My Artdeco Palette.....so far!

I got this Dita Von Teese Quadrat box in Debenhams. I saw it was onsale for about £10.00. It's quite a nice size. Slowly but surely, I will fill this thing up! Here's what I have so far...

Eyeshadows L-R: 185, 520, 450

 Sorry for the bad swatches! The purple is so rich and deep. The taupe-y shade is perfect for everyday and I absolutely love the white, it is so pearlescent and shimmery!

 This is the concealer, which I got during summer when I wore fake tan almost every day. It was the perfect shade for me then! It is a bit too dark for me now when I am tan-less so I will have to invest in a lighter shade too. This concealer is in shade 5. Honestly, this is the best concealer I have ever used, it hides everything! It's a little to heavy to wear under your eyes though.

I love the "Beauty is Art" inscription in the mirror.


Do you know what would be great, I was thinking if I was able to stick in a couple of lip colours, face powder & blush. Then this would be a perfect palette to take in your handbag for touch ups! Sadly only the eyeshadows, blushes and concealers are magnetic.

The little Artdeco eyeshadow pans are so tiny, this is a great place to store them! Hopefully as time goes on this will be full of gorgeous Artdeco shades. They are quickly becoming my favourite brand! Everything Artdeco does is so glamorous and reminds me of the 1930s, which of course I love.

So I will do an updated post in the coming weeks/months when I have added more to my collection!

Outfit of the day - Casual wear!

Firstly, I just want to say that this is my first ever outfit of the day post. I thought I would introduce a little fashion to my blog, to add more of my personality and more content. I just seem to do review after review, but you don't really get to "know" me through that!  I do love clothes, so I'm thinking I shall begin with a few outfit of the day posts and see where we go from there!

Eiffel Tower top - Penny's 

Mint blouse - Forever 21

Jeans - Forever 21

Shoes - Vans

This is what I am wearing on my day off from work, just for kicking around the house and going to the shops! Nothing exciting! It is actually very mild weather today. I am excited for the Autumn but it seems the summer has just flown by! I'm going to miss wearing all my bright colours. This sort of outfit is basically what I have been wearing throughout summer. The Forever 21 blouse is one my favourites, I also have it in coral. Pennys are brilliant for inexpensive casual tops, I think this one was €6! I tend to pick up several of them whenever I can, you always need tops!! 

Forever 21 are my favourite for jeans. I had never shopped in Forever 21 until about this time last year. I now have 6 pairs of their jeans. They are just so comfortable and they fit me really well. I will have to invest in a few darker pairs for winter though! They are also really cheap which is a bonus!

This adorable kitten is not mine by the way, it's my nieces! 

I hope the inclusion of fashion posts will be of interest to my followers! I have a few nice ideas so I need to get working on them. Hope you have enjoyed, & have a great day! 

Clarins Instant Smooth Crystal Lip Gel - Crystal Pink

I am a bit late in reviewing this. These Crystal Lip Gels were part of the limited edition "Splendours" collection - you may remember that I absolutely sang the praises of the Splendours eye palette! I have been using this lip gel all throughout summer, and has become a staple as part of my everyday make up!

Despite the name "Crystal Pink", this is a beautiful candy apple red gloss. I have been loving this because unlike regular lip glosses, this one isn't thick or sticky. It is so comfortable to wear. The consistency is much thinner than that of a regular gloss; looking at it, it reminds me of jelly!

The lip gel has a blackcurrant scent. It is so lovely and sweet! The gel gives the most lovely, subtle glossy tint to the lips and it really quite natural looking. I have been absolutely loving this! The only downside is that the glossy tint does not really last that long on your lips before you have to re-apply. It is a very generous sized tube though.

You may still be able to get this at your nearest Clarins counter. Clarins are very quickly becoming my favourite brand. From what I have tried of their makeup so far, it is of very good quality and quite luxurious packaging. Yesterday I purchased a few skincare items too and I am very excited to try them out!

I am also quite intrigued to try the Clarins Instant Light Natural Lip Perfector, which are also lip gels from their permanent collection. They are perfect for those of us who want a lovely glossy sheen, without the stickiness of wearing lip glosses!

Nails of the Day - Barry M "Grapefruit"

Barry M is a brand of nail polish which I don't usually tend to go for. I have heard a lot of people saying they are brilliant and they last a long time without chipping, so I am excited to put it to the test. Anyways, this colour is just so, so beautiful. The polish itself I felt had kind of a thick consistency but wasn't too difficult to apply. I applied two coats here. I suppose it does almost look like a gel polish.

This colour is so cute and girly! I wouldn't really consider it a "Barbie" pink, but it is fun and fruity and definitely one of the best pinks I have ever tried.

Cocoa Brown - "Tough Stuff" !

Well here we go, another fab product from Cocoa Brown! I was so excited to try this out. You know when you have stubborn tan that you just can't get off? This is what you need!!

..And it is pink! What a nice touch! You can barely see the exfoliating beads here, they are so tiny and yet so "tough"! This exfoliator also features the signature Cocoa Brown scent, Tahitian Gardenia. So nice!

This is by far, the most effective scrub I have ever used. I have used this both in the shower and also when my skin is dry. I find it is more effective for removing tan when your skin is dry. Give yourself a good scrub, and when you shower it off, you can actually see the tan washing off your skin. I couldn't believe what I was seeing! It gives a slightly more gentle exfoliation when your skin is already wet.

After using this product, my skin has never felt in better condition. No rough patches, no lumps or bumps, just super soft skin. This really is a wonder product in my opinion! The sachet is good for maybe 2 full body applications. If you are worried about storing an open sachet, then don't worry, this product will be available in a tube come October. In the mean time you could store the Tough Stuff in those little travel bottles you can get it Primark.

Now because I was already wearing some fake tan (Cocoa Brown 1 Hour of course), I thought I would show you all how good "Tough Stuff" works at removing tan!


At the weekend, I was invited down for afternoon tea, courtesy of the lovely Cocoa Brown team. It was held in the fabulous Radisson Blu St Helens, Blackrock, Dublin. I had an amazing time, I met some lovely bloggers and just really enjoyed myself. Here are a few pics...

 L-R: myself, Danielle from The Imperfect Beauty, Rebecca from Give a Posy and Laura from Life, Laughs and Laura

Myself and the lovely Marissa Carter

Cocoa Brown have done it again for me! Tough Stuff is a great accompaniment for you fake tan wearers. Amazing at removing stubborn patches of tan, whilst leaving you skin super soft, ready for your next application! 

Hair Care!

This is my first hair care post! I thought it might be fun to write about how I look after it and what products I use. I'll talk a little about my hair first. My hair is quite long and thick. I get it coloured every 5-6 weeks in the salon (I really don't know what colour they use though! It is pure copper though). I find my hair grows very quickly and I hate my roots (and now greys!) showing! My hair gets greasy quite quickly, I wash my hair every 3 days, which is amazing now since I used to wash it every evening! With every wash my hair colour fades so I really have tried to reduce washing as much as I can.
Here are the products I use...

Now I am a low maintenance kind of girl, and I really don't use many hair products. I don't style my hair very often, when I wash my hair, I will blow dry it and straighten it usually, and that will be it until the next time I wash!

I use Kerastase Bain Exfoliant Purifiant shampoo always. It is my holy grail shampoo. I know it is a little expensive at around £15.00 per bottle, but it really is the only thing that works for me. As much as I love my hair colour, dying my hair has made my scalp unbelievably dry and have really bad dandruff too. It was highly embarrassing for me and I was so self conscious about it. After trying every single anti-dandruff shampoo under the sun, my hairdresser recommended this to me and I have never looked back. The shampoo has little exfoliating beads in it, and really works incredibly well to combat dandruff. If I stop using this, my dandruff will just come straight back. It's so effective for me. If you have dry scalp or dandruff issues I highly recommend you check this out!

I use a lot of conditioner, so I can't really afford to buy an expensive conditioner. I actually got this Argan Oil conditioner in the pound shop. If I didn't use plenty of conditioner, my hair would be quite flyaway which I hate! I stick plenty of this conditioner on the ends and really work it through my hair and rinse out. It's quite a good conditioner which is surprising since it was so cheap. It smells really good too!

I discovered this Schwarzkopf thermo protect cream on BeautyBay. I thought it was perfect for me as it is designed for coloured hair too. It is absolutely amazing! The smell is just indescribable, so nice and fruity. I put this through my wet hair before drying, and I have to say, my hair feels so much more healthier since I started using it. I never really paid attention to heat protecting products before - oops! Now I really want to make the effort. I know it's called "Colour Freeze" but it didn't really do much to retain my colour at all. Doesn't matter, I still really like this cream.

Ahh my pink Tangle Teezer. I have a love/hate relationship with this. I read so many amazing reviews about these hairbrushes, I had to get one for myself. I disposed of my 10 year old hairbrush (ugh!) and finally picked up a Tangle Teezer for myself. My hair is so long, I don't have any layers cut it so it's all one length and it tends to get tatty kind of quickly. I have to say I really have to work with this hairbrush. It doesn't actually get through the tats as well as I imagined it would. I feel like the brush doesn't actually get through my whole hair. I want to love this brush so much, I really adore the shape of it and the design, and I am growing to like it. It just wasn't love at first sight (or brush!)

So that is my hair care...sorry if I rambled on a little! I didn't realise how long this post would turn out. Anyway, I hope that this may have been enjoyable to someone to read, ha! If you've tried any of these products let me know!

Benefit Fakeup....a disappointment

I was quite eager to try out this concealer ever since its release several months ago, however the £18.50 price tag seriously put me off. Benefit used to be my favourite cosmetic brand back when I was a teenager. However, now that I have tried other brands, both drugstore and high end, I now realise that Benefit are seriously overpriced for what they are. Their make up is definitely not worth the price. I could get the same quality for a fraction of the price. Anyway, back to Fake Up.

I was quite intrigued by this "hydrating ring" surrounding the actual concealer. Plus with claims of being crease-free, naturally I wanted to try this. Me wearing undereye concealer usually results in my eyes looking incredibly wrinkly, as the product quickly settles into my natural eye creases (I don't have wrinkles yet!).

I actually won this concealer on a Twitter competition, I was so happy I could finally try it out without paying the extortionate price. I chose the shade medium, as I tested these out once in Debenhams and the "light" shade was incredibly white.

I have to say I am really, very disappointed. It is a really nice looking product, the packaging looks fantastic and certainly the idea of a hydrating undereye concealer is most appealing especially to those with dry skin. My skin isn't super dry, and I am thinking perhaps this product would work better for people that do. When I first applied it, I couldn't help but feel that the product felt very "wet". It made my skin look really shiny and greasy. Within minutes it had settled into my fine lines. Also, as a "concealer", it doesn't conceal too much! The coverage is super super light. If you want to use this on blemishes, it won't work. The hydrating part of this concealer meant that when I started blending it out, the product more or less all disappeared.

 Can you see the "wet" look around the swatch here? 

So, not a great product in my opinion. Perhaps if you have really dry skin this may work for you, but I think it is a bit much calling this product a concealer when it has such light coverage. I recently just got an ArtDeco Camouflage Cream which is a terrific concealer and only cost around £7.00. 

Have you tried Benefit FakeUp? What were your impressions?