Get the Benefit!

The one thing you might realise about me fellow bloggers is that I have a few obsessions in life - Lush, Soap and Glory and BeneFit, that is not to say I love everything they do, far from it, they are more like a security blanket for me and when I need something and am not sure what or where to go, those three are probably more often than not my fall back plan. I do love trying new brands and discovering new products as well though.

This post is about my love affair with BeneFit.  I am not a huge make-up fan nor am I the worlds most made up girl in the world.  It is true to say that I never leave the house without a bit of foundation (usually a powder), mascara, bronzer or blusher and lip balm.  Aside from that I tend not to experiment as much as I should because I am never sure what colours suit me and applying eyeliner is just something I cannot get the hang of, I can sit in front of a mirror for hours and not once get it right, I find it stressful, so just don't do it -  a fear I need to overcome.

So starting with my favourite Benefit travel set which is called 'The Big 10' and it looks like this:

This was given to me by a friend as a birthday gift and I absolutely love it, it has everything in there that you might want to try out or take on your travels with you because it is a travel set essentially.   Naturally it is called 'The Big 10' because it contains ten different products which are:

1. Erase Paste which in this set is No.2 medium and it is a 3.2g tub
2. Stay Don't stray which is a primer for your concealer or eyeshadow and it is lovely 2.5ml tube
3. Benetint which is a rose-tinted lip and cheek stain and again it is a 2.5ml tube
4. Posietint which is a poppy pink lip and cheek stain and again a 2.5ml tube
5. High Beam which is a luminescent complexion enhancer and a 2.5ml tube
6. Ooh La Lift another 2.5ml tube and it is an instant under-eye brightening boost
7. 'That Gal' is a brightening face primer and in a 7.5ml tube
8. Dandelion a 3g pot and it is a brightening face powder
9. Coralista another 3g pot and it is a face powder
10. Porefessional is a balm to minimise the pores and is in a 7.5ml tube

So all of these lovely products in one package and I do take them with me when I travel, that is why some look a little more battered than others.

Then... we move to my favourite products from BeneFit, the ones that are always in my make-up bag and my go to products when I feel the need and of course one new addition to my collection!!

Starting with She's so jetset which I got for Christmas from a friend of mine, this kit which I adore because it is so cute contains:

 a 7.5ml POREfessional (primer and pore minimiser), 0.14oz they're real mascara, 5.2ml Life on the A list Lipgloss, 0.1oz First-class face powder with brush and 0.25 eye shadow palette (with Champagne please (golden colour), Gold card (slightly lighter gold), Pretty in mink (mink of course?) and Elegant Espresso (a brown)

Then you can see Hoola which is my absolute favourite bronzer ever... it gives such good coverage, is easy to use and apply and I have had this box for about 2 years and I use it more or less everyday and I am almost at the end of it, by that I mean it will need replacing in the next 6 months and I intend to replace it.

BeneFit Fine One one which has become my latest addition thanks to a competition win has been used once since I got it and I love it, the colours look really orange when you see them on the stick, but once applied, they are really lovely.

Finally the top right hand side photo which contains the rest of my BeneFit kit.  Starting with Dr Feelgood, a face balm which I did a post about HERE then there is a very old version of Lemonaid which is an eyeshadow primer and it works really well even though it is a few years old.  Next comes They're Real which is my current favourite Mascara, I love everything about it and it makes my lashes look lovely and long. Hello Flawless is one of my favourite foundations and this was matched to me in Debenhams not long after it hit the shelves and I love it.  As well as the face powder you get a mirror, a brush and a sponge, it glides on wonderfully.  Finally there is Moon Beam that is described as being an iridescent complexion enhancer and you add it around your cheeks and brow bones to a warm shimmer.  I use this quite a lot because I like the look it gives to me and again this bottle is just over a year old and there is more than half the bottle left, such good value for money.

Now I just need to get my hands on Fake Up and I will be well and truly happy...

So there you have it, my BeneFit make-up collection which features a lot of my favourite products! 

      Which BeneFit products do you like and use the most?

Get Fresh...Get fruity

A while ago I wrote a post about the discovery of a new Radox Coconut Shower Gel which you can find HERE and along with Coconut there are two other fragrances to try - Cherry Blast and Berry Burst.  I was sent a package of all three Shower Gels and I have been using them for the past few weeks and here are my thoughts.

As you can see above, the three shower gels are all really nicely packaged and are certainly eye-catching and stand out amongst other shower gels on the shelves.

Starting with Cherry Blast which you can see on the left in this photo, it stands right out with its striking red packaging and with the picture of Cherries jumping right out at you, you can guess what it smells of.  Upon flipping the lid of this shower gel, I wasn't surprised to find that the shower gel was a lovely bright vivid red colour and as soon as it hits your skin alongside hot water it lathers instantaneously and turns the lather pink, for me this is joyous because I love pink and I love lather but what I wasn't expecting was the amazing aroma of cherries, not a chemical smell at all, but fresh ripe cherries there in my shower, simply divine.

What they say - "For girly girls who like to feel gorgeous all day long then use Cherry Blast: This cherry-licious shower gel containing juicy cherries, milk and citrus oils has a sweet, tantalizing fragrance that will invigorate your senses and energize you in the morning as well as leaving your skin feeling soft and smooth so you can feel gorgeous whatever the day throws at you."

Well it most certainly does smell cherry-licious and the scent lingers on your skin for hours, add to that it smells wonderful in your bathroom.

Coming next is Berry Burst and it is sold in a lovely shade of purple and on the front of the bottle are pictures of berries, so you are in doubt as to what it is.  As soon as you flip the lid, the first thing that hits you is the wonderful aroma which you can clearly detect as being a mixture of berries and it isn't subtle by any means.  Once you squeeze the tube, for me this is where I am slightly disappointed because the shower gel isn't the bright purple I was hoping for, with the two other shower gels in this range, the shower gel matched the packagaing, this shower gel was white in colour and very similar to Coconut Kiss which you can see above and below in the photos.

However, the colour of the gel aside, again as soon as the gel comes into contact with hot water, it promptly lathers and the berry aroma surrounds you and wafts its way through your home leaving behind a lovely lingering scent.

What they say - "If you live life in the fast lane why not indulge in Berry Burst: Scrub up in your shower with this sumptuous shower gel containing berries and milk. It's bursting full of energy so you will be feeling fully charged and ready to face the day with a spring in your step."

Again there is no doubt that this shower gel smells of a lovely burst of berries.

The Official Poster

These shower gels are currently on offer in local supermarkets and high street stores like Boots, though I would happily pay the full price of £2.15 for any of them.  You can find these products in Boots, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Savers.

And a little bit of science from a study done by Radox:

·         ‘Super’ power showers are costing the average family £928 a year and an individual person over £18,000 in their lifetime- the same as the average deposit for a terraced house in the UK.

·         Brits could save almost £10,000 in a lifetime, and over one million litres of water (1,514,240 litres) by halving their showers

I may have an addiction...

Soap and Glory is a phenomenon that I has hit us all in one way or another, I don't think I have come across anyone who hasn't used their products, loves their products and is like me, a little bit taken with them.

Whilst having a clear out of my wardrobe where I have some shelving inside for products, I was quite alarmed as to how much S&G stuff I had.  I do love their Christmas Gift Sets and am always straight in to buy one as soon as they are available because they are such good value for money and they last me pretty much all year round.

If you haven't heard of Soap and Glory (I mean really??) You can find out more about them HERE

Anyway, here I am showing my addiction:

So as you can see from the box above there is a whole lot of products in there, said box which is so full is missing two products which are:

The Breakfast Scrub which I have been using on my elbows, shins and knees where I have a few dry skin issues and of course the foot buffer which I love (though hate feet) to help get my feet in tip top shape for spring time FitFlop wearing.

Anyway... as for what is in said box...

As you can see there is a whole lot of Soap and Glory loving going on here... I was seriously surprised at how much I had here and that doesn't take into account the tube of Hand Food which is sat on my desk at work!

So we have in Picture one - Two 500ml Clean On Me™ Creamy Clarifying Shower Gel  and Smoothie Star™ Body Lotion 500ml  = £21

Picture Two - Hand Food™ Hand Cream 125ml x 2, 3 Heel Genius 25ml (well 2.5 tubes as one is half empty),  Pulp-Friction™ Foaming Fruity Body Scrub 250ml, and Face Soap & Clarity™ Foaming Face Wash 150ml - £51.50

Picture Three - Peaches And Clean™ Deep Cleansing Milk 200ml, Thick & Fast™ Mascara False Lash Effect Mascara Superjet black, Sexy Mother Pucker Lip Gloss, Off Your Face™ 3 in 1 Cleansing Cloths and Mist You Madly™ Body Spray 250ml and Soap and Glory Mits- £42

Picture 4 - Sugar Crush™ Body Scrub 300ml and 2 x The Righteous Butter™ Body Butter 300ml = £29

So there is quite a few products here... so I decided to add up how much all of this would cost me if I was to walk into Boots right now...

£143.50 

However, with the foot buffer and Breakfast scrub it takes the grand total

to £161.75 

This has seriously shocked me and tomorrow a friend of mine is bringing me in a new hand product called Endless Glove that I have been wanting to try, to be fair she bought it on a 3 for 2 and picked up two by mistake, so it is costing me nothing... but.... woah it is a lot of products and a lot of money!

It's so plucking easy!!

The one thing I cannot live without in my make-up bag is a pair of tweezers. I use them for plucking my eyebrows mainly and I generally feel more at ease knowing that they are there should I find a stray hair.  Up until recently I have used bog standard tweezers that I have found in Boots or a Supermarket and after so long they have always lost their spring and have become pretty useless.

I was recently sent a pair of Tweezerit tweezers and I have spent quite a long time reading up about them and I have learnt so many things about owning pair of tweezers that I wish I had known some of the information before now.  The brand is owned by a man called Richard Batten-Edwards who has a reputation which spans over 28 years for providing the highest quality instruments to the podiatry, beauty and medicinal industries and Tweezerit tweezers come with a lifetime warranty and will be replaced free of charge if found to be defective.

The Tweezerits I was sent are from the Glitter Me range of tweezers and they are the most magnificent pink glittery tweezers ever.  To give them their proper name they are called Pink Champagne and retail for £23.  They come encased inside secure soft plastic packaging with the ‘Tweezerit’ logo clearly visible and one I really like with a pair of tweezers being the exclamation mark.  There is also a cover for the tips of these tweezers and the care guidelines state that when your tweezers are not in use, they should be looked after and cover should be on the tip.

When it comes to storing your tweezers, I immediately realised where I might have been going wrong.  With Tweezerit tweezers there is some really useful factual information on storage, not something I would have thought to look up before, but if you protect every other aspect of your make-up case such as your brushes, eye-lash curlers and so on, keeping them clean and in good use, why wouldn’t you do that with your tweezers?  Instead I just used to chuck them in my bag or case and always wondered why they would get bent out of shape and in some cases have snapped by the time I had discovered them a few weeks later at the bottom of my bag.  So here are the three simple suggestions for storage:

• Always store your tweezers in a clean dry place.
• Your tweezers have been set in the factory to give the correct spring tension. Do not overstretch your tweezers, or store them stretched.
• Always replace the rubber cap to prevent damage.

I am guilty of number 2 over many occasions given the state of my last pair and frankly it never occurred to me that they had been set in a factory to a certain angle to make them easier to use and I have never, before now replaced the rubber cap, it never occurred to me that by doing so would protect the tweezers and keep them both sharp and precise when using - now I know!

When it comes to using them - the official specification reads as follows:

This tweezer has been made out of the finest high grade stainless steel, hand finished to the highest professional standards. The tweezers you have selected are used by professional beauty therapists, and are now offered to you for personal use.

These hand finished tweezers feature our special slant designed tips, which allow you to pluck individual hairs more easily. Your tweezers are quality instruments and should be cared for as such.

The information give above can be found on the Tweezerit website HERE 

To look at these tweezers, they are 9.5cm in length and  are really easy to grasp a hold of and host a slanted tip which does make the task of plucking hairs much easier, I was quite surprised at how easy I could grasp onto the stray hairs of my eyebrows without having to attempt it numerous times before succeeding and these are the easiest, most straightforward and practical pair of tweezers I have ever owned and had the pleasure of using.

The  brand as a whole has really caught my attention.  There are no less than eight different categories of tweezers to look at and decide upon and if I had been left to choose some tweezers, I might very well be still sitting here debating what I prefer because I love them all.  

Then comes the Curve Selection all of which have been ergonomically designed to feature the very latest in tweezer design and I love the design of them.  

The final one I am going to make reference too is the Vintage Collection and again they all feature some very funky colouring and patterns which catch the eye.

Then, if you are a bit of a novice when it comes to your eyebrows and how best to shape them and I found this really useful to read because it contains all the basics that you need to know, for example:

• Always pluck in the direction of hair growth.
• Alternate brows to make sure they match.

Overall I love these tweezers and I love this brand.  Reading the website has really given me a kick up the backside when it comes to looking after my tweezers, using them and a reminder on eyebrow plucking, everything you need to know from one brand in one place and if that isn’t enough you can find them on Facebook HERE

What do you think to these Tweezers? Do you have a favourite style?