Too Faced Glampire Glamour Dust Glitter Pigment

This was another one of my Christmas presents, I put this and the Urban Decay Easy Baked eyeshadow on my list and was lucky enough to receive both. I’ve always liked the look of a Too Faced cosmetics, the packaging is always pretty and I’ve heard good things about the brand, so I decided to browse their stuff and put this on my list. I thought it would be different seeing as I don’t own many glittery pigments and thought this particular one ‘Glampire’ was a unique colour.
It’s a pinky purple kind of shade overall with tiny multicolour, pink, purple, and silver glitter bits mixed together. Considering I just became the owner of a Naked 3 palette which consists of rose gold and pink shades, I thought this would be the perfect match to glam it up a little. I’m absolutely obsessed with the colours of it and the ‘wet look’ it gives the lids, however being a glitter pigment, there is a lot of fall-out and I’m so rubbish at dealing with it. I end up with little sparkles on my cheek no matter what I do, but spraying my eyeshadow brush with a little water beforehand does minimise the fall-out. When the glitter is on the lid, it creates such a pretty sheen which looks amazing when caught under certain lights. It’s not one for the day-time in my opinion as it could look too much in natural light but as an evening look, it’s beautiful and surprisingly lasts very well.
This product retails at £14, I’d say it’s worth it for the colour alone but I think Barry M have it down when it comes to affordable glitter pigments.
Happy New Year’s everyone! Hope you all had an eventful 2013! xx

New Year’s Eve Make-up & Nails

I’ve been experimenting with some New Year’s Eve looks, I tried some insanely sparkly eyes and heavy smokey looks and although that’s the typical look for NYE, it just doesn’t suit me and I’d rather do a basic look than have glitter eyes for the sake of it – I’m forever jealous of girls who can pull it off and not get the glitter all over your face. Sadly, I cannot and I’ve saved the glitter for my nails.

Make-up
For my face, I applied a primer I trust to last on my skin, I then used Estée Lauder double wear for my foundation and the matching concealer for under my eyes. I then contoured with Chanel cream bronzer, set all that with Avon powder before adding illamasqua hustle blusher and ultraflesh highlighter*.
For the eyes I primed the lids with MAC painterly, then applied Nooner from the naked 3 palette in my crease, burnout on the lids with a little buzz patted on top (both also from naked 3 palette). I then used collection 2000 eyeliner, YSL shocking mascara and then a bit of nooner smudged under the eye. My lips are Guerlain Garconne which is my favourite bright red.

Nails
For my nails I used Barry M ‘Mushroom’ for the plain colour, OPI for sephora holiday collection gold glitter with Topshop ice sparkles on top and then the sequin is just a ciate sequin kit.

If any of you have any NYE looks, I’d love to see them x

New Year’s Eve Outfit Wishlist

I mentioned on twitter how lost I am with days of the week, Christmas and time off just makes me lose count and there’s only a few days left until the big New Year’s. I’m having a little bit of a panic, I ordered my outfit Thursday night standard delivery thinking there was still ages and it’s yet to be dispatched – I have no idea whether it will arrive on time or not. I’ve ordered the Topshop ‘treggings’ shown in the photo and the Zara shirt also shown, so fingers crossed. The other items in my Wishlist are actually wishes. The gorgeous pointy shoes are from Zara, the daisy coat is from Topshop which was in the sale for £40 last time I checked(!), the glittery clutch is Kate Spade and the necklace is Topshop.
What are you all doing for New Year’s Eve? If anyone would like to see a party make-up look, I’d be happy to get one up
x

Urban Decay Easy Baked Eyeshadow

The Urban Decay Naked Palettes have been so insanely hyped up (and rightly so), that I pin all my focus on them and forget that Urban Decay have other beauty products that I’ve never thought to venture into. For once in my life I was completely stuck on what to add to my Christmas list and ended up browsing some of Urban Decay’s single eyeshadows – they have so many beautiful looking colours that believe it or not, aren’t featured in any of the three famous palettes. After googling countless swatches I decided to put ‘Easy Baked’ on my list and it ended up under the tree. It’s a shimmery gold shade that is quite similar to ‘Half Baked’ from the original Naked palette but even though that’s one of my favourites, I prefer this one.
As you probably know, Urban Decay are known to have amazing formulas in their eyeshadows, but this one is something else – the application is the most buttery I’ve ever used and it blends like an absolute dream. If you’re absolutely rubbish at blending eyeshadow like me, then you’d be in love. The colour is also more of a muted gold than Half Baked, with a more champagne undertone that looks more classy. I’ve worn it twice now on my lids with MAC Espresso which is a chocolate brown in my crease and this is my new favourite eye combo.
They retail at around £14 and going off this one, I say they’re worth every single penny. If you have any recommendations for Urban Decay eyeshadows then that would be great.
Happy Saturday!

What I Had For Christmas

That’s it, Christmas is officially over and it never fails to depress me – all that excitement, preparation and build-up for a day that spitefully goes faster than any other. Luckily, I received some really lovely presents this year that’ll keep the happy spirit going, who said you can’t still be spoilt by Santa at 22? I’ve kept the majority of them untouched and boxed up and have those to rip into and play around with – I absolutely hate unboxing stuff on Christmas Day, I’d rather put it all together in a pile and look at it for a little while.
I know these posts are quite controversial, some love them (me!) and others think they’re too braggy for their liking. I see it as sharing some excitement and appreciation which is why I’ve decided to do one.

I’ll start with make-up because I bet that’s the most exciting topic for everyone reading, considering this is a beauty blog after all. I had plenty of make-up. I had the new Naked palette as an early present because I quite literally couldn’t wait and although Urban Decay’s palettes are my favourite shadows ever, I’ve never ventured out and forgot that Urban Decay do single eyeshadows. I now own the beautiful colour that is ‘Easy Baked’ which is a beautiful champagne gold. I received my first ever Too Faced product which is a glitter eyeshadow in ‘Glampire’ and will be perfect for New Year’s Eve. Some of you may have read my rave review on GlamGlow face mask, I wanted to try the supermud which is in the white pot and is apparently even better – I now own it and I squealed, literally squealed when I opened it. Completing the beauty related presents is the super cute Marc Jacobs Daisy miniature set which contains four mini perfumes and I’m in love with it. I don’t want to open it because it looks so pretty in the box.

I had some gorgeous fluffy jumpers, a timberland hat (it might be obvious from previous OOTD’s that I love my hats), some UGG boots which I know are controversial but I absolutely love them and find them the comfiest things ever, various candles, cookbooks and house stuff for our new house and jewellery. One of my absolutely amazing friends works for Ted Baker as a wordsmith and she sent me two beautiful Ted Baker iPad cases which was a complete surprise.
My mum actually went and got me an Alexander McQueen scarf and I died. I’ve lusted over them for years.

I hope you all had an amazing Christmas and had everything you wanted. I’ll stop stuffing my face and napping all day now and get my blogging butt into gear.

OOTD : Boxing Day!

It’s boxing daaaay, hope you all had an absolutely amazing Christmas and ate a ridiculous amount of food. I’m just posting up a quick outfit of the day before I pop over to my Aunties for some additional Christmas family fun. I’m wearing a Dorothy Perkins fluffy jumper, Topshop jeans, UGG boots, prada bag and a H&M hat.

Excited to get back into regular posting after the Christmas rush dies down. Merry Christmas everyone xx

A Christmas Eve Pamper Evening

It’s Christmas eveeeeee! I’m so excited and I’m about to get ready for some festive drinks tonight with friends and wanted to do a little Christmas related post to say Merry Christmas. I figured seeing as I’m pampering myself a little, I’d take a few snaps.
No Christmas Eve is complete without a few Christmas films, I happen to be sad enough to own the entire Home Alone collection, it’s definitely a well loved classic for me and I’ll be watching one whilst doing my make-up. Of course, I plan to slather a face mask on whilst reading a magazine in my Christmas pyjamas. I’ve also chosen to paint my nails with Essie Bahama Mama.

Most importantly I wanted to wish all you lovely lot a very, very Merry Christmas, and I hope you all have amazing days whatever you get up to. Christmas always makes me feel a little mushy and I honestly appreciate every single one of you who follow and read my blog. Sending you all massive Christmas kisses xx

Ultraflesh Shinebox*

I had never heard of the brand Ultraflesh before, I think it’s a lot more well-known in the US but trying out new brands is so exciting to me. I was sent this very nifty shinebox ($39) which is a small box containing compartments of different highlighters that slide out, making the perfect travel companion.
In the top tray, you have a powder highlighter which reminds me of a muted version of MAC Soft & Gentle mineral skinfinish; a favourite of mine. The powder is of good quality and isn’t chalky, I love it dusted lightly on my cheekbones. You can see from the swatch it’s a lovely, subtle golden colour which is perfect for warming up the skin in Winter.
In the second tray are two cream highlights, you can apply them to the cheekbones for a glow or they would be gorgeous cream shadow bases. They aren’t glittery, they just have a nice classy shimmer to them and would make any eyeshadow look amazing on top, or they’d look beautiful on their own. I used the lighter shade as a brow highlight and that works well too.
In the final tray there are two pencil style highlighters which would make pretty eyeliners, or again, they’d look beautiful as an eyeshadow. The formula is incredibly creamy and they glide on easily. The pigmentation of them is pretty impressive too.

I’m really impressed with this little box, it’s not like a lot of compacts where you get a bunch of cheap products crammed into one, each product is very good quality, lasts long and delivers a nice finish. I’d never have even batted an eyelash at this kind of beauty product before, but I’m definitely going to look more into the brand ultraflesh now. You can find a range of their products at Strawberrynet.

IT’S CHRISTMAS EVE EVE!! That’s a thing ok? How crazy is it that it’s actually Christmas Eve tomorrow..

Christmas OOTD & One Festive Weekend

I’m home from an absolutely perfect Christmassy weekend with my siblings and their other halves. We went to Cardiff with the order of wearing Christmas jumpers, I chose quite a bright and cheery one from eBay, which is red with white festive detail. Please excuse the boyfriend’s rather rude jumper, I gave him one instruction only and what does he do? Comes home very smug with a jumper that says ‘f**k Christmas’, even though it’s secretly his favourite time of year.
Here are some of the snaps we took, they contain a lot of sisterly love and too much food, and today we all popped back home to see our mum and another brother who couldn’t make it to Cardiff yesterday.

 

Hope you all had a lovely weekend. x

The Ultimate 2013 Beauty Favourites

I have quite literally been waiting weeks now for it to become acceptable to pop this post up, I’m still a little early but I have so many Christmassy posts to get up. This is the mother of all monthly favourites; the yearly favourites. In this post I have selected and combined the beauty products that have stood out to me the most in 2013, it was a hard choice and let’s just say I have thought long and hard about it.

Pretty Palettes
Palettes are my downfall, I love them and will continue to keep buying them even when I really don’t need any more. The original Urban Decay Naked Palette has been an absolute treasure of mine and I reach for it every single day unless I put in an effort to use some different eyeshadows. I don’t own the second one because I think it looks very similar but when the Naked 3 came out I had to have it. It’s obviously new, but it’s in my list because it’s absolutely gorgeous and I think I like it more than the first Naked palette, to say I’m obsessed is an understatement (if you’d like to see a make-up look using it, just let me know). The last palette worthy of my list is the NARS One Night Stand palette which is also fairly new, I’ve had it for about a month or so and cannot stop using it. It is sadly limited edition for the Christmas and holiday season and I’m so glad to have snapped it up. It comes with six powders; four blushers, a highlighter and a bronzer.

The Face Products
This was kind of an easy choice, definitely the easiest of the lot and if you read my ‘face base dreamteam’ post this will be an obvious one. I’ve found that perfect trio of face bases that work perfectly for my skin and they are Chanel’s Illuminating Base, Estée Lauder Double Wear Foundation and Estée Lauder Double Wear Concealer. I also had to include MAC Soft & Gentle highlighter because it’s my favourite highlighter of all time.

Skincare
At the top of my skincare list is the Origins Drink Up intensive Overnight Mask. I bought this back in September and use it twice a week. Whilst I feel it doesn’t create a permanent effect, it will make my skin feel so soft and plumped for a few days after use and I really enjoy using it. In terms of a moisturiser, I do tend to change them up but I did keep repurchasing the La Roche-Posay Effaclar H because it works well with oily skin. The Soap & Glory Hand Food has been a life saver in any weather, it makes my hands feel like a baby’s bum. Finally, the no 7 eye makeup remover is a product I’ve repurchased probably the most this year.

Lips & Nails
Obviously, after how many times I’ve rabbited on about MUA’s Shade 1 lipstick, it had to be in the list. It’s a gorgeous deep red with insane pigmentation for £1. The Dior creme d’rose lip balm is hands down the best lip balm I’ve ever tried.
I found it difficult to choose nail polishes, I switch them up so much that it’s hard to select one that’s stood out. I’ve chosen Essie Bobbing For Baubles because it’s such a classic shade, a gorgeous navy blueish grey.
This should be in the skincare section but for some reason I put it in the photo with Essie, it’s the GlamGlow mud mask which I think is unbeatable, it’s worth the money and really is as good as everyone says.

Haircare
I believe the Indola shine spray was in last year’s favourites and it’s made an appearance once again. It’s just a spray that makes your hair shiny and glossy and it’s amazing, amazing, amazing! Moroccanoil will always earn a place on the list too.

Thanks for reading! Hope you all have a lovely weekend xx