September Favourites

Bravura London Glycolic Acid 15% Night Treatment
Bravura London make some of my favourite skincare products. I adore their chemical peels as they are super effective but they can be a bit of a faff to use. If I'm feeling lazy I love finishing off my evening skincare routine with their Glycolic Acid 15% Night Treatment. This night cream combines a super rich moisturiser with a high percentage of glycolic acid. The cream is quite thick so you only need a small amount & have to massage it in really well. I find that it can make my skin sting a bit when first applied, especially if I have any active spots but it doesn't cause irritation or redness. After a couple of minutes it melts into the skin & makes my face feel incredibly soft. It also kills off any blemishes, clears blocked pores & fades scarring. I honestly noticed a difference after just one use as when I woke up my face was glowing. My skin has adjusted to the high acid content & I use it several times a week now. I've tried moisturisers with acids in before but none of them have been quite as effective as this one.

Foreo Luna Mini 2
I used to think that the Clarisonic was pretty awesome. However as I learned more about skincare I realised how bad it truly was for your skin. That whole 'purging' stage is a load of rubbish, the high powered brush just irritates the skin. It seems that many of the other people who used to use Clarisonics have switched to the much gentler Foreo Luna cleansing tools & I'm actually really glad that I bought one. I decided to go for the Luna Mini 2 as I liked the size of it & I figured it had all the features I needed. The Luna range is quite different to the Clarisonic as it doesn't exfoliate the skin. Instead it deeply cleanses the pores using sonic vibrations, much like an electric toothbrush. At first it didn't seem like it did too much. My skin felt softer & better cleansed but otherwise I wasn't sure I had made a good purchase. But a couple of months down the line, I have definitely noticed a difference in the texture & clarity of my skin. I will be doing a full review of the Luna Mini 2 at some point as I do have a lot to say about this product but in short, I think it's a brilliant bit of skin technology.

Jeffree Star Skin Frost in Ice Cold
If there's anyone out there who knows a thing or two about highlighting, it's Jeffree Star. His liquid lipsticks are my absolute fave so when he started teasing his Skin Frosts months & months ago on Snapchat I knew I needed them in my life. I ordered Ice Cold & Peach Goddess and while I adore them both, I tend to reach for Ice Cold a little more often. It's an intensely shimmery white highlighter with a slight hint of gold to it which makes it more wearable than BECCA Pearl. It gives the skin an almost metallic sheen & really pops on pale complexions. Highlighters are definitely my favourite makeup product in general & this one shines like no other.

CosRX Advanced Snail 96 Mucin Power Essence
Last month I mentioned my love for the Mizon Snail Recovery Gel Cream. It's a great gateway product into the world of snail based skincare. I've had fantastic results from CosRX's products so I decided to try out their Advanced Snail 96 Mucin Power Essence & I like this one even better. Essences are kinda like serums but you apply them first to add an extra layer of hydration after your toner. It gives my skin an incredible sense of comfort, making it feel soft & juicy. It also reduces irritation & heals the skin. It spreads out easily so I only need pump for my whole face. Any more than that & my forehead can look too shiny during the day. You can use it once or twice a day depending on your skin's hydration levels so I just use it when I need to. I also really want to try out CosRX's snail moisturiser as I just can't get enough of that slime on my face!

Tarte Shape Tape Contour Concealer in Fair
You have no idea how long I've spent stalking the QVC website for this concealer to come back in stock but it was worth every second. This is probably one of my best purchases this year. Shape Tape is a full coverage concealer & when I say full, I mean full! It works wonders on my dark circles & covers up blemishes beautifully. The concealer blends out effortlessly & stays put all day. It doesn't look cakey or crease whatsoever. I normally have to bake my undereye area or my concealer creases like mad but a light dusting of powder does the job here. I also love how huge the bottle & wand are as it means I don't have to keep dipping it back in the tube. If you order it from QVC UK you can currently only get it with Tarte's Quickie Blending Sponge which bumps up the price quite a bit. The sponge is rubbish but I guess it still works out cheaper than ordering it from overseas. Hopefully they'll start selling it individually soon as I would most definitely repurchase this amazing concealer!

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Sephora In The UK

It's the moment us beauty lovers have been waiting for - Sephora now ship to the UK! I remember visiting one of their London stores way back in the day but it didn't take long for them to shut up shop and they sadly became exclusive to places like the US, Europe & China. I was lucky enough to travel to New York a couple of years ago & their store on Broadway & Prince Street was a complete revelation. Makeup heaven. So when they recently announced their plans to start shipping their products to the UK I literally squealed with delight. I decided to place a lil' order & everything went off without a hitch so I'd thought I'd share my Sephora purchases with you. I'm sure I'll be doing some full reviews & swatches of all these products very soon.



The first thing I knew I needed to order was some of the Tarte Amazonian Clay 12-Hour Blushes. Tarte have just come to the UK as well via QVC. However they've priced the blushes at £26.50 each & only had a couple of shades available - none of which were on my wishlist. So I ordered them off Sephora and even with the shipping & customs charges it still worked out cheaper overall. The shades I picked are Dollface, Tipsy & Exposed. Dollface is a light candy pink. You can never have too many pink blushes in my opinion! Tipsy is a bright coral colour. I've watched so many of Leesha's tutorials where she's used Tipsy on her cheeks & she always looks beautiful. Exposed is a nude pink shade. It's quite similar to NARS Douceur but a bit more pink toned. It's a lovely natural looking blush that will help to bring out your cheekbones.



Another Tarte product I got was The Sculptor Contouring Face Slenderizer in Park Ave Princess. This is basically a cream contouring product housed in the oh so convenient form of a chubby stick. It'll make contouring a breeze & I think it'll be especially good for slimming down your nose. I've never seen anything like this before but it's such an ingenious idea! I expect to see many brands copying this product very soon.



The last item I ordered was the Alterna Caviar CC Cream. I adore Alterna's Caviar haircare range & have heard so many good things about this hair cream. I think you can actually get this in the UK but it always seems to be out of stock everywhere & it ended up being cheaper ordering it from the US. CC stands for complete correction. It's a styling cream offering ten different features including heat protection, UV protection, moisture & shine. I've only tried it on dry hair but so far, so good!



They also throw in a few samples of your choice with every order. I picked GLAMGLOW SUPERMUD Clearing Treatment, Clinique Acne Solutions Clinical Clearing Gel & AmorePacific Future Response Age Defense Creme. I thought GLAMGLOW only had one type of mask but looks like I was wrong, they have several different ones on Sephora including an eye mask! I didn't get on with the GLAMGLOW Youthmud mask but I figured this one might be different. It's always good to keep a spot treatment handy so I wanted to give this Clinique one a go. The full size version of the AmorePacific moisturiser costs a whopping £123 so although I'll never be able to buy it, I thought it would be nice to try.

The shipping restrictions are fairly annoying as I would've loved to have gotten my hands on some nail polishes, NARS or Hourglass products. You also have to spend £75 to get the £10 shipping deal, otherwise you can end up paying crazy expensive postage & customs fees. I would suggest choosing the UK as your international shipping destination before browsing as it automatically converts all the prices to GBP. If you're worried about getting hit by customs charges when your parcel arrives at your door - don't be. Sephora use a company called Borderfree who add on some charges to your order so you're totally covered when your package arrives in the UK.

To break down the prices for you my order came to £80.51, I paid £10 shipping & then £18.09 on top of that to cover taxes and Borderfree's customs charges. In total I paid £108.60 which works out at an average of £21 per product. I placed my order on April 12th & it arrived on the 19th via a DHL courier. I've bought things from the UK that have taken longer than that so I was really pleased with the fast delivery. Overall I'm really happy with my Sephora buying experience. I stupidly didn't sign up as a Beauty Insider before placing my order so I missed out on another freebie. Make sure you register an account beforehand & you can pick a deluxe sample as well as the little sachets. The amount you have to spend to be able to place a UK order means you'll definitely earn enough points for a Beauty Insider reward. I can still claim it with my next order though & I'm sure I'll be buying plenty more things in future!

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