Hope you've all had a wonderful Christmas and a very happy start to the new year :)
I love reading these types of posts, so thought I would do one of my own about the fabulous things I got this year.
It goes without saying that I am not bragging about the things I was given, I just think it's fun to see what other people have asked for/been given. I was very spoilt this year and I am very grateful.
My main present this year was a Blackberry, which I forgot to photograph but I'm sure you all know what they look like!
'Keep Clean and..' Shower gel and body lotion in Lime, Basil and Mandarin scent. M&S Bubble bath in Fig and Orange Oil.
Primark bag and matching purse.
YSL Cinema and Clinique Chubby stick intense in Grandest Grape
No7 illuminated mirror.
JLS Evolution, One Direction Take me home, Victoria Wood's Midlife crisis, Miranda series 2, Mrs Brown's Boys live, Mousehunt.
Baileys minis
Barry M Dewberry body shampoo, bubble bath and body lotion.
M&S fig and orange oil hand and nail cream
James Patterson Merry Christmas Alex Cross, Mirand Hart is it just me?, Anyone can do it Sahar and Bobby Hashemi, Entrepreneur Lucy Tobin.
Here's what I am lusting after at the moment. My spending ban is actually over now (yay!), but I'm still trying to be sensible with my money, and am attempting to wait a while before purchasing products, and do less spur of the moment shopping. That's the plan anyway!
First up, is this beautiful magnetic quad from Art Deco, by Dita Von Teese. It comes empty, but you can fill it with multiple combinations of blusher, eyeshadow and applicators. I love the packaging of this, and it has a really good sized mirror inside. I'm hoping to get one of these and fill it with eyeshadows. They have a wide range of colours, and I particularly like the matte mid brown shades (can't remember the number of it!).
This is £14 from Debenhams. The individual eyeshadows are £6.
Next up, a new product from Marks and Spencers. I'm very into my foaming face washes, and as soon as I smelt this one I knew I wanted it! It has quite a strong, herbaly smell, which may put off people with sensitive skin, but I love it! This has a minimum of 95% natural ingredients, and is free from Parabens, Silicones and Mineral oil.
Lastly, is this Barry M nail varnish in Gold Mine. I have a lot of love for Barry M nails varnishes, and as the weather is getting more wintery, I'm getting excited again about festive nails! I've Googled this, and the pictures look absolutely beautiful!
If you'd prefer to watch me ramble on, rather than read me ramble on, here is the video version of this post. Bloopers included, ofc :)
Attractive thumbnail, as ever.
Anyway, on to the nitty gritty! Thought I would show you my favourite summery/hot weather nail varnishes. Now, in all honesty, I'm not the type of person that co ordinates my nail varnish with the season, or my outfit, or anything really. I just wear the nail varnish that I feel like wearing, but there are definitely colours I am more drawn to in hotter weather.
Barry M Berry Ice Cream, Topshop Minted, Barry M Pure Turqoise, Barry M Mint Green, Barry M Peach Melba.
Barry M Berry Ice Cream- a lovely Parma Violet shade that isn't too pastel.
Topshop Minted- probably my top fave nail varnish, ever. Topshop nail varnys are a little bit pricier than Barry M, and with less product, but this colour is worth it! This is a beautiful, bright mint green /blue.
Barry M Pure Turquoise- A fab, true sky blue!
Barry M Mint Green- More of a subtle, muted green, but lovely nonetheless. Barry M formulas never disappoint!
Barry M Peach Melba- A lovely pastel peach shade, there was a huge buzz around this shade a while ago, and I'm still loving it :)
From L to R, 3 coats, 2 coats, one coat.
Lastly, Models Own Hed Kandi in Ibiza Mix. This is a fabulous glitter polish, with different shapes, sizes and colours of glitter, suspended in a clear varnish. This looks amazing on it's own, over any other summery polish, even over black.
Does anyone have any nice hot weather nail varnish recommendations? Not that there's any hot weather here at the moment!
I painted my nails last night, so I thought I'd show you what I went for :)
I'm not entirely sure if I actually like this Tangerine shade, but it's always good to experiment!
I originally wanted to do black, with a red glittery accent nail, but my black nail varnish had gone all goopy and horrible, so I plumped for Barry M's Tangerine and Barry M's Red Glitter.
I was watching Mirror Mirror as I applied this, so it's not very neat, and my nails are in really bad condition at the mo, but what can ya do!
On a side note, has anyone seen Mirror Mirror?! I thought it was really good, deffo worth a watch! :)
Thought I'd do a quick FOTD, this is just my normal go to look, nothing fancy!
MAC Studio Sculpt in NC15
Collection Lasting Perfection concealer in Fair
Benefit Hervana blush
Benefit They're Real! mascara
Barry M lipliner in Red
MAC Ruby Woo
As always, I did get the Benefit stuff for free as I work for them :)
My hair looks quite red in these photos, but it's actually faded quite alot already :( I think this colour is going to be harder to maintain than the red! I've bought a box dye to try and re-do it myself, so fingers crossed!
It's nothing spectacular, but I think they're pretty cute!
I used Barry M's Mint Green, and Models Own nail art pen in yellow.
I was originally intending to do a little bunny on the fingernail with the stripes(which I saw on another blog, can't remember which one!), but I couldn't manage it!
I can't wait until I'm good enough to master trickier nail designs!:(
Thought I'd do a quick Face Of The Day. This morning I fancied doing something different, so I tried a lip product I've never used before (but had for aaages), and had a go with eyeliner! Crazy eh?!
MAC Studio Sculpt NC15
Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection concealer in fair
Rimmel blush in Misty Rose
Maybelline Volum' Express One by One Waterproof
Collection 2000 Extreme 24 Hour Felt Tip Liner
Fashionista eyeshadow in Black Out
Barry M Lip Lacquer Crayon in No.3
Like I said, I had a bash at the eyeliner. They're not perfect, but I smudged them out a bit with black eyeshadow, to try and make it look like it was meant to be a bit messy! I'm hoping that practice will make perfect! :)
The Barry M lip crayon I got as a present ages ago, I can't believe I've never worn it! It is literally just like a crayon, and it's amazing! It's really hard to describe the texture, it's like a really moisturising lipstick, with a really glossy finish, that doesn't feel sticky, and lasts for ages! The colour is also lovely, really summery.
It's a really bright, orangey red with a nice glitter running through. The glitter doesn't translate much on the lips, it looks really nice and shimmery, but not in your face glittery.
They come in a few other colours, so I think I'll check them out next time I'm shopping!
So there you have it, a bit of a ramble about me face! Hope everyone is well :)
So I've picked up a few bits recently, even though I was supposed to be shopping for other people!, and thought I would share them with you :)
They're pretty much all from Boots because I work there, so it's where I spend most of my money!
First up, Revlon Super Lusterous lipstick in Black Cherry and Colorstay 12hr eye shadow in Neutral Khakis. I actually meant to get the eyeshadows in the shades 'Coffee Bean', but I must have picked up the wrong one!
The colours still look pretty nice though, I'm trying to get into wearing eyeshadows day to day, as I only tend to wear them when I'm out. I'm not usually a fan of lipsticks that aren't matte, but I'm going to try with this one because the colour is gorgeous!
the title of this post says it all really! Just a quick post on the nail varnish I have been sporting for the past week or so, I love it! Nothing says festive to me as much as red glitter!
Fashionista have been quite talked about over youtube and blogs, and are known for their magnetic nail varnishes fronted by The Saturdays. I popped into Superdrug to have a little look at them, but I was shocked at the prices! The varnishes alone were £6 and then you have to buy the magnet for £3! In Boots you can get the 17 version of the magnetic polish for £5.99 which has a magnet in the lid!
While at the Fashionista stand, I fell in love with the shimmery, gorgeous shades of eyeshadow, and noticed that they had an offer on. The individual eyeshadows were £4 each, but if you bought a quad (usually £5), and bought four eyeshadows to fill it, you could get it for £12! Which would be the price of 3 eyeshadows usually! Bargain, and I thought it would be rude not to pick some up! So I bought two quads, in the red design as I thought they looked classier than the black , logo-covered version, and 8 eyeshadows.
1st palette-Foxy, Auburn glow, Sweet kiss, Subtle glamour. 2nd palette- Black out, Cosmic, Night sky, Silver lining.
Foxy, Auburn glow, Sweet kiss, Subtle glamour with flash.
Foxy, Auburn glow, Sweet kiss, Subtle glamour without flash
Black out, Cosmic, Night sky, Silver lining with flash
Black out, Cosmic, Night sky and Silver lining without flash.
As you can see, these shades are gorgeous! Really nice and shimmery, but a kind of grown up shimmer, nothing overly glittery. The pigmentation is good, but not amazing, it took a few goes to build up the intensity on my hand, but I think a good eyeshadow primer would help with that. I haven't actually tried these on the eyes yet, but I'll give you an update when I do!
Next, I thought I'd show you a nail combo I've been loving. It's Barry M's Peach Melba and Model's own Nail art pen in Black. The result is this...
Peach Melba, a gorgeous peach shade, as the name suggests!
Models own nail art pen in black
This nail art pen is so handy, if you pull off the cap, there's a nib to do dots and designs, and you can also unscrew the bottle, for a long, thin brush to do lines etc. I've been loving polka dot nails, and have worn this for about a month, just changing the colour underneath, reds and blues look lovely with polka dots!
Anyone who knows me, knows that I am a lipstick girl. Ever since I started wearing make up, lipstick was the thing I enjoyed most. Around the house, I'm partial to a lip balm, to moisturise, but never, ever lipgloss. I just don't like the feel of them, or the fact they don't give you much colour. In fact, I'm only just coming round to the idea of lipsticks that aren't entirely matte. So, for me, the most depressing thing about having a cold, like I do at the mo, is not wearing lipstick. Obviously it is possible to wear lipstick while you have a cold, but I find that lipstick's just don't go with a Rudolph nose, especially the red's that I favour.
Make up as a whole is a bit of a nightmare during a cold, foundation doesn't sit well on a dry, chapped nose, and a few seconds after you apply, you sneeze and all your foundation ends up on your tissue! Not to mention the mascara running down your face. But, anyway, to get the point, I though I'd do a post on my lipstick collection. I'm hoping that seeing, and writing, about my different lipsticks will give me the lipstick fix I am craving at the moment!
I've sorted them into colours; Orange, Pink, Purple and Red.
Orange
Barry M Lip Paint, Ruby and Millie Lipstick in 350 Orange (Cream finish)
Unfortunately the name and number of the Barry M lip paint has rubbed off the bottom! It's a very nice, bright coral colour. The Ruby and Millie lipstick is not as a bright, and has a bit more of a red tone to it. Barry M is the more matte of the two, and last's for longer than the Ruby and Millie one does, although it isn't as creamy, and therefore it's harder to apply.
Pink
Barry M Lip paint's in 100 Baby Pink and 52 Shocking Pink.
This pale pink is a great one to go for if you've got statement eye makeup on, and the shocking pink is ALOT brighter than it show's up in this picture!
Purple
17 New Black, Ruby and Millie 585 Purple (matt) and MAC's Cyber (satin)
I've really been loving purple lipsticks at the moment, and these three are all lovely. As this picture shows, Cyber is the darkest of the three, and the other two are more red. Cyber is my favourite as I find the colour lasts the longest, and is the most purple!
Red
Ruby and Millie's Red 476 (Pearl), Red 490 (cream) and Red 420 (Matte), Stargazer 106, Rimmel London Volume Booster in 080 Screamer and MAC's Ruby Woo (Retro Matte).
As you can see, I like my Reds! My favourite, colour wise is Ruby and Millie's 420, third in from the left, as it is the truest red I have found so far. My favourite in terms of finish is definately MAC's Ruby Woo in the Retro Matte finish, as it is totally matte! There's no need to use Lipcote to keep this one on, it doesn't budge at all!
So that's my Lipstick collection so far. Next time I buy a lipstick I'm going to try and force myself to try a new colour, maybe a lavender or nude, because, as you can see, I'm stuck in a bit of a colour rut!
