Tiny Tiny Fashion Haul - Tally Weijl!

Hey Everyone!

So this is probably the worlds smallest haul, but I said I would do a quick post and talk about my absolute FAVOURITE clothes shop...Tally Weijl!

Tally Weijl is an international fashion label originally from and based in Switzerland . They are now located all over Europe, although as far as I know (I could be wrong and really hope I am!.) they have yet to arrive in the U.K. - Major sad face! (If they are in the U.K. you MUST tell me where!) So whenever I am home I ALWAYS take a trip to Tally! The benefit of them not being in the U.K was always having different clothes and being the envy of all my friends.....mwhahaha!

Anytime I returned with Tally goodies (pretty much everytime) my friends would always remark about the new items I was wearing that had come from Tally! They even started looking online and asking me to pick up things the next time I was in the store!... So whats the big fuss then?..

Well the clothes are always on trend, gorgeous, good quality and affordable! And it's not just clothes, my store also does bags, shoes and jewelry. So today I went on a mini shop, and picked up a few items in their sale, and their sale is outrageously good value! I would love to show you my entire Tally Weijl collection, but I'm pretty sure that would be impossible in one post, so instead here's a look at the little few bits I picked up today!

The first item is this dress...

It's a dark beige colour and I picked it up because it's just a really nice piece. I could wear this casually with flip flops or team it with a belt and heels for night time. Its was originally €12.95, reduced to €8 in the sale...BUT when I got to the counter I found it was further reduced to €5....which is around £3! Bargain right?!

The second item I picked up was this beach towel...

Is this not the funkiest towel you have ever seen?....I don't usually do pink things, bit girly for my taste, but I love leopard print and this is just fabulous! It was also originally €12.95 reduced to €5 in the sale.

The last thing I picked up today were these flip flops..

I thought these were really gorgeous, some nice simple flip flops....oh yea and they were FREE! That's right f.r.e.e! Tally do 3 for 2 on all sale items, these were originally €12.95, reduced to €4 in the sale, but free for me! 

I hope you can see the quality from the pictures because I know at those prices it might be easy to assume that the quality is not great, but it really is. The other thing I wanted to show was a top I picked up the other day, not with these purchases but also in the sale, and that is this top..

Cute right? I thought it was a really nice little top, also it's got an animal on it, so I obviously loved it! This top was €3, or around £1-2..

Without a doubt this is my favourite place to shop in and I just wanted to share it with y'all! Anyone who has been in I'm sure will understand! And if you haven't then hopefully they will come to the a location near you soon and you can run out and fall in love it with it too!

Hope you enjoyed this post,

Karen :) X

P.S. They also support a (I believe) really important charity, which I also support, so gold stars all round! :)

No.2 - Cheap Things! - What works and what doesn't!

Hey everyone!

Welcome to instalment Number 2 of Cheap things – what works and what doesn’t! I’d just like to start by saying this of course just my opinion, it’s not definitive! I’m just writing about my experiences with the different things that I mention!..Anyways onto this instalments products!

The first thing I’m going to talk about is a brand I’ve seen in quite a few places, Tesco, Bargain stores, Savers etc., it is Derma V10. I’ve tried a couple of different products of theirs and I’ve never been impressed. A couple of months back I tried a hair dye from their line, I believe it was £1.99 per pack, I always get two because I have long hair. I don’t dye my hair very often, it’s a dark brown – black colour and I love it like that! But around twice a year I like to dye it just a shade darker than it naturally is, to keep it’s dark look. I usually use Nice n’ Easy but at the time I was still a student and so the pennies were tight! I said I would try Derma V10 hair dye. 
It was AWFUL! For a number of reasons; to start the smell, I know most dyes don’t smell good obviously, but this smell was vile (the smell was as bad as what I’ve experienced cleaning out the bed of a 200 kg Tiger – not pretty!). It went onto my hair fine and everything but as soon as it touched my scalp it started to burn, now I did the skin test and I have never reacted badly to dye but this gave a stinging sensation. Not so bad that I was like “GET THIS OFF MY HEAD ASAP!” or anything, but more I guess, uncomfortable. Anyways I stuck with it and left it on for the allocated times, washed it out and used the conditioner, as per the instructions. So when I got out of the shower and dried my hair I was expecting the “Darkest Brown” it said it would be..........So you will imagine my dismay when the colour I actually got was a light ginger tinged brown!! No offence intended to anybody with shade of hair, but it does not suit me and it was definitely not the colour promised by the product! I did consider writing a complaint but I guess with hair dye selling for £1.99, what could I expect?..

The other products from Derma V10 that I have picked up include a moisturiser and an anti-wrinkle eye cream. The moisturiser called Q10 innovations - day cream, it cost no more than £2 I think and it looks like this...

I have normal to dry skin. This moisturiser is quite a thick consistency and it feels very greasy on the skin. I’ve used it in times when my skin was feeling quite dry and although the immediate feeling is fine, it doesn’t last. I want my moisturiser to “lock moisture in”, not to leave my skin feeling dry again within 30 minutes. So in general I wasn’t impressed with this either.

The wrinkle cream I don’t feel I can really comment on; I’m only in my 20’s and I’m not too wrinkly yet! I bought it more as just an eye cream to see how if it worked to reduce puffiness etc. like many others do. It doesn’t do this for me, but to be fair it doesn’t claim that it will, it is an anti-wrinkle cream and so like I said, I don’t think I can really comment on its effectiveness too much.

The other “What Doesn’t Work” product for this post is the skin therapy eye makeup remover. I bought this from Wilkinsons for 79p, and it looks like this.

I usually remove my makeup using a wet wipe, then wash my face, then get any remaining eye makeup off by using an eye makeup remover. This product just didn’t work for me. I would put some on a cotton pad and attempt to remove little bit of remaining eye makeup like eyeliner and mascara; but I may as well have just been using water. It simply didn’t work for me, it left 90% of makeup behind, I wasn’t impressed! I have since discovered eye makeup remover pads – which I love, maybe I’ll feature them in a post soon!

So on to what works then!

Firstly I am going to talk about a bronzer I discovered over a year ago! I originally bought it from ASDA for £1 (since asda have changed their makeup around I’m not sure if it is still available), but I just recently re-purchased (3^rd time) from Dunnes Stores in Ireland for just over €1. It looks like this..

No money wasted on pretty packaging as you can see but the product itself is really nice. It’s a nice natural shade, completely matte and it goes on really well. I use this on my face sometimes just to add some colour and also I’ve used it down the neck and to chest area, again just to give a more “sun kissed” glow.  Here is a swatch...

Overall really nice, really cheap..You can’t go wrong!

AND FINALLY!

My second “What works” product of this post...Perfume! Now don’t get me wrong, there is nothing quite as nice as a designer perfume, and until I purchased the bad boy featured here recently, designer brand perfume was all I owned. The reason I bought this is because although I still love the more expensive perfumes, I wanted something that when travelling, or on a night out etc. that I could just throw in my bag and not worry about it getting tarnished or used up really quickly (Yes I worry about getting scratches and things on my perfume bottles..most of them are really pretty!). So I bought this Virtual Brands “D’accord” 50ml perfume for 99p in the bargain store “B&M”. It looks like this..

This is a really nice smelling perfume, I’m not great at describing smells but I will try! It’s not fruity at all, definitely a more classical scent, but without being too old fashioned. It doesn’t last as long as my other perfumes, but I still love it. I worked in bar while I was studying and throughout the night drinks would be spilled, I would use cleaning fluids and all that jazz; so it was nice to have something just thrown in my bag that would keep me smelling good! If you don’t mind taking your more expensive perfumes out with you then that’s cool, but for anyone else like me I think this is a really good option!

So I hope you enjoyed this post, even though it was another lengthy one!

Karen :) x

MUA - Make Up Academy Professional Extreme Curl Mascara Review

Hey Everyone! 


So another MUA review! This time on their Extreme Curl Mascara. This review is a bit picture heavy as I was trying to show the results as best I could, but I don't have the best camera, but I think you will get the idea anyway! To start off this mascara is £2, I know I've gone on about it before but seriously how do they do it?! I didn't need a new mascara but at £2 I couldn't exactly leave it behind! The packaging is gorgeous and sleek, it looks expensive and again a lot more than I would expect from spending so little. It looks like this...

Sorry about the picture quality!

The packaging states the this mascara "Shapes lashes beautifully from root to tip for long lasting curl".The wand itself is a long and the brush is curved, obviously to give the "long lasting curl". The consistency of the mascara itself is quite "wet" for want of a better word, it's not sticky or clumpy, in other words it's nice! The curved wand is easy to use and helps to catch the difficult inner and outer corner lashes. So this is what the wand and brush look like...

For this review I applied just one coat of this mascara to one eye and took some before and afters pictures and some comparison shots between the eye with and without the mascara. I didn't curl or prime my eyelashes in anyway before I did this, and the mascara is the only makeup I am wearing. (Please excuse the alien looking poses I pull here!)

BEFORE

BEFORE

AFTER ONE COAT

AFTER ONE COAT

You can see the result from just one coat here. As well as curling the lashes it's also has quite a lengthening affect. I also tested this mascara on a night out recently. When I go out I like my lashes to be as big as they can be without the use of false lashes for help. I applied two coats of this mascara and I was happy with the look I got. I brought the mascara out with me in case it needed touching up throughout the night, it didn't. If I had to find a negative it would be that due to the curl on the brush, I get some product clumping on the tip when taking the brush out, but I'm sure I'll figure out the knack of how to take it out and avoid getting this!

Eye on the left of picture with mascara
Eye on the right without

Without

With

Overall I'm very impressed! And I'm still in awe of the fact that this mascara is just £2! I would say to definitely go out and buy it, you can't go to wrong at that price and I found it to be a really impressive product!


Hope you enjoyed this review!
Karen :) X

For Fellow Snifflers!

Hey Everyone!


This post is about something that I think affects quite a few people...sneezing and sniffling! I have hay fever so this is a problem for me in the summer as well as in the winter, when the flu,colds etc. affects almost everyone at some point! Obviously there are lots of treatments and stuff for hay fever, allergies and colds, but it is actually an associated problem I talking about in this post. Anyone who has experienced "the sniffles" in any form, will know how difficult it can be on the skin around your nose, constant touching and rubbing with tissue can be very irritative. Even when I stick to the lovely soft Kleenex packs, the skin on my nose can still get red and irritated! 


I have this problem more often than I'd like, and so I have tried a couple of different things to help solve the issue. I have previously used vaseline, sudocrem, sensitive skin moisturizers and that type of thing; but recently I tried something which has worked much better than any of these.....Aloe Vera lip balm!


I purchased a double pack of aloe vera lip balm form my local bargain store, it's by the brand "Pretty Smiles" and is available from Amazon for just £1 for two balms. They look like this..

Because its a lip balm it's very moisturising and so this helps with dry skin caused by tissue over use. As well as this the added Aloe Vera works to soothe the irritation, so redness decreases and the it helps reduce stinging which may also occur. I recently had a day where I forgot to take my hay fever tablet and I was a nightmare, sneezing every two seconds! Subsequently my nose got quite irritated, so I said I would try the aloe vera balm and it worked a treat!

So that is just a little random tip for anyone who hasn't tried this before, I hope you enjoyed the post!

Karen :) x

MUA Make Up Academy Professional Heaven and Earth Eyeshadow Palette Review

Hey Everyone!

I recently purchased one of the new eyeshadow palettes from the MUA or Make Up Academy Professional Range in "Heaven and Earth". It looks like this..

It is a nice neutral palette with a mix of shimmer and glitter brown,bronze and cream toned shades. I was very excited about this as I really liked the single shades from the regular MUA range so when I heard that there was a professional range, with eyeshadow palettes, for £4...There was no stopping me from purchasing! At £4.00 you really can't go too wrong in terms of an eyeshadow palette, your getting 12 shades, that's just over 30p a shade..AMAZING! So as good as that is in general, it is topped with the fact that these shadows are really good quality. Here are some swatches..

This is the pay off from just a tiny touch of my finger, the colours are really nice and the pigmentation is brilliant. The shadows have quite a creamy texture and are really nice to use. I recently posted about the Beauty UK palettes, which I also like and which are also good value, but the MUA palette really just blows them out of the water. It's the type of quality I would expect to pay a decent amount for and yet it's SO affordable!

The next time I can get myself to a MUA stockist I will be buying the other palettes, I just can't see a reason not to! I would definitely recommend this palette (you'd never of guessed right?!). The shades give great looks, whatever style you like you can get, be it a neutral or a smoky look, you have the shades to do so.

To sum up..I love it! I have used it everyday since I bought it, one day I did a soft look for daytime then just grabbed the palette and jazzed it up for a night out! This will be my new "must have with me" item when travelling! Big kudos to MUA on this range, I have yet to try something I didn't like! But you will hear more about that in upcoming posts!

Anyways I hope you all enjoyed this review!

Karen X

MUA - Make Up Academy Goodies!

Hey everyone!


I have been buying different MUA products on and off since they first came out, unfortunetly my local Superdrug didn't have MUA so I haven't managed to buy it all yet! 
This is my current stock of MUA, although I have nail varnishes which are not in the picture and I have also tried another lip gloss which I managed to loose in a worse for state at a festival recently!

I am going to be reviewing each of these products individually in upcoming posts, so stay tuned! :) 


Karen :) X

Cheap Things! - What works and what doesn't!

Hey Everyone!


So I try a lot of cheaper products, I love a bargain and I'm always on the look out for good value products that work! As you would expect there are some that are good and there are some that are bad! So I thought I would make a little series on Cheap Things - What work and what doesn't! As I go along I'm always picking things up and so I will regularly post on what I have found - GOOD and BAD and I will featuring everything on makeup, skincare hair care...all things beauty related!


So this post will be the first of (hopefully) many! I'll start with two cheap products that work.....


The first thing I'm going to talk about is a blush that I picked up in Savers - the home, health and beauty bargain store. It has no brand and just came in plain packaging at the amazing price of 75p! It looks like this...

Apologies for the bad lighting in the pictures!

It is a really baby pink colour and has a matt finish, no shimmer or anything like that. The reason I like this product so much is because it is a super nice shade, I love the way it looks on my cheeks and it is nicely pigmented. It doesn't make you look like a doll the minute you apply it, it just gives a really natural look and it is buildable, so you can make whatever look you want from it. It's not particularly creamy but is still really easy to blend out. I LOVE IT!


The second thing I'm going to talk about is fake nails. Now I know a lot of people don't like glue on or stick on nails because they are not particularly good for your nails. I do use them every now and again though and I have found two types that work really well for me. The first is again from savers for 99p, I can't remember the brand but they are just clear plain nails that look like this...

The second are a french manicure style of nail from the "starbuy" brand, I think they were around £1/£2 and they are from a chain store called "Home Bargains". They look like this...

Both are easy to apply, the plain nails are great for painting any colour and giving a really sleek look and the second give a lovely french manicured look. They have good staying power, without being stubborn when you need to remove them.


*Bit of a disclaimer!* I don't use these very often, and whenever I do I make sure to give extra TLC to my nails afterwards. I always wait until the nails are naturally ready to come off, and if I can't I soak them in an acetone based nail varnish remover so they come off easily. After I use fake nails I always use a nail treatment to make sure that my nails remain strong and in good condition. As I said a lot of people don't like using these type of nails but if you do these are some really inexpensive options!


So now onto what doesn't work so well!


First off, it's kind of a general opinion but mentioning one brand in particular.....Cheap Foundations! I have never found a really inexpensive foundation that works. Now when I say cheap, I mean it! I'm talking £2-£5. The product I'm going to mention here is the 2true Smooth Matte Foundation. 

2true are a really inexpensive brand and they have some pretty good stuff, which is why I wanted to try their foundation. But alas like all other cheap foundations I've tried, it wasn't for me! The thing I find with cheaper foundations is that they tend to oxygenate really badly on my skin and give a dirty, no coverage look..not what you want! I'm singling out 2true here but in reality for me it's been all cheaper foundations, don't be discouraged from purchasing from this brand, like I said they have got some nice stuff! 


Lastly I'm going to talk about the Superdrug own brand Waxing Strips. They look like this..

I bought these for something silly like 99p, just to test them out. I used them only on my legs and followed the instructions exactly; warm up the strips, pull against direction of hair growth etc. I found that these strips removed some hair but left behind the majority. It definitely pulled at the skin, yet seemed to miss most of the hair, even though it was all the same length and all long enough. I'm not a huge home-waxing fan anyways but I have tried the Veet strips and found them much easier to use. Overall not impressed with these and wouldn't recommend.


That's it! I hope you enjoyed the first installment and if you made it to the end (WOO!) then leave me a comment or a tweet (twitter.com/bandmreview) and let me know if you would like to see more!


Peace and Love,
Karen X

Nails of the day!

Hey Everyone!
Just a quick post on my nails of the day today!

The bottom coat is ELF Coral, one of my favourite summer shades with a coat of Barry M shatter nail effect polish in Black on top. Ridiculously simple but I really like the look it gives! Summery with an edge! :) 

Peace and Love! X

Benefit Confessions of a Concealaholic - Review!

Hey Everyone!


I recently purchased the Benefit confessions of a concealaholic "book" which contains: 
75ml That gal brightening face primer
32g Erase Paste Concealer in No.2 medium
13g Boi-ing Concealer in 01 and 02
0.9g Eye Bright Instant Eye Brightener
0.9g Lemon Aid Colour Correcting Eye Primer
Two mini double ended brushes for the concealer and eye primer.


It looks like this....

I was on the look out for a really good concealer when I spotted this in my airplane shopping brochure. I don't really have problems with spots or breaking out, but I do have the most terrible eye bags and a couple of scars, so I really wanted a good, high coverage concealer. It RRP's at £28.50 but I purchased it for I believe €22.00. So I'm going to do a mini review on each of the products! 


That Gal
So the tube in this kit is pretty small but I have tried the full size that gal before and I quite like it. It smells really nice and has really light creamy texture that goes on the skin well. I really like applying this especially when I'm doing my makeup first thing because it gives my skin a real awake feeling, or in other words it has the "brightening" affect it says it does! The full size tube is £21.50 for 11ml, so it's nice that a sample is included in this kit; it could help you decide if you want to go ahead and buy the full thing. 


Erase Paste
So erase paste.....Where have you been all my life! This concealer is amazing, like I said before I have really bad eye bags (I'm suprised Ryanair have never tried to charge me extra for travelling with them), but this concealer covers them up completely. When I'm applying this I use the mini brush included to get it right up under the lash line and it does wonders, especially after a heavy night out..it's a Godsend! 

Boi-ing 01 and 02
So you get two shades of the Boi-ing concealer a light and a medium; I've used both as my skin is getting darker with the better weather I have started to use the medium shade. When this is coupled with the previously raved about erase paste it provides the perfect concealer. I haven't ran out just yet but as soon as i do I will be re-purchasing.


Eye Bright
This product is supposed to be applied to the inner corner of the eye to give you a wide awake look. This comes in the form of a cream in this kit and it is the only item I'm not sold on. It's quite stiff and hard to blend, I also found it slightly difficult to apply with the brush. I have the pencil form of this product (£14 for 1.4g), which I really like. It has a much more creamy texture, it's easier to blend and the pencil is easier to use. Eye bright itself I like, the version in this kit I didn't. 

The pencil version  - better than cream included in the kit

Lemon Aid
Finally the eye primer; this product is supposed to hide/even out discolouration on the lids. I like it, it's creamy and easy to apply, it feels nice on the lids and it does even out discolouration. Even if I'm not doing a major eye look I like to use this as it makes my skin look nicer and also more awake. Another product I will probably repurchase. 


So overall I really liked this kit, only downside is that it's in a larger kind of packaging and a little awkward to store (more for me when travelling). But in general I think it's a really good buy and I would recommend it!


Hope you enjoyed this review!
Peace and Love!
Karen X

A treat for the lips that everyone should own!

Hey Everyone!


So this post is about the lovely Lip Scrubs from Lush! I've tried both the sweet lips and the bubblegum and I have to say I am in LOVE with the bubblegum flavour! It is £4.95 for a 25g jar but I think they are totally worth it! They look like this....

This product is made with caster sugar and a vegan flavour and it is meant to leave your lips "smooth and kissably soft". The purpose of this product is to clear away any rough skin from the lips by gently rubbing the sugar scrub into your lips. 

It looks, smells and tastes gorgeous and it works really well to clear away rough skin from lips. I would really recommend this product as it keeps my lips really soft and I could keep my nose in it literally all day...It smells that good! Also I've had this for quite a while now and I've barely made a dent so it is going to last a long time!

Overall I'm really impressed, as are all my friends who insist on using it whenever I get it out! I prefer this flavour but there are other lovely ones too, it all depends on your preference! It's a really nice product and a must for smooth and gorgeous lips! :)


Anyways I hope you enjoyed this review!
Peace and Love!X