My First Ever Charlotte Tilbury Lipsticks

I never thought the day would come that I would fall in love with lipstick. I own several tubes from Mac Cosmetics and between me and Mum, we have 3/4 of the Nars' Lipstick Pencils. However, only on rare occasions, you will catch me with painted lips because I cannot stand the feeling of lipstick on my mouth. Not to mention, it always makes my lips extremely chapped and my lips rarely get chapped. None the less, Charlotte Tilbury has completely changed my opinion on wearing lipstick, so much so that I have been wearing the colours regularly. 

The two colours are Penelope Pink and Secret Salma. These are my first ever Charlotte Tilbury products and I am very impressed by the quality. I have wanted to try Charlotte Tilbury since the day I walked past the massive makeup counter in Nordstrom. The mahogany red display accented with rose gold never fails to draw me in, but I could never bring myself to get a lipstick because I barely wear the ones I already own. My makeup knowledge is not the best and basically consists of Mac and Sephora, but after trying the luxury makeup line, I have been spoiled and can no longer go back to Mac! 

Penelope Pink is a nude pink that has a nourishing velvety formula. It goes on smooth with a bit of shine and the creaminess makes it comfortable to wear. I would say if you have Penelope Pink, you do not need any other nude lipsticks because it is a signature nude that you will find yourself reaching for. All the shades in the K.I.S.S.I.N.G range supposedly work with any skin tone. I actually did not pick out Penelope Pink because it and the other shade were both sent to me to try. Frankly, I thought the media team just spent a lot of time going through pictures of me to figure out what colours would be flattering. So I genuinely think Penelope Pink and Secret Salma would work for just about anyone and both are amazing basics to have in your collection! 

Of the two, Secret Salma is my favourite as it gives you a little bit of colour; yet it still works well as an everyday look. I can definitely see myself wearing it to work, but also out with my friends to dinner. It is part of the Hot Lips collection in which all of the shades are inspired by an iconic female and yes, ms Kim Kardashian West made the cut and it goes without saying the KimKW is her signature pale nude lip. Secret Salma took inspiration from Salma Hayek. 

Secret Salma is a deep-rose plum colour that apparently is ideal for bringing out brown eyes. I have big dark brown eyes and it really does make my eyes stand out. The lipstick finish is slightly matte and goes on a bit more pink than what it looks in the tube. 

I am a huge packaging fanatic and definitely have been suckered into buying items for the looks. Needless to say, I am living for Charlotte Tilbury's rose gold packaging! The grooves going up the length of the bullet makes it look like something you would find in an old Hollywood movie. Not to mention when the light hits the tube, it reflects it into a halo of rays. All my other lipsticks cannot compare because they are just plain black bullets that blend in with the sea of other black makeup packaging. 

It is definitely worth going down to your local Charlotte Tilbury counter and trying out their lipsticks. After a day of wear, your lips will still be soft and smooth. As I mentioned earlier, from the two, I would pick Secret Salma because I like a bit of colour. Recently I have been wanting to try something more dramatic like a deep plum colour, so if you have any suggestions let me know in the comments below!

BYES

PR samples for review consideration; all opinions are my own. Affiliate links used.

Penelope Pink (L); Secret Salma (R)

Secret Salma

Hot Chocolate Festival 2018

The Tipsy Unicorn | Soirette Pastry Boutique

We are halfway through this year's Hot Chocolate festival and there have been some real winners. Most of the flavours I tried were milk or dark chocolate based because I find white chocolate to be a little too sweet. I wanted to try some of the more unique flavours like the buttered popcorn and carrot cake. Others I wanted to try purely for the visual like the magical unicorn and mini birthday cake. I am going to go in the order that I tasted the hot chocolates.

The first one I got to try was the "At the Movies" an intriguing creation by Chez Christophe. I think they truly achieved the movie popcorn taste. The 42% Ecuadorian single-origin milk chocolate was was a great choice as it really allowed the popcorn-infused whip cream to shine. Plus milk chocolate is super creamy and worked well with the butteriness of the popcorn. The hot chocolate was rounded out with corn nut sprinkles and a decadent gooey caramel sauce. The accompaniment was chocolate covered corn nuts which I loved! It was the most satisfying crunch ever and I think chocolate covered corn nuts should become a regular at Chez Christophe. 

Bel Café's Wascally Wabbit is probably the most interesting creation for 2018. Honestly Bel Café just did an extraordinary job and really captured the essence of carrot cake. The bright orange whip cream tasted like freshly grated carrots and the 32% Valrhona Dubey blonde chocolate was rich and worked well with the warm spices. The hot chocolate had pieces of nuts or whole spices, I am not sure, but it brought another great texture. Plus the cream cheese truffle - I could have a 100 more of them! Basically the perfect tangy cream cheese frosting in truffle form and the best friend to carrot cake. Unfortunately for all of us, the Wascally Wabbit was only available until February 2nd, but they are now serving Pretty in Pink which I am sure also tastes magnificent. 

I have a lot of memories at Butter Baked Goods from when I was in high school, so they are always on my list of must visits during the festival. The Birthday Wishes is just a comforting vanilla hot chocolate with pink tinted whip cream, rainbow sprinkles and an itty bitty slice of birthday cake. I wish the cake was a bit bigger because it was so miniature that it hardly was even a single bite. I also had the Raspberry Pavlova which was a dark chocolate with vanilla whip cream, raspberry meringue and dehydrated raspberries. The dark chocolate was a little too strong and the bitterness masked the raspberry. I think the addition of the dehydrated raspberries is what saved this hot chocolate for me because they were these little bursts of flavour. 

If you follow me on my Instagram (@PinkTeaLatte) you have probably been patiently waiting for me to spill the tea on Soirette Pastry Boutique. I had gone in to try the highly-instagrammable Tipsy Unicorn hot chocolate. Unfortunately for me, their front staff had quite the attitude and her rudeness just completely ruined the experience for me. Despite their hot chocolates being very good, I could only stomach a quarter of the drink before ditching it on the counter and leaving. It is uncomfortable to have someone glaring at you the entire time, especially considering I went there and spent my hard earned money only to feel unwelcome. 

Since then the owner has reached out to me and apologized on behalf of her staff and agrees that the behaviour was unacceptable and not what Soirette stands for. I frankly had no intention of ever returning, but I sincerely appreciate the genuine apology from Soirette and I really respect that. It is tough being a business owner and you cannot always be there to manage your staff. There was more to the story that ultimately pushed me over the edge, but I no longer feel the same way about Soirette and will actually be returning very soon because their stuff is DELICIOUS!

Oh and both of Soirette's hot chocolates tasted as amazing as they looked. The Tipsy Unicorn is the cutest design. The addition of strawberry peach Schnapps made the cacao barry zephyr hot chocolate a little boozy and brought another depth of flavour to the fruity hot chocolate. I LOVED THE NEON PINK HORN! Their second creation was the Liquid Gold which literally looked like molten yellow gold. It was a rich chestnut and caramelized sunflower hot chocolate that reminded me of Nutella. 

My final stop was La Glace and I went specifically for the Volcan De Glace, a molten hot chocolate cake that comes with a scoop of their Crême de la Crême and a ginger meringue kiss. I had really high expectations for this hot chocolate especially since they tried to be unique by doing a cake. The texture was like a very thick ganache and overall not very pleasant. The only saving grace was the scoop of their signature vanilla ice cream -  Crême de la Crême - so I would say skip the Volcan De Glace and stick to the ice creams. While we were there, we gave the Cocoa Goûter a taste too. It was a really good cup of hot chocolate, but nothing special. I did enjoy the Nutella brioche petite pain that came with it and it looked adorable. 

My favourite hot chocolates were the Wascally Wabbit and At the Movies because it takes a lot of skill to capture a difficult flavour in a hot chocolate. Definitely are a must try for me! The most beautiful hot chocolates were hands down from Soirette because come on - hot pink unicorns and liquid gold. Butter Baked Goods is good, but the flavours just were not balanced. La Glace was the biggest disappoint for me and completely missed the mark. 

Let me know in the comments below what hot chocolates you have tried and which ones you loved and which ones were misses for you. 

BYES

Wascally Wabbit | Bel Café 

At the Movies | Chez Christophe

Raspberry Pavlova | Butter Baked Goods

Liquid Gold | Soirette Pastry Boutique

Cocoa Goûter | La Glace

Volcan De Glace | La Glace

Birthday Wishes | Butter Baked Goods

I tried it | Lush Empties Part 2

As promised, part 2 of my Lush Empties review. Click here for part 1 where I talk about Sympathy for the Skin, Rosy Cheeks, Whoosh and Pot O' Gold.

Needles and Pines | Shower Jelly
This shower jelly smelled like I was standing outside in a pine needle forest on a cool winter day. The fresh scent really energized me in the morning. A great shower jelly scent and I most definitely will pick up another Needles and Pines in the future.

The Sacred Truth | Fresh Face Mask
I am going to be honest, I do not know how long I have had this empty tub because I frankly cannot remember a single thing about this fresh face mask! I decided to read up on The Sacred Truth mask on Lush's website and basically, the main ingredient is fresh papaya and is intended to be highly moisturizing thus recommended for dry skin types. Since I do not remember much about using the Sacred Truth, I have no opinion on this mask!

D'Fluff | Shaving Soap
I hate shaving partly because it is a tedious annoying task, but also I tend to always knick myself. D'Fluff helped make shaving a little better of an experience as it is not as messy as traditional shaving cream, but also lessened the number of cuts I gave myself. I probably will not re-purchase D'Fluff as I am not very fond of the candy strawberry smell.

Flowers from Garden Party Flowers

Cupcake | Fresh Face Mask
Over the many years of being Lush user, Cupcake still continues to remain my favourite Fresh Face Mask. I have accumulated four empty pots of Cupcake and reckon I will gather many more until Lush decides to discontinue this mask which I hope does not happen any time soon.

Those are all of my Lush empties - for 2016 at least! I will have my last product empties post on non-Lush brands published later this week.

BYES

I Tried It | Lush Empties Part 1

Since becoming a blogger, I have become somewhat of a hoarder with my empties because of my intention to do a product empties review. However, while cleaning my bathroom vanity last night, I realized just how many empty containers I have accumulated. Thus, I am splitting the reviews into three posts, two for lush and one on other brands.

Lush makes fabulous bath products, but I usually gravitate more towards their skincare. Lush is not for everyone as their products do have strong scents, though natural scents, can be bothersome to many. I avoid their bath products like their infamous bath bombs, since they contain quite a bit of colouring and fine glitter. After a bath, my bathtub would be covered in a film of oil and sparkles and no one wants to scrub a bathtub after a relaxing bath. Their skincare line has been a hit with me as they do not contain colourings and the scents are milder since it is the natural scent from the ingredients. 

Shower Jelly | Pot O Gold
I love Lush's shower jellies because they always leave me skin feeling squeaky clean. This one had a strong herbal scent and was glittery gold. I would not get it again for the scent but a good product. The Pot O Gold was a limited edition scent and is not available year round. 

Shower Jelly | Whoosh
Another shower jelly, but part of their year round collection. I really liked the scent of this shower jelly, a nice refreshing citrus to wake you up. 

Fresh Face Mask | Rosy Cheeks
Rosy cheeks is their priciest fresh face mask as it contains rose petals and rose water. A really nice rose scent and a blush pink colour. I had high hopes for this particular mask, but I found the formula to leave a chalky residue on my skin and also left my skin feeling parched. Would not buy again. 

Hand and Body Lotions | Sympathy for the Skin
I go back and forth between Lush's Sympathy for the Skin and Khiel's Creme de Corps. This lotion smells amazing, a mix of vanilla and banana, but not too overwhelming. I like this lotion for the warmer months as it is a very light lotion that soaks into the skin very quick. I actually had three empty black tubs of this cream; therefore, I really like it!!! I like using Creme de Corps during the dryer winter months as it is a much richer cream. Smells absolutely divine!!

The second part to Lush Empties as well as my review on other brands will be up soon. If there are any products you think I should try out, do let me know in the comments below. 

BYES