Scrubbing Up...The 99p Facial Scrub!

Hello Lovely Readers!!

So today I will be looking at the Osiris Avise Apricot Facial Scrub! I got this for a purse friendly 99p at Bodycare. Now, I admit I did let the price affect my judgment into thinking this probably wouldn't be any good. How wrong was I?!

My first remark is how great this product smells. I just adore it's sweet fruity peach smell. To be honest I'm not familiar with what apricots smell like  to tell you if this is a true likeness but I can tell you this product does leave a strong scent behind.  Literally after washing my face I can still smell it on my hands!

The consistency of the scrub is very thick. It's texture is a lot like a lotion with a similar thickness to Palmer's Coco Butter. It also contains plenty of  beads which leads to excellent exfoliation. It lathers up fairly okay, don't expect lots of foam.

 At the end my skin feels clean and very smooth! It doesn't leave you with that tightening feeling some scrubs do. I would say it's quite effective in clearing up spots as I'm prone to getting quite a few in the warm weather but having used this product for nearly 3 weeks I get them fairly few and far between.

Thanks for reading! Let me know what are your favourite facial scrubs and how effective they are!

Dior...You Make Me Blush!

Hello lovely readers!!

So today I will be looking at the Dior Vibrant Colour Powder Blush in Amber Show which retails for a very pricey £30.

Firstly, the packaging, design, everything about this product is just beautiful. It actually comes in a little velvet pouch for you to keep to product in so the case is always shiny!

The colour itself is a kinda coral/orangey brown . My only gripe is that the blush contains glitter (which I strangely didn't notice in the store) so it may look a bit dressy for during the day (but hey dress to impress!). I think it looks quite nice on a medium dark skin tone and the glitter kinda helps give the skin a glow. Hope you can see the shade well in these pics, the glitter doesn't really come across but in reality it's fairly noticeable when you apply it to the cheek.

Overall I think it's a stunning little product but very pricey for 7g although I probably won't be running out anytime soon! It's fairly pigmented but I found I had to build it up to get a distinct colour to show on my cheeks. Maybe it will show up better on lighter skin tones? To be honest, I probably wouldn't describe it as 'vibrant' as it's name suggests but it is a pretty shade!

Thanks for reading!!

If you like the look of the product the link is here and here .

Let me know which blushes you recommend and what are your favourite shades!

Tinted Lip Balms

Hello Lovelies!

So I'm not really a lipstick fan as I normally find them very drying on my lips. Tinted Lip Balms therefore seemed the way forward to get both colour and moisture! I've chosen to review two fairly purse friendly brands. The Maybelline Baby Lips in Cherry Me and Peach Kiss which retails at £3 each (but I managed to get them buy one get one half price at Superdrugs!) and the KIKO Kiss Balm in Blackberry which retails at a pricier £5.90.

Maybelline Baby Lips

The Cherry Me is well named  as at first glance  it looks like an intense cherry red colour and smells exactly like those cherry drops we all use to get as kids! When applied to lips the colour seems a bit more toned down and resembles more of a Pinky Fuscia. I really like it as it compliments my medium dark skin tone well.

The Peach Kiss doesn't really add much colour to my lips. It's quite a nude shade with a little shimmer so I find it just gives my lips an added gloss. It does smell lovely though, kinda like a peach scnapps!

In terms of moisture I have to say these two are a winner! The colour may not last for long (perhaps an hour?) but the soft smoothness it gives you really does!


KIKO Kiss Balm

At first glance I will definitely say this colour is probably a little light to be described as blackberry but resembles more of a pomegranate colour (the top pic best reflects the colour). On the lips, it comes out very pinky and feels more like a lipstick than the Baby Lips. It leaves your lips quite smooth afterwards so there's no drying out effect  and the colour seems to last a little longer than Baby Lips.

The swatches from top to down are KIKO Blackberry, Baby Lips Cherry Me and the last was meant to be Baby Lips Peach Kiss but it was difficult to capture this shade as its more of a sheer nude gloss.

I would say that overall the Baby Lips win on softness but the KIKO Kiss Balm is definitely more pigmented. Neither are sticky so you dont need to worry about stray hairs getting stuck to your lips and both are good as little lip tops up throughout the day!

Thanks for reading! Have you tried the Baby Lips or KIKO Kiss Balm? What are your favourite shades? 

Maybelline 24 Hour Colour Tattoo

Hello Lovely Readers!

So I recently purchased the Maybelline 24 Hour Colour Tattoo in 'On and on Bronze'. I've heard rave reviews on this so when visiting my local Tesco's I wasn't surprised to see it was the last one they had in stock! I think it has a reasonable price of £4.98 as I know MAC and Benefit sell similar cream eye shadows for around the £15 mark.

Once applied it dries very quick. I would say in around 2 - 3 minutes actually! And once dry - it doesn't budge either so there isn't much chance of smudging during the day.

I sweeped it across my lids so you can see what it looks like on, but every time I took a pic it just came out looking silvery!

To be honest it can look abit silvery due to the shimmer metalic effect. I'm in two minds about the colour. In one light I find it looks a tad bit like a taupe colour and in others I can see a light bronze.

 

Bronze?                  Taupe?

Overall I kept it on for a good 6 hours (no primer underneath or powder on top) and it really did stay on although there was slight creasing. In fact, I even had a shower and it still managed to stay on, so makeup wipes are a must with this!

Have you tried the Maybelline Colour Tattoo's? Which colours are your favourites?                                        

Kiko vs Collection Eyeliner!

Hello lovely readers!

So, eyeliner is one of those everyday cosmetics to help make your eyes have that extra oomph! I love using felt pen liners rather then gel or liquid as I find it gives me more control and still adds the same definition. For this review I have decided to use two purse friendly felt tip eyeliners. The Kiko Ultimate Pen Long Wear Eyeliner which retails around £6.90 and the Collection Extreme 24 hour Felt Tip Liner which normally retails around £2.99


9 am - I put my usual eyeliner on in the morning before heading off to work. I haven't worn any eye shadows or eye primers so that I am purely looking at the lasting power of the two products. The right hand side is the Kiko liner and the left is Collection.

About 7.30pm -  Bearing in my mind I have quite greasy lids (apologies for the scary pic!), by the end of the day I was surprised to see that the more expensive Kiko eyeliner kind of shrivelled up whereas my cheaper collection eyeliner seemed to remain largely in place. The smudging from the Kiko one is probably due to my greasy lids more than the liner but overall the Collection one seems to have a better lasting power!



What are your  favourite eyeliners?

Battle of the Hand Creams!

Hello lovely readers! Today's post will be about those everyday staples - Hand Cream!!

So the hand creams I have selected range from the very cheap 99p to the more expensive £10.50.

Soap and Glory Hand Food
I received this in a gift set at Christmas but having checked the Boots website, it retails for a slightly pricey £2.50 for 50 ml. The cream is extremely moisturising and leaves my hands very smooth. The smell is surprisingly quite nutty (the packaging says macadamia and marshmallow so that explains it!). I think when you first apply it, it can feel slightly greasy but this wears off after 10 minutes and your left with very soft hands!!

Atrixo Enriched Moisturising Cream

I bought this from bodycare for a rather purse friendly 99p!  Unfortunately, you kinda get what you pay for as I honestly wouldn't recommend it. It's extremely greasy, even when I apply a small bit I still find it very greasy. I find I can't so much as write with a pen as it makes my fingers very slippery and I have to wait for a while or wipe off the extra grease with a cloth. The smell is quite standard although in my opinion it does kinda resemble incense.

Nivea Refreshingly Soft Moisturising Cream

I actually bought this 75ml bottle in Savers for £1 which I thought was a bargain! I normally see this around the £2 mark. I have used this cream for years and it never lets you down. It always leaves the hands so soft and again it's not greasy! It doesn't really have much of a smell but if I had to describe it I'd say its very light,fresh and slightly florally.

Palmer's Coco Butter Concentrated Cream

I kinda feel Palmer's needs no introduction but if I had to, this is an extremely thick rich cream with a very intense coco butter smell. The smell is kinda love it or hate it but I've noticed they also do fragrance free alternatives.  A little goes a long way as for moisterising hands you really only need a 5p sized amount. Any more, and I think it gets quite greasy and slightly sticky. It's meant to have vitamin E which helps reduce any scarring or stretch marks. To be honest, I've used palmers as an all over body cream and I haven't really noticed any marks disappearing. But for anyone with dry skin this product is definitely for you!  It retails on the slightly pricier side of around £2.50 - £3.00 for a 100g bottle but it does last ages!

Clarins Hand and Nail Treatment Cream

This was given to me as a Christmas gift and came with other little Clarins goodies. Although I cannot find a link on the Clarins website for this 50 ml bottle I think the retail price would be around £10.50 as the larger 100ml hand cream retails for £21. This product honestly reminds me of the sea. It's got that sea salt smell like is just washed up on shore! I would say after application it leaves my hands feeling like its coated with velvet and when I say coated I really mean it feels like there's some kind of soft film around them. It's not greasy either but given the high price I probably wouldn't purchase this!

I know this is a really weird picture! But anyways - I've taken little swatches of the different creams so you can get an idea of textures. They go in the order I've reviewed them - Soap & Glory, Atrixo (definitely more grainy texture), Nivea, Palmer's and Clarin's.


Thanks for reading & let me know what are your favourite hand creams !

Soap & Glory!

Hello pretty readers & welcome to my first review!!=D

So, I received a  Soap and Glory set as a gift some time ago and decided to rediscover this brand as it's definitely been getting a lot of good press lately. I had a little splurge and bought the  'Daily Smooth' Body Lotion, the Glad Hair Day' Shampoo and Conditioner all on a 3 for 2 offer at Boots.

First of all can I just say LOVE LOVE LOVE the design of these products, so fun and girly with the oh so vintage photo's!

Glad Hair Day Shampoo & Conditioner

Now, at £5.50 for 250ml I had high hopes for these two! The packaging states they will smooth, gloss, strengthen and repair the hair. I have used them all of 4 times now and I have noticed that  my hair gets less greasy now and it  does leave my hair feeling a lot lighter. I would say I can go around 3 days until I start showing any signs of greasiness whereas my previous Loreal Elvive had me going greasy after 2 days!  However, I haven't noticed any extra gloss or softness.

The Shampoo itself is your usual clear glossy texture. 

When lathered the product didn't really foam up so well. You probably need to apply alot of this product to get it to lather into a nice foam. I also didn't think it spread too well when trying to work it into the hair. You have to apply a fair bit to get much effect. The picture to the right, shows the amount of foam from a little over a 10p sized amount.

I would say the Conditioner has that lovely creamy consistency (see pic below)   but again  doesn't spread very well when applying to your hair.

The smell of both products is that kind of fruity clinical smell (wasn't too sure how else to describe it!). The product states it's raspberry with some kind of fruit vinegar but I don't really detect the raspberry. I do think it's pleasant though but compared to other Soap and Glory products (the marshmallow and macadamia lotions smells heavenly!) this really wasn't anything to rave about.

'The Daily Smooth' Body Lotion

The product is retailed at a steep £10 for a 500ml bottle. I would say a little pricey for your everyday lotion. The product itself has a beautiful consistency which is both thick and creamy but what I really love is that it's not greasy at all! I have tried it for a week now and it really does moisturize the skin. Again not a fruity smell although the packaging states it has fragrant notes of bergamot, blackcurrent, magnolia, freesia, vanilla and musk. It's definitely musky and I may even go so far as to say woody with hints of floral. If I had to compare it to a smell, I would say it smells a lot like 'Sweetheart' by Ghost. It's also an extremely long lasting smell.

Well that's all for now! Have you tried Soap and Glory before? Which products would you recommend? Or is there a product you would rate as even better?

Thanks for reading!!