Baylis and Harding is one of favourite brands, I have been using it for a few years now and I have loved every product I have used. My boyfriend (who knows me so well) bought me another set for Christmas and so my mini collection has grown ever more so I thought I would tell you about the products I currently have :)
Here is what my collections includes:
Left to Right
- Moonlight Lavender body wash
- Moonlight Lavender body lotion
- Sweet Mandarin & Grapefruit indulgent moisturising body lotion
Left to Right
- Sweet Mandarin & Grapefruit luxury shower crème x2
- Sweet Mandarin & Grapefruit balancing body wash x2
- Wild Rose & Raspberry Leaf moisturising lotion
- Sweet Mandarin & Grapefruit moisturising lotion
As you can see I have doubles of some of them because I love them so much and I go through bottles quite quick. The consistencies of the lotions are rich and super moisturising and the body washes lather up so much you only need a little bit of product to go a long way. They all smell amazing, I always end up sniffing my skin while I'm on bed after my shower.
These products are perfect gifts for Christmas and birthdays, you cant go wrong with some body products for a present. I hope my collection continues to grow, I might need a bigger box though...
I have been a makeup brush kind of girl for years now ever since I first started getting into makeup (spot my flat top foundation brush), this was the reason I was super hesitant to experiment with the beauty gimmick of the hour, the beauty blender. I didn't believe in the hype and regarded it as a one hit wonder that would be forgotten about soon enough.
Boy was I wrong!
Not only are they still around and kicking, I now own one (not by choice) and am indeed in love with using it! I publicly eat my own words.
I came to own a pink beauty blender thanks to Birchbox which I am actually not subscribed to anymore, but they did get something right with this product. I had it a number of months before I started using it because if I am being honest I just wasn't interested in it.
Until one faithful day when I realised that I had washed my makeup brushes at the wrong time because now I needed to rush out, normally I wouldn't mind going out without makeup on but I was meeting up with a friend and my face was super red. My options were to use my fingers and probably irritate my face more and have streaky foundation or use this little pink ball of sponge.
I opted for the sponge because I am such an adventurous person... and I have been using it every day ever since. I don't use it to blend in my foundation I am still stuck in my ways with my flat top buffing brush, but I do use it every day to blend in my concealor. I find it blends in my concealor amazingly like it is my own skin, it is the perfect shape to blend the product around my eye area and I feel like I use less product now then I did with a brush.
One thing that really put me off using these sponges was cleaning them afterwards, I thought it would be annoying and not very hygienic in general. The first time I washed it I found it was super easy to clean and was much like how I clean my makeup brushes, rub lots of soap into it and hold it under the water and presto, a clean sponge again! I have find that using it for just concealor has left me with no unsightly spots as well so I feel much more at easy with using it.
I think beauty blenders will be a product that are around for years now and to be honest I don't mind that now that I have tried it out for myself. I guess it proves your shouldn't judge a book by its cover, or a sponge by its use...
What do you guys think about the beauty blender? Have you given into the hype?
I recently felt like this yay... for two weeks I had a viral and chest infection and my body went into normal shutdown mode. I was in bed for about 4 days and constantly felt like I was dying.
While I was in bed I drafted this post (which im quite proud of considering I couldn't stand at some moments) to tell you guys what I do when im having a sick day to either make myself feel better or to get through the day without tearing my hair out.
Sleep Loads
and loadssss
Change my bed sheets
may sound odd but when im ill I hate lying in a bed that I was ill in the night before, I feel like I am just lying in my own illness so I have to change my bed.
Take a hot bath
boiling hot in the mornings to wake me up and the evening to make me sleepy
Pamper myself
If I can get out of bed to get them I like to paint my nails, it makes me feel better to have nice shinny new nails and maybe put a face mask on, my skin is always really horrible when I don't feel well so I have to use these to put a bit more love into my skin
Catch up on social media
Bloglovin, twitter, Instagram, pinterest. These keep me sane!
Watch films on the sofa
this time I watched love actually to make me feel better
Read the paper
like a old man I like to read the paper to know what is going on in the world while I'm stuck in bed
Online sale shopping!!! opps..
Make a post about being ill...?
What do you do to make yourself feel better when your not feeling peachy?
I get really bad dry lips ever since I was a teen so I am always on the look out for a great lip product. I previous wrote a post on the lip balms I was using at the time (Battle Of The Lip Balms) and since then I have found what I was looking for.
I know this all sounds very fairy tale like but you would not believe how long I have wanted an all round lip balm that actually worked on my lips! The product in question is the
Body Shop Lip Butter in strawberry.
I picked this up in the Body Shop store in Cambridge for just £4 which is a good price for the quality of the product in my opinion. Although I love this product I don't think it would be everyone's cup of tea.
One of the reasons I love this product is because it has a really thick consistency so there is a lot of product to be absorbed by your lips so I feel it lasts a good time.
One down side to this, some may see it as, is that it comes out as a rich white product on your hands and lips so it wouldn't be ideal to put onto of a lipstick or other lip product. It is absorbed quite easily but it would ruin any product on your lips.
This I don't mind about at all because I tend to use this product first thing in the morning and last thing at night and that lasts me the whole day and night so I have no need to reapply it.
Considering I have used this lip butter every morning and night since I bought it, the pot still has loads of product in so I do feel like it will last me a long time.
This product has become my new lip essential and already has a place in my morning and evening routines, which updated versions might be coming your way soon... I would recommend this product to anyone with severely dry lips who is looking for something rich and moisturising enough to use once a day to set your lips for the day ahead. Plus it smells of strawberries, would could be better!
Cleaning your makeup brushes is an important and sometimes tedious chore you have to do if you love makeup as much as I do and although it is tedious and I usually have a 'oww I really need to clean my brushes today' feel about it, I do love when they are freshly cleaned. There is nothing more satisfying to a beauty lover than having clean makeup brushes to use.
I learned my method of cleaning makeup brushes from various youtubers and bloggers over the years and watching a few videos recently its clear that most people do it in a very similar way to each other but I thought I would share with you my specific method as well.
Top Tip. Never rinse your brushes upside down so that the water runs directly into the brush head. I can't remember who I watched/read that from but its always stuck with me. Apparently if your rinse water into where the brush is glued together, the water can wash away the glue resulting in the hairs of the brush falling out? I don't know if I have remembered that correctly but it was something around those lines. So watch out guys!
Step 1. Pump a small amount of hand wash or other subtle cleaner onto your hand and splash with water to turn it soapy.
Step 2. Twirl the brush head around your palm making sure all sides of the brush have hand wash on them. The wash on your hand should start to become a different colour, usually light brown from your foundations.
Step 3. Bring your palm under the running water and continue to twirl the brush around your palm until the water that runs off your hands is now clear water again.
Step 4. Pat the brush gently onto a towel and make sure that all the excess water is blotted out of the brush.
Step 5. Leave the brush to dry for a few hours before you start using it again.
I don't know what it is about dark lip shades in 2014 but everyone seems to be loving them. I have been a bit late to the partly as I choose to hide away from dark shades, fearing they would make me look gothic but I took the plunge recently and this is my favourite dark colour of the moment.
It is from the Lip Hug range at Revolution, who I feel I am always talking about now but after I went on a big shopping spree on the website and found that I loved all the products I got, it would be silly not to show them to you all.
The shade is call Still Missing My Baby and it is a really nice dark berry/browny colour which actually suits my skin tone really well, well I think so. I find it really easy to wear and have wore it so many times already this December.
The formation of the lip stick is really moisturing and the colour glides on my lips really easily. Like any other lipstick I do have to top it up after a few hours of non stop talking but that I can live with.
I love the packaging of this lipstick, the sleek black case is easy to slot in my bag ready for the day ahead and it does looks prettier than my other lipsticks in my lipstick holder (forgive me maybelline colour burst ...)
These lip hugs are definitely something that I would repurchase in other shades so watch this space!
I haven't always been great at keeping up with posting my monthly favourites, I say that but I have only missed 3 months so I haven't done too bad have I :) Here are some of my favourite makeup products from the year.
Foundation
Rimmel Match Perfection in Ivory
Rimmel Stay Matte Mousse Foundation
Concealer
Collection 2000 in Fair
Rimmel Wake Me Up in Ivory
Blush
Elf Baked Blush
Bronzer
Sleek Contour Kit in Medium
Eyeliner
Elf Mineral Eye Liner
Mascara
Rimmel by Kate
Maybelline Rocket Volum Express
Lip
Mus Power Pout in Crazy in Love
Moisturiser
Simple Oil Balancing Moisturiser
Lip Balm
Babylips!!
All these things I have either gone back to again and again or continuously used until they were empty and I repurchased it again. I am a creature of habit so once I get used to a product and fall in love with it, I tend to always find my way back to it and I have done that with all these products at some point in the year.
I already have products that I have purchased in December and this month that I know will be in my January favourites so I'm already prepared, that's a first!
Today I am talking about a gem I have discovered recently. I remember when I used to go between the same two foundations and I never really pushed the boat out as I liked being in my comfort zone, now look at me, I have a whole section of foundations in my makeup draw which is overfilling!
Anyway around new years myself and my boyfriend took a trip down to Cambridge (my favourite place) for the day, we planed to do a little shopping and then explore the town before our reservation at Jamie's Italian which I highly recommend! Back to the point we ended up spending most of the day in the centre spending lots and lots of money. It was in the centre that I discovered a new makeup shop called Kiko Makeup.
I had never heard of this make before so convinced my boyfriend to have a browse with me. I picked up the Universal Fit foundation in the shade 02 Light Rose as the Ivory shade looked just too light for me. This shade I think this is going to be brilliant in the summer when I have more of tan but I can still get away with it right now. I tend to wear one of my other foundations on my face and then use a foundation brush to apply this to my cheeks, it makes my cheeks more prominent and gives me a dewy glow but doesn't give me the look that I've dragged a brush of bronzer across my cheeks to fake my cheeks. My cheeks are big and prominent anyway due to my face shape but this foundation just gives them a little boast and gives me a nice flush.
This foundation gives a good medium coverage so I have no problem using this to hide any annoying spots of blemishes, and the consistency of this foundation is good enough so you only need a little bit of product to cover your whole face if I am using it as my primary foundation for the day. I also find it lasts all day on me so I don't start the day looking nice and creamy bronzed and then end the day looking like i have covered my face in talcum powder. Winner! The foundation also claims to be hydrating on your skin and I must agree, I have quite dry skin which needs loving regularly and this foundation never shows my dry patches or drys out my skin even more. Like I said, Winner!
I would definitely recommend this foundation if you are looking for a dewy glow and a peachy shade out of the many different shades they have. It is also great if you want a foundation that you don't need to top up with powder during the day and only silly people wouldn't want that! I can't remember how much this was when I bought it but it is definitely under the £10-15 mark so it's affordable and it works!
Have any of you tried this foundation? Tell me what you think!
Excuse the mess but I'm currently living out a bag at my sisters and I hurriedly threw all the clothes that were in my travel bag on the floor to pack (making sure I had enough time to have a fashion shoot in front of the mirror of course!)
I bought this dress in the USC (the company that took over Republic) sale online and it was just £14.
I love wearing big baggy smock dresses at the minute, I think they suit my shape and always look good with some tights and a pair of big chunky boots. This one caught my eye because it is a navy blue check design which I haven't seen much of before. I also bought another smock dress that is black and white but that is saved for another post...
The material is quite thin so it hangs really nicely off the body and you don't have to worry about it losing shape. So far I haven't had a big problem with the dress creasing easily as well which is a really good thing, but it is super easy to iron anyway, a boy could even do it!
I'm also wearing my really warm panda hat which my sister got me for christmas. I know that they don't conventionally go together but you have got to love animal hats when they look soooo cute on and I'm a sucker for anything super cute and with animals on :)
I ordered a bunch of products off of the Revolution makeup website at the beginning December as I had read so many reviews of the products they were selling and I wanted to try them for myself. Since then I have bought quite a lot of things off of the website, I posted about the Fluid Blushes previously here and I already have other posts lined up of more products i want to talk about so stay tuned if you are interested in the brand!
Here I'm going to talk about the Matte Effect Foundation, something that has been used quite a bit over the Christmas period.
When I clicked on this product I first thought it was a type of bb cream more than a foundation and since using it I find it works like a really good bb cream. At first it looks like it hasn't done anything to your skin but then I don't know whether it's just me but I feel like It starts to work after you have worn it for a minute or two, it's only then that I see the effect it has on my skin, werid!
It gives a good light coverage which can be built up if you wanted more, but I personally like to wear this foundation on my good skin days because I think it isn't great at covering up blemishes but it is great at evening out your skin.
I think it gives me a nice healthy glow and it is super easy to apply, you don't need to worry about working it in to your skin for ages. I personally like to apply this product with my hands just because it is easier and not as messy as foundation. The best thing about this foundation? I find that it does last me all day at work which is surprising!
All in all I would rate this foundation a good 6 out of 10. It's only downfall in my opinion is that it could be better at covering up blemishes and it is because of that I don't see this as being a foundation but more of a bb cream.
I read this post on Miss Makeup Magpie's blog recently which I loved and thought was a great idea, so I wanted to see for myself which out of my 100 blog posts was the most popular. You can read Gemma's post here.
What really shocked me when I went on the statistics page on Bloglovin today was that the top posts that had been my most popular for ages now were no where to be seen, this made me feel quite good that new people were starting to read my old posts and enjoy them it seems :)
My most popular post from this year was my Naughty H&M Beauty Haul which I posted back in January. I showed you guys all of the H&M make up products that I had purchased online and I was quite excited to try out the products because H&M doesn't really spring to mind as a 'make up shop'. I was pleasantly surprised by the products and would recommend them all.
My second most popular post was my Things That Make Me Happy from March. In this post I named for you the things I enjoy doing that keep me feeling happy, without sounding really corny. These were and are all things I love to do when I am either in a great mood or need to cheer myself up.
My third most popular post was my Beauty Haul from March. I enjoyed writing this post because it was a good shopping day for me and I ended up with so much that I couldn't wait to try out. Most of the stuff in the haul I still have now or have repurchased (apart from the fake tan as I am way too lazy at the moment to even think about tanning!) so I picked wisely.
My fourth most popular post was the Liebster Award from January. I only started my blog in the first week of January so to be nominated by someone always for it in the same month made me incredibly happy. I didn't know what it was so I was excited to make my input. I'm not surprised it was popular as most bloggers now know what it is and so are intrigued in who nominated who and what questions they answered. I have been nominated again by Copper Pink so I shall be doing another post hopefully soon once I have the time.
My last most popular post was my How To Style | Ripped Jeans post from just November. I don't consider myself a fashion blogger by all means, I am the furthest thing to it, but I do enjoy writing these types of posts. I am always on Pinterest getting ideas for outfits or making myself sad at all the pretty clothes that I don't have so bringing all them ideas together into one post excites me. I'm planning on writing more 'how to style' posts this year, maybe for clothing that isn't that popular and trends that I put my own little twist on. You'll have to stay tuned to find out!
I'd just like to say that over Christmas Chelsea Loves reached 100 Bloglovin followers and since then have gained even more so I'd just like to say thank you to everyone who followed this little blog, a year ago or a week ago as this is my favourite little hobby and I enjoy it so much :)
So these are my beauty related pledges for the year...
Care better for my feet my poor feet get neglected all the time. I never feel like I have enough time to sit down, properly wash my feet with my Lush foot mask and really moisturise them but that needs to stop. I don't particularly like feet in the first place so the fact that I don't look after them to make them look prettier is a waste. The amount of creams and nail polishes I have, my feet should look like the queens. For Christmas my boyfriend bought my a foot spa so I really have no excuse now!
ALWAYS take my makeup up although I am getting better at it lately, if I really couldn't be bothered to take my makeup off I wouldn't which is terrible. So this year no matter what, I shall never go bed with makeup still on my face *sweeping declaration...
Simplify my routines this year has probably been my worst year when it comes to skin problems, I don't remember a time when I haven't had some sort of spot or redness. The sad thing is, before I got into all my make up and facial products I had the best skin ever, I never went through ache as a teenager but it seems In my twenties they have developed. If im being honest, that might be to do which all the products that I now use to 'make my skin better' so I think I need to strip my routine down and start again with less products.
Stop being lazy and cream my whole body not everyday but at least ever other day! Before I became lazy I used to cream my body all the time and it felt amazing but now its always dry and doesn't feel that healthy so I need to change.
Style your hair once and a while women I tend to leave my hair natural and wavy most days and only really style it when I'm going somewhere but I have heated rollers and a number of curlers so I want to make more of a effort with my hair on a more regular basis.
Eye shadow needn't be scary, be more daring with it I never ever where eye shadow. I watch so many tutorials on how to blend two eye shadow colours and how to do smokey eyes but on any attempts I have done, I have looked like I have just throw dirt on my eye. This year I want to experiment with eye shadow more, sit down and really copy a tutorial over and over again until I can make it work for my face. I've always said that I didn't suit eye shadow but I think I was just scared of it because I couldn't get it right. 2015 is the year I become eye shadow friendly!
And those were my beauty pledges for 2015, I shall do a post next year and we can see whether my feet actually look like the queens and whether I am now a eye shadow pro. Tell me any beauty pledges you are making for yourself :) xx
To be honest I went straight on the website and purchased these after reading a certain post about them *link* and I am so glad that I did.
I love the idea of liquid blushes but I have been scared off by other brands. I have a Elf liquid blush that is quite thick and hard to work in so I tend to have big pink patches on my cheeks. The great thing about these blushes are that they are a good consistence so they are really easy to work in, I can dab the top on my hand quite a few times and never have to wash away excuse off my hands
The colour is really subtle on my skin so I never have to worry about looking like a drag queen and I can build the blush up if I wanted.
The blush also leaves me with a healthy glow which I never find with power or crème blushes. I currently have two shades, Pink Dew and Pink Sea and love them both with Pink Dew as my favourite as it works similar to a liquid highlighter- do they even make them?!These are my number one blushes to use at the moment and if you have these yourself then you know why. If any of you have these blushes tell me what you think! :) xx
Pinterest - http://www.pinterest.com/pin/375839531377900620/
They always say the fewer new years resolutions you make, the more chance you have of actually keeping to them throughout the year, so I am giving myself only three new years resolutions for 2015.
Start saving more money each month for the future I plan to move out of my family home within the next few years if my certain circumstances don't change so I need to be prepared to pay for rent or a mortgage. I had quite a bit of money that I started saving when I was 16 but the majority of that was spent on my new car this year so I feel like I'm starting from scratch again here.
Spend less money on meals out and cook at home more I can easily be persuaded to go out for a meal instead of cooking myself, especially after a long day or if I am catching up with a friend. So this year I am limiting how often I can go out for meal and plan to start cooking new dishes myself so that I actually have something to cook people.
Plan more things to do when its warmer weather since probably about October i have been a sloth on the sofa on all my days off and a Kermit to the world. I would much rather go home to bed than actually go out into the world after work. So when it is warmer weather I plan to do more exciting things and see more people in my spare time, before they forget what I look like!
I'd love to know what some of your new years resolutions are for 2015, leave me links to your new years resolutions posts or tell me some in the comments :)xx
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
