Tuesday 29 June 2010

Winner winner chicken dinner!!

Sorry this is a bit late guys, I went on a little unplanned trip to Birmingham for the weekend, it was awesome!

So anyway, I put all my lovely followers names in my lovely Primark hat, gave it a good old shake and the winner is....


x_XJenniex_x

could you please email me to let me know if you are in the UK or not. I'm sorry but if you don't do so by Friday I will pick another winner. My email address is satan_51@hotmail.com

Congratulations and thanks to everyone else again for following me.

P.S. I'm still having problems with Blogger and can't follow anyone else, does anyone know what is wrong/how I can fix it?

Tuesday 22 June 2010

NOTD plus rave!

Two posts in one day!

Just a quick NOTD with my new Barbara Daly @ Tesco nail polish in purplicious. This is so worth £3, it's actually one of the best nail polishes I've ever used. It was almost opaque with one coat (I can't think of any of my other polishes that are) and the formula is brilliant, so easy to use and it dried pretty quickly (unlike some I could mention!). I will definitely be getting some more of these!

This is with 2 coats



my purple obsession continues!

xx

Cheap nail varnish buys

Hi guys, another haul (eurgh hate that word) lots of photos!

After I read this post on Rachel's blog I decided to make an order from Fragrance Direct too (so I blame her haha!)

Anyway I was so impressed with delivery time and it came all securely packaged so very happy with them. The prices of the nail polishes that I got range from 49p!! to £1.50 for the Revlon. Amazing!



Miss Sporty



Rimmel



NYC



W7 and Revlon

I also ordered a Sally Hansen base and top coat because I really need one and it was £1.99 or something and at the last minute I added a W7 cream blusher, which I am very impressed with, its about the same quality as the Topshop ones, so pretty darn good! The only negative is that it has a bit or sparkle in it, which I don't really mind.



Here are swatches of the polishes on paper



and the cream blush (blended out on the right)



let me know if you want shade names/numbers

xx

Monday 21 June 2010

Help

Is anyone else having this problem? I can't follow any new blogs I find, it keeps coming up with the sign in box and then not signing in. How do I stop this?

xx

25 Followers Giveaway

Woo, 25 followers! I am so amazed and happy that 25 people want to read my blog!

I decided I don't want to do a giveaway to get more followers but to say thank you to the lovely people that were my first followers, so there will be no extra entries for blogging about it or any of that stuff!

So all you have to do to enter is.... nothing. I am going to wait a week, so Monday 28th June, and whoever is following me then will get their name put in a hat.

After I have picked the winner I will need them to contact me within a couple of days so if you are not going to be around early next week please let me know in case you are the lucky winner!

So the prize....

I decided rather than getting the prize myself, and risking the winner getting stuff they already have or that doesn't suit them, I would have a prize that meant the winner could choose whatever they want (well nearly)

So the prize will be



a £15 gift voucher for ASOS.com. These are delivered straight to your email address, so no waiting around for it to arrive in the snail mail, and you can add it to your account and (correct me if I'm wrong) you don't have to use it for 3 months if you can't find anything you want (there's always loads I want on ASOS though!)

From having a quick look at the site £15 could buy you some Illamasqua, or Soap and Glory, or Models Own, or some gorgeous jewellery/clothes/accessories!

If an international follower wins then the prize will be their choice of UK products which aren't available in other countries e.g. Sleek, Boots 17 etc to the same value.

So good luck everyone and thanks again!

xx

PS. Oh and by the way I will be buying the prize(s) myself and I don't have any links to ASOS.com, I just think that they will give you the best choice of prizes!

Saturday 19 June 2010

NOTD

Barry M 161 Vivid Purple. This is possibly more of an Autumn kind of colour but it's so shiny and almost metallic. GORGEOUS! I am very impressed with my first Barry M polish so far.



xx

More new things!

Hi guys,
Sorry I haven't posted anything this week, and I apologise if you don't want to read about my cat! Skip the next paragraph if you don't.

I had a phone call on Tuesday morning from my little sister saying my cat had been rushed to the vets because he couldn't breathe. I've had my cat since I was 8 and he really means the world to me (I know some people may think this is sad in the extreme!) so I rushed home to see him in case it was my last chance. I went to see him at the vets and it was horrible. He was in a cage with a glass front with an oxygen tank hooked up to it and he looked so tired and thin. They let me stroke him for a few minutes and I really thought it was the last time I would see him. Hopefully things are looking better now. They are running some blood tests at the moment, a couple of the suggestions for what's wrong is a tumour or under active thyroid, so we will get the results soon and then he might be able to come home. The vet said he was definitely looking better and he can curl into a ball now, which he couldn't do at first because of his breathing.

So on the way back to uni yesterday I had an hour to wait at the train station. Last week a new out of town Boots opened in my home town so I went to have a look and... I finally found a Boots with a Models Own stand! I was so excited but didn't buy anything (attempting to be good and cut down spending, which you will see didn't last long!) Another reason I went into Boots was that I had seen May's post on the new 17 metallic collection and then looked it up on the Boots website. Unfortunately the brand new Boots store didn't have this in yet so I also went in Boots when I got back to uni! Oh and at home I also went into Tesco because it's opposite the new Boots.

So here is what I ended up buying. Sorry the photos are so dark (damn miserable weather)



From Tesco: If you buy any two Barbara Daly products you get a free "Flutterbys" blusher. I LOVE butterflies so had to have this. Originally I was looking at the lipsticks as I recently read a post on the BD lipsticks but none stuck out to me. So I got two cute little nail polishes, kiwi and purplicious. Gorgeous colours and I seem to be obsessed with purple at the moment, especially for nail polishes! The blusher is so pretty but the butterfly overlay so isn't! It's far too glittery and I'd never put that on my face so I just got a big blusher brush and wiped all the glitter off (it came off so easily!) and you can still see the pretty butterflies because they are raised ( don't know how to explain that properly?)

From Boots: You probably know that Boots have another lovely offer on when you spend £6 on 17 you get a little gift. I so wish that this little box was a tin like the nautical one not so long ago because I'd love to be able to use it to store jewellery or something. Anyway in the box is a mini waterproof mascara, lip gloss and nail polish in pink grapefruit (loving that!) Also in the box is a voucher for 100 advantage points next time you spend £5 on 17. Very kind of them!



So what I really wanted in Boots, the 17 metallic collection. This includes a bronzer, lip gloss, nail polish and eyeshadow (there is only one colour of each, which is a shame) I got the eyeshadow trio and I have to say so far I LOVE it! Beautiful shimmery colours, which really suit blue eyes but I'm sure could be worn by anyone.



Here's some swatches, not the best quality photo but hopefully you can sort of see!



The colour on the left is my favourite, I'm wearing it today and it really is lovely. To make up the requirement to get the gift I picked up another!!! nail polish in pink lemonade. I put all my new polishes on one finger each last night and this one was disappointing, not at all opaque, but I will give it another chance with a few coats and see if that works.

Finally, my first ever Barry M nail polish! When I was at home I realised I hadn't brought any polishes with me and was worried I would start biting my nails again if I didn't paint them so I borrowed one from my sister. I loved it so much I had to buy one for myself! It is 161 Vivid purple, it looks very dark on the photo above so I think I will take a photo in a minute for a NOTD.

I've also ordered even more nail polish and some eyelashes this week so will show you those when they arrive.

Sorry for the epic post! And 2 more followers to go until my giveaway! WOO!

xx

Monday 14 June 2010

Is it just me?

Just a little question, is it just me that thinks I look better when I'm ill than when i'm not? My skin looks tonnes better today than it has for ages but I feel awful! What is going on here?

Saturday 12 June 2010

Swatches

Yo!

Here are the promised swatches of the makeup I got the other day.



I tried to do some lip swatches but it just wasn't working!
So at the bottom Revlon colour burst in Blush (left) and Soft Rose (right)The colours look about right, although they are slightly darker in real life.

Above that are the three free Benefit products, (L-R) Bad Gal, Eye bright and It stick.

Then next to that my free Barry M dazzle dust in 39 Tan, swatched heavily. At the top I blended out a lighter swatch of this (if you can see it, it didn't photograph well, you can't see the lovely shimmer!)

All of them are one swipe and taken with flash.

xx

Fran's Birthday! Happy Birthday!

Hi guys,

Just to let you know that Fran is having a giveaway to celebrate her birthday this month! Her blog is very new but I really enjoy reading her posts so far so go and check it out!



You can enter here

good luck

xx

Friday 11 June 2010

Some NOTDs and a question

Hi guys!

Just some quick photos and reviews on some nail polishes.

Firstly, Boots 17 Sea breeze, which I mentioned yesterday.



I love the colour, it's like blue smarties! (do they still have blue ones?) I had this on for 2 days and it was getting a bit of tip wear by the end but no major chips. It is really easy to apply but the one complaint I have is that my nails were a bit stained when I took it off, even with a base coat!

I've just put on my new Rimmel 60 seconds polish in Sky High.



I was really excited about wearing this, I ADORE the colour but the application is not great. The brush is a nice size, wide so it only takes 1 or 2 strokes to cover the nail but the formula is thick and really hard to get the right amount on the brush.

So onto the question. At the moment I don't have a proper base or top coat. I have been using this..



Avon Nail Experts 24k gold strength, which I got free when I ordered something else (can't remember what!) In the photo it looks yellow but it is actually clear with tiny tiny bits of gold in it, which on the nails is just a really subtle shimmer. I have no idea if this is actually making my nails stronger, I didn't have any problems with this anyway, but I think it does make my nail polish last longer and stops staining (most of the time!) So could you recommend me a base and top coat, which is relatively cheap? I've heard some good things about Barry M, or maybe Models Own (this is the sort of price range I'm looking at)

Finally I just want to share with you how proud of myself I am that I actually have nails! My mum says I've been biting them since I had teeth! I know it's disgusting! Over the last few years I have been trying to stop and was partly successful (I usually had about 6 long nails and the rest short!) In particular I found that I just couldn't stop biting the nails on my index fingers! But since I've been getting into reading blogs and now writing my own I've become more interested in painting my nails and now usually have polish on most days. I think I have finally beaten the habit! I don't know why I didn't think of painting them before! They look far too pretty to chew! So yay me! :D

I think I will put up my swatches of the things I bought yesterday later so will see you then!

xx

p.s. I love how when you spell check a post Blogger wants to replace Rimmel with rimmed (I know dirty mind!)

Thursday 10 June 2010

Today's buys

Hi again! WARNING long post with pictures.

I went into town to get Glamour magazine today, just to make sure I could get all 3 of the Benefit products! However I ended up getting a few other things too!

So makeup stuff first


I got the Benefit things (eye bright, it stick and bad gal) I've never tried any of them before so looking forward to testing them out. I just put the eye bright on the inner corners of my eyes and it looks so nice! The it stick seems to be a good colour match for me too.

Then I got more magazine so I could get a free barry m dazzle dust. The colour I chose was 39 (tan I think)which is really pretty and would make a gorgeous highlight on tanned skin I think. I'll probably put swatches of everything later tonight or tomorrow.

Then the 3 for 2 in Boots sucked me in again! Well I had actually planned on buying all three anyway so might as well get one free! I got 2 of the new Revlon colour burst lipsticks in soft rose and blush. I love blush so much! Swatches to come! I love love love the packaging of these - anything quilted catches my eye!

I got 2 Rimmel 60 seconds nail polishes, one was part of the 3 for 2, and I saw it last week and knew I had to go back for it (there were only 2 left in this colour too!) Anyway that one is the turquoise colour, Sky high. The other one, style hunter, I picked up in superdrug when I was getting the dazzle dust (they are on offer £1 off at the moment) I was looking for a pink shade that wasn't Barbie pink or too light either so hopefully this is it! I can't wait to put sky high on but I'm going to wait until my current one chips (17 seabreeze, which has lasted 2 days so far and looks like blue smarties!)These will all probably feature in NOTD posts soon, let me know if you really want to see any of them.

That's all of the beauty stuff, next clothes!
After seeing all of the lovely bargains people have been getting in the Miss Selfridge sale, especially all of the gorgeous jewellery I had to go and have a look! There wasn't very much sale jewellery but I did find this



It's a playsuit!! I hope I can carry it off though! It's so damn cute, with the little flower buttons! Half price from £35 to £17!

Then I had a 20% off voucher for H&M so obviously I had to find something! I found this dress, which I had seen the skirt with the same material before but it DID NOT look good on me!



Sorry I couldn't get it to hang right! Anyway I am in love with the pattern, how it looks like the sea, beautiful, and all of them are slightly different because of where they were cut from the material I think, so on some the lighter stripe is a the top etc. I was thinking about wearing this for my friend's wedding in August, do you think it is too casual though? It was £14.99 but 20% off.

Finally, this dress from the New Look sale



I wanted this when it was full price so I'm chuffed to find it in the sale and in my size! Reduced from £20 to £12.

Ha ha I only noticed when I was taking the photos but they are all blue! I think I might be a little obsessed! Also the Rimmel nail polish matches the H&M dress perfectly!

A few things I didn't take photos of: some tights from BHS. This is my new favourite, 3 pairs of 70 denier tights for £6, that's cheaper than Primark!!

I also got a present for my friend Rachel's birthday and a little present for my best friend who got her first job as a primary school teacher this week! WOO!

Bye
xx

Wednesday 9 June 2010

General stuff!

Hi guys,

Just a reminder for everyone that glamour magazine is out tomorrow with free benefit make up (I'm sure you knew that!) and also more magazine has a voucher for a free barry m dazzle dust!

Also I've noticed my followers are creeping up!! I have decided on my giveaway prize today, just need to get 25 followers now! I'm so excited!!

I will do a proper post again tomorrow hopefully, I'm going to go to town to get my glamour and more stuff and possibly some makeup/clothes/jewellery. I've got my eye on some new nail polish, well I wanted it last week but didn't get it so I am definitely getting it tomorrow!

xx

Tuesday 8 June 2010

Five under £5

Hello again! I'm up to 14 followers! wow, I can't believe it! Can't wait to get to 25 to have a giveaway!

Anyway the point of the post! I've picked out 5 things that are a)less than £5 b) easily available and c) that I really like. I purposefully left out ELF products because everyone knows that they are very good for the price and tried to pick some things that get less love on blogs!



Although, having said that the two 17 products I've picked are getting pretty good reviews at the moment. I already did a review on the new mirror shine lipsticks and I am still loving them! They are £4.49 I think. The blush and glow is also getting a lot of praise from bloggers and it is well deserved. It comes in 2 colours, peaches and cream and strawberry swirl, which both have the same highlight shade. I have both of them but the one in the picture is strawberry swirl (which I am wearing today) These are £3.49 I think (feel free to correct me if any of my prices are wrong!)

Then Collection 2000 shine away powder. I LOVE this! It is one of the few makeup products I've ever repurchased, I think this is my third one? I've got 2 at the moment, one which I keep at home and then one which is running out which I put in my bag because then it doesn't matter if it breaks or I lose it! I think this is £3.99?

Next is Barbara Daly at Tesco concealer. Again this is something I have repurchased, this is my second one. It's great quality for the price (£3.50), really creamy texture. I think these must be popular because when I needed a new one it was never in stock and it took me a few weeks to get it!

Finally ASDA clear skin blackhead reducing exfoliating wash (£2.49 I think, but is often on offer 2 for £3) I think this is fab! I bought the loreal face wash with the scrublet and I prefer the ASDA one so much more (although I still use the scrublet!)This smells lovely and it really did make a difference to my skin, I noticed it within a week or two of using it my skin was much clearer.

Hope you found this interesting!

xx

Saturday 5 June 2010

Wow super generous giveaway!

Karolina is having an amazing giveaway, so many prizes!



Someone is going to be very very lucky!

enter here : http://smootchkiss.blogspot.com/2010/06/giveaway-contest-time.html

Friday 4 June 2010

My makeup storage

Other people's storage posts are some of my absolute favourite types of posts so I thought I'd put mine up too. Sorry lots of photos and long post!

I used to just have my makeup in makeup bags which was very untidy! I had a bag on my desk with my everyday favourites, and then another bag with the stuff I used less often, although once it went into the second bag it usually didn't get seen much again! where makeup went to die!

So, I got really tired of having makeup all over the place and went looking for something better and I found these lovely drawers on ebay. I think they are ikea mdf drawers which someone has decorated with newspaper cartoons and there's some rude little cartoons on there!! I won them for 99p but obviously the postage costs were quite high as its really heavy!






So I keep the drawers on my desk (not that much room in uni halls!) and next to them is a little metal pot (which actually says tea on it but never mind, its so cute) with all my brushes in it.

On top of the drawers I keep all of my nail polish (not really that many!) some pallettes and as you can see my liberty of london shell pearl beauty powder, which is far to pretty to be hidden in a drawer I think!



Onto the drawers, they are in the order I put my makeup on really, with foundation at the top and lip stuff at the bottom.

Top left


Foundation, powder and concealers and my elf primer. Range of different brands from c2000, maybelline, gosh, elf, mac, nyx, ysl, barbara daly @ tesco. I'm a firm believer that cheap brands can be just as good as high end brands.


Top right


Blusher, bronzer and highlights. I sorted through this recently because it was too full to close! All of these are cheaper brands, although I'm planning on getting a few Mac msf's in the new collection (can't remember what it's called atm, memory block!)

Middle left


I swear I should have been mascara obsession not blusher obsession! This is just crazy how many I have and I can't resist buying them every time I see a new one! Again they are all "drugstore" brands really including c2000 (i think their mascaras are really good for the money) maxfactor, maybelline, loreal, elf clear mascara, a marks and spencers lash primer. I also have a primark mascara which I only use for the eraser on the other end for tidying up eyeliner smudges etc. The only ones that aren't from the high street are my two twilight mascaras which I got in the sale on ASOS and I am actually really impressed with them. But why do I need 20+ mascaras?

Middle right


Eyeshadow and eyeliners. Again just high street brands, including a few MUA, no.7, bourjois, gosh, c2000. I also have a couple of eyeliners in my brush pot, one is an avon pencil which is about 6 inches long so doesn't fit in the drawers and the others are elf waterproof eyeliner pens which need to be kept tip down to stop them drying out. The only non high street thing in this drawer is my urban decay brow box in ginger snap, which I love as there aren't many brow products out there for red heads!

Bottom left


Lipsticks. More of a range of prices here. I've recently started getting into mac and have a few lipsticks now, my favourite is probably fanfare. Then there's my little pots of lipstick I made the other day (i'm loving no.7 so far)and lots of other brands including stila, 17, elf, avon, nyx etc

Bottom right


lipgloss, lipbalm and probably one of my all time favourites, soap and glory mighty mouth lip scrub and balm, I use this everyday and I love it! Again cheaper brands here, nyx, h&m, 2true, c2000, gosh, sleek, 17 and revlon. There is also hard candy 10 years of gloss, which I've had for ages and I remember how much I wanted it! Its so kitsch looking and smells like cakes!

If you would like any reviews/swatches let me know
xx

Wednesday 2 June 2010

DIY

Hello again!

I saw this post by Muhsine at Bubblegarm a while ago and really wanted to give it a try. I saw another post someone else did, which is where I got the technique I used from but I can't remember who it was so let me know if it was you so I can link to it!

Anyway I bought some little plastic pots on ebay last week and they came today and I couldn't wait to get started!

Here are the swatches of the lipsticks I started with, nice colours but really didn't suit me or I just didn't wear them. They are a mix of ELF, Rimmel, Avon, C2000, Natural Collection, so nothing expensive that I would mind cutting up!



As you can see there is a mix of pink, nude, peach and reds. So I set up a little area on my desk to do this (I would definitely recommend covering the area with newspaper or something like that,it can get messy!) Then I cut small pieces of the lipsticks and put them on a tablespoon. Then I held the spoon over a candle, mixing the lipsticks with a teaspoon. When it was all melted and mixed I just poured it into a pot. Simple! The only thing is I now have a burnt spoon so I hope no-one gets the wrong idea if they saw it!

They really take no time at all to set again, however I was a little impatient and one of them has a big finger dent in it! I didn't really have any method to how I was mixing colours so I didn't really know how they would turn out. However it was a lot of fun doing it and really appealed to my creative side (makes me miss doing art at school!)

So I made 10 new colours, a few of them, as you can see, are quite similar, however some of the lipsticks I used had shimmer so there are different finishes too. I also labelled them with a trusty sharpie pen so I will be able to remember the ones I like best.



And here are the swatches
1-5 (L-R)


and 6-10 (L-R)


Can't wait to try them all on!

Has anyone else tried this?

xx