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Review: Boots Zingy Berry Shower Gel

Hi everyone, 

Are you ok? Enjoying the easter break I hope?

Yesterday, making full use of my long weekend, i took a trip to my local boots store to stock up on make-up, toiletries and whatever else I could get my hands on. I took part in the obligatory beauty blogger's swatch-fest and spent far too much money on things I didn't really need because I wanted to test them out for reviews etc. - overall, it was pretty successful if you ask me! I love a good boots run!

One thing which caught my eye was the, cheap as chips at £1 a pop, Zingy Berry shower gel. A boots own brand and looking wonderful in their basic but bright packaging, I was in for a treat!

I tend to keep a large 'pump action' bottle in the shower for my body wash/shower gel and often buy four or five smaller bottles of whichever gel takes my fancy to top it up. I couldn't wait to try out the berry stuff, it smelt divine!!!

Unfortunately, it didn't quite turn out to be as wonderful as I thought it would... *cries*.

The texture of the gel was, in a word, WEIRD ! It was kind of lumpy... And wouldn't foam up with the addition of water, instead, it just slid off my hand and went straight down the drain, every single time I tried to use it! It almost broke into lots of lumpy bits and spread all over the shower floor, also making plenty of mess! In general, it was a little bit of a let down.

Ive now had to replace it with my trusty Imperial Leather Shower smoothy wash which has led to a waste of product, and money. So sad :(

I'm baffled, the boots range is always spot on and I've never ever had a problem before - I'm wondering if maybe it was just a bad batch? Maybe one of the other ones would be different?

Not sure if I want to spend another £1 to find out really. If anyone has had the same problem I'd love to hear about it!

Haul: Vivo Cosmetics

This is kind of old news to all you fellow beauty bloggers by now... but yes, Tesco have released a beauty range named Vivo - and it's actually pretty darn good! 

I purchased my collection of Vivo goodies the day after the products were launched in September - it's taken an awfully long time to get round to showing them to you. *oops*!!

You can't see it much in these pictures (I stupidly took them after swatching) but the "baked" products almost look similar to the MAC MSF's. They're beautifully pearly, without too much shimmer! 

"Peaches and Cream" Blush: £4.00

"Rosy" Blush: £4.00

"Rouge Shimmer" Blush: £4.00

For some reason I didn't swatch the bronzer. I think it made my hand look totally orange. I'm so pale that it doesn't really look right... 

They also offer some wonderful blush and shadow palettes. The colours are highly pigmented and also have the "mini MSF" look. I would definitely recommend these! 

These retail for around £6.00 each.

I also use a Vivo eyebrow kit at the moment, which I'm beyond impressed with. This will be featured in a future post so I won't duplicate the review. 

Vivo also have foundation, highlighters, lipsticks and individual eyeshadows, blushes and much more in their range - I've not even scraped the surface with this!! 

Have you used any of their "stuff" so far? What do you think?

Butter Biscuits: The Recipe

I do love baking. I mean, I'm not any good at it.. I try my best and I seem to manage a fluke every now and then, this is about the first thing to work properly for me! 

I found this recipe at the weekend and have already made three batches - I've tweaked the recipe a teeny weeny bit - it might not be to everyone's taste but give it a go and see what you think! 

Ingredients:

- 200g Unsalted Butter

- 200g Caster Sugar

- 300g Plain Flour

- 1 Egg

- 2 tsp Vanilla Flavouring

Method:

1. Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl.

2. Beat in the vanilla and the egg. 

3. Add the flour in small parts - careful not to create a flour cloud... slowly does it.

4. Beat until smooth, you may need to get your hands in there to smoosh it all together (technical term for you there). 

5. When the dough is "smooshed" together, remove from the bowl and shape into two discs. 

6. Wrap with clingfilm and chill for around 60 minutes, until firm.

7. Heat the oven to 160/gas mark 4.

8. Dust the work top with flour and roll out each portion of the dough to around 4mm thick.

9. Use your favourite cookie cutters to use up all of the dough. Make as many as you can! 

 

10. Line two baking trays with non-stick baking paper (or just butter the trays like I've done) and lift the cookies onto it using a palette knife.

11. Bake for 15-17 minutes until just turning golden at the edges. 

12. Cool on a baking rack until you're able to munch them all up!!!!!

Hey, they're a little on the "over-brown" side, but they were lovely!! 

Nail of The Day: Essie Ladylike and Shine of The Times

So, firstly, I hope you're all ready for tomorrow? A very Merry Christmas Eve to you all!!

This post contains a plethora of crappy pictures. I took them last night as I couldn't wait to show you all what an AMAZING effect these two babies give when paired up!! 

I've used two new additions to my collection, both Essie and both equally incredible. 

I'm afraid I didn't get pictures of them seperately (Duh!!) - I'll do this next time, but first up... it's "Lady Like" 

 

This was also reviewed by the amazing Vivianna from "Vivianna Does Make up". What a beautiful lady eh?! She reviewed "Lady Like" here and made me want to order it that very moment. Doesn't it look fantastic with the glitters!?!?!?!? This will be my next NOTD! 

Shine of the Times is up next. This has to be my new, all time favourite, nail polish. It's incredible! A million flecks of beautiful multi-tonal glitz which all reflect and match what's underneath! You can't quite see from these pictures how amazing it really is!! 

What do you guys think?

The World's Most Powerful Women: Kim Kardashian

Now, some people may not agree with my second choice for the "World's Most Powerful Women" series but I'm a huge fan and I've been dying to write this for months!!! 

My next post is picture heavy... and if you hate Kim Kardashian - look away now!!! 

When I say I'm a huge fan, I mean it. I'm not a total phsycho about it, I just think she's such an intelligent business woman (I totally look up to her because of this) and she's got amazing style. Not to mention the fact that she's bloody stunning!! 

Here's the bio from her blog site, you can find it here if you'd like to read the full version - I thought it explained her better than I could!! 

Kim Kardashian became an unexpected star after the first airing of her hit E! Entertainment reality series “Keeping up with the Kardashians.” The show follows the exploits of the Kardashian/Jenner family, which includes father Bruce Jenner, mom Kris Jenner, Kim, Kourtney, Khloe and Rob Kardashian and Kendall and Kylie Jenner, in their Calabasas home. 

Kardashian grew up with an almost fairy-tale childhood. She was the second child, born to Kris and prominent defense attorney Robert Kardashian. Her parents had four children at the time of their divorce. Her mom eventually married famous Olympic Gold Medalist Bruce Jenner, who also had four children, and they became a modern day Brady Bunch.

Bruce and Kris had two more children together, bringing the extended family of children to ten.

Kim has taken part in "Dancing with the Stars", "America's Next Top Model" (on the judging panel) and has appeared in many films and TV shows such as "How I met your mother". 

She frequently graces the cover of many highly reputable magazines such as Glamour, Cosmo and even Vogue. Her make up routine and style gives Bloggers all over the world food for thought and the challenge of re-creating her look!

Now most of the above isn't relevant to this post, they aren't the reasons why I've chosen to write about Kim... she has an amazing amount of entrepreneurial skill, proven by the fact that she has her own fashion boutique line with her sisters (DASH), a perfume range, she owns a share in an online shoe boutique (ShoeDazzle.com) and has even written a book - this is to name but a few of her business ventures. 

(I seriously cant wait to get my hands on this book!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Even more importantly, she does a huge amount of charity work. She visits childrens hospitals regularly, donating large amounts of money wherever she can and handing out toys and gifts to the kids - she's also visited Haiti recently. She is a Dream Foundation ambassador which grants last wishes to terminally ill adults and does regular sales on Ebay to generate donations for the charity. She also recently completed PSA’s about the political plight in Burma and Breast Cancer awareness and also participated in a photo shoot promoting the “Until There’s A Cure” bracelet dedicated to eradicating HIV/AIDS by raising awareness and funds to combat the pandemic.

Incredible!

Kim and her sisters seem to have an unbreakable bond, well, they are sisters after all! I love seeing pictures of them together as they look like they're having a fab time!! 

Also, she has the most incredible shoe collection. You know me, I LOVE shoes - I mean, I love them beyond belief... this woman makes me extremely jealous! She even wears Louboutin Daffodile pumps whilst riding camels for christ's sake! Check it out, total SATC moment:

And last but not least, I'll leave some of my favourite Kim K make-up images and a few wonderful tutorials, I'm a sucker for perfect make-up, I wish I could get my skin to look so bloody flawless! I guess that's what having a personal make-up artist does for you eh? If anyone wants to be mine, let me know - that'd be great. 

Here's a tutorial directly from Kim's make-up artist Mario Dedivanovic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZQbvm00vq8

Well, that's it - I'm done with the MEGA long post now, promise! What do you guys think? 

Nail of The Day: Nails Inc. Lily and High Society

It's been some time since I posted about the other members of the Gossip Girl collection (Serena and Blair) so I thought I'd finish off the series with the third polish by Nails Inc. 

The Lily Collection is a special effects duo which includes a beautiful plum black Lily nail polish and High Society red and green overglaze top coat.

It gives the most wonderful effect which would look amazing with a matte top coat - I'm yet to invest in one of these but I'll be sure to update you when I do!!!

What do you think of Lily/High Society?

Batista's Diary: All Grown Up

I know, I know... you're all wondering where on earth I've been!? No? Really?
Me and my sister have been through an awful lot lately, in fact, there's so much to tell that I couldn't possibly fit it into one blog post - I'll have to try and do some quick bullet points (before I'm discovered and Mum tells me to stop walking all over the laptop!!)

Well, where shall I start?! Me and Tips have moved house, we've had our operations (and had to wear those stupid cones for weeks!) and we're big enough to go outside now! It's such fun using the cat flap, although, I've not quite got the hang of it yet!

Mummy's been taking lots of pictures, shall I show them to you? These are only a very small handful of the millions she has - it's so embarrassing!!  



Don't our red collars look smart? We've "lost" these since this picture was taken - or at least that's what we told Mum!!



Check out the cone, horrible isn't it?!



I like playing with Mum's make-up. Especially when she's trying to take pictures to show you all... she has to start these photos again soon - when I'm not around. The Mascara is my favourite!



Doesn't Tips' Mustache look wonderful in this picture?!



Tipsy is particularly mad about this photo, she'd just woken up and Mum was there with the camera - AGAIN!



Aren't we big?!



Tips is very lady like.





RAWR!



Yep, that's a harness... for walkies... they put me in A HARNESS! FOR WALKIES!





Tipsy loves watching Mummy catch up on her blog reading.



Our new hiding place! We love climbing in the roof of the garage. Suitcases are nice and comfortable. Plus... Mummy can't reach us up here which means - peace and quiet!!!!





This week i helped Mummy with her wrapping. I do love christmas present time! All that paper and raffia ribbon - it's just the best!!



I also love my blankie!

So, what've you been up to lately? Do you have any pets that you could introduce us to?