BYS Eyeshadow – #8 Moonlit Shores

BYS is an australian brand that we don’t really get here in the UK, but I traded with a friend over the pond to get a few BYS products. They have some gorgeous colours, she got me the palette I wanted as well as a few “lucky dip”/her choice items. This was one of those… And lets just say, me likey! It says “new intense formula” and I have to say, it does appear to have a different forumula to the other products I tried.

They’re higher pigmented and softer, more blendable and yet not too chalky. They’re quite long lasting, it took quite a scrub to get the colours off of me after swatching them. Even the lighter colours. Here are the swatches for you, my darlings;

Aren’t those colours gorgeous? I can’t get over how soft they are, how pigmented even the lightest colour is. That’s just one dry swipe! I wish a proper store sold BYS here. They have some pretty good eyeshadows.

These BYS Eyeshadow palettes cost $4.75(AUS)

Lush Lip Scrub – Bubblegum

I’ve never tried a Lush Lip Scrub before, but it’s a gorgeous pink, and I was sort of having a bit of a Lush spree, I felt a little like a caged animal though, so to be honest it was more of an impulse buy. Oops. You know what it’s like in a Lush store. Usually they pounce on you as soon as you approach the door. Not just one, but three saleswomen pounced on me. I felt very pressured and just wanted to do my shopping and leave. Despite saying I hated how an avacado bath bomb smelled, I still had it shoved in my face trying to make a sale. I wasn’t happy. The smell made me want to gag. As much as I love Lush, I HATE avacados. However she did tell me I had glittery shizzazzle on my nose. I had a nosazzle. >.> Badumtish. Yeah. Anywhoo, the scrub.

It’s literally just a jar of sugar, with some colouring. And a little oil. I dunno how they can justify four and a half quid for it reall though. Luxuary buy for sure. But you could make a lot more in your kitchen for the same price. It smells really nice though and doesn’t taste bad either which I kinda thought it might after reading it has jojoba oil in it. I don’t really go around eating oil if I’m honest… >.> Honestly! Does do exactly what it says on the tin, it exfoliates your lips and it’s not at all unplesant, in fact it’s a little relaxing! I like to apply a good lip balm afterwards! Not that my lips felt at all dry after using it.

This is something I was quite impressed by, however. We all know Lush stuff is handmade, smells divine and is just fabulous, but with the bath/soap products, you don’t really get this. The little sticker telling you who made it and when, it’s a really nice touch and just makes Lush seem more trustworthy to me, which is a bonus. My fella also reviewed this product. “It tastes nice, not bad. It tastes like pink”

I have been in to Lush once since, it was more busy and I was pretty much left alone other than being by the demo lass who just asked me if I wanted any help at all. Much better experience. *nods*

Lush products are available instore and online.

ELF Eyeshadow Palettes

ELF have two eyeshadow palettes with 6 colours in each. Packaged in a glittery silver box. Just an advanced warning, this post is image heavy as I got a lot of

Natural and Smoky palettes, I couldn’t decide which, it was 40% off at the time, so I decided to get both!

This is the natural palette. Some great colours in there, should be pretty useful, right?

Shame really, not as good as it looks. The shadows are all completley different consistency.

These are the swatches of the top row. The first colour was rather chalky, the second, quite dry and doesn’t apply well, the third, soft and just the right amount of pigment. I’ve been using this as my new brow colour.

Same problem here on the second row, only the first colour is the dryer one, more crumbly, less smooth, the second is just kind of poor as is the third which has a lot of glitter in it for my liking. Gutted.

This is the smoky palette.

Again, quite versatile. Purples in there. This one is better than the previous.

Top row, much softer and nicer than the neutral palette. The purple on the end, the third shade was ever so soft, hard to not be heavy handed with it.

The first colour of the second row barely has any pigment, the other two don’t blend as well as I would like and the black at the end is a little chalky, however I’ve seen more chalky shadows like the black in most sleek palettes.

Usable, yeah, but I wouldn’t really recommend them if I’m honest.

These palettes are available from the ELF website.

Spend £6 on Barry M in Boots and get Free Lipgloss

Boots have teamed up with Barry M to offer you this exclusive Lipgloss! If you spend £6 on Barry M, you get this free, Limited Edition Barry M lipgloss for Valentines. It doesn’t really say what the colour is, it just says “Limited Edition Valentines Boots.” This deal is in boots only. Though Superdrug has an offer on Barry M Dazzle Dusts and lip products right now if I recall correctly.

Have you picked this up? Are you going to? I bought the Croc Crackle (which was online only before) to try for myself, and another Base/Top/Nail Hardener. If you’ve got it already, what did you spend £6 on?

Spend £10 on Sanctuary and get a free Sanctuary Gift Set

Spend £10 or more on Sanctuary products at Boots and get a free Sanctuary Gift Set! SCORE.

I adore the design! If you spend £10 or more in Boots on Sanctuary products, you get this cute gift set! I love Sanctuary. I bought a couple of gift sets when Boots first had the range at Christmas, then I got the huge £40 box of goodies for £22 though the mirror in mine is smashed. :< I kept the gift sets for myself as I love them so much! Adore the little body butters that came in them so I bought my best friend a big full sized one for Christmas. (Memories and stuff! She’s not a blogger but she does read my blog from time to time so I just want to give my beautiful friend Hayleigh a wave. *Waves* “SHINE BRIGHTLY”)

I bought myself a pair of Body Washes. I love these, you don’t need a lot either. Good job as they cost £5.05. They’ve changed the bottle design ever so slightly too. Admittedly I prefer the old one but the product is still amazing.

In the gift set you get travel sizes of 4 different products. You get the Luxury Bath Float, nice, though I prefer their other Foaming Bath Soak. (It just feels so clean!) but the bath float is more indulgent. You also get a body scrub, it looks like sugar but it’s a little harsher, it has pumice and such in, I really like that. A little tub of body butter (looks so puny compared to the 300ml full size, almost wanted to keep it when I got it for Hay, haha) which is one of my favourite body butters. It absorbs so well, scent is spot on and it’s not too oily to boot! Lastly, you get a moisture rich foot butter. Now I’ve tried Sanctary foot cream before but not this one so I can’t tell you how it is, but the one I tried was so much better than Soap & Glory Heel Genius.

Do you enjoy Sanctuary products? Will you be going for this offer?

2 for 99p on Slim-Fast in Superdrug

I used to snort at Slim-Fasts’ offerings. I’m a really fussy eater you see, but I saw these a couple of weeks ago (on offer or else I wouldn’t have bought them) and bought a couple. They looked delicious, caught my eye, they tasted it too. I also picked up a box of Celebrity Slim that was reduced. (almost expired) I picked up the shakes more because of they offer a lot of nutrients and I was having issues eating food, but I do want to lose some weight, but I’m not fussed if it doesn’t happen. I figured that some low calorie chocolate bars couldn’t hurt too right? Greedy me ate the pair in one day.

I went back in to Superdrug bought several more. The offer is still on, and it’s on a variety of their bars and little bags which I wouldn’t otherwise buy. 2 for 99p or 69p each. (I believe) I was tempted to try the cheesy nibbles but my purse was screaming at me to leave it alone. I’m not quite on a shopping ban, but I’ve significantly cut back on purchases and am only buying things with deals for the most part.

So slim-fast bars. Absolutley delicious. But defeats the object if they’re tasty enough to make me want numerous.. still, 92 calories a piece. Better than my 200 calorie snacks. Haha.

Went in Superdrug today (17th February) and the deal is now over. But Sainsburys have them the cheapest now.

Origins Super Spot Remover

I was spontanious with this purchase, well, sort of. It came up on BuyaPowa and I just sat there and eyed it up. Had a little search for the internet to see what the word was on it, but I’d already heard good things. I wouldn’t have bought it full price, though I’d not even consider it if it wasn’t for BuyaPowa and the buzz this product got when they had it on previously. I tried a sachet of their Eye Cream and loved that too, shame I can’t afford a full tub!

I know it does say Blemish Treatment Gel but I thought it’d more watery! Haha. What I do is dip just a tiny bit of a clean cotton bud in and apply it to my blemishes. I find it the easiest way to use it, I know some of you probably disapprove. Just, if you do it that way… don’t re-dip the same cotton bud.. My forehead had broken out. Lots of delightfully angry looking spots. Yay! They very first time I used it, honestly? It burned. A few hours later, the spot was significantly reduced, instead of this fresh blob of yuck rearing it’s ugly head, it was just a somewhat red bump. I applied it the next day and by the evening, it was virtually gone. I was astounded. I didn’t think it’d work that quickly. I’ve tried a lot of spot treatments. Although like other spot treatments, it was very drying on my skin, but it did what it says on the tin! The second time I used it, it didn’t bother my skin either. My partner used it when i did too and he didn’t suffer a burning sensation. My skin being weird I guess!

I was surprised how tiny the bottle is, but it’s plenty to go around, you don’t need a lot of product. Have you tried this product? Did you plan to? Did it work for you?

Origins Super Spot Remover costs £12 and is available online or at Origins counters.

Moving House

Our home is full of lots of lovely mold! We have rising damp and our agents broke contract law, so we have to move. If you follow me on Twitter, you probably read about our stress and struggle to find us a new home, we found one and have gotten set, a week from now, we will be moving, come 11th February, we’ll have a new home! I’m quite looking forward to it. Yes it’s going to be stressful but at least we escape the stench eh! I have scheduled posts for my absence but 11th-14th, I probably won’t be able to respond to comments apart from on Twitter but I’ll reply as soon as I return. Gotta leave you guys with something to read while I’m gone, right?

So excited!

Yaaaaaaaaay! And just if you don’t get the 30 rock reference. Have a Doctor Who one instead.

Now go watch 30 Rock till I post again :p

Free Soap & Glory Mascara with ELLE

In this months issue of ELLE, a Thick & Fast mascara from Soap & Glory is up for grabs worth £10. Well I say this months issue, technically it is Marchs’ issue.

Usually this mascara comes boxed. I don’t know about you but I was really excited about this, and yet we didn’t get along.

Mine was sort of dry, sludgy, barely transfered, even when I rubbed it on my hand. Gutted. So I put it in hot water for a while. It somewhat helped, but not a great deal. It was usable I guess, but didn’t work that well for me. Anyone else who got this had the same issue with poor transfer and sludginess?

So have you picked up this freebie yet? Are you going it? Or do you buy ELLE anyway? I only buy these magazines from time to time when I have a little extra, it looked like a thicker issue than usual but I didn’t find the content as good as usual. :(

NOTD 28012012

Whoo. Been a while since I’ve done a NOTD. I’ve been meaning to, I wanted to show you guys a new polish I picked up. Instead I got inspired by cakes and Mr Kipling again and came up with this notd. Missed a little on my pinky and didn’t clean up my nails, sorry, but after I’ve written this post, I’ve decided it’s coming off.

*Cringes at that chunk on my pinky* I did my ring finger first and my nail art pen was like.. nope! D: Ended up using the brush tip instead. This nail art was done without the use of any tape. Always ends up disasterous for me and frankly, I’m not that patient!

Clear base coat
BeautyUK – Frozen Kingdom (secondary base)
Barry M – Strawberry Ice cream
Barry M – Lemon Ice Cream
ELF – White (in my nail art pen for the details)

Anyone else want cake?