June's Glossybox - Summer Style!

Firstly, for those of you that spotted an un-finished blog entry, ignore! I scheduled it to go live today thinking that I would have had the photos uploaded by then, but I completely forgot about everything. I remember doing that with a Youtube video once, all the bits I was meant to edit out, I left in.. very embarassing!

Anyway! Onto this months Glossybox... I haven't really read any reviews on this box, so I'm jumping on no bandwagon here, and all opinions are my own, as always!

Contents -
Glossybox exclusive pro beauty brush
MeMeMe nail gloss (in shade 'sensuous')
BM Beauty bronzer
Caudalie fragrance
Vichy dermablend ultra-corrective foundation cream stick

I am mega excited to try out the foundation. I watched one of pixiwoo's youtube video's a few weeks ago and she used vichy foundation on a girl prone to acne. I actually made a note of this foundation because I was intrigued, so this little kit is gonna help me to decide whether to shell out for the full size one, so top marks there GB!

The nail polish - I have never tried anything by MeMeMe before, however the colour of this just doesn't do anything for me.. its a nude/natural colour, or the colour of concealer, if you like! I've got a few nude polishes in my stash and they don't do anything for my nails.. a nice pastel shade wouldn't have hurt, considering it's meant to be a summer box!

The caudalie fragrance, perfect size at 10ml. This is more like a refreshing spritzer than a perfume and although the smell is pleasant and 'fresh', the scent doesn't last long on the skin at all (I'm talking minutes before I can no longer smell it on my wrist). However, a nice size to pop in your handbag for a freshen up.

The BM beauty bronzer.. I received this exact brand in my GB around christmas time, but in a different shade. To me, this is just a mineral based eyeshadow, however they are calling it a bronzer, but it really could be any! It does give a nice glow to the skin, but can imagine this would be quite hard to work with as a bronzer due to the size of the pot... handling this with a bronzing brush could get a little tricky!

The thing I was most disappointed with was the brush. If it was a named brand then fair enough, but a brush by Glossybox? Is this even a brand now? The bristles don't feel any different from a £1.99 brush kit I'd buy from ebay.. last month it was a mirror with glossybox on the front (which I thought was just a kind gesture because of their 1yr birthday) but this month a cosmetic brush? Are they attempting to bring their own line out or something?!

What did you think of this months GB? Were you impressed?

Primark Splurge

Once again I've been absent from blogging. I go through phases were I lack complete motivation and inspiration if I'm completley honest. However I thought one too many weeks have ticked by since I last blogged so I thought I'd best do something about it!

Although, I'm kinda gonna cheat and give you a link to a recent (ish) Primark haul of mine. Regular readers of my blog will remember that a few weeks ago I went to London for my birthday and bought a handful of stuff from Primark. I presume most of these items will still be in the shops now so run if you take a liking to anything!

I promise I will be back (sooner rather than later!) with even more recent purchases!

May's Glossybox - First Birthday!

I'm proud to say I've been subscribed to GB for one whole year. It's gone so fast, and I remember how excited I was to receive my very first box! I can contain my excitement a little bit more now, but still wait in anticipation every single month. For those that have followed GB, or peoples views on GB over the year, you'll know we've had some brilliant boxes, and not so brilliant, but its true what people say.. it's impossible to please such a massive amount of people all the time.
I can only remember twice over the year were I was pretty disappointed with my box. One being when we all received a sample size of batiste. I think everyone and his dog had a moan about that. The 2nd time was when I received the very same product that I had received a few months previous. The fact that this was body lotion and I hadn't even touched the first one, to then receive the exact same product, its kinda predictable how I felt!

Anyway... on to this months box. I'm not gonna go into a massive amount of detail because you would have seen a handful of these posts by now as I'm a little late posting this. But all I want to say was it was packaged in pretty vintage style paper and had a few small extras. I was very happy with what I received (although I still need to do some searching as I'm clueless as to what one of my products is used for!).

Contents - Lolita perfume (both of these smell divine!) shame the sample wasn't even full!
Noble Isle bath and shower gel. This is another spicey/herbal-y smelling shower gel. I'm more of a sweet kinda gal when it comes to shower gels but I'll still use this. Good sized bottle for a long weekend away (75ml).
Weleda 'Iris' - this is the item I am completely baffled with. On my card it states face cream/body milk, but
there are 3 different products you could get in this range and my product looks like none of the photos. All the
instructions are in every language except English. Mega confused! So if someone else received this product,
please enlighten me as to what it is!
Uniqone - All in one hair treatment. This leave in hair mask gives you a massive 10 benefits from shine and
frizz control to detangling to adding body and a number of other things. Looking forward to trying this out.
'Lets Go' fake eyelashes, 'heartbreaker' style. On the photo these look kinda spidery, but IRL they are pretty full and exactly how I like them. I have seen some that others have received and lets just say I'm glad I received
what I did :-)
We also got a free GB compact double sided mirror. I have loads of compact mirrors but I'm sure I'll get use
out of it at some point! Oh, lets not forget the pink GB balloon too to celebrate their birthday in style!

My travel products box is now spilling over which means one thing... I need to book another getaway!

Interior Design - Table decor/centre piece

I've been in my house almost one year now and everything is almost finally done and how I like it (although I am starting to get bored of my bedroom now as that was one of the first rooms to be done, I'm almost ready for a change.. is this a girl thing?!).

Anyhow, for those of you that know, I have a conservatory, and have been itching to get in it in like, forever.
Over the months, it slowly became a room that housed the clothes horse, dining table and my cross-trainer. Yes, a concoction to say the least.

I bought a dining table around Christmas time with the intention of sitting at it every night with our tea because I didn't like the idea of sitting with it on our laps infront of the TV in the living room, stinking the place out. Buuut, (yes, there's always a but!) for those of you that have conservatories, you'll know they get preeeetty cold in the winter, and I mean cold. We do have a radiator in here, and air-con for that matter (although we haven't really used that) but it still didn't do a great deal, so the conservatory became like our enemy over the winter.

It was only last weekend that because I had a group of friends round for my birthday, did I actually set the conservatory up to make it look a little more respectable. I had been buying items for it for months, but was waiting for a sofa before I set up shop! But alas, I couldn't wait any longer.

In the meantime (jeez, this is turning out to be one hell of a story!) I had been searching for interesting table decorations as I knew our dining table would be the main feature of the room. And this is what I come up with.....

This is a really inexpensive but eyecatching item to have on your dining table and really simple and fun to make!

I used 2 square narrow vases (they were 99p from Morrisons!). I then bought a range of beads in different colours and sizes (depending on your colour scheme, also enquire to make sure they sink!). I then found a large tub of blue flat gem style glass beads from Dunelm Mill for £1.99. Gave all these a good shake. I then bought a cheap bunch of faux lilac flowers, pulled 2 heads off and dunked them in amongst the beads. I then added water and finished with a lilac floating candle. And wallah!

Have you got any fun interior design ideas you'd like to share? I'm always on the look out for my next creative project!

Birthday, London & Musicals!

Blogging has took a bit of a backseat in my life just recently, and I apologise for that... life has been way too busy and when I have had a spare moment, all I've wanted to do is sleep!

We spent last weekend in London, mostly as a birthday present, and I was majorly spoilt, I didn't dip my hand in my purse once (if only every day could be like that). We were only there 2.5 days (to be exact!) so we felt rushed to fit in a much as possible. We did however manage the London Dungeons (proper tourist, I know!), The Science Museum (I thought it was only fair to let my boyfriend do at least one enjoyable thing!), and the full stretch of Oxford Street. (Although I found the latter rather stressful!). We went to see Matilda (the musical) too which was fab, I definitely want to go back and see another musical there again. We got a tiny bit of sightseeing done but not tonnes. I had a lovely time but you really need at least a week there to get everything in, theres so much to see!

London Footage

It was my actual birthday on Wednesday where we drove to a nearby quaint village and spent a few hours mulling round the boutique shops, then came home for lunch in a cafe, did more shopping (I haven't shopped this much in a long time!) then finishing the night with an Indian at my favourite restaurant.

Last night I had 6 girlfriend round for a night of drinks chats and music, so that was nice.

I haven't made many beauty purchases of late, they are more fashion orientated but I will save them for another day.

I have also been working on my conservatory and its slowly coming together now, so more interior design posts coming soon!

Interior Design - Perfume Collection

For those of you that are regular readers, you'll know I'm a sucker for shabby chic. For those that don't, go check out my dressing room.

I've been looking for a perfume stand for a long time now. I was originally looking at the mirrored perfume trays on ebay, but I happened to be looking around a charity shop and spotted this little beauty for £6.

I love the glass on glass appearance it gives, and the fact the perfume bottles reflect in the mirror, think it makes them all look extra pretty, especially when the sun catches them.

I'm always thinking outside the box when it comes to storage (I think my obsession with Pinterest doesn't help!), so this is the second cake stand I've bought and used it for something else.

I'm currently in the process of collecting things for my conservatory. In fact I've been collecting them for the past few months now. It's my birthday next week and I aim to have everything complete by then as I'm having my girlfriends round, so keep your eyes peeled for some more interior design posts!

Hope everyone's enjoying this extra long weekend! I've had a quiet one because on Friday we leave for London for 3 days so I'm saving all my pennies for that! I canne wait! I've only ever been to London once so I'm like a proper tourist! Any recommendations on anything then please throw my way, I'm kinda getting bored of researching everything now!

April's GlossyBox - 'Natural Beauty'

I had been eagerly awaiting this month's box as there seemed to be a massive gap (or what felt like one!) since the last one.
I had no idea what to expect this month, I haven't read (or seen, for that matter) a single thing so everything was a complete surprise (best way!)

The first thing I noticed was the outer box - it was just a plain cardboard box, no GB logo's, no colour, nothing. This made me think it was something else arriving in the post. When opening the box I soon realised why.. its all about the natural/organic products this month.

I'm kinda glad that this is a limited edition box regarding the packaging because I wasn't too keen. I was enjoying getting a nice stack of pale pink boxes in my dressing room to match everything else, then this comes along and ruins it all, how dare they?! But no, on a serious note, to match this months theme, perfect. But if it was a regular occurence then this would be far too bland. But anyway, less talk on the packaging and more on the products!

Contents of box:

Burt's Bees naturally nourishing milk and honey body lotion

Caudalie SOS thirst quencing serum

Figs & Rouge lip balm (for lips and skin)

Monu moisture rich collagen cream

Inika organic eyeliner

I don't really anaylse the contents and conjure up some in depth opinions like I used to. Whether it's because I've been subscribed for a year now and the 'new-ness' of it all has worn of, but I kinda accept what I get given and don't really give it a second thought, but for the sake of this blog, I will ;-)

There's quite a few skin care products in this edition. I hate receiving products that you'd need to continue using in order to gain the desired effect, i.e. purchase a full size bottle. I received a few in the past and sometimes feel its a little waste of time because the trial size is never big enough to achieve the desired effect (i.e. cellulite cream), so how are we supposed to know if it does what it says on the tin before splashing the cash on a full sized one? I know the whole idea of GB is to try/sample higher end things but sometimes it lures you into feeling like you *have* to buy full size. Am I making any sense? No? Thought so.

I do have loads of lip balms but its something I use regularly so in my eyes you can never have too many. Also, with such a cute compact tin, who would frown on this little beauty? Even if I'm not a fan of rose scented lip balms!



I was pretty excited with the eyeliner, the packaging looked pretty swish so I was expecting a similar swish product inside. Was kinda dissapointed that it was your average kohl pencil (pretty make-up products always look so much better in your collection right?) Nonetheless, this is a lovely creamy pencil and is great for smudging too. Mine came in the colour '07 Graphite' which is a lovely smokey grey/black with a tint of silver in, perfect for a smokey eye. It reminds me of an Eyeko eyeliner that we got sent a box or two ago...

I was pleased to see a Burt's Bees product in there. I've never actually owned anything by this brand, and although its a body lotion and we all have tonnes of that stuff, I will get use out of it at some point.

The thirst quenching serum for your skin - I've never really heard of this idea before. You apply it before your moisturiser (I thought it would be in replace of your moisturiser). My skin can often feel dry, however, I think I might save this for Vegas, because I'm guessing with the sun I might need it!