Libster Award // Take Two

Recently I was nominated for the Libster Award for the 2nd and 3rd time, but since I have already taken part in this I'm not going to be nominating anybody instead I'm just going to answer the questions - because it means you can get to know me better! I will link my first Libster Award here. But I would still like to Thanks Beth from Chronic Cosmetics and Madeleine from Madeleine In Wonderland, so lets get into the questions. 

Beth's questions from Chronic Cosmetics:

1. If you could only wear 2 beauty products what would they be? 

That is difficult but I would have to say Chanel - Vitalumiere Aqua Foundation as it's a "ultra light skin perfecting" foundation so it gives me good looking skin and Soap & Glory  - Thick and Fast mascara as I've recently re-discovered this and jives you amazing looking lashes. 

2. What is you’re favourite beauty product of all time? 

It is a bit of a boring one but it would have to be the Seche Vite - Fast Drying Top Coat, it drys your nails within a few minutes and best part they don't smudge. 

3. If you could only wear one brand of beauty products which one would you choose?

It would have to be Mac as I could get everything I wanted from the basics of foundation and eyebrows to blush, eye-shadow - I could even get brushes, brush cleaner and glitter if I wanted. I could get whatever I needed, I am after all thinking practically! 

4. What is the best beauty tip you have ever had?

That's a tough one but I would probably have to say how to contour different face shapes.

5. What is your favourite colour to wear on your nails?

I recently got Essie's - Fiji it is a gorgeous baby pink, it has good wear and it goes with everything.

6. What is your least favourite product?

It would have to be the mosaic blush and bronzer from MUA, they are just not good products - I hated them so much that I even binned them! 

7. Who’s make-up do you envy?

Selena Gomez always looks absolutely flawless even when she doesn't have make-up on, she can pull of all looks. 

8.  Who are your top 3 beauty bloggers?

Beth at Bird's Words,
Zoe at Zoella,
Milly at Pearls and Poodles

9. Statement lips or eyes? 

On me personally statement eyes because I don't have the right shape of lips for bold colours but I do love a bright lip! 

10. If you could invent a beauty product what would it be?

Well that would be telling wouldn't it! I have planned out my own make-up line from product, packaging and names - it is a dream of mine to have my own make-up line. 

11. If money was no object what beauty product would you buy?

Hmm... I have it all in one of my many wishlists! Nothing that is priced to crazy as you can get good products and you don't have to pay £60 for a foundation! 

Madeleine's questions from Madeleine in Wonderland:

1. Who or what has inspired you to start blogging?

Lot's of different things but I love to talk about beauty products and I was just annoying everyone and I read lots of beauty blogs I thought it only made sense to start my own and since then I have found a love with writing and photography as well as of course beauty and fashion. 

2. Who is your favourite clothing designer?

I don't really like to spend heaps of money on clothes as it's a bit of a waste unless it is a big event. But I do like designer accessories, like Mulberry, Michael Kors and Marc Jacobs to name a few!

3. Other than blogging what do you do in your spare time?

Blogging pretty much takes up all of my spare time! 

4. If you won the lottery, what would be the first thing you purchase?

A plane ticket to London and then to New York and then to my last stop which is Toronto - my main dream home. 

5. What is your favourite scent?

For everyday I normally wear Ted Baker - Butterfly and then for special occasions or if I'm feeling in a special mood, I like to wear Amarni Code.

6. What is your most treasured possession?

I have a few but one of the most interesting is, a clutch bag that my gran gave to me that was given to her by my grandad. It has a lot of centamental value and I treasure it so much that I have it displayed on a shelf. 

7. Do you prefer tea or coffee?

Tea, a cuppa every morning. 

8. What word makes you cringe?

A lot of sayings my dad says but I will save you the pain of listening/ reading them! Trust me you don't want to know!

9. What is your ideal day off?

Depends what kind of time I've had. If I've been really busy then proberly a relaxing day in my pj's watching The Vampire Diaries cuddling my doggies!

10. Do you prefer bright or pastel colours?

I love them both, but I do prefer pastel colours.

11. If you could give someone who is new to blogging advice what would is the number one thing you would say?

Be yourself, write what you want to write about and not what will get you the views and followers. People will follow your blog if they like it and that's what really matters and treasure every single lovely person! Also don't compare yourself to somebody else's middle. 

I hope you enjoyed these questions, I had some fun answering them! Thanks for Reading! 

Maybelline // Baby Lips Lip Balm

If you live in the UK you may be aware of a very exciting (at least for me) product release from Maybelline. Now this isn't a new product completely, as America have had this product for over a year I think!  Yes, I'm talking about Baby Lips! I've wanted to try them when I first saw them mentioned and they have finally came across to the UK! 

You may be wondering exactly what baby lips are and they are lip balms.There is six to chose from, three lips balms are tinted and the other three are colourless. Some of them even have SPF20 in which surprising not manly lip balms do. They claim to give 8 hours of moisture but I'm not sure if I completely agree with that! I have very dry lips and mine gets chapped very easily so on a normal not so dried out lips maybe they would. They all also contain Shea butter and plumbing centella for good looking lips. They all also have quite a strong scent but they all smell different but quite tropical and fruity. 

The packaging is basis the lip balm come in stick form which I like as it is more hygienic that a pot and your can also just swipe it on without thinking if your in a rush. The lip balms all have different coloured packaging and have clear tops with different coloured writing on them. I personally really like the packaging, especially for the price I think it's really nice and unique.   

The six shades are: 

Pink Punch

Peach Kiss

Cherry Me

Mint Fresh

Hydrate

Intense Care

I have four of the lip balms, I have Pink Punch, Peach Kiss, Hydrate and Intense Care. I din't want Cherry Me or Mint Fresh as I don't think I would you them and they would be a bit of a waste as I don't really like cherry or mint to much. My favourite is Pink Punch it smells amazing and it looks so pretty on your lips. It is so pigmented for a tinted lip balm and it would be great with minimal make-up on an everyday basics. I also really like Peach Kiss it is much more of a subtle colour and is kind of a "my lips but better" kind of colour. These retail for only £2.99! At Boots and Superdrug and they are currently on a 3 for 2 offer in both stores. 

Have you tried Baby Lips yet? 

Real Techniques Review // My Collection

Recently I realised that I had start a bit of a collection of Real Techniques make-up brushes in the fact that I have the majority of them, and only have one set and one brush that I would still like. But I'm not in a huge hurry to get them, maybe I'll put them on my Christmas list! Any way they are my all-time favourite make-up brushes, they are such good quality and they aren't expensive at all. In fact there is an offer on in Boots just know where it is "buy on get another half price" and that is on until 3rd September and Feel Unique have 10% off in their summer sale so make sure you check that out! I thought that today I would share with you what make-up brushes I have and I'm also going to do a mini review for each of them - so if your in the market for adding to your Real Techniques collection this should hopefully be very helpful! 

The barrels are made with aluminium so they are lightweight and not heavy to hold. You might notice that the barrels of all the brushes are different colours and that's because they are colour coded for different uses. This is a short break down of what colours mean what...

Orange - Your Base / Flawless

Purple - Your Eyes / Enhanced

Pink - Your Finish / Perfected

All the brushes are very soft and they are made with Ultra-Plush Synthetic Bristles. The brushes also wash up really well and are as good as new, I've never had a problem with the brushes shedding and I've had some of my brushes for more than 18 months! Another great point about these brushes are that they are 100% cruelty free! The have always worked really well. The face brushes also have quite wide flat bottoms so they are able to stand up by themselves if need be. If you buy a set of brushes they will come in a black travel case, you can use this to store you brushes in or travel with them. But I either keep mine in a pot on my vanity or I travel with them in a different case as I carry a lot of stuff but they are still quite handy if you needed them!

I would like to add the travel essentials kit and a setting brush into my collection and then that will be be finished. I do also have doubles of these both for my freelance make-up kit and doubles for myself! Here is the brushes I use personally...

Core Collection -

The Core Collection includes four brushes, a travel case/stand and is priced at £21.99. 

Buffing Brush - This brush works best with liquid foundation by buffing it into the skin, it helps to give a really flawless looking base. 

Pointed Foundation Brush - I tend to use this more for applying cream highlighter on my cheekbones but it also works well with concealer. 

Contour Brush - As you can tell by the name it is great for contouring your cheekbones but I normally use this on a daily basis to powder under my eyes as it fits in perfectly. 

Detailer Brush -  You may of been able to to tell by the photo that this brush is a bit stained and that's because I use it to apply bright lipstick. It does a great job at applying lipstick and I should have really washed my brush after and not the next again day! 

Starter Set -

The Starter Set includes five brushes for your eyes, it also comes with a travel case/stand and is priced at £21.99.

Base Shadow Brush - I love this it is one of my favourites! I use this mainly for applying eye shadow across my entire lid but you can also use it to apply cream bases on your eyes or you could use it for concealer. I've even used it to apply highlighter on my cheekbones! 

Deluxe Crease Brush - This is another multi-task brush which can be used for applying colour to your crease or applying concealer which I love it for as if you have a spot, its the perfect shape to cover it. 

Accent Brush - I either use this to add colour along my lower lash line but it's also good for adding highlight into your inner corner.

Brow Brush - This is basically just an angled brush which I love as the bristles are quite long, its perfect for filling in your eyebrows, adding colour on your lower lash line or for doing thick gel eye-liner on your upper lash line. 

Pixel-Point Eyeliner Brush - I'll be honest and say I don't really use this but you can  use it for gel eye-liner or as an inner corner highlight but I personally prefer to use other brushes. 

Duo-Fibre Collection (LE) -

The Duo-Fibre Collection is Limited Edition so if you want it I'd get it quickly as it's been out since the end of May. It includes three brushes and has a white barrel with coloured writing linking to the colour coded system which I talked about earlier. These are £23.99. 

Duo-Fibre Face Brush - This is great for applying powder all over your face, I've tried it with both pressed and loose and it works well with both. 

Duo-Fibre Contour Brush - I've never used this for contouring as it just don't think it's the right shape! But it does work well with both powder and cream products. I normally use this for blush and highlight. 

Duo-Fibre Eye Brush - I don't use this brush as often as I should, it works so well adding eye-shadow in your crease. Just apply colour to the tip of the bristles and the ones around blend it out! 

Expert Face Brush - This is one of the best foundation brushes I've ever used. It applies liquid foundation so well, I use this on a daily basis for both concealer and then foundation. But because of the shape of the brush it would also work well for contouring. This is £9.99.

Powder Brush - I've only had this brush for just over a week and I've fallen in love with it. Even when I don't need to apply powder I still do just so I can use this brush! It works with both loose and pressed powder, powder foundation and I've also used it with bronzer to give my skin an all over bronzed look. It's also very fluffy (I feel like the little girl from despicable me! I just want to shout "It's so fluffy, I could die!!" haha) This is £12.99.

Stippling Brush - Another one of my loves! This is again so multi-task, I use this for liquid foundation and cream blush. The stippling brush is priced at £11.99.

Blush Brush - This is also a new addition to my collection. I have used this with powder, bronzer and blush! There all just so multi-task. This is only £9.99. 

I feel like I've said every brush I love and every brush is so multi-task and it's just so true! I can't rave about them enough! If you are new to real techniques or even make-up brushes in general and you were wanting the basics I would recommend getting the core collection and the starter set as they have both all the basics for both your eyes and face. But if you didn't want the core collection I would say the starter set for your eyes and then the expert face brush and the blush brush as you can use them for different products. 

I have reviewed the core collection and the starter set before fully so I will link them below, I will also link to a post I have done about the Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge that is coming out around September/ October. Core Collection Review, Starter Set Review and Miracle Complexion Sponge.

You can purchase Real Technique brushes easily now, here's a link to a list of retailers around the world where you can buy the best make-up brushes! 

What's your favourite Real Technique Brush?

Collective Beauty Haul // Chanel, GHD, Mac & Much More!!!

As you can tell by the photos above I've done some shopping recently. I know, I know I have a problem I am trying to fix it but my wishlist just keeps getting bigger and it;'s getting hard to control! Now since this might take a while I'm not going to ramble on, I'm just going to get straight into it. So lets start with one of the most exciting products and one that I actually used my boots advantage points (yes I had more than £30 on my boots card!) And that is a foundation I have been lusting after for quite a while and that is the Chanel - Vitalumiere Aqua Foundation, I have already used this a few times and love the formula it is a light coverage foundation but it covers what needs covered as it claims to be an "ultra light skin perfecting make-up" and that it totally true. I will defiantly to a review one I have tried it out more! Mac is a love hate place for me I love all the products but prices keep going up and up, lipsticks have gone up to £15! But I still love them! I was wanting to get the Studio Finish Concealer as it is heavy coverage and as I have been using a light coverage foundation certain areas just needed a helping hand! I then got two eye-shadows in the pan form for my pro palette which I am starting to fill up, I got charcoal Brown for my eyebrows and also got Embark as its a really nice matt brown with a hint of purple. I also got a free lipstick - yes you heard right! I took six old Mac containers back and got a free lipstick, I chose Chatterbox which is an amplified creme formula and is a bright red pink which is completely out of my personal comfort zone but since it was free I thought why not give it a go! Now I've wanted to try the Maybelline - Baby Lips ever since they came out in America and they have finally came to the UK after a very long wait! I got the colour Pink Punch but I have three more on my list to get as they are only £2.99 and are really good - what a bargain! I then got one of the Revlon - Kissable Balm Stains which I am now regretting as when I swatches it (multiple times!) it looked like a really natural but when its on your lips it actually more of a light brown which I really don't like! The next two items I got a few days ago as there was a offer on and I've been meaning to get them for ages! And that is Real Techniques make-up brushes - the offer was buy one get one half price which means I saved just over the £5 which is quite good! I got the powder brush and the blush brush and they are honestly amazing, so soft and work so well. I think I pretty much have all the brushes bar 3 so I might do a Real Techniques Collection / Mini Review, so if you want to see that let me know in the comments. 

I've been trying to find Essie's - Fiji for months now but every time I go in they don't have it or I forget to look but finally they had it and I remembered. If you don't have this nail polish then you have to go straight to Boots and pick it up its the most universal nail polish you could get and looks so pretty and polished on your nails. I haven't put another colour on my nails since getting this, I just keep re-doing it! Anybody that paints there nails will say the one annoying thing about painting your nails is waiting for them to dry and if you have that problem then please get the Seche Vite - Fast Drying Top Coat your nails are completely dry to the touch within a minute and you can get on with your day without worrying if there going to smudge - a complete life saver! 

I love travel sized products because you can try products out to see if you like them and I have been wanting to try new shampoo and conditioner, so I picked up Toni & Guy - Shampoo and Conditonar for damaged hair. I also got the Toni & Guy - Cleanse Dry Shampoo  which is good but the smell is very overwhelming so don't think I'm going to get that in full size! I also got the Aussie - 3 Minute Miracle which is amazing and I've been wanting to try the Umberto Giannini - Backbomb in a Bottle, which sound like it could add so volume to my hair! I have also gotten the Macadamia - Healing Oil Treatment as the ends of my hair is really dry and it does wonders! Can we please just take a minute and talk about my new straightener?!? Are they not the nicest most gorgeous thing you've ever seen? Okay that might be excessive but they are amazing! In the photo they are coming of my blue when they are more of a mint blue (there is a big difference :) ) They work really well and they look so nice sitting on my vanity/ dressing table, I even wanted to decorate my room around them but I decided against that! (I am however decorating my room!) 

I feel like in every haul I do I have a new bottle of Bioderma and that's because I go through this stuff very quickly, so I've gotten a 500ml bottle and lets see how long that lasts! I also wanted to get some pore strips and I've heard alot of good things about the Biore - Deep Cleansing Pore Strips I've only used them once so not quite sure how I feel about them! I am also trying to sort my skin out so I've gotten Cetaphil - Gentle Skin Cleanser and Oilatum - Natural Repair Face Cream and my skin is already starting to look better! 

If you would like a review on any of the items featured and once I have a clear review of them I would be happy to do that! 

Thanks for Reading! 

Magazine Freebies // Elle Magazine // Bumble & Bumble

Today's post is going to be on a rather good magazine freebie! Whist I was in the que at boots I happened to notice that this months copy of Elle magazine had a very good freebie this month - which happens to be a small bottle of the Bumble and Bumble - Thickening Hairspray. Even though you don't use it how you typically would a hairspray, as you spray it on wet or damp hair! But it really does give you thicker hair - I already have pretty thick hair but this made it almost unmanageable! I've used it twice and I already love it and might have to buy the full size. The bottle is quite big for a magazine freebie as it is 50ml and will be perfect for taking on holiday. I will definitely be picking up a few more bottles as Elle is only priced at £4 and a full sized bottle is normally £21.50. 

We'll that's all I really have to say! Have you seen any other good magazine freebies this month? If so, leave me a comment so I can pick my own up! 

Thanks for Reading 

Review // Soap & Glory - Supercat Liquid Liner

If you've read my blog for a while you've read my blog for a while you have definitely heard me talking about the Soap & Glory Supercat Liquid Liner, and it only occurred to me recently that I have never done a review of this - after using it for well over a year! 

To save you the pain of me describing products I will now insert some text from the soap & glory website - best to leave it to the professionals that created it! "Featuring our unique INKJET™ colour release & Gloss–Fix™ finish to give a rich and intense colour. The foolproof marker tip creates two looks - Fine point for a natural look or thick edge adds a dramatic flash! Uses long lasting, long wear pigments plus a high percentage of carbon black for intense colour release."Offical website here! The best way for me to describe this is basically it is like a pen but it has a pointed felt tip which makes it really easy to apply and it also makes it extremely quick to apply as sometimes doing eye-liner can take some time!

The packaging is nothing special but it is simple and it works which is the main thing - right?!? It is priced at £6.00 and you can buy it in Boots (here). Overall I love this and it definitely don't hear enough about this in the beauty community! It has great pigmentation and lasts all day, is easy to apply and is also well priced! I have used this product for over a year on an almost daily basis so I would say its fair to say I have worn this in a lot of different situations and I've worn it a lot so I know how it works and well just go and get it you definitely will be glad you did and never look back! 

Thanks for Reading!

The Weekly Post #8 // Make-Up Firsts and Fails TAG

Today I am going to do the "Make-Up First's and Fail's Tag", I was tagged by the lovely Zoe from Zoe Georgina. To be honest I actually haven't seen this tag before this but it seems quite interesting as well let's face it we didn't begin as make-up pros now did we! So I am going to prepare myself and try and think back to when I first started wearing make-up - this might be difficult. 

A first and a fail that every single girl has faced is foundation, it is surprisingly difficult when you first begin to know about foundation. Like everything - there is a lot of products that all do different thing and that are for different skin tones. And there is not a great selection of colours for foundation at the high-street. Especially when I have pale skin and a lot of foundation are very orange based meaning one thing - tango-ed! Never a good look! 

Also blush, doesn't sound difficult but the way I used to wear it... well lets just say it was very bad and I can't believe I ever did it.

Eyebrows - They are one of my biggest  pet peeves when not done write to the person! Now don't get me wrong everybody have the write to look how they want but when eye brows are far to thin or not kept maintained or not filled in my you've got a full face of make-up on but no eyebrows including what  I call "foundation brows" ahhhh!!!! 

I have never gone through the phase of bright eye shadow - thank god! But it has never really been plain sailing and that includes eye-liner!

As for lips all I can really remember is that I used to wear this one lip gloss from 17 and I went through about 5 tubes of it! It was a hideous pink with a kind of metallic streaks going through it - wrong on all levels! 

Well that's pretty much the most of my firsts and fails and well thank god they are over and I can tell between good and bad! I am going to tag to do this...

- Kirsty at Pretty Little Fashionista

- Belle at Mascara and Maltesers

-Rhi at Beauty Bucket List

- Dannielle at D is For

I hope you enjoyed and maybe this even got you thinking of what your make-up first and fails where?!? Let me know one of yours in the comments! 

Love