Smashbox 24-hour photo finish shadow primer

After 12.5 hrs wear with the GOSH forever shadow stick - only *just* beginning to crease (this image was instagrammed at the time)

As you'll probably know, Smashbox are famous for their primers, specifically face primers.  So when I discovered they did an eye shadow primer I was super duper intrigued.  When I had a play with it I saw that it's quite a matte texture and very thick and heavy (as in, freakin' hard to get out of the tube!).

That aside, this is quite possibly the best eye shadow primer I've used.  I've always been Urban Decay for eye shadow primer since I discovered it existed, but unless I let the tube get to about a year old (to start drying) it creases on me in about 6 hours, even the Eden one (I'll be doing a review on that some time soon too).

So how does this compare?  Well, if you saw my GOSH forever eye shadow review, you might remember me mentioning this there.  By itself, it out performs Urban Decay by about 3 hours, if I apply the makeup about 7:30am, it'll crease about 3pm ish.  But, with the GOSH forever eye shadow, I get about 13 hours out of it before it starts creasing at all.

That's, freaking, amazing!  If you're not away, I have possibly THE oiliest eyelids known to man, well the right lid anyway.  Everything creases on it, and I mean, everything.  But, with this and the GOSH shadow, it doesn't.  My left eye doesn't show any creasing at all even when I take my makeup off after like 17 hours, but my right (oily) lid creases after about 13 hours with that combination.

So, as a stand-alone primer, it's very good, the best I've tried.  With the GOSH product, it's in a whole other league :)

You'll be able to buy this product later on this month :D

This months Biggest-Pixi3 advertiser is the lovely Jaina from Which Beauty Box UK

 

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*This post contains a PR sample, all opinions are honest and my own

Neal's yard wishlist

Neal's yard is a brand I've never really given much thought to.  I knew they were about, that people loved them, and that we have a store here in Cardiff, but to me they didn't excite me.

But, on my boss's last day before she started her maternity leave she found a bottle of the Bee Lovely hand cream in her desk and gave it to me.  I have to say, I've been mega impressed with it!  It's really hydrating, creamy, thick, and since it's oil based the little residue left helps hydrate your skin for longer (but without leaving you with oily hands).

Then a couple of days later another colleague came in with a big bottle of Neal's yard shampoo (apparently it's her all time fav!) and she raved about it.  This got me thinking :)

Since my eczema breakout after the horrifying Yes to Cucumbers face wipes debacle, I've been craving good quality skincare, that's what has led me here, to Neal's yard.  After spending some time browsing their site, I found I had loads of tabs open and I'd created a wishlist without realising it - so I thought I'd screenshot them and share them with you :)

1. Wild rose beauty balm (sounds amazing!!!!) £37 - my face needs some TLC right now :/

2. Beauty sleep concentrate £31.50 - not getting much sleep at the moment so this would be lovely!

3. Power berry daily moisture £23.75 - my face salivates at the thought of this :P

4. Bee lovely bath & shower gel £14 - if this is as nice as the hand cream, I'd be awesome!

5. Frankincense & mandarin body polish £17 - body polishes are my favourite shower product!

6. Bee lovely honey soap £3 - honey soap & scents are some of my favourites, love the emboss too!

7. Mothers balm £19.75 - what all mums-to-be can do with, skin tightening & stretch-mark reducing :)

So that's my wishlist - would you recommend any of these products to me?  Or do you have a different Neal's yard recommendation?

This months Biggest-Pixi3 advertiser is the lovely Jaina from Which Beauty Box UK

 

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balance Me rose otto hand cream

 balance Me rose otto hand cream £10* for 50ml

Take yourself back to February, more specifically valentines day.  I'm there at home, chilling out and there's a knock at the door.

I rush over and my postman is there with a little box for me, once it's signed for an in my greedy mitts I rush in and open it.  I'm not expecting anything so I was quite curious!  To my delight and surprise, it was a valentines gift from balance Me, how lovely!  Of course, the first thing I did was open it up and use it, I tend not to keep my hand cream in the house for some bizarre reason, but I keep it all in work as I'm forever using it there.  

This little beauty has earned it's place next to my laptop at my desk.  I'll go into all the technical stuff in a bit about all the lovely ingredients, but lets talk about what it actually feels like to use it.

This is a more oily hand cream than I'm used to, and that's by no means a bad thing.  The oil in it keeps my hands softer and hydrated for longer, and of course because it's filled with lovely rose, my hands smell great too!  It's a very thick cream, you won't need much of it as a little goes quite a long way. When I say it's oily, I don't get left with horrible greasy skin, more like a soft sheen (see pic above! I tried to capture the lovely sheen left!).

Now onto the technical stuff, the goodness that's inside it :)  What I love most, it's totally paraben free, and when I say paraben free, there's not phenoxyethanol in it either (a faux paraben which is pretty much as bad).  Ingredients-wise it has arctic cloudberry, rose otto, palma rosa and rose geranium essential oils, shea butter, lavender, ylang ylang and many other lovely natural ingredients.

This is a lovely hand cream, very hydrating so that you don't have to re-apply all the time and it smells lovely.  I love the fact it's paraben and sulphate free, I know I'm not putting loads of nasty chemicals onto my skin and that my skin is getting lots of goodness instead, which is what it deserves :)

This months Biggest-Pixi3 advertiser is the lovely Jaina from Which Beauty Box UK

 

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