Blogging Milestone - 100 Followers

Hi everyone,

Today's post is going to be very sentimental and I know that to a lot of you you'll be like 'alright, calm down love' but I reached 100 followers last night and was literally so happy. I know to a lot of people this will sound so silly and pathetic but it's my first blogging milestone. Around 3?! (god, how time flies) months ago I took the plunge and did something that i'd wanted to do for a really long time and created this blog. And I am literally so glad I did, before my blog I didn't have a hobby and I was constantly complaining that I was talentless and bored and this has therefore given me something that has actually really inspired me. I love waking up every day and checking if I have a new follower or a new blog comment and there is something inside me that makes me grin with pride when I see somebody say something nice about my blog. 

To some people 100 followers is nothing, and to be completely honest seeming as their is like over 7 billion of us in the world it's hardly an amazing achievement but to me it means an awful lot so thank you to every single one of you who decided to take the time to comment on my blog or follow me, you really have made me smile.

When I first set up this blog I honestly didn't think one person would be interested in what little old me had to say or my opinion so it's amazing to see that a fair few of you do care and do enjoy reading my ramblings. It took me a huge amount of courage to open this space on the web, I love it because it's my own personal area on something so big as the internet and it gives me somewhere to creatively express my self but it's actually quite scary too. So really this post is just a massive thank you too you all, I will try and host a giveaway soon as well, to show you just how grateful I really am. But for now, thank you for supporting me and I hope this is just step one on the journey of this blog and hopefully it will continue to grow and be supported.

Seriously thank you

Lots of Love to you all

Gem xxx

P.S - I promise tomorrow i'll be back to my old, un-soppy self actually i've got a haul for you, so don't worry, i'm not just loosing the plot! x

My fav Soap and Glory products

Hi Dolls, 

Today's post is going to be all about some of the Soap and Glory products, some of you who may have read my blog for a while or in the past may have seen that I have a slight obsession with anything from Soap and Glory, they're one of my favourite brands because everything they create smells amazing, is great for your skin and just leaves me feeling lovely. I have recently began trying out some of their makeup range as well and I love that just as much. Therefore I thought i'd show you guys four things from Soap and Glory that I absolutely love and would recommend to anyone of you. The four things I want to share with you are Hand Food, Face Soap, Clean on me and their famous Righteous Butter. 

The Righteous Butter

 

The first Soap and Glory product which I would definitely recommend due to the fact it's one of my all time favourites and one of the products that I think I would repurchase a good few times is the Righteous butter. On the packaging Soap and Glory claims that it is a body moisturising formula so smooth you might just feel like you're wearing velvet. And I could actually agree with that, this leaves my skin so so so soft, most moisturisers leave your skin fairly soft but this is the moisturiser that I think really actually does work and leaves my skin softer than when i've used anything else. It is quite a thick consistency but glides on to the skin and works in fairly effortlessly as well. I love the fact that this product has lasted me such a long time, it's 300ml which means you get absolutely loads of product and  you hardly need any to get your skin feeling hydrated. This product also smells really nice, which is typical of any Soap and Glory product and also has such cute packaging that stands out. I think all of the Soap and Glory packaging is gorgeous though. Probably the thing about this product that I love the most is how multi-functional it is, you can literally use this moisturiser everywhere. I use this daily in the mornings before I apply makeup and also after I have taken my makeup off at night time. I also use it on my arms and legs and literally all over my body and it has the same affect absolutely everywhere. It really is a miracle worker and I am so glad that I own it. I've had this sam tub since Christmas and since I use it every single day without failure I think it really has lasted well and therefore is worth the price tag of £10.50. Best of all I'm not the only one who loves this body butter, in actual fact it has won several awards including the 'Woman In Home - Best of Beauty Award in 2012'. Probably THE best product you could own from Soap and Glory. 

Face and Soap Clarity

Another Soap and Glory product that has made it's way into my daily routine would be this Face Soap Clarity 3 in 1 Daily - Detox Wash with Vitamin C. Now this product is simply a face wash that you can use every single day on your face, I normally use this at night time to refresh my face before I go to bed. Soap and Glory says "A high-tech, gentle non-drying foaming facial wash, formulated with complexion-friendly, easy-rinse surfactants and special SUPERFRUIT™ PLUM skin brightening complex" I would again agree with what they have said, apart from where it says non - drying, I do find that if I use this product too much I sometimes get a few dry patches on my skin, nothing major and it can easily be combatted with an extra bit of moisturiser. The thing I do love about this face wash is the skin brightening, it has small pink beads in and therefore when I wash my face it really cleans out my skin, I feel like it has really cleaned out all of my pores and left my face feeling really refreshed. I love how my skin does look brightened and squeaky clean and I also love how cooling this product is and also the smell. Again this product lasts fairly well, this is my second bottle but I feel like you only need a tiny amount due to the fact it foams a bit so I hardly have to use any product therefore again the £7.00 price tag is really justified and this isn't bad for a quality face wash. Really do love this product.

Clean On Me Shower Cream

 

My third favourite product from Soap and Glory would be it's Clean on Me Shower Gel, I absolutely adore this product, this and the Bubble Bath they do are absolutely amazing and so great for your skin. What I like about this shower cream is the fact that normally when i'm in the shower I opt for shower gels and they have a completely different formula, they are almost slippery but this product is completely different, it is a cream with a built in body lotion and therefore it glides effortlessly down the skin, it really cleans your skin and also leaves your skin feeling so soft. I feel like this cream lets me feel relaxed, it again smells heavenly and is very good for your skin. This is a 'treat' product for me though, it retails for £5.50 which isn't that bad for a shower gel at all, I always thought it cost a lot more, but this is seriously the most heavenly product for your showers ever. Soap and Glory actually says "Soft, smooth, sexy skin whenever you want it. Contains natural mandarin peel extract and a bonus built-in body lotion. Scented with our Original Pink™ fragrance" I would again agree with everything that S&G says, especially the fact you get smooth, soft and sexy skin. Again this product has won an award in 2011 from Company Magazine for being one of their beauty faves, so again i'm not the only one who thinks a lot of this gorgeous product.

Hand Food

Last but not least another product that I enjoy a lot from soap and glory would be their "Hand Food' rated 5/5 on Boots and being super moisturising for dry hands within the colder months it is an instant hit for me. It's nothing special or anything extraordinary but it simply does the job quickly and effectively, it smells nice, it doesn't leave your hands feeling really greasy for a long time and it retails for £5.00 and comes in the perfect size for you to just chuck in your hand bag if you're going to be out and about. It's simply one of those products you take for granted until you run out and notice how different your hands actually feel. Soap and Glory actually say Soap & Glory Hand Food™ Hand Cream 125ml is a super-silky gorgeously-scented non-greasy hydrating hand cream featuring fennel and lotus flower extracts, which leaves your hands super smooth." And again I completely agree with this description. 

Hope this has helped you and you've enjoyed reading my Soap and Glory picks

What are your fav products from S&G?

Lots of Love

Gem xxx

Fake Bake Beyond Bronze VS St Tropez Instant Glow Body Lotion

Hi Dolls,

This is another new post for my blog today, I haven't really done a post about Fake Tan ever before, the reason being is that i'm super pale and therefore I sometimes feel that Fake Tan just looks quite stupid on me, especially as all of the people around me know that i'm a ghost face. But recently i've actually been trying out a few fake tan products so instead of doing 2 bog standard reviews I thought i'd change it up a bit and do a comparison of two of the fake tans that I've been trying to use. I have been using a Fake Tan from two brands that rule the fake tan market, firstly a fake tanning lotion by Fake Bake and secondly a instant glow body lotion by St. Tropez. The reason that I decided to compare both of these products within a blog post was due to the fact that they are both instant solutions in terms of Fake Tan and neither of them are the kind of fake tans you have to wait to develop over night and secondly they are both wash off tans, which is perfect for me incase of those mistakes which I am very prone to making when trying to apply fake tan. Both of these products also have a fairly cheap price point so I thought it would be cool to compare them and see which worked better for me and my skin tone. One thing I need to say first though is the fact that I brought the Fake Bake product in Shimmer Light, which is one of the lightest shades you can get in it because I was scared to go super dark when I was first trying to get used to using tanning products. But the St. Tropez product is super duper dark, so they are very different in terms of shades but they both have the same concept behind the product.

The first thing I thought I would compare was the packaging, I know packaging doesn't really matter with fake tans because normally it gets completely smeared and ruined with the product inside anyway, but I do actually think that both of these fake tans have fairly nice packaging, they both have squeesy tubes though and i'm not sure if I like that. Later on in the post you'll see that I kind of had quite a disaster with the squeesy tubes of one of the products and a lot of the time the product just comes shooting out of these tubes which I actually don't really like. I would say that out of both of the products though I must prefer the Fake Bake packaging simply because it looks much prettier and also I am loving anything pink at the moment.

Fake Bake - Beyond Bronze - Shimmer Light - (£9.99 from Boots)

Right, next i'm going to be considering application of the product. In the pictures below you can see my arm before application, me applying the tan, me rubbing the tan in and then the finished product. I think that the application of this Fake Bake product was actually really simple, the product dispensed out of the tube fairly easily and I didn't get too much of an amount, the fake tan was also not so sticky that it wouldn't actually move so it made it really easy for me to rub it in. I rubbed it in with my fingers and a mitt so I could see which the easiest was and to be honest they were both made easy by using this tan, and I felt it worked into the skin well. The finished product was for me really great, I looked like i'd been out bathing in the sun and the tan wasn't really 'fake' looking, which i'm glad about because I don't want to look ridiculous, especially because of how pale I am. The scent of this fake tan was fairly good and didn't offend me too much and I loved how it just enhanced the look and feel of my skin, this tan was fake but looked quite real and that was something I absolutely loved about it. 

St Tropez - Instant Body Glow Lotion (£10.26 in Boots)

Next I tried using my St. Tropez Instant Body Glow lotion on my opposite arm. The main problem with this product was that one tiny squeeze managed to leave me with so much product on my arm, it was literally ridiculous (you can tell from the photo's) and I was less than impressed, I couldn't believe how easy it had shot out of the bottle, this meant that I ended up wasting a huge amount of product and because St Tropez is fairly pricey I wasn't really liking that very much. Anyway I progressed to trying to make it work and rubbed it in with my fingers and a mitt, in the end i discovered that a mitt worked the best due to how hard this product was to rub into the skin, to get an even application you definitely needed the addition of a tanning mitt. In the end you can see just how tanned my arm was left looking and in actual fact I didn't hate it, it was weird seeing how tanned I looked but I didn't think it looked too ridiculous, just very fake. I think a lot of people would prefer this product simply due to how well it builds up and gives you the 'fake' look that people desire these days. The only thing I would say about this product was the fact that I felt the tan had a slightly green tinge to it? I don't know if I just got a funny one but it seemed to be fairly green and I didn't really like that about it. 

             

Overall, I found it really hard to judge which of the fake tan's that I had tried actually looked the best, firstly I think that the different in amounts of products that I used made a fairly big difference and secondly I think both of these fake tans are great but for different uses. The fake bake fake tan was really good for during the day or just topping my self up so I look more healthy and glowing where as the St.Tropez was the best for looking more 'fake' and glamorous for a night out. Overall, I will continue to use both of these tans for different times and I think I actually quite like them both. Also I tested them both and they do both wash off fairly easily like the bottles state, so i'm actually fairly impressed with them both, it just depends which look you are going for with your fake tan. The price of the products are fairly similar and cheap so it just depends on personal preference. 

Thanks for reading

Lots of Love

Gem xxxx

Christmas Wishlist

Hi Ladies!

Today I thought I would create a wish list of some products that I would love to receive for Christmas. I know a lot of you will be shaking your head in shame and thinking i've got way ahead of my self writing about Christmas already but I love the festive period and it's never too early to start buying presents for others and starting to think about what you would love to receive. 

Christmas Wishlist by gemb featuring mac cosmetics

Dorothy Perkins star jewelry / MAC Cosmetics , $32 / MAC Cosmetics lip stick / Juicy Couture / VCO 9' x 14" Pre-Lit Douglas Fir Artificial Christmas Swag Garland... / 50's Christmas Stocking, $3.13 / Real Techniques by Samantha Chapman Core Collection

So these are five things that I would absolutely love to recieve this christmas and I would definately be one hell of a lucky lady if I recieved any of these gifts. 

Firstly we have Viva la Juicy, I absolutely adore this perfume, it smells gorgeous, I am a massive fan of really strong scents and therefore this perfume is right up my street, it smells so sweet and fresh and elegant, I can't really describe how it smells at all but it is seriously beautifully smelling, the bottle is gorgeous too and would look lovely sitting on my dressing table. Plus you have to have some perfume for christmas to get you through the year, so yeah i'd love to see Santa had brought this bottle of perfume for me this year. 

Secondly I would like to receive the original naked palette, I don't know if many of you know but I already have the Naked 2 palette and it's really well loved but I have been researching the first Naked palette recently and think that the warmer toned colours might work even better. This is definitely not something I need, because I have more than enough neutral eyeshadows in my collection but nether-less it's so beautiful and I think it would get a huge amount of use from me.

The third thing I would love too see under my Christmas tree would be the Real Techniques Core Collection of brushes, I already have a few of these brushes and I love them, they're so soft and allow me to create a flawless face with my makeup and therefore I think they're just awesome, I really want to try the Core Collection of brushes because it has the famous buffing brush in it and also comes with more face brushes that i've been eyeing up for a while. Probably the thing I would love too see the most this Christmas.

The two final things on my wish list this Christmas would be 2 Mac products, the first of these products is the Mac Studio Fix powder + foundation, i've heard a lot of great things about this powder and the way it controls oily for those of us with oily skin types so therefore I think this would be a great powder and I want to branch out into trying more Mac products. Secondly is the famous Mac Angel Lipstick which Kim Kardashian herself is a massive fan off. Again I would love to try this because I think the colour is gorgeous and perfect for every day and nights out when you play up your eye makeup a bit. 

So there we have it, my christmas wish list

What's on your list this christmas?

Lots of love

Gem xxx

Ebay 28 Blush Palette

Hi Ladies,

Today I have got a post for you on something extremely beautiful but also extremely cheap, I have heard bits and bobs about beauty products being sold on eBay, but have mostly heard tales of fake products and dodgy sellers ripping people off. This had not really left me with a great impression of beauty products on eBay, for everything else eBay is an absolute star so I thought i'd check it out and see what it did have to offer. I was searching through endless listings and kept seeing palettes of eyeshadow, concealer and blusher for as little as under a fiver, seriously eBay is bargain heaven. Eventually I settled on a 28 blush palette, i've been trying to grow my blusher collection recently and for £4.89 with free postage and packaging I thought I couldn't really go wrong. 

The blush palette actually had to come from Hong Kong, so I had a fairly long wait for the palette, it took around 3 weeks for it to come, which I didn't think was too bad seeming as it had to come all the way from the other side of the world. And I was happy that the blusher palette came in a box full of bubble wrap and therefore had survived the journey. And in actual fact I would say that this is one of the best beauty products i've brought in a really long time. 

First of I love the packaging, the blushes are housed in a black plastic case which reminds me of the Mac palettes and therefore its nice and sleek and I think it's fairly good and very sturdy. 

Secondly the actual blushes are so so so good, there is such an array of colours and they are all creamy and very pigmented, some of the blushes are matte and some have some shimmer running through them but all of them are gorgeous and very wearable. I actually couldn't believe how good they were for the price that I paid. The one thing I would say is that the palette kind of overkills the pinks within the palette and a lot of the shades on the first row are kind of the same, but hey?! you can never have too much off a good thing and theres still another 20 shades for me too choose from. 

These blushes also pick up really well on my blush brush and you hardly need any product to get a nice flushed glow, actually at first I expected to be swirling my brush round for ages and I actually did that and ended up looking like a clown, they are highly pigmented, really creamy and just ace. And i think it's such a nice palette to have in your collection, it allows you to try out blush colours that you wouldn't have necessarily gone for and try out new things and I think this is definitely something nice and easy to use in the morning. I think this palette is great for people who just want to play around with makeup and would also be perfect for makeup artists because it's a great blush palette for shoots because you have all your blushes in one easy place.

♥

Thanks for reading

Lots of Love

Gem xxx

Sleek i-divine PPQ Shangri-La - Respect Palette

Hi Girls,

Two posts in one day, I think I’m on fire a bit today, I’ve just changed my blog layout around and I think it looks much more professional now and I’ve been editing photo’s so I’m feeling a lot more positive about blogging now. Also I have now reached 90 followers – thank you all so much for supporting me! I’m trying to get into more of a blogging routine so that you girls always have something new to read but I’m kind of one of those people who just has to blog when inspiration hits me but I’m trying.

Anyway, you may have seen that in my last post I mentioned that I went shopping well, whilst I was in Super Drug I saw that they had both of the new Sleek Palettes that had been released. I’ve wanted to get my hands on some Sleek products for quite a while now but I haven’t really been able to decide exactly what I should get so when I saw this palette it was perfect. I really liked this palette straight away, the colors are just so autumn and so wearable now that the weathers got colder. I immediately liked the fact that this palette had the neutrals that I’m so comfortable wearing but also had a few brighter colors that worked well with the neutrals so that I could become a bit braver with my eye shadow. I’m one of those people who is very influenced by the packaging of products and can I just say that every single thing on Sleeks display cabinet looked gorgeous, they have this slick black packaging that just looks lovely and they’re packaging certainty reflects their name well.

I didn’t just buy the product for its gorgeous packaging though, there was also a tester palette so I swatched some of the eye shadows on my hand and saw how greatly pigmented and creamy they were and that just meant I had to have it.

Let me just say this palette is awesome, it’s such a fab palette for autumn/winter and so unique to some of the other palettes I’ve seen on the market. The eye shadows themselves are very bendable, creamy and so pigmented.  In all honestly they’re just about the same in quality as some of my urban decay eye shadows which is really saying something! These eye shadows are perfect to wear everyday to the office and school but are also great if you want to play your eyes up for a night out because you can really use the brighter orange and red shades, I’m seriously IN love.

 

What Sleek Says:

“Inspired by classic Motown sound, the PPQ collection has a retro vibe channeling glamorous 60’s style! Limited edition Respect i-Divine is packed with super pigmented, creamy eye shadow, with color’s inspired by PPQ’s S/S 2013 collection, with flattering coral pink and orange shades. Choose from shade names such as ‘Otis Red’ and ‘New Jack Pink’”

I don’t really agree with the claims that the Sleek made, I don’t really see that these eyeshadows are very vintage? Some of the colours like the orange could be seen to be from the 60’s era and it’s definitely a glamorous product and it’s right about the gorgeous pink and coral shades. They do have some great names for some of the colours as well, including Glady’s white, James Brown, Shalamar, Count basi beige, Aretha Orange, Otis Red, New Jack Pink, Ojays, Motown Mink, Cameo Cream, Vandellas and Roberta Black.

This palette retails for £7.99 in Superdrug or on the Sleek Website (Although you do have to pay tax!?) Such a great palette for these Autumn Months!

Lots of Love

Gem xxx

Models Own Nail Varnish - Glitterball Hot Stuff

Hi Dolls,

The other day me and my boyfriend went shopping for our 2 year anniversary and I got drawn to Boots once again (darn that 3 for 2 offer!) anyway I’ve been eyeing up some of the models own Mirror ball collection for a little while now after seeing them on a few blog posts and just thinking they were gorgeous. I’m a massive fan of anything blingy or full of glitter so these nail varnishes were right up my street. I’m not a massive nail varnish girl, I do buy nail varnish and wear it but I don’t have the most patience so unlike a lot of you lovely ladies I don’t have the time or the effort to be creating lots of beautiful nail varnish designs, I just want something that is wearable. Anyway my boyfriend brought me the “Hot Stuff Mirror ball Nail Varnish” and I love it. 

You do need to apply a base coat first due to the fact that this is a glittery product and therefore works lovely layered up as a top coat over a nice pink shade but it isn’t perfect by itself. I think this is such a lovely color and I want to pick a few more of them up, I think they would look lovely over the festive period where you can get away with more glitter. Actually I haven’t ever tried a models own nail varnish before (I know, big shocker!) so I was really surprised by the quality of this nail varnish and even if you don’t wear it, it is soooo damn pretty to stare at, so that’s enough right?!

A few people have said that as pretty as these nail varnishes are they aren’t very wearable, but I wouldn’t say that, you could wear this on one accent nail to make your nails look a bit more dramatic or do what I’m planning to do and plaster it over them all to add some glitz into my life. Other people have also said this is a hell to get off your nails, I don’t know because I haven’t tried getting it off yet but I would say that most glitter nail varnishes are a pain to get off so you may as well bite the bullet and try it anyway.

This nail varnish retails for £5.00!! BARGAIN, and you can pick it up at Boots or on the Models Own website, seriously such a lovely color, massive thumbs up from me!

♥

P.s – I decided that the pictures on my blog just weren’t cutting it after being lazy and simply using my iphone for the last few months so I’ve cracked my camera out and have been working on better lighting for my blog photo’s. 

Let me know if you think it looks any better or give me some tips! I’m a newbie and the photo’s are the one thing I really do struggle with. Also sorry for the fact theres about one hundred pictures of this nail varnish bottle, was trying out my camera and had a lot of fun so thought i'd chuck them all in so I could see what you guys thought. 

Thanks for reading

Lots of Love

Gem xxx