CLOSED: New Year Giveaway

Hello beautiful people! I've been gone for a lonnng time & I hate it! So to say sorry for my absense, I'm going to give away a few lovely bits and bobs. You all deserve it & there's nothing better than a late christmas present! Now because I'm at home, home & most of my makeup is back up at uni I don't have any photographs of what I will give away, but here's a hint... it's full of magic, mirth & mischief! Have to note though, for reasons I'm not willing to release fully on my blog yet, these limited edition products don't have packaging, but they are brand new.

The other present/prize is a beautiful necklace from This Charming Girl. I love this site & I rarely go a day without someone asking me where I got my envelope necklace from. If you've never seen her shop before I advise you to have a browse around, prices are so good & the pieces are beautiful. Perfect for presents, many of my friends have received some of these treasures for birthdays. The particular treasure I'm giving away is this beauty, which I thought was very appropriate around the festive period.


As it's only a small give away there will only be one winner & it's going to be an easy one. All I want you to do is comment with the best present you gave this christmas & why it was the best. No cheating, truth only. It might not be the most expensive present, but possibly the best suited/ thoughtful present. You may even throw in a christmas/ new year fotd for good measure, it's not needed but I'm nosey & would love to see some of your festive makeup creations.

Good luck, give away ends on the 10th January so you have a good week to enter. It's open to international followers too, so all are welcome to enter!!

Friends of Glass Beligum trip

As you will have seen in an older post I took part in #challengeglass on twitter which was all to do with glass & recycling. Well along with a few other people I won a trip to Belgium! So here come a lot of photographs to show you how truly amazing it was!


The day started extremely early, that clock says 6.45am not pm!! Ohhh yes, early it was but very exciting.

We jumped on the eurostar which takes less time to get to Belgium than the train from Newcastle to London! Crazy.


After arriving & going to the airport to pick up some other winners we went to a shopping centre where Friends of Glass had a pop-up shop fulllll of amazing glass bottles. Here's Natalie & me.




They also had an entertainment area where a man juggled with glass, unfortunately we missed it while we were having the lushest lunch & many glasses of wine.




Glass blowing was next! We watched Guy make champagne glasses, which was really relaxing & slightly hypnotising. We all made our own christmas baubles... this one above broke =( so I made a super tiny one so it wouldn't break!


Natalie, me & Milla

Dinner next! The restaurant was fab, it was an all you could eat, but the ingredients were all raw, you then took it to the bar where they'd throw it all into a wok & cook it. Yum! More wine & then some Belgium beer at a few bars afterwards, were Nat, Francesco & I got very drunk with some lovely Belgium...ers? We then (Nat & I) in true English style got cheesy chips & headed back to the hotel for a well needed sleep.



Sunday was spent exploring Lueven, having yummy, yummy pasta & more wine! Then home time, I was very, verrry tired by the time I got home, but it was so worth it. I had such an amazing time & want to say a massive thank you to Friends of Glass & the girls at 1000 heads, you're bloody amazing!

Review: Benefit silky powder eyeshadow in Guess again

I was contacted by the lovely Joyce at www.beautyjudge.com about a month ago. It's a great site to go to for reviews of products, because they're true reviews & Joyce explained how she didn't mind if the review was bad or good, a review is a review & we need to know the bad ones too!

Needless to say I really like this product. I am not a Benefit type of girl, purely due to the price of their products, so I'm glad I was sent this because otherwise I wouldn't have chose it myself & it's actually a lovely eyeshadow.


What Benefit say

Love Your Look "makeup to match your lifestyle" introduces nine new silky matte powder eye shadow shades that "smooth" on for even coverage to enhance and contour. They blend effortlessly with the love your look creaseless cream shadow/liners so you can mix & match for guaranteed gorgeous.

What you get for your money

£12.60 for 3.50 g Net wt. 0.12 oz It's quite a big eyeshadow so I think it's actually an ok price.


What I think

The colour reminds me of a matte Satin Taupe, it's got that purple undertone to it that goes really well with my blue eyes. The powder is very finely milled & is super silky, so it lives up to it's product name 'silky powder eyeshadow'. Because it is so silky & I want to say creamy because it just feels like it, the blendability of this eyeshadow is amazing. Pigmentation as you can see is amazing, that is one swatch from my finger, I haven't layered it at all. It claims to be creaseless, & I haven't had creasing from it at all, but I have always put it over a MAC paintpot as I wouldn't apply eyeshadow without a base. I actually place this colour in my crease & have had no problems with it creasing at all. I honestly can't get over how blendable, silky & pigmented this eyeshadow is, it's fantastic & I've never actually come across a texture or colour like this one before. I would definitely give this top marks overall, I really love it!

I love this in my crease & outer corner as it's buildable, so for a really quick look, I can just pat on my usual paint pot & then blend this into the crease for a really quick but slightly smokey eye.


No picture really captured it that greatly, because I was in a rush to get out the house I couldn't keep trying for a better one. But this is just Guess Again really lightly in the crease along with MAC Rubenesque paintpot.

Go have a look on www.beautyjudge.com for more reviews, you can also join up to give reviews on products too!

Friends of Glass

Some of you who follow me on twitter may have seen my tweets that link to #challengeglass. Over the past week I have been taking part in a challenge for a chance to win a trip to Belgium, you can find out more at Blog in a Bottle. It's basically all about making awareness & getting everyone to recycle glass. Milla (a gorgeous & talented friend) let me in on the challenge & I've loved taking part, it's really helped me connect back with my creativity which is perfect timing for going back to uni, ready for all those design briefs!

So I thought I'd post each of my entries for the 7 parts of the challenge & let you in on other things in my life than just makeup!


Challenge 1 - Use a glass bottle in a manner not initially intended by its manufacturers….
Bracelet holder & actually looks fab on the shelf for decoration.

Challenge 2 - Share a perfect 5 track glass themed playlist on social networking or audio sharing sites

Challenge 3 - Create a glass inspired haiku
chilled white wine/ drank till it's last drop/ recycled again & again

Challenge 4 - Find or make a glass based video to share



Challenge 5- Create a piece of glass-art, using only materials found in one’s bathroom

I used a range of shampoos, shower gels & face mask & went a-la Jackson Pollock.

Challenge 6- Enjoy a ‘glass themed’ night in, or out – with pictures documenting it…


After my monster 9 hour shift on a saturday at work, the only glass theme I could have was a bottle of wine in with the boif & family.

Challenge 7 - Take a picture of an inspiring view through a glass object (e.g. a glass bottle)
Picture could have been so much better, but with it being 1am the lighting isn't that fab! But anyway, the picture is taken through my brush holder (which is glass) & looking onto my grandad's painting pallet, it hangs on my wall & keeps me inspired as well as something to remember him by.

TK Maxx haul

Bit of a different post to cosmetics, but I love interior decor & I know lots of you do too. Plus, just sharing these gorgeous finds, so you know where to go to get some amazingly beautiful things.

I decided I needed new storage boxes for when I move into the new uni house. My room is a sort of box itself so I need lots of storage solutions. I went into IKEA..came out with a gorgeous bed throw that I've been lemming for ages, a cutlery holder & another cushion (I swear I have a cushion obsession, I have about 7 for my bed so far, it's a weakness!). So I come out of IKEA with no storage boxes pretty or big enough for my liking, TK Maxx next! I love TK Maxx for home furnitings, it has some amazing pieces, always the best place to go for something that's super pretty & usually quite unique (ie not an IKEA print lol).


I found this wicker basket, didn't need it, but err the Cath Kidstoneqsue print had me at first glance & I had to have it. I now have the decision of either having it at home or in my uni house! I also found some gorgeous V&A bedsheets for £13!! These I decided to keep for home since I'll be redecorating soon & these would be beautiful. The mug was also a beauty at £1.99, I feel rather grannyesque with it, lol. Then the box, ohhh the box. I don't know what I'll use it for, maybe jewellery, but I just had to have it. I mean look at it!



So these are my recent buys & no doubt I'll ant to get more things, pictures for my walls, shelves, more pretty things.... & hopefully some boxes!!