Budget Friendly Christmas Ideas - Fragrance

Just an idea for those of you on a strict budget this year.

Often around Christmas a lot of fragrance brands package their products into gift sets which cost very little if not the same as the original product, so you effectively get a shower gel or body lotion for example, for just a few pounds or even free. 

If you are on a tight budget why not split the set up and give it to a few different people. Your boyfriend/husband might want a particular aftershave this year but in reality probably isn't overly fussed about paring up his shower gel to match. Find a nice box for the aftershave then wrap the shower gel up and use as a stocking filler for your teenage son or brother etc. Or save until a post-Christmas birthday gift when money is even harder to come by. Your mum might have asked for a perfume, save the body lotion for her birthday if it's in the following few months.

You get the idea. It's just a small way to make your money stretch that little bit further. Yes the perfume won't come boxed but most people, particularly immediate family who will understand your financial situation, probably aren't that bothered and if you wrap it well enough probably won't even notice. If you are buying a higher end product most of them may even offer to wrap the gift box in branded tissue or paper. Accept this then you can always carefully unwrap and there will be enough to re-wrap the smaller perfume bottle.

Time To Get Back Up & Running

I feel now is finally the right time to get back on my blogging feet. Looking back, I started this blog and making videos at a time where I couldn't commit to it and, while it gave me something to aim for back then, my own expectations of what I could manage to do were unrealistic.

Things are slowly getting back to normal. While this still isn't my top priority I can now put more into it than I was able to do a few months ago and so blogging service shall be resumed very soon.

I originally wanted to get back to blogging and making videos before Halloween as this is the time of year I usually enjoy being more creative. However this year I had quite a busy few weeks, catching up with friends I hadn't been able to see for a while due to being ill and doing another friend's wedding makeup, as well as keeping my own life balanced. I'm hoping to be able to do a few things coming upto Christmas, blogging is something I'm definitely going to aim for, making videos will perhaps be a little more tricky.

I'm currently in the process of re-arranging and re-decorating my room, it has been a slow process over the last few months and will continue to be as with it being my parent's house my dad wants to do the decorating, but we have just found out that he has a torn tendon in his shoulder so needs surgery. Everything is on hold right now but once I get my room organised a little better with my new furniture I should be able to crack on with the videos.

I'm super excited to get back to doing this as it was good fun and I got some good feedback from people. I'm off now to jot down some ideas for upcoming posts so hopefully I will have something for you soon.

TTFN

xx

I Finally Got My Hands On This Beauty...

 

The Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette.

I have been wanting to try a Naked Palette for years, since the first one came out, I just couldn't justify paying so much money in one go. Finally I decided to go out and buy one after getting my hands on some Debenhams vouchers.

I went for the Naked 2 over the original Naked Palette because the shades were generally a lot cooler, which I feel will suit my skin tone better. The packaging also seemed much more sturdy, the Naked 2 being a tin that closes securely, the original being of the older style Urban Decay Palettes with a fabric finish that would tend to get dirty rather quickly and a magnetic lid which is a less secure.

In the palette you get 12 eye shadows, a double ended synthetic brush and a mini lip gloss. I expected to get a mini Primer Potion as in the original palette, being an eye palette and all, so the lip gloss was a surprise, but it's actually a really nice gloss. It's a natural shade that would suit any skin tone, not sticky and has a gorgeous mint choc vanilla scent/taste. It's marketed as a plumping formula and it does have a light tingling sensation but I can't say I noticed any difference in the appearance of my lips. But I didn't buy this for the gloss...

The eye shadows themselves are very soft and highly pigmented. As with all Urban Decay eye shadows there is some fall down so the best way to apply these is to press them onto the lid rather than sweep them on, then blend as needed. There are three matte shades in the palette including a matte black which is always a good thing to have.

I will hopefully get around to doing a full review and maybe even include some looks I create using the palette once I've worked with it a little more. I'm super excited to have a play about with this and find what combinations of the colours work best.

xx

A Bit Of A Blip

I'm not going to make this a long post, to put it bluntly I've been pretty crap and non committal with the whole blogging and vlogging thing. It's something I do enjoy but my head just hasn't been in the right place to be doing this lately.

For those of you who don't know, I have a health type blog too, although I don't really update that either. I may start to work on that more now though, maybe just a daily diary type thing as I feel it may help my current situation. Without going into masses of detail I have so much going on health wise right now this blog is really low on the list of priorities. If you want to check out my other blog click here.

I am going to have another crack at beauty blogging and videos. Make-up is my passion but I have lost my way a little. It was probably a bad time to start up something like this and I really hope those of you that do read this haven't lost interest. I promise things will improve :)

Thanks for all of your support. I'm approaching 2000 page views and although that doesn't sound like much it means a lot to me that people do read my posts.

xx

Love of the Week #2 - Seche Vite Top Coat

So I was meant to be doing these every Sunday but yesterday I uploaded my July Favourites video (click here to be taken to that video) so I missed out on it. So you are going to have to have it today instead.

It isn't quite as exciting as a car this week but it's damn good in its own right.

I have been searching for a good top coat for a long time now. I've tried many in the past, most recently a China Glaze and a Sally Hansen one. Both did the job but neither impressed me. 

I had heard the hype around the Seche Vite top coat for some time, but hyped up products usually disappoint me and I couldn't see what difference there would be between this and something like China Glaze.

Nail polish takes forever to dry on me and I have zero patience. I have been known to spend a whole three hours attempting to paint my nails only to smudge them and redo them and then after the whole ordeal is over I hate them and remove the lot or smudge them some more. Or they just never dry. Painting my nails was becoming a chore I had to set aside a whole evening to do, and even then the next morning I would wake up with finger prints in them.

I gave in and bought the Seche Vite top coat from Sally's as a trade customer as it was cheaper than Boots. I almost bought it from Boots a few days before but luckily I held off. That said, I would be more than happy to pay the £9 Boots are charging for this product. The first time I tried it I couldn't believe it. By the time I had finished painting top coat on just one hand the first finger I had painted was touchable. I even pressed very gently into the polish and no finger print or smudge appeared. Within 5-10 minutes I could fully press on the nails and they were completely dry. With my other top coats I couldn't have done that until the next day.

Amazing!

Tonight I re-painted my nails. This time I didn't wait in between coats for them to dry. I layered on three (yes three!) coats of nail strengthener (two of O.P.I Nail Envy, one of Sally Hansen's Hard as Nails - I have the most brittle and weak nails currently and I'm desperate to change that), then two coats of Maybelline Colour Show nail polish in Nebline, a lovely pale pink shade, then a thickly applied coat of the Seche Vite. Almost instantly they were touch dry and within 10 minutes I have completely dry nails. Painting my nails will never be a chore again.

I can't comment too much on how the top coat prevents chipping and if it makes the polish last longer. As I have said before, polish doesn't seem to last well on me and often peels away from the nail rather than chipping, but with it being this easy to paint my nails now I will probably just re-paint them a different shade every couple of days anyway.

If you hate waiting for your nails to dry invest in this stuff. I've never known anything like it. It leaves the most smooth and glossy finish to the nails and the speed in which it dries them is beyond belief. It really is a stand out product and I totally and utterly agree with the hype surrounding this product. I would love to try some of their nail treatments to repair my damaged nails.

Seche Vite top coat is available in Boots for £9.00 

xx

July Favourites

Today's post is just a very short one to say that my July Favourites video is now up here. Please click the link and go and check it out.

Admittedly it isn't the best quality video, I did actually end up filming this and my ELF haul three times, the first the light was far too bright on one side, there was too much noise filtering in from my loud mouth neighbour who spends all day shouting at her dog and I was so unused to filming after leaving it so long I was failing at speaking the English language successfully.

The second time I was so flustered from failing the first time that it was just an immediate fail.

The third and final time I just decided to film one evening, but unfortunately the lighting was terrible. I was aware that this would be the case but I was feeling much more confident about filming and I felt like if I didn't just take the plunge I would give up and never pick it back up again. Yes, the video quality is pretty shocking, but it's up, it's done, and the ELF haul will be just as bad, but I don't feel as daunted about filming another video in better conditions because I feel a little bit more comfortable being back in front of the camera again.

With that in mind please do take a look at the video as it would mean a lot to me.

xx

ELF Matte Nail Polish Top Coat: First Impressions

I have taken a day or two off posting to film videos and also because I haven't been feeling too well. But here is today's offerings.

I ordered a few products from ELF last week (full video and blog post will be up next week) but I thought I would give you my first impressions on the ELF matte nail polish top coat, because in all honesty it was a disappointment.

Firstly I will say I could be using this wrongly. I tested it out over a Maybelline Colour Show nail polish, maybe it is only compatible with a matte polish or even only ELF's own nail polishes. However, I would have expected this to be suitable for use over any nail polish to create a matte rather than glossy finish.

The results were not good, in fact they were so bad I had to immediately remove the nail polish. I applied the polish then used the top coat and it instantly cracked the Maybelline nail polish as shown in the photograph. Such a disappointment. 

I will, of course, try this over different polishes, including ELF's own and let you know whether I have a more successful result.

On a side note, I have discovered the most amazing glossy top coat EVER and I will blog about this very soon. I say discovered, it's well known in the beauty community as an amazing top coat but it's taken me a long time to try it as I never understood the hype around it. Afterall, a top coat is a top coat right, and I have a few including Sally Hansen and China Glaze, both respected polish brands. No, not at all. But that is another blog post...

xx