'From the Lab' Beauty Box

Hi all!

Hope you're still enjoying the wonderful sunshine outside.

A few weeks ago we were contacted to see if we wanted to try a brand new kind of beauty box from America, Beverly Hills no less. I know we all think Beauty Boxes have had their day but genuinely, this one is SO different.

From the Lab is a beauty box that brings you products straight from the lab, the clue is in the name! These products have been sufficiently tested for use on the market.....but before any company has had a chance to snap it up, how amazing! You cannot get any more exclusive than that. They have an unprecedented relationship with some of the worlds top beauty labs meaning they ave access to products including skincare, haircare and colour cosmetics giving you the opportunity to try so many different types.

Not only is this a fabulous idea anyway....but with us both being fellow lab workers it was absolutely perfect for us! It's like they made this with us in mind!

We were lucky enough to be sent a box to trial and here is our review of the contents...

I loved the pink box the products were delivered in. Simple and effective, its girly without being too cutesy and the bold print on the sides shows you exactly where it's come from.

Upon opening the box I was faced with this, which was SO exciting, as we both absolutely love trying new primers:

Inside the box were two products arranged in the centre:

A Face Primer No 327 and an Eyelift Primer 328.

Me and M both absolutely love primers and have been on the lifelong quest for the perfect base, could these primers be the answer to our prayers??

The packaging is simple with a frosted glass bottle with silver and white pump head for the Face Primer, and a clear tube with silver twist lid for the Eyelift Primer. Both of these styles are perfectly suited to the products requirements, a wand is always easier to apply concealer with and it's great to use a pump to dispense the correct amount of product.

First up is the Face Primer No 327.
The primer boasts of being Anti Ageing, Colour Correcting, Pore Minimising as well as producing a long lasting luminous base that won't feel heavy or clog pores.
As far as I'm concerned that's quite a promise!

The primer is applied straight after your skincare routines is complete, where it dries invisibly so you can wear it alone or under make up.

The primer contains a whole host of plant based ingredients including Peruvian Rhatany Root Extract for anti ageing via scavenging the free radicals, and also some synthetic ingredients that are still suitable for all skin types and are paraben free.

The primer itself is a white milky sort of lotion shown below:

This initially worried me as I thought it might come out a bit chalky, I know me and M are both pale but we don't need to be washed out any further!
Thankfully though this was not the case and it blended in flawlessly leaving a really light covering on the skin that dried fast and didn't feel tacky at all.

The photo below shows it blended in afterwards (the flash has made it slightly lighter in colour and not the product!)

I have used this primer when applying my make up for a multitude of events; work, gym, pub, night out and shopping and i can safely say that it has stood the test of time.
I am 100% happy to use this again and again and couldn't believe how long my make up stayed on my face without sliding and how light it felt on my skin. It was also really nice and easy to apply, you barely need any to cover your face and I'd be happy to purchase this!

The only downside to trialling out products before they hit the market is of course they have no retail price, which means although I think it is a great product, this does not mean they should inflate the price! That's me being selfish though as I'd love to get my hands on it but have a sneaky feeling it's probably going to be out of my price range. Le sigh.

Onto the Eyelift Primer No 328:

This product also boasts a huge list of promises; nourishing the delicate eye area it also minimises appearance of wrinkles, diffuses light to provide an optical smoothing effect whilst being long lasting, crease free and helps keep eye shadow vibrant for up to 12 hours.

Application is super easy, wipe 2 swipes of the product onto a finger, and apply directly from your finger onto the eyelid moving from the inner corner outwards to the brow.
As the product is thicker than the Face Primer, it has no drying time and you can apply your eye make up as quick as you like.



This beauty contains Para Cress Flower Extract to stimulate collagen production and reduces fine line and wrinkles helping to smooth the skins surface. Coffee extract provides antioxidant benefits to fight free radicals and increase the skin's natural defences.

The Eyelift Primer looks like a concealer, with a few shimmery particles in. It's quite thick and this is why the drying time is so low. I prefer to apply this to the back of my hand as i would with foundation, and then buff it into the skin around my eyes.
I've used this under my eyes as well as on top to test it's ability as an undereye concealer due to its luminous benefits and coffee extract (I hoped it would wake me up...!) but sadly this did not work as well as hoped as it did crease under my baggy eyes (how dare they do this to me at 25!)

You can see the Eyelift Primer No 328 blended into the skin on my hand and it blends so easily leaving no residue and has a luminous effect. On the lids it does seem to bind eyeshadow product to it at a greater level than other similar primers I have tried. It feels 'dry' and therefore the powder sticks to it? That's the very technical terms there....obviously!

Anyway this was also a really great product and I can see me and M fighting over who gets to keep which one!

It has been an absolute pleasure to trial and write about these products, not only because they're from a lab background which we obviously both work in but also because they both really work. The primer has worked on my ridiculously temperamental skin with no reaction and the eyelift primer made my eyeshadow last longer and give a more luminous effect.....winners!

What do you think of the Face Primer and Eyelift Primer? Do you like the idea of trialling something not yet on the market?

This really is the future of beauty landing on your doorstep! Now where can i buy the Face Primer?!

You can find their website here, and if you want to sign up for it it costs only $19.95 for the time being as it's on special offer!

L xxx

As L had said we are both always after something to make our make up last longer. Especially in this heat. The Face primer glides on without leaving a heavy feeling on the skin. Which is definitely a bonus in this weather.

Unlike some primers it doesn't leave the skin feeling like it's coated in a layer of silicone but still works effectively at smoothing out the skin and helping make up stay better. I tend to apply my skin care, then the primer then do my eye make up before applying my foundation as I like the primer to sit on my skin for a while first. I do this with all my primers.

An eye primer definitely appealed to me. I'm a huge fan of eyelid primers and use them daily as I find my eyeshadow will crease on my otherwise so to use one under the eye was new to me. Unlike L I had opposite results. I loved using this under my concealer, for the past few weeks this has been the ever popular Collection one. I've found it helps my concealer stay on longer and even though the product is glittery it doesn't show.

On the eyelid I found my eyeshadow still creased so I've just been using it under the eyes.

It's safe to say we both loved the face primer and I can't wait to find out the details on how I can purchase it. It's light texture definitely makes it a winning primer for me. I also like the eye primer but due to the fact it doesn't help my eyeshadow  stay well I probably wouldn't re purchase.

It's great to try an item blind so to say! Have you tried products without knowing the company or price?

Love M

xxx

Hopefully this doesn't need to be said, but although these products were sent to us by 'From the Lab' we have not been sponsored or bribed in any way etc etc and these are our own views and opinions of stated products. So if we said it's good, it really is!

Review: HD Brows Foundation Powder

Good sunny Sunday to you all!

I can't believe how nice the weather still is, fingers crossed it will last a bit longer!

We're back with a joint review for you today. We were very kindly sent HD Brows new Foundation Powder to trial a few weeks ago and we can't wait to tell you all about it. It's a pressed mineral powder compact that claims to create a flawless finish.

As you probably know by now, luckily we are the same colour in foundation so took a gamble looking at the colours online and chose Number 2. There are 6 shades in total, numbered 1, 2, 3, 5, 7 and 9, which as you can tell is a little confusing!
I would assume they plan to fill out the numbers by producing colours in between i.e. 4, 6, and 8 but who knows. It's quite easy to see online the colour changes between the shades and so we were quite confident when choosing our foundation shade.

(The website can be found here)

They say:
A foundation and a concealer in one can be used for light, natural or full coverage, the smooth formula blends seamlessly, absorbing excess oils to create a flawless finish.

So what did we think?!

I am a completely sucker for simple packaging, and this ticks all the boxes for me.
Plain black cardboard box for the outer packaging with clear logo and info stamped on the back, plus a super simple black plastic compact containing the products.

I love that when the compact comes out of the box, you have to not only peel a plastic layer off to get to the actual compact covering, but there is also a sheet of tissue paper to protect the HD Brows logo, which makes it feel that much more luxurious and special.
I felt like I was unwrapping a watch or very expensive electrical gadget that i should keep the plastic on for as long as possible!

I think I can speak for both of us when I say that we absolutely loved the design. I've never seen anything else like it and its so funky and easy to use.
The compact opens up to show a square shaped mirror in the lid and a clear plastic tray housing the make up sponge. You need to lift out the sponge and flip the plastic bit to the side to reach the powder itself, which is snazzy, compact and so simple.

The powder itself is very fine and a little goes a long way. The sponge is great for layering on the powder on areas that need more coverage and for touch ups throughout the day, i.e. the dreaded oil slick starting to appear on your T-zone from lunch time onwards.

I also use my Real Techniques powder brush to apply a thinner layer in the morning for setting purposes and it's worked great at creating a flawless base and lasted me until the afternoon before I need to apply any more.

My only bug bear about it at all is the name.....HD Brows Foundation? I think it's great they've branched out into other products from their super amazing brow kit that everyone raves about and can't get enough of (I haven't been lucky enough to try it myself yet!), but i can't help but think HD Foundation might have been better to stick with the whole HD theme. But that is of course my 2 cents on something that I have no idea about and maybe they couldn't rename it!

You can find the Foundation Powder on the link above, and it retails for £21.95.
Will you be giving the HD Brows Pressed Mineral Powder a go?

L xxx

As L said the packaging is amazing. The little plastic bit that hold the sponge is great. I find where the powder is so fine milled the lightest touch with a brush will pick the product up. If I'm too heavy handed the powder doesn't go anywhere as the plastic casing holds it. I like that there is something to keep the sponge off the powder too. It's a great handbag powder.

Due to the warm weather I'm loving either layering this over tinted moisturiser or even just on it's own. Where it's a powder foundation it can be used to set make up and give extra coverage. It works really well over tinted moisturiser and has been lasting impressively in this heat wave we've been enjoying.

For anyone who's a fan of powdered foundation this is definitely one to put on your list. It's got great lasting power, provides light coverage and helps to control oil.

The colours online do make it hard to pick but the swatches do look pretty accurate. I think it's always hard to pick colours online but our guess paid off well and the colour of shade 2 is great and would work on pink or yellow skin tones.

I will be trying more products from HD Brows and do want to try the ever popular brows powder as if it's similar texture to the face powder I can see it being great.

Hope you're all enjoying some time in the sun!

Love M

xxx

You can pick up the HD brows line from HDbrows.com

Tea Time!

Both me and M have been so busy the last few weeks and lots of things have happened, so I decided to do a catch up post instead of a product review today. So get yourself a brew and settle down.....

I am absolutely loving my new job and it's everything I've been hoping for....but helllllllllllllllllllll is it hard work!

There's so much to learn my brain feels like its about to explode every evening I come home, I've even got into bed at 7pm and completely crashed out til the next day.

I'm still training but now that I've got the basics I'm getting to do a lot more fun things (if you can call analysing drugs a fun thing?!) so fingers crossed my brain won't be so bombarded soon.

They've even offered for me to a PhD next year...eeeeek!

The biggest event this week was of course M's birthday! We had a lush day at the spa on Thursday, we started off in the gym knowing that we had a huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge afternoon tea to follow:



Look at those sandwiches, warm scones and welsh cakes, pastries and even jelly and strawberries!

There must have been 1000s of calories on this tray so I was pretty glad I'd been to the gym before it.

 

Afterwards we got glammed up and went for a few cocktails before M met her family for food.

I wore out an animal print jump suit with nude court shoes, and M had on a dress she got for her birthday which was a gorgeous burgundy lace dress from Lydia Rose Brights collection.

 

We have the same plan of attack whenever we go for cocktails, first drink is a Cosmo followed by a Long Island Iced Tea. After that we tend to grab whatever else is on the deal (ha!) but we thought we'd try a different one called a Kentucky Jewel which we would 100% recommend ;)

We also went shopping last weekend and I picked up a few naughty pieces!
First up was an unplanned dress purchase....a beautiful red dress from Oasis in the sale for £35. I couldn't resist it as it was so beautiful on, a classic shape and colour......and in the sale!

The blazer was a cheeky Zara purchase. I did need a blazer for the weddings I have coming up, and although this beauty was £50 I know it will be worn a lot and will go with every dress that I have to wear to weddings and other summer events. Hopefully this will be worth the cash!

I've been working hard at the gym recently so I decided to pick myself up some new trainers. I know everyone loves the super bright coral Nikes and I would love to get some for myself but at £90 with crazy delivery I will have to wait for now!
I picked these up from the Nike Factory store for a bargainous £38 and cannot wait to rock up to the gym today with them on.

What have you been up to recently? What have you been spending on and looking forward to?

Me and M have a night out planned for next week.....I'm thinking of wearing the red dress! Do you like it?

Hope you're all having a gorgeous weekend in the sun!

L xxx

MAC Sunny Seoul Lipstick

As I've mentioned previously I have been saving my MAC products for some years now (about 10....) as I knew that they had a Back to MAC scheme but I wasn't quite sure how it worked, how many you needed etc.

Needless to say after a few years of a MAC obsession I had culminated enough for an amazing 4 lipsticks, and this is number 2.

I have been keeping my fingers crossed for some good weather but as this isn't happening I decided to get a pink lipstick and make my mood a bit sunnier on the days that I wear it!

This is Sunny Seoul:

When you take products Back to MAC you normally get given the lipsticks out of the cardboard box packaging.

I don't really understand why as it's not like you can take it back anyway but it is a little quirk that I've noticed, if anyone has a clue let me know!

So here's the lipstick:

It's a very pretty pink that's great for day wear as it allows a wash of colour without being so overpowering that it detracts from everything else.
This is typical of the CremeSheen family of lipsticks of which I also own Creme Cup, Coral Bliss and Cross Wires (a newbie!). They're so wearable and are an easy choice when you're in a rush or can't decide!

This is one of the most girly lipsticks I own. Most of the time I go for brights like reds and vibrant pinks or corals, so this was a welcome change to my lipstick wardrobe and one I can't wait to use more of.

Here's the lipstick on:





As you can see it's really pretty and will suit so many skin tones, particularly pale skin. It's a baby pink but not overly girly and 'sugary sweet'.

Who knows, maybe it will win me over and I'll become a Gossip Girl/Pretty Little Liars-esque baby pink wearing girly girl!

What do you think of Sunny Seoul? Are you a baby pink girl or a vibrant bright lover?

L xxx