May Favourites

After much deliberation I've finally decided on my 6 favourite beauty products 

for May!

I've used quite a few new products this month and I've genuinely been loving all of them so narrowing it down was a hard task! I've mainly been focusing on my skin care, really sorting out a strict morning and evening routine for the summer. I'll be dedicating a whole in depth post on skin care in the next couple of weeks, so if that's something you're interested in then keep an eye out.

Onto my favourites!

Nars Laguna
I'm seriously late on the Laguna band wagon, having only bought this in April but I've fallen in love with it! So many bloggers have raved about this bronzer for so long and I can certainly see why. It's a great universal shade, it's not too dark, but it's buildable. It's matte, which for me is preferable to a shimmery bronzer. It's so easy to blend and it works perfectly for contouring. I find I can wear this on my 'paler' days just to add some warmth, or I can build it up when I'm more tanned to really add dimension to my face. I bought mine at ASOS for £26.

Embryolisse Lait Creme Concentre
This is a new addition to my skin care routine and to be honest I'm wondering how I lived without it. I use it as my day moisturizer but it also smooths my skin and provides a perfect base for foundation so essentially it's also taken the place of my primer. It's enriched with essential fatty acids and vitamins and it applies like a dream! It feels silky smooth, sinks into my skin quickly and provides me with enough hydration without feeling greasy. It's suitable for all skin types and is a real cult product with makeup artists all over the world raving about it. For a more in depth description check out Cult Beauty where it's available to buy for £18.50.

The Body Shop Beautifying Oil
I ordered this at a friend's Body Shop party a while ago, I believe it's a relatively new product. It's a multi-purpose dry oil that can be used on your body, face or hair but personally I've only used it as a body oil. I opted for the Chocomania scent after having a sniff of the sample at the party and loving it! It smells like dark chocolate and I love applying it after a shower to lock in moisture. The great thing about it is it doesn't dry too quickly, my skin still feels soft and moisturised hours after applying it, but it certainly doesn't feel greasy or sticky. I'll definitely repurchase this but I'm tempted to try one of the other scents. The see all the options, click here. It costs £9. 

Maybelline Colour Tattoo in Pink Gold
I'm sure every blogger and their dog has heard of the infamous Colour Tattoos so I won't go into too much detail, but essentially they're cream eyeshadows in a variety of colours that can be used as a base to make your eyeshadow stay and stand out, or they can be used on their own for a quick and easy eye look. That's exactly what I've been using this for. When I don't have much time in the morning, I apply this to my lids with my finger and blend a matte brown through the crease and voila! Done :) This is the only shade I own and I adore it, it's pink but its subtle with gold undertones. Something a bit different to an everyday neutral eye colour. I definitely want to try some more shades. You can pick them up at Boots or Superdrug for £4.99.

Nivea lip butter in Raspberry Rose

This smells AMAZING! Seriously it takes a lot of self control not to straight out eat it! It smells just like raspberry milkshake and I've been taking it everywhere with me this past month. It's moisturising, not sticky at all and it's only £1.99, I got mine from Superdrug but I've seen them everywhere. I really want to try the Caramel Cream version too. Did I mention how good it smells?

Palmers Natural Bronze Body Lotion
I couldn't leave this little beauty out of my favourites. I've been using this non stop for weeks and I've still got a fair bit left in the bottle! It's only £5.35 from Boots or Superdrug which is a great price for the size. I won't go into too much detail as I've just written a full review on it, so if you want to see what all the fuss is about, read my 

post here.

Random Favourite 

This month's random favourite has to be my Yankee Candle in Pineapple Coconut. I'm a big fan of the brand and I have a definite candle addiction, so when they launched their new summer Cool Pops candles I had to grab this one! It smells just like a piña colada so even if it's raining outside, I can light this and pretend I'm on a beach in Spain :) This particular candle is out of stock on the website but you can see the whole Cool Pops range here.

Let me know if you'd like to see a full review on any of the products mentioned and I'll get straight on it!

Also, let me know in the comments what things you've been loving this month, beauty related or just random favourites :)

Palmers Natural Bronze Body Lotion

I've tried various different self tans in recent years and I definitely prefer gradual tanning products because you can control how dark you want to look and also it (hopefully) won't wash off straight away like most instant tans do. Until recently I've been favouring St Tropez's gradual tan or their original tanning lotion (which I leave on overnight) and both are great, the only thing I don't like is the price. £20-£30 a bottle is pretty expensive so I'm always on the look out for something just as good with a smaller price tag.

I picked up Palmers Natural Bronze Body Lotion in Boots a couple of weeks ago. It's a gradual tanning lotion which has that signature cocoa butter smell that I'm OBSESSED with! I have the original lotion and the hand lotion, I just can't get enough of that chocolate scent :)

It was £5.35 for 250ml - hello bargain of the month! That's such a great price for that amount of product so I'll be honest and say I wasn't expecting great things. At the most I thought I'd be getting a body lotion with a slight glow. Oh how wrong I was! 

I applied it one evening after my shower, as I would a body lotion and it looks, smells and feels exactly like the normal Palmers Cocoa Butter Lotion, super soft and moisturising. It sinks into your skin so you aren't left with that horrible sticky feeling. 

The next morning I couldn't believe what I saw. My face was it's usual shade of white (I don't apply tanning products to my face unless they're specifically for the face... if that makes sense) but from the neck down I was tanned! Overnight the lotion had turned into an even, non streaky, perfect tan. Exactly the same shade I achieve when using St Tropez! I at least expected to have to apply it for a few days before seeing any visible results. 

That night I applied the lotion again and the next morning I was almost a shade darker which for me, was as dark as I wanted to be. The colour lasted about 3 days after the 2nd application and it wears off naturally leaving no patchy areas. 

If you don't own this gradual tanner, buy it! Seriously get on the Boots website and order it! I'll be stocking up on this and for the moment, I can't see why I'd need to spend £30 on St Tropez, it just wouldn't make sense. 

3 reasons to buy Palmers Natural Bronze Body Lotion

- No weird biscuit smell! Just that gorgeous cocoa butter scent.

- An overnight tan that isn't orange, muddy or green. Just the perfect bronze. 

- The price! Just over a fiver for 250ml. It's a no brainer.

Selfridges Summer Beauty Box

I only received this little gem today, but I had to share it with you! 

I was so excited to see the white and yellow Selfridges box arrive this morning, it definitely felt like Christmas all over again :) I ordered their Summer Beauty Box on Monday after seeing how many fab products were inside. Most of them are things I've been desperate to try for ages so at £25 for £70 worth of products, it was a done deal.

 

Selfridges Summer Beauty Box 

Molton Brown Moisture Bath & Shower Gel 100ml 

Erborian BB Creme 

Aqua Splash Tangle Teezer 

Lancaster Tan Maximizer/After Sun 50ml

Models Own Neon Nail Polish

Caudalie Beauty Elixir 30ml 

St Tropez Instant Glow Face Lotion 50ml

Bumble & Bumble Surf Spray 50ml

Jane Tran Hair Clips 

St Tropez Exclusive In Store Offer Card

I'm most excited about trying the Bumble & Bumble spray, the Caudalie Beauty Elixir & the Tangle Teezer as I've never tried them before and they're all products that are constantly raved about.  But in all honesty I'm pleased with everything in the box!

Here's some close ups of the Aqua Splash Tangle Teezer

 

 

All in all, Selfridges got this box spot on! It's filled with summer-appropriate products and they're all generous sizes. Definitely worth the £25 price tag. Order yours here before they sell out!

Getting Lippy With NYX

There's 3 things I love about summer.

1 - the excuse to eat way more ice lollies than is socially acceptable. 

2 - maxi dresses (who doesn't love a good maxi?)

3 - a bold lip. 

For the purpose of this being a beauty blog, number 3 is the one I'm going to talk about today. 

I love lipstick. I used to be a gloss or tinted balm kinda gal but once you pluck up the courage to sport a bright fuchsia lip, trust me there's just no going back! It's addictive. In the warmer months (if such a thing exists in the UK), I love nothing more than slapping on some BB cream, a touch of bronzer, a slick of black eyeliner and a bold lipstick. It's so much fun experimenting with colours and the summer months are the perfect time to do it. This said, I want to have choice. Pinks, reds and everything in between. But I don't want to be spending a fortune on lip products when after all my ice lolly addiction is soaking up all my spare cash :)

Cue NYX! I'll jump right in and tell you their Round Lipsticks are some of the best I've ever tried. They're affordable at £3.50 each, super pigmented (as in, one swipe and you have crazy colour payoff). They're not at all drying, in fact if you've ever tried YSL's Rouge Volupte lipsticks, the formula is extremely similar to those. But I actually find NYX's lipsticks to last a lot  longer without needing to be reapplied. Plus they come in an array of beautiful shades.

Here's my 3 favourites.

L-R Paris, Chaos & Spell Bound

L-R Paris, Spell Bound & Chaos

Paris is a matte, slightly purple toned pink and unlike other matte lippies this is really moisturising which is such a bonus. It means I can wear it on it's own without needing a gloss. 

NYX Round Lipstick in Paris

Chaos is a stunning deep red. I love this shade as apposed to a bright red, I feel it suits my fair complexion much more and it screams 'old Hollywood glamour'. Admittedly I probably wouldn't wear this in the day,  for me it's definitely more of an evening lipstick. 

And who say's red is only for autumn/winter? I say rebel against the norm and rock your scarlet lips in the summer time too :) 

 NYX Round Lipstick in Chaos

Spell Bound is probably my favourite of the shades I've tried. It's a deeper pink with a very slight gold shimmer and I really mean 'slight'. In the bullet it looks tons more shimmery than when applied. It also looks a lot more subtle in the photo than it really is.

NYX Round Lipstick in Spell Bound

I can't finish this post without mentioning my favourite NYX gloss. It's one of their Mega Shine glosses and it's called Dolly Pink. To be honest, I'm sold just on the name alone. (I'm such a girl...)

NYX Mega Shine Gloss in Dolly Pink

It's a bright fuchsia and there's 2 things I love about it. The first is the pigmentation. There is NOTHING more disappointing than buying a lip gloss, getting it home, applying it and realising that the bright pink you were desperately excited about, is in fact a clear gloss with a few rosy streaks running through it. Ugh! I hate that! But that couldn't be further from the truth with this one. It's shiny and glossy just as it should be but without losing any of the colour. It's definitely strong enough to use alone without needing a bright lipstick underneath. The second thing I adore is that it's not at all sticky (hallelujah!) it's formula is buttery soft and it has just the right amount of 'wetness' for want of a better word... You can get your mega shine glosses at NYX UK's website for £7 each. 

NYX Mega Shine Gloss in Dolly Pink

So there you have it my 3 favourite NYX lipsticks and a gloss for good measure. I could ramble on about all the other NYX products I adore but I have ice lollies to eat and maxi dresses to wear. And yes it's raining. And no that won't stop me.

Huge MAC & NYX Haul!

After taking a little break from blogging... Ok, a pretty lengthy break! I'm finally back, armed with lots of fun blog posts and a bit more free time to allow me to write them : ) Yay!

Without further a do, I'll jump straight into today's post. Pretty self explanatory from the title - a haul with all things NYX and MAC related! I recently won a competition with NYX UK and was lucky enough to receive a £50 voucher as my prize, which I literally couldn't wait to spend on their website. I had lots of NYX products on my makeup wish list so I was super happy to be able to tick some of them off. As for my MAC purchases, I took a trip to my nearest MAC counter and blew some of my birthday money in there which is always a satisfying experience : )

NYX Goodies 

Round lipsticks in Paris and Spellbound

Lipliner pencils in Fuchsia and Deep Red

Jumbo eye pencils in Yoghurt and Purple

Cream blush in Rose Petal 

Mega Shine lip glosses in Dolly Pink and Plush Red

Super Skinny Eye Marker in Carbon Black

Cream Blush in Rose Petal

MAC Goodies

Vanilla pigment 

Amplified lipstick in Impassioned

Fix plus 

Brush cleaner 

Studio Finish concealer in NW20 

If you'd like to see a detailed review on any particular products then let me know in the comments and I'll get straight on it : ) 

I think my favourite buys are MAC's Impassioned (beautiful bright pink/coral lipstick for the summer), vanilla pigment (perfect for a brow highlight and looks amazing on the inner corners of my eyes) and NYX's cream blush in Rose Petal, it's just stunning and the formula is excellent quality!