Review: The Body Shop Christmas ranges

I love brands (like The Body Shop and Lush) which actually make specific products for Christmas, it makes it so much more exciting than gift sets of stuff you can get everyday!

I picked up a few things: the Spiced Vanilla shower gel, the Candied Ginger shower gel, the Candied Ginger Body Butter and (not pictured) the Candied Ginger lip balm.

I'm not wild about the Spiced Vanilla range- to me it's ok, and I will use this shower gel, but I'm glad I didn't get anything else. The Candied Ginger on the other hand- OMG YUM. The only odd thing is there seems to be a variation between the scent in this line. The shower gel and lip balm are very like sweets, which I like, but the body butter seems a bit more bitter? It may be worth just smelling each individual product before purchasing if you fancy buying anything.

The shower gels are lovely- thick and they rinse cleanly, but I wish they left my skin with a scent like the normal ones do. I can't really smell anything on me after showering with them! The body butter is standard- thick and sinks in well. The lip balm is on the thin side, but it's nice for quick top ups here and there.

There are other products in these scent ranges, and also a Cranberry line. I managed to get the body butter for £1 (you have to spend over £25 to get this though, but I didn't find that a problem *sighs at own lack of self-control when shopping*.)

Have you got any favourite Christmas scents?

Love B xxx

Stargazer Goodies...

Next, another haul! This time, its from Stargazer.

 

I got 2 Semi Permanent Eyeliner pens, one in Purple and one in Black (which was on holiday when I took this photo).

 

I got 2 of the Semi Permanent Lip Liner pens (basically a lip tint). I got one in 03, a wine colour, and one in 05, a cherry red (review coming soon!).

 

These colours are: 2 from the Opal range (242 and 246), and 3 from the normal range (117, 120 and 161). Sorry can't remember which is which! I love these colours though. If you like shimmery duochromes, the Opal range is amazing!

Love B xxx

Beauty LAT- e.l.f. Order and Beauty Baron Mystery Box!

I got a little e.l.f. haul!

 

 Lots of lovely stuff!

Cream eyeliners in Golden and Plum Purple

Angled eyeliner brush, blush brush and powder brush. Am definitely going to do a comparison with the powder brush and my Sigma flat top kabuki!

Mineral eyeshadow primer. Really hoping this is good as I am so not willing to pay £14 for UDPP, however good it may be!

Blusher in Peachy Keen. I'm so glad to get this, I've never actually seen it in stock before now!

e.l.f. always has some interesting codes going, this time it was to get a free Mystery Box! (ooooooh)

I got the Nail Polish in Golden Goddess, the Flat Eyeliner Brush from the Mineral line, a Nail File set and a Shimmer Pencil in Plum Passion. I like the brush, polish and eyeliner, not so keen on the nail files (I prefer metal ones). I am a little disappointed I didn't get the Cream Blush I've seen in other boxes, but such is life!

There's also a 25% off sale on now (look on the FB page for codes). Have you indulged in any e.l.f. recently?

Love B xxx

 

Beauty LAT: Manchester Haul and trip

So last Saturday I had a day trip to Manchester so my sister could look round the uni there! It was a bit of a miserable day, very cold and rainy, but a little shopping trip towards the end of the day perked us all up a bit. I got a few little things:

 

I finally got round to buying the Illamasqua Skinbase! First thoughts... I'm not really that sure I like it. I'm going to do a proper review of it soon but right now... hmmm. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Lots of hmm-ing about this!

I also picked up two MUA Intense Colour eyeliners, and some of the new Kleenex range- the face wipes, the facial cleansing cloths and the oil absorbing sheets.

I'm hoping to have reviews of all these coming up soon!

I also took a few photos of the Manchester Museum, which is part of the university:

How beautiful are these paper cranes?

Skelly skeletons.

Desperately wanted to steal these, but they were a bit big to smuggle under my coat.

Check the badass T-rex.

My new pet. I'm going to keep him in the garden and call him Fluffy.

So that was my trip!

Love B xxx

Beauty LAT: Big Haul, Part 2

So this is part 2! These are things I acquired on my work experience trip, a 24H Tesco two minutes walk away proved quite fatal for my bank account!

 

Avene Light Hydrating Cream SPF 20

La Roche-Posay Fluide Extreme SPF50+ Anthelios XL

Tesco Clear Skin Mattifying Moisturiser. I also got the Clear Skin Cream Wash.

Barbara Daly for Tesco Foundation Brush

(l-r) Barbara Daly for Tesco Oil-Free Foundation, Face Lift Foundation and Moisture Foundation, all in Ivory. I also got one in Porcelain, but it's a weird colour to my eyes.

Barbara Daly for Tesco Lipsticks in Icon and Begonia

Barbara Daly for Tesco Flawless Primer

That about covers it I think! I went a bit Barbara Daly heavy, but I've never seen her range instore before and I was a bit overexcited :) Again, anything you really want reviewing, let me know! 

Love B xxx

Beauty LAT: Big Haul, Part 1

Have I got a haul post and a half for you!

Firstly, this wasn't all bought in one go (it really wasn't. Promise.) I had a fair few things ordered from Asia and America, so they took ages to turn up! This post focuses on those things, part 2 is on a few goodies I bought when I was away on work experience. So here we go....

Missha Perfect Cover BB Cream, in shade 13, the palest one.

From Sigma 2 brushes, the 1st is the F82, a round top kabuki brush, and the 2nd is the F50, a duo fibre. I also got a mini eyeshadow blending brush free!

From Cherry Culture (there was a lovely big sale on, as there is now!)

 

Nyx Matte Lipcreams in Antwerp and Monte Carlo

 Nyx Jumbo Eye Pencil in Milk

Nyx HD Studio Primer in 01

I also got 3 nail polishes from L.A. Girl, but will feature them in a few days as I've been wearing one of them this week!

Some cheap nail art wheels I got off ebay.

So that's part 1! Let me know if there are any particular products you are keen for reviews on :)

Love B xxx

Random Days: Mini Haul :D

I had another mini haul yesterday and the day before, as I had a few girly days out to say goodbye to my friends :(

The first haul came from Folkestone, which is lovely (from the limited view of the inside of Primark) and got some little treats! I got several headbands from New Look, and some super cute dresses from Primark. I'll update this post with photos of them tomorrow once I've actually got some light to see them in!

The second haul came Canterbury, I was actually quite restrained (no really) especially we essentially went in EVERY shop in the town haha!

I came home with this little lot:

From M & S! I'm really not a orange person, but this is the first shade I've seen that isn't really harsh or neon. It's really pastel and sherbet-y and lovely :D This was about £3.

I'm not a big mascara buyer either, but I saw this Maybelline The Falsies on someone's blog (can't for the life of me remember whose it was!) and loved how amazing it made the blogger's lashes look. See my earlier post on the M & S eyeshadow to see how it looks on, so far it's amazing! This was on sale at the cheaper price of £6.19, but I managed to get it with my Boots points :-)

I'm happy with normal shampoo for washing my brushes, but after seeing this video by Tiffany D (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uT8LpwDjwNI) I couldn't resist a quick way to clean my brushes, hoping it will save me a lot of time! This was £8.50 I believe.

This actually came in the post this morning, but nevermind :D I have been lusting after this Light Liquid Foundation for a while because of Illamasqua's amazing shade range and brand ethos. First impressions are AMAZING colour (in the lightest natural shade LF115) but need to experiment with application because it's tough to blend and get even, but hopefully I can try it lots and get it looking amazing :-)

Will update with more pics tomorrow!

Love Luxie xxx

Random Days: I'm dyingggggggggggggggg (well I was)

The weekend has been a bit miserable unfortunately! Whilst my uni mates were all off to the Summer Ball (and looking rather fabulous) I was home alone. And ill. My life is fun times. The only slight saving grace was that if I had bought a ticket and been ill I would have wasted £50 or so, so that's something.

I'm also horrendously broke (budgeting is very much not my strong suit) and so if you like I have a fair few items up on eBay including a Clarins face wash, a Body Shop Toner and lots of nail varnishes: http://shop.ebay.co.uk/luxiehoney/m.html?_trksid=p4340.l2562. It's worth a try! (I have sold a fair bit so far... it's just all been spent again. Fail)

New purchases: I had a mini haul (my life is too depressing to not shop, even with no money). I came home with Maybelline 24H Superstay Foundation and Dream Matte Powder, a Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection Concealer and a Gosh Nail Polish. I think the foundation is too dark though annoyingly! The Gosh Nail Polish in Miss Sweety (a kind of sherbet/burnt peach colour) should be be my NOTD, but I hate the colour on me so it went straight on eBay! Have some epic NOTD plans if I get round to it tonight :-)

Generally speaking this week has been miserable. If you have seen my Twitter I really do apologise, it's been a misery fest there! My house has been deserted yet again which is rubbish, I've spent pretty much every week this term alone... say 5 nights out 7? I'm not massively needful for social company (I like being on my own a lot of the time) but with no job or uni to go to in the day it's getting rather miserable. And I have no money to go out or see people, so it's been loserville :-( I think I might go home this week (you know it's a bad week when I run home, as I love my family but we get on much better from the other side of the country sometimes).

On the good news front though, apparently my dad has managed to get me some experience working backstage on a production of Oliver over the summer in Stevenage (have to find out where that actually is. Ahem.) so that's looking exciting, if a tad terrifying!

Hope you're all doing well.
Lux xx