Time to prime, moisturise and shine!

Good miserable foggy Monday morning to you all! Now that the miserable weather has well and truly set in, I thought it was high time I invest in a good highlighter to give my skin the glow that the sun just won't do right now!

Also, my beloved Monu primer sample has in fact reached the end of it's legs so thought I'd have a look round for a primer as well. 

Of course I was in Tesco, and I came across these little beauties.

Along Came Betty, Prime of your life £3.49

This is a brand that is featured quite prominently in my Tesco, the bright pink on the aisle end always catches my eye. Since VIVO have sadly gone out of stock in store, I couldn't get the primer I'd actually went there to buy. This little tube was only £3.49 and promises to smooth and illuminate your skin. It's a pink formula, but blends into your natural skin tone (well, it did with me). I haven't quite seen a more illuminated look to my face, but it does certainly keep my make up sitting pretty all day, which is always a good sign with a primer.

Barbara Daly, glow-up highlighter £7

Barbara Daly always has such a sophisticated feel to the stand, and has been something I've pondered at many a time in the make up section. I've never used a highlighter before, so I don't really have anything to compare it to, but it's been working pretty well. It did take me a few tries to get used to the amount to use and where to put it, but it has been making a difference. The cream is actually a silver colour, not the yellow like in the picture, so don't worry, you aren't going to look like you've got a strange illness. I love the high end feel of the tub as well, and at only £7, it's definitely something I'd buy again.

Nivea soft Giles Deacon gift pack £3.75

After the success of the Nivea in-shower moisturiser, I thought that this Nivea soft moisturising cream would be great for my arms and legs over the winter, although it can be used on your face too! The cream absorbs really well into your skin and I think it could be a real winner. This is actually the gift pack which has been reduced from £7.50 to only £3.75 which is a real bargain considering the single 200ml tub is £2.60 on it's own and this is for double that! It's great for yourself to save a little money, or as a gift for someone for Christmas!

Well there's my three little purchases on moisturising, priming and highlighting your skin over the winter. Keep your eyes peeled for my 'what I'm loving this winter' post which will be out over the next few days with some new purchases on there as well.

Have a good Monday (well as good as a Monday can be!) 

XO.

November Glossybox review

It's that time of the month again! I'd been eagerly checking my emails for the shipment information and yesterday morning my Glossybox appeared at my door! 

After the disappointing first impressions of last month's box, I was a little apprehensive about this month's issue, even going as far as saying if it doesn't improve I'm going to cancel after Christmas! I feel quite bad about that really, as last month's box introduced me to lip stains and the amazing monu primer which I've unfortunately ran out of and can't afford £23 on a new bottle :( Maybe one for Christmas?

Anyways here's this month's box;

This month's theme was the 'Glossy wish list'. I'm quite happy they didn't hype up the theme like they did last month, we weren't expecting anything particular from this box, so it was all a surprise! Well, apart from the Vichy creams which were a featured spoiler. 

First up is the spoiler, which is the Vichy Idelia Life Serum. I love the fact this came in it's own little pouch, it's so pretty! What a lovely way of keeping the samples together :). The pouch contained three 3ml sized samples, which in retrospect is a pretty good amount, but then you get the usual issue of two thirds of that sample being just air. I think I used nearly a whole bottle on just one application! It's supposed to give you more of an even complexion and smooth your pores so that you get a more flawless look. I must say it did make my skin feel very smooth, but I don't know if my pores were less visible. The serum is quite a metallic looking white cream and doesn't have much of a fragrance which is always good with skincare in my opinion. The bottle's full sized (30ml) price is £29.50 in Boots, making our samples worth about £8 or £9. 

Would I buy? - Probably not as it's quite expensive and I don't think it would last me very long.

Next is the Yves Rocher cacao collection hand cream. This was a full sized sample, which I'm always happy to receive. It's only £1.75 a bottle, but it's pretty amazing. Hand creams aren't a thing I ever feel the need to pick up as dry skin on my hands is never a problem I've had. This one might be my favourite of the box just because of it's delicious smell. It's very subtle at first, but when it's set into your skin you'll be smelling the amazing combination of chocolate and pistachio for hours. It's so good that I'm hunting the internet for chocolate and pistachio recipes to see if it tastes as good as it smells! The only flaw with this is that it feels a little sticky on your hands while it's drying, but that goes away as soon as you wash your hands a little (but doesn't get rid of the smell!)

Would I buy it? - I'm not sure as I'm not a hand cream kind of girl, but at only £1.75, it is a possibility. 

This is my first eyeshadow from Glossybox and is the Emite micronised eyeshadow in Nect. It retails at around £16.80 full sized, which is what we received in the box. This eyeshadow is paraben, nickel and perfume free, which is great for those of you with sensitive eyes. I like the high end feel of this eyeshadow, but it doesn't really come out all too white as you can see from the swatch, it's very light and is probably the exact same as one of my MUA single eyeshadows. Considering I'm quite pale skinned, I'd only use it as a base colour.

Would I buy it? - No. For £16.80 on a base colour I can get for £1 at MUA it's just not worth the money, even if I do like it's cute little packaging.

This is another full sized product. It's the Elegant touch rapid dry for nails which can be found at Boots for only £3.05. Its a mist that you spray over wet nails, wait 60 seconds and they then promise you are 'good to go'. I have never tried a dry nails mist or equivalent product before, so I after reading the '60 seconds' promise I had quite high hopes! I painted my nails with my Barry M nail polishes and did as directed and sprayed 10cm away from my nails and then proceeded to wait. First of all, the mist gives off quite a greasy feel to me, but it's not perfumed so that's a plus. As to the 60 seconds thing, that's not entirely true. I did two coats and a top coat and sprayed in between each, and after 5 minutes my nails felt a little greasy and some still weren't dry, which resulted in a lovely smudge all up one of my skirts I was putting on.

Would I buy it? - Well, at only £3.05 a bottle, you get what you pay for but it's not the best product out there.

This is my last product I have to show you, which is the Jelly pong pong lip blush in Cranberry. Thanks to the Mememe lip stain of last month, I've become very fond of red lips lately and I was really pleased to see this in my box. I've not tried lip crayons before, as I always think they'll make my lips look patchy if they're a little dry, but this one is actually moisturising as well! You can see the shade in the swatch on the right and it's quite a bright red, which I love. 

This is a picture of me wearing the lip stain, which wasn't patchy and made my lips feel great! Feeling particularly Snow White-esque with the red lips and black hair, but it's all good. The crayon we received was again full sized and retails at £12.

Would I buy it? - Hmm, it's a little pricey, but due to my growing red lip obsession I think I would!

Total price of this months contents adds up to around £35 - £40 which is almost triple what we paid for it, so I think it's definitely a good one this month! Apart from the nail spray, I'm pretty sure I'll use all these items again and it's made me extra excited for next month! 

The NAKED copycats

Ah the coveted NAKED palettes from Urban Decay. I have wanted one of these for so so long and they're either sold out when I have the money to splurge or I cannot justify to myself that spending £37 on one eyeshadow palette is a good idea. They are one of the most blogged about items out there and are many a beauty blogger's favourite palette. I'm not really a fan of nude eyeshadows normally, I'm more of a pinks and purples kind of girl but the more time I spend lusting over the NAKED and NAKED 2 palettes the more I think 'hmm I'd definitely use that a lot'. 

For those of you who may have been living under a rock for the last couple years, the NAKED palettes are a palette of 12 highly pigmented natural coloured eyeshadows that will work for anyone on any occasion. They are highly coveted amongst beauty lovers and this particular eyeshadow obsessed girl has no idea why she doesn't have one yet!

Here's a look at the NAKED palette;

(Swatch courtesy of Cute and mundane)

and now NAKED 2;

(Swatch courtesy of Nidas Beauty Bag)

Both of these can be found at Look Fantastic for £37 each. But they are rapidly running out of stock!

Like me, many of you might not be able to afford £37 on one palette of eyeshadow, no matter how beautiful it is, so I've scoured the net and found these cheaper alternatives, or 'NAKED copycats'.

First of all is the Eden palette from BeautyUK coming in at £5.99. There are two less colours than the NAKED palettes but at over 5 times less expensive it's a bargain! The colours all look really natural and highly pigmented so they'd last all day. 

(Swatch courtesy of Midnight-violets)

Next is the VIVO Dreamy 12 colour block palette coming in at only £3.99! I've been addicted to my little VIVO palette I picked up at Tesco's last month and this collection looks pretty similar and well worth the money! The only thing about VIVO, is that my Tesco (I know, I'm about to complain about my Tesco's beloved make up department, hold onto your hats) has stopped selling it! I went in there yesterday and one of the staff told me they'd received an email telling them it was getting pulled! As this has become my favourite brand of the moment I was quite upset seeing as they were exclusively available at Tescos. You can still purchase online, but it's just not the same! 

(Swatch courtesy of A pretty obsession)

A particularly smaller palette compared to the NAKED, but I did see this while out shopping yesterday and pondered on buying it for about ten minutes (only to decide I needed other things more.. sigh, when will I win the lottery?) This palette from Barry M is priced as £6.49 and is one of three in a new collection of mini palettes. From the swatches it looks mostly brown shades which would suit my green eyes and pale complexion, but for some might be a bit of a turn off. On the plus side it does come with a blusher! 

(swatch courtesy of Ashly London)

Ahhhh Mua, my old friend. I actually went out yesterday in the hopes of finding this in store but their Undress me too palette has become almost as hard to find as the NAKED itself! Mua is a favourite among the drugstore queens like myself and at £4 you can see why! I love the gold and silver shades, something which has seen it's way creeping into my daily make up more and more recently. There are a few browns and one more purpley looking one so, to me this is the most similar to the official NAKED palette that I've seen. There are two of these 'undress me' palettes, just like there are two of the NAKED palettes, coincidence? MUA know when they're onto a good thing! As soon as I see one in stores it'll be snapped up no thought about it.

(swatch courtesy of MUA cosmetics)

Last but not least is this palette I found this morning from Look fantastic. It's the CID cosmetic's 'Natural wardrobe' collection and the most like the NAKED, packaging wise. Because this product is fairly new, I couldn't actually find a swatch for it but, going by the colours in the pack, it does look like it could overtake MUA's Undress Me for the top copycat out there! It's the most expensive of the dupes coming in at £24, but even still, that's £12 less than NAKED.

There you have it, the top five NAKED copycats at the moment. If you can't afford or find the actual Urban Decay palette, I'm sure one of these lovely palettes will help tie you over until you can get your hands on it.

Credit given to all beauty bloggers whose swatches I found whilst scouring the net and their blogs can be found via the links under the descriptions.

Have a great day! 

xo.

The LBD - every girl's must have wardrobe piece

Can you believe it's only six and a half weeks until Christmas?! With that in mind, many of us have Christmas parties and work dos and then even the New Year's Party coming up! So I thought I'd scour the internet and show you eight of my favourite pieces I've found. Granted most of them are a little pricey, but they're sure to get you noticed and you can't put a price on that kiss under the mistletoe now can you?

From left to right: John Zack grecian maxi @ Bank £30

Cut in neck lace midi @ AX Paris £30 

Bodycon dress with Baroque insert @ Asos £45

Sequin embellished body con dress @ Missguided £49.99

My favourite of these is probably the one from AX Paris, I just love the classiness of it, although I don't think the neckline would suit me. It also comes in black and green, but in my opinion, this one is the better of the two. The one from Missguided is probably more of a party/clubbing sort of dress, but would look great with some killer black heels and a little white sparkly clutch. The other two are pretty plain in style, but I love the little touches of gold in the baroque detailing and across the bust area on the maxi. I've always loved grecian style dresses, always look so elegant.

From left to right: Cut out shoulder sheer dress @ Daisy street £19.99

sparkly skater dress @ Select £15

Petites bodice dress @ Miss Selfridge £65

Black sequin floral lace dress @ New Look £27.99

These are the more shorter party dresses although the one from New Look is pretty classy and would work well for a Christmas party.  I used to have a dress similar to this, but the sleeves always bugged me. I'm not really one for long sleeves, get too hot, but the dress is really pretty. I love the cut out shoulder dress from Daisy Street, I've never shopped here before, only found it via Unidays and it's an online store pretty similar to Missguided. I like the fit of it as well as the sheer material in the drop, just makes it a bit unique. The popcorn skater dress from select is quite pretty and good for those of you who want a simple black dress, but would like to incorporate a bit of sparkle into their outfit. The only one I am a little disappointed about it the beaded bodice dress from Miss Selfridge, but only because the black one only seems to be in petite sizes. You can get it in silver in normal sizes, so at least there's that!  

So there you have it, my top picks for the special Little Black Dress for the party season. I like the different styles out there this year and it's good that the shops are adding a bit of sparkle and colour into their LBD's. What little black dresses have you been lusting over lately? 

Have a great day! XO.

This month's beauty freebies!

I love this time of year with magazines. They're always giving away stuff you'll actually use during this party season! I saw a blog post (can't remember which blog I read so many!) talking about this month's magazine freebies so I thought I'd give you a sneak peek at this month's GLAMOUR and Cosmopolitan magazines! 

Here's this month's contents and covers! First of all lets do the GLAMOUR magazine. Free with this issue was one of four full sized nail varnishes by Kate Spade @ Nails inc. I've never really tried any of Nails inc.'s products and I was pleasantly surprised!

I only picked up the gold, I can never justify buying four of the same magazine so it irritates me when they always say 'Collect all four!' This gold is called 'Uptown Glamour' and is actually pretty good. I never buy gold nail varnishes, don't know why, they always remind me of my Nan (which I was right about as she did steal a bit when I was at her house last!) but I loved this one. It's a very subtle metallic gold, almost silver in some lights but I think with the classic Little Black Dress, it would go perfectly to add a bit of colour. And it dries in about 30 seconds which is always good! The shades aren't actually available to buy in stores (I've been hunting for them and no luck just yet so if you find them let me know!) but the Nails Inc. bottles are usually £11 or £12 each. The other shades in the magazine were Soho Silver, New York Noir and Big Apple Red.

That was the only real freebie in Glamour's issue this month, that and a gift guide for Debenhams which actually had some good deals in!

Onto Cosmo.. 

Again another nail polish! I'm particularly fond of this one as I love red nails at the moment, especially with my now black hair - I feel like snow white being all pale with red lips and nails all the time!

This is half the size of a normal bottle; only 5ml, but hey unless we really really love the polish how often do we get to the bottom? Like Glamour, they were giving away 4 different colours, this one is called 'star spangled' (which I love the name of), a sparkly gold, a nude and a more berry almost black colour (which there weren't any left of when I bought mine!). This is actually only one coat of the polish, but I've seen on other reviews of it that it goes almost the same colour as it looks in the bottle which is always something that's appreciated. I love the sparkliness (is that a word?) of this red, it twinkles as it catches the light :). You can actually buy it this size for $3.99 so it's quite cheap really. I definitely think this one is one I'll be using again and again throughout Winter.

Also in Cosmo were two perfume samples. I apologise profusely for the awful photographs here, my camera has seemed to have a fit of late and the adverts were on those stupid shiny pages so they pictures look blurred :(. Even so, the first is 'Angel' by Thierry Mugler and I know it's been out quite a while but this is actually the first time I've smelt it! When I first put it on I wasn't a fan at all as it's quite a spicy sort of smell, but after a while it settles and it's quite nice. I don't know if I'd necessarily buy it, but it is nice. The second sample was the Katy Perry Killer Queen fragrance. I did receive this in my latest Glossybox and I wasn't a fan, and I still am not. It's just not something my nose seems to like! 

I also got a sample of the Aveeno body moisturising cream. This is another of those supposed 24 hour lasting moisturisers. I've yet to use it, but if I like it I'm sure I'll be buying it soon as I've been on the lookout for a good body moisturiser and they aren't too expensive in Boots :)

Cosmo included a Gift guide for him and her as well as the actual magazine, which was 25 pages of gift ideas for both men and women. I may be doing a gift guide in the near future so keep your eyes peeled!

One more quick note, I've been thinking lately about starting up a YouTube channel, for stuff like hauls and my daily routine and maybe some tutorials like the enrapture rollers etc. If you'd like to see this leave a comment below, and maybe give me some ideas of what else you'd like to see! 

XO.

Wrapping up for Guy Fawkes

Little bit late for a bonfire night outfit update but it's still a great look for autumn. So, as I mentioned yesterday I've been shopping! It's quite rare I actually find something I really really want while out at the physical shops. I'm definitely more of an online shopper, especially when it comes to sales. How anyone can find their sizes in one of those jumbled up, unorganised sale racks is beyond me! 

Anywho, I found these amazing pair of acid wash leggings in New Look (you probably already had guessed this, seeing as I practically get all my clothes there) for only £14.99! They do a blue pair as well, but I thought I'd mix it up a little as all my bottoms are blue of some shade. They are so so comfy and go great with pretty much everything, especially my leather jacket :).

The vest top is also from New Look and can be seen better in my Back to Basics post I did a few weeks ago. I got the jumper/top thing from Internacionale last year, but they're always doing stuff like this so keep an eye out if you like it! The necklace is from Forever 21, (it's a little bird paired with a pink rose and a golden birdcage) but that was bought back in June so they don't sell it anymore but here's an alternative - Dove necklace. The hat is really old, but the Beret style is something I see every year so it's been a great investment piece and looks great with curly hair for a real 'autumny' look.

This outfit is actually what I wore on Tuesday night when I went to go watch the fireworks in town with my brother and his partner, paired with the coat and wellies. I got the coat in the sale from Internacionale. It was £34.99 reduced down to only £17.99! So is a pretty good bargain if you ask me. The coat itself is quite thin, but worn with a jumper underneath it will definitely see me through the winter. The only thing I'm not a fan of is the fact that it looks a little creased and it's not the type of material that you can iron. That's my OCD acting up again I think! The wellies were bought during festival season in the Summer from Primark, I think they were £12? They're as comfy as wellies get really, so in other words not very, but they've got to be better than wearing Uggs in the snow! Cannot deal with soaked through socks again this year. 

Tayla had a great birthday yesterday and got pretty spoilt! Will try and sneak a little post in at some point over the weekend, I'm attempting to dye my hair black again, want to get the random blonde bits out of my hair that keep somehow creeping through. Have a great few days! 

XO.

Long time no see!

First off let me apologise for the severe lack in posts last month! I seemed to have just lost my writing mojo, anyone who writes will have experienced writer's block at some point and although blogging isn't necessarily the same as writing a novel or such, I can definitely relate! I've either been busy, ill, or just couldn't think of anything to write so nothing was posted, seems I'm always blooming ill, joys of having kids, ey? 

Anyways thought I'd give you a little life update before I start bombarding you with my make up and shopping addictions again, although I haven't been able to buy a great deal due to it being Christmas just over a month away! Scary how fast the year's gone don't you think? 

Pretty much my last month! First of all might be wondering about the frog.. It was all quiet, a nice normal day and suddenly Tayla calls me to the bathroom and tells me there's a frog in the hallway, and of course I didn't believe her as she goes on about random things all the time and low and behold there was a frog just casually hopping across the carpet. Silly thing decided to hide behind the TV and I ended up spending a good half hour trying to catch it. 

Halloween was great, dressed Tayla as a cute little witch and took her trick or treating for the first time :). Her hat was flying off because of the wind and she kept almost setting her broom alight with people's pumpkins but it was mostly a success! 

I was away for the weekend in Derby at my friend's Uni for Halloween and went as a dead pirate as you can see above (sort of). Managed to make a really good bruised eye look with my MUA eyeshadows and the Barry M sparkle dust. Damn fake blood took ages to come off, but it looked pretty real so that's a plus I suppose. 

Also had a shopping trip on Saturday (didn't buy much but will post that later on) and went to the best restaurant ever. Heavenly Desserts in Derby is just literally a whole book of different desserts. It's not too expensive but at £5.90 a slice of cheesecake it's definitely a treat. We ended up not eating an actual meal so got four desserts! The cookie dough there is literally to die for. Probably one of the best things I've ever had. If you're ever in Derby, check it out, it's a must.

Ah got another tattoo as well, I'm rapidly getting more of an addiction to it, I'm on my 6th getting my 7th on Saturday.. Ah well, I love them! Today's Tayla's 3rd birthday (I can't believe I have a three year old already!!) and since she's off to school today the parents and I took her down to see my Nan in Southampton on Sunday and she had a lovely day at Peppa Pig World :). Tonight we're having our own fireworks night using the ones left over from last New years, that I'm praying will still be okay!

Hope you've all had a great couple of weeks and I shall post some purchases later on while Tayla's at school!

XO.