La Roche-Posay Effaclar Duo Review

I'm sure this must be the millionth blog review of La Roche-Posay Effaclar Duo.

Yes, the must-have skincare product, that is fast flying off the shelves.

Last year, I was contacted by the lovely Steph, who introduced me to the brand, as well as the product. Steph had previously sent me Vichy Normaderm 3-in-1 Cleanser to try out.  You can read my review on that here.

I will admit, I had never heard of La Roche-Posay or Vichy until Steph contacted me.  So I was excited to try these out, especially after reading about them, they seemed ideal for my problem skin and I looked forward to trying brands that I would not have thought to try before.

I have a few other La Roche-Posay products and some Vichy purifying toner, which I will also be reviewing very soon.

On to Effaclar Duo.

Fantastic!

This product really does work miracles for my skin.  My skin is rather oily but can also be slightly dry at times.  I have always had issues with the odd spot here and there, which I hoped would have gone by the age of 25 but it would appear not.

I find that when I use Effaclar Duo, it really helps. My spots calm down and clear up and my skin feels great. My pores are minimised and my skin is left feeling great. I focus on my T-Zone when applying Effaclar Duo. For some reason, the creases of my nose sting a little when I get the product in them, so I try to avoid putting it in the creases now. This isn't a problem with the product, just my silly nose!

Along with the many others, I would highly recommend Effaclar Duo.

The price is a little high, at £13 from Boots but this is a 40ml tube that does last a long time. I still have a lot left and I have had this since September last year! You may be able to find it slightly cheaper, have a look around online, or for offers in stores.

Have you tried La Roche-Posay Effaclar Duo?

On the subject of skincare, I have JUST finished my Vichy Normaderm 3-in-1 Cleanser...

I received this in July 2012!!!

You can read my review on Vichy's Normaderm 3-in-1 here.

I will be posting more La Roche-Posay reviews, along with the other Vichy product review very soon, so keep a look out for those.

Next time you are in Boots, check out Vichy and La Roche-Posay, they really are great brands.

xXx

 Disclaimer: I was sent this product to try out, as it was suitable for my problematic skin. All opinions are 100% honest.

Illamasqua I'mperfection Speckled Nail Polish 'Scarce'

 

 

On Sunday, I ventured to Birmingham on one of my lone adventures.

Illamasqua were hosting a Beauty School Drop-in at their UK stores, so I decided to pop along to Illamasqua in Selfridges, Birmingham Bullring.

More about that later... (I'll do a separate post, otherwise this will be a HUGE post!)

This is my first Illamasqua nail polish but will not be my last. I am so impressed with this polish and can't name a single problem. The price is rather high, this isn't really a problem though. I am used to buying nail polishes from drugstore brands, my favourite being Barry M, of which most polishes have forever stayed at the very amazing price of £2.99 each! So, at £14.50, Illamasqua's polishes are quite a bit pricier but SO worth it.

Scarce is a speckled polish from the new I'mperfection (I'm perfection/imperfection...clever right?) collection. I love what the brand represents and think that this collection in particular is brilliant. There is so much that I want, in particular the Blush Duo, Lover & Hussy and the Blush Up Brush.

From the Illamasqua website:

Stand up and show the world what makes you perfectly,
imperfect. We want you to highlight the features other
brands encourage you to cover up. Because life isn't
about finding yourself, life is about celebrating
who you really are.

I had been admiring the speckled nail polishes online (there are 4 other shades of speckled polish available) before my trip to Birmingham but had planned to not spend any money that day.

After the Beauty School Drop-in, I had a browse and swatched some products. I painted the speckled polishes on top of my black polish. I left empty handed but couldn't stop looking at my Scarce nail and thinking how cool it looked on top of black polish. About 2 minutes before the shops closed, I rushed back to Illamasqua and purchased Scarce! I fail at not spending. But I just had to!

 The Review:

I did 2 coats of Scarce, which is plenty.

Application was fantastic.

The finish is fab and the polish looks just like Cadbury's Mini Eggs!

Wear is too good. I've had this polish on since Sunday night (it's now Friday), so 5 nights, 5 days and still not a single chip! My nails look as good as they did Sunday night. It is very rare for me to wear a polish for more than 1 day, as I get bored/have new polishes to try/want to use different polishes etc but I decided to keep this on all week, as I like it so much, but also to test out how long it lasts.

Overall, I am so so impressed and in love with Illamasqua Scarce and would highly recommend.

(just be warned - you will crave Mini Eggs!)

I've purchased quite a few Illamasqua products recently, the brand is amazing and definitely my favourite non-drugstore make-up brand. So, I'll be blogging about more of those products very soon, including the blush that I have fallen in total love with!

The I'mperfection collection is available now, in stores and online.

xXx

H&M Snow White Collection 2013

Following the super-cute Bambi collection of 2011 and the Minnie and Micky Mouse collection of 2011/2012, I recently discovered a Snow White collection in H&M! Well, I was very excited about this but had no money at the time, horror!

But, I have since got my hands on some of the products, yay :)

I picked up 2 of the 3 nail polishes from the collection, Snow White and Make Me Blush.

I did pick up the lip balms but put them both back, as I have hundreds of lip products and do not need more lip balms and yes, I mainly wanted them for the cuteness! So, I did good in resisting.

I really wanted one of the red apple shaped body butters, as I love the fact they are in an apple and the red one (Sugared Fig) smells SO good! But, all the red ones were missing the top part, so looked silly and I wasn't willing to part with £4.99 for a broken apple.

The other scent of body butter and lip balm is Vanilla and Apple. I wasn't too keen on this scent.

I Googled for swatches/reviews of the nail polishes prior to purchasing them and only found a couple of blog posts about them, mixed reviews, however, I am really impressed with them and for just £1.99, even more impressed!

Make Me Blush:

Make Me Blush is a lovely peachy-pink shade with a slight shimmer to it. It was difficult to pick up the shimmer on the camera, it's very subtle but pretty and does transfer to the nails. This is a great polish for Spring.

Snow White:

Snow White is a gorgeous shimmery silver-white with lots of glitz.

Application of both polishes was great. I did 3 coats of Make Me Blush and 2 of Snow White (possibly could have done with 1 more coat though).

For £1.99 each, they are an absolute bargain, so cute and really great value for money!

The third polish available is Silver Front, a silver glitter, hexagonal and round pieces. I almost got this but stopped myself for the simple fact that I recently realised I have over 200 nail polishes and A LOT of them glitters. However, I may end up buying this soon...

Yes, I bought these for the cuteness as I'm a sucker for Disney but I would really recommend these.

I saw on another blog that there is a perfume out too, my local H&M don't have that! I need to find it!! Hoping Liverpool will stock it this weekend.

Here's some snaps of the 3 nail polishes that were in stock, along with the lip balms and body butters.

One thing that does bug me about some H&M products is the unnecessary waste packaging! I work for a waste and recycling company, so this kind of thing does annoy me. In my opinion, the nail polishes and lip balms could easily be sold without this packaging, just with a simple price/barcode sticker on the bottom. These wrappers were removed from the product and then put in the bin, much to me not wanting to do this. Such a waste! Other than this little rant, I really love the Disney collections from H&M.

Have you got anything from the Snow White collection?

Are you also a sucker for cute things and all things Disney?

I'm so excited, tomorrow night I am going to Liverpool (as mentioned in my previous blogpost!). Night out tomorrow night, followed by shopping and sightseeing on Saturday.

So very excited :)

xXx

Snow Days

Well, isn't it snowy at the moment?! Snow, it's all pretty and everything but what an inconvenience it is!

I haven't even been sledging...

I've finally been paid (hoorah!). After having next to no money for 3 weeks, following my last payday being before Christmas, it is such a relief to have money.

I'm trying to budget and not go crazy spending and ending up skint again! I'm just getting essentials (apart from the odd treat!).

Friday night I stayed in, no money - snooze!

Saturday, I drove to Lilleshall to pick my sister up and bring her home for the night. She's doing a 5-week intense personal training course at the European Institute of Fitness. We stopped by Telford on the way back and she treated me to a meal at Oscar's American Diner - yum. I then watched The Ugly Truth. Hello, Gerard Butler.

Sunday, I had to drive Donna back to Lilleshall in the snow, which had got worse! On the way home, I stopped by Telford Shopping Centre for a browse and a Subway lunch. Love Subway.

I then spent the evening watching Enchanted and Alice in Wonderland (Tim Burton's version).

Monday, I stayed in.

Last night I had a catch up with my friend Kelly. We had a Nandos, followed by Diet Cokes at the pub, then Kelly went home and I cinema-solo'd it to watch Gangster Squad. I don't like violence and guns BUT, I really enjoyed the movie. Yes, I may have gone to see it mainly for Ryan Gosling but I was surprised by how good the movie was! I have a list of upcoming movies that I plan to go see. Most will probably be cinema solo's. Team Loner! Honestly though, if you really want to do things like go to see a movie but no-one will go, don't be afraid - go alone! The cinema is dark once you are in the screening, no-one will notice. I've been to the cinema alone a few times now and it's fine. I've been repping Team Loner quite a lot in the past year, it's great to be confident and independent, not letting things pass by just because no-one will go with me!

I'm working in Stone, Staffordshire tomorrow, doing packaging sampling in a warehouse. Nuts and bolts - wahoo! It'll be nice to get out of the office and have a change for the day.

Friday, I am SO excited about. It's my friend Jilly's birthday night out in Liverpool and I am now going, after finding out rooms in the Travelodge were on sale at £25 a room - CRAZY! The hotel is right next to Liverpool One, opposite the Albert Dock and minutes from bars and clubs. My friend Jo is coming with me and we're meeting Jilly and some of her Manchester Uni pals there for a night out, followed by shopping and sightseeing Saturday. YAYAYAY :)

Lots of exciting times. Happy days.

xXx

OOTN: Curry with the 'grown ups' and a rant about cameras

Major issues with photography at the moment. Silly cameras. My trusty camera, well camera phone, my old old Samsung Pixon 12, that I've kept for use as a camera for years sadly broke over Christmas (at some point during a drunken mosh to Slipknot's 'Spit It Out', which got rather crazy, especially in a tiny pub with limited space and old timber frames!). The camera on that phone could go up to 12 mega pixels and had so many great settings and brilliant macro. It was great for my blog photography, close-ups of products and make-up. But now, it's broken :( I'm a very sad Zo. Dad has borrowed me his digicam but it is rubbish, macro doesn't work, the photos often come out blurred (which I can't tell until I upload them to laptop!) and my current phone, Galaxy S camera is ok, but not for macro, plus it does not have a flash.

So basically, my blog photos are mostly going to be poo at the moment...

I can't rave enough about the Pixon 12 as a camera. I'm desperately trying to locate one for sale. If you know of any, please let me know! Alternatively, a Sony Ericsson Satio.

^Major rant about cameras!^

So, I went out with my parents and their friends tonight. I think they invited me out of pity for me being skint and about to have a lonely night in...

Dad treated me to a curry, my second paid for meal of the day, as my boss treated us all to lunch at a lovely country pub near our future office today.

Well, you'd have thought that I was the parent tonight... I was sober, everyone else was drunk. They then decided to start dancing in the curry house to the old 90's dance songs, then love songs and then...THEN, MEATLOAF CAME ON! Oh, the horror. Most of them were dancing, singing and then Chris, whose birthday it was, decided to start howling over and over, really loud. It was funny but I could see the staff wanted us out, as I'm sure the other customers did...

It was entertaining and cheered me up, as I got a little emotional last night!

Here's (some rubbish photos, boohoo! of) what I wore tonight:

This is what happens when I use dad's camera, extreme flash and blur)

This is my face, beginning and end of night... Also slightly different quality and colour even though both taken in same lighting on my camera phone...
The right photo shows my flaws. My forehead is pretty dry right now BUT my pores are improving :)
First try of Soap & Glory Thick & Fast Mascara and Sexy Mother Pucker 'Punch Bowl' Lipgloss from the Best of All set (Christmas 2012). The mascara is pretty standard, I've used better. The lipgloss is nice, a little sticky though. Whilst I can't fault most Soap & Glory products, I wouldn't re-purchase either of these.

My hair looks so dry in this photo, it really isn't that bad!

I spent ages when I got home, trying to get decent photos of the make-up that I used tonight, only to discover that they are nowhere to be found (the pics, not the products - thankfully!), pretty peed that all the pics are gone and time wasted though. So, I'll just have to list the products used:

Face: 

Benefit That Gal Brightening Face Primer

17 Hide & Chic Foundation in 'Natural' (this is too dark for my skin but until I get paid I am having to make-do with old foundation!)

17 Miracle Matte Pressed Powder in 'Silky Beige' (recently purchased, review soon!)

17 Instant Glow Bronzing Pearls in 'Light'

Accessorize Merged Eyeshadow Shade 6 'Cocoa'

Soap & Glory Thick & Fast Mascara (first try with this, from the Best of All set)

Barry M Waterproof Eyeliner 'Black'

Soap & Glory Sexy Mother Pucker 'Punch Bowl' Lipgloss (as with mascara, first try, from Best of All).

Outfit:

Peplum: Primark

Skirt: Primark

Cardi: New Look (yeeears old!)

Tights: Asda

Boots: New Look (love these!)

Bag: Asda (oldie)

Nails:

No7 'Spice', mattified with Rimmel Pro Matte Finish top coat (I love the result!)

The cardi and bag have not been used for probably 2 years or more, so I dug them out tonight.

xXx

Bad Day

Today has been a bad day. I've been pretty happy so far this year and found much happiness during 2012. I learnt/taught myself how to control my emotions and not let things get me down, to enjoy life and be positive.

So today has been a big struggle. I've been worrying about my finances, as I've had next to no money for over 2 weeks and have now resorted to borrowing money off my dad to run my car. There's other things playing havoc on my mind and then tonight I found out something which has really concerned and upset me.

I'm trying my best not to cry, or worry too much but I'm struggling.

I really need something to cheer me up! Trying to be positive, I'm thinking of Download Festival and the new additions to what was already, and now is even more of an amazing line-up! It's going to be hard to maintain the excitement, with the health worry and tests that I am due to have one month later (scheduled on my birthday, of all days!), but I'll try my best.

But, here's the line-up...it makes me happy just looking at all the amazing acts that are confirmed already!

Obviously, my main excitement is for Slipknot. I love that band and their set in 2009 was one of the best I have ever experienced.

I did plan to do a 'proper' blog post tonight but due to my current situation, I am going to leave it for tonight.

I'll resume my usual blogging very soon.

 I have lots of rambling, product raves, new things to blog about and some reviews to do!

For now, I might just go listen to Kids in Glass Houses 'Sunshine' and sing it to myself 'Stop wishing for the sunshine, start living in the rain', or maybe I'll feel better if I go have a big cry...

xXx

Hello :)

I'm back!

It's been so long...

I've kind of abandoned my blog since Christmas time, oops! It's so easy to lose the blogging mojo when you haven't blogged for so long, and so difficult to get it back. I've been busybusy!

I hope you are all well and had a lovely Christmas, New Year and 2013 so far :)

There will be a lot more from Amelia's Allsorts in 2013, so stay tuned!

I've changed my hair colour again, first colour change of 2013: I'm a redhead (well, it's now faded to a auburn shade). I used Schwarzkopf's Live Color XXL Shake It Up Color Foam in shade 589 'Red Berry Passion'.

Excuse red-eye...they match my hair!

I can't express enough love for Schwarzkopf!

Anyway, this is just a 'Hello, I'm still around and Amelia's Allsorts is back' post. More posts coming soon, plus I need to catch up on my fave blogs. I actually haven't been on Blogger, blogs or Twitter since December!!!

Blog soon,

Zoe

xXx