Lush - Five Gold Rings Bubble Bars

Hey all!

Christmas is getting SO close now and I cannot wait for the festivities to start. One of my favourite things is pampering over the Christmas period, not only is it great timing for the party season but also when your skin needs a little extra help in the colder months.

A bath is a great way to start - 5 Gold Rings from Lush is the perfect product.

It's quite simple really, there are five super sparkly golden rings on a string that mean you can have 5 super sparkly bath times! 5 baths for the price of one is great value for money in my opinion.

All you need to do is crumble one of the bars under running water for a bubbly bath filled with Fair Trade sweet vanilla and the obvious super sparkly gold glitter that takes over your bathroom!

Each ring is infused with skin softening illipe butter and moringa oil to uplift, it also contains a product called benzoin resinoid which I have to say I've never heard of before.

Lush has a wonderfully helpful website though and clicking on it gives me this description:

'We use benzoin resinoid (Styrax benzoin) to deeply cleanse and soothe skin, add shine to hair, to ease muscles, and to give skin a sweet, lingering vanilla and balsamic aroma.' 


Well you learn something every day don't you??

This is what the bubble bar looks like when you crumble it under the water...





It's lovely and yellow gold and a happy uplifting colour. My skin also felt amazing as soon as I'd finished the bath and felt so much smoother and hydrated.

Although you do need to watch out for getting the glitter EVERYWHERE!

5 Gold Rings comes in at £4.95, so that's only £1 a bath - well worth the money!

What do you think of this bubble bar? Will you be snapping them up?

L xxx

Palace of Versailles

Hello everyone!

Happy Sunday morning!

I've been away with work yet again - November is going to be an extremely busy month but as I am yet to finish posting about my trip to Paris I though ti was best to start there.

I wrote about my whirlwind trip to Paris here, and have already written a post on the Gardens of Versailles here. This is the final instalment and consists of the Palace of Versailles itself - it's simply exquisite, and that's not a word to use lightly!

I mean just look at those gates, every tiny bit of it is genuine gold and you can see why there was such a revolution when the people of Paris were starving and dying outside.

When you get inside the gates the luxury and grandeur does not stop there either, it's breathtaking and just walking in and standing there is enough to keep you quiet for a little while!

I was extremely lucky with the weather on the day that I had free from work, it rained before and after this so my trip was planned to perfection. The Palace is beautiful and would be whatever the weather, but this kind of blue skies and sunshine scenario makes it even more amazing.

And don't even get my started on the interiors - who doesn't love a massive chandelier!

I'm also a big fan of windows, massive floor to ceiling windows with draped curtains and even better, a window seat. I've always dreamed of having a window of this size and having the ability to sit at it and read - it's a must-have on my dream home list.

Even the mirrors on the interior walls are dressed like windows to add to the grandeur of the palace. I also love seeing the mirrors when they are aged, a bit greyer and with a few cracks within the glass itself is even better in my opinion.

I'm one of those people that can't ignore a ceiling, I have been to a few places around the world that have fantastic ceilings including the Sistine Chapel. They are all amazing in my opinion and there's nothing better than twirling around in a room and staring at paintings on the ceiling.

The one place in the entire Palace of Versailles that I had seen and heard of before that I was very excited to see was the infamous Hall of Mirrors. It's pretty explanatory but take one of these amazing rooms and add in an excessive amount of chandeliers and mirrors, and this is what you get:

Just how fabulous is this room!

There was so much sparkle and luxe in one room that it was simply breathtaking, there were so many things to take photos of from different angles but I've narrowed it down to a few ;)

I did try to take a few mirror selfies - I mean who wouldn't at least try! But they didn't turn out so well on account of the windows showing so much light in the background!

There were so many rooms to see throughout the palace that it would be impossible to share them all with you but this one was another that was particularly interesting for me:

Look at that ceiling!

I've recently painted some of my furniture grey using chalk paint, there is a lot of detail on these pieces also so I have recently bought a gold paint to add some of the detail back in just like this ceiling. It's great finding inspiration from genuine palaces like this!

All in all it was an amazing day - the Gardens were breathtaking and a surprise to me as I didn't expect them to be as exciting as they were. However the Palace of Versailles itself lived up to every expectation, it was superbly luxurious, covered in gold and chandeliers and just fabulous.

I'd fully recommend that anyone visiting Paris also visit the Palace of Versailles, it will take you an entire day from 9 until late afternoon to get around everything including Marie Antoinette's Palace and Gardens too. I practically ran around the whole thing, I was excited and also fearful of missing anything before it closed. For a more relaxed day you may want to skip Marie Antoinette's section however it was my favourite area!

Have you visited the Palace of Versailles? Did you think it was a wonderful as I did?

Will you be planning a visit after seeing these photos?

L xxx

MAC Eyeshadow Refill - Sable

Hello lovelies!

Pinch punch first of the month!

I wrote a post last week about my amazing new Illamasqua lipstick which was bought for me by a lovely person that you might have heard of (yes you guessed it thank you M!)

The other half of my present was an amazing addition to my MAC eyeshadow palette. I've been saying for ages how I needed more to add to it, I've got quite a few random colours that have been bought for me over the years and I'm in desperate need of some additional colours to blend my palette together better. This has filled the perfect gap!

As I have a palette M has bought me the refill which is perfect, I can slot it straight into one of the gaps and apply my eye make up as I wish. She knows me too well!

This shade is called Sable and its a 'gold plum with a bronze pearl' according to MAC's website.

The photo below shows the shadow taken with a flash and the one below that without a flash:

As you can see, my palette below has some pretty random shades, some very light, some very dark and a few brights. I've bought the large palette and an eyeshadow insert so that I can fill it up and keep my collection together. I'd definitely buy another insert, ideally I'd have a neutral side and then a darks and brights side as it is double sided and I'd love to make the most of it.

Sable clearly fits in perfectly with my small collection of nudes. I have Shroom, a limited edition shadow I cannot remember the name of and All That Glitters so I definitely needed a darker shade to create the perfect nude toned eye for day to day.

Sable is the perfect colour to blend into your crease for a wearable day to day eye for work, lunch, dates and can help to create a beautiful smokey eye with a gold bronze tinge to it. You can see swatches on my hand below:

With flash you can see how the light really catches it and makes it shimmer, it's so pretty I've been swatching it for days! 

Here it is on the eye, applied to the outer corners and blended across the lid of my eye. This is a light application and you can definitely apply it more heavily for a stronger and darker eye look. This is the look I go for on a normal work day with a bit of liner.

It's enough of a shimmer and shapes my eye enough to make sure its not boring and flat.

What do you think of Sable? Do you have a palette you're adding to? What shades would you recommend to complete my palette?

L xxx

Nicole by OPI hits the UK!

So this post is a little behind the times in terms of letting you know that Nicole by OPI has finally made it to the UK market into our Superdrug stores....hurrah!

I couldn't resist but picking up some when I noticed they were on 3 for 2 when they first hit stores so i picked up a turqoise, coral and a gold.

These colours were so summery and stood out in the shop amongst all the other brights available. I was really impressed that the range was so big and contained some of the limited edition sets that Nicole by OPI have brought out.

Not to mention the names on the bottom of all the bottles:

Turquoise: Respect the World
Coral: Find your Passion
Gold: The Next CEO

So how do they fare?

The above photos show Respect the World after 1 and 2 coats respectively. You can see it's quite streaky and 1 coat definitely isn't enough to cover the nail! 2 is a bit better but its very sheer so 3 coats as shown below is a much better opaque colour.




It also has a slight shimmer to it which helps keep the colour from looking too flat and I really like it. It's the kind of turquoise that looks good with a tan and on pale skin, you can see that it really pops on pale skin!

Next up is Find your Passion:

This polish is exactly the same as the turquoise and needs 3 coats for the full effect.
This was probably the biggest disappointment of the 3, which is pretty annoying considering I picked up the 3 as this colour was something I'd been looking for. It looked a lot brighter in the bottle and when on the nails it was pinker and softer than I had thought it would be.




I do like this colour, but I have others in my collection that are very similar, if not the same.

Last up is The Next CEO:

This is the same as the previous polishes and needed 3 coats but as it's a metallic this was expected and you could actually leave it at 2 coats if you wanted a more sheer effect. I prefer the full on glitter and shimmer look so I layered this baby right up!

In the photo below without a flash you can see how it looks in normal light and its so beautiful.

It's similar to Models' Own  Champagne but this one is more gold toned. It's so wearable and I think you could get away with this even in work as it's not glittery, just shimmery.

What are your thoughts on Nicole by OPI? Have you picked up any of their polishes since they've been stocked up at Superdrug? What would you recommend?

I do love the range, I'm sure I'll be picking up some more at some point but hopefully the colours will come out as they look in the bottle.

L xxx