Paul and Joe Beaute - first taste (Haul)

I've never before bought Paul and Joe beauty products before, I've always wanted to but as it's only available online (no reliable swatches etc) I've restrained. After noticing a few items in the ASOS beauty sale I just couldn't help myself!

It's all so pretty! Of the 3 things I bought, only one item was full priced and (as far as I'm aware) everything is limited edition!

I bought:

• L/E lipstick "Uptown Girl" £15 (Reminds me of that cheesy song!!)
• Nail polish trio - £8.75 
• Bronzer "001" - Not sure how much I paid for this but I think it was around £13

Sorry that the pictures aren't all aligned! I'll be reviewing the things I bought soon, but I can say that so far I'm very impressed!

Oh I do love a bit of Chanel!

I thought I showed a little restraint walking past the Chanel counter before work, until I turned around and bought this beauty that is...

Are you excited to see what I picked up? I shall let you wonder for a little longer whilst I just talk about the packaging.

It's very much something that attracts finger prints :( The casing is the standard shiny black compact common with all Chanel products, although it does look mirrored in the picture above that was purely the lighting! I also like that it comes in a little dust-pouch which I like, although it's quite useless as I personally don't store my compact in it (too much faffing about) however it add a luxurious touch to the product!

It's so pretty isn't it, want a closer look?

I forked out £37 for this gorgeous "Quadra Eye shadow" in "14 Mystic Eyes" and I can assure you the colours are beautiful! Wanna see swatches?

The pigmentation in this particular quad is quite good, a lot better than others which I swatched at the counter. If you're wondering about lasting power, I created a pretty look with this today (no pictures sorry I was hurrying when getting ready and didn't have time) and although I did use Urban Decay's Primer Potion beneath the shadow has faded a little, though I'm not complaining even though the colour isn't as intense as when originally applied it still looks gorgeous!

I was also given a free sample eye make up remover, I love getting these kind of samples because I have sensitive skin so it's always easy to rule out or even buy certain products after testing the samples on my skin!

I confess, I am a stationary geek! (mostly) Hello Kitty haul!

Nothing motivates me more for another long year of revision and exams than some nice new stationary (for the first week, anyway). So I ended up spending lots of pennies on lots of cute stationary, which I will probably lose during the year but never the less, I do love a bit of stationary shopping!
Wanna see what I bought?

First, I stopped at Ryman's and bought myself a lovely Hello Kitty pencil case and those over-priced coloured fine liners (which were actually in the sale, yay!)

My next stop was paperchase where I bought a lovely notebook for jotting down "to-do" and shopping lists along with 2 pretty pens!

Wanna see the best bit?

Yes, I again (I do this every year) went to the Hello Kitty or Sanrio section in Selfridges and spent an extortionate amount of money on an assortment of things, from the most adorable stapler to some cute bobbles. 

To be honest, I didn't really need half of what I actually bought but I'm a sucker for cute stuff.

Do you have any guilty (or should I say geeky) pleasures? 

A nice surprise from the postman...

Last week I entered a competition held on twitter by Eylure where the first 5 people to tweet a picture of themselves holding the current issue of cosmopolitan (in which you got some s/e eylure lashes) won a goody bag! I was very lucky to be one of the first 5 to do so and was waiting in anticipation for my goody bag to arrive, I wasn't prepared for the contents when it did arrive however.

Wow, I was not expecting so much! I was sent 12 pairs of eyelashes, 1 pack of individual lashes, 1 24 Hr Eyeliner & 1 false lash blending mascara!

I was amazed at how generous the lovely people at Eylure are, I was especially excited because it's my go-to brand for fake eyelashes!

Want a closer look?

I want to say a big thank you to the lovely people at Eylure! 

Revisiting an old favourite

Okay, so you may lose all respect you previously had for me for saying that I used to love this chavtastic product and when I saw it on special offer in boots for just £5.99 (This offer applies to all Bourjois mascaras) I just couldn't help picking it up!

I think it's the packaging of this product which makes me associate it with the word chav, it's not horrible by any means it's just not really my cup of tea! I loved this mascara when it first came out and I thought that wearing bucket loads of eyeliner was the most attractive thing ever (it wasn't, no wonder my mum didn't let me leave the house). 

Anyway, back to the point for some reason I've always had a little soft spot for this mascara mostly because when it comes to lashes I like them to stand out, I'm not one for adding just a little definition I love to accentuate my eyes!

Close up though, this mascara gives my lashes a very "attacked-by-spiders-legs" look:

Excuse the messy application.

Okay, so I have to admit when looking at my lashes closely this mascara doesn't do a good job, and I hate how it makes my bottom lashes look though I must say it's extremely good in the lengthening department!

At a distance though, it looks so good! It volumises (is that even a word?!) my lashes, lengthens them and because I bought Ultra black rather than just black really makes my blue/grey eyes stand out. Lets face it, not many people will be studying my lashes close enough to see my little spider infestation will they?!

To conclude, as I realise this post has been a bit everywhere I do like this mascara however I don't know if it's one I'd use every day as it does give very dramatic results (I hadn't curled my lashes before application and it'd probably look nicer if I had). 

What do you think? Bigger is better?

Boring Beauty Blogger in need of your advice!

Ok, so recently I've been stuck in a bit of a beauty rut. Regardless of how much new make up I buy and how much money I spend I always go for the same look - I am in no way adventurous - I'll illustrate this with a very boring "everyday" FOTD.

As you can see I just tend to go for very natural looks, with subtle eye make up and a simple lip colour (I'm wearing MAC's shy girl which is real life isn't the orange-y tone translated in the picture).

I need your help, apart from a bit of dark eye make up when I'm feeling brave I'm so boring when it comes to applying make up! I'd love some suggestions of how I can "jazz up" my look and become a little more adventurous - I do own some very Barbie pink lip shades whoch I'll whip out occasionally but apart from that I am very much a colour phobe!

July Favourites

I've put off this months favourite's post because normally I have a ton of products to show you all, this month however I've pretty much been using the same stuff I do however have a teeny tiny collection of favourites.

First up, although you wouldn't be able to tell as all of the writing has rubbed off, it is Sleek's Luminaire concealer I use the shade "L01" when I first used this I wasn't much of a lover, it was thick and gloopy and stopped working for a while but then ta-daa it began to work and I've been using it ever since. I find it hard to blend in the concealer with the brush attached but it's the only bad thing I can think of about this product and something which is easily fixed by just using a concealer brush!

Next is my MAC Mineralize Skin Finish Natural in Light, I really like this it's a lightweight powder which I use to set my liquid foundation, it gives my face a lovely finish and gets rid of the few shiny bits I get and doesn't even make my skin look dry and flaky, woo!

Recently because I am in desperate need of getting my eyebrows done I have been using Elf's eyebrow kit from the studio line, to disguise my horrible eyebrows! I bought this a loooong(!) time ago and use it very regularly and it's not even nearly been used up, you can't even see a smidgen of "pan". This was £3.50 and is nice and compact with a useless little mirror and a decent double-ended brush. Even though I'm blonde my eyebrow kit is in "Medium" because I have naturally quite dark eyebrows, however I use this kit very, very lightly with a heavy hand this might not look so hot!

Surprise Surprise!! Soleil Tan de Chanel, I am loving this. Having had my first ever experience with a spray tan my base make up was way too light for my sunkissed skin ;) so this has been lovely both when I'm at my usual paleness and when tanned - I love how it makes my skin look. I completely recommend this beauty it's become one of my most favourite things ever!

QVS Duo Fibre Brush, I love this. It was only around £8 and I love it, so far I've experience no shedding. I've used this both for foundation and my Chanel cream bronzer (above), I prefer using it with cream products rather than my liquid foundation, I'm going to buy another one of these brushes for my cream blushes!

Finally, the last item I am including in my July favourites was actually a freebie! I got this Nails Inc nail polish in the shade "Copacabana" free after buying two Dove deodorants (which are my favourites anyway) and since getting it I've worn this nail colour non-stop. It's a beautiful coral colour, unlike anything else in my collection and I love it!

(larger than average) MAC Haul

So, I recently did a bit of hauling MAC being my brand of choice at the moment - not sure why but I proceeded to spend lots of money on what looks like very little.
I've had a little wishlist of things and decided to start ticking things off it recently, I actually thought I'd bought tons and tons of stuff but when I gathered everything together to show you I realised that I actually had very little to show for my money!
Most of this was bought from a MAC counter however some was ordered off the internet (one item was not available at the counter and the other I just forget when reeling off my list to the MA).

The first thing I picked up was the "Pro Palette Eye Shadow x15" which I'd wanted for a while, I love the idea of building my own custom palette.

I also bought 2 eye shadows to go in my palette the infamous "all that glitters" and also "woodwinked" both of which I love! 

A closer look:

(L-R) Woodwinked, All that glitters. 

I also bought 2 lipsticks, the colours don't really translate in the picture but "Shy girl" is a gorgeous peachy nude, a colour which I wasn't sure if I'd like but am loving it so much (as you can see from the picture I've already used it a few times) the formula is cremesheen - my favourite MAC lipstick formula and this shade is fast becoming a favourite too. I also bought my first ever Sheen Supreme lipstick in "Gotta Dash" which is a beautiful coral shade.

I also bought a Cream Colour Base in "Pearl" it's a lovely colour which I use as a highlight, it's extremely pretty and subtle. Also pictured is my first ever paint pot in Rubenesque, it's a gorgeous colour and I am now a paint pot lover and definitely would love to buy some other colours.

Finally I bought MAC's brush cleanser and one of the 2 Cinematics Limited Edition Brush set, I bought the "All over" brush set. I'm also planning on buying the "Face" edition as I think these brushes are so cute! There are also some brush sets in the "packed to go" collection which I might also pick up, I'm still deciding (next pay day obviously)! Of the new collections it's only really the brush sets which have caught my eye so I think I'll be stocking up on them rather than the other products.

So far I'm loving everything which I bought however I will post individual reviews of these products, which is why I haven't included swatches. Have you hauled recently?