August favourites

I know it's an overused intro to monthly favourite post's but it has to be said...Where the beejesus did August go?, in fact where has 2011 gone? oh M G, it really will be Christmas in the blink of an eye. I am actually really chuffed that it's nearly Autumn, I love it, no more faffing around trying to decide what to wear in the morning because of the unpredictability of British weather.Oh no.Getting dressed in Autumn over here is simple Jumpers,thick tights,coats,boots.Done.excited!
Anyway Im not here to bore you to death waffling on about the weather and wooly jumpers.If you are still reading thank you for your patience ;) Now on to the good stuff..August's favourites.

Loreal super liner carbon gloss

I picked this up a few weeks ago after hearing so many good things about it around the blog/you tube beauty community.To be honest liquid liner isn't something that I often wear, I usually use gel liners or eyeshadow for liner, however I have found myself reaching for this alot since I got it.It is the easiest liquid liner to apply,goes on opaque and stays put for the day.If you are a liquid liner kinda girl and you haven't tried this yet, I definitely recommend giving it a go it is more than worthy of the hype!

MAC eye shadow 'Bronze'

Nothing overly exciting really but bronze is a colour that I have always seemed to overlook.Bronze is a beautiful creamy metallic e/s.It is so versatile, I've been wearing it either for adding definition to the crease in the daytime or as a base for black to get a gorgeous bronzed smoky eye. 

Benefit Hoola bronzer

This is a bit of a cheat, as I only got it 4 days ago but I love it so much that I couldn't help myself.Hoola is massively pigmented and blends super easily, with zero shimmer and no orange/red undertones it is perfect for contouring or as an all over bronzer. It really is the most perfect natural looking matte bronzer I have ever owned and I could kick myself for resisting it for so long.

OPI Nail polish 'Skull and glossbones'

I had to sneak this in for the 2nd month in a row, Im still in love with it! It's still my favourite nail polish of all time ever, and I still think that everyone and their nan should own it.That is all. :)

Not too many this month, I have been such a slacker on the shopping front.

What have your favourites been this month? link me to your posts or videos below.

xxx

Get ready with me :)

Evening girlies! You may have noticed that Im really getting my You tube groove on this week, I think it has something to do with my son being on Summer holidays from school and not having very much time to sit quietly and put together a coherent blogpost. It just seems easier to sit and talk or play with make-up in front of a camera for 10 minutes at the moment. The 'get ready with me video's are some of my favourite video's to watch on You Tube and I really wanted to make one to show my daily make-up routine, I hope you enjoy it guys :) Oh and top points for anyone that spots me getting foundation in my hair and applying way too much bronzer lolzzz ;)

Products used

Face

VIE Beauty essence antioxidant superfood serum

Loreal Sublime bronze facial tan/moisturiser

Chanel Vitalumiere aqua foundation

Benefit erase paste

MAC select moisture cover concealer

Laura Mercier invisible loose setting powder

MAC 150 powder brush

Benefit Hoola bronzer to contour

Random old contour brush?

MAC 224 Brush for buffing in concealer

Eyes

MAC Copperplate e/s to fill brows

MAC Painterly paintpot 

MAC Woodwinked e/s

MAC Bronze e/s

MAC 217 blending brush

Loreal Telescopic mascara

Lips

MAC Hue lipstick

NARS Turkish Delight Lipgloss

xxx

Kim Kardashian wedding make-up inspired look

source

I Can't say that im loving posting a picture of my moon-esque face next to one of the most beautiful women on earth haha! But I am a huge Kim K fan and thought that she looked so stunning as a bride, so I stalked Kim's MUA's blog (thanks to George's tip off!) found the exact products he used on her and then recreated it as close as I could from his description and pictures, using similar products from my own collection because I literally had nothing he used *sob*. I am surprised that there are no mentions of Kim wearing false lashes on Mario Dedivanivic's blog as it certainly looks as though she has a right whopping pair on, but he claims to have only used Lancome hypnose Doll eyes mascara on Kim's lashes.

Products I used

Face

Liz Earle skin tint (med)

Mixed with 

MAC Face and body foundation (C6)

Benefit erase paste (shade light)

Laura Mercier invisible loose setting powder

Benefit Coralista blush

Benefit Hoola bronzer

MAC MSF Soft and Gentle (to highlight)

Eyes

MUA Gold from the dusk til dawn palette 

VIE ready to wear e/s quad (pale gold to highlight brow bone)

MAC Woodwinked 

MAC Bronze

MAC MSF Soft and Gentle (to highlight tear duct)

Loreal Carbon gloss liquid liner

Loreal Telescopic mascara

Kimberley Girls aloud lashes

Lips

A Sheer peach shade from a kryolan lip palette

GOSH lip gloss (0082) A peachy/coral colour

If you haven't already but want to see the actual product's that were used on Kim on the day check out Mario's blog here. 

I hope you are all having a great Sunday! Im typing this and half watching Nacho libre I love Jack Black but I think this looks a bit crap tbh, maybe I just need to pay attention! :)

Primark and Benefit haul:Video

Evening girls, myself and the gorgeous Lisa became BeneBabes for the day today and helped out the beautiful Liv at the launch of the new Benefit 'They're real' mascara at our local Benefit counter in Boots. In exchange for our services we were paid in Benefit products (the best wage I have EVER had!) I plan on doing a real blog post on the products that I got today with swatches, reviews and the whole shebang but for tonight a video was just the easier option, being a BeneBabe is tiresome work hehe :o 

FML Why this thumbnail You Tube ?

Mario Testino Portraits 2:Patsy Kensit inspired wet look smoky eye

I am really enjoying this book as you can probably tell seen as though I only posted a look from it last night. But playing with make-up is what miserable rainy (AUGUST) day's like today are for right?

I am obsessed with wet look smoky eyes which are pretty unwearable but photograph so beautifully
(especially if Mario Testino is behind the camera)

Again Im no Mario (no shiz!) But this is my version...

Products used

Sleek primer palette (Gold)

MAC Dark soul pigment

MAC Solar bits pigment

Urban decay Half baked

Sleek oh so special (black)

Vaseline

Loreal Carbon gloss liquid liner

Clinique lash impact mascara

I actually just noticed that I forgot to line my waterline, I blame my Pug Obi who was being needy as I was applying the make-up :) Its sods law that now I have finished he's snoozing on the rug ha!

Ooh on a totally random note, Inception starts on Sky movies tonight which , If you haven't seen it (and you are also staying in on a Friday night) I really recommend flicking it on later its amazing :D

Have a great weekend lovelies.

Mario Testino Portraits:Cameron Diaz inspired look

I have a fair few books that I reach for when Im in need of inspiration for make-up ideas/looks.One of my most treasured is the Mario Testino portrait book which includes some seriously beautiful images of celebrities shot by the world renowned fashion photographer.

I have bookmarked a few of my favourite images which I especially love the make-up in, in fact I bookmarked them a few years ago now and my favourites remain the same (maybe im not so fickle after all ;))

So tonight feeling a little inspired and not wanting to watch Scunthorpe V Newcastle (seriously why do boy's have to watch every single match) I skidaddled upstairs book under my arm and did my interpretation of my favourite look from this magical book which is the beautiful Cameron Diaz and this stunning bronze/smokey look.

Obviously I am no Mario Testino (and certainly no Cameron Diaz) but I am seriously thinking of going on a photography course as I really enjoy taking pictures and would really love to know what Im doing!

Video: 8 Most worn things

I have spent the day living like a caveman! (By that I mean my broadband was down and I had to rely on 3G to get my emails and see Twitter) Times like this make me try to remember what life was like before we had the technology that we have (and take for granted) the most positive thing I can come up with is that people must have had smaller bum's ;)

Anyway basically I have spent the day away from the laptop and made a video instead of writing a blogpost....I hope you like it.

^^I feel Prettttttty, oh so prettttyyyyy^^

I TAG you all..x.x.x

Blush crush #3

I do love me a Sleek blush, Pixie Pink was my first blush from the range and admittedly I originally purchased it because of the name, pretty lame I know but I will always be a sucker for a cute name and packaging regardless of what crappy product may be inside. Fortunately Pixie Pink doesn't fall into the great name, crap product category, in my opinion it is delicious! Here look.....

Swatched (left) and blended (right) on my freshly St.moriz'd arm 

At first sight it looks a bit garish and to be honest it is a little brighter in real life than these pictures are showing. It's the kind of blush that you could do some serious clown cheek's with, should you so wish to!
Halloween idea's aside, with a light handed application Pixie Pink adds a really pretty, flush to the cheeks which for a matte hot Pink looks surprisingly natural even when my (NC20) face isn't tanned.With a tan it looks stunning either blended out for a pretty natural flush or built up for more impact.

This is definitely a blush I recommend having a play with the next time you visit a Sleek stand, don't let the thought of dolly cheeks scare you off, it really is a beauty!

Review: Bourjois Volumizer mascara

It has taken me a while to jump on the 2in1 mascara bandwagon but when my Loreal Telescopic lost it's battle against dryness the other week, I took the opportunity to see what the fuss was about and popped the Volumizer into my Tesco basket.

Basically there are two parts to the wand, step one which has minimal product to create clump free length, and step two which is loaded with product 'to create spectacular 3D volume.'

Step1 (length)

Step 2 (volume)

Before

After step 1

After step 2

For length and volume I really cant fault it, my Mum even asked me if I was wearing false lashes :) It also doesn't flake or smudge under the lower lashes and even though it isn't waterproof it managed to stay put when I washed my hair over the bath (don't ask!)
However the whole wet messiness of step 2 is a clump fest/black eyelid disaster waiting to happen and something that I don't generally have time for on a day to day basis. Step one is nice enough to use on it's own but I will be going back to my Loreal Telescopic which I find gives my lashes a much better/long lasting curl.

Overall I think that if you are looking for a long wearing dramatic lash effect then you will love this mascara.

Personally step 2 is something that I can live without !

FOTD FAIL

I think it has been a while since I last did a FOTD, I find trying to take a picture of myself such a bloody challenge that it can take all night to get a half decent shot.But tonight the boys were out I thought I'd rifle through my make-up drawers and see what was lurking in the back to take my very minimal eye make-up (MAC Naked Lunch and Woodwinked on the lid) to something a bit more exciting.

This was all very well and good and I got to work with my metallic purple from the Sleek 'Oh so special' palette which I hadn't used yet, and Mac solar bits pigment (an absolute biiiaatch for fall out!) which resulted in a gorgeous and tres glam deep purple/gold smoky that I was actually looking forward to getting pictures of had I not left my camera in the car.fml. brilliant.To the webcam!

I'm not too sure what this face is all about.

so even though the pictures are completely shit which makes me sad I still wanted to have a little ramble on here,and I needed to put a picture of something in :) The last picture is me right now, I was freezing to death, so I went and found this massive woolly (seriously ten attempts there to spell woolly!!) jumper in my boyfriend's wardrobe.I'm actually pretty chuffed it's cold I miss getting all wrapped up and cozy!
Anyway I'm not moving now, I plan on lying here all night and seeing what channel 5 are going to do with Big Brother, who's watching it?, own up! ;)

DIY Ombre hair...the 4th time's the charm

Pretty gosh darn Ginger eh? After the 3rd bleaching session (my ends HATE me)

So I finally took the plunge and (after lengthy twitter conversations with Yu and Lisa) went for the DIY approach to Ombre'ing (?) my Dark brown hair...

I used the Loreal perfect blonde highlighting kit which cost me around £5 in Savers (this is also the preferred ombre bleach for LLYMLRS,Zoella, and the Persian babe who all have amazing hair!)

After the first attempt with the bleach which I left on for about 40 minutes which really was too long tbh!  I was actually pretty impressed with how well my hair colour had lifted, but it wasn't exactly how I wanted it and had a definite copper hint that I thought would probably be removed with another 20 minute stint of bleaching, after washing and drying my hair for the second time I was pretty happy with the results but as it was about 11pm I was yet to see the full effect in natural daylight...and I did get a shock this morning as I woke up with the sun beaming on my (orange) hair which was highlighted to it's fullest by the white pillowcase background!! 

Anyway to cut a long story short*, I sent a picture to my hairdresser friend who advised that I pick up an ash blonde colour which would take out the brassiness.(I got the Loreal recital lightest ash blonde)

So after the FOURTH dye job on my hair it finally looks like this...

S'cuse the picture overload I wanted to show how it looks in different lights and angles etc.

So although there is still a bit of a ginger tinge I am finally pretty happy with the finished results which is lucky because my hair definitely cant take anymore today!

I would love to know what you think, more blonde??

Sunday shopping...Primark etc *video*

Dear You Tube, why do you always pick the thumbnail 

that makes me look like a deranged Chipmunk?

Just a quick (ish) video of what I picked up from town yesterday. I love to shop on a Sunday,it's so much more chilled out and quiet than any other day.

Because the sales are on at the moment (and I can't be bothered to sift through the mess) I didn't end up buying very much, but I do quite like filming these videos,and it was either that or watch Man.utd "/ 

I hope you enjoy,and please subscribe x

Love you, Love you not #2

This leopard print,fabric strap watch, something that could most definitely be described as a 'marmite' item. I must admit to being unsure of my feelings towards it when I bought it  last week, but having been out for dinner 5 times this week (I know, oink!) and wearing it on each occasion, I think I love it.The fabric strap which I think initially sparked my interest makes it something that bit different from your standard watch and it holds the scent of your perfume which I like...small minds!

The best bit is that it's a Primark special and cost £4, so if I hate it this time next week (or more likely,it stops working) It can go in the bin.simples.

Rambles and Red.

I'm having one of those days that don't happen too often, but when they do I appreciate every last second of it. The rain is bouncing down outside,I am home alone with my two dogs who have spent most of the afternoon asleep, the living room coffee table is full of my junk Nail polishes, notebook, Diet coke, I have a whole boxset of Gossip girl to get through, oh and it's 3pm and I'm still in my PJ's (well my boyfriends PJ bottoms and a vest) which kinda makes me feel gross, but I'm cozy so whatever :)

Barry M 'Bright Red' no shiz!

source

I can't get the idea of doing a DIY ombre job on my hair, it looks so simple, I have been advised against it but have a bee in my bonnet now and I know myself well enough to know that it's only a matter of time until I reach for the bleach...

The father in law dropped me his old DSLR camera to play with, I was excited until he told me he had left the memory card at home *boo him!*<3

I re-discovered my Sleek primer palette at the weekend and have used it every day this week, I don't think this palette gets enough attention. It doesn't give long lasting crease less perfection but for quick and easy glossy, grungy sultry looks it's a total winner.

This week my Son has been off on his jollies with my parents in Cornwall, and me and the Boy have taken the opportunity to behave like we did when we were young, free and single...(well maybe not exactly) maybe we are really boring but we haven't exactly been out painting the town Red more a light milky pink...ho hum!Our week has basically revolved around food, drink and films (and Peanut M&M's)...we have been really into thriller/action movies just lately, I definitely recommend seeing Limitless, Taken, Inception, Shutter Island and The tourist, all amazing, edge of the seat films, you will love (if you like that sort of thing)!

I had better attempt to drag the PJ's off and get ready,We are finally going to see Harry Potter tonight after 3 failed attempts at getting to the cinema for 7:30pm...

Living the dream!<3

Blush crush #2.

Sleek Rose Gold...What a job I had getting my hands on this! Every Sleek stand I visited for 3 months greeted me with the same empty rack of this blush colour. Eventually I managed to get my hands on one in Blackpool on a weekend away last month, hooray for the Vegas of the north, and it's fully stocked Sleek shelves!!

I think a lot of you will know the reason for the elusiveness of Rose Gold is because of its comparability to the infamous NARS 'Orgasm' blush and for a fifth of the price.

Rose Gold is peachy/pink with Gold shimmer which transfers onto skin as a sheen rather than chunky glitter, which looks amazing with a tan but also works well on lighter skintones.Highly pigmented and finely milled, a light hand is required when applying this as a little goes a long way!

I can't see myself purchasing NARS 'Orgasm' while ever Sleek continue to produce this blush <3

Which blush are you crushing on?

We're all a little mad here!

Even at the grand old age of 27 I still have a penchant for all things Alice in Wonderland. From the background history into why and how it was written, with Lewis Carroll apparently off his head on drugs throughout, up to the present day movie remake (Johnny Depp as the Hatter.Perfect.) the quirkyness of it all is something that really draws me in.

Anyway my Mum being as brilliant and thoughtful as she is picked me up some Jewellery from the range at The House of Fraser, and I am so in love with it that I thought I would share...

Top to bottom

Moulded key bracelet

'Drink me' bottle necklace

Hatter top hat earrings 

Obviously I wont be overkilling the theme and throwing them all on together but individually I heart each piece, the key bracelet being my favourite although I lost the little 'made with care in Wonderland charm' that was hanging from it I'm sure it's somewhere in my overgrown jungle of a back garden *sad face*

Anyhooo I hope you are all having a good weekend, me and the boyfriend are off to see the last Harry Potter tonight, for once I'm chuffed that my memory is like a sieve and I've forgotten the ending from the book.

MUA 'Dusk til dawn' Pro palette:Simple coloured smoky EOTD

What a mouthful of a title that was! EOTD would probably have sufficed, oh well!

Today my hand spazzed out and bypassed the Naked palette in favour of the MUA pro Dusk til Dawn one, which has seen very little love in the couple of months that I've owned it. In fact truth be told I swatched it for a blog post, popped it into my palette drawer and forgot all about it!

what big eyes you have!

Products used

MAC Paintpot-Painterly as a primer

Gold colour bottom row, far left all over lower lid taken into the tear duct and just past the crease.

Turquoise middle,bottom row all over lower lid (excluding tear duct) up to crease.

Deep Purple,bottom row blended up to crease on the outer 2/3rd of eye.

Turquoise and purple colours both used under lower lashline.

Loreal telescopic mascara.

Urban decay 24/7 eyeliner (zero) along waterline.

If that makes sense "/

Hello humidity frizz (what's with the weather?)

S'cuse the dodgy FOTD I know it's a little whited out and bos eyed, but I wanted to show how I wore this look as a daytime smoky keeping the rest of my make-up as natural as possible, using just Chanel Pro lumiere foundation and MAC creme cup lipstick.It felt like a no blush/bronzer/highlighter kind of day and it's so damn hot and sticky in the UK at the moment I really couldn't be bothered faffing around.

With a pair of false lashes and extra eyeliner this could also be taken into a night-time smoky eye.

Let me know what you think girls, and also which other MUA Pro palettes are worth picking up?

Love you, Love you not #1

This is going to be the first in a little series about the products in my collection which I find myself reaching for alot and then being torn between my feelings of love and hate for. I thought I would put down in words the pro's and con's of these products and with a little help from you guys come up with a verdict on whether certain products are really worth ignoring the con's for.
Soooo this week's item in the dock is....

Seche vite-Fast drying top coat

Pro's

• SUPER quick drying time 
• High gloss finish

Con's 

• Strong headache inducing chemical scent 
• Warning on the back of the product that states that Seche Vite contains a chemical that may cause birth defects!
• Product becomes thick and gloopy after a few months making it necessary to purchase a bottle of thinner (really?come on!)
• After a couple of days wear nail polish peels off in huge chunks.

Verdict

While writing up my list of pro's and con's on Seche Vite, I came up with the cons so quickly, and aside from the drying time (around 2 minutes!) found it difficult to think of any other positives. 

For an impatient soul like myself minimal drying time is massively important as without it I get bored, fidget, smudge then either find myself starting over or removing the lot and not bothering at all, this is why I have chosen for so long to ignore the negatives and persevere with "The world's finest top coat". So the jury's out until I can find a really fast drying top coat that doesn't make me anxious about putting my hands near my mouth every time I wear it (seriously what is in this stuff??).

What are your thoughts on Seche Vite?

What is everyone's favourite quick drying top coat?