May Giveaway Winner

And the winner is... Gemma Kingsbury. I will get the prizes out to you as soon as I get your address, and I've made myself put them in a box as these truly are some of my favourite products.

Thanks so much to everyone who took part and see you back here in a couple of days for next months giveaway which is a little bit hair, a little bit make-up.

Cover FX Custom Infusion Drops

I have a confession to make. I have been using, and liking these for months, but wasn't going to review because they just feel like a gimicky product that I shouldn't like. But then I remembered why I started this blog in the first place so here's the review.

Years and years ago Benefit made Talk to the Tan which was a sort of weird instant tan thing that I used to add to my winter foundation to warm it up or to my moisturiser to make a tinted moisturiser. A little went a long way. When I went to re-buy it they no longer did it anymore and I could never understand why it hadn't taken off. In fact why were there not more products to help you change the foundations and moisturisers you already own? One of the complaints I hear most is people spending money on a foundation only to find it is the wrong colour or texture when they've used it themselves at home. Why are there not more things available to solve this problem? Well Cover FX have both sorted, (more on the Custom Cover drops later) I've been trying out the Hydration (Type F + Neroli) and Radiance (Type C + Lemongrass) Custom Infusion Drops for quite some time and having been pretty dismissive of them at first I now use them by choice, not just because I'm testing them out.

Daniel Sandler Watercolour Blush - Quick Review

I really love these blushers and have had them in my pro-kit for sometime but the limited edition Rose Glow colour has tipped me over the edge.

Louise Young Lip Trio

Allure

Are you one of those people who can never quite find the right lip colour? I am. I have drawers full, full, of lipsticks that are just not quite right. Lovely, but never seem to be perfect. This was no longer a problem when I started using Louise Young lip trio's. Now I always have the right colour to suit my mood, whatever mood that may be. I am obsessed.
I've had Free Bird in my kit for quite some time - it's fantastic to mix for bridal and although I do have a palette I've made up of all my lipsticks I hate cutting a lipstick up and frankly I don't get much call for the more exciting colours anyway for brides anyway. MAC Impassioned anyone? At the moment it's bridal nudes and pinks or classic reds that I need and the Louise Young palettes Free Bird, Pin Up and Allure have all of these covered.

Benefit The Porefessional - The Civilian Report

I am in constant battle with my nose pores. I’m sure no one else thinks they’re that massive but I feel like my face is a supermassiveblackhole of nose pores, just waiting to suck in all environmental foulness, getting ever bigger, till my face is nothing but one giant nose pore, scaring people and making them cry. 

This product is very smooth and light and, unlike some other pore minimisers and mattifiers I’ve tried doesn’t feel like it adds another layer of product to your face – my pet hate – and rather just kinds of disappears into the skin ether, taking a good percentage of nose pores with it. It improves the appearance of my pores without erasing them so entirely that I looked like a plastic-faced Hollywood wannabe, but with a slap of of tinted moisturiser on top even by the end of the day I’m not delivering any significant shine, and nor are my pores snapping hungrily at any passing person.  

Recommend. 

What You Need to Know - Benefit The Porefessional

• £24.50 
• 22ml
• Can be used under or over make-up to reduce the appearance of pores
• Oil-free
• Colourless
• Other products from Benefit: Bad Gal Lash, Hello Flawless Foundation, Benefit Speed Brow, 
• Available in the UK from Feel Unique, Benefit, Boots, Asos 

May Giveaway Prizes - Friday Video

A really quick look at what you could win this month to celebrate the blog turning 10 this year.

If you want to enter then go here and follow the Rafflecopter link at the bottom

Bobbi Brown Eye Opening Mascara

This seems to be a love it or hate it mascara, even down to some of the Bobbi Brown make-up artists I spoke to when I bought it. I really love it I have to say. It ticks nearly all boxes for me in terms of what I'm always trying to find from a mascara and the only downside is the clumpiness but more on that in a minute. In fact I'd say it seems to be one of the most controversial products I've researched with five star reviews from some and one or two star reviews from others.

I really like an old fashioned bristley brush and am not that fussed whether it's big or small as long as the mascara itself is properly black, which this is. The brush seems to be too big for some - I find it totally fine, it's not dissimilar to the Benefit Bad Gal one. You need to apply this from root to tip without wiggling the brush, having removed as much product as possible on the scraper. You get a lot of product on the brush and some people seem to have had problems with the mascara squidging out of the tube when you screw the lid back on. I haven't had this but I can imagine it happening - if it did I would take it back to the shop and get them to swap it.

Goe Oil

Some products fit in so easily with your life that you forget to review them - Gao Oil is one of these. I was given it by a friend who'd been to the US on holiday and had become obsessed with it, as did I. It went into my washbag and every time I use it I think 'I must review that' and then forget. Well review it I will.

I rather absent-mindedly assumed this was the latest cool Korean product she'd just happened to find in the US but Jao brand are actually from Pennsylvania and Goe stands for Garden of Eden - a little insight into the idea behind this wonder product. It's been a decade or so since everyone fell in love with Paw Paw oil and Goe is a very similar product though, if possible, even more multi-tasking. I have used it as a body moisturiser, on my dry skin patches that would have become eczema, as an eye make-up remover and a tamer of frizzy hair and apparently it can also be used as aftersun. The reason it went straight into my washbag is that it means you have every eventuality covered in one tube; cracked heels, rough cuticles, eye make-up remover, tame flyaways, moisturiser, soothing shave-rash, chapped lips or nose from a cold. This will sort out all of these and more. And it's incredibly cool packaging makes it acceptably unisex.

LMB Turns 10 - May Giveaway (NOW CLOSED)

If you have enough make-up and skincare is not really your thing then this could be the month for you. All three of the prizes this month are my absolute favourites starting with the Hand Chemistry Youth Intense hand cream. Wherever I'm going I need to have this in my bag, if I'm starting a long stint of work this will be one of the necessary things I'll pick up to go into my kit beforehand.

A long with the perfect mascara I am always on the quest to find the perfect red nail varnish and I'm pretty sure that Happy Wife Happy Life, a limited edition from Essie last year (or even the year before), is it. Not too dark, not too orangey, I always get complimented on it and wear it most of the year round (in summer I go a bit more coral or neon).

The last time I had naked toe nails must have been when I was 13 or so. I can't understand why anyone would want to leave undecorated something that is just so perfect for a pop of colour. For me it is the same as a made up face with no lipstick, nail varnish is just so glamorous, even with jeans, t-shirt and flip flops. To ensure my nails are in good condition however I am always very careful to use a base coat and Butter London's Nail Foundation is the best I've found.

This is basically all I need, and therefore all I think you need, for great nails and happy hands. I will pick the winner from those entrants who follow my YouTube channel - leave a comment below letting me know what your YouTube username is so it's easy for me to find you. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway