REVIEW: Venus Snap Razor

Recently I was sent a Venus Snap Razor* to test out in a VoxBox from Influenster. Let me tell you, I have a lot of thoughts!

The Gillette Venus Snap product page states: 

Our mini razor, experience instant smoothness on-the-go with the Snap with Embrace Razor. With five curve-hugging blades and a portable compact, you'll be ready for anything, anytime, anywhere.

Mini handle that's easy to grip and convenient to store

Embrace's 5 blades to get virtually every hair

Water activated Ribbon of Moisture for a smooth glide

Fits any cartridge

Now, I'm definitely that person who refuses to take a razor on short weekend trip because it's too fussy. I hate that the blades usually scratch my travel blag and always feel a little anxious reaching in lest I get cut. However, this has made it so easy to travel with a proper razor. It comes with a compact that actually feels like I can't throw it away! So I keep the travel razor in there. I also think this is great for dorms and shared showers, as it doesn't take up much space. I didn't find that the handle was hard to use, but I wouldn't use it for everyday shaving as I prefer the grip of a regular razor. I do have to say that Venus is the brand I usually buy, I like the blades that have the Olay-infused moisture strips and am so happy that this product fits any Venus cartridge. Ultimately, I think this product will change the way that we travel, it's just so easy, it's a no-brainer!

The Venus Snap Razor retails on Amazon for $8.99. Also, check out Influenster if you want to be a part of the community!

* product sent for review, no affiliate links, opinions of the author are her own and not influenced by the receipt of this product

Swoonful Nails: Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine Nail Paint in Blueberry

Ahh, I do love a good pastel. As soon as March comes around I bust out the light pinks and blues, baby yellows and greens and relish in the sunshine. Or at least I usually do. It's been a stormy spring over here in East Anglia and I haven't really been able to enjoy the spring and sunshine until recently! While I'm finally celebrating the season of open-toed shoes, I didn't have any nail polish to match my pastel addiction. I have plenty of jewel-toned shades perfectly suited for winter, but nothing to suit my mood for spring. Enter the Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine Nail Paint in Blueberry:

This picture doesn't do it justice. While it looks like a bright light blue, it's actually an absolutely gorgeous true periwinkle with the sort of "bleached neon" bright that is so in this season. There's a perfect mix of that hint of purple and absolute bright blue. I feel so cheerful whenever I paint my nails with this color. As with most Barry M polishes, it goes on quite opaque in one coat, very even, and is gorgeous even without a topcoat. I found that it lasted around three days without chipping, which is pretty good for a high street polish! I love pairing this with a simple neutral outfit or even with a floral shirt. I just can't get enough!

You can find the Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine Nail Paint in Blueberry at ASOS on offer for £2!

What's your favorite spring polish? Let me know in the comments!

xoxo,
Kels

~ no affiliated links ~

Not Your Average Blusher: the Balm INSTAIN Blush

Hello! Today I'd like to tell you about a makeup experiment that I had with the Balm's INSTAIN Long Wearing Staining Powder Blush in Swiss Dot, a highly pigmented gorgeous peachy shade I received in a sample size (can't remember what service, either Love Me Beauty or Sephora, sorry!). Now, I heard somewhere that the Balm's cheek products could also double as eye shadows. I had been using this blusher with a bit of confusion, my heavy hand just couldn't make this peach-toned instant staining blusher work on my skin. However, the color was beautiful, pigmented and the packaging is too cute to quit. So one day I was playing with makeup (as you do) and I decided to use it as eye shadow.

Now, I'm no stranger to the pink eye shadow. I have green eyes that I've always found work with pink eye shadows (hello Naked 3 palette, I'm looking at you). Being someone who didn't learn the rules of makeup early on, I happily found that drugstore quads with pink or purple tones, hell, even coral tones, looked great on my eyelids in a simple wash. Making the leap from blush to eye shadow didn't seem to be all that scary. This isn't a pink-eye look, but a fantastic enhancer for my eye color that works with my skin tone. I found that Swiss Dot was an amazing color that I actually wore for an entire week in a row, I was so in love with it!

So many pictures of my eyeballs. I know. But I just wanted to show how subtle of a peach this is on the eyes. Left two pictures are in natural sunlight and the right image is in incandescent light, it looks a lot warmer! 

The Balm's INSTAIN Long Wearing Staining Powder Blush is available in the US and the UK. It can be found on the Balm's website for $22 and on FeelUnique for £18.50.

Have you ever tried blush as eye shadow? Let me know in the comments!

xoxo, Kels

No affiliated links. 

Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer: New Shades?!

Hello lovelies! I hope you are warm wherever you are. Currently the weather in America (at least in most places) is utterly terrible for March. Here in England it has been quite sunny and I'm really getting into the spring mood! Well, let's get to the point of this post, shall we? Have any of you been to Superdrug recently? I went back in February for a little routine errands-run and ended up passing by a little display of Collection Lasting Perfection Concealers. Now, Lord knows I don't need another concealer, but I was intrigued! Instead of the normal 1, 2, 3, 4 shades, they now had names "Cool Medium" and "Warm Medium." I believe there might have also been a price reduction promotion....so yeah we're going to go with that.

First Impressions: Weleda Millet Nourishing Shampoo

Recently, I received my first ever beauty box from Love Me Beauty. I was excited to try new products, but mostly the sample of the Weleda Millet Nourishing Shampoo that was included. Not for any other reason except that I was running out of shampoo quickly, and it would be a nice way to prolong the inevitable shampoo-shop! 

Weleda Millet Nourishing Shampoo

Review: Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer

Having recently moved to the UK from America, one of the items I was most itching to try was the Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer. Praised by beauty bloggers, YouTubers, and everyone ever in the history of the world, it was one of the UK-only items that was easiest to get my hands on. I had high hopes for this concealer. I suffer from really dark under-eye circles and have creasing problems with most concealers. I still haven't found that "perfect" concealer that both highly conceals and doesn't crease. 

Please excuse my awful and highly edited photo. But here's the product!

The concealer is available at Boots and Superdrug and is currently on offer at both places for £3.99. There are four shades to choose from, which isn't great for anyone with darker skintones. I picked up shade #2, light. Now, I swatched this from samples in the store, and was fairly happy with my selection. I'm not the fairest end of the spectrum, but somewhere in the medium, and I was wary of going to dark with shade #3, medium.

It has a doe foot applicator, nice for the under-eye area

Now I know that for many people it is a holy grail concealer, or else it wouldn't be praised for it's amazingness! However, I found this concealer really average and did not work for me at all. I primarily tested this concealer for the under-eye area, as I do not have many blemishes and only suffer from redness issues on my face. Before buying, I tested the product on the back of my hand, blended it in, and it looked fine in the light of Boots. However, I have a bit of yellow-undertones and frankly, this concealer is much to pink to look natural with my skin tone. It also looked quite cakey and was VERY difficult to blend in with both my fingers and a brush. The concealer also accentuates the fine lines under my eyes and settled in a really unnatractive way! If you even remotely have dry skin around your eyes, this probably isn't the concealer for you. If you are hell-bent on using it anyway, you need to be very careful to put on a moisturizing eye cream or hydrating primer before applying this concealer. 

Swatched for 'ya. You can see a bit of the pink undertones compared to my skin.

Ultimately, it's not an expensive concealer and worth giving a try! However, do be wary if you have yellow-toned skin, especially for the very pink #2 light shade. Also keep in mind that it may be too pigmented and drying under the eyes, especially if you have dry skin under there in the first place. 

The final score: 2/5 stars. Didn't like it, but didn't HATE it either. Still going to use it, just not under my eyes.