Jolie Moi Wishlist

1 // 2 // 3
4 // 5 // 6 

Considering the last time I did a Wishlist post was in April, I thought it was about time I did another one! Jolie Moi has been making the blogging rounds it seems, as that's where I've discovered them, on other peoples blogs! It's kind of been like torture though, since I don't really have money for all these beautiful, fanciful clothes, but I can't help looking through the website wishing they were all mine.... but I couldn't help it so made this wishlist!

The two dresses (1 and 2) are both super cute, one in a silly way (hello roaring tiger on a little pink dress! I would wear you with a black leather jacket and doc martens if I had any!) and the other is so cute and dainty and pretty and the colours are so gorgeous, almost like a sunset?

The tan bag (3) would be perfect for Autumn, but who am I kidding? It feels like Autumn already and I want to wear you despite your tinyness and price! Whereas the green sequined collar top (5) could be easily transitioned between the seasons, and would look great at Christmas time, since its green and sparkly!

With the skirts (4 and 6), I know they're the same, (or almost as they have slightly different names?) but I couldn't decide which I liked better, the black or the nude. They are both floaty and elegant, but I would probably wear the black more as it's more practical, but the nude one would make me feel like a ballerina princess. I suppose the black skirt would make me feel like one too though tbh!

Anyways, these are a few things I've been lusting after. I'm going to try and make this a regular feature again because they are fun, and easy to look back through and see what I want or wanted. Plus I love looking at other peoples wishlists, and wishing I had all those items too.And nothing much has been going on in my life except for work, which should quieten down when school starts up, and apart from that I've been reading, babysitting or being ill like today.

Aztec doodle

Oh wow, the quality of this is sooo bad! Smudges (to hide the writing on the page behind it), thick wonky lines, uneven legs and random black squidges! My oh my definitely not my best. I like wearing this outfit a lot, with my Katnis style braid, aztec vest and black jeggings from Primark and plain black shoes from New Look and a stone arrowhead necklace which was a christmas present, it's an easy outfit for me not to wear considering I usually wear dresses all the time. The outfit does look nicer in person rather than my terrible painting of it.

However I've just finished an eight day streak in work, so had nothing else to put up as basically I've done nothing but work every single day for just over a week! Fun times yo! (I may have slightly gone mad, maybe...). I am exhausted, but luckily had today off, but I had to do a course thingie for four hours which took an hour to drive to and back so it wasn't really a day off, but I do get tomorrow off yay! I plan to watch The Lorax, yes I am a grown up thank you very much!

Oh and today I went on the motorway for the first time since I passed my test, which was last October. It was scary but easy! And oddly quiet... and I made my mum come with me haha, but she only screeched a little so it was okay. I did see a car on fire though! That was quite scary, it on the other side of the motorway luckily, and I don't think anyone was injured as no one was near it. We saw loads of police/ambulance/fire engines going past as we went further on slowing traffic, but yeah, not exactly the best thing to see when you're already nervous! But  car got me there and back again safely, and everything was cleared up by the time I came back so it's all good!

Mermaiden

Mermaiden by lisamello featuring corset crop tops

It's been awhile since I had a little play on polyvore, and I decided to go for a inspired-by-a-mermaid theme when I saw this template. And oh my days, I'm in love with this outfit! I wish I had it! I mean I'm no where near confident enough to wear this, but its so pretty.

Firstly the hair, its big, curly and blonde!  Can you imagine if it had a blue or green tint to it? Very mermaidy. I picked a green velvet skirt 'cause ya know, mermaids tend to have green tails in the stories. I love velvet, I'll have to get a few velvet skirts for winter to live in, because they look and feel so nice. Plus velvet is kinda shiny, like mermaids tails! I wanted to keep the top simple to focus on the skirt, so picked a simple lace bralet, which one day I shall wear (when I drop about a million dress sizes ha!). Then for the accessories I picked green wedges (gorgeous dark colours om nom) to match the skirt, and a sparkly gold purse and gold anchor earrings to fit in with the colour scheme and template, and sparkles are always nice. Plus where else would a mermaiden be than on a boat or near the sea with a steering wheel and anchor right?

Ah if only I was rich enough to buy all the things! One can always dream right? How's everyones weeks going? I'm on day 3/8 of working, and it is not fun already! My feet are killing me :( I hate ten hour shifts and I'm not sleeping so well in the nights despite being exhausted and waking up early. Oh and plus! My car didn't work when I finished work today, so I had to wait TWO hours for them to come fix it (which only took two minutes, thanks!!) so I'm not getting much change to read blogs and write them, hence this little polyvore number. Anyways! Enough of the complaining, I'm going to try to sleep, yay sleep!

In the summer time

She Said Beauty Box. Ombre nails. Neighbours cats Lightning and Mattie.
Moonrise Kingdom ticket. Cupcakes. Atmosphere. Orange Sunglasses.
Broken Glass. Beach View. Costa. Me on a Dragon Pedal Boat.
Sand. From where I stand. View from the Library. Library Haul.

Okay so a bit of a mish mash post, maybe from the last two weeks. I either take loads of pictures on Instagram (username is lisamello) or I forget all about it for a few days. Oops. I've gone to the beach a few times, and even on kinda cloudy days, if its warm enough to sit on the beach then I don't mind, its so relaxing to just dip your feet into the sand. I also went to the Library which is right next to the beach, I need to go more often! I got a new Library card from my local one the other day, and can use it at Swansea Library too, which I'm planning on spending a few days reading there in the sun with the pretty views. I also took out a few books, which have similar book covers...

Um from the top not including beach photos, I had my second She Said Beauty Box (well actually I had two, I'm confused) and took photos of my neighbours cats like the cat stalker that I am. Lightning the grey one, he never comes near us, but watches us, and Mattie is such an attention whore she'll flop dramatically down on her the floor for you to rub her belly and joins me whenever I sit outside. I love that photo of her sticking her tongue out though. (One day I'll have pets of my own again dammit!) I painted my nails using an ombre technique which I LOVED but the photo doesn't do it justice, and reminds me of the sec on the beach cocktail with the colours.

I went to see Moonrise Kingdom which was fantastically whimsical, and is one of the few films I've actually paid to go see in the last few years since they didn't show it in the cinema where I work :( I made patriotic cupcakes for a night in with my friends, except the blue didn't turn out except in the icing, so I'll have to try gel food dye next time instead! I also had a games night with work people and my boyfriend who used to be a work person, where we played Atmosphere! I love that game, its so silly. Did you ever play it when you were younger? And speaking of work, we have this new promotion where we have bright orange t-shirts, glasses and wigs to wear! It was dead in work so me and four other girls dressed up, it was hilarious, but I did love the glasses. The t-shirts were a nice fit too, as we usually get large t-shirts if we get any.

Then a quick mish mash of the other photos, my brothers cat got broken into (nothing was stolen) and while gutted for him, since every vehicle he owns gets broken/stolen/smashed/dies, the broken glass was kinda pretty. I've tried a few of the costa cooler things, and got one to match my dress the other day! Not on purpose, but it was funny. I had orange and raspberry which was gorgeous, only because mango and passion fruit was sold out, and red berry  another time which I didn't really like the after taste. So I just need to try mango now, but I'm glad I tried the orange and raspberry one, its gorgeous! Oh and then there's me on a Dragon Peddle boat. So much fun and relaxing. I'd never been to the ones in Singleton Park despite Swansea being my home town all my life! So I had to fit it in with my boyfriend before he left, and I took lots and lots of photos.

Okay so that's a quick post, I'm trying to post more regularly now, but I've also been working and enjoying the sun whenever I can. And now I'm off to a Olympics closing ceremony party down my boyfriends. Has everyone been enjoying watching it? I'm so proud that we've come third overall! I never intended to watch any of it except for the opening ceremony but have watched it here and there, and wish I'd watched more, it's a bit addictive isn't it?

Just another manic Monday

On Monday I finished work early, and decided to go round the shops and had a mini shopping spree. I really need to stop doing those, but I figured since I'd been paid recently, and it should be fine s'long as I don't do it again for awhile (I'm trying to save up money for big things). Anyways since I picked up two extra shifts yesterday and today, and next weeks crazy, it kinda makes up for me finishing early and spending lots of money-ish. I didn't spend too long shopping as I was meeting my boyfriend, but I did go to Primark and New Look. Most of what I own is from Primark, New Look and H&M, I think I should branch out a bit... oh well, they have cheap pretty clothes! 

I've lusted after the studded collar dress from New Look for awhile now, and finally decided to buy it, since I had 20% vouchers off for being a store card member, and decided to get the t-shirt as well which is kinda   weird for New Look don't you think? It's all spacey with lepards and triangles saying 'MY WORLD' but 'world' is backwards. Anyway as I got to the till and pulled out the vouchers I realised they ran out the day before, gah! But I still bought them anyways!

In Primark I bought a few things (and a dress the other day but I don't have pictures) but these were the two main things (I did buy a scarf, socks, etc but they were a bit boring). I've wanted Dr Martens for years, but don't have the money to buy them, so bought these cheapy super shiny lookalikes from Primark for £18. I'm hoping they'll look better when scuffed up a bit, but I like them regardless of the shine, my boyfriend however hates them haha. I also got that flowery vest top too, since I have a similar vest from there in a see through aztec print which I love and wear all the time. I also figured I could potentially wear that if I worked in a school, since you never know I might get one eventually, but there's no jobs being advertised! Swansea sucks!

In Primark I also bought the false eyelashes, and nivea hand cream on the bottom left of the photo, since they were a pound each. I love the hand cream. It was an impulse buy in the queue, but I always run out of hand cream, and need ones that last me awhile, which this one does. What I mean by last for awhile, as in the effect it has on my hands, so I'm not reaching for the hand cream a million times a day, so then it will last longer too. As for the eyelashes, I haven't tried them out yet but they look more natural than the pair I got in my glossy box (i.e no rhinestones!). I really enjoyed wearing those, which was my first time so I'm looking forward to wearing more false eyelashes now that I've gotten over my 'fear' of applying them, since I thought they would be too hard to do.

The rest of the items I got from Superdrug, and I love most of them. The two dry shampoos were part of a deal which I couldn't resist but they are awful and make my hair look worse! Definitely would not recommend them! I was planning on keeping them in my locker in work to deal with my terrible hat hair but but I think I'll stick to batiste or tesco's own (which works just as well and is cheaper), but I like to get batiste if its on sale since it tends to smell nicer.

I love Aussie products but only buy them when they have deals on, and these were two for £6 or £7 I think. As I've mentioned in loads of posts I'm trying to look after my very long hair right now in order to eventually donate it, so I've been wanting to get a leave in conditioner or hair mask, and then I saw the miracle hair insurance leave in conditioner. Since there was a deal on I also bought the three minute miracle luscious long hair treatment conditioner, and both of these products are magical. My hair felt so soft afterwards, and smelt great too and the leave in conditioner wasn't even noticeable apart from the lovely smell and extra softness. I actually look forward to showering with these products, sad I know!

The two lipsticks were MUA and Beauty UK. I was introduced to MUA by Catherine in the blog package swap I took part in. For such cheap prices they're really fun to try out different shades of nail polish, eye shadow, lipstick and more but I've only bought a few lipsticks so far. I'm trying out new shades of lipstick atm to see what suits me, and decided to try out cheap lipstick first before I get the more expensive lipsticks to see what I like. The MUA one is perfect for the day, as its a subtle pale coral colour, and the Beauty UK, is more of an orangy colour, more noticeable but not too much so but I love it. I didn't think I'd like it that much even though I bought it! I thought it would be for more daring days, but I could easily wear this whenever and not feel self conscious about it. I think both were a pound so you can't really go wrong with them there can you?

The last thing I bought was a superdrug mud mask tube to use when I'm down my boyfriends since I can't really cart my lush face masks back and forth, especially since they need to stay in the fridge. I've used it once, and it reminds me of when I was younger and used to do mud masks. It dried really quickly on my face and as usual, left my skin feeling nice and soft. I'm aiming to use masks a lot more lately and see if it helps my skin over the long run, because it's horrible right now.

Anway thats my rambly post on my mini shopping haul, with some reviews thrown in too! What do you think of shopping haul posts? Do you like them, find them boring, too boastful or don't really care? I like seeing them, as I'm a nosey person, and also tend to buy things people suggest too that I wouldn't otherwise normally think to buy. Hope everyone's having a lovely time with the unexpected sun, want to take any bets on how long it'll last this time around? As this is being posted I'm currently at work where there are no windows, is that a good or a bad thing I'll never really know!

Catastrophe Cosmetic: A Lush Review

You could say this is part two in my Lush Fresh Face Mask reviews, with part one being here with Cosmetic Warrior. Even though I loved Cosmetic Warrior, I wanted to try out different face masks, and since I have bad skin, I opted for Catastrophe Cosmetic which claims to help skin 'when disaster looms', which is every day with me right now. 

I keep trying to make a doctors appointment for my skin but my doctors are stupid and you have to phone at 8am in the morning to try and book an appointment for 2-3 weeks in advance and I am always working in the morning! And when I'm not working, they're fully booked and I have to wait till the next week to book it! It's absolutely ridiculous, I have been trying for over a month now and nothings happening so I decided to buy another face mask. 

It retails at £5.75 which is a decent price, especially if you just buy the £1 face mask pouches you can only use once, this works out to be waaay cheaper in the long run. As is says on the lid in the photo above, it contains blueberries, chamomile, Irish moss and calamine, all of which are meant to sooth, calm and cleanse your skin. As with all fresh face masks from Lush, they need to be kept in the fridge and have a short life span, but if you use them all the time like me then you tend to use it all up near the end of its shelf life anyway.

This is what the consistency looks like in the pot, and it's more paste like than Cosmetic Warrior, which I'll probably compare to a lot in this post, since its the only other one I've used. When I first started using it it had a bit of liquid in the top, which was fine when I mixed it in with the rest of it, but now it's gone. It obviously smells like blueberries, what with them being an ingredient for their anti-oxidant purposes. So it smells nice, but a bit powdery. However if you don't like the garlic smell of Cosmetic Warrior for your bad skin, then maybe Catastrophe Cosmetic is better suited to you (sorry if the names are confusing as they both have 'Cosmetic' in them!). 

I'm not showing any pictures with the mask on my face like other people do sorry, but it covers my face evenly and looks more like a face mask usually does, with the occasional blue berry on your face. It says to leave it on for 10-15 minutes, but I usually leave on for longer, and forget to wash it off as I'm reading some blogs at the same time so its very dry when I wash it off. Unlike Cosmetic Warrior, its a bit harder to wash off. I wipe it off my face first to get all the crumbs off (am I the only one who does that?) and then it leaves a powdery substance behind which feels a bit weird, which I then wash off. It does reduce the redness in my skin but doesn't quite have the same effect as Cosmetic Warrior did on my skin. Whereas I used that in the morning or before going out for the night because it helped with applying make up, I use Catastrophe Cosmetic whenever, in the morning, day, night but usually after a shower since it doesn't do that much for me compared to the other mask. While I do enjoy using it and have seen improvements, I would recommend Cosmetic Warrior (which I reviewed here) over Catastrophe Cosmetic, unless you don't like the smell of garlic you vampires :P

Maxi Skirt

It's been a really long time since I put up an illustrated outfit picture, so I had a look through, and only had two drawings, and only one had been painted, which was this one, so that's why this is up. I should probably take these pictures in daylight but its 11pm and I have work tomorrow (why did I agree to do extra shifts? >.<) so sorry for the poor quality. I actually drew this back in May I think, when I went to London and this is the outfit I stupidly wore to a Theme Park and fell off a ride (at the end when you get off anyway!) I'm such an idiot! Still its a nice outfit to wear on a hot sunny day. The top actually has more white in it at the top, and the white blobs are meant to be swans, so its meant to be swans swimming in a lake with trees and a sky which I forgot to add. Both that and the maxi were from Primark. I need to stop going in there or that's all my wardrobe will be made up of!

Glossy Box vs She Said Beauty

Sorry I kind of took a little blogging break there! I tend to do that every now and then, but not on purpose, oops. I really need to work on that, sorry! I've not even been that busy or anything and I've had a few post ideas too so I don't know what I was doing. I meant to post this Glossy Box Vs She Said Beauty box review last month (it's already August, where did July go?) but I never got round to it. I got the She Said Beauty Box at the start of the month (my first one) and the Glossy Box at the end of the month so it wasn't really the best timing but I wanted to compare the two boxes in the same post, rather than do two separate posts if you get what I mean? I'm going to carry on getting the two boxes for another two months and then maybe pick one to get or try out some others, I don't know yet. And as for the format I might compare them each month, or do two separate posts. 

I've been with Glossy Box since last year, and while it has been awesome, I wanted to try out other boxes since I while I loved Glossy Box, I wasn't in love with Glossy Box anymore. However since Glossy Box was my first Beauty subscription box, I didn't want to quit outright and wanted to compare it with other Beauty subscription boxes. I swear I'll start to compare them now, but remember this is for July not for August.

Okay so starting with the small stuff, price, delivery's and packaging! With Glossy Box (GB)  it's £10 p/m + p&p which is about £12.95 and She Said Beauty (SSB) is only £9 p/m + p&p which works out to be about £11.95, so price wise SSB wins! (Side note: For the first box SSB I used a code, meaning I paid £9 in total but full price for this months box). With the delivery's as I already mentioned GB sends it out at the end of the month and SSB sends them out at the start of the month. Now onto packaging, GB comes in a black box with the logo stamped all over in Pink, whereas SSB comes in a bright hot pink box which is very noticeable! For the actual boxes GB usually comes in a pale pink box with a separate lid, but for special boxes they do change the colour sometimes. SSB comes in a pretty turquoise box with a subtle pattern as you can see above, but it doesn't have a separate lid which I wished it did, but its okay as a fold-able type of lid. Both boxes have little cards with the info and sometimes extra little cards for specific infomation, and both have little straw? like pieces inside which is pretty but annoying, and SSB has less than GB which some may dislike but I prefer as that stuff gets everywhere in my room!

Debenhams reward card. Time Release Blemish Cleaner. Honey Moisteriser.  Ice Crystals Anti Aging Prep & Polish. Eden Natural Polish Remover. Love Phat Liner. S-File. 

SSB came with 5 items, with an extra in the form of a Debenhams beauty reward card. While its a nice touch, I already have one and with an extra lost one!

Time Release Blemish Cleaner by Murad is okay, it helps my skin a bit but I have horrible skin and I'm a bit wary of using this as it also claims to battle wrinkles. I can't remember where I read/heard this information, but I heard you shouldn't use anti aging products until you need to use them as it can cause damage? I really should look this up, but this knowledge whether its true or not keeps me away from anti aging products and I tend to give any products to my mum as I don't have wrinkles.

Honey Moisteriser by LaylaD Natural Beauty is amazing. I've been using it as a hand cream since my hands get super dry really quickly, and it keeps them feeling soft and hydrated and smells of honey too which is a bonus. I love the smell of honey, even if I don't like the taste.

Ice Crystals Anti Aging Prep & Polish by Freeze 247 is another product I've not really used much of because its anti aging. It does help make my skin feel soft but apart from that I can't really say anything about it.

Eden Natural Polish Remover by Fresh Therapies was too small of a sample! It removed the polish after awhile, but I don't really like liquid polish removers as it takes forever, and I like to use polish remover pad things, or those pots you dip your fingers in and twist.

Love Phat Liner by Miners Cosmetics is amazing! I love, love, LOVE this product and use it every day. I will definitely be buying it when I run out as its only £3.99 (but right now its only £1.99 on the website!) I'd actually just lost my previous eyeliner which I loved from Accessorize and then my replacement one from Boots  straight afterwards. I find most eyeliners don't stay on my eyes for long, but this one does, and its really easy to use and when sharpened I don't poke my eye out like I sometimes do with others as I am clumsy and stupid. It can be used as a liner, definer and all over eye pencil too which I haven't done just yet, but if you guys want to, go ahead!

S-File by Stylfile was created by a The Apprentice Winner apparently? IDK I don't really watch it apart from the off episode here or there, but there was a card mentioning it with the box. I was hoping I'd get this in my box though from seeing other reviews and sneak peeks as I'm growing my nails out and needed a nice and lovely file. It's fun and easy to use, following the shape of your nails and I use this all the time.

My favourite SSB product from July, the Love Phat Liner!

Colour & Care Shampoo. Monu Golden Glow. Jelly Pong Lip Frosting. Skin Balancing Lotion.
HD Brows, Eye & Brow Palette. Skin Balancing Kit.

July's GB also came with 5 items, with an extra item added in too. They do give extra items out every now and then, and the extra for this months (Skin Balancing Kit) was better than the SSB box of a reward card. GB also has themes for boxes, with this months being "Festival Glam". Now I can see the uses for some of the products in a festival, but it doesn't seem like a festival box to me. I'd rather see a good moisturiser, mini spray, fun make up etc.

Enrich Colour Shampoo by Clynol Salon Exclusive is meant to be a shampoo for coloured hair with UV filtres to protect your hair from fading. I'm growing my hair dye out so the top of my hair is my natural colour and the ends are faded. I decided to use it anyway, and it left my hair looking really greasy on the non dyed parts so I'm not sure if I'll use this again until I dye my hair again. 

Golden Glow by Monu is a good moisturiser like I mentioned above, and comes in handy considering the sun is barely out lately and does gradually build a small tan. However the product I'm currently using does a better job, (some cheap Sweedish stuff I got from Buyology) but it does smell better than the cheap stuff!

Lip Frosting by Jelly Pong Pong Cosmetics smells amazing! I want to eat it all up, but don't worry I won't. It comes out in a dark pink colour which looks nicer on your lips, with a subtle shine and isn't too sticky, I hate sticky lip glosses. It's also a decent amount for a lip gloss and now lives in my purse. 

Visible Difference Skin Balancing Lotion and Line Kit by Elizabeth Arden is a small product but has more in it than you think it would. I've actually lost it so only used it for a few days but it was like most other moisturisers I've used, leaving my skin feeling soft, I just need to find it to use it again. Now with the Kit I enjoyed using them but they were small smaples so only used them once. The kit came with a exfoliating cleanser, skin serum and sachet of the lotion. They left my skin feeling fresh and soft, but I didn't notice any other effects after only using it once, but it was a nice extra product. 

Brows Eye and Brow Pallete by HD Brows is something I'm really glad I got. I've been meaning to try a brow kit for awhile, but never felt like I really needed one so haven't bought one. When I got it in this box, I thought, this is why I started to subscribe in the first place, to try out products I wouldn't usually buy. It's a bit too dark for my hair colour, but I use the lighter shades to fill in my brows. I'm only a beginner though so I need some more practice with it as I've accidentally put too much on before, oops. It's fun to use though and I hope I get the use of it and will probably use it quite a lot in the future!

And that's the end of the product reviews finally! I hope I didn't bore you, it actually took me aaages to write this post. To compare the two boxes, neither was amazing, but they both had a product which I loved with SSB's Love Phat Liner and GB's HD Brows kit. GB's product was more expensive so better value for my money, but SSB's product is something I use every day whereas with GB's product I'll use every now and then, but probably on nights out unless I get the hang of it. Overall I think GB was better this month, but only marginally so, so we'll see how August boxes are!