February 26, 2018

GLAMGLOW Facemasks For £7, That’s Impossible, Right? Let Me Show You Where I Just Bought Mine!

February 26, 2018/ Claire Spence

GLAMGLOW is the really swish Hollywood skincare brand with colourful facemasks that celebrities are seen using on Instagram. Their products are pricey, with little lip balm sized pots of product costing £15 and up.

Well if you are quick I’ve spotted Boots.com have their limited edition Sonic the Hedgehog mask range, from 2017 reduced down to £7 on their site, which is crazy cheap for GLAMGLOW. It’s their classic Gravity Mud Firming Treatment in a themed blue shade, peel off mask.

The Sonic branded one is gone, but the product is the same in all three boxes that were launched anyway. I picked up the Tails one, which is available here. The other box is Knuckles, who I don’t remember from the game, I was always a Nintendo kid! You can buy it here.

Of course it’s a tiny 15g supply, which will be maybe one full face mask, or two localised area masks if you apply it to problem areas. For £7 it’s fun to buy just to try GLAMGLOW and have that Instagram celebrity experience. Don’t forget shipping it FREE if you use click and collect to your nearest Boots store and call in to pick up your package yourself.

Boots.com also have the GLAMGLOW Power Rangers masks in their colours should you fancy a bright green face mask!

November 14, 2016

Our Final Pick! Christmas 2016 Advent Calendars for Smix, Me, & for Mrs Meow!

November 14, 2016/ Claire Spence

We are so excited for Christmas! These two rascals are sorted for advent calendars, and my choice has just arrived too. So let's have a look at 2016's picks for the World of Kitsch household.

Smix picked the Tesco Hot Wheels calendar. I bought it for £15 last week in store, but it appears to be £12 this week on the website.

Behind the doors are 8 cars and the rest of the days are fun Christmas accessories to pair with the vehicles.

The second calendar is one for us to share, which I won via a competition on the fabulous, local, culinary website Eating Ideas (check them out if you don't know them already).

It's the Hotel Chocolat Truffels for Two calendar, which costs £26 & which has two mini chocolates for each day.

Mrs Meow's calendar is next, and a rarer find than a doggy advent, it's a cat treat calendar from Lidl which cost £4.99 Its pretty hefty though. The contents look kibbly, and I'm hoping she will eat them, you never know with her.

Last is my own choice, and rather than go for a makeup advent calendar this year I splashed out on the Sanctuary Let Go Days of Christmas advent. It costs £25 and it's packed with travel size minis of their top products, and home fragrance items too. I buy from the range throughout the year, so I'm looking forward to finding some new favourites.

It's another hefty calendar, but the £25 price tag is softened by the fact it's included in the yearly Boots 3 for 2 Christmas gift offer. So I bought two similarly priced presents for other people and then got the calendar 'free' as it were. Merry Christmas to myself!

So which calendar are you after? The only other one that's tempting me is the £250-worth M&S Beauty calendar, which you can get for £35 when you spend £35 in store on home or clothing. If any of you get that, I will be so envious!

September 05, 2016

Boots SEVENTEEN Mega Matte Lipsticks. How Mega? How Matte? How Do They Compare to Liquid Lipstick Mattes? Let's Find Out.

September 05, 2016/ Claire Spence

Unless you live under a rock, or never wear makeup like I didn't until two years ago, you'll know matte lips are the big, huge, massive trend that brands are still scrambling to catch up with. Almost all the concessions now have a matte lip range, and Boots SEVENTEEN have joined the ranks this Autumn with 12 shades to try.

The SEVENTEEN 13 hour wear Mega Matte Lip caught me by surprised when the three shades I chose arrived for review. The trend has been for brands to make their matte lips in a liquid lipstick format, not a physical lip STICK. So usually your matte lip comes in a tube similar to a lip gloss. It goes on slightly shimmery and wet, but dries out to a completely matte colour on your lips.

But the SEVENTEEN Mega Matte Lip range comes in lipstick format, and not even a pointy one, a flat, screw up product. The PR kit also included a lip brush, so I assume this is how they think the matte lip goes on best. However I put my makeup on in the leisure centre every day after I swim, so I tested them as I would use them, just in their stick format.

A usual liquid lip (ColourPop Bumble) & a 17 Mega Matte Lipstick

Now I must say I really wasn't happy with this at first. I like to give beauty products a good two week trial before I write about them, otherwise I can't tell what I really thing about them. So at first I hated the stick format, and found it tricky to apply with the flat edge. However as time has gone on I've got the hang of it.

Here is how the SEVENTEEN nude 'Looking Buff' compares to ColourPop 'Bumble'. Liquid lip Bumble on left looking at the pic, 17 Looking Buff on the right.

ColourPop liquid lip Bumble : 17 Looking Buff

The liquid lip Bumble is more highly pigmented, but it bleeds out and can be messier to apply. 17 Matte Lip is more pinkish in base, less drying to the lip itself, and has a sweet taste. You can see it has a more natural look to it. I find it easier not to 'mess up', and can do without a lip liner to keep it in place. It's also £4.49, a good £15 cheaper than the genuine ColourPop liquid lip. Incidentally ColourPop's lab make the Kylie Jenner formula from the same recipe- so if you buy ColourPop you are getting the cheaper version of Kylie Kits.

So the other colours. I use a purple tone liquid lip often that I bought on AliExpress, just a generic Asian brand, it was 69p or something crazy. So I asked to try the 'I Lilac It A Lot' shade of the SEVENTEEN Mega Matte Lip to compare it.

I was really disappointed in this shade. You can see below that's two coats and it's more like a light tint. I expect matte lips to be pigmented, opaque and mean business, and this colour just didn't do that for me. If you like your lip subtle you might like it, coupled with the fact none of the shades feel heavy to wear on your lips, but not for me.

'Mega Matte Lip I Lilac It a Lot'- which I don't.

Finally, my favourite liquid lip is a Lime Crime dupe I bought on eBay, a fiery orange red called 'SuedeBerry'. So the corresponding SEVENTEEN shade is 'Lava You A Lot', again £4.49.

And this one I do Lava a Lot! Pigment is good, non-drying on the lip, fun colour, good staying power. It's gone into my after-pool makeup kit along with the nude colour.

So over all? I didn't like how they were applied at first, but they grew on me and now I love them. Some shades are better than others in quality it seems- maybe get your hands on the testers in store before picking a colour to buy.

They can be as good as liquid format lips, and the price is definitely a huge bonus.

One thing is for sure, the matte lip trend is going nowhere fast, so maybe this traditional lipstick format is the introduction to the trend you've been waiting for.

Keep up with my beauty buys and bargains on my Snapchat story, username Rudedoodle.

August 18, 2016

Boots SEVENTEEN Skin Wow Concealer- The Five Star Handbag Essential

August 18, 2016/ Claire Spence

It still tickles me that I now venture tentatively into makeup reviewing, when five years ago I didn't wear any.

In comparison I now daily use primer, foundation, an eyeshadow palette, eyeliner, mascara, brow pencil, concealer, highlighter, bronzer, lipstick, finishing powder and makeup setting spray! I still don't have the skills of women my age who have been wearing makeup since their teenage years, but thanks to YouTube tutorials, I'm getting there.

My handbag touch-up kit is whatever lip colour I'm wearing that day & concealer. I find even if I wear eyeshadow primer, I still get a little dark smudge under my eye as the day goes on. So I carry a brightening concealer so I can 'paint over' those dark patches & freshen up my makeup.

I had been carrying & using the Maybelline Eraser Eye Concealer which Sera from The Style Guide Blog had sent me. It was the lightest shade, but still too dark for her, but it was great for my skin tone.

So when the Boots SEVENTEEN Skin Wow concealer arrived to review, it had to live up to my usual concealer product.

I previously tried out the highlighter & primer in one from the Skin Wow range and loved it, so I was keen to see how the concealer measured up.

The little gold pen operates by clicking the end to release a small amount of product. It took a good few clicks to start the flow, but I would say once you have it started you would need one click per under eye area.

I liked the little brush, it made application easy, but it wasn't suitable for blending as it just kept adding more product. Blending out with my fingers was fine.

The concealer currently comes in fair or medium on the Boots website. I'm not sure if there is a darker shade beyond medium in physical stores.

There are currently 51 reviews on the Boots site, and it has almost five out of five stars. That's a good indication of how versatile it is on many different skin tones.

Brightening up makeup that was on for 6+ hours

I'm a fan too. You can see below even with a quick application my under eye looks brighter and the crease less defined. It's not total coverage, but I reckon if you wanted that effect you could layer it on.

I would definitely recommend the SEVENTEEN Skin Wow concealer, especially to pale ladies like myself who need very fair tones for their base makeup.

Its also ideal for your contouring or strobing as you can paint it on with exact precision thanks to the snazzy little applicator brush.

The concealer is currently on offer for £3.99 rather than £4.99, and if you spend £6 on SEVENTEEN products online, you get a free gift.

Watch this space as I will be reviewing the new matte lips from the range very soon.

June 24, 2016

Nyx Pump It Up Lip Plumper- Is It Any Good?

June 24, 2016/ Claire Spence

Nyx Pump It Up is one of many lip plumping glosses on the market. At a reasonable £6.50 via Boots.com, it works by tingling the lips making them swell a little & look bigger. It's not as painful as I've just made it sound, I promise, in fact I quite like the feeling!

The needle means you KNOW it's going to be good

From the nine colours I chose the neutral, translucent gloss 'Liv' so I can wear it over my usual lipsticks.

The product definitely works, you can see the difference in my before & after pics, so I would give it the thumbs up and recommend it. A short review, but there we go!

There are 9 shades to choose from, including the clear gloss I bought

June 23, 2016

What's new from SEVENTEEN: Gel Nails, Instant Glow Cream Bronzer, Long Lash Mascara & a 3 Way Highlighter You'll Want to Use All Summer

June 23, 2016/ Claire Spence

Boots SEVENTEEN collection is where you'll find budget priced, ahead of the trend makeup. They sent me some products to try out, so let's have a look at them. If you like what you see, then you're in luck as the SEVENTEEN range is on offer with 3 for 2 on the Boots website right now.

Firstly, there is the Skin Wow! Primer at £5.99. It's a three in one product with versatile usage you'll love. You can use it as a primer, mix it with your foundation, or apply over your makeup on your cheek bones to give yourself a luminous glow.

I tried it over my makeup that had been on half the day, and it really perked up my skin. It would be great to add variation to a matte foundation finish, or to keep in your handbag to use midway through the day to refresh your face.

Next is the Instant Glow Cream Bronzer at £4.99. I haven't actually used a cream bronzer before, only powder, so I was curious to how this would be to apply.

I was a little dubious as it looked quite orange when I swatched it on my hand. When I tried it on my cheek as a contour, it looked more natural. The great thing about it being a cream is that it's easier to build colour slowly to achieve the effect you desire. It's also very easy to blend.

Using Instant Glow as a light contour on cheeks

The third product SEVENTEEN kindly sent me is the Long Lash mascara which costs £6.99 and as with all the SEVENTEEN range, it's 3 for 2 right now.

It's the type of wand I prefer, with small, short bristles. It allows you to coat even the shortest lashes without making a hash of it.

I already had Boots No7 mascara on, but you can still see the difference Long Lash makes. I applied it to the eye on the left (my right).

With Long Lash       :    Without — With Long Lash : Without

Finally, the £3.99 Gel Colour nail polish with 30 colours to choose from, I was sent this pretty candy pink.

It's applies well for a light colour. I've a similar light pink from Barry M & it takes about four coats, whereas this only took the recommended two.

I'm not the best at painting my nails as you can see- but they do match my gaudy phone case! Bonus!

June 18, 2016

Celebrating 50 Years of Boots in Northern Ireland, in the Europa Penthouse Suite

June 18, 2016/ Claire Spence

Boots the Chemist are celebrating 50 years of trading in Northern Ireland this year. To celebrate, during an intimate event at the Europa Hotel, the No7 teamof makeup artists recreated key looks from the past five decades, documenting the swinging 60s styles, the electro 80s, right through to today’s current trends – from contouring to creating the perfect brow.

1960s' hair & makeup using Boots products

I went along to the Europa penthouse suite, where a dozen of makeup & beauty concessions had sent their dream teams to pamper & paint our lucky faces.

Anne Higgins, Head of Customer Experience from Boots in Northern Ireland commented; “When the first Boots store opened in Northern Ireland in Belfast’s Corn Market in 1966 it brought with it a wealth of beauty and wellbeing essentials helping customers feel good right across the province."

"Boots also brought to Northern Ireland its No7 brand, which was originally introduced in the 1930s. The now iconic brand has brought a huge range of innovative products to the market through its beauty and skincare collections, from its ground breaking Protect and Perfect Intense Advanced Serum, the UK’s first serum clinically proven to deliver anti-wrinkle results that get even better over time, to its No7 Match Made service which helps you discover the colours shades and finished perfectly suited to you."

The event was a beauty blogger's dream, and as a woman who is now hooked on makeup, I had a whale of a time. There were many international beauty houses available at Boots including Smashbox, Benefit, Elizabeth Arden, Estee Lauder, Lancôme and Bare Minerals, who showcased their latest products and trends.

I was also treated to skincare from Liz Earle, No7, Clarins and Clinique with summer hair trends demonstrated by Bumble & Bumble.

The No7 brand has developed throughout the years, working with top skin scientists and specialists, to meet the demands of today’s savvy shoppers, professional makeup artists and beauty fanatics. Today, its latest new products include the new Lift and Luminate Triple Action Serum, Bronze Shimmer Palette and the Special Edition Gold Lash Impact Mascara.

We also came away with lots of samples, so what did I love, what secret products are in the pipeline, and which items will I be buying full size thanks to the samples or demonstrations?

The first stop on my tour of the room were the ladies at Estée Lauder. I had always heard great things about their Double Wear foundation, and Julie from their main Boots store offered to apply it for me so I could compare it to my usual medium coverage Rimmel foundation.

See the result of how the new foundation looked, later on in this post.

Julie used the Double Wear To Go £33.00 compact in the lightest shade. The clever compact dispenses a pump of foundation, one for light coverage & two for a more heavier look. This Double Wear incarnation has a slight glow to it, it's not matte but it's not too shiny either. In the words of Goldilocks, it was just right. So I've my eyes set on buying the compact myself once my ten day trial has run out.

Each Estée Lauder concession currently has a ten day sample available for customers to try Double Wear at home. Just come along to your local store & they will use their little machine to match your skin tone & send you off with your ten day trial.

The next sample I'm loving is the No7 Lash Impact in limited edition gold glitter packaging.

I'm really very fussy about mascara. I only use Estée Lauder, Benefit Bad Gal or RollerLash, but not They're Real, or No7 mascaras.

I dislike mascara that clumps, or makes my lashes look spidery, but No7 wands don't let me down, so if I have to recommend a mascara I would say this was top three.

Next is one of the products we were teased with, but that isn't available to buy yet. Here is a snap of the adjustable head eyeliner Lancôme are launching very soon. I didn't get a photo myself, so this is from Alison, PassionsandPreening's snapchat.

I struggle with my eyeliner so I'm dying to get my hands on one of these flexible head types.

Moving on to something I did get a sample of, the Smash Box Primer £25.50

I've tried a couple of brands of primer but never fully added it into my makeup routine. This product might just change that. It's hard to describe how it makes your skin feel, but it's so soft, you'll just want to keep touching it.

Bumble & Bumble Thickening Hairspray £22.00 next. They gave us a couple of samples and they all smell so good. This hairspray isn't an aerosol, which is great because cans of hairspray bring me out in a rash. This is more liquid, but has a tonne of hold. My hair felt very natural and not full of product, despite the curl I had put in holding so well.

Another full size sample the Boots Coconut Oil 100ml at £2.54 is a versatile product you can use for your hair, skin and nails. I used it as a body moisturiser & of course the scent is delicious.

Lastly, if you are into beauty you'll surely have heard about the new Benefit Brow Collection coming soon. I've my eyes set on Gimme Brow in shade 4, £18.50 after the girls colour matched my brows and applied the gel for me.

So my makeup below is Estée Lauder Double Wear To Go foundation & blush, Clinique mascara, Benefit Gimme Brow, Lancôme Juicy Shaker lips. Thanks for a wonderful day, Boots!

November 28, 2015

Rodnik Band x Soap & Glory = Match (Box) Made In Heaven

November 28, 2015/ Claire Spence

For yeaarrrrrs I've blogged about The Rodnik Band, London-based designer Philip Colbert's label and vessel of love. He lives and breathes Rodnik, with design leaning to fashion and homeware avenues, all with a quirky edge.

Rodnik Band Interiors available at Made DotCom

Soap & Glory are another of what I consider 'my' brands. I got into their range very early, due to my love of retro packaging.

Here Is a Blog Post from January 2010 even, about their products. I went S&G crazy. I bought everything they brought out.

I got so into the Soap & Glory range that I eventually sickened myself on it, even before the makeup range had a chance to come out. So I rarely use Soap and Glory now, but I maintain their body butter is the best on the market, and I use their lipsticks as one of the shades is a fab nude lip for me.

Three cases to choose from. All contents the same.

So when I saw Philip had collaborated with Soap & Glory this Christmas, designing three of their cases in true Rodnik style, I was a bit conflicted. I don't want to spend maybe £40 on products I don't use now just for the case, but on the other hand they are based on Rodnik couture clutch handbags which can cost hundreds.

But here's the best part! The Rodnik Collab case only costs £18, AND it's part of the Boots' gift store wide 3 for 2 offer. So if I buy two gifts around the same price or more on the Boots site for my friends or family, I can add the Match Box Case to my shop for free!