Category Archives: beauty products

The beauty retailers seem to be in some sort of crazy pre-Christmas bid to outdo each other when it comes to giving away piles of luxury miniatures or bundling them up into attractive advent calendars. The Liberty calendar, the Harvey Nics GWP, discount codes galore – it’s like a giant beauty race!

Not one that I particularly wanted to get caught up in, post-wise, but I have never been able to resist discounts and free things (every time I go to the GAP website they have a 30% off code and I end up buying more baby stuff) – and the latest offer from Space NK is actually slightly different…

It’s a beauty advent calendar – the 25 Days of Beauty – but it’s also a gift-with-purchase. Before I start harping on about the value of this impossibly tiny tube of luxury face cream or that miniature vial of precious oil, I’ll tell you that behind door number one (or more accurately, inside box number one) there’s a gift card with fifty quid on it. The spend to get the gift, which has a touted value of over £380, is £250, but I suppose that if you were doing your epic Christmas shop anyway, you would, in effect, be getting 20% off. Or at least a 20% bonus.

But if you’re a proper beauty junkie then lots of the bits and pieces inside the beautiful box will definitely get your heart beating faster – a Frog Prince cream blusher from Lipstick Queen (it’s green. GREEN!), a cute mini Laguna bronzer from NARS, the intriguing Rapid Glow Liquid Milk from Wei, and Sunday Riley’s now-heroic Luna Oil.

There’s the obligatory mini Diptyque Baies candle (some of you must be building up quite the collection of these) as well as a StriVectin eye cream that I’m dying to try, a Chantecaille mascara, a Smith & Cult Lip Lacquer and a 15ml pot of 111Skin’s Space Anti-Age Day Cream, which retails at £150 for the 50ml version.

So, if you are doing a big Christmas stock-up (my friend does a mammoth one at Space NK every November, buying gifts for her incredibly lucky staff!) then now is the time to do it. £50 back (you need to use the gift card by the 24th December) and then a walloping pile of beauty goodies. You can find a full listing of each product in the gift by clicking here – sizes are included.

Use the code BEAUTY25 on the shopping page to claim the gift – it’s UK only, so far as I know…

I seem to be having a bit of a “rose revival” at the moment. I went off rose for a while, possibly because I completely overdid it, smothering myself in rose stuff from head to foot, but now I’m back on it with a vengeance. In fact, when I think about my total skin-and-body-care routine, most of the products I’m grabbing from the cabinet seem to have a touch of rose somewhere! Oh dear: how long before I put myself off it again?

More rose-scented things…

Two excellent little body nourishers, here, both from Balance Me. Both, also, free from parabens, sulphates, petroleum, silicones, artificial fragrance, if you keep a lookout for those things. Personally, I find a little mineral oil in my bodycare to be quite a helpful thing, sometimes (SHOCK HORROR!) because it gets rid of my scaly shins and I know that if it’s a pretty basic cream, with just that and a few other bits and bobs, my skin won’t react to it. However, each to their own, and I know that for some it’s the work of the devil. At any rate, this gorgeous Rose Otto body oil and body balm don’t contain it, so there’s no issue here.

More body care posts…

The oil is silky smooth with a good amount of massage-ability. You know some of these dry oils that just kind of sit on the surface? None of that here. You can give it a good rub in and it smells bloody amazing, what a little treat! And I do think that the relatively plain and homely-looking packaging makes you want to use it everyday, rather than saving it for absolute best, which is a good thing. You know those really daunting glass bottles that look as though they should be in a locked display case? Well I do love them, but at the same time it makes me reluctant to use the contents! This Balance Me bottle has been knocking about the bathroom for a few weeks (it’s nearly finished) and I’ve used it after almost every bath. I’ve also dropped it about seventy-five times with my clumsy oily hands, and as it’s plastic it didn’t smash. Winning.

The body balm is an interesting one; a bit like those rescue balms that you get for your face. (I wrote about the Neal’s Yard Remedies one, Balance Me also have one called the Stellar Balm that I think is one of their bestsellers, if I remember rightly.) It has a consistency that cleansing balm-users will be familiar with; a solid that begins to melt down to an oil with the warmth from your fingertips. This feels a little bit more heavy-duty than the body oil, though, and it’s great for dry patches – around the knees and elbows, on shins and feet and heels. This seems to be a relaunched version of the balm, as I remember it before in a less lovely-looking tub, with bright pink labelling. I don’t know whether Balance Me are revising the whole look of the brand, but I like what I see so far. Very chic and understated.

You can find both the Balance Me Rose Otto Body Oil and Body Balm for £24.50 with free delivery at Beauty Expert.

The post Rose Otto: I Love it a Lotto. (Sorry.) appeared first on A Model Recommends.

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Naked On The Run

The first thing to say about the Urban Decay Naked On The Run palette is that it’s flipping heavy! As a ‘travel’ or portable kit, it’s a bit like carrying a (small) brick in your bag and I really don’t get why the fundamentals of ‘portable’ – i.e. lightness and compactness were missed here. BUT, it is a lovely palette!

Urban Decay Naked On The Run

Urban Decay Naked On The Run really does have everything apart from foundation for a whole face look – mascara, lip gloss, liner, shadows, bronzer, blush and highlighter. But no brush. I’d say it was one for the office drawer for a go-anywhere last minute look so you don’t have to cart your makeup in and out of work. It would be brilliant for this.

Urban Decay Naked On The Run

Swatch wise from left to right, we have: Dive, Fix, Resist, Dare, Stun and 50/50 in a mix of sheen and matte.

Urban Decay Naked On The Run

The gloss is Sesso (a rosy shimmer), the blush is a vibrant pink for a winter pop of colour and the bronzer is a medium tone with a matte finish.

There’s also a Perversion Mascara (brilliant) and a small size 24/7 (love these). Urban Decay Naked On The Run limited edition set launches today HERE and nationwide from 4th December for £37.

Portable? Not really. Pretty? Oh, yes!

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