Looking for a Valentine's Day beauty treat?

I don't really know how others feel about Valentine's Day but I'm not its biggest fan. The day itself I find a little bit cringe inducing. That's not to say I don't love a good dose of romance, I love displays of affection and I find happy couples rather endearing. But when it comes down to me I think I'd much rather have all the things associated with Valentine's Day on any other day of the year when it doesn't feel so forced. What I do love about Valentine's Day though is the products that inevitably get released in its honour. I love pink packaging, I love heart shaped boxes and I love trying out limited edition products. So when I went shopping this week and saw a couple of things which I thought were Valentine's Day appropriate I thought I'd treat myself. 

First up is Lush's 'The Kiss' lip gloss. As per usual I picked this up after going into Lush for something entirely different. As I was browsing I just happened to try out the product sample that was on display and I just fell in love with it. It is so incredibly buttery-soft and has a lovely sheer (although slightly pearlescent)  pink colour to it that is really easy to wear. It's full of great ingredients like Organic Shea Butter, Organic Castor Oil, Mandarin Oil and Almond Oil which provide a great deal of moisturisation as well as a very light, sweet scent. Personally I would choose to describe this as a tinted lip balm rather than a gloss due to its feel on the lips but it could easily be used as either. Over lipstick this provides a lovely glossy sheen, but worn alone it is equally nice just to give your lips a little bit more colour along with some shine. I really think it a great quality product and is easier to wear than Lush's other red/berry coloured lip products which I've been a little bit put off buying. It doesn't last a very long time on the lips but it's the sort of product you can reapply without a mirror so I haven't really minded to be honest. You're also rewarded every time you use it with a whiff of it's lovely light, sweet scent which I'm just in love with. I'd highly recommend it either as a gift for a partner or friend, or just if you want to treat yourself to something vaguely Valentine's Day-ish. You can find this lip gloss in Lush stores for £5.50.

The second item I picked up was actually a freebie when you signed up for a Body Shop Love Your Body Card. It's a Solid Perfume in the scent White Musk Libertine, and when I saw it I was really keen to give it a try as I'm a massive fan of solid perfumes (most notably my L'Occitane's Cherry Blossom solid perfume which I reviewed last week). I really like the little tin, it's really cute to have on your dressing table or in your handbag and is really easy to travel with as there is no chance of it leaking anywhere. However, the product itself has quite a disappointing scent (for me anyway!). It smells very much like vanilla and it isn't a sort of complex vanilla scent, more like the flat vanilla scents I always seem to find in scented candles. Overall it is a very sweet scent, definitely not musky enough for me to personally fall in love with. For those who like sweet, vanilla-ish scents then this could make a very nice gift or just a treat to buy for yourself. Don't get me wrong, I will be wearing this, it's not as though I hate it or anything, but this just isn't going to be replacing the L'Occitane Solid Perfume for me as I think the quality of that one is superior. You can find this solid perfume in Body Shop stores, although I don't know how much for! I think it was circa £4/£4.50. But, honestly, I'd recommend smelling this in store before buying it and if you don't like it I'd definitely head on over to L'Occitane as their solid perfumes may not be in heart shaped tins but they're really lovely.

So there you have it, two small Valentine's Day themed beauty treats. I would have been quite happy to receive either of these as a little gift off a friend or partner, but it was actually quite nice to be able to treat myself! 

Are you planning on treating yourself to anything for Valentine's Day? Or have you found any Valentine's themed beauty buys that you'd recommend?

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My Favourite Lip Balms

We'll start off with my two Body Shop Lip Butters, one is in 'Sweet Lemon' flavour which Tom bought be for my birthday whilst we were travelling this Summer and the other is the Dragon Fruit flavour which I picked up last month. Both smell gorgeous and are richly moisturising, I can see myself repurchasing these over and over again as I use almost daily before I go to bed.

SEPTEMBER EMPTIES

So here are September's empties! I've got quite a lot here to show you- sorry about the not-so-great photos that have been on my blog so far. I've actually just bought a new camera so that from next week onwards I can post better photos. 

HAUL: Greek edition

So last week I got back from a week long visit to Athens with a few of my friends (holidaying somewhere sunny in September is a real treat) and while I was away I picked up a couple of goodies. I didn't go too crazy as there is quite a lot of stuff already on my wishlist, but I did take the opportunity to pick up some Greek goodies.

SUNDAY PAMPERING #1

So I've officially left London and have returned up to Leeds for my final year at University, it totally could be a freak out moment if I wasn't in the middle of a serious pampering session! In order to chill me out I've arranged to have the most scrumptious smelling bath imaginable courtesy of the Body Shop's Raspberry Ripple Bath Gel. I've used this before and it foams up just the right amount and the sweet smell of raspberry really does linger.

While I'm soaking in the tub I'm also going to be pampering my hair with a good healthy dollop of Herbal Essences Beautiful Ends Split End Protection Intensive Mask (what a mouthful!). This is a product which I always buy when I see it on offer because its a good cheap staple and it really does leave my hair very glossy and moisturised.

To top it all off, once I'm all nice and relaxed from all of this, I'm planning on painting my nails with a varnish which I actually got as a freebie with a purchase I made on Friday. I've been almost exclusively wearing muted toned nail varnishes (greys and light pinks) so to change things up a bit I'm going to attempt to rock this bright blue shade from MaxFactor. I think its perfect for all the freshers' week parties coming up this week.

What do you think about wearing bright varnishes in Autumn? And how are you pampering yourself this week?

Angelica