Topshop Macaroon Lipstick

I've decided i have an unhealthy addiction to lip products, mainly lipsticks... I popped out for a little shopping trip with my dear friend and well, I returned with two new lipsticks and one of the Rimmel Apocalips in the shade Apocaliptic the jury's still out on that as I can decide if I love or hate it... Probably the latter... I digress.

One of the lipsticks I bought was the topshop lipstick in macaroon.

Macaroon is a beautiful coral, peach pink shade perfect for everyday where. In my opinion it looks similar to the YSL Peach Passion lipstick that Zoella wears in her everyday make up routine video, I think its a little brighter but near enough. That's just my idea, as I don't own that YSL lipstick, dammit, I cant be sure.

So for packaging. Topshop hit the nail on the head for this every time. I am such a sucker for beautiful things and all of the topshop make up is presented so beautifully I want to buy it all simply to look at it and its BEAUTIFUL-NESS... I'll stop now, I'm sounding like a crazy woman. But anyway, I give ten out of ten for packaging as the swatch on the bottom is an accurate representation of the colour and it looks stunning; not cheap or overdone.

Now for the product, it applies nicely straight to the lips, I do find it can accentuate any lines in your lips slightly so make sure your lips are well moisturised before applying this as it has a matte/velvet finish. The lipstick is well pigmented giving good colour pay off and I would say its fairly long lasting, touch ups throughout the day are needed but most lipsticks are the same. Overall thumbs up for this lipstick I would give it a 9/10!

I wear this lipstick everyday as part of a natural makeup routine and love it! With a bit of gloss over the top its the perfect everyday lip, i think this will be perfect for summer but for now I'm happy wearing it in winter!

I am loving this lipstick and cant recommend the topshop make up line enough, I need to try some of their other shades but in the mean time this is fast becoming my favourite lipstick! Get your self down there and give it a go.

Soap and Glory Dr. Spot

This was a cheeky little Christmas gift of mine from ma famille and I've been using it daily since. So I thought today I would write a little review of it for you.

Firstly lets take a moment to appreciate how beautiful the soap and glory packaging is, I am such a fan of all of their product for the simple reason they just look so darn gorgeous. Its a simple metal tube with a screwy (??) lid, very similar to the craft glue you can get which is a little weird... The writing and is instructions are also ascetically pleasing but they do lack in detail but I'm not sure that's much of an issue as its fairly self explanatory.
So for packaging overall I would give a wonderful 4.5/5!

Now for the product itself and application, Dr. Spot is clear in colour and a gel like formulation. It's smooth and applies easily it should be left for a minute or two to be absorbed and is a little sticky but I think its fine to carry on with your usual skin care routine over the top at this point. It has no sent which I really like as I don't think with a spot treatment product you should be adding chemicals and sents or colours.
For the product I am giving Dr. Spot a 4/5 as there's nothing offensive or wrong with it it just takes a minute or two to soak in which can be a little annoying if you're in a rush.

And now for results, over the Christmas period my skin has been awful. This is, I think, down to stress and bad diet. So I wasn't expecting a miracle worker, and I'd be lieing if I said I have perfect skin now, but the a lot of the redness and actual spots/acne are now gone and I'm just left with scarring which in time will hopefully shift so I can safely say that yes this product has worked a treat! I apply it once in the morning and once in the evening in conjunction with my usual cleanse, tone and moisturise routine. I think this has to be the best spot treatment product I have come across and that's including the, much raved about La Roche-Posay Effaclar Duo  which I tried but had little success with.
So finally for results I give the Soap and Glory Dr. Spot a 4/5!

Well I'm off on a ski holiday this Friday *dances with joy* but I am hoping to schedule some posts for you whilst I'm away, so I'll leave you now to go try, note the try, and pack!

-alex x

Garnier Fresh Essentials

Apologies for the crappy photos. I rely on natural light, and.. there wasn't any.

Over time I've built up quite a number of the products in the Garnier Fresh Essential Enriched with Grape Extract range so I've decided to share my thoughts on the products.

Firstly, what I've got: The eye make-up remover, the cleanser, the toner, and their scrub. 

Lets start with the eye make-up remover as that was the first product from the range I used. I love this eye make-up remover, its lovely and gentle but does what it's meant to. I don't know about you but I find that quite a number of eye make-up removers often sting or burn my eyes, which, as you can imagine, is not pleasant! But, in all the time I've used the Garnier one I've never felt any stinging. This does mean that it can take longer to remove mascara than a stronger alternative, but I'd happily spend a little more time than have sore eyes! So, over all its a thumbs up for this one.

Moving on to the cleanser, this has to be my favourite product out of the range (that I own) because firstly it smells divine, so fresh, but also it just feels amazing on your skin. I use this after the Witch Foaming Face Wash as I don't think that lotion cleansers truly cleanse deep down and remove every trace of make-up on there own (I have spot prone skin so don't want to leave anything to chance). It applies like silk and is so cooling and refreshing, leaving my skin feeling soft, clean and totally make-up free! As someone with combination skin this is great because a lot of cleansers leave my dry areas feeling tight and totally stripped of all natural oils, but others leave the oilier patches of my skin feeling, well, still greasy. So this is a great middle ground product, I use a moisturiser afterwards and this works really well!

Now for the toner, it's a nice toner (note the word nice) but I wouldn't say its anything amazing. I don't find that it really does anything for my skin if I'm totally honest. It feels refreshing on the skin but as far as making my skin "refreshed, brightened, and toned" nope. Although, I must say that this is something I find with toner's in general... they don't really do anything for me. As far as feeling nice I prefer the Simple Kind to Skin Soothing Facial Toner, but I'm totally open to suggestions if anybody knows any great toners.

Now finally the scrub. I really liked this product as the beads (or scrub particles, or whatever you want to call them) weren't to big or too harsh but they still gently exfoliate leaving my skin feeling soft and fresh, just as promised. This is one of my favourite scrubs and I don't think I really use it enough if I'm honest because it's quite dry in  consistency but when I do use it I'm always pleasantly surprised by how my skin feels afterwards.

So overall I'd say a big thumbs up for the eye make-up remover and the cleanser, a slightly less exited thumbs up for the scrub and in the middle for the toner. But as a range I would say they are lovely products and really refreshing.

Have you tried the Garnier Fresh Essentials Range?

-alex x

L'oreal Colour Riche Lipsticks Reveiw

Hello,

Well, I'm leaning more and more in the beauty direction of things with this blog. But, that doesn't mean posts will be solely beauty based from now on because, everyone needs a bit of variety, right? I suppose we'll settle into a routine fairly soon.

Anyway to the point, today I'm doing a review of the L'oreal Colour Riche lipsticks for you (oooh think yourself lucky!). I have two shades from the range 241 Orchid and 373 Magnetic Coral, Orchid is a natural nude pink sort of shade and Magnetic Coral is, as you would expect, a bright orange-y coral.

I would say both are very versatile colours and can be worn both day and night, Orchid is great for a natural everyday make up look if you don't want anything too bold, it also works well with something simple for a more sophisticated evening look. Magnetic Coral on the other hand is as bold as can be and looks great with block colours or monochrome, I love wearing it with my Topshop Aztec Print dress. I wouldn't wear this as an everyday lipstick as I prefer a more natural look but on days when it matches my outfit I do really love this shade.

The lipsticks are both fairly well pigmented and give the expected colour, although Orchid is a very natural shade so can be hard to notice. They don't stay put for that long but with a touch up every now and then its not really an issue.

My main annoyance with these lipsticks is that they have a tendency to fall into the creases of your lips a little, obviously this is partially my own fault for having dry lips but, I find that it is a real issue with these lipsticks and it doesn't bother me with others. Another thing that I would say is a draw back is the packaging. The case is a sort of matte gold colour with the band across the middle saying L'oreal Paris, nothing flashy but it doesn't look cheap. That is until you keep it in your handbag or a drawer for a couple of months and it begins to rub of at the edges leaving the black underneath showing. It also shows up fingerprints Very easily which is annoying. But I do like that on the bullet it has L'oreal Paris engraved, I think this gives a more high end look.

Although I must admit the packaging has got a whole lot better as Orchid is in the old style and instead of having a matte gold case. It was shiny, meaning that fingerprints show up almost instantly and the bullet doesn't have any engraving.

Overall I think the L'oreal Colour Riche lipsticks are really good. Not my all time favourite but they come in some truly beautiful colours and are a good quality product, so its a thumbs up from me.

-alex x