May 2014 Birchbox

The title says it all. Come see what I got in this month's Birchbox! 

My thoughts: I actually didn't like this box at all, but I am not complaining as they put some rather lovely and expensive stuff in there.

Although the shampoo & conditioner looked promising, I'd only be able to use them twice as I use massive amounts of both in each shower as I have so much hair. 

I'm not a huge nail varnish user, and I think the colour I received was awful as I dislike that colour quite a lot but I'm sure other people would love that colour.

I'm sure that most people that receive a sample size of Benefit's They're Real mascara would squeal for joy, but not me. I bought it a fair few years ago and it did not work for my crappy lashes at all, so I threw it away. Biggest waste of £19.50 ever! 

I don't use body oil. Maybe I should but meh. 

The hot cleansing cloth & cleanser is also something I will not use. I work long hours and don't have time for long beauty skin regimes, especially if it requires me to stand in my freezing cold bathroom getting all my makeup off. 

I decided not to open any of it; I carefully rewrapped up the hot cleansing cloth stuff, popped it all back in the box and gave it all to a work colleague to give to his wife. Waste not, want not! 

MAC Paint Pot Let's Skate!

So I went into a MAC store today. I shouldn't have, but I was terribly naughty. I had to! 

I tested out this little beauty in store and knew I just had to have it... 

In the pot it looks like a white-creamy pink, but when it's swatched... Well! 

It's a pale pink with golden shimmery flecks throughout, it's such a beautiful colour. 

Pictures: 1st swatched on hand next to window. 

2nd same hand swatch stood away from the window.

3rd swatched on my tattoo (to better show the colour & shimmer) stood next to the window.

4th swatched on my tattoo stood away from the window. 

Absolutely amazing colour, fantastic on it's own or as a base to make other colours really pop. 

Any paint pots you lovely people recommend to get next? Hugs! Xx

Avon 8 in 1 Eyeshadow Palette in The Nudes

Because there seems to be no slowing in my ongoing addiction to makeup, and with my holiday to Ibiza getting ever-closer, I decided to buy this eyeshadow palette from my local Avon Rep.

It's really small and compact, at only 4 and 1/2 inches long (almost 12cm), so this is the perfect size to travel with.

Inside it has an inbuilt mirror inside the lid and two, double ended sponge-tipped applicators for ease of use.

The first four colours close up. There are no names for these eyeshadows, which is a shame.

The same first four colours, swatched on the back of my hand.

The last four colours in the palette...

And again, the last four colours swatched on the back of my hand.

My thoughts: I bought this palette when it cost £7, down from £12, and I'm kind of glad that I didn't pay full price; the colours are a little on the powdery side, and the pigmentation and quality isn't the best. I have MUA palettes that cost £4 that have better colour payoff than these, but I do like how portable this palette is, and I will be taking this abroad with me as it is cheap and the colours are good for everyday use.
Would I repurchase?: No, I don't like the eyeshadow colours enough and there are better palettes out there for cheaper. Despite this, it's not too bad and I will definitely be using it as an everyday eyeshade palette when I go abroad.

Sleek Blush by 3 Californ.I.A

I saw this blush on someone else's blog and I thought to myself "I must have this blush palette, I must!". The thing is, I'm not exactly short on the whole blush situation, I have at least 12 different blushes, both powder and cream formula, but what harm would three more do?

So the box looks like this. I love Sleek packaging. It's just so... Sleek.

I thought I'd include the ingredients for y'all to see, so it might help you decide before you buy this little beauty.

When I opened it up I was delighted to see these three stunning colours. From left to right (both in above and below photo's):
Newport Beach, The Surf, OC

Swatched on the back of my hand, these three colours are so creamy and blendable, and look really beautiful. As you can probably tell, Newport Beach and OC are more pigmented than The Surf, which is sheer when blended out and also has a light shimmery finish.

I think this is a fantastic palette for pale to medium skin, these cream blushes can be used on their own or blended together for a more customised look, they can be blended out to a simple, sweet flush or built up for more blush-drama.
This sells for £9.99, and to be perfectly honest, it's worth every penny. If Sleek do any other cream blush palettes in the future I will definitely buy them.

Parabens in makeup and skin care

I'm sorry but I'm really frustrated and want to rant.
I love buying makeup and skin care products. I spend literally hundreds of pounds on it yearly, but trying to find paraben free makeup, skin care, body lotion and anti-ageing products is no walk in the park - it's more like an uphill ice skating competition. You may ask why I want to avoid parabens... So now I'm going to tell you...

Parabens are used as anti fungals in lotions, eyeshadows, pressed powders, toothpaste, mouthwash, foundations, moisturisers, anti-ageing creams, lipsticks, concealers, shampoo, spf sun creams/lotions, hand creams, perfumes - the list goes on. Their basic job is to help prevent *insert paraben-containing product here* from 'going off' and keeping the product fresher for longer. Sounds good, right?

Wrong.

There have been recent scientific studies, especially on methylparaben. This particular little nasty has been creeping into our bodies and doing all sorts of nefarious things without us even knowing. It has oestrogen like properties - it mimics oestrogen - which has been found in breast cancer cells/tissue, and it is under investigation whether methylparaben and breast cancer may be possibly linked.
When it is absorbed by the skin, it bypasses the metabolism, which can be a real problem; because of it mimicking oestrogen, men that use lotions on their bodies that contains methylparaben are at risk of infertility. A study also showed that men that used a paraben lotion on their skin had parabens present in their blood and urine for a long time after.

Ok, so that's men covered. Let's get to the beauty side of this...

Scientific studies show that 19% of skin cells that contain methylparaben, when exposed to UVB light, de-oxiginate and die, destroying the DNA of the cells in the process. It causes premature ageing. Parabens in eye drops damages the lining of your eyes and even causes cornea damage too. 

Worried yet?

I'm terrified.

This stuff is absorbed easily into our skin. It is put in anti-ageing products, sun creams, skin care lotions, and a massive variety of makeup.

And before people even bother to say "Oh, but the amounts in the products are hardly enough to cause those kind of problems! Don't be so dramatic!", I have to point out this:
Say you use a paraben containing shampoo, body lotion, facial moisturiser, hand cream, foundation, blusher, pressed powder, primer, eyeshadow and lipstick every single day... Imagine how many parabens are being absorbed on a daily basis. Now times that by how many days over how many years you've kept that routine, and then add how much time you've spent in the sun, possibly adding the amount of paraben-containing SPF sun cream you've used... And voila. 

Ooookay. Rant over. Many apologies but it's been slowly driving me crazy.

Review: Bourjois Rouge Edition Velvet 03 Hot Pepper

You know I'm a huge fan of red lips. It's a lip colour that never seems to go out of fashion, and I hope it never does, so when I stumbled across this little beauty, I knew I had to have it. 

It's kind of a small tube, around the length of my thumb, but I really like how sturdy it feels. 

A quick swatch on the back of my hand... I love this colour, it's an orange-based red, and because I wear fake tan, this colour is best suited to me (without fake tan I need blue-based reds).

The application is easy enough, and it doesn't set so fast that you don't have time to play around with it. But once it is dry, it goes beautifully matte without drying out my lips. This is a big thing for a matte lip colour. Every matte lipstick/lip colour I've ever tried has made me go running for my lip balm, with ill-made promises never to do it again.

This lipstick states it has "light texture, extreme comfort and 24hr hold". 

I love putting these things to the test - let's do this!

 Above: my lips after 6hrs. I'd had two cups of tea and a huge Sunday roast. It actually looked better from a distance (my camera was around 4-5 inches from my lips) and still felt comfortable. 

Above: my lips after almost 8hrs. It definitely wore away on the insides of my lips and at that point I decided to take it off with an oil-based makeup remover. 

Light texture: Most definitely. 

Extreme comfort: It wore comfortably for a long period of time without drying out my lips (now that is comfort to me).

24hr hold: That's always a very bold claim, but for it to hold up through eating and drinking and still look pretty darn good, well, let's just say I'm pretty impressed. 

Love Alpha Mascara Fibre Mascara Review

Oh my goodness, I haven't blogged in forever! I've kind of lost my YouTube mojo at the moment; I've lost my inspiration to film videos.

BUT! I have a mascara that'll lengthen your lashes more than you could imagine and for less than £5! Still reading? I hope so... 

This is the case. I don't much care for leopard print but I'm sure there are plenty out there that would appreciate it more than myself. It is pretty sturdy and hard wearing though, that much I can say. 

Inside we have two wands. The longer one at the back is a 'transplanting gel', basically a black mascara, and the shorter wand contains the fibre wand. 

Above: a close up of the transplanting gel/mascara wand.

Above: a close up of the fibre wand.

Ok, so the skinny of this is to use the mascara wand first, then brush on the fibres, then go back over with the mascara to lengthen your lashes. You can, if you want, add another coat of fibres and then add another coat of mascara for extra long lashes. 

Ok! Now that's out of the way!  

Above: bare, uncurled lashes.

Above: one coat of transplant gel.

Above: coat of fibres over the lashes.

Above: second coat of transplanting gel to lengthen the lashes. 

Above: on the left, eyelashes with two coats of mascara. On the right, Love Alpha mascara/fibre duo. 

My thoughts? Well, for around £4 this is a steal. You can buy them from eBay or aliexpress.com (the latter is cheaper but it'll take longer to arrive). There are other mascaras out there that do the exact same thing but cost £35, so this is worth the money. However, the transplanting gel goes thick and gloopy quite fast with repeated use, which makes it less effective for the fibres to hold on to. That being said, you can buy 4 or 5 for around £20, so I reckon you still get your money's worth. 

I personally have been through around 8 of these Love Alpha duo mascara's so far, and I will continue to buy them because they work wonders for me.