I finished my Project 10 Pan

Hi lovelies,
You might remember that way back in January one of my resolutions was to complete a project 10 pan, or no buy this year on makeup and skincare. I'd gotten really into both the previous year and was collecting it at a rather alarming rate!

I chose 5 makeup items, which I showed you here, and 5 skincare products that I never got round to showing on YouTube oops! Nevertheless, I promise you I stuck to the products I chose, and now, finally, they are all empty :)  

my 10 empties

It took far longer to use up everything than I expected, but particularly the makeup, which outlasted the skincare by months! To be fair, as I'm currently a bed dweller, putting on makeup just doesn't happen that much, so it was bound to take a while.

Running out of skincare first ended up causing some trouble, because I said I would only buy shampoo. I ended up running out of face cream, face cleanser, toner, nail polish remover, face wipes, eye cream, serum, exfoliator, body moisturiser and likely more besides! I have spent the last few months scrounging off my mum, running through another 20 skincare items and putting handcream everywhere! But I was determined.

So in 9 whole months did I only buy shampoo? Sadly no, I had to buy baby wipes for hygiene and aloe vera for sore skin, but they were absolute essentials and I don't consider it cheating. So here are the products and how they were:

lancome toner

lancome toner

One of the first products to go was the Lancome Tonique Douceur, which was full when I started. It's an alcohol free, hydrating toner that I enjoyed, however one of my reasons for including skincare was to use up non-natural products so I can restock with natural and organic ones so I wouldn't consider purchasing this again.

lancome cleanser

lancome cleanser

A smaller bottle of Lancome Galatéis Douceur that started off 90% full, something I've used a few times as a friend used to gift me them. It a nice cream cleanser, which is my favourite type, and smells pleasant, rather like baby powder. However, like before it's not natural so not for me.

nivea gradual tan

nivea gradual tan

Over the years I've danced with the idea of sexy tanned skin, but true fake tan left me patchy and embarrassed so eventually I tried this gradual tan, which is Nivea Sunkissed Skin Gradual Tanning. It's not a bad product, doesn't patch too badly nor smell offensive, but honestly it's nothing to write home about and I wouldn't recommend.

planet spa face mask

planet spa face mask

Planet Spa Japanese Sake and Rice Invigorating Face Mask is made by Avon, and was a gift from last Christmas. The texture wasn't very pleasant and it was difficult to get it to apply consistently. It also stung like hell sometimes so isn't something I'd recommend for sensitive skin or would ever consider purchasing. It was rather nice to rub slightly when taking off for extra exfoliation though.

paradise perfume

pardise perfume

The longest lasting of the body products was this Next Paradise perfume, which was well used already. This was a gift from a friend and is a fragrance I have enjoyed occasionally for a good long while. As you can see the bottle has gotten quite worn however it is now sold packaged differently and costs only £6.50 for 50ml. It's not as nice as my designer perfumes, but for the price, I would definitely consider repurchasing eventually.

bodyshop blush

bodyshop blush

Makeup! This is The Body Shop's Cheek colour blush in Tea Rose. It's a stunning dusky pink matte, that was my favourite blush for the longest time. I tried to repurchase a while ago but it was sold out online and they didn't have it in store so I chose another colour, which is likewise beautiful. A definite recommend.

YSL touche eclat

YSL toucghe eclat

Yves Saint Laurent Touche Eclat in shade 2 was a treat to myself in duty free. The first highlighter pen I tried, I enjoyed using it on undereyes, cheekbones and down my nose. I have a Lancome alternative to use up but after that, I'm confident this will always be in my collection as I haven't used anything so good for perking up my tired face.

natural collection lipgloss

natural collection lipgloss

Natural Collection lipgloss in Pink Velvet is a sugary pink shimmer that looks beautiful on its own or over any lipstick. I thought it was being discontinued when I confused Natural Collection with Collection 2000 so bought several. This is my favourite lipgloss, the only one I have a back up of and it smells of sugary fruit which is heaven.

Avon Supershock mascara

avon supershock mascara

Avon Supershock mascara in Black made its rounds in the blogosphere a while back and after seeing Fleur de Force do a mascara comparison, I had to have it. I have mixed feeling about this mascara, it has a large plastic brush which I enjoy and makes my lashes look amazing. However it flakes and also smudges a bit so I wouldn't repurchase it, but would consider the waterproof.

Lancome eyeliner

lancome eyeliner

This tiny stub of eyeliner has been the bain of my existence the last few months. It was a sample size Lancome Kohl Liner in Noir and I seem to have accumulated several over the years. Having finished everything except the eyeliner and mascara, it had barely gone down, and when I got to taking the stopper out of my mascara to use the end I was putting excessive eyeliner on as often as I could manage. It was like a throwback to my 16 year old self! Back then, this used to be my favourite eyeliner; it's the blackest of blacks and a very good kohl, unfortunately I have eyes that run easily and it always ends up smudging. I much prefer long lasting liners so while I'll use up the others, I won't purchase them.

So that's it! I finished all my 10 products without buying any luxuries or even products I could really have used. In future I would do a project again, but would stick to either skincare or makeup and never mix the two! I didn't cheat by wasting product all the way through and finished things to the best I could (see cut lipgloss), however when my eyeliner was beyond any more sharpening and was getting too blunt, I did do this to flatten it off!

using up eyeliner

So that's it, I consider that successful enough, though I'm actually going to see if I can do a complete year without buying any makeup, call it penance for wasting the end of the kohl pencil ;)

Love and Wishes,

Vivacia Dreams x

Ice Blue FOTD

Hi lovelies,
Just a quick look I did ages ago that I thought was pretty, using Wet n Wild's snow sprite palette. It's a little early, but I do love icy blue looks when I'm feeling brave in the cold winter. I used the 3 blue shades from the palette, which I won from Pinkiecharm so thank you to her!

wet n wild snow sprite

The palette I used is the right one, and that make up was done with the other one. Here's Snow Sprite

FOTD

FOTD

eyes closed

I only wish I could work out what lip gloss that is!
Love and wishes,

Vivacia Dreams x

Glitter and Flowers

Hi lovelies,
There are lots of things I'm dying to blog about; my use-up project, loads of make up goodies, some blog competition prizes, skincare bits and more, but I thought I would show you something close to my heart today.

A good few weeks ago I was having a bad time, feeling extra ill and sad and stressed; it's expected when you are ill for so long! Anyway, two wonderful friends who are poorly too sent some things to cheer me up! I know that as one of my resolutions I've been doing some similar things for friends, but it was such a pleasant surprise, which really moved me :)

flowers

flower

happiness

As you can see, they sent me the most beautiful flowers, that sat on my windowsill in view from my bed, and kept me all cheerful as can be for a week or two.

They also sent a collection of glitters, which came the following day and made me so very happy! You see, I have rather an obsession with glitter, just looking at it cheers me up, so you can imagine what 80(!) little pots of joy did for me!

all my glitters

greens

blacks

blues

purples

reds

silvers

pinks

oranges

I thought I'd show you them all, so I'll do a few posts of all the contents for you to ooo and ahh over if you're that way inclined, but today I just wanted to show you what my friends Rachel and Jess did that was ever so thoughtful, and say thank you very muchly if they ever see this.

purple hexagons

silver holographic

They seem to have gotten them from Designer Habitat so have a little Google if you want some for yourselves, I try not to look up gifts and their prices ;)

Thank you to my Catwoman and my Superwoman.

Love and wishes,

Vivacia Dreams x

La Petite Robe Noir Perfume by Guerlain

Hi lovelies,
This week I received a sample of La Petite Robe Noir Perfume by Guerlain in the post, and I thought I'd tell you my thoughts.

It is described by Guerlain as "Inspired by the elegance and eternity of a little black dress, the perfume exudes Parisian chic and gracefulness. It opens with playful and sparkling aromas of black cherry, bergamot, red berries and almond. Bulgarian and Turkish roses rule the heart, further developing with notes of licorice and smoked black tea. Aniseed, tonka bean, vanilla, iris and patchouli form the base."

The note that stands out most initially is black cherry. It's quite a strong scent, and smells more of synthetic cherry than actual fruit. As it dries down the main note I get is the tea, it smells just like a body mist by natural collection called "green tea", which doesn't radiate expensive to me at all. Generally the scent is  sweet, fruity and floral, not a typical vanilla sweet scent, although you can tell its in there. I find it to be quite cloying, its just a bit too much sweet floral for me, and makes me feel a little nauseous, though I should say that I'm very sensitive to scents because of my health.

The bottle of the full sized product is very beautiful, with an expensive shape and the name in a delicate script. I love the colour of the bottle, an ombre from black, though pink to clear. I don't personally like the picture of a black dress, I feel it cheapens the design. I expect it is to appeal to a slightly younger audience, but I would say from the scent I would be around the target age and it looks childish on a grown up bottle in my opinion.

The scent lasts incredibly well on the skin. The initial fragrance is very different to the base note fragrance that lasts, but last it does! Two sprays on my décolletage lasted all day and could still be noiced the following morning, giving it longevity to rival my favourite Dior perfume.

Overall, not a perfume I would choose, but if you like sweet scents and want something unique, perhaps one to test in store.

Love and wishes,
Vivacia Dreams x

Bvlgari Sunglasses

Hi lovelies,

Just a quick post because I am very excited to show you my new sunglasses, courtesy of my wonderful mumma and the lovely people at Naked Juice. My mum won a competition for £120 off any Shadestation sunnies through the Naked Juice Facebook page and was kind enough to give the voucher to me as I was complaining mine weren't dark enough. The sunglasses I picked after much deliberation were the Bvlgari BV8052B for £127.10 and ended up costing my only £7.10 and my old ugly sunnies, thanks mumma!

They came the day after I ordered with timed delivery, great service even if I didn't pay full price! They were delivered in a standard box and inside were in a logoed bag. Within the bag was a posh box wrapped in black tissue and within that were the guarantee and care instructions and the case itself. I was impressed that they came wrapped as they would be if you bought them from a store, and it made delivery more exciting :)

That wasn't the end of wrapping though, within the beautiful case there was a cleaning cloth and the sunglasses were housed in a cloth bag. I was impressed.
The sunglasses themselves are perfect, they have dark lenses, which were easy to find as Shadestation give all their sunglasses a tint rating. The arms have some diamante detail, nothing too gaudy. The biggest difference between these and my standard cheap choices was the clarity of the lenses, they looked similar to prescription sunglasses.

Overall, I am so grateful to mum and am really happy with what I chose. I don't think I could ever justify spending the full cost on sunglasses but if designer sunnies are your cup of tea, I would recommend Shadestation, the service was just brilliant.

Thanks again to the folks at Naked Juice and Shadestation, and especially to my mumma, who is quite possibly the most generous person I know.
Love and Hugs,
VivaciaDreams x