Goodbye January and Good Riddance

It's not the at often that I am so pleased to see the back of a month but I am so pleased that January is over! On a lot of levels it's been tough month, and particularly the last week. I seem to have lived in hospitals and doctors this month - I have been diagnosed with another health problem which to be honest came as no surprise so I am on yet another lot of medication this time for the rest of my life -lovely! - still every cloud as they say it now means that I qualify for free prescriptions so I am due a nice little refund from my last couple:)My mums health has also been a bit up and down this month culminating in a visit to the hospital about a fortnight ago - as predicted she needs an operation on her left hip - her provisional surgery date is the 6th March - at least we have plenty of time to prepare. Oh and when I returned from my hospital appointment on Wednesday the heating was off - kaput!! - brilliant just as the weather has turned cold again (we started the month with snow and its ended with snow !!) so we sat and shivered until the repair man came on Thursday night - thankfully he managed to fix it in about 20 minutes!

Monthly Total - £40.95
Front Cover Inky Eyes Kit - £8.00
MAC P&P - £2.95
MAC TLC Feelin' Good - £10.50
MAC MSF By Candlelight - £19.50

So that's been my month up and down and pretty stressful I hope this explains why I have been a bit MIA especially over the last week - so how have I done in my monthly aims, well with monthly spends I have gone an ickle bit over this month but not by much and I am sure I will be able to make it up next month - OK I am probably saying that with my fingers crossed as I have already made a couple of purchases which I am waiting for to count towards next months totals thanks to a few enablers on twitter (you know who you are ;))but my big plus for next month is that I am not buying my goodies from MAC in Lilyland :) I got some M&S vouchers for Christmas and despite trailing the website there appears to be nothing I could possibly want bar their lemon macaroons, lemon, and white chocolate mousse and swiss mountain bars - so me and my mum are doing a swap I give her my M&S vouchers and she buys my MAC In Lilyland bits - fair I think you'll agree :)and at least it will save me some money and I won't get fatter in the process :)

So in monthly spends good but must do better but in trimming my stash I think I have done pretty well this month

Elemis Skin Nourishing Milk Bath 125ml
Boots Botanics Soothing Eye Make Up Remover 150ml
id Bare Minerals Foundation - Medium - 2g
Elemis Tri-Enzyme Resurfacing Wash 50ml
Nails Inc Vitamin E Oil Slick Pen 1.6ml
Liz Earle Instant Boost Skin Tonic 200ml
The Body Shop Ginger Body Scrub 200ml
Leighton Denny Slick Tips Nail Oil 12ml
The Color Institute Soothing Hand Lotion 70ml
The Body Shop Vanilla Spice Shower Gel 250ml
Molton Brown Heavenly Gingerlily Moisture Bath and Shower Gel 300ml
AVON Skin So Soft Soft and Firm Targeted Firming Treatment 200ml
The Body Shop Olive Body Butter 50ml
Lush Jasmine and Henna Fluff Eaze 220ml
Giorgio Armani Acqua Di Gio EDT 100ml
Elemis Tri-Enzyme Resurfacing Serum 10ml
Maybelline Lash Stiletto Mascara - Black
The Body Shop Shea Body Butter 50ml
Boots Botanics Quick Fix Cleansing Wipes
Total 19 Items

A total of 19 items finished :)including 2 make up items which has to be good :) I have a few more items hovering on the edge so February should be an OK month too - If you have any questions about anything I have used please don't hesitate to ask - I know a few people were trying spending diets and stash trimming last month how did you all get on - leave a comment and let me know xx

TAG - I Hit Pan

I was tagged to do this absolutely yonks ago unfortunately I can't remember who tagged me - whoops - huge apologies that I haven't go round to it till now :) but here we go better late than never

The rules to this tag:

1. List 6 items that you have either "hit pan" or finished the tube/bottle of etc. and have or plan to repurchase for ever and ever! This can be makeup, skincare, haircare, body care or scent.
2. Tag 6 people that you want to know their repurchases.
3. Let those 6 people know by leaving a comment on their blog with a link so they know what to do

Eeek Only 6??

Boots Botanics Soothing Eye Make Up Remover

What can I say about this that hasn't already been said I have used at least 8 bottles up to now and I will continue to repurchase - a great non-stinging eye make up remover at a great price :)(mini pic stolen from Boots but I think we all know what it looks like by now x)


Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish


I have used this for over 3 years solidly a fabulous product that does exactly what it says it does

Liz Earle Instant Boots Skin Tonic

Another Liz Earle product - love, love, love a fabulous toner skin freshener, you can even use it after waxing to soothe due to the high aloe vera content -on and its great for flying decanted into a mini spray - - again I have used this for over 3 years and I won't be without it

id Bare Minerals (Bare Escentuals) Foundation SP15


Another mainstay for me I am on my 3rd pot of this - It's perfect for just throwing on when you cant be bothered or are in a rush - my shade is medium but I can also wear light and medium beige it is so forgiving

ELF Sheer Mineral Booster

Quite a newbie but I am on my second pot and I will continue to purchase - A perfect finishing powder for mineral or liquid foundations - poreless flawless :)

MAC Eyeshadow Sumptuous Olive


This is my second one and if you look behind it my back up is firmly in place - a lovely green gold which looks gorgeous considering it is so close to the colour of my own eyes

I am going to cheat slightly here and tag all my followers to do this - it's really interesting to see what your must haves are xx
Any questions give me a yell xx

(Just to add I purchased all of these items myself and have done since their first use - and I repurchase them because I love them not because someone told me too :))

Lush Snowcake Winners :)

Hiyas
Thank you all for entering my little Lush giveaway, using random.org I selected and 2 numbers and therefore two lucky winners, who are.....drumroll....

Nikki

and

Lucy

Thank you very much for entering ladies and congratulations - please can you e-mail me your postal details to pootle28@hotmail.com and I'll get your soaps out asap x

X

EOTD - Golden Greens

Sorry for the crappy pics (my camera is beyond useless at doing close ups and the lighting today was yack - not a good combo and low and behold my laptop then went insane and deleted the best pic argh!!!! ) but this was the eye look I went for today -lots of olive greens, shimmery greens and golds to match my cosy khaki /olive parka lol :)

Products Used

MAC Prep + Prime Eye -Light
MAC Eyeshadow Fresh Approach
MAC Eyeshadow Image Maker
MAC Eyeshadow Sumptuous Olive
MAC Eyeshadow Photo Realism
2True Instant Length Mascara - 01 Black

(All of these products were purchased by myself apart from the 2True Instant Length Mascara which was sent to me by Superdrug for review purposes - see my review here - I was not paid to review it or to use the item in this or any other blog post x )

Hello Kitty Ebay Purchase

Just thought I'd show you something I received from ebay this morning. As you know I got an iPod touch for Christmas but despite how pretty and shiny it looked I realised on Christmas day that the lovely silver steel backing was going to get dirty and covered in finger prints, so on boxing day I won this little beauty -a Hello Kitty iPod touch case on ebay :) It came today which wasn't bad considering it came from Hong Kong - I've used the sellers pics - hope they don't mind :) Cute, kitsch or tacky I don't care I love it and my iPod is now smudge and smear free :)

Lush Love In + A Giveaway - GIveaway Closed!

Well I knew it would happen -today yes on a Sunday I received both Lush parcels one dispatched on 28th December ,and one dispatched on the 13th January.
The first parcel contained the original Lush order that I placed with Tea Tree Water Toner, Marilyn Hair Mask, Absolute Delight Ballistic, Fairy Tail Sugar Scrub, Ruby Red Slippers and Christmas Eve Bubble Bar and Cupcake Face Mask :)

I also got a free gift package which contained Angel Delight, Snowcake and Porridge soaps, and Think Pink, Honey Bee, Avobath and Big Blue Ballistics

In the second parcel I got everything I originally ordered bar the Christmas items

and I received another free gift box containing the same soaps and last time, Honey Bee, Think Pink, Supernova and Blackberry Bath Ballistics

I thought it was really nice of Lush to send me the second parcel free of charge it's just typical of the postal service that they ultimately both turned up and on the same day -grr

Anyways both of my freebie boxes contained the one Lush product I really can't stand :( so I am going to give two of my lovely followers a Snowcake soap each - All you need to do is be a follower and leave me a comment below saying Enter Me - I'll pick 2 winners using random.org a week today at 2.30pm - Good Luck xx

Edited to add - yes this giveaway is open internationally so itsybitsyknitsy your entered chick x

Blog Sale Hauling - Thank You Cosmetic Candy

As you can see by my sidebar I have gone slightly over budget this month - whoops - It was down to the lovely from the lovely Cosmetic Candy's recent blog sale :) I got the Front Cover Eye Spy Kit for Christmas and I absolutely loved it so when I saw she had another Front Cover kit for sale I had to snap it up :)
I got my mitts on the lovely Inky Eyes kit - perfect for a smokey eye it has 3 baked shadows in a silver grey, and inky purple and a midnight grey, as well as a lilac shimmer pigment powder, an eye pencil and a mascara



I am super pleased with this, huge thanks again and thanks for the extras and the sweeties too x

Yeah The Rest Of My Next

Hurrah the final part of my pre Christmas Next sale haul came yesterday - I already have this dress in red but when I saw the black one was half price I had to pick it up - it's so comfy and easy to wear a real all rounder :)

Please Watch and Please Donate

Over the last few days very few of us will have failed to have seen the devastation inflicted on the Caribbean island of Haiti by an earthquake. Already one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere Haiti is struggling to cope and needs urgent aid. One of our fabulous community You Tuber and blogger Gemma aka Gem's Maquillage has set up a fund through Just Giving so we can make a donation to the DEC (Disasters Emergency Committee) in the UK or through First Giving to Doctors Without Borders if your elsewhere. Please watch Gemma's video and consider making a donation no matter how small, every little really could help x



Donate via DEC
Donate via Doctors Without Borders

Baking Day

It was another nasty day up north so I decided to do a bit of baking - after watching the lovely Sarah's video I decided to make some Red Velvet Cup Cakes



The recipe translated pretty well - I just replaced the flour for Doves Farm Plain Gluten Free Flour and added 1 tsp of Xanthan Gum - I did find though that I needed a tiny bit more liquid as you sometimes do with gluten free flour - but they turned out pretty well and tasted yummy :)-They are much more red irl



Check out Sarah's video for the full recipe xx - Thanks honey x

I also made some yummy cheese scones - a successful baking day me thinks :)

The Rest Of My Boots Sale Haul

It seem like ages ago that I posted about the other half of this haul with my Rouge Volupte but that's the way parcel deliveries have been lately :( Still I can't complain this one came yesterday in the middle of some horrible freezing fog!

First of all I got this cute, Celia Birtwell bag which was a free gift when you bought any premium make up product (eg. a YSL Rouge Volupte :) )





and I also got this Benefit Glitz, Glam and Gloss 6 shade lipgloss kit for £13 instead of £19.50 :)





I was going to do some swatches for you but it's still rank outside - at least the snow is melting a bit but it's so foggy at the moment it looks like something out of a horror movie -so if you want some swatches please say in the comments box - most of these glosses are from the mainline so it may be useful to some of you x

So that's one parcel down quite a few to go - I was actually so worried about my Lush order since its being nearly a month since I ordered it, that I emailed them - they are going to resend my parcel with what they have left ie. no Christmas stuff :( but with freebies, and they'll refund me with the cost if the missing items and if I receive the missing parcel in the meantime I should just keep both - very nice of them I'm sure you'll agree so fingers crossed at least one of them comes - come on Royal Mail you can do it !!!

Blog Award Central :)

I'm so sorry it's taken me so long to do this post and huge apologies if I have forgotten anyone but recently I have been give a load of blog awards from you lovely people

First of all I got this from the lovely Raspberry Kiss - her own personalised blog award - it was so very sweet of you - please check her out if you haven't already x

I also got this super award from the lovely Peonies and water lilies - thank you honey xx
I am immediately going to pass this on to Raspberry Kiss for her generosity in giving me this
award too - thank you xx

and also this one,Happy 101 who I also got from Em, and Sadie -Thanks girls x



To accept the award you need to post 10 things that make you happy and do at least one of them today. Remember to link to the person who tagged you and pass on to 10 others.
Here are my 10 things in no particular order....

1) My Cats - they always make me laugh at least once a day - today included :)
2) Chocolate - yummy - need I say more I had some Thorntons today too
3) Make Up - I had a lovely play with some new lipglosses today
4) Being With My Mum - done today x
5) Holidays - I love my holidays and especially feel the need for one in this cold yucky weather
6) Reading - I love reading and always have a book or magazine or two on the go
7) Blogging - I really enjoy this and I'm doing it now
8) Sleeping - eek due to my ME I probably sleep to much but I love my bed
9) Baths - I love my bath too full of nice smelly things and bubbles
10)Cooking - made a lovely chilli today and I think I might bake tomorrow x

Eeek a hard choice but I award Happy 101 too...

Melovemakeup

::MISSCALIA::

Alice in a New Wonderland

Computergirl's Musings

Desi girl does make up

Eliza - Make Up Junkie

Emerald Green 88

Hannah Louise Beauty Make Up Lover

Live Laugh Love

The Post Colonial Rabbit

Congratulations girls I wish I could have given you all one xx

Soap & Glory The Fab Pore Review

I'm sorry it's taken so long to complete this review (so long I am actually nearly finished the pot!!) but I suppose I wanted to give it a proper and through test. I bought this quite a few months ago now after reading several positive reviews and raves from you lovely bloggers out there.
Hello my name is Louise and I have open pores!!! - yup that's right I am lead to believe they are inherited from my grandma, I wasn't aware you could inherit open pores but I seemingly have along with an oily, spot prone skin even at 31.

This product - Soap & Glory The Fab Pore 15 Minute Facial Peel comes in a 50ml tub, sounded like the product I had been looking for. This product contains Soap & Glory's exclusive PORESHRINK-R-COMPLEX with mushroom extract, salicylic acid, kaolin and antioxidant vitamins E and C.

The product itself is a pinkish cream which is in the clay mask type creamy texture, the mask contains tiny green beads

You can use this mask / peel in two ways either massaging the product onto your face (making sure to burst the beads) concentrating on areas prone to open pores such, as your t-zone -nose and chin, and leaving it for 5 minutes before massaging and rinsing off or you can use it as I tended too as an intense facial /face mask, leaving it for around 15 minutes before rinsing (Excuse the scary pic!!!).

The product had a nice texture and it was pretty easy to apply it to the skin, and the beads were pretty easy to burst. It has a nice fresh smell which reminds me of something but as per usual I can't remember what - lol!. I found it quite easy to wash off either using and sponge or a muslin cloth, but the interesting thing about this product is that it doesn't actually dry or set hard which is great if you don't like masks that tighten on your skin.

Does it shrink your pores - I have to say in my experience not really, when you remove the mask / peel your skin does feel super soft and toned but despite pretty consistent use I haven't really noticed a change in the size of my pores. Having said that I think it did generally improve the texture of my skin and it certainly helped to clear up some of the spots and pimples I had on my chin (probably down to the salicylic acid a known spot clearer) Would I buy this again, yes I probably would although I don't think it's the pore shrinking miracle I hoped it would be - it's certainly made my skin a bit clearer and that can't be a bad thing. You can buy this from Boots for around £6. Any questions please ask x

More Snow Pics

Sorry if your getting bored of these but its looks pretty - temperature fell to -12 the other night brrr and yes it's still snowing - on the plus side we did get post today no parcels though just bills boooooo

Smashbox and MAC Lip Liner Swatches

The other day I had a little chat on twitter with one of my lovely followers Glam Gemini / Layna about lip liners - i must admit I got through phases of using lip liner, and phases of completely ignoring it but I do have a few nice ones which she was interested in seeing

From Left To Right - Smashbox The Nude Lip Pencil - Fair, MAC Lip Pencil in Oak, Smashbox The Nude Lip Pencil - Light





Hope this helps - In my opinion the Smashbox ones have a far superior, creamier texture to the MAC ones and Fair is probably the most wearable shade for most MAC nudes

I bought my Smashbox pencils from Just Beauty Direct and they are around £10.58 each - MAC lip liner in Oak is available from all MAC outlets priced at £10.00

Any questions please let me know xxx

Leighton Denny Nail Polish Comparisons

As you know I received a lovely Leighton Denny gift set for Christmas one of my super observant followers the lovely Nazneen aka The Postcolonial Rabbit noticed a colour she thought was the famous Supermodel - it's wasn't Supermodel but it's in the same colour family and is a colour called On The Rocks so I said I would do her some comparison pics :)

From Left To Right - Supermodel and On The Rocks


Supermodel

This is one of Leighton Denny's most famous colours and rightly so it's a gorgeous beige / nude/ taupe shade with pink undertones - there is very little if any shimmer in it (is is a little lighter than it appears on the nails in these pics)


On The Rocks

This is a newbie to the Leighton Denny range. In the same beige / brown / taupe family as Supermodel but this is a much darker polish. In the bottle it has a red/ rose gold shimmer to it but this isn't apparent on the nails



I hope this helps I get must of my Leighton Denny from QVC, but you can also get it from some Boots and Debenhams stores and from Leighton's own website. If you have any questions please let me know xx

Clynol Hair Product Review

A few months ago I was lucky enough to be sent a bunch of hair products by top salon brand Clynol to try and review for you. I must admit I have used this product in the past mainly the Dream Hair leave in conditioner and I have to say although I repurchased it and some other items the products were OK but nothing special- so I was interested to see if any of their new formulations were any more impressive.
Clynol have recently revamped the ingredients, product design and packaging of their hair care range and I was lucky enough to be sent 4 products a shampoo and a conditioner and 2 styling products from their new Care and Style ranges - I have tried these products for over two months now to give you a through review.

Clynol Revive Repair Shampoo

First of all I was sent this shampoo from the Repair range. This shampoo is for dry, damaged and brittle hair and contains Clynols exclusive Pro.Repair.Complex with amino acids and wheat protein. The shampoo came in a sleek, white 300ml bottle with a flip top cap. It's a slightly, runny, pearlised white liquid with a fresh smell.

Despite the presence of the foaming agent Sodium Laureth Sulfate, I did find you needed quite a bit of the product to produce a decent lather. Having said that though it produced sufficient lather to make my hair feel clean and it rinsed out easily, and I didn't feel as though I needed to shampoo it twice. All in all it was a pretty good shampoo but I didn't think it was anything spectacular. This retails for around £8.45

Clynol Recovery Repair Conditioner

Alongside the shampoo I was also sent the matching conditioner from the Repair range.
This product again comes in a sleek white bottle, which this time is 250ml in size. It has a pump action dispenser which personally I love - its much easier to use when you are in the shower and so on and you get exactly the right amount of product. It dispensed easily and was of a good, not too thick not too runny consistency, and was white in colour - again it has the same fresh scent as the shampoo

I felt it massaged easily into my washed, towel dried hair but again I felt I needed to use a lot of product to cover my just below shoulder length hair. After leaving for a few minutes the product washed out easily and left me hair without too many tangles. According to Clynol this conditioner "Protects the hair surface, gives strength and shine. Gently restructures hair by repairing damaged areas." These are big claims as I have said on several occasions I don't believe products can repair split ends or damaged hair but to be fair this product left my hair, soft, and tangle free which was no mean feet considering I had it coloured (yes OK bleached!) during this trial. Obviously in its current condition I think my hair needs a little bit more help than this product but it's a pretty decent everyday conditioner. This product retails for around £9.45

Clynol Smooth Flatter Iron Spray

As I said I was also sent two of the styling products from the Smooth range. The first one I was sent was the Flatter Iron Spray. Been a compulsive (although hopefully less in 2010 :))hair straightener and user of flat irons I already currently use a heat protector spray so I was interested to try this one out. The product comes in a silver /blue tone pump action bottle which is 300ml in size. This product contains Clynol's exclusive Pro Protect Complex with moisturising silk protein, which supposedly protects the hair during styling and moisturises and smooths hair. Nothing new here I suppose most heat protector sprays on the market make similar claims. Since I don't blow dry my hair I used the product on my dry hair before using straightening irons. The product dispensed easily in a fine mist. The spray though didn't smell that great there was no nice scent like my usual product instead it had a quite chemically and not that pleasant smell. There was no problem whilst I was using no scary hissing or any increased dryness of my hair but I did find that it made it quite stiff with product, a bit tangled and not as smooth as I would have liked. Would I buy this particular product again - no definitely not - this item retails for around £9.50 and my preferred flat iron spray costs only a third of that, gives just as good results and smells lovely :)

Clynol Smooth Silky Frizz-Free Serum

The final product I was sent was a hair serum from the smooth range.It comes in 150ml bottle with a pump action dispenser.Containing the exclusive Pro Sleek Complex with Macadamia Nut Oil this serum according to Clynol gives you "long lasting, frizz free manageable hair with a silky shine and a glossy finish ". After drying and straightening I dispensed some of this fresh, fruity clear serum onto my hands and smoothed it over my hair. I loved the smell of this product which lingered on your hair - the serum was non greasy or sticky and was easily applied to my hair although as you can see in this picture it is a little bit runny

It left the hair with a noticeable shine, and no stickiness, and without knots

I have to say though as much as I liked this serum I don't think the effects really lasted that well - I must admit the current snowy, cold weather probably isn't the best test for this serum but the smooth finish lasted no more than a couple of hours on my hair. Despite that as I say I was pretty impressed with the product I especially loved the smell and the glossy (not greasy!) finish it gave. This retails at around £9.50

I hope you have found this review of some of the new Clynol hair products to be useful - if you would like any more information such as stockists, or to find out what products would be suitable for your hair type please check out the Clynol website If you have any questions on these products please don't hesitate to leave a comment below