Mini Beauty Haul

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

The Balm ‘Nude Tude’ palette

Soap and Glory The Perfect Ten Limited Edition eyeshadow palette

Maybelline Baby Lips Lip Balm Winter Edition

Physicians Formula Happy Booster Bronzer 

Ciate Olivia Palermo lipstick in ‘Praline’

Loreal Star lipstick in ‘Barely Moka’

Hello my sweets! Today’s post is a mini beauty haul because even though there’s not much to show there’s a lot to show if you catch my drift.

The first item I want to start with is the ‘Nude Tude’ palette by The Balm. Can we first just appreciate how I got this for £14.99 (!!!!) from TkMaxx…that’s half the price of what it’s normally sold for in stores. Not to mention it also came with a sample size of primer?! I’m not entirely sure why TkMaxx were stocking it as it’s a very popular palette judging from the kind of things I’ve read about it online. And after actually taking these pictures I decided to try it out for myself and I’ve fallen in love. Not only are the shades so beautiful and wearable but they’re really buttery and blend so well, not to mention SO pigmented. My favourite shade is the cranberry called ‘sexy’ which works really well in intensifying the crease.

I haven’t actually tried the Soap&Glory palette yet and I actually got it on the boxing day sales but I don’t think I showed it to you. The colours look really wearable and it looks like it could be a dupe for the Naked 3 palette with all it’s rose and pink colours. The palette was a bargain at £8 down from £16.

I was so excited when I saw the Physicians Formula bronzer in TkMaxx (I think you can tell that shop is my holy grail at the moment for make-up) because you can’t get it in the UK. I first heard FleurDeForce talk about it in one of her favourites videos I think and so had to grab it when I saw it. It looks absolutely gorgeous with all the heart shapes engraved in it (perfect for Valentines Day!) and was super cheap at £3.99. I’m not sure how far I believe the claim that it boosts your mood but I guess I’ll have to get back to you guys on that!

Now we come across the lip products which I love talking about the most. I saw the set of 3 Maybelline Baby lips lip balms in Atkinsons (a discounted department store) and was very intrigued by the flavours as I’d never seen them in store before. I’ve still yet to try them out but they sound very yummy (I mean sugar cookie!!).

And last but not least the two lipsticks. I found the Ciate Olivia Palermo lipstick in surprise surprise Tkmaxx. Again I heard FleurDeForce talk about them in a video and when I saw the colour ‘Praline’ I fell in love. I haven’t tried it on my lips yet but upon swatching it it looks semi-matte and is a very nude-brown colour which is perfect for my skin colour. The RRP of this lipstick is £18 and I brought it for £5.99 so I’m definitely impressed with this bargain. Here’s to hoping I’ll love the lipstick just as much as the price! As for the L’Oreal lipstick, which I brought from TJ Hughes (another discount store), I’d never actually seen this collection of lipstick before. It’s not on their shelves in stores like Boots which makes me think it might’ve been old stock but that didn’t put me off! The colour is really beautiful. Upon looking at it I thought it would be a matte lipstick but it’s actually a really creamy, shiny texture. It’s a very subtle nude brown (more brown then nude) and is a very nice ‘your-lips-but-better’ colour. Really neutral and creamy, it’s perfect to wear for everyday and you’d really get more than your moneys worth out of the £2.99 price tag.

Thanks for reading my sweets~until next time! ❤

x A x

2015 Favourites

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  
  

Lipsticks: 

Maybelline Baby Lips in ‘Cherry Me’

No7 moisture drench in ‘Grape’

Primark P.S Love liquid lipstick in ’10’

MAC Huggable lip colour in ‘I’m in’

Seventeen Mirror Shine in ‘Beehive’

Revlon Colourburst lipgloss in ‘044 Sunbaked’

MAC Cremesheen lipstick in ‘Creme in your Coffee’

Nail Polishes:

NARS by 3.1 Phillip Lim in ‘Dark Room’

China Glaze in ‘954 Below Deck’

Topshop nail in ‘Hidden Treasure’

Revlon nail enamel in ‘620 Bewitching’

Illamasqua in ‘Jan’

Revlon Colourstay ‘280 Blue State’

Barry M Matte Topcoat

Hello my sweets! 🙂 2015 has flown by in a blur and I don’t doubt that the same will happen in 2016, so before I start I’d like to tell you to make the most of this year!

I have been loving using all these products throughout 2015. My Nivea grapefruit moisturiser is so hydrating and absorbent and works great as a primer for my foundation. Speaking of foundations I have been switching between my 2 most used ones, the L’Oreal True Match and Bourjois Healthy Mix. The Bourjois is a light coverage and quite dewy, very buildable and the colour matches perfectly to my skin. The True Match is the opposite. It’s more of a fuller coverage but makes your skin look amazing! I’ve heard a lot of people rave about both of these foundations. They’re both drugstore as well so super affordable. My mum brought me the Chanel Vita-Lumiere Aqua from duty free. The finishing is quite matte and it evens my skin very well. I only use it on special occasions but definitely a foundation that’s worth investing in if you’re looking for something more high end! I’ve loved using a foundation sponge to blend my foundation (bristles falling off cheap brushes is very annoying!). I only brought mine for a £1 from Primark and let me tell you that you definitely get your moneys worth. This is my second sponge actually 🙂

A recent love of mine (and a bit of a cheat actually since I only started using it 2 days ago!) is the Freedom contour and highlight stick. It’s very creamy and so very easy to blend. I really didn’t like it at first as I had brought mine in light and thought it made no difference in giving me some prominent cheekbones but I thought I’d give it another go and I love it! I have still yet to try the highlighter so eyes peeled for feedback on that in the near future!

My probably-can’t-survive-without-it product out of all of them is the Make-up Revolution Arch and Brown Shape. It’s made doing my eyebrows so much easier and definitely makes them look amazing. I don’t usually fill it in with the felt tip end. I use the Beauty UK brown palette to fill it in once I’ve done the frame/shape and I always get compliment on my brows. Both are super cheap and super worth it…they’ve really upped my brow game this year.

So as not to bore you by going through every product (feel free to comment asking me about any products) I think the one worthy of a last mention is my favourite MAC lipstick ever. ‘Creme in your Coffee’ is a very brown nude and it suits my skin perfectly. It’s a cremesheen finish and so very creamy and not drying at all. I would love a colour like that in the matte finish as well as I think it’d look so great. The Revlon Colourburst lipgloss is basically ‘Creme in your Coffee’ in lipgloss form. The colours are very similar so if you want a cheaper alternative or to check if the colour suits you I’d highly recommend going for the Revlon gloss before buying the MAC lipstick.

Thanks for reading my lovlies ~ until next time! ❤

x A x

Holiday Wish List ’15

DISCLAIMER: These images are NOT mine. 

It’s scary to think that 2015 is almost over! It brings me to constantly ask myself on those sleepless nights; where has the time gone?

With Christmas just round the corner and then the New Year following that, I had to show you my wish list! Hopefully I can grab these in the sales but as I’m sure you can gather from the things on this list, I have quite an expensive taste.

A new launch that I’ve heard loads about, I saw the Gwen Stefani for Urban Decay palette when I went shopping the other day and had it not been for the hefty price tag (£40 is a lot for someone who rarely wears eyeshadow) I probably would’ve snapped it up there and then. Amidst all the rush, I managed to swatch some colours on my hand. The pigmentation looked great and the texture felt even greater. I was pleasantly surprised that the colours for very wearable. I’d always imagined that a palette by Gwen Stefani would have very bright neon colours. While the price tag was hefty for me, it’s worth seeing a smile on your loved ones face after they’d been waiting so long to get one! And it’s also party season, so maybe you can justify it for yourself as well hey? Not to mention that the packaging is a winner for me. You know packaging is the one thing a girl can’t resist when it comes to buying make-up.

Although you can’t get Colourpop make-up in the UK, which is a shame cause I really wanted to try their lipsticks as you can see, I’m hoping to pop over to the states soon so might be able to purchase it there. I saw these floating around my Pinterest homepage and fell in love with the warm toned neutral colours. I’m not a big wearer of matte lip products but hopefully these will change my mind about them! (I think we can all agree that we have the fear of them drying out and gathering on out lips.)

My most luxurious pick yet is the Christian Louboutin lipsticks. If you thought £40 for an eyeshadow palette was steep then this might make you spit your tea out. These bad boys cost around £60 a pop. Yep. a whopping £60. Which is why one can only put it on their wish list and…well, wish. While I admit the packaging it beyond any I’ve come across (I mean that matte black bullet is what heaven in a lipstick looks like), I could never justify spending that much on a lipstick, even if I was rolling in the millions. Yes it would look nice sitting on my desktop, tempting me to take a flatlay for my blog, but it would feel nicer to feed some homeless people or refugees for around the price.

Talking of pricey, though no where near as much as the Louboutin lipsticks, we have the Charlotte Tilbury gift of 3. They’re mini lipsticks in which you get one red lipstick and 2 nudes, one of which im assuming is cool toned and the other warm. These are around the more ‘affordable’ luxury mark. After all you have to treat yourself once in a while hey? They’re nicely gift wrapped and would make a cute stocking filler for those of you that celebrate Christmas.

And last but not least (and probably my favourite out of the lot), the Holiday collection by Steven Klein for NARS. I first stumbled upon this on ASOS a couple of weeks ago. Everything in this collection is very wearable, which is good because you want to get your money’s worth out of it! The packaging is beautiful as are the products. The lipsticks come in 3 very wearable shades. My favourite out of them has to be ‘besame mucho’. I have a big love for pink toned nudes!

Thanks for reading my sweets! Until next time ❤

x A x