So over the past few weeks, and even the odd month I've been starting my Lush Kitchen & Lush Oxford Street haul/collection (buying from Lush site and getting Oxford Street products from honest, loyal sellers off Instagram & Depop!).
Lush Kitchen products;
Magic Bath Bomb
Retailing at £3.95 this product is very similar to the Ex Factor (in terms of scent and colour) with a strong peppermint over-scent powering through when you begin to fizz in the water. When the product begins to fizz it instantly picks up a pink bubble ton from inside the product (which packs out the scent even more), personally I love this product for when I'm feeling ill or having a dull day.
Somewhere Over The Rainbow Bath Bomb (also oxford street exclusive)
Retailing at £3.25 each this bath bomb is very affordable, super cute looking and a pretty decent size. This was a Lush Oxford Street exclusive for quite some time during the Easter period but then was released to Lush Kitchen just before Easter (which was a major surprise, and as predictable it sold out pretty instant). The scent is very floral like, with a sweet rose scent smelling throughout.
Ex Factor Bath Bomb
Retailing at £3.50 this product was an exclusive to Valentines Day Lush Kitchen (yes I know which isn't spring but why not throw it in?), they sold out pretty instant if I remember correctly this year. The smell on this small but mighty product is inspiring if I do say so, however the product is also extremely fragile (hence the head was chopped off as part of delivery transit). When I used this product if fizzed out instantly, quickly melting away and leaving a super fresh smell of the 'Butterball' products Lush offer. It's just such a relaxing product to use.
Karma Bubble Bar
Retailing at £3.25 each I was surprised to find this product being a completely different model to the old Karma one Lush had. It's very bright and orange, oval shaped and isn't overly huge I would honestly say you could get one luxury bath with this or two more reserved baths. The product itself let a LOT of bubbles out, it was crazy and by far one of the most bubbliest I've seen. It left the water in a orange shade, smelling of a fresh fruity citrus scent mixed with oranges. For the price I would probably buy this again, but it's just something I wanted to add to my collection ( I wouldn't overly rate this but that's just me).
Lush Oxford Street Exclusive products;
Sunflower Bubble Bar ;
This product retails at £4.95, and can only be purchased from Lush Oxford Street or in a small selection of the Mothers Day gift sets (which personally didn't interest me). As with any Lush products, bubble bars are my favorite because you get more use out of them.. But with this Sunflower product, WOW! It's huge, literally bigger than the size of my palm you could easily get 4 luxury size baths or even 6 more reserved baths. The smell is very citrus oriented (pretty lemon like), and not so much of the expected floral scent you'd get.
Reusable Windmill
Retailing at £5.95 this product does seem to be more on the higher side of price, with most reusable bubble bars (on a stick) average at around £4-£5 but personally I wouldn't pay this again.. It just seems overly priced, although as with all reusable products you can easily get a good 6 luxury bath worth's. The scent is again, very citrus oriented but this time more lime like, plus the scent is very strong and easily noticeable. One thing I do love about this product is the "stick" is very thick and stable compared to other reusable products in the past which makes it last longer.
Overall, I will say my #1 favorite is the Sunflower bubble bar purely by it's scent, size and affordable price! If only it became available on Lush Kitchen so I could get a supply of them stocked up. As for bath bombs, I love the Magic product because of the unique colour inside, and the fresh smelling scent. Let me know what your favorite Lush product is below?X
So on Bank Holiday (which seems so far away) I took a bit of a shopping trip, and of course I had to stop off in my local Yankee Candle store. They had a surprising 20% off everything offer on only for the Bank Holiday. (excluding any current offers they had on) The first lot I picked up was x10 wax melts 'Home Sweet Home', these are one of my favorite Winter scents because I love the cinnamon twist and spices smell. You are probably thinking x10 is a lot, but they had an amazing offer on where you pick x10 wax melts (from a selection of four different scents I think, they was all Christmas/Winter themed) for only £5! That's literally 50p per wax melt which is AMAZING! I then picked up a car air-freshener in the jar style, scent 'Vanilla cupcake' because of course this is my all time favorite scent, and I received 20% off the original price for this.
I then bought a giant pack of tealight candles (which I only bought because of the 20% off), I also bought x1 each of the new wax melts "spring" scents - Of which the Olive & Thyme scent is AMAZING and I highly recommend it. I also bought a new melt burner, I picked the all black one because black goes with most colours, plus it's melt holder is a lot taller making it less likely to have an over-spill of wax, easier to clean and maintain. And finally I bought a three pack of car air-fresheners in 'Vanilla cupcake' as a supply stock up with the discount offer being available!
I know this post was only short, but I just wanted to share my amazing offers I got with the surprise discount and I would recommend visiting any local stores you might have nearby because I know the one in Chester had a lot of offers on, with exclusive large jars, and buy any two medium jars for £30 etc! Thank you for reading! X
So I've recently started Experiential Learning in University (which is basically where you do a work placement for 7 weeks), with this I've been on the haunt to buy new clothes which is more "work appropriate". I went to Primark with the intentions to buy some shoes, but managed to pick up a whole load of things!
1. Cream Pointed Shoes - I picked up these simple but cute shoes for only £3! They was in the sale, but I picked them up because of how simple they looked with a gold trip around the small heel base. They are more of a suede material, easy to slip on and off and a light colour perfect for the summer (And they would go with pretty much any outfit).
2. Brown Heeled Boots - I picked these boots up because of how stylish they looked, a more popular style this spring if I'm honest. I bought them because they was really comfy to wear, they zip up the side and have a 'lace' like appearance down the side with 'tassels' flowing loosely. They are again a suede material, and the colour goes perfect with a handbag I recently bought. Plus to my amazement, when I went to pay they price had been lowered to just £10!
3. White Pocket Vest Top - This top is very lightweight, and sheer like. It has two fairly large pockets on the front (near the top part) and buttoned up straight down the middle. With the vest like style and lightweight material, I felt it was perfect to wear with the warmer weather starting, plus the white/cream shade material will go with most clothes and a perfect 'Smart' look top for 'Work' etc.
4. Snake Print Shorts - These shorts where laid out near the pajama/shoe section, so personally I would wear just around the house to lounge around in or for bed. They where only £2.50, very thin lightweight material and have been perfect to wear with the warm evenings we've been experiencing recently, plus I love the pattern really modern and unique.
5. Head Piece - So while looking in the jewelry section I discovered this unique headband piece for only £1, it's elastic band (in a black material) which can easily be hidden with my dark hair (bonus factor). And, the pale pink gems on the front work great with most colours, it can be worn on the forehead or on the hair as a headband something different to try out.
6. Necklace - This necklace was an amazing cheap price for £1, I loved how large it appeared, but I must admit once I took it out the packaging I was not a fan. This necklace is based of beads (which looks fine) but they are all on a small elastic band, first off it's risky... One small pull and the elastic will break and you will be left with a mess of beads, but also it's hard to maintain a simple shape, it becomes very odd-shaped and looks pretty awful when you wear it.
7. Black 3/4 Ankle Trousers - I loved the style of these, they where a cotton style material in a smart trouser style (fake pockets on the backs and side pockets). Plus they are 3/4 ankle length which is great for warmer weathers, the colour black is perfect too.. It would go well with any clothing colour, however I felt these where too "smart" when I wore and even trying to dress them down became a major chore.
8. Patterned 3/4 Ankle Trousers - I also picked up another pair of trousers, these are the exact same style as the black ones except they are patterned in a black & white colour scheme, they are a comfy fit and easy to dress up or dress down.
Overall, I'm in love with majority of the products I purchased, they are great to work for smart occasions but can easily be worn with casual looks too.. Let me know in the comments or on Twitter you recent/best Primark buy?X
Thanks for reading!
So I finally managed to get my hands on the Kylie Cosmetics GLOSS collection on the very first launch which was the 1st April 2016. It was all a bit of a rush to order if I'm honest, my mum noticed she posted on snapchat and instantly I grabbed my computer and card to make a payment. One thing which instantly confused me was the trio option she has on the page (Get all three shades for 45$), I mean you save 0$ on this option but I suppose it's a quicker option to buy all three and make a payment faster since they always sell out after a few minutes. When I managed to get on the site this option had been "sold out", although all three GLOSS's where still available to buy (I had to select them individually), after making a successful payment my order went through!
Shipping Process:
So as you will probably know I am based over in the United Kingdom(UK) so I had to pay for international shipping which was 15$ (which I suppose wasn't too bad, although that's the price for x1 product itself). On the 7th April I got a USPS tracking number and a email saying my order had been dispatched, each day the tracking system seemed to update about my parcel being on the move. When the 10th April arrived the product had arrived in Los Angles then on the 11th April it had arrived in London, UK. It was then processed for 8 days, on the 19th April I received a letter in my mail box explaining I had a bill of £14.38 custom fees for a parcel, the parcel itself was being held a the nearby Posting Depo and I could pay cash for it there (before 12am) or I could pay online and then wait a further 5 days before it could be dispatched.
If I'm honest, this kinda bugged me purely because I had waited so long already and now I had to find the time to drive to the Posting Depo (which is about 10-15 minutes via car) and pay out even more money just to receive the parcel. Thankfully, my mum managed to pick it up for me and cover the custom fees (which in my opinion where pretty high).
Products:
Each of the products where 15$ each, when they arrived they came in a black and white "KYLIE" cardboard box. The actual box was pretty damaged, the corners had been bashed in a lot and slight discoloring on the cardboard had begun (although I wasn't too bothered considering it had been shipped half way across the world). Inside the products where wrapped in a foam like packaging where all three products lay, and a small message card.
x1 Literally ;
When I first saw this product I felt it would be the wrong colour for me, my skin is very pale and porcelain and this was the darkest shade out of all three products. When I opened the product up I honestly wanted to cry with disappointment, the brush applicator was all misshaped and the individual brushes where all over the place! I mean it wasn't majorly bad at first, but after a few times of putting it back in and re-opening it the applicator was pretty much unusable. It was a real task trying to apply this neatly, it would smudge in the inner-corner of my lips and go on my skin which was a real pain and more time consuming. However, the colour itself I fell in love with, it was PERFECT! The shade was the darkest but it was personally the most pigmented, you could notice I had a a colour on my lips and it was the perfect shade to match browns/gold toned eye-shadows & contouring.
x1 So Cute ;
This shade was the one I was most excited to use, it's the lightest out of them all and more of a natural 'nude' option. When I first applied this on my lips it was pretty much unnoticeable, it felt very clear and only a slight pigment shade. After applying several layers of this you could start to see the colour better, I felt like I was too pale for this product if I'm honest. When I had applied I felt like it reminded me of having foundation left on my lips and then I had applied a clear gloss over the top, it just felt like a very odd shade to have on and didn't suit me at all! (Which was a major disappointment)
x1 Like ;
This shade is the 'in-between' option, it's not too dark but not too light either and honestly I didn't know what to expect from it. When I applied on my lips it was more pigmented than So Cute but wasn't as dramatic as Literally, I felt like this was more of a simple-easy going shade. It was just your average shade, nothing stood out to me and nothing pulled me towards loving this product if I'm honest.
After doing a bit of research, I noticed a lot of people where receiving the misshaped applicators and writing to Kylie Cosmetics customer service, where they was reshipping all the orders out. In attempt, I wrote to them.. I mean I was bothered by the applicator because it was unusable but I had gotten over the fact and just accepted it. After a few hours of writing I got a email back (which I was surprised by how fast the response was), it was very brief explaining they knew about the problem and that they would be reshipping all the orders from the 1st April out and to expect another USPS tracking to be confirmed soon. I wasn't informed when or what would be reshipped, I expected it to be just the applicator wand itself? My mum expected it to be a whole new GLOSS? Who knew?
After about a week I got another USPS confirmation with a tracking number, after a few weeks the parcel finally arrived (again I had a custom fee which was £14.38) so being out of pocket yet again I went and paid. When they arrived they weren't in the "KYLIE" black and white box, but instead in a black thin envelope with a bit of bubble wrap inside. No personal card message either, just the products inside (which I was disappointing). However I was shocked to find they had reshipped all three products, (even though it was only shade Literally which was misshapen) all three had the new applicator which was perfect and I am beyond grateful for.
Overall, I am not impressed with the whole "Kylie Cosmetics" which everyone has been making out to be so "amazing". I felt the whole ordering process was very stressful, there have been times where I've previously tried to order and after adding bank details and billing addresses I get rejected, times where I've been put in a waiting line for over 20 minutes to then get a popup saying "Sorry We've Sold out".
Plus the shipping was very disappointing, paying 15$ on international shipping I would of expected them to cover the custom fees and on the original order I had in total paid 35.75$ on shipping (considering all three products add up to 45$ I felt ripped off and wouldn't of ordered again). Then with the reshipment custom fees that came to 56.50$ on shipping! The customer service seemed to be fine with me, although when I had my issue I did research and see people ranting over having empty boxes arrive, missing products, order being shipped to the wrong location, order not arriving and so many horrifying stories where customer services where ignoring them. All I can say is thank you for reshipping the products out, although with custom fees I probably would of preferred not to even have them now, I personally won't be going through all the stress of ordering again and then being left with the bill at the end for shipping and fees, I just feel like it's not worth it when all I liked out of these three products was the GLOSS 'Literally'.
Thank you for reading, be sure to follow my blog over on the home page & leave you comments below if you've had problems with Kylie Cosmetics?X
Another month means another subscription box enters my door, this month (May Box) is that little bit more special. The melt crowd subscription has been launched and live for one whole year, HAPPY BIRTHDAY GUYS! I am so proud and happy for them, I've been subscribed for 11 months now, I share the subscription with my mum (the order is actually in her name, but I end up paying some towards it throughout the month) we get to share the scents together since we still live together, so a huge thank you to my mum for keeping this going too!
So whats special about this month? Well of course because its the melts crowd 1 year birthday, but if you ordered and kept your subscription for 12 months you would of received a full size birthday jar! Which is beyond generous so congratulations to everyone who received that! As a melt crowd subscriber we all received a free melt "Birthday Cake" which even that, I think is beyond kind and generous.
1. Birthday Cake - "Special Birthday Gift"
This melt scent is very 'light' and isn't too over-powerful, it's innocent but sweet scent. It's very similar to fresh sugary icing, or like a sweet vanilla sponge mix powder. It's very tasty smelling and not too strong (which is a great alternative to the CIRCUS collection if you find they are too strong scented for you!).
2. May Carnival ;
First off I instantly fell in love with this melt when I seen a preview pop up on Flamingo Candles Instagram, purely because its wrapped in the best colour ever right? The scent itself is very light and sweet reminding me of some sort of sugar powder, it's almost similar to a raspberry candy floss which isn't too sickly or over "sugary". I personally love the scent, and is a favorite in this months box!
3. Banana ;
WOW! Words can describe my love for this melt, it's my favorite in this months box and possibly an all round favorite! I can't seem to figure out if its an exclusive or preview (as the card didn't say), but I really do hope it's a preview otherwise I may have to beg Flamingo Candles to re-launch this. The scent is packed full of a sweet sugary BANANA scent, honestly it really does smell like 'banana and shrimp sweets' you can buy. In-fact it's exactly how the banana sweets smell like, plus the scent is strong you instantly can pick it up and when I opened this months box it was the first thing I could smell!
4. Wild Bluebell ;
This scent is more of a fresh clean almost like a water oriented smell. It reminds me of an outdoor waterfall or fresh picking fruit gardens, with a very light and small hint of blueberry (only very slightly). This melt isn't too strong either and has a very relaxing impact to it.
5. Coconut Lemograss ;
This is another melt I have fallen in love with, its a sugary sweet coconut scent with almost a buttery twist of sweet lemon mixed among. The scent is rather uplifting, and very instant to smell out with the first scent I get being coconut (which is one of a favorite scents for me)!
6. Cola Jellies ;
As with any sugary, sweet scents I always fall in love, with this product it's very "cola" oriented reminding me instantly of the Cola Bottle jelly sweets you can buy. Honestly, this is another melt I hope is a preview so I can get a supply of them.
7. Clean Cotton ;
I'm almost 100% positive I've used this product before, and is a love of mine. It's a fresh clean scent that's fairly strong almost reminding me of freshly washed clothes.
8. Wild Lemon Alcopop - £2 Click to view online here.
This scent is more of a strong smell, you instantly can smell the power of a fresh but sweet lime but has a twist of clean fruit. Very much like a small hint of grapefruit inside, plus as always with the WILD collection - I love the funky 90's packaging!
9. Fresh Aloe - £2 Click to view online here.
Now I'm pretty sure we've had this melt previously in another box (but I may be wrong!), the scent is very fresh and outdoor like. Packed with a floral scent of lilies and reminds me of the warm summer air (which gets me very excited for the hot weather due to arrive).
Overall, I am in love with all the melts in this months box especially the birthday cake, banana and cola jellies! One thing I struggled with was identifying which are preview and which are exclusive as the card didn't have it written down this time (if you know be sure to let me know in the comments or on my Twitter/Instagram). I really hope some of these scents arrive to the website soon because they are so perfect, and of course HAPPY BIRTHDAY melt crowd! It's been an honor to be subscribed and I will defiantly keep the subscription up for all the time to come. X
So I recently got my hands on a Kylie Cosmetics lip kit, first off if you don't know Kylie's products sell out within minutes each time they launch making virtually impossible to order or own. After various searches, long hours trying I gave up but recently a friend of mine managed to get two and sell me one for the regular price (which I am honored for).
Packaging:
So the packaging for the lip kits is super cute and stylish, its packed full of colours (which I love) and it has a lot of information regarding about the product etc on the back! Inside the box its separated into two small sections where one holds the lip liner and the other holds the matte lip product. When I saw this I must admit I thought it was a pretty cool idea, it prevents them from bashing against each other but I did struggle to fit them back in once I had taken out. I noticed whenever I placed both products back in the box I struggled to close the top fully without it pushing out (slightly annoying).
Lip Liner:
I must admit, the liner itself is pretty straight forward its smooth to hold, a decent average size in height (and it can be sharpened). As for the lid, it's a nightmare! I feel as though the lid for the liner is too big for the actual pencil, if you hold the lid with your finger tips then the pencil slides straight out. And the same if you held it upside down by the end of the pencil, the lid slides straight off again. This became really annoying when I tried to place in the original box, the pencil would slide out and then the product would mark the surrounding area with a red line (making a mess and forcing me to clean up, it's not wise to use around a white-toned area trust me!). As for the application of the liner, it was easy to use and no major issues with it, the colour matched perfect with the matte lip.
Matte Lip:
As with all of Kylie's products, I love the tube packaging its simple, stylish and just perfect to sit on a desk. The brush tip is a sponge like applicator, making it easy and smooth to apply. When I applied it went on smooth and fairly "liquid" like, it didn't dry out instantly (which was good to try even the product out). However, one major issue I occurred on my first time using was if the product smudged slightly onto the skin it would mark majorly. I caught a small patch on the inner corner of my lip (onto the skin), and I tried to wipe off with my finger and it instantly smudged everywhere. With the product being a deep red, the colour was very noticeable and stain like - I had to go over and over the patch a LOT with my foundation/concealer/powder to try hide the stain mark (which is annoying and more time consuming). The product dried out after about 2-4 minutes of application, it became matte like and I had no issues... I noticed everytime I took a drink, or a bite into food it did mark the glass or fork I used (which is a major hate for me). After wearing for about 3-4 hours and having eaten lunch I noticed the colour had pretty much worn off from the center part of my lip close to the inside but the colour had maintained pretty much all around the outer edges. (which looked really stupid if I admit, if you was in public this would be a major crisis, especially if you hadn't brought the product with you). The colour did stain/stay for hours on end after I had washed my face, cleansed, and attempted to remove the reminding product on my lips (mainly the liner) which is an unattractive look.
Overall?
Overall, the colour itself I love, I love how matte it looked without drying my lips out or making them feel dry. But I did hate the liner lid, how it stained for such a long period after various attempts to take it off, how it left marks on glasses after a drink.
If I had the choice to buy this product again I would probably not order, simply because its too much of a stress to buy it "in time" from the Kylie Cosmetics site. But also because international shipping is 15$ and with the GLOSS's I purchased I had a majorly high custom fees (making it about 37$ on shipping alone). With the kit costing 29$ it just seems like a lot of hard work and money to purchase something which I can honestly say is very similar to other high end & high street products. The only "special" thing about this I would say is the outer packaging, the "brand name" and the appearance of the tube. I personally think the product is highly over-rated, but that's just my opinion.
Thank you for reading, don't forget to follow my blog over on the home page & see all the recent posts!X
Hey guys, so I've always been a lover of bath products and with that said I've only ever really used Lush products. After deciding to take a step out my comfort zone I looked into what I could use that's different. I noticed Bomb Cosmetics did super cute looking bath bombs and bath melts which have a lot of effort put into each and everyone to make them look perfect. I decided to go for a bath melt gift set with six products, If I'm honest before I begin I thought the two circular products where in fact bath bombs (my mistake).
So how do you use them? Well it's simple run a warm bath and place on in the water and they melt away. To begin with, the two circular bath melts I can honestly say I expected them to turn the water a different colour (especially the pink one), but instead ALL of these products just left the water a milky clear colour... Which was slightly disappointing. Click here to view a demo video of the pink ball melt on my Instagram page here.
With the rest of the products, I began to become more of a hater with them if I'm honest purely because they have small "herb" "leaf" type substances within them. So when they melted away the left the leafs/herb like particles in the water (Which usually is fine & relaxing), but in this case they really did stick to my body when I got out I had to dry and then wipe a lot off which stuck to me. It also did become more of a nightmare to wash the bath tub out after. Click to view the demo video of one of the "cupcake" style melts on my Instagram here.
Overall, I am not a huge lover of this gift set if I'm honestly which is really disappointing because I herd so much positive feedback about Bomb Cosmetics. I think I would attempt to try the bath bombs out in the future and hope for a much more satisfying experience. But I don't think I would ever buy the melts again, purely because I would want more of a fizzy, water changing motion or something more than just "melting".
Thank you for reading don't forget to follow my blog over on the home page!X
