Liz Earle Superskin Bust Treatment...A Review

I've been breastfeeding for more years than I care to think about and now my time doing it is coming to an end. There are fairly obvious pros and cons to this state of affairs. The pros (when it happens) are that I'll be able to drink again and goodbye saggy nursing bras and hello to not being mauled in the night any more, well not by a baby at least. Cons, well the state of my bust isn't quite what it was. When I got pregnant my bust size increased dramatically and stayed that way for the last four years. Now things are on the wane my size is shrinking and so things are not as um... plump and there is um a bit of sagging and definitely there are some stretch marks. Nice.

Anyway, when I was sent the Superskin Bust Treatment to try out I could have jumped for joy. I've loved all the Superskin products I've tried so far so was looking forward to trying this out. It claims to plump and smooth the skin around your neck and bust along with improving elasticity. It's a blend of all sorts of ingredients, antioxidants, omega-3, Neroli, Borage and green algae amongst other things.

Firstly, it smells absolutely gorgeous. Really rich and I'd say it's reminscent of incense. You warm a couple of pumps in your hands, massage it in, and sweep the remnants on your hands up over your chest and neck once a day. It's £26 for 50ml which isnt as expensive as I thought it was going to be, I think the Superskin scent really smells expensive.

Does it work? Well, yes I think it does. I think my stretch marks have faded and I really feel the skin feels tighter. It hasn't made me any less saggy, but realistically, could any cream do that? But yes, definitely skin seems improved. I've been using for a couple of weeks so perhaps I've not given it long enough and if I get any further changes I will certainly report back. Regardless, I'm pleased with the results and would definitely recommend it. At the very least it feels really nice to be looking after a part of my body that is normally neglected and regularly takes a beating! So thank you Liz Earle for another lovely product.

High Definition Brows!

If nothing else, it's topical for me. I shall spare you the ramble about growing my brows out etc etc but I was recently send the High Definition Brows palette for my perusal. We all know by now how important a well defined brow is and that pencil lines are and should be a thing of the past, with the exception of goths who sometimes have the most fabulous drawn on eyebrows, but if you're not a goth, there's no excuse. A brow finishes your face and frames it, its important and thats why I'm currently growing mine out.

So the HD palette is a palette containing six shades of matt, neutral powders and two double ended brushes, one of which is the sponge applicator we all know to avoid these days, the other of which is a rather precise brush, which I've been using to apply the products.  The shades certainly seem to cater for everyone, from black through to ash blonde, with reddy hues, brown hues and for me the third from the left is the perfect shade. This isn't a small palette either, it's fairly substantial and rather nicely the whole interior of the lid is mirror.

Like me, you might be wondering what exactly you are supposed to do with the shades that aren't right for you, well rather handily, they are all suitable for use as eyeshadows. I've not actually had a play yet so can't tell you how they perform as eyeshadows but for my brows they are pretty fantastic.

While I'm growing out my brows I'm finding that they they to distract from the copious amounts of strays so at a glance my bows are still clearly defined and I'm hoping that once my brows are properly reshaped they will add the extra defnition as my brows are fairly light in colour and I even have some white hairs in there *sad face*

To the left there you can see the third shade in action. They are easy to use and I really like the brush. It retails for the sum of £24.95 and is availale from selected salons or http://www.hd-brows.co.uk/

Is it worth it? Well yes and no, if you like neutral shadows, and matte ones at that then you'll get full use of the palette, but if you just want to define your brows then it's overkill just for one shade. I think I'll probably get some use out of the other shades and I plan to try using one of the darker powders on my brow too, just to see what it looks like. So yes and no is the answer, it does a decent job, I like the brush, there should be a shade for everyone and if there isn't you should be able to blend two shades together to get your shade, and if you fancy the colours on your eyelids too then you're onto a winner.

L'Occitane Fig Tree Leaf Candle & Christmas Gifts

I was recently sent a lovely candle to try out. It's the very lovely Fig Tree Leaf candle from L'Occitane. With a 20 hour burn time and at £12.50 each it's a lovely gift, either for yourself for Christmas or for a stocking filler for someone else. The winter candle selection includes the aforementioned Fig Tree Leaf, Candied Fruit, Winter Forest and Spicy Cinnamon.

Fig Tree Leaf smells beautiful, theres a big hit of coconut in there actually, along with a lovely sweet scent. Having said all that, it doesn't seem to kick out a lot of scent whilst burning. I had it going for a couple of hours the other night and I couldn't detect a huge amount of scent which was disappointing, not even when I left the room and came back in. I could smell it for sure but it wasn't as powerful as I had hoped. I don't mind really, candles are lovely to have anyway, especially when in such nice tins.

Speaking of L'Occitane, they have some nice gifts out for Christmas and in particular I'm particularly liking the look of the Shower Gel Quatro Collection from the Petit Provençal Gifts collection which includes Cherry Blossom Shower Gel, Peony Shower Gel, Fleur Cherie Bath & Shower Gel and Rose 4 Reins Shower Gel for £20 (all 75ml bottles).

Take a look at the Gifts section of the L'Occitane site for some great gift ideas.

My Fyrinnae Order, Swatches & EotD. Pic Heavy!

After what seems like an eternity my Fyrinnae order arrived today. It didn't take an eternity at all. It's just a case of a watched kettle type situation. Anyway, it arrived, very well packaged and I particularly liked the skull and crossbones tissue paper! I realise now looking at my samples that if I didn't already, I now own enough eye colours to last me all of my lifetime and probably both of my daughters lifetimes.

Averaging $2 per sample, there's enough there to keep me going for a long long time. I grabbed a big selection of shades, although I notice looking through them, most are neutral ish shades, browns, greys and so forth. Nearly all of them are very sparkly and I bought several of the arcane magic shadows which are duochromes. So pretty. So if you're ready I'm going to take you through looking at close ups and swatches of all the shades I got. All are swatched on bare skin unless otherwise stated. The little black pot is a sample of Pixie Epoxy.

First up Boy Toy, Catrina Caberet, Atomic Afterglow, Calavera Cupcakes, Dinosaur Plushie, Rapunzel Had Extensions and Leshu:

Swatched in the above order:

Atomic Afterglow and Rapunzeld Had Extensions really stands out. I was completely unable to capture the pink in Catrina Caberet but trust me it's there and very pretty.

Next Equality, Sugar Skulls, Madame & Evie's, STFU, Te Amo, Immortality and Half-Elf Hottie:

 And swatches in the same order:

You can't tell from this pic but Immortality is AMAZING, see later for a better look at it, I'm also completely loving Half-Elf Hottie, again you can't really tell but it's cream with pink duo. Very nice. Te Amo is also a stand out.

Next up is Damn Paladins and Fire Opal:

And swatches:

Both of these are stunning but Fire Opal has this lit from within effect that is really stunning.

Also included in my samples were two freebes, in Ravens &Writing Desks and Leif:

I wouldn't have chosen either of these, particularly the green, but I'm game!

So thats the entire order, really pleased, I wasn't expecting them to swatch so well to be honest, I was expecting to have to use them on top of the Pixie Epoxy to get them to show up but I was pleasantly surprised. And speaking of the Epoxy, I simply had to show you two of my favourites swatched over it. I give you Immortality and Half Elf Hottie over Pixie Epoxy:

Do you see the rainbow coloured sparkle in Immortality? No? What about now?

Gorgeous huh?

I've had a little chance to play and as always, forgive the eyebrows, but I'm staggered how easy it is to create an eye look I've always wanted to be able to do. This is Atomic Afterglow and Rapunzel had extensions over Pixie Epoxy. I love it!

What do you think? Are you tempted by any? If you know a lot about this brand do you have any recommendations for me?

Liz Earle Bliss Vital Oils Body Spray Review

This post is a lesson to us all about reading the labels on things. I was sent this a while ago now to review and I was all set to not give this a great review until I realised I was using it all wrong. I read the name of the product and thought it was scented body spray and that the oils was simply a reference to the fact that it was an aromatherapy product. So giving myself a couple of quick spritzes, putting my clothes on, I was finding I could detect little or not scent. Doh!

In fact this is actually a body oil in a spray form. You spritz it all over and then massage in. When you actually do that, you'll find you can smell it. What an idiot.

Anyway, Bliss, I've already talked about the fragrance in my candles post, but I'll recap here. Floral accents of jasmine and ylang ylang. Rosewood and patchouli calm nerves and banish stress while sandalwood and black pepper soothe and fortify. It smells amazing. It couldnt't be more up my street frankly. Jasmine, patchouli (which it is light on) and sandalwood are amongst my favourite scents, ever. It's not greasy, is quickly absorbed as the base is so light (apricot, borage and passionflower oils). And yes, once you massage it in, all over, you really can smell it, and without meaning to go OTT, it really is blissful.

60mls will set you back £12.50 so it isn't cheap, but some aromatherapy oils don't come cheap and in my humble opinion it's worth it. And whats more, because of the base, a little goes a long way so your £12.50 should last a good while and its very nicely moisturising. Highly recommended.

I'm Loathe to mention it but...

...today you can find me baring my beauty soul and confessing all over at Modesty Brown's Friday Confession. Please don't hate me because I'm a filthy skanky beauty blogger.

Anyway, you can go and see what horrible confessions I had to make by clicking This Link. And If you don't already follow Modesty, then please do because she's one of my favourite bloggers.

FotD Featuring Mac Family Crest Pigment

I decided to have a play with my Mac Family Crest pigment from my latest haul. Nothing fancy, just the one colour on my eyes. I wasn't sure I was going to like it but actually I really do so this one won't be hitting ebay, unlike Moonlight Night which I probably won't ever wear. It really is very pretty.

So um, you've all seen previous posts, you know whats going down with my brows so please forgive me, perhaps I should actually abstain from posting pictures of my eyes whilst going through the horror of growing out my brows?! Anyway, here's a close up of the Family Crest pigment followed by a blurry one which hopefully shows off the sparkles. I applied over Urban Decay Primer Potion and had zero fall out.

It's really gorgeous, dark grey/black with gold sparkles that have multicolour iridescence when the light hits it. It could of course be applied much darker than this, but y'know, I have to go to Tescos and do the nursery run so I try to keep my dark sparkly eyes as subtle as possible whilst still being dark and sparkly. I think I'll be trying this over my Blackground paint pot too.

So anyway, the rest of the face was nothing exciting, Mac Bite of an Apple on my cheeks and Revlon Smoked Peach on my lips, and don't ask what foundation I used, I just grabbed the one closest to me. I think it's Clinique Anti Blemish because I am having one hell of a break out. :(

I am so rubbish at taking pictures of myself, but anyway, you get the drift!

So did you buy this pigment and if so I'd love your suggestions for getting the best from it!

Mavala Heroes Update aka Operation Nail Repair

Do you remember this post? Back at the beginning of October I had to admit my nails were in a terrible state and serious action was needed to get them back to their former glory. Step forward the Mavala Heroes.

So the first product I was sent was Nailactan. It's a moisturising creame you apply every evening and massage into your nail bed which helps to restore elasticity and thus prevent splitting. Easy to use, I just keep it on my bedside table and use it last thing at night. I have forgotten once or twice but you know, I think that doesn't matter. You can use it over your polish, but it is recommended that at least once a week you make sure you apply massage it into bare nails.

Next is Mava-Flex. This is a serum to restore flexibility and improve structure of the nails. For flaking, brittle or splitting nails this addes a boost of hydration. You rub this into bare nails twice a week, again, I've been doing it last thing at night so it has plenty of time to absorb. Also, in more recent weeks I've only been doing this once a week rather than twice. This give you instant results. Put it on, go to sleep, when you wake up in the morning, your nails will be less flaky for sure.  So in conjuction with the daily use of Nailactan you're ensuring plenty of moisture is added to your nails.

Finally, Scientifique. This is something of a cult product. Why? Because it works! The tip of your nail is the bit that gets the worst of any damage suffered. This hardens and strengthens the tip of your nails.And it really does. You paint onto the tip of your nail (and your nail only, it will harden your skin if you get it on your skin), leave for a minute to dry. Then paint as usual. Once your nails are up to strength you can just use a two or three times a month.

So in using all these products you're ensuring your nail bed is nicely hydrated and moisturised whilst reinforcing the fragile tip. I must say the Scientifique is something of a marvel. A few of my nail tips were extremely soft and bendy as a result of all the layers that peeled. Amazingly, I didn't lose them, they stayed firmly on until long enough for me to file down.

I've realised I forgotten to take a comparison photo so I'll have to refer you to yesterday's Konad post to see my healthy strong, growing nails.

Because I've been using these three products together, it's hard for me to break it down and say you must try this one or that one, all I can say is that using the three products together has really worked like a charm for me. Very highly recommended indeed if flaking/peeling/weak nails are a problem for you. Oh and my cuticles have never been better.

Scientifique is a measly £6
Mava-flex is £14.50
Nailactan seems to vary in price but looks to be around the £16 mark.

Konad of the Day!

It's been a while! I dragged out the old Konad kit the other day to have a play, had one failure but I really liked this one. I chose the fishnet design from plate M57. I didn't want it to be obvious though so I chose two similar colours, China Glaze Naughty & Nice and the Red Special Polish. I love the effect!

And under a flash?

I love this, I'm going to work on more Konad designs that are subtle like this. It probably means I need more Special Polish colours...oops!

My Brows. A Ramble.

I've tweezed my brows for many years, as a result they are thin, balding and not at all how I would choose to have them. Actually, they don't look too bad close up:

What I do find though is that they get lost on my face when looking at my face in full:

So I decided that I'd like to have my eyebrows properly shaped by a professional. Of course the problem is I need to let them grow out which means that today I am looking like this (enlarge for the full horror):

Which I am finding mortifying and its taking all my will power not to attack them with the tweezers. Also, is it even worth doing? All that seems to be growing are stray ones I'm sure would be removed anyway. Am I doomed to keep these brows forever? Is it worth carrying on with this horror?

Please tell me what you think I should do and also your own tales  about brows, If I'm going to do this, I can't do it without support!

Happy Blog Birthday to Me!

I just wanted to do a little post to say, wow! Today is the birthday of Lady of the Lane. How time flies when you're having fun.

I will try to steer clear of being cheese-tastic, but I must just say a thank you to everyone who reads and follows along with an apology for sometimes not replying to comments when I should be, I do try but sometimes I intend to go back and reply later and entirely forget.

I really enjoy blogging and hope to have another great year ahead. Thank you all for sticking with me.

Nars Orgasm Revisited....

I dunno if you remember This post? I basically said I didn't know what all the fuss was about, it was alright but I wasn't keen on the conistency of it and although I quite liked it I just didn't understand why it was such a cult item.

Well I needed to come back to this subject. My views haven't changed as such, I still don't absolutely love it, I have far prettier blushers in my (extensive) collection and if asked to recommend a blush, the Orgasm wouldn't immediately spring to mind. But having said that... I realised the other day that I reach for it frequently without even thinking about it. I use it very often indeed.  I even used it for my sisters wedding day which would seem an odd choice on such an important day to use a blusher I'm not fussed about.

So I've had a rethink about it. What do I think about this blush? No, its not my ideal consistency, no, it's not a pretty pink, nor does it have a fancy duochrome, yes it's rather bland, but you know what. Maybe I don't have to love a product to love it!

When I don't know what colour blush to wear I reach for Orgasm for a hint of natural colour, when I don't want anything too pale, or too bright, or too pink, or too tan, I reach for Orgasm. And it turns out that I do this often.

So my lovely little Nars Orgasm, I'm sorry for doubting you. You might not be the showiest of products and you appear so unassuming it's easy to underestimate you, but like a friend you take for granted, I wouldn't know how good you were until you were gone. Thank goodness I wised up and no longer will you be that boring blush but I'm going to appreciate you for what you are from now on, an absolute staple.

PS: Orgasm, don't let this go to your head, I still don't know how you've managed to elevate yourself to cult status. You're good, but you're not that good!