Out of the Shadow and Into the Light

Get a cup of coffee and sit down, because I want to explain my history with eyeshadows before the review begins. After my child was born I was really at an all-time low, looking dreadful in oversized clothes, suffering from post partum depression and stuck in the house. Needless to say makeup and skincare didn’t even feature on my priority list for a year or two. I only started to renew my interest in all things beauty-related once my daughter started school, and it has been a gradual process. My interest in eyeshadow is very recent.

get an artful eye

Up until this year I hardly ever wore eyeshadow, and believe it or not I had never owned a decent eyeshadow palette. I found it a bit daunting and too much bother. Since I bought the Stila Written in the Stars palette in March (review here) I’ve had so much fun discovering and playing with eyeshadow lately that it has become one of my favourite makeup items. I was so excited when I won a runner-up prize in Princess Noo’s giveaway and was allowed to choose one Stila product from the giveaway as a prize. I decided on the Stila In The Light palette.

I have been eyeing this palette for ages! It has a lot of my favourite natural shades including the famed “kitten” shade – a pink/gold shimmer – which everybody always raves about. The palette not only comes with a full-sized smudge stick in damsel (dark brown) but also a handy look book with instructions on how to achieve certain looks.

Stila In the Light palette

I thought it would be fun to try one of the looks in the look book. This was my first attempt at a video so it is a bit crazy. I did an original video of me actually doing the look step by step but I forgot to talk and it took forever, so it was too boring. Yes, I’m blushing at my own ineptness. So here I’ve already done a look and I’m just saying hello and chatting a bit about the palette….until I totally run out of things to say…Awkward!

In the video I’m wearing the Stila 10-in-1 HD Illuminating Beauty Balm instead of foundation, and some Stila Long Wear Lip Color Creme in In The Nude. As I said in the video, the quality of these shadows is really amazing. They are really silky and soft, and highly pigmented. And the colours in the palette can be used to create looks spanning casual day looks to glam night looks. I’m so in love with this palette, I am reconsidering whether I do in fact actually ever need the Urban Decay Naked 2 palette! Don’t think I will ever become one of those YouTube beauty video masters though…

Sugar and Spice and All Things Nice

Hey Gorgeous is the perfect name for these pampering bath and body products, because firstly the brochure is a feast of pure prettiness and secondly you are going to look and smell gorgeous after using them. Everyone knows by now that I am always on the lookout for natural, organic, cruelty-free and eco-friendly products, and these fit the bill perfectly. They are even vegan!

Everything they make sounds delicious, from the coffee scrub to the choc mint body butter, but I had to control myself and keep my order in line with my dwindling finances, so I chose the Spicy Rose Body Scrub (I am a bit obsessed with body scrubs) and the Ginger Rose Whipped Mousse. The cupcake fizz bomb I received was an extra, much appreciated, bonus gift because I managed to be Hey Gorgeous’ first twitter client! See, good things come to those who impulse buy…

Spicy Rose Body Scrub

There are one or two things I would change about the scrub, but the really special thing about Hey Gorgeous is that they encourage you to do exactly that… basically customise your product to suit you. The only issue I really had was trying to mix the scrub, as the oils were at the bottom and the sugar on the top. Because of the size of the jar there isn’t much room for mixing, so I ended up tossing out a fair a bit in the process. My only constructive criticism is that perhaps they could package the same amount in a slightly bigger container, to make mixing the scrub easier. At first I thought the scrub was a bit dry, but when I washed it off I could really feel the oils on my skin, so it leaves your skin feeling soft and moisturised. When I collected my order I was told to just ask for more of whatever I prefer the next time around, more oil, more sugar etc. How is that for good service? So far so good… now for the Ginger Rose Whipped Mousse (i.e. heaven in a tub).

Ginger Rose Whipped Mousse

I just love this stuff! In fact, I like it way more than Body Shop body butters which I find take quite a while to massage into your skin. This melts into your skin immediately and leaves it soft, smooth and smelling really yummy. I love the scent of this! The hint of ginger stops it from being overpoweringly rosy and gives it a perfect balance. It’s hard to describe, but there is a grown-up version of a baby scent to it too. It also passed the diva daughter test – my three year old loves it as much as I do.

I will be doing a Hey Gorgeous giveaway next month, so watch out for it! I think I’ll create two little hampers with different scent-sations going on. I am definitely also going to order the Vitamin C Serum as soon as possible, so I will be reviewing that soon too. There are good things to come from Hey Gorgeous, a very friendly, animal-friendly, eco-friendly, customer-centric brand which I think I will remain firmly enamoured of. Check my featured brands page to contact them on Twitter, Facebook or see their brochure.

These are so cute I would wear them…

You know I check Citymob’s offers most days, and occasionally I find something which I love so much I just want to share it? Well this is one of those occasions. I just fell in love with these adorable kids’ beanies. I didn’t fall in love with the price though… they’re all R249 which is pretty hefty for a beanie, even if it is artfully created. So no, I will not be purchasing one, but you might feel like spoiling your little bunny! Or just look at them and go aaaaww.

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If you want to have a look at the offer on Citymob you can click straight through to it here.