Freedom Makeup Competition with a prize of £20,000

Freedom Makeup is a brand you probably have heard of, it is a sister brand of Makeup Revolution and is Professional Makeup Brand giving you products at an affordable price and I have featured quite a few of them here. Right now, they are running this absolutely amazing competition which could not only see you win a prize of £20,000 but a years supply of make up and the chance to be assigned to Freedom for an entire year.   

This makeup competition is opened WORLDWIDE and all you simply have to film your 'Signature Look' to enter the competition & upload it to YouTube. You don't have to be professionally trained, nor a current make up artist, the competition is open to everyone. Once you have uploaded your video, you then must ensure you fill in the entry form which you can find right HERE and that's it, you are entered. 

Once the competition closes, a total of 30 finalists will be shortlisted and they will then go through another 3 rounds. After those 3 rounds, the 5 remaining contestants will appear in the live final, hosted in London on 27th October 2016 to battle it out in a surprise live challenge before someone is crowned the winner. The winner will take home an amazing prize of £20,000, a year's supply of Freedom Makeup and assigned to the brand for a year. Plus the 4 runners up will each receive a prize of £1000 each.

You can enter anytime NOW until the 27th May!  Will you be entering or have you already entered?

Benefit Exclusive Cheekathon Palette

Last week I was invited back aboard #thegoodshipbenefit with House Of Fraser for a Cheekathon make-up masterclass with the fabulous Lauren.  

If you haven't yet seen it, the Benefit Cheekathon Blush Palette is just incredible! It contains five full sized Benefit Box O'Powders, yes I did say full sized and it retails for just £44.50 which is amazing value for money when you consider a single Box O'Powder retails for £23.50!!  So my advice is grab it quick before it sells out and it is exclusive to House of Fraser.

On board the ship, Lauren demonstrated on Paige (her model for the occasion) how to get the best use of Benefit Skincare, foundation, highlighters, brow products and of course the Cheekathon Palette.  Now, have you ever though to use Hoola Bronzer as eye make-up? Well you can and Lauren did and admittedly it did look absolutely lovely, especially if like me you are a nudey neutral kinda gal!

The Cheekathon Palette, which is beautifully packaged, has a handy mirror within the lid and it is a decent enough size so you can see exactly what it is your are doing and there is a Soft, natural-bristle powder brush too! Inside you will find:

• Hoola is a matte warm tan bronzing powder which you can double up as an eyeshadow!
• Dandelion is a sheer, ballerina-pink face powder which takes your complexion from dull to radiant
• Rockateur is shimmery rose gold blushr which is a specialised formula that combines the best features of baked, powder, cream and fluid textures for brighter results. 
• Dallas is a lovely dusty rose shade which can be used as both a which blusher and bronzer
• Coralista is described as a warm coral pink with an hint of pearl to give your skin that tropical flush.

To have all five of these full sized products on one palette is just amazing and as a little extra, there is a really helpful booklet included and it details how to get the best from each powder and more importantly how to use it.

Have you bought Cheekathon yet?

Clean Reserve - Fragrance Collection

Every so often, I am lucky enough to be introduced to a product and am simply wowed by it, this is the case with Clean Reserve and their new Fragrance Collection.

Clean Reserve is a new collection of fragrances from the creators of Clean. Created with responsibly sourced ingredients and eco-conscious manufacturing and packaging. The culmination of a unique, creative collaboration with three of the world's top fragrance houses chosen because of their commitment to sustainability and philanthropy.  The idea of something being created that supports the local communities who help cultivate he ingredients used within the fragrances is pretty amazing and so is the the brands ethos with ensuring sustainable beauty is ubiquitous throughout.

The cap on each perfume bottle is sourced from Spain and made from wood from certified sustainably managed forests. The fragrances are manufactured in facilities which use 100% solar energy. The glass bottle is 100% recyclable. Sustainable ingredients infuse each fragrance and they smell just absolutely incredible whether they are on their own or layered with another scent!

Within the range the scent include : Blonde Rose, Smoked Vetiver, Sueded Oud, Rain Cotton and Warm Cotton.  They are exclusive to SpaceNK and retail at £79 for a 100ml bottle - bargain!

I was kindly given Blonde Rose and honestly it is just divine, I adore it. As a Floral Woody Musk fragrance, it has op notes are aldehydes and water notes; middle notes are rose, peony and jasmine; base notes are cedar, sandalwood and musk. Said to have been inspired by an escape to a warm bubble bath infused with rose petals and a day dream. However, Blonde Rose is not strictly a female scent, as I mentioned, all of the fragrances within this range can be paired and layered with others, such as Sueded Oud for the men.

For me the scent of Rose, Jasmine and Peony work so incredibly well together that this is a perfume that can be worn on its own but works so well with other perfumes when layering (coming soon).  What surprised me the most about Blonde Rose is how long it lasts.  Once on the skin, I could still smell it the following morning, even after showering and whilst it does settle down on the skin, as it does so, it becomes even more beautiful.  This is definitely a perfume I am enamored with and a brand I cannot wait to find out more about.

If you are looking for a new perfume for Spring and Summer, Clean Reserve is a brand to search out and try!

L’Occitane Pivoine Sublime Skin Care

Anyone who reads my blog will know what a huge fan I am of L’Occitane and when the latest launch L’Occitane Pivoine Sublime Skin Perfecting Collection dropped through my door, I was pretty excited to give it a try, especially as it has amazing pink packaging! The range itself consists of eight different products and the main focus is on the star patented ingredient - peony extract. The new Paeonia Lactiflora, to use the official name, is an extract which is not only rich in natural plant sugars which target cells to correct irregularities in the skin’s texture it works to reveal a fresher and more radiant, natural complexion.

I have three products from the new L’Occitane Pivoine Sublime Skin Perfecting Collection which I’ve been using and they are the L’Occitane Pivoine Sublime Perfecting Makeup Remover, the L’Occitane Pivoine Sublime Perfecting 2 in 1 Scrub and the L’Occitane Pivoine Sublime Perfecting Toner.  All of which come together to create a lovely little skincare routine.

The Perfecting Make-up Remover is always the bottle I reach for first after coming home from work. Described as being a refreshing gel which effectively removes impurities and make-up, including waterproof make-up, from the face, eyes and lips. It is enhanced with active ingredients that help to transform the quality of the skins surface, it gently cleanses, leaving the complexion fresher and more luminous. First things first, can we high five L'Occitane for making a bottle which has a pump! I am a lazy product user, I want them to be easy and require little effort, essentially pump action and this does make for easy use because I don't have to unscrew a lid and so and so forth. That said, I find two pumps onto a clean cotton wool pad/muslin cloth more than enough to remove the daily gunk from my face and this has currently replaced my make-up remover because I actually feel it does a much better job. Priced at £19 for 200ml it is an absolute bargain.

The second product is a 2in1 perfecting scrub which is a little bit different to what I had expected. Again it does contain peony extract, delicate micro-granules, and micro-exfoliant active ingredients and it is described as an innovative gel which not only has a unique texture but has a dual usage. So on the skin it transforms into an oil to cleanse and exfoliate, so technically it is an exfoliating oil (how clever). For those of you who like a product which isn't too abrasive, then this is one to look out for because it is really gentle on the skin, but it does exfoliate incredibly well. So not only have you got an exfoliating oil but it can also double up as a mask, so once you have massaged it into the skin, leave it for up to 5 minutes to work its magic and then massage the skin as you remove the remainder. This is a scrub I have been using once a week during my pamper time and my skin does absolutely love it. A 100ml tube retails for £19.

The final product within my trio is a Perfecting Toner.  I have admitted on many occasions that I never have been bothered about using a toner, much the same as a Micellar Water, I don't quite see the point.  However, I am always willing to try something before knocking it and with this product I was left pleasantly surprised at how much I did enjoy using it. So having removed the majority of 'gunk' off my face with the Perfecting Make-up Remover, I then use the Toner to mop up what is left or has come to the surface of my skin.  Described as being a gentle toner which completes he make-up removal routine and revives the complexion with natural balancing actives. Enriched with perfecting Peony extract, it leaves the skin hydrated and smoother. So dispensing the toner onto a cotton wool pad, I wipe it across my skin and it is quite refreshing and cooling I find but it also leaves my skin so soft, smooth and hydrated. It costs just £15 for 200ml so is an absolute bargain.

This is such a beautiful range of products and one that is well worth looking into if you have never tried anything from L'Occitane before.