Wednesday 29 April 2015

Balance Me face wash Review



This is the Balance Me Pure Skin Face Wash. It's made from 98.8% natural ingredients, and I did look at the ingredients and there's only a few things that I'm not sure of and helpfully the funky Latin names have their English counterparts next them! So that claim seems to check out (I'm no expert!). It also contains anti-oxidants and spruce knot extract that balances normal to combination skin. 

I have to say my skin has been relatively clear recently which makes a refreshing change however I'm not sure if that's down to this or other things I've been using on my face. However, even IF it's down to this product I don't think I'd buy this at full price or even pick it up as a magazine freebie if I saw it in one again because for me, the smell is HORRENDOUS! It smells very strong, like citrus, but as if it's gone off. It's really hard to describe, my husband says like aniseed, and we both agree there's some kind of almost medical smell about it. And for that reason, I'm afraid it's a thumbs down from me.

Thanks for reading,

Wench x

Monday 27 April 2015

Lacura at Aldi!




I was wondering through Aldi doing my boring food shopping (I hate food shopping!) and I came across these! So food shopping turned into skin care and make up shopping, hooray!

I picked up a Lacura Wondercurl Mascara £2.39, there were a few different ones, including a 3D effect one and a volumising one but the volume brush looked huge and I tend not to get on well with those and out of the other two this one seemed better for me. 

I also bought a Lacura CC Cream in Light £3.99, we'll see how this goes as I find lighter shades in cheaper brands tend to be a bit orangey.

The last make up item I picked up was a Lacura Eyeliner in Black £1.99, these also came in Emerald (green) and Smoke (grey) and they come with a separate sharpener in the box which impressed me because I can never find mine! There were also some eyebrow pencils that were 

Skin care wise I picked up a Lacura Expert Beautifying Serum and Expert Eye Gel, there's lots of funky sounding ingredients in these, the eye gel boasts Kudzu Extract, Mimox, and Caffeine (see what I mean!?) and the serum contains Blue-Green Micro Algae extract and Mimox X (I've no idea what Mimox is!) 

I got all of these for an impressive £16.35! If you like the looks of these I'd be quick as Aldi tend to do these things for like a week only, however I do believe some skin care stuff is available all the time. I've not tried these yet but I'll have swatches and reviews galore once I've give them  a good go! 

Thanks for reading!

Wench x    

Thursday 23 April 2015

Park Life!



With the glorious weather we've had in the UK recently I wanted to share something a little different from my usual posts today. 

Scenic View

Me and Splodge went to the park and I was showing him the sights and the animals and took the opportunity to take some pictures (and practise my not-so-great photo skills!) 

We saw a heron and I got super excited! 

Heron in the park

Heron in the park


Heron in flight

We saw a squirrel playing with a stick (clearly a dog in an earlier life!)  

Squirrel with a stick

Answer me this, is a full white pigeon a dove or still just a pigeon?! Answers on a postcard please! 

Pidge or Dove

And finally, here's a pretty tree!

Whooping willow

I know my photography is shocking, but hey me and Splodge had a nice day out, didn't we baby?

Baby Pic

I realise this is a very picture heavy post but congratulations on making it this far! Hope you don't mind the change of post! 

Thanks for reading!

Wench x








Monday 20 April 2015

A Day in the Wear of... Bourjois Rouge Edition Velvet





I thought I'd do a series where I wear a certain make up product and road test it throughout a day and then let you know how I get on with it. 

So without further ado, my first instalment of this is Bourjois Rouge Edition Velvet and this is the shade 11 So Hap'pink.


These are really easy to apply, the doe foot applicator makes tracing your lip shape really easy. The formula goes on really smoothly, you do need to work fairly quickly as it sets quite fast but you can layer this. It's sets to a matte finish and dries kinda like paint but it is comfortable to wear and the staying power is really good! You can eat and drink to an extent but it's not completely invincible, I ate an ice cream at the park and it didn't live to tell the tale! Up until that point it had lasted a good four hours which I think is awesome and when it did come off it came off completely, not with that awkward lip liner looking ring (if you know what I mean!). 

There are a few colours in this range and their all quite vibrant, even though this is a fairly nude, dusky, pink shade it's still quite bright (if that even makes sense!) however they have just brought out a glossy version of the same thing and I think there's quite a few of those that are more wearable shades. 

The only problem I find with long lasting lipsticks like these is that I have quite dry, flaky lips and the colour often flakes off my lips as oppose to wearing off. On the plus side, despite having dry lips (which if you look closely at the top picture you can see) these go over that really well without highlighting the dry, flaky areas.

This is a winner for me, I can put it on and not have to worry about it for ages. I don't have to keep checking on it either as I know if I accidentally touch it it's not going to end up all over my face!  

Thanks for reading!

Wench x 







Saturday 18 April 2015

Offer Alert! 3 for 2 Mix and Match Makeup!



Hello everybody! It's a lovely sunny day today, makes me feel like spring has actually sprung! (how long will last?!) But what also makes me feel in a springtime mood is that it's that time of year when the highstreet shops/drugstores (which ever term you prefer!) put some great offers on their cosmetics! 

I found myself wondering around the town centre yesterday and called into Superdrug who currently have 3 for 2 mix and match across ALL cosmetics. You even get a free make up bag if you get the offer too! (Do bear in mind that the make up bag is while stocks last!) So you know, I thought it'd be rude not to!


I picked up a Maybelline 24hr Super Stay Powder in ivory as I've heard good things about these. It claims to be waterproof(!!!) and with the weather warming up a little I'm hoping this means it'll stay put on my face.

I also bought a Makeup Revolution Blush Palette in Hot Spice. I was initially going to get the Golden Sugar palette as I'd heard so much about it on the bloggersphere, but when I looked at it, it's got lots of bronzey shades in and I'm not a huge fan of bronzers so I went for this instead which has more warm, pinky blush shades in which I think will suit me better.

I also picked up the Sleek Eyebrow Stylist in Medium. I have been using an Elf Eyebrow Kit which has a wax and a powder in. I really like the wax but the powder is too dark for me personally and it's a little fiddly with the tiny brush (which I keep losing!) so I thought I'd give this a go. I was drawn into it as it has a spoolie on one end and the pencil at the other which I'm hoping will make it easier. I'm quite the noob with the whole eyebrow thing so we'll see how it goes!

I have tried any of these items yet but I will review each one once I've had a good play with them! 

Shop the Superdrug website HERE or get down to your local store!  

Thanks for reading!

Wench x

Wednesday 15 April 2015

Benefit Rollerlash



Good morning! Today I have a review of the Benefit Rollerlash Mascara. Now I know I'm a bit late to the party with this one but I got a free sample of this in a magazine and wanted to give it a good try out before I posted about it. 


I'm not usually a fan of plastic bristle brushes but this one I really liked, I felt it really did grab every lash like the claims suggest and I've always gotten along well with spoon shaped brushes as my lashes are naturally long just lacking a bit of curl and volume. The one thing that let's this down BIG style is the formula of the mascara itself, by the end of everyday I wore this it had smudged all under my brows as you can see in the photo below. 


If you just ignore my werewolf eyebrows, you can see the smudges and this happened every time I wore this mascara which is such a shame because otherwise I'd have really liked it. Unfortunately the same thing happened when I had the Benefit "They're Real" Mascara too. I'm certainly glad this was a magazine sample and I didn't waste my pennies on it! So a thumbs down from me I'm afraid! 

Mascara is however one of those things that depends on the person and I've seen many good reviews on it but unfortunately it's just not for me.

Benefit Rollerlash Mascara is available HERE for £19.50.

Thanks for reading!

Wench x 


Friday 10 April 2015

Freebie Friday! #6



It's FRIDAY! I bring another Freebie Friday instalment to you today but this one is a double whammy! I'd like to introduce another little mini series D.I.Y Beauty which is as the name suggests, beauty that you can make yourself! I was looking for inspiration for Freebie Friday and I remembered a little trick that you can do with a little bit of fixing spray and an eyeshadow of your choice, and thought that's a good idea to share for Freebie Friday. 

All you do is mix a tiny bit of fixing spray (I'm talking like a drop, you can use water too if you haven't got fixing spray) and add your eyeshadow choice (loose or pressed) and mix it together with a brush in your eyeshadow lid/palette/whatever you have to hand (I used a dry shampoo lid!) until you get your desired colour and pigmentation! Apply with a brush to achieve your desired look. I also used some black liner to make the colour pop! 

pic of spray and palette






Then I got thinking about other beauty things you can make yourself with bits of stuff you might already have at home and thought that you might like to join me in a little creative experiment, so look out for D.I.Y Beauty posts in the future!

My next freebie is some more magazine freebies as next months issues start to come out. This time we have Instyle magazine who are giving away 1 of 4 Eyeko products to their readers 

Eyeko mag freebies
This photo came from Instyle.co.uk I do not own it

Also, Cosmopolitan are giving away 1 of 4 different colour CID Nail Polishes! 

Cosmo cover may 2015
This photo was taken from Google. I do not own this photo

I haven't picked these up myself just yet (hence the photo's not being taken by me) but I soon will do!

Freebie Friday is going to become a "as and when I find them" type post in future, but don't worry it's not going away! 

Don't forget to check out my D.I.Y Beauty posts in the future!

Thanks for reading!

Wench x



   

Wednesday 8 April 2015

Vidal Sassoon Salonist




photo of Vidal Sassoon salonist hair dye

Hello there! I bring for you a hair dye review (poet and I know it!) following on from when I used PRO:VOKE Hair Colour Remover (link to that post HERE). This is the new Vidal Sassoon Salonist hair dye and I did mine with the colour 5.1 Medium Cool Brown. They had swatches of all the different colours which helped me choose this one. I chose this one because the swatch was a green-brown colour and this was just what I needed to counteract the reddy ginger tones in my hair after the colour removing process.

This is different to your conventional hair dye in that you do the roots first and then the lengths of the hair, and for this reason I wouldn't recommend this for a beginner as doing this is very fiddly and time consuming. However, if your cool with that then it's very much worth it.

photo of hair dye kit


The kit itself includes the usual colour cream and developer that you mix in a tray with the tinting brush that's all included. You get a decent pair of gloves (hooray!) and a big tube of conditioner too (win!). The tray has a marker on that indicates two thirds of the mixture, this is because you use two thirds on the roots and then mix the remaining third with the sachet of serum and use that on the lengths of the hair. This system is slightly flawed because it's a liquid it doesn't stay on one side of the tray but you can figure it out for yourself. 

The formula doesn't drip everywhere, it rinses out easily enough, and it's easy to clean up any smudges you may end up getting around your bathroom! It doesn't dry out your hair like some hair colourants do and considering mine had been stripped beforehand my hair felt nice and soft after use. 

Photo of result achieved with vidal sassoon hair dye


I am happy with the result, there's still a slight red tint in my hair but red is notoriously difficult to remove and it's covered it well enough for me.

It is on the expensive side for hair dye but I got mine on offer for £7.99 HERE (On offer at time of posting RRP £9.99).

Thanks for reading,

Wench x  











Monday 6 April 2015

Banana Biccies!




These biscuits are made with just 2 ingredients! I found this recipe on the Blogilates channel on YouTube, where Cassey leads different work outs and recipes. Find her HERE. I thought I'd give it try and share my results with you! 

This recipe is so easy, even I can do it (even though I did break my whizzer, oops!) and it's cheap, clean, eating which I hoping to get more into as I have baby weight to shift and need to eat healthier! If your not familiar with the whole clean eating thing, as I understand it, it's just about eating food that's not processed, that doesn't have ingredients in that have ridiculously long, nonsensical, names that you've never heard of, and making things from scratch so you know exactly what's in it.

So all you need are 2 banana's and a cup of oats!

Cut up banana

Peel and slice your banana's into coins

A cup of oats
Add caption

Take a cup of oats and use a blender to grind them into a finer, almost flour like consistency

Blend your banana's and oats together to create a nice thick, sticky dough (you can mush with your hands here too if you want, I had to as I broke my blender! Take it out the blender first though!)

Blender


Shape your dough into circle, biscuit shapes and place on a greased baking tray.

Banana Biccies
Add caption


Bake for 10-15 mins at 180C (350F) Gas Mark 4 (depending on size of biccies!)

Et Voila! Banana biccies! It was so easy you should try it! 

Thanks for reading,

Wench x




   

Friday 3 April 2015

Freebie Friday! #5



Have you got that Friday feeling?

Today's Freebie Friday is about shopping what you already have! Shop your stash! I'm sure most of us have stuff we've forgot about that's tucked away in a drawer just waiting to be rediscovered, so rather than going out and spending your pennies, dig through your drawers and see what you find! 

Here's what I found after some digging! 


Shop your stash photo

Everyday Minerals Base (semi-matte) - I got this ages ago to go under foundation but these days I find it's just nice to wear when I do need much coverage and as it's a powder it keeps my shine at bay. 

GOSH Prime and Refresh Eye Roll On - I barely used this when I got it but now I have a baby this is nice and cooling around my tired eyes.

Sleek Contour Palette - I got this when I didn't understand the whole contouring thing but now I'm a bit more educated I'm going to give this a try again!

Revlon Matte Balm in Striking - I went crazy when these first came out and bought pretty much all of them. I found this and I'm so glad as I want to start wearing a red lip after going nude for so long! 

Revlon Lip Butter in Macaroon - I can't believe I ever put this down! These are so versatile, you can blot them down to what looks like a coloured balm or you can build up to a pop of colour. Definitely going back in my handbag!

So don't go shopping, see if you can rediscover some hidden treasures! 

Thanks for reading,

Wench x


Wednesday 1 April 2015

Cheapies! #1 Hair



Who doesn't love a bargain?!

I love a bargain and some of the best bargains I've come across are on ebay. I seriously don't understand how some things can be so cheap! A lot of the things that I'll put on these posts are from China and such places and before you wince, I've bought plenty of things from such sellers and I've only had 1 thing that didn't turn up. Yes it can take a long time for things to turn up but it's worth the wait when you pay such little prices! Today's instalment is all about hair.


Poof Maker 99p HERE - I don't actually know the proper name for these so I made it up! I've got one of these on the way because I can't for the life of me make a decent poof! I'll let you know!


Bun Maker 99p HERE - A good ol' bun maker for those bad hair days! Cheap and cheerful but surprisingly expensive in some places!




Floral Headband 99p HERE - How cute are these! Need I say anymore!


Hair Ties 99p HERE - What ponytail is complete without a cute hair tie!



Clear Elastics 99p HERE - I always need more of these, where on earth do they go? 


Bobby Pins 99p HERE - Same as the clear elastics, where the hell does these disappear to? I think it's hair pixies! 

Hope you enjoyed this post! Stay tuned for more posts like this as I love hunting down cheapies! 

Thanks for reading!

Wench x

(These photos were taken from Ebay)