My all time top 10 - part 1!!

Evening all!

Next week I hit the big 3-0, (think I may have mentioned that a few times...) and so I have decided to indulge myself on the blog this week in very much 'it's my birthday and I'll blog what I want to' style. So tonight and later in the week I will be bringing you my top ten products, my desert island products, my own hall of fame. Basically the products that I have bought time and time again, and would not want to be stranded on a desert island without. So in true top ten chart stylee (and at this moment I have the da duh da da duh da duh top 40 music chart countdown music in my head) flying to take the number ten spot is...

10. Aussie Miracle moist shampoo

I love everything about the Aussie brand, the laid back marketing style, the natural ingredients, and now these fab bigger bottles!! This isn't the only Aussie product I use, but it is the one I buy time and time again, and wouldn't regularly wash my hair with anything else. It deliver results, protecting my colour, nourishing my hair with much needed moisturiser, and leaves it soft and smooth. The big bottles retail for about £5.99 in high street chemists.

9. Bare Minerals Bisque

Another brand I am really passionate about, and use a lot of their products, but when I thought about the one I really could not live without, it was Bisque. A concealer that is so multi-purpose it's definitely worth its £16 price tag. I use it to cover blemishes, bags under my eyes, little thread veins, the possibilities are endless, it hides a multitude of sins!!

8. OPI nail polish

I have been known to try many different brands of nail polish, but I always come back to OPI. Yes at £10 a bottle it's expensive, but the quality really is there. The colours are vibrant and exciting, the brand does some really great collaborations, think the Muppets collection and the Nicki Minaj collection, putting a whole new spin on nail colour and who can fail to raise a smile at the names of the colours? 'Teal the cows come home' anyone? Love it :-)

7. Estee Lauder Double wear light

I rarely wear a liquid foundation, as I use mineral make-up. But when I do it's this one I reach for. So why is it in my top ten? I have been using this foundation (originally just the double wear version) for ten years. I try other foundations, but always come back to this one. I wear it on nights out and it really delivers a comfortable flawless face. This retails for about £26.

6. Decleor Hydra Floral moisturiser

This is my go-to moisturiser. It is great for all different conditions, in the Summer it's hydrating, in Winter it's great for dry, wind beaten skin. I have used this moisturiser for years as a staple in my skin care routine, and it really suits my skin type. It retails for £32 so it is up there with the high end products, but in my opinion it's oh so worth it!

So what do you think of my 10-6 countdown? Any guesses on what product will reach my number 1? What would you have in your beauty top ten?

Let us know by leaving a comment or tweet us @beautyu.

I will bring you 5 through to 1 on Thursday night.

Until then, stay beautiful!

Stace x

Thick & Fast mascara put into the test!

Yesterday, when in town centre, I decided to check through the magazines’ stand as I love little freebies that come with different mags! To my astonishment, there weren’t too many offers this time. However, I’ve left the shop with a new Elle magazine with the free gift inside – the Thick & Fast Super Volume False Lash Effect Mascara by Soap&Glory.



Thick & Fast Super Volume False Lash Effect Mascara
 by Soap&Glory



I had no idea what to expect from that product but as I’d never leave the house without wearing a mascara, I was more than happy to test it!

The colour is a very rich, onyx-like, gorgeous black, and the product is smooth and doesn’t leave any blobs or clumps on my lashes. The brush is nice and big in size but it’s still very comfortable to use. When removed from the tube, any excess of the product is wiped off so the brush only carries enough product for the application. See below the before and after photos:



Before applying any mascara



After the application of Thick&Fast mascara

The brush is well engineered to leave my lashes perfectly separated, with lovely volume and the end effect looks like I’m wearing false lashes, without much effort from me at all! It also dries pretty quickly so it doesn’t smudge.



The false lash effect when using the Thick&Fast Volume mascara by Soap&Glory



I only needed two coats of the product, even though one coat already made a difference.  

The tapering at the end of the brush makes it easy to get into even the smallest lashes in the corner of the eyes.

The tapered brush

I had no idea what to expect from this product, but as it was part of a magazine offer I decided to give it a go! I absolutely love this mascara and will buy again! This product RRP £10 for 10ml so it’s not the most expensive on the market and now coming with a magazine as a free gift it's even better bargain! This mascara compares to the high end mascaras I used to use, such as Lancome or bareMinerals!

Have you used the Soap&Glory mascara before, what is your experience with it? Let us know either on twitter @beautyu or by leaving a comment below.

Stay beautiful!

Mags xx

Love is in the air with Poppy King from No 7

February 14th...Valentines day...Yet another day of celebration for companies to make money from. And I don't know about you, but there seems to be more companies jumping on the Valentines day band waggon every year with some tedious link to Valentines day. The other reason for my dislike of V day, is it's the day before my birthday, so going away for my birthday is either expensive or impossible, and I don't get a Valentines present and a birthday present, it's one or the other!

So, rather than blog about products you could buy loved ones for V day, I thought I would look at products you could buy yourself to feel ultra sexy on V day!

Now being the day of love, lip gloss/lipstick was the object of my affection for this post. Before my hunt started I took a quick look in my beauty drawers and found a considerable collection of lip products...

But none of them were really hitting the mark for V day. So off I set to Boots, and there I stumbled upon the 75% off Christmas sale!! In the original Boots Christmas gift section I had my beady eye on the Poppy King collections, I have been keen to try her lipstick ever since the 'Lipstick Queen' collaborated with Boots, so I was excited to pick up two lips glosses for £3 and a lip gloss and a lipstick for £5!

The lip glosses retail separately in Boots for £11 and the lipsticks for £12 so I really got a bargain here.

Fabulous Red Lip Stick, Flirty Red Lip Gloss,
Plum Lip Gloss and Deep Wine Lip Gloss 

Swatches starting at the top: Deep Wine, Plum,
Flirty and the bottom swatch is the lip stick

Now, I've seen mixed reviews of Poppy King products on the Internet, but I actually quite liked these products.

The Deep Wine lip gloss is firmly placed on my desk at work as it's the perfect day time office colour. Flirty lip gloss is such a vibrant shade of red that I wore it out on Saturday night and it really made me feel extra special! To see the lip gloss on my lips with the rest of the make-up view my last post here. Probably the most disappointing is the Plum shade, which seems to have no colour tint at all, although this does make it perfect for brushing over the lips before doing the weekly supermarket shop! A couple of complaints, a funny smell to the lip gloss when you first open it up, but this does not stay once applied, and it is not that long lasting, and needs applying again every few hours.

I really loved the lipstick, very creamy and moisturising, and the trick with Poppy King, seems to be to apply lipstick and cover the colour with gloss for a really vibrant long lasting colour, check out below, the combination of Flirty Red Lip Gloss and Fabulous Red Lip Stick:

Would I buy these again? Probably not at full price, but I might consider if I had a No 7 £5 voucher, points on my advantage card, or when the 3 for 2 on No 7 offer is running. Have you tried Poppy King before, and what did you think?

Have a lovely Valentines Day, whatever you are up to, and spoil yourself with some lip loving - you will feel fabulous!

Happy Valentines Day! x

Stace x