The Body Shop Treats

I'm a big fan of The Body Shop, everything smells gorgeous and I'm often found milling around in there and accidentally buying something. My favourite thing about them is that they always have a promotion on so I never feel bad for buying something, I'm basically getting stuff for free right?!

I bought a few bits after seeing a £10 off when you spent £25 and I'd had my eye on a few things ready to be swept into my hands!

Now this isn't particularly attractive to say but I've been running a lot and my trainers aren't exactly leaving my feet in the most silky soft of conditions so I went serious with their foot scrubber. The lovely lady in the shop said give your feet a scrub in the bath so the skin is softer and then seriously smother with their Hemp foot protector and pop some socks on to let it soak in. I know this routine is quite well known but I never knew which products to use, both of these are apparently the hardest working of their foot range. Ok no we can stop talking about feet ewwww!

I then went on to choose from their new Colour Crush range of lipsticks, the range of colours are gorgeous, lots of nudes and pinks which are more up my street. I went for this slightly deeper coral to get out of my comfort zone and it comes out with a slightly light red tinge, a nod to the red lipstick trend but perfect for those a bit scared to go in full throttle like me! 

As usual with the quality of The Body Shop products they've put in loads of extras which actually nourish you lips including oils to make the lipstick glide on like a dream and it also has a lip stain in it so it's got some serious staying power. I think I'm going to have to start a collection! They're currently doing a 40% off and free delivery offer online so pop over there and find your perfect lipstick shade! 

Glossybox July and August

I've been very slow on the uptake with my Glossyboxes while I've been away in London so I've had two in the time I was away so I got two presents all together! I feel like these posts are getting a little samey so I'll quickly whizz through, show you what I got and pick out a few favourites for you!

July:

{Bex London Urban Fragrance}

{Elizabeth Arden's Visible Difference Gentle Hydrating line}

{Nuxe dry oil for face, body or hair}

{Monu Eye Cool Gel}

{Paul Mitchell Moisture Mist}

{Jelly Pong Pong Lip Frosting tinted lip balm}

This was a so so box, I really like the Paul Mitchell spray and the eye gel as they were almost full size so I felt like I was getting my money's worth. But I'm starting to feel that with these boxes I'm just getting different versions of the same fragrance, moisturiser, lip balm etc. which is to be expected after a while.

August:

{DHC Deep Cleansing Oil}

{Allesandro Pro White Brightening Nail Polish}

{Glossybox Glossy Pink Lipstick}

{Lipcote Lipstick Sealer}

{All for Eve Eve's Balm for dry, chapped skin}

{Vera Valenti Eyeshadow palette}

This box's theme was the International heroes which I think they've done well to demonstrate by bringing in brands from other countries. I'm really pleased with the Lipcote and the lipstick and the Pro White nail varnish is so good for when you're giving your nails a few days break from nail varnish to avoid the yellow look! However, who wears GREEN eyeshadow these days?! I know I moan about not getting more than just the same products in the box but really this is a stocking pressie you never use apart from for dressing up which is rare. Apart from that I think I'll get a good use out of these products.

I sound a little down on the lovely Glossybox but I really do love the idea and I'm also glad they've increased the Glossydot worth of reviews to 50 so your 5th box will always be free which isn't bad! My next one is planned to be my free one, thank goodness!!

Glossybox June 2012

Yesterday I got my Glossybox and with all my excitement to get it, I ended up having to open it in the car so I do apologise for the quality of pictures with this one!

I think the box is good, their theme for this is holiday luggage so you can use useful miniatures rather than bringing huge products. However, I've already been on holiday so this doesn't massively help but I'm actually still quite pleased with the products. From the sounds of it, a lot of these boxes were the same so I won't bore you with too much detail!

{Clean Start by Dermalogica - so this product set is probably the best bit of the box, it's a good holiday kit with a face wash, spritz toner and a SPF 15 moisturiser. After giving the toner a quick spritz and having a test of the moisturiser, it's a bit minty and smells a little like foot cream (a la Mean Girls) but I think it's a good set to have in a box}

{BM Beauty Summer Warmth Bronzer - this looks like a really cute bronzer and I've always wanted to try out mineral make up without investing loads of money into it (the main reason I love these boxes). The colour seems a little dark when I tested it but with a little experimenting with foundations I think I'll find a good fit for it!}

{Yves Rocher France Ultra Volume Sexy Plump Mascara - this looks brilliant, the brush is huge which I find essential for volume and length with mascara. I've never heard of this company before so I'm really looking forward to giving this a good trial!}

{Glossybox Pro Beauty Brush - I already have a set of Bobbi Brown brushes so I kinda don't think I'll be using this a lot but it does feel good quality and could be a handy take away for weekends brush when I don't want to repack my whole make up bag}

{Vichy Dermablend Corrective Foundation Kit - this product is designed to hide bad skin problems such as acne, skin spots or extreme redness. I've got a few problems with this one, I'm pretty much only going to be one colour out of this pack. I understand you can't fit everyone with one colour but you have to fill out a beauty survey for Glossybox when you sign up so they could have asked about foundation colour and assigned one colour to each person. Also I don't really have extreme skin problems, I get a few spots but this looks really thick. However, I'll give it a good go and report back later!}

So overall I like the box but it's not my favourite, I think I prefer their themed boxes and I wish they'd stop sending me moisturiser! I've had it in every single box now and I'm getting a backlog! However, I still really love using these sample boxes as you discover and receive thing you'd never usually buy in the shops so I'm not complaining!

A little extra note for this post, the Glossybox blog is actually really good and I would recommend a quick scour round as they have how to tips and beauty news which is done really well in my opinion!

The Body Shop Beautifying Oil

I bought this a while ago on a impulse purchase as The Body Shop had loads of offers on, and frankly I'm a sucker for a bargain.

A friend of mine had told me how good hair oils are for an intense condition and I went straight for this one, it smells so nice (I got the shea and my sis got the coconut, but there are loads of smells to choose from!)

The sales assistant said that you can use it for hair or as a make up remover, which I did try and it works quite well actually but my primary use for it is for hair.

So this is how I use it. I only use it about once a week as it's quite intense, pop a few drops on each clump of hair concentrating at the ends. I have incredibly annoying baby hairs at my parting so I use a couple of drops on this to give them a bit of frizz control. Now this is something you don't do with company round the house as it literally looks like you've added grease onto your hair intentionally and you look disgusting. 

So hide in your room and leave it on for as long as you think it needs, maybe an hour? Then jump in the shower and shampoo as usual but skip the conditioner. Once dry your hair should feel much tamer and a hell of a lot smoother. I've got lots of dry split end bits and I've really started noticing a difference since using this!

Give it a go, The Body Shop always have lots of offers on so make sure you look a few times to get the best deal. This has literally saved my hair while I've been on holiday!

Tester Haul

Last Friday was a pretty good day for many reasons but one of the best things about the day was the Beales Tester Sale. I've worked there for almost 3 years now and I've NEVER been able to go to this amazing event, I'm either at uni or home or simply can't get there in time. So I felt like it was fate that this one was held on my last ever day working there and boy, was I happy I could get to it.

Basically, Beales are allowed to sell all of their testers at the end of each season to their staff, instead of throwing it all away. I've been told incredible things about it as our main make-up stands are your usual department store designer make up and skin care brands. Also they sell perfume testers which people rant and rave about.

Now I can totally understand exactly why they were so excited about the event, I got SO MUCH stuff that I really can't show you everything in this one blog but I thought I could now do a few beauty blogs now I have lots of things to try out.

These are a few things I've been using recently, I'm a very happy bunny!

{Dior Bronze Sun Cream - now I hear you cry "Who on earth needs designer sun cream?!" well I definitely don't BUT it was cheap and you always need suncream right? I've been using it these past few days while the suns been out and it's been a life saver, really thick and stops the sun (if that's what you want) I'm a burner so this is perfect for me. If you ever fancy a posh sun cream then this should be in your list of possibles}

{Clarins Firming Day Cream - this is a lovely thick day cream but it quickly sinks into your skin and is a great base for make up. I really needed a new moisturiser and I would really recommend this one, you get a lot in this pot and it doesn't have any overbearing smells. I've definitely felt a difference in my skin since using it}

{Clarins Tinted Moisturiser - I'm a big tinted moisturiser fan so as soon as I saw this I jumped to buy two of them! It's so smooth and not streaky at all which I feel a lot of tinted moisturisers can do. The coverage is ok but it gives you a good colour and if theres any extra to clear up you can use a concealer which this holds very well. If I could I would buy this again!}

{Diorshow Lash Primer/Maximiser - this is one of my favourite buys as I was going to get this full price as I was bought a Diorshow mascara for Christmas which is really really smudgy so I desperately needed a product to prevent this. It's truly AMAZING, my lashes are at least double the size from when I just usually use the Diorshow mascara which is pretty volumising anyway, it looks like I have false lashes! I'm so happy with it}

{Molton Brown Paradisiac Pink Pepperpod Body Lotion - this smells absolutely delicious and I absolutely love using this after the shower now. It has a really strong spicy fragrance so it could be a perfume alternative and it feels so nice on your skin. I also love the pump bottle as it's so much easier and less messy to apply than a squeezy bottle. I'm starting a small obsession with Molton Brown at the moment!}

How lucky am I?! I spent so much but probably the amount I spent on my massive bag of products would have amounted to one perfume I bought so I'm pretty impressed with my bargain hunting skills!

When I use more of my products I will review them as soon as possible, it's so nice to try lots of different things and change up your shower and skin routines a little!

1st Birthday GlossyBox

I think this is the first time I've actually blogged about my GlossyBox on the actual day I received it, I'm just so on the ball! So this month's theme was for their 1st birthday which made me pretty excited when I received the package as I thought this one's got to be the best one right?

However, I feel kinda slightly disappointed by this box, not because I don't like what I've received, but I don't feel like I've got £12.95 worth of products in there. It's saving grace was the cute little compact mirror they included and the fab wrapping paper, so I'm not upset with my box but I think I had pretty high expectations for this one. I shall, however, let you decide what you think about the box!

{Pretty in Pink}

{How cute is the ribbon and wrapping paper?}

{My little stash!}

{Apivita Express Beauty Masks - these are basically posh face masks, which I never do but my friend swears by them so may have to try them out next time I'm with her! They're a good size and would probably do 3-4 faces from one sachet}

{Lolita Lempicka Perfume - two little testers of perfumes, one is quite spicy and very different from my usual picks but I quite like them! I love these little testers as I keep them in my make up bag and useful for a top up}

{Eldora False Eyelashes - now I'm awful at applying eyelashes so I never wear them but I had hoped for eyelashes in my box to force me to try them again, however NOT with diamantes on! They're so not me! I have discovered that they're easy to take off so I shall be tweezering them off very soon!}

{Noble Isle Shower Gel - this is my third shower gel from my boxes and I'm sort of bored of them. However, it smells delicious and the bottle is really pretty so I think it will be my holiday shower gel as it smells very fresh}

{Osmo Berber Oil Hair Treatment - this is probably the most interesting product as I've just bought a hair oil for the summer and this looks really good, an intense conditioner for your hair, I desperately need it in this sun!}

{GlossyBox mirror and Birthday balloon - cute idea and they've asked their box recipients to blow up the balloon and send a picture of them with the balloon which is a really sweet idea I think, looking forward to seeing the pics all over Twitter!}

What do you think? I do really like everything in my box and will use it all so overall I'm happy, the box is so pretty with the wrapping paper too. It's always a good little pressie to receive from yourself!

I think the hair oil will be the most useful item but I will update you if anything in any of my GlossyBoxes are specifically outstanding items that have made their way into my routines!