lush ultrabland cleanser

Sorry it's been a while guys, I've been getting into the Christmas spirit!

It didn't stop me popping into my local Lush store and trying out Ultrabland, a product I've heard so much about, I know plenty of people who swear by it!
As I wasn't completely sure if it would be the same on my skin, I got myself a sample to try out. This product is officially top of my Christmas list. I LOVE it.

"A rich, soft, oily, cleansing cream that cares gently for all skin types. Softens the skin whilst thoroughly cleaning it - this product is super effective at its job"

I was incredibly surprised at the feel of it, you could definitely feel the beeswax as soon as you touching it. It spreads onto your face gorgeously, it feels thick, waxy, and like it's going to do an amazing job. There's no scent to it which I'm happy about, I expected it to smell very floral seeing as one of it's main ingredients is Rose Water!
I tend to use this when I'm in the shower. I'll firstly exfoliate, which can often leave my skin feeling a little stripped and dry. I'll then apply a thin layer of this and leave it on for a couple of minutes. To remove it, I use a muslin cloth and wipe it off in outward motions. You cannot even imagine how soft my skin feels afterwards! It almost feels velvety, it's just amazing.
It's very good at soothing my red cheeks. I have redness on both cheeks, but this soothes it and clears it.

I couldn't recommend this more.

Sorry it's only short, Christmas presents need to be wrapped! Take care everyone, the weather is turning!


ALSO, DON'T FORGET TO KEEP AN EYE OPEN FOR MY GIVEAWAY! 
I'll be hosting it when I hit 50 followers so look out! 

NOTD: dusky mauve

Second post today you lucky people! I just wanted to show you today's chosen shade.

My nails are still a lot shorter than what I prefer, but I really wanted to find out what you guys think of this colour?! Ever since I got it, I've been loving and hating it. It's actually a bit lighter than pictured, but I really wanted to get the purple sheen in the bottle. This varnish is two-toned, violet and mauve, like the Metal Rush ones from Rimmel except it's not so noticable. Fair enough, it's not full of glitter and shimmer like this season is loving, but I love the violet shine which I think will be gorgeous this season.

What do you think? Do you love or hate this?

FOTN: feline flick, dark lip

First off, sorry for the awful images, The lighting is awful, so it's hardly a decent representation of how I looked last night, but hey ho, I'm sure you get the jist! Links to the products are below.

No7 Powder Translucent

MUA Blush Shade 3

MUA Powder

Stay Matte

Avon Arabian Glow Bronzer

One by One Mascara

ScandalEyes Mascara

Fix and Perfect Primer

FaceFinity Foundation

Match Perfection Foundation

Maybelline Gel Liner

Rimmel Eyebrow Pencil

No7 Amazing Eyes

Kate Moss Matte 107

Well, that's a lot of products, it seems! Let me explain myself.

As for the two foundations, I love the smooth finish that Match Perfection gives me, it smooths out my skin. The only problem is that the shade is a little too dark for me, and it doesn't have a full enough coverage for me, I need my red nose to be masked in this weather! So on top of that, I used my fail safe FaceFinity foundation which corrected the shade and masked any blemishes I had. I know what you're thinking, why not use FaceFinity on it's own? It doesn't seem to go on as well on it's own, and if I use a little too much it can look cakey, but with both foundations it create a smooth, natural base. Lovely!

I also used 3 powder, crikey! I used MUA on my cheeks, but only a tiny bit because I still wanted a slightly dewy look, but it was important to set my foundation. I used Stay Matte on my nose, chin and forehead, basically to keep my oily t-zone at bay. I think this powder is perfect for that. I used No7 more as a highlighter than anything. I used it on top of my cheekbones and under my eyes slightly. I also put it just under where I had contoured just to make it look a little more prominent. 

Avon's Arabian Glow is not perfect for contouring, it's shimmery and goldish. More of a bronzer for holidays. But for now, I don't have anything else! It does the job, and if I blend it in well with my blush, it looks so much better! I put a small amount of bronzer under my cheek bones, where when you suck your cheeks in you naturally get a shadow. I'll also brush it up towards my cheek bones and down to my jaw to give it a more natural finish.

I used to love Rimmel's eyebrow pencil, I use  Dark Brown, but I recently noticed the red undertones that it has, which frankly, looks weird. It also makes it difficult to wear certain eyeshadows. Such a mare. So I used my No7 Amazing Eyes eyeliner. I used to use this all the time on my brows as it's a really good shade, no red, but it's pretty much ran out, and they don't sell this anymore, well, they've rebranded it, it now comes with a smudger on the end. So yeah, I used this one last night to make it a nicer shade. I just used Rimmel to get the shape as I love the pencil for this, it's very precise. 

This lipstick is very on trend right now with the deep berry tones, and I thought it was perfect to go with my feline flick, very classy! Especially when I wore a casual dress, black boots and a blazer which I customised with studs. 

Well, that was a longer post than I imagined, but it's been a while since I've done one of these!

I also got some very exciting news last night. I got an unconditional acceptance to study Public Relations at University! I got the email at 00:15 which was a ridiculous time, but how exciting! Just wanted to share the news with you guys :).

So what do you think to my make up look? What would you have done similar/different? Do you have any eyebrow sets/pencils that you love? Let me know below, I love hearing what you guys have to say.

I'm thinking of doing a giveaway when I hit 50 followers, so keep an eye out everyone, and take care.

fashion vouchers christmas party outfit competition

Dress

Shoes

Clutch

Necklace

Over at Fashion Vouchers, they're doing a Christmas Party Outfit Blogger Challenge.
The aim of it is to find the perfect outfit for under £100 and be in for a chance to win your own £100 voucher! Sounds simple enough, right? Find out more here.
I chose missguided.co.uk as they do on-trend, affordable fashion. What more can you want?

If I had this outfit, it would be my go-to for my upcoming Christmas parties!

I'm loving velvet right now, I literally cannot take off my velvet leggings, absolute baaaabes. Not only are they on trend, but they're warm!

It's important to look amazing on your night out but you don't want to be red and goosebumpy too, so with this long sleeved velvet dress you're going to be dressed up to the nines and warm. Burgundy is well on trend this season, so be sure to grab this shade. Mixed with these Jeffery Campbell dupes, your feet are not going to freeze off, but look hot with the stud detail on the heel! (That was so cheesy, but so worth it.)
This necklace will compliment the shoes perfectly, but being only silver and simple, it won't look too in your face.
A simple black and silver clutch won't draw attention from your outfit, but will fit all the essentials in nicely.


This whole outfit comes to an affordable £95.96.

What do you think about this outfit? To find out more about the competition, maybe enter it yourself, click here and have a read, see if it's for you!

This is my first ever outfit post, I do hope you've enjoyed it!

Take care.

h&m antique gold nail polish

First off IGNORE MY GRIMY NAILS. I'm so embarrassed to have them cut so short and ugly, but they were so brittle I thought I best cut them down now and have fresh, (hopefully) nice nails ready for Christmas.

When I nipped into h&m today, not planning on buying anything, I saw their amazing sale, especially on jewellery, then I saw these gorgeous varnishes on top of the stand and I HAD to buy this shade. In the photo, it looks, well, gold, but really it has a lovely pine green tinge to it which is what sold me! It's very shimmery, which fits perfectly for this season. Unlike most shimmer varnishes I own, you can't feel the glitter at all, the finish is incredibly smooth rather than bitty like I find with Barry M shimmers, so much so that I don't feel it needs a top coat which is brilliant because I've ran out!
It's quite thin, I used three layers to get the opaque finish I wanted, but maybe this means it will take longer to go gloopy? You could definitely get away with only two layers though.

Pair these nails with your LBD and neutral lipstick and you've got a perfect Christmas party outfit. I'm definitely going to plan my festive outfits around this shade because I can't get over how pretty it is, especially on longer, non-ugly nails like mine hahaha!

What do you guys think to this colour? Do you have any favourites at the moment?
I'd love to get talking to you guys so feel free to comment, it makes my day!


Take care everyone, and wrap up warm!

my third leibster award? I must be doing something right!

Hello you lovely people! I have been nominated for my third leibster award. I'm so happy about this, and really surprised considering my blogging has certainly gone down hill these last couple of weeks! The lovely Toni at Hearts, Roses & Polka Dots nominated me this time. You have to check out her blog, she's such a nice person and introduced me to my first bbloggers chat on Twitter last weekend. 

Anyway, I'm rambling again, on to the award. Here are the rules:

1. Post 11 Random Facts About Yourself

2. Answer the 11 Questions Asked by Your Nominator

3. Create 11 Questions for Whoever You Choose to Nominate

4. Choose 11 Blogs to Nominate With Less Than 200 Followers

11 facts about me, who'd want to hear those?!

1. It's mine and my boyfriends 11 month anniversary today!

2. I'm ridiculously excited for Christmas, more than I ever have been.

3. I'm loving this cold weather, just another reason to dress down.

4. MaxFactor tweeted me replying to one of my blog posts. I'm sure you can imagine my face!

5. I sent my UCAS application off yesterday.

6. I've applied for Public Relations, exciting!

7. I love Star Wars.

8. I've just had a big delivery from the Avon which I am SO excited to try out!

9. I've written my Christmas list out at least 8 times.

10. I've not cuddled my cat all day, definite withdrawal symptoms.

11. I can't wait to wrap presents up after doing this.

My 11 questions from Toni: 

1. What sort of blog posts do you enjoy the most? I love reviews of products and beauty wishlists!

2. What beauty product is your fail safe item? Oooooh this is a tough one :( I guess Rimmel Stay Matte powder, you can't go wrong with the price and quality.

3. Which is your favourite beauty brand? I think Maybelline, Not all of the products are amazing, I definitely have better foundations and mascaras, but I like all of their products... I hope that makes sense!

4. Which is your favourite fashion brand? Eeeerm, H&M probably, as I don't have a job, the price and quality from here is decent, they do have some amazing items though.

5. Where in the World would you like to live? I love living in England and Sheffield to be honest. I think I might want to live in/closer to London though :)

6. What is your favourite part about yourself? No negatives here please ladies! eeerrm hahaha, I like my eyebrows, and I guess my lips, they don't have a gorgeous shape and aren't as plump as I'd love, but they never get dry or cracked :)

7. Who is your all time favourite band/artist? I literally cannot answer this! My music taste is constantly all over the place, it changes every other month.

8. Who inspires you? There's a popular blogger called Lily Pebbles, she's literally my idol at the moment. That seems so silly, but I don't know, I am! 

9. Who are your top 3 fellow bloggers? I couldn't choose three, sorry! 

10. What is your favourite food? Mexicaaann! Love a good taco mmmm :)

11. If you could be an animal, what would you be and why? CAT. Because cats are amazing. 

My 11 questions to YOU:

1. Most importantly, how are you today?

2. What's your biggest accomplishment/what are you most proud of?

3. If someone asked you to give them a random piece of advice, what would it be?

4. If you could learn one random skill, what would it be?

5. If your life was made into a movie, who would you want to play you?

6. Would you recommend blogging to others? Why/Why not?

7. What do you think people think of you?

8. What's top of  your Christmas list?

9. What would you rather be doing now?

10. All time favourite movie?

11. If you were stuck on a desert island with 5 people/celebrities, who would you choose? 

Tales of a Pale Face

Obsessive Compulsive Beauty

Coleoftheball

Enhance your Natural Beauty for Less

Just Me

Hope, Freedom & Love

Bamblings of Naffy

Love.Life.and Makeup

Ooh La London

CreoqueKim

One Way Beauty

I've said it time and time again, thank you for paying attention to my blog! I really appreciate it, I hope I never let you down! Is there anything you prefer seeing? Let me know.

If I've tagged you in this, give it a go and link me to it, I'd love to give it a read :)

Take care, guys!