MAY FAVOURITES

A little late I know, but these past couple of weeks I've had to sort out so many birthdays and my holiday!
This month I've been liking all the normal stuff, but I thought these guys deserve a special mention, so here comes my May Favourites 2014-

Nivea Daily Essentials Exfoliating Scrub:
If you read my post 'My love affair with Nivea', you'll already know why I love this product, but if you haven't I'll let you know why. This scrub really is gentle, which is ideal for me as most scrubs are too harsh for my skin and cause me to break out. It smells refreshing and leaves my skins feeling so soft so I really couldn't ask for more (plus if you're on a budget it's ideal).

The Body Shop Vitamin E Hand and Nail Treatment:
Even though my nails are hidden under acrylics, I seem to prefer hand creams that claim to help the nails. Why? I really don't know! But anyways, this cream is so moisturising, sinks in quickly meaning there's no greasy hand business, and has helped the overall appearance of the skin on my hands. It's been my handbag staple and I've already had to go and repurchase a few more tubes!

Rimmel Match Perfection Foundation - 010 Light Porcelain:
As I've said a thousand times before, I looooooove this foundation. It feels so nice on my skin, has a medium coverage which is build-able, matches my skin p e r f e c t l y and lasts a good five to eight hours! I really can't rave about it enough!

MAC Blush - Cubic:
This is in fact the only MAC blush I have ever repurchased! This month I've been loving using it as a contour, especially for my cheekbones. Because the colour is such a warm browny/pink shade, it can easy be worn as both a blush and contour. Like all MAC blushes, it has a lovely texture, long wearing and is true to the colour you see in the pot.

Maybelline Cream Blush - 02 Peach:
As a norm, I don't like cream blushes so I usually don't buy them. I actually received this in a goody bag and I'm so glad I did. The shade is an ideal peachy pink and adds enough colour to the face for these spring summer months, and it has such a lovely texture which blends out like a dream.

Benefit's POREfessional sample:
Unlike every other blogger and their mum, I didn't jump on the porefessional bandwagon but I'm so glad I finally have! This reminds me so much of the Beautiful Movements Prime & Create mixing medium in terms of how my skin feels once it's applied. It feels lovely, really does keep my foundation put all day and minimises my horrible pores - so it's a win win win here!

SHOP THE POST:

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The Body Shop Hand and Nail Treatment

Nivea Gentle Exfoliating Scrub

Rimmel Match Perfection Foundation

MAC Cubic

Maybelline Cream Blush

Benefit POREfessional

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MAY BIRCHBOX (WHICH I RECEIVED IN JUNE)

I'm usually a faithful lover of the Glossybox's, but lately they've been a bit pants so this month I decided to give Birchbox ago, and I was pleasantly surprised!

What I like about Birchbox is how they tailor the box to your beauty profile, meaning you'll only receive samples that you want to try and I found with Glossybox, the boxes were so generic and I wasn't trying half of the products I was getting. Oh and Birchbox are on fire right now, look how pretty this box is!

Benefit They're Real Mascara // Sample size

As you all well know, I love this mascara so this sample size will be perfect just to keep in my bag or my upcoming holiday!

Soigné Nail Lacquer - Persimmon // Full size

The colour of this shade is a shade I would definitely have picked, so that a bonus! After searching through some google pages, I've seen some really good review so I'm excited to give this ago.

Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser // Sample size

I've heard so many good things about this cleanser, but I've never ventured out to try this and now I've got the sample, I can't exactly refuse. I like how they've supplied a Muslin Cloth with the cleanser too!

Beauty Protecter Protect Shampoo and Conditioner // Sample size

This duo promises to recuse my damaged hair so I've got high hopes and I'm excited to try these out! They also smell sooooo nice!

Aromatherapy Associates Revive Morning Bath and Shower Oil // Sample size

I'm not usually a fan of any bath oils but this smells really refreshing so it should be interesting to try. All the reviews I've read rave about this product so I'll let you guys know in a few days of what I think about it.

What do you think about May's Birchbox?

SHOP THE POST:

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Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser

Benefit They're Real Mascara

Soigné Nail Lacquer - Persimmon

Beauty Protecter Shampoo and Conditioner

Aromatherapy Associates Oil

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MAY FAVOURITES

Hello ladies! This week has been pure madness so far so I apologise for the lack of posts and the late may favourites, but lets just get this show on the road!

This month has been a budget month, so none of the products are from 'luxury brands' but I know for sure these products are going to be my favourites for a long time!

Soap & Glory Scrub Your Nose In It

Nivea Soft Hands, Face and Body cream

Rimmel Match Perfection Foundation in 100 Ivory

Superdrug's Vitamin E Skin Care All over body cream

Soap & Glory Scrub Your Nose In It

I bought this because I found the name quite amusing (and I'm a sucker for cute packaging), and turned out to love it! You apply a thin layer to cleansed skin, leave it for three minutes and then scrub it off, resulting in blackhead free soft skin. Without question, this has been a revolution for my skin and I honestly don't know what I would do without it.

Nivea Soft Hand, Face and Body Cream

I usually use this as my everyday hand cream and I adore it so much. The formula is really nice as it's not oily but it gives enough moisture to leave my hands really soft. The product is clearly designed to be an all over moisturiser, but I think it may be too heavy on other parts of my skin, especially my face. This is a handbag essential and I doubt I will be using any other hand cream any time soon!

Rimmel Match Perfection Foundation

Well hello new favourite foundation! If you're looking for a dupe for the YSL Touche Eclat foundation, this is probably as good as you're going to get. The medium coverage, which is easily buildable, and almost dewy finish really reminds me of YSL Touche Eclat and the fact it's only £6.99 in Superdrug just screams bargain! This foundation blends really well with my skin, gives me good coverage and smells amazingly are just some of the reasons for why it has become my new favourite foundation!

Superdrug Vitamin E Skin Care All over body cream

Love, love, love, love, loveeeee this product so much! I can almost guarantee that this body cream will blow your socks off, because it certainly did mine! Everytime I use it, I'm left with silky soft skin, what could you want right?

ps. it's so cheap for a massive tub

Nivea Refreshing Facial Cleansing Wipes for combination skin

Lush Bubblegum Lip Scrub

NYC Nail polishes

Real Techniques Buffing Brush

Nivea Face Wipes

Like I've said in earlier posts, I like to take my makeup off with makeup remover wipes before cleansing and exfoliating and I just feel like these wipes are the best for the job. They take my makeup off with ease and don't make my skin feel greasy, probably the best makeup remover wipes I have ever used.

Lush Bubblegum Lip Scrub

A lip scrub that tastes like bubblegum? Of course it was going to be one of my favourites! I wouldn't say there is anything special about this lip scrub, it does what it's meant to do, although it definitely stands out the crowd due to the bubblegum flavour! I honestly cannot part with this product!

NYC Nail Polish

NYC offer really cheap but good quality nail polishes that I have fallen in love with! I really like the range of colours they offer and I especially love the formula of the polish. The colours are bright and vibrant, they don't chip and they dry quickly- pretty much a faultless nail polish! My favourite shade at the moment is Bubblegum Pink which is pictured above. 

Real Techniques Buffing brush

I recently purchased a few brushes from the Real techniques range but this is by far my favourite brush out of my entire collection! The bristles are sooooo soft and it blends my foundation into my skin beautifully. Never ever will I use a different foundation brush!

So that's my favourites for this month and all I can say is roll on June!

MAY EMPTIES

This month has been a budget beauty month and you can clearly see this in this post! Just going to give a quick review on these products that I have recently finished so happy reading!

The hair products:

Tresemmé Split Remedy Leave in treatment

Batiste Dry Shampoo in Paisley

Tresemmé Platinum Strength Deep Conditioning Treatment

Tresemmé Split Remedy Leave in Treatment

I really enjoyed using this product although I found that if I used it too often it would leave my hair feeling heavy and greasy. Overall I would recommend this product to all you beauty lovers out there with damaged hair but use it sparingly! To the claims of reducing the appearance of split ends by 80% after three uses; I disagree. It did reduce to appearance of my split ends, but that was after about 10-15 uses.

Rate: 6/10

Repurchase? Maybe, but I want to try other products first

Batiste Dry Shampoo in Paisley

This was in my last months favourites (check it out here) and I cannot rave about this enough. Its perfect for refreshing your hair between washes and it smells b-e-a-u-tiful 

Rate: 10/10 - By far the best dry shampoo I have ever used

Repurchase? Always!

Tresemmé Platinum Strength Deep Conditioning Treatment

I must admit, I was disappointed by this product. I had read a fair few blog posts on the range and everyone really seemed to love the Deep Conditioning Treatment, I however didn't. I feel like it did nothing to my hair, left it feeling  sluggish and the smell was very off putting for me - far too sweet and sickly. It's a steal at £6 a bottle so I would suggest if you're looking for a cheap hair masque thingy to give it a go, it just wasn't for me.

Rate: 1/10

Repurchase? Sorry to say, but it's a no.

Skin Care products:

Simply Kind to Skin Cleansing Facial Wipes

Original Source Lemon and Tea Tree shower gel

Garnier Deep clean cream wash

Simply Facial Wipes

When it comes to removing my makeup, I like to use a makeup remover face wipe and then use my Clarins Pure Melt Cleansing Gel (the worlds most amazing cleanser ever) with a hot muslin afterwards. Most wipes now days are rather dry and it takes like four billion wipes to remove one days worth of makeup - obviously I'm exaggerating but you get my drift - but these wipes are different! I found these to be very 'wet' (which is good) and quite nourishing but I would still never use them on their own for makeup removal/cleansing my face. Overall, in terms of face wipes they are the best I've used however it did take a little bit of scrubbing to remove my mascara.

Rate: 8/10

Repurchase? Yes

Original Source Lemon and Tea Tree Shower gel

I've previously mentioned Original Source shower gels in my April Favourites and I love them. Basically they're good quality shower gels at a very affordable price that smell delicious. Admittedly this one isn't my most favourite smell but I love it nonetheless! I really would recommend this shower gel for everyday use and the fact that it's so cheap is just a bonus!

Rate: 8/10 

Repurchase? Not necessarily this particular one but I will be repurchasing Original Source Shower Gel, probably in the Chocolate and Mint flavour.

Garnier Deep Clean Cream Wash

I used this product on a daily basis in the morning to ensure I had a fresh face before applying my makeup and I was really impressed. It helped keep my pores clean and clear and left my skin feeling soft. The formula is really nice and I like how the product turns into a foam whilst applying it and the product also helped reduce my breakouts. I highly recommend this to all beauty lovers as it worked wonders on me.

Rate: 9/10

Repurchase? Already have!

Would you use any of these products? Can you recommend any similar products for me to try? 

BIRTHDAY WISHLIST

With my 19th birthday only around the corner I've decided to put together a little wishlist. Firstly, I cannot believe I'm going to be 19 already, and to some they may not sound old at all but I just can't help but think how quick my life is flying by! I want to be a teenager forever! If you know me you will know I am always grateful for whatever I get so please don't view this post as me requesting anything, it's simply what I'm hoping to purchase with my wages/birthday money.

 Zara Office City Bag

Duo Fiber Collection from Real Techniques

Nars Sheer Glow Foundation 

(I've never used this foundation so I really want to give it a go!)

REES 2 Part Hi Sandals from Topshop

As you can tell my wishlist isn't as large as some other bloggers, so I'm hoping I'll be able to purchase all of these items with the next couple of weeks so be sure to look out for a haul post!

Do you have a current wish list? Are any items similar to mine?

All images have been sourced from the link below the image.

GLOSSYBOX TURNS TWO

So it seems that everyone in the beauty blogging world has been very excited for the May Glossybox, and there is no surprise considering they Glossybox turned two this month and by the sounds of their tweets and instagram photos it was going to be a special box, and it is! 

My box arrived today and I was delighted to see three full sized products, two very generous samples and a Glossybox birthday treat!

The box arrived looking like any normal Glossybox but as you can tell the inside was very different!

But lets get to why you're reading this, the products!

As you can see, this box was impressive! This month contained:

Headline Colors Poolside Party nail polish in 083

Jelly Pong Pong Fairy Lashes mascara

Awapuhi Shine Spray in Wild ginger

Roger and Gallet Fleur de Figuier sachets

Beautiful Movements Cosmetics Prime & Create Mixing Medium in sample size

Glossybox Nail files

What I'm most excited to try is the Headline Color nail polish, it's a gorgeous colour and the brief product outline in the leaflet makes it sound like a pretty good nail polish. In the whole box this month I've only previously heard of Roger and Gallet and Jelly Pong Pong. R&G are very well known, whereas Jelly Pong Pong aren't, the only time I had heard of them before was at the Clothes Show Live in 2009 when I brought a bag of makeup goodies from them! Thinking back, I was pretty impressed with the products back them, so hopefully the mascara will live up to my expectations! I'm pretty pleased most of the products in the box are by brands I haven't heard of before, you never know they may become some of my favourites!

I will be trying these products over the upcoming weeks and will be posting about them shortly! 

Do you subscribe to Glossybox? Let me know what you think about the box!