Howdyyyyy :)

Today's little review will be on a product I've been using for quite a while now and that is the TRESemme Keratin Smooth Heat Protection shine spray.

Well good afternooooon!

My nails have had a serious lack of attention recently. I got into such a good routine of painting them weekly but I literally just have not had time to squeeze them in. Grrrrrrr! Between work, uni, placement and life in general my blogging regime has really taken a back seat which makes me really sad, although I'm trying my best to fit it in between where ever I can. 

Anyway, yippee I managed to squeeze in painting my nails this week. Granted they were super quick and done in about 15/20 minutes, but still I feel they turned out quite alright do you?

These nails were inspired by bonfire night. The glittery colour and stars remind me of all the lovely fireworks I've been seeing. The nail polish I used was just two coats of OPI 'On her majesty's secret service' which I do believe is from the 'Skyfall' Collection. Its a lovely glittery black colour that isn't really done justice in the photos. It really is full of beautiful colours in the specks of glitter.

Helloooo my lovelies :)

A few weeks ago the lovely e.l.f. team were kind enough to offer me the opportunity to try out a few of their products that took my fancy. I've actually never tried anything from e.l.f. before but have heard a lot of great things about them from fellow bloggers. I had a search on their website for some items I might like to try and a few days later I received a nice little package with all the items I'd asked for. Amongst those items was the little gem below which I'm going to do a quick review of....

I chose this particular colour as it's a darker shade for the autumn/winter months and also has a golden glitter tone to it which immediately caught my eye. Some say it's a good dupe for NARS oasis which is very similar. (not that I'll ever justify parting with that much cash to be able to compare the two). 

The packaging is simple and neat with a handy little mirror for if you're on the go and the price is astounding at just £3.75. First impressions are very very good. Now the first time I used this blusher I made the simple mistake of swishing my blush brush across it far too heavily handed and ended up looking like quite a pilac with ridiculously rosy cheeks. Not a good look! Easily fixed with a lot of buffing, but let's just say I won't be making that mistake again! The blush is so heavily pigmented and easily transferable onto a blush brush that you barely even need to sweep across it. Impressive right? I certainly thought so. I can see this blush lasting me for a very long time as I barely have to use any product. The colour on is a really lovely rosy pink with a gold shimmer, which is perfect for my warmer skin tone. I have been grabbing this every time I've been applying blusher recently and I'm not a massive blusher fan so that says something for me! It lasts well enough for me and I don't find it rubs off too easily. All in all it's quite a winner! I will definitely be purchasing more e.l.f. blushers in the future if this one is anything to go by. I'm sold!!!

Thank you to e.l.f. for helping me discover this little gem of an item :) You can see their great selection of blushers on the website http://eyeslipsface.co.uk/en/restofworld/blush/blush/invt/83130

Anyone else have a love for e.l.f. blushers and what are your favourite shades? (any recommendations for warm skin tones will be greatly appreciated)

Hope you enjoy.

Good morning my lovelies. 

Apologies for the lack of love on KatieLewLa recently. I've started my second year of my masters degree this month which has been rather hectic. It's safe to say that life has been keeping me on my toes as of late which is pleasing. But you'll hopefully be pleased to know that I've discovered some awesome photo editing software on my mobile, so I'm currently experimenting with that in between my busy schedule. I'm hoping this will be a fix for the withdrawal symptoms I'm having from getting snap happy and photo edit crazy and will mean I can post for all you lovely people more often! Win win! (If it works)

Today's post is on a cleanser I've been trying for the past few weeks. That is..... (you probably guessed it already) the lush Aqua Marina fresh facial cleanser. 

So let's start with the positives. Or the pro's as we like to call them. Firstly the staff in lush are what I would call "spot on!" They are so helpful and couldn't give me enough of their time in helping me choose the right cleanser for me. Top marks for the customer service! 

Secondly the array of ingredients listed in the fresh facial cleansers are pretty darn wonderful and pleasing to the reader (which happens to be me, a beauty product addict) so it's always a relief to see a selection of natural ingredients with no harmful chemical nasties in there such as sulphates and parabens. I don't know about anyone else but I immediately think, yessss my skin will thank me for this. Just a few of the appealing ingredients in Aqua Marina are patchouli for brightening, seaweed and clay for oil absorbing, aloe vera for its pesky spot soothing properties and sea salt for its gentle natural exfoliation. The list of yummy ingredients goes on but I won't keep you too long. At £6.35 for 100g it isn't a bad price either and I would say that it would last you around a month if you don't use too much.

Onto the slightly annoying.....

The consistency of this cleanser is quite tricky and time consuming to work with. I'm a simple girl who likes a fast and easy to apply cleanser so that I don't need to spend more time than needed removing the day from my face. So I take a pea sized amount of aqua marina in the palm of my hand, add a small amount of water and gently begin to work it into a paste. When you have your desired consistency you can begin to massage it into the face. It does rub in quite nicely and I found it had quite a tingly, cleaning effect whilst gently massaging it in. I don't feel the makeup removal quality is very impressive but if you don't mind double cleansing then I guess it's not an issue worth crying about. If you're looking for quick and easy makeup removal I don't feel that this is it. It did leave me with a squeaky clean sort of feeling which is good for those with oilier skin but still for some reason I was never satisfied. Unlike other cleansers I've used I still didn't feel convinced that my skin was as clean as it could be but I stuck with it.....

After sticking with it for around 3/4 weeks I must say I was feeling quite let down. My chin and forehead had broken out with really sore under the skin spots, and I was not a happy bean at all. I eventually decided after all that hard work and making a chalky mess of my sink, that this cleanser was just not for me. As much as I wish it was. I still have quite a sufficient splodge left in the tub and I might use it as more of a facemask every now and then to use it up, but as a cleanser it just didn't cut it for me. It's kind of put me off trying another lush cleanser as it's too much like hard work and not enough paid off for it to feel worth it (sad face). It's not all that often I feel this disappointed with a product but unfortunately my skin just did not agree with it. I think for those with oilier skin this could be good for its oil absorbing qualities. Dry and more sensitive skins I would possibly steer clear as I feel it's aimed more at problematic skin but for me it caused more of a problem than I began with.

Sorry lush. I still love you, however I think I'll stick to bath and shower items for the time being....

Please do let me know about your experiences with lush cleansers. 

Hope you enjoy.