.July Glossy Box.

Better late than never I suppose!  I haven't posted my previous two Glossy Boxes simply because I am never in when it arrives, and due to my post office having silly opening times, I have to wait aaaaages until I can pick it up and by then I feel I have missed the boat somewhat!  But this month, I feel, is the best one yet so I was very intrigued to see what I got as everyone's varies slightly.

For people who don't know what Glossy Box is (I'm more than sure all you fellow avid blog  readers already do, but to benefit any of my friends that read this) its a monthly subscription service for £10 (p&p 2.95 from Sep) and you receive 5 deluxe samples, if not full size products, of high end beauty products to try out! Obviously right up my street, not that I need any more beauty products but who cares!

I was SO happy with what I received, couldn't have picked it better myself!

So pretty I had to swatch it for you!

This months box came with 4 full size products!! For £10!  The lip gloss alone is usually £13.

The lip gloss is an amazing colour, if a bit sticky for me but will be great to have in my kit.  The lashes are gorgeous and so thick, again another great addition to my kit.

The Weleda Pomegranate Body Oil smells amazing and feels lovely on the skin.

I love the Ciate nail polish, the colour is right up my street and their brushes are lovely and fat so makes application a doddle.

Saving the best till last; Xen Tan woohooo! I was hoping I'd get this, its a self tan I have been desperate to try but not wanted to shell out on before I know what its like, this just sums up what Glossy Box is about and I'm all over it!!

Thanks for reading, sorry if this is your millionth viewing of a Glossy Box blog post!

x Lucy x

.Liberty London.

..Pretty Central Sights..

Yesterday evening, I ventured in to central London to pop in to the MAC Pro store on Fouberts Place, that annoyingly didn't have what I needed, grrr.  However, I never mind too much heading in the Carnaby Street direction as I know I will have to walk past Liberty, and even though I rarely spend a penny in there I regularly wonder around, wishing I could buy the whole shop.  I never tire of its beautiful, old fashioned decor and the gorgeously displayed items within it!  I love the tea room on the ground floor, where I once visited with my mum and I will never forget being taken there by my Grandmother when I was little, I forget how old now actually, between the ages of 8 and 12 anyway, for my birthday.  And I have always been a fan of the famous Liberty print, my mum found a Liberty shirt in a charity shop and just had to buy it even though the shape and colour is the least flattering thing I, or she, has ever seen, so she offered it to me and of course I couldn't turn its beauty down even though it will sit in my wardrobe forever more and never see the light of day.

Anyhoo on to the pretty pictures...

I always love the flowers at Liberty, pic below would be my choice of wedding flowers...

This is one of my most favourite window displays I have ever seen...

Hope you don't mind the random post, but I just wanted to share these photos, and a rare occasion of me enjoying central London!

x Lucy x

.The Talked About Tan.

..Lauren's Way..

I was given Lauren's Way self tan to try at the The Only Way is Blogging event last Saturday, which is fitting really, I suppose.  I was extremely excited to be able to try this as the hype thats been on Twitter has been some what ridiculous.  I had to see if, what people were saying was true.  For me the association with Lauren Goodger from The Only Way is Essex wasn't a bad one, OK, so no I'm not a fan of the 'Essex' look what ever that may be, and I don't walk round in skimpy dresses and high heels all the time (far from it in fact) but I do like to have a tan, and occasionally sport a hair extension or two but all in the most subtle and realistic way possible.  

A very good Makeup Artist friend of mine always says if you want a good spray tan, head to essex; they do them so often, they're experts.  Which to me makes sense and Lauren Goodger, I reckon has had her fair share of experience with fake tan....so she's done all the testing out for us and  dare I say it come up with an extremely REEM product!  I'm so sorry thats disgusting I can't believe I just wrote that?

Anyway to cut to the chase, believe everything you hear about this product its flipping amazing.

Before, with about 2 day old Bronze Ambition tan...

It applied really nicely and easily and although the product looks thick when you pump it out, it feels more like a lotion when you apply.  It dried almost instantly which I really appreciate in a self tanner and also, so so importantly, it smells LUSH, even hours after, just a light floral/fruity fragrance and in the morning.........

Straight after application...

Nice even finish, ignore the toilet :/

In the morning after showering.  
Please excuse the terrible state of my bathroom mirror *shame*

I hope this gives you a good idea of the lovely colour it gives you!  Tried to convince the boyfriend we needed to buy a new camera for travelling (that I secretly want for blogging) but he wasn't having any of it!  Soon though, next pay day I promise ;)

As a summary to all of my recent self tan testing; it was great to branch out a bit and not stick to my old faithful but I have to say whilst Laurens Way comes in a very close second, St. Tropez is still my self tan of choice!  There will be an application this week I'm sure so if you aren't stuuupidly bored of fake tan pics I will post about that too, maybe.

I had a little play with the Laurens Way Hair Extensions at TOWIB  and they were beautiful quality, might have to try those too now.....


Thanks so much for reading!

x Lucy x


*01.08.11* I thought I would fill you in on my second application of Lauren's Way, just so you have a very thorough review!  I love it even more than my second application, the colour is the most olive tone I have managed to achieve on me (I mainly always look a tad tangoed) and the best thing is that is doesn't wear off as quick as other self tan's I have used.  I'm on my 4th day of my second application and its still going strong!  Plus still no horrid fake tan smell!!

.The Affordable Tan.

..Bronze Ambition..

The next in my series of fake tan testing is Bronze Ambition, which I was kindly sent, but was very interested to try as it is so so affordable on pretty much anyone's budget so I thought if it was good then it would be a great one to tell you all about!  

The first one I tried from the range was the Fake Don't Bake Tanning Cream, a body moisturiser with a bit of self tan is a product most people are familiar with and is a great way of either topping up a tan in between applications or for somebody who just likes a subtle glow.  I personally like these products for topping up in between or when I can't be bothered to go through the process of fake tanning, which takes a little more concentration and prepping.

I really liked this product, it smells gorgeous upon application, like pineapple and coconut, and doesn't get too 'biscuity' after the DHA's kick in either.  The cream itself is very thick and very hydrating, and it didnt take ages to sink in.  It doesn't have an instant bronze colour but I noticed the colour deepening quite quickly which was good.  It gave me a medium tan colour I would say and was completely streak free!

I just used my hands to apply it but I washed them straight away afterwards!

Me before I applied the cream.

Just after application, I feel it gave me a touch of colour quite quickly.

Couple of hours after application.

Next morning, so you can see it gives quite a good colour after a few hours!


Extremely impressed with this product, especially its £2.99 price tag! What!!?


Next product I tried was the Sun Kissed Mist Instant Spray Tan, I was interested to try this product because it said there was no need to rub it in, you could simply spray and go! 

It took me a few seconds to get the hang of how far away to hold it and I did create a bit of a mess but when I'd established the right distance (I'd say about a foot and a half) it actually did spray on flawlessly and give me even tanned legs!  I was super impressed!  There was occasionally a few speckles but I just patted them with a tanning mit and they disappeared.  Even when I did make the mistake of spraying too close and got a big blob, I just rubbed it in with the mit and it looked flawless still.  It dried in a matter of seconds and didn't transfer to my clothes (or white sofa!), love it.  Its my favourite one I tried from this range and it will be a firm fave in my makeup kit for sure!  Still a steal for £3.99!

Here I have the tan on the right leg and not on the left, I think you could easily build up the colour if you wanted it deeper.  You should have seen the position I was in to take this photo, I looked like I was practising my pilates haha!


The last one I tried was my least favourite, the Bronze Me Mousse, which gives you instant colour and then develops over time too. 

So the ins and outs of this product are; firstly the consistency of the mousse was very runny so I had to be extremely careful I didn't fling it all over my bathroom, which I did a little bit oops haha, but the actual application was very easy and quick.  I used a tanning mit to apply this, which I prefer to do with all mousse bronzers.

I found that it took ages to dry and I had to go to bed feeling very 'tacky' and also with quite a strong biscuit smell to me (boyfriend wasn't too pleased haha) having said that, I woke up in the morning with a gorgeous colour and no sticky feeling left!  Normally I would leave it on for the rest of the day and shower when I got home but because the fake tan smell was a little too strong for me I had to shower there and then!  I think because of this, the colour faded more than it would have done if I'd left it on all day and I ended up with quite a nice medium tan colour.


Here are some before and after pics...

Before.

Straight after application.

You can see how dark the initial colour is and also how even the application is.

Next morning before I showered it off, a lovely even colour, I so wanted to leave it on but the smell was just too much for me.

After shower, faded a little bit but still had a lovely colour and no smell!


All in all I still think this product is great for its £3.99 price tag but if you are like me and very sensitive to that fake tan smell then its not for you, plus you do have to wait a long time for it to dry.  But if all you want is a gorgeous, streak free tan at an amazing price regardless of smell or drying time then this is the product for you!


Bronze Ambition products are available to buy at www.bronze-ambition.com


Thanks for reading guys and let me know if you have tried any Bronze Amition before!


x Lucy x

.The Only Way Is Blogging.

..the first ever TOWIB event..

I just want to do a quick post about the TOWIB event that happened on Saturday!  It was organised by LondonBeautyQueen and was a chance for bloggers to meet each other, find out some info on a few brands and also get some advice on the sometimes confusing world of blogging!

There was a makeover demonstration by Katie Jane Hughes using MUA makeup which I stupidly missed down to my own lazy, hungover, saturday self, and partly the horrid weather!  But there are some gorgeous pictures on SuperGorgeous's blog so go and have a look there!

I got there half way through the talk with a skincare expert from Dove, explaining some things about dove as a brand and also talking us through some of the products that were there, we got given a conditioner which I'm interested to try so look out for a review on that!

Please excuse my bad picture quality, my iphone can't cope with dim lighting but I'm investing in a proper camera very soon so you won't have to put up with this for much longer promise!

Next up was a Q&A with BritishBeautyBlogger, ReallyRee and LondonBeautyQueen which was probably my favourite part of the day as they were all so helpful, honest and interesting!  I was genuinely fascinated and could have listened to them all talk for hours!!  Also I wish I'd written some questions down as I realised I had so much more I wanted to ask them after I left!

Sorry, terrible pic again but just so you can at least have a nosey.

After the Q&A it was ReallyRee's turn to tell us about Laurens Way self tan and do a mini demo, this was great as I have been desperate to try this tan and hear all about it for ages, plus Ree is such a lovely lady so the whole experience was very fun!  And just as SuperGorgeous (Alice) mentioned on her blog post, the most interesting fact of the day for me, had to be that the DHA's in the self tanner actually react with the bacteria on your skin to create the tanned colour, so if you haven't just stepped out of the shower and don't have the cleanest skin in the world then this isn't a bad thing if you want a deeper tan because the more bacteria on your skin, the darker the colour will go!!  No more pre tan showering for me then haha.

I had such fun (in the words of Miranda's mother) and I'm so glad I made it down, go and follow TOWIB's blog and twitter for updates on when the next one is (i think its 15th October) and I look forward to seeing everyone there!

Thanks for reading and I have super guilt bags about this shoddy photography so please forgive me, I promise to do better next time!

x Lucy x

.Another extremely important quest.

..the perfect tan..

Every summer I always dream of  achieving the perfect tan (sad but true), I find a bit of colour more flattering on me personally and it gives me a bit more confidence on the few occasions the sun decides to show its pretty little face and I have to expose a little more of the limbs than I'm used to!

I am always trying different ones out, so this week I'm going to do a series of current ones on the market.  

Just so you know I am uber lazy with actually being bothered to fake tan as much as I would like to and I rarely have that much time to do it either!  If I suited being a pale english rose type, trust me I would be ALL over it, but unfortunately I just don't.

So my fake tan of choice over the last few months has been St. Tropez Mousse, I flipping love that stuff because its so easy to use, doesnt streak blah blah..... but I thought it was time to change it up a bit and see what else is out there and how they compare.

My first choice of self tan was Beautisol, I was lucky enough to get one in the iFabbo event goody bag and thought as I'd never heard of the brand before this was a great opportunity to try it.  From what I can work out its an american brand, its available online to buy and they do a range of face tanners that have been produced for specific skin types which I haven't heard of another brand do before and seems like a fantastic idea.  Anyhoo, the one I have to try is the Dark Body Self-Tanner.

So I'll get down to the nitty gritty, this is me below as a paley with no makeup on.

The bottle comes sealed, and I appreciate stuff like that.

The actual product is very thick and very dark!

This didn't scare me but I was very intrigued as to how it would apply, and I have to say it wasn't the best application I've experienced, it was quite difficult to rub in and it looked quite patchy.  


My normal routine before fake tanning is to exfoliate with gloves and my normal shower gel rather than use a body scrub as often they have lots of oils in, and then lightly moisturise with a body lotion on the dryer areas of my body and moisturise as usual on my face.  I leave it until it has sunk in properly and then go ahead with applying the tan.  


Normally this is absolutely fine and I don't experience any streaks or patchy-ness so I was surprised this applied so badly.  But, I thought its probably just how its sitting on the skin so wasn't too worried about the end result.  


This is me just after application.

The overall finish looked fine, it was just in some areas on closer inspection there were patches, which you can kind of see below.

This is how it looked on my legs after about an hour.

This is me quite a few hours later just before I went to bed, terrible picture I know!

And finally here is a before (so you can see the colour difference), and after I had showered the next morning and applied makeup.  I have bronzer on my face but only to contour. 

The finish was really even after I showered so the patches were only on the surface, I would definitely use this again and be confident I would get a lovely colour but I would not apply before I needed to go out anywhere as the initial application isn't perfect.


MY TOP TANNING TIP: After you have applied your fake tan, before you put on your loose clothing, lightly spray the inside of your arms where they bend and your underarms with an aerosol deodorant to stop any sweating/moisture causing patches or streaks.


Thanks for reading and keep your eyes on my blog this week, as I will also be reviewing Bronze Ambition and Laurens Way self tans.


x Lucy x