KIEHL'S HAUL

 

Welcome back, long time no see. I want to share the products that i got on Black Friday with you. Talk about a belated haul - its been 4 weeks already. I was meaning to try out some Kiehl's products already from hearing only amazing things about it. I previously visited Kiehl's and got a few testers since i was looking for a new skincare routine.

 

 

Usually these three products would retail at the price of £74.50 all together but with the luxury of Black Friday it was 20% off meaning that it was £59.60. I got the Calendula Deep Cleansing Foaming Face Wash (£22 - 230 ml) which really helped me with getting rid of my blemishes quite fast. This has a gel formula that acivated with water to create foam. This is suited for normal to oily skin types. It is made from completely natural products like flower extracts etc. which means that it won't harm your skin. After using a lot of Clinique products, i realised that my skin works better with natural products that are more gentle and not so harsh on the skin. I haven't had any problems with this product so far and i'm really happy with it.

 

Next, I picked up the Ultra Facial Toner (£16.50 - 250 ml), this isn't your usual toner because it is more of a thicker milky consistency meaning that it is more moisturizing and leaves your skin feeling soft. Your general toner has a water consistency which refreshes your skin however, this one doesn't which is the only negative side of the product. It soothes any dryness on the skin so makeup application is smoother and provides ideal preparation for moisturizer.
 

Lastly, my favourite of all is the Daily Reviving Concentrate (£36 - 30ml)  which acts like a moisturizer (for me atleast). I usually switch between a proper moisturizer to make sure my skin is hydrated - I use my Clinique Dramatically Different Mousturizer. This product provides antioxidant protection thanks to the natural oils like Ginger Root, Sunflower oil and Tamanu oil to keep your skin feeling fresh and look energized if you haven't caught up on all the sleep haha.
The Ginger Root Essential Oil preserves the efficacy and gives the natral scent.

Sunflower Oil helps reinforce the skin barrier,

Tamanu Oil helps reduce the appearance of daily damage, as well as replenish and soothe the skin.

 

Usually when you buy something from Kiehl's you get many testers, the number depends on what the product actually is - say if you want to try their shampoo, i recieved around 3 shampoo's and 3 conditioner sachets but for the Clearly Corrective Dark Spot Solution i only got 2 sachets. For my first purchace I wanted to try out the Midnight Recovery Concentrate which comes in similar packaging to the full sized product but a lot smaller - it's perfect for traveling because you really need a couple of drops of it on your face so this saved you from carrying the full sized product. The tester bottle can also be refilled, so when i use it all up i will put other liquid form products inside when travelling.

The second thing i got as a tester was the Ultimate Strengh Hand Salve 30 ml tube which if you ask me looks like a full sized product. I really like this because its really moisturizing but doesn't leave your hands sticky for ages - I never use hand cream because I feel like i can't touch anything for about 10 minutes seriously..

So along with these goodies, I recieved a little clear zip washbag with tough black material and a white Kiehl's print in the centre. This is good to put in your school bag or regular bag to keep a few makeup bits for touchups.

 

Also, Kiehl's have a 100% customer satisfaction guarantee which means that you can exchange or return opened products within 28 days of using if you hate the product or you get a reaction from it. So keep your reciepts just in case!

 

What are your favourite Kiehl's products?

KIKO LONG LASTING STICK EYESHADOW REVIEW

Let's just say this is the best shadow stick that is super affordable, and insanely pigmented.

Overall, I love Kiko as a brand since they are drugstore prices but better quality than most products from the drugstore - and they do not test on animals.

These retail for £6.90 however Kiko tend to have a lot of good offers or sales frequently.

There is a wide shade range of 32 different shades, there are a few neutral shades which I love but the other half are mostly hues of blue etc. You can purchase or have a look at the shades here.

All of these stay on for absolute ages which means its quite difficult to take off with face wipes, get yourself a good makeup remover too. You may think that its a negative that it doesn't come off easily but think about it, its basically waterproof and you can wear it all day and night since it doesn't crease.. 

The one I have is in the shade 07 Golden Beige which is just a beautiful champagne-y gold shade.

It's super pigmented and creamy at application.The amount of looks you can create with this shade in particular (and any other) is insane - day time looks, night time, for birthday parties, for events. Bare this in mind though, you need to work fast with this if you want to blend it out a lot, it sets to a dry finish which means no creasing. Also, if you don't like very glittery shadows, I would advise you to test it out in store first because it can look very glittery in certain lightings (but not a lot, only some places).

As well as the actual product, the packaging is very convenient, easy to store and travel friendly. It's a twist up product which means it won't necessarily smash like a normal eye shadow would straight away. It also won't get messy and you don't really need a brush, you can use your fingers plus you don't even need a crease shade since it looks amazing on its own. 

The next shade of these that I really want to try is 01 Pearly White, I swatched this one in store and it looked like an insanely light reflective brow bone highlight.

Are there any Kiko products you'd want me to review?



NEW L'OREAL TRUE MATCH FOUNDATION FORMULA?

Recently, i was reading a lot of reviews about the new formulation of the Loreal True Match foundation and all of them are positive. So in this post i will compare both formulas and explain why i don't like the reformulation..

I ran out of my original formula of the Loreal True Match and i went out to repurchase since i really loved it, however i didn't realise that the formula was changed, only the packaging hence the same name. This is why i'm doing this blog post along with the thousands of other beauty bloggers doing the same thing, but i'm warning people with oily skin that this is not the foundation for you!! Let me explain..

These are two very different foundation and i really wish that they still had the old formula available (hence it was an extremely popular and well loved foundation) and release the new one as a seperate product along side the old one too. 

The Old Formula:

1. Had much more coverage (medium to full) than the new one

2. Suitable for most skin types such as oily skin

3. Didn't cake up if you wanted to achieve a more higher coverage and when powdering

4. It stayed on for much longer throughout the day (as for oily skin)

5. I think the colour range wasn't as good as the one now

The New Formula:

1. It's much more sheer and light to medium coverage

2. Definitely not good for oily skin - it contains gold shimmer flexes (see photo above), now don't get me wrong this looks amazing on normal skin in the warmer months but it just doesnt work well with oily skin

3. It's dewy and very lighweight (almost watery) and radiant. It feels like a BB Cream as for the consistency and the coverage

4. The packaging is gorgeous - it looks so sophisiticated, high end and quite sleek. The bottle is also much more taller which makes it better for storage

5. It tends to cake up if you want to get more coverage out of it and then powder throughout the day if you have oily skin

(Left: New, Right: Old)

The Similarities:

1. They both offer a Spf of 17

2. Both are really blendable

3. 30ml bottles

 To conclude all of this, I really really wish that I can still buy that foundation.

CALVIN KLEIN MAKEUP

 

Calvin Klein have discontinued their makeup products a while ago now, so that means that they are still available in some places online for a cheap price.   

I use this Crème Shadow in 'Bare Silk' as a brow bone highlight and inner corner of the eyes.

The Lip Gloss is shimmery and is just perfect for dabbing a bit on your lips for a splash of colour to your face.

 

 



 

This Lipstick is a really gorgeous Barbie pink that can be also used as a baby pink depending on how much you apply. I spoke more about this lipstick here.

 

Go out and search for them online, they're cheap!



LITTLE LUSH HAUL

After a few rounds in the store, I picked up two bits. Now, wasn't too keen on all the new items like bath bombs and bubble bars. I prefer the more standard Lush scents, that scent when you walk into the lush store, or right past it. All the new items smelt very chemical and powdery so I didn't see a point of getting any even though they looked amazing!

 

 Mask of Magnanimity 125g £5.50
This is a face and body mask that is supposed to be good for spots/acne and teenage skin. This smells very peppermint-y and strong so make sure you smell it before you buy it!
You leave this on for 5 to 10 minutes (till it dries up) then you can rinse it off with warm water but also you have the chance to exfoliate by swirling the mask off with water with the little beads/chunks inside.
This just gets your skin feeling smooth but I wouldn't say this changes the appearance of your skin dramatically since you'd have to use it frequently to see any changes in your skin.

 

 

Soft Coeur Massage Bar £4.95
Everyone seems to love the massage bars from Lush so I picked this one up that smells like chocolate and it think that's some sort of chocolate extract on the corner of the bar.
I like to use this after I have a bath or a shower and it really just melts at your body temperature then you just massage that in all over.



Have you visited the new Lush Store?



L'OREAL ELVIVE SHAMPOO REVIEW

I recently found this tester of the new L'Oreal Shampoo in an Elle Magazine and decided I'd give it a try and maybe review it! It's really inconvenient that they didn't put a Conditioner tester there too, when in my opinion the conditioner is the 'cherry on top' to really get the 'Luminous' hair they claimed that it achieves.

 

But nevertheless I generally think this is a good shampoo for giving your hair a little sheen and gloss boost. I didn't see intense differences but I think I will buy the full bottle and see further difference (if there are any).

 

If you've tried this shampoo, tell me what you think of it!

I GOT SENT FREE PRET DRIED MANGOS?

 

So as a little mid-week blog post, I'd like to leave this here for the appreciation of Pret for sending me 6 packs (for free) of dried mangos. And I have a huge love for dried mangos but no others can compare to these!

The reason I got sent these, is because I tweeted Pret saying 'I need an endless supply of @pret dried mangos', and they replied saying 'We can't promise you an endless supply but you can message us for a little surprise', so then I messaged them and I got sent a few packs of delicious mangos.
(that's roughly what I said etc, the tweets were from a while back!)

I have a big love for dried mangos because they are a great option for snacking instead of having chocolate. And also by far, these are the best ones. Go give them a try.



Have you tried the Pret Dried Mangos?



BEAUTY HAUL: KIKO, LUSH & BOOTS

 

Guess who got more beauty products?

So as you can guess by the title, I went to Kiko, Lush and Boots and I got these three products.

This is an array of successful purchases, alright and not so good so keep on reading to find out which of these products I enjoyed most..

 

 

Now when I say I love this eyeshadow, I mean it. This is my first champagne individual eyeshadow I picked up for only £2.80 (previously costing around £5). I wear this every single day to school and on weekends.

 

This is the Kiko eye shadow in the shade '202' and its one of their infinity eye shadows.

They all have great pigmentation, from all the swatches I had going on, on my hand.

 

This is just a perfect shade of champagne goodness. It brightens up the eye and you can create beautiful eye make up with this. I like to play around with my crease colour with different shades of brown and taupe because it suits any kind of shade.

 

If you do see this in the store, don't be put off by intense shimmer going on, the lighting in store makes it twice as shimmery than it really is.

They have really nice pigmentation too which is always great, but they blend in effortlessly with a crease colour.

 

 

If you buy the eye shadows separately, you wont really need to worry about your eye shadows drying out because they do come with a plastic lid to keep it safe however it can easily get lost.

 

 

That's why, guess what.. you need to buy a Clics system pot for your eye shadow, you can also buy a quad palette for these too if you find more eye shadows that you like. The single palette costs around £3, correct me if I'm wrong though because I don't really remember.

 

 

Going on to my least favourite product, which I was most exited to try was the L'Oreal True Match foundation because of its new packaging and I'm guessing new formula..

  

I will be doing a comparing blog post about these two foundations and because of the amount of things I want to say about these two products so I wont go into much detail right now.

 

So what I will say about this is, its not suitable for people with oily skin, I also find that you need a primer for this because it does give you smile lines unfortunately. The actual texture of the foundation is very satin and smooth and goes on very smoothly. 

 

Going on to the more bright side, I also got this Lush Toner Water which you spray on you freshly washed face before or after makeup. I usually use this (if I actually remember to do so) before my makeup so freshen up my skin and also helps to wake you up. 

This product claims to be a go-to beauty item for the skin emergencies e.g. spot prone or oil skin. I don't find that it has improved my skin immensely but for the first time that I used it, I found that my skin worked really well with the tea tree and antiseptic ingredients that it has to make spots less visible or tone down the redress.

 

What is your most successful beauty purchase that you've made?



PERFECT AUTUMN LIPS | TOPSHOP & RIMMEL

 

Products Mentioned:

- Topshop Lipstick in 'Inhibition'

- Rimmel Kate Moss in 'Wine 107'

Throughout AW last year, I opted for a berry toned lipstick at every lipstick counter and when I bought this Top Shop lipstick, it was the only thing I wore. It became a bit boring so a few months ago I bought the famous Kate Moss 107 lipstick (even though I feel like I look strange with it, I still love it)

 

 

 

(L to R): 'Inhibition', '107'

 

Both lipsticks are very pigmented however, the Topshop one definitely needs a lip liner which I'm still on a hunt for since it just fades away after a few hours.

Nevertheless these are my two favourite Autumn/Winter shades in a short post!