Belated Lush Boxing Day Sales Haul

First off, let me start by saying how sorry I am for posting this so late! I'm normally on top of things, but if you read my life update post you'll understand why I have been falling behind a little.
I was also going to film what I got from Lush too but I think it's far too late to post, but we shall see...

So, a few days after Boxing Day, I purchased a cheeky online order with Lush. I do this every year as the majority of their Christmas collection is half the price.

And, well I got quite a bit! I'll start with the items to the left first.

Santa's Sack Bubble Bar, this is an online exclusive and I've never actually seen this before! It's really really cute.
This bubble bar is three baths in one - take the presents out and leave them aside and crumble the sack under water, and then re-use the bubble bar presents for two baths at a later date.
The main ingredients in this little sack are tonka absolute and neroli oil which are super comforting and warming for the colder months.

Snowcake Soap, this is limited edition and I've only seen it pop back over the Christmas period.
I don't usually buy Lush soap's, however I wanted to give this one a go as I love marzipan, and that's exactly what it smells like!
It's main ingredients are Rose, Cassie and Benzoin oils which combined gives it that marzipan fragrance.

Golden Wonder Bath Bomb, I've had this before and it's amazing! It has a fresh smelling scent that's quite citrusy and not usually the kind of fragrance I would go for.
When you pop it into your bath, it turns your bath a greeny-blue colour, with lots of glittery stars floating around along the top. It also creates lots of bubbles too!

Cinders Bath Bomb, this is one of my favourite Christmas Lush bath bombs. It has a spicy cinnamon scent and crackles when you drop it into the bath. It's super warming and comforting for the winter months. Highly highly recommend.

Frozen Bath Bomb, this is part of Lush's fairly new collection and has been inspired by the film Frozen.
This one has quite a fresh scent, it has grapefruit oil, neroli oil, rose oil, amongst many other ingredients. Quite excited to test this one out soon!

Intergalactic Bath Bomb. I bloody love this one! It creates the most beautiful galaxy bath! I've previously spoken about it in a past blog post, if you're interested, click here to read it.

Snow Fairy Shower Gel. Snow Fairy is highly raved about on the interwebs and is exclusive over the Christmas period! I picked up a 100g bottle which is plenty enough for me.
If you haven't tried Snow Fairy, it's a sickly sweet scent and you will smell like unicorns, candy floss and all things sugary sweet!

The Experimenter Bath Bomb. I've always been intrigued by the shape of this, it's very cool. And the scent is unusual - it's quite minty and spicy vanilla-y. I'm excited to give this one a go!

Rub Rub Rub Body Scrub, I'm unsure if this is new but I've never seen it before! And, I haven't tried one of Lush's scrubs in a ridiculously long time so I thought I'd trial this one.
It's main ingredients are sea salt, illipe butter and has a cherry blossom flourish. It's very Japanese like, so I was very much drawn to it for that reason!

Candy Mountain Bubble Bar. if you like Snow Fairy, you'll love this one! It's sugary sweet and creates a beautiful pink bubbly bath! I usually get this every year as it's quite nice to be bathed in pink water and feel like a princess.

Dashing Santa Bath Bomb. Last but not least, we have Dashing Santa! I usually get this one every year as well.
He's pretty awesome as he dashes around your bath and turns your bath a lovely red colour.

So there we have it, my belated Lush Boxing Day Sales Haul! If you would like to see what these look like in your bath, follow me on Instagram, @zoeyoliviablog as I'll be posting them over the next couple of weeks!

Love, Zoey

NEW Charlotte Tilbury Lipsticks Kiss Chase & Between The Sheets Review

Charlotte Tilbury has just launched her two new and exclusive lipsticks just in time for Valentine's day! One of the lipsticks is new to the Matte Revolution range, named 'Between The Sheets', and the other is now apart of the K.I.S.S.I.N.G range titled 'Kiss Chase'.

Charlotte held a competition on Instagram, Facebook and on her main website a little while back, asking everyone to name her new lipstick shade, which I thought was really cool and lovely to get her audience involved. I had a few ideas and did comment on Instagram but I can't actually remember what I wrote (bad memory alert!) But, I'm really liking the shade names that were selected, especially 'Between The Sheets'!

Anyway, I bought the 'Date Night Duo' set which works out cheaper than if you were to buy them separately. And I got two free samples with my purchase which is always a bonus! I got a sample of the Magic Foundation in the shade 2, fair and Light Wonder Foundation in the shade 2, fair as well.

Back to the lippys... I bloody love them! I love all of her lipsticks to be honest, especially 'Bitch Perfect' it's one of my all time favourites, you can read about that lipstick here if you're interested.

Ok, so starting with her Matte Revolution: Between The Sheets lipstick. This is a matte formula in a 'dreamy vintage rose petal' shade.
On the website, this does look more of a vibrant pink than it is in real life. It's a lot more subtle and more of a toned down nudey-pink. It is the your lips but better shade!

I really do love Charlotte's  matte formulas, they are creamy and the longevity is fab, I would say they last around 4-5 hours before needing to re-apply.
The formula is also enriched with 'Lipstick Tree extract' which protects the lips and is a natural oxidant, and also has Orchid Extract which soothes and hydrates for a soft, build-able cashmere finish.

And for packaging, it comes in Charlotte's classic beautiful rose-gold casing which I absolutely adore. Packaging makes such a difference in my humble opinion!

Moving on to the second shade, 'Kiss Chase', new to the K.I.S.S.I.N.G range! The name is a reminder of that game we all used to play when we were young.

Likewise, to the other shade, this is shown as more of a vibrant berry on her website and is a lot more toned down in real life. 

Charlotte describes this shade as a 'tawny berry hue' which I agree with. And is curated to suit any skin-tone.

This formula is also enriched with Charlotte's secret 'tree extract' which is an anti-oxidant that naturally protects lips from UV damage and external pollution leaving your lips cashmere soft and adds moisture to the lips.

This shade is gorgeous, I think I prefer this out of the two! And the formula is super nourishing!
The longevity is pretty good as well, I applied this around 8:00am and it lasted till around 12:00pm where it just needed a little touch-up.

Also, it reminds me of MAC's Plumful a little bit - which also suits near enough every skin-tone. So if you are looking for a cheaper alternative, I would highly recommend Plumful. And, if you're interested, I have a blog post about it as well, click here.

I'm wanting to try more and more of Charlotte's range and with my wedding coming up, it's an excuse to buy and experiment with more make-up! I've got my eye on the Film Star Bronze and Glow, the eye palettes and the foundations! So much to choose from!!

Let me know what you think of Charlotte Tilbury's new shades in the comments below! And, what you would like me to review next. As always you can always tweet me, @zoeyoliviablog, watch my vlogs, or follow me on Instagram, @zoeyoliviablog.

Love, Zoey

Laura Mercier Creme Brulee Duet | Review

Holy macaroni, I think I've found my holy grail bath set! 

I've had my eye on Laura Mercier's bubble baths for a while now and I've heard nothing but great things about them, so, over the Christmas period, I treated myself to Laura Mercier's Sweet Temptations Creme Brulee Duet, £35.00. This duo is inspired by the aroma of French Patisseries, made with gourmande ingredients including delicious notes of warm caramel, spun sugar and french vanilla bean. Heaven in a tub, basically.

Anyone who knows me in person will know that I love baths, I love all kinds of scents, bubble baths, bath bombs, salts, oils, everything! So, when I say I think I've found my holy grail bath set, that's a pretty bold statement from a hardcore bath lover if I do say so myself.

Ok, so, in the Laura Mercier Creme Brulee Duet, you get a 200ml creme brulee honey bath, a 200ml creme brulee souffle body creme and a cute little honey dipper wand. Both are absolutely incredible, and yes, they smell just like creme brulee!

What I LOVE about these products is of course that luxurious heavenly smell, but I also love how beautiful they work together. 

The honey bath is actually amazing, I love spending hours in the bath with this and a book. And, my skin feels super silky afterwards. But if you want even silkier skin, then lather on the body creme!
The body creme is gorgeous, it's a thick rich creme and blends into the skin beautifully and dries super quick.
I'm also really impressed with the scent, it lingers for hours and hours, so I can smell like creme brulee all day!

A beautiful, amazing, perfect, holy grail bath duo. I highly recommend this to anyone - a treat for yourself perhaps, a special friend, or even a loved one.

Have you tried any of Laura Mercier's body and bath sets? I really want to try the Almond Coconut Milk Collection, so if anyone has tried that, let me know if it's as good as the Creme Brulee Duet!

Love, Zoey.

As always you can tweet me at @zoeyoliviablog, follow me on Instagram @zoeyoliviablog or keep up to date with my latest vlogs!

Winter Fashion Haul | ZARA & ASOS & Life Update

Why hello blogging friends, it's been a little while. Apologises that my blogging and YouTubeing hasn't been on top form, I've just had a lot going on since I got engaged, which I will go into more detail about in a sec...

But first, I finally got round to filming my ZARA & ASOS haul yesterday evening. So, I do hope you enjoy seeing what I picked up!
Also, this is the first time I've used my studio lights, which I brought way back in the Black Friday sales! The lighting isn't perfect, I would of liked it to have been a lot brighter, but it's my first time using them, so it can only get better right?

Any who, I thought I would just write down all my thoughts and explain why I've been a little absent on social media.

The first reason is that I'm getting married this year! Crazy I know, but me and Joe have decided that 2016 is the year for us. So, I have been incredibly busy at the weekends going to wedding venues, wedding fair's, creating mood-boards, booking wedding dress appointments, you name it. It's been hectic but we are getting there. And, by the end of this month, we should have final confirmation of our date and fingers crossed... have my dress sorted!
And then onto the other important weddingy stuff, like finding the perfect photographer, videographer, floristy, bridesmaid dresses, Joe's suit etc. Weddings are hard. Really hard. Who knew eh?

Another reason is that I'm going to be taking my theory test during the first week of February so I have been 'studying' every single night (...well almost every night). I have also booked in an intensive driving course in February which I am super nervous about, but it needs to be done!

As well my driving situation, I've also had a few annoyances and upsets during the past couple of weeks.
Sadly my dog passed away at the start of this year, which has affected me quite a bit. I won't go into too much detail but we adopted her eleven years ago from Battersea Dogs Home and she became part of our family. She was a lovely little dog and whenever I saw her face, it would literally make my day!
It was really hard to see her go, but I'm happy knowing she had a really good life.

I've also just been really ill for a month solid, I've had the flu, and an awful cough (that I still bloody have) and my Endometriosis has been pretty bad, well more than bad. I've had a swollen belly for a week solid now, it's irritating to say the least.

But yes, other than wedding planning, learning the highway codes, and dealing with a few personal things, I have been of course, been busy with my full-time job and also trying to maintain a relatively normal social life too!
Phew, I think that's everything...

Anyway, sometimes it's just nice to ramble to the internet world, and I've actually really enjoyed spending an hour of my Sunday evening blogging. It's kind of therapeutic and nice to get away from my never-ending busy little life. But, now I may treat myself to a film (... yes, watching a film is a treat these days), possibly one of the Harry Potter films, in memory of Alan Rickman.

Until next time, you can always tweet me @zoeyoliviablog, or follow me on Instagram,  @zoeyoliviablog.

A weekend in Nuremberg

During the Christmas period, Joe and I visited a little village called Nuremberg in Germany. This is where my best friend Nicol currently lives. We've been meaning to visit her for a good while and decided to bite the bullet and get two tickets over Christmas!

Nuremberg is famous for their Christmas markets, it's one of the most popular tourist locations in December.
Luckily, we stayed with Nicol and Matt in their apartment, so it was a fairly cheap weekend for myself and Joe. The flights were ridiculously cheap, I think they were around £40 each, and we barely spent anything out there! Mulled wine was two euros, dinner out was reasonably affordable too, about eight pounds per person.
I actually worked it out to be equivalent to spending the same amount of money if we were to head into London for a day. Cray.

Anyway, we had the loveliest time in Nuremberg site-seeing the little village, exploring the Christmas markets and drinking dozens of mulled wine. We also did a little road trip to Bamberg, which was also really beautiful.

I loved the cobbled streets, colourful houses and I just love how cheap Germany is! I also love and think it's amazing how Germany is literally an hour flight away from London. It's the perfect location if you just want a break from the city or want to go somewhere on a budget.

So far this year, I have had the opportunity to visit Berlin as well as Nuremberg and Bamberg, and someday I would love to go back and see Munich, Cologne and Hamburg.

Below I have put together a little vlog of our stay in Nuremberg and Bamberg, enjoy :).

I love creating travel vlogs and special days out so much, in a few months or years, I can re-watch them again and remind myself of all the awesome times I've had with family and friends. And, I hope you enjoy them too!

Feel free to leave me comments below or tweet me @zoeyhardwick, I respond to everything on there. I'm also massively addicted to instagram too, follow me @zoeyhardwick.

Celebrating 2015!

Every year I write about my plans for 'new years resolutions' and how my year was overall. And, I came across a post on Olivia's blog and was inspired to write something very similar.

The idea of this blog is that instead of writing unrealistic 'things' we should be doing, why don't we write a list of things WE DID? Make ourselves feel GOOD about the big and small stuff that we achieved throughout the year?

It's always nice to sit down and take a moment to reflect on the year you've had. Whether you've had some ups and downs, things happen and you overcome them.

So, here is my anti-bucket list of 2015! These aren't huge momentous moments, but here are some of the things I've achieved and particular events I've thoroughly enjoyed this year.

So here we go... My year in a list!

• I got a new job in my desired field back in late April... I am now a Digital Graphic Designer and I'm loving every minute of it. I have a lot of freedom with my job, designing social media content for six beauty brands and designing weekly email campaigns. I also have an amazing team and that counts a lot!


• I travelled to San Francisco, Nuremberg, Berlin and Turkey! All amazing memorable holidays that I will forever cherish. And, I hope 2016 gives me more opportunities to travel.


• I got engaged to my best friend, Joe! He proposed to me on my birthday in Turkey on the 31st October 2015.


• My best friend, Nicol got married and I was a bridesmaid for the first time. I am so incredibly happy for her and everything she has achieved. She is a little star and I couldn't be more lucky to have such a special human being in my life.


• I had an operation earlier on in the year for my Endometriosis, and I fought through it! It was a tough start to the year, but I feel good about pushing myself to get better and having the operation. A little note to myself - No matter how busy you are, health is important and you need to look after yourself from time to time.


• My sister had a baby! We have the first boy in our family, little Connor.


• Kept in touch and continued to hang out with some of my oldest and best school friends. I was re-united with Tanya who I've known since I was little and it literally felt like yesterday when we saw each other.


• My YouTube channel is continually growing! I love creating content and being able to share my interests, what I bought recently and look books with you all.


• Me and Joe celebrated five years of being together at the end of September. We went to Sketch and some really cool cocktail bars. This was one of my favourite days of the year. Absolutely perfect.


• I saw the Foo Fighters and they were incredible! I enjoyed their two-hour set with some of my closest friends from my home-town. It was a lovely evening and definitely a highlight of this year!


• I spent Christmas in Corby with Joe's family for the first time, and saw my family on Boxing day. Honestly, one of the funniest and best Christmas' I've had in a long time (...as I'm usually working!)

I think it's so important to look back and reflect on the awesome times you've had, instead of writing a list of 'things to tick off' and setting unrealistic goals for yourself (sometimes). It felt so much better to say, 'this is what I've ticked off in 2015!'

Moving forward, 2016 will be a super exciting year for me... Me and Joe are potentially going to get married at the end of next year. And, I will continue doing the 'things' that make me happy. Here's to 2016!

L’Oreal Paris Perfect Pink Lipsticks & Lipgloss for Fair Skin | Review & Swatches

Last year I wrote a review on L'oreal's Pure Reds exclusive collection and I was really impressed with the quality and colour choices, you can read about those lipsticks here. 

Similarly this October, L'oreal launched their 'Color Riche Collection in Exclusive Pinks'. In the UK, they have custom made four pink lipsticks for Namoi, Helen, Eva and Blake, who are all brand ambassadors for L'oreal.

The idea of these lipsticks is to suit certain skin-tones and hair colours. For this collection, they have used pure pink pearls mixed with velvet pigments to create perfectly sheer powdery velvet matte finishes.

I decided to only get one from the exclusive pink's collection. I chose Naomi's pink in the shade delicate rose.

I also picked up one from the Nude's Collection, and one of the Extraordinaire Colour Riche Lipgloss's. These are the perfect drugstore lippy's for fair skin tones and the red headed ladies out there.

(Swatches From bottom to top: Julianne's Nude Lipstick, Naomi's Pink Velvet Matte and Extraordinaire Colour Riche Lipgloss's in the shade Rose Melody)

(Lip Swatch: Naomi's Pink Velvet Matte Lipstick)

I've only really got into nudes and pink shades in the past year or so, and I've struggled finding the perfect nudey-pink for my skin-tone. So, I was really keen on trying to find the perfect drugstore version for me. And, I think I may have found three: one matte, one creamy and one lipgloss!

I'll start with Namoi's pink lippy. This is a velvet matte lipstick, a mauve 'tea' pink shade designed especially for fair skin tones. I really do love this, it is a super flattening tone for us pale ladies.

It glides on smoothly and isn't drying like some matte lipsticks. However, I would suggest using a lip scrub and lip balm before applying as it isn't a moisturising creamy formula.

The packaging is exactly the same as the 'Exclusive Reds', a chic matte black casing with gold detailing which is classic and rather pretty.

And, this retails at £6.99 in drugstores such as Boots and Superdrug.

(Lip Swatch: L'oreal's Julianne Nude Lipstick - Barely Peach)

They also have an exclusive 'Nudes collection' which is also tailor made for a variety of skin tones.

I thought I'd give Julianne's nude a go. This lipstick is titled 'Barely Peach' and has been custom made for Julianne Moore who has fair skin and ginger locks.

Julianne's barely peach is a delicate peachy-pink which claims to enhance the radiance of pale complexions and endows them with elegance and sophistication.

I love this! It's super moisturising on the lips and it's the perfect shade for my skin type and hair colour. The pigmentation is quite sheer, however is build-able. This retails at £6.99 in Boots.

(Lip Swatch: L'oreal's Extraordinaire Colour Riche Liquid Lipstick in the shade 101, Rose Melody)

And, last but not least... The perfect drugstore pink lipgloss for fair skin!

I picked up a Extraordinaire Colour Riche Liquid Lipstick in the shade 101, Rose Melody. Which retails at £8.99 at Boots.
It claims to be a liquid lipstick, however, I do still think it's more of a lipgloss as the liquid lipsticks I've tried tend to go matte.

Also, with drugstore lipgloss' they tend to be quite tacky and sticky, however this one is not at all! The longevity is amazing too, it lasts for around 4-5 hours every time I wear it!

This lipgloss is super pigmented, has a beautiful shine and is super moisturising on the lips. I also really enjoy using the brush, it's the perfect size for application.

I think this is one of the best lipgloss' I've ever tried, it's up there with my favourite NARS lipgloss in the shade Dolce Vita. And, I 100% think it is worth the money for a drugstore lipgloss!



Are these must haves? If you love nude-pink lipsticks and lipgloss's then hells yes! Or if you have fair skin then definitely! If you have a darker skin tone, then I would highly recommend you checking out the darker shades from these collections.

Let me know if you end up picking up one of these beautiful lippys in the comments below or tweet me @zoeyhardwick