Konjac sponge review

I read about the Konjac sponge on another blog and the review was so positive I ordered one straight away.

Picture from Amazon.co.uk

This is the one I got from Amazon. They do a number of different ones, but I went for the bamboo charcoal as it is for oily and spot prone skin (me!). After rushing into the purchase and spending about £7 on it, I later took to eBay to have a browse and found them much cheaper there. Although they were unbranded, they were only about £1. Still, I told myself you can't beat branded products for skincare.

When it arrived I really did enjoy using it. It makes your skin feel really soft, much more so than your average face wash or scrub. I didn't want to cut out my face wash products all together although I think you can with these, so I tend to use this after my face wash to clean off any dead skin cells. It doesn't banish my oily skin or spots, but it does seem to help any blemishes reduce that little bit quicker and not get so severe in the first place.

I left this hanging in my shower between uses and I think that is where it went wrong. After a couple of weeks it started to crumble and once it got too bad I had to throw it away. Looking back, when it arrived and I unpackaged it, it was wet. So I probably should have put it back in the packaging after using to keep in the moisture. 

Since then, I ordered one of the cheap unbranded ones from eBay (in case the crumbling happened again). This time, I've kept it in the bag it came in, not letting it dry out and it is still going strong. Also, there is little different between the branded and unbranded, certainly not something I can justify spending £7 on, when the £1 does the same job. 

The konjac sponge is definitely an addition to my skincare routine that I will be keeping. Also the branded ones make up a nice part of a gift or stocking filler. 

LIB The Glamour Beauty Power List 2014

As soon as I got the email from Latest in Beauty advertising the Glamour Beauty Power List 2014 and saw the contents I knew I wanted it. For only £15.99 including p&p for all these products, I thought it was a great deal.

Here are my initial impressions.


Philip Kingsley daily damage defence conditioning spray
This spray smells lush and makes my hair feel really soft and look smooth, even without using my usual serum.  It's the first Philip Kingsley product I've tried and would encourage me to try more.

Nude Maybelline color sensational lipstick (710 sultry sand)
I initially thought this shade was too pale, but I've worked with it, and if I put a gloss over the top I quite like it. It's a decent formula, doesn't dry my lips out, but as it's quite sheer, it doesn't last for hours.

Laura Mercier foundation primer
In all honesty, my foundation has never lasted so well for 12 hours. I'm not saying it was pristine by the end of the day, but my skin tone still looked so even and not at all blotchy like it normally does by 7pm. Plus you get so much as you hardly need to use any product to get good coverage. I will definitely replace this if I ever run out!

Eyeko mascara off eye makeup remover wipes
I don't normally bother with makeup wipes unless I've put on a full face for a night out. Usually I'm just lazy and wash my makeup off in the shower. These wipes are really lovely. They are fairly small squares but plenty big enough for your eyes and they feel amazing. So thick and soft, they smell nice too and don't sting my eyes in the slightest. A great little luxury for me.

Liz Earle cleanse & polish hot cloth cleanser
I've heard Liz Earle mentioned a lot in the beauty blogging world, so I was really interested to see what this was like.

James Read sleep mask tan
This applies as a clear gel which is not what I was expecting. It's s but like Johnson's holiday skin but without the bad fake tan smell. Subtle, even colour.

Bourjois volume 1 second mascara
It's ok, will use it up, but it's not amazing enough for me to repurchase. Not as good as my manga mascara.


You can buy the box here (whilst stocks last) £15.99 http://www.latestinbeauty.com/glamour/

Original source coconut shower gel

I have moved into a phase in my life where I am obsessing over coconut. Yes, coconut! I am now one of those people who gladly finish the Bounty's left in the box of Celebrations. I am also up for trying anything beauty related that has a coconut scent. 

Once I heard that Original Source had brought out a coconut shower gel, the race was on to get my hands on it. I found it in Asda for £1 (bargain basement).

If you have ever tried other original source shower gels such as the mint one, you will know that they aren't shy about strong smells.

On opening this and taking a sniff, it does smell deliciously coconutty. On first impressions, this made me a happy bunny. It's more of a shower cream than a gel really, which I don't mind and understand from coconut. On first application you breath in the fresh coconut scent. However, when you start to lather it up, it goes to a slightly sickly sweet smell. Disappointingly, on leaving the shower (or bath) there is no lingering scent like you'd get from other washes (like Soap and Glory for example) on your skin. 

In summary, I will use it up, but my first impressions are that of an anti-climax. Can you suggest any other coconut products I might like? 

I could really eat a Bounty right now, mmm.

A spot of luck

I haven't blogged for ages! I've really wanted to, but literally haven't had the time. Work has been crazy and then I went to New York for my birthday, so it's been non-stop. Anyway, I'm here now and shall vow to be more regular in my blogging.

Today I want to tell you about some luck I had recently; I won my first ever blog giveaway! Sophie from sophiejanethorne.blogspot.co.uk ran a giveaway to win a Wet n Wild nail polish in red - and lucky old me won.

Sophie is so lovely that she actually included a couple of extra items for me to apologise because she had a slight postal delay. So not only did I get the Wet n Wild polish, but also a Maybelline one and a strawberry flavoured Lypsyl.

As I got these items a month or so ago now, I have had time to fully try them out and review them.

Wet n Wild Wild Shine nail colour
Love the colour, it is a really bright red with a hint of pink in a certian light and as it's a gel polish it looks great on. It's really shiny, especially with a top coat on. It lasted well, but not quite as well as the Maybelline.

Lypsyl Strawberry Polka-dot
Tastes great and contains SPF. It claims to be tinted, but I couldn't notice much, maybe a slight pale pink, but not really. The downside to this is that it is quite a hard textured balm, you really need to rub it on. It worked best when I had it in my pocket and then used it as the heat had softened it. 

Maybelline Super Stay 7 Days gel nail colour
This is amazing! The red was probably a shade darker than I'd normally go for as I have quite fair skin, but it looked great and lasts soooo well. In fact I put this nail varnish on for my 5 day holiday to New York and it last the whole trip. So not quite 7 days, but I don't think I had time to put a top coat on.

I will definitely buy more of these Maybelline 7 day polishes.

To finish, thank you very much Sophie for the gifts, it's so generous of you to run these giveaways. Everyone else head over to Sophie's blog for beauty reviews, recipes, fashion and more.

Making beautiful photo collages for your blog

I'm a follwer of The Beauty Department and oh my how lovely their photo collages always look. I wondered if there was a specific bit of software that would do this for you so did a bit of research. It soon became clear that this is just the work of some very creative people.

So I did a bit more research to try and find out what software bloggers use to help thiscreative flare. It turns out that most people us one version of Photoshop or another. I don't own Photoshop but do hower have an open source (free) image editing software called GIMP (download here). I've done many a photo edit in GIMP so thought I'd have a go at my first ever collage.

This post I came across on The Beautiful Mess helped a lot too.

Now bare in mind this was never someting I made to share so it's rather basic and I need to experiment a bit more to get my own style. But I'm quite impressed and it didn't even take very long.

What do you think?

1. Miss Selfridge £26 2. New Look £24.99 3. Next £28

The basic idea is to use good quality images, make sure they don't have a background (or remove it if they do), select a couple of decent fonts and use full stops (periods) to point towards the products.

Now I know I'm along way off from perfecting this, but it was just a trial and I wanted to share the findings of my research on this.

I'll work on it and hopefully one day my collages will be good enough to officially use in my blog.

Latest in Beauty Editor's Picks Unboxing

I've never bitten the bullet and got on the Glossybox bandwagon, but a subscription will be on my birthday list again this year. Maybe one day I'll get it!

I have subscribed to a number of beauty related sites since starting this blog and one of them is Latest in Beauty. I occasionally get emails from them and consider buying things, but until now I hadn't. They work different to Glossybox in that rather than having a subscription, they put together boxes and you can buy them as and when.

I got an email advertising a couple of their  latest boxes and had a little browse at the contents. The "Editor's Pick" box instantly grabbed my interest and bingo the email also had a 15% off code that lasted until midnight. It was 11:57pm and I was laying in bed so I swiftly clicked the buy me button and put in the discount code, it worked so I ordered.

Five days later my box arrived.

This is what I got:

1 x Bellápierre Mineral Eye Shadow (2.35g)
1 x AS London Candle
1 x EVE LOM Rescue Mask (15ml)
1 x Mavala Rouge Rubis Nail Varnish (5ml)
1 x Mirenesse Lip Lift Moisture Shine (1.5g)
1 x Nicky Clarke Instant Calmer (30ml)
1 x Nspa Melting Cleansing Gel (30ml)
1 x The Vintage Cosmetics Company Eye Shadow Brush (Full Size)
1 x Benefit They're Real Mascara (3.0g)
1 x Yardley Refreshing Body Spray (75ml)

Pretty good for £11 after the discount (original price £12.95 - still good value in my opinion).

I carefully removed the products one by one, inspecting each as I went. It was so exciting to have all these new products in front of me to try. They all were 100% usuable to me which was great. I know these boxes can be a bit hit and miss, and sometimes you get things and decide they aren't for you.

On first spray, I wasn't overly impressed with the Yardley "refreshing" body spray. I got the scent English Rose and found it to be quite old fashioned. But later it did grow on me, though I wouldn't call it refreshing!

Something that immediately impressed me was the Mirenesse lip gloss. I have no idea what shade I got but it is a nude/brown with maybe a lilac undertone. I love the colour and it lasts really well. It's got smart packaging and is very wearable. 

I will write reviews on the other products as and when I use them, and link them from the items in the list above. But in the meantime I would recommend you pick up this beauty box before they sell out.

Perfect red lips for £2!

Any regular readers of my blog will know that I really rate MUA from Superdrug, it's just such a reasonable price that you end up trying out looks that you might not normally dare to as you don't want to waste your money.

Red lips have made a major comeback in the last year or so since people like Rita Ora have been seen sporting them. I have only just started trying to up my lipstick game since becoming a blogger and reading so many other blogs about these amazing lip colours I should be trying, so I must admit I was a little bit scared to go for red. However, I had a hen do to go to and an oxblood red dress, so it was my perfect excuse to try it.

I didn't want to spend loads on a red lippy in case I hated it and ended up never using it, so where better to start than good old MUA? I bought their red lipstick in shade 13 and hurried home to try it out.

It wasn't working. I liked the colour, but the edges were bleeding on to my skin, so it looked a bit cheap and tacky. I tried applying it with a lipstick brush which helped, but it still wasn't perfect.

So back to MUA I went in search of a lip liner to use to help get those edges nice and neat.


This worked perfectly, and with a bit of blotting and the finger trick I even managed to keep it off my teeth. The colour on the photos below don't do it justice, it's a really nice bright red colour, quite a close dupe to Mac's Lady Danger so I've read. The swatches show it slightly better.

 

So if you want a perfect red pout for the grand total of £2, get yourselves down to Superdrug. Or even better, on the date of writing this post, they are offering free delivery until the weekend.

Blue tipped eye lashes

Today I just wanted to share a little makeup trick that I use. I know people tend to think of the 80s if you mention blue mascara, but used carefully it can be very effective.

I have the Rimmel Extra Super Lash mascara in shade 003 Electric Blue.

I apply a couple of coats of my usual black mascara, then apply this blue mascara just to the tips of my upper lashes. This ensures that it doesn't look over-powering and is nice and subtle to use during the day.It is noticeable up close and in a certain light and I get a lot of compliments on my eye makeup when I do this. I think it brings out the blue in my eyes!

It looks really obvious in the picture because of the flash, I promise it's not this "in your face" in the flesh!

My dressing table or 'vanity' area

When I bought my first home, I started my decorating spree with my bedroom. Previously I had lived in rented accommodation, so had never bothered to buy decent furniture or been allowed to do any decorating.

I'm not going to lie, it was hard work! I remember ringing my Dad on one occasion, crying down the phone that it would never be finished (drama queen!). The previous owner had just painted over this horrible textured wallpaper on the ceilings as well as the walls, so it took weeks to remove. But, a couple of months of hard work and toil and finally my bedroom was complete.

The first piece of new furniture I bought myself was my dressing table. I actually spotted this in Homebase before I even moved, and knew I wanted it. It is a penny shy of £200, but as luck would have it, Homebase were having a 20% off furniture sale so I managed to get it for around £160.

On my dressing table I've got my makeup and perfume. There is some fairy lights hanging round the mirror, a couple of sparkly coasters on the top, a sparkly picture frame from Junction 18 and my "little brown bag" makeup bag from Bloomingdales. In the draws I've got some of my main "go-to" hair bits and bobs (clips etc) and a smaller mirror I used to check the back of my hair.

The majority of my makeup is stored in my acrylic Muji storage, which you can read about in more detail here.   

I am so proud of the work I did on my room, and love sitting at my dressing table and experimenting with my makeup. When we move, I'm going to try and convince my boyfriend that I need one of the bedrooms as a dressing room as I get up much earlier than him for work. Wonder what my chances are?! ;)

Cheap but quirky eBay tat

I am a bit of a bargain hunter, and have recently taken to doing searches on eBay for "lowest price first" or "ending soonest" in the beauty category. A few weeks ago I came across this...

A waterproof liquid eyeliner in the shape of a Japanese doll. It was so cute and on an auction starting at 1p so I thought I'd try and grab one. After missing out on a few, I eventually picked up this little beauty for 75p. Absolute bargain.

It is not only a pretty decent liquid eyeliner, but looks adorable on my dressing table (on top of my Muji drawers) too!

Tip of the week: love eBay!