Contrary to belief, no one actually says 'Cor Blimey' in England, but I did find this adorable Barry M balm called 'Cor Balmy', which was too cute to resist. For the equivalent of $5.70, this balm can be yours. Do I think the price is a but high? Yeah, but London is one of the most expensive cities in the world!
This is the Barry M version of the Maybelline Baby Lips, but I think they moisturize better actually. Since being in London, even in the fair weather, my lips are getting more chapped, and this works better than the Babylips I brought along, so I am really glad I made this purchase. There are a few different shades, but I got the orange/coral called 'Trouble and Strife"
The outside of the balm is the color and the inside circle is clear and made of Jojoba and Shea for extra moisture. This is my first experience with the brand Barry M, but I think the packaging is fun and this lasted on my lips for 3 hours (and still felt moisturized), even after drinking water.
Overall, it is just a lip balm, but the relevant packaging and the moisture factor made it something that I am glad I have in my bag while trekking around the city.
Hey everyone! You have probably seen these kits floating around on different blogs, but I just received the One Direction Box Makeup Set in the variation Take Me Home, which is out now, and retails for $28.50 at Macy's and Dillard's.
Granted, I am not the target audience for this kit, but for the purposes of this review, I will keep on my beauty blogger hat and put on my One-Directioner fangirl hat (which is made up).
First of all, I was impressed with the packaging. The tin is metal and has a brick pattern on it. There is a plastic sleeve with a picture of all of the boys and their autographs. Upon opening the kit, everything is boxed neatly and there is a look card that can help with makeup application.
For the price, there is a fair amount of makeup. You get a Stencil kit with 5 different patterns, a nail polish, a lipstick, a lip gloss, an eye shadow palette, a mascara, and a eye pencil!
Last First Kiss: This is the lipstick. It is a creamy light sheer pink. It is less pigmented than I expected from the bullet and is housed in a square case embossed with the brick pattern. It has a light, sweet smell but only lasts about an hour.
Kiss You: This is my favorite product from the kit. It is a UV gloss which glows under black light (perfect for teen parties? What do those young ones do these days? Haha) but is a very pretty orange with yellow and blue sparkles. Cool!
I Wish: A chubby eye pencil. This is VERY creamy, which I like but also don't. It is a chocolate brown with no shimmer. Unfortunately, it is a bit too creamy and needs to be set with a powder for it to work on my oily lids.
This is the eye shadow palette, which includes 4 shadows and 1 cream shadow.
Back For You: This is a matte cream color. It is a little chalky, but blends nicely on the eye.
Change My Mind: My favorite color in the set! It is a peach with shimmer that has nice pigmentation.
C'Mon C'Mon: Is a gray/dark taupe that is a nice blending shade
Little Things: Lacked pigmentation. A miss for me
Take Me Home: This is a cream glitter that is gold and a bit patchy, but younger makeup lovers will find this fun. I am a bit over the glitter thing now.
The Little Black Dress Mascara: (cute name!) has a slightly off-putting smell. I wasn't going to put it on my lashes, but decided to throw caution to the wind because I like this brush. No negative reaction or anything. Nice dark color and good separation but nothing spectacular. Will probably throw this out just because of the smell.
I do like the natural look it gave to my lashes though!
The stencils are meant to be used with the cream shadow stick, but I find it too creamy to get nice lines. These are fun if you want to look like Ke$ha or whatever.
I love the way the eye shadows look and the lip gloss is in my rotation now.
Overall:
From my perspective, the set was hit or miss. I think it is MUCH better quality makeup than I expected and the packaging was cute. There is a lot of fun stuff to play with.
From a parent buying this for my kid's perspective: This is a great set (particularly the Take Me Home coloring which is more neutral. There is a blue set that is more out there). The eye shadows are impossible to overdo, the lip products are easy to wear, and there are fun extras along with the packaging. Mostly good quality that I would feel fine with my child wearing.
From a One Directioner perspective: I would want this SO BAD. One of every color. The packaging is collectable, I like how everything has a fun name (which you don't even see in some high end brands) that fans can relate to the songs, and the stencils would be fun to mess around with. A great holiday gift for sure!
What do you think of the One Direction "Take Me Home" Kit?
Sometimes brands send you things. And sometimes they aren't what they told you they would send. Brandbacker was going to send me the Exuviance Illumination Duo, but instead I received two samples of their Performance Peel with the Evening Restorative Complex, which is in the Illumination Duo.
Regardless, I was really excited to try the peels, but because I am leaving so soon on my big adventure and didn't want my face to accidentally react badly to a peel, I tried it on my hands first. Let me walk you through the process.
This peel is supposed to be extremely gentle and Exuviance is a brand that I trust, so I wasn't too worried, but I have always stuck by the rule of the patch test, which is what I did on my hand with one pack.
The first pack is the Activator Pad, which is a small circular pad drenched in the solution. You apply to clean dry skin and you can leave on up to ten minutes or until you see any irritation. I left mine on for five.
Then apply Step 2, the Neutralizer Pad, on top of the wet Activator Pad solution. This solution is more watery, and you should immediately rinse with water after rubbing this in.
Here is the peel on my hand. My skin got a bit red but nothing hurt or stung.
I then applied the Evening Restorative Complex, which is supposed to soothe and improve skin texture and appearance. It is light and soaks into the skin quickly with a light almost aloe fragrance.
Here is my hand after rubbing in the Restorative Complex. Now I can't stop touching my hands! They are so so soft and hydrated and I had no negative reaction to this peel, so I am going to have a spa day and use it on my face for a nice glow.
According to Exuviance, this peel can be used daily because it is that gentle and it retails for $52. It is definitely something I will look into when I see my skin starting to get more fine lines because I love the immediate results!
*Update* Have successfully used on face with fab results!!
And Exuviance is now carried at Ulta, or you can buy direct Here!
