Monthly Archives: March 2015

Beauty Counter x Beauty Heroes

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It’s that time again! I am still so excited to receive my Beauty Heroes box each month, this is without a doubt the best subscription box I’ve ever tried, there’s nothing I’ve received so far that’s going unloved or unused and February’s box is no exception, introducing me to a new brand, one that’s impossible to get in Europe & the UK, for an incredible price.

This month’s box contains two full-size products from the brand Beauty Counter, the hero of the month being the beautiful Rose & Neroli Body Oil ($73) whilst the sidekick/extra item included is a Lip Sheer in the shade Petal ($30).

Haven’t heard of Beauty Counter? Let me fill you in…

If you are completely unfamiliar with the brand a quick way to describe it would be like an all-natural Avon in America. With over 11,000 consultants in their three year life span I’m curious as to why I don’t hear more about the brand. The packaging is sleek (I mean. just look at that gold lipstick, it’s now the prettiest one I own) and their commitment to safer beauty is commendable.

The USA is highly different from Europe and has next to no laws in place for ingredient safety, Beauty Counter founder Gregg Renfrew spends much of her time working to try and update these laws and has funded partnerships with universities to test and screen chemicals (never on animals obviously) to better understand them and their effects on our health. Beauty Counter have an extensive ‘never list’ of ingredients we won’t find in their products and the ingredients that do are all listed in their ingredient glossary so you can understand what they do if you’re unfamiliar.

Petal Lip Sheer.

As well as always getting a full-size product, Beauty Heroes like to include the hero’s sidekick too, because who’s Batman without Robin? This month our sidekick just happens to be a full-size product to, aaaaand it just might be my favourite of the two.
The Petal Lip Sheer is worth $30 and very nearly pays for the cost of the box itself ($39). Housed in luxe gold packaging, it’s easy to see why this is a Beauty Counter best seller, the formula is silky smooth and glides onto lips like lip balm, but leaves a wash of colour that’s universally flattering. I’m normally wary of pale shades + pale skin, but this suits me just fine for a hint of pink.

Makeup is a tricky one to get right in a beauty box, but I think Beauty Heroes have nailed this one with such a perfect colour, pink on some, nude on others, sheer enough to suit all. Beauty Heroes have listened to their subscribers wishes to include makeup, but also won’t have more than two boxes a year with it in, so you don’t need to worry about filling up your makeup bag with unsuitable products.

Rose Neroli Body Oil.

The star of the show is the deliciously scented Rose Neroli Body Oil. I slathered this on after my shower last night and I love that the scent is actually quite delicate and not at all overpowering and sickly like it’s so easy to do with floral scents. It smells exactly like you would imagine a rose & neroli blend to smell, mostly neroli, a little rosy, floral and sweet.
The oil is made up of a blend of 11 skin loving oils including jojoba, argan, marula, rosehip, seabuckthorn and grapeseed. The texture is light enough to be applied to dry skin and have it sink in without any greasy residue, but moisturising enough with the nutrient rich oils to soothe the driest skin. It’s recommended to apply to damp skin and massage in but I just applied a pump to the back of my hands so I could describe the scent and feel and it has sunk in beautifully. I love it. This may actually be a body product that I remember to use!

All about the box.

$103 worth of product for $39. It’s a no-brainer. EU pals, shipping is extra but as always totally worth it. The box costs me about £35 and usually it makes it through customs without a charge (I suppose it just depends who is processing your parcel that day as I know one or two that have had to pay the royal mail fee). You have until the 20th of this month to sign up and get this box, any after that date will get the March box (It’s skincare next month and o.m.g. it’s going to be awesome).
For a brand that I would never normally get to try, I’m pretty pleased with this month’s box, what about you?
Sign up to Beauty Heroes here.

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Best In Class: My Top 16 Beauty Bits from 2016!

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It’s finally time! I’ve been wondering if it’s a little late to post this, but wanted to keep up the tradition – this is the fourth year after all! I’ve been back through all of my posts from 2016, raided my stash and dug out a couple of empty bottles that I was saving for an empties post and here we have my top 16 products from 2016. I’ve even managed to surprise myself with some choices here, and even more so with products I decided didn’t make the cut!

Hair

1. John Masters Spearmint & Meadowsweet Scalp Stimulating Shampoo. I spent most of the year using up a huge bottle of a shampoo that I didn’t really enjoy, so this was a welcome change in the latter half of the year. I’ve used up the whole bottle and am currently using the Acure that I picked up in San Fran. Which is great for making my hair shiny, but my scalp is feeling a bit iffy. Might need to repurchase this!

2. Alchemy Oils Amla Hair Remedy. Hair masks and treatments were big for me in 2016 after a big bleach session in the summer. The Amla oil seemed to work the best for me and even though it was a pain to wash out (I probably do use way too much and practically drench my hair in the stuff) it leaves my locks feeling silky and soft after each use.

3. Arctic Fox Violet Dream Semi-Permanent Hair Colour. I stumbled across this vegan and cruelty free brand on Amazon and it’s perhaps the best wacky hair colour brand I’ve tried, and I’ve tried quite a few over the years. It’s bright, the colour lasts ages and it doesn’t leech out of your hair in the rain, in the bath or on towels or bedding. Plus it smells of bubblegum and acts like a super intensive hair mask whenever I use it.

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Sunday Tittle Tattle: Hotel Awards and Sleeping Pets

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best hotel awards

1) If you fancy being in with a chance of winning a five night stay in an incredible hotel, get voting for your favourite places to stay in the Smith Hotel Awards 2014. I book most of my trips through Mr & Mrs Smith and pretty much everywhere I’ve stayed has been amazing, so I’m finding it quite difficult to decide. Which is a slight problem, considering I’m one of the judges… (I’m doing the Spa Hotel category so do cast your votes in that department, you all seem to have such impeccable taste when you leave comments on my travel posts.) Here’s the voting page: The Smith Hotel Awards. The prize hotel will be the one that comes out as the overall winner, so not to be sniffed at!

2) I am so sorry, Max Factor lipstick winners; things have just been hectic and I keep forgetting to put your prizes in the postbox! I have them right here on my desk staring at me forlornly, so I will post them tomorrow morning. Again, please accept my apologies!

sleeping cockapoo cute

3) Sleeping pet pics. If these don’t make you feel snoozy then nothing will. Time for a little Sunday nap, I think… Above we have Dexter the Cockapoo and below, Mr Bear the British Shorthair. You can find more photos of them on Instagram here.

mr bear british shorthair cat

Have a wonderful Sunday and a restful start to the new week!

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Kukui: Luxury Twigs and Easy Home Fragrancing

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warm winter fragrances

I’ve just been trawling my website archives for mentions of Connock London and their beautiful body range: I can hardly find a thing! A brief candle appearance in a video that has mysteriously disappeared (I think it may have been one of the Christmas Gift Guides that I used the Home Alone soundtrack for, in one of my more naive moments) and then a fragrance review earlier on this year. But the scent of Connock’s products is one of my all-time favourite things! I’m positive that I wrote about the body wash, and the fact that my builder kept using it up?

connock london reed diffuser

Well anyway: Kukui is just the most beautiful fragrance. I find it to be quite masculine, in some ways – very warm and woody – but with this exotic, heady edge. It’s the perfect scent for a luxury body range – it lends itself so well to those sumptuous oils and rich, unctuous balms. They are the type of products that you end up guarding, fiercely, because you don’t want anyone else to use them – I hide my shower oil behind the sink! – and even the soaps and the simple body wash are a total treat. When the perfumes start filling the room you’re instantly transported to somewhere far away, somewhere relaxing and hot and beachy – this is home-spa-ing at its very best!

Read more fragrance reviews…

The latest addition to the Kukui range is a fragrance diffuser. I love these little jars of twigs. I’ve praised reed diffusers many times before (try here for a start), but allow me to recap the benefits: you don’t have to light them, you don’t have to remember to blow them out, they won’t burn your house down if you accidentally forget to blow them out, they are always “on” and working. All you need to do, with jars of twigs, is now and again take out the bunch of reeds and turn it upside down, jamming the dry ends into the liquid and allowing the wet ends to waft about in the air. Can home fragrance get any easier? My house just permanently smells like some kind of expensive beach hotel.

In terms of longevity, the Connock jar of twigs seems to be doing pretty well – let’s see if it beats my Jo Malone Red Roses diffuser, which carried on scenting my hallway for about six months even after all the oils in the jar had evaporated!

You can find Connock here – I want to try the bath and the body oil next, so I’ll let you know how I get on. The fragrance diffuser is £38, the body range starts at £18.50.

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