The Body Shop Seaweed Skin Care Review!

Hey Ladies,

First of all apologies for my absence, i have been so busy with work & have had no energy to write any thing! My 1 day off in 11 days was spent putting cheques in the bank & posting packages. Why i agreed to do 8:30 until 7:30 shifts i have no idea! I am saving up for a couple of special purchases so using that as my motivation!!

As you all know I was invited to The Body Shop event in August & was kindly given the seaweed skin care range to try out in my goodie bag, i always find its necessary to try out skin care products for more than a month before judging them & ta dah!! the month has been & gone & i have some opinions on the products.

First let me show you what i received! (lazily taken from the net, i’ve worked 9 hours today & am not taking pictures, yes i’m a lazy bitch but it would require me to move!!)

I will give my opinion of each product & then a general experience of the range at the end.



Seaweed Purifying Facial Cleanser - £6.35

“A mild oil-free and soap-free milky cleansing lotion. Effectively removes make-up, impurities and daily grime,without drying the skin. Leaves the skin feeling cleansed, soft and supple with a shine-free, matte finish.”

I used this a grand total of 2 nights, I really can’t be arsed with a cream cleanser all the removing with cotton pads does my nut in so i substituted this for my normal makeup remover Philosophy Purity Cleanser. So I can’t really give my opinion on the product.

Cleansing Facial Wash - £6.35

“A mild oil-free and soap-free foaming cleansing gel. Effectively deep cleanses to clear open pores and rinse away excess oils, make-up, impurities and daily grime.Leaves the skin feeling cleansed, purified and refreshed with a shine-free, matte finish.”

I found this a nice easy cleanser to use, slap it on then rinse it off is always something that i’m on board with and so i used this morning and night. The smell isn’t too overpowering & really wakes me up in the morning.

Clarifying Toner - £6.35

“An alcohol-free, refreshing and purifying toner. Instantly and effectively conditions, purifies and refreshes the skin, removing excess traces of make-up and cleanser.Leaves skin feeling fresh, purified, looking shine-free, and better prepared to absorb moisturising products in the Seaweed range.”

I didn’t really use this much as I'm not a fan of toner but it isn’t harsh or irritating on my skin.

Mattifying Moisture Lotion - £9.75

“An easily absorbed non-clogging, oil-free, hydrating and cooling gel-like moisture lotion with a sun protection factor of 15. It controls excess sebum and shine whilst delivering essential moisture to areas most in need, balancing the skin throughout the day. Leaves skin feeling fresh, clean, protected, soft and supple with a shine-free, matte complexion.”

This i found did not absorb easily like its supposed to and didn’t mattify my skin either so was a little pointless and didn’t moisturise my face enough.

Ionic Clay Mask - £9.75

“A deep-cleansing mask treatment with algae extracts and combined natural ionic clay action to draw impurities from the pores and absorb excess oil. Enriched with minerals to condition and revitalise the skin.”

I used this a couple of times and really like the mask, its a classic clay mask that has some menthol to it so can be a little strong & stings initially but not uncomfortable, i also felt it actually did something for my skin & left it looking much clearer.

Overall Opinion on the range

Initially this broke my skin out right away but i kept going with it & it did improve my skin after the initial outbreak, however it was all a bit too much i think. It was so harsh that my chin & nose became very dry and my cheeks & forehead became very oily and so i had to stop using the products, i will continue to use the mask every so often as it really worked for my skin.

Thanks for reading & i hope you’re all doing well, if you’ve got any questions please let me know. I’m so behind on my blogging & you tube as i’ve got so much lined up to talk about! if i knew how to blog from my phone i would do it at lunch!!

See you all very soon!!

NOTD! Tacky good or tacky bad!

Hey ladies,

Just a quick nail of the day for you, my illamasqua polish in velocity lasted me a week & so i thought i’d try something different tonight & painted the tips in Nails Inc victoria & albert which i think is the best red colour ever!!




What do you think, Tacky good or tacky bad?

Hope you’re all having a lovely week & excuse the messyness of the nails not cleaned them up yet!

Cya soon

My new blog!!!

Hey lovelies

Just thought i'd tell you quick smart that i have started a new blog over at wordpress about food & life.

You can see it here

so if you're interested in that sort of stuff, recipes etc then check it out!!!

I dont need to tell you i will be carrying on with this blog & i've done the other on wordpress to see how it compares with blogger. so far i think i prefer its ease of use.

Normal service will be resumed in the morning here with beauty & what not!!

In the mean time heres a pic of a cute puppy!!!



Isn't he the most cutest thing in the world apart from my dog of course!

Cya soon

COMPETITION TIME!!!! .... Finally!

Hey Ladies,

So the time has finally arrived where i've got time to do a competition!!! Thank Christ, It was initially for 100 subscribers, then 150, then 200 & now i guess 250!!

So here it is, its gonna be a bit of a boring one really & nothing revolutionary but here it is;

I would like people to enter the competition by creating a post of their favorite makeup look on their blog or via email if you dont have a blog! (email --->) & why they love it so much. It can be from the most wacky to the most muted office look. If you love it get it done. & be a subscriber to my blog as well!!

& then just send me a link to it so i can see it ... Obviously

I have a box of prizes for the winner (really too lazy to do a pic of them & it will grow when i go shopping) It will include some of my favorite products that i rave about and a mixture of makeup, body care & pampering treats. I'll do a YT vid with the prizes i guess so its easier!! & i'll have 2 runners up!

I'll give you all about a month & update this post soon with the deadline & prize video!

So there you have it! Hope you all enter, if you want to include you're favorite overall look with an outfit & hair as well feel free! go wild!! & have a bit of fun creating it!!! good luck!!!

I'll show you my current favorite, so you know i dont need anything spectacular, although go ahead if you've got a vision!



Which is done with the bodyshop brown trio!!

Cya soon, should be posting some stuff over the next few days!!

Nicola
xxx

Handbag of The Week!

Hey Ladies,

Its been a couple of weeks since the last handbag of the week, i’ve been so busy & distracted with other posts so i thought i’d treat you with the Mac daddy!! :)

My Hermes Birkin 40” Bag

I love this bag, the amount of crap i can fit in it is staggering, I use it mainly as an overnight bag as its a bit too large for everyday use. But good for boshing through crowds with it when i’m shopping! & lets face it i look too cool for school carrying it! It always reminds me of Samantha from Sex & the city (she is in PR & used Lucy Liu’s name who she was representing to cut the 2 year waiting list, long story short Lucy Liu ended up with the bag not Samantha, very funny if you haven’t seen it!)

So there you go, should have another one lined up for you next week & i have ordered a new bag so will blog about that when it arrives & the other things i got with it!

Cya Soon

Nicola

I Made A Show & Tell Video!

Hey Ladies,

I’ve been meaning to do this show & tell in my blog for ages but am a lazy mare so did it in a video hope you enjoy.

If you want any product reviews or questions just holler!!



Thanks for reading i hope you’re having a lovely week so far

Cya soon

Nicola

x

I am born with it but still could use some Maybelline!!

Hey ladies!

I'm sure you all know after a few hundred posts on it that there was a Maybelline event in London at L'oreal's HQ on Thursday & i was lucky enough to attend!

Now my thoughts on Maybelline prior to the event was i had none, i don't think i've used any of their products for about 10 years (can't believe i'm old enough to use that phrase!) I'm personally not a big drug store user apart from my beloved Rimmel sexy curves and so i never really look at the stands. Which meant i was a bit out of the loop the with the brand, of course i knew about their cult products & from ads on television had most of their product line committed to memory which shows the power of advertising as i have not even looked at any of them in the flesh. So this was always going to be an interesting experience for me.

After meeting at stations & Selfridges with all my sexy girls & me abandoning some of them on the tube (i nipped on & the doors shut behind me, i did wait for them at the stop we were getting off at) & left some of them in Selfridges thinking they were following us to get a coffee (again apologies)we made our way to Hammersmith.

Once at the venue, we were greeted with friendly faces & lots of people. We had time for a bit of socializing before the presentation which is always great as i am a chatterbox!


Caroline the sex beast! grr

Then the presentation began, it was mainly to introduce the new products which are the vibrating mascara & lipsticks, and then informed us of our their product line. As i said i haven't used 99% of their products and so it will be an interesting experience to try their products out.



We then got given the goody bags & had a chance to look round the tables & try the products out & talk to the staff.


Zo Zo da Ho Hoe!

I really enjoyed the format of the event as we weren't sat down for too long & could really interact with the people who work for the brand & clearly love it. Another detail which i thought was great was the foundation table, where we could pick the formula & shade which suited us, this meant that most of us left with a foundation that was the right colour and we can use which means reviews are going to be more thoroughly tested for you guys. Good times!




A few of us then did the old we're going to Pizza Express instead of Primark malarky & so made our way there, after walking a good hundred miles to the pizza express we decided we didnt have enough time before we would have to head to our trains home so we ended up going to Mcdonalds! Such class!!!


The cool Kids!!

I had such a lovely day overall & love seeing all the girls and meeting a few new ones in the process! And my god Maybelline were generous with the products they gave us to try out & review. So thanks to Maybelline for their hospitality & Nathalie for arranging it all!

A word about the goodie bags, there was a little hoo haa about it last night on twitter, yes there are always going to be people who go to get free stuff, the majority i hope go to see all the girls, personally 90% of people i talk to on twitter i would consider my friends, if you've added me on Facebook & i accepted the request you're my friend. But lets face it, this is the way PR works, if i gave something a good review & 20 people went out and bought it the cost of one unit would be more than covered by the 20 units sold because of it, that is why events are held, brands have cottoned on to the power of blogging & if it saves me buying a foundation this month or a mascara then i am happy to have it and so i think of the freebies as perks it is not the reason i started doing this blog but every little helps, I am saving up for a new Macbook Pro after all(which means more YT vids hopefully!)& lets face it this is a bit of fun for most of us so lets treat it that way & not be so serious, real life can be serious at times & i escape from it in the lovely warm bussom of the beauty community!

There i said it!!!
Peace out! Hope you are all having a lovely weekend! how nice is the weather in Britain! about time that's all i can say!
Lots of reviews coming up i imagine, they may take an age as i've not got round to the body shop ones yet! But i will have time to blog starting tomorrow!! whoop!!

Cya soon
Nicola
xxx

Illamasqua Dystopia Event!

Hey ladies

So as many of you will know from all the blogs & YT vids there was an Illamasqua event! One in London on the Thursday & one on Friday in Manchester. I attended the Manchester one, which by the way was for the cool people! It was held in a bar called Ithaca, as soon as I heard it was this venue I wondered why I never guessed it would be there as its so Illamasqua! Dark & sinister type modern bar/restaurant, I’ve been a few times & love it.

In the early afternoon I met up with Kelly & Karen at Victoria train stations & we hit the shops, then met up at Nando’s with some other gals & had a lovely lunch. After a trip to Starbucks teaching Kelly about coffee we headed to Harvey Nics for a few of the girls to get cupcakes!

We arrived at Ithaca a bit early thinking we’d have a drink in the bar before the event but they ushered us up to the 3rd floor bar where the event was taking place, so apologies to Illamasqua for our early arrival its all my fault!

We were greeted with very friendly faces & sat down & had a play with the makeup & a cocktail or two! When everyone had arrived they ushered us to one end of the room to hear the presentation, because there was a slight technically glitch with the sound Alex Box stepped up being the professional she is & started talking about the development of the collection.

Alex explained explained that the collection was inspired by the film Metroplolis, it’s centred around the creation of perfection, the perfect society, the perfect woman - Utopia. But by trying to create perfection, all that is created is imperfection, therefore if perfection is Utopia then imperfection is Dystopia. I loved hearing Alex talk as she spoke with such passion & was so friendly.

We then were passed over to Slyvia Lancaster who talked about the awful attack on her daughter Sophie & Sophie’s partner Rob in August 2007, Sophie sadly passed away a couple of weeks later due to the severity of her injuries all because she dressed ‘differently’, looked ‘differently’. Sylvia explained how she set up the Sophie Lancaster Foundation to help create respect for and understanding of subcultures within this country by teaching in schools and by helping change the law so that if a person who is attacked because of the way they choose to look it will be treated as a hate crime. I know quite a bit about this story as it happened in my area & so I talked to Slyvia after her speech and asked how I could help out if possible with the work she does, I see Goths/emo’s in my local town & they all just look amazing, although its a style I would never adopt I always wonder how they do such things with their makeup, they’re dedicated I can’t even be bothered to apply eyeliner so much respect to them! And for someone to be killed because of this is just disgusting it shows such scum we have in this country to me. Slyvia is the most brave & inspirational woman I have possibly met, to be that strong after having your daughters life taken from you is amazing and to turn it into such a positive thing is phenomenal, I think she deserves some major recognition for what she is doing and I’m glad Illamasqua is helping her with the awareness of this campaign.


After my conversation with Slyvia a crime truly occurred! I was cornered & asked if I wanted my makeup doing, a few girls had had some eye shadow applied & it looked great so I tentatively agreed. What happened next I cannot discuss as it will be used in court against this makeup artist when I press charges for raping my face. She started to remove my makeup with a wet wipe & I wanted to get away from that point onwards, it was terrible I still wake up in cold sweats reliving it in dreams. I’d say she was butchering me for a good hour applying coat after coat of eyeshadow, layer after layer of foundation. I wanted to break free, I had to have a bathroom break in the middle it took that long, everyone was saying it looked nice but they were LIARS!! I looked like a hooker not even a high class one! Basically she applied a smokey eye with black & silver & then added purple & glitter & not only that she applied it to about 5mm below my eyebrow so far too high up & then chose a bright white highlight that wasn’t even blended in with the darker shade.

The reason I was so pissed off was that I missed the entire event because I was sat down with my eyes closed the entire evening and at the end of it I didn’t even look good! I really wanted to talk to Alex Box but missed out on it, all I can say is thank god I was drunk from the cocktails otherwise I’d have kicked off & just told her to stop. Alcohol makes me love everyone! Once she’d finished applying the last bit of slap I had to dash as everyone was leaving, to say I kept the makeup on all night would be a lie, it was basically removed by the time I got out the building. When I got to the train station I looked in the mirror & my skin was awful, so cakey it was untrue. I wiped my face on my scarf & the amount thats was transferred was ridiculous, I then splashed my face with water & patted it with tissue to remove most of the rest, after about 90% of it was removed my skin looked flawless.

Overall the day was good, personally the Dystopia collection isn’t my style I’m much more a Siren’s girl as I love the bronzed metallic look over a darker sultry look. I received the Synth eye shadow from them, It’s a light lilaccy pink with glitter which really isn’t my colour so if I can’t find a way to use it, it will be given to a friend, I loved the look of the nail polishes though so they will be on my wishlist as will be the lashes and liquid metal & maybe the light lip gloss. So maybe in those terms it is a good collection in my eyes just not the eye shadows as they’re not my colours. As for the makeup artist experience she wasn’t part of the Illamasqua team may I add & the cakyness was from the powder she added as she piled on tonnes of the stuff. I did like the actual foundation so I may look into purchasing that.

So thanks to Illamasqua for holding the event & Alex for organising it I would have had a lot more fun if I had chance to look at the products a bit more & talked to a few more people instead of getting abused by the MU!! But lovely too see all the bloggers again & I have learnt my lesson to never EVER let a makeup artist do my makeup when I’m drunk!!

Learn from my mistakes kids! Thanks for reading, I was gonna do this in a YT vid but It would have too much swearing in it I imagine. Let me know what you all think of the collection!

You can see my pics of the day & night on my flickr here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/41670041@N05/sets/72157622143529203/
including the scarf after wiping my face on it.

& if you made it this far well bloody done!!!

Cya soon
Nicola

Autumn Has Officially Arrived! NOTD!!

Hey Ladies,

A quick nail of the day for you!!



Autumn has officially arrived in the UK, the weather is shocking & drab i therefore had to relinquish my summer corals & bright pinks & trade them for more autumnal colours! This is a Nails Inc colour in Saville Row & its a gorgeous deep berry purple shade!

I suppose i should look on the season change as a good thing i now have an excuse to buy autumn colours therefore more nail polish! yay!!

Hope you've all had a lovely week & weekend, i have a whole 2 days off so shall be attempting a few posts including my Illamasqua experience, it may be a little different than other posts you will have undoubtedly read!!

Thanks for reading!!
Nicola
xxx

I Made A YT Video - What's in my bag!!

Hey Ladies,

So a few girls on twitter suggested I do a youtube video & here it is! Hope you enjoy!



Comment, rate & subscribe as the old saying goes! & if you've got any requests you know where i am!!

I shall be back to posting a blog as normal soon, i'm going to the Illamasqua event on Friday so i'm sure i'll have something to say about it!!

Hope you're having a lovely week & i'll see you soon!
Nicola!
xxx