Beauty Products and Freebies From Missguided (Pic Heavy)

Late last year I was contacted by a company called Missguided asking if I would like to try out one of their new nail polishes, being the nail polish junkie that I am (watch my make up collection vid if you don't believe me), of course I agreed. To be honest I hadn't heard of Missguided before the initial contact but they are an online women's clothing and accessories retailer, and  very reasonable they are at that. The polish that they kindly sent me was MissFit an amazing black / gold glitter

Such an amazing colour that my pics just aren't doing justice , this is two coats but to be honest one would be enough  - sorry for the bad paint job :(

Obviously I was thrilled to try out a new brand but interestingly in October / November of last year , Cosmopolitan offered a MissGuided nail polish as a free cover gift, so I picked up another colour MissCellaneous. This is in one of my favourite colour families, a lovely  nude, pink shade

 

This is two coats again here I probably could have got away with one as surprisingly enough for a cream polish it didn't actually streak too badly, it also seemed pretty self leveling too so you get quite an even finish.

Being a one for my magazine freebies I was excited to see that the current April issue of UK Cosmopolitan magazine featured a free Missguided lipgloss, my mum knowing me oh so well picked up the copy with the MissLed Lip Splash, which is a gorgeous Caramel, nude shade, and has the taste of caramel fudge amazing!!!

It's quite sheer as you can see but it's a lovely gloss which isn't too sticky - a lip shot :)

I really like this gloss especially the taste yum yum - If the colour isn't for you though I think there is the choice of at least another two colours with Cosmo, including a clear and a red so get yourself down to your newsagent before 7th April - the magazine retails at £3.50  and the 7ml Lip Splash retails at £5 it's a no brainer :) 

If you don't manage to grab a copy of Cosmo though the Lip Splash glosses are available for £5.00 each from Missguided, and come in the Caramel that I got, Clear, Watermelon and Chili Red. The 13ml nail polishes also retail at £5 each and their are a choice of 6 shades to choose from, you can also choose from 2 sets of 3 full sized polishes for £8, the Peace set includes both of the colours that I have plus a deep red x

If you fancy placing an order, enter the code 20COSMO before 30th April on the Missguided site you can get 20% off all full price items :) Unfortunately Missguided don't ship their cosmetic products abroad so a huge sorry to my international readers :( Any questions please ask x
 
(MissFit Nail Polish Was Provided By Missguided For Review Purposes, MissLed Lip Splash and MissCellaneous Nail Polish Were Both Cover Gifts With Cosmopolitan Magazine)

New Wishlist Items - Illamasqua Toxic Nature

Unless you have been living under a rock I'm sure you will already know that Illamasqua released a new collection last week - I have an interesting relationship with Illamasqua as brand some products I love with a passion and some leave me feeling just a bit meh! However the new collection Toxic Nature has certainly wowed me - admittedly I find the promo images a little scary - there extremely well done as you'd expect but the doll like quality scares me a little !

As per usual with Illamasqua the imagery shows the collection off at it's extreme best but I have to say that this is in my opinion one of their most wearable collections to date

As we've come to expect from Illamasqua there are plenty of brights especially in the lip products, Toxic Nature includes two sheer lipglosses in Torture - a coral peach, and in Divine -a fuchsia pink, and two toning lipsticks - Atomic - a fuchsia violet, and Flare - a bright orange, both colour families which are right on trend for this spring /summer. As well as a new Precision Ink in Glister a shimmery nude shade the collection also includes 5 nail varnishes.

I only own one Illamasqua nail varnish but the colours from Toxic Nature really appeal to me

Leave your mark with an unexpected claw. Choose from either toxic pastels or unmissable neons. Hardwearing and chip-resistant.

Purity – Peach

Bacterium – Pearlescent Ash Ochre

Radium – Acidic Lime Shimmer

Stagnate – Grey Mauve

Gamma – Neon orange

As they say a perfect blend of both neons and more toned down colours, my personal favourites are Stagnate - a must have greige shade and Bacterium - this looks amazing like nothing else I have ever seen I really can't wait to see some swatches :)

Perhaps though the thing that has really stirred my passions are the new Cream Pigments - I am a huge lover of cream products so these are really screaming my name


NEW: Cream Pigments


We have supplied you with an artist’s palette so that you can experiment with mixing and matching your new Cream Pigments!

Apply with fingers or a brush for a buildable, matt and water resistant finish.


“I don’t think we have ever created a product that is as hard working as Cream Pigment. They can correct or enhance, disguise or reveal. I am obsessed with their versatility; blush, lips, eyes, contouring … they are absolutely my favourite product right now. Super-blendable, they can be pressed and blended into skin or slicked on for graphic shapes. Education is key with the pigments. Once you have learnt how to master them, you can control their impact.” – Alex Box, Creative Director

"The versatile and multitasking formula has an intense colour payoff that provides additional adhesion and intensification when applied before Powder Eye Shadows and Pure Pigments. The product can be used as a sheer wash or built to full coverage.” – David Horne, Director of New Product Development

Again they come in a mixture of neutrals and pastel brights - coordinating perfectly with the nail colours

Hollow – This toffee shade is perfect as a contour on paler skintones. It also works brilliantly as an eye shadow base on olive – darker skintones.
Delirium – This rose taupe shade is fantastic for contouring pale – olive skin tones, as well as healthy flush to all skintones as a blusher and as a soft lip colour.
Mould – Because every Spring collection needs a touch of darkness, this grape is stunning as a base for a smoky eye or intense, statement lip
Emerge – This peach brightens under eye shadows and is beautiful as a highlighter on olive – darker skintones. It’s also a very flattering blusher on paler skin tones.
Bedaub – This mint green is a wonderful eye base, and is flattering on all skintones
Dab – This gentle lilac is beautiful for eyes lips and cheeks, especially for a 60s look.


I have to say I love the idea of these I love creams and I love multi functional products, Hollow (haha) and Delirium are my must haves from these and I'll definitely be adding them to my birthday list :)
The Illamasqua Spring 2011 Collection Toxic Nature is available now from Illamasqua stockists. Has anyone got anything from Toxic Nature yet and what do you recommend?

(With thanks to Illamasqua for providing the collection information and images ) 

Jake :)

A picture of Jake just because :)

Pretty Flowers From Ebay and Something From Ikea :)

Just a couple of things I've acquired over the last day or so, first up something I got from ebay :)

As you probably already know I am a huge fan of daisies and I think these earrings are super cute and I got them for just £3.99 with postage :) They are so cheery and bright and made me feel super spring like when I wore them yesterday, which was in direct contrast to the super windy, rainy, snowy? weather - result :)

On Thursday my mum went to Ikea to look at kitchen cabinets and while she was there she bought me this Trensum magnifying mirror :)

                                                                          Peekaboo

My eyesight is pretty bad so I really wanted a magnifying mirror that I could rest on the table to do my eyeliner and this one was only £3.05, so she bought me the mirror and some mini Daims - yummy xx

Project 10 Pan - 5 Down and An Update x

The title of this posts says it all really this week I finished item number 5 on Project 10 Pan - I am officially half way through now :)

L'Oreal Matte Morphose Souffle Foundation in 110 Ivory Rose - 20g

Yeah I have to say I actually really like this foundation and I've already purchased a back up a few months ago when it was on offer (read my full review here). One of the few issues I had with this foundation was with the colour range, and indeed Ivory Rose wasn't the best shade for my wintry, pale super pink toned skin, but it needed using up. Like most women I usually have quite a few foundations open at once, that's pretty obvious from the fact that 3 of my first 5 products have been bases, so in order to use this one up I mixed with another mousse type product to lighten it up - voila one finished foundation :) This is the first lesson I think I've learned so far on Project 10 Pan - try not to have some many similar things open at once, apart from when your testing a product is it really necessary to have 5 foundations on the go at once erm no it's not so I definitely intend  to use my mixing method to try and finish a few off x
The next thing I've learned because of P10P is that having kind relatives, and having Christmas or Birthdays really helps - I managed to get a few things I really wanted and a few essentials without having to buy anything myself :) Despite that though and here is the biggest lesson that project 10 pan has taught me so far, I haven't actually wanted to by very much make up anyway. There are probably a few reasons for this first of all MAC especially have released nothing that has really wowed me -  their collections lately have all been a bit samey tbh. This could also be because I have actually started to shop my stash a bit more and see what items I actually own - this has been a useful if slightly scary experience, I own lots of things that dare I say it or similar if not identical to other things. This is particularly true with lip products, my mum rather subtley remarked that all my lip glosses and lipstick are in pretty much the same shade family and you know what she's right. In virtually every collection MAC release a nude/pink/neutral lipstick and gloss, and the fact is I already have enough of those to set up my own shop so I am eventually realising why buy more? Looking at things I already own has also made me realise how easy it is to dupe lemmings - for example a paintpot from Cham Pale swatches very similarly to an Estee Lauder Double Wear Cream Shadow I already have - pre project 10 pan I would have bought the paint pot and ended up with two very similar products hmm. Perhaps though the thing I have enjoyed, yes I did say enjoyed this isn't all about denial you know :) so far is shopping my stash and rediscovering lost or discarded gems - I have bought so many fabulous products over the years and barely given them a second glance once the initial purchasing high is over but because I've been unable to buy new things I experienced a new rush when playing with things I'd forgotten. This has had another side to it too I guess, I've also discovered things that are probably going to remain unloved either they take me too far out of my comfort zone or I have to many things the same so expect an updated blog sale page soon. I recorded a little rambly video yesterday where I talk about some of these issues and talk about the things I've finished so far so I am putting it here too so you can have a watch x


I am sorry this post has ended up as a bit of a ramble too but I'd just like to say thanks ladies for keeping me motivated as I live through your purchases :) 5 down 5 to go I really can do this now, Any questions please ask xx`

Cleaning Your Body Not Your Dishes With Ecover

I don't know about you but Ecover is a pretty familiar name to me, like many others I've used their cleaning products in the past to wash my dishes (I particularly like their washing up liquid), and in my washing machine. Based in France and in Belgium Ecover is one of the world leaders in ecologically sound domestic cleaning products, producing products that have only a minimal if any negative contribution to the environment. What I didn't know that was that Ecover also has recently started to produce a personal care line based upon the same principles -using plant based ingredients, focusing on biodegradability of both the product itself and its packaging, and above being effective for purpose. The personal care range comprises of two shower gels, and two hand soaps, in a Lavender and Aloe Vera fragrance and Citrus and Orange Blossom. A few months ago I was very kind sent both a shower gel and a hand soap in the Lavender and Aloe Vera fragrance, broken ankles aside I've had a good chance to try the products now so it's time for a review :)

Ecover Ecological Shower Gel - Lavender and Aloe Vera

Packaged in fully recyclable plastic, this shower gel comes in the traditional style dispenser with a hook style cap that can be fitted on either the top of the bottom of the bottle. I love these hook style bottles it so convenient to hand them on the shower rack or shower fitting essential for someone like me who wears specs and can't find things very well without them x You can hang this up quite easily for some reason the shower gel doesn't come out unless you squeeze it - clever eh ;)

Right onto the product inside I chose the Lavender and Aloe fragrance, it smells quite strongly of lavender, not a old sickly smell, instead a super refreshing, zingy almost antiseptic lavender - I love the smell of this relaxing but at the same time invigorating if that isn't a contradiction lol!

It has a thickish texture for a shower products and is quite pearly white in colour

To be honest you don't very much to produce a nice gentle, foam as you can see here

and you can also use this product in the bath, and it says you can also use to wash your hair, I haven't tried that personally so I can't say but I don't see what harm it would do

I have to say I really loved this shower gel so much so that it actually appeared in my February Favourites video - I loved the smell, and it left my skin super clean and fresh, but not tight or dry - it was a real pick me up on my post hospital days x

Ecover Ecological Hand Soap - Lavender and and Aloe Vera

Well as you probably guessed from my recent My Pure post I love hand washes. I find them much more hygienic than a bar of soap, and a lot easier to use

The packaging of this hand wash isn't anything different but it's practical and it works, it's a basic lockable pump action dispenser that you can use quite easily with your hand or even your forearm

It smells exactly like the shower gel with a strong, fresh Lavender fragrance, that has a tendency to linger on the skin. For that reason I think this is probably best as a hand wash by your bathroom sink as opposed to a kitchen sink where Lavender flavoured sandwiches probably wouldn't go down to well ;) The wash itself is quite runny as you can see here, and it's a lot clearer than the shower gel

Again though it foams easily and again you don't need a lot.

The smell as I say does linger for a few minutes but it washes away easily and the hands and left clean,, but not overly dry or tight. I also used this to clean my make up brushes with great results x I have to say again I like this hand wash my only issue is that for me it would have to be bathroom only product due to the smell, so it lacks the versatility of say the A'kin product I recently reviewed.

Ingredients

You may have noticed that in neither of the product reviews I mentioned much about the ingredients. The ingredients in both products are pretty similar so I thought I'd talk about them together. Ingredients are very important to Ecover as well as wanting to create products that are gentle on the skin, they are also extremely conscious about the environmental impact of the products

Shower Gel

Hand Soap

Both of these products are declared as pH neutral, which basically means that they shouldn't upset the natural balance of our skin, Ecover also say that these products are therefore suitable for sensitive skin, as they lack petrochemical ingredients, that's obviously a good thing do we really want a byproduct of what makes a car engine go on our skin - no I think in this day and age we don't. The lack of petrochemical ingredients in these products also means that they are protecting the wider environment. Ecover are extremely conscious of the environmental impact of their products and this is evident by the fact that both of these products are fully biodegradable once they go down our drains, and they have the minimum possible negative impact on aquatic life. It's quite scary really I've never thought about what a product does once it goes down the plughole, so these products have really made me think about what actually goes into products and the harm they can do. So now we know what they leave out what do they put in, well they do use a fair few plant based ingredients including Aloe Vera, Wheat Protein and Vegetable Glycerin, but perhaps the biggest surprise in these two products was the inclusion of Sodium Lauryl Sulfate. Giving the natural / caring and gentle nature of the company and the products the inclusion of SLS wasn't something that I expected. Obviously this throws their claim that the products are suitable for sensitive skin up in the air a bit, an increasing number of people can't tolerate SLS in their skin, hair and body care products. I was disappointed by this but like most companies Ecover is forever changing and they have recently developed an entirely new plant based surfactant (detergent) in their cleaning product line so hopefully it won't be long before we see changes elsewhere in their line.

Overall I enjoyed using both of these products a lot I personally have no issue with SLS and found that the products did what they said, and as I say I loved the smell, and I think the prices are really reasonable too. Ecover Shower Gel in Lavender and Aloe Vera retails at around £3.69 for 250ml and the Ecover Lavender and Aloe Vera Hand Soap retails at around £2.99 for 250ml. For more information on Ecover - the brand, their philosophy and charitable work, their products and of course stockist information please checkout the Ecover website x

(Both Ecover Products Were Provided By PR For Review Purposes)

Debenhams Haulage - MAC & Biotherm

I mentioned in yesterdays Goods and Bads post that I had received a little parcel from Debenhams, I actually received several most of them contained bits for my mum's Mothers Day pressie, but one was all for me :)
First up MAC - I have to be honest and say none of the new MAC collections have screamed buy me, probably down to project 10 pan but I have either managed to dupe my most wanted items, or to be honest nothing has remotely appealed, "whispers controversial comment I personally hated Wonder Woman" never the less eventually something did appeal. I know I initially said I wasn't going to buy any nail polish for the duration of P10P but since I'd already broken that one Biker Blue from Jeanius had to be mine

To be honest I would have skipped this quite easily and dismissed it as just another blue to add to my collection, but I saw Temptalias pictures and I decided to treat myself. Described as a black base with blue and purple pearl it really is amazing. My pictures really aren't doing it justice but it comes out as a beautiful glittery indigo I can't wait to try it on my nails

Next up was just a little something to try really, Debenhams are currently selling Biotherm Skincare Starter Packs for under £10, it was something a bit different so I thought I'd give it ago. The one I chose was the AQUATRIO for Normal and Combination skin.

It comes in a plasticy feeling aqua/green mini make up bag, and you get three trial sized products, the ones I got in my kit were the Biosource Hydra-Mineral Cleanser Toning Mousse 20ml, the Biosource Hydra-Mineral Lotion Toning Water 30ml, and the Aquasource Non Stop Oligo-Thermal Gel Intense Moisturization 20ml. You also get a £5 voucher in the pack with can be used against any full price Biotherm or Biotherm Homme product, both online or in store pretty much anywhere bar Debenhams which is very strange . I know a few people haven't had the best of experiences with Biotherm but it will be something new to try - I've tried their body care before but never their skincare.


So that was my haul, both items were at reduced prices because of the Debenhams Blue X / sale event and I got free postage - result :) Any questions please let me know and you can check out this months spends in my sidebar xx

Glamour / Clinique Freebies - My Haul

Hi Guys - I'll start by saying your probably sick of these posts but you know me I love a magazine freebie :) This month sees the 10th Anniversary of UK Glamour, and to celebrate they have teamed up with Clinique to offer 10 different products as cover gifts.So far I have bought 5 magazine eek bad LouLou, so what freebies did I get, well first up two skincare products

A 30ml size of their famous Dramatically Different Moisturizing Lotion, and a 30ml size of the 7 Day Scrub Cream. The DDM is something I have to say I've used before and I did quite like so I was happy to pick this one up, and the scrub is a new product for me and it's suitable for sensitive skin so I can't wait to give it a go.

The next thing I picked up is something which is actually already a bit of a staple for me the All About Eyes cream in a 5ml size. I first tried this about 3 years ago in the same trial size which I got as a GWP. I really liked the cream gel texture and I've subsequently gone on to purchase and use the full size (15ml) jar as one of my regular eye products

The next two bits I got were both make up items, they were technically free so I'm not counting them for project 10 pan ;) I got the High Impact Mascara in 01 Black which is 4g again this is something I've used before and I actually have a full sized black / brown one somewhere. It's a really decent mascara and I'm happy to have one. Lastly was the surprise item, to be honest in all the pictures I'd seen this didn't look promising but it was the Long Last Glosswear SPF15 2.3ml in the colour Air Kiss.

It's is such a pretty colour a slightly shimmery neutral pink - love it :)
I really fancy trying the Take The Day Off Make Up Remover but that is the only one my mum couldn't find, or at least she says she couldn't hmm I think she felt a bit daft buying 5 magazine lol, still some of my friends and family are going to get a free magazine and I have some new things to play with - result. Perfect for holidays or to try new products I think this is a great freebie to have especially since you have 10 items to choose from - did you pick up a copy of Glamour this month and if you did what freebie did you get ?