My Autumn/Winter Essentials So Far - B xo

So I’ve seen LOADS of people posting their Autumn/Winter Favourites/Essentials already this year, and every time I see one, I think to myself; wow. It’s only just really started to get yucky weather wise (In the UK anyway). So while I have a few bits that I would class as Autumn/Winter Essentials, I want to make it clear to everyone that these may change, or get added to, as Winter goes on! Okay, here we go.

We’ll go to skincare for my first product. It is, of course, Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser. You all know by now that I am head over heels in love with this product. Since I started using it a few months ago, I have not strayed from the path, I have been completely faithful. I haven’t even been tempted to stray. This is probably my favourite skincare discovery ever. I started using it in the summer and I’ll be honest, I did wonder if it would work as well for me in the colder months, as skin needs change depending on the weather. I had nothing to be worried about. I’ve used this constantly and had no problems whatsoever. Far from it, my skin has improved dramatically compared to before Liz Earle waltzed into my life. It removes every scrap of makeup with minimal effort and leaves my skin feeling quite frankly, luscious. At £13.25 for a 100ml bottle (more than I think I have ever paid for a skincare product, constantly at least) at first glance this may seem a bit expensive (to those of us that rely heavily on high street products). However, once you have tried this product, you will realise that you have got yourself an absolute bargain. You can’t afford NOT to buy it!

My next Autumn/Winter Essential is also of the skin care theme. It is… Astral Moisturiser! I am a bit of a moisturiser whore, I don’t mind admitting. I flit from product to product, never really finding anything that really floats my boat and just plodding along with products I deem average at best. When I ran out of my little Liz Earle moisturiser (which was really nice, just not for me), I was at a loss as for where to head next in my ever long moisturiser quest. Then one day when I went into Superdrug for a browse, I spotted this on display at the front of the shop. I recognised it immediately as a product that my aunty used to use. It was her holy grail of skincare, and I remember seeing it in her bathroom from when I was a tiny toddler to when she died. And as if that wasn’t enough of a sign, it was on offer. I think I paid £3.50 for a 500ml tub (or something along those lines). I LOVE this moisturiser. And I really never thought I would say that, but it is fantastic. My skin gets dehydrated quite quickly, but once moisture has been restored, it’s okay. This means that I normally struggle to find a moisturiser that deals with both skin situations. This does it, no problem. It goes on smoothly, sinks in to the skin beautifully and has left my skin feeling soft and radiant. I’m VERY impressed. And as it is getting colder here in the UK my skin needs a bit more help. I don’t imagine I will be leaving this behind any time soon.

Moving on from skincare to hair, another thing I would be lost without this winter, is Aussie Miracle Moist Shampoo. Again, this tends to be a little bit more pricey than the kind of shampoo that I used to buy but after using it religiously for a few months now (I’m getting much better at this sticking with products thing), I can totally see why. I tend to try and wait until I see this on offer to buy it, but regardless, it is definitely worth the price tag. No matter what I do to my hair, it is always dry. Before I started using Aussie, it would often be so dry that I had to condition for about 10 minutes before I could even dream of getting a brush through it. I have no more of that. The condition of my hair has really improved since I’ve stuck to this shampoo, and it smells gorgeous too!

My next product, is a fairly recent discovery. However, it’s one of those things that everyone has been raving about for ages and I’m just late to the party. It is, of course, the Revlon Colourburst Lip Butters. There has been SO much hype around these, I thought, I just can’t hold out any longer. These are around the £7 mark, depending on where you buy them and whether they’re included in some sort of offer. A little pricey for what seems at first glance to be basically a lip balm. Or so I thought. I was wrong. At first, I didn’t really get this product. Now that I do, I absolutely love it. The formulation of these are quite unique. They apply like a balm, but have the pigmentation of a lipstick. I find these to be uber hydrating and lovely, they make my lips feel gorgeous. The shade range is VERY impressive, although a lot of high street shops don’t stock them all. The staying power isn’t great, but as this isn’t actually a lipstick, I’m fine with that. The only negative comment I have about these is the packaging. I don’t like it. It seems cheap and impractical and just, not to my taste at all. Apart from that, I think these are brilliant. Definitely worth the hype and I hope to be expanding my collection sometime soon.

Have you guys got any products you'd be totally lost without in the Autumn(Fall)/Winter Months? Let us know in the comments below :)

B xo

Back In Business

Hola bambinos! I know Smekah has been off the radar for the last month or so, hence I just thought I'd do a quick little post to update you on the blog/me/sam/wdf situation. (I've written, deleted and rewritten this about a million times this week so bare with me. If there's anything I haven't covered, feel free to get in touch).

Basically, Smekah is back in business. I know I know, I can hear you all jumping for joy as you read this. After a kind of hiatus, it's all kicking off again here. As you know, Sam is now posting from Blinkered Barbie, however all of us here at Smekah hold a special place in her heart (ew, sickly sweet alert) and she has decided she's going to carry on posting here as well, probably around 3 times a week. I am going to step up my posting - it's going to be everything from reviews on beauty products, ootd's/lookbooks, lifestyle posts, reciepes, all manner of random things, so beware! If ever there is a lull and I've slipped back into my old habbits of not posting like I should, please hassle me into it. Peer pressure is most effective.

So I'm sorry that we haven't been around, but we're back now yaaay. We hope that you're all okay! 

Love,

B xxo

Our Moment - One Direction perfume.

A lot of you are probably, understandably, thinking that all Directioners were bound to buy Our Moment, regardless of whether they liked it or not. I can see where you’re coming from, however, this is not me. I am very particular about perfumes. A lot of them make me feel extremely nauseous and therefore if I don’t like it, or if I have any reservations at all, I just won’t wear it, let alone buy it. So when I heard about the impending release of Our Moment I thought oh god, this is potentially going to smell disgusting. If so, I certainly will not buy it. Perfumes in general are not cheap, and I wasn’t going to spend out on something and then not use it.

So last weekend when I was in Liverpool, I popped into the shops to investigate. The perfume had been released that week so naturally, there were cardboard cutouts and displays galore. I was impressed to hear that The Perfume Shop had completely sold out, and were waiting on a delivery of the fragrance. So I popped over the road into Superdrug to suss out the situation there. There was a large crowd gathered around the sample on display. Groups of teenage girls, mothers and daughters, even a man buying it for his girlfriend (how sweet, awh). I took a step back and watched the rabble for a few minutes. It became clear that Superdrug had sold out of the large and medium sized bottles, and only had the 30ml left. The sales assistant behind the counter was frantically phoning around other stores to try and find out who had what in stock. It was, crazy. When I could get close enough, I bought the 30ml bottle (£20).

I love this scent, it is exactly my taste. I do not love the packaging. When H Styles was asked, he said that they wanted to make the perfume as affordable as possible, in the best interest of all the fans. In my opinion, the box kind of does look like it’s a child’s perfume. The floating heads of the 1D boys is quite frankly weird, and there is a whole lot of pink. What I did like, upon opening the box, was the cute little booklet/note basically saying thanks for buying this, you are amazing, with all of the boys signatures. (Nice touch there, Modest). The bottle itself is…interesting. The pinkish tinge to the glass is fine. As is the Our Moment written across the front. The crazy lid certainly makes it stand out. It is kind of shaped like a crown (apparently, we’re all 1D’s princesses…) which is okay, but the big pink netted bit in the middle of the top not only makes it look cheap and tacky, but it’s quite impractical. This makes it difficult to carry it around in your bag because of how big it makes it, and it’s also so quite tricky to actually get in to.

Once you do manage to open the bottle, you discover that the perfume smells amazing. What I will say is that I can imagine this to be a total marmite product. You are either going to love this perfume, or you’re going to hate it. My first thought was, this is very sweet, it’s a little bit like Black XS. (I adore Black XS). My Mumma disagrees completely, and thinks that it smells like Red Door (I love that, too). She doesn’t like it, and described it as a very sickly smell. It has top notes of pink grapefruit, forest fruits and red currants, although to me I don’t think it smells overly fruity when you first spray it. The middle tones of freesia, jasmine and frangipani work to mute the fruit element, without actually taking any of it away. What really comes across as the day wears on, are the undertones of patchouli and musk. All of these different elements compliment each other beautifully to make admittedly, a particularly sweet, yet not overpowering fragrance. It sits on the skin beautiful and does last a long time with no need to reapplying. This product gets a huge thumbs up from me – I smell yummy.

B xxo

Autumn Wish List. - B

So this post is a little bit different to the ones I’ve written before, as I’m sure you can tell from the title. As opposed to reviewing new things that I’ve got, I thought I’d share with you guys the things that I would like in the future. Eg “wish list”. What used to frustrate me most about reading certain blogs, was that they only ever used to post about the lovely things that they had, and how amazing they are. It’s important to me (and Sam) that you guys know at the end of the day, we’re hardly made of money and for whatever reason we can’t just always go out and buy all of the things that we want. So I’m going to write about the things that I would like, and then if I’m lucky enough to get them, I’ll update you on it!

The first thing I would really like is touche éclat foundation. Especially since being bought the highlighter for my birthday and absolutely loving it. I have a few concerns about this foundation. Being a high end foundation, it  comes with a high end price tag. I also know that it can slide off oily skin. Although I’m not majorly oily, I’m unsure how this kind of foundation would sit on my skin. However, the finish looks so gorgeous. I’m going to look into getting a sample of this so I can try before I buy. NOTE. Eleanor Calder is known for using this foundation and her skin always looks beautiful.

Mac lipglass: I can’t really explain this one. I’m a big fan of the mac eye products, but as a brand I’m never sure about it. It’s quite a lot more expensive than high street brands, but it doesn’t quite make the high end bracket. I know some people that absolute love mac, and I will admit that some of their stuff is brilliant. But some of it, I personally think, is decidedly average considering the price tag. I always think that their lipsticks aren’t great, and the packaging just doesn’t do it for me. Buuuut, I would love a mac lipglass. I just think it looks lovely and I’ve heard such good things.

The third thing on my wish list is non beauty related, but still something I’ve been lusting after for a long time. I would really like, a parka. If you don’t know what this is, it’s basically a winter coat. Think Liam Gallagher in the music video for Little by Little. Again, this is another one of those real love hate things. Some of you will be reading this and going oh my god what the hell is she thinking! And some of you will know exactly what I mean. I have wanted one of these for as long as I can remember. Maybe when the weather is a bit more wintery I’ll be able to justify it!

Another thing on my wish list is something I’m sure Sam would be interested in as well. It is…. HD Brows! This is a craze that’s really taken off in the last year or so, helped along by looooads of celeb endorsement. Eyebrows are very in at the moment. Chunky fringes are gone and striking brows are back (Thank you, Cara Delevingne). HD brows come from a seven step procedure, involving a shape consultation followed by a mixture of threading, tweezing, plucking and tinting to leave you with perfect brows. This results really are amazing. Having well groomed brows can change the look of your whole face; and this is something that really can’t be achieved at home with a pair of tweezers. HD brows cost around £40, which seems pretty steep when you can get them waxed at your local salon for under £10, but there really is such a difference in the end result. As of yet I have not succumbed to this trend but the more people I’m seeing with HD brows, the more I want to.  

B xxo