Chanel 99 "Pirate" Lipstick Swatch + Review (Rouge Allure)

I am in love. Let me just start off by saying that. 

I have owned Chanel products before, and liked them, but found that my skin didn't work too well with them. When browsing through the Cosme-De website I stumbled across the Chanel section and decided to take a peak through the lipsticks, and was really drawn to "Pirate". After endless hours of googling swatches and reading reviews I took the plunge and decided Pirate would be mine.

First of all, the packaging. The packaging, oh my. *Be still my beating heart*. The lipstick comes in a bullet, to eject the lipstick you have to press the gold chanel button on the top and it pops up.

Next up, the smell, I adore the smell of lipsticks, especially MAC and dior, but had never smelt a Chanel one. I was extremely pleased and was left sniffing it all evening, revealing the crazy make-up crazed teen side to me.

I didn't use a lipliner with the lipstick but the shape of the top created such a defined, and polished, look which took less than a minute- Chanel, can you please share your secrets with every lipstick manufacturer in the world? It would make my life so much easier.

The texture is really silky, leaving a slight glisten but not a shine. The colour stayed on for 4-5 hours without re-application but did disappear upon eating, naturally.

I'm obsessed with this lipstick, although it doesn't come cheap at £26, but I think it's completely worth it. HOWEVER, that being said, Cosme-de have very kindly given me a discount code for 10% for ALL of my readers- just use "TALISA10" at the checkout and with this you will also get a free sample of the O'slee "Honey Sugar Mask" AND there is free shipping with my code. Ain't they kind! Buy Pirate here for £23.40.

My Little "French Riviera" Box Review June 2015 (Unboxing)

I got a lovely surprise this morning when I received the latest "My Little Box", I'm slowly falling back in love with beauty boxes because of them- hallelujah for no repeated products/ 5ML perfume samples IN EVERY BOX! This months box did not disappoint. 

The first item I reached for was the Kerastase Nectar Thermique Nourishing milk. I am a huge fan of Kerastase so was thrilled to receive this deluxe sample. I popped a little into my hair and it smoothed it out and made is smell delicious- big thumbs up from me. Buy the full sized product here for £15.38.

The next thing I picked up in the box was the Gommage Marin salt scrub. I love scrubs, adore them even, so when I saw this I was overjoyed. This reminds me a lot of Lush's Rub Rub Rub and sticks to your skin really well. This isn't for sale on their site yet, but when it is you can find it here: http://www.mylittlecorner.fr/beaute/my-little-beauty.html

The next item really surprised me, I'm not much of a sunglasses person (my head is HUGE so all glasses look tiny),  the rim is matte and the glasses are flattering on. I was really surprised to see Sarah Lavoine as the designer, I'm a huge fan of her home ware items, if you fancy a look at her work here's her website:  http://www.sarahlavoine.com/en/collections

The nail polish is a gorgeous vibrant teal colour that is flattering for all tones.

Once again "My Little Box" has completely donned the beauty box game and I was left thrilled. Sign up for £11 + P&P here.

Essence HAUL

I was very kindly sent a few Essence products to review from the lovely people at Wilko's, i'd never tried out Essence before so I was rather excited to test them all out.

The first product to catch my eye was the gorgeous pastel coloured "All About Romance" eyeshadow palette (£3.50). When I lightly swatch fair priced eyeshadows i'm a bit of a snob and expect them to be chalky and lacking in pigmentation- this product put me in my place! The silky easy to blend colours had amazing pigmentation and the colours are all easy to wear and can be used for lots of different occasions. This is definitely my new day-to-night palette!

Next up I tried the 06 "Barely There" long lasting lipstick (£2.30), this was far more sheer than expected but the colour is gorgeous and the lipstick is, as the name suggests, long lasting.

The packaging for the "Lash Princess False Effect Mascara" (£3.30) is super cute, the tube is shiny and black with green rubber detail for grip on the top of the wand, making it look adorable whilst providing grip.

The last products in my box of treats were two of their "I Heart Trends" Nail Polishes in 05 "Pure Soul" and 06 "Baby Doll" (both £1.80 each). They were quite watery and as you can see kind of leaked to the side of my nails, this works when you apply three very thin layers but it's not one for a quick polish and go. 05 is the top picture and 06 is the bottom, as you can see the colour is quite similar but 06 has a lovely golden shimmer in it.

 
Have you ever tried essence before? Are there any products you'd recommend I tried?

UK Drugstore Haul June 2015- Boots & Superdrug

Superdrug and Boots are having some epic reductions at the moment so I thought I'd show you what I picked up!

In Superdrug the Neutrogena 400ml deep moisture body lotion was reduced from £5 to £2.48, we use these all the time so this was a great deal for us so we picked up 6- 3 sensitive lotions and 3 normal lotions. Buy the sensitive lotions here and the normal lotions here. They're ultra moisturising and easy to use with the pump.

Naturally, I cashed in on some beauty deals. The collection 2000 concealer is a favourite so even though it wasn't on offer I picked it up for £4.19 here.

Boots are doing a 3 for 2 offer on maybelline at the moment so I picked up two of the Fit Me concealers for £5.99 here and their Lash sensational mascara for £7.99 here. Superdrug have a bit of a better offering for maybelline at the moment with 2 products for £10 but the two products I wanted were out of stock in store and online so I opted for boots.

I've been hearing a lot of things about make-up revolution but I hadn't got around to trying them so I picked up their Vivid baked highlighter in golden lights here for £3.

Reviews of all of these are soon to come so keep your eyes peeled!

I've owned my previous hairbrush since I had been 13 so the matte layer was gradually wearing off and it became quite sticky to hold so I picked up the Tresemme paddle brush for £5.99 (reduced from £6.99) here.

Next week I'm going on holiday so the SPF haul was a must! I picked up Simples kind to skin SPF30 moisturiser here for £6.99. I normally stick to suncream but the Nivea SPF20 tanning oil was half price, reduced from £14.99 to £7.48 here.

I also picked up a classic Nivea lotion in SPF 20 here for £6.28 reduced from £12.59.

Then we have the things that just needed topping up. I've heard great things about dove conditioners so opted for the dry oil dove conditioner for £2.97 reduced from £5.99 here.

Dad opted for his classic deodorant and shaving cartridges- the deodorant is £1.79 here and the cartridges are £14.99 for 3 here.

Our toothbrushes were reduced from £18.75 to £12.50 here.

Hope you enjoyed this haul!

Relaunching my blog! (Before + After photos included)

Blogging was my first love, recently Youtube caught my eye but never once did my love for blogging, and reading blogs, stop. I do however find that I pour my heart into my newest adventures and neglect the adventures already embarked on (apologies for the soppiness of this, i'm listening to "All of the Stars" by Ed Sheeran- gets me every time).

Whilst I have been updating my blog occasionally, I haven't been giving it anywhere near the love it deserves. I still had my theme I made back when I first started in 2013- partly because I made it at the beginning of my blogging adventure and partly because I don't like change. However, over the past month I've been wondering how to update my look and make my blog more current and a little nicer to look at. I got designing and made a blog header and the rest I left the master of blog design- pipdig. I am thrilled with the results- this is my new refurbished little corner of the internet and I love it. Here are the before and afters.

The Coolest Hotel In Scotland- Citizen M Glasgow

This is a bit of a random post, but I'd thought it'd be unfair to keep this little gem to myself. Apologies for the image quality, this is a spontaneous review so all photos were taken on my iPhone.

Recently I went to Glasgow for an audition and found a lovely hotel for a fair price close to where I was going, but didn't think much about it. It was a short walk from the station (about 10-15 minutes) all along one straight road so was really easy to find. When I walked in there were three screens with self check-in points where you wrote your surname, email address or number to identify yourself, then you swipe a card and you're free to go up to your room- by far the smoothest check-in I've ever experienced! Another thing I liked was they gave me an option of views from my room. 

The lifts are so secure, you actually have to swipe your card to go onto each floor, apart from the floors to the bar and lobby, naturally. As I was travelling alone I was a little nervous but this really settled me! I then walked into my room and let out a little 'wow', I was shocked! I'd looked online and the rooms looked rather small but when I got in there was a lot of room, what fools you is the bed is XXXXL, literally fit for a giant, and pushes from wall to wall which creates an illusion of a smaller room. 

The giagantic bed faces a plasma TV loaded with free films and a bunch of TV shows, naturally I opted for keeping up with the Kardashians... 

When I finished watching TV I got the nibbles and popped down to the bar/food area, everything was self service and they had things from different stores, my favourite being a box of yo sushi. They also had hot foods, pastries and drinks. The Sicilian lemonade stood out for me as I was parched so I picked that up too.

After that it was bedtime and I went for a shower. The shower jumps out at your as soon as you walk in because it's lit up, but I hadn't actually checked it out, and as I walked in I was like 'WOAH'- it had a waterfall shower! And a normal one for those who aren't really feeling the waterfall.

When I came out I noticed an iPad by my bed, and my god I am so glad I did.  You could click one button and all the lights would switch on, and vice Versa. There was also a colour wheel where you could change your shower to almost any colour, my favourite was the blue. Another awesome feature is the 'moods setting', I was on the 'romance' setting- dimmed lights, shower pink and the TV on but when playing I clicked on 'business' and all the lights switched on, the shower turned blue AND THE TV TURNED OFF. Where was this when I was pretending to revise for school tests?? I mean.. I swear I worked really hard...

After a long snooze I woke up, packed my things, took a shower and then trotted downstairs to breakfast. I opted for yogurt and granola which was scrummy. I also bought a few lemonades for my family as they were very jealous that I was having some so I thought I'd surprise them, I know, daughter/ sister of the year.

Overall, I loved my stay. The staff were friendly, everything was as stated on the website, the room was clean and the price was very fair for what you get. I paid £79.80 and thought it was well worth it, they have locations all over the world, listed on their website here: http://www.citizenm.com/home

My Little 'Dream' Box REVIEW | April 2015 UK

 Ever since FleurDeForce did a collab with "My Little Box" i've wanted a box from them and, this month, I am lucky enough to have been sent their "Dream" box and I am IN LOVE. The box was filled with a bunch of goodies and motivational quotes.

I'm yet to use the Masque but it has a delicious sweet coconut scent and comes in the cutest packaging so I can't wait to try it!

My favourite product in the box is 400% the Loved by Lou Lesage balm, it's an exact dupe for the Benetint Balm. It glides on really well and leaves a sheer rosy layer on your lips, whilst leaving them moisturised.

Another product that will have a permanent place in my handbag for a long while is the solid perfume by Sabe Masson in Copacabana. The packaging is gorgeous and is really sturdy meaning it won't fall apart in my bag which is a win. The fragrance is strong fresh and long lasting and feels like a balm upon application. It reminds me of my first ever perfume I got (J.Lo, cringe.) so it's a really nostalgic smell for me. It's quite unusual so when going to the site to find out the scents I found out it's worth $25! This box costs costs £11! So, you've got your moneys worth with this product alone.

Carrying on with the "dream on" idea we got a lovely multi-saying stamp and ink, believe it or not i've never owned a stamp before so I had great fun playing around with this!

I love that my little box varies it's products and already thrilled at the box I put it down and started writing my review, only to find another item in there, they really spoil us, don't they? It's a simple, yet gorgeous bracelet.

As you have probably guessed by my non-stop raving about the products in this box, I am thrilled that My Little Box lived up to my expectations and filled the box with so many goodies. I really recommend subscribing to them, can't wait to see whats in next months box. To sign up for just £11 a month visit to their website here.