bobbi brown bronzer review

Bobbi Brown Bronzing Powder in Natural, £26

I have been wanted a nice matte bronzing powder for a while now - I had been using an old MAC Sculpt and Shape Duo (Bone Beige/Emphasise) for years but it cracked and shattered and I eventually just chucked it. I had been making do with a Nars blush but I felt it was about time to replace it. I had a good browse around John Lewis and eventually came to these. I don't really stop that often at the Bobbi Brown counter. Like MAC, I feel they have good, staple items (I really love their gel eyeliners) but they are quite pricey and they don't always have the luxurious feel of a Chanel or YSL product, as much as I love them.
Or at least thats what I used to think because I do really love this! The powder itself is amazingly soft and finely milled, it's very velvety and feels very rich, so I am a huge fan. It's the perfect shade for me, too - I'm quite pale in the summer but I go quite olive-y with a tan, so this is the perfect inbetween. With a light hand it just adds enough colour to give me a slightly glow, and then I can build it when (if!) I get a tan. So I am a huge fan. I really love the giant mirror, too, which means I can chuck it in my makeup back and not need to take an extra mirror.

Price: 4/5 (I got this for just under £20, using my discount!)
Packaging: 4/5
Product: 5/5
Overall: 4/5
Would I buy this again?: Yes!

Have you tried these? Or do you have another favourite bronzer of the moment? Let me know!

burning up

 

Quince, M&S, £9.50

Passionflower and Mango, Sainsbury's, £8-9

Bahama Breeze, Yankee Candle, £8.39

Now I've had a bit of a sort out in my room (more on that one shortly) I can get to my candles better, so I've been lighting them at every available chance. Some of my pretty unscented ones are at uni, so I have a couple here to keep me going, and I really love these.

The Quince one I picked up on a whim from my local Marks and Spencers when looking for duvet covers.. It smells absolutely amazing, very fruity and fresh without being too sickly, and I really love the jar it comes in, because when it's done I'm definitely going to use it to store something in. I don't know what, though. I don't know what the burning time of this is, but it seems to be burning very slowly, so that's good!

The pink one, is very pretty but I can't smell enough of the mango? I straddle a thin line between floral and fruity and this one leans slightly too far into the former for my liking. It's pretty, but it cost the same as the others and its burning much quicker, and I don't like it as much. However, I do think Sainsbury's have a good line in candles. I can't find them online (their website is shocking), but both my local ones have a good stock selection!

And finally we come to Yankee Candle. Whilst I haven't ventured as far a Diptyque candle yet (although my housemate has a beautiful one), this is about as much as I can stand to pay for something that literally burns your money. A slightly smaller jar than the other two for a similar price, Bahama Breeze has an amazingly summery, fruity scent. It borders on being too fruity, but for the summer, it's amazing. 

Basically, though, this boils down (burns down? ohh, the puns I could do) to whatever scent you like. I wouldn't disregard the 'cheaper' ones, but they don't seem that much cheaper? And I think sometimes the more you pay, you do get a slightly better quality candle, and therefore burns for longer. Just my two scents, really, and I thought I'd show you what my room currently smells like! 

oh gosh

I am fully aware that I have already posted once today.. but I didn't think that I would have such an enjoyable day that I wanted to post when I got home! (Or have the energy! Hence the scheduled post.) Anywayyyy, me and my mama popped upto London today - it was sort of my birthday treat, because I didn't really do anything with my parents for my birthday earlier in the month. I got a pair of beautiful sunglasses, but my mum says she would've given me money towards them anyway, so she wanted to treat me, and goshhh, did she treat me! My mum wanted to see something at the Royal Academy, and I wanted to see something nearby at the Haunch of Venison, so we thought we would have a little wander around the area, something I haven't done in a long while. We had a lovely lunch at The Living Room (and a few Pineapple Sidecars..!) and browsed many a shop. My huge treat was something I've had my eye on for a while - a perfume from Penhaligon's.. more on that in a later post though! I also tried the Laduree macarons for the first time, popped into Illamasqua and saw a bit of art.. so all in all, a very lovely day for me! Right up my street, so to speak.

So even despite the overwhelming humidity & heat, I had such a lovely day and feel very spoilt and it was so very lovely.

How have you been enjoying this heat? I saw this online earlier today, and it accurately describes how I was on the tube this evening! haha.

There have been too many exclamation marks and elongated words in this post.. oops! And another one.

american apparel sheer polishes

American Apparel Sheer Polishes, £9

I was bumming around on Tumblr yesterday, as you do, and these were on the Radar and caught my eye because, well, look at these pictures! Those nails are insaneee. Apparently they're the new line of American Apparel's sheer nail polishes, which I have not heard much about? The one that really takes my fancy is the yellow-green-blue nail, because that just looks amazing! I am so tempted by these, but they are quite steep at £9 each, which is the same as the regular AA polishes, which makes me a bit sad, because they obviously don't have the pigmentation of a regular polish, so I thought they might be a bit cheaper - or is that just my logic? The other thing that bothers me is that these are the pictures from the AA website, so you'd think they might be really slick and well done - and the application is a bit dodgy? Like look at that orange-purple nail in the middle, it looks a little crappy. So I wonder if that is just a bad promo image or they apply badly. Either way, I am sort of desperate to try these out! I'm off to London today so I might pop in and have a look at them.  

What do you think - would you give these a go?

better than skin - mac hug me review

MAC Lipstick in Hug Me, £13.50

Just a speedy post from me today, I thought I would show you all the lipstick I'm currently reaching for nearly all the time. I have always said that I never saw the point of "my lips but better" shades.. and here I am, writing a post about one! Oh well. I kept reaching for this during a week of overtime, when I wanted to wear a little bit of lipstick but not something so loud and overwhelming that I wouldn't be allowed at work. This is one of the first MAC lipsticks I ever bought, I bought it because it was so 'nude', and I thought I could get away with it for school! It's just a little nub now, and I have to wind it up all the way to use it and I know it won't be long before it's gone! Anyway, it's a very glossy lipstick, because it's a Lustre, but I like that, because the fleshy kind of colour could look quite tacky and drying if it wasn't that glossy. It looks a weird colour in the tube - sort of a dirty greyed flesh tone, but it changes when it's on the lips.

Price: 5/5 (bought when MAC lipsticks were a tad cheaper)
Packaging: 5/5
Colour: 4/5
Texture: 5/5
Would I buy this product again?: I'm leaning that way..!

What lipstick are you currently loving?