Showing posts with label Favourites. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Favourites. Show all posts

Sunday, 2 June 2013

April & May 2013 Random Favourites


Hey Everyone,

Here is the video for my April & May Random Favourites, as I skipped April. I decided to put these into a seperate video this time because one video would have been just too long to sit and watch with everything in it. I might start doing them as seperate videos in future months if you think that it's better that way- let me know in a comment either here or under the video :) 



As always, the links (and in this case videos) I mentioned are included in the description box of the video on YouTube so I'm not going to post them all here and get really repetitive! I hope you enjoy my random faves this month as I know I got a bit rambling and tongue tied trying to describe a few things so I hope I got my point across alright you check them out! 

Thanks for watching!!

Lauren 

xx

My Links- 

Twitter- https://twitter.com/LaurenM26

Instagram- LaurenM262

Blog- http://laurenm26.blogspot.co.uk/

Glipho- http://glipho.com/laurenm26

April & May 2013 Beauty Favourites


Hey Everyone,

So... it is now June, somehow the year is going faster and faster with each month that goes by, so that means that it's time for my monthly favourites video. This is a bit of a long one, so I've split it into two videos with this being all the beauty items and another video with my random things I've been loving which is coming up in a seperate post or you can find it on my channel. 

If you manage to make it all the way to the end of the video then well done! I know lots of people don't like to watch really long videos but I think it's allowed with favourites, especially when there's really two months rolled into one! So before I babble on anymore as per usual, here is the video!


As always, the products and links to all of them are listed in the description box under the video on YouTube and leave me a comment with what your favourite products have been this month! 

Thanks for watching!

Lauren

xx

My Links- 

Twitter- https://twitter.com/LaurenM26

Instagram- LaurenM262

Blog- http://laurenm26.blogspot.co.uk/

Glipho- http://glipho.com/laurenm26



Sunday, 2 December 2012

November Favourites 2012


Hey,

So, we're back around to the time of the month where everyone starts to post their favorite products/things from the previous month. I really like these kinds of posts (and the similar videos on Youtube) because you can see what products people have been loving and it helps if you want to get a few opinions on a product before you buy it yourself. As always, links are included wherever possible!

First up, I've gone slightly nail polish mental this month and they are a large chunk of my favourites and this is why. I went through a very long period of time without wearing any nail polish at all, because of my emetophobia (I was worried I would associate which nail polish I was wearing with being ill, if it ever happened. Sounds crazy but it just shows, when I say it affects every aspect of my life, i really mean it!) and it's only been the last few months that I've been gradually starting to wear it as regularly as I used to. These are the ones I've been loving the most-

Models Own Nail Polishes in Snow White and Juicy Jules
(L-R: Juicy Jules & Snow White taken with flash)
(L-R: Juicy Jules & Snow White taken without flash)
 These colours are currently what I have on my nails at the moment and I really love the combination- it's very wintery looking, especially the Juicy Jules glitter polish which reminds me of frost. The Snow White polish is just a basic white polish that is pretty much opaque after two or three coats. You get 14ml of polish for just £5 which is a bargain really, especially compared to some other brands such as Nails Inc or Butter London. Also if you purchase them from the Models Own website if you buy 3 polishes you save £3 and if you buy 5 you save £7 and the packaging they are delivered in is really nice too!

The Juicy Jules polish is what I really want to talk about though! At first glance, and even in the picture on the Models Own website, it seems to be just a basic silvery glittery nail polish but it's so much prettier than that. The glitter particles are really fine and circular, but when the light hits it just the right way either in the bottle or on the nails it turns almost holographic and instead of plain, boring silver it becomes rainbow coloured. I really love the look of this polish as it can be quite subtle or you could apply more or even mix it with a different size or shape of glitter polish.

I also mentioned these polishes in my recent Movember Favourites post, with more pictures of them on my nails rather than in the bottle. 

E.L.F Nail Polishes in Mint Cream & Fire Coral 


(L-R: Mint Cream & Fire Coral)
 E.L.F is another brand that I've recently been using a lot and I particularly love the formulas of their nail polishes. These are only £2.50 a bottle for 10mls and E.L.F quite often have special deals and codes which mean you can pick them up for even cheaper than that!

Mint Cream was one I recently purchased after seeing quite a lot of people wearing minty coloured nail polishes and really liking it. Normally I steer very well away from anything with even the slightest tint of green, and although I am still on the lookout for a slightly bluer toned mint polish, I fell in love with this colour almost straight away. I think this is about as close to green nail polish I will ever get to! 

I received the Fire Coral polish in a goody bag that E.L.F were doing a while ago with every purchase (they do these occasionally so keep an eye out for that, as well as the codes!) and again, it's not normally a colour I would have chosen if I'd seen it on the website but I instantly fell in love. It's a mix of red and orange, verging more on the red side I would say so is perfect for people like me who aren't a fan of bright bright orange but don't want a bog standard red polish either. 

E.L.F are currently running a discount code to celebrate their 5th birthday but it only last until 10.30AM on Monday 3rd December 2012, as it is only a 24hour code. It's a 50% discount for purchses over £30 so I will definitely be making a little purchase and I would reccomend you do too!! 

Nails Inc Kensington Caviar 45 Second Top Coat



I promise this is the last nail polish related item in this favourites post! I hadn't realised how many I actually had until I started to write!! 

I received this in the November Glossybox in a 4ml sample size worth £5 and I was really pleased to see it in my box as I'd wanted to try it for a while but wasn't sure if I wanted to pay £12 for a full 10ml bottle. After trying it a few times this month I will absaloutely be reurchasing it in a full size. I was using Seche Vite previously and I don't know if I was applying it wrong or something but I could paint my nails in the morning and have a guarenteed chip in my nails by the end of the day which I was not impressed with! If anyone has any tips for getting Seche Vite not to chip that I'm clearly missing, then please leave a comment! Anyways, Kensington Caviar is doing much, much better on the chip proof test! I painted my nails on Tuesday and it's now Sunday and it's only been today that I've got a real chip on my nails which is pretty good going! I currently have two of these mini bottles to get through, thanks to the free gift from Nails Inc after I spent above a certain ammount on their website and then I can definitely see myself purchasing the full size! 

Ok, onto products that aren't nail polish!! I thought that was never ending hehe...

Dermalogica Daily Microexfoliant



This was another product from the November Glossybox and at first, I admit I was a tad sceptical. It's a powder, rice based exfoliant which when mixed with water becomes a paste and you use it as any other scrub after that. I couldn't believe that a powder could exfoliate but I was definitely very wrong and this has quickly become one of my favourite ever products and not just for November! It's a very strange product to use the first time but it has a nice smell and texture to it and it leaves my skin feeling so soft and smooth and just lovely! The only downside I have to this product is it's difficult to gauge how much to use as it just pours out the top really quickly. It is expensive at £38.50 for 75g which I would pay because it is such a good product! 


Garnier Skin Naturals Pure Active Fruit Energy Daily Energising Gel Scrub





This is the face scrub that I've been using for the past few months (and there is also a gel wash which I haven't tried yet) and it's the best one for my skin that I've found so far. My skin can be quite oily (lovely I know!) but I also have patches of dry skin, especially across my cheeks and my nose. This is meant for use on oily skin prone to imperfections and it's definitely the best scrub I've found for my oily skin but I'm sure if I'm a fan of the actual scrub. After using it my face does feel a bit tight but once I apply moisturiser it's fine so that doesn't bother me. It has extracts of grapefruit, pomegranate and Vitamin C and has a really nice fruity scent to it. 

So, after feeling like I would never get to the end of this post i finally made it! Hooray!! I hope you enjoyed reading about my favourite things from this month- what have been some of yours? 

Also, my next post will be a review of The Body Shop 3-in-1 Honey and Oat scrub mask which has also been one of my other faves this month. Keep an eye out for that, it should be up sometime this week, if not the next few days! 

Lauren
xx







Saturday, 1 December 2012

Movember Favorites 2012



Hey,

Now, you might be looking at the title of this post and thinking “Lauren, that isn’t how you spell November” or possibly even “Well… it’s finally happened- Lauren has lost her marbles” but fear not, the spelling is totally intentional.
See...even my calendar knows it's Movember...with a little help from a Sharpie that is! 
 For those of you that haven’t heard about Movember, it’s a charity fundraising event where for the whole month of November, guys agree to grow a moustache (or Mo as they’re known, hence Movember) and keep it for the whole month in order to raise money for Men’s Health and  awareness of the subject, specifically for Male cancers. I’ve only really known about it for the last couple of years but it started in Australia in 2003 and has gradually become more and more famous and worldwide as the years have gone by. Loads of famous people do it each year but anyone is welcome to sign up, grow their Mo and raise money. Last year, more than 854'000 people -known as MoBros and MoSistas (girls who support Movember but obviously can't participate themselves)- took part, raising 79.3 million pounds! I think it’s a really cool idea and it really gets people talking about the cause and of course raises lots of money which can never be a bad thing. (Links to more info at the end!)

So, back to the reason for this post. I know that this is the end of Movember but I decided this month that since I can’t grow a moustache and raise money myself, as well as donating, I’ve gone slightly ‘Movember Merchandise’ crazy this month… basically if I saw anything with a moustache on it, I had to buy it! Also, in my defence my mum has been doing the same and buying things for me, knowing that I’ve developed a small obsession with Moustachey things! I thought it might be a good idea to do a post on the things I’ve collected together, sort of like a usual monthly favourites post but with the Movember twist just in case anyone hadn’t heard of the cause or was wondering why loads of guys have suddenly decided to grow a moustache. I’m pretty sure that donations will be accepted into the month of December if you haven’t had time yet (that was the case last year, so I’m assuming the same will apply this year but if not please don’t go crazy!!).

Also, where possible, I've included links to the products online! :)




This is the thing that started the whole of my little obsession off. A few months back I decided that since I couldn’t grow a moustache for Movember, instead I would show my support by having an iPhone case with a moustache on it. This is the one I chose, but there were loads of different designs if you just search ‘Moustache phone case’ and they were all pretty cheap. I did see some other ones available when I searched the same on Etsy, but these were much more expensive. My favourite (slightly childish) thing to do all month has been to hold my phone up against my mouth to make it look like I had a moustache!

Moustache Jumper & Travel Cup – Both Primark





These were the first things my Mum picked up for me when she was Christmas shopping and she actually had to go back into Primark when she spotted them, so unfortunately I’m not sure how much they were or if they are still available in store. There’s not much to say about the cup really, except it has a rubberised bottom to stop it slipping over and also a ribbed, rubberised hand grip around the middle. I’m currently keeping paperclips in it so I’m not sure how effective it is at keeping drinks hot or anything but I just thought it was really cute.

The jumper is probably my favourite thing out of the whole lot as it is so soft and cosy even though it only has half sleeves. I’ve worn it slouched off one shoulder with a black vest top underneath as it is quite baggy but personally I loved the way it looks like that. I can see it becoming a winter favourite and not just for Movember as it’s so cosy for during the cold weather.  



I know it's horribly blurry but you get the idea!
I bought these for myself when doing a little bit of Christmas shopping on Grindstore and I just thought they were really cute. Grindstore had quite a lot of Moustache things like mugs and cookie cutters and tshirts- again, just search moustache and it will all come up. I managed to restrain myself to just these two things and although unfortunately they are both a little too big for me, I still love them!

Also, in the picture of the ring you can see my Movember nail art that I attempted with Models Own Snow White Nail polish, Models Own Juicy Jules Glitter Nail Polish and a Models Own Nail Art Pen in Black. I’m really pleased with how it came out, although I may need to practice my moustache drawing for next year!! (Also there will be a more in depth review/ramble about those two Nail Polishes in my ‘normal’ November Favourites Post, if you’re interested!)

‘I <3 Moustaches’ Cushion – Primark £6


This, again, was bought for me for my mum the other day but luckily I haven’t taken the price tag off yet so I can tell you that it was £6 which isn’t bad for a cushion and a cushion cover if that makes sense. The cover has a zip so you could take it off if you wanted to or it needed washed or something which I think is quite useful. On one side the cushion is a sort of linen material in cream with I, then a red and white polka dot heart and then a black with flowers print moustache which I thought was really cute and quite unusual as well. The other side of the cushion is just the black with flower print pattern, which I’m not that keen on to be honest but because of the moustache side, I can live with it!

So, that was the things I’ve collected together in my kinda month long Movember haul if you like and I love all of it! There were a few other bits and pieces that I’ve seen that I would really love to get so maybe I’ll just have to gather them together for Movember 2013 and be super organised and ready for it. I’ve already started trying to convince my dad to do Movember next year, by shaving off the moustache he has had for nearly 40years and starting again… I guess we’ll just have to wait and see next year!!

Hopefully, if you know anyone that’s done Movember this year (whether it be someone you know personally or a famous person) you’ll have already sponsored them but if not, as I said before I’m sure there’s still time heading into December!

UK Movember- http://uk.movember.com/ 

Ireland Movember- http://ie.movember.com/

Worldwide Movember Site- http://www.movember.com/

More Information about Movember which explains it all way better than I ever could!- http://uk.movember.com/about/

Thanks for taking the time to read this and happy end of Movember!!

Lauren
xx

Monday, 5 November 2012

October '12 Favourites...


Hi,

Ok so it's the start of November (jeez this year has flown by so quickly, hasn't it?) so it's time to look back on my favourite products/things of the month. Firstly, I would just like to say I know some of the photos in this post aren't the best but I only took them quickly on my phone so hopefully they do the job alright! Also, where possible I've included links to each of the products online :)

The Body Shop Born Lippy Stick Lip Balm
(L-R: Toffee, Lychee Shimmer, Plum, Pomegranate)
(L-R: Toffee, Lychee Shimmer, Plum, Pomegranate)
(Top to Bottom: Toffee, Lychee Shimmer, Plum, Pomegranate)
 I'm a sucker for anything lip balm related because I can rarely find any that I really like or (more often than not) I have so many on the go at once that others get forgotten. I'd always liked the potted versions of these lip balms but sometimes they can be a bit messy and it can be off putting to use potted lip balms when you can't be sure your hands are clean, so when I saw these on The Body Shop website I thought I would give them a try. As you can probably gather by the fact I now have four different flavours, I loved them! They are very moisturising and you can feel them on your lips for quite a long time which I like. They have a slight tint to them, except for the Lychee one which is clear with subtle shimmer in it which I would have to say is my favourite because you don't have to worry about the colour smudging! They all have a really nice scent, although to me the toffee one smells more like chocolate and I love the comic book style packaging and the fact they all have their own design but are all similar if that makes any sense! The other two flavours are Pink Berry and Strawberry and they are all £3 which I think is a bargain given how well they work. 

Bourjois Magic Nail Polish Remover


 One of the things I hate about most nail polish removers is the fact they are such a faff to use- you have to get cotton wool and pour it out, you always use too much and they all smell awful. This nail polish remover solves all of those problems. There's a sponge inside and you just stick your finger in and twist it about and the polish is gone pretty quick (although normally not in the 1 second that the bottle claims!) and the red fruit and vanilla smell left on your hands is quite sweet, unless you try and smell the product in the bottle and it smells just the same as any other nail polish remover! The only issues I really have with this product is I'm not entirely sure how you know how much is left and it's not the best at removing glitter nail polishes but then again, most regular nail polish removers have issues with them too. It is quite expensive for a nail polish remover at £4.99 for only 75ml but I'm willing to pay that for the speed and less hassle that this provides when removing nail polish. 

Nails Inc London Pinkie Pink Nail Polish Supporting Breast Cancer Campaign
This is a gorgeous pink glitter polish, with the idea being to paint your pinkie finger nail with this colour to show your support for the Breast Cancer Campaign that ran during the month of October. Nails Inc donated £1 from the sale of every bottle to the campaign and I thought that this was a really great idea for such a good cause. The price is a little steep at £11 a bottle but then most Nails Inc polishes are around this price. Unlike with most glitter polishes, I felt that there was a good ammount of glitter with the application- I didn't feel that the glitter was staying in the bottle rather than making it onto my nails so this makes the price tag a little easier to deal with and I'm pretty sure that most of the Nails Inc glitter polishes are like this. The one problem I did find was that if you apply the nail polish too thickly it can peel off easily but when I reapplied it with thinner coats, it didn't happen again. Also if I remember correctly, there is a 10 or 20% discount code available to first time customers on the Nails Inc website, it should come up automatically the first time you enter the site and then just put in your email address and they send the code to you. 

Here's some more information about the Pinkie Pink Campaign =) 

Broadway Nails Impress Press On Manicure
(D090 Space Cadet)


 I first used these after receiving them in a GlossyBox (I'm not sure which month it was but they were in the design 'Over The Moon' which is sort of maroon with a gold flowery design) and these are now my third box. They're self adhesive nails but they feel more like a very thick plastic than your typical hard but thin plastic fake nails which I much prefer. They come in lots of different colours and designs so there's something to suit everyone and they cost around £7.99-£8.99 I think. They're good for speed of doing your nails, especially if you want a cool design but don't have the time or artistic skills needed to make it look amazing and I like that the packaging is similar to a nail polish bottle so you could store it with your regular polishes and it wouldn't look out of place. The main problems I have is that they claim to last for up to a week but within a few days mine were starting to fall off. I managed to make them stick on for about four days before they gave up and wouldn't stick again but that was with a lot of hand washing and contact with water which would have affected their staying power. Also the sizes of the nails can be a bit difficult to work with- you might find only a couple of nails to fit each finger with lots of spares that are either too big or too small. I ended up butchering one of the larger nails to fit when one of mine fell off and I couldn't find another of the right size. I would definitely use these again but probably more for a party or special occasion, rather than for everyday wear! 

So, those were my favourite products from October... I wonder what I'll be loving this month! What have some of your faves been? =)

Lauren xx