Give your lips the red hot look with the one million lipsticks giveaway

So while Special K's initial 'surprise' for me (which I later found out from other beauty bloggers to be a red nail varnish) never arrived courtesy of the combined crappiness of La Poste and the Royal Fail, their next promotion did: this time a red lipstick created in association with Max Factor. They're giving away one million Colour Elixir lipsticks in this classic shade (named Ruby Tuesday, which I like thanks to the perhaps unintentional allusion to the Jane Yardley book entitled Painting Ruby Tuesday) via their website. All you have to do is buy a box of Special K cereal, hotfoot it to the link, fill in your details (along with the unique code found inside your pack of cereal), and cross your fingers in hope that you'll be one of the lucky million winners. If my experience of the quality of other Max Factor products is anything to go by, you'll be getting a great value product that's long-lasting, and refined in its concept and ingredients.

Beauty Byte: Free Blistex Raspberry Lemonade Lip Balm

Blistex have recently launched a new product: Raspberry Lemonade Blast.

A summery, fun lip balm which contains moisturising ingredients and sun protection, its launch is being celebrated with Blistex giving away FREE samples of the lip balm via its Facebook page. Like the page, fill in your details, and a sample will be winging its way to you.

Samples are limited, so make sure you get in there quickly. Enjoy!

Sample-tastic

Thanks to my boyfriend's latest skincare-buying spree, I now have a ton of new samples to try:

Clarins High Definition Body Lift Cellulite Control
Hermès Kelly Calèche
Sisley Soir de Lune
Nina Ricci Air du Temps
Hermès Eau des Merveilles
Clarins Multi-Active Day Cream
Estée Lauder Resilience Lift Extreme Ultra Firming Cream
Dior Total Capture Eye Treatment

I've also been approached by Garnier, Skinfood, and the Tractenberg agency recently asking if I want free things, so with a bit of luck I'll have even more stuff to test.

In the meantime, this arrived yesterday from the kind people at Dove:

Despite the fact that it looks slightly dildo-like (errrrm), I have tried it this morning, which for me is no mean feat since, given my hyperhydrosis, I rarely stray from my usual Mitchum (which I KNOW works). So far, so good with the scent and everything else. I'll get back to you on the hair-minimising part...

(edit: it appears I spoke too soon - the Garnier stuff, samples from their Vital Restore range, arrived today. While I'm a wee bit below the target audience for these products, I reckon it can't hurt to give them a try; hey, it's all preventative care, right?! And if my mother and her twin sister are lucky, I may offload what's left onto them when I'm done.)