Boots Haul #3

Hello folks, another Boots haul here for you, mainly consisting of the Boots Botanics skincare range after my surprise find of the Botanics Shine Away Gel Cream Moisturiser. I was considering plunging the depths of the Liz Earle Cleanse & Polish after it being raved about my my fave youtubers and my Simple Spotless/Witch Hazel & Tea Tree products running out, but as I'd only just bought the Botanics moisturiser, I figured I might as well get some Botanics stuff and wait till this batch of skincare runs out to get the Liz Earle products. I've included a (probably blurry) photo of the blurbs on each products in case you guys might want more info :) A lot of reviews I've read have said Botanic have changed their formulas for the facial skin care ranges, and have not been please with the changes, but overall I've used these products happily and I haven't had any major break outs from the formula, despite most of the products I'm using saying they're suitable for all skin types and not specifically for oily/combination/acne prone skin. My skin has been less red, and definitely more soft and nourished.

This is what seems to be Botanics' version of the Liz Earles Cleanse and Polish, only in balm form, whereas the Liz Earle is a creamy consistency from what I've seen in reviews and videos. I've tried this a couple of times now, and it's surprisingly nice for my oily/combination skin considering it's an oily type balm, and hasn't broken me out too much (I've had one or two teeny bumps but that may be due to me switching products). There's a pretty solid layer on the top, but once you break through that, the rest of the product is fairly soft and easy to scoop out of the tub. It's quite a grainy consistency, that melts to a light, oily balm when rubbed into your skin. Once rubbed in, and your make up has been melted away, you use hot tap water to wet the included muslin cloth and lay this on your face to open your pores, and rub the cloth on small circular motions to cleanse of the balm, gently exfoliate and get any extra make up off. You then rinse the cloth and use cold water to close your pores. This alm is actually pretty effective at cleansing off your make up, and it smells okay, in that fake herbally kind of way. I'm not too sure how it does with eye make up since I bought a separate eye make up remover, but i've rubbed it over my eyes and I've had no problem. It leaves an oily residue on your skin, which some people leave on as an overnight treatment kind of thing, but I' remove it with either the foaming wash or the cleansing milk, as I think my skin would not react well with a film of oil over it. I dont really mid having to do this though as I often double cleanse, since I always manage to miss bits of make up! This is the first balmy/muslin cloth type of cleanser I've tried so I can't really compare it to any other brands, but it's a nice cleanser that could be used as a treatment if you leave the residue on.

I must admit I'm sometimes really lazy in the morning and I sometimes use wipes, or someone else is in the bathroom and I can't get to the sink to use a proper facial wash. However, I do always double cleanse, no matter what, so I always follow wipes with a cleansing milk. I only ever use wipes in the morning though, as I like to scrub my make up off...it's quite satisfying lol. These are actually really moist for wipes, and they smell really nice too. I can't really comment on how they remove make up obviously, but they haven't broken me out and they're handy for cleaning any make up gunk off my glasses too.

This is what I like to use in the morning or if I don't feel like using the hot cloth cleansing balm. It's a really nice smelling cleanser, foams really easily and gets your make up off easily too. I like to use it with the botanics facial brush to really scrub my make up off! It doesn't leave my skin feeling tight or dry, and overall quite a pleasant product.

Having short, asian lashes means the only type of mascara I can wear is waterproof, as it's the only type that will hold up my curl. Despite that, I can only use the more drier formulas, as the wetter ones take too long to dry and my lashes just end up falling down anyways. So I need to use a separate eye  make up remover, rather than relying on my face cleanser or wipes ets. I decided to buy this one, as it's one of those half oily, half water shakey uppy (LOL great terminology) type cleanser, and they seems better at breaking down eye make up than standard removers. This has been pretty good at taking off my mascara and any surrounding foundation and easily comes off when I use a normal cleanser.

This is what I like to use for the latter half of when I double cleanse, to make sure I've gotten any extra bits of residue off. It's a wipe of creamy cleanser, and does indeed leave your skin soft, however it does feel a bit more slick compared to other wipe of cleansers that I've tried.

And what cleansing routine would not be complete without toner? I was considering getting the organic rose spritzer toner, but this one's a wee bit cheaper and I'd lost track of how much I'd already put in my basket (anyone else get the fear of getting carried away and not having enough cash on them?!). This is a lovely toner, that you can feel cleansing any extra residue of the cleanser and leaves your skin clean but not dry and tight.

I'm up at Mr Lacquerised's parent's for Christmas and  nail polish remover was one of those things that I didnt necessarily need to pack and could just buy when I got here. Cutex is a brand I usually go for, but I'm not actually sure why, maybe it's because they have varying types to suit your needs? Anyways, this one is a favourite of mine as it doesn't smell as chemical fueled as normal removers, but can't really put my finger on whatt scent it it...

I needed razors, but couldn't find where the girly ones were, so I settled on getting some cheap manly ones, and hoped my skin would come off in shards as I wasn't sure what to expect. But they're not that bad, sure, there's no pivotty bit for angular bits like your knees, so you need to readjust your position a wee bit, but they're not too bad, and at less than £2 for the packet, I'm pretty chuffed :)

Boots Haul #2

I managed to sneak a visit mid November and early Dec to my beloved drugstore/high stree shop, and here's the post for the stuff I bought, and with a few mini review/thoughts since I've had a chance to test out any new products I'd bought. Even thought it's technically two lots products, I didn't buy too much either time, so I've put them into the one post :)

I'd been using the Tea Tree collection from The Body Shop to help combat my combination/spot prone skin, but I found it a bit meh and a bit overpriced for the amount of product you got with certain items, for example the moisturiser. So I ventured to Boots to see what products where available for spot prone skin and I cam across the Simple Spotless Skin range, next to the Boots Tea Tree and Witch Hazel range. I was more inclined to go for the Simple range, as the tea tree moisturiser didn't really moisturise my skin much, and the Simple collection contained zinc and chamomile rather than tea tree/witch hazel. But the problem with this range is, is that it didn't have all the products needed for a standard cleansing routine, like a toner or a night time moisturiser. So I decided to go for a mix of the Simple range and the Tea Tree/Witch Hazel range!

After a few weeks of testing the facial wash and the moisturiser, I really like the wash. It's gentle enough to use twice a day, and doesn't dry out your skin too much. It has little...bits in it though, which I'm not too sure are for what as they're too sparse to be exfoliating beads, but they don't bother me too much.. I use this with a Botanics facial brush in the evening to properly scrub the make up and grime of the day off my face, and I just use my fingers in the morning to gently massage my face as I feel that using the brush twice a day would be too harsh and irritate my skin more. The moisturiser however, its a bit hit and miss for me. I feel that it'd be a nice one for using in the summer, but it's not too good for the winter as it doesn't combat the dryness that can occur from the cold weather. It's really good for keeping your skin matte and shine free, so I feel that this is best used for summer when your skin isn't as dry.

I tend to use wipes in the morning when I'm too lazy too wash my face, or when I'm wearing a lot of make up and I want to take some of it off to not use so much facial wash. These ones are nice and moist, and don't drag the skin which I found the Primark ones to do. I wouldn't necessarily rely on these, or any wipes for that matter, for a good facial cleansing but they're good to have around, and they're gentle on your eyes too. The cleansing lotion is good for cleansing any excess facial wash or cleaning your face in the morning but not for heavy make up, plus it really stings your eyes if you get too close to them :/ The night time treatment gel isn't something that I particularly enjoyed either, it kept my skin matte and shine free throughout the night, but I'm not sure how necessary it is. All in all, I guess the Tea tree and Witch Hazel range is good if you're needing to buy stuff last minute, like if you forgot your face products when you're going away on holiday or you're a bit skint, but I wouldn't repurchase any of these unless I was skint and on a budget. 

A lot of people assume I have a cold sore when I whap this out of my bag, but I actually use it as a lip balm for when my lips are chapped from the cold weather. The packaging is a bit more hygienic than the little tub of Blistex, however it's a bit hard to control when you've accidently dented the tube and it keeps oozing out :/ This is a constant repurchase of mine, and I couldn't recommend it enough.

After realising the Simple moisturiser wasn't doing well in the cold climates, I decided to look for one that just combats oily skin, as most spot fighting products will dry out your skin to some degree to dry out the spots. I cam across this in the aisles, and as I've heard a lot about the Botanics range, I thought I'd give the Shine Away moisturiser a go since it was on deal. This has been THE best thing I've bought! It keeps my skin shine free all day, and I've noticed my skin has gotten a lot less red after using this for only a few days. It can do this weird thing of rubbing off in little bits if your using your hands to put on foundation, but using a foundation brush combats this. It has a nice scent, and the gel cream formula sinks into your skin so quickly. It's in a tub so it's a tad unhygenic to keep dipping your fingers in, but I always wash my hands before I touch my face anyways. After the success of this, I'm going to buy some more from the Botanics range. Like the Simple Spotless range, the Botanics Shine Away range doesn't carry all the products needed for a face routine, but a lot of their other products a for all skin type so I may give them a bash :)

You will most likely to be familiar with if you're a blog/youtube follower so I shan't say much. If not, try it, it's amazing for under £5.

Of course I couldn't resist buying at least one polish when I went to Boots, and this time it was Sugared Almond from the Lasting Colour range at the Collection stand. This is the loveliest lilacy dusty pink I've came across. It lasted for a good week without any major chipping too! 

Pantene was buy one get one free at the time so I thought I'd give this range a go since I was running out. I didn't actually mean to buy two different types, but I guess theres no harm in mixing and matching right? I've only used this once so far since I don't wash my hair too often since it's so long. But it did make my hair a smidgen softer then usual, however I must add that the ends of my hair are ombred and my ends have been really dry lately.

Liebster Award #2 and #3

HELLO GUYS! :D I'm finally finished uni for the semester, and now on Christmas holidays. I have a lab report, a critical review and some research for my library project to do over the holidays, but I should have time do more posts now :)

During my time of studying/AWOL, I got nominated for 2 more Leibster awards :) One from nailsat2am and readbakestitch. This now entails me answering LOTS of questions, so this is a pretty text heavy post! I could've just picked a mix of questions from both of them, but i liked all the questions so...yeah :p Jumpt ot the end to see who I've nominated and what questions I'm aksing!

So the point is for the 11 people you nominate (they must have less than 200 followers) have to answer the 11 questions given by the person who nominated you, post 11 random facts about yourself, and ask your nominees 11 questions.

Questions from Readbackstitch

1. What is your favourite book?

To be honest, I only ever read when I'm on holiday which isn't that often :(

 Even though Hunger Games and Harry Potter are the obvious good reads, my one true fave has to be Lessons For A Sunday Father. I can't remember the author, but it's not a known book. It's aout a father/husband who makes a mistake and cheats on his wife, and the evens that unfold when divorce involves young children. It just rings true to me as I rarely see my father and I would only see him one day a week at point, also the layout is different in that each chapter is from a different person's perspective, and the author changed her writing style to fit the mannerisms of a teenage boy, a young girl, a mother and a father. 

2. If you could go anywhere in the world right now, where would it be?

Somewhere warm and sunny. A cold, rainy Scotland is not were an Asian should be LOL. I've decided on emigrating when I'm older and have enough money but not sure where yet! Maybe Texas since it seems to be warm even in the colder months?

3. What's your guilty pleasure song? Be honest, everyone has one!

Probs one of One Direction's cheesy songs. I only know 4 tbh (Live while we're young, One Thing, Kiss you and What makes you beautiful) so any of those lol

4. What's your most embarrassing moment?

Face planting onto the (busy) dancefloor when a classic 80's song came on...

5. Do you play a musical instrument? If not, what would you love to play if you could?

No I don't :( Despite being Asian, my parents never got me into the whole instrument thing :o But I would've liked to play the piano, or something really random like the ukulele :)

6. Have you got something that you have had since you were a baby?

Um, I don't think so actually!

7. If you could invite one famous person to dinner, alive or dead, who would it be?

Beyonce so I can steal some of her sass.

8. If you could eat the same thing over and over for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Potatoes...such a versatile vegetable ;)

9. What's your favourite perfume?

Anais Anais : Cacherel or Kenzo, the one with the tall red flower on the bottle. They're old lady type of scents but I love it.

10. Team Edward or Team Jacob? (Hhahahhahah!)

NEITHER. Despise Twilight and all it stands for lol.

11. What is your dream career?

I still secretly want to be a zoo keeper/work with animals. Or work in the bio/science type field to help with medications for the future.

Questions from Nailsat2am

1. Who was the first (or one of the first) nail bloggers that you came across and loved?

Sammy at TheNailasaurus, I was in awe of her skills

2. Summer or Winter?
Summer, I despise the cold. I like to think it's because I'm Asian and I'm genetically used ot better climates that drizzly Scotland :p

3. Do you have any pet peeves?

People chewing their food loudly, scraping their bowls/plates loudly. people leaving doors open...I have a few issues lol.

4. What's your most liked nail art trend? Disliked nail art trend?
Galaxy nails are amazing and so pretty to look at. My most disliked one was probably the one in the following question...

5. Thoughts/ opinions on the "duck feet nails".
Horrific.

 6. The colour you wear the most?
Um, neutral/ pale colours, like greys, pale lavendars.

7. What's your guilty pleasure?
Listening to One Direction songs ¬_¬

8. What are some of the things on your bucket list?
to travel somewhere and to go to the proper Disneyland (only ever been to Hong Kong and Paris)

9. Is there anything else you collect other than nail polish :P
Lipsticks. So many lipsticks....

10. Do you eat oysters?
Never tried them! But I might like them since I like seafood in general...

11. Would you consider doing nail art as a career?

Um, dunno, maybe...

11 Not So Interesting Facts About Me

1. I'm resitting uni at the moment, I did 2 years of my first degree choice which was psychology, but had to leave after failing the extra modules that my uni makes you take, and now I'm doing Pharmacology.
2. I'm allergic to kiwis.
3. I'm not fluent in Chinese because I never got sent to Chinese school :(
4. I'm left handed.
5. I'm always cold no matter how high the heating is.
6. I depsise maths despite doing advanced higher in secondary school.
7. I'm more cynical/sarcastic than I come across. I keep my comments to myself because I'm sure I'd end up slapped across the face if I didn't.
8. I hate red/pink. I have only one of each colour in polishes, despite have at least 3 shades of any other colour.
9. I'm pretty sure one of my feet is a size 3 and a half and the other a 4 and a half.
10. One day, I am determined to own a cat AND a dog.
11. I prefer crisps over chcocolate.

The 11 blogs I nominate

1. poppingnails
2. applysomepolish
3. mrcandiipants
4. reviews.nail-art-101
5. nailsbycarol (Liking the irony lol)
6. obsessedwnails
7. ohheyclaudia
8. paperthinnails
9. planethell (Slight bias in this one lol...)
10. thenailartiste
11. allnailedupp

The 11 Questions I'm asking

1. What are you looking most forward to at Christmas?
2. What are you looking most forward to for 2013?
3. Classic Disney films or newer Pixar films?
4. Are you at University/College at the moment and what do you do?
5. Iphone or Blackberry? Or neither?
6. Favourite animal?
7. Favourite beverage?
8. Pet peeves?
9. Best/worst moment of 2012? Can be personal or in the celeb type world type thing :p
10. Most overhyped nonsense of the year?
11. Favourite nail polish brand?

Well that's the end of this loooooong post, hope yous have enjoyed a slight insight into my life, shall hopefully see you soon with a few Boots hauls that have been backing up ;)

Sorry for being AWOL!

Heyheyhey guys,

sorry I haven't posted in aaages, my exam/class test thingy is on the 12th of Dec, which only really leaves me a week and a bit after lectures finished to study one and a half lever arch folder's worth of stuff. yikes. The test is only worth 10% so IF I do bad, then it's not as huge a deal if it was an exam, but I]m still worried about it cos it's our first exam/test type thing cos I've only had coursework so far :(

Anyways, I'll hopefully be around a bit more after the 12th, although I have a 5 page report and a critical review to do, and I'm supposed to start doing research for my lib project/poster presentation over christmas too :p However, I od have at least one Boots haul post to do and I got tagged for another Leibster award so have to do that too!

Anyways, back to the mass of notes now...hope yous are enjoying the winter so far, and hope it's appropriately snowy and not icey wherever you are! or maybe even sunny...I'd like it to be sunny tbh :p

see ya!

Dotty/Movember Nails With Flocking Powder

Hello lovely people, how are we enjoying the cold/wet November with exams looming ever so much closer. Yup, got my exam timetable, and even though I only have one class test, I still have a heck of work to do D: (hence why this will be a speedy post)

Moving away from such disgusting topics, I decided to jump on the flocking powder bandwagon (ebay has lots of choices!) and have a little experiment with beardy/moustachey nails since it's Movember and all :)

Kinda Dalmation-ish?

Yes, those are actual googly eyes (again, ebay for bargainous choices!). Doubt they'll last the night, but they look good/kinda odd in the photo :P

If you're up to date on the whole flocking thing then you'll know how to apply the wonderfully fuzzy stuff. If not here's a teeny lesson! If you're using it as a design, then do your design in whatever colour and dab on the appropriately coloured flocking powder with some tweezers. Press down with a phalange, then blow/brush off with a fan brush (they finally have a use!). Then you're done :) If you're using the powder as an accent nail and using it over the entire nail, then let once coat of polish dry thoroughly, apply a 2nd coat and apply powder while it's still wet, no top coat needed!

Oh, and hello to my new followers :D

Boots Haul #1

Boots it's one of my greatest problems in life. It just steals all my money. They have SO many that I rarely come out with nothing, especially since i have a lip balm and nail polish obsession :p So this is my latest haul :) Not sure if this will become a regular thing, but hopefully these posts fill in the gaps I tend to leave between nail posts :(

First off is one of the new Nivea lip butters, in Raspberry Rose. You HAVE to try this out, it smells of raspberry ripple, and feels so good on your lips. It lasts a long time on your lips considering butters tend to be more greasy?...feeling, and you can feel it nourishing your lips against the cold autumn days. Despite being a Body Shop hoarder, I don't get on well with the infamous Lip Butters. They just sit on my lips,not really moisturising or nourishing them. Does nourish and moisturise mean the same thing? :p

Despite it being a milky pink, the colour barely transfers to your lips. If you're an avid balm applier like me, it does make your lips eeeever so slightly pale pinkish but nothing too disgusting. From what I could see, the other flavours are original, vanilla & macademia and caramel cream, HOW amazing to the last 2 sound? They're around the £2.50 mark, so you can easily pick up one or two, with a spare fiver ;)

Boots currently have a buy one, get one half price on selected beauty products, so I obviously picked up some polishes (the nivea butters weren't in the deal unfortunately). I had a wee look in the maybelline stand as they have a few great colours in their selection. However, most of the colours I wanted weren't stocked yet, so I picked up Extreme Blackcurrant and a fast dry topcoat.

I recently tried the Extreme Blackcurrant, and it applies opaque in 2 coats, but I applied 3 as per usual. It's an almost black purple, with slight red tinges to it, definitely lives up to it's name! The top coat semi-sucks though. It streaks like hell, on designs AND plain colours, but it did dry in a pretty average time for a fast dry topcoat.


I've been wanting these pair of tights for ages, but I always forgot to pick them up. Theyre just standard grey wooly tights with white polka dots, but I thought they were pretty cute and would be nice for this cold weather.

I have ridiculously long hair (just to the bottom of my ribcage) so brushing my hair is a necessity, a necessity that I find long, boring and quite painful at times. I did invest in a tangle teezer but I left it in edinburgh when i went back to my Mr Lacquerised's home, so I picked up a  random cheapy brush. I didn't realise till now how good the tangle teezer was. This brush really drags through my hair, but I guess it gets the job done and it was cheap. And it's orange, one of my favourite colours :)

 

Nontheless this cheapy brush is quite decent on my thick and long hair, so chances are that it should be okay on standard hair. The bristles are cushioned and the ends are covered, so it's a comfortable experience for the scalp! :)

Being Chinese and having typical Asian hooded eyelids, eye make up doesn't really factor into my daily make up routine or make up stash, other than standard foundation/concealer/powder/mascara. But I use a Botanics facial brush/scrubber thingy to cleanse my face which I obviously don't want to use near my already damaged eyes (very strong glasses prescription!), so I bought some standard cheapy eye make up remover stuff to take off my base make up. I previously used the little pot of eye make up remover wipes, which were good as they're oil based (also good for removing some of Revlon Colourstay foundation before proper cleansing btw!), but they hadn't had any left in stock when i went :(

Given this is Boots basic brand, I expected it to be sucky, and it pretty much is for mascara, but that could be due to me using waterproof mascara. It's a clear, gel formula, with not much of a scent. It basically feels like water, and it does require a few swipes to get off the base make up around my eyes, but it does the job and not even that expensive, around the £1.50-ish mark.

I rarely tie my hair up in public - usually only at night when I braid it to prevent me or my boyfriend being strangled in our sleep, or if I don't want my hair in  my face when I'm studying at home. So I bought some of those elastic-y non-snag hair bands that come in a hand y box, since I am notorious for leaving my hair grips and bobbles to be sucked up by the hoover...

When I first started using these kinds of hair bands, they kept snapping on me as I used to tie my hair SO tightly as I was sure they'd just slip out of my hair, but I slowly realised that they don't need tied round that much to be secure, around 2 times to tie up a braid.

My boyfriend's slightly crazy, yet lovely aunt bought me a cheeky present the other week, and it was quite a good pick despite me not actually talking about polish brands with her (I've done her nails once or twice). I've been admiring the Hed Kandi range by Models Own for a long while (especially the orange!) but I still haven't gotten round to buying anything yet.

Disco Heaven is a gloriously glittery gold polish with random sparse flecks of blue glitter. LOVE.


Another hair thing again. I really should've bunched these together. Meh. Anyways, having long hair, I find washing and drying my hair a chore, and the ends of my hair weigh down my roots so my hair looks rather limp at the top, but overly thick at the bottom, which isn't the hottest look. So I use this voluminising Tresemme dry shampoo to help keep my hair on balance.

Despite most people being a Batiste fan, I find it too chalky and white against my black hair, whereas Tresemme isn't quite as chalky, and generally comes out transparent with a few random moments of white. not sure if this si something to do with shaking the can before spraying or whatnot though.

Out of all these products, the dry shampoo is the only repurchase, but I'm forseeing that I may try and grab all of the Nivea Lip Butters at some point :)

I hope you enjoyed my first Boots post :D

Starbucks Nails!

It's that time of year again when the Starbucks red cups are out, the grass is crunchy in the morning and Primark has cosy tights out...I hate this time of year tbh. I'm just not made for cold climates, and Christmas was never a big deal to me. But I do like christmas patterned clothes and the odd christmas film :p

I've always favoured Starbucks over Costa, think they have a better variety...and I'm not 

 a huge fan of the colour red either :p

So thought I'd give Starbucks nails a go, after having a...craving?...to use Barry M's Spring Green. It's just so vibrant and bright without being too neon, and aaaaalmost the right shade for Starbucks :p

I'd like to apologise for various things. Such as the scary demonic face of the logo, the streakiness and the overall blurriness :(

None of my tools were small enough to do the face, so I resorted to a sharpie, which was also slighty clunky, but I got sick of trying to do the face so I left it. The streakiness is due to me using a new fast dry topcoat (Maybelline) and it just being overall crap - no speed drying, and lots of streaks. BOO. And the blurriness is due to me still sucking at taking photos and not using a stand.tripod type device :P

In all honesty, I have no idea what the friiiiick was going on with this hand. Being left handed, I was aiming to do something easy, but it kind of ended up being a garbled mess :p The middle finger's supposed to be the little brown slips they put round the takeaway cups and the pinky/thumb ended up being a disjointed version of the bottom of the starbucks logo :/

I much prefer my right hand as that had the better designs, so i may have to keep my left hand in hiding for the rest of the week :p

I've been pondering to do an extra theme to my blog. Being an avid fan of Boots, I'm thinking ofpost ng Boots haul posts along with my usual nail art posts. Just because I'll probably not be doing many designs on the run up to exams (ERMYGADZ EXAMS), and I do have quite a spending issue when it comes to Boots :p Anyways, I'll see how the Boots haul posts do, and see if I'll continue it on or not :) I'm not intending for this to become a beauty blog (I'd be the worst beauty blogger ever haha), but just a few comments on anything I bought, plus I usually always buy a nail polish whenever I go to Boots :p