Reiss Haul

After my post recently about how much I love what Reiss are doing right now (my ramble can be read here), I couldn't help but take advantage of the sale that's on at the moment. I only picked up four pieces but I really like everything that I got!

First up is a gun metal grey mini skirt with black ribbon detailing from the 1971 range... I can totally see me dressing this up or down! Next up is a blush pink silk skirt that will be gorgeous with a nice blouse tucked into it...it kinda reminds me of what a park avenue princess would wear! (like Charlotte from SATC). I love the colour and the fabric is gorgeous, it looks and feels expensive. I have the perfect strappy cream shoes to wear with this skirt from Aldo that I blogged about here.

This next top would be perfect teamed with the skirt above. It's a really pretty cream silk top with plait detailing on the shoulders and three quarter length sleeves. I think it would be gorgeous with skinny jeans too. All the items I bought are quite understated and simple but I was really lacking in that area in my current wardrobe. I wanted to buy things that could be put together with various outfits.

The last item I got is a lovely short sleeved pink silk top with chest pocket. I bought this top so I could keep up with the current layering trend and team it with a grey cardigan, using a thin belt to nip in my waist.

Have you had a look in Reiss recently? What trends are you loving at the moment?

FOTD Using New MAC Products

I don't know about you but I always feel so much better once I have had my hair coloured and this time I got three different shades of blonde highlights. The result is quite a cool shade but I really like it. My hairdresser is fantastic, my highlights always look really blended and natural.

So on to the makeup...

I had a couple of requests to do a FOTD with my new MAC products and I was happy to oblige.
I never thought that I would be able to wear a white eyeshadow with intense blue/purple as a contour...but it totally works! I absolutely adore this combination now especially with a nude lip... Face: Revlon Photoready Foundation in Cool Beige, MAC Moisturecover concealer in NW20, Benefit Hello Flawless Powder in Shell, Gorgio Armani Sheer Bronzer in no.1, Sleek Contour Kit, RMK Blush in Holographic Coral, MAC Colour Cream Base in Shell (as a highlight on cheekbones).

Eyes: Benefit Brows A Go-Go kit, MAC Paint Pot in Soft Ocre (as a base), MAC Gesso e/s (all over lid and browbone), MAC Crystal e/s (all over lid), MAC Beautiful Iris e/s (on outer corner of eye blended out), MAC Parfait Amour e/s (in outer corners and in crease), Estee Lauder Double Wear Eyeliner in Black Plum (along top lashline), MAC Penultimate Eyeliner (along top lashline and flicked out), Benefit Eyebright (on waterline), YSL Singulier Mascara.

Lips: MAC Naked lipliner, Estee Lauder Pure Colour Lipstick in Vanilla Truffle, MAC Cremesheen liogloss in Boy Bait.

I also wanted to RAVE about a new moisturiser I have found that is amazing for people like me with combination skin. The product is Matis Shine Control Purifying Care Gel-Cream.

The website advises that this cream "both regulates and absorbs sebum and is a genuine “air-conditioner” for the skin. Its unique texture leaves a powdery film on the skin and is perfect for ensuring long-lasting make-up. Matified and protected, the skin can really breathe all day long.• It purifies, protects and re-balances combination and oily skin. • Neutralises the spread of bacteria". This cream claims to improve dilated pores, a dull complexion, uneven skin texture and imperfections. It has absorbent microbeads that continuously neutralise excess sebum. Sounds good huh!

I always struggle to find moisturisers that will combat the shine I get on my forehead, nose and chin after a few hours. I hate having to apply powder over my makeup because I don't want to end up with layers and layers of makeup on my skin. I like my skin to look natural. This cream has a really fresh scent and it feels like it's priming the skin. I didn't feel like I had to apply anything else after it like I usually would because it really felt like it was multitasking. It was moisturising, while mattifying my skin and I also noticed that a couple of blemishes I had disappeared after using this for a couple of days.

It seems to really clarify your skin as you're wearing it. I've never come across a product that does all these things in unison so I was really impressed by this! I can't say that I felt like it left a 'powdery' film on my face, it just left my skin matte and really soft. Although the product is a bit more on the expensive side, I think in my case the benefits are so worth it and also, you only need to use a tiny amount for each application. Because it acts as a moisturiser AND primer, it will be great for travelling and worth the price tag in my opinion. I am wearing it in the pics above so you can see that it doesn't make your skin look dull at all.

The cream is priced at £29.99 for 50ml and you can get it here

Beauty Blog Link Love

Another week, another list of fantastic blog posts to check out:

Over at theNotice, Rae shares an amazingly pigmented bright blue eye -- done with shadows from the drugstore!

This week, Louise gets an (almost!) exclusive look at a Lancome mascara that has them queuing down the aisles in Harrods, and promises better lashes in a month.

Yinnie Dances with the fairies with her fairy inspired EOTD.

Phyrra dishes with Britton from Haus of Gloi for this month's Indie Spotlight at Fresco Phyrra.

Blaq Vixen Beauty decides to treat her skin to a Clinique Even Better Clinical Dark Spot Corrector Regimen!

Retrodiva checks out three new innovative drugstore foundations. See which ones she would recommend!

Krasey Beauty takes a trip across the pond to bring you complete swatches and a review of MAC's newest, Give Me Liberty of London.

Looking for a great cream eyeliner that won't break the bank? Lipglossiping may have just the thing...

Sophie from melovemakeup talks about how much she loves Trilogy's Everything Balm.

TheLipPrint adds a little more Allure to her life with Chanel.

Michelle at Lipstick Rules laments her Liberty Of London lipstick purchases... but then finds a way to make it work!

Check out the swatches of Yummy Mummy by butter LONDON at Makeup4All.

Lisamarie from Beauty Crazed falls in love with the 10 year anniverary editions of Lancôme Juicy Tubes!

Follow Jellyminx's step-by-step tutorial for a pinky-coral look for Spring.

Over at Music and Make Up, Jo celebrates her birthday with a purple smokey eye courtesy of MAC's Violet Pigment.

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Beautywoome has a giveaway with Europe's coolest new beauty brand. Win 1 of 10 Ellis Faas Ellis Red lipsticks.

Audrey Dao is giving away $89 worth of Napolean Perdis makeup as part of her 1 year blog anniversary.

Mz More at The Glamorous Gleam is having a giveaway in honor of her 200+ Followers. Check out the goodies galore!

Cindy from Prime Beauty gives you the Golden Ticket to win a Bliss "Best of Bliss Set".

Urban Decay Eyeshadows

I hope you guys have lovely things planned for the weekend. I will probably spend most of the weekend stressing about my other half. He is in Liverpool with 19 of his friends on his stag weekend! They have got all kinds of things planned for him but I just hope they don't end up hurting him! He thinks it's really unfair that his stag do includes being stripped naked and humiliated while my hen weekend will be full of pampering, fine dining and cocktails.ha ha. Us girls are much more civilised! ha ha.

I can remember the first time I ever bought an Urban Decay eyeshadow back in the days when I only ever wore one shade over over my lid. I wore this eyeshadow religiously and the shade in question was Midnight Cowboy...a gorgeous neutral pink toned beige with glitter. Yes, that's right...I risked fallout to rock this lovely eyeshadow. At least now I know to apply it with a guard under my eye! I find that fixes the problem but I must admit that I would only wear this eyeshadow at night now...when tiny glitter particles can't be seen quite so easily!
Maui Wowie is the perfect dense gold shade for my colouring and I just love pairing it with brown shades like MAC's Woodwinked or Satin Taupe to add a bit of depth and definition. It looks fantastic with flicked cat eye liner.

Goddess is a really pretty petrol blue with shimmer. It looks amazing as a crease colour with Urban Decay Strip, a lilac based silver. I especially like this eyeshadow because it is buttery smooth and has no glitter particles so it's easier to apply.

Here are the swatches...

I really need to do a FOTD to show you how these eyeshadows look when applied! Maui Wowie is just divine as you can see from the swatch above!

What are your favourite Urban Decay eyeshadows? Do you have any tricks to avoid fallout?

Random Ramble: If It Ain't Broke...

I had a thought the other day…I was wondering why I continue my search for HG products when a lot of the time, I have already found them and they are nestling in my existing makeup collection. I just can’t seem to help myself from hankering after something EVEN better, something that will transform me and make me feel amazing.
It’s like the old saying “the grass is always greener”. I find a product that meets my needs, works wonderfully and makes me feel good about myself. Then a couple of months down the line, I get bored using the same product all the time. I start looking at new launches and all the pretty packaging and start to wonder what those new products have to offer. So I end up cheating on my HG product! I am a serial HG product cheater! *hangs head in shame*. I can’t help it though, I start to take products for granted and the initial excitement wears off. Then it occurred to me…I have a dysfunctional relationship with my makeup collection! I am always tempted away by shiny new compacts with pretty designs.

But the best thing about this is that after a couple more months, I use my old HG product again and rediscover the magic! I realise how good it is and always was. It’s like rediscovering a great song on your iPod…you can’t believe you ever forgot about it or stopped appreciating how good it was. So I need to change my makeup mantra once and for all…”If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. I’m not promising anything though…I may need therapy or something…

What about you guys? Do you find yourself perpetually searching for products with HG status?

MAC Haul!

I was NOT impressed when I came home to find the DHL man squashing my precious MAC package through the letterbox! I almost snatched it off him! That really annoyed me that he was taking no care whatsoever with my goods...I mean, I have paid a handsome sum for these products and he was haphazardly forcing them through the door! He just said "well, you weren't in...so what was I supposed to do?"...eh, deliver it to a neighbour...leave a card! What an idiot! Ok, grumble over...but if he had shattered any of the products, I would definitely have been making a complaint!

Ok...I'm back in my happy place now...here are my goodies... I had a real urge to splurge so I got:

E/s in Crystal, Mulch, Honey Lust, Shimmermoss & Gesso
Lipstick in Pretty Please
Lipglass in Pink Lemonade
Penultimate Eye Liner
Moisturecover Concealer in NW20
Fluidline in Blitz & Glitz
Cremesheen Glass in Fashion Scoop
Lip Pencil in Naked Line
Paint Pot in Soft Ocre
I had wanted to get Gesso ever since I saw the amazing look that Alpha Blonde a.k.a. Aleksis created with Parfait Amour e/s. I can't wait to play with it now! Everyone talks about Mulch being a gorgeous brown and it really is. I wanted to get Crystal to complete my purples collection...it will be a great base for a purple smokey eye!

Shimmermoss has always appealed to me. It's just such a lovely colour and I think Gesso could also be used with this to create a really interesting look for summer! Honey Lust just looked so pretty on some of the swatches that I had seen...it would be rude not to get it!

I looooove the Fashion Scoop Cremesheen, it's such a pretty baby pink colour and a perfect gloss to go over Pretty Please. I really like the consistency of these, they really do live up to their name! I may have to get a back up because I just know this will end up being a fave of mine. The Pink Lemonade Lipglass was alot brighter than I anticipated but I love it all the same. It will be gorgeous in the summer months worn with Honey Lust eyeshadow and golden skin.

Pretty Please is a lovely subtle glaze of a lipstick, just a touch of girly pink. It's another lipstick that can only be applied to really smooth lips though. Better get the lip scrub out again! I have wanted to try a MAC lipliner for a long time to see how they compare to my fave Estee Lauder ones. I really like the super natural colour of Naked and it will be perfect for accentuating my pout without looking too obvious.

Since I love Fluidline in Blacktrack so much, I have been coveting it's disco cousin...Blitz and Glitz! It is shot with gold pearl so it will be perfect for nights out on the town when I want a bit of extra glamour. I just HAD to pick up another Penultimate Eye Liner as it's just the easiest way to create neat flicks at 6:30am in the morning. A couple of my friends have tried it and love it too. I always think it's great for beginners.

I had seen Kandee The Makeup Artist talking about how Soft Ocre is the best Paint Pot to buy, rather than Painterly as Soft Ocre is yellow based and is better for covering up redness on the eyelids and just brightening the eye area overall. I guess this makes sense since Painterly is more pink based. I will be trying this out soon to test the theory! I have heard so many people raving about Moisturecover Concealer that I finally caved in and got it. A review will follow in the coming days!

I always get so excited when I know I'm getting a MAC package in the post! Let's hope that next time the DHL guy refrains from trying to crush all my lovely products!

Have you experienced anything like this before?

LE Sleek Bohemian palette and my new pet!

Sleek sent me their new i-Divine palette to try...I didn't even know they were releasing a new one! Sleek say that the palette is inspired by antique trinkets, vintage finds and Sienna Miller. The exterior packaging looks very tempting... And I was surprised to see that they have broken the trend of black packaging...

I must admit that there are scary colours here that I know I will never use (yellow and green...would NOT look good on me!) but I was very intrigued by the taupe, bronze and cranberry metallic shades on the left hand side...

I've noticed in the past that the lighter metallic shades are always more pigmented than the lighter matte ones. Here's comes the swatch....

This limited edition palette launches on 17th March and willbe priced at the usual £4.99.

AND as promised, here are some pics of my our new hamster...Wolverine! We named him that because his black stripes reminded us of Wolverine from X-Men and his big side burns. hee hee. He is a long haired Syrian and the cutest little guy ever! We got him last Thursday and after I got over the nagging thought that hamsters are only for 11 year olds, I am really enjoying having him around. He is very entertaining!

We had wanted a pet for ages and since our apartment is too small for a cat or a dog, we decided we could get a hamster until we get a bigger place. Chris has totally taken to him and can't help but check in with him every time he passes the cage! I must admit, it's so cute to see him fretting over Wolverine and being so caring towards him.