I love a good candle especially highly fragranced
ones to help eliminate the often biscuity smell left behind in my room
from fake tanning. I recently discovered that Jellybean do their own brand of
candles in all their popular yummy flavours.
I have always
loved green jellybeans and just love the smell of watermelon, so it was a no
brainer that I just had to pick myself up one their candles in the scent
watermelon.
I am in love with this candle and love that within
a few minutes of being lit this candle eliminates any nasty odours
[you would never have known that fake tan had been applied in my room.]
I purchased this candle from ebay at around £4.50
but this candle along with other scents can be purchased at Jellybeans official
website [Buy Here].
Lately I have had a bit of a thing for lipsticks. I feel that a pop
of colour on your lips can instantly make you look effortlessly polished.
I am always one for a bargain and I just love
MUA’s makeup range, especially their multitude of lipsticks. MUA’s makeup range
is so affordable, at £1 for a lipstick you really can’t go wrong!!!
The above lipstick is in the shade number 3
and can be purchased from Super drug [Buy Here] or MUA’s official website [Buy Here]. This lipstick is a beautiful raspberry pink
lipstick. I find it very moisturising and easy to apply, and I believe that it will
instantly brighten up ANY outfit. I always get lots of complements when wearing
this lipstick.
I
have seen this makeup tool many a times when in Superdrug but always passed it
by and never gave it a second thought until I started noticing that a lot of
YouTube gurus were using it in their makeup tutorials.
I had
debated over whether to buy a stippling brush or the beauty blender and after
some research I discovered that they both do a similar job only the beauty
blender is way cheaper so I decided to save myself some money and invested in
Cosmopolitan’s Beauty Blender which I purchased last month for £4.99 in my
local Superdrug store [buy here] and have been using it daily every since. I
use this product both damp and dry depending on what makeup look I want to
achieve. I do plan to purchase a stippling brush in the near future and hope to
compare the results of the two.
According
to packaging this product allows for amazing flawless application of
foundation, using a bouncing or stippling method to blend makeup which leaves
an airbrushed looking finish. I found that this small product gave an
airbrushed and seamless look to my everyday makeup.My makeup looks more natural and skin-like as
a result. It is also easy to clean and I love that it comes with a little
holder for the sponge so it doesn’t touch any surfaces helping to prevent
bacteria getting onto your sponge, it’s also useful for helping the sponge dry
once washed. I found that the sponge does not take too long to dry which is
another added bonus. This is one makeup tool that will be a key staple in my
makeup bag.
Click here to see a YouTube video by LoveLaughAnd Makeup on how to use and clean your beauty
blender.
In my first blog post linked
here [Click] I mentioned that I would review one of my recent purchases; He-Shi
Face and Body Gel which I purchased from www.feelunique.com
for £14.90. Below are some pictures of this product:
I have been a long time fan
of He-Shi Express Liquid Tan [see picture below] and thought that I would give
their gel formula a go as it would be more moisturising on my skin. I exfoliated
prior to application and applied oil free moisturiser to my hands, elbows,
hairline, knees and feet beforehand. I used my tanning mitt to apply the gel. The
gel looks very dark when squeezed out of the bottle [don’t let this alarm you]
it does however come out quite light on the skin when rubbed in given the darkness
of the actual product. The guide colour is handy to show you any spots you have
missed but isn’t too dark that it would drastically stain your sheets [or onsie
in my case].
The next day I discovered
that the gel had clung to all my extra moisturised areas as mentioned above and
had clung to any dry patches on my skin making them appear more noticeable, as
a result my hands, feet, elbows etc were darker than the rest of me and my legs
were also streaky. I have been applying fake tan products for years and have
not had streaky legs since my early teens. I was shocked to discover that I had
big missing patches on my legs the next day. In hindsight I would say that my
legs streaked because it takes this tan a long time to dry given that it is a
gel and perhaps I had not waited long enough before hoping into bed. Re the
darker patches of skin and hands, feet etc, I do not know what else I could
have done to avoid this situation as I’m not sure how a lotion would mix with
the gel in order to dilute the tan for these areas, perhaps I should try this
next time? Or maybe use a moisturiser with oil in it for these parts?
One plus to this tan was
that it looked lovely on my face, and I have since used it in conjunction with
other tans as a face gel, where I will apply a small layer to my face once or
twice a week. I think this product used as a face tanner along with He-Shi’s
Express Liquid Tan would give a lovely over all tan.
I like most other people
have a love hate relationship with fake tan, I love having a tan [I feel more
confident and feel that I personally look better with one, sadly I do not have
a nice Kirsten Stewart/ Anne Hathaway skin tone] but I hate the upkeep of it [let’s
face it, it’s a lot of work and I’m kind of on the lazy side when it comes to
these things].
For a while I had been
keeping a good tanning routine of exfoliating, moisturising and fake tanning. However
I found that after 4/5 days my tan needed topping up and I have found this to
be the case with whatever tan I used [He-shi, St.Moriz, Vita Liberata]. So in
realistic terms I was fake tanning twice a week whilst ensuring I maintained my
routine for trying to keep my tan. However due to wearing bras with underwire I
found that after a day or two my tan would wear off where my bra had rubbed and
my armpits would show the wear of tear of my tan which left me having to choose
my outfits wisely which proved especially annoying when we would get random
warm days[I wonder if the fact that I was using mousse fake tans would have
anything to do with how the tan rubbed off in certain areas? ]. I found that
the upkeep was just too much on top of a 9-5 job as well as my university work
in the evenings. I found that in my little spare time that I did have I had a
choice of weather I wanted to fake tan or do something else with my time.
When I discovered that one
of my favourite tans were launching a 2-3 week fake tan I was thrilled to say
the least. This tan claims to last up to three weeks. You can see my previous post where this tan was discussed [Here].
Application:
Using a tanning mitt apply as you would a tinted
mousse, blending colour as you apply. Avoid the heel of the hand, and wipe
knuckles, knees and ankles immediately. Any unwanted application should be
removed immediately as the colour will take to the skin in only a few minutes.
Do not moisturise prior to application, except for areas of exceptionally dry
skin. Do not apply with bare hands
as colour will take to the palms of the hands.
To extend the life of your colour apply multiple
layers of pHenomenal, i.e.:
1
application = approx 7 days
2 applications = approx 10+ days
3 applications = approx 2 - 3 weeks
Allow at least one hour
between showering and reapplying, for optimum results leave 3 hours between
each shower for a longer lasting tan.
My thoughts:
I purchased the tan in the
shade medium as I had previously tried their mousse In this shade and liked the
colour it gave. I applied this tan twice; I applied the first application
before bed and rinsed it off after 16 hours and reapplied my second application
which I washed off as normal the second morning.
I had an even tan with
pretty much the same colour results as their normal medium coloured mousse, I think
a third application would have looked too dark and fake on me given my fair
skin tone.
This tan has a colour guide
which washes off the next day in the shower with minimal staining of PJ’s. I usually
wear my onsie for tanning to contain the smell and save my sheets from
staining. This tan doesn’t smell of anything when applying it but an hour later
there is a normal but slightly subtler fake tan smell. This smell washes away
in the shower the next day and doesn’t linger and I would say that the smell isn’t
as offensive as the st.moriz smell.
I was disappointed to learn
that this tan didn’t last long on me at all, it lasted around four days. Their normal
tanning mousse that I had been using had stayed on longer and that was with
only one application. I don’t understand why this product didn’t work on me and
I was very disappointed that it didn’t but thankful that I had bought this tan
whilst on offer for £25 and that I didn’t pay full price for it. One positive
about this fake tan is that it came off very easy when I soaked in the bath and
used my exfoliating mitts to take it off; I wasn’t left with any dry tanned
patches.
Reviews of this product are
very scarce. I have only been able to find a few and I now question the sincerity
of some of these reviews, perhaps they had been sponsored.
I had however spoken with one
blogger/YouTube guru via twitter [Melanie Twiner] about the tan. Melanie had
better results than myself and gave an honest review of the tan on her YouTube
channel which you may find useful [see below for her review].
I would suggest tryingthis tan for yourself if you don’t mind splurging on a fake tan product however
I would recommend looking about to see if this tan is on offer beforehand. Let me
know if you have tried this tan?
This month I've discovered (and rediscovered)
some really great beauty products so I thought I'd share my findings with you
all. The first product I will be sharing with you all is:
Bourjois
Paris Magic Nail Polish Remover.
What it says:
‘Nail
polish is instantly removed with the touch of a magic wand! For each nail,
simply Dip-Twist-Remove in 1 second without any cotton wool. Your nails will be polish-free in just 1
second*! Plus, its red berry and vanilla fragrance leaves nails delicately
scented. And…it’s good for your nails!’
Inside the bottle:
This little gem is full of good stuff; it is an acetone-free formula which is gentle on nails
and cuticles. It is also enriched with nourishing sweet almond oil and is
paraben-free. Nails are left feeling soft and nourished afterwards, like a
little treatment in a bottle.
An added bonus:
With other nail polish removers I have made
the mistake of putting my hand near my mouth before washing them after using nail
polish remover thus leaving a nasty taste in my mouth. With this however there
is no nasty nail polish remover taste [or smell] left behind after using…and
yes I did test it out [well I made my sister,lol]
My views on this product:
I picked this product up on a whim as
Superdrug had a 3-2 deal on all their cosmetics, this was my ‘free’ product. For the majority of my
nail polishes it takes just one twist to remove the polish from my nails and for
the more stubborn nail polishes [e.g. glitter polishes] a couple of twists and
it comes right off. This makes removing nail polish less of a chore and
eliminates any of the mess and hassle that used to occur with removing my nail
polish before [cotton pads, tipping my nail polish remover too far resulting in
spillages etc]. After trying this product out my mum and sister have since bought
bottles of their own.
This is a product that I will definitely be repurchasing;
I love how nourished my nails feel afterwards, it feels like I have given them
a treatment. This product does retail a few more pounds than most nail varnish
removers. But for me this product is worth the money and the next time I see it
on offer I will stock up. This product currently retails at £4.99 in boots [Buy Here], but
can also be found in most chemists and in some supermarkets. For those that
feel that this product is too pricey instead of repurchasing you could simply
top up the bottle with your preferred nail polish and wha la hassle free nail varnish removal!!
To see this product being used, check out gemsiesblog youtube video [linked below].
