Ruby & Millie Bargains!

Wondering around Huddersfield feeling a tad dejected.  I literally had £15 left in my secret stash of cash which I keep for emergency make up purchases.  Even by my standards £15 is not a whole heap and everything I wanted was way more.  

Em and I wondered into Boots just on the off chance and look what I found!

Ruby & Millie bargains!! These were reduced to £1.81 each - an eye shadow compact in the gold case and a lip gloss one in the red.

Really nice neutral collection - the light brown in the top right section really caught my eye as the UD Naked palette doesn't have a pale brown/taupe with subtle shimmer, the 2 palest browns are in that palette are matte.

Swatched in shade, clockwise from the white

Same order, in the sun - clipped the white a tad!

The shadows are gorgeous! soft and buttery, well pigmented and with light shimmer and no fall out, I am made up with them.

The lipglosses are a nice range of colours too.

Swatched in shade, clockwise from the red

Swatched in sunlight, same order

 The glosses aren't as strongly pigmented as the shadows but I think for glosses the colour pay off is pretty good.  They have a really nice balm like texture, rather than gloopy sticky gloss with no taste or smell.  I was really pleased to pick these up for for under four quid even if the glosses aren't pristine - should have been more careful and nabbed one of the still sealed kits, didn't think about it in my haste to grab one!

In addition I got one of their eye liner brushes for 83p - I already have one which I use daily to tight line using shadow, its a straight brush and is fantastic for tight lining, pleased to have a spare just in case!  Resisted the £1 foundation brush as I already have one of those too!

I also got a GORGEOUS lipstick - but saving that for a later post!

Whats everyone been up to this weekend, anyone else nabbed a bargain?

Champneys products now in Boots!

Quick heads up - Champneys now stocked in Boots!

Am very thrilled by this! Almost never go to Sainsburys but when I used to do our weekly shop there I always chucked in a sneaky Skin Comforting shower cream which is the only "cheapy" shower gel that I have found that smells as nice as/nicer than the Sanctuary Spa shower cream.  I am just hoping that they have this range in Boots in Huddersfield, the Age Excellence skin care is looking a bit tasty too and I really fancy a hands on play before making a purchase.


The Champneys page on the Boots website is here.  Have you used any of this range?  Did you rate it?

Botanics Facial Cleansing brush

Was intrigued by this when it appeared in Makeup Savvys Best of Jan post and decided to give it a whirl. At just over£6 it wasn't going to be breaking the bank if my skin wasn't loving it.

I have been using it for a month now with my Avene cleanser and my skin has never looked better.  I get the brush wet in warm water, apply a squirt of the Avene and swoosh it around, its a really really soft brush, so much so that any pressure compresses the bristles so its much better to apply no pressure and just swoosh a bit more often.  It feels lovely, like a million tiny fingers massaging your skin and it cleans and lifts away make up and grime and leaves my skin feeling really soft and totally unstressed.  Which is great, as my skin is really re-active.  Have had no issues with this at all and am thrilled by how much better my skin is looking. Redness is at an all time low, although think thats more to do with retiring the Elemis pro-collagen products and using only Avene than the brush, but I do have large pores in my chin that get very congested and they are visibly shrinking and my nose, which was often bumpy, red and prone to spots is really smooth and blemish free.  Overall my skin tone is really improved and I think cleansing with the brush which is mildly exfoliant is also helping my moisturisers (Avene rich compensating cream, Avene Rich anti redness cream and Avene Rich skin recovery cream) to work their magic. The only downside is a slightly funky smell, only apparent when swooshing it round my nose but it was a tad off putting at first, although I do have a very sensitive sense of smell so it might just be me, not enough to put me off using my brush though.

If you dont have redness issues and are looking for a lovely balm cleanser Welsh Beauty Blog has posted about the Botanics cleansing balm today, which sounds lush.  As Botanics are currently doing 3 for 2 on Botanics you could get the brush and the balm and pick up something else for free - result! 

People of Huddersfield - I salute you.

Spotted this on the Models Own website:

Models Own is coming to a Boots near you!

Our full range of products in over 150 different colours will soon be available in more than 200 of the larger Boots stores across the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Having made our premiere appearance at Huddersfield in March, Models Own is scheduled to start arriving in Boots everywhere from late-April through to September, 2010.

Who knows what demographic we fit to be the very first Boots with a Models Own stand but I am pleased that we did, oh and the rest of you Models Own fans, you owe us - big, if we hadn't purchased like women possessed who knows, you might still be languishing in Models Own free stores!

UNE Make up

A new blog! About make up! Hardly high brow I know but so right up my street don't know why it has taken me this long!

Anyone that knows me, and frankly no one that doesn't is probably ever going to find this blog!, will know that I am make up obsessed with a special emphasis on all things nail related - years of nail biting to blame for that! I can think of nothing nicer than treating myself to a must have sheer lipstick (don't do gloss or creme lipstick) when things don't seem to be going my way, smile and everyone thinks your nuts, slick on a new lipstick and who cares what they think? I am an advertisers dream with the eye of a magpie, although would never buy something because of the packaging I would definitely not buy if the packaging was naff.

Today was on the hunt for a mascara. Not strictly true. I was going to Boots to buy a new L'oreal Telescopic mascara because the one I currently own is a year old, ye gods its a wonder I haven't got a permanent case of conjunctivitus, or however you spell that. Anyone en route to the L'oreal stand I spotted the UNE stand.

Have tried to find out a bit about this online but information is a bit lacking, apparently it is actually from Bourjois (which I think is linked to Lancome?) and has an emphasis on natural products and using organic ingredients. So knit your own lippy kind of stuff. Not really an eco warrior and it certainly wasn't this "ooh lets all save the planet and looks lush whilst we do it" philosophy that grabbed me, it was the shades of the eye shadows. They are all very muted and earthy and I had decided, this morning, that at 43 slapping on sparkly silver eye shadow was quite frankly laughable and I was starting to look like a transvestite version of my former self. Time, I thought, for some grown up make up - leave the sparkly stuff to Emily and her friends. I had looked at some Revlon matt eye shadow in Superdrug and was more inclined to paint my face with wattle and daube than something that dry and dreary - eye shadow as a metaphor for mid-life anyone?

The UNE eye shadows were a revelation, they are soft and blendable and sexy in an understated kind of way (you can see where I am going with this - if they are and I wear them, so will I be!) So first selected shade S15 which is a soft greyish brown at the front of the photo.



Its lovely and smudgy and then I decided that I would need a light base colour so next was S02, at the back. Note packaging - mirrored case and a teeny brush. TBH if you were going to apply the shadow with the brush you would need a week and the patience of a saint, I had neither so you can see the lovely great finger marks already in my shadow.

Then I spotted the sheer lips balm (weird plural there on lips but it is what it says on the tube!) Sucker for colour and sheer so this was a must have too in shade S03.



And then I slung in eye liner in S15 to go with the darker eye shadow. On reflection I might have been better going for a darker eye liner but I didn't want anything too harsh. The eye shadows are £8.99, Lips balm is £4.99 and the eye liner is £7.99. And anyone that mentions any of this to Steve will be boiled in oil, do I make myself clear?



Hope you like the new blog! The comments section is there to be used, I love feed back!

Post edit: If you do buy these eye shadows do make sure you have an eye shadow brush - they are very finely milled and then pressed I think, which makes them really soft and blendy but they cake up if you whack your greasy digit in them. Even if you aren't eating chips whilst applying your eye shadow. Cos who would do that? Anyway, yea use a brush. Or raid your daughters make up bag and wash and wash and wash some more the eye shadow brush you bought a million years ago that suddenly disappeared. Once you have got all the bronze sparkly eye shadow off YOUR brush, hide it at the bottom of your make up bag and prepare to lie through your teeth! In short these shadows apply much better with a brush and the one in the case is cute but utterly useless!