LUSH Christmas Goodies!

Hey lovelies!

As soon as a heard the Christmas stuff had arrived at LUSH i basically raced to my nearest store. I'm not a big LUSH nut, but i do love me their Christmas goodies! Candy Mountain (or Candy Cane as it was previously known as) is my all time favourite product from them. I get through quite a few, without fail every year. And this year is no exception! They change its appearance every year so this year instead of being the traditional pink and white its a crazy Willy Wonka style pink and green, i love it! Oh and you may notice theres no Snow Fairy... Well I'm holding out for one for Christmas!

Candy Mountain - Bubble Bath Bar 

Sweet smelling, pink and green goodness. Its the typical lush scent, somewhere between Snow Fairy and Rock Star Soap. I get a good three baths out of these so they are WELL worth the money.

Let The Good Times Roll -  Facial Cleanser

I've not seen this one before so i assume its new this year. After smelling the salty, caramel goodness i knew i had to have it. Although if i was LUSH i wouldn't of marketed this as a cleanser. Its basically an exfoliating scrub. I'm guessing its the popcorn in it, but it makes a really lovely daily scrub without leaving your skin dry. I'm really impressed!

Melting Snowman - Bath Melt

I've not tried a bath melt before and this one was far too cute to pass up!

     Breath of Fresh Air - Toner Water

I used to use this product years ago and really enjoyed it. But pinching pennies i went back to my Simple Toner as it is less than half the price. But as you can see i got a bit carried away and picked it up again. Its such a refreshing toner with fresh sea water and a whole host of essential oils. I'm starting to see why i loved it so much!

Popcorn - Lip Scrub

My Bubblegum Lip Scrub is on its last legs and the scent of this intrigued me. I'm not sure i like the taste though, I'm undecided! Will do a full review of this soon!

So that's it! You can find these at your nearest LUSH store or online here.

Whats your favourite LUSH product?     

xox 

 

FOTD: Smoked Plum

Hey lovelies!

I am really loving the berry / burgundy / plum trend this Winter. Fashion wise, I'm not too big on colour so picking up some berry pieces for my wardrobe has been a nice change. I've also been adoring the berry lip trend and I've been wearing Revlon Balm Stain in Crush and MAC Rebel pretty much the entire month.  So I thought I'd give something new a go and switch up my look for a more vampy, burgundy smokey eye.

 For someone with a makeup addiction, i sure don't have a lot of plummy, burgundy shades in my collection! I had to go through every one of my palettes to find one. All the shades i found were too purple for my liking but i finally struck gold with Sleek's Monaco palette, which is sadly discontinued. But you can find these sort of shades everywhere currently!

Eyes:

MUA - Eyeshadow Primer

Sleek - Monaco Palette: Bamboo, Moors Treasure.

Sugarpill - Bulletproof Eyeshadow

Elf - Black Liquid Eyeliner

Covergirl - Lash Blast Mascara Waterproof

Anastasia - Brow Powder 

     

Lips:

Jack Black - Black Tea Lip Balm

Face: 

Mac - Studio Fix Fluid NW15 (mixed)

Illamasqua - Skin Base SB02 (mixed)

Maybelline - Dream Lumi Concealer: Radiance

Laura Mercier - Secret Brightening Powder

Nars - Laguna Bronzer  

Tarte - Amazonian Clay Blush: Flush

Mac - Lightscapade

I'm not a big fan of winter, but I'm loving switching up my makeup! Hopefully my creative juices (what little i have) will remain flowing and I'll be sharing some new FOTD's soon!

Whats your favourite winter makeup trend?

xox

Review: Ecotools Bamboo Bronzer Brush

 

Ello lovelies!

In my last haul post i showed you some of the bits i picked up on my travels and this one had to be the first thing i reviewed. I'd been a big ol' snob when i came to Ecotools. I had pretty much turned my nose up at high-street brushes other than Real Techniques and I'm now seeing how very, very wrong i was...

Ecotools Bamboo Bronzer Brush (try saying that three times!) is pretty fucking fantastic. It has SO many good qualities; its extremely soft, its dense, it has a nice weight to it, it has minimal shedding, blends like a dream and finally its pretty damn affordable too! I use this primarily for bronzer, my face is on the chub side so i use this for an all over bronze or some very lazy contouring. I also think this would work wonderfully for setting powders but its a little too big for blush.

I am gobsmacked at the quality of it, its one of the softest brushes i own. It makes applying bronzer a dream. It's dense enough to pick up enough product and fluffy enough to blend it out with ridiculous ease. It sells between £9 and £10 from most retailers but you can always find offers on it, at the moment Boots has them "buy one get one half off". At around the same price in dollars as it is in pounds it does work out a tad more expensive here. But considering the superb quality if i lost this I'd literally be running out to get another one!

This is probably my favourite discovery of the past few months and considering my giant Florida splurge, that really is saying something. I really cannot recommend this brush enough!

Ecotools Bamboo Bronzer Brush is available from a ton of retailers including the Boots website here.

Have you tried any other Ecotools brushes? Let me know!

xox

USA Drugstore Haul!

 

Heya lovelies. Long time no post!

Its finally here, the LAST of my USA hauls and this one is a bit big... I had quite a lot of fun raiding stores like Ulta, Walmart and Target whilst i was away (i got back well over a month ago now, *cry*). What hasn't been very fun is not being able to use half of it! I was determined to save it all for a haul and with University deadlines its been a bit tricky. So now i get to dig in and give this lot a good ol' test!

I'm going to try and not waffle on about products as much as possible or this is going to be one lengthy post. But as always, if theres anything you'd like a full review on, let me know through the comments.

 Hard Candy - Glow All The Way in Dollface - $8

Its so shiny! Such a lot of product for your buck, its a huge sized highlighter with a pearly pink glow and some glitter which I'm currently undecided on. Can't wait to test it out!

Revlon - Colorstay Foundation in Buff - $10
I do own a colourstay foundation already, but for once, its actually quite a bit too light. So i picked up another one in a darker shade as they were half the price they are here in the UK.

Neutrogena - Healthy Skin Foundation - Ivory $12

I'd been eyeing this for a while after hearing SO much about it online, i just couldn't resist.

 Hard Candy - Moon Glow $ Welcome Matte - $8

This is what happens when grabby hands come out in Walmart. I may as well have been doing a supermarket sweep run the rate i was picking things up. Oooh that looks interesting... *grabs* 

 Hard Candy - Glamoflague Concealer - $6

Another grabby hands purchase. Plus i was curious if this can really cover!

Maybelline - Dream Lumi Concealer in Radiance - $6

Probably my favourite discovery. I fell in love with this on my trip so much i hunted for them where ever i went and only managed to grab another two! Such a great brightening concealer for under the eye and pretty damn cheap too. This NEEDS to come to the UK!

 Lotsa lip products...

EOS - Lip Balm in Sweet Mint - $3

Another cliche holiday purchase...

Milani - Lip Flash in Hot Flash - $6
VERY similar to the Urban Decay Super Saturated lip pencils!  

Maybelline - Baby Lips in Grape and Cherry - $3

Yet another cliche purchase, i am a lip balm fiend!

Wet 'n' Wild - Mega Last Lipsticks in Coraline, Cherry Picking and Think Pink - $3

The BEST cheap lipsticks you can buy, ever. I LOVE my Mega Last Lipsticks!

Burt's Bee's - Tinted Lip Balm in Tiger Lily - $4

I did warn you... I am a lip balm whore.     

 

Wet 'n' Wild - Comfort Zone and Petal Pusher Palettes - $5

Another brand i just wish would hurry up and come to the UK. I already had a few Wet 'n' Wild palettes and trios at home and although they were either hit or miss, the hits were fantastic! So i picked up two of each and gifted the spares to the besties.

 

Hard Candy - High Maintenance Duo - $6

Oh how i love taupe. These are probably two of the most famous taupe drugstore shades on the web, so i had to snatch up both!

Cover Girl - Tapestry Taupe Eyeshadow - $4

This is the only Covergirl shadow i have ever tried and i am seriously impressed. Its smooth, buttery and the colour is absolutely stunning.     

 Ecotools - Retractable Kabuki - Bronzer Brush - $12
 My first ever Ecotools brushes. I have to admit i'd been a bit of a snob when it came to Ecotools in the past. They aren't the cheapest in the UK and cost around the same in pounds as they do in dollars. These were buy one get one half off in Ulta so it seemed the perfect time to snag a couple. The bronzer brush will be one of the first things i review because i am shocked at how amazing it is!

Real Techniques - Expert Face - Powder Brush - $10
So much cheaper in the states! These were also buy one get one half off so i grabbed a much needed back up of my favourite powder brush.  

Hard Candy - Fox in a Box in Truth or Dare and Hot Flash - $6

Their likeness to the Benefit boxed powders well and truly caught my eye, plus the colours are too cute. Packaging is pretty flimsy and its probably one of the worst brushes included with a blush ever, but I'll review these soon! 

NYC - Bronzer in Sunny - $3

As you can see i am one of those girls that sees things mentioned online and writes a little lust list... Then buys the lot at the first opportunity, haaa! Its a completely matte bronzer that i hope to use for contouring to make my beloved Laguna last a bit longer.   

Burt's Bees - Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream - $6

It smells like lemony heaven. I adored the smell but not the consistency of Lush's Lemony Flutter Cuticle Butter so after being recommended this by a good friend i went on a hunt, well i say hunt but it was pretty easy to find. I even found it in Boots when i got home... doh!

About a years worth of mascara...

Elf - Liquid Eyeliner in Black - $1

My favourite, cheap eyeliner. I managed to only find two while i was away but i am a little disappointed they seem to have changed the brush on this. It used to be a firm felt nib, but it now seems thinner and a lot flimsier so it takes a bit of getting used to.

Covergirl - Lash Blast Mascara - $6

Its so famous i had to give it a bash. I'd been using the waterproof version on holiday and it was okay so i thought i'd test this one out!  

Maybelline - Mega Plush Mascara - $6    

Was just curious about this one and better to be curious when you can get them at half the price.

L'oreal - Voluminous Mascara - $6

Again, curiosity killed my bank balance.

Almay - Get Up and Grow Mascara - $5

...And another one.

Maybelline - One by One Mascara - $6 

...

So... that's it!

That's the end of this haul and the end of my USA posts! As much as I'd love to carry on posting them, my bank balance wont allow it and I'm sure it'd get boring real fast. But again, let me know if you'd like a review of anything specific and I'm looking forward to posting some FOTD's with this little lot soon!

Whats your favourite high-street or "drugstore" product?

xox