Colour Freedom Metallic Glory in Silver Blonde Review

I don't think it's any shock that one of my most popular posts of all time is a hair dye review, a Colour freedom review to be exact, that shade however was in Silver grey which you can find below, if you're interested in that colour too!

Read: Colour Freedom, Metallic Glory in Silver Grey Review

But seeing as the amount of success I had with the previous one, I decided to give it another go. I had previously used the graphite grey on my hair, which sent it green. So please be careful, assess your porosity and always always please please do a strand test before putting all over your head!

So my hair was black this summer. But it was killing my hair. I know, you would think it would be the opposite, but I'm naturally quite fair haired anyway. So constantly topping my black hair up was doing more damage than good.

So I made the terrible decision of trying to lighten it. Which ended in a terrible trip to the hairdressers. But hey ho. A few months later, a few bleach baths and some sad looking hair, I finally thought I would be light enough to tone.

I had gone pink to cover up the mess I had created underneath so I had some extreme warm tones going on, which I just couldn't really shift. So I thought this toner would do the trick.

I bought it in silver blonde this time, as the last one in 'graphite grey' sent it green. This is probably because my hair wasn't light enough. (and I didn't do a strand test and ended up with green hair) Here was my hair before any toner.

Beautiful I know, but as you can see, there's so much red tone there, I just couldn't get rid of it by bleaching.. I used Bleach london's big pink.. so I have no idea what was in it, but I just couldn't shift it. I've never had any trouble getting out pink shades, so don't use that brand if you plan on getting blonde again easily.

To tone, I tried the Colour freedom silver blonde to see if I would have much success.

I always do a strand test now and test a little piece of hair to see what colour it will turn and also how long to keep it on for.

After finishing the strand test, I was pretty happy with the strand result, so it was time to put it all over!

And this was the finished colour! As you can see it's much much cooler than it was, making it much more of a ashy blonde colour, which I was really happy with! I kept this colour for a month or two before finally bleaching again to go grey. 

It's a hard colour to achieve, so patience is really the key. Also doing strand tests ensures you don't ruin the whole of your hair if it doesn't turn the way you wanted it to. This toner does still contain a small amount of peroxide, so just be aware if your hair is mega damaged like mine :( - keep an eye when developing, as damaged hair can over-process.

I would really recommend this product as I did the last one. Even after having a bad experience with one of their colours, this was because my hair wasn't light enough to be toned. Also I didn't do a strand test.. which is super important when dealing with toners and any other hair dyes.

Hope you enjoyed this review! I will update you guys soon with my current hair dye situation!

Happy and careful hair dying! <3

I'm over on twitter & Instagram
- if you fancy a natter

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December Favourites ❄️

I can't believe its the end of December already - where did 2016 go? This is the first time in ages I've really decided to do a 'beauty blogger' style post, but hey ho, I just wanted to share with you guys some of my favourites, not only this month but things I've also been using all year!

Colourpop Matte Lipsticks

I have about 6 of these now and I'm so addicted. These are my lipsticks I wear pretty much everyday, I wear them more than my MAC collection as I feel like the staying power of these are just so worth it. I recently bought it in this beautiful red shade named 'creeper' as I was looking for something with a little more oomph and willpower to stay on my lips. I hate reapplying lipstick as i just want to enjoy myself and not faff around worried about my lips.

ABH Dip Brow Pomade

I really love this stuff, but sometimes its not creamy as I would like it to be, I put a tad of oil into the pot when applying and it glides on so much easier. The thing I love the most about their pomade is the stick power. Your lines will not move whatsoever. It's so smudge proof.. and that's what I love about it. Eyelure and NYX have some really good pomade's too.

Lush 'Mask of magnaminty'

The holy grail of my skin care routine. I use this whenever I need waking up as the mint is just so refreshing you can't help but feel energised. It's also so nice for my skin whenever I'm having some serious breakout problems. I'm no stranger to spots, so whenever I feel one or two coming to say hello I whack this on my face. It really does help so much to cool down my face and get rid of any zits! A product I continue to buy again and again.

LUSH Sugar plum fairy lip scrub

As a lover of matte lipsticks and a girl with a lip biting habit, my lips are often dry and sad. Lush's lip scrub however is so good, it has lasted forever, I'm not even halfway and I've had it for about 2 months now. It smells so lovely and it tastes rather delicious too!

Jord wooden watch*

I wrote about this watch in my last post, but I'm obsessed with it's beauty. It's so so gorgeous and just fits in with the winter weather and the colours.. it's just so pretty! I'm also giving away voucher codes for these watches if you're interested in getting one! Just read my last post > here

MAC 'ruby woo' Lipstick 

A classic lipstick. What I love most about this particular lipstick is it's beautiful stunning blue-toned red colour. It's such a classic red lip. The stay power on this is pretty good too, without the heavy feel of a liquid type matte lipstick. It glides on, but it is quite drying however. I can't help myself from using this lipstick in the winter though. The colour will always be one of my favourites.

Are these any of your favourites - or have you shared your favourites this month? Share your links so I can have a little nosy!

Thanks for reading as always!

I'm over on twitter & Instagram
- if you fancy a natter

* Products were received for review purposes

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BLEACH LONDON 'THE BIG PINK' REVIEW

It literally feels like forever since I've done any sort of hair dye related reviews or something to do with actually dying my hair. My previous "BLEACH LONDON" post has probably my most amount of views ever, which is strange because in my opinion their hair dye is more about the sort of trend and marketing they have behind their brand as opposed to the actual formula of the dye itself, but I guess that's why its popular!

Also I think some of their colours absolutely suck. Not sure if they changed their formula's in some of them, but the undertones in their violet skies one used to send people's hair green, not nice. They thought they would fix this by releasing a rose shampoo to claim you can shampoo it out.. instead of fixing their crappy formula.. anyway that's another story! Back to the review..

SO I'm dying my hair pink.

It's obvious I change my hair a lot, which is probably why you're reading this, I'd say I'm pretty good at hair colours mainly because I've quite a lot of experience with colours such as vegetable based dyes. Peroxide dyes are a completely different story. But Bleach london and all those sorts of dyes usually contain no peroxide and a lot of them are vegan friendly!

I hear you asking.. "Emily, why are you using bleach london if you don't like their formula so much?"

Well, my hair is extremely porous. Which means my hair has been very over-processed, which isn't surprising considering what it's been through this year. This was down to a lot of peroxide and chemical based colours I've been using this year. So my hair takes to colour really well, but it also clings onto it quite abit (especially at the ends) and because of this I didn't want something really with a lasting colour because it will take forever to wash out.

I'm also trying to not bleach my hair at the moment, so when I want to change colour I can do it easily by fading the colour out by using simple shampoo and not putting any chemicals on my damaged hair. 

So what's actually good about Bleach London semi permanent hair dyes?

- They're pretty good at fading. If you're after a colour that will fade quickly, this dye will. However if you're looking for a long-lasting bright colour that won't happen with these dyes.

- They smell amazing. That is one thing I love about their products is that they smell incredible.

- They're easy to apply, the formula is quite creamy and not runny at all so it's so easy to apply this all over your hair. I recommend applying on damp hair, it makes application a lot easier.

This was my hair before, I had previously used rose on it, which left it in this weird pinky colour, my roots were a strange blonde colour but I'd washed it for so long and I was fed up with it (tehe) excuse my pyjamas..

(^ my hair before)

My hair after!

It's now a bright pink colour, which has a little hint of purple-y in there, which reminds me of the XXL Live pink colour that they do, I much prefer the flamingo pink colour from La riche Directions, but its alright! I'll see how it goes washing wise and let you guys know what the upkeep/fade is like after a few weeks.

One thing I did notice was it is extremely messy in the shower. Like everywhere, I was squeegee-ing around as I went along, and it will stain your white pillows!

But thanks for reading as always and I'm hope you found the review helpful.

Let me know if you would like to see more posts like this!

Update:

I had this colour for a few weeks, it was nice, but started fading obviously. When I bleached my hair, it was VERY RED TONED. It was almost orange as though I had bleached dark hair... So my guess is that this is a very red based pink. I used this as a temporary colour because I thought it would fade out easy and be easy to remove. I was wrong. I never have any trouble with pinks but it was the hardest pink I have ever had to remove. The colour was nice while I had it, but was hard to remove. If you're looking for a better pink and not red based (in my opinion) I would recommend Flamingo pink by La riche Directions.

Lush Haul 💕

Earlier this week, I posted about the Lush event that I was kindly invited to, I spoke about my experience of the amazing new shop, but I didn't show you guys what I had received and purchased at the event! I was so excited that Lush had re-opened, I could finally repurchase some of my favourites that I had run out of and I could finally feel fresh in my new fancy bathroom that I'm so proud of.

So here's what I got!

(top to bottom)

Christingle Body Conditioner*

I've never actually tried a lush body conditioner before, we got the choice between snow fairy and this Christingle one, which is more fresh and minty which is my favourite throughout winter, I'm weird and I don't like floral smells and prefer a more fresh or fruity smell. It contains peppermint oil and menthol crystals. I'm really excited to try this, I feel like it will be quite refreshing in the morning.

Sugar Plum Fairy Lip Scrub

I've been after a lip scrub for ages and after finding out that Lush's were edible, I just knew I had to get one, I'm an avid lip chewer, which doesn't make a pretty base for matte lipsticks.. You can simply lick away the excess after using, which is abit gross for some people.. but I like it, I don't mind a bit of lip skin.. especially if it smells delicious!

'Never mind the ballistics' Bath Bomb*

We got to see this bath bomb in action at the lush event and its so beautiful, colours of yellow and pink swirls and it smells incredible. I think it's limes and orange oil, so again fresh and fruity. Unfortunately I don't actually have a bathtub.. but I'll probably be featuring this in my soon-to-be giveaway.

'Don't look at me' Fresh Face mask

Zesty and lemon-y fresh face mask, yas! I love a good face mask and my favourite is usually the mask of magnaminty (my all time fave) but I decided to go with something a little different this time around, so I chose this one I love the colour of it and it was so just fresh and relaxing I just couldn't resist.

Passion Fruit Lip Balm

So I lost my lip balm the other day and I was upset so after getting the lip scrub I went and bought a nice new balm to go with it. This one is the passion fruit one and it's quite light and not very sticky and of course it smells amazing.

Goth Fairy Shimmer Bar

I'm not really a shimmer girl, but I was sold on this item mainly because it was cute (sorry bank balance) but also because it's just a nice thing to put on, on a night out. One of the staff there says she uses it on her collarbones and stuff for a night out, so I  was inspired to maybe do the same!

'Whoosh' Shower Jelly

I've never used a shower jelly, the thought of it is just abit weird really.. I haven't tried it yet, but I was intrigued to see what it's like, but it again smells really fresh and I think it will be awesome to really wake you up in the morning.

Ocean Salt Scrub

Another one of my lush favourites, I went back and bought this but I bought their new self-preserving range, which is a different formula so it wasn't as gritty and a lot more creamier than usual, its a great scrub and I'm pretty sure my boyfriend likes it more than I do...

'Outback Mate' Soap

My favourite soap of all time. Outback mate, I am just obsessed with you! You can get as little or as much cut from the soap and it's bought depending on the weight like if you were buying cheese! I love this stuff, it lasts for ages and it smells amazing! 

And I didn't actually realise how much stuff I had actually bought before I wrote this post.. whoops. But I hope you enjoyed reading about some of my all time favourites, but also some new things that I'm trying out from Lush!

Let me know your thoughts and thanks for reading as always.

All products with an asterisk* were received at the Lush event as a gift, everything else was purchased myself.

Lush Bournemouth Opening Event

When I found out about this event I knew I just had to go! Lush is so close to where I live now and it's been closed for refurbishment for what seems like FOREVER, like seriously.. Forever. I've missed those beautiful smells down the street coming out of their doors and windows, that smell that distinctively says LUSH. I missed popping into the store and buying that new fresh face mask or my beloved outback soap that my shower has been missing for the last few months. So of course I had to go to this event.

Honestly, I thought it was going to be a little bloggers event, I didn't really know what to expect, but upon arriving there was a brass band outside and little railings and just loads to do and see it was all very exciting, but also quite nerve-wracking too! It was a full PR opening event which was so so awesome and I felt so privileged to of received an invite.

All of the scaffolding and paper boards were now down so we could see the beautiful shop underneath, unfortunately I was too excited by everything and forgot to take a good picture of the outside of the shop, but you should go see it for yourself, its beautiful!

When we got into the store we received little (plack cards?!) with our names on which was cool and then we received champagne, it was so surreal I felt like such a VIP (haha) it was abit chaotic as there were loads of people inside checking out the new shop, So trying to take photos for the blog was abit crazy with photographers, bloggers, PR people all trying to do the same thing so angles were really not an option!

As you enter the shop now there is an entire section just dedicated to Bath bombs, bath fizzy things and just about anything to do with taking a bath. There's so many beautiful designs and colours and this new amazing mural on the wall which was my favourite part about the whole shop. So bright and vibrant it really attracts your attention straight away. It's so nice I can't even remember what it was like beforehand, the visual merchandising team did an amazing job with this store its beautiful!

Unfortunately I don't have a bath so I can't try out any of their bath bombs, unless I go visit my parent's or something. I can't even try this cute little Christmas penguin! ^ Look at it! So cute.

So I am sad about the fact I can't experience the true amazement of Lush's bath bombs anymore, but I can however use a lot of their other products, so I was mainly interested in everything else than the bath bombs. And lucky for me, they have a whole section dedicated to SHOWERS EVERYWHERE!

Just look at that HUGE-MONGUS snow fairy bottle, its massive! At a crazy 1kg its so big it just made me giggle, now snow fairy lovers everywhere can enjoy this ridiculously sized bottle of it. But hooray for showers! I'm more into the soap's instead of the shower gels, but I'm willing to possibly try one as the soap I usually get can be quite fiddley and annoying sometimes, e.g. falling all over the place.

I did get a lot of new stuff that I'm really excited to show with you guys, but I'll be doing a little haul post this week, I just love the new shop, it's amazingly laid out, it has wheelchair access now and all the staff are as friendly as ever. It's got such a nicer feel to it and I can't wait to spend my money in there!

I had such a lovely time at the event too, I met some amazingly fun bloggers in my local area that I previously didn't know about which was awesome, we drank some of the funky cocktails LUSH put out for everyone, took part in some activities making some products and just had a good chinwag and listened to the brass band. An amazing evening and I was so blessed to have the opportunity.

If you haven't yet seen it go see the new revamped LUSH store in Bournemouth, it's all finished and its looking as beautiful as ever.
Thanks for reading as always,

Return of the Colours

THEY ARE BACK. I repeat they are back! I have missed them so much.
Aside from being able to wear whatever the hell I want to, I really missed those crazy I don't give a crap what my crazy hair looks like days, and I'm happy to say that my crazy colourful hair will be staying for a little while.

This decision came after I just became fed up with 'natural' looking colours. I went black a few months ago to cover over the blue/green tone that had stained my blonde hair, I wanted a more natural colour so I could wear different clothes that would go with my hair. But after being black for quite some time I got bored of it and wanted to go grey again, little did I know I had been putting silicone in my hair from the XXL Live colour black I had been using.

Cutting it short.. (no pun intended) after trying to tone my hair multiple times, going to a hairdressers twice.. my hair was some super damaged, nasty gross green tinge colour. I was a true swamp girl. It was making me really unhappy and I didn't really want to leave the house, nothing I did worked, violet shampoo and all that stuff but what I really needed was to put warmth back into my hair.

I was patient and didn't just chuck the first colour on my head, which probably would've been black and caused more damage, which I'm so happy I did, because I had bleached and damaged my hair and it was actually blonde underneath the colour. So to limit the damage to my hair, today I put a colour remover on which removed most of the toner, and I'm back to using the vegan conditioning, non-peroxide dyes I know and love.

Although bleach london aren't my favourite hair dyes in the world, they don't last very long, which is why I'm using them in case I have a colour disaster and it doesn't work.. at least it will fade out fairly quickly. I chose orange/pink to try and neutralise the green tinge I have from putting too much ashy tones in my hair and if it works, who knows maybe it will stay!

If you've been keeping up on my instagram or twitter you'll see I've been documenting the process today on my insta story for anybody who is interested.

Now to go wash my head!

Thanks for reading as always,

Colourpop Ultra Matte Lipsticks

My favourite lipsticks hands down, have to be the Ultra matte formula from Colourpop, I'm hoping and praying that they open a UK store because the postage from America makes me really sad. But they are amazing I have 5 now, and I prefer them over my MAC lipsticks most of them matte formula too.

There's just something really satisfying about a liquid lipstick, I feel like they give much more coverage and they literally do no budge off your lips. I have tried some liquid matte lipsticks from some cheap brands like MUA and Makeup Revolution, but they are often too thick and heavy or just not great coverage but Colourpop have just got their formula so so right. I can wear them all day and not have to top them up which is awesome.

Shades from top to bottom, SOLOW, INSTIGATOR, CHI, MIDI and TRAP. 

One thing I do find about these lipsticks is that they come out quite dark as swatches and on the lip as opposed to in their bottles.

Solow 

Its a lot different in person, its a darkish mauve-y kind of pink colour but it's really really beautiful and what I love most about these lipsticks is that they're super wearable.

Instigator

Very very similar to midi but it has much more of a orange undertone to it unlike solo which is a lot more mauve pink. 

Chi

A dark nude colour, very brown toned. I didn't think it would be this dark, but it's quite a medium brown shade.

Midi

A real neutral pinky nude tone. Beautiful for everyday wear, this is probably the one I use the most as it's super wearable and really flattering on my skin tone

Trap

This was my first one that I bought as I wanted that cool greige lip that everyone was going for. Again its a lot darker on your lips than in the bottle. I wouldn't say it was 'griege' as such but more of a purple-y browny nude. Its lovely though and does give off that purple vibe.

And here are some swatches for you (same order)

(Top to bottom) 

SOLOW, INSTIGATOR, CHI, MIDI, TRAP. 

Do you own any colour pop lipsticks? Which one's your favourite?

Colour Freedom, Metallic Glory in Silver Grey Review

Phew! What a mouthful. After deciding I was bored with my blonde hair, which to be honest it has been a while for me! I wanted a change that was different, but I didn't really want it to be bright and I knew I didn't want to go super dark. It took alot of effort to go to blonde and I wanted to preserve my efforts.

How to: Summer Ombré Nails!

I am so glad that I decided to grow my own nails. It's so much cheaper now I'm not spending money on acrylics. My nails are also healthy and I love painting them different styles. I've got a whole board on pinterest dedicated to painted nails which you can check out here! So after being inspired by summer and beautiful ombré nails I painted my own, and here's how I did it. This was super difficult to photograph..

You will need..

2 Coloured Nail Polish

Clear Top Coat Polish

A Small Sponge

Nail Polish Remover

Cotton Buds

Firstly, I started with a base coat to strengthen and protect my nails from breakage. I just use a Rimmel one. Then I put one coat of the colour I wanted to be the base of the ombré. I used this blue colour by Rimmel, #842 'too cool to tango' I just applied a light coat over each of my nails.

Next I used a bit of plastic I had lying around to put this on.. you could use a bit of paper. Next I just put a splodge of each colour next to each other and applied onto the sponge. I cut the sponge so it was smaller and created less mess. The yellow colour is Rimmel's #450 'get your shades on'

Just dunking the sponge in.. It helps if it's damp too.. Makes the polish dry out less quickly.

After it's on the sponge, I just gently pressed against my nail, blending the two colours together till I thought it looked okay. I kept doing this to every nail and repeating the last few steps.

It does get a little bit messy but it's not anything you can't fix. I just got a cotton bud dunked in nail varnish remover and carefully cleaned it all up.

I like to let my polish dry and breathe a little bit before applying the top coat. It did look a little bobbly and sponge like before the top coat, but don't worry it will go away. After letting them breathe and dry a bit, I applied the top coat.

And voila! That's my summer themed ombré nails! I'm really happy with them considering this was my first ever attempt at an ombré nail. I'm also really proud of how far my nails have come, I have always been a terrible nail biter. Excuse my longer nails, my others broke at a festival, but they will get there! Have you tried ombré nails?

Emily

Rimmel Nail Polish Haul - So cheap!

Hi guys, recently I have been getting into nails more. After growing my real nails super long I've become much more interested in polish and having pretty nails all the time! Unfortunately at Download Festival, I broke the majority of them so I am having to start again, but fear not, they are getting there!

I checked out Fragrance Direct, one of my favourite websites for getting super cheap bargains, they always have makeup on special offer so I had a look to see what nail polish they had on offer! you can find fragrance direct here.

Im super picky about the applicator brushes and I love the double bristled ones from Rimmel, and yay they had them! Only 99p for most of them too!

Rimmel Salon Pro // £1.29 each // Fragrance Direct

(link)

I couldn't get over how cheap they were selling these for.. they are my favourite nail polish and I'm forever picking them up from Boots etc. But for £1.29! The only downside is that they didn't have many colours but I picked these in 'get a nail tan' a beautiful tan colour and 'summer orange' a bright orange, perfect for summer. If you haven't tried these I highly recommend them!

Rimmel 60 Seconds Nail Polish // 99p each // Fragrance Direct

(link)

I never tried these before, mainly because I'm fussy about the applicator's, but when I found out that these actually have the thicker brushes I was so happy. That means more colour selection but also they are so dead cheap at only 99p! 99p! How good is that! They have quite a lot more of a colour choice on these too. I got 'little bo peep' 'too cool to tango' and 'get your shades on' (left to right)

Rimmel Space Dust (Aurora) // £1.25 // Fragrance Direct

(link)

Rimmel Stronger Nail Care // £1.99 // Fragrance Direct

(link)

The Rimmel Space Dust, I actually love, it again has the thicker brushes which I love, but it also has so much glitter on it, you don't have to keep applying hundreds of coats of it. In fact one was enough. The stronger nail care is so my nails don't break anymore. After dealing with all my broken nails I'm trying to get them stronger so they don't snap. Hopefully this should do the trick!

So that's what I got altogether, which I think was £10 not including shipping, I love Fragrance Direct they have such great bargains and for a student on a budget, to get great branded products at a ridiculous price, well that's just perfect for me.

Have you ever tried their website?

Emily.

E.L.F Cosmetics 50% Off Haul!

Hi guys, Sorry it has been such a long time since I have blogged about anything, I've also sort of relaxed and stayed more away (than usual) from social media, I have been so busy with Download Festival and working, travelling back and forth I haven't really had the chance to 'sit and blog' about anything. I have so much to catch up on! At least I have loads to blog about!

Anyway, E.L.F cosmetics, have constantly had these little flash sales, where you can get 50% off your order! (On the UK website) You do have to have at least £20 in your basket before you can use the code, but that's only £10 + shipping you have to spend! I loved E.L.F last time I ordered so I bought some more products, here's what I bought..

e.l.f // Matte Lip Colour // £3.95

Coral & Natural

(link)

It's no secret that I love matte lipsticks, I decided to pick these up because I've been wearing more nude lipsticks but I don't have any matte ones. I also am loving coral colours right now, so this was perfect. The only annoying thing is that they don't do these in an actual lipstick tube.. annoying right. So I had to go with these strange pen thingys. Nice colours though!

e.l.f // Dramatic Lash Kit // £1.95

(link)

Now this is probably the most cheap looking packaging from all of the products, it's not really what I was expecting as the photo looked a lot different on the website, but the lashes themselves look like good quality and for the price I can't moan. I'm quite excited to see how these work out, I love false eyelashes but I think I'll probably use my own eyelash glue.

e.l.f // Eyebrow Kit, Ash // £3.95

(link)

I love filling in my eyebrows, at the moment I use the eyebrow kit from MUA, but I really wanted to try a gel to fill in my eyebrows instead. Naturally I have super dark eyebrows, I don't know why *shrug* But I went with the ash colour because at least I could build it up instead of them being super dark and scary looking. I have admittedly tested this out before I photographed it (whoops) and so far it seems really easy, not so sure on the brush though, it's really thin.

e.l.f // Makeup Mist & Set // £3.95

(link)

I did indeed, read a quick review before I bought this, I've never used a setting spray before, but due to this lovely hot weather we are having for the price, I thought why not? I am kind of disappointed with the packaging though, I thought it would be much bigger for some reason, and it kinda feels cheap but it's portable for your bag I guess!

e.l.f // Studio Blush, Mellow Mauve // £3.95

(link)

After my last purchase I fell in love with these blushes, they feel so posh in your hands and they apply so nicely. I would say however that this colour is a little more bronze than I thought it would be, the swatch on the website made it seem more pink, maybe that's just me but regardless I think it's a lovely colour and I don't have anything similar. Excited to try this out!

So that's it for my little e.l.f haul! Did you take advantage of their flash sale's? Post your links so I can be nosy and see what you got!

emily.

The Body Shop Makeup Brushes Review

The Body Shop Makeup Brush Collection

(link)

I've been using these brushes since December, so I'm surprised it's taken me so long to post a review on these. My mom bought me one of their collection packs for Christmas, what I really like about their brushes is you don't have to buy them all individually, they do special packs which are cheaper than buying them all separately. I think my mom bought me the expert collection, because I didn't have a blending brush, but she bought me that later on. I think their deal's are awesome and I would check the collection packs out. 

So altogether (left to right) I have the eyeshadow blender, Lip/concealer brush, brow & lash comb, slanted brush, foundation brush, blusher brush and the face & body brush.

I use every single one of these brushes on a daily basis, aside from the foundation brush, where I prefer to use my real techniques stippling brush. But that's just down to the way I prefer to apply my foundation.

I've also heard that these are just as good as MAC brushes and I only own one MAC brush, in 209, which to be honest, feels kinda pants in comparison to these, which is crazy right!

What I love about the body shop brushes is they feel solid. They're well made and the bristles are just so soft even after 5/6 months use, they still feel the same as they did when I first opened them. I've never had any of the bristles fall out or shed. The only pet peeve I have is with the face/body brush, because of the metal design, it sit's a little flat. But I still use it everyday and they feel great on my face.

I love these brushes and I would love to collect them all. If you're looking for quality but not as expensive as MAC, I would 100% give these a shot.

Elf Candid Coral & St Lucia, First impressions & Swatches

This is the first of me ever ordering online from e.l.f and I heard about the hype when they enabled their UK site. I had seen them around before when I went to America last year and I picked up one of the little black book of eyeshadows and I loved it. For the price it was great and I couldn't believe the value for money this brand had.

If you've read my previous post's you would know I've been trying to expand my makeup collection and fill my MUJI makeup storage, (which is nearly complete!) I've been really low on my selection of blushers, I think I had 3.. woah. I was torn between getting Makeup Revolution blushes or e.l.f's. But I went with e.l.f and here's what I got!

ELF Blush // Candid Coral // £3.95

I have to say I am so pleased with this blush, after becoming obsessed with coral this spring, I thought why not put that into my cheeks too. It looks much more pink in photographs, but close up it has these beautiful flecks of gold throughout giving it more of a coral orange tone. I'm super impressed with the packaging, it reminds me of Nars, but it has more of plastic feel, which I don't mind. It feels lovely in your palm and I can't wait to try this out with my new coral lipstick!

ELF Contouring Blush & Bronzer // St Lucia // £3.95

This product just screams 'value for money' The packaging feels great, it has a mirror inside and you are getting 2 products, the blush and bronzer for the same price as a blush. Also the blush in this set is absolutely stunning. Similar to the candid coral, it has slight gold flecks running through, but it's more of a pink toned blush. I think this will look amazing when I go on holiday with a summer glow. The bronzer is however quite a-lot more pigmented than I anticipated! With my ghostly pale skin I think a little will definitely go a long way. It really has a holiday tanned sort of feel to it. I'm really excited to experiment with this.

(Swatches top to bottom)

Candid Coral

St Lucia Bronzer

St Lucia Blush

I hope you enjoyed this post, I think I will purchase more products from e.l.f as I'm quite impressed. I also really love the way my photography turned out with this post.

What do you think?