Avon Goodies

Today was my first day in my new job and I'm happy to say I enjoyed it - I've got a lovely office with a new computer and desk that I've already made myself at home on; got my mug, hand cream, vaseline etc arranged nicely.

Tonight I'm going to show you a couple of Avon goodies that arrived a few days ago. We recently got a new Avon lady down our street and I'm such a sucker for it I can never resist ordering myself a few nice bits.

I love Avon products not only because they are so cheap, but because a lot of their stuff is actually amazing!

Everything in the photo cost me less that £15 combined and after testing (almost) all of it out I can safely say it was money well spent!

Avon True Colour Blush in Russet 6g

£6.00*

I love love love this blush! I've got lots of different blushers because without it my skin looks very pale and washed out so I really rely on a good blush for rosy cheeks. When I first looked at this colour I though 'uh oh, too dark!' You can see from the swatch it's pretty colourful! However, I only need to sweep the brush across the powder once and it creates a lovely natural glow on my cheeks. The key with this is to use a really light hand, or make sure you blend it in loads if your skin is as pale as mine.

Almost 10 hours later and I can still see the colour on my cheeks - result!

Avon Angled Brush

£6.00*

I bought this in case the brush in the blusher compact was rubbish but...it's not! I have tried it out though, and I think it's one of the softest brushes I have ever used. It picks up a good amount of colour and allows you to lightly dust over your cheeks with it - it's great if you're a little heavy handed with blusher or bronzer! The handle of the brush is matte black and looks a lot more expensive then it actually is.

Avon Clearskin Pore Penetrating Clay Mask 75ml

£1.75

I love a good pampering session with a face mask and at £1.75 I just couldn't say no! I've always had a hate/hate relationship with my pores so anything that claims to clean them out is a must-try! This masks says that it "helps to remove stubborn dirt, oil and impurities for soft, smooth skin that looks shine-free."

I washed my face and applied it it semi dry skin - it didn't specify to put it on wet or dry skin so I went halfway. The clay was quite thin, not like I expected it to be, but it smoothed onto my skin with no fuss. I let it dry for 5 mins and washed it off in tepid water. I'm definitely going to use this again as my skin felt clean and soft - there was no redness or dryness after using this.

Avon Clearskin Blackhead Clearing Deep Treatment Mask 75ml

£1.75

I bought one so I had to buy the other! I don't really have a problem with blackheads but I get the occasional couple on the sides of my nose - but a face mask is a face mask and for that price I'm not saying no! This mask claims to "lift out dirt, debris and excess oil which can lead to blackheads, to revive, refresh and deep clean all in one."

I applied this to semi dry skin again and let it dry until the mask went white which was around 5 minutes. After washing it off my face did feel clean, but not as much as it did with the Pore Penetrating Mask and there was no notible difference around my nose area. I probably wouldn't buy this again, but I will no doubt use up the rest of the tube.

Avon Matte Nail Enamel in Grey As Cement 12ml

£3.00*

I've never really tried a matte nail polish before but I fell in love with this cement colour and I had to have it! The bottle holds a whopping 12ml of polish which it most definitely value for money. So far I have only tried this on my toes because my fingers are still enjoying the Hello Kitty transfers, but keep and eye out for my Sunday Nails feature - it will more than likely be this polish!

Avon Clearskin Pore Penetrating Cooling Astringent 125ml

£2.00

This actually came as a free gift with the rest of my order and unfortunately I haven't had a chance to try it out yet. I'm wary of toners because they tend to dry my skin a bit so I don't want to stop using my No7 toner - I will test it though because I'm curious - just not yet.

*Prices are from the online shop - I think magazine prices are a little bit cheaper.

Do you use Avon? What are your favourites?

Sunday Nails - Hello Kitty

I've been browsing a lot of nail art sites this weeks and Hello Kitty seems to be a really popular theme!

I used No7 Stay Perfect nail polish in Milan on my ring finger and No7 Stay Perfect nail polish in Crystal Lilac on the rest of my nails.

Crystal Lilac and Milan

In the week I purchased two sets of nail art transfers from this seller on Ebay at £1.60 for each strip of twenty.

They come in 3 sizes to fit your thumb, middle and little finger and they are so easy to use - all you have to do is trim your chosen transfer down, hold it in water for 30 seconds then slide it off the backing and place it on your nail. I painted a thin layer of clear polish on my nails to make sure the transfer stuck, and then another layer over the top to seal it on securely.

And there you have it, super cute Hello Kitty nails!

I hope you are all having a great weekend!

Last Day Of Work + Stila Haul

Today was my last day of work!

I've learnt a lot from working in an office - there are good days, bad days, and days when you just come home and have a cry. But as much as I grumbled about things, I was working with a lovely team - we had a laugh together through the bad times and they made it worth coming into work everyday. I got spoiled with an ASOS gift voucher which will definitely be spent before I go to bed!

I'm taking a lot of new found confidence and knowledge to my new job and I'm glad I got the spend the last two and a half years learning everything that I know now.

I think every job comes with a perk, and this is mine:

Staff discount is a wonderful thing!

This what I treated myself to - lots of photos, be warned!

Stila Eyeshadow in Champara 2.6g

Stila Eyeshadow in Sajama 2.6g

Stila Eyeshadow in Batura 2.6g

Stila Eyeshadow in Shore 2.6g

I managed to get these for a stupidly low price, mainly because they are refills, but the little cardboard boxes they come in are quite pretty so I don't mind just stacking them up on my dressing table until I can get a compact to keep them in.

All except Sajama are really pigmented and apply smoothly - with Sajama I had to keep applying layers just to get that little swatch. Champara and Shore have quite soft textures and you can see the colour shows up well on the skin. I have a feeling Champara will become my day colour as it's very neutral, and I will probably use Batura and Shore together for an evening look. Shore is really lovely and shimmery, it's definitely going to be well used!

Stila Shine Lip Colour in Pam 3g

Stila Shine Lip Colour in Chelsea 3g

Both of these lipsticks are gorgeous colours, and I love them because they are so petite! They have a lovely scent to them - I not really sure what it is, but they don't have that 'lipstick smell' to them; it's a tad more floral. I chose a dark colour and a light colour because like they eyeshadows, I like to differenciate my day looks and my evening looks.

'Pam' is quite a dark colour, not quite berry red, but it gives a lovely hint of colour, so it wouldn't be too much to pair it with a dark, smokey eye.

'Chelsea' is a lot more sheer and gives a nice hint of pink which is ideal for the daytime and could easily be worn for work. The photo shows little flecks of glitter, but once it's applied to the lips it's more shimmery than glittery. They are both very moisturising so dry lips needn't worry!

Have a lovely evening everyone

xxx

Pretty Pink Nail Polish

I needed to get out of the office for some fresh air yesterday lunchtime so I ventured into the tiny town where I work and headed for Boots.

I wanted to get a nice pink nail polish as my collection is severely lacking any pink! I really wanted to get a cute baby pink Barry M polish but when I got to Boots...no Barry M counter! So I thought as No7 have a 3 for 2 offer on and I still have £5 vouchers I'd look at their collection.

First of all I picked up these three beauties:

No7 Stay Perfect Nail Polish in Twinkle 10ml

£7.00

I love the look of the tiny flecks of glitter in this one.

No7 Stay Perfect Nail Polish in Crystal Lilac 10ml

£7.00

No7 Stay Perfect Nail Polish in Milan 10ml

£7.00

As I was heading to the till the 17 counter caught my eye and I found this lovely baby pink polish:

17 Lasting Finish Nail Polish in Fairy Cake 8ml

£2.99

And then...just because I love it, I was checking out the Bourjois counter and came accross the most gorgeous looking sparkly pink polish:

Bourjois 1 Seconde Nail Polish in Shade 18 8ml

£5.99

It doesn't actually have a name so I though I'd show you the massive brush instead!

Phew, quite a collection, despite only going in to buy one bottle - I'm a sucker for all things pink and girly, and they definitely made my day a bit brighter!

What's your favourite nail colour when you need a bit of cheering up?

St Moriz Self Tanning Mouse

St Moriz Instant Self Tanning Mouse 200ml

£2.99

They Say: "St. Moriz Instant Self Tanning Mousse gives you a professional, flawless tan. Specially developed with ingredients which help to create an instant bronzing effect, providing you with a perfect, all over, professional self tan. Applies as a tinted mousse, which means you can see where you are applying it, and avoid streaking."

I Say: "I love this tan! The only fake tan I’ve ever used is a hint of tan moisturiser, so I was nervous to try this. On my first application I used my hands to rub it in, and ended up scrubbing my hand after each part of my body was done, which meant it was time consuming and a bit messy! On my second attempt, I used a mitt, and what a difference it made! I was able to go over my entire body in around 5 minutes, and the mitt meant that it spread evenly.

The foam looks quite dark when you first put it on your skin, but once you start to rub it in it quickly fades, but at least you can see where the tan has been and don’t end up going over the same area. It dries very quickly – by the time I had covered the top half of my body my legs were dry and I was able to put my clothes back on within a few moments.

It comes out of the tube odourless which I loved, however, after an hour or so that familiar biscuit smell started to develop! It’s by no means an unpleasant smell, it just puts me off using the tan in the morning as I don’t want to smell of it all day, but that’s not really a problem.

I applied this in the evening, after exfoliating everywhere and moisturising my knees and elbows, and woke up with a lovely even, streak free tan. I think I can notice a big difference because usually I’m so white, and I admit I worried about it being too dark/orange, but I am so pleased with the results.

The bottle states to apply every 3 to 5 days, depending on how dark you want to go, so I suppose this varies with how dark your natural skin is – I will definitely be waiting the full 5 days!

Overall, this product deserves 4 and a half monkeys – half a monkey lost for the smell, but that’s the only bad thing I have to say about it, and for the bargain price of £2.99, I’m going to be stocking up!"

Have you tried this self tan? I'd love to know what you think of it!

Sunday Nails - Nail Wraps Part 2 + Blog Award!

These are the cute nail wraps from Wednesday's post in action!

You do get quite a few wraps in the packet as they are for fingers and toes so if you make a mistake you can try again (which I did a few times).

They are pretty easy to apply once you get the hang of them - following the instructions on the back of the packet, you have to remove the shine from your nails with a nail buffer, pick a wrap that matches the size of your nail, smooth it onto your nail then apply heat from a hairdryer until it softens and sticks firmly.

The only problems I had with them was the leftover wrap at the end of the nail; the excess is supposed to be filed off with a wooden file but I just couldn't seem to get it right and ended up with a bit of a rough edge that didn't look very nice! When I came to do the second hand I trimmed the ends off before I applied the wrap to the nail so there wasn't as much excess to try and file down, and this seemed to work a lot better for me.

As for staying power, I applied these on Friday and I'm no longer wearing them - maybe I didn't heat them enough, or they weren't applied with enough pressure but they ends started to curl off after a few days.

I would definitaly use these again for a night out or a special occasion becuause they are different and create a talking point, however I'm not sure if I would want to pay full price for something that only lasts maybe a few days

Has anyone else tried these? I'd love to know your opinion of them!

P.S.

Samantha from Corsets, Crafts and Cupcakes has awarded me a Blog Award!

According to the rules I have to tell you seven things about myself so here you go...

 - I wear fake nails all the time to stop myself biting my real nails - bad habit!

- I love to bake cakes using vegetables instead of butter.

- Last year my boyfriend and I visited New York for 5 days and it was the best holiday of my life.

- My hobby is photography and I'm hoping to start an Open University course in the Summer.

 - I can't stop buying shoes.

- In one week I'm starting my new job and I know it's going to make me so much happier than I am in my current job.

 - I love monkeys J

The seven blogs I want to pass this award onto are...

http://cutenerdglasses.blogspot.com/

http://daintymakeup.blogspot.com/

http://milkandlotsofsugar.blogspot.com/

http://peachesxomakeup.blogspot.com/

http://peluxe100.blogspot.com/

http://thecrazybitchbeautygazette.blogspot.com/

http://trulymadlybeauty.blogspot.com/

I hope everyone has had a lovely weekend!

Perfect Skin From The Inside

I've seen a lot of bloggers document their quest for perfect skin through various cleansing routines, different beauty treatments and plenty of makeup! While I am, of course, always on the same quest, I've decided to try a different method to get glowing skin on the outside by looking after my skin from the inside with food.

It's coming towards the end of January and it's fair to say that my poor skin is suffering - it looks dull and tired, I'm getting a few breakouts and I'm generally feeling and looking tired all the time.

I admit I'm still eating quite a lot of chocolate and snacking way too much during the day on the wrong things...this needs to change now!

After this bag of mini eggs has been demolished - which I bought today after a particularly draining day at work - I'm replacing all the rubbish with fresh fruit and vegetables and going back to three healthy meals a day. Because lets face it, eating rubbish only ends up making you feel rubbish and who wants that? We should all want to feel good about ourselves!

I'm looking foward to berries, fish, salads, homemade soup, brown rice...because in reality these are all foods that I absolutely love, I've just slipped into bad habits over the last couple of weeks and it's become all to easy to grab a bar of chocolate instead of a banana. I posted last week about going back to the gym and it seems like such a shame to be wasting all that hard work by eating the wrong things.  

So, here's to achieving better skin through eating a better diet! I'll update regularly on how it's going; if anyone else is doing anything similar I'd love to hear about it! 

Nail Wraps - Part One

Look what came in the post today!

Furry Cheetah and Pink Velvet Leopard

I purchased these nails wraps over a week ago in the ASOS beauty sale for £3.50 each, and today they finally arrived, much to my excitement!

Each pack contains 24 nail wraps for both hands and toes but I think for now I'll just keep them on my hands - the weather isn't warm enough for me to bare my toes yet!

The back of the packet gives step by step instructions and they don't seem too difficult so hopefully I won't make a complete mess of it.

These are still available at ASOS, however they are back to full price which is £6.65 and there are a lot more to chose from such as lace and fashion print - the lace has caught my eye, it's definitatey a different look to be rocking.

Unfortunatley I just don't have the time to sit and apply these tonight so keep an eye out for part two which will include a review - out of the two packs I have bought the furry cheetah is my least favourite so I will probably start with that one just to get the practise - I don't want to ruin the oh so adorable pink velvet leopard print!

Have you used nail wraps yet? If so, what's your verdict?

Sunday Nails

I wasn't going to post anything tonight as I posted yesterday, but I was doing my nails while I was watching Glee and thought I'd share with you. Ignore the fake tan smeared all over my hands, oops!

I was inspired by Alex of Life After 20 who has sparkly blue nails!

I've still got the same polish on from yesterday's post, but I wanted to jazz it up a bit, so using a glitter eyeliner from the George at Asda range I painted just the tips.

As an eyeliner I'm not really impressed with it, but because the applicator is so fine it is perfect for a bit of nail art.

I'm still waiting for the glitter to dry before I apply a top coat, and so far I've only done my left hand - but there you have it, cute nails with no fuss!

I hope you've all had a lovely weekend!

Diet Coke + Nails Inc

As you probably know, from today when you buy two bottles of 500ml Diet Coke in Boots, you can get a free bottle of Nails Inc polish worth £10.72!

The colours available to choose from are Cool Caramel, Delicious Denim, Perfect Plum and Heavenly Heather Grey.

As I was down the shops anyway today I thought I'd pop into Boots and pick one up - I would have got two, but lugging 4 bottles of Coke around in my small bag didn't appeal too much!

After much deliberating, I chose Delicious Denim.

It's a lovely, sort of subdued blue, not like the candy blues I am used to wearing, so it's nice to have something different. Two coats gave a perfect opaque finish and as you can see it's nice and shiny without adding a topcoat.

This great offer is only available until 15th February so I will definitaly be making a few return trips to get the other three colours.

Has anyone else taken advantage of this fab offer? What colours did you get?

Spring Purchases

I'm starting a new job in just over two weeks time, so with Spring coming up and today being payday, I thought I would treat myself to some cute new work clothes. I've only ever worked in places/offices with a casual dress code, and this means I have never had an 'official' work wardrobe and I end up getting fed up of my clothes because I wear them to work, on the weekend etc with no real divide. So I've decided to build myself a work wardrobe. My new office is also casual dress but if I have pretty office clothes that are different to my everday clothes then getting up in the morning will be that little bit better! These are my purchases today.



A|Wear Floral T-Shirt £16

 

I love simple, cute tops like this one, as it will go with trouser, skirts shorts, etc. Looking at this model makes me wish I'd never started to grow my fringe out; the head scarf is screaming 'buy me' but I really don't think I could pull it off!

ASOS Spot Peg Jersey Trousers £25

I've been in two minds about these trousers for a couple of days, but I thought if they arrive and I hate them I'll just send them back. I'm wondering if they're the sort of thing that look great on the model, but when I wear them they'll just look like pyjamas?! A lot of shops are doing floral or coloured trousers and leggings so I'm hoping it's a trend that works for me! I just like the fact that they are different; I'm not much of a jeans person bar the odd pair of skinny jeans and these caught my eye instantly.

 River Island Black Print Waisted Shell Top £26.99

I noticed this top when I was browsing the instore sales and made a mental note of it, then today I was looking at the River Island website, saw it again and had to have it! I'm thinking of getting a pair of skinny trousers, or jegging to wear with it. This is my second bird print top in two months, but I love how fresh it looks.

Has anyone else made any early Spring puchases yet?