Spring Time Beauty Products

Spring and Summer are my favourite seasons. I love being able to go out wearing bright colours, warm bronzers and rosy pink cheeks without looking too washed out. The cosmetic stores are full to the brim with pretty feminine colours to help you enjoy every part of the warmer weather. I admit I can be quite bland when it comes to my makeup. During the winter I wake up first thing in the morning and generally settle for cat flick eyeliner and a nude lipstick because I am too tired. When the spring and summer comes around, I tend to have a new lease of life and the urge to experiment. Out with the dull, boring Miss Vanity and hello to colourful, vibrant and confident Miss Vanity. I also think it helps that I can use fake tan when it is warm without it streaming down my body. To help get me out of a style rut and ready for the sunshine, I was gifted several items from the company Fragrance Direct. Fragrance Direct specialise in all the best high street brands at affordable prices. If you think you cannot afford Ciate nail varnish to treat yourself to Elizabeth Arden, think again. This website has all of products for a lot cheaper than other retailers.

The first item I received in my package was the Maybelline 070 Orange Crush lipstick (link). I really like the moisturising sensation of this lipstick and the dewy effect it gives upon application. The lipstick tastes like oranges and looks subtle, yet summery. 

I am a massive fan of Ciate polishes and I have done product reviews on them countless of times. This yellow colour is from the Corrupted Neon Manicure set by Ciate (link). The polish applies really well, dries fast and gives a wonderful finish. This picture does not have the top coat added as I could not find it when writing this review, however once the top coat is added, it really does look like a professional manicure. It sparkles, shines and gives your nails a bold statement colour. 

In the past I have never got a long with any of the Maybelline volumising mascaras, they often leave my eyelashes looking clumpy, flat and unattractive. However the Maybelline Colossal Volume Express (link) was a delight to use. Yes it still comes out a little bit clumpy, but it does in fact add quite a lot of volume to my tiny little lashes.

Next is the Glo-Minerals Precise Micro Lipliner (link). Shamefully, I am one of those people that do not use lipliners as much as they should do. As a blogger, I should know better. Lipliners are fab for defining the natural curves of your lips and giving your lipstick a fuller effect. I really like this lipliner because it is easy to apply and looks great once filled in and used as an actual block lip colour, as well as a lipliner.

I have always wanted to try the L'oreal 24hr Super gel eyeliner (link) and to be completely honest I was not blown away by the quality of this product. This is good for a gel eyeliner, but it does not beat my favourite Bobbi Brown gel eyeliner. If you are on a budget this may be a good product for you, but at usual retail price of £16, it is a little steep. Thanks to Fragrance Direct, you can buy this gel eyeliner for £6 and try it for yourself.

Finally, here is my new Elizabeth Arden (link) cream blusher. I am a big fan of cream blushers because they are easy to apply, perfect for contouring and they leave a natural finish. This cream blusher is perfect for my complexion and is a beautiful spring time colour.

Are you ready for the spring/ summer seasons?

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Estee Lauder Sumptuous Volume Mascara

For as long as I can remember, I've always had an issue with my eyelashes. They've always been too short and never really stood out unless I wore fakes. A few of my friends have the most perfect, natural dolls eye eyelashes that makes me green with envy. I've experimented with all types of mascaras from volumising big brushes to fine brushes that promise to grab smaller hairs and also lash extensions and lash fibres. Lash fibres are the only thing that has made a real difference, but it's a bit of a hassle to apply on an everyday basis. I wanted an eye mascara that I could pick up, shove in my makeup bag and know that whenever I apply it, my eyelashes will have a fabulous volumised look. A few years ago, I went to a Marie Claire event and we were given Estee Lauder goodie bags. In the goodie bags were samples from the brand and I fell in love with the mascara sample. I've only ever used it on special occasions and unfortunately I ran out a few days ago. Rushing straight to the Estee Lauder counter in my local town, I was then informed that they no longer sell the mascara I wanted and I was advised to try the 'Sumptuous Volume' mascara instead.  I didn't really know what to expect, but I bought it anyway. If the last eye mascara was by the same brand, hopefully this would work just as well. In fact, the mascara worked even better than my previous one and I couldn't wait to show you it.

For the same price as the mascara, I could get the mascara gift set which included a vial of makeup remover and some night cream. This beautiful little set cost me around £22 and I think it's a reasonable price considering you pay so much more for luxury cosmetic brands. 

The brush applicator is rather thick, but not too thick that it makes your eyelashes clumpy. The gold detailing makes the brush look luxurious and overall, I think the brush is probably one of the easiest mascaras to use.

As you can see, my eyelashes look quite pronounced. It may not be as dramatic as some other eye mascaras you can buy, but my eye lashes look natural and long which is the most important to me. It's very rare that I'm ever happy with my eyelashes, but these days I can walk out of the house with a sprint in my step and a twinkle in my eye. Estee Lauder's Sumptuous mascara has made a huge difference to my makeup routine.

Have you tried this mascara before?

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A Sample a Day Keeps the purse at bay.

I admit I'm not one of the most frugal people around, but I love collecting samples. It's been an ongoing thing since I was quite young and discovered the likes of 'Free Samples UK' and 'Magic Freebies'. Yes, you have to be careful of not to sign up to any marketing scams, but if you know what you're doing and can see the legit sites from the scammers, you can bag yourself some fantastic freebies. In the picture above you will see my little sample case. It's full to the top with little samples from Chanel to tea bags and Olay to Aveena. I use these when I'm running low on a product and wanting to see what to buy next and they also come in really handy when I go on holiday. 

Where to look:

http://www.latestfreestuff.co.uk/

I think this has to be my most trusted and most used site. I've never had any problems and always bagged some wonderful little items. 

http://www.magicfreebiesuk.co.uk/

Magic Freebies is loaded with marketing scams, but there's quite a lot of genuine samples to get your hands on. 

https://www.facebook.com/StudentMoneyTips

Student Money Tips ie '10 ways to have more money as a student' has some great money saving tips and the occasional good freebies.I've got this site on my favourites and check it regularly.

My latest freebie was found on the 'Latestfreestuff' website and it was a coupon for a free 30ml Body Shop handcream worth £5. Being a blogger I couldn't refuse the opportunity to get my hands this one and there's still 3 days left for those who are still interested!

Visting The Body Shop is always tempting. The sweet aromas that fill the air always makes me want to buy something. I ended up purchasing the Strawberry Eau De Toilette which wasn't quite free, but had 10% off due a promotional day. When I got to the counter I was offered a free Love Your Body Body Shop loyalty card worth £5 for spending over £5 in store today. The loyalty card gives you £5 credit to spend in store on your birthday, money off at certain times of the month and lots of special offers.  The Body Shop has definitely been treating me well today.

I did a post about this when I first started my blog, but for a long period of time I've been obsessed with collecting magazine perfume samples. The obsession derived from my childhood memories of sniffing magazine pages and falling in love with the various scents on the page. For the last year or so I have been collecting magazine pages which have perfume samples and keeping them in a folder for when I need a different perfume to try or for when I'm looking for a new perfume to purchase. I call this my perfume diary and I love it. If anything, it's worth doing just to look at all the iconic perfume advertisements in the last few years. I recently tried a perfume from this folder from two years ago and it still worked. This could definitely be an interesting piece for those that love collecting magazine memorabilia in the future.

Finally, this isn't a freebie but the purchase was made thanks to a freebie I received a year ago. I had a few samples of Estee Lauder products from a beauty night at my local Boots and since then I have been using the Estee Lauder mascara I had been given for special occasions. Unfortunately my mascara sample has run out, but I feel in love with it so much that I spent £22 on buying one of the newer mascaras,  the Estee Lauder Sumptuous Extreme. The mascara alone was supposed to cost £22, but due to another promotional offer, I was given this lovely little box set with a sample of makeup remover and night cream for the exact same price. Today has been a fabulous freebie Thursday.

Have you used any sample sites in the past?

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Eye-lash Revamp: LashFibres

For aslong as I can remember, my eyelashes have caused me many confidence issues. Makeup artists that have worked with me say I have wonderfully long eyelashes, but if that's the case, why do they never stand out as much I would like? I've tried curling them and purchasing many different masacras, but I came to the conclusion that all hope had gone. I felt like I was doomed to have fine none existent eyelashes all my life or surrender to a life of daily fakery - something that isn't really my 'cuppa tea'. Don't get my wrong, when I discovered fake eyelashes for the first time I thought they were a god send and I wore them as much as I could, but to do this on a daily basis would take too much time and effort. I'm a get up and go type of girl and I like simplicity. If I applied fake eyelashes everyday, I can guarantee that I'll be running for the bus and one would be stuck in my hair whilst the other would have fallen off and yes girls, I have experienced days like that before. 

I was recently approached by the PR company that handles Lash fibres and asked if I wanted to do a review. Upon first hearing about the product, I laughed skeptically and told myself that it probably wouldn't make much of a difference. I've grown too accustomed to lash products letting me down over and over again and with the product having a rather low price tag  I thought it would have no chance. Despite all my concerns, I thought I might as well give it ago and I can happily say I take back all my snide giggles and all my hesitancy against the product. Lash Fibres has worked really well and made such a difference to my daily makeup regime. For on the go bigger lashes, this is perfect. Gone are the hours spent wasted aligning fake eyelashes, here's a product that makes a difference instantly with no glue in sight. 

LashFibres in an instant eyelash brush containing mini fibres that cling onto your mascara. This gives you luscious lash volume within seconds and takes only three steps. Perfect for those lusting over longer eyelashes, but lack the time to apply fakes.

Step one

Apply your own mascara. I've gone for my usual B Longer lengthening mascara - it's one of my favourites from Superdrug and it works really well with my short lashes.

Step 2

Apply the LashFibres over your mascara using a downwards method (the opposite to how you would normally apply your eye mascara) and then wait 30 seconds.

Step 3

Apply your second coat of mascara and voila - it's done. 

As you can tell my eyelashes look more pronounced and my eyes look wider. This is probably one of the first times that my eyelashes have really stood out on camera without wearing falsies. I'm really happy that I've found a product that I can wear on a daily basis that doesn't take much effort and erases my lack of confidence when it comes to eyelashes.  The product retails at £9.95 from Superdrug - at that price I think i'll be hauling these next time I go shopping. 

I've finished my LashFibres look with a bright lipstick and cat-flick eyeliner, it's my signature makeup look and the one I'll be applying the most whilst using this product. I've used my Collection 2000 felt tip eyeliner and my MAC Archie Girl lipstick that I keep falling in love with over and over again.  So finally...

Optional Step 4: 

Do a cheesy, wacky, slightly disturbing grin on camera. Yep, that's what I do when I'm happy. I pull rather weird faces then my partner comes across them on my camera and gives me a what the hell face. Plus, you get to see how your new eyelashes look from all different angles...or take lots of 'selfies' for Facebook...go on, you know you want to. 

Have you tried LashFibres?

http://www.lashfibres.com/

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Makeup Haul

Welcome to my new blog layout, I hope you like it!

The weather outside is dull, cold and somewhat resembling Narnia. The golf course near me has a soft sheen of snow that has finally been trampled on by little children and my road is like an assault course putting me to the test as I trek to Uni. My clothing of choice has been thick jumpers, a scarf stolen from my mother and thick walking boots, subsequently following my 'slobby' sense of clothing has been a natural makeup free face. Going through the effort of applying makeup when embarking on such long, hazardous snow journeys has not been worth it. By the time I've got to the university doors, I've had bright red cheeks from the cold air and my hair has been sticking out at strange angles due to the climate. When I finally reached my town centre earlier today, I felt the urge to reward myself by purchasing some makeup and here's what I bought today. Be aware, there's many unflattering photographs of me wearing no makeup at all...

MUA Pro Base Palette - £2.50

I'm useless when it comes to applying primers and potions before foundation, I'm usually in such a hurry that some basic skin care steps can often be missed. This leads to my foundation looking rather drab at times and  although it has amazing coverage, it doesn't stand out as much as I'd like. I've heard a lot of positive reviews in regards to the new MUA Pro-Base palette so I thought for £2.50 it would be worth picking it up. The trio set includes: two concealers and a highlighter. The product helps set your makeup, hide the blemishes and define your facial contours. I went for the porcelain palette due to having really fair skin and I found that the concealer covered rather well. 

Here's a picture of me with my foundation applied. As you can see, my cheeks are looking rosy due to the highlighter and although I have slight darkening under my eyes it isn't so bad compared to the previous image.

B Groomed Eyebrow Kit (£2.50)  and B Longer Eye Mascara (£7.99)

B cosmetics is a new range for Superdrug with fantastic introductory offers. The packaging looks really sleek and elegant and there's so many products to choose from. Having long for a new eyebrow pencil, but not being able to currently afford my beloved MAC, I decided to choose from this new range. The eyebrow pencil comes complete with a mini brush to tidy all your stray hairs, a brown pencil and a wax counterpart. The product is simple to use and blends really well. I'm really impressed with this product as it matches the exact colour of my hair and makes my eyebrows really stand out. The mascara is equally as fabulous. It has been a long time since I've found a mascara that gives me dramatically long eyelashes. I've always suffered from short embarrassing eyelashes, especially when you compare them to my fiances. The B longer eye mascara made my eyelashes look so dramatic and literally eye popping. I will have to give it a few weeks to see if the novelty wears off, but it's definitely in line for being my holy grail of eye mascaras. 

Miners Colour Kohl Eyeliners £1.99 each

I love eyeliners, but I'm boring and always stick to black. I was sent these little beauties in the post to review and they arrived today. Miners cosmetics are the official makeup brand for Dancing on Ice, therefore you can expect their products to be bold, daring and very colourful.   The eyeliners come in four different shades for you to choose and cost only £1.99 each. The colours available are: Brown, Black, Blue and Gold. For this little review I decided to shade in my eyelid using the gold pencil,  draw a cat flick eye pattern with the black eyeliner and finally finish off using the gold eyeliner again for my under eye. 

And here's the finished result:

My new makeup is really affordable and easy to use, I don't regret any of the purchases so far. Hopefully buying this new makeup will get me out of my lazy habit of going makeup free during the winter weather and challenge me to create additional makeup looks.

What do you think of the products?

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Front Cover: True Colours

When I walk into my local Boots, I always see a selection of Front Cover makeup palettes and think to myself 'maybe I should buy one of those sometime'. For the last few months, I seem to have forgotten all about it, until I made contact with a lovely woman that offered to give me the 'True Colours' set to review. Obviously, having longed for a palette in the past, I couldn't turn the offer down and I'm so glad I have been able to trial the products. 

For those who are not acquainted with Front Cover cosmetics, the brand is based in the UK and offers a vast selection of catwalk trending makeup in stylish photographic boxes. The packaging resembles a magazine and when you open the cover, you are greeted with an array of pigmented colours to play around with and a style guide to help you achieve those perfect party looks. I definitely give top marks for the packaging as you could get a whole selection of boxes and they would look so pretty on a shelf next to each other. 

The True Colours set includes: Six Baked Power Eyeshadows, Five Satin Pressed Powder Eyeshadows, Five lip glosses  Two nail polish glazes, a double ended mascara, retractable lip brush, eye mini blender brush, eye shadow brush and creamy metallic eye pencil. All this for a bargain price of £25. The set also includes a booklet of makeup tutorials in several different languages, making these products versatile and friendly across all continents.  My favourite colours in the kit has to be the Parma Grey and Sterling, which combined give an amazing smokey eye effect. Another product that really grabbed my attention was the mascara. Admittedly, I didn't really expect much from a mascara included in a kit. I always use higher end products, but this worked better than one of my Chanel eye mascaras. 

At first I had lower expectations for these products, but after wearing them for the last few days, this is fast becoming one of my favourite everyday makeup palettes. The True Colours set literally has everything you need to make your face winter fresh and natural looking this Christmas. I don't want to be the next Barbie and I definitely don't long to look plastic. All I want for Christmas is natural beauty and this set is everything I look for when choosing my cosmetics. 

Have you tried the True Colours Palette?

    ♥♥♥

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