New Things

A little spree in Boots always excites me and as I had nothing to do yesterday evening I thought I'd better nip in and check I wasn't missing out on anything! 

Its only been a day but so far I'm LOVING the tangle tamer, much prefer over the 'Tangle Teezer' and its about half the price AND its easier to carry in your handbag,,,,winner.

I had a go on the Real Techniques stippling brush this morning with my new Estee Lauder BB Cream and thought it gave a great finish and was easy to use, I can tell I will prefer the buffing brush for foundation though as it's larger and the bristle's don't look as stiff so I'll have to go and purchase that too I think.  I already own 8 Real Techniques brushes, its getting out of control.  I also saw Rebecca Ferguson's makeup artist using the 'Contour Brush' on her this afternoon at work, so they are faves all round I think! 

I love the finish the BB Creme gives, but was slightly worried it may break me out after my terrible experience with the Garnier one and the fact that my skin is generally just very bloody fussy.  When the lady at the Estee Lauder counter told me that their refund policy allows you to return skin products after you have tried them if you have a bad reaction, I bought it immediately.  Fingers crossed it doesn't because I really like it!  At £32 for 30ml, I'm expecting a lot from it to be honest.

The blonde grips are just for my kit, a boring, but very important staple!

I will do a review on the BB Cream after I have given it a longer trial.

New CID Cosmetics - iperfection

I haven't used foundation for 4 months now and even though, surprisingly, it hasn't really improved the condition of my skin, it has been refreshing to cut down my makeup routine in the morning and feel like I have less on my face.  I'm considering a Chanel foundation purchase but am holding off until I actually feel like wearing it!  I used to LOVE full coverage foundations so its strange how I almost don't like the idea of foundation on my skin now! 

Anyway I gave the new CID Cosmetics one a whirl, as I liked the sound of 'light to medium coverage', 'the colour adaptive formulation' and 'radiant glow'.  I thought I could ease myself back in to a foundation with a light coverage, have it adjust to my changing skin tone as I lose my tan from my travels and not be too matte so it looks nice and natural.  But I'm not sure it completely lived up to my expectations.  It was light to medium coverage, but I think that made me realise I definitely want a very light coverage as it felt too much on my skin.  The shade I tried was Latte but this felt too pale for my skin tone even though the shade description did sound like the right one for me to have, I probably would have been better with the next shade up as my face is lighter than my body so it needs warming up.  I also found it a very matte finish, which is weird because I'm a combination skin type and foundations usually feel too greasy if anything.  That isn't necessarily a bad thing but it almost felt slightly drying on my skin.  I did like the pump bottle for hygiene but the packaging felt more 'space age, skincare' (whatever that is!) than a medium to high end foundation bottle but thats just my personal opinion. 

Before

After

On the whole, this foundation isn't really for me but to be fair I have pretty specific requirements at the moment!  If you're after a medium coverage foundation and you have oily skin this would probably be great for you!  I am giving mine to my friend to try as I think it will suit her better, I will keep you posted with her feedback!

Its available this spring at QVC and http://www.newcidcosmetics.com/ and costs £26.

Please let me know if you have any recommendations for tinted moisturisers!

.The Importance of Eyebrows.

Eyebrows are one of the most important things to perfect and can be the key to transforming a face in to groomed perfection.  I normally pluck out the odd stray hair here and there when it appears but apart from that my eyebrow grooming is pretty minimal!  I did get them threaded whilst I was away and did see a difference in the shape, but I want MORE eyebrow, not less!  I love big thick defining brows and resort to filling mine in everyday to acheive this.  When I received an email about RapidBrow, I jumped at the chance to try it!

 It is recommended to use RapidBrow morning and night everyday for at least 8 weeks to see up to 108% improvement in the density of your brows.  It uses a combination of Vitamins, Peptides, Keratin, fatty acids, and almond and apple extracts to do its job!  I have high hopes for this product as I used RapidLash last year and had amazing results, even after a couple of weeks!  After a couple of months my lash thickness had literally doubled and they appeared longer and curlier too!  Since stopping using it I have noticed my lash density decrease but no where near as sparse as they used to be. 

My current Natural brow state...



I will document my progress every two weeks for you to see!  With any luck, in a few weeks, I'll be sporting a pair Frieda Kahlo would be proud of...

I'm back an in need of a spruce up...

I'm not sure if 'spruce' is even a real word, and if it is, how on earth you spell it, but it definitely sums up what needs to be done to my beauty regime at the moment!  I'm sure its obvious from the last post why I haven't blogged for bleedin' centuries, but I am back from my travels now and just about settling back in to 'normal' life.  As it turns out, I'm really missing my little blog, and lack there of...

So I thought I would post all the products that are helping me get back on track and not feel like someone that should be living in a jungle.  Over the last few months I could literally count on two hands the amount of times I have worn makeup, and even then its been minimal!  For me this was a strange and unfamiliar situation to be in, but I quickly got used to it!  A combination of 35 degree heat, living out of a suitcase and not seeing a single person you know for three months would do it to the best of us I'm sure.  Getting back to reality has shocked me in to my old ways of wearing makeup where ever I go but the great influence my 'three months without' has had on me is that I haven't yet worn foundation and have kept it pretty minimal else where...lets see how long that lasts!

I'm living half the week in London and half the week in Bristol at the moment, which is pretty tiring but also the best of both worlds for me!  When I'm in London I pass through Liverpool St Station a lot, and have been resisting the calls of the massive Boots there like a very well behaved young lady, but on Tuesday it got the better of me.  I bought a load of crap (obviously) but a couple of products that I did actually 'need' were these...

It took about two months until I even started to tan while I was away, but then I was being very sensible with SPF and we also had a couple of weeks with no sun at all, even so, who goes to South East Asia for three months and come back pastey??  Unless you're wearing factor 50 the whole time because you burn or suit being a paley, coming back ghostly, to me, is just unacceptable.  So eventually I got right on it with a lower factor and lots of sunbathing towards the end (bad, I know but its only the second time in my life I've ever really been hardcore with the sunbathing) and to my relief, I started to turn!  I ended up with a reasonable colour by the end, and bloody loved it but now I have to endure the next few (painful) months watching it fade :( 

My face, is going first, hence the Soltan purchase.  I have heard people rave about this stuff for the body so thought I would give the face one a go...I used it last night and I have woken up exactly the same colour.  Not what I look for in a fake tan!  If you used to read my blog last year, you will know I like to be just below tangoed - very dark, but definitely acceptable.  Anyway I'll give it a chance and use it a few more times and see what happens.  Im keen to try the Clarins one Vivianna uses.

Godddd, I'm babbling!

Secondly I have NOT been looking after my hair, although I didn't use a hairdryer for three months, I also didn't condition it for three months....arrgghhh! I hear some of you cry.  I know, I'm not sure what I was thinking but lazy traveller ways took over and I do now, have quite long hair but its also DRY and lank.  Oopsie...operation hair spruce up is underway don't worry and I really like the Botanics Leave in Volumising Conditioner!  I sprayed it liberally all through my hair, rough dried it upside down and got a lot of volume and it felt really thick!  Nice work Botanics.  Obviously I do need a good trim but in the mean time, I've been relying on My Bumble and Bumble Deeep mask every few days and also this...

But after reading Laura and Gemma's posts on hair oils, I think this may be one of the ones full of silicone, so while its making my hair look and smell beautiful, its not actually repairing it and for something that has 'Healing' and 'Treatment' in the title AND costs about £30, I'd expect it to be up for a little repairing action...I only know this from reading the ingredients and trying to decipher the long scientific words so I could be very wrong, if you know, please enlighten me!

That is the most rambling, boring and long post ever so my deepest apologies.  I obviously needed to get it out of my system.  The next in the series of 'spruce up' posts will be much more interesting I promise!

Thank you for reading x