 including postage that it costs for the box.

I pretty much ask if my box is here yet every day until it turns up, so to the relief of David it came pretty quickly, and when it did I ripped it open while eating my dinner, and put the mask on as soon a I swallowed my last mouthful I was that excited.

Here is my face during and after, my skin looked better, clearer, and brighter. It did feel a little dry and tight, but that was gone after I moisturised, and the results were entirely worth it. I had a lot of compliments after I used my clayspray mask with people telling me how well I was looking, which was welcome as I had been on lots of long days with early starts! 

I also smothered it all over David's face and he had the same results as me, and it also made his skin dry and tight after use. 

I love this mask, but I am still undecided if I am going to buy it again, it's £30 for the 75ml and it comes with a water spray which you are meant to use before and after the mask. 

Have you tried any of the Clayspray masks? or is there a better mask I should try? Which beauty box do you subscribe to?

Jessica.x

Bodyshop - hair chalk.

This is the bodyshop's hair chalk in tickle me pink.

It's super easy to use, you just place it on your hair where you want it pink, put your thumb on the other side of the hair and run it down the length - tadah! pink hair. 

It comes out when you wash your hair which is fab, and if you're like me and don't wash your hair everyday you'll have a few days fun, before going back to your normal sensible self. 

The colour fades when you brush your hair so if you want a pastel look brush it a few times before you hit the hair spray.

The colour first comes a little darker than in this picture, but I brushed it through then sprayed it with hair spray and headed out.

I think these hair chalks are the perfect solution to the brightly coloured hair trends for people that have uniform policies to adhere to. Have funky hair for your time off then have a shower and head back to work the same as before! 

The bodyshop all make a blue hair chalk which I think I might have to get! 

what do you think? Do you like the coloured hair trend or do you prefer to keep it natural? 

-Jessica.x

Barry M TMLP - turn my lips pink

TMLP or  turn my lips pink by Barry M is something I had wanted for a while, but never decided to buy. One day I was wondering around the beauty section of boots and decided to pick one up for me and my best friend - we loved it so much that her mum ended up buying it too! 

If you haven't heard about Barry M's "Turn my lips pink" before; Then I'm sorry if you want it by the end of this post...

The lipstick it's self is green as you can see above, and although I will call it a lipstick and it's sold with all the lip paints, it doesn't have the texture of a lipstick. The texture is more like that or a lipbalm, but don't let that or the fact that it is green fool you into thinking you won't get much colour from this awesome little stick.

Once you apply this lipstick it start to change colour, it works with the PH levels in your skin, and turns "the right shade of pink for you".

 I have seen this lipstick on a lot of other blogs, and it often turns a light pink and the subtle and very pretty. Not on me! This bad boy goes on super bright, and I love it!

In the top right picture I put lipbalm on first with a little concealer still on my finger, as you can see this resulted in a much paler colour.

TMLP does stain your lips so it does last a long time!! That being said, because it stains you need to apply is carefully, if you slip you'll have a nice pink stain around your mouth. 

I love the fact that its green and get great pleasure from putting it on when people are watching me, it's always a good conversation starter! 

This is currently my go to lipstick when I can;t decide which to wear or when I am in a hurry - which is often! 

Why do you think? Do you fancy giving this lipstick a try?

-Jessica.x

Manicure monday: Pink and green dots

I love this design, I did it a few summers ago, and haven't done it since but I don't know why! 

I did these cute pink and green dotty nails with sinful colors cream pink and rise & shine.

I love this sinful colors nail polish, it's a bargain at £1.99 a bottle and the quality is fab for such a great price. I often pick them up when boots have a 3 for 2 offer on. I have about 50 of the colours now, but I will keep growing m collection as long as they keep having great colours and a great formula. 

I don't really have a whole lot else to say about this manicure, I hope you like it! 

-Jessica.x 

Review: REN glycolactic radiance renewal mask

I picked up the ren glycolactic radiance renewal mask back around Christmas time it came in a gift set with some other bits - while that set is no longer available the mask is for £30 from here.


What they say: 
"A potent bio active peel mask designed to renew the complexion, reduce the appearance of fine lines and dramatically improve skin tone." 

As you can see from my photos, this Ren Glycolactic radiance mask has a slight orange tint, but what you can't see in the picture is the smell! It smells very orangey I guess the best description for the smell is marmalade.

Here's how it works, you apply the orange gel like mask all over your face in a generous layer, I use 2-3 pumps for my whole face, you leave it around 10mins and then wash it off with warm water using the muslin cloth supplied in the box, and that it! Simple huh?

While you leave it the mask on you face, and sit back and relax for 10mins the little enzymes in this eat away at the top layer of dead skin, leave you with fresh, radiant skin underneath.

Did it work? 
There is no denying that my skin look a little better after using this mask, but did people go out of their way to tell me how great I was looking? No. That being said I think with realistic expectations of what this mask can do for you, it is a great little product to have in the house, and I still use it every week - every other week. I also like to use it on any breakout that I have as I find it really good to remove redness and swelling.

Will I buy it again? 
 I would, but I don't know if I'd pay £30 for it so I will be waiting until it's on offer.

Jessica.x

MUA Pretty Edgy Eyeshadow palette.

Back in my very brief mini haul post, I showed you a quick snap of some of the things I had picked up. One of them was this eye shadow palette: 

MUA's PRETTY EDGY part of their LUXE range. I don't like to do much shopping online, and our superdrug is pretty small here, so on my trip to Birmingham I discovered this beautiful palette but there were no testers, so I was faced with a dilemma. Who am I kidding - it was so pretty with it's studded lid that I instantly knew I had to have it.. So, here it is! 

We have 10 shades here, 6 shimmery, and 4 matte. On the back of the Palette it says "..pretty romance with a twist of Gothic grunge.." which I love the sound of, and I think these colours really make you feel that vibe.

The eye shadows in this palette are really beautiful to use, but it's hard to tell how well they blend from just a swatch, so I will also post some pictures of them is use at the end of the post. 

the first three colours I would say are high light colours, I have also used Antique over other eye shadows to give them a nice shimmer. Then you have three shimmer shades that are more intense, great for all over colour, and lastly you have the four matte shades. I have read some people are disappointed with the pigmentation of the matte shades, I certainly wasn't - here they have been swatched with one swipe of my finger, on to a bare hand, no primer... and I think they are fab!

This is my first look with this Palette, I used envy around my lashes, and smudged it upwards then blended lace over the top. I finished with some black kohl eyeliner on my waterline to make the look more intense.

All the colours blend so well, I had no issues with fall out at all although I do tend to do my eye first when doing a strong look so I can clean up the edges. All in all - for £8 I'm pretty happy, with my pretty edgy palette. 

-Jessica.x

Manicure Monday: Wedding nail ideas.

Wedding season is fast approaching, and while normally people may not pay attention to their nails, but with everyone's eyes on your new ring people are going to be looking at your hands more than ever on your wedding day.

As I am always doing my nails, probably the question I get asked the most about the wedding is "how are you going to have your nails?" I have changed my mind a million times in the 9 month is have been wedding planning, and I am sure I will change it again before the big day comes in 12 weeks time.

Here are some nails I wore over the weekend, and thought I'd try out something not too daring.

I used twilight teaser -17 which I think is a discontinued shade (but I'm not sure) and Maybelline colour show in knitted gold.

I love the over all look of this manicure, but as I am not wearing a white dress this pink is a little on the blue side for me, but I love the gold. it has rose gold glitter in it which warms up the colour. 

As normal I can't comment on the wear of the nail polishes as I wear them for short periods of time normally, although i am wearing them on press on nails, so they won't chip ever. 

How did you wear your nails, would you go daring or plain for your wedding? Let us know below! 

-Jessica.x

Jessica's monthly update: March.

March 2014..

Want to see what I have been up to this month? Check out some of the photos I have been taking.

So as you can see, I have been busy this month:

• I went to see we are scientists Three! times.
• I saw Maximo park in Oxford.
• I did quite a bit of shopping.
• It was pancake day at the beginning of the month.
• We had some sunshine, so I got my summer wedges out.
• I tried some new recipes including Paleo brownies.
• I picked up a cute skirt/dress in forever 21.
• We also started this blog! 

That has been my March - I've had a great time, and I hope you guys have too. Why not let us know what you have been up to? 

Jessica.x

Manicure monday: maxfactor fantasy fire

 So after a very long time (maybe years?!) of umming and arrhing  over whether or not I should spend £4 on such a tiny nail polish, I finally did -I picked up Fantasy fire - Maxfator.

I wouldn't used this without having a base colour underneath as it is very sheer. Here I used a lovely dark purple; Embellish me- Leighton Denny. 

As you can see this polish isn't the easiest to photograph as it has a multicoloured  shimmer that shifts between red, gold and green depending on the light.

It's a very pretty polish that is different from anything else I own in my collection. I certainly don't regret buying it - but I do wish they made it in a bigger bottle!!


As for the other polishes I used in this manicure:

The pink is Daredevil - sinful colors. I love this brand by the way! They are only £1.99 each and I love to pick them up on the 3 for 2. I did go a bit mad when they first started stocking them in Boots, and I now have most of the available colours.. oops!

Then over that I used NYC - Gramercy Glitz. Which is a pretty is a pretty holoish glitter in a very sheer pink jelly base.

-Jessica.x

Mini Makeup Haul

I took a little trip to Birmingham and while I was there I did a little shopping in Superdrug. I wanted to pick up some makeup that wasn't too expensive.

So I decided to try some NYC makeup. Here I have the smooth skin primer and the city proof buildable mascara.

I also picked up a few more bits from the MUA range, including the pro base conceal and brighten kit ( I some how managed to buy two of these), a colour blast eye tint in diamonds - which looks just like the clinque chubby stick, and finally I picked up the Pretty edgy eye shadow palette.

I also picked the Maxfactor - fantasy fire nail polish.

The first impressions of everything I bought is pretty good! Nothing I picked up seems bad, but I'll do some more testing and post some reviews soon!

-Jessica.x

Beauty box: You beauty discovery - March

I am a little late with this post as my box took a long time to turn up, but it was worth the wait.

You beauty discovery is a different kind of beauty box. There is no (well very few) surprises here unless you don't pick your items and then they do for you. It's also the cheapest of the beauty boxes at £6.95 a month including postage and packaging. If you want to have a look for yourself you can check out their website here.

 So on to what I picked for my box this month...

This month I ended up picking to full sized products from the list of choices. First up the body shop sumptuous cleansing butter which also came with a muslin cloth; and secondly Dr lipp Original Nipple Balm for Lips.

you beauty discovery also throw in other little items into the boxes - this is where the surprise came in -  each subscriber would get an item from the vintage cosmetic company (toe separators, tweezers, or eyelashes) I received the tweezers.

And also some tea, but I don't like tea, so I won't be commenting on this part! 

Dr Lipp is 100% pure medical grade lanolin and can be used it loads of different ways! I am looking forward to seeing how I use this balm. If you fancy trying it, it's £11.50 from places like Space.N.K

The vintage cosmetic company tweezers come in this cute floral pattern and are £8 from their website.

 The body shop sumptuous cleansing butter

I have used this once already, and it's a beautiful cleanser, that removed all of my make up very easily and left my skin feeling super soft and moisturised after I had used it. 

This one is £12 from the body shop, and I would defiantly consider buy it again.

When you add up the value of the products that you get in this box it defiantly worth it. Over £30 worth of stuff for just under £7. Bargain and you get to try new things! 

What do you think, do you have any beauty box subscriptions? Would you consider trying you beauty discovery? 

-Jessica.x

Manicure Monday: Water Marbling.

"Once you get the hang of it, it's pretty quick!"

When it comes to nail art I was having issues with one area in particular, water marbling. I was having major issues; nothing was going right, I was having all the common problems; polish not spreading, not being able to make designs, and bubbles. On the few occasions I did get something wearable out if all my efforts, it took far to long to do. With a few hours research, and playing with a few polishes I found out that the Sally Hansen polishes were meant to be really good for this technique. After a mini rummage through my stash I found what I was looking for - my Sally Hansen Xtreme wear polishes that I had picked up in poundland. And guess what? Once you get the hang of it, it's pretty quick to do.

The colours I picked to use were:
Gosh - holographic hero 549
I used 3 coats of this as a base colour for the marbling.

Sally Hansen hard as nails xtreme wear - Navy blue
Sally Hansen hard as nails xtreme wear  - Just for fun fuschia
Sally Hansen hard as nails xtreme wear - Plum Power
(I am guessing these are the right name, but I did pick them all up in poundland as I said earlier)
Were all used for the marbling. They all spread out well, and I didn't have any issues with them.

I am pretty lazy and didn't do any prep to make my clean-up easier. I just went for it, and stuck my fingers in the pattern. Then after used nail polish remover to take off everything on my fingers, and my small clean up brush to tidy around the edges. Then I made sure to use plenty of my cuticle oil to stop the dry affects of the acetone.

-Jessica.x

Review: Elf 100 eye shadow palette

One of the best things I have ever bought from E.L.F has to be my 100 eye shadow palette! It has a fab range of colours from brights to nudes and everything in between.
It is available here for £15 although I picked mine up in one of the elf 50% off sales - which they seem to have regularly.

As you can see mine is very well loved, I've hit pan in at least 3 of the shades (ones I wear daily) the others are well used too except the greens, I am yet to find a look that I like with them. I have had my palette for 6 months or more, and its still my go-to for eye shadows.

I love:

•  That I can try lots of different looks with out having to spend out a lot of money.
•  That I have all the different shade to contour my eye in all the different colour ranges.
•  That all the colours come out as bright as they look in the palette.
•  That they last all day without a primer! 
•  That they are super easy to blend.

Here are two of the looks I have created using this pallet:

(I have also used this in my last post for the bright pink and will be using it again soon!)

This first look is in purple. 

I started by blending one of the light gold shades over the lid, then I used several of the purples around the crease area (above and in) then blended around the outside edge and into the outer 3rd of the eye lid. Add some black eyeliner and that's it. 

This second look is more natural.

I used the pale cream shade over the whole lid, and then blended a mid brown tone into the crease just to add a little depth but without being over powering.

There isn't much more to this look to tell you about I'm afraid. 

I would definitely recommend this palette to anyone that wants to experiment with colour, they are easy to work with for beginners, and have a wide enough variety of colours for people with a little more experience or that want to be able to create a wide range of looks. This palette has something of everyone! It's a thumbs up from me! 

-Love Jessica.x

Feeling a little 80's

Guess what guys!? I love the 80's!


I wanted a 80's look that was wearable without being to 'fancy-dress'. This look was for me, all about the eyes, and with them being so strong I kept the skin as flawless as I could with very little bronzer, and just a light dusting a of beautiful pink high lighter on the cheeks and the lips pale nude.







Although it doesn't show very well in these photo I have a bright pink eye shadow going on - which I should mention I am loving at the moment. I teamed it with heavy black eyeliner all the way down the the inner corner where I made sure the top liner (liquid) and the bottom liner (kohl) met.  I also went for a small flick at the outer corner. On top of that I used an awful lot of mascara (which is the norm for me.)



 I hope you enjoy this look! See you soon...

-Jessica.x