A Beauty Haul + A Few Little Extras

Hi everyone, like a lot of you I love seeing hauls, I'm nosey, I love to see what makeup products/clothes etc other girls have spent their money on, so as I've been having a naughty little spend recently, I thought I would show you what I've been spending my pennies on :-)

First off I went to Boots.  I always go in there with shopping list in hand of all the bits I've been lusting after and talked into trying by various YouTubers and, I either can never get the shades I'm after or I end up buying other things instead!  Does anyone else have that problem?  But thankfully this time, I pretty much got everything I wanted off my list, there are still a couple of things I wanted and couldn't get (plus now I have new added additions to my wish list) but that's for a future haul :-)

*Most of the products I bought I haven't used yet so I'm just showing you them and listing the details, but the few I have used, I've written a very short review of what I think of them, so far*

So the first thing I got was this Collection Speedy Blush Stick in Tickled Pink £3.99, I used this last weekend and so far I really like it.  My previous Max Factor blush always made my cheeks look patchy and horrible but this has a really soft delicate rosy glow and looks really natural.  It's quite quick and easy to apply but does take a bit of blending.

I also wanted to pick up this Barry M Matte Me Up Lip Crayon in Dress Rehearsal £4.99, it was mentioned in a video by DizzyBrunette3 in one of her makeup tutorials and it looked a really pretty shade, she also said it's a very similar shade to MACs Velvet Teddy.  I haven't tried it out yet only by swatching but sadly the second I took the lid off, the lip crayon broke and dropped out!  But it's ok I think it'll be fine if I'm careful with it.  Also I've never tried any Barry M products before, so I'm interested to give it a go.  Have you tried these lip crayons, let me know what you think?

The next item is this Collection Highlight & Sculpt Contour Kit £3.99, which I thought was a really good price.  Now I know someone (be it blogger or YouTuber) highly recommended this but for the life of me, I can't remember who it was, sorry :-/  But, it really is the nicest highlighter, it leaves a gorgeous shimmer.  I haven't tried out the bronzer side yet (still a novice not gonna lie) but very happy with the highlighter it's gorgeous.

I also picked up this No.7 Stay Perfect Shine Free Primer £12.50, which was recommended by Emma from Emma's Treasures blog (I know I'm very easily influenced!)  The primer I currently use is the Arbonne Makeup Primer, which is just gorgeous but on the slightly pricey side and so I don't use it all the time, just on special occasions.  So I wanted something I could use regularly and since I use the No.7 Stay Perfect Foundation, I thought it would be a good match and work well together.  Again I haven't tried it out yet as I only got it the other day, but if it's good and I love it, look out for a review!

I saw this Rimmel Apocolips Lip Lacquer £2.75 on a blog post and loved the shade Out of the World (diggin the name too!) but I could get it in my store so I ordered it online from ebay.  I've only swatched so far but the sparkle in it is totally gorgeous!!!  And going by my other Rimmel lip lacquers, I know it'll stay put a good long while, so I can't wait to wear this.

I saw Gabriella Lindley using this Maybelline Lash Sensational Mascara £7.99 which she's often mentioned and it always looks so nice, I love trying new mascaras (as you probably know by now) and couldn't wait to get this one.  I've used it quite a few times now and really love it, it makes my lashes full, long and fluttery.  The wand is a really nice shape too and I think it'll be ideal for the lower lashes too, love it :-)

The last thing I picked up from Boots was this Maybelline Color Drama Lipstick in Keep it Classy £4.99, which is more like a lip pencil but feels like a lipstick.  I have another one of these already in Minimalist which I really like but I wanted a darker shade to wear over a/w and this shade is perfect.  I wore this last week and I think it looks really nice on.

It's a little darker than I would normally wear but I love it.  The consistency is really soft too and not heavy like you'd imagine and it lasted quite a long while, it also leaves a bit of a stain which I like too.

The last beauty item to show you (and one that I'm very excited about) is this MAC Pressed Pigment Eyeshadow in Moth £14.50, I ordered this from Debenhams a couple of weeks ago while they had a small sale on (perfect timing).  It's another recommendation from Gabby (she always makes me spend my money!) But I'm really happy I got it, I really love the shade and going by some of the others I have my eye on, this won't be the last one I'll buy.  It's my first ever MAC purchase too, so I'm quite excited to have it (I know I'm sad like that) :-)

As you may have guessed I've been loving watching Gabby's videos for a long while and I was really happy to see she was bring out her own designer range of homeware for Primark (one of my favourite stores).  I love the quote in a frame, the glass mug and the gorgeous sequin and cat cushions, but they only sell her items in the really big Primark stores, and not one of the three big Primarks near me sell any of them.  Isn't it always at times like this you just wish Primark had an online store! :-/  So the only way I could buy the items were through ebay.  Sadly most of the main items had all sold out but I was able to get the adorable cat eye mask which I think is just so nice how cute are those little ears!  It's really soft too, I love the colours and the design.  I paid £3.50 (plus postage) but I think it was only £1.80 in store.  I did see a few of the glass mugs for sale on ebay but when they started to get to limited stock, people were going crazy with the prices and although I love watching Gabby and like her range, sorry I'm not prepared to pay £20+ for a mug, especially when it was only £3 in store!!  Very happy with the mask though :-)

I've been wanting a pair of autumn-appropriate tan ankle boots for ages (blame pinterest) and I must've spent a good week scouring the internet until I came across these gorgeous ones from F&F at Tesco for £25.  Luckily they still had my size when I went into the store the following week and when I tried them on I couldn't believe how comfortable they felt.  Just as a side-note I hate buying shoes online just case they don't fit, I like to be able to really try them on and walk about in them first, I'm fussy like that!

I really like the shape and style of these ones, the heel is not too high for me or too low either and I really love the gold buckle on the side, so I happily handed over my money for these.  I've worn them for a whole day since I bought them and they were just as comfortable at the end of the day as when I put them on in the morning.  I love the colour and I think they look really great with my jeans, I'm hoping they'll work well with skirts and leggings too.

I like Gabby's idea of a quote in a picture frame so much, and since I couldn't get her one, I decided to make my own.  I picked up this really cute brushed silver photo frame from Wilko for only £1 :-)  I've been scrolling all through my favourite Pinterest quote boards to find the best quote and with a few finishing touches and a little editing know-how, I think I've found the perfect image to put in the frame, I've just got a few little alterations to make and as I've found a few to choose from, I need to print them all out and then see how they look in the frame, I'll upload a picture of my final creation on my instagram page soon, so keep a look out for that if you want to see it finished :-)

I got my first tablet about 18 months ago, a Samsung Galaxy tab 2 but it was the 7 inch size, I thought it would be a good hand-held size to have but in the end it just felt too small, after a while it also got really slow and even though I didn't have that many apps on it, it kept saying it was running out of space and it just wasn't meeting my needs.  So after listing it on Gumtree, which is a great website to sell things on, I got a buyer within a few days which was great and within a week it was sold and the money was in my bank waiting to pay for my new tablet :-)  I searched and searched, looked at a hundred and one reviews and looked around for the best price deals and finally I decided to get this one from a shop on ebay, they had a good selling rating and a good price offer and it was free postage too (unlike on Amazon).  It even arrived the next day!

I also got a nice cover for the tablet because well it's just nice to accessories (in every way possible) and of course to keep it clean, see there are practical reasons too! :-)

The cover was just a plain white one that I got from Amazon for 99p + £1.98 postage and then I just decorated it with some crystal rhinestone swirls and a lovely matching pink handmade flower that I got from an online craft shop called Crafty Poodles for £1.45.

So far I love it, it took quite a while to set up and it did take ages to get logged back in to all my various social media accounts and things like that, but I kind of enjoy that part anyway so it was fine.  I love the larger screen, the colours and images are sharp and bright and I love the larger keyboard to the one I had previously.  It's great for skyping on and scrolling through pinterest, also the storage capacity is double the size to my old one so that means I've been able to add some of my favourite photo editing apps too, so that's made me happy :-)

I hope you like this post, although it was a little longer than I'd originally planned so I'm sorry about that!  Let me know if you've tried any of these products before and if you like them, I'd love to know!
Until Next Time Stay Happy ♥

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

It's OK

Hi everyone, sometimes life gets hard, we struggle to fit everything in to our daily lives and I for one, get to the end of the day and often feel really disappointed and let down because I didn't get all my jobs done, I forgot to do something important or because I just felt too unwell, stressed or tired out to do it all.

There's so many quotes out there about pushing yourself, going outside of your comfort zone, being the best you can be etc, yet I feel sometimes we forget to just be ourselves, and if we're not perfect, we're not constantly pushing ourselves and striving to be better at everything in life, then that's ok.

Sometimes you just need to take a step back, take time to regroup and realise what's really important to you.  Take a minute and just breath!  Don't get over-whelmed by life and everything you have to cram into a day.  If you didn't get something done, is it really the end of the world?!  No.  You don't need to feel guilty.

Don't beat yourselves up because you didn't have time to get that laundry sorted or get that email written or finish that blog post!  Or maybe you just felt too tired or stressed, or because there was something else more important you had to do instead, and that's OK.

Being productive, being ambitious and striving to work hard is all great and yes do that when you can.  But sometimes you need a break, you need to stop worrying and stressing and not feel like you've failed or let anyone down.  You're only human and it's ok!

Quote from Pinterest

Until Next Time Stay Happy ♥

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

My Review of the Urban Decay Naked Smoky Palette

Hi everyone, so, it's here, it's new and I've finally got my hands on it. . . It's the brand new Urban Decay Naked Smoky palette!!!

As you probably know by now, Urban Decay bought out their latest 'Naked' palette a few weeks ago, and by now the world and her dog have tried it, loved it and have already reviewed it but, now it's my turn!

I bought the Naked Smoky palette, a couple days after it was released here in the UK from my local Debenhams store.  I was so excited to get it, I went in to the shop like a girl on a mission, straight to the UD counter and asked for the palette, cash in hand and stood there waiting for the lady to come back almost bouncy with excitement (I didn't though because that would have looked a little bit weird!)  I felt like a child at Christmas :-)  I took the first opportunity I could to open the box and have a peak (and of course take any Instagram pics).  But one thing I didn't want to do, was rush in to reviewing it too soon, without having the chance to really look at it, swatch it and use it, so I could really tell you what I honestly thought about it.  So here we go . . .

First off let's just take a minute to seriously admire this gorgeous packaging!  The solid plastic case has this beautiful smokey effect which is actually done with real smoke blown into the material!  A big difference to the old velvet covered cardboard from the first Naked palette!  It really is beautiful, very sleek and sophisticated.  It also corresponds beautifully with the marble craze that's currently SO 'on-trend'.  The box itself stays closed really well with the magnetic closure too, so no accidents in your bag!

The main outer box is just as nice, again with the smokey style design and the lovely metallic embossed title.

On the back of the box, are listed all the shades and shade names.  I just love the names UD pick out for their palettes, Armor is great and I love name Password to, they're just so different and quirky.

Sadly there are no 'added extras' as with the previous Naked palettes but UD have included a 'look book' of 4 different smokey-eye ideas/tutorials.  Which I thought was a really great idea, they're really easy to follow and name each individual shade to use for the look.  Very nice touch!

The palette also comes with a great double-ended brush, which I have to say is a definite improvement on the original one from the first Naked palette.  I feel this is one that I would actually use and you could create some great looks with.

One end is a really soft fluffy blending brush which is also great for applying the shadows as well as blending them.  The other end is a really handy domed pencil brush, which is perfect for lining and smoking out the shades.

They also include a nice large full size mirror in the lid of the palette, which is always very handy!

The palette comes with the standard 12 eyeshadows, 9 all new shades and 3 exclusives from previous palettes.  The shades range from a soft creamy white, through to a deep nearly-black.  There are 4 shimmery/metallic shades - High, Dirtysweet, Radar and Armor.  4 satin/pearlized shades - Slanted, Dagger, Black Market and Smolder.  And finally 4 matte shades Password, Whiskey, Combust and Thirteen.

Click to see these lovely shades a bit bigger!

The first thing I noticed while swatching these and then while trying them out, was that the shimmery shades do have quite a bit of fall out, so you might want to consider using some kind of shadow shield while applying them.  But the sparkle in them and the over-all shine is really beautiful :-)  I noticed Thirteen was very faint but I think it would work well for a brow bone highlight.  I was a little disappointed with Smolder as going by the shade in the palette, it looks a really gorgeous rich deep purple shade, but swatched, it looks more greyish which was a shame, but it's still a really nice shade to use, especially for a deeper shade all over the lid, very dark and intense, beautiful!
My favourite shade out of all, has to be Armor, it's a beautiful shimmery bronze which I just know I will use a lot.  But I also really love High, Slanted and Whiskey, Black Market is also great for lining.

Going by my swatches, a lot of the shades look a little on the pale side, but in real life they did actually show up a little darker.  Also I think all of these shades would benefit from being applied over a good primer, to really make them stand out!

Out of all the palettes, I feel this one is the most versatile because it really has everything you could need, and is a great all-rounder!  There are SO many looks you can create with these gorgeous shades just by switching around the different shades and using them in various combinations.  I absolutely adore the smokey eye look and I love that with this palette you can create it with ease, for day time with the lighter shades or really go all out for a full-on sexy night time look.  This palette has it all.

I'm a novice when it comes to doing a good smokey eye (hence the lack of pictures of my own made up looks), but I'm really looking forward to practicing it a lot more using this palette.  Although the Urban Decay palettes are a little on the pricey side, I do honestly think they're worth saving up for and I would recommend this Smoky palette completely.  The quality of the eyeshadows are second to none, smooth, buttery, beautifully blendable and a real joy to work with!  What more could you ask for :-)

I hope you liked this post.  Let me know in the comments if you've tried this palette yet and what you thought about it, which are your favourite shades?
Until Next Time Stay Happy ♥

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

10 Things To Love About Autumn/Fall

Hi everyone, I'll be honest, I'm not the biggest fan of Autumn and the colder months, it's wet, it's icy, the dark nights and wow is that another year gone by already!!  But I've been seeing quite a few posts going around lately with lists of things that people enjoy about Autumn and it's really made me feel a little better about it.  So I thought I would write this post for those of you like me that need to think of the positive side of this colourful season :-)

1. Crisp beautifully coloured Autumn leaves, especially when they're all dry and crunch under your feet, that's never not fun!

2. Of course my most favourite event of the year Halloween!!! :-D  The parties, the costumes, the decorations, binge-watching horror movies until you scare yourself silly, ahhh I love it.

3. Big over-sized, knitted, cosy jumpers that you can cuddle into, and get lost in a cloud of warmth.  And when you look out the window on a Monday morning and it's chucking it down, at least you can wrap a super snug scarf around your neck to keep away the chills!

4. Hot Chocolate, well who doesn't love hot chocolate!?  All summer it's been iced lattés and mint coolers, but it's finally that time of year when it's totally acceptable to drink nothing but gorgeously yummy, cream topped hot chocolate, hmmm thank you Costa ;-)

5. There's nothing I enjoy more in the colder months, than snuggling down into bed at night with cute cosy PJ's on.  These lovely ones are from Asda, I think I need them all.

6. Ankle boots, knee-high boots, black, brown, tan or grey, suede or leather, who cares they all look amazing with every possible outfit you can think of!

7. Making a wish list or To Do list of all the things you want to achieve over the coming months.  I think it's a fun way to ease into the colder season and gives you little things to focus on :-)

8. Finally I can put away the bright pinks and Summery nudes, and bring out my lovely dark rich shades.  I think it's the perfect time of year for these and the only time you can really get away with it too.  My favourites have to be the Rimmel Apocolips in Galaxy, gorgeous rich colour, that lasts ages with a tiny bit of shimmer, Plum Jam Gloss Stick by Soap & Glory and the soft smooth Lip Butter in Raspberry Pie by Revlon, they'll all gorgeous and are currently ready and waiting to be used in my makeup bag!

9. Soft, fleecy, warm slippers to snuggle your feet into hmmmm!  You guys know how I love my slippers, the cuter the better :-)

10. When the rain is battering on the windows, it's cold and dark and 2º outside, the nicest place to be, is under a blanket, having hot chocolate and fresh homemade cookies and watching your favourite show on Netflix or a good movie (probably whilst in your pajamas)!

So tell me in the comments below, what things you love about Autumn.  I hope you liked this post and it made you feel more excited for the coming months :-)
Until Next Time Stay Happy ♥

Follow my blog with Bloglovin
*images taken from Google, We Heart It, Pinterest and my own.

What I'm Currently Listening To

Hi everyone, just a quick note first to say I've been having some annoying pc/internet issues this past week, but finally I can now post this post! YEAY :-)

So, I have been loving a lot of new music recently and thought it would be good to share them with you, because of course it's always nice to find great new music to relax to :-)

Troye Sivan – Right from when I first heard Happy Little Pill last year, I was hooked.  To see this young guy on youtube come out with such amazing music and wise insightful words is so inspiring.  If you haven't heard Troye's music already, go and check out his channel.  I'm still constantly listening to HLP as well as The Fault in Our Stars, and I can't wait to get the new EP called Wild, which came out a couple of days ago!  I've been loving the little teaser snippets of the new tracks which Troye's been uploading on his youtube channel, I think Ease and Fools are definitely going to be new favourites (of course Wild is already on my Amazon wish list) :-)

Halestorm – Last Summer I discovered a really great track called Shatter Me by Lindsey Sterling (which you may remember I mentioned in last year's Autumn Favourites). I was slightly obsessed with this song and played it all summer, I still listen to it a lot now and so of course I was really happy to find out that Lzzy Hale who sang the vocals, had her own band, wow was I happy!  I didn't realise at the time that they'd been around so long but I've really been enjoying discovering their music as I love her voice and the hard rock sound.  Miss The Misery is one of my favourites, as well as Amen, Freak Like Me and Mz.Hyde.  I'm still working my way through the massive collection of amazing songs on their YouTube playlist and they're quickly becoming one of my favourite rock bands :-)

Alex McMillan – Being a massively huge Linkin Park fan, I literally stumbled on this guy about a year ago now while looking for LP covers.  I have never heard anyone sing like Chester Bennington (lead singer of LP for those who don't know) SO well and sound so incredibly like him!  Not only that, he is a total one-man show, he plays the guitar, keyboard, sings, everything and comes out with perfect covers of Linkin Park tracks, best I've ever found!  His cover of The Catalyst is just pure genius! But the main reason I'm writing about Alex today, is because of his own music under the name Razor Red Noise.  I love the digital hard rock sound that's made me such a huge Linkin Park fan over the years.  His lyrics and very deep and thoughtful and I really love the softer more ambient tracks too.

Control is absolutely amazing, vocally I think it's one of his best tracks, the music is incredible, it's just one of those songs you just can't stop listening to!!  I love Mountains and Into The Sun too, but thankfully there's loads more on his website to listen to that I've not even had chance to hear yet, so I'm very excited to do that.  I just wish I had the talent and a mind like his, to be able to come up with such incredible music!

*******

Now as anyone who knows me will tell you, I live and breath rock music, I can go months without listening to anything else!  But here and there just randomly out of the blue, something (or someone) else will catch my attention and I don't care whether it's rock, dance, country (eek) or anything else, if it's good I'll love it, and that leads me on to the next person that I've been non-stop listening to for about the past month (solidly, every day, I need help!) 

Hobbie Stuart - Some of you may have already heard of this lovely lad as apparently he was on X-Factor this year and caused a bit of a stir especially with the ladies (even some of the judges so I heard)! This was news to me, I only found this out a couple of days ago, because I don't actually watch X-Factor anymore, (too much hype and drama these days!)

I first saw him about a long while ago on several of Gabriella Lindley's vlogs and main channel videos.  But it wasn't until I saw the gorgeous Saying Goodbye video that I heard his music.  Since then, I have been working my way through his YouTube channel and loving pretty much everything on there, and non-stop listening to his songs ever since, I am officially obsessed!  I'm in love with his voice and the sound and style of his music, and well lets just point out the obvious here girls, he is extremely easy on the eye and completely gorgeous!!  Wouldn't you agree? ;-)

I love that some of his tracks are so chilled and up beat like How You Love It and yet others are wonderfully soft and romantic, just beautiful, like Day One, but my absolute favourite has to be When I'm Gone, his new track, it's just amazing I love it and cannot stop playing it :-)

I really enjoy seeing him in Gabby's vlogs too, he so sweet, chilled and funny, and he does a really cute impression of Gabby that just has me laughing every time :-)  He's also filmed a really lovely version of Ellie Goulding's song Love Me Like You Do with Gabby (love her voice too), so if you haven't seen that already go have a listen :-)

It really amazes me how much great music is out there that so many people don't get to hear.  That's one of the reasons I really like these types of posts so we can share all the stuff we listen to and help each other discover and share great music. I love finding new tracks to listen to and there's so much I've yet to find, it's exciting :-)

Until Next Time Stay Happy ♥

Follow my blog with Bloglovin