Showing posts with label shesaidbeauty. Show all posts
Showing posts with label shesaidbeauty. Show all posts

Monday, 22 April 2013

Cosmetic Crave: Where To Find & Follow Me

Hey beautifuls! With all of the excitement of cosmeticcrave.blogspot.co.uk growing up into cosmeticcrave.com I thought it'd be a good time to take the opportunity to lay out to you all of the social networking and blogging platforms that you can find me on - it can get a little bit confusing now there's so many! Who do you follow on what and where?! 
The most classic way of following a blog is via GFC (Google Friend Connect), and this is my personal favourite way. All you need is a Google, Twitter or Yahoo account and just click 'Join This Site' at the right hand side of this page to be able to follow!

Following rumours of GFC's looming extinction, Bloglovin' is now 'the next big thing' in terms of platforms for following blogs. It's really simple to use and super easy to be able to find new blogs, such as the 'up and comers' and also be able to flick through the day's most popular posts. Even better, you don't even need to have your own blog to be able to use it! You can find me by searching Cosmetic Crave, or you can click here.

I've actually got two Twitter accounts as I'd been told by uni friends that my constant blog tweets and spamming during #bbloggers chats were a pain in the bum and they'd been tempted to unfollow me - to be fair they are boys who don't care about constant lipstick chatter! Oops! So I now have a twitter just for bloggy stuff (@cosmeticcrave), and I'd love for you to click here and follow me on my blog Twitter!

If you're still in the world of Facebook and like to stay up to date with blogs via liking their Facebook pages then you can find mine by searching Cosmetic Crave, or click here.

My favourite! I'm a little bit obsessed with Instagram, maybe more than is considered to be normal, but it's a fantastic way to discover new blogs. If it's beauty bloggers you want to find, give #bbloggers a search in the discover tab and you'll be welcomed to thousands of beauty related snaps that will lead you to users and their blogs. Find me with the username HannahRipley1, or click here.

The wonderful world of Pinterest is a little bit new to me and I only signed up a couple of days ago. I'm just finding my feet with it and regret not getting to grips with it sooner as it has potential to be something really huge! It's a little bit like a mash-up of Tumblr, WeHeartIt and Instagram all rolled up into one as it's a place for people to share images, tips, tricks and inspiration and you can 'like' or 'repin' the ones that you love. I've been using it mostly for looking up hair styles and also inspiration for healthy meals and snacks; you'd be able to find pretty much anything on there! If you use Pinterest and would like to follow me, my username is Cosmetic Crave or you can click here.

Oooh and one last platform that we can't forget:
As a long term subscriber to the SSB beauty boxes (that are no longer in existance), I feel a loyal obligation to promote their site; now predominately a social networking site for beauty lovers and bloggers, described as 'All things beauty, in one place'. If you're not signed up yet, then you should be! Find me with the username Hannahr1, or click here.

So, got enough places you can follow me at?!

Monday, 8 April 2013

#bbloggers: Manchester North Meet Up


Hello girls, I hope you've all had a good weekend! I did something a little different on Sunday afternoon and attended the meet up that Em from Em Talks organised for all us little bloggers based up in the north of the UK. She did an absolutely fabulous job planning and sorting everything for the meet up and everybody needs to appreciate her amazing-ness! It was great to meet her after being a fan of her blog for so long and she's such a gorgeous, enthusiastic and down to earth girl who really put her all into making sure that everybody enjoyed their day.

The day was much more than just 'drinks at a bar' (although we did have a couple of 2-4-1 cocktails and a tipple of Prosecco), as there were a couple of brand representatives who had come along to give talks and demonstrations to us about their products, including: Xen Tan/Glam Glow, Neal & Wolfe, Arbonne and Blanx, as well as Capital FM there to take some red carpet style snaps of us all. It was a beauty bloggers dream situation: to be surrounded by other bloggers and beauty fanatics that are all on the same wave length when it comes to the excitement of a new fake tan or face mask, to be able to chat away to them all while sipping on cocktails, sneaking your 3rd or 4th Krispy Kreme when you think nobody's looking, and to be in a room surrounded with hundreds and hundreds of beauty products! There were a couple of competitions running throughout the day and some of the prizes were amazing, I would've loved to have bagged myself a Neom candle.. they seem to be a blogger essential! But along with making new friends and having a pocket full of contact cards and blogs to check out, we also walked away from the meet up with our arms weighed down with a huge selection of goodie bags, which you may have seen a few sneak peeks of if you follow lots of bloggers on Instagram as I think everybody was a little bit overwhelmed with the extent of the contents; no wonder we struggled to carry them home!

I thought I would take the opportunity to give you all a more in depth look at what we walked away with and see what goodies I'll be trying out over the next few weeks - some of them are really exciting! Em, you must have some amazing contacts to have sorted all of these!


Goodie Bag from In Fashion (www.soinfashion.co.uk):

Goodie Bag from Arbonne:
Eye Shadow | Make Up Primer | Lip Moisturiser | Body Cleanser | Information Pack

Goodie Bag from Anne Semonin:
(Brought by the lovely Nikki Wilson - you need to check out her blog!)
Shower Gel | Shampoo | Pack of Face Masks

Bits that I won/was given throughout the day:
Ortigia Hand Cream | Ilah Brow Kit | Arbonne Hair Mask

Popchips, sweets and a great big stack of contact cards!
(And a free hair cut from Celeste Arnold!)

The huuumongous bag sorted by Em herself! (Emtalks.co.uk)

Lets take a closer look inside.....

Bittersweet London Ripe Pear Drop Sweets (link):

That toothpaste everybody is talking about!
Blanx whitening toothpaste with LED accelerator:

Some bits from well known brands:
Elemis Exfoliating Face Wash | Lee Stafford Hair Growth Shampoo | The Body Shop Lipgloss | Macadamia (selection of a range of products) | Xen-Tan Moroccan Tan | Glam Glow Mud Mask

Samples from Dr.Organic:
Coconut Oil Skin Lotion | Moroccan Argan Oil Shampoo | Dead Sea Mineral Mud Mask | Dead Sea Mineral Anti-Aging Stem Cell System

Offerings from SheSaid Beauty:
(You'll have seen all of these before if you've seen any of the past beautybox reviews on my blog)
DHC Deep Cleansing Oil | Collection Primer | Redken Treatment Spray (see my review here) | S-File nail file | The Vintage Cosmetics Eyelash Curlers (I swear by these! Love them!)

Nourish Smoothing Hand Lotion | Fillast Lip Plumper:

Tinted Moisturiser and Micellar Water from Etat Pur:


It was like Christmas rooting through these bags! I've got a lot of testing out to do!


Thanks Em! 
It was a really lovely day and I look forward to attending more events and meets in the future.

If you want to see more pictures from the day and the actual event, rather than just the goodie bags then I will pass you over to The Uni Lass's fantastic post on it here. (I didn't have a camera to take pictures while I was there!)

♥

Tuesday, 11 December 2012

SheSaid Beauty Box | December


I feel a bit bad saying this, but I'm just really bored of these boxes now, I don't look forward to them and they don't excite me at all. Even when I open them up and see what's inside there hardly ever seems to be anything that I'm eager to try out. I'm forever miserable about these beauty boxes so my advice would be to not waste your money on a subscription to them because you only ever get sent a load of rubbish; there's probably going to be about 1 in 10 products that you'll actually use and enjoy enough to purchase the full sized version of, well atleast that's my experience of them.
 
Moans aside, here's December's box:
 

I expected the December box to be really special and different with it being Christmas and all - maybe a red box, or have snowflakes on it or something - but nope it was just regular run of the mill box except with one extra bonus product inside .. tea bags! Ha - you've got to laugh really don't you! Bonus Christmas treat of two tea bags.. One is 'Jade Sword Green Tea' and another is 'Jasmine Silver Needle'. I do like tea, I drink it daily but I've never tried any other variants other than the typical Tetleys so I'm curious to see what I make of these. 100 of these tea bags cost £30.00 so I hope they're good at £3 a brew! *edit - 30p a brew, haha idiot!

 
There was also an Amie Spring Clean Cooling Mask (full size) which cost £1.50 for a 15ml sachet but they are also available in a larger 75ml size. These have been in a box a few months ago and although it tingled my face to the point that it was uncomfortable and I had to wash it off almost straight away it did freshen up my skin, so I'll give it another go and hope for the best this time!
 
 
There were another two full sized products in the box; one of them a Technic nail varnish. My information card says these cost £1.25 but I know they can be found for 99p in the likes of Body Care. I think these nail varnishes are great as you get a full 12ml for such a cheap price and they're good quality too, not streaky or easily chip - plus the colour of this is beautiful! It's called Tawny Port and is a deep, rich purple.
 

The other full sized product is as a pair of colour contact lenses.. what? These cost £6.99 and are a one time use product so I am saving these for maybe Christmas day to see how many of my family members notice that my bright blue eyes have been switched for green! I am somebody who has never needed to wear contact lenses before and I'm a bit funny about things that go near my eye, I always have nightmares about waking up blind (!!) so I think I'm gonna be a little bit squeamish when it comes to putting these in - they look so weird!

 
 
 
This product looks quite exciting and they're called 'Jamela 24k Gold Under Eye Mask' and I'm really unfamiliar with using anything like this before but they look so cool! There's no instructions for use anywhere on the packaging so I'm not sure if you use them once and throw them away, or if they're a reusable product. But these squidgy gold pockets are apparently infused with natural nutrients and anti-oxidents which stimulate collagen production and increase the skin's thickness and elasticity. Now, I'm only 20 so don't have huge eye area problems but I look forward to a little relax time, lying back and popping these on underneath my eyes to see what effects it has.
 

 
Last, but not least, are these two sachets from the Doctor Duve brand (never heard of it) and OH MY these are expensive!! I received a sachet of anti-aging eye cream, and also anti-aging face cream (although my card says skin boosting face cream, but oh well), and a 30ml tube of the eye cream costs £115 (!!!) and a 50ml pot of the fact cream costs £129 (!!!) - who spends that much on cream?? These had better be good, I'm expecting miracles if it's that price! I can't find it written anywhere how big my sample size is but I guess about around 3ml.. and that means that my eye cream sample sachet is worth £11.50. Wow.
 
 
So that's a little run over of what I received in my December She Said Beauty Box. It was actually okay this month! I like all of the products and look forward to using them, I'm just a little bit apprehensive about trying to put coloured contact lenses in, and also I hope the tea is nice!
♥


Monday, 12 November 2012

SheSaid Beauty Box | November


When I received the October SheSaid Beauty Box a month ago I stropped, sulked, huffed and puffed about how downright shit it was. I'm not going to link you to the post I wrote on it because it's negative and Mondays are bad enough without you hearing me moan about something in the past. On Thursday last week that big old pink box landed up on my doorstep again and I opened it up completely not knowing what to expect as I purposely hadn't read any reviews already done on this box as I wanted to have my own open minded opinion on the contents.
 
I've been really unhappy with previous boxes and I can't just unsubscribe as I'm tied into a pre-paid 6 month subscription package so if I'm not satisfied all I can really do is have a little moan on Twitter then get on with life and hope for the best in the next month's box. So, with only slightly improved contents from October's box.. here is what was inside the November She Said Beauty Box:


Redken Smooth Lock Shampoo and Conditioner Full size 300ml and 200ml - £11.85 and £13.40

It was probably the Redken product that saved this box and made above average instead of awful. I've tried two Redken products before; one I loved and was really impressed by, the other massively fell short of expectations and I was disappointed, so this was the perfect opportunity to give the brand another chance and let me make my mind up on it because right now I'm on the fence whether or not their products are worth the money.

There's 10ml of product in each sachet and for me personally, that's just a little bit too much for one use and not quite enough for two so I just gave myself a very generous application and used it once. This duo claims to cleanse, refresh and nourish dry and unruly hair, which is pretty much what a lot of hair care sets say they will do. The shampoo didn't really do a lot for me but I was impressed with the conditioner and I'd say it left my hair in an above average state living up to it's promises of leaving my locks manageable, smooth and frizz free. It's definitely a higher price that what I would normally pay for a bottle of conditioner so although I enjoyed using it I will probably stick my high street brands for now!

 
So...? Brit Body Spray Full size 50ml - £1.99
 
I was sceptical at first, feeling cheated by SheSaid including such a cheap brand and cheap product into their box that brought memories flooding back of school days and all of the girls soaking themselves in So..? and Charlie body sprays at lunch times and after Sports class, but despite my hesitations with this body spray I do actually think that the scent is really nice. It is described as 'an edgy scent that has been created for the fashion forward and independent girls in mind' which isn't much of an accurate description in terms of what it actually smells like and of course scents are subject to individual preferences but I think this is alright. It's perfect handbag and travel size, and although being an aerosol can it's not as subtle as a little spritz of perfume of body mist to freshen up during the day it still does the job nicely and I've got nothing against this product.

 
Weleda Wild Rose Smoothing Night Cream Full size 30ml - £14.95
 
Sorry but I literally cannot stop moaning in this post so I'll say my first good point now! Last months box contained two sachets of Biao rose night cream and I lapped it up, getting 3 applications from each of the sachets gave me enough of feel of it to decide that I really liked the product, and then this little 5ml tube of another rose night cream came along and again, I've been lapping it up and loving it. This Weleda one is aimed at anti-aging but it also an all round rejuvenating and smoothing night cream. It's right on my bedside table and I've applied it only four nights in a row so far but each morning my skin has been waking up looking better and better so I'm impressed! I'm not sure if it's this brand in particular I love, or just the general idea of rose night creams so I'm intruiged and I'm going to branch out and try a few more different ones to see.
 

 
Yardley Royal English Daisy EDT Full size 50ml and 125ml - £9.99 and £14.95
 
There's been a Yardley perfume sample in a previous box and I just thought it was 'okay' so didn't feel too pleased with seeing another one, but this one is a lot better and I think it's quite nice! I don't ever tend to really use perfume samples that I get though, they all just build up in a little collection and I'm thinking that I might start putting them to use so I'm wearing this one today.
 

 
'SSB Treat': Murrays Manicure Matchbook Nail Files Full size - £1.99
 
It's a little set of mini nail files.. I don't really know what I can say about these and I know I never would have bought them for myself. I might use them, but I probably won't. (Very messiliy painted nails alert in the picture though - haha!)
 
 

Makebelieve enhance Shimmer Lip Gloss Full size 15ml - £10.00

Since opening my box I've since seen other variations of November box and noticed that there was a highlighter available from the brand 'Makebelieve' which I definitely would have preferred, but oh well you can't win them all can you! This is reaaally pretty, I mean really pretty! It's just such a shame that I'm not a lip gloss person at all unfortunately I know that I would never wear this. I've not touched it yet and I intend to sell it because it's a beautiful looking product by a luxurious looking brand (albeit one I have never heard of) and I think that this Shimmer Lip Gloss would be better off with somebody who would use it than just sitting in my drawer untouched until I have a clear out and throw it away! I normally wouldn't bother but it's a full sized product that retails for £10.00 so I think it's worth selling. If anybody is interested in purchasing this from me for around £5 to include postage costs then please just leave me a comment below with a contact e-mail! If no ones interested I'll save it for a blog sale.
'Indulgent moisturising lip gloss for a luscious pout with a hint of shimmer. Apply to the lips for a natural looking enhanced pout or over your preferred lip colour'.


Just to be typical of my current attitude toward SheSaid Beauty I'm sorry to say that I'm going to end this post on a negative note (not sorry really, I'm entitled to an opinion). There's been a pretty weird couple of things appearing in boxes from SheSaid recently, for example, tooth paste, vitamin supplements and bag of crisps(?!) and although this month was all beauty related and all good stuff I do feel that it is getting repetative. I've only been subscribed for a couple of months (5, I think) and in that time I have already been sent a nail file before, so I wasn't interested in that again, I've been sent a Yardley perfume sample before, so again, not interested, I've sampled the brand Redken before, and last month's box include rose scented night cream which was received again this month (Biao last month, Weleda this month). Some of it isn't a big deal because I'm looking forward to giving Redken another shot, I like the Yardley perfume and the rose night cream.. but it's more the principle of it. I'm paying a fair lump of money per month to receive a box full of 'luxury beauty samples' to introduce me to new brands and new products but when I keep getting nail files and the same brands again and again, and similar products repeated then it kinda defeats the purpose. Another point is that a few boxes ago there was a Collection 2000 primer sent out which was also included in a variation of this month's box - thankfully I didn't receive that product in my box which was lucky because I hated it and haven't touched it, but how could any subscriber be interested in receiving the exact same product again?
 
So, c'mon She Said! Impress me again like you used to!
Throw some new brands in there; no more Yardley and Redken!
Throw in something original and a bit different too; no more rose night cream!
..and no vitamins or crisps either!
 
What did you think of November's box?
♥

Friday, 12 October 2012

SheSaid Beauty Box | October

 
I did lots and lots of huffing, puffing and grumbling whilst unpacking this month's beauty box from SheSaid, so if you're not up for reading a moan-y, negative post then read no further! I was very unhappy with the contents of October's box, and not just because I took rubbish pictures of the products ..but beause the products themselves were pants and I feel extremely cheated this month.
 
Each box from SheSaid costs £9.00 plus £2.95 p&p but luckily (or maybe unluckily) for me I signed up to a 6 month subscription with a 50% discount. The postive: each of my boxes only cost me £4.50. The negative: I'm tied in until January and I'm not happy with what I've been paying for.
 
If want to see my reviews on past boxes I've done ones for June, July, August and September and all of them I have either been really impressed with or felt quite average about. Never before have I felt disappointment after disappointment when taking my products out of the box like this month. I'd had a little look at the website's 'sneak peek' of the available products on the day that my box was despatched and one thing in particular caught my eye that I knew I didn't want to receive. Just my luck there it was sitting at the top of my box..
 
 
Amy Childs Fragrance by Jigsaw ESL sample size. Full size 30ml £14.99 / 50ml £19.99.
For a start I don't like perfume samples, I have loads and never use them, plus they're technically available for free at perfume counters in department stores so I don't like paying for them. And secondly, why would I want something that's made my Amy Childs? I'm going to be very blunt right now and say that she's tacky and an idiot so I don't want a product from her line - sorry if you're a fan! Thanks, but no thanks She Said.




Biao Beauty Rejuvenating Night Creme sample size 2x2ml sachets. Full size 118ml costs $24.50.
Okay well first of all thanks for giving me the price in dollars ..helpful. I know it's not difficult for me to find a currency convertor online but that's not too helpful to me at quick glance of how interested I might be in this product as price does always play a part in it for me. I've never heard of the brand Biao before but nothing is screaming out to me that this is going to be amazing or anything unique - a night cream that claims to smooth, moisturise and protect against premature aging. I'll obviously still try it out though but I'm not sure how much difference I'll be able to notice from just 2 applications.
 
 
 
Palmer's Cocoa Butter Formula Travel Size Lotion "full size" (ahem travel size).  250ml costs £3.85.
She Said have always been pretty good for being generous with their full sized products in boxes, such as eyelashes, the Balance Me handcreams and lipbalms, the Collection primers and setting sprays and there is usually about 2-3 full sized products in each box. This months had just 2, one being a 'bonus product' sachet of vitamins which I will come onto later, and the second being this bottle of Palmer's cocoa butter which I feel the need to point out is their TRAVEL SIZE version which I technically don't class as a full size and it is also available extremely widely for just £1!! Because of it's high availability, ranging from Poundland and Body Care to supermarkets like Asda and Tesco means that you'll have a stuggle to find somebody who doesn't own this already, or at least hasn't tried it or heard of it. How is this product in any way supposed to be introducing me to a new and luxury high end brand? I'm a little bit confused. I will add that I do love the product and have used it before and would buy it again, but it's something I will go out and buy for £1 down the road, not something I want as part of a £9 per month luxury beauty box. *huff*.
 

Cellnique Advanced Bio Renewal Masque 3g sample size. full size 50g costs $51.00. - Again what is with the prices in dollars?!
I feel the need to apologise for rubbish-y pictures for these ones, I'm no professional photographer and I spend a lot of time battling with my own shadow! But anyway, I literally had to DIG through my box and rummage through all of the shredded paper to find this product and the next one because they were so small and I almost missed them! This is a pricey product at $51 a pop but it does have quite impressive claims and if it lives up to them then I'm sure it could be worth splashing out on: "effectively works in exfoliating dead skin cells, optimizing the cellular renewal performance and deeply cleanses poses, thus revealing a softer, fresher and healthier skin". This does sound really good and a product that I could have an interest in, but with the sample size being so small I'm not sure how many uses I could get out of it; maybe 3 or 4? And I don't really know if that is enough to give me a proper feel of the product and whether or not I like it but we'll see.
 
 
 
B.Liv Off With Those Heads sample size. full size 30ml $49.00 / 45ml $63.00. - DOLLARS?!
The second product that I had to dig for is also by the brand Cellnique and this gel claims to remove blackheads and whiteheads which I personally don't have too much of a problem with, but there is a few pesky ones I'd like to get rid off for sure. "It keeps excessive oil secretion under control while preventing future irration and breakouts" - sounds alright. HOWEVER, there is a little bit on the back of the tube thats explains how it is normal to experience oilier than usual skin when first using this product. Well that's no good for me is it? Use the sample size a couple of times, end up with really oily skin and then have run out of product to continue using and reap the full benefits?? Pretty sure I won't even bother trying this one out if it's told me that it's going to give me oily skin and not a lot else. 


 
myvitamins vitamin D full size bonus product. £2.49 for 30 tablets.
Last, and yes probably least too, is the 'bonus full size product' of a pack of 30 vitamin D tablets - Wow. I don't even know what vitamin D is supposed to do for you? What is it good for? Incase you wondered the same thing then I did actually Google it and found out that it is basically the vitamin that you get from exposure to sunlight (definitely going to be deprived on that with an English winter!) and it is a "steroid vitamin that aids the absoption and metabolism of calcium" Oo getting scientific now. Well, I'm not too sure what to make of these, I've never been one for taking vitamins or supplements but I suppose that now I have these sitting on the side then I may as well take them. One a day preferably with food is my only instruction so that is what I will do.
 
 
Normally at this point now I would be posting my referral link left, right and centre for you to be joining up for yourself and I do normally recommend this to everybody over GlossyBox but right now all I want to do is tell you not to waste your money and don't bother signing up. If I wasn't tied into a subscription then I would be unsubscribing pronto! I've tweeted SheSaid to let them know of my dissatisfaction and they assured me I'd be happier with November's box so let's hope they're right - I don't want to do any more moaning!!
 
SheSaid will probably hate me for this brutally honest review, but I wanted to give my full and true feelings about the products that I paid for and received. I hope that this was helpful to some of you who took the time to read, please leave your own thoughts in the comments below.
 
And don't forget that I am currently running a celebratory 200 followers GIVEAWAY that ends at the end of this month.
Enter now if you haven't already!
CLICK HERE FOR YOUR CHANCE TO WIN
♥


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