The beauty goodies i got for Christmas!

Ello all! Hope you are all enjoying the holidays!
 

Whether i like to admit it or not, I'm a little spoiled at Christmas and this year was no exception. I didn't wanna show everything i got because i figured people aren't really interested in the socks and chocolate you get, lol.

So you've probably already spotted it, but the boyfriend got me something I'd be dying to get my hands on, the Clarisonic! I didn't actually get this on Christmas day because he didn't want to buy the wrong one so let me order myself on the day and it arrived yesterday! I already knew i was getting the Nars Damnari palette, as i picked it out but it was still SO exciting to unwrap, it's absolutely gorgeous and i can't wait to start using it! Although the Mac set is a release from last year, it's full of pretty pinks that i really love and was such a thoughtful pressie from my Mum who was scared to buy me makeup as i have so much!
 

And onto the smellys! Snow Fairy, well you already know how much i love that and now i have an absolutely massive one which is bound to last me months! Tigi Epic Volume is my holy grail shampoo, and i really begrudge buying expensive shampoo so it's really a wonderful gift to get! I have quite a big collection of Soap and Glory but minis are so handy for travel! And lastly Vera Wang Lovestruck, this was technically a present to myself as i spotted this beauty in the sale for £19 and treated myself as its one I've been eyeing for some time now!

The best part of Christmas was getting to spend time with the boyfriend and family. Thought I'd keep this post short and sweet as i have a couple of series for the blog hopefully in the making for the new year that i want to get cracking on!

Hope you all have a lovely Christmas and feel free to share any of your Christmas (or non Christmas, i like reading them) hauls!

xox

And so my IMATS countdown begins...

Ello all! 

So it'll be my first time at London IMATS in little over a month, and I'm incredibly excited to say the least! For me this is more exciting than Christmas! I'm only going for the day but i plan to get my epic shop on!

There are tons of awesome brands attending this year and still some room on the floor plan for some more gooduns to be added (I'm sad i check regularly). INGLOT and Makeup Forever are the two I'm overly excited about, since they aren't readily available where i live. So I've planned my budget, god bless Christmas money and student loan! And it honestly can't come soon enough!

Any of you been before or have any good tips for "surviving" the day?

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas and are enjoying the holidays!

xox

Christmas-ish EOTD :)

And so the eyeliner addiction returns....

I had a bit of a dilemma recently. My cyber monday order from BFTE hasn't arrived yet due to being sent someone elses order by accident. My order is on it's way (eeeee excited) and although i did offer to return the wrong order nothing was mentioned about it. So this left me wondering... Can i use things? 

It was a little bit like leaving crack in the hands of an addict and eventually i gave into temptation. I've changed my hair colour today to purple (well it's more like patchy plum and purple, oops!) and there was a GORGEOUS sample size purpley colour that i just couldn't resist today!

Then the liquid liner addict was released... I'd been experimenting with bases so one eye has pixie epoxy over UDPP the other without, so it's not perfect. But i was pretty pleased with it, pleased enough to whip out some myspace style pictures.... oh dear.

 How pale do i look?!

It's definitely not one for every day, but i was experimenting on looks for a possible night out tomorrow, it's been faaaar tooo long. Oh and as per usual when i decide to take any sort of pictures, my eyebrows are awful!
 

Eyes:

BFTE - Sugarplum

BFTE - Satin Sheets

Sugarpill - Bulletproof

Mac - Phloof!

Urban Decay - Primer Potion

Fyrinnae - Pixie Epoxy

Face:

Maybelline - Stay Matte Powder 

(Yes, that's it. I'm having a lazy day!)

I love love love love these. And my IMATS spending ban is well and truly being broken to purchase full sizes of both of these after Christmas. For some reason i feel i picture so much better with lashings of liquid eyeliner, lets just hope i don't fall back on to my bad habit!

How long could you of lasted with that temptation?

xox

A bit more Fyrinnae...

Ello lovelies!

Uni deadlines are an absolute nightmare, and have left me zero time to blog this week. So now all but one piece of work is finished i thought I'd share with you my recent Fyrinnae haul.

If you haven't heard of Fyrinnae they primarily sell absolutely STUNNING loose eye shadows. What i love about them is how unique most of their shades are, there is nothing one dimensional about them and most are beautifully complex. Fyrinnae is a small indie company and i think they deserve a lot of love since I've yet to buy a shadow i don't adore! They also sell Pixie Epoxy which is so far my all time favourite primer for anything glittery that needs a little extra stick, They have Lip Lustres on their website too, which i haven't tried but will probably be in my next order!

I've done a swatch post on Fyrinnae before so if you'd like to see any of their other shades click here!

Yet again apologies for the lighting, I'm seriously hating on English weather right now, the lack of sunlight is depressing. As you can see these shades are gorgeous, and my camera really does not do them justice.

Priced at $5.90 each with $4 shipping per order to the UK as well as being beautiful they are a bargain too!

These can be purchased from www.fyrinnae.com

Here's a quick EOTD i posted a little while ago using Polar Bear, Damn Paladins and Book of the Dead.

I'm really looking forward to expanding my Fyrinnae collection!

What are your favourite shades?

xox

Christmas Wishlist

Ello lovelies!

Christmas is sneaking up on us fast and although I've already had all my pressies bought and wrapped for some time now (sad i know) I've realised for the first year EVER I've not compiled my own wishlist. Usually by mid November my parents, boyfriend and close relatives have been informed what I'd like for Xmas but this year it'd totally passed me, maybe I'm growing up? Eek!

So i thought I'd do a little post on the things or products I'd love for Christmas, that is if my loved ones were rich or i was EXTREMELY lucky!

I don't want for much do I? 

•  Diesel Loverdose Perfume
• INGLOT (All of it)
• Clarisonic
• Kat Von D Palette
• Ipad 2
• The Hunger Games Trilogy
• Nars Cactus Flower Blush
• Mac MSF in Soft & Gentle
  
  
  While i realise this is a totally unrealistic list i just thought it'd be a fun post to do and lead me to thinking that although it's possibly a little late, an affordable gift post may be a good idea!
  
  What presents are you hoping Santa will bring you this year?
  
  xox

Urban Decay Super-Saturated High Gloss Lip Colour

Ello lovelies!

I've been meaning to do a post on some of the new Urban Decay goodies i have but i just haven't got around to it. So today instead of doing uni work in the library I've found myself writing this instead, oops!

These chubby sticks have intrigued me since their release a while ago but being a bit of a lip product newbie I've put off taking the plunge and buying one.

Here's what Urban Decay say about these...

"Urban Decay guarantees that this is the creamiest, most sumptuously-pigmented pencil to ever hit your lips. They've created a formula that delivers all the opaque, saturated, HIGH-IMPACT color of your favorite lipstick AND an arresting high-gloss finish in ONE chubby (8mm diameter) pencil! And with a dynamic bright to deep shade range in creamy and glittery textures, the runway-ready possibilities are endless! Even the glittery hues in this collection of high-gloss lip pencils feel smooth on your lips (and leave not a trace of "sparkle grit")."

 I got the shade Adrenaline, and it's absolutely gorgeous! What my camera fails to pick up is how glittery this is. If your not a fan of glittery products I'd steer clear of these. Though the glitter is very small i find that after a while of wear it sticks more to the lips then the colour and i find myself re-applying quite often. But saying this i am a lip product newbie, and due to my piercings and other bad habits i can rarely make a lip product last more than an hour or so. These are super easy to apply and aren't too drying on the lips.

Priced at £14 these are on the pricier side, but i think these are well worth it and for people who aren't so confident with lip colours these would be great! Although the colour range is a little limited, all five shades are super bright so if neutrals are your thing these probably won't be for you.

You can check these out on the Debenhams website here. And they currently have 10% off all beauty items!

Do you have any favourite lip products? Comment and let me know!

xox

17 BB Cream & FOTD

Ello lovelies!

So unless you've been living under a rock with your fingers in your ears you'll know the biggest beauty craze currently is BB creams. I love them. I use my Skin79 one on a daily basis and definitely would not be without it. So far I've been less then impressed with the UK's offerings of BB creams. So i was a little excited and slightly skeptical about trying a new one. Would it stand up against one of my holy grail products?

The answer is no...

I'll tackle the obvious problem first, colouring. I purchased the shade Light as I'm generally around an NC15 or lighter. As you can see it's quite a bit darker than i am, although it's not as bad on the face. But obviously if your a little more tanned than me (it's not hard, I'm verging on Casper) this could work for you. 

"Discover the new 17 BB Blemish Balm to reveal the magic of flawless skin with this all-in-one foundation plus skincare wonder product" 

Personally i thought the coverage was poor. It's quite thick in consistency but is unable to cover even minimal flaws. Even though i feel it does give poor coverage i found it was more visible on the skin, certainly not flawless as 17 describe it. I had to use a powder with a bit of coverage in it to even out my skin tone and even then it wasn't brilliant. If you're going for a no makeup makeup look, this really isn't for you!

Overall i really wouldn't recommend this, but then again that's just my opinion and you might love it! 

(Not sure why i always insist on doing FOTD's when i have appalling eyebrows, apologies!)

Eyes:

Fyrinnae - Polar Bear

Fyrinnae - Book Of The Dead

Fyrinnae - Damn Paladins

Fyrinnae - Nijiro

Fyrinnae - Pixie Epoxy 

Lips:

L'occitane - Lip balm 

(and some serious lipstick stains!)

Face:

17 BB Cream

Mac - Mineralized Skin Finish Natural - Light

Nars - Orgasm Blush 

As you can see the finish isn't great, though I'm in love with that Fyrinnae combo! If you're looking to try out a BB cream i wholeheartedly recommend Skin79's Hot Pink BB Cream!

Do you have any favourites?

xox

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas... Mini Lush haul!

Although it's still November Christmas is just a month away so i thought I'd share some of my favourite things! Some people say that Christmas time arrives when the Coca Cola advert arrives on our TVs, but i get excited when i get my hands on these goodies.

 

Snow Fairy Shower Gel - Candy Mountain Bubble Bath Bar

My Christmas trips to Lush are a little predictable, every year i buy the two same things. Snow Fairy is possibly my favourite shower gel of all time, the only reason i have the teeny weeny bottle is that I'm bound to get a massive one for Christmas! In my opinion its the best fragrance Lush do and I'm a little miffed i missed the solid perfume they released a year or two ago! Bubble Gum Lip Scrub is like the edible version of it, yum! 

Candy Mountain (formally Candy Cane!) again is my all time favourite bubble bath bar. Writing this I'm actually a little sad as I've already used this baby up and shall be going to grab a few more shortly! 

If you've never tried these Lush products, go check them out!

You can buy these in your local store or online here! 

And if sweetie scented bath goodies aren't your thing, they have a whole host of Christmassy products to choose from!

xox 

Sugarpill Review Part 3 - Chromalust Singles

So here is the last installment of my Sugarpill swatches! But it excites me to say rumour has it that they may have some new shades in the pipeline and I'll be sure to keep my eye out for those! 

I'll keep this short and sweet as I've already done a review on the other half of the Chromalust eye shadows i own so if you're interested in checking that out click here.

I have to say here that my camera did a god awful job of picking up the beauty of Lumi. Sugarpill describes it as "Snow white with turquoise sheen and flashing bursts of blue and green". Simply put, it's stunning. I highly recommend checking out other swatches of it online!

Out of all the shades Royal Sugar has gotten the most use so far! Like all the other shades its gorgeously pigmented but clashes (in a good way) with my hair, i adore it!

A pretty pic heavy post from me but i had to share how gorgeous these are! 

Again, if you'd like to see the other half of the shades or Sugarpills pressed eye shadows you can read my posts here and here.

All these products can be purchased worldwide on the Sugarpill Website.

Thanks for reading!

xox

Elemis on QVC - Today's Special Value

Hello Lovelies!

Just a super quick post for all you Elemis fans out there! QVC have a very special Today's Special Value set running today! It contains five FULL SIZE products from Elemis worth well over £100! Me and my crazy Mother have already purchased four of these! 

This set is £39.96 + P&P for one day only!

The Pro Collagen Marine Cream is one of my Mums all time favourites from Elemis and on it's own would cost more to buy than this entire set! This is phenomenal value for money and would make a perfect Christmas gift!

Check it out here!

It's not even December and I'm already so excited for Christmas!

Have you got any great gift ideas? Let me know!

xox

Products I Regret Buying

Hey guys!

Lately I've been doing a bit of shopping the stash, I've been trying my hardest to buy a bit less on the run up to Christmas (but it's not been going terribly well!). So I've rediscovered a lot of stuff that's been previously unloved in my collection and remembered why i really disliked a lot of products. So here's most of the items i regret buying!

The Smashbox quad came in a set, and if i could find it most other items they'd be included in this post too! I bought it on a whim mainly for the train case that came with it (which turned out to be rubbish quality!). I never use this, i don't like the colours or how they wear and really wish I'd spent the £50 the set cost me more wisely! 

 

Some Kind Of Gorgeous.... all i can say is yuck. I purchased this before i really got into makeup and i absolutely hate it. Even though it's oil free i find it incredibly greasy, the staying power isn't great and i had to use a stupid amount or product to cover anything, and my skin isn't too bad! I'm really not fond of any of Benefits foundations.

Mac Paint Pot in Blackground. Okay, i don't hate this product i just never find myself using it. I much prefer other bases or primers and i think I'm just not brave enough to pull this off. This isn't a bad product i just think for me personally it was a waste of money!

These two i absolutely detest!

All the hype Backcomb In A Bottle got baffles me. I love big hair and backcomb mine frequently but no matter how i use this it just makes my hair sticky and horrid! Such a waste of money!

And the Nyx Glitterati palette... Well the magpie in me really took over on this purchase. Common sense completely left me and what went through my brain was 'OMG IT'S GLITTERY AND SPARKLY I WANT IT'... Sigh. Although it has a lovely range of colours i find it greasy and extremely hard to work with. The glitter wont stay were it's put and is extremely sheer and patchy. I'll just stick to applying glitter on top of Duo in future and hopefully have some more common sense. 

Last but not least Nyx Jumbo Pencils. In my opinion there is only one worth having, Milk. Although these colours are lovely they crease like a nightmare. There are practically unusable, but i do look forward to getting my hands on Urban Decays offering of pencils because they look great!

So enough rambling for me! I do lots of positive reviews so thought it was about time i share which products i really dislike!

Are there any products you regret buying? Let me know!

xox

Sugarpill Review Part 2 - Chromalust Trios

Aloha! 

This is yet another overdue post! These beauties have been sat in my drawer for over a month waiting to be photographed and swatched, I'd been waiting on some nice sunlight but I've given up hope trying to get that since England's pretty gloomy constantly. These are half of the Chromalust eye shadows available and I'll be reviewing the other half as soon as possible. If your a fan of bright, shimmery or out there colours these are definitely for you!

Sugarpill is a USA based brand but i managed to get these from Genie Cosmetics which are based in the UK. The official Sugarpill website no longer sell the trios but at £18.99 for three i had to snap these up because priced at $12 each that's some great value!

 

The packaging of all Sugarpill products is super cute. The only downside to the packaging with these is that if your not careful these can be a little messy. You get 5g of product per jar so these will last a long long time. All of these are completely vegan and cruelty free! I've found these are best used over a sticky base like Fyrinnae's Pixie Epoxy or wet to get the best results.

 

 My camera really hasn't done these nearly enough justice, the gloomy weather here is bloody annoying! All of these were swatched over a small amount of Pixie Epoxy as it gives the glitter a little more stick and gives a better representation of the colours. Stella surprisingly is my favourite out of the three, it's rainbow sparkles are absolutely stunning! 

 

My camera hasn't picked up the glitter in the others but eeee look at Stella sparkle!

 

My favourite trio of the bunch! I've been playing around with a look using Goldilux and Junebug and shall get some pictures up soon, I'm in love!

Again my camera hasn't done these justice but you get the gist of how stunning they are!

Three just as beautiful colours! 

 

All in all I'm still extremely impressed with Sugarpill. I still utterly adore their pressed eye shadows and will be making a big effort to use these more because they are beautiful! The only downside with them is the lack of sifter, but that's not exactly a big thing. To anyone who loves bright and bold colours I'd highly recommend any of Sugarpill's products, and even to the less daring there's still come gorgeous shades to try!

You can buy the trios in the UK online here.
Or you can check out the entire Sugarpill range on their official website here.

Which shades are your favourites?!

xox

Sigma - Make Me Blush Kit Review

So this post is long overdue... ooops! I wanted to give these brushes a good old testing before i shared my opinion. I was lucky enough to get this set for my birthday and had previously only tried their Sigmax collection of kabukis (which i adore!) and the free little E25 blending brush you get free with orders over $30. I'd been lusting over this kit for quite some time and for one reason or another I'd put off buying it.

The set comes in various different colours so there's a choice for everyone. Although i never wear pink i had to opt for these since they match everything else in my room! Priced at $99 for 12 brushes and the holder i don't think this is an overly expensive set, and is significantly cheaper than a lot of other brands. Sigma also frequently have 10% off codes up online, so keep your eye open for those! The holder is perfect for travel and makes two cute brush holders for your vanity. 

 

All of these have made their way into my regular makeup routine although i have to admit i was a little disappointed with a few. The F30 has shed quite a bit, i thought it'd get better with a few washes but i still find myself picking hairs off my face. I've had these well over a month now and they've had a good 5-6 washes, it's not a massive issue for me as it's now only the odd hair but it wasn't something i was expecting as i haven't had that problem with my current Sigma brushes. My second issue is with the F40, along with a little shedding (nowhere near as much as the large powder brush) it hasn't really kept it's shape. If you've had one of the E25's you'll know what i mean. It's slightly splayed out which again isn't a massive issue I'm just a little bit of a perfectionist! 

Forgetting my little grumble overall i think this is a pretty decent set. I can't compare them to Mac brushes as i don't own any but I'm really enjoying using them and they hands down beat any of my other brushes! I'm looking forward to grabbing a couple more brushes from Sigma in the future like the Large Tapered Blending and their new additions to the Sigmax range.

If you're interested in reading my review on the Synthetic Face Kit click here.

You can have a looky at all the Sigma brushes available on their website here.

Which Sigma brushes are your favourites? Let me know!

Thanks for reading.

xox

A little bit of Accessorize

Hey guys!

Firstly a little bit of an apology for my lack of blogging over the last week. I've been rather poorly and haven't had the time to swatch or write anything due to mostly being stuck in bed! But hopefully you'll get some regular posts over the next few weeks as I'm determined to get well.

I discovered these beauties a little while ago now. You've probably already heard a ton on these products, but I'd always been a little bit of a brand snob and never really bothered taking a proper look at the Accessorize range. How silly was i?! Whilst at a student shopping night in my local town center i had a little swatch and was gobsmacked! I quickly fell in love with the colours and textures of their blushes, and quickly went back and purchased another! I'm ashamed to say these are actually my FIRST baked blushes and bronzers and I'm baffled as to why i didn't try them sooner.

Wowzer is a bright candy pink with lilac veins which looks quite scary in the pan and swatched but looks absolutely gorgeous on the skin! Scandal is my favourite of the two, i had a little difficulty trying to describe the actual colour. Some say its a "mid toned pink" but i personally feel it leans slightly coral/red on me, but i really am rubbish with descriptions! Both these have a frosty finish which is great for skipping highlighter and the pigmentation is great. I really love the texture of both these blushes. Blush is one thing that generally really annoys me and i find i have to apply throughout the day, but these last a good eight hours on the skin which for me is great.

Above heavy swatches then blended out.

 

Pearl sands is as far as I'm aware is the lightest out of their bronzers. Like the blushes it's very pigmented and has a frosty finish which isn't ideal for contouring. I love quite a bit of shimmer so it really doesn't bother me. Being ghostly pale i really do have to use a light hand with this but I've really been enjoying using the lighter half of the duo.

As i said before I'd always been a little bit of a brand snob when it comes to Accessorize and i thought that the items would be a lot more expensive. The Blushes are a mere £5 each and the Bronzers £6 or £7 which i think is fantastic! You can easily pay £10 for a "Drugstore" blush nowadays. The packaging also makes me product look more expensive in my opinion.

The only downside is not really being able to get hold of them online. The Accessorize website only stocks one (as far as i could see), same as the Superdrug website. But if you are close to either stores I'd really recommend having a look!

Thanks for reading!

xox