Clinique Redness Solutions

I've always had a little bit of redness in my face. Previously I had thought that foundation was the only option available for covering it up however... recently I have noticed quite a few products targeted towards anti redness (they have probably been there all along but since starting my blog I've been much more aware of what's about :) ).


Out of the many I've seen I decided to try Clinique Redness Solution daily protective base.

Clinique have a whole range of products targeted towards redness called their Redness Solutions Redness Regimen (See here). As I was looking for instant results and I already have a moisturiser etc that I like this seemed like the most sensible option for me.


The product has a similar texture to a moisturiser and has a sheer green tint (to help neutralise the any redness in the skin) I apply it to my skin after moisturising and then apply my foundation over the top.
I was a little bit nervous of the green to begin with but its unnoticeable once its blended into the skin. 


When I first purchased it I applied it all over my face and then spent the rest of the day wondering why I looked washed out ...now I've learnt (lol) that the best way (for me) to apply it is to put a little dab of the product anywhere I'm red and then blend it out.  A little bit goes a really long way and I'm pretty sure this tube is going to last me a long while.


The product is quite thick in consistency and it does a require a little bit of effort to blend completely but not so much as to be annoying or a hassle. It can also feel a little drying hence putting it on after moisturising, but it works, reducing my redness and helping my skin to look more even, which it what I was looking for.


I bought this for £16, and think its brilliant!


Have you tried any anti redness products? Let me know if you've got any recommendations.  

Dry Shampoo!

Right so not the most interesting of things but dry shampoo is a staple in my new found beauty routine :)
When I first think of dry shampoo the brand Batiste always comes to mind first, to me they are/ seem the most well known dry shampoo brand. However I am aware that others are available ...seeing that to me dry shampoo is dry shampoo I decided to see if a different brand name made any difference to the product or whether its all really the same but in different coloured packaging!


So its not a fully comprehensive coverage of all the available dry shampoos. Its more a lazy grab at my local supermarket but anyway here's what I picked up during one of my weekly shops and my thoughts on said items...


Asda Revitalising & Refreshing Dry Shampoo - £1.50
Batiste Dry Shampoo Tropical - £2.20
Tresemme Volumising Dry Shampoo - £4.69

So I used all of these randomly over a three week period, I looked at how they made my hair look and feel, what they smelt like and my very scientific test of spraying them on dark material to look at spray pattern and particle size(!).


So out of the three of them my least favourite is also the most expensive the Tresemme Volumising dry shampoo.
There are several varieties but I chose the one for fine to oily hair. It has the usual what I would call 'Tresemme' smell which I actually quite like, it smells quite clean and isn't over powering.
 The blurb on the bottle says that it removes oil and boosts volume - I was pretty unimpressed, despite its claims it seemed to weigh my hair down and didn't seem to effect how oily my hair was. 
Compared to the other products the tressemme's for lack of a better word 'talc' was a lot finer and a lot less product was laid down, this may have been the reason it didn't work as well.


I couldn't pick a favourite between the Asda and Batiste, they both left my hair feeling less oily, cleaner and easier to manage. 
Batiste laid down more product and the 'talc' seemed more chalky, but all of them including the Batiste were easy to work into the hair. 

 Both scents were classed as 'tropical' I think I preferred the Asda scent as it seemed fresher however, Batiste dry shampoo comes in a much larger range of scents so I could just choose a different one!
   


Overall I think that when I have to repurchase (which wont be for a long time!)  I will go for the Asda dry shampoo mainly because of the price as if I cant tell between the results I may as well choose the cheaper option...


Has anyone else tried any other dry shampoos, what do you guys think?

Carmine

This afternoon I was extremely surprised to find an email from Carmine in my inbox...



'Guess what ladies! GLOSSYBOX and Carmine are officially joining forces! Yes, that's right. Carmine has decided to pass on its services to the expertise of GLOSSYBOX to offer you a top-notch beauty box. '

I'm a little bit disappointed,  I chose Carmine after a lot of research and umming and ahhing because I liked the fact that it was a different design (I'm a massive fan of green lol) and because it seemed like for me it had the most interesting/ use able contents. I haven't heard great things about Glossy Box but possibly the joining of the two companies may lead to more exciting things.

They have given out a voucher code to use which gives a discount off the first glossy box should I choose to subscribe ...so I may give it a go but I think before signing up I will definitely be looking around to see what others are out there...


Does anyone get Glossy Box or any other Beauty Boxes ...what would you recommend?

No. 7 Vouchers

I hope you all  had a lovely weekend and gave lots of appreciation to your mothers! 

At the weekend I had to go into town to pick up a birthday present for my friend, I bought her vouchers for spa treatments - it came in a lovely little gift bottle thing and I thought it was really cute so thought I would share :) 

On the way, I went past a Boots and decided to use my No. 7 vouchers. After having a peruse I decided on some new nail varnishes.  

The two I picked up were the No.7 Stay Perfect in Stand Back and Pinky Pure. I was in a Spring mood and I thought both of these would look lovely in some spring sunshine :)



Stand Back



 They both needed two coats to become wearably opaque. I agree with most people in saying that I don't think I would buy these at full price but with a No.7 voucher bringing them down to £2 each its a good purchase. The colours are lovely and with spring around the corner I am sure that they will get a lot of use.



Pinky Pure



Anyone else using up No.7 vouchers, or getting Spring fever :) ?

Benefit Boing!

Since purchasing Boi-ing I’ve had a bit of a love hate relationship with it. I purchased mine in 01 the lightest shade – in the pot this looked way to dark but as you start to warm it up it gets much lighter.  

  It works really well, covering my dark circles under my eyes beautifully, lightening the area while still looking very natural. It blends out effortlessly and is easy to apply (I use either my ring finger or a small brush). Bizarrely it seems to look better about 30mins after I’ve applied it  - maybe as it settles into the skin. I also find that it lasts really well, during the day so far I haven’t had to reapply it at all.

Unfortunately I’ve also had a few problems with it, to be fair I believe that a lot of these problems are more 'teething' problems on how best to use it on my skin rather than product faults .
 I find that I have to wear eye cream under it as if my skin is a little dry it doesn't sit very well and can be a little cakey, possible someone with a more normal to oily skin wouldn’t have this problem. I also have to use it quite sparingly, to begin with I got a little carried away and put on a couple of layers, this is a massive  NO NO as it creases A LOT if you put too much on.


Happily if I wear it over eye cream and I remember to be conservative with the product (which is always good as it will last longer and luckily you don’t actually need a lot of product to get the desired effect.) then it works really well and I look like ive had a wonderful nights sleep.
All in all I am happy with this product and if I follow the above steps it looks great, so for me it’s a good purchase :)

Has anyone use Boi-ing? What do you think?

Benefit Counter 2!

A while ago I did a blog post about my crazy fear of beauty counters and how I managed to slightly overcome it with a visit to the benefit beauty counter, if you want to you can read this here. 

Well at the time I loved it so much that I booked myself in for a free make-up lesson...last week it was time!  I took my friend with me as I was told to bring people if I wished and we had a really fun time. The counter assistant took us through the Benefit range we went from primers all the way to lip products and eye shadows, with advice on how to apply and use the products with consideration to our skin tone and things like eye shape which was quite interesting (and a good 45 mins to an hour long!)


Luckily I managed to restrain myself and only bought two products Benefit concealer Boing and the primer pore professional (I also was given a sample of Its Potent). My friend got a little bit over excited and ended up buying a lot of products but it was her birthday so she can be forgiven! I do kind of wish that I had bought Moon Beam but I wasn't completely sure so I left it.

However I will get another chance since we did somehow manage to get lured back again by the counter assistant and we are booked in to go back for facials where we are going to be shown more of the skin product range.

… I seemed to have gone from being afraid to being an addict …

Do you think I should have indulged in Moon Beam, do any of you own Moon Beam? Let me know what you think :) 

Body Shop Coconut Scrub

 Thought I would share one of my favourite products: Body shop coconut body scrub.
I love this ... 

My shower treat

The scrub contains coconut oil to moisturise the skin and coconut husk and shell to do the actual exfoliating. 


The overall texture is very creamy, I like the fact that its grainy enough to be nicely exfoliating but isn't too rough. When looked at closely you can see that the exfoliating grains aren't uniform in size, I think this helps improve the texture and effectiveness of the scrub. 


After use it leaves my skin feeling very soft and silky.   

As you can see its been used a lot.

I also really like the scent, The Body Shop describes it as a 'tropical coconut' scent. I have to say I'm a bit biased because I love all things coconut, its a very sweet smelling coconut but I adore it. You might have a problem if you don't like coconut (obviously!) or if your not a fan of strongly scented products as this definitely packs a bit of a punch. 


The one negative point that I have about this product is that due to its packaging (screw top pot) I find it quite hard to handle in the shower and have manage to drop it quite a few times but its only a minor point and someone less clumsy may not have that problem :)

The pot that I have at the moment which is pictured above was part of a set and is 50 ml if you buy the scrub individually it comes in a lovely large 200 ml.


All in all I have tried many body scrubs but always return to The Body Shop coconut scrub. Its definitely a favourite of mine.


If you have any favourite body scrubs let me know.

xx

Happy days

Hope everyone is enjoying their Sunday.

Just a quick update to say a few days ago I received something in the mail. 

A whole pile of Urbanista beauty products! 

 A very big thank you to Lauren from www.alaurentoherself.com

Who ran the lovely blog competition (her blog is definitely worth a look :) ) I don't usually win stuff so I'm extremely pleased with this wonderful little haul, everything is all so brightly coloured!

Carmine

Happy Wednesday everyone.
Last month after looking at all the reviews and getting very excited about beauty boxes  I decided to treat myself to the Carmine beauty box.
On friday it arrived! (I know posting a bit late...sorry)

Inside I received:

Picture from Google

Daniel Sandler Eye Delight: in 'Ice', which looks lots of fun.

An extremely cute sample of Diego Dalla Palmer Lipstick in No 42. Which looks very wearable.

White Glo whitening toothpaste: An Australian brand - It states that its for coffee and tea drinkers and I'm definitly a tea drinker :)so that will be good to try. 

The Balm Fratboy All-in-one shadow/blush: I was very pleased with this product I'm not sure that I would use it as a eye shadow but never say never and its a lovely colour blush.

Andrea Fulerton nail polish: The colour I received was 'Naomi' I was worried that this colour would be too dark for me but after trying it, I really fell for the shade and the consistency of this varnish is wonderful, making it easy to use.

I also received a bonus, which was a sample of Yardley's Peony fragrance - I havent tried this yet but Carmine thinks its spring in a bottle which sounds lovely.

I was getting a litte grumpy with Carmine as this box did arrive late, it was meant to be a Febuary box and I didnt get it till March but after finally receiving it I have been pleasantly suprised with the contents. With a good range of products all of which I can see myself using, three of which are full sized products and an extra bonus sample I am definitly going to be keeping my subscription at least until next month!  

If anyone else receive this months Carmine box or any other Beatuy Box let me know what you thought :)

xx

Rimmel 1000 Kisses

At the tale end of the week I went up to Edinburgh on a business trip, Edinburgh is a really beautiful city, I will definitely be revisiting so I can have a proper look around as I didn't get much free time on this trip.

I stayed at the Radisson Blu Hotel which is gorgeous.

Outside of the Radisson Blu Hotel

Amazing bed!

And  I fell in love with the bed which was massive as you can see in the photo and sooo comfortable it was difficult having to get out of it in the morning.


As I flew up to Edinburgh I made an impulse purchase. I needed something for the evening and this caught my eye.
It Rimmel 1000 Kisses Lip Tint and I bought it in the shade Perpetual Plum. (There are 6 shades in total.)
It has two ends one is the colour and is shaped like a felt tip and the other end is a lip balm.
The colour is really bright and very wearable. Although its called Perpetual Plum its actually very red. Once it dries (which doesn't take long) you apply the lip balm over the top which leaves a lovely finish to the lips.  I found its best to blot with tissue a little but the colour is build-able. There isn't a massive amount of lip balm but presumably there's enough to go with the lip tint at the other end. Having the lip balm as part of the product is great because it cuts down on the amount of products you have to carry in your bag :) It didn't last all night I did have to reapply but it wears evenly just becoming a lighter shade, it also doesn't transfer to glasses etc.

It was perfect for my evening and I'm happy that I picked this up. I would recommend this product and will definitely be trying some of the other shades available. 

If anyone has tried this in any of the shades? let me know what you think .

xx