Festive Favorites

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you all had a beautiful day and have a wonderful new year! I don't really get the hype of new year to be honest and from my experience it doesn't necessarily go amazingly!

I just wanted to show you all a few of the makeup bits I got for Christmas! I got some really nice things, that I'm really excited to try out!

My Mum got me 2 really lovely Benefit sets which I absolutely love! The first one is a little box called 'whole lotta lovin'!' which has 3 neutral eye shadow shades that are all shimmery in the shades kiss me, it's complicated and I'm tipsy, a mini 'they're real' mascara, mini cream eye shadow in no pressure, a boi-ing boi-ing concealer in shade 02 and a sample of hoola bronzer. It also comes with 2 little brushes for eye shadow and concealer,  which are are actually really good! I've been really enjoying using this, the eye shadows are such nice colors.There isn't anything I don't like about this little kit, although the concealer is a little dark for me, but I'm sure it'll be fine for summertime.

The second kit she got for me was the 'Best of Benefit' box. This basically has mini's of all of Benefits best-selling products. The kit included a mini hoola bronzer, 'they're real' mini mascara, pore-fessional, bene-tint, high beam and boi-ing bio-ing concealer in shade 01 and 02. My favorites in this box are the pore-fessional, hoola bronzer and the concealer.

My sister also got me something from Benefit and that was the 'They're Real' mascara. I was so so happy when I opened this because it's my absolute favorite mascara and I really recommend it to anyone! So thank you Bee, if you're reading this!

My sister also got me 3 lip products which where, Sleek true color lipstick in Cherry 790, MUA lipstick trio in temptress and Look beauty fat lips! in smacker. I've been wanting the Sleek lipstick for ages so I was really happy with that and it is such a nice color. I really love all these products and have been gratefully added to my ever growing lip collection.

Finally, of course I got some nail polish for Christmas! I've been really wanting to get the Rimmel space dust nail polish and I really love the color my mum got me, it's 003 aurora. I also got 3 Barry M polishes which I am yet to try, but they all look really nice. The shades are 342 (it's limited edition), 344 raspberry and 331 chameleon blue.

So that's everything! I think about 95% of my presents where makeup which I was really happy about and I just want  to say thank you so much to my mum and sister for these! 

I would love to know what makeup and beauty things you got for Christmas, so comment down below if you like!

Thanks for reading and see you in 2014!

The Roaring 20's- a Great Gatsby inspired look

Hey everyone! So here is the post I've been really excited to do featuring my sister, Bee as my model.

I wanted to do a 20's great Gatsby inspired look that was still quite wearable. After the release of the Great Gatsby in the cinemas earlier this year, the 20's have become a popular theme in fashion and makeup and although I haven't actually watched the film, it really interested me.

During the 20's much more dramatic makeup came into fashion which proved quite controversial. Long locks became short and blunt bobs or perfect pin-curls and ivory face powder was extremely popular during the 20's, as it was fashionable to have a very pale, porcelain complexion.

Many women wore dark smokey eye makeup, long dark eyebrows and deep plum red lips.

I've tried to recreate this look on Bee, but have toned it down a bit to make it a more wearable look. I think this would be great for a party, evening out or if you like to experiment and wear more makeup, you could even wear this in the daytime.

I hope you like this look and can take some inspiration from it!

Products I used: Rimmel Stay Matte foundation, Pixi early bird palette (face powder& blusher), Maybelline 24hr color tattoo (40 permanent taupe), L'Oreal telescopic mascara, 17 Falsifye mascara, Sleek eyebrow kit (Dark), Collection lip liner (Damson), Rimmel Kate Moss matte lipstick (107).

Thanks for reading! I will also being doing a 50's look at some point, but in the meantime, have a wonderful Christmas!

Benefit Dandelion Ultra Plush Lip Gloss Review

Hey everyone! I can't believe it's only one week til Christmas now, I'm not looking forward to it being all over!
Today I thought I'd do a review on a product which I wasn't sure about when I first got it, but I am now in love with! It's the Benefit Dandelion ultra plush lip gloss.
Firstly I love the packaging of this lip gloss, as I do with all Benefit products. I just think it's so lovely how so much effort is put into the packaging of a lip gloss, which is such an ordinary and simple product. It comes in a green box with the picture of a dandelion on it and I think it looks really cute.

                                 *This isn't the full sized product

One thing you should know is that usually I absolutely hate lip gloss! I never like how it looks on lips, I don't like the usually sticky formula and I can never find really nice colors. However this is completely different to any I have tried before. When you apply it, it just feels like a lip balm on your lips and isn't at all sticky! The color is really natural, has a peachy tone to it and it looks so nice on my lips. It also isn't too shiny or glossy which I liked a lot. 

                                 Pictures taken in natural daylight.

The only flaw I've found with it is that it doesn't stay put for very long and I have to re-apply it quite a lot throughout the day, but apart from that I'm really pleased with it and definitely recommend it for anyone who isn't too keen on lip gloss like me.

Thanks so much for reading!

 On the weekend my 20's inspired makeup post will be up featuring my sister and it'd be great if you'd check it out! Should be up on Saturday.

I hope your having a lovely run up to Christmas!

*Disclaimer* My blog is not sponsored in anyway, these are my own opinions and the products are mine which I have bought..

A Winter's Day

Hey everyone, so today is just going to be a quick post as I have two very exciting projects that'll be up in the next few weeks leading up to Christmas! As my sister is coming home from uni for the holidays, she is going to model for my 20's and 50's vintage makeup and hair looks and I am excited to see how it turns out!

Today's post is just my favorite winter makeup look at the moment that I happened to have on today, so I thought I'd share it with you all!
This look is mainly focused on the lips, eyebrows and really natural, clear skin. I kept the eyes quite natural as well, but added some liquid eyeliner. As you can see below I've done some Christmas themed nail art as it's less than two weeks till Christmas now, so it's now exceptable to go all Christmassy (except with music, I hate Christmas songs!!!) 

Thanks for reading, hope you have a good day! <3

My favorite Sleek products

Hello everyone, so usually on the weekend I do my makeup through the ages post, but today I'm just going to be showing you my favorite products from Sleek that I've got recently.
Sleek is one of my favorite makeup brands as I think the makeup is such good quality and all the eye shadows and blushes are very pigmented. If you don't already know about the brand Sleek, in the UK it's available in Superdrug and I think it's being launched in Boots now as well! They also have a website: http://www.sleekmakeup.com/

Sleek blushes are actually my favorite out of all other brands, they have a really wide range of colors and they are really pigmented! The color suede is more of a brown color and can be used to contour as well as a blush. Flushed is much more pink and looks quite bright and scary when you open it up, but if you only used a little bit, it's a really lovely color. 
Under the pictures of them are some swatches I took of the two blushes.

The sleek contour kit was the first product I bought from them after I saw lots of beauty Youtubers recommending it and they were definitely right. This kit is really handy because you get a contour color and a highlighter and I love both of them, I definitely recommend this to anyone wanted to start contouring! 

The skin revive foundation is my most recent product, but I really like it already. I have quite yellow-toned skin and most foundations are more pink colored, but this one is the exact shade for my skin! I think they have about 30 different shades on their website which I think is really good. The foundation blends really well and is about a medium coverage.
The i-divine au natural palette is my favorite out of all of these. It has a mixture between matte and shimmery shades and the colors are really lovely. It's the best natural eye shadow palette I've used!


Thanks for reading, in the next few weeks my sister will be modelling for my 20's and 50's posts, so please watch out for them! <3

*i just wanted to note that nothing on this blog is sponsored and all the products I have bought myself and tried  them myself. They are all things I use on a daily basis. 

Interesting Finds...

Hey everyone, so as you may or may not know I have a bit of an obsession with TK Maxx! They sell all sorts of things from clothes and makeup to home ware and electronics. I love trawling around the makeup, beauty and toiletry section and over the past few months I've found some really nice little bits, so I thought I'd do a post about them. 

Cargo eye shadow ( not sure what the color's called)- This eye shadow I found near the counter at TK Maxx and I thought it looked really cute. They come in small round silver tins and have a really nice range of colors-mostly neutrals. 

The product itself is such good quality, it has a really creamy texture and stays on all day without creasing too much. They retail at around £12, but I got this for £3.99 in there! I highly recommend these eye shadows, but you may not be able to always find them in there as they change around their stock a lot, but if you can afford to get them at their full price then definitely try them out!

Essie Nail Polish(19 stylenomics)- This Essie nail polish is a really dark green color which I think is really nice for the winter and I got it for quite a lot less than they're usually retailed at. Essie nail polish is such good quality and I hope to get more colors.

Honeysuckle Jasmine Hand Soap- This is a bit of a random one, but this hand soap is really nice, it smells so gorgeous and I really like the design on the bottle, so I've kept it so it can be refilled.

Fashionista cleansing face wipes- I don't actually use face wipes to remove makeup anymore because they weren't good for my skin but if you do I defiantly recommend these. They smell really nice and they contain ylang ylang oil, which is really good and nourishing for the skin. You also get loads of wipes in the packet! They are quite hard to find, so if you ever see some, I would try and get quite a few.

Vintage Beauty Parlor & Style Me Vintage- I found these two books at the bottom of a load of cookery books and they are so perfect for my makeup through the ages blog posts! They have tutorials showing how to do the makeup, hair and clothes. I'm so glad I found them, I recommend them to anyone who likes recreating vintage and retro looks.

Thanks for reading! My next makeup through the ages post will be up on Saturday and it's going to be the 80's!

 X