Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween everybody!

I know not everybody enjoys it but I love Halloween and it seems lots of people in the UK are starting to celebrate it as much as American's do which is fab because its such a fun "holiday".

We had our Halloween party on friday night, it wasn't a big one just a small gathering but we got dressed up anyway...

Alice look gorgeous in her Alice in Wonderland dress

I was supposed to be Lady Gaga, I attached a big silver triangle to my dress but it just wouldn't stay put so I ended up having to cut it up and ended up feeling more like Barbie!

Hope you all have a fantastic Halloween whatever you're doing. If you're dressing up what's your outfit?

A little Haul...

Today I have been running round like a mad woman with my mum trying to get everything together for our Halloween party tomorrow night. However, I asked my lovely mum to stop at Superdrug on our way home to grab a Bad Gal palette from Sleek. During my mad dash in there I spotted the Accessorize stand!!

I was so happy (which is pretty sad) as our Superdrug until recently was really rubbish but we acquired the Sleek stand and now Accessorize.

Anyway I decided to just grab two polishes today and I picked up Notorious and Magical Mocha! Hopefully I'll have swatches up for you tomorrow of both. But for now I'll show you the new Sleek palette.

This is a new improved Graphite palette and - good news- its part of the main line. Hoorah! I love my Graphite palette and like to use it whenever I do a smoky eye so I was sort of on the wall about this. However I saw swatches last night on Deborah's blog I decided I did indeed need to purchase it as they have taken out some of the greys (which are all very very similar) and replaced them with greens and indigo blues.

Hello orange hand and sausage fingers!

What's great about this palette is they have decided to name the shades. They're written on the plastic sheet that they place over the shadows which I usually throw away so I'm not sure how long it will be around for before I get fed up and chuck it.

Names of the each are (L-R)

Top Row - Innocence, Gullible, Blade,Gun Metal, Underground,Noir

Bottom Row- Intoxicated, Envy, Obnoxious, Abyss, Twilight, Rebel

I'm unsure of the texture of Underground and Envy, they don't feel as soft and smooth as the usual Sleek shadows. However, this is a lovely palette and one I'm sure I'll get lots of use out of.

Accessorize do Cosmetics...

I was so excited recently to hear Accessorize have released a line of new cosmetics to be sold on their website and in Superdrug stores. I love everything Accessorize sell, they're jewellery is beautiful, well made and affordable so I was pleased to hear they were heading into the world of cosmetics.

Released at the end of September, the new new range consists of five themes to choose from - Rock Star, Exotic Brights, With Love, Illusion and Je t'aime.

Rock Star encourages you to "embrace the edgy, glam-rock look emerging this season with bold eyeliner, dramatic nails, eye catching shades and glittery shadows."

I love the sound of this range for this season, I love a smokey eye and dark nails to see me through autumn to winter! The Rock Star Hot Smudge for £5 looks fantastic.

With Love claims to be "The ultimate handbag beauty buys, boasting a selection of on-trend lip colours and blushes, classic eye shades and baked bronzers to give you an all year-round glow"

I love the sound of the baked bronzer £6, and the blushes £5. They look like good dupes for the MAC Mineralize skinfinishes and blushes. The coral coloured lipstick £5 in the promo image looks amazing and will be one I will definitely be looking out for.

Exotic Brights - "Turn Heads wherever you go with this deliciously daring selection of nail colours, sparkling eye crayons and neon eye dusts"

The pastel nail polishes look gorgeous, for £4 each I think they're great value. I'm also interested to see how the sparkling eye crayons will perform as I've had troubles with eye crayons creasing before. It would be great if they perform well as they're only £3 each!

Illusion - "Luxurious gold packaging and playful glamour makes this collection a dressing table essential. Dreamy hues including dusky pink, purple shimmer and bronze, all with an iridescent beauty, make every day a dress up day"

The first things to catch my eye are those gorgeous iridescent nail polishes, they look like they could be good dupes for the recent polishes from the MAC Venemous Villains release and the Orly FX collection, for £4 they're definitely worth a try.  The baked eye shadows cost only £4.50 and they look beautiful!

JE T'AIME - "Experience love at first sight Je'Taime's smoky eyes and dusky nail shades. Parisian beauty is captured with a selection of pretty pinks, purples and slate grey shades"

I love the look the the taupey-mauve shade at the front, and the slate grey behind it! Again for £4 you really can't go wrong.

I'm really impressed with the thought that's gone into the collections and the ideas behind them. The packaging doesn't look cheap and would appeal to all markets. The price range makes it affordable for everyone with the most expensive item being the primer for £9 and the eyeshadow palette's for £8.

I can't wait to try it, what are your thoughts on the collection?

Bourjois Bio Detox Foundation..

Recently Bourjois released a new Organic foundation that claims to "even out the complexion, minimize pores and conceal imperfections". One of the ingredients of Bio Detox is chlorophyll from plants which gives oxygen and filters polution which should leave your skin pure and fresh.

Picture taken from Bourjois website.

They say its non-pore blocking, oil free and anti-shine....

I used this on friday, the smell of it when it comes out is cucumber which isn't too unpleasant. It was quite hard to apply and found it difficult to blend, the coverage is full coverage as Bourjois say. It left my skin looking very matte, I didn't use any concealer and set it with my usual MSF Natural and applied some San Tropez Bronzer to put some glow back in my skin!

Well two hours later my face was shine city and I could smell the foundation which had started to smell like old fashioned make up, you know that really perfumed smell? It really made me feel sick and my face felt so horrible and oily. Now, my skin is combination skin and throughout the month it changes at the moment it is a little on the oily side but when I've used my Lasting Perfection foundation or my MAC SFF it's been fine and has stayed put without shinyness. As the day went on it just felt worse, it changed colour and the smell just stuck all day I couldn't wait to wash it off.

There's so many mixed reviews of this foundation, people with normal skin are saying it dries them out, whereas others love it! If you don't want to shell out £7.99 for the foundation, there is a sample inside this month's Elle magazine (which you also get a free Clinique lipgloss with!) I'm glad I didn't buy it as after the first good reviews of it from the girls who went to the Bourjois event, I was really looking forward to trying it but it was dissapointing to say the least.

Cheryl Cole's new hair colour...

I'm sure by now you will have all seen Cheryl Cole's new hair?

But for those of you who may live somewhere without TVs and newspapers (which is highly unlikely if you're reading this post!) then here's a picture

Photo courtesy of Daily Mail

There's been so varying opinions on it but personally I love it! However if you've been following me since the beginning you'll know I loved it last year when she did it and she inspired me to go red. This time I'm glad I went back to red before Cheryl so I don't look like I'm copying here but I love the colour!

I read in The Daily Mail that she used Loreal Casting Creme Gloss in Mahogany, which seems odd for someone with all her money and I'm not sure I believe it but she is the face of Loreal. I've used this colour before a few times and it does give a similar effect. Another similar colour is Loreal Ferria Plum Power which is what I used the last time and its very close in colour to Mahogany.

What do you think?

OPI Barefoot in Barcelona...

I bought this in the ASOS sale last week, usually I don't have much luck with OPI's they can be gloopy and chip within hours on me but with this being only £4 I was willing to give it a try.

I would say its more of a red toned brown but its a really gorgeous colour, it also applied beautifully and no chips! This has been the first OPI I've been impressed with and I'm so glad I bought it - I can see it being a staple in my collection.

A New hair FOTD...

So the tale continues of me and my ever changing hair colour! When I posted my FOTD last week I mentioned how I can't get rid of the gingerish tint to my hair when it was blonde, I tried to do my own roots this week and it was disasterous so I decided to just give up on the blonde and go back to my usual colour. But I was told because of the bleach I had to put on a red dye which I did and used my ever faithful Plum Power by Feria...

I'm a lot happier with it now, the ginger in my hair was driving me mad before and no amount of purple shampoo or Lee Stafford Hot Shots was fixing it enough for me. Now I feel much more wintery and more like myself, I definitely prefer my hair a darker shade.

Now for the FOTD...

MAC Studio Fix Foundation

MAC Studio Sculpt concealer

MAC MSF Natural in Medium

Rimmel Bronzer

MAC Ripe Peach blush

White Rabbit eyeshadow from the Alice in Wonderland BOS all over the lid

The dark silvery colour in the same BOS

Dark grey from Sleek Graphite

Eyeko Graffitti liner in black

Sleek Waterproof Mascara

Collection 2000 lipgloss in Glow

The Future's bright, the future's....Tangerine?

This is Tangerine Queen from Models Own and I was sent this to review by Sam at MAF just before my holiday. I have to admit orange is not a colour I would ever choose for myself so I was very wary when I tried it.

When it's applied, it dries matte rather than shiny this is 2 coats.

Yes its very bright!!!

I have to admit this really isn't for me I don't go for bright colours like this, I'm more drawn to pinks, neutrals and dark colours - I'm very much a boring lass!

However, I can imagine on someone who tans much better than me this would be fantastic! Unfortunately it just made me feel very self conscious about my hands. I didn't keep it on long enough to chip but I imagine as with all Models Own Polishes it lasts very well!

Saturday Night's make up..

Last wednesday was mine and the hubby's 2nd wedding anniversary!! I'm so shocked at how quickly its gone. Anyway seeing as we had only just got back from Majorca in the wee small hours we didn't do anything to celebrate until Saturday when we went to our favourite Italian Restaurant.

Here's the make up I wore..

MAC SFF foundation NW20

MAC MSF Natural in Medium

MAC Studio Sculpt concealer

MAC Ripe Peach Blush

MAC Pigment in Mauvment all over lid

MAC Satin Taupe in outer corner

MAC kohl liner in Ebony

Sleek waterproof mascara

MAC lipstick in Speed Dial

A bit of a MAC face but I really liked it, it was simple but still nice enough for a special night out. The camera has really bleached my face in the first one to make it whiter than my body! But you can see in the second it isn't that bad. Next time I do a FOTD you might have a bit of a shock as I've had a big change!

Here's some pictures of the yummy food...

Yummy starters - Garlic bread and ribs! I didn't eat all of the pizza to myself, we share starters although I did only get one rib as Colin enjoyed them a bit too much!

White profiteroles! Oh they are the best dessert in the whole world! No matter how full I am, I can't leave without having these.

Thank you Aussie!!

This year I have been an Honorary Aussie Angel, I missed out on applying to be one the last time round but the lovely Aussie girls allowed me to join them at their fantastic parties and to mingle with them and lots of other gorgeous bloggers!

At each party they had a box out for us to put hair suggestions in, and they combined them all to make a fantastic Style Bible..

Here is my tip, I have a feeling it won't make sense to a lot of people as I wrote it after a few too many cocktails...

What I actually meant was pull your hair to the opposite side of your head when you're drying it to create more natural looking volume!

Thank you Aussie for sending me the Style Bible and for letting me be part of the Aussie gang! I had so much fun and I can't wait to meet up with you all again!

Today's make up...

I'm so happy Autumn is upon us, I love dark colours and I always feel odd wearing darker colours during summer.

So I took the opportunity today to wear a bit of a darker eye with MAC's Gold Stroke Pigment..

Its such a lovely colour, I tried it whilst I was on holiday and it didn't feel or look right but now I'm home and the temperatures are a lot cooler. Here's what else I used

I used the middle blusher from this palette

In the crease and outer corner I used the brown from the Sleek Safari palette.

I have no idea why my hair looks a bit gingery in the last picture, some pictures it looks fine and others its like that. When I look at it in daylight outside it's fine. I'm not sure what to do with it now, as the underneath is starting to go a orangey colour, any suggestions?

Duty Free Haul!

I got back from Majorca earlier this week, we had a great time and I'm not happy to be home (but I am happy to have my own comfy bed!) Before we left I indugled in a little bit of Duty Free shopping!

Our flight was at 00.50pm so Duty Free was empty! We had the whole place to ourselves and we got to browse MAC in peace without getting dirty looks from sales assistants.

Here's what I bought

Huge Boss Deep Red - Again another perfume I used to wear loads when I was younger and I forgot all about it! I really love this scent and it was only £36 for 75ml!

MAC MSF Natural in Medium - I ran out so this was just a repurchase!

MAC Studio Fix Fluid - I've never bought this foundation before but I have used it and I really like it! At the moment because I have a bit of a tan I only have to use a little bit and stipple it on with a 188 for a more natural look.

MAC Speed Dial lipstick - I've been wanting to buy this for months, but everytime I'm in MAC I talk myself out of it. This time I just decided to go for it and I love it. Such a gorgeous shade of pink!

I also got some little samples of Gold Stroke Pigment, Pro Longwear foundation, Strobe Cream and Mauvement pigment. I really didn't like Pro Longwear, it went orange on me very quickly! And it looked far too matte on my face. I wore Mauvement nearly every night on holiday its such a pretty colour, Gold Stroke is a lovely bronzey brown colour - perfect for autumn!

Speed Dial

Mauvement

Gold Stroke

I love Duty Free shopping! Its all part of my holiday and I always have to treat myself.