June Favourites

Soap & Glory The Righteous Butter (£10.50/300ml) - I'm sure I've made it clear in the past that I'm a huge fan of soap & glory products. I got this in a Christmas set and only got around to using it this month. After a months use I have over half of this left, So it's pretty good value for money in my eyes. Complete with that classic Soap & Glory scent, this butter leaves my skin feeling so moisturised. It also has a really lovely texture too it, meaning its not to thick and sinks into the skin really quickly. A complete must have for me!

Bee Good Honey & Wild Water Mint 3-in-1 Cleansing water (£10.00/100ml) - This is the only cleansing water I've tried which matches up to Bioderma! It just does a wonderful job at removing my make up. I've also found that this cleansing water doesn't irritate my skin and is gentle around my eyes - an area many cleansing waters have struggled with!

The Body Shop Camomile Cleansing Butter (£12.00/90ml) - I brought this cleanser a good while ago now, although because I'm constantly moving around this just ended up in a back up products bag,  completely forgotten about until I rediscovered it earlier this month. I have no idea how a product this wonderful slipped under my radar. It just works wonders, you simply apply this to dry skin then rinse off. I have no idea how it works it just does, even the most stubborn eye make up looks pathetic in its path! Its even left my skin feeling a lot softer which is another bonus!

Johnsons Baby Shampoo (£1.79/300ml) - I have never come across anything as effective as this for cleaning my make up brushes. It just works and leaves them looking as good as new. Best of all this isn't a £20+ treatment, in fact i'm pretty sure you could find this in Pound stores if you looked.

Revlon Nearly Naked Foundation (£8.99/30ml) - I recently reviewed this, so be sure to click the link if you want see a detailed post on it. This is just a lovely foundation for summer, and probably my most used base at the moment.

Essence Eyeliner Pen (£2.49) * - Again this is another product that I've reviewed pretty recently, so if you want to read more go ahead and click the link. This is just my favourite eyeliner at the moment, not only is it super cheap and easy to use - It stays put all day! In fact I'm yet to find a problem with it.

Essence Glow Tinted Lip balms * - I have no idea how much these retail for in the UK, so I will find out for you guys and update this post at a later point. Although I cant imagine them being anymore than £3, as Essence is generally quite a cheap brand. With these, I think I have found my perfect tinted lipbalm, they glide on with ease and feel lovely on my lips. I also love that these aren't just a sheer wash of colour like your average lipbalm, they are really bight on you lips and cloud easily pass for a glossy lipstick. From left to right the shades above are; Light Up, Glam Up and Brighten Up. Expect a full review soon!

So there you have it, all of the beauty products I've loved this month! What have you been loving throughout June? 

June non-beauty favourites

Despite the fact that non-beauty favourite posts are one of my favourite kinds of posts to read, I've never actually posted my own! So I figured June would be the perfect time to start as I've had so much more free time meaning I'm able to take the time to read and watch way too many films again!

Primark London themed make up bag (£3.00) - The first favourite I'm going to talk about is this amazing find from Primark! I absolutely adore the pattern and just had to pop it in my basket. For six months out of the year I live away (and miss) London, so figured this would be such a lovely addition to my room away from home! It's also a really great size, and quite a bargain buy at £3!

Primark Watermelon Candle (£1.50) - As you can see from the picture I haven't even burned this yet, although it is so adorable that I don't know if I ever will to be honest! I just love the look of it and had to share it with you guys as I love having it on my bedside table. I've even had my Mum asking if I can pick her up one next time I visit Primark!

H&M Necklace (£3.99)- I've spoken about this necklace before here. I just love it and find it always seems to be around my neck as it goes with everything.. I may even buy a back up one in case anything ever happens to it!

H&M iPhone case (£2.00) - I was so happy with this bargain find in my local H&M. It just does the job and I really like the pattern.

The Fault in our stars by John Green (£4.00) - I wont go on about this for two long because a) I'm rubbish at describing books without spoiling the story and b) this is everywhere at the moment so if you want to know more about the story itself I'd recommend giving it a quick google. I was a huge fan of this book and found it so easy to read. In fact I finished it on the same day I started which hasn't happened to me in a long long time. I did also see the film on Wednesday, but I have to admit while I preferred the book although I do love that the humour throughout the book was transferred onto screen.  I'd recommend this to anyone, because although at times this is such a heartbreaking story, the book itself is so unbelievably heart warming and you cant help but fall in love with all of the characters I think the quote on the front of this from Markus Zusak sums this book up the best 'You laugh, you cry and then you come back for more'.

The Silver Linings Playbook Book (£3.85) & DVD (£5.00) - I found this book slightly harder to read from the previous, although as I got closer to the ending I just couldn't put it down, in fact I loved the overall story that much that on the same day I walked to my nearest supermarket especially to pick up the DVD. Admittedly they have very different endings but I really enjoyed them both. This is such just beautiful story about the main characters Pats return into society, after a stay at the 'bad place' while the reasons for this stay remain a mystery in the book, watchers are pretty much automatically given this which annoyed me a little. But never the less I loved reading about this characters journey to self discovery and would highly recommend giving it a read.

Apps - I got my ipad a around a month ago now and still cant put it down, I've had an iphone for years, although I pretty much have no memory left so apps had become a thing of the past, so its great to be able to use them again! Lately I've been loving a bunch of apps such as Spotify which I always have on while getting ready (I'm currently addicted to the Fault in our stars soundtrack). I'm also loving the games the app store has to offer and have developed an unhealthy addiction to sims! I never had it when I was younger so I'm making up for it now!

So there you have it, everything I've been loving this month! To be honest I didnt expect to get so carried away with this post (in fact I had to try and shorten it!). What have you been loving this month?

Essence Eyeliner Pen

I'm trying really hard to not bombard you with Essence products lately, although I felt like this eyeliner deserved its own post since I've been wearing it on a daily basis. After blogging a couple of weeks ago about my Maybelline lasting drama gel eyeliner I thought it would be a long long time before another eyeliner love made it into my life. After all I expressed in that post how terrible I was at applying eyeliner and how rare it was for me to like one. While I still have been adoring that that Maybelline one for creating more intense looks on nights out, I have found my new everyday favourite in the from of Essence's extra long lasting eyeliner pen!*

I've tried eyeliners with felt tip applicators in the past although to be honest none have been quite so easy to apply, I think this is down to Essences thin and long nip. It just makes it easy for the product to glide across my lash line giving a really thin natural look or I can build on the line to make it thicker if I'm going for a more intense look.

Although this liner really stood out to me over the weekend, when I spent the whole day in the garden with my face literally melting off. Twelve hours later this stuff still looked newly applied! Since then I've also found myself on the underground on a boiling day and found the same. I just really don't get how this stays so well, especially as it removes so easily with my Body Shop cleansing butter!

Overall this ticks just about every box for me it's; pigmented, long lasting, smudge proof and its pretty damn cheap at £2.49! Whats your favourite Essence product?

Revlon Nearly Naked Foundation

I once said in a 'What's in my make up bag' post, That I probably wouldn't buy this foundation again because it doesn't come with a pump, something which is a fatal flaw for me. While I still stick by what I said there's no denying that this is one of the best foundations I have ever come across.In fact I found myself recommending it time and time again during the #bbloggers chat last night. Which made me think its probably about time I gave this baby a whole post of its own.
There was a time when completely went off of this product for months, lets face it no one needs mess in the morning rush, especially if your like me and tend to wake up ten minutes before you need to run out the door. Although with the recent spell of hot weather I found that so many of my foundations seemed too cakey, and this is just my perfect answer. I just forgot how great this makes my skin look! Despite the light to medium coverage, this does really well at covering what it needs to, all while maintaining a more natural look. It just leaves my skin looking healthy, which is pretty much all I want from a foundation really! This also remains through out the day, meaning I don't find myself getting home after a long day and wondering where my make ups run off too!

Although the icing on the cake for me was the fact that ivory wasnt orange against my skintone, infact I'm pretty impressed with how light this is! Also, despite the fact that I hate the packaging, I must admit I was rather impressed with it earlier today, when it survived a fall to my patio while in the process of taking blog pictures! Overall, I'm predicting that I will eat my words and pick this up again when this bottle runs out. I just wish Revlon would listen and change the packaging as I'm guessing its something many have a problem with!

You can pick this up for £8.99 in Boots , although as always look around for a good deal (personally I brought this on 3 for 2!)

Essence Stays no matter what eye pencil & shadow

I'm having a tiny bit of an love affair with Essence right now, but its just so refreshing to see such an extensive range of products from a budget brand. Today I'm going to be showing you these Stays no matter what eye pencil & shadow sticks*. I was originally introduced to these by the make up artist doing my make up at the Essence event, she used the purple shade on my eyes and insisted I try the other three. 

I have four shades; Gorgeous Grey, Cute Copper, Green Garden and Powerful Purple. All four come in the same crayon style packaging meaning they can be used as either an eyeliner or a shadow. I love that this corresponds to the shade of eye pencil inside meaning its super easy to find the one I want.

While trying these eye pencils out I found that they weren't the easiest shadows to blend, and once the eyeshadow has set there's no moving it. To be honest I regard this as a good thing, as this kind of formula means the shadow was both crease free and long lasting in my eyelids. With these facts in mind, I would say these are more ideal as an eyeliner or as a block of colour, although I have used the bronze shade to contour the eye over a creamer base and it gave a really lovely finish. I also think they would work wonderfully as a base for power eyeshadows.

These pencils give a really accurate application and would be great for traveling as there's no brushes required, although if you wanted a less intense look you could always smudge the product before it sets with your finger.

These are just £2.49 each from Essence which personally I think is great for a product which is super pigmented and long lasting product. Have you tried Essence make up yet?

Free Ciate in Marie Claire

To be honest, I wasn't going to give into any of the magazine freebies this month, although when I saw this nail polish in person I completely caved. While in browsing Tesco 'Ferris Wheel' looked like the most beautiful duck egg shade, however once in the natural light I discovered it was just a baby blue shade. Don't get me wrong, this is still a nice shade, I just have another billion like this already in my collection. Along side the mini 'Ferris Wheel' I also received the 'frost yourself' caviar pearls, although to be honest I think these are kind of dated now. If blues not your shade there were also a few nice colours up for grabs and not to mention 20% off ciatelondon.com with code 'MARIEC20'. Marie Claire retails at £3.90, although its currently £2.50 at Tesco! 

If you're interested next months magazine (on sale 3rd of July) comes with a choice of balance me goodies! In the form of the cleanser and smooth face balm (40ml) or Moisture rich face cream (25m1). Will you be grabbing it?

Essence hair dye powder

Much to my Mothers despair my little eleven year old sister is pretty much obsessed with the idea of brightly coloured dip dyed hair, so as you can imagine they were both other the moon when I brought home these more temporary solutions in the form of Essence's Rock Style hair dye powders*. 

There are four shades available, bright blue, marvelous mint, pretty purple and pink punk. Each powder comes in a sturdy plastic pot which matches the shade inside. The eyeshadow styled packaging also makes for a super easy application, I simply press her hair into the powder starting where she wants the look to begin and pull it down to the ends of her hair. Once this is done I tend to brush her hair to make the look less intense and seal with hair spray. This process literally takes under a minute and once in place lasts until her next hair wash.

I was super impressed with how well this showed up in her brown hair although my main concern was that the dye was going to transfer everywhere, this hasn't been much of an issue though. I would however recommend having a wet wipe on the go and wearing an old towel around your shoulders for application as otherwise the dye can leave your hands and t shirt covered in dye.  I will point out this really easy to remove from the skin and fabrics (once in the wash was enough to combat this).

After a few uses, I know my sisters hair started to feel a little dry, although she is now combating this by insuring she gives her hair a good condition whenever she washes it and trying to reserve using the dye for special occasions rather than an everyday thing. Here she is wearing the shade pink punk brushed out slightly to give a less intense look.

So there you have it, a great solution to anyone who wants to experiment more with their hair without any major lasting damage.. I have a feeling these will be flying of the stand in time for festival season! You can pick these up from Essence stands for just £2.99.

Maybelline Lasting Drama Gel Eyeliner Pen in Black Excess

Despite trying tones of beauty products every year, there's one product I've never been able to master! If you haven't guessed from the title already, I'm talking about eyeliner, although this new launch from Maybelline has been a complete game changer for me, and thanks to the ease of application has become a staple in my make up bag.

I've had my eye on the They're real push up liner since posts first started popping up around a month ago, although at nearly £20 I was pretty determined to find a cheaper alternative and as you can imagine I was over the moon when I saw this Lasting Drama gel liner from Maybelline.

While this isn't the cheapest product around at £8.99, its around £10 cheaper than the Benefit alternative! The design is also really similar being a gel formula in a pen form with a flexible angled tip. You simply turn the bottom of the pen once to release the product, although if too much spills out like in the below picture be sure to wipe any excess away.

I really like the packaging of this, not only is it clean and simple the fact that you screw the lid into place insures the liner is kept in the best possible state and is less likely to dry out.  As I've already mentioned liner is also a gel formula means that you still get that intensity which comes with classic gel liners with the ease of a pen style applicator. This angled tip also allows users to control the thickness of their desired line. Once applied this lasted all day on me without any problems. Although this isn't the easiest product to get off so I'd recommend using a good remover along side it (I found Bioderma works a treat).

Overall I think this is a great little product, and potentially a fantastic Benefit They're Real Push Up Liner Dupe! You can find it on the highstreet for £8.99, although as always look out for offers!

Nineteen

It was my birthday whole two weeks ago now, so today I figured I'd show you the gifts I was lucky enough to receive, as personally I love 'what I got for my birthday' type posts. We attempted to have a BBQ in the rain, which was interesting to say the least.. and I'm pretty sure I've had enough burgers to last me a life time! Along with cake.. Tesco had a 3 for 2 offer so my Mum picked up three birthday cakes! Never again can she judge me in Boots! 

Speaking of three for twos, I was in Superdrug with my Mum the other day eyeing up the new Maybelline lasting drama gel liner. I put it back on the stand because it was around £9 which I think quite expensive for a highstreet product, this resulted in my mum picking it back up and announcing she was going to buy it for my birthday. I'm so happy she did as I love this product and should have a review going up soon! As there was a 3 for 2 on, I had to pick two other products so I ended up getting this Maybelline superstay better skin foundation which I had a sample of and loved, along with this Max factor face finity primer. My good friend Angelica from  LFA also got me some lovely beauty goodies, including this Topshop glow stick in play up which I've been lusting after for some time now and an array of pretty nail polishes from kiko, She also got me this really pretty rose shaped lipbalm which i look forward to throwing in my bag as its really cute!

I love bath & body products so I was super excited when I opened this Laura Mercier gift set from a family friend. The set contains Laura Mercier's Crème de Pistache body wash, body cream, hand cream and perfume. I've been lusting over Laura Mercier for such a long time so expect to see some posts about this in the future!

I was also lucky enough to get a few bits of jewelry from friends including this necklace and two lovely bracelets. I was also really happy to get these really cute Disney PJ bottoms from a friend along with these pretty socks and candle which i cant wait to burn.

My Mum always tries to get me some new DVDs and books to go along side my other presents, this year she got me two DVDs; Going the Distance and burn after reading. She also picked up The Fault in our stars by John Green which I cant wait to read! One of my flatmates also brought me a Wreck this journal which I've wanted to own for years so I was super happy about that!

I'm a huge chocolate addict so was super happy to receive an excessive amount! Including a few of my favourites! I've been so busy lately that I some how have two boxes left, although that's nothing a couple of Netflix nights cant solve!

Finally I wanted to make an investment, rather than wasting my money on clothes and make up, so instead of having a shopping trip with the money I was lucky enough to be given, I put it all together and added a little of my own to buy myself a reconditioned ipad2.

So there you have it everything I was lucky enough to get for my birthday this year!

Essence Blogger Launch

Last weekend myself and Angelica had the pleasure of attending an Essence Blogger event, which only made me more excited about the budget friendly brands launch in the United Kingdom. I've heard so much about these guys from other bloggers in the past, so I'm ecstatic that we can now pick their products up nationwide in Wilkinson's from July.

Before last week I really didn't realise just how extensive Essence's range of products was.. they literally stock everything with a pretty impressive shade range too! But I think the thing I was most blown away with was the price point, I knew they were a budget brand before although I didn't realise just how amazing the products were for the price point!

We got a chance to try out the products the brand had to offer, The Essence girls were also on hand to tell to help and demonstrate how to use particular products.

One of the lovely product developers Patricia was around to show us her favourite products, she also recommend a bunch of products she thought I would love which was really helpful given the sheer amount of products Essence have to choose from.

Although the majority of our time was spent talking nails, and being taught how to use the Essence gels at home by the amazing Laure, we also met one of our new favourite people Rachel here. Like everything else, I was once again I was amazed with the price point of the gel at home kit, and adored the fact that you could use normal polishes from the range which retail at £1.59 along side the base and top coat to create a range of gel nail looks rather than spending a silly amount on just one which has been designed to be a gel polish.

The steps to create your desired look were very simple, although i know I'll be reviewing this soon so I wont say too much in this post!

Once our nails were complete I got my make up done by Nadira, who pulled me away from my comfort zone, and used some brighter shades on my eyes, While I cant say I'll be sporting purple eyeshadow everyday it definitely made me consider brighter shades on a night out. Like everyone, she was also really lovely, and just as amazed by some of the products as I was.

Lastly we were whisked away from the event to the White City Westfield where we were given a sneak preview of the new stand which opened as of Monday, How they've managed to cram so much into one stall is beyond me and its well worth a look if you're in the area! All in all I had a wonderful day, and would like to say a massive Thank you to Essence! Not only were Essence girls so so lovely, I was totally overwhelmed by there generosity. You can expect to see a load of Essence reviews coming your way as I am so impressed with this brand! Lastly a big Thanks to LFA, for letting me steal a few pictures in this post while my camera was playing up - You're a star!