NOTD: Essie's 'Go Overboard'

On my nails at the moment is this gorgeous shade from Essie. 'Go Overboard' is a very deep blue/green with a cream finish. I absolutely love the colour, and I don't think any photo can do it justice, it photographs a lot darker than it is. In person, the light bounces off it and it is so interesting to look at.

I have two coats in the picture above, but I think you could get away with just one coat as it is a really opaque formula and Essie brushes lend themselves to a near perfect application. Can you tell I just love Essie in general?!

I also love the name, I think it describes it perfectly, the blue of the sea and green of seaweed. I think this is a great colour to try if you are getting tired of the reds and plums that seem to come with winter trends.

Have you any suggestions of other great colours in the Essie line?

http://www.essie.com/shop/product_info.php?products_id=406

Review: Boots Extracts Cocoa Butter Sugar Scrub

I've been using this scrub for about 5 months now so I think I have a well informed opinion on this!

 You get a lot for your money with this product, as you can see I have a lot left and I use it 2 or 3 times a week. It smells lovely, but if your smell it for too long it can smell a little plasticy. I quite like this scrub as the particles really do feel like they are exfoliating, although they feel more like sand particles than sugar.

 My only gripe with this scrub is that it leaves a very waxy residue on the skin afterwards, which is incredibly hard to wash off and slightly ruins the effect, but you may like that feeling or find it moisturising. It also makes your shower/bath very slippy and pain to clean off the grease.

This costs £7.95 at the moment, which I'm not sure it is worth at all. I won't be repurchasing when this runs out and I may not use it until it's finished just because I think I will get really sick of trying to wash off the oil every time!

http://www.boots.com/en/Extracts-Fairtrade-Cocoa-butter-sugar-scrub-400ml_997802/

Do you have any recommendations for a non waxy or oily body scrub
xo

Soap and Glory's 'What's Nude' Eyeshadow Palette

I've had this palette for about a year now and I've had quite a lot of use out of it. Soap and Glory's Lid Stuff Flawless Finish Eyeshadow in 'What's Nude' is a lovely little quad. It's perfect for the times when you don't have much time to pull together an eye look and want a little more than a wash of colour on the lid.

It comes with 4 shades, Vanilla - a matte white, Pink T - a matte skin toned pink, Mudhoney - a matte light brown and Aubersheen - a purple/brown shimmery shade. I love that there are so many matte shades, as nearly every palette from every brand is all shimmer shades or just one matte shade thrown in.

The typical look I throw together with this is to put a wash of Pink T all over the lid to even out the skin tone, then a wash of Aubersheen, taking it up into the crease and building it deeper into the outer corner, and then lightly fill in my eyebrows with Mudhoney and push it into my lash line for some definition. Sometimes I will use Vanilla as a browbone/inner corner highlight.

The only gripe I have, which you can see in the swatches below is that the shadows are slightly chalky and do have a tendency to drop down upon application. Soap and Glory promise 8 hours of no crease wear, which I can definitely say this is true for me, but I never have problems with creasing anyway.

I also really like that this palette doesn't come with a horrible sponge applicator that would fall out every time you open it, and which I always throw away anyway! This palette retails for £10.00 but Boots nearly always have a 3 for 2 offer or something similar in the lead up to Christmas.

http://www.boots.com/en/Soap-Glory-8482-Lid-Stuff-8482-Flawless-Finish-Eyeshadow_1243290/

Moisuriser of the moment

So England has pretty much skipped Autumn and gone straight to winter, which means my face is as dry as a pie.

No 7 Beautiful skin Day Cream for Dry/Very Dry skin is lovely. It is super thick and creamy and my skin just drinks it up. Because it's so thick, it is quite tricky to smooth into the skin and requires a bit of pressure, but I am more than willing to do so to get it into my thirsty skin!

Also it contains SPF 15 which is great as I'm lazy and cannot be bothered or have the time to layer an SPF under my moisturiser everyday!

The range caters for most skin types, but I can't speak for the Normal or Oily versions. This retails for £12.50 but I always wait for the Boots No 7 £5 off vouchers to repurchase this!

http://www.boots.com/en/No7-Beautiful-Skin-Day-Cream-for-Dry-Very-Dry-Skin-50ml_1245036/

October Glossybox: Initial Thoughts

This months Glossybox theme was 'DIY beauty' so we could all have the 'ultimate home spa experience'.

I don't think all the products I received fitted into this theme, but that doesn't mean that I don't like them!

The first product is but the brand Anatomicals, 'Don't just clean in woman, scrub it' body scrub. I'm always in the market for a body scrub as I find a lot of body scrubs leave behind a thick layer of Vaseline type oil on my skin, which I just don't like. So I was delighted when I tried this and it was a nice gel consistency. It smells of pink grapefruit, which smells delightfully zingy in the shower, and perfect to start the morning off! 

I'm slightly disappointed with the size of the exfoliant beads in this, as I feel there are more suited a face scrub and not the body, but I suppose they are more gentle on the body and buffs just enough. The packaging and branding is very similar to brands like Soap and Glory and Benefit who use retro images and word play about female stereotypes. Overall I really like this!

Full size is £3.49, deluxe sample is worth £1.30

The next product is Dermalogica's 3 step day and night kit. The size and products included in this kit are perfect for travelling with. It includes a gel foaming wash, which is very thick and slightly harsh on my skin (which is very dry) and leaves it feeling very tight. A spray mist toner, which I actually love as it cuts down on cotton pad waste! And finally a moisturiser with SPF 15 which worked fine on my skin.

I do really like this set, with one small gripe, I'm not overly keen on the scent of the products, they are a sweet citrus scent, slightly sherberty, which unfortunately is a bit too toilety for my liking but luckily it fades very quickly once on the skin.

Each kit costs £12 

My box a lso had the Skinetica Anti-Blemish Solution. I usually use a gel spot treatment from Avon which works a treat to dry the spots out for me, so I was interested to try this. It smells really fresh and clean,  it doesn't sting on application, but I haven't noticed drastic results with this. It does say in the Glossybox leaflet that it takes a 2-3 days to see results so I think I need to bide my time and it may be a miracle worker!

Full size is £6.99, deluxe sample costs about £0.70 - £1.00

The last product is Yves Rocher Moisurising Cream Lipstick in 101 Framboise. I am a giant lipstick junkie, so I am always pleased to see a lippy in my Glossybox! This is a really pretty bright red upon fist application, it glides onto the lips like a balm and feels really comfortable on. I had no problems with it bleeding, I even ate a sandwich about half an hour after putting it on and it barely shifted, it just faded to a more darkish fuchsia colour. And it smells like talcum power! 

Lipstick costs £14.50

Overall I think this is a great Glossybox, I'm very impressed and shall continue to enjoy these products!

You can sign up to Glossybox here http://www.glossybox.co.uk each monthly box costs £10.00 plus £2.95 p&p.

Total Glossybox worth: £28.50

NOTD: Avon Colortrend 'Bikini'

Thought I would start off my new blog with a nice Nails of the Day!

I have decided to take a step back from my Essie obsession, since they became so easily purchasable in Boots and decided to go back to a polish from Avon's re-branded Colortrend line.

'Bikini' is a really pretty and creamy coral. It's on the pinker side of Coral and in darker lights can look like a dark baby pink. For the price of these polishes they are surprisingly opaque, in the picture below I have two quite thin coats on.

I like that these polishes are smaller than a lot of high street/drug store brands at 8ml, as I don't think I've ever finished a nail polish before they go gloopy or I fall out of love with it in the 10-15 years I've been wearing it!

They seem to be on special offer at the moment for £2.50, what a bargain!

http://avonshop.co.uk/product/make-up/nails/color-trend-color-me-pretty-wet-look-shine-nail-enamel.html

Anyone have a recommendation for your favourite polish at the moment?!

Beth xo