Most recent purchases. More nude lipsticks?

Before the Barry M event last Wednesday i had an hour to spare before i had to meet with the girlies. So i went for a little stroll..right into Boots and Superdrug..uh ohh. *slaps wrist*

I was excited to see that in superdrug they had a Sleek display. I haven't ever managed to find Sleek anywhere near where i live so i took advantage of this and purchased a few things.

The first was an eyeshadow palette in "Storm"..

I love how pigmented these are. I had heard about these from Sam (Pixiwoo) & Laura (Lollipop26). They both said how they were of such quality for a cheap brand. I really wasn't expecting them to be AS GOOD as they are! There's a nice mixture of matte and shimmey shades and all are extremely wearable. If you have a sleek display in your local superdrug i would seriously reccommend you check these out. Especially if you don't have the money to splash out on high end brands. The quality is just as good in my honest opinion.

The next thing that caught my eye were the "Face and Body Highlighters" & i got "Bronze Baby"
There are 3 to choose from. One a lot more golden and another which had a much darker strip in it. I chose the inbetweeny shades. I wish i could remember how i much i paid for this, i know it wasn't more than £5. They are complete Bobbie Brown Shimmerbrick dupes! The colours are GORGEOUS and this was by far my favourite Sleek purchase. Again, they are really pigmented and have such a fab texture to them. I am seriously considering popping back to london to pick up the other 2! They leave such a gorgeous glow to the cheek bones & because this one has pinky tones in it, it really warms up my complexion...

This was experimenting with the brush (looks shoddy doesn't it?) & actually, it proved to be quite good..Bit of shedding & i probably wont use it, but like the benefit brushes, it was soft and in order to create the contour on my face i swiped it across the colours and it placed them effortlessly...the colour might seem a little harsh, but this was with no blending & no other makeup. eeeek.

The last thing from the Sleek range was this Inkpot Gel liner in"Purple Rain"I was in ore of this colour. It's gorgeous, & i actually had my eye on a similar shade from the Bobbi Brown Gel Liner range, but this was a hell of a lot cheaper! Think it was £2..something. It came with a little brush, which is pants! It's too small to have any precision with the line and far too fluffy. I have yet to try this out on my eyes, but with a better brush the line was really quite pigmented.

In Boots i noticed the makeup range called "Pure", i had never seen this before so decided to have a look. It's packaging was very Sleek (ha) & black. It's also all very square. If you think Nars lippies are quite square, these are sharp compared! I noticed a lippy in colour "nude" (oh..how very classic). The consistency of this lipstick is my absolute favourite kind.."moisturising" & this really is moisturising!! The lipstick was around £7 (i think..i throw away all my reciepts..soryy). I looove this lipstick, it's almost like a balm, and because i do suffer from dry lips this has been my staple lipstick for the last week! For all you nude lovers, i think you need to try this if you haven't already.


I then picked up "Nude Attitude" by revlon, and i have to say, besides the fact it leaves my lips pretty parched, with a gloss on top, it gives me the perfect nude lip & i love it.

On Saturday i accompanied a friend shopping (Had so much fun, shes not really into makeup but decided she wanted to spend lots of money on top quality stuff as she is bridesmaid at a wedding...so imagine my excitement in Mac when i was helping her buy everything) I didn't have any money but Estee Lauder was buy 2 and get free stuff. So with my beloved boots points i bought 2 lipsticks in Vanilla Truffle & Pink Sand. Both of these i absoloutley LOVE! especially pink sand and i wouldn't have picked this one out personally. I'm not a huge fan of the packaging on this one..it's quite classic and kindof reminds me of lipsticks my nan would have in her handbag, but the colour is to die for & is my current fave, think Mac Angel but 10x better. It's love.

[Left to Right: Pink Sand, Vanilla Truffle]

And look at the freebies i got with them...So technically i got all this for free! It includes 3 gorgeous makeup bags (one large, one medium and a brush bag (which is one of my fave items...so useful)) A lipstick in a coral/orange, The award winning night serum, double wear black mascara, an old lady scent (i think i will give this to my nan..not really a fan of that one), An eyeshadow quad & makeup remover. You get soo much. It's worth it just for the bags though!

Hope you all enjoyed, if you want any reviews, just ask :)
♥

The Barry M V.I.P Event.

I'm not really expecting many of you to read this as i think i'm the last one to talk about it and you will most probably be bored with hearing it again but i'm going to anyway for those of you who may not have. (Although i'm guessing it's highly unlikely)

So as you may have all already seen (as i'm late with this post due to lack of camera equipment) around 30-40 youtubers and bloggers were invited to an exclusive V.I.P event in London, Soho. Initially it was all a surprise and nobody had any idea what was going to happen there. The venue was very well decked out in everything glam and camp. Balloons, Jars of sweets, Cocktail glasses with Dazzle Dusts in them, Amazing fairycakes and men with far better legs than me...sob..

The Event...

[Photos Courtesy of the lovely Ling (Moonbeamstarlight), Suzi (Suzit86) & Sirvinya]

We all got to meet Barry M himself and he is such a sweet old man, he gave us a little speach about the growth of Barry M.
After that they explained about the launch of the M club. Which is a concept which will enable us to easily communicate and share all our makeup knowledge in one place. It will be combining twitter, youtube, blogs etc. It's such a fab idea and everyone at the event will be able to set it up soon. For everyone else i think it will available from mid-july. I really haven't explained it very well, Lollipop26 (Laura) explained it amazingly as she'd recorded a little vid for us to watch. After this we all got to preview the new Barry M advert, which aired the following day (Thursday at around 6.43 - In the hollyoaks break) I have seen it a couple of times since then too. I think it's fab. What do you reckon?

Overall it was such a fantastic day, I must admit i was SO nervous to be meeting everyone as i'm initially quite a shy person but once you get talking to me i'm fine, but i had so much fun and felt completely at ease as everyone was so lovely. We were all there because of the same love of makeup and it just helped everyone gel together. I just wish there was more time as even though it was 3 hours, it went SO quickly and there just wasn't enough time to have a quality chat with everybody, which i'm sad i never managed to do!

So thankyou girlies for making it such an enjoyable afternoon, it was so lovely to meet you all & thankyou so much to Barry M for hosting such a fab event.

The Goody Bag...

Before we left we were handed this goody bag...can you imagine 30(ish) people travelling in convoy to covent garden with these..yes it turned a few heads. :)

[These are swatches of the 2 lipsticks i didn't already own - Can you tell the difference? The top is Cerise Pink and the bottom is Punky Pink. They come out almost identical.]

[The Dazzle Dusts - From Left to Right - 24, Toffee - 98, Petrol Black - 22, Black Gold - 96, Gold - 97, Dark Chocolate]
My favourites are Tofee, Petrol Black and Gold. GORGEOUS colours. If you look in the whol goody bag photo, you will see another dazzle dust with a pink lid. This was our V.I.P exclusive dazzle dust created for everyone at the event. There were 2 colours. A baby blue and baby purple. I got the blue one, although i haven't swatched it as i'm going to keep it as a collectable type thing :)

[Above = Flash - Below = No flash]

I was overwhelmed by the generosity of these goody bags. It certainly gave Me & Lydia

something to look at on train journey home (Lydia..did that lipstick come out of your top? lol)

And here is a geeky photo of me wearing the Barry M T-Shirt...love it!!
[Excuse the lack of makeup and overly contoured cheekbone...i was experimenting lol]

So as you can see we were all really lucky and were given some fab freebies. I can't wait to try it all out and review some of it. If there is anything in particular you would like a full review on, please let me know and i'll be happy to do it for you.

Check out my next post for a teeny pre-event haul (I arrived an hour early so had some time to spare...oops) & a few other things i picked up in the last week or so :)

Much love lovelies

♥

My Favourite Haircare.

I was introduced to S factor when it was first released a few years ago, and went to the launch at a hair salon. We were given goody bags of almost everything in the line. I can safely say, i have never experienced anything as good as this since i started using it. The scent of all these products is "Strawberries & Cream"..yumm. Obviously i can't afford to indulge in the shampoo and conditioner all the time, but when i feel my hair is lacking shine or condition i use this, or if i'm going out, or am feeling rubbish :).....

.....The styling products however, i use ALL the time.

[Left to right: Smoothing Lusterizer, Body Booster pumping spray, Smoothing Conditioner & Flat iron shine spray]

I'm going to do a mini review of some of the items i've tried in this range you definitely must try for yourselves (apologies..it is most of it)

Smoothing Shampoo & Conditioner: You know when salon shampoo makes your head feel fresh and kindof cold? haha. Well this is what this shampoo makes you feel. I suppose the feeling is actually just clean & refreshed. Leaves hair silky, and doesn't weigh it down. I have thick hair..but not much of it & my fringe is my problem. If i can't get my fringe right when ive washed my hair i'm instantly in a bad mood. Please tell me i'm not the only one? and i usually find that alot of shampoos/conditioners weigh my hair down..thus parting my fringe in the wrong places and making my hair SO flat...but this doesnt.

Smoothing Lusterizer: This is my Holy grail hair product. I use it every time i wash my hair. It Tames flyaways, gives amazing shine and defrizzes. Even continues to work well in the rain. (And i usually look like Fuzzy bear when i'm caught in drizzle) You apply this to damp hair before blow drying.

Body Booster: I only really use this when my hair is feeling particularly flat or i'm after a messy look because it certainly does what it says on the tube. I have never known a root booster like this one. I can actually feel my hair standing off my head... I was going to invest in the Bumble and Bumble thickening spray but to me this does the job i wanted. Really, really volumous. And i have really long hair and not alot of short layers, so i'd love to see the effect it has on shorter hair, it would look amazing!!

Flat Iron Shine Spray: This is also Leesha (Xsparkage's) favourite flat iron spray. It makes your hair soo incredibly soft. I am often really lazy and naughty and forget to spray before straightening my hair, but this stuff leaves your hair feeling gorgeous so it quickly became part of my routine. It is quite oily, so i would suggest if you have thin hair (or not alot of hair) to spray lightly. If you have thick, dry hair go crazy ;)

I also have the "Chic Shine Hairspray" (which i accidentally missed from the photo) It's a spritz rather than a spray and is quite liquidy. The hold lasts all day, and again is perfect for a messy do.

The last and my absolute favourite (Sorry, again no pictures, i have run out :(..sob) is the "Serious Conditioner" It has sunflower seed oil in it, and MY GOD, if you want silky soft strawberry smelling hair you need to invest in this. You need the tiniest amount to get maximum effect. After using this for the first time i'd never seen my hair looking and feeling quite so healthy. Most of the products in this range have also got tiny bits of finely milled glitter which adds shine to your hair, and u can really see it in photos on a night out.

I have also got the scarily large round, ceramic brush..that too..is awesome.

Has anyone else tried anything from this range?

Whats your favourite haircare line?

♥

New Barry M Lip Paint Collection.

I was lucky enough to be sent 2 of the 4 new pink shades that Barry M will be launching mid June.

The lip paints are SO popular, and I'm so glad the company have picked up on this and decided to launch this new pink collection, as they all look so pretty, and as we know from all the Spring/Summer makeup collections from other brands, pink is very much in.

Yay, who doesn't love a classic pink lip?

The two shades i have are Dolly Pink - Top Photo on the left (146) and Peachy Pink- On the Right (147)

the other shades that will be available are Cerise Pink (144 - Far Left in above photo) and Punky Pink (145 - Second from the left)

I am loving the creamy-ness of these lipsticks, unlike the 101 (which is quite drying but SO bearable considering the finish and the price) these are much like the famous Lavendar 129 and have a lovely creamy consistency.

When i first opened Dolly Pink i was expecting something alot less bright, but i am going gaga over this colour. As alot of you will know, one of my favourite lipsticks is Mac's Show Orchid, the shade was made famous by the likes of Cheryl Cole, and this colour reminded me of that straight away. Although i actually think this colour is alot more wearable as it is a little less vibrant and at £4.25 why wouldn't you?

[Dolly Pink]

Peachy Pink is definately my favourite. I haven't actually seen a colour like this one before, so a round of applause for Barry M for coming up with this one. Again, it's got a really nice consistency and the gorgeous coral colour will fit right in with the trend this summer. Would look fab with bronzed skin, or neutral to pale. I really can't imagine this not suiting anyone!

[Peachy Pink]

I hope this has got your tongues wagging? If you are as much as a Barry M fan as me then i'm sure it will have. I can't wait until mid June for when i can get my hands on the other two.

Like all Barry M products you will able to purchase these in Boots, Superdrug and online at http://www.barrym.com/ for £4.25

and for those of you in the US, i feel your pain...and hopefully you will be able to get your hands on these through swaps!

♥

Next to Nothing Nudes

High end brands, such as Mac, Nars, Bobbi Brown, YSL have some Amazing nudes in their collections, but lets not forget that some little gems lie beneath the drugstore ranges.

Recently i have purchased these 4 lipsticks from Boots, Superdrug & a House Of Fraser Outlet.

From top to bottom: NYX India, Rimmel Foxy, Natural Collection Lotus & Natural Collection Apple Blossom


NYX in "India"
This Lipstick is best described as a pinky nude coral, perfect shade for summer. The consistency is really creamy and it goes on VERY pigmented. So much so that i have to be careful when applying it. This cost me about £4 in my nearest House of Fraser outlet. For any of you UK girls who want to try NYX i would search for your nearest outlet as there is a HUGGEE range in the one near me. Lipglosess, eyeshadow trio's, blushes etc...

Rimmel Volume Booster Lipstick in "102 -Foxy"
I love this one. It's definately a "my lips but better" shade. And the slight hint of pink makes it the perfect shade. Like a plumping lipgloss this has the same fuzzy feeling, i didn't notice any plumping but the shade and consistency are gorgeous. This one was around £5 i think.

Natural Collection Sheer Natural in "LotusThis lipstick is VERY dissapointing...yes it's £1.95...but you'd at least expect some sort of colour payoff? I suppose i miss-judged the "Sheer" title. Save yourself some pennies, and steer clear of the "Sheer" range in natural collection lipsticks...what poop.

Natural Collection Moisture Shine in "Apple Blossom"

Now this lipstick on the other hand...Is SO worth the money. This one is alot more creamy and much more pigmented. For £1.95 i don't think you can go wrong. I had been looking for this colour for ages, as the tester looked so pretty (a dupe for GOSH Darling i think) and there was NEVER any to buy. So eventually i found one which had been put back in the wrong place. I love this lipstick, and for the price, i can just apply it all day and not feel guilty about it running out. I'm not a huge fan of the shape of the liptick itself, but it still applies the same :)

Rimmel Moisture Renew in Nude DelightNow i've had this pottering around for a while but thought it deserved an honourable mention in this post. Love love love this one. Comparable to Mac's Creme D'nude. Is also around the £4-5 mark.

On a slight tangent, I have been watching Kandee's Youtube channel alot recently (Shes amazing you should definately check her out) and i noticed how stunningly white her teeth were, and i am so envious of people in america who can get there hands on whitening products in there local drugstores. Don't get me wrong...we have whitening treatments in ours too...but they are poop. I think i know at least 1 or 2 people who have tried everything the UK has to offer, and none with amazing results. If you want amazing glowy teeth here, you have to pay alot of moolah for it, and get it done in a surgery...so anyway, she uses Plus White, and i have heard of this before...and have just ordered some to try. I was just wandering if those of you that live in the US can reccommend this? Or maybe even one that works better?

♥

A LUSH surprise, more LUSH goodies & Reviews

To cut a long boring story short, I really haven't been feeling my usual bubbly, happy self lately..i have a shit job which i have been made redundant from...i dont know what i want to do with my life..and i really miss old days. (UH man..growing up sucks at the moment)

and i came home from work the other day, and on the table in front of me..was a LUSH package. I'm not sure if US LUSH packages are the same, but you know when its from lush because of the wrapping paper.

I was so confused..."CRIPES...AM I ORDERING STUFF IN MY SLEEP...HAS IT REALLY GOT THAT BAD?"

No, when i opened it there was a note on it that said "I love you Zozo xxxxxx (etc)"

Jack had ordered some goodies for me online to cheer me up. He's lovely :D

Porridge Soap - In one word...YUM! I bought this about a week ago along with other goodies i'll review in this post..and it is my absolutely FAVOURITE soap ever. I'm obsessed, hence why my boyfriend included it in his secret package. I over use this in the bath because i can't get enough of it. I know alot of people find the oats a turn off..but i LOVE them because i suffer from dry skin so they are extremely beneficial and they are in no way abrasive. They dont clog up my bath or leave a mess. I also love that this soap seems to be alot more creamy and lathers so much easier than any of the soaps ive previously tried from lush. And it smells gorgeous.

Sex Bomb Bath Ballistic - We all know what this smells like...Yup..just amazing. My favourite bath bomb ever & i know i'm not alone in that one.

Yummy Yummy Yummy shower cream - This is also my favourite cream wash because it smells so tasty, and its really moisturising. Who doesn't want to smell like strawberries and cream.

Sugar Babe Sugar Scrub - These are new from LUSH. I don't know if anybody has tried one yet? This one smells absoloutely amazing. Not like anything i've smelt from lush before and i can't for the life of me describe it. These are quite large, and when i went to use it in the bath, i was like "Oohh lovely" and i scrubbed away..when i looked back at the sugar scrub on the side of the bath..it was melting and running into the water. So i had to dash to it's aid and stop it from dissolving in the water. Turns out AS SOON as these things get wet...its like a bomb waiting to go off. You have about a minute to completely scrub your whole body before it's gone, which dissapointed me because i was hoping to use it a couple of times rather than all in one go. But it did smell nice and it made me skin SUPER soft. Maybe i'm using it wrong?

A week or so before this cute little surprise, i placed an order online myself...

Keep It Fluffy Guest Soap - I was interested to know what this smells like..It's quite musty, and also floral...i think it smells alot like turkish delight, with a hint of soap-ness.

You wash my back - This is a limited edition soap, that i smelt a few times around valentines day, and i couldn't work out if i liked the smell...Then valentines came and went, and i realised i actually really liked the smell, so i orderd online, and now i can see they dont have them there anymore so i'm glad i got it. It's got quite a strong smell, and is quite chemically and musty..haha that sounds so bad. But it reminds me of something and i can't think what. Although...as im writing this..and smelling it...it is starting to make me feel sick and headachey...not good.. *puts it away*

Babyface Cleanser - I can't say enough good words about this. It's sooo easy to use and leaves the skin so soft and feeling really fresh and clean. I prefer this to Ultrabland. You dampen the face and either rub the cleanser directly to your face or rub it between your hands and use your hands to apply it. Then, as you would with Ultrabland you take a dampened face cloth or cotton wool pad and wipe away the cleanser along with all the makeup. This has shea butter in it so if u suffer from dry skin it can do wonders for you like it did me.

Joy of Jelly shower jelly - Sex Bomb ballistic in a shower jelly form. These are easier to use than you'd think, and lather amazingly. I also loved that this left my skin smelling fab all day. Very refreshing and gorgeous smelling. If you love sex bomb, you'll love this.

Ocean Salt facial scrub - I seriously just want to eat this. It smells so fruity and fresh. I also really like the blue colour..dont ask me why. makes a difference from angels on bare skin that's a boring grassy colour. I like to use this twice a week, and it's supppper exfoliating, i would be quite gentle with this or it could feel like you're rubbing shards of glass on your face.

Fair Trade Foot Lotion - Its pink, smells minty and fresh, and i haven't actually used it yet, so that was an extremely poop review of that. haha :D

Overall, I'm thouroughly impressed with porridge soap, babyface cleanser and ocean salt. Have you tried any of these & if so what are your thoughts and opinions?

♥