March Glossybox

I recently signed up to receive a Glossybox every month. I thought this would be a way for me to try new brands and products.The boxes are £10 each and you receive 5 products to try. I know it's another thing I've subscribed to but it just means I have to buy less food out now to replace the money! I was so pleased when I received March's box, it did not disappoint!

The first product I loved was the Hey Honey Honey Silk Facial Serum. This is a brand I haven't heard of before. The product is really lightweight and non-greasy which makes it really compatible with my skin type. A little goes a long way and it sinks in really really quickly! The product smells so lovely as well. I may have to purchase the full size version now!

Another product is the So Susan Light Diffuser. This is an illuminator and bronzer duo. It's made with cocoa and both powders smell like chocolate! (heart eye emoji). Both products are really lovely, they both blend really well. The bronzer is matte, which I love about it because I'm all for matte bronzers over shimmery ones! The colour is great for my skin tone and the illuminator adds a lovely highlight. Another product I'm really impressed with!

Also in the box are the 417 CatharsisVitamin Mineral Shampoo and Conditioner samples. These are the only products in the box which let me down! These retail at about £17 each in the UK for the full size version so I was hoping for good things! The shampoo really doesn't lather well in my hair, I had to use loads of product in the end. The smell is nice but quite subtle. The conditioner is pretty runny and again I had to use a lot of the product and even then I didn't get the same result I get from my usual conditioner. I'm pretty disappointed with these.

My favourite product in the box was the Luxie 504 Large Angled Brush. Firstly. look how pretty it is!! I love the rose gold detailing which will go so well with my other brushes. I have a Zoeva one very similar to this but you can never have enough brushes! right? I've been using this to apply the So Susan bronzer, and it fits nicely into the hollows of my cheeks. The brush feels lovely and soft and there is no sign of bristle fall out! I definitely will be purchasing some more of these!

The last product in the box was the Olay Regenerist Skin Tone Perfecting Cream. I've only used this once so I'm undecided about this product. It claims to fade the look of discoloration, even skin tone and provide a bit of a glow to the skin. It definitely provided a nice glow on my face, however, I don't feel it really even's out my skin tone or fades any discoloration! Maybe I didn't apply enough product. Anyhow, it still feels nice on the skin and provided a nice base for my foundation!

Relaxation

As a student nurse with a part time job relaxing is a vital part of my week. I'm always stressing about something, and having bouts of anxiety are part of my daily routine. Relaxing improves your mood, your sleep, your physical and your mental health, so it's really important to fit time in for it!

One of my favourite ways to relax is with the 'Calm' app. It takes you through 'days of calm' to teach you about different ways of being mindful and to meditate. I usually do ten minutes of this before bed to unwind to. I also love how you can change the background of your meditation session to whatever calming scene you want. I also find it really calming to watch the moving scene's when I'm feeling extra anxious, like when I'm the tube.

My next favourite way to wind down is by reading, watching series or films, and stuffing my face with comfort food. Diving into a book or series help me to forget about the outside world for a while. Candles are also a good idea to add as well!

Doing yoga is my favourite way to exercise. It's not only relaxing but really good for you. The breathing techniques are good for relaxation and all the stretching and bending is good exercise. The best thing about it is that you can do it indoors! I like going for a run but there's no way I'm going to do it in the cold! 

Reading and completing interactive books is also something I find helps improve my mood and take my mind off of things for a bit. I love a good list, i write a few every week! The Calm book was created by the people who also created the app. It has several sections that focus on different aspects of daily life and how you can be mindful in each aspect, it's a really good read! 

The last thing I find relaxing is colouring. It's childish, but we all know adults are doing it now too! It's so distracting and I feel so satisfied when I finish a picture and it looks all pretty! There are so many different one's to choose from as well,

Clothing Haul

Forever 21 & Topshop are my favourite shops! I picked up a few things from them this week and thought I would share!

Topshop Joni Jeans- here
Nothing Compares to Joni jeans,they fit so well! I did have to go a size bigger than I usually am though, I think their sizes are a bit out!

Topshop Smock Dress- here
This is one of the prettiest dresses I have seen! I love the lace detail and the high neck. It's also in the sale now damn!The sizes in this are pretty big so I actually picked up a size 4 in this one, sort your sizing out Topshop!

Forever 21 Blouse- here
Pretty blouses and dresses are kind of my thing if you haven't guessed. I loved the detailing on the collar of this one and the cuffed sleeves. It's actually really see-through so a cami underneath this is a must! It looks huge in this photo but this is actually only an 8!

Forever 21 Boots- here
I couldn't find the one's I bought on the website so I've linked similar one's! The ones I bought were £22. They're really good quality boots for how cheap they were! Really comfortable and the heel is a good size too!

LOreal Paris Infalliable Sculpt Range

LOreal have recently released their new Infalliable Scuplt Range. I love it when new releases come out in the drugstore and I purchased a few things to try them out!

The most exciting purchase was the contour palette. This was sold out in my local boots for ages, and the light/medium shade was sold out online for about a week before I could get my hands on it! I always usually go for the medium/dark shades in contour kits but this one seemed a bit darker than others, which I was happy about! The contour and highlight are both cream. They apply really well and when blended in look so much more natural than powder. The contour is really build able and if you apply too much you can just keep blending until you get it to how you want it to look. The kit comes with an little examples leaflet, which shows different face shapes and how to contour each face shape. I thought this was such a good idea for people who are new to make up or contouring!

I also picked up the Blush Sculpt in the shade Nude Beige. The trio aren't usually colours I would go for in a blush but I thought it would be something new to try as I always go for the same colours! The colours all have a bronzey tone to them. I have been applying these separately with the lightest shade starting from my cheekbone and working my way down from light to dark. The colours have actually worked well for my skin tone so I'm glad I chose something different. I've been really impressed with look this has given and now I definitely want another!

The last thing I bought from the new range was the Brow Artist Sculpt. I love the concept of these and think its a great idea to have a drawing tip and a brush for filling in brows. I've tested this one out and it works really well. The problem I have is that the shade is WAY too light for my eyebrows. The Brow Sculpt only comes in two shades- blonde and brunette, and the brunette is really light. So I'll have to give this one away! It would be great if they could have a bigger shade range in these. 

L-R= Blush Sculpt, Contour Palette, Brow Sculpt.

(My arm has goose pimples because it's always freezing in my bedroom!:( )

A Recent Drugstore Haul

I've picked up a few things from the drugstore and I thought I would share them with you!
I'm aware I haven't written a post for a while, I've been dealing with a few things but hopefully I'll get back on track now!

I picked up the Real Techniques setting brush and a few days later I decided to get the sculpting set as well. I didn't realise until I got home that the set came with the setting brush as well! So now I have 2 haha, The brush that caught my eye most was the fan brush. I don't own a brush similar to this one and I thought it would be great to try for highlighting. I've been using one of the setting brushes for concealing and the other for applying powder to my under eyes. I love the shiny pink on the brushes too!

I've seen a lot of hype around the Maybelline The Eraser Eye so I decided to give it ago. With suffering from dark under eye circles I'm always happy to try new concealers. It's quite a heavy duty concealer which gives really good coverage. I like the sponge applicator to help apply the concealer and as its a nice creamy consistency it blends really well.The only negative is that towards the end of the day it does start to crease.

The new Maybelline Falsies Push up Drama mascara has been on my want list before it was released. I've been using for the last few weeks and it's pretty good! It's not my favourite mascara I own but it adds some serious drama! The thing that lets it down to me is that it's not very defining and can end up clumpy if you apply more than one coat. It does however add a lot of volume.

The last make up item I purchased was the Rimmel Fix and Perfect make up primer. I've been looking for more good drugstore primers and this one is part of Rimmels new primer range. This one is white when it comes out of the tube with a slight shimmer in, which creates a nice subtle glow when applied. It blends into the skin really well and does make a lovely base. I find this one is really moisturising and helps keep my makeup in the same place all day! A bonus is that it has an  SPF of 25, just because it's winter doesn't mean there aren't any UV rays!

The Ardell demi-wispies are technically not drug store products as I got them from Amazon but they were of drugstore price at £2.99! I wanted to venture out beyond my usual Eyelure eyelashes and this brand seemed to have pretty good reviews! Demi wispies are supposed to look more natural than other fake eyelashes as they are woven in a certain way and have a clear band. Very excited to try these on my next night out!

Lastly I picked up the Dove Pure Care Dry Oil shampoo and conditioner. I've been using these together for about a week and they have left my hair feeling lovely! They're both really hydrating and make my hair look really glossy and sleek. The shampoo lathers really well and although it comes out looking really oily it didn't make my roots greasy or anything like that! The conditioner feels really thick and nourising. Both have a lovely smell to them.