This or that beauty tag!

A few days ago I saw a beauty this or that tag of RivaSoave blog (found here). So I thought I'd steal it & try out my own answers. Hope you find it at least a little interesting :) 


Make-up
1. Blusher or Bronzer? Blusher, every time. I have quite fair skin so I get scared I will get bronzer happy & look silly! I think there is a blusher for every skin type/colour. I'm currently using Benefit's Sugarbomb.
2. Lipgloss or Lipstick? I would usually alllways say lipgloss. But, having recently bought one of the Kate Moss lipsticks from her Rimmel range I think I may be converting...?!
3. Lip Balm or Lip Butter? Lip balm. I don't think I've actually tried a lip butter before. My favourite lib balm is the Nivea rose. It smells absolutely amaaazing & has a lovely pink tint to it for everyday wear.
4. Matt or sparkle eye shadow? I much prefer matte for daytime wear, but everybody loves a little sparkle on the evening :)
5. Eye Liner or Mascara? If it was life or death I think I'd say... mascara. Much easier to apply & brightens my eyes up loads. Without it I look a little dead!
6. Gel, Liquid or Cream Liner? I recently received one of the Collection gel eyeliners in a beauty box. I find it soo easy to apply & it has great staying power. Definitely gel :)
7. Foundation or Concealer? Foundation. A great all over coverage does me fine.
8. Liquid or Powder foundation? I'm currently using a mouse, so undecided between liquid & powder!
9. Neutral or Colour Eye Shadow? Neutral, I love a brown smokey eye look. Hoping for one of the Naked palettes by Urban Decay for my birthday :)
10. Pressed or Loose Shadows? Pressed. Loose shadow makes me wayy too nervous when opening & applying, haha.
11. Waterproof or Non-Waterproof? I've never really understood the need for water proof mascara :S Thankfully, I've never been in a situation where water, such as rain, has caused my mascara to run. So non-waterproof.
12. Brushes or Sponges? Brushes :) I really don't have very many, but would love more!
13. Powder, Cream or Liquid Highlighter? Liquid. Am loving the Benefit high beam. It does the job perfectly & the bottle lasts for so long! 

Nails
1. OPI or Essie? OPI. I love their range & the quality of the polish!
2. Acrylic or Natural? I had acrylic nails for sooo long. I absolutely loved them; their strength, length & the wide variety of nail art available. However, due to a lack of student pennies I couldn't afford to keep getting them maintained. After a long period of applying various nail strengtheners & cuticle oils I now much prefer my own (cheaper!) natural nails.
3. Brights or Darks? Usually brights. Although, I am currently sporting Topshop's Lead, which I love!
4. Matte or Shiny? Hmm, I'm not so sure. I love both!
5. Glitter or No Glitter? I loveeee glitter polishes, but they are such a pain to get off. I couldn't be bothered (lazy...) with applying glitter every time, but for special occasions they ate nice :) 

Body
1. Perfume or Body Splash? Perfume. My favourites are Marc Jacobs - Daisy & Lola. Dreaaaam!
2. Lotion or Body Butter? Body butter. There is nothing better than a thick, creamy body butter after a shower :)
3. Body wash or Soap? Body wash
4. Tan or No Tan? I love having a tan but I find them such a pain to maintain. I don't mind so much in the winter, but for the summer - definitely tan :) 


Jen xox

She Said Beauty | June '12

After 2 weeks waiting for my June SSB box, only to find out they had tried to deliver it to the wrong address, I finally have it! I must say I think it was worth the wait :) So, as usual it came in it's lovely light blue packaging as follows... 

What was inside??

I received 3 full sized products, 2 sample products & 1 bonus sample product. Along with a leaflet containing information on the products, a leaflet on BB cream & a leaflet on St Tropez. I haven't had chance to try them all out yet but here is a little info on what I received & my opinion...

• Self tan perfect legs by St Tropez. This product is full size at £10 a time, meaning I've already got my pennies back :) SSB were giving out 2 different St Tropez products this month; one being the self tan perfect legs & the other a gradual tan everyday body lotion. I wouldn't have minded either of these, however I'm glad I got this one as I've tried a spray on tan before. So in a nut shell, its a 360 aerosol spray giving you instant colour with an airbrushed finish. Sounds like a dream to me! Can't wait to give this a whirl. 
• Tranquil touch indulgent bath elixir by Elemis. This is a body soak which claims to leave your body feeling soft & mind soothed. It contains cocoa butter, patchouli, cedarwood & vetivert leaves. This is the very reason I am going to have a long soak in the bath tomorrow morning! :)

• Whipped shea body button: Lemon zest by Mischa Barton.  This claims to be a super moisturising body butter with energising blends of lemon, lime, cranberry, red currant & grapefruit. This product is also full size, costing £10. I'm reaallly glad to receive this. I love body butters, especially thick, creamy ones like this. I think it smells gorgeous, but if you aren't into your citrus smells then this definitely isn't for you. 
• Temptress strip lashes by Let's Go. I know some people hate receiving lashes in their beauty boxes, but I'm a massive fan so I don't mind :) I especially like the lash style I received - they aren't too big & aren't so natural that they are unnoticeable. Perfect for a night out! This item is full size & worth £8.95.

• Royal diamond eau de toilette by Yardley London. I am really rubbish at describing smells, as my sense of smell really isn't very good. Howwwwever, I do actually like this scent. It's quite mature scent but it's really fresh & I think would make a lovely day time perfume. It's a steal at just £9.99 for a 50ml bottle!
• Green tea nude cover BB cream. I'm sure most of you have already heard of BB cream, it is allll over the blogging world lately. I've read so much about it but haven't yet tried any, so I'm really glad to get a sample! It claims to do so many things all in one - hopefully it works as well as it sounds!

I can't wait try my products out. I'll be sure to review any I think are amazing!! Just a re-cap for you... SSB is a monthly subscription at just £9 (+ £2.95 p&p) per month. It's a fab monthly treat & always brightens up my day :) Fancy joining yourself, take a look here.

Hope you enjoyed my post :)

Jen xox

Lead by Topshop nails | Review

After having a few days off from blogging to move all my junk back home I now have 2 little reviews for you. The first on a gorgeous new Topshop nail varnish & the second on Sally Hansen's Insta Dry top coat (although it's getting late so I'll probably do the latter tomorrow :).

So first of all is this little treasure I found in Topshop whilst I was waiting in a queue at the tills. It's one of their nail varnishes in the shade 'Lead'. It stood out to me because of the colours it was giving off when the light hit the bottle. Its like a metallic black metal (lead springs to mind..) but with undertones of purple and green.

Some of the photos below are flash photography as these portrayed the green tones really well. But the purple is more visible in bright natural light (which was somewhat missing here today in glorious England!). Anyways, in these photos I applied a base coat (from a Boots own base and top coat set), 2 applications of lead (although one was sufficiently opaque) & a top coat of Sally Hansen's Insta Dry.

I hope you like this polish as much as I do! If so they're £6. I'm guessing it's stocked in most Topshop stores, but if not... click here :)

Jen xox

NOTD: Black & blue

This is just a quick post to show you my first attempt at this nail technique. I'm not really sure what it's called but I basically applied a base coat of one colour, placed strips of masking tape onto the nail, painted on top of the tape with a second colour & then removed the tape. I used Rimmel's black cab and blue eyed girl. I think it would look a lot nicer in girly colours but I used these two as it's my grad ball tomorrow & they are the colours I'm wearing :)

It is my first attempt so they don't look great, but practice makes perfect :) Below is a picture of the technique in more summery colours. 

Jen xox

Graduation accessories & make-up

As you've seen in one of my previous posts I recently bought a dress for my graduation ball on Saturday, THIS Saturday :)))))))! So, obviously, I needed to go out & buy some accessories to complement it nicely.

I don't have all of my belongings here in Nottingham (some are at home in Birmingham), so although I already own many clutch bags and heels typically the ones I need aren't here in Nottingham. & I don't have time to go back home & get them! Because of this I was on a mission yesterday to find some nice simple black stilletoes & a black clutch. It sounds quite boring but as my dress is a very bold blue colour & has a lot of detail, I didn't want to take anything away from it with accessories. Being the poor student I am, I was on a budget. Meaning, I couldn't get anything too fancy.

So, heels & clutch! Both of which I bought from New Look. The shoes were £24.99 I do believe. I loove stiletoes that have no seem between the platform and the shoe its self.. if you know what I mean? I think it gives the heels a very classic look. I wore them out to last night to break them in a little so they might not look great in the photos.

The clutch was £12, I think. It's not the best clutch I've ever seen but you wouldn't believe how hard it is to find a plain black clutch bag! It came with two detachable handles; one is seen in the picture & the other was quite ugly so I chucked it.

(It won't let me rotate the photo of the bag, sorry!)

On to the make-up I bought... so with black accessories & a vibrant blue dress I bought a nail varnish of each colour. I got both colours as I'm not sure what to do yet... gradient nails, stencils...? Both varnishes are from Rimmel; the black in called 'black cab' & the blue is 'blue eyed girl'. 

 As it's 3 for 2 in Superdrug at the moment I treated myself to a little extra item. I thought I'd go for a lipstick, as I never ever wear them & I thought it would be a nice difference for Saturday :) I bought shade 20 'Rosetto' from the Kate Moss selection for Rimmel.

 

 

The swatch was only a single stroke of the lipstick. As you can see its highly pigmented. I wore it out last night & I absolutely love it! It didn't dry my lips out at all, in fact it was quite moisturising. The colour lasted a long time too (even through all that drinking!). Here is a photo of me from last night, so you can see the lipstick :)

I also bought a pair or Eyelure Naturalites in 107. My trusted old favourites :)

Despite being blonde haired all of my life I have never owned blonde bobby pins. As I'm doing my hair in an up-do Saturday night (to show off the back of my dress :) I thought I'd buy some to try & make it look as neat as possible.

There we have it :) I am ever so nearly ready for my graduation ball. All I need now is a backless bra (?!). Hopefully this won't be too hard to find tomorrow.

I'm soooo excited :D

Jen xox

Lush fresh face mask review: Cupcake

I am a MASSIVE fan of face masks. After a long, hard day or in preparation for an event there is nothing better than relaxing with a face mask on infront of the TV. My all time favourite face masks are the fresh face masks made by Lush.

Lush fresh face masks are made using mainly natural ingredients. Because of this they need to be stored in your fridge after purchase and must be used within approximately 3 weeks. Not only are they fun, but they have many benefits to your skin. They combat many problem areas; such as dryness, breakouts and wrinkles.

Recently my house mates bought me the cupcake fresh face mask. It smells amaaaazing, like a big fat chocolate cake! I really have to stop myself from licking my fingers. My house mates bought it purely because of the smell & didn't actually look at its benefits, but it does have some.... Cupcake claims to soften and nourish the skin with linseed infusion, tone with fresh mint, moisturise with cocoa butter and absorb grease and deep cleanse with rhassoul mud. Added purely for fun are cocoa powder, vanilla absolute and spearmint oil.

So, the aim of the game is to apply this delicious face mask generously all over your face. Leave it to soak into the skin & do it's many jobs for 15-20 minutes, & wash it off!

My skin feels amaaaazing afterwards. It feels cleaner, toned & so so soft! A winner. Me & my friends are going to have a face mask night on Friday, in prep for grad ball :) This will definitely be my choice of mask!

What are your favourite face masks? Have you tried any of the other Lush fresh face masks? 

Jen xox

My graduation ball dress!

My uni graduation ball is NEXT Saturday! How scary is that?! I really can't believe uni is actually coming to an end :/

But on a more positive note... graduation ball = valid excuse for a new dress! :) So I'd looked in a few shops but hadn't really seen anything, until I'd stopped looking - today! I was after a maxi dress & one that didn't cling to the skin (due to the weight gain side effect of revision!).

The dress I bought fit my specificities perfectly :) Its the 'floral mesh back maxi dress' by Topshop. Lemme know what you think of it!

Front

Back

But now my issue lies with shoes, jewellery & clutch... I think as its quite a bold colour with detail on the back I can't really go over board on accessories.

I'd love it if you could help with any suggestions :)

Jen xox