Chiara Fashion: A cheap fashion site I found!

I like to look around online for places where I can get clothes at a cheaper price. One day, and I can't remember how, I stumbled across this website: www.chiarafashion.co.uk/.

What I found, is an online fashion store that does trendy and good quality items for mega cheap prices. Peplum skirts? They have them. High-low dresses and skirts? They have them too. I could go on, but seriously just click on the link and you'll be amazed I'm sure! At the moment they have a massive sale on too, which you'll be confronted with when you visit the homepage. There are lots of items under £5 and under £10 right now.

I haven't actually bought anything from them yet because I've only recently got a job, and I'm reeet stingy . . . sometimes. I really do need some new clothes though, and I'll definitely be visiting Chiara Fashion to pick up a few items. Here are a few of my favourite items and their prices :) Maybe this'll tempt you to visit!

See ya soon xxx
P.S. If you like my blog don't forget to tell other about it! :) Much appreciated.

Avon Rich Moisture Face Cream Review !

Most people have heard of the 'Avon' make up and beauty company. I'm definitely a fan! If you don't have an Avon representative who delivers regular catalogues to your door, then you could try and find out if there's one in your area, or you could just shop online at www.avonshop.co.uk. Anyway...let's get on with looking at this facecream :)

I've been using this for a few months now, and it's lasted for quite a while with a few more to go! Even with twice-daily moisturising, you get a lot for your money!
It's from a range called 'Avon Care', and this range is described by Avon itself as: "...our value skincare that helps to make your body and face look soft and supple everyday without fuss". I consider myself to have combination skin with quite dry cheeks so I decided on the 'Rich Moisture nourishing face cream' because I didn't want to use something light, but I didn't want to use something super heavy. There are a few other 'Avon Care' face creams to choose from including: 'fresh hydration' and 'intensive moisture'.

The pots come in 200ml sizes (apart from 'fresh hydration' which comes smaller and in a tube). The RRP is £4.20 BUT at this very moment you can buy the 'Rich Moisture' face cream for only £1.75 online. That's a saving of £2.45. It's worth buying even if you just want to try it, as it's so cheap at the moment.

'Rich moisture' contains soybean and vitamin E. Vitamin E is described on www.ehow.com as being a "powerful free radical scavenger that prevents damage from the environment and repairs damage to the skin". So it's a good thing to have in a face cream/moisturiser in this day and age what with all the pollution surrounding us! It says on the back of the pot that it "helps soften and nourish dry skin". So, all in all it sounds like it's meant to be a good moisturiser that gives your skin the nutrients it needs. This moisturiser has a light, biscuit-cream colour.

How I got on . . .
Like I said earlier I've been using this for a few months. It stops my skin feeling tight after cleansing and toning, although I would imagine most face creams do this. It can make your hair go greasy though if your hair accidentally touches your face before it's all absorbed. So tie your hair back or at least clip it, particularly your fringe.

However even a while after it should've absorbed, my skin never feels totally normal and smooth. It always feels like it has something on it, almost something that shouldn't be there e.g. a residue. Other face creams and moisturisers have absorbed and quickly left my skin feeling like nothing has been left on its surface. But maybe it's meant to feel like this after, or maybe its residue from actually putting too much cream on. I'll never know! However despite this, it does make my skin feel really soft and nourished afterwards, like it's been given some TLC.

I'm not keen on moisturisers that come in a pot, simply because, even with just-washed hands, you're putting new bacteria into the pot/the air is doing the same whenever you open it or dip your fingers in it. I prefer tubes because, even if there's bacteria on your hands, there's nothing that can get into the tube and contaminate it and make it less beneficial or dangerous.

My other sticking point is that I'm not sure whether my bouts of spots are as expected, or whether there's more because of the oils this face cream contains. It specifically contains 2 oils in the ingredients list: soybean oil and glycine soja oil. And everyone knows that spot prone skin is recommended to use oil-free products! So this is my main niggling part of this critique.

Am I pleased I bought this? Yes, as my skin has been nourished and protected, and kept nice and soft. When I bought it months ago it was also on offer like it is now so I got it quite cheap.

Would I buy it again? Probably not, because I would rather find an oil-free moisturiser, to try and remove as many risks within my control as possible with regards to getting spots (or general oily looking skin, which I do get with this but I don't know if it's just natural!) I prefer moisturisers in tubes anyway for hygiene reasons.

Would I recommend it? Yes, if someone is looking for a face cream that will really look after their skin and make it nice and soft and stop dryness (which it does well). Just don't risk buying if you're spot-prone.

So there you have it! I will also review other Avon products from time to time :)

See ya soon xxx

Make Up Academy >Lipstick< Review! :)

I, like many others, have been pretty fascinated by 'Make Up Academy', the fairly recent addition to Superdrug's make up aisle and online store. A lot of MUA's products look rather professional and the prices are so so so cheap! It does make you wonder whether the low prices actually buy you a quality product, but like many other bloggers out there, I am trying to find out.

So I started out with a MUA lipstick as my first product. I was wanting a pinkier colour anyway, and for £1 I though it would be silly not to buy one! My motto whenever I'm buying anything, particularly a cosmetic product, is:

"Try a cheaper one first. If the cheaper version of a lipstick (for example) is of the quality you want then you've saved money not buying something more expensive, and if it isn't any good then you've not wasted as much money as you would've done if you'd bought something more expensive that was no good! Then, once you find your favourite product, you've saved money doing it this way and via a slight bit of trial and error you've found the best thing for you." That's my philosophy, take note if you wish :)

...Anyway back to the lipstick! There were a fair few different colours to choose from, and I tested this one on my hand and therefore decided to give it a go.

Packaging
It looks like a general lipstick from the outside, and by that I mean one that cost more than £1! You might expect it to look worse than it does, for what you paid for it. The silver lettering on the side can be scratched quite easily, but that happens to the most expensive of products!

 



Smell
It has qutie a pleasant fragrance, that I'd describe as biscuits/sweets. Kind of a mixture of the two! In my opinion it's quite a nice smell.

Colour
I chose shade 12 - a warm bright pink. I wanted a nice girly pop of colour for my face (not that I'm the most girliest of girls to say the least anyway, but I do enjoy make up). On my hand it looks nice enough, and you can see that it has glitter in it. The glitter doesn't overpower the colour when it's on my lips which I'm glad about; it just gives that extra bit of interest when it catches the light. Sometimes glittery lipsticks can look a bit cheap and tacky - not in this case!

Before & After

Forgive my 'blogging beginners photography' on this post, it'll improve I promise! As you can see I have naturally quite pale pink-nude lips. However with a full coverage of this lipstick I think it's a little too much colour for my face. So what I like to do is blot it so the colour is toned down a bit. This way you can actually get more colours out of one lipstick, depending on how much you apply.





Characteristics

This does not dry out my lips, which is a relief! It's annoying when that happens, but if it does occur to you with certain lipsticks you can put some lipbalm on before lipstick which is what I do sometimes :) When you 'rub' your lips together it does feel like a lipbalm in itself, I'm wondering if it does indeed has lipbalm properties! However it doesn't have great staying power when eating and drinking etc. And you can end up with quite a lot of colour-loss in the middle of your lips. At least it's nice and creamy and easy to re-apply! I find there's better staying-power if you apply 1 layer, blot dry and then apply a 2nd layer to the colour intensity you desire :) Alternatively you could try applying a lip-sealant such as Lipcote (which I love).

So...
All in all, great value for £1. It has a couple of bad points but they're nothing compared to the good points. You could always treat yourself to a couple of extra colours! I'm a very satisfied customer and I'll certainly be buying from MUA again. Just try and remember not to get too carried away; only buy something when you actually need it/are running out of a particular item, and treat yourself every so often too! Not too often of course ;)

Hope you enjoyed my first review :D
See ya soon xxx