As it is now the last day of April, what better time to review my favourite products of the month just gone! I went on a bit of a product-spree this month, hence lots to review! So lets get this show on the road...
First up is everybody's favourite...Rimmel Apocalips! I've been wanting to try this lip lacquer for quite a while, so imagine my joy when I came across it on 3for2 at Boots! I've been looking for a dark shade, but wanted something with a little extra 'umph', so when I swatched Galaxy with it's dark plummy tones and touch of shimmer, I snatched it right up. Now my first impressions on use weren't all that great, mainly due to the products terrible habit of bleeding onto the teeth. I actually looked like an extra from that bleeding gums advert after my first application! Not a great look. However, after a little trial and error, I think I've cracked it and I now love it! I especially like the level of coverage it gives with such a little amount of product. It's staying power isn't fantastic, but it isn't awful either. I found priming the lips before hand really helps the lacquer grip and last. So, overall I still really like the product and would like to try it in a more nude shade. However, be for warned to always check your teeth after application to make sure you're not rocking the 'just-ate' Vampire Diaries look on the way to your big night out..
Now my surprise find of April was thanks to Boots (Again..!) and their vouchers which allowed me snap this baby up for just £2, over £4 less than the label price! I'm talking about Seventeen Doll'd Up Mascara! This was a total whim buy due to having the voucher, but I was eager to try out a new mascara after being pretty much married to Rimmel's Day2Night. Now I went for Blackest Black, but Doll'd Up also comes in Brown/Brown for a more natural look. Seventeen claim this mascara offers 'Up to 24hr curl & wide-eyed volume for doll like lashes' and I would have to agree with them! I LOVE this mascara! It curls, lengthens, it separates .. it's everything I could want in a mascara. I loved it so much that on a recent night out in Liverpool I decided to ditch the false lashes and rely soley on my Doll'd Up lashes alone. I am happy to report the mascara held up all night, and my lashes looked long and curled whilst retaining quite a natural look that I liked. Big thumbs up from me, I will definitely be re-purchasing... even at the normal £6.29 price!
As previously mentioned, Boots had a wonderful 3for2 offer on make-up so I took this a my chance to try out a new foundation. For a while now I've been using various Rimmel foundations with relative success, however I always felt they are 'heavy' on my skin. So my mission: to find a foundation that would provide great coverage but wouldn't weigh me down. My find? Maybelline Dream Satin Liquid, and I have to say.. Mission accomplished. This foundation is so light and airy, I actually forget I'm wearing foundation, and it's coverage is fantastic. It takes about two small bumps to completely cover my face and after a months usage I have hardly made a dent in the bottle. The finish claims to 'Air-Brush' and whilst I wouldn't completely agree with this statement, the finish is very nice. I am quite pale naturally so I went with Ivory and it matches my skin almost perfectly without being so pale that it washes me out. I was also impressed with it's staying power, as my Rimmel foundations have always been pretty great in this department so I was happy I didn't lose this aspect by switching brands. All in all I am so glad I found this foundation and will definitely think twice about buying Rimmel foundation again now I know this is out there!
A double-whammy now, the new Compressed Sure Antiperspirant in Bright and Tease, a new fragrance body spray from Impulse. I love both of these products for two different reasons. Firstly, the new compressed Sure bottles are fantastic for travelling purposes. They are so small compared to the regular 150ml bottles, but they apparently have the same amount of product in that's just been, well, compressed! I took mine with me on a recent weekend away and saved so much space just from downsizing, and compared to the usual 'travel' products which feature half the product for double the price, you actually get a decent amount in these whilst still down-sizing and saving space. Win, win!
I also picked up a new body spray fragrance this month which I fell in love with straight away. Tease by Impulse smells very similar to a fragrance sold previously by the brand circa 2006. I only know this because the smell reminds me a lot of my teenage years enjoying many weekends away during 06/07 and I remember my hotel rooms always smelling like Tease after I used my body spray. Now, the name of that previous body spray escapes me, it may have even been called Tease, who knows. All I do know is that I liked it then and I love it now. Impulse claim Tease smells of 'Red Berries & Woods... I'm not really sure about this as I've never, to my knowledge, smelt red berries but I can tell you it smells goooood! It's also a nice touch that whenever I use it I get a flood of happy memories from those weekends away!
One of my favourite hair care products this month is actually thanks to my family owning a hair dressers. This month I got to try out Bondi 'Surf Chick' from Affinage, which is a 'bodyfying leave-in detangling & conditioning' spray. Firstly, the product looks great with it's pale pink colour and even better, it smells yummy! I've recently dyed my hair from brunette to blonde and back to brunette again, which as you can imagine involved a lot of bleach and my hair has been feeling a little sorry for itself. As we use and sell Bondi in our hairdressers, I have used the brands shampoo and conditioner with great results, so when I was looking for something to detangle and condition my hair long-term, Bondi was my first choice. The spray is fantastic, you spray it onto damp hair, leave for a minute or so and comb through. My hair is notoriously hard to comb, but this spray is so good at detangling that my brush just glides through! Result! Even better is the shine and smoothness it brings to my hair, a hard thing to achieve after my recent colour experiments. I am going to continue use this spray and more from the Bondi range to hopefully help my hair recover whilst keeping it smelling and looking great!
Last but not least... well, to be honest I couldn't pick a favourite nail polish for this month, so I picked two! Aren't you lucky... ;) So this month I've been loving glitter and basically anything with a little sparkle. My first discovery was Discoball from Rimmel's I <3 Lasting Finish range. I was actually looking for a blue nail polish when I found this little beauty lurking at the end of the row, but when I saw it I couldn't leave it. Discoball is a clear glitter polish with flecks of silver and blue. This means it's great with blue based polish bases to add that little sparkle to an everyday look, or it's great solo. Personally I like to add it as a top coat.
My second glittered-out find was a more pre-planned affair as I desperately needed a gold glitter polish to team up with a bronze-gold base I'd applied to match an night-outfit, only to find it needed a little something extra. So after a little dash around the Tesco make-up aisle after straying from the weekly shop I stumbled upon the Vivo range and fell in love with a gold glitter polish called Glitterdome from their Flare collection. It's a standard gold glitter polish, but the flecks of gold are small enough not to over-power a base colour, but could be layered if applied alone.
And that's it my lovelies! You are now fully updated on my April favourites. I hope you have enjoyed my reviews and maybe they have inspired you to try some of products for yourselves. If you have already tried something on my list, I would love to hear your views in the comments below, or if you have any questions... ask away!
Love,
*Someone* xx
