Topshop Glow Highlighter in Gleam

I'm not healthy enough to have that lovely natural glow to my face, so smearing things on my cheekbones is the best I can do. One of the nicest things I've been smearing lately is this Topshop Highlighter in the shade "Polish" which is a sort of pearly white. They had a gold and a rose gold version too, which I really wish I'd picked up, since a golden glow is so much more summery. Even so, this is lovely!

The little pot is sweet, but heavy so it's not really great to carry around. Even so, you get a hell of a lot since a little goes a long way. It catches the light really well and is creamy and easy to apply. It doesn't disturb your makeup if you apply it over the top, however it does crease something chronic, so anybody hoping to double it up as a cream eyeshadow will be disappointed. 

It looks good on the inner corners of the eye too. I'm not really deft enough to prod at my eye with my fingers so this is the job for a smudging brush. 

It goes for £9 in Topshop, and I really would recommend it as a fuss-free highlighter.

Xxxx

...May Favourites!

I have been going very fuss-free this month - exam season and all that! Here are a couple of things that have been on my head almost daily...

La Roche Posay Effaclar Duo - £15.50
When I'm stressed I get spots - humongous, juicy ones - blehh. And because I'm just so damned white they always leave red marks. I'm not going to say this is a wonder product, but I have definitely noticed a big difference in the size and quantity of blemishes and also how quickly they disappear.

Bumble and Bumble Pret-A-Powder - £21.50
Once again, exam season has meant all day library shifts, late nights and a serious reduction in giving a crap about my appearance. This lasts a million times longer than dry shampoo in a spray can and also gives a nice little bit of volume/texture, allowing me to look a little less homeless.

Benefit Gimme Brow - £17.50
I'm sure you're noticing a trend emerging here... Speed and laziness. This isn't that great by way of adding shape, but it defines brows well and makes them a bit more groomed.

E45 Cream - £2.39
A bit of a standard here, but I have been using it all over the place recently; especially to soothe the horrible flaky skin that some blemishes leave behind. I've been using it after shaving my legs and sometimes even in the place of my normal moisturiser. It soaks in quickly, is fragrance free and is such a hard worker that I think it deserves a little recognition.

Benefit Hoola Bronzer - £23.50
Every woman and her mother knows about this so I'll spare you. I've just been using it around the edges of my face to make it look as though I've been outside recently (N.B. I haven't.)

Bobbi Brown Pot Rouge in Hibiscus - £19
I can honestly say, I think I'll still have this exact pot usable when I'm 80 years old. You need only to touch your finger to the cream to have enough for halloween makeup. I'm also a recent embarker on the cream blusher bandwagon too, and I'm very, very happy to be so! This is a lovely colour, albeit tough to blend sometimes. It's hard to tell if the red on your cheeks is from the blusher or the increase in blood flow from the fierce dabbing. Still a big fan.

Bourjois Cream Blush in Healthy Glow - £7.99
I love this since it's far more powdery and less of a task than Bobbi's. It's a really pretty colour and is very aptly named.

Topshop Lipstick in Infrared - £8
Despite my best efforts with the pictures (in natural light, I promise) this lipstick has ended up looking far more coral than orange. However, it IS orange, and that's what I adore about it. It's very bright if you layer it on thick, but becomes quite natural if you just dab a bit on and spread it with your finger.

And that's that.

Xxxx

Lush, Topshop, Avene, Sanctuary and Natural Collection

I went shopping again today... *sigh* Retail therapy.

I went to find a matte chocolate brown eyeshadow for a job interview I have on Monday - with GlaxoSmithKline I might add! If you're a science undergraduate then you should already know that it's kind of a big deal. And for those who aren't... It's kind of a big deal ;)

I wanted that contoured eye look, that's very natural but still pretty, but the only eyeshadow that does the job is full of huge chunks of glitter - hardly professional looking. But here are some other things that sneakily made their way into my basket...

 In Lush I picked up...

Rose Jam Bubbleroon (£3.50)- A bubble bar that looks a bit weird, but smells divine! Kind of like roses and candyfloss.

Soft Coeur (The Honeymooner) Massage Bar (£4.75) - Melts into your hands and smells like vanilla, chocolate and something else that I just can't put my finger on... I can't wait to use this!

I'm staying a night in a hotel as the interview venue will take me several hours to reach, so I'm definitely making the most of this hotel's bathtub! I refuse to touch the one in our house - I live with 7 other students, 4 of them boys and 2 of them keen surfers. Sand and grime everywhere! Urghh.

 Avene Thermal Spring Water, 50ml (£3.15) - This looked interesting and the shop assistant recommended it to me for use when travelling and your skin becomes dehydrated. Priced very nicely and feels lovely when you spray it onto your face, even over makeup.

Topshop Brows Pencil in Brown (£6) - I really appreciate Topshop's pricings. They never fanny about with the whole .99p thing, so you don't get stuck with a measly penny to add to the other 5000 in your purse.
This is a nice medium brown, not as pigmented as many others out there (Rimmel London do a great brow pencil) but the colour suits my hair nicely and the spoolie is much better than the tough little brushes that come with so many pencils.

Sanctuary 5 Minute Thermal Detox Mask (£3) - My mum swears by Sanctuary masks, so I thought I'd pick up one of these nice little sachets.They do make full-size bottles of this but I wasn't up for spending that much. I'll let you know what I think.

Natural Collection Solo Eyeshadow in Crushed Walnut (£1.79) - What I actually went shopping for was the cheapest thing I came home with. Damn.
Not the best eyeshadow in the world, but what can you expect for that price? The colour is lovely and it blends beautifully! I'm actually extremely impressed with this, it's exactly what I was looking for, a beautiful matte brown to stuff in my handbag.

 Here's a bit of a closer look. It does look a little shimmery with the flash, but I can assure you that it isn't.

I'll give a more in-depth review of the Sanctuary and Lush products when I come to use them. Woo! My first actual bath in two and a half months! 

Xxxx

These are a Few of my Favourite Things...

The candle (lemon scented - Next) makes everything look so much prettier.

The lipstick above is Christian Dior - Diorific Haute Couture Long Wearing Lipstick in Dolce Vita. It is without a doubt, the nicest lipstick I've ever used.

Now, honestly, my photos still aren't great. I put that down having a camera that is 7 years old! (Excuses, excuses.) But I think they're getting better! Putting the candle in the background was just for the light at first, because my camera flash is broken, but it came out rather festive!

But I'm not saying the "C" word... Not yet.

Xxxx

Homeopathy and the Girl in the Denim Hotpants

I dragged my sorry behind into my 9am biochemistry lecture this morning. I didn't want to, but I hate falling behind.
Thankfully, my self pity was short-lived when my amazing lecturer put this picture up at the beginning:

 No offence intended, of course, to those who do have faith in homeopathy.

As for the girl's story: I was walking home from the lecture and I saw a girl walking in front of me wearing only, I kid you not, denim hotpants (the kind where the bum-cheeks are on show) and a t-shirt.
I was wearing Ugg boots, thermal leggings, a t-shirt, a jumper, gloves, a scarf, a wooly hat and a coat.
She wasn't even wearing tights!

These are pretty much what she was wearing, (Topshop, by the way, £32, yum).
At first I thought she must be insane.
Then I thought; "It must be me. Maybe it's this cold I've got? It could actually be really warm outside." - but then I realised I could see my breath.
Then I was just impressed; "You GO girl! Way to hang on to your summer wardrobe!"


And then the penny dropped. Wednesday night is 'Sports Societies Social Night' (Pound a pint in The Skiving Scholar) - She was doing the walk of shame.

Topshop Lipstick Bullet

Hello there,

I thought today that I'd write about a very recent purchase of mine; a Topshop Lipstick Bullet! I've been looking for a dark red/burgundy lipstick for a while, I think it's a great wintery colour and can look very glamorous indeed! 

I got the colour, Rockabilly which is very deep red, almost brown, exactly what I was looking for!

These things are not like your day to day lipsticks, they're very creamy and feel almost like vaseline when you apply them. They're just as well pigmented as normal lipsticks though, the colour comes out very well and doesn't change from the way it looks in the packaging. Since the texture is so creamy, they do have a tendency to bleed around your mouth and it does require some touching-up throughout the day. 

The packaging is typical Topshop, quite minimal and pretty. However, since the texture is so smooth, it gets all over the top of the packaging and inside the little lid. This is very hard to avoid, because it's so easy to catch the lipstick when you're putting the lid back on. 

It also is very staining. If you have this on your lips all day, or even for a few hours, you can guarantee that there will still be some colouring left on your lips the next day. I give my lips a good scrub with my makeup remover but it will still be there when I have a closer look. 

As for what it looks like on...

As you can see, it's fairly dark and has a little bit of a shine to it. You can get rid of this by blotting a couple of times, which gets rid of the shine without losing any of the colour! This is great because it means you can get a lovely matte look from this lipstick too!

Overall, I love this! I think its a very pretty colour and is great value for money at £8! I do have a few little niggles, but nothing that would put me off using it.