Lush Salted Coconut Hand Scrub

Salted Coconut is an exfoliating hand scrub from Lush. I bought this in London in Lush's new Oxford Street store. They have loads of products in that store which are exclusive to there. This hand scrub is one of them. For a while Lush hadn't had a hand scrub in their product collection and I was glad to see that they now do.

It comes in two different sizes and has the most amazing coconut scent to it. I got the larger size of the two as I had really liked this product when trying it in store. You only need to use a small amount to exfoliate your hands. It's a nice gentle scrub too and once it is rinsed off it leaves your hands feeling really soft.

For people like me who have dry skin this product is fab. It also leaves your hands smelling nice and coconutty, even after you wash it off. I only need to use this once a week and is one of the best hand scrubs i've used.

NYX Macaron Lipstick - Pistachio

NYX have brought out a range of lipsticks in really nice pastel colors, some of them being quite unusual colors like green and blue. I'm a big fan of unusual lipstick colors so I decided to get one of NYX's Macaron Lipsticks or Lippies as they are called on the packaging. I got a glimpse of these on the NYX stand at IMATS in London. The queue was crazy, so I decided to skip looking at the lipsticks. I probably would have been waiting over an hour in that queue. I did find this one of Ebay.

Pistachio is a mint green lipstick and has a really nice creamy formula, quite similar to Lime Crime's lipsticks. It comes in black packaging with a glimpse of the color in the middle. 

I definitely prefer the texture of these to the Lime Crime ones. I like the Lime Crime ones but think these are better. Theres plenty of pigment and they have a nice soft feel to them. If like me you like your color strong and unusual, then these are a great choice. It didn't take me long to build the color up either. Throughout the day I did need to reapply, as some of it had come off.

Tangle Teezer review

My hair often gets tangled and knotted really bad, to the point where it gets quite painful to brush them out. It doesnt help that my hair is bleached and damaged. I've heard about a brush called the Tangle Teezer and seen what it can do for hair like mine. They come in a range of different colors and are available in loads of different places. I got mine in Selfridges in London for £9.99.

The brush can glide through wet or dry hair and does a great job of taking away the tangles and knots. The best thing about it is that it's painless. When I try getting rid of knots with a regular brush it's pure torture. With the Tangle Teezer I don't even blink when brushing through the knots.

This is the same product that got turned down on the tv show - Dragons Den. The people on there said it wouldn't make any money. It's now a bestseller and is worth £65 million. 

It's a really simple idea and works a treat if you have badly knotted hair like mine.

Artist Of Makeup Custom Eyeshadow Palette

At IMATS in London I decided to get some makeup from a brand called Artist Of Makeup. I've seen this brand online and noticed they do a fantastic range of colors. Their products come in refill pans to put in empty palettes that they sell. This is great as it allows you to carry the colors around with you and saves on space too. I got 4 eyeshadows in lovely bright colors - Drama Queen (vibrant matte pink), Fiji (shimmer blue), Gold Leaf (gold) and Maldives (cool satin blue).

Fiji, Maldives, Gold Leaf, Drama Queen

The colors look great in the quad and can all be worn together. This combo of colors is great for me as you can create a really colorful look with them. I wore Maldives as a base color and blended Fiji into it. In the outer corner I wore Drama Queen and winged it out. I then applied a bit of Gold Leaf into the inner corner.

I just love these eyeshadows as they are really easy to work with. The pigment is amazing and you don't need a lot to create a really colorful look. The texture was nice and soft which also allowed for easy blending. I can see why it is written on the packaging 'caution highly pigmented.' They really are. Once they are on, they stay on all day and don't crease or fade.

As I got these in IMATS and did get a bit of discount on them. All 4 eyeshadows and the palette came to £23.31.

Inglot Lipstick Palette

At IMATS in London I had a look at the Inglot stand. I've never tried Inglot before, but had seen a lot of their products online. They do a very good color choice, including a good range of lipsticks in almost every color. Inglot like many other brands allow you to refill their compacts with colors in what is called the Freedom System. It's basically empty customizable palettes in a range of different sizes. All of Inglot's products are designed to fit into the Freedom System. 

Both the products and compact are magnetized, allowing for easy moving around. Once the products are in they stay in and don't move unless you move them. I decided to get three different lipstick colors in the 3 product Freedom System. I love unusual colors and was glad to see Inglot did a range of them from blue to yellow. The colors don't have names but are numbered. I got colors 92 (lime green), 93 (teal) and 94 (bright blue). I think this all came to £17.00.

94, 93, 92

All 3 colors have a nice creamy texture to them and they can be built up to get full on intense color. One application was a bit sheer so I just kept applying the color until I got it really opaque. It didn't take me long and the colors were very pigmented. Throuhout the day I did have to reapply them as some had started to come off. It wasn't a lot that had come off, so it wasn't that much that needed reapplying. I wouldn't say these were matte and I wouldn't say they were extremely creamy either. More like a good mix of the two textures. They didn't dry my lips out either.

I really liked the three colors as they were very unusual. For people who like color, Inglot is a good brand choice.

93

94

92

IMATS London 2015

I have been wanting to go to IMATS for some time now. I had wanted to go last year but hadn't saved up any money, so decided to go this year instead. IMATS is the International Makeup Artist Trade Show and is held in different cities across the world including LA and London. This year's event in London was held on the 10 - 12 July in Olympia.

I stayed in London for two nights at the Radisson Blu Vanderbilt on Cromwell Road. It was a really nice hotel in a great location. Only round the corner from Gloucester Road tube station.

I had saved up for a while and was really excited. I haven't been to IMATS before and had seen a lot of videos and pictures on the internet of it. On Saturday I got up really early to get into Olympia for the 9am opening. I got there at 8.50am and the queue was very long already. Fortunately I didn't have to wait longer than 10 mins as by 9 the line was moving really fast.

The queue

As soon as I got in I got my arm stamped and collected a big IMATS bag. This is great to carry around with you and stick any purchases in. A lot of well known brands such as MAC and NARS had stands at IMATS, with good discounts too. MAC were offering a 15% discount to everyone even if you didn't have pro membership. Pro members then got even more discount. NARS were giving a good discount too and were selling limited edition stuff they had left from collections such as Andy Warhol and Guy Bourdin. There were quite a lot of people at NARS looking at all the products and I did have to be a bit patient. The queue to pay wasn't near as bad as the line for NYX. I think the NYX queue was the worst of the lot. By 11.30 it had gotten really long and went all the way down to the end of the building. I'm not really a NYX fan so gave them a miss.

I did manage to check out some really awesome brands such as Sugarpill and Inglot. I also had a look at some brands I had never seen before such as Artist Of Makeup. Apart from picking up some goodies I also gave myself time to look at some of the demos. The one I wanted to see the most was contouring with color. I've seen many demos on contouring, but never one doing it with color. It was definitely different and I enjoyed watching it.

I had great fun looking for some bargains. Here is all the stuff I bought.

Sugarpill Addicted To Pretty Palette - £21.00

Z Palette Large - £12.76

Classic Beauty The History Of Makeup - £35.00

Artist Of Makeup Eyeshadows And Palette - £23.31

Makeup Studio 13 Eyeshadows And Palette - £68.25

Inglot Freedom System And 3 Lipsticks £17.00

Elegant Depilation Hair Removal System, 2 for £20.00

This was my first IMATS and here are my tips which may come in handy for future events.

• Buy your ticket early. Don't leave it to last minute, this years Saturday tickets had sold out in advance. I got my ticket a bit too late which meant it cost more. I was lucky to buy mine when I did because in the next couple of days they sold out and only had Sunday left.
• Wear comfy shoes. You're going to be on your feet a lot and doing a lot of walking, so keep your shoes nice and comfy.
• Bring a good amount of cash. While quite a few brands accepted cards, there were a couple that were cash only. Use a mixture of the two.
• Carry a bottle of water with you. Bringing your own drink not only saves you money on drinks in the event, it keeps you hydrated before you get in. It was really hot even before 9am on Saturday and i'm glad I had a drink with me already as I was thirsty.
• Plan your journey in advance. If you want to get to IMATS for opening, make sure you know what bus or train you are getting. I got the tube to Olympia from Earl's Court and the tubes don't run very often to Olympia. I was on the tube just after 8.30 which gave me enough time to get the tube. 

Overall I enjoyed this year's IMATS and glad I decided to go. I'm looking forward to next year's event as this years one was fantastic. Be sure to check out my trip post on the rest of London.