EPIC ASOS Spring 2014 HAUL!

I am not proud, but not ashamed enough to not put this up on the itnernet for everyone to see.
But there was a huge hiccup in my brain, and essentially I just stole money from myself, threw it at the internet and lots of beautiful dresses, trousers and jumpers popped out at me. It was quite magical really.

The 8 minutes and 55 seconds are well justified, I manage to cram a lot in!

Just in case you see anything that you just love and have to have it for yourself, here are the links to aaaaalll ASOS goodies in order!- snap 'em up before they're gone!

Pink Crop Trousers: http://www.asos.com//Asos/Asos-Crop-Trousers/Prod/pgeproduct.aspx?iid=2796761

Floral Jacquard Trousers: http://www.asos.com//ASOS/ASOS-Trousers-in-Floral-Jacquard/Prod/pgeproduct.aspx?iid=2798998

Lipsy Strapless Black Dress: http://www.asos.com//Lipsy/Lipsy-Plunge-Neck-Bandeau-Mini-Dress-With-Frill-Hem/Prod/pgeproduct.aspx?iid=2979831

Black Dress with Laddered Back: http://www.asos.com//Motel/Motel-A-Line-Dress-With-Laddered-Back/Prod/pgeproduct.aspx?iid=3117422

Floral Long Sleeved Dress: http://www.asos.com//ASOS/ASOS-Skater-Dress-With-Button-Through-In-Floral-With-Long-Sleeves/Prod/pgeproduct.aspx?iid=3386637

Denim and Rose Print Strappy Sundress: http://www.asos.com//Asos/Asos-Strappy-Back-Sundress-In-Rose-Spot-Print/Prod/pgeproduct.aspx?iid=3019602

Really Boring Pencil Skirt: http://www.asos.com//Asos/Asos-Belted-Pencil-Skirt/Prod/pgeproduct.aspx?iid=2470474

Blue Shirt with Pink Lace Heart: http://www.asos.com//Love/Love-Shirt-With-Lace-Heart-Back-Detail/Prod/pgeproduct.aspx?iid=3476042

Colour Block Dress Navy/Burgundy: http://www.asos.com//Closet/Closet-Colourblock-Dress-With-Fluted-Hem/Prod/pgeproduct.aspx?iid=3256132

Black Skirt with Peplum hem: http://www.asos.com//ASOS/ASOS-Mini-Skirt-With-Peplum-Hem-in-Ponte/Prod/pgeproduct.aspx?iid=3505075

Teddy Bear Coat: http://www.asos.com//Asos/Asos-Longline-Teddy-Faux-Fur-Coat/Prod/pgeproduct.aspx?iid=3138163

Champagne and Navy Embellished Dress: http://www.asos.com//Little-Mistress/Little-Mistress-Shift-Dress-with-Embellished-Shoulders/Prod/pgeproduct.aspx?iid=3117514

Black Peplum skirt (That is a little on the crazy side) http://www.asos.com//ASOS/ASOS-Scuba-Peplum-Hem-Mini-Skirt/Prod/pgeproduct.aspx?iid=3597308

Polka dot strappy top: http://www.asos.com//ASOS/ASOS-Swing-Cami-Top-with-Spot-Print/Prod/pgeproduct.aspx?iid=3480683

Lilac scallop edge shorts: http://www.asos.com//Asos/Asos-Shorts-With-Scallop-Hem/Prod/pgeproduct.aspx?iid=3492576

Fruit Tee: http://www.asos.com//Asos/Beach-London-For-Asos-Thomas-Slater-Fruits-T-Shirt/Prod/pgeproduct.aspx?iid=3349371

How to: Flawless Makeup Base for Acne and blemishes

If you are on the ball, which I know that you are otherwise why else would you be here?
You may have seen my 'Flawless Makeup base for Acne' tutorial - Say that 5 times fast

I skipped the eye makeup filming as you've seen a lot of the same before. It's a funny thing, when I started implementing a skin primer into my routine I didn't ever really notice a difference, it's not until I accidentally forget it that I notice my foundation just does not sit right and my blemishes just look more gross, more bulbous and more hideous than they ever have done, so if you learn nothing from this video it is that Primers should not be underestimated!

Just because everyone likes pictures, here is a little before and after for you:

Magical transformation...
All attempts at sophistication fall flat once you stray away from the forefront to the cartoon filled background... yes Mr Men bed sheets, Hello Kitty Posters...

Pretty in Pink Makeup Tutorial Urban Decay Naked Palette 3

It's such a myth that pink eye shadows are tricky to wear, paired with the right colours and the right amount of blending it is such a gem to have in your arsenal!

This is my most recent look using pinks as a base

A little mini breakdown of what happened is as follows:
1.Eyeshadow base
2. Apply a matte white shade all over the lid
3. Apply a bronze pigment around the outer eye and the outer half of the crease
4. Apply a mild baby matte pink on the middle part of the eye
5. Run a white eyeshadow pencil along the inner corner of the eyes and blend with your finger
6. Apply the matte white shadow on the brow bone
7. Run a white eyeliner along the waterline
8. Use a brown gel liner along the upper lash line and the outer third of the lower lash line
9. Apply mascara
10. A slick of cute pink gloss

You are done!

If you are looking for a little more detail, and 3 and a half minutes - or so of fun, watch the tutorial here!

 

Peaches and Clean Soap and Glory Review

I've just finished up using my Nelsons natural face wash. While it's just perfect for my oily skin, the scent is so medicinal despite it being 100% natural that I felt like treating myself to something that would make my nose sing in the morning with the delicious fragrance of my face wash. - Perhaps I take my face washing too seriously...

The answer to what I was looking for came in a beautiful, peach scented creamy face wash from Soap and Glory.
It's name?
Peaches and Clean, their products always have the best names!
It definitely smells like peaches, but perhaps artificial peaches, my initial reaction to smelling this was that it smells like Archers and Lemonade, you know that beautiful sweet drink that kind of tastes like something you had when you were a child? Archers and Lemonade is definitely not for children though, incase you don't know what it is...

As for the cream aspect? It certainly is creamy. I am an oily skinned girl and always have been, but as it is winter time and I felt like giving my skin a bit of TLC I decided to take a break from the gels and foams I normally use. This is lovely and creamy in texture but not too rich, it's certainly appropriate for daily use, and I do, twice daily in fact.
It does not leave my skin with an oily residue like other creamy washes and the smell (Did I mention the smell yet?)
It's sensational, believe me.

 Although
If you like a face wash with a good lather behind it (think bubbles and foam galore) then this is not the face wash for you, one thing that this does not do is lather up, it stays transparent to your face and has the texture of rubbing in a moisturiser, except you wash it off after.

A possible drawback of Peaches and Clean is that I may exfoliate my face more often, I get concerned about long term clogging of pores if a face wash doesn't feel like it is stripping my skin of every natural oil each time I use it. Perhaps that is just me.

I got this from Boots online, I can not for the life of me see it in their stores and it cost £5.33!

This face wash is in a huge pump bottle, it's going to take me a long time to get through this, and who knows? Perhaps I'll be sick of the scent by then

But I doubt it!

As seen on TV JML Magic Minerals - Jerome Alexander

As seen on TV products, they are always entertaining to watch.
I saw the JML Magic minerals and remember thinking that it was just too good to be true and with those type of things, if it looks too good to be true it probably is, and this product was just no different.

The Magic Minerals are essentially a pressed powder with flecks of colour in the pigmentation that claim to do all kinds of magic things such as:

❥ Conceal redness
❥Correct hyper pigmentation
❥Cover blemishes
❥Hide dark circles

The verdict is...
Well I don't want to spoil the ending for you, so I will ink the video below, but if you can't face wathcing it, skip along to the end where I'll so a quick summary for you

So, what is it all about?
The long and short of the situation is that it is a medium coverage pressed powder, similar to any other pressed powder on the market. The flecks of colour I do not believe truly impact how the product looks on your skin, but are there as an aesthetic feature, save yourself the fuss and buy any other pressed powder that you can get in stores and try for yourself before you buy.

Pros:
❥ The packaging is good, a sturdy compact with a generous sized mirror
❥ There is some element of coverage, but not a great amount

Cons:
❥Smells cheap, like out of date makeup or toy makeup from little kits when you were maybe 8 years old
❥Needs a lot of work to layer up over and over which leaves a powdery finish on the skin and a 'caked' feel
❥Nothing different about it to any other pressed powder

❥Not suitable for all skin tones, I'm always 'ivory' on the foundation spectrum and this I can just about get away with for my skin tone but it does have a slightly yellow finish.

Urban Decay Black Market Eyeliners

An easy way to brighten up and change out the regular eye look that you wear day in, day out is to consider changing your default colour of eyeliner for something else.

Cobalt blue water lines may frighten you a little, but changing a classic black for a maple syrup brown that brings out the warmth in your eyes, 

or for a steel grey to soften the look, 

an inky blue to contrast with brown eyes 

or a khaki green to created subtle twist on a brown neutral eyeshadow

So.. I'm sure that you can tell where I'm going with this, I highly recommend eye colours, lots of them, the more the merrier because it's a great way to change everything without really having to do anything different.

I already have a supply of browns, bronzes, blacks,whites and greys but none Urban Decay and I had heard terrific things about the staying power of UDs so when I saw a set of Black Market liners travel size in a variety of colours I just couldn't resist.

Here is the 411 with swatches, names and up close and personals.

From left to right:
Apathy - Glittery grassy green

Riot- Aubergine purple

West- Bronzey brown

Ink- Deep blue

Black Market- Satin black

Desperation - Steely gray

 

The consistency of these liners is second to none, beautiful and creamy without smudging, pigmented without movingout of place. These eyeliners are life proof, these swatches did not come off until I got into the shower and then I had to scrub and basically exfoliate my skin off to get rid of the pigment.

But I did notice that as the swatches wore on, one eyeliner became indistguinishable from the other as far as colour is concerned, they all began to look like various shades of grey.

I jsut want to point out at this point that this was a travel set, so they are considerably smaller than your regular eyeliner:

 
Aaaaand, they do not have a 'twist up' function, so once that nib is gone, it is goooone. Not a whole lot of product for your buck

 

I got mine from Beauty Bay for £18.20, 25% off! Yippee!

Simple & Elegant Valentines Day Makeup Tutorial

Smokey eyes and glitter eyeliner are not always the best route to get the love of your life to swoon for you first thing in the morning, but here I present to you the effortless, simple Valentines day look- it's beautiful and neutral and easily dupe-able whether you have the Naked 1 palette or not!
It takes you from day to night without looking over the top for a light lunch, a picnic, the cinema or a late dinner without looking either overdressed or underdressed.
It's low maintenance in terms of upkeep because of the neutral lips!
(Also no one likes sticky lipgloss kisses...)

Nyx Jumbo Eyeshadow Pencil Milk Review - is it worth the hype?

Like lots of impulse purchases, I justify it by saying to myself that a lot of other people have said great things about it and told me, me personally (through the internet screen) that I need it and that it will change everything about how I apply my makeup.

I believed that the NYX jumbo pencil really was the missing piece to my makeup bag that would actually enhance every eyeshadow that I had ever purchased by providing such a pure white canvas to show the true vibrancy of every eyeshadow.

This is half true.

I find application of the NYXjumbo pencil in milk a little clumsy, it is a true white no doubt, but it simulates putting tippex on your eyelid and is tricky to get neat as the pencil sort of tugs at the eyelid:

When I try and smooth out the scruffy edges with my fingers to make my tippex eye look less ridiculous, the colour is dilutes by the blending to a milky grey with my skin peeping through:

and if I try to go over it again with the pencil then I have the scruffy edges and go through the whole blendy-to-no-avail process over and over again.

Next, the texture of it when I apply it is kind of tacky, not smooth and matte feeling at all, I expected it to be like Mac paint pots but in a pencil form, I know the the prices between these products are not comparable but I had my expectations because of the amount people went on about this product. The tacky-ness also equals creasing so I would recommend to use a good quality primer or base below the pencil rather than depending on the pencil by itself to avoid creasing mishaps.

Does the pencil make my shadows look brighter and bolder... No. Not enough for me to notice or to persuade me to repurchase the pencil.

Over to you:

Guess which picture (A) or (B) I am wearing just the Milk Jumbo Eyeshadow pencil in as a base, and the other one I am wearing absolutely no base, just eyeshadow
I will tell you which is which at the end!
N.B These photos have only been cropped and labelled, absolutely no effects have been put on them whatsoever!

 I wonder if this is down to one of two things:
1. The base that I having been using to this point 'Painterly' by Mac already does a really good job that using the shadow pencil I do not notice a difference

or

2. The eyeshadows that I use are already of a pretty high quality and pigmentation so to use the shadow pencil would be better suited to colours that do not have a great pay off.
-My issue with this is: If an eyeshadow does not have a good colour pay off then I get into the habit of not reaching for it before throwing it or giving to someone who wants it. I don't like to work hard to get an eyeshadow formula to work with the building, building and building up of colour pigmentation but I do see how the Jumbo eyeshadow pencil could make this whole process easier if you have a lot of drugstore eyeshadows, or a lot of large palettes that tend to neglect pigmentation in the sheer volume of colours.

That's my 2 cents on the pencil, and in my opinion, I'd save your 2 cents for something better.

Answer:
Picture (A) I am wearing the Milk Jumbo Eyshadow Pencil
Picture (B) I am wearing no base of any kind, just eyeshadow

Summer Dress Daisy Daze

It's not even a little bit sunny, it's nearly 3pm and I am wearing normal clothes with a dressing own wrapped around me, sat under my duvet, the only horrible thing is having to have my fingers out to type as they always get chilly.
Nonetheless, I love browsing for clothes for a sunnier day, my winter wardrobe is comprehensive and full but my summer wardrobe lacks choice, which is to be expected given the proportion of time in the year that it is appropriate to wear summer clothes versus winter. A little dress caught my eye with its enchanting daisy print and a cute soft white tshirt underneth.

I saw it and it immediately reminded me of Miss Honey from Matilda (the film not the book) as I was certain that she wore something similar with a tshirt underneath a strappy swing dress, but I couldn't find it on Google images so perhaps that was just my imagination.

But it does have that kind of cool, American vibe to it, I think.
I picked the dress up, and put it back, a week later I was still thinking about it, considered ordering it online but was put off by the high postage costs before eventually seeing it in store again and ceasing the daisy day!!!

Now all I need is a wink of sunshine so that I can try it out!

Full Face coverage - Before and After

It's true, all foundations are not made equal, and it's even more true that you do get what you pay for. If I had to suggest one area to 'splurge' in your makeup bag over all the others- I would hands down say go in big on your foundation and loosen the purse strings a little. Eyeliners and blushes, lipsticks and mascara are very tricky to distinguish the £6 from the £16 or the £26! But the foundation is the foundation for your makeup, your face and your look. The foundation is out under the most pressure and has the toughest job to do, create a seamless, flawless natural looking canvas that can withstand it all. Cheap foundations, like the cheap foundation on a house, may look okay at first but the first sign of a grey cloud it crumbles and melts away.

I have dabbled back and fourth with all sorts of foundation and concealer combinations but often return to the Revlon Colorstay in the oily combination skin formula and the Mac Studio Sculpt concealer.
However, not wanting to miss out on anything better out there I am currently using:

Mac Studio Fix Fluid in NC15

Kryolan Dermacolor Wheel Rainbow Circle

The proof, as they say, is in the pudding, and this is the completely unedited, as-it-is, result that this little combination gives me!

The foundation I have gone back and fourth with, it's full coverage with a matte finish and I wear shade NC15 to even out my complexion, with the Kryolan colour wheel I use all of them, mostly a combination of the two palest colours for under my eyes and the rest I darken according to the contours of my face. The formula of the concealers are almost on the dry side as they are very thick, and feel like face paint. Although on the skin they do not look cakey like you might imagine face to paint to look, but it is the fullest coverage that I have ever gotten from a concealer and super resiliant to wear.

Sometimes straying from what you're used to is a good thing!