Bare Minerals Remix Trend Mini Review (plus a few extras!)

Hello!

So the other day I got to go to the BareMinerals Spring 2013 Seminar which shows us what new products we'll be getting throughout the first half of the year and also lets us have a play with a few of them too! We do other bits as well, which are all counter manager related (paperwork stuff...) and a few other bits (free lunch/free costa coffee all day are my particular favourites!) Anyway, the thing I was most excited about was the new Remix Trend that we have coming out on the 15th of February (I think....we get told dates a lot but they are always subject to change!) Now then, I know loads of people were excited about the Ready compact foundation but somehow the pretty colours were more exciting to me! I managed to get a few sneaky pictures and swatches of one of the eyeshadow palettes too but not a lot else unfortunately....Anyway, on with the Remix...

Picture taken from the BareMinerals USA Site

So the collection is made up of 3 new lip colours, 2 eyeshadow quads, a blush, a bronzing mineral veil, a bronze radiance, a blue mascara and then a mascara and eyeliner in limited edition packaging.

I like that this collection actually comes with a bit of everything this time round! And I LOVE the blue packaging!! So freaking nice! So, let's look at everything individually...

3 Loud and Clear Sheer Lip Colours in Amped Pink, Tangerine Trance and Berry Remix - These look so bright in person....but don't actually have much colour payoff at all. The are a translucent gel formula so are more like a very lightly tinted lip balm. They feel really nice on and do give a tiny bit of colour but I was a little disappointed on the colour payoff (I do love a bit lip colour!) These will be £15.00 each.

2 Ready Eyeshadow Quads in The Wild Thing (Blues) and The Next Big Thing (Neutrals) - These are just as pigmented as the other Ready eyeshadows and have the same anti-ageing properties too. I personally absolutely fell in love with The Wild Thing as the colours are super pretty. The Next Big Thing was a bit blah for me really, but I think that's because I really want to get more colours and less neutral palettes in my personal collection! TNBT palette is very pretty with the two neutral colours having very good payoff but the other two are less extreme than I expected. TWT palette was completely different to how I imagined it to be from the pictures (swatches down below!) These will be £29.00 each.

Blush in The Natural High - This is SO pink! The colour payoff is amazing and you only need a tiny amount for a nice pop of colour. This will be £22.00.

Bronzing Mineral Veil - This has got an SPF 25 in it and is very pretty. It gives a nice healthy glow without being too intense. I think people might go a bit crazy for this one to be honest! This will be £20.00.

Bronze Radiance in Secret Radiance - This is packed with colour and shimmer. A tiny bit will go a really long way but will make a lovely highlighter for anyone lucky enough to tan easily this year! This will be £19.00.

Flawless Definition Mascaras in Black and Aqua Blast - The black one is the normal flawless definition mascara but in limited edition packaging. The Aqua Blast one is BEAUTIFUL! It's not like a bright 80s blue but more of a teal blue and I just think it's gorgeous. I love the normal FD mascara so will be very tempted with the Aqua Blast one! These will be £16.00

Round the Clock Eyeliner in Midnight - This is another normal product with limited edition packaging. I really love the RTC liners as they have such good staying power and are so pigmented too! I personally can't use them on my waterline for some reason (everyone else seems to be fine with them on their waterlines! So jealous!) but on my top lid they are fab! This will be £13.00.

A quick little shot of my place at seminar! I love how amazingly well done the tables are every time I go! (Obviously we all resisted peeking in the bags until we were asked if we'd looked! Then all hell broke loose! Haha!)

Here is The Wild Thing palette! I had to be super sneaky when taking this picture! One of the area managers was sat behind me and went "Love it that much Robyn??" I explained about my blog and she went "....alright...one sneaky picture!" and winked at me! Haha! The blue packaging seriously wins me over! Plus look at that branded BareMinerals pen in the foreground...classy! (At least I can tell if someone has stolen my pen at work now! Haha!)

Swatches of The Wild Thing palette. These are literally one sweep swatches. How amazing are those colours?! The lightest one is super pretty and is multitonal so it changes in the light!! I'm literally in love with this palette! Whilst there I naturally asked if I would get this on my counter (I'm a mini counter so we don't get everything...) and the answer was....no I don't. I was so disappointed!! But I'm going to London on the 17th of Feb and will be going into the Covent Garden Boutique to grab this palette and the Aqua Blast mascara (if they still have any...I'm hoping they won't be rammed with customers!) I might try and swatch a few of the other bits to show you guys if you want to see what any of it looks like before buying it! Let me know!

On to the bits that were in our bags on the table! I was SO surprised to find the new Precision Face Brush in there but also super happy! I have the travel version of this (which can be seen towards the end of this epic post here) and I love it, but I was thinking of getting this when it came out as I liked how nice it was to use...so getting it in the bag was such a good surprise!! It's SO freaking soft and gives such flawless coverage. Love it! We also got given the new Multi Wrinkle Repair Serum which feels beautiful and is proven to reduce forehead, eye and mouth wrinkles (along with a few others!) by 80% after 4 weeks continuous use! And then finally we were all colour matched and got given the Ready foundation in our colour too! Amazing!! Now then, I went and brought this last year in Selfridges (see end of post here) so I didn't really need another one as my one still has LOADS left in it, so I asked out lovely trainer Rachel if I could possibly take one in my Mum's shade instead and she was absolutely lovely about it! Now then, I know with the Ready Foundation, you really do need to be matched even if you already use the original foundation, but I took a risk and grabbed the one in the colour my Mum is using at the moment. Hopefully she'll like it! When this comes out in March, they will have numbers rather than names to stop people just buying the same colour and being annoyed if it looks different on them!

Ready Foundation - Out beginning of March - £25.00

Precision Face Brush - Out beginning of March - £24.00

Multi Wrinkle Repair Serum - Out now! - £38.00

Little shot of the Multi Wrinkle Repair Serum. I love the design of this bottle for some reason!

Here's the bit of blurb on the back for you guys to read yourselves!

And here is what the product looks like. I'm not going to lie...I had a little giggle about what else it looks like (but I hear that softens you face too.....Haha!!) But I've used this a few times and it feels so lovely on your skin! I've got my Mum on the case and might try and persuade her to let me take a few close ups of her wrinkles and then get her to use it for 4 weeks and see if we can see the difference...if she'll let me of course!!

So what do you guys think of the Remix Trend Collection?? Any bits you'd like me to swatch on the 17th? I can post them on twitter on the day if any of you want me too? Anything there that you don't really like the look of? Let me know in the comments as always!

Until next time,

xoxo

Perks of the Job...

Hello!

So today I actually had some motivation so I've been good and put it towards blogging. I've been meaning to do this kind of post for ages but I've been really sceptical of it because I'm so aware of the fact that it is basically a bragging type of blog post....I actually love reading posts on things people get for free etc so I know some of you will like this but I'm sure some of you will hate the fact that I'm basically going "Whoo!! Look at how great it is to work on a makeup counter!" (I can assure you that yes, the perks are great, but like any retail job there are still some shitty customers to deal with. Don't get me wrong, some are utterly lovely people, but you do get the few who are either SO fussy or get annoyed that you don't stock things/don't know where places are exactly in store/don't understand why you can't colour match them to a Dior foundation etc.)

Anyway, back to the bit I can brag about.... So, in case you didn't know, I recently made the leap from Assistant at Benefit to Counter Manager at Bare Minerals (just across the brow bar from Benefit...) Now then, I was HIGHLY allergic to a lot of Benefit stuff so I pretty much couldn't wear anything by them for fear of having a gross rash on my face. I'm not sure what it was but there must have been one key ingredient that set me off because I could use certain things but not others. How odd right? Basically this meant that I never brought anything when I was there because I wouldn't have used it and, although I was suppose to, I never got an allocation (which was annoying because they would have made fab presents!) Anyway, Bare Minerals is treating me much better and when I first started I got some lovely freebies from them so I could wear stuff on counter and be able to recommend their products (I was very nervous about using their products in case the same thing happened, but I think it's actually cleared my skin up to better then it was before!) Since starting on Bare Minerals, I've also learnt about the whole "free samples" thing...apparently we can take two per day! That's 10 free samples per week if I wanted! Now then, this does obviously depend on who a) has samples and b) if they have enough to be able to share them. After all, they are really for customers as a nice little incentive! But if there's something that you genuinely want to try and the girls have samples of it then usually they are happy to give you one to try (you're likely to end up buying it and giving them commission then! Haha!) I do love free things and makeup so obviously I always jump to try new stuff, but I'm not cheeky with it (hopefully....) I mean, if someone offers then I'll take it and if there's something I'd really like to try then I'll ask but if someone can't spare a sample then I'm not going to get stroppy or anything you know? So on to my little freebie haul for the last few months....

So here it all is a group of free stuff. Exciting right?? (Bonus points for spotting the clutter in the corner. Just because I have a double distinction in photography, doesn't mean that I'm not lazy when it comes to actually taking photos! Haha!)

First up is the Bare Minerals selection...I know this looks like a lot but 8 of the items are actually from the 9 piece Get Started Kit in Light (the 9th piece is a DVD but I chose not to include that as it's not the best freebie in the world....informative and not as cheesy as I'd hope to be honest, but not a great freebie all the same...)

• So in the light kit you get: the three brushes (Full Flawless Face, Flawless Face and Maximum Cover Concealer), two foundations in Fairly Light and Light (I'm lucky as I can wear both of these, although I prefer the Fairly Light colour), Warmth All Over Face Colour (this looks SO dark but actually works beautifully), Mineral Veil (a finishing powder that absorbs excess oil) and Prime Time Original Primer. I have taken loads of pictures to do a full post on this soon hopefully so you can see how it works/what I think of it (here's a hint, I work for the company so I pretty much love it....)
• In the top left hand corner of the picture is a Bare Minerals Correcting Concealer SPF20. Now then, I know I'm always saying "I don't wear concealer" but actually, I'm pretty much in love with this product! It's amazing and creamy without being too creamy but dries nicely, without being really drying on your skin either. Plus the coverage is brilliant. Again, blog post coming up on that soon and because these aren't out until September, this was a lovely thing to get in the post!
• The two little pots with the bit of paper above (I am a great photographer right??) are samples of some eyeshadows that I got the other day. The testers were being thrown out so I nabbed the little bit that was left to try them. I love the grey one as it has a slight blue tone and looks beautiful for a subtle smokey eye and the dark brown is gorgeous for an everyday look. Will have to invest in these soon!
• Flawless Definition Mascara - I love this mascara! It has beeswax, jojoba and shea butter in it and doesn't irritate my eyes at all! Good times! I love this for a daily mascara as it just separates your lashes without being over the top...however, you can layer it easily for a more extreme look. I really want to get the Curl and Lengthen mascara though as it's my favourite on counter....

Clarins!

Ok so I don't use Clarins really because I am poor and just can't justify buying a face cream for £34 really. I had a few small samples of the HydraQuench range and I LOVED them. They completely cleared up my dry cheeks and just made my skin feel lovely. I really wanted to buy the full size one but really just couldn't use my money for it (even with 20% staff discount) However, I'm friends with the girl who works on the counter and she had a spare space on her allocation and she used it to get me the salon size (double the size of the normal pot, and in a squeezy tube! Bonus!) as a gift! How nice is that! I was really surprised but very grateful. She even gave her free gift from the two products she was buying for her friend (who didn't want the free gift....what?! Madness!) In the gift I got decent sample sizes of the HydraQuench Intensive Serum Bi-Phase 15ml (handy for dry patches when they randomly appear. I blame the weather...), HydraQuench Cream 15ml (handy for travel!), Foot Beauty Treatment Cream 30ml (my sister has really bad hard skin on her feet at the moment, so this will be an amazing little gift for her!) and a Instant Light Natural Lip Perfector in Rose Shimmer 5ml (People have been raving about this so I was so excited to try it! It smells like candyfloss too which is AMAZING!)

Estee Lauder!

So a while back I decided to try the Estee Lauder Double Wear foundation and I fell in love with it. I used to wear it all the time when I was on the Benefit counter (cheeky!), but as I couldn't afford the real deal, I lived off those little pots of samples. The one on the left is a Double Wear light sample and the one on the right is a normal Double Wear sample (that's my shade FYI...in case anyone wants to ever buy me a present, so you can colour match to how pale I am! Haha!) The lades on the counter are so lovely and were happy to give me samples (in fact one of them kept asking if I needed anymore, even when she'd given me some the week before! I don't wear foundation too heavy so these pots lasted me WAY longer than the 10 days that they should last!)

Again, my promises to buy the full size were a little unfounded due to being utterly poor, so even though I really did intend to buy the full size I just couldn't justify it. This annoys me because I always feel bad about having samples and then not buying the product if I love it! Again, I'm good friends with one of the girls on the counter and did her a little beauty box of goodies for her birthday and the next week she surprised me with the full size Double Wear Light! I couldn't believe! I had to make sure that she knew I didn't get her a present to get one in return! Haha! She said it was because I'd gone all out for her birthday and it was a very belated gift for my birthday as no one did anything for it. (In all fairness, I had only been there for one week when it was my birthday and I was quite quiet still...which seems hard to believe right?? Haha!) Anyway, it was a fab gift and, although I obviously don't wear it to work and I do genuinely love my Bare Minerals Foundation, I do love this for special occasions and going out for a little extra coverage (plus I always follow it with my Bare Minerals Foundation so it's not cheating on my job too much right?) I love the classy box too so I'm keeping it in it!

 

Clinique!

This isn't in the big picture at the top because I have no idea where I've put it....which is annoying as I've seen it recently!

I was having a discussion with the girl on Clinique a few months back (when I was still on Benefit) about how I really want to try a small brush mascara as I sometimes find the big brushes are no good for my small eyes. Then Clinique did their mascara exchange and had samples of this High Lengths Mascara, which I really fancied the idea of trying but completely forgot to bring any of my old mascaras in to exchange it! What a fool! She was kind enough to offer me one as a sample when the deal had finished though as she had a few left. I love this mascara for length and definition but I think their new one is better for layering (from what I've seen on counter anyway) I do love this little travel size one though and I really do love how unique the brush is!

Dior!

Dior Lasting Lipcolour in 536 'Lucky' - I will be totally honest here, I've never tried anything by Dior at all. Nothing. One of the girls from Estee Lauder is moving over to Dior and was utterly shocked when I said I'd never tried anything by Dior, so she gave me a cheeky sample so I could fall in love with the brand. I'll be honest, I didn't think I'd actually like this lipstick as much as I do! I mean, I loved the colour straight away but when I put it on...well....it was beautiful! Not only was the colour just pure gorgeous and like nothing I already own, but the feel of it was beautiful too! I'm utterly sold and would be very tempted to buy the full size of this...and maybe have a little look at their other lipsticks.... Plus how freaking cute is that packaging?! Super cute!

And last, but not least, the one thing that bloggers seem to be split upon the most....perfume samples!! Now then, the reason I hate getting perfume samples in beauty boxes is because a) they are usually floral and I dislike most floral scents and b) they are clearly easy to get. I know you're all going to say about the fact that I work there so clearly it's easier for me to get them but if you ask they will always give you some in my Debenhams (I can be overly sure about every Debenhams but the ladies on mine are pretty good. Unless you're rude about it in which case they say they don't have any, which is fair enough in my opinion!) Also myself and Leanne once had a little trip round town having a "see who can get the most free stuff" and perfume samples are easy to get...especially if you do what we did (it's a bit cheeky I know...) and say "I'm looking for a new perfume, I like this, this and this. I prefer these kinds of scents, what do you have like it?" and then when they recommend a few perfumes, ask for samples on a "need to see how it settles/some give me headaches" Now then, I know how cheeky this sounds, but I still do this because I genuinely do get headaches from some perfume (which is awesome when your counter is right next to the perfume section....) Also remember that perfume companies usually send out craploads of samples (seriously. Too many in fact!) and that people usually want them when the fragrance is new and then forget to ask. You'd be surprised by the samples we do have (also the free gifts that are left....) I found a Daisy Eau So Fresh sample the other day and promptly ear marked it for my next sample stash! Handy for my handbag for top ups on nights out thank you very much! Also I actually did end up buying two perfumes that were recommended to me, so clearly samples work!

 Also I always think you should try perfumes before committing for a reason that will become clear in a minute....

• Marc Jacobs - Dot - This comes in a beautiful bottle that would look super cute on any dressing room table (although it's a bit of a nightmare to hold and spray with one hand...) and the scent is gorgeous.....but it doesn't last on me at all. It fades really quickly compared to my Daisy Eau So Fresh. So whilst I love this perfume and it's bottle, I wouldn't buy it at it's current price (around £47 for a 50ml bottle. The smaller bottles are cheaper but no where near as cute as the 50ml bottle!) Maybe if I found it on eBay for cheap or it drops in Mega Week, then maybe I'd invest....
• Marc Jacobs - Oh, Lola! - I seriously have a thing for Marc Jacobs perfume because, again, I love this scent! It's a fruity, floral scent so it's not overwhelmingly floral to my nose, which I like. This one stays on me a really long time, which is odd as both this and Dot are Eau de Parfum sprays. I feel like this one has a very feminine scent once it's settled on me properly and I like that about it. I would definitely consider buying this!
• Calvin Klein - Sheer Beauty - Another fruity floral scent that I actually really like.When it's settled it's quite subtle on me but still smells really nice. For and Eau de Toilette this one lasts quite well on me I think. I would possibly consider this as a more "serious" perfume if that makes sense??
• Calvin Klein - Euphoria - Again, this smells amazing! (Clearly the ladies on fragrance know what they're talking about when they recommend stuff!) It's quite fruity but has "rich lack orchid and sensual woods" in it (not sure how wood is sensual but there we go!) so it's a little muskier then the Sheer Beauty on. This is a really nice evening scent I think and it's an Eau de Parfum so it last AGES on me! I would buy this just so I could say "Oh that Calvin Klein perfume? Oh yes....it's my evening scent..."
• Paco Rabanne - Black XS L'Exces - I have the original Black XS for women, which was a Christmas present, and I've utterly fallen in love with it, so when I was offered this sample I was happy to grab it! From what I can gather this is suppose to be the more intense version of the original - basically the same scent but the original is a Eau de Toilette and this one is and Eau de Parfum. I haven't actually opened this yet but having sprayed it at work I can say that I've still yet to make up my mind. I know it's suppose to be the same scent basically but I just really like the original and that one stays on me all day anyway so I'm not sure I'd make the switch to this one to be honest.
• Escada - Especially Escada - I quite like this scent but it's a tad too floral for me really. It does end up giving me a little bit of a headache by the end of the day. Also this is the only sample that doesn't have a spray and therefore the most annoying of all samples! I have, however, discovered the Escada summer fragrances and the fact that we do a little set of all of them that I am very interested in as I love all the summer ones! (Although this means that I would get annoyed when they run out as I'm fairly sure these are limited edition...what with being summer fragrances and all...)
• Kenzo - Madly Kenzo - This was exclusive to Debenhams when it first came out (possibly still is?) and there was abig display of it, and when I first sprayed it I quite liked it so was given two samples to take home. However, it now just smells like stale energy drink mixed with a hangover to me. Don't ask me why I think it smells like that because I've never worn this out so I don't even associate it with a particular night out, but I sprayed this on the other day and by the end of the day I just wanted to vomit. It was making me feel really ill and gave me a really bad headache too! Clothes that I'd only worn for half a day HAD to be washed and I actually showered before I went to bed. I know some staff actually really like this. but frankly I need this sample to be in my bin already. Gross. (You see why perfume samples are a great thing?? Imagine if I'd brought that perfume on a whim because I liked it on first spray? I'd be so angry with myself!)

So that's my little bragging post, but also one to remind you that free samples are out there, you just need to ask if you're buying something o a counter (or a lot of stuff!) I really hope I get little samples on my counter soon as I love having them as little treats for people (although I am one of those harsh people that says no if people come up and the first thing they say is "Have you got samples." in the rudest way possible (note the lack of question mark? That's how rude and blunt people are sometimes!) I had a lady the other day who asked me (Bare Minerals Counter Manager....) for some perfume samples. Now then, the fragrance lady had gone on lunch and I do know where the samples are, but it's not my section so I don't like to give out samples to just anyone.... So I said "Sorry I don't work on fragrance but I can try and find one if you know what it is you're after?" Lady: "What do you mean you don't work on there? You're stood near it." (I kid you not. Well I stand near lots of things but that doesn't mean I work there....) "I don't want a particular one, I just want samples. I'm not going to actually buy anything because it's fucking expensive." Me: "Oh ok, well I'm really sorry but I don't really know where they keep the samples. The lady on fragrance will be back in 10 minutes if you want to come back and ask her?"  Lady: "Ugh. Fuck no. I'll go somewhere else" Now, OBVIOUSLY that is a really bad way to ask for cheeky samples. Plus don't swear at me when I don't work on the section...or ever really. And really, telling me you'll go somewhere else isn't really that damaging to me anyway as you're not buying anything! Seriously, sometimes I hate people. Anyway, basically if you're nice you can usually get samples from me, but if you're rude then you can jog on! Haha!) I do have a little allocation to put in soon (£250!!) so expect another little "holy crap I've never had a job with perks this great before!" post (because I am very aware that the perks of my job are unlike most jobs....most of the time I feel bad for getting free things!)

Are there any bits that you really like/dislike in my freebie stash? Any perfumes that you can recommend for me so I can try them out? (I love having recommendations!) Anyone think I'm being way too cheeky with my bragging ad that I should just be quiet and stop making you jealous?? Haha!

Until Next time,

xoxo 

Review: Benefit Sun Beam

Hello!

So I need to apologise for not posting in about a week and a half....first up I was busy with work and friend's birthdays and then  became horribly ill. It started on Sunday (hence no Sunday Roundup) but I thought maybe I was just feeling under the weather from the night before (meal out for friends birthday....where there was a free bottle of Champagne on offer....uh oh!) However it turned into severe swollen glands, which ended up with me being sent home from work and having to call in sick the next day (I feel that I should point out that I NEVER call in sick just because I never feel like I'm really sick enough you know? I once went into work after falling over in the shower and hitting my head really hard on the bath. Cue standing on tills feeling tired and woozy and my manager having to take me to the office and make sure I didn't fall asleep until I could get picked up! What a tit I was to go in right?? Also an idiot for falling over in the shower in the first place. Anyway, you get the idea...) However, my glands were so swollen that I wasn't able to talk much without being in an intense amount of pain and every time I had to swallow I made a face that customers most certainly would be put off by! Haha! I'm feeling a bit better now (no more hot and cold sweats for me! Yay...) but my left side is still pretty painful and it's causing the most annoying earache too. I love being ill.... Anyway, I don't have work at all this weekend so hopefully I'll be fine for my training next week.

So the point of this post is to give you a review of the new liquid bronze highlighter that Benefit are coming out with on the 21st of May (although some stores may have it by the 19th and we've been told to put it out then if we can!) Basically my manager Lizzie, went on some training on Tuesday and got a freebie of this for me and kindly gave it to me before she sent me home on Wednesday. Sometimes the perks of my job are quite nice! I had a little swatching session and took these photos....and then promptly fell asleep for a 3 hour nap (the perks of being ill!) So....on with the review! (apologies for the quality of the photos compared to normal, I decided to use my phone rather than my actual camera. Hopefully they won't be too bad!)

The packaging is pretty similar to that of Moon Beam, just with a palm tree in the background rather than a crescent moon. You can see that it's the same size bottle as High Beam, Moon Beam, Benetint, Cha Cha Tint and Posietint - 13ml.....so if you're a Benefit addict, it'll look nice with all your other bottles ;)

Here is a lovely shot of the side of the box....I'm not 100% sure why I thought you guys might like to see this but apparently ill/sleepy me is thorough!

So like most of their products, Benefit have included a little guide as to how to use this. I do find that we get a lot of first time make-up buyers buy things on our counter and I do think these little "how to" guides can be very helpful for them. I know that even now I'll sometimes get a product in a beauty box and think "what the heck is this for?!" so I think it's a nice little edition. I always think that the size of some of the boxes are a bit ridiculous for our products. I know I get a bit disappointed buying a product and finding out that half of the box is just air really, but I guess it depends if you're a "keep the box" kind of gal. Some products I do and some I don't but I always think these bottles look tiny compared to the box! I've also noticed that since Benetint, none of the bottles are clear. It's a bit of guess work to know how much you've got left! Pro tip: always shake these bottles before use. If they are left in warm places they can separate and a good shake should make it the right consistency again (our counter is under a ridiculous number of lights! We constantly have to change our Porefessional testers due to them warming up too much. Very annoying!)

So like all the other bottle products, this one looks like nail varnish again! I know some people hate this and when I'm on counter I will ALWAYS use one of our foundation brushes to put the bottle products on someones face. It's easier for me and more hygienic too (I don't have to use my fingers to blend this way.) You can use the brush provided and blend with your fingers if you wish but I found my fingers were quite shimmery after doing that myself, also I just prefer the overall look of blending with a bigger brush as I feel it gives a nicer coverage and look. (You can also tell that I've been ill as you can see my bare nails in the background! Shocking!) You can also mix this with your moisturiser or foundation for a nice dewy look as well apparently but I haven't tried this so I can't be sure what the result is.

So this is a quick straight from the bottle swatch. You can see (maybe?? Man this camera is bad compared to my usual one!) that it doesn't have the same pinky tone as Moon Beam and is more golden instead. It's quite thick so a little bit really does go a long way. It's a lot like High Brow Glow in terms of colour so I think those two products will go really nicely together and will be a big hit for Summer (if it comes back again...)

So this is after the swatch has been blended out slightly. You can see that it's a little darker than my natural skin tone but having tried it on my face (no pictures of that because I looked like death....plus my neck was swollen on one side....not cool!) I really didn't notice a huge amount of difference with it on just by itself. I do think that it would work as a really nice highlighter if you were wearing another bronzer already (like Hoola or Dallas) and it looked quite nice on my brow bone too. I like the fact that this is almost a liquid version of High Brow Glow as that really is one of my favourite products, but this is also fairly similar to Watt's Up too and I think I will always prefer that to Sun Beam simply for the fact that I find stick highlighters easier to use rather than liquid ones personally. I won't actually be keeping this because I know my sister loves bronzer (she has a darker complexion than me so bronzer always looks nice on her!) so as she's giving me a blow up bed to sleep on next week when I'm on training next week, she's getting this little freebie as a thank you! (Along with a harsh contender for a Crash Bandicoot evening!)

So what do you guys think? Yay or Nay on this new Benefit product? Any other products you would put this with to make the most of it?

Sun Beam is out nationwide on the 21st (possibly sooner if we get the stock in!) but is available on the website now for £18.50.

Until next time,

xoxo

Product is a free sample as one of the perks of my job. However all reviews and swatches are 100% honest despite this.

£10 Boots Voucher Spend!

Hello!

So it's been a little while since I last did a post (lack of money/little motivation due to depression being lame) but today I went into town before work to spend my No 7 Boots voucher before it ran out tomorrow. I also had a lovely £10 Boots voucher to spend from my birthday so I decided to have a little mooch about and see if anything took my fancy.... Obviously lots of stuff took my fancy but I managed to keep it under £10 by using my Boots card in the kiosk thingy and getting some extra vouchers! Here is my little haul....

Firstly, here's two samples I got from my friend on the Clarins counter at work. My skin has gotten really dry and flaky on my cheeks recently (gross!) and it's been really stressing me out (which most likely isn't helping things...) and so today, my friend on the Clarins counter next to my work gave me two 5ml samples to try out to see if they work for me. I've tried the mask tonight and my skin feels really nice so far. I guess time will tell if it works or not but I'm hopeful!

Next up, I brought (yet another) nail polish with my £5 No 7 voucher. They end up being £2 with the voucher and are 10ml and great pigmentation too! Ultimate win! I've got a far few of these polishes so I wasn't sure which colour to go for to start with. I ended up picking the colour "Cheeky Chops" because a) I liked the name! and b) I shockingly don't own a pinky coral colour like this yet! I haven't tried this out yet (the lovely Leanne got me a Konad Stamping Kit for my birthday, so I've been going stamping crazy! Post on that to follow!) but I think it will be a fab summer colour!

So with my kiosk vouchers I could get a few 17 products for half price or for free when I brought other products...so naturally I had a little look to see if there was anything I actually wanted from these offers. Obviously I did! There was a voucher for a Va a Voom Mascara for half price and a free Pressed Powder when you brought any other 17 product. I'd had a quick look at the Rimmel lip stains and was thinking about maybe using part of my voucher towards one, and then I saw the ones by 17 and went with one of those instead due to it being cheaper!

Here is the pressed powder. There were only two left on the stand Barely Beige (I think) or Nicely Natural, which is the one I went for. I like wearing powder and like it to give me a tiny bit of colour (my ELF ones are either Sand or Apricot) but figured that Beige might be a bit too intense for my ridiculously pale complexion! Firstly, I'd like to point out how deliciously soft the sponge inside is! It feels gorgeous when you use it to put the powder on. The powder itself is also incredibly soft too! When I opened it I ran my finger across the powder and it was really soft and smooth! Love it! The mirror inside the compact is pretty big too, which is always handy. I tried this on top of my current make-up when I got home (Estee Lauder double wear FYI) and it made it look extra smooth and gave me a sort of "soft focus" look to my skin. I'll be trying this out properly tomorrow I think and will try to do a review on it soon (maybe in comparison to my ELF ones)

Pressed Powder in Nicely Nude - £3.99 (free with a kiosk voucher and further 17 product purchased)

Next up is the Va Va Voom mascara in Black. One of my favourite mascaras in the 17 Wild Curls one. It makes my lashes look lovely and really long too! My Wild Curls one is running low so the voucher to get me a new 17 one half price was quite appealing to me. I haven't tried this yet but again, I'll test it tomorrow and let you know what it's like! The brush makes me think it might be a little bit like Benefit's Bad Gal Lash mascara (it's got a really similar brush I think) so it'll be interesting to see how it compares. I really like the packaging of this tube by the way...

Va Va Voom Mascara in Black - Normally £6.49 With Kiosk Coupon - £3.14.

I'll be completely honest here, this was an unnecessary purchase really, but because I had the £10 voucher I wasn't about to feel guilty for a little impulse buy! I wear lipstick practically every day at work but can sometimes find it a bit too heavy with the hotter weather (which has been SO nice...during my days in at work....lovely...) Anyway, I saw this and started thinking "...well....maybe this will be good for Summer....I should try it!" I've tried lip stains before and I tend to find that they don't have enough colour or they dry my lips out drastically or they are quite difficult to apply! This has a pen like tip which means it's super easy to apply and it has a lip balm to put over the top in order to keep your lips from drying out. there were 6 colours in my local Boots and I was very tempted to try the red colour out but decided to go with a deep pink instead as I think it's more of a wearable everyday colour for me and...well...the name of it made me smile! It's called "Pinkini

Quick swatch of the stain on my hand.That is with one quick swipe of the stain, very pigmented and very easy to use.

Here is a swatch on my lips. I did a really quick top up after work but, to be honest, I didn't really need to. I'd talked a lot at work, drank and ate dinner too and it was still going strong! It didn't leave my lips feeling too dry either which was handy. You can see on my top lip that it's slightly clung to the tiny patch of bitten skin (I'm terrible with dry skin! I can't help it!) so it looked a tiny bit patchy but overall, I'm very impressed!

17 Berry Crush Lip Stain in Pinkini - £4.99 (Currently on 3 for 2 offer in Boots)

So despite my severe lack of funds I managed to get a nice little haul in from Boots...and all for free, which is aways nice! (I love getting vouchers for my birthday!) What do you guys think? Have you tried any of the products before? Any recommendations for my next lip stain colour? Would you like any proper reviews on any of the items? Any items you can recommend for the next No 7 voucher (we all know it'll be in a few weeks!) instead of buying nail polish every time??

Hope you're all well!

Until next time,

xoxo

Mini Boots and Superdrug Haul!

Hello!

So as you may have read in last weeks Sunday Roundup, I didn't get paid this month! Noooo! However I had run out of conditioner so made a bee-line to Superdrug because I knew they had Herbal Essences on special offer.....and then I decided to pop to Boots to kill some time before meeting up with one of my friends and I ended up getting a few items that I didn't need but cheered me up (also I'd transferred £80 from my Paypal account which was all from eBaying stuff so I wanted to treat myself to a little something before it was all used up on boring things.) Anyway, here is my little haul from Superdrug and Boots!

I really like Herbal Essences stuff. I've got one of their hair masques at the moment (the one in the blue tub...it's a moisturising one but I can't remember the name right now!) and it's amazing! I wanted to pick up the new "Tousle Me Softly" conditioner but that's for hair that is naturally frizzy/wavy so I went with one more suited for my hair type. It smells amazing (like all their products) and leaves my hair feeling incredibly soft and smooth. I think it does give it a little bit of volume but not enough for me to notice it that drastically. Anyway, I need conditioner and this was down to the bargainous price of £1.69 for 400ml! (I would say this will last me a long time but my mum said she'd run out of her conditioner too...and doesn't seem to have replaced it! haha!)

Here is my little staple product in my nail/make-up box! Cotton buds are SUPER handy when cleaning up nails, but I also use them for cleaning up eye make-up too....or when I completely fluff up my eyeliner wing on one eye - you can just wet the tip of the cotton bud and then wipe the failed wing off, dry the area and reapply. Much easier than taking all your eye make-up off to reapply it or going out and being annoyed by wonky eyeliner all night! This is where shopping around comes in handy, Boots had theirs on "buy one get one half price" and their cotton buds are £1.04. I almost did the "well I may as well get 2 packs because I will use them.." but I only needed one as a back up in case my other lots runs out and I'm caught out by it and I also thought Superdrugs were cheaper. Turns out I was right! These were 99p (saved myself a whole 5p!...or 57p really if I'd got the two packs! That's 2 coffees from work plus some change. Score!

So my mini Boots hauls consisted of these 3 beauties! I headed over to the points card kiosk to see if there were any good deals on and I printed off two coupons - one for 50 extra points when you buy anything in the Natural Collection range and a coupon for a free Hide and Chic pen when you brought anything else in the 17 range. I headed over to the make-up section and had a little look at these two ranges and I wasn't really tempted in the 17 section to start off with. I bent down to see if they had a Hide and Chic pen in my shade (I already have one and LOVE it!) and they had one left, so I picked it up just in case! (They tend to sell out really quickly when this deal is on!) As I stood back up again I noticed a new range "Just in!" I didn't really pay attention to what it was all about but I think it's a new spring range (I'm guessing from the colours anyway) I was instantly drawn to the amazing colours of the nail varnishes, there was this gorgeous green shimmer, a purple with a golden shimmer and a beautiful sort of mustard yellow shimmer colour. Naturally I wanted them all and the range is currently on 3 for 2, but I just couldn't justify the spend when I hadn't been paid. Hopefully they'll all still be there at the end of March, but if not I got the green anyway and that was my instant favourite colour! It's called "Juicy" and was £2.99. Plus I got the Hide and Chic Eye Brightening Concealer in Light Rose for free! (The Hide and Chic is like concealer pen with a brush end to it. It's really easy to use and great for hiding dark circles under your eyes!) That means these came to £1.50 each really! Bargain!

I also picked up a new lipstick from the Natural Collection range. I own quite a few of their lipsticks and love them all! (Raspberry is my clear favourite though...) I was tempted to get something different for a change but it was too early in the morning for a proper look, plus the shelves were a little bare... I had a little look at some of the other colours and was tempted with the shade "Biscuit" that a lot of people love, but I'm just not excited by nude colours on my lips (or nails!) So I ended up going with a lovely coral-y pink lipstick. It's got a slight shimmer and has tiny bits of glitter in it! I love this as it shines in all light without being an OTT glitter lipstick.

So here is a NTOD with the shade Juicy on my ring finger. I was feeling the Spring-like weather and went all out with these bright colours! The Orange is another 17 one that was a limited edition one in the Miami Pop range called "Down Town" I LOVE this orange. It's so bright and cheers me up every time I look at it! I did have my ring finger painted in a bright blue but switched it out for the green as soon as I got home because I wanted to try it asap! It did take 3 coats for full coverage but it's so beautiful that I can forgive it for this. It's got a really lovely shimmer through it and is just a really nice colour, unlike any other green I own. Definite thumbs up from me!

I'm going to have a really quick rant here just to say that the girl who served me in Boots was god awful. She was really rude about saying that the 17 stuff was on 3 for 2 so I "had" to go and get another product....even though I'd already said about the voucher for the free bit. She was also really rude about having to put through "so many vouchers" Well a) it was 3 vouchers - 50 points, free gift and a double points voucher and b) it's your bloody job! Christ. I never get people who work in retail who are clearly crap with customer service. It really annoys me! Rant over! haha!

So what do you guys think of my mini haul? Did I make some good purchases or is there something you would've got that was different? Have you seen the new 17 nail polishes, if so, what do you think??

Until next time,
xoxo

First Day at Benefit!

Hello!

So today was my first day on one of my local Benefit Counters and there was so much to learn before my first day alone tomorrow! I think I'm suppose to be getting some proper training at a bigger counter at some point but the area manager is on holiday at the moment and there's only one other girl on the counter so I was needed to start asap really! I'm quite tired so this is a quick post with a few photos to describe my first day...

The counter manager, Lizzy, did my make-up to show me how to do it/how it looks when applied correctly. This is a picture of my face when I got home (ignore the fact that I look so pale! Also ignore my hair...I really need a haircut!!) I don't actually wear foundation, I have a pressed powder but that's it. I do quite like the way my skin looks quite even but I'm just pretty wary of any foundation as whenever I've used any, I always end up with breakouts and just really bad skin. Not cool. We'll see how mine looks tomorrow I guess!

I also had my eyes done by Lizzy....having someone else put my mascara on/do my eyeshadow really stresses me out so I was quite impressed that I managed to get through it! Lizzy used: Browzings in Medium + Highbrow for my eyebrows, Big Beautiful Eyes for my eyeshadow and They're Real for my mascara. I really love the wand in They're Real but I think I'd put a little less on for everyday use - mainly because they kept hitting my glasses when I blinked after this was put on! (Much like when I have false lashes on, so I guess it works well!)

This shows the lovely colours of Big Beautiful Eyes much better. Love the colours, quite like some of the Urban Decay Naked Palette colours I think. This does also show that the They're Real mascara was a little clumpy after two coats, so I do think I'd only pop one on. I don't think it needs two coats but Lizzy put a second one on to show me the difference.

We've got some free samples of skincare to give to customers at the moment and Lizzy gave me some to try out so that I could know what they're like and recommend them to customers (I love product knowledge!) This is the It's Potent eyecream (1.7g sample) I'm pretty excited to try it as I have pretty big dark circles under my eyes at the moment so it'll be interesting to see if this works to help get rid of them!

Moisture Prep (5ml Sample) is a really lovely toning lotion (Lizzy used it on me earlier!) that smells divine! I don't actually own a toner. After using Simple's one and having a really bad reaction to it straight away, I just wasn't brave enough to try another one....but when I had it on earlier I didn't have any bad effects at all so I'm very interested in trying this out properly. I like the idea of getting rid of all impurities before popping my moisturiser on, instead of trapping stuff under my moisturiser.

Triple Performing Facial Emulsion (5ml Sample) is a really light moisturiser which is good in my books! I hate really rich moisturisers on my face due to having combination skin. This one is oil free too so it's not going to make me super shiny either, which is such a bonus!

Total Moisture Facial Cream (3.5g Sample) is a richer moisturise for dry skin. This one is quite good for older skin as it really hydrates your skin. I'll probably try this on my cheekbones as I get really dry skin there after a shower (very annoying!)

Lizzy also gave me some little sample pots of the Foamingly Clean Face Wash and Refined Finish Facial Polish. I really like using both a gentle exfoliator and a face wash in the morning to feel squeaky clean so I'm really excited to use these. I really love the smell of both of them too - it's sort of cucumber-y but really subtle too!

So really my first day was all about learning the make-up and what the difference between stuff is and then getting some free samples to try out so I can properly recommend them! I've still got to pick 10 bits for my kit when the area manager gets back, which will be hard because I love it all! I'm quite excited about my first day alone tomorrow but also quite worried that I'm not going to sell anything (which is ridiculous hopefully!)

Anyway, I must be off to bed! I'm shockingly tired from talking about make-up all day (also some Ann Summers talk....always fun!)

Until next time,

xoxo