Benefit Boi-ing and Life on the A List!

I know some people may have heard me briefly talk about this in my most recent YT haul video (here) but if you haven't then I thought I'd do a quick post.

Basically all Benefit counters (Boots, Debenhams and House of Fraser) in the UK are doing a great offer, if you buy two products you get a free, full size, 50ml B-Spot perfume. Which is great as I love this sweet smelling scent and I've wanted it for ages.

I would never usually gravitate towards the Benefit counter as it's a brand I used to used a lot when it first came out years ago but I've long forgotten due to my obsessions with Mac, Nars, EL and YSL.

But I'm so glad I've rediscovered my love for the brand and here's why!

Most of you will know this concealer but for those who have yet to try it I'll give mini review!

This is a fantastic concealer and so it should be for a hefty £15.50. It has a smooth, almost waxy texture which I find works really well for my sometimes oily skin. It blends really well and lasts for ages.

It is advertised as an industrial strength under-eye concealer but to be honest you can use it anywhere, I have anyway and I love it. Under the eye's it surprisingly does not crease/cake and really covers my dark circles all day! I'm definately impressed.

The other item I picked up was one of Benefit's new lipglosses, Life on the A List!

I was instantly drawn to this gorgeous colour, a beautiful baby pink with a hint of peach and I loved the name. I have tried their older lipglosses, Her Glossiness (on sale now btw online) which I loved and is the only tube I've ever finished so I knew I'd like this!

It smells gorgeous, really fruity, good enough to eat and applies really smoothly, not at all patchy like some liglosses.

I really love the colour of this but it isn't as pigmented as I'd hoped, it does look pretty on the lips but like I said a little sheer.

On the plus side it makes my lips feel gorgeous and soft.

The killer for me of this lipgloss is the annoyinly small stopper, you have to pump the wand around 6 or more times to get enough for the right application.

I love the colour and I will use this but I'm not sure I'd re-invest.

I'm so glad I tried Benefit again and will definately be going back to try some more products.

What else is good? Any suggestions?

xx

If 129 were a nail polish...

I'm crazy about purple at the moment or more specifically anything in the shade lilac. Barry M's 129 is the most gorgeous and surprisingly wearable milky pinky/lilac lipstick. Today while browsing the ailses at Superdrug I came across the most amazing nail polish from the most unexpected brand.

I didn't think I'd ever say this but Collection 2000 are on to a winner with this new polish, a perfect match for 129, aptly called Dynasty.

Dynasty is part of their Hot Looks collection of fast drying nail varnishes. I was instantly drawn to this bottle, the colour stood out a mile away.

It's a really gorgeous milky/baby pink with a hint of lilac, I love it!

With flash!

This is one of the best nail polishes I've ever tried not just for the beautiful colour but the formulation is amazing. I was so shocked, there were no streaks to be seen, it applies really smoothly and the consistancy is really creamy similar to O.P.I and other higher end brands.

Usually with cheap polishes and this is cheap at £1.75 a bottle, the formulation is thin needing many coats to get any kind of colour. This couldn't be more different, just one coat of this and the colour payoff is great. Although I could settle for one, personally, I think two intensifies it just enough to give that gorgeous milky lilac!

Not only is the colour and formulation just right the brush is fantastic as well, if you can see in the above picture it's really thick which allows just one swipe to cover the whole nail on all but the thumb.

Without flash!

At the moment Superdrug have this on offer, all Hot Looks nail colours are 2 for £2.99, I grabbed two!

What do you think? Anyone else tried Collection 2000 and had a blast from the past?!

xx

My New Blog - Makeup Merchant

I've just started a new blog to help all you makeup lovers who find it hard to get hold of certain products and brands, I will be selling items and taking requests to custom purchase items for you.

There will be no huge mark ups I'm doing this more for those who love makeup and not for the love of money!!

Take a look here and please follow
xx

Mac's Naked Honey Skin Salve - Review

At first glance I admit this product does not look very interesting but trust me, this is much more than just a giant pot of vaseline. This wonder balm will banish dry lips and skin leaving you moisturised and smelling gorgeous for the summer.

The skin salve is from Mac's latest collection, Naked Honey, which in my opinion was very 'meh' and easily passible but I'm so glad I picked up this one product from the range.

This amazingly, versatile balm is my new handbag essential and summer skin saviour.

The variety of uses:

• Lip Balm - this clear salve is great for long lasting hydration on your lips. My lips have never felt so soft after using this for the past week. I reach for this constantly and wear it alone or under/over lipsticks.
• Dry skin areas - I have Eczema and this really helps to get rid of my dry skin, I apply it before bed on my hands and wake to find them gorgeously soft. You can use this anytime and anywhere you need.
• Feet - cracked heels and dry skin on my feet are now a thing of the past thanks to this, I apply a little in the morning to help my feet look pretty all day in sandals.
• Eyebrows - this sounds strange but it really works to help keep my sometimes out of control brows in shape. Apply a little and move into desired place to keep them looking good all day.
• Highlight - I remember using Vaseline to do this and forgot about it but since having this tub have rediscovered the highlighting effect balm can give. Underneath my brow on my brow bone I dab a little and it adds a nice sheen and helps to lift the eyes.
• Cuticles - Such a great product for softening the cuticles and skin around the nails which can sometimes become hard. I apply it throughout the day around my nails.
• 

Before I tried this I thought it might be a little greasy and sticky on the skin but it is neither of these and amazingly sinks into the skin effortlessly leaving it feeling silky soft.

Another thing I love about this product is the smell, it has a sweet and summery scent. The perfect mix of honey with an added floral note, similar to that of Honeysuckle which reminds me of my parents country garden.

This multi-purpose balm comes in a surprisingly large (for Mac) tub containing 40g of product for £13. I've been using this everyday, all day for the past week and have barely dented the surface, this stuff is going to last a while.

Although I've never tried it, Mac's skin salve has been compared to Elizabeth Arden's cult product, the Eight Hour Cream so if you like that you'd love this. It is Limited Edition so pick it up soon if you can I'm going for back-ups!!

Did anyone else try this? What do you think?!

xx

FOTD using Colour Craft

Today I wanted to try something different, Ok it isn't anything over the top but it definately makes a change from my usual neutral everyday look. Odd Bits from the Colour Craft collection (video here) was just waiting to be tested out and I couldn't resist.

This quad is made up of a really unusual combination of colours, a gorgeous muted pink, deep purple, tan and a beautiful grey/teal. I never thought that these colours would go together but they really work.

Face makeup used:
Maybelline Dream Satin Liquid (I'm loving this at the moment, light with great coverage)
Mac studio finish concealer
Mac Blot powder
Benefit Erase Paste

Also from the Colour Craft collection I used the Sunny by Nature bronzing MSF as my only bronzer, I love this, in the above picture you can see the gorgeous colour and subtle sheen it gives. I didn't use a highlighter but you can see the nice highlighted effect it gives to the cheekbones, a dual product.

On the apples of my cheeks I applied Mac's Fun and Games a matte peach with Improvise from the CC collection over the top for the sheen. I've found the only way to make this blusher work is to apply over another blusher, a matte one then you get the best of both, colour and sheen!

I really love this quad, I never thought I'd be able to wear all of these but I think I made it work. I applied the muted pink all over the lid, I then applied the teal colour in the crease followed by a bit of the darker purple blended together. Strange I know but hey I was being creative.
As you can see my lashes are looking both full and long and that's all thanks to Bourjois Liner Effect mascara which I will review next week, I love it!!

As my eyes were a little more dramatic than usual I opted for the nude lip of course, I have rediscovered my love for Mac's Myth, the perfect nude.
It is a beautiful colour but a little drying so I applied lashings of the Naked Honey Skin Slave underneath and on top.

What do you think - too over the top?! Which quad are you loving?xx

Colour Craft inc swatches

Another month, another Mac collection, or two. Like most of them I couldn't wait for these to reach the UK counters, Colour Craft more than any other. As soon as I saw the promo pics and the inside info about the collection on Temptalia several months ago I knew this was the collection for me.

Unlike most recent Mac collections which have been some what disappointing, this collection has something for everyone and I think you'd be hard pressed to find something you don't love!

The items I was most looking forward to were the quad mineral eyeshadows, all six of them are gorgeous and I found it really hard to decide which to choose.

Natural Flare (top), Odd Bits (left) and Eccentricity (right).

I ended up with three in the end, Natural Flare, Eccentricity and Odd Bits which are all beautiful and made up of four complimentary colours making them really wearable.

I really love mineral based eyeshadows, I've found that if they are decent quality they have the best pigmentation, are smooth to apply and are really easy to blend. I reach for mineral eyeshadows 90% of the time leading me to neglect my four Mac palettes which continue to sit unloved in my drawers.

Swatches:

From top to bottom, Natural Flare, Eccentricity and then Odd Bits.

If I had to pick a favourite it would probably be the neautral quad, Natural Flare, no surprises there. I will reach for this more than any other on a daily basis to create a nice natural eye. Eccentricity will be great for a night out, I love a purple smokey eye.

The only negative I have with these is that a few of the colours are a little flakey, namely the lightest colours in Natural Flare and Eccentricity which is a bit annoying but the rest are really nice.

Onto the MSF's, again there were six released in this collection and I was anticipating getting atleast half of them as they are so damn pretty to look at, but I think I've learnt my lesson, I rarely ever reach for MSF's and held back.

Sunny by Nature MSF and Improvise blush.

I did however get one and I'm really glad I did, Sunny by Nature is gorgeous, unlike most MSF's it isn't shimmery, it is a matte bronze with pretty coral flecks running through it. I've worn this every day since, it gives the most gorgeous bronzed glow to my face, not atal orange, bye bye Laguna.

I really like Mac's mineral blush, Gentle is my favourite, a really pretty pink which adds a little sheen to the cheeks so I was excited about the six new ones in CC. The blushers for me are probably the biggest disappointment in the collection, I swatched them all and I just didn't think the colour payoff was great, all sheen and no colour.

I did get one though in Improvise, a pretty coral with gold veining. I have worn this every day since I've had it and I just can't see it. It does leave a really nice highlighted effect to my cheeks which I like but no colour so I've had to wear a blush then this on top for the sheen.

Swatches

This is a swatch of Sunny by Nature and Improvise with flash.

No flash!!

And last but not least is the marbled lipgloss, again one of six, these were all really pretty to look at but I knew if I bought more it would be purely for superficial merits.

You may recognise this style of lipgloss from the Sugar Sweet collection, same elegant, square packaging and swirled marble effect gloss. The only difference this time seems to be the formulation, they are much more pigmented and give great colour payoff on the lips.

This is Miss Marble which is described on the website as a muted pink. When I tried this in Mac the tester was a gorgeous nude pink, I fell in love but when I got mine it was much brighter more of a hot pink.

Not swirled!

The key to these lipglosses is to swirl, swirl and swirl. I've been mixing my wand around the tube for the past few days and it's finally made the perfect colour. I love this, a really pretty baby pink.

Swirled Miss Marble!

The lipglosses smell delicious, are non sticky and really smooth to apply the only down side is the tiny stopper on the tube. It doesn't allow much product to come out so you have to use atleast 5 pumps for one application.

All in all I'm really happy with what I picked up from Colour Craft and can see myself going back for more. Unfortunately I missed out on the much talked about Colour Crafted lipstick as my Mac store released the collection 3 days early so when I got there on the official release date it was sold out!!!

Have you been Colour Crafting? Is there anything else I missed I should go back for?! New video here.

xx

Graduation photos!

My graduation ceremony was this Friday and I can now officially say I'm no longer a student, bye bye discounts and excuses to be lazy!!

It's taken me four long years of hard work to get my degree but I'm so glad it's all over and graduation was a great way to mark the end.

The ceremony itself wasn't held at my university but in the beautiful and vast Elizabethan gardens of a country mansion, a place called Trentham Gardens.

Because the ceremony was at 10am and I had to collect my oh so stylish gown and hat at 9am we decided to stay in a hotel the night before instead of travelling on the day.

Above is a picture of Lily and I wearing our graduation outfits. Lily chose a pink tutu!! I kept my makeup really simple as I knew I'd probably shed a tear or two along the way.

The gardens and a marquee where the ceremony was held.

It was about a ten minute walk through the gardens to the marquee where the event was held so I'm glad the sun was out. I then went straight to collect my gown and silly hat.

Me and my dad!!

The gown was a complete nightmare as it kept falling off all day!

Me and the rest of the crew waiting for our stage appearance, a sea of crazy hats.

Searching through my giant handbag for some much needed lipgloss!

My mum insisted on getting a photo of my infront of the lake after the ceremony, after hours of my gown falling off I'd given up putting it on properly hence it halfway down my arms.

Lily couldn't wait to try on the hat while eating her lunch!

After handing in my gown we went to explore the gardens and found some nice fountains. I had to stop Lily from diving in!

Gown abandoned!

If you wanted to know where anything I'm wearing is from check out my latest video.

Lily hiding in the grass.
Not only were there shops, cafe's, playgrounds and boat rides on offer a Monkey Forest was also on the grounds. We had to take Lily after she was so good and patient during the ceremony.

It was amazing, 8 acres of fenced off woodland housed 150 monkeys, all free to walk and climb around.

Baby monkey takes a jump!

Sorry about the picture heavy post I took over 200 photos on the day so these were just a small selection. I had such a great graduation, it was nice to see friends, say goodbye to tutors and finally mark an end to student life!

Good luck to any of you graduating this summer and throw your hats high!
xx

FOY - testing Laura Mercier tinted moisturiser!

Last Friday I finally took the plunge and invested in some tinted moisturiser, but not just any tm(tinted m), a Laura Mercier, £35 a tube tm. The beauty world is constantly raving about this miracle worker so I thought it was about time I tried it out.

FOY (Face of Yesterday) pictures are below with me wearing only this as a base and small amount of concealer.

As summer is finally here and the weather is gorgeous I just felt I needed something a little lighter than my beloved Dior Forever foundation. It isn't the heaviest of foundations but you can see it sitting on your face a little which I think is exentuated in the sunlight.

I will do a full review on this product after I've used it a little longer but on first impressions I like it, it's light, evens out my skintone, covers well and lasts most of the day. I purchased the OIL FREE version as I have oily skin which is particularily bad in the summer/heat.

As you can see above it is visibly shiny on my T-Zone and cheekbones, I do like the fact that it looks radiant and my skin looks glowing but it's hard to get used to as I'm used to a more matte base. I love how healthy I think my skin looks, it feels alive and not masked something all foundations seem to do.

It doesn't sit in pores on my nose which is amazing and one of my pet hates, I also hate the way foundation slides off my nose after a couple of hours, this doesn't happen with the Laura Mercier.

One major NEGATIVE about this tinted moisturiser is the colour selection, it is extremely poor in variety and I found it very difficult to find a shade I could wear. Two were pasty white on me and the rest really orange. In the end I bought Fawn which is still not perfect but wearable.

After a few days of testing this product without a setting powder I decided to give it a go with Mac's Blotting Powder below.

I really think this works well with this base, it stops the shine just enough while still letting the radiance of my natural skin shine through. I didn't apply this everywhere just on my T-Zone and cheekbones.


TM AND BLOT POWDER

I've found the best way to apply this is with a foundation brush all over my face like a mask and then buff it in with my flat topped Kabuki to give a really natural finish.

I'm so surprised with the result, I never thought I'd be happy to go out with just a tinted moisturiser on but Laura M has proved me wrong. I won't be giving up foundation completely but I'm definately happy to stick with this for the summer.

I'm wearing it in my new YT video here.

Does anyone else swap to a TM for summer or tried Laura M? What do you think?!
xx

Amazing prizes!

Like most women I love getting post, when it's not the dreaded bills and recieving presents. So when I heard that I'd unexpectedly won a competition (I never ever win anything) I couldn't wait to recieve my parcel of goodies.

Orla aka Little Miss Beauty Junkie held an open competition, all I did to do was type 'enter me', a few months ago and if I'm honest I completly forgot about it till a few weeks ago when she e-mailed me.

Anyway my parcel arrived and inside was an amazing selection of treats, some high-end some high-street.

It contained some:

• Cowshed - bath and shower gel, which smells of ginger, LOVE! It's so nice to get given something like this as I would never have spent so much on shower gel, what a treat.
• Body Shop - Papaya lip butter
• Lush - Rock Star soap
• Lush - Think Pink bath bomb - can't wait to use this
• DuWop - Lip Venom, lip plumper - bit scared to use this!!I imagine it's going to burn!
  

These two great products are definately the stars of the lot, I will do a more in depth review of both products over the next few days. I cannot say enough great things about Bumble and Bumle's Briliantine cream, this gives gorgeous volume and body to lank hair creating a ruffled sexy look similar to what salt spray does.

The Rodial Glam Balm is a really great night time intensive treatment and multi-purpose product. It leaves my skin feeling fresh and plumped every morning. It is also meant to refine wrinkles which I don't have may of yet and plump up lips!

She also sent me some makeup items including a Barry M nail paint in Bright Purple which I love, a Gosh extreme wear eyeliner in a gorgeous bronze and a Barry M lip paint in 113. I love 113, it's a gorgeous bubblegum pink which leaves a slight pearled effect to the lips.

Aren't I a spoiled girl, such great prizes, thanks so much Orla.

Check out her great blog here.

xx