Review – New Avon Shine Attract Lipstick and 17 Wild Metallic Cream Eyeshadow

I used to be a regular Avon customer in my teens (so cheap! catalogue to your door!) but the habit has long since disappeared, especially since I’ve come to work at Boots HQ, home of all the makeup IN THE WORLD. I got sent this Avon lipstick in a Dorothy Perkins order – evidently they’re teaming up to give samples to customers from time to time, which is great news – there’s nothing nicer than a little free gift when you buy something online!

The freebie I got was Avon Shine Attract Lipstick which is a strange looking thing – kind of resembling a bullseye. The actual lipstick is at the core of the tube, and its surrounded by a clear moisturising balm.

The great thing about these lipsticks is that they’re really moisturising, so great if you prefer a lip balm normally but are looking for a hint of colour. They also fall into that time saving category of products, also including Clinique Chubby Stick, which you can apply on the bus, while walking down the street or indeed anywhere else that you don’t have access to a mirror – since they’re so sheer, application is pretty foolproof. The effect is shiny but not remotely sticky and you can build up the colour with multiple layers, although of course, it won’t stick around for very long.

The lipsticks are £8.50 at Avon online – I have to say, the price surprised me – I was expecting more like £5.

I also tried the new 17 Wild Metallic Cream Eyeshadow in Bronze. Last week I was unsuspectingly reading emails at my desk when the boots.com content team pounced on me to recruit me for a new video on diabetes for BootsWebMD.com. As a result, I ended up having some time to kill in the local Boots store while the team did some establishing shots so I had a browse of the makeup counters! I was on the lookout for a jade green nail polish (which inexplicably none of the brands seemed to have!) when I noticed these new eyeshadows from 17 in a creamy formulation.

I went for the bronze colour because it pairs well with my blue eyes, but the purple and silver were mighty tempting too.

I tested a few on my hand and decided on the bronze and then continued browsing the store – within 5 minutes I noticed that the colour from the shadows had pretty much disappeared, leaving just a massive deposit of silver glitter all over my hand and arm!

Despite that bad omen, wear is average I would say – not as bad as I was actually expecting given the creaminess of the product, but it had grouped together in a line on my eyelid by lunchtime, and will be pretty much gone by the end of the day without any touch ups. Having said that, the pot is teeny tiny and easy to touch up on the go if that’s important to you. They cost £3.99 each.

Have you tried either of these products – what did you think? What other new beauty products have you seen or are dying to try recently?

I really want to try this new Bourjois nail polish remover – apparently it gets even glittery nail polish off in a second!

x Kerry


Review : 17 Peep Show Mascara, Barry M Wink Eyeliner and Bourjois Healthy Mix Concealer

Oooh I have some new favourite beauty products to tell you about!

Lately I’ve been trying out lots of new products!

17 Peep Show Mascara - This mascara promises voluptuous volume – a full, flirty flutter with no clumps. I was a bit like, “yeah, whatevs” at first because its well known (by me) that EVERY mascara is clumpy at first, even the ones that go onto be amazing (except YSLs Luxurious Mascara).

Amazingly, this one isn’t clumpy even on your first use and with no wand wiping! Added to that, its the best mascara I’ve tried in a long long time. It thickens and lengthens lashes very well and stays put all day with no flaking.

I typically apply 3-4 little coats each on the top and bottom lashes (if that makes sense!) but you can add more mascara for a more vamped up look and still not get any clumping – check out the pictures below!

Please excuse the picture – hopefully you can see what I mean… this is definitely my new favourite mascara!

I got given this mascara (I work at Boots head office) – it retails for £6.29 online or instore

Barry M Wink Eyeliner - Barry M are marketing this as a ‘marker pen’ eyeliner, which is a cute idea and one that I’m definitely attracted to the apparent simplicity and ease of.

I love the cute bright pink packaging and price (£5.49) but I’ve found the actual product a little harder to get along with. I’ve found it difficult to do a very good eyeliner line with this pen. I’ve found it works well when I hold the pen vertically against my eye for a thin line along the lashes, but when I try to do a thick winged line its a lot more challenging. Thats not to say it isn’t possible – blogger LionLovingTiger is clearly an expert at it! – but its apparent from the mixed reviews that this isn’t the easy eyeliner wonderproduct I was hoping for. For beginners non-eyeliner pros, gel eyeliner applied with a brush is still definitely the easiest route to winged eyeliner perfection.

I also noticed that my eyeliner pen started to fade after just a few weeks, so although this product is cheap it actually doesn’t look like it will last long…unlike the similar Collection 2000 Extreme liner which is just £3 and lasts for months and months.

Bourjois Healthy Mix concealer  – I have a soft spot for Bourjois (and they’re really Chanel, don’t ya know!) as it was my makeup drug of choice in my teenage years (along with 17 and Natural Collection of course!). I bought this concealer after running out of Benefit Boi-ing which I sure wasn’t paying £15 to replace. I wanted something light and in a suitable skin tone (actually much harder to find than you’d think for pale ladies!) that also had good coverage.

I wandered into Boots, tried a couple of different concealers and liked this one immediately. It feels very creamy and moisturising on the skin and is probably the lightest one I tried – no orange residue here! The coverage is medium, so more for hiding a few dark circles than for really heavy duty skin issues, but for general use it works really well.

Healthy Mix concealer is £7.49 so about half the price as my previous Benefit ones – plus I paid for it and the Barry M product with Advantage Card points, so I didn’t think of it as spending money!

Healthy Mix foundation is also supposed to be awesome – I’m happy with Max Factor Experience for now (and have a couple of bottles to get through!) but I’ll definitely check it out after that.

Have you tried any new beauty products lately, or seen any you’d like to try? Let me know!

x Kerry


What I’m wearing today

We’re officially into that awkward spring period where the days start chilly and damp and then turn into glorious sunshine and warmth (hopefully anyway!). This Sunday it was fantastically warm and sunny and I was actually too hot wearing a short, thin summer jacket! The British seem to possess an odd quirk which presumably comes from living on a rainy, chilly island – at the first sign of warmth they tend to make the most of it, which is a euphemism for taking off most of their clothes.

Anywhoo… Onto what I’m wearing today!

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I couldn’t be bothered to straighten my hair today so I put it up into a kind of beehive bun. I’m not sure how I did it – I’m useless with hair but luckily my hair has insane volume!

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Here’s that moment when I realise I’m wearing all primark! Yes, everything but my bra and ballet flats are from Primark!
I’ve had this shirt and skirt for at least five years and they could probably do with replacing… But they’ll do for now.

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I bought some new makeup at the weekend with my advantage card points. I got this lilac shade by Barry M – what do you think? I wasn’t sure how it would look with my pale skin but I like it so far.

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I also bought a new concealer – I got the healthy mix concealer by bourgois which was £7.49. I had previously been using benefit boi-ing for years, which worked great for me. I mainly use concealer to hide some darkness around my eyes. But when I finally ran out, I didn’t want to repurchase at £16.50 for about 4g so I looked for a cheaper one. This one was a bit more than I wanted to pay but the shade and coverage was spot on and I know how difficult that is to find! I’ll do a full review on it soon.

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I also bought the new eyeliner marker pen by Barry M called Wink Eyeliner – again I will do a full review soon but here’s a picture of what I did with it this morning -

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Have a great day!

X Kerry


You need this mascara

I’ve had the 17 wild curls mascara for quite a while and haven’t used it a tremendous amount (I have a staggering number of mascaras and tend to pull a random one out of the drawer to use each day, although I stick with the Bourjois colume glamour one quite a bit).

Then this week I started trying out different mascaras to see which one could give me the craziest volume (basically lashes that reach to your eyebrows). This mascara delivers that.

17 wild curls mascara

17 wild curls mascara

The above is not the worlds best picture, but hopefully you can see that my lashes are looking pretty good!

What’s your favourite mascara?


What I’m wearing today

Getting ready for work in the morning is gloomy and grey now that winter is here. Its barely light by the time I wake up which doesn’t make me want to spring out of bed! In fact I’m getting up about 30 minutes (3 snoozes) after my alarm which is something I really need to stop doing.

This morning, Marty sensed my grogginess and helped me pick my outfit! Here he is perched on top of my wardrobe giving a purr or a hiss to my choices!

Nail wise I’m sporting 17 fast finish in knockout red. The fast finishes come in great colours but seem to chip very quickly for me.

I’m wearing a black sheer Primark skirt with embroidery stuff along the bottom. Marty is chillaxing behind me!

Plus a black vest top and red cardigan (its cold!).

What are you wearing today?


Help! Rescuing damaged, stressed-out frizzed-out hair

Hair brittle, frizzy, coarse and generally unhappy? Read on my friends, read on.

I remember well the day I discovered hair straighteners aged about 15. Yes believe it or not blog readers, I actually REMEMBER the world before hair straighteners were even invented. GHDs were just a sparkle in some marketeers eye. I also recall living without the internet (we got it in my house when I was about 12 I think),remember a time before the advent of iPods OR iPhones OR iPads, and shopped in Woolworths as a child.

All things that I am positive will one day cause my children to cringe and view me as an ancient old dinosaur.

Anyhoo, the point is, since I was about 15 and discovered the miracle that were high straighteners (and my friends, they truly are a miracle!),  I’ve been using them daily on parts or all of hair. My hair is naturally curly but also slightly frizzy so GHDs were definitely my hair saviour! Without them my fringe would be sticking up at weird angles rather than laying nice and flat.But as you probably know, GHDs get up to about 210 degrees, and just aren’t that good for your hair :( I also like using my babyliss wand to give my hair defined curls. Annnnnnnnnnnnnd I also blow dry my hair after most showers in what is no doubt the worst way possible, by just blasting it until its dry enough for me to go on with my business.

My hair, on a good day!

Another thing that probably hasn’t done my hair any favours is the fact that I dye it, oh quite a lot. At least once a month. Sadly I have an army of white/grey hairs that need to be contained. At. All. Costs. I mainly just dye the roots but it does have a definite effect on the condition of my hair.

So, I’m not willing to give up the GHDs or the curling wand, and there’s no way in hell I’m going grey. What’s a girl to do?

Here’s my plan!

  • Cut right back on blow drying. I’m trying to leave my hair to dry naturally as much as possible. Obviously this is only possible in certain sitations, but I’m sure it will help
  • Start using a heat protector when I do blow dry/straighten/curl. Until now I’d thought these were just a rip off/waste of time. Now I’m starting to think they may be worth using!
  • Experiment with different products to improve the condition of my hair – I’ve had argan oil recommended to me – thoughts?

Since I’m just at the beginning of trying to pamper my hair back into a good condition – please give me your advice! What products work wonders on your hair? Do you think heat protection sprays and products are worth using? Do you dye your hair or do you find it too damaging?


10000 views giveaway details!

Hello blog friends! I’m back with details of the prize that one lucky reader will be receiving for helping me to reach 10000 views!

In the mix -

  • Biotherm Skin Vivo Anti-Ageing moisturiser 50ml
  • Clarins Beauty Flash Balm 30ml
  • Diorshow Waterproof mascara in electric blue
  • No7 Stay Perfect nail polish in vivid violet
  • Prada Infusion D’Iris body lotion
  • Origins blusher brush – I have a couple of these – its lovely and soft
  • 17 Eyeshadow trio in midnight storm
  • Benefit Powderflage concealer
  • Ted Baker beauty lippy kit no. 4
  • 54 blue polka dot cupcake cases from Lakeland – these ones are very good and don’t let the grease through

I must confess to being a time-pressed blogger today – I don’t have time to add up what its all worth as I need to go and do my ten minute toning exercises! But I know that the Skin Vivo product is worth £39 by itself!

If you’d like a reminder on how to enter the giveaway – have a look at the original post here. So far only THREE people have entered so get sharing!


Don’t forget to enter the giveaway!

A little reminder that you’ve got one week left to become a subscriber to be in with a chance to win this fantabulous prize!

I currently have 24 28 subscribers so your odds are looking good!


My first blog giveaway! Win a beauty set worth £115!

Last week I reached 10 subscribers on my blog! *does a little dance*

Thank you to everyone who’s become a subscriber – it means a lot to me!

To celebrate this momentous achievement (to me anyway!) , I’m going to run my FIRST EVER blog giveaway!!

One lucky reader will win this fabulous gift set full of beauty products – worth £115!!

Here’s whats inside

I will post the set off to the lucky winner after the giveaway ends in two weeks time. The best thing is, everyone who reads my blog can enter – no matter where you are in the world

How to enter

To enter, just subscribe to Kerrycooks (if you’re not already). The box to sign up should be on the right hand side of this very post! And looks like this -

All existing and new subscribers will then be entered into my draw to win the prize. I’ll pick one at random, contact them for their address and then post the prize off to them!

Good luck everyone! You have two weeks (until the 11th September inclusively) and then I’ll pick a winner!!

What’s the best thing you’ve ever won? I never win anything!


Review : 10 minute hair dyes

DING DING.

In the green corner we have L’OREAL EXCELL 10

In the…. other corner, we have CLAIROL PERFECT 10

Which one is better? FIGHT!!!

Sadly, boxes of hair dye can’t fight so I’ll have to review them for you!

I am not someone who is willing to spend more than ten minutes letting hair dye work its magic – hence why I’m only reviewing the ten minute hair dyes. I’m not sure why you would use anything else.

Before we get to the review, let me share my PRO’S TIP with you. See, I dye my hair A LOT (it will probably fall out any day now) due to pesky grey hairs. So I mainly touch up my roots, using….

this!Aka a small paintbrush from wilkos that I bought especially for applying hair dye. Works a treat!

Onto the review!

Clairol Perfect 10 -Pros

  • Its got the better name, clearly. And I suspect that they thought of the whole concept first and L’oreal copied them.
  • It has a far superior conditioner, both in terms of the actual conditioner, and the container its in

Cons

  • Smells pretty bad

L’Oreal Excell 10 -Pros

  • Excellent comb tooth applicator that makes the dye really easy to apply (though I suspect they just copied Clairol)
  • Prettier box design. What can I say, I’m a shallow consumer

Cons

  • The rectangular plastic thing they put the conditioner in is ridiculous and impossible to get most of the conditioner out of
  • The brown hair dye looks kind of red (on me?) which freaked me out into thinking it was dyeing my hair red. It turned out brown in the end. But still. Not a time to trick a girl!

Overall my preferred hair dye is the perfect 10 by Clairol – it suits me better and the L’Oreal version loses a million points for having its conditioner in a tiny, frustratingly inpenetratable bottle.

Unfortunately neither of them cover greys for long… Has anyone found better grey coverage with dyes that take longer to apply?


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