Iced Strawberry Dream - Treacle Moon *

My favourite body/shower wash of the month is by TreacleMoon. I am a huge fan of their products and was excited to try their new Limited Edition.This is a fantastic idea as the fragrance was chosen by their fans on their Facebook page, their community is great and it's nice to know brands listen to their consumers.

It's named Iced Strawberry Dream and it smells like a mix between icing sugar, strawberry milkshake or sweets. Mmm, either way I wish it was edible too! It is released this month but is to hit Tesco stores in June - so make sure you buy it! It's great to be able to buy your essentials in Tesco and pick up some yummy treats like this.

This is what Treacle Moon say:

Since 2009, a monthly competition has been running from the brand’s website, www.treaclemoon.net, which encourages fans of the range to submit their suggestions for new fragrances and the front of pack ‘fairy tale stories’ that they invoke. In 2011, the Treacle Moon team set up a league table for all the suggestions to date and since the New Year, have been sending out different pots of tester fragrances and running surveys and polls amongst the brand’s Facebook community (www.Facebook.com/TreacleMoonOfficial), allowing them to shape the creation of this Spring’s forthcoming special edition 

I have lots of other Treacle Moon products see check out my other post here. I love the packaging though how cute (plus it fits in with my blog name ;)

Hope you're all having a great weekend so far, I've had a great day with Benefit looking at their new Brow Bar in Preston yay! Met some cool new people too so hi to them!

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Fake Tanning Heaven

If you read my mini haul about a bit ago, you will have noticed I went for the St Moriz foaming instant tan and ever since I've applied it daily and wow I just love it. I've tried all kinds of fake tans, I thought my favourite was fake bake, turns out it's not and I've found better, way better!

The only thing I can say, like with any fake tan, is moisturise, exfoliate and moisturise lots! I thought the medium would be far too dark for me but when it's fine. I'm now a fake-tan-aholic thanks to St Moriz but I can assure you it is the best fake tan I've tried. I've been using it very very lightly on my face with my St Tropez Mitt that I bought last summer and underneath have my trusty latex gloves to ensure no tango hands!

I can't wait to use this lots more before my holiday to get a head start since my pale skin doesn't tan easily, especially not in a week boo :( Glad I've found a holy grail item that I will end up stocking 10 bottles of!

Do you have any fake tan recommendations or do you prefer the au-naturel look?

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Benefit Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow

Benefit Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow - RRP £24.50.

As a Benefit lover, I was so pleased when I heard about their new liquid foundation. It was hyped up in the beauty and blogging world and I instantly knew I had to have it. The release isn't in the shops until 31st March but you don't have longer to wait! I bought it online and got some samples to try too. It came with a sample of the POREfessional and I only have pores around my nose and I didn't think I needed this but, I was proved wrong and now on my way to craving after the real deal.

A few weeks ago I actually tweeted Lisa, Benefit's head makeup artist asking advice on my shade as I wanted it but it's hard for me to get the right shades in shops but she matched me to Ivory Pure 4 Sure. I had no doubts this was what I needed so ordered it. Then I popped by the Benefit counter and tested out some samples which was a little dark too but knew I loved it after less than a few hours!

It's quite a runny consistency but don't be put off by this as a little goes a long way! I use no more than the amount above and it covers my whole face. I'm really amazed by the shade range and think it's got everything in a foundation a girl could want. It's oil-free, brightening and has SPF 25 (handy for my hols to rub in again!) Here is what Benefit says:

"Hello…it’s flawless time! Our new oil-free brightening liquid foundation builds from light to medium coverage for a natural complexion you can believe in. It’s you…just more luminous & healthy looking."

I have been looking for a long time for the perfect foundation for me. I must say, everybody is different and some things won't work for everyone, but I truly believe this is pretty amazing. I apply it using a stippling brush at 7:30am and by 5pm it is just about lasting. A little powder could make it last way into the evening or minor touch ups though. I'll most definitely be re-purchasing once mine runs out. :)

Next on my Benefit list: Hervana blusher and Porefessional. (i do need them..honestly) You can buy Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow here for £24.50!

On another note, I am attending the Benefit opening of the brow bar in Preston this weekend which I'm looking forward to, anybody else going?

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Mini beauty haul

What a gorgeous day for most of us in the UK! Just thought I'd show you a few things I picked up today from Boots to try in my lunch break. I can't help myself and had some points to spend on my Advantage Card so what other reason not to spend more money right?

17 Hide Away Concealer. I'm running out of my Elf Tone Correcting Concealer and was in Boots and the lady said I could get another on the 3 for 2 offer so last minute decision I picked this up since I've not much left. I got it in shade fair and so far so good consistency and shade wise.

I got the 17 Shine Control Pressed Powder as I'm running out of powder too, so I thought I'd try something new for my oily t-zone that's cropped up recently. I got this in the lightest shade so I'll review this once I've tried it out thoroughly.

The Boots Vitamin E Eye Cream was a bit of a random purchase, I was passing the skincare aisle for the 3rd time and spotted this. I know I'm now the grand old age of 21 but you have to take care of the skin around your eyes! It's great that it has SPF15 for my holidays due in a few weeks ;-) and suitable for all skin types. I swatched it briefly and I was surprised it has a tint of colour to it. Looks like it will brighten my eyes up too, it seems like a tinted moisturiser for your eyes?!

I've already been wearing the Barry M Nail Paint in Blue Moon and LOVE it. I believe this is fairly new and this will definitely be my summer colour! I spotted it straight away, after convincing myself I need more pastel colours...

Which are your "summer colours" are you rocking the pastel shades too?

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10 Favourite Elf products!

So I'm sure most of you have heard of Elf, which is a low end make up brand in the UK and States majoritively, although I know they sell it a lot of other international places too. They're cheap and cheerful, do offers all the time (check their Facebook page) and there's actually quite a few great products I use on a daily basis so I'll cut to the chase.

I have most of my Elf things in its' own separate container..excuse all the mess but you get the idea, I used an old Glossybox (I say I..i'm hopeless so my boyfriend did it for me :) But, it's easy for me to get to and I know where everything is, can you tell I love organisation?!

No1 is the Tone Correcting Concealer which I have in shade Ivory. I know everybody raves about the

Collection 2000 lasting perfection, but personally I love this. It really does do what it says. It's a nice consistency and blends perfectly, especially under my eyes. I have the mini palette? Called Elf Complete Coverage Concealer which I use if I have any blemishes. See here. RRP £3.50.

No 2 is the Elf Mineral Foundation in shade Light. This was my first introduction to mineral foundation and I still don't really "get" it or think it's right for me but I still love the finish it gives. I prefer liquid foundation but if, like me, you want to have an introduction then I'd recommend this. Cheap and cheerful. Buy here. RRP £3.50.

 No3 is the Cream Eyeliner, I love this but hate the little brush it comes with. A normal angled eyeliner brush would do but unfortunately I don't know where mine is at the moment so as you can see from the dust, it's out of action :( It glides on easily and lasts for how long I need it, not usually more than a few hours in the evening but it isn't something I wear during the day. You can buy it here. RRP £3.50.

 No4 is the shimmer palette. This is really good but I only use a few of the colours regualrly. The first one in the left, I use around my eyes to highlight them and use with a brush. Again, the brushes they come with aren't great, but if you're brush-less then maybe it'll help you! You can buy here. RRP £3.50.

Sorry for the dust/mess!

No5 is the Eyelid Primer. I'm not one for face primers but especially if I'm going on a night out I'll use this. It's creamy and glides across easily. I was concerned about the shade (Pearl) but no matter what eyeshadow I use on top of this it doesn't show but lasts longer than without! Buy here. RRP £1.50!

No6 is the Radiance Enhancer pen. This is similar to the YSL Touche Eclat I suppose, without the huge price tag, and in a brightening form..It's great around the eyes, cupids bow or even brow and cheek bones and makes me look far more awake than I actually am! You can buy here. RRP £3.50.

No7 is the Shimmering Facial Whip. I absolutely love this in another shade but unfortunately after owning it for quite a while, it seems to have destroyed itself?! Whilst being stored away for a few months it had changed formula and gone a bit blah so I've got this as a back up, but a bit darker than the other one I had but it's great for the cheeks. You can buy here. RRP £1.50.

 No8 is the All Over Colour Stick. I used this on end for a long time when I first got it but decided now I prefer powder on my cheeks mainly. It's a great shade for pale people like myself, and just has a little bit of shimmer. It isn't something I'd wear daily but it does make your cheeks *pop*. You can buy here. RRP £1.50

No9 is the Blusher Shade Pink Passion. It looks daunting as it's very bright in real life but it's not. The packaging for this reminds me of Nars blushers but I do love it, I've used quite a lot now and the texture just isn't the same anymore unfortunately :( I've found some new blushers that I love but if you're on a budget I'd recommend this, they have a few shades and although it's not the most pigmented blusher I've tried, it's good  for the price! As they say, you get what you pay for! I really want to try some of the other shades actually, maybe the peachy/coral ones.You can buy here. RRP £3.50.

 No10 is the Total Face Brush. When I first got this I absolutely loved it, it's so soft and fluffy and quite a big brush so I mainly used it for my powder, and occasionally my blusher. Recently this has started to shed quite a lot but it's lasted a good 9 months so I'm still impressed. Buy here. RRP £1.50 - Bargain!

So that's it. A good amount of favourite Elf things. Have you ever bought from Elf? If so, what are your favourite items?

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NOTD

I have another nail of the day today for you all. :-) I am a huge lover of glitter, and pink..so I combined the 2 and as I went along it ended up something like this..

Base coat - Collection 2000 Lasting Colour Shade 22 Kiss N Tell (no longer available sorry!)
Ring finger - Deborah Lippmann Shade Razzle Dazzle - I absolutely love this nail polish but it's SO hard to get off that I only use a little at a time and I think this bottle will last a long time!
Top coat - H&M Confetti Kisses Disney Limited Edition

What do you think? Girly? I like simple styles especially for work. Any other ideas I could try?

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Sport Relief 2012

Just a simple post today, today is Sport Relief, so go on, donate...if you need motivation to, watch John Bishop's week of hell - amazing!

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Nivea Visage Young Tinted Moisturiser

Can't get great lighting these days sorry! - don't worry it's nearly time for the clocks to go +1 hour.

I was so excited to trying out this tinted moisturiser (like most things actually) and was quite disappointed, not necessarily with the product but it just didn't work out for me. As I've said plenty of times, I have ultra dry skin and at the moment it's still going through a strange phase. I've been diagnosed with Seborrheic Dermatitis so hopefully my medication will help the dry patches. I don't drink enough water either and know that's what my skin craves. I'm working on it..

In the meantime I thought I'd see how this went. I found it really cheap in Home Bargains so wasn't holding any grudges if it didn't work out between us but I know it has potential for others. It says it's for normal/combination young skin but I thought I fit the bracket enough. I started off using little bits at a time with my fingers. I was unsure about the skin colour, but it adapted to my skin as promised. Unfortunately it just isn't enough for me at the moment and went a little patchy but if little coverage with a fresh feeling is for you then maybe give it a try? I won't rule it out just yet, summer is approaching and I'm not a fan of much makeup clinging to my skin in heat.

I bought the Benefit Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow (what a mouthful!) foundation yesterday and it's already on its' way! I love the samples but found them a little too orange so gone one shade down! Free shipping and 2 free samples. Bargain ;-)

Nearly Friday too yay! What's everyone's plans this weekend?

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5 Favourite Blogs

Just a quick post today to say my love for 5 of my favourite blogs at the moment.

The first 2 show my love for Spanish (don't worry, they translate into English too!) and they're both Fashion blogs. Effiesmakeupbox is another fave! She's a fellow Northerner like myself (however currently living in Spain) and I want her hair! The last 2 show my love for newer beauty blogs.

http://www.myshowroomblog.com/
http://franomad.blogspot.co.uk/

http://effiesmakeupbox.blogspot.com/

http://glamourtrampx.blogspot.com/

http://www.georginacallen.co.uk/

Sponsers

http://www.littletinypiecesblog.co.uk/ 

http://bythebookpaper.blogspot.com/

http://ummmnowwhat.blogspot.com/

http://www.hellolidy.com/

http://oleanderandpalm.blogspot.com/

Please check out my sponsers too. You may have noticed them in the top bar recently. We're all currently swapping buttons, all the way across from America (except Littletinypieces) They're all very friendly so stop by and say hello. :-)
Lastly, I've found quite a few few Northerners via the #northernbloggersunite so if there's anymore to add, contact @lauren_alice or @Lee31 on Twitter for more info. So there we have it. Hope you've found a new blog you like, if so let me know.

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Mini Haul

Thought I'd share with you a few little bargains I picked up yesterday. I'm a real bargain-hunter and love to scour places for cheap stuff sometimes. On my little trip I stopped in Poundland (as you do!) and normally skip straight past the make-up counter until I noticed today they had some weird "bags" like kids goody bags if you will, with a few combinations of make-up so I searched closer. It was branded stuff, for £1?!
On further look, it was mainly Collection 2000 cosmetics, which I am actually a fan of, the main things in the "goody bags" were nail polish, mascara and lip products. All these I love so I picked up 5 bags and didn't really look what I got until I got home.

I'm a bit unsure as to why these bags are £1 but I wasn't complaining. I know they're discontinued products but still.. Anyway, so this is what I eventually came out with:

 Collection 2000/Collection 
Collagen Curl Mascara
Lasting Colour Lipstick - Shade Berry Blast 10
Crystal Gloss - Sorbet Crystal 8
Love your lips - Delight 2
Hot Looks Nail Polish - Swizzles 41
Lasting Colour Nail Polish - Coral Reef 9
Lasting Colour Nail Polish - Kiss n Tell 22

Rimmel
Lasting Finish Blusher - Summer Fever - RRP in Boots £5.19 Out of stock currently.

Now I know some of you must think hmm ok so you can pick these up anywhere, but if you do want to buy any of these products, have a look around the Poundland stores.

On another note, I headed into Boots too and stopped by the Benefit counter. On my Boots Advantage Card I had an offer to get a 7 day sample of Benefit's Hello Flawless Foundation. I cannot wait to try this out! I got "made over" too while I was there and I was surprised the Benefit make-up artist matched me up to shade "Champagne", so I'll see how that goes..

Finally, I went into Home Bargains and picked up some general stuff, face and nose pore strips along with some Nivea tinted moisturiser, I don't have high hopes for this but will try it. Lastly, I got some St.Moriz.(while I mention it, it really confuses me when people say St.Moritz?!) Anyway, I'm obviously not the darkest of skin colours and I'll give any fake tan a go that says no streaking, patches the usual stuff. I know it's supposed to be good but impulse buy meant I got shade medium, oops!

So there we have it, my random purchases on a Sunday afternoon. Time to go use my pore strips and fake tan!

Edit: Quick question, can anybody link me to any "perfect brows" kind of video/blog post?!

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NOTD

Thought I'd do a quick nails of the day, slightly random but I kind of like it!

I started off with a base coat of All About Nails "Mulberry Pie" then got carried away and dotted my thumb with All About Nails "Scandal", then decided I didn't like it much so did a French tip with a twist. Both bargains from Tesco as previously mentioned in other blog posts. 99p!

Shoddy painting as always!

Hope you're all having a good weekend, I've been to the gym and done absolutely nothing so far! Perfect.

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Topshop Makeup

Went and bought my first Topshop makeup items a few days ago. Ah what a great feeling! I know, I'm behind the times.. I was looking through my local Topshop makeup stand and thought there's no way I can leave without buying a few items (Sorry bank balance!). And that I did. Decided to get a few basic items in the form of the highlighter in "Sunbeam" and blush in "Head Over Heels" and lipstick in "Powder Room"

My first impressions are that they're great, although I wasn't planning on buying makeup at all, I think it was money well spent ;-) I think they're quite well pigmented and the prices are quite relevant to the product.

*Highlighter - Shade Sunbeam*

 

I was surprised with this highlighter, I expected a creamer consistency but it was quite powdery. It was highly pigmented and with a single stroke you can see what came off onto my finger! I was worried it wasn't going to be a bit too bright, but you have to use sparingly else you'll end up a disco ball! You could use the highlighter as an eyeshadow too if that was your kind of thing..

RRP- £9 here

*Blush - Head Over Heels*

I love the packaging! So cute.

I was torn between this blush and Neon Rose but in the end after a few swatches mid-shop I went with this. Although, I still want Neon Rose of course! I've never tried a cream-to-powder type blusher and it came up quite a dusty pink colour on my hand but transferred a little different onto my cheeks. It's a light dusty pink/coral colour and will be great for summer, not that I'm one for matching my make-up to the weather!
RRP - £6 here

 *Lipstick - Powder Room*

I loved the look of this so had to buy it. I'm a sucker from all pinky kinds of lipstick but loved the crayon style and thought it'd be good to try. The colour transfers well but I wouldn't wear this on its' own. I have really dry lips at the moment (like the rest of my skin) and it didn't look too pretty on! I put some clear-light pinkish lipgloss over the top.


RRP - £7 here


Hope you've all had a great weekend! I'm counting down for my RAF beauty to come back from his deployment. 4 more weeks! :-) 
Ps you may have noticed I've changed my layout etc hoping it's easier to read. What are your thoughts? Old or new? 

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Clutch Love

Want:

Anybody want to buy me any?

1. New Look

2. River Island

3. River Island

4. New Look

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Favourite Cleansers/Toners

So as you may or may not be aware, my skin is going through a "rough patch" at the moment and it's quite hard to buy products, especially cleansers as these are directly used onto the skin and can be the major cause of irritant. I've been trying a few out and ruled a few automatically out but I've found some that even through my dry/oily/normal phases, they all seem to work as described!

Firstly I just want to say how amazing, although I'm sure you all already know, the Bioderma cleanser is. I got the Sensibio version which I've heard isn't for a lot of people. I was a bit apprehensive using this instead of face wipes but once I gave it a go, my opinion soon changed! It is the best cleanser I've tried and is quite cheap in comparison to some other ones I've tried in the past. You really don't need much at all and a few drops goes a long way. I got mine on Ebay from here.

I'm a major fan of Clinique products. The 3 in these pictures were from the 3 Step Skincare set, purchased about 2 years ago! It just shows how long they've lasted. Mine are for very dry/dry skin type. I use them in order when possible (Facial Soap, Toner then Moisturiser), but the majority of the time I do mix and match between my others. They are quite pricey, but it's the only thing that always works for me. I highly recommend them if you're having serious skin problems and they do different ranges depending on your skin type.

The Nivea cleansers are new to my collection but make me have that fresh faced feeling that I love! I love scrubs on my face but unfortunately with having dry skin, I can't really use them very often as it makes my skin worse!

I love The Body Shop facial cleansing gel too for the fresh faced feeling and the smell is quite nice. I got it when The Body Shop had a 50% sale at Christmas but normally it RRP at £4.00 here.

What are your favourite cleansers? Any recommendations?

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