Luscious Lips

I'm a firm believer that having a good base for make up is essential for making the most of the products you use. Therefore if I'm wearing lipstick or lip gloss I want my lips to be as soft and smooth as possible so that the lip colour lasts and looks good. I've been trying out various lip balms over the past 6 months and I wanted to share my favourites.

First up and one of my more recent purchases is the NUXE Reve de Miel Ultra Nourishing Lip Balm. I love pharmacy skincare brands especially French companies like Vichy, La Roche-Posay, Avene and now NUXE. I had heard a bit about this before I decided to buy it, all of which was very positive. I was running out of my Lush Honey Trap and wanted something similar as an overnight lip balm. According to the NUXE site, this rich lip balm repairs, nourishes, restores suppleness and comforts dry and chapped lips. It contains honey, plant oils, shea butter and grapefruit essence. 

When they say rich, they really mean it. I don't wear this during the day as I think it's too rich to wear under a lip colour unless you rub it between your fingers to melt it a bit and a little goes a long way! Also the packaging which is so beautiful, is made of glass so I wouldn't want to risk dropping it when I'm out and breaking it. I keep it on my bedside locker and put it on before I go to bed.  It smells really good, it has a nice subtle fruity scent because of the grapefruit oil but I think it smells kind of orangey too. 

For 15g of product I really think it's worth it because you don't need lots to coat your lips because it's so rich. It's matte too which is great for when I wear matte lipsticks as glossy balms tend to make the lipstick go all over the place unless you really rub it into your lips. I bought this in my local pharmacy for €11.35 and you can buy it online on Feel Unique for €12.35 with free delivery! I definitely want to try out more NUXE products, including the Reve de Miel face cream. 

The second balm I've been loving is the Pomegranate Lip Butter by Korres. I decided to get this thanks to Emma's review. The idea of having a silky buttery lip balm with a tint of colour really appealed to me as a daytime lip balm. It contains shea butter and rice wax and claims to offer deep hydration and softness which I totally agree with. I am happy to wear this by itself all day, it just feels so amazing on my lips and the hint of colour is perfect for those days when I don't want to look too made up and just want to give my lips some hydration.

 I opted for the Pomegranate as the Mango that I wanted was out of stock on Feel Unique. It was €7.80 when I bought it but I think that was a special offer and it's now available for €9.10 with free shipping. The Pomegranate smells really nice, I definitely want to try out the other scents which are Guava, Quince, Mango, Wild Rose, Plum and Jasmine. The packaging is plastic so it's perfect to keep knocking around in your bag. It's not as good value for money as the NUXE one as it's only 6g of product for €9.10 but to be honest when something works as well as this does it's worth the money to me. 

I've already talked about the Figs and Rouge balms after receiving one in a Glossybox. I fell in love with these balms so I decided to get another scent, the Peppermint and Tea Tree one. I also got this on Feel Unique for €4.54 which is a really great price for 8ml of product which is 2g more than the Korres one and half the price. I love anything mint or tea tree scented so the two together is so nice! This is my quick fix balm because it sinks into the skin so quickly, I put this on if I'm in a hurry and want smooth lips quickly before putting on lipstick. If you want to know more check out my review of the Rambling Rose one. 

The final lip balm I want to talk about is Honey Trap from Lush. I got this back in December along with Celebrate and Snow Fairy which were both seasonal scents and on sale. Honey Trap has been my over night lip balm since December and it has earned it's place as one of my all time favourite lip balms. 

It contains oat milk, almond oil, beeswax, white chocolate, organic extra virgin olive oil, shea butter, honey etc. So it has lots of ingredients that all sound lovely (white chocolate!). All of these ingredients help to calm, soothe and smooth the lips and it smells just incredible! I found this balm very rich and hard to work with when I first started using it so I got a knife and broke it all up to make it softer and easier to use. It retails for about €6.50 and for that you get 10g of product. Both of these Christmas Limited Edition Lip Tints smell incredible! I'm a big fan of anything that smells, feels, looks and does good so these lip tints are perfect for me! I took some photos of them on my lips so you can see the kind of colour pay off you get.

Celebrate

Snow Fairy

So what's your favourite lip balm? Are their any that you swear by? Have you got any recommendations for me?

I hope you're all doing well!

PS. The winner of my Wild Curls Mascara Giveaway is Kelly-Marie! Please check out her blog if you have the time, she is such a beautiful person inside and out and I adore her style! 

Emma x

May Glossybox/ April Review

So I got two Glossyboxes this month, my April one arrived on the 10th and my May one arrived on the 24th, just two weeks apart. I was much more impressed with the delivery time with May's box as it arrived the day after it was dispatched. I think that's the way they need to do things in future.

May's box was the one year anniversary one and so I was expecting something a bit special. Here's what I got;

I was a little disappointed what with it being the anniversary box, they sent out a balloon to blow up (I have no idea why they thought we'd want a balloon, maybe for those with children?) and a compact mirror with the Glossybox name and logo on it which was a nice touch, even though I already have one that I carry around in my bag all the time, they always seem to break so I'll definitely use it at some stage.

This time there was only one full size product as opposed to last month when we got four full sized products. This was a pair of false eyelashes by Eldora and although I do wear false eyelashes from time to time, these ones are so huge and I would never feel comfortable wearing them.

I also got a sample sized shower gel by Noble Isle, a Clarifying Face Mask (for acne prone skin, which I don't have) by Murad, an All in One Hair Treatment spray by Uniqone and two half full perfume samples of Lolita Lempicka perfume.

I won't tell you what I think about the products until next month so that I have time to try them out but I wanted to go over the value of this month's box in comparison to last month's one. I did some calculations and altogether this box was worth approximately £25 / €31 / $39. That's including the perfume samples which considering they were half full, I combined and included as one perfume sample which I valued at 52p. But to be honest, I though it was a bit cheeky including a couple of perfume sample that are the same size as ones you'd get free from a make up counter. The most valuable thing in the box was the Murad Face Mask which contains £14 worth of product.

So it was worth £10 /€12 /$17 less than the April box. However that included eyelashes that I won't wear, perfume that I didn't like and a face mask for the opposite skin type to mine. So to me it was really worth a lot less.

That being said I've decided I'll keep up my subscription for at least six months and see how I feel after that.



Read on for my reviews of last month's products.

I really like this Ayuuri Natural Body wash. I don't love it but I like it. It contains Indian Rose to hydrate, dry, mature or sensitive skin, Jasmine to calm the body and mind and is good for sensitive and dry skin, Aloe Vera which is soothing, calming and cooling. Ayuuri are against animal testing and the products are paraben free, which I think is great. The body wash has a floral rose scent which might not be everyone's cup of tea but I liked it, it also lather's up easily and feels very moisturising. I like the packaging too, it's easy to use in the shower. 

This is available from the Ayuuri website for £4.95 and seems to be widely available in different supermarkets and pharmacies across the UK. I personally wouldn't order this online as it's too much hassle with shipping charges and all that, but I would buy it if they started selling it in Boots or a local pharmacy as it's a lovely product and is reasonably priced. 

I absolutely LOVE this hand cream from Yes! Nurse. It's £5.49 for a 50ml tube on their site or you can buy a monthly or bi-monthly subscription for £4.99 or as low as £3.63 when you refer a friend. It contains Active Manuka Honey, Pomegranate Seed Oil, Aloe Vera, Wheat Germ Oil, Passion Fruit Seed Oil, Sweet Almond Oil and White Willow Bark Extract. It also contains Vitamins E and B5 and Omega 3, 6 and 9!  So basically it's a party for your hands and smells lovely too! 

What I really love about this is that because it's been developed for busy nurses who wash their hands constantly, it has a really nutrient rich formula as you can see from the ingredients above, but it sinks into your skin so quickly and isn't greasy at all so you can put it on and just go about your business not having to wait for it to dry into your skin. I love this and I'll definitely be repurchasing it!

I've been hearing a lot about Caudalie products over the past year, in particular their Beauty Elixir which I've been dying to try out.  I've been wearing this serum under my moisturiser at night since I got it and for a 10ml sample I've actually gotten quite a few uses out of it. I don't think I would need to use it every day, maybe two or three times a week or if my skin was feeling particularly dehydrated. I definitely noticed a difference to my skin after leaving it on at night, the following morning it felt more hydrated and bouncier if that makes sense! 

It retails for £29 and that's for a 30ml size, according to the Glossybox info card. I actually couldn't find the size of it on the Caudalie site. I would definitely repurchase this and use it only when I felt I really needed it to hydrate my skin as it's quite expensive for me, although in comparison to other serums I've looked at, it's quite inexpensive!

This lip liner is the only product from the April Glossybox that I haven't been using almost everyday. In fact I only used it once as it's not a good colour for me. However after reading up on INIKA as a company I was really impressed. Here's the story if you want to read it yourself but basically it's an all natural cosmetics brand incorporating organic and vegan products and free from synthetic chemicals and harmful ingredients.

I'm very impressed with the company and hope to find more retailers stocking their products soon as for now they are available to buy in AU$ from the site and from about 5 stockists worldwide. If you are vegan or in anyway worried about the chemicals in cosmetics, this is the brand for you. I tried the pencil on my lips just to test it out even though I won't wear it. The pigmentation is amazing and it has a smooth texture that doesn't seem like it will smudge too easily. I'll give the pencil to my mam as she wears this colour and see what she thinks.  

Last but not least is the Figs and Rouge Balm. What I really like about this balm is that it is 100% pure, natural and organic and they don't test on animals. This Rambling Rose Balm contains organic sunflower seed oil, organic shea butter, organics beeswax, organic rose geranium oil and organic geranium oil. Other scents include Sweet Geranium, Peppermint and Tea Tree, Pomegranate, Aloe and Mint, Wild Cherry and Coco Vanilla. 

I love the scent and texture of this it just melts into your lips and it's so smooth. I can't recommend this highly enough! There's also a great section on their website that gives you lots of tips on how to use the balm. It's such a great all in one product that you can use on your lips, body, hands etc. It retails at about €5 depending on where you buy it. I'll definitely be repurchasing this!

Sorry that this is such a word heavy post, but I want to keep the review with the photos from the new box. Have you signed up for a beauty box? Do you think it's worth the money?

Emma x