10 Of My All Time Favourite Make-Up Products!

These are the make-up products that I have gone back to over and over again, all of which can be found in my make-up bag.

I have bought Benefit's Lemon Aid numerous times now. I have been using it for at least 7 years. I use it as a eyeshadow primer. It is a light yellow colour so it is also great for covering redness, but I find it a bit too thick to use as a concealer. My eyeshadow looks a lot better with this as a base. I have tried other eyeshadow primers but this is my favourite.

I love matte eyeshadows and this Urban Decay Naked Basics palette is amazing. I use it almost every day. You can even use the matte black shadow as an eyeliner.

MAC's 217 blending brush is my favourite brush ever! I love it. The shape and density is perfect for blending out eyeshadow.

MUA's Undressed palette is my favourite shimmery eyeshadow palette. The shades in it are gorgeous and the eyeshadows are good quality and very pigmented.

I have been using MAC's blush in the shade, Melba for about 18 months and I love it. My previous favourite was by No.7.

Collection's Lasting Perfection concealer gives great coverage. It is quite thick so I sometimes mix it with a little bit of moisturising cream to thin it out a bit.

Barry M's Brow Kit is great! I use it all of the time and I even use the little brush that comes with it and find it to be quite good. I don't really use the tweezers as they are quite difficult to nip together. I love this kit though!

Nars Laguna bronzer is the best bronzer I have used. It is light enough to use on my fair skin without looking harsh or muddy. I don't use it every day, but I really like it.

Dr Jart's Regenerating BB Cream has been a favourite for years. It's amazing how a product with such a light coverage can really improve the look of your skin. I wear this daily and I love it!

MAC's lipstick in Ruby Woo is my most used red lipstick. It is matte and I find it really easy to apply. It is not my most used lipstick overall; just my most popular red lipstick.
I have found it difficult to choose favourites for some items such as eyeliner, foundation, lipstick or mascara because I tend to regularly change the brands I buy and I'm not in love with one particular product.

July 2016 Favourites!

Here are my favourites for July 2016! This month we bought this 'Stay Cool' water dispenser from Clas Ohlson. Even at the time I thought it was a silly purchase that would never get used, but I love it. It has made me drink so much more water. I put slices of lemon in the water for a hint of flavour.

I have been using my Avon glimmerstick eyeliner a lot this month. I also use it to wave through my lower lashes to make them look thick and black. My eyeliner is in 'blackest black' but this eyeliner is available in a lot of different colours.

I have been using my Barry M Brow Kit a lot lately. The tweezers aren't great as they are so small and difficult to pinch together, but I love the little brush and the powder. The lighter brown colour is a gel to set your brows in place.

I am a huge fan of this Calvin Klein lipstick in First Kiss. The colour is great. It is very subtle. I love it!

I have used Avon's Outspoken Party! by Fergie (from Black Eyed Peas) a few times this month. It reminds me of Vera Wang's Princess Night fragrance. It is a sweet, fruity scent and it has good projection and lasts well.

The sun has been shining and I just love this dazzling yellow citrine ring for the summer. I think it has been my most worn ring this month.

Autumn Desires - Make-Up!

There are loads of make-up items that I am after at the minute.
I love Urban Decay's eyeshadow palettes. I have used a few of them, but I still don't own Naked, Naked 2, Naked 3 or the Naked Smoky palette.
I love the Smoky palette and I think Naked 3 has some lovely warm shades in it so they are the two I am lusting after the most.

I have just started on a new Rimmel Scandal Eyes Lycra Flex mascara (left) and I love it, but it isn't waterproof and I tend to get smudges under my eyes if I wear a mascara which is not waterproof so I want to try something different. I have tried Rimmel's Scandal Eyes waterproof mascara and I really liked it, but I also really liked Maybelline's The Rocket Volum' Express waterproof mascara. Although I liked both of them I want to try something different next and Maybelline's Colossal Volum' Express mascara (right) is also waterproof so I think I might give this one a go.

Nars Laguna bronzer has been on my list for way too long.

I really want to try the Barry M Daylight Curing nail polishes. They are supposed to be quite thick gel-like polishes. Barry M claim that they deliver the look and resilience of pro salon gel nails without a UV lamp or the expense. There is no need for a base coat as the special formulation bonds to the nail like a gel in daylight, but can still be removed with a normal nail polish remover. I have used the Avon gel polishes and I find that you can peel the nail polish off your nails. Instead of it chipping a bit at a time you can peel the whole thing off in one.
The range doesn't have too many colours yet, but I love the pink/purple coloured one, which is called Fuchsia Generation and the nude coloured one which is called Do It Like A Nude.

I think MAC's Springsheen blush looks a lovely colour. I have been trying to decide on a blush colour for a while and I have similar colours from other brands which I think suit my skin tone so this has made it onto my list.

An eyeliner that I am interested in is the Seventeen Tattoo Me Semi Permanent liquid eyeliner. It claims to last for 48 hours. I swatched it and it wouldn't budge with soap and water. I had to use an oil based eye make-up remover to remove it. I wouldn't fancy making a mistake with this one.

There aren't any lip products I can think of that I am desperate to try. I have way too many lipsticks anyway. I'm sure there's some colours in my collection that I could rediscover.

Huge Make-up Haul, Lolita Lempicka Perfumes And Christmas Shopping!!

** CHRISTMAS PRESENT SPOILERS - PLEASE DON'T READ IF YOU ARE MY SISTER! **

After my last post where I mentioned a few make-up products that I wanted, I decided to have a look online and treat myself.

As usual I went a bit overboard and bought all of this!:

and that lot led to free gifts:

I ordered half from Boots and half from Superdrug and they both arrived in the post today.

I ordered the Zoella Let's Glow fragranced candle which I mentioned in my previous post and I also decided to get the Zoella Blissful Mistful fragranced body mist.
The candle was smaller than I expected, but it looks very cute. I started burning it straight away when it arrived today and it has a lovely scent.

I also ordered some Sleek products. I have never used their products before, but their packaging is gorgeous. I absolutely love it and the blushes are so small and cute. I bought two; one in shade Flamingo shown on the top row and another in Pixie Pink.
The lipstick from Sleek (shown top right) is a bit smaller than your average lipstick and it also comes in lovely matte black packaging. I ordered a bright red shade called Vixen.

I also got Rimmel's Apocalips lip gloss as I've read some really good reviews about it. I usually prefer to wear lipstick so hopefully this will make a nice change.

I am really pleased with Barry M's brow kit. I've never seen tweezers so cute. I haven't tried this out yet though.

I bought Rimmel's Brow This Way brow styling gel, which I have tried out and so far so good.

I haven't bought new Barry M Dazzle Dust pots for ages so I bought two in shades Bronze and Aphrodite.

I got a really pretty blush from MUA in shade Marshmallow. I have used their blush in the past before they changed their packaging and I'm liking the new packaging and looking forward to trying this one out.

I also ordered an MUA Power Pout lip crayon. It is in a shade called Broken Hearted.

I bought a bright red Smash Box Be Legendary lipstick in shade Legendary and it looks really nice. I love the packaging for this lipstick. It is square shaped and matte black.

In the silver packaging we have the Barry M lip stain paint. I bought mine in a shade called Eternal Coral number 428. It is difficult choosing a shade from a website and I'm not sure if I'm going to suit this one.

I also ordered a lip crayon from the Boots brand 17 or Seventeen as they're now calling themselves. I got it in a shade called Back To The Fuchsia and it is very bright. I have been wearing this one this evening. It has a bit of shimmer in it, which I'm not really keen on. I only bought it because I am getting an addiction to lip crayons and this one was only £2.00!

On the subject of lip crayons I also bought two Bourjois Color Boost Glossy Finish Lipsticks in crayon form. I bought them in shades 05 Red Island and 06 Plum Russian.
I put the plum one on earlier and I love it. It looks lovely on and has a slight gloss to it, but it isn't sticky. I have a feeling these will be taking over in my make-up bag very quickly.

Finally I ordered a Chanel Rouge Coco Hydrating Crème Lip Colour lipstick in shade 19 Gabrielle. It is a shade of red so I'm looking forward to trying this one out as well.

I have never tried either of the free mascaras before so I look forward to trying them out. The Barry M Show Girl mascara tube feels quite heavy.
The other mascara is Rimmel's Lash Accelerator Endless mascara, which I tried out earlier on my bottom lashes only as I already had mascara on my top lashes. So far so good, but it is difficult to say without giving it a proper go.


Moving on from make-up I ordered the beloved shoes from New Look.

I said in my previous post that you'll either love them or hate them.. My sister said, "They are literally the ugliest shoes I've ever seen. I can't see an occasion that you'd be able to wear them in public where people can see you." Haha! That made me laugh! I don't mind that she hates them. I think they'll look great with a pair of black tights and a nice autumnal dress.
I ordered them from New Look's website 30 seconds after my last post and I used the click and collect service. When I got them home I couldn't stop looking at them.
I'm a size 5 in flats (4 in heels if you're thinking of buying me shoes) and these do look rather long and thin I have to admit, so if you're a larger size they're going to get more and more ugly the larger your feet are. I still love them though! I'm really excited to wear them!

I also went to Debenhams last week and tried on the coat I had my eye on.

I love the colour and I love the style, but it is too long for me. It comes past my knees and I felt as though it made me look fat so I had to leave it and the search continues for a beautiful coat for the winter. 

I mentioned my excitement at the new Lolita Lempicka release, Minuit Sonne in my previous post and I did attempt to buy it from Debenhams' website the other day, but it wouldn't allow me to pay with the £50 giftcard I have and I googled it and it has been a problem with their website for years and they haven't fixed it so that upset me. I have been to two huge Debenhams branches near me in the past week and neither of them had this fragrance and I can't find it anywhere else. It means I will probably have to order it online with cash and keep my voucher for something else that I can buy in store, which seems ridiculous.

To cheer myself up after such a tragic ordeal I bought a long term item on my Amazon wishlist: Lolita Lempicka Midnight Couture Black

I absolutely adore the other midnight fragrances from Lolita Lempicka so I really hope this one is as good. I'm so excited about it coming. I'm very wary about buying fragrances from Amazon as they're often sold by independent sellers who have feedback that suggest they're selling fakes and believe me there are more fakes out there than you think.
This fragrance is dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
I am so excited to receive this. I'm having visions of an email coming through saying it is unavailable as it feels too good to be true. I probably should have ordered this a long time ago.

I do find the midnight fragrances a bit confusing as the box just says, 'Eau de Minuit - Midnight Fragrance' on most of them and there are 11 different midnight fragrances in the famous apple shaped bottles, which is a bit crazy, but they smell so good. 

I like the idea of the black leaves on the top of the bottle.


My favourite Lolita Lempicka fragrance is Minuit Passion. It is sweet, but very powdery at the same time and it definitely has a midnight feel to it. Although it is sweet it is sexy, sultry and mysterious too. You really have to try it for yourself.
Something I don't like about Midnight Passion is the bottle.

It looks nice enough in this picture, but that's not what it really looks like. The bottle and the red metal detailing look much darker in real life. The photo below was with the taken with the flash on and the bottle still looks rather dull and lifeless; very different to the photo above, but the fragrance is amazing and that is what matters.
I actually wrote out my top 10 fragrances and this was one of them and I have over around 200 fragrances now (too many I know, forgive me - I'm a shopaholic)!

Finally I know it might seem a bit early, but I have been desperate to get the majority of my Christmas shopping done as I'm going to the German Christmas Markets in December and don't want to be watching the pennies while I'm away, worrying about Christmas shopping that I haven't done.
I started a while ago and yesterday I went to Lush to get my sister some goodies as she adores their range. I know some people might not think it's ok to buy bath bombs etc. over two months in advance of giving them to someone as a gift, but I think it is so hopefully she will too.

I looked on their website before I went to the shop because I wanted to have a good idea of what I wanted.

I got:

Candy Mountain bubble bar £2.95

Christmas Eve bubble bar £2.95

Dashing Santa bath bomb £2.95

The Christmas Penguin bubble bar £3.25

Northern Lights bath bomb £3.50

 Snow Fairy shower gel 100g £3.75/ 250g £7.50/ 500g £11.95

The bag of goodies smelled amazing! I'm so pleased with what I got. I hadn't planned to buy the Christmas Eve bubble bar and was instead going to get a bath bomb, but I couldn't find the one I had in mind and I was also disappointed that I couldn't find Sparkler bath bomb (£3.50).

I would love to try this one and the Northern Lights one. I love the shape, but I'd be gutted if my sister's broke before I give it to her. I've already packed all of the bath stuff up in a bubble wrap lined box and gift wrapped it.

I'm so excited to give them to her. She never reads my blog, but typically I bet she randomly logs on tomorrow and ruins her surprise!

My Christmas wish list!

I am trying to cut down on spending at the minute, which makes it difficult to browse the internet without wanting everything I see.

Here are a few things on my wish list at the moment.

1) An emerald ring - I have wanted an emerald ring for years now, but they don't come cheap. The one pictured below is 9 carat gold. It is from Ernest Jones and costs £399.00.

2) Camera print scarf - I saw this on notonthehighstreet.com for £12.95, but it is also on Amazon.co.uk for £4.99. As I have mentioned before I am a bit obsessed with printed fabrics at the minute and this scarf is perfect for me.

3) DKNY Sweet Delicious Key Lime Tart perfume - I tried this in Debenhams when I was on holiday in Devon earlier this year. It isn't available in the Debenhams stores near me, but is available online. I hope to get this before it sells out!

4) Rimmel Scandal Eyes Flex mascara - When I went out with a friend recently I couldn't stop staring at her lashes. I asked if she had dyed them as they looked dark, but natural. There was no clumps or anything and you couldn't tell she was wearing mascara although her lashes looked great.
She told me she was wearing this Rimmel mascara so I am now desperate to try it for myself!

5) Too Faced Pink Leopard Blushing Bronzer - I remember reading a review of this a year or so back and it is just so cute. The packaging is lovely as well. It is round and gold coloured to resemble a coin with a pattern around the outside and 'Too Faced' imprinted in the middle. I'd love to try this out.

6) Tan Contrst Croc Print Metal Plate Bowler Bag - I could do with a new handbag and a while ago when I was in New Look they had some lovely handbags at very reasonable prices and I was impressed.
I like this brown bowler bag that I found on their website. It is only £19.99, which I think is fantastic. It looks really smart.

7) Juicy Couture Viva La Juicy Noir - a fragrance I have wanted since long before it came out and I still have not bought this. I was going to buy it in Boots points event in July, but they only stock the 30ml and 50ml and I want the 100ml bottle so I didn't end up getting it. This is the only Juicy Couture fragrance that I don't own so it will definitely be joining my collection soon.

8) Irregular Choice clutch bag - I love this gorgeous detailed clutch bag. The large side bow looks great. I have had my eye on this for a while.

9) Iron Fist peep toe shoes - These peep toe shoes were in my basket today at www.ironfist.co.uk, where they were in the sale reduced from £74.99 to £18.75, which I think is great value, but I have so many shoes and so much to pay for these next few months that I talked myself out of buying them! They are so cute though. I love Iron Fist shoes. Their designs are so unique.

10) Barry M dazzle dust - You can never have enough Barry M dazzle dust. I only have a few pots. I have a silver and a bronze colour, but I'd love to add a few more bronze and gold shades as to my collection it is excellent quality and although the pots seem quite small they last for ages.