2022 Favourites (Skin Care, Hair Care, Eyes, Lips, Fragrances)

Hi there! Today’s post is about my favourite products in 2022. Only the best of the best! Let’s take a look!

Scinic Sparkling Pore Toner

This is one of the best toners I’ve ever used. 😍

Agent Provocateur Fatale Intense Eau De Parfum

Fatale Intense is like a lighter version of Thierry Mugler’s Angel. 😇

Jil Sander Simply Elixir Eau De Parfum & Rich Body Cream

Simply Elixir was a very successful blind buy. It’s like a lady’s version of Dior Fahrenheit! 🌡

Oriflame Mirage Eau De Parfum

Mirage is one of the most beautiful and unique fragrance I’ve ever had the pleasure of smelling. It’s the Moira Rose of fragrances. 😍

Yves Saint Laurent Elle Limited Edition 2011, Yves Saint Laurent Elle Limited Edition 2012

I love YSL’s limited editions of Elle! 🗼

Superdrug Naturally Radiant Moisturising Facial Oil

Superdrug’s Naturally Radiant Facial Oil is a skin care super hero! 💗

Pantene Pro-V Miracles Grow Strong Biotin + Bamboo Shampoo & Conditioner

These Pantene hair care products are some of my all-time favourite shampoo and conditioner combos. 😍

Antonio Banderas Her Secret Temptation Eau De Toilette

Her Secret Temptation is another amazing Antonio Banderas fragrance. Wow! 💗

Boots Live + Be Woodland Whisper Whipped Body Cream

This whipped body cream is one of the best body moisturisers I’ve used over the past year (or more). Insanely beautiful fragrance, perfect formula. 😍

Marks & Spencer Lip Balm
Prada Infusion De Fleur D’Oranger Eau De Parfum

This M&S lip balm is one of the best lip products I’ve ever used. Incredible stuff. 😍
Prada’s orange flower fragrance is my favourite Prada fragrance. I hope they’ll relaunch it so I can repurchase this gem! 💗

Revlon Custom Eyes 020 Naturally Glamorous

I love this eye palette so much! The quality of the eyeshadows is insane! 😍

Lancôme Hypnôse

Hypnôse is a cult classic and an incredibly beautiful fragrance. I love it! 💗

Ekél Natural Clean Peeling Gel Rice Bran

This is Ekél’s best peeling gel. Awesome stuff! 💗

MakeUp Revolution Redemption Palette Romantic Smoked

Wow, what an eye palette! This one was a wonderful surprise! 😍

Marks & Spencer Spiced Bergamot Eau De Toilette

M&S did an amazing job with this budget Light Blue-style fragrance. No, it’s not a dupe for Light Blue, but it’s the same type of fresh and summery citrus fragrance. 😍

Giorgio Armani Armani Code Summer Eau Fraîche
Nip + Fab Renew Retinol Fix Tonic Extreme

Armani Code Summer was a wonderful summer surprise. 🌞
Nip + Fab’s retinol toner is simply magical. 😍

Aussie Mega Shampoo & Conditioner

Aussie Mega is truly mega! An all-time favourite hair care combo. 💗

Yves Rocher Un Matin Au Jardin Cerisier En Fleurs Eau De Toilette
Salvador Dali Dalissime Eau De Toilette

Yves Rocher’s Cerisier En Fleurs fragrance was another lovely summer surprise. 🌞
Dalissime is one of my all-time favourite fragrances. I’ve been buying it since the 90s! 😍

Olay Regenerist 3 Point Super Age-Defying Cream

This Olay moisturiser is simply stellar! I love it! 💗

Botanical Lab Neem Leaf + Salicylic Acid Anti-Blemish Gentle Face Wash
Neutrogena Clear & Soothe Toning Mist With Turmeric

This Botanical Lab face wash is one of the best face washes I’ve ever used. 😍
Neutrogena’s face mist with turmeric is a new skin care favourite. 💗

Ramer Sponges Cleansing Shammy For Sensitive Skin

This Shammy by Ramer Sponges is one of the best things I’ve ever bought. It’s that good that I bought 6 more already. These should last me for a long time – but I would always stock up on these. 💗

Marks & Spencer Water Jasmine Eau De Toilette

This fragrance is one of my favourites. It’similar to Light Blue (no, they’re not the same), and it’s refreshing and has this happy aura… I love it! 😍

Superdrug Revive Hair Care Collagen Shampoo & Conditioner

Superdrug did a fabulous job with these brilliant vegan collagen hair care products. 😍

Nuxe Rêve de Miel Eau Savoureuse Parfumante / Delectable Fragrant Water
Poundland #6 Vit C Toner

Rêve de Miel is one of my new favourite fragrances. I wish I had tried it sooner! 💗
Poundland’s Vit C Toner is an amazing skin care product. I love using it. 😍

Superdrug Extracts Banana 3 In 1 Hair Mask

Another amazing surprise find – I’m still enjoying this banana hair mask from Superdrug. 💗

Olay Anti-Wrinkle Firm & Lift Day Cream With SPF 15

Olay products have served me so well over the years, and this lovely face cream is no exception. I love it! 💗

I Love… Chocolate Truffle Nourishing Body Butter
Kenzo Amour Eau De Parfum

OMG, this Chocolate Truffle Body Butter is out of this world. LOVE! 😍
And what can I say about Kenzo Amour? It’s one of the most beautiful fragrances ever. 11 stars don’t do it justice. 💗

And this is it for the year! I hope you love some of these awesome products too – and if you don’t know them, I hope you’ll give them a try. Thanks for stopping by again today. Have a happy and healthy 2023! 🥳🥳🥳

Mrs Strawberry Blonde 💙💛

Declutter & Swatches Part 3 – Astor, B., MUA, NYC, Rimmel, L’Oréal

Hi there! Today’s post is about a bunch of beauty products I swatched the other day. And here they are!

Astor Color Last VIP 240 Desire

Wow, what a bright and velvety red! Beautiful formula and beautiful colour. This is a good lipstick.

MUA MakeUp Academy Power Pout Intense Tint & Balm Crazy In Love

This is supposed to be a tinted balm. It’s a nightmare to apply. The colour is uneven and you’ll have to go over your lips 10 times to get the colour right. Not good.

MUA MakeUp Academy Power Pout Intense Tint & Balm Rendezvous

Just like the tinted lip balm above, this one wasn’t good (for the same reasons).

MUA MakeUp Academy Power Pout Intense Tint & Balm Broken Hearted

3rds time’s the charm? Nope. Another disappointing tinted lip balm from MUA. Also, this is by far the worst with respect to the uneven colour. It’s very streaky.

MUA Sheer Finish Lipgloss Let’s Meet

This lipgloss is a bit too sheer. You would need a lot of product to get any visible colour on your lips. But good if you don’t really want much colour with your lipgloss.

Superdrug B. Lipstick 054 Eton Mess

This is a light red. Not bad but not really my colour.

NYC City Duet Eyeshadow 799B Vintage Style

This is a small eyeshadow duo. An off-white shade and a brown shade.

These are actually quite nice!

Rimmel Glam Eyes Quad Eyeshadow 018 Romantic Cool

Another small eyeshadow compact. This one’s from Rimmel.

3 shimmery shades, 1 matte shade (3, grey). The shimmers are surprisingly highly pigmented, but the chalky matte shade isn’t.

L’Oréal La Couleur 015 Flashback Silver

This is a great eyeshadow – it’s bursting with pigment. It’s also easy to blend and I haven’t had any fallout!

And this is it for today’s swatchfest. Thanks for stopping by! xx

Mrs Strawberry Blonde 💙💛

MakeUp Revolution Redemption Palette Romantic Smoked

Hi there! Today’s post is about this MakeUp Revolution Redemption Palette Romantic Smoked. I’ve had this palette for a little while, and I only used 2 of the eyeshadows so far. But I’m going through my stash to see what’s worth keeping, and which products need to go. So I’ve now swatched the entire palette now. Let’s take a look!

The first 4 eyeshadows are beautiful shimmers – an off-white, a light brown, a pale peach and an olive shade. All of them are buttery and highly pigmented. And I’ve used all of them in different looks so far, and I like them all.

The 5th shade is a shimmery rosey pink. I like it a lot. The next 3 shades are mattes – a dark rose, a pale rose and a medium brown. All of them are highly pigmented, and they’re easy to blend. I like all of these 4 shades!

Onto the last 4 eyeshadows which are all mattes – a pale pink, a charcoal, a purple and a sandy shade. Thr first 2 mattes are easy to blend, but the last 2 are a bit chalky.

All in all, MakeUp Revolution Redemption Palette Romantic Smoked is a really good quality eye palette. 10 of the 12 shades are bursting with pigment and are easy to work with. This palette was £4, so I have no reason to complain!

Mrs Strawberry Blonde 💙💛

W7 The Naughty Nine Arabian Nights

Hi there! Today’s post is about an eyeshadow palette – W7 The Naughty Nine Arabian Nights. W7 is a drugstore cosmetics brand from the UK. According to W7, their products are cruelty-free (and they don’t sell in China).

OK, let’s look at the palette now! It has 9 eyeshadows, all of them nude shades. Since 6 of the eyeshadows are lighter shades, I would say the palette is more suited to lighter skin tones.

Let’s start with the first 3 eyeshadows – below. The first shade is a matte, poorly pigmented, chalky pink. It hardly shows up on me. It also doesn’t blend well, but you wouldn’t know it because it’s barely there. The second shade is a pale, shimmery peach. Another barely there shade with respect to its (lack of) pigment. Shade 3 is a matte light coral shade. Just like shade 1, it’s poorly pigmented, it’s barely there and it’s also rather chalky. I’m not a fan of these 3 shades.

Onto the second row below! Eyeshadow number 4 is a pale gold. It’s also far from bursting with pigment, but this one looks nice when I use it as an accent in the inner corners of my eyes. Shade 5 is a light-brown-meets-orange kind of shade. Apologies for the pinkish hue on the left. This is a scar which I thought I’d covered. Oops! However, this eyeshadow is also not great. Unfortunately, it’s a bit too dark and too orangey for the inner corners of my eyes. I also don’t like the colour on my eyelids. Shade number 6 is a light toffee colour. Also matte, and also chalky.

And right below is row 3. No, this photo was not taken in a different setting or with different lighting. It’s just that my arm had a bit of a pink colour after I had removed the eyeshadow from the previous swatches. Alrighty, shade 7 is my favourite of the bunch. It’s a classic shimmery rosey light brown. I like it! Shades 8 and 9 are matte browns. Yes, also chalky and poorly pigmented. Not easy to apply.

This eye palette looked promising but once I started to use it, I found that only 2 eyeshadows are worth my time. I’ll make sure to get some use out of shades 4 and 7 over the next few weeks, but I won’t keep this palette for much longer.

W7 The Naughty Nine Arabian Nights eyeshadow palette is available for about £3. I bought it at a local bargain store (I want to say B&M but it may have been somwehere else).

Mrs Strawberry Blonde 💙💛

Revlon Custom Eyes 020 Naturally Glamorous

Hi there! Today’s post is about this Revlon Custom Eyes 020 Naturally Glamorous eye shadow compact that I found in the bargain bin – I believe it was £1.99. I liked the neutral colours, and I thought they would suit me. So I gave these eyeshadows a try.

The shades are (from left to right) a matte black-tinted dark brown, a metallic golden topaz shade, a shimmery beige, a metallic teddy brown, and a gold-tinted light brown.

When I did the swatches, I was blown away. These eyeshadows are highly pigmented, buttery and so beautiful! I’ve worn them in all different kinds of combinations already, and I love the looks I can create with this compact.

This little compact was one of the biggest positive surprises of the year so far. Based on my experience, I’d recommend it! Revlon Custom Eyes 020 Naturally Glamorous is discontinued, but you might be able to find it online or in a drugstore bargain bin.

Mrs Strawberry Blonde 💙💛

Declutter & Swatches Part 1 – Rimmel, Essence, NYC, Manhattan, Astor, Beauty UK & W7

Hi there! I’m in the process of going through my almost bottomless stash of cosmetics – and will throw out what I don’t want anymore or what has gone off. A few products will be kept. Lots of swatches too – all swatches were done on a well moisturised forearm! OK, let’s take a look!

1 Manhattan X-Treme Last & Shine Lipstick 94P

What a beautiful lipstick! I wish I tried it sooner! I will keep this one and start using it asap!

2 Rimmel Moisture Renew Lipstick 330 Sloane’s Plum

This lipstick looks almost black. But when applied, it’s a medium plum shade.

3 Rimmel Moisture Renew Lipstick 860 Auburn Breeze

A reddish brown in the bullet, but a sheer brownish red on skin.

4 Rimmel Moisture Renew Lipstick 680 Precious Brown

Precious Brown is a bit too pale and too sheer for me.

5 Rimmel Moisture Renew Lipstick 840 Burgundy Shine

Not a bad colour, but too vampy for me. I’m very pale, and this shade gives me an unwanted goth look.

6 NYC Cityproof Twistable Intense Lip Color 050 Park Slope Peach

Now this is one ugly colour! Binned right away!

7 Astor Rouge Couture 301 Nude Silk

Nude Silk is a beautiful shade. I will keep this one too.

8 Astor Colour Last VIP 344 Classy Red

I like this one! It’s a nice, wearable red. I will keep this one for now.

9 Beauty UK Eye Shadow Palette No. 4 Earth Child

This is what the eyeshadows look like.

Top row swatches – decent shades and pigmentation!

Bottom row swatches… yikes!

This palette will be binned!

10 Essence All About Nude Eyeshadow

Not sure if this is mould (top right), but this eye palette is not only new and unused – it is still sealed! 🤢

And the last two for today… Essence Silky Touch Blush 20 Babydoll. It was my go-to blush until March 2020. But I haven’t touched it since – because I work from home permanently, and whenever I don’t have to be on camera, I don’t bother with make-up. Anyhoo, I’m now saying goodbye to this pretty blush.

I’m also letting this W7 Silky Eyes Bare It All eye compact go. I haven’t touched in since March 2020. I loved the 2 brown shades so much! But it’s goodbye now!

I’m happy that I started to go through my stash. It’s not always easy to let things go, especially when there are hidden gems which I never even tried… but it has to be done. By the way, I’ve also binned about 20 products which I didn’t find swatch-worthy – not too bad!

Thanks for stopping by! x

Mrs Strawberry Blonde

Revlon CustomEyes 010 Sweet Innocence, NYC Metro Quartet Eyeshadow 816A Chelsea Chic

Hi there! Today’s post is about 2 small eyeshadow compacts – Revlon CustomEyes 010 Sweet Innocence and NYC Metro Quartet Eyeshadow 816A Chelsea Chic. Let’s take a look at Revlon CustomEyes 010 Sweet Innocence first!

Sweet Innocence is a cute looking little compact. The 5 shades are dark grey, peachy nude, champagne, dusty plum and vintage pink.

I’ve done a few looks with this palette, but I found the quality of the eyeshadows to be poor. They were chalky, it was impossible to build them up, and they didn’t blend.

After the disappointing experience with the Revlon eyeshadows, I tried NYC Metro Quartet Eyeshadow 816A Chelsea Chic.

This little eye palette contains 4 shades: a pale gunpowder, a medium chocolate brown, a frosty baby pink, and a light brown tinted grey.

I’ve done a few looks with this eyeshadows as well, and I think that the pale gunpowder and the brownish grey were alright. The chocolate brown shade was extremely chalky, and I didn’t care for the frosty pink.

Based on my experience, I wouldn’t recommend these small eye palettes (or compacts). I found them at some bargain store (Poundland?), so at least I didn’t spend much money on them.

Mrs Strawberry Blonde

MUA MakeUp Academy Matte Lipstick Fawn Fancy, NYC Color Instinct Eyeshadow Palette 969 Rooftop Cocktails

Hi there! Today’s post is about a lipstick and a small eyeshadow palette. And I’m starting with this MUA MakeUp Academy Matte Lipstick in the shade Fawn Fancy which was £1.

This lipstick is awful. The shade is nice, but the lipstick is waxy, strangely dry and impossible to apply. It broke off the first time I used it. Not a surprise – I tried a few lipsticks from this line before, and I remember that this happened with at least 2 of them. I don’t think I’ll ever buy a matte lipstick from MUA again. Having said this, their creamy lipsticks (which are also £1 only) are lovely!

Onto this NYC Color Instinct Eyeshadow Palette 969 Rooftop Cocktails which was 99p at Fragrance Direct.

This is a small eye palette that contains 4 eyeshadows – a dusty lavender, a light blue, a light green, and a pale champagne highlighter shade.

I bought this palette a while ago, but I never used it until I gave it a try a few weeks ago. The dusty lavender shade is nice, but it’s poorly pigmented. And I didn’t care for the other 3 shades.

Since I have no use for this palette, it’ll be the latest victim of my 6 months early spring declutter.

Have you tried these products? Which products did you get rid of recently? Feel free to get in touch, and thanks for reading! 😊

Mrs Strawberry Blonde

Essence XXXL Longlasting Lipgloss 1 Baby Doll’s Favourite, Collection Bedazzled Special Glitter Edition Eye Palette

Hi there! Today’s post is about 2 products – Essence XXXL Longlasting Lipgloss 1 Baby Doll’s Favourite and Collection Bedazzled Special Glitter Edition Eye Palette.

Let’s start with this Essence XXXL Longlasting Lipgloss 1 Baby Doll’s Favourite which I picked up when it was on sale for £1 at Wilko’s.

Whilst the pale peachy shade is nothing special, I do like the hydrating formula of this lipgloss. I’m also a fan of the subtle vanilla flavour. I’m happy to continue to use this lipgloss, and I have no doubt that I’ll finish it over the next few months.

Onto this Collection Bedazzled Special Glitter Edition Eye Palette which was £1.99 at Fragrance Direct. I’m not really a fan of the brand Collection, but the palette was cheap, so I wanted to give it a try.

This eye palette contains 9 glittery eyeshadows – a few colours, a few neutral shades, black and white. I did the swatches on a well-moisturised forearm!

The shades in the top row are purple, grey and a light beige. The purple is terribly chalky and not easy to blend. The grey and the light beige are poorly pigmented. It took more than 10 swipes to get the colours to show!

Row 2 has a chalky minty green, an incredibly poorly pigmented black (What were they thinking?) and a surprisingly half-decent gold. It took 10+ swipes for the green and black to show, but just about 2 or 3 swipes for the gold.

And in the bottom row there’s a terribly ugly metallic blue, a poorly pigmented white, and a very nice metallic brown. They did keep the best for last! The blue and white are, again, 10+ swipes, but the brown is just a single swipe!

I’ve made the decision to use the nice brown shade for all my eye looks until the end of the month. But after that I’ll bin the palette as I won’t keep it for just 1 eyeshadow.

Thanks for stopping by today, lovelies! 🥰

Mrs Strawberry Blonde

Rimmel Glam Eyes Quad Eyeshadow 019 Sun Safari

Hi there! Today’s post is about a small eyeshadow palette – Rimmel Glam Eyes Quad Eyeshadow 019 Sun Safari. As you can see, these are shimmery neutral eyeshadows.

I think this little eyeshadow quad is quite nice. I always do dark outer corners, so I can’t use this quad on its own. However, I like the pale sand shade (bottom) as an inner corner highlight, and the other 3 shades are great on the lids, and they blend very well. I really like the colours – they go very well with my green eyes!

I’ve done and redone the swatches and took dozens of photos each time. Unfortunately, it wasn’t possible to catch the eyeshadows in all their glory. The pale sand shade (bottom) hardly shows at all because it’s almost the same shade as my pale forearm – that’s if you ignore the shimmer!

But yeah, these eyeshadows are really good. I’ve previously had Rimmel eyeshadows and small compacts, and some of them were disappointing. Because of this, this quad was a nice surprise!

Based on my experience, I’d recommend this eyeshadow quad! Rimmel Glam Eyes Quad Eyeshadow 019 Sun Safari is available at a number of online outlets. I paid £1 (Poundland).

Mrs Strawberry Blonde