Avon True Colour 6 in 1 Eye Pallette | Glamour Eyes

I'm not sure if it's just me, but Avon is a brand that confuses me a little.

It's so hugely famous yet I never seem to hear much about them at all, if that makes any sense?

Let's take the blogging world for example.

Maybe I'm just not following enough blogs (I'll take that as a good enough excuse to follow even more), or maybe I'm just plain stupid and have completely overlooked/ignored all of their Avon reviews (definitely the more likely option), but I've barely heard a peep about Avon in the year or so I have been reading beauty blogs.

However, after trying out this eye pallette, it baffles me a little as to why this is!

First off, the packaging is nice and sturdy (you can see from the picture above it has survived a bit of battering already!) with a really generously sized mirror.

I must admit, when I first opened it up I found the shades a little uninspiring.

I'm not sure why this is, because they actually come across really nicely in the picture, I think it's just that I don't usually wear purple shades on my eyes so I wasn't really sure how/when I was going to use them.

(If you're asking yourself why I got it, it was given to me by my Auntie amongst a selection of other goodies as seen in my previous haul post here).

However, once I had done a few swatches and had a bit of a play about with the colours I was actually really pleasantly surprised. Each shade has great pigmentation and a really lovely subtle shimmer, particularly the lighter colours which I think are my favourite.

The darker shades are a great tool for smoky eyes as they are really easy to blend out. Each colour compliments the other beautifully and they all have really great lasting power without creasing, the only downside being a little bit of fall out during application.

Overall I was really pleasantly surprised by this little pallette...I kind of feel a bit bad for ignoring all of Avon's products for so long!

The Avon True Colour 6 in 1 eye pallette can be purchased here for £7 reduced from £11

Have you tried many Avon products?

Thanks for reading,

Jo xx



Laura Geller | Blush-n-Brighten blusher and Baked Marble Eyeshadow

So following on from my little make up haul here, a good few of you mentioned that you'd be interested in seeing reviews of the Laura Geller products.

Your wish is my command!

L-R: Laura Geller Baked Marble eyeshadow in Moonstone/Blue Heaven, and Laura Geller Blush-n-Brighten in Berry

I love the packaging of these products, namely the little plastic window that allows you a cheeky peek into the pan. How enticing...particularly when the products look so beautiful in the pan! The pots are really sturdy and I love the globular shape of the eyeshadow. The mirrors are also really quite generously sized.

So let's start off with the eyeshadows. In the pan, they have a lovely swirl of silver throughout, which gives the eyeshadows their shimmer applied to the skin.

They have great pigmentation and a really luxurious, silky smooth texture.



Unfortunately the above swatches don't do the shades much justice, but they are actually really lovely bright shades, particularly the blue which is a really vibrant colour. The eyeshadows last well and have minimal fallout. Overall a lovely little pallette.

Laura Geller Baked Marble Eyeshadow in Moonstone/Blue Heaven can be bought on the Laura Geller website for around £17 here. 

Next up is the Laura Geller Blush-n-Brighten blusher in Berry.



Again, this looks absolutely stunning in the pan, although I was quite worried about the amount of shimmer in the powder! I had mental images of me looking like something out of Twilight, with cheeks so shiny you could use them as a mirror.



However the shimmer is actually really lovely and subtle. I am usually a lover of matte colour on my cheeks, but I actually can imagine myself wearing this quite a lot during the summer months, as it makes your skin look lovely and healthy.

This particular shade is quite dark and probably best suited to olive toned skin, but again it lasted me the whole day with no problems. It definitely needs to be applied in light layers as it builds up really quickly (as I found on my first attempt when I was in a rush for work).

Laura Geller Blush-n-Brighten blusher in Berry can be bought here for around £19.50.

Have you tried any Laura Geller products?

Do you think they're worth their price tags?

Hope you've all had a good weekend. Last night I went to a 21st which was a fancy dress dressed as Lara Croft! My mum and I had spent ages making gun holsters to go round my legs and getting the outfit together but unfortunately a handful of people were asking me why I was dressed as Rambo.

So as you can probably imagine I wasn't very enthralled and kept going back to the bar for more G&T's to take me past the point of caring. It worked, trust me!

I spent this morning nursing myself back to health with a bacon and egg butty and a few brews. Good as new now! I also have this week off uni and placement so that I can tackle the stack of work that I keep adding to at my desk. Wish me luck!

Thanks for reading,

Jo xx

Ted Baker | The Lookbook of Love

Please note before reading: this exact Lookbook is no longer available on the Boots website; there is a newer set available containing different colour combinations (but which is otherwise identical to the one I have reviewed).

This review is therefore more for the quality of the contents - please see end of post for further details.

So a few months back, my mum received the Ted Baker Look Book of Love as a gift from one of her friends. Not being a huge makeup fan, she gave it to me to have a bit of a play about with.

The set is beautifully presented in a sturdy almost geometric-patterned box and secured with a pretty stretch band. It includes three seperate lookbooks; Day, Night and Party.



Each book contains two eyeshadows, two lipglosses, a blusher or bronzer, three application brushes (which as far as freebie application brushes go aren't actually that drastic) and a handy little mirror.



L-R: both eyeshadows, both lipglosses and the blusher

The daytime Lookbook is by far my favourite of the three. The colours are really natural and the eyeshadows are so easy to blend, each colour compliments the other beautifully.



L-R: both eyeshadows, both lipglosses and the bronzer

Now with both the Night and the Party book I have to admit I'm not a huge fan of the eyeshadow colour combinations. The differences in colour between the eyeshadows are so small (i.e. both eyeshadows are so dark) that it just looks like one block colour when blended on the eyelids, making my eyes look really closed off.

I will definitely be using these eyeshadows seperately and with lighter shades.



L-R: both eyeshadows, both lipglosses and the bronzer

The eyeshadows and blushers aren't as pigmented as you may expect and do need building up, however once applied they will last throughout the day or night.

The lipglosses however do have great pigmentation without being at all sticky or heavy on the lips. I particularly love the party lip shades: hot pink shade and transparent gloss with pink speckles of glitter.

Overall this would make a lovely little Christmas or birthday gift which I would perhaps buy for a younger sister or friend. Once swatched and used, something about this set makes me think that it is well suited to younger teenagers although I can't quite put my finger on what!

I can only find this exact Lookbook on eBay's private listings here , however

Boots are now selling a newer set, Ted Baker: Ready For My Close Up Look-Book

which appears to have much better colour combinations than The LookBook of Love.

This retails for £16

Thanks for reading,

Jo xx



All Things Beautiful | Natural Eye Makeup Challenge

A few weeks ago, the lovely Beth over on All Things Beautiful posted up her idea of an eye makeup challenge.

The idea is that every other day there is an eye makeup theme and you can submit your interpretation of that theme to be featured on her blog.

The full set of rules can be found here, and the themes are as follows:

Now, I was pretty keen to get stuck into my new MUA Undressed pallette, but being a bit rubbish at eye makeup I thought I would just have bit of a go at one of the simpler themes.

So here is my version of Day 1 - Something Natural.

Stupidly I decided to do this just as it was starting to get dark, so by the time I'd finished I was struggling for daylight to take the pictures.
Idiot.

I used shades 2, 6 and 7 from the MUA undressed pallette to achieve this look.

What do you think?
Will you be giving Beth's challenge a go?

Thanks for reading,
Jo xo

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