August Beauty Awards

Hi there! It’s the last day of the month, so it’s time for my monthly favourites post – a.k.a. my August Beauty Awards. As always, I picked my top 3 from all the products I reviewed this month, and there are a few honourable mentions as well. Let’s start with the top 3!

3rd place – Imperial Leather Indulgence Precious & Irresistible

These two Imperial Leather shower gels are simply wonderful. They smell amazing, and they’re gentle on the skin. Awesome stuff!

Runner-Up – Anna Sui Flight Of Fancy Eau De Toilette

Anna Sui Flight Of Fancy is a lovely summer fragrance. It’s sunny and lemoney, refreshing and juicy… it’s summer in a bottle!

WINNER – Malki Dead Sea The Miraculous Source Natural Sulphur Soap

This is probably the best product I’ve tried all year. Was there any doubt it would be my favourite product this month?

Onto the honourable mentions! Superdrug’s Vitamin E Skin Care Shower Moisturiser almost made the top 3. Bling Pop Firming & Brightening Face Mask With Peach was a nice surprise, and I’m enjoying the the lovely fragrance of my Beautifully Scrumptious Aloe Vera Body Butter.

Have you tried any of these products? Which products are you loving at the moment? Feel free to comment. And thanks for stopping by!

Mrs Strawberry Blonde

Primark PS… Brightening Rinse Off Mask Black Diamond

Hi there! Today’s post is about Primark’s PS… Brightening Rinse Off Mask Black Diamond. This is a clay mask that contains exfoliating particles and promises to brighten skin tone. You’re supposed to apply the mask, let it dry for 15-20 minutes, then rinse it off – done! Sounds easy! But does the mask work?

I got 3 uses out of this sachet, so I’m satisfied I reached the right conclusion which is… this mask is useless. It doesn’t feel cleansing, it doesn’t have any brightening effect at all, and the small exfoliating particles are really sharp. Ouch!

If you’re interested, Primark’s PS… Brightening Rinse Off Mask Black Diamond is available as 15ml for 80p. But I wouldn’t recommend this face mask at all.

Mrs Strawberry Blonde

Nail Of The Day – Hello Kitty Pink, Essence Colour Boost 10 Instant Adventure, 2True Glitterati Shade 6 & Stamping With Pueen 83

Hi there! I’ve got a Nail Of The Day post for you today. For this mani I painted my nails with Essence Colour Boots 10 Instant Adventure (1 coat, pinkies and ring fingers) and Hello Kitty Pink (2 coats, middle and index fingers, thumbs).

I love the Essence polish. It’s a dark blueberry jelly shade, and I love that it’s a one-coater! The Hello Kitty polish is of poor quality. I had tip-wear after half a day. I wore the mani for 3 days and I had to fill in the tips 6 times!

The glitter topper I used on my pinkies and ring fingers is 2True Glitterati Shade 6. This is a great glitter topper. It’s densely packed with glitter and it dries quickly.

I used Pueen‘s 83 stamping plate (which is part of Pueen‘s Buffet Leisure stamping plate collection) for the images on my thumbs, index and middle fingers. The black polish I stamped with is the wonderful Revlon Colorstay 270 Stiletto.

I did like this mani. The 2 styles wouldn’t have looked spectacular on their own, but I loved how the 2 contrasting styles looked together.

Mrs Strawberry Blonde

Beautifully Scrumptious Aloe Vera Body Butter

Hi there! I’ve got another skin care review for you today. A few weeks ago I picked up this Beautifully Scrumptious Aloe Vera Body Butter for £1 at Poundland. I’ve never had an aloe vera body butter, so it took me about 3 seconds to decide I had to give this one a try. And now that I’ve been using this product for a few weeks, here’s what I think. 🙂

I’m happy I bought this body butter. It’s not the most innovative product, but it hydrates my skin nicely and it doesn’t feel sticky. The biggest selling point is the aloe vera fragrance. It’s wonderfully fresh and natural. I’m enjoying it very much!

Beautifully Scrumptious Aloe Vera Body Butter is available as 220ml for £1 (give or take a few pence) at bargain stores. If you’re looking for a new body butter, you need to try this!

Mrs Strawberry Blonde

You Need This In Your Life – Malki Dead Sea The Miraculous Source Natural Sulphur Soap

Hi there! Today’s post is about Malki‘s Dead Sea The Miraculous Source Natural Sulphur Soap. This soap contains palm oil, olive oil, and coconut oil, as well as sulphur and Dead Sea salt. Since sulfur and Dead Sea salt are known to help with skin ailments like eczema, acne, and psoriasis, I was interested. Then I discovered that this soap is free of detergents and animal fat – and I knew I had to have it! I started to use this soap 4 weeks ago, and I’m blown away. Now let me tell you why I love this product!

First of all, this soap smells like soap. If you read somewhere that this soap has a strong sulphur smell, don’t believe it. Some people just never experienced the smell of good old-fashioned soap!

Alrighty… when I used the soap for the first time, I used it on my body and on my face. It doesn’t lather up like a shower gel or a face wash, but it cleanses skin very well. It also removed most of my make-up which was nice (but since it’s a soap, I wouldn’t recommend using it around the eyes).

Right after I got out of the shower, my skin felt super clean, yet not stripped. I didn’t use any body lotion afterwards, and I had no issues with dry skin at all. I loved it!

But here’s the best bit – the soap took care of the bumpy rash (probably some kind of heat or sweat rash) that has been bugging me for most of this summer. The rash was 50% better after one shower using the soap, and it was completely gone after just a few days. I’m now using this soap 2-3 times per week, and I think it does wonders for my skin. I haven’t had a single spot in 4 weeks, I have no new rashes or dry patches. And even my semi-permanent ezcema patch has been looking really calm and almost colourless for almost 4 weeks now.

I know I will use this soap forever (assuming it won’t ever be discontinued) – and my husband feels the same way! This is probably the best product I’ve tried all year. I would recommend this soap to everyone, especially to those with skin problems. If you’re not giving this soap a try, well, that’s your own fault really!

Malki‘s Dead Sea The Miraculous Source Natural Sulphur Soap is available as 90g for £3.75 (Boots).

Mrs Strawberry Blonde

Nail Of The Day – NYC Expert Last 205 Boundless Berry & Stamping With Pueen 100

Hi there! Today’s post is the last one for this week. This means that Nail Week has come to an end as well, and I’m back tomorrow with a product review. 🙂

Alright… for this mani I painted my nails with NYC Expert Last 205 Boundless Berry (2 coats). I love this colour. It’s gorgeous!

I thought about doing a glitter mani, but then I decided to stamp.

I used Pueen‘s 100 stamping plate (which is part of Pueen‘s Make Your Day stamping plate set).

The gold polish I stamped with is the one and only Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure 819 Coat Of Arms.

I really liked this mani. I’m glad I stamped because I love how these 2 colours look together! 🙂

Mrs Strawberry Blonde

Nail Of The Day – Rimmel Lycra Pro 500 Peppermint & China Glaze Fang-Tastic (Nail Fail)

Hi there! Heere’s another Nail Of The Day post.

For this mani I painted my nails with Rimmel Lycra Pro 500 Peppermint (2 coats).

Whilst I’m not the biggest fan of minty nail colours, I like this one. 🙂

When I did this mani I didn’t want to stamp again, so I decided to use a glitter topper. I opted for China Glaze Fang-Tastic because it looked incredibly pretty in the bottle. However, the mani looked quite odd with the creamy, minty base and the shimmering glitter topper.

I’m sure Fang-Tastic will look amazing over dark base colours, but this mani was another Nail Fail!

Mrs Strawberry Blonde

Nail Of The Day – Astor Fashion Studio 004 Deliciously Violet & L’Oréal Color Riche Top Coat Tweed 917 Jackie Tweed (Nail Fail)

Hi there! Today’s post is about a mani that I did a few months ago. I thought the mani would look awesome – but it didn’t. So I only for it for a day.

For this mani I painted my nails with Astor Fashion Studio 004 Deliciously Violet (2 coats). I’d describe the shade as a violet-tinted grey. It’s not my favourite colour, but I bet it’s a great base colour for stamping.

Actually, I wanted to stamp (I should have done that!), but I also wanted to try L’Oréal’s Color Riche Top Coat Tweed 917 Jackie Tweed. I went for the fuzzy top coat – and it was the wrong choice.

Nail fails happen. Onto the next mani! 🙂

Mrs Strawberry Blonde

Nail Of The Day – Accessorize Pink Spice & Stamping With JQ-L04

Hi there! Here’s another mani I did not too long ago. 🙂

For this mani I paited my nails with Accessorize Pink Spice. I’m not a big fan of this colour, but I can’t resist a bargain, and this polish was £1.20.

Unspectacular nail colours are often the most amazing backdrops for stamping “nail art” (which isn’t really nail art because there’s no skill required and, believe me, everyone can do it).

So I stamped! I used my cheap JQ-L04 stamping plate. The black polish I stamped with is Revlon Colorstay 270 Stiletto.

I think this mani looked alright. I like the images, and I think I should use this stamping plate more often!

Mrs Strawberry Blonde

Nail Of The Day – Galaxy Nails Feat. Rimmel, Manhattan, Sally Hansen & Primark

Hi there! Today’s post is another Nail Of The Day post. I did this galaxy mani a few weeks ago. Here’s how:

I painted my nails with Rimmel 60 Seconds 820 Hot Black To Go (2 coats).

I used a small piece of a make-up sponge and Primark’s PS… Marshmallow polish to sponge white blobs onto my nails. Then I used 2 colour polishes, Rimmel Lycra Pro 431 Stormy Skies and Manhattan Mode Pilot 01M, to fill in the white blobs. I used a sponge for this too.

There’s no galaxy mani without glitter, so I applied 1 coat of Sally Hansen’s Xtreme Wear 235 Supernova. This is my favourite glitter top coat!

I’ve done better galaxy manis in the past. However, I still think this one looked quite cool. Do you like nail art? Have you tried to do galaxy nails before? Feel free to get in touch. And thanks for reading!

Mrs Strawberry Blonde