Make me beautiful!

Morning ladies!

As mentioned before, here is my latest collection of all things cosmetic....

Where to begin?!  Tanning products?  Yes, good idea!  I picked up the L'Oreal NutriSummer for a bargain £3.49 in Tescos.  I recently used their Sublime Bronze tan and was looking for a moisturiser to hopefully lock in the colour for a bit longer.  Rather than use my Dove cream I thought maybe I should stick with brands and try L'Oreal moisturiser with L'Oreal tan....I'm yet to try as I haven't used fake tan for a little while, but I'll be sure to post the results when I do!  The Nivea Sunkissed Skin is my absolute favourite.  It doesn't leave you sticky for hours and hours like Dove does and is a lotion rather than a cream, meaning it doesn't feel thick on my skin.  But the reason it's my favourite gradual tanning product is the gorgeous light glow it gives my skin (I have tendancies to lean towards the Tangerine Dream shade on the tanning colour chart, but this gives me just the right golden shade and I don't feel the need to slap layers and layers on to achieve a deeper colour) AND the outrageously low price I picked this up for.  Get ready girls.....£1.99!  for 400ml!!  Only trouble is, I bought it from a Savers store which doesn't have a website you can order and I've been told by a friend that they no longer stock it in my local store.  Not happy.  Especially since I can't find it anywhere else!  If you spot it out on your beauty haul travels, please do let me know!

I sound like a bit of a bargain hunter, but I got the Bed Head duo for only £15 at my local hairdressing shop using my sister's trade card....and who doesn't love Bed Head?!  You'll probably recognise that this is the Superstar tween pack, which I'm sure many of you will have already tried.  I love the funky packaging of the Bed Head products and this smells absolutely gorgeous.  I use it with the Superstar Blowdry Lotion and Superstar Queen For A Day to give me outrageously bouffant locks :)

I decided to buy the Nailene So Natural nails in Short Length, Square Shape after reading many complimentary reviews on other blogs.  I have to say, I don't think I'm a follower.  They're a great length and don't hinder my blog entries but it's day 4 of wearing them and a total of 4 nails have popped off.  One when I picked up the bath mat, one when squeezing a sponge, one when putting a hairband in my sister's hair and one last night while adjusting my jeans.  I include this tedious list of whens to illustrate the fact that they fell off pretty easily, no strenuous activity wrenched them from my nails.  But perhaps I didn't apply them correctly.  On the plus side, when they did come off my nails weren't completely ravaged underneath and the leftover glue was easy to buff away.

Now onto my favourite thing.....make up!  There's a 3 for 2 deal running in Tesco across their cosmetics, and I also noticed that Boots were offering 3 for 2 on Rimmel and Maybelline.  Needing a new mascara, I picked up L'Oreal Extra-Volume Collagene mascara in black.  After trying L'Oreal's Volume Million Lashes and Rimmel's 1-2-3 Looks Mascara, I have returned to the Collagene.  I found that these other two had applicators which were too small and left my lashes sticking straight out with absolutely no volume....Extra-Volume Collagene has a chunky brush and gives me fab, full lashes.  Along with the mascara I also bought a Maybelline quad in 05 Glamour Browns and Bourjois Smoky Eyes in 06 Violet Romantic.  The picture alongside the Bourjois compact showed a model with amazing, vibrant purple smokies so I thought I'd give it a go...

As you can see, nothing amazing here.  The guide on the back said to use the darker shade to "sculpt" and the medium shade to "blend and stretch", which when looking at the diagram amounts to dark on the lid, medium in the crease.  I'm familiar with the rule of keeping the dark shade close to the lashline and blending the colour out as you go, but applying a dark shade all over my eyelid was a new one to me.  Perhaps that's why I feel like this look didn't really work.  The applicator provided gave good coverage but the white shade doesn't really show up and they were tricky to blend without removing all of the colour.  Has anyone else tried this product?  What did you think of it?

The Maybelline quad gives a pretty standard natural look.  Was easy to apply but didn't give me a totally new look that I couldn't have achieved with products I already own.  It did however include a handy diagram with details of where to put each shade that was easier to understand than the Bourjois version.  The Bourjois single eyeshadow you see in the picture was donated to my make up fund by mum and is shade 05 Brun.  I haven't tried this yet, but I can provide swatches of any of the mentioned eyeshadows if you would like :)

Finally, as I am aware of how much I have rambled on, is my lippie and blush.  Jo's blog convinced me to give MAC's Melba blush a try and I haven't been disappointed.  Although, when does MAC ever disappoint?  It gives my cheeks a lovely goldeny flush that lasts all day.  My lipstick is from The Body Shop in shade 66.  I think I wanted shade 68 to be honest, but it was only when I got home I realised this wasn't it!

It's an easy to wear coral shade with a nice creamy consistancy which feels nourishing when on my lips.  It's my first Body Shop lippie and my only bugbear is the slightly pearlescent effect it has.  I prefer my lipsticks either as a block colour or with a glossy effect.  To combat this however I've been applying a thin layer of Miss Sporty (yes, cheapo I know!) Ultra Shine Gloss in 005 VIP Look.  Overall this is a good value product which will curb my coral cravings until I can get my hands on MAC Jazzed which is currently out of stock on their website..grrrrr.

If you made it to the end of this mammoth post....well done!  Hope you enjoyed, feedback on my first ever beauty haul would be much appreciated.

Take care

xx