Saturday 30 March 2013

My Favourite Lip Balms

Hello! I hope you have all had a lovely week and are ready to stuff your faces with Easter eggs! Yay. Today I thought I would show you my top five lip balms because I have been trying out a couple of new ones lately.

My lips are quite dry so I love using lip balms. You probably know, Elizabeth Arden 8 hour lip balm has been my favourite for a very long time but it is fairly pricey, so I have been on the look out for some amazing, cheaper options!


I have the Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour lip balm and Eight Hour cream which are both amazing! I use the lip balm in the mornings and I also keep one in my handbag. I never usually have to reapply throughout the day though as this keeps my lips incredibly hydrated!

The Eight Hour cream sits on my bedside table and I use it before I go to bed. It's a lovely cream because it can be used on any dry areas on the body! I love using this on my lips before bed as it leaves them so soft, however it does leave a thick, greasy residue across the lips so I wouldn't use it in the daytime. 


I am on about my fifth lip balm and I am just about to run out! These lip balms have been my favourite for a very long time and they are just incredible. I do actually have the fragrance free cream as well and I have to say, it is not the same at all as the original one! The texture is horrible and it literally does nothing to my lips. Let me know if you have tried the fragrance free one as I would love to know what you think!


Moving onto my newest purchases and possibly my new favourites, NUXE! I bought the tub from Space NK and absolutely fell in love with the product, so my mum bought herself and I the stick version of it too! I use the lip balm stick every single morning and the tub every single evening - they have taken over from my Elizabeth Arden ones. 

When I use the Elizabeth Arden lip balm, I only need to apply it in the morning and my lips stay soft all day. This one I do need to reapply once or twice throughout the day but I don't mind as I much prefer the product! It smells incredible and the texture is lovely to apply!


I would highly recommend these lip balms! The stick is fab to apply before lipstick because it soaks in so well! The tub lip balm is lovely to apply before bedtime and I do apply it sometimes in the morning too as it's not greasy. The texture almost melts into an oil and hydrates my lips amazingly well. It's very creamy and soft, not at all heavy.


Lastly, this is the best scented lip balm EVER! Chocolate and peppermint, yum. This adds a lovely gloss on the lips so I love using this when I am not going to use any lipstick. The other lip balms are better for when my lips are very dry, however this is amazing at moisturising and hydrating my lips throughout the day if they feel slightly dry.


I would highly recommend any of these lip balms as all five are my favourites! Nuxe is definitely my favourite lip balm out of them all! The Elizabeth Arden ones are fantastic for a luxury lip balm that will heal even the driest lips! Lastly, the Palmers Cocoa one is just a gorgeous little one for your handbag that will leave your lips looking glossy and fantastic!

Have you tried any of these lip balms? I would absolutely love to know any recommendation you have for me!

Wednesday 20 March 2013

New Business Cards and Header

Hello! Today's post is all about design! I read Megs post a while ago about her new business cards which were designed by Zoe and they looked amazing. I even have one in real life and it looks so professional and incredible. I have been to a couple of blogging events and business cards are such a handy thing to have, so I wanted to have some professionally made so they looked really nice. I emailed Zoe asking her if she would make some for me and she is honestly one of the loveliest ladies I have ever had the pleasure to chat to!

I also asked her to make me a new header because I wanted something that was more like a logo. If you can see from my header now, I have lace and stars in there too so it's not just 'Beauty Becky' by itself. I didn't really have any ideas at all for my header so I was really happy with how amazing Zoe made it look! I love stars and she incorporated these into the design without me asking her which was incredible. She is like a magician!


Zoe was truly amazing when making both my header and business cards! For my business cards I sent her a couple of photos of me to try in the design and she was more than happy to try the different photos which was lovely. So, here are my finished cards!


I love them so so much! I am incredibly happy with how they look and I am really excited for an event I am attending next week where I can hopefully give them out!

I ordered them from Moo and they came in a little box but I would love to get a proper business card holder, so if anyone can recommend one then please let me know! The ones from Moo only hold 15 business cards and at the last meet up I went to I gave out about 30 so I need it to hold more!

You can click here to see all of the design services Zoe offers. I noticed the other week she has now started offering illustrations so you can have a 'cartoon' picture of yourself! How frickin' awesome is that! I am seriously tempted to get one. Even if you don't want a new design, I would definitely recommend popping over to Zoe's blog because it is one of my absolute favourites.

I hope you have enjoyed this post and that you are all having a lovely day!


Tuesday 19 March 2013

Caseapp Giveaway Winner and Surprise!

Hello everyone! I hope you are all having a wonderful day. My Caseapp giveaway ended last night so I picked the winner with Rafflecopter!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Congratulations Belle! I have emailed and Tweeted you.

As another lovely treat to everyone who didn't win, Caseapp have kindly sent me a discount code! How very lovely of them :)

The code is beautybecky and this code will get you 20% off until 31st March! 

Let me know if you order a case, I would love to know!


Monday 18 March 2013

Benefit Fine One One

Hello! If you follow me on Twitter, you may have read that a couple of weeks ago I attended a meet up in Bristol and we all received a lovely goody bag! In each goody bag was a full size Benefit Fine One One which I was so excited to try. I was actually planning on buying this about a week before the event but didn't get chance, and I'm very glad! 


The packaging is perfect! I absolutely adore rose gold and this is just beautiful! It's almost slightly mirrored as well which is really pretty. Even if the product was rubbish, I would still love it because of the packaging! Haha but lucky I love the product too. There is a little twist at the bottom to twist the product up and down so it's really easy to use.


The products itself looks just as gorgeous as the packaging! There is a small pale pink shade on the left which is a highlight, a pink shade in the middle and an orange/coral shade on the right. This can be used on the cheeks and lips which is handy! Personally though, I haven't used this as a lip colour because the colours aren't ones I would normally wear on my lips so it doesn't appeal to me for that.

For cheeks though, I just sweep it up from the apples of my cheeks towards my temples with the highlight shade on my cheekbone and coral/contour shade in the hollows of my cheeks.


The colours are pigmented enough that I only have to sweep this over my cheeks once or twice, however they still manage to be slightly sheer so I don't end up looking like a clown! They are all incredibly easy to blend as well which is makes this very easy and enjoyable to use.


When I blend the colours, I don't mix them all together completely. Hopefully you can see on the photos above, the highlight is still mainly at the top and the coral contour shade is still on the bottom, there are just no harsh lines between each shade! I lightly dab at them so they flow from one shade to the next.

This lasts all day on my cheeks as well! At the end of the day it is all still in place and the colour is still just as pigmented. I do spray a setting spray all over my face but I don't powder my cheeks.

I absolutely love this product and the colours are gorgeous! I especially think this will be perfect for the Summer time. If you have seen my Stila Convertible Colour review, you will know that I have started using cream blushes recently and this is an amazing one now added to my collection!

Have you tried this yet?

This is available here for £23.50! I think that is a pretty good price when you consider it's a highlight, blush and contour in one!

I hope you are all having a wonderful day :)


Friday 15 March 2013

How To Follow Beauty Becky

Hello! I hope you are all having a lovely morning and looking forward to the weekend tomorrow! I am working all day tomorrow but I am off to Bristol's Fashion Fix on Sunday with Natalie which I am very excited for.

There seems to be quite a few blog posts like this recently because of the worry that GFC may possibly be going. It just reminded me that I don't think I have ever mentioned you can follow me here on Bloglovin!

I have started using Bloglovin a lot more over the past few days and I think I actually prefer it to GFC!

It would absolutely mean the world to me if you could all follow me on Bloglovin. All you need to do is click the button below and then click follow!


Follow on Bloglovin

Please let me know in the comments if you follow me on there because that really would make my day and put a nice big smile on my face!

I hope you all have a fab day :)

Thursday 14 March 2013

Urban Decay Naked Skin Beauty Balm

Hello! The Urban Decay Naked Skin Beauty Balm* is actually the first BB cream I have tried! BB creams never appealed to be very much as I do prefer higher, buildable coverage on my skin but I was still really excited to try this. Urban Decay say this cream will minimize pores, lines, wrinkles and redness leaving skin firmer in eight weeks! This BB cream does seem quite focused on anti ageing which I can't test so I am planning on letting my mum use it! If you would like another review in a couple of months then let me know and I will update you on what my mum thinks.


This BB cream only comes in one shade which did worry me a bit as I am very pale. It is quite dark and almost orange for my skin tone, however because it's very sheer it does look okay once I have blended it in and leaves my skin looking slightly tanned and sun-kissed!

The coverage is very sheer which is what I expected from a BB cream. It is actually very very slightly buildable though. The first time I tried this, when I applied more to build the coverage, my skin was just getting more orange! After a little while though, it seems to settle into my skin and almost adapt to my skin tone a bit so it doesn't stay very orange for long which is amazing!


You can see in the photos above how dark it is for me but like I said, because it is so sheer then I can just about get away with it! The first time I applied this, I didn't use a moisturiser or primer first as this says it hydrates and primes skin itself. I also didn't powder on top because I wanted to see how long it lasted on it's own. This left my skin looking very dewy and glowy which was lovely for the first half of the day, however after a while my skin just became very oily and throughout the day this did wear off.

Now when I use this, I moisturise and powder my skin as normal as I find that works best for me. If I need this to last well all day (which I usually do) then I use a separate primer as well! When I do this, it does last pretty well on my skin. My skin does start to get oily around lunchtime but I just pop a little more powder on and it's fine!

You only need a teeny tiny amount of this product as a little goes a long way! I tend to pop a thin layer of this on and work it into the skin well to blend it, let that sit and then work another layer onto the skin if I want to build the coverage a little bit. If I put too much on at once then I just look like a baked bean.


The only real negative I have about this product is the packaging as I think it would be better in a bottle with a pump. The cream itself is very thin and runny which means it just dribbles out of the tube all by itself! Every time I take the lid off, the product is all in the lid and quite a lot gets wasted.

I have heard that BB creams can actually work quite well under foundations so I may give that a go as by itself, this doesn't provide enough coverage for me. This does leave my skin very dewy so I may test it under foundation to see if it gives my skin a little boost of radiance.

I don't know how this colour would look on dark skin tones but I can just about make it work on my very pale complexion, so I imagine if you are a couple of shades darker then me this would be perfect for you!

This is available here for £23 from Look Fantastic.

I do really like this and I think in the summer time when it is hot and I want a little bit more colour on my face, this will be ideal!

Have you tried this BB cream? What is your favourite BB cream?


Saturday 9 March 2013

Macadamia Healing Oil Treatment

Hello! As you may already know, my hair is naturally very thick, curly and frizzy. I love using hair oils to help smooth my hair to make it softer and more manageable. I have reviewed the Kerastase Ultimate Elixir in the past which I absolutely loved when I first used it, and I still do however I feel it is aimed more at making my hair shiny then it is to smooth it.

For Christmas my friend bought me a starter set of the Macadamia Healing Oil Treatment and Deep Repair Mask. The Healing Oil Treatment is definitely the best hair oil I have used, so I thought I would review it for you!


This hair oil smells incredible which makes it really enjoyable to use! It's strong enough that I can smell it for a while after I apply it, however it's not at all overpowering. I actually recognise the bottle and I think a hairdressers I used to go to used these products. They used to use a lot though so the smell was so strong and I didn't like it! Using just the oil though, the smell is amazing.


There isn't a pump on mine but this is only a little 30ml. The bigger ones either come with a pump or a spray. I do like having an oil which I can massage into my hair, however a spray just sounds really handy! 

This hair oil is the perfect consistency. It's not too thin and runny but it's not at all thick. It's easy to massage into my hair and it sinks in lovely! For a little while after I apply it, the ends of my hair do look fairly damp but that's because I apply a lot! I applied quite a bit the other week as my hair was a little dry and both my mum and dad complimented on how shiny and healthy my hair looked. Woohoo!

Overall this is definitely the best hair oil I have ever used and I would highly recommend it! It leaves my hair so smooth, soft and manageable which is exactly what I need and want from a hair oil.

I actually received a hair oil from Daniel Galvin Junior a couple of weeks ago so I'm going to start using that soon and see how that compares! At this moment though, this is the best and I will definitely be purchasing a full size bottle soon!

Would you recommend a pump or spray? What is your favourite hair oil?

This hair oil is available here ranging from £5.75 - £29.95.


Tuesday 5 March 2013

Caseapp iPhone Case and Giveaway

Hello! You may have seen a lot of personalised, photo iPhone cases about recently and I think they are such a great idea. Caseapp kindly contacted me to see if I wanted to make my own custom iPhone case*, so I jumped at the chance!

The thing I really love is that you can literally customise it how you like! First of all I was going to use a photo I have of Paris and then write one of my favourite quotes above the photo, however in the end I decided to stick to only photos and create a collage! 


I was so excited when it arrived and I love it! I used some of my favourite photos which makes the case so personal and unique.

So, as a little treat for you I wanted to host a giveaway! The prize will be a gift card very kindly provided by Caseapp for the lucky winner to spend on a custom iPhone case. Caseapp create custom iPhone cases for the 4, 4S and 5!

I am using Rafflecopter for the giveaway so you can just enter below. The only compulsory options are that you must follow my blog using GFC and you must leave a comment below telling me how you think you will customise your case!

This giveaway is open internationally and will run for 2 weeks!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

If any of you don't own an iPhone then please don't worry! I am planning to hold another giveaway on my blog soon to celebrate it being 1 year old at the end of March!

I hope you are all having a lovely day :)

Saturday 2 March 2013

Benefit Event - Product Launches

Hello! I hope you have all had a lovely week! I have had such fun this week meeting some lovely new people and doing lots of shopping. I was lucky enough to be invited to a Benefit event in Bristol on Thursday! Benefit are releasing three new eye shadow palettes today and myself and about 10 other bloggers were invited to try out the products and we were able to buy them as well which was great!

I met up with the ever so lovely Natalie who I actually first met a week ago at the Bristol meet up and we spend a couple of hours shopping before the event!




Yummy! I started off my day by getting the train to Bristol and eating a Banana muffin, galaxy and hot chocolate!




The event was in Boots and the table was laid out looking adorable with lots of mini sweets like jammy dodgers, mini eggs and loads more!

The two ladies from Benefit were lovely and firstly gave us a little tutorial on how the eye shadow palettes could be used!



We were then allowed to swatch and try out the palettes on each other which was really fun! We were given their eye cream, Porefessional and Stay Don't Stray primer to try with them too. The three palettes were amazing! They each had four incredibly pigmented eye shadows and two mini pots of Creaseless Cream Eye Shadows! I already own a couple of Benefit's Creaseless Cream Eye Shadows which you will have seen in my everyday eye makeup routine post and I love them!



Sexiest Nudes Ever

Cream Eye Shadows - Holy Smokes! (Charcoal) and Bikini-Tini (Pink).
Powder Eye Shadows - Milk It! (White), Raincheck? (Amethyst), Pause For Applause (Lilac) and Blingo! (Silver).


Most Glamorous Nudes Ever

Cream Eye Shadows - Birthday Suit (I have this one and love it!) and Two Cents (Copper).
Powder Eye Shadows -  Call My Buff (Shell), Kiss Me, I'm Tipsy (Brown), It's Complicated (Golden Peach - GORGEOUS) and Gilt-y Pleasure (Sand - Also gorgeous!).



Easiest Nudes Ever - My Personal Favourite!


I didn't take photos of this palette but click here to see Natalie's lovely photos of it!

Cream Eye Shadows - R.S.V.P (Champagne) and No Pressure (Fawn).
Powder Eye Shadows - Call My Buff (Shell), Thanks A Latte (Golden Brown), Pinky Swear (Pink), Quick, Look Busy (Espresso).


We also did a little quiz which was so fun and we all won a lip gloss! Mine is in Sugarbomb!



This was such a fun evening and I really enjoyed myself so thank you Benefit! I have also been invited to go along to their next product launch at the end of March which I am really looking forward too!

These palettes are available here for £23.50 each.

These three eye shadows have all been released into stores today! Have you picked any up or are you planning to? I hope you are having a lovely weekend.