Review: Revlon Photoready 3D Volume Mascara - A Benefit Dupe?!

Revlon Photoready 3D Mascara is part of their new 'Photoready' range. I have reviewed the blushers in this range which I was very impressed by and you can check that out here. Firstly, the packaging. It's similar to the very annoying plastic NARS style packaging that unfortunately gets dirty very easily. You can see in the photos how dirty mine is and I have only had this a week and a half! Other than that, the packaging is nice and sleek, albeit a tad plain. The brush is quite big, with long comb style bristles to separate and lengthen each lash. It actually reminds me of Benefit's 'They're Real' as it as the very snazzy little ball on the end of the wand to pick apart any clumped lashes, and to get to the very small lashes in the corner of your eye. The mascara in general is actually very similar to Benefit's 'They're Real' so if you were looking for a slightly cheaper alternative to that mascara, I would give this one a try.

 

In terms of the mascara itself, I wouldn't call it anything spectacular. It does a nice job of coating your lashes and does give a lot of volume, but it's not the effect I tend to like in lashes and it is definitely more of a 'night' mascara. Especially while I'm on placement, the effect is way too much as I need to be having the more natural look. It doesn't flake during a 12 hour day, nor does clump or look bad - it's just not anything special. 

I will keep this and probably use it in the evening, but I can't see myself replacing it. In fact I have already bought a new mascara since buying this one, because I wasn't a huge fan of this one.  I bought this mascara for £10.99 on offer in Boots, where if you buy any Revlon Mascara, you get a Revlon ColourStay Smoky Shadow Stick for free! I'd been wanting to try these so I decided to give them a try. A review of the Shadow Stick is coming once I have tried it and have enough to report back to you on.

Review! Clarins One-Step Gentle Exfoliating Cleanser

Anyone who knows me can tell you that I swear by Clarins Skincare. I love that it's all made from plant extracts so it's so natural, it never makes my skin break out and is just generally lovely. Therefore, when they had one of their superb offers on earlier this year, I jumped at the opportunity to get some large freebies. This is one of the large samples I received, the Clarins One-Step Gentle Exfoliating Cleanser with Orange Extract. This sample is 75ml which is HUGE for a freebie, the full price ones are only 100ml. I've had this before in a full size and it's something I will repurchase for the foreseeable future. 

Exfoliating is something I make sure I do about 2-3 times a week as it's so great to give your skin that extra scrub and unblock any pores, clean any excess dirt and buff away any dry patches. I have combination skin which, at the moment, leans on the side of oily. However I do get quite bad flakey patches around my nose and on my forehead and this little beauty sorts them all out. It has orange extract but I wouldn't say I've ever noticed a particularly orangey smell when I've used it. It is really soft and gentle, but will get the job done. I've used the old favourite St Ives Apricot Scrub as well, and I do prefer this!

What are your favourite skin products? Let me know below!

Weekend Wishlist! August Bank Holiday

These are a few things I was looking to buy this weekend. Unfortunately, I was a complete and utter idiot, and forgot my rail card on a journey from Cambridge to London and had to fork out just short of £100 in fines and new tickets! WHOOPS! I'm going to see about claiming some of it back, but until then, I am reduced to dreaming about these lovely products and crying a little about what a fool I am!

Picture from Debenhams.com

This is something I have seen around a few blogs and channels, the Clarins Colour Accents Face & Blush Powder. I got a chance to swatch this yesterday, as our local Boots has a Clarins counter. This looks so good online and to my dismay, it's even more lovely in real life! The colour payoff is great and it swatches so soft and blendable on my hand. Sob.

Picture from Debenhams.com

The other product I was looking at is the Urban Decay 'Smoked' Palette. We all know that when it comes to eyeshadow palettes, Urban Decay is the top dog and this new one looks set to continue that. I saw a great review of this on FleurDeForce's blog so be sure to check that out for all the swatches.


A few reviews to come next week guys so make sure to subscribe. I'm in a high street phase at the moment so I've got a few Revlon and Bourjois products to tell you all about :)

Tangle Teezer Review!

This review is about something that has definitely made the blogging rounds in recent months, and it is the Tangle Teezer from Boots. 

I had been looking at this a few times in Boots and never really been able to bring myself to spend £10.99 on a hairbrush, especially as I don't have particularly long hair and it doesn't really get overly knotty. However, it was something I wanted to try and I was very pleased when I was gifted it for my birthday recently. I've been using it ever since then, any time my hair is knotty and whenever I wash my hair. I do really, really love this. I would recommend it to any one who has knotty hair because it brushes through mine so easily and without any pain or breakage of hair.

It can be a little hard to grip sometimes as it doesn't actually have a handle and if you use it with dry hair, it can go a little bit haywire. The first time I used it on dry hair, my hair poofed about 3 inches out from my head! However, these are tiny niggles about an otherwise excellent product and it's something I have incorporated into my routine with pleasure.

Review | Clinique Airbrush Concealer!

As an insomniac, I'm always on the hunt for a really great under eye concealer. I find a lot of them don't have a huge amount of coverage in them and mainly work to illuminate your under eye skin, which is great - except when you have dark circles to cover. I have tried Benefits Erase Paste, which was too cakey, and MAC* Studio Fix, which is too drying on my under eye skin. I used to use Collection 2000 Illumination Touch Concealer which worked pretty well and this is the one I was using when I found the subject of this review; the holy grail aka Clinique's Airbrush Concealer.

This is without a doubt, my favourite under eye concealer and something that I don't think I could go without. If ever I woke up and all my make-up had mysteriously vanished, this would be one of the first things I would rush out and by (btw, let me know below if you would like me to do that tag!). I've never given much thought to Clinique's make-up. I like their skin care but have never found myself drawn to their cosmetic range. It was actually a concealer that my mum was using and she said the shade was too light for her. I was using the Collection 2000 one at the time and I said mine was too dark for me. So we swapped and both ended up loving the each others concealers, funny isn't it?!

I have since repurchased this and I definitely would again. It gives such great coverage without caking or looking too heavy and also brightens up your eyes so much. It blends in beautifully and the shade I used which is 01 Fair is a perfect match for my skin. I use this under my eyes and blend it down around my nose where I get a fair amount of redness and it covers any blemishes up easily. Go and buy it right now! Go on, go!

Review: Rimmel 'Wake me up' Foundation

I'm sure any beauty junkie will have heard a lot about this product as it's been hailed as one of the best drugstore/high street foundations on the market. 

My mum bought this for me when I left all my make-up in London as I needed something to keep me going and that would look good, but I didn't want to spend a load of money on make-up I would only use for a week or two! I've always stayed away from Rimmel as I've never been able to verify it's animal testing status. Some websites say they do, some say they don't - it's all a bit confusing really! Since my mum had already bought it, and I did use it for a while, I thought I might as well do a review on it for you all.

'Wake me up' foundation claims to reawaken and illuminate the skin with it's anti-fatigue effect. It does have some microscopic glitter in, which I imagine works to give the radiant effect it claims to give, but these are only noticeable in the bottle and just barely at that. The packaging is quite cheap, but then the foundation isn't high end so I wouldn't expect anything great from the casing. I do like the pump it has, I feel this gives just the right amount to cover your whole face in one pump. I tried a few ways of applying it, and found it applied best with a MAC 130 Buffing Brush, then smoothing down with your fingers to sink it into the skin.

As for the foundation itself? I was impressed, but only to a certain extent. It is definitely a great quality foundation for the price (I believe it retails for £8.99) and it does give a good medium coverage, which could be built up if needed. It's definitely a higher coverage that I would use on a day-to-day basis. I wouldn't say it gives a flawless finish and I find it can cake on certain areas of my face. I would not recommend this for oily skin. I get oily patches around my nose and this foundation would just slip right off here after a few hours. 

Blended in with fingers

Overall, this is a decent foundation for a good price - if you were looking for a cheaper alternative to a MAC foundation, then this is it! I don't think I'll be repurchasing but I probably will finish the bottle, it might just take me a while.

Review: Mac 'Mythology' Eyeshadow

Today I'm going to be telling you guys about one of my absolute FAVOURITE MAC* eyeshadows. 'Mythology' is a beautiful burnt-pinky-copper colour with it's fair share of glitter. If you have blue eyes like me, you'll know that pink/orange shades are one of the most flattering colours to wear and I find when I wear this shade, it really makes my eyes 'pop'. I don't think I would wear this in the day as it is quite bright but I love wearing it in the nights, with a matt brown colour in the crease. You will need a primer with this shade, I often use a MAC* Paintpot in 'Painterly' or occasionally 'Indianwood' to create a really intense look. 

Taken at a funny angle sorry!

I bought this in the pot as I don't have a MAC Pallette but I think I might have to get one, as I'm creating quite a collection now!

 I find it doesn't come out as shockingly bright as it appears in the pot, but it is easily to build up to a lovely deep colour. It's a Lustre finish and has a slight gold sheen in it which you can see when it catches the light. 

Cambridge Haul!

 So some of you may know that I've been in Cambridge for the last week and will be here for another five! I'm here on placement for my Uni at Addenbrookes Hospital so have been pretty busy since I got here on Sunday, and today is the first chance I've had to have a look around the city centre and, of course, do a bit of cheeky shopping!

I went to John Lewis and picked up these cuties. I wanted a mug because I only brought one with me but it's not really enough and I'll take this back to London with me - can you ever have enough mugs?! I love the barista design and it's big enough to hold a decent cuppa. This was £5 which was quite a lot, but as it had a few small chips on the handle and rim (barely noticable), I asked about getting a discount and they offered it to me at £3, which I happily accepted! Bargain!! The notebook I picked up for £6 as I've found myself wanting to jot quite a few things down this first week of placement, and it's a lot easier to have it all in one place, rather than bits of paper all over the place! I love this notebook as the embossed design is just really beautiful and the paper inside is really good quality. I figured during a 9-5 shift, it would make me happy to pull this out to write something down. It's also a micro size and so fits really easily into my tunic pocket.

 I also went to LUSH and bought a 100g bottle of The Olive Branch shower gel for £4.45. The Olive Branch smells gorgeous and is such a beautiful colour! I was a bit trepidus at first because of the olive oil, but the scent that stands out is the mandarins which are really nice. I also picked up another block of Coalface. I mentioned this product in a previous LUSH haul, where I was given a sample of it and didn't use it for ages, but when I finally did, I really loved it! I'm going to be doing a full review on Coalface so keep your eyes peeled for that! Coalface is £4.70 for 100g but I think it's hard to get that amount exactly cut as I paid £5.55 for 118g.

I also picked up this bag from River Island. I needed one of these cheapy canvas bags to carry my stuff in for placement and this had quite a cool (and true!) logo on the front and it was only £1!

I shall be getting some reviews coming up over the next week so be sure to subscribe and comment below :)

11 Questions Tag!

Hey :) I am so sorry for the lack of blog posts recently, I've just started placement in Cambridge and have been so busy and exhausted. I hope that by the end of the week I will have worked out a way of balancing both aspects and will definitely blog a few things over the weekend. I might even do a birthday haul if that's something you guys might like to see...?

Anyway, I was tagged by Liz from LiveLizLoves to do this tag and I'm really excited to do it! I haven't looked at the questions so all the answers will be on the spot. Here goes...

Basically, This is how this thing works :

1. Each person must post 11 things about themselves.2. Answer the questions that the tagger set for you plus create 11 questions for the people you’ve tagged to answer.3. Choose 11 people and link them in your post.4. Go to their page and tell them.5. No tag backs! 

Liz asked these questions:

1.Why did you start blogging?

It's something I've always wanted to do as I've always loved make-up but I'm quite passionate about animal rights and I found it really hard to find cruelty-free make-up reviews so I thought I would take the leap and just start one!

2.If you had to live the rest of your life with 8 make up products, what would they be?

Ooh toughie! Okay, just products and not brushes I take it? Chanel VitaLumiere, MAC 'Rubenesque' Paintpot, MAC 'False Lashes' Mascara, MAC 'Well Dressed', Clarins Translucent Powder, Benefit Hoola,  Benefit Browzings and Revlon Lip Butter in 'Cupcake'

3.What are your dreams for the future?

I would really love to move abroad somewhere to work, that's always been my dream. Other than that, I'd just generally like to be happy and healthy.

4.Any hobbies?

I do Pilates quite often and I'm involved with my uni's Yoga and Pilates Society. I've always enjoyed movies, and critiquing them. Also, I'm quite into Politics, I really enjoy debating.

5.Who/what is your blogging inspiration?

I started reading blogs when I read Fleur de Force, but I really love Zoe from Zoella. I like how she branches out into other things and blogs about things that maybe are not related to beauty, but that are important to her. As for my blogging inspiration, I just like to have people be interested in what I have to say and hopefully get to meet a few people through doing it :)

6.Name the top three things on your bucket list

1) Visit New Zealand, 2) Live in New York for a while, 3) Be successful

7.Summer or Winter, why?

Winter, because I don't like being hot all the time! Plus I think I can pull off winter style a little bit better and who doesn't love snow?!

8.What is your favorite television show?

There is so many! At the moment, I've been really into Game of Thrones but I always watch Grey's Anatomy, The Big Bang Theory, Frasier, Buffy, Homeland, Sherlock and loaaaads more!

9.Favorite color?

Probably red

10.Whats the one thing you always think of that puts a smile on your face?

I think of my parents and me quoting Frasier at each other like nutters!

11.What is your style?

I would describe it as 'polished hippie' - I love maxi skirts, leggings, long tops, woven belts, floral prints, denim jackets but I also like shorts & tights, chinos, shirts and (fake!) leather jackets.

So that's my questions answered, I tag: Jessie from LaJolieFolie, Laura from Laura's Little Secrets, Vicky from Describe The Sky, Jessie from The Bode Boutique and Jess Buckly

My questions are:

1) What's your favourite thing about blogging?

2) Chocolate, strawberry or vanilla?

3) What's your one product that always makes you feel good when you put it on?

4) Are you religious or lazy with your skincare routine? Be honest!

5) What are your favourite make-up brushes?

6) What's your most well-worn outfit in your wardobe?

7) You can only shop in 1 make-up and 1 beauty store for the rest of your life - what would they be?

8) Do your family and friends know about/support your blogging?

9) Did you enjoy or hate school?

10) What's your favourite food?

11) Have you been watching the Olympics?!

x

July Favourites!

VO5* Ultimate Hold Hairpray -  I've found myself reaching for this more and more since it's been warmer as it doesn't make your hair rock hard like I've found a lot do. It gives a good hold but still allows the curls to fall out slightly for that more natural summer look. It's particularly good at keeping your hair in place when it's up.

LUSH 'Peace' Massage Bar - I mentioned this in a recent haul and I'm just in love with it. I've been using it nearly every day and as you can see it's pretty well used!

Clarins Powder Brush - I'm ever so sorry, I don't know the name of this or even where I got it from (bad blogger!) but it's a big kabuki style powder brush which has been great for controlling shine in the past few weeks when it's been very hot!

MAC* 130 Brush - I stopped using this for ages as I was alternating between my MAC 190 foundation and Real Techniques brushes as I find flat foundation brushes worked better to apply my Chanel VitaLumiere, but I've been using this whenever I wanted a slightly higher coverage with my Rimmel Wake Me Up Foundation. It buffs it in so well and is one of my staple brushes that can be used to make any foundation look top notch!

Onto make-up!

Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain in 'Crush' - I've done a review of these balms already, but this is the one I was most impressed by and, as I predicted, is the one I've been reaching for most often. I often wear it with a sweep of MAC's Painterly across my lids and lashings of mascara for a easy but stand-out look. It can be built up to be as deep as you would like which I think is great.

Natural Collection Lipstick in 'Pink Mallow' - I dug this out to use in my MAC Snob dupe post, which you can read here, and since then I've remembered why I like it so much and it's a great natural pink for summer.

No7 Natural Blush in 'Soft Damson' - I bought this as a more natural alternative to Benefit Sugarbomb which I used to use everyday, and I really, really like it! It seems a bit like MAC* 'Well Dressed' but less sheer and slightly warmer. A tiny bit goes a long way to give a lovely flush to the cheeks.

MAC* Eyeshadow in 'Wedge' - I picked this staple item up the other day after seeing it used so much in tutorials but not actually owning it. I see now why it's so popular - it's the most perfect light brown. I've used this nearly every day through my crease, just to get the subtle definition through the socket. 

MAC* Paintpot in 'Indianwood' - I was going to get Rubenesque but I was drawn to the bronze tones in this colour instead and I am so glad I opted for this. It's so easy to just whack on with a finger and instantly makes my eyes pop. I absolutely love it. I've also used it with Mythology by MAC* over the top for a more dressy look. 

Review: LUSH Retread Conditioner

Since starting to highlight my hair blonde at the beginning of November last year, I'd noticed the ends getting more and more dry and they got dyed again and again. I decided it was time for action and decided to order a tub of LUSH's famous Retread conditioner. I'd heard some good things about this online and I thought it would do the trick to sort out my silly hair. 

After using it for a few weeks and going through about a third of the pot, I can say that...I really, really like this conditioner! After using it for the first time, straight away my hair was less knotty, softer and easier to manage. You don't get a huge pot but it's quite thick and gooey so a small amount covers your entire hair. It doesn't leave your hair feeling weighted down either, it's formula is nearly perfect - if they could just sort out the smell! It's not a horrible smell by any means (my Mum ordered Coolaulin at the same time and that reeks!) but it just smells a bit strange. It's hard to describe. The first smell you're hit with is soya yoghurt, and then there is a little whiff of the melon and possibly a hint of olive oil. It's just not the kind of smell you would want for your hair, and nothing compared to my beloved American Dream.

I'm not sure I'll be repurchasing straight away as it's a lot of money for a small tub but I would definitely consider picking one up if my hair was in the same state and needed a bit of a pick-up. 

July Favourites coming over the next few days, camera issues and moving about has slowed my blogging down a bit but I will be back on track next week :)

Excuse my hair on it!

Photos taken when I first bought it so that's why it's full!