october favourites

In two month's time it will be New Year, and it will be 2013. That's...well..that's scary to be honest. But I'm not here to ramble about how fast this year has gone by (though I seem to manage to do it in every favourites post) so let's get on to which products have been getting the most use this month!

No7 Mineral Perfection Blusher in Soft Damson - I normally have a tendency to shy away from loose powder products, so I've no idea why I bought this but I'm so glad I did as it's a gorgeous matte soft rose pink that gives a natural flush to the cheeks. It came with a kabuki brush, which is alright quality but I wouldn't recommend using it with the blush as it's too dense and will give you clown cheeks (been there, done that).

L'Oreal Colour Infallible Eyeshadow in Hourglass Beige - I love the formula of these eyeshadows, they're velvet to the touch and have really good pigmentation. This colour is a very shimmery creamy beige, and I've been wearing it all over my lid and in my inner corner to brighten up my eyes and make me look more awake.

Max Factor Earth Spirits Eyeshadow in Burnt Bark - You know those sets that Boots sometimes do when you spend over £15 on a certain brand? This mini eyeshadow was in one of those sets and I've been reaching for it as a crease colour more often than not - it's a shimmery medium taupe that works really well with a matte colour all over the lid. I was so surprised at the price, the full size is only a fiver and the quality is so good!

NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Milk - I've been using this as an eyeshadow primer, it intensifies the colour of my eyeshadows as well as stopping them from creasing.

MAC Sheen Supreme Lipstick in Insanely It - My first ever MAC purchase, I'd forgotten about it for a while but recently I found it lurking at the back of my lipstick drawer and put it to good use - I don't own a colour like it as none of my other fuchsia lipsticks are quite as bright and neon as this. Oh the prettiness.

No7 Exceptional Definition Mascara - This is a deluxe sample that I'm nearing the end of, but this will be a definite repurchase. The wand seems to grab every single lash, even the tiny ones so although it doesn't do much in terms of volume, it multiplies the amount of visible eyelashes I have which results in lovely fluttery lashes!

The albums that I've been listening to non-stop on my iPod are My Head is an Animal by Of Monsters and Men (if you haven't heard Your Bones, YouTube it now!), Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds's album and Kasabian's albums - I think Kasabian have become my favourite band, I just need to buy Velociraptor! and I have all of their albums :)

What are your favourites for October?

notd | i heart pink

I was going to try out my new Bourjois polish that I hauled here, so I painted my nails in the colour (all five coats of it, mind) only to grow bored of it within two hours. In a bid to jazz things up a bit I added some glitter, here is the result.

To do the heart, I just cut out a tiny heart in sellotape and painted over it with a good few coats of a cheap Primark glitter polish that smells so bad it should be illegal.

As I already mentioned, the Bourjois polish in Beige Rose took four to five coats to get it opaque - I'm not entirely sure how I should use this as with any less coats than I applied it looked streaky?! It's a very average and not at all unique colour, but as I own no other baby pinks it's still a worthy addition to my collection.

Bourjois 23 Beige Rose, Primark Opia Silver Glitter (I have no idea what the actual name is, it's not written anywhere)

guest post: vivo pearl eyeshadows review

Today's post comes from the amazing Lucy who blogs over at Lucy Abigail and today she's going to be sharing her thoughts on the Vivo Pearl Eyeshadow range!

Vivo for Tesco is a makeup brand that I quite frankly adore! My main blog ethos is affordable luxuries, and everyday things that make you smile. These eyeshadows from Vivo cost a small sum of £1.50 (crazy I know!) So being the makeup lover I am, I obviously bought two!A green shade called 'Golden Leaf' and a pinky/nude shade called 'Dusky Pink'.

Firstly the packaging. The case opens and locks securely which is a must as I'm always worried I will smash the eyeshadow pan. The packaging is simple...no fuss, no hassle and easy to view the colour!

The pigmentation of them is truly fab! You can see from the swatches just how pigmented they are and how beautiful the colours are.

 My favourite out of the two has to be the green. It is a very shimmery colour, that glistens stunningly when you catch it in the sunlight! It also has very subtle purple undertones to it...overall I just think It's a really nice colour that would look amazing on a green smoky eye.

Onto the pink. I bought this shade as it's such a beautiful, ballet like pink! I have been wearing this shade in a lot of places on my lid, playing about  with colours like this is such fun and you can create some really beautiful looks if you just play around with them. I also wore this colour on my cheeks once as a blush and it worked really nicely as it blends really well.

Overall I would really recommend Vivo's pearl eyeshadows. For the price, you may expect them to not be that great quality, but you would be ever so wrong in thinking so!

Lucy x

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Thanks to Lucy for guest posting, I haven't tried anything from Vivo but I really am tempted to now, especially for the price! To read more from Lucy, head on over to her lovely blog.

lovely blogs #2

And here we are at my second instalment of the Lovely Blogs series, if you're thinking "what even is this random shiz?" my first post will explain everything. So let's get on with the show!

http://issyonlydreams.blogspot.co.uk/

Issy's blog is more lifestyle orientated than beauty, but I had to include it as it's just such a relaxing read, with pretty photos and the odd inspirational quote thrown in too.

http://whatalicedidtoday.blogspot.co.uk/

Alice's blog has a really good mixture of posts, there's a whole load of great beauty advice amongst posts on what she's been up to and all thrown together with some lovely photos it just makes for a pleasant blog to peruse.

notd | power clutch

I have another Essie polish to showcase today, and it goes by the name of Power Clutch. I got a bit carried away editing the first photo, but hey-ho - at least it looks pretty!

Power Clutch is a dark khaki shade that leans more neutral than green, it applied pretty smoothly and took two coats for full opacity. After three days it started getting a few minor chips, but I think part of the longevity is down to a new base coat I'm trying out (Essie Fill The Gap!) so all in all not a very long-lasting polish. I like to switch up my polish fairly frequently, so this isn't a problem for me but it's worth noting down if longevity is something you look for in a nail polish.
You can find Power Clutch here for £2 (yes, it's that FragranceDirect deal again).

ebay purchases #4

I don't have as many things to show you as I usually do in these posts, but I couldn't hold off doing this post any longer as the pieces of jewellery (let's face it, that's all I show in my eBay hauls) I've recently bought are more interesting than your average sparkly trinkets. Instead of holding you in suspense, let's hop straight in, shall we?

These have to be the most complicated pair of earrings that I own, to put them in you have to add the part that says "love" onto the back of the stud, and make sure the stud goes through the right hole so that the letters fit around the bottom of your ear. It was quite tricky the first time, but I soon got used to it, in reality they're just a pair of studs with an extra part. I guess you could also wear them just as love heart studs and miss out the bit with the lettering, but where's the fun in that?

You can find them here.

A stud bracelet has been on my wishlist for ages, but I've never found one that I was particularly fond of until I saw this. The spikes are plastic (so no need to worry about accidentally stabbing someone) and I really like the combination of green and gold, I find it compliments a lot of outfits. I also love how there are two rows of spikes, I've seen a lot of this kind of bracelet but it has three rows, which seems too many for me, or one row, which I feel would be a bit sparse and would need to be paired with other pieces of arm candy - so two is just right for me!
Unfortunately I couldn't find the listing or any others selling the same bracelet, but I found one in gold and silver here, a gold one here and here's a bunch of other spike bracelets that I'm also coveting.

I am a massive fan of peacock feather-themed clothes and accessories, I adore the colour scheme and think that peacocks in general are just beautiful creatures. So you understand that when I saw the listing for this, I was compelled to buy it. The necklace arrived with a few of the strands of the feather bent awkwardly, which I was initially disappointed with but a quick session with some hair straighteners soon sorted it out. The chain is fairly long, and I paired the necklace with a forest green t-shirt the other day and it really stood out.
On eBay here.

I saved the best for last with this spiked earring that also has an ear cuff attached to it. It really is a statement piece, I wore it with my hair up and I got so many compliments on it, people were asking if I had a helix piercing! To attach the cuff you just slide it up from the middle of your ear, it does fall off if you're moving around a lot but if you aren't doing much it'll stay put - depending on how thick that bit of your ear it. As this is meant to be worn on one ear, I wore a circular gold stud on the other.
You can find it here, one without the dangly bit here, and one with a skull here. Oooh so many options.

Are you a keen eBayer?

products i don't get along with

I tend to be quite cautious when buying new beauty items and most of the time I'll read a review of the product before buying, but once in a while I will make an impulse purchase and it'll turn out to be really not that good. So here's a compilation of all the products I've accumulated that I should've avoided at all costs.

Naked Scrub Up Renewing Salt Scrub - This is the plain tub in the photo (the label peeled off), my problem with this is that it simply doesn't exfoliate. I couldn't get a good photo of the product inside the tub but it basically looks like a body butter, and feels as exfoliating as one too. All it does is deposit a salty residue on my skin, the same kind you get after swimming in the sea. I have no problems with Naked as a brand, in fact I love their shampoos and body washes but this really didn't impress me.

Balance Me Rose Otto Intensive Lip Salve - This was in a Latest in Beauty box, and I thought it was the same product as the Rose Otto and Shea Butter Lip Salve that I reviewed here but it isn't. Sometimes when I wear a lipstick on it's own, after four or five hours of wear I get dry skin gathering around the inside of my lips - my lips won't be dry, it'll just happen. With this, there will be dry skin buildup within an hour, which is incredibly annoying and why I dislike this lip salve.

17 Berry Crush Lip Stain in Pinkini - I gave this quite a forgiving review as it worked really well the first few times I used it, but after no less than 10 uses it had started drying up and began to be a pain to apply. I expect my products to last a lot longer than this did.

L'Oreal Telescopic Explosion Mascara - I just can't work with this wand. It's too flimsy to get under my lashes and the only look I can achieve with it is clumpy spider lashes and the mascara weighs them down so I have no curl. The formula is very dry too, all in all it gets a no from me.

Max Factor Max Effect Trio Eyeshadow in Queen Bee - I'm not ruling out the possibility that I have a dud, but the pigmentation is seriously lacking in this trio. The yellow doesn't give off any colour and the green and brown are very faint - this wasn't that cheap either!

Rimmel Colour Rush Eyeshadow Quad in Smokey Purple - I did a full review of this here, but in summary it's pigmentation is non-existent.

NYX Glitter Mania Jumbo Pencil in Raven - The swatch in the photo took a good few swipes, one swipe dispenses about five glitter particles. Such a shame as I love the original Jumbo Pencils by NYX but the glitter versions just fail to deliver.

Barry M Silver Glitter Stick - This is even worse than the NYX version as it's just glitter with no creamy base, so it's really scratchy to apply which makes it an instant no-no as a face product.

Which products have disappointed you? Let me know in the comments so I don't go spending my money on bad products!

uk magazine freebies - october 2012

The number of free gifts on offer this month certainly makes up for the meagre amount of offerings in September, and here's what I've managed to find!

The best offer in my opinion has to be InStyle (£3.80), which has a 4ml Benefit sample of either Cha Cha Tint, Sun Beam or Benetint. There also is a sachet of the Clarins Skin Illusion foundation inside and a voucher for a free mini BadGal Lash Mascara that you have to take in store to claim. I picked up Sun Beam, but hopefully I'll be able to get my hands on one with Cha Cha Tint too!

Easy Living (£3.70) has a free 50ml Cowshed hand cream with it, and there's a choice of either one called Cow Pat or one called Cow Slip. Weird names, huh? 

Another hand cream, this one comes with Marie Claire (£3.70), and it's a 30ml L'Occitane one - I remember there was a similar deal last year and I'm still finishing up that tube. There are four different kinds available, Shea Butter, Date Bouquet, Rose Petals or Mango Flowers, and if you pick up the bigger version of the mag you can also bag a free mini Dove conditioner!

Cosmo (£3.50) has a choice of three Missguided Lip Splash lipglosses, there's a peach, pink or purple and also included is a sample of Oral B toothpaste.

Have you spotted any more magazine freebies this month?

looking for guest posters

image: weheartit

I'm going to be away for two weeks, starting on the 18th of October and I'm looking for a few guest posters so my blog won't be completely barren while I'm away. I have a few posts scheduled, but I would like a few more :)

The post can be anything beauty or fashion related, for example a review, wish list, outfit of the day, nail of the day, haul or anything you can think of! I'd need the post by the 17th of October and I would really prefer for the photos to be good quality.

If you're interested please email me at cloudsandcuticleoil@hotmail.co.uk with the link to your blog and your idea for a post.

notd | carry on

The star of this NOTD is an Essie polish that I picked up for two pounds, this one entitled Carry On - every time I see the name, I think of that bit in Bohemian Rhapsody - just me?

I can just spew a load of words to describe this colour, plum, wine, burgundy and maroon being just a few but I'm just going to sit back and let the photos do the talking.
The formula isn't the best out there, two coats were needed for it to be streak-free but I added another one just to be sure and after three days I had to take it off as my nails were getting really chipped.
Unfortunately the £2 deal for this nail polish is long gone (hopefully FragranceDirect will get it back in stock soon, the other £2 colours are here), the cheapest I've found is here.

What's your favourite Essie nail polish?

xtras haul and birthday goodies!

So today just so happens to be my birthday, so far it's been spent with family and friends, eating too much cake and wallowing in a mound of wrapping paper.
The postman also decided to surprise me with a little present, namely being my order from Xtras. I blame credit Fee at MakeupSavvy for the discovery of this website, it sells discount cosmetics, not unlike CheapSmells and FragranceDirect. What drew me in was that they had some ridiculously cheap Stila products available, and with me not having a local Poundland, I feel as if I'm missing out on the Stila bargains. If you spend over £10 you get free delivery too! And the background is slightly different in these photos. Well, it would be a shame to waste all that bubble wrap, wouldn't it?

As I've heard such good things about the Stila Tinted Moisturiser, I didn't hesitate to pop it into my basket, and an eyeshadow in Twig, a blush in Bud and a powder foundation in Shade B (which also came with a sponge) soon followed. I plan on getting a palette for the blush and the eyeshadow, as they are both in refill form and need a proper house. They're the same size, so if I can get two other eyeshadows I can have a complete palette for travelling! You can view the Stila range here.

It's basically impossible for me to place an online order without getting any nail polish, and since my total from the Stila products only came to £8, I needed another £2 worth of stuff to be able to get free delivery. The Collection (2000) polishes are only 50p each, so I decided to get no less than three of them.
The website lists the Bourjois polishes by numbers and not names, as a result I wasn't able to find swatches and took a gamble by picking a fairly safe option, a light pink called 23 Beige Rose. This is also listed elsewhere on the site for 50p more, so if you're ordering this and want to be extra savvy, click on the 1 Seconde line and choose colour 23.
You can see the range of nail polish here.

I think my family has latched onto the fact that I am a bit of a beauty addict, and they managed to pick a few amazing gifts -  I know they don't read my blog but thanks so much!

she said beauty box - october

I hate to start on a downer, so instead I'll just put it out there that it's my birthday in a few days, if I get any beauty related products would you like to see a birthday haul, or is that something you wouldn't be interested in? Now onto the review.
I'll just say right off the bat that I am not too pleased with this month's box. Four of the six samples are incredibly small, and I think that I definitely didn't get my money's worth. It probably doesn't work out in She Said Beauty's favour that I also received a Latest in Beauty Little Beauty Box in the mail today that contained four Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair sachets, a box of Japonesque Nail Touch Up things and a Sanctuary Spa mask, and I only paid £1.50 for it.

Cellnique Advanced Bio Renewal Masque - This product sounds amazing, the card boasts all kinds of mumbo jumbo but the fact is that the amount the sample holds won't be enough to cover my whole face. I'm not going to buy a face product that costs a billion pounds based off one use.

B.liv Off With Those Heads - When I first saw this on the sneak peek on the She Said Beauty website, I got rather excited as I'm always on the lookout for blemish treatments, but again, the sample is too damn small! I'll try and use it very sparingly and see if I notice a difference.

Amy Childs Eau De Toilette - This came in one of those tiny vials that pretty much everyone hates to see in a beauty box, and it's not even got a spray on it, which result in me accidentally spilling the meagre contents everywhere. Not much of a loss, the fragrance is slightly spicy and pretty average, not something I'd be rushing out to buy in a hurry.

Biao Beauty Rejuvenating Night Creme - So this is the third skincare item in the box (not a makeup item in sight this month) and there's two sachets of this. I really don't like being so negative, but come on now. Two. Sachets.

Palmer's Cocoa Butter Formula Travel Size Lotion - I'm pretty sure that this is being sold in Superdrug for less than a pound, but nevertheless it is a lovely product and I'll be saving it to pop into my suitcase next time I'm travelling.

MyVitamins Total Green Tea Extract - This is the bonus product, and although I don't usually take vitamins I'm willing to give this a go to see if they actually do anything.

I didn't really think this box was that good at all, hopefully next month's box will be amazing to make up for it!
You can find me on She Said Beauty here, and you can subscribe to She Said Beauty here.

Aaaand what's in today's Graze box, I here you ask?

lovely blogs #1

This is (hopefully) the start of a new series that I'm going to be doing roughly every two weeks - basically the idea behind it is that I follow a lot of blogs that I feel don't get enough appreciation, so I'm going to be featuring some of my lesser-known favourites on here!

http://beautyramblings-x.blogspot.co.uk/

Hannah's blog gives some great reviews and recommendations - I personally love her foundation reviews the most, she explains everything so well and covers all the good and bad points. And her photos are really good quality to boot!

http://ellalogy.blogspot.co.uk/

Ellie's blog is more on the chatty side, with updates on her life as well as beauty-related posts. She gives some really good tips (especially when it comes to the travel-related posts) and her blog just overall makes for a relaxing yet interesting read.

Which gem of a blog have you most recently discovered?