500 Follower MAC Giveaway!

I was so excited when I logged in today to find I had reached 500 followers! When I first started this blog I wasn't sure if anyone would be interested in what I had to say, and it really means a lot to me that so many people enjoy reading my little bog, so as a thank you to all my followers I'm having a giveaway!

One lucky follower will win a MAC lipstick and blush of their choice!


The Rules

• This is an international giveaway so any of my followers can enter.
• You must be a public follower by GFC
• Leave a comment on this post with the lipstick and blush colour you would like and your email address so I can contact you if you win.
• You can only comment on this post once, if you comment twice it won't be counted as an extra entry

Extra Entries

• You can get 2 extra entries by following me on twitter and tweeting about my giveaway "@beautyoflouise is having a MAC lipstick and blush giveaway, you can enter here http://thebeautyoflouise.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/500-follower-mac-giveaway.html" then letting me know about it in the comments.
• If you put a link to my giveaway in your blog sidebar, and tell me about in your comment, you will get 2 extra entries.
• You can get 3 extra entries by writing a blog post about my giveaway and leave the link to the post in your comment below.

So you could have a total of 8 entries! The closing date is 17th June. When the giveaway has closed I will give everyone a number, if you have extra entries you will be given extra numbers, then I will use a random number generator to pick a winner. The winner will be announced shortly after the closing date.

Good luck! :-)

Bobbi Bown Makeup Manual

I've got quite a big collection of makeup books and one of my favourites is the Bobbi Brown Makeup Manual. This book is suitable for everyone from a complete beginner to an aspiring makeup artist as it covers absolutely everything from the basics, such as skincare and how to apply foundation, to how to become a professional makeup artist.

The book starts off with the basics of what essential tools you should have in your makeup bag, with a fantastic section on brushes, that goes into detail about what each brush is used for and how to look after your brushes. She also gives some great tips on the best places to shop for makeup and how long you can keep your makeup before it expires, which I had no idea about before I read this book!

There's a great chapter on skincare that I really learnt a lot from, she explains about nutrition and the importance of eating a balanced diet on your skin. This book covers the very basics of skincare like how to remove makeup and cleanse the skin, it also explains things like why we use toners and moisturisers and choosing the right ones for your skin type. 

I love the makeup tutorials in this book, she covers the basics like how to apply foundation and concealer, then moves on to more advanced makeup looks, like how to do the perfect smoky eye. The tutorials are really easy to follow and there are clear pictures to demonstrate each step. She also gives advice about makeup for different skintones, makeup for teens, bridal makeup and makeup during pregnancy.

If you are an aspiring makeup artist, this book is a must have! There's a huge part of the book (over 50 pages) where Bobbi explains what it takes to become a professional makeup artist and how to break into the business. She gives advice on how to put together a portfolio, how to promote yourself and what you'l need to have in your kit.

I'd really recommend this book, it's great for anyone from young girls who are just getting into makeup to makeup professionals. I enjoyed reading this book and felt like I learnt a lot from it, as it's easy to understand and full of useful tips. 

You can buy this from most bookshops for around £20.

May's Glossy Box - 1st Birthday Edition

This months Glossy Box is a very special one as Glossy Box celebrated their first birthday this month (Happy Birthday Glossy Box!). I was so excited when this months box arrived and I couldn't wait to see what was inside.

Noble Isle Summer Rising Bath and Shower Gel - I've never heard of Noble Isle before, this shower gel smells a bit masculine to me, I'm not really excited about this product but it's always useful to have and as it's a 75ml sample it's ideal for taking away on holiday.

Lolita Lempicka L'Eau en Blanc & Si Lolita - I like the smell of both these perfumes, they're only tiny tester sizes so they're a great size to pop in your handbag, but I'm not sure how I feel about receiving small perfume testers in a beauty box as you can usually get these for free in department stores.

Weleda Face Cream / Body Milk - This face and body cream contains all natural ingredients, it has a rose smell which I'm not too keen on so I'm not sure if I'll get on with this very well, but I've heard good things about Weleda products so I'll give it a try.

Uniqone All In One Hair Treatment - This is one of my favourite products in the box as I've got very dry hair so I'm always on the lookout for a great new hair treatment . This is a leave in spray mask that claims to repair dry and damaged hair, control frizz, prevent split ends and protects hair from heat, so I'm looking forward to trying this.

Let's Go Lashes - These eyelashes are made from 100% human hair and cost £8.95 per strip. I'm really pleased with the style I received, they're quite natural looking and they'd be suitable for daytime or evening wear.

Glossy Box Mirror and Balloon - As it's the birthday edition Glossy Box threw in a couple of little extras, a pink balloon and a little mirror, which was a nice surprise!

I think this months box is ok but it's not one of my favourite boxes.

What do you think of this months Glossy Box?

Benefit Lip Plump

Benefit Lip Plump is a lip primer that claims to give you full, voluptuous, sexy lips and help your lip colour stay on for longer. It comes in a lip gloss style tube, to apply it you just dab 2 dots of the lip plump onto your upper and lower lips then blend it in by patting it with your finger tips, then when the lip plump is dry apply lipstick.

The lip plump is a nude colour which neutralises your natural lip colour, making your lipstick look truer to the colour in the tube. Unfortunately I didn't notice any plumping affect at all, I was expecting it to tingle when I applied it, like you get with other lip plumpers, but I didn't feel anything.

I wouldn't recommend this as a lip plumper but it does work well as a lip primer as it provides a neutral base for your lip colour, and I found it made my lipstick last a lot longer, it also felt quite moisturising on my lips and didn't dry them out.

You can buy this from the feel unique website here for £14.50 inculding delivery.

SteamCream

I received this 75g pot of SteamCream in Aprils GlossyBox, I'd heard some really good reviews about it before so I was looking forward to trying this, I've been using it for about 2 weeks now.

SteamCream is freshly made by hand using 100% natural ingredients that are fused together with steam. Most moisturisers are bound together with additives that just sit on the skins surface, but SteamCream uses the force of steam to bind the ingredients together. This means that all of the ingredients are absorbed into your skin to leave it feeling soft and moisturised.

All of the ingredients come from sustainable sources and none of them are tested on animals. It contains naturally moisturising ingredients such as oatmeal to soothe irritated skin and naturally even out the skin tone, orange flower water to help balance sebum production, almond oil to condition and nourish the skin and cocoa butter to help the skin retain moisture.

I love the cute little limited edition aluminium tin this comes in, on the SteamCream website there's a choice of around 100 tin designs to choose from so there's definitely something for everyone, then when you've finished the cream you can use this tin to store things in. The only thing I don't like about having the cream in a tin is I don't think it's very hygienic as you have to keep dipping your fingers in the pot, I'd prefer a squeezey tube or a pump dispenser.

The cream itself is very light but when you apply it to your skin it feels very rick and moisturising and it absorbs into the skin very quickly. I started off using this cream on my face but after a few days I found it was a bit too rick for for my skin and started using it as a body cream. I love this cream as a body moisturiser as it's very moisturising and sinks in quickly without feeling greasy, it's great on dry areas such as knees and elbows.

I'd definitely recommend this for anyone with dry skin, it costs £12.95 and you can buy it from the SteamCream website here.

NOTD - Rainbow Nails

Today I decided to have a go at rainbow nails, I didn't use the exact colours of the rainbow, I just chose 6 colours that I liked and thought might go together well. This look was really easy to do but it's very time consuming and took me about 2 hours altogether!

I used Models Own 'Snow White' as my base and for the rainbow stripes I used Nails inc 'Powder Pink' (free with this months In Style magazine), Rimmel 'Sunshine', Barry M 'Mint Green', Models Own 'Fuzzy Peach, YSL pink from the Manicure couture duo no8 and Barry M 'Bright Red'. I used the Models Own nail art pen in black for the little dots.

I started by painting one coat of white polish to make the colours of the rainbow stand out more, then I painted a diagonal stripe of each colour. When that was dry I decided to cover my wonky lines by adding a row of black dots with my models own nail art pen, and then finished with a top coat.

Hope that helps! :-)

Balence Me Wonder Eye Cream

I received a 10ml sample of the Balance Me wonder eye cream in Aprils Lux Box and I've been using it for about 2 weeks now. This is a triple action eye cream that claims to revitalise weary eyes, smooth away dark shadows and reduce the appearance of fine lines.

I'd never heard of the Balance Me brand before but after doing some research I found out that Balance Me was created in the UK and all products are made from natural ingredients and free from all questionable chemicals such as parabens, sulphates, petroleum, mineral oils, silicones, dea, pegs, propylene, glycol, artificial fragrances and colours.

I've been using this twice a day, in the morning and in the evening after I've cleansed, and I can see a difference already. The cream is very light and absorbs into the skin easily, you only need to use a tiny bit, I just squeeze a small dot of the cream onto my ring finger and then gently pat it around my eye area.

I think this cream definitely does what it promises, I've got a couple of very fine lines around my eyes and this cream has really reduced the appearance of them. I've also noticed that my dark circles are looking a little bit lighter and I'm hoping that if I carry on using this it'll lighten them up even more.

The Balance Me wonder eye cream costs £14 for 10ml or £20 for 15ml which I think is quite reasonable because you only need to use a teeny tiny bit so it should last for quite a long time, you can buy it from the Balance Me website here