Sale and Beauty Haul..

I am a saleaholic. As soon as I hear or see sales, I have to venture in to the stores, even if it's a store I don't normally go into, yano just in case you spot a bargain. So imagine my glee when I found out about my favourite store River Island's 50% sale. Heaven. So I thought I would show you what I purchased, along with a couple of items from George at Asda's sale and a few beauty buys/magazine freebies!!

So let us start with River Island sale, I have over 50 dresses so I banned myself from purchasing anything but daywear..

£10.00 £5.00

£12.00 £6.00

£16.00 £8.00

£20.00 £10.00

£15.00 £5.00

Apple Ring £12.00 £4.00

Owl Ring £4.00 £2.00

LOVE Bracelet £3.00 £1.00

Trio of rings (Dorothy Perkins) £2.00

Now for good old George for Asda...

£12.00 £5.00

£8.00 £4.00

Now for my beauty buys and freebies, I bought three nail polishes, a lipstick, a mascara, an eyeshadow and a palette and got free with this month's Glamour magazine and Marie Claire, the Balance me Lip Salve, Balance Me wonder eye cream and Avon's Supershock MAX mascara..

Lipstick - Miss Beauty UK No4 Nude - £1.00

Avon Supershock Max Mascara - free with Marie Claire Magazine

Natural Collection LashLength Mascara - £1.99 (3 for £5)

Natural Collection Eyeshadow in Asteroid - £1.99 (3 for £5)

Balance Me Rose Otto Intensive Lip Salve - free with Glamour Magazine

17 Peepshow Eye Palette - £1.49

Natural Collection Nail Polish in Lunar Haze - £1.99 (3 for £5)

Balance Me Wonder Eye Cream - free with Glamour Magazine

George Nail Polish in Witchcraft - £1

George Nail Polish in Swoosh - £1

Sorry for such a long post!! I was going to do a video for this but chickened out at the last minute!! Did anyone else get any good bargains in the River Island sale?????

What's in my bag?

My major guilty pleasure of blogs are 'What's in my bag?' posts. Therefore whilst cleaning out my bag of all the rubbish I had in it, I thought what better time than to do one of my own!!

Nude and Gold Bag

I got this bag in the Primark sale for just £5 and I love it, it is the perfect size and can fit so much in it. I used it as my flight bag when I flew to Tunisia.

Fifty Shades Freed

When I first heard about these books, I wasn't that fussed about reading them. But as popularity grew, I thought I'd jumped on the bandwagon. I loved the first two, but struggling to get into this one.

Vaseline Rosy Lips

I have an addiction to Vaseline as think it's such an affordable and multi use beauty buy. I love that this has a pink tint so don't need to dry out lips with lipsticks or glosses.

Garnier BB Cream sample

I keep meaning to try this as I've heard BB creams are better for those with oily skin, so keep carrying it around hoping that one day I'll use it!!

Blackberry Curve 8520

Over the last 2 years I have LOVED my blackberry, BBM was my obsession but knowing my upgrade is next week, I have to have the serious think as to whether to continue with a Blackberry or convert to the iPhone crew. Help?!?

Pen

MAC Dazzleglass - Baby Sparks

I love glosses waaaaay over lipsticks (I only own 2 lipsticks), so I always carry a gloss. This one is such a soft neutral pink, it goes with everything.

Comb

Keys

Sure Deodrant in Clear Pure

I don't like to smell, therefore deodrant is a must!!

FCUK Purse

This was a TK Maxx bargain, it's cute and can fit everything I need in.

Soap and Glory Hand Food

My favourite ever hand lotion, working with cardboard boxes a lot and moving stock around can really cause my hands to get dry so this is an essential for me. Plus it smells beaut too :)

Various vouchers

Gok Wan prescription sunglasses.

I don't know why but I feel a bit embarrassed over having Gok Wan sunglasses but they're beautiful and help me see better. Score!!

Payslip

Bank Book

Batteries

The Hungry Caterpillar Tissues

Pandora Bracelet

I love my Pandora bracelet and every single charm means soo much to me. Everytime I'm down, I look at it and remember all the good times and how I'm so lucky to have people who care about me.

Mwah xxx

June Favourites

If I'm honest, I haven't really tried anything new and exciting this month to be able to really have a lot of favourites, so this is going to be a short and sweet post!!

This month, I went away to Tunisia as you can see in the post here. Thanks to my lucky mama, I tried Avon's After Sun Shimmer Tan Enhancer. It adds an amazing shimmer to your tan and really prolongs it. My tan has only just started to fade and I've been home just over two weeks. Perfect! It's quite cheap, I got it in the sale for only £4!! The smell isn't great, but doesn't stink and as long as you wear perfume you can't really notice it!!

Next up is a bit of a bargain nail varnish, I've been searching for a nice glitter polish for quite a while, but all of the ones I've seen so far that I like have been quite pricey which I can't afford at the minute. Therefore I was delighted when I saw Rimmel's I Love Lasting Finish Nail Polish in 'Disco Ball' for only £2 in Wilkinsons. I don't think you'd be able to wear it without a base coat of another colour, but it looks gorgeous, lately I've loved it over Barry M's Vivid Purple 161.

I've also been loving MUA's makeup. Previously an undiscovered treasure, I have been constantly checking into my local Superdrug to see if they've been getting the Undressed palette yet. Until I get a chance to snap that up, I have been loving Shade 12 eyeshadow. It is such a gorgeous gun metal grey, perfect for any smokey eye look! I've used it as a dark and light shade in my Emma Stone tutorial here.


Saving the best until last my ultimate June favourite has been my boyfriend and more or less moving in with him. We recently celebrated our 6 month anniversary and there are just no words to describe how happy I am at the moment. This month I've often just stopped to look and appreciate my gorgeous man, who is so supportive in everything I do and I know I wouldn't of been able to get through these last few months without him. He's my everything, and I can't wait to share many a fun moment with him together in our new home. I love him and he puts the smile on my face...

  

Emma Stone Inspired Look.. (My first tutorial, feedback welcome and needed!!)

Okay, so Emma Stone normally goes for the understated look and is very much a fan of the nudes and pastels.. However, I absolutely loved her dramatic metallic look for the 2012 Golden Globes. So here I show you how I managed to get this look using all 'drugstore' brands so it is cheap and affordable and hopefully you guys like it! Sorry about the poor quality pictures, I am saving up monies for a new camera so for not I am using my boyfriend's beloved iPhone!!

 

First I applied a base of Bourjois's Healthy Mix foundation in shade 52 Vanilla. I also used Rimmel's Wake Me Up Concealer in shade True Ivory. I love these products as it's not easy to find pale shades that really life the skin tone and make it look vibrant without looking like Casper!! (Or am I just looking in the wrong places).





Next I used an eyeliner to emphasise the outer and inner corners of my eyelids. The liner I used was Rimmel's Exaggerate Waterproof Eye Definer in 261 Noir. I love this eyeliner as it's more of a crayon than a pencil which makes it perfect for blending and creating a dramatic look..





Next I went over this with MUA's shadow Shade 12 which is like a shiny gunmetal black/grey. I applied it very heavily over where the eyeliner had been, then just lightly in the middle of the eyes to create the two-tone effect with just the one shadow.





I then went over the eyeliner again and curled my eyelashes. The mascara I used was Maybelline's The Falsies Volum' Express Black Drama. I don't know what it is about this mascara but I love it, and it has always been my go to mascara which I always keep as a fail safe. Again, I focussed this on the outer and inner corners of my eye.


Finally I added a peachy baked blush, Tesco's own brand Vivo in shade 1 - Peaches and cream. Only £4 and seems to last forever so definitely a bargain and can pick it up when picking my groceries up, double score!!! Finally I used Vaseline's Rosy Lips to set the look and sweeped by hair into a low side chignon, securing with some hair ties.

Hopefully you like my look and maybe soon I'll try making videos

Staying bronzed...

I love being tanned as much as the next Northern girl, so when I've been on holiday I am determined to maintain my tan for as long as possible!! So I just thought I'd give you a run down of some of the products I use to gain and maintain a bronzed body as well as some little tips that I find help me personally!!!

Firstly and most importantly is use a good sun lotion. Always use the SPF that is correct for you. There is nothing more dangerous (and unattractive) about burning. Your tan won't thank you for it and neither will your appearance in 10 years time!! Personally I use Piz Buin's Tan Intensifier cream. It's a real bargain at only £3.99 in Home Bargains and I feel it really does help my tan. As I am quite fair skinned, I always use SPF 15.

Next is a good after sun product! This holiday I discovered Avon's After Sun Shimmer Tan Enhancer (£4.00 in the sale, originally £7.00). I don't think I noticed whether the tan enhancer part of this worked, however it does have a slight shimmer to it which just makes you sparkle especially while it's still light outside on a night! Perfect for making your body look glorious and shimmery!!

I'm a massive scrubaholic. I love using body and facial scrubs as I believe they are the best way to make sure your skin is healthy and glowing with or without a tan. My personal favourite is Scrub of your Life from Soap and Glory. Whilst on holiday, I took the travel version which ended up lasting more than the week, so you don't need a lot. It stops your tan getting patchy and ensures all the dead skin is scrubbed away!

Moisturising is always key to a good tan. Although I use after sun whilst on holiday, I also use a moisturiser as it really sinks into your skin maintaining your skin's shine. I love Soap and Glory's The Righteous Butter which smells divine as well as being a great product.

Always wax/epilate over shaving when trying to maintain a natural tan. Shaving can remove dead skin cells, which can also removes your tan. My epilating/waxing you're focussing primarily on the hairs, so your skin (and ergo your tan) is left alone!!

But my number one tip for having a bronzed beautiful body.... FAKE IT!!! There's a wide range of false tans out there with my personal favourites being St Moriz Instant Self Tanning Mousse (£3.99) and St Tropez's Self Tan Bronzing Spray (£17.49). Both of these tans develop over a few hours then wash them off for an all over bronzed glow!


Mwah xxx

Holidays and OotH...

I know I haven't blogged recently (well for the last month) and I'm so sorry, just with going on holiday then moving house it's been quite crazy so haven't had time to sit down and get blogging. However, I just thought I would share with you guys some of my holiday snaps and a OotH (Outfit of the Holiday)!

So I went to Tunisia with my Mam for a week as a kind of 'You've finished your master's' reward. I don't get to see my Mam a lot so it was sooo nice to spend a full week just us girls.

So when we got to the hotel (at 1am may I add) there was a lovely salad waiting for us.

We were staying all inclusive so just stayed on the beach during the day and round the terrace bar on the night.. A few of my outfits are shown below....The dress in the middle (floral drop hem dress, £17 Primark) was definitely my OotH though. Felt so beautiful in it and fit perfectly!!!

During the day it got up to about 34 degrees celsius (which is about 93 farenheit I think), what a lovely view we had on the beach and we even saw a few camels!!

All and all a fantastic holiday :) I promise I will get back to blogging again!!

Mwah xxx

May Favourites and over £20 giveaway...

So the end of another month and another favourites post!! Been soo much to choose from so chose my top 6 products and hopefully the ones I've left out I'll still love next month!! Anyhow, let's get going with the favourites!!


1. L'Oreal Colour Infallible in 002 Hourglass Beige. I've had this for quite a while but have always used trios or duos when applying eyeshadows as I like to blend lighter and darker colours. However, whilst having a clear out I discovered this and found just how beautiful it is! It's a loose powder, but has a stopper in the top to keep it pressed and the pigmentation is absolutely unbelievable! It stays on well even without a primer, and feels so soft and smooth on the skin!


2. Benefit They're Real Mascara. Now I'm quite sceptical about mascaras as I have next to no eyelashes and don't want to waste money to have no effect.. I've been loving L'Oreal's Million Lashes mascara, but it's slowly getting to the bottom and I needed to replace it. I've heard so many people rave about this so thought I'd give it a shot and it's amazing!! It more than doubles my lashes and it looks like I'm wearing falsies even though I'm not! Exactly what you want :)


3. John Freida Radiant Red Shampoo. As an unnatural redhead, I have to do everything I can to maintain the colour as long as possible after dying it so as not to damage it too much by dying it too often. My hairdresser recommended this and it is unreal, I've never had a shampoo that makes my hair appear redder than when I went in the shower! It's so light to wash in and doesn't smell to bad!


4. All About Nails in Bellini. My bargain 99p Model's Own Tropical Sun dupe! It was 99p, it looks gorgeous on and it barely chipped before the 4th day, all in all a definite summer long favourite in this one!!! Full review can be found HERE


5. Soap and Glory The Righteous Butter. I love having a tan, fake or otherwise and it is a well known fact being moisturised is essential to maintain a good tan. I love this one as it's a body butter over a moisturiser as I feel they go further and last longer and since I get bad psoriasis breakouts, body butters are softer to the skin than normal moisturisers. 


6. MAC Viva Glam Gaga 2 lipstick. This is my first official MAC purchase and I think it will be the first of many! It's creamy and soft and the perfect nudey colour, as it is a darker nude which I favour over a pinky colour. Full review can be seen HERE




DON'T FORGET MY GIVEAWAY HERE. THE CONTENTS IS CURRENTLY WORTH £22 AND MAY BE GETTING MORE ADDED TO IT..


Here's to a great June!!! Mwah xx