February favourites

It's been long old time since I've done one of these, but after reading some favourites posts this weekend, I realised I had a few favourites of my own I wanted to share. So I thought I'd start with make up and beauty.

Now I'm not a lover of foundation. More often than not I'll only wear CC cream, eyeshadow and mascara and that's it. The one CC cream I always go back to is the 123Perfect CC Cream by Bourjois. It's a light coverage cream that doesn't feel heavy and sticky but still helps balance out uneven skin tone without looking like a mask.

I was recently given a tester of Benefit Porefessional. So far, so good. Enough for me to be tempted to look at buying the full size when I'm passing through Duty Free later this year. It's not something I'm using everyday, but on special days, it just helps minimise those pesky pores and make me feel a bit more put together.

I love to have hand creams scattered throughout the house, car, handbags etc. This hand cream from a Christmas gift set from Marks & Spencer is lavender scented and is as pretty to look at as it smells - perfect to keep on my bedside table to use last thing at night.

Revolution makeup and skincare always have a place on my favourites. Their eyeshadow primer just helps eyeshadows last that little bit longer (and helps stop you looking like the living dead in the morning...)

The One Concealer, I'm honestly heartbroken that this seems to have been discontinued. So often concealers are too drying for me. This one comes with an almost waxy/silicone surround that helps it blend and smooth. I'm not sure how good this would be for very sensitive skin but for my older, dryer skin it works just fine. The hunt for an alternative is on!

The Essence Super Curl from Wilkos is such a bargain at only £3. I wanted a cheap dupe for my absolute favourite mascara - Benefit Roller Lash and this doesn't do a bad job. It has the small plastic wand that I like and even though it can sometimes transfer as the day goes on, at that price, I can live with it. I also like being able to take something cheap and cheerful on holiday without worrying about losing it somewhere.

My next favourite is my absolute favourite, holy grail eyeshadow product - Two Faced Chocolate Bon Bon eyeshadow palette.

This was a birthday splurge in a French Sephora a couple of years ago and it's still going strong. I remember thinking that I'll never use all of the shades, esp Totally Fetch, the gorgeous deep pink/cerise but I have and I love them all. They have so little fall out and last all day. Plus they smell so good. Everytime I use it, I'm reminded of summer and holidays - and that's no bad thing.

And finally, Daisy by Marc Jacobs. I honestly haven't tried a Marc Jacobs perfume yet that I didn't like and this is my current favourite. I'm finding as I get older, my taste in perfume is moving away from citrus scents towards more floral scents.

So that's my February Favourites - I think I'll try to alternate with books and films for March (guess I better start reading!)

Thanks for reading

Cathy
xx

Empties and favourites - May & June

Hello there,

It only feels like 5 minutes since I last did an empties post, the year is going by far too quickly for my liking.

This time around, I've done a mixture of favourites and empties - purely because the empties were pretty much the same as before!

So to start, a couple of bits from Avon. It feels like Avon has come back into fashion over the last few years. Their skincare ranges are much improved and you can't beat their makeup and nail varnish for value and choice.

Excuse the shape of this bottle, I gave it a good old squeeze to get the last out before realising I needed to photograph it - oops. This was a yoghurt body shake moisturiser with wild berries and pomegranate. It smelt amazing, but was very very runny. Now I don't mind that normally, but this did take a while to soak in, so not much good if you're a hurry. Would I repurchase? Possibly, the scent really was gorgeous and just like a yoghurt.

A classic Avon shower gel. Now I stopped using these for a while as they left me feeling quite dry afterwards, but I was tempted by the scent of this one - Papaya and Peach. Oh my goodness, I really don't care how dry this makes me feel, it smells like a fresh fruit smoothie and the colour is so rich and summery. It's definitely a shower gel to make you feel awake in the morning.

Following on the fruit theme, this is another classic shower gel from NSPA at Asda - their apple scent. There's not much I can add to this except to say it doesn't leave my skin dry and the other half loves the apple smell too, so a win win there.

The final shower gel is from Soap and Glory and was part of their box set that comes out every Christmas. I was a bit disappointed by this (which is a first for me with S&G). It was nice, but just that. Not amazing or memorable. Even now, I can't remember how it smells. So it will be a nice to use, but not a repurchase.

It wouldn't be a favourites or empties post without a couple of shampoos as I continue my search for the perfect combination for my hair. These are my current favourites, the Argan Smooth range from Creightons (available at Tesco). Anything with oil is working well for me and these are cheap and cheerful too. One thing though I've noticed about these is the smell, which you're either going to love or hate. To me, it's slightly reminiscent of a Britney Spears perfume - so I love it!!

A bargain buy from Primark now. I don't often wear foundation but when I do, I hate that matte, flat look you can get. So when I saw this dewy look foundation for about £3 I was tempted. It even has a cute concealer in the lid with a teeny tiny mirror. It's now become my absolute favourite. I only use a little so I never aim for full coverage, but it's just enough to even out skin tone while feeling natural. A real bargain! The concealer is pretty good too.

Finally, June was my birthday month and I was pretty spoiled. These two were definitely very special and made me feel very lucky.

So that was some of my favourites and empties from the last couple of months. Hope you enjoyed this and it's given you some ideas of something new to try.

Thanks for reading

Cathy

xx