Current Favourites | #11

Accessorize
By Terry Ombre Blackstar Eyeshadow Stick ~ Blond Opal | I picked this up on a Sephora run on my recent trip to Paris - full post here - and I’ve used it nearly everyday since. A full review will be up soon but there isn’t anything I don’t love about this product. It’s a great base for eyeshadow but also works well on its own. For me it ticks all of the boxes.

L’Oreal True Match Touche Magique Concealer ~ Ivory Beige | I was in the market for a new under eye concealer and taking advantage of a 3 for 2 deal at my beloved Boots I picked this up to try and I love it. It’s really great at brightening under my eyes and around my nose as well as the high points of my face. With this type of highlighter I usually find that they’re far too pink for my skin tone but L’Oreal have both yellow toned and pink toned options.

L’Oreal Infallible Mega Gloss ~ 103 Protest Queen | I’d been swatching these on the back of my hand the past few times I’d been into Boots and finally picked up a colour on my last trip. These come in an array of colours across four different finishes - cream, dazzle, xtreme and matte. Protest Queen is part of the cream formula family and is a lovely milky nude colour which is great to use in the centre of the lips. These aren’t sticky but stick around a long time.

Clearasil Deep Action Deep Pore Treatment Toner | This was an emergency purchase when my skin was acting up and I needed something to put on my breakouts but my stocks were depleted. I picked this up on a whim and it worked a treat shrinking my breakouts almost instantly. I wouldn’t recommend using this full time though as it does get a bit drying.

Z for Accessorize Heart Pendant Necklace* | A friend gifted me this dainty chain and I’ve worn it pretty much everyday since. I’m not usually a big jewellery wearer but as this is so small and delicate its perfect. The rest of Z for Accessorize range is pretty great too.

Vaseline Intensive Care Spray Moisturiser | As I mentioned in my Lazy Beauty Steps post - which can be seen here - I’m really bad at moisturising my limbs. This however is life changing. Every night before bed I spray some of this onto my legs and arms, quickly spread it around and it sinks into the skin seconds later. It isn’t arduous and you aren’t left sticky for two hours after. Perfect.

What are your current favourites?

~ Jade xx

Product Rejects | #1

beauty

Very rarely do I like to to highlight products that I don’t think are worth spending your money on unless I just flat out don’t like it. However, when I was clearing out my makeup drawer recently I came across a few things that I regret ever buying and thought I would share them because no matter how much you love a specific brand, sometimes you don’t like a certain product they release.

The Bodyshop Tea Tree Flawless BB Cream | This was a product I bought when it was newly released last year. At the time I was struggling with bad breakouts - which I do still suffer with so any product recommendations would be greatly welcomed - but I wanted a slightly lighter base for summer. The shade range is awful as there are only three shades in total and they’re all fairly orange. Being a BB cream I assumed it would be fairly easy to blend in so if the colour was out slightly it wouldn’t be too bad, like with most products of this nature. However, this product is actually very thick for a BB cream and doesn’t blend in well at all. I found that it almost separates when blending no matter if I used my fingers, a brush or a sponge. It just wasn’t to my liking.

Bourjois Happy Light Matte Serum Primer | At first I loved this product - full review here - so when I picked it up again about a year later I expected to still love it. I’m not sure if the product has changed or if my skin has changed but it now sits differently and I found it not be as good at keeping my makeup in place as I remembered it to be. I also found that it could flake off in certain areas when applying a foundation over top.

Maybelline Dream Flawless Nude Foundation | This was just an all round no from me. I wrote a full post about this foundation - which can be seen here - but in summary I didn’t like the application and I didn’t like the product. It's okay on days if you just need to slap something on but in my opinion there are much better things out there.

Maybelline The Eraser Eye Concealer | I picked this up after hearing so many rave reviews about it however personally I didn’t think it was anything special, especially for undertake eyes - full review here.

Bourjois Chocolate Bronzer | I loved this product to death and still probably would if I still used it however, if you have sensitive or acne prone skin I’d recommend staying clear as I found this is be the number one cause of my breakouts. The Bourjois Bronzing Primer breaks me out instantly too, which I’ve so far put down to the scent as all other Bourjois face products I’m fine with.

Revlon Bold Lacquer Mascara | I’m a massive fan of the Revlon Lash Potion Mascara so when this launched I was really excited to try it. My main niggle with this mascara is that it has lash fibres in it - something which isn’t stated on the bottle - and as a contact lens wearer this made my eyes extremely irritated. It was also an incredibly wet formula which personally I really don’t like in a mascara.

Rimmel Wonder'full Mascara | Personally I found this mascara just didn’t really do anything to my lashes. It didn’t lengthen them and it didn’t volumes them either, is was a very nothing product for me.

What are some of your purchase regrets?

~ Jade xx

Paris | 2015

eiffel tower
Paris is a city that I’ve always wanted to go to. Despite it being only a two hour train journey away I had never been to France before let alone its capital. Back in June Lucy and I took the trip for four days and long overdue, this is our travel diary.

On our first day in Paris we arrived late afternoon after spending two and a half hours on the Eurostar from London - much to Lucy’s annoyance as she couldn’t get comfortable to sleep on the train, a true first world problem. After checking into the hotel and freshening up we decided to wonder down to the Eiffel Tower to get dinner. I had never been to Paris before, or France for that matter, so was very excited to see the tall standing building. 
We stopped off for dinner at a small cafe/restaurant with a view of the tower on our way back to the metro - side note: the cheapest way to get around Paris is via the Metro, if you’re used to the Underground, like me, it can still take some getting used to though despite it being a similar deal mainly due to the lines not having directional points like the Underground. This quaint spot wasn’t the most luxurious place to eat in Paris however the food was nice, the service was friendly and if you’re more interested in the tourist side of Paris opposed to living the high life, its perfect and budget friendly, which its hard to find a budget anything in such an expensive city.

Photography information

Canon 600D with 18-55mm lens, Canon 24mm lens or Sigma 70-300mm lens. Canon EOS M with 18-55mm lens or Canon 24mm lens. Any edited photos are edited using Photoshop CS6. Picture source is given for any photo used that is not directly ours.