Real Techniques Sam's Picks

Hello lovelies!

Hope your week is going well! 

I'm sure everyone knows about Real Techniques brushes, collections and sets and we are definitely huge fans of everything we have ever tried, and not to mention their customer service is phenomenal.

This set is called Sam's Picks:

It contains three different types of brushes, who's colours match the general colour coded scheme of Real Techniques brushes
Pink - Finish
Orange - Base
Purple - Eyes

This set is a combination of the three different types of brushes. I already own three of these brushes and absolutely love 2 of them (buffing brush and setting brush). The third (pointed foundation brush) I don't find as useful for me as the buffing brush covers everything I need during my 6am morning rush!

I'm always excited to try new face brushes and set with a bit of everything is a bonus.

I've separated the brushes into colour groups to make it easier.
But firstly....how much do you love the packaging?? The foam casing was so lovely and sturdy let alone beautifully coloured with a gradient it was hard to throw it out (seriously). 

First up are the Finish brushes; the multi task brush and the setting brush.
The setting brush is great for me in the morning when I've applied my base and concealer and need some powder to set it. I find my under eye area creases easily so it needs some extra attention. The setting brush is perfect for this! It's so soft and fluffy that its perfect for the eye area.

The multi task brush is one of my new favourites. I tend to use it as a powder brush to set my make up in the morning, but its smaller than the RT powder brush and could be used for many things including blusher, bronzer and highlighter. It's the ultimate brush for a powder product and if you couldn't afford blusher and powder brushes, this is the one you should choose!


The buffing brush has been raved about by almost everyone and both me and M ar eno exception. It is both a massive inconvenience yet a brilliant business plan that it can only be found in collections and not to buy individually. In short, they must be raking it in and I am unsurprisingly the owner of  a great 'set' of brushes that i didn't know I needed!

I won't waffle on about it too much as we've previously posted about the Core Collection here, but basically if a collection has got this in, it's a winner! Snap it up and bathe in its glory, your face will thank you for it.

The pointed foundation brush is definitely for someone who is a little more skilled and patient in the face department. I cannot be bothered in the morning to do more than apply my foundation with the buffing brush as it just works so easily at getting every bit of product evenly on my face. But if you are patient this brush is ideal for applying product around your nose and eye area as it is tapered especially.

The essential crease brush (shown below) was a welcome addition to my eyeshadow brush collection. Truth is, seeing as I've got the eye brush set from RT I wasn't sure I needed more (apart from another set out of laziness with washing) but I can assure I did and was proved wrong again.
I went looking for this brush specifically the other day and couldnt find it due to it blending in so seamlessly with the rest of the eyeshadow set that I had to look up the names to be sure!

It definitely suits its name and I use it to apply a darker shade to my eye every morning and I;m not sure how i managed to cope before owning it! So soft, fluffy and gentle on the eyes as well.

The fine liner brush has come in handy many a time I've attempted to line my eyes at 6am. It's not an easy task whilst you're still half asleep, trying to drink your tea, eat your porridge and put your socks on all at once. This beauty does help very much and fine lines is what you will get with it.
The only downside to this one is that it needs washing ASAP after using it as any product seems to dry out and make it hard which isn't nice to use on the eye area one little bit.

So there we have a quick run down of Sam's Picks, and i have to agree she made some pretty good choices! The only one that I wouldn't use is probably the pointed foundation brush and that's probably because I'm utterly clueless how to use it and not very patient either.

You can pick up this set for £29.99. I was lucky enough to get mine whilst it was on sale over the festive period and it was down to £20. A quick google search tells me it's still available on Escentual for £24.50 so pop on over, I didn't realise but it seems this set is limited edition too and is sold out everywhere else!

What do you think of the set as a whole? Do you have a particular favourite? What do you hope they bring out next??

L xxx

Beauty Rehab

Hi all!

I've got another installment to the Beauty Rehab series I've been writing for the last two years now. I can't believe it's that long!
It was my aim to have downsized my stash by now and i never thought I'd still be writing them as I assumed I would have worked my way through the majority by now. I obviously need to up my game and get a move on using stuff up. I haven't actually bought many products for a long time, but i do think Christmas/Birthday sets contribute greatly and also I do seem to acquire products that some people no longer want so that doesn't help!

I'm hoping to move out as soon as I've got myself back on my feet financially which is probably at least a year away, I'm giving myself the rather large target of getting rid of as much as possible....i.e. almost all of it by Christmas. I need to get a move on!

La Roche Posay - Toleriane cleanser is a gel cleanser and I absolutely loved it. So easy to use when you come home from a night out and want more than a face wipe but cant be bothered with a muslin cloth. It's ideal and I'd repurchase.

Label M - Honey and Oat conditioner. This goes with the shampoo i finished in a previous post; probably the first time I've finished a shampoo before it's conditioner! This smelt warm and comforting and did a god job of being a daily conditioner.

No7 Protect and Perfect Body Serum - This was donated to me and I did enjoy using it until the top starting to come apart and it started to dry out so I can't really give this a review as it was still full! Pooooooooor packaging.

Origins Zero Oil Toner - Surprisingly loved this, really good at absorbing oil for the day and although I'm not a toner fan I would consider buying this again to keep my oil at bay.

Antipodes Divine Oil - already repurchased as 3 days without it made me cry. So much love for this oil!

Lacura Aqua Complete Serum - Enjoyed this especially for the bargain of £3.50. Would repurchase.

Murad Pore and Line Minimising Hydrator - This was really nice and was so light it felt like a serum, can't say that I'd repurchase though for the £49.50 price tag as I just cannot afford that on a regular basis!

Skin Revivals Facial Cleansing Oil - this took a bit of getting into as I'd never used an oil cleanser before, but it was GREAT at removing eye make up especially mascara so I persevered and used this every day to remove it before cleansing with my normal one. Wouldn't repurchase at this time.

Benefit They're Real mini mascara - LOVE. I save my minis like a kid saves sweets.

Dr Organic Manuka Honey Lip Balm - so battered you can barely read it, the sign of a well used product! Would definitely repurchase!

Rimmel's Scandaleyes - I liked this initially but i think other Rimmel mascaras work better on my lashes, sometimes this clumped together for me.

Collection Lasting Perfection Powder - I know there's some left in this....it's done that funny thing where its got a coating on it from usage and I just can't be bothered to try and salvage it. I personally prefer Stay Matte to this.

Origins Starting Over moisturiser sample - Enjoyed using this in the nights but not sure my skin needs this much just yet...save it for when I'm older!

Origins Andrew Weil Mega Bright serum -  I've never met a serum from Origins that i haven't liked and this was no exception. If only it was cheaper I'd snap it up regularly!

Revlon Nearly Naked - Took me a while to get into this, think it was probably because my skin wasn't good enough at the time but I soon loved it. I would repurchase in future after I've worked my way through some of the others in my stash

Eysilix eye cream - This was a funny one. Didn't love it and i wouldn't repurchase because my eyes seem to be sensitive to it on random occasions, but it did hydrate my eye area and my under eye bags did lessen somewhat.




So that's what I've been using up recently, are any of these your favourites? Have you loved or loathed any of them? Are you working your way through your own stash?

I need some serious focus over the next few months!

L xxx

Lauren's Way Dream Rollers

Evening All

I'm feeling great this evening after a great workout. I love the feeling after a good workout. After I've done spin tomorrow I expect I'll be complaining!

A few weeks ago I went to the launch of the new Lauren's Way Darker than Dark Glam tan launch, you can read reviews on it here (I'm currently sat with it on ready for a night out for L's birthday on Saturday!)

I already own the Lauren's way rollers but have never got around to reviewing them. L is a big fan of them and when we go on nights out I quite often take mine to hers for her to use as we are getting ready. You can see the result of them being in L's hair from this old post.

When I saw the dream rollers in the goodie bags I was so pleased as I only got the set of 8 when I originally purchased them and needed more.

You can see from the picture below the one on the top right is an old roller. These are over 20 months old and still in great condition and the foam is still bouncy.

Dream rollers are squishy so they can be comfortably slept in. I'm not going to lie and say you can't feel them in your head because you can! I find if you sleep on your back or stomach you'll be fine. If you sleep on your side I'd recommend putting your hand between head and pillow to initially squish the rollers and then remove your hand. 

Once you get used to the fact you have an extra pillow around your head and find a comfy position they are fine to sleep in. I didn't wake up through the night and even though I'm a fidget they stay in perfectly well and don't need grips in (when I only had 8 I used grips as the rollers had more hair on them and in L's hair I use grips)

When I only had 8 rollers I bought the boots version as they were cheaper thinking they'd be just as good. They aren't don't consider the cheaper alternative as they don't compare. The boots version the foam hasn't held up as well, are slightly smaller, don't grip the hair as well but the hair they do grip they seem to rip out (I'm sure you can see all the hair around the red one! I always felt bad getting these out of L's hair and tugging at her hair!)

Rollers in all ready to sleep. I put them into clean dry hair and just slept!

The result the next morning! Hello huge hair. This was after just pulling the rollers out and no moving the hair around. The rollers give such root boost and also add a lush curl. If you have long hair they would give a gorgeous curl! Apologies for the dark photos on the last two but it was late at night and early morning and my room has crap lighting!

Hair all styled out! I love the subtle wave and the messy look it gives to my long bob. This is the result of them being put in my natural hair (which is a curly frizzy mess!)

If I have straight hair I like to add the rollers in for an hour when I'm getting ready and showing etc as I love how it just adds soft volume and curls my ends under!

I'm so glad I've now got the full set it's much easier! I'm sure L will be wanting these for Saturday too!

Have you tried dream rollers? They are great to sleep in but you still get great results from popping them in for an hour!

Love M

xxx

ProVoke a Touch of Silver Twice a Week Brightening Shampoo

Evening All

Time seems to be just escaping me at the moment and late evening seems to be the only time I can post. Since upping my training at the gym I feel like free time is going. I'm so far behind on loads of tv shows but by the time I catch up with friends I have no time. Can we have more hours in the day.

Today I thought I'd share with you a product I think every blonde needs to have whether you have all over colour or just highlights. I recently put an all over blonde shade on brown hair to try and lighten it but it had gone a bit brassy and slightly funny toned so I picked up the Provoke shampoo again.

Whenever I'm blonde I swear by this. As someone who only washes there hair every 5 days I tend to use it for most washes. I used to use the John Frieda purple range but this is a bit cheaper and works even better in my opinion.

It's a bright purple shampoo and is quite runny. I tend to wash my hair with normal shampoo first then apply this. It lathers up well in the hair and is easily rubbed in. You then need to leave it on for 5 minutes.

I don't follow up with the conditioner just because I have others I prefer to use so have never tried it and quite often use a hair mask. When using this I do feel my hair needs a good conditioner as when it's washed out the hair can feel quite dry.

The shampoo really brightens hair up. I wash so impressed. It worked on my hair so well when I dyed it. I dyed it one weekend went to work and nobody noticed it was lighter. The next weekend I used this shampoo and everyone then noticed on Monday my hair was lighter!

If you're a blonde or ombre lover I cannot recommend this enough! It really removes brassy tones and brightens blonde!

It can be picked up in savers, supermarkets or boots and is around £3 mark!

Love M

xxx