Lily Lolo Shimmer Stripes

Lily Lolo Rose Glow Shimmer Stripes - £19.99*

I'm always on the hunt for products which promise to give my skin a healthy glow, especially now that summer is over and my skin is suffering from some cold weather dullness. Lily Lolo is a mineral cosmetics brand which offer a whole host of beauty products with one thing in common - natural. I've become a little bit of a convert to natural products recently, so this brand seems right up my street. All of their products are free from parabens, perfumes and dyes and what's even better is they're cruelty free! Lily Lolo's Shimmer Stripes are part of their new Classic and Metallics Collection, alongside some gorgeous eyeshadow palettes. The shade Rose Glow contains 5 stripes of various shades, all centred around providing a rosy, pink-toned glow to the cheeks - the clue is in the name!

Packaging wise, the compact looks pretty slick and contains a decent sized mirror. It feels quite heavy and luxe, so I reckon it'll be pretty sturdy for carrying around. The consistency felt a little strange to me. It wasn't soft and buttery, and I had to work my brush a little more to get a decent pay-off but that might be due to my inexperience of working with mineral products perhaps? The product also has an odd scent, but again that might just be me. It's not hugely pigmented, but with a product like this you don't really need it to be. I use this on top of my regular blusher to give an added dimension of rosy glow-y goodness. It did take me a little while to work out how to use this, I must admit! I guess you could call it a hybrid between a blusher and a highlighter, but once you've gotten your head around that, it's a little gem.

Shimmer Stripes also come in the shade Honey Glow which is a more bronze-toned palette.

NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer

NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer - £21

I'm sure we've all heard the hype surrounding this little tube of concealing goodness, and I'm no exception. I had never intended to spend £21 on concealer, as my favourite Collection number was doing a more than fine job, but I spied this at duty free on my way home from New York last month and as I had some spare dollars left, I decided to treat myself. I picked up the shade 'Vanilla' which is ever so slightly too light for my post-America skin at the moment, but it'll be the perfect shade as my tan fades over the winter-y months. As usual, the typical NARS packaging is gorgeous. The rubbery black end does get a little mucky looking, but it's easily wiped clean. Offering high coverage with no caking and a super lightweight feel, this concealer is pretty much a winner. The consistency is perfect for the under-eye area as it isn't heavy at all, but the high coverage also makes it great for use on blemishes or, in my case, any red areas or scars. I use this alone with a little powder on lazy days and I find it gives the perfect amount of coverage for me.

So, is it worth the hype? Definitely. Am I willing to shell out £21 when this runs out? Maybe not. I'm sure there are drugstore alternatives which are just a fraction of the price, and as a skint student I am making it my mission to find one before this runs out... Challenge accepted!

MAC RiRi Woo

I need to pay homage to my perfect red lipstick. MAC Riri Woo - I have finally found you, and I shall never let you go. I purchased this on a whim back when the first Riri for MAC collection was released, and I'll admit I was sucked in by the hype and I was determined to get this lipstick before it sold out (which only took a couple of hours, I might add). I wasn't looking for love, I was merely curious about what was out there but what I found has blown me away. Riri Woo is a variation of MAC's classic Ruby Woo lipstick. It's a retro matte formula so it's not the creamiest of lipsticks and it does drag when applying. However, it's the perfect red shade and it lasts forever. I swear. I hate wearing lipsticks on nights out because I'm terribly messy when I drink, so my lipstick is usually off within an hour of sloppily drinking out of a mug and having a social cigarette or 10. But with Riri Woo, I wake up after a night out with no money, no dignity, sometimes no shoes but I always have Riri Woo left on my lips. It takes a good scrub to get this stuff off!

This is just my ultimate go-to lipstick for a night out when I want to make a bold statement with my lip colour. My search for the perfect red is over, ladies and gentlemen, this love affair is truly for keeps.

REN Glycolactic Radiance Renewal Mask

REN Glycolactic Radiance Renewal Mask - 50ml - £30.00*

Now, I'm sure we would all like skin which is a little more radiant and I for one am no exception. I've always suffered with skin that is a little on the lacklustre side, to say the least. So when REN came along with this little gem, I knew I needed to give it a try. The Glycolactic Radiance Renewal Mask* certainly packs a punch! It's full of bio extracts - fruit acids and various acids, to be exact - which act as chemical exfoliants to slough away dead skin cells and leave skin feeling renewed and more radiant. It also claims to even out skin tone - what more could you want?

The mask itself has been likened to the consistency of jam, and I can't argue with that. It's sticky, translucent orange and does smell slightly sweet. The important thing here is not the mask's resemblance to jam, however, but its ability to live up to its ambitious claims. Does it ramp up my skin's radiance? In a word, yes. I can feel a slight tingle when I apply this to my skin, which I personally really like. For a skincare product, it's unlikely to see instant results but with this mask, I do notice that my skin looks perked up and more even immediately after using the mask. I've been using this for the past few months every week or two, and I can definitely say that my skin is more even and if I ever need a little glow boost before a special event, this is the mask that I crack out for the occasion.

I find myself using at least 1-2 pumps to cover my entire face, so I can see myself running out sooner than I'd like. But it's definitely worth the investment! At £30 for 50ml, it isn't the cheapest of products out there but as I always say, skincare should be an investment and that's something that I'll always stick by. For reference, my skin is combination/oily, prone to breakouts with sensitivity around the nose and cheeks. REN do warn that customers with sensitive skin should approach this product with caution, however it didn't flare up my sensitive areas at all.

If you're after a face mask which actually delivers on its promises, this is the one for you. Have you tried any other REN products that you'd recommend? What's your go-to product for ramping up the radiance?

tell the world i'm coming home

 

Well, I'm home. The summer of a lifetime has flown by and before I knew it, 3 months were up and I was boarding my flight at JFK airport. I've met the most amazing people and made plenty of unforgettable memories! Summer camp was a strange experience. It was exhilarating yet exhausting and by the end of the summer, I felt physically drained of all energy. But as soon as I left to go traveling, I missed every little aspect of camp - seeing your friends all day every day, singing songs round the camp fire, kids saying little things that would absolutely make your day. It was hard work. I was generally working from 9am until 8pm every day and even once your day was over, there was always something going on that you should be involved in - hosting sneak outs for the kids, working on duty until 1am, or simply taking the time to socialize with people. As hard as the work was at times, I loved every part of camp. You're living and working with the same people 24/7, it's hard to not feel like you're part of a little family away from home - it's an amazing atmosphere.

After spending 10 weeks working at camp in Wisconsin, it was time to start the real adventure - traveling. If it hadn't been for lack of both time and funds, I would have spent longer traveling and visited a lot more places. But I made the most of what I had! Straight from camp I headed to Chicago and spent 10 days there exploring the city. Chicago is definitely one of my favourite cities - it's pretty chilled out for a city which I loved. The sheer contrast of metropolitan city to the picturesque beach on the lake is something I adore - you can lay on the beach with the huge Lake Michigan lapping at your feet, then turn your head and see the Chicago skyline towering behind you. It's pretty surreal. I spent my 21st birthday there at the beach before enjoying a legal drink!

From Chicago I jumped on a plane to Pennsylvania and stayed with my friend there for a further 9 days. I have to admit, this was one of the craziest and most amazing weeks of my life. I started talking to my best friend online when we were both 11 and from then, we sent each other emails containing 1000s of words several times daily. We wrote each other letters, web chatted, talked on the phone. We pretty much grew up together in a really dysfunctional way. And this summer, I met her for the first time. The whole experience was crazy - it would take me far too long to consolidate it into words without writing an entire book.

Finally, I spent 2 days in New York City before heading back to Scotland. In all honesty, I was a little underwhelmed by NYC. Maybe I was expecting too much, maybe I'd watched too many films and I was expecting something unrealistic. It was too hectic and crazy and I just never felt at home there. Some parts were very cool and I would go back to visit because I didn't get to see half of the things that I wanted to, but it's not somewhere that I felt an urgency to explore. Perhaps it didn't help that NYC was my last pitstop before home and by that point, I was shattered, skint and ready to go home. I can't wait to get back into blogging and show you my USA beauty purchases and share more of my summer stories with you! I'm also pleased to say that I lost almost a stone and a half whilst I was in the USA (around 20lbs) so I might be delving into the world of outfit posts in the near future because I'm feeling 100 times more confident now...

So here I am! Back in sunny Scotland and in approximately 6 hours, I'll be hopping on a sleeper train down to Bournemouth where I'll be making my new home for the next 3 years. It's been a crazy few months, but I'm feeling ready to get settled and get back into a normal routine. Who knows what the next year has to offer...