NEW BLOG: CHAMPAGNETOTE.BLOGSPOT.CO.UK

Hello, just a post to let you know that I'm no longer going to be based here at Shesmadeup, I've created a new blog called:
 

champagnetote.blogspot.co.uk


So I'd really appreciate it if you could head over there and check it out! Leave me a comment/your blog link and I'll check yours out too.

Thanks for the support you've given me!

Han XX

TBS Banana Shampoo & Conditioner Review

 

 

So I haven’t been here in a while, a month in fact! Simple reason being that through August and July I have purchased very little and with working and the fact that it’s summer, I’ve kinda neglected this place (oops!). So I bought myself a second holiday (which I go on tomorrow, eek!)  and it’s been my boyfriend’s birthday so I’ve been splashing out on him! Next month I look forwards to spending my own birthday cash (Thursday hint hint) on some beauty bits I’ve had my eye on and giving this old thang a little TLC!

                So one thing I did purchase was The Body Shop’s Banana Shampoo and Conditioner. Now because these are banana scented they won’t be to everybody’s taste but it was the fact they were banana that drew me towards buying them! It’s a fun and exciting scent, different to your normal floral fragrances and puts a new spin on those fruity ones. Unfortunately my expectations were too high for this product and I think anticipating that these were going to be hair care must haves, made it all the more disappointing when I figured they just weren’t!

                Both the shampoo and conditioner are banana scented but the formulas only hold a very light fragrance. I expected and wanted the smell to be quite heavy and pungent, but it was neither here nor there! Obviously some people would prefer this, especially if you hate or dislike fragranced body bits, but I don’t, I like all my lotions and potions, shampoos and conditioners to have strong sweet smells, so this was the first let down for me! I also expected the banana-ery smell to stay on my hair once it had been washed, there is nothing I love more than when my hair smells clean and of my selected shampoo, but no, the scent washes away with the soap...

 

Secondly the shampoo formula just doesn’t hold up, no matter how much you massage the formula into the head it just doesn’t lather like you’d expect it to. I love giving my bonce a good scrub (as well as making foamy beards) so this really didn’t make the cut for me. I rated the conditioner slightly higher, but it didn’t make it feel silky and slippery like I expect from most of my conditioners, there was certainly no detangling or conditioning in my opinion!

 

When my hair was dry, there was still no improvement to be seen from this fruity duo. My hair looked dull and not at all smooth; I’ll definitely be sticking to my well-loved Tresemme! The two aren’t exactly cheap either at £4.50 for a 250ml bottle, which is typical of the TBS price range, but for that I expect the quality and performance of a product to be reflected in its price tag.  Some people really do love this product and I wish I did too but for me The Body Shop just hasn’t stepped up to the mark!

Have you tried this product before?  What did you think?

XX

Bourjois Healthy Mix Foundation Review

I’ve been using Bourjois Healthy Mix for around two months now and I’ve got to say, for a drug store foundation this one is fairly commendable. I’ve got this in the shade 53 and to say I tried and tested it on my skin without any help (because they don’t offer it) I think I got a  fairly decent match. The two things I like most about this foundation is that one, it isn’t heavy. You can apply and achieve a light coverage if you wish, apt for these humid summer days but you can easily layer it up for more of a medium coverage.  I also love how it smells! The fruity added ‘therapy’ really adds to it and it is SO much nicer than the chemically offending whiff you get from some foundations! It also makes my brushes smell pretty good too.

It doesn’t combat shine very well, which I suppose is because it’s meant to give off that healthy, dewy look, but because my skin is oily I definitely can’t achieve that without looking like I’m having a hot sweat. I do powder with this one, but for many this is part of routine anyway. The best thing however is that it doesn’t break me out. My skin doesn’t agree with anything, from moisturisers to blushers, I really do struggle to find products that I can wear day to day without unearthing the beasts, so this for me is a breakthrough!

I would say the lasting power is fairly average; I can get through an 8 hour shift but I do need the odd touch up as it eventually disappears from places like my temples and chin? Overall I like it and would recommend it but I would be cautious if you have oily skin like me and aren’t willing to deal with shine!

What are your thoughts on this foundation? Have you tried it?

Essie On The Eye

 

 

I’m not the world’s biggest fan when it comes to nail polishes and painting my nails. Simply because I am very impatient and get very agitated when waiting for them to dry – especially when 9 out of 10 times I try, I  smudge most of my fingers and I ultimately end up back where I started, without nail polish on and considerably grumpier. 

BUT Essie’s little home in the corner of Boot’s has recently been catching my eye, especially the summer 13 colours.  So I thought I would forget my hatred for all things lacquer loving and delve in. Boot’s also have a buy one get one half price offer on Essie products at the minute, not bad! However I thought TWO polishes in one day was pushing it so I came home with the one I loved most, Naughty Nautical.

The colour is super pretty and like with most Essie polishes, the name is so cute. The shade is what I would expect to come from a lime green and minty blue mix, super appropriate for summer. It also has a very subtle glitter pigment within it, it is infact barely noticeable but it definitely adds to that shimmery, watery effect I expect the colour is trying to achieve. 

These colours from Essie have really got me, I even went back like I said I would and purchased Sunday Funday and The More The Merrier. They too are bold bright shades…if it weren’t for these amazing colours I definitely wouldn’t be giving the time of day to painted nails, so Essie must have done something right to get even me to spend over £7 on a varnish!

 

 

The More The Merrier – An electric lime green shade, looks better in the bottle in all honesty but customers at work have described it as ‘interesting’, so that’s something I guess…

Sunday Funday  - Comes second to Naughty Nautical this one! Such a cute girly shade with its coral tones and shimmer.

Two coats of this varnish is required to achieve the full, block colour shown to us from within the bottle. I would say this varnish lasts roughly a week but because my job requires quite a bit of manual work chipping is inevitable with me so I can't share what it's true lasting power may be. The Essie brushes are quite good too, they are thick and spread the paint evenly and more importantly - quickly! I've not had these shades off yet, and neither have my mother and sister!

My Favourite Body Butters

This post is to discuss my all time favourite, alongside my current body butters and moisturisers. It is a fairly modest collection to say the least, no high end brands in this stash! I lather on any one of these depending on my mood, my skin, the weather, or sometimes it’s down to simply being within reaching distance! I love them all equally and yet all for different reasons.

1.      Palmer’s Cocoa Butter Formula – Now everyone loves a bit of Palmer’s, it’s one that many of us will always go back to as it’s just so darn reliable. There is nothing fancy or luxurious about this moisturiser, it’s simply made to straight up soften, smooth and relieve and it does just that. This is a butter that I tend to use mainly in the summer when my skin is more exposed to the sun and whilst I’m building up a tan. It also gets it’s fair usage when I’ve come back off a holiday and I’m trying my best to maintain my glow! Palmer’s does help to do this, it keeps your skin hydrated and moisturised which is what my skin cries out for after a mere week in the sun! I apply this both morning and night as with a tan my skin becomes very dry and uncomfortable and I often start to peel if I miss moisturising even once! So in these times it’s a saviour! It is in fact recommended as an after tanning butter which is the initial reason for me buying this all those moons ago, but what is also a big plus is that it works to even out skin tones and smooth out marks and scars. The only thing I’m not too keen on with this product is the cocoa butter scent but I think that’s because I’ve used it soo much and so often that I’ve just gone off it (this tends to happen with most things such as perfume annoyingly enough).

2.     Garnier Summer Body Mosturising Lotion – I’ve been using this for sooo long, that I actually think it’s time for a change! This product isn’t your ‘slap on after a shower body crème’, but a moisturiser that works to gradually build a subtle sun-kissed glow. In the past I’ve used it all over the shop, legs, arms, face, you name it but these days I tend to just stick to the pins. It’s great because it doesn’t create the mess and require the preparation that true false tanning does and what’s even better is that it lasts for ages! I’ll usually apply this once each morning for two/three days (bearing in mind that you should let it dry into the skin for a while before putting your skinnys on!) and then for the next week those unsightly milk bottles are no more! What I find however is that the product never truly or fully sinks into the skin and it can leave your skin feeling slightly sticky so showering before your next application is usually best! It’s not great for solely moisturising but for a hint of colour I can’t fault it.

3.     The Body Shop Strawberry Body Butter/The Body Shop Mango Body Butter – Hail the budget beauty body butters of all time (although I think Soap & Glory could now be a close second!). The Body Shop are well known for their tubs of ‘smells so good you could eat it’ goodness, and I think it would be hard to find a household in Britain that doesn’t have one of these, big or small, rolling around in the back  of a drawer somewhere or pride of place on the dressing table. They do exactly what they’re made for – buttering up that body. I’ve not stopped using these two of late and I sometimes have to ‘ip, dip, dop, do’ over which one to use as they both smell SO good. The consistency is really light and creamy and dries into the skin wonderfully. The scent on them lasts pretty much all day too so you don’t need to worry about smelling questionable by the end of your graveyard shift!

4.     PINK Warm & Cosy Supersoft Bodylotion -  Last but not least is a Victoria’s Secret favourite of mine, simply because it smells so good. This was bought at roughly Christmas time, hence the name, so I’m not sure whether they still sell this anymore. I used it a lot over the winter period and unfortunately it’s been cast aside while the more summer fruity fragranced lotions take over! The scent isn’t what I would call a staple winter scent as it is quite a sweet vanilla fragrance but it is quite heavy and it doesn’t scream summer but for those miserable wet British days it could well make another appearance!  Plus I love the cute pump packaging it comes in!

Do you have a favourite body butter? Could you recommend a  moisturiser you’ve recently tried out?

Parklife '13 Baby!

Not a beauty inspired post this time round but I have good reason! This weekend saw over 150,000 music lover’s flock to Manchester to see Bon Jovi at the Etihad, Rod Stewart at the Arena and of course to enjoy the much anticipated PARKLIFE at Heaton Park. This is literally on my doorstep being only a twenty minute drive from my house so I grabbed a ticket alongside one of my Uni friends and pals and embraced an epic weekend! The weather couldn’t have been any finer, it was the best weather we’ve seen in a while and the sun didn’t stop shining for the whole two days. Everyone was in high, happy spirits and just generally having a belting time! In all honesty I didn’t know many of those featured on the line-up as it was mainly house Dj’s ect but from those that I did know, being Disclosure, Rudimental, Jessie Ware, Rita Ora, Delphic, Plan B and Example, they all put on a cracking show. Example held the best set of the weekend for me, he kept up the tempo and even though I wouldn’t consider myself a fan of his he really did send everyone off on a high on the Sunday night! I’m pretty gutted it’s over to be honest, had such a good crack with the people I know and with the people I met! And my fuzzy head, aching bones and 8 hour shift come Monday morning were definitely worth it despite my desperate pleas for mercy!  

 

 

Parklife isn’t a camping festival, which didn’t bother me too much as I’ve done all that before and to be honest going home to a shower and a fresh bed is SO what you need after a pissed up day in the sun. Plus it gives you time to prepare for doing it all again the following day! I would recommend Parklife to anyone who loves a beer, a dance, being with their mates, music and the sun…not guaranteed of course, but even in the rain (I’ve been to Leeds Fest in the past wading through inches of mud in a downpour) you can still have an awesome time!

 

 

 

 

Did you go to Parklife this year? Do you have any different festivals lined up?

Bikini Buys

 

 

I’m hoping to get a summer holiday booked in the next few weeks so of course I’ve been looking at overpriced bits of material to cover up my funny bits! In other words, bikinis. I do love a good bikini, the pricetag’s however, not so much but I usually buy two to three new ones each year to satisfy my money wasting compulsion. I know that the standard bra and brief combo is kinda going out the window now and it’s all about the high waist, bandeau and all in one but as much as I like them I want as much flesh exposed as possible! I ain’t susceptible to hiding from the sun, so these are some picks I’ve come across that I like the look of and might possibly purchase!

1.       I bought this bikini from Dorothy Perkins about a month ago and I really love it! The pattern is totally me, I love floral designs. I got it for a bargain too as there was 15% student discount at the time so I got the whole set for under twenty quid!
Dorothy Perkins – Top: £14 Bottom: £9

2.       This is another one from Dorothy Perkins; I’m loving polka dot at the minute so this really caught my eye. I think DP offers reasonable prices too, especially when you can get your student discount whacked on top!
Dorothy Perkins – Top: £14 Bottom: £9

3.       I’m not the biggest Jack Wills fan but this combo is too cute to miss. It’s so summery and girly, what isn’t there to like! That might be the price actually…£29.50 for the top and £19.50 for the bottoms is STEEP and not really justifiable, on to the next one…
Jack Wills – Top: £29.50 Bottom: £19.50

4.       I really like the fringe detail on this bikini; it’d look fab with a few necklaces and bracelets on the beach!
Miss Selfridge - £26 set

5.       Now this is high waisted but I LOVE it. Lemons might not be for everyone but I think it’d look really good once your tan has developed, maybe not one for the first day…
Topshop - £34 set

6.       This is my other favourite, it’s simple but I love the pastel colours used and I think I’ll definitely be going trying this one on!
River Island – Top: £16 Bottom: £12


What’s your favourite place to shop swimwear? Had a bikini bargain this month? Please share!