Benefit Swansea's Boutique Launch

Warning; photo heavy post!

I was a very lucky girl to receive an invite to the Swansea Benefit Boutique launch and was super excited to go and see the boutique in action. I was completely blown away by how amazing the Benefit stand looked and was whisked away down a corridor into Beauty School.

Bronze Betty, Beauty School, Smooth Sally

The Beauty School room, which can be booked for parties, held cute pink table and chairs and the wall was decorated with the story of the Benefit founders. At the back of the room, the range of Benefit products were displayed and begging to be tested. We were also tempted by a cake stand full of pink glittery Welsh cakes.

Straight away, we were allowed to dive in and try out the new products. 

 I was drawn straight away to the 'Creaseless Cream Shadow', which I got swatching straight away:

L2R:Holy Smokes, My Two Cents, Always A Bridesmaid, No Pressure, Bikini Toni, Birthday Suit.

As you can see, the shades of the ceaseless eyeshadow are absolutely beautiful and have the cutest names. My favourite shade is 'Holy Smokes' (the black colour), which creates a fantastic smokey eye look just by applying and blending with your finger across the lid. 

 

L2R: Holy Smokes, My Two Cents, Always A Bridesmaid, No Pressure, Bikini Toni, Birthday Suit.

 There are four colours that I didn't manage to swatch; Blue My Mind (a shimmery blue), Skinny Jeans (pewter), Bronze Have More Fun (a dark bronze) and R.S.V.P (a shimmery champagne). 

Seriously ladies, get out and try these shadows- you will fall in love. 

With my arm plastered in cream shadow, I set my sights on the longwear powder shadow:

 L2R: Blingo!, Raincheck? Pinky Swear, It's Complicated, Call My Bluff.

L2R: Quick Look Busy, Kiss Me I'm Tipsy, Nude Swings, Thanks A Latte, Pause For Applause, Milk It!

Unfortunately, in all the excitement I missed out 'Glit-Y Pleasure', a golden sand sort of colour. These power shadows have a great pigment and can be mixed together to create lush combinations (give me Blingo and Pause For Applause any day!). 

Next up, and my personal favourite, is the Ultra Plush Lip Gloss. 

(Swatched on the lovely Alyson)
Left to Right: Ice Breaker, Poutrageous, A-Lister, Lollibop, Fauxmance, Kiss You.

 Again, how cute are the names of the colours?

You might have seen me on instagram with A-Lister applied. The lip gloss mixture is so smooth and creamy and smells absolutely devine.  We built up the colour slowly and worked it into my lips for maximum effect. The end result was a beautiful soft pink. I actually really regret not buying this now and is on my wishlist!

 I also managed to try out Fake Up, as I missed the launch and hadn't managed to check it out for myself. 

 

Fake Up in Light, Medium and Dark.

As I'd missed the launch of fake up, I managed to get some time to check it out for myself. The lovely Alyson applied the lightest shade to my eyes, nose and lips and I was blown away by how wonderful it worked to hide problem areas and worked great in defining my Cupid's bow. I was sold and bought one right after.

 Finally, we were shown around the tanning and waxing rooms. Benefit Boutiques offers Fake Bake tanning for that glowing tan and a whole range of body waxes. 

The waxing service was especially impressive as Benefit offer hot wax as well as strip wax. Julie, the wax expert at Swansea explained that if you've ever had anything waxed, you probably had strip wax, a honey coloured wax which is smoothed and taken off with paper or muslin cloth.

Benefit however, offers hot wax. The hot wax is, as the name suggests, hotter and blue in colour. It's spread onto the area and left to dry. When dry, the ends of the wax are picked and the whole thing is lifted and taken off, taking all excess hair with it.  I would definitely recommend having the hot wax as it is a lot quicker, less messy and hurt less (great for more intimate areas).  

Strip wax, The Wax station, Hot wax

At the end of a being pampered and made over, we were given amazing goodie bags! I was so shocked to receive something as we'd be spoilt enough. Inside the bags were a full sizes Porefessional, They're Real and Porefessional. I was blown away by these gifts (two are top sellers) and  I'd run out of my Porefessional. Check for reviews on my goodies soon ;)

I had an amazing day and couldn't stop smiling all the way home.

Thank you to Alyson, Joanne, Lindsay, Julie, Daniella, and the rest of the team at Benefit Swansea!

xxxx






P.S. I'd be honored if you nominated me for the Cosmopolition Blog Awards for New Beauty Blog.

 

Have you been Bitten? Revlon Just Bitten Kissable

I've been Bitten

I had a clean and polish at the Dentist on Thursday, and seeing as my mam had the day off and I felt sorry for myself, we decided to go shopping. Seeing as my teeth were now lovely and clean, what better way to show them off with a bright lip colour? My braces make my lips very dry (despite using every type of balm) so lipstick is out of the question for me and I can't stand lip gloss (unless I'm in a party mood) so my choices in lip wear are pretty limited. 

I've been hearing good things about Revlon's Just Bitten Kissable range on the blogsphere and deciding I wanted a change from my usual peach colours, I went for number 020 Lovesick, a bright pink balm stain.

I must admit, when I went to apply my new balm stain this morning, I was a little worried.  This colour is so bright and so out of my comfort zone.

 I love this design; the silver end twists to released more of the product and the tipped end makes it easy to apply. 

Here I am without any product on my lips:

And here I am with the balm stain:

What a difference right!? I am totally in love with this product. I kept my eye makeup simple and let my lips do all the talking ;)

I love how this stain brought colour into my face and didn't take it away like I expected!

Seeing as this product is marked as a balm stain, I wanted to test how well it actually stained my lips. After applying, I went out where I ate, drink and talked. I was out for roughly 6 hours and did not reapply in that time.

Here I am after I cam home:

Ignore my face/teeth urg

While my lips aren't as pigmented as when I first applied the balm stain, they are still slightly coloured despite all the talking, eating and drinking. 

I am really really pleased with this product. I love absolutely everything about it and I'm really considering buying some other colours. No wonder the bloggersphere love it!

Revlon Just Bitten Kissable retails at £7.99 and is available in 7 difficult shades from Superdrug or Boots. 

Have you tried any of the Just Bitten Kissable colours?

Goodbye Google Reader

Google Reader News 

When Google announced that they were axing Google Reader, Twitter went mad! I briefly skirted over the tweets and decided it wasn't anything I needed to worry about... boy, was I wrong? 

A few hours later, I logged onto my Blog Twitter (@Roxysmakeupbox), only to discover that Google Reader is what I, and probably many of you, use to read my favourite blogs on. The reason for the destruction of Google Reader, is to lure us onto Google + and sorry Google, I'm not going to play.

What can we do?

I, for one, am moving over to Bloglovin'. 

Why? 

Because it's easy to use and has an app for the iPhone (and will for Android soon). 

How do I sign up?

Sign up to Bloglovin with your email and follow the instructions to claim your blog! Easy peasy.

But what about the blogs I follow? How do I follow them on Bloglovin'? What if they don't have BlogLovin'? 

Whoa whoa whoa there, don't fret lovely blogger! You can import the blogs you love and follow on GFC/Google Reader with BlogLovin' by going to this page and following the instructions. When you refresh your BlogLovin' dashboard, all the blogs you follow are there, just like magic!

While GFC is around for now and is not on the Google Kill list, I can't see it existing sans Google Reader for long.

If BlogLovin' doesn't appeal to you, you can sign up to similar services such as SheSaidBeauty or Baobella 

Now that is all said and done, you can follow me on all three services:

 

A Welsh girl at the Bristol Blogger Meet

Blogger meet!

On Saturday, I was lucky enough to go to the Bristol Blogger Meet organised by the lovely Sasha and Alessia. 

This was my first ever bblogger meet and I was so nervous and after asking everyone on Twitter, it became apparent that business cards were a must have. I ordered mine on VistaPrint and I'm really impressed with how they turned out. VistaPrint normally have offers on for business cards so check them out (but don't leave it until 2 days before to order the cards!)

We left the house at 9am to get to Bristol, hence my really grumpy morning face (I do smile, honest)

And what type of Beauty Blogger would I be without statement jewellery and nails ;)

Bristol was absolutely freezing cold and I was glad of my faux leather jacket. I made my way over to Frankie and Benny's, tweeting my every movement, and caught up with a group of girls who were waiting to go inside. 

I was lucky enough to win the raffle and got this amazing beauty box from Nspa which contains melting cleansing gel, hot cloth polish, illuminating beauty serum and Brightening day cream; I am so excited to try it out!

I ordered a milkshake and some fries and starting talking with my fellow bloggers. It was so good to be surrounded with like minded people and with those who understand the world of blogging. I also managed to get around the other table to hand out my cards and get other cards in return. 

Eventually, food was consumed and blogs talked about before it was time to separate and go shopping, but there was one last surprise; a goody bag!

I was completely overwhelmed by the goody bag. I'd seen sneak pictures of the beautiful packaging but I'd never dream of what was inside. 

To see the sheer amount of products we were given, I made a Vine video, click play to view;

@lil_alessia @beauty__bird weeee vine.co/v/bgnhlIJZahx :) xx
— Roxy (@Roxysmakeupbox) February 24, 2013

As you can see, it was an immense amount of products. Expect to see reviews and swatches very soon!


For now, however, here is a picture of my absolute favourites:

1, Aroma SqueezeMe: Grapefruit & Geranium
2. Benefit's Fine One One
3. NSpa Hot Cloth Polish
4. Head Full of Feathers Bow
5. MakeBelieve Enhance highlight.

I was most shocked about the Benefit Fine One One as it's currently the Beauty Blogger must have but I simply couldn't justify buying it for myself so you can imagine my excitement when I saw it in my goody bag. I half expected the girls to say, 'Oh that's a mistake, it must have fallen in there by accident, you have to give it back sorry'. The Aroma Squeeze me is a mouldable stress-ball with uplifting scents and the NSpa hot cloth is something I'm really looking forward to using. The Bow is so beautiful and in red, a great colour for me and the highlighter is something I've needed lately.

After the bags were handed out everyone separated off to do shopping. I met up with my parents as I didn't want to slow anyone down with my crutches. I only bought two items, but one is very exciting...

 

 But you'll have to wait to see what's inside that Harvey Nichols bag... 

 We finished off the day by meeting back up in Starbucks, but I had to rush back to Wales so only managed to only take this photo and thank everyone for being so friendly and for having a lovely day.

I had a fantastic time and it was brilliant to get some tricks on how to run my blog. I only wish I had spent more time with the girls but being on crutches, it's simply too hard to keep up with shoppers. 

I'd recommend going to any meetups that you can, I've made so many new friends from it.  

:)

Barry M textures: Kingsland Road

Textured nails!

I recently bought Barry M's new Textured nail varnishes in Atlantic Road (Blue TNP1) and Kingsland Road (Pink TNP3). They are currently on offer in Superdrug, 2 for £6 and can be mixed and matched with the new Gelly shades. I'm not too keen on the Gellies however, and wanted to road test (see what I done there ;) ).

Here are my nails after being painted with 3 coats so it's really opaque. It's a beautiful pastel pink colour; perfect for the SS13 which is all about pastels! The texture itself is a soft rough feeling, it's quite a nice feeling actually and it looks really interesting. I got complimented on it by my fiance's family.

However....

This is a photo of my nails after 4 days wear. I can't really describe what's happened but textured bits have actually collected dirt and no matter how much I wash my hands, it won't come clean. My nails look so grubby. I suppose if the paint was a different colour, the dirt wouldn't be so prominent. My mother so kindly point out that the texture looked like I'd painted my nails and then gone to bed without letting it dry properly which isn't the look I was going for...

I have yet to try the blue Atlantic Road colour and I hope the same thing doesn't happen as I really like the idea of this varnish but I can't go round looking like I haven't washed my hands!

Have you tried the Barry M textures? If so, did the same thing happen to you?

A Beauty Blogger Superdrug Haul!

I only went in for new Deodrant ;) 

Barry M texture in 305 Atlantic  Road (blue) Multibuy discount, £3

Barry M texture in 304 Kingsland Road (pink) Multibuy discount, £3

MUA The Artiste Collect Mutliuse Palette, £6

MUA Eyebrow Pencil, £1

MUA Eyeliner, £1

MUA Pro Base Eye Primer, £2.50

Sure Long Lasting Protection, £1.32

MUA Undress your skin, £3

MUA Pro Base in Porcelain, £3.50

Total= £24.32

(average of £2.70 for each item)  

Hopefully I'll be making a post soon about some of the items I bought :)

Argan Oil

Moroccan Argan Oil is my current favourite product. My hair takes a lot of heat abuse and the ends are quite dry and weak due to my dip-dye so I need a pretty hardcore product to get it back to a good condition. I've read about this product on Laura's Blog and when my parents said they were off to home bargains, I told them to keep an eye out for it. Luckily for me, they returned £2.99 poorer and with my Argan Oil.


I have the treatment oil which you apply to damp hair. The oil itself is quite thick and smells quite sweet. You take a few drops of the oil and work into toweled, but damp, hair before blow drying.


This brilliant Moroccan Argan Oil gives the hair UV protection (UV dries out the hair and makes it brittle) and the vitamin E found in the Oil helps keep hair frizz free and healthy.

Here are the results on my hair:

Oil on hair whilst wet

My hair dried

While my hair looks pretty normal in the photos, I can assure you that the Argan Oil has made a big difference. My hair is smooth and silky, my split ends are controlled and my dip dyed ends aren't so dry. The sweet smell of the oil has also transferred onto my hair and it's much easier to brush. I was worried about my hair becoming oily but after not washing my hair for a week (the things I do to test products ;) ) it was still silky smooth.

This is my absolute star buy and for £2.99 you get 100ml which should last quite a while as you only need a couple of drops for each application. I would definitely recommend going down your local Home Bargains to dig out this little wonder.

Have you tried Moroccan Argan Oil?