Review: Dermalogica Overnight Clearing Gel

Since October last year, my skin has been out of control following a break up and then a holiday and all the associated suncream and alcohol. I’ve had just millions of those little bumps under my skin all around my chin and cheeks and being me, I’ve picked at them to try and make them go away and ended up with actual spots… attractive!

After years of hearing people rave about Dermalogica products, I finally decided to get on board and give something a try following a visit to a pharmacist when I reacted badly to doctor-prescribed cream for my skin. She said that I’d be much better off trying Dermalogica and that the prescription creams are really only for severe acne, not the few lumps and bumps that I had! The product I decided to try was the Overnight Clearing Gel, it’s got great reviews online and now I’ve been using it for a month, I’m ready to review it myself.

As with all Dermalogica products, it’s a bit pricey; prices vary between £25 and £40 ish depending on where you buy it but I’d definitely say it’s worth it. It’s quite gel like and goes on really easily, you hardly need to use any product for each application. I normally have quite dry skin and it’s been managing to handle the moisture needs I have just fine too so no need to use any additional products at the same time.

The reviews I read said it would probably cause a few breakouts before the skin cleared and I’d say this is true. I haven’t had anything truly terrible but I have had some extra blemishes appear in the last month. Now however, my skin is smoother, softer and clearer than it has been since last summer. It’s fab! I’ll keep going with this product and see if it gets any better but even if not, I’m really happy with where I have got to and I’m planning to gradually overhaul the rest of my skincare regime to swap to Dermalogica as other products run out.

So there you have it, before you go putting harsh prescription creams on your skin, give this a try, it really is a lovely product which does what it says it will do If anyone can recommend any other Dermalogica products that they’ve particularly loved, I’d be glad to hear about it! x

 

Review: L’Oreal Super Liner Blackbuster

Yesterday I had a little time to kill in town so I popped into Boots to have a mooch and see what new toys I could find. Naturally the 3 for 2 offer on L’Oreal cosmetics caught my eye and I ended up coming out with 3 lovely new products to try. As far as relatively budget beauty goes, L’Oreal and Maybelline tend to be favourites of mine so I was expecting some good things.

The first of the products I have tried out is their Super Liner Blackbuster. This is essentially a black felt-tip pen type eyeliner which massively appealed because I seem to be completely and utterly inept at applying all other forms of eyeliner evenly.

L’Oreal Super Liner Blackbuster, £6.99

As you can see, the tip is pretty chunky which led me to believe I could get a reasonably thick application in one go without too much hassle. Wrong! When you apply the product, it actually comes out in quite a thin line unless you try and use the side of the pen which then becomes a bit awkward. It also feels a bit like a felt-tip pen that is coming to the end of it’s life; not a lot of product comes out and it therefore has a tendency to drag the skin, meaning that you don’t get a smooth line as the skin is bunched up. This also means that you don’t get a strong black colour with one layer, you have to go over it a few times to get a really bold look which is a bit of a pain. Ignoring my eyebrow which needs urgent attention, here is a photo I took without mascara so you could see exactly what the liner is like:

Not good, is it???

As for staying power…quite frankly, I don’t care. When the above photo has taken me 2 coats and still looks that bad, this is not the liner me. My usual liquid eyeliner works much better.

Having seen a review of the Cosmetics A La Carte version of this, I think I’ll save my pennies and give their liner a bash instead!

Anyone else tried any good eyeliners for those of us who are not artistically gifted??? x

Budget Friendly Skin Miracles – Tea Tree Oil

Happy New Year!!!

I hope you all had a wonderful  night celebrating the end of 2012 and the beginning of 2013 last night

If you are anything like me, your skin is probably not naturally at it’s best at this time of year; the cold outside, heating inside and all the junk food we feed ourselves lead to a whole array of skin-based challenges. One thing that I really struggle with is finding a product strong enough to give my skin the moisture it needs to stop that itchy feeling whilst not clogging up my pores too much or giving me a greasy sheen for the whole day! Well, I have found my miracle product at last and it’s not expensive, it’s not full of chemicals and it’s not difficult to use. It’s tea tree oil, pure tea tree oil!

The oil is a strong moisturiser whilst the astringent properties of tea tree oil help to keep my pores in shape at the same time. You don’t need to use the exact product I have shown in the picture, that just happens to be the brand that mine is. Tea tree oil is available in most beauty shops, certainly mine came from Boots and it only cost a few £s.

Now the product says that you shouldn’t apply it neat to the skin and it should be diluted but I’ve ignored that. I’m not advising you to ignore it too, simply saying that so far, this has worked for me. I cleanse as normal and then use a cotton wool ball to smooth the oil over my skin before bed. In the morning I just use my usual moisturiser after cleansing.

So there it is, a budget-friendly skin solution to help you through the tough month that is January! Wishing you all the best for your back to work week, hopefully you have something fabulous lined up for next weekend to get you through! x

Review – Chanel Inimitable Intense Mascara, Purple

The lucky devil that I am, my bf went to the USA this week for work and brought me back a Chanel mascara in a purple colour without even asking because he knows that I LOVE mascara and that my eyes are my favourite feature. Ashamed as I am to say this at 26 years old, this was my first ever Chanel product of any kind so for me it was doubly special

The mascara he bought me is the Inimitable Intense mascara in shade 50, purple. If you want to get your hands on one of these, Debenhams currently have them as part of a savings event so they are £20.70, rather than the usual £23.00.

First thing’s first, let’s look at the brush:

As the picture shows, the brush is small, thin and spiky; for me this is the perfect type of mascara brush. I know some people probably don’t like this but I find it makes it really easy to build up volume depending on the occasion and these types of brushes are good at separating the lashes.

The colour is a deep, plum purple which would be ideal for the AW season with all the berry tones out there, if it wasn’t for the fact that actually it comes out pretty much black when you apply it. I thought maybe it was the light and I needed to be somewhere brighter than my energy-saving bulbs would allow but no, you really just cannot see the purple tone when it’s on lashes as dark as mine.

The second picture is a bit darker as I had to turn the flash off but I wanted to show you what my lashes looked like when I wasn’t sleeping! You get the gist though, no purple on those lashes!

However, if you take the purple out of the picture, I love this mascara, it made my lashes curly nicely and I felt a little bit like I was wearing falsies as they were so long and nicely separated. The staying power is great too, I put that on in the morning before work, worked in a hot office all day, came home to add more eye shadow then went to the theatre and then to Tesco afterwards and still my lashes looked amazing without even a tiny smudge to add to my already epic dark circles! Now that is some feat that not even my precious Lancome mascara has managed.

In all honesty I’d never looked at Chanel make-up before, I’d just assumed the price tags would be so hefty that I wouldn’t be able to afford it. This mascara has totally changed my mind though; having to look at the price tag for this blog post has made me realise what an amazing product it is for the price. They do need to do some work on their colourings but if you were just out to buy a standard black mascara then this is one I would highly recommend. You get the butterflies of owning a brand like Chanel and then you get beautiful lashes to flutter as well – bargain! Anyone else a fan of Chanel’s mascara? Can anyone recommend any of their other products which are particularly good? x

 

Hair of the Moment – Topknot

Having fine hair and being a fan of the bleach, my hair can easily get frazzled, dried out and breakable so every now and then I have to change what I’m doing to try and give my hair some time to recover. So far this year I’ve only had my highlights done twice and am currently rocking a half head of highlights to try and reduce the bleach impact. I’m also considering changing my colour for A/W, but that’s another story!

What I am also conscious of is unnecessary washing and straightening as both of those activities can strip my hair of it’s moisture. However, having such fine, straight hair, I usually overindulge in both washing and heat styling to try and give my hair some texture and shape and boy can you tell! My hair starts breaking and frizzing every few months when it needs some TLC so I’m trying to be more proactive and prevent it getting into that state; right now I am on the case!

The topknot is my style of choice as it allows me to get an extra day out of each wash, (it gives my hair more texture) and of course there is no heat styling required. Love, love, love! What I also love is how easily chic it is; it doesn’t need to be perfect, in fact it’s better if it isn’t and it takes next to no time to create. The topknot is everywhere at the moment so if you haven’t jumped on board yet, you need to, it literally suits everyone! Here’s how messy I wear mine:

And the winner is…

Sorry for the slight delay in getting this post out, I’ve had all sorts going on, not least a broken car – poor Vixen [yes I name my cars, all the cool kids do!]. I have indeed drawn the winner of my first giveaway and the lucky lady is Anna K., from Russia! Well done Anna, your prize will be mailed to you this weekend

The Prize – A Swarovski Aura Eau de Parfum

Thanks to everybody who took part, please keep reading my blog and in return I’ll make it as interesting as I can and host regular giveaways! Hopefully at some point over the next few days I’ll have a bit more breathing space and I’ll be able to post something a little more substantial. Until then, have a great second half of your week! x

First Giveaway – Swarovski Aura Eau de Parfum

Yep, you guessed it from the title… I am doing my first giveaway!

I have a 15ml bottle of the super sexy smelling Swarovski Aura fragrance to give to one lucky person! (Cue, excited jumping around!!!) To enter, all you have to do is follow me on Twitter, etc. (the usual kind of stuff) and the draw will be taking place in a couple weeks

Providing this giveaway goes well, I’m planning this to be the first of a quarterly giveaway just to say thank you to people for reading my blog. As an FYI, WordPress hosted blogs do not support Rafflecopter properly so you’ll need to follow the link below.

Big loves to you all and good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Review – Lancome Hypnose Drama Mascara

I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned once or twice that eye make-up is especially important to me as my eyes are my favourite feature so any time I manage to get my hands on a new product to try, I’m all over it!

I’m not sure how I came to have a travel / sample size of Lancome’s Hypnose Drama mascara but I did and my usual Clinique had run out so I decided to give it a go.

Now when I say give it a go, I have put this bad boy through it’s paces! Firstly and most crucially is the brush, it’s one of those plasticy hedgehog type brushes except it’s also wavy. When it first popped out of the tube I thought it looked ridiculous and I couldn’t imagine how that would work. When I came to use it the first time I also found it a little cumbersome but the results were phenomenal. After just 1 coat my lashes were looking crazy long and were really nicely separated. Check out the result: (nose looked massive from this angle so I have chopped it off & I could not get a decent eyes open pic, the flash was killing me!)

My very close up eyes!

I loved the look so much that I have worn this mascara to work, to a spa and on holiday in 30 degree heat and it’s just brilliant. It doesn’t budge throughout the day and my lashes look really natural and long. My only criticisms are that I would like to be able to layer it up more easily to make it look thicker and it does budge in a spa. The bonus of my Clinique mascara is that it is so hard to get off, it stays put even in water.

Honestly though, for £21, which is cheaper than I though a Lancome mascara would be, this is a bargain. I LOVE IT and am in fact going to replace my sample size with a larger version – something has finally knocked Clinique off the top spot! Now all I’m hoping for is a waterproof version x

Review – Benefit BADgal Lash Mascara

Benefit products have been circling in my peripheral vision for years but I’ve never spotted anything that’s grabbed me enough to give it a go, despite many of my friends raving about the range. Then, last month Glamour magazine was offering free Benefit cosmetics so I thought that would be a great time to give something a try. Mascara is one of the items of my make up bag I feel most passionate about so I went for the BADgal Lash option. Here’s what I thought about it:

Upon unscrewing the brush from the bottle, I was quite excited as the brush is thick and full so I was expecting some serious volume, not least because this mascara is meant to give a true false lash look. Oh boy was I disappointed! The brush was so fat that actually it came out of the bottle with barely any product on it. After coat number 1, my lashes looked exactly the same as they did before I’d put any mascara on. Literally nothing! Maybe it’s just because I’ve just opened it, I thought. In I went again…yes, I double dipped! Sadly the same result. I’ve never been this disappointed by a mascara and for something that costs £16.50 normally, it’s an exceptionally poor show!

I appreciate that it was always going to have a tough time filling the shoes of my Clinique mascara but it was truly terrible. To get some perspective, I asked around at work to see if anyone else had any luck. One colleague who has stunning, long lashes said that she had also tried it a while ago and thought exactly the same as me. Point proven, it’s not just my high standards getting in the way, this mascara just does not live up to its claims.

Sorry folks but this is one to miss and it’s not exactly warmed to Benefit as a product range! x

Review – Ciate Caviar Manicure (My Version Of)

Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you’ve probably heard of Ciate’s Caviar Manicure by now but for any of you who haven’t, essentially it’s a manicure set with beads which gives a bit of a caviar look. Check it out on their website here.

Ciate Caviar – Black

You can buy this in black, white and a rainbow colour (I think they did a Jubilee version too) but black is by far my favourite and was definitely the look I most wanted to try. However, it’s £18 for the set which is essentially a black nail polish and a bottle full of black beads. I figured that as I already owned a black nail polish there was no way I was paying that for mine so I made the set myself.

I used an old black Bourgeois nail polish which has excellent staying power (but you can use any) and then bought my beads on ebay. The beads only cost a couple of £s and they are perfect, look just like the Ciate beads.

The method is that you paint 2 coats of the colour onto your nails then whilst they are still wet, you tip the beads onto the nail. Lightly press the beads into the nail and then use a top coat to seal them on. My beads came in a bag so what I actually did was dip my fingers into the bag which meant no spillage

Here are my pictures – I only did my baby fingers as I wanted to check how long it lasted before committing to full hands!

My Beads

My Nails

I love the look! I couldn’t get mine to look as perfectly nail shaped as they do in the marketing pictures though and that seems to be an issue based on other reviews I have read too.

As for lasting power, I was pleasantly surprised. The odd bead fell off by itself but a day and a half later which included hair washing, typing and filing and they were still in tact. I’m not sure this would be the case if they had been my index fingers but these would definitely last for a wedding or Ascot and they just look so cool! Highly recommended but definitely do it my cheap way x