Review: Sleek Blush by 3 Lace

When these were first realised I was instantly drawn to this palette. I thought it had the best selection of colours, but never got around to picking it up or even looking at them in Superdrug until a few weeks back when I went shopping with L. We are the worst influence on each other and always spend a fortune when we just meet to 'window' shop. You can see what other bit's I picked up here.

Who doesn't love a boxed product. Always makes it feel a little more luxurious. For £10 for 3 blush these palettes are such good value and you get a large amount of each shade too. Lace is out of stock online, but they still have the others. Found here. They still had them in my local superdrug but all the blush by 3 palettes were in the draws and not out on display. How annoying.

This is my first sleek product. How pretty is the packaging, textured black and the sleek logo simply printed in a shiny black. My love for the slightly rubberised black packaging of course didn't last long as similar to products such as Nars mine is now covered in my foundation finger prints, ooops.

They have the shades printed on the back but don't seem to stock the shades separately. I thought I'd instantly use the middle shade first as it was similar to Sleek's Rose Gold blush that never seems to be in stock in Superdrug (do you find the sleek stands poorly stocked around you aswell?

So here are the shades. In the pan they scared me, swatched they scared me. Blended I love them. These blushes are so pigmented you only need the smallest amount. They blend so easily. I find they do break up slightly with my brush so I find it best to just lightly dab my brush into the selected colour rather than sweep it across and end up with powder and a brush with way to much product.

Photo heavy section, as you can see the colours come out so bright so if you like a bright blush look no further or they can be blended for a softer look. I can honestly say I have used this blush every single day since I picked it up. I didn't expect to love it as much as I do. The colours are so wearable, so easy to blend and just look so pretty on. I find myself using the orange more than the others, something I didn't expect. I'm definitely not normally an orange blush girl but it gives a pretty flush. The middle shimmer shade is a very shimmery blush so I tend to use this one more as a highlight if I'm not using my MAC one. The red shade blends to a gorgeous winter flush on the skin, think English rose.

I cannot praise this product enough. I can't see me looking at other blushes for a while. They are amazing and they will definitely last me a while too.

Have you tried any of the Blush by 3 sets? I'm considering getting a second, any recommendations?

Love M

xxx

Lipstick Mondays Maybelline 10 hour tint gloss

I recently picked this up on a trip to boots, after spotting it at the till in Superdrug. As I said in my make up haul, I'm definitely not a lip gloss person. They just bug me but this is different. It's not sticky at all, it glides on the lips and is just soft and provides amazing colour pay off.

I picked it up in the shade forever fuchsia. It's £6.99 but currently on 3 for 2 in boots. This makes me want to go and buy another 3.

It has an easy to use heart shaped wand that holds the perfect amount of colour for application. It has a small hole in the centre of the wand that holds the product. I'd say this photo shows the colour best.

As you can see the colour pigmentation is so good and it just leaves a pretty glossy finish that isn't sticky and isn't going to instantly rub off your lips. It's a little bright than this photo shows.

As for 10 hours stay, that's a little adventurous. Due to the stain it does last longer. I tend to apply one coat let it dry and apply a second 30 minutes later. It probably lasts around 3 hours. Even though it doesn't last the 10 hours stated, I'd definitely buy this again and I'm wanting to try other shades.

I'm really lusting after the YSL glossy stains but every time I go into my boots the sales assistant just jumps on me and make me feel uncomfortable. They never seem friendly on my YSL stall :(.

Have you tried either of these? Even if you aren't normally a lip gloss person I'd thoroughly recommend this. I'm loving bright pinks at the moment for my lips.

Hope your week has started well.

Love M

xxx

Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish

So another weekend coming to an end and back to work in the morning. I've had a great weekend this weekend with the family so that's left me in a good mood today.

Onto today's post, both L and I have been loving skin care lately and taking a much bigger interest in it and trying other brands. (I had a recent splurge in Clinique and I'm loving there stuff, post coming soon). After Red magazine gave the free sample and a muslin cloth to try, we were both impressed with it. It's such a different cleanser, so thick and moisturising on the face and I enjoyed using the cloth.

L was so impressed she went out and picked up more straight away. I'd left mine longer before trying out due to being back in love with my Lush Herbalism cleanser. Now I regret that.

After seeing the great offer a few weeks back (Thanks Lola for sharing) I couldn't resist getting more. We decided to share the postage cost and ordered together. 

We chose the express delivery as the deal was just before L went away. I was so excited when she text me the next day to say it had already arrived and that it had come with lots of goodies.

It was with 4 sachets of their sheer skin tint (1 in each shade) and a 30 ml sample of cleanse and polish and another muslim cloth. L had the cleanser I had the skin tint. I love that with higher end brands they are always generous with there samples. I love trying new things.

I'm impressed with the sheer skin tint and will review full soon.

It also came with a colour chart detailing all of the new make up range and the shades. Also helpful was space by the shade of each shade so that you could compare it to colours you already own if you are ordering on line. I'm eyeing up the bronzer after reading rave reviews.

Another nice touch was a little note saying who had packed your package up for you.

And a big thick book showing there full product range with descriptions and prices. I've loved having a flick through this. L did mention that for a natural company though there was a lot of maybe unnecessary packaging that although it was a nice touch could have been done without.

All of that for one bottle each of 100ml cleanse and polish, I'm wondering next time whether to assume we'll get more good samples and it might be worth ordering separately to get all the freebies.

We will do a full review on Cleanse and Polish soon if anybody is interested in this product, I know we are late to the party on loving this product but it's definitely one that we will be repurchasing a lot now.

Love L and M

xxx

A little side note - after using the Cleanse and Polish sample I did indeed rush out to buy the full size, at 14 pounds (I'm using an American keyboard that doesn't have a pound sign, how inconsiderate!) it included a full 100ml of product and 2 muslin cloths in a bag along with the instructions card.

I really do believe that even after a week of using it my skin felt like velvet, my spots had cleared up and any blemishes had definitely decreased in size. I've now been using it ever since and I swear my skin has improved even more after the benefits of long term thorough cleaning.

I vote everyone should be using this baby!

L xxx

Review: Vita Liberata

As a pale girl living in Wales where the sun rarely shines but the rain empties down rather regularly, fake tan is a very prominent member of my product collection.

I tend to go through rather a lot of Dove's summer glow body lotion with a hint of fake tan just to keep myself looking a more human colour!

I've tried many tans before but this one was new on the market, and on offer, hurrah!

I bought this Vita Liberata Self Tan Gel from Boots whilst it was reduced to a much more purse friendly £14.99 from its original price of £22.49

The packaging states:

If you have very pale, hard-to-tan skin then this is your product. Organic extracts have been specially formulated to turn you golden brown in an instant and last for days (even after showering).

I fully believe this person is me! I was a bit nervous at the thought of using a product titled 'Extra Rich Silken Chocolate' as although I wanted to be tanned, I didn't want to be orange or even worse, mahogany!

Let's get the details out the way...the reason I bought this tan (aside from the discount) was the fact that this tan is:

Paraben Free

Perfume Free

Not tested on Animals

and lastly...Organic!

I was tempted by the mousse as I always am, I find them much easier to use than sprays and I've never really tried a lotion.

But decided it was time to try one, particularly as I worked out that the mousse was so much more expensive per 100ml than the lotion.

For once, being thrifty paid off!

This Vita Liberata tan went on an absolute dream!

I'd been scrubbing and exfoliating and moisturising for a good few days before I applied this product, meaning that I had a good base to start with.

After reading the instructions again since my applications I am a little concerned...it says to use 2-3 pumps of product per limb and I most definitely used at least 6 ha, and that was on my arms!

The packaging btw is beautiful, showing a wonderfully bronzed body on the side that to be honest is probably very true to the colour that I turned out to be!

I also like the packaging of the tan itself, brown so wont get covered in mucky hand prints from tanning but shimmery and quite simple in design.

The nozzle was so easy to use, and whilst the tiniest bit comes out for each pump i would much rather this than too much and then waste the product.

As you can see from the product on my hand, 1 pump is a tiny amount!

Maybe my pump is working incorrectly if you are meant to use 2-3 pumps as I'm sure that wouldn't cover most peoples arms surely?!

It's quite a dark colour but blends easily and evenly, giving you a tanned colour instantly and meaning it's very easy to see any missed parts.

I did take photos of my limbs after using this product but unfortunately they've disappeared off blogger :S

But you can just about see in the picture above where the tan had started to develop into a beautiful even colour that looks really natural.

I would say I was worried I'd look like an extra off the Simpsons, it's quite yellow toned which I've never noticed before with a self tan so maybe bear that in mind if you use it!

I definitely didn't turn out that way though, the colour was absolutely beautiful and true to their word did take a good few days to fade.

It even comes with detailed instructions on what to do and not to do, for example with this tan you shouldn't moisturise before application, which is something I've always done with other tans to help it sink in evenly and most of them suggest you do this particularly around knees, elbows etc

Overall I was really impressed with this tan, I love St Tropez but it's expensive and this was a welcome break for my purse.

After 3 different full body applications I can safely say there is plenty left in the bottle and am not even half way through, whereas with the St Tropez mousse the bottle would be near empty by now.

Have you used this brand of tanning products before?

M has had a spray tan done with their products and absolutely loved it too.

I will certainly be checking out the other products they have available...as soon as I get some money rolling into my account again!

What other tanning brands do you use and recommend?

L xxx