All Pink, Summer Beauty Boxes and Link Up

John always finds it very amusing that I "dress up" to do the food shopping once a week. But it's currently the highlight of the week, and I've noticed I'm not the only one.  It feels good to wear something other than leggings and a t-shirt, which is my normal lockdown attire.
So for the latest trip to the supermarket, I wore an all-pink outfit, a skirt from M&S last summer and an organic cotton top with fancy collar and lime green mules, bought this summer. You can see the top worn a different way here.

I liked this skirt so much I bought this year's variant which is a useful coffee colour - see it here.  This A line style with a belt helps to define the waist, always important as we get older. You'll definitely look slimmer with a defined waist rather than trying to hide it - remember the lessons from Gok Wan?

The food shopping will probably continue being my weekly highlight for the time being.  The UK is finally coming out of lockdown on July 4 with pubs, hotels, restaurants and hairdressers reopening (following on from "non essential" shops and stores which reopened a couple of weeks ago).  We are now able to travel within the UK, or within your own country in the UK, and stay overnight.

The govt is also organising "air bridges" with certain countries so that holidays abroad are back on the agenda.  Over the weekend travel sites were crashing with the weight of traffic.

We're still not out of the woods and the "R" number is perilously close to 1 in some areas, thanks to selfish people, mostly young I'm afraid to say, congregating on beaches and insisting on having raves and parties. I'm sure they feel justified with low infection rates among the young, but they should consider that they may have Covid-19 without any symptoms and then pass it to their parents or grandparents, for whom it could be a lot worse.

My first trip will probably be the 250 mile drive to Plymouth to see my mum for a few days.  I haven't seen her since before Christmas, the longest we've ever been apart.  John and I will have a staycation, probably walking in the Lake District, in July or August. And I hope to get a few days at the Grayshott Spa - here's last year's account.

Now to a little treat that arrived last week. Beauty retailers have found ways of getting us to experiment with new products by creating Advent calendars, Easter "eggs" filled with products and summer beauty boxes.  I've had the M&S and John Lewis summer boxes a couple of times but while they're good to start with, the brands tend to be the same each year, so I decided to try a different one.

This is the You beauty box which cost £35  (actually five pounds less because I had a discount code that removed the P&P cost).

I find with all these boxes there are products I haven't tried before, some which I have, and some which I wouldn't bother with. I'm sure that one or two of the high value products are typically those which haven't been selling well. The products in this box are said to be worth £170, but the way I look at it is that if I enjoy using three or four, then it was money well spent.

The Products I Love

The winning products for me are Jurlique's Rosewater Balancing Mist, which is perfect for spraying on your face to freshen up during a heatwave like we had last week;  Elf Glow Gleam Beam palette of highlighters; Medik8 Retinol 3TR, which I will try once I've finished the excellent La Roche Posay retinol serum, and the Clarins Mascara Supra Volume, because I'm always trying new mascaras. A couple of the products are great for travelling - Prai Ageless Throat and Decolletage cream, Philip Kingsley Body Building Shampoo and Murad Essential-C cleanser.

Less impressed (but you might love them)

I expected to love the Perricone MD No Makeup Instant Blur compact, a full size product from a classy and respected brand. But I'm afraid I don't see the point of it.  The compact has a colorless Alpha Lipoic acid balm which you smooth over the face using the applicator provided. It's supposed to minimise the appearance of fine lines, wrinkles and enlarged pores over time. "Over time" are the key words and I wonder what product this is supposed to replace:  serum? Should you wear makeup over the top?  The leaflet said you could use it on its own, or on top of make-up. I didn't see that it made any difference to lines and wrinkles.

The unused products I will probably give away are the Nuxe Deliciously Nourishing Body Scrub and Dr Pawpaw Shea Butter Balm - I somehow find those "use it anywhere" products perplexing so I don't use them.  Two of the products are too small to be useful - This Works Hyaluronic Serum and Goldfaden MD Bright Eyes dark circle radiance concentrate.  The latter is an expensive brand, said to be very effective, but with just 5ml of product you're unlikely to see a difference.

There's also an orangey red Rimmel nail polish in Coralicious, which is a great shade for summer toes on holiday. However I find that colors like this are too high maintenance, so I only use pale pearly colors on my toe nails.

Finally there's a Batiste Dry Shampoo for frizzy or fly away hair. Normally I never use these - too many bad memories of Gem and Aero when I was a teenager. But I did try this one - it has a pleasant coconut scent, and doesn't sit like talcum powder in the roots. I wasn't bowled over enough to buy it because apart from the scent, I didn't notice it did anything else to my hair.  Am I missing something?

Have you had a summer beauty box this year? What did you think of it?

Sharing this post with  Stylish Monday at Fashion Trends and Friends,  Monday Runway at A Pocketful of Polka Dots,Top of the World Style at High Latitude Style, Chic & Stylish at Mummabstylish, #LinkupOnTheEdge  at Shelbee on the Edge, Anna at Muttonstyle, #AnythingGoes at My Random Musings, Thursday Moda at Elegance and Mommyhood, Turning Heads Tuesday at Elegantly Dressed and Stylish,  Style with a Smile at Stylesplash, Anna at the GlamAdventure, Style Six at Coast to Coast, TFF at Doused in Pink, Fancy Friday at Nancy's Fashion Style, Fabulous Fridays at Lucy Bertoldi, Beauty by Miss L Link Up 

Now it's time for #WowOnWednesday, the link up where everyone gains. Readers can find new blogs to enjoy and bloggers can find new readers!

Last week's most popular  (highest clicks) post was by Iris from LaMouMous with her post Twelve Summer Outfit Ideas Inspired by My Wardrobe. Iris has the most amazing style - it was hard to choose which outfit to feature!

Also very popular was Mireille's post Yellow Wide Legged Pants 2 Ways. Mireille, from Chez Mireille, found a stunning yellow floral pair of trousers (pants) and styled them with a white and black top.  As I discovered with my floral print skirt, it's sometimes hard to find exact matches for the colors in your prints but white and black are always winners.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter