Maybelline New York's Baby Lips in Peach Kiss

All over the summer you couldn’t miss a certain product that kept being mentioned within the beauty and blogging communities. That product being Maybelline New York’s Baby Lips. There has been a lot of hype around it, a lot of mixed reviews, but it never really appealed to me so I didn’t make the purchase.  Why would I need another lip balm?

Er yeah, so, ummm... regular readers will know I have a severe lack of will power. However in my defence I did wait a good few months! Last weekend I was buying a few bits in Superdrug and whilst at the till it was sat there at the side, and at £2.99 I thought why not!

Baby Lips comes in a couple of flavours, I personally went for Peach Kiss. The balm is a mocha colour but goes on nude with a bit of shimmer that’s not that noticeable. As expected it smells and tastes of peach. My lips are quite dry at the moment now we’ve hit autumn, and I’ve actually found Baby Lips to be quite moisturising.

Overall I wouldn’t say I’m massively excited about this product, but for a lip balm it does the job. Also for £2.99 you can’t really go too wrong!

Ambiance Volumizing Dry Shampoo*

As someone who’s unlucky with fine, limp hair, the discovery dry shampoo has been a total godsend. Apart from ridding the grease from my locks it is also amazing for adding a bit of volume and lift.

When the lovely people at Ambiance sent me their volumizing dry shampoo I was intrigued to see how it works, as instead of your usual dry shampoo in an aerosol can it was a powder with a brush. The powder is attached to the brush, so when you tip it the powder comes out through the brush.

To use this product you just dab the brush directly onto your scalp and I then used my fingers to blend in. I did learn pretty quickly that you have to tilt the powder so slowly as it flies out pretty fast otherwise!

The powder is brown, you can get different shades to go with your own hair colour. I really liked this, as you don’t end up with a ton of white residue like other dry shampoos, so you’re not trying to rub it in as much!

Overall I felt that it really refreshed my hair and soaked up the grease leaving my hair feeling pretty great. Also I fully recommend this product for the volumizing aspect alone! It really lifted my roots, giving it a bit of bounce which is a rare occurrence for my hair!

Although the application process is a bit tricky and not as easy as a spray can, I will definitely be purchasing this product as the end results are definitely worth it.

Dermalogica Active Moist

 

 I’ve never tried any Dermalogica products before as they’ve always been way out of my price range. However I was recently persuaded to, and this is what happened...

My skin comes under the type ‘combination’. I get really dry skin on my cheeks but find my nose, chin and forehead can get really greasy. Lately my skins gone a bit haywire and I’ve ended up with a really spotty chin. I hate it but I’m living by the mantra ‘whilst I have spots I’m not getting wrinkles’!

Sometimes my mantra fails me and my spots still get me down. I was talking to a friend of mine, who’s also a beautician about it and she recommended I try Dermalogica’s Active Moist, which is an oil free, lightweight moisturiser for combination skin. At £43 it’s not cheap but I thought I would give it a try.

After only using it for 2 weeks I can already see a massive difference! I used to wake up and be able to feel the grease around my nose, well that’s no longer the case! My dry cheeks are now soft and over all my skin feels well moisturised. It also smells lovely and fresh, a gorgeous cucumber scent.

You just apply a small amount to your face and neck twice a day after cleansing and toning. When I say small amount, you really do only need a small bit of it. Therefore I think it’s going to last for a good few months, making the £43 cost easier to swallow.

For such a great result after only a couple of weeks use, I can’t wait to see the long term results on my skin! I know it’s a hefty price but I definitely recommend paying out for it.

Motivational Monday #33

Apologies that today’s quote isn’t in my usual motivational style. However I came across this and I love it! I can moan and complain with the best of them, I think most people can! In all honestly I can only think of two people I personally know who never moan or say a bad word. They are genuinely so lovely and just don’t have a negative bone in their bodies.

I would love to be like them, I really would. As you know if you’re a regular reader of my Monday posts, I’m really trying hard to be a more positive person. However, I can’t quite kick my moaning and complaining habit. Yes, I truly believe it’s just a bad habit and if I put my mind to it I could stop it.

Therefore I am going to accept the challenge in today’s post. For the next 24 hours I WILL NOT complain once. If anything grates on me I will try to see the positives, if I can’t do that I will just keep my trap shut!

Anyone else willing to accept this challenge with me?

Whoopie Pies!

 

Okay so I’m no baking queen, I’m no fancy food blogger, I don’t understand why people love the British bake off , it’s just watching people eat?! I’ll be really honest with you, I have the attention span of a fly! I have set my kitchen on fire numerous times, seriously. I am pretty useless in a kitchen, however when the mood takes me, I love to cook for others and today I fancied making some cakes.

On a mooch around Lidl first thing this morning, I found this box of whoopie pie cake mix for £1.49. All I needed to add was 150ml Milk, 50g of butter and 1 medium egg. All of which I have at home. I know some may think it’s cheating using one of these cake mix boxes but they are so easy to follow and when it comes to people like me who aren’t that great in the kitchen it really takes the pressure off.

When I say it was so simple to make these, I mean SIMPLE. All you do is throw all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and whisk it together. Then using a spoon I divided the mix into discs onto a baking try, and into the oven the oven they go for 10 minutes. I then mixed the cream to go into the centres, using the mix that comes in the box, adding milk.

After taking the discs out of the oven, I let them cool down and put a spoonful of the cream filling between 2 discs. The final step is to leave them in the fridge for an hour, and then they are ready to EAT!!

They are a resounding hit in my house, everyone thought they were yummy! A perfect baking treat for a Sunday.

The Skint Diaries #2

 

If you are not sure what this post is about, I blogged last week ‘The Skint Diaries’ about how poor I currently am, and after the amazingly supportive comments which really spurred me on, I wanted to share with you how I got on!

I’m not going to lie, I have found this week hard work especially when it comes to spending! I have been restrained but it’s not been especially with 25% off New Look vouchers arriving in my inbox and lots of exciting Christmassy bits being advertised. The only things I have spent money on this week are petrol and a few bits for lunch. So massive fist pump for me! Whoooop!

Last Sunday I put a few bits together for a blog sale which you can find HERE. I have only made one sale of £8 so far, so a little disappointed! If anyone has any tips on making a blog sale successful please share!

On a happier note I’m also selling clothes and DVD’s over on Ebay, which you can find HERE. Quite a few have bids on and a lot of watchers, all my items end on Sunday, so fingers crossed they sell well and helps me earn some extra pennies!

On last week’s post, the first of ‘The Skint Diaries’ a few of the lovely people who commented gave me some awesome ideas on how to rise funds and one of them that was suggested a couple of times was online questionnaires which you are paid to do. I am going to look into this over the next week and will let you know how I get on!

If anyone has any other suggestions please let me know! I will try anything that’s legal/sensible!

BOOK CLUB TAKEOVER: Chloe from 'Lost Arrows'

Here are my thoughts… I LOVE hearing other people’s views and reviews on pretty much anything especially books! Some of my favourite reads are ones that have been suggested by other people. So thinking along those lines,’ The Book Club Takeover’ was born! Hopefully each week I will bring to you a post from one of my lovely and amazing fellow bloggers who will in turn share with you what their favourite book is, why they love it and a review. I hope you enjoy this feature as much as I do!

 

Hello everyone! Welcome to my takeover! I've loved reading Gemma's recent book club takeovers and I was so excited when I got to be a part of it! I haven't blogged for very long, but I'm over at lost-arrows.blogspot.co.uk if you fancy checking out my little blog!

Now I have read many  books and the one I decided to review is probably one you've either read yourselves in English class or at least of heard about it.

To Kill A Mockingbird is written by Harper Lee, set in a southern state of America during the great depression and times of great prejudice. The story is told through the eyes of Scout Finch both as a child and a woman reflecting on her past. The novel revolves around different themes of innocence, both with Scout and her brother growing up to her secretive neighbor; Boo Radley and the trail of Tom Robinson that her father (a lawyer) is working on.

I'll try not to give too much away, but the book really does make you think and question yourself and about how much we actually know people and how much we judge them. Its amazingly written, I often find that some books generally have a great story but the writing style let's them down, but this isn't the case here! Even if you have read it before and had to fill in countless practice exam questions about it, its really worth reading again. I felt as though I understood and learned much more from reading it a second time and a third and a fourth...

If you're feeling lazy then watch the film, it isn't half as magical as the pages but oh well, its in black and white and its perfect for cuddling up on a rainy afternoon. Although the book isn't in any way a happy story, it is heart warming in some places, despite the issues raised like racism, loneliness, prejudice, courage and innocence. Its a deep book!

I admit I didn't read this book by choice at first, it was chosen by my year 11 English teacher for out last exam, but I am so glad she chose it. Sometimes I think teacher will just pick the easiest thing so everyone can get easy marks, but our teacher not only made us read a brilliant book, she made us actually learn something from the book, really get in between the lines and live among the characters, something very rare to achieve in a novel  these days. Its still my go to book whenever I am lost for something to read or having a down day, its quite inspirational.

 And with this little review coming to an end I'll leave you with a couple of my favorite quotes from the story!

 "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.”

"Before I can live with other folks I’ve got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.”

I hope you enjoyed my ramblings, I must say a big thank you to Gemma for letting me be a part of her lovely blog!

Chloe x