Shakeup Your Makeup

Lavender is such a beautiful plant and the fragrance is intoxicating. Not only can it be used in culinary purposes as an herbal ingredient, but it's fragrance is used as a means to calm and relax. What better gift to give someone you care about!

Yardley of London has an exclusive gift set that can be found at Walgreens, retailing $9.99. The Yardley of London Botanical Soap Collection Limited Edition Gift Set can be found in two fragrances: English Lavender or Oatmeal & Almond (feel free to click each fragrance to see the rest of the line - or click here to see all the fragrances available from Yarldey of London.) Each set includes two moisturizing bar soaps, one hand soap and one moisturizing lotion - that means each item costs about $2.50! Not only is this a great gift, but it could be broken up into little stocking stuffers as well.

Yardley of London's Botanical Soap Collection is a collection of irresistible soaps, each building into a fragrant, rich lather to cleanse, beautiful and nurture the skin. These soaps contain natural moisturizing ingredients and essential oils. Yardley's English Lavender is that of the classic lavender soaps created in the 17th century. While you breath in the calming scent of lavender, the moisturizers leave skin soft and supple. Oatmeal & Almond is a sweet combination of almonds and real oatmeal, which ultimately exfoliate, soothe and moisturize the skin.

As promised, I wanted to get you a picture of Avon Supershock Mascara in Intense Emerald in action. The brush on this mascara is the same as the regular SuperShock, and is large, thick, and filled with long, stiff bristles that help separate and coat the lashes without clumps. The Intense Emerald is no exception - my lashes were coated and separated, giving a fringe effect. The color gives the appearance of a soft black when looked at head on, but once you look at your lashes from an angle or in the sunlight, you can definitely see the hints of emerald green and shimmer. My only complaint is that I don't think the mascara lengthens as well as some other mascaras, especially that of the Lash Blast Luxe Shimmering mascaras.

Retail Price: $8.99 regularly - currently on sale for $4.99

Where to purchase: www.avon.com
Product: 3.5 out of 5
Price: 4 out of 5
Packaging: 4 out of 5
Overall: 3.5 out of 5
Would I purchase again? I do not think I would order this particular shade again, seeing as the Lash Blast Luxe Shimmering Mascara comes in a green as well. If the mascara gave more length, I think I would be more apt to order, especially when it is on sale for $4.99. I do want to try out the Intense Violet, seeing as I have yet to come across a mascara in this shade.

My overall impression is pretty much "good" on this mascara. Again, I will try it out a few more times, as I have come to discover that the first couple of times you use a mascara it isn't quite at its peak performance. I will say that if you have naturally long lashes, this mascara would probably work very well for you, seeing is it gives a very natural and lush thickness, without being clumpy.

The third (and final) installment of my most recent Avon order is all of the lipstick and lip glosses I ordered. I have come to know and love the Glazewear collection, be it the lipgloss with the doe foot applicator or the glazerwear lipsticks, but this time around I went out on a limb to try a few other items. Specifically, I ordered the Ultra Rich 24K Gold Lipstick in Chocolate Gold, Glazewear Dimensions Lipstick in Shiny Rouge, Hollywood Lights Lipgloss in Celebrity Pink and Avon Pro-to-Go Lipstick in Natural Beauty.

The Ultra Rich line of lipstick is just what it says - very rich and luxurious. The colors are very moisturizing, pigmented and last without bleeding into your skin around the lips, which is a very important factor especially with the darker shades. I chose Chocolate Gold because I lean towards the brown lipsticks. This is absolutely gorgeous. The color is a deep, warm golden brown with tons of golden frost (hence the name 24K Gold!). It's a very buildable color: with one application it almost looks like a gloss, but after several more you get a nice deep color.


The Glazewear Dimensions Lipstick comes in a gorgeous "sterling" tube, that when you open, the inner tube has beautiful holographic star bursts. I just love creative packaging, and this is no exception. The tube is nice an thin, and fits easily into your purse. The color is a warm pink with iridescent shimmer. This is not an opaque color, and although it is called a lipstick, gives the coverage of a lipgloss - very sheer and shiny.

The Hollywood Lights collection is on clearance right now - the idea behind this is that there is a light in the lid that once open illuminates the lips for an easier application. There is also a mirror on the slide of the square packaging, so if you don't have one in your purse, it's right at your finger tips. I chose a very neutral color...something to wear any time, any place. The shade is Celebrity Pink, and although it isn't exactly pink, it is a beautiful neutral lip tone shade. There is a hint of shimmer, but not enough to really show up on the lips. The applicator is a doe-foot (see second image below).

All the swatches are below. I did several coats so you can see the true colors of these shades. They are absolutely beautiful, and any of these would make great stocking stuffers! My favorite is definitely the Ultra Rich lipstick in Chocolate Gold, though. I needed to replace my Mary Kay lipstick in Gingerbread, so this will do the trick!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful and yummy filled Thanksgiving! Now that I'm back from a little stint with the families, I thought it was time to update the remainder of my Avon Haul from last week...

I love colorful mascara - I think my favorite so far are the Lash Blast Luxe mascaras I posted about earlier. I saw that Avon had expanded their line of the SuperShock Mascara to include colors (Burgundy, Emerald, Sapphire and Violet), so I thought I would try them out! I picked Emerald, strictly because I love green. I probably should have bought Burgundy or Violet because my eyes are hazel, but oh well! I haven't tried these out yet, so I will post a review and pictures once I do.

I also picked up one of the Perfectly Portable Liquid Eyeliner Markers in black. Like the Wet 'n Wild I posted about earlier, I just love the convenience and ease of these - they are perfect for a quick and simply line, without the fuss of waiting for the liner to dry like a typical liquid.



The closeup of the brush and color of the Intense Emerald Super Shock is below. It is quite similar to the Lash Blast Luxe green as well, even down to the shimmer in the color. I do think this is a bit more green, and less black, so we'll see how this shows up once applied.

The Perfectly Portable liquid eyeliner is in a tiny little pen, perfect for your purse or makeup bag. The brush is felt tip - think a calligraphers pen. This liquid is a bit more intense black than that of the Wet 'n Wild, so it goes over the eyeshadows much easier, without having a second or third coat.

The tip on this liner is very fine too, so you are able to be precise in your line, and add thickness as needed. It doesn't bleed into fine lines, and it doesn't smear once dried. I rubbed my hand vigorously over this once it was dried and nothing budged!

Like I said, I will post pictures of the mascara and eyeliner once used so everyone can see the total effect. Hopefully I will like these Intense Mascaras as much as the Lash Blast Luxe since they have a few different colors than Lash Blast...it might be a nice wait to expand my colored mascara collection!