NAKED 1

Ok, this is not a drill. I finally took the plunge. After careful deliberation, various discussions with the lovely ladies at the Urban Decay counter and with my beauty loving friends, I went for it I bought the Urban Decay Naked 1 Palette! So I thought, why not share the photos of it, so we can all bask in its glory because that is basically what the beauty blogger community do on twitter everyday.

(top to bottom) VIRGIN is a very light beige with cool shimmer, SIN is a champagne shimmer, NAKED is a matte beige, SIDECAR is a light brown shimmer with silver glitter, BUCK is a medium matte brown.HALF BAKED is a warm dark gold, SMOG is a medium brown with gold shimmer, DARKHORSE is a dark brown with gold shimmer, TOASTED is a deep rosy pink with silver shimmer. HUSTLE is a deep purple-brown with shimmer, CREEP is a black with blue shimmer, GUNMETAL is a super cool blue black colour.

Without a doubt I will be posting more of this absolute beauty on this blog. All the shades are absolutely beautiful and of the highest quality I have ever tried, what more could you expect from Urban Decay? Do you have a Naked Palette? If you were to buy one, which one would you buy?
E x

My Daily Makeup Routine

As you may or may not know, I am extremely lazy. Especially in the winter months, if it's dark in the morning i'm 100% less motivated for the day. So, I definitely do not want to be rummaging around my makeup storage trying to find my concealer at 7:30am. I'd much rather have everything I need in one easy access place, my makeup bag. Today I thought I would share the contents of my makeup bag with you, these products are the ones I reach for every day- so I guess you could call this my everyday makeup routine too.

Foundation- I absolutely love the healthy mix serum from Bourjois. I do not use this everyday, but
I would say that it makes the skin look lovely and even,the coverage is light or medium. I have dry skin and it does not cling to any dry patches, because that is not a good look, I can assure you.

Concealer- I really don't see the hype over the Lasting perfection concealer from collection, I find it quite drying and unforgiving - under the eyes i find it sinks into any fine lines. However, I absolutely love the Collection illuminating touch concealer. I have a lot of tiredness to cover up, especially at 7am and this concealer covers it well.

Brow kit - I wrote a post about this brow kit a few months ago (here) So have a read of that if you want a more in depth review. But long story short, I love it- It gives me eyebrows and stops me legitimately resembling a potato. I use the middle shade mostly (and have hit pan which excites me greatly).

Mascara- Three words; Roller freaking lash- the best mascara I have ever tried. Like ever. It makes your lashes look beyoootiful, lasts all day without transferring down into the panda eye region and removes easily at the end of the day. I will be purchasing the full size indefinitely.

Eyeliner- Most days, I like to flick out my eyeliner using this eyeliner it is super cheap, super black and super easy to manoeuvre. What more could you possibly ask of an eyeliner.

Naked basics - This eyeshadow palette is perfect, I love the formula and the way the matte eyeshadows look. The shade range is perfect and the slim packaging means it is ideal for travel. The next on my hitlist is definitely Naked 1.

Hoola- I got this bronzer in a small size for christmas and I love it so so so much. It is perfect for warming up the complexion, sculpting and just making your makeup look better. It blends flawlessly and uurrrrrrgh can you tell I love it?

Rockateur- I don't generally wear blusher from day to day, but when I do - it is always benefits rockateur. I love the natural, warm glow it gives to the cheeks.

High beam- I got a mini of High beam in the same set as Hoola, and I absolutely love this too. It gives such a lovely glow that blends seamlessly and ugh I love this too. Benefit's cheeks products are absolutely killing it for me at the moment.

Gimme brow- at the end of my makeup I set my eyebrows using Gimme Brow , when you're not gifted in the brow department like me, You'll take any precautions necessary if it means your brows wont go AWOL half way through the day.


And thats it, the products I more or less use every day. Comment below or tweet me letting me know your makeup bag staples! Thank you all so much for reading my blog, I appreciate every one of you so so much.

Ellie xx

The very inspiring blogger award

So a few months  ago, before my break from Blogging The lovely Yana, from  TimeWithYana , nominated me to do the 'Very Inspiring Blogger Award' and considering what an avid reader I am of Yana's posts, it would be rude not to!

The rules
You have to write seven facts about yourself (random or beauty related)
Nominate five bloggers for the award
Let your nominees know you've tagged them.

Sounds fun! Let's Get right into it.

1, I am very disorganized and a massive procrastinator.

2, I love dressing up, not fancy dress. But I am basically always the overdressed one.

3, My friends get quite annoyed going shopping with me because I am a massive enabler, I really should work in retail haha.

4, I like to live my life by the motto that you can never have too many lipsticks. No I do not have a problem

5, I am quite an open minded person and I am not afraid to speak up when I don't agree with what someone is saying.

6, I am quite clumsy, I'm constantly losing my balance, tripping over and get compared to Miranda Hart far too often.

7, When I was four, I was dancing and jumping on the sofa to a song in "The sound of music" and I fell off, and broke my elbow. #partyhard

So there you go, I hope you enjoyed learning some little facts about me.

I nominate:

Laura
Hannah
Emma
Lucy

Thanks for reading!
Ellie x

Ellie Loves #3 - Lip Edition

Hello lovelies!

As most of you will know, I am a massive lip product lover. I'd go bold lips over bold eyes any day. Today I thought I would share my favourite lip products with you fellow lip junkies out there.

The Drugstore Offering;
The best lip product discovery I've ever made is the Bourjois Rouge Edition Velvets. The formula is absolutely gorgeous, It goes on opaque, sits comfortably on the lips (No flaky lips over here) and does not budge all day long- Perfect. They sure do pack a punch for under £10! I love the shades frambourjoise and Nude(ist) - both absolutely gorgeous.


The High-end Offering;
I think everyone and their mum knows about the infamous Mac cosmetics lipstick range, the abundance of shades, finishes and collections. I love the shades Plumful- which is a dark berry toned nude shade, and Rebel - a dark pinky purple. Both are fairly long lasting, but are not matte shades, so they do need topping up every few hours.

I've made a fair few makeup discoveries in the past year, I hope you enjoyed reading this, If you have any favourite lip products or recommendations then please leave them in the comments because I would love to know, I'm a bit of a lip product addict.

Ellie x

The liebster award!

Hello lovelies!

Recently I have been tagged twice (By the lovely Bethan and Nadine) to do the Liebster Award/Tag, Thank you ladies, I have chosen a selection of each of your sets of questions. Here goes!

The Rules:
- First thank and mention the person who nominated you
- Then answer the questions they asked you
- Nominate up to 11 blogs that have around 200 followers or less
- Think of 11 questions to ask your nominees
- And finally notify all the people you nominated


1. How would you describe yourself? 

This is a hard question for me, I would describe myself as quite confident, a bit independent and very affectionate. I think I change depending on who I am around, I am very confident around strangers, not so confident around teenaged boys, sigh.


2. Any Hobbies?

I've loved musical theatre since I was absolutely tiny, I do not do any form of club now, but I have done various stage schools in the past. Now I just sing to my friends mostly, not sure how they feel about that. 


3. What is your favourite lipstick to give you the most confidence?

I definitely feel more confident in a bold lip, my favourite at the moment is Mac's Rebel.

4. How long will you continue blogging for?

I hope to continue blogging for as long as I enjoy it, as that is the ultimate reason of why I do it in the first place.

5. Would you rather have Starbucks or Costa?

Oh no you didn't! Oh man, I don't know! Considering I only really get frappes and Iced drinks, I guess it makes no difference to me.

6. Which do you prefer; Summer or Autumn?

I love summer, but this might be to do with time off school. My favourite time of year is around late September/ early October when its starting to get cooler, the days are still fairly long and you can basically wear what you want.

7. If you could change 1 thing about yourself what would it be?

Definitely my self conscious-ness, I don't know if this is just a teenaged thing and I might grow out of it. But right now I am very self conscious about a few things I have no control of.

8. If you could be invisible for the day, what would you do?

People watch, without looking like a weirdo.

9. High End or High Street makeup?

I get extremely excited about High End makeup, High street is amazing, but I get a rush when I buy something from Mac or Benefit. So it has to go to High End.

10. What would you tell your younger self?

I would tell my younger self not to involve myself with a few certain people, and not to pick GCSE French.

11. What is your favourite brand? (Makeup, skincare, nails, clothing shop)

My favourite Makeup Brand has to be Bourjois, Mac or Benefit.

Skincare? I should definitely use some more, but at the moment I love Simple.

I only have 1 nail polish from OPI but I love the formula so much, I definitely need to look in to buying more. 

My favourite clothing shop has to be H&M, I love their clothes endlessly and the prices are great.

I hope you enjoyed that little post, Thanks again to Bethan and Nadine for tagging me.

I nominate:

Lucy

Elish

Jodie

Brianna

and any of my blogger readers who fancy it, go on, say I tagged you.

Your questions are:

1. You've had a bad day, what do you do to cheer yourself up?

2. Who are your #WomanCrushWednesday and #ManCrushMonday ?

3. Favourite fail-safe make up products?

4. Are you more of a (sassy) bold eye or (sassy) bold lip kind of girl?

5. Favourite High End Makeup brand?

6. Favourite Drugstore Makeup brand?

7. Hair up or down?

8. Summer or Autumn? Why?

9. Favourite Meal?

10. Favourite Disney film/ princess?

11. What is your favourite clothing shop?

Have fun! E xx

Beauty Haulin'

WARNING: This post is a beefy one.

Recently I've been doing quite a lot of shopping, which is great for my blog, but not so great for my purse. Whenever I do this, I quite like to tell you guys about it because a problem shared is a problem halved. Right?

How cute is this notebook that was in my stocking?!

Over the past month I have acquired two Mac Lipsticks, that pushes my collection up to the grand total of 3! Plumful was an impulse buy, but probably one of the best impulse buys ever purchased. It is the perfect lipstick for me and has been welcomed warmly into my makeup bag. The Next lipstick was a -better late than never- Christmas present from my best friend. She knew I wanted Rebel and was the fairy godmother that made my wish come true (too far?)

(L-R) Bourjois healthy mix serum 52 Vanille, Mac lipstick Plumful, Mac lipstick Rebel, Bourjois Rouge edition velvelt Nude-ist.

In boots I picked up The Real Techniques Eye Starter set. This has seriously, seriously amped up my eyeshadow game. #Hellastrong. The only brush I do not use is the eyeliner brush because I do not use Gel eyeliner, but I'm sure I can get some use out of it in the future. The brushes are uber soft and will really help you out if you are an eye makeup newbie. I also picked up some Eyelure lengthening false eyelashes because I thought they would give me a fluttery eye. I will let you know how I get on!

From Bourjois, (Buy one get one half price, thank you very much.) I had really been wanting to trying the healthy mix serum for ages, I picked up the shade 52 Vanille which is a good mach for my skin. I have only used it once or twice but I really like the formula. It is fairly long lasting and does not stick to my dry patches, which almost every other foundation I have tried does. So far so Good! For half price, I picked up the Rouge edition Velvet in Nude-ist (Thank you for the recommendation Yana) I have fairly pigmented lips, so I have a bit of a mare finding nudes that don't wash me out completely. This shade is perfect for me, and I love the formula to pieces. Big thumbs up from me!

In superdrug I bought this 32 piece eyeshadow palette from Revolution. The shades are warm and all really really wearable, ranging from light pink shimmers to deep bronze and cranberry shades. They blend well and the pigmentation is gorgeous!

Phew, that is probably the most makeup I've ever bought in such a short space of time. Maybe I should stay away from the makeup aisles for a while.

E x

I ❤️ makeup brow kit

As most of you know, I am naturally seriously lacking in the eyebrow department, So I will gladly take any help I can get. I decided that, while working well as an eyebrow powder, urban decays 'faint' was much too warm toned for my face. So, with my newly found love for powder eyebrow products, I went on a hunt. In superdrug I discovered I ❤️ makeup had a brow kit. I picked up the medium shade palette - I woke up this groomed. The kit comes in three variations (Fairest of them all, I woke up this groomed and Bold is best) Each with three shades of powder, matching any shade someone could need, an eyebrow wax, a small, not completely rubbish brush and a small set of tweezers.

For my eyebrows I use the middle shade and the wax, but sometimes I add a few strokes of the first or third powder to add dimension and realism. I find that the tiny brush is usable but tends to apply a little patchily, it may work better on thinner eyebrows than mine. I like to use superdrug's slanted eyeliner brush to apply the powder to my eyebrows, I then apply the wax over the top to set my eyebrows. Sometimes I apply Rimmel's lightest brow this way gel to set and enhance my brows.

These powders last all day and remove effortlessly with makeup remover which I see as a massive plus. They apply nicely but It can take a while to get an even brow. The compact is slim and light and comes with a reasonable sized mirror for a good view of your eyebrow area. They sure do pack a punch for the tiny price tag of £2.99!

link

I hope you enjoyed this post and had a great New Years Eve and start to 2015! Thanks for reading, I cannot put into words how grateful I am for you guys.

E x