Caudalie Pamplemousse Rose Lip Conditioner & Hand Cream Winter Duo

During the Winter, the icy cold weather plays havoc with our skin; especially our hands and lips and Caudalie have both bases covered with their Pamplemousse Rose Lip Conditioner & Hand Cream Winter Duo £8*. In the cute, foil pack there is a 30ml tube of Caudalie Pamplemousse Rose Hand and Nail Cream (worth £4.80) and a 4.5g Caudalie Lip Conditioner (worth £5.50).

The Caudalie Pamplemousse Rose Hand & Nail Cream is said to offer moisturisation, softness and youth with its anti-oxidant formula, which is made from orange pulp for silky-smooth and protected hands. The pink grapefruit scent is really lovely and unique.. I love grapefruit scents and wish there were more products that were grapefruit scented. The delicate scent lingers on my hands for around an hour after application, so it's not something I'd apply if I was planning on eating within an hour or so. The formula is really lightweight which absorbs quickly, without leaving my hands feeling sticky or greasy. I like to use this handcream during the day, as it gives my hands instant moisture without any residue but it's not particularly intensive, so I prefer to use a richer handcream before bed but during the warmer months, I'm sure that this handcream would suffice.

The Caudalie Lip Conditioner is one of my favourite lipbalms, and one I always like to carry in my handbag. It is 99.5% natural, and is described as a nourishing, anti-aging lip balm which repairs damaged lips. It has a delicious vanilla scent, but I did expect it to have the same scent as the handcream seeing as it's called the "Pamplemousse Rose Lip Conditioner & Hand Cream Winter Duo". It's a really creamy lipbalm, but it's completely invisible so you could apply it under or over lipsticks or lip tints. It really is nourishing like it claims, and I love how soft and smooth it leaves my lips with each application.

NEW Makeup Revolution I ♡ Makeup I ♡ Obsession Eyeshadow Palettes

I am very lucky as I was given an exclusive peek at the brand new Makeup Revolution I ♡ Makeup I ♡ Obsession Eyeshadow Palettes before anyone else, which was very exciting and I've been dying to tell you all about them. Makeup Revolution's  I ♡ Makeup have released a new range of eyeshadow palettes called the I ♡ Obsession Palettes which consists of five limited edition palettes. Each of the five I ♡ Obsession palettes contain ten eyeshadows, and retail for £3.99 each.

Each of the palettes are packaged within slim, plastic palettes with a clear lid so you easily see the shades inside each palette which I really like. The palettes are lightweight, and I'm a big fan of the larger pan sizes of these palettes compared to the slim bar pans of the Redemption palettes. When I saw these palettes for the first time, I had a sneaky feeling that they were in fact dupes.. and sure enough, after some swatch searching online, four of the five palettes are seriously incredible Stila Eyes Are The Window Palette dupes... and one is an equally amazing Urban Decay Naked 3 Palette dupe - exciting or what?!

I ♡ Makeup I ♡ Obsession Palette - West End Girls*

The first palette is West End Girls, which is definitely a dupe for the Stila Eyes Are The Window Spirit Palette and it's such a stunner and the quality is incredible. 

1: a shimmery butter yellow

2: a shimmery red toned brown

3: a purple toned burgundy satin

4: a midnight blue satin with purple and navy micro glitter

5: a matte khaki gray with gold micro glitter

6: a shimmery dark emerald green

7: a matte pale cream

8: a matte pale pink with pink shimmer particles

9: a satin pale brown cream

10: a shimmery white gold duochrome

I ♡ Makeup I ♡ Obsession Palette - Born to Die*

Born to Die is an all neutral palette and a dupe for Stila Eyes Are The Window - Soul Palette, and I imagine this being their most popular palette due to the super wearable hues and being nearly an all matte palette.

1: a shimmery white with a slightly chunky consistency.
2: a matte warm toned medium brown.
3: a matte taupey brown.
4: a satin taupe.
5: a satin taupe grey.
6: a matte dark charcoal grey with silver shimmer particles.
7: a matte pale cream.
8: a matte milk chocolate brown.
9: a matte dark chocolate brown
10: a matte dark grey.

I ♡ Makeup I ♡ Obsession Palette - Paris*

This is possibly my favourite palette as the shades are quite unique and this palette is a dupe for the Stila Eyes Are The Window Mind Palette. 

1: a slightly warm gold with a metallic finish.

2: a matte dark chocolate brown with gold glitter.

3: a medium pink with gold shimmer - similar to that or NARS Orgasm, so potentially you could use this shade as a blush if you wanted to.

4: a purple taupe satin.
5: a duochrome purple/blue/silver with a shimmery finish.
6: a shimmery dark navy, with navy glitter particles.
7: a very pale brown matte.
8: a shimmery yellow toned pale cream.
9: a shimmery (slightly gritty) champagne gold.
10: a satin pale pink.

I ♡ Makeup I ♡ Obsession Palette - Wild Is The Wind*

This palette is definitely for those who love colour, although if like me, you're not a massive colour fan.. I think this palette is ideal as it has a great mix of colour and wearable shades. This palette is a dupe for the Stila Eyes Are The Window Body Palette. 

1: a matte turquoise blue.
2: a matte dark teal.
3: a shimmery royal blue with blue sparkle.
4: a deep matte burgundy with burgundy glitter particles but they don't translate onto the lid.
5: a dark matte purple.
6: a teal-silver shimmer that looks a little like denim with silver sparkle.
7: a shimmery icy white.
8: a pale pink toned champagne with a metallic finish.
9: a satin pale lilac.
10: a matte purple with purple glitter.

I ♡ Makeup I ♡ Obsession Palette - Pure Cult*

This palette is actually the only palette that isn't a dupe of one of the Stila palettes, it is however a dupe for the Urban Decay Naked 3 Palette. I swatched the shades next to all the shades in my Naked 3 Palette, and 9 of the 10 shades inside Pure Cult are identical to 9 of the shades from the Urban Decay Naked 3 Palette in terms of shade, finish and formula which is very exciting. The Naked 3 Palette is £38 and Pure Cult is a tiny £3.99... Pure Cult is the best Naked 3 dupe I've come across by far.

1: a matte very pale pink.

2: a shimmery pale pink.

3: a matte rosy brown.

4: a metallic rose gold.

5: a warm toned shimmery copper with a pink undertone.

6: a pink toned brown matte. 

7: a shimmery bronzy brown.

8: a shimmery medium brown.

9: a deep chocolate brown matte containing burgundy glitter particles.

10: a pale milk chocolate brown matte.

So there we have the five amazing new  I ♡ Makeup I ♡ Obsession Eyeshadow Palettes.. there isn't one disappointing palette within the whole collection, and like always - all swatches are done without a primer, and they're all so intensely pigmented which is mind blowing considering they're just £3.99 each. I cannot recommend this new range of Makeup Revolution palettes enough.. they're absolutely stunning, and doing my makeup in the mornings has become five times harder trying to decide which palette to use...

Direct Cosmetics Haul

Who doesn't love a bargain?! I certainly do, and I love nothing more than discovering bargain beauty gems online. I was recently given the chance to choose a selection of products from Direct Cosmetics; an online beauty and fragrance retailer which specialises in discounted beauty products. Now I fully understand that some people are apprehensive from purchasing from such retailers as they don't think the products are genuine, or good quality but I myself have had a really good experience with Direct Cosmetics and I'm very happy with my products and their condition.

My first item is the L'Oreal Telescopic Explosion Mascara £5.89* which is something I've always wanted to try after seeing Carli Bybel use it in her tutorials for her bottom lashes but you can't buy it here in the UK so I was excited when I saw it stocked on Direct Cosmetics. What makes this mascara so unique, is that it has a spherical brush which L'Oreal call a 'Flexi-Globe' that claims to coat the lashes from every angle. The formula is described as being smudgeproof, clump-free, flake-free and suitable for sensitive eyes and contact eyes wearers.

The spiky sphere brush was a little intimidating at first, but it's the perfect size and shape to catch the tiniest of lashes on both the upper and lower lashline. I absolutely love using this mascara on my lower lashes, as the bristles coat every single of my lashes, and when used on the upper lashes it lengthens but it doesn't give very much volume. The formula doesn't smudge or flake, exactly like it claims, and I always struggle with my mascara transferring or flaking on my bottom lashes so I'm really loving this mascara.

I got three Nicole by OPI Nail Polishes, which are only £1.99* each which is unbelievably cheap considering they retail for £7.99 each. I got the shades; City-Pretty Rose and Great Minds Pink Alike and I also chose Brightener Plus. City-Pretty Rose is a bright, fuchsia pink with a great formula that offers full opacity with two coats. I love wearing pinks like this on my toes, as they're so pretty. Great Minds Pink Alike is quite a sheer pink that contains blue shimmer, but due to how sheer it is, it'd take in excess of five coats to get a fully opaque finish so it works better as a topcoat for other polishes. I do really like the blue shimmer, as it's really unique but I just wish it was a little thicker, although you could perhaps layer it over a white polish for better intensity. 

The Brightener Plus polish contains light-reflecting pigments which are said to restore brilliance to dull and yellow nails and can be worn alone or under nail polish. The polish is a milky pearlescent colour which I've been applying before any other polish as a base coat, and it actually looks pretty on its own however due to staining of my nails thanks to a love for bright nail polish, I wouldn't go bare nailed - but that's just me. I've only just started using it so I can't comment on its efficacy but I really hope that it'll help my nails.

The last item I chose was the Bourjois Sweet Treat Makeup Kit £11.99* which contains four full size Bourjois products, and one miniature. The kit includes; the Volume Glamour Ultra Curl Mascara (worth £7.99), a Effet 3D Lipgloss in the shade Rose Hypothetic (worth £7.99), two Little Round Eyeshadows in Anis and Rose Dragee (worth £6.99 each) and an extra little polish in Tender Pink. The set is worth £30 so £11.99 is such great value, especially when it contains full size products. I particularly like the lipgloss, as it's such a pretty shimmering pink that doesn't feel at all sticky and it smells incredible, and the champagne shadow is such a lovely shade. The mascara is a little too clumpy for my liking, but it does well at thickening the lashes and the polish is a lovely medium pink.

Have you ever tried ordered anything from Direct Cosmetics?