LEAVING WORK HAUL

You may or may not (but probably don't know) that for the past 11 months I've been working as a healthcare advisor at Boots (and I won't say which one, but it is probably the best Boots out there in the coolest location). Alongside this came the single greatest thing in my life, a discount card. As Sunday was my last day at work, my mum and I did a huge Boots shop before I had to give back my discount (</3), so I thought I'd share some of the things we bought.

Skin Care
I did a stock up on my favourite skin care staples, which are the Boots tea tree and witch hazel foaming face wash and cleansing and toning lotion, the Neutrogena oil-free moisturiser (life saver) and the Quick Fix anti-blemish mud mask. Oldies but goodies, all of them.

Makeup
The first lot of makeup is stuff I bought myself. Firstly, I bought myself a new Natural Collection concealer stick, which is my current favourite concealer, and the Rimmel soft kohl eye liner pencil, as my current one from Body Shop is nearing the end of its life. I also bought, because there was an offer on Rimmel, the Lasting Colour Rush balm in 'Keep Mauving', which I have been lusting after for absolutely ages after buying a different colour a couple of years ago and loving it. The last makeup item I bought was the No.7 extreme length sensitive mascara. I was on the hunt for a good mascara, and I had this one years and years ago and really liked it. I don't need my mascaras to do too many fancy things, just simple length and colour, and I have really, really sensitive eyes, so this one ticks all the boxes for me.

All the other makeup products are Essie nail varnishes that I was given as my leaving present from my colleagues, as they know how much I love Essie nail varnishes. Firstly, I was given 'Chinchilly', which everyone knows is my all-time favourite nail varnish, and I was also given two duo sets. The first one is the 'Anchors Aweigh!' set, which contains two slightly shimmery nail varnishes, 'Naughty Nautical' and the immensely population 'Bikini so Teeny'. The other set is the 'a Sprinkle in Pink' set, which contains the also immensely popular 'Fiji' and the 'a Cut Above' glitter top coat. I am very spoilt and very emotional over this.

Miscellaneous
Miscellaneous products, aka the ones that didn't fit into their own category but I wanted to mention. Firstly, a set of three clear wash/makeup bags, always useful; then my favourite Denman hair brush because I haven't had a new one in over ten years. Finally, a new electric toothbrush that I can bring away to uni with me (plus spare heads, not pictured).

Rosie

Significantly poorer than I was before

FAIRYPANTS

I discovered the Chester-based, handmade, independent company 'Fairypants' on Twitter a while ago and I absolutely loved the idea of some of their products, though I've only very recently remembered about them and decided to have another look. (How amazing is their brand name and logo by the way?)

I dropped some water on it, which annoyingly damaged the label ever so slightly

Fairypants is a vegan company, and I'm not vegan, but I simply couldn't resist trying their lip balms after I saw the flavours. Fairypants' lip balm speciality is 'cocktails and cakes', and with a mixture of cocktail or desert flavoured lip balms, how could I resist? All Fairypants lip balms contain Shea butter, jojoba wax, sweet almond oil and natural colourings and flavourings, have you ever see a more lovely line-up of ingredients? (As they're a vegan company, all products are natural and none are tested on animals).

Choosing a flavour of lip balm was a near impossible task for me. Personal favourites of mine from the cocktail range were Irish cream, mojito, margarita and ameretto and cola. And from the deserts range I was tempted by key lime pie, banoffee pie, sticky toffee pudding, cherry bakewell, blueberry muffin and parma violets. They have 20 incredible flavours of lip balm, all for £3.99 each, plus many other cosmetic products.

In the end, I opted for Irish Cream after a very lovely conversation I had on Twitter with the creator/owner/inventor (I don't know what to call her) of Fairypants. I really like it when business owners get involved with people on Twitter, it adds such a nice, personal touch and it makes me all the more keen to support their company. After asking exactly what Irish Cream smelt like (exact Twitter reply: 'happiness, Rosie. It basically smells like rich coffee, and Irish Cream liqueur. Like pouring bailey's into your cuppa') I couldn't resist; if you seen the ingredients photo (above) you'll note that it contains coffee and whiskey, though it's definitely not alcoholic. This lip balm does smell incredible, I occasionally find myself sitting in my room and sniffing it while I'm browsing online. You can definitely smell the coffee and whisky but it's so good and not at all overwhelming; you can't smell it while it's on your lips, but I prefer it that way. The creator of Fairypants has said online that this lip balm is one of the more Christmasy scents, and it can definitely makes you feel all warm and wintery when you smell it. I'm desperate to try out some of the other scents, which are bound to be equally as incredible.

Now onto the lip balm itself. When I first opened it, it looked like a hard balm and I was fully prepared for that, but surprisingly it turned out the be the complete opposite. The minute I touched it, it was a lovely smooth and creamy texture that feels really good on the lips. It sinks into your lips, rather than just sitting annoyingly on top, though this does depend on how much you put on. If I'm at home or before bed, I tend to be very generous with my lip balm application, so it takes slightly longer to sink in, but I wake up with beautifully soft lips the next morning. One of the things I like about this lip balm is that it's thick but not at all greasy, and everyone knows I really cannot stand anything greasy.

It's no secret that I've tried a hell of a lot of lip balms in my time, but I'd go as far as to say that this is one of the best and one of my current favourites. I've been using for a little over a week now, and my lips are super soft and smooth. They started to peel slightly after I didn't use the lip balm for a couple of days, though that is most likely due to the awful weather, and they healed literally over night with the help of this product. My lips do not like the winter weather and I can already tell that this product is going to be a life-saver over the next few months. It's such a lovely lip balm, the thick and creamy texture is incredible and my lips feel amazing. I'd highly, highly recommend, I can't rave about it enough, and I'm itching to try out some more of their stuff.

IS IT ACCEPTABLE TO MATCH YOUR LIPS AND NAILS?

Yes. I do believe it is.

But colour choice should be well planned. Par example, I would personally not wear red lips with red nails as I feel it would be a bit too much (though I juxtapose myself on 'bit too much' later*), but each to their own.

The colours I would choose to match lips and nails with are berry, nude and black (*can black and black be considered a 'bit too much'?). Obviously berry and berry works, being the classic Autumn/Winter combo; and nude and nude works for a classic, sophisticated, and also 90's look. Personally I think black and black would look good together, though you do have to be quite brave to whip it out at any other time than Halloween.

As I am yet to find the right shade of nude lipstick to suit my face, I will discuss the berries. When matching lips and nails, I quite like the shades of be almost identical. My almost-identical shades here are an Accessorize lipstick in 'Infatuated', and an Essie nail varnish in 'Bahama Mama'.

I find it really difficult to photograph lipstick, but the bullet colour is basically exactly the same as the colour on the label 

Essie 'Bahama Mama'

'Infatuated' was my first ever lipstick and it's so beautiful, I am pleasantly surprised by Accessorize's makeup range (they also do good nail varnishes). Being a non-matte lipstick, it can get quite messy, and I would recommend not eating whilst wearing it. 'Bahama Mama' was on my wishlist for about a year and it does not disappoint. It's the perfect berry shade, and the quality of Essie nail varnishes is brilliant. The two products are basically the same shade, which I love.

Accessorize lipstick- Around £5.49 (Superdrug)
Essie nail varnish- £7.99 (Boots or Superdrug)

IT'S KIND OF CRAZY

Whilst on my desperate search for an EOS stocker for the UK I stumbled across the cutECOsmetics website. This company is a Vegan makeup company but, when I browsing the lip balm section as I have been know to do occasionally (all the time), I fell in love with some of their brands; now, I am not a Vegan but I don't see why I can't enjoy Vegan lip balms all the same.

Firstly, obviously, I had a look at the EOS lip balms as there are no stockers in the UK, but as I now have one (read my review here) I decided that I didn't need a new one (also they cost over £5 each which is quite a lot and I'll probably stock up on cheaper ones next time I go to the US).

I found possibly one of the nicest sounding lip balm companies ever that goes by the name of Crazy Rumors (American brand, American spelling). They literally have every flavour you could chose from in an amazing range and it took me forever to settle on just one but I am thrilled with my choice. As I was browsing their range I came across one of my favourite things in the world- tea. I have never seen tea flavoured lip balm before but what an amazing idea to appeal to a tea addict like me! There are four amazing flavours to chose from: Orange Bergamot (a.k.a Earl Grey flavoured), Apple Spice (cider-tasting apparently), Spiced Chai and Peppermint Lemongrass. I was very tempted by many of the flavours but you really can't go wrong with tea flavoured if, like me, you basically live off of tea. Yes I have a lip balm problem I know, but so would you if you'd seen Crazy Rumors.

NOW, let me tell you a story. I discovered Crazy Rumors around autumn time but I kept putting off ordering until I eventually forgot about it. While browsing Bloglovin' I discovered a British blogger talking about Crazy Rumors being on sale in Holland&Barrett and I almost had to restrain myself from running down there ASAP to buy one. Looking at the Holland&Barrett website I couldn't find the one I wanted as they only had a limited selection, but when I went into the shop they had a different set a flavours, and lo and behold there was the one I wanted the most.

I decided to go for the Apple Spice flavour from the 'brew' range after much deliberation as it combines two of my favourite things, tea and anything apple flavoured, but it was an immensely hard choice.
The packaging for Crazy Rumors is a tube lipbalm in a very simple clear plastic packaging with a paper-feel label and the flavour on the front. It's simple but attractive, what more could you want (plus how super cut is the little teapot symbol)?

As Vegan products aren't allowed to contain bee's wax, Crazy Rumors contains the magic that is Shea butter, I use the Body Shop lip butter in Shea overnight as the think, white consistency of the butter is not a daytime product but it works miracles in giving you super smooth lips and I would go as far to say that it is one of my favourite ingredients(?) for products to contain.

Due to the Shea butter, the product slides on super smoothly and doesn't drag like some other products I can name (Burt's Bees I'm looking at you); however, due to the Shea butter, it leaves a whiteish film on your lips that means I only wear it at night to avoid embarrassing rabies-like situations in public. This is a really great product as it makes my lips feel super smooth and I can get away with only wearing lip balm and night and not having to top up throughout the day due to drying-out lips; it also smells absolutely amazing, though the scent is rather (very) strong.

As well as the Brew range (tea flavours) you can also get: A La Mode (ice cream), Hibiskiss (tinted), Candy Cane, Gumball (bubblegum to the UK), Fresh Squeezed (citrus/fruit), Perk (coffee), Soda Pop, and Sweetheart (cake). Each different range comes with four flavours but there are also some others that don't fit into a range.
Some of the other amazing flavours that I was loath to part with (as well as the rest of the tea range which I want all of) are Pear and Peppermint Candy Cane, Ginger Peach, Gingerbread, Orange Clove and Red Velvet Cake.

Another great thing about Crazy Rumors is they have a couple of charity lip balms where, stating the obvious here, a section of the proceeds goes to charity.
I will definitely be wanting to go back and get more Crazy Rumors soon as the flavour range is amazing but for now I am loving what I've got and I am a very happy bunny.

SIMMER DOWN AND PUCKER UP

When life hands you exams it is essential (in my view) to buy yourself rewards for all the work and stress you are put through (and I promise that is not an excuse to go shopping). Last summer I went to Florida where I bought some Burt's Bees Lip Balms as they are much cheaper over there than they are here in the UK.

(Cheeky reuse of old photos here)

The main point of this post is not solely to review this product, but to talk about a new thing I'm doing this month. This June I have decided to only use one lip balm for the whole of the month just because I can really, I have no other reasoning apart from that.

I did make a post on Burt's Bees waaaay back in September 2013 so I'm not going to spend too long writing about it again. But I will say that it smells minty and fresh and brings back good memories of last summer; I also use this as a base before applying lipstick as it is quite a hard product so it isn't greasy, it doesn't leave a residue and you can barely feel it on your lips so your lipstick doesn't go sliding straight off as it might with a thinner, greasier balm.

I'd like to end this post by saying that, as of tomorrow, I will be free from exams and that is more exciting than anything right now.

THE ONLY ONE YOU'LL EVER NEED

I am the ultimate connoisseur of lip balm (in mine own eyes) and time and time again I find myself coming back to the same lip balm in my hour of need. This post will not be a long one as all I have to say is that the Nivea Hydro Care stick is one of the best lip balms I have ever used and it is definitely my go-to when it comes to chapped lips as it is super moisturising and the stick-form means it can be applied quickly and easily on the go. Buy it and thank me later.

Nivea Hydro Care- £1.50 in Tesco