July Beauty Empties 2018


I'm currently clearing out everything I own to get prepared to move into my new house so it was the perfect time to put together an empties post! These are all the beauty products that I've used up over the last few months, I'll give you a mini review and let you know if I'd repurchase it again in the future.


This is probably the most talked about product from my empties posts, I love micellar water for quickly and easily removing make-up and this is a good one that also happens to be inexpensive, you can also find it on some kind of offer most of the time from stores like Superdrug and Boots. Micellar water is my favourite way of removing make-up when I'm feeling lazy, all you need to do is grab some cotton wool and sweep over the skin till everything is removed, you don't even need to rinse the skin afterwards although if I'm not feeling too lazy I do like to give my skin a quick wash before I go in with the rest of my skincare. I will for sure repurchase this again in the future.


I love Liz Earle products (as you will see as I have a few products from the brand included in this post), this is the second time I've had this moisturiser as my mum often buys me a Liz Earle set at Christmas and although I do like this moisturiser I wouldn't necessarily run out and buy it as I like other items form the brand more. This is lovely and nourishing and it leaves the skin feeling soft and hydrated, it's not overly fragranced so I think it would work well for those with sensitive skin.


This is one of my favourite Liz Earle products, it's definitely not a skincare essential but it's a lovely extra. This tonic is great for removing any final traces of make-up whilst soothing and refreshing the skin before you go in with your chosen moisturiser. This is one of the products I would buy again in the future.


Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser (Limited Edition Rose and Cedrat)
Okay, so this is my favourite product from Liz Earle, I've spoken about it a few times on my blog (click here to read my full review of a selection of Liz Earle products). This cream cleanser breaks down all of your make-up and is easily removed to reveal clean fresh skin, there's a reason this cleanser is so loved/spoken about in the beauty community, it really works and is a pleasure to use. This particular one was in a limited edition scent, they release these quite often now especially at Christmas time. I have already moved onto a new tube of this and I will continue to repurchase it in the future.


This was the first time I had ever tried out this powder and I was fairly impressed, it's a fine powder that applies smoothly and doesn't make your make-up look heavy. The compact is cute but a little bulky although you do get one of those little compartments underneath with a little sponge for touch-ups on the go which is nice. I picked up the shade Fair/Light which worked perfectly on my skin, the powder doesn't have too much pigmentation so it shouldn't change up the shade of your foundation, I believe they have two other shade options to choose from. I enjoyed using this powder but I must say I prefer my Bourjois Healthy Balance Powder which is only slightly more expensive so it's not that I wouldn't repurchase this because there's nothing wrong with it I just prefer something else.


I have spoken about this eyebrow definer before and I have repurchased it a few times now, it's super inexpensive which I love and I use it on days when I feel a little lazier and want to quickly fill in my brows. This is a very soft retractable pencil and although I like it I think it would work best for those with naturally fuller brows as you won't get precise fine lines with this pencil so if you need to do a lot of detail work when filling in your brows then I would choose something else. I probably will repurchase this at some point in the future but not for a while as Brow FX recently sent me a selection of their products which I'm still working my way through, to read about those products click here!

Diego Dalla Palma Ciglione Mascara 
I got this mascara in my M&S Beauty Advent Calendar and I really liked it. It adds length and volume and gave that nice fluttery lash look but it does cost £17.50 which for me is a little expensive considering I can get other mascaras I like just as much for less than half the price so although I enjoyed using this I probably won't repurchase it in the future.


I also received a sample of this product from my M&S beauty advent calendar, as it's a smaller size I can't comment on any of its anti-ageing claims but this is a beautiful night cream that brightens the skin and leaves you looking smoothed when you wake in the morning. This retails for £26 which I would say is mid-range so I would consider buying this in the future as I did like it but as I didn't see any incredible results I won't be rushing out to buy a new jar immediately.

These are all my beauty empties for the month of July, I hope you enjoy these kinds of posts! I think it's great to revisit products once they've been used up to decide if you stick by your first impressions or not. Now that July is done it won't be long before the Autumn weather starts to creep in and I can't wait! It'll be interesting to see the change in the types of products I'm using up as the weather changes.

My Essentials For A Cosy Night In


Today I'm sharing all my essentials to have the perfect cosy night in, I felt this was the perfect time to create this kind of post as Steven and I are about to move out of our family homes and into our own place together which is very exciting but also very expensive so we won't have much money to go out and do things for the next few months while we get settled so we'll definitely be having lots of cosy nights in!

This post is being sponsored by Panasonic who is currently promoting high dynamic range television (HDR) which is great because let's face it the number one thing you want to have for a night in is a TV. Generally when I'm having a cosy night in I will go straight to Netflix as they have so many movie options or I can catch up on the series I'm obsessing over at the time.

Here are some of my favourite things to watch:
Bates Motel
Slasher
Riverdale
Gilmore Girls
Friday Night Dinner
Scream
13 Reasons Why 
Evil Genius 
Mind Hunter
The Originals 


A lot of my favourite things to watch are thrillers and horrors, not necessarily gory horrors but anything that keeps you in suspense with a sinister vibe. I especially love to watch these kinds of films on cosy nights in when I have company because I'm not brave enough to watch scary things if I'm in the house on my own. 

The next thing you need is some cosy blankets and pillows, I love snuggling up on the couch with a big fluffy throw particularly in autumn/winter. To go along with this I would suggest you put on comfy clothes or your favourite pair of pyjamas, 90% of the time if I'm in the house I have my pyjama bottoms on but it's a necessity for a cosy night in. I'm also a big fan of oversized fluffy socks, I find these more comfortable and easy to wear than slippers.


Okay, so one of the most important things for me to have for a night in is snacks! A good one is probably the most classic, popcorn, these days you can pick up so many different and interesting flavours which can be very low fat if you're trying to be good or if you don't care, grab a bag of that ultra sugary delicious Butterkist Toffee Popcorn which just so happens to be my favourite. When you can't be bothered cooking treating yourself to a takeaway is always a good idea, my favourites are pizza or something from the chip shop......yum! Some of my other favourites are chocolate, crisps and ice cream.


The perfect start to a cosy night in starts with a bubble bath and some scented candles, this is one of my favourite things to do when I'm feeling stressed and in need of some self-care. You can even take it a step further and pamper yourself with a face mask etc.

Finally, if I'm having a cosy night in by myself then I like to read a book, I pretty much exclusively read psychological thrillers as these are my favourite but I think I'm going to try and branch out more in the future and find some other genres that I like.


So there you have it, all my cosy night in essentials!
If you have any good movie/tv suggestions let me know!

L'Oreal Les Chocolats Ultra Matte Liquid Lipstick Review


As soon as these liquid lipsticks launched I knew I wanted to test them out, they are budget friendly, beautiful shades and.......they smell like chocolate! L'Oreal has brought out a range of scented make-up which is totally unnecessary but lots of fun, we've already seen this from other brands like Too Faced and now it's filtered down to the drugstore. The Les Chocolats Ultra Matte Liquid Lipsticks come in 12 chocolate-inspired shades that claim to be long-lasting, lightweight and pigmented. They cost £8.99 and I was able to pick them up on a 3 for 2 offer from Boots, I chose the shades Bittersweet and Box of Chocolates and to make the most of the offer I also picked up one of their new bronzers which I will probably talk about in a future post.


I love the packaging of these liquid lipsticks, the tube has that frosted glass appearance giving you an indication of the colour inside and rose gold foil details. It comes with a pointed doe foot applicator with a little well in the centre that holds the perfect amount of product, the point makes it easier to get a more precise application and the scent.....oh my god....it's like chocolate pudding, I love it!


The two shades I chose are quite similar in depth, they are mid-tone nude-browns, the shade Box of Chocolates has more pink tones but both are beautiful. Once these are applied on the lips they take a good few minutes to dry down and they will feel a bit sticky for a while. They dry down almost completely but without feeling dry, it's a matte formula but somehow it keeps a very subtle sheen on the lips I think this may be due to whatever ingredients they use to stop this formula becoming dried out and flakey. Initially, I was very aware that I had something on the lips but as the day goes on you get used to this and it is a very comfortable formula. These are also very long lasting, I've worn these a few times and they've held up really well even with some light eating and drinking throughout the day, I can't comment yet on how they last when eating larger, more oily meals but they have impressive staying power. These never look dry and crusty, they don't crumble off the mouth, the only thing I could say is they slightly enhance lines on the mouth after a while but it's nothing to put me off wearing them. I have also tried mixing a little of these lipsticks over other colours and traditional lipstick formulas and it seems to work well, it helps to mattify other shades and create new colours.


Overall I think these are a great new launch from L'Oreal, they offer a beautiful selection of shades that apply easily, are pigmented and long lasting. If you are a liquid lipstick lover then I think you'll really enjoy these especially considering how affordable they are!


What is your favourite liquid lipstick from the drugstore? 

Testing Primark Longwear Ultimate Matte Foundation


I love testing out new foundations and trying to find ones that work for my skin if you've read some of my other blog posts you may know that Estee Lauder Double Wear is my holy grail foundation but I'm always on the lookout for something that can compete. You can imagine my excitement when I heard people talking about a possible dupe for my favourite foundation, I've heard people rave about the PS... My Perfect Colour Longwear Ultimate Matte Foundation from Primark so I had to try it out. I have actually been on the lookout for this foundation for quite some time but my local Primark only ever seemed to stock a very dark shade that would never work for my skin tone but I stopped in recently and (insert sound of angels singing) they had it! Yaaay! I must say the shade range was still very limited, I believe they had three shades, Porcelain, Nude Beige and the very dark tan shade they previously had, I'm not sure how many shades Primark stock in total but I'm sure the range isn't great.


Okay, so the bottle states that this gives 'double coverage'.....I'm not entirely sure what that means I think it's another way to give the impression that this is a dupe for Estee Lauder 'Double' Wear, anyway it also states this has a matte finish and is oil free. This foundation also comes with SPF 15 (Double Wear only has SPF 10) which I really appreciate and it contains 32ml of product which is slightly more than a standard bottle of foundation which usually contains 30ml. Oh, and it only costs £5!


The packaging is pretty, it comes in a frosted glass bottle which feels like good quality and is similar in style to the double wear packaging although slightly less luxe which is to be expected given the price difference. The only problem I have is that this doesn't come with any kind of pump and the opening of the bottle is very small so it's difficult to get the right amount of product out of the bottle but this is the same complaint I have with the Double Wear packaging.


I picked the shade Nude Beige which is a decent match for my skin tone but I do sometimes like to mix in a small amount of a darker foundation as it's summer and I like to look a little more tanned. If I look through my current foundation collection I would say it is most similar in colour to Nars Sheer Glow in Santa Fe although it is a little lighter.
The first thing I would say is that this foundation does not apply with anywhere near the level of coverage that Double Wear gives but you can build it up and it does have a similar finish. It gives a really lovely even look to the skin even though it won't cover imperfections I do really like how it looks. Other products lay on top of the foundation beautifully and the end result is pretty impressive. 
Another thing that really impresses me is the wear time, I've worn this foundation all day, to work and in hot conditions and although it doesn't look perfect at the end of the day it looks really good, it does wear away a little in some areas but there's minimal creasing in fine lines and although it's a matte formula it doesn't look dry on the skin.


This is one of my favourite beauty products that I've tried from the Primark range and I'll definitely be continuing to use it, I don't quite think it's a dupe for the Estee Lauder Double Wear but it does have some similarities and it's a good foundation in its own right and a total bargain at only £5!


What are your favourite foundations?