Products I've liked and disliked in 2017 - Makeup Revolution, Nspa, Maybelline, The Balm...

Hey everyone,

Happy new year.

Hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas and has a great start to the new year.

It's just me and my dad for New years and as it's a quiet one for the two of us I figured why not do a post of products I've liked and disliked in 2017. It seems to be popular the past week over on YouTube and it got me thinking of what I really enjoyed and used a lot and then products I really didn't like.

Obviously the products I mention won't be everything I've tried throughout the year but it's the ones that left a more stronger opinion. They're also not necessarily products that were new in 2017; just ones that I may have tried for the first time this year or used a lot throughout the year and really liked and ones I didn't think much of.

Onto the likes...there was about eight products I really liked using (some more than others) with a mixture of makeup and skin care.

I think my absolute favourite thing I've tried for the first time this year has been the sacred spa salt and oil scrub by Nspa. I picked this up from the supermarket for £4. You get 200ml of product and the brand is vegan and cruelty free and made in the UK. It honestly cleaned and exfoliated my skin like nobody's business and I felt so soft after using it. It made me feel really clean and it smells so nice. I had been looking for a body scrub and saw the ones from the Body Shop I liked which I think were close to £30 pounds. So this is such a good value and I am definitely going to buy another one because I've now ran out.

The second product I actually wasn't so sure on when I first tried it but after really giving it ago I've really liked it and have nearly used the entire product up. It's the Strawberry black sugar mask wash off by Skinfood. I can't tell you how gorgeous the product smells. It's honestly like taking a whiff out of a jam jar and it's made with real strawberries and is jam packed with other plants and fruits and also has Strawberry seeds in the product. It's a really nice scrub and really cleansed my face. My skin felt soft and fresh afterwards. I know some people that suffer from acne say that Korean skin care products make them break out worse but I didn't find this was the case as an acne sufferer myself. You can get this for under £5 and you only need a small amount. If you use an exfoliating brush for this product it will last you a ridiculously long time as so little is needed.

The third product I liked was the blur primer by Makeup Revolution. I can't remember how much the product cost but it was definitely under £10 pounds and you get 30ml of product. I really found it improved the texture and appearance of my skin and worked quite well with a mixture of foundations and smelt really nice as well. I've nearly finished this product but am not sure if I will repurchase just because I have other primers I need to try first.

So onto makeup products I really loved the Maybelline brow satin duo pencil. I just found it really easy to use and I felt it was good value and good quality and with it being the first actual product I have made use of in learning to do my brows it's been great.

Two products I have really loved and have reached for countless times has been a lip concealer by Etude House and a dear girls lip balm by Etude House as well. I always use both of these products before applying any liquid lipsticks (Which are the main lip products I use) and have found they really help to be a good base on my lips, keep them moistured, and give a layer of protection too.

Onto the final makeup product I have liked is a really ridiculously cheap product by the brand W7. It's a bronzing face powder and is less than £3. It's nuts. I think it's meant to be a dupe for the Benefit hoola bronzing powder. It's not the greatest of products obviously but it's fantastic for the price of the product and I have used it quite a bit.

The last thing that was a new thing I tried in 2017 was a basic cleaning mat for my makeup brushes. Before I had bought this I was buying makeup brush cleaner from Estee Lauder and cleaning my brushes against kitchen towel which was quite costly. Then I used the brush mat and some baby shampoo by Johnsons and have saved myself some money. It works well and gets my brushes clean.

Onto products I didn't rate very highly was one being the falsies push up drama by Maybelline. People seemed to have raved about the mascara but I didn't find it did much for my lashes and certainly didn't make them look nice and long or volumised or anything really. It clumped really badly at first and then made my lashes look like tiny spider legs.

I also bought the brow precise fiber filler by Maybelline as well and didn't like the product either. I just felt it made my eyebrows look like two fat black slugs even when trying to blend some of the product out. This could be me not having good eyebrow skills so I will probably try and give it another go but, yeah, I didn't like it.

I also bought another really cheap product by the brand Technic. It's a smoothing face primer and, again, cost under £3 pounds. But it's just ridiculous. You open the product up and it honestly reminded me of the hand salve by Burts Bees. Just how the product felt and looked. I couldn't get to anything, couldn't put it on my face, it smelt horrible, and felt like nothing.

Another cheap item was the catwalk concealer by W7. Again really cheap but just awful shade range. I got light and I couldn't honestly use it as it's just far too dark. Product itself may have been okay but the shade range was just bad for me to even try.

I also have the Nude Tude palette by The Balm and I think it's really bad. For the price I expected super pigmentation and found very little and you don't really want to have to do a lot of build up for a product that cost a fair bit.

And finally a product that was really bad and I honestly can't find anything good about it is the fresh cup Strawberry smoothie modeling mask by Etude House. I found it was bad trying it out right from the start. I filled water up to the line as instructed and it was still really powdery and was forming a Cement like ball. I then added a little bit more water which seemed to do the trick and by the time I applied to one side of my face and went to get more product it was drying out again and adding more water didn't help the second time and just made it wet and clumpy. It didn't smell nice either and didn't make my skin feel that great. My face actually felt dirty afterwards and the product did not peel of that good either.

So that's the products I've liked and disliked this year, some great and some just terrible.

If anybody does read my post and have tried any of the above products let me know what you think. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Have a great new year.

Glossybox unboxing - December 2017 UK box

Hey all,

Happy December. It's so close to Christmas. Yayyy. I'm so freaking excited.

I'm hoping to hear back about a job soon and I have my theory test booked for next week so two things to feel nervous about. I feel excited too; It's just failing which I don't cope with very well. So, yeah, that's probably the most interesting things that are going on in my life right now.

Anyway, so I thought I would do another post on Glossybox as December box has now arrived. We've had a bit of snow over here and if you don't know the UK, we are never prepared for snow and sub minus weather which literally means the country comes to a standstill. And that includes huge delays in deliveries. But luckily my Glossybox got here before the snow had hit.

Before I go into December's box I'm just going to go back to the previous box. I did do a post on November's box and feel like I should give another mention now that I've actually tried some of the products out.

So the Geranium and peppermint shower gel by Greenfrog Botanic I've got to say was god awful. It did absolutely nothing for me. The first thing that really got to me was the smell. There was absolutely nothing about it that smelled good. It actually reminded me of an over the counter lotion for skin treatments. You know it's there to help, not to smell good if that makes sense. I also found you needed to use a lot to get a good lather and for the price I didn't find that really appealing at all. The only thing I found good about it was that it did make my skin feel nice and soft after but then it was no better than your average shower gel in regards to that. I will say though that my opinion could be a little biased just because it says it's suitable for sensitive and dry skin, neither which I have so who knows how it is for that kind of skin type.

I also tried out the charcoal and willow bark mask sheet from Boots. I can't really say much about it expect meh. There was nothing negative about it per say, I just found there was nothing that really stood out for me either but then maybe you need to try out a couple of these masks over time to see better results. Who knows?

The lip balm by Sportfx was another thing that did absolutely nothing for me. Aside from smelling absolutely amazing, it did not help my dry and cracked lips in the slightest. There was no improvement at all.

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Okay, so this months box has a theme to it. The design is by Irish lifestyle brand Dusty Boy. There are five products in the box with four being full sized. And they did include some chocolates in this box as an extra thing.

There are three makeup products and the other two being a shower gel and facial cleanser.

The box came wrapped as usual but December's tissue paper was black with a gold tie. There was a card inside like the last one and gave information on December's box and the products inside. Another card also came inside the box with a discount code for other products by Dusty Boy.

The first makeup product is a 3D lash primer by Model. Co. Use before applying your mascara, it conditions lashes and thickens them for fuller and more noticeable lashes.

The second product is a gorgeous matte lipstick by LAQA & CO. The lipstick is encased in a rose gold case which I absolutely love. I'm obsessed with rose gold lately. I was sad to find the lipstick has snapped inside the case upon opening but I did manage to take a swatch of the product. It's an absolutely gorgeous shade which I think is a perfect colour for the season.

The third product is a precision tip eyeliner by Steve Laurant and is also in a gorgeous rose gold packaging. It says it is long lasting and smudge proof and waterproof. Eyeliner isn't something I'm that big into but this will definitely be given a go.

The fourth product and a bodycare one is a rich and creamy shea butter body wash by Soaper Duper. The body wash is made from natural ingredients like shea butter, vanilla pods, and moisturising monoi oil. The smell is absolute heaven. A gorgeous vanilla smell that's not too over powering. I found it lathered really nicely and left my skin cleansed and soft. However, the product was quite thin in consistency and a lot of product comes out in one small squeeze which isn't the best in my opinion for a more priced body wash.

The final product is an Equilibria Gel to milk cleanser by Naobay. It says the product transforms into a softening milk cleanser when in contact with water. I haven't tried a huge amount of cleansers so I'm definitely excited to try this.

The chocolate were the new Ferrero Rocher 'Raffaello' which I did give away because I don't like coconut tasting food.

So I'm definitely impressed again with this months box and feel like it's so much better than November's. A lot more effort seems to have gone into it and I'm really excited to try out all of the products in the box.

If you've tried Glossybox before or have this exact box let me know what you think and what products you've tried in this months box.

Happy Christmas!

Etude House Berry Delicious Collection - New try (Korean makeup)

Hey guys,

Today I feel like doing a post on Korean makeup which, by the way, is pretty awesome.

The brand I am going to blog about is Etude House. A few months ago I got hold of some stuff from their Berry Delicious collection so feel like this is a good starting point, especially because you can still buy pieces from this collection.

Okay, so Etude House is a South Korean brand and goes really far back (Like, I didn't even know it was this far back) 1985 to be exact. EH has over 100 stores and they believe that makeup shouldn't feel like a chore but something fun to do for all women. This is why they have such awesome packaging, cute, fun, and playful; It really fits in with their philosophy. They have a website that ships internationally and a mobile app as well. You can also buy Etude House on other websites like Amazon and Ebay. I should warn you that there are a lot of fakes coming out of China for Korean Brands so unless you know a seller is selling authentic items I would really recommend buying direct off the Etude House website. They have more information on the website which is linked below

http://www.etudehouse.com/int/en/index.php/

Okay, so I have four items from the collection; an eyeshadow palette, a blusher, a liquid lipstick, and a mascara.

They have a range of different liquid lipsticks and blushers and two different eyeshadow palettes. The theme is fruity and I managed to grab all of the strawberry range. Some of the products do have a nice strawberry scent and it's a really nice pleasant smell, more natural smelling than artificial if that makes sense. The packaging is red and pink and has little strawberries on them. It's super cute packaging.

For the eyeshadow palette I have #Strawberry Fondue and it has some nice pink tones in it. There are three mattes and three shimmers. The one thing I noticed straight away when opening the palette is that the pans seem to be quite movable. I don't know if this could have been caused by transport but they're definitely not stuck in there securely.

The second thing to definitely mention is that there really doesn't seem to be that much pigmentation at all. Like, I took some on my finger and when I tried to swatch on my arm the product hardly showed at all. However, when it came to applying the product onto my eyes it did show up a lot more than I thought it would. I did try out the applicator which came with the palette and it did pick up the product well and did transfer onto my eyelid okay but I just didn't like the cheap feel of it. So I did grab one of my own eye brushes to apply and to blend. I used four of the colours just to be able to try out as many as possible. The mattes seemed to show up better and I felt like the shimmers just left fine glitter around my eyes.

For the blusher I got the shade PK001 and after the end results I probably wouldn't have got this exact shade just because I don't think it suited my skin tone. It took a lot of build up and blending to get anywhere with the product but I didn't really mind that so much just because some products like bronzer or blusher can be ridiculously pigmented and one small amount on the brush is a huge amount on your face and no matter how much blending you do its just a big mess on your face. Well, I've experienced that anyway. I didn't try the sponge that came with the blusher (Which I should have) so I can't really comment on results of application from using that.

The mascara I probably had a better time with. The wand is quite small which helped to get into the inner eyelashes and the bottom eyelashes. I found it didn't clump my eyelashes like some nightmare mascaras do but it definitely didn't make them stand out as much as I would have liked. But saying that, this has probably got to be the worst mascara I have ever tried. I can't tell you the pain I had with trying to take this off. It literally went like cement on my eyelashes and when I tried to take it off with eye wipes it actually took an amount of lashes with it. It looked fine prior to this and didn't look how it felt at all. 0/10 would not recommend this mascara.

And finally, the liquid lips juicy really showed up nicely on the lips and gave a good colour. I don't think it took much to build a good colour and it stayed on quite well after drinking.

 I did take some pictures with myself wearing the products and can only apologise at the quality of them. I had very little natural light to work with due to downcast weather and my phone quality isn't the best for taking front camera pictures (I had to work alone taking them) I also apologise about the spots on my face (I suffer from acne really bad) and if I used the smooth filter on my phone it completely looked like I wasn't wearing makeup so I had this off to get the makeup to show, hence my acne being really visible.

To be honest with this collection I wouldn't have bothered. I mean Etude House do have some great products that I have tried but I could have happily missed this collection. It hasn't changed my mind about the brand just because not every product you're always going to like but I felt like I could have gotten better elsewhere for the same price. I had fun trying these though and the packaging is super sweet but I probably wouldn't reach for these again. I can tell you the mascara will definitely be making a trip into the bin.

I would rate this a 3/10, with the mascara being the biggest factor into why I've rate it that low.

I really recommend those who haven't tried Korean makeup to go out there and have a browse. There's a ton of stuff from different brands and there really are some hidden gems out there.

Let me know if you've tried Etude House and, if so, what you've tried and loved or hated.