Product Review: Soap & Glory Archery Brow Pencil

Hi Everyone,

The Soap & Glory 'Archery' brow pencil came on to my radar a few weeks ago but I struggled to track it down in any of my local Boots stores. Eventually I had some luck and found my shade 'Hot Chocolate' in a large central London branch, but even then it was tucked away under a heap of other products, as though someone had expertly hidden it for safekeeping!

This brow pencil is slim and delicate, with a precise pencil at one end and a small brow brush on the other. I personally really like the slim pencil as it produces small, hair-like strokes and looks natural even on sparse brows like mine. The brush end does what it says on the tin and is precise enough to blur any obvious pencil strokes whilst still keeping the brow shape that you create.

I am usually a slave to my Anastasia Beverly Hills Dipbrow pomade, but since buying this pencil I have found that this is the one that I reach for instead. It is remarkably easy to use and I do think the overall effect is natural and long lasting. My only real criticism of this pencil would be its limited colour range; available in only blonde or brunette shades. Fortunately I find the brunette is a fairly good match for me without being orange-toned, although maybe not ideal for those with darker colouring,

Overall I'm happy with this purchase. At £8 it hardly breaks the bank, although I would love this product even more if there was a brow gel thrown in there as well.

Have you tried the Archery brow pencil? Let me know your thoughts!

Rosie x

Lifestyle Post: Richmond Park

Hi Everyone,

I had a rare treat this weekend as my boyfriend had his first Saturday off work in months, and so after the compulsory Friday night out, what better way to spend the weekend than in the beautifully Autumnal Richmond Park?!

For anyone that hasn't been to Richmond Park- it is ginormous. We walked for what felt like miles but barely made our way across even the tiniest section of the park. It is also absolutely beautiful, and full of wildlife (most notably deer, as you can see from my photos!). They are beautiful animals but not as placid as they seem, and we saw quite a few of the young males scuffling and clashing antlers.

Autumn seemed to be in full swing in Richmond Park and we crunched our way through the park admiring the lovely colours. I wore my favourite new coat from Next and my Topshop boots, teamed with jeans and a cosy knit, perfect to protect against the Autumn chill.

After the park we traipsed back to our car and heading into Ealing for dinner. It was a lovely end to a great day, and it really made me appreciate this wonderful Autumn sun we've been having!

What did you all get up to this weekend?

Rosie x

First Impressions: Fairydrops Mascara

Hi Everyone,

I recently invested in the Fairdrops Mascara having heard about it first on Vivianna's blog. I am fortunate enough to have quite long eyelashes, but the problem I have is that they are dead straight, and so this mascara really appealed to me as it promises to lift and separate lashes (like a bra for your eyes!).

This is a Japanese mascara originally designed by Japanese celeb Aya Yasuda, and as such it is not the easiest to track down in the UK. I managed to find it in stock in the Topshop flagship store in Oxford Street in their new Beautymart section which is filled with lots of exciting makeup products from overseas!

First impressions of this mascara is that the packaging is really cute, yet feels quite luxurious. The gold mascara tube reminds me of high end mascaras like YSL Babydoll, but at £18.50 the Fairydrops mascara is a little easier on the pocket. The wand itself is separated into three thick 'bulbs' and is slightly bent which makes application nice and smooth. The above photo is taken without using eyelash curlers and I was quite impressed with the level of curl I achieved- I have since used the mascara with eyelash curlers and was even happier with the results.

The problems I've encountered with this mascara so far is that it is not 100% waterproof and does have a tendency to run slightly, although it is stubborn and is not the easiest to remove at the end of the day. I also find that the solution is quite thick and makes my lashes a bit gloopy looking, although I have managed to reduce this by using less product.

I feel the price is a little steep for what it is (the tube was a bit smaller than I expected) but then I am not a fan of spending a lot of money on mascara generally as I find it quite an unexciting product to splash out on!

Overall I like this mascara for the much needed curl that it gives my poker straight lashes and for its staying power. It will probably become my go-to daily mascara, although for nights out I'm not sure it will give me the volume and waterproofness (if that's a word!?) that I'm looking for.

Have you tried Fairydrops? Let me know what you thought of it!

Rosie x

First Impressions: bareMinerals bareSkin Pure Brightening Serum Foundation

Hi Everyone,

Today I wanted to do a quick 'first impressions' post for the new (and first!) liquid foundation from bareMinerals. They say that it helps you to achieve 'full coverage with a natural finish', and of course being bareMinerals its full of lovely natural ingredients.

My first thought was that I was impressed with how full the coverage was with this foundation- with a name like 'bareSkin' I was expecting little more than a tinted moisturiser. However, the bareSkin Pure Brightening Serum Foundation (try saying THAT three times fast!) is actually a nice, medium-to-full coverage foundation.

I did find the formula to be quite oily which is probably down to the serum element and I also found it really tough to blend. I was using my Real Techniques Expert Face Brush but found that it left visible brush strokes even after quite a lot of blending. bareMinerals have released a new brush to go with this foundation which maybe does the job better, but as I only have a sample I haven't tried it. 

Overall I have my doubts about how this foundation would fare over several hours due to the oily feel, but I really liked the fresh, almost-dewy finish and I will definitely be trialing it in more detail over the next few days!

Pros:

- Good Coverage

- Natural Ingredients

- Feels Light on the Skin

- Nice Finish

Cons:

- Not Very Blendable

- Oily Consistency

- May Not Be Very Long-Lasting

I hope you found my first impressions helpful! Have you tried this foundation yet?

Rosie x

Revlon Nearly Naked Foundation... First Impressions

Hi Everyone,

I know I'm a bit late to the party with this one but today I purchased Revlon's Nearly Naked Foundation for the first time after reading about it on Lily Pebbles' blog. Normally I am a Medium-to-Full coverage kind of girl, but recently I've found myself favouring a lighter coverage more and more. Honestly, I've never had particularly bad skin but I do worry about redness, and I am a bit of a concealer obsessive.

I bought Revlon's Nearly Naked foundation in the shade 'Shell' which I think should be a good colour for me as we head into Autumn/Winter. It is quite yellowy at first swatch but does have pinker tones in natural sunlight. Personally I prefer a yellow-tone foundation to counteract the redness I mentioned earlier so this shade suits me fine.

The bottle, as many before me have already noted, is a bit annoying. There is no pump which I don't normally mind or expect from a drugstore brand, but with the Nearly Naked foundation it is particularly annoying as the foundation itself is very liquidy and the mouth of the bottle is quite wide, basically making it impossible to pour out a sensible amount!

Once applied though, this foundation seems to come into its own. I like the coverage and the way that it feels on my skin, and think this could be a great everyday foundation for me. As this is a First Impressions post and I only bought this today it's a bit early for me to make a firm decision on it just yet, but I'm looking forward to putting it to the test and seeing how it looks after an 8-hour day at the office!

Have you tried Nearly Naked? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Rosie x

Easter Weekend

Hi Everyone,

I'm lucky enough to have had a fabulous Easter weekend at the seaside in Dorset and thought I would share a little bit of it with you all! It was a wonderful weekend of eating, drinking and hanging out with friends and it was just what I needed after a hectic few weeks.

We drove down on Friday afternoon as a merry group of four, to stay at the home of one of our friend's parents. We managed to avoid the majority of the famous Bank-Holiday traffic apart from around Stonehenge- although at least I managed to catch a glimpse of it for the first time! The house was a beautiful countryside cottage with a wonderful cosy feel to it and we spent many a happy night in with a glass of wine (or two...).

The highlight of the trip was definitely our day at Hive beach, where we visited the amazing Hive Beach Cafe and tucked into delicious fresh lobster and chips! This was followed by a HUGE ice cream sundae and a stroll along the beach... Bliss. We also had some incredible meals out where we were staying in Sherborne, and on Friday went to the lovely restaurant The Green where we sampled such delights as their crab creme brulee (actually delicious) and scallops with black pudding crisps.. yum!

The weather was not great on our last day but we still found time for a cream tea at a local cafe before hitting the road back to London in the pouring rain... A fitting end to the Bank Holiday weekend. 

I hope you all had a wonderful Bank Holiday weekend- was your as food orientated as mine?!

Rosie x

A snap of Stonehenge taken from the car!

March Favourites

Hi Everyone,

I hope you’re all enjoying the weekend and the warmer weather! All this sunshine has put me in a really summery mood and I’ve become one of those Brits that throws on a pair of shorts and flip flops at the first sign of a bit of sun!

Today’s post is about a few new products that I have been enjoying using recently. As you can see from the pic I have a bit of a thing for MAC Mineralize Skinfinishes at the moment and I’ve pretty much tripled the size of my collection in a month! The next one I have my eye on is Lightscapade and I’d be really interested to hear your thoughts if you’ve tried it.

Debenhams have been doing a 10% discount offer lately on their website so I used the opportunity to buy a few bits (as you do!) and picked up the MAC Mineralize Skinfinish in Soft and Gentle, which I’ve had my eye on for a while. This is a beautiful ‘gilded peach bronze’ colour according to MAC and has a good amount of shimmer to it without being overpowering. I have been using this product more sparingly during the day to avoid looking too ‘sparkly’ at work, but can’t wait to try it for a night out!

I also managed to pick up Mineralize Skinfinish in the shade ‘Stereo Rose’ from the MAC website as part of their limited edition Fantasy of Flowers collection. I had read about this first on Lily Pebbles’ blog and having seen a few photos I knew that I had to try it for myself. This has become my go-to blusher of late as it is a perfect rosy-pink colour with just a hint of shimmer. It is buildable and just generally very pretty!

I also bought the Extra Dimension Skinfinish in ‘Fairly Precious’ which is more sparkly than the other two I would say and perfect for creating a fresh, dewy look. I love the light pink colour of this and would also wear it as an eyeshadow, although I would say that it is slightly less versatile than Soft and Gentle as the pink tone can’t be used all over.

Also on my favourites list is a MAC lipstick in the shade Hue. I picked this up in a blog sale a few weeks ago (I think I mentioned this on my blog already) and I’ve basically worn it nearly every day since. It is the easiest colour to wear- a lovely pinky nude that is not too pink nor too brown for my skin tone, and the formula is lovely and creamy and seems to last quite well despite being a ‘glaze’ rather than my usual favourite ‘cremesheen’.

A friend of mine at Revlon recently gave me a little goody bag and in it was this fab brow pencil and gel called ‘brow fantasy’. Unfortunately it is a little light for my natural colouring (I was given the shade Dark Blonde) so I have to use a touch of powder as well to darken my brows up, but I love the idea of this product and the gel works really well to tame any unruly hairs!

For contouring I really love this bronzer by theBalm in Bahama Mama. I read sooo many good reviews of this before purchasing and I can’t disagree with any of them- the colour looks scary in the pan but is more grey-toned than a lot of bronzers so leaves a natural shadow appearance when contouring rather than an orange stripe down your face! A light hand is all that’s needed with this but I really like it and the packing is really cute too.

Finally I picked up this bargain highlighter by Along Came Betty in Tesco for £2 and I really like it! I apply it under or over foundation depending on how strong I want the highlight to be, and it works really well. The colour is a subtle champagne gold (not dissimilar to Benefit’s Watts Up!) and if you wanted to give a stick highlighter a try without spending a fortune then I would definitely recommend it.

That’s it for my favourites this month- as you can see it has been quite highlight-heavy! I’d love to hear what you’ve been loving recently so feel free to leave me a comment below.

Rosie x