July Favourites

Oooh its been a long time since I clicked on that "new post" button!! Without putting you all to sleep I will explain why, I have been without a laptop charger since my last post (over a month ago) which at first wasn't too much of an issue and I kind of enjoyed being free from my computer screen and living a kind of caveman-esque lifestyle but this past week I have missed my little blog so much that I forked out a friggin ridiculous amount on a new charger this afternoon so that I could be reunited with it *hugs blog*
Well as it's the end of July a favourites post seemed fitting to get me back into the swing of things so here we go.

MAC Mineralize skinfinish natural-Medium plus

I am generally not a powder girl, as my skin type is normal/dry I really love my face to have a dewy finish.When the sunshine graces the UK with its presence however I do feel the need to add powder on top of my foundation to keep it in place that bit longer. I love this powder as it manges to set foundation into place without over mattifying and keeps my skin looking really natural.

Chanel Vitalumiere aqua
I am trying to wean myself off Chanel Pro lumiere in case the rumours are true and it is going to be discontinued later on this year *sobs* So a few weeks ago I popped to the Chanel counter and got samples of all of the foundations to see which one could replace my beloved.Luckily I have fallen for this foundation completely! It is gorgeously light-weight but gives alot more coverage than I expected and a gorgeous flawless finish.Expect a full review soon.

Lee Stafford Sea salt spray

I seriously cant tell you how much I love this spray!!! I've used it so much just lately to create the beachy style hair that I can usually only get from being at an actual beach! There are 2 ways that you can use this, either spray on towel dried hair and then blow dry which I have found makes my hair feel sticky and gross afterwards for some reason, or spraying on towel dried hair and leaving to dry naturally which really works it leaves my hair soft and with the most perfect beachy waves which stay put all day! The smell is also uh-ma-zing its love!

VO5 miracle concentrate elixir with argan oil

I have wanted to jump on the argan oil bandwagon for a while now but have been too much of a cheapskate to part with the cash and pay for a higher end brand. So when I spotted this in superdrug reduced to £2.99 (I think the rrp is £4.99) I chucked it in my basket and hoped for the best. Turns out this is actually bloody amazing stuff! I thought that this would make my hair feel greasy and weighed down but it really doesn't even when I go a bit crazy with application! It's fantastic to use on wet hair as a leave in treatment or as a serum which is how I use it after I use the sea salt spray to get the ends of my hair (which actually need chopping off!) looking nice and smooth.

Urban Decay Naked palette 

 I don't think I need to explain why this became a favourite from the second I opened the lid and set eyes on those beautiful colours!! I picked this up about 6 weeks ago and have used it every day since as the combinations are endless.Definitely worth the £30 splurge! My favourite colours are Sin, Naked, Half baked, Toasted and Hustle.

OPI nail lacquer- Skull and glossbones

This is one of the 4 colours from the Pirates of the carribean miniature set which I bought a couple of weeks ago. I really only picked it up because the packaging was so cute (sucker!!) and tbh wasn't expecting much from this colour, however it is now my new favourite polish, it's a lovely pale creamy grey which in certain lights leans towards an eggshell blue shade. I am definitely going to try and get my hands on the full size bottle as I can see me running out of this one fast.

MAC lipstick-Hue

I lost this lipstick a while ago and my boyfriend found it under my car seat, I think he thought I was a little bit mental when I grabbed it off him shouting "Yay, you found Hue" he thought I had named it Hugh haha! Anyway Just lately my daily make-up has mostly been bronzed skin and a smoky gold eye so I love to wear a simple nude lip. This is definitely my favourite nude in my collection as it is so easy to wear, I love the glaze formula for being the happy medium between a lipstick and a gloss which leaves my lips feeling moisturised and non sticky.

So those are the products I've loved over the past month

Is anyone loving any of the same products? let me know my lovely's :)

Skincare for dry skin

Just lately my skin has really been on it's best behaviour, (touch wood) I haven't had a single patch of dry skin for over a month which is the only real problem that I get with my skin and it drives me crazy as my foundation will inevitably end up gathered on the dryness and it doesn't look pretty!
I thought I would share my latest skin care routine that I believe has helped me loads with you lovelies.


Cleanser
I was very kindly sent the Liz Earle cleanse and polish to try out around 2 months ago now I have been using it twice daily and am so pleased with it. What I love the most about this cleanser is the thickness of the formulation that actually makes it feel moisturising which is something that you don't always find with cleansers, and something I really appreciate with having a dry skin type. Also it removes make-up so easily and leaves skin feeling so super clean.This product definitely deserves it's cult status in my opinion.

Exfoliator
2-3 times a week for the past month I have been using the Vie skin sparkle system (of course the name suckered me in!) Its a 2 step system the first being the vitamin C crystal polish which you massage into the skin gently for a minute, secondly the activating serum is applied and left on for 2-3 minutes before rinsing off. I haven't always gotten along with exfoliators as they tend to cause a flare up of dry skin after I use them, which is so weird as they are supposed to remove dry skin?!?! But this one has never caused that to happen so it is definitely a winner.

Moisturiser
Moisturising is my favourite part of my skincare routine as I love the feeling of a freshly moisturised face so much! Nivea soft moisturising cream for face body and hands has been my go to moisturiser ever since I ran out of my Oilatum face repair about 2 months ago, and I actually think its so similar to the Oilatum and leaves my skin feeling just as hydrated that I wont have to go splashing out the £8 on that again any time soon.The smell of this moisturiser is so addictive as it has the same smell as Nivea sun cream and reminds me of holidays! Aside from the smell I also love how quickly this absorbs into the skin and makes a fantastic base for make-up.

So there are my 3 miracle products that have most definitely kept dry skin at bay and my skin feeling the best it has in a long time, I would really recommend trying them out if you also suffer with the dreaded dry patches. The only thing I am missing is a decent face mask,I cant seem to find one that I really love at the moment "/ Does anyone have any recommendations?

what are you loving skincare wise at the moment?

Benefit freebies

It feels like such a long time since I wrote my last blog post! The truth is I haven't been feeling overly inspired lately, that plus the school holidays, a bit of decorating and barely any shopping at all (aside from a cheeky Urban decay NAKED palette which I will do a post on as its amazing! :) ) has left me a little lacking in anything worth writing about, and I don't want to bore you all so I thought it best to keep schtum! ;)

But today after what feels like an age since reading about it on Fee's blog  I got my hands on 3 copies of this months Glamour magazine which nabbed me a posie tint, a benetint, and a high beam from benefit cosmetics (each 4ml) collectively worth £28, which as always with these high end Glamour freebies makes it so worth buying as many £2 copies as you like. Strangely as these are 3 of benefit's best sellers, I have never owned any of them, in fact the only one that has ever slightly intrigued me was high beam as I really love a good highlighter! I'm not much of a lip and cheek stain type of girl but I wont turn my nose up at a freebie and am rather looking forward to testing them all out!

benetint-Rose tinted lip and cheek stain 

posietint-poppy pink tinted lip and cheek stain (Id say it was a bubblegum pink colour though)

This was more difficult to remove than the benetint which surprised me!

high beam luminescent complexion enhancer

The swatches are making it look quite likely that I will have to attack all the newsagents within a ten mile radius especially for copies with posietint and high beam attached!!

Will you be stocking up on Glamour this month and which freebies will you go for?

TAG:The A-Z of me

I was over at the amazing Louise's blog which is sprinkle of glitter <<< go check it out if you haven't already,ooh and definitely subscribe to her You Tube channel, she will cheer you up no end, I promise ya! Anyhoooo I noticed this fun looking tag and thought I would post it over here (with my own answers of course) 

                                                      Source

Age- 26 and still getting asked for ID, I have been asked for the most stupidest things....Deodrant?? False nails?? and a Superdrug card the other week! The world is beyond mental!

Bed size- King sized and super cozy!!

Dogs- Pug (really greedy!) and Lhasa apso's (really naughty!)

Essential start of your day-At least 2 cups of tea (The big Disney shop mugs count as 2!)

Favourite colour-Blue/green

Gold or Silver- Silver 

Height- 5'2" which is simply too short!! grr!!

Instruments I play- I used to play the violin,but found waving the bow around like a sword much more entertaining!

Job title-Make-up artist 

Kids- Ben <3

Live- Derbyshire, and what a happening place it is be sure to put it on your bucket list! *ahem*

Mum's name-Amanda 

Nickname-Nat-nat, Toots, Jug ears (thanks Dad!)

Pet Peeve- People with no manners, people who eat like pigs! bleeurggh! Is there any neeeeed?

Quote from a movie-"You better Hold on tight spider monkey" Or anything Edward says in Twilight 

Right or Left handed- Right

Siblings- No its all about me ;) 

Time you wake up- 7:30am weekdays around 9am at the weekend

Underwear- is all from Primark and 90% of it has holes in it! shhhheeexxxaaay!

Vegetables you dislike- carrots (i like them raw though) sweetcorn, turnip, swede "p

What makes you run late- My boyfriend,he is always, always late and it drives me mental!

X-rays you have had done- None that spring to mind

Yummy food you make- I make a mean phone call to the pizza delivery man (I cant cook :(( )

Zoo animal- Penguin! 

I tag everyone to do this post! Let me know if you do it :)

xxx

MUA's sleek new products

The Superdrug in my local town is having a bit of an overhaul ready to squeeze in a perfume shop concession.I took this as an excuse to go in for a nose, ignoring my boyfriend's protests as it had only been a week since I dragged him in with me and "what could possibly be different?" Well actually there was a brand new shiny make-up counter so neeeeeerrrr! ;p 

Obviously from the title of this post I'm sure you have guessed that the brand new shiny make-up counter was an MUA one, a counter which I don't always stop at but today it really caught my attention.The single eye shadows have been replaced with palettes, they now also have a line of foundations and a couple of funky looking mosaic bronze and blushers. The counter wasn't fully stocked up but I picked up a few bits and pieces...

Please excuse the dodgy photo,I was rushing as my camera battery was dying!

The only minor downside with the new MUA products is that no longer is everything only £1, the prices are a little higher, only by a small amount and the quality of the products (from what I can see so far) totally justify the little hike in price.

The Dusk til Dawn palette-£4.00

(It shall be known as the George Clooney palette :))

 Swatches

Called the dusk til dawn palette as the 12 colours included are colours that you can use to "transform your look from day to night."As soon as I swatched these colours I was impressed, the colours are all very well pigmented, are velvety soft in texture and glide on super smoothly.So far I haven't tested these out on the eye area but I'm pretty sure they will be really easy to apply and blend.There are also around 5 other palette's to choose from in the new MUA range.

Trio eyeshadow-innocence-£2.50

Another new addition to the range are the eyeshadow trio's which include a highlight, a base shade and a contour colour.Also well pigmented but a little less smooth in consistency than the palette colours.

Swatches

3 in 1 extreme contour Eye pen £1.50

To be honest I wasn't completely sure what to expect upon opening this, after reading the blurb on the back of the box I was a little unsure...

I have never seen another product like this. Is it just me? Anyway what it basically is,is a super soft angled eyeliner which you can use to create various effects with by using the different areas of the pen, for example the tip gives you a fine line, the edge gives you a thicker line, and by turning the edge on its side you can create an ultra thick line.

So far from what I can see its pretty fantastic and glides on like an absolute dream! I cant wait to test it out fully! I just wish the Black had been on the shelf!! 

What are your thoughts on MUA?

Will you be picking anything up from the new range?