Essie – Blanc

I hate these photos for various reasons, horrifying cuticles are one and the polish itself is another. I was so excited to buy this, I couldn’t wait to have a good opaque white but somewhere between the last coat and the topcoat the tips yellowed and let’s not even get in to the fact that they look worn and chipped less than a day after painting. I do like this, it does what I wanted and I’m hoping it was just bad luck on the day so you can expect a follow up swatch in a few weeks when I have a new top coat and my cuticles are looking 50% less gross. I just wanted to share my first impressions because it’s not often I am unhappy with an Essie formula.. I thought this review would balance the many other raves.

Essie is now available at Boots & Superdrug stores nationwide for £7.99

Miss BB

CoppaFeel!

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For breast cancer awareness month Panache teamed up with the charity, CoppaFeel and created this hot pink sports bra to help raise money for the cause. For those of you unaware CoppaFeel was created by a young girl who after being diagnosed with breast cancer at just 23 wanted to raise awareness among the younger generation and encourage us all to check ourselves regularly. You can read her story here, it’s really quite inspiring and I’ll admit I’ve never made much of an effort to examine myself in the past but there really is no excuse and when you consider that 47,700 women are diagnosed with breast cancer every year we can’t afford not to be copping a feel!

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Some of you may be aware I’ve been hitting the gym recently (we have one at work so I can’t not go really can I?) so I was happy to review the promotional sports bra from Panache. It’s super comfy and does the job of keeping everything in place but my favourite feature is that it’s built like a bra. Every other style I’ve worn has been an over the head deal which is not the easiest thing to get off and on so the fact this has a back fastener was quite possibly the best thing ever.. aside from the colour of course.

A portion of the profits from this bra go towards the CoppaFeel charity so if you’re in the market and want to support this deserving charity you can purchase it online here for £35.00

Miss BB

*PR Sample

Autumn’s Here

…Well strictly speaking I guess it’s almost Winter now but I thought I’d share this Autumn-appropriate outfit today all the same. The dress is a recent purchase from Primark that I’m still not 100% settled on. It’s maybe half a size too small and I feel more than a little self conscious about the horizontal stripes but I love the cut and it’s 3/4 length sleeves so I will wear it. The cardigan is one of my most worn items, I bought it from Zara about this time last year, in fact if you want to see a very different looking me in a similar outfit check out this link.

I’m wearing opaque tights from Asda here but I have recently bought the super cosy Primark ones you all told me I needed and WOW.. they are warm! And more importantly they’re pretty much indestructible thanks to their fleece lining so I’d whole heartedly recommend them to anyone looking for warm tights. My boots are from Next a few years ago, they’ve served me well and as they’re real leather (a bargain from the outlet) they seem to look better the longer I have them. I just need to replace my tatty old black ones and I’ll be set!

You may already know I am completely in love with this season and although I can’t wait for Christmas I will be sad to see the tree’s bare of all their leaves. I’ll miss my pretty walks to work and the crisp air when it is replaces with a bitter chill (happening already – sooner than I’d expected) but sure enough when Summer’s over Autumn will begin again.. it’s the one season that never disappoints!

Miss BB

Vitamin E – Moisture Cream

This week will be moisturiser-heavy, just warning you now. This is one I’ve used a few times over the years, it’s a basic face cream that does the job of hydrating without being greasy or leaving an unwanted residue. It’s relatively lightweight but it would be too heavy for me to use during the day, definitely something I would only use at night. It’s a nice size for travel, 50ml is fairly standard but the packaging is so compact it feels like less. I used to use the Vitamin E range a lot when I was younger, I guess I graduated from the Tea Tree and thought this would be more nourishing. It was and still is, a nice thing to have on stand by if my skin is reacting or breaking out to my regular routine as it’s really soothing. It’s formulated for all skin types but given that I am pretty oily right now it’s feeling a little heavy so it will go in the cupboard ’til the Winter cold deems my skin dry enough to need it.

Available online for £4.00 here and for those drier skinned girls there’s a heavier night cream available too.

You can see the rest of The Body Shop’s moisturiser range here

Miss BB

*PR Sample

Essie – Trophy Wife

I posted a swatch last week of Essie’s Dive Bar. I bought Trophy wife at the same time and in truth even I thought I was being a little ridiculous as they looked so similar but I assure you once applied.. they are not! Much as I love this colour in theory, on me it just doesn’t work. It’s too blue or too teal.. I don’t know. If I were tanned or of a darker complexion I think I’d love it but somewhere between the shade and the metallic finish it really doesn’t suite me. I used my trusty Rimmel matte top coat to frost the finish as you can see here and it was a little better but really.. I don’t think I’ll be reaching for this very often. It applies well and ticks all the other Essie boxes I just made a poor call when choosing from the stand. Dive Bar has that extra depth, maybe it’s the green? There’s just something more to it that I like more so if you were to find yourself in a Sophie’s Choice situation.. jus’ sayin’.

It’s so vibrant that I know there’ll be some of you that love it and in the photo’s I quite like it too but on my hands in winter.. just no.

Available from Boots & Superdrug stores nationwide for £7.99

Miss BB

Black Magic Woman

This is the last in my Halloween series for this year and what I actually wore to our annual gathering last Saturday. I wanted to be a little bit spooky but nothing so much that I’d scare the baby and this is what I came up with. Hopefully it’s useful to those of you that are partying on the night itself but not looking to look too ghoulish.

For this look I used..

Benefit Eyeshadow in Bossy (to contour)

ELF Eyeshadow Quad in Tantilising Taupe

ELF Studio Blush in Glow (to highlight)

2True Eyeliner in Black

Collection Glitter Liner in Dig it

Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain in Crush

…and here’s the video

Miss BB