MAC Holiday Collection 2013 | Stroke of Midnight

Ever since 2011, it's turned into a tradition that I put money away to buy a few things from MAC's holiday collections. I like to get my limited edition MAC things from Selfridges because they usually release them sooner than MAC's website and I can get them before they sell out. As of writing this blog post, everything I show is still available.

So let's take a moment to admire the packaging since that's just as important as the product! This year they've gone with a black, white and gold theme which I think looks very holiday glamorous. I usually prefer silver to gold but I think it ties in nice with the theme. The face palette I bought is a shiny black plastic but I don't think it looks cheap. The other products come in beautiful black satin bags with a gold zipper and a chunky black zip tab that says 'MAC' in gold writing. These make up bags feel so nice and could also double up as a clutch, especially the lip and cheek bag which zips but also folds over with a magnetic popper.

Let's start with the priciest item: the lip and cheek bag which I bought in the colour 'pink'. This version is limited to department stores whereas you can only buy 'coral' on the MAC website. 

 

This kit will set you back £50. It comes with full sized lipstick, lipgloss, travel blush, brush and a compact mirror.

                                                                    Blush in 'formal'

 

from left to right: lipstick in 'how darling!', lipglass in 'soft spoken'

and blush in 'formal'

 travel sized brush '129' 

the same brush but the left one is from the 2011 holiday collection

It disappoints me about the holiday brushes as they are not to the standard of the normal handmade brushes. I don't know if the left brush has had more time to fan out, but they don't look like the same brush and it's a let down.

Next up is the face palette in 'cool' £42. It comes with an iridescent powder in 'sparkling rosé', three eyeshadows, two lipsticks and an eyeliner.

 

1. lipstick 'sublime pleasure' 2. lipstick 'romantically inclined' 3. iridescent powder 'sparkling rosé'

4. eye kohl 'ebony' 5. eyeshadow 'all races' 6. eyeshadow 'scene' 7. eyeshadow 'magic moor' 

Next is the lip bag in 'violet' £32

I think these colours are perfect for winter.

from left to right: lipstick in 'dark deed', the same lipstick but sheered out, lip pencil in 'vino' (permanent) and cremesheen glass in 'art of seduction'.

Last but not least, the eye bag in 'gold', £39.50

                        This set comes with a paint pot, fluidline, mascara and dual ended brush.

 

'in extreme dimension' mascara 

 

'genuine treasure' paint pot and 'blitz & glitz' fluidline

 

when swatched genuine treasure is very sheer but packed with gold glitter, I think it'd look beautiful over a black base. 

 dual ended brush, left side '239' and right side 209

 Love this collection but now I have no money left! haha. I heard about the venomous villain collection coming out next year with but with just malificent this time, so I'll be saving my pennies for that :)

✎ Tip Tuesdays #2

Hi everyone! :)

Today I've brought back my Tip Tuesdays that I planned on starting a long time ago. I've not been very well recently and this was the best I could do under the circumstances.

My tip is about how to properly apply under eye concealer without making your dark circles or bags stand out. Here's the video:





Thank you for watching/reading and I hope I will be feeling better soon so I can make more videos.

July 2013 Favourites ♥

So I'm trying to get back into the swing of making videos and to start off, I thought I'd make a July favourites.

I've been loving the DKNY be delicious perfume as it's nice and fresh for the summer time.

 This is the mac powder I was talking about in my video. It's the Studio Careblend powder and I have the colour light plus. When I bought it, they were sold out of 'light' and being as pale as I am I didn't trust the make up artist when she suggested the light plus. However after trying it on, it's not much of a difference between the light version and it gives me a bit of colour.

 I carry this little beauty everywhere with me; in my pocket at work, in my bag and on my bedside table. The honey and milk version isn't my absolute favourite (the hydro care one is) but it's moisturising on my lips and feels really smooth. It also smells just like honey!

 I've had this brush for years! I can't find a link to it anywhere so unfortunately I don't know if they still make it. I love how it is soft but dense and doesn't pick up too much product. This is the brush I use for all my powders.

 The Rimmel apocalips is one of the nicest lip products I've ever tried. It's velvety smooth on my lips and Nova is a beautiful pinky mauve colour. I really want to try other colours in this range and I will possibly do a proper review on these once I collect a few.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed watching the video :)

OPI Can't Find My Czechbook

I've been loving the Euro Centrale collection from OPI lately. One of my favourite colours from the collection is Can't Find My Czechbook which is a pale, but bright baby blue colour - perfect for summer!  

I also like to add an extra something by putting the glitter polish from the same collection on my ring finger. It's called Polka Dot Com and is a clear base with purple and blue glitter particles. 

 

Have you got any favourite colours for summer? :)

A Little Adventure.

 In case anyone hasn't seen my instagram pictures of my Granny's dog. This is him! His name is Laddy and my gran adopted him about 6 months ago as his owner died of cancer. He's got the sweetest nature and is really well trained.

I always take him on long walks through woods near my house and this time I brought my camera as I thought the scenery was stunning. Here's a few photos I'd like to share with you all.

Rainbow Cheetah Nails!

I painted my nails this rainbow cheetah pattern a while ago but I thought I would still share it, as I love the way it came out :)

I like how bright and unique they look. A guy at the train station actually asked me if I'd painted my nails like the candy crush game haha.

For the colours I used:

-white: OPI alpine snow
-black: just a regular black nail art pen
-yellow: OPI fiercly fiona
-blue: OPI can't find my czcheckbook
-darker blue: OPI ogre the top blue
-lilac: OPI you're such a budapest
-darker purple: OPI pamplona purple
-pink OPI strawberry margarita

I painted my nails white for the base, then dotted all the colours listed above in a random order. I then took my black nail art pen (can't remember the brand) and drew C shapes around the coloured dots, not being too particular if it looked perfect. Lastly if there was any bare white sections, I added a few black dots here and there to finish off the look. I didn't use a top coat this time because I find even after a night of drying, the top coat still smears the black colour. 
 
Thanks for reading!

♥ Spring Wish List ♥

 

Blouse - Internationale | Necklace - Internationale | Barry M Nailpaint - Peach Melba | Nars Lipgloss - Turkish Delight | Dress - Missguided | Wedges - New Look | OPI - You're Such a Budapest

This is my spring wish list for 2013. I'm starting to really like pastel colours which is strange for me as I'm such a black clothes type of person. Since making this wish list I have actually purchased the pink blouse and necklace so maybe it will be featured in a haul or something. Looking at my wish list makes me really excited for spring and summer, especially when I don't get that excitement from looking out at the snow! 

I really like the OPI Euro Centrale collection and hope to get a few polishes including 'you're such a budapest'

What's on your spring wish list?

✭ Review ✭ Soap and Glory Scrub Your Nose In It

                                Soap & Glory Scrub Your Nose In It 125ml


For Christmas I received the Soap and Glory face scrub and I was instantly excited to try it as I love Soap and Glory products.

When you squeeze a small amount of the product out it's a blue-green colour and smells minty and refreshing. The instructions say to concentrate most of the product on your t-zone area and then spread the remaining scrub on the rest of your face.

Once or twice a week, I like to leave it on for a few minutes longer than usual for it to act as a face mask.

After rinsing the scrub off, my skin feels smooth and rejuvenated. For those of you who didn't know, I have very dry skin especially this time of year and I can get a bit flaky around my nose and forehead area.  This scrub helps with this problem a lot. Although I wouldn't say it gets completely rid of the flakes, I feel a lot more confident after using it and it reduces them dramatically.

I reckon this product will last me a long time because three months later, I'm not even halfway through the tube. I will always adore Soap and Glory and can't wait to try more products of theirs.

What's your favourite Soap and Glory product?

Cute Phone Accessory

As you may or may not know, I am a huge bunny fan! Give me anything with rabbits on it and I'll instantly love it!

I recently saw all these cute 'dust plugs' to protect the hole where you put your ear phones into your phone. I thought this was a practical and cool idea so I bought one from a seller on ebay and of course it had to be a bunny one. Click here for a link to the seller I used. It came beautifully packaged and shipping was fast!

It's a bit bigger than I thought but I still love it. My only complaint would be that the actual bunny is a bit heavy for the plastic rod and I'm worried it'll snap. It was less than a fiver though so I'm not too bothered.



You can get these dust plugs in all shapes and sizes, including a starbucks cup!

                                                      (source)

Nails of the Week: 23/1/13

Hi guys! so as promised, here is the first post in the series: Nails of the Week :)

My nails are OPI Die Another Day. It's a shimmery red colour with a hint of orange. It's very pigmented for a shimmery colour as I usually find with opi, they are more sheer. I could get away with one coat if I wanted but in the picture I used two. 

(with flash)

I've had this colour on for around a week and it's only just starting to chip at the tips which is amazing as there was no top coat on it. The wearability is pretty decent.

Thanks for reading and I hope you will enjoy my nails of the week series :)