lush sunnyside bath bar review + samples review

Yesterday I went shopping in York and Leeds, and popped into Lush to purchase myself one of their bubble bars. Lush's bubble bars are my absolute favourite (maybe a close tie with those bottles of matey!) for bubble baths, nothing foams up like them. I've tried 'the Comforter' along with some others before, and I found that it was lovely and relaxing so this time I decided to purchase "Sunnyside".

The lady serving me was lovely and gave me loads of wonderful advice on my skin type and what products I should used on them. She gave me two samples, one of lush's infamous "Dream Cream" and one of their new 'Willow' soap, so I'm here to review all three.

Sunnyside

This is a gold bubble bar covered with gold glitter. You crumble the bar under the hot tap and it creates tonnes of frothy bubbles in your bath, and turns the water a pale yellow-gold full of tiny sparkles. I can imagine that using the whole bar would make your bath look like liquid gold (so glamorous!!!! I can't wait to try), however I only used about a quarter to a third of mine as Iind that a little goes a very long way with this product. The shop assistant compared the smell to Tropicana juice, and I can agree with her there.
It contains notes of tangerine, lemon and sweet wild orange oils, which makes it smell so summery and bright.

The bar is supposed to be "for grey days" and make you feel uplifted and relaxed. This is definitely the case with this bubble bar, as my bath put me in an excellent, chilled mood afterward.

This made my skin feel SO soft and smooth, and (I don't know if this is just me that suffers this) did not feel like most bath products, which make my skin uncomfortable, oily and itchy whilst in the bath, and then dry it out completely when out of the bath. A lot of products give me a horrific rash also. Cry cry. I have never experienced ANY of this with any Lush product, and Sunnyside was no exception.

Dream Cream

The shop assistant gave me a sample pot of this emollient cream to try after we spent some time bemoaning our horrible dry skin.
'Dream Cream' is supposed to be a soothing, cooling, moisturising cream for sensitive skin. I looked forward to trying this because I have very dry skin - which is probably a genetic thing, as my dad suffers from many similar skin complaints also. Problem areas for me are my hands (around my knuckles, palms, and in between my fingers), shins, and the tops of my thighs.
I used this cream after my bath last night, and rubbed it into my hands this morning, and it made my dry, cracked shins look shiny and smooth, without any flakiness. My hands felt soothed and moisturised and this cream basically healed all the cracked scabby areas where my skin had bled due to being overly dry. This is an amazing result as I normally don't see this kind of effect with ordinary moisturisers!!!

The cream is made with oatmilk and rosewater, but this does not affect the fragrance. Dream Cream smells like lavender, which is supposed to have a soothing effect. Personally, I strongly dislike the smell of lavender, but I know a lot of people love it and find it a very relaxing scent so this here is a matter of opinion. I personally loved Dream Cream and will be rushing out to purchase it as soon as possible.

Willow Soap

I was also given a sample of Lush's new Valentine's Day release, "Willow soap". I absolutely love that they have chosen to do this soap for Valentine's Day, as the story behind the Blue Willow pattern is very sweet and romantic, and therefore very apt for the occasion. 

This soap is scented like rose and lemon, which is also a very romantic scent suited to Valentine's Day. /The soap is supposed to be "particularly good for sore or dry skin" and the rose ingredient is supposed to soothe irritation. I placed this soap in my bathroom and used every time I went to wash my hands (which was a lot, apparently.. I have been told I wash my hands far too much but WHO wants dirty, germy hands??). 

As previously mentioned, after only around 16 hours of using this product in conjunction with the Dream Cream, the skin on my hands is well on it's way to being back to smooth and soft, as opposed to flaky, dry, and bleeding. This is brilliant and I would definitely consider trying more of Lush's soaps in future.

What's your favourite lush product? Have you tried any of the products featured? What did you think?

week in photos

Pretty snow on my hedge; more pretty snow on my hedge; even more pretty snow on my hedge; me and the boyf; me and my good friend hazza b; snow on my dog; look how long my hair's got; first day on reddit; fabulous dog

another foundation review!

I actually took these pictures the other day when I was getting ready and reviewing the blush in the previous post here. I've only just got round to making a post and a proper review...

This offering from Illamasqua is DEFINITELY, without a shadow of a shadow of a doubt my 'Holy Grail' foundation. It is 100% the best I've used so far. 

This is my second repurchase of this, meaning my third bottle! I wear shade 02 which is just one step up from white, and the more pink toned out of the pale shades. I did originally try out shade 03 but it leant far too yellow on me. This foundation is AMAZING - honestly, I couldn't sing it's praises any more (I can always try, however). It is supposedly Illamasqua's take on a BB cream; it has a natural flawless finish, whilst still maintaining heavy coverage. You literally only need the tiniest bit of this and it covers your whole face.

Two layers stippled onto my face with a MAC187 and then blended in with my fingers

As you can see the foundation has pretty high coverage, and matches my skin perfectly. the only problem I have with this foundation is that it is quite matte when dried, although it has to be set with powder around my nose and eyes because it does tend to slide. It can also be quite drying on the skin. This isn't a problem for me though I just slap on the moisturizer and highlighter!!

Have you ever used this foundation before? How did you find it? Did you love it as much as I do?

illamasqua cream blush review & going out look

I was stocking up on my HG foundation (Illamasqua 'Skin Base'!) in Leeds the other week, when the store assistant there showed me their sale items which were reduced from full price down to £5. This is of course an EXCELLENT deal for  higher-end brand. The item I chose to purchase was this cream blush, as I've never tried one from Illamasqua before, despite lusting after Zygomatic and the cream pigment 'Androgen'.
This blush is described online as a "deep raspberry red" with a dewy finish. As you can see from the photographs this is an apt description. Crush is a very deep, very rich berry red with high pigmentation. 

On the skin it comes out as a very deep colour, similar to red wine, on first application. When blended out however it adds a lovely blue-toned pink flush to the skin, like a doll! The blusher is very creamy and easily blendable when applied with both fingers or a brush. Be careful with how much you apply if you are pale, however, on my first time trying with this I accidentally put far more than I needed on and ended up looking like I'd just ran a marathon - bright red face all over the place.

I personally preferred to apply with a MAC130 brush after applying bronzer. I applied in a circular motion and buffed it into my skin after applying my foundation, powder, and bronzer (to contour).

Please excuse my horrific brows! They look like two huge furry slugs on my forehead!

I applied the blusher with a very light hand but it still came across very bright on my pale skin. Crush leans very blue on my skin and I'm not sure the colour really suits me. I do however love the formula and consistency of the blush and think my next Illamasqua purchase may be their cream blush in dixie, or the cream pigment 'Androgen', which as I mentioned before, I am dying to get my sticky little hands on!!
I think on a darker olive skin tone this would add a healthy glow, and would look particularly stunning on very dark skin tones.

For reference, I am wearing: Illamasqua Skin Base foundation in 02, £27; NYC 'Smooth Skin' loose powder in translucent, £2.99, Sleek's brow palette in Dark, £8.49, Bourjois Delice de Poudre bronzer in shade 2, £6.99, Soap & Glory 'Supercat' felt-tip eyeliner, £6, MAC Studio Finish concealer  in NW15, £14.50, under my eyes and in other necessary places, Rimmel gel eyeliner in Black £6.49, UD 'Kinky' eyeshadow from the smoked palette, £35, all over the lid, UD 'Muse' and 'Desperation' eyeshadow from the Vice Palette, £42, in the crease and outer corner, and UD 'Primer Potion', £14.50, Rimmel 'Lash Accelerator' mascara, £7.99, Gosh 'Velvet Touch' classic foundation primer £13.99, miscellaneous highlighter (unsure about the brand!), UD 24/7 kohl eyeliner in Perversion, £13, in my upper waterline, and Gosh velvet lipstick in 134 Darling, £6.49.

Have you tried any of the Illamasqua cream blushers? What did you think? Do you like 'crush'?

rimmel wake me up foundation review

Rimmel 'Wake Me Up' Foundation - Shade 1 "Ivory" - £8.99

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past couple of months, you'll have heard of Rimmel's new "Wake Me Up" foundation and all the buzz it's had in the beauty world. 

The foundation is cited as having a "light smooth texture, for natural 100% poreless coverage" that "eliminates signs of tiredness and lifts skin from fatigue".

Personally, I found the foundation to have a medium-buildable coverage which covered up pores and uneven skin tone with one layer, and covered most of my freckles and hyperpigmentation after two layers (I know a lot of you don't like to do this, but I often have to layer my foundations if I want to cover up my horrifically patchy skin. My face looks like one of Frankenstein's earlier experiments!!)

The foundation gave me a nice dewy glow, although I would (obviously) need to set it with powder as the dewiness was in fact verging on shiny. However, I think I would have to use powder all over my entire face for this one. I don't usually do this as I have quite dry skin and I find throughout the day, a lot of powder often makes my makeup flake a little.

Below is a photograph of it on my skin as you can see the foundation is quite smooth (except around the sides of my nose/cheeks, but I have impossibly dry skin there so please excuse the scaliness!) and gives me a nice healthy glow. It doesn't appear to cling to hairs either, which is always a bonus as I don't want it highlighting my horribly unplucked brows - I'm trying to grow them out for reshape, the last time i had them waxed the beautician did them far too flat and thin! 

Two layers of the foundation stippled and then blended onto my skin using a MAC187

On to colour (the most important part for people like me!). I wore the colour "Ivory" as it was the palest in the collection and I find it incredibly hard to find a foundation that matches the colour on my face, as my skin there is incredibly white and kind of translucent (you pale girls will understand what i mean). 

As you can see the colour is a decent match for my skin, although I find in real life the foundation looks slightly like I have an orange-y film over my face. This is because the foundation leans quite yellow on my skin, which is slightly more pink based on my face.

Below are some swatches of the foundation on my arm and face.

As you can probably see, the foundation is by no means an exact match for my skin, but once blended out all over my skin it looks acceptable. I prefer to mix this with a paler, matte foundation and set with a light dusting of loose powder.

I liked the coverage of this foundation, although it wasn't the best I've ever tried, it covered everything I wanted covered acceptably and definitely gave my skin a more "awake" look. This is 100% the best foundation Rimmel have ever come up with, and if this is a replacement for the old anti-fatigue foundation with the pink lid (does anyone remember this? I used to use it when I was about 13 - massive glitter flakes everywhere!!) then they've definitely hit the ball way out of the park with this one. The only real fault is the limited shade collection, but as a drugstore foundation this is to be expected I suppose!!! Curse you pale skin!!

What did you think of Rimmel's 'Wake Me Up' foundation?