Christmas Haul and Swap Reveal Photos

Happy 2014 everyone!  I am officially on holiday so I'm sitting here in my PJ's in total hibernation mode.  I finally gathered up all my haul and swap items in December and can now do a proper post about all the things that I purchased or swapped for.

I've been working on downsizing my stash and swapping for items that I will use, so I'm very proud that I managed to get all my beauty stash into my makeup unit on my vanity and an IKEA Helmer :)

**Warning: Long post :) and apologies for the iphone pics, my camera is broke**

Let's start with my favourite purchase of the season!
Acne Comet Boots (purchased from Harrods)
I recently posted about this, but they are finally here. I wore them to work for 2 days and they were so comfortable and I received so many compliments ::blush::
My only grievance is that the box is pretty standard and flimsy. For boots that originally cost over £400, I expected a little bit more.

 

Do you see that bright bag in the background? I also treated myself to the 

Vivienne Westwood vs. Cambridge Satchel Company bag  

(purchased from The Cambridge Satchel Company in Covent Garden)

These bags are so sturdy and well constructed. I just fell in love with the energy and vibrancy of this design.  My friend who bought this for me told me to go for this one instead of the brown one that I was initially going to go for.

Continuing with the Vivienne Westwood theme...

Lush x Vivienne Westwood Scarves 

 (purchased from my local Lush shop)

These were very limited and I'm happy to have secured both.

Guerlain Terra Nerolia Highlighter 

(purchased from Debenhams)

I was shocked to see this at 50% off as usually these limited edition products sell out before they can even go on sale.  I love the Guerlain palettes so much. They smell so fresh and fruity and the craftsmanship is so stunning.

 

A few more purchases for the New Years

I didn't want to pay the money for a Louis Vuitton refill in my agenda, so I headed to TK Maxx in hopes to find the Taschen Calendar Diary and Viola! there were tons. Many years ago at Uni, I purchased a Dali one and I loved it. The pages are filled with a lot of graphics and the paper is high gloss and sturdy.  It will last all year and it's worth the £5.99 price tag as well.

Also included in this photo are Muji pens. A co-worker gave these to me and I accepted with a huge smile on my face :)

 

The next item was a bargain find on ebay for only 99p. 

The Ninja Bunny Drawstring bag is very kawaii! I currently use it as my makeup bag.  

The last of my purchases before I move onto my swap reveal...

Lush Shower Gels: Ponche, Rose Jam, and Snow Fairy

My favourite of the three has always been Snow Fairy, but I had to get Rose Jam and Ponche for their unique scents.  Ponche is fresh orange juice and tequila and Rose Jam is a modern take on the traditional Rose smell.  Both are full of zest, freshness, and I love using them!  I had to stock up so I ended up buying 3 large bottles after I bought the travel sizes.

They are indeed limited edition, you can try your luck at your local Lush shop.

 

Ok ladies & gents, onto the swap reveals....

TheFACEShop Fruit Face Mask from Korea

I haven't tried them yet so can't comment, but these are actual cotton mask you put onto your face. They look a bit creepy, but fun ha!

 

(From L-R)

Caudalie Huile Divine OIl

I have only used their moisturisers before, but the oil smells "divine" for real!

 

Lucy Annabella Organics - Argan & Bergamot oil

I never heard of this brand, but the scent is fresh and I'm looking forward to using this on my legs tonight

S5 Purity Serum

This is another brand that I haven't heard of. I'm in love with oils and serums lately, so happy to give this one a try

The Body Shop Pink Grapefruit hand cleanser

Anyone who knows me that I don't support the Body shop since they were recently bought out by L'oreal.  I will say though that this hand sanitizer leaves an orange scent on your hand for a long time.

Escada Cherry In The Air (gift)

If you like sweet and uncomplicated perfumes that borderline body sprays, then this one is for you.

Ren Neroli & Grapefruit body cream 

I love Neroli so much! It is actually moisturising as well. I know Ren had a huge marketing presence when they first launched so I'm excited to finally try this before investing in money

Bourjois Healthy Mix foundation (only £2.99 from fragrancedirect.com)

I couldn't believe how inexpensive this was on fragrancedirect as Boots and Superdrugs is selling it far more.  I actually love using this foundation on days where I'm just running to the supermarket.

Clarins Santal Face Treatment Oil 

This was a free tester from my friend at the Clarins counter. The oil is so pure and rich. I put this on my face but wasn't so keen on the heaviest of it, so I will be using this in my hair.

Fresh Mangosteen Soap (gift)

I am happy to see that Fresh is still up and running. It's very difficult to get Fresh here in the UK, so a friend sent this to me as a gift. I currently have so much soap that I'm not sure when I'm going to use this one, but soon for sure.

Jo Malone Lime Basil & Mandarin perfume (gift)

Jo Malone is one of those brands that keeps growing. I'm not sure if they are growing too fast or not as their scents are becoming far too predictable; however, this one is very different and unique.  Just my kind of perfume.

MAC muscle tone nail polish (gift)

I always forget about MAC products, especially MAC nail polish.  This one takes 4 coats to make opaque

Perfume Guide from Luca Turin and Tanya Sanchez
I swapped for this book and I'm so happy to have it. The book goes over both high street and niche perfumes with humour, great insight, and knowledge. I've enjoyed reading this and feel very inspired to grow my perfume collection

MAC 217 Blending Brush was a gift. It's such a great blending brush. It's soft and blends shadow without striping the colour.

Bare Minerals Original Foundation in Medium Beige 

I swapped for this as it's one of my HG foundations.  I love using this on it's own in the summer or on top of my liquid foundation during the winter.  This is honestly an amazing foundation that highlights skin that is maturing (aka my skin now :(  )

Well that's all folks! These are the products that I will be working through along with my stash.  I'm really making an effort not to purchase too much but purchase quality products that I can enjoy using all year. 

I'd love to know what your fav purchase was in 2013? and Happy New Years to new and old readers.  May 2014 be filled with lovely products and happiness x

October Empties

It has been ages since I did an empties review. Probably because I have an attention span of a fly and end up giving away most things before I finish them.  Well I stuck through these, for better and for worse and this is my review.

SUQQU eyebrow liquid pen
£20 from Selfrdiges
This is my second one that I have gone through. The first time, I thought I may have gotten a bad one as it barely lasted me more than a month.  The finish is very natural and great for that daytime natural look, but there is not a lot of product. The actual longevity of the product is great however.  I will not be repurchasing this one for the 3rd time. I am now using a Chanel eyebrow pencil and I am happy with that.  I will definitely be buying their cream foundation however as soon as I muster up the will to drop £65 on it.

DIOR Diorskin Nude natural glow hydrating makeup
£32 from Boots
This liquid foundation contains spf 10 and is a lovely nourishing natural foundation.  You can build it up for medium coverage, but this is not a full coverage foundation.  I fell in love with the texture and the scent of this foundation and have this in two shades. This one is my winter shade in 020 and I have 040 for when I return from holiday with a tan.  I would consider re-purchasing this one definitely.

LUSH Sun Perfume
£18.50 from Lush.co.uk
Lush released a new series of perfumes last year an this is part of that collection.  Sun is a zesty, citrusy and very fruity perfume.  It reminds me of a fresh satsuma orange peel and is really pleasant and easy to wear.  The base of this perfume is sandalwood oil and it's a very gentle one. It lasts roughly 2-3 on my skin and then it turns into a very subtle sandalwood oil.  The bottle comes with a dropper and not a spray.  I would definitely repurchase this perfume, especially for the summer.

LUSH Feeling younger skin tint
£12 from Lush.co.uk
This is a creamy highlighter that I mixed with my foundation and moisturiser for the last year. This 20g pot lasted me that long. You only need a little bit for a healthy glow and it really left my skin feeling moisturised.  There are loads of beautiful ingredients in there like oatmeal infusion, almond oil, and cocoa butter that gave my skin the nourishment it needed.  I highly recommend this one for those who love to use highlighters to brighten up their face.  I will definitely be repurchasing this one!

MAC Face an Body foundation
£21 from Debenhams
I bought this foundation after good reviews that I read online.  After using the entire 50ml, I have to say that I was a bit disappointed in this foundation. I found that it dried too quickly and if you didn't act fast when applying, it had a tendency to drag the colour.  I know this one is not for full coverage, but the website stated that you could layer this up.  There were some grand promises with this one and I have to admit that it doesn't stand up to it's review. I will not be buying this one again. The only good part of this foundation is the plastic bottle in which it comes in an it helps with getting all your product out by squeezing it.


Overall this post will give you an idea of the two areas that I am really interested in and that is beautiful skin and perfume. 

What were your favourites this month? And if you have any recommendations for foundations, please let me know! xx

Lush Cosmetics Full of Grace Serum Bar Review

What a beautiful name for a product.  Grace is something that I need more in myself and funny enough, Lush's Full of Grace was something that I needed that I didn't even know that I needed.

Full of Grace is small pink/nude solid serum bar. It melts immediately with the touch of your fingetips and apply the melted serum onto your face.  Personally, as a day time moisturiser it is too oily, but it is perfect for when I want to give my face a massage in the evening.

I'm in my 30's now and skincare has become a very important product in my beauty regime.  I want something that has long-term benefits and I learned awhile ago that your skin isn't ready to accept products until it is "awaken".  I learned that it takes roughly 30 minutes of vigorous massage to wake up the skin and that is why makeup usually doesn't stay on skin.  It makes sense to me.  There are tons of Asian beauty tools targeted to massage your face as well. So there must be some truth in this?? Whether there is any validity behind that statement, I have been massaging my face whenever I have the time. 

This little bar is full of power as well (so a little goes a LONG way).  It has some amazing ingredients like:

Murumuru Butter, Calamine Powder, Cupuacu Butter, Fresh Rose Petal Infusion, Organic Almond Oil, Perfume, Fresh Portobello Mushrooms, Chamomile Blue Oil, Rose Oil, and Tagetes Oil

I love all the moisturising butters that they put in this and the fact that there is fresh rose petal infusion in it too, which makes this an extremely delicate serum that I believe has a lot to do with diminishing my roscea.  Also, when I use this at night, I find that I don't need as much moisturiser in the morning, because my skin is very supple.

I loved this so much that I already have a backup of it (as you can see from my photo).

It's  an amazing price for £7.95.  Serums usually cost a lot more and I can't even read the ingredients in most of them, so for less than £8, I am very very happy with this serum and it is definitely worth every penny.

You can buy yours at any Lush shop and online.

Until next time - Stay Graceful :)

Lush cosmetics bubble bar in Magic Mushroom and The Carrot

Hello there :)  Hope everyone is having a fantastic week.

I'm excited to finally indulge myself and use my Lush bubble bars.  I'm such a hoarder and I need to stop.  A while ago, I had a chat with a co-worker about how we should use our products instead of hiding them away for that rainy day. So I decided to photograph the two products that I've been holding onto because I thought they were too adorable to use.  So here they are in all their adorable glory and I shall be using them up in the next couple of days.

MAGIC MUSHROOM

 

I love the soft and mild vanilla scent and let's be honest, look how adorable it is.

Magic mushroom is a retro product and is available online for a limited time.  You can get yours here.

 THE CARROT

The carrot has a unique scent to it that I have never smelled before so I looked up the ingredients and there is something called Bucchu oil in there that smells like blackcurants.  I love how they added this oil and that's exactly the smell that drew me in.

The carrot was a limited edition Easter product, but it doesn't mean it'll never come back.  You can still get it if you buy the Spring tin gift set or the Mr. Hoppy giftset.

So if you can grab it, definitely grab this reusable bubble bar x

Ok it's going to hurt using these, but I'll try my best to enjoy it haha.

Spring RAOK revealed

It's been so long since I joined a raok, but I remember now why I missed it so much.  I put together a short collage of all the fantastic box that was gifted to me recently.  There are some amazing products and I am really looking forward to trying them out and reviewing a few of these.

The box contained:
* Clarisonic brush replacement head
* Chanel rouge coco shine in Sari d'eau
* Aveda hand relief
* L'occitaine Pivoine Flora hand cream
* Godiva hazelnut creme coffee
* Lush 25:43 perfume, Ma Bar, Whoosh, Ice blue soap, Demon in the dark soap
* Aveda soy candle
* Gourmet Dog treats and biscuits

It was such a fun package to open up and I had so much fun! Thanks mm16 for this amazing package!

Lush fresk mask in Love Lettuce

I rarely revisit the same product due to my eagerness to try out all the new products, but there are a few staples in my stash.  

Lush's fresh face masks are preservative free and probably the most refreshing face mask on the market.  I have tried a few, but Love Lettuce is my favourite.

The ingredients are:

Agar Agar Gel, Kaolin, Honey, Fullers Earth, Glycerine, Almond Oil, Ground Almond Shells, Ground Almonds, Lavender Oil, Chlorophyllin, *Geraniol, *Limonene, *Linalool, Perfume

I especially love the tiny grounded up Almond shells and the moisturising qualities of honey and almond oil.  The lavender oil helps to balance out the almond oil and you get an incredibly fresh scented product.  I usually can not stand the scent of lavender, but it is so subtle that it doesn't bother me.

The pot is 75g, and it lasts quite a long time.  I usually use this once or twice a week on top of using my Clarisonic, and it has helped greatly with my blackheads.  

You can buy love lettuce at certain Lush stores and online here for £5.95.

LUSH Lust Solid Perfume

Perfume is so subjective, this is why I do shy away from giving fragrance reviews.  But, I wanted to show you this product, because I'm really loving it.  I normally don't like heavy scents, but I am a lover of single note perfumes, especially from Molinard.  Sure Lust is not a single note frangrance, because it has other notes than Jasmine; such as, Vanilla, Ylang Ylang, rose, lavender. and sandalwood.  I personally hate vanilla and sandalwood, but you can't smell it (or at least on my skin you can't).


I'm going to just say that if you don't like Jasmine, steer clear, but this is one punch in the face of Jasmine...which I LOVE!!! There is something so dark and sexy about this and I am loving it.


It is in eco packaging, minimal, small and portable.  The empty can also be returned along with other 4 black pots for a free face mask. So that's another incentive to recycle :)


The only issue I had (very small issue) is that there is a red dye to this scent, but if you rub your wrist together it goes away.   Otherwise, I have no problems with this product, and I am in Jasmine heaven this morning.

 

You can purchase this at Lush stores and lush.com or lush.co.uk.

The price is £4.95 for 12g

Well worth it my friends, if you love Jasmine like I do.

Do you love Lush? What's your favourite product?

Your Neighbourhood Recycle Spokesperson

Have you guys noticed that I'm spelling things all in the British way, with the extra "u" lol. My computer is now telling me that I am spelling everything wrong now, since I updated it to English time. HAHA.  I don't know how to spell anything anymore, can't remember when to use the z versus the s's, or when to add the u or when not too. sigh.

Anyways, It's a gorgeous spring/summer day here in England and I decided to do some cleaning up.  I've always put together a pile of makeup empties to take with me to Origins to recycle, but since my town already has an amazing recycle program, I've been able to recycle locally, so I wanted to write a post to see how many people actually recycle their makeup empties?  

Just to show you all how much one person can go through in just a matter of 3 months, this is my pile.

I actually have more, but I tend to reuse a lot of my little pots for depotting broken eye shadows or pigments for my friends to try, so those aren't included, but as you can see, one person can make a lot of mess, and instead of all this ending up in a landfill, I have chosen to recycle.

Now I know in the states, recycling is a pain in the butt.  There aren't as many programs there as I have seen here in the UK, but having said that, there are a lot of Origins in most towns, so try to recycle, we all should do it, it's just a little thing we do that can make a big impact if we all do it.  Especially us beauty fanatics haha.

Other recycling programs with great incentives are:

Mac back 2 mac - If you are a MAC fan, then you probably already know that if you take back 6 empties, they will give you a free lipstick (other than the viva glam line)

Lush - Bring back 5 black pots and they will give you a free fresh face mask (retail over $5/£4)

and of course...

Origins - Take any other companies empties and they will recycle it for you.  In exchange, they will give you samples of whatever you ask for.

So even if there isn't an incentive, the incentive is to help not fill up landfills and add to the debris in the world :)

Does anyone have any other recycling programs that they participate in?

Quick trip to London - Lush, Boots and L'occitane Haul

DH and I had to run into the city really quick today in order to exchange dollars to pounds. OUCH! It really really hurt exchanging all my hard earned money and to get about half of what I had, in fact...I cried a little (inside) lol

So the shopping trip was a bit dampened by my mood after that, so I just ran into L'occitane to get my mother her mother's day present. Luckily she doesn't read my blog, so I can post it up for you all.

Home oils for the diffusers in Lavender and White Flower. I personally liked the light sweet floral scent of White flower so I got it for her. She loves Lavender (I know this, because her house smells like a Lavender field) so that was an obvious choice.

Each are 10 pounds and that roughly makes it out to about or a little cheaper than what it costs in the states...so I grabbed two.

Oh the third bottle is Marks & Spencer's Royal Jelly hand cream. Apparently another favorite of hers, so I grabbed that for 2 pounds.

(The background is actually a vintage scarf that I got from Lush)

Then I ran into Lush at Liverpool Street station and had a good time looking around. The staff was quite pleasant too. Loved the girl's tattoos as well!

So while I was there, I did make out like a bandit LOL I don't know if it was cheaper than the states like many have said, but I didn't care because I can't resist Lush.

I got this sugar scrub. I have used this before and loved the exfoliating scrub. It is great for my arms, elbows, feet, and just anywhere that needs extra attention and care.

Next up, Love lettuce fresh face mask. I've tried almost all of their face mask. I think they are cheap and last a long time. They also feel so freaking amazing when you pull them out of the fridge and put them on your face. Talk about refreshing...ahhhh....
Oh, this also have little almond shell pieces for exfoliating and it really really works!

I couldn't leave Lush without my bubble bars. A little crumble makes so many bubbles and I think you get more bang for your buck with these than any of the other bath products from Lush.
My bubble bar was called the comforter and it smells of blackberries. I am going to really enjoy using this tonight.

This next product is new to me. Jumping Juniper shampoo bar is suppose to be good for greasy hair, which is what I suffer from badly, so hopefully it will do some magic.
Plus, I like the whole solid bar concept and lack of preservatives that are in other liquid shampoos to keep it from going bad, so I hope this works.

And last but not least, you can't walk out of Lush without a bath bomb. I grabbed avobath, because I want the smoothing effects of the avocados in this bath bomb to moisturize my tired winter skin.
I really can't wait to try this one either. It also smells so fresh!

Ok, so onto some free stuff. I got this lotion with a Marie Claire magazine. This is so awesome! We never had this in the states, free gifts that come with the magazine. So I have no idea what lotion this is, but I laughed because it's called "Cowshed" knackered cow relaxing body lotion. LOL at cow. I guess that's what I am lol

and I get to look at what a Marie Claire UK magazine is like.

And speaking of lotions...I really need some, so I grabbed this body butter from fcuk (french connection) and it was cheap and on sale and it's a body butter. Not sure if it will be great, but I got to give these brands a try, or else I won't know.
So for 4 pounds, I picked this up while I was at Boots.

So after I came home from spending all this money (bad Sue! bad Sue!), I was so pleasantly surprised that the sales agent from Saks in NJ sent me these free Bond no 9 perfume samples -

I'm super happy about the Madison Square Park sample. This is going to be my next perfume once I finish all the perfumes that I currently have. It is a burst of freshness and youth. Only if it wasn't $260 :(

So I hope you guys enjoyed my little purchases.

I am soooo exhausted, so I'm off to bed. Tomorrow I go into town to find a 50th wedding anniversary gift for my in laws - wish me luck!

until next time, take it EZ !! :)