European Beauty Haul Part 1 - Essence, P2, Catrice, Make Up Factory & Astor

Long time, no...write? I was in Germany and France for a while with my family, dealing with the loss of a much loved pet and am now experiencing camera issues, so it's no surprise that SSD has suffered a little as a result. Luckily for all you beauty lovers, I was thoughtful enough to take some basic photos of my first purchases while still in Germany so while I'm sorting my camera out, I thought I'd share part one of my European beauty haul with you all.

1. I found these two in a shop called Douglas (how German does that sound...not!) which was basically a beauty shop. I picked up Isadora's 'Creme de la Creme' after reading and conversing about it ages ago on a blog so when I spotted the Isadora stand I hunted it down. I also picked up BeYu's Shimmering Top Coat in '743'. I love this because the glitter is holographic (my favourite type of glitter polish) but the chunks are square instead of circular or hexagon shaped. 

2. Here we have Essence's 'Mrs and Mr Glitter', 'The Boy Next Door' and 'That's What I Mint'. I absolutely LOVE Mrs and Mr Glitter. Just before going away I had seen photos of mermaid-esque nails on Instagram and when I saw this top coat I had visions of creating my own. The Boy Next Door is a nice, shimmery, vibrant blue and to say these polishes are all so cheap, I was impressed with the wear of them.

3. I purchased the P2 Pure Color lipstick in the shade 'Kärtner strasse', which is an everyday dark nude shade and perfect for people like myself who have slightly darker lips than average. I also picked up the Astor Color Last VIP lipstick in the shade Bubbly, which is a gorgeous vibrant pink shade and was probably my most worn holiday colour in the end. I also picked up this P2 profi concealer palette because concealer palettes have always intrigued me but are rare here in the UK. I have only used the green and pinky-purple concealers but so far I've been fairly impressed with their coverage and staying power. The Catrice 'Absolute Nude' eyeshadow palette interested me because there are so many UD Naked dupes out there and I'm a sucker for nude eyeshadow. I purchased all of these things (plus the Essence polishes and the P2 polishes below) from DM. Finally for make-up, I picked up the Make Up Factory Automatic Eyeliner in '24' from Müller (that shop is insane) and fell in love with it instantly. I also went back and picked up shade 21, but that will be in part 2.

4. Given that drugstore products were SO much cheaper in Germany than they would ever be here in the UK, and also given that my holiday money was pretty much entirely for feeding my beauty addiction, I went a little bit crazy polish-wise. I picked up two of the P2 Rich Color + Care polishes in 'So Fresh' (green) and 'So Cool' (blue), as well as one of the Color Victim polishes in the shade 'Artful' (PERFECT with Essence's 'Mrs and Mr Glitter') and one of the Last Forever polishes in the shade 'Lovely Moment'. 

5. P2 also had a huge range of nail care type products so I picked up their Anti-Split coat, two of their Quick Dry Sprays (there were only two left, and they were so cheap...) and their Nail Food Ananas. 

I'll be writing up proper reviews of the products I've actually tried soon but do let me know if there are any you'd like me to review. Have you tried any of these products? Let me know in the comments below because I've missed you!

Thanks for reading,

Rachel xo

Twitter: rachelizabethxo

Personal blog: rachel writes

Instagram: iRachey

Email: rachel.soshedances@gmail.com
Tumblr: lookintothestorm.tumblr.com
YouTube: soshedancesxo

The Lipstick Conundrum

If I have two beauty obsessions, they have to be nail art and lipstick. The former has already been fairly well-documented here on my little blog, but my love for lipsticks has perhaps been sitting in second place up until now.

The thing about lipstick is this: I have an addiction. I can't help it. I need to enter lipstick rehab or something because it is definitely a bit of an issue. 

Every now and then I dip into my box of rarely-used or 'special occasions only' make-up and upon hunting out an eyeliner sharpener in there recently I realised I have far too many unloved lippies sitting untouched. Sometimes it's an online order that despite hours of googling swatches just doesn't live up to the expected shade, sometimes it's just a case of ''why on earth did I buy that?" and sometimes it's purely a case of falling out of love with a product or even disliking it in the first place. 

So the question is should I get rid of them or hang onto them until I can justify binning them? There's a part of me that is convinced I'll instantly want to wear it the second it's gone, but perhaps that would only happen because it had gone. Who knows?

Do you hoard any beauty products like I do? Are you also a lipstick lover? Confess all and let me know in the comments below!

Thanks for reading,

Rachel x

Twitter: rachelizabethxo

Personal blog: estoy mejor sin ti

Instagram: iRachey

Email: rachel.soshedances@gmail.com
Tumblr: lookintothestorm.tumblr.com
YouTube: soshedancesxo

Feeling Blue?

Blue and green lips seem to have been gaining a bit more coverage recently. Illamasqua have their forest green lipstick and slightly lighter lipgloss, and if I'm not mistaken Mac have a blue lip tint coming out soon too. If you are that way inclined and don't mind spending £4.99, Sleek offer a blue with their OCC Lip Tar dupes - the Pout Paints. 

These are nothing new, they've been on sale for a good while now, but they've always been on my mental list of 'products I'd quite like to try/things to consider'. Also on that list at the moment is having my ears pierced, but that's a whole other post. 

Anyway, I spent half of yesterday afternoon shopping (haul coming up tonight on my channel) and the other half sitting on my bedroom floor having a good play around with these lip paints. I'll be sharing the other shades I created in the future, but today we're sticking with blue...

So, from L to R we have dark blue, pastel blue and medium blue. I genuinely think there could be something in the dark blue - if you can picture it, I think it could potentially work well in the autumn, perhaps with a full fringe, heavy eyeliner and a check shirt?  I mixed this shade by using blue and a tiny bit of red. The pastel blue is, well, interesting... obviously I would never leave my house wearing this as a lip shade (and probably never as an eye shade either) but if you're daring enough you might fancy giving it a try. This would maybe work on a dark skin tone, but it definitely doesn't work on me! If you're interested, I mixed blue and lots of white to create this shade. Finally we have medium blue. I'm still undecided on this one. I Instagrammed a photo I took wearing it this morning and I think it kind of works on me, but you know... it's blue...

While ever there are people shying away from blues or greens for the lips, the trend is never going to take off. That's pretty much a fact. You never know, I might be brave one of these days and leave the house wearing a blue lip. I'll be sure to let you all know if I muster that courage.

What do you think? Would you be brave enough to stray from the norm and wear a blue or green lip? Let me know in the comments below, I'd love to hear from you on this! :)

Thanks for reading,

Rachel xo

Twitter: rachelizabethxo

Personal blog: estoy mejor sin ti

Instagram: iRachey

Email: rachel.soshedances@gmail.com
Tumblr: lookintothestorm.tumblr.com
YouTube: soshedancesxo

The Orange Lip #1

Had you told me this time last year that I'd be wearing and loving an orange lip, I'd have laughed in your face. Seriously, I'd have thought you were mad. Turns out you wouldn't have been so mad, though, because that is exactly what I've been doing recently. I have a couple of products to show you, but we're starting today with Revlon's Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain in 'Rendezvous'. 

A few points about the product:

• It smells nice and minty.
• It can be twisted up, meaning that you don't only get the little nib/end that you can see in the photo.
• The product feels moisturising and soft on the lips even hours after application.
• Like most products, this tends to wear away over time until there's an orange ring around the edge of the lips. Attractive, much?

Now the winter months are over and we can leave behind the maroons, the purples and the deep reds, orange seems like a fabulous alternative to a fuchsia pink. 

What do you think? Have you been brave enough to sport an orange lip? Let me know in the comments below :)

Thanks for reading,

Rachel x

Twitter: rachelizabethxo

Personal blog: estoy mejor sin ti

Instagram: iRachey

Email: rachelelizabeth.xo@googlemail.com
Tumblr: lookintothestorm.tumblr.com

Treat Yourself...

Hola everybody :) In the past few weeks, I've had my first four university exams. When I was finally freed on Thursday 17th, I decided to treat myself. After a not-so-pleasant experience ordering from  Mac online (which I'll discuss in a future post when my order finally arrives...) which resulted in a lipstick being refunded, I decided to find something to replace it...

After walking around the Mac counter in Harvey Nichols for a while and swatching almost everything I looked at, I decided on Syrup. Seen as I already have slightly-darker-than-average lips, Syrup is like a slightly more pink nude on me, which is exactly what I was hoping it would be.

In the swatch above, I had a tiny amount of gloss over the top but by the time this photo was taken it had pretty much faded away. The colour you see above is fairly true to how it looks on the lips. 

And here's what it looks like from more of a distance... I wore it out to a family party last night and while the colour did stay all night, I did find that my lips felt a little dry so I reapplied a few times. With the exception of this, so far I really like this lipstick and feel that I will definitely get more use out of it than any of the more typical nudes I own by Mac (aka Hue and Creme Cup, which are lovely but quite hard to work with). 

What do you think? Do you own Syrup? What's your favourite Mac lipstick? Let me know in the comments :)

Thanks for reading,

Rachel x

Twitter: rachelizabethxo

Personal blog: estoy mejor sin ti

Instagram: iRachey

Email: rachelelizabeth.xo@googlemail.com

The Hoarder

Ladies, I know you all do it. Whether it's with lipstick, face products or eye products, you all do it. You know when the time comes around to swap bags, or maybe your bag's getting too heavy and you decide to have a bit of a clear out, and you start taking out all of the beauty products... I'd be willing to bet that most of you will line them all up and look at them thinking "and why have I been carrying around 8 lipsticks?", "when did I ever think that I'd need to apply blue eyeliner halfway through my day of uni?" and "why do I have 3 different types of concealer in here?" I'd also be willing to bet that there's one type of product you seem to hoard in there, and for me it's lip products.

I looked through my bag a few nights ago when I was taking uni things out of it, and I happened to go into the little make up bag that I take around with me. It mainly contains three things: hair bobbles, my bus/train pass, and lipstick. 

When there are too many to fit in one photograph, you know there are too many, right? From L to R, top to bottom, we have: Rimmel Kate Moss 107, Mac Creme Cup, Beauty UK Snob, 17 Mirror Shine in Belle (broken, I might add, because the packaging is horrific in every single way), Body Shop Born Lippy in Watermelon, L'Oreal Caresse in Tempting Lilac, L'Oreal Caresse in Nude Ingenue, 17 Lip Liner in Claret. 

Realistically, I'm not sure why I've been carrying around that many products, but the lipstick junkie inside me is screaming "but...but... what if you suddenly want to wear a darker lip?"... I'm never even going to apply the broken one in public for fear of it falling out and onto whatever I'm wearing, and Snob is so matte that I can count it out for most of the winter. 

But, even as I write this, I'm not sure I can bring myself to put them back into my make-up collection and lighten my bag a little...

Surely there must be somebody out there who agrees with me on this? Are you a hoarder too? Let me know in the comments below :)

Thanks for reading,

Rachel x

Twitter: rachelizabethxo
Personal blog: estoy mejor sin ti
Instagram: iRachey

Benefit 'Wanna?' Lipstick Review

Hola everybody! In my November Favourites, I mentioned Benefit's 'Wanna?' lipstick and said that although it was a new purchase, I loved it. 

I'm pleased to report that my thoughts are still the same on this gorgeous, vibrant-yet-deep raspberry pink from Benefit's Full-Finish lipstick collection. 

If bought directly from Benefit, this lipstick costs £14, however if you go to a counter in department stores - especially around this time of year - they often have discounts on so you could theoretically get it for a bit cheaper. I bought mine during one of Debenhams' sale weeks, so mine cost something around £12. 

I really love this lipstick. Up until very recently, I didn't own anything by Benefit. Now, two of my go-to daily products are Benefit and one of my current favourite lipsticks is too. Isn't it funny how that works...?


What do I love?

- I really, really love the packaging that this comes in. I didn't think to take a photo, but the packaging is funky and interesting. Brilliant description, right?...

- The size. This lipstick isn't too big, nor is it too small. The 'bullet' feels sturdy and secure in its casing too, which for £14 you'd definitely expect.

- The colour. As I mentioned, this is a vibrant looking raspberry pink, although in some lighting it can lean more towards being a raspberry red and in some lights it appears a lot deeper and darker in colour. I've never seen a lipstick colour quite like this, and I know Benefit isn't exactly praised for its lipsticks like other brands (Mac, I'm looking at you), so it's quite probable that there will be more hidden gems in their collection too.

What don't I love?

- The fact that this lipstick really needs lip liner underneath it. I know, I know, most bright shades do. I often think that the reason nudes are so popular is because they take minimal effort to throw on while you're rushing out of the house, but there are bright, colourful lipsticks that don't necessarily need a liner. Unfortunately, this one does, which means that my usage of it will be limited. Still, given the price tag, that isn't necessarily a bad thing - I have a habit of using the same lipstick over and over for a good month and then ignoring it, so I'm hoping this won't happen as much with Wanna?.

Here's a shot of me wearing it. Please bear in mind that this was taken at around 8pm when I was a) ill, b) absolutely exhausted and c) had been out for my mum's birthday meal.

Overall, I really love this lipstick and am looking forward to wearing it out over the coming months. I think it's actually versatile enough to take it through into the summer months too, if you so desired. What do you think? Can you see yourself rocking a raspberry colour over the winter? Let me know in the comments below!

Thanks for reading,

Rachel x

Twitter: rachelizabethxo
Personal blog: estoy mejor sin ti
Instagram: iRachey