Tuesday 26 June 2012

Fragrance Direct | Haul

Hey guys!
Thought I'd share with you some lovely new products that I've treated myself to recently, starting with and order from Fragrance Direct.

I'd seen a lot of people talking about Revlon's new product: their Just Bitten lip stain and balms, and as I am massive fan of Revlon's ever so hyped about Lip Butters I thought I'd give their new lip stains a shot too.
They don't seem to be readily available in the UK at the moment so I headed straight to trusty Google to see if there was anywhere online I could order them from. At the top of my Google search appeared a site that I have never used before called Fragrance Direct advertising the sale of these Just Bitten lip stains for just £1.99! Too good to be true? Nope!

Fragrance Direct has a whole range of amazing bargains and I could've filled my basket up to over £100 with many different products, not because I wanted or needed them, but because I felt like I had to have all these branded items for rare minor prices! Brands such as Calvin Klein, Gucci, OPI, Benefit, Bourjois, Revlon and Lancome are just a handful of the brands available with prices starting at just £1! 

Fragrance Direct's answer for why their products are so cheap is answered on their website:
Why are the products so much cheaper?
We sell directly to the public. There is no shop and are no middlemen, so our overheads are kept very low. We pass our savings onto you!

So I had a big long browse through the website and decided to restrain myself and stick to only what was 'necessary'. There wasn't a huge colour range available for the Revlon Just Bitten Lip Stains, but the only that I liked the look of most was 'Victorian', a dark pink colour. This is definitely a product I was disappointed with and I am glad I paid just £1.99 for it instead of full price of around £7.99! Then I would have been really disappointed. It felt like I was drawing on my lips with a half run out felt tip pen and then just putting on a regular lip balm over the top? The stain also sticks to and emphasises any dry patches on the lips so make sure your lips are well exfoliated before you use this! Definitely not a winner for me :(
Find my Instagram: Hannahripley1

Another product that I threw into my basket was a Neutrogena Make Up Remover Lotion which was £2.49 for 200ml which I think is a good price for a lovely refreshing lotion which is works well on just a cotton pad rubbed around the face and does remove 99% of make up. 


I also spotted these Hair Masks at the bottom of the page which were just £0.85 each and I chose a de-frizz one as my hair is prone to a bit of frizz. I've not tried this out yet but I love a good hair mask, it's a nice little treat that I tend to do on a weekly basis in an attempt to improve the condition of my hair. I'm looking forward to trying this out and for just 85p there's not a lot to lose really! 


A little surprise that was also in my box on delivery was two perfume samples as a little freebie - one male and one female. I haven't tried these yet because I'm up to my ears in perfume samples at the moment. I think they could have included the green EDT for men because I also purchased a male product. I got the Davidoff Cool Water for men for my boyfriend as an anniversary present and it was just £14 (RRP £22) so that was a nice little saving. I've not taken a picture because it's all wrapped up in pretty wrapping paper at the moment!

Check out Fragrance Direct if you want to find a range of discounted products and amazing bargains! Just a shame I wasn't keen on the Just Bitten Lip Stains as they could've been an amazing saving at just £1.99 each.

xx.

Body Shop Vitamin E | Stash

Helloo.
I have another day off work again today (4 days in a row - lucky me!), so thought I'd take the opportunity to add some more posts to my blog. Today's topic is my little collection of products from The Body Shop's Vitamin E range.

I am a big fan of The Body Shop, one of my favourite places to go for a little pick me up treat, and I even felt the need to get myself a 'Love Your Body' loyalty card the other week as these give you 10% on any purchase.

The product that started off my little stash was the Vitamin E Eye Cream (pictured below) which claims to: 'help reduce appearance of fine lines, puffiness and dark circles'. It's hard for me to comment on any reduction in 'lines' as I didn't actually have any to start with, but this is definitely a product that I love to use every morning to freshen up my under eye and I am convinced it works wonders on reducing puffiness and circles! This really is a lovely lovely product which I plan on repurchasing. I bought this just after Christmas in The Body Shop's 50% sale meaning it was reduced from £9.50 to just £4.75! I'm keeping my eyes peeled for this offer to be on again so I can stock up.


The second product to join the gang came all the way from duty free at Malaga Airport. In May, my boyfriend and I went on holiday to Marbella and on the way back we were mooching around duty free and he could obviously see the hearts in my eyes as I dragged him around all of the make-up stands, and being the lovely boy that he is he told me that I could choose any one item and he would buy it for me. Aww what a sweetie! But I don't think he understood the difficulty and pressure of having to choose to just one item from the massive selection, and I obviously didn't want to take the piss by picking anything ridiculously expensive either. So, I headed to the pretty small Body Shop stand and ended up holding the Vitamin E Moisture Serum in one hand and the Vitamin C Skin Reviver in my other. I held them out to him to make the decision for me and he picked the moisture serum (a completely random decision on his part).

It didn't work out much cheaper buying it in duty free abroad than if I had bought it instore in the UK, as we worked out it converted to about £9 and it is £10 in store and online in the UK.

I was intrigued by this product as it is infact a pre-moisturiser and used alone it has little benefit to skin, but when used before a moisturiser it helps the product to sink into the skin much better, and personally I love it. It has quite a runny texture and just one pump is enough to cover the whole face.

This made me decide that potentially the best products to go hand in hand with this pre-moisturiser would be ones from the same range. So I had a little nosy on The Body Shop website just last week and there was a 'buy one get one free' offer on some of the products - including the Vitamin E Moisture Cream and the Vitamin E Nourishing Night Cream. These are now in the 50% off sale for £4.50 and £5, but when I purchased them it was buy one get one free, so I paid £10 for the night cream, and the £9 day cream was free.




I haven't used these products too much because the first time that I did I ended up waking up with multiple white heads around my chin area :( I have quite oily skin normally and I think these would be more suited to somebody with dry or normal skin. 

Last but not least, when I picked up these two moisturisers I also spotted a Vitamin E Face Mist for £7 and added it to my basket because I thought it would be great for freshening up in the morning and during those hot, sweaty summer days. This product is such a little treat, I really love it - it's fantastic for spraying over make up and also a nice little refresher on a bare face too. 



I recommend you check out The Body Shop's Vitamin E range as they have lots of other products in it that I'm itching to try, including cleansers, toners, face oils, hand creams etc and I know I'd love to extend my collection some more. 

xx.




Monday 25 June 2012

E.L.F. | Haul

Hello lovely ladies.
Today I'm going to talk to you about a little E.L.F. order that landed on my doorstep just a few days ago. If you're not familiar with ELF then it stands for 'Eye Lips and Face' and is basically an online make-up store that sells good quality products for teeny tiny prices ranging from £1-£6 (I think!).



I always used to be a little bit wary of buying things from ELF because of the price tag I assumed that the products would just be cheap and nasty. I've found that some of them are a little bit hit and miss and not all of the items are good quality, but for the most part they are little bargains. When I placed my order they had a promotional offer on that if you spent a minimum of £10 then you received free shipping and either a free studio or mineral eyeshadow (you could choose between either studio or mineral but the shade was random), and who doesn't love free stuff? Altogether I received 8 items and it only cost me £16 incl p&p!!

1. Shimmering Facial Whip - £1.50
This was the first time I've purchased one of these and I was really curious about it. I picked up the shade 'lilac rose' and use it as a highlighter on my cheeks and brow bone. You only need to use a very tiny amount and it is VERY shimmery, maybe a little too shimmery for daytime wear, but for £1.50 I'm not complaining.

2. Nail Polish - £2.50
I've ordered nail varnishes from ELF before and I think they're really good and great value for money, the only shade that I repurchased was 'twinkle' a glittery topcoat because I love it so much and had run out. Isn't it pretty?!

3. Tone Correcting Concealer - £1.50
I thought I'd stray away from my trusty Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection concealer and try something new, I thought for only £1.50 it doesn't matter if it's not so great, and unfortunately it's not so great. It's such a shame because I've seen other good reviews on this product but I found it to be too watery and had practically zero coverage on my skin! Maybe I just got a dud product? 

4. Zip Zapper - £1.50
I haven't had the opportunity to try out this product yet but I'm not overly thrilled that it has a rollerball applicator - I find them quite unhygienic. But we'll see how I get on with it as it could always end up being a super cheap miracle product.

5. Lipstick - £1.50
I've ordered a few lipsticks and lipglosses from ELF before and always found them to be 'OK', nothing special and probably worth the pricetag of just £1.50 but worth trying out. This time I tried a new shade: 'Classy' and it really does not suit me as it is far too pale (the website picture and my own are misleading), and nor do I like to the consistency of this product either. It isn't long lasting - 1 hour tops! and doesn't apply smoothly at all. *moan moan moan*. I suppose I'd better balance out all of this moaning and give this little lipstick a compliment and say that I do like the packaging, I think it's very cute.


6. Eyebrow Kit (dark) - £3.75
This is one of the most expensive items that I popped into my online basket and it is by far my favourite from this little order! It's an absolute steal at just £3.75! For a long time I've been lusting after the Sleek Brow Kit but it always seemed to be out of stock everywhere I looked, so I thought I'd try this out and see how I got along with it. The Sleek Brow Kit has now been scribbled off my wishlist and this little bargain will definitely be a repurchase - I absolutely love it. The colour matches my brows perfectly which is rare because most pencils I buy end up being too light :/ and I love the doubled ended brush with an angled end to use with the gel to create the definition, and the fluffier end to use with the powder to fill in the brows. I would definitely recommend this product and at less than £4 what do you have to lose?!

Sorry for not taking a picture before I butchered it with the brush!

7. Studio Stipple Brush - £3.75
A stipple brush is never something that I have owned before because I've always preferred a regular foundation brush, but as the Real Techniques Stippling Brush seems to be all I ever hear about on YouTube videos then I thought I'd give one a try. As I wasn't sure if I'd like it I thought I'd give a cheaper one from ELF a trial before potentially investing in a £11.99 Real Techniques one. I do really like this brush and definitely prefer it for applying foundation than the brush I used to use, gives a much more polished and flawless finish and I am considering trying out a more expensive one to see if the quality is better as this ELF one happened to shed all over my face!
No, my brush is not clean ... :)
8. Studio Single Eyeshadow - £3.75
This was the eyeshadow that I received FREE as part of the promotional offer and I really like the shade that I received, I can't find anywhere on the packaging that says what the shade is actually called - it only says #D21? But after looking on the website I think I got 'wild wheat' a lovely wearable neutral shade with just a hint of shimmer. I would buy some more of these studio eyeshadows because they're really easy to apply and a really buildable and long lasting. Definitely an amazing freebie!
Bad lighting sorry - the shade is much lighter in reality.


I definitely recommend that you check out ELF for yourself here and also follow their page on Facebook here because they always advertise the promotional offers at the time, often free shipping and 30% off for limited time. They have such a huuge range of amazing and affordable products, you'd be crazy not to try some of them!

xx.






SheSaid Beauty Box | June 2012






Hi there :) This post is about my new subscription to the SheSaid Beauty Boxes and I was very impressed with my first box from them.

There are lots of different beauty boxes floating around and GlossyBox seems to be the most popular, but they have never really appealed to me as I never seem to be jealous of the products inside when I see people review them. I see a lot of people complaining that they get shower gels and bath products in the majority of boxes and when I did more research to see if they were worthwhile all I found was people saying they were contemplating unsubscribing from them!

It wasn't until I saw a SheSaid Beauty Box review from April when I noticed that the products in that looked a lot more like ones that I would use/enjoy and contained brands that I was more familiar with. So I investigated. GlossyBoxes cost £10 per month (plus £2.95 p&p) whereas the SheSaid boxes only cost £9 per month (plus £2.95 p&p) so they are slightly cheaper, and have occasional offers on. For example, at the time I subscribed they had a code where you received 25% off your first box meaning that I received mine for only£9.70 including p&p - bargain! Chances are the code may still work now so give it a try: SSB25OFF.
I also saw another code on twitter today where you can get 25% off a 6 month subscription: AFFSSB25OFF. They also have a scheme were you can collect points if you review the products on their website and can build up enough points to receive a free box!

If you're interested in subscribing to the SheSaid Beauty Boxes then click on my referral link here:
https://www.shesaidbeauty.com/invite/JKWWS and get yourselves signed up!


Now onto the actual products inside the box:

Elemis Tranquil Touch Indulgent Bath Elixir, St Tropez Gradual Tan Everyday Body Moisturiser, Balance Me Super Moisturising Hand Cream, Yardley London Royal Diamond EDT, Let's Go Lashes - Temptress 9, Ginvera Green Tea Nude Cover BB Cream (missing from picture).

Elemis Tranquil Touch Indulgent Bath Elixir
The sample size received in the box was 50ml which I think is a decent size to try out and the full size 300ml bottles retail at £19.00 which personally is far too much much money to spend on a bath product. I have only used this once as I tend to shower more than I use the bath but it did have a have lovely relaxing scent and left my skin feeling soft. Not something I would buy at full size though.

St Tropez Gradual Tan Everyday Body Moisturiser
The sample size of this was 75ml and I've nearly used it all up already. The 200ml bottles retail at £14.30 and I would perhaps buy myself something from the St Tropez range as a special treat, but not as an 'everyday use moisturiser' because I would simply end up spending a fortune over time! I do like to have a tan so enjoyed this product and was very surprised at actually how dark of a tan shows up after just one use - I barely expected to notice anything after the first use with it being a 'gradual every day tan'.

Balance Me Super Moisturising Hand Cream
The sample size in the box was 30ml and the full size 100ml bottle retails for £14.50 which again is probably a bit too much for me to spend on just a hand cream as my £3 Johnson's one does the trick just fine for me! But I thought that this product was looooovely! Definitely was super moisturising and had a long lasting effect with a lovely scent. If there was ever an offer on this product making it slightly cheaper then I would definitely head straight out to buy some - fave product in the box!

Yardley London Royal Diamond Eau De Toilette
This tiny 1ml sample didn't excite me in the slightest because everybody knows you can pick up free perfume samples from anywhere, plus I'm not very likely to be swayed away from buying anything other than my usual perfume just from a little 1ml bottle. The full size bottle only costs £9.99 and SheSaid's product information describes this as a 'Floral Boutique' fragrance and I personally found it to be 'old lady-like' if you know what I mean. Plus I'd definitely prefer a sample with a little spritzer as opposed to a bottle where you tip it out because I always end up spilling :( Not an impressive item in the box.



Let's Go Lashes - Temptress 9
These strip lashes were described as a 'full size product', but let's be honest you can't exactly get sample false eyelashes can you? These lashes retail at £8.95 and I haven't actually tried them out yet to see what they're like, but I'm quite loyal to Eyelure lashes so we'll have to see if these Let's Go ones can win me over. There was a range of different sizes of these available and it looks like I was lucky enough to receive the longest and fullest ones which is perfect for me because that's the look I like to have with my lashes on a night out.

Ginvera Green Tea Nude Cover BB Cream
This little 3g sachet of BB cream was labelled as a 'bonus product' in the box (as if we didn't have enough already?!) but it didn't exactly thrill me. I don't like BB creams because I prefer foundations with a fuller coverage due to having not the clearest of complexions and it was also the wrong shade for me so I just threw it away. The full size bottles of this cost £20.00 and has a long list of supposed benefits for your skin and also includes SPF30, this just wasn't a product for me.


So, this was June's SheSaid Beauty Box, just 2 products I didn't like and I thought the rest were fabulous and a nice little treat for just £9.70! (Usually £11.95). Hope you enjoyed this post, sorry it was so long and if you'd like to subscribe yourself then just follow this link:

and remember the discount code SSB25OFF!


xx.


Introduction

Hi.

I did technically write my 'first blog post' back in February 2012 so I can't really call this my first post, but it is the first one with any proper content in it.

I've had an interest in blogs for such a long time now with a huge long list of other people's blogs and YouTube videos that I read/watch daily and they've really inspired me to start doing it for myself as they seem to really enjoy doing it and I'm sure I would too!

I absolutely LOVE looking at people's hauls, product raves and reviews, tutorials, OOTDs, NOTDs and even their monthly empties - I just find them so interesting to read but maybe that's because I'm a really nosy person. I've been too scared to start blogging for ages but I've decided today's the day and I'm just going to throw myself straight into it and I hope you enjoy.


xx.


P.S. I know my layout still needs a lot of work on it, but all the HTML stuff is a bit too technical for me and I'm currently trying to figure it all out from YouTube vid! - Any tips let me know!

P.P.S. If you'd like to follow me on twitter you can find me here: www.twitter.com/hannahripley


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