disappointing products :(

Now before I get comments like "but you use this product all the time!" or anything like that, this post is called DISAPPOINTING products. I use all of these really often, however they either don't live up to the hype, or just aren't what they used to be, sadly!

The Soap and Glory Smoothie Star Body Milk is something we heard a lot about over Christmas. This was many people's "holy grail" skin care product. The scent is just to die for, so sweet and lovely - so definitely not for those of you who don't appreciate sweet, kind of artificial scents - but for me, it didn't do much on the hydrating side. I feel a little greasy afterwards but it quickly soaks in and leaves me soft for around 12 hours, then I want to apply it again, which is not something I imagined to feel after all the rave reviews!

Now this is a product I'm super disappointed in, I don't even know why I bought it. It's the 2000 Calorie Waterproof Mascara by MaxFactor. How could this mascara ever be very volumising when the brush is SO small?! It's tiny. It makes my eyelashes look ridiculous, spidery, gave no volume or length whatsoever. It just look awful. I've started to use this on my bottom lashes just to use it up to be honest!

Benefit's They're Real Mascara  is an award winning, cult product. But of course you all already know that. It's good, I wear it, it's nice and does what it says, but it doesn't blow my mind. For me, it's nothing I can rave too much about, it's lengthens and gives nice volume, but if I apply it onto bare lashes it makes them go all sparse and crappy, so I must use another mascara as a base. This is something I'll definitely use, especially when it comes to travel make up, but I doubt I'll repurchase it, it's blooody expensive!

This has been my every day, go to foundation since I started this blog, so for what, six months? But lately my MaxFactor Face Finity Foundation has been pretttyy bad lately. It's just not blending into my skin anymore. It'll kind of, roll up.. That sounds so gross but seriously, it'll roll up and come off my skin. NICE. None of my brushes are working with it either, nor does it apply well with my fingers, I dunno. The colour has randomly gone quite dark too, eurgh. On the hunt for another nice foundation.

Illamasqua Illuminator in Slay, which has recently been recontinued, is a product I'm really trying to love. I did a review here, and you can tell how desperate I am to like it, but I cannot deal with the dryness anymore. Ten seconds left on your skin, it dries and you will not get rid of that mark. It can drag my make up off and ruin eeeverything. I use this still, I love the colour and effect, when it decides to be nice so!

And finally the POREfessional Primer from Benefit is another cult product, and another I didn't used to get along with, but am finally finding myself liking more. I don't know what I dislike, I'm just not mad over it! It's not exactly drying, but it does dry up a bit, and feel bitty sometimes. I really can't pinpoint what I don't like, I guess it just wasn't worth the hype for me!

So this was a loooong post! Sorry about that, guys!

DON'T FORGET TO ENTER MY GIVEAWAY! :) Lots of lovely products for you beautiful people!

my benefit make up bar experience

Hey guys!
As much as I want to say "I LOVED it! I learnt so much, and realised things that were so obvious before!" I would be lying to you. It was awful, I think these make up artists applied my make up with their eyes shut.

My particular look I was asking for help with was a flawless, dewy base. I have quite red cheeks, but I still thought these would be able to give me some advice and help.

They started by taking my eyebrows off which I was soooo uncomfortable with. They followed by using their Porefessional primer which I said makes my skin look very powdery and not nice, but they used it anyway. They continued to use the Hello Flawless foundation, which again, I asked them to use something different because it didn't work for me (find my review of the foundation here and the primer here). Once this was finished, my skin looked streaky, powdery and disgusting.

One part of this session, I was slightly impressed with though. They tried out the new Fine One One blush/highlight stick, which I was incredibly excited about - for some reason, they were selling it on Thursday, even though it only got released on Saturday... Now, I'm sure this is a great product, I was initially a bit confused at how you could sweep it on and it not pull your foundation, but they managed it fine. What they didn't manage was blending! She was aaawful, it was ridiculously obvious which was so disappointing, there were clear lines and ugh, just awful.

Finally, and probably the worst part. She decided to put lipstick on me. I asked her to apply what she thought best, thinking she'd go for a subtle one considering it was day time. Instead, she chose Full-Finish lipstick in shade Espoinage, linked here. Also known as black cherry, this was a deep purple-red with a really glossy finish. She applied it with an EYESHADOW BRUSH. Seriously, a blending eyeshadow brush. I was like what on eaaaaarth. It looked horrendous, it was wobbly, an awful colour for me. However, I probably shouldn't have taken lipstick advice from someone who's lipstick was bleeding out.

I was so disappointed. I never expected too much, I'd heard that their make up artists aren't the best, but I was incredibly let down.

Have you ever had an experience like this? What about the complete opposite? Let me know!

beauty wishlist

So Christmas and New Year have passed, it's my sisters 21st in a couple of weeks, and I'm left money-less and wanting more things than ever. Typical. So now I'm sat here with the face on compiling a list of my most wanted beauty products right now!


1. Benefit High Beam Highlighter
I am a complete highlighter virgin. I've never used one and since this is a product so many people rave about, I'm really wanting to try it out and see what kind of difference it makes to my face.
I looked at the different ones they had such as Sun Beam, but I think this one would be so much more suited to my skin, but like I said, I've noooo idea!


2. Nars Laguna Bronzing Powder
I don't think I need to say anything about this product. If you've not heard of it, I'll assume you've been living under a rock! Contouring my face is an everyday thing for me, but my bronzer at the moment is just too shimmery. This is perfect - apart from the price! But I've been told it lasts a verrrry long time. Worth it?


3. Clinique Chubby Stick Intense 
I'm SO desperate for this. I've seen people say that Revlon is a good dupe, but lately I've had the mentality that rather than spending a little money on a lot of products, spend a lot on a little. I definitely think spending more pays off and I've got my heart set on this. For £16, I don't think it's too expensive. The shade I'd love to try is 06 Roomiest Rose. I think it's a lovely shade, not too in your face and I think it would look quite natural. I want this so baaaaad :(


4. Kate Spade Supercalifragilipstick 
I've noticed this in the Space NK sale for just £10! Unfortunately, it's out of stock in the shade that I am absolutely loving. It's called Popart Pink and is a lovely coral-pink shade. I don't have a colour like it in my make up case and I would love to pop this cute bullet in there.


5. Escentric Molecules - Molecule 01
This was at the top of my Christmas list, with many asterisks next to it and unfortunately I didn't get it. Super sad. Alas, it remains on my wishlist, the beauty secret, Molecule 01 and I'm still to try it. I would love to see whether the reactions I've read happen to me!

benefits hello flawless oxygen wow foundation and boi-ing concealer

Top swatch is Hello Flawless foundation
Bottom swatches are Boi-ing concealer

As you can see in this post, I got these two items in the How To Look The Best At Everything flawless complexion kit, and I'm really disappointed by one of the products.


I received Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow in shade "Cheers to me!" Champagne. I am sooooo disappointed in this, it genuinely saddens me haha. I had such high expectation for this but it really isn't what I expected.

For starters, the kit I got was aimed at light skin. I don't have ridiculously pale skin but the is so, so dark for me, it looked ridiculous. Maybe if the shade was better I would have enjoyed it more? Obviously, they can't cater for EVERYONES skin colour, that would be impossible, but this is crazy dark.
Another downside is how greasy it made my skin look. Although this is apparently an oil free foundation, my face looked so shiny and disgusting I felt the need to apply a decent amount of powder to cover it up, but I didn't, I waited to see if the oilyness would die down or something. I left the house still feeling pretty disappointed by how I looked, but I wanted to test it and give it a chance, maybe it would be better in a lighter shade. It did NOT get better. I checked my face a couple of hours later and loooord it looked AWFUL. Next to my nose, under my eye it had dried and was flaking it was horrific. Foundation has never done this to me, I don't suffer from dry skin too much, but I especially don't there. I was ashamed it was just horrific.
I decided to give it another chance a couple of days later, but I wanted to try applying it with a brush. Alas, I was left with the same, awful results. Ridiculously disappointed.

Have any of you guys tried this? What did you think?


NOW, the Boi-ing concealer is just out of this woooorld. I've tried so many concealers and never been 100% happy with them. They always look cakey, even the highly praised Collection 2000 concealer. Luckily, I never really have to wear it too often, but I do like to put a bit under my eye to brighten it up.
With my disappointment of most other concealers, I wasn't expecting too much from this but as soon as I applied the lightest shade to my under eye I was incredibly surprised! It applied like a dream. I used my finger as I like to warm up concealer to help blend it and it just looked flawless. Of course, shade one was a little too light, but after I blended the two shades given it was perfect. I really couldn't praise this concealer more.


So, two VERY different reviews! I have a "beauty lesson" at Benefit in a couple of weeks, let's see what they choose when I ask them to help me create a flawless, dewy face!
What are your views on these products? I'd love to hear :)

Also! I'm looking for someone to illustrate a picture of me for my blog header, would anyone be so kind as to do it or even recommend someone?!

benefit 'how to look the best at everything' and POREfessional review

This holy bible like flawless complexion kit contains some of Benefit's most popular, cult products such as POREfessional and Hello Flawless foundation. The kit also contains the boi-ing concealer which comes in two shades, and the Hello Flawless powder. I picked up the 'light' shade, it also comes in medium and deep. I'm planning on doing a full review on the foundation and the concealer, so for now I'll tell you my views on POREfessional.

POREfessional is a balm which aims to reduce the look of your pores. It comes out a slightly beige colour. As soon as you apply this, it feels so velvety and smooth, it really does feel amazing. I was really disappointed about it though. For me, my pores looked exactly the same, no reduction, no cover up, no nothing. I do think this is really good as a primer though. It creates a smooth, even base for your foundation to go over. I don't use a moisturiser when I'm using this, I'll just use a toner and then apply this. I find it's already quite hydrating, if I had moisturiser, then this, then foundation I don't think it'd stick as well, if that makes sense! I feel it'd be difficult for the foundation to settle.

Back to the kit! The samples are quite small, but for £24.50, what can you expect? I love the size of the concealer though and the fact you can take them out and pop them in your bag is a plus. I do wish you could take the powder out though, or even that it had a lid on it. All you get is a plastic cover that isn't stuck to the box so it slides out all the time, but with the tips and tricks "book" on the top, sometimes the page opens and it gets the powder which is annoying. The tips and tricks book is great though, especially for people just starting out doing makeup seriously. You can open both sides to reveal a mirror and there's 5 pieces of advice. I absolutely love that, I think it's such a good addition to it.

Overall I'm completely impressed with this product. Find a link to it here and have a look for yourself!

beauty sales haul, but no sale items...

Although I've named this post 'sales haul', absolutely none of these items were in a sale at all (sadly), but it seemed an applicable-ish name. 

When I tried my Origins intensive over night mask, I knew I NEEDED more products, so I begged my sister to take me to my nearest Boots that sells the product, might as well stock up on advantage points whilst I'm there! After a long time searching at home, I knew what products I was looking for so it was easy enough for me. 

I bought Zero Oil Pore Purifying Toner and United State Balancing Tonic, and I couldn't resist picking up a couple of samples along the way! The lovely lady made me feel very comfortable and offered to give me some samples, so I got ones that went alongside my purchased products and got the Balanced Diet lotion and the Zero Oil lotion. 

I nipped into Debenhams and of course, bumped into yet another Origins stall (oops!). On another, longer glance, I got offered even more testers (why not?), so I went with Modern Friction, which is an exfoliater you use before using a mask, and the Clear Improvement Charcoal Mask which I'm SO excited to use! Yet another lovely woman again. I managed to get myself booked in for a free 30 minute skincare treatment session where they'll give me a lovely facial and we'll discuss my skincare routine and offer me solutions. Very looking forward to this!

In a rush, I was desperate to spend my well earned Boots Advantage Points. I was pretty certain I wanted to try something from Benefit, I've never tried anything from their range and heard so much about it. I knew I wanted to get some kind of kit so I could try a couple of products. I thought I wanted to try the They're Real mascara, but it's so much for something I wasn't sure on, I couldn't do it. I then found this brilliant kit that contains the infamous POREfessional balm, Hello Flawless foundation, Hello Flawless powder and (what I think...) is a concealer/highlighter/under-eye corrector palette called Boi-ing 01 and 02. If anyone can give me a heads up on that product, I'd appreciate it! On purchasing my product, the Benefit counter girl offered me a free make-up session where they'll give me tips on certain make up looks I find difficult. I'm already sure on what I'm asking for help with! 

Look out for my reviews on these products. Have you tried them? What are your views on Origins and Benefit? I hope you've had a lovely Christmas, everyone, take care!