Rimmel Stay Glossy Lipgloss | All Day Seduction and Fuchsia Fever

I've had these Rimmel Stay Glossy Lipglosses in my collection for a little while now, where for some unknown reason they have remained untouched...until recently.

I just realised how dramatic I made that sound...don't get too excited, I'm only going to do a review for you! After expecting very little from these lipglosses, I actually really am impressed.

Top-bottom: Fuchsia Fever, All Day Seduction

Let me start off by saying how much I love the packaging; I love the transparency of the plastic (which for me, is a must for lipgloss) as well as the overly shiny lid. The plastic is really nice and sturdy, and I would imagine would need some serious mistreatment before showing signs of any cracks or leaks.

L-R: Fuchsia Fever, All Day Seduction

All Day Seduction is a lovely peachy shade with gold flecks of glitter. It is well pigmented, providing a gorgeous everyday sheen to your lips. Fuchsia Fever is a strongly pigmented deep pink (deeper than the images suggest); genuinely the most beautiful shade of pink I own in a lip product. Unlike All Day Seduction, it is simply a glossy shade; no glitter involved. I actually think this particular shade would look a bit OTT with glitter flecks on top, so Rimmel were definitely ahead of the game on that one.

Top-bottom: All Day Seduction, Fuchsia Fever

The lipglosses have a great consistency and aren't at all sticky...until your hair gets involved, that is.

When will I ever learn not to wear lipgloss with my hair down?!

Dry lips aren't an issue with this lipgloss either. Whilst it doesn't moisturise the lips, it doesn't worsen dry lips either.

Rimmel claim that this lipgloss stays put for up to 6 hours. 6 hours may be a little far fetched (unless you're planning on not eating, drinking, talking or in fact breathing), but it does have pretty good lasting power, and I didn't need to reapply for a good couple of hours.

Overall, these are such easy lipglosses to wear that I'm happy to admit they are my new go-to lipglosses; particularly All Day Seduction.

The Rimmel Stay Glossy Lipglosses retail at £6.29 in Boots and Superdrug.

However they are also for sale at Fragrance Direct for just £1.99!

Have you tried the Rimmel Stay Glossy Lipglosses?

Love,

Jo xx

Battle of the BB's | 17 Blemish Balm vs. Maybelline Dream Fresh BB

With the warmer weather we've been having recently here in the UK, I've been reaching for BB creams over foundation for a lighter, barely-there coverage. The two I have been trialling are 17's BB Blemish Balm and Maybelline's Dream Fresh BB; cue the battle of the BB's!

17 BB Blemish Balm in Medium

The 17 packaging is really nice and simple (I know it has been altered more recently, but the difference is minimal), and the product dispenses nicely, without spontaneously leaking out of the nozzle; always a plus for obvious reasons. 

On application it felt lovely, fresh and light on my face. Literally just what you need in the hot weather and in my opinion, perfect if you're jetting off on holiday and don't want to feel caked in makeup.

It blends in really easily to provide an even coverage over blotchy skin, but definitely needs a little help from concealer for covering up those pesky spots.

Overall though, a really pleasant, easy and light product to wear. Definitely gets the thumbs up from me!

Maybelline Dream Fresh BB in Universal Glow

Although this Maybelline packaging is easy on the eye, unfortunately the product is so thin and watery that it just seems to leak out into the lid, which is near impossible to avoid and also means that you always dispense way more of the product than you actually need.

Please take that as a word of warning, I can imagine there have been many mishaps involving this BB!

As this shade is called 'Universal Glow', I expected a nice muted, natural colour.

Boy was I wrong.

It's an extremely frightening looking shade of orange (which I've added a picture of below for reference; g'ah!). Because of this, I found it difficult to blend evenly, and it took more effort than I would have liked to get my face to a normal colour. However, when I did finally get to that stage, my skin did actually look quite naturally tanned.

Although it feels quite light once blended, like the 17 BB it isn't great at covering blemishes and needs a little help from a spot or two of concealer.

Overall I haven't really got on with this product too well. Although it does eventually blend in, I don't feel all that comfortable applying such a pigmented and awkward product. It also has a really unusual, strong smell that I can't put my finger on exactly, but slightly resembles gone off fake tan.

Sorry Maybelline, but this really isn't one of my favourites from you guys!

I think it's obvious who wins this battle.

 17 Blemish Balm BB Cream can be purchased here from Boots for £6.99

Maybelline Dream Fresh BB can also be found in Boots for £7.99 here

What's your favourite BB cream?

Love,

Jo xx

Collective Haul | Includes Zara, Boots and Mally

Wow, what a busy year third year is! I have been working hard at placement whilst also juggling uni lectures and my dissertation, but lets face it, us girls can always find the time to do a spot of shopping. So I thought I'd show you what I've been buying of late. Hope you enjoy!

First up, I mentioned a while back that I won a £25 Zara voucher from Twitter. Well, having my nearest Zara store quite far away I have only just broken into the voucher, so here are my first couple of purchases with it. Thankfully I still have a tenner of it left after a nice surprise at the checkout!

Baggy t-shirt* | Zara | £15.99 £5.99

I'm in desperate need of some new t-shirts so this is great and really comfy for lazier days, and is long enough to cover your bum and wear with leggings.

Dark blue trousers* | Zara | £35.99 £9.99

These were marked as £22.99 but were £9.99 at the till, don't you just love it when that happens?! They were really hard to photograph and they do just look like jeans on here, but they are lovely dark blue skinny trousers that give a smarter look than jeans. I especially love the gold zips on the legs!

Jumper | Oasis at Debenhams | £40 £15

Another bargain, this is actually a nice deep aubergine purple (again difficult to photograph) and has sparkly thread intertwined. It also has a dipped hem at the back.

M. Asam Aqua Intense Face Toner | TK Maxx | £11.35 £3.99

Max Factor Kohl Eye Liner Pencil | Boots| £4.99 £2.49

Max Factor False Lash Effect Mascara | Boots | £10.99

I bought the Max Factor products when there was an offer for buy one get one half price. I have repurchased the mascara about four times now and it is my absolute favourite.

17 lipstick in Belle | this eBay seller | £2.40

This was recommended to me by Mollie a while back after I mentioned I was looking for a 'your-lips-but-better' lippy shade. So far so good!

Last but certainly not least is this amazing selection of Mally makeup my auntie gave to me! I am SO excited to try all this out, as I've never tried anything from Mally before!

The selection includes:

3 x cute metallic Mally gift bags and the gorgeous box

1 x 24/7 Illuminating Blush in Deep

3 x High-Shine Liquid Lipstick Pens in (top-bottom) Punch, Raspberry and Peach Sorbet

3 x Age Rebel Eyeshadow stick in Jade, Sugar and Burnished Violet

1 x Shaded Liquid Face Defender Foundation in Tan

1 x Face Defender Blush in Pink Perfection

1 x Double Ended Concealer Brush

1 x Champneys Ultra Shine Lip Gloss in Rose

Amazing selection! If there's any particular product you'd like me to review please let me know in the comments. As you probably know, I'm so busy at the moment so I'm not sure how long it will take me to start getting some of these reviews done (sorryyy!).

Have you tried any Mally products before?

What have you been buying recently?

Jo xx

Enrapture Encode Totem Styler

The amount of curling tongs I have had over the years is ridiculous to say the least. The vast majority have been hopeless, often creating curls too tight for what I was after, then falling out not much more than an hour later. This resulted in me buying about 4 different tongs to try before finally admitting defeat and sticking to velcro rollers.

 

So when I was contacted asking if I would like to review the Enrapture Encode Totem Styler*, I was delighted and agreed to give them a whirl. After previously having read plenty of reviews and hearing of Enrapture's celebrity fan base, with numerous having sported the look on the red carpet, it's only fair to admit I was a wee bit excited.
 



 

On receiving the curlers, it was about 2 days or so before I could actually bring myself to remove them from the box. They were presented in an absolutely beautiful kind of royal/electric blue coloured box with a matte sheen, so difficult to describe and photograph, but I couldn't not give this a mention.

 

These curling tongs are completely different to any I have tried before.

There are three individual sections to the barrel itself which can each be set at different temperatures, creating different effects down the length of the curl.

This means that it can be used to create tight curls (using the setting 3-3-3), loose curls (1-1-1), or anything in between.

 

It's such a simple yet ingenious concept.

 



 

They heat up in no time, and are literally so easy to use.

After having a proper play around with them, I decided on 1-2-1 as my favourite setting.

I tried using different techniques on both straightened and natural hair, and as you can see from the images below this gave two completely different looks.

In fact, the outcome is never the same with these tongs, which I like!

 

The size of the curl will not only depend on the heat settings you select, but also on the width of each section of hair you wrap around, as well as the length of time you keep the curler in place.

 

 

My favourite look: I first straightened my hair, then curled the ends using the 1-2-1 heat setting, which created this nice relaxed wave



Again using the 1-2-1 setting, this time I clipped my naturally wavy hair into sections to curl it more thoroughly (please excuse the pyjamas!)

So as you can see, you can pretty much create a ridiculous amount of different styles.

 

Overall I'm hooked, I'd seriously recommend these curlers! They left my hair looking and feeling really soft and shiny, and guess what...the curls actually lasted! (With a lot of hairspray I might add, I haven't been brave enough to go without yet...)

 

 

The Enrapture Encode Totem Styler retails for £74.99 and can be purchased from various retailers, however Boots currently have a fantastic offer on: if you purchase the styler online here and enter the code 'TOTEM' at the checkout, you can get them for a mere £29.99!!

 

 

So if these take your fancy, now is definitely the time to invest. I've never seen them sold at such huge discount, plus they come with a three year guarantee! I'm not sure how long the offer is running for, so as a word of warning I would be snappy!

 

Let me know if you decide to get some!

 

Jo xx 

 

Collective Haul | Boots, Superdrug and Bodycare

So I planned on going into Boots just to stock up on the essentials.

Did I stick to my plan? Did I heck.

I then continued on into Bodycare and Superdrug to buy a couple more not-so-essentials.

As is life, eh?

Not the most exciting of hauls, but I'm a student, what can I say.

First up, the goodies from Boots and Superdrug:

Good Things Face the Day moisturiser, £7.99, and Fresh Start creamy cleanser, £4.99

I'm a bit confused seeing as when I bought these they were both discounted (can't remember how much I paid exactly) rather than on 3 for 2 offer as listed on the website?

Anyway, these have worked absolute wonders on my skin since I started using them so these are my back ups - I don't want another mascara incident!

Maybelline Dream Satin Liquid foundation in Nude, £7.99, Dream Smooth primer, £8.99 and Dream Touch Lumi concealer, £6.99 free!

I actually only needed the foundation, but seeing as they were on 3 for 2 I thought I'd also give the primer and concealer a go. I must say, so far I'm impressed!

MUA lipstick in shade 8, £1, and Undressed pallette, £3

Neither of these were necessary. But I am a bit of a lipstick phobic and can never figure out which colours and shades would suit my skin tone, and which would look ridiculous. The price tag of these lippys means I can have a play around with different colours for next to nothing!

And with not being able to justify the price tag of the beautiful Urban Decay Naked pallette, it is kind of necessary that I own MUA undressed instead.

My teeny tiny Bodycare haul:

Facial wipes, £1 per packet, Osiris exfoliating facial scrub, £1, and Rimmel Wake Me Up foundation in soft beige, £5.99

Pretty boring stuff, but I have been after adding a facial scrub to my weekly routine to see if it makes much difference to my skin, so I thought I'd try this one out for starters and see how it goes.

After seeing the Wake Me Up hype sweep across the blogosphere, I literally could not resist picking it up at such a bargain price.

Am I converted?

I have used it twice and I can already safely say that my brand spanking new bottle of Dream Satin Liquid is going straight down the drain. Well, straight on eBay.

I love this stuff!

So there we have it. I've got to say, writing this post up has made me feel a lot less guilty about my unnecessary little haul. It doesn't look as much on paper. Phew!

Thanks for reading,

Jo xo