OOTD: Buffy

Hey everyone! Man, I'm going to be glad when this coming is week is over. University is keeping me really busy right now but it's nice to be able to take the time to write a blog post. It can be difficult sometimes balancing work and your outside interests but I'm trying my best to do it! 

Anyway, today I have a little outfit post for you featuring my favourite new t-shirt!

What I'm Wearing:

Levi's Denim Jacket - Vintage

Check Shirt - Newlook | £19.99

Buffy T-Shirt - Redbubble | £22.19

Ripped Jeans - Topshop | £38.00

Converse - Schuh | £45.00

My Little Box: April 2015

Well, it's been a while hasn't it? My apologies - as you probably all know by now, I'm a Uni student and sometimes I get pretty swamped with assignments and deadlines. This past week has been one of those weeks in which I've basically been doing work non-stop - the joys! Anyway, I'm back and today I'm doing something a little different - an unboxing of sorts.

I've always wanted to subscribe to a good beauty box - I've tried Glossy Box and was not impressed at all but I've still been on the search for a good one. I've seen 'My Little Box' a lot on other peoples blogs and so decided to check out their site. My Little Box is described as:

"A handpicked and beautifully designed box of fashion, beauty and lifestyle surprises. With accessories, products and other goodies created exclusively for you and based around a different them every month, each box promise to delight the lucky recipient - be it you or a friend."

So, after checking out their site, I decided to go ahead and order my first box which was for the month of April. The theme of this months box was Dreams. Upon getting my box in the mail and checking it out I was instantly in love with its design and packaging. It feels and looks very cute, girly and most of all, like someone has put a lot of effort into it which I am a fan of.

Anyway, lets get into the box now. The first thing I saw in this box was a super cute piece of paper with an inspiring quote on it from Walt Disney. On the back, it encourages you to send yourself an email about your goals which via their website you will receive in exactly one years time. I feel like this is a really cute and fun little task you can do for yourself and the piece of paper will look great in a frame or just stuck somewhere on your wall for you to see! Under the paper was the 'My Little World' magazine that I believe always accompanies these boxes. It has some interesting tutorials, interviews as well as a little note area for you to write down your dreams for the month.

Underneath those two was the actual contents and items within the box - kept together neatly with a cute little bow. The first items I received were in a lovely little envelope-type container illustrated beautifully by My Little Box's own artist known as 'Kamako'. 

Within the container was an adorable stamp set with all sorts of awesome sayings and phrases on it - this is a great little piece to decorate your notebooks and diaries with and I think it will look really cute on display too. (I feel like I'm going to be saying cute a lot in regards to this box).

Rotating Stamp Set - £8.00, mylittlecorner.fr

I also received a little pendant necklance from the French designer Delphine Pariente as well as a 20% discount for her boutique items.

'Bonnie Etoile' Necklace - £20.00, Delphine Pariente

Next, in a little draw string bag (which you can totally re-use for something else) were the rest of items I received as well a card that tells you the price and information about your products. Firstly, there was a 100ml sized bottle containing a hair mask - this mask is from My Little Box's own beauty range; My Little Beauty. It has walnut oil and shea butter and is a repairing mask for dry and damaged hair.

 I also received a roll on, solid perfume from the brand Sabe Masson. Made in France, this perfume is non-alcholic and made from natural ingredients. The scent I got, 'Copacobana' is very fresh and pleasant - a lovely day time fragrance.

I also received a tinted Lip Balm from the Loved By range - it has a subtle, natural red tint to it which makes it perfect to apply on the go and keep in your bag at all times!

Sabe Masson Solid Perfume - £15.00, www.sabemasson.com/en/magasins
My Little Beauty's Repairing Mask for Dry Ends - £7.00, mylittlecorner.fr
Lip Balm Loved by Lou Lesage, £8.00, mylittlecorner.com

And that was everything for the contents of this months My Little Box! Overall, I'm really impressed with the box - the items themselves totalled £58 in their individual worth with the box itself only costing me £11 plus p&p! 

Not only that, I really love the unique packaging and the time taken to make the box about more than just the products - encouraging us to take part in cute little tasks as well as take part in their tutorials and DIY's.

 I think this is really lovely subscription service and I'm very impressed with how everything is put together and given to you - it's unique and I love the fact that a lot of the products are from France meaning a lot of the stuff are things we cannot easily get here in the UK. This is a service I think I'll definitely be continuing and I look forward to next month!

Are you subscribed to any monthly box's? If so, which ones?!

REVIEW: Milani Baked Blush in Dolce Pink

Hey everyone! I hope you're all having a good weekend so far. Today, I'm going to be reviewing a Milani blush for you all which is in the shade 'Dolce Pink'. Milani is an American brand and so is not readily available in the UK, I've found it a couple of times in pound shops such as Poundland but predominantly, I get Milani from Amazon. I love their lipsticks and this particular blush is my second one in their baked blush range.

Packaging:

I really like the packaging of Milani's products from their lipsticks to these blushes. I love the rose gold and I feel that it gives their products that higher end feel. It's always nice to have makeup that looks good too and it's nice to know this is something they have considered in their design.

This blush also comes with a mirror and a handy brush in it's third layer which makes it great for travel and on the go touch ups!

Colour and Pigmentation:

As I mentioned earlier, the shade of this blush is called 'Dolce Pink' and it is a beautiful, medium pink shade with gold shimmer running through it.

 It is a very shimmery blush so for some, this may be off putting - however, on the skin I feel it gives a sheen rather than making you look like a glitter ball and so I think this makes it a great Summer shade for that glowy look. 

This blush has great colour payoff and as I said gives a really nice sheen to the skin - perfect for Summer and is comparable to a MAC Mineralize blush or even Skin Finish. I also think it's a pretty good dupe for NARS' infamous Orgasm blush, too. Dolce Pink is nicely pigmented and gives a good colour payoff.

Application and Wear:

I find this blush applies smoothly which is something I have found more often with baked formulas. I also found that it blends nicely on the skin too and it feels soft and smooth. In terms of wear, this lasts a good few hours (5-6) before any noticeable fading which I think is pretty good for a blush. Though I have not tried them myself, I can tell you that from my research many have said these are comparable in the look and feel of the MAC Mineralize range so if they are a little too pricey for you, Milani baked blushes may be a good alternative!

Overall, I really like this blush and I feel like it's a perfect shade for Summer. On my paler skin, I find it to be really flattering and it gives a lovely glow. I feel as if this shade is very versatile too and will go with a whole host of different looks. I'd definitely recommend it and as a drugstore brand in America, Milani blushes are also very reasonable in price too so you can't really go wrong.

I got this blush from Amazon for £4.49 and you can find it on sale here. 

BEAUTY HAUL ft: Eyeko, Beauty UK, NYX and more!

Hey everyone! i hope you've all had an awesome week. Mine has been a little busy - but I've been keeping it that way on purpose. I've been trying to make my spare days as productive as I've can so I've been doing a lot of Uni work as well as preparing for a big placement interview I've got coming up. I'm pretty nervous about it as sometimes, I can feel pretty scared when interacting with people in a situation like that - it's something i'm trying to work on and I'm determined to give it my best shot and if all ends badly, at least use it as some useful experience for next time! Wish me luck, eh?

Anyway, in this post I'm sharing a little haul of a few things that I have gathered in the last 2 weeks. They are mostly beauty products (shocking I know) as well as new fragrance that I picked up! All of these products are ones I have never tried before so expect reviews soon!

One of the things I am particularly excited about is this beautiful L'Oreal eyeshadow from their Color Riche Monos collection. It is in the shade 601 'Rising Sun' - in their 'chameleon' finish which gives it this beautiful pearlescent finish that looks different colours in the light. I was suggested this by my beautiful friend Tanith (who by the way has an awesome blog you should totally check out here) whilst we did a little makeup shopping and so far, I love it!

Nina Ricci Nina: Eau De Toilette 30ml - £30.00
L'oreal Colour Riche Mono Eyeshadow in '601 Rising Sun' - £5.49
Milani Baked Blush in 'Dolce Pink' - £4.49
NYX Yellow Concealer - £7.99
Eyeko Lash Curler - FREE in the latest issue of Instyle!
Beauty UK Hi-Brow Kit - £3.99

That's pretty much it for my haul today, I hope you enjoyed this post and as always, thank you so much for reading!

First Impressions: Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette!

Hi everyone! Today I'm pretty excited as I'm going to be sharing with you a palette that I have been lusting over for the longest time - yes, it's Too Faced's Chocolate Bar palette! I am so happy to finally have this palette and in todays post, I thought I'd tell you more about it as well share my first impressions. 

Now, this palette is highly coveted in the beauty world so I'm sure you've heard of it before. If not, here's a few facts about it:

1. The Chocolate Bar Palette contains 16 shadows ranging in both matte and shimmer finishes.

2. The shadows are made with the 'anti-oxidant rich' cocoa powder which you can smell as soon as opening the palette.

3. As with every palette, this one comes with Too Faced's Glamour Guide highlighting 3 looks of many that you can create.

4. All shades were completely new to this palette and to Too Faced's shadow collection.

The Shades:

Guilded Ganache: A dark chocolate brown with warm undertones. Shimmer finish.

White Chocolate: Warm, pale beige highlight colour. Matte finish.

Milk Chocolate: Mid, chocolate brown. Matte finish.

Black Forest Truffle: Burgungy-brown with burgundy & bronze shimmer. 

Triple Fudge: Deep brown shade with warm(ish) undertones. Matte finish.

Salted Caramel: Medium orange with brown running through it. Matte finish.

Marzipan: Warm, peachy orange. Frost finish.

Semi-Sweet: Medium dark brown with red undertones. Matte finish.

Strawberry Bon Bon: Cool toned, soft light pink. Matte finish.

Candied Violet: Smokey, cool toned violet shade with multi coloured shimmer.

Amaretto: Warm, medium brown with red tones and frost finish.

Hazlenut: Medium, golden bronze shade. Frost finish.

Creme Brûlée: Darkened gold with warm undertones. Metallic finish.

Haute Chocolate: Dark chocolate brown. Frost finish.

Cherry Cordial: Warm, plum-brown with flecks of sparkle. Shimmer/Matte finish.

Champagne Truffle: Bright, pinkish-white shade with a golden sheen. Metallic finish.

First Impressions:

The very first thing that I noticed about this palette is it's packaging. I love Too Faced packaging because I think it's creative, very cute and very girly - this palette is no exception and I think it's really nice to look at and have on display. Keeping to it's chocolate theme, the palette itself is shaped like a chocolate bar and I just think this is a cute, novel touch to it's overall design. One thing that I find a little annoying about the packaging however, is that the shadow names are not printed onto the palette itself and you get instead, a plastic transparent sheet with them on. For a more expensive palette, I would have liked them to be on the palette itself - (something Too Faced did take into consideration with the second, 'Semi Sweet' Chocolate Bar palette).

When you open the palette, you can definitely smell the cocoa - it's not overpowering though in my opinion and I find it to be really pleasant. The smell stays during application, but you cannot smell it once it's on the eyes from my experience. The shadows I have used so far blend beautifully, many of them are soft and buttery and remind me of Urban Decay shadows. There's little to no fallout from these shadows and they aren't powdery or dry. 

Overall, I think this is a beautiful palette with some really versatile, wearable shades. 

There are plenty of neutral palettes on the market and I definitely have my fair share - however, this palette is a little edgier with darker browns and deeper shades and I therefore think depending on your collection, this could definitely have a place in it. I think this would be great for the girl who likes everyday looks but perhaps wants to be a little more adventurous. Either way, there's a lot you can do with this palette alone and in conjunction with others so I'd definitely recommend it.

 And of course, it smells great!

You can get the Too Faced Chocolate Bar palette from Debenhams in the UK for £39.00!

HOW TO: Easily Remove Spare Wax from Your Candle Jar!

Hey everyone!

 I'm quite the fan of simple life hacks to solve problems like storage or even just for decorative purposes to add that little touch to your home. For a long time, I've seen candle jars, jam jars and various other food storage containers used for a whole host of different uses. When you think about it, (with glass containers in particular) we are throwing away things that with a little work can actually be quite useful. 

I recently finished burning one of my jar candles - or rather, the wick ran out but the wax didn't. So, I was left with a wick-less candle and still quite a bit of wax left. I decided to clean out and use the jar and looked for a wax to easily remove the wax from it. In this post, I thought I'd share how I did that, what you can do with that spare wax and what to use your clean new jar for!

Removing the Wax:

I looked at several ways of doing this on Youtube and eventually found a technique that seemed pretty straightforward. Whilst I changed the technique a little, I still followed the basic idea. All you need is boiling water - just boil your kettle and fill up the jar with the water. You'll then notice little beads of wax rising up to the surface of the water and the idea is that all the wax will eventually rise to the top. Then, you just wait overnight for the wax to have set and the water to cool so you can simply pick it out!

It's a good technique when you think about it, but I had a little bit of trouble with this technique. Firstly, my water gradually cooled and so the wax wasn't really rising to the surface anymore. Secondly, I'm really quite impatient! I noticed that the hot water itself had actually dislodged the whole of the wax from the bottom anyway. So, what I did was grab something sharp like a knife (BE CAREFUL if you're doing this and if you're not an adult, get one to do it for you please!) and covered  the jar with an oven glove or folded up towel so I could touch it and I simply used the knife to stab and pull up the wax from the jar. It came out it practically one piece and I didn't have to wait for hours! Yay!  

Cleaning and Using the Jar:

Set aside your wax on a plate or a cool surface before cleaning the jar. You'll notice of course that some wax did rise to the top of the water so you'll need to spoon that out onto a plate - the wax will then cool and you can simply peal it off. Carefully, pour the remaining water down the sink and begin to clean the jar using warm water and soap! The wax should clean away easily from the jar and the heat of the water should allow for things like stickers and labels to peal away too!

Now, what exactly are you to do with your empty and clean jar? 

Well, it's really endless what you can use it for. Practically anything you can think of that will fit in that jar can be stored in it. For me, I chose to put hair bobbles and bobby pins in mine for easy access. Perhaps you could put your favourite lipsticks in it or maybe some some cotton pads or buds for easy access in your bathroom? You could even fill the jar with some decorate stones or marbles and use it to store your makeup brushes in.

Don't Forget that Wax...

Don't throw that wax away! Simply crumble it up into little pieces and just use it in a wax burner! Just as you place a wax tart or scented oils, you can do the same with your wax and place it on top of your burner for it to melt and make your room smell beautiful. This is a great way to really use up your candles and get the most out of them.

You can find a wax burner from all sorts of places such as home stores, supermarkets and even your local pound shop!

That's pretty much it for this post, really. I hope you found this post useful and interesting - let me know if you like this sort of thing and I'll put my DIY thinking cap on more often.

Thank you for reading!

REVIEW: Revlon Powder Blushes

Hey! In this post, I have a review for you on the Revlon Powder Blushes. I have two that I'll be reviewing for you, letting you know what I think of their packaging, pigment and application!

 Enjoy.

Packaging:

So, the packaging on these blushes are in my opinion really sleek looking. I feel that the design is simple yet sophisticated, giving it that higher end kind of look. 

I do however, feel like the packaging is a little deceiving as it does make it seem like you get more product than you actually do. This is because the bottom half of the packaging actually contains a small brush for application - though of course this is still quite a handy addition. 

Along with the brush, there is also a built in mirror inside the packaging which makes this blush great for travel as well as on the go touch ups!

Colour and Pigmentation:

Revlon has a good range of shades available in this blush collection ranging from rosy pinks to delicate peaches. The collection also has a great brown called 'Bronzilla' which I think is brilliant for warming up the skin as as well for a contour shade.

The colours that I have are Haute Pink - which is a beautiful, true pink shade and Racy Rose - which is a little more on the peachier side.

Both colours are nicely pigmented with good colour payoff on the skin. I think this range has a lot of shades for every skin tone - shades that are versatile and perfect for everyday wear. 

Application and Wear:

This blush applies nicely to the skin and blends well. It applies smoothy and cleanly and as I said earlier, has a really good colour payoff which is buildable, too. It has a satin finish and gives the cheeks a natural, flattering flush of colour, lasting well throughout the day.

Overall, I'm impressed with these Revlon blushes. At a more of a higher end price tag for a drugstore product at £7.99 a piece, they are definitely more expensive. However, they are still nonetheless a fraction of the price of blushes from brands such as MAC and Benefit and I think that they apply and look just as nice as they do. 

I'd definitely recommend these blushes - particularly if you're looking for a natural, everyday kind of blush for your makeup collection. You can purchase these blushes from any Revlon stockists such as Boots or Superdrug in the UK!

Small Haul! Ft. Yankee Candle, Boots & Lush!

What's up everyone? 

Today I have a really small haul that I want to share with you, enjoy!

Yankee Candle in Strawberry Buttercream (Medium Jar) - £12.74

Though it can definitely be said that I have more than enough of my fair share of Yankee candles stored away, I simply could not pass up on this offer. This particular fragrance of Yankee candle, 'Strawberry Buttercream' - (which just so happens to be my favourite) was on a 25% off sale. Therefore, I just HAD to buy it, right? Right.

Boots Multivitamins with Iron (30 Tablets) - £2.05

I'm attempting to make small steps into leading a healthier lifestyle; exercising when I can, drinking more water, eating better etc.. With that, I also thought that I'd try to take more vitamins and vital nutrients too. So, I bought some multi-vitamins from Boots which were on a 3 for 2 deal at the time, not bad.

Mavala 'That's My Colour' Trio - £6.50
(Bought at John Lewis on sale, may still be there if you
look soon!)

I've been getting into nail polish recently and came across this little trio from the brand Mavala whilst in John Lewis. This collection is part of the 'That's My Colour' campaign that the brand released which from reading the packaging was a campaign in which people could submit suggestions for colours they'd love to see in nail polish form. I thought this was a pretty cool idea and having never tried the brand (as well as the lovely sale price tag of £6.50), I decided to buy it!

Lush Butterball Bath Bomb - £2.65
Dream Time Bath Melt - £3.35

And finally, what shopping trip - big or small is complete without a trip to Lush? I decided as it had been a while to pop into the store and ended up buying to of my favourite bath treats. Firstly, I got Butterball which is a simple moisturising bath bomb with shea butter extracts. I then got Dream Time which is a really relaxing, lavender smelling bath melt.

So yeah, quite a small haul in today's post but I hope it interest you nonetheless! 

Thanks for reading as always.