A BEAUTIFUL MESS - MESSY BOX MAY 2015

I started Project Life this year and have really got into scrapbooking. I have always been creative having completed an Art Foundation and studying Fashion at University. A Beautiful Mess is a women's lifestyle company started by two sisters in the US, they also have their own blog which shares home decor, recipes and crafts. I found out about Messy Box from Lily's video and blog post. I'm really surprised I hadn't found out about the concept before as I love using the A Beautiful Mess App with Instagram and buy quite a lot of my scrapbooking supplies online. A Beautiful Mess offers two subscription services, Happy Mail and Messy Box. I subscribed to both but Happy Mail had sold out for this month by the time I had got around to doing so. Happy Mail is a card subscription service where you receive cards for a number of different occasions, as well as envelopes, postcards, prints and stickers to go with them. Hopefully I will be able to try this service next month, as I love collecting cards and having them ready for any scenario. I love Paperchase for cards but sometimes it's hard to find unique designs, so I'm looking forward to trying that next month. A Beautiful Mess cram $50 worth of products into an envelope for $15.00 a month and every piece they design themselves. Messy box is a service which is ideal for scrapbooking or documenting your life. May's Messy box was definitely full of bright, bold and colourful designs. This month's kit contents; three 9X12 papers, loads of journal cards of different sizes, Happiness is... stamp set, Alpha sticker set, Chipboard shapes, die cut banners, sequin mix and black and white ribbon. My favourite item has to be that map of New York, I think this would be great to use in travel pages. So many items to create so many things with! I'm so excited to get scrapbooking with these pieces and add something different to my album. I subscribed to the month to month commitment to see what it was like first before committing to six months or a year subscription. You have to pay a couple of dollars more for shipping if you're outside the US. It ended up costing me £18.83 including delivery, which isn't bad as I probably spend around that price on supplies every month anyway. I ordered my box on the 16th and it took just over a week to arrive, so I was really impressed with the service! If you are interested in documenting your memories I would definitely recommend trying Messy Box for yourself. I will be carrying on my subscription next month and it has really inspired me to make more time for scrapbooking, find out more about the contents below.

Have you checked out A Beautiful Mess?

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BENEFIT BOLD IS BEAUTIFUL - RAISING BROWS FOR CHARITY

Benefit Cosmetics have launched the Bold is Beautiful project. I had never been to Benefit before to get my eyebrows done, but when I heard they were offering such a great deal, I had try out the service out for myself. During the month of May, Benefit Cosmetics are donating 100% of Benefit's profits of the Brow Wax to Look Good Feel Better who support women with cancer & Refuge who support women and children against domestic violence! I decided to go for the Arch and Tint priced at £19.50 for both, which a really good deal just on it's own. But I think just a brow wax is £11.50. You can get this done at any of the Benefit brow bars across the country in shops such as Boots, Debenhams and Harvey Nichols. As well as that in May, Benefit are giving away a free full-size Gimme Brow brow-volumizing fiber gel worth £18.50 with each transaction while stocks last. My current Gimme Brow was running very low so this was the ideal opportunity to get myself a back up. It's such great value as really you are only paying £1.00 for the Arch and Tint service. My friend also visited the Brow bar during her Birthday week and also got her wax free too! which is a great deal ontop of the free brow product. I love the results of my brow wax and tint and will definitely be going back again as the experience made me feel so much better about myself. I got my brows tinted a shade darker than my original colour so the shade light/medium Gimme Brow is a perfect match. I really like this product it's so easy to work into the brows and makes them stay in place. It makes my brows look fuller but still keeps them looking natural at the same time. I think it's a really great cause, and I'm sure it has created a lot of awareness as well as money. It would be great if Benefit donated a small amount of the service every month as I'm sure more and more women would like to support other women than just getting their brows done every so often as a treat. If you don't want to book in for a brow wax you can also donate to both charities by texting REFU43 (for Refuge) or BOLD15 (for Look Good Feel Better) followed by the amount you want to donate to 70070. You can also share your photos/experiences on social media with the hashtag #boldisbeautiful. Also, If you pre-book your brow arch for June you will receive a free mirror and deluxe eye cream, which is one of my favourites! As of this moment while I'm writing this post an amazing 23,744 brows have been waxed in the month of May! Us girls really know how to stick together!

Have you visited your Benefit counter for a brow wax?

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URBAN DECAY NAKED ON THE RUN LIMITED EDITION PALETTE

Urban Decay has long been one of my favourite makeup brands since I was a teenager. I have loved Urban Decay eyeshadows and think they're the best formulation and have the best colour range on the market. The Naked palettes are some of my most used palettes, the newest palette is called Naked On The Run which is limited edition and includes a whole face of make-up in one. It contains five eyeshadows, a travel sized Perversion Mascara, a travel size 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in the shade Stag, a full-size Naked Ultra Nourishing Lipgloss in the shade Sesso, a bronzer, a blusher and a highlighter. This palette is perfect for travel as it means all you need is this and your base products, you can create quite a few different looks from day to night. I featured this in my Spring Beauty Wish List post here and finally caved and had to have it in my collection. Urban Decay actually say the palette comes with six eyeshadows, including an extra large dose of 5050 the perfect all-over shade but I like to use this as a highlighter as well. The eyeshadow shades from left to right are; Dive, Fix, Resist, Dare and Stun which are all new shades. Dive is a metallic rose/golden shimmer, Fix is a soft taupe matte shade, Resist is a medium metallic taupe, Dare is a medium brown matte shade and Stun is a metallic bronze/light gold shimmer. I like that you can create quite a few different eye looks, from pinks to golds and I even use the matte shades through my eyebrows. You can build the colour of these shadows, they're so buttery and easy to blend. I think it's great that you can change up the lip colour or eyeliner if you have other shades in your collection. And now Urban Decay have started selling the travel-sized mascara separately, which means when you run out of the current one you can replace the gap without leaving it empty. I also really like the Lipglosses (I have reviewed a different shade on my blog here), I love the unique longer applicator, the minty taste and the high shine finish they create, without feeling sticky. The shade Sesso is a lovely rose pink with shimmer and the Eye pencil is a deep brown satin shade, so nice to have something different to black. I was a little scared of the bronzer/blusher, the bronzer looks a little orange in the pan, but transfers beautifully onto my skin and blends out effortlessly. The blush creates a lovely pop of colour to the cheeks and this is a really wearable shade.

I really like the packaging, it is a little chunky but it's lightweight and does contain so many products! It includes a generous sized mirror and I really like the rose gold shiny Safari inspired outer packaging which is a bit more upmarket than the original Naked palettes. This would be ideal to take away if you only had room for a carry-on. Urban Decay have definitely got it right again! It's such a wearable palette, I can see myself getting so much use out of this. I like that their all new shades so you won't already own them in your collection and have duplicates. The palette is priced at £37.00 and is limited edition, so who knows how long it will be around for. I'm also so excited about Urban Decay's new Revolution High Colour Lip glosses and Afterglow Eight-hour Powder Blushers, I will definitely have to try these next!

Have you tried Naked On The Run?

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LUSH OXFORD STREET HAUL

When I heard a new Lush Store was opening on Oxford Street I was very excited to see sneak peeks of all the new, exclusive products all over instagram and twitter. As I hadn’t got any plans to visit London, my sister kindly managed to get me a couple of products that were on my wish list. It was also nice for her to pick for me, so I didn't know what I was getting. My Sister picked well as she chose the three most interesting products on my list. The product I was most excited to try was the Pink Flamingo Reusable Bubble Bar. This pink and orange flamingo shape on a stick is similar to past bubble bars like the Magic Wand, Bubble Beard and Drummers Drumming where you wave it under the tap or in your bath water to create bubbles. I love how cute this looks, it’s so girly and it been cocktail inspired so it smells really sweet. It's filled with fragrant Rosewood and Ylang Ylang, so it's really relaxing as well. The bubble bar is quite pricey at £5.95, but you do get value for money as this can be used over and over again. The bubble bar creates lots of bubbles and turns the water a lovely shade of pink.

Harriet also picked out for me the Sacred Lotus Bath Bomb. I wanted this one as it looked so unique to anything else I've tried from Lush. It looks just like a flower with a yellow centre and purple petals around the side, this one is priced at £3.50. I really like how this bath bomb floats across the top of the water. It’s main ingredients are Neroli and Jasmine and certainly helps to uplift my mood. This bath bomb fizzes and creates white and purple foam. I really like the sweet, floral scent of this bath bomb. Sacred Lotus left my skin really moisturised and I got out feeling comforted. I'm surprised this managed to stay in one piece, as it's really delicate.

The last product is The Experimenter Bath Bomb which is so unusual. This multi-coloured hexagon was one of the first new products I saw via Instagram and knew I had to try it. It has a combination of colours including; pink, blue, purple, white and gold and the scent just reminds me of bonfire night! It’s main ingredients is Vetivert Oil and creates a smoky aroma. It also contains Tonka and Vanilla Absolute which brings sweetness to the bath. This bath bomb creates amazing colours in the water and quickly turns to every corner. The Experimenter also contains popping candy which you can hear as the bath bomb turns. This bath bomb is priced at £3.75 which I think is good for the size of the bath bomb.
I can't wait to experience the Lush Oxford Street store for myself when I next go down to London and hopefully I will pick up some more treats on my wish list. I'm also really excited to try the Frozen bath bomb, the Yoga Bomb bath bomb and the Intergalactic bath bomb. I also want to try other products from Lush as I always tend to go for bath bombs and bubble bars, I have seen that they have started doing candles! *books train tickets*

Have you visited the new Lush on Oxford Street?

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NO7 EARLY DEFENCE DAY & NIGHT CREAM

No7 have released a new skincare range which is suited to younger skin. I touched on the day cream in my Summer Ready Skincare post, read that here, but I have been enjoying it that much, I thought it deserved its own blog post. Early Defence is a formula for 20-35 year olds, I have tried the day and night cream, but there is also an eye cream in the range which I haven’t tried. The new range is a stepping stone to help in the transition from every day skincare to hardcore anti-ageing products. The No7 Early Defence Day Cream contains an SPF 15 and UVA protection, as well as Lipopeptides and Vitamin A to help reduce the appearance of fine lines. The texture of the cream is lightweight and more of a gel type formula which I prefer. I find the day cream absorbs quickly into my skin and I don’t find it greasy at all on my skin’s surface. The range offers No7’s new Double Defence technology which contains 5* UVA protection which gives skin advanced daily protection from the sun and environment. Double Defence contains Ginseng and Mulberry, Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Rice Peptides and Alfalfa. I’m really getting on with this day cream, it moisturises as well as softens my skin. It’s nice to know that my skin is protected and my skin appears to be more radiant before applying my make-up. The No7 Early Defence Night Cream is a hydrating cream that is designed to boost your skin which works while you sleep. It protects from daily damage that continues and helps your skin to recover. By using both the skin is protected from environmental damage and will hopefully in the long run look younger for longer. The Early Defence range has replaced the Protect and Perfect Day, Night and Eye Cream. For me, this is the first skincare product I have been excited about from No7. I have always seen No7 for the older target market, but this range is ideal for me and my lifestyle. Both creams have a really light scent with a hint of citrus, so it’s perfect to use in the Summer months. I’m really into my skincare and think it’s important to help prevent ageing early. I find these creams ideal for my oily skin and they're also Hypo-allergenic like all No7 products so they're kind to even the most sensitive skins. I haven't broken out by using these creams as it doesn't block up your pores and it sits nicely under my make-up. The creams are priced at £19.50 each, which is around the price I would normally spend on an Origins cream. I really like the packaging and the fact that you get 50ml of product, these products have definitely become firm favourites in my routine.

Will you be trying the Early Defence range? I definitely need to pick up the eye cream next!

#SlowMoYourSkin

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ALEXANDER MCQUEEN - SAVAGE BEAUTY EXHIBITION

At the start of last month, I visited the Victoria & Albert Museum to see the Alexander McQueen exhibition. I have had my tickets booked since last July, so I was really excited to finally get to see it for myself. Alexander McQueen has always been my favourite designer, there is just something about his work that is so unique and imaginative. I studied Fashion Business at University, so his work has always been my first point of inspiration. Savage Beauty first opened at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 2011, so I’m glad the British designers work finally came on show in London, it was definitely like a home-coming. I have seen some of his work first hand before at different exhibitions such as the Isabella Blow exhibition at Somerset House, but I was completely blown away by Savage Beauty.

We entered the exhibition to see a wall with just Lee Alexander McQueen’s face, the same image on the Met’s Savage Beauty book. We then walked through his early creations like his Saville Row tailoring right up to his final work. We then went into a room filled floor to ceiling with different garments such as Philip Treacy head pieces to shoes, to bags to dresses, with the famous 1999 spray-painted dress spinning in the centre. You just didn’t know where to look first as there were so many amazing pieces, we had to make our way to all four corners to make sure we had seen everything. Most of his work is focused around ideas about race, class, sexuality, religion and the environment and I love how he wanted women to be dressed. The only annoying thing about the exhibition was it was so jam packed full of people that it was hard to move, which was a shame as you couldn’t spend as much time as you’d like looking in one area. But obviously it was that popular as April was sold out of tickets. The exhibition included videos and images as well as his garments themselves. The exhibition finished on his last collection Spring/Summer 2010 'Plato's Atlantis' which in my opinion is his best and most inspiring work. I think that the exhibition was portrayed really well and I’m so glad I got to see it for myself. I would even be tempted to visit again as I was so overwhelmed by the amount of things to take in. I purchased the exhibition hardback book and limited edition Harper's Bazaar magazine. If you get the chance to visit I would definitely recommend a trip the exhibition is on till August, tickets are still available here.

Will you be visiting Savage Beauty?

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