Love Me Beauty Box December 2013

Love Me Beauty Box* - £10 + £2.95 Delivery

For December Love Me Beauty brought out their special Christmas edition box. While there was still a choice of three boxes as usual the options didn't differ too much this month. I went for Menu 1 because it contained two face masks & those are always fun to try out. Apparently we were supposed to receive a surprise Christmas gift in our boxes but I only got the five items included on the menu. I'm definitely not complaining though because the contents of the box were really good, especially the face masks!




Lord & Berry Intensity Lipstick in Glazed Pink
I liked the Lord & Berry lipstick I received in last month's box but this colour just isn't for me. It's a frosty nude pink shade and I can't help but think that it makes me look a bit dead. It seems quite grey toned. The formula of these lipsticks is very creamy & pigmented but I think I'll have to pass on this particular lipstick to one of my friends.




Lord & Berry Kissproof Lip Liner in Romantica
Now this colour is a lot more me. If you prefer matte lips then it can sometimes be easier to just use a lip liner over some lip balm. This one was creamy & well pigmented so it was a lot easier to work with than a lot of other lip liners. It doesn't dry out your lips or make them feel tight either. I wouldn't say it lives up to it's claims of being 'kissproof' but it does leave a nice stain on your lips. I just wish they would've given us a lipstick that matches this bright pink lip liner.

Rodial 5 Minute Facial
This product has such a weird texture. Think Maybelline Dream Matte Mousse in the form of a face mask. It's an exfoliating mask with very fine grains. You leave it to dry for 5 minutes and then rub off most of the product with your fingertips. As you rub it has an exfoliating effect on your face. Then you wash off the excess with warm water. It did sting my skin a little bit when I first applied it but that soon went away. When I washed my face after using this I was left with amazingly baby soft skin. My pores were barely visible and my face looked smoother & brighter. It may be a bit of a strange product but the effects are incredible.

S5 Vitality Mask
I'd never heard of S5 Skincare before so I was really intrigued by this product. S5 make skincare products designed for stressed skin featuring highly effective organic bioactives. I love me some organic skincare so I had high hopes for this product. This is another face mask but it's very different to the Rodial one. The texture is more like a serum & it feels very cooling on your face as you apply it. You just apply a thick layer of this stuff & wash it off after 5 minutes. It makes my skin feel really fresh & smooth. The best thing about this is the wonderful glow it gives to your skin. It's a perfect remedy for dull & tired Winter skin. I'll definitely be looking into S5's other products in future because this mask was so lovely to use.



Headline Colors Nail Polish in Quicksand
I previously received a Headline Colours nail polish in another Love Me Beauty box (back when it was called BeautecoBox) and was very impressed with the lovely gold colour I chose. In this box there wasn't a choice of nail polish colour but I really do like Quicksand. It's a classy & chic taupe shade that is opaque in just one coat. The brush in these polishes is a good shape so I find them really easy to apply and the formula of the polish is very smooth & creamy. It has a nice glossy finish too. This shade is very chip resistant compared to the gold one I tried so this is a bit of a one coat wonder.

This was another great box with three fullsize products. I always think the ratio of samples to fullsize products is perfect in the Love Me Beauty boxes. I feel like some of these brands keep popping up though, especially Lord & Berry. Hopefully there'll be some completely new brands to try in next year's boxes. I kinda wish this box was a bit more festive though as nothing really set it apart from the regular boxes. You can subscribe to Love Me Beauty for £10 a month plus £2.95 delivery with no minimum subscription term. They currently have a special 20% off discount for beauty blog readers (first time orders only) – just enter LMBBB20 on the delivery section when signing up. The code is valid until 10th Jan. Visit the Love Me Beauty website to find out more.

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Rodial Skinny Beach

A couple of weeks ago Rodial put a special offer on twitter in which you could purchase two of their Skinny Beach products - Skinny Beach Sticks & Skinny Beach SPF 15 Tinted - for just £21 including shipping. Considering this was a massive saving of £73 I decided to give it a go. I'd always wanted to try some of their diet sticks, either Crash Diet or Tummy Tuck, as who doesn't love a product offering inch loss with literally no effort? The premise of the diet sticks is that you mix one sachet with 100ml of water and drink that every day for two weeks. This supposedly results in inch loss from the waist & hip areas. However the Skinny Beach range are slightly different in that as well as slimming your stomach they boost your natural UV protection and tanning levels to ensure more time efficient and successful tanning.

If you've ever seen one of my outfit posts you would know that I am ghostly in colour but I'm pretty happy that way. And I am most definitely not heading to the beach this Summer (unless a day trip to Brighton counts?). So to be honest that whole tanning element is pretty useless to me but I could definitely do with a flatter stomach.



I tried my first Skinny Beach stick this morning. This is what it looks like in drink form. The flavour is quite pleasant, like a very watered down glass of papaya juice. I'll be drinking these for the next two weeks so I'll let you know if they actually do anything. I measured my waist and hips this morning just before drinking it. My waist is currently 29" and my hips are 37". I'm hoping that these will take either one or two inches off each of these measurements. If they can do that I will say that this experiment has been successful. I will be continuing with my current diet & exercise routine of 1200 calories a day with lots of walking & weight lifting so that this is fair. Plus I do really want this product to work!



The SPF 15 Tinted seems like a product that is definitely not for me. As you can see it comes out as a very dark brown glittery liquid. When rubbed into the skin there is not a noticeable difference in colour at all. It does give a very slight glow & from these pictures the only difference I can see is that it seems to have collected in the pores on my arm. Gross. It has also left loads of glitter on my arm further establishing my Edward Cullen sparkly vampire look.

This product is said to 'immediately firm, lift and tone the body as well as boosting your natural tanning ability, leaving you with a darker, richer tan, but in less exposure time. Meanwhile caffeine, carnitine complex and saccharide salt work together to rid the body of cellulite presence, reduce swelling and water retention and to improve the overall firmness of the skin'. These promises make this product sound like something every beach-goer could do with. However the product description appears to have left out the repulsive smell! Seriously it smells bloody awful, far worse than that biscuity fake tan smell. It actually makes me feel a little bit sick. I was planning to use this on my stomach and legs for the slimming effect but it just smells too bad for me to even attempt to use again.

So those are my initial impressions of the Rodial Skinny Beach products. I'll let you know if the sticks have had any effect in two weeks. Did anyone else purchase this offer? I'd love to know your thoughts.

EDIT: Since for some reason I never posted about these again (oops) I'd just like to let everyone know that these things do not work. I didn't lose a single pound or any inches off my waist etc. So I really don't recommend wasting your money. You'd be better off doing a juice cleanse or just a normal low-cal diet.