Something I’ve yet to blog about but long loved…Jack Black Intense Therapy Lip Balm. My favourite lip balm, the be all, end all…I always have one on me at all times lip balm. The reason I’m writing about them now is because I have FINALLY found a UK shop that stocks ALL the varieties. Usually most UK e-tailers stock 1 flavour (either the lemon or the mint) but never all 5 (and never the black tea which is my favourite!). BUT BUT BUT!!! The Gentlemans Shop (don’t get my pedantic grammar self started on the lack of apostrophe) stocks all five flavours.

Jack Black lip balms are the best in my opinion. I have to wear some kind of lip balm every night because I suffer from dry lips and sleep with my mouth wide open snoring like a hacksaw. If I don’t use some sort of lip balm/chapstick I will wake up the next morning and the moment I try to use my lips the bottom lip will split down the centre and start bleeding (it’s not pretty, trust me!). So I’ve tried a LOT of chapsticks over the years. Lanolips (which was nice, very thick but just didn’t feel like it improved the quality of my lips), Carmex (also nice and thick, but sometimes was just too harsh and I’d end up with a rash on my lips if I used it too many nights in a row [I do have very sensitive skin]), Kyoku (not thick enough and would wear off sometime in the night), Rouge Bunny Rouge Kiss Elixir (absolutely fantastic but £18! wow!!! That’s a lot for lip balm!), Blistex (same problems as Carmex, I get rashes after consistent use)….so needless to say…I’ve tried a LOT of balms.

I can genuinely say that Jack Black has worked the best for me. It lasts all night without leaving some weird residue and my lips don’t split when I wake up (yay!). I can’t really give you a time in hours for how long it lasts, but needless to say it lasts long enough and is nice and slippy on the lips. It isn’t sticky and just gives a nice balm feeling (it is like Carmex from the yellow squeezy tubes, not as thick as Lanolips 101, more like the consistency of coloured Lanolips). I haven’t written about it until now because all the flavours were really only available in the states. You could buy them at Nordstroms or the Jack Black website…or a whole host of other e-tailers…but we in the UK were a bit shafted. So imagine my excitement at finally being able to replenish all 5 lip balms at once (where I’ve been rationing all 5 in rotation to make them last as long as humanly possible!). I usually keep 1 in my handbag, 1 by my bedside and the rest stashed at any other prime lip location (my makeup bag or anywhere I might have strategic chapped lips requirements!)

I bought my Jack Black balms for £7.95 each (which is not really a bargain considering they are $7.50 in the USA, so really it’s a MASSIVE ripoff…because if you convert it directly it’s about £4.77 but what can you do. In the UK we get charged a fortune for US products [just look at OPI, £10 a bottle anyone!?]). Until they invent free shipping to the UK from the USA I will just have to swallow the cost (although looking at the Jack Black website I see they’ve launched two new flavours…I think they did this just to torment me, right when I was so pleased about finally getting all the flavours in the UK! Evil, evil company!)

So I received this in my inbox this morning and thought I would pass it along, my mum and I swear by the Shea Butter Hand Cream (my hands are sensitive and always feel dry so finding creams that are rich but non-irritating and non-greasy are always a plus [I usually keep the L'Occitane by my bedside and a small tube of E45 hand lotion in my bag for "on the go" moisturising needs!]). Most of the other products are too rich (as my skin is very combination and cannot handle so much moisture and lush in a product…it goes oil crazy!) but perfect for skin that tends to be more on the dry side.

So! This picture is making me a bit jealous as my nails look gorgeous here but I just had a disagreement with my nails (I wanted them to be nice and long and they wanted to break and I am back to itty bitty nubbins)….but moving on, this colour is so unlike me but I really love it anyway. It’s a beautiful blush pink and makes my skin look really healthy (unlike it’s super unhealthy winter pallor of the moment), it is in my interview shades list that I keep in my head. I feel like such a bad “cool colour” lover for being so into this shade but it’s just so pretty, I think it might be one of those universally flattering colours? I do hope I stop getting job rejections and start getting interviews so I can start wearing some of my interview shades for more than just pretend interviews I give myself in the mirror to keep my skills sharp! (Thinking of keeping the blog running 1-2x a week right now until I figure my stuff out, hope that’s alright with everyone!)

So…we all knew it was coming and here is a great shot from the Illustrated Nail. I am not into shatter but I actually want the aubergine shatter/maroon shatter. It looks amazing and the yellow-y green one also!

So. I lost my job really unexpectedly yesterday morning (very unexpectedly, thank you recession!) and I’m just not in the right place to blog. I need to focus on finding a job and closing out my life at my old job. I hope to be back soon.

xo

Sara

This colour is amazing, complex…beautiful. Everything I expect from a Rescue Beauty Lounge polish. I will say that it looks completely different in the grey light of London than the bright sunshine the rest of the world seems graced with! It is much harder to see the beautiful shimmer clearly. You can see it’s more than just an average navy, but it’s difficult to see what is making it so special without excellent lighting. This picture is probably the most accurate. The red/pink/orange of the shimmer gets lost in my natural light and all you can see is “something”, but it’s still so beautiful. This is from the Fall/Winter 2011 collection,  LʼOiseau de Feu!

(the beautiful shimmer that gets lost in my normal world! )

(all of the pre-orders got an adorable “<3 Ji” sticker [from Ji Baek, RBL creator])

My amazingly fantastic StrangeBeautiful Library of Camo polishes that I still adore and usually just gaze at lovingly instead of actually wearing…..well I’m actually wearing my second polish from the lot! Frustratingly enough these still don’t have names so this will be called “2″ for lack of a better name! This is a beautiful chocolate brown (but still a muddy, dirty brown! less pretty, more camo!) and I love it. It’s less weird and unusual than the others in the box. These bottle shapes always weird me out, they’re so tall and thin, it makes me think I’m getting more than the standard polish size…but actually it’s all the same! Very tricksy. I think it’s a great set and I always think of trying another of the StrangeBeautiful sets but none of them are as “me” as this Camo set.

RGB are genuinely one of my favourite brands, I rank their quality up with Rescue Beauty Lounge and Deborah Lippmann, I always feel bad I don’t review them more often. I only own 4 or 5 RGB colours so I do try to space them out and I’ve reviewed almost all the ones I own! I’ll have to buy more eventually. All of their crème polishes are so creamy, the formula is perfect, pigmentation to die for. People who read my blog regularly know I’m a huuuuge red nail polish fan, I find it beautiful, empowering….I will always love a good red. Too Red is no exception! This is the perfect pinup, candy apple red polish that fills my dreams. It’s cherries, apples, poppies…red perfection in one opaque coat. It better be perfect for $16! Worth every cent in my mind. If red isn’t your thing their other colours are amazing as well.