Lush Event in Cardiff

A few weeks ago we were lucky enough to be invited to the event at the Lush store in Cardiff to try out some of their products after hours which was great opportunity we just couldn't turn down.

It's fair to say I'm a huge Lush fan. At the event they were going through suggestions and I'd tried a lot of it. I   do tend to stick to what I know with lush products though. My cleanser of choice has always been Herbalism (you can read my Lush Skincare loves here).

Angels on bare skin works in a similar way. You only need just over a pea sized amount and mix with water in your hand to make a paste to apply to the skin.  The solid cleansers are great if you are travelling as they won't leak. I find the pot lasts just over a month when used morning and night which is pretty good.

Angels on bare skin is a gentle cleanser that any skin type can use. It contains loads of natural ingredients which have different benefits.

Ground Almonds are used for toning and brightening, kaolin to absorb grease and gently cleanse, vegetable glycerine to soften and moisturise and other essential oils. The addition of lavender flowers help to gently exfoliate.

I love that if you return 5 lush pots you get a free face mask. It's great that they recycle and give motivation to do so.

I do find this cleanser does sting the eyes so I do have to remove my eye make up pre cleanse which being lazy lately I have got out of the habit of. But using my favourite No7 make up remover sorts this out and is a step I should really be doing anyway (Review here).

I've definitely been converted to try the other cleansers. This one is great.

I really want to try some of the hair treatments after going to the event and I'm definitely interested in their henna hair dyes. Next time I go dark I'll be trying them.

We also got to try the make up range. I absolutely loved the lipstick colours. They had amazing colours but I did find it almost peeled off so it's not something I'd buy. They did have gorgeous eye shadow colours and liners that I definitely want to try though.

I think I'll always be a lush fan and there hasn't been much I don't like.

Love M

xxx




I'm the opposite of M and am in fact a Lush novice. I'm not quite a virgin as I've been lucky enough to try their products before but I've never been that into it.

Most of the time I'm turned off by the fact the products have such a short use by date, as I'm a fickle creature and like to vary my products depending on current requirements as my skin has been quite indecisive of late. That combined with varying jobs in different environments and my skin takes a battering so I've always stuck to products less likey to go off so I can get my full use out of them as my needs change.

Having the chance to wander around the store after hours was brilliant, and I smelt and tried so many products that I wouldn't have had the chance to with the usual crowds. Bohemian soap is probably the biggest thing on my wish list at the moment, the smell is actually unbelievable and I'd be half tempted to carry it around with me just to smell it!



That being said I was pleasantly surprised with how much i liked the effects from Angels on Bare Skin. The rough texture was daunting at first but my skin feels super smooth after using it for a few days and a longer time period after that I'm pretty impressed. My skin had no reaction to it and if anything has improved over the past few weeks.
I credit the almonds with this as I'm a huge fan of eating them so clearly in my cleanser they work wonders too ;)

It did feel weird effectively rubbing food on my face but knowing the ingredients were natural meant I didn't think too much about it, and it smells pretty good.

I was lucky enough to be given a sample of their BIG shampoo as well, which I'm rather looking forward to. I'm saving it for the next time i go away so I can save on space so I'm sure there will be a future tweet with my thoughts!

Are you a Lush fan?? Have you tried Angels on Bare Skin? What's your favourite Lush product?

I can see myself buying more if the results are so promising from all products!


L xxx

Review: La Roche Posay's Toleriane Cleanser

Hiiiiiiiiiiiiii!

I'm back again with another skincare favourite of mine today.

I wrote a few days ago about the infamous Effaclar Duo, one of La Roche Posay's most popular products.

At the time there was a deal on, as always! And I picked up the Toleriane Cleanser too.

After a night out, I cannot be bothered to wash my face with hot water, cleanser and cloth.
BUT I feel bad if I only use a face wipe. My skin is finally getting to a good stage and I don't want it to get back to how it was.

So that's where the Toleriane cleanser comes in!

As you can see at the bottom of the picture above, this is a dermo-cleanser which will remove make up from face and eyes and works on all skin types including intolerant skin.

It's a white gel cleanser that melts onto your skin and lifts all of your make up and dirt off your face.



It is SO easy to use I'm still a bit shocked. You don't even have to wash this off your face, you can just let it air dry and the make up has still been removed from your face.

I love it!

At 3am after a night out, all I'm concerned about is taking my shoes off, getting into my bed and falling asleep.

This is the best product for this time of night as it's so easy to use, actually works, doesn't break the bank and my skin hasn't reacted to it at all.

It's also fragrance, surfactant, preservative and paraben free which is amazing.
This cleanser could be used by any age, any skin type at any time. I've used it in the morning when I've been in a rush (sleeping through my alarm...) coming in from work when I've had a long day and just don't have the energy, and as previously mentioned, a little bit wobbly after cocktails.

You can pick up the 200ml bottle of Toleriane cleanser from Boots for £11.00 (or 1100 points!)

What do you think of gel cleansers? Do you love the ones that melt your make up off so fast you wonder why you've never used it before?

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

MAC Palette and Depotting

I'm sure most of you will agree, owning a full MAC palette is 100% a life goal for a beauty obsessive.

I mean you only have to watch a few Tanya Burr videos or google it to know that they are seriously hot property!

Over the years I've picked up a few individual eyeshadows from MAC that I sometimes forget about, so I thought it was about time I got myself a palette so I can see all of my shades and use them a lot more.

I was also hoping having depotted them I could use them as a 'Back to MAC', as the rules are unclear as to whether you need the silver pan inside or not and it seems to depend on the MAC artist!

When I made my order I picked up the new double sided palette and also one insert so I could put my eyeshadows in and leave the other side for future purchases.

The palette is pretty standard in terms of shape and size but I like simplicity and MAC does this perfectly.

You just push the insert into the palette and it clicks into place firmly and there's no way it will be sliding around.

There is also a clear plastic divider which is helpful in stopping products from transferring over to the other side and falling all over the place. This would be a great help if you didn't have the insert as well as you can in theory get away with putting more products in without the insert.

You can see the other side without the insert in the picture above and it sure does look like a place that needs filling!

So after watching Fleur de Force's YouTube channel I found out how to depot the pans of eyeshadow from the original containers. As you can see I've built up quite a random collection, some nudes, some blues and purples, and some shimmery blacks. A few were bought for me as presents, so I can't wait to buy some more to make it a more seamless collection!

Basically as a quick run down you'll need a knife, straighteners, greaseproof paper and some magnets, like you find on the back of fridge magnets.

Use the knife to slide into the front of the pot where you can pop up the part of it holding the pan, like the 2 on the left in the picture below:



Place the greaseproof paper onto the hot straighteners and place the part of the eyeshadow pot on top, hold it down for 30/40 seconds and you should be able to pop out the pan from underneath using the knife when the plastic is soft enough.

As the glue will be soft be careful as it might burn, but carefully apply a small piece of magnet using the glue.

You can then remove the label from the case using the heat and stick it on top of the magnet using a bit of the same glue (it's quite stringy!) and then you'll be able to keep the correct name with the correct pan.

You can then put all of your pans wherever you like and they will stick using the magnets and you can rearrange as necessary.

I've arranged mine as follows:

I'm hoping to pick up a few more over the next few years so I can have a 'nude/daywear' side, and then a funkier bright and glittery side so I can maximise my looks.

If money was no object it would also me amazing to get another and fill it with blushes, bronzers, MSF's and powders for the ultimate in travel make up!

I'm so pleased I finally picked one of these up and it has definitely made me use some different colours for a change.

The palette itself is the new double sided large palette and costs £18, and the insert for the eyeshadows costs £6.50. The eyeshadow pans themselves cost £10 instead of £12 so you can save money by buying only the pans if you have a palette.

Do you have any suggestions for eye shadows i should get? Have you got a similar palette? Have you depotted your individual products into it like I have?

My quest for the ultimate palette begins!

L xxx