Dior Precious Rocks Eyeshadow Palette; Ruby

You cannot beat a 'Holiday' Collection and certainly not one from Dior...Out of everything in the Diorific Precious Rocks Collection, this was the stand out item for me, and I knew I had to have it.

It was released a little earlier than anticipated, and because I was a little late off the mark, when I came to search online, it had sold out everywhere!
I persisted and was ringing every stockist in Yorkshire to see if they had one in stock (between you & me, I would have travelled further!) I then popped out for lunch and thought I'd try Boots (working in a city centre has it's perks) and my words at the Dior counter, started with, "I know you'll probably have sold out, but...." much to my surprise, and sheer delight the ever so beautiful and glam assistant pulled the last one from the drawer, like a early Christmas miracle! I mean, just look...

Beautiful.

The shades are perfect for this time of year - especially the sparkly cranberry in the centre.

Surprisingly I haven't been impressed with the quality of Dior shadows in the past, but the pigmentation and new formula of these eyeshadows, blew me away and made the £43.50 easier to swallow.

The palette cries out 'Christmas Day Makeup' and the shades work so well together and will come together to create such a gorgeous look.

While the palette is pretty much sold out online now, I would highly recommend asking at your local Dior counter.. you never know! The Emerald palette is still available and if they are your kind of shades, it's equally as pretty.

Did you manage to snag this beauty?

Lauren x

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Huda Beauty Warm Brown Obsessions Eyeshadow Palette

When I saw the release of the Huda Beauty Obsessions palettes on Cult Beauty, with free delivery, I had one in my basket and was clicking 'complete order' faster than you could say "you don't need another eyeshadow palette Lauren"

I chose the Warm Brown palette, it contains my favourite shades and it's so appropriate for this time of year.

The palette has 9 shades and even though it's very compact (but cute!) it still houses a decent mirror. While it's not plastic or metal packaging, it's not flimsy by any means.

Now onto the all important shades... one beautiful metallic shade surrounded by 8 mattes.

Just look at them. Pure heaven for any warm toned shadow lover, like myself.

The quality of the shadows is out of this world, they are super pigmented, buttery and blend like a dream. Having never tried any Huda Beauty eyeshadows before, I wasn't sure what to expect - needless to say I am a convert and was immediately eyeing up the Desert Dusk palette to get my next Huda hit.

The swatches below took the lightest of touches to do, so you can see how insanely pigmented they are.

While I think this palette will suit everyone, for those of us with blue eyes, these shades (metallic copper, I see you!) will make our eyes pop!

The Obsessions palettes are priced at £25.00 and available here from Cult Beauty, the free shipping is across the entire Huda Beauty items and will run throughout the month of November.

Have you picked up one of the Obsessions palettes?

Lauren x

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Balmkind Alpine Rose & Lysine Lip Balm Review

Balmkind Alpine Rose & Lysine Lip Balm

It doesn’t have to be Winter for you to find me 3 different lip balms in my handbag, so I was delighted when Balmkind offered to send me their Alpine Rose & Lysine Lip Balm to try.

Balmkind is a UK company based in Hampshire, their lip balm not only nourishes but also soothes and protects the lips – perfect for this time of year.

The formula is wonderfully rich, yet very light and a little goes a long way, giving a hint of natural shine without being sticky and it’s full of antioxidant rich Alpine Rose and Lysine, which both help to reduce the occurrence of cold sores, luckily for me this isn’t something I suffer from but even still, i’ll Be slathering this all over my lips this Winter!

I have to also mention that Balmkind send this out with the box flat packed, this means it can fit though a letterbox with the box being easy to assemble and it could be given as a gift for example. Pure genius!

The lip balm is priced at £14.00 and can be purchased, here

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Loella ‘Girl on Fire’ Brush Set - you’ll have a ‘Hunger’ for them after reading this..!

One of my favourite things to receive and try is makeup brushes, so when London-based cosmetic tools company Loella sent me their ‘Girl on Fire’ brush collection, I was over the moon.

Not only are these brushes super pretty to look at, they are cruelty free, making them 100% vegan.

Quirky makeup brushes seem to be everywhere at the moment and this collection from Loella does not disappoint! Something has to be said about the personality behind the brand judging by the names they have given the brushes; ‘Buffed up Briony’, ‘Contour diva Caty’ & ‘Powder woman Penelope’ are to name a few and it feels like you have your own girl gang helping you perfect your face!

The perfectly named set (as they actually look like they are on fire) have super soft synthetic hairs that pick up both power and liquid products amazingly well, the quality rivalling some ‘high end’ ones already in my collection.

My favourites from the set are;

• Buffed up Briony - Flat Kabuki brush
• Powder woman Penelope - Fluffy large powder brush
• Contour diva Caty - Angled blush and contour brush
• Blend me beautiful Betty - Large eye blender brush

The brushes can be bought individually, as the base set, or the full set, from the Loella website direct, here

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Saying 'Hallelujah' To Hair Oil

After many years of bleaching and dyeing my hair, it’s fair to say it has taken it’s toll, and the ends in particular have seen better days!
So I was delighted when I received an email from Emily, founder of Forest & Shore to see if I’d to try their first product as it launched – their Hallelujah hair oil, as we were moving into colder climes it couldn’t have come at a better time.

All the ingredients in the hair oil are 100% natural and all geared towards moisturising and repairing dry and damaged hair. Some of the essential oils include coconut, rosemary, and lavender – so you can imagine how good this smells! I love how all the ingredients have been chosen based on their benefits for the hair too.

Forest & Shore say;

• MOISTURISING - The coconut, sesame and olive blend penetrates deep into the hair shaft working to efficiently hydrate dry hair.
• REPAIRING - Working from the inside out to heal any damaged, broken hair. Nourishing your hair with organic oils will restore the shine and promote silky hair.
• STIMULATES HAIR GROWTH - Coconut and sesame work together to lock in proteins to encourage hair growth.
• PROTECTING - Effective protection from harmful UV rays and heat, such as straighteners and hair dryers.
• 100% NATURAL & ORGANIC -Soil Association Certified Organic. Made with the highest quality ingredients in England.

The oil can be used in two ways, as a post wash on damp hair (2-5 drops) or used as an overnight treatment (2-3 full pipettes) - the latter I was most intrigued by as I have never used an oil in this way before.
Used either way, the oil leaves my hair soft, silky and healthy!

The packaging is very sleek, minimal and simple which compliments the product in every way.

I would highly recommend this hair oil, I love the way my hair feels, looks and smells after I have used it.

It’s priced at £14.99 and available to purchase, here.

I’d like to finish by saying a huge thankyou to the lovely Emily for being kind enough to send this to me, and I hope this is the first of many products that Forest & Shore launch.

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The Harrogate Candle Company

Living in Yorkshire, I'm a big lover of Harrogate, I immediately think of afternoon tea at Betty's and a relaxing session in the Turkish baths - and that's exactly what happened on my hen do, which I had in Harrogate (*disclaimer, there was a lot of alcohol involved too, tee hee!)

I love supporting local business, so I was delighted when Deborah & Fiona sent me their " Mood Collection" Gift set which contains one of each of their 10cl mood candles (18 hours burn time per candle)

The set comes presented and packaged in a very sleek and sophisticated black box with a card to detail all the different "moods" and fragrances and it even shows which ones are aimed to be used from daytime through to nighttime (if you want to, I tend to burn to suit my mood at the time regardless of day or night)

The Mood Collection has 5 candles;

"Happy" - Lime & Black Pepper - Refreshing and vibrant for an early morning energy boost
"Inspire" - Geranium, Eucalyptus & Orange - for some mid morning inspiration
"Lovely" - Rock Rose & Pink Pepper - Soothing & comforting for early afternoon relaxation
"Divine" - Dark Amber & Sandalwood - Rich & sensual for an afternoon de-stress
"Dream" - Vanilla Musk & Lavender - Calming & relaxing for some post work wind down

For those of you that follow me on Instagram, you'll know when it comes to fragrances and perfumes, I'm a Tom Ford gal, I like strong, deep, spicy, woody, quite masculine scents, so it was not much of a surprise that "Divine" is my favourite scent from the collection.

The candles give off a really good scent (lit, or un-lit!) certainly enough to fill the room, which is what you want from a luxury candle, and I was even more surprised at how evenly they burn - I'm halfway through some of mine and they look as neat as they did brand new, with no burn marks to the glass either - bonus!

The Mood Collection is priced at £48.00 and would make such a lovely gift. Other products including Reed Diffusers, Diffuser Refills, Mood Mists and other gift sets are all available on the website, here. The products are also stocked in John Lewis (Leeds) and a number of Harrogate stockists too, including the Turkish Baths.

All in all, I genuinely only have positive things to say about the candles and I'm eyeing up the 3 wick Divine candle for Christmas!

Do you have a favourite candle ?

Lauren x

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Anyone for a coffee......scrub?

Ask me years ago if I thought I'd be taking coffee into the shower with me and using it to scrub my body (ok, not quite literally) I'd have looked slightly perplexed! But using a coffee scrub has slowly become one of my favourite ways to exfoliate. Plus the extra hidden benefits of using a coffee scrub (goodbye cellulite!) make it a no brainer!

As it goes, I'm not a coffee drinker, but I don't dislike the smell and and actually enjoy turning my bathroom into my local Starbucks once a week.

Pure Purpose, a family owned company in Kent, were kind enough to send me two of their coffee scrubs to try - Seaweed & Eucalyptus and Tumeric & Orange. Forumlated with completely natural ingredients and cruelty free, their products have been inspired by travelling the world and seeing how different countries use natural beauty in their cultures.

If you aren't sold already, the scrubs themselves are fantastic. They smell incredible - my favourite is the Seaweed & Eucalyptus one - Eucalyptus is one of my favourite scents anyway, I find it very spa-esque and extremely refreshing and invigorating.

If you are thinking that because it's a coffee scrub it will be coarse and harsh on your skin, think again. These scrubs are fine (not too fine) and leave the skin feeling really smooth and not stripped, meaning you can use them quite regularly - I tend to save this step in my routine for a Sunday evening and go all out with a pamper session, or I will use them ad-hoc in the shower if I'm going to apply some fake tan.

You only need a small amount and because they don’t break or melt down, you can use really sparingly and really spread and move it across your body.

The only downside I feel needs addressing is the cleanup, it does get all over the shower/bath and takes a bit of cleaning up afterwards, but in my opinion, it's worth it. It's worth noting that unlike another brand I have tried, the packaging of the Pure Purpose scrubs is shower/ water friendly, yay! And it can be sealed back up after each use to prevent any accidental spills.

The scrubs are affordable and are available in cute travel sizes too - great if you want to take them away or get one to try! Available here.

I also just want to mention their Instagram page, which isn't just about the products, they share some lovely thought provoking quotes too which I really enjoy.

Have you tried coffee scrubs? What do you think?

Lauren x

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