Recent ELF Purchases

E.L.F. do special offers on their Facebook page at every 1,000 new likes. They recently had free postage due to 65,000 likes, so I thought it was the perfect opportunity to try out a few of their products.

I was extremely pleased with how quickly the package arrived too. I placed the order at approximately 11am, so my order was dispatched on the same day and arrived in 2 days, which is mighty speedy! :)

Studio Blush in Tickled Pink - £3.50

Eyebrow kit in Dark - £3.50
Studio Small Angled Brush - £3.50
Plumping Lip Glaze in Oasis - £1.50

Swatches:

With flash - From L-R: Plumping Lip Glaze in Oasis, Plumping Lip Glaze (Clear end), Eyebrow Kit in Dark (Gel,), Eyebrow Kit in Dark (Powder), Blush in Tickled Pink

I used the products for the first time today and so far, so good :) I'm looking forward to trying out these products properly, due to reading some good reviews about them on other blogs and hearing positive reviews from some people on Youtube. Have you ever bought anything from E.L.F. before? Do you have any recommendations of good products by E.L.F.?

Thanks for reading. xoxo, Joy

Wardrobe Envy: Lauren Conrad

All images are from tfs

Lauren Conrad's outfits always look effortless and so stylish. I love how she pairs simple items of clothing with a few accessories and a gorgeous, designer bag. I'm so jealous of her collection of Chanel bags!

Who are your style crushes? Keep an eye out for more of mine! You can see more of my style crushes here.

xoxo, Joy

Picture Tuesday

Photo: Jill Willcott (Here)

Collective Moisturiser Review: Part 1 (Face)

I've decided to do a 2 part series of posts about moisturisers that I have used recently. The first part is for face moisturisers and the second part will be for body moisturisers.

When I buy face moisturisers, I am usually swayed by the advertising and/or what the products claim to do. I don't think I've ever repurchased a moisturiser - Not because there haven't been any products that I've loved, but mainly because I like trying new products and seeing if they live up to their claims. I found it quite hard to review the moisturisers, simply because everyone's skin is so different. A product that has worked for me may not work for someone else etc. I've rated each moisturiser out of 5.

Image Source: Google Images

Garnier Soft Essentials Day - £4.99
I really liked this moisturiser. It's designed for sensitive skin, which I don't have, but I picked it up anyway. I love the smell of this, it kind of reminds me of roses. I found that it sunk into my skin quickly and left my skin feeling soft. ♥♥♥♥♥

Superdrug Optimum Line Decrease Night Cream - £7.49
This moisturiser was really thick, so a little goes a long way. However, I found it a bit hit and miss - I liked the moisturiser, because it felt really nourishing and moisturising, however I sometimes wonder if it contributed to some break outs that I had over the time I used it. I'm not sure whether or not it helped to reduce the appearance of fine lines/wrinkles but my skin felt so soft in the morning. ♥♥♥

Olay Complete Care UV Fluid - £2.79 (On offer)
This moisturiser is light and leaves skin feeling soft. It sinks into skin relatively quickly. I like that this moisturiser has SPF15 in it, which means that I don't need to put extra SPF on. The more I use this moisturiser, the more I like it. However, I do think that this would be too light to be used as a winter moisturiser. ♥♥♥♥

Garnier Youthful Radiance Night - £5.45 (On offer)
I'm a little undecided about this moisturiser. I think that it has lived up to the promise of making your skin look like it has regained radiance. I have noticed that the appearance of the fine lines around my eyes have reduced. This has a weird smell, which I can't describe, but it's tolerable. ♥♥

Thank you for reading. xoxo, Joy

Music Tag

I recently saw this meme on Livejournal and decided to do it, so I just thought I'd share it here too.

The rules:

• Open your preferred music player.
• Fill out the answers.
• Tag 5 people to do this.
  

How many songs total: 2327
How many hours or days of music: 5.8 days
Most recently played: "Nothin' On You" by B.o.b ft. Bruno Mars (I LOVE THIS SONG ♥)
Most played: "Coney Island" by The Plastiscines
Most recently added: "Break Your Heart" by Taio Cruz ft. Ludacris

Sort by song title:
First song: "A-Punk" by Vampire Weekend
Last song: "-" by Snow Patrol

Sort by time:
Shortest song: "Twentieth Century Fox Fanfare" by Kimya Dawson & Mateo Messina (0:20)
Longest song: "Your Fractured Life" by Air Traffic (22:55!)

Sort by album:
First album: "About Love" by The Plastiscines
Last album: "3 Words" by Cheryl Cole

First song that comes up on shuffle: "Defying Gravity" from Wicked, the Musical ♥

Search the following and state how many songs come up:
Death: 17
Life: 73
Love: 173
Hate: 10
You: 338
Sex: 7

I tag anyone that wants to do this to do it :) Feel free to leave me a link to your post, if you do do it! xoxo, Joy

NOTD: Victoria

2 coats of Nails Inc. Nail Polish in 'Victoria'

I thought this colour was the perfect transition colour between summer and autumn. I decided to jazz it up a bit (à la Lorraine Stanick) and add a glitter polish to my ring finger. (The glitter polish is by 17 in Party Animal. I don't know if they still sell this, my bottle is SO old!) I found that the first coat was a little streaky, but upon doing another layer, it became a nice opaque blood red colour. I'm really impressed with how long this has lasted. I've had it on for almost a week now and haven't experienced any major chipping yet.

xoxo, Joy

Picture Tuesday

Photo: Andrea McClain (Here)

Review: New Shampoo Bar

What they say: (From Lush.co.uk) Stimulating spice shampoo bar for tired scalps suffering from hormonal hair loss. In times of stress and hormonal change, like pregnancy and after giving birth, your hair can start to fall out. Fortunately, this is usually temporary, but it's a distressing thing to happen. The New Shampoo Bar is for those times. We make it with bay, clove and cinnamon essential oils to stimulate the scalp. Nourishing nettle, peppermint and rosemary add shine and soften the hair.

Price: £4.65

What I think: I've been rather miserable about my hair for a while now. I have really fine hair and very little of it and when I wash my hair, a lot ends up in the plughole. :( I read about this shampoo bar somewhere (I have no idea where...) and was swayed to buy this by the reviews on the Lush website. When I first started using it, I wasn't really expecting any miracles.

I had never used a Lush shampoo bar before. To be honest, I'd never even considered using one before either! When I first went to use it, I was a bit confused about if there was a correct method of using it. After using it a few times, I realised that I was just overthinking it and all you do is rub it over your head and massage it in. The shampoo bars are really good value for money, according to the sales assistant, they are supposed to last 3x as long as the liquid shampoos you can buy in Lush. After using it for about 2 months, mine has barely reduced in diameter, but I can see that it is getting thinner.

The shampoo bar lathers up really well, which I wasn't expecting. But I guess, at the same time, that's not necessarily a good thing, because the shampoo bar contains sodium laureth sulphate, which isn't good for you. After washing it out, my hair always feels squeaky clean, which I love.

The shampoo bar has a very strong cinnamon smell when dry. To begin with I didn't really like the smell, but I do now. Upon applying it to the hair, the smell pretty much goes. One downside of the shampoo bar is that it leaves a red, slightly sticky residue in the shower after use. It takes a while to dry and can be a little messy. I don't keep mine in the shampoo bar tins that you can buy in Lush and I wouldn't recommend it either, because otherwise it'll never dry!

So, has it made any difference to the amount of hair loss? I think so. I was using this religiously after I bought it and found that the amount of hair in the plughole after washing my hair had reduced. I temporarily stopped using it when I came home from uni and I noticed an increase in the amount of hair in the plughole. I'm still a little undecided about this shampoo bar, because I don't know if it's just a placebo and I'm just hoping that the hair loss has decreased or if it actually has. I don't think that this is a long term solution, however I would definitely recommend this shampoo bar if you're looking for a quick, cheap and easy solution to hair loss.

Have any of you experienced hair loss? Is there anything you can recommend to use?

Thank you for reading. xoxo, Joy

I Just Got NAKED

I normally don't get into all the hype surrounding the Urban Decay palettes, but when I saw the Naked Palette, I instantly fell in love. I'm a major neutrals lover, so I knew I had to have it!


I was in Birmingham yesterday and popped along to House of Fraser in the hope of picking up a palette... No such luck - They didn't even have an UD counter!! A little later, I was strolling through the Bullring and decided to ask in Debenhams when they would be getting it in... But lo and behold, there the stand was in all it's Naked glory! The sales assistant asked me if I wanted to see it, I just replied with a polite, "No thanks, I'd just like to buy it" and quite literally ran to the till points. There were quite a lot there when I was there, so if you want a Naked palette and are in/around Birmingham, I would highly suggest a trip to Debenhams!

Ok, so after all that (pointless) waffle, here's a picture of the palette. I decided not to put tonnes of photos in this post or do swatches, because I'm sure you've all probably seen them a million times. However, if you do want to see more in depth photos and/or swatches, just let me know in the comments.


For £27.00, you get 12x 1.3g eyeshadows in Virgin, Sin, Naked, Sidecar, Buck, Half Baked, Smog, Dark Horse, Toasted, Hustle, Creep and Gunmetal, a double ended 24/7 eye pencil in Zero and Whiskey and a 3.7ml bottle of Primer Potion.

I tested the colours on my hand when I got home yesterday and the eyeshadows are so soft and pigmented. The colours are all absolutely gorgeous and I can't wait to start playing around with it properly :) My favourite colours so far are Sin, Half Baked, Smog, Toasted and Creep, although I'm sure that'll change once I start using it more.

Thank you for reading. xoxo, Joy

7 Things About Me Tag

I've been very slowly catching up on all the blog posts I missed while I was on holiday... Yes, I'm very slow! I was looking at Sarah's blog and noticed that she had tagged me in this "7 Things About Me" tag.

Here are the rules:

• Thank the person who gave you the award.
• Share seven things about yourself.
• Nominate your newly discovered blogs.
• Let your nominees know about the award.

Firstly, thank you very much Sarah for tagging me in this! :D So, onto 7 things about me:

1. I am obsessed with handbags. My Balenciaga bag = my baby :)
2. There is a 17 year age gap between my sister and I.
3. I am going into my second year at university this month.
4. I love the theatre/musicals.
5. I hate feet.
6. I was born in China, but moved to England when I was 1.
7. I learnt ballet for 15 years.

I tag: Lily from Lily Lipstick, a blog I discovered yesterday. :)

Thanks again, Sarah. :) xoxo, Joy