Real Techniques Starter Set

Real Techniques 'Starter Set' - Boots Website - £21.99 here 

Hi ladies, hope you're all okay! Today I'm going to be talking about the Real Techniques 'Starter Set'. Again, Real Techniques have had a fair amount of coverage on my blog and back in January I did a Real Techniques Collection that you can find here if you're interested. Anyway, recently I decided I wanted to pick up the 'eye' set of brushes from Real Techniques because my face collection get so much use and since my lovely mum picked me up the 'Core Collection' for Christmas it's made my love for Real Techniques grow and grow. Anyway I'm going to jump right in and start telling you lovely lot a bit about the 'Starter Set' from the brand.

Now the 'Starter Set' of brushes from Real Techniques is basically a collection of five essential eye brushes that you can use when doing your makeup every single day. You have a brush for everything from doing your eyebrows, to eye shadow, to eyeliner and blending out your concealer and therefore it's a really handy set to have. The reason that I ummed and arrhed about getting this set for a while is because i'm a bit of an eye shadow novice and it's something I find really hard and therefore I didn't know if I would get a lot of use out of some of the eye brushes in this collection but I can hand on heart say that since I have bought this set i've used pretty much every single brush every single day and therefore I think it was a really good investment for me and if you're someone who is putting off buying this set then I would really urge you to go and give it ago. Within this set you get a base shadow brush, a deluxe crease brush, a accent brush, a pixel-point eyeliner brush and also a brow brush as well as a case to hold them in.

Deluxe Crease Brush - 'soft, over sized design for effortless contouring'. This brush is my absolute favourite and just like the buffing brush is the star of the core collection this is the star of this set of brushes and I wish that you could pick it up separately  I love this for blending out concealer, it works amazingly with my mac studio finish concealer to cover blemishes and also is amazing at blending concealer out under the eye to help cover those pesky dark circles. This is a lot denser than the base shadow brush and is a lot bigger and rounder. For me this could work as a good brush to help blend out the crease or contour the eye socket but because I have smaller eyelids i just find it works perfectly for concealer and therefore that's what I will continue to use it for but if you wanted a set of brushes simply for your eye makeup this would be a great brush for blending and crease work too.

Base Shadow Brush - 'Applies a smooth, flawless foundation of colour'. This is one of my favourite brushes within the collection and this is the brush that I use to pack on eye shadow on to my eyelid and also blend it out. It's a really good all rounder and a really nice brush to have in your brush collection. This brush is really soft and is quite fluffy, it's not to dense which means its good enough to pack on colour but multi-tasks and works as a really good brush to blend out the colour in the crease and just make your whole eye makeup look really seamless. If you have trouble with your eye shadow and blending it out like me you might find this really useful because since I've owned it I've founded that my eye shadow looks much more blended and professional and i'm really happy with this little baby.

Accent Brush -'Designed for precision detailing, spotlighting, highlighting and smudging'. This is a teeny tiny brush and it really reminds me of the detailer brush from the core collection, this is a really dense small brush that is absolute perfect for making your eye shadow look absolutely spot on. I personally use this brush for getting into the inner corners and tear ducts of my eyes and putting a light highlighting shadow, I also use this to highlight the brow bone and work in the outer v if I want to add an accent shadow to that area. I find this really useful for just really getting my eye shadow in harder areas and it's completely right when it says its perfect for precision detailing. For those of you who aren't massively into going too big with your eye shadow this could be a really good lip brush so there's multiple uses for this brush too.

Pixel Point Eyeliner Brush - 'Tapered cut is ideal for dense or fine eyeliner application'. Out of all of these brushes this is the brush for me that i'm not overly impressed with, it's not that it's a bad brush but the thing is that I find it really thick and flimsy and to be honest I am absolutely useless at using it to line my eyes. This is probably personal preference and i'm sure for lots of people this would really work but I need a really dense brush to line my eyes and I normally prefer an angled brush that's a bit skinnier for the job.

Brow Brush - 'Distinctive shape easily defines eyebrows'. I absolutely love this brush, I am a massive eyebrow girl and always have been, my eyebrows are probably my favourite feature of my face and I really enjoy filling them in, I have naturally pretty defined eyebrows and I was never one of those people to over pluck them so I don't have to use a huge amount of product because I don't really need to fill in sparse area's I just like to define my brows a little bit and this brush is absolutely perfect for that, it picks up a little bit of product but not too much and is the perfect size for getting into the brows and working the product through and I really really enjoy using this one.

Overall I absolutely adore this brush set, I love the purple handles and love the pop of colour that it brings, I love the design of all these brushes, love that they're all soft and lovely to use, they're sturdy brushes and I know they're high quality and will last for a long time. I think the case they come in is really cute and works well to hold all of my brushes in the right place and i'm a huge fan of the Real Techniques brand in general. I think this really is an essential set and if you invest in these brushes you really will get your use out of them because they're essential brushes you need every single day. I would recommend this kit to anyone and I really do wish I'd picked it up earlier!

Let me know if you've tried any of the RT brand and i'll speak to you all really soon! 

Lots of Love 

Gem xxx

Soap and Glory 'Peaches and Clean' Review

Soap and Glory 'Peaches & Clean' 4 in 1 Wash off Deep Cleansing Lotion - £7.00 - Boots - here

Hi Ladies, Hope you're all doing okay, today I thought i'd share with you this lovely product from Soap and Glory the 'Peaches & Clean' 4 in 1 Wash Off Deep Cleansing Lotion, god what a mouthful! If you've read my blog for a while you'll know that I absolutely adore Soap and Glory, I own a huge range of their products and i'm constantly reviewing them and talking about them on my blog, I try not to overwhelm you too much but I always think they deserve a cheeky mention. I love the whole brand as a whole and I've never found a product from them yet that I don't like. Anyway for Christmas my lovely brother got me the Soap and Glory 'Best of All' gift set (post here) because he knows I have serious love for all their products & this was one of the products within the gift set that I've never tried before so I thought i'd give it ago for a few months & then review it for you all.

I thought i'd start by explaining what this product actually is, the name is pretty long and confusing but basically this is Soap and Glory's answer for a cleanser, on their website they say "Our special clogged T-zone formula Includes peach extract (with skin smoothing fruit acids), quillaja bark (a gentle natural ‘soap’), jojoba oil (an emollient skin softener), Detoxyboost™ technology (to help purify and deep clean) and Poreshrink R2™ (for a clearer, fresher, brighter complexion). In our opinion it’s the best cleansing milk on the market!". They say that you should use this on your face in the evenings to take off your makeup and it will leave your face really clean, smooth and refreshed.

First of all I really like the packaging of this one, not only because it's fun and girly like all of the other Soap and Glory products but also because it has a pump & I think that's such an important feature of a cleanser. I hate it when my cleansers don't have a pump, because I hate just having to fire the product out especially when you're as clumsy as me it just doesn't work out very well and always ends up in a massive mess. I think this is a pretty good size for a cleanser, it's 200ml and if you were travelling this would be no pain to take because the pump actually locks meaning that the product won't leak anywhere.

The next thing that I have to mention is the smell as the name would suggest it smells like Peaches and Cream, but I think it also has a slightly minty smell to it. I'm personally not a fan of the smell of this, but that's because I don't really like the smell of peaches in general, if you do though I think the scent of this would be right up your street, because it really is bang on and smells exactly like peaches, it's quite a nice scent for spring and summer actually.

In terms of the actual product, I don't actually use it to remove my makeup, I think you could do if you wanted too but I find that I have to use quite a lot of product and my skin is super sensitive so I find that if I was to use this every day then my skin didn't really react that well. But on the odd occasion when I have used this to take my makeup off it has worked and got rid of all traces of eye makeup and face makeup and it's always left my skin feeling really nice too.

Anyway, because I haven't got a lot of use out of this product as a cleanser I decided that I would use it as a face mask once a week to give my skin a bit of a treat and for this purpose it works really amazingly, I leave it on whilst i'm showering or having a bath in the evening once I've taken my makeup off and spread a fair bit on my face, then I relax and once I've washed it off my skin an hour or so later I'm always so impressed by the results, it leaves my skin so silky smooth, really refreshed and literally glowing. I think this product just works so good as a face mask and more of a 'treat' for my skin rather than as an everyday product. I think this really does leave my skin looking radiant, clean and bright and my complexion always looks sooo much better when I've used this.

Overall, I would say that this is a really nice product just not my favourite of the cleansers from Soap and Glory, I've tried their Fab Pore Hot Cloth Cleanser which I thought was pretty good and I love their Soap and Glory foaming facial wash which is the face scrub I use in the mornings in the shower and I've also tried their 'Off Your Face' Cleansing wipes here and I really liked those too. So I don't think this is a bad product at all I just think Soap and Glory as a brand have better cleansers (all the examples mentioned are here) and this product for me works as an amazing face mask that does wonders for my skin once a week! I would suggest you try this if you're looking for a new face mask or you love the smells of peaches & cream because this will be right up your street! Let me know if you've tried any of the Soap and Glory Cleansing products and what you think and i'll speak to you all soon!

Lots of Love

Gem xxx

Rimmel Wake Me Up Foundation Review.

Rimmel Wake Me Up Foundation - Ivory - £8.99 Boots Website - here

Hi Ladies, Hope you're all okay! The other day on my blog I featured one of my top 5 ever products, which was my holy grail bronzer, the Bourjois Delice De Poudre Bronzing Powder, that gave me an idea. I was photgraphing a new Rimmel Wake Me Up Foundation (8th bottle i've repurchased I swear) for a haul and I thought it was about time I gave it credit & did a full review on it. It's weird that I talk about all the new products I've bought but I don't talk about or do review of the products that I actually love and use every single day. Anyway, sit back & get ready because I am ready to rave and rant about how amazing this foundation is.

I've actually used Rimmel Wake Me Up Foundation since pretty much the week it was released, which was well over a year ago. I picked up a bottle and at the time I was pretty damn sad when I applied it, instantly I knew I loved the consistency and I loved the coverage and just how it made my face look but it was way too dark, I'd picked up the completely wrong shade but in all honesty I didn't care, I was tempted to wear it anyway, I couldn't believe how amazing it actually made my face look and how glowing I looked. I actually loved the finish of this foundation so much that I went back that very same day and bought another bottle in my shade. That was where the real love affair began and ever since I've been obsessed, when I say that I've repurchased this for the 8th time I'm not joking, I actually have just thrown 3 empty bottles of this stuff away.

For me, this foundation was a turning point for Rimmel, ever since they released this foundation Rimmel as a brand just seemed to get stronger and stronger and release amazing products and Wake Me Up was the starting point for Rimmel becoming my favourite high street makeup brand. This foundation is fantastic, firstly lets talk about the packaging, I honestly think this is one of the nicest foundation bottles you can get from a high street makeup brand, most of the other brands have the blandest foundation bottles with just a black lid but I love the bright orange lid of Rimmel Wake Me Up, I love how it stands out and has a pump. It's also housed in a really nice glass bottle, although after a disaster with bottle number 3 when it smashed into a million pieces on my bathroom tiles one morning i'm not sure how practical a glass bottle actually is, especially with a clumsy girl like myself. Overall though the packaging of this product is pretty nice and fun and I love the individual shape of the bottle too.

The first thing I want to mention about this product is the smell, it smells absolutely gorgeous, it kind of smells fruity I think, I can't quite put my finger on what it actually smells like but it's really a refreshing scent & I really really like it, you can smell it when you pump it out of the bottle but I don't think I can smell it on my own face when i'm wearing it. It's just a really nice fresh smell that isn't too overpowering. The next thing to mention about this foundation is the amazing coverage it gives, it pretty much covers all my imperfections by itself and I don't have to use half as much concealer, it's definitely a medium coverage foundation but is so easily buildable that you can build it to pretty full coverage. The amazing thing though is although this gives a pretty amazing coverage it still manages to look slightly dewy and has a really natural finish, it's a foundation where people actually don't know if you're wearing anything at all, which is crazy considering how high coverage it provides.

This foundation differs from lots of other foundations due to the fact that is has a non fatigue effect in it which help to give you a really nice awake finish & help to make you look much more awake. In order to do this the foundation does contain little tiny flecks of shimmer, it is completely invisible when you put it on your face though & isn't unflattering in the slightest, it leaves you with a really fresh finish & it's slightly dewy (although not shiny) which I've been really loving even despite my oily skin. Another thing I love about this foundation is how thick and creamy it is, it glides on to the skin and is one of the easiest foundations to blend in, it hides everything because of the consistency but looks completely light on the skin, I've actually forgot I'm wearing any foundation before because it doesn't feel heavy, cakey or mask like which I find most foundations with good coverage do. I also find that this foundation lasts pretty much all day especially when set with a good setting powder, it has SPF 15 in too which is obviously good if you're wearing it every single day and it's pretty cheap at only £8.99 a bottle which is also a massive thumbs up from me.

This foundation also looks even more incredible combined with the Rimmel Fix and Perfect Pro Primer (also photographed) in shade 002, I was going to include a full review of this in this post too but I don't want to go on for ages so i'll do that sometime over the next few weeks but together they are pretty much a dream team and for two really inexpensive products you can get a flawless foundation routine that really lasts on the skin and looks pretty much amazing.

Overall, I really adore this foundation, it is the best drugstore foundation I have ever found & I have a good 10 or more that i'm trialing at the moment (oooops! I know!), it gives a beautiful finish is good for both oily & dry skin and is pretty much every single thing I want in a foundation all rolled into one. I would definitely recommend it to pretty much everyone the only thing I would say is that it the colour match isn't that amazing because I think they only have about 7 shades so for some deeper skin tones or really pale skin tones you could be left without a match. Apart from that though this has holy grail status for me and I can't even begin to explain how much I love it. If you haven't tried it you need too!!! So let me know if you do.

Let me know if you've tried this opinion or what your holy grail foundation is and I'll speak to you all soon!

Lots of love

Gem xxx

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Guest Post - Sandy at AB - The 4 best non-sticky lipglosses

 Sandy at Absolute Beaut - Guest Post
http://www.absolutebeaut.com/

Hi lovely ladies, I hope you're all okay! Today I am soooo excited to share with you all a Guest Post from the gorgeous Sandy who blogs over at Absolute Beaut. I tell you what she ain't half a beauty and i'm so excited that I can have one of her amazing posts on my little'ol blog! This is my first ever guest post and I really don't think I could have chose anyone better to do it with then Sandy, she's been such a star haha to be honest we've both faffed about for months and months but we finally got our butt's in gears and got our posts ready and when Sandy sent me hers earlier last week I was literally buzzing to share it with you all!
Anyway i'm not going to ramble anymore because this is Sandy's post not mine but please leave her loads of love in the comments section below and please go and check out and follow Sandy's blog here: http://www.absolutebeaut.com/ I promise you will absolutely love it, also find her on twitter @sandyatAB, or on blog'lovin here. Make sure to check out her blog too for my post about my 5 favourite lipsticks of all time! Anyway lets get on to Sandy's gorgeous post about 4 of the best non-sticky lipglosses!

You'd think that by now the beauty industry would have ditched the sticky lipglosses, right? But nope, they're still lurking around out there, with the Soap & Glory Sexy Mother Pucker glosses probably being the stickiest I've ever tried. Yes, the tacky lipglosses do have their positives - ultimately they last longer on the lips - but they don't half have some negatives too. Hair in lipgloss, lipgloss on face, lipgloss on cheek, and in my case my boyfriend ends up unknowingly wearing it too (which I secretly find hilarious and I sometimes give it a while before I tell him...haha). So if you hate sticky glosses, I have a few high street and high end options that I think you might love.

First up is the Chanel Glossimer in 165 Volupte. It's completely smooth on the lips but still has a little bit of grip, making it the longest lasting out of all four glosses. It's realllly sheer but for that reason I find myself reaching for it a lot, it's just really easy to slick on with any makeup look. With zero scent and no sweet artificial taste, the Chanel Glossimers are a great option if you have the budget to suit.

The YSL Golden Glosses are probably the exact opposite end of the Chanel Glossimers. These are in your face golden glitter with a really strong melon scent. But if you like your glosses super shiny, this is your dream gloss. The shade I have is No.3 Golden Pink and it’s the gloss that I'm wearing in the photo above – you can see how it gives lips an almost mirror shine. The golden shimmer doesn’t make it the most day-appropriate gloss, but on an night out it’s amazing. It was a staple for me on holiday last year, it’s great for a ‘sunkissed’ look.

Next up is the Bourjois 3D Effect Gloss in 50 Brun Exotic. This is actually quite an old shade, but the formula is one of the best drugstore options I've come across. The Bourjois offering also has lots of tiny gold sparkles, with the exact same feel as the YSL gloss (I think we may have a dupe here!). And if you love anything coconut scented, you will looooove this. It reminds me of Hawaiin Tropic sun lotion so whenever I put it on I instantly feel all summery.

And lastly is the newest lip gloss addition, Rimmel Stay Glossy in 120 Non Stop Glamour. I actually gave this to one of my friends for Christmas and after a bit of deliberating I went back and got one for myself. It's a gorgeous browny nude with teeny tiny gold shimmers. It's perfect for every day wear as well as being great to slick on over other lipsticks to make them less drying.

Packaging aside – YSL packaging is deff my favourite! - all of these glosses are pretty similar and most importantly they all feel so comfortable to wear when they're actually on the lips. If you only try one then make it the Rimmel glosses - with a non offensive scent and a flat doe-foot applicator, you won't be disappointed. If you have any non-sticky lipgloss recommendations, I'd love to know! Or maybe you much prefer stickier liglosses because they last longer? Team Silky or Team Sticky - which are you? Xxx

Bourjois Delice de Poudre Bronzing Powder Review

Bourjois Delice de Poudre Bronzing Powder - £6.99 Boots - here

Hi Dolls, Hope you're okay, I thought i'd do another post today, I already did one all about how to follow Gem's Beauty and some information regarding the Google Friend Connect Scandal so once you're done reading this one it would make me really happy if you scrolled down and gave that one a read too. Anyway I thought i'd do a post on one of my favourite products ever, I'd even go as far to say this product hits the top 5 makeup products EVER for me, which is a pretty big statement. So anyway lets get on with the review.

If you've read my blog for a while you will know I've always been a bronzer girl, some people love blush and I majorly love bronzer and I actually think this product could be why I am so in love with bronzers, this product completely changed my makeup routine years ago and I am still using it today. In actual fact I had my last one of these bad boys for 4 years and even after using it ever single day I still did not hit pan & I don't half slap this stuff on, I figured though that it was too old & gross too keep so I threw it away and with the Boots 3 for 2 offer on at the moment I decided that I would pick up another one & therefore a review seemed pretty much inevitable because everyone loves a nice, new shiny product. There is something about this particular bronzer that just hands down beats every single other bronzer I've tried. It is my favourite powder bronzer and just an absolute essential in my makeup bag, I love every single thing about it. And right now i'll say that I can't actually say one negative thing about it, it's just such a good product that I literally have nothing negative at all too say.

Firstly the packaging, the packaging on this isn't really overly glamorous but it does the job, the bronzer is housed in a really nice cardboard container, it's really simple it has a magnet in it so it stays shut and you can just pop it open to reveal the bronzer. It's nothing amazing and it's not really something that would look overly pretty on your dressing table but it's nice and compact, fits in my makeup bag well and does the job pretty perfectly, I've never found it to fall apart and my last one was still in tact after a long 3/4 years. When you open up the bronzer the bronzer is in 4 segments  a lot of people call this the 'Chocolate' Bronzer just because it looks like little squares of chocolate. The product goes down pretty deep and you actually get 16.5g's of product which is bloody loads especially for the price!! 

The product is ridiculously pigmented, I use my Real Techniques contour brush to apply this too the cheeks and then I normally blend it out with my Real Techniques blush brush but there is no swirling your brush endlessly with this product, you literally need the tiniest amount, anything more will make you look absolutely crazy. It's also a really gorgeous colour, it's not 'orangey' which therefore means you can completely avoid the oompa lumpa look but it's not a really dark brown either meaning that it really works on my slightly paler complexion, I think it would pretty much work on most skin tones though because it can be built up and I've seen friends that have darker skin tones than me wear it with ease too. The smell of this is pretty amazing, it smells really sweet, almost in between chocolate and vanilla so I am constantly sniffing it, it's quite unique for a bronzer to have a really nice smell but this has such a nice one that I can't wait to apply it, the smell actually sticks around for a few hours after application too which I love because I adore the scent, but if you're not much of a sweet scent lover than this may not be for you.

To me this is a pretty matte bronzer, although on the packaging for some reason it says that is has odd flecks of micro-glitter in it, I didn't find this at all and one of the reasons I really like this bronzer is that it's a perfect contour colour & it bronzes the face without adding loads of shimmer than can be quite unflattering when put in the right place. I do find that this bronzer doesn't make my face look really flat like lots of matte bronzers do though so maybe there is a few specks of glitter in it, I just don't think its detectable to the human eye. This product also has an awesome staying powder, this is one of the only powder products that actually lasts on my oily skin and it's not something I really need to re-apply during the day, it also applies really smoothly & is very easy to blend. 

I am seriously in love with this bronzer, this is not only one of my favourite drugstore beauty products but also one of if not my favourite makeup product ever, it's perfect and I don't reach for any other cheek products when this is around. I use it for contouring and bronzing the whole face and it works perfectly for both purposes. It's cheap as chips, smells like chocolate and works really well. I know a lot of people rave about this product and it has had a huge amount of hype, that is completely well deserved this product has holy grail status for me and I can't imagine needing to try any other powder bronzers (although I am tempted my Nars Laguna!) because this one does everything I need it to do. Everyone needs this product in their makeup bag so if you haven't tried it please go and give it ago because you won't be disappointed  Let me know what your holy grail cheek products are in the comments section below & if you have tried this bronzer as well! 

Thank you for reading!

Lots of love

Gem xxx

GFC Scandal/ How to follow Gem's Beauty

Hi Ladies, Hope you're all okay! Since the GFC (Google Friend Connect) Scandal has all gone down I've seen that the amount of people following me on their has slowed a considerable amount & therefore I think people aren't using it anymore. From what I understand the only thing that is actually leaving us on the 1st of July is Google Reader, which for me isn't an issue at all because I don't actually use it. When you log into blogger after the 1st of July you will still have Google Friend Connect & therefore all of your followers but you will also have all of your new posts from all of the bloggers you follow ready to read so therefore I don't know why everyone is panicking that much really! But anyway, since this whole scandal is happening and I know people would rather switch over and follow blogs in different ways I thought I would share with you all, all the ways you can follow Gem's Beauty. I don't know the definite future of Google Friend Connect but because everyone is boycotting it now I wouldn't be surprised if it was next to get the ax so it's probably not a bad idea to get prepared and try and convince my lovely readers to switch over and follow me on other forms.

Twitter -

@gemsbeauty93

I love following lots of different bloggers on Twitter, so please follow me and send me your blog links. Twitter is such a really great way to connect with everyone and I update when a new post has gone up or something has changed on my blog too. You can chat to me here whenever you want too and if you have any questions and want a more informal setting then tweet me here too! I do have my account set to private just because I didn't want loads of weirdo's or people that were going to spam me following me but if you send me a request I will accept you & follow back! 

Blog'Lovin

http://www.bloglovin.com/en/blog/3954424

I loveeee blog'lovin, I've used it even before I started blogging to follow my favourite blog's and I now follow about 100 of my favourite blogs on it. It's such a cool website and they email you once a day with all the new post's from your favourite bloggers that you follow! I would love it if you could follow me on there! Blog lovin has got so much loving recently and I don't think it's a bad thing at all because it's a pretty good site to read blogs on & follow them on too. I've found a lot of the blogs I really love reading on blog'lovin just because you can go through ranks and find the best beauty blogs or look at the best food blogs or the best lifestyle blogs so it's all organised into categories that I like. The best thing about blog'lovin is the fact that even if you don't have a blog you can set up an account & start following Gem's Beauty! I remember before I started blogging I followed some of my favorites on there and I've used it ever since, it's also cool because you now get an email saying who's followed you so you can return the favor  And it has it's own Iphone App meaning you can catch up with all of your favourite blogs when you're out and about! Anyway please follow me on there if you like to read my blog, i'm trying to switch my readership over from Google Friend Connect to Blog Lovin &  I'm still missing like 400 of you :( which makes me really really sad!

She Said Beauty -

https://www.shesaidbeauty.com/gemmabul

I don't know how many of you guys use She Said Beauty, but I just made an account and thought I would share my user name with you anyway in case you fancied following me or just generally checking it out. If you just type in my name or my blog's name you should be able to find me on there or you can just click the link above. It's pretty cool because it automatically streams my posts on there and I can like products and posts as well so if you follow a lot of blogs it's quite a cool way to keep up to date, you can also personalise your profile too. So if you're stopping on over there I would really appreciate you following me. I've added a sidebar now so that should make following easier and I have my own little profile on their so you can see what i'm loving, posts i'm loving & all that stuff which is a bit more interactive! Give us a follow on there darls & i'll follow you all back!

Hello Cotton

http://www.hellocotton.com/mypage/gemmabullock

I don't really know how many people use Hello Cotton to follow blogs either but I thought I would link it anyway in case you wanted to give it ago. I'm absolutely rubbish at using this website and don't really have a clue what I'm doing, but I am going to try and work it out. Again I would love a follow if you're exploring on it!

Anyway thank you for reading this post, if you want to link me any of the ways to follow your blog down below then I will make sure to follow all of your blogs too so we don't all lose each other if Google Friend Connect does decide to go. I'm still going to be using it for now & following blogs on both GFC and Blog'lovin just to be safe! So would love if you would all return the favor!

Speak to you all really soon,

Lots of love

Gem xxx

Anti-Blemish Skinetica Review

Anti - Blemish Skinetica - Soothes, Calms, Clears - £9.99 100ml here*

Hi Dolls, hope you're all okay! I'm not going to ramble too much today because I have lots to say & I just want to jump right in and get on with the post. Now i'm sure a lot of you have heard of the brand 'Skinetica' by now, probably this time last year you hadn't, they're appearance in Glossy Boxes before Christmas really gained them a status & you may have seen reviews on blogs about Skinetica recently as they try and develop their brand. Every since I've seen all the hype that surrounded this product I've wanted to try it, it really intrigued me and to be honest I've pretty much only heard really good things about this product. This is why when the really nice Richard from Skinetica emailed me a fair few weeks ago now and offered to send me a sample of Skinetica I literally jumped at the chance. I was so interested too see how this differed from lots of other spot treatments and probably the biggest difference was that this one actually worked!

Anyway, I'm going to have to go back into my skin care history a bit in order too explain my love for this product. I used to have pretty good skin, I have quite combination skin, I have a pretty oily face and an even oilier t-zone but I get a lot of dryness around my eyes and nose. Apart from that though my skin was pretty much under control, the only problems I had was the fact that I'd get an odd blemish now again but nothing too major. That was until before Christmas, I don't know what the hell happened but my skin was ridiculous for a good 3/4 month period, I suffered a huge amount of spots on both sides of my cheeks and on my chin & I just couldn't for the life of me pin-point why my skin had done a compete 180 on me. I tried lots of different face scrubs and spot treatments but my skin would literally get worse by the day and I was so sad about it. I think it really has a negative effect on your confidence when your skins rubbish & I really hated it. Anyway I'm pretty much over the worst of my skin worries now (thank god, touch wood - all that jazz!) & I think part of the reason for that was using this product. Skinetica didn't magically remove my spots or anything like that but it seemed to balance my skin out again it seemed to calm my skin & just keep it under control. I now don't wake up and think my skins going to look worse than yesterday because I know it won't, I know that it's working and although it doesn't completely clear up your skin (but lets face it what product is going to?) it just makes your skin normal again & stops more blemishes from appearing.

I don't have any idea why this product works and to be honest I don't understand it and I can't really quite believe it, I think because it doesn't have any harsh chemicals that are found in most spot & acne treatments it really agrees with my sensitive skin & I find this to be one of the only face products that doesn't burn or irritate my skin or just make the problem worse. The science behind this product is that it does not contain any harsh chemicals such as Benzoyl Peroxide or Salicylic Acid which are the active ingredients in 99% of acne treatments. Maybe this is why it works so well, a lot of people have said once you've tried one of the spot or acne treatments you've pretty much tried them all because they all contain the same ingredients but this doesn't, so if you've tried everything else I would see this as a pretty good option. In fact ingredients such as Benzoyl Peroxide probably couldn't be any worse for you, there is evidence to suggest that it causes premature aging, can damage cells & thin your skin, do you really want to put that on your face?!

Another thing about Skinetica which is just amazing is how it works, you simply are instructed to pop this on your face when your skin is clean by simple slapping it on a cotton pad & wiping it across the affected area of your face. I do this after I've cleansed and Skinetica has kind of taken my toning step and I think it works really well. You then have to leave it to dry naturally which only takes a second or two. Then Skinetica actually keeps working on your skin for 12 whole hours when it's dried, that means you can apply it at night time and leave it on while you sleep and it's literally working on blemishes and uneven skin tone all night long.

I just think Skinetica is such a good product and I don't think I could rave about it anymore times if I tried. It's Dermatologically tested, has no side effects, contains no harsh chemicals and isn't greasy and it actually works! The only niggle I have with it, and I always have to have one haha is the smell, it smells very 'spot treatment' like and I know that it is a spot treatment so that's what you would expect but it takes a bit of getting used too, not enough to stop me using it though. I would really recommend this to anyone who wants to really be able to control their skin and if you're thinking of trying this I would say head over to the Skinetica website http://www.skinetica.co.uk/buy-skinetica-online.html and just read about it and see if it's for you. Also Skinetica are offering a FREE 15ml size bottle of this which means you can sample the product and see if it works for you, all they ask is you pay the tiny price of £1.00 for postage, you can find this on the website here http://www.skinetica.co.uk/. I would recommend this product to anyone who suffers with their skin because this for me just worked like no other product would, I would say make sure you check out the trial version first just because everyones skin is unique and we all react to different products recently but as a whole this product gets a massive thumbs up for me! Let me know if you've tried Skinetica & I'll speak to you all really soon! :) xxx

Benefit Fine One One

Benefit Fine One One - £23.50 - Benefit Website Here

Hi Ladies! Hope you're all okay & had a wonderful weekend and a nice Monday! I just want to say thank you so much for all of you that have now began following me on blog lovin, i'm happy that a lot of my readers have converted so you can still keep up to date with my blog posts & for those of you who haven't gotten around to it yet it would mean a lot if you could click follow on this link for me - http://www.bloglovin.com/en/blog/3954424! Anyway today's post is about a product I've been really using lately & I thought that it deserved a full review on my blog because it's such a good product! Some of you may have seen this product mentioned in a post I did this time last month on my blog called '3 products that I've been loving' here and after a month of using this product pretty much everyday I'm still loving it so I thought i'd share my thoughts about it with you all.

Firstly I thought I would explain to you what this funny looking stick actually is. When I first saw this product and heard loads of people on about 'Fine One One' I had no idea what so ever what the hell it was. Basically Benefit had a pretty damn smart idea to combine a contour colour or bronzer, a blusher & a highlighter in one handy stick so you can literally sweep on your cheek makeup just as easy as you would slick on your lipstick. The name behind the product comes from 991 which is the American Emergency Phone Number & instead of calling 911 you need to call fine one one for a makeup emergency (haha no idea if that made any sense, to be honest i'm still not sure of the name but I think that's the idea behind it). The reason I was drawn to this product is the fact it's so individual, I haven't seen a product like this & I think it's such a good idea and a pretty good concept. Also it's really good if you're quite lazy like me because it means you can do 3 steps of your makeup in one.

The first thing to notice about this product is the gorgeous packaging. I think Rose Gold has made a massive come back over the last few months & therefore I think it was a great choice by Benefit to use it as a colour scheme for this product. I also thought that the idea behind the packaging was pretty funky, I see this almost as a lipstick for your cheeks & I think that's pretty cool. You just pop the lid off and screw up your cheek product just like you would a lipstick, which means its a pretty perfect handbag essential. If you're like me you'll find that blush and highlighter especially runs out during the day and the great thing about Fine One One is that you can chuck it in your bag and it literally makes reapplying a dream, you don't need a brush just the stick and your fingers and you have a contour colour, a blush colour and a highlight colour in one tiny product that works really well with pretty much all skin tones. It's perfect to make your cheeks pop and it makes reapplying your makeup a dream, I can find you can just carry this and a lipstick around with you & if you want to go somewhere after work or your makeup is starting to fade than the addition of slapping this off and giving it a quick blend and then topping up your lippie just seems to work & instantly rejuvenates your makeup. Also I'd just like to mention that this is a really small product, it's much smaller than my iphone & you can see if you see the picture in my hand it's pretty tiny!

The product is really impressive. I really like it, you get 3 segments which are in order of how you want them to be applied to your cheeks. The orangey colour goes at the base of your cheek, this is the darker colour and would take place of your bronzer or contour shade. Next you have the blush colour and in this case this is the really bright pink and this would be your blush colour and then lastly you have a really nice champagne colour with a slight iridescence to it which works as your highlight shade. You simply hold the stick at the bottom of your cheek and then pull it along your cheek so that you have your contour shade at the bottom, then your blush & then your highlight. It's so quick and simple and pretty much fool proof (which is good for me!) then you can blend in the products with your fingers just to soften it a bit or I use my real techniques stippling brush just to blend out the edges and give it a really soft and natural affect. The only thing I would say about application is that you need to use this product combined with the right foundation, I found that foundations that are a bit heavier and stay wetter for a bit longer before they set can kind of be a bit of a night mare with this because it's easy for the cream product to kind of take the foundation so I think you just have to wait for your foundation to really set and not be tacky at all before you go in with this, don't apply it over powder either cus that could make it go a bit patchy!

I think this product is really good, I'm much more of a bronzer girl than a blusher girl normally, I just find that bronzer suits me better and to be honest I normally find blushers look quite unnatural and I end up looking a bit like a clown (I know! It's probably all in my application) but anyway this is one of the only coloured cheek products I can use and actually think looks nice. I find that once the colours are blended together they give a really nice coral glow and I think because the undertones run more coral it's not so unnatural and looks like more of a flushed glow. I find that this product really helps to define my cheekbones and I really really love the colour of the blush & the highlight. To be honest the orange shade which is meant to act as the bronzer/contour isn't really too my taste because I prefer a bit of a darker shade. So I just apply my bronzer a bit in the contours of my cheeks first and then apply this & it looks like a really nice blush & highlight together. I find this product really buildable and I therefore think it would work on a range of skin tones, you can do one swipe if you're really pale or keep building up the colour if you are darker and like a more prominent cheek colour, a lot of people have said negative things about this product just because they say it's not that pigmented and a bit sheer but I don't think it's the case. Benefit do call this product a 'sheer brightening product for cheeks and lips'. I think if this product was too overly pigmented you could easily look like a clown so the fact it's a tiny bit sheerer means you can control it better and get a much more natural look.

Overall I would really recommend this product, I think it's pretty brill & I think Benefit have out done their selves once again! I'm really interested to try out 'Fake Up' their new concealer & also their World Famous Neutrals Palettes as well so if you have done any reviews on either of those products let me know! :) hope you enjoyed this & i'll speak to you all soon! xxx

March Wishlist

Hi Lovely Ladies, Hope you're all okay & doing well. Before I get on to the post which is my March Wishlist and things I am eyeing up and want to buy throughout this month. I just thought i'd give a little mention to the GFC Scandal, for those of you who don't know, Google Friend Connect which the majority of my readers follow me on is rumoured to be leaving over the next few months as Google is getting rid of its partnering app Google Reader, so in the possible future all blogs could be left with 0 followers if Google does decide to go ahead and do that. To be honest I don't think they really will but I'm going to start using Blog'lovin more to follow blogs just because I feel like it's a little more secure, anyway therefore I would love it if you could give me a little follow on blog'lovin on the link here and I would also really appreciate it if you could check out my contact page here and follow me on any of the links you find their too because i'd really appreciate it & it would give me a massssive smile! Now that's all out of the way lets get on to the actual post.

There are loads of things I've been really wanting in the month of March, I've been trying to save and not spend this month and whenever I do that I kind of feel like my wishlist just grows and grows and I end up wanting more and more stuff. There are 7 things I've really been lusting after this month & they're all pretty pricey :( boohoo for me!

Zara Office City Bag - This bag is so gorgeous, I don't even work in an office but I would buy this bag in the hope that I could get a job in an office and take this bag to work with me everyday. It's gorgeous, loads of people have even compared it to Chanel & Prada Bags, so that's how utterly gorgeous it is. I love that this bag is so big, it can fit a full size laptop, has a pocket for your tablets or kindles, can carry A4 folders and is actually so nice. Seriously the pictures I have there do not do it justice, it just looks like such a solid and well made bag. I was looking for reviews of it last night (ya know just to make myself want it even more!) and I found this one from Chloe over at CVG and you can see a detailed review (including pictures) of her blog here so yeah go and show Chloe and her blog some love & check it out because her review was super helpful to me. Definitely going to save up for this bag now because it retails at a pretty pricey £49.99 on the Zara website here.

Naked Basics Palette - I've wanted this bad boy for a really long time now, it's the perfect matte palette and it's Urban Decay's 3rd offering of the Naked palette, I love that the shades are perfect for every day and from all of the reviews I've seen the colours are all really pigmented and blend well. If you've read my blog for a while you'll know that I really love Urban Decay & I don't think that they can really be beaten in term of eyeshadow quality so I'll defo be picking this up at some point in the future. I also think it's pretty reasonable in terms of price as well, it retails at £20.00 which I don't think is too bad for an Urban Decay palette, plus I love that it looks pretty travel friendly too. You can pick this bad boy up on the Debenhams website here.

Mac Rebel - I've been eyeing up this lipstick for ages, it started becoming really popular in the blogging world in the fall time & i've seen it featured on loads of blogs since. The thing that attracted me to it was just the fact that it's so individual, you don't normally see a lot of shades that are such a vampy pink and I think it's quite wearable after seeing it on lots of different people. The person who made me want to get it the most though was the gorgeous Sammi over at Beauty Crush! I was reading her Outfit post here and saw she had it on and I just thought it was the most gorgeous colour ever & I really like it. You can pick this up on the Mac website here for £14.00 which again is pretty pricey here.

Mac Woodwinked - Again another Mac product makes my makeup wishlist, I think for as long as these have been a feature on my blog Mac have always been mentioned. This time I blame wanting this eyeshadow on Alix from I Covet Thee here (See! If I didn't read blogs or watch You Tube Video's I wouldn't want any of this stuff!!). Anyway Alix did a video here on all of her Mac eyeshadows and it left me with a list as long as my arm but I decided that the one I wanted most was Woodwinked, It looks perfect & a colour that I would get a lot of use out of. So I think that's on my wishlist now, as well as loads of other Mac eyeshadows :(! Anyway you can pick up this eye shadow from the Mac website here.

Sleek Eyebrow Kit - This was is purely me and I'm not going to blame it on the blogging community! I've recently ran out of my Elf Eyebrow Kit after using up every last bit of both the wax and the powder all up and I've found that I actually really love using eyebrow kits to fill in sparse areas on my eyebrows rather than using a pencil & therefore I thought the next one I would try out would be the Sleek one just because I want to try out a few more Sleek products & see what the brands all about. You can pick this up from the Sleek website for £8.50 here.

Revlon Nearly Naked Foundation - This is a new release in the drugstore beauty range & if you know me or my blog at all you will know i'm a sucker for foundation, it's probably my favourite product to buy and the amount of foundations I have from Boots at the moment is ridiculous (but there's a post to come soon on all of that) and therefore because this is new and I've heard great things about it from America for months and months now I really want to pick this up and give it ago. From what i've heard it has a really good coverage but looks like you're wearing no makeup! Sounds pretty perfect to me. You can pick this up from the Boots website for £8.99 here.

Tangle Teezer - Again the blogging world is to blame for me wanting this so badly, I'm not someone who has ever gone out and spent money on pricey hairbrushes or anything like that but i've heard pretty amazing things about this one. The idea behind the Tangle Teezer is that it apparently combs through all the knots and tangles in your hair & detangles them without it hurting you. I haven't tried one so I don't really know about that but I've heard a lot of people in the blogging world rave about it so i'm interested to give it a try. You can  pick this up from the Boots website here for £10.99.

Anyway I hope you all enjoyed this post & are having a nice day and I would love to hear what's on your wishlist this March! :) xxx

The Beauty Parlour - Shine Oil Control Mattyfying Moisturiser

Beauty Parlour T-Zone Oil Control Mattyfying Moisturiser - £1.99

Hi Lovelies, Hope you're all okay, sorry for going missing for a few days but I've got a lot of fun stuff going on in terms of my blog for the rest of the month so you should be able to forgive me. Anyway today i'm going to review for you something completely random and weird and it's the Beauty Parlour T-zone Oil Control Mattyfying Moisturiser (what a mouthful and can I also just say that the product name is spelt mattyfying and i'm not just spelling it wrong haha!) now about 6 months ago now I did a Savers haul, which i'm not going to link because it's too cringey for words & it's not a very good post really but anyway this was one of the products I featured in the haul. I said at the time that the packaging reminded me a bit of Soap & Glory's but just a bit cheaper and that's what caught my eye about it in the first place. Basically this product was meant to be a primer for specifically the t-zone and I've been trying out ever since.

Firstly I would say that this product isn't too shabby, I picked it up for the bargain price of £1.99 for 100ml and to be honest I didn't expect that much of it, you get a heap of product for a ridiculously cheap price. Anyway Beauty Parlour were claiming big things of this product, they said 'fight shine, blemishes & clogged pore our mattyfying moisturiser maintains moisture levels throughout the day, gives long lasting shine control with Witch Hazel and fights bacteria with Neem and Quassia Bark extracts'.

So I was pretty much intrigued just from reading that. If i'm honest I do think it actually really does help to fight shine on my t-zone, keeps me looking fairly matte and it does keep moisture levels on my t-zone pretty good during the day. I don't think it really resulted in me having less blemishes or anything like that though and I don't think it really helped the levels of bacteria on my face but for £1.99 it seemed to work as a pretty good primer. The thing I find weird about this particular primer is that it's called a mattyfying moisturiser and that's exactly the consistency it has, it doesn't have the consistency of a normal primer it's more like a moisturiser that keeps you matte and I think that's quite a good concept. I feel like this product leaves your skin soft but not soft that you feel like your makeup will just melt away or slide off which I have found with some other primers in the past. I just feel like this product gives me the right balance between your skin having moisture and your skin being oily and that's why I think it's really clever.

I quite like pretty much everything about this product and I think it's a good all rounder, I don't think it's ground breaking or life changing or really even a must have product but it's really nice to have and it's cheap as chips. One thing I don't find so lovely about it and the thing that would probably put me off it a bit would be the smell. I can't quite work out what this smells of but I don't find it very nice. It kind of has a very clean smell, a bit like the smell of a floor cleaner or a window cleaner or something along those lines, which some people may really like but i'm just not a huge fan of it.

Overall, I would say that I really do like this product and I'm glad I tried it and saw what Beauty Parlour were all about and I really like the concept of putting something as light as a regularly moisturiser on the skin instead of slapping on a big heavy primer in the mornings but I find the smell something I can't really deal with and I also find that I'm just a little bit more inclined to reach for the Rimmel Fix and Perfect Pro Primer, which is one of my favourite beauty discoveries ever, because I like the fact it makes my whole skin feel like velvet and although I think this product is helping me to stay quite matte I'm not sure how much 'priming' it's actually doing or whether it's just a pretty nice moisturiser. I would recommend it though if you're on a budget or looking to try something from the range because you can't really go wrong with it and it's not a bad product just not one that wowed me! You can pick this up for £7.99!! At Superdrug here but personally I would head over to Savers & have a browse and see if you can find it because I don't think it's worth nearly £8.00 when I picked it up for £1.99! Anyway thanks for reading & I'll speak to you all really soon! xxx