August favourites

The last day of August already?! Here are my monthly beauty favourites:-

MAC Formidable nail polish was the best beauty swap this month and I can see myself wearing this shade all A/W long. NOTD here.

Lush Tea Tree Toner - Been using this for about a month now and it seems to be clearing up my skin nicely. I certainly haven't been getting as many breakouts since switching to this one.

Sleek storm eyeshadow palette has been my main go-to palette since I bought it. I've been using it almost as much as my beloved Naked palette. Swatches and looks here.



Nuxe Huile Prodigieuse Multi-Usage Dry Oil (what a mouthful!) was the replacement Beauty Box item I chose and it is amazing. Seriously. So far, I've used it on the lengths of my hair as a shiny, leave in conditioner; on my face before going to bed and on my legs after shaving. It leaves my skin wonderfully soft and smells lush. A little goes a long way so I'm hoping this 10ml sample will last until I've saved up to buy the full size product.





And lastly, I've been impressed with the BareMinerals Flawless Defintion mascara which was in my first Beauty Box. This mascara is my new favourite because it seems to have it all. Sleek, matte packaging, a wand that seperates and volumises lashes, a paraben free formula AND I would say it rivals my other current favourite mascara, Clinique's High Impact. Definitely something I will buy full size.

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August Book List

Here's a quick recap of what I've read this month:-

The Good Study Guide by Andy Northedge - Great guide which covers everything from writing better essays to variations on note taking and reading methods etc. Something I'll continue to reference from. Let The Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist - Loved the film, the book is like a brilliant extended version with lots of character development and added back stories to give it more depth. Face by Benjamin Zephaniah - Interesting young adult novel which looks at racism from the perspective of kids living in the new 'East End' of London. Anyone interested in social work and related fields should read this.

Room by Emma Donoghue - This book has been recommended to me by so many people but I couldn't get past the writing style of the five year old boy. I managed to finish it but I didn't like it much. The Fountain by Darren Aronofsky - Beautiful graphic novel of the same film, stunning artwork. The story is pure escapism. Seven Days To Tell You by Ruby Soames - I won this on Goodreads. I find it hard to find fun holiday reads that are intelligent and this one was just silly and mostly predictable.

The Colossus by Sylvia Plath - Her first volume of published poetry is miserable and full of references of death. I loved it. I'm planning on re-reading her other works soon too. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak - Loved this so much, definitely one of the best books I've read all year and worthy of being an all time favourite of mine. It's set in Germany in WW2 and the ending will have you in tears. You have to read this. Nineteen Seventy Four by David Peace - OK mystery novel, but I'm not compelled enough to read the rest of the series though.

V For Vendetta by Alan Moore - A masked anarchist tries to bring an end to facist rule in England. Coupled with Moore's brilliant prose, this is also one of my all time favourite books. The Crush by Sandra Brown - Another Goodreads win! It was predictable but still an enjoyable escapism novel of the romance/mystery/stalker variety. Birthday Letters by Ted Hughes - It was sad reading this emotional collection of poetry. I can't imagine what Slyvia and Ted's marriage must have been like, but this was a painfully close insight.

No Logo by Naomi Klein - I read this when I was a teenager and thought I'd give it a re-read. It's still depressing as hell but nonetheless an important book. Read it if you haven't already and want to find out more about how the world works and why etc. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain - I've been meaning to read this for a while, I ended up enjoying it more than Tom Sawyer, excellent classic. Wither by Lauren Destefano - Great young adult dystopia about men dying at the age of 25 and women at the age of 20 due to a genetic engineering flaw. Incredibly similar to The Handmaid's Tale concept wise about young women being kidnapped and forced to breed to 'save' the human race, but minus the heavy religious/political stuff. Looking forward to the second book in this trilogy.

Add me on Goodreads for more reviews and books :)

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NOTD: OPI - Party In My Cabana

Excuse the rushed application, this OPI was delivered this morning as part of a swap and I was eager to try it out. I think I like it, definitely another pink that I'd probably prefer on my toes though.


(from L-R: OPI Charged Up Cherry, OPI Party In My Cabana, OPI Confuscious Says Coral, Essie Mauving-Along)

Party In My Cabana fits in with this family of pinks. It's not an exact dupe for any of these but I think it's similar by a shade or so.

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The Body Shop Coconut gift set

I've been having a huge clearout the last couple of weeks and donated some stuff to the PDSA at the weekend. When I dropped off my bags, the lady at the till asked if I'd like to buy a raffle ticket for £1, so I did and won this gift set from The Body Shop! The coconut range has long been one of my favs so I was very pleased to get this. In the set was a shower cream, body butter, body scrub, soap and one of those shower poof things you always seem to get in these sorts of sets. I've used all of these products before and I'm currently using up a bottle of the shower cream at the moment. Karma eh?

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NOTD: Barry M Bright Pink + Nail effects

So happy that it's Friday! I swear this week has been one of those where I thought it was never going to end. Anyway, here's my NOTD or rather NOTW (weekend). I bought Barry M's Bright Pink 279 at the start of summer for my toes. Tried it on my hands today and wasn't a fan. Don't get me wrong, I love pinks, but I like more muted or dusky pinks on my fingers and this one is a little too Barbie for my liking. But when matched with Barry M's black nail effects, it looks pretty cool.

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August magazine freebies

Here's my little magazine freebie haul, better later than never! :-

With Red, I got the orange Balance Me Super Moisturising Body Wash. I know, I know, I have a MILLION shower and bath products already, but this one is 99% natural ingredients, has no nasties like parabens, sulphates etc and is from an eco-brand I have been wanted to try for a while. Plus it's a decent size product!

With Elle, I picked up the pale grey mini Mavala nail polish. I didn't have a polish in this shade so this was of course a completely necessary purchase.

And with Marie Claire, I got the full size Ciate nail polish in Wait Until Dark. I haven't been that impressed with the Ciate brand in the past, so I thought I'd give them another go. Also with the mag was a travel size Dove conditioner which I wasn't that fussed about but I'll try it out nonetheless.





My sister came around earlier and brought with her another copy of Marie Claire with the other free nail polish shade, a pale neutral pink called My Fair Lady. She knows me too well!

And what's that other little item? If you saw my Beauty Box post, you'll remember that I was disappointed with a sticky Xen Tan that I received. I emailed the company and they gave me four luxury sample options to choose from as a replacement. I picked the Nuxe Huile Prodigieuse Multi-Usage Dry Oil (10ml size) which can be used for face, hair and body. It smells amazing so I'll do a review on that when I've used it. The customer service I received from Beauty Box was very good so I've decided to keep my subscription for another box and then I'll see how I feel after that one.

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Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliners

Urban Decay have recently celebrated their 15th anniversary and launched a super amazing eyeshadow collection and eye liner pencil set. UD have always been a firm favourite brand of mine and I've been doing some serious umming and ahhing about whether to splash out on the new palette/box.

Whilst most will agree that their eyeshadows are some of the best on the market, I don't see as much praise for their 24/7 eyeliner pencils as I used to, perhaps due to the popularity of gel liners. I still use my 24/7s on a regular basis though because they are super smooth and creamy, never drag on my skin and last all day.

Above are the ones I have in my collection and some swatches below. Most have been acquired through palettes/Ltd Ed sets.



From L-R: Zero (not the blackest black but I still like it for everyday wear), Whiskey (gorgeous brown), Flipside (from the Alice in Wonderland set, a vivid turquoise), Stash (the most perfect shade of gold, this is probably my favourite) and Ransom (amazing purple/blue/metallicy shade).

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Drop off your plastic bottle tops at Lush!

Lush have recently launched a recycling scheme where they are calling on customers and members of the public to drop off their plastic bottle tops at Lush stores. This waste plastic, which most councils won't take for recycling, will then be recycled by Lush and turned into their black pots. This is a fantastic initiative and one which will help to reduce waste plastic being eaten by sea birds, ending up on our beaches and in our already over stuffed landfills.

You can read more about what Lush are doing here.

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MUA Heaven and Earth eyeshadow palette

Superdrug recently had free postage on its online orders, so I decided to add this to my basket and check out with some surplus Paypal funds. If you follow any beauty related blogs, you'll no doubt have seen this touted as the 'poor man's version of the Urban Decay's Naked Palette'. It's the Make Up Academy £4 equivalent, eyeshadow palette in Heaven and Earth. Verdict? I think it's OK, not as amazing as some people have made out it is, but not terrible either. The eyeshadows are fine with a primer, but some of the darker shades disappeared on me after a couple of hours and needed a touch up. I think the lighter shades are the best in this palette and look great when used for highlighting. Will it be replacing my Naked palette? Hell no!

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NOTD: MAC - Formidable

When MAC released their Venomous Villains, there was one item that I wanted more than any of the others and that was this nail polish called Formidable. It sold out super fast and I missed out on it first time around but managed to pick up a bottle in a recent swap! Formidable is an amazing purple plum/blue/silver mixed galaxy of awesomeness and a stand out colour in my nail polish collection.

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Beauty Box - August 2011

A few weeks ago I signed up to Beauty Box (from Feel Unique.com), one of the (soon to be, no doubt!) many competitors to Glossy Box. Beauty Box operates in a similar fashion, and I was won over by the enormous list of brands involved, especially by the more purported natural/eco brands that I like. In each monthly box, you receive 5 deluxe beauty product samples for £9.95 with free postage (for now) and you can cancel your boxes at any time by phoning Feel Unique's 0845 rate number. This is the first Beauty Box to be released and I was excited to see what would be included and to decide whether I'll continue subscribing or not.

Packaging: Beauty Boxes are posted by Royal Mail 1st class and come from Jersey (tax exemptions I'm guessing?). I received a dispatched email on Wednesday and it arrived today. It's sent in a plain generic cardboard box with a pink 'Fabulous Darling' sticker on it.

The Beauty Box itself is a matte black, very sturdy thickish card box. It has a purple side pull and can be opened like a drawer. Very nice! I can see myself re-using this and I imagine if you're going to be a long term subscriber, you could stack them all up.



The goodies! Everything was cushioned with zig-zaggy black paper bits.



Like Glossy Box, it comes with a card describing each of the products and gives you a 10% online discount code for purchasing the full size items on Feel Unique's website.



Here's what I received:

1. Philip Kingsley Elasticizer (20ml sachet) - intensive super-moisturising treatment for all hair types. A 75ml tube retails for £14.
I love hair masks so I'm excited to try this.

2. Xen - Tan Transform Luxe in Light/Medium (30ml tube) - premium sunless tanner for face and body. 80ml full size is £18.95.
I have natural olive skin so I never use self tan products. I'll be swapping this with a paler friend. Odd how they chose to include this in the first box, considering that Glossy Box had the exact same product last month?

3. Bare Escentuals bareMinerals Flawless Definition Volumizing Mascara (5ml) - paraben free, plumps lashes up to 600%. Full size 10ml retails for £12.75.
As a mascara junkie, I was super pleased to get this! Looking forward to trying it out.

4. Thalgo Frigimince Spray (50ml spray can) - instant cooling effect spray designed to improve the appearance of cellulite, reduce fluid retention and relieve tired & heavy legs. 150ml full size can is £27.
This smells HORRIBLE. It's extremely menthol scented so it smells like liquid Lockets sweets which I hate. I won't be using this purely because of the smell and I don't use these kinds of products anyway as they never work nor live up to their claims.

5. Decleor Aroma Cleanser (15ml tube with 1 muslin cloth) - gentle cleanser for all skin types. Full size 100ml £24.25. I'm currently using up a Clinique cleanser which has started to dry out my skin, so I'll switch and try this out soon.

6. Also included as an extra, was a 2ml spray sample of Jimmy Choo Eau de Parfum. I'm not a big perfume fan so I'll be giving this away, but I am glad that they included it as an extra and not as one of the five products. This was one thing that annoyed me about Glossy Box was how they included perfume samples as one of the products, when they're the easiest things to obtain from any beauty counter for free!




Only downside: erm what the hell is all of that gluey residue gunk? Quality control fail and not sexy :(

What I like about Beauty Box: Good packaging of the box itself, like the drawer concept a lot. Pleased with nearly all of the products and thought that they were decent sample sizes. I especially liked how the full size products (other than the silly Thalgo spray) were reasonably priced. Happy that the perfume sample was an extra.

What I dislike about Beauty Box: Quality control needs checking but other than that I don't have any real complaints.

Overall thoughts on Beauty Box and how I think it compares with Glossy Box: Although it doesn't have the initial WOW factor that Glossy Box does with its pretty pink packaging and cute crowns, Beauty Box does what it says on the, well, box. I was expecting something a 'bit more' wow with BB's first box though, a bit like Glossy Box with their full size Nars Illuminator, something that would get people talking about it but they certainly haven't gone in for any hype. Also in comparison with GB, BB did not include any full size products. I'm not disappointed with what I received, but I do think Glossy Box offers more for your money (even with the postage increase) and feels more like a special treat than BB does. I'm not sure yet whether I'll continue my subscription with Beauty Box because I want to try out Boudoir Prive and then I'll pick one out of those three to continue with.

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Budget Beauty Tip: Use hair conditioner as shaving cream

When I picked up my Sleek bits in Superdrug, I remember seeing a group of young girls going to the tills, their baskets full of products. Oddly enough, I recall them purchasing shaving cream and I thought to myself 'Why?'. Shaving cream/foam/etc is SO expensive, just use hair conditioner instead.

I'm currently using a 91p bottle of Boots own brand Coconut and Almond conditioner and it works exactly the same, if not better, because it doesn't make my skin feel dry afterwards.

Any cheap brand of hair conditioner will do and it's a great way to use up any bottle that you bought for your hair but didn't like. I've also seen people talk about using the creamy soaps from Lush for shaving and that seems to work too.

Save yourselves some £££s and give it a go :)

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Sleek haul: reviews & swatches

Picked up some Sleek products at the weekend and have been trying them out. I'm new to this brand so here are my thoughts and some swatches.




First up, I got the Pout Polish in Bonaire from their current Carribean Collection for summer. It has jojoba, avocado, sweet almond oil in it as well as SPF 15, so it sounded good. The packaging is great, nice and portable and it smells very vanillary. Application wise it goes on a very sheer orange which looks great with sunkissed skin. Only gripe I had with this is that it needs to be reapplied frequently and if you apply too much or without a mirror, you could look like you've been sucking on an orange ice lolly.


Sleek Pout Polish in Bonaire




I've been venturing into contouring recently and decided to give the Face Contour Kit in Medium a go. The highlight side is very pretty but the darker side is slightly too dark for my olive skintone. I swatched the Light kit in the shop and that didn't show up on me so I'm between shades. The staying power isn't great and disappeared after an hour.


Sleek Face Contour Kit in Medium




I've seen these mineral based eyeshadow palettes on various blogs for a long time and was curious to see what all the fuss was about. I bought the Storm palette and absolutely love it. The colours are nicely pigmented and with a primer, these didn't crease or move one bit for the duration of a day and evening. The Storm palette has a great selection of neutrals, highlights and darker shades, which are all shimmery except for three mattes. I was impressed by this and have been eyeing up some of the other palettes.


Sleek Storm eyeshadow palette - Top row, without primer


Bottom row, without primer


Neutral everyday w/Sleek Storm palette (all looks are w/UDPP & Clinique High Impact Mascara)


Going out shimmery look w/Sleek Storm palette


Full on purple smokey eye w/Sleek Storm palette

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Thoughts on the brand: Sleek have a fantastic varied range of products at affordable prices. Although I wasn't completely wowed over by the first two products that I tried, the pout polish is moisturising and would be great for holidays. I'll use it up but I wouldn't repurchase because there are other products on the market which are similarly priced and simply last much longer. The eyeshadow palette is excellent quality, the colours are all wearable and you can create lots of different looks with it. I'll definitely look at purchasing more of these in the future.

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