Lush review; Ickle Baby Bot bath bomb.

Yesterday evening I tried out the 'Ickle Baby Bot' bath bomb from lush. I'm not actually a massive fan of baths, as I always seem to make them too hot/cold. Not on this occasion!

The product in question is very understated in smell and impact. It contains lavender, sandal wood and chamomile oils but instead of being able to pick one out specifically you just get a sort of reassuringly clean, soft, vague kind of smell, perfect for a pre-bedtime bathe. I think the subtlety of the smells, and the way it dissolves quickly, leaving the bath water softened and slightly blue, definitely lends itself to the premise of the product; bathing your baby. But it was lovely for me too!
<it looks way blue-er on camera!

The packaging, as with all lush products, is minimal. And the product, when bought, doesn't crumble everywhere before you're ready to use it. It retails for £1.95 which I think is pretty good.

After getting out of the bath there wasn't a massive impact on my skin, it didn't feel miraculously smooth or especially scented, but it did make the bath nice to be in, when I was in it, if that makes any sense.

So, to sum up. It's a very mild product, but lovely and relaxing, although it doesn't have any lasting effects to the skin. It wouldn't be much use if you have a very large bath (like those cool three cornered ones) because the product itself is only 'Ickle'. I'd give it a 3/5. I liked it, it was good, but it wasn't mind-blowing.

I hope you enjoyed this review! If you did, remember to follow the blog to be alerted of new posts, and to say hello in the comments!

Have you tried this product, what did you think? If not, why not? What do you think I should review in the future? 

Love,

   Georgia x

Sunnyside bubble bar Review

Good day fair peoples!

This is a review of a Lush product I got for my birthday last month. I just used it, so I thought I’d let you in on what I thought of it ^.^ (note this, nor any other review of things I’ve been given, will be influenced by the fact I didn’t buy it myself)

So. To the facts. The product is Sunnyside, which is a bubble bar that retails for £3.95.

Because of its sparkly nature, I chose to use this product for a footbath instead to a proper, full-sized one. In retrospect, I should have split it in half, and used it over two occasions but it worked fine this way round as well, however it would have dissolved better if the quantity had been smaller.

The product contains sweet wild orange, lemon and tangerine oils as well as a tone of glitter. It smells delicate and decidedly clean, but in a very natural, slightly floral way, in my opinion. As soon as I dipped my foot in (which, I have to add, was all dry and gross from a weekend of festivaling) I could tell this bubble bar was a good'un. My toes instantly felt cleaner and less dried out. With a bit of a soak and a light pumice my feet were good as new and squeaky clean.

Now, to the bad points. The only two I can think of is how full of glitter it is (which wasn’t a hindrance in the footbath, but I think would be in a proper bath) partly because of this, it was a bit tricky to open, without getting glitter everywhere. As you can see, I didn’t manage to just take it out of the bag and into the tub. It wasn’t too much of a problem, but because all of Lush’s products come in paper bags, it was slightly difficult to manoeuvre.

Personally, I think this was an incredibly functional product, and did really make the water very pretty. It smelt quietly lovely as well. However, it is designed to go in a bath. And I personally wouldn’t really like to use it in a proper tub. So in short, I love it except for the glitter, which is what is meant to set it apart from the other bubble bars. Hmm.

I reckon it deserves a 2.5 out of 5. It’s a very decent product, but not perfect.

I hope you enjoyed this review!

Have you tried this product and if so, what did you think? Have you ever tried any of the other bubble bars? If not, do you think you would?

Love,

  Georgia x

BarryM lemon ice-cream nail review

Hello dears (bit contrived? I feel like you guys need some sort of name, so I can address you properly!) here’s a review of the BarryM nail varnish in 307 Lemon Ice-cream, which was the main varnish used in my last post’s NotD.

Now I didn’t actually wear this for that long, but in the couple of days I did wear it, I got an idea of its quality and such.

In the picture, I am wearing 2-3 coats, depending on the nail. After one coat, it’s translucent, after two, it’s still a bit patchy, but was acceptable on the smaller nails. So this varnish really needs about three to get a properly consistent coat. That being said, it is a pale colour, so that’s sort of to be expected.

I didn’t wear a base or top coat with this varnish, so I was pleasantly surprised when it didn’t stain my nails at all when I removed it. It did look like there were some bubbles under the surface, but as long as they don’t show too much, I don’t see that as too much of a problem, really.

I received this as a birthday present, but it retails for £2.99 which for me, and my limited funds, is just about perfect, and dirt cheap for people with jobs.

So, to round off, it needs a few coats, but it is a very delicate colour, and for  three quid it really is pretty nifty in my opinion – 4/5

Have you guys got this varnish? If so, what do you think? If not, do you want it?

See ya later!

Love,

  Georgia x

NotD: Here comes the summer!

I got quite a few different nail varnishes for my birthday yesterday, two of which were the ones I used to create these nails. I really like this particular shade of yellow; it’s so sunny and happy!

This was honestly so easy to do, and no professional tools needed.

I couldn't be bothered with top/base coats, but I would recommend them, mine has just run out.

First apply two coats of the yellow, letting them dry thoroughly in between.

The only other step is creating this teeny blue flower. You could do any type of flower you want, but I chose as close to thin lines as I could get.

You can add other embellishments, for example, I chose a few dots, descending in size towards the base of the nail. All you need to do this is a toothpick, although you could use a small dotting tool.

One tip to stop smudging is to try and do your right hand first (if you’re right handed, if not then your left) because then you’ll be able to match it with the second, easier hand. If you aren't happy with the results on your first try, just wipe off with some remover, and start again.

Look out for a review of this BarryM yellow nail varnish in ‘Lemon Ice cream’ in the next few days!

Would you wear this? How would you improve it? What other shades do you think it would work in?

Quick n' easy Polka-dot nails

Hi guys! Haven't been around for ever, I know, sorry!
But, I'm back with a nail look/NotD, which I did in literally 10-15 minutes. The ONLY thing that takes any time is letting the nail varnish dry in-between coats. So, with out further a do, let's get started!

The Varnishes I used were my trusty BarryM top coat, base coat and nail hardener, Essie pink nail varnish in Infatuation and a W7 white nail varnish.

After applying your base coat, go ahead and paint your nails with two coats of your base colour, I've chosen this pink Essie polish.

Then, After all that is dry, take a tooth pick (blunt it by pushing it against the table or something) and some scrap paper. blob some of your white nail varnish onto the paper, and dip the tip of the tooth pick into said blob. then dot all over you nails and let it all dry!

Feel free to finish off with a top coat and there you are! Done.

Of course, this could be done with any colour combination, blue and white, I think, would look really pretty as well. :)
Hope you all enjoyed this quick post and hopefully I'll have another one up soonish!

Love,
  Georgia

Review: Illamasqua eye pencil in Exert

Hey guys!

So, I kind of wanted the last day of this week to be a video, seeing as more people watch them, but I have been uber busy today, so I thought I'd do a quick review instead! :)

So, I am reviewing a product I got at IMATS and it is this, the lovely grey pencil from Illamasqua.


Because I'm writing this quite late at night, my photos aren't very good, sorry!! but here are some swatches, the one on the top is not blended, and the one on the bottom is.

                                                                       with out flash.....

So, I think this pencil has reeaalllly good pigmentation, is there such a thing as a "true" grey? if so, that's the colour of this pencil! like I say, the photos are bad, but it blends really well, and isn't too waxy like some eye pencils.

Now, on the pencil it says "Medium pencil: for eyes, lips, face and body" so I guess you don't have to use this as an eye pencil, I just would.

It works really well applied  to the outer half of the eye, and then smudged out with an eye-liner brush. so it fades out, giving a subtle frame to the eyes.

It usually retails at £13 which I find a bit on the pricey side, but I got mine at IMATS, so they were having major deals, I got this for only £2!! I'm pretty pleased with that. :D

So, round up, if you have thirteen pounds to spend,  this pencil is really nice, high pigmentation, stays put but still blends. on the whole, love it! :D

I'll try and do a video tomorrow saying 'yay! I did an upload a day or whatever!' so stay tuned for that. ;)

see y'all later!

Gxx

Lovely chocolate icing

So, part two of the yummy chocolate cake recipe. I’m tempted to use an American-ism, and call this frosting because it turns out so stiff (I always imagine frosting stiffer than icing, I don’t know why).

Ingredients:

200g (7oz) icing sugar

50g (1 ¾ oz) cocoa powder

80g (2 ¾ oz) butter (or marg)

Half a table spoon (or a splash) of milk (NOT skimmed)

Method:

Whisk the icing sugar, cocoa and butter together on the very slowest setting of an electric whisk, or use a fork or wooden spoon, until the mixture is a sandy consistency.

Pour in the milk and increase the speed to medium and keep mixing until light and fluffy.

and that's it! 

A pallet knife would be ideal to spread the icing thickly across the top and sides of the cake, but a non-serrated knife (a.k.a. a butter knife) would work just as well.

If you wanted to, you could double the icing mixture and use it instead of jam, in-between the layers as well as on the outside of the cake.

not to blow my own trumpet, but doesn't that look yummy?!

Top tip!

Haha, cheesy I know, but I didn’t know how else to fit this tip in. when you use an electric whisk, especially with the first step of this recipe, loads of mixture can go everywhere, and get your kitchen really messy. So, take some cardboard, from a cereal packet or something, and cut a chunk out of the side so that the electric mixer can get in the bowl. The rest of the card will cover up the bowl so that when the whisk is turned on, the mixture doesn’t go everwhere.

Store the piece of card with the whisk and re-use it, instead of throughing it away.

So I hope you like this, and actually this icing can be used with loads of different recipes.

See you tomorrow!

Gxx