Topshop Gloss Ink | Sloe Gin

Following on from yesterday's post on a holographic Topshop nail varnish, I'm coming to you today with another new love from the Topshop make up range. 

I swear I love their make up much more than I love their overpriced clothes.

(For reference, that's Topshop 'Profound' on my nails too!)

The Gloss Inks are a new addition to the Topshop make up stands and come in 5 different shades. I chose mine in quite rush and upon reflection, I probably wouldn't have picked the shade Sloe Gin had I had a better opportunity to swatch and decide. I do love it, don't get me wrong, but it's a very brave shade and not all that practical for every day wear. Plus, it's not a very 'me' kinda shade.. but I guess it does us all good to step out of our comfort zones every now and again. 

It comes in a smaller-than-average standard lipgloss tube, with a doe foot sponge applicator and matte black packaging, accentuated with glossy text and still keeping in touch with classic Topshop packaging with the stripes on the tube. It does seem much more upmarket and classy than the usual packaging, not to mention more durable and less likely to get in a state after a couple of trips out in the handbag - Yes, I'm looking at the lipsticks in the white tubes!!

The doe foot sponge applicator is great and seems to come out with the perfect amount of product for one application. It's very simple to apply and I went straight onto my lips with it, no faffing about, and it was opaque and good to go all in one quick, swift motion.  

All looks good, but I've got some big time issues with it, mainly the problem with colour transfer. It's absolutely awful for getting onto your teeth, even after the 'finger trick' (Google it if you're not sure) and after rubbing it off the teeth (it can stain the teeth too!) it almost immediately finds it's way back onto there again. Being such a bold colour this isn't ideal because it's hardly subtle.

I wore the colour all day yesterday, from 9am until around 7pm and it still had a slight hint of the stain but no gloss remaining by that time. The glossy finish lasted around 3-4 hours, and after that it was just the colour stain remaining. However, I did leave bright pink lip smears on every glass/mug/fork that I used throughout the day, even after blotting, which is pretty gross.

It leaves me in a difficult position now for when I actually wear this lip product. It's bright, bold, beautiful and really long lasting, so I'd normally pick a product like this for evenings out or a meal; any occasions when you don't want to faff with touch-ups.. but leaving lipstick prints on glasses and cutlery just isn't classy.. 

I've tried to blot it does but it still likes to transfer, no matter what.

What would you do?

It's a shame because I really love the colour and finish of it!

Topshop Gloss Ink in Sloe Gin - £8.00 | LINK

What do you think?
Thanks for reading!

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My Top Lipsticks For Summer: Brights

Considering we're now almost half way through the month of May, I have well and truly got my 'must prepare for summer' frame of mind in place and am making all the changes from the colours in my wardrobe, to my footwear choices, to my daily make up picks, to even my breakfast decisions! - You can't eat porridge on a warm morning, it's just wrong.

As soon as the sun decides to come out and play from behind that big old black cloud then there is a handful of lip products that I know I will be gravitating towards with no doubt about it. You might sense a little bit of a theme with this post about what my favourite lip colours are, but here are my top picks for summer lips: 

 (I definitely did not originally spell 'Vegas Volt' wrong and have to correct it....)

MAC
Vegas Volt

My Mac lipstick collection is far from huge, but out of a small range of choices Vegas Volt easily comes out on top as my favourite shade. It's an amplied finish lipstick which means that the colour pay off really packs a punch with an opaquely pigmented shade but a creamy soft and long lasting formula. It's a lovely strong coral shade that can really perk up your day.

Topshop

All About Me

All About Me is a moisturising matte lipstick which again means that there's a strong colour pay off that's going to last all day - that's exactly what you need on a hot and humid day, you don't want pink waxy stuff smearing all around your mouth do you? All About Me is a gorgeously bright hot pink shade with blue undertones to really bring out the pink-ness in it. It's love.

Fire Cracker

Firecracker might actually be not so much of a practical choice, based on what I just said above about a lipstick having the ability to melt off your face as this is a moisturising velvet finish which means it's a lot more creamy, i.e. more slippy and slidey! But, there's no denying that the shade is absolutely to die for. It's an extremely bright red with strong orange hues that makes a huge statement and is a nice alternative to a classic pure red.

Rimmel
Kate Moss Lasting Perfect - Shade 20

Hey hot pink lips. You're my favourite. You can never have too many shades of hot pink lipsticks! I think I would go as far as to say that this is my favourite lipstick that I own. It's very similar to All About Me but it leans a tad more purpley and it is the most flattering shade of bright pink that I have ever seen. 

Kate Moss Matte Finish - Shade 110

More orange?! This is another coral shade but it has a bit more of a red base to it than any of the other coral shades that I own, and for such a bright colour I think that this is one of the easiest ones to wear and is definitely one of my most worn lipsticks, ever. Also the semi-matte finish of it means that it stands the test of time, even in the hottest weather.

Okay, so the running theme of this was post was that I love hot pink and bright coral lipsticks. I hope that you enjoyed my top 5 choices for summer lip products!
Which is your favourite?


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Topshop Cream Blush: 'Prime Time'

 

Hey everybody! Hope that you're all okay and having a good week. I can certainly say I've been better.. if any of you reading this are students you will know that May is not an easy month of the year - assignment deadlines and exams tend to be a little bit life consuming and it's definitely not fun! Roll on a care free summer!! Speaking of summer... here's a pretty adorable and purse friendly cream blush that should see your cheekbones through the upcoming sunny season.

I'm a fan of Topshop's make up; from their lipsticks to their nail varnishes, to their bronzers and their highlighters, but one thing I'd never tried was their cream blushes. At only £6.00 each they're very affordable and cheaper than quite a few of the other brands on the high street (Revlon and Bourjois' cream blushes are both £7.99 each). There's 4g of product in the pan and they're super cute and 'dinky' in a very small compact that's just the perfect size to fit into the palm of my hand. Complete with a mirror for 'on the go' touch ups, there's no unnecessary bulkiness taking up space and the signature black and white, almost 'designed by a child' like, packaging just adds to the sweetness of this product. 

The formulation of these blushes is actually a 'cream to powder', so that when it comes out of the pan it's soft and creamy, but when dried on the skin it actually has a powder finish to it. The shade that I picked up was a bright pink shade called 'Prime Time' that looks pretty scary and vibrant while in the pan, but only a small amount of product is needed, dotted and blended (I just use my fingers) and it creates a lovely soft flush of colour across the cheeks. It's not scary at all once it's blended out. The formula is really easy to work with, easily blendable and you can easily build up the intensity of the colour pay off that you're looking for. It's an incredibly pigmented colour, but with a light hand it's also so simple to create such a natural soft wash of colour with this that can really perk a face up.

(My hands and fingers look a bit.. yuck because I'd just been playing about with this clay mask from REN before I took the pictures; I'm not normally covered with a crusty white dust!).

If soft rosy cheeks are something that you strive to achieve and are looking for a good quality and affordable cream blush then head on down to Topshop and have a look at their range of cream blushes - I know I'll be going back for more! You can see it on the Topshop website here.

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Recent Beauty Buys

Unfortunately for me, my boyfriend happened to turn up whilst I was preparing this post and while I was balancing everything in this nice posed picture ready for the cover photo.. uh oh bad timing! I got a mini lecture about 'why have you been buying so much?' but honestly, it just looks a lot when you've put it all together in one place! I swear.. 

Plus some bits were freebies (read on to find out why), and there have been lots of great deals on, including the amazing Boots 3 for 2 offers and their £5 No7 vouchers - Yay! Also in my defense, what you may or may not know is that I successfully completely a February Spending Ban without one single tiny slip up! I was so proud of myself for managing to do this, and needless to say my first purchase for this haul was made on March 1st! This is 5 weeks of collective shopping all bundled into one place to share with you all and to make things a bit more manageable I've broken it down into sections: hair, nails, make up, skin care, bath & body and just one miscellaneous piece at the end that didn't belong anywhere else!

Hair

Batiste Dry Shampoo (Tropical)
Directions Semi-Permanent Hair Dye - Atlantic Blue
Tresemme Keratin Smooth Hair Mask

Dry shampoo is an essential purchase and in my next empties post I'll do you will see that there is at least 3 empty cans of dry shampoo in there so it was worth getting the jumbo size. If you follow me on Instagram you will be able to see from photo's here, here and here that I dyed the blonde ends of my hair blue with a semi-permanent dye from Directions. Anddd, finally a hair mask because.. I don't have enough already (haha such a joker), but I've been wanting to try this since it came out so I snapped it up while it was on a half price offer for £2-3 and I really love it, it works so well at giving my hair a nourishment boost and making it soft and smooth - it's a new favourite product. 

Nails

Bourjois '1 Second' Nail Varnish Remover

Rimmel Pro Nail Varnishes - Matte Finish and Super Wear Top Coat

Barry M 'Gelly Hi-Shine' Nail Varnishes - Lychee, Dragon and Pomegranate

Essie Nail Varnish - 'Fiji'
Topshop Nail Varnish - 'Marine Scene'

Woah, woah, woah.. nail varnish overload! I absolutely love the Bourjois '1 Second' Remover and I featured it in my March Favourites post, here. It has come in really handy at removing my nail varnish easily so that I can experiment with all of these new shades! I've been loving the matte nails trend at the moment so got myself one of Rimmel's matte top coats which is great quality and works really well. I think they only cost about £4 so it's well worth getting a bottle to have a play around with, and they had a '2 for £6' offer on all Rimmel Pro nail varnishes so I treated myself to an ultra shine top coat too. The new Barry M Gelly nails that everybody is loving: on a '2 for £6' deal in Superdrug I opted for a nude called 'Lychee' and a bright 'Barbie pink' called 'Dragon'. It turns out I should have tried them earlier after all because I am a woman in love so a few weeks later I returned and purchased 'Pomegranate'; a lovely berry red. My first ever Essie nail varnish was 'Fiji', a favourite of many bloggers and nude nail lovers. I like it, but I wasn't too crazy about the £8 pricetag, sorry Essie but I won't be rushing back for more of you! Last but not least, another Topshop nail varnish (my favourites) in the shade 'Marine Scene' which is a dark greeny blue shade and coincidentally matches my hair!

Make Up

Bourjois Rouge Edition Lipstick 'Shade #17'
Topshop Lipstick 'Firecracker'

Topshop Blush 'Prime Time'
Rimmel Scandaleyes Waterproof Khol Kajal '001 Black'

I'm not too make up crazy really, I'd rather splash my cash on some nice new nail varnishes (evident in the section above), or something to treat my hair too.. with the only exception being that I like a new lipstick every now and again. I got myself one of the new lipsticks from Bourjois in their 'Rouge Edition' line and I aaabsolutely love it, I featured it in my March Favourites because I cannot stop wearing it. I also got a lipstick from Topshop in the shade 'Firecracker' which is an amazing bold red/orange that I did a full post on here. I also thought I'd test the waters with a cream blush from Toppers in the shade 'Prime Time' - these are a 'cream to powder' formulation and I've not actually had chance to try this out yet. I also got one of the Scandaleyes eyeliners from Rimmel because I love my nude one and thought that a black would come in handy if I ever fancied a more dramatic eye make up look. Again, I've not tried this one out yet. 

Skincare

No7 Beautiful Skin Melting Gel Cleanser
Origins 'Modern Friction' Exfoliator
REN Pore Minimising Detox Mask

I've been trying to have a skincare overhaul recently in an attempt to make dramatic improvements to the condition of my skin; I want to be able to feel comfortable wearing no make up in the summer and on holiday! My skin also likes to make things hard for me being being a mixture of two extremes: really dry and really oily. With a £5.00 No7 voucher I got myself the No7 Melting Gel cleanser in an attempt to subdue my lust for the Clarins Melting Gel Cleanser. I've used this a couple of times and I just think that it's okay, I'm not blown away by it. I also received a mini facial from Origins at the beginning of March and was given some really good advice for my skin and what would work well for me. She told me that using my St Ives exfoliater every so often isn't enough for my skin and to prevent further blemishes I need to use a good quality exfoliater twice a week. Her amazing sales techniques left me walking away £31 lighter and with a tube of 'Modern Friction' in my bag. I do love it so a full review will follow soon. Also from my facial I bagged myself samples of: 'Clear Improvements' mask, 'Out of Trouble' mask, 'Perfect World' serum, and 'Gin Zing' eye cream - unfortunately I love them all and want them all. Sorry bank balance! Over the past month I've been trialing the REN Glycolactic Radiance Renewal mask and love it to pieces. I've heard equally amazing things about the Pore Minimising mask too so ordered myself one whilst Look Fantastic had 20% off REN. This only arrived yesterday so I've not had chance to use it yet - I will do a review if I like it though.

Bath and Body

Soap and Glory 'Sugar Crush' Body Wash
The Body Shop Body Butter - Raspberry

Okay, okay we're nearly finished. I reviewed the Sugar Crush in full here, and I also featured it in my 'March Favourites' post here, and my Weekend Pamper post here too so it is definitely a no regrets purchase and is well loved. However, I am sick of the sight of it on my blog now after it being in so many posts! Getting a body butter from The Body Shop for £4.50 instead of £13.00 is a crazy bargain! Nobody can turn that down. There was a special offer on a little while ago (I think it's still on now) for certain 'scents' of the body butters to be knocked down to just £5.00, and then with a Love Your Body card a further 10% discounted too. I love the body butters from The Body Shop and I'm building up quite a stash on them. They all smell super yummy, the raspberry one is no exception, and they do an amazing job at moisturising the skin. There's nothing better to complete a perfect pamper than with a layer of one of these!

Lush:

A little trip to Lush happened last week for some bath time treats. (It wasn't last week at all, you can see from the stickers I bought these on the 13th March!). Impressively, even with Lush's prices creeping up and up, all of these only came to £8.50 because the 'Catastrophe Cosmetic' Fresh Face Mask was a freebie after trading in 5 empty black pots. You can see my post on the recycling scheme here. While I was there I also got a 'You've Been Mangoed' Bath Melt and a 'Butter Ball' Bath Ballistic, both of which I haven't had chance to try yet. I have used the 'Fluffy Egg' Bath Ballistic from the Easter stock but I wasn't too impressed with it. Almost £3 and all it did was dye my water pink? It didn't create much of a fragrance (it is supposed to smell like candyfloss/bubblegum/Snow Fairy) but whatever mild fragrance it did create didn't linger for long; just a little bit of a let down!

Miscellaneous

Glamour Magazine | Freebie: Percy and Reed 'No Oil, Oil'

I didn't know where else to put this one, but I bought a Glamour magazine for a measly £2 at the train station the other week, giving myself some quality entertainment to pass the journey (I also feel like an empowered female as Glamour is extremely pro girl power) and I'm a sucker for a little freebie so enjoyed the added bonus of a Percy & Reed hair oil too. It's got a funny smell but it does make my hair lovely and soft, not bad for a freebie!

Phew, I'm definitely all shopped out now!

Have you been taking advantage of the '3 for 2' offers throughout Boots at the moment?

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Topshop Lips | 'Firecracker'

It's no secret to anybody that I'm a fan of Topshop's make up line and if you have not tried anything from them yet then I urge you to, even if it's just a little pink nail varnish you pick up I assure you that you'll fall in love and keep going back for more! This is my fourth lipstick from Topshop and I bought it the other week after lusting after it for such a long time. Topshop's lipsticks cost £8.00 (but £7.20 if you have a student card), which makes them one of the higher priced lippie lines on the high street (although some from Revlon are now creeping up to this mark), but their quality is above and beyond their price tag and they can give Mac more than a run for their money. I'd rather have two Topshop lipsticks than one from Mac!

My shade of choice was Firecracker, and no, your eyes are not deceiving you - this is a bright orange lipstick. Bright orange. It looks a little bit red/orange in the photographs and also in the bullet when you see it in real life, but oh no no no this is just orange. There's no denying that it's a bold statement colour to be wearing, but if you want a splash of colour on your lips then why not go all out? There's no pictures of me wearing it because I'm a little camera shy, so I hope this picture will suffice:

That's a little bit of lovin' from me to you right there! Isn't the colour just amazing? The finish on Firecracker is 'Velvet' which means that it is smooth and creamy with about the same amount as shine / gloss that you would get from a balm. The pigmentation is far from compromised by the velvety formula though and just one sweep gives a medium coverage on the lips which is great if you want to wear this more subtley, or a couple more sweeps can easily build it up to the full works of full and opaque coverage. The wear time is pretty good too and lasts for a few hours but leaves a gentle stain of colour on the lips, although be careful when you apply it because I smudged this onto the skin around my mouth and struggled to get the orange stain off! Definitely just looked like a had coldsores or had been messy eating my spag bol!

It's not one for the faint hearted, but it is an amazing statement lip colour that makes a change from classic red and would look amazing on holiday and on hot summer days (that's hard to imagine when it's currently snowing!) because I can just picture it complimenting tanned skin incredibly well. Hurry up sunshine so I can get some more wear out of this beauty!

Is this a lip colour you think you'd be dabbling in when summer rolls around?

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Topshop Lips | 'Macaroon'

Hey, what's that? Hannah likes Topshop lipsticks? Oh really.. you should have said. 

Priced at £8.00 each (£7.20 if you're a lucky owner of a student card), lipsticks from Topshop are on the higher end of highstreet make up price spectrum, but they are every bit worth those few extra pennies. On par with the quality from Mac and with a huge range of shades and finishes available there is something for everybody to be found at the Topshop make up stands. Sticking with my standard colour of a bright pink, but opting for a different finish from usual (velvet), Macaroon became a new member of my collection a couple of weeks ago and was welcomed with open arms with summer days in mind.

Being a 'velvet' finish as opposed to matte, means that it has a lot more of a creamy texture and is far more moisturising on the lips, although the wear time is slightly compromised. It still lasts for a good 3 hours because needing to reapply (providing you're not eating or drinking in this time) and the colour gently and evenly fades away but does not leave a stain on the lips. It feels nourishing like a balm but with still quite a bright pop of colour and a glossy but non-sticky finish. This is a very wearable shade, suitable for every day wear and is a calm coral-y peach toned pink - I love it!

And here it is in action!

(Squinty squinty because it's sunny)

What do you think of Topshop lipsticks?

Do you have any recommendations for me? ..I'm think of trying Sartorial next!

Collective January Beauty Haul | Feel Unique, ASOS, Topshop and More..

|| Instagram: Hannahripley1

Hi there chums! Happy February! I thought I'd start off this month by showing you the accumulative beauty purchases from January. As a self-professed shopoholic I would say that what I've bought isn't tooo bad for a whole month of shopping as I'm usually a lot less controlled than this. I have also decided that I am going to choose February, the shortest month of the year, to put myself on a month long spending ban because if I can't do it for 28 days then I'll never be able to do it at all. Expect this post to be just one great big sneak peek of a lot of my upcoming posts this month! 

Feel Unique

This online splurge made just before Feel Unique's winter sale ended was probably the priciest order/purchase from this month as it contains a couple of high end products and even though they were in the sale they still cost an arm and a leg. The Caudalie Beauty Elixir (£10.35 £9.90) was a repurchase, the Redken Smooth Lock treatment (£17.65 £14.21) is to go with the shampoo and conditioner from the same range that I use and love, the Redken Radiant-10 treatment spray (£22.10 £9.99) was one that I tried a sample size of months and months ago but just never got round to buying the full size until I saw it in the sale for less than half price, and the Burts Bees mango lip balm (£2.99) is something new for me but I'd heard great things and it was definitely love at first use.

ASOS

Models Own Freak Out - £5.00. I did a post on this glitter topcoat from Models Own Mirrorball collection a couple of days ago and it seemed to go down quite well. The colour that I'm wearing underneath is Models Own 'Feeling Blue' and you can see my full post on this nail varnish here: LINK.

Superdrug

I'm sure most people are aware of Superdrug's offer on their dry shampoo - buy one get two free! It's a great deal and one that I just couldn't turn down, especially when one can is only £1.99! While I was there I also picked up of the St. Ives facial scrubs to try out because these were on offer for half price and also only cost £1.99. The next time I went into Superdrug I got myself a little bargain with their Face Form Palette (£10.00) because I had enough points on my loyalty card to pay for it with points! Woo! This palette contains 3 pressed powders to create the perfect sculpted face (contour, highlighter and blush). I've not had much of a play with this yet but once I have I'll be sure to review it in full.

Boots

Well, this was inevitable! Rimmel's new release of their super pigmented and long lasting lip lacquers, cleverly named 'Apocalips', have taken the beauty world by storm and have only been out for just over a week. These cost £5.99 each and I originally picked up the shades Big Bang, Apocalyptic and Stellar as part of a 3 for 2 offer across all of Rimmel products in Boots, and loved them so much that I ended up going back for a 4th colour and picked up Nova! (I still want Celestial too). I originally intended to review these today but I woke up with a pretty little spot on my top lip - such annoying timing!! No one wants to see a lip swatch that includes a spot do they (haha!) so now I'm going to attack it with lotions and potions and post the review in a few days time when the spot has hopefully cleared off. 

Primark

I picked up these make-up bags because they were cheap and cheerful and will always come in handy. The studded turquoise one was in the sale for only £1.00 and the floral one cost £3.00. These nail pens look extremely similar to ones recently brought out by Topshop that cost £6.50 each, whereas these Primark dupes cost just £2.00 for a pair! I'm not one for creative nail art because my hand isn't very steady, but as a beginner it was worth the £2 just to be able to have a little experiment. One pen is black and the other is white, and both of them have a pen and a brush applicator, plus a little pot of gems too - bargain. This raspberry and papaya candle was only £2.00 and smells amazing!

Topshop

Topshop sale is still going on at the moment but I only managed to bag myself some accessories. Do tights count as accessories? These tights originally cost £10.00 a pair which I think is ridiculous, but they were down to just £2 in the sale, and I get student discount too which made them only £1.80. I found this bracelet/ring in the tangled up sale jewellery and I am pretty fond of it! I've never seen anybody with it before and it was only £2 too. As usual I was drawn over to the rainbow of a make-up stand and the colours I chose definitely reflect that I am pining for summer now! I got a velvet finish peachy pink lipstick 'Macaroon' (£8) and a similar shade nail varnish 'Flamingo Coral' (£5).

Lush

Last but not least, I nipped into Lush yesterday on my way to the train station to get a bath bomb for my weekend pamper and I walked out with Fizz Banger, a toffee apple scented bath ballistic that apparently fizzes and pops as it spins around the bath - I can't wait to use this tonight! (£3.20).