Illamasqua Raindrops Nail Polish

Illamasqua is one of those brands that never let me down; every single product I have bought from them has become a big staple in my make-up collection. I don’t usually like to spend over £5 on a nail polish but when I discovered this cult favourite shade ‘Raindrops’, I had never seen another shade like it, it’s pretty unique and I decided to snap it up despite the £14 price tag. The name ‘raindrops’ is so fitting, not just because the weather in the UK has been particularly rubbish, but because the colour is so similar to grey clouds (it looks better on the nails than in the sky) and there’s tiny, tiny specks of glitter hidden in the grey polish that remind me of rain. I do love a good fitting nail polish name. I like to make it a little more festive by adding a coat of glitter polish over the top, this just makes it look more ‘icy’ and wintery. In the second photo I have added Topshop ‘ice’ nail polish over the top which is just a silver glitter.
The quality of these polishes are noticeably better than cheaper brands, it definitely chips less and lasts longer but this colour did need a few coats to get opaque.

6 days till Christmas! Eek. x

November Loves

This is probably the most exciting monthly favourites I’ve done all year, not because of the products I’ve chosen but because it means December is just around the corner; which also means Christmas. I try and keep my excitement level to a minimum throughout November and on December 1st, everything Christmas related becomes acceptable. Hope you all have your advent calendars ready, I sadly didn’t get a beauty one so I treated myself to two chocolate ones. I could talk about this for paragraphs and paragraphs so I’m going to be quiet on the Christmas front…for now.
I had a shocking amount of favourites this month because I had a few beauty bits for my birthday so I cut it down to a small amount of things that I’ve literally been obsessing over, otherwise I’d be here all day.

Essie ‘Bobbing For Baubles

I did a separate post on this nail polish, along with the Essie Bahama Mama one but this one came out trumps for me. I absolutely love it, it’s a gorgeous deep navy blue with a grey tint and I’ve been wearing it pretty much every day in November.

Maybelline ColourShow ‘Noite De Gal’

Another nail polish, this one by Maybelline is a beautiful dark purple which is my new favourite toe colour. I was looking for the perfect autumn toe purple colour and this one fell onto my lap when my gorgeous friend bought it for me for my birthday.

Illamasqua Freak Perfume

This perfume has been in a favourites before and it’s back again. I can’t get enough of it, it’s hard to explain but if you like scents like Armani code, alien, or just powerful and almost masculine spicy scents then you might like this. It’s extremely unique and a lot of people ask me what I have on when I’m wearing it.

Daniel Sandler Waterproof Eyeliner*

This eyeliner is my new Holy Grail pencil liner, I love it that much. It’s in a grey colour and I think it really makes my green eyes pop (they have other colours). When they say waterproof, they’re not kidding; it doesn’t budge, I swatched it on the back of my hand and even that was a struggle to remove. I’ll be doing a full review on it soon.

MAC Cranberry Eyeshadow

I’m jumping straight on the Cranberry hype bandwagon with this eyeshadow, probably one of MAC’s most popular. I can see why, it’s beautiful. I’m a safe neutral-brown eyeshadow wearer but this is still safe and adds a little colour which can be built up as much as you like.

Thanks for reading! have a lovely day x

Illamasqua Blusher In ‘Hussy’

Ahh my first Illamasqua cosmetic purchase. For some reason whenever I see Illamasqua packaging, particularly their blusher packaging, I always get excited. It’s pretty basic and I don’t know why I’ve always found the brand somewhat special, but I just love the brand without even having tried it out. I thought I’d start out with a blusher because they seem to be popular and have amazing colours – I battled with the dilemma of choosing between cream or powder blushes and powder won because I get more use out if them and haven’t fully entered the world of cream blushers. I chose ‘Hussy’ which is a pretty bright pink and screams out pigmented colour from it’s pretty packaging, but it’s not so scary when it’s actually on your cheeks, phew! It can be built up to a very scary clown-esque colour if you really want but if you subtly sweep it across the apples of your cheeks then it’s so so so so pretty – you just get a natural pop of healthy looking colour which completely wakes up any complexion. There isn’t any shimmer in this which is another reason I love it, I prefer a matte blusher and then a highlight on top for daywear, just so it doesn’t look glittery in the daylight.
The texture and quality of the product itself is decent, I was so pleased to learn that unlike a lot of blushers, the colour really does stay in tact, however, I did find it a little hard to blend nicely. It does blend out eventually but you do need to really buff it in with your brush to avoid harsh lines.
You can buy this product from most department stores for £18.00. If you live in the UK then I highly recommend Debenhams because of their free delivery.

A dangerous February wish list

I’m just going to sadly get this out my system and say the majority of these items on my extremely spoilt wish list, will not be coming true. I made the mistake of being bored and browsing websites forever out of my reach and now I’m in a deep and forbidden love with all of them.
Firstly, how stunning is the new Mulberry Cecily tote? I can see us together, strolling onto a plane and jetting off somewhere exotic – why must it come at a price tag of over £1000, why? I had a dream about this bag the night after I laid eyes on it, that’s how much I want it. Also, the Prada Saffiano in light yellow needs to be mine for spring. I can’t imagine myself with a better bag for the upcoming season, I’m on the hunt for a very similar one in that exact shade.
The wedges are Kurt Geiger and although they’re not an impossible achievement, they’re expensive and I can never justify spending loads on an item that gets rubbed and scratched across the ground – my beautiful boyfriend bought me Louboutins for my birthday last year and I’ve worn them a grand total of twice, it’s just too scary. I really do love these wedges for summer, I wish they were sold somewhere cheaper so I could snap them up.
Staying on the spring/summer theme, although the weather wants to stay in the winter theme, I’ve been browsing sunglasses – sunglasses shopping makes me a very happy girl. I want these ones from Topshop, just a little change from aviators or wayfarers.

Some of the makeup I want this month will thankfully, probably be purchased at payday – I don’t know why I want the MAC Candy yum yum lipstick, it’s an extremely bright pink which I always stay away from. Maybe it’s the fact that it was voted most favoured lipstick, we shall see how I get along with it if I take the plunge.
My favourite Jemma Kidd dewy glow highlighter had a dramatic end, my Moroccan Oil spilt onto it and ruined it, for a girl with oily skin, this just takes the piss. The worst thing about it is that Jemma Kidd is no longer sold – I want to try Urban Decay’s Urbanglow because I love cream highlighters and this is seemingly the most popular.
Illamasqua brought out some limited edition nail polishes, they’re supposed to look like a speckled egg and they really do. So cute for Easter and I’m currently deciding which shade to get, I love them all.
Finally, I really want to try Laura Mercier’s Oil Free Primer, I have the basic primer by her and it’s really good, I hate the smell but the primer itself is decent. Due to my oily skin I thought I’d try the oil free one, it won’t touch my Chanel Illuminating Base but I don’t want to use that up too quick which is why I’m looking for a cheaper one to wear daily.

Don’t forget to check out my giveaway below guys!!