Monday 29 February 2016

Lush Which Came First Bath Bomb

This year Lush have again brought out a fab range of Easter themed products. One of their Easter Eggs I bought was Which Came First. Last year Lush brought out a bath bomb called Immaculate Eggception, which was basically a large bath bomb that you break in two and you get another egg inside. This year Lush have brought out a similar product called Which Came First.

The idea is very similar, you crack the egg open to reveal a small chicken egg inside. Last year was slightly different as it was a small bunny rabbit egg. The design on this year is different too and unlike last year there is only one design available. One side of the egg is pink and yellow while the other one is pink and blue.

This is more expensive than regular Lush bath bombs as it is a bigger product. This one will give you three baths. I had great fun cracking open my egg, a word or warning - it does get quite messy.




Once broken you can use the yellow, blue and small egg as separate bath bombs. I favorite was the blue as I like the color best. Both the yellow and blue fizz fast when dropped into the water. The only color effect was the yellow or blue fizzing out of the pink, before dissolving to give a pink bath. The scent is really nice, sweet and citrussy. 



Once the egg has been cracked it reveals a small chicken egg which I find really cute. This one fizzes really fast in the water and only really changes the water a yellow color.


I really like the idea of doing an Easter range of bath products. They make excellent gifts for all different people.

Chanel Harmonie De Blush - Sunkiss Ribbon

When I was trying out the new spring Chanel collection a few weeks ago I went for this awesome blusher called Sunkiss Ribbon. With some of the collections Chanel bring out, they often release an item with a limited edition pattern on it and for the spring collection it was this blusher.

It basically has 5 different colors in it - orange, bronze, coral, pink and bright pink. Now this is a blusher for those who love their color. Stamped into the blusher is the name Chanel.





There are many different ways to use the colors in this blush. I personally like to swirl my brush around in all of the colors to create one unique look. It is possible to use the colors individually too. There is an insane amount of pigment in this palette and you don't need to use a lot to get your color on your cheeks standing out. There is a bit of shimmer too which gives my cheeks a nice glow.

The texture is nice and soft too and is very workable. Once on it doesn't need reapplying as it doesn't fade.

Some brands that put limited edition designs into their products really don't make the pattern long lasting. Chanel on the other hand isn't one of those brands and the pattern on the product stays and doesn't fade. This blusher is no exception.

Unfortunately this is a limited edition item and has probably sold out. I got mine a couple of weeks ago not long after the collection had launched. By then some items had sold out already, so this one probably has now.




Sunday 28 February 2016

Dior Forever Foundation

Not so long ago I got invited to a Dior blogger event in Cardiff which was about the new spring collection as well as the re launch of their Forever Foundation. I've been needing a new foundation for some time so I used the event as a good opportunity to try the new foundation.

After having bad experiences with foundations I haven't tried before - drug store and expensive, I do tend to be a bit wary of trying a new one. My last bad experience with an expensive foundation was Illamasqua's Skin Base. I have however tried Dior's foundations before and have found them to be excellent. Dior Nude is my number one foundation for wearing in hot weather and I have tried Star a couple of times too.

I have heard that is one has no flashback to it, even though it has SPF 35. It's really unheard of to find a foundation that can claim that and I was really interested to see if it is actually true. 

At Dior they have this really interesting way of color matching foundation. When trying to find the perfect match for your skin tone they use this device that looks like a phone, put it against your skin and it tells you what color you need to go for. I think it's pretty cool and definitely an interesting way of color matching. In this foundation I went for 020 which is the next one up from the palest.






Packaging
The packaging deserves a fantastic review alone. It comes in a good sized bottle with a pump. For me having a pump is a must as you can take as little or as much as you like. It also allows for zero mess. I personally hate squeeze bottle foundations. Sure they may be great at first but after a while it can get quite difficult to get the product out, especially if you have used a bit of it. Aching hands are not great. All of the Dior foundations I have tried before have almost identical packaging. With the exception of their airbrush foundation which obviously comes in a spray format. 

The Foundation
For a liquid foundation, the formula is just right. It isn't too runny and isn't too thick either. I love my full coverage and this foundation allows me to get that quite easily. For those of you who like sheer and natural a light application of this will get you that too. 

My favorite way to apply this is with a brush. I'm really not getting the whole beauty blender thing as you can never beat a brush. By buffing it in the skin I am able to get that flawless glowing look that looks absolutely amazing. Even though I have full coverage with this one, it doesnt feel at all heavy or cakey.

I do have dry skin too so I really hate it when I find a foundation that clings to dry areas and does nothing for my skin. When I was putting this one on it did sort of have a cooling effect on my skin and did feel hydrating. I get a similar sort of feeling when applying Nude.

It really is long lasting too and stays on pretty much all day. I did go a bit shiny throughout the day, but it wasn't a big deal and by applying some powder it sorted it out just fine.

I'm really happy with the color match too. Even though 020 isn't the palest, I find it's just right for me and doesn't look at all orange. With many brands if I go darker than the palest I look like Madge Harvey from Benidorm. As much as I love the character of Madge, I really don't want to look like her.

I've left the best for last and that is about the flashback, well I should say the lack of it. Wearing this foundation I took a few photos with a flash and I didn't see that ghosting effect that many foundations with SPF in do. It seems like this foundation really doesnt have flashback in it. Bonus.

Overall I just love this foundation. I really like using it and will be putting it on my must have foundation lists. 


Yankee Candle Ocean Star

I'm really getting into my scented candles and one brand I really like is Yankee Candle. They do an awesome range of scents and very often they bring out limited edition ones. Last month I was shopping in Bath and noticed a store selling Yankee products. The store was bigger than the one here in Cardiff and I noticed that they had some large jar candles that I had never seen before.

I was told that they were from a collection a while ago and are now discontinued. They had a few to choose from and the one I liked best was called Ocean Star. You can probably guess from the name that it is themed to the sea. The picture on the jar sort of gives it away too and the candle is a really nice turquoise color.



The scent is really nice and fresh, a great one for summer. It reminds me of a warm summer day at the beach and going into the sea. This one has scents of aloe, citrus and lotus blossom. It's definitely really calming too.

The large jar candles from Yankee give around 110 to 150 hours of fragrance. I've never gone for a large jar candle before, but i'm really glad I did as this wonderful scent isn't available any more.

Friday 26 February 2016

Chanel Les 4 Ombres - Tisse Beverly Hills

Earlier this month I got some items from Chanel's new spring collection. I had seen this collection for a while and was really looking forward to getting some items from it. One of my must have products was the Les 4 Ombres eyeshadow in Tisse Beverly Hills. 

I love my blues and purples and when I saw this palette I knew I would have to get it. It's full of colors I love to wear and it is something I can see myself getting a lot of use out of. In this palette you get a shimmery cream, pale purple, turquoise and dark purple. For the lover of dramatic eyeshadow, this palette is a must.

I got myself this palette when I had my makeover at Chanel. I love the look the artist gave me and I was convinced even more that I should buy it. I was really lucky on the day as I had managed to grab the last one. Unfortunately this is limited edition and is probably all sold out by now.




You can create a look that really stands out with this one. I wore the shimmery cream as a highlighter and applied the pale purple as a base all over the eyes. I then applied the turquoise and blended the dark purple into the outer corners. 

The colors have a fantastic amount of pigment in them and blend easily. They have a nice soft texture to them and felt like a dream to apply.

Once on the colors stayed on until I took them off and there was no creasing or fading. 

Chanel make some wonderful limited edition items and this palette has to be one of my favorites from them.



Lush The Golden Egg

When it comes to fantastic easter themed products, Lush to an excellent job. At Easter they always bring out an amazing range of Easter stuff and this week I decided to get myself one of their Golden Eggs. It's quite a small product and has this most amazing gold shimmer on it. It's very very shimmery and is a sort of coppery gold color.

Now you are probably wondering what on earth the Golden Egg is. It's basically a bath bomb melt, so you get two amazing products in one - bath melt and a bath bomb. The Golden Egg is quite messy and once you pick it up you will get the shimmer all over your hands. I've never used a bath bomb melt before so I was really interested to see what this one would be like.


As soon as it's dropped into the water the shimmer comes off and goes all around the water, giving a gradual gold shimmer. At first it doesn't look like it does much, but slowly you can see this one start to work. As it bubbles you can see something really amazing start to happen. It eventually opens up and this yellow foam does start to appear and before long you get these awesome yellow swirls appearing around the water.

The scent is quite sweet and smells just like toffee. It also contains bergamot and wild orange oils. Once in the water this one does actually make my skin feel nice and soft, which is probably due to the Fair Trade Colombian Cocoa butter that it contains along with moisturizing olive oil. 

Once dissolved the water does keep it's shimmer, which looks awesome. This is a fantastic product for Easter and would make a good gift for someone.




Thursday 25 February 2016

Lush Easter Blogger Event Goodies

This week I had a fantastic time at the Lush Easter bloggers event in Cardiff. At the event I had great fun looking through all of the Easter products. There were also some Mother's Day items too which I thought were fab. At the event every blogger was given a goody bag with complimentary products in it.

I think Lush do blogger goody bags really well. Many other brands just give you samples, but Lush actually gives you full size items which I think is great. 

I've enjoyed using them and it is now time for a good review on them. In my goody bag I got Somewhere Over The Rainbow soap, Fluffy Egg Bath Bomb and Rose Bombshell Bath Bomb. While the other items are Easter items, Rose Bombshell is a Mother's Day product.


Rose Bombshell



This one looks just like a regular bath bomb. Pink in color with a bit of blue, it has a sort of floral pattern on it. Very suitable as it is called Rose Bombshell. As soon as it gets dropped in the water it starts fizzing pink before giving out rose petals all over the water. I really like how rose petals have been included inside, it really adds to the effect.

I just love how this one is the scent of Rose Jam. This limited edition scent was found in a shower gel at Christmas. I really like the scent of Rose Jam and I'm really glad to be able to bathe in it.




Fluffy Egg Bath Bomb


This one is from the Easter themed products. It's a smaller bath bomb compared to other ones and is shaped just like an egg, very appropriate for Easter. It's also a bright pink color and has a blue flower in it too. If you like your limited edition scents you will love this one as it is Snow Fairy scented. That's right, Snow Fairy scented. So if you love the scent of Snow Fairy, Fluffy Egg is a must.

Once dropped in the water it fizzes quite fast and changes the water a pink color. There aren't really any color effects with this one, I think the scent of it makes up for the lack of color show.


Somewhere Over The Rainbow Soap



At the bloggers event I saw a huge block of this rainbow colored soap called Somewhere Over The Rainbow. It had every color of the rainbow which is great because depending on where the soap is cut you are bound to get a different colored product.

I got some of this soap in my goody bag and it has two colors - pink and blue. It's scented with mandarin, neroli and turkish rose giving a really awesome floral and sweet scent.

It lathers quite well too and makes you feel all nice and clean after.

I enjoyed using all of the products and thank Lush for providing them free of charge.


Wednesday 24 February 2016

A Lush Easter In Cardiff

The other week I got an invite to Lush's latest blogger event in Cardiff. I always get excited when there is a new blogger event coming up, especially when it is with a brand I love using such as Lush. The event was all about the new products that are out for Easter.  We are almost at the end of February already, so Easter really isn't that far away now. Easter this year I think it is at the end of March.

Lush's blogger events are really popular and attract a good amount of people. This one was no exception and greeting us was some flavored water along with some carrot sticks (very suitable for Easter). I was really looking forward to checking out all the new stuff.


My favorite Lush Easter product has to be bath bombs. For Easter many bath bombs are shaped like Easter Eggs (how appropriate ). What I love about these events Lush do, is you actually get a person from Lush taking you around the shop and showing you everything. It's like a really friendly personal shopper and there is absolutely no pressure to buy everything either.

I was shown all of the new bath bombs for Easter and also the Mothers Day/Spring items too. There were some familiar products from last year too such as Which Came First. It's basically an easter egg within an easter egg. Last year it was called The Immaculate Eggception. To get to the egg inside you have to crack the outer layer. I really enjoyed watching the demos with the bath bombs too.

One of the new bath bombs for this year is Humpty Dumpty. Like Which Came First you have to crack the outer layer to get to what is inside. I really like the idea of doing a Humpty Dumpty bath bomb. It's a fab idea for easter. 

A favorite of mine from last year was the Bunch Of Carrots bubble bar. They are back this year but are different colors. Instead of all being orange there are some pink and purple ones in the bunch too.





Carrots



Humpty Dumpty



There was also new soap available too and what really caught my eye was this giant piece of soap. It was absolutely huge and the price was in 3 figures. Can you imagine actually owning a bar of soap that huge, it would last ages.

From the shower range is the limited edition Yummy Mummy Shower Cream. It's this amazing purple colored product and smells awesome. I'm pretty sure I saw this one last year too. Another great thing about this year's easter collection - a shower jelly that is actually shaped like a bunny. 






Easter and Mothers Day are also great times of the year to buy a gift for someone. Lush does a fantastic range of themed gifts. My favorites from the gift selection were the Happy Mothers Day set and this super cute yellow bunny gift called Bouncy Bunny.











I really enjoyed the event as usual and had a great time trying out all of the new products. I did take quite a few items away with me: Bouncy Bunny Gift Set, Mothers Day Tin, Humpty Dumpty, Flowering Tea, Fluffy Egg and Bunch Of Carrots.



Lush also provided a goodie bag full of Easter themed items. In my goody bag I got Somewhere Over The Rainbow Soap, Fluffy Egg and Rose Bombshell Bath Bomb.



I had a really good time at the event and enjoyed seeing all the new products. I'm going to enjoy using them a lot. Thanks Lush for hosting such a fab event.