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

Ted Baker False Nails

Hey All

Hope you've had a good weekend. L and I went out for a few and to watch the rugby on Saturday and then I spent Sunday cooking a roast for my housemates and others half.

A few weeks me and the other half went to a wedding. I had originally planned to wear the nail wraps L wrote about here but I've been biting my nails again so went to boots to grab some falsies! As soon as I saw these beautiful Ted Baker ones I couldn't resist! At £8 and on 3 for 2 I needed them.

These instantly stuck out to me. I loved the pretty floral art and the fading pattern down the nail is how I love to apply glitter! After browsing boots.com I want to order more as they have the nail wrap styles L and I got.

They come with glue (which I wasn't holding out much hope on. I find nail glue is like eye lash glue and my favourite only ever work!) and an applicator with a suction on to make it easy to apply the nails with out getting glue on your fingers! Let's face it whenever I use false nails I end up with glue on the underside of my hands and end up trying to bite it off! Maybe it's just me that's messy!!

First of all I sorted the nails out and put all the ones I was going to use on the other side. One thing I loved about the set is that it had lots of small nails! I find some false nails aren't small enough for me. I then used the suction ended thing! I love this. More nail sets need to come with this!

I love the way they look! They are literally the prettiest nails. They are a really great wearable length, the proof of this was also that they lasted 5 days!!! That was with working in a lab. I was so impressed! Great glue Ted Baker. They also still looked great so I've saved them to wear again! The nails also weren't too thick or curved so didn't look fake.

I've never received so many compliments on my nails! I'll be bringing these out for the Christmas parties! A perfect pretty manicure in literally 10 minutes!





These sets are on my wishlist!

A Little selfie from the wedding!

Have you tried the Ted Baker nail range? L and I have used the wraps and nail polishes! I always love the packaging it makes amazing gifts!!

Love M

xxx

Christmas Wish List

Hey there!

I believe that everyone should write lists. I'm a big believer in wishlists in particular as it gives you something to aim for in life.....right?!

A girl can dream, especially of products, ans especially of these products. Take a look at my Christmas wishlist, if  i get any one of these I'll be one happy girl!

Nars

It doesn't take much to guess what this beautiful palette is; the Virtual Domination palette has been blogged and tweeted countless times already and although my hand has hovered over the purchase button on Space NK many times I just haven't had the funds to buy it. not even my credit card was available after it was hacked and I unfortunately have had to wait for a few weeks for a replacement! Probably for the best! This contains 4 blushes, 2 limited edition and a beasty sized Laguna bronzer.

This blush and bronzer palette costs £45 but is worth £117 - need!

The Digital World Lip Coffre was another that caught my attention, the lighter coral and orange colours are exactly the colours I love and wear on a daily basis. So pretty, and so wearable!

This costs £32.

Charlotte Tilbury

I don't own a single thing from Charlotte Tilbury, probably as the prices are a little out of my league. However this is a wish list so money is no object right?!

This beautiful palette, mascara and liner will set you back a few pounds, £75 to be exact but look at those beautiful colours! They certainly have extensive pigmentation and have many fans. But still, £75 :|

These lipsticks are also from Charlotte Tilbury and will set you back £42. £21 isn't too bad for a lipstick and these colours are perfect for the spring summer time. I wear these kinds of colours all the time and they suit my colouring and seem to brighten my skin tone up. I'd love them!

Last but not least is this gorgeous rose gold brush set. I'd love to have these in my collection but this one really is a dream.
£240 would get you this set and in my current financial state I'd need a loan!

Hourglass

The Ambient Blush Palette contains three of the famous Infusion blushes from Hourglass that look so pretty with their marble effect. The patterns that are created are all individual which is a lovely touch and this would make a lovely gift also. It will set you back £56 but for three blushes it will suit many people and be a lovely item to travel with too.

Urban Decay

As if I could make it through without mentioning UD. The TEN 24/7 Glide On Eye Pencil Set contains one full size Perversion liner with nine other never before created coloured liners with a range of finishes along with the infamous Grindhouse sharpener all for a pretty price of £35. That means they cost £3.50 each plus the sharpener for free, great value for great products.

What do you think of my wish list? What would you add to yours?

Send me links to them as I love reading about new releases and coveted products!

L xxx

Fitness Update

Afternoon folks!

I haven't written a fitness update in a little while nor any recipe posts, things have just been so busy with a new job that I haven't really had chance. My hours have changed (again!) with the new job so now I've had to change up my schedule again too. This isn't really a problem just more difficult to get into a new plan and make it a habit again.

I've been trying to get to at least one Body Pump class in the week as well as my normal Saturday morning class as it is definitely the most beneficial for me. My progress in it is slow but every week I push myself to go heavier in something different and squat lower, hold my plank longer and try not to have sneaky breaks in shoulder track! I hate working shoulders as it's such a weakness for me and the burn can sometimes end up being real pain. I'm working on it.......but it's hard.

That said I've been making up my own routines as well as using my latest program from my trainer.

My latest program uses a ladder formation with a 15 minute recovery period on the cross trainer in between. She's got me doing squat jumps and burpees all the way from one each to ten of each, then all the way back down to one. I'm not going to lie, it's a killer but really good for an all over work out. I've felt a difference since doing them but in all honesty I've only ever made it up to 10 of each and haven't ever got as far as doing back down to one......yet. I think it's mostly an issue with time as it would take me so long to do and my evenings are limited but i also get quite dizzy sometimes too.

After the recovery period I then have to do press ups followed by an oblique crunch (bringing round one knee to your elbow at a time whilst still in press up position). These have also been good but the same problem still exists and I'm yet to make it back down from 10!

Aside from that here's my routine that I've been doing by myself, taken from instagram videos and other programs I've had in the past:

It's an absolute killer and i repeat it twice with a bit of active recovery in between. It's a full body workout with almost everything I could think of thrown in to keep my body guessing and my abs and shoulders were definitely still feeling it a few days later. It was exactly what i needed and I'm going to do it a few more times and then switch it up and make a new one.

If you have any suggestions for things to add to my next workout leave them in the comments! If you try this workout let me know :)

Do you have a personal trainer? Do you follow any particular programs or get inspiration from any online sources? I'd love to know!

L xxx

Essie Manicure

Essie is without a doubt the number one nail polish brand for nudes; you only have to spend one second in front of a stand to know that with the copious display of bottles.

I've previously posted about a few polishes and compared the likes of Ballet Slippers, Fiji and Sand Tropez (you can read this here)

Almost all three of these bottle are now coming to an end so with the 3 for 2 offer on in Boots I restocked my base and top coats and snapped up a new nude to try: Mademoiselle.

I've never tried the First Base base coat from Essie so I was interested to see how the green/blue coloured polish would fare in comparison to others I've used that are cheaper.

It contains a rubber adhesive to help bond polish to the nail surfaces creating a smooth base for application, helps resist chipping and against stains created by some stronger colours.

I always try and use a base to help against staining, there's nothing worse than weirdly coloured nails that look unhealthy when actually it's just an orange toned red polish that is the culprit!

The base applied easily as expected with any Essie polish, the brush seems to fit my nail perfectly so I can just swipe it from base to tip and not manage to get too much all over my fingers.

It dried really fast and left a clear base with a good finish for colour application.

So Mademoiselle is a sheer light pink, its like the sheerness of Ballet Slippers with the colour of Fiji.

I wasn't sure what colour this was going to turn out as, I can never tell but I couldn't test on my own nails as I'd just done them in a dark red and the name sounded familiar. Next time I buy one I will have to investigate further! Not that this colour isn't lovely but I have something similar already and would probably prefer something that doesn't require 4 coats for a more opaque finish.

The photo above shows Mademoiselle after 2 coats. It doesn't quite cover the tips of the nails so you can see how translucent it is; I don't like my nails to look white but I do like the colour to show up.

I don't think I'm a sheer polish kind of person however at work nail polish seems to be a no no, especially as my new job requires lots of hands on work with spanners - no joke.

Four coats seem to have done the trick and this is a much better colour for me. I've actually really liked wearing such a sheer colour on my nails this week and it seems to have been a welcome change for me.

As always Essie polishes are top notch in application and quality and the top coat is one of my favourites. The combination of all three polishes seem to have created a rock hard manicure that hasn't budged whatsoever, even with all my new found spanner and screwdriver skills. 

This is definitely a colour I would recommend for those who love all nudes and sheer finishes. I'm sure I'll pick up more in future, Essie is just too irresistible!

What's your favourite Essie polish? Do you prefer sheer or opaque polishes?

L xxx