First Pro Card Haul!

This mini haul is a little bit belated as it was part of last weeks IMAT'S madness but I just haven't got round to doing it earlier, sorry girls!

So before we left last Saturday for the exhibition we looked up the postcode for the amazing Westfield shopping centre just incase we never made it (always get lost even with satnav) to IMATS.

Well as you know we did make it there but it wasn't as impressive as I'd hoped so as soon as I'd got hold of my coveted Pro card from Mac, an hour later, we jumped in the car and headed to Westfield.

I didn't get loads as I'm still waiting for the BBR collection, OMG so long now, starting to get a bit disheartened about the whole collection now. I bet all you UK bloggers feel the same way!

I got a few eyeshadows to start a new palette, they are Seedy Pearl, Era, Patina and Soba.

From top to bottom is Soba, a gorgeous golden brown (love this), Patina, a greeny brown shimmer, next is Era which is a muted golden beige and then Seedy Pearl a lovely muted lilac(love it).

I also got a shadestick in Beige-ing which is a gorgeous neutral muted golden beige. I love shadesticks, so versatile, base, liner, highlight or shadow. I also picked up an eyebrow pencil in Lingering.

Swatches Below;

I'll do a look with some of those neutrals this weekend, am loving browns and gold at the moment!

MAC - Naked Honey Collection.

If there wasn't enough new collections due to come out over the next few months Mac have created another and it looks delicious, literally! I found this on Temptalia's website, always great for Mac updates!

'Bees do it now Mac does it!'

Taking inspiration from ancient beauties of the past such as Cleopatra who swore by the healing and beautifying properties of honey, Mac have created this collection around the sticky stuff to celebrate the lives of the Queen Bees.

This super sweet collection is set to be released around June in the US and July in Europe.

The line consists of a range of bodycare items all with the healing properties of honey and two perfumes that use honeycomb as a base for the fragrance, sounds good enough to eat.

I love the packaging, so much nicer than the boring white and black skincare ranges. Really interested in the perfumes they sound lovely, nice and fresh for the summer.

As well as the lotions there are a few items of makeup with some great names, the collection includes;

3 lipglasses

• Queen Bee
• She's a star
• Buzz

3 eyeshadows

• Pollinator
• Buckwheat
• Creme de Meil

2 Highlight powders

• Honey Light
• Golden Nectar

I really like the sound of this new limited edition range, the packaging is gorgeous and the thought of honey infused cosmetics makes my teeth hurt (major sweet tooth). Bring on Summer!

What do you think? Sound good to you?

IMATS - Brushes, Brushes, Brushes!

Apart from getting a Mac Pro card another thing IMATS was great for was brushes, there were several large stalls full of every brush possible. I have quite a lot of brushes already, mainly Mac ones but I find they don't have much of a selection.

These stands were full of amazing brushes so I had to invest. All of them were complete bargains mostly ranging from £3-£5 each which is amazing for natural haired brushes, at Mac your lucky if you pay less than £15 for an eyeshadow brush.

I ended up getting 5 brushes from a spanish brand, You Cosmetics which are the brushes on the left in black packaging. They are all made from Racoon, Squirrel or Pony hair so are amazingly soft.

And another 5 from an English brushmakers, Royal and Langnickel, most of these are natural too apart from the really cute mini Kabuki (babuki) which is synthetic.

I have had a few days to try these out and they are all amazing, so soft and amazing quality. The flat top Kabuki on the far left is great for buffing in my foundation, I used to use Mac's 183 but the handle was a little short making it hard to use. This one is a great Mac dupe (not sure of number), I nearly bought exactly the same one a few weeks ago for £35 but got this for a mere £4.50!

The next three after that are all dupes of Mac's 227, they can be used for highlight, blending and the black handled one for smudging.

The badger coloured one next to those is synthetic and I can use for cream shadows or applying primer to the lids.

The next one is a tapered blending brush similar to Mac's 224 but smaller, this is amazing, I don't have a lot of lid space so thinks works much better for me than any of Mac's tapered brushes.

After that is an angled shader brush which is super soft and great for the crease.

Then a small pointed detail brush follows which I've used for doing an outer and inner V shape on my eyelids. I'm so glad I got this one because I have nothing like it and it's great for adding smaller details.

The fat handled brush next has a flat top and is meant to be used for applying bronzer but I use it for powder or my Mineral Skinfinish Natural.

And last but not least is the cutest brush ever, I had to have this, it's called a Babuki and is an angled kabuki brush which is meant for contouring and bronzer. It's amazingly soft and great for covering small areas of the face.
I also ended up buying a brush roll, I don't have one because I always thought Mac's was pretty pricey at around £30 and I usually keep my brushes in pots. I got this one for £10 which is a bargain, now I can keep them organised when I travel.

Overall really happy with my brush haul, all are amazing quality, lovely and soft and were complete bargains. After using them for a few days I think I prefer them to my Mac brushes which can be a little rough on the skin.

IMAT'S

I went to the IMAT'S exhibition on Saturday with Hel, we set off early because knowing us we probably would get lost. Armed with a satnav and printed directions we made our way to London.

I don't know what I expected from IMAT's but it certainly wasn't the picture I had in my head. If you have ever been to the ClothesShow Live in Birmingham which is a huge exhibition of shops, stalls, catwalks and demonstrations then this is what I thought this might be but for makeup!

It wasn't.

It was a little bit of a disappointment if I'm honest, it was tiny, we walked around every stall in a matter of minutes. But there were some positives, namely this little beauty;

OMG!I'm so excited about having this little card in my purse, so I'm glad I went just for this. Usually a Mac PRO card can only been given if you are a professional within the beauty industry but on this day they were giving them to anyone for £25, which is great for 35% of all MAC for a year.

I got a temporary card for now as the real one will be sent in a few weeks, can't wait! As soon as I'd payed I raced to the packed Mac store, it only sold the PRO line so there wasn't much choice unless you love crazy colours but I picked up some great things.

This is my first ever pigment, I've never really been keen to try these as they look potentially messy, wasn't sure how to use them and fairly expensive but I love purple and I love this!

This is Deep Purple!

It is a gorgeous shimmery dark purple great for going out and creating a purple smokey eye, can't wait to try this out.

On my persuit of the perfect nude lip I couldn't resist these gorgeous lipsticks, I ended up buying all three of the range of nudes they had. So gorgeous.

The new additions to my collection are (L-R) Lovedust, Fleshpot and Peachstock.

Same order in swatches, I'll do them on lips in another post!

I also got my first blush pan to go in my new palette which I also purchased alond with a new eyeshadow one. At the top is Mac's creme liner in Dark Brown and below is O-J eyeliner which I actually bought thinking it was a lipliner, silly me.

This is Sunbasque which is a gorgeous peachy blush with gold shimmer, I think this will look amazing with a Tan, bring on Summer.

I only purchased one eyeshadow because they didn't have two others I asked for but anyway heres Deep Damson.
Sticking with the purple family this is a matte dark purpley brown.

Thats what I got from the Pro store there is more to come from IMATS in the next post!

Freebie Friday!

First week back at uni over and I couldn't wait for the weekend to come around. I was in the middle of writing an essay this afternoon when I was interrupted by a knock at the door. It was a flying visit from the makeup fairy!

It was Hele; I spied the white Harvey Nichols carrier bag in her hand so decided to let her in for a cup of Earl Grey! Over tea she showed me a few recent purchases before handing me a little black box;

I've wanted this blusher for so long and I've been trying to hunt it down since Christmas but it's always been out of stock. The usual story of NARS counters.

This is Torrid, a gorgeous peachy blusher with gold shimmer, very similar to MAC's Style Blusher if you have that. Can't wait to try it out tomorrow, although I love NARS Sin it's nice to have a change.

Her generosity didn't stop there. Out of her giant handbag she produced several handfuls of empty MAC eyeshadow pots, 18 in total. As you all know, pots mean prizes and with the promise of a free lipstick in it for me, BACK TO MAC we went. So without spending a penny I walked away with Please Me. Thanks Hel!

It's a matte, muted plum rose, hard to describe so take a look for yourself below.

The best makeup in life is free!

Golden goodies!

I had a few hours to spare yesterday afternoon after a morning of doing some serious studying for one of my new modules. After a long time reading up on feminists and women's rights I gave up and decided to treat myself and do a bit of shopping.

The car was parked and I hit the YSL counter, I love their packaging it wins me over everytime.

I know I'm weak and it's overpriced but it looks so pretty, I think I have magpie syndrome if there is such a thing.

I didn't go too mad as I'm waiting for the weekend when I can go crazy at IMAT'S, there's no way I'll be able to restrain myself there.

I ended up buying their Perfect Touch foundation in Shade 5 which I love. I've been using this on and off for the past year or so and it's still the one I reach for 9 times out of 10. The packaging is great, it comes with a foundation brush at the tip making it super quick to apply and is the smoothest formula ever.

No other foundation has made my skin look as flawless and natural, it gives a light to medium coverage and never looks heavy. It also smells yummy. I apply it using the given brush then buff it in to my skin with Mac's 183 flat-topped brush and Mac's 109 brush to get into smaller places around my face.

I also got something I've wanted for a while now, as you know I'm a big fan of YSL Rouge Volupte lipsticks, the queen of all lippies. I have a few colours already but I saw Number 2 on Lollipop26's blog and it looked gorgeous, so I had to have. It's so pretty just the kind of colour I like, nude with a hint of Peach, Number 1 is similar but with a hint of Pink.

Number 2!

I also got a Easy Liner from their Spring 2009 collection, I had a similar style eyeliner from Chanel a while ago which was good but I got sidetracked with Mac and Bobbi Brown's gel liners which I've been using ever since. When I saw this I had to have it, I got shade 2 which is a chocolate brown, gorgeous colour and great packaging.

I tried to demonstrate the thickness of lines but basically it's easy to use no matter how you like your liner to look.

I used it today and it's easy to apply and gives a great line, you can make it thick or this and do good flicks if thats your style. The only downside is the steep pricetag, I didn't ask how much it was and only looked at the reciept after but it was £21, is it just me or is that a little much for an eyeliner?

Exceptionnel de Chanel - Mascara Review!

Mascara for me, like most women is a must have, along with foundation it's the most important item in my makeup bag. I won't leave the house without a little swipe of mascara to help me flutter my eyelashes to maximum effect and define my eyes.

I have quite long eyelashes luckily so most mascara's work to an extent for me but I do have the problem of the curl not lasting very long and my eyelashes drooping by midday. But this mascara holds them up all day and I never have to reapply. This is a first for me, usually to get my lashes to stay perfect through the day I reapply several times.

This mascara is described by Chanel as being:

'A dream mascara is one that is VOLUMISING, CURLING and LASTING. Exceptionnel de Chanel achieves these three feats in perfect harmony.'

And I couldn't put it better myself or agree more. This is the mascara of dreams, it is perfect in every way.

It is like no other mascara I've ever seen or used, the wand is unique and innovative in design. The wand has a double effect end with two types of brush, it has 3 traditional brushes alternating with 3 combs allowing it to give maximum effect.

This is the best picture I could get to illustrate my point, at the bottom you can see the traditional bristles and at the top is the plastic comb.

This dual head design allows the mascara to give you a multiple finish to your lashes, it lengthens, combs, volumises and curls.

It is the only mascara I have ever tried that does all this in one and it lasts all day which is a massive bonus for me.

I really recommend that you try this if you want amazing looking lashes that last all day and give the wow factor and who doesn't. A few of my friends and people have asked me is my eyelashes were falsies and nope their not, it's just the Chanel.


If you click the picture you will get a better look at how the mascara really coats all the lashes making them look volumous and clump free.
Wierd lighting I know but it was the best picture I had that showed how fabulous this mascara works. I only ever use one coat by the way so it's super quick and easy to apply.

Before this mascara I used another Chanel which is also good Inimitable and MaxFactor's False Lash Effect. They are both good but only did one of the things I wanted for my lashes this one does everything in one.

What does anyone think, good mascara? What are your favourites?

TAG! A few of my non-makeup related favourite things!

I love doing and reading these tag posts so I jumped at the chance to do another one. This one isn't make up related because as much as we all love the stuff sometimes it's nice to talk about other things/items we love, i.e shoes, jewellery etc.

I know I like finding out about all you guys and your other interests besides the slap so here's my attempt at my lovely bff's Tag request, Hele started this one and I hope some of you do it because your all TAGGED!!

These are a few of my favourite things...

Lily!

This is Lily my 2 year old daughter, this was taken a few months ago, excuse the lamp reflection.
These are photos of professional photos I had taken, I always wanted to get some done when she was really small but never got round to it, it's true what they say they grow up so fast!!

Tan Boots/Shoes.

Tan shoes are my obsession, I love this colour, it goes with anything and everything. I've bought three pairs this season but these are my absolute favourite. I got them in London last week from Office, they were on sale and I had a gift card to use so bargain at £37 from £125!

Handbags!

What girl doesn't love handbags, I've been collecting designer handbags for a few years now but this is my absolute favourite. I love the chocolate brown colour, the fact thats it's massive, definately big enough to hold all my makeup and nappies. I fell in love with the gold and silver charms, theres a horseshoe, a horse, a silver ball (not visable) and a leather dogtag that hang off it.

It is by Chloe and is one of my most prized possessions!!I love it, thank you kind boyfriend (last Christmas's present).

My favourite Jewels!

I used to refuse to wear gold thinking it was something my gran wore but over the last I've completely done a 360 and now think it's really elegant. I also love pearls which I swore I would never wear till I was atleast 40.

This is a gold Dogeared necklace that I hardly ever take off, it's so cute and small. I love the tiny crown, Dogeared do some gorgeous and unique charms.

This is a gorgeous gold Catherine Weitzman disc necklace, I was kindly given it last birthday by the lovely Hele. It is a print of underwater coral, the New York jewellery designer makes handmade designs influenced by nature.

My watch.

I love big watches so when I saw this one I had to have it, I bought it for myself as an early Christmas present. It's by an American designer Micheal Kors, I love his stuff, classic, simple and wearable.

Winter warmer.

This is definately my favourite winter 2008 item, I bought this a few weeks ago from French Connection and I haven't taken it off since. It's a black princess coat with patent toggles and inticate woven detailing.

A closer look!

So go on do the TAG! you know you want to, share a few of you favourite things!

New discovery, PURE cosmetics!

This week I discovered a new brand of cosmetics that I've fallen in love with, it's name is PURE and is an Italian makeup range thats just been launched in the UK (not sure about US).

I was surfing the net for a Kajal eyeliner as I've been watching some YouTubers trying them out and thought I'd give them ago when I came across this website click here to take a look.

I usually decide whether I like something based strongly on first impressions, I like things to look pretty which sometimes isn't such a great thing as I end up getting conned into lots of unneccessary makeup just for the packaging = Dame Edna collection. Upon first click I knew I'd be trying this makeup out, the website is simple and elegant and the makeup reminds me a little of the likes of NARS and Mac.

So I took the plunge and decided to purchase some things and test them out for you guys so we could establish if this brand was to be the next big thing. The packaging is nice, simple, black and made of the same stuff as Nars, that velvety texture thats damn hard to keep clean.

The prices are a little cheaper than Mac so therefore an affordable and middle range line of cosmetics.

Midnight blue on the left and Seductive Grey on the right.

I wore the blue one yesterday and have been wearing the grey today, I love these, they are so soft and easy to apply. I love, love, love the navy it gives such a lovely colour that lasts all day. I'm not to sure how to tightline which is the original way to apply Kajal liners so if anyone knows please comment.

I also got three Creamy Eyeliners which are double ended, one with the liner and the other with a sponge smudge tip. I got a grey, blue and black. I have yet to test these out but when I swatched them they aren't that soft, bit disappointed as was sold on the creamy part.

The concealer which is in the middle at the back is ok, I got it in the lightest shade which is perfect for me and matches well. It goes on fine, blends with no problems but doesn't last long and wears off quite quickly, I think I'll stick to my Estee Lauder Double Wear concealer (fab btw).

The eyeshadow cube I bought mainly for the gorgeous packaging, it's so different and cute. The colour is a muted gold and is acutally really pretty on. It is soft to touch and applies easily.

I also got an eyeshadow duo which I haven't got a photo of and a single eyeshadow which I bought simply because it looked pretty.

I also got three nail varnish's, I'm really into nice looking nails at the moment and can't stop buying up polish in pretty colours. A really pretty baby pink which looks great on (wearing today), a dark purple and a fuschia pink.

Here are some swatches, top left is the gold eyeshadow cube, below that is the grey, black and blue creamy liners and onthe right are the Kajal eyeliners in Seductive grey and Midnight blue.

Has anyone come across Pure before?

CHI spree!

I discovered Sally's beauty supplies for the first time last week and now I'm addicted I had to go again yesterday to pick up some more CHI goodies. I mentioned in my previous post that they currently have an amazing half price sale on selected products including the full CHI range.

After trying out the infamous CHI silk infusion which I love and raved about in my first haul post I thought I'd go back and try out the rest of the range. It would be rude not to at these prices.

It just so happens I was nearly out of shampoo and conditioner anyway so there was another excuse to make the trip.

I ended up getting the Ionic colour protection system shampoo and conditioner (blue bottles) which I have used twice since buying and on first impressions am not sure. The shampoo is really difficult to lather no matter how much I use and the conditioner makes my hair feel rough and not silky like most conditioners. But that said it might be doing just what it says on the bottle and protecting my highlighted locks, fingers crossed. Both £3.89 each.

I have never had any curling tongs before, I've been growing my hair for the past three or four years and it's now pretty long so can be curled. Up until now I've just used GHD's to create curls but I wanted bigger, more natural curls and this does just the job. I couldn't wait to test these out so when I got home I whipped them out. They make lovely, natural looking curls for a great everyday look and were easy to use. Cost £25.98 in the sale from £70, not bad hey!

I also purchased the hairspray so I could keep my curls in for longer, yet to try and a heat protector spray. I haven't used these yet but I have tried the volume spray which I also got and to be honest can't really see any difference, prefer Sephora's volume mist or Aveda's hair potion.



I also got this huge bottle of KMS blonde treatment which is meant to stop blonde hair looking brassy and help detangle wet hair. It wasn't from Sally's but from a pound shop across the road so for a pound you can't go wrong. I've tried some KMS before and they're pretty good.

I also picked up a Neutrogena makeup corrector stick which is an oil free, non-greasy pencil which is used to remove eyeliner or mascara mistakes. I've used it and it's really good, usually I use a wet cotton bud but this is so much easier, again bargain at a pound.

Anyone else found any beauty bargains recently?