I shop a lot/Haul

You all must know by now that I shop, a lot. I've bought a lot more than this in the previous month, believe me, but I thought I'd show you some of the more interesting things... I think I may make hauls a regular thing on my blog. My Instagram pictures of tons of beauty products tend to be popular, so I may just bring them over here. Think I may do them every month around the time of my Favourite Things posts, and the next one will be after my Birthday, so hopefully that'll be an exciting one. (Fingers crossed...)

Given that Boots had "buy one get one half price" on all cosmetics, it'd be wrong to not buy myself some new Essie polishes wouldn't it? I'll just keep telling myself that... I picked up "The more the merrier" a beautiful bright lime green shade from the summer collection, and Splash of Grenadine, an opaque purple with slight pink-tones. Both are equally beautiful and very summery, ideal for this beautiful weather!



MAC YOU GET ME EVERYTIME! Okay, so I may or may not have treated myself to a new quad, no biggie... Left to Right, it's Nylon, Naked Lunch, All that Glitters and Mystery. I also picked up Vanilla Pigment. As you can tell, this quad, my 217 and myself have already been on a date (wink, hubba hubba...)

I couldn't resist posting more pictures of these beauties by Chanel. How I managed to stop myself at three, I really don't know. Despite my Chanel Soleil tan de Chanel, these are my first Chanel makeup purchases, and I decided to get something classy, and elegant, given that Chanel is almost like the God of elegance in beauty. I decided on the Rose Cache Le Vernis, and the Rouge Allure in Evanescente, a beautiful pink/nude which is a "your lips but better shade." I'm going to save both of these for my upcoming birthday to make me feel extra special. Chanel, I do believe you have started a love affair...

With all that nail polish, I need a new remover, right? I'm loving this one at the moment! The scent is very strong when you open the tub, but the scent which tends to linger on your finger tips is really quite lovely, very floral and summery.

I can't think of a snazzy title - Estée Lauder Eyeshadow Duo in Raisins Review

I was looking at my blog stats and all that boring stuff a couple days ago, and I noticed that someone had gotten to my blog by looking for Estee Lauder's Raisins eye palette, however I hadn't actually reviewed it, so I thought, given how beautiful it is, and how amazing it looks in the sunshine, I would review it for whoever was looking for a review... 

The typical Estee Lauder gold packaging is the epitome of elegance, it looks so much better and feels a lot more luxurious than brands like, for example, MAC or Bobbi Brown. I find it can be a little stiff to open sometimes, but I'd sooner have it hard to open than easy, as knowing my luck, it'd pop open and I'd find it in crumbled pieces.

I like palettes with mirrors on the inside of the lid, they make them much more travel-friendly, and it always saves bag space when you don't need an extra mirror as well as your make-up. But, onto the product itself... the shades are a pink-toned champagne colour, which when applied on the lid, thanks to its very subtle shimmer, looks more like a beautiful gloss finish than glitter, and a rich cranberry/blackberry type colour, also with multi-tonal shimmer running through it. Both shades are perfectly soft and easy to apply, have zero fall out, and are highly pigmented. As with most shadows, the colours are much more vibrant and last a lot longer when used with an eyeshadow primer (my primer of choice being Nars Pro-prime Eyeshadow base) but even when used without a primer, they last a long time on my non-oily eyelids. The only fault with this palette is just how pigmented the darker shade REALLY is, it's so dark that it's very easy to overdo it, so making sure you apply layer by layer, and with a very good blending brush is a necessity.

This palette, is overall, pretty impressive. I bought it for the gorgeous shades, but didn't particularly have high expectations, and I've been blown away by just how amazing the quality of the shadows. As with most palettes now, I haven't even touched the dinky little applicator that comes with it, but when websites like Crownbrush are around, you can get professional quality brushes for such affordable prices, that you do not need to consider these (excuse my French...) crappy foam applicators.

Hope you're all loving the sun, but make sure you know you're SPF, UVA and UVB are protecting your skin, we don't want any horrible symptoms of sun damage, do we?

Lots of love. 

Things I've never heard of but love all the same...

First off, I apologise for the products which you probably won't be able to get your hands on, but I'm currently loving them so much I want to share them anyway. And maybe if you're planning a holiday you'll be able to find these yourselves? I dunno, but here we go, I'm waffling on... 

These are a couple of things the lovely Emilie got me in our swap, and both are brands I hadn't heard of previous to this, but are now severely on my beauty radar. 

 

The raspberry lip balm by a brand called Estelle and Third (cute name, right?) looks more like a gloss with it being cased in a lip gloss style tube, but once applied feels like a lightweight balm, and is completely sheer. It isn't overly glossy or tacky, leaves lips feeling moisturised, and on a day of minimal makeup finishes off the look by making your lips look healthy and conditioned, as well as feeling it.

The eyeshadows by a brand called Kicks are seriously pigmented, and the swatches above are one swipe of each colour, they blend easily and don't have a lot of product fall out. making them a solid near-perfect eyeshadow. But we all know that nothing is perfect...
(For reference, the bronze shade is called Bronze Heat, and the deeper brown is called Lady Godiva)

For all the English ladies wanting something like these shadows, MAC's Woodwinked and Satin Taupe are a perfect alternative. I haven't actually tried either of these products, but I can guess from what I've seen that Clarins Instant Light Lip Perfectors and No7 BB Lips are brilliant alternatives for the balm too.

I've just put Magic Mike on my iPad thanks to Netflix, so I'm off to watch that (and to remember to blink, oh and no dribbling...)

An Irritating Beauty Chore - Leighton Denny Crystal Nail File Review

I'll take a guess that I'm not the only person that seriously dislikes nail filing? I hate it, but it's something that must be done, to keep nails in a good shape, and to smooth any rough edges. For as long as I can remember I used metal nail files, you know those horrible ones you get in manicure kits which people buy you for Christmas when they don't know you well enough? How I used them, I do not know. Then 3 years ago I got hooked onto the less terrifying emery board, but still found nail filing was a tedious chore. With my nails in SOS mode, I ordered a crystal nail file off Amazon, a little pricier than their metal and emery board counterparts but with a promise of a lifetime guarantee, and easier nail-filing. But, do they live up to the hype?

With the file being made from glass, the packaging is one of the most important aspects to stop it from smashing as soon as it gets put in a handbag. It's case isn't the most attractive, but is very protective, with an aluminium coating, a black velvet type cushioning, and a plastic flip top lid. 

When you file your nails with any other type of file, you tend to get that residue, which leaves what can only be described as dust underneath your nails, meaning you have to do a little tidy up after filing. Something which attracted me to this file is the fact that this is eliminated, as the edges of the nails are "sealed" whilst filing. (I must apologise for my dreadful descriptions in this post, but I am in no way an expert on nails or manicures, can you tell?!)

For a very obvious reason, I cannot comment on the "lifetime guarantee" as I haven't had it for a lifetime... But with a person as clumsy as myself, I dare say that I will drop this at some point, and it'll be another fallen victim to my wooden floor in my bedroom.

But I cannot recommend this file enough, it's completely revolutionary, and I've now got two of my Aunty's lusting over these. This is one of those items which is a complete game-changer, knocking everything else out the ball-park!

In the picture above, I had broke a nail (very low, ouch!) and so I needed to file my nails down quite a lot to make them all match a little more. When I would usually use a nail scissor and an emery board, the crystal nail file was the only thing I needed, to take at least a few mm off the length of my nails I spent about five minutes filing both hands... making it easy to use, and quick? My ideal product!

You can buy this file from Amazon, here. You can also buy larger ones, but in my eyes, this is the perfect size to keep your nails in shape, especially if you have quite small finger-nails and nail beds like myself.

And I forgot to mention, that I haven't forgotten I promised to hold a giveaway, but I was a little concerned that if GFC ended, then my "100 followers" giveaway would become a little obsolete. Anyway, now it's still here, I'm definitely going to be shopping so I can hold my first giveaway! How exciting!!