May Birchbox | Beauty

Another month, another Birchbox and this month's theme is Free Your Mind (and the rest will follow!). I feel that Birchbox is really trying to engage with consumers, they offer the ability to choose which sample you'd like, next month you're going to be able to choose your own design for the box and this month you can actually colour it in. Its a really nice touch!

This month I'm actually pretty happy with the contents, starting with colouring pencils. I think it's fun that they have actually provided the pencils to fill in your box. Another product I was really happy to see was the Caudalie Vinoperfect Radiance Tinted Moisturiser. I received a great light shade and will be writing a separate review in a few weeks.  

Next we have the WAH London Nail Art Pen, this is another fun addition to the box this month however I imagine it's probably still going to be a little tricky to draw on my nails but I'll try it out and report back to you guys on that one. Also we have some Whish Body Butter, I wasn't too excited when I saw this because I have so many different types of moisturisers that I don't really need another one. BUT the smell of this stuff, oh my god! It smells edible because it has shea butter and raspberry butter! 

Moving onto to a couple of products I'm not that thrilled about and one is the Parlor sea salt spray, I just will never use the stuff. I can't rock the messy beach babe look, I just end up looking like a cave woman who has been dragged through a bush backwards!  No.4 Reconstructing Masque I'm a little undecided on, basically you use it after you have shampooed your hair leave on for 2-5 minutes and rinse. But It says to use sparingly because it's a highly concentrated formula so I'm unsure of how much of this sample I can use. 

Finally we have the Jelly Pong Pong Caribbean Sun Bronzer Duo and what a beauty it is. I'm gonna properly review it in a different post but my immediate thoughts are that this looks like a lovely product. The bronzer is slightly orange toned but the blusher that comes with it is a shimmery deep pink colour, which I think could actually work well as an eye shadow too. 

What did you think of this month's Birchbox?

Baker Days Letterbox Cake Review | Lifestyle

This week I was very kindly sent a Bakers Day cake to review and look how cute it is! 

Baker Days create personalised cakes for pretty much all occasions which also includes cupcakes, they have various different designs but they can also add any picture to the cake including photographs. The really unqiue thing about Baker Days though is they have a Letterbox Cake, essentially this a silm cake one tier cake and it's about 5 inches which can easily fit through your letterbox. It retails for £14.99 which I think is an utter bargain. I think it makes sending cakes to your relatives much easier because sometimes they may live several miles away. I love a bit of personalisation and the fact you can design you own cake is a really fantastic idea, which I think many people will also love. 

When it arrived it also received a little card, two candles, 3 balloons and a little party horn thing (don't actually know what it's called). The cake comes in the cutest tin that I will definitely be using again. It was perfectly packaged and I was so impressed. 

My cake filling was vanilla sponge but they also do, chocolate sponge, half and half (choc and vanilla), fruit cake, gluten free and dairy free. I really like the fact they can provide dairy and gluten free options. The sponge was delicious, moist and a really nice density. 

I think the Letterbox cake is a brilliant idea for a gift and would definitely buy them for friends or family members.

Have you bought any cakes from Baker Days?

Clarins Concealer Stick | Beauty

This is another Clarins sample I got from my beautiful friend Vernia, this is the Clarins Concealer Stick in the shade 01 Light Beige. 

I have a love/hate relationship with concealers because it's so bloody hard to find the right one, the colours are always very limited and then you have to figure out whether you want one like this or a more liquid one, it's just always such a hard decision. I'm still hunting for my perfect one. 

When I swatched the Clarins concealer stick on the back of my hand the first thing I noticed was what a great match it was for me it just seemed to blend in quite well. But when I went on their website there are only like 4 different shades available for this concealer stick which isn't a great range for different skin tones. The formula of this product is quite thick and creamy which does give really great coverage though I did find it kinda fell into the creases which did look a little cakey but you just have to blend this product out for a more natural look. 

I found that this Clarins Concealer stick is actually very long lasting which is great because you know that your make up is still in place towards the end of the day. This retails for about £19.50 which isn't the cheapest product out there but it certainly isn't the most expensive I've never really looked at Clarins for makeup, but I'm really starting to open to Clarins as not just a skincare brand but a makeup band. 

What make up do you recommend from Clarins?

Beauty Blogger Confessions | Beauty

This post was inspired by  A Little Obsessed, it looked like and easy fun so I though I would share with you my top 10 beauty blogger confessions.  

1. I cannot use any new product without taking a picture first, no swatches, no uses. The blog picture always comes first
2. Once I painted the nails of only one one hand because I was only using that hand in my pictures, I spent the entire day with just one set of nails painted. 
3. I never owned a proper eye shadow palette until I started blogging...a year ago!
4. I secretly quite like washing my makeup brushes
5. I take all my product pictures first thing on a Saturday or Sunday morning
6. If I take pictures of used products I have to use face wipes to clean them up a bit.
7. I sometimes use blue tack/white tack to keep little sample products in place in my pictures
8. I've never bought anything from Benefit but have so many different samples of their products
9. I love product samples, all product samples, I'll literally try anything!
10. I cannot leave the house without liquid eyeliner and mascara. End of! 

There we have my beauty blogger confessions - what are yours?

Vinopolis | Lifestyle

The other week I went for a wine tasting session at Vinopolis and loved it so much I thought I would share with you my experience. 

I will just say that I didn't take as many pictures as I probably should have, I was just enjoying myself so much I kinda forgot and I'm sure it got a little boring for the person I was with taking random snaps. Vinopolis is located kinda near London bridge so it's a pretty great location, but I've never even walked past it before but I've heard of it. 

Vinopolis offer several different wine tasting packages but the one we picked was the Self-Guided Wine Tasting package. Essentially this means you can wander around a select which ever wines you'd like to try. When you arrive you are taken into a separate room with a taster of wine and a member of staff with guide you through how to different ways to identify different things about the wine such as age, location, scents to pick up on, different flavours etc. Our guide was a chap called Robert, who was a treat, really friendly and quite quick witted. 

On this tour you get a card that has tokens on it and you can buy cards that have 7, 12 and 16 tokens. Basically each taster of wine is around 1-2 tokens but I think the spirits and champagne are slightly more, but we focused on the wine. I must admit I loved how chilled and easy the wine stating was, you kinda wander around at your own pace. Each cabinet had 4 different bottles of wine you can chose from, I would definitely advise you and the person you're with get separate wines so you and swap and taste each other's. 

I really enjoyed my experience at Vinopolis, it was fun, relaxed and delicious. 

Have you been to Vinopolis before?