Beauty. Fashion. Lifestyle.
Posts tagged The Body Shop
Christmas Swap Box with +10 Kapow
1
3 years
by Naomi in Swaps
I absolutely love putting together gift boxes for people, and of course I love surprises myself, so a little while ago I suggested to Chrissie of +10 Kapow that we do a Christmas Swap, and luckily she was up for the idea! We decided on a budget of £20, and agreed to fill a shoebox with little gifts that we thought the other would like. I had a lot of fun searching for items to give to Chrissie, and after a few weeks of browsing, buying and wrapping, the box was ready to send. Our deadline for posting was 5th December, and last week we each received our box of goodies!
As both of us are impatient we decided to open and blog about our gifts before Christmas, so without further ado, here’s what I received!
As you can see, my swap from Chrissie came beautifully packaged. The box itself is stunning, and puts the cardboard one I sent her to shame! I’ll definitely be using it to store things in, probably rings or nail varnishes.
There were eight wrapped gifts in the box, including a jewellery box which I was really excited about. I hurriedly unwrapped everything, and was delighted with all that Chrissie sent. I must say she chose well! Here’s what I got…
The first gift is this Baked Merged Trio Eyeshadow from MUA, in shade ‘Emotions’. All three shades have a slight shimmer to them, and are impressively pigmented. The neutral tones are perfect for a daytime look, and I can see myself using these shades a lot for a work make up look, although with some dramatic eyeliner they could easily be dressed up.
My lips get very dry at this time of year, so finding this Nivea Lip Butter in the box was much appreciated! The lip butter feels lovely and nourishing, and smells amazing too, like vanilla and macadamia. This has now become a winter essential for me and comes everywhere with me.
I spotted this Body Shop Glazed Apple Body Butter when browsing The Body Shop website a few weeks, and was really intrigued by it, so as you can imagine I was pleased to find this in the box too! I use body butters on a daily basis and have done for years, so this was very well chosen, and is incredibly moisturising. The Glazed Apple scent is lovely too – fruity, but also sweet and creamy.
Yet another product that I’ve been wanting to try – MUA Luxe Velvet Lips! This shade is called ‘Serene’, and is a dark peach shade with a pink undertone. It’s very highly pigmented, has a creamy texture so applies beautifully, and is long-lasting. I like it, and aesthetically, I also like the frosted tube.
This awesome keyring is triple awesome – it’s Splinter from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which I’ve loved since I was a kid, he’s a rat, and it’s lego! I’m going to hang this from my bag because I’m cool like that. Isn’t he fab?!
Chrissie made this galaxy necklace herself, and it’s my favourite item that she sent me. It’s really well made, and purple, pink and turquoise happen to be my favourite colours. I’ve been wearing it a lot since I got it, sometimes alone, but also layered with a couple of my other favourite necklaces, which I think looks great on a plain top.
Batman! A Batman ring! I’m sure it’s clear by now that I’m a big Batman fan, and this ring is absolutely fab. I really like how subtle it is, whilst also being super cool.
This pretty galaxy scarf has the same colour palette as the necklace Chrissie made, and is so soft and snuggly and warm. I’ve been wearing this lately to add a splash of colour to some of my darker winter outfits, and it seems to attract compliments!
Purple shades and holo effects are two of my favourite things to decorate my nails with, so this nail polish from Freckles Polish is perfect for me. The shade is called ‘I’ll Need Wine’, and is a rich purple colour, a bit like red wine, with a beautiful holo shimmer. Unfortunately I didn’t get any photos of me wearing it, but it applies nicely and is stunning on – fabulous for the festive season. Chrissie recently sent me some stamping plates too, so I plan on creating some looks soon using them and this polish, which I’ll be posting about soon.
I’m really happy with everything Chrissie sent me (thanks Chrissie!), and I hope we can do another swap one day! To see what I sent Chrissie in return, you can check out her post here.
Have you taken part in any Christmas swaps this year? If so, what did you send/receive? I’d love to see your posts about it!
Naomi x
Batman Day: Selina Kyle/Catwoman Inspired Make Up
1
6 years
I have officially named today Batman Day, because today (finally) I went to see The Dark Knight Rises at the cinema! I have been Batman obsessed since I was a small child and have seen pretty much every Batman film that has ever been made. The Christopher Nolan trilogy has been by far my favourite set of films, and the big finale didn’t disappoint. I’m saying nothing though, just in case any of you are yet to see it 
In a move of unashamed geekery, I decided to give my make-up a Batman theme today, and what could be more fitting than a Selina Kyle based look? The brilliant Anne Hathaway plays Selina/Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises, and her distinctive look has been adorning posters for months, and I had been wanting to recreate her pale face and pink cheeks, bold red lips and dark smokey eyes for a while, so today I did.
Here is the make up that I used for this classic look:
- Avon Ideal Shade Cream to Powder Foundation in ‘Ivory’
- Avon Ideal Shade Pressed Powder in ‘Fair’
- Avon Colortrend Perfect and Hide Concealer in ‘Light’
- The Body Shop Lip & Cheek Stain
- Avon Glimmerstick Eye Liner in ‘Blackest Black’
- Jillian Dempsey for Avon Professional Kohl in ‘Charcoal’
- Avon SuperCurlacious Mascara in ‘Black’
- MUA Lip Boom (just the lipstick) in ‘Bring It’
And here is my Catwoman-inspired look!
This look is very easy to create… Over moisturiser I applied the Cream to Powder Foundation, Concealer, and a very fine layer of Pressed Powder. I then lined my waterline with the Glimmerstick Eye Liner and smudged the Avon Professional Kohl under my eyes and over my top lashline, before drawing one more line on my top lashline with the Kohl. Next I added two coats of SuperCurlacious Mascara, and finally I filled in my lips with MUA’s Lip Boom. Easy!
I hope you like my Catwoman look, and if you’re going to see the film, enjoy it! For those who have already seen it… What did you think? I really loved seeing Nottingham’s Wollaton Hall in the film as it’s so close to where I live!
Naomi x
What I Wore to my Friend’s Wedding
9
6 years
Hi everyone,
This weekend has been yet another busy one for me. Today is my mum’s birthday, and tomorrow will be her husband’s birthday as well as their 1st wedding anniversary, but perhaps the most exciting event of the last few days was my close friend’s wedding yesterday! I’ve known Kat for 11 years, since seconday school, and she is the first out of our group of friends to get married, so it was a very special day The bride looked absolutely beautiful and I was so proud of her – it was wonderful to see her so happy and I wish her and her lovely husband the very best for their future together.
You may remember that a few weeks ago I posted about What I Wore to my Step Brother’s Wedding, so I thought I’d do a similar post about what I wore yesterday. The colour scheme of the wedding was powder blue and baby pink, so I thought I’d go all girly and incorporate some pink shades into my look. As you can see, I kept it simple and went for a far less dramatic make up look than last time…
Make Up used:
- Benefit Porefessional.
- Colortrend Fresh Face Oil-Free Foundation in ‘Ivory Beige’.
- Colortrend Perfect and Hide Concealer in ‘Light’.
- MUA Pressed Powder in ‘Shade 1′.
- The Body Shop Lip & Cheek Stain (used on cheeks) in ‘Rose Pink’.
- MUA Pretty Pastels Eyeshadow Palette – Shades 4 and 11.
- MUA Immaculate Collection Eyeshadow Palette – Shades 8 and 9.
- Avon Glimmerstick Eye Liner in ‘Blackest Black’.
- Bellápierre Lash Building Mascara in ‘Black’.
- Avon Glow Lip Gloss in ‘Ultra Violet’.
- Dress from Chiara Fashion.
- Shoes from Primark.
- Necklace from Avon
- Bag (not pictured) from eBay, originally from M&S.
I hope you’ve all had a fun weekend too!
Naomi x
The Body Shop Chocomania Gift Set
0
I was gifted this ‘Exclusive Edition’ Chocomania Gift Set from The Body Shop for my birthday by my lovely best friend. My birthday is on Valentine’s Day so the heart shaped, chocolate box looking packaging seemed very appropriate, and it definitely appears rather luxurious from the outside!
Inside the Chocomania tin there are four decently sized products:
- Chocomania Body Butter – 50ml
- Chocomania Body Scrub – 50ml
- Chocomania Shower Cream – 60ml
- Chocomania Lip Butter – 10ml
Unlike a lot of chocolate bath and body products, these actually smell quite nice! I usually find that chocolate scented toiletries smell quite sickly, and nothing at all like chocolate, but the Chocomania range has quite a rich sweet scent, a bit like chocolate pudding, and is far more pleasing to the nose than most.
I used each of the Chocomania products from the set this morning, and will now let you know my thoughts about them individually, in the order that I used them.
Shower Cream
The Chocomania shower cream is the most lightly scented product in the set. It is silky smooth and lathers up well – I didn’t need to use much of it at all to wash my whole body. The scent was only very faint on my skin after use, and soon faded, but once it was layered with the other products that didn’t matter too much.
Body Scrub
Others have said this product looks like the chocolate pudding it smells like, but I’m not too convinced. My initial reaction when I opened this was that it looked like something else! (I’m sure you can guess what). Ignoring what I think it looks like, this has the strongest chocolate scent of all the Chocomania products and it really does smell good enough to eat. I used this on my upper arms which tend to get fairly dry. The exfoliation this provides is delicate, but excellent – my arms felt wonderfully soft after using it. Without a doubt, this is my favourite of the Chocomania products.
Body Butter
I have always loved The Body Shop’s body butters and I think this is a nice addition to their range of butters. It has a deep, cocoa scent and, once again, a little goes a very long way. Layered over the shower gel and body scrub, the scent is still lingering on my skin and is absolutely lovely. My skin feels softened without being left greasy. The body butter claims to provide ’48h Feel Good Hydration’ – a very big claim I have to say. Since I have a shower every morning, I doubt I’ll be able to tell whether this lasts for 48 hours, but it is very rich so I guess it could.
Lip Butter
The Chocomania Lip Butter is my least favourite product in the set. It smells a bit like Smarties, which is nice, but the texture isn’t that pleasant. I found the lip butter to be quite greasy on my lips, which didn’t feel very nice. After a while, some of this greasiness was no longer there, but in the end I rubbed it off and replaced it with my usual lip balm.
Overall I am very happy with the Chocomania Gift Set – the products smell gorgeously decadent and most of them do their job, and they do it well. If you want to try the Chocomania range, grab it whilst you can because I don’t think it will be around forever, seeing as it’s an ‘exclusive edition’!
Naomi x
Friday Favourite: The Body Shop Coconut Milk Body Lotion
0The Body Shop’s Coconut Milk Body Lotion is one of my absolute essentials and I use it every day. The lotion is described as being:
Lightweight moisturisation with Community Trade organic virgin coconut oil
and it is for normal to dry skin. The lotion comes in a 250ml spray bottle and is quite thin in consistency, but it absorbs quickly without being greasy. The scent of the sweet coconut is divine and lingers on the skin for most of the day.
The main reason I love this lotion is because it has really helped with my dry skin. For ages I suffered with dry patches on my upper arms, especially in the winter months, but since I started using this over a year ago, the dry patches have completely cleared up and my skin is now lovely and soft.
As an added bonus, The Body Shop Coconut Milk Body Lotion is ethical and environmentally friendly, as it is against animal testing and supports community trade – the coconut oil is from Samoa and the babassu oil is from Brazil.
The lotion is £8 per bottle, but it lasts for a long, long time. I’ve used this bottle at least once a day (sometimes twice) for over 6 months and it is still 1/5 full! I highly recommend this lotion for anybody with dry skin as it really does work.
Which Body Shop lotions do you like?
Naomi x
Birthday Haul
1As my regular readers will know, yesterday was my 22nd birthday. I was very lucky and was really spoilt this year by my friends, family and OH and was given a lot of lovely gifts, as you can see below.
Amongst these presents I was given some lovely beauty products, including some which I had been lusting after for a while.
My OH gave me a Ghost Sweetheart gift set, to replace the one I got last year and have just finished!
My Mum bought me the Models Own Beetlejuice Box Set, which is just stunning, and came with a bonus free Models Own black kohl eyeliner.
My best friend gifted me the NEW Chocomania set from The Body Shop where she works, which I’m really looking forward to trying.
I also got Vera Wang’s new perfume, Princess Night, which came with a gorgeous bag, Lush Tuca Tuca Gorilla Perfume, as well as a face mask, body scrub and brush and a little pot of Boots mango cocoa butter.
Yesterday I decided to treat myself and bought Boots 17 Magnetized Nail Polish in Lilac with some of my birthday money, which I have already tested and will be writing about later on today!
I cannot wait to try out all these new things and review them all for you, and will start doing so tomorrow when I review Lush’s Tuca Tuca Gorilla Perfume.
Which of these things would you like to try?
Thanks for reading,
Naomi x
