Benefit Swansea - Bling Brow, Puff Off and Catch Ups

Hey All

Hope you've had a great weekend. On Saturday L and I popped down to Swansea to have a catch up with Alyson and have a good old gossip about our favourite products! 

How amazing is the statue!!

Swansea Benefit have an amazing boutique which you can read about all the treatments they offer here. I've had waxing done by the ladies and they do an amazing job!

We went through to the masterclass room to catch up and also got to meet Niki. It's always great having a gossip about our favourite products! Alyson was able to tell us about an amazing release of a new product Puff Off. It's a great product that cools the eyes, helps slightly tighten and conceals lightly as well as brighten. As with all benefit products it's quirky! 

The packaging is amazing and is a little iron tip and you use that to apply the product to the eye area! The metal tip feels so cooling on the under eye area and the tip makes it easy to get into the inner corners of the eye!

The results of puff off!

The squeezy bottle allows a small amount of the creamy product to be released. It instantly made our eyes feel cool and brighten and I imagine would be so beneficial in the long run. It releases the end of Jan and L and I will be running to the counter to get our hands on this one,

A few months back there was an event in Cardiff for Bling Brow but due to it being in the day L and I couldn't attend. We were shown the sets and both instantly wowed! At any benefit counters with a brow bar you can get these applied or there are kits for sale to do them yourself! We loved the look and instantly wanted to go out. These will be amazing for nights out. I especially love the over the brow look!

How beautiful is the packaging! 

Each of the brow looks can be done in different colours! I went for multicolour pink and L went for green.

They are real swarovski crystals and can be reused, once the stickiness goes eyelash glue can be used! As I type this I'm sat with them on for day two! My face is going to look so boring without them tomorrow. Alyson was telling us about a look where she applied them to the lash line!! How amazing will that be for Christmas parties!

L was loving all the quotes and wallpaper of the boutique!

Thanks for the catch up Alyson and Niki!

We can't wait to get out hands on puff off!!

Love M

xxx

Good Things Manuka Honey Daily Moisturiser

Hi pals!

Skincare addict here with another review. I've been trying to keep my products to as natural as possible and recently with my skincare issues I've been reluctant to try anything that I haven't used before on account of reacting to anything and everything.

Good Things have always been pretty good in my opinion and their Manuka Honey cleanser (review here) was really nourishing on my skin whilst also cleansing it pretty well too. When running low on moisturiser (as low as I ever run on products...) I picked up the Manuka Honey Daily Moisturiser with Royal Jelly and Bee Venom.

Firstly, sunshine yellow packaging always makes me happy. I like yellow and it always reminds me of my kitchen when I was growing up which was a farmhouse style with sunshine yellow walls. It was lush and the colour takes me straight back to that - and the food memories that come with it.

It also fits the theme of honey and bees so it works well. As with all Good Things products this is free from SLS, mineral oils and parabens which is always a great thing as the less chemicals the better.

So the range claims to help keep skin clear and hydrated and also help against skin ageing. This is fully the category that I find myself in now; hormonal breakouts have very much reduced but the fear of the first few wrinkles are definitely here. Maybe my wrinkles are here too but I'm not about to go and check and ruin my mood! *time to slap on more hydration*

The moisturiser is lightweight and also contains echinacea to promote skin longevity. Although it doesn't advertise much about the sunscreen it does claim to be present though it doesn't say to what factor so I wouldn't rely on it.

I've been slapping this all over my face for the last few weeks as my morning moisturiser and my skin drinks it up. It absorbs easily, smells edible and doesn't leave a greasy layer on top which means I can apply make up without it sliding down my face.

I'm not sure if the bee venom really does anything noticeable but the manuka honey is lovely and I think it's one of the best things to be included in a skincare product.

I love it and now want the rest of the range.

This costs a whopping £7.99 and I firmly believe its worth every penny. Even better that it's at Boots and is usually in a deal let alone the fact you can get points for buying it.

I've got the matching scrub on my list next for £4.99 and the mask for £6.99. just cannot go wrong for those prices!

Have you tried anything from Good Things? Do you like Manuka Honey in your products?

L xxx

New Hobby: Paper Panda

Hi there!

We've been a right crafty duo recently, with M and her paintings to me and my paper cutting; we've been delving into hobbies that don't involve make up and shopping.

If you've never heard of Paper Panda then I'm about to introduce you to a bit of an internet phenomenon.

Paper Panda seems to be the most loved, extremely popular name to the papercutting hobby. Not only does she create some fantastic pieces that are absolutely beautiful (see here for product she sells) (see here for a gallery of her work available) she also has a basic starter kit that people can buy and trach themselves how to paper cut along with beautiful templates to progress to.

She really has filled a niche not only with her starter pack but also her imagination, some of the designs are her own woodland animal type  images but others stretch to Alice in Wonderland, Red Riding Hood and the Wizard of Oz. In all honesty I bought the starter pack as soon as I could and cannot WAIT to progress to more complicated designs from her other templates; if only I had the time to paper cut all the time!

The starter kit costs £30 (£4 P&P) and comes with the scalpel and handle, spare blade, cutting boards and pritt stick as well as the basic designs to get you up to speed.

I haven't included a picture of the designs as i don't want to infringe on any copyright issues but there are images on her website if you look hard enough. There is another kit which you can find here showing all of the designs and comes in at £22 without the blade and mat. 

The kit comes with full instructions from Paper Panda herself (Louise Firchau is her real name) and a step by step guide on each individual part of the tutorial. It goes from basics to complicated little hedgehogs and then you can move on to the full designs.

The kit even contains backing paper you can use to mount your full designs onto and it has given me so many ideas for future pictures.

This would be a lovely gift for someone for Christmas or indeed a new hobby for yourself, I've sat without watching tv or getting my laptop out for a fair few hours already and it has been quite enjoyable to have some time away from screens that seem to dominate my life otherwise.

I definitely need to get some more creativity back into my life and this is a great start; look at my little hedgehog that I did the other day!




I think he needs some friends to join him....

What do you think of the paper cutting trend? I hope I can get to the point where I can make my own designs.


L xxx

Urban Decay Black Magic 24/7 Eye Pencil Set

It's pretty obvious that Urban Decay has claimed a good few hundred of my pretty pounds this year. Their palettes are pretty amazing and good value for quality products and their gift sets are always worth picking up.

The Black Magic 24/7 Glide on Double Ended Eye Pencil Set is one of those!

If the packaging hasn't already drawn you in with its really cool neon coloured watercolour effect in the background then the 4 double ended pencils in wearable colours will.

With 4 black ends and 4 coloured ends you are sure to find ones that will suit you. I always find these sets are the best for finding colours that you might not have tried but are actually your favourites. Having tried Smoke previously in another travel set I know now how much wear I'll get from it, and won't need to worry about it disappearing now that I've got another....

Let's be honest, if you ever wear an eyeliner it is likely to be a black one isn't it?

That was my thinking for picking up this set and knowing how much usage I'd get from it. If I'm likely to use colours in my eye make up it's green and purples, which was how i knew this set was for me.

Granted I still want the other Christmas set with Ten of the pencils with their infamous Perversion liner and Grindhouse sharpener, but this one was definitely the one for value for money for me.

So how do the colours match up?

Zero is paired with Demolition. Zero is classed as a zealous cream black and Demolition is a deep brown matte.

I have Zero from a palette I've bought previously and it's a pretty good black liner, though not the same as Perversion. Demolition is a colour I wouldn't have picked up but actually it's a really good alternative to black for those days when you're wearing nudes. It gives a much softer look and I know I'll be wearing it for work days. There are swatches at the end of the post for each pencil if you'd like to skip to them.

Perversion needs no introduction but in case you haven't used it it's the blackest of matte black liners that you will ever use. LSD is a navy shimmer with a bright turquoise micro sparkle. I wear a lot of this colour on my eyes so I'm already looking forward to getting this out during the party season.

Black Market is described as a charcoal black satin. If I'm honest I didn't realise so many liners could be created for one colour but now I've used these I can see differences in every one. Tornado is a dark eggplant pearl colour, I love wearing purples as they bring out the green in my hazel eyes and liners like this make it an easy addition. This colour is so pretty and subtle that I would consider wearing it to work with grey nudes.

Black Velvet is a rich smoky black matte and it is paired with Smoke is a deep grey matte. I've already written about it previously in a post here.
I've been wearing it to work a lot of days since I bought the mini set and will probably wear it more now I know i have a spare as back up!

The four pencils are a really good addition to anyone's make up bag but particularly if you like black liners and creating smoky eyes. I think these would also be great for adding a bit more definition to a nude eye design that you would wear to work every day. I'd take these in my handbag if I was going from work out for food or drinks as it would be an easy way to change your look along with a swipe of lipstick too.

You can see the blacks all on the left of the pairings and the colours on the right. Demolition is a lovely brown and the micro sparkle in LSD is clear to see in the centre. Tornado is the purple at the bottom which is hard to see but definitely catches in the light and Smoke is on the furthest right hand side.

This set would be great as a gift and costs £27 for the four pencils meaning they cost £6.75 each or £3.40 per colour. Seeing as a full size pencil retails at £15 each you really are getting quite a bargain if you know you won't use the full size pencils, and can always upgrade to the full size if you know it's a favourite.

I've got my eye on the TEN Christmas set now too as it has Perversion in full size plus 9 other never seen before shades with a Grindhouse sharpener that i also need as I've not found another sharpener that has the ability to sharpen the 24/7 pencil concealer.

What do you think of the double ended 24/7 pencils? Do you think it's necessary to have so many different types of black eye pencils?
Which is your favourite from the Black Magic set?

L xxx