Beauty Blender

Hi pals!

Just a quick review for you today, you might have heard of it yonks ago but sometimes I fear I live under a rock.

The Original Beauty Blender came onto my radar when M told me about it (many times!) and raved about how good her dupe one was. I just couldn't get over the sponge applicator things and decided my Real Techniques were enough for me.

The BB as it will now be called (I'm lazy at typing right now, 4.30am starts all week have ruined my body clock!) made it's way into my life courtesy of my aunty who gave my her Birchboxes that she had been bought as a gift - what a super hero she is!

I've loved getting them as you can imagine and have had a lot of fun rummaging every time one appears. This one was particularly exciting though when i realised i had a REAL one!

Let's face it, the pink excites me. It's super girly for a gadgety kind of thing and I almost didn't want to get it dirty by adding foundation, but i took a deep breath and got over it.

I have been told that using the blender whilst wet is the best way forward so I run this under the tap quickly and squeeze/shake off the excess so it's damp. I have found from experience that using a thicker foundation such as Vichy Dermablend as opposed to something thinner like UD's Naked Skin works better but that may just be me. I found thicker products easier to blend out and give an even coverage whereas the thinner products tended to move around my face!

Here's a photo of my face where I've applied Dermablend with the BB. It creates a flawless base for other products to be added onto and the pointed end helps to blend around the nose and eyes, and is great for concealer application too.

It also comes with it's own nifty little cleansing block which is very handy and lovely surprise!

I've used this a few times and washing the blender is easy, rinse it under the tap, rub the bar onto the sponge and lather it up before rinsing. There really is no excuse but to wash this one regularly (though I always seem to find one!)

I have totally come round to the idea of a Beauty Blender and have been enjoying using it on my face in the mornings, definitely a girls version of a gadget!

It creates a flawless base quite easily, and although you might think it will take you longer than using a brush it actually doesn't which surprised me. The only drawback i can see is that it costs £16.50, which by all accounts is a little excessive. It's more expensive than a lot of brushes which seem to have a lot more work gone into them, if it was price more at the £10 mark i probably wouldn't have batted an eyelid!

Having said that, if that's all that I can find that's wrong with it....maybe it is worth the price.

Have you tried the Beauty Blender before? Are you a lover or a hater?
Have you found a comparable dupe?

L xxx

Birchbox

Goooooooooood morning!

I've got a quick review for you today. I'm sure you've all probably seen these Birchbox reviews by now as they have been out for a little while, but I've decided to take a few snaps of them to share what i think.

I'm lucky that my aunty (who has recently turned 50!) was bought a 6 month subscription to Birchbox and although she loves products and in theory it was a great present for her she just won't use them.....cue me being the very happy recipient of every Birchbox for the next 6 months!

The first one I received was the Lulu Guinness box. I love the outer cardboard cover of this box, stripes and monochrome are a particular favourite of mine and the dress on the front of the box is a stunner as well, cannot complain one bit!

Generally I love these boxes as they're so handy for storing just about anything and they can stack up in display on your desk or shelving or be stored away  for safe keeping. I also really like the drawstring bags, they're so handy for travelling with and are actually really good quality and last very well.

As always these boxes come with a 'menu' and this one was no different. It contained a Korres body milk, Molton Brown hand cream, Pores No More pore perfector, Benefit Stay Don't Stray, a perfume sample and a Lulu Guinness stick of rock in the same black and white design.

I cannot wait to try the citrus body milk from Korres, I've heard so much about them and citrus is my favourite scent.
Molton Brown hand cream looks the perfect size for your hand bag and I'm looking forward to using this.
The sound of the pore perfector is ideal, but on lifting up the tube i can see straight through it and can see already that there is only a tiny bit of product in the tube which is quite disappointing and I doubt I will be able to get more than 1 or 2 uses out of it.

I can't say that perfume samples excite me in the slightest. I'm hoping my cousins appreciate these as I've just filled a huge bag of samples and products I won't use for them and this has definitely gone into it!
Benefit's Stay Don't Stray has been on my list for a long time and i'm very excited to try it out, it's probably the highlight of this box for me!

So marks out of 10 for the first box....probably 6/10. I like the variety and there's a few products i will enjoy but the pointless tester of pore perfector and yet another perfume samples was pretty boring for me.

The second box has exactly the same set up with a drawstring bag and a menu card. Some people might consider the brown box to be boring but i really like it's simplicity. Brown paper is something that I love and it can be so effective at making things and it reminds me of this.

This box contained:
Benefit's Porefessional - I'm already a fan and have lots of tester sizes for 'emergency purposes'
Non Aerosol Hair Spray - this will be great for my gym bag or handbag on a night out! Fingers crossed it's an effective one.
Skin Life - I love skincare samples so I'm sure this will be put to the test soon.
Eyeshadow - gorgeous colour but I have many in the same shade so this pot has again gone to my cousins.
Perfume -  Again not a fan of these, I'm yet to find one that i actually like so they've gone to my younger cousins, I'm sure they'll love them!

So marks out of 10 for this box? Probably 7/10 for variety, the perfume still lets it down though.

I love receiving tester size samples and I'm so grateful to my aunty for sending me her boxes, it's so much fun to go through them all even though I get them late and could know beforehand what I'm getting by reading others blog posts. However I think if I was paying the full amount for each of these boxes plus P&P I'd be disappointed when I could be spending the £13 on something that I chose myself.

Maybe the next few boxes will change my mind! What do you think of beauty boxes in general? Do you think they're worth it?

L xxx