Covent Garden Haul

Hi ladies! Today I've got my haul from Covent Garden, when me and my friend, fellow beauty blogger, Ava, went shopping. We had a lovely catch up and did some shopping. =)

First up, because I was early, FOR ONCE, haha, I went into The Body Shop while waiting for Ava to arrive:

I picked up two bars of soap, Strawberry and Shea, because they both smelled yummy and were only 2 pounds each. I also grabbed the Love Etc solid perfume for 5 pounds because I think the Love Etc scent is AMAZING, but I didn't feel like shelling out the 15-20 pounds for one of the perfumes. But thankfully when I checked out I received a free sample of the perfume! I may have to eventually give in...

Then when Ava arrived, we went to the market area and found this sweet lady selling gorgeous jewelry and even though I haven't been wearing much jewelry lately, I couldn't help but pick up one of the bracelets because they were only 5 pounds and soo pretty:

The next bit I'm so excited about!! We were wondering about where to go next, so I was like "There's not a Lush around, is there?" and while Ava stood thinking to herself, she all of a sudden looked up and was like "Look!" and there was a Lush right in front of us, HAHA. I got very giddy because I'd never been in one before and really wanted the It's Raining Men shower gel. While the shop was a bit tiny/cramped, the workers were amazing and very fun and helpful:

I got the It's Raining Men shower gel, the medium size, for 7.95, the Butterball bath bomb for 2.30, the Space Girl bath bomb for 1.90, and the Comforter bubble bar for 3.99. I'd just run out of Lush goodies so I was so excited to stock up a little bit. I didn't go as crazy as I would of liked to, but hey, I'm not made of money! ;) Also, because it was a relatively small store, there wasn't THAT many bath bombs or bubble bars, or else maybe I'd of been in real trouble, hehe.

FINALLY, we walked past a store called Space NK, which I've heard of before but never went into, and I saw they sold Nars, and I've been dying to purchase my first Nars product, so we went in and I was drawn towards this gorgeous eyeshadow:

Strada: It's this gorgeous purple with gold sparkles. It was 16.50, so rather pricey, but it really is such a unique color or else I wouldn't of bought it!

Swatch:

Well that's it! We also went into MAC and we swatched the Mega Metal shadows from the Peacocky collection and I really wanted Prance but held back because I want to purchase some goodies from the Wonder Woman collection. Oh dear me, anyways, what have you bought lately?

Christmas Party Look

Hi girlies! I decided to do a Christmas look the other night for you guys. I think it's a great look for a Christmas party. To me, a Christmas party look should be frosty and shimmery! It's not amazing because I did it at the end of the day so my concealer/foundation was wearing off, and I wiped off my eye makeup from that day then never reapplied eye primer, BUT ANYWAYS, this is just an idea of some products that I think are good for a Christmas Party look:

Eyes:

On the lid, I used Urban Decay's Sin. Then for a pop of color I used Sleek's Good Girl Palette by using Lollipop in the inner lid. I then used Lychee as a highlight/brow bone color. Obviously, if I had used primer the look would of been a bit more intense. I also just used your basic black eyeliner on the waterline and a mascara to make the eyes really pop. You can obviously use whatever you like, but I deffo think shimmery is the way to go!

Face:

Again, SHIMMER! Lol. I used Prestige's bronzer all over my face, because it's very light and just adds a nice shimmer to the whole face. I then used E.l.f's Gotta Glow as a highlight, just over the apples of my cheeks. In terms of blush, I think of rosy cheek when it comes to winter time! So I used my Body Shop Autumn Leaves blusher.

Lips:

What kind of inspired this look was the 17 lipgloss in Star Girl that I picked up earlier in the week. It's so frosty and shimmery and perfect for a Christmas party look. I layered it over Revlon's Matte Lipstick in Pink Pout.

That's it! Hope you guys like it. I have some other Christmas posts coming up (can you tell I'm in the holiday spirit!?) where I show my favorite Christmas eyeshadows. Now I'm off to do another chapter of my dissertation. Waaaah. Lol.

BIG Haul! (MUA, Sleek, The Body Shop, Bare Minerals, Primark)

I went shopping with a friend a couple days ago and picked up quite a few goodies:

From Superdrug I picked up some things from the MUA range. I've been wanting to try their products for awhile. For a pound each, I figured you can't go wrong.

I'm not crazy about the products, but they're nice for being only a pound each!

The lipgloss+blusher on me

Same as above but with flash

I also picked up a Sleek blush in Rose Gold just because I've heard good things about it and it looks gorgeous. At The Body Shop, I saw the powders that I've been wanting for agess and might of ended up getting both if they'd been stocked, but they only had the Berry one. When you bought any cosmetic, you got a brush half off!

Lol...as you can see, I had some trouble getting into the Sleek blush, and when I finally did, my hand slipped and my nails dove right in. Oh well...but anyways, I lovvvve the blusher brush!! I have one from e.l.f that's not really impressed me, so when I tried this I fell in love. It's so soft and applies the blush perfectly.

The Sleek blush:

The Body Shop blush (sorry for the lame photo):

The Sleek blush on me:

The Body Shop blush on me:

I also got something I've been wanting for awhile now. I'm afraid liquid foundation would make me break out even more, so I figured mineral foundation is the way to go. So I picked up the Bare Minerals starter kit. It's 45 pounds, but you do get quite a bit.

A guide and how to DVD:

It comes with a sample of their primer! Excited to try it.

Everything that comes in the box. A lot, right? You get two shades of foundation, a bronzer which they call warmth, a mineral veil, and a concealer. Along with that you get three brushes to apply it all with. A bargain really for 45 pounds.

So I'm far too embarassed to post the before photos, LOL, sorry, but I suffer from acne and yeah, it's not a pretty sight. So here's the after photos! I'm using the Light foundation, warmth, the concealer, and the mineral veil. The concealer doesn't cover my spots all on their own, so I had to put concealer on under it, obviously. I applied the No7 concealer, which I just picked up today with my No7 voucher. But that's for a later post! ANYWAYS, here we go:

Pretty good coverage if you ask me! You can still see my spots a lil bit, but that's bound to happen. It's definitely a huge improvement anyways. Quite happy with Bare Minerals.

Then from Primark I grabbed two things:

A stripey sweater. It's quite long, basically a dress, but I just roll it up a bit.

A big comfy white cardigan! Sooo warm, gonna be perfect for those cold winter days. =)

Any good buys lately?

The Body Shop Lip & Cheek Stain Review

At the moment, InStyle's free gift (retailing for 9.50) is the Body Shop Lip & Cheek Stain in Bronze Glimmer and Rose Pink. The one I picked was Bronze Glimmer since I've already got a red lip stain and figured it looked pretty enough.

Overall, I'm pretty disappointed. Apart from the fact that it just looks a bit ridiculous on the lips (not sure about the cheeks, didn't try it out), it's definitely not a lip stain. The glimmer comes off quite easily with some spit (sorry) and tissue paper, but does leave behind a bit of a red color, but it's certainly not worth the 9.50. Thank gosh it was free!!!

(after wiping it off)

Has anyone else tried this out? What are your thoughts? Is the Rose Pink any better?