Let's Talk... Must-Have Lip Balms!~

Can one ever have too many lip balms? You tell me...

For a few years now I have been on a relentless quest to find the best lip balms out there to slather all over my extremely pathetically weak and delicate lips, and I believe after much searching, much travelling, much research and much, much spending, I have finally found them!

So, with that said, rather than talk about the insaaane collection of lip balms I have accumulated over the years, I will instead only be talking about my essential, cannot possibly live without, must-have lip balms (plus a couple of honourable mentions!) and without further ado, here we go!

Rose & Co. Rose Petal Lip Salve - £3.99 - via Superdrug

The Body Shop Hemp Heavy Duty Lip Care - £4.50 - via The Body Shop

Nivea Hydro Care Lip Balm - £0.99 - via Superdrug

Let's talk about the Rose & Co. one first. This, I first discovered a few years ago when ASOS was carrying them and I bought it as one of those little things to push your basket total just enough for free shipping. As it says literally on the tin it is 'the celebrated beauty balm' and while I had never heard of it until that moment, I have never regretted the purchase and have been singing its praises to anyone and everyone ever since! Need a balm that soothes, protects, moisturises, stays put for ages AND smells good? This is your winner. And at £3.99 for 20g? Bargain!

Next, The Body Shop. When I saw the words 'Heavy Duty Lip Care', I knew I had to try it out as when my lips get bad, they get BAD. While not as prettily packaged or as pleasant to smell, it certainly works as advertised, having helped bring my lips back from the cusp of flaky, cracking doom many times. It's not as slippery as other moisturising lip balms, but it seeps straight into the skin and gets to business better than just about any other, so despite its high price point, I just can't say no!

Lastly, an oldy but a goody, Nivea Hydro Care. I've tried a few Nivea lip products over the years, but this has been the only one I have gone back to time and time again. It may not be the fanciest lip balm Nivea has to offer, but regardless of its simplicity it is the perfect light, moisturising lip balm I have tried. Doesn't hurt that it's only 99p either! 

Aaand now for our honourable mentions!

Vaseline Cocoa Butter Lip Therapy - £1.95 - via Superdrug / Boots

Nivea Raspberry Rosé Lip Butter - £1.50 - via Tesco

Of course, how could I make a lip balm list without mentioning Vaseline? Truth be told, I'm not a huge fan of Vaseline, as there's something about the consistency I'm not too game with, but undeniably, the Cocoa Butter Lip Therapy in particular is a must-have, particularly for those of you who like a good, affordable lip balm that works. Plus, it works quite well in helping to remove stubborn lip products! My main gripe with this however, and the reason that this is only an honourable mention, is that the longevity in effectiveness isn't really there and after application it stays quite thick and slippery for too long (in my opinion). So yeah.

And to round it all off, another Nivea mention! With this, I've only had it for a little while, having purchased this just before Christmas, but so far I am LOVING what I am getting out of this little tin and while it might be a little too early to call it yet, it's feeling like this could become a must-have for me! And the smell? Oh my goodness, that alone was the reason I bought it, it's sooo yummy!

So there we have it! My first post of the year and damn, was it a wordy one! Hope this has been a helpful read and if anyone has any other suggestions of lip balms I just HAVE to try, give me a shout!

-Philippa. x

PS.: other honourable mentions not included in this post as i just could not bloody find them are chapstick medicated and a blistex one that i tried about 5 years ago, loved, lost and have never seen anywhere since. =(

PPS.: btw, yes, i do use / have used most of the lip balms in the first picture, minus the sealed ones obvs. i generally have at least one lip balm in every bag and jacket so that i can try out several at the same time to compare without too much bias.

*insert excited squeals*... (KvD's MetalMatte palette!)~

I'm pretty sure I mentioned a while back that I was sooo lusting after this palette, and guess what... I FINALLY HAVE IT! OMG HOORAY!! xD*

It feels almost pointless talking about this palette now, seeing as how it has long since been discontinued due to it being a limited edition piece, but I'm gonna talk about it anyway, as a) it's awesome and I'm so excited to finally have it, b) it might help give a little insight into Kat's other eyeshadow palettes, and c) it technically might still exist?!

The MetalMatte palette was originally released via Sephora sometime late last year and reached the UK a couple of months later (i think around december maybe?). It was briefly available via Debenhams, but is no longer on sale online, though I will say, I have seen the palette still in their flagship store on Oxford Street recently...

The palette retailed at £50 and if you have a look at the size (thus, the macbook air for scale) and the amount of product you get in this thing, you'll see that it was actually quite the bargain! 

Beautiful, isn't it?**

As you can see, on the top is a row of Kat's Metal Crush eyeshadows (pretty sure this selection is exclusive to the palette, but other individual colours are available at debenhams!) and the bottom consists of matte shadows, hence, the palette's name. While I haven't played around with this palette very much, I will say from swatching previously in-store, swatching randomly over the last week and having tried it out for the first time earlier today... wow, this palette is flipping amazing!

(apologies for the funny lighting; i didn't have a lot of time and the sun was playing games with me!!)

The eyeshadows are super pigmented, easy to blend, and so far seem to be pretty long-wearing (i'm writing this after having worn these shadows for about 10 hours), and the selection covers so much ground that it feels nearly impossible to choose which colours to play with first!

Honestly, it might be early days, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say, if you love eyeshadow and happen upon this palette, don't hesitate, just snap it up immediately! And if this palette really is gone for good and never to be seen again, no worries, as KvD does have other palettes available that are (apparently) just as amazing! Goodness knows that I should be satisfied now that I have this bad boy, but silly me, I'm still chasing after the Shade and Light quad in 'Sage' too!! Help!

Philippa. x

*in case you're wondering, btw, i bought this via sephora.my and had family send this over, as it was released a little later there so i had a little more time to snag it, SO, might be worth checking other international sephoras...?

**and might i also add that this thing is not light?! those are not some half-filled pans!

Miss A Mini Haul! (and review?)~

Being as poor as I am, I don’t get to shop all that often. So instead I choose to live vicariously through others on YouTube posting their many haul videos and THUS, I discovered the gem that is shopmissa.com!

(sorry for the rubbish glare in the pic, but i really wanted to show off what little packaging i had left and there is next-to-no lighting in my room so flash was sadly a must!)

The real treasure about Miss A (particularly if you live in the US) is that everything, and I mean everything (well, sort of…) is $1! Oh my gah WHAT!? But that’s not all! According to the many review videos I have watched, the products, despite their unbelievable price point, are pretty damn decent too! Can this be true?! I decided to make a little purchase to find out for myself!

As you can see I only bought 5 items totalling at $5 (roughly £3.90) and at a glance they all look pretty promising…

AOA Scrubby Facial Cleansing Pad - $1 - available from Miss A (also available in other colours!)

AOA Brush Cleaning Egg - $1 - available from Miss A (also available in other colours!

AOA Hand Mirror - $1 - available from Miss A

While I haven't fully utilised these yet, I can say from at least playing around with the ‘tools’ (and by playing i mean touching and rubbing them…), the quality is really quite amazing for being so cheap - the hand mirror in particular - and while I have yet to use the face scrubby or the brush cleaner I have poked at more expensive equivalents in shops and these feel pretty darn comparable to those, especially the brush cleaner. One thing for sure is that they don't feel cheap.

AOA Wonder Metal Liquid Lipstick (in ‘Sleek’) - $1 - available from Miss A

AOA Wonder Matte Liquid Lipstick (in ‘Tease’) - $1 - available from Miss A

These beauties, however, I have already used and tested and they are the BOMB! Lame I used that terminology, but seriously, they’re great! I’m really sad I only bought two (and i will elaborate on why in a bit) but am really quite happy with the ones I did get so far. 

The metallic one is the slightly less awesome of the two, as it requires a little bit of work to get the coverage full and even, but is still a great colour, very metallic and does dry down completely matte! The other one however… ugh! I love it so much! The colour is absolutely gorgeous and despite looking more pink in the tube, once it fully dries down is more purplish in colour, which is right up my alley! The pigmentation and coverage is great, really easy to work with and again, this dries down matte and is completely budge-proof.

All in all, Miss A is one heck of a remarkable discovery and I am so happy to have found it! Not only are their products pretty darn decent*, but there’s tons of them too! From socks to hair accessories to brushes to individual eyeshadows, they have them all!

Now for the boring (but important) bit of this post. The reason I only bought 5 things, despite them all being so cheap and there being soooo much to choose from, is because of shipping. Miss A’s international shipping is a flat rate of £9.95, which is pretty fair for something coming from the US. But then there’s customs and sadly, the limit before having to pay customs (which in my experience so far has totalled in at between £8 and £25) is currently £15. However, that being said, I honestly don’t mind making a few small orders of just under £15 just avoid potentially painful and unpredictable customs charges, as in the end the value of everything, including postage, is still a really decent price. So yeah, just a bit of a warning for those of you looking into doing a bit of a shop with Miss A!

And on that note, I shall end this post! Hope you liked it and see you in like 4 months time when I next post! xD

Philippa. x

*Miss A carries their own brands AOA and a2o, as well as other brands like Elf, Kleancolor, LA Color, Beauty Treats, etc. Obviously the quality of the products will vary from brand to brand, but I only purchased from the AOA line, so my comments on how AMAZING everything is is, for now, exclusive to that line.

Let's Talk... Eyeshadow Palettes!~

Welcome to a new segment of my blog! For the life of me I’ve been struggling to maintain this thing and figured doing ‘Let’s Talk’ posts will help push me to write about stuff without necessarily needing to go pestering poor Ama for shoots or spending money for hauls!

So this is gonna be like a review-not-review where I basically talk about products I have…? Not really sure what else to say, but maybe it’ll inform you a little bit more about me, my spending habits, and maybe even give you ideas of stuff you might potentially like? Anywho…

Anyone who knows me well will know that lately I have been extra obsessed with eyeshadow palettes. Currently -and rather sadly- I only own a few, but I definitely have my eye on more, so watch this space I guess!?!*

For now, though, we’ll just talk about the ones I do have and I’ll give a little run down on value, quality, etc., and some swatches, so yeah, like I said, kind of like a review-but-not-review.

I’ll start with the cheaper palettes first; here we have Makeup Revolution’s ‘Iconic 3’ palette:

Makeup Revolution Redemption Palette (in Iconic 3) - £4 - available from TAM Beauty or Superdrug

Apparently this is a dupe for Urban Decay’s Naked 3 palette, but what do I know? Visually, I guess you could say they are pretty similar, but I’ve never tried Urban Decay eyeshadows beyond swatching, so meh, guess you gotta go find out yourself? Regardless, this palette is a steal at £4 and the quality is pretty amazing for such a low price! Definitely one of my favourite colour selections with its pinks and browns, very romantic!

Also from Makeup Revolution, I have the ‘Give Them Nightmares’ palette:

Makeup Revolution Salvation Palette (in Give Them Nightmares) - £6 (currently on sale for £4!) - available from TAM Beauty

Value-for-money-wise, the Salvation palettes appear to be on top; a lot of shades for very little money. However, the quality does stumble and vary a little because of that, though not in an overly disappointing way. Most shimmers are amazingly pigmented, most mattes are a little sheer and there can be a fair bit of fallout, but like I said, price-wise, it’s all good. And as for this palette in particular, the colour selection is just soooo me and soooo Halloween! So awesome!!

Next up, we have a palette from Sleek:

Sleek Makeup i-Divine Eyeshadow Palette (in Bad Girl) - £8.99 - available from Sleek or Boots

This is the ‘Bad Girl’ palette and just like with the previous palette, the colour selection for this is just on point! Very, very me, or at least how I like to see myself, but that’s neither here nor there! Sleek eyeshadows, as far as I know from endless swatching, are some of the better quality eyeshadows available from the ‘drugstore’ and it’s definitely a brand I see myself buying more from in the future.** This palette definitely does it's brand justice with the colours all being super pigmented and easy to blend. The only ‘eh’ I’d have to say, is that the amount of shimmer is insaaaane and it goes everywhere, though maybe that’s not really a bad thing…? Still LOVING it though!!

Now for my newest palette, which is the ‘Northern Lights’ palette from Cargo:

Cargo Cosmetics Eyeshadow Palette (in Northern Lights) - £35 - (no longer available)

This palette, I had to buy off Depop, as it’s actually from their 2014 holiday collection. However, I love the theme of this palette and upon finding it at a bargain price, just had to have it! The colour selection is not really one I’d normally go for, but there are definitely some colours I’m glad to now have within my reach. Despite the higher pricing, I don’t really feel like this blows my mind with how much better it is than my cheaper palettes, because really, it’s okay, but not phenomenal. I dunno, maybe I just need to play around with it more? We’ll see…

And lastly, my precious baby, my Tartelette In Bloom palette!

Tarte Tartelette In Bloom (Tartelette 2) palette - £35.40 - available from QVC

I mentioned this in my recent beauty haul post, and now that I have actually played around with it a bit can happily report that this thing is LIFE. It is the perfect everyday palette for me and I am just sooooo chuffed that this wasn’t a waste of money! Definitely worth the price; the quality is great and the colours are wonderful for so many different looks and skin tones… and did I mention it smells great too?!? I love this so much! <3

So those are all my palettes (so far, ehem…); I don’t know what it is about eyeshadow palettes, but I just can’t stop wanting more! I’m becoming somewhat an addict, I think… oh dear!

Hope you enjoyed reading my first ‘Let’s Talk’ post (sorry it was a little wordy!) and I hope you’ll be looking forward to future ones!

Philippa. x

*zoeva palettes! lusting after them, will definitely be adding them to the collection soon! and the kat von d ones! particularly metal/matte and innerstellar, such beautiful shades! so much want!!

**i know they’re hard to find now, at least in-stores, but check out sleek’s ‘goodnight sweetheart’ palette! that thing is soooo gorgeous!!

Jewellery Haul!!~ (Black Moon, Noctua, Accessorize, etc.)

This post honestly would have come out sooner, had I not been a little too ambitious and attempted to actually make a haul video, but, then I realised that I don't have the editing software, memory space, etc., so that was a fail. Instead, I'll have to break up my rather formidable late-2014-early-2015 haul and we're gonna start with jewellery, woo!

So right at the end of December I decided to go a little crazy and buy myself a load of trinkets because, hey, why not actually get some Christmas presents for once, even if they're from me to me? And so I did!

(L-R)

'Blandior' amethyst choker - £13

Opalite point necklace - £7

'Iridis' quartz necklace - £9

These first items come from a site called Noctua, which I happened on by chance when I realised that most online stores for this kind of jewellery (think Druzy Dreams, Shop Dixi, Regal Rose, etc.), though super popular amongst bloggers, are just that tiny bit out of my price range.

All the items themselves are very reasonably priced and are just as lovely in person as they are in the photos. The piece I was most excited about was the 'Blandior' choker, and I am just loving it! ^^

'Lovegood' choker - £16.99

Up next is this stunning choker by Black Moon and I absolutely adore this piece! It reminds me of the chokers by Regal Rose, and although I'm sure the quality is not quite on par, the Black Moon version is still a pretty awesome alternative at a fraction of the cost.

(L-R)

'Indian Princess' ring - £14

Star and Moon stacking rings - £15

Moonstone ring - £7 (approx.)

Wishbone ring - £12 (approx.)

Abalone shell ring - £14 (approx.)

I went a bit crazy when it came to rings because I had just become SO sick of buying rings from stores like H&M and Forever 21 and having my fingers turn green within a couple of hours of wearing them, SO, I felt it a reasonable investment to buy a bunch of sterling silver rings instead! The first two are from Accessorize and I'm a little annoyed to be honest because had I waited another couple of weeks I could have gotten them in the sale instead! Baka...

The other three I purchased from the Stables Market in Camden (an essential shopping stop when visiting london!) and I am sooo happy with these, you have no idea! The reason they all say 'approx.' after the prices is because I've forgotten how much they were all supposed to be seeing as how I haggled for better prices on all of them... but yeah, I'd been trawling through sites like Amelia May and Gemporia, but for the most part the rings I found were either too expensive or just weren't my style, so thank goodness for market haggling!

Luna necklace - £3.50

This lovely cresent moon necklace was an absolute steal at a mere £3.50 and I picked it up from an etsy store called The Moon Above. Most stores I've browsed through are selling almost identical pieces for anything from £8 to £18! Plus, the chain on this is silver plated, so I won't be having to worry about my neck going green any time soon! ^^

So that's all the jewellery I've been spending all ma money on recently. I'm really happy with everything that I've bought (so much so that I'm constantly tempted to buy more!) it's been really fun to have all these new things to layer and style with outfits. Yayyy.


-Philippa. x
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PS.: sorry about the funny lighting. it's dark and my room light is not at all flattering or co-operative for photos! ><"