Review | Calvin Klein Tempting Glance Intense Eyeshadows–Tangelo and Vanilla Cream

Hello beauties! I want to talk today about this eye shadow range by Calvin Klein, I first got ‘tangelo’ in a gift set with the bronzers mentioned in my previous favourites, and I loved it so much I picked up ‘vanilla cream’ from Fragrance direct. Now generally I am a palette kinda girl, mainly Sleek because they are boss with drugstore everything in all honesty, but I love my customisable fashionista ones and a few others…you get my drift. I find palettes are more versatile, travel friendly and better value for money. BUT when trying Tangelo, I was so impressed with how soft the shadow is, the pigmentation and the fact that I started using it every single day, the temptation to add another one to my stash became too much.

Lets talk about the packaging – summed up in one word, it is functional. Just clear plastic in a rectangular shape. They’re easy to store away (circular pots can be a right pain sometimes!). If I had paid more for these I’d expect them to be a little more prettier to the eye, but they do the job and make it easy to select the right shade, so little complaints from me :)

There is a huge range of colours available from Fragrance direct but of course as always the issue is the lack of online swatches available, so picking up vanilla cream I expected something slightly different and ended up getting quite a generic colour (something you DEFO want to avoid with single shadows, they’re only good if you get colours not similar to ones in palettes you already own y’know?)

Tangelo (on the left) is a beautiful neutral/orange colour with a slight sparkle about it. It looks ever so pretty all over the lid with just a little eyeliner and some mascara, some how it really add a little something to the eyes. It looks pretty average above, so I will definitely post some instagram photos later this week, but essentially it’s a perfect day/night shade. It blends beautifully and lasts all day. These are available from Fragrance direct (link) for £1.99. It says the RRP price is £13.50 and i'm guessing this is because CK used to do high end makeup? Either way it's fantastic quality, their bronzers are my favourite - so i'm not complaining! I’m not going to start collecting these, but they truly are beautiful single shadows and with 2.6g (that’s more product than you get with a bourjois blush!) they’re more than worth it. However I wouldn’t recommend vanilla cream, simply because the swatches speak for themselves! its probably the most generic shade I've come across unfortunately.

So to sum off:

Pros: –

• soft blendable texture
• lovely pigmentation
• large amount of product in the pan
• Tangelo looks stunning on any occasion ^.^

Cons:

• ONLINE SWATCHES ARE DISMAL

Have you tried any of the Calvin Klein range??

Review | Calvin Klein Tempting Glance Intense Eyeshadows–Tangelo and Vanilla Cream

Review | Barry M Lip-gloss ‘2’ Toffee

Barry M Lipgloss Toffee | LINK | £4.49

Hello! Now way back at the end of July, I mentioned this little gem in my favourites, but never got round to do a full review of it so… here is why I love this gloss so much and the reason it is an essential in my makeup bag!

As you can see from the photos I’ve used over 50% of this, which is rare for me. I’m not a massive ‘lips’ person, though I am trying to change this constantly, but I find the faff of making sure it hasn’t bled, faded, smudged etc. too much of a hassle most days. However I would say the most comfortable colour for me has got to be lighter pinks/nudes. You normally cannot go wrong with this colour combo, university, out shopping, work, even for an evening out/party look a nudish pinks works well. I won’t even go off on a tangent about the difficulty of finding the perfect nude however…lets save that for another post!

All I can say with confidence, is this lip-gloss, paired with any colour adds life to the lips. I find nudes and lighter colours can sometimes look very flat and dull, but when I add this gloss, due to its neutral/nude tone and subtle sparkle it jazzes up the lips, without taking away from the actual colour underneath and essentially keeping it classy and subtle.

It also smells pretty lovely and looks good alone too! It has a doe foot applicator, and is feels comfortable and moisturising on the lips (not that horrid heavy, gloppy, sticky feeling you get with some glosses!) I find it is the most versatile shade and gloss I have come across and it’s one of those trustworthy ‘you-just-cannot-go-wrong’ picks (HG status perhaps??)

With flash

Without flash

It is ever so SLIGHTLY more of a brown toned nude, which some how means it works well with most natural lip colours, and beautifully on top of all bright and light coloured lipsticks and liners :)

It is basically my favourite drugstore lip-gloss ever and I envisage many repurchases of this baby – at £4.50 it’s a total bargain in my eyes! 

Have you tried any lip-glosses from the Barry M range?

Review | Barry M Lip-gloss ‘2’ Toffee

Barry M Lipgloss Toffee | LINK | £4.49

Hello! Now way back at the end of July, I mentioned this little gem in my favourites, but never got round to do a full review of it so… here is why I love this gloss so much and the reason it is an essential in my makeup bag!

Review | Dusty Diamonds

Hello lovely people!

Today I want to share a lovely online shop with you, run by a wonderful lady and it sells a variety of unique, on trend and vintage necklaces, phone cases, rings, watches and more. With the name DUSTY DIAMONDS the pieces are all really classy, stunning and finish off any outfit effortlessly. What really separated this particular online store from the others for me, was the fact that with each purchase you make, a certain percentage of that money is donated to charity (a different one each month) I was so impressed and humbled by that because charity is very important to me (and most people with a conscious usually!) and for this shop to be giving away part of their profit, and allowing me to feel satisfied that I’ve contributed to a good cause WHILE treating myself, it just made the whole shopping experience a lot more satisfying!

First off lets start with the packaging. Now I don’t know about you but I think when a company has put that extra little bit of effort into how they’ve presented their goods, I feel happier with my purchase and overall experience with them and more inclined to shop with them again next time! I mean your lovely new item shoved in a brown paper envelope with a printed message asking for good feedback is hardly very inspiring is it?? (im looking at CHU certain e-bay sellers!) Dusty Diamonds package all their products in adorable stripy paper bags and the cute little touches really made my day when opening them

My first order was some lovely plain and simple, yet extremely affordable gold midi rings. They came in that stripy bag, in their own little red envelope with my name written across, and in that envelope were the cutest little heart shaped confetti! Now if that isn’t the cutest thing ever I don’t know what is! Adored the personal touches, it added so much more value and genuine satisfaction ^.^

A set of five midi rings cost £3 which I thought was extremely reasonable as many places are selling similar rings for a lot more money! I was a simple gold band, not twisted or textured or with charms dangling off, I just wanted a set of midi rings that could be paired with some of my simple gold rings from ASOS and these do the job perfectly! Here are some photos of what they look like on my far from delicate hands:

I popped a thin coat of clear nail polish over the rings as all artificial jewellery tends to lose colour eventually and am thoroughly satisfied with the quality and how they look too!

A few weeks later, there was a sale on dusty diamonds and I had had my eyes on this lovely Chanel case for a while. It is by far the most expensive phone case I have, but I don't regret this little treat in the slightest, it's basically a cute little Chanel purse case which fits the phone and two cards perfectly

It is magnetic, keeping the case shut and the phone protected at all times. I just adore the quilted ‘oh-so-Chanel’ look it has, and though of course it isn’t real Chanel it looks very classy to me! Also I’ve never seen this case anywhere else before, you find so many of the same type copied over and over, but none like these, and with a 10% discount code I had to snatch it up! (Watch out for the amazing sales on the Instagram page @dustydiamonds)

AND LOOK HOW PERFECT THAT GOLD CHAIN HANDLE IS ASNWAKFJEDK I LOVE IT

The phone fits snuggle inside, and it’s easy to use headphones and charge it with the case on. It is made of high quality, and though it is pretty lavish, I couldn’t be happier with it! I have saved this for special occasions as I don’t want to ruin in with my day-to-day rushing about! But thanks Dusty Diamonds ^_^

Overall I just cannot express how impressed I am with this online store: www.dustydiamonds.co.uk, the quality of the products and the level of detail and amount of care with the packaging and making everything look absolutely delightful to receive has made my day and I will continue to buy from this site time and time again. 

Furthermore their ‘slogan’ if you like is: The Goal: To provide you with ornate contemporary jewellery and provide relief for countries in crisis which says a lot about them as a company, and I honestly feel so satisfied that someone out there in the world has gained some happiness, or at least relief at the same time as I have, through Dusty Diamonds. They ship to the UK and US but if you want to purchase something and are from elsewhere, you can easily e-mail them asking for an invoice of the shipping costs :)

Make sure you check out their Instagram page @dustydiamonds and/or check out the facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/dustydiamondsjewellery and let me know what you think of their beautiful, unique pieces! (Whilst you’re on instagram be sure to follow me too @theblushinggiraffe ^_^)

P.S This was in no way sponsored, nor am I affiliated with Dusty Diamonds, I just wanted to share with you guys her brilliant site and hopefully it’ll be useful for when you want to treat yourself/choose a beautiful gift ^_^

Review | Dusty Diamonds

Hello lovely people!

Review | Bath and Bodyworks Pocketbac Anti-bacterial hang gel in ‘Smart Cookie’ and ‘Swingin’ Vanilla’

phhhhhhew that was a long title!

Hello lovelies!

Today I am going to be talking about these two cute bottles, which are from an American brand called ‘bath and body works’. I’m sure it’s a brand that needs no introduction, as even people who have never visited the states (like me!) must have heard about it’s utterly overwhelming selection of scents for all things CLEAN and BATHish. Now unfortunately they do not have a UK store but good ol’ e-bay means we get to try out some of the soapy goodness too!

If you head on over to the US site you will see the immense variety of these ‘pocketbac’ anti-bacterial gels, and you may also see the 5 for $5 which could possibly make you sob internally like I did (WHY IS EVERYTHING SO FLIPPIN CHEAP THERE D:) I saw these on one of those ‘ebay picks for under £5!’ useful posts that some bloggers do and so I clicked HERE and picked ‘smart cookie’ and ‘swingin vanilla’ and they were £2.84 each which is actually ridiculous compared to the US price, but I was too curious and in need of nice smell hand gel to mind. There are quite a few to chose from including regular scents if you wish.

I’m sure many of you have heard of Soap and Glory’s hand maid, which is a fantastic £2.50 and contains 50ml of product, smells ever so sweet and cutesy and actually lasts a jolly good long time. I have just about run out of that bottle, and as I am now dependent on public transport to get to uni and back hand-gel is a complete must for me.

So anyway I haven’t opened swingin’ vanilla yet, but I’m 99.99999%sure that it’ll smell like Vanilla and hopefully not of bananas as the monkey on the front suggests…I am currently using ‘Smart Cookie’ and I think it’s perfectly appropriate for a student (tehehe). It also smells GORGEOUS! I don’t have a brilliant sense of smell, but when my sinuses are cleared I can smell a scent of cookies, cakes and brioche (according to my sister) which is a nice change from the sweet sweet sweet scent of the S&G and also lovely for autumn/winter. In terms of value, you get 29ml, which is 21ml less than with S&G (and probably more compared to the cheaper brands that smell of disinfectant) but they do the job, fit nicely in any makeup bag or even pocket and make a lovely change. If I ever get the chance to visit the US I’ll be stocking up on a huge amount of these, as well as other B&BW goodies! (PLEASE COME TO THE UK!)

Review | Bath and Bodyworks Pocketbac Anti-bacterial hang gel in ‘Smart Cookie’ and ‘Swingin’ Vanilla’

phhhhhhew that was a long title!

Hello lovelies!

Review | MUA Blusher ‘bonbon’

Hello!

I’m sure many of you have heard of MUA’s Blusher range, and maybe some of you may have been uncertain on whether it’s worth buying such a cheap product, like I was too. A few months ago I picked up this shade (one from their newest range) partly because the name was so adorable bonbon and partly because I was curious as to if they’re any good and I loved it so much I went ahead and added candyfloss and cupcake to my collection too!

The packaging is a simple rectangular plastic pan, with a clear lid ideal for storage to pick the right colour out straight away, but certainly nothing special. ‘MUA’ is imprinted into the blush itself, and it has a small clip like contraption (you can see the hole bit) to keep it secure which makes popping one of these in your makeup bag that little bit easier as the chance of it opening and smoshing against everything else is a lot less (TAKES A DEEP BREATH) The cost is £1 and there are 12 shades in the range (six new ones for 2013) which I think is phenomenal for a drugstore brand! There must be a colour for every single skin tone out there and at one pound a pop and 2.4g of product, they’re more than affordable.

The colour bon bon is actually darker looking in the pan that the photo has shown, and with just one sweep of your brush you have more than enough for both cheeks and a third if you’re not careful! (read – VERY PIGMENTED) I find this easiest to apply with a fluffy brush, concentrating the first sweepmid cheek rather than on the apples of my cheeks because the colour can look too intense too quickly! It’s a lovely middlish pink colour, and a nice change from the more peachy tones that I tend to favour. WHICH is another reason why these are brilliant, if you want to invest in a high-end blush but aren’t sure about the tone why not pick up the closest swatch are try it out?

As you can see they are easy to build up, but look beautiful blended out. The lasting power is great, I’m not one to carry around makeup for touch-ups (other than lip stuff of course) but these last nicely! So to conclude (....you can tell I’ve not written a blog post for a whole week – damn you swollen eyelids) these are perfect for anyone on a budget, the shade range is brilliant, as is the pigmentation and they are well worth your pennies! If I ever want to pick up a MAC blusher (I own none as of yet) then I’ll certainly try to find a shade from the MUA collection that matches and test it out first :) Though I’ve not tried the much loved essence blushers these are reminiscent of those at an equally bargainlicious price – chaching!

Pros:                                                                                              

• huge shade selection                                                                  
• brilliant/unbeatable price!
• soft powder
• fantastic pigmentation

Cons:

• cheap packaging that isn’t spectacular (but it does the job so this is a bit of an unfair con)
• can be easy to over apply this particular shade if heavy handed

WHAT ARE YOUR FAVOURITE DRUGSTORE BLUSHERS?

Review | MUA Blusher ‘bonbon’

Hello!

The Autumn Tag!

 




I wasn’t tagged by anyone, but I've seen a few of these floating around the blogosphere and thought it looked fun so here goes ^_^

1. Favourite thing about Autumn?
Being able to layer up again! I love wearing layers and truthfully do all year round other than those sweltering hot summer days, but this is the season of getting back into cosy dressing – just the way I like it! I also love switching up my makeup, 95% of the time I don’t bother with mascara in the spring/summer simply because it’s a bit of a faff, but I love coating my lashes and thickening my top liner slightly in this season..its not even a conscious switch I just find myself more drawn to particular looks?! Oh and FINALLY (I'm such a cheat I know) its AUTUMN COLOURS, khaki and maroon/burgundy are my absolute favourites and I tend to stick to them often with gold jewellery, gah what is not to love?!


2. Favourite drink?
Vanilla latte with lots of sugar. Or a good old cup of tea, strong and sweet with two sugars – nom!


3. Favourite scent/candle?
When my sense of smell isn’t playing up generally I love sweet smelling candles (the cupcake ones from Primark were my absolute favourite of all time ever. But anything warm and cosy really, I tend to steer away from lemon/lime and refreshing scents they just don’t feel right!


4. Best lipstick?
In all honesty I’m still not much of a lippie person, but I really want to have the guts to wear MUA’s shade in ‘1’ its the perfect dark berry/red shade for the colder months! I guess what I’ve been opting for most days are my nudes and apocalips (posts coming up my favourites soon!)


5. Go to moisturiser?
Still my all time favourite ‘Oilatum Natural repair face cream’ it works wonders for normal/dry skin and is a beautiful base from a non-primer kinda gal like me.


6. Go to colours for the eyes?
The neutral Smokey eye that consists of browns and of course gold's! I love me some gold’s which is why having an amazing fashionista palette full of them is going to come in very handy!


7. Favourite music or band/singer to listen to?
I've kind of gone off of music as of late. I listen to whatever is on my phone during my long commutes, but that's the only time I bother with it these days. For anyone curious I’ve been loving J.Cole and know most of the words for most of his songs by now heh

8. Favourite outfit to wear (i.e. boots & a scarf combo)?
Dark maxi skirt, layered tops, cosy jacket and a snood. If I'm in the mood for jeans then probs my boyf jeans from asos slightly rolled up, my blazers or black sneakers, a plain top and a cosy cardigan/slightly oversized jacket. I adore oversizedness!


9. Autumn treat?
Definitely been my new Zara coat! It’s the most expensive item in my wardrobe and my mum kindly offered to go splits on it as she saw how much I adored it :’) Generally I tend to buy a lot more cappuccinos/vanilla lattes and though these are oh-so-cosy they can get expensive! Trying to be a bit more savvy with buying hot drinks (starting from..tomorrow)


10. Favourite place to be?
Either in a cosy costa sitting on a big squashy sofa with a friend, or wrapped up in my blanket on my laptop, reading blogs and watching YT (so exciting I know!!!)

I TAG ALL OF YOU GUYS cos yey autumn! ^_^

The Autumn Tag!

 

Review | Laura Geller Blush ‘n’ Brighten–Berry

Today I am going to talk about one of the most beautiful blushes I’ve ever seen…Laura Geller’s whole Blush’n’Brighten range is absolutely stunning and yes whilst this post IS photo heavy, I have no regrets because it would simply be rude to not share these beauties (eye candy galore)

There is just something so gorgeous about marble products isn’t there?! Now although I don’t own any MAC mineralise skin finishes yet, the packaging and general beauty of these very much reminded me of them. However when swatched together the LG blush had a lot more pigmentation than the MSF suggesting these are more suited for use as BLUSHERS AND HIGHLIGHTERS rather than just skinfinishes.



Sadly I do not own this blush (get your violins out, it’s really a tragic fact). It was lent to me by my lovely auntie, however my mum also owns one of two of these blushers so I have the chance to play with them now and again. For the basic details this pan holds 5g (although full sized are 9g with a brush I believe) The lid of the blush is half a mirror, half clear plastic. She hit two birds with one stone – you can easily see the shade but you also have a handy mirror should you need it when traveling! I believe there are two ranges of these blushers ‘sugar’ which are the shimmery (NOT glittery) ones and ‘non-sugar’ the matte kind.

In terms of availability I know my auntie purchased it from QVC and I think the range changes there all the time so it’s worth keeping an eye on that site, I also know my friend’s mum buys a lot of her range from e-bay but I’m not sure if I have the guts to buy makeup myself from there so sorry to be of little help D: (I do know her range is widely available in the US though so another brand to add to my USA wishlist!)



In terms of application, the product picks up on the brush very easily and applies beautifully. When first opening this I expected it to be VERY shimmery on the skin, but much to my delight it is a lot more subtle than expected. The shade berry is perfect for autumn! but thats a total given right?! The gorgeous traces of gold amongst the pinks and plums blend together to create a classy, sophisticated shade which just screams cosy jumpers and leather boots.



I can never align my swatches right urgh ._. So on the left we have the swatch without flash, it’s probably the more accurate view of this blusher, as you can see a slight berry colour which would no doubt compliment any skin tone and also not be too harsh for the paler tones (as some plum shades can be). On the right is the shade with flash and it looks equally as stunning, needless to say highlighting is unnecessary with this as the subtle gold tone does the job just fine. I think it’s such a gorgeous shade mainly because, in the colder months our skin lack that warmth and the skin can sometimes look dull/dry – this is the perfect product to bring some life back into it.

In short I think for the price (around £18 for a full sized product) these are of course pricier than drugstore but they are well worth it. The colour is long lasting and because they are baked blushes its a mixture of colours rather than one flat colour – making it look more special (and sometimes more natural).

I’ll be sure to look out for some holiday giftsets to see if I can get one or two of these in my collection! What are your favourite baked products?