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A few bloggers I follow do a monthly book review where they talk about the books they have read recently, and I thought I would give it a go too cos I like to read and if I've read a good book I usually like to let others know about it. I don't consider myself to be a literary critic at all, so I won't be going into any great detail really, plus I don't want to give anything away!

The Secret History - Donna Tartt

This is about a group of ancient Greek students at an American college/university who murder one of their friends after he discovers that they were responsible for the death of a local farmer. I'm not spoiling anything btw you find this out in the first few pages! The book basically deals with how they deal with the events leading up to and after the murder of their friend, and how it effects the group and how the different characters deal with their guilt - or lack of guilt for some. I really like books that have a bit of mystery and intrigue, so I really enjoyed this. It made me think what I would do if I was Richard, the main character and narrator, would I go along with it or say something?! When I was reading this I also found myself thinking that it would make a good film. 4.5/5

After reading The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo trilogy alst year, I've wanted to read some more Swedish/Scandinavian authors, so a quick Google and browse on Amazon brought up these two authors.

Mercy - Jussi Adler-Olsen


Mercy is set in Denmark, and it is about a police detective who doesn't get on that well with his fellow detectives so to get him out of the way he is given his own department which is to try and crack unsolved cases. The first case he picks is the mystery disappearance of a popular politician, Merete Lynggaard 5 years earlier. The time line of the book switches between the present, and the time of Merete's kidnap and imprisonment. It took me a while to get into this, I just felt like it wasn't really going anywhere for the first couple of chapters and I wanted to get straight to the exciting stuff. Once I got in to it though, I did find myself enjoying it and looking forward to the next chapter. I did figure out who the kidnapper was pretty much straight away though, it was just so obvious who it was! 3.5/5

The Savage Altar - Asa Larsson


This is set in a small town in northern Sweden. Rebecka Martinsson is a tax lawyer living in Stockholm, she goes back to her hometown of Kiruna when the brother of her old friend is brutally murdered in a church in the town. The town is very close knit and have very close links with the church, and basically don't want to give any help to solve the murder. Rebecka is not particularly popular with the people of the town. This is basically a 'whodunnit' type of book, there a few characters in the book that you think are responsible. I liked the idea of the story, but I found the writing style wasn't really to my liking. 3/5

The First Days: As The World Dies - Rhiannon Frater


This book actually started out online and it was demand from fans of the story for it to be available in book form that lead to it being published. I've never read any zombie themed books before, but I've been liking the Walking Dead so thought I'd give it a try. This is set in Texas, during the beginnings if a zombie outbreak, most people have become zombies and those who haven't are struggling to survive. It centres around the two female heroines, Jenni a battered housewife, and Katie a prosecutor who have both lost their families to the zombie outbreak. After rescuing Jenni's step son they end up at a building site in a small town which has been turned into a fort, where they both end up developing love interests. It's not the best written book, I sometimes found the dialogue pretty rubbish, but it is enjoyable and doesn't really require much brain power. I do want to know what happens with the story so I will buy the rest of the books. 4/5

This was harder than I thought it was going to be, I don't want to give anything away which is why I'm so vague with the details. I suppose if you want more details you can always go on Amazon :)

Have you read any of these books, what did you think of them? What type of books do you like to read, I have to admit that I'm not very 'girlie' in my choices, chick lit just really isn't my cup of tea!

Bye xxx

It feels like only yesterday when I sat down with the laptop and thought 'I'm going to start a beauty blog' time really has flown by! When I first started blogging I really didn't have any idea of where I would go with it, I started because I was struggling to find a full time job after uni and I just felt really fed up and I thought that a blog would keep me occupied. I love beauty and skincare, so I thought that a blog would be a great way to talk about it and also learn new things from other bloggers.

This post is really just to say thank you to everyone that reads or comments, I know everyone says numbers don't matter but it does make me smile to know that there are people who like my blog and read what I have to say! I appreciate every single reader and every comment that I get, it genuinely makes me so happy :) I don't think I am the best blogger in the world, for one I am pretty irregular with my posting sometimes, but this is something I hope to address.

I will be honest and say there have been a few times when I have thought about cancelling the blog, especially when I changed my name (before Cosmetic Charm I was mmm...makeup!) and my page views dropped way down, to the point where I thought it was pointless to continue. It was a pretty upsetting time, as I felt I was just starting to get to grips with blogging. Thankfully everything is back to normal!

Hopefully I will be writing a post just like this in a years time and that you will be reading it! This blog wouldn't be anything without my lovely readers, so a big smoochy kiss to you all :)

Bye xxx

I regularly suffer from dry and tired eyes, it's a combination of computer screen glare (something a lot of bloggers probably suffer with I'd guess!), wearing contacts and just everyday life really. I've used eye drops in the past, but I found that a lot of the time they would make my vision blurry, especially if I had my contacts in, and I would always end up smudging my mascara.

Optrex ActiMist is spray that is used on closed eyes. It contains Pro-Vitamin B5 which helps to moisturise the eyelids and skin around the eyes. Liposome particles help to repair the eyes natural protective moisture layer, lasts for up to 4 hours and most importantly of all won't smudge your makeup!


It was so simple and easy to use, I literally just held it about 10cm in front of my closed eye and sprayed, once is usually enough. It makes my eyes feel instantly refreshed and soothed. It lives up to it's no smudged make up claims, I tried it while I was wearing black eyeliner and mascara and I rubbed immediately after application and they didn't smudge. It doesn't smell of anything in particular, it's quite a nondescript scent, which is probably a good thing cos who wants a highly scented product to use on their eyes? I did find that the spray covered quite a big area, it goes on my cheeks and forehead, but it dries pretty quickly so it's not a major issue.

If you need to use a computer regularly - maybe you are a blogging addict and always using your computer, wear contact lenses, or even live in a city with lots of pollution I would recommend giving this a try because, it really does help to soothe dry, tired eyes. It's also nice and small so it is perfect for popping in your handbag, or even taking in your hand luggage if you are going on a plane. It's £14.99 for 10ml at Superdrug, that might seem expensive but I usually pay about £4.50 for eye drops that are suitable for using with contacts and you are supposed to throw them away 1 month after opening. With the ActiMist spray you can use it for up to 6 months after opening, so if you use eye drops regularly this would actually work out cheaper in the long run.


Bye xxx

*Disclaimer. I have received this product for PR purposes, it does not effect my review in any way and all thoughts are my own and 100% genuine.

I generally like to keep things positive on here, but I thought I would share with you a few products that just really didn't hit the spot for me. Obviously we are all different and what I don't like you might love, and vice versa.

Superdrug Vitamin E SPF 15 Radiance Eye Cream

I was on the hunt for an eye cream with spf, so when I spotted this I picked it up. I thought it sounded like it would be pretty good with it having SPF 15, vitamin e and radiance enhancing. Well I wish I hadn't because, it is horrible! It is full of shimmery stuff that is supposed to add radiance to the eye area, all it does it make me look like I've went mental with the shimmer powder. It is really hard to work with, it never seems to completely absorb into the skin no matter how little I use. It is also pretty drying on the skin around my eyes, and it emphasises my fine lines, not something I want from an eye cream!! This will be getting chucked in the bin as soon as I publish this post!

Superdrug Dry Shampoo


Another Superdrug product, I will admit it that I am deffo a Boots girl I just generally prefer their own brand stuff to that of Superdrug. These had been recommended to me as a cheaper, better alternative to Batiste. They were on buy 1 get 2 free deal about 3 weeks ago, it seemed like too good an offer to pass up so I picked up 3 different scents. They do smell really nice, and I find that the scent lasts quite a while in the hair, so far so good. The thing is they do absolutely bugger all for my hair, the whole point of dry shampoo is that it absorbs excess grease and makes your hair look and feel refreshed. These did nothing to absorb excess grease, doesn't add any volume or body to my hair and makes my hair feel pretty horrible. I'm sticking to Batiste from now on in the future!

The Little Bubble Co Lemon Cheesecake Shower Gel


I've shown a few The Little Bubble Co shower gels before in empties posts, and I've always said you should give them a go because, they are cheap and smell delicious. This does smell absolutely gorgeous, seriously good enough to eat. The problem is is dries my skin out so much, it leaves it feeling tight and looking flaky. I do love the scent, so I've been using it to shave my legs just to use it up.

There wasn't really that many to show tbh, that's the great thing about blogs though, I usually really research products before buying anything now to avoid buying rubbish stuff! What products did you not like using? Do you love anything that I've slated?! Let me know!

Bye xxx

The latest purse friendly skin care treat from Montagne Jeunesse are their new Clay Spa Face Masks, which comes with the clay already soaked into a natural bamboo cloth mask. I know cloth face masks are very popular in South East Asia, and I have tried and liked the other cloth face masks that are available from Montagne Jeunesse, so I was interested to see how these would be. There are two different types of the Clay Spa masks; Dead Sea Mud Spa which contains Dead Sea mud and Dead Sea salt, and Glacial Clay Spa which contains red grape and Artic Cloudberry.

I did have a wee bit of trouble applying the cloth at first, it kept falling off my face, but once I got it into place I smoothed it down into my skin with my hands and it stayed put until it was time to take it off. As you can see from the picture you don't look all that great while wearing the mask, I'm glad no one knocked at the door while I was wearing it cos I would have gave them a fright lol!


I found it a really relaxing experience using these masks, they had a cooling sensation on my skin and were just really nice to use. I did find that the  Dead Sea mask was very tingly, it wasn't uncomfortable for me but it might be a bit strong for sensitive skin. When it came to removal I simply whipped the mask off, no spending 5 minutes trying to get dry clay out of my eyebrows yay, I squeezed the excess from the mask and massaged it into my face and left it another few minutes.

The end result left me with visibly brighter skin, my skin felt very soft and hydrated and just generally better than it had only 20 minutes before! My personal fave was the Glacial Clay Spa mask.

The new Clay Spa masks are now available on the Montagne Jeunesse website, they will be available in Boots from mid-August and ASDA in September and are only £1.49. As with all their products Montagne Jeunesse use natural ingredients, are free from parabens and they don't test on cute little bunnies.
Bye xxx


*Disclaimer. I have received this product for PR purposes, it does not effect my review in any way and all thoughts are my own and 100% genuine.

Alpha-H Liquid Gold is one of those products that I have been aware of for years now, I first heard about it on QVC and I thought it sounded really good, if a little bit scary. I even had it in one of my wish lists. Liquid Gold is a resurfacing lotion, it uses glycolic acid which weakens the lipids that hold dead skin cells together revealing the new healthy skin underneath.

The packaging is pretty basic, it's not going to win any awards for design, but as long as what's inside works I don't think it matters too much about that. Plus at least you know that you are paying for what's inside and not for some fancy label or a glass bottle!

I've been using it every third night, application is an absolute doddle, I soak a cotton pad with the solution and swipe it on my face, neck and chest. I swipe the pad across my forehead 2-3 times because, I am starting to notice the beginnings of fine lines so I want to try and prevent any more of the buggers from cropping up! I then swipe whatever is left on the back of my hands to try and keep them looking nice too. It doesn't smell that nice, hard to describe the scent really but it isn't nice. I don't really experience any stinging either, although if I've recently used a face mask or it's been sunny it does sting a little bit. To let it work it's full magic it's recommended that you don't apply moisturiser afterwards as it dilutes the solution.

I started using it at the beginning of June and I do think my skin looks much healthier. The overall feel and appearance of my skin is smoother, my skin looks fresher, feels plumper and has a nice glow to it, any scarring I had from spots has faded quite a lot and my pores don't look as noticeable. I also very rarely get spots now, although I should mention that my skin had started to clear up before using it, I think that the Liquid Gold has really helped in stopping new ones. Other people have noticed that my skin looks better too, to me that is a good sign that a skincare product is working for you. You might not always see the difference, but others, especially those that don't see you daily, will see the difference!

As much as I am loving Liquid Gold, I should mention that it doesn't really do anything to get rid of deeply blocked pores so I am planning on using it two nights a week and then using a traditional face scrub once a week to dislodge all the grime. I currently don't have a face scrub so feel free to leave me your recommendations.


I did look on a lot of websites to try and find the cheapest price, from what I can tell they all seem to be selling it at £31.50. I got mine from Beauty Expert because, at the time they were giving a free gift of a 3 piece mini skincare set. So it isn't exactly cheap, but personally I would much rather invest in good, quality skincare that actually does something to improve my skin, rather than masking it with foundation.

Have you used Alpha-H Liquid Gold, what did you think of it?

Bye xxx

I've not really been that regular with my samples posts lately, I think it's cos I had a good tidy session and all my samples have been hidden away so I kinda forget about them.

Jurlique Rose Hand Cream

Quite a few bloggers got this lovely little hand cream from WIMH a few weeks ago. This was a lovely rich cream that made my hands feel really soft, but it didn't leave a greasy feeling on them. I loved the scent, rose is one of my fave smells and this didn't disappoint at all.

Caudalie Nourishing Body Lotion


This  had a nice texture, it wasn't too thin but not too thick. It absorbed into the skin quickly and I was able to get dressed pretty much immediately after applying it. I didn't care for the smell at all though, it wasn't particularly horrible or anything I just didn't like it. It's a shame about the smell, because I did like this.

I've also been using up the sachets of the Garnier BB Cream, but I through those away.

Bye xxx

I thought I'd pop up a wee FOTD today cos it's been months since I did last did one. It's nothing fancy really, I was only popping out to the supermarket so didn't want to look too made up!

I also hadn't done my hair or got dressed properly before taking pics, which will explain the bad case of bed head haha!

What I used:


The Garnier BB Cream is too dark for my skin, but the Real Techniques buffing brush did a fantastic job of really buffing it in to my skin and when I was finished I didn't look orange at all which was good!

Bye xxx

I have wanted a holographic or flakie nail polish for the longest time ever, in the UK we just don't seem to sell them and it is really annoying. I know GOSH have done both types of polish, and you can still get them on eBay sometimes, but I don't want one that much I'm prepared to pay the silly prices they can go for! So when I saw the Nubar 2010 on Beauty Bay I got so excited haha, then when I googled it I got even more excited cos the swatches of it looked amazing. So in my virtual basket it went!

I couldn't have a flakie polish and not try it out over a few different polishes to see the different effects and colour changes. I've been changing my nails pretty much every day since I got it to see how it looks over different colours. I thought I'd show them all in this post rather than boring you all with 3 or 4 separate posts!


Layered over Wet n Wild How I Met Your Magenta, this looked really nice irl but it isn't showing up well on camera at all. The flakies had a pinky, orange effect.


Layered over Barry M Navy, I love how this looks, think it is my favourite combo so far. It looks like an oil spill!


Layered over Models Own Tropical Sun and Barry M Black Crackle.



 Layered over Barry M Black and I also used a matte top coat too.

This was £6.95 from BeautyBay which I think is a great price considering how it totally transforms your nail polish. I think I may just have to buy a backup cos I can't see me getting bored of this anytime soon!

What combo do you think looks the nicest? Darker polishes definitely bring it out better I think.

Bye xxx

I picked up one of the Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stains from Superdrug for £5.99, I think there are 7 shades available. I picked Honey because, I thought I would get the most use out of it, plus the Clinique Chubby Stick I have is pretty similar to the pink shades that were available.

The packaging is really nice I think, like the Chubby Sticks the colour of the case matches the colour within. There is a mild peppermint scent which I like, although it doesn't really linger long after application.



Honey is a medium rose pink, it is very similar to my natural lip colour so the it is perfect for a natural, barely there look. In terms of wear the slight shine you get from the balm lasted about 30 minutes on me, as soon as I had a drink it faded. The colour however, last much longer, it actually stayed on while I washed my face so I'm impressed with that.

If you have wanted to try the Clinique Chubby Sticks but thought they were too expensive or if you are watching the pennies then I would definitely suggest you give these a try. I love my Chubby Stick, but they aren't cheap and I think the Revlon ones are just as good. Clinique has a better and wider colour selection though.

Did you pick up any of the Just Bitten Balms?

Bye xxx

So before I get into this post I will start by saying that I kinda feel really guilty about buying this! It was expensive (for me anyway) and I don't need it at all. But I was sucked in by the sheer prettiness of it, I kept looking at it online and I finally caved. OK so with it being an absolute beauty of a product I though the only polite thing to do would be to post lots of pics of it, looking all pretty and whatnot.

The green over spray came off after a few swipes of the brush. The brush is really soft and if you don't have any other brushes, this would be good enough to use.

It was really hard trying to pick up the shimmer

The shimmer effect is pretty subtle if you use a light hand, it can be built up but I personally just use a quick swipe across my cheekbones to give a nice highlight. I will be honest and say that I don't really love this, obviously it is a gorgeous product, but I can't help thinking I maybe should have bought something else like one of the blushers. At least when I finish using it I will have a lovely little compact mirror.

Have you picked up anything from the Paul & Joe summer collection, or do you have your eye on anything?

Bye xxx

So this is a bit of a different post for me in that it isn't beauty related, it's about books. I've loved reading ever since I can remember, I love relaxing with a nice cup of tea and a good book. What I don't like about reading is that they can be so expensive to buy, you're talking on average £6 for a paperback. I don't have the option of borrowing from my local library cos it is awful, think Danielle Steele etc! The charity shops round my way are really bad too so I can't pick up many bargains that way either.

So when I heard about green metropolis I was over the moon. It is essentially an online second hand book shop, where you can buy and sell books. All books cost £3.75, that's for hardbacks as well as paperbacks. If you are selling, you can also choose to donate your sales money to charity which is a nice touch.

I got 4 books for £15, Amazon isn't anywhere near that cheap lately. You can see the books I ordered in the pic, if I had bought them from Amazon it would have cost me £23.88 so it's a nice saving! Obviously with a website like this you have to trust the sellers when they say what condition the books are in, The Secret History was described as 'excellent' but I wouldn't say so myself. The other books literally do look brand new. I also waited a week for one of them to be sent to me, it was annoying but I got it in the end.

I'm not sure if I will sell my books, or just buy, but I very rarely re-read a book and I have limited space so I will see.

Would you be interested in a book review? I don't mean anything in depth, just if I liked it or not and if I would recommend it?

Bye xxx

So this month I have a very small empties pile, I seem to have a lot of products that are almost finished but not quite.

The Body Shop White Musk Libertine Body Mist

This smelled really nice and girlie, I don't have a great nose for smells tbh so I couldn't really pin point any overwhelming scent. I found myself spraying this a lot, parlty because I loved the smell and partly because the scent doesn't linger that long but that is to expected really seeing as it isn't perfume. Repurchase? Yes and I will be checking out the other scents too!

Impulse True Love Body Spray

Another body spray! I go through so many body sprays, anyway I liked this scent too. I like the Impulse sprays, they are cheap and cheerful and handy to keep in my bag. Repurchase? Yes.

So that's it for Junes teeny empties pile, hopefully you all managed to use more stuff up!

Bye xxx