The cheat's way to get rid of tired looking eyes in the morning..

Many a morning I wake up, look at myself in the mirror and wonder why I didn't go to bed earlier the night before.  Then I get distracted by what to wear and what the weather looks like outside and of course, the typical English dilemma of whether I should or shouldn't take a coat with me.

When I'm truly tired, I get puffy eyes that don't really look too sexy.  Until recently, I didn't really know how to get rid of them and to make myself look half awake.  I'd pile my makeup on and just get to work but you could see the underlying tiredness from a mile off.

I recently lost a lipstick and whilst searching for that, I came across a product that I haven't used since I got it as a freebie in Glamour magazine. And if you think it's a Benefit product, you'd be right.  Now I have never been Benefit's biggest fan and even now, I'm still not a fangirl.  I like some of their stuff but wouldn't go as far to call them must haves.  This might the closest I ever get to calling a Benefit product a must have.  Click here to see what else of Benefit's I have reviewed.

Anyway, the product I found was Benefit's eyebright.  I have used this a few times in the past as an inner corner highlighter but the colour was just far too stark against my skintone.  If you're white or Chinese, you can easily get away with using this as an inner corner highlighter but for us Indian, black and olive skinned gals, it's a no go.

I decided to try it on my waterline to see what it did and to my surprise, it managed to look quite natural.  I think Benefit are missing a trick not marketing it that way, I've read on their website and they say that you should apply it to the inner and outer corner of your eyes and blend.  Well, I say do that if you're not of a darker skin colour.  If you are of a darker skin colour then whack it on your waterline.

I team this product up with my trusty eyelash curlers (reviewed here and going strong on their second pad replacement), any mascara that is close to hand (I've been using the Prestige one as my other bottle finished and this is the last one I have left..and seeing as Boots have discontinued it, I won't be able to buy more, despite it being a fantastic thing and one of the first products I ever reviewed on this blog).  I also use this Natralift Firming Eye Roll On from The Body Shop which I feel makes a difference..and the ball is very cooling on the skin.

If you've got more time then you could always put a decent inner corner highlighter on too, but as I am yet to find this, I have a bare inner corner.  The other thing that I tend to do once at work is line my upper lashline with some black eyeliner.  No flick though, I'm at work, not out knocking back the finest cocktails known to man.

And here's how it looks in its most basic way..

I'm not apologising for my eyebrows, I'm growing them out after someone f**ked them right up...

Now you might remember me hyping up Stila's Kajal pencil which is still all well and good but in the Summer months, it tends to be a bit too soft.  Fantastic for Winter though!

Talking of cocktails, I must warn you that if you like a decent citrus-y mojito, don't go to the Smollensky's in Canary Wharf as the people working there can never ever get this right.  Every time I go and ask for more citurs than mint, I end up drinking liquid toothpaste.  It's horrible and I have now given up asking for mojitos and I just stick to a bog standard glass of Chardonnay.

Review: A Perfect World for Eyes by Origins

I went to John Lewis a few weeks ago on a mission to buy an ice cream maker, a mission that went horribly wrong as they were out of stock (boo!)

Instead, I picked up some pegs and a clay mask by Origins.  Origins currently have a GWP (gift with purchase) offer on whereby you buy any skincare product and you get three sample sized items for free.  Whilst we are on the GWP issue, I don't understand why most brands make you buy two products before you get the free gifts, that always grinds my gears for some reason because I feel that the SA's always try and push extra products on you because they know women can't resist "free" makeup.

I have been using the mask sporadically (a review is to follow) but one thing I've been using since I obtained the mask is this eye cream: A Perfect World for Eyes.

I am in love with this baby.

This is a very generous sized sample which is obviously a good thing, don't you hate it when people give you samples of products and there's not enough in there for you to use and determine whether or not it will work? This happened to me at LUSH, the guy gave me a sample of the 9-5 cleanser which would make Ebenezer Scrooge look like William H Gates.  Seriously, I wasn't asking for the world, just an amount of cleanser which would actually be able to be used for more than a day.  And I did buy something, I didn't go in there trying to score some free LUSH.

Anyway, back to this eye cream.  It is quite thick compared to all the eye creams I have used in the past (read reviews here, here and here).  I think the thickness might be key in what makes it work faster.  I have never seen results this quickly before.  I use it in the morning and in the evening but I have done that with every other eye cream I've had and none has delivered results this quickly.

It is meant to be a firming eye cream but I feel it goes beyond firming.  My under eye area feels firmer, smoother and I am sure it has lightened the area up too as I find myself using less concealer.  I must point out that I thankfully don't have dark under eye circles like a lot of Indian people have.  The area is a tiiiny bit darker but you can't tell..the only way I found out was by staring at my face in pictures.  I can go without concealer, I only wear it because it peps up the shape of my eye.

The cream is very easy to blend in and doesn't settle into the lines under my eye.  That's another thing actually, I feel that it has made some of the lines appear not as deep as they were before which is always to be welcomed.  One thing I forgot to mention before, you only need to use a tiny bit at a time.  If you use too much, it will blend in nicely but towards the end of the day it will start to peel off and you don't want that.  Just use a tiny (less than pea sized) amount and you're good to go.

I've nearly finished the sample and when I do, I'm going to buy the full sized version of this.

If you want to buy the full sized version or want to buy something else and get a sample, you can check out the range of products online here.

Vanilla Eyes Eyes Baby

*Takes a moment to appreciate her lyrical genius*

I'm always buying eye cream in an attempt to find one which does EVERYTHING..by which I mean prevents wrinkles, tackles current ones, leaves my eye area feeling smooth and hydrated and a little bit brighter.

I've been using this baby and have also reviewed it here.

Then I decided to buy the Boots Vitamin E Gentle Eye Cream hoping that it wouldn't contain glitter..it doesn't!

What follows is my experience (never let it be said that I'm one to be overly dramatic).

I've had a chequered past with eyecreams, ever since Glittergate.  I now know to swatch eye creams instore before buying them.

On my first use I noticed how easily it sank into the eye area and how it brightened the area right on up without having any horrible glittery bits.  I found that the Superdrug Natural High Brightening eye cream had a slight bit of purple in it which would be the brightening element.  The Boots Vitamin E does not have this purple tinge but it still brightens the eye area.  I'd go as far to say that it diminishes dark circles as I used it when I wasn't sleeping properly and within a week, the dark circles were gone.  I'm not sure it would work if you have super dark circles but it's great for when you're not getting enough sleep and don't have a heavy duty concealer to use.

The cream is not watery thin, nor is it really thick.  It's kind of in the middle and I find that it's perfect consistency for patting in, it sinks in quickly.

It has no smell which is good because your eyes and nose are surprisingly close together when it comes to smelling eye creams.

I love the way in which it moisturises the eye area and leaves it feeling soft for the whole day.

I also feel that my under eye area is looking smoother and more plumped up.

For some reason, my eye area got really dry in the summer and this cream came to my rescue but it wasn't an instant moisture giver, I had to use it for about a week or so before the moisture was back.

Considering the fact that it cost me about £2.50, I'd deffo suggest buying it if you suffer from the ailments I've mentioned.  Plus, it will be my go-to eye cream for the winter.

Your mum still buys your..moisturiser?!

A good few weeks ago, I bought my mum three Chanel lippies.  My dad thinks it's wrong for me to spend this much money on her so he made her come shopping with me so she could buy me whatever I wanted.

This is what I got..

I've never seen ANY of these items in Boots before, I had a list of moisturisers I wanted to try, the main one was the vanishing cream which I didn't get as the lady behind the counter told me it wasn't in the offer.  I bought the moisturiser in the middle because it smelled pretty nice, I was going to get the Botanics oil free moisturiser but it smelled of rotting veg.  The eye cream was a last minute addition which I wasn't going to buy but as I could find nothing else I liked, I got it as Boots had their 3 for 2 on.  I swatched it in the shop and it had no glitter (yay!)  My mum was the one who found the glycerin and rosewater toner, I did see it but she was the one who suggested getting it.

I got a Dove heat protection spray but forgot to photograph it.

I picked up these two from The Body Shop:

This is a facial massager which I had wanted for some time..it cost me £6.00/£7.00.

This looks like my facial brush and it just that but a bigger version for your body.  They had quite a few in the store but the lady working there said that this was best for using in the shower.  It cost £5.00. 

I know it looks like I didn't buy that much but I did get a fair amount of clothes which proved too hard to photograph because I was dead on my feet and just shoved them into a cupboard.

If you want reviews of anything, let me know! I know I'm going to review two items already but I'll keep them a secret for now!

You scream, I scream, we all scream for eye(s) cream

Finally, FINALLY I've found a conventional eye cream I'm happy with.  One that does exactly what it says.  I say conventional as my other HG eye cream is Garnier's Eye Roll On and I'm always concerned that they will stop making it as companies have a tendency to do that to products that sell well..need I mention chocolate covered pretzels and those gorgeous Secret bars? 

Before I fall into a daydream about chocolates, I'll show you the eye cream.

It has so much going for it.  It's cheap, the packaging is a nice shape and lets out the right amount of cream, the consistency of the cream is perfect, blending it into the undereye area is a dream, no tugging or anything.  I just squeeze it out the tube and pat it in gently.  You can feel it forming a "film" under your eye but that's not a problem as it soaks in very quickly, leaving your underye feeling very soft.

I've chucked the box away so I'll have to go by what the tube says.

This brightening eye cream contains the following:

• organic rose hip oil which is a hydrating anti oxidant
• arnica which helps to reduce dark circles and puffiness
• a multi fruit blend which contains AHA's (not the Alan Partridge type, I assume) which reveal a brighter, natural radiance

I didn't realise that this brand was also made by Superdrug, a fact I found out when I got home.  I wasn't looking forwards to trying this because the last Superdrug eye cream I used contained massive chunks of glitter...and it wasn't a bad batch because Jo found the same.

This Natural High cream is the bees' knees.  It does EVERYTHING it said it would.  It hydrates my undereye area, it makes the are brighter WITHOUT GLITTER and it behaves how I want an eyecream to behave.  Before using it I had tiny bumps under my eyes and after the first day of using it, the bumps were smaller and now they have totally vanished!

I don't understand how Superdrug can make such a winner of an eye cream and then such an abomination of an eye cream, all they need to do is ditch the glitter from the Vitamin E one and they're onto a winner.  Jo perservered with hers and said it wasn't a bad cream if there was no glitter in it.

Natural High eye cream is currently on sale in Superdrug for £1, but I'm not sure that's the right price because in other Superdrugs, I've seen it on sale for £2?