MUA Haul - Part Three: Eyes

So the last part of my MUA Haul is all to do with the eyes and this is the area I have the least focus on so I only actually ended up buying three products in total that were for the eyes.

The first product which I bought was the Undress Me Too Eyeshadow Palette which can be seen in the picture above and the one below and this was £4.00 which for 12 eyeshadows is incredibly great value in my opinion. Also for me it's the first eyeshadow palette that I have ever purchased in fact they are the only eyeshadows that I actually own at this point in time and I thought for £4.00 for 12 different shades if I wasn't to like then then it's not really a big deal in terms of cost.

Right: Undress Me Too Eyeshadow Palette. £4.00.

The next eye product I bought was the MUA Eye Pro Base Eye Primer which was a snap at £2.50! Eye primers are something that are quite difficult to find I know that Urban Decay do one which is quite pricey and Rimmel do a cheaper version so for something that not many brands seem to have readily available I was surprised that MUA did their own and so cheap. I use the eye primer to smooth underneath my eyes before putting concealer on - now I'm not sure if this is a correct use as I know that it's an eyeshadow base primarily but it works brilliantly for me. My concealer is certainly longer lasting when I've primed underneath my eyes! 

MUA Pro Base Eye Primer. £2.50.

My final eye product which some may class as a face product but for me it's an eye product is the MUA Under Eye Concealer Radiant! This isn't like a concealer that covers everything if you are wanting a concealer for that then this product is not for you however what it does for me is brilliantly lightens up the dark circles under my eyes so I don't then have to use a heavy coverage concealer. Or this product can be used as a combination with another concealer if you feel you do need it. For £3.00 this is one of my favourite radiant concealers that I have tried and would certainly recommend. 

MUA Under Eye Concealer Radiant. £3.00.

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Throw Back Thursday

Roses - Outkast

The other day my boyfriend tweeted about that he woke up with this song in his head & now thanks to him playing it to me I am unable to get this out of my head. This is one of those songs that never gets old & this is one of my favourite ever music videos.

So enjoy!

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MUA Haul - Part Two:Face

Welcome to Part Two of my MUA Haul - Face! Today I am going to look at the face products that I have purchased alongside the lip products from Part One. Now when it comes to face products I'm a bit of a bore - I've been using the same blusher for the past 2 years and I rarely wear any other face product such as a highlighter or powder so when I was stocking on my lipsticks and lip glosses I thought I would also buy some face products alongside them for me to try out.

First things I bought were the blushers which when I went in unfortunately were in a bit of a mess so there weren't that many colours for me to choose from that weren't broken or all over the display so I could only pick up two shades in Cupcake and Bon Bon.

Left: Cupcake Right: Bon Bon £1.00 Each

Out of the two shades Cupcake is my preferred one mainly because I am so pale and Cupcake is a light pinky shade that isn't too pigmented that it looks odd on me whereas Bon Bon is a deeper colour and definitely more suited to someone who doesn't have such pale skin as me. However for a £1.00 each I'm not too upset that that I'm unlikely to use Bon Bon too much unless I maybe were to go on a holiday and get a bit of a tan which is unlikely for both.

Left: Undress Your Skin Shimmer Highlight £3.00 Right: Mosaic Bronzer £2.50

Up until I got the Undress Your Skin Shimmer Highlighter I'd been using the Limited Collection Highlighter from Marks and Spencer which is more of a peachy tone but at £5.00 is still quite a bargain. The moment I got my MUA one home however I fell in love and for £3.00 it's even more of a bargain and I definitely prefer the accessibility of the packaging as well. 

I'm not a huge fan of Bronzers but thought I'd give this one a go because let's face it for £2.50 it's a pretty good deal and although I'm not a huge make up wearer during the day I think this is something I'll definitely use for a night out or if I ever tan haha.

The final face product that I got was the MUA Pressed Powder that I actually forgot to take a picture of but you can see it in the main picture. I got the powder in shade 1 which is probably the right shade for me when wearing this on a night out over my foundation and I'm not really someone who's tried any powders apart from the Rimmel Stay Matte one so I'm just testing some different ones out really. But on first impressions this is going to sound really strange but I absolutely love the smell! Odd I know but I just really do!

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Summer Dress/Bag Wishlist 2014

With the random slices of sunshine we've been recently experiencing it's got me all excited about updating my wardrobe for summer and there's no better way of doing that than by buying some new dresses and a staple bag! So I've compiled my current wishlist of favourite items that I would more than love to see in my wardrobe this summer!!!

Image Sources 

Top Row - Left to Right

1- Izzy Dip Dye Crepe Smock Dress £20.00 - www.boohoo.com

2- Carrie Two Tone Dress £20.00 - www.boohoo.com 

3- Asos Scallop Edge Skater Dress £38.00 - www.asos.com

4- Topshop Texture Scallop Wrap Dress £60.00  - www.topshop.com 

Bottom Row - Left to Right

1- Rare Floral Dress With Crossover Straps £32.00 - www.topshop.com

2- Motel Betty Collared Dress £40.00 - www.motelrocks.com

3- Navy Heart Print Dress £20.00 - www.dorothyperkins.com

4- Michael Kors Selma Textured-Leather Trepeze Bag £315.00 - www.net-a-porter.com 

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MUA Haul - Part One: Lips

Everytime I go into Superdrug I have to have a look at the MUA stand to see what's there. I feel like I have to do this on a regular basis as you never know what you might find - sometimes it's completely empty and sold out with nothing much in sight and other times there's whole sections such as a the lipsticks and blushers full! It really sometimes can feel like its a raffle when you walk in there.

That's why over the past few weeks when there's been items that I've wanted and they've been in stock I've snapped them up without a second thought. For reason 1) You never know when they might be stock again and 2) The price of MUA products is just too good to not pick them up - who else does £1.00 lipsticks and blushers and £2.00 and £3.00 mascaras?

So I'm going to a three part haul so I don't bore you all to tears with loads of writing and today's category is going to be Lips.

Just one thing sorry for the poor picture quality I need both a new camera and a new place to take pictures - my room is too dark but hopefully even though they aren't great you can still kind of get the ideas of the colours!

I have become slightly obsessed with MUA lip products especially with their lipsticks being a bargain £1.00 and most of their lipglosses being £2.00 with the most expensive being £3.00 I have managed to established quite a collection of their lip products.

The first products I am going to show you are my lipsticks which I love! I especially love taking these on a night out because if I were to lose my lipstick (and I am prone to losing things) then simply all I've lost is £1.00. Whereas I've known people take more expensive lipsticks out such as MAC and I can tell you if I lost a MAC lipstick on a night out I would be more than a little bit emotional. 

LIPSTICKS

Left to Right:
Shade 9. Shade 11. Shade 14 Bare.
All £1.00.

Left to Right:
Shade 2. Shade 6. Shade 8.
All £1.00

I also have 2 other shades which I don't have pictures of - Shade 15 Juicy and the matte lipstick Peachy Keen which I featured in a blog post back in December (click here).

My favourite lipstick would definitely have to be Shade 14 in Bare which is just such a nice shade but saying that I do have a lot of love for Shade 9. The others I haven't tried out yet but will be sure to give you an update when I do.

Lip Gloss

Left to Right:
Out There Lip Gloss in Buff. Intense Kisses Sealed With a Kiss.
Out There Lip Gloss in Nude.
All £2.00.

I love both the Out There Lip Glosses but I would say that Nude is probably edges out Buff based on that its slightly lighter in colour and more wearable on an everyday basis. I haven't yet tried the Intense Kisses Lipgloss but I love the cute packaging and how compact it is especially for a night out when I take a small clutch out.

MUA products are available both from www.superdrug.com & from www.muastore.co.uk.

I'll be back with Part Two of my MUA Haul soon!

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Quality Over Quantity

Source

I like many of you love to buy clothes on both the high street and online - Ebay and Asos are my two weaknesses in life! However I said to my friend (who agreed to do it with me but failed in the first few days) that I would give up buying clothes, shoes, accessories for the whole of February and they such as my mum and boyfriend didn't believe that I would be able to do it but I love nothing more than to prove people wrong so I was more determined than ever to succeed.

I spend so much money each month on clothes that if I added the amount up I think it would make me want to be sick yet I would say 70% of those clothes are never worn and most sit in my wardrobe simply with the tags on and yet as I know I do this I just kept on and on with the buying and spending.

But challenging myself to not buy anything clothes and accessories related was something I myself thought I would fail at - I thought it would take is one little look in the shops on the way to town and that would be it even though I wanted to prove everyone wrong but somehow I managed to surprised myself by being able to do it and I felt so much better afterwards that I actually manage to complete a whole month without buying clothes plus I also ended up taking 10 bags of clothes to the charity shops in town which made me feel better.

I think for too long I've allowed clothes and spending on them to control my life so much that every time I saw something I wanted I just had to buy it even though more than half the time I know that item will get worn once if that. Now when I buy items I'm going to question myself so I don't get stuck in the same rut -

1) Do I need it?
2) Will I like the item in a months time?
3) Will I want to wear the item in a months time?
4) Will I wear it more than once?
5) Is it worth the money?

And if I look at it in terms of quality over quantity and stopped getting caught out by big, red, glossy sale labels then hopefully my purse and wardrobe can stay in better condition!
I can only try.

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Soap & Glory Translucent BB Cream

Now I think I'd be hard to find any product addicts or make up fanatics who have never come across a BB or Beauty Balm however I always have the problem that unlike foundations where brands do a range of different shades, the BB's on that are available come in limited shades that never seem to be a match. I have very pale skin so finding a good match isn't the easiest of tasks and even products claiming that they are a 'universal shade' always end up looking like fake tan gone wrong on me. 

So when I discovered Soap & Glory Translucent BB Cream I felt like all my prayers had been answered - a clear BB cream means I don't have the resentment of not being able to find a shade that matches and still being able to use it alongside a foundation or alone if I choose. I will admit I was quite hesitant when I was looking at it - I wasn't sure how a BB cream could be translucent and still do the same job as standard BB creams as surely the point is that the colour of the BB cream covers and smooths your skin?!!

Despite my initial reservations I still decided that as it was on offer at a beaitiful 1/3 off at £7.99 instead of the usual £12.00 I would give it a whirl and see what I thought and my my I would have to say it has been one of the best £7.99 that I have spent in a long time - it's like my current go to face product!

So the product itself is a white cream formula then when applied is just like any other general face cream/serum that it goes on a dries clear! Although the tube isn't particularly big for the money -30ml- you don't have to use a lot of the product to get good coverage from it so I would say that it should last a decent amount of time which at £12.00 a tube you would expect. The product itself -available here - is described on the Boots website as 'booster, serum, moisturiser, primer, skin-tone evener and sunblock all-in-one."

Whilst I agree with booster, serum, skin-tone evener and sunblock (it has an SPF of 25) I don't know if I agree with it acting like a primer although there have been occasions where I have used this as a base and times where I've used my primer then this as well on top so that's not one I'm not so sure on. Apart from that it does give your skin a beautiful boost as it gives your skin a slight illuminating look although admittedly not to the degree of an illuminating cream/moisturiser but a subtle extra glow.

With having an SPF of 25 for someone who has naturally very pale skin this to me is even more of a bonus as it allows for me to not only wear this product all round in this country but also means that I can simply give my face a dash of this when/if I go on holiday! Always love a multi-tasking product.

It also has a really fresh scent to it that reminds me of Nivea mixed with fruit infused smell which I absolutely adore after all there is nothing worse than a great product with an awful smell as that just makes me not want to use it! Overall I would highly recommend this product and I have to say as the first Soap & Glory product that I've purchased and tried this certainly won't be the last but I have a feeling that this is going to be firm staple in my make up bag long term!

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Blowpro Protective Daily Primer

When I first saw this product a few weeks ago I was really intrigued - hair primer wasn't something I'd really come across but the price tag of £9.99 put me off so I just walked on by and left it on the shelf (sob sob). However when I went back into Superdrug the following week they had all their Blowpro products half price or better so then I decided to pick it up and take the plunge and purchase it for a bargain  £4.90 (bargain compared to £9.99 that is). 

I certainly haven't been disappointed with this product either which can be used on either dry or wet hair so I have tested this out on both damp hair after washing and for restyling two day old hear before using my hair tongs. And it definitely makes a difference in the staying power of my hair styling just like primer for your face keeps your make up in place longer this keeps your style in place for longer.

The formula is rich in milk and aloe vera so helps condition your hair as well as protecting it from heat styling which I do on a regular basis. I would definitely recommend this to you all to try and see if you notice a difference in the staying power of your waves and curls by spritzing this first. 

Who else has tried hair primers?

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