Soap & Glory Love at First Blush

 

My love for Soap & Glory cosmetics has never been a well-kept secret. Personally, I don't understand how some people own NOTHING from them! Imagine that.

Well, this Christmas my Soap & Glory collection grew, thanks to some rather brilliant gift sets at Boots, with a variety of products, both from their makeup and body care ranges, all great value for money and with the cutest vintage-inspired packaging.

In my opinion, Soap & Glory powders and blush bricks really are wonder-workers. From One Heck of a Blot, to Wonderbronze (review) and now Love at First Blush, I've never found myself disappointed. Love at First Blush is a blush brick, with 5 different shades which mix together on your brush (I tend to use the Zoeva 127/Luxe Sheer Cheek brush)  to create a warm, healthy rosy glow, giving a gorgeous lightly highlighted sheen to your cheeks, almost as if you are glowing from within. Whilst I have extremely fair skin, and it looks awesome on me, it would also work on darker skin tones, because it gives the slightest pink glow, giving more of a wash of colour than a block of solid pink.

The blush is £11, which is pretty pricey for a drugstore blusher, but from experience, Soap & Glory blush bricks last forever, because the amount of product you get (7.5g) is in such a large pan (there's usually a 3 for 2 on in Boots if you're in the market for other products as well). Each powder is in sturdy plastic packaging, with a huge mirror, making it perfect to carry around with you for makeup touch-ups on the go.

Have you tried any other Soap & Glory blushes or powders? Let me know which one's your favourite!

Love, Milly xx

theBalm Nude Dude Palette

theBalm Cosmetics has always been a particularly attractive brand to me - I put it down to the sassy, retro-inspired packaging, innovative and high quality products and pretty reasonable prices. For Christmas I received theBalm's Nude Dude Eyeshadow palette, which retails for £30 (I  got it for £27 in the feelunique.com sale).

The palette contains 12 stunning, highly pigmented eyeshadows - 4 matte shades ('Fearless', 'Flawless', 'Feisty' and 'Friendly'), a couple which have a hint of glitter ('Fine' and 'Fierce'), and the rest are either iridescent or glittery which I absolutely love. All of the shadows are really wearable and blendable and can be mixed with water to create a much more pigmented effect for a bold eye or coloured eyeliner. theBalm website also says that the shadows are 'triple-milled' which would explain their velvety, creamy feel.

Among my personal favourites are 'Fit', a burnt-orange/copper shimmer, 'Firm', which is more pink-toned and 'Fine' which is a dark warm-toned brown with a barely-there hint of glitter which is perfect for a brown smoky eye.

Personally I'm not a big fan of including little brushes in eyeshadow palettes - although this is one of the better ones I've seen (does anyone actually use those little spongy applicators?) - so I don't think this one will be getting much use from me, especially now I have my new Zoeva brushes! The shadows apply and blend so nicely with a fluffy brush.

The packaging is very slim and perfect to slip into your handbag, but perhaps wrap a hairband around it first, because it is just thick cardboard, held by (relatively strong) magnets. There is also a huge mirror which spans most of the palette (a hundred beauty points to theBalm!) which makes it ideal to take on a night out to touch up your whole face, not just your eyes.

Have you ever tried anything from theBalm?

Love, Milly xx