Birchbox: April 2013

Another month, another beauty box; this time it's Birchbox! Despite never posting about them before, I've been a subscriber to Birchbox, formerly Joliebox for well over a year now. Shocking, I know. So, whilst I'm trying to get my blog up and running, good and proper, I thought I'd share with you my thoughts on this month's products. Apologies in advance for the slightly dodgy lighting, the sun just couldn't make it's mind up whether to stay in or out!

This month's box is all about embracing a brighter outlook, ready for when Spring finally decides to show itself! The magazine cover showcased a gorgeous  pink blossom-type flower, perfectly matching the 'in bloom' theme of the box (sorry, I couldn't find mine hence no picture of it #badblogger). Onto the products:

Gerda Spillman | Renaissance Age Serum

This is enriched with plenty of antioxidants and has even been dubbed as a hero serum for retaining a youthful appearance. I'm not too sure why this is in my box, being twenty I feel a wee bit young to begin using this type of product yet, and with the use of beauty profiles I would've thought the product would have been better tailored to suit it. However, I am intrigued and may give this a go in order to keep my youthful glow... That or I'll pass it on to Momma Hart ;)

La Société  Parisienne De Savons | Soap

Can I just say, how beautiful is this packaging?! There's something quite oriental and retro about it, I love it. The soap itself has quite a strong scent, not something I'd pick for myself but it is quite lovely. I'm not sure this will get used as we prefer liquid soap in our house, these types always tend to make a mess.. but I may well pop it into my drawers to make them smell nice!

mirenesse | Glossy Kiss

Another product not too dissimilar from the Clinique Chubby Sticks, but in a slimmer, less easy to use form - this one needs to be sharpen when it goes blunt rather than be wound up. Nevertheless, it's something I'll definitely use. I love a good lip product. I got the shade '14. Perfect Kiss', which is a lovely deep rosey pink shade. It has a lovely smell and quite a shimmery finish, something I don't usually go for, but it's definitely wearable!

Weleda | Skin Food

With celebrity fans such as the one and only Victoria Beckham and Adele, this definitely looks promising. Skin Food is said to be a nourishing and hydrating treatment for the whole body, and as someone who suffers with severe dryness from time to time I think this sample will be gone in no time!

Natio | Gentle Foaming Cleanser

Natio has always been a brand I've been interested in trying out, mostly due to its pure and natural products. This cleanser is no different; it's completely soap free and has a neutral PH to prevent stripping essential moisture from the skin. Again, I tend to suffer from dry patches on my face, mostly around my nose and cheeks, and a lot of cleansers seem to make this worse so I'm looking forward to testing this out!

Birchbox | Paname Paris Mirror

As this month's little extra, Birchbox have added this wee little mirror. The design is super cute and it's perfect for carrying around for any touchups, the only downside being that as it's not compact it will more than likely get scratched from ending up at the bottom of my bag, so I'll have to take care of it!

Overall I'm pretty pleased with this months box, I wouldn't say I'm overwhelmed, but there's a nice variety of products, the majority of which will be put to good use.

What do you think of this months Birchbox? Are you subscribed to any beauty boxes? If you'd like to see any of this month's products reviewed let me know!

Weekend Wishlist #1 feat. Chi Chi

If you're part of the e-tail PR blogging community then you may well already know about their monthly exlusive blogger competitions. This month they have teamed up with the incredible Chi Chi to give one lucky winner £200 to spend on their gorgeous dresses. All you have to do is browse their lovely website and pick your favourites, then putting them into a wishlist style post! For more information on this competition see here.

L-R: 1. Jakinda 2. Dalila 3. Alejandra 4. Pabla 

1. The Jakinda dress is a gorgeous slightly different version of the LBD; black lace with a mint green underlay peeking through. Subtle but sexy, this would be perfect for any kind of occasion, or, if styled correctly even work!

2. I really love the peplum trend, it's a classic and figure flattering shape, and the Dalila dress gives it a more modern twist with its diamante embroidered bodice. The nude shade makes it perfect for summer, but be careful you pale gals like me.. It may be best to give yourself a bit more colour before wearing or else you might look naked! *giggles*

3. Another LBD, this time a cute and flirty style. The cross bust and floaty skirt give it a somewhat retro feel, yet the bow detailing on the shoulders bring it right back up to date!

4. As much as I love all of these dresses, I think this might just have to be my favourite. Words just can't describe how I feel about this dress... Skater style, lace top, cut out back? Perfection! It all seems very Holly Willoughby-esque, and who wouldn't want to be like her?!


What's on your wishlist this weekend? Will you be entering the competition?

FOTD #1: Precious Metals

Today was such a gorgeous day, the sun was shining.. it was even fairly warm, who'd have thought, eh? Especially after all the rubbish weather we've had here in the UK recently. Anyway, enough jabbering, and onto the point I'm  dilly dallying around! Now, because I'm a sucker for make up  it was such a lovely day, I was in the mood for a little play around with my cosmetics and this, my lovelies, was the result!

Birchbox eyelash curlers | Vivo lipstick in Shade 3 'Coral Flair' | Rimmel Blush Mono in 'Santa Rose' | Soap & Glory Solar Powder | Topshop 'liner' brush | GOSH Brow kit in 001 | MUA eye palette in 'Heaven & Earth' | Soap & Glory Hocus Focus | Rimmel Wake Me Up Foundation in 100 'Ivory' | Makebelieve Enhance Luminize Skin Highlighter | L'Oreal False Lash Telescopic mascara in 'Black' | Superdrug blending brush | Collection Colour Lash Mascara in 11 'Clear' | Barabara Daly Angled Blush Brush | EcoTools Buffing Brush

I started off by putting a pump of foundation onto the back of my hand then mixing in a small amount of Hocus Focus, a 'visual flaw-softening lotion' that can be used alone as a highlighter or mixed in with your moisturiser/foundation. I then dotted this all over my face and blended using the buffing brush. Next up I used Solar Powder to add a bit of shape to my face and followed it with a pop of colour to my cheekbones in the form of Rimmel's Santa Rose, a gorgeous pinky nude shade with a hint of corally shimmer.

My brows are really annoying me at the moment; one day I love them, the next I hate them. Today was the latter, so I put my no fuss routine into use by picking the medium brown shade from my brow kit to fill in any sparse areas. 

I wanted this look to be all about the eyes, so went for something a little more daring than my usual one shade slapdash kinda look. Using the MUA palette, I started off by using a pale pinky champagne colour all over my lid (top row fourth along) followed by a generous layering of a gorgeous gold shade(third along). To create a bit of dimension I then went on to use the copper in the palette (second along) in the outer third of my eye and through the socket line, blending as I went. I then went back over with the first shade I used to blend out a little more and tidy up any places I may have been a bit messy! To finish the eyes I curled my lashes and applied a couple of coats of my trusty L'Oreal Telescopic mascara.

If you know me, you'll know lipstick is my thang so I couldn't resist using this gorgeous corraly red colour from Vivo. Summer perfection! 

Et voila! There we have it! What do you think of this look? What are your picks this Spring?

NOTD: Bleu Canard

Those of you who follow me on Twitter (@sundaisyblog) may well already know the little dilemma I had earlier.. What colour should I paint my nails!? I know, I know #girlproblems and all that. After a couple of hours deliberation - yes, my nail varnish collection really is that vast (that and the fact I'm absolutely rubbish at making decisions)! - I came across this little number.

Maybelline Express Finish in Bleu Canard (865) is a gorgeous peacock-like turquoise green with a subtle shimmer running throughout. Application was made easy by the flat brush (sorry guys, forgot to get a picture of it!) and the quick drying formula. The bottle boasts a drying time of 40 seconds and I can tell you  it did in fact dry pretty darn quickly compared to others in my collection, a quality us fidgety gals lust after in a polish. Whilst the initial application was slightly streaky, it became opaque and perfect by the second. 

Sadly, I have a feeling this shade has been discontinued, but I believe it can be found on the likes of Amazon and the usual culprits!

What's your NOTD? Have you tried any of the Maybelline Express Finish polishes?

A little about me!

I don't think I've ever really gone into much detail about myself or my life on here (not that I've had much chance with my lack of posting!), so I thought I'd come out of my shell a little and let you lovelies get to know me a bit better, if that's okay with you of course! 

I'm led to believe this was a tag at some point, maybe it still is, but I'm so out of the loop I have no idea, so this can just be a little nosey into a few facts about me. I was initially going to hop on the '50 facts about me' bandwagon, but I'm useless when put on the spot so figured these questions would guide me.. 

Anyway, enough babbling for now. Off we go!

1. Do you have a middle name?
I do indeed, it's Ann after my Grandma!

2. What's your favourite subject in school?
School seems so long ago.. I never actually liked school really, if I had to pick I'd say business, as that's what led me to Marketing which I'm currently loving studying at university.

3. What's your favourite drink?
Diet Coke, I could drink it all day! I also love green tea.

4. What's your favourite song at the moment?
I'm love love loving Justin Timberlake - Mirrors. He has got to be the smoothest man alive... Am I right or am I right!? I also quite like Bastille - Pompeii. 

5. What would you name your children?
I honestly have no idea, I'm the worst at making even the smallest of decisions, never mind something like that!

6. Do you participate in any sports?
Not particularly. I've always danced, but I hardly have the time any more.

7. What's your favourite book?
The Harry Potter books will always have a place in my heart, I grew up with them and absolutely loved them, still do. More recently I read The Silver Linings Playbook, which I thought was incredible. I read too much to have a constant favourite!

8. What's your favourite colour?
I love orange and turquoise mainly.

9. What's your favourite animal?Dogs, I love my two babies!

10. What's your favourite perfume?
It depends what kind of mood I'm in, but I guess overall it'd be between Paco Rabanne Lady Million and Thierry Mugler Alien. Both smell bloody amazing.

11. What's your favourite holiday?
Quite probably the two I went on last year... The first was the first time me and the boy had been away together, and we had a complete blast. The second was a trip to Lanzarote which was equally as fabulous, scorching weather, it was just amazing.. there are no words!

12. Have you graduated from High School?
We don't graduate from school in England, I'll be graduating from university next year though! Eeeep.

13. Have you been out of the country?
I have yes, but I always feel like I've not been to many places.. Spain, Portugal, Lanzarote and France for actual holidays. And then there's been Italy and I'm sure somewhere else in passing with flights and crap.

14. Do you speak any other languages?
Not fluently, no. Although I like to kid myself into thinking I can speak Spanish.

15. Do you have any siblings?
Yeah, I have a younger brother who's sixteen and a bugger!

16. What's your favourite store?
I like different ones for different reasons! Primark for the amazing prices, Topshop for the amazing clothes and Boots for the amazing makeup!?

17. What's your favourite restaurant?
I love Italian, so anywhere that does good pasta! I also love Spice Valley, a gorgeous Indian restaurant. And then there's our little local Chinese... Too much choice!

18. Do you like school?
Nooooooo.

19. Who are some of your favourite YouTubers?
beautycrush
ghostparties
ViviannaDoesMakeup
essiebutton
Katie Snooks
meganisobel

20. What's your favourite movie?
Another hard question! The Dark Knight Rises was awesome, I loved that. There's plenty more but that's one off the top of my head.

21. What are some of your favourite TV shows?
Sex and the City, New Girl, Modern Family, Revenge

22. PC or Mac?
Can't really compare as I've only ever had PC!

23. What phone do you have?
HTC Wildfire, or as I like to call it.. The HTC Shitfire. In serious need of a new phone, and the boy bless him has offered me his Windows one! Ooo fancy.

24. How tall are you?
I'd say I'm about 5"8!

And that's all folks! Hope you've enjoyed this post, let me know if you'd like to see anything more like this in the future.. and if you've done a similar post yourself, then be sure to leave me your link as I'd love to check it out!

Revamp

Hey there my lovelies, it's been a while! I've been doing a lot of thinking as of later, and I've got to say, I'm not happy with myself for letting this little place go... I was so excited at the thought of starting blogging last year when I eventually decided to set my own up, but my posts have been inconsistent and very far between ever since. Sadly it's not due to how exciting my life is, it's that darn place called university where young people alike go to die. Yes, I'm feeling the stress of exams right now. Second year is such a drag! Anyhooo, with exams coming in rather soon and the excitement of having a super long summer break is looming, I've decided to give this place another go (procrastination much?) - fingers crossed I'll bloody keep it up this time! 

This is so me, every single time! (Image taken from: http://imgfave.com/view/1757202)

Loyal readers, you babes you, may have noticed a couple of changes... First up is the name; glitter cave has gone, say hello to it's younger sister sundaisy! Whilst I can't deny, I love me some glitter, I feel the name change is just so much more me. It may seem a load of nonsense to some of you, but it really captures what I'm about and reminds me of who I am if ever I get a little lost (look at me getting all sentimental, that can come another time!) 

Secondly is the content.. Be gone samey, boring posts posted pretty damn sporadically. Rachel's gonna get all organised on your ass! I won't lie, a lot of the posts will more than likely still be based around fashion and beauty, but I'm going to show you all the reaaaaaal me! Cue geeky snipbits and 'days in the life of'... or should that be 'daisy the life of' ;) Oh, why am I so hilarious?

So basically, in a TL;DR situation.. there have been and will be further changes around here. It's time for a revamp!

What do you think of the changes so far? Any feedback or suggestions would be grand!

Win with Lashes of London!

Label of the moment, Lashes of London are giving their Facebook fans the chance to win an item of their choice from the Neo-Nature collection. All you have to do is click this link or the picture above and fill out the Rafflecopter form! Simples!

Will you be entering? Which piece are you hoping to win?

Rachel x