H A U L : Soap and Glory 'The Yule Monty'!!

It's that moment we all wait for every year... the soap and glory massive gift set being reduced in Boots. Without a moments hesitation (which is worrying considering how little money I have this month), I totted off to Boots to pick one up. There must have been 50 people rushing around with 2 in each hand, so it's safe to say, this one is a good'un!

£72 worth of products for just £27!!

You get 9 full size products.

For less than £30 it's a complete bargain.
If you're a soap and glory fan, don't miss out!!

The Scrub of Your Life (body scrub)

Hand Food (hand cream)

The Righteous Butter (body butter)

Sugar Crush (scrub body wash)

Butter Yourself (body lotion)

Heel Genius (foot cream)

Peaches and Clean (3-in-1 face wash)

Thick & Fast (mascara)

Sexy Mother Pucker (lipgloss)

<3

R E V I E W : Barry M 'Natural Glow' Palette.

My latest procrastination venture had me trawling through ASOS whilst they had their 25% off everything sale. Whilst looking through the beauty section I stumbled across this little palette. To be honest I didn't know Barry M even made pallets, so couldn't resist trying one!

So far, I'm pretty impressed! -- I'm not going to go in to a super long review, as you can pretty much see what this looks like without me writing paragraphs!

There's 5 shimmery shadows and 1 matte brown, which I love as I rarely wear matte colours and love doing a brown smokey eye for the day.  They're all super pigmented and really easy to blend; none of the shadows are chalky at all, which you might expect from such a cheap product.

It's perfect for the day time and it's now my go-to palette if I'm away for the weekend. The packaging is lightweight and smaller than any of my others, fitting perfectly into my handbag.

The blush is nice too -- note the word 'nice', not amazing or beautiful. It's a matte powder pink colour and adds a pretty flush to the skin, which is sometimes just what you need. There's nothing worse than heavy eye makeup and lots of shimmery, bright blush!

At £6.49, it's one of the best bargains I've had in a long time!

(Available at ASOS, Boots, Superdrug and Amazon)

<3

My Christmas Wishlist / (stocking filler ideas)

The tradition of writing Christmas wishlists has never really ended in my family. The only difference is they're now addressed to our mum and not Santa! My lists get shorter and shorter each year, but you can always guarantee a few luxury items finding their way on. 

Soap & Glory - As soon as winter rolls around and S&G release their gift sets and 3 for 2 offers & I immediatley start lusting after them. Whether it's minis of my favorite products or a full on set, you literally cannot go wrong with this as a gift.

MAC - A couple of things that have been on my general beauty wishlist all year, but I've never got round to trying. Christmas is the perfect time to indulge in trying things that aren't essential and I think the fixing spray and soft and gentle highlighter will do just the trick!

Yankee Candle - with one for every occasion, I always receive or buy Christmas candles! The best part is, after boxing day all the Christmas flavors get halved in price; 'Christmas cookie' is almost identical in smell to 'vanilla cupcake', so always worth stocking up on!

Fluffy Slippers - Whether they're from Next (like the ones pictured above), or Asda, I always love fluffy slippers & Christmas just isn't the same without a new pair!

LUSH Snow Fairy - I love love love the smell of this and love finding it under the tree. I only ask for a little one, as the price is again halved on boxing day, which is the real time to stock up!!

Real Techniques - Like most beauty bloggers, I've become obsessed with these brushes. The one I'm lusting after at the moment is the blush brush as it's so multi-purpose!

What have you asked for this Christmas?

- JEN xxx

R E V I E W : Loreal Micellar Soloution

There's been a lot of hype over the last year about 'micellar soloutions', and seeing as I have no idea how to pronounce 'micellar' I always wrote them off as something that would be too fancy for me! However, after bioderma seemed to possess everyone on youtube into spending a fortune on what looked like water in a plastic bottle, I began to think that maybe there was more to it. When I saw this Loreal version on offer for less than a fiver in Superdrug, I thought it was about time to educate myself, especially as I've read many posts claiming that this is a high-street alternative that produced the same results.

This specific formula claims to be a '3 in 1 purifying soloution', that dissolves make-up, unclogs pores and tones skin. As you can probably guess by the lack of skin care reviews on this blog, I'm pretty lazy when it comes to skin care, so something that combines 3 different products into one will always appeal to me!

More often than not, I use make-up wipes to take off my make-up, which supposedly spreads excess oil across the face... this product claims to do the opposite (i.e removing the bad oils and cleansing the skin). This would therefor help prevent spots, which is my biggest skin problem!

The texture is completely oil free and literally feels like water. I squirted a small amount onto a cotton pad and started using it to remove my foundation, which it seemed to do really well.  I was cautious to use it on my eyes, as they are extremely sensitive, but after having no reaction to it on my cheeks, I braved it and it worked a treat. Instead of rubbing though, I would recommend pressing the pad over your eye for a few seconds, which will soften your make-up and make it wipe straight off!

There is no smell either, which can often put me off products. Its a really cleaver and simple liquid that does does a great job and actually does what it claims!

It did a good job at removing my make-up and I did feel like it really toned my skin. My face felt lighter and tighter, something that I'm not used to when using a wipe or cleansing milk. So overall, I'm pretty impressed with this product and am going to try and start using it on a regular basis! -- so that's my simple, cut the riff raff review of something I would have never normally tried!

Have any of you tried this or something similar?

An honest post.

Let's address the fact I have not blogged in months. If I'm honest I'm not entirely sure why. I used to writing on this little blog therapeutic but as time went on I seemed to become less and less inspired and motivated. In turn this made both my page views and comments diminished, which left me even more reluctant to write (a bit of a bad cycle to be honest!). However, after a good ol' break, I'm excited at the prospect of writing again, even if no one is reading! Ha!

So what's new? Well I'm now a second year at university. The progression from first to second year has been quite substantial. As I've mentioned before, I study in Liverpool, a city which I have grown to love dearly and missed incredibly over the summer! I lived right in the city center during first year and have moved a few miles out into a lovely big house with my 5 closest girlfriends. It does mean getting a bus every morning into uni, but it's actually done me the world of good as I'm not nipping into town to go shopping every two minutes!

I study English literature now, whereas before I was joint with creative writing (cw). I found the CW side of the degree not to be to my taste. It consisted of writing a lot poetry, prose and screenplay and not a whole lot of teaching. I understand that university is far more independent than school and does not teach in the same style, but to me it felt like I wasn't being educated at all. So I took the plunge and swapped to single honors  despite knowing it would be a hell of an increase in work load. But so far, two weeks in, I'm so happy I changed I have almost double the contact hours and am engaged by the modules and texts we are studying. How geeky to I sound haha?! Trust me, I'm still a student that goes out and get's trollied at every opportunity!

Another major change in my life.... Brace yourselves.... I cut my hair!! I had always been the girl with the ridiculously long hair, but it had become so damaged and lifeless I decided to take the plunge and have about 5-6 inches chopped off. It's like a long bob now, sits just above my boobs. I'm still struggling to adjust if i'm honest. I don't really know how to style my hair with it this short, but it is so much thicker and healthier, even when I have regretful and ugly moments, I know i've pretty much done it the world of good. I need to start experimenting with shampoo's too. I've found that so far, most make it look quite greasy, even if I only use a tiny amount. If anyone can recommend a decent shampoo / conditioner I would be very greatful!

I've been spending a lot of time with my boyfriend too. I'm not sure he's ever had much of a mention on here, but seeing as we've been together a year now, I should probably give him a little mention. He races semi-professionally in one of the British Superbike supporting classes (that's motorbikes to anyone who may think the previous line was genuine gibberish), so I've been up and down the country travelling to his race meetings, which I suppose is part of the reason I've not been writing, as my weekends are rarely spent curled up with a cuppa writing about make-up. However, i'm still buying as much make-up as ever and to be honest I could blog for 10 years and not manage to review everything in my ever growing collection! I've pretty much changed my whole routine since last posting about every day make-up, so that's top of my list to get writing.

So... before I blab on for another 2 pages, I hope you're all well. Thankyou to the 420 odd of you that have stuck with my little blog, even back from the days when it was LONDON GEMS. I vow to make it up to you all with some interesting posts! 

If you've managed to read this entire post, or at the very least skim read it, I salute you and sorry if I've bored you to death. Leave your blog links!

<3

R E V I E W : Ebay Dupe Brushes

I spend a lot of my time looking at eBay listings. Most of my makeup brushes come from me stumbling across familiar looking products and getting them for half the retail price. When I saw these, I was shocked at how much they look like Samantha Chapman's Real Techniques (RT) brushes and within two clicks, they were mine!

The brush above on the left is an angled kabuki type brush. To put it simply, its an angled F80 sigma style brush. I've been using this brush for bronzer day-to-day, as it is small enough to create shape on my face without being so precise.

The middle brush looks exactly like the real techniques contour brush, only slightly bigger. I've been using it to blend in my concealer under my eyes, as it does the job in seconds! I've also used it with highlighters. The point is perfect for concentrating a powder on the top of cheek bones and under the eyebrows!

The right brush is almost identical to the Sigma F80 kabuki brush. I have been using it with mineral foundation and it works a treat. The bristles are so so so soft and it leaves my skin looking flawless!

The brush on the left is my favorite of the set. It is very similar to the RT expert face brush, only the bristles are longer. This is the one I've been using every day to apply and blend my foundation. If you've been lusting after the expert brush or the buffing brush then I recommend you using the money to buy this set of brushes instead!

Finally, on the right is the stipple brush, an exact copy for the RT stipple brush. It's lightweight and small enough to use for applying blush, which is what I've been using it for. I've also been using it to apply highlighter on the top of my cheekbones.

Overall, I'm really impressed with this little bargain!

The brushes are all really high quality and the bristles are super soft. 

They also come in gold and pink, however I decided on blue so I could distinguish them from the real things!

All in all, the set came to £15.00 including delivery.

<3 Jen

LINK to seller - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/400499630142?var=670101072184&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

R E V I E W : Loreal Superliner Perfect Slim

I popped into Superdrug yesterday to get the Loreal Superliner Liquid Liner, which I've used for years. However after seeing that my loyal liner was out of stock, I did panic slightly. How would I manage one more day without a liquid liner? People would see what an alien I looked without it (yes, that thought actually ran through my mind, before I laughed at myself and realized what a nit-wit I was). After almost having a crisis, I noticed this little "pen" liner. I was intrigued, as the only other pen liner I had tried was crap and dried out in a week (I'm looking at you MUA). However, I remembered reading a good review on it somewhere so decided to try it... I'm so glad I did! It is so easy to use and I now actually sport perfectly straight and even, true black, long lasting liner!

The packaging is nice and simple; black with gold writing. The actual nib is long, but not too long to line around your eye with ease. The tip is tiny, which makes it perfect for creating a sharp flick. It is easy to create a small line using little strokes and really does make applying liquid liner a total doddle. It's soft enough to maneuver with ease, but not so soft that precision becomes difficult. The color  "intense black", is a true black. I've tried so many liners that look blue or brown under certain lights, but this does not! Thus far, I would rate the lasting power as brilliant.

What do you think of 'pen' type eyeliners? Tried this one?

- JEN

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/8296153/?claim=gvsm3cc7yb5">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Premier Natural Dazzle by BARRY M...

Superdrug are torturing us beauty junkies once again with there common '3 for 2' across all cosmetics offer. So whilst I was casually looking for sun cream (as i'm off to Spain this weekend!), I was drawn to what looked like Nars Laguna Bronzer hiding in the Barry M display... Now i'll be honest, I have never had the luxury of trying the Nars bronzer, so I can't really comment on whether the actual product is similar or dissimilar. However the packaging is the twin!

You get 12g of product, which is more than generous. It comes in a flip lid, matte black plastic pan. The mirror is massive, which makes it perfect for using when applying make-up on the go. 

The product itself is great for using as a light contour or all over for a little sun kissed glow. I'm quite pale and don't always get on well with bronzers, as they often make me look orange. However this one is gorgeous and lovely for the daytime and can be easily build up. It's matte, which again I prefer. If you prefer shimmery, just add a powder highlight over the top and you're good to go!

Price - £9.99

Available in Boots and Superdrug.

Overall, I love this bronzer and can tell it's going to last a long time and come in really handy! Let me know if you've tried it and what you think!

<3

-jen

M.A.C Mineralise Skin Finish Natural...

I tend to wear medium to heavy coverage foundations day-day as I'm extremely insecure about my skin due to hyper-pigmentation on spots. Over the years, I've found that these heavier foundations don't tend to last as well on my skin as well as lighter foundations. To combat this, playing around with various pressed powders has  helped the lasting power of various foundations. By a clear mile, the best powder I have ever owned and used is MAC Mineralise Skin Finish Natural, in the shade light.

The mua recommended this to me, saying it adds a little coverage of its own. I totally agree, it hides the redness that my foundation fails to, which is a huge bonus as it means I have to wear less concealer. On good skin days, I use a fluffy powder brush and swirl a little across my face. On bad skin days I use a big kabuki brush and press it all over my face.

The product itself is extremely pigmented, one touch covers the brush and is enough to cover my face. This justifies the hefty price tag of £21 (in my mind) as it lasts so much longer than any others I have tried. I have searched high and low for a high street alternative, but for me, none of them hit the mark. So if like me you're looking for a powder with a tiny bit of added coverage that sets a foundation well, this is deffo for you!

Any of you tried this? Love it or hate it?

<3

Through an iPhone Lense...

I've been so busy with uni lately and haven't had the time to blog!
This is a little snapshot of what's been happening & the little luxuries I've been treating myself to.

I will be finishing uni for the year over the next couple of weeks and have already started drafting some posts, so expect a lot more activity from London Gems!

Red Velvet cake // Face // Travel Make-up
Little & large // MAC samples // Best easter egg ever
Face // Primark bag // Daily Make-up
Movies in bed // Train journey treats // Love my dad!

<3