Review of the Soap & Glory Glow Job Daily Radiance Moisture Lotion

Hello, so far the reviews I have posted have been about some of my most favourite products, the ones I would absolutely re-purchase, this one is different, I don't really dislike this moisturiser, I just wouldn't want to buy it again. The product in question is the Soap & Glory "Glow Job Daily Radiance Moisture Lotion" which currently costs £5.33 on the Boots website although it says the price was £8 and there seems to be an offer on, I can't recall how much I paid for it, it's a 75ml tube with a stated shelf-life of 12 months.


The packaging is cute like all the Soap & Glory range. This is basically a tinted moisturiser, but the gimmick here is the "built-in micro-bronzer beads". The instructions on the tube tell you to "Squeeze a pea size amount of Soap & Glory Glow Job Daily Radiance Moisture Lotion onto your finger tips, then rub together to release the bronze from inside the beads and blend. Apply to your face in upward circular motions, then just get up and GLOW!". So here's what the product looks like when you first squeeze some out:


At the bottom of the blob, that white ball is one of the micro-beads. The lotion does have quite a bit of scent to it, which I always thought was orangey and having just looked on the Boots website it states that this contains sweet orange peel oil so it's confirmed, it's not particularly unpleasant just not to my taste. I don't really notice the smell from it after it's applied though. I found the best way to break the little beads is to squirt the lotion into the palm of one hand and then rub it around a bit with the fingertips of my other hand, this is what it starts to look like:

As you can see it looks quite messy with bits of half broken beads and the bronzer very unevenly mixed, when it's at this stage a generally dot it around my face and then rub it in really well to get an even coverage. The beads break up quite easily at this stage and disappear. The bronzing colour looks quite dark in comparison to my skin tone but it blends in okay, when I use this moisturiser I generally wear mineral foundation over the top, it's not the most amazing base, I'd say it would be the same as any moisturiser out there, the colour from this product is not that intense. As for it's moisturising properties it works fine, but I don't have any issues with dry skin so I find any moisturiser is good for me.

It's a fun lotion to try out, however it just seems like a bit too much hassle for not that great results, an ordinary tinted moisturiser than can be applied straight to the face would work just as well. The bronzing colour doesn't make an awful lot of difference once it's been rubbed in and it doesn't seem to have any SPF in it which is a shame, the Philosophy tinted moisturiser I've tried had SPF15 which I thought is a nice bonus! At the price of this moisturiser (whether that's £5-ish or £8) I would much rather buy a tinted one that gives some heavier coverage and acts as a better base, so although I will continue to use it up, I would not consider buying it again.

Thanks for looking :-)

xxxxxx

Review of The Body Shop liquid eyeliner.....

Hello, this is my thoughts about my favourite liquid eyeliner, it's in black and it's from The Body Shop. It's just called "liquid eyeliner" plain and simple really! It currently costs £8.50 according to their website, so it's not the cheapest of liners, but definitely the best I have tried so far.You get 2.5ml and the product is labelled as having a 6 month shelf-life (although I have kept it past that, it hadn't occurred to me until now to even check!).


The nib (if that's what you would refer to it as?) is the stiff felt kind, I like this because it means I get better control when applying it. It's also quite fat compared to other brands I have tried, again this works out well for myself because I apply quite a thick line! The handle is tapered, and also long enough that you can hold it like you would a pen which makes life easier.


Hopefully you can see from the image above that the colour is very intense, and also matte, some other liquid liners I have tested in shops seemed to dry with a shiny finish on them which I find a bit odd. The Body Shop website claims that this is water resistant, that's not the case in my experience, this will run fairly easy in contact with water, otherwise it does stay in place all day. The website also details some beneficial ingredients apparently contained in the eyeliner, these are Marula Oil and Vitamin E, I can't tell you if they are doing anything to improve my eyelids but I can say the product has never irritated or dried them out. There seems to be a lot of positive reviews about this on the website, so it must be popular which I'm pleased with because I'd be really disappointed if they discontinued it.

I have been using this eyeliner for about 3 or 4 years now and I still love it. The price does seem a bit dear for what it is but I would say that it lasts me around 8 months (maybe a bit more) so it works out alright considering I wear this pretty much everyday. The only issue I have with the eyeliner is that sometimes I find it really tricky to open, the handle is a shiny plastic and especially if you have a bit of moisturiser for example on your hands then it can take me forever to get into it (not good when you're in a rush in the morning!), this is probably just me though to be fair I can be quite feeble at times. All in all I will probably be buying this product as long as I want to keep wearing liquid eyeliner.

Thanks for reading :-)

xxxxxx

Review of the Sleek Ink Pot eyeliner gel in "Dominatrix"

Hello, I currently have two favourite eyeliners, both black, one is a liquid liner (which I will review later) and the other is a gel eyeliner by Sleek. Sleek's range of gel liners are called "ink pots" and I think they cost around £3 at Superdrug. This is the one I own:


Their black liner is called "Dominatrix" and you get 4g in a pot. The packaging states it has a shelf life of 12 months, however, I personally found it started to dry out after a few months, I've seen other people comment on this too, for me it wasn't much of an issue, I simply dipped my eyeliner brush in the teensiest amount of baby oil and then picked up the product and worked it into the lid, this brought it back to life so to speak.

The ink pot comes with a brush:


It's not the worst quality brush in the world, however, it is quite tricky to use unless you have hands the size of Barbie's as it's tiny! So I don't use this brush (yet I have kept it "just incase" haha) but I guess it's always nice for them to give you something to apply it with. The product itself goes on easier if you have sorta "warmed it up" a bit, by which I mean that I get a bit on my brush and swirl it around it the lid, I find that this softens the gel so that it glides on smoother. The colour is quite intense which I like and it stays put all day for me, although I tend to set it by pressing a bit of black eyeshadow into it, but I think part of the reason I also do this is to use up all the black eyeshadows I have in my many Sleek palettes (I think there's a black shadow in each one)!

Here is the liner tested on my hand:


This liner is great for getting right into the corners of the lower lash line (and staying there!) so most days I wear liquid liner above my top lashes, and this on the lower. I did find this tricky to remove with ordinary make-up removers as it's quite stubborn (which is good because it means it stays in place all day) but it comes off no problem with baby oil, so an oily cleanser may work well on this.

In summary, this is a great, cheap gel eyeliner, although it does have issues with drying out, I can't compare it to a more expensive brand because this is the only one I have tried. I have been using this almost a year now and although I have reached the bottom of the pot in one area there is still a lot left (bearing in mind I wear heavy eyeliner everyday). I will definitely be buying this again.

Thanks for reading :-)

xxxxxxx

Review of the Bourjois Liner Effect Mascara

Hello, I am carrying on the theme of products that I really love and this one is currently my favourite mascara, it's the Bourjois "Liner Effect" Mascara, and this is what it looks like:


You can probably see the tube looks a bit bashed but I use this daily so it's bound to with me. This is currently priced at about £8.99 I think, for a 10ml tube.

Here's a look at the brush:


As you can probably tell from the photo, it's one of those mascaras with the plasticy (or rubbery I'm not sure!) brush. The unique thing about this mascara is that the bristles are long on one side but short on the other, that's all to with the "liner effect" qualities. Once you have used the long bristles to comb through your lashes, you are supposed to use the short ones at the base of the lashes for the liner effect. As far as that goes, there is no advice on the packaging as to how you should go about this, and the one attempt I had failed miserably, it just went onto my lid and was a complete mess, so that whole gimmick didn't really work for myself. However the long bristles are fantastic at separating and lengthening my lashes, they don't add much volume however.

There are a couple of downsides to this mascara, one is the sharpness of the bristles, they are virtually like needles!! I think it's this sharpness that allows them to separate my lashes so well but honestly, get this a little to close to your eye and ouch! The other issue I have with it is that although it coats the lashes well and is a really nice dark black (it says it's enriched with khol so perhaps that' why), once applied, it remains wet for a considerable length of time, meaning that if you shut your eyes or open them too, wide you end up with transfer onto your skin. Saying that once it's dry there is no flaking or smearing like I have encountered with other mascaras.

In summary, I love this mascara because the length it adds to my lashes is really quite dramatic and it doesn't clump them together, you just have to take care when applying so you don't hurt yourself with the razor sharp bristles and give it plenty of time to dry. This has been my favourite mascara for the past year now.

Thanks for looking, hope it was helpful :-)

xxxxxx

Eye make-up removal

Hello, I thought I would just share something that I really like to use to remove eye make-up. I've definately heard people saying not use this as a make up remover but personally I love it! It's Johnson's baby oil.



I would never use this to remove the bulk of my make up (i.e. foundation, blusher etc.) but for eye make-up it works wonders, even waterproof gel liner comes off in one go with this stuff. Previously I had been using Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish, baby oil is so much cheaper obviously, you can get this for £1! For me this takes make-up off a hundred times easier than Liz Earle, but that's just in my opinion, I was never a fan of the cleanser anyway as it didn't really improve my skin, and I never felt as clean after using it as I do when I use an ordinary Clean and Clear or something similar. I know these products will be a lot harsher on the skin most likely but they're cheaper and seem to work better for myself, each to their own I guess.

I apply some of the oil to an ordinary cotton pad and place over my eye, the oil really breaks down all the eyeliner and mascara in no time, then I simply sweep it off. Immediately after doing this I then wash my face with my normal cleanser, to get rid of my foundation etc. and to get rid of any oil left around the eye.



I have been using this method for about 6 months and I have never found it so easy to remove my make-up.

Thanks for looking :-)

xxxxx

Review of Boots No7 Mineral Blush

So I quite enjoyed writing that last review and decided to give another one a go, apologies for the poor quality images, but they are the result of a poor quality camera (plus my lack of photography skills :-P hehe).

Another product that I really like is the Boots No7 “Mineral Perfection Blusher” which I have in shade 05 Rose Pink. On the website today the price is currently £8.75, but Boots always seems to have voucher promotions so you could pick this up quite cheap then. For this price you get 4g of the product and they include an application brush, which I will come onto later.



The packaging claims that this contains a “precious gemstone complex, and soft focus pigments, that diffuses light to give a flawless finish and perfect colour” this would all imply to me that the product would be full of shimmer but it is actually very matte, in the pot you can see the teensiest fine specks of a shimmer but when I wear it I cannot see it all which I like. It also states on the packaging that it contains no talc or preservatives and that it is hypo-allergenic. The fact that it contains no preservatives must go with this whole idea that mineral products pretty much last indefinitely as there is also no shelf life marked on the product either.



The blusher itself is a very pale light pink, which is actually quite subtle when applied:



I like the subtlety of the colour because it means you can build on it if you wish or just have a slight hint of colour. I have very pale skin so I can build this to a nice colour quite easily on me but if you have darker skin I think this may be too much of a light shade to go for. I have been using this product for about 6 months now I guess, maybe a but longer, and there is still tonnes left! It lasts quite well but would need re-applying during a long day, however I find this to be the case for me with any blusher I have used, it could be to do with my skin type. I think there are only two shades in this range, the other one being a deeper colour, I think it may have a bit of shimmer in it when applied, but I’m not entirely sure.

The brush provided with this product is not entirely useless, I tried it a couple of times and you can get a nice application with it, however it’s not very pleasant to use as in my opinion the bristles are quite stiff and a bit scratchy on the face.

In summary I really like this blush because it gives me a nice colour and the fact that it’s a mineral product is a plus for me because I tend to get breakouts if I use too many harsh things on my face, I will definitely be buying this again. My only wish is that they made these products with a better packaging that would allow them to be carried in your bag, I wouldn’t dare do that with this blusher as all the product would come through the sifter and I’d end up in a cloud of blush when I opened it!

Thanks for looking and take care.

xxxxxx

Hello :-) and a review of Collection 200 Glam Crystals glitter eyeliners

Hello, well I’ve been reading make-up blogs etc. online for quite some time now (I find them quite addictive really) and have finally decided to give it a go myself, it’s one way to fill my spare time! Anyway, I’m not really sure where to begin with all this but I thought a good start would be to tell you about some products that I really like and use regularly, so on that theme here goes......

The first products I really love are the range of Collection 2000 “Glam Crystals” glitter eyeliners. They generally cost about £2.99 in Boots and Superdrug, and I think they are an absolute bargain!!

Here are the ones I own:


From left to right they are called; Spandex (no 12), Le Freak (no 5), Night Fever (no 6), Shake it up! (no 11), Dancing Queen (no 8), Hustle (no 4) and Funk (no 3).

In the same order as above, here they are tested on my hand:



As I hope you can tell from the photographs, they are absolutely packed full of glitter, particularly the last three (the pink, silver and gold), which also happen to be my favourites. These last three are also amazing at reflecting loads of different colours, you may be able to see this in the pink one above. I tend to wear these either underneath my eye over a bit of black eyeliner, or alternatively I dot bits of it onto my lid, over eyeshadow and then dab with my finger to blend it in, which I think looks really cool over black eyeshadow! They go on really easily and the brush is quite fine:




These last all day on me and don’t particularly flake off, I’ve never had an issue with the glitter getting into my eye or anything like that anyway! They are very sparkly and very cheap which is why I love them, I have never tried a more expensive glitter liner but I’m so pleased with this range I don’t see the need! :-D

When it comes to removing these I have no problem, however, as I said, I wear these over black eyeliner or eyeshadow, so I was quite shocked today when I had applied them to my hand for a short time to photograph because when I removed them, I was left with a blue stain where the blue-ish toned ones had been. I have washed my hands quite a few times since then with hand wash and they are pretty much gone now but I think that could be an issue if you were to apply these to bare skin around your eye, and I guess it’s kinda worrying that they did that!

Here’s the marks it left:




All in all this won’t put me off using them again, especially the gold and silver as these left no mark and are so versatile, they can add a bit of sparkle to a boring make up look for me.

Well, that was it my first attempt, I hope it wasn’t too awful, and was of some use to somebody haha!!

Thanks for looking, take care.

xxxxxx