As spring is slowly starting to creep round the shop’s are becoming full of candy and pastel colours. Clothing wise I prefer bright colours but when it comes to make up I just can’t resist the girly colour’s and packaging.

The Body Shop is full of lovely candy colours so I’ve been trying a couple of eye shadows and lip products. The 2 eye shadows I have are a white colour with a pink edge called Shell Pink and a dark, dusty pink called Champagne Pink.

When I first looked at the Shell Pink shade I initially though it was a slightly shimmery white however it’s only when you try it on that you realise it has a proper pink edge almost like looking at the back of a sea shell. The Champagne Pink shadow has a lovely dusky colour to it and hint of a shimmer which I really like. I applied these with a damp brush to give a more intense colour but they easily blend down if you are after a more subtle finish.

The lip balm has a slight shimmer which hasn’t come out too well on the pictures but on your lips gives a little extra sparkle than a usual lip balm.  And personally I think you can never have too many lip balms! The lip scuff is an exfoliator for the lips which is something I always need in the cold weather as my lips seem to get so dry no matter how much lip balm I use! Much better than the old tooth brush and Vaseline trick I used to use which was a lot harsher on my lips. The eye shadows are £8 each, the lip balm is £3.50 and the lip scuff is £8 all from The Body Shop.

* PR samples – views are my own

I’m struggling a little at the moment with my skin as pregnancy seems to give me oily skin and breakout’s  rather than the lovely glow that most people refer too. My usual foundations just don’t seem to be working quite as well for me so when I spotted the new Blemish Balm Foundation from 17 I figured I might as well give it a try.

This is an all in one foundation which is meant to target all my problems areas of blemishes, shiny patches and sometimes even a little bit of dry skin. This foundation is meant to give reasonable coverage with a smooth finish and it also offers a little bit of SPF to help protect your skin from any sun (if we actually see any!).

The formulation is a thick liquid with almost a creamy finish. I’ve picked up the light shade which seems to suit my very pale skin quite well. I didn’t fancy doing a close up picture of my pregnancy skin so I’m afraid you’ll have to make do with a couple of swatches on my hand!

The foundation blends really easily and gives a smooth, matt finish. In terms of oil control this seems to keep my shine at bay until late afternoon where as most of my foundations seem to need a lunch time touch up. I’d say this was only a medium coverage and a concealer is definitely needed however it’s perfect to apply quickly in the morning with your fingers. I don’t even need to use a powder to set it.

I picked this up for £4.99 as it currently has £2 off in Boot’s which is an awful lot cheaper than most of the other foundations I own yet it seems to suit all my daily needs at the minute.

I finally have the Internet again after a very long wait for BT to come and install a phone line so I shall starting to blog again. I have a little bit of a back log of things I’ve got over the Christmas period but I thought I might as well start with this giveaway from Max Factor and Special K.

From now till June if you buy Special K all you have to do is go online and enter the promotional code from the pack to be in with a chance of winning this red Marilyn-esque lipstick. The shade is called Ruby Tuesday and is certainly not a colour for the faint hearted!

As with most Max Factor lipsticks the formulation is rich and creamy which gives a stunning scarlet colour. This shade has slight orange undertones which helps to make this a warm shade of red which I think will suit a lot of skin tones. I’ve just dyed my hair dark brown and with my pale skin this colour does look very striking. I’m just now waiting for a party to wear it too!

I remember seeing a video a while ago where Lisa Eldridge used a little bit of Vichys Dermablend foundation as a concealer and the results look really amazing. I was so tempted to head straight to the shops and buy some however my skin at the time was quite good so I didn’t end up getting it. However good skin only seems to last a little while for me and I’m now back to having frequent break outs so I decide it was certainly time to give this product a try.

I’ve picked up opal which is the lightest colour available in the range. This did look a little too yellowy for my skin tone initially which is the palest of the pale however a quick swatch on my had showed it blended out really easily (I know not where your meant to test a foundation but I can’t help but swatch on my hand!). The foundation feels quite thick but does blend smoothly over your skin.

I don’t think this would suit me as a foundation as the colour doesn’t match my skin tone perfectly and I would find it a little heavy on my skin however as a concealer it works perfectly. The thick, creamy consistency is perfect for covering blemishes and the yellow undertone really seems to help tone down any redness. I;ve been using a little of this on any problem areas under my mineral foundation and it really does help to give a flawless finish. I picked this up for £15.50 in Boots and considering how long this 30ml tube will last as a concealer I think this is well worth the price tag.

I think I often spend a little too much on mascara and quite often find myself gravitating towards the high end brands such as Lancome and YSL which we all know come with a pretty hefty price tag. I do buy a few high street mascaras to try out but I often only use them for a few weeks before going back to my favourites.

As we’re saving to move house I promised myself I’d try to limit my spending on cosmetics so as a challenge I thought I’d try to find one of the cheapest mascara’s on the high street to see how it matched some on my old favourites. Beauty UK isn’t a brand I’ve really tried before as the brightly coloured eye shadows never really took my fancy so I had never stopped to browse. However as the mascaras were so cheap I thought I might as well give it a try so have picked up a black mascara called Lash Fx.

The brush is a proper bristle style brush which I musch prefer to the plastic ones. I tend to find bristles give a better, fuller application and help to comb through to get rid of any clumps. I’ve picked my usual black mascara as my eye lashes are already dark and the picture below shows two coats.

Personally I found the formulation a little clumpy and I don’t think it really gave me the length or volume I was after. I think you would struggle to apply any more than two coats without ending up with spider style eye lashes. This did only cost me £2.49 so maybe my expectations were a little high. I think this will unfortunately go in my once used pill of makeup but I shall continue searching the high street for a mascara I like!