Finally I can get Nakedand covered in...Mustard?

Yes I finally have the Urban Decay Naked palette. After giving up on Debenhams (so totally crap, I am still in shock at their 'style' of Customer Service) Instead I went with Boots. And of course I may as well spend enough to get me some free delivery right?? Which brings me on to this.

Lee Stafford Matt Fat Mustard - £6.99

I half style my hair - dry it, straighten the overly curly bits and my fringe section and twist in a few loose curls(this product cuts half my heat styling out) - then pour a little of this on to my hands. Rub my palms together and rub through my roots and lengths. And done. I'm left with big relaxed waves. It works similarly to a dry shampoo, soaking up the moisture to give you more volume yet the cream texture makes it so much easier to control. Incredibly, I can't feel it in my hair at all. And I am super picky when it comes to products in my hair.

All in all this stuff is lush. Big textured hair that still feels light and soft and freshly washed. The first type of mustard I've truly liked!!

Be expecting lots of FOTDs with Naked eyes and messy hair coming up!!

Also just ordered some Illamasqua products from the Asos sale, Including the Precision Ink from the Art of Darkness Collection for £10.

Fair to say I'm a happy bunny at the moment. :)

xxx

FOTD

So first proper fotd. Had a long day today, enjoy my long weekend off work and decided to go ikea to stock up on basics for the house then out for a drink so my makeup needed to hold up!!

What I used,

Elf Mineral Foundation (in fair or something similar)

Elf Mineral Glow (the bronzey shade to warm my skin and a bit of contour)

Elf Mineral Booster (in sheer for nice glowyness without the discoball glitz or shiny nose syndrome)

Elf Mineral Blush (Mauve...? Palest colour anyway)

- can you tell I did an elf haul and am currently testing it out?-

Mac Mineralize Blush Duo (Hangloose to highlight)

For eyes I mixed the peachy shade from the Nars sugarland eyeshadow duo (lovelovelove this) with Urban Decays Suspect. I used a cranberry-ish shade from a Nyx palette on the crease. And always the lovely Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliner in zero for tighlining and the lower waterline.

I pencilled by eyebrows with the Soap&Glory Eyebrow shaper. (perfect colour for me, shame about that crappy highlighter!!)

Lips was more Elf with the mineral lipstick in Natural Nymph (rather like this)

Pretty simple with minimal fuss. Needed to save my energy for the shopping! And yes I spent ALOT of my hard earned money today. Ouch!

xxx

Time's flying by...

July is the last time I wrote...?

Seriously?? Daaaamn!

Well clearly I am terrible at this, however I'm going to try much harder from now.

Brownie promise and all that.

So updates, I've been a happy little shopper buying things for mine and my boyfriends first house.

We're moving in November and I'm SOOOO excited. I've been thinking about doing posts on home stuff if any one's interested. Most importantly (to me at least) we've just put the deposit down on an amazing handmade wooden sleigh bed - a massive luxury on our very modest budget but it'll last forever (I hope) and there's something more meaningful about supporting your local wood shops - it's freakin' huge as well. I love it. :)

Here's a few of the things I've purchased for the house (I hope the colour schemes in my head work out for real!!) On a more makeup related subjects, if I have gone bald by next week it's because Debenhams diabolical customer service has made me pull my hair out with frustration.

It's been almost three weeks since I placed my order for the Urban Decay Naked Palette and an Illamasqua Cream Blusher (free delivery and 10% -possibly more- off all beauty)

I thought what a brilliant deal, thank god I put off ordering the palette from House of Fraser!

So three weeks, the money has gone from my account, numerous emails have been sent (mainly from me, I've received one from them a week ago saying they're treating it as 'urgent' and looking into it) and has my parcel arrived? Has it hell.

What is so hard about re-sending a parcel? I thought it was a piss take that it took 5 days from me ordering to them dispatching the package. But I'd be cool with that if I'd received.

It's not so much the fact that it got lost. Shit happens. It's their total lack of customer SERVICE when problems arise. They just don't give a crap.

This is what happens when you try to save money with a trusted, well respected department store...I guess.

*Sigh* One day my lovlies...

Anywho sorry bout the crap images, my camera cable thing (technical term) has gone walkies.

But I'll be back soon, I've got a few (who am I kidding, ALOT) of new products I'd like to share with you :)

xxx

Work work. Rush rush. Sleep sleep?

I re-read a few bits of my posts today and have noticed that quite often I'm not making proper sense of things.

I would just like to apologise for this awful writing!

I've been trying to blog more to get into a natural habit of doing it, however I have also been working 6 day weeks at the restaurant I manage for the past month and I'm certainly starting to become slightly zombie-esque.

So on the subject of wanting more sleep and still having to be at work bright and early, I thought I'd show you what makeup I take to work in the mornings and apply in the (empty) office when I've accidentally slept in after a late shift from the night before.

Olay Daily Moisture Fluid is a new one for me, it's not massively hydrating, but is quite a nice base for makeup and is fine moisturising-wise now I've switched to a heavier night cream.

I don't generally wear foundation at work as it all wears off from the heat no matter what foundation/primer or setting powder I use. I'll just set my under eye concealer (Loreal Touche Magique) and mattify my t-zone with an ELF mineral face powder (which I've forgotten to include) and touch up with my Korres compact (again forgotten!!)

The ELF All Over Colour Stick in Pink Lemonade is great for quick flushed and dewy cheeks and I find pretty useful when I don't want t be carrying messy minerals or fragile pressed powders around with me.

You may have noticed I've got a few mascaras going on in there. I actually missed one out (I'm rather embarrassed the work it takes me to HAVE eyelashes) I use Cargo LashActivator (the serum end) every morning first, topped off with (my rather dried out) Urban Decay Lash Primer Potion, then a layer of Maybelline Falsies. If I've skipped eye makeup I'll add a coat of Too Faced Lash Injection on top - absolute crap on its own but when put on top of another mascara as a final coat it makes everything fatter blacker and longer. (For me at least).

Don't shout but I am guilty of curling my eyelashes after mascara, I find it just works better, holds better and looks way more wide awake. (Luckily although my eyelashes are short they must be strong as I've not had any breakage from this).

The eyeliner you can see is a sad Barry M excuse for my usual loves of Urban Decay eyeliner (lost) and my old Lord & Berry retractable liner (used up). I only use a little liner in the roots of my lashes in the morning - purely for definition - I don't need my morning eyes looking any smaller.

I add a bright-ish lip colour or tinted balm to brighten it all up. (My new Gosh is my current fave)

This may seem like a lot, but the result is very natural clean face with dark dark lashes and pop of pink to stop me looking like a ghost. And I have it down to 5 minutes. When I have time I sling my Fake Bake Bronzing Powder in my bag as well. However I'm feeling very lazy lately and have therefor decided to embrace the pale...it's way less effort!

Any suggestions for easy morning makeup?

Lauren x

Bargain Hunter and FOTD

So although me and the boyfriend are currently in the process of buying our first house, I can't help but indulge on a few purchases now and again that aren't lamps, tables or paintings. So I spent the other day bargain hunting around town for some little lovelies to calm my need to by makeup!

Gosh Soft'N Shine Lip balm in Barbie is lovely and currently all shades are 1/2 price. Much more pigmented then I expected but the shades are still sheer enough you can build the colour as bright or light as you like. I wouldn't say this moisturizes my lips, but i doesn't dry them out. I find this product really comfortable to wear and the cool blue toned pink really can build to a bold barbie pink which wears away to a pink stain when the balm has gone. Love it! I believe this brand is new to Boots, I'm looking to cut back on the chemicals I put on my face, especially products that are going straight on to bare skin. This was about £5.99 and claims to reduce dark shadows (and I've got plenty to test it on) This does seem to be aimed at young skin, I'm not sure how young you have to be to fit that group - I'm almost 21 am I too old?? Oh well the product smells pretty yummy, though I don't think the fruitiness smells all that natural, but hell if it works, it works. we'll see how it goes.

Famous by Sue Moxley eye shadows are currently 2 for £6 in Superdrug so I couldn't resist! I bought shade 1 - a creamy iridescent colour that is just goooorgeous. and shade 3 - a lilacy grey mushroom also with an iridescence flashed through. These eyeshadows are so nice, creamy soft and blendable, the packaging isn't the highest quality but not too bad. I'm massively keen on the unimaginative shade names but the lovely colours totally won me over. they do have matte shades in the range also but none really caught my eye this time round.

This is actually my boyfriends purchase as I got sick of him using my face scrubs, I pushed him to buy this grapefruit one as I loved the idea of being surrounded my that fresh smell in the morning. I was right! I love it. And now he whines at me for using his face scrub. Oh how the tables turn.

I also bought some Superdrug own body lotion and butter as their body range (scrubs and shower gels included) were 2 for £4. The red cherry and plum body butter smells like cherry flavoured yogurt and sinks in nicely when applied to slightly damp skin. it really is a super thick butter so be warned if you prefer something lighter. The lotion I bought was in cocoa, which smells slightly sweeter then Palmers own cream. There was also a coconut one which smelled lush but I have way too many coconut scented things!

Here's a FOTD using some new products. I kept it quite light as me and the boyf were just going for midweek cocktails and to see Toy Story at the cinema (oh my god so awesome)

I kept everything pretty simple and sheer:

Famous by Sue Moxley Eyeshadows shades 1 & 3.

Maybelline Falsies Mascara.

Olay Moisteriser mixed with a bit of Maybelline Dream Satin Liquid Foundation.

Korres Wild Rose Compact Powder.

No7 Natural Blush shade Petal.

Loreal Touche Magique Concealer.

I also used the new Aqua Light Pantene shampoo and conditioner. I'm not a Pantene fan usually but I am quite loving this so try it out if you haven't already. My hair feels cleaner for longer yet doesn't feel stripped or dry at all.

Found any bargains lately?

Lauren x

Making Me Some Lippy, From Lippies.

So the other day whilst re organising my dressing table I was arranging my lipsticks and came across this

That's my fave lipstick. How the sun managed to make it SPLIT is beyond me. I also found another lipstick with a clear lid that had been bleached...though I preferred the bleached colour with that one so I wasn't so devastated about that.

ANYWAY... I needed to make it usable till I re-purchased it, so I'd read about people melting lippies down and I had a few empty Lily Lolo sample pots lying around soooo...

Got me some of these, Did a bit of this,

Did a bit more.

Then I got a bit addicted and thought 'this is easy let's lop off some lipsticks and make me own!'

So my second lip pot consisted of these,

See that second from left? My twice worn Illamasqua lipstick! True, the shade was too matte and lilac toned to suit me, but it still breaks my heart a little when I see it all chopped down and sad looking...damn my over-excitement at making lip colours in pots. I also added a squeeze of Palmers Lip Butter to counteract the drying effects of some of the lipsticks.

After my experiments I ended up with these,

The Barry M colour - worn as a more muted stain. Though melting it down did seem to make it a little less pigmented anyway.

The random mixture, it's alright, who'd of thought four shades of pink would make...another pink.

Maybe I didn't think that one through properly. Though it was pretty fun.

What do you think?

Lauren x

I'm Back...For Now....

Hey,

So I've been mega busy lately, trying to sort out a mortgage so me and the boyf can buy our first house, working ridiculous hours at work and on top of all that I bought a new face powder (on a bit of a budget....ok a lot of a budget) and my skin literally freaked out!! So any makeup I've been wearing lately has had the lone purpose of saving the public from the horrifying state of my skin. Thankfully (due to a few product swaps and a lot of patience) my skin is finally getting back to normal. I've also discovered some loooooovely products along the way.

Upcoming blogs (when I find my bloody camera lead) include my review on the Cargo Lash Activator Extreme (taken a while I know) My thoughts on my new Korres products - and what I am now lusting after from the range. And my mini ELF haul. I'm also trying out a new moisturiser and a few more bath and body products that'll keep me going for a while.

Enough chat, I have a few unshown/unused photos on my computer for the blog so I thought I might show you how I'm currently organising (I use that word loosely) my make up, I had a maaaassive clear out and got rid off all the products I bought on a whim (cheap and cheerful often turned out to be rough and rashy...) So hopefully everything looks a bit more streamlined and tidy.

I use Muji drawers to store my makeup, though I'm fast running out of space and plan to order a few more for my ever increasing collection.

Blusher drawer - With the odd Bronzer that I can squeeze in.

All my concealers and highlighters. I think of this as the draw of magic, everything to hide and enhance. lol. The crap I can't fit in the drawers above.

I have two tumblers of mascaras, This one is the new and favourite one. The other is filled mainly with No.7 Mascaras I insisted on buying and hated them all. Tshh.

A mixture of good and absolutely shite makeup brushes that I keep as I'm also losing my brushes for days at a time.

I rarely wear eyeliner, preferring to line my eyes with eye shadows so I don't know how I ended up with this lot. Do love my Urban Decay 27/7 Glides though.

Most of my singular eye shadows, I store large eye palettes on top of these drawers.

Loose eye shadows, I wear these way more then any pressed eye shadows. I love my NYX Loose Pearl Shadows and am now in the process of re-potting them so they're actually usable.

Small palettes/big eyeshadow. The LA Girl trios are gorgeous at a glance, not very pigmented to use but that didn't stop me from buying about 8 colour combos.

My lip gloss drawers. It's very pink I know. I loves me a pink pout.

My Lipsticks (that aren't in the bottom of various handbags) lots of NYX again. I've only recently got into lipsticks again but am gradually building my collection (to my boyfriends dismay).

How do you store yours? I cant believe a couple of years ago I'd have all my makeup jumbled up in a giant fruit bowl, I couldn't bear that now!!!

Now that my skin is healing and I have discovered my favourite base combination (NEVER thought I'd find that) I'll start doing FOTDs to hopefully bring a bit more range to my blog.

Let me know if you have any ideas!

Lauren x

6 Favourite Lipglosses

So these are my most worn, most loved glosses. They range from new lusts (hello NYX) to some long term lip gloss loving (Freeze 24-7 you lovely labeless thing.)

I have abandoned my glosses the past few months for lots of lipsticks but I'm now sharing my attention, and as summer truly kicks in I'll probably forget all about them stick things....

From top - NYX Megashine Pinkfrost. Too Faced Mirror Mirror I'm Perfect. Revlon Pink Pop. Barry M Pastel Pink. Freeze 24-7 Plump Lips/Ice Sticks Brr Berry. Loreal Glamshine Candy Juice. This lip gloss tastes like sherbet!! So tasty! Very pale and shimmery - I don't usually do shimmery lips but I make certain exceptions. Thick creamy kinda gloss. slightly sticky (and totally lickable) so therefore doesn't last too long on me. But it probably could do. This was about $3.75 from Cherry Culture I believe.

This nude in the tube coloured gloss is basically clear on me. Really quite sticky but long lasting because of this and REALLY shiny. I've had people comment on how shiny my lips look with this on. Plus it has a slight bananary taste. Yum. I got this in an ASOS sale for about a fiver. I think they're usually priced around £10 from places like Boots but can probably be found cheaper online.

My first Revlon gloss. Bought because of all the hype. I do love the colour. A sheer bright pink, very clean with no shimmer. Also a sticky one which I do find a pain. but the lovely colour makes it worth it. No flavour though. Boo. £6.49 from Boots.

A creamy gloss with slight frost and shimmer and quite an opaque finish for quite a thin-ish loss. I find patting it on to sheer it out a little suits me better, the super pale shade looks rather weird on me. Overpowering scent and flavour of strawberry yogurt which is a bizarre flavour but fun all the same. I got this on a 3 for 2 deal at Boots (only time I purchase Barry M is when there is deals) £4.25 usually.

This is my most used gloss, not as shiny as it looks in the photo. A more dewy rosy colour with a satiny sheen. Really gorgeous feeling gloss, light and balmy. I really love it. It doesn't burn or make your lips swell and turn deep red like some more intense plumping glosses. However my lips tend to look rounder and softer after using this, like the creases and gaps have been gently pushed out. I bought this gloss ages ago on ASOS for £14 I think it was supposed to be something ridiculous like £27.50?? For a gloss that doesn't look much (and the bloody label rubbed off after a week) the luxury feel of the product makes it worth it for me. I wasn't going to put this on here, until I noticed it was clearly the most used gloss after my Freeze 24-7. This is a glossy coral-ly pink shade that didn't show up at all in the photo. Nothing amazing just a real easy go to gloss. not to sticky, not to quick to disappear, not to sheer and not to bright. I wear this a lot at work and with a lot of makeup when I'm not feeling the pale lip. The Glamshine glosses all have little sub-groups however this is the only gloss in the Candy range. It differs from the rest due to the complete lack of glitter and shimmer. £6.99 though I just noticed Boots has a 2 for £10 for the Glamshines at the moment.

Hope that was vaguely helpful/interesting. It meant I missed the entire England match...oh shame.

XxX

Pop Lip Lusts

So to finish my Popathon (like marathon but with pop yeh?...no sorry I'm a bit ill and my brains gone to auto-idiot) What was I saying? Yes Lip lusts, I bought Petal Pink (loving my baby pink shades) and Flirty Fuschia (as a panic buy...I have plenty of bright pinks and just dropped it in the basket in case I lost all 8 of them I guess..?)

You may have noticed the slightly funkyness in the Flirty Fuschia bullet, honestly I was too fussed that it nearly toppled out the tube when I tried to apply it, after all it wasn't the colour I was excited about, just an off hand back up of all my other similar shades. Then I swatched the colours. Texture of both is lovely, very soft light and balmy. But I was gutted. Petal pink is so so so sheer. Barely a pink sheen in most lights. Flirty Fuschia on the other hand, that lovely just bitten pink, sheer enough to let your natural be the base shade but with a much pinker fresher tone. Of course that's the broken one. Sods law.

I may melt it down (been having fun with that lately) and whack it in a pot. Such a shame cuz I love the cute packaging of the lipsticks.

On to the swatches.

Bare lip -bare face actually but let's try to ignore that.

Pink Petal

Flirty Fuschia - slightly washed out by the camera. Typical.

I have realised I have included no prices during the Pop posts so here's a quick run down if you're interested.

Deluxe Dusts - £1.99

Lip Lusts - £1.99

Belle Palettes - £5.99

Pop Up - £3.99

Eye Pen - £1.99

You may have noticed the Bee Stung lip gloss in the original photo and the fact I haven't reviewed it. I honestly can't be bothered. It's just blah. Cute to look at but gritty texture and garish naff colours. If you really must try it however they're also £1.99.

xXx

Pop...

Here's the bits I bought from Pop via Direct Cosmetics - Which by the way impressed me muchly, I ordered, next morning I got an email saying my parcel had been dispatched, and the morning after that the post man came a'knocking! Happy days.

Anyway on to the products...

So this time round I'd only ordered the bottom two, but that's all down to previously ordering the top one. They're basically palettes of 8 shades of highlighter, blush and bronzer in a variety of opacity, shade and finish. Yum. Let's look inside.

Pretty sweet huh? In like a tasty icecreamy kind of way... swatches?? Top L-R White-gold highlight, True gold glow, Nudy-peach glow, Pale pink all over radiance.

Bottom L-R Cream glimmer highlighter, Peach lustre, Lavender brightener, Warm nudy-pink illuminator.

Tasty no?

As the names suggest, they have a variety of finishes, however most have more of a glowy sheen then actual shimmer in them which I find much more wearable and flattering.

This palette is probably one of my favourite products at the moment. The range of cool and warm tones gives me a lot of room to play and adapt to the makeup I've chosen (and whether or not I'm having a pasty faced day) The powders in all three are very soft and blendable.

So let's look at the rest!

Top L-R Pale pink, Baby pink, Mauve, Copper-rose

Bottom L-R Fresh rose, Hot pink, Nude-rose glow, Bronze-rose

Sorry my photos are so awful. I was in a rush and well I'm not much good with a camera at the best of times. Anyway you can see how some colours are sheerer (real word?) then others. These sheer ones create a more of a wash of blush/highlighter. which mixes nicely with the more intense colours. Ok the bronze pallette doesn't have names for the colours, but you get a range of matt browns, shimmery olds and peaches, and a variety of gleamy looking bronzes, some with a dash of shimmer. Something for everyone really.

I'll be honest I'm not sure I get the Pop Up Glow stick in 'Sunny'. For one thing it's frikkin' big. No chance of a quick slick straight from the stick. (Did you like that?) Then when I did apply it I got all confused with the texture. Greasy? A little. Powdery? Well yes actually. Nice? Kind of but I'm yet to test out how well it wears on an average day so we shall see if it can sneak into my drawer of fave highlighters. So I also bought eye-pen (which is actually a pencil) in ocean. It's blue. See? Tolds ya. Blue. Ocean blue. Anything else? I quite like it. Yes I do. I'm running out of (typing) breath now so I'll finish on these for the moment. Deluxe Dusts. Pretty nice. Pigmented, smooth, blendable. However the packaging is as annoying as the NYX tiny bottles of pigment.

What the hell am I supposed to do with them stupid little holes? Pain in the arse and a half. Luckily a little colour goes far so I can just about outweigh the stupid holes, with the prettiness and quality of the eye shadows.

Oh one point, see that lovely golden toned white third from the left? It's really very pretty. That's Antique Gold. And see that super frosty almost silver toned white at the end? Yeh that's White Gold...apparently. Tsh. Anyway last swatch before bed.

What do you think? I'll show you the rest soon.

Night XxX