Zoe's Musings

(please excuse the shit picture quality, I've left my Nikon at uni and my phone camera just isn't comparable!!)

I recently discovered that my local Wilkos has started stocking Essence makeup - a revelation that I was very excited about! I've been recommended their makeup many times and I've seen quite a few British bloggers rave about it so I knew I needed to pick up some things.

The first thing I picked up isn't actually a nail polish but it is Essence so I thought I'd include it anyway! It's the Make Me Brow eyebrow mascara in the shade 03 soft browny brows, which is actually a really lovely product. It is the perfect ashy blonde shade for my eyebrows, and makes my brows bolder while not looking like I've got massive caterpillars on my face.
I also bought 3 nail polishes, two of the gel nail polishes and one of the no make-up look powdery finish nail polishes. The powdery one (03 powdery nude) I picked up more out of curiosity of the finish than anything else, but it's a really pretty nude shade that I have currently on my fingers. It's basically like a matte nail polish, it is quite a thin consistency so is quite difficult to build up with the colour being so pale as well, and it can be quite hard to get rid of streaks, but once you build up a nice colour it looks really pretty.

The gel colours I purchased are a lovely blue-toned pale grey called 'grey zone' and a beautiful pink colour called 'my love diary'. I've tried 'my love diary' so far, and it was really lovely to apply, it only took one coat to look really opaque, and it's really glossy and gorgeous looking.

Have you tried any of their products? What would you recommend? What do you want to try?

Love,

It's been a long time coming. I've been accumulating lots of new beauty bits and saving them all up for one mega drugstore haul blog post, and here it finally is! I've used a few of these products so I'll be able to give you a mini review as I talk about some of the products.


The first 'category' I'm going to talk you through is skincare. The first product I have is the Tea Tree & Witch Hazel facial pore strips. I've tried several products from the Boots tea tree range before & I've quite liked them (for the price the brand is impressive) and thought I'd give these a go!

The next thing is a repurchase of an old favourite, the Nivea moisturiser for oily & combo skin. It's really moisturising, and has an amazing scent, however it does leave my face feeling a tiny little greasy for a while until it 100% sinks in, which to be fair isn't toooooo long, and its well worth it when it does sink in, for it leaves my skin feeling so smooth and soft!

Another repurchace of the Garnier Micellar Water, I think this is my third or fourth bottle now. I like it but I would like to try some different brands to see how my skin reacts, so please leave some recommendations down below!!

Then I have a Boots Simply Sensitive hydrating eye cream. As I'm a student and also work nights as a bartender I rarely get early nights, and this really soothes my tired eyes and helps with dryness and dark circles.

I also bought the Nivea invisible anti-perspirant, which isn't too exciting, I just picked it because I needed a new deodorant. It smells really nice, it does the job, not sure what else needs saying about it!

The last thing in the skincare section is the tea tree facewash from the Body Shop, it's actually a repurchase because I liked it so much I wanted to get some more in the Body Shop outlet while I was still at home!


In terms of haircare I purchased the Batiste Dry Shampoo in the Cherry scent, I've used several of their dry shampoos before and thought I'd try out a new scent, and I really like it!

A repurchase for the VO5 Mega Hold Styling Mousse, it's super good at controlling frizz and making my hair dry into nice curls, it doesn't leave my hair crunchy or greasy looking, I really love it and will probably carry on repurchasing it for ever. I also wanted to try the VO5 Ultimate Hold hairspray, as I had been using one from Tresemme but I'd run out. The VO5 one smells really nice for a hairspray, and it holds pretty well. No hairspray I've tried yet can fully tame my frizz unfortunately!

I picked up a little tool for cleansing makeup brushes, where you put the cleanser onto the sillicone 'brush' and swirl your makeup brush on it. It works really well, and they do them on amazon really cheap. It's a lot smaller and more compact (and a whole lot cheaper) than the Real Techniques one I've seen, and I find it makes brush cleansing a much easier experience.



Lastly I picked up several makeup bits, including the Collection Bronze Glow Mosaic powder, which is a really pretty natural shimmery bronzer. I'm a bit scared of bronzer as I'm so pale, so thought I'd buy a cheap one and play around with it, and I have to say it's really nice and gives a nice tanned glow to my face. Plus it isn't tooo crazy orange so that's always good!

I also got the Collection Speedy Highlighter in Pearl Sheen, which is a gorgeous highlighter stick, really natural and easy to apply and blend, and super cheap! Love it for the days when I'm not brave enough for my super-pigmented Makeup Revolution baked highlighter!!

I next got the Makeup Revolution blush palette in Blush Queen, which has a beautiful variety of pale highlighter shades and subtle blushes. I use almost every shade in this palette, but I've not been brave enough to try the two really bright shades yet!



I also got the Soap & Glory Sexy Mother Pucker matte lipstick (I'm not quite sure of the shade as I've currently misplaced it, but it's the reddy-pink shade). It's lovely, dries matte, is really long lasting and comfortable to wear. I have my eye on the shade Nudist, so that's on the list next!


The last thing is the MUA Hall of Fame eyeshadow palette, which I've worn a bunch of times now and I really love it! It's so cheap, and the colours are nice to blend and don't crease a lot! I've not been brave enough to try the blue shades yet, but the gold and brown shades have been used many times! I've got my eye on a few more of these palettes, so expect them to feature in upcoming hauls!!


And that's it! Have you tried any of these products? What have you been buying this month?

Love,