Glossy Box vs Carmine vs Feel Unique vs ……

Ok so awhile ago I heard about something called a Birchbox. If you’ve never heard of a Birchbox it’s a company where you pay a monthly subscription (I think it’s $10) and they send you out a little package filled with sample goodies of different make-up/hair & beauty brands for you to try & reveiw. They looked sooo cute I really wanted one but they don’t ship internationally so I had a mini strop & gave up on it for awhile. But then the other day I was youtubing & came across a lot of reveiws for something called a Glossy Box,  so I had a nosy & found a whole new world I was missing out on! I was all OMG! I HAVE to subscribe right now! The Glossy box is basically like a Birchbox but is for the UK market, I was practically sold already but then I stupidly veiwed another billion videos (I have no life lol) & found out about loads of others which totally confused me but today I finally made my decision & chose the Carmine Box.

These are some of the ones I’ve looked at and I’ll be rating these on Packaging, Contents & brands, & Price & then give an overall score. Here are my favourites in order of which I like least to best…

No#5

Latest In Beauty

• Packaging – 5/10 – Nothing special normal deleivery box just in pink
• Contents & brands – 6/10 – These are everyday brands that I buy most of the time, Im not saying thats bad I just fancy trying something different.
• Price - 7.5/10 – I can’t really give it just one price as they have some fantastic deals & others seem abit tight so I’m unsure. prices start at £1 & up for samples.

Overall – 18.5/30

Although I’ve scored this the lowest of the 5 I do think it has a certain appeal as you can choose which sample you would like e.g. you’ve seen a moisturiser but you don’t want to buy a full bottle incase you don’t like it they can send you a satchet to try. But what I am looking forward to is the element of surprise

No#4

Boudoir Prive

• Packaging & Presentation – 7.5/10 – I do prefer this box to the Glossy box but they are pretty much exactly the same, pale pink & black but the presentation is good
• Brands & Contents – 7.5/10 – This I probably the one box where I knew the least of the brands & products & the majority don’t look like things I’d be interested in anyway but they do have some good brands on there
• Price – 7.5/10 – £10 + p+p £2.95 – £12.95

Overall – 22.5/30

There are things I like and dislike about this box but I may try it out eventually

No#3

Glossy Box

• Packaging & Presentation- 7/10 – All in all this is a very pretty box and great presentation, I guess the only reason I’ve marked it down really is they colour (I’m not a big fan of pale pink)
• Contents & Brands – 8/10 – To be perfectly honest I don’t really know any of the brands this box contains, which is quite good if you like try new things (which I do) & also the brands are quite High End & expensive which is also nice if like me you can’t afford the full item, Overall though the contents seem good quality
• Price – 8/10 – It currently sells at £10 + p+p which is about £2.95 - £12.95

Overall - 23/30

I may try this box at a later date just to see what its like as it does seem like a good box & has good contents

No#2

Feel Unique

• Packaging & Presentation- 9/10 – As you may know by now I’m not really a girly girl & this box is perfect I know its still black & pink but it’s black with hot pink highlight rather than pale pink with black highlight (lowlights?) I also really like how it opens up.
• Brands & Contents – 8/10 – From what I’ve seen the contents look good & they give you a fair few samples to try out in good sizes
• Price – 10/10 £9.95 pcm Free worldwide delivery – This is the cheapest of all the boxes a fantastic price.

Overall – 27/10

It was actually neck & neck between this & the Carmine Box, The main reason it won out is because of the contents. I’m seriously considering quitting the gym & just subscribing to both of these lol.

No#1

Carmine Box

• Packaging & Presentation - 9/10 – Again as you know I’m not the biggest fan of pink & this box has just the right touch of being girly without loads of pink Infact theres no pink whatsoever which I think is great.
• Brands & Contents – 9/10 – the contents in the picture above are the November box contents which will be the first box I receive & the Dainty doll eyeliner retails at around £10 so the box has basically paid for itself already. Im excited to try all the products in this box & intrigued to see what I’ll be receiving next month.
• Price – 9/10 £10 + p+p £2.75 – £12.75 -One of the more expensive boxes but the products make it well worth it

Overall – 27/10

This box won out mainly because of the brands and products but also based on reveiws I’ve heard I am really excited to try out all the products I’ll be receiving & will do a reveiw on the box & the products when I receive them.

So do any of you subscribe to any of these? maybe you subscribe to a different one or your thinking of subscribing? Let me know in the comments section

To visit any of the sites just click the picture

Hair Bun Tutorial + DIY Hair Donut

Ok so lately I’ve been seeing this hairstyle…. (only not so high)

& these weird giant hair scrunchie things…

all over but I had no freakin idea what to do with them and how to make it look like everyone elses so I held off from buying one. I was thinkin about trying it yesterday but i didn’t know where to start & suddenly BING a lightbulb went off & I thought ‘Hey! why not try youtube?’ And low and behold there was about 50 tutorials about how to do this style using the hair donut but me being me I had no donut! Then I saw this tutorial….

This is like seriously the easiest thing to make EVER!

Chop off the end of the sock

Roll, roll, roll….. (Because my hair is quite thick I decided to add an extra sock to make it thicker)

And wham bam….

A DIY Hair Donut!

Heres how it looked….

Front

Side

Back

Sorry about the picture qaulity it’s hard to take picture of the back of your head lol

You Smell Delicious….

I’ve just got back from holiday (well actually i got back sunday but i’m lazy) and one thing I always buy when I go abroad is perfume,I love perfume but I hate buying it because let’s face it the best scents aren’t cheap so I tend either get them for my Birthday, Christmas or I buy them abroad as they are alot cheaper. I’ve Just been to Puerto Rico in Gran Canaria (absolutely gorgous & red hot) so I’ve just bought the new DKNY Be Delicious Juiced & it smells gorgeous! It’s so fresh and fruity it made think about the other perfumes I liked so I decided to blog about them. Plus it’s coming up to my birthday (next Friday btw) and Christmas so at least people will have a clue what perfume to buy me lol.

I’m actually really hard to buy perfumes for because I’m sensitive to certain types, the perfumes I wear have to be really light, fresh and fruity and occasionally floral otherwise I get lightheaded, dizzy and a headache this is only a recent thing which I found when I wore my Nina Ricci perfume Ricci Ricci I’d not worn it for awhile but I’d used about a quarter of it and been absoloutely fine with it and I liked the smell so I sprayed some on an headed off out, within 5mins I felt dizzy, headachey andt sick I had to go home and get showered & changed again because of how overpowering the smell was so that was the last time I used that & it’s the same with my Givenchy Play of which i’ve probably used 4 times (what a waste)

So far the perfumes that I love and can still wear are (in no particular order)….

Coco Madamoiselle – Chanel
Although the last time I wore this started to feel a little dizzy but I really hope it was just a one off as this is one of my absolute favourites it smell gorgeous

Nina Ricci – Nina
A lovely sweet and fruity scent (completly different to the Ricci Ricci perfume)

DKNY - Be Delicious collection
These are my absoloute favourites the one above is one of the newest scents Be delicious Juiced and it’s the one I’ve just bought it smells amazing, so far I’ve had the, red delicious, Green delicious & Fresh Blossom & I’ve loved them all, Im also looking forward to trying the new Candy Apple scents especially as they’ve introduced a new completly different scent Fresh Orange (which btw is my favourite drink I go through about 5/6 cartons a week)

Ed Hardy - Hearts & Daggers
This was actually just a cheapy purchase as I needed a new perfume before christmas but didn’t want to spend a fortune as i knew I’d be getting some. I remembered that my sister had bought it before and I liked the smell so I bought the gift set as it was on sale for £20 and I am soooo glad I did it has quickly become one of my favourites I wear it almost all the time its great for day and night and smells yummy. Im definatly not a big Ed Hardy fan the clothes seem a little out there for my taste but if you buy this perfume you will NOT be disapointed.

Jennifer Lopez – Love and Glamour
This was actually bought for me by my boyfriend when he went on holiday before he gave it me I had never even heard of it I’d only ever used her Glow before (which fyi I have but cant use anymore booo) but I really liked it & use it alot for everyday use.

Britney Spears – The Fantasy Collection
I must admit one thing that draws me to her perfume is the design of the bottles I love pretty and interesting bottles, every single one of her pefumes is in an awesomely blingy bottle luckily the majority of them smell lovely because theres nothing worse than when a perfume is in a gorgeous bottle but I hate the smell

Deisel – Loverdose
I expected this to be strong and overpowering (as imo most deisel perfumes are) but its actually a really sweet smelling perfume, Perfect for a romantic night out

Valentino -  Valentina
While I was away I saw this bottle in the shop and my first thought was how frikking cute is that bottle! I decided I’d have to try it incase I could add it to my collection (as I said before I love pretty bottles & boxes for that matter). I found I actually really liked it but i was undecided as to whether it would give me the light headedness as it did seem a little strong. I chose the Be Delicious but they give you free testers & low and behold it was this so i decided to try it out that night and I felt fine all night and I smelt great

Anyway they are my top few that I can wear so far without feeling like I’m going to pass out
What are your favourites?

Is red dead?….

Okkkk so I’ve decided its that time again time to dye my hair. I’ve been brown, Dark brown, Light brown, Black, Jet black, Deep red, & Auburn red & I loved the red but I know its been really over done lately (damn you Cheryl Cole) I’m not thinking Rhianna red although I do love it I’m just not that daring. I’m bored of black now & wasn’t keen on any of the browns so here are my choices…..

Deep Red

Red

 I’ve actually more or less been both these colours before although Im loving the deep red colour Peaches has on in the first picture here are some of the reds I liked best….

(I know I’ve been drinking in all these pictures buts that basically the only time i take them otherwise im far too self conscious)

This colour looked great under light or in the sun but very brown in normal light it also has a purply tinge to it but I liked that.

This colour was actually redder than it seems in the photo but this was definatly one of my favourites.

(Halloween I’m a zombie if you didn’t know hahaha)

This was more of an Auburny red at first I wasn’t too keen but it definatly grew on me.

These were all last winter I went back to black for the New Year (I’m not sure why I do it that way around). I like all the colours I’ve had only problem is I can’t remember the names of the colours I used so it’ll be guess work I’m pretty sure the reddest one was an XXL Live Colour.

so which one do you guys think?

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Fishtail Braid

Cheryl Cole sporting a side Fishtail braid

I’ve seen this all over lately & been really keen to try it out & today I finally did.

What’s a Fishtail Braid?

Well basically it’s like a normal braid/plait but fancier lol. The main difference is you seperate your hair into two large peices rather than three & then seperate it again into two large peices & two small peices.

The left side is a regular braid using three strands of hair, The right hand side is a fishtail braid

It sounds complicated?

Beleive me it can be it took me alot longer than I thought it would & I watched about 6 different tutorials. At this point I beginning I was beginning to think I must be really stupid if everyone else manages to do & still just dont get it, untill one tutorial made it seem sooo easy and then BOOM a braid was made & I love the look so much better than a normal braid.

How Long does it take?

I’d say if this is your first attempt make sure you arn’t in a rush as the first time is definatly the hardest, but once you’ve got the hang of it & depending on how long or thick your hair is I’d say around 10mins.

Step 1 - Seperate the hair in to two even peices

Step 2 - While holding the two peices of hair take a thin strand from the left hand side of your hair & cross it over

Step 3 – Repeat step 2 with hair from the right hand side

Step 4 - Once each side has been crossed hold in place

Step 5 – Blend the crossed over strand into each of the 2 sections and repeat the proces until the braid is finished

Here’s my 2nd attempt….

Halfway through

Almost finished

The look with a normal braid

The finished product a much better and neater attempt than my first but I really like the look it gives & is a more mature version of the classic braid it still took me longer than the girl in the tutorial though (5mins my bum lol)

There are many different ways to do this braid this is the way I’ve found easiest & the tutorial that made it all possible

(Disclaimer – I do not own any of the pictures or videos (apart from the pic of me))

In My Make-Up Bag…

wWell firstly there is nothing in my make-up bag as I have a litttle draw set that I put them in instead but thats neither here nor there lol I don’t tend to wear alot of make-up & tend to use the same thing day to day but change it up a little depending on where I’m going & what I’m wearing, I don’t have a favourite brand of make-up but here are the main products that are my favourites & I use almost everyday….

Foundation

I used to use the Maybelline Dream Matte Mouse but although it went on easily and looked good it didn’t seem to stay on very well. So I then tried the Loreal Paris True Match foundation which also went on well and looked good but didn’t last long enough. Fially I tried this Maybelline 24-hour super-stay foundation which looks good, goes on well & lasts. It does say it’s non transferable but that definatly does not seem to be true especially in my job (Nursery Nurse) but other than that It’s my favourite so far. It’s £9.19 at Boots but can purchased from most good retailers.

Powder

Love this powder, it goes on so well & looks perfect over my foundation I first bought it to match with the True Match foundation but it goes great with my new one it’s £8.99 from Boots but can be purchased from most good retailers.
I honestly couldn’t pick one of these as my favourite I love them both they’re both great for creainge big thick lashes lashes & are a bargain at just £4.99 each the Big Fake Mascara is at boots The volume sensation is not on the online website but you can find it on google shopping.

I love eyeliner liquid or kohl, I tend to think of it as an accessory it can add and change an entire outfit & have a dramatic affect on your face and change the entire shape this is one of my favourites and it’s only £2.99
This Collection 2000 Kohl eyeliner is only £1.99 and is great for adding a dramatic effect and defining your eyes as it’s kohl it can also help to give your eyes that sexy smoky look.

Last but not least is Lipstick, I’ve only recently started wearing lipstick & this colour is gorgeous it’s by Rimmel London I actually bought this from our local market stall they do alot of great brands for alot cheaper than the shops I paid £1.70 but you can find it online but at boots it’s £6.29

Well they are my favourites let me know what you think.

Monthly Must Haves – August

My must haves for this month

The Bag

Pauls Boutique, Maisy Bag, Topshop £61

The Coat

Faux Fur Leopard Print Coat, River island £90 <3 <3 <3 this

The Shoes

Swagger Zebra Print Shoes, Topshop £62

 The Item

Shorts, H&M, £14.99

 The Accesories

Keep The Faith Charm Neckalace, Topshop, £10.00

 The Extras

Rimmel I<3Lasting Finish Nail Varnish, Hot & Spicy, Superdrug, £2.99

Just bought this nail varnish it’s a gorgeous colour can’t wait to try it out.

(There is no link to this item as it is not featured on the website but to find other Rimmel colours try Superdrug)

These are my faveorite items & most wanted for this month let me know what you think

Panda Eyes Are So Over!

Leopard eyes are in!

Beyonce

There are plenty of How To videos and tuorials out there for getting the sexy Leopard eyes like Beyonce in her Kitty Kat Video.

But if like me you know they turn out more Car Crash than Kitty Kat there are other options. Such as these transfers below from Color On. At $20 for 10 applications you an be confident your inner pussycat will come out puurrrrfect.

Visit Site

Wondering What To Match those Peepers with? How about Your nails?

Personally I LOVE painting my nails but unfortunatly for me, nail varnish is not allowed at work, no idea why seems slightly ridiculous to me but hey ho im not the boss.

So every friday night the nail varnish is out although this in itself throws up a dilemma as to what colour? Blue? Pink? Purple Green? Orange? Yellow?

My Other Addiction

and so on and so forth i usually buy at least 2 or more nail varnish’s a month (Yes i guess its another addiction).But if which unfortunatly I don’t, had a never ending stream of money/won the lottery well A) I wouldnt be working anyway & B) My nails would permantly look like this

Click Here

Minx Nails come in a large variety of different colours & patterns but ultimatly this is my favourite to find a colour or pattern to suit you click the above picture for styles and stylists near you

well thats me over & out for now of to do some shopping

Ciao For Now my LPL’s

xox