Face & Nails of the Day

So today I went for another go with the Mac in Lilyland Pearlmatte shadows, you know, they are sheer, but I think I rather like them. I think they have spring day look written all over them. I teamed with Mac Total Wow on the lips and Lancome Pink Pool Blush Subtile. Sorry about my face. I seem incapabable of posing for nice pics :S It takes so much effort to avoid capturing the glory of my treble chins. Also, I'm trying to Mac colour match myself, this is NC 25 which I think is maybe a bit yellow but looks ok, but I tried NW 20 yesterday and that looked ok too. I can't tell. Also excuse my hair, it's getting cut & coloured on thurs but is at least three weeks overdue...But anyway, here we go.

 I think you can just see the pale green under my lashes here.

 I really like Total Wow lipstick. It's just...nice.

Oh and here are my nails. Remember my Trans Design order a while ago? I got this then and have been avoiding using it because I thought it would make my fingers look redder than they were... actually that's not too bad after all but I don't like it, it just shows any flaws in application to easily, especially untidy lines around the cuticle area and I'm just not keen. I give you Essie Mint Candy Apple.

Announcing My Giveaway Winner!!!

Last night I finally finished sorting through all the entries and putting them into random.org and I'm pleased to tell you I now have winner for these lovely goodies!

 

So without further ado:

 By my reckoning that's you Leanne at Do Not Refreeze. Congratulations! Drop me an email at charlie@spoonwizard.com with your address and don't forget to let me know if you want the optional prize.

Thank you everyone who entered, it's been really nice to find some fab new bloggers to follow.

Forthcoming Reviews & Great Opportunity

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to be approached by the PR department of Liz Earle and asked if I'd like to try out some of their products, of course I said yes and a few days later a fabulous parcel arrived. (take note of the exceptional packaging Lush!)

For me to try were the following:

Cleanse & Polish Hot Cloth Starter Set

Instant Boost Skin Tonic

Skin Repair Moisturiser - Normal/Combination

Eyebright Soothing Eye Lotion

Daily Eye Repair

Brightening Treatment Mask Starter Set

Superskin Body Cream

Sample of the Botanical Essence Eau de Parfum

When I received this very generous parcel I was still testing the Boots Protect & Prevent and then I got a stinking cold but now I've started using this stuff and I'll start rolling out the reviews.

In addition to the stuff above, I mentioned to the company that I was suffering with some spots and struggle as a 35 year old to treat them without using stuff intended for teenage skin. They were again kind enough to send me a sample of their spot treatment Spot-On. So I'll be reporting on that soon. But now for the exciting bit!

How would you like the chance to ask your skin concern questions to an expert?

Jo Givens is the Treatments Manager for Liz Earle and is very kindly going to do a Q&A for my readers, addressing any questions they might have regarding their skin. Large pores? Acne? Fine Lines? Bacne? If you have any questions at all, now's the time to get free and expert advice. 

A Little Bit About Jo.

Jo originally trained as a make‐up artist, but soon turned her hand to beauty therapy after realizing the wonderful impact that face and body treatments have on people’s wellbeing. She has over 16 years experience in the industry and her passion is a holistic approach to Beauty Therapy.

After gaining hands-on experience in the South West, Jo re‐located to her native North West England, taking up the challenge of her first 'spa set-­‐up’ as Spa Manager at the Duke of Westminster’s prestigious 5-­Star Hotel, The Chester Grosvenor & Grosvenor Spa. Jo took complete ownership of the treatment menu and designed all of the new treatments, training a team of therapists and carrying out treatments for VIPs including the Duchess of Westminster.

Once again, wanting to be more hands-­‐on, Jo moved to New York and worked as Head Therapist at a 5-­Star Small Luxury Hotel of the World, The Emerson Inn & Spa, in The Catskill Mountains. It is here that she further developed her holistic approach to treatments (also training in the world famous La Stone Therapy in NYC) and continued her Reiki studies, which she put to good use as she arrived one month before the 9/11 tragedy. Jo found it so rewarding to be able to really help people who had been affected.

On her return to the UK, Jo worked for the brand Simple, developing new treatments for their flagship spa in Covent Garden.  After two years with Simple, and training with Ben Barnett (who has treated Kylie) for Hydrotherm Massage, she finally found her dream job with Liz Earle Naturally Active Skincare where
she now heads up a team of therapists at their Duke of York flagship store and is currently developing their new body treatments.

Pretty good huh? So please leave your questions in the comments by Sturday 6th March and I will pass them all on to Jo and post the replies as soon as I get them. So please do ask all your questions!

Blog Giveaway Now Closed!

I know I know, the closing date was due to be Tuesday 2nd March but I've had so many entries that need sorting through, and it's going to take me a long time to sort through them. I have a few entries that don't qualify I need to sift through.

I will now announce the winner on the 2nd March and I'd like to thank everyone for entering. I just hope that the winner is a genuine reader and not someone who joined just for the giveaway. I will be checking all the links to blog posts etc and then using random.org to choose the winner. Good luck to you all!

I Won!

I have to do a post to thank the fabulous Lauren over at Lauren Loves

A short while ago she had a competition to win this fab hairdryer for Mothers Day.

It's gorgeous, my Mum will love it and I just wanted to thank both Lauren and http://www.looksgorgeous.com/ who sent the prize. Thank you!


You can read my cheesetastic entry HERE
xx

Hello :)

Hi everyone,

Just a little note to say Hi, I'm back and I missed you all. My Mum has gone and I'm feeling a bit deflated and sad but at least I'll have time to get back to blogging!

I have a couple of exciting posts coming up and unless anyone feels strongly, I shall spare you a post about my Alice Palette, I think we're Aliced out now aren't we?

I'm still too, pretty much lost my voice :(

Anyway, as I say I have a lot of reviews coming over the next few days plus an opportunity for you all to ask a professional questions about any skin/skincare concerns you might have! It's a bit of a coup so watch this space!

Lots of love,

Nooberella's Amazing Giveaway!

Have you checked out Nooberella's blog yet? She has a great sense of humour, beautiful eyes and most importantly she writes a great blog. To thank her followers she's having one of the best giveaways I've seen right HERE


Go and check her out!

Just to let you know...

...I'm unlikely to be online much until thursday afternoon as my mummy is coming to stay for a few days. So I'll be back on Thursday, hopefully with some good things to blog about and an exciting event to tell you about!

Urgh Illness. Lush Skin Nanny Review.

I'm ill. I'm snottery, sorry for myself, congested mess. In the olden days, Id be in bed with crap tv and a book but I have kids, if I go to bed, who looks after the kids? I look diabolical, not only do I look ill but I'm still recovering from the Great Bourjois Disaster of 2010. So taking photos of my face for a blog entry... never gonna happen.

I was searching around wondering what I could write about and I suddenly realised I have a wonder product right under my nose, quite literally!

Lush Skin Nanny Moisturiser. I know I know, another Lush review from the self proclaimed Lush hater, but bear with me!

So what is it? Lush say:
Skin Nanny is the natural way to protect your skin from wrinkles. If you are going out in the sun and want to look after your skin, you've got to choose a moisturiser with some protection. Skin Nanny has natural AHAs from the fresh apple juice, helping to combat free radicals. It's all part of our holistic approach to keeping your skin bright by using the whole fruit. Starflower oil moisturises and hydrates your skin. Skin Nanny's C and E vitamins come naturally with almond and hibiscus oils to penetrate your skin and smooth wrinkles. All in all, we are delighted to have Skin Nanny taking care of our faces. SPF 30 High.
It's not cheap at £25.50.

It's a very thick cream, almost like a balm, and it smells out of this world, that'll be the Lily infusion and Ylang Ylang probably. Aaaaanyway, I bought this ages ago when I was suffering with some rotten dry skin. And this was wonderful, sorted it out quick as a flash, but it isn't especially quickly absorbed so it wasn't ideal for me as a daily moisturiser, especially with a powder foundation. So it got tucked away and forgotten about. Until I got a cold. As usual I was rubbing and wiping my nose almost constantly and my skin started to get redder and drier so I hunted around for something rich enough to combat it. And boy oh boy does his work. Now every time I get the beginnings of a cold I grab this pot and use it regularly throughout the day on my nose and top lip. I never get redness any more and I never get the flaky dryness.

You might think it's excessively expensive for a sort of cold treatment, but I have a child at nursery, the house is always full illness so it gets used more than you might imagine, plus I use it for any other dry skin issues that might ocassionally crop up. But if you don't wear foundation every day, this really is a beautiful cream with no mineral oils or crap and a gorgeous perfume it also has SPF. It's a shame its too heavy for me for every day use but I do love it and its nothing short of a miracle for "cold nose".

Boots No7 Protect & Prevent Review

On a quest to miniminze and prevent my fine lines, four weeks ago I bought the Boots No7 Protect & Prevent Intense Beauty Serum, Day Moisturiser and Night Moisturiser. You can find my original post HERE

 I had high hopes for this stuff as the reviews all over the net are positively glowing. So lets look at the products.

The Intense Beauty Serum was £19.75 and makes some very bold claims. Such as:

No7 Protect & Perfect Intense Beauty Serum 30ml is proven to restore skin’s structure and appearance. Independently proven to restore the skin’s structure, visibly improving deep lines and wrinkles by up to 50% with regular use. The first product proven to restore the skin's structure with prolonged use. So effective that other people can see a significant visible improvement in your deep lines and wrinkles.
Immediately improving skin’s radiance after the first application, this rich, velvety, No7 Intense anti-ageing serum glides onto the skin.
After 4 weeks, the appearance of lines and wrinkles is reduced by up to 50%.

It seemed only fair to test it for four weeks to see if lines and wrinkles were reduced by anything, never mind 50%.

The day cream was £19.50 and also makes bold claims:

No7 Protect & Perfect Day Cream works to improve the resilience of your skin to the ageing effects of the sun and pollution, smoothing fine lines to leave your skin with a healthy renewed radiance.

The night cream was £20.50 claims:

Protect & Perfect Night works to help your skin recover from the day and smoothes fine lines leaving skin with a healthy renewed radiance.A rich formulation which contains our patent pending next generation antioxidant complex, to protect against damaging effects of free radicals. Includes a skin-firming complex containing lipo-peptides to boost and maintain elasticity.

So four weeks on what I do think? Well I think it's best to let the photos speak for themselves. The before pics are on the top and the pics taken today are below. I used the serum twice daily and the day and night cream once a day along with my normal cleansing routine.

So there you go. See 50% improvement? no? oh well, do you see any improvement at all? no? Me either.

Obviously I can only comment on visible changes, there are none, radiance? no, not that I can see. I can't comment on the prevention aspects of these products because that can't be measured but not at all impressed.

Let me just spend a moment talking about the moisturisers. They feel quite light, but nothing special, and the smell, smell nice if you like nasty chemically perfumey smells in your moisturisers. I thought it was a bit grim myself. I guess I've learned I prefer my products to smell more natural.

To summarise, very disappointed, I don't have £60 to just throw away on skin care that doesn't do what it's supposed to, but on the positive side, my skin was nicely moisturised and I didn't suffer any adverse effects.

Have a look at the pics, make them large and look carefully, and whilst marvelling at the moustache I didn't know I had, ask yourself, does it do what it says on the tin? I think the pictures are the answer. I do not recommend. Sorry No7.

The End of operation Nail Sort.

On the 29th December 2009 I removed my false nails and decided it was time to sort out my fingers. You can find my first post HERE

My nails were awful. truly awful. Look!

 

So I vowed that with regular filing, OPI Nail Envy and Lush Lemony Flutter I would fix them. And I have. I'm really pleased with them now. In photos, where your eye is drawn to the details you can see there is still more work needed. But now, when I loko at my hands I feel pleased and I think they look presentable.

Here they are today:

I think I can probably stop blogging about my progress now. :)

Notes:
Lemony Flutter is great but if I stop using it my cuticles suffer immediately.
OPI Nail Envy, I'm sure it worked and helped strengthen my poor nails, but I stopped using it when I realised it was that causing all my China Glaze application problems. I've had no further issues since I switched to cheapy Boots 17 Strengthening Base Coat.
Yes I know my polish is streaky.

Enchanted Bath Website

Now if you've been following me since the beginning you'll have read my rave about Enchanted products and if you didn't then I urge you to read it now. HERE

I love this stuff but it wasn't especially easy to get hold of.  I'm really pleased to tell you that as of yesterday Sarah has her website up and running at www.enchantedbath.co.uk/

I've not a lot to add to my initial raving reviews, except to say there's a scent for everyone whether its fruity, foodie, spicy. I'm going for Banana Drama and Jacob from the Twilight collection (warm and mildly spicy - beautiful aromatic spices blended with black peppercorns, ginger, cinnamon and a woody amber base).

The other thing to add is the bath cremes can be used for shaving, at the time of my review I hadn't tried this but I have since. It didn't work too well for my armpits, the shave was nice and smooth but my armpits were quite irritated the next day but it was fabulous on my legs. Highly recommended.

I suffer with keratosis pilaris on my upper arms (tiny lumps and bumps) and they've never been so smooth. So give her a try, the products not only smell fabulous but they work!        

Yes. Another Lush Lip scrub review. With a difference.

Ok, I know we've all seen millions of reviews about this product. I personally have seen quite a few negative reviews and almost all of them have had a bad experience because they've not used it properly. I thought it might be helpful to do a sort of how to post. Now, I'll say from the off that I really do like this product, it leaves my lips flake free and soft, but I do have reservations but I'll go into that later.

The cost. It's £4.99. I don't think thats much tbh. It lasts a really long time.

Opening for the first time. It will no doubt have sugar around the rim. Run your finger all around the outside of the pot and clean it all off. Then use whats on your finger. Thats the outside of the pot cleaed up. Next time you use it, squish it all down in the pot firmly and that should sort any overflow/mess.

Using the stuff. Don't scoop. you don't need to. I've seen reviews where people are complaing that it drops off their lips and fingers. I saw a review which featured a picture of lips covered in the stuff (way way way too much). General complaints about messiness and so on. So to use, simply press your finger firmly on to the top of the product. What sticks to your finger is more than enough. I promise. Like this:

Thats it. That's enough for one lip.  It's firmly stuck to my finger, no mess. Scrub it in and repeat for the other. Lick off whats left. And thats where I have reservations. I've seen people complaining about how repeating it several times a day would be bad for their teeth and diet. Once or twice a day should be adequate. However, what I'm totally not getting is the licking off bit. I've always though licking your lips wasn't good advice since it's drying. Maybe that's just an old wives tale I don't know, but licking your lips doesn't seem the best idea for dry lips. I'll carry on using this because I do like it, but I doubt I'll buy again since I think licking it off aggravates flakiness....clever trick Lush! Ooh my lips are so flaky better buy some more scrub!

Totally unrelated but look at these beauties:

Thank you Graham.xx

On a cheerier note...

... some of you have already seen it but here's my new bag :)

Its a bit on the big side which I'm not used to but thats ok, I need to lug baby stuff around with me wherever I go so big bag needed!

Valentines. A Rant.

All the bitterness surrounding valentines day really really cheeses me off. I don't mind people not doing anything on valentines day, thats fine and personal, its the bitterness about it all that gets to me

A) valentines day is nothing new and f all to do with Hallmark

B) if you don't want to join mass consumerism don't buy cheap tat and cards from Clinton Cards, be a bit more inventive with your gifts

C) of course love and romance is something that shouldn't take place simply on one day of the year but as far as I'm concerned any excuse to grab a nice meal out with my husband is gratefully received or do something extra nice together or for each other is great

D) romantic gestures should of course be year round, but for many people romance IS lacking from their daily life, work, lack of finances, children, lack of child care, tiredness, mundane hundrum of daily life all get in the way for many people, its just a fact. So its nice to be prompted, to be given an occasion to remind you that there is more to life sometimes. You may well be the kind of person enjoying romantic meals regularly throughout the year and exchanging romantic gifts and gestures, and thats fabulous and you're role models for all of us I'm sure, but its not the case for many people for whom real life gets in the way and romance takes a back seat

E) I don't remember ever being bitter about it when I was single, I don't understand why you would be? I was single most of my adult life until I met my husband at 28, if my single mates were about we got together, if they weren't I stayed in, I certainly wasn't sat at home spitting and crying into my ready meal for one.

From my post you might assume I'm someone who goes all out on Valentines Day to make it special. You'd be wrong, I might get my husband a card, and a pair of silk boxers from the tie rack, we might not do anything, we just try to get a nice meal out sometime around valentines day, usually not on the day because I don't like the set menus that all restaurants only seem to offer on Valentines Day.

I just hate the way, year after year, in real life and on the internet, what is a nice day for many people is pounced upon by a billion killjoys all keen to proclaim how deeply romantic they are all year round and insinuating how stupid people are who do like to partake in it because all they are doing is adding to some kind of mass consumerism.

Yet many of the same fuckers don't have a problem with celebrating the relgious holiday of Christmas, buying cards, presents, wrapping paper and the mass consumerism of that occasion.

Phew, rant over!

OPI Mad as A Hatter Review

This is the second to last polish from my Trans Design order and I've been putting it off because I'm terrified about removing this much glitter. But it's so pretty and it kept calling me so last night I got it out and put it on.


I found it didn't go on terribly easily, nothing to do with OPI but it just seems to be how I roll with glitter polishes, the brushes seem so gloopy and full of glitter it because almost paste-like. It's not a problem, I can work with it.

This polish is without question, completely Mad as a Hatter. In case you didn't know, it's from the OPI Alice in Wonderland collection. It's stunning. It's pretty hard to capture the effect in a photo but I've done my best for you. Also. Look at my nails! Yay!

So here we go:

Now for the close up. You need to see all these colours!

Click on the pic to make it large. Isn't it gorgeous? Now it'd better not chip because I can't face removing it for days. Love this polish.

Bourjois Mineral Matte Foundation Review

I thought I'd do a little review of this. It's a new foundation from Bourjois and after reading Nooberella's review of it Here I had to buy. Check her out if you haven't already!

OK so it comes in a satisfying black shiny screw top pot. Yes. I like the packaging. I also like the novelty aspect of it coming with a tiny kabuki brush you need to use to apply it.

So what they say:

The light mousse texture of the Mineral Matte foundation instantly blends onto skin for a flawless finish, without a mask effect.

Provides more coverage and an incredibly flawless finish, without a mask effect.

The Mineral Matte perfecting brush to apply the mousse foundation. Apply with circular movements for a perfect and natural finish guaranteed.

Lets skin breathe while maintaining its moisture level!

What I say:
First the colours, there were about five shades available in Superdrug and I picked the palest. It looked too yellow in the pot but I went for anyway, this was shade 81. In actual fact it was a fabulous match for my pale skin. I really didn't expect it to be. Impressed.

The foundation itself looks like a little pot of thick mousse which you dab the kabuki into and buff into your face. This works really well, pretty much a flawless coverage, lovely colour match beautiful finish. It really struggled to cover a spot I had on my chin, but it claims to be light coverage so I'll let that slide.

So far so good right? Yes but then it all went wrong.

I have normal skin, prone to hormonal spots once a month but otherwise I tend to have bits of dryness. You wouldn't have thought it. By lunchtime this stuff was sliding all over my face settling in unflattering clumps around my nostrils, in my wrinkles, just yuck.

Next morning I had a new spot. I wasn't too worried because y'know I do get the odd spot from time to time. So I tried the foundation again yesterday. Same again really, looked awesome, applied well, but by lunch...not so much.

I won't be using this again. Here's the kicker though.

I woke up today with a face full of teenage acne. Nice. I'm 35!

Bourjois Mineral Matte Foundation. No thank you you vile product from hell.

If anyone wants it, let me know cos I can't afford to just throw money away like that. £5 inc postage. Which reminds me, don't forget to check my BLOG SALE.

And if you haven't entered my giveaway yet then do so HERE
TTFN

Teeny Tiny Blog Sale

If you're intersted in any of these just leave a comment. First come, first served:

 

L-R:

Elf Pouty Petal Mineral Lipstick, worn twice, £3.50 inc postage

Rimmel Gold Star Lipstick, worn once,  £4 inc postage

Gosh Darling, worn twice, £5 inc postage SWAPPED

MAC Hot Gossip £10 inc postage

Clinique Nude Splurge Lipstick, worn 3 or 4 times, £6 inc postage

MAC nail varnish in Grid. Long disconned, in perfect condition, bout 4mm used. Not sure what to ask for this, dunno if its desirable because it's rare or undesirable because it's old. Make me an offer!

 

Brown Next pretend leather bag, £6 inc postage

Would anyone want to see the expensive leather bag and purse I want to shift?