Review: No 7 Triple Protection Tinted Moisturiser

I love the ritual of applying my makeup when I have time, but on weekday mornings at 6.30am, I really can’t face putting on full foundation and spending ages blending and applying it.  This is when I reach for my tinted moisturiser, and for the past 6 months or so, this No 7 one has been my first choice for easy application in a morning.

As I mentioned in my ‘October Favourites’ post, I initially discovered this product through a friend who swears by it.  So much so, she buys it even when she doesn’t have a Boots £5 off No7 voucher!  I didn’t think anyone actually bought anything from No 7 without one of those vouchers! 

The main reason I love this is its ease of application.  Less than a pea-size amount will cover your whole face comfortably, evening out skin tone and helping to cover minor blemishes.  I still need to use concealer for those pesky breakouts on my chin but this does help to make them much less noticeable.  In the summer, I tend to use only this in the morning as I have oily / combination skin which doesn’t require too much moisturising.  In winter however, I use a light moisturiser such as Clinique’s Dramatically Different Moisturising Gel first, and then wait 10 minutes for it to sink in before applying the tinted moisturiser. 

 There are 3 shades available:

• Fair
• Fair / Medium
• Medium

I use Fair / Medium on my NC20 skin and it gives me a nice glow without making me look unnaturally tanned or orange!  One of the main benefits of this product is that it contains 5 star UVA protection and has  SPF 15 included.  Now I know you are supposed to wear high protection sunscreen all year round, but I live in Scotland where the sun hardly ever makes an appearance, and therefore a SPF of 15 is quite sufficient for me for the majority of the year. 

You can't really see much from the swatch below, but it blends out nicely without being shimmery. Wear time is about 9-10 hours for me as it is still there at the end of the day, although I do touch it up a little if I am going out after work.  After about 6 hours, I usually need to blot or apply powder as shine does start to appear on my T-zone, but I have yet to find any tinted moisturiser or foundation that can keep me shine free without a little intervention. As is common for a tinted moisturiser, the finish is fairly dewy but not too shiny, although in warm weather you may need to blot or powder more often.   The packaging is standard as with the rest of the No 7 line, in a 50ml tube from which it is easy to dispense the correct amount.

Verdict:

At £12, or £7 if you have a No 7 voucher, this is a great deal.  It is perfect for those days when you just want to make yourself look a little more human before you pop to the shop to pick up some milk or for a quick and easy application on early mornings. 

5/5

Price –  £12

Where to buy - Boots

October Favourites!

This month’s favourites are a bit of a mixture of old favourites and some new loves, so without further ado, I will get started.

Label.m Resurrection dust – I reviewed this here earlier this month so I won’t go into too much detail, however I still love it and I have yet to find ANYTHING that makes my hair look as poofy and volumised as this!

Revlon Facets of Fuschia – another one I have reviewed recently and one that I really like, but it is a major pain to remove, so much so that I wear it until I cannot wait any longer to remove it when it has started chipping.  I then begin the long and painstaking process of removal….

Chanel Graphite – there has been so much written in the blogosphere about this one that I don’t think I can say any more.  It is an amazing multi-faceted colour which always looks polished and makes me feel very grown up.  It is limited edition so if you find a bottle anywhere, pounce on it!

  

Chanel Illusion D’Ombre, Emerveille – my  current favourite easy-to-wear eyeshadow.  I will have a post coming up about my illusion d’ombres but this one in particular is so easy to use.  I just swipe on with my finger, blend a little at the edges with the No 7 eyeshadow blending brush and I’m done.

Viva Glam Cindi, Mac – sadly not available any more but you can probably find it on ebay.  I love this glossy, wearable red lipstick.  It is a lustre formulation, which I don’t find as drying as the cremesheens, and it just provides a polished, easy look.  Its perfect for people who aren’t sure about wearing red lips and honestly, it is a shade that it suits everyone!

No 7 Tinted Moisturiser – I must be onto my 3^rd purchase of this!  A friend alerted me to it when I was staying with her and I had forgotten my usual tinted moisturiser and had to borrow hers. Since that very day, this has become part of my daily routine.  I find it evens out imperfections and redness, whilst giving a subtle glowing effect.  If you have one of the ubiquitous No 7 Boots vouchers you could do a lot worse than pick one of these up.  I will be posting a proper review of this later in the week.

And that’s it for this month – I am on hols for two weeks shortly, although I will schedule some posts for whilst I am away.  Next month’s favourites will very likely feature products more suited for sunnier climes, despite being close to Christmas!

Review: Mac, See Sheer

Due to the constant influx of products and collections released by Mac these days, I sometimes feel that their permanent collection is overlooked by many in favour of the thrill of the chase of new, limited edition products that are more often lacking in quality compared to the permanent items.

Mac lipsticks are a mainstay of mine and I rarely visit their counter without at least swatching a few.  My Mum is also a Mac lover and owns more of their lipsticks than me!  She tends to gravitate towards similar shades of red and coral, and she has so many she can’t remember which ones she has bought.  This is how she ended up with two ‘See Sheer’s, and how I came to own this little beauty.

 See Sheer has a lustre finish, which is one of my favourites as I find it much less drying than the Cremesheens.  As you can see from the swatch below, it is a gorgeous light coral, with hints of brown in it. Although not completely opaque on the lips, it imparts a good amount of colour and goes well with a similar coral blush like Benefit Coralista or Nars Orgasm. Lasting time for me is approximately two hours which is typical for lustre finishes.  

 In terms of other Mac lipsticks, this is a good halfway between Crosswires which is more or a red coral and Ravishing, which is more of a lighter, paler, peachy coral.  It is so easy to wear as it looks polished and profesional and I wore it pretty much all summer.

L to R: Crosswires, See Sheer, Ravishing

Verdict

Mac’s permanent collection can be oft overlooked for their limited edition collections, however this is a great staple to have in your make up bag as it can be worn in summer or winter without looking too overdone.

5/5

Price - £13.50

Where to buy - Mac, Debenhams, Selfridges

My Life in Perfume

Perfume is such a personal thing and one which instantly evokes memories and emotions.   I have always used perfume daily, and although I have chopped and changed over the years, there are some that stand out for me and that I still associate with certain periods of my life whenever I smell them.  Some I still wear to this day, others I have moved on from, but they still hold a special place in my heart.

My perfume wearing started at an early age, when I was around 9 or 10 years old.  I vividly remember my Mum’s heady scent of YSL Opium when I was growing up and always associated perfume with heavy sensual notes of amber and patchouli or strong floral and rose scents.  It was therefore a revelation to me when I discovered The Body Shop’s , easy-to-wear fruity and musky perfumes.

http://thevintageperfumevault.blogspot.com

Amongst my favourites were white musk and fuzzy peach.  Both very simple scents but for a 9 year old, that was exactly what I wanted, just so I could play at dress up like my Mum!  I don’t think these are sold by The Body Shop any more.   Still, they fulfilled a purpose and instigated my interest in perfumes for the coming years.

boots.com

My teenage years were a mixture of the 1990s CKone which everyone had to have, and Tommy Girl.  CKone’s memorable Kate Moss advert, along with being one of the first, if not the first, mainstream scent to appeal to both men and women, was what made it a must buy for the teenage me.  These days, I don't wear it but I think I still do have a bottle somewhere at the back of the cupboard for when I am feeling retro!   

perfumeshop.co.uk

 Around this time, another clean, fresh fragrance appeared – Tommy Hilfiger’s Tommy Girl.  The 90s were the time for clean minimalism and these perfumes evoked the mood and feel of the time perfectly.

perfumeshop.co.uk

University was the time when I left home and discovered more about who I was, when I was meeting new people and having new experiences in a strange city.  This was the time that I discovered Gucci Rush and its sweet, almost cloying, scent which I remember my Dad used to say smelt like I had dowsed myself in a fruit cocktail!  This was primarily an evening scent, for mad Uni nights out, and I wore it more of less continuously for the 4 years of my degree.  It was my signature scent of the time, and some of my friends have  said that they still think of me if they catch a sniff of it on someone else!  It is not a sophisticated  fragrance by any means and one I would never wear for work as I  associate it with fun and parties and don’t think it is particularly a formal fragrance which one can wear for a meeting and be taken seriously at, for example.   

I do still own Gucci Rush and wear it, although much less frequently and probably only a few times a month as my mad nights out are few and far between these days!  I would say that it sticks around for quite a while but I’m not sure whether that is because it has good lasting power or because I spray on so much of it – probably the latter!

julietinton.com

When I got married during the summer, I wanted a scent that I would remember and would forever associate with my wedding day.  I didn’t want to go with something like Gucci Rush but rather for something that tied in with my identity and to avoid something overpowering.  After toying with various Jo Malone’s, I eventually plumped for Viktor & Rolf’s Flowerbomb, a popular scent that is very distinctive, but when used sparingly, is not overpowering.  My photographer took a lovely photo of the perfume bottle on my wedding day along with my Mum’s pearls.  Since I wore this for our wedding, my hubby says that every time I wear it, it reminds him of that day, as well as how relieved he was to see me after I turned up half an hour late, ooops!

Now, several months on from that day, I still wear Flowerbomb but have recently become more interested in different, more unusual fragrances.  Current favourites are Prada Candy, which although sweet, I think smells more of burnt sugar than cocktails; Jo Malone Pomegranate Noir, which I think is probably a love it or hate it scent and one I often wear for work if I have an important meeting; and my new love which is on my wishlist for Christmas, Tom Ford Violet Blonde.

Do you associate any particular perfumes with specific moments in your life? 

What are your essential everyday fragrances at the moment and what do you have on your Christmas list?

Review: Label.m Honey and Oat Shampoo

I’ve been colouring my hair in the salon for more than 12 years and its fair to say that although I tend to have quite fine, oily roots on occasion, the rest of it can get dry and frazzled very quickly.  And a straw-like mane is not what I am aiming for.

Enter Label.m ’s Honey and Oat Shampoo to the rescue! 

On my last visit to the hairdressers, all I could smell was something delicious whilst having my hair washed and afterwards I found out it was this! * It comes in a sleek black bottle which looks very chic and like it means business.  Their website says it

‘Repairs dry, dehydrated hair without heaviness.  Honey, and Oat extracts combined with Sea Kelp expertly cleanse the hair, while replacing vital moisture, strengthening and adding gloss.’

When using it, the Sea Kelp extracts escape me but the honey and oat make this smell amazing!  I’ve even taken to hiding it from my hubby as he keeps using it to wash his very short hair just because he likes the smell!  It produces a small lather, but nothing too dramatic and doesn’t leave a squeaky clean feeling once you have used it.  It is fabulous at removing excess styling product from your hair and leaving it clean and more manageable.  I use a lot of volume booting products, sea spray and mouse in an effort to give some life to my fine hair and this manages to get rid of them all, reducing product build-up.

I usually use this a couple of times a week, any more than that and I find my hair can’t take the extra moisture and, ironically, feels a bit weighed down.   This is perfect to bring into rotation with another shampoo though (I am currently using it alongside Liz Earle’s Shampoo).

Verdict

As a cleansing shampoo, this pretty much does exactly what it says it will, adding moisture to coloured or processed hair and getting rid of product build up.  It is a little pricier than your average shampoo but if you are just using a couple of times a week, it lasts ages (as long as someone else isn’t sneakily using it that is!).  And it is well worth buying for the scent alone!

5/5

Price – £10.49

Where to buy – Toni & Guy salons, I bought mine from Look Fantastic but it is out of stock at the moment

*as you may have guessed I am a Toni & Guy girl!

Bourjois Pinceau Eyeliner in Or Neo Classique and Noir

As a relative newbie to liquid eyeliner, and indeed eyeliner in general until about 2 years ago, I didn’t want to spend a lot on something that I wasn’t sure about and wasn’t that good at applying.  I chanced upon this gold liner from Bourjois in Or Neo Classique when doing a shop on ASOS (although I can only find it in Boots now)  and as it was only £5.99, I flung it into my virtual basket with abandon.  I liked it so much I recently purchased the black version, in Noir,  which although less forgiving to my unskilled, wobbly hands, is equally fab.

The liner itself has a fairly firm, thin brush which can be used lightly for a thin line or with a slightly firmer hand for a thicker line.   As you can see from my swatches below, the gold is an almost green-tinged gold, not a yellow gold, and I have found that it looks perfect for a polished look with a neutral base (I like Bobbi Brown’s Cream Eyeshadow in Shore) and a red lip such as Mac’s Viva Glam Cindy.

It lasts ALL day without budging or smudging, even through a particularly exerting run after work, and it is very easy to apply, although it does take a while to set so be careful to wait for a minute if you need to finish applying your eye makeup.  I would also recommend wiping the brush a little before applying, as it can pick up quite a lot of product at once. 

    
Verdict

This is an excellent affordable liner which is easy to use and does not budge until you are ready to remove it.  If, like me, you are not an eyeliner pro, this is very easy to use, especially the gold shade which is more forgiving of any errors and mistakes. 

4/5

Price –£5.99

Where to buy – Boots, Superdrug, Tesco

Company Spotlight: Green & Spring

Image from http://popsop.com

I love a chance to pamper myself with a long hot bath after a stressful week and I am always looking for new and interesting products to try out.  One of my more recent discoveries has been Green & Spring.

Green & Spring are a British company, who specialise in using natural botanical ingredients and essential oils in their products, with all items made in the UK.  Their products are free from parabens, SLS and synthetic fragrances. 

They produce a variety of products in several different scents which include

• Lavender (Relaxing)
• Rose and Jasmine (Indulging)
• Peppermint (Revitalising)

The lavender fragrance is my favourite as I find the smell of lavender very calming and soothing.  I have tried both the Shower and Bath Foam (£18) and the Body Lotion (£22)  in the relaxing scent and I love them both although I do find the body lotion quite thick and it takes a while to sink in.  The bath foam is very strongly scented and makes my bathroom smell gorgeous, whilst also producing a decent amount of foam which is not drying on my skin.  I haven’t yet tried the bath oils but they are next on my list as I love the feeling of my skin after using oils in the bath. 

In addition to bath products, they also produce a variety of skin care items including moisturisers, day and night creams, eye creams, scrubs and shampoo / conditioner.  I have tried sample sizes of the day and night creams, and whilst they feel very luxurious, they are a little too heavy for my oily / combination skin.  I would, however, especially like to try the hand cream as I suspect it will be very nourishing and soothing which is just what I need in the current temperatures.

Verdict

Green & Spring are a great brand to try if you enjoy a bit of luxury and prefer products which are more natural and paraben free.  The scents are quite strong in all of the products I have tried, so you may want to approach with caution if you have particularly sensitive skin or if you prefer more subtle scents.   

Where to buy

You can purchase Green & Spring from John Lewis, Look Fantastic, direct from their website or from one of the many stockists listed here. The travel sizes are a great way to explore the range without having to spend too much.

Label M Resurrection Style Dust

This little pot of what looks like (expensive!) salt is my hair lifesaver!  I have very fine hair which is a nightmare to volumise and this product has saved the day on more than one occasion.  It is essentially a dry shampoo but it far outclasses my Bastiste to the point where I have bought a pot to keep in my draw at work for when I need to refresh my hair for impromptu after work drinks!

You use it in the same way that you would use a dry shampoo, sprinkling a little of the powder along your hairline, being careful not to get any on your clothes as otherwise it gives the not so chic impression that you have dandruff!  You then massage it in gently with your fingertips at the roots and this seems to activate it and give you AMAZING volume!  You do have to be careful not to overdo it though as otherwise you will sport the ‘dragged through a hedge' look. 

I primarily use this if I am going on a night out or if I am heading out straight after work as I find it absorbs the oils in my hair to mattify it whilst at the same time providing volume and a gently mussed up look.  It is also useful in that if you want a bit more volume later in the evening you can just do a quick massage at the roots with your fingertips and  poof, you have more volume!  Your hair will feel a tiny bit sticky where you have applied the resurrection dust and you will need to use a good cleansing shampoo afterwards to replenish the moisture and wash out all the product – I like Label M’s Honey and Oatmeal Shampoo which I will be reviewing shortly. 

Verdict

Although essentially an updated dry shampoo, I feel this works much better than Bastiste for me.  The ability to reactivate the volume whenever I feel like it by gently massaging the roots, plus the fact that it is odourless and gives amazing results, makes this a winner.  It lasts forever as well, as I bought it at the beginning of the summer and use it several times a week fairly liberally and still have around half left.  Before I found this I was getting through tons of Bastiste and this is also a lot more portable than even the travel size cans of dry shampoo.  If you have fine hair that requires frequent washing, you must buy this!

5/5  

Price - £10

Where to buy - Look Fantastic, Toni & Guy Salons

Paul & Joe Lip Gloss in 05 Mon Cherie

  

I do love my lip products and this gloss is one that I always come back to as it is so easy to wear with a variety of looks.

The packaging is the standard tube for a gloss with 6.6g product included and a brush applicator.  It looks a very vibrant pink in the tube with shimmering sparkles and glitter visible, and most of the vibrancy translates to the lips.  Don’t get me wrong, it is still a gloss and it isn’t opaque but it does impart a reasonable amount of colour on the lips with only a slight sparkle visible – enough to give a hint of shimmer but not look like you have just eaten a mouthful of glitter!  Wear time is around 2 hours which is average for me with a gloss, although this is a fairly thick, sticky one, so its not a good idea to wear it on windy days with loose hair!  It also thankfully doesn’t have a strong scent, there is a slight fruity smell when you apply but that vanishes almost instantly. 

 

Verdict 

This is the only Paul & Joe product I have tried but I was impressed with it and will certainly be looking forward to trying out more of the range.  I only wish it was a bit easier to get hold of in stores as it would be useful to have a proper look and swatch of their products before purchasing.  The downside is that it is fairly pricey for a gloss, but if you are a fan of Chanel’s Glossimers, this may be a good gloss to try.

4/5

Price – £15-£21

Where to buy – I originally bought this from Beauty Bay for £15, but it doesn’t seem to be there anymore.  A quick search has found it on Strawberrynet for £21

Review: Nivea Hand Lotion Express Hydration

Now that it is properly chilly and my mornings are beginning with scraping frost off the front of the windscreen, it is time to step it up a gear with my hand lotion.  Constantly going from extremes of temperature plays havoc with my skin and my hands deserve special attention.

I received a tube of Nivea Hand Lotion Express Hydration recently from a facebook giveaway and I have been using it continuously over the past couple of weeks to hydrate my hands and prevent them from becoming dry and flaky. 

The consistency is that of which I would expect from Nivea, a medium thickness lotion which isn’t too greasy and with that familiar Nivea scent that is found in all their products.  It absorbs easily and quickly and sinks in without leaving a film on my skin.  There is nothing worse than sitting around unable to do anything whilst waiting for you handcream to sink in and I always find that the phone goes or I have to do something urgently when I am using handcream so the fast absorption is a definite plus point. 

Verdict 

After using this for two weeks, I’m not certain how I feel about this as it appears to be fine for general use but I’m not sure if it can cope with my poor chapped hands.  They feel rather tight and not as moisturised as they would after using my HG Palmers Cocoa Butter hand lotion.  I do however think that the cream does provide express hydration as it claims and fast absorption – it is just that the effects don’t last as long as I would like, which in turn leads to me slathering more on.

4/5

Price – £3.05

Where to buy – Boots,

L’Oreal Glam Shine in Aqua Watermelon

I received this L’Oreal Glam Shine from a giveaway on the L’Oreal website and was looking forward to trying it as I’d seen a lot of advertising for the Glam Shines but had never tried one before.

The first thing that struck me was the size of the product which appeared to be tiny at 6ml, although lipglosses are never huge and this is probably an average size really.  The colour looks a bright pink which made me hopeful that this wasn’t going to be a generic sheer gloss.  However this wasn’t to be….

The applicator was the next disappointment.  As you can see from my picture, it is a ‘furry’ spatula type wand.  I really dislike this, the feel, size and the general hopelessness of it as it pushes the gloss around on my lips.  I don’t mind spatula type applicators and indeed prefer them to brush applicators but this just didn’t do it for me.  Mine was also bent.  I’m not sure if it was meant to be bent or not but it certainly didn’t improve the application experience!

The smell of the gloss is a synthetic sweet smell which goes away after 10 minutes or so.  When applied, it is quite smooth and not sticky but this means that it only lasts around an hour or so on me.  It is also very sheer, going on as more of a clear gloss. 

Verdict  

This lipgloss was a huge disappointment for me, from the size, applicator, smell and colour payoff.  It does live up to its shiny claims although most lipglosses do make your lips shiny by their very virtue of being a lipgloss!  I cannot recommend this though and for £6.99 full price, there are certainly better glosses out there.  Save your money! 

2/5

Price - £7.69

Where to buy - Boots

Review: Soap & Glory, Scrub Your Nose In It

Soap & Glory products seem to have a huge following, with many of my fellow bloggers praising their releases.  I have always been a bit on the fence with them as sometimes I feel they work and other times (Sit Tight for example) they fall flat and do not deliver what they promise.  I was in the market for a new facial scrub and thought I would give ‘Scrub Your Nose In It’ a try as it promised to reduce pore sizes, and give a noticeable reduction in my oily patches around my t-zone. 

Scrub your nose in it can be used as either a regular facial scrub or as a mask, which they suggest leaving on for 3 minutes around once a week for a deep-cleansing treat.  I have been using it mostly as a wake up exfoliator in the shower each morning.  I have used it as a mask once or twice but can’t say that it makes much of a difference to my oily areas and for a deep cleansing mask, I prefer my LizEarle Deep Cleansing Mask  that I use twice a week.  The packaging is your typical pink quirky packaging common to the rest of the brand which I am personally not a fan of but I know many others are.

The scrub itself has the usual minty scent that one comes to associate with Soap & Glory products and has a green tinge.  It is of medium thickness, as you can see from the swatch below, and it spreads easily, with only a  pea-sized amount required to cover the whole face.  The scrub grains are of average size and I did feel that there were sufficient to feel as though they were doing some good.  My skin can be fairly sensitive to harsh products and heavy scrubs but I had no adverse reactions or breakouts after using this 4-5 times a week.  I didn’t however notice a particular difference in my pore size or in the oiliness of my skin which the product claims to minimise, but my skin did feel refreshed and I felt it did achieve what I would expect from a basic scrub in that it made my skin smoother and ever so slightly brighter.    

Verdict  

If you are in the market for a new scrub you could give this a try as it does leave your skin feeling noticeably softer and smother.  However for very oily skin, you may not find it is efficient enough at minimising pores and controlling oil. The tube has lasted me well over a month with no end in sight yet, providing good value for money, especially as Boots often have Soap & Glory products on 3 for 2 offers.

 3/5

Price - £7.40 for 125ml

Where to buy – Boots, Harvey Nichols

Company Spotlight: Bomb Cosmetics

From amazon.co.uk

I first discovered Bomb Cosmetics last Christmas when I received a gift of 6 cupcake-shaped bath bombs from my mum.  I LOVE my baths and am always on the lookout to try new products and these were very cute.  Their website claims that their aim is to make products that make you feel special every time you use them, using natural ingredients and essential oils to scent the products.  All products are hand made in the UK as well.

Their main products are their extensive range of bath blasters at £2.29 each, (similar to Lush’s bath bombs) and their bath melts at £2.09 each.  These are their signature products and it would take you a lot of baths to get through all of them!  I have found that they are very hydrating and leave my skin lovely and soft after using them, rather than leaving me dry and rather scaly like some bath products can do.  They are smaller than those offered by Lush but are beautifully decorated and the scent leaves my bathroom fragrant for several hours afterwards.  They also don’t stain the bath which is another positive, although many of the blasters have ‘bits’ in them such as rose petals or lavender which can make for some time spent cleaning up after your soak.

Other products sold by Bomb Cosmetics include:

• Soaps and Shower Soaps
• Massage Bars
• Shower Butters  - these are next on my list to try
• Body pots, including lotions and scrubs
• Essential Oils and Carrier oils
• Candles, including some lovely ones in tea cups

I have yet to try any of these but if they are the same quality as the bath blasters they will be good. 

Where to buy

You can buy the whole range of products online at Bomb Cosmetics  I have found some of the bath blasters and melts in Fenwicks Newcastle and also in a  small shop in Alnwick, Northumberland which I forget the name of as I bought them after a friend’s wedding and I was feeling slightly worse for wear…!.  There is also a stockist finder on their website which can help you find somewhere close to you. 

If you like Lush products, give these a try, I can heartilly recommend them