Sleek Blushes Review

Happy Friday readers!

Today I'm going to jump straight in and talk to you about some lovely little Sleek blushes (while I watch a program about people who are scared of flying... Why? I don't know because I am terrified of flying). These are the first Sleek products I've ever tried and up until now Bourjois have been my go-to for blushes but these little beauties may have changed my mind. 

Let's start with the packaging - I'm a massive fan of simple black packaging. I think it's classy and not too fussy and just sits well with my rest of my makeup collection. It's a small dainty little package that it perfect for travelling (if you can't decide on only one blush to take anywhere with you, like me). Another great thing about these blushes is that they come with a very decent sized mirror (unlike Bourjois blush pots, honestly I love you but nobody can see anything in those mirrors!) so you can easily touch up on the go! 

The first colour I grabbed was Pomegranate which is this beautiful bright pink colour. Admittedly it does look a bit scary in the pan and as the product is so pigmented it is easy to get a bit carried away so you only need a small amount to get good colour pay off. I love to pair this with my Strawberry Shortcake Revlon Colour Burst Lip Butter for a lovely frosted pink look. 

This was the second blush I picked up. It's in the colour Rose Gold and was actually bought on recommendation from another blogger, I can't remember who now but when I do I'll link their post here. This blush has a little bit of shimmer to it and it has quite a bronze tone to it so it's perfect for Christmas party or other holiday festivities! It's a lovely warm colour and, again, you don't need a lot to get good colour pay off. 

Left: Pomegrante, Right: Rose Gold

You can see the gorgeous colours from the swatch above. And it's worth mentioning that I did build up the colour quite a bit for the purpose of this post so don't worry, there's no need to look like Coco the Clown with Pomegranate if you're gentle with the application.

For £4.49 you can't really go wrong - great pigmentation, lovely colour selection, nice packaging. Who can say no? And possibly a perfect stocking filler for those ladies in the family this christmas! 

Have you tried any of the blushes from Sleek? Do you have any recommendations for my next Sleek purchase?

Firebox Instagram Prints

It's Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday... Ahem, now that that's out of my system - 

Today I bring you a post a little outside of my normal theme but this was something I wanted to share with you all because, well, who doesn't love instagram, eh? As you may or may not know, last month it was my birthday and my lovely friend in Falmouth had great idea of sending me a gift voucher via Firebox for some Instagram prints because she couldn't be here to celebrate with me. If you haven't heard of Firebox, they're a company/website that sell quirky/personalised gifts and bits and bobs. A bit like Not On The Highstreet but quirkier. They sell some really cool stuff (bacon popcorn, um yes please!) including instagram prints! 

So Instagram prints I bought! I ordered 24 prints from my vast array of Instagram photos (it was hard choosing, let me tell you) for £14.99. You can buy 12 prints for £9.99 and you can also buy canvas and poster prints for £19.99. They took a week to arrive, true to their word, and I was so excited when the post man put them through my door! 

They're printed as little polaroids, and again, who doesn't love a good old-fashioned polaroid? You also get a free sharpie so you can add your own captions to the photos if you so wish - a great idea, I think, if you're wanting to give these to friends as gifts for birthdays/christmas/just for fun. Even the packaging is personalised with your photos and your instagram name, which I loved, it just gives it that extra bit of something special.

I'm torn as to how I want to display my photos yet but if and when I do, I'll let you know. I'm thinking cute pegs and string across a wall! What do you think?

You can buy Instagram prints elsewhere for a bit cheaper but Firebox are so much fun to buy from, I genuinely looked forward to receiving emails from them because their quirky sense of humour made me chuckle every time. Anyone that refers to my postman as a 'Postie' with 'Jedi skills' is a winner in my book (I may have a soft spot for my postman as well as Firebox it seems). They were a pleasure to buy from.

Firebox are definitely worth checking out! Whether you want some Instagram prints yourself or want to check out some of their other goods (they do sell lots of Breaking Bad goodies for all those out there, like me, who are in mourning of the program!)

(post not sponsored by Firebox, I just loved them and wanted to share them with you!)

October Favourites

Happy November! Pinch, punch, first of the month!

Anyway... Today I bring you another instalment of monthly favourites! It was my birthday in October so I received lots of new and lovely treats to try (and a few things I'd been wanting for a while that I'd hinted at my best friend for... Shameless). So without further ado:

The Body Shop Satsuma Body Butter - This smells heavenly. If you're a fan of fruity smells, like I am, then you'll absolutely love this. Unless you don't like the smell of oranges (I'm looking at you, Trisha) in which case you won't. But I can see this being a winner with all you body butter lovers. It's quite a summery scent to have lingering on your skin but I think that if you want to smell that fresh all year round, go for it girls! You can get this for £13 from The Body Shop.

Si by Giorgio Armani - This was another birthday  and one that I absolutely adore. In fact, I love it so much I've only used it once because I can't cope parting with such a lovely product. Now I'm no good at describing scents but the Armani beauty website says this: "The perfume combines 3 notes: blackcurrant nectar, modern chypre, and blond wood musk with touches of freesia and May rose." It's more of evening scent I would say, it's very heavy and quite strong so probably not something you'd opt for during the day. If you fancy trying this fragrance, or buying it for a female family member for Christmas, you can get 30ml for £43.50 from Boots.

Clinique Happy Fragrance - This is the perfect complimentary perfume if you're wearing the Satsuma body butter - it's a fresh, citrus scent that is perfect or daytime wear. It's light and just lovely and I'm just in love with Clinique at the moment, honestly. This was a tester I was gifted with an order and I was pretty excited to try it as I'd never tried a fragrance from Clinique before. Have you ever tried any Clinique fragrances? You can get 50ml of Happy for £38 from the Clinique website. 

Nivea Milk & Honey Lip Balm - I've never loved this product simply because of the smell of it, I have a strange aversion to honey scents (I love Marc Jacobs but will not touch the Honey perfume!). Even thinking about it makes me want to cry a little bit. But anyway... I've been loving this product this month as I've been using it as a base for my lipstick. I like to use vaseline on my lips a lot of the time but it's too watery to use underneath lipstick. So I've opted for the Nivea lip balm which gives a lovely sheer coat that my lipstick can be applied smoothly over the top. You can buy this for approximately £2 from Boots.

MAC Shy Girl Lipstick and L'oreal's Eva Longoria Collection Privee Lipstick - This favourite is a bit of an odd one, it's not that I don't love these lipsticks on their own, it's just I love them so much more when they're worn together. If I'm wearing this lip combo I paint on a layer of the L'oreal lipstick and then paint a little of my MAC lipstick in the centre of both top and bottle lip which gives a lovely, subtle two-tone lip. If you want to try it out for yourself you can buy the MAC lipstick for £15 from Debenhams and the L'oreal lipstick for £8.19 from Boots.

Wella Professionals Oil Reflections Smoothing Oil - I've been wanting to blog about this product for a while now because I am completely smitten. Firstly, it smells divine. Honestly. Like nothing I've ever smelt before (although admittedly I'm yet to try Moroccan oil, I hear that smells pretty good too...). Secondly, it just works so well at keeping my hair in good condition. It adds a lovely shine without making my hair look greasy or clumpy. It can be used on both wet or dry hair depending on your primary use for it. It defends against damage and makes my hair look so healthy. It's just a great product if you want to keep your hair in tip-top condition. I honestly couldn't recommend this enough! I bought this from my hairdresser but you can buy it from beautybay for £12.95 (100ml). 

So that is it for my October favourites! I'm quite happy with my bunch this month. I haven't tried anything new that I haven't loved so I'm a happy camper.

Have you tried any of these products? What were your favourite products to use this past month?

(Sorry for the shoddy photos this week, I've recently moved my room around and obviously I'm yet to find a place suitable to photograph my products well... I had such a struggle this week!)