REVIEW: Faith in Nature Shampoo & Conditioner

I love finding out about natural beauty products and have recently been doing some research into natural and organic skin care and want to try some different things out. Which is why I was so interested when I heard about Faith in Nature.   

REVIEW: Chicken Shop Tooting

Tooting is my home town and we're not often the location of a new restaurant that has a lot of 'cool' buzz around it. Chicken Shop seemed to pop up as if over night and when I went down there to check out what all the hype was about, I was ultimately surprised! 

REVIEW: Bourjois Volume 1 Seconde Mascara

My favourite high street mascara of all time is the Maybelline Great Lash mascara in "Blackest Black". Seeing as I've been using this non-stop for a while now I keen to try out the new Bourjois Volume 1 Seconde Mascara.

REVIEW: One Kensington

Situated just opposite Kensington Palace Gardens on the bustling High Street, One Kensington is an elegant oasis away from the throngs of shoppers and tourists.

REVIEW: Ben's Canteen

Ben's Canteen, London

Last weekend my boyfriend Patrick & I decided to sample the delights of Ben's Canteen on St John's Hill, London.

March Beauty Favourites

I always feel March is a really difficult month when it comes to skin care and beauty products. It's that time that's in between Winter & Summer when the weather is changing and we need to often update beauty products and routine in order to keep up...READ MORE

REVIEW: Nails inc. 3D Glitter Polish

As Christmas is upon us I've found myself reaching for sparkles in all directions, and especially for my nails. So as you can probably imagine I was uber excited when I saw this set of 3 Nails Inc polishes in TKMaxx for just £10 (RRP £33). I will do a review of the other 2 colours at some point but for this post I'm going to concentrate on this charcoal grey 3D glitter pictured above which is called "Sloane Square".

I was really impressed with the product the first time I used it. It's really good quality and for the photos above I didn't need to use a colour underneath the glitter. In fact I think it would be pointless even putting a colour underneath as it possibly wouldn't show through. I'm pretty sure I used 2 coats but to be honest 1 coat would have been enough. It's not a glitter that you would use to add to another colour as it's too thick and you wouldn't be able to use it for an accent nail either, unless you found an exact shade to match! 

It's not a bright, sparkly glitter. It is more a thick texture for the nails with a glittery quality to it. Personally I really like the colour as I like silver and grey tones in nail polish. I was very impressed with the quality of the product and I got lots of compliments when I wore it. 

The polish dries pretty quickly and lasts amazingly well without many chips. To be totally honest it's a bit of a nightmare to remove even after having soaked my nails in nail polish remover. However, I would really recommend this polish and it's definitely perfect for the festive season! 

Izzy x

Brunch at M1LK

Last week I made a slightly hungover trip to M1LK in Balham with a couple of friends. 

I'd already been wowed by the breakfast menu back in the summer, after from Suzanne from i make it fashion suggested we try out the new addition to the Hildreth Street Market. 

I've been raving about the place & the vibrant original food ever since so this return visit was long overdue.

The seating inside is quite limited, which combined with the amazing food & artisan coffee on offer can create pretty big queues, especially at busy weekend times. 

The decor is eclectic & a little bit hipster but there's always a really nice mix of people eating there. 

I love that you can see the tiny open kitchen from the dining area, seeing the chefs whipping up all the delicious food just adds to the laid-back friendly environment.

Drinks-wise I went for a hot chocolate (I needed the sugar otherwise I would have got a flat white, as the coffee here is GOOD) whilst the others went for English breakfast tea.

I love how they serve the teapot, cup, saucer & milk in a little stack like this.

The brunch menu reads like my idea of food heaven, I could eat breakfast food all day long! 

This time I opted for the baked eggs with butternut squash & feta, Chris went for the Young Betty (poached eggs, drycure bacon & burnt butter hollandaise) & Christina got the Young Betty with salmon instead of bacon.

As well as an excellent cooked brunch M1LK also have an amazing selection of homemade cakes, which they display along the counter. One day I will try the strawberry milk cake!

The distressed cosy interior is covered in hung artwork, shelves & framed pictures all of which contribute to the happy vibe exuded by the Aussie diner.

The baked eggs were absolutely delicious, they were cooked & seasoned perfectly. 

Butternut squash & feta makes a lovely light addition to the dish that doesn't leave you feeling overly full. 

The toasted sourdough was crispy & tangy, perfect for dipping in the bright orange Burford Brown yolks.

The salmon on Christina's Young Betty looked amazingly fresh & tasty. She said it was incredible.

Even Chris who is pretty hard to impress loved his bacon with poached eggs & hollandaise. 

I appreciated the flowers garnishing his dish even if he didn't pay them much attention. 

Definitely an Instagram worthy plate of food!

We left M1LK happy & full, all traces of a hangover gone.

One of the best brunch spots I've found in London & it only set us back a tenner each.

M1LK are open 8am - 5pm Monday - Friday

            9am - 5pm Sunday

They do not take reservations, first come first served.

Harriet x

NARS One Night Stand Cheek Palette

Its been a long time since I've been really excited about a new beauty purchase. So enamoured with this release I made a slight detour to my nearest Space NK the day it came out & got my hands on one before they even had them out on display. I've been pretty restrained with makeup purchases this year so I happily handed over the £45 without guilt.

I've always wanted to try NARS 'Orgasm' & 'Deep Throat' blushes, so to have them both in one palette, plus a bronzer, highlight & two bonus blush shades it was an easy sell for me. Each shade is right up my street, very natural & perfect for giving you a little helping hand creating that glowing healthy complexion.

(top left-right) Devotee highlight, Mistinguette blush, Orgasm blush

(bottom left-right) Laguna bronzer, Deep Throat blush, Goulue blush

Devotee is a warm champagne highlight with quite a glossy finish, it would double up as a fantastic brightening eyeshadow. Mistinguette the bright pink is a lot like MAC's 'Well Dressed', a cool toned pink that is far more subtle on than it looks in the pan, incidentally I've worn the MAC dupe almost every day for the last two years. Orgasm is the peachy pink shade with golden shimmer. On the bottom row there’s the famous Laguna bronzer which I've never actually owned having purchased the darker shade 'Casino' years ago during a tanned period. Deep Throat the paler peachier take on 'Orgasm' is my favourite so far, easy to wear & very flattering. Finally Goulue the berry pink is the most pigmented of the bunch & will be great for creating a rosy Winter glow.

The palette is a Space NK exclusive & judging by previous NARS limited editions it's sure to sell out pretty fast. Find it here & take care of your blush purchases for the next couple of years!

Ps. If you need some help justifying the £45 price tag, just tell yourself/ partner/ Mum that it works out at £7.50 per blush. That's much less scary isn't it :)

Harriet x

Mama Lan

Just a quick little lunchtime post to share with you an amazing street-food style restaurant, Mama Lan. Izzy & I went here one evening a few weeks ago for a quick bite to eat after work & I've been meaning to share the few pictures we took for ages! Mama Lan is the perfect place to grab a delicious inexpensive meal that's a lot more unusual & tasty than your standard Chinese eatery.

Mama Lan is is run & owned by Ning Ma, whose mum & granddad used to run a dumpling & snack stall in the hustle & bustle of the streets of Beijing. Today they serve the very same food in London that was sold on her Grandad's market stall all those years ago.

We ordered a mix of dishes that jumped out to us from the menu & chatted away for a couple of hours before the cosy restaurant filled up with the dinner rush.

Two ice-cold Tsingtao beers. Check.

Smacked cucumbers with chilli & sesame. These were incredible! Crisp refreshing cucumbers with a slightly salty spicy dressing.

Yummy king prawn & chinese water chestnut dumplings. Generously filled with lots for prawn so you get some of the subtle sweet flavour with every bite.

The highlight of my meal were these spicy chicken wings! Izzy was a bit sceptical when I ordered the fried street snack, but she was completely won over by the sight of these beauties. Hands down, the best chicken wings I've ever had. Not at all greasy, faultlessly seasoned & perfectly crispy. Look at them again- mouthwatering!

Beef noodle soup. Beautiful aromatic stock, slow-cooked beef shin cooked to perfection & topped with fresh coriander & chilli. Another winner.

We visited the newest Mama Lan location on Clapham Common, which has a slighter bigger menu due to the larger venue & kitchen. Their original restaurant is located in the heart of Brixton Village.

You can really tell in the taste & excellence of the dishes that the ingredients are of the highest quality. Free range meat sourced from Moens organic butcher & the freshest veg from Brixton Village Market.

If you haven't discovered this little gem already, go & find them here!

Harriet x

Review - Lush Hair Products

What's great about going into Lush is that the staff are so knowledgeable and can really help you find what you're looking for. You will definitely need a spare half an hour or so as they can ramble on a bit! I've been looking for the right shampoo & conditioner for ages so I thought I'd give Lush a whirl. When I went in to talk to someone about hair products I found out that Mark Constantine, the co-founder of Lush actually started out as an herbal Trichologist (Trichology is the study of hair and scalp) and that Lush's hair care range is their most extensive. I literally thought all Lush sold was pretty bath bombs! So I had a chat with a lovely shop assistant and came away with Fair Trade Honey Shampoo and Veganese Conditioner.  

Fair Trade Honey Shampoo

This shampoo was recommended for me on the basis that I have quite damaged hair in need of some moisture but is very fine. As you can expect from Lush products it is all completely natural and paraben free (you can check the ingredients list here) and I was told that it is 50% honey. It smells of turkish delight which is quite overpowering when you smell it just from the bottle but actually has a really nice aroma when used in your hair. Because of it's obviously very natural ingredients it doesn't lather too much which makes it quite difficult to spread all the product through my hair - I ended up sectioning my hair in two and using a fair amount at each application. The shop assistant said it would last me about 3 months which it certainly didn't (I do wash my hair most days). However, negatives aside, this shampoo has left my hair soft, manageable and feeling very nourished. It has definitely smoothed out my wispy bits and flyaways and I can much more easily leave my hair to dry and head out without styling. The best thing about this product is that whilst it is making my hair look good I also know it's doing good as I know there are no nasty chemicals in it! I will definitely repurchase but it's not cheap at £7 for just 110g.

Veganese Conditioner

Again because my hair is fine I was recommended a conditioner that is very light that wouldn't weigh my hair down. This conditioner has a very runny consistency. Because my hair is always dry and damaged I normally go for a thick, creamy conditioner so this was a very new experience for me. But as it's quite thin you don't need to use an awful lot as it spreads through the hair nicely. The smell of this product is of fresh lemon grass which is just delicious! The defining ingredient in this conditioner is the agar agar gel which comes from seaweed which is what helps restore dry or frizzy hair. Yet without the presence of lanolin also makes it Lush's lightest conditioner (check the ingredients here). This conditioner is a bit of a revelation for me as my hair feels so soft and moisturised after washing it yet also with a definite "squeaky clean" feeling. I would absolutely recommend this conditioner to anyone who has fine/thin hair. Again, like the shampoo, my gripe with this product is that it doesn't last very long. This product is obviously great for vegans as it doesn't contain lanolin (oil from sheep's wool) and as it happens I'm allergic to lanolin, not that I think my hair minds but it's nice to know it's not there! A little cheaper at £4.15 for 100g.

I hope you have enjoyed this review. Let me know your thoughts!

Isobel x

Valentine's Glossy Box

Yay, another lovely little treat waiting on my doorstep when I got home from my long weekend in Newcastle - a Glossy Box. This time it was a Valentines edition - supposedly everything in this month's box is to help you have "the night of your life".

So, what did I get? Much to my delight this box was a lot more makeup orientated that my last one. Inside was a mini Micabella Cosmetics mineral eye shadow in the shade Deep Secrets which is a shimmery brown colour. I did a little swatch on my hand and it's really heavily pigmented so I'm excited to test this one out properly. There was also a Balance Me Rose Otto Body Cream which smells beautiful and a MeMeMe Beat The Blues highlighter in "Pearl Pink" which I hear is a great dupe for Benefit High Beam. As well as these there were two lip products - Figs & Rouge "Rambling Rose" Lip Balm which seems nice and moisturising so far and a Miners "Cinamon" Lip Colour which I will probably get the least use out of as it is not a great colour for me (an in between dusty pink and brown shade) and it doesn't seem to apply very well. 

Hope you enjoyed this post. Let me know if you would like full reviews of any of these products.

Isobel x

Review - REN Kit for Normal Skin

REN Kit for Normal Skin

Cleansing Gel

Renewal Mask

Repair Cream

REN Kit for Normal Skin - £13

I've been a fan of REN bath/shower products for a while now and decided to try out some of their facial skin care range. This handy little starter kit comes with four miniatures and is the perfect way to test out products you have never tried before without spending the money on the full sizes. Within the REN product range there are starter kits of this kind for sensitive, combination and blemish prone skin but I went for normal. If there was a kit for dry skin, I probably would have gone for that as my skin can get dry during the winter months. In this kit there is the Rosa Centifolia Cleansing Gel, Glycolactic Radiance Renewal Mask, Vita-Mineral Day Cream and Frankincense Repair Cream. All come in 15ml except the Cleansing Gel which comes in 25ml.

Before I start reviewing the products themselves, I have to say, I'm a sucker for nice packaging and I think REN's packaging is some of the best out there. The look and the quality of it really stands out in what is quite a crowded market for it's price range. 

Cleansing Gel -

This product really is a gel. I can only describe the texture of it as literally like bonjela. It has a lovely aroma of Rose which I personally LOVE the smell of at the moment. This is a really refreshing product, which tingles my skin as I put it on. It would be great to use in the morning if you need a little something to wake you up! After I wash it off my skin feels extremely smooth, soft and calm (with many other face washes my skin can be quite red after). I was thoroughly impressed with this product and would most likely repurchase it.

Renewal Mask -

So I put this mask on after I've washed my face with the cleansing gel. The texture of this mask is like Elizabeth Arden 8 hour cream which I was not used to for a face mask (I normally buy thick, paste like masks - think mud). It doesn't have that satisfying feeling of "I'm putting on a mask" as it feels more like a cream/gel. The smell, however, is absolutely gorgeous - a delicate citrus (grapefruit) fragrance. Then, once you've applied the mask it becomes very tingly (which it does tell you on the packaging) but in an itchy way rather than a refreshing way. After 10 minutes I wash it off with a face cloth and it has a rather sticky feeling to it. It does give a definite sense that your skin is "renewed" but I feel perhaps my skin is too dry for this product or perhaps I shouldn't use it straight after the cleansing gel. Not my favourite product, but willing to give it another try!

Day Cream -

This is a lovely, light, day cream. It tightens my skin instantly which makes it feel firm and also so soft. A little of this product goes a long way too, however, needs quite a lot of rubbing for it to fully absorb into the skin! The smell reminds me of Earl Grey Tea (this is probably just me!) which I really quite like. It also has an ever so slight, minty, tingle about it which really makes my skin feel fresh. It feels quite cooling and is very smoothing for the skin. I have also noticed it reflects the light quite a lot which obviously lends itself to that "radiant" look we all so desire.

Repair Cream -

This cream I apply at night after a bath. It is quite a lot thicker than the day cream and again takes a while to be absorbed. It has a woody/churchy (frankincense) fragrance that is totally different to any product I have used before and a lovely, relaxing smell to go to bed with. I often find a lot of products are over perfumed and I love the refreshing natural smells of REN products. It feels deeply moisturising which is what I want at night time (rather than the day time). It again has a tingly feeling which is more awakening than relaxing for me. When I wake up in the morning my skin feels soft and fresh (compared to not putting a night cream on). Normally I have baths at night time rather than showers in the morning and usually just use one cream for all purposes but after testing this night cream I might invest in a full size.    

Please let me know if you have tried any of the products I have reviewed today, I would love to hear your thoughts. Isobel x