Collection Primed & Ready and Fix Me Up

If you saw my review of the September She Said Beauty box you will know that two of the full sized products we received in the box were from the once named Collection 2000, now just Collection. The products were the new Primed and Ready smoothing makeup primer and the Fix Me Up long lasting makeup fixer. I was really happy to see both of these products in the box and I was curious to try them. I don't use primers every day; a good skincare routine has controlled my naturally oily skin to the point where most days, my skin is just in a good enough condition that I don't need a primer. But there are days when my skin is playing up or when I know I will be out all day and in those cases a primer comes in handy! Setting sprays are however something I use quite often and my setting spray of choice is the E.l.f. Makeup Mist & Set (you can read my review of it here) so I was really curious as to whether this would work as well for me. 

Beauty Chamber Beauty Haul

I love going out shopping but sometimes, I pay more attention to things I want, things I need and things I want to treat myself to when I am shopping online opposed to in a shop. Online shopping for me is better in two ways. You can often find more lines and ranges for a brand online than you can in store. For example, my local Superdrug has a limited line of makeup brands and it doesn't stock Sleek or MUA, so I usually have to order my Sleek or MUA products for their individual Official websites. Secondly, you can get a lot of brands online in the UK, that you can't actually get in store in the UK. So many brands are either limited to department stores with hiked up prices or are simply just not available on the high street. So, for me, shopping online is often far easier, and I end up with more lovely products that I couldn't get on the high street. 

Denman Medium Boar Bristle Grooming Brush

I don't know about you but Denman is a brand I grew up with. Both my mother dearest and my step dad have used Denman brushes as long as I can remember and as a child they were the brushes I used, too. Then when I started my hair dressing course, Denman is the brand of brushes we worked with and which came with our hairdressing kits. To me, Denman is a familiar brand which I know and trust. Denman is a long established brand. They first started making their World renowned brushes in 1938 - That is a damn long time! They have a range of over 40 products, each for a different hair type and style. There really is a brush for everyone! There are 20 different grooming combs and brushes and today I will be sharing with you the medium boar bristle grooming brush. Costing £15.13, this brush, like all Denman brushes, is guaranteed to last you years and years!

Cleaning Makeup Brushes

When I first began my blog one of the first posts I made was on cleaning your make up brushes and why it is an important step both for making makeup application easy and flawless as well as preventing spots and blemishes from taking residence on your skin! Well as that was five months ago and I not only have a lot more brushes but also a different routine for washing them, I thought I would do an updated post. And here it is! So, why exactly is it important to clean your makeup brushes?

Di Palomo Wild Fig & Grape

Di Palomo is a brand which creates bath and body products ranging from perfumes and body oils, to bath elixirs and cleansing bars, to at-home spa essentials. They have four ranges with different scents and themes, and one which caught my attention straight away, was the Wild Fg & Grape range. Two of my favourite fruits to eat, I just knew these would smell amazing. And I was right! 

Lulu & Boo Organic Skincare

Oh, how I love skincare. And oh, how I love finding beautiful brands with strong ethics and gorgeous products. Lulu & Boo, is one of those brands. I've been trying out four products from Lulu & Boo over the past two and a half weeks and I now feel ready to share these wonderful products and my thoughts on them, with all of you lovelies. Lulu & Boo is an organic skincare company which is Soil Association certified, and Vegan friendly. None of their products contain any nasty ingredients which could irritate your skin, and they only use pure, natural and organic ingredients. They are cruelty free and none of their products, or the ingredients in their products, are tested on animals and their products are hand made in small batches to make sure each product is fresh and has an optimum 'shelf' life! I have had the pleasure of treating my skin to the Nettle & Lemon Tea Tree cleansing oil, Lavender & Lemon toner, Rosehip Face Lifting serum and the Seaweed Purifying mask. And to top it off the packaging for their products is absolutely blooming beautiful and made me feel like I was using super special products!

The Skincare Series | Cleansers

For those who don't already know, I have begun a series here on my blog called The Skincare Series. Skincare is the most important aspect of beauty to me and I look forward to both my morning and evening skincare routines. But through the course of running my blog so far I have learnt that a lot of people either use no skincare products, do not have a skincare routine or do not even see the point in a skincare routine. So I decided to do a series on my skincare; what I use, why I do certain things, products which do and don't help me, etc. You can read the first post in the series from back in July which detailed my skincare routine at the time, skin concerns and issues I had and how I wanted to move forward with my skincare routine, here. I have also done another post in this series which was dedicated to makeup removers, which you can read here. This post, is all about cleansers!

Budget-friendly Makeup Storage

When you have a huge, no, enourmous, makeup collection, it can be quite difficult keeping it all organised and tidy. Until recently all of my make up was in various old jewellery boxes, boxes, makeup boxes and cardboard floral drawer sets. And it was all in the bathroom! I decided to take advantage of the chest of drawers in my bedroom, switch some things over, and now all of my makeup is in my bedroom, in my chest of drawers. I use old beauty boxes to store my makeup in as I find they are the perfect size and it just keeps everything organised and tidy. But it still wasn't enough. I wanted my most used and everyday makeup out in the open, easier to reach and basically, looking pretty! So many bloggers rave about Muji storage so obviously, I started lusting after them. But for me, £20 for some clear drawers was just too much to even consider. I'm a student, on a student budget. I can't afford £20 per set of drawers! But do not fear, because I have found storage for the everyday makeup lover that anyone on a budget can afford!

Milani Baked Blush Luminoso

Could it really be true? Have I finally found a blush I not only feel completely comfortable wearing, but a blush I actually adore and think could be the most perfect blush in the World? Oh yes. It's so very, very true. And I mean really now, look at it. How could this not be the perfect blush for me? The colour, the texture and feel, the way it looks on my skin. Hubba golly gosh of hubba-ness. This blush was made, with a crazy Tattooed Tealady in mind!

Make Believe Self Tan Lotion with Bronzer

We are now into the third week of the Tans for Women of Colour project and this week, we will be reviewing Make Believe. The Make Believe product I have been trying out is the Self Tan Lotion with Bronzer; Golden Tan, Zone 4. This is a one week tanning lotion. That means you apply it once (or can layer it with further applications) and it will last one week before fading. There are five colour zones for Make Believe tans. The zones range from 1 - 5, 1 being the lightest, 5 being the darkest. 

Sunkissed Bronzing Radiance Compact

I recently shared my thoughts with you on the first ever Sunkissed Bronzing product I tried, and that was the Glimmer Compact (read review here) I really love the Glimmer Compact and it's a bronzer I have been turning to a lot to give me a lovely sun kissed glow. Today I am going to be sharing with you another lovely Sunkissed Bronzing product and that is the Radiance Compact. The Radiance Compact has got to be one of the most perfect on-the-go compact I have come across. It has six eye-shadows, a bronzer and four lip colours. It's also smaller than the Glimmer Compact so would fit in your handbag perfectly! 

Lanolips 101 Ointment

The Lanolips 101 Ointment is advertised as the ultimate luxuriously creamy ointment, that contains 100% pure grade lanolin, which "literally melts between your fingers." A multi-purpose product, this can be used for extremely chapped lips, dry cuticles, dry, itchy skin and more. It's suitable for even the most sensitive of skin and contains 100% pure ingredients. It's fragrance free, colour free, vegetarian and baby friendly and completely cruelty free. 

Amie Spring Clean Cooling Clay Mask

One of the products included in the September She Said Beauty box (read review here!) was a 15ml sachet of the Amie Spring Clean Cooling Clay Mask. I tried this a few days ago and just had to share my thoughts with you all on it! Amie is a natural beauty brand who is cruelty free and suitable for both vegetarians and vegans. None of their products contain parabens, mineral oils, petrochemicals, sodium laureth sulphate or sodium lauryl sulphate or any ingredients which have a genetically modified origin. Basically, none of their products have any nasty ingredients in which could be harmful to your skin, and they are an animal friendly and eco-friendly brand. Fab!

Bumble & Bumble BB Seaweed Mild Marine Shampoo

The BB Seaweed Mild Marine Shampoo has a blooming long name for a shampoo, doesn't it? Well, the packaging like with all Bumble & Bumble products is really pretty and unique, so I'll let the long-ass name slide. So, what is the Bumble & Bumble Seaweed Mild Marine Shampoo? For normal hair, this shampoo is a mild, everyday cleanser with marine seaweed, spirulina and kelp which feeds your roots, adds shine and keeps your scalp happy! To use simply use in place of your normal shampoo and rinse thoroughly. It lathers up pretty darn well, and it can leave your hair feeling very unusual and squeaky as you are working it in, but once you apply conditioner and rinse as usual, your hair is left feeling perfectly clean, naturally shiny and left beautifully cleansed.

We all make sacrifices for beauty

Being a makeup fanatic can sometimes be expensive. There are so many products we want and lust after, but we can't always afford them. One thing I have done in the past, not just for makeup but for bills and essentials, is trade in things I no longer use. You can sell anything you don't need and get a decent price for it and one thing I am considering doing, is selling my iPod touch. Why you might ask? Well I bought my iPod touch back when I started Uni. It went everywhere with me and it made travelling to Uni a Godsend. But I now have a Samsung Galaxy Nexus phone, so my iPod is redundant. You can trade in your iPod to places such as Music Magpie. You can sell products such as your iPod, using the Music Magpie Start Selling page which you can find here. And you can use the money to treat yourself to products! I wanted to show how you could use the money to recreate Celebrity looks! 

Benefit Browzings VS MUA Pro-Brow Ultimate Eyebrow Kit

One of the things I get asked about the most, whether it be in comments here on my blog, over Twitter or Instagram or even in real life, is what I use to do my eyebrows, and how. I'm still figuring out how quite to go about doing a 'tutorial' post on how I do them, but I can definitely tell you what I use and that is what I am going to do today. But with a twist.

I first started doing my brows when I was 21, but with a pencil. And boy oh boy was I terrible at it. I used to actually draw a line around my eye-brows and fill them in. Eyebrow fail 101 girls. Do not take that approach! It has taken me a couple of years, lots of different products and brands and a hella'lotta'practice to get my brows how I want them each day. And I still can't do them how I'd 100% want them to be. But I'm getting there. 

GOSH Medium Instant Tan Gel

If you are a regular reader of my blog you will know that I am currently involved in a blogger project called Tans for Women of Colour. The project includes 11 lovely bloggers (including myself) who are olive, brown and black skinned, trying out different brands and tanning products to see whether they really work for the skin tones they say as well as showing that tanning products are as much for us naturally tanned and dark lovelies as they are for pale beauties. Last week we started off the project with a review of Abi-O BeauBronz, a beautiful brand with lovely products I really enjoyed using. You can read my first post for the project and review of BeauBronz, here. Today I am going to be reviewing the latest tanning product I have been trying out and that is the GOSH Instant Tan Gel in Medium.

Organic Surge Shampoo, Conditioner & Body Scrub

I recently shared with you my love for this fantastic organic brand, Organic Surge. I have been using a few of their products; the face wash and cleanser which I have already reviewed and you can find here, the tropical bergamot body scrub, and the volume boost shampoo and conditioner. 

Volume used to be the thing I lusted after the most with my hair. I say lusted, because nowadays I have found some wonderful products which give me the volume I have always craved. And Organic Surge did not let me down! As with all Organic Surge products, these are organic, contain no nasty chemicals, and are cruelty free in the truest sense of the word.

Burt's Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Creme

A couple of months ago I shared with you my thoughts on what is my favourite product from Lush, the Lemony Flutter Cuticle Butter (read review here) I never thought I would find a product for my cuticles that I loved more than Lemony Flutter, but I have. The Burt's Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Crème is definitely my first choice when looking after my cuticles and I absolutely adore it. With one in my handbag for on the go as well as one on my desk for use throughout the day, this is a truly beautiful product.

Love Your Skin Collagen Body Moisturising Gel

Before trying out this product, I have to admit, I had never heard of Love Your Skin. But with a name like that I am wondering why I never found them before! 

The 100 Day Challenge - Has it changed me?

Hello all! So, if you have been following me for a while you will know that up until last week I was taking part in a spending ban challenge called The 100 Day Challenge. I decided back in June to begin the challenge, June 1st to be exact. And you can read all about why I wanted to start the challenge as well as my own personal rules on the challenge in this post here. When I first began it I thought it would be so hard, that time would drag and that I would trip up tremendously. Much to my surprise, it actually flew by. And it was far easier than I ever thought it would be, too. Over the weeks I did a weekly update. You can read each individual update which I have linked at the bottom of this post!

Introducing Omorovicza Skincare

I get really excited when I find a new skincare brand that I love. Especially when I can see such positive effects on my skin from using the products. A new (new to me) brand I have been trying out is Omorovicza. Omorovicza comes all the way from Budapest where Hungary's thermal waters are used to harness the beauty and health benefits using mineral cosmetology, taking natural, anti-aging skincare to a new level and the brand is constantly progressing, creating more and more natural, highly-effective skincare treatments, different from other skincare products all due to mineral cosmetology. 

GHD Style & Protect Set

GHD is a Worldwide renowned brand, known best for their straighteners. But what about styling products? Well I have been sent the Style & Protect GHD set to try for myself and see just how well GHD fair on styling products and whether they perform as well as their much loved straighteners. The Style & Protect set comes with a paddle brush, two sectioning clips, a straight and smooth spray and a final shine spray. Everything you need to style your hair from start to finish.

Holy Grail Product Alert.....

Warning - This is a rave review.

I am in love. Usually when I start a post with that sentence, it's about a bronzer, or natural/organic skincare. Sometimes, it'll even be about yet another one of Lush's fresh face masks that I have fallen in love with. But this is different. This, is the Bumble and Bumble Thickening Hairspray. This, is my new holy grail hair product.

Abi-O BeauBronz London

As a Cypriot girl, I have a natural tanned complexion and I am lucky enough to tan very easily in the sun. But sun-tanning can be very damaging to our skin, especially if we do not wear sun-creams and moisturisers with a high SPF. An alternative to a natural tan, is self tanning or tanning in salons. But as an already naturally tanned girl, I really struggle to find products which give me a healthy, natural glow. I find products can either have no effect whatsoever on my skin colour or they will merely leave an orange tinge, which lets admit it, no one wants. 

Shopping the Stash # 2 Reviews

Earlier this week I posted my second 'Shopping the Stash' post. If you didn't catch it, you can see the post here. Today I am going to be sharing my thoughts with you on the products I have been trying again! I didn't manage to do a FOTD with them, but I will feature these products in future FOTD posts so you can see what they are like on me!

Sunkissed Bronzing Glimmer Compact

Everyone knows it by now - I am a self confessed bronzer addict. I just love it. One thing I don't have a huge amount of though, is glittery, shimmery, sparkly, fun bronzers. I'm a bit of a matte girl. But not so long ago I realise that sometimes, using a bronzer with a shimmer would save me having to use highlighters to get the same effect. And so I bring to you, the Sunkissed Bronzing Glimmer Compact. 

The 100 Day Challenge - Update # 13

100 days done.

Really? Is it really all over? 100 days, completed. 100 days of no shopping, no unnecessary spending. No splurging on new cosmetics and hauls. Nothing. A couple of slip ups along the way, totaling to £24. And that's in. 3 months, two weeks. The 100 Day Challenge is COMPLETE!!!!!!

It's seriously baffling to consider that I have really done 100 days. It doesn't seem that long at all in fact it feels like mere weeks since I sat here writing my very first post telling you all about this challenge and why I wanted to start it. It just doesn't seem that long at all, when in the beginning I felt like it was going to be forever. But that's it. I can officially say I have completed the 100 Day Challenge, and not too badly either, if I do say so myself! There's still a few things I lusted after in this final week though, so lets see what made it on to this weeks wishlist! 

Worth the hype? Revlon Lip Butters

In the Spring, Revlon Lip Butters hit the UK by storm. Everyone had seen them, everyone wanted them, and everyone was trying them. They were raved about and hyped like you wouldn't believe in the blogosphere; everyone was saying how much they loved these gorgeously packaged new Revlon wonders. But are they really worth the hype they still get everyday in the blogosphere?

Cleansing with Organic Surge

"Your skin's best friend." - Quite a statement, right? Well this is the tag-line for all Organic Surge products. Do I think it's justified? Read on and see!

Introducing Balance Me natural skincare

Balance Me has become one of the brands I reach for the most where natural skincare is concerned. I have tried a few products from Balance Me now and not one has let me down. Each and every product has smelt delicious, been perfect for my skin and has left me with visible differences in my skin and in a massively positive way. Today I will be sharing with you three moisturisers and an eye cream. 

How to be a Woman

It's been a while since I did a book review here on my blog, and they are something I want to keep up and keep doing. So today I am going to share with you one of my favourite reads not only of 2012, but of my life. 

How to be a Woman, by Caitlin Moran.

Shopping the Stash # 2

I really enjoyed doing my first 'Shopping the Stash' post last week, which you can read here, as well as doing some FOTD posts using the products I had used, which you can see here, and here, and reviewing the products overall yesterday, which you can see here. This week I have picked less products, in the hopes that this time I will use every product I have picked! So, what do I plan to use this week?

Shopping the stash #1 Reviews

On Monday I did my very first 'Shopping the Stash' post here on my blog. It's a post I have wanted to do for quite a while now but I just never got round to it. I have decided to do these posts every week, but to do them a little bit differently to other bloggers. As I said in the 'Shopping the stash' post on Monday, which you can read here, I also want to create FOTD looks using the products I pick each week, and then review the products overall each Sunday. This is the first of the 'Shopping the stash reviews'!

August 2012 Empties

As August went on, I didn't think I'd actually managed to collect that many empties. Oh how I was wrong! When digging everything out of my empties bag for this post, I realised I had actually gotten through a huge amount of products again! A total of 23 products! So what did I use up in August?

August 2012 Favourites

It's that time of the month again! Time to share my August favourites! I love doing my favourites posts as its a great way to share with you all the products I have been loving, just as much as I love seeing the favourites of you all, too! So if you have written a favourites post or done a favourites video, be sure to share it with me in the comments! So, what are my favourites for August?