Beauty | The First 2014 Haul!

It may be awful, but when I'm feeling a bit down I got for a bit of a make up spending spree! Boots and Superdrug are both my bestfriends and also my enemies, as far as my bank account is concerned! I recently headed to both, and surprise, surprise brought things from both! So here's a little look at what I brought!

Firstly, a trip to Superdrug is never complete without buying something from MUA! MUA is like my holy grail beauty brand as their prices are incredibly affordable and the quality is really impressive for what you pay. I'm yet to come across a MUA product which I don't like. Their palettes have always been a favourite of mine, especially my much loved Heaven and Earth palette. I've also been dying to try out their new Colour Blast Eyeshadow Tint and chose the colour 'Stay'. I also picked up their 'Smokin' palette and their 'Ever After' matte palette.

Next, I headed to Boots where I embarked upon a new adventure. I don't know how it's possible to go this long without one but I picked up my first Bourjois blush in shade 35 Rose d'Or - Golder Rose and it is the most beautiful colour ever! I also repurchased an ever favourite of the Rimmel Stay Matte Pressed Powder in Translucent. This is currently one of my most used products and helping with any oilyness I've been having recently. I'm also always on the look out for that perfect mascara and after watching a video by Moree Milk, ages ago, where she swore by this Mascara as being the best I knew I had to give it a go. So that's how Number 17's Peep Show Mascara ended up in my basket! Finally, after hearing everyone endlessly rave about Barry M's matte Nail Paint I had to have some for myself, along with adding another Gelly Hi Shine to my collection. I brought the Gelly Hi Shine in shade 'Plum' and the matte Nail Paints in shades 'Crush' and 'Mocha'.

- MUA Smokin Palette - £6.00
- MUA Ever After Matte Palette - £4.00
- MUA Colourblast Eyeshadow Tint - £3.00
- Rimmel Stay Matte Translucent Pressed Powder - £3.99
- 17 Peep Show Mascara - £6.29
- Bourjois Blush Rose d'Or Golden Rose - £7.99
- Barry M Gelly Hi Shine Plum - £3.99
- Barry M Matte Nail Paint Crush - £3.99
- Barry M Matte Nail Paint Mocha - £3.99

So that's what I've been buying recently, and reviews will be coming as soon as I possibly can find time to write them, as it's starting to get hectic again being back at uni!

What are your recent favourite purchases?!

Beauty | MUA Lip Liners

A little while ago I went on a massive MUA spending spree, and in that spree I brought (nearly) all of the MUA Lip Liners. I was never one for a lip liner, until my red lipstick started to smudge and bleed all down my face!

For £1.00 each of these Lip Liners are hardly bank breaking, and they're the perfect colours to what I use most of too! I brought the Lip Liners in Pink Me Up, Red Drama and Softly Lined. The final colour which is Brooding Plum I decided against as I don't have any dark lipsticks. (See I can be sensible with my purchasing sometimes!!)

Red Drama is a perfect red which will go with most lipsticks which I own and is a lot more matte compared to Pink Me Up and Softly Lined which are rather shimmery. I know quite a few people don't particularly like shimmer, but I have to say, I don't really have a preference between matte or shimmer, I tend to just go with the mood I'm in!

Finally, my next favourite thing about these lip liners, other than their price is their packaging. I adore how the lids of the liners are sharpeners too. I'm forever searching around for a sharpener when it comes to my eyeliner or lip liner and 9 times out of 10 I've lost it! So the design of these are just perfect!

As you can tell, I'm a massive fan of the MUA Lip Liners! Have you tried them yet?! 

Beauty | My Favourite Eyeshadow Palette

Good evening bloggers and hello September! Woah, where has that time gone?!

I recently stumbled across a post called the September Beauty Blog Challenge which has been constructed by the lovely Girl Friday Blog. The challenge has two different categories - beauty and lifestyle, and each day there is a different topic to blog about. Now I'm not going to stick to one category as I like the posts from both categories, so sometimes they'll be beauty related and sometimes they'll be lifestyle related. If you want to be a late entry to the challenge like myself you can find the challenge here! This will also be great for any of you bloggers who have lost their blogging mojo! So without further ado here is today's post!..

This is my all time favourite eyeshadow palette, Heaven and Earth by MUA and is apparently a great dupe for the Urban Decay Naked Palette. The palette consists of creams which are great for base colours and highlight, golds and bronzes and then a range of light to dark browns.

As you can see I have already hit pan on some of the eyeshadows which shows by daily smokey eye routine. For someone who is rather fair like myself I prefer a bronzed smokey eye to a black smoke. I think it goes better with my skin colourings and isn't too harsh

My final love for this palette is the great quality. The colours are really strong and bold which is great when they're a mixture of shimmer and matte eyeshadows, and to go with the great quality is the brilliant price tag of £4.00. This has to be one of my all time favourite products which MUA has ever released!

What's your favourite eyeshadow palette?

Beauty | MUA Nail Constellation

I've just been having a little blog organisation and found this post still sat in my drafts, opps. A while ago I brought the MUA Nail Constellation after seeing lots of people's reviews about the Ciate Cavia Nails. So I thought I'd pick up MUA's version for a much less price tag at only £3.00

In order to create the Constellation effect you will need:

- Nail Varnish Remover to remove any traces of previous nail polish which you may have been wearing.

- A nail file to shape and polish off those nails.

- A nail polish colour of your choice.

- MUA Nail Constellation, I choose mine in Gemini.

- I forgot to include it in the picture, but you'll also need a top/base coat as this will keep it all in place.

To begin with I choose to paint my nails in a very nude colour in order to emphasise the effect. A while ago I received a set of Ted Baker Nail Polishes which I love and wear very frequently. They last a long time before becoming chipped and they also don't require many coats in order to get a bold, pigmented colour.

 Once you've painted your nails and they are still wet, apply the Nail Constellation to your nails. I chose to do mine just on my ring finger for a more subtle look. Make sure when you're doing this that you have either a pot or a piece of paper at the ready in order to catch all the beads which don't stick straight away to the nails. If you find your nails are looking a little patchy, roll them in the excess beads which have escaped! Once you're happy with the look, apply a top coat over the beads in order to secure them and make them last longer.

I think that this is such a simple yet effective look, which I love. I found that the beads didn't last too long on my nails before they all came off, around a couple of day I'd say they lasted. However, I only really wanted them for a certain occasion, so I wasn't too fussed. For £3.00 MUA have created some great nail constellations in 5 various colours which are very easy too use, not too time consuming and receive great compliments when ever worn.
If you're feeling a bit bored of just the plain old nail varnish and want to vamp your nails up a bit then try the constellations, you've not much to loose!

Have you tried the nail constellations? What do you think?

RiRi and Nicki Ft. Superdrugs 3 for 2

I think I am the worst impulse buyer ever!! Today I was in a really crappy mood, so I did what I always do and headed down to Superdrug as in the morning I received an email telling me about their 3 for 2 offer across all brands, so why not, I needed the cheering up and I love what I got!

Firstly is lips. My Superdrug are finally stocking the Sleek Lipstick Palettes! I found it so hard as to which one to buy first, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to go back and buy the other 3 in the 3 for 2 offer! At the moment I'm seriously loving my bright pinks so I opted for Showgirl, and I cannot wait to have a play around with this palette. These are retailing at £8.99 which I don't think is unreasonable for a lipstick quad.

Next is the Bourjois Rouge Edition Lipsticks I've seen so many posts and have been totally undecided on which colour to buy so today I took the plunge and carried on the pink theme with 08 Rose Studio. Which again is another gorgeous coloured lipstick for £7.99

Not to long ago MUA also released their baked trio eyeshadows. Now I have some of their original trios but being the MUA fanatic that I am, I had to try the baked trios. Now I know these look very similar but I had to get both because I really couldn't decide on which one to buy. The eyeshadow on the right hand side I'm pretty sure is the same in both but on the right trio the bottom and left eyeshadow are quite a bit darker than the left trio so for £3.00 and with one of them being free I decided to get both. On the left is Legendary and on the right is Emotions.

Finally, let me introduce you to my new babies. I decided a while back that I really wanted to buy my first MAC Lipstick but I couldn't decide on which one as there are hundreds of gorgeous colours to choose from. That was until RiRi Woo was about to be launched. I love a good red lippy and although many people said it's a copy of Ruby Woo that didn't bother me because I didn't own it and they're the same price, and plus, I am such a Rihanna fan girl.

My next baby is the Nicki Minaj Pink Friday perfume. You all know that I'm a perfume addict and absolutely adore Nicki so when I smelt it I knew I had to purchase it on the introductory offer of £22.00 before it went up in price!

 

I've loved all that I've been buying recently and will be reviewing them all soon. What have you all been buying lately?

Sun Kissed

How it is nearly May I do not know, the year seems to be flying by! Once again I popped into Superdrug for a little retail therapy and picked up these bargains.
The blogging world is going crazy over the Garnier Summer Body Moisturising Lotion. I've been using it for a while now and love it, mainly because it doesn't give off that awful fake tan smell. When I restocked up in Superdrug I found they currently have an offer on. This 250ml was reduced to half price for £2.54! Bargain on what?!

 And of course a trip to Superdrug isn't a trip to Superdrug without stopping at the MUA counter and getting some new lipstick for £1.00 each!
From left to right I brought shade 12, 16 - Nectar and Shade 4 which is a Lipstick which I already own and didn't realise, must be a sign that I own too much?!

What have you been buying recently?!

 

Lipstick Crazy

I somehow seem to have gone crazy with my recent purchases, especially lip products. I'm finding it a wee bit ridiculous just how many I've brought over the past few weeks, but honestly, they were all necessities!

MUA PowerPout £3.00 each Nail Polish £1.00

Firstly is MUA, a few weeks ago I did a post telling you about the new release of their Power Pouts. MUA just seem to be going from strength to strength at the moment. Whilst waiting for my train home today, I popped into Superdrug, (it's the worst habit I have,) and picked up a few of the colours I had my eye on. Luckily, they were very well stocked so I had my pick of the bunch. From left to right I brought Irreplaceable, Broken Hearted and Justify. They are obviously so similar to the Revlon Lipstains, but I have to say, already I prefer the smell of the Power Pouts than to the Revlon Lipstains! I also brought a Nail Polish. MUA have changed the packaging of their Nail Polishes and they are very much identical to Essie Polishes, except they are a lot smaller. I haven't tried their polishes yet so I thought I'd give them a go, and picked one up the colour Strawberry Crush.

Rimmel Apocalips £5.99 each Kate Moss Lipstick £5.49

Finally, when Superdrug held their 3 for 2 offer I couldn't resist purchasing some more Rimmel Apocalips, I now own five in my favourite colours, and I'm hoping that that'll be it for now! From left to write I brought shades Luna and Stella. I'm also wanting to try my hand at coral Lipstick so I went for a Kate Moss Lippie in shade 16 as I already own two, one from her first collection and one from her Matte collection and I love them both, so I'm expecting good things for this one too!

Hope you all had a good start to the week! What have you been purchasing recently?!

Haulin'

I am such a sucker it's becoming ridiculous. As soon as I step into Boots or Superdrug they're laughing!! The majority of all these lovely beautiful things have been brought because there was some sort of offer on them one way or another, except the MUA, I just had to have the MUA! This post is bit picture heavy but that's because each photo shows the offer. So if you'd like the laugh at how easy I get sucked into buying things, then continue to read and then leave me a comment about how foolish I've been. But one way or another, I will justify each and every piece of this lovely beauty-ness!

First up is Soap and Glory. They are my biggest beauty weakness when it comes to beauty. I will one day do a post on my collection, it's just ridiculous, and I just keep on and on buying more. However, I did save myself a whooping £10 as when you spend £10 or more on beauty products you get the lovely tub of Butter Yourself free. It would just be point black rude really wouldn't it? One of the things which I don't have in my collection yet is Pulp Friction and I've heard so many people rave about it and it won a Stylist Skincare award in 2012. It smells incredible and its self and Butter Yourself have the same fragrance. Pulp Friction costs £8.00 and I didn't want to spend out on another full sized product so I picked up the last Hand Maid hand-sanitiser for £2.50, these are just perfect, they smell great and I take mine everywhere. So this little lot enabled me to get my free Butter Yourself. Yaay! The offer is not valid on Soap and Glorys skincare range, however on their skin care range they had an offer of buy one product and get another half price.

 Next up are the Barry M Gelly Hi Shines. Again I have succumbed to bblogger peer pressure after everyone saying how great they were and I have to admit, they really were. Superdrug were doing an offer on the Hi Shines of 2 for £6.00, which I'm not sure they're doing now, but do make sure you check if they are. However, Boots currently have their 3 for 2 offer on at the moment. So from left to right I picked up Blueberry, Dragon and Papaya. I don't really have very many pastel colours for summer so these are great and I've already tried Dragon and I was so impressed with the results!

More Nail Polish? Really? Well yes, because I don't have anything sort of like these colours. Told you I could justify everything and plus NYC in Superdrug have an offer of any two nail polishes for £2.99. As you could imagine the stand was verging on empty as it was across their whole nail polish range, but luckily these two are gorgeous and I picked them up in shades Lincoln Square Lavender and Greenwich Village from left to right.

More nail polish? Yes, I promise you this is the last one and again it was bblogger pressure, it looks so pretty and everyone says how good it is so I have to have it, but it's okay, because it was free with the 3 for 2 offer at Boots. Win, win! The L'oreal Top Coat Confetti is an amazing top coat to give your nails that speckled look and retails at £4.99. Next is Bourjois Effect 3D Lipgloss. I've been wanting to try out Coral lips but I'm too scared to go straight in with a lipstick so I thought I'd ease my way in with those gorgeous gloss which has hints of gold glitter throughout it. The Lipgloss retails at £7.69 and I brought the shade Corail Idyllic. Finally after falling in love with the Rimmel Apocalips I have added another colour to my collection in the form of Nova for £5.99.

Lastly, I had to feed my MUA addiction with a few pieces from their Undress Your Skin range. Of course I have to pick up the Undress Me Too Palette for a bargain of £3.00 as they currently have a pound off it at the moment along with the Undress Your Skin Highlighter for £2.00 as that also had a pound off it.

 

As you can see all these things were necessities! What have you been buying recently?!

 

New: MUA Power Pouts

I am an absolute MUA fan and I love all their products. I follow them on Twitter and Facebook religiously checking for any discounts or news on new products along with other bloggers reviews of their products. Last night MUA released a status on Facebook saying that tomorrow (today) they will be announcing a new product which was revealed an hour ago.

Due to MUA becoming more and more popular due to the quality of products and their prices it has allowed them to keep on expanding and release new products which are keeping up with the beauty world. So are you ready to see what MUA are going to be releasing next?!

Picture was taken from the MUA Facebook page.

MUA are releasing their own version of the Clinique Chubby Sticks and Revlon Lip Stains with their very own Power Pout. They have the exact same concept of the Chubby Sticks and Lip Stains but at a much more affordable price. For an amazing £3.00 you could own your own Power Pout which comes in 6 different colours. They will be available to buy in stores from the 10th of April. They're not saying when they will be available to buy online for all you international MUA lovers but they're saying it might be very soon.

I really can't wait for these to become available and I've already got my eye on a few which I want, if they're anything like their other products I know they'll be great!

 

What do you think of the new MUA Power Pouts?!

 

Hi, I'm Hannah And I'm an MUA Addict.

This addiction for  MUA is almost out of control! For some reason I just cannot resist their products. I think I almost have one of each product. Next I'll have one of each colour!

 A while back MUA had a promotion which was something like 45% off and five free Nail Quakes with your order - it wasn't their most recent promotion, but like always I couldn't resist. So this is just a quick haul of what I brought.

- 3 in 1 Contour Eyeliner Pen in black - £1.50

- False Eyelashes in Glam - £2.00

- Undressed Palette - £4.00

- Trio Eyeshadow in Innocence - £2.50

- Lipstick in shade 15 Juicy - £1.00

- Blusher in shade 1 - £1.00

- Intense Kisses Lipgloss in Quick Smooch - £2.00

- Lip Liner in Softly Lined - £1.00

- Out There Plumping Lipgloss in Pink Sugar - £2.00

Finally, the Nail Quakes which they sent my free were Jailbreak - the black, Shockwaves - the pink, Broken Arrow - the purple, Shattered Ice - the silver and Quiver which is the blue.

Soon will be reviews of the products, I have lots of posts for you but at the moment I also have lots of coursework deadline dates coming up!

I've also recently purchased a few products from their new range so theirs also a smaller haul and reviews to come on those too!

What have you recently purchased from MUA and are loving?

MUA U R FAB

Now I know it was nearly over a year ago since MUA released their LoveHearts collection, but recently I've been falling in love with nail vanish all over again and realised I forgot to show swatches of a few of the colours I picked up. You can read the original post here.

Now I'm no longer working at my old job it means I can wear nail varnish again and over the past few weeks I've been painting my nails with MUA's U R FAB, and have been receiving some lovely compliments about it. So I thought I'd share it with you.

 Firstly, I love the packaging. It has LoveHearts original logo, and is incredibly cute and girly. The nail varnishes for this collection come in 6 colours, all which are pastel colours and are great for spring and summer. U R FAB is the only colour which I think you can get away with wearing in the winter and Autumn too.

The only down fall to this product which wasn't too much of an issue was that my brush seemed to have not been made well and had almost like another head which luckily I was able to cut off, otherwise it made painting your nails very tricky, I think this must have been a manufacture problem and I hope that it was only with this bottle of nail varnish. The other colour which I brought was perfectly fine.

I really have fallen in love with this colour. It's a cross between a red and a dark pink. Depending on what light you're in, it will show different tones. One which seems like a very dark colour and the other a very light colour. Both which are lovely. I didn't put a topcoat on my nails once I had finished them as I was too impatient to wait any longer and had things to get on with. I now regret not putting one on as after 4 days they have begun to chip quite a bit. But when I do put a topcoat on they last much longer and better.

For £2 these nail varnishes are brilliant for anyone on a budget, and I can't wait to buy the other colours next time I go shopping.

 

Have you tried any of the MUA LoveHearts collection? What do you think?

 

Shopping When You're Ill Leads To This...

GOOD MORNING LOVELIES!

The sun is shining down here and it's just a lovely Friday! I know I've been absent for a while and that's because of a number of things. 4 weeks ago I lost my job, the company are facing financial difficulties and around the last 100 people they employed had to be let go. I was working a fairly high earning job for retail and when I heard the news I completely panicked and turned into a stressed out, panicked mess. For me, being in work is so important no matter what job it is, a job is a job, bringing in an income. I relied on that money for so many things such as car insurance, my phone bill, my gym membership, my monthly train ticket and then savings in case anything were to happen and I needed back up money for example, in case something happened to my car. So for the past few weeks job hunting has been my main goal. I've had a few interviews and I'm still applying for more jobs, so fingers crossed for me!

So with not knowing when my next paycheck is going to be I've had to go carefully and not buy things I don't need such as makeup. But when I headed into Boots and Superdrug yesterday for some medicine I came back with more makeup than I should have as I thought they would be little pick-me-ups for being ill. I didn't realise I had picked up so much.. I blame my hazy flu and coldy head!

Can you see what I mean now? But this was all necessities, I just had to have them!

However, in my defence a few things were buy 2 get 1 free! First up is Rimmel. I am in desperate need of this Foundation as mine is running very low so this was a must have. The Rimmel Lasting Finish 25 Hour Foundation retails at £6.99 which I think is amazing for such a brilliant foundation. As Rimmel had the 3 for 2 offer I thought I would pick up a Kate Moss Lipstick. I have one of her original lipsticks from when she first brought them out in 2011 and love it! I haven't yet tried her new matte collection and as so many bbloggers are raving about the 110 colour I decided I had to try it. The lipstick was my free product from Rimmel as the Apocalips is 50p more expensive. I also chose the new Apocalips in Big Bang as I'm a sucker for a red. Lastly, a few days before hand I had brought the Apocalips lipgloss in Apocaliptic and I can't wait to try both of these!

Next up is Revlon. I have to admit that I have never brought anything from Revlon before, I couldn't tell you why, I just haven't. One of my friends who is also a beauty and makeup enthusiast suggested the Revlon Photoready Perfecting Primer to me after she brought from her trip to Chicago. Now I full trust her judgement so if she says it's good then it best be good! I'm also late jumping on the bandwagon with both these products now. The Revlon Lipbutters and Lipstain are such a talked about product in the bblogging world and as Revlon also had a 3 for 2 offer I had to try them both. I brought the Lipbutter in Strawberry Shortcake and the Lipstain in Cherish Devotion, both are lovely pinks for the summer and as they are both £7.99 each it didn't matter which one was free.

I am a sucker for a new mascara, I'm always trying to find something that is bigger and better than my one before. So when I saw Number Seventeens new mascara, Doll'd Up, I wanted to try it, especially as so many people rave about their mascaras and at the moment Number Seventeen have got a promotional offer where if you buy their new mascara you get their Doll'd Up Liquid Eyeliner free. I couldn't resist! They aren't currently selling the Eyeliner separately by its self, so I cannot tell you the price of it.

Finally, I made a quick stop off at Superdrug and as usual, I couldn't resist MUA. They released the Mega Volume Mascara just before Christmas, and again, I have to try it! They also released their new Undress Your Skin Range the other day, and in one of local Superdrugs they only currently stock the Cover & Conceal Concealer Wand, which I hope will be fantastic, and I can't wait to try their new range out, especially the palette!

 

Pricing

- Rimmel Lasting Finish 25 Hour Foundation - £6.99

- Rimmel Kate Moss Matte Lipstick in 110 - £5.49

- Rimmel Apocalips Lip Lacquer in Big Bang and Apocaliptic - £5.99

- Revlon Photoready Perfecting Primer - £11.99

- Revlon Lipbutter in Strawberry Shortcake - £7.99

- Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain in Cherish Devotion - £7.99

- Seventeen Doll'd Up Mascara - £6.29 (Current promotional offer £5.29)

- MUA Mega Volume Mascara - £3.00

- MUM Cover & Conceal Concealer - £1.50