Wednesday 29 January 2014

Models Own Sale

Hi - just a quick post to let you all know this is now live!! Includes the new gel polishes xx

I've treated myself to a full set of the gel polishes and some beauty blending sponges. 

I may have also picked up something for a new giveaway so keep your eyes open!

Monday 27 January 2014

Valentine's Day Wish List

This may be a slightly optimistic wishlist but here are a few things that would make me a very happy lady if the boyfriend presented me with one of the below!!





1) YSL Lipstick in Rose Paris £24.50
I've been lusting over this but cannot bring myself to paying £25.00 quid for a lipstick but if someone else did....
2) Shoes Kurt Geiger £140.00
IN LOVE with these shoes... I would wear these until my feet dropped off in pain from the extreme heel!!
3) Urban Decay Naked 3 £38.00
I have both other Naked palettes and have done everything to resist buying this but have a feeling this might be my surprise!!
4) Michael Kors Bag £195.00
Love this!! I think for designer bags Michael Kors are quite good value.
5) MAC 217 Brush £18.00
Been after this brush for a while...and I'm usually treated to a brush for presents :)


Saturday 25 January 2014

American Hustle Inspired Fashion

I have a massive style crush on Amy Adams in American Hustle!! The costumes are incredible. Below are my own versions of some of her looks each for around £100.00. Unintentionally i seem to always blog about beauty so this is also a change in my normal posts. Please let me know what you think?


I love this glam party look and the gold dress and amazing fur coat... I find vintage and charity shops are the best place to find 70s style furs but love the ASOS coat below and the best news is it's in the sale!!

ASOS LONGLINE FUR COAT (In sale at £37.50)
Wrap Dress (In sale at £15.00)

I think this look is absolutely stunning but let's be honest not many of us are brave enough or certainly in my case have the body to pull of this neckline. Below is my slightly more conservative take on this outfit.

Wrap Top AS0S £35.00


This dress is beyond beautiful but like I've said earlier in this post, many of Amy's looks in this film simply aren't wearable for us mere mortals!!





New Bargain Product Love

This week my boyfriend did our online food shop which meant I didn't get the shampoo I normally use but whatever was cheapest and on offer. I usually get aussie shampoo as I'm in love with the smell but this week have been using the Alberto Balsam in Mandarin and Papaya and I must say I'm in love.



I have now been using this for a week and I'm literally shocked at the price - it costs just 99p for a 400ml shampoo or conditioner and it smells like HEAVEN. The smell reminds me the old Bodyshop Mandarin bubble bath which I don't think they make anymore. 

I'm not going to go to much into it but it really suits my hair and for just 99p I'm definitely going to repurchase. 

Has anyone else tried this range? I understand they do some deep hair treatments so I'm keen to give these a try to...

Wednesday 22 January 2014

Bargain Makeup Storage Sugestions

I'm currently in the process of getting organized with my makeup collection - at the moment I have it all laid out in my old glossyboxes which it ok but this year I would like to get everything displayed more neatly.

I do LOVE the MUJI acrylic storage but am trying to find some cheaper alternatives.


First up is this 9 Drawer Unit which costs only £6.95 from Light in the Box, you can buy this here. I don't like the yellow bit but I do think this would be perfect for storing lipsticks in as you could display them bottom forward which would enable you to see your shades.

Second of all are these cutlery holders which are currently on sale in John Lewis for just £2.00 - I think these would be perfect for storing all your brushes, mascaras or eyeliners in. They are massively reduced as well which is always a bonus - you can buy these here.

Amazon has some great storage solutions for nail polishes. The one above retails for £9.99 which I think it one of the cheapest of it's kind I have seen around.

I got a lipstick holders a while ago from Ebay which was imported from China. I know a lot of people are put off with importing things from abroad so I've scoured the net for a UK supplier. They don't come cheap but the above one is £16.00 and is perfect for displaying your favorite lipsticks.

If anyone has a post about makeup storage please link them in the comments as I'm currently in the need for inspiration!!  

Sunday 19 January 2014

My High End Beauty Secret Lipstick Love

Hi All,

So we all know our MAC from our YSL and our NARS from our Chanel but there's another high end lipstick I can't get enough of at the moment and that is the Shu Uemura lipstick brand.

I came cross these in harrods in London about 2 years ago and they've become one of my fave high end lipsticks to purchase.



Here are the things I love about the product

1) The packaging - shallow as it is, I think this is some of the most attractive packaging on the marketing.
2) Smell - I really like the fact these lipsticks aren't scented. I love the vanillay MAC smell but find often the smell of lipsticks can put me off wearing them so love the fact this isn't scented.
3) Formula - I ADORE the formula of these lipsticks, they are glossy long wear and the colours and super super pigmented as you can see.
4) Colour Range - The colour range is literally massive.




You can buy Shu Uemura lipsticks online here  for around £19.00 and they are available in most luxury department stores.

Do you have an uncommon high end lipstick you can recommend?


Thursday 16 January 2014

A Few Picks From The January Make Up Sales

So the month of January was supposed to be a month of "reduced" spending - I'm not one of these to put myself on a spending ban (albeit I do need one) because I know I will fail. Instead I decided I would only buy things i really really need.

So I have tried to avoid the January sales and bar a few dresses from Matalan for work and a too good to refuse 60 pound to 10 pound grecian style dress in river island i've been really good... that is until this week but i think you may agree these bargains were too good to refuse...(maybe ;))

Right so first all I went to Boots to see if there was anything worth having in the 70% off reductions to be honest there wasn't and I wasn't willing to have a scrap with a few grannies over the last remaining Santuary gift sets but on my way out I was naughty... very very naughty.

I noticed Smashbox had some of the Christmas Gift sets reduced. I've been eyeing up the eyeliner for some times which I believe retails at around £14.00 so I believe the above set was a bit of bargain. I know a lot of bloggers rave about this eyeliner so i'm very keen to try it. 

So long stroy short the below set cost me a bargainous £17.50!!!! It also contains a full sized mascara which usually costs £18.00 which is more than the actual set cost - so really they have paid me 50p to have this gorgeous eyeshadow palette and mascara. (Funny Logic?)

I'm in love with this palette and feel it's beautiful rosey gold offerings may deter or at best delay my grubby little mits from the Naked 3 palette!!



I also picked up another bargain at the Smashbox counter and can't understand where this one even came from - I'm also a bit of a junkie for new make up brushes so couldnt resist trying this! 

The smashbox brushes usually retail at around £20 a brush so i was literally in shock to see this 5 piece signature brush set for just £24.50!!


I can't find any reference to anywhere online for why this was in the sale as it's still selling for 48 quid on the smashbox website... so once again I might have made a little spending oops!

I used these brushes this morning and have to say was very impressed - particularly love the chrome finishing and matching carrying bag :)


This was a slightly less impulsive purchase as I've wanted to try some illamasqua make up for ages... I don't want to go to much into these as may do a full review later if anyones interested?

But basically i got the Liquid Light Foundation in LF135 which is currently in the sale for £10 and the Liquid Blush is Dixie for £7.50!

Their sale is huge and epic so I feel i was pretty restrained. Here are some pics




Sorry for this lengthy post!! Has anyone else picked up any beauty bargains in the sales? xxxx

Monday 13 January 2014

ELF 32 Piece Natural Eye Palette






Ok so it seems a lot of these colours are very hit and miss but the palette has clearly been designed to dupe the naked 1 and 2 palettes - here is my review of the palette and I've tried to match the colours to the Urban Decay shades they are most similar to. I've only gone into detail on the first row and the bottom row as the middle two rows are basically different variations of the top row!!

First views

Pros - Huge selection of colours, comes with a mirror, compact size, cost
Cons - Quite a lot of samey colours, comes with an applicator (does anyone use these?) not a brush.

Row One
from Left to Right
1) Poor pigmentation - really hard to build up colour and chalky. I think this is supposed to dupe Virgin but it's not even comparable. 
2) Nice - similar to Urban Decay sidecar
3) Ok - most like Urban Decay Suspect but nowhere near as pigmented or luxurious. Very slight shimmer.
4) One of the best in the palette is very similar to Snake Bite. 

from Left to Right
5) Another crappy one - looks like Buck in the palette but in reality is a pretty poor browny poo colour :)
6) 50/50- this is a completely different colour to what it looks like in the palette - if we're comparing it to one of the Naked colours it's probably most like half baked but half baked definitely pips it to the post. Though the pigmentation is nice in the product it doesn't have a great amount of shimmer.
7) 50/50 - once again it's a bit like another pour cousin to my favorite naked colour Smog.... as before it's ok but you can tell it's not a high end shadow.
8) I suppose this is most like dark horse and while the colour is good the product felt a bit chalky.. i do like the shimmer in this colour though.

Row Two

As you can see these shades are very similar to the shades 1 to 4 on the first line of the palette - the third shade down is a really good base colour and is the best pigmented of the lighter colours in the palette.
5)Rubbish - no pigmentation or coverage.
6) Beautiful bronzey colour - though obviously not texture wise the colour really reminds me of colour tattoo on and on bronze or Naked 2's YDK maybe?
7) Adore this goldy colour - will defo be using this on night's out.
8) Fine as a basic - good coverage but I actually wore this today and it didnt stay on for very long.

Row Three
Once again not going to go to much in to these as all the first four shades on each line are very samey - stand out is probably the second one down which reminds me of Naked Sin.

These are my fave four in the palette - even though they are quite alike the other ones they quality of these is the best and I wore the third one down on Friday night and found it stayed on all night...


Row Four

From top to bottom
1) A lot of the colours are very similar in this palette but this is a better version of the first colour in the palette, the pigmentation and coverage is loads better and this is a very good dupe for UD Virgin.
2) Lovely bronzey brown colour - think this would be perfect with a navy for a smokey eye
3) Looks a lot like the shade before it but has a bit more shimmer to it - a bit like UD toasted
4) I like this a lot - its a very shimmery taupe sort of colour and is something you can wear everyday or in the evening. 

(from top to bottom)
These are strange as in the palette they all look very different but when you swatch them they look quite alike. 
5) Very very dark grey-y brown - the pigment in this is ace and would be great along with the others for the dark part of a smokey eye.
6) Another very dark brown but with quite a bit of shimmer in it - this is like a less glittery version of covet.
7)  Dark Grey with a good amount of shimmer
8) Black with a tad of shimmer - this is not a good black and though it looks ok swathed on the finger once you get it on the eye there is barely anything left.

Overall
Ok so it's a bit of a mixed bag but definately worth the money i paid for it.. ok so it's probably not going to replace my beloved naked palettes but its great for using for work as a cheaper alternative. 



Wednesday 8 January 2014

ELF HAUL

 Right so this is my first ever purchase from ELF so I'll let you know what my first impressions are of the products. I got all of these at a bit of a steal as I had a £10 off voucher and then another voucher for free postage.. therefore everything you see below cause me a grand total of £11.74 - I will however list the usual prices next to the pictures in case anyone else is interested.

Eyebrow Collection £6.00
Ok so I'm a little bit obsessed with eyebrows at the moment!!! However this kit seems a bit random....The set comes with 4 eye stencils, an eyebrow gel and powder, a clear mascara, some tweezers and a eyebrow brush (this is actually a concealer brush!!) 






32 Piece Natural Eye shadow Palette £6.00
I dont want to say too much about this as I'll do a full review of the pigmentation etc later but at the moment colours look nice and I like the casing.


3 Lipsticks £1.50
Flirtatious - Orangey Red
Fearless - Red Red 
Sociable - Pinky Red




All Over Cover Stick - Light Beige £1.50
Tinted Moisturizer in Ivory - 75p
Mineral Foundation Powder in Beige - £2.99

Don't want to say too much about these products until I've used them on my face for a few days as I'm always dubious with cheaper makeup.

Do you own anything from ELF? What would you say is their best product? 






Monday 6 January 2014

2014 High End Wish List

Here are the products I'm lusting for this year!! :) I am trying to be good and only buy one high end beauty product each month as my make up collection is getting out of control. 


1) Naked 3 - Everything in my head tells me i don't need this product, i own naked 1 and 2 and countless other palettes but I am seriously lusting over this!! I am imagine this will be finding it's way onto my dressing table before January has ended. Naked 3 is for sale for about £38.00

2) Next up is another palette.. this is pretty similar to the naked palettes but is the new smashbox version. I adore the shades in this palette and love the quality of smashbox eye-shadows generally. This also comes with a double ended brush and a mini mascara. And at £36.00 dare i say it may be better value than the Naked 3?! It's also dominating all the beauty mags at the moment so I imagine it will end up being a sell out product.
3) Next up is the new laura mercier eye cream! My friend has just bought this and is literally raving about it. I am a big fan of laura mercier products and literally live in their tinted moisturizer. 

4) Next up is a product I am so in love with I'd be willing to swap my boyfriend for it! How gorgeous is this blusher and it's packaging. I also think for a YSL product the price is relatively reasonable at £29.00. I feel this is the product I'm most likely to purchase!
5) I'm loving most of the products in the new Jason Wu and Lancome collaboration but my favorite thing in the whole collection has to be this perfect red lipstick in the shade "sequence of love". I only own a Lancome mascara so it would also be good to try some more the products.

6) Bobbi Brown have launched a gorgeous new collection of nudes and it is all DIVINE. My favorite thing is this gorgeous brightening finishing powder, I can imagine this would make skin look amazing!!! They've also got a good offer on at the moment where if you order more than £50.00 worth of stuff on their websites you get three free luxury samples.

7) Strangely MAC have also launched a nude range (presume manufacturers must realize we're all sick of Christmas glitter) which is also lovely. I know i won't be able to resist picking up a few bits!! My favorite colour is not sold out online (creamy peach) but how perfect is this shade for everyday. 
8) Ok so I've already had my first wobble of the year - I have been reading loads of good things about Illamasqua liquid light foundation so I was about to pop this on my wish list and have noticed the colour I need has been reduced from £27.00 to £10.00!!!! Needless to say it's now gone in the basket!! Super excited to receive this product :)