Review: Nivea A Kiss of Cherry

Sometimes the universe decides to reward you and provides you with your dream product; This is mine!

Let me tell you why:

One:

I'm a bit of a lip balm addict. I love tinted lip balm especially because it you don't have to worry about your lip colour fading. You'd be re-applying this throughout the day anyway, tinted or not.

Two:

It has SPF 10. Whenever possible you should chose a product with an SPF, no matter what it's for. I feel like your lips are one of the first things to show ageing, so protecting them from the sun is very important.

Three:

For the most part I prefer matt lips, but this has a very slight shimmer to it which looks amazing. Just enough to be flattering and make your lips looks juicy!

Bonus reason for love:

I'll buy anything cherry flavoured or scented because it's my boyfriends favourite. Easy way to score girlfriend points!

Before

Nivea make great lip balms, and this one is no exception. It's very moisturising and my lips have been in great condition since using it.

Obviously the colour doesn't last very long, which is a shame, but it is a lip balm.
It's not exactly a hardship to have to re-apply. Unlike lipstick or even lipgloss, you don't need to pull out a mirror or stop what you're doing. So I don't mind at all.

After

I couldn't find one of these anywhere in the UK, but it was easy enough to buy from the US via eBay.
The regular US price according to Ulta.com is $2.99, which is £1.86. I paid £3.65 for mine from ebay, which is almost double, but most of it was shipping, so I'm very happy with the price!

Laura x

Review: I love... Bubble Bath & Shower Creme

I love... is a very reasonably priced brand you can buy at Superdrug in the UK.

The range consists of several bath & body products in various scents, and some special scents at Christmas time!

They almost always have them on a 2 for £2.99 deal! Bargain!

I'm going to try to explain to you why I love these bubble baths so much.

Shamefully, I take about 4 baths a week. Something which I know is not good for my skin, my water and heating bills, or the other people I live with who want to use the bathroom. Because obviously we're talking about 2 hour long baths here.

As well as those downsides, I go through a lot of bath products, so the fact that I can get two 500ml bottles for £2.99 is some kind of sudsy miracle. 

Even without the Superdrug offer, they're only £2.05 each.

Of course, there are other bubble baths I could get at that price, but the great thing with these is that they compare very favourably to more expensive options such as Philosophy. Obviously not quite as good, but it's a difference I'm willing to overlook considering I could get 9 bottles of I Love.. for the price of 1 Philosophy bubble bath!

They do such an amazing job with the scents. At the minute I have Mango & Papaya and Strawberries & Milkshake, which is my favourite! The best way that I can think of to describe these scents, is if you imagine them as yoghurt flavours, that is exactly what they smell like! I love them.

I know from their website (http://www.ilovecosmetics.eu/) that they have more variety that I've seen in shops, bur they only had two other scents at my Superdrug: Coconut & Cream and Raspberry & Blackberry, which I'll be trying next!

The limited edition packaging for this scent. Pretty! 

A little bit goes a long way with these, you get plenty of bubbles that last a reasonable amount of time time. Not forever but I don't tend to expect much from any bath products as far as how long the bubbles hang around for.

With the amount I like to use, I'd estimate that I get 10 baths from one 500ml bottle, which is great.

Laura x

Review: Avon Planet Spa Lavender and Jasmine Purifying Face Mask

This is the peel of type of mask, which are always fun. A treatment and a toy in one! 

First impression:

The smell of this, while being gorgeous, is very strong. I was a little unconvinced that something so heavily perfumed could be good for your skin, but I've had no bad reactions to it. You might want to avoid it if you have super sensitive skin. 

It's appearance is also quite strange. By which I mean it is incredibly shimmery. That plus the smell makes it feel very wrong to be slapping it all over your face, but after using it for a while, I've decided that I love both of those odd traits. 

It makes a nice change from the dull, beige, cucumber scented skin care products that we're swamped with. Of course most of them do that on purpose; to make us think that they're natural or medical and so must work. 

How does it work:

This mask claims to be "purifying", the idea of these kinds of masks is to "peel away" impurities, like blackheads and such. Obviously it's not going to work like a pore strip and rip them right out (although that would be amazing, the satisfaction of porestripping your nose, ON YOUR WHOLE FACE. They're not very good for your skin though, so maybe not my best idea..) but it does peel away any bits of dry skin flakes (yum). 

Because of that I like to use it over my eyebrows where I get a bit dry. It's not strong enough to rip out any hairs, trust me! Although it looks like it might when you first put it on, which is a very scary thought. 

It takes a little while to dry completely. 5-10 minutes assuming you didn't apply too thick of a layer. Also, if you eat a scone while wearing it, it will peel itself away around your mouth. That might be a thing that happened to me..

I put some on my hand to spare you the sight of my shiny alien face.

Verdict:

It can be quite difficult to apply because it's so sticky. You will want to make sure all of your hair is back, but even so, you will end up with some hairs stuck to your face. 

It leaves my skin feeling very smooth. I find it brightens my skin a lot, too, which may be some of the shimmer in it being left behind. 

Also, it's purple! :D

Laura x

Review: Bobbi Brown Extra Eye Balm

I bought this thinking it was something else. I saw a review of the Bobbi Brown Extra Eye Repair Cream and it sounded amazing! So when I saw this, sitting alone of the shelf with a clearance sticker on it, I grabbed it and checked out in record time.

It might be the best mistake I ever made, because this stuff is incredible.

First impressions:

As the name says, it's a balm rather than the usual cream. It pretty much feels like very thick Vaseline. Reading the directions for using it confirmed my thought that it was meant as a night cream; It's far too thick to wear during the day.

I was very unsure of it when I opened the jar, it has a greasy texture and the smell is not too pleasant. I get the feeling they were going for a cucumber type scent, but missed.

How does it work:

You do have to swirl your finger in it for a while to warm it up before you get enough product. I don't mind that at all because it makes me feel like it's really going to do my skin some good. I like my night time routine to feel like a little ritual so in that sense it's quite fun to use.

The packaging defiantly adds to that feeling. I'm sure I'm not the only girl to love the idea of a big, heavy glass jar of eye cream. It feels like such a luxury item!

Perhaps I'm crazy but I also love the sound unscrewing the lid makes. The dense plastic lid scratching against the glass pot; it sounds like eye cream!

Squeee!

I have oily skin but my under eyes get very dry, (I think because my eyes water a lot - tears are salty - salt is drying. That might not be legit science though!) so I do need to re-apply my normal eye cream throughout the day. With the balm, I can still feel it there when I wake up. Not that it hasn't been absorbed into my skin,  it's just so emollient.

Verdict:

I love it. My eyes look refreshed when I wake up. Where I usually have fine lines, the skin appears slightly plumper. Not puffy, just healthy and hydrated!

£40.50 for 15ml/.5 oz

I did get it on sale, but I will definitely re-purchase it at full price when I run out.

Laura x