August Magazine Freebies! Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Red, Elle & Glamour

Magazines really seem to be spoiling us with freebies these past few months, and this month is no exception! This month there are some great freebie bargains available on great magazines, all of the August issues are out NOW!

Cosmopolitan

Cosmo have continued their partnership with Missguided.co.uk for some nail polishes freebies, which is great as I have loved the missguided nail polishes in the past. The are 3 polishes available Missmatch (Orange), Misslead (Yellow) and Misstify (Pink), there is also a 10% discount code for Missguided.co.uk on the back of the nail polish, which is an extra bonus! The nail polishes are normally worth £5 each.

I have the yellow and pink nail polishes so I will do NOTD's soon! I have just finished putting on the pink polish and I have to say I'm a little bit disappointed it's not more of a neon colour.

Marie Claire

I am really excited about this freebie, I have been dying to try an Avon mascara for ages as I always hear great things but don't know an Avon lady and really hate paying delivery for small items! Marie Claire are offering 3 Avon mascara's to choose from, Super Extend Extreme for lengthening, Super Curlacious for curling and Super Shock Max for volumising. The mascara's are normally worth up to £10, you can see the mascara's on AVON's website here.

I have bought the magazine with the Super Shock Max mascara as I have heard great things about this mascara from the Pixiwoo sisters, so I get a review up as quickly as I can.

Glamour 

Glamour are offering a range of Balance Me products, there are 4 available  Balancing Face Moisturiser, Wonder Eye Cream, Pure Skin Face Wash and Rose Otto Intensive Lip Balm, they are normally worth around £11 each, you can see the products on Balance Me's website here. 

Elle

Elle are offering St Tropez Self Tan in 2 shades, I think it's great that they are offering more than  one shade, so I would get this freebie early if you want to get the shade most suitable for you.
 I am very tempted by this, as I'm not going on holiday this year and I don't know what has happened to our British summer so I might need a bit of self tan before I can show my legs!

Red

Red are offering a REN skin care set normally worth £16, which contains Vetiver v7 Hand and Body Cream 15ml, Hydra-Calm Global Protection Day Cream 15ml and Active 7 Radiant Eye Gel 3ml. I think this is such a great freebie and I could be tempted to get this too, I normally don't rush to buy magazines with skin care freebies, but I know Rachel is pretty excited about Glamour and Red's freebies so I will get her to update the post if she gets them.

Are you tempted by any of this month's freebies?

Elaine

No7 Beautiful Skin Eye Make-up Remover Review

I bought this eye make-up remover when I had a No7 £5 voucher, I’d never used it before and I tend to just use my cleanser to remover eye make-up but as it was so cheap with the voucher I thought I’d give it a whirl.

Pros –

• It claims to be hypo-allergenic and suitable for all skin types and It didn’t sting my eyes
• Hmmmm well I guess it does take your eye makeup off quickly, but my Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish does this just as well too (I don’t wear waterproof mascara).
• I like the blue colour... ha can you tell I’m struggling to find pro’s here.

Cons – 

• It’s incredibly oily and It leaves a horrible greasy residue which is really unpleasant.
• I find the packaging quite annoying as a LOT of product comes out at once as it doesn’t have a pump or a small dispensing hole.
• Price, even with the £5 voucher I don’t think this is worth £2.25 or £7.25.

Will I repurchase –
Definitely NOT even with the voucher, I’ve got better things to spend my money on.

I’ve read a lot of reviews on the boots website and it appears the formula of  this has changed, a lot of people rave about the original formula and hate the new version which I’ve tried, it will be interesting to see if Boots listen and revert back to the old one.

Rachel

NOTD - Ciate Bon Bon Free with Marie Claire

I received this Ciate nail varnish free with last month’s Marie Claire. I initially wasn't going to buy it as I have loads of nail varnish and there were so many great magazine freebies last month...... however whilst on my way to work I was reading the Metro newspaper and noticed a voucher to buy the magazine for only £1 - so it would be rude not too (I’m definitely going to keep an eye out for more offers like this at the end of the month, as I saw one for Elle magazine too)

I've never tried this brand before but I’ve heard a lot about them so I was looking forward to trying it. This is the shade Bon Bon with two coats, it definitely needed two coats to stop it looking streaky but then I think all nail varnish needs two coats. It’s a lovely lilac colour with a hint of grey, I would say its slightly more purple than it shows in the images, however still lovely. Since wearing it I’ve had a lot of compliments – which is always nice.  The application went on easily but it took slightly longer than expected to dry, I then applied the Barry M top coat. The varnish wore relatively well 3 days without chipping however on the 4^th day it peeled! I mean  it wasn’t a huge problem as it was ready to be removed but I haven’t had a nail varnish peel in a long time. Perhaps it didn’t work well the Barry M top coat, I’m not sure, has anyone else had this problem with Ciate nail Varnish?

Rachel

NOTD: The ELLE Grey by Mavala

I got this nail varnish a couple of years ago as a freebie from Elle and I love the colour soo much, I think as the grey is quite light it's an all year round colour! The nail varnish had actually turned quite sticky which I was surpised about, I would have thought that a brand like Mavala would have a bit more longevity in the nail varnishes! I still love it even if it does show all the ridges in my nails... Has any one tried Essie's base coat that fills nail ridges? Is it any good?

And I think my cat Smudge loved it as much as me, I couldn't take a photo without her trying to get in the picture too!

Elaine

Liz Earle Sheer Skin Tint Review

Since the recent launch of Liz Earle's new makeup range we have been dying to try it out, so we  managed to get some samples of the Liz Earle Sheer Tint from John Lewis.
Liz Earle say - The perfect way to enhance your skin. Our rich, creamy formula leaves skin looking naturally dewy, even and radiant. With Mineral UV protection SPF15, plus our specially selected blend of botanicals. 


Elaine tried shade Bare 01
Rachel tried shade Bare 01 and Beige 02


Pro's

• It's long lasting, it lasted easily 8 hours. 
• Decent coverage for a tinted moisturiser or whatever it is. I did ask the sales assistant if she would class this as a tinted moisturiser or a light foundation - she couldn't answer me. I would personally class this as a light coverage foundation as it feels much more like a foundation on the skin.
• It does make skin look dewy, even and radiant, and didn't cling to any dry patches in the slightest.
• The formula is lovely and easy to work with, you can easily build it up if you like a much heavier coverage.
• As I would wear this in the daytime and mostly during Summer it's great it has SPF 15 in.

Con's

• Elaine found that it made her skin look a bit too dewy on the T Zone, and we both found it did seem to slip from the T Zone by lunchtime. I have dry skin Elaine Oily.
• It feels quite heavy on your skin compared to other tinted moisturisers / light foundations, you can definitely feel it on your skin.
• The price for me isn't much of a issue, however when I worked it our per ml compared to my new favorite NARS tinted moisturiser I found it would only be 50p cheaper than NARS if it were 50ml too. As I'd put the price of NARS in as a con on that review, its only fair to put the price as a con on this review too.  For 40mls of Liz Earle at £21 this works out at 53p per ml compared with my new favorite NARS tinted moisturiser £27 which is 54p per ml.
• 4 shades - really! Although it is blend-able I found the shade offering really didn't work for me.
• Not so much of a con but I found it does dry slightly darker when applied and takes a little while to settle into your skin.

Verdict
Elaine - I did really like how this product made my skin look and the lightest shade did match my skin tone well, but I wouldn't buy this again as it wasn't the best on my oily t zone and it felt quite heavy for a sheer tint, if it was cheaper I may have bought it to try during the winter when my skin was drier but I didn't love it enough to pay £21.


Rachel - I was 100% ready to buy this, I've heard great things about it and I really like light foundations, also the price doesn't really bother me. So I'd been to the counter a number of times and tried swatching the two lightest colours, the sales assistant assured me the shade 02 Beige was for me - luckily she gave me some sample sachets to try out (they have a really good colour matching scheme to avoid wastage). When trying them at home I found neither shade 01 or 02 works for me at all. 01 washed me out and 02 was far too dark (maybe if I'd actually seen some sun this Summer it wouldn't have been too bad) but even blended out neither of these worked for me. So unless they bring out more well needed shades to the range I won't be buying this, which is a shame because the formula is lovely and I really really wanted it!

Elaine & Rachel