Wahanda's Salon Spy

Here's a few fascinating statistics for you courtesy of wahanda.com... I find things like this really fascinating so wanted to share... do you think that they represent your corner of the country?

• The West Midlands love to tan. There are over 87,000 people, per venue, per square mile opting to be bronzed and beautiful.
• Those in the East of England are the highest spenders on Medi-spas paying an average of £240 per visit, versus Yorkshire where the average spend is just £61.
• Londoners are hair obsessed! There are 5.16 hair salons per square mile (I really find that incredible!!!), which are twice as expensive (average spend £75) than they are in the East, North East and South West of the country (average spend £40).
• Day Spas are more expensive in the North West (£96) than in London (£72), the North East (£36) or anywhere else on the east side of the country.
• The most beauty offerings of all can be found in Yorkshire and Humberside. This Northern county boasts an average of 156 inhabitants per venue, compared with 800 inhabitants per venue in London.

I find that really fascinating, especially the amount of hair salons per square mile in London. The mind boggles!

I've discussed Wahanda before but it's well wroth check if you fancy booking yourself a health, beauty or wellness treatment, there are practitioners, businesses and services nationwide and plenty of great offers if you keep your eyes peeled!

*NOT a sponsored post!*

No7 Poppy King Lip Crayons and Extravagant Volume Mascara

So I showed you the Boots Optician and No7 videos earlier with make up advice for those who wear glasses and advice on choosing frames and now I'm going to show you a couple of the No7 items used in the videos. Namely the Poppy King Lip Crayons and the Extravagant Volume Mascara.

Poppy King is quite simply legendary in lipstick terms and this isn't her first collaboration with No7. The Rain Drops Lip Crayons. Loving the packaging!

There are five lovely shades available, all £11.50 each.

These are sheer, but not too sheer, moisturising and have a sharpener on the end which is really helpful!

Before using them I was a little worried they might be a bit gloopy like a thick lip gloss because one of them had a sort of pulled bit, that looked like sticky product

That's not at all the case though, these are soft, balmy and comfortable but not at all sticky.

The three shades I have are Smiling, Playing and Dancing.

Smiling

Playing

Dancing

All beautiful wearable colours with a fabulous texture.

The other thing I wanted to show you from No7 is the New Extravagant Volume Mascara which is £12.95.

Love this mascara. I was just reading reviews while I was trying to find the price for this post and it seems to have a lot of bad reviews saying it's clumpy and the brush pulls out too much product, that hasn't been my experience at all. I find it defines my lashes perfectly, absolutely doesn't clump at all and stays perfect pretty much all day. I wonder if there has been a bad batch produced or something because reviews seem to veer from one extreme to another.

Love it. Both products highly recommended. Well done No7, I think you're winning me over!

*Disclosure - PR Samples*

Boots Opticians & No7 Glasses Guides

As a wearer of glasses and a cosmetics lover I understand how hard it can be sometimes to marry the two things.

This isn't a sponsored post at all but I was sent a couple of videos over which can really help glasses wearers to choose the best frames and to provide simple step to step advice for applying your cosmetics, including transforming a daytime look to an evening look.

I've had the pleasure of trying a couple of the recommended products and there will be a post up later on about them, but for now, I just thought those videos might be useful to someone somewhere!

Coming later:

Mavala Lemon Cream and more Fushigi Shop Pretties

I couldn't resist making another little Fushigi Shop order when I saw that two new types of nail stickers had been added.  I'm not sure if it's the packaging or the stickers I like most, either way, they are lovely things to get in the post. I'm in danger of fawning so much I sound stalker-ish, so lets just look at the pictures.

And because I love them so much I had to put the Fushigi Botanica stickers on straight away and I chose the gorgeous Mavala Lemon Cream as a base.

So gorgeous.

The Mavala Lemon Cream you can buy from Beauty Bay for a bargain price of £3.50 and of course the nail stickers came from the Fushigi Shop where you'll find a whole host of pretties.

*Disclosure - The Polish was a PR Sample*

YSL Summer 2012 Products

Well, you can see my original post on the YSL Summer Collection here. I received a few bits from the collection but also bought a few so thought I'd show you some swatches and how I put them all together in order to look like this.

I'm kidding of course, I bear absolutely no resemblance whatsoever to this stunning model but hopefully I can show you how a normal person can make some of the products work for them this Summer.

So starting with the Rouge Pur Couture in Rouge Madras (£23.50)*

A truly stunning colour with a gorgeous finish. I love YSL Lipsticks, I'm not sure anyone does them better and this is no exception, its moisturising, comfortable and long wearing. I wouldn't have picked this shade out of the four available in the collection but it would have been error not to have got it!

Then we have the Terre Saharienne Collector Limited Edition Powder in Tanned (£39.00)*

A lovely light bronzer. One of those that is so pretty to look at, it's hard to use. There are three shades, two of which are matte, the third and largest has a light shimmer, it really is subtle on the face though imparting a soft glow rather than shimmer or glitter. In fact I'd had this for a few days before I even noticed the shimmer.  It is very lovely and works very well on my pale colouring. In any pictures of my face in this blog post I am wearing it. It's subtle and lovely.

Swatches of the Terre Saharienne and Rouge Pur Couture.

I bought a few of the eye products for myself. I couldn't resist.  First of all I got the Pure Chromatics Quad in No 7. (£39)

These wet and dry shadows are beautiful shades for Summer, or perhaps even Autumn. I wasn't at all sure they would work for me, but with a light hand they seem to work just fine. I do just love the colours so much especially teamed with the following products.

Dessin Du Regard Waterproof Eyeliner in Azure Blue (£19)

O.M.G. What a liner, what a colour. Intensely pigmented, smudge proof and waterproof. Apply this first thing in the morning and will look freshly applied in the evening, it's stunning. Works on the waterline and lash line, although doesn't last quite as long on the waterline. Swatches below. I must say I also swatched the gold version in store which is AMAZING. If I would have had the money I'd have gone back for the gold liner and the Pure Chromatics Pallet No. 9.

Mascara Volume Effet Faux Cils Waterproof in Majorelle Blue (£23)

Eighties-tastic. I had an Avon mascara like this back in the 80's and I'm totally loving this one! It's vivid, it's blue, it makes my lashes look great and it wears all day with no smudging, even with my watery eyes (thanks a bunch hayfever!).

Swatches of the above eye products.

Please excuse the eyebrows, not managed to get an appointment for ages!

The final item I have to show you is Dore Orfevre La Laque Couture.*

A beautiful molten gold polish that wears extremely well and applies like a dream. I love gold polish...but not on me, so this is a colour I'd recommend to others but not necessarily wear myself...I don't know why, I've just never liked gold polish on me. It's completely non-streaky, it doesn't have a frost finish, it does however show up every flaw in your nail, so if you have ridges, fill them first!

So to finish here are just a few pictures of my complete face.

So I'm pretty happy because I love the colours so much, but the big problem is that when I went into the store I realised that I need the gold liner, the Pure Chromatics No8 palette, the golden gloss in No52 (Golden  Pebble) and at least two more of the lipsticks. Alas, I've spent my Summer make up allowance so I'll have to hope that they're still around at some point in the future.

Anything take your fancy? I think that whats so fab about this collection is that there is something for everything from the shimmery, to the creamy, to the neutral to the vivid. Absolutely gorgeous and out now!

*Items marked with a * were provided to me free of charge for review purposes*

Things You Should have for Summer

It does seem a bit daft to be doing this post when the weather is so diabolical but you know, not only are the products suitable for the hot sunny weather, but you could just use them to get you in the Summer mood when its wet outside.

Starting with this beauty. My new love.

Givenchy Prisme Again in Happy Sun. I was gifted this so I don't really know how much it costs, but its a beautiful product. Soft and buttery and sheer. Not a hint of orange, just healthy subtle bronze glow. I've been completely unable to find this online anywhere other than Ebay, the ones on Ebay aren't the Union Jack version but are also gorgeous... it does however go without saying to be wary and keep your wits about you so you don't end up with a fake. I'll be trying Givenchy more in future that's for sure. Perfect for us pale skinned ladies.

The next item is something I was sent a press release for the other day.

The Weleda Summer Travel Kit. I have never tried Weleda, I've not tried anything in the kit but I've heard nothing but good things about the range and whilst this kit isn't on my wishlist purely because I'm not going on holiday, if I was going on holiday I'd definitely buy this! Fir £29.99 this is all you need. Actually, I've just read in the press release it's suitable for a UK holiday and I don't need much of an excuse so maybe I will treat myself. So what we've got in there is a 20ml Citrus Creamy Body Wash, a 30ml Citrus Deodorant and 10ml of Citrus Refreshing Body Oil. Then there's 30ml of Combudoron Spray for the relief of insect bites, 25ml Melissa Comp Drops to elieve nausea, stomach upset and occasional diarrhoea, perfect for over indulgence, travel sickness or a minor tummy upset and finally there's 20ml of Rhiondoron Nasal Spray with Aloe Vera for clearing and moisturising the nasal passages, perfect for dry air and high pollen counts. It really does sound like a great kit.

So if you put that together with the next kit and aside from your facial skin care and make up you'll be all set for your holiday.

The label.m Mini Airliner*. The deal is that for £12.99 you can choose any 4 label.m favourites in mini sizes which all go into the zipped pouch. You choose one Cleanse product, one Condition product and any two Create and Complete products. my kit contains the Daily Moisturising Shampoo, the Daily Shine Conditioner, both absolutely lovely, the Sea Salt Spray for your beachy waves and the Dry Shampoo which does a great job! These kits are available  at label.m salons globally and Toni & Guy Salons. You can find your nearest stockist on the label.m website.

Then there's my new favourite deodorant.

Dove Natural Touch Dead Sea Minerals*. I have the roll on which is £2.19 but there's also an aerosol which is £3.39 or £2.49 depending on which size you like. I didn't think I liked roll on deodorants and have used the stick type of deodorants for years and years... it was a surprise to find I liked this one. It has a very strong scent which is absolutely lovely, but it does fade which is good news for those who don't like their deodorants to be strongly scented. It keeps me dry all day and it smells nice. That's all I need from a deodorant and this fits the bill well!

My final suggestion is this beauty. The Melvita Gradual Self-Tanning Moisturising Gel-Cream* £20

If you don't like the sun's rays on your skin but don't like being a pale skinned beauty, but also don't want to do the full on fake tan thing in order to be a bronzed goddess, this could be the product for you. It creates a natural looking light tan which is relatively streak free, for some reason I seem to be able to get at least one streak with every tan product I try and this is no exception, but I must say to have only one little streak is virtually unheard of for me, I usually just end up one big streaky mess whereas this is pretty much great. it contains no DHA at all which is the usual active agent in tanners and instead contains Erythrulose which is derived from sugar cane. Thisdevelops over a few hours and one application works well enough all though I do need more to build up the colour. One application takes the tinge off my blueness. It's really moisturising but even better, although it claims to be vanilla scented, to me it smells just like fudge yoghurt! Nom!

So there we have it, my top picks for your holidays. Some of them I've tried, some of them I haven't some were PR samples and some weren't, all are fab...trust me when I say I've not included some items that definitely didn't make it to my top holiday picks list!

*Items marked with a * were provided to me free of charge as PR samples*

Things I Changed My Mind About Part 1.

As a blogger, I try to not review my products until I've given them a really good trial, but sometimes with the best intentions I blog about a product and then later change my mind. I might start off disliking something only to discover a couple of months down the line I actually rather like it, or I might start off liking something only to find over time it rapidly falls out of favour.

So here's a blog post updating you on a couple of those things I changed my mind about.

Chanel Poudre Universelle Libre. I first blogged about this here and I loved it.

I don't know what I was thinking. I loathe this. It's unfortunate there's so bloody much of it because I'm having to really force myself to finish it. I find it looks powdery and although it does indeed keep me shine free all day, for me personally, it's nowhere near worth the money I spent on it, it has almost a chalky feel. Talk about seeing things through rose tinted glasses!

Probably my most famous about turn... Nars Orgasm blusher. I first wrote about it here.

Over time though, I changed my mind, it became the blush I reached for whenever I didn't know which blush to wear....which is often. So I had to do another post about how it had become invaluable, you can find that post here.

I've got a few more to share with you, but I'll do a part 2 at some point in the not too distant future!