Gloss & Glitter

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I've really rediscovered my love for red lips this Christmas so it seemed only right that I wear them in my Holiday tutorial this year. For my eyes I used a similar technique as I do everyday.. I define just above my crease in an attempt to widen my eyes, classic winged liner and a slick of festive glitter...

What I used for this look...

MAC Paint Pots in Morning Frost and Chilled On Ice

Urban Decay Shadows in Last Call and Smog

2True Easyglide Khol Eyeliner in Black

Rimmel Exhaggerate Liquid Liner in Black

MUA Glitter Eyleliner in 4 (gold)

Loreal Volume Million Lashes Mascara

Daniel Sandler Baby Jet Mascara

MAC Sheertone Blush in Plum Foolery

Urban Decay 24/7 Lip Pencil in Gash

17 Ultimate Volume Lipgloss in Very Berry

To see how I did it watch the video tutorial below...

Miss BB

Luminous Lips

I was recently sent these glosses to review and I'll admit when I opened them up.. I wasn't exactly excited. I'm not really a neon kinda gal so I wasn't sure when I would ever use them.. especially the yellow, I mean who wants yellow lips?? Anywho when I swatched them for this post I was really pleasantly surprised, that's why I'm including lip swatches as well as you really couldn't guess how it would look on from what it looks like out of the tube. Each gloss offers just a tint of colour and all are sheer but for the Amplified pink shade which is borderline opaque. What I particularly like about these being more tints than lip colours is how they can subtly change a makeup look with no commitment to reapplying throughout the day or night. See below the headshots I've included to demonstrate.

*L-R*  Born In The 80s, Thriller, Fever, Amplified, Purple Rain

FEVER 

AMPLIFIED

THRILLER

PURPLE RAIN

MADE IN THE 80s

My personal favourite has to be Fever. Not too bright but offers just enough colour to jazz up an evening makeup look and sheer enough it won't look out of place in the daytime. A great handbag multi-tasker!

They're available from minerscosmetics.co.uk and are priced at £2.99 each

Miss BB

Saturday Sparkle

I popped to Boots today on the hunt for these new 17 Wild Metallics eye shadows and came home with a few more bits all of which seemed to lean on the sparkly side.. hence the title of this post. I can tell you I am more than happy with my purchases and I got everything in this post for less than £15! That's 3 Nail Polishes, 3 Eyeshadows, a Liquid Liner and a Lip Gloss.. now that's bargain hunting! First up I had to decide between the gorgeous new shades from 17. I must admit I was drawn immediately to the neutrals and I may just have to go back for them later but I decided to go for these... more party friendly for the upcoming season I thought.

Wild Silver and Wild Midnight Blue. The consistency is more mousse than cream/gel. I'd liken it to Maybellines Dream Matte stuff crossed with Rimmels Colour Mousse range.. consider it a sparkly lovechild of the two. The reason I decided to go for these shades in the end was my absolute hatred of glitter fallout. These seem to have just as much impact as your average glitter-packed shadows without any of the annoying side effects migrating to your cheeks. I can't wait to try them out in a look.. I'll try and make it a tutorial and really road test them for longevity for you guys. I'd imagine as with all cream-type eye colours these will crease but that shouldn't be a problem if you use a primer or even a powder shadow over the top.. again this is all speculation.. I will let you know once I've tried it for myself. I'm almost certainly going to be going back for more colours as they are just £3.99 (can be bought here).. very reasonable if you ask me!

Another awesome bonus from 17 is the free gift you get right now if you purchase 2 or more products. I already knew I had to have at least 2 of the new shadows so I was on to a winner before I even stepped in the store. The Femme Noir gift set is a really cool freebie, the contents of which exceeds my total purchase price for the other 2 products as it is so really terrific value for me.

In the set you get a Glitter Eyshadow in Night Sky (which I cannot wait to try over the metallic silver!!!), a liquid liner in black and an Ultimate Volume lip gloss in Very Berry. The glitter shadow is a wash of gun metal sparkle, the liquid liner is pretty basic but will be used and the lip gloss is GORGEOUS! The absolute perfect shade for the holiday season.. I just can't believe it was free!

Lastly here are the other bits I picked up. I was on the look out for Models Own Juicy Jules which unfortunately was out of stock so for the same money I bought 2 polishes from Barry M. Hologram is a repurchase.. Mine dried out forever ago and I've been meaning to replace it for the longest time and Peach Melba is a relatively new addition to the range which having seen all over the blogsphere was also on my list so it didn't take long to pick once I was at the stand. After I'd paid for my purchases I received one of those lovely £5 off No7 vouchers which was nice so I went and got ANOTHER polish (money) which ended up costing me £2!! It was a great day for bargain hunting!

I also bought my wedding dress from Primark for £17 for anyone interested... I posted about it on my other blog here. Like I said... great day for budget shopping.

I feel like I haven't shopped in forever, I've just had no spare cash and now I'm saving for a new laptop I really don't want to part with any that I don't have to but I guess I'll have to get used to spending less with the baby on the way.. still... don't expect my blog to run dry. I will always have something to say as long as you're here to listen.

Pretty "First Date" Drugstore Makeup

I've had several requests for a full face of drugstore makeup and a couple for "first date" looks so I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone. I'm uploading my tutorial to YouTube now but it's a bit blurry (I've had it with trying to film using my SLR) so here are some photos of the look and a run down of the products I used. Hope it's helpful.

I used mostly MUA, their new pro range has some fab stuff. I threw in my new 2true liner as an alternate as I don't have a basic black from MUA and I must say I was impressed. I'll be using that again! I love the overall look but the standout discovery for me has to the mosaic blush. When I first bought it I didn't think much of it, it didn't seem to have an colour pay off when I swatched it and I don't think it ever even made it on to my face. Well... I'm very glad I used it in this tutorial 'cause it's awesome! It gives a really sheer wash of colour and a beautiful sheen, not sparkly at all just glowy, I wish they did a neutral highlight powder in this formula because for £2.50 that would be my number one drugstore product. I have a mosaic bronzer too so I'll be trying that out tomorrow. Just goes to show you should give things another go.. I am often too quick to judge and once something is put away in my collection it could be lost forever.. I would have been seriously missing out.

I also want to point out I used a tiny bit of lipstick with the gloss to create a more tinted lip.. this lipstick is a really bold pink when used normally.

Mosaic Blush in English Rose £2.50

Dusk Til Dawn Palette £4

2True Khol Liner £1.99

Extreme Curl Mascara £2

Lipstick Shade 3 £1

Lipgloss Shade 4 £1

Here's the tutorial video...

What are your favourites from MUA?

Outlet Shopping Haul

On this glorious Bank Holiday Friday I took a trip to York Designer Outlet..

I thought I would share with you some of the bargains I picked up.

First up, I've been lusting after a Bobbi Brown Custom Palette for a while but it's expensive stuff.. not at the CCO though :) This 3 pan eyeshadow palette was just £25 and the single eyeshadow and lipgloss quad were around £10 each. It's all interchangeable so as you can see I switched them up to create a more useful combination for my on the go makeup bag!

L-R - Ivory/Sage/Forest

L-R - Ivory/Sage/Forest

L-R - Ivory/Sage/Forest

 I was soooo excited to find the foundation compact, this is no longer in production and they still had a lot of shade options, next time I go I will definitely pick up a spare for when I run out and I will use it VERY sparingly, only when I'm out and about - such a handy product! I got the shade "porcelain"

This is again discontinued I'm afraid, they do full pan lipsticks.glosses too I think I will pick one up next time.

The shade I got was "coral" I've listed the individual shades in the coral collection below.. 

clockwise - True Beige/Coral Pink/Ball/Guava

clockwise - True Beige/Coral Pink/Ball/Guava

You can then use the individual cases interchangeably too.. the description stickers are on the bottom of the pop out pans and the palettes have square spaces in the bottom (difficult to describe) so you can switch and change as you like and everything is just as useable as ever!

Here's a look at the underside... you can see here what I mean about the square spaces 

Next up is a HUGE bargain from Ted Baker. I've been lusting after the Louis Vuitton Neverfull again but as always I just can't come to terms with £465 for one bag so I've been on the hunt for a really great quality highstreet one.. I have LOVED Ted Baker for some time and last time I was there I picked up a purple patent purse that I have cherished.. when I saw this I knew I had to have it. Purple is of course my favourite colour but it also has the copper coloured shiny hardware and it's real leather so will wear nicely too!

You can expect some oot posts featuring some better pics of this gem very soon! Full price it was £125, it was on sale at £85... I still didn't really want to part with that cash but it was a beautiful bag... there were a couple of tiny scuffs and so Lee bartered the saleman down to £60.. yay! Less than HALF PRICE! Absolute bargain and it will be my summer arm candy for sure :)

I have already made a date will Lee to go back very soon.. maybe next month as I had my eye on these beauties from Kurt Geiger and I think I need them! 

I love them in both colours but I think I prefer the white/cream.. what do you think?

I've looked them up on the website since and they are full price stock online £85 but at the outlet they were just £49... must haves I think!

I could spend all day there I really could.. and we kind of did.. Ella and Lee are dozing now and I'm pretty wiped so here I go.. hope you all had a fabulous Good Friday!