Instagram #3

1: lonely duck - he got so close to me!; 2: Costa's new iced lemonade - delicious!; 3: cheeky Chinese on the train;
4: Operation Buh-Bye Milk Bottles is a go!; 5: trying to quit nail-biting so on go the false nails; 6: train lunch;
7: the perks of a window seat; 8-9: playtime with the bf's cat

LUSH Rub Rub Rub Shower Scrub

Hi, everyone! I've managed to drag myself through exam period (I still have one left but it's one I'm confident with) and I'm back to the blogosphere. Today's post is about a product that I first noticed in one of Essie's LUSH hauls and decided I had to try out.

This is LUSH's Rub Rub Rub Shower Scrub, a body scrub - you couldn't tell, could you? - with plenty of fine sea salt in to exfoliate your skin until it's baby soft. LUSH says you can use this in three ways: under the shower for a gentle scrub; straight from the tub if you like it rough; and for washing your hair and adding volume (think LUSH's Big Shampoo). I never tried using it for my hair, but if you have, let me know how you found it.

Just look at that colour! It looks delicious. It also smells delicious, and as soon as you twist off the lid you're hit with a lovely waft of mimosa and orange flower. In the shower, it exfoliates really well and leaves your skin incredibly soft. I did feel a lot cleaner coming out of the shower than I do after using a shower gel, and kept stroking my arms afterwards!

But for all of the positives - lovely smell, great exfoliation - it's not on my repurchase list. Rub Rub Rub costs £7.75 for 330g which isn't so bad, but I went through this tub so quickly. To cover my whole body I had to use three or four good handfuls and I didn't get very many showers out of it. I don't know, perhaps I used it too often, but I did alternate between this scrub and a shower gel and still I felt like I didn't get enough use out of it.

But hey, you win some and you lose some. It's a good product, if you don't mind repurchasing fairly frequently. As for me, I'll be rinsing the pot out, ready to trade in for a free fresh face mask.

A Short Hiatus

Unfortunately, I have exams in the next three weeks, so I won't be blogging until after then. As much as I'd love to ramble on about beauty, I'm going to have to be rambling on about neuroscience-y stuff instead. So, until then! Wish me luck!

April Haul

It's not often I splash out on a lot of products at once. Unfortunately, last week my bank account was left feeling a little hurt! This month saw me making my first MAC and Illamasqua purchases, and branching out in terms of eye makeup.

MAC 168 Large Angled Contour Brush (£26): I hear so many good things about MAC brushes, but I went for the Real Techniques brushes first. This was kind of a impulse buy: Real Techniques do have a contour brush that I haven't yet tried for contouring, but as soon as I stepped up to the counter I found myself asking for the 168. I haven't used it too much yet, but so far so good.

Eylure Katy Perry 'Sweetie Pie' False Lashes(£5.95): I've never worn false eyelashes before, but these look so natural that I decided to give it a go. I haven't tried them yet - I'm a little scared!

NARS Sheer Glow Foundation in 'Deauville' (sample): Another product I've heard nothing but good things about. I was matched to Siberia a couple of months ago, but the sales assistant applied it so thickly, and over the makeup I was already wearing, that I walked away and promptly tried to forget about it. Everyone kept raving on about it though, so I nipped back to the NARS counter and got a sample instead.

Illamasqua Powder Blush in 'Unrequited' (£16.50): I drool over Illamasqua's blushes all the time so it was about time I purchased one. The sales assistant put this on me and it added such a lovely warmth.

GOSH Long Lasting Brown Pen in '004 Wheat' (£6.49): Essie introduced me to this product, and after seeing how amazing her eyebrows looked using the A La Carte brow pen, I snapped this up.

GOSH Eyeliner in '003 Brown' (£6.49): I have been searching for a brown liquid liner for so long. This was in my shopping basket quicker than Usain Bolt.

Illamasqua Skin Base Foundation in '03' (£25): This was a total impulse buy. I never intended to buy anything from Illamasqua this month, but I nipped in for a look. The sales assistant was so nice, friendly and chatty but not pushy, so I agreed to be matched to this foundation when I asked about it. I just can't resist nice sales assistants, so I ended up walking out with a new foundation too.

MUA Eyeshadow in 'Shade 19' (£1): Nothing too special, just something to set my eyebrows.

MAC Powder Blush in 'Harmony' (£17.50): Searching for a contour product with such pale skin is a huge pain. A lot of people seemed to recommend this, so I bit the bullet - and I am impressed!

Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette

For years I have shied away from eyeshadows. I never knew what shades would look best on my pale, cool skin and with my cool blue eyes, and beyond that I just never knew how to apply it to make it look good. And that’s before we start thinking about the crease and outer V!

I surprised even myself, then, when I jumped in with both impulsive feet and splurged on Urban Decay’s Naked 2 palette, but I can’t say I’ve looked back.

It veers cooler than the original Naked palette which suits my skin tone perfectly, although there are some warmer shades in there. These tend to be the shades I ignore, though I can’t say there isn’t a shade I don’t use at all. Overall it’s a good selection of neutral shades, all of which can be mixed and matched. I think the palette is organised very well, showing obvious combinations of shades (Suspect and Snakebite sit together, for example, which just so happens to be my favourite combination in this palette), but there is absolutely no reason to stick to these subtle hints. Perhaps most importantly, the shadows have very good pigmentation and last most of the day without creasing (even without a primer); there’s very little fallout too, although there are a couple of shades, usually the really shimmery ones like YDK, that are the exception.

I wasn’t overly impressed with the brush that came with it at first, but it has grown on me. It’s really handy if you’re travelling as it sits tightly in the palette itself. The packaging is wonderful, and the large mirror inside is excellent, once again really good if you’re off travelling. Oddly, it comes with a mini lipgloss – the primer supplied with the original Naked made more sense – but it’s okay.

The Naked 2 palette retails for £36 which seems steep, but you get a good collection of shades here, most of which I use regularly. I think it’s definitely worth the money, and if I hit pan on all the shades I would go out and repurchase in an instant.

What do you think of the Naked 2? Better or worse than its predecessor?