Recent Haul

My bank balance does not like me this month as I’ve not been able to resist the shops. I’ve seen so many beauty bloggers putting themselves on spending bans recently, and I think I may be next! Anyway, I thought I’d share with you some of the products I picked up on my recent shopping spree.

My first stop was at the MAC counter in Selfridges. I literally cannot come away from Mac without purchasing anything. I picked up a new Natural Skinfinish as the shade I have is too light now, an eye pencil in Coffee, a Lipstick in Coral Bliss and two eyeshadows for my palette, Mystery and Black Tied. I love all these products so far and been using them pretty much daily. I was disappointed with the lipstick though, as it broke the first day I used it. Unusual for Mac products. :(

Next stop was Boots. I think we’ve all had moments where we’ve popped in Boots to pick up some lunch and come out having spent a small fortune! I’m guilty of this most days. In this particular visit I picked up an Essie nail polish from the new range in Naughty Nautical, a Revlon Super Lustrous Lipgloss in Kiss Me Coral, a Sexy Mother Pucker Gloss Stick in Bashful and a Maybelline Color Tattoo cream eyeshadow in Taupe.

I also popped by Tophop to pick up one of their cream blushers. I rarely wear cream blusher, but I absolutely love these from Topshops range. They are so pigmented but blend really well. I got another colour to add to my collection in the shade Afternoon Tea.

The last few products I picked up online from Illamasqua. They had kindly emailed me a 20% discount code, and it would have been rude for me to waste such a discount (or that’s what I tell myself). I decided to try the Hydra Veil after hearing so many positive reviews on this product, so far so good. It definitely withstood the heat test last weekend with the gorgeous weather we’ve been having. I also picked up an eye palette called Complement. It features four eyeshadows, three powder shadows in the shades, Slink, Forgiveness and Queen of the Night, and then a liquid metal shadow in the shade Focus. I wanted to try the Skin Base Foundation, so thought no time better to give it a go. :) I used Illamasquas handy colour chart to see which shade to buy. I managed to match myself nicely using my Mac and NARS shades.

So lots of new products for me to try and test over the next few weeks. I’ll be reviewing any favourites I find out of these, I’m sure they’ll be a few. Has anybody tried any of these? Let me know your thoughts! :)

On a last note, it’s my blogs first birthday next week. I’ll be doing a BIG giveaway in celebration containing some of my all time favourite products. So make sure you keep posted for that!

New Dressing Table

I've recently moved back in to my mum's house, trying to do the adult thing and save for a mortgage. Since moving home I am really missing the space I had in my flat in Manchester, my bedroom was humongous compared to the tiny box room I have at home! :(

I really wanted a dressing table, but my room is so small i needed to browse around. I eventually found one in my catalogue which is designed for small spaces, yay! I spent a FULL Sunday putting it together, (yes I am a DIY genius, not!). Here it is in all it's glory...

I have most of the skincare items I'm using or testing at the moment on top of my dresser, some are in a separate drawer or in the bathroom. I also keep my brushes in front of the mirror for easy access. I try and keep the top as clutter free as possible, anything I'm not using, goes in a separate drawer unit.

As well as skincare, I also keep makeup and eye makeup removers on top as I use them daily. I found this cute heart shaped glass dish at a car boot sale I went to with my mum a while ago for 20p! I think it looks lovely and fits my cosmetic pads in just nicely.

My brush holder is from Elf, it fits perfectly in front of my mirror and is a great size for holding all my brushes with plenty of room for new purchases! :) It has 3 compartments for Eyes, Lips and Face brushes. I also tend to keep things like my eyelash curlers, tweezers and my Duo eyelash glue in here, just for easy picking! For some reason in this picture I have a Pixi eye pencil in there too (not quite sure why, ha).

The big problem I had was with the drawers. Because its a slimline dresser, the drawers are much smaller, so no storage solutions would actually fit. As you can see at the moment I am using little boxes to separate my makeup, but eventually I would like to get some proper storage for it all. In my left hand drawer, I tend to keep all my lipsticks, lipglosses, powders, mascaras, eyeliners and my palettes. I tend to keep the products I use most often in my drawers and store the others elsewhere.

 

In the right hand drawer I tend to store my foundations, single eye shadows, bronzers, blushes, eyelashes, brow palettes and brush bags.

I try to keep it as tidy as possible, but it's hard when your trying to use different products and test different things out.

 So that's it for my dressing table, and once I get my storage solutions sorted it will be fab! I love having somewhere to sit down and do my make up and skincare.

Do you have a dressing table? Or do you have a different makeup storage idea?

Illamasqua Sale

I'm a BIIIG fan of Illamasqua, so was very excited when I got an email to say there was a sale on with up to 60% off products! Wow! There were products starting from just £5, then ranging upwards. After a looong time browsing all the make up, then adding, removing, then re-adding several items from my basket, I finally made my purchase. 

I bought 2 sheer lipglosses, a lipstick and a pencil. Illamasqua also sent me a sample of their perfume 'Freak' which I thought was a nice touch as you don't often get that with an order. I have to also give some praise; I had to get in touch with Illamasqua customer service before my delivery arrived and they were amazing, incredibly helpful. Just what you want from a beauty brand. I was also lucky enough to be given a £5 voucher off Illamasqua for entering a Glossybox competition, so all in all, very impressed with the website service. I normally purchase Illamasqua products from department stores. 

Left to Right, Sheer Lipgloss in Rouse and Electrify, Lipstick in Wanton and Fat Pencil in Perverse

 As you can probably see, I'm a fan of my 'pinky' colours and that's the theme I went with for this particular order. The lipglosses are incredibly sheer but do give a lovely tint of colour, perfect for day wear, over a lipstick or just when you want that very natural glossy look. I wore the lipstick while wearing MAC's Star Violet eyeshadow as the main colour on my eyes and got a lot of people saying they really complimented each other. I bought the pencil mainly to use on the eye, even though Illamasqua do say you can use it as a highlighter as well, I'm yet to try this product but I LOVE the colour. 

Left to Right, Sheer Lipgloss in Rouse and Electrify, Lipstick in Wanton

So all in all, very happy with my mini Illamasqua sale purchase. As I say, I don't normally purchase a lot of make up online as the colours never look the same, but I love the colours I bought. Are you a fan of Illamasqua? Let me know your favourite products! :)

Newbie Beauty Blogger

Hellooo...

Is anyone out there? Probably not considering this is my first blog post and I have no followers as yet!!

Just a bit of background on me! I currently work for an electronics company dealing with their technical documentation. However, make up and beauty products are my real passion, and possibly what I spend a huge majority of my wage on! :/

I have decided to start this blog after being asked a lot of beauty questions by various friends. I also read a lot of blogs and find they are an essential part in choosing which products to buy and try.

So bare with me, I have lots to blog about, and hopefully some may find it helpful!

Bye for now!