I know my blog has been a little neglected over the last few weeks so I just wanted to do a quick post to explain my absence! We’ve just moved house and with a 2 year old it certainly seems like a mammoth job though admittedly lovely to be settling into somewhere bigger. We’re currently with out the internet until BT get themselves sorted but hot hopefully soon we’ll be back up and running.

Image from here

We are slowly starting to get sorted for Christmas so hopefully next week I should find a little time to spend on my much neglected blog and my also rather neglected beauty collection which I’m just slowly starting to unpack.

Merry Christmas to everyone and by the new year I should have lots of wonderful posts back up on here!

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.

After my not quite so successful purchase from Beauty UK I thought I’d give one of the Rimmel mascara’s a try. This bottle is a little bright for my liking but was on offer in Superdrug for £5.49 so I thought it was worth a try. After all packaging isn’t meant to be everything (though admittedly I’m easily swayed by it)!

The brush is made favourite type with bristles made of fibre rather than the plastic types which I find a little painful when I invariably poke myself in the eye. Formula wise for the first few weeks of using this mascara it was really smooth and applied easily without any clumps. My lashes did look longer even wit just the two coats like the picture below.

Unfortunately after a few weeks I’ve found the mascara seems to have gone a little clumpy and even when I draw the brush out of the mascara you can immediately see the mascara clinging to it. Obviously clump mascara on the brush gives a clump finish on the lashes even when you try to scrap the excess off on the edge o the mascara pot.

I know I this isn’t a particaulerly expensive mascara but I would hope it would last longer than a few weeks. I can already feel myself being drawn back to the Lancome or YSL counters though maybe I shall give Max Factor a try as I did use to love the 1000 lashes mascara they used to make.

Another NOTD post so you can tell I’ve had the week off work and time to paint my nails! My bottle of Rainbow Connection from OPI’s Muppet collection has finally arrived so I couldn’t wait to try it out. It’s very sparkly for this time of year but it was my little boy’s birthday so I think glitter is allowed!

Rainbow Connection is a mixture of three sizes of glitter bits in silver, gold, blue, green, pink and orange. I’ve seen a few other blogs compare this to Deborah Lippmann’s Happy Birthday polish and looking at swatches it does seem similar but about only half the price.

I’ve applied three coats here for a proper glittery finish however I’m sure just one coat of this would look lovely over a dark colour base. Application is easy though you do have to push the glitter around a little with the brush to ensure even application. Removing it was a pain as with all glitters but it looked so stunning on my nails that it was definitely worth it! I picked this bottle up from Amazon for £9.50 include packaging though I get the feeling this will be one of the first of the collection to sell out.

Crabtree & Evelyn is one of those luxury brands who seems to have a range of  lovely gift sets available each Christmas.  I’ve been trying out a Pomegranate Body Scrub which also contains argan oil and grapeseed. As it’s getting wintery now and I’ve stopped using fake tan I don’t tend to use my body scrubs quite as much however ever now and then it’s nice to properly treat my skin.

The scrub has a creamy texture with very fine granules (about the size of table salt).  It’s a lot more nourishing for my skin than scrubs with a shower gel type base as it gently scrubs away any dead skin without leaving me feeling dry. I think the argan oil properly helps to rehydrate my skin as I know how amazing that stuff is for my hair!

The Pomegranate scrub is vailable from Crabtree & Evelyn for £15 for 175ml and there are also some great ideas for Christmas gifts on the website!

*pr sample – views are my own