2009 Favourites: Lush Products

Over the last 12 months I have become OBSESSED with Lush. It has got to the stage where I don't like taking a bath without something fizzing or bubbling away in the water, and if it makes
the water a pretty colour then thats even better.

If I had to pick a couple of favourite types of product from there I would have to go for their Bath Ballistics and Bubble Bars.

My favourite Bath Ballistic (basically a bath bomb) is the Butterball.

I have repurchased this a number of times and I actually got 6 of these for christmas so I am well stocked up.

The butterball is a very moisturising bath bomb that, once it has all fizzed up leaves the water milky and feeling very very soft.

The only thing I would do to change this product is make a range of different coloured ones. Compared to some of the other things Lush do, when it is in the water the Butterball does look a bit boring but that doesn't matter. It feels lovely and leaves the skin very soft. That is why its a must have.

As I mentioned earlier I also love Bubble Bars. My favourite has to be the Comforter

Apart from the pretty pink colour and all the bubbles it makes, this product is also great because it can be broken up into four and still creates A LOT of bubbles. This makes the comforter (and other bubble bars) an excellent value for money.

I Love Juicy Shampoo

Lemony Flutter Cuticle Butter

I just massage this into my cuticles. I try to do this everyday to keep my nails in good condition.

I also really enjoy the soaps. But I have never been one for having loads of different soaps at any one time. (I do have a few at the moment but most of those were presents from people.) I would normally only have a couple at a time with the exception of the occasional sample.

The one that I always go back to though is Honey I Washed the Kids.

I also really like Grease Lightning.

This is a Spot Treatment. It has a gel consistancy and is clear in colour. I don't often get spots but the times I have had them this product has really helped.

I have always liked this product but I recently decided to put it in my favourites because I had a really big spot the other day. It was really hurting. Normally those type of spots take quite a while to go. However with this within a couple of days it was pretty much completely gone.

It can be applied over the entire face as a spot preventer, (this is quite often what I do) OR it can be applied in certain areas as needed. Both ways work just as well.

One thing I will say though. I have seen videos and reviews saying 'the day after applying this product my spot was completely gone.' This statement i don't agree with but certainly you will see a large improvement after a couple of days.

Well I think that is it for my Lush Favourites. I will do another one of these when I feel I have enough new favourites to tell you all about.

Hope you enjoyed. Feel free to comment.

2009 Favourites: Daily Skin Care

I thought it was about time I did another 2009 Favourite products Post. I want to try to get some out before the end of January. However if I don't manage this I will still upload them with the title 'Current Favourites' so don't worry you will still see everything.

This post will be showing my favourite skin care products. Up until 2009 I was never really that into skin care (bad i know).

The products I use are mostly quite expensive. I keep thinking I ought to try to find some cheaper products, but as I have sensitive skin I might end up wasting a lot of money on products that might not work for me so it would probably not end up any cheaper.

I use Honey I Wash the Kids soap but you will see that in my favourite Lush post when I upload it.

The 1st thing I use is the Clarins 'Water Comfort One Step Cleanser.' I believe there are 2 of these, one for oily skin and one for dry skin. I use the on with 'Peach Essential Water' for Normal to Dry skin.'

I initially tried this at one of my local Clarins counters. The lady was testing a foundation on my skin and removed it with this. I instantly loved it but didn't get it at the time because it was quite expensive (obviously).

Over the next few months (yes months...maybe longer) I kept thinking about this product and how much I liked it. In the end I decided to buy it.

I am now on my 2nd bottle of the stuff. It is so easy to use it doesnt need to be washed off or anything after using. I just apply it to a cotton pad put it all over my face then move on to the rest of my routine.

I am semi tempted to try some of clarins other skin care products because I am always up for trying new things, however as clarins is an expensive brand I dont know if I will get the chance...If Clarins wanted to send me some things to test out an review for them I definitely wouldn't say no lol. Okay to end this ramble... This product will always be a part of my skin care collection.

The next thing I use is the spot treatment by Lush called Grease Lightning. Check out my favourite Lush post to find out more on this product once I've had a chance to upload it.

Then I spray my face with Mac's Fix+. This can be used for a Number of different things which I will go into more detail on at a later date. The thing I use it for is to spray my face before applying moisturiser.

If you apply moisturiser to slightly damp skin it helps the moisturiser to absorb. This is a must have for me. A couple of times I have accidently forgotten to spray myself with the fix+ before mosturising and I really felt a difference.

For moisturiser I use Clinique's Dramatically different Moisturising Lotion. This comes in 2 formulas, the Lotion and the Gel.

I use the lotion because I have dry skin. The main thing I love about this is that is has a pump.

This is great because I hate putting my hands into a pot. (It doesn't seem very hygenic + I always end up with either not enough or too much product.)

I also dont really like tubes because again you always seem to get too much product. Tubes are better than pots though because your not having to put your hand in the unused product. One of the worst things about tubes is when it is nearly empty you need two hands to get the last bit out (not easy.)

I have repurchased this product but rather than buying it in the bottle again I spend a bit less by getting it in the tube then when I get home I transfer it into the bottle. :)

My last daily skin care item is another clarins product and another Must have. It is called UV+. I personally couldn't live without this product.

It's basically a sun screen that goes on after applying your moisturiser. It is a light milky consistency so it soaks in to the skin very easily.

My skin burns very easily and quickly so I have to be so careful when i'm out in the sun. I used to slap on SPF 25 every half hour or so and wonder why I still burned. I now use factor 40!! This is another reason that I love this product. All the moisturisers that come with SPF all have 20-25....this as I mentioned isn't enough for me. UV+ is the only item I have seen that is SPF 40 that isnt a sun cream. I apply this everyday that I go out (no point when i stay in lol.)

Oh a couple more things I love about this. The 1st is even though its expensive for only 30ml you don't need much of it so a bottle last's ages. I bought a new one a few months ago because I thought i was running out...it still lasted me up until about a week or 2 ago

I also love the fact that it isn't included in a moisturiser because there are times that I don't need SPF when i need to put moisturiser on. So this way I decide when I put it on and when I don't.

At night I add Mac wipes to my routine. I love these for take my makeup off.

I am thinking of testing out some Makeup removers compared to Mac wipes. I have a few ideas of things I want to try but if anyone has any suggestions for good ones they use please tell me. Preferably some expensive and cheap ones so I can compare. Please bare in mind I have dry sometimes sensitive skin and they don't have to always be wipes. :) Thanks

There's the old question 'if you could only take 3 skin care items on desert island which would you take. I would have to say UV Plus would have to be one of them along with my cleanser and moisturiser.

There are a couple of other things I use on a weekly basis. I will do another post on these.

I hope you enjoyed this post. Please feel free to comment. Especially if you have tips on getting mini sizes of different clarins things to try cheaply lol. :)

Thanks everyone. Don't forget to keep following....blogsale at 50 Followers...spread the word! :)

2009 Favourites 1: Lipsticks

I know I am very late on the whole '2009 Favourites' thing but I thought as its still January I could still get away with it.

I thought I would start with one of my favourite makeup items...Lip products, especially lipsticks.

Firstly I will talk my 2 favourite brands for lipsticks. I have one highend and one lowend brand.

Just to save any confusion when I say Highend / Lowend i'm not talking about the quality. This just means that the lowend products are more affordable and quite often found in drugstores. A lot of people prefer this type of product because they are not able to afford the more expensive or 'highend' products.

For the highend lipsticks my favourite is Mac. Granted I haven't tried any other highend. I may do one day but for now i'm happy with Mac. These are sold for £12.50 on the uk site however they are normally a bit more expensive in store. I will do a seperate review on these in general and go into a lot more detail.

For the Drugstore I like the Maybelline Colour Sensationals. These are a lot cheaper than Mac but they are very good quality. I think the price may vary depending on where you buy but I would say If you are on a budget get these. I have also heard good things about rimmel but I have never tried thier lipsticks so I can't comment there.

I have narrowed it down to 8 favourite lipsticks. 2 Maybelline 6 Mac. Bare in mind I own 8 Maybelline and a lot more Mac. There were a lot more of each I could have chosen but I decided to try and keep it to 10 products. I used to find it funny when girls struggled to pick thier favourite lip products. But I had exactly the same problem. There were a lot more I could have chosen but I didnt want this post to be too long...(Like it will be anyway....but oh well lol.)

My two favourite Maybelline Colour Sensationals are Ambre Rose (a light pink) and Crispy Cookie (a beige nude.)

Now for the Mac Favourites.

Lollipop Loving Naked ParisNude Rose
Angel

Up The Amp
London Life

Oh and I think I might add a special mention as I feel everyone needs a nice bright Pink in thier collection.

Mine will be Milan Mode

(Picture to follow, This was a last minute choice so I need to take a photo before I can upload so it might take a while)

Well that is it for my Favourite lipsticks.

Hope you enjoyed this post and feel free to comment.,....What are your favourite lipsticks?

Freebie Xmas Gift Box

You may have noticed in my last Lush Purchases Post that I said a number of times that I have 2 of a certain product. You may have been wondering the reasons behind this.

Well here is where I explain all.

I'm sure some of you UK Beauty Bloggers are aware that Lush have a sale on at the moment...(Let me just check the site to make sure it's still running...Yes it looks like it is, Yay). Basically the sale says that If you spend £20 on any Lush products you get a free gift box worth upto £25.

So here I am to show you my freebies.

First things first though, although I love the gift I got (don't get me wrong.) If I had known everything that was included I would've either picked out something different. Or bought other things, just so I didnt get as many repeats. But oh well it was free so I'm not complaining hehe.

One thing I didn't like was that some of the the Polystyrene pieces they put inside the box to protect the products got stuck to some of the products. This isnt the end of the world, just a bit annoying having to pull them off.

Okay enough rambling lets get on to the good stuff!! The Products!!

Firstly Here's the gift I chose....STAR DUST!!

Well semi chose..The shop assistant suggested that I might Like it because I was buying lots of sweet smelling things. It's normally sold in the shop for £24.99 (i think.) So I got about £45 worth of Lush Products for £20.....How's that for a good deal!?!?

In the Box I recieved:

Star Luxury Bath Melt

I haven't tried this So I can't really say much about it. I love stars and moons though so I think this is really nice.

You may be able to see the left over bits of Polystyrene that wouldn't budge. Oh well it'll come off eventually. I will let you know how I get on when I try it. Although it probably won't be for a while...I have A LOT of Lush to get through lol.

Now, you just heard me mention that I love the moon. So imagine how excited I was when I opened this free gift and found.....

A MOON SHAPED ANGELS DELIGHT SOAP!!!!!!!

This Product is actually something I bought on the same day as recieving this gift. So I was slightly annoyed to start off with that I could've bought something else instead. However When I saw it was in the shape of a Moon I didnt care.

I am very tempted to not use this just because I love the shape and don't want to ruin it. Also it smells great in my room lol. Any thoughts greatly appreciated....please leave a comment :).

The thing I love about this soap is that it seems every piece you get is going to be different. As you can see this one is bright yellow. My other Angels Delight Soap as you saw in the last post is a bright pink with purple block shape.

I used my pink one in the bath this morning and I really like it.

Another couple of things I recieved were the 'Double Fast Luck Emotibomb'

To be honest I'm not really sure what to do with this. I think it is meant to be a shower product. i think it just sits on the floor of the bath and fizzes around your feet...? However I have baths not showers. So if anyone can give me some advice. Would this work by just dropping it into the bath water?

Just thought I would add a mini review here for this product now that i have used it. It was nice...I was told to use a small amount of it but I actually ended up using the whole thing. It made the water a very lovely pink colour..no bubbles (but i wasn't expecting any so thats okay.)

The fact that product was very glittery scared me but don't be alarmed once in the water the glitter doesnt notice apart from maybe the odd fleck here n there and it doesnt show up on the skin either. This for me is a good thing.

I also got the Fairy Tail Sugar Scrub

I'm not sure if I will be using this or not I have had a sugar scrub in the past and not really got on with it.....I will let you know what I decide to do.

Now for the repeats:

I got another Snow Fairy Shower Gel

I didn't mind getting another one of these because The 1st I got for xmas So I don't feel like i wasted money on it. I used this this morning and I really like it.

Snow fairy Solid Perfume

As I mentioned in my Christmas Presents Lush Post I didnt really like this product. But I dont really know why. It has the same scent as the shower gel but for some reason I find this really sickly. Whereas I like the Shower Gel Scent.

I won't be wearing this...Now I have 2....(I am actually giving them away to a couple of friends.)

The final Thing I got in my gift box:

Candy Cane Bubble Bar

The fact that I got a free one of these actually really annoyed me. Well actually thats not quite true... It wasn't the fact I got one free, it was the fact that this was one of my 'Spend £20 purchases'!! I actually spent money on it not realising it was in the box!

Okay to be fair I should have taken more notice of what was in the box. But it would've been nice if the lady behind the counter said 'Do you realise if you buy this 'Candy Cane Bubble Bar' you will have 2 because theres 1 in the gift box?'

Maybe as she knew I liked sweet smells she thought I realised and wanted 2. But if I had been her I would've double checked with the customer and given them the opportunity to swap the 1 they were buying for something else...? Am I being harsh or do you agree?

After that rant I actually do think I am going to like this though so I don't mind :).

Well that's everything in my freebie box...Looking at the length of this post I am glad I didn't add it on to my last Lush Post lol.

Thanks for reading. Hope you all enjoyed and please feel free to comment :)

A Lush Comparison: Mister Butterball vs The Butterball

Mister Butterball was released as a christmas item. It may or may not still be available, you would have to check your local lush store if you were set on getting this.

I received two of these for christmas along with 2 lots of 3 of the regular Butterballs. This was great because that is one of my all time favourite products.

The only thing I would change about the Butterball is I would make them in a range of different colours...just to make the bath look less boring lol. (I know its silly but compared to all the bubble bars and pretty bath bombs.....the bath does look a bit dull with just this product.

However now I have a number of these it Allows me to experiment which is fun :).

Anyway...back to the the point of this post...MISTER Butterball.

As I mentioned earlier I had 2 of these. This actually worked out quite well because I felt I had to use both to get anything like the softness that I can get from using ONE butterball.

This is a nice product don't get me wrong. However in my opinion there is no need to rush out to get what's left of the Mister ButterBall, unless you want to do a review for yourself.

Would I buy this again? I'm not sure...I guess if I went in looking for a butterball and they had run out then yes this is a good second best BUT for every one butterball I would have bought I would need to buy 2 of the Mister Butterballs.

Well I think that's it for this review.

Sorry if it was a bit rubbish. If you think theres anything important I missed out let me know in the comments.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed

Lush Purchases

I know I didnt technically NEED to go back to Lush, but there were a few more things I wanted to get from their range of Christmas products. I also needed to get some more 'I love Juicy' Shampoo.

Let me start off by saying I love going into Lush, everyone in there is so nice and helpful. I can be a bit shy sometimes going up to shop assistants and asking for help. It's different in Lush though, I am normally perfectly happy going up to someone in there and asking questions or for the occasional sample of a product.

However on this particular day it was quite busy in there, (everyone wanted their freebies....more on that later.) This meant that the shop assistants weren't quite as helpful as they are normally. It was because of this that I got a bit flustered and stressed, therefore I ended up forgetting one of the things I REALLY wanted to get... Satsumo Santa.

Anyway onto the items I did get.

So White Bath Ballistic x 2

I took this after using one of them. It has an Apple scent which is very nice. I only really bought this because it was described as a Bath ballistic with a bit of bubble bar in it.

I really enjoyed using this product however I do remember thinking that I expected it to be a bit frothier.

Would I repurchase....Not sure, It would depend on the other christmas products that were out and how much money I had to spend.

The next thing I bought is the Christmas Party Bomb:

I can't say much about because I havent tried it. Once I have tried it I will add a bit here telling you my thoughts.

Next I bought the Candy Cane Bubble Bar

I bought this simply because I love bubble bars and sweet smells. This is supposed to be both.

I will let you know my thoughts after using. I think i might have 2 of these. You will see why in a later post.

I think this next product is called 'Gnome Name'. This is a play on the words 'No Name' I'm not entirely sure but I think Every shop has a different name for this product. I think I read this was called Elfis in my local Lust store.

I am yet to try this so expect another post on this product in the future. (Maybe I should do a series of short reviews?)

The final item I bought is a soap. It is called Angel's Delight

I bought this soap because it looked and smelt really nice. Again I have another 1 of these in a different colour and shape. You will see that at a later date.

Okay that's it for this post. More Lush to come soon.

Hope you enjoyed. Feel free to leave a comment

January 10th 2010 LOTD

Today I decided it would make a nice change to do a full face Makeup look.

Everything mentioned below I purchased with my own money Unless otherwise stated

I am wearing:

Mac PaintPot Rubenesque

Mac Pigment in Melon I received this for xmas

Mac Eyeshadow in Beautiful Iris (I received this for xmas)

Gosh Velvet Touch Eyeliner in Black Ink

Maybelline Pulse Perfection Mascara

Rimmel Sexy Curves Mascara (I received this for my birthday last year)

As I used a Pigment I decided to do my eyes before my face. This is because Mac Pigments can get very messy and quite often cause a lot of fall out. If I did my face makeup first then got a lot of messy fallout on my cheek it would ruin the rest of my makeup.

Gosh Velvet Touch Face Primer

Benefit Tinted Moisturiser 'You Rebel Lite'

Benefit Face Powder 'Hell0 Flawless'

Benefit Face Primer 'That Gal' (as a highlight)

Benefit Boxed Powder 'Coralista'

Benefit Boxed Powder Bronzer 'Hoola'

Mac Naked Honey Skin Salve as a lip balm

Maybelline Colour Sensational Lipstick Ambre Rose

Mac Lipstick Lollipop Lovin

Benefit HerGlossiness: My People Your People (I recieved this free after spending a certain amount at my local Benefit counter)

I hope you like. Feel free to leave a comment.

Xmas Pressies Part 2 (About Time) A few Lush products..

I have finally got round to showing you all the rest of my Christmas Pressies. Sorry for the delay.
I didnt purchase any of these items myself. These were Christmas Presents. I will be giving my complete and honest views on these items. No company has sponsored me or asked me to do these blogposts.

I asked for quite a bit of makeup for Christmas and I didn't get some of the things I was hoping for. However I did get a lot more Lush items than i was expecting. I had asked for the Butter Ball Bath Bomb and the Comforter Bubble Bar

Here are some Pictures of Everything I recieved.

Sweetie Soap Stack:

This Contains 'Honey I Washed The Kids' (my Favourite soap that I have tried so far,) 'Rockstar' (Have tried this, it is a very nice sweet smelling pink soap) and one that I am excited to try for the 1st time 'I Should Coco'.

Cinders Bath Ballistic:


It was something I was very excited about trying so the 1st chance I got I popped it into my bath.

To be honest I was actually quite disappointed with this: Firstly it turned my bath water a very funny yellowy colour. (Obviously I expected this).

After watching numerous youtube videos I heard that the red bits on top of the bath ballistic were supposed to make a crackle noise as it melted...mine didn't.

This feature doesn't add anything special to the bath. It's just a fun gimmick but the child inside me was still looking forward to seeing it happen. I was very disappointed to find that it doesn't actually do this at all.

Mister Butterball:
This is supposed to be the christmas version of the Famous Butterball.

The Butterball is one of my favourite Lush Products I will be comparing the 2 and I will be sure to let you know how I get on.

I got two of these

Snow Fairy Shower Gel:

I have feeling I won't need to say too much about this product as 99% of people seem to have already tried it.

I would just like to ask though: Is it just me or does it smell like the Children's Medicine 'Calpol'? Thats what it reminds me of anyway. I always liked Calpol though so thats cool lol. Let me know what you think...

I actually now own 2 of these...you will see why in my next post. Another quick question: Obviously you can use these all over the body. But can it be used by pouring some in2 the bath water? Or would that just waste it? Thanks.

I used this for the 1st time today and really liked it. I will give more of a review when I have used it more.

Snow Fairy Solid Perfume

So far I'm not really a big fan of these. Although I love sweet smells and the Shower Gel smells lovely..For some reason it seems a bit sickly as a perfume. I will try it again though before I make any decisions. (I think I also have two of these...not sure what to do with the other 1 if I have..suggestions welcome.)

Comforter Bubble Bar

This is one of my Favourite Products from Lush. I have used it 2 or 3 times and I love it

Apart from the bubbles and the smell and the pretty pink water, It is also excellent value for money...By cutting it into smaller pieces I can get at least FOUR baths with a decent amount of bubbles. (I haven't tried making it last longer but it may be possible..?) I have never used a whole one of these in 1 bath so I can't comment on the amount of bubbles a whole one makes but it would be a LOT for me a quarter is plenty.

Butter Ball x 6

The Final 2 Lush Presents I received were 2 lots of 3 Butterballs. Mum told her friend Geoff that it was one of my favourite products from Lush, (which it is) so he got me 3. His son was with him so he decided to get me 3 aswell.

This obviously means I am well stocked up on Butterballs. As I have so many I thought I might try adding other things in the baths With the butterballs. I will keep you all posted on the results if I decide to do this.

I will be doing a favourite Lush Products post at some point in the future. This product along with a few others will definitely feature in it.

Well thats everything that I got for xmas...well everything I want to show on this blog anyway.

I have another lush Post to put up. (Possibly next) This will be things I have purchased myself from the sales.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed :)

Xmas Pressies Part 1 A Few Beauty Products

Now the new year has started I think its about time I did my Xmas Pressies Posts. I am going to split it up into 2 parts. As you can see this is going to be the Beauty Products I recieved, then the next one will be my Lush goodies.

I didnt purchase any of these items myself. These were Christmas Presents. I will be giving my complete and honest views on these items. No company has sponsored me or asked me to do these blogposts.

I recieved this Beautyuk Palette. I now have all 4 of these and I love them. I will be doing a review and overview of these at some point.

Next I recieved some items that I actually chose myself. These were things I have wanted to try for a long time but wasn't sure if I would like or use them. So i asked mum if she would keep them for my stocking.

Firstly the Collection 2000 Glam Crystals Glitter Liners, I'm not a huge fan of glitter but I have heard loads of good reviews on these on youtube so I wanted to give them a try. So far I am really impressed.

Next I choose 3 Collection 2000 Nail Polishes. I cant remember the names but I will do another post on these.

I saw the blue one and I thought it was such a pretty blue I had to have it.

The Green and the Yellow I got because I was curious about the colour and couldn't test in store. I have a feeling it was buy 2 get 1 free or something so I thought why not. I'm still not convinced on these I think i need to try them a few times before I decide if I like them or not.

Next were 5 more of the Colour Sensational Lipsticks by Maybelline.

I really do love these. Other than the fact the smell reminds me of Play dough. I own quite a few of them now

They are a close second to Mac Lipsticks in my opinion.I will do an overview and review at a later date.

The final beauty products I recieved were 3 Mac Products my dad got me.

He got me Melon Pigment. (This is 1 of my favourite pigments).

Then I got 1 of the brushes I wanted. The Mac 129. To be honest I Don't know why I wanted this. Other than the fact I want to compare it to one of my Elf brushes. I don't do face makeup very often (normally stick to eyes and lips.) But oh well a girl can never have too many makeup brushes.

And last but not least I recieved one of the many eyeshadows I put on my list. Beautiful Iris. It is a very pretty pale lilac grey colour. I've not tried this yet so I will let you know how i get on.

Well thats it for this post. Lush goodies coming soon and hopefully a shopping trip post.

I just want to end by saying I hope everyone had a great xmas and a Happy new year to you all. Let's hope for a great 2010.