Beauty Haul: Recent Additions

I was on a clothes spending ban during January but I seem to have picked up more beauty items to make up for that...oops. To be fair, most of these products were on offer and I did purchase most of them with a gift voucher and my Boots points. So the damage isn't as bad as it looks. I'm also really pleased with everything that I bought, especially the Revlon Colourburst Matte and Lacquer Balms.

I've been using the Soap & Glory Peaches and Clean Cleanser for about two weeks and I am already starting to see a difference to my skin. I've also already incorporated the L'Oreal Cleansing Oil into my routine and it really helps to budge that last bit of eye make up. I haven't used the La Roche Possay Effaclar Duo Plus yet but I love using the Effaclar Duo twice a day and have a feeling this one might be even better. 

The little purple lipstick is from the Littlemix range by Collection. I don't normally pay much attention to lines like this but my friend was wearing Perrie's shade the other week and I thought it looked lovely so got one for myself. At £2.99 you can't really go wrong with Collection lipsticks. The Maybelline Colour Tattoos are amazing, so I finally added the shade 'Pomegranate' to my collection and find that it's great for creating a quick and easy smokey eye. I also picked up the MUA LUXE Power Brow and I'm liking that so far, however the colour range wasn't that great when I was trying to decide which one to get and I'm worried that it might be a bit too dark. What I do like about this brow pencil is that there's a highlighter at the other end. 

Lastly, we have the L'Oreal Nude Magique Eau De Teint. I love the formulation of this foundation and think it will be great for spring and summer time when you want less coverage and something less heavy. But I found it very difficult to pick a shade as the range isn't great so ended up choosing 110 Warm Ivory. I'm a bit worried that in the summer this might be too light, but all of the other shades were way too orange. Did anyone else find this?

Have you tried any of these products? What are your thoughts? Or have you picked up anything new recently that you would recommend? 

May Favourites

I have been really impressed with a lot of beauty products recently and have enjoyed using them so much that I thought it was only right to tell you about them.

Revlon Nearly Naked Powder
I always like to use a pressed powder on top of foundation to set my make up. I'm a massive fan of MACs Mineralise Skin Finish but wanted to find a cheaper option. So I decided to try this one by Revlon as I have tried their powders in the past and loved them. This powder did not disappoint! It is very finely milled so when I use a brush hardly any of the powder comes loose during application. It's such a light powder but still gives great coverage over foundation. It's amazing because even though it gives a lot of coverage, you can hardly see it on the skin and it's not chalky at all.

Bourjois Radiance Reveal Healthy Mix Foundation
I used to use the original version of this foundation all the time a few years ago but for some reason moved onto using other ones such as MACs Studio Fix Fluid and Rimmel's Wake Me Up Foundation. When I find a foundation that I like I tend to stick with it so I had completely forgotten how amazing the Bourjois one is. When I saw that it had been relaunched and was getting lots of positive reviews I thought it was time to go back to Bourjois when I ran out of my Rimmel foundation. I'm so happy I did because I love this product. It gives a medium coverage and a dewy finish and is hardly visible on the skin at all which I love.  

Bourjois BB Bronzing Cream
I was a bit wary about trying this product but it was on offer and I was just really intrigued by what it said on the bottle. 'Boosts radiance', 'Prolongs tan', 'Refreshing sensation', 'Addictive fragrance'. Firstly, yes it does have a lovely fragrance which reminds me of holidays! It also says on the bottle that it gives a 'flawless complexion' which actually isn't true as when I tried it by itself it gave no coverage AT ALL and just made my face a weird colour. But don't let this put you off! When I use it over the Healthy Mix Foundation I really like it as it gives me a really healthy glow and actually begins to do what it says on the bottle. I can see myself using this a lot over the summer (just not on its own).

Maybelline Baby Lips
They don't sell these yet (I don't know if they ever will?) in the UK so I asked my cousin to bring one over from the States (Thanks Jess) for me to try as i've heard good things about them. The rumours were true! I love this lip balm and it has three great things going for it. The smell- it smells/tastes like tangerine. The formula- it's so moisturising and soft on my lips. The shade- i love the fact that it has a subtle coral shade to it which transfers really nicely onto the lips. This lip product is perfect for summer and I would love to get my hands on some other scents! 

MUA Pro-Brow Kit
For a while I had been using Buck from my Urban Decay Naked Palette to fill in my eyebrows. I realised that used alone it's probably not the right shade for my eyebrows. So I thought it would be easier to just get a small brow kit so that I could mix shades that worked for me. I really didn't want to spend a lot of money so decided to get the MUA Pro-Brow Kit (which was sold out in a lot of my local drugstores). I can see why as I'm really pleased with it and love the fact that it contains setting gel to use on top of the powder. I mix the darker and middle shade together to create a pretty good match for my eyebrows and love the staying power and good quality for the low price.  

Vera Wang Lovestruck
This is probably one of my favourite perfumes ever. I really like the packaging (even if the lid is pretty unpractical) and I love the fact that the scent stays on my skin for a long time. Top Notes of Pink Guava, Angelica Flower and Mandarin. Heart Notes of Indian Jasmine Sambac, Tuberose Buds, blue Lotus Blossom and Base Notes of Sheer Musk ,Precious Woods and Vanilla. This perfume is lovely all round! I also tried the Floral Rush version of it recently and would love to get it when this one runs out.  

Palmer's Natural Bronze
I really dislike using fake tan...I just don't get along with it. I was a fan of the Dove gradual tanning lotion but gave up on using it because I wasn't really noticing a difference. So when I saw that Palmer's had released one I really wanted to give it a try. It really does work!! I had a uni event to go to the other day so I started using this the week before and applied it once every morning leading up to the event. After a week I was glowing and the best thing was that it did look natural and there were no streaks. I have stopped applying it now though because I'm sure if I applied it for a few more days i'd be close to looking like an Oompa Lumpa. It seems to be a great product for building up a tan the week leading up to something that you want to look tanned for. The one thing I'm not a fan of is how strong the smell is, but you seem to get that with most tanning products and the cocoa butter does seem to cover that up a bit. 

H&M Phone case
I picked up this phone case in H&M the other week for just £2.99! I mean, it's turquoise AND it's a cat...two of my favourite things. It's surprisingly good quality and it really does protect my phone because it fits all the way around the edges. 

I'd love to hear which products you enjoyed using during May!