Review: Angels On Bare Skin

Angels On Bare Skin: the reviews and ravings about this product is nothing new on the bloggosphere, but it is a new product to me, so I thought I'd stick my oar in so to speak and let you know what me and my face think of this facial cleanser from Lush.

Clarins Colour Quench Lip Balm

                

Once again I went to purchase a particular thing and came out with something different!  I'd gone to Debenhams to pick up the much raved about Instant Light Natural Lip Perfector (as seen here) and came out with this, the Colour Quench Lip Balm in shade 04 Raspberry Smoothie (have had to include a link to it from Boots as couldn't find the shade on Debenhams website - naughty Debenhams!). I'll be perfectly honest and admit that I have no idea why the lovely Clarins lady recommended this to me over the Instant Light Natural Lip Perfector (crikey what a mouthful!) as both claim to nourish, repair and protect your lips but hey ho, I'm not at all disappointed with my lot as I simply adore my Colour Quench Lip Balm.

Boots give this description 'Eight of the prettiest shades of shimmering transparent lip colour with a delicious cherry scent and flavour. A finish that’s glossy, not sticky, due to a 100% natural high-shine polymer and a cocktail of skin treatment plant extracts that intensively nourish, repair, protect and moisturise. A sheer, smoothing glaze of a gloss that adds long-lasting, light-catching colour and shine.' 

I think this description is pretty spot on. I don't know that I'd recognise a '100% natural high-shine polymer' if it slapped me in the chops, but whatever it is it really does work to make this a complete joy to wear - there is none of that horrible sticky feeling, only sheer cherry scented joy! 

I really love the fact that this product is a balm and a gloss combined.  I suffer from incredibly dry lips and I don't really like just masking it with a regular gloss because even if it looks good for a while you know that the illusion will be shattered once the gloss wears off!

There is a much larger range of colours in the Colour Quench line than there is of Instant Light Natural Lip Perfectors, eight to the ILNLP three and personally I think this is no bad thing - there has got to be something there for everyone, and for every season! 

Shade 04 Raspberry Smoothie is a delicious soft mid-toned pink packed full with silver shimmer and it gives a really natural and wearable high shine to your lips, which is perfect for everyday, and could be easily worn over lippie to give a more dramatic look.

At £15 it is a pound cheaper than the ILNLP.  I am thrilled with my purchase and it has remained in my handbag since the day I bought it and I can't see it leaving any time soon! 

I'd still love to try the ILNLP to have a bit of a compare and contrast with the Colour Quench but for the time being I am happy as larry!

Do you have a favourite gloss come balm?

As always, the beautiful throw that is the backdrop to my photos was handmade by the incredibly talented Gabrielle Vary, so go and check out her website here if you fancy a look, or have a nosey on http://www.notonthehighstreet.com/gabriellevary to see some more of here wonderful stuff (there's a sale on it too!)

I hope you're all well

x

Naked Palette. Big Love.

In my manic rampage of beauty counters this week I purchased the Urban Decay Naked Palette.  I can't have spent longer than 30 seconds at the counter, I probably spend longer choosing a bunch of bananas (in fact I definitely spend longer choosing bananas because it's tricky to get the perfect bunch, but that's another story!). 

Other than on nights out (which are pretty rare these days) I'm quite unadventurous as far as my eye make up goes, usually I slick on some eyeliner (L'Oreal Super Liner in Carbon Gloss) and some mascara and I'm good to go but I really want to change this and I thought the Naked palette would be the perfect way to do this.  It provides a good range of neutrals (mostly shimmery ones but there are a couple of matte colours) and they are all there for you to choose from which I like as I hate rooting around in my make up bag because I always forget I have certain colours. 

Virgin is a really delicate slightly peachy vanilla.  These shadows are so finely milled that it feels like applying silk. This shade gives a subtle sheen as I think it makes for a beautiful highlight, base colour or works amazingly in the tear duct to really brighten the eyes.

Sin is a rich shimmery rose gold.  It's just a beautiful colour!! Worn alone I think this is the perfect subtle summer shimmer!  

Naked (sorry my fat finger is covering the name), is a simple matte base colour, it can be used to create a lovely base for other colours or to soften the insensity of other more vibrant colours (Stars N Rockets for example).

Sidecar is a warm toned pinky gold, and it's just beautiful.  End of. I've used this over the inner half of my eyes in the images at the bottom of this post. 

Buck is a warm tan colour, a soft brown if you will, and can be used to add definition in the crease for a sophisticated simply day look or to add definition and depth to basically any other shadow! 

Half Baked.  What a colour! This is just a beautiful gold with a slightly bronze tone running through it! Applied to the tear duct, this colour will just make your eyes look incredible! 

Smog is, as the name suggests, a bit of a dirty goldy with a bit of a rusty edge to it. Like the other true shimmers in this palette it is just so finely milled and highly pigmented, and the colour pay off is so full and luxurious.

Darkhorse has a really subdued shimmer to it that is only picked up in certain lights and it creates a pretty good seductive smouldering look (get my trying to be sexy!)

Toasted is a shimmery pinky brown.  I love it.  This is used in the middle of my eye in the look at the bottom of this post. 

Hustle is a purply brown, and is the third colour I used on my eyes in the photos featured at the end of this post! 

Creep is a deep grey shot through with silver glitter.  The colour can be used boldly to create the intense colour shown in the swatch above, or it can be blended right out to give quite a sheer coverage, and therefore it's really versatile. 

And last but not least, Gunmetal is a gorgeous pewter shimmer.

The photos below are of my first ever time using my Naked palette, and I'm pleased as punch! I used Tanya Burr's tutorial  which you can view here as my instruction, and obviously mine is nowhere near Tanya's (mainly because I screwed up my eyeliner big time) but I'm hoping with practice it'll improve! 

Products - Eyes

Urban Decay Primer Potion (comes with the palette) all over the lid

Using a 217 apply Sidecar to the inner half, right into the inner corner

On a 239 pack Toasted onto the centre section of the lid

On the other side of the 239 combine Toasted and Hustle and draw that out from the lash line to create the wing, then pack more Hustle in the outer corner to create depth

Then using the leftover product on the 239 draw the shadow under the eye.

Use a 217 or another fluffy brush to blend all the colours and soften the edges

I used Sin as a brow highlight

I then used L'Oreal Gel Intenza to line the water line, my upper lash line and to create a wing

Finally lashings of L'Oreal Telescopic mascara adds great definition

On my brows - No. 7 Perfect Brows pencil in Black

Products - Face

Benefit Erase Paste in Medium

Mac Pro Longwear in NW20 and NC25

Mac Studio Sculpt in NW25

Mac Magically Cool Liquid Powder in Truth & Light

Nars bronzer in Laguna

Mac blush in Plum Foolery

Benefit Highbeam to highlight

Lips

Clarins Joli Rouge Brilliant Perfect Shine lipstick in 06 Fig

If you have made it to the end of this blog post then thank you so much, and congratulations, it's a bit of a mammoth post!! 

The Urban Decay Naked palette is available here or at a zillion other places either on-line or at Urban Decay counters in Debenhams etc

What are your feelings on the Naked palette? What are your favourite looks to create using it? 

If you'd like me to provide links to the other products just ask in the comments and I will willingly do so :) 

As always the beautiful back drop to my product shots is by Gabrielle Vary, she makes incredible luxury knit-ware items which are available here. 

xxx

Decleor Aroma Cleanse.

I am an absolute sucker for beauty products and I am a salesman's dream, I will literally buy whatever anybody tells me to buy, or sign up for any charity I am stopped by much to the dismay of my bank balance.  I was asking my lovely beautician friend about which cleanser she would recommend (I was running dangerously low on my Clinique three step program), and this is what she uses and sells in the salon, and of course she only had to wave the muslin cloth in my face and I was sold, I think it was £25, which is pretty steep but I buy first think later where these things are concerned! I also bought the Aromessence Neroli oil (which I didn't really need but can't say I'm surprised I did it!).  Once I got home I was filled once more with shopping remorse and guilt, but now I can look back over the past ten months or so that we have been in face washing harmony for and think it was money well spent! 

So some product info for you: 

Full product name: Hydra-Radiance Smoothing & Cleansing Mousse 

Volume of product: 100ml

Comes with: 2 wonderfully soft muslin cloths and a nice little bag to keep it all in

Price: £26 from Decleor here or for £22.50 from feelunique here (so if I were you I'd get it from Feel Unique and check out the Decleor site for more product information)

I might be a big beauty spender but I need to eek everything out and get my moneys worth, and with this product this is made so so easy. You really do only need a pea sized amount, (which is about half a pump) I squeeze a little out onto wet hands and rub them together to get a velvety lather and then really massage it into my skin (although lets be honest here, sometimes when I'm tired all massaging goes out the window and I just slap it on, but the results are just as good!).  I then rinse the muslin cloth under warm water and squeeze it out so it's only damp (but still warm) and use it to wipe away the mousse, it really does feel like you are stroking your face with the softest combination of things imaginable!  I like to kind of smooth the cloth upwards to get every last bit of grime off my face (if you only stroke downwards you might not get under all the little hairs).  Once you do this you are left with baby soft skin, you truly are, and it just makes you look all radiant and glowy.  I feel properly clean after using this cleanser, and it's so lightweight and fresh. It's like the getting into a freshly made bed feeling but on your face if you know what I mean...and we all love getting into a freshly made bed!! 

Because Decleor use so many lovely ingredients this is a really natural and nurturing thing to put on your skin which I like because my poor old skin doesn't half get a pasting, I love the sun, I love make up, and I am forever touching my face (if I have a spot I can't leave it alone, I just can't) so there must be so much dirt and damage done to my poor little moon face that it just needs this twice a day as a breath of fresh air and a reminder that I love it and really do appreciate everything that it does for me! 

I also use the Tonifying Lotion, Aromessence Neroli oil, Hydra Floral Anti-Pollution - Flower Nectar Moisturising Cream and Neroli Essential Night Balm (crikey I am in love with Decleor).  But don't worry I bought all these things over a long period of time.  When I bought the Neroli Oil, it came with minis of the night balm and moisturiser so I used these until I'd saved some more and then I bought the moisturiser in full size, and I got the night balm for Christmas (lucky me!) They are all available from Decleor online or Feel Unique, alternatively if you like to see products first and speak to someone in the know then there are Decleor counters in many big department stores, John Lewis and House of Fraiser for shizzle (well ones that I've been to anyway!). 

I'm going to do separate reviews on the other items at another time as this is pretty long as it is...I hope I haven't bored you to tears.

The blanket/throw that my product is sitting on is made by the amazing Gabrielle Vary, and you really should check out her stuff if you're life is lacking a bit of handmade luxury knitwear http://www.gabriellevary.co.uk/ or on Not On The High Street - she happens to be one of my oldest friends and I love her dearly but her pieces really are beautiful, we have three of her cushions and the throw all in the same design and they bring our lounge to life! She doesn't know I'm writing about her (none of my friends know I blog!) so please don't think I'm just mentioning her out of duty, I'm not, she's just ridiculously talented! 

What is you favourite cleanser of the moment? Or you favourite soft furnishings for that matter?

xxx

Hand Cream, Oh Hand Cream You Wonderful Stuff!!

My hands used to be lovely, they were soft and my nails were strong and I looked after them because they made it worth my while.  But times have changed and my hands and I have been going through a rocky couple of years really, they let me down and went all dry and my nails went all weak and decided it wasn't worth sticking around so the peeled off and split at the earliest opportunity.  As a result and a bit of an 'up yours' to these turn coat hands I decided to stop showering them with love and attention and gave them the equivalent of the silent treatment - rarely painting them, and never moisturising them even if they felt as dry as the Sahara. 

Despite this, I have come to the conclusion that something has got to give.  And it seems increasingly likely that my hands and nails are not going to cooperate of their own accord (I"ve given them a couple of years to change their ways but no, they're stubborn creatures) so it's down to me, and I am going for a military style attack.  If I place enough hand creams in enough easily accessible places then surely I will have to give my poor paws the loving they need to be my silky strong friends again?!

So the plan of attack is going to go something like this...

In My Handbag

Cath Kidston Honeysuckle Hand Cream

At 30ml, this is the perfect size for your handbag.  I got this one for Christmas (they come in a set of three, and were split between three of us as stocking fillers which was a lovely idea) and at first I thought it was going to be a bit too floral for my taste, (I don't think it really smells like honeysuckle, but my sense of smell is a bit sketchy at the best of times) but I actually think it's fine, quite delicate and light. It's quite a thick cream, almost paste like, but it glides on really nicely and soaks in well leaving no greasiness at all, and your hands really do feel soft and lovely after using it (is it wrong to stoke your hands in public coz you like the way they feel?!)

In The Bathroom

Soap and Glory Hand Food

I love the signature Soap And Glory scent so this is a winner for my nose, and luckily it's a winner for my hands as well.  Again it's quite a rich formula so you really feel like you're doing some good when you slather it on.  It claims to be a 'non-greasy hydrating hand cream with shea butter, macadamia oil and marshmallow' and to be honest I'll roll with that...except the marshmallow bit (can't smell them and thankfully don't have sticky melted marshmallow fingers either!).

On My Desk

Vaseline Healthy Hand & Nail

This was the first ever hand cream I purchased (obviously not this exact one) when I was about 13, and I have loved it ever since.  It has keratin and vitamin E in it, both of which are amazing for skin and nails.  I really do feel like this is doing good when I put it on, no faffing around with fancy smells, just pure goodness for our hard working hands! I like to put a blob on each nail and cuticle and really massage it in and leave it to soak through and then apply a bit more and give it a good rub.  It leaves your hands feeling really smooth (again, stroking my hands just because I love the feel of them). 

In The Kitchen

Cath Kidston Intesive Hand Cream

What this product has to say for itself - 'This specially formulated cream with shea butter, cocoa butter, glycerin and sweet almond oil, will intensively moisturise and protect your hands.  Fragranced with a bouquet of green fruity floral with cherry blossom, honeysuckle and amber wood.'

I only recently got my sense of smell back (after 8 long years without it!) and when I smelt this in the Cath Kidston shop in Cardiff it was love at first sniff.  I literally wouldn't care if it made me feel as if I'd dipped my hands in tar, I'd still slather it on!! It's a really fresh and fruity smell and I simply love it! Thankfully it doesn't feel like tar, quite the opposite in fact.  It takes slightly longer to soak in but then it's and intensive moisturiser so that is to be expected and in no way does it leave your hands feeling greasy once it's been absorbed, just soft and smelling divine (smelling and stroking your hands...much weirder!)

And finally...

By My Bed

The Body Shop Almond Oil Hand Rescue Treatment

I have had this pot of hand cream for years and years but it's still going strong which has got to be a good thing! It's got quite a strong nutty smell, which I like but I guess if nuts aren't your thang you might not be such a fan.  It really is a 'rescue treatment', it's quite a greasy, heavy duty product but it really does work, and seems to penetrate the layers of hideous dryness!! This is why I like to use this at night because to be honest it doesn't really matter how much you've slapped on it's not going to cause you any trouble.  And also, it's not too oily, it does absorb well to leave lovely soft little mitts! 

Blimey, who knew you could waffle on about hand cream for this long?! 

I hope this hasn't been insanely boring, and that some of you made it all the way to the bottom of this post! 

I really hope that with all these hand creams strategically placed about my house I will finally give my hands the care and attention they need and they will show their gratitude by glowing and being the best looking hands out there! 

Here's hoping! 


Also - the gorgeous blanket that these photos were taken on is made by the incredibly talented Gabrielle Vary. Check her out, she truly is amazing. http://www.gabriellevary.co.uk/ or at Not On The Highstreet here.

xxx