So, over all impression of this - a gorgeous colour, but not one to blow your mind. Would I have bought it for myself? Priced at around £12, I don't think I would - but it is very pretty.

**The Small Print**

This product was bought by my lovely mum! All reviews are honest and impartial, regardless of source.

This Saturday I was one of a lucky group of bloggers to be invited to go along to Bourjois HQ for a preview of some of the bits coming this Spring, and to generally peruse the selection of products the brand offers.

Bourjois make-up artist, Cassie Lomas, demonstrated the new Spring make-up colours - which include pretty corals and a gorgeous lime/gold eyeliner on the inner 1/3 of the lower lash line. It looked beautiful and I'm definitely going to try it, although I think it may look better on brown eyes than blue, but no harm in giving it a go.
I do have to say, that since I started blogging I have been fortunate enough to be invited to a few events. Every one is a bit different, but this is the first one where the organisers gave us the freedom to look at the products and choose the ones we want to test. Personally I really appreciated this - it meant that I could pick out the colours/textures/general products that appealed to me.

Last Saturday I was invited to go along to the Soho Hotel for afternoon tea with some other lovely bloggers and have a nosey at the newest mascara launch from Max Factor.


Before I launch into this post, I should mention that I am a HUGE fan of the Max Factor False Lash Effect (FLE) Mascara. When I first tried this a few months ago, it really was love at first sweep. I like it so much that I recommended it to my mum and anyone who asks will probably get the same answer. Just so you know - before trying this mascara I already had a bit of a bias towards Max Factor mascara.


In fact, I don't think I have tried anything from Max Factor that I haven't really enjoyed. I'd love to hear what everyone else things of the brand - good or bad?


Anyway, the newest mascara is called Lash Extension Effect (LEE) - and offers a different result to FLE. LEE delivers extra length, but keeps lashes clump free and natural looking. It contains lash extending fibres apparently (afraid that's as far as my knowledge goes) so it does help add length.


This is another one that probably is best demonstrated with pictures, so below are the before and afters.

My first impressions of this mascara were that it looked good on people at the lash lounge, but when I first tried it on myself I thought it was a bit too on the natural side. But as usual, I gave it a second try and this time round I actually quite like it. But there is a condition to this - I only like it after a significant amount of coats (as in 3-5).


It does take a few coats to get a noticeable effect, but if you like a natural look then this is perfect for you. Long fluttery but natural lashes in the sweep of a wand. The wand, by the way, is really long and fine with slim bristles - so fine that it makes it really easy to get into the corners of the eye and coating the bottom lashes is easy.


At the Lash Lounge the mascara was demonstrated by celebrity make-up artist Caroline Barnes (MUA for Kylie and Cheryl Cole). Caroline shared a few tips with us on the day that I thought I would pass on...


- When applying mascara do the lower lashes first, less chance of smudging mascara onto the lid this way round.


- When shaping your eyebrows - avoid downward angles in the middle bits, this has a 'drooping' type of effect on features, when you want to 'lift'.


- With mascara, make sure that the lashes sweep outwards at the side and upwards across the lid to make the most eye-opening effect.


Below is a picture of Caroline working her magic on the day on the model, who had the most amazingly long lashes naturally (not that I was jealous at all).

Sadly I didn't manage to persuade her to turn me into the blonde Cheryl....



**The Small Print**

The product in this post was provided free of charge for consideration for review. All reviews are honest and impartial regardless of source.

Sorry to anyone who finds close up pictures of lips a bit freaky, this post has them - so look away now if that's not something you want to see.




But, in the interest of doing a thorough review I thought that this is a product that really needs pictures to see if it does as it says. I was sent a sample of the Sexy Mother Pucker XL -Extreme Plump lip gloss from Soap and Glory, the gloss promises:


"To immediately plump, buzz, tingle and zing." Plus contains a (tongue in cheek) warning that users should try the normal strength Sexy Mother Pucker before moving on the 'extreme' XL version. I haven't tried these... but felt daring so went straight to the extreme version (what can I say, I'm a rebel)...



So, without further ado, lets move onto the pictures. Below are my normal lips with no make-up on whatsoever.




The next picture below was taken immediately after application - the lips look glossy, but probably no more plump than before?





The next picture was taken about 10 minutes after application - the tingle sensation feels like it gets more intense for about 15 minutes after applying. I would say that my lips do look plumper now.



So what was my overall view?


This is a fun product, starting just with the packaging - it's fun and stylish and I would be more than happy to pull this out in public. The tube means application is a breeze - with a simple plastic angled applicator, where the gloss is dispensed in the middle.


I don't love the smell of the product, but I don't hate it so much that it would stop me using it - the smell is a bit cinnamon and a bit plastic. But as I said, not so bad I wouldn't use it (which has happened with some products before).



Whilst this doesn't leave me with trout-pout lips, but does give them a bit of a boost - and I would look stupid with giant fish lips anyway. I will use this again, but over a lipstick as think the clear gloss is a bit plain on it's own.



The other thing that is worth a mention is that I find the gloss lasts a long time and lips feel nicely soft for ages after use.


The gloss is available from Boots and the soap and glory website for £10.






** The Small Print **

This product was sent free of charge for review purposes. All reviews are honest and impartial, regardless of the source of the product.

I want to know what your favorite foundation is, and why!

The reason for this is that I am on the hunt for a new foundation to test out, and I'm not sure which to go for. I'm currently using the Revlon Colourstay, which I do like a lot, but I guess I'm just not satisfied with it so want to try something new.

I'm looking for something that makes my skin look flawless, but doesn't feel cakey/heavy - ideally it will make my skin look healthy, but not shiny. I prefer liquid foundations to powder- and my skin type is combination (dry cheeks and normal/oily T-Zone).

Current contenders are:

• Illamasqua Rich Liquid
• MAC Face and Body?
• Chanel Mat Lumiere
• Armani Luminous

So, please leave me a comment below and tell me your favorite foundation to make your skin flawless - and ideally why you love it. If you have any strong opinions on ones I should avoid too, that would be great! If you have any airbrush-perfect tips for ow to best apply foundation too, then that would be fab.

(p.s. please feel free to suggest anything from drugstore to obscure brands!)

Thank you xx

It's January, so I'm going to be all stereotypical and decide I want to lose some weight/get healthier. Of course I'm going to be a bit late on the bandwagon with this one as it's almost the end of the month already.

Now, before I launch into this post in detail I wanted to make clear a couple of things:

• I am not a doctor, nor am I advising anyone on how to lose weight.
• I don't think crash diets are the way forward.
• Yep, that time old approach of healthy eating and exercise works.

I am considering signing up to either Weight Watchers or Slimming World. The reason I want to do this is so I feel a bit better about myself. I am not overweight, my BMI is 23.4, which is deemed healthy, but for my height (5ft3) my weight is higher than I would like it to be, and a BMI of 23.4 is on the higher end of the scale.

My aim in signing up to either Weight Watchers or Slimming World is to bring down my BMI and weight to a level I am more comfortable with.

I am looking for something that is healthy, balanced, doesn't exclude food groups, doesn't leave me hungry and is easy to follow. Something that means I can still eat out or have take-away occasionally.

I don't want to go to the meetings, so an online plan would suit me best. I have done a bit of research already and I like the look of SW, but the price is a bit off putting - twice the cost of three months of weight watchers. Is it worth the extra cost?

What I would love to know from anyone reading this is - have you tried either WW or SW? What did you think - good or bad?

Any helpful comments would be fantastic!

(oh, and I'm also going to start doing more regular exercise - starting with buying an exercise bike)