Glossier Skincare and Makeup Review

If you are into your beauty and you haven't heard of Glossier, then you must have been living under a rock which has no access to any beauty news whatsoever. New York based company Glossier is a beauty brand made by Emily Weiss founder and CEO at online beauty publication Into The Gloss.

The biggest thing to happen to UK Glossier fans in 2017 was the news that the brand would finally be shipped to the UK and it was huge! As a bit of a sucker for a craze, I was right on board as the desirable millennial pink packaging and endless positive reviews made it very hard for me to avoid.

The products are not high street prices but still affordable, and the general mantra of the brand is 'skin first, makeup second'. The products are mainly skincare and body care based, but they have a few little makeup bits that give you the 'no make up makeup' look, with rumours of a new makeup product which was debuted on Beyonce for the 2018 Grammys.

When I think of Glossier , I think dewy, healthy, universal and minimal.

So with out further ado, here is my Glossier haul and my thoughts on each product.

As you would with your routine, I am going to be starting with basic skincare which includes the cult favourite Milky Jelly Cleanser, £15, glossier.com and Priming Moisturizer, £18, glossier.com.

I actually bought this in the Skin Essentials Starter Pack, £35, glossier.com which includes this duo as well as the Balm Dot Com, £10, glossier.com which gives you a saving of £8.

Although the milky jelly cleanser is an absolute hero product in the beauty world, this was probably the product I was most apprehensive to try. As I have drier skin, I find gel like cleansers always leave my skin feeling a little parched and give me that tight face feeling afterwards.

The smell and consistency remind me of the Ren Gel Rose cleanser I have used in the past, except Glossier have replaced one quarter of this products water content with soothing rosewater and boy, you can tell!

I remember being told that rose is good for redness due to it's soothing properties, and this cleanser is so gentle it can even be used around the eyes to remove stubborn eye makeup.

I have only been using this cleanser for a couple of weeks but I really love it and I can see why it has  it's hero product status. It removes makeup with no problems and it's oily/gel feel leaves my skin feeling nourished but not too balmy like some cleansers do.

The latter part to my skincare routine has been taken up by this moisturiser, which aims to be a build-able perfect makeup base. I can definitely vouch for the priming  aspect, as the cream sinks in and leaves the skin feeling as though it has been primed with a separate product. 

This moistuiser says it will blur imperfections and reduce redness so it leaves you needing minimal makeup to cover it up.

Whilst I haven't been confident enough to go completely makeup free, I hope with continued use it will leave me with the perfect canvas! There is a Glossier skin tint which I am yet to try which is a lightweight tinted skin product that goes on seamlessly after this moisturiser so hopefully I will give that a try next!

Finally from the skincare starter pack, is the balm dot com which has been my skin saviour this winter. This multipurpose balm can be used in just about any way you please. For me, this has been my standard lip balm which has healed sore cracked lips in a day, but the typical 'Glossier Girl' would use this on the eyelids and as a dewy highlighter to give that ultimate hydrated look.

The balm dot com comes in a number of flavours and tints, including the highly  popular 'birthday' shade which has a glittery packaging and a subtle shimmer. I went for the original as I always like to start with the basic core products when I start playing with a new brand.

Next is makeup, and again I went for the Makeup Set: Phase 2, £35, glossier.com which allows you to build your makeup kit according to you complexion. The kit contains - yes another cult icon - Boy Brow, £14, glossier.com , Stretch Concealer, £15, glossier.com and Generation G Sheer Matte Goodness, £14, glossier.com. 

Again, another product I was apprehensive to try was the stretch concealer, and this was purely down to the name of the product. I often use a concealer under my eyes to cover dark circles, but the name 'stretch' made me think it would be quite a dry formula which I'd have to drag across my skin and give me life-long wrinkles.

However this product is quite the opposite, and I'd probably go as far to say that this is my favourite Glossier product of the lot I have tried. This concealer melts into the skin and has great coverage but with no lines or any evidence that there was even product there. Whilst some concealers can dry and make the blemished area look a little worse, this is like a second skin and glides on like an oil making it one of my all time favourite concealers.

I am shade light which matches my complexion to a tee.

Next is probably my close second favourite product from Glossier, and this is Boy Brow. Again, there has been so much hype around this product and I honestly thought that there was only so much a product could do for your brows, so I bought this with the thought that this would be over-hyped.

Once again, Glossier proved me completely wrong because this brow gel does unreal things to my brows. The name couldn't be more apt, as the final result of this product is boys brows. I'm talking big, bold slightly unruly Cara Delevigne brows and I totally love the final effect.

I love to fill in my brows and then use this to brush up the hairs and add the va-va-voom. A few people have actually commented and said "wow your brows are a little wild", but I actually really love the look, and think the bolder the brow the better.

Lastly from the set, is the generation G sheer balm in the shade 'crush', and this is a vibrant pinky/ berry colour that adds an almost natural looking tint to the lips. It is really balmy and comfortable to wear and I love it for just a day to day natural but kind of made an effort look.

Laslty from my makeup collection, is Cloud Paint, £15, glossier.com, a dewy cheek colour which adds a natural touch of colour to the skin. I wen for the shade puff which may be a little too pink for my complexion, but I love using this on bare skin to warm up the face, and I also use it as a tinted lip colour. 

What I love about Glossier is that it has no rules. You can use what you want, where you want and it adds to the busy NYC cool girl chic that the brand represent.

Last but my no means least is the fragrance Glossier You, £45, glossier.com which I heard so many good things about I couldn't resist popping it in my shopping cart at the end of my *very* luxurious spree.

What drew me to the fragrance was the comparison to Molecule 01 which I have written about before, and would say is one of my favourite perfumes. Like the molecule perfume, it is meant to smell different on everyone and therefore becoming, 'You'... get the name now? Musk, Ambrox and Ambrette are the main notes, which are very similar to the molecule fragrances, but it smells more powdery and 'prettier', which is added by the pink pepper and iris root. 

It wasn't the smell I was expecting from Glossier but it is really lovely!

My only problems with this fragrance is the size, as for some reason I thought this would be a lot bigger and also it isn't hugely long lasting. I would say this lasts for about 4 hours and then is gone.

Considering they are not a fragrance brand though, this is really pretty and I am definitely a huge fan.

I have only scratched the surface with Glossier, but I am really excited to try more.

I have also recently added the Body Hero shower gel and body cream to my daily routine as well as the hugely exciting 'Solution' which recently launched, which promises to give you bare faced skin excellence in just 4 weeks! I will be testing the results of those products and be back to report so make sure you don't miss out!

Am I am Glossier babe yet?

December 2017 Favourites

First off, welcome to my first post of 2018! We are nearly half way through January 2018 and that is just mad to me!

Whilst I have lots of fun new and exciting posts coming up and things I want to try, I can't neglect the wonderful little happenings that were my December favourites.
 I will probably do a little post on some of the bits I got for Christmas too, so if you thought the festivities were over in January hop over here to relive the Christmas time.

Probably my most favourite item of December was my Ciate Advent Calender, £50, ciatelondon.com which my generous mum got for me! My youngest sister, Tanya Burr superfan Sophia got Tanya's 12 Sweet Days Beauty Calendar, £20, Boots and my vegan sister Charlotte was treated to the Lush 12 Days of Christmas, £67.50, Lush calendar. Although these differ in price, can I just say that these calendars suited each of us down to a tee so the fact she spent more on one of us than the other doesn't mean anything as we were all so chuffed, although as the clear middle favourite I'm just happy not to be last. I'M JOKING.

My 24 day calendar included 21 STUNNING nail colours, a nail treatment, gel top coat and a sparkly nail file. I will do a full post on this advent calendar complete with swatches of each colour because I can only do it it's full justice in one dedicated post which I will link back in this post so keep an eye out for that!

My next favourite item was the Beauty Pie Pro-Glow Superstrobing Drops, £4.18 (members price), beautypie.com. These drops give the perfect dewy highlight that made me feel like a Christmas angel.

These drops are 100% my favourite highlighting product I have ever used. They completely transform my complexion and make my skin look flawless. If I could hazard a guess, I'd say they were created in the same factory as the famous Custom Cover Drops by Cover FX which come in at £34.00. If you don't know about Beauty Pie or why I have written that previous sentence or why I have written "membership price", then go to this post where I explain how Beauty Pie works and why it is so amazing!

Another Beauty Pie product I have been loving in December is the Great Skin Foundation, £6.02 (membership price), beautypie.com which I didn't get on too well with at first. I don't know whether my skin was just not its best when I first tried this but recently I have been using this as my everyday foundation and I have really loved the final look! The coverage isn't full, but it covers just about every blemish I need too with feeling heavy and evens my skin tone.

In my previous post I talked about how much I love a lip kit that comes with the matching liner and this MAC Duo, £29.50, maccosmetics.co.uk was the perfect kit for the December time.

With the matte colour 'Diva' and liner 'Burgandy', this was a winning berry lip colour for me throughout December. I was recommended this colour when I had my makeup done at MAC Fenwick Tunbridge Wells ahead of the Royal Variety show, and I am so glad I purchased this as it has been so perfect for the Christmas time of year.

At the end of the day when removing all my makeup, my favourite cleanser has been the Sumptuous Camomile Cleansing Butter, £10, The Body Shop. This balm cleanser is so gentle on skin, and really soothed my eyelids when they flared up in December. They were really dry and itchy but the calming chamomile in this cleanser put them back to normal within a few day.s, and it removes every scrap of makeup.

For a pamper session, I loved this Snowfairy Jelly Bomb, £4.95, Lush which I believe they are not stocking anymore as it is a Christmas exclusive, but I was given this at a bloggers event and waited for the perfect evening to indulge, and it was a much better experience than the one I had with the dark arts jelly bomb which you can read about here. The jello bombs leave a thick jelly like layer on the top of the bath moisturising the skin, and generally giving you a fun old bath time. Snow Fairy is a very sweet, very girly collection and it left my bath bright pink.

I also really loved the Naked Lip Scrub, £5.95, Lush as my lips get very dry in the winter and lipstick doesn't go on very well to dry chapped lips, especially matte formulas such as the Diva lipstick mentioned above. I much prefer the new Lush lip scrub formula of it being in a solid balm as I found the sugar in the pots went everywhere and tended to waste a lot of product. These balms allow you to apply directly onto the lip so moisturises as it goes without being too abbrasive and it also saves on packaging which is good for the environment. Yey!

Thanks for reading my December favourites, and as always if there are any products you loved this past month that you think I should try please do suggest them! Be sure to come back and read my new exciting posts coming soon!

Cheryl X L'Oreal Matte Lip Kits

I am a sucker for a good lip kit. The idea of having a lipstick with the perfect matching lip liner all packaged up together in one little neat box makes me really happy, and whilst that may be quite sad, I reckon there a lot of people out there who feel the same.

Way back in October, I saw Cheryl Tweedy Fernandez Cole Payne had collaborated with L'Oreal to create three lip kits, and I was very excited to give them a try. Although I'm not a huge lover of Cheryl herself, I do like L'Oreal products and think they are starting to become a more luxurious drug store brand.

The packaging of the kits are very reminiscent of the lip kits from a certain reality star from the K Klan, and whilst they're one coloured dribble away from being the exact same, I do think they look really lovely with the metallic swipes.

Looking at the colours, I thought Burgundy would be a sure win, Greige would be a beautiful alternative winter colour, and the peach colour would be too light for my fair skin giving me the good old foundation lips look.

With the fabulous Boots 3 for 2 offer though, I thought I may as well pick all three up so I could try the whole collection. At £10 each, I think six lip products for £20 isn't half bad!

As it is the berry lip season, we will start with the Burgundy kit.



Packaging wise, it is fair to say this collection is very instagrammable. The actual lip wand is a curved shape so it slides against the actual shape of the lip making application easy.

Swatching the colours on my skin alarmed me slightly as the colours seemed a lot browner than I imagined. The lip pencil itself was basically a rusty blood colour which I wasn't expecting.

The first time I wore this kit, I used the liner around the edge of my lip as you would! The lip colour was completely gone within an hour, and I went back and read that you need to use the liner as a base to the lip colour which I think is a little annoying.

Matte lipstick in general are meant to be long wearing and almost a little too hard to remove. They actually don't dry very matte at all and still remain fairly shiny. The fact these colours need the liner as the base would make me say these cannot be classified as a matte lip paint.

As you can see from the images the liner is a little bit smudgy. These liners are a cream formula which are always a little harder to get precise, so the final look is not very sharp.

Verdict: I would say this isn't really a burgundy colour and more of a black cherry. Both products are  called 'Stripped Brown' (a Liam Payne reference perhaps), so this is obviously meant to be more brown toned which is a bit unusual as it is branded as a burgundy lip kit?! As this was the colour Cheryl designed and customised herself, I have to say I was a little disappointed. Perhaps on darker skin tones the red comes out a little more, but on me  it is a little too deep. 

I don't think I found my Autumnal deep red lip here!

Let's see if Greige can save the day!

On my first overall observation, I have to say this is a very unusual colour. I absolutely love a bold statement lip, but I still don't know if I actually like this or not. One thing  I can definitely say is that it is intriguing.

Swatched on the hand it looked a lot more pinky than I imagined, with the liner being slightly cooler. Both the products are called 'nude-ist' which I think is a little odd as they are certainly not like any other nude I have ever seen!

This is also a perfect point to mention that the end of my liner for the Greige kit was a little smushed, and whilst this would never usually be a problem, these are plastic applicators with no spin up so you can't sharpen these liners which is really really annoying! Once the tiny little tips are gone on these, that is the whole liner redundant. I only managed to get two wears out of this lip kit because of this, so I have to say that was a little disappointing.

So what does the combo look like on? Well, like I said, I still don't know if I like it or not. It is very cool toned and I feel lit makes me look like I'm halfway to a goth, but there is something I do like about it. The colour really is like nothing I have ever seen on the market, and I think on the right person this would look absolutely stunning (like Cheryl obvs).

Verdict: I still have no idea!

So finally is the peach lip kit, and as I said earlier, I really thought this kit wouldn't suit my skin tone.

The peach liner called 'Gone with the Nude' looks a little too orange for me however the lip colour, 'Babe-in' was slightly cooler toned. I find it a little unusual how the products in this lip kit are called different names and in the others they are the same, but that is just a little observation.

When on, I actually really loved this colour and would probably say it is my favourite of the three.  My only irk with it is that it is a very thin formula, and as you can see from these pictures it is a little streaky and not full coverage.

Verdict: Although it is the safest colour from the collection, this one has to be a win from me!

My final opinion on the collection has to be a little over rated if I'm honest. I am disappointed at the level of quality from L'Oreal products, and feel they could have done a lot better all around. I think maybe too much has gone into showcasing Cheryl as the face of the collection and not enough has gone into the actual quality of the products. Although £10 a kit isn't bad, I felt that labelling these as matte kits is very wrong as none of these had a matte finish at all.

One good aspect of Cheryl facing the collection is that some proceeds go to the charity she supports, the Princes Trust.

In conclusion, I would say donate some money to the charity alone and treat yourself to Kylie's kits instead.

Ciate

I first published this post in 2013 and since then, Ciate have really made their mark on not only the nail industry but also makeup. Unfortunately, I believe their 'wow kits' are now discontinued, however I think you can still find them in the depths of the internet!

As this is now discontinued, it feels a little silly bringing back this post, however I have fallen back in love with this nail kit so thought I'd show it off and hope they bring it back!

 The kit comes with a base colour, three sheets each of four different colour foil, glue, and a manicure wheel for you to practice on. I thought that was really good value for money, at £18.

I started with the base coat 'pepperminty', which in itself, is a really nice fresh colour.

After a couple of layers, I was ready for foiling! I practiced on the wheel first to get the right technique. You randomly dab the glue and wait a couple of minutes for it to go tacky, and then place the foil shiny side up, rub and whip of really quickly. I used the 'waxing strip' technique. After that, I kept on layering...

After gold I used blue

then red

and finally silver. I also did another layer of blue as I thought it was the most striking of the colours.

And Voila!

At the beginning, I was being quite careful, but after half an hour I was being quite rough with it and found that worked better! Altogether it took me about 1 hour to do all fingers in four foils. Personally, I thought it looked better with fewer colours, and I will probably use the 'less is more' approach in future. Its a really effortless look that looks really interesting. It also lasts really well! I've had my foil manicure on for a week now and haven't had any trouble. When using some heavy duty cleaning products some of the foil wiped of but otherwise its all in tact. When using the foils, I went right up to the edges of the sheets so still have loads of foil left over. A very good investment and interesting kit from Ciate. 

I have also done this with a darker colour underneath and got a lovely finish better for Autumn/ Winter

October Favourites 2017

Hello there readers!

Today I am going to be doing my October favourites as I feel like I fell at the first hurdle after saying in my August favourites post that I would try and do it every month then neglected to do so straight away in September. My excuse is that the end of September was taken up largely by my  Coffee post which kind of acted as the post for that month as I was trying those bits out, so I am going to let myself off the hook.

Anyway. I'll put my excuses aside!

I haven't got a huge amount of products to show this month as the switch in warm to cold weather has reeked havoc on my skin, so makeup and skincare have been minimal. The products I have been using though have been used a lot, so without further ado, here are my October favourites.

As I mentioned above, the change in weather has caused my skin to become very dry, prone to spots, and I also have flaky almost eczema like rashes on my eye lids (attractive I know). I have been sticking to my usual Beauty Pie skincare but have added in a couple of extra steps to keep my skin looking as good as it can! I have spoken about this product before, as in January I was really suffering badly with my skin. I bought this Niacinamide 10% + Zinc 1%, £5, Deciem and it cleared up my skin within a week. Once again, I have reached for this product everyday the last few weeks and it has improved any aggressive, painful and red spots and reduced them considerably. For such a small price tag, I would highly recommend the Ordinary to anyone who fancies a little dabble with the products available.

As my skin hasn't been it's best, I have been trying to avoid makeup as I feel it actually clings to the dryness and makes my skin look worse. Espcially around my eyes, I have been avoiding all eye makeup apart from mascara as my eyes feel so dry and agitated. However when my skin has been particularly bad and I have had no option but to cover it up with makeup, this No28 Primer Serum, £55.80, Hourglass has been the perfect hydrating base to make sure no foundation clings onto dry skin. I find primers often make the skin feel drier whereas this makes your skin really soft and almost a little oily which I find makes my makeup blend better. Another thing I love about this product is the smell. It has a really natural botanical smell and it makes me feel confident that the product is feeding my skin the healthy vitamins it needs. It contains 28 beneficial ingredients to feed skin to make it look hydrated, luminous, and healthy.

As my lips have been really dry, I have found lipstick hasn't been looking great and a bit patchy (I sound like the flakiest person in the world from this post). My natural lip colour is very pale so I do feel like I need to have something on them to make them look more defined. I have been using this Lip Glow, £21.25, Dior colour reviver balm as it naturally brings out the colour of your natural lips to make them look bolder but also hydrate like a balm. It works with your skin tone and just intensifies the look of your natural lip meaning you don't have to wear lipstick and you just have the feeling of balmy, soft lips.

Next is a fragrance and I have been absolutely loving which is Amber Rose, £55, Shay & Blue. I remember when Shay & Blue had just come out as I was working in a fragrance department. The creator behind the brand is a man called Dom De Vetta who used to be the global manager for Jo Malone and senior Vice President at Chanel. He wanted to create a beautiful boutique brand and he discovered Julie Masse, a 20 year old perfumer who had a flair for creating modern and unique fragrances. Paired together, they have gone on to create this really cute, niche brand which create genuinely lovely fragrances at affordable prices. They only do 100ml and 30ml fragrances, and they are so reasonably priced as they look so expensive.

 I am not a huge lover of Rose alone, and I think these days a rose fragrance needs to have something about it on order to survive on the fragrance market, and this rose and amber fragrance is the perfect balance of sweet and sultry and I have been loving it recently. It isn't necessarily an autumn winter fragrance, I have just found myself reaching for it time and time again.

Lastly is another product that will help with any lack lustre nails this winter time. I am trying to use oil as my nails as I have become a little bit lazy with nail care when it used to be a big part of my night time routine. Nail oils will stop your nails going dry which will stop them peeling and will result in evenly applied, longer lasting nail varnish which is what you want when you're wearing darker, berry shades of nail varnish this season usually requires. Usually in the summer with lighter colours you won't notice a small chip but daker colour can look very scruffy very quickly so regular nail care is a must do, plus it will moisturise the skin around the nail and stop any painful hang nails.

This nail oil is from an Australian brand called Sienna which is a vegan, non toxic, cruelty free brand. The only sell their oil in a set and unfortunately we do not have these products in the UK, but any type of nail oil will suffice and I have found the Phenomenon oil by Jessica is a great one to use!

What products have you been going for this Season?

Do you have any tips or product recommendations for dry skin, particularly around the eye?