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

One Direction for MUA mini review - Little Things range.

Unless you follow my personal twitter/tumblr/any other social networking platform, most of you probably don’t know my deep dark secret. I am a HUGE (referring to my interest, not my dress size) One Direction fan. S kept this in mind when purchasing my birthday presents (she is fabby), and bought me a lipstick, lip polish and nail varnish from their new 1D for MUA “little things” make up range. As she knows that I have singled out Harry Styles as my one and only, she bought me his colours. This means that I have the “Fuschia Frenzy” nail varnish, Harry Loves Strawberry lip polish, and “Be Mine” lipstick. Now I knew that I wanted these products (I love makeup and I love 1D, of course I wanted them), but I’ll be honest, I didn’t have very high expectations for the quality. MUA, in my opinion, used to be a bit rubbish. Although recently they have seriously stepped it up, I will admit. I have had some really good pieces from them, and I know that Sam loves their heaven and earth palette. For such a reasonably priced brand, you can’t really complain.

So anyway, after receiving these from S, I was tres excited to try them out. I dived straight in with the lipstick. The packaging is nice enough. They all say kiss you on the outside, a cute little merger of a 1D reference and obviously, lips. The lid stays on, which is majorly important for me, and the bottom of the packaging is clear, so you can see what shade the lipstick is. It’s cute, and serves it’s purpose. “Be Mine” is actually a really nice shade. In the packaging, it looks a dark, cherry shade, but when applied it’s actually a very pretty, strawberry kind of red. Not matte, but not glitter overload. It has a shine to it, but you could apply a gloss on top if you wanted a different kind of finish. This product is impressively highly pigmented, and is lovely to apply. I’ve tried it with a lip liner and without and was pleased with it’s staying power. Overall, I really like this product. (And I think it’s so cute that Harry’s signature is on it, awh).

On to the lip polish. Now, I know that me and Harry are destined to be together because I love strawberry too! Coincidence or what? I am a big fan of lipgloss. I love the shine it tends to give, as well as the fact that I don’t always have a mirror to hand which makes applying proper lipstick a risky business. At least with lipgloss I know I can’t go far wrong,. The packaging of this polish is actually really cute. It’s fairly flat, which means it fits well in my makeup bag. It doesn’t look exactly high end, but I’m fine with that. It lids are coloured pretty much the same as the actual gloss, so that you can see what shade it is straight away. And, of course, the boys have their lovely signatures on top. The lids twist off, which is great for making it secure (is there anything worse than ending up with lipstick all over your bag? I think not). Now, the first thing I noticed about this product, the second I had untwisted the lid, was the smell. Harry Loves Strawberry smells amaaaazing. Like strawberries, weirdly. But it isn’t sickly or overpowering. It’s strawberryish in a lovely subtle kind of way and I like it a lot. I applied this product with my fingers. I didn’t need a lot, and it literally glided on. What I liked was that it didn’t make my lips feel too sticky, and it actually stayed on really well. The colour showed up a lovely baby pink. My lips felt extremely kissable (hint hint, come on H).

Finally, came the ultimate test. You lot will probably know by now that I love to have my nails painted, and therefore am a huge fan of nail polishes. However, for some reason, every kind of polish that I put on my nails seems to chip within a matter of hours. I’m pretty critical of nail polishes, I don’t mind admitting. A lot of them, I think are rubbish. So to me, I’d saved the most interesting (and potentially disappointing) until last. My nails are currently in a bit of a sorry state. I recently had acrylics, and although I absolutely loved them, they didn’t last very well at all. I had to take them off and now my real nails are all short and sad. This means that I have the perfect excuse to paint them, and make them look a bit more presentable. Cue time to try out “Fuschia Frenzy”. Again, the packaging of this is quite nice. The bottle is a decent size, and all clear glass so you can see the exact colour that the product is. Plus it has a cutesy little plectrum of Harry’s face, attached, always a winner in my book. On opening the bottle, I had a look at the brush. Let’s be honest, a lot of brushes that come in nail varnishes are utter crap. They’re cheaply made, the bristles come off and end up stuck in your polish, or they just don’t apply smoothly at all. I was very impressed with this brush. A lot of product came out with one dip, enough to paint several nails. This was so easy to put on, I couldn’t believe it. Not much product was needed at all, due to the pigmentation and consistency of the polish. I applied two coats, more for peace of mind than anything else. Habit, I suppose. These both dried in record time. And, as of yet, they have not chipped. So weirdly ,the product I expected to be the least impressive, has been my favourite. Thanks, Harry! And thanks to S for my perfect birthday presents. Love you, kid.

B xxo

Nars Sheer Glow

Hi guys! Let me please start of by saying I’m really sorry for the lack of blogging on my part lately…It’s been a crazy few weeks! What with starting a new job and some other things going on I’ve barely had time to blink. But I’m back on this now, I promise. If I slip up again, no doubt Sam will let me know about it!

Right, now we’ve got that out of the way, let’s kick off with what we’re here for. Nars Sheer Glow. I had heard an awful lot about this product lately. As a big fan of youtubers Tanya Burr and Zoella, along with many more, there really has been no escape from people raving about how good Sheer Glow is. I, of course, made a mental note to look into this more. And the more I heard about it, the more I wanted to try it out. I’ve never had a nars product before. As I’ve previously mentioned, I’ve only recently got back into high end makeup, so the whole Nars craze is new to me. I did a bit of research online, and found out that contrary to what I thought, there actually is a Nars counter not far from me. This, of course, is extremely dangerous (sorry, bank balance!). So when I went into the Harvey Nichols Beauty Bazaar, I made a beeline straight for Nars. My intention was to just have a little look around, get a feel for it all, and enquire about samples. This didn’t exactly pan out.

Everything on their counter looked sooo beautiful, and the sales assistant was super lovely. She told me that the only way they could give me a little sample would be if I took my only little bottle in for them to give me some. Not knowing this, I obviously didn’t have a sample bottle with me. I asked the lovely sales assistant about colour matching, and she told me that she could match me then, and try it out on me if I wanted. This was when the real trouble started. The lady told me that at Nars, they don’t tell you what shade to wear, it’s all about what you actually want to wear. If you don’t know anything about Nars: they split their foundation shades into 4 catagories. So the lady sat me down and showed me a card with the 4 colour categories on it, and asked me which one I thought would best suite me. I originally said number 2, so she showed me all of the colours in that group. I looked at the lightest shade, but when the sales assistant put it on my skin, we both agreed this was too dark, and ended up in the lightest category. I asked to look at mont blanc (I believe this is the shade that Zoella uses).

The lady tried it on my forehead – and I can honestly say that I have never had such a good colour match, in any make of foundation. She applied it to a large area of my forehead, and powdered it for me. Of course, I fell in love with it straight away. Yes, I did end up buying it there and then, oops! It must be said, I didn’t take much persuading. My experience at the nars counter was really lovely. The sales assistant was so helpful and I came out of there feeling like I’d bought the perfect product. Since then, I have used the foundation, a lot. It is amazing. Definitely the best foundation I have ever had. It is so so nice to finally have a foundation that is the right colour for my skin. As someone with combination skin, I admit that I was worried about how the “glow” element would sit with my skin. I had no need to be. The lady at Nars said they recommend the foundation be applied with fingers. This, of course, depends on what kind of finish you would like. I tend to put it on  my skin with my fingers, and then use a real techniques expert face brush to blend it in. Using small, circular motions with this brush gives an absolutely flawless finish.

This foundation really does apply so nicely. You don’t need a lot of product (always good when something is £30.50!) The finish is really beautiful. It really does make your skin look as though it is glowly. However, magically, it doesn’t make you look oily, and it sits really well on patches of your face that get oily anyway. I also have some dry areas and it glides over them really well. The staying power is also good. If you prime and powder it lasts all day with no need for top up. If you don’t prime and powder, it will still stay, but by 5pm the finish won’t be as gorgeous as when you left the house. I really cannot recommend this product enough. I absolutely love it, and there is no doubt in my mind that it is worth the high end price tag. Will definitely be repurchasing when I run out. Happy girl!

Waitrose Baby Bottom Butter

For those of you that missed the craze a few years ago, Baby Bottom Butter is a cream formulated by and sold in Waitrose. Although as the name suggests, it was originally formulated as a sort of barrier cream for nappy rash (not unlike sudocrem), it quickly strayed into the realm of being a must have face product. Being swept up in the craze (which is so unlike me...) I bought a couple of pots when I took a trip to see my brother in Newcastle, and then promptly left them gathering dust in the back of my wardrobe for the next couple of months. 

  When I finally got around to trying the cream, it quickly escalated into being one of my favourite beauty essentials. The texture of the cream is really odd, but not necessarily in a bad way. It doesn't come out smooth but instead more like some primers that I've used in the past, slightly thicker than other creams that I've used, and not as glossy. This does mean that you barely need to use any each time though, making the £2.89 for 125ml price tag more than reasonable (read: bargain). One tub can literally last months, even if you're applying it twice a day like I sometimes do. Although I have used it for most parts of my body, I've found that even when my hands are completely chapped in the middle of winter the cream can take a while to absorb and it does leave greasy finger marks wherever I put my hands, having said that it does work perfectly for a sort of intense relief if you smother your hands in it and then wear cotton gloves to bed, and it does make the skin smooth as , well... a baby's bottom.   
Although I have used it on my legs and arms, I tend to stick to my face with this cream, and I stand by it being one of the only products in my make-up bag that I'm truly loyal to. I was worried about putting this on my face, I'll admit, being that I have fairly oily skin, but I found that it works perfectly as long as I use as little as possible whilst still covering my entire face. Even better, it makes the perfect primer! I've found the tiniest layer underneath my foundation can keep my make-up in place perfectly even when I'm at work for the day, plus I've also found you can use it in the place of cold cream (if you're that way inclined) to take off your make-up at the end of the day (although be careful not to get it in your eyes because it really stings.)
The packaging is very simple, as you would expect from a product intended for mothers, yet very elegantly designed, as you would expect from Waitrose. The clear plastic allows you to see what is left, and the screw on lid makes the packaging seems secure even when travelling with it. All in all, it's the perfect product, exactly the right balance of luxury and affordability.   
Plus, last but not least, the cream both smells and looks like vanilla ice cream, hugely addictive!   
Sammy xo