So, its been a while!

Hi all,

Its been a while since my last post. I have been working like crazy and have barely had time to sleep let alone blog. Today has been my first day that I've been able to just chill and have a bit of time to myself so what could be more relaxing than doing my blog. 

As I've been away for a while I thought I would do a quick post on all the things I have accumulated from the last post to today. Some are purchases and some are freebies (gotta love a freebie!) So lets get right into it.

First up is a purchase/freebie I popped into Debenhams to have a quick look and my lovely husband said he would treat me to some new make up. Bless him! I picked up the Lancome Teint Idole Ultra 24H foundation in shade 01 and the Doll Eyes Mascara in black, for purchasing two items I also receive all the other items you see here. Bargain! There was a mini hypnose mascara, a 50ml toner, 5ml skin corrector, 5ml youth activating serum, full size lip gloss, 50ml cleansing milk and 15ml Hydrazen moisturizer (this isn't pictured as I don't have it with me right now) I love the foundation, it leaves my face lookng flawless and I don't need to touch up throughout the day, although I do need to use a mattifying primer first or I find my face gets a little oily after a few hours. I have found that the 17 matt primer works a treat and keep me shine free all day. I haven't used the mascara as of yet as I am still working my way through another Hypnose Drama, although I am extremely excited to try it out, Lancome mascaras always impress me.Also loving the toner, cleaning milk and moisturizer, these will definitely be on my repurchase list. I have extremely sensitive skin and find that even natural products make my skin sore and give me a rash but I have been using these for around a week now and no rash or soreness just lovely soft healthy looking skin. 

At the same time I purchased my Lancome I also came across a tiny Helen E stand, I went over to have a look as they had loads of make up on display, the extremely lovely woman at the counter told me about a £10 goodie bag that they were doing, she showed me what the bag included and I just had to snap one of these babies up. It includes a cream and concealer duo (this alone on the Helen E website is £16.50) a pigment eyeshadow in copper, a lipstick pencil in nectar and (not pictured) a black pencil liner. The concealer is great for under eyes and I can't wait to use the cream for summer months when I don't want to plaster heavy foundation on my face. The colour of the eyeshadow is also gorgeous and it was actually this that made me go for the bag, she swatched it on her hand and it was stunning, will do swatches on another post for all these items as the pencil lipstick is also gorgeous. I honestly thought this would be the dud of the bag but I am happy to admit when I am wrong and I was so wrong. Its a gorgeous colour that I think would look great on most skin tones, its not drying at all, in fact its quite moisturing and it also lasts a long time. The bag also included a £10 off a £35 spend on the Helen E website. Will be using this when I get paid at the end of the month as they have some lovely looking products on their website.

I received this bad boy in the post today. From the letter enclosed I have signed up to do a trial and review, I think this must have been a while ago as I don't rememer this at all, however I am really excited to try it, I love body moisturisers. I think this is a full size item, its 200ml so if its not its a huge sample size! :-) will do a review on this once I have tried this out properly and let you know what I think.

I also picked up a Bella Pierre set from TK Maxx, this was priced at £7.99 and came with a foundation in Ivory, a blush in Desert Rose, an eyeshadow in Resonance (bright pink), a black mascara and a clear lip gloss. Thought this was a bit of a bargain as the mascara alone is £19.99 on the BP website. I actually only wanted the set for the foundation and blusher so will do reviews on both of these when I get round to using them.

Apologies for the quality of the pics, I was taking the pics just as it was turning dark so the pics aren't the best. Anyway I picked these up from Superdrug as they have a 3 for 2 promotion on all cosmetics, these lipsticks were priced at £1.49 so I got 3 for £2.98. I have tried these lipsticks before and do really like them, they don't dry out my lips, they don't have any nasty taste and they have some lovely colours. I picked up Blue Rose, Snow Cone and Fragile Pink. I'm going to put up swatches shortly as I just love these. The Blue Rose has become my new favourite lipstick ever. 

 Another freebie with the Smashbox primer, I signed up for their newsletter and was sent this little sample primer. I haven't tried it yet but I think I will wait until I get a bit more colour to my face as it looks quite dark. I swatched a bit on my hand and to be honest I wasn't that impressed so from first impressions I don't think it is something that I would purchase.

Tesco were also doing 3 for 2 on cosmetics so I took advantage and picked up some Vivo products. I got three eyeshadows, I got 1 matt shade in Sandstorm and 2 pearl eyeshadows, one in Espresso and 1 in Pale Gold. The two pearl shades are really pretty and really pigmented, the matt shade not so much but I have come to exect this with budget brand matt eyeshadows. I also picked up 2 bronzers in Healthy Glow and Sun Kiss, both gorgeous shades, the Healthy Glow is more of a highlighter I would say, or thats what I have been using it for anyway. I can't wait to use these when I have a bit more colour. I think they will look lovely with a bit of a tan.

 ELF were having a promotion over the weekend, you could choose either free shipping and a gloss or a 6 in 1 beauty to go set. I opted for the free shipping. I picked the Complete coverage concealer in light, the brow kit in medium, a set of powder puffs and an eyeliner brush. The lipgloss pictured was free with the order. All this cost £10.00 delivered which I think it pretty good! Really looking forward to trying the brow kit.

 And Finally I found that H&M do nail polishes. I have seen the make up a few times but have avoided due to the quality not looking that great but these were by the tills and I couldn't help but grab a few. Above the polishes are some swatches on my colour wheel, the shades are purple glitter, lime and aqua splash. I haven't used these on my nails yet but I love the colours, they went on my colour wheel nicely so I'm hoping they do the same on my nails, the two smaller polishes on the left were opaque after 2 coats, the glitter needed 4 coats before it really built up a good glittery finish and to be honest its still not as much as I like. It will probably look better layered over another polish. These were £0.99 for the smaller ones and £1.49 for the aqua splash. panch

Hope you enjoyed my little haul.

If you have any questions or would like a review on any of the products above just let me know

Lots of Love

CF x x x

Royal & Langnickel Travel Brushes Review

Hi all apologies for the quality of the photos in advance,

I have been looking for a set of travel brushes for a while and spotted these on the QVC website. They were priced at £11.50 with £2.95 postage. 

The brush set contains:

• 1 x powder brush
• 1 x dual and brow/sponge smudger
• 1 x dual end shadow/lip brush
• 1 x dual end angle eye fluff/blender
• 1 x foundation brush
• 1 x pink storage case

It doesn't state the sizes on the QVC website so I was unsure of the actual size, I have measured them and the  brushes are approximately 12cm and the case is 15cm.

The reviews on the website seemed to be quite good, the only negative was that the powder brush shedded, although I have not had this problem as of yet. 

I have found the powder brush to be very soft, I don't use powder so just use this for blush and bronzer and found it to be really nice.

The foundation brush again is incredibly soft, it applies my foundation evenly with good coverage, I'm really happy with this brush. I don't usually use these types of foundation brushes and use either my fingers or a stippling brush but I can honestly say this will be used regularly (and not just for travel)

The dual brow and sponge smudger, well I really like the brow brush, the brow brush is quite firm but is flexible enough to give enough control to ensure your brows still look natural. The sponge smudger I have no use for. I have something like this already and again I never use it, I wouldn't even know where to start. If you have any tips for me please let me know. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

The eyeshadow and lip brush are great. I love both of these. The eyebrush is soft yet dense so you can really pack on your eyeshadow and the lip brush is fab, again its firm but flexible so I get good application of my lipstick.

The dual angle eye fluff/blender again is a great brush, no complaints with this at all. Both sides are soft. The flush brush picks up a lot of colour and I use it to give an all over wash of colour to my lids and the blender is for as the name implies...blending. Both incredibly soft and so far I haven't had any shedding with any of the brushes.

 If after a couple of washes this does change and the brushes do start to shed I will do an updated review but at the moment I am very happy with all the brushes, apart from the sponge but thats not due to the product but the fact that I have no idea what to use it for.

Hope you all enjoyed, if you would like to take a look at these brushes you can find them here on the QVC website. Delivery at QVC is really quick and items are well packaged. They all so have some great deals on other products and brands so definitely worth keeping an eye out for them. You can also watch them on TV on channel 658 on Sky, 816 on Freesat and 35 on Freeview. I love watching this channel even when I'm not buying anything. 

Hope you all enjoyed my little review.

Hope everyone had a great weekend

Lots of Love 

CF x x x

Monu Moisture Rich Collagen Cream Review

Hi all,

Second post of the evening. I just had to review this item, I've been using it for about a week now and thought it was about time to give my opinion.

Here is what Monu say:

• A rich, luxurious cream to relieve dryness and smooth fine lines.
• Comforting Rose and Geranium essential oils.
• Evening Primrose and Blackcurrant Seed oils with essential fatty acids to repair skin lipids.
• Shea butter and Sodium Hyaluronate to improve the skin’s barrier function.
• Natural betaines to stimulate the skin’s hydration process.
• Marine Collagen to help smooth fine lines.
• Plant flavonoids with antioxidant action to help prevent premature ageing.
• Paraben free formulation.

And here are the ingredients

• Betanes
• Blackcurrant Seed Oil
• Evening Primrose Oil
• Geranium Essential Oil
• Marine Magnesium
• Plant Flavonoids
• Rose Essential Oil
• Shea Butter
• Sodium Hyaluronate/ Hyaluronic Acid

I received this in my last Glossybox and I have to say this is the best product I have ever received in a beauty box and its the best face cream I have ever used. I have extremely sensitive skin and find it really difficult to find creams that don't break me out or cause me to get a rash. This product does neither. After only one week my skin has improved dramatically, its practically glowing.  It leaves my face feeling super soft and absorbs really quickly. Its great to use before applying my foundation and I find that my face is still feeling soft right through to the end of the day without feeling greasy. I believe the RRP of this product is £17.50 and it is worth every single penny! I have spent alot more on products and not been half as happy as I am with this, I honestly can't say enough about this cream, apart from I will be stocking up and trying out some other products in the range. You can purchase items from the Monu website here and shipping is free for order over £30.00. There will definitely be some more review on Monu products on my blog shortly once I have chosen from the extensive selection of amazing looking products on their website and placed my order. Watch this space!

Once again have a good weekend lovelies!

Lots of Love

CF x x x

My new storage!

Hi all,

I am so excited to do this post. I have been looking around recently for some new storage for my rapidly growing make up collection  and after spotting this on a few other blogs I decided it was the one for me. I was working late so sent my husband to Ikea to pick up the Helmer cabinet, I gave him a list of everything I was including the codes and put a list down of the colour I wanted. There is a choice of three colours, either white, silver or red, I told him I wanted white or silver, he came back with red. Doh! typical bloke! Although its tucked nicely away in my wardrobe out of sight so I'm not too fussed about it being red and actually think it looks quite nice (although I will NEVER admit this to him, especially after my sulk) 

Here are the colours available

(pictures borrowed from the Ikea website)

These bad boys are priced at a very reasonable £24.99 each and hold a lot of items as you will see further down considering their size. They come flat packed but are fairly easy to assemble. I had a look on Youtube and you can find some videos of people putting them together if you are struggling. 

I also found that there is another product that Ikea sell that fits perfectly into these drawers and makes for some great dividers. They are called Antonius and are a bargainous £1.60 each

You can find these here on the Ikea website and they really do fit perfectly into the drawers

Here is my Helmer 

And here are the contents

Its not quite right yet but I have just tried to divide them into nails, face, eyes, lips and palettes. It took me six hours (yes SIX) to sort out my make up and get it into the drawers. I ended up throwing away so many items that I just know I will never use, that definitely a bonus. I would never have got round to sorting through if I wasn't putting them into this. I have 1 empty drawer left over. I can't decide what to put in here yet but I'm sure something will end up in there eventually.

I would definitely recommend these to anyone, if you have room for one and you have a lot of make up that your not quite sure where to put these will be great for you. The only reason mine is in my wardrobe is due to lack of space in my room, if I had more I would be more than happy to have this out on display, well if it wasn't the red one that is. 

Hope you all enjoyed.

Have a great weekend.

Lots of Love

CF x x x

Calvin Klein Mini Lipglosses Swatches/Review

Hi all,

I picked up a set of 5 mini Calvin Klein lipglosses today. They were such pretty colours and they were mini, everything looks better when its smaller :-) 

Here are the glosses

How pretty are they? they are just as pretty on aswell here are some swatches

From L-R - Sparkle, Atomic, Cupid, Dew Drop and Silverado

These are such lovely colours, they're quite glittery but so pigmented. Unfortunately they are possibly the stickiest glosses I have ever tried. My lips were actually sticking together. I personally cannot stand sticky glosses so I can't get past this and wont be able to wear them. I'm really disappointed, they are the perfect size for popping in a tiny bag if your out on a night out and the colours are gorgeous if it wasn't for the fact they are sticky they would be great.

Has anyone else tried CK glosses? what did you think? 

Lots of Love

CF x x x

MUA Lipsticks Swatches

Hi all,

Just a quick post today on MUA lipsticks. These are £1.00 each and are available from Superdrug or from the MUA website here if you like them on Facebook they sometimes have special offers on such as free delivery or a free item with every purchase so its worth keeping an eye out on that.

Onto the actual products, I own six of the lipsticks, I started off with 1 so I think the fact that I now own six shows how good they are. 

Here are the shades I own

From L-R 2,4,6,8,9 & 12

And here are the swatches

Again L-R is 2,4,6,8,9 &12

I really like these lipsticks, they aren't drying on the lips and they are highly pigmented. They have a good range of colours from nudes to pinks to bright reds. I don't find they last the longest time but at £1 each I don't mind topping up a few times throughout the day.

All in all I do like these and will be picking up a couple more of the shades when I can find a Superdrug that someone has opened and tested all of the colours, seriously one of my biggest pet hates! I think these are also great if you want to try a new colour but maybe are a bit scared it will be too daring of if the colour wont suit you, for £1 I'm sure most people wont mind finding out that its not working for them.

I say give them a go, I personally think they are better than some £6/£7 lipsticks I've tried!

Hope you all enjoyed.

Lots of Love

CF x x x

May Wish List

Hi all,

I've been looking around recently at some things I want and have noticed a bit of a theme...yellow. I'm loving anything yellow at the moment. I always feel so happy and summery when I'm wearing anything yellow so I thought I would share my current wish list and hopefully spread some of that summery happiness around.

I love love love all of these, the shoes are £335 so don't think they will be coming my way any time soon unless I win the lottery and we don't play the lottery so no chance there either.

The bracelet is by Betsey Johnson 

The nail polish is obviously by Chanel

The shoes are Moschino

And the lovely dress is by Dorothy Perkins

Well hope you all enjoyed my little wish list. Hopefully will have 3/4 by the time summer comes around and maybe all 4 if my husband is feeling overly generous one month.

Lots of Love

CF x x x

Burts Bees Grab Bag, ITS HERE!!!!!

Hi all,

I got a lovely surprise yesterday morning, I was woken up by my husband with 2 packages. One of which I just knew was my Burts Bees Grab Bag. I was so excited to get this, I love all their products so I just knew that I would be happy with whatever I got, and I was right. 

So everything came in a Burts Bees yellow paper bag like this, the bag was quite heavy so you could tell there was quite a few items in it.

First off I purchased this seperately as I needed one, its the lip shimmer in watermelon.

 How happy was I to find that they added not one but two of these in my grab bag and a rhubarb one. So I have 3 watermelons and a rhubarb, I am in lip balm heaven. This now means I can keep one in my bag one at work and one on my dressing table for getting ready in a morning. 

The lip balms came in this little tin which is so cute, and there was also this Burts Bees mini nail file which will certainly come in handy. This will be another one for my desk at work. These are full size and retail for £5.99

The next thing I got was a sample size of the Radiance night cream, looking forward to trying this out. It contains 7g of product, the full size is 57g and retails for £19.99. 

Next I got a sachet of Therapeutic bath crystals. These are to help relieve muscle ache after say a workout. The sachet is 44g, the full size comes in a jar with 450g and retails for £10.99

I also got a sample of conditioner and a sample of a shampoo bar.The shampoo is Rosemary mint, I love the smell of this, my son isn't so keen but I like anything minty. I can't find this product on their website so I am unsure of how much the full size costs. The bar is 22.7g.

The conditioner is the super shiny grapefruit and sugar beet I don't think it has much of a smell to it but its SLS, paraben and phthalate free which is great! I can't wait to give this a try. I have found my hair is in such better condition now after using SLS free products for a few weeks. The sample bottle is 28.5g, the full size is 340g and retails for £9.99

Next I got 2 radiance exfoliating body wash, I love body exfoliators and again this contains no nasties so I really am super excited to try these out. I currently don't own any body products that don't have sulphates etc in them so if these are good I will definitely be purchasing them again. The bottles contain 88.7ml of product, the full size contains 350ml and retails for £9.99.

Finally I got 2 body lotions, I can't find them on the website but I think they are full size, they are 235ml each and I got 1 thoroughly therapeutic honey and orange wax body lotion and 1 naturally nourishing milk and honey body lotion. They smell lush, especially the milk and honey, it absorbs into the skin really nicely and doesn't leave you feeling sticky or uncomfortable and you don't have to wait 5 minutes before putting your clothes on. As I said previously I can't see these on the website but I would estimate they cost £9.99 each.

As you can see this bag offers fantastic value for money, if you don't mind not knowing what your going to get then this bag would be great. You could purchase a few and give them as gifts. I know I would  be so happy to receive one of these as a present. 

I will do a review on individual products once I have given them a good go.

Hope you all enjoyed, if you do end up buying one let me know what you got in yours :-)

You can find all the gift sets and kits here on the Burts Bees website.

Lots of Love

CF x x