February Favourites 2015

Hello! *skips the rant about how fast Feb went by* this month I have quite a range of products I’ve been loving and I don’t have a whole lot of time to write this, so lets get started ^_^

Soap and Glory Scrubatomic Amazing Daily Face Polish 

For whatever reason, I got out of the habit of exfoliating for a little while and my skin really started to show that. It wasn’t as smooth and didn’t look as squeaky clean, even when it is has been cleaned as deeply as I could manage. I was rummaging around in my box of cleansers//other and I found this polish. Now I do think the fact that it says ‘daily’ is a little bit ridiculous as I can’t imagine how damaging this or indeed any other scrub would be on a daily basis, but twice a week it works a real treat. My skin feels cleaner, smoother and brighter and makeup application is so much better. The beads in this are really small and you do need to massage it in gently, but the effects are well worth the extra few minutes a week. My skin hasn’t looked so good with and without makeup, since I’ve been using this twice a week ^_^

DIORSKIN NUDE TAN GOLDEN SHIMMER POWDER (LE) TRANSAT EDITION

Now this is limited ed from the 2014 summer collection so I didn’t want to dedicate a whole post to it’s beauty, but I have linked you to the site where I purchased it and you can sign up to an email notification in case it does come into stock. Anyways this gorgeous and ridiculously luxu highlighter was used on all my aunties during a family wedding function and they loved it as much as I do. Its highly pigmented, super fine-milled, and best of all yellow toned which is so flattering on olive skintones. Plus the whole compact, velvet pouch and kabuki brush *sighs a sigh of happiness*

NARS BLUSH/BRONZER DUO IN LAGUNA AND ORAGASM

This duo is another purchase from summer of last year when ASOS stocked the two most iconic blush and bronzer shades together. It isn’t limited ed, you can find it on sephora but anyways I don’t think people of NC30-NC40 could get a better combination. Orgasm is slightly red in tone and certainly not as universal as my favourite reviewed here but regardless, it looks beautiful on warmer skintones. Laguna too works beautifully on light-medium skintones, it’s not as pigmented as Too Faced Chocolate Soleil medium/deep bronzer which makes it ideal for a quick contour and it also doubles up as a bronzer, adding the perfect amount of subtle warmth. For travelling this duo with its mirror is essential - love it!

KEVYN AUCOIN SENSUAL SKIN ENHANCER SX08

I’ve already reviewed this here so to put it short and sweetly: highly pigmented, multi-functional and well worth every penny. Although, yes it was a painful slap in the face to my bank account last year ._.

Rimmel London Salon Pro - 378 Posh Trash

I haven’t had a nail polish fave in ages, and I think I’ll dedicate a whole post to this one because it really is that lovely. Posh trash is the closest nude metallic shade I will probably ever find. My sister described it as a muted taupe, but I see it as more of a muted rose gold, either way its classy yet polished. The formula is of a great consistency and it has lasted 4 days before chipping (without a top coat, because I didn’t have time). This range is well worth checking out, and I get them even cheaper than from boots and superdrug ;D (linked above).

Essence Blush in 50 Sweetheart

Another blush I’ve been obsessed with is this pretty little number from Essence. When I brush this onto my cheeks it really gives a gorgeous ‘lit from within’ glow on the cheeks, despite how cliche that sounds - it’s what I imagine the hourglass ambient light blushers appear on the skin. To think you can get such a beautiful, subtle yet glowing look from such an affordable brand is awesome - a bit  thankyou to Vanessa for recommending them to me!

SOAP & GLORY Tricks of the shade // Lid Stuff

Now before you all hate me for bringing another difficult to get product to your attention, this was actually the S&G xmas palette 2/3 years ago.. (actually I think you’re supposed to be thanking me for that..ha..ha) anyways,,you CAN get your hands on these shades, in quads rather than the limited edition large palette. The main shades I use anyway are the top 5 so when this palette does eventually hit pan, I’ll purchase that, but anyway the matte nude shade in this is everything. Its super pigmented and perfect for everyday use ^_^

If you wrote a favourites post, please link it below I love reading them! Or let me know what you've been loving the past month.

Thank-you for reading ♥

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February Favourites 2015

Hello! *skips the rant about how fast Feb went by* this month I have quite a range of products I’ve been loving and I don’t have a whole lot of time to write this, so lets get started ^_^

February 2015 Catchup

Hello everyone. Its only right to start of this months update with something that changed everything.

February started off with some heart breaking news. The Chapel hill shooting of the three young Muslims in  North Carolina, within their own home. It really sparked shock throughout Muslims across the globe, not just because these three students, two of them newly weds were outstanding members of the community, volunteering time and skills to help the less fortunate, but also because of the outrageous response in the majority of western media. It wasn’t headline news and in so many reports I saw statements about the terrorist who shot them, being caring towards animals etc etc. It was so shocking I was left speechless, three innocent lives have been robbed and the media are trying to convince us it was over a PARKING ISSUE?? If you for one moment believed that to be true, let me just ask you to turn the tables around.

Now if a non-white man walked into a house with three white students, shot them in the head and claimed it was over a parking issue rather than a HATE crime, can you even imagine the response the media would give? It would be headline news all over the world for at least a month, with follow ups from the family and friends, detailed history about the students and more. It seems impossible for the media to portray Muslims as anything other than terror-causing nasty horrendous human beings -
  EVEN WHEN THEY ARE SHOT IN THE HEAD, INSIDE THEIR OWN HOMES.

I wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest if most of you didn’t hear about this. But if you haven’t just think about it for a moment. It might open your eyes a little to how sickeningly twisted our media can be...

I too tried Benefit’s latest mascara and I actually really liked it. It doesn’t promise miracles, and it does what it says - curls the lashes and lengthens. Although I rarely wear mascara, the times that I do I tend to wear it I go for two, a lengthening and then a thickening one. I have a feeling this and ‘they’re real’ will work a treat!

February has been the month of crossy road. Ok well the first two weeks at least, I wanted to beat my highscore (160) and it’s such a simple yet oddly addictive game I found myself clicking on this every time I had a spare moment. I also had a lovely bubble bath, something which I really should do more often, I reviewed this particular bath bomb here. And I FINALLY got around to opening my frank scrub, which was an experience to say the least! I mean I don’t know why I didn’t expect the scrub to turn all brown and coffee(ish) seeing as it is made from coffee..anyways if anyone wants a review let me know!

One of the nicest days of the month was visiting London with my best-friend Ana. We met at Euston and went to a Persian restaurant which I had to snap a few photos from because just look how pretty it is ^_^  As you come in there is a hot oven for the naan bread, and next to it there was the roller and dough balls waiting to be rolled.

The art work was so interesting, I loved the 3D element and the intricate details in the art. I think that’s my favourite thing about going to a smaller restaurant which serves ethnic and halal food (aka not Nandos lol) is seeing so much of that country’s culture in the surrounding. It adds so much more to the meal!

Also there is something about middle eastern food that makes me feel like I’m eating a really healthy meal (must be ALL that salad right, totally finished it all.__.)

After we ate we headed over to Westfield and tried to visit all the stores that we don’t have in our home town. Of course the moment I set my eyes on Inglot I HAD to rush towards it and I spent around 45 minutes going from area to area, swatching and building my own little 5 swatch palette. I can’t lie, the prices did take me by surprise, it’s certainly a brand that isn’t in the drugstore category and I sort of wished I had properly set aside time to research Inglot and kiko must haves - BUT then again I would certainly have done a huge amount of damage to my bank account!

how cool is this cake - a stand right outside Urban Outfitters

A random UO *hipstah* shot - p.s I’ve seen similar jars at Tiger for a fraction of the price, just sayin

I managed to depot four sleek e/s palettes thanks to the inspo and tips from the beautiful Tamanna’s post here. A few cracks and a lot of patience, but its so exciting to finally have some of my older palettes all together so I actually get to use them. These 4 are au natural, oh so special, storm and ultra mattes 2. Also the large shade in the top right hand corner is a bronzer sample from Lord and Berry in the shade sunny.

I also went to another family wedding, which was a beautiful ceremony. Oh and it had a chocolate fountain which means that it was instantly ranked up in the list of awesome weddings I’ve attended in the past 5 years (they had MINI donuts).

The month has come to a lovely end with the lush event post here and also a much needed catchup with another best friend. As her name is Ayesha I just couldn’t resist snapping a photo of the lush face mask sign teehee.

THE GOLDEN EGG // GLITTER // NJFJSEKGWJRG IDK WHAT IT IS ABOUT GOLD GLITTER Y’KNOW

Also on the topic of the Lush event, I had to sneak in a photo of my label, such a lovely touch!

And with that February 2015 is over. It’s been emotional and I was ill for a good few days of it to, which was totally out of the blue because I thought February was meant to the start of Spring??? Anyways I cannot complain. Although I’ve stopped watching as many YouTube videos as I used to, I did watch Amelia Liana’s video on being happy and a big part of that was having gratitude. It really made me think about how we take such tiny things for granted and how blessed we truly are!

Here is hoping March is going to be super productive and I guess my main goal is to stay on top of my schedule and sort out my time keeping >_< 

I hope you’ve all had a great month!

Thank-you for reading ♥

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February 2015 Catchup

Lush Bloggers Event February 2015

I was lucky enough to be invited to a local Lush blogger event on Wednesday the 25th of February and it was amazing ^_^ We got to see the new Easter collection, learn more about the perfumes and their story and also make our own face mask which was SUCH a treat! Have a scroll through some of my snaps below..

Vanillary is most definitely my favourite scent from them all and the solid perfume tub even has bits of vanilla pod in it too! What particularly stood out to me about the Lush perfumes, aside from the interesting and very personal back stories, was how unique the names are. You wouldn’t find these kinda names on a typical celebrity or high-end brand, they’re very realistic, intriguing and also unisex too.

The unveiling of Lush’s easter collection was super exciting! We got to see the new bath bombs, that gorgeous golden egg, the cute little bunny and the pink one with the flowers that has the same scent as the well-loved snow fairy - so all of you x-mas snow fairy lovers out there, get some of those pink ones pronto! The lovely lush staff showed us a demo of each bath bomb in a large silver bowl, and I’ve put together a little gif of my favourite - the golden egg!

When I showed my sisters these photos they noted that when in the water the golden egg really does actually look like an egg! Clever haha, this bath blaster twirled around and around and melted slowly. I’m not entirely sure what all the ingredients are (they’ll be listed on the lush site without a doubt) but I do know that it’s filled with skin softening ingredients and it smells deliciously like toffee. I have a pretty weak sense of smell, but I could pick up this gorgeous scent and it was instantly my favourite!

The bunch of carrots bubble bars are similar to the lush fairy wand they sell, except of course these look very realistically like real carrots! This product is reuseable/easier to break off in chunks for multiple baths, it creates loads of bubbles and has quite a fresh and uplifting scent to it.

After lots of ohhings, ahhing and sniffing of the beautiful Easter goodies, we moved on to the most fun part of the event in my opinion - making our own Catastrophe cosmetic face masks! We used all natural ingredients as the factory made ones are created in the same way, except they had combined the various powders and liquids together to make it quicker. This face mask contains real blueberries and it is supposed to calm and cleanse the skin when it is feeling irritated.

How awesome! Our very own hand mixed face masks, mine is currently chilling in the fridge and will hopefully be used this weekend, because I could do with a bit of a pamper!
It was such a wonderful event, I was quite pleased that they didn’t tour the whole store as I already had seen that at the previous event and instead we focused more on the fragrances and newer collections. To any bloggers our there I really recommend looking through social media for your nearest Lush store because they do hold awesome events like this for bloggers and it is so insightful! We were lucky enough to receive a goody-bag and I was SO excited because they gifted me with the golden egg!!!!

Thank-you so much to the Lush team for putting this together, the Easter collection is amazing and I really appreciated the opportunity ^_^
Thank-you for reading ♥
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Lush Bloggers Event February 2015

I was lucky enough to be invited to a local Lush blogger event on Wednesday the 25th of February and it was amazing ^_^ We got to see the new Easter collection, learn more about the perfumes and their story and also make our own face mask which was SUCH a treat! Have a scroll through some of my snaps below..