Glossybox | May 2013 Birthday Edition

Installment #2 of my 3 month Glossybox Subscription landed on my door mat today (or should I say into the hands of my mother in law as I wasn't in to get it). It's another special one this month because Glossybox are 2 years old! Can't believe its been that long since they set up, they set up roughly the same time as I started blogging back in 2011... time obviously flies when you're having fun. I had high hopes for this months box, the packaging hasn't disappointed, it's the signature pale pink box but with some funky tissue paper and a neon pink ribbon around it.

This months box contains 6 little treats, as always a mixture of full size and sample size, skincare, perfume and other make-up bits. I have literally only looked at one Glossybox this month so it was more of a surprise when I opened mine.

May 2013 Glossybox Contents

Glossybox Mini Nail Files

A cute little additive, these are perfect to put in your hand bag especially for someone like me who never remembers to put a nail file in!

Givenchy Dahlia Noir L'eau eau de toilette sample (full size £60 for 90ml)

Quite a high end perfume, not something I'd take a second look in a store at and to be honest it's not my kind of scent, it's a bit old for me to be honest but I think it could be down to personal preference; I'm not into fresh scents I much prefer musky ones. However, as perfume samples go this is a pretty decent sized one and I'm thinking I might give it to one of my family members who prefers scents like this.

My Trusty Little Sunflower Cream FULL SIZE £6.99

This is a face/neck cream used in Salisbury District Hospital for burns victims/post plastic surgery patients and isn't something I'll be applying to my face in a hurry. It's very hydrating and I would imagine it'd be too much for the skin on my face however I will definitely be using it on my body because it smells really nice.

Beautiful Movements Cosmetics Prime and Create Mixing Medium 2.5g sample (full size 20g £20)

Bit underwhelmed by this, I seem to remember getting BM beauty samples in boxes before and I really hate it when brands are repeated, the whole point of these boxes is to discover new brands. Having said that this does sound like quite an interesting little product; it's a multi-tasking aloe vera based gel which can be used to make cream foundation, blusher, eyeshadow etc. 

Caudalie Divine Oil  FULL SIZE £4.05

Another multi-tasker, I already have a full bottle of this and it's quite nice, it can be used all over the body, face and hair. I usually just use it for my hair in place of Moroccanoil which is a sight more expensive. If you'd like to see a full review please let me know.

Headline Colors Nail Polish FULL SIZE £9

This is in my absolute favourite nail polish colour; nude beige. Cannot actually wait to use this, the bottle is rubbish though I think I'm going to have to run it under the hot tap to loosen the lid as I've yet to get it open!!

This months box value is around £25, not the best value I've ever seen but not bad. It's a bit of a 'meh' box for me this month to be honest and I have to admit I expected better from a birthday box but you have to ask the question, what can you expect for £10 per month? I don't think I'll find a Holy Grail product in this box but nevertheless I always enjoy trying new things and of course having a new Glossybox to use for storage!

If you fancy subscribing to Glossybox, it's £10 plus p&p per month and I have to admit I do look forward to mine every month no matter what the contents... if you love beauty I recommend you at least try it for a month (you can cancel at anytime)

If you'd received this box, what would you think? 

A little bit of Luxury | Music with Marc Jacobs Ear Buds

If you've got an iPhone (or an iPod) like me you'll know that the earphones that come with them are a little boring, functional but nothing special. These Marc Jacobs ear buds have really been spicing up my music lately, not only because they're so beautiful but also because the quality of sound is actually pretty amazing, the buds tend to go a little further into your ear and therefore sit more comfortably than regular earphones which is nice as the normal iPhone ones have a tendency to fall out of my ears.

Marc Jacobs Ear Buds £35 Net-a-Porter*

I'm sure you'll agree that they're probably the cutest earphones ever and considering they're designer I don't think they're over priced and considering a pair of standard Apple Earphones are around £25 it's only £10 more for some girly heart shaped beauties.  

Anyway, I thought I'd take this opportunity to update you on what I've been listening to lately. I was going to include the actual music videos from YouTube but then realised that as soon as you embed them into a blog post it tells you it's restricted content; how irritating! Anyway, Mirrors by Justin Timberlake has really grown on me lately, I hated him with a passion last time around when Sexy Back was the most overplayed song of 2006 but I think Mirrors is a really nice song and the video is quite touching! I absolutely have to include Alphabeat - Fascination which I had forgotten how much I loved until last nights BGT; probably one of the best songs of 2006. Finally, the jukebox in the pub played High by Lighthouse Family today and I fell in love with it all over again, such a beautiful song.

What have been your favourite songs lately?

Body Art | Temporary Tattoos from Skin Art UK

A couple of weeks ago I posted about some Nail Art Tattoos which I had been playing with and mentioned that the same company also did temporary tattoos and I'd love to try them out. I was lucky enough to be send some of their Temporary Tattoos to try this week and I literally couldn't wait to get them opened and played with. I received 3 packs each with lots of different designs in them so I had plenty to choose from and these are going to last me ages!

 Love is Enough, I'm a Dreamer and In your own Words £4.99 each, Skin Art UK*

Love is Enough £4.99 Skin Art UK

 These temporary tattoos are so simple to use, if you ever used temporary tattoos as a kid then these are exactly the same; you cut the appropriate design out, peel the film off, place it on your skin where you want the tattoo and then apply a wet sponge to the area to wet the paper totally... leave that on for a minute or so and your tattoo should have transferred onto your skin! Literally a couple of minutes job.

The first design I tried was a little heart from the Love is Enough pack with a black outline and red colouring. If I was ever going to have a tattoo it would probably be on the underside of my wrist so this seemed like a sensible place to put it. This lasted for around a day because I was working behind the bar and my hands/wrist were working all day getting wet etc. so naturally I knew it was going to rub off quickly but it did actually last the whole day and only came off when I got in the bath and soaked in a bath oil for a while (oil based products actually help to remove the tattoos). It was funny how many people saw the heart during the day and I had at least 3 people ask if I'd had a tattoo so it must have looked realistic to them! 

After the heart had rubbed off Iexperimented a little more with some more of the designs and decided to put something on that I would actually consider having as a real tattoo. The I'm a Dreamer pack contains a couple of little feathers; feathers remind me of Angels and therefore my Auntie who passed away and the In your own Words pack has phrases and single letters so i decided to put one of the feathers on and add a 'K' to it to symbolise 'Karina'. I was pleasantly surprised at how well it actually turned out and the more I look at it the more I love it and I'm seriously considering getting something similar done... it's just the pain factor that really puts me off permanent tattoos.

I'm definitely going to be using these until they're all done because I absolutely love them and they're pain free which is a massive bonus! They're so good especially if you're looking to get a real tattoo because you get a feel for how it would look and whether you could actually live with it for the rest of your life. 

They might seem like a totally daft idea to start with but if you're going out somewhere special or you just fancy doing something a little different. Nobody else needs to know that your tattoo isn't real; these really do look authentic especially in an inconspicuous place that people don't tend to get close up to (obviously when you get really up close you can see the tell-tale shine). 

In each pack you get 3 sheets of different designs so for £4.99 I don't think you can go wrong! You can get them from Boots and the Skin Art UK website.

Are temporary tattoos something you'd consider or do you prefer the real deal?

Blog Awards | Cosmopolitan Blog Awards 2013 - My First Year in 'Established Beauty Blog'

For the last 2 rounds of nominations for the Cosmopolitan Blog awards I've been in the 'New Beauty Blog' section which is for blogs under 18 months old. This year I'm an even smaller fish in an even bigger pond so I need your help more than ever. 

If you are a regular reader and you love my blog please please take a minute to nominate me for a Cosmopolitan Blog Award in the 'Established Beauty Blog' category. It's going to be such a difficult category to even get noticed in especially as I'm up against the likes of Vivianna Does Makeup, London Lipgloss and Etc. llymlrs so your nomination really does count this year. But, I like to think I've built up some loyal readers over the last two years so there's a very slim chance that I could end up at the swanky award ceremony that so many people dream about going to!!

If you'd like to show your love for down to earth beauty then please, please, please nominate me in the 'Established Beauty Blog' section of the 2013 Cosmo Blog Awards

Your Recommendations | Moisturiser - Calling all Combination/Oily Skinned People!

I've almost finished the bottle of Clarins Hydraquench Lotion I bought quite a while ago and I'm in need of a new moisturiser. But I can't do this alone; I'm the worst decision maker in the entire world. Not only that, moisturiser isn't my forte, I have tried lots of cleansers and spot treatments but moisturisers aren't my strong point. I thought i'd call upon your expertise to help me. 

This illustrates how long this has lasted me... since January!

I best give you some pointers as to what I would like from a moisturiser

- My price range is up to £35

- No brand preference, nor do I care if it's high end or high street

- I don't want anything intense, it'll be too much for my skin

- Not keen on gels; they're not enough for my skin

Is that too much to ask? I know a lot of your have holy grail moisturisers so if you have combination skin let me know what you're using in the comments below or tweet me!!

Pamper Me | Champneys Skin Comforting Spa Treatments at Home

Instead of buying me chocolate for Easter, my mum got me a massive set of Champneys Spa Treatments products; the box contained 6 products, 3 of which from the Skin Comforting Range which I'm going to show you today.

I make no secret of the fact that I love a good bath, if baths didn't take so long to run I would definitely have one every single day over having a shower. Products like these make baths extra nice to have because they totally ooze luxury and really help to aid in relaxation whilst making your skin feel and smell amazing! These were my first Champneys products as previously I'd kind of just skimmed over the brand assuming the products weren't really for me, I'd always seen them as a bit of a 'mumsy' brand.

The idea behind Champneys is that you can have the experience of spa quality products in the comfort of your own home for a fraction of the price. Everyone loves a good spa day but for most people they're a rare luxury because they tend to be quite expensive, especially with brand names such as Champneys on the door.

Champneys Skin Comforting Body Butter £10 Boots

Champneys Skin Comforting Bathing Milk £8 Boots

Shower Cream currently unavailable to be separately but can be bought as part of the Champneys Best of Spa Gift Set £10 Boots

The other products which came with the set were from the Citrus range which I don't enjoy so much, the Skin Comforting range is made with loads of skin nourishing ingredients (sweet almond oil, chamomile, wheatgerm, shea, coconut oil, milk) to make the range smell totally gorgeous, it's quite a soft powdery smell which really calms the mind and sooths the senses. I'm a massive lover of bath oils now but for when I don't fancy something as over powering as an essential oil this is perfect. 

I filled the bath up to the top, swirling the bath milk under the running water. The milk really is just that in the sense that it's very thin in consistency; I'm used to creme products for the bath so when it came out so quick I realised I didn't need as much as had actually gone in. But regardless of the consistency it still packs a punch in terms of scent and bubble factor; not the bubbliest bath I've had but it certainly didn't lack bubbles. 

The shower creme is so silky, equally as gorgeous smelling and the scent sticks around on your skin for a good while afterwards. When I've got out of the bath and my skin is still warm I put some body butter on because it melts so easily into the skin and tends to soak in a lot quicker than on normal temperature skin. I feel totally relaxed and moisturised when I've finished with these products, I absolutely love using them as part of some 'me time'.

Have you tried Champneys Before?  

Foundation | Vichy Dermablend Corrective Fluid Foundation

If you're a regular reader of Beauty Butterfly then you'll know of my struggle to find a really good full coverage foundation. I suffer with spots and blemishes quite a lot and when they flare up I need something pretty heavy duty to cover them up as best I can. The main blog I tend to look to for advice and product recommendations is Jemma's (Bamboozle Beauty Blog) because she seems to have similar skin to me and seems to like similar products to me. Vichy Dermablend is one of the most recent foundations she's reviewed and she really raved about it, so I thought I'd give it a go too!

Vichy Dermablend Corrective Foundation £15.50 Boots

Before foundation, bare skin with just Hydraluron & Clarins Hydraquench Moisturiser on. As you can see I have some under skin blemishes and some dry patches.

After application of Vichy Dermablend with a buffing brush, no concealer used.

As you can see the foundation has evened out my skintone and neutralised the redness of the spots. Obviously you can still tell I have blemishes under there somewhere but I'm really pleased with the outcome. What I have found with this foundation is that I don't need to use 2 layers all over my face, just on my cheeks which are the worst affected at the moment. Using two layers where I don't need it can cause it to look cakey. The formula is really quite thick so a little goes a long way and I find that it applies better with a buffing brush than with my fingers, my fingers tend to make it cake around the dry bits of my face which isn't a good look. 

For me, this is long wearing, I can go a full day at work without feeling the need to reapply all over my face, just a little concealer to touch up particularly bad blemishes. I am actually going to try and devise a way to use two different foundations on my face without looking daft because I don't need the Dermablend on my forehead/nose and the coverage looks a bit much for those parts... anyone got any ideas?

Overall I really like this foundation, it's working for me really well at the moment, the only thing I would change ever so slightly is the shade; I think I could do with half a shade lighter because I think a full shade would be too ghostly for me but half a shade would be just right. The shade range isn't extensive and I did buy this blind from the Boots online store (pictured is shade 15 Opal) so that taken into consideration makes me think that this isn't such a bad match after all.

Have you had any experience with Vichy products?