Some more Topshop Sandstorm Collection make up...

I was so impressed by the Topshop make up I reviewed here , that I got some more from the range (ahem).

The items I got were:

• Creme Lipcolour in Tawny
• Nail Duo in Zealous
• Lipgloss Stick in Ablaze
• Lipgloss Stick in Glisten

Creme Lipcolour in Tawny
This is very different to the colours I usually wear but is certainly very wearable. It's a warm beige toned nude that actually looks good on me, and doesn't make me look like I've got foundation lips. I initially wasn't sure if I liked it as it is quite a bit away from my comfort zone but I've been told it's pretty on me. As with Daze, I think the formula is absolutely lovely and it has a gorgeous vanilla scent.

Nail Duo in Zealous

Same as my previous review - the metallic is the winner here for me (I also like the pink a lot though, it's blue based) - the formulation is very easy to work with, opacity is good and colour is nice and strong with 3 coats.

Lipgloss Stick in Glisten and Ablaze

These were a total whim because I liked the colours, both are quite sheer and glossy compared to the colour in the tube. Glisten is a dark pink (almost plum) and Ablaze is a very wearable light coral/orange - much better than the Barry M lipstick I tried last week to try and get the spring/summer orange lip look. These also have the same very nice vanilla scent. The wear on them isn't really long lasting, but they're a lipgloss...they're never going to last days on end. I've pretty much been wearing these since I got them.

High five, Topshop! I'd initially thought that their make up range wouldn't be so great but I've been proven wrong, even the packaging is nice. I've also heard good things about the cream blush and the highlighter from their main collection - I will be avoiding Topshop for some time now as I'm coveting a dress and some shoes from there as well and I MUST NOT SPEND.

Sedbergh Soap Company - 100% natural Lemongrass Soap

I was recently sent some gorgeous soaps to try by Sedbergh Soap.

As someone who has suffered from psoriasis in the past (I still get the odd patch if I'm stressed or run down) and skin which tends to react to certain chemicals, I'm probably not as careful as I should be when choosing products. Sedbergh Soap produce a range of soaps and bath products that contain no chemicals that irritate the skin, no sodium chloride, no blended essentail oils and no herbal extracts - the company began when its founder, Dorthe M Pratt, was looking for products that didn't exacerbate her severe eczema. They also contain 100% natural ingredients, are 70%-89.9% organic, use recyclable packaging and grow a lot of their ingredients themselves.

The bar that I tried was their best seller, Lemongrass. Priced at £4.25 and containing pure essential oil and dried lemongrass, this smells absolutely gorgeous, really citrusy and fresh. In terms of lathering, it works well too. Just goes to show you don't need all these chemicals and that just because a product is catering for very sensitive skin or contains natural ingredients, there doesn't have to be a compromise on effectiveness.

I'd recommend these products for anyone who has sensitive skin or likes to know exactly what's in their products and where it came from - actually, for anyone who just wants a guilt free treat! I've passed their details on to a woman I work with who is big into her natural/chemical free products (remember the organic fake tan I reviewed a while ago? That came from her.). The soap I tried was just lovely all round and I'll definately be looking to try out some more things.

Sedbergh Soap is available from the Sedbergh Soap website, which also has much more information about their ingredients and history, as well as details of stockists and customer testimonials. You can also find them on Facebook and Twitter at http://twitter.com/sedberghsoap.

RapidLash Update - Week 6

I genuinely feel like I can see a difference in my lashes now - to me they look slightly longer and thicker, in much better condition and I'm losing less lashes. I'm really pleased with the results so far, and also a little bit concerned as this now means that I'll want to keep using it at the cost of £40 every 8-10 weeks..argh.

This is what they look like now (look at that long lash in the middle, eek!!):

And this was what they looked like 6 weeks ago before I started using RapidLash:

What do you think? Any longer/thicker? Or is it just wishful thinking on my part?

I wonder if this is as long as they get or if they'll get any longer? They probably just get to the end of their hair cycle, drop out and it all starts again. It probably sounds daft (especially to those of you with long lashes) but I'm really pleased with these, I've been cursed with short lashes forever!

Models Own Polishes and Nail Art Pen

L-R: Sophie's Pink, Nude Beige, Pastel Pink, Mystic Mauve, Juicy Jules

My favourites out of these are Nude Beige, Juicy Jules and Mystic Mauve. I absolutely love Nude Beige and it's one of the only nude colours I've found that I like on my nails, Juicy Jules is a gorgeous holo glitter (probably better layered) and Mystic Mauve is just a lovely metallic lilac. The pinks are nice too but I've got ones like them in my collection already!

As ever, application and length of wear was really good. Models Own polishes are brilliant, especially for the price of them. Good to see they're more readily available in Boots and River Island now too.

I also picked up the Models Own/WAH Nails Nail Art Pen in Black, mainly to make doing half moon designs and stripes easier. The pen has a thin liner brush as well as a very fine tip for doing nail art.

Very easy to use with a bit of a practice (something I think I need more of if the pic below is anything to go by) and the possibilities are endless, just have a look at some of the designs WAH Nails produce! They're only available in black and white at the moment but would be good to see them in a wider variety of colours.

Barry M Lip Paint - 54 Peach

Orange lips are apparently going to be big news this spring/summer - is it just me or do they say that orange lips are "in" every summer? As I quite like the orange lip look I had a look round for a not-too-expensive orange lipstick in case I never actually bother wearing it.

There weren't THAT many around on the high street that weren't frosted or a dark orange/nearly red, which wasn't what I wanted. I ended up buying Barry M 54 Peach. Needless to say it doesn't suit me, it's a bit too light and chalky, plus I think I need a bit of a tan before I can get away with the orange lip look!

As I said, I think this would look better on darker skin than mine. I think once I get a tan and summer comes around I'm going to try an orange gloss out rather than a lipstick, I had a great one from 17 when I was about 13 that would have been ideal but I'm fairly sure they won't make that now - it's nearly 13 years ago! :-) I think this gloss would be nice though - Paul & Joe Lipgloss in Tangerine:

Deborah Lippmann Ruby Red Slippers (at last!)

I've wanted this for ages now - to say I was a little excited when I saw Deborah Lippmann polishes in House of Fraser (Manchester Deansgate store in case you were wondering) would be a massive understatement.It's a dark grey with red multi-sized glitter suspended in it. Dark colour, red glitter, multi glitter - amazing!

Application was good, wear time good. Overall very pleased. Weirdly though I don't love this quite as much as I thought I would, I much prefer Deborah Lippmann Bad Romance which is similar but with purple glitter. It's also quite similar to Eyeko Vampira which has the same colours but not the larger glitter (much cheaper though!).

Saying this, Deborah Lippmann polishes are still unique and lovely polishes that are great for a special treat. You can also nab them on the House of Fraser website, I'd order them with some other stuff though as the delivery is a bit OTT for one nail varnish. I wonder if these will be included when HOF have their 25% off days? One can only hope...

No 7 Exquisite Curl Mascara

I know you've probably seen this on loads of other blogs, but I've been testing this out thoroughly and I'm really impressed! You might remember how short my lashes actually are from this post here, well this is what my lashes look like with this mascara on:

Much longer, black and actually with some curl to them (my lashes aren't really long enough to curl whatever I do) - I think this would be even more amazing on someone with alright lashes to start with. The brush is really easy to use and I like the packaging too, I'd happily buy this again though I do feel it's maybe a tad expensive at £13 as I don't consider No 7 a proper luxury brand like YSL or Chanel, and I managed to pick up YSL Faux Cils recently for about £15.95.

It's available from Boots and is priced at £13 - Boots are giving away those No 7/Ruby and Millie £5 off vouchers at the moment though, and No7 is offering a free eye pallette AND it's in the 3 for 2 on the Boots website so you can't probably work out a way of getting it cheaper.

Topshop Sandstorm Collection - Creme Lipcolour in Daze and Nails Duo in Wilderness

Creme Lipcolour in Daze

The texture of this creme lipcolour was just that - really creamy and satiny, I loved the finish of it, it feels a lot more expensive than it is (£7.50). It was really different to a standard lipgloss, which was what I was expecting, the colour is nice too, a muted baby pink that gave good opaque coverage - it reminds me a little of MAC Speed Dial in terms of colour and finish. It also has that yummy vanilla smell/taste that I'd usually associate with MAC lipsticks. Will definately be wearing this in spring!

Nail Duo in Wilderness

I was also nicely surprised by these polishes - the brushes and formulation were really easy to work with and two coats just about gave opaque coverage (3 is probably a bit safer). The silver was by far my favourite - it looks gorgeous, the glitter is dense and doesn't feel rough or gritty, it actually looks quite a lot like Minx when it's on every finger. I liked the green/blue too but I tend not to wear this type of colour, it doesn't suit me. At £9 for the nail duos, I think they're priced well too as there's 6ml in each bottle.

This is the first time I've tried any of the Topshop make up range and I'll definately be trying more, I like the look of the other nail duo (Zealous) and lip creme (Tawny) in the Sandstorm collection (there's loads of stuff that would look amazing with a tan!) and I might even investigate the main line. :-)

RapidLash Update - Week 4

I've been a bit rubbish over the last week and haven't been applying my RapidLash as often as I should have been - I went away and forgot to take it with me so that was about 6 days out of the 14 I didn't use it. Oops, so no pic this week as I don't feel like it counts!

I'll give you some more info about RapidLash instead to make up for my rubbishness.

Apparently in a clinical study of 48 people over 84 days, lashes were up to 50% longer and 75% thicker. You can use it on your brows too if they're a bit sparse.

RapidLash retails for £39.99 and is available exclusively in the UK from Boots and Boots.com for anyone wanting to give it a go.

Revlon Nail Enamel in 570 Vixen (Adele's nails at the Brit Awards!)

Vixen is a really deep (almost brown) red, very wearable and classic. It's a little bit different to the colours I'd usually wear but I like it nevertheless.

This is only the second Revlon polish I've tried and application was pretty good, I find the brush easy to use, but the formulation was a little bit watery and it was easy to apply too much or for a big blob of it to suddenly run down from the top of the brush. Drying time was fine too as long as you don't apply too much, I forgot to apply topcoat on this and it chipped by the second day but this probably wouldn't be the case if you did use a topcoat. I'd also recommend using a base coat with this as I suspect it would stain...

I had thought it was quite similar to Leighton Denny polish in Monroe - and it is, but Monroe is a little bit pinker. I doubt the untrained eye could tell the difference anyway!

Apparently, this was what Adele was wearing at the Brit Awards, applied by Mike Pocock - I love her makeup and the way she does her hair, it's all very classic and she knows what suits her - and is Revlon's best-selling nail colour.

Products I bought last week blatantly for the packaging:

Batiste Brit

It's not my favourite scent of Batiste (that's Boho, Diva or Fresh!) but the packaging is definately my favourite. It works the same as all the other ones out there. Just on the subject I think Batiste have marketed these products really well and made something quite dull (talc for your hair to mop up grease...ew!) into something almost covetable.

ASOS Exclusive Bourjois Blusher - 16 Rose Coup De Foudre

I didn't want or need a blusher, I'd never tried Bourjois blusher before and I had no clue about the colour but based on the pretty packaging this somehow became part of my ASOS order. Luckily I like it, the colour is a little more on the peach side of pink than I'd normally go for but it's a nice difference (I suppose I'd have been annoyed if it was exactly the same as my other blushes, wouldn't I?) and it smells really nice.

Luckily, purchasing based on packaging has worked out well for me on this occasion!

Ardell Fashion Lash - Demi Wispies

I bought some Ardell Wispies on a whim after hearing good things about them and with them being very different from the usual spiky, separated false lashes I usually wear. I also don't usually wear much eye make up - a bit of eyeliner and mascara and I'm good to go so I thought why not mix it up a bit?

On this pic I've got on:

• Rimmel Colour Rush Mono Eyeshadow - 214 Matte Black
• MAC Pigment - Family Crest
• MAC Smolder Eye Kohl - Black
• No7 Exquisite Curl Mascara
• Rimmel Flash Eyeliner in Black

The MAC pigment looks a lot more impressive in the flesh, it gives a subtle gold shimmer (I applied it wet over the Rimmel shadow for a bit of depth). But my god it's messy! I also know zilch when it comes to contouring or blending shadow and which brushes to use for what, I'd like to learn but I wear eyeshadow so infrequently it's not really that high on my priorities. I do get major envy when I see really well-done eye make up though!

Overall I was really pleased with these lashes - they look fairly natural (as natural as inch long perfectly curled lashes can do!) without looking boring or pointless, the invisible band is great and the price of these lashes was good. I sort of have two issues with Ardell lashes though:

1. The lash glue is in a tear open cardboard packet that can't be resealed, so if I want to take glue out with me in case one frees itself during the night I have to take a different glue with me. I'd rather the lashes were cheaper and I knew i had to use my Duo from the off.

2. The fact they're made from 100% human hair. Now, I'm not especially squeamish - I mean, I wore woven extensions for years and still dabble with clip ins from time to time, but I really do have to ask the question whose hair is this and whereabouts the hair is from? At least with extensions you know it's head hair :-)

But despite that moan - I'll definately be buying these lashes again and I'd actually like to try some of the other Ardell lash styles as they look really good.

RapidLash Update - Week 2

Ok, I took some pics of my lashes to do my week two RapidLash update and in all honesty...not a jot of difference. And in the latest pictures I've taken I appear to have crows feet, brilliant!

I do think my lashes look healthier/better but not at all longer. Never mind, still another 6 weeks of testing to go on this so not totally written it off yet!

P.S. Happy Valentine's Day! Sorry this isn't the most romantic of posts!

YSL Rouge Volupte in Opera Rose (29)

I've wanted a YSL Rouge Volupte for a long while now but their price has always made me hesitate. So after a few months of hoarding Boots points (lots of trips to the machine that gives you extra points, buying meal deals, actually using extra points vouchers instead of them just hanging around in my purse, using Boots Treat Street etc.) I finally had enough to indulge.

I opted for Opera Rose (#29) as I like my mid-bright pinks - some of the other pinks were either really bright fuschia or very pale and neither of that is really my cup of tea. For the price and for my first try, I wanted something a bit "safe" that I know I'd wear.

The packaging on these is so gorgeous and luxurious, I realise that that's probably a sizeable part of the reason they're so expensive but just look at how pretty it is:

 

Rouge Volupte feels gorgeous, creamy and hydrating on the lips. The colour is really well pigmented and lasts a few hours, the same as most lipsticks that aren't long-lasting etc. I. LOVE. IT. I recommend that you at least swatch these lipsticks and feel how lovely the formulation of them is.

 

I also decided that it was quite similar to MAC Chatterbox (which is a good thing as Chatterbox is one of my favourite lipsticks), and looking at the comparisons below, I'd say they're not too far from each other -with Rouge Volupte having a slightly sheerer, creamier formulation than MAC.

 

The girl on the YSL counter also asked if my lips "were my own" (after saying they were a nice shape) - bit of an odd compliment, but I'll take it as a compliment I think! I know I've got a bit of a (all natural) trout pout so it wasn't too much of a surprising compliment.

 

Trout pout aside, I'm already saving up my Boots points to buy my next one...

 

Who knew H&M and Urban Outfitters sold things for your home?

H&M is one of those shops that I tend not to bother with so much - I don't know what it is about it, I just never really go and I think I own one thing from there (animal print harem pants that I saw my friend wearing and asked her to get me some). A couple of my friends work at H&M and always have lovely clothes they've found there but on the odd occassion I do venture in, I never really see much I like.

But, I digress. I didn't realise that H&M had branched out into homeware - I randomly stumbled across house stuff on their website (after being sent a H&M online 25% discount code), namely these shower curtains for £12.99 each:

And this lovely guest towel (2 pack) for £6.99:

As I suspected, I didn't find any actual clothes/accessories/cosmetics that I wanted to buy on the website.

I also spotted these gorgeous pillow sets for £25 from Urban Outfitters:

Can you tell that the one with the hands spells out LOVE? I had to shut my browser down quite quickly on the Urban Outfitters site there was a lot of nice (and pretty expensive) stuff for the home on there - I suppose I get 10% off student discount but this doesn't quite cut it when you're thinking of spending £25 on, basically, pillowcases. I don't think I've ever actually really been bothered about stuff for the home before either, it's made me feel a bit old!

P.S. Dont forget to enter my Hotel Chocolat Valentine's Giveaway here