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Tuesday 26 February 2013

February Favourites


Nivea Creme Soft Shower Cream
I appreciate how unusual it is to feature a shower gel in a favourites post, but this is honestly the best shower gel I've used in practical terms (wow I'm getting old). It doesn't smell fruity or sweet or girly at all, I think it's supposed to be one of those 'unisex' scents. It's super cheap and lathers up amazingly well, plus its extra moisturising too!

M&S 'Leilah' Perfume Spray
This was a bit of an impulse buy. I constantly carry a couple of perfumes or body sprays in my school bag just to top up on during the day. This perfume was really inexpensive (£6?) and is the perfect size for a purse spray. The scent is mandarin and raspberry, super fruity and sweet!

NSpa Toning Mist
I did a review on this product which you can see at the bottom of this post. Although it's not incredibly deep cleansing or a life-changing product I've enjoyed using this every morning to wake me up and make me feel a little more refreshed.

Nails Inc. 'Piccadilly Circus'
I've had this nail polish for the longest time I swear, one thing I love about the Nails Inc. polishes is that they never go gloopy, which is my eyes is worth the £11 price tag. This is a pretty raspberry red (the exact same shade as Barry M's 'Raspberry') that's an all year round staple shade. It applies evenly and dries with a glossy finish, heaven!

Bourjois Delice de Poudre Bronzing Powder
I've had such a turbulent relationship with this product. At first I couldn't get it to work with me, it gave either no payoff at all or was super orange. After figuring out there was actually a shiny horrid film on top of the product that needed scratching off I managed to get just what I wanted from the bronzer. I think I'm going to do a comparison of this and Nars Laguna as the shades are pretty similar, what do you think?


What products have you been loving this month?

Monday 25 February 2013

Featured Blogger #6 - February

It feels like forever since I posted about my last featured blogger. Since then, you may have noticed I now have a past featured bloggers link on my sidebar where you can easily access the blogs of all A Is For Ayla featured bloggers! I figured it was much easier than going through the related posts widget. This month, my featured blogger is Jayde from Je M'apparel which is an amazinggggggg 'all-round' blog. She posts about everything from beauty to fashion with a bit of music and personal posting thrown in too! Her outfit posts are some of my biggest inspiration here on Blogger. I would recommend you have a look at her blog because theres a chance that it will soon become one of your favourites, quite like it did with me!

When and why did you initially start blogging?
I initially started blogging in around October last year. Once I started working full time I finally had the money to buy more expensive beauty products but I'm the kind of girl who won't buy anything until I've read 800000 reviews and that's when I discovered beauty blogs. After a couple of months following beauty blogs I decided I'd like to share my passion too and also thought it would be a great creative outlet for me as I used to love photography and writing. I was nervous at first that people who know me would judge me but I haven't looked back!

Do you have any tips or ideas for someone wishing to start a successful blog?
Just be yourself, there are a lot of beauty blogs out there so you need to stand out to be remembered, but the best way to stand out in a sea of beauty blogs is to just be you. By being yourself you will automatically stand out because some one out there will connect with you, if you try to be the same as some of your favourite bloggers then you're just another girl.

Do you feel you've taken anything out of being part of the blogger community?
The greatest thing about the blogging community is how great and friendly everybody is, if I need any advice I know that the blogging community will be willing to help. Instead of feeling judged and isolated when I first started blogging I felt welcomed and already part of a great community. Obviously as well I have learnt so many tips and tricks to do with beauty and I just wanna keep learning more!

What are your 5 favourite products right now?
At the moment I am really focused on skincare, my skin hasn't been at its greatest recently and so I'm trying to get it back to it's best so my five favourite products right now are:-

1. Cosmetic Warrior Face Mask by Lush
2. NUDE Perfect Cleansing Oil
3. Tea Tree Water by Lush
4. Bioderma Sensibo H2O
5. NUDE Radiant Day Moisturiser

I know these are all skincare products and I NEVER blog about skincare because my skin is never stable enough to actually know what a product is doing for it because I swap and change so much so now I'm using these products as a fixed routine and my skin has been improving daily, I'll be blogging about these soon!

Who are your 5 favourite bloggers right now?
1. Chelsea at The Dauphine - I have been a fan of Chelsea's blog for so long, her photography is beautiful and her reviews are to the really informative and useful!
2. Hannah Maggs at A Little Beauty Spot - I love how Hannah's blog is a mix of lifestyle and beauty combined with great tutorial videos as she is newly a make up artist.
3. Em Sheldon at Em Talks - Em is a really refreshing down to earth northern girl who has had great opportunity's to share with us recently!
4. Laura at TINY TWISST - Laura has an amazing sense of style and is so gorgeous!
5. Maddie Elizabeth at Maddie Elizabeth - Maddie also has an amazing sense of style and I regularly see her styling pieces of clothing that I have had no clue how to style myself, great for inspiration!

Where can we find you?
My twitter is @rileyjayde
My instagram is also @rileyjayde
I'm also on weheartit @rileyjayde, yep you guessed it!

Any final words of wisdom?
If you come over to my blog be sure to leave your links, I love checking out new blogs!



Sunday 24 February 2013

Spring Nail Polish Picks!


Essie 'To Buy Or Not To Buy' / Essie 'Orange It's Obvious' / Barry M 'Aqua Glitter' / Barry M 'Blue Moon' / Max Factor 'Diva Violet'

Yay for natural lighting, surely this means Spring is here? Roll on Spring themed posts! Today is something dear to my heart, nail polish! As you can see my picks are generally either pastel or neon bright which are typical S/S trends. I've been obsessed with Orange It's Obvious since I bought it and orange is such a good colour for warmer months. I also integrated a glitter, something I usually detest (the effort required is far too much for me) however this is literally the prettiest, most intriguing nail polish ever, especially under artificial light.

What are your spring colour picks?


Thursday 21 February 2013

Primark S/S 13 Picks


I apologise for the quality of these images, something, somewhere along the line went tragically wrong. I not so long ago posted the Primark S/S Lookbook which you can find below in the 'Related Posts' section so I thought I'd follow it up with some of the individual pieces I'm looking forward to seeing. It's an unusual mix between Spring and Winter I must say..

Sunday 10 February 2013

Revlon Kissable Balm Stain in 'Darling'

 
 

Please do excuse my face in these photos, they haven't been edited. This is a long time coming but today is a post of my thoughts on Revlon's kissable Balm Stain. I went for the purple shade, 'Darling' as I've been loving purple-blue tones recently. Do bare in mind that 'Darling' and 'Cherish' are very very simillar, it probably isnt worth buying both shades if you're collecting. This product is quite unusual in that you can pretty much get 3 shades from it. Applied lightly its a sheer candy pink (which is what I expect 'Cherish' looks like), the purple you expect when layered on a fair bit and a bright mid pink stain when the gloss has worn off. Do bare in mind that I naturally have quite red-pigmented lips, if you have very very pigmented lips I'd say try and use a primer shade underneath, Natural Collection's 'Apple Blossom' is an inexpensive example.

Theres not much I can say about this as it really is what you expect from a balm stain stick, sheer pay-off, glossy finish and lasting colour. I'd say my only gripe about this product is the smell, it's an artificial mint scent, quite like polo mints, toothpaste and TCP mixed together, but this only exists in the stick and doesn't transfer on to the lips thankfully.

Revlon Kissable Balm Stain in 'Darling' £8 Boots & Superdrug.


Tuesday 5 February 2013

Origins Super Spot Remover Treatment Gel



Now unless you're new around town I'm pretty sure you've already read at least 6 reviews on this same product but I figured I'd give my penny on it. All throughout late 2012 this was hailed as a miracle product for those with spots (or in some cases acne) as it apparantly healed said blemishes within 2 days!! Now of course with claims like that you can't help but be skeptical and to be honest I didn't believe a word of it, well that was then and this is now. I'll start off with a big fat declaration of my absolute LOVE for this product. I'm not at all a spotty person (shocking really considerring I'm in my mid-teens) but whenever I had a small 'arising' I'd just pop on a thin layer of this at the top before I went to bed and by the morning it was barely noticable, even to my own maticulous eye. This generally means completely invisible to any other normal person btw.

Usually I'm not a fan of gel treatments purely because they tend to contain quite a lot of alcohol which can dry your skin out baaaaad. The Super Spot Remover is no different, alcohol is second on the list of ingredients, having said that it does also contain lots of natural extracts and also caffiene, which is always good in my eyes. I'd say the only thing I dislike about this product, which is common in quite a few products in the Origins line, is the scent. It's almost woody and herbally which probably is refreshing for most people but for me just smells like I'm putting sweatshop on my face. I think the scent is a small hurdle to jump over on the path to amazing skin however, so I try to look past it.

What are your tips for dealing with spot-prone skin?


Friday 1 February 2013

Huge Haul P1: Beauty (Including Birthday Purchases, Benefit, Yankee Candle, Gatineau, Eyeko)


 
 
    

Eyeko Mascara / Benefit They're Real Mascara / Collection 2000 Extreme Felt Liner / Eyelure Short & Medium Individual Lashes / Sleek Blush By 3 in 'Lace' / Rimmel Stay Matte Powder in 'Sandstorm' / Revlon Kissable Balm Stain in 'Darling' / Revlon Lipgloss in 'Sizzle' / Boots Nail Polish Remover / Rimmel Match Perfection Foundation / Natural Collection Lipstick in 'Crimson' / Batiste 'Blush' Dry Shampoo / TZone Pore Strips, Mark Hill Heat Protectant / Gatineau Mask / Natural Collection Mango & Papaya Shower Gel / Lush Rockstar Soap / 'Pineapple Palm' Yankee Candle / Hollister 'Crescent Bay' Body Spray

As I mentioned a couple of posts ago it was mine and one of my best friends birthdays recently, which always means lots of shopping trips! I must have visited Manchester at least 15 times since New Year, crazy! Some of these were complete impulse buys, mainly because I'm a killer for anything fruity scented *cough* Yankee Candle and Hollister spray. The others were things I'd wanted to try for a while but didn't get around to buying. There should be some more coming soon as I need to go to Superdrug as I still haven't tried any of the MUA palettes. I also have a slightly smaller fashion haul coming up in P2 pretty soon. In the meantime I'm sure you'll see lots of these products being reviewed here on my blog!

What products have you been buying recently?