Late to the Party

I've been making a concerted effort to get through some of the products which have been in my stash for the longest. Slowly and steadily!   WR - Will repurchase or have already repurchased. MR - May repurchase at a later date when other products have been used up first. WNR - Will not repurchase. Didn't like or didn't work for me. Or too expensive!   * Andalou Naturals - 1000 Roses Floral Toner MR This was a T.K Maxx find and I really enjoyed using this as a morning cleanser. I did have to decant it into another bottle though as the spray was far too fierce on this. Would repurchase in the future if I saw it at a lower price again.   * CosRX - Low PH Good Morning Gel Cleanser WNR Although this is an iconic cleanser for many, it was just kind of okay for me. It would have been perfect for my teenage son and I would buy him another, if only he'd actually use it!   * Naturally Thinking - Manuka Floral Water WR I actually finished thi...

Oh T.K Maxx - you've been KILLING IT recently with your offerings!   Not sure if Friday is a new delivery day, but the shelves were absolutely teeming with Dr Jart products. Seriously, my antennae were twitching as I came down the escalators into the Norwich store! Dr Jart + - Ceramidin Liquid £14.99 (rrp £33.00) Limited funds meant that I couldn't go all 'Supermarket Sweep' and pick up multiples of everything - but there was no way that I wasn't coming away empty handed. I picked up a back-up of the Ceramidin Liquid (I'm currently almost finished with a deluxe mini size of this). Also available was the Ceramidin Gel Cream (£14.99) the Ceramidin Oil Balm (£9.99 - which my mum picked up for me from another store!), the Help Me! Ceramidin Trial Kit, some Dr Jart sheet masks (only £2.99) and the Dermaclear Micro Milk Peel (£12.99).  Patyka - Cornflower Water Micellar Gel Cleanser (£4.00 RRP £24.70) and Spearmint Purifying Foaming Gel (£5.99 RRP £24.70) ...

I make a weekly pilgrimage to T.K Maxx as they always have some great skincare items. Over the past few months, the brands seem to be getting more impressive too - from bigger high end names to many, many international natural skincare and beauty brands, plus a good dollop of K Beauty too!   But I think I've been pretty restrained in the past few months. There once was a time when I'd snap up anything that even remotely caught my interest. But after coming to terms with my extra large skincare inventory, I've held myself in check. Asking myself, "Do I need it?", "Will I use it?" and telling myself "This is going to make your skinventory numbers go up when you're supposed to be reducing them"!   BUT...   I kind of fell off the wagon in the past couple of weeks - there have been several items that were just too good to pass by. These are the items that I've picked up in the past couple of weeks:     See, it's not ...

Wow! Only four more weeks of makeup bag choices till the end of the year! Exciting! Last week I completed my very first 'one-month-one-palette' challenge using the Morphe 35O Nature Glow palette without getting bored or sneaking in another palette! However, I was very happy to pick another palette this week. The I Heart Makeup/Revolution 'Pink Fizz' Chocolate Bar palette has only actually been used for one week of this entire year - which is actually quite shocking, but then I wonder if I would have even touched it if it weren't for revolving my palettes by picking a weekly makeup bag? Choice can be overwhelming sometimes...   * Foundation - Holika Holika - Gudetama Cushion * Under Eye Primer - E.L.F (not pictured) * Under Eye Concealer - Maybelline - Age Rewind - I struggled a bit using the Dr Jart BB Mate 1,2,3 contouring kit last week. They advise using the highlighter as the under eye concealer, but it wasn't the best! I'm happy to be...

A little bit of excitement this week! I have decided to attempt a 'One Month One Palette' project. I have a few palettes that were just too big and exciting to be constrained to one week's use, so although I won't be doing this every month - I'm going to attempt it with some of the palettes I own.   * Foundation - Missha BB Cream * Under Eye Primer - E.L.F (not pictured) * Under Eye Concealer - Maybelline Age Rewind * Powder - TonyMoly Cat's Wink Compact * Highlighter - Wet n Wild Mega Glo in 'Precious Petals' - I won this as a review prize last week and it's absolutely stunning! * Contour - Illamasqua Gel Sculpt Contour * E.L.F Blusher/Bronzer Duo in 'Fiji' - Decided that if I'm going to be wearing my ultra-light shade Missha BB Cream then I might benefit from a wee bit of bronzer this week so that I don't look too washed-out when wearing that and the shades from the Morphe 35O palette! * Mascara - Hourglass C...

Now the Autumn Equinox has officially happened, it's definitely time to switch up the weekly makeup bag to celebrate this time of year, which is my favourite season. But as much as I love Autumnal shades I usually just stick to them for my lips and nails, because try as I might, the warm shaded eye shadow palettes really, really don't suit me!     Heavy on the 20/20 Vision Project items this week - 7 out of the 8 of these are included in the panning project. * Under Eye Primer - E.L.F and Under eye Concealer - Missha - depite still looking full, I think the Missha concealer is nearly finished, I'm not getting too much product out anymore and it's starting to feel a bit drier. * Foundation - Holika Holika Gudetama Cushion Foundation - This is such a highly-scented foundation (but handily, I like the scent) which is unusual in a face make up. It's also too light for my skin tone and the addition of a dewy, glowy finish does make me look even paler. I ...

Hot winds! The hint of approaching Autumn is in the air but the arrival of these strange hot winds this week has put the brakes on starting to think about Autumnal makeup just yet. I had already decided that I was going to pick a moderate coverage foundation this week after weeks of no foundation, BB Creams or very light coverage. And it felt quite weird having more coverage on my face. Not sure if I like it or not!     * Foundation - L'Oreal True Match in '2N' * E.L.F Under Eye Primer * Missha Under Eye Brightener *TonyMoly - Cats Wink Powder Compact * Illamasqua Gel Sculpt Contour Stick * Blusher and Highlighter (From Essence 'Eye & Face - Glow For It') - I would have de-potted the blusher and highlighter from this palette as I love those but not so keen on the eyeshadows. However, it's a fixed palette without separate pans, so I'll pan the blush and highlighter and then dump the rest of the palette. * Benefit Roller Lash Masca...

My several-week run of good skin seems to have come to a screeching halt this week! I've got a huge 'thing' under my eye (not sure if it's a spot or a bite) that is making the skin under my right eye really puffy and swollen. And I appear to have several more small blemishes on my face too. For this reason, I think I'm going to need a bit more coverage this week, so will be bringing a medium coverage foundation back into the mix.   * Foundation - Holika Holika Gudetama Cushion Foundation Shade 21 has been too light for me so I added some Obsession Makeup foundation darkener in to this to see if it helps.   * E.L.F Under-eye Primer   * Missha Under-eye Brightener This is starting to feel a little dry, so mixing this with the E.L.F under-eye primer ensures that it stays moist and hydrating.   * Powder - MUA Loose Powder   * Blusher - Inglot Cream Blusher This is one of my 20/20 Vision Project picks and I'm remembering how much I love...

  Overall, I had a really great month for using items up (but I also bought quite a few new ones too!).   Here's a reminder of the six items I chose to try and use up in June       And here's what I managed to use up!   Four out of six is not bad! Although one was de-cluttered when I realised that it had expired.   * The Ordinary - Glycolic Acid 7% Toning Solution  - I'd been using this intermittently on my body as I had found the 7% of Glycolic Acid a bit too harsh on my face. However, after pulling it out again and trying it on my face, I didn't find this quite so harsh this time around. It's not my favourite Glycolic Acid and I won't be repurchasing.   * Nuxe - Reve de Miel Lip Balm - I had several moments of 'Why did I choose this?!' this month as I was reminded just how ultra-rich this lip balm is! I had been using it as a lip sleeping mask but I always woke up feeling greasy-lipped and opted to u...

  I cannot claim ownership of this fantastic idea. I am merely copying an idea that I saw on Instagram (@memyreview) a couple of weeks ago!     I only own one cushion foundation (the Holika Holika Gudetama cushion foundation) and I really like the idea of them, but the one I own is a shade too light for me. I also like the idea of taking an old foundation and adding to it to make it more wearable. Making your own cushion foundation is great for this as it's obviously far too labour-intensive to go mixing several different products just to make your daily foundation. This way, you can make up small bespoke mixtures at a time - which is more hygienic, and also means that you can tweak your 'recipe' as needed.     Please note: I hadn't previously practised the following procedure, so any mistakes and thoughts will be noted in the directions below!     So, first things first. You'll need an empty cushion foundation compact. You can...