Review // Dove Summer Glow

Being as pale as I am, and prone to hayfever, I can find it difficult to tan in the summer time.

I've never fancied the idea of 'fake baking' - whether in the form of a self-tan lotion or a spray tan - or using a sun bed in order to achieve golden skin. Seeing girls with streaky, blotchy orange skin made me laugh rather than evoke any sense of jealousy. But after spending an afternoon out in the sunshine and developing a slight tan, I noticed it made me look a little better - definitely more alive anyway - so I thought I'd look into the world of self-tan.

Being a newbie, I didn't want anything too drastic so automatically ruled out conventional self-tan mousses and lotions and instead opted for a moisturiser with a hint of self-tan.

Dove Summer Glow Fair to Medium Nourishing Lotion 250ml

Dove's Summer Glow Nourishing Lotion - Britain's No.1 for this type of product - is a daily lotion which acts as a deep moisturiser as well as a tanning agent. The moisturising element was something that appealed to me as I often find myself having dry skin.

The product is nothing like other tanning products. It comes out looking just like a normal moisturiser and smells lovely and sweet unlike the horrid biscuit smell you usually associate with self-tanners. The downside to it's appearance is that it makes it difficult to know where you've put the lotion and how much you've used so you could end up with sections of your skin looking darker than other parts.

Even after the first use, I instantly saw a difference in my skin. It was incredibly soft! I don't think I've ever used a moisturiser that's been as effective as this one. As well as that, my skin had already began developing a slight summery glow.

Top: left, before; right, day 2 - Bottom: left, day 3; right, day 4

As you can see even after four days, I had developed a nice tan. I was only using the Fair to Medium lotion so the tan was never going to be that substantial but there is a clear difference between what my skin was like before using it and what it looks like now.

However, as I've already pointed out, applying the lotion is made difficult by the colour of it and I have been left with a few white patches.

This photo probably shows up the difference between my before and after skin a lot better but as you can also see I have quite a significant white patch on my wrist! It's obviously easily fixed as you can apply more lotion onto the wrist whilst avoiding the areas already tanned but it's something to keep in mind if you are using this product.

I was all ready to just write a fantastic review raving about this product until I had a bath this morning...

I'd had no problems with the tan when showering, obviously it lessens slightly but my skin was still looking good. However, once I had come out of my bath, I noticed that I had been left looking incredible patchy and streaky. As well as that, whatever of my tan hadn't been rinsed down the plughole had left a lovely ring around the bathtub. 

As you can see, my leg has been left looking rather patchy. Although I still have a nice tan, it is disappointing that this is the result of having a bath. I suppose it's easily fixed but it has left me feeling slightly lukewarm towards the product when I had loved it so much.

Overall, this product is great for a newbie to self-tanning and if you avoid baths then it's perfect! 

The lotion also comes in Medium to Dark as well as the Fair to Medium and is currently on sale at Superdrug: £2.48, down from £4.99!

Review // Collection 'Work The Colour' Nail Varnish

Working in certain retail environments can be tough on a girl: hair always has to be tied back, unflattering uniforms and no nail varnish, ever.

This is a world I know all too well so when I have a good few days off in a block, I jump at the chance to jazz up my nails and actually feel like a girl again. Probably like most girls, I have a vast collection of nail varnish but sometimes the right one just isn't there no matter how many you have so I decided to go out and find something new to try.

Being as pale (and extremely indecisive) as I am, I often struggle to pick a nail varnish as I worry that certain colours will make me look even more corpse-like than I already do. I tend to stay away from the neon trend that's around at the moment, as well as blues and pastels - I feel like I just can't win but perhaps one day I'll take the plunge and just go for it!

However, this time I settled on Raspberry Pink 20 from Collection's new range: Work The Colour.

This nail varnish is extremely good value as it's only £1.99 in Superdrug!

I've got to admit, I didn't expect much from it as it's so cheap and I wasn't exactly in love with the colour either - after a while of um'ing and ah'ing, my boyfriend practically forced it into my hand! But I'm glad he did, as I love it!

The coverage from it is amazing. It takes two strokes to paint the nail and I only needed one coat of it! Plus it's not too Barbie pink, which I was worried about. I like feeling girly, but not that girly. It dries in as a lovely dark pink/red colour and it doesn't leave my hands looking pale either. As you could probably guess though, the only downside to the product is that it chips very easily. After only having it on for a few hours it had already began chipping, although not too drastically.

As you can see, the chipping isn't as noticeable as you would expect, although I did put a clear top coat of protective and strengthening nail varnish on top so that could perhaps be why it hasn't chipped so much (I would recommend doing this, maybe putting two coats on, to prevent chipping!). You could get away with keeping it on like this as it is barely noticeable and so for the price, this nail varnish is pretty impressive!

This range from Collection has a great selection of colours to choose from so if pink isn't for you, take a look and see what you fancy! You can't go wrong at £1.99.

Tony Moly // Style over Substance?

A few weeks ago it was my 21st birthday so in the run up to that big day I was browsing the Internet trying to find what I wanted to receive as a reward for being alive for another year and then I came across this...

Tony Moly is a brand I hadn't heard of before however, as these products are based around cats it isn't a surprise that it came to my knowledge through a popular hipster post on Tumblr.

As soon as I saw it I knew I just had to have it, whether the actual product itself was of decent quality or not. 

Tony Moly is a major brand in the Korean beauty industry and has a wide variety of products, a lot with cute packaging and design like these cat products. I've yet to test it out as, although the order for these items was placed around 4 weeks ago, they only arrived a few days ago so that's something to keep in mind if you're planning on ordering anything from this brand for a special event or occasion.

Along with the order, I also received a free gift.

Although the English translation on the front of the packet leaves something to be desired, you can never be displeased with receiving a little surprise gift for free!

I'm looking forward to seeing if the products stand up to their great aesthetics. I'm hoping it's not a case of style over substance, but even if it is, they're items that'll look great to display with your other beauty products and will no doubt cause envy amongst your friends.

Have you ever tried anything from Tony Moly? What do you think of the brand?

Review // Collection 'Cream Puff' Lip Cream

'Collection' is a range of make-up I've never really paid much attention to before seeing as it's all pretty low-priced and so I assumed the products would be of low quality.

It's coming close to payday for me so I'm running a bit low on cash but need to refresh my make up so therefore thought I'd swap my usual Gosh and Barry M products for something cheaper.

I got this for £3 since I had saved up £6 on my Superdrug beauty card (it pays off not being able to say no to people when you're pestered to sign up to store cards!) so it was an absolute bargain. Usually it would be just under £9 but even that's still a bargain compared to other products.

I'm focussing mainly on the 'lip cream' for this post since I'm fairly into my lip products and a lip cream is something new to me. 

So it's in the same style as a lipgloss, as you can see. The product itself is very creamy (as you'd guess) and fairly luscious. Not to mention, it smells incredible which obviously doesn't affect the product's use but it's always a bonus! The coverage is equal to that of a lipstick and the end result is similar to a lipstain: the colour stays locked onto your lips with a lack of residue.

To illustrate this point, I tested it out on a piece of tissue paper. I've got a photo of my lips before and after I pressed them against the tissue paper. And as you can see, not much came off in the process and my lips look the exact same.

This is a fantastic product for people who don't like lipstain products and want a matte-lipstick style with that same staying power of a lipstain. 

Try it out and see if you agree! With Collection's price range, you can't really go wrong.

Review // Kukee

A girl can never have too many accessories so it was a nice surprise to come across a website full of great jewellery that I'd never heard of before.

Kukee.co.uk offers a range of quirky (or kooky) jewellery at what can usually be seen as 'too good to be true' prices. However, don't let the low prices put you off: the cost may be cheap but the quality is not.

After seeing someone I follow on Instagram posting their purchases, I had a look at the website and couldn't resist buying something from it myself.

The website is too good to order just one thing so I decided to buy the rings in the above picture along with a crescent moon necklace and an ear cuff. I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the items: they feel solid, robust as they're made from a metal plated material and not cheap plastic (which you may assume from how little they cost). As well as this, all the rings are fully adjustable which is a major plus as I've had several experiences in shops, such as New Look or Primark, where it has been difficult for me to find a ring which fits perfectly so making the rings adjustable means they can fit any sized finger comfortably so this instantly puts this website one above other retail stores, for me. But that's not the best thing. If you were to guess how much this haul cost me, what would you say? £25? More? Maybe, if you were shopping at a different store but at Kukee, I spent just £10.50 (plus £2.20 on p&p).

If that doesn't make you want to take a look at the website then I don't know what will.

After receiving this purchase, it's safe to say I've become a Kukee loyal. I wear my rings with every outfit and today, I made my second purchase.

Two rings and two necklaces for £9

The low prices they offer got me thinking: why don't all shops offer jewellery at similar prices? Even Primark, which is probably the cheapest fashion retailer, rarely have jewellery items on sale at £1 or £2. I did a quick search online and came across this:

On the left, a set of rings from Topshop priced at £8.50 and on the right, a ring from Kukee priced at £2.
Now, fair enough you get four rings for your £8.50 but looking at them just from the pictures, there's already - to me - a great distinction in the quality of the rings.
With the ring from Kukee, you get a choice between gold or silver plated and they look of a much higher quality (and like they should cost much more than £2) as well as looking far more representative of a cat than the Topshop items. I have seen someone on Instagram with this ring and they've expressed nothing but joy over it. I know which one I'd choose.
This just shows that although they're a cheap store, they keep up-to-date with the trends and offer good (if not better) quality items.

If you like the sound of Kukee, the owner of the store has recently announced that she is also setting up a vintage clothing shop - called Wild Wolfy - with just as low prices (items at £5, £10 and £15 - stated on the Facebook page). You can find out more about that here and here.

Enjoy!