ADVENT CALENDARS

The Christmas countdown is nearly upon us and it is now time to go out and get your treat-filled advent calendars! 

I've learnt to buy them before December as I recall my Christmas 5 years ago in Brighton where I went out looking for one on December 1st and they had all disappeared from the shelves! *Gasp*

Hence why it's mid-November and I'm all stocked up! *Phew!*

This year I have chosen to get a few different ones:

THE SWEET ONE:

Jelly Belly Advent Calendar £11.50

As a non lover of chocolate this one grabbed my attention as it's filled with 24 bags of Jelly Beans which is perfect for my sweet tooth. It has an image of Santa Claus made of jelly beans which almost looks like a pointillist artwork! I can't wait to open this one up!

THE BEAUTY ONE:

No7 Advent Calendar £35

Beauty Advent calendars have gained momentum in recent years and most come with ridiculous price tags namely the Benefit one which is £60! This soon left my wish list when I discovered that some of the windows have stuff like hairbands and cheap looking bracelets inside. 

Instead I have gone for No7's offering which I thought would double as a little pressie for my mum who uses No7 skincare. This one is great value for money as all the windows have a range of skincare, make-up, nail polishes and make-up brushes. Mum and I will share this one as I can have the make-up bits that she doesn't use. 

This one has 25 windows so you get a little pressie on Christmas day too!

If you want some more beauty advent calendar inspiration Cosmopolitan Magazine have a great link here! 

THE KITTY ONE:

Pets at Home Cat Advent Calendar £2

We shouldn't forget our furry friends when it comes to Christmas and for Daisy I have picked up the Pets at Home cat advent calendar. This one has catnip choc treats behind every window which I'm sure Daisy will enjoy!

THE ONE FOR THE HOME:

John Lewis Snowflake Advent Candle £8 

For the home I picked up an advent candle from John Lewis for us to burn during our cosy evenings in the living room. It is a white candle with beautiful silver snowflakes printed on it along with the numbered days along the length of the candle.

This really is my favourite time of the year and these calendars will add some more excitement to the month and after all who doesn't love a daily treat?

MANI MONDAY- METALLIC PLUM

Plums have really been on my nail radar this season which is a change from my usual bright pinks. 

This gorgeous colour from No7 fulfills my magpie-like cravings by having a lovely metallic finish and I decided to add a glittery gold accent nail to add some extra sparkle!

Products used:

No7 Stay Perfect Nail Colour in  Damson Dream £6.00

Mavala Nail Colour in 227 Sparkling Gold £4.75

Nails Inc Gel Effect Topcoat £12

 All of the above are available at larger Boots stores.

CUSTOM MAC PALETTE

After envying people's MAC eye shadow collection on Pinterest I decided to make my own MAC eye palette- what can I say, I'm easily influenced by pretty images!

 They are super easy to create online where you can buy the palette case and all the single pro-pan eye shadows to go inside. 

I went for a 4 pan palette and the lovely thing about these is that they slot in using magnets which makes them easy to remove and pop back in again. 

This is super handy if you want to change up the colours in the palette. 

The palette itself is reasonably priced at £5 and they come in different sizes from 2 shadows to 15!

Pro-Palette Eye shadow x4 can be bought here.

The shades I went for are :

Stars 'N' Rockets              All That Glitters

Pink Freeze                      Dazzlelight

Stars 'N' Rockets and Pink Freeze are purple / pink hues while All That Glitters and Dazzelight are great neutral shades. 

Now you might be wondering how I came to these choices seeing as there are loads and loads of colours and finishes to pick from. Well, I came across a picture on Pinterest that had every single shade available which led me to a blog post with all the info I needed. 

It is also easy to do a quick search of "MAC eyeshadow swatches" which will bring up many shades swatched on different skintones. 

The eyeshadow pans themselves cost £10 each and they slot into the palette holes with ease. So far I am enjoying using the palette as it's really clean and professional looking and the slim design makes it easy to pop into my make-up bag.

I'm already eyeing up more colours from the range...it seems that a girl can never have enough eyeshadow!

MANI MONDAY- VAMPY PLUM

As Autumn looms I decided to go to the dark side and use this lovely Nails Inc shade called St Martin's Lane. This is a deep wine shade that came out last winter but hasn't really seen the light of day as I am more of a bright nail kind of girl!

Products used:

• Nails Inc Hyde Park Base Coat- strengthens weak & bendy nails.
• Nails Inc polish in St Martin's Lane (no longer available to purchase) but the shades "Grosvenor Crescent" & "New Oxford Street" are similar plumy shades.
• Nails Inc "Kensington Caviar" Gel Effect Plumping Top Coat- creates a gel-like finish & helps prevent colour fading, chipping & breakage.
• Nails Inc Corrector Pen- to wipe away the many mistakes I made!
   

I definitely needed the corrector pen with this colour as my nails are short and as you can see my application ain't all that! haha

 I must say that I like this colour more than I thought I would and maybe I'll be tempted to wear shades like this more often and leave the pinks for the Summer time!

x Thanks for reading my lovelies! x

SEPHORA HAUL ♡ PART 2 ♡

As promised here is the second instalment of my Sephora haul with a variety of make-up goodies!

SEPHORA MOONSHADOW BAKED PALETTE-

IN THE TROPICS

This beautiful palette had been on my radar for months but it was always sold out *sad face*  but finally it was back in stock!
I can see why it was hard to get hold of and as bonus for waiting so long it was on sale! :D
 The colours are divine! You get a selection of gorgeous purple, bronze, gold and peachy shades that are all named after tropical islands/places like Bermuda, Fiji & Seychelles.

 These are baked eye shadows and they have decent pigmentation but there is a lot of fall out as you can see in the picture so before application I tap the brush on the back of my hand to get rid of the excess shadow.
 This is more of a summery palette colour-wise but there are some shades that I will be using as base shadows during the winter months. 

TOO FACED SWEETHEARTS PERFECT FLUSH BLUSH-

PEACH BEACH

This is my second Too Faced "Sweethearts" blush and I decided to purchase another shade as I liked the first one (candy glow) so much. I went for the shade "Peach Beach" which as the name suggests has 3 gorgeous peach shades to swirl together.
 It warms up my complexion beautifully and will be perfect for those pasty winter months that we have coming up.
 I really would recommend these blushes to everyone as they have a subtle shimmer (not glittery at all) that makes your cheeks glow.

TOO FACED CAT EYES PALETTE

As a lover of all things cat related I knew that this needed to be mine! What do you mean that's not good enough reason? 

I also love all of my Too Faced palettes and this one didn't disappoint! The packaging is super cute in their standard metal case with a tutorial inside on how to create 3 different looks that they call day, classic and fashion. You get 3 base shades, 3 crease shades and 3 liner shades that can be used with a wet or dry brush.

The shades have catty names like purr, meow, pussy cat and kitty glitter. Love Love Love!

 This a palette I can't wait to use and as you can see in the pic Daisy the cat approves!

BENEFIT SPEED BROW

CLINIQUE BOTTOM LASH MASCARA

As a lover of all things Benefit and Clinique I decided to re-purchase these two products that I always have in my make-up bag.
 The first is Benefit's "Speed Brow" which is a light brown brow gel that helps set your brows into their perfect shape and as an owner of ridiculously long brow hairs this is a must for me!

The second thing is the only product that I use on my lower lashes- Clinique's Lower lash mascara in Black. This is has been with me since it first came out a few years back and I love it as it has a small wand that is perfect to reach those little lashes without looking like a panda!

BEAUTY BLENDER

I gave into the hype and purchased the original Beauty Blender to see what all the fuss was about. After a few uses I can say that none of the dupes of this even compare!

Once damp this blends make-up beautifully and is really soft and bouncy on the skin.
I have been using this to blend out concealer underneath my eyes and I'm loving  it.
Definitely worth investing in! 

SEPHORA VIB ROUGE GIFT

As I might have mentioned Sephora is my all time favourite place to be in and every time I go state-side I end up having multiple trips into this magical store. For this reason I have acquired a Sephora VIB card which is a bit like a Boots Points card but instead of using the points to buy anything in store you get a selection of beauty gifts and samples to choose from.

This time round I was upgraded to a Rouge VIP which is the highest level available and this entitled me to this cute Benefit gift featuring the following deluxe samples:

Watt's Up

Lollitint

Hoola Bronzer

They're Real Mascara

Porefessional

I have most of these in full size so these are perfect  travel size goodies to save space in my make up bag!

The good thing about Sephora is that they now deliver to the UK meaning that my points won't go to waste! Whoop Whoop! 

 And there you have it, my last instalment of my Sephora haul! Have you tried any of these?

Let me know what you are loving!

FYI you can get everything apart from the Sephora Eye Palette in the UK either in department stores or online. 

Thanks for reading. X

MANI MONDAY- CLINIQUE A DIFFERENT NAIL ENAMEL

Today's nail look has been created using a little Clinique freebie polish that I got a few months ago. Clinique claims that this is an allergy free polish suitable for the most sensitive of skins. I think that this is the colour "Happy" although it doesn't say the shade on the bottle. 

The polish goes on really smoothly without going gloopy and dries to a super glossy finish.
A cute accent nail with polka dots was created using the Sally Hansen nail art pen. 

Excuse the one chipped nail in the pic...not sure what I did for that to happen.

Last time I wore this polish it lasted nearly 3 days without chipping! 

Products used:

• Nails Inc Hyde Park Base Coat- strengthens weak & bendy nails.
• Clinique A Different Nail Enamel in "Happy"-  nail enamel for sensitive skin and eyes.
• Nails Inc "Kensington Caviar" Gel Effect Plumping Top Coat- creates a gel-like finish & helps prevent colour fading, chipping & breakage.
• Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen in "Fine White 310"- used to create the polka-dot effect.

Have you tried out Clinique nail enamel? 

I wouldn't mind the bright pink shade called "Hi Sweetie"...it's very me!

Thanks for reading my lovelies! 

MAKE-UP OF THE DAY!

Estée Lauder Double Wear Stay-in-Place Makeup in 1N2 ECRU

Estée Lauder Double Wear Stay-in-Place Powder Makeup in 1N2 ECRU

Estée Lauder Double Wear Stay-in-Place Flawless Wear Concealer in 01 LIGHT

Bobbi Brown Creamy Concealer Kit- 

Creamy Concealer in SAND & Sheer Finish Pressed Powder in PALE YELLOW

 

MAC Eyeshadow in GLEAM & EXPENSIVE PINK

No7 Stay Perfect Shade & Define Eye Crayon in PINK PEARL

 Benefit They're Real Mascara

Clinique Bottom Lash Mascara in BLACK

Benefit Watt's Up! Highlighter

Benefit Speed Brow

Too Faced Sweethearts Perfect Flush Blush in PEACH BEACH

Topshop Sheer Lips in HUNKY DORY 

(not pictured)

Hope you all enjoyed this mini post!