Monday Wishlist #3

My camera is still broken - if anyone has experienced an error whilst trying to connect a digital camera to their laptop via USB, please get in touch! It's so frustrating because I have so many photos on there ready for blog posts, but I just can't get them transferred over. I also managed to find a flat and am currently in the process of moving out today and tomorrow, so things have been pretty stressful with that and working a lot.

Just a small wishlist post today, as I've barely even had the time to lust after products recently!

1. Origins Zero Oil Deep Pore Cleanser - RRP £17.00 - I'm in desperate need of a new cleanser, I'm currently rotating about 4 different sample size ones due to sheer lack of funds to buy a full-size one. When pay day rolls around, I think I'll be investing in this!

2. Topshop Lace Peter Pan Dress - RRP £48.00 - It's my 20th birthday this month, so I'm on the hunt for the perfect dress for my night out. I have hardly any "dressy" clothes since I rarely go out to clubs, but I can picture this looking great with opaque tights and some big black heels.

3. Marc Jacobs Dot EDP - RRP £37.00/30ml - I literally just smelled a sample of this in a magazine, and it's lush! The perfect mix of fruity and floral scents, and I just love it.

4. Illamasqua Skin Base Foundation - RRP £25.00 - I've heard great things about this foundation, and I know that Illamasqua have shades for us super pale folk! I did get their Rich Liquid foundation in the sale, but I guessed my shade and it's far too dark, so I'd really like to try this one in the right shade!

That's my wishlist for the week, I did try not to go overboard because I know that in my current financial situation, any unnecessary beauty items are definitely a luxury and probably not going to be affordable anytime before Christmas for me! But I do believe in treating yourself every now and then, so if I do then I'll definitely be going for one of these products.

Again, please let me know if you've experienced the camera issue because I need desperate help with it! Hopefully I'll be able to get back to regular blogging once I've settled in the flat and everything's a bit more calm, because right now things are just manic!

June Favourites!

L-R, top to bottom: Bioderma Crealine solution, L'Occitane Angelica Hydration Cream, ELF HD powder, Caudalie Beauty Elixir, Benefit Sugarbomb blush, Benefit Porefessional, Essie Fiji, Topshop Lip Stick in Powder Room

Firstly, I can't believe it's July already! This year is just disappearing for me! I thought I'd do a post rounding up my favourite beauty products from June. A couple are skincare products, and the rest are make-up products.

1. Bioderma Crealine H2O Cleansing Solution - if you haven't already heard of this product, where have you been?! I finally bought this cleanser after reading so many rave reviews online, and I'm so glad I did. I got mine on eBay and it was about £12 including P&P, which is very reasonable consdering it's a huge 500ml bottle. It's a micellar solution and it basically breaks down the make-up, meaning you can just wipe it off! I use a small squirt of this on a couple of cotton pads, and ALL my make-up, including stubborn mascara, is gone within a minute. Perfect for us lazy girls!

2. L'Occitane Angelica Hydration Cream - I previously mentioned this in my LIB box post (which you can find here) so I'm not going to say too much about it. It's £29 for 50ml, and I have a 15ml sample pot. I have oily skin, but I also have dry patches around my nose so I like to use a moisturiser which is really nourishing but not too heavy. This is perfect for that! I only use it at night and my skin is always so soft and replenished by morning. Smells gorgeous, too!

3. ELF High Definition Powder - I use this once I've finished doing my make-up, and it adds a lovely soft-focus, matte but not chalky finish. I just love it. I've read some reviews saying that it can give a ghost-face effect in flash photography, but that hasn't happened to me yet. You have to be quite light-handed with it, and the packaging is quite messy but the actual product is great, and it's so affordable! It costs £6, and is also available in a corrective yellow colour, and a shimmer colour.

4. Caudalie Beauty Elixir - this is another seriously hyped up product, and I was worried it would disappoint me. But it definitely hasn't! I bought the 30ml size which cost £8.80 from LookFantastic. I've only had it for a few days and I've already used about a quarter of the bottle.. whoops! I love the scent, it's very herbal and almost medicinal, but it's so refreshing. I spritz it after using toner, and then throughout the day to freshen up my make-up.

5. Benefit Sugarbomb Blush - this is my favourite blush I've ever owned so far. It's not highly pigmented, so I do use quite a lot to get a good colour, but I love how subtle it is. It gives such a gorgeous glow, and even if I use this alone without foundation, concealer or anything else, it instantly perks me up and makes me look healthier. It retails at £23.50 which I find quite expensive for a blush, but I've used it daily since I got it and it looks like it'll last me a long time. It has 4 colours (a dusky pink, light pink, lilac and peach) and you swirl all of them together, or you can even use them on their own. It smells amazing, too!

6. Benefit The Porefessional - I received this sample size tube in Glamour magazine last month and was really excited by it as I've heard great things! This instantly helps to minimize the pores on my nose, slightly blur any imperfections and provides a great, smooth base for my foundation. It has a slight beige tint and a really creamy consistency so it blends like a dream. It retails at £23.50 and I can definitely see myself repurchasing this once I've used up my sample. 

7. Essie Nail Polish in Fiji - AAAH! This is definitely my favourite nail polish I've ever owned. The colour is the lightest, barely-there opaque baby pink. It applies beautifully, I love the fan brush and it's completely opaque in 2 coats. The colour just looks so sophisticated and dainty, and if you can't already tell, I am in love. I can't help gushing about it. The only problem is that because it's such a light colour, any little mistakes are really noticeable. I'm not the best at applying nail polish YET, but I'm sure I can find the time to practice!

8. Topshop Lip Stick in Powder Room - I literally just bought this yesterday, and it's already a firm staple in my handbag. It costs £7 from Topshop, and it's basically a lip crayon. Full review here.

So, that's my June favourites! Have you tried any of these products? What have been your June essentials?

Topshop Lip Stick: Powder Room

Topshop Lip Stick in Powder Room

Continuing my foray into the realm of lip colour, I decided to purchase a Topshop Lip Stick in shade Powder Room. I actually really wanted shade Coy, but my local store was out of stock so I settled for Powder Room. I'd also like to apologize for the picture quality, my digital camera is broken so I'm having to make the best of my resources - Blackberry camera and a webcam! It's really hard to get the true colour to show up, but I've tried to catch it in the best light I can.

Topshop Lip Stick in Powder Room

The packaging is gorgeous, as expected from Topshop. It looks really cute in my make-up bag and I just love it.

Topshop Lip Stick in Powder Room

I thought the colour would be a dusky sort of rose pink, but when applied it's actually brighter and more of a baby pink. Very summery and easy to wear!

Swatched on back of hand

 Application wise, I love the fact that it's a chunky crayon because I find regular lipsticks to be quite fiddly to apply. You basically colour in your lips and I also like that the colour can be built up from quite a natural flush of pink, to a brighter colour. The formula is matte, so it is a little drying and I found that I had to give my lips a really good scrub before I used this, or my lips would look really dry and horrible.

In terms of longevity, I found this to be amazing. I applied it at 12pm yesterday, went for lunch, got caught in the rain, smoked, ate and drank and the colour still looked freshly applied at around 7-8pm. This really surprised me because every other time I've used a lipstick, I've had to retouch every hour or two because it just wiped off. I think because this is a matte formula it's much better at holding the colour to the lips.

I can safely say that I love this product! I'm still on the hunt for Coy, but I'm really glad that I bought Powder Room because it's going to be a staple in my make-up bag. Topshop Lip Sticks retail at £7.

Have you tried the Topshop make-up range? Do you have a favourite product?

Superdrug/Boots haul!

Today I finally landed myself a job after 4 months of trying. So I decided that was reason enough for me to have a little shopping spree! I've been lusting after SO many products for months now, so I finally got my hands on certain bits and bobs that I've been wanting.

First up is the Sleek i-Divine Au Naturel Palette. Sleek is a brand I had never really heard of until I started reading beauty blogs, and I've been dying to try one of their eye palettes ever since! I bought this from Superdrug and it cost £6.99, which I think is very reasonable considering there are 12 shadows inside. I opted for the natural palette as I'm not a huge eyeshadow wearer anyway and when I do wear it, I prefer neutral, understated colours. There are 8 matte colours and 4 shimmer colours, so I think there's something for everyone! Really excited to use this, it might even convert me to the "dark side" and I'll be going eyeshadow crazy!

The second item I bought was from Boots, and it's the Clean & Clear Blackhead Clearing Daily Scrub. I have never been a huge fan of Clean&Clear, Clearasil, etc etc, as when I was younger I used a lot of their products to try and battle spots, but they ended up making everything worse. However, I have read some great reviews on this and I've noticed that my nose is full of blackheads which refuse to budge despite numerous attempts using pore strips and various other scrubs! It cost £3.99, but I think Boots have a 3 for 2 offer on at the moment!

The next thing I picked up was the TRESemme Liquid Gold Restorative Complex which cost £6.99 from Superdrug. I received a sample of Berber Oil in a Glossybox and I've loved it, but it is a little pricey for the full-size bottle so I thought I'd try this more affordable version! My hair is flat, fine and very dry at the ends due to years of bleach abuse, so I need all the extra moisture I can get.

I also picked up a Revlon Lip Butter in Tutti Frutti from Superdrug, which cost £5.99 as it was on offer. I think they're usually £7.99. I was really after the Peach Parfait shade, but both Boots and Superdrug were sold out of it so I went for Tutti Frutti instead. I've only recently gotten into lip products, I've always been a lipbalm-and-go kinda girl, but now I'm venturing into lip colour! I'll still be keeping my eye out for Peach Parfait, as I think it looks right up my street colour-wise.

The next item I bought was the Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection Concealer in shade Fair - 1. I'm worried this may be a little too pale for me as even though I'm quite fair, this looked reeeeally pale when I swatched it. Again, I've heard amazing reviews about this product and I'm really excited to see if it lives up to the hype! It cost £4.19 from Boots.

Next up is the Topshop Lip Stick in Powder Room. I fell in love with the shade Coy after seeing Kate wearing it on her blog, and I just knew that I HAD to have it. So off I went to Topshop today, desperately scouring their make-up stand and Coy was nowhere to be found. :( But I found Powder Room and thought it looked gorge, so I purchased that instead and I'm very glad I did! Not going to say too much as I want to do a full product review on this. It cost £7 from Topshop.

The rest of my purchases were a variety of nail polishes! Again, I've never been into nail polish really. My nails have always been short, bitten and naked, but after seeing so many pretty nails on beauty blogs, I've decided that I need to start prettifying mine! First up is the Barry M Nail Paint in shade 317 Blue Moon. I thought this would be a gorgeous pastel baby blue, perfect for summer. I also bought Barry M Nail Paint in shade 318 Peach Melba again a lovely pastel shade (I adore pastels right now!) of coral. I also threw in my basket a Barry M All in One Basecoat, Topcoat & Nail Hardener because I don't even own a topcoat polish! Each of these polishes cost £2.99 and can be found in Boots and Superdrug.

Another product which was brought to my attention by beauty blogs is the nail polish brand Essie. I'm aware that they have only recently launched in the UK, so I bounced into Superdrug today like an excited little puppy to see if I could find my most coveted shades (I wanted Mint Candy Apple, Tart Deco and Fiji). Much to my disappointment, my local Superdrug had no Essie stand at all! So I gave up and went to Boots, but I was very pleased to see a brightly lit, gorgeously inviting Essie stand in there. I spied Fiji straight away and as it was the very last bottle, I snapped it up. I decided against buying Mint Candy Apple, as I had already purchased the Barry M blue moon and felt that the shades were quite similar. Tart Deco was sold out, sniff sniff. :( The Essie polishes retail at £7.99. I also quickly popped into TK Maxx and found a little trio of Essie polishes for only £7! Bargain. Although I have no idea what shades they are. After intensive googling, I think the brown is Little Brown Dress, the pearly topcoat is Kisses & Bises, and the amber clear coat I'm still not totally sure on.. But hey, a bargain's a bargain!

Finally, I picked up a Models Own Nail Polish in shade Golden Peach. The golden shimmer of this coral polish caught my eye instantly, and I beelined for it. This cost £5 from Boots, and I'm very excited to try this. I think it'll look ace with a tan!

So, that's my haul and first blog spot conquered in one! I'm very excited to use all of my new products, I think I'll be painting my nails 3 times a day just to use all of my polishes! I'm planning on writing full product reviews for these once I've given them a good trial run.

Have you tried any of these products? What do you think? And most importantly, WHAT SHADE is that clear amber Essie nail polish?! Seriously, I don't even know what it's for!