Money Saver! Iseree Cotton Wool Pads at LIDL

I go through LOADS of cotton wool pads, what with taking of my nail polish so often and using them to cleanse and tone my face I feel like I am forever having to stock up.  Usually I use Superdrug's own version which are the best reasonably priced ones I have found.  They're generally on offer at 2 for £2.50 making them £1.25 for a pack of 100.

The other day however I noticed LIDL's own brand and picked up a packet to try them out, they retail at just 55p for 120, making them less than 0.5p each compared to 1.25p for Superdrug's.

I've taken a comparison photo and posted it below, the Superdrug pads feel slightly thicker and more sturdy but overall there is not a huge difference, they both have two different textures; one side fairly smooth and the other slightly more textured and they both have sewn up edges.

 

They are a very similar product, with not so similar prices.

 

 

The Superdrug pads feel a little bit nicer to use for facial stuff, they're a bit more solid and thicker feeling where as the LIDL pads can become a little thin when saturated with cleanser or toner and lose any sort of texture when they're covered in anything oily, for nails stuff they are totally fine though, thick enough to hold together and not too fluffy so they leave your fingers covered in fibres.

 

This isn't the first nail or beauty bargain I've picked up in LIDL, I've previously posted about the nail polish remover I got from there so if you have one nearby it's definitely worth popping in and having a look.  Rumour has it that they will soon be launching a proper make up line so I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for that, in the meantime I know where to go when I need to stock up on cotton pads, if you use as many as I do then it might be worth a visit for you too.

 

 

In Vogue Feather Effect Polishes, Nails Inc Feather dupes?

Recently I have been toying with the idea of ordering some of the Nails Inc Feather Effect polishes, they're clear polishes laden with different shades of bar glitter and they look really pretty, however, I am not a huge fan of the quality of  Nails Inc polish and at £11 each they were quite a big expense.

 

While I was wondering if W7 might produce a similar line, as they did with the Sprinkles from last year, my attention was drawn to the new line of In Vogue polishes which are now in stock at Superdrug online.  This new budget brand has a whole range of different finishes and to my delight one of those finishes was Feather Effects!

 

 

The best news?  They're only £3.49 each, which means that all 4 of them cost under £14, not much more than one of the Nails Inc versions! 

 

Here are a few comparison shots of the In Vogue polishes alongside the Nails Inc.  First up Nails Inc York vs In Vogue Sunset, these two look like exact dupes to me; a clear base filled with peach and white bar glitter.

 

 

Next up Nails Inc Cornwall and In Vogue Jaye Bird, again an exact dupe as far as I can tell; a clear base with royal blue and white bar glitter.

 

Then we have Nails Inc Brighton and In Vogue On the money (these both remind me of the rather cult-ish indie polish Floam, which is good because I've fancied it for a while), again a very close match dupe wise; this polish is another clear base this time with pale yellow and turquoise bar glitter.

 

 

Finally we have Nails In Chester and In Vogue Parakeet, again these two polishes are a good match so I would call 4 for 4 dupes, which is pretty good going; the final polish is also a clear base this time with turquoise, yellow and peach bar glitter through it.

There is a fifth polish in the Nails Inc Feather collection, Edinburgh, and so far there is no sign of a dupe for it, you can see it below; it's a combination of peach and pale blur bar glitter in a clear base.

 

 

Of the 4 polishes that In Vogue have included in their collection all 4 look VERY close to the Nails Inc polishes, great news for anyone like me who wanted to try out the Feathers look but couldn't quite stretch their budget to buying a full set at Nails Inc prices.

 

In Vogue polishes are available online from Superdrug now and due to hit the stores in 'mid March', so hopefully soon.  Obviously I couldn't wait until they appeared in store so I have ordered all 4 and should have them within the next few days, expect swatches as soon as I get my grubby mits on them.

 

Have you tried any of the In Vogue polishes yet?  Are there others I should try from their collection, let me know in the comments.

 

EDIT: You can now see swatches of all the polishes in the Feather Effects range by clicking HERE.

No7 Stay Perfect Top Coat Comparison

As I mentioned previously No7 have recently re-packaged a lot of their products, including their quick drying top coat which is one of my favourites and a definite staple in my collection. 

 

I've always identified the top coat as 'the one that says touch dry in 60 seconds on the front' and the new bottle doesn't have this so I was keen to pick up the new bottle and check if it was the same product inside or whether there had been a cheeky change of formula too.  After a lovely friend sent me her spare No7 voucher, I decided to pick up a bottle and test it out.

 

Here are the two bottles, side by side:

Left: New Bottle, Right: Old Bottle

 

The new bottle does still have 'touch dry in 60 seconds' on it, it's just been moved to the back of the bottle.  The bottles are a similar shape and the same size (10ml), the only major change, other than shifting some of the text around, is that the new cap is white rather than black.

 

 

The brushes are also very similar, the newer style looks a tiny bit more rounded and possibly slightly plumper but there was no difference in how the top coat applied using the new brush.

 

Left: New Brush, Right: Old Brush

 

Formula wise I would say this is the same top coat formula, I've used it a couple of times now and really can't see a difference in application, drying time or wear.  It seems like it's purely a new bottle from No7 to fit in with their re-branding. 

The only difference I noticed was that the new bottle seemed to be a very slightly runnier consistency, however that could be due to it being brand new and me comparing it with an older bottle that I had been using a while which has no doubt thickened up a bit with use.  There really was no difference once it was applied to the nail and I suspect with time it will also thicken up a bit like it's predecessor.

 

So, excellent news for me and anyone else who was a fan of the top coat in it's previous incarnation it looks like the formula is just as it was, No7 obviously know not to mess with an already winning formula.

 

Busy Bee Candles

Something a little different, and not beauty related, today...

I am a bit addicted to scented candles, I love Yankee Candles but I find the larger ones can be quite expensive and I tend to get bored of the same scent if I have it burning for too long, so, rather than bankrupt myself buying lots of the larger type to swap between I decided to try some wax tarts.  Lots of companies seem to do them now and since they are usually just over a pound for each tart they are a budget friendly way to try out different scents.

I recently invested in a burner and a couple of Yankee tarts to try out.  Safe to say I have found a new obsession and now I want a burner in every room.

As well as my favoured Yankees I thought I would try some from a few different companies to see how they compared.  My first choice was Busy Bee Candles.  I'd read a few good reviews and heard from friends that they were decent quality so, armed with a 20% discount code I decided to check them out.

The site is nice enough and they have a lot of different fragrances to choose from, the prices were very similar to Yankee's - so fairly high, particularly for a less well known brand, but based on what I'd heard and read I decided to go ahead and order.

 

Here's what I chose:

 

Postage is expensive, it cost me £3.99 to have 11 tarts posted.  They arrived in a padded envelope with some bubble wrap around groups of the tarts, out of the 11 there were 6 damaged.  Although it doesn't make much difference when using them in a tart burner whether they are in one piece or not it does mean that they were only suitable for personal use, they were far too crushed to give as gifts for example.  For £3.99 PP I expected them to come in a box or at least arrive in one piece.  They took 5 days to arrive.

The tarts themselves are a bit smaller than their Yankee counterparts which is disappointing since they are 10p more expensive per tart.

Due to their condition when they arrived I decided to email Busy Bee and see what they said.  Basically they weren't interested, they claimed they knew the packaging wasn't adequate, had previously heard of breakages from customers and accepted no responsibility once they'd handed them to Royal Mail.

They offered to refund me if I sent them back the order but since I didn't fancy a trip to the post office and having to pay for them to be returned I turned down the offer.  Although it says on their site if you send them a photo of the damaged items they will organise a refund this isn't the case in reality, as despite my sending them a picture they didn't offer me even a partial refund for the damaged goods, all in I felt the reply I got from them was very poor.  Customer service is obviously something they are not particularly worried about.

On opening the parcel from Busy Bee I wasn't overly blown away with the fragrances either, obviously it's a very personal thing but several of the tarts smell synthetic and fake (Pineapple Zing, Creme Brulee, Coconut Beach, Butter Popcorn & Pina Colada) and a couple have a definite whiff of cheap air freshener and public toilets about them (Palm Tree & Coconut Beach). Midnight  Peppermint, Herb Garden, Sun Kissed Raspberry, Cotton Candy & Chocolate Brownie all smell fairly good (although all of them smell quite synthetic, and obviously until they are burning it's hard to say exactly how their fragrances will be but when I lit them it didn't get much better. 

The synthetic smell which I had noticed while the tarts were wrapped carried through to the scent they gave off when lit.  So far none have been offensive but none have made me keen to repurchase or light them again.  I don't know whether it is due to them being a different sort of wax or what but there is a scent that runs through them all.

Palm Tree - Ok, reasonably fresh but with a definite synthetic smell though it, better than I was expecting from how it seemed in its packaging (air freshener and toilets).

Sun kissed Raspberry - Fruity, pleasant enough but again a slight synthetic undertone.

Midnight peppermint - Strong, minty, like chewing gum not natural garden mint.

Candy Floss - Very subtle, sweet smelling, synthetic, and generally a bit nothing-y, definitely not the scent I had hoped for.

All in, with 20% discount, my order from Busy Bees came to £14.30, for £11 I could have hand picked 10 Yankee Tarts from my local supplier and had them immediately or ordered from a well know Yankee supplier online and had 11 of them (incl postage costs) delivered for a similar price.   In future I will definitely stick to doing that. 

Scent is a very personal thing and many of the tarts I chose and bought un-sniffed over the internet smell nothing like I had thought or hoped and for that reason, along with the poor yet expensive packaging and sub-standard customer service, I will probably stick to choosing and buying in person from now on, and I'll also probably stick to Yankee Candles, there might be a reason why they are the best sellers in the candle and tart market!

A little update.  Today - 5 days after I received the email from Busy Bees and my reply to them went unanswered - a parcel arrived, in it were 3 Busy Bee tarts. 

They were not replacements of the damaged tarts I had sent a picture of so I can only assume, due to a lack of further emails or note in the package, that they were some sort of sorry or goodwill gesture, which is a nice idea, but in all honesty a more polite initial email or indeed a reply to my second email would have gone down better.  Either they felt they were in the right and there was no need to send me anything or they know their service was below par and they should have said so initially.

On the plus side, this package smells better, so maybe it was my poor choice of tarts that made the first lot smell unappealing and like freshly sprayed public loos.  Sweet Dreams smells wonderful and what I had hoped Midnight Peppermint would smell of so I am actually quite looking forward to trying that one.

Revlon Lip Butters VS L'Oreal Rouge Caresse Lipsticks - The Comparison Post.

My ever growing collection of Lip Butters & Rouge Caresse Lipsticks.

I've blogged fairly extensively about both these products of late, they are definitely my most recent obsession.  I really like both products but I think that they are both suitable for different times and looks, they're not quite as similar as their descriptions might lead you to believe so I thought I would do a round up and comparison post now that I have bought pretty much all of the colours I want to try, for now.
First off, here are all the individual posts in case you want to have a look at them in detail, there are swatches and product pictures on each post.

Revlon Lip Butters: Part 1 & Part 2
L'Oreal Rouge Caresse: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 & Part 4

Revlon Lip Butter in Candy Apple & L'Oreal Rouge Caresse in Rebel Red

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

The Lip Butters are generally a good deal more opaque in their coverage and a slightly more dry, less glossy consistancy.  I would definitely put them at the lipstick end of the spectrum rather than the balm or gloss end although they are lighter feeling and less opaque than a regular lipstick.

I think they're ideal for trying out darker or bolder colours which you might not be brave enough to try in a full blown lipstick, the sheerer coverage of the Lip Butters means that although they give a relatively strong pop of colour in most shades they don't give you that full on I AM WEARING BRIGHT LIPSTICK look that can be a bit intimidating, at least for me.

One slight issue I have found with them is that due to slightly drier texture they can tend to higlight dry lips a little (if that's an issue for you) and don't apply nicely if your lips are very dry or chapped, tending to clog up in the dry patches.  Also they can wear off in a slightly uneven way and and leave a line around your lips which isn't the best look.

The Rouge Caresse lipsticks are definitely NOT lipsticks, they are definitely more towards the balm or gloss end of the scale.  Compared to the Lip Butters they are glossier and feel a bit more more moisturising to wear, they also have a lighter feel on lips and tend to wear off in a more even way without leaving a line, although this could be due to the fact the colours are not as strong as the Lip Butters.  I also feel as if they wear off faster than the Lip Butters although, again, that may be due to pigmentation.

The range of Rouge Caresse colours, although larger than the Lip Butters, is not so bold or bright.  Although there are some colours which seem quite bright and vivid in the tubes they are not really as bright or opaque as their Lip Butter equivilents.  They are however a bit better on slightly dry lips, they don't tend to cling to the dry areas quite so much and they feel a bit more moisturising.

Neither product lasts particularly long and they do need to be re-applied fairly regularly.  One way I love to wear them is over one of my many lip stains, they add an extra pop of colour and / or gloss over the top of the lip stain and stop them from feeling so drying with the added benefit of the lip stain making the colour seem more opaque and long lasting.
Scent wise the Rouge Caresse have an almost fruity hint to them and a bit of vanilla, the Lip Butters are more vanilla and smell slightly more like I would expect a lipstick to, a sort of cosmetic, waxy kind of hint.  Neither are offensive but I prefer the Rouge Caresse personally.

Revlon Lip Butter in Candy Apple & L'Oreal Rouge Caresse in Rebel Red

Direct Colour Comparisons

There are similar colours in each range but very few direct dupes, especially due to texture, shine and opaquness.  Here are a list of the colours I have with what I consider to be their closest comparison colour / almost dupes.

Candy Apple Lip Butter - Rebel Red or Aphrodite Scarlet Rouge Caresse
Candy Apple is much more opaque / darker (see comparison photos)

Tutti Fruit Lip Butter - Dating Coral Rouge Caresse
Similar colours but the Rouge Caresse is very sheer and peachy toned whereas the Lip Butter definitely leans orange and is much more opaque.

Raspberry Pie Lip Butter - Sweet Berry Rouge Caresse
Considering these both have berry in the name they are very diffirent, Sweet Berry is what I would call a mum shade, it's pretty but very neutral, a berry shade that leans towards the browny end of the solur spectrum.  Raspberry Pie is a very dark, bold berry shade and probably the most opaque of all the Lip Butters.

Lollipop Lip Butter - Impulsive Fuschia Rouge Caresse
Similar in colour, both bright pinks with a blue hint / shimmer to them, again the Rouge Caresse is much more sheer.

Sweet Tart Lip Butter - ? Rouge Caresse
Sweet Tart is a gorgeous bright, Barbie pink, none of the Rouge Caresse shades I have are a good match.

Strawberry Shortcake Lip Butter - Lovely Rose Rouge Caresse
These are similar in that they are both light, frosty pinks, Lovely Rose is the lighter of the two and slightly more sheer.

Creme Brulee Lip Butter - Nude Ingenue Rouge Caresse
Very similar colour-wise, the main difference again is opaquness and coverage, the Lip Butter is far more opaque.

? Lip Butter - Tempting Lilac Rouge Caresse
I don't have anything similar to Tempting Lilac, it's a blue leaning lilacy pink, pretty and quite different from all my Lip Butters.

Revlon Lip Butter in Candy Apple & L'Oreal Rouge Caresse in Rebel Red

The Winners?

Overall, I really like both products, for me the Lip Butters allow me to wear bright, bold lip colours without fully comitting to an proper lipstick, I love them for nights out and days when I want it to be obvious I have colour on my lips or fancy a stronger look.

The Rouge Caresse I prefer for everyday looks, they're a little more subtle and more like a wash of colour and they also have the benefit of feeling nicely moisturising while they're on. They're ideal for chucking on with a simple make up look when I want to feel more done up but don't want to spend time applying lots of lip products.

I tink it very much depends on what you are looking for from the product, for me I really like having both in my make up bag for different occasions but if I had to choose I would probably lean a little towards the L'Oreal Rouge Caresse just because they feel a little better on the lips and are more wearable every day.