Getting the Golden Goddess Glow

Great alliteration or what? 

Summer is all about getting the glow whilst eliminating the shine, so I've got some great budget products for you to fake that beautiful glow. 

Left to right:
theBalm Bahama Mama Bronzer RRP £12.50 - This is a recent addition to my make up collection. I got some good reviews on make up alley, and I was looking for a new bronzer so popped it in my 'Payday Products Basket'. It is great for contouring, a real matte, muddy brown colour. It's also really great for bronzing on the high points of your face, but be prepared to use a really fluffy brush to blend it out if your a pale one like myself.

Topshop Cream Blush in Head Over Heels. RRP £6.00 - I cannot get enough of this blusher. I'd never used a cream one before, but it has great longevity, a sheer bright peachy pink colour, that could double up as a lip colour. Has no shimmer and is great for getting that 'been in the sun a little too long' look.

17 Lasting Lipstick in Blonde RRP £4.29 - Often when people attempt the golden goddess look, they will opt for a bronze colour everywhere. The key is to use similar tones but different colours, and this lipstick contains the same peachy pink colour as Head Over Heels, but a little darker with bronze speckling. It's super pretty and lasts all day.

Collection Shimmer Shades in Way To Glow RRP £4.19 - If you buy one budget product this summer, buy this beautiful block of shimmers. Each one with rose-gold tones can be used as a highlighters, bronzers and eyeshadows. They're sat next to me right now and even looking at them makes me smile.

 Head over Heels. Bahama Mama Bronzer. Blonde.

 The Shimmer Shades.

Rose Gold. Bronze Gold. Pearl. True Gold.

Are there any particular products you love for getting that sunkissed look?

Don't forget to follow along on twitter and bloglovin'

Blog Makeover

Why hello there and welcome to my sparkly new blog, it's still undergoing a bit of a make over, I have some more widgets to add in and an RSS feed to set up, so much to do! But I just wanted to mention the designer of this template.

Kaylah, from Rockaboo Design Studio has a lovely little business making oh so pretty templates for blogger. I'd spent ages looking for a template, something pretty and simple. One day I stumbled across her store on Etsy, and absolutely fell in love with all of the designs she has. 

So I just wanted to say thank you to her, and if you want to give your blog a makeover, go check out her site on Etsy, or on her main site Rockaboo Design Studio's.

Thanks again Kaylah!

DIY Sugar Scrubs

You can never get enough DIY posts. Everyone loves to know how to look pretty from your kitchen cupboards, you don't even have to leave the house.
I am a confessed fake tanner in summer. As soon as those yellow rays peep through the clouds, I'll be out purchasing a bottle or two of St Tropez and slapping it on. It is a hassle though, I'll agree to that, especially the prep, I can never bring myself to buy the Fake Bake Passionfruit Body Polish or the St Tropez one for that matter, since I've just forked out for tan, so I concocted a great scrub of my own for that pre tan exfoliation.

What you'll need:

2 tbsp some kind of bodywash
4 tbsp of oil (coconut oil, sweet almond oil, olive oil, any of these will do)
300g coarse sugar (granulated, demerara)
A bowl
An empty jar

Method:
1. Measure out 300g of sugar into a bowl. (I did 150g of demerara, and 150g of granulated because it looks pretty)
2. Pour in your chosen oil and body wash. I opted for Sainsbury's basics body wash, it's about 60p and smells delicious. Oil wise, I picked a mixture of coconut oil and sweet almond oil which I got from Just a Soap - here.

 3. Mix it all together

4. Spoon it in to your empty jar and screw the lid on tight!

They smell amazing and really get the dry skin off, you can add more oil to your liking depending how scrubby you like your scrubs. These are also brilliant budget presents for people, you can add colours and essential oils and really dress them up.

Try them out and see how you like them!

Sherry x

Liebster Award Tag

Hallo all!
I've been very kindly tagged by the lovely Hannah over at Hannah's Beauty Blog, to do the Liebster Award Tag! If you don't know what this is about, basically you do 11 Random Facts about yourself, answer the person who's tagged you's 11 questions, then tag 11 people with under 200 followers and ask them 11 questions, so without further ado, here goes!

11 Random Facts 

1. My all time favourite person in the world who I would love to meet is David Bowie. Actually, it's a toss up between him and Bruce Springsteen.
2. I drive a red Smart Car called Mo.
3. I LOVE hedgehogs.
4. I've dyed my hair so many times I cannot even remember what my natural colour is. Poor hair.
5. I play bingo every Monday and I have never won anything. Ever
6. If I could be any superhero, it would be Wolverine from X Men because he is the coolest.
7. I don't own a single pair of high heels.
8. I have a shelf dedicated to different tea's in my room, it's my favourite shelf
9. More than any beauty product, I love to buy underwear, so much so that I have to avoid lingerie shops and websites because my entire earnings will somehow disappear.
10. I'm actually really good at Call of Duty, ha.
11. My favourite biscuit is Fox's Cream Crunches because they're so creamy and delicious.

I never realised how hard it was to think of facts about yourself, suddenly it was like I'd been a hermit all my life, and never done anything or seen anything. Not that being a hermit is a bad thing, I imagine it's quite relaxing.

Now for Hannah's questions!

1. What’s your favourite smelling beauty product? 

Would have to be, without a shadow of a doubt, Umberto Giannini Purrfect Hot Styler Spray, or anything out of the range in the black bottles. They have the greatest scent, sweet and musky and you can build it up with lots of the products and the scent lingers all day.

2.Describe yourself in three words.

Smiley. Awkward. Pale. - How simple does that make me sound? :p

3. Lipstick or lipgloss and name your favourite.

Lipstick all the way. As for my favourite, it varies week to week, but at the moment I really love my new Topshop Macaroon, which is a pretty summery pink.

4. Plain eyes and a red lip, or statement eyes and a nude lip?

Plain eyes, red lip. I've never worn a smokey eye in my life though, so you never know, it might change.

5. What beauty product do you feel like everyone has tried, and you should have, but you haven’t? (A bit like me and the MAC scenario!)

Ha, good question. The Bumble and Bumble hair products, especially the thickening hairspray, everyone raves about the Bumble and Bumble products, but I just cannot bring myself to spend that on shampoo's, cause that's like a weeks worth of food, maybe even two, and I prefer to eat.

6.Can you remember the first makeup you bought, and what was it?

I was actually thinking about this the other day! It was a Natural Collection Foundation, which was about three shades too dark for my skin colour. I'm sure I looked like a nutter.

7.Where is the nicest place in the world that you have ever been?

This is a difficult question! Hmm. I went to Berlin a couple of years ago, and we visited a beer garden called Prater Beer Gardens, and by far it was the best moment I've ever had on holiday, cheap as chips, the beer flows freely, tonnes of fairy lights and lovely people and great food. But then I visited Rome with my better half earlier on this year and it was absolutely beautiful

8.Would you ever consider starting a YouTube channel?

I'm currently working on one right now!

9.What was your favourite subject in school?

Drama, so much so I decided to study it at Uni. I haven't decided whether it was a great or foolish idea yet.

10.What are your favourite blog posts to write?

Reviews! I'm such a scatty blogger, there's post it notes covering my wall with ideas for posts for each day of the week, but I'll always fall back on a review! I love to read collection posts though, and haul posts.

11. Do you have any pets? 

No puppies unfortunately! But I have two little black witches cats, one who is the gobbiest cat I've ever met and just shouts all the time. And a teeny little ginger hamster called Bear who is refusing to stay still for a picture, but he looks like a miniature version of this:

That's the end! Hope everybody learnt some new things and I hope you pass the exams.

My questions for y'all are:

1. The classic desert island question, what's the one product you'd take to a desert island and why?

2. If you had a snail that could magically grant wishes, what would you name it?

3. If you had a superpower, what would it be and why?

4. The world ends in one hour, what are you going to do with it?

5. Favourite skincare brand?

6. If you could only eat three foods a day, what would they be?

7. What's your first memory?

8. Have you got any claim to fames?

9.  Pastels or bright colours?

10. If you could be anyone for a day, who would it be?

11. If you could go anywhere in the world for free, where would you go?

I've tagged:

Amyloo from Amyloo's World

Mia from Make Me Up Mia

Taylor from Seams and Smiles

Chelsea from Calico Courage

Mackenzie from Easy, Lucky, Free

Ashley from That Teenage Chic

Laura from Lost in Wonderland

Rosie from Rosie Alexandra

Megan from Little Miss Average

Anya from Crazylins

You're all deserving of the award, so carry on blogging ladies :)

x

Lipsticks lipsticks lipsticks!

I am a lipstick loser. I will spend ages, choosing the colour, choosing the finish, pay a significant amount of money for it, covet it, pop it in my bag and promptly lose it.

Story of my life.

So I indulged in two new, not so expensive lipsticks from our good ol' friend Topshop!

The beautiful candy floss marshmallow pink shade on the left is Macaroon, and the blue toned red on the right is Rio Rio. Topshop make up is a new thing to me, I usually stick with brands who know their stuff and do their research, but I could not resist the amount of colours they had. And in such beautiful chalk-board packaging!

Macaroon - Velvet Finish

Rio Rio - Matte Finish

Although not as thick of a formula as my favourite MAC Russian Red, I think Rio Rio could be built up to a better opacity.

The winner though, is definitely Macaroon, I love LOVE this colour, it's so flattering and goes on like butter with a slight sheen to the finish. It's super moisturising as well as being so pretty. I may even pop back tomorrow to buy a second one, and maybe a coral shade if I'm feeling rich.

You can buy them for £8.00 here. Or in store!

Don't forget to follow along beauties!

It's Glossybox time!

Is it a new month already?
I love Glossybox day, it's like Christmas again, I think it's the element of surprise, and that not everyone has the same thing. The postman rocked up earlier today and presented me with this beautiful summery Glossybox which I am ever so excited about.

Beautiful coral and turquoise packaging

I could not get over how summery this box made me feel. Inside is all products perfect for the beach and holidays, all in handy travel sizes which you can pop in your hand luggage.

Left to right:
1. Alterna Haircare - Bamboo Style Boho Waves Tousled Texture Mist. This sounds right up my street, anything with the word boho in is a draw for me. I think there's something a bit romantic about bohemian-ness that I just can't cast aside. I love a bit of sea salt spray me, so hopefully this will be a new permanent addition to the hair care shelf. I haven't yet tried it, but I had a quick spritz to smell it, not as summery as I hoped but very refreshing.

2. Coola Original Suncare Collection: Coola Mineral Face SPF 20 Unscented. This promises to be a tinted suncream, which is interesting. However the shade seems kind of pale, so if your of a darker complexion this may make you look a little ashen, maybe worth investigating if they do other shades. It's supposed to have UVA/UVB protection, pore minimizing and anti ageing agents set to work whilst soothing and toning the skin. Hopefully it'll be the wonder product it claims to be!

3. Sleek Pout Paint. By far the thing I'm most excited about, retailing at £4.99 each, I'm hoping they're going to be as good as the Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Lip Tar. I received two, one in Pinkini, a dark blue toned pinky purple colour and another in Cloud 9, a frosted white, which you can mix with other shades to add vibrancy/make lighter.

4. Essie Sleek Sticks. Like the Nail Rock wraps, Essie have brought out a similar version which promise to be a lot more resiliant than others. I have never ever got on with nail wraps, I keep buying them thinking 'This time will be different!' but it never is, and my nails always end up looking awful. So hopefully these will win me over on the nail wrap front. You can't see too well from the picture, but these are in a black and grey zebra stripe which appeals to my vampy side.

5. Anatomicals Spray Misty for Me Facial Spritz. Although laughing at the Anatomicals slogan 'We only want you for your body', this is a product which doesn't particularly appeal to me. I don't understand why you'd spend money on a bottle of scented water that you can spray yourself in the face with. So I'm half looking forward to trying this out, but I'm not too optimistic! - Not yet easily obtainable in the UK.

Hope you got goodies in yours too!

Happy Glossyboxing!

x

Bourjois 10 Day Nail Varnish

Just a quick review tonight. In all honesty, I find nail reviews a bit of a cop out, because you can pick up any old nail varnish and whack it up, but I was kind of excited about this nail varnish since it's so summery and bright that I decided I'd share it with you anyway.

This is Bourjois 10 Jour (Day) Nail Varnish.

It's a deliciously blue toned pink, and I'm desperate to find a lipstick just like it to match. This nail varnish claims to stay for ten days - and comes with a slanted touch up brush. The colour goes on pretty much opaque, but it helps to add a second layer for longevity.

It comes in seven colours, but you can only buy it in two on the Boots website for some reason - here, so I'd suggest popping in to store.

Bourjois 10 Jour Nail Enamel RRP £5.99/9g