Monthly Favourites // March 2012

Another month has flown by and again I've surprised myself with how many new and old products I've ended up loving. 

From previous posts, you all know I have now broken my Mac virginity and purchased a Sheer Tone Blush - Pinch Me, I'm converted and see why many of you swear by Mac. 

I've also started to use my Urban Decay Shadow Brush a lot, I actually used it more with concealer, try it if you have one. 

MUA are known for having high quality products at ridiculously cheap prices, this month I've started using this quad of shadows again, I love how all 4 go together for the perfect look. Very pigmented. 

True Match has been my most used foundation for March along side Jackie Oates from LUSH, I use this with the shadow brush as my concealer. I've used many of these since it launched. 

I was lucky enough to be sent a gorgeous polish from the lovely blogger, Sam, I've been using Glitter Gal to death. Amazing polishes. 

Seche is my new love too, although I haven't had it for a month, only a week. This is my new top coat. For ever. 

Last makeup item, my bourjois menthol gloss, I've used this for years, but this March I've picked it up again and realised how much I love it and it tingles! It's a gorgeous clear gloss. 

Lush have produced a cracking Easter collection, The Carrot is my new love, it creates a lot of bubbles and certainly looks different.

 Lastly, my new favourite item I've been wearing to death, the Street Princess - Coin Charm Bracelet, another gorgeous blogger sent me this to review. I love it. 

What have been your March Favourites?

Items sent for review consideration. No Payment has been received.

 Disclaimer: Everything but the Glitter Gal polish and Street Princess bracelet, was purchased by myself. I am not being paid for any links. They link to my reviews with all needed links. I stay 100% honest.

My Current Skincare Routine // 2012

I haven't always been a big skincare fanatic and I still have days where I just forget it all. One of my non new years resolutions was to improve my skincare and to keep to it. So far I'm doing much better at it and I've noticed a big difference already in my skin. Over the last few months I've really changed my routine and I love it. At the moment I'm testing out one more product that if any good will be added. However these are my most used products in my skincare 'routine'.

Recently, with the No7 vouchers I picked up the Beautiful Skin Quick Thinking Wipes and I love them. I've reviewed them here. Lots of people hate using wipes, but when I'm tired I'm not scrubbing my face for 5 minutes, I'm getting into bed. They get every little bit of makeup off. 

Next we have the Off your face Cleansing Cloths by Soap & Glory, again these are great, currently on 3 for 2 in Boots, a little pricey normally around £5 a pack, but I like them. I felt they helped my pores. If I'm out of both of these I'll go back to Johnson's, until the offers and vouchers come back. However I have back ups at the moment. I recommend both.

My routine used to be 90% Lush, it still contains Lush, but I'm picking other cleansers over Lush. Who would of thought it eyy? The Clarity face wash from Soap and Glory is amazing. My skin feels so smooth after using it. I was worried it would break me out being so sensitive. It didn't. I've reviewed it here. I'll use this most days. I'm naughty and skip some days.

Ocean Salt isn't really a cleanser, it's a facial scrub, however I'll use this rather than an actual cleanser. It gets rid of all my dry skin and people compliment me when I've used this. It gives life and glow back into my skin. I've used this for years. I'll use this a couple times a week. 

Aqua Marina, I used to use this all the time, I still do in and out, but more of a face mask. It keeps longer than the actual face masks Lush do. It helps with my redness. I'll use this every so often.

I'm yet to review this product, believe me I will! I love it, if you have dry skin you need this. Apply, wait for 10 minutes and rinse off. Your skin will feel amazing. My skin had never felt so good. I'm debating to use this as an every day cleanser. It's bloody amazing!! I use this twice a week.

I love Grease Lightning, most will know I can't rave enough about it, if I get a spot I'll apply this and it'll be gone the next day. If it's a beast of a spot, then after a couple days the spots vanished. It really does help with spots. I use this when I feel a spot coming or when ones erupted.

Eau Roma Water, I've used this toner for years, it's so refreshing and clean. You have to try this if you have dry skin. I love it so much. I'll spray it on my face in hot weather to cool myself down outside. I tone most days. Spray onto cotton pads and wipe over face.

Finding the best moisturiser is important, now I'm not entirely fussed over having day and night creams, I survive with just using one. However of late I've started to. Dream cream is really for your body, however I use it on my face, because it's so gentle and light. It's great. I've used this for a couple of years now.

Burt's Bees Night Cream* is brilliant, my skin feels really hydrated in the morning. It's worth checking out the small kits they do, to try out the fab skin care range from them!

Burt's Bee's eye cream*, is the next best eye cream I've used since Clinque's. I love this, especially the applicator, it's like a pencil. Squeeze a little amount out and pat around eyes. Eye creams are important to me, my eye's get very tired and people always comment. This stuff saves me.

No7 Day and Night cream from the Beautiful Skin range, these have got to be my favourite moisturisers around, I adore them and when the vouchers come back I'll purchase them, right now these little tubes are still going. My skin feels great after using them.

What's your skin care routine like, can always leave your link for my to read.

Disclaimer: Products with a * were sent to me by PR quite a while back. By being in my skincare routine every day shows how much I love and how honest my opinions are! 

Items sent for review consideration. No Payment has been received.

Burt's Bees // Lip Balm in Pink Grapefruit

 Being a big pink grapefruit fan, when I heard Burt's Bees were bringing out a new lip balm with pink grapefruit in, I couldn't wait to try it out. I've tried many lip balms from Burt's Bees before and personally love them. I can get quite dry lips and Burt's Bees always hydrates them. This refreshing lip balm retails for £3.69 and can be purchased here.

This is the most delicious lip balm I have ever used. If you love the body shops pink grapefruit range, you need to try this. I can't get enough of it, I'm applying it a few times each day. The smell is incredible. It's bursting with citrus. Vitamin C and E nourish your lips into perfect condition. After a day of using this, my lips were smooth and soft again. It's also 100% natural, as are most of Burt's Bees products and comes out clear, rather than the tinted lip balms I also love.

 Burt's Bees Lip Balm with Pink Grapefruit is the most delicious lip balm I own.

I love it. I can't recommend this enough, I prefer this over the Ultra Conditioning lip balm. 10/10 for being so yummy and effective!

Let me know what you think of the photo's, new camera. I'm still getting to know it. I've had so much trouble with uploading photo's today with blogger, anyone else have a panic this morning?

Disclaimer: This was sent to me, however my review is 100% honest. I am not being paid to review or for any links.
Items sent for review consideration. No Payment has been received.

Have A LUSH Easter // Overview of Collection

It's time for the next delicious Lush collection to hit my blog. So far this year Lush have provided us with an amazing Valentines Day collection and Mother's Day and now the Easter collection looks just as eggcellent! This years is full of items to fit everyones budget. Skip the Easter Eggs and pamper yourself. They've also come up with a few new inventions for us as well as bringing back old favourites.

The Immaculate Eggception is a new invention from Lush this year, as regular Lush lovers will know, every year Lush produce big Easter eggs, over the years they have in fact shrunk though. This years has a new scent and a hidden surprise. Shake to hear your rattling surprise. The shell of this smells delicious and both shades are adorable. I love the flowers on the yellow, I hope I get one of these! The shell smells of vanilla, ylang ylang and grapefruit. The shell is also a mix of bubble bar and bath ballistic. You can throw it all into your bath or you can crack it open to see your surprise. A chocolate scented chick or bunny ballistic, I won't spoil the surprise of which is in each colour! These retail at £7 each. I'd say you can get 4 baths out of the shell and one from the centre! 

Every year the Fluffy Eggs have come back me and my Mum go crazy, so these are for her, minus 1. Lucky thing. She adores this scent. Be prepared for a bright pink review! I can't recommend these enough, the candy flowers remind me of my childhood while the scent smells of candy floss and jelly beans, the famous snow fairy scent. I'll be using mine tonight with my Snow Fairy shower gel and God Mother soap! Yummy!! These retail at £2.95. Grab your bath ballistic when it's half fizzed and get two uses out of it. Or just treat yourself! It's calorie free after all!

The Carrot, is the one product I'm dying to test out! LUSH are carrying on their fantastic bubble bar wands in this collection. I'll miss my Hippy Chick bath ballistics from past Easters, however this all new citrus scent makes up! This wand retails at £4.95, The fragrance of The Carrot is full of fruity oils such as lemon, bergamot and buchu. It's a gorgeous scent and beats the refresher scent of last years chick! Now to test out how many moisturising bubbles this one creates. Remind me to keep this one away from little Chester! This ones all mine.

This cute little chap is the Chick Knot Wrap, why not purchase one of the LUSH eggs to wrap up in him. Two gifts in one. He's fairly easy to wrap up, or just ask the staff in store to help. Who wants a how to blog post? I've got a few of these Knot Wraps now, I love them. Your gift will definitely stand out. He fits both sizes of eggs. This little chick retails at £2.95.

Welcome back this little cutie, this year Lush have made him bigger and filled him with two gorgeous Lush Easter goodies. The perfect gift set. He's already wrapped up for you, so no need to worry about getting in a tangle. The Carrot is neatly wrapped up inside the bunny along with a Fluffy Egg. A little Lush fact, the Knot Wraps do in fact help save 11.6 tonnes of waste per year, think of how much rubbish chocolate eggs make? This little guy can be reused again and again. Hoppy Easter retails at £10.95. I'm thinking I'll grab one before they go and use as part of my Lush loving Mum's birthday presents. 

Still stuck with how to package your gifts? Maybe you don't want to pay out for a Knot Wrap, well reuse a gift bag or gift box. We keep a stack of them in our house. Pair with a few little chocolates and throw in some packaging that comes with your online orders and your finished. I personally hate getting Chocolate eggs for Easter, I always leave them. 

For £20.90 you could own the whole collection, 1 Hoppy Easter set, 1 Immaculate Eggception, 1 chick knot wrap. 

Another cracking collection from Lush, have you picked up or hinted yet? It's a delicious collection once again full of new and old inventions. What's caught your eye? Do you love the Fluffy Eggs as much as I do? 

Disclaimer: Everything but one Fluffy egg and Chick Knot Wrap was purchased by me. Wrap and Fluffy egg were sent to me.
Items sent for review consideration. No Payment has been received.

Go LUSH Yourself // Rose Jam Bubbleroon

 Hi lovelies, the bubbleroons from LUSH have been around for quite a while now, I thought it was about time I tried my first. The small size of them has always put me off till now. You may of read that the three bubbleroon scents were actually used for Mother's Day this year. They all smell delicious and who can resist the cute macaroon inspired design. The Rose Jam bubbleroon, bubble bar retails at £3.50. One of the pricier bubble bars, especially for the size. However you still get four uses.

 The scent of this product is incredibly strong, I could smell this over all my LUSH purchases that day and every shop I went into must have smelt amazing when I left. By the name we know it's going to smell of rose, however it's not a strong rose scent, the lemon in this bubble bar brings out the sweetness. I personally wouldn't use this if it was a strong rose scent. It actually shares the same scent as Ro's Argan Body Conditioner.

 This bubble bar is packed with Shea butter and coconut oil, so be prepared for a lot of creamy, moisturising bubbles. My skin felt great after a long soak with this product. I didn't bother using any body butter after this. I could smell this scent the next morning. The scent really sticks. It's one of LUSH's strongest! And I only used 1/4.

 As you can see just a small piece of this bubble bar produces a lot of bubbles, I've really got the knack for using them after 6+ years. The whole bath was relaxing. The water was dull though, I hoped for pink water, but it just went a creamy white again. The results make up for it. Sex bomb would go nicely with this one and add colour to you water. I'll continue to buy the bubbleroons, they really are worth the price. So moisturising and strong scented. It didn't effect my sensitive skin at all.

 Have you used this bubble bar yet? What did you think? Or have you used any of the other Bubbleroons or Mother's Day wands?

Disclaimer: I purchased this myself.

Weekly Haul // Is summer here!?

 Hi lovelies, here's a few items I picked up on today's little outing. So many people were out and about when I got there. However the shops were fairly quiet. I guess everyone preferred the mud covered 'beaches' of Somerset. I haven't been in Internacionale in a good year or more. And I'm surprised at how great it was, I wanted the whole store, where as in Topshop I wanted zilch.

Lilac sheer shirt - £7.99 - Teen section - Age 14.

Off white sheer shirt - £12.99 - Teen section - Age 14.

Camel hot pants - £12.99 - Size 6 - Cut generously, little loose, you could go down a size. Lots of other colours I wanted, but out of my size!

My gap order arrived and I haven't featured them yet. I love Gap legging jeans. Seriously the best jean jeggings you can get. I've never had a problem with them, I have about 6 pairs now, in various shades. Every pair is the same size. A 25W, 32L fits me perfectly. If you have longer legs, they do, do 34L. They're worth a try as these two were on sale for some reason! The blue were £19.99, which is crazy! I usually pick them up when they're half price, around £30. The grey/shimmers, which I thought would be different were £14.99.

To end the No7 vouchers, a fake tan. Since when did No7 do tans? I guess my stores are a little smaller. This was £4.50 with the voucher and is a nice change to try out a gradual tanner. I thought I had another voucher, sadly it was gone. Never mind. 

Lastly, with the sunny weather and snow white legs I need more of an instant tan for my legs, St Moriz, but in lotion form. I love the mousse formula's, so fingers crossed I like the lotion. For £3, you can't complain.

What have you purchased lately?

Batiste // Dark and Deep Brown Review

Batiste has always been my go to dry shampoo, I've tried higher end brands as well as cheaper alternatives over the years and none have compared to Batiste. The tinted Batiste's have always caught my eye, however with only 3 colour options, I've always left it as I have Auburn hair. Over the years my hair has continued to darken, especially away in the sun and now I've grown to like my hair. Recently I've been testing out Batiste, a hint of colour Dark & Deep Brown.

You can find Batiste in any local Boots, Superdrugs, Supermarkets and online.

I had visions of my hair having dark brown/black marks all over my roots when using this, however I was wrong. This shade really does suit my hair, no more panicking if I've got any white powder left in my hair. Coloured Batiste ends all worries, well for me anyway. 

As we all know washing our hair every day isn't actually good for it and a lot of hassle. I tend to wash my hair, miss a day and wash the next evening. My hair is pretty thick and getting long so washing, drying and styling in the morning is a no, no. This is where I always use Batiste. When I do use batiste, my hair does need a little pick me & refresh, but it's not overly oily, I'm blessed that way. Using dry shampoo puts me at ease, makes my hair smell nice, especially this can and gives me extra volume. The scent has had a lot of compliments.

When I first sprayed this Batiste on my hand it came out an ashy grey colour, however on my hair I wouldn't say it appears grey, it blends in well especially once worked through. Those of you with darker brown hair may prefer if this Batiste did come out a little more pigmented. But for me it works fantastic. 

Medium & Brunette is actually marketed for 'Fiery Auburns', though I got on fine with the Dark & Deep Brown, Blonde's aren't left out either, try the Light & Blonde version, could be a life saver for you when it comes to roots. 

I did find when I washed my hair in the bath that I was greeted by grey water marks on the bath, where I'd been resting for my conditioner to work it's magic. It washed out and washed off the bath easily and while feeling not so great this week, I actually went an extra day again and my hair looked like I'd just washed it. I personally think the coloured batiste work better than the original and blush versions I've used in the past. Another great product for banishing oil and adding volume from Batiste.

Disclaimer: This was sent to me to review, however my opinion is 100% honest, I am not paid for any links above. I've always been a fan of Batiste.

GIVEAWAY // Street Princess Review

 Hi lovelies, I was recently contacted by the lovely Naheeda, a fellow blogger and jewellery designer, about hosting a giveaway for all of you. I of course accepted as I love her range of affordable pieces. On Street Princess, Naheeda has a lot of one off pieces, which really appeals to me. There's so many items on there I shall be ordering in the future. I need a clear out first!

You can find Street Princess here.

Naheeda kindly also sent me a couple items for me to review, she was super lovely and made the bracelet extra small because I have tiny wrists. It fits perfectly. Better than any bracelet I've owned.

  Both pieces are beautiful and the quality is amazing. I noticed the coin charm bracelet when she tweeted a photo of it. I loved it. It's so simple.  As I said above, she made it smaller for me and fits great. It's received a lot of compliments in the last two days and I've sent them her way. I'll be wearing this a lot in the summer. It's super light, I hate heavy bracelets around my small wrists. This retails at £8.

The second item I received was the lovely Silver wing crown necklace, this really caught my eye on the site. It comes in antique gold or antique silver. I much prefer items in silver for summer. Is anyone else like that? I love the 3 red stones on the crown. I can't wait to wear this. It'll be a great finishing touch to many outfits & I love the long chain. This retails at £8.

 Giveaway Time

To win this set below, all you have to do:

Follow my blog on GFC, Bloglovin or Hello Cotton & leave a comment with your favourite items on Street Princess. Leave your email so I can contact you. Failure to follow, answer or leave an email will not allow you to enter. +1

Extras (optional)

Follow Naheeda's Blog +2

Follow On Twitter - @LucyyLouise @Streetprincesss +1 each

Blog about +2

RT any tweets about the giveaway +1

Giveaway closes on the 29th March. Winner will be selected by random.org.
Serial giveaway enters will not be counted. I highly suggest following Naheeda's blog, her and her blog are gorgeous! I will give your details to Naheeda and she will send out the giveaway prize. This is the perfect set for summer.


Now if you aren't feeling lucky or see something else you like I have a discount code for you.
Enter Lucyy15 at the checkout for 15% discount. 

Has anything caught your eye?

Items sent for review consideration. No Payment has been received.

Have a LUSH Mother's Day // The Tulip

 Sunday was another excuse to purchase the latest collection from LUSH as you all know, I couldn't not review this fantastic wand that came in the gift set I purchased my Mum for Mother's Day. She was over the moon with this gift set, so after breakfast cooked by myself, I ran her a bath with The Tulip that retails at £4.95. Needless to say I knew I had to capture the results to show everyone, it exceeded my expectations. Clearly this wand gave more bubbles than the Mum bubble bar wand I reviewed a few days before. The scent is shared with the famous Bubbleroons that I have become addicted too, reviews coming soon.

This one smells like chocolate oranges, the scent of Yuzu and Cocoa Bubbleroon containing grapefruit, bergamot, tonka and cocoa.

The tulip design is also the symbol of International Women's Day, that passed not that long ago. A perfect gift for any Mum or any woman. 

 So although I didn't personally have a bath with this wand, My Mum did and she loved it. She felt so pampered and relaxed after, not too good when you had to wait 1 hour 30 minutes because your family were running 'a little late' to come round for lunch, we both could of fell asleep because the house smelt so delicious.

 You don't get a lot of colour to your bath water, it's mostly creamy white. However it produces a lot of bubbles. I swirled this around in the bath and bubbles appeared as normal. However they kept growing. I swirled for around a minute and also held the wand in the running water, this gave faster bubbles. Before long there was a mountain of bubbles, that lasted most of the bath, when she topped up the water, because she was in there that long, bubbles started to grow again. This is certainly a wand to get your hands on before it goes, it's so moisturising. Though you can buy the Bubbleroon version all year round. Perfect.

Have you tried this yourself? Or were you a lucky Mum who received this?

P.s we had no tags on our wands in this set? Did the gift sets not get given the seed tags to plant?