Beauty Favourites 2013 - Beauty Products

Illamasqua Sale Haul!

Top 10 Products Under £10

Beauty Favourites 2013 - Brushes!

Paul Mitchell - Fast Drying Sculpting Spray!

Beauty Bargin Alert - MyBeautyCompare

Hi there!

The January blues have well and truly kicked in! Anyone else feeling the same? After the early Christmas wage pennies are running out, and if anyone else is like me, if I don't have enough money to go out ... I want to make up for it in beauty products! So when I was contacted by Hannah at MyBeautyCompare asking if I would like to do a collaboration with them I thought what a perfect post for January! Monies tight but why should we restrict ourself from the occasional beauty splurge when we can save money on the products!

There is already over 50,000 women following it and it is also the world's 1st price comparison site for beauty - so basically it is a 1 stop shop for all women to discover the right products for them at the right prices out of 1500 brands.

As soon as I saw this I was on board! As I have mentioned before I am online shopping addict! and one of the main reasons for this as you get much better value shopping online, from discount codes to extra retailers competing, shopping online can save you so much money!

I am a sucker for a discount (I am that person that MUST buy something just because there's 10% off!) Shopping around is something I already do because why would you want to pay full price when you can get it cheaper elsewhere and have money towards buying something else! That is my logic in life anyway ha! So when I found out there was a website that would do all the searching for me I just had to get involved! 

You can register for free and discover the right beauty products for you based on skin type, age, diet etc. Also when you sign up you will be added onto their mailing list where they will send you some free offers!

They cover everything from skincare, make up, hair care to fragrance! All in one place, however ensuring you get the best price! Is anyone else shocked that this hasn't been done before?! What an amazing idea! ... Probably not for my bank balance though haha!

The website also includes youtube tutorials filled with make up and nail art tips and also a blog!

The blog features products listed on the website so you can immediately click and buy after reading the tutorial/tip! 

They feature an amazing variety of brands from Barry M to Benefit! From L'oreal to Macadamia.

This is definitely a website I know I will use frequently and I am really happy that the website contacted me to tell me about it! 

I recommend you go on and have a look! I will like the website here.

Beauty Favourites of 2013! - Eyes!

 

Hi there!

I will link my previous Beauty Favourite of 2013 post here which was all my favourite face make up products!  So next up is my favourite eye products!

Favourite Neutral Palette

I literally use this palette every time I do eye make up, I think it is an essential palette and everyone should have one!

Favourite Colourful Palette

Whenever I watch YouTube tutorials and they do a colourful look 9 times out of 10 I can recreate it using this palette it has a huge variety of colours and I just love it and oh who would have guessed it was a recommendation from Tanya Burr! Obsessed much ...

(2 fell out, so I've lost them but they were just more shades of silver which I don't really use anyway)

Favourite Eyebrow Product

My sister bought me this at the Girls Day Out Show in Glasgow last year for my Christmas and I did use it every single day until I got semi permanent eyebrows done (I have a post on this I will link here) however when I am going out I still like to fill in my brows just to make them stronger so I still use this all the time!

Favourite Eyeliner

This was in a little gift set I got for Christmas last year and when my rimmel eyeliner ran out I just decided to give it a go till I got another one but it's actually a really great eyeliner! It's really easy to work with & it lasts all night! Go TOWIE haha!

Favourite Mascara

I wrote a review on this mascara which I will link here. My new holy grail mascara I got the full size for Christmas so expect to see this in my 2014 favourites too!

Favourite Eyelashes

Eyelure 202's have been my go to lashes for the whole of 2013, you will very rarely see me on a night out without these on I just love them!

(Sorry I lost the little bit that goes inside the box with the number but they are 202's)

Boots Sale Buys!

Hi there!

Boots had an amazing 50% off all of their Christmas Gifts in January and so I just couldn't resist picking up a few goodies! 

First of all I spotted this gorgeous leopard print bag and when I went and picked it up I saw that it was actually a Mark Hill Big Hair Gift Set! ... so a leopard bag filled with goodies to give you big hair! that is just me in a set so I obviously had to get it and even better with the 50% it was reduced to £12.50 from £25! Was really a fantastic deal because when I opened it up I was really surprised to see that the products were all full size! These Mark Hill products retail at £5.99 each! so I was really happy with that! 

The set included:

Mark Hill Big Night Out Get Ready to Party! Pre Styling Shampoo 250ml
Mark Hill Big Night Out Get the Party Started Pre Styling Conditioner 250ml
Mark Hill Big Night Out Dirty Little Stop Out Volumising Dry Shampoo
Mark Hill Big Night Out Supersize Me Volume Spray
Some rollers and a leopard print back comb brush!

These products have really good reviews on the Boots website so I'm really looking forward to trying them all out so look out for a review soon! 

My current favourite products for big hair at the moment are from Paul Mitchell which I will link below so hopefully these are just as good!

Paul Mitchell You're a Pretty Big Deal Set

Next up my mum bought me a shelving unit for nail polishes in with my Christmas presents, however I am more of an acrylic girl and rarely paint my nails so I don't own a lot of nail polishes. However last year I stopped getting acrylics so much and my nails are now much stronger and healthy so I've decided I would like to start painting them more but first I have to build a nail polish collection for my shelving unit! 

So while in Boots I spotted these Ferne Cotton nail polish sets, I was immediately drew to the colours, they're really gorgeous shades that I felt I would definitely get wear out of and with the 50% off I was getting 6 nail polishes for £6! down from £12 that's £1 each, no way I could pass up a deal like that! So I decided to get 2 as I felt one looked like more winter shades and one was more summer shades.

So far I have used 6 of the colours and I really like them! I will do a separate post on these showing them on the nails! 

Finally I didn't get this in the sale, my mum actually bought me it for Christmas but I thought I would include it in here as I did actually see this in the 50% off sale so was retailing at £20 down from £40. So just to let you all know incase you wanted to pick this up! I'm going to do a review of this soon so watch out for that! 

If pennies weren't tight in January I would definitely be in boots gathering up more goodies! Did you manage to get anything in the boots sale?

TODAY BOOTS HAVE NOW PUT ALL THEIR GIFT SETS DOWN A MASSIVE 70% OFF SO I RECOMMEND YOU ALL HEAD DOWN TO YOUR LOCAL BOOTS AND TRY GRAB SOME BARGAINS!

New Year Make Up!

Hi there!

I thought I would show you my make up from New Years night. I have really been loving doing my make up even more now that I have lots of new brushes and products to play with that I got for Christmas!

Face

Loreal Lumi Magique Primer

Nars Sheer Glow Foundation - Barcelona

Collection 2000 Concealor - Shade 1

Bare Minerals Setting Powder

Nars Laguna Bronzer

Nars Blush in Coeur Battant

Mac Highlight in Soft & Gentle

Beautiful Brows Eyebrow Powder

Mac Russian Red with Mac New York Apple on top

Urban Decay Chill Setting Spray

Eyes

Urban Decay Primer Potion

Mac Pigment in Tan

Urban Decay Black (from Naked Palette) in the outer corners and crease

Blended with deep berry red shade from BH Cosmetics Cool Shimmer Palette

The lightest shade from the Mac RiRi Her Cocoa Eyeshadow palette for my brow highlight

Gold Glitter (no brand, got it from Ebay) I used Rimmel Eyeshadow Primer to adhere the glitter

L'oreal Super Liquid Eyeliner

Urban Decay 24/7 black eyeliner in my waterline

Eyelure Eyelashes No. 202

I actually had a New Years Eve make up look that I was going to show too however even though they were different, on camera they look too similar so I thought it would be pointless. However there is a picture of that look on my Instagram if you want to have a look!

I hope you like this make up look! I thought it turned out so pretty I just love any gold glitter eye look! It's always my go to inspiration when going out!

Beauty Favourites of 2013! - Make Up! x

Hi there!

I felt I had to jump on the 2013 favourites band wagon! I don't do monthly favourites even though they're one of my favourite types of posts to read purely because I don't tend to mix things up very often. I usually have a routine and pretty much stick to it, so yearly favourites is much better suited to me!

I am going to do this as a series so the rest of the items on the main picture will be shown next week! For this for first edition it's just general make up!

Before I start apologies for the random grey carpet haha! As I'm sure most bloggers will also be suffering from the same problem of lighting now that it's winter and this was the best spot for lighting I could find, my house is so dark and no natural day light certainly doesn't help matters! Roll on summer!

Now that that's out the way let's get started! I'm going to go in order of when I apply them.

Favourite Primer

I absolutely love this primer. I have already bought 2 this year and this one is almost done and I will be repurchasing, it is the only primer I have ever purchased more than once except mac! but this one is much more afforable!

Favourite High End Foundation

I saw Tanya Burr use this in a tutorial and knew as soon as she put it on that I had to have it! It's a really beautiful foundation, however I do hate that it doesn't have a pump! I'm on the list in Frasers for when they get the pumps in but it's been a few months and it's still not in stock.

Favourite Low End Foundation

Another recommendation from Tanya Burr! She had this in her Top 5 Drugstore Foundations and I liked the sound of it and immediately went out and bought it. This is my 3rd bottle of this foundation and I just love everything about it, I think the colour is beautiful and I always think it just looks flawless on the skin.

Favourite BB Cream

I bought this in July for T in the Park and completely fell in love with it! I was so surprised at the coverage. I love using this on days where I'm going somewhere I can't really be bothered doing my make up but don't want to not wear make up. It's so well loved I have even lost the lid haha. I really need to repurchase a new one of these!

Favourite Setting Powder

I just realised how much attention I must pay to Tanya Burr's recommendations as this was another one haha! I've recently started using a Bare Minerals Setting Powder and I think this one does exactly the same job. It's so cheap and I think it's so good for touching up like if I feel my make up starting to look a little patchy I pop some of this on and it just fixes it! Really can't go wrong with this I'm always recommending it to my friends.

Favourite Contouring Palette

As you can see from the picture the bronzer in this is very well loved! I bought this at the beginning of the year and I use it almost everyday I think it's such a great palette. The highlighter is really pigmented and pretty too and I love the blush too. Best £10 I've ever spent I think haha. (Sleek)

Favourite Blush

I love this little blush palette from Sleek I wore the coral shade almost every day in summer and then the red almost every day in winter! I like to mix the red with the middle blush for a little more colour and to add a gorgeous glow to my cheeks!

Favourite Highlighter

I wrote a review on this which I will link here. So I won't say too much about this but I think it's a really pretty highlight and I love that it has 2 shades and you can mix them too so 3 highlights in 1!

Favourite Summer Lipstick

I had a real obsession with coral this summer so my boyfriend bought me this gorgeous coral lipstick from Mac in Costa Chic and it is one of my favourite lipsticks, I wore it all the time in summer and I can't wait till this depressing weather goes away and the sunshine comes back out so I can start wearing this again!

Favourite Autumn/Winter Lipstick

Coral was my summer obsession, berry red is my winter obsession! I love this lipstick so much and get so many compliments when I wear it. You can see it on my lips on this post here.

Keep an eye out for the next edition next week!



What I Got For Christmas! x

Hi there!

I thought I would do a little post on what I got for Christmas! I didn't include absolutely everything because I took these photos on Boxing Day and you know what its like after Christmas, there is just presents everywhere! But I think I've got the biggest majority of my gifts!

First of all some make up goodies from my mum!

Nars Guy Bourdin Fling Gift Set

Nars Laguna Bronzer

Nars Guy Bourdin Blush in Coeur Battant

Benefit They're Real Mascara

Mac Highlighter in Soft and Gentle

Mac New York Apple Lipstick

Miss Rose Shimmer Eyeshadow Palette

Also this Soap and Glory Make Up Set. I've never tried any Soap and Glory make up so I'm really excited to use this!

I got Ralph Lauren Big Pony Perfume, my favourite as you have probably already seen me mention this a few times in previous posts and Vera Wang Princess! Love the bottle so much!

I've heard so many good things about Michael Todd Skincare range so my mum was lovely enought to buy me this set. I've only been using it since Christmas and so far I totally get the hype I especially love the cleanser! Review coming soon!

These Enrapture Heated Rollers are my favourite gift this year. They give amazing volume, I want to get a little more use out of them before I do my review but so far I am absolutely in love with them!

Lastly from my mum some little bits and bobs. I usually get loads of clothes for Christmas but most of the time they all go on sale the next day so I decided not to do that this year! I got a gorgeous little velvet playsuit from Missguided to wear for Christmas Day and a cosy Leopard print jumper from New Look to wear on Boxing Day! My mum also got me a dress from Pink Boutique to wear for New Years Eve but when it arrived it was too big and they didn't have the a smaller size so had to send it back boohoo!

Fake Bake Flawless Tan

Dancing Water Speakers

Minature Heroes

Katie Price Autobiography (I've read all the others, love her books)

Pink sparkly pen

Reading Light (I'm such a little geek he!)

Leopard Umbrella (which has blended in with my bed haha)

Bastille (going to see them in Feb yay!) and Little Mix Album

The cutest little plaster kit ever! All the plasters have little pictures of shoes on them! (I always have plasters on me, shoes hurt my feet alot haha)

Lush Snow Fairy Yum!

A lipstick holder (definitely need one of these, my lipstick collection has grew dramatically over the past year!)

Next up is presents from my boyfriend! He always totally spoils me at Christmas and this year was no different!

Dune Fur Lined Boots (Love these so much, literally had them on everyday since Christmas ha!)

Ugg Gloves (Soooo cosy)

A Samsung Camera (for blogging ofcourse)

Variety of make up brushes from Sigma, Crown Brush and Real Techniques)

So far been absolutely loving all my new brushes!

My sister Paula and my brother in law James got me the Mac RiRi eyeshadow quad! I don't own any Mac eyeshadows so I was just so over the moon with this and seriously how stunning is the packaging! Most gorgeous packaging ever!

Those leopard print slippers are seriously the cosiest things ever I love them so much!

and finally some goodies from Lush! I literally can't believe I hadn't even tried Lush till a few months ago. I'm definetly hooked now! I'm going to have a Lush post coming soon!

This was a gift from my boyfriend's sister and her finance!

Lancome Juicy Tube Lip Glosses - so gorgeous!

and a morning body shop set with shower gel, soap, body butter. I really like body shop products. I'm not a morning person so hopefully this will help haha!

Finally I got this really cute snood and headband set from my cousin and baby Mia my little God Daughter, they also got me a little bottle of wine which I forgot to photograph. I love snoods they're my favourite types of scarfs and I love little headbands as you don't have to worry about hat hair but still keep you nice and cosy!

I got completely spoiled and had a fanastic day with all my family! Christmas dinner was amazing as usual!

Little late but I do hope you all had an amazing Christmas with your loved ones! Next Christmas will be here again in the blink of an eye i'm sure!

Happy New Year! - What I Hope to Achieve in 2014!

Hi there!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

First things first .. apologies for the late post I realise the New Year started 6 days ago but after doing the 12 Days of Christmas and blogging 12 days in a row which was surprisingly more challenging than I had first anticipated I decided that during my time off work it would be a total holiday meaning time off from blogging too!

I decided it would be appropriate for my first post of 2014 to be what I hope to achieve in the upcoming year! I think it's really important to set yourself goals and think about what you want out of life otherwise what will motivate you to get there, setting goals for me is more about really thinking about what I want because otherwise we would all just dilly dally through life and never really achieve anything, unless you're really lucky and things just happen naturally for you ... but for the majority of the population we have to work hard for the things we want in life.

A goals a goal, big or small the important thing is setting your mind to something and trying your best to achieve it. A great sense of pride comes from achieving a goal even if its something small like drinking more water! If I say I'm going to try and drink 4 bottles of water today and I do, I do feel proud and I think it's a great way to instantly make you feel positive and the more little goals you achieve the more belief you have in yourself to achieve the big ones!

• First of all my main achievement for this year is to get a good grade on my final exam for my HNC in Office Administration and Information Technology. I started the course part time in August 2012 and now it all comes down to this final exam. Doing a part time college course while working full time is really challenging and can be so stressful at times so I can't say I'm looking forward to studying the next few months but it will all be worth it in the end if I get a good grade!

• Next is my boyfriend and I are finally going to start saving for a house together! So my goal is to actually save for a house haha! We've been together almost 7 years and every year we say we should start saving but this is the year we're actually going to do it! We're going to go set up a joint savings account at the end of the month and I'm very excited! It'll probably still be a few years before we actually buy a house but one step at a time and the first step is to start the savings!

• Next is to be more organised! If I'm going to pass my HNC while working full time and blogging I'm really going to have to pull my act together and get organised! I like to think I'm organised but I now have to put my organised thoughts into action!

• I really want to put alot of effort into my blog this year and try blog at least 2-3 times a week (minus last week!). If I can do more then even better but setting myself a realistic goal of 2-3 a week at least!

• In July/August last year I did a 2 week Rapid Fitness Detox and lost 8lbs in 14 days putting me at a weight I was really happy with, and with that I had a new mind set for healthy eating. I usually find it really difficult to lose any weight at all so this really gave me the motivation to want to continue at it. I try eat healthy majority of the time to maintain the weight but I gave myself December off so I want to get back into that mind set and try eat as healthily as I can. Not a diet, I just want to be healthy, after my detox I just felt so much better about myself and I want to try and keep that up, I don't want to spend my life yoyo dieting, I want to get to a weight I feel comfortable in and stay there, and be happy and healthy at the same time.

• Last but not least is to be less lazy! This kind of ties in with the rest of my goals (except the house saving) I'm so ridiculously lazy I literally love just sitting and sleeping lmao! So I want to make more of an effort to get off my lazy bum and move, whether it be getting up to look at my college work, taking pictures for blog posts, keeping my room tidy, exercising. Just as long as I'm getting up and being productive ... this is going to be a challenge! ... man I just love to sit lmao but I know for sure my sister, boyfriend and my mum and dad will hold me to this one!

 
Hopefully I can stick to all these goals throughout the year. I will most likely come up with new goals throughout the year aswell but for now this is what I have. I hope everyone had an amazing Christmas and New Year and all the best in 2014!!