July Beauty Awards

Hi there! It’s the last day of the month, so it’s time for my monthly favourites post. I’ve chosen my top 3 products from all the products I’ve reviewed this month, and I have a few honourable mentions as well. Let’s start with the top 3!

3rd place – Claire’s Meringue Flavoured Lip Balm

This lip balm isn’t really meringue-flavoured, but I still love it. The random sweet flavour is pleasant, and I cannot enough of these cute meringue faces.

Runner-Up – Radox Revive & Radox Uplifting

Radox’s Revive and Uplifting shower gels share the silver medal. These shower gels are perfect for warm summer mornings. They’re awesome!

WINNER – Superdrug Vitamin E Skin Care All Over Body Cream

Superdrug’s Vitamin E All Over Body Cream is one of the best moisturisers I’ve ever had. 11 stars!

Now onto the honourable mentions! I liked quite a few masks this month! Montagne Jeunesse’s Berry Sorbet Peel Off and Blueberry Blast Mud Masque were very good. Superdrug’s Argan Oil Clay Mask was really good too. And I think Boots Ingredients Energising & Revitalising Sheet Face Mask With Rooibos was just awesome.

Have you tried any of these products? If so, how do / did you like them? Which products did you like best this month? Feel free to comment. And thanks for reading!

Mrs Strawberry Blonde

Weekly Recap 24 – 30 Jul 2017

Hi there! I hope everyone had a great week so far. Today’s post is my weekly blog recap. If you’ve missed a post that might have interested you, this is your chance to catch up. 🙂

Monday 24 Jul – Haul! Lots Of New Products!

Monday’s post was about all the products I bought in July. Click here to read the post.

Tuesday 25 Jul – Nail Of The Day / Nail Art Challenge
Wednesday 26 Jul – Nail Of The Day / Nail Art Challenge

I showed you 2 recent manis on Tuesday and Wednesday. Click here to read Tuesday’s post. Or click here to read Wednesday’s post.

Thursday 27 Jul – Superdrug Vitamin E All Over Body Cream

On Thursday I reviewed Superdrug’s Vitamin E All Over Body Cream. Click here to read the post.

Friday 28 Jul – Katy Perry Killer Queen, Etienne Aigner Clear Day, Jesus Del Pozo Halloween Fever

Friday’s post contained a couple of fragrance reviews. Click here to read the post.

And this is it for this week. I hope you enjoy the rest of the weekend. And thanks for stopping by! 🙂

Mrs Strawberry Blonde

Reducing My Samples Stash – Katy Perry Killer Queen, Etienne Aigner Clear Day & Jesus Del Pozo Halloween Fever

Hi there! And welcome to today’s episode of Reducing My Samples Stash. I have lots of fragrance samples that I need to get on top of. So I picked 3 random fragrance samples to test and review. And I’m starting with Katy Perry Killer Queen.

Killer Queen contains the following fragrance notes: dark plum, wild berry and bergamot (top notes), velvet flower, rainbow plumeria and natural jasmine sambac (heart notes), and cashmeran, natural patchouli heart and liquid praline (base notes).

What’s Killer Queen like? It’s a simple fragrance. An incredibly sweet one. It smells like a mix of plum, dark chocolate and patchouli. I can see that this fragrance might appeal to women who aren’t really into fragrances, but who like sweet fragrances nonetheless. I’ll pass the sample on to a young relative – I’m sure she’ll be happy to finish it!

Sample number 2 is Etienne Aigner Clear Day (the sample on the left in the picture below). Clear Day features the following fragrance notes: apple, yuzu, mandarin and bergamot (top notes), melon, strawberry, peach, jasmine, magnolia and rose (heart notes), and chocolate, caramel, leather, musk, woods and vanilla (base notes).

I think Clear Day smells like a more dated version of Hugo Woman! It’s Hugo Woman with extra musk, soap and leather. I would describe Clear Day as a light yellow, feminine, fresh and optimistic fragrance that’s very suitable for day wear (office, day off, weekends, all seasons). I wouldn’t buy a full-size bottle, but I will finish this sample.

And the third sample is Jesus Del Pozo Halloween Fever (the sample on the right in the picture above) which features the following fragrance notes: orange, bergamot and rose (top notes), apricot, jasmine, lotus and ylang-ylang (heart notes), and vanilla, musk, tonka bean and patchouli (base notes).

I think that Halloween Fever isn’t very special. It smells like lotus or waterlily hand wash. I mean it! Over the past 15 years I’ve bought several cheap hand washes and shower gels that smelled pretty much like this fragrance. I hope my teenage relative will be happy to finish this sample.

Have you tried any of these fragrances? If so, how do / did you like them? Feel free to tell me. And thanks for reading! 🙂

Mrs Strawberry Blonde

100% Awesome & 100% Vegan & Cruelty-Free – Superdrug Vitamin E Skin Care All Over Body Cream

Hi there! Today’s post is about Superdrug’s Vitamin E Skin Care All Over Body Cream for normal to dry skin. This cream contains all sorts of good ingredients, like vitamins E, A, B, F and H, as well as calcium and coconut oil. And it promises to defend the skin against environmental damage. If you read on, I’ll let you know if this cream is any good. 🙂

What can I say? This cream is fantastic. The fragrance is to die for. I’d describe it as warm, tropical and ‘high end’. This cream smells just gorgeous! I also love the formula because this cream isn’t sticky at all, and it doesn’t feel like product on my skin. This is just what I want on warm summer days!

I could spend hours raving about this product, but I won’t! All I’m going to say is… this body cream is one of my all-time favourites. If you’ve never tried it, you’ve been missing out!

Superdrug’s Vitamin E Skin Care All Over Body Cream is available as 475ml for £2.99 which is fantastic value! This product carries the Leaping Bunny logo – it’s cruelty-free and suitable for vegans!

Mrs Strawberry Blonde

Nail Of The Day – Manhattan Buffalo 12 & Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear 235 Supernova / Nail Art Challenge #18 My Husband’s Polish Picks

Hi there! I’ve got a nail of the day post for you today. I let my husband choose the base colour and the glitter top coat, and this is the result!

For this mani I painted my nails with Manhattan Buffalo 12 (2 coats). And I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear 235 Supernova to add a touch of glitter. This mani is also challenge #18 My Husband’s Polish Picks of the 31 Days Nail Art Challenge.

OK, challenge #18 should have been ‘half moons’ but I couldn’t bring myself to attempt ‘proper’ half moon nails. I’ve looked up countless half moon manis over the past few months, but there wasn’t a single mani that I found at least semi-likeable.

Sure, there were lots of manis that were extremely well done. However, I really don’t like the look of half moon nails, so I’ve just replaced this challenge. 🙂

By the way, I really liked my husband’s polish picks. The base colour is really pretty, and the glitter is one of my all-time favourites – but my husband knows that, that’s why he chose this glitter topper. Feel free to comment if you want to. And thanks for reading!

Mrs Strawberry Blonde

Nail Of The Day – Galaxy Nails / Nail Art Challenge #31 Recreate A Favourite – Galaxies

Hi there! Today’s post is about the galaxy mani I did the other day. For this super easy mani I painted my nails with Revlon 999 Blackest Black (2 coats).

Then I used small pieces of a make-up sponge to apply different colour polishes to my nails.

I used 4 different Essence Colour Boost nail colours: Instant Friendship (pale nude pink), Instant Feeling (dusty lavender), Instant Summer (yellow), and Instant Match (blue).

I liked how my nails looked at this point. However, I knew I wanted star dust too! So I applied 1 coat of the one and only Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Xtreme Wear 235 Supernova.

This mani is 1 of the 3 encores I’m doing for the 31 Days Nail Art Challenge. This would be challenge #31 Recreate A Favourite II.

How do you like this mani? I have to say that I love it. I can’t stop staring at my nails! 😀 Feel free to let me know if you like this mani. And thanks for reading!

Mrs Strawberry Blonde

Haul! New Products From Boots, Montagne Jeunesse, TK Maxx, L’Oréal, Sukin, Una Brennan, Alberto Balsam & My Little Pony

Hi there! Today’s post is about the new products I bought in July. Here they are:

Boots Ingredients sheet masks are £2.50 each. But Boots ran a 4 for £3 promotion (Online only!), so I had to buy 4. I would have been stupid not to take advantage of the offer! I opted for 2 Luminous Youth masks (had them before, loved them), 1 Super Hyaluronic mask, and 1 Cleansing & Purifying mask.

I thought Montagne Jeunesse did masks (face, hair and foot masks) only. So I was surprised to find 2 body moisturisers at my local Poundworld store. I got a Buriti Fruit Body Smoothie and a Goji Berry Body Smoothie. £1 each.

I was happy to pick up a L’Oréal Elvive Smooth & Polish Thermo Detangling Spray for £1 (Poundland). And I got myself an Ekél Natural Clean Peeling Gel with Grape (£4.99, TK Maxx) and a Skinfood Mud Masque (£4.99, TK Maxx).

Two more Sukin products moved in with me! Sukin’s Clarifying Facial Tonic was £4.99 and Sukin’s Anti-Pollution Facial Masque was £5.99. The OM SHE Aromatherapy Skin Lift Hydrating Face Serum was £4.99. These 3 products came from TK Maxx.

And these are the last 3 products: Super Facialist By Una Brennan Pore Purifying Clay Mask (£4.99, TK Maxx), Alberto Balsam Colour Bright Detangler + UV Filter and My Little Pony Leave-In Hair Detangler. The 2 detangling sprays came from Poundworld, and they were £1 each.

This is what I bought in July. Lots of masks, I know! I’ll try to review all these products asap. Any comments? Feel free to get in touch. And thanks for reading! 🙂

Mrs Strawberry Blonde