Nuxe Rêve de Miel Ultra-Nourishing Lip Balm

You know it's going to be good when it comes in a box...

I mentioned this lip balm in my previous post saying that this little jar is in my TOP 3 lip balms ever, and it is! I first read about it here on Estée's blog and had wanted to get some ever since, I've had this for quite a while now but wanted to wait before giving a review.

There's writing all over the box, I'm not quite sure why but I really like that

I hadn't heard of Nuxe or their Reve de Miel range before, which roughly translates to 'dreams of honey' but the moment you hear the honey word you feel the promise of moisture. It didn't disappoint ; I really love this lip balm and for once it really does do exactly what it says on the packaging, it's perfect for dry or chapped lips and really is ultra ultra nourishing. It has a lovely smell, the ingredients say Grapefruit essence but to me it smells more like honey (obviously) and orange which is still lush and quite comforting.

It ticks all of the requirements that I've set for my perfect dream lip balm bar one.

• Moisturises my lips (this sounds so obvious but I can't tell you how many I've tried that don't)
• Does NOT leave my lips feeling agonisingly dry within and hour of using it.
• Feels nice on my lips
• Doesn't make me look anemic (think Rose's blueish lips in Titanic at the end)
• Not too dry 
• Not too watery

And that is my only gripe with this amazing potion, it just doesn't glide on a silkily as I would like from my imaginary perfect lip balm. In reality it's probably the fact that it sticks to my lips (but isn't sticky) and doesn't slide about that makes it so good at lasting for ages.<---Sorry, that was a pretty poor sentence. I've been using this as a night time balm because it stays put all night and leaves my lips feeling great in the morning. It's a little too matte for me to use all throughout the day as I like there to be a bit of a sheen; I tend to rub a tiny bit of foundation and blusher on my lips and they can look a little flat together but then sometimes it's just right. This is going to be fantastic now that the weather is getting colder!!

This also comes in a stick form, I've noticed that Marks & Spencer have started to stock branded beauty products and they seem to do the entire Reve de Miel range apart from this pot of goodness. I'm going to buy the stick version just to see if there are the same effects in an ever so slightly more slippy form.

I paid £10 for my jar which isn't cheap but not ridiculous either when you consider how much product you get and how little you need to use each time, put it on your Christmas wishlist!

X

Bioderma Atoderm Moisturising Stick lip balm

 I am always on the hunt for the perfect lip balm and I don't really feel as though I 'm asking for the world when I say that what I would love is to discover a lip balm that:

• Moisturises my lips (this sounds so obvious but I can't tell you how many I've tried that don't)
• Does NOT leave my lips feeling agonisingly dry within and hour of using it.
• Feels nice on my lips
• Doesn't make me look anaemic (think Rose's blueish lips in Titanic at the end)
• Not too dry 
• Not too watery

If you ever find a lip balm that ticks all of these boxes then please let me know and I will be eternally grateful, I've found 3 contenders. One is a humble 99p Nivea, the other from Nuxe and number 3 is below!

As much as I like pretty graphics I'm very much a sucker for the medical looking packaging, love this.

This lip balm is from Bioderma, it also comes in a liquid? tube form but I do like a good old chap stick. I've read quite a few bad reviews about this but I really like it for several reasons:

• It glides on smoothly which makes it a nice base for whatever you're going to put on your lips next.
• It has a really nice smell, I can't quite place it but it reminds me of something from years ago...
• It doesn't wear away too quickly
• I haven't reapplied it in about 4 hours and my lips feel fine.

This final point is the big seller for me, I've tried a few recently that feel awful, disappear instantly and make my lips feel in pain afterwards because they've sucked any moisture out of them!

I wouldn't say this is intensively moisturising if you have very chapped lips- I would recommend the Nuxe one that I will be reviewing later in the week, but I think it's a brilliant. 

I think I paid a couple of euros for it so it's not that expensive really, I would really recommend giving it a try.

Here is the cake that I made for the Macmillan Coffee morning at work the other week, I was happier with it than I thought I was going to be half way through it and do you know what? I won the competition on our floor and then I took it downstairs with another girl to enter our cakes in the main competition and I won that too! I'll be honest, I only won the big bake off through lack of competition and the fact I don't like dry sponge but I was still thrilled because I don't really win things like this!

I had to make the chocolate cakes, everyone loves chocolate. Right?

X

NOTD Ombre Nails - 17 Fairy Cake

Hello sausages, how has your Monday been?

Mine's been up and down I think really; I'm loving life in my new job- my new manager is still a little intimidating after the interview but very sweet because she took me outside today to check that I was OK (I cried in the office on Friday when a woman on the phone was mean, I wasn't even that upset so I don't know where the bloody tears came from...) but on the other hand, my car failed it's MOT and it's going to cost me £500. The same £500 I was going to use next week to book flights to South Korea to visit my friend.

Swings and roundabouts, eh?

So, here is my first attempt at the ombre nail trend. Be gentle with me because I know it's a little rough but it's the best that I could manage!

I used 17's Fairy Cake as a light pink base and then my beloved M&S Limited Collection Pink as the darker shade. I couldn't decide whether to go light-dark or dark-light but after further council with the village committee it was decided...dark- light could look like chipped nails from a distance so light-dark it was!

I'm quite pleased with them, although at work there was some combination of office lighting and the pinks together that made them look glowing neon!

I imagine that most people know how I did this but if you don't then here is a condensed version:

• I painted one coat of Fairy Cake on to my nails and waited for it to dry.
• I ripped a chunk of sponge that I bought in the supermarket, I don't know if it's important but I made sure it was quite a messy rip so I would avoid any distinct lines.
• I painted some LC Pink onto the sponge (not too much) and started dabbing at the bottom until about half way so there was less painted.
• Then I painted Fairy Cake on to the same piece of sponge and started nearer the top to blend in with the middle so there was a medium shade.
• I then just repeated with the different colours until I felt they looked right.
• It's not a very smooth process so then I went to sleep and put one coat of topcoat on in the morning at voila...OMBRE NAILS!

This is actually my favourite song of all time. 

X

NOTD Limited Collection - Pink with Gold lace foil

I love this pink polish from Marks & Spencer, I mentioned in this post here and I thought it would be a great backdrop to a gold lace nail foil that I'd been wanting to use for ages. It looks so nice in the sun and I've had lots of compliments on them too! They also lasted all week with barely any chips which was a pleasant novelty.

What do you think?

X

Breast Cancer Awareness Month!

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and that means that pink is everywhere this month I will hopefully be posting more than the shocking amount of late and I'll try to keep to a pink theme for most of it!

Well, I didn't realise I had so much pink around... I wish this was all but it really isn't close!

In my previous job at M&S, Breast Cancer Care fundraising was always a huge deal throughout October, especially as we were the lingerie department so I was a little bit gutted that they don't really do anything in my new job. No Pink Fridays at all. Had I realised this before I would have gotten planning and putting requests in for another cake competition (we had a big one for the Macmillan coffee morning last week so it's not all bad) but I've only been there one month now so little steps, anyway the month is still young so there's time for some fundraising. 

There are also a load of products with part of the profits going towards the charity, here are some of my favourite ones ♥

You can find the entire range available from Breast Cancer Care

Picture courtesy of Breast Cancer Care online

I love this Swarovski pen, I think I'd like to be one of those organised people that always has one in their bag so this could be the pen to do it!

Picture courtesy of Breast Cancer Care online

I have wanted a Tangle Teaser for ages and this print isn't really the sort of thing I would usually go for but they all do the same thing don't they and as 20% of the profit goes to charity I will be getting this too!

Picture courtesy of Breast Cancer Care online

Well I just love this, I'm going to finally move out in the new year so maybe this will be a forward planning purchase? Can you buy a kettle 6 months in advance??

Have you got much planned for Breast Cancer Awareness?

X

nails inc. Couture

For those of you who may not be aware, nails inc. do a COUTURE service which lets you personalise your nail polish with a different lid and customised label . It's the presented in it's own box with your choice of 2 stickers et voila!

This service costs £20, is it worth it? Oh probably not. That's not really the point though and as my friend at work was leaving last week and is mad about nails inc.I thought it would make a fitting goodbye gift!

Picture courtesy of nails inc.com

The only thing that doesn't impress me about nails inc. is that they aren't always the quickest for delivery so it didn't arrive in time for my friends last day at work, so I basically felt like a bit of a bad bad friend.

Now, please don't go thinking that I just opened her present to take pictures, I wanted to make sure that it was all OK and the printing on the label wasn't dodgy and thought ' well...it would be a shame not to show this on my blog...'. Hmm, still sounds bad doesn't it?

The obligatory Celebration & Good Luck stickers

 I went for the pink jewelled lid with Holland Park, which by the way is an impossible colour to accurately capture on my camera so below is an edited version which shows the exact shades perfectly!

And this was the reason I opened the box, this sticker wasn't on straight at all, it was all the way to the left almost over the edge which I felt was a little shoddy considering you are paying for this little extra. It wasn't difficult to take it off and straighten it up though so not to worry.

A little Disney joke

My friend was really pleased with it and it looked cute so I was a happy bunny.

What do you guys thinks? Will you be treating someone special or yourself to a couture polish... there are only 86 days until Christmas!

X

Hip Hip Henna Hooray

On Monday, one of my best friends came home from South Korea and it's just been so amazing to see her. She's been over there for just over 18 months teaching English and she's flown over for only one week for one of her best friend's wedding.

I haven't been able to talk to her as much as I'd like due to my dodgy laptop and my blackberry is too old to have Skype but it was as if it had only been a week since we'd last seen each other and I think my mum's right when she says 'that's exactly what it should be like with good friends, you can always pick up where you left off'.

She's been ticking off all the foods throughout the week that she wants to fit in before she flies back to SK on Monday and last night was the turn of Fish & Chips. Neither of us were really that hungry so we settled on chips and made the trek to a nearby village that is apparently 'the best'. They were nice but I don't know what to compare them to as I don't ever really get them, they weren't hard though so I was happy.

I'm in love with Mendhi/Henna and have been for years and usually like to keep something on my feet throughout the summer and Suze saw my feet on Tuesday night and asked if I would do some on her, especially as the wedding she's going to is a Sikh ceremony and they're having a Mendhi party today for the Bride to Be. It's not very authentic, more 'in the style of' but she wanted it all up her arms too which was a bit of a challenge as I kept getting confused!

We used a different henna to the one I usually buy as mine had all run out but this is where I get mine from if you're interested. It's freshly made and arrives very quickly and stains a nice dark colour. You can buy it cheaper but in my experience this is one of the best ones.

This way to Henna heaven

Be careful not to buy the black henna that's on Ebay if you dye your hair as one of the chemicals can cause allergic reactions.

I'm wearing Models Own-Utopia and Suze is wearing Rimmel Pro-Desire

We also used some nail foils to go along with the theme, I've mentioned them in another post but I'm building up a collection of pictures so that I can do a really good post about them because they're amazing!

These sadly aren't my pictures, I wish they'd bring out the iPhone 5 already so I get get the 4S cheaper..I've read it could be September 12th so fingers crossed!

On a different note, has anyone smelt the new Marc Jacobs Dot EDP?

It smells amazing, the nicest I've got a whiff of in a while so I think I will be buying this with my first months salary .

Picture courtesy of Feel Unique

X

NOTD Look Beauty Nail Pop- Sequin effect

Happy 1st of September!!

Sorry it's been a while, life has been completely up in the air mental recently and although I've been taking pics for the blog all the time, I just haven't found long enough to sit down and put it all together. I'm planning on replying to all my comments this weekend (sorry it's take me so long, I had been trying to do it on a weekly basis...)

One of the many things flying around at the moment is that I have a new job! I don't know if I mentioned on here that I had an interview well over a month ago? Well, I left feeling that it went pretty badly and when I didn't hear back for a month I assumed I didn't get it, but I did!! I'm so excited because it's my first 'grown up' job, I'm still bottom of the pile, but that's where you have to start isn't it? :) It really couldn't have come at a better time because after that woman I work with had and still has been trying to get me in to trouble I think it was a good idea to jump before I was sadly pushed. I start next Friday, eeek!

This NOTD is one I'd been after for a while now, I had seen a GOSH flakie on another blog quite a long time ago but the polish in question had been discontinued, so when I saw the Look Beauty did 2 versions I was sold!

I really like the Look magazine beauty range, I first saw it before Christmas last year when there was a Superdrug offer 'buy 2 products and get a free polish'. I had wanted the polish and a mascara anyway so I picked up an eye shadow which I actually really like.

The shadow is quite a warm nude metallic, I can't usually wear warm shades without looking bruised but when the light hits this it has a lovely cool shade to it, quite pearly and nice really.

I'm not so fussed about the mascara, it's nice but not 'product heavy' enough for my preference. It says 'Lash extensions in a bottle' and it does separate and lengthen but with a subtle natural look, I think it just depends what you're after.

Eye shadow- CAMI shade 4 , Mascara- STRETCH FACTOR Ultra black shade 1

This was the baby though, I adore this. It looks amazing on, I think it would compliment every skin tone and I received countless compliments whilst wearing it and friends were borrowing it left right and centre. It retails at £5 which isn't a bad price, it's just something in my head wishes it was £4.50, thinking about it, it could be that I don't like round number prices for cosmetics in general. How odd.

Look Beauty Nail Pop in BLING

Right, back on topic now. They do 2 varieties of the flakie glitters; shown below is Sequin effect which leans slightly more to the green and yellow shades in the light and Pearl effect which leans slightly more to the blues and purples. Both were very pretty but I decided I was after the former one.

I layered this over a 17 polish called Mint Choc Chip which I love, it can look quite blue in some lights and I thought they would compliment each other nicely. I have seen them layered on a lot of darker polishes though with quite stunning effects.

I would call this look Baby Mermaid...

1 coat of base, 2 coats of Mint Choc Chip, 2 coats of Sequin effect and 2 coats of top...too thick for me

The effect was really difficult to capture on camera, it looked lovely but next time I would do few coats as I don't like it too thick. Overall I really like this but it isn't going to become my all time go-to favourite. It's definitely fun to play around with different colours it works with though.

Look what's turned up in my local Boots!?! An Essie stand, woohoooo!

X

MUA Makeup Academy Lipstick- juicy shade 15

I picked up a few things in Superdrug on my lunch today, I really went in for a flakie nail polish from Look Beauty and was just browsing, wishing the 3 for 2 offer was still on and I saw this:

I liked the colour and for £1, even if it wasn't right- who could complain?

It has basically turned into my favourite lipstick ever and no matter how much I've been trying recently, I just can't find the lipstick that's right for me. THIS IS IT.

I would almost describe it as a pale neon? It does go on slightly pinker than the orange it looks on the stick. The only thing is, it is cheap and if your lips aren't smooth as a baby's behind then it will show (you can see it slightly on mine in the picture above) but I am normally so covered in lip balm that this doesn't bother me at all.

Honestly, just go and buy it tomorrow.

Obviously, I was distracted and bought other bits

£6- Accessorize

X

Terrible Tuesdays round II and Retail Therapy

Well, today has been bloody terrible as far as Terrible Tuesdays go. I won't bore you with too many details but my day at work was horrendous because the woman I have recently been paired with has monumental mood swings and tries to stitch up everyone she works with and today she succeeded in stitching me up a treat. I looked like a royal waste of space and I found it really upsetting because I like to think I'm a hard worker that doesn't let people down.

What did cheer me up massively though, was that when I looked at my little blog I saw that I had 

99 followers!

That's right, 1 off 100.

I couldn't believe it, that's like 14 extra followers since the weekend and I know that there  are newer blogs with more followers but this isn't one of those, this is my blog and I am so so thrilled that 99 of you are following me. Thank you all so much for reading my ramblings, I haven't even replied to everyone's comments yet and I promise I'll start posting more frequently ♥

I went into H&M at the weekend and I couldn't believe how good their jewellery is at the moment, especially the necklaces... cue low quality, blurry & sneakily taken phone photo:

This is what I came away with but I will be going back very soon and coming out with much more I think

I LOVE this quilted make up bag, I'm going to buy another one and use it as a clutch bag, the colours are amazing in real life. 

I wasn't too sure at first but I think I will try and make the front a little less dangly and it will be perfect with lots of different outfits... ♥ a statement necklace.

All my stacking rings have gone brassy so these will be great until I find some as dainty as my previous ones

So these products below are obviously not from the wonderful Hennes & Mauritz but I thought I would give a try:

£10, I'm currently trying this out so I can give a good review of it...currently undecided.

 I know, I know, who knows how many years late on to the bandwagon I am but I thought I would try a teeny bottle and see if I wake up looking like a goddess after a months use. I look forward to the results.

Right, do you know what? I think I'm going to do a giveaway, I'll do a post about this at the weekend!

I hope you have all had a better Tuesday than I have today :)

x