The Christmas Countdown!

I'm sorry folks if you think it's too early, but it is 7 weeks today and we all know that Christmas will be upon us before we know it! I have already started my Christmas shopping and hope to have finished before the 1st December! ;)

Christmas is, without a doubt, my favourite time of year. There is just a wonderful atmosphere that you just don't get at any other time. I think family and friends come closer together, I love Christmas films and music, the excitement on Christmas eve awaiting Santa's arrival... surely it doesn't get any better.

I know some people get stressed shopping for gifts for their family and friends. I personally love it and I never get stuck for ideas. My favourite thing to buy are Yankee Candles, everyone loves them and I think lovely scents are essential around Christmas! Their current Christmas collection is outstanding, but my personal favourite is Cinnamon Stick!

Another of my favourite things to do is make up my own little "hampers"filled with sweets, tins of biscuits, after dinner mints, coffee, shortbread... that way there is something for everyone and it is all your Christmas essentials!

As for me, I have quite an extensive wish list comprising of all the beauty products I have been lusting after all year! Also a few books and dvds in there of course. I will maybe do a separate wish list later on.


So is everyone else excited like me?!

How Much Is My Face Worth?

I saw this tag on a few blogs, and I was so intrigued to do it myself.... I'm frightened of the result though!

These are the products I would use on weekends when I have a lot more time to do my makeup. During the week when I work I just use whatever is the quickest and easiest! But I enjoy taking time to do makeup for going shopping, going for lunch, etc.  So let's take a closer look at what I use and how much they cost...

Illamasqua Cream Blush -  £9.00 - I absolutely love this blush and I use it every day. The RRP is £18 but I got this when Illamasqua had their 50% off sale. This is the shade "Dixie".

MUA Highlighting Powder - £3.00 - I don't often use highlighters to be honest but I am trying to get in the habit of using them. I love this MUA one, and I actually prefer it to the more expensive ones like Benefit High Beam.

Lancome Teint Idole Foundation - £27.50 -  Oh, I cannot say how much I love this foundation! It is on the expensive side, but it isn't comparable to any other foundation in my opinion. It's just the best and is so beautiful to wear.

Rimmel Wake Me Up Concealer - £5.49 - This is a recent purchase. I am constantly trying out new concealers. I am completely paranoid about my undereye area. This one is probably the nicest one I have tried so far for under the eyes.

MAC Prep & Prime Line Filler - £16.00 - I told you I was paranoid about my undereyes! I got this recently too and although it makes only a small improvement, it is a great product and leaves the skin silky smooth.

Urban Decay Naked Palette - £37.00 - I am so in love with this palette. All my other eyeshadows have been neglected since I got this! All the shades are excellent and I use them all. This was so worth the money, if you break it down it costs around £3.00 per shadow.

Art Deco Dip Eyeliner - £9.00 - This eyeliner is fab. I am terrible at using liquid eyeliners, but for whatever reason I can apply this no problem. The applicator is just the right size/shape for me, and the formula is just the best and lasts all day.

Art Deco Eyeshadow Base - £8.00 - Many bloggers recommended I get this to prolong eyeshadow, so I went ahead and ordered it from BeautyBay.com and I have never looked back. It is, by far, the best eyeshadow base I have ever used (even better than Urban Decay Primer Potion, in my opinion). I use this every day I wear eyeshadow, and even after 12 hours of wear my eyeshadow still looks perfect.

Lancome Hypnose Star Mascara - £22.00 - I love this mascara so much! Sadly I am using the dregs of this one, I have put this mascara on my Christmas wish list though! I don't think I can go without it! What makes it so good, I think is the wand. It is just brilliant and it makes my lashes so long and full.

Essence Eyebrow Pencil - £1.50 - I have pretty horrid brows, but you can forget your fancy HD palettes and waxes, give me a brow pencil and I am a happy girl. This pencil is of an excellent quality and I wouldn't really bother spending any more than this when this one works so well for me!

EOS Lipbalm - £5.99 - Today, I cannot really be bothered wearing lipstick or anything that needs touching up! So long as my lips feel hydrated I will be happy enough. I am using my EOS which I love. The scent is lovely and the balm feels so nourishing. I wish they were tinted balms though, but nevermind. I ordered this one from Naturismo.

So the total is.... £144.48 .... I must say I am in total shock! I really didn't think it would be so much! Although this really is cheating, I should be dividing this amount by the number of times I will use these products, which will be many more times of course. But the final figure is quite shocking initially!

If you have done one of these posts, please leave me the link below because I would love to have a look!

I love IsaDora!

I first discovered IsaDora cosmetics about a year and a half ago, when a small stand appeared in my nearest Debenhams. I am not a big bronzer fan but having never came across a shade selection like this coupled with the generous sized compact, I could not resist it. The bronzer cost I think £25.00 and I really do love it. It just adds the nicest glow without being orange. There is an incredibly subtle shimmer in it, but you won't be running around like a glitterball. As you can see also, I have barely made a dent in this thing!

So, while on the lookout for a nice, everyday foundation I thought I would give IsaDora another go. This is their latest offering, Wake Up Make Up. I chose the shade Sand, which is the second lightest. It's a little too light for me at the moment, because I am wearing fake tan! But generally I save this one for those dreary mornings when I am heading out to work and I need something to make me look a little more alive! 

I am not really a fan of "glowy" foundations, and thankfully this isn't really one, but it does have skin brightening properties. It is incredibly lightweight and creamy, and it gives the most smoothest finish. Coverage is decent although luckily my skin has really been behaving itself lately and I don't really have any blemishes to hide. I got this for £16.00 which is apparently an introductory offer. I am not sure of the RRP.

So...during one of my regular visits to Debenhams this weekend I once again wandered past the IsaDora stand. Thanks to the wonderful sales lady there I ended up with this gorgeous little purse with three nail polishes in here!

 I am a massive fan of IsaDora Sugar Crush, which I wore basically every day over summer. I have not tried any other polishes from this brand but I am majorly impressed with these three! Gold Sparkles is the most beautiful shade ever. I have never tried crackle polishes before so of course I had to give it a go to try and recreate the leopard print look!

I just did my ring fingers as an accent nail alongside Barry M Grapefruit, I think it looks really well!


So, with my small collection of IsDora cosmetics, I have to say I think they are an incredible brand and are reasonably priced too. The only thing is that I cannot seem to find anywhere that sells IsaDora online, and I know that they do not feature in every Debenhams. If you are lucky enough to have an IsaDora stand near you, I highly recommend you check them out, I guarantee you won't be disappointed!

Why oh Why did I snub this palette for so long?!

I never used to wear neutral shades on my eyes. I was of the opinion that brown toned shades did not flatter blue eyes so I stuck mostly to greys, purples and pinky shades. There has been so much hype over the Urban Decay Naked palette, I used to think "pah, why would I want 12 shades of brown?!" which I know is kind of an ignorant thing since I knew nothing about the Naked palette anyway.

But lately...I have really experimented and I do enjoy wearing a neutral eye makeup. I don't really have many neutral shades in my collection though. I was searching for a great palette but kept coming back to the Naked palette. I don't know why I thought there were just brown shades in here. There are creams, pinks, purples, golds, greys. It is everything you could ever want in a palette.

I chose the original Naked palette because I felt it had the most variety of colours. I looked at the Naked 2 but I felt there were a lot of shades within the palette that were very similar.

Naked does of course come with a sample of Primer Potion and a flat eyeshadow brush. The Primer Potion is quite good but the consistency feels a lot thinner than my ArtDeco eyeshadow base which I love. I still prefer the ArtDeco.

The flat eyeshadow brush is kind of stiff and I don't think it picks up and disburses the eyeshadows as nice as my Real Techniques brushes do.

Most of the eyeshadows are shimmery which is really nice and any neutral look you create with these can never look boring! My opinion has totally changed and I am delighted with this palette. The packaging it quite sturdy and classic looking. The quality of the shadows is second to none.

Here is just a little look I created using the shades Naked, Sidecar, Buck, Darkhorse and Virgin.

I never used to like the brand Urban Decay but I have no doubt that their eyeshadows are of a superior quality and they really present their products well. I would love to try more from the Naked range, like the Shimmering Powder and of course the nail polishes!

OPI "The Amazing Spider-Man" Mini Collection

I had no idea OPI had a Spider-Man collection until I was browsing Amazon one night. I am quite a big fan of the Spiderman films, of course I could not resist these pretty polishes!

 L-R: Into the Night, Number One Nemesis, Just Spotted the Lizard, Your Web or Mine

 So the only one I have tried so far is "Just Spotted the Lizard", which is a greeney blue gold. I never knew there was such a colour!

The mini OPI bottles are a bit fiddley to use but I thought this polish applied excellently and I cannot wait to try out the other shades. I did not really expect this one to look so "gold" on the nail.

There is one other polish from the Spiderman collection which I really want and did not come in the set, "Call Me Gwenever" which is a lovely orange shade.

I'll definitely post more pics when I try out the other polishes!

My Blush Collection!

I do love a nice blush on my cheeks. These are the products I currently have in my collection. I have tried many over the years but you will notice they are all of a similar colour. I have definitely found the shade that I think suits me and that I wear every day. So here is what I have...

 Catrice - "Gone With the Wind" 

This is from the Catrice Fabulous 40s collection, named after my favourite novel/film of all time! It is a pinky, corally shade that I love. It is matte too. I absolutely adore this one, I wore it quite a lot during summer and I think it is the most natural, flattering shade.

 Illamasqua Cream Blush "Dixie"

I got this in the 50% off sale Illamasqua had a few months ago. It was purely an impulse buy to try something by Illamasqua and only pay half the price. Their cream blushes were recommended to me and I chose this shade as it is just very "me". At first I was kind of disappointed by it, then I started using it with my Real Techniques stippling brush which I think is the best way to apply it. I think this is brilliant, it is currently my only cream blush and this is the one which I use pretty much every day as it is so quick and easy to apply while I'm getting ready for work!

 No.7 "Soft Damson"

I got this one in a goodie bag at the recent Cocoa Brown Afternoon Tea. I was a little apprehensive as the shade has kind of a lilac tone to it, which is not something I would usually wear. I find this one looks best when I am not wearing fake tan and have paler skin. It turns out a very pale pink colour and looks so sweet. It feels so silky soft too.

 Benefit "Hervana"

This once well loved blush has been neglected in my make up drawer for I'd say close to a year. I used to love Benefit cosmetics. I don't really anymore. This blush cost me over £20.00 and while it is nice it is definitely not worth the money. I loved it for its peachy tones but it is definitely not something I would repurchase in the future.

Lancome Blush Subtil "Nectar Lace"

I think I have saved the best for last! This is the pride and joy of all of my blushes. This one is a real standout. This blush is the most corally, shimmery blush ever and I adore it. I try to only use this one I guess on special occasions or if I am going somewhere nice. I don't consider this an everyday blush. It looks fantastic on and the contour and highlight shades are fabulous too.


How many blushes do you have in your collection? Which one is your favourite?

My new Sephora palette! A first look

I think everyone in Ireland wishes we had Sephora here! But I saw this cute little palette online (eBay) and I thought I would treat myself. I rarely order makeup online as I am always afraid it will get smashed while in transit, but thankfully this palette arrived safe and sound.

This is the Sephora Breast Cancer Awareness palette. I really do not know much about this product. I believe it was released some time last year.

It contains 36 eyeshadows, 12 lip glosses and 6 blushes. There is such a variety in here! There are shimmery and matte shades in the eyeshadows. I cannot yet comment on the quality or pigmentation of these as I have not used them yet!

The lip glosses

 Blushes

The only thing that surprised me about this little palette is how small it it! Here it is next to a Sleek palette. As you can see the eyeshadow pans are only about half the size of the Sleek ones! I guess if I find a shade I like it may not last very long!

So that is a first look at what I think is a very cute and fun palette. I am sure I will be posting many a makeup look using this palette very soon. I cannot wait to play around with all of the shades!