May Favourites: Makeup, skincare, stationery and more!

So I realise that I haven't actually done a favourites in a whole year and I actually really love this month's favourites so I wanted to share them! Maybe I should try and do this monthly? Who knows?

First up is Clinique's Even Better foundation in the shade Alabaster. I've been wearing this foundation every single day for the past 2months and I'm in love! This is definitely my winter shade though and now I've started tanning in time for summer it's a little light for me so I'll definitely be purchasing a darker shade! It's a long wearing natural finish foundation and even with my oily skin lasts all day long. You can find it here for £24.50.  

I've been loving wearing this with the Clinique Superprimer for redness which you can find here for £20.

This looks a little scary when you first squeeze it out of the tube as it really does have a yellow tint but I can assure you it does end up clear once you've rubbed this in! This is a silicone based primer which I know is controversial but I personally love and I find this really smooths out my pores and minimises the redness I have around my nose.

Next up is everybody's favourite cleanser Liz Earle's Cleanse and Polish hot cloth cleanser. I love this for taking off my makeup and I recently got a travel size in my may Birchbox so I'm saving that for my holidays! I love this purely as a makeup remover as it gets everything off even waterproof mascara, but I do still need a second cleanse after. You can find this here for £15.50.

I've also been loving the Got 2b Oil-icious tame and shine styling oil this month as my hair's been getting a bit frizzy and unruly. This just helped my lock the shine back into the ends of my hair and I love using this after I've curled my hair to define the curls. It's only £4.19 here and I've had this bottle at least a year and I'm only half way through, you literally need the tiniest amount.

(apologies for the rubbish quality)

Marbling really impressed me this month with their new Lash Sensational mascara I'm actually a massive fan of their mascara's especially The Falsies, but this one is just amazing! The brush is a spoon shaped plastic brush with tiny bristles on one side and longer on the other which allows the brush to coat everyone of your lashes. I love how defining this mascara is for an everyday look but the more you apply the more volumising it gets without being too clumpy! You can get this here for £7.99.

I really struggled to capture the beauty of this lipstick in it's true form the weather here has been awful for taking pictures today. But this is definitely my most worn lip colour of the month Rimmel's Kate Moss lasting finish lipstick in 107 which you can find here for £5.49. It's just the most beautiful matte non-drying plum/berry shade and I love it! I'll be sure to capture it in a face of the day soon!

Swatched on the left is also my £1 steal of the month! MUA's white eyeliner pencil which you can find here. This is just super pigmented for only £1 and I love using this in the waterline. Plus it comes with a sharpener on the cap!

Finally, I thought I'd add some non-beauty favourites at the end. I purchased these super cute notebooks from Home sense for £2.50 each a few weeks ago and I just loved the patterns and how they're like school exercise books. I managed to find the brand online here and they have some many cute stationery item's from diaries, notebooks and folder's.

I thought I'd also share with you my favourite Youtuber of the month and this month it definitely has to be TheSacconeJoly's. I absolutely adore their little family and I get so excited at 6pm when I see their daily vlog has been uploaded! I'm obsessed with the cuteness! You can check them out here.

Now, finally a music favourite of the month has to be Hozier I am in love with Take me to church and his new song Someone new.

Comment below your favourite's for the month and thank you so much for reading!

Lauren  x

Disclaimer: All opinions are my own and I own and have purchased all of these products with my own hard earned money. No companies have sponsored this post and I am not affiliated with any brands mentioned.

Makeup forever in the UK!

Just a quick post of something I wanted to share with you guys! Makeup forever is now avaliable here online at Debenhams!

I was super excited when I saw this as Makeup forever is really hard to get in the UK unless you are a makeup artist. As far as I can see most products are online and I hope they will branch out into stores soon, or at least they haven't in my local Debenhams stores. One thing i've never seen before is this new 'try before you buy' scheme so if you purchase the HD powder, Aqua smoky lash mascara or Aqua eyes waterproof eyeliner in matte black in full sizes you will receive a free sample size to trial first. Then if you don't like the product you can send back the unopened item, such a good idea especially at these prices.

In honour of these new find I thought I would share with you the Top 5 products on my Makeup forever wishlist:

1. Beauty pro box £30

Okay, so I did kind of cheat here but for £30 this is such good value and has everything I wanted to try! Here's their description: 

• 1 HD Primer (travel size) : prep your complexion
• 1 HD Loose Powder (travel size): finish and mattify your makeup
• 1 Smoky Extravagant mascara (travel size): dramatic impact mascara
• 1 Aqua Eyes 0L (travel size): creamy long-lasting eyeliner pencil for intense non-stop matte black color
• 1 Rouge Artist 43 (full size): glamorous red lipstick
• 1 Aqua Lip pencil 8C (travel size): highly pigmented waterproof red lip liner pencil
• Reusable case
• Mirror included

2. Artist plexi gloss £16 in Golden pink

I'm not going to lie here I totally want this gloss for the wand, how cool is that?!

3. HD Foundation £29

Here's what Makeup forever say:

HD Foundation is an oil-free medium-to-full coverage liquid foundation which covers skin imperfections, while remaining invisible on-screen and in real life.

4. Full cover concealer £21

A little bit pricey for a concealer in my opinion but apparently this stuff can even cover tattoos.

5. Artist Diamond shadow in Creme Brulee £13

These are really well priced and just look at that shimmer! I'm in love.

Let me know if you check anything out from Makeup forever now they're readily available in the UK!

Thanks for reading,

Lauren x

*Disclaimer- I do not own any of these products. I am simply sharing my honest opinion. I am not affiliated with Makeup forever or any other brands mentioned. These images were sourced by me from Google images and I do not own them.* Don't forget to click the follow button! x

Birchbox unboxing +First impressions- May 2015

This week I got my first ever box from Birchbox UK through the post and I couldn't wait to do a first impressions of the brand and concept as a whole.

Birchbox UK is £10 per month plus £2.95 p+p

This month's box theme was 'Free your mind' based all around the idea of being creative even in adulthood, they even included colouring pencils in the box so you can colour in the lid of this month's box. If you do upload a picture to their website you can win upto £500 in vouchers for Birchbox!

So onto what I thought of the box contents...

Wah London Nail art pen in lilac RRP £7

This pen comes with a nib end and a striper brush inside the polish. The colour is really vibrant and applies opaquely. 

On both the nib and striper brush the grip on the bottle makes it super easy to control which is a massive bonus for me.

Next up, Lumiere d'hiver by No 4 reconstructing hair masque, RRP £36

I was a bit disappointed when I saw this as there's a lot of product in this sachet but it's in an annoying foil packet. I could probably get 3 generous uses of this on my hair (which is mid-length to long) but, when I read that this was an 'extra' from Birchbox and I saw how expensive the full size is I was actually really happy! I suppose I was just being picky really.

Parlor by Jeff Chastain Moisturising Sea salt spray RRP £17

This smells amazing, kind of fruity but with a freshness to it. I love the packaging and a 30ml size of this will last me a very long time. I am yet to use it but i'm sure i'll report back when I do!

Nude Progenius omega treatment oil RRP £58

This smells like a moisturiser my mum used to use, a very classic skincare scent (if that makes any sense at all). If i'm honest I probably won't use this as when I tested it on my hand it felt really greasy which was a huge warning sign for me and my oily skin! Anyway, the packaging is really nice and comes with a cute pump bottle.

Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish RRP £14

Look at how cutely wrapped this came! I have to admit I already own this cleanser and I love it as a makeup remover so I was really happy to have a travel size of this to take away with me on holiday this year!

The sample is a really generous 30ml and you get another muslin cloth which I am so happy to recieve as they get so dirty with mascara and things so quickly! In a nutshell the cleanser is supposed to be applied to dry skin and is a cream formula, then removed with a warm damp muslin cloth which both exfoliates the skin and removes makeup and dirt. It can be used as a daily cleanser or just as a makeup remover on all skin types.

Finally, Jelly pong pong Caribbean sun duo bronzer RRP £15.95 and Stila lip glaze in glow RRP £15

I was so happy to receive these especially the Stila lip glaze as I'd been wanting to try one for ages!

Apologies for the rubbish swatches, this bronzer duo really doesn't swatch well but when the blush is applied to the skin it is so pigmented! I was so impressed it's a deep pink/berry toned blush and it has just the right amount of shimmer. My only downside to this product is the bronzer for my skintone is just a bit too yellowy but I do think it will work great for me in the summer. Also, it really was a huge struggle to get my brush into the one side of the compact.

(bad lighting issues :( so annoying)

The lip gloss on the other hand was really nice but does have a really strange consistency. It it's sticky at all but it does have that heavy feel which makes it last hours on the lips even eating and drinking I can still feel this on my lips. The colour is just beautiful a sheer nude with gold glitter running throughout.

Overall, my thoughts on Birchbox are mixed here's the verdict...

Pro's-

Luxury samples for only £10

Themed boxes

Luxury sized samples/full sized products

Personalised products for your skin type/hair type etc.

Birchbox point's system*

Con's-

I'm still not liking the surprise element, for me it's like wasting money until I know what i'm getting

The drawstring bag inside (currently in the bin)

As a whole I really do like Birchbox and especially like their *Birchbox points system where you can review products, refer friends etc to gain points towards money off your next Birchbox which I have been using and really enjoying collating points. (sad, I know) I suppose I just can't get my head around the surprise element of these boxes but if I were to subscribe to one of these boxes fulltime I would definatley choose Birchbox. They have the best range of products and best service I have found, I also have to add that unsubscribing was fuss-free and I can still use all aspects of their site even the shop. 

If you would like to try Birchbox I would appreciate very much if you could use my link which means I receive some points and a very big smile on my face:

https://www.birchbox.co.uk/invite/53ph6

Have you tried Birchbox UK?

Thanks for reading!

Lauren x

*Disclaimer I purchased this Birchbox with my own money and I am not affiliated with the brand in anyway. All opinions and pictures are my own and are 110% honest. I would appreciate very much if you would like to use any of my images from any of my posts if you could ask/notify me first.* Please don't forget to press the follow button it means alot, thank you x

My New years resolutions!

Firstly, I have to start off by apologising for the lack of blogging recently but i've currently been studying for my mock exams this month. So, I couldn't think of a better post than this to start of 2015!

1. Become more organised with college work
I'm totally guilty of this i'm a really organised person but when it comes to college work I seem to leave everything until the last minute it's awful!

2. Start blogging properly!
This one is a big one that I really do hope will go well this year I hope to upload a new blog post every Monday and Friday at least. I really do struggle with this one as I don't want to upload content that isn't wanted on my blog. This starts this week! So stay tuned!

3. Increase exercise
Over the Christmas period my exercise and diet routine has completely been ruined so this year I want to really focus on my health. I've been really inspired by Youtuber's like Cassey Ho from Blogilates and Karena and Katrina from Tone it up! Would you be interested in seeing a diet and exercise series?

4. Eat Fruit at least once a day
I'm terrible with this I just love my carbs too much. But this year i'm really going to try and eat fruit every single day, especially blueberries mmmm!

5. Update my wardrobe!
This year I really want to focus on fashion and constantly update my wardrobe whilst taking my old clothes to the local charity shops or collections.

What are your New year's resolutions this year?
I hope you all had an amazing Christmas and New year and I can't wait to start blogging again this year!


Lauren x