Black Friday Haul

I love shopping around for bargains & rarely buy things online without a discount code. Even though we don't celebrate Thanksgiving I'm glad that us Brits have fully embraced the tradition of Black Friday. It's the best time to get all your Christmas shopping done & as you're saving a bit of money you can afford to treat yourself at the same time! There were a few items that I needed to repurchase & some things that I've had my eye on for ages. First I got a new bottle of the L'Occitane Almond Shower Oil & Urban Decay All Nighter Setting Spray. I ordered them from FeelUnique as they had a 20% discount code. The shower oil is my favourite thing to shave with & the extra moisture is much needed at this time of year. I tend to flit between using the Urban Decay & NYX setting sprays as they both work exactly the same. I just went for the Urban Decay one this time as you get a bigger bottle & I enjoy it's unique scent so it's a good one to buy when you can find a discount code.

These days most of my skincare comes from The Ordinary but I still love Bravura London products. They had a whopping 25% discount for Black Friday so it was the perfect time to stock up. I got a new bottle of their First Cleanse Oil which is what I always use to remove my makeup. I absolutely love the Azulene Moisturiser! I use it twice a day as it works really well with the rest of my skincare routine. It's a light moisturiser packed with calming botanical ingredients that help to soothe & heal the skin. It's brilliant for those with oily, combination or acne-prone skin types as it hydrates the skin without clogging pores. I also decided to pick up the Collagen Moisturising Cream. I normally stick with the Azulene Moisturiser but this one is better for dry skin so it helps my skin to cope with the cold weather.



Bumble & Bumble's Hairdresser's Invisible Oil is one of my favourite hair products of all time. I'm always amazed by how much softer & shinier it makes my hair. It can be a real struggle to make damaged, bleached hair look healthy but this stuff works miracles. I rarely have to repurchase it because a bottle lasts such a long time & I'm sure glad it does because it costs £35! I spotted this Bumble & Bumble Sp(oil)ed Silly Gift Set on FeelUnique for £38 which means that for a mere £3 more you get a sample of the Hairdresser's Invisible Oil Primer (which is also incredible!) & a rose gold Tangle Teezer thrown in. With FeelUnique's 20% discount I got it for just £30. What a bloody bargain!



The Stila Eye For Elegance Liquid Eyeshadow Set was at the very top of my Black Friday wishlist. I'm utterly obsessed with the Magnificent Metals Glitter & Glow Liquid Eyeshadows. They make using glitter so much easier & completely mess-free. I currently own four of them but they are pretty expensive so even at full price this set is fantastic value. I knew I could get it cheaper on Black Friday though & Stila had 20% off on their website bringing it down to £36. In this set you get three Glitter & Glow eyeshadows and three Shimmer & Glow eyeshadows. Unfortunately I already own Smoldering Satin but at least I can use the one in the set as a stocking filler for someone else. I'm so excited about this gift set, all the colours look beautiful & I cannot wait to try out the new shades!





Beauty Bay had up to 30% off everything on their website so I ordered a few items that I've been wanting for a long time. I already own 25 Jeffree Star Liquid Lipsticks so I decided that I wouldn't order any more colours. I've wanted to try his Velour Lip Scrubs for ages as the flavours sound amazing but I didn't want to pay £12 for a single scrub. I ordered Strawberry Gum & Root Beer in the sale. I mainly got the strawberry one for Chloe as both of us get dry lips at this time of year. Root Beer is just for me though! It's one of my favourite ever drinks & a small part of me died inside when McDonald's took it off their menu back in the 90s. The scrub tastes just like the drink & has the added bonus of being edible. It does a great job of removing dead skin cells, leaving my lips feeling super soft & smooth.



I've tried loads of different beauty sponges but in my opinion nothing comes close to the original Beautyblender. My one was getting a bit tatty looking so I needed to buy a new one. I went for the Beautyblender Swirl as it has a pretty pink & white marble design. It works exactly the same as the pink Beautyblender but just looks a bit cooler.



Jouer Cosmetics have been all over YouTube this year & I love the look of their lip products. I have so many matte liquid lipsticks so I wanted something a bit different & decided to go for their Long-Wear Lip Topper in Skinny Dip. Lip Topper is just a glorified name for a lip gloss but I do really like this product. Skinny Dip is a metallic golden nude gloss with flecks of gold & pink shimmer. It looks gorgeous whether worn alone or on top of a liquid lipstick. The luminous finish makes my lips look fuller & plumper whilst adding a hint of golden iridescence. The consistency is kinda thick for a gloss but it isn't sticky at all. It feels more like a lip balm as it's quite nourishing on the lips due to the inclusion of jojoba seed oil & coconut oil. This Lip Topper looks truly stunning & the sweet, cakey scent is divine!



I've been wanting to buy the RCMA No-Colour Powder for so long but it's always out of stock! Beauty Bay managed to get plenty in for their sale so I finally got my hands on this highly coveted setting powder. I use loose powders to bake my concealer but I've noticed that they can sometimes alter the colour, making my base products look slightly weird. This powder has no pigment in it so even though it looks white it won't change the colour of your foundation or concealer & it is suitable for all skin colours. It gives my base a matte flawless finish that lasts all day & it never looks dry or powdery on the skin. Unlike some powders it doesn't cause flashback so you don't have to worry about getting your photo taken. The packaging is a bit rubbish but otherwise this is an excellent setting powder.



The last item I got was the Benton Snail Bee High Content Mask Pack. I mainly bought this to get free next day delivery but I love sheet masks & Benton are one of the few popular Korean beauty brands that I haven't purchased anything from before. The Snail Bee range is very well loved on /r/AsianBeauty so I knew it would be worth trying out. I haven't used the mask yet but if I like it I'm sure you'll hear all about it!





Accessorize had 30% off their Angels kids range so I got Chloe some cute new things. She needed some new Winter accessories & what could be more fitting than their Chloe Cat collection?! I bought her the Chloe Cat chullo hat, Chloe Cat scarf & Chloe Cat capped mittens. They're all so cute & keep her really warm. Her new school has a tuck shop during morning break & when I've given her money to get a snack she always loses it! She loves being able to get a hot chocolate & croissant in the morning so I bought her the Becci Bunny round cross body bag & the Pretty Kitty cat purse to keep her money in. I also spotted this lovely Crown Chakra bracelet in store & decided to treat myself. I have one of the Daisy London chakra bracelets but it was so expensive & this one was only a tenner!




I have become an avid enamel pin collector this year & I'm always on the lookout for cute new pins to buy. Etsy is my favourite place to look for new designs & it was on there that I came across Hand Over Your Fairy Cakes. I didn't manage to get one of her limited Black Friday discount codes but I decided to go ahead & buy a few pins anyway as I fell in love with these designs quite a while ago. I adore the pastel colourwheel, strawberry pocky & CMYK pins but my absolute favourite is the one that says 'I Got Dressed Today'. Sometimes that can be a bit of a struggle for me when I'm feeling down & it's nice to be positive about those small achievements.

What bargains did you pick up on Black Friday?

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April Favourites

Urban Decay Heavy Metal Glitter Eyeliner in Midnight Cowboy
If you like glittery eye makeup looks but don't want to deal with messy pots of loose glitter then you need to try Urban Decay's Glitter Eyeliners. They do loads of cool bright colours but Midnight Cowboy is my absolute favourite. This liner is made from a clear base with yellow gold glitter particles. You can use it as an eyeliner or all over the eye for a glamourous sparkly look. I used to own this many years ago & it was part of my go-to night out makeup. I would apply gold eyeshadow all over my lid, do some thick black winged eyeliner & then go over the gold eyeshadow with the glitter liner. I just fancied recreating it so I bought a new tube & was soon reminded why I loved this eyeliner so much. It applies very smoothly & builds up well. Once applied it sets into place really quickly & lasts all night long. It's not a struggle to remove all the glitter either. These liners are such a quick & easy way to add a bit of sparkle to your eye makeup. They're so fun to use & look really pretty.

Sunday Riley Luna Sleeping Night Oil
Sunday Riley's Luna Oil is a ridiculously expensive skincare product but I have to say that it was worth every penny I spent on it. I've been so desperate to find something that could fix my congested forehead and have tried countless BHAs, AHAs & retinol products during my search. Most of the things I used did improve the condition of my skin & thanks to them it's rare that I get proper spots anymore. But I still had persistent closed comedones & just a couple of months of using this retinol-infused oil at bedtime has cured all of my texture issues. My pores look smaller, my skin looks smoother & feels softer, my complexion looks bright & even toned and most importantly, my forehead doesn't look like a sheet of brail! Even though my once bumpy forehead is now as smooth as a peach, Luna Oil is something that I will continue to use in my skincare routine to ensure that my skin stays looking this good. Retinol also helps to keep wrinkles at bay so even if you're not prone to blemishes I would highly recommend using this oil as a preventative measure for ageing skin.

BECCA Shimmering Skin Perfector Pressed in Pearl
Highlighters are probably my favourite makeup item & BECCA's Shimmering Skin Perfectors are some of the very best! I prefer to use powders over liquids & creams so I was keen to get my hands on their Pressed version of Pearl when it finally hit the UK a couple of months ago. Despite having pale skin I rarely go for white highlighters as they look a bit too stark on the skin for my liking. NikkieTutorials & Jeffree Star convinced me otherwise as Pearl looked so bloody fantastic on them. I still think it looks a bit too light on me but I've found that if I layer it on top of something like Anastasia's So Hollywood or theBalm's Mary-Lou Manizer then it just adds a bit more oomph to those highlighters. I'm one of those people who wants their highlight to be visible from outer space so this really does the job! I adore the formula of BECCA's Pressed Shimmering Skin Perfectors. The powder feels so buttery & they almost melt into the skin for a truly stunning glow.

Too Faced Milk Chocolate Soleil Bronzer
Bronzer is something that I've avoided wearing for most of my life. I like being a pale princess & I used to consider bronzer to be one step away from fake tan. Maybe it was just that pretty much all bronzers used to be dark & super orange that put me off them but nowadays I'm not averse to warming up my complexion. I started off with Soap & Glory's fabulous Solar Powder but then I heard so many people going on about the Too Faced Milk Chocolate Soleil Bronzer as the perfect bronzer for pale skin. This is the first Too Faced product that I've ever bought & I'm completely obsessed with it. The colour is spot on, the powder has a matte finish & it has a lovely chocolatey scent to boot. It just adds a little bit of definition to my face without looking muddy or dirty. I now use this bronzer every single day without fail & it applies beautifully with the Real Techniques Duo-fibre Face Brush.

Clarins Instant Eye Makeup Remover
I have been buying an awful lot of matte liquid lipsticks lately. I love how long they last on my lips & that they don't transfer when eating, drinking or kissing. When I want to remove them at the end of the day, my regular oil cleanser does the job perfectly. However I'm currently working on some swatch posts of my Jeffree Star & Kylie Cosmetics lipsticks so I needed something that would allow me to change lip colour quickly without disturbing the rest of my makeup. Micellar water does bugger all here, an oil-based makeup remover is what you need. I decided to go for the Clarins Instant Eye Makeup Remover & it works so well! It makes light work of removing even super dark colours with minimal staining to your lips. Of course it also works for it's intended purpose of removing waterproof eye makeup. The liquid feels very gentle on the skin & it doesn't sting my eyes either. I regularly use the Isehan Kiss Me Heroine mascaras & although I love them, they are such a nightmare to remove. Now that I have this Clarins product it's so much easier to remove them & I don't have to scrub at my eyelashes with a muslin cloth anymore!

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Cohorted Beauty Box

Cohorted Beauty Box* - £19.99

The Cohorted website is one of my favourite places to shop for beauty products. They offer some amazing discounts on a huge range of popular brands including MAC, Bobbi Brown, NARS & Dior. A little while ago they started up their very own beauty box service & it is incredibly good value for money! The Cohorted beauty box will always feature at least four different items with a variety of skin, hair, cosmetic & body products. Unlike many other beauty box services, Cohorted have made these boxes available for purchase on a monthly basis only. The box that I'm reviewing is from March 2015 which should give you an indication of how far behind I get with blogging sometimes! Even though this particular box is no longer available, I would consider it to be one of the best beauty boxes that I've ever received & the products are well worth writing about.




Bare Minerals Pure Transformation Night Treatment
The most intriguing product from this box has to be the Bare Minerals Pure Transformation Night Treatment. I've tried the regular Bare Minerals powder foundations before but beyond that I have little experience with them as a brand. Products that blur the lines between makeup & skincare are becoming increasingly popular. This is a treatment powder that you apply to your skin before going to bed. It features the RareMinerals ActiveSoil Complex which is supposed to reduce the appearance of pores, increase luminosity & speed up the skin renewal process. The powder is available in Light, Medium, Tan & Clear. Here I have the Light version which is slightly too yellow/dark for my skin but a good colour match isn't too important when you're in a dimly lit bedroom. Removing your makeup at night & then reapplying a powder feels a little odd, I have to admit. I was worried about making my bed dirty but luckily the product doesn't come off on my pillow despite how much I move about during the night! This product looks really gorgeous on the skin. It makes my face look like it's been airbrushed & adds plenty of radiance to my complexion. Best of all it doesn't clog my pores in any way. I don't think it really adds anything to my regular skincare routine but it definitely has it's uses. If you're staying over at a guy's house for the first time & aren't quite ready to let him see you without makeup then this would be a fab skin-friendly way of covering up your imperfections.






Sleek Precious Metals Highlighting Palette
My heart practically skipped a beat when I set eyes on this beautiful palette from Sleek. Highlighters are my main makeup obsession. I can't go a single day without adding some form of illumination to my skin. The Precious Metals palette features three cream highlighters & a powder bronzer. My favourite shade is Renaissance Gold which is what I'm wearing in the above picture. I like to use it on the top of my cheekbones, down the bridge of my nose & over my cupid's bow. It adds such a wonderful sheen to my skin. Royal Gold is quite similar in colour but has a few more glitter particles. The formula of the creams is really lovely. They blend into the skin easily & have some real staying power. The brush that comes with the set is a bit useless, you can achieve a much better finish just by using your fingers. The bronzer has beautiful golden tone to it & adds a Summery glow to the complexion. I absolutely love this little set! There's a nice mix of colours here & the four pans are all very high quality.





Too Faced Exotic Color Eye Shadow in Copper Peony
I don't think I have ever tried a Too Faced product before! Everything in their lineup just looks so pretty & I had no idea where to start. I've been meaning to check out their eyeshadow palettes as I see a lot of people on YouTube going on about the Chocolate Bar one so a single eyeshadow is a good way to try out the formula. This is the shade Copper Peony & it looks totally stunning! I never go for warm eyeshadows like this as I don't think they suit my colouring very well but this blends out into a shimmery golden peach & I'm kinda liking it. The quality is outstanding. Normally with shimmery shadows like this you tend to get a lot of fallout & end up with glitter all over your face. This stays exactly where you apply it. The colour is highly pigmented & the texture is so smooth. I feel like this is better quality than a lot of the shadows in the Urban Decay Naked palettes. Too Faced, you've got a new fan!





Urban Decay Perversion Mascara
Speaking of Urban Decay, the final product in the box was their Perversion mascara. I've been a fan of Urban Decay for many years & I remember how different their products were when they first launched in Boots. They used to have loads of amazing mascaras & although I don't love the brand as much as I used to as a teenager, I was excited to give Perversion a try. This mascara is super black & looks quite dramatic on the eyes. The formula is just the right consistency, not too wet or dry & it doesn't smudge or flake throughout the day. My lashes still feel fairly soft after applying a couple of layers. It provides both decent volume & length but can get a bit clumpy. The brush really gets into the roots of your lashes which in turn makes them look thicker. However it is quite large & I kept blobbing this mascara on my top & bottom lids no matter how carefully I tried to apply it. Not sure if it's just me being cack-handed but I don't really have this problem with other mascaras. In my opinion it's a good all-rounder mascara, just not quite as good as what I normally use.

Overall I was very impressed with this Cohorted beauty box. My favourite product was the Sleek Highlighting Palette & I've already gotten a lot of use out of it. I really liked that there was loads of makeup in this box with a good mix of full sized products & generous samples. The total value comes to £74.99 so you're definitely getting your money's worth here! The main reason I stopped reviewing other beauty boxes was because the products & brands in them had started to get far too repetitive for my liking. All of the brands featured in this box are incredibly well known but luckily I hadn't tried any of these products before. For me that is the main appeal of beauty boxes in general so Cohorted have certainly delivered in that respect. If you're interested in trying the Cohorted beauty box then you can pre-order next month's by clicking here.

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Daily Makeup #2

I really liked how my makeup turned out the other night. The style & colours I used complemented my 60s inspired Urban Outfitters dress beautifully. As I was going to a concert I needed to make sure that my foundation would stick around all night long. I can't get enough of the Giorgio Armani Luminous Silk Foundation at the minute. I sandwiched it between a bit of Hourglass Veil Mineral Primer and Illamasqua Translucent Loose Powder. Even after hours of jumping about & dancing my base still looked perfectly matte & in place so I'd recommend getting both of those if your foundation is prone to melting. For concealer I used NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer underneath my eyes & on any blemishes. As always I went for theBalm Mary-Lou Manizer as my highlighter and then applied my favourite ever blusher - NARS Deep Throat - to add a peachy pink glow to my cheeks. Nude lips were all the rage during the 60s but I find it really hard to pull that look off. Pale skin & pale lips just makes you look ill. Instead I went for a lovely peach in the form of MAC Ever Hip Lipstick. I slicked on a bit of Lanolips Lemonaid Lip Aid* beforehand to soften my lips & add a glossy finish. It also helps to sheer out the lipstick & make it look even prettier.

Moving onto my eye makeup I didn't want to do a full on 60s eye look so I went for smokey grey eyeshadow instead. To make my eyeshadow last all night long without creasing I primed my eyelids using MAC Painterly Paint Pot. I used a couple of shades from the Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette - Verve all over my eyelid & then Pistol on the outer corners, blended into the crease & under my bottom lashes. I still really like the Yves Rocher Volume Vertige Mascara* so I layered it up for thick, voluminous lashes. I wanted to do a fairly thin line of liquid eyeliner so I used L'Oreal Superliner Perfect Slim & added a little flick at the ends. My eyes are pretty tiny so I always use a nude eyeliner on my waterline to make them look a bit bigger. MAC Chromagraphic Pencil in NC15/NW20 is the ultimate. Finally I filled in my eyebrows using Anastasia DipBrow Pomade. This stuff doesn't budge whatsoever & delivers intense definition to your brows. To make them look a bit more natural I used a combo of Anastasia Tinted Brow Gel & MAC Clear Brow Set. These helped to bring out the individual hairs so my brows didn't look completely drawn on. Let me know what you think!

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Christmas Presents

Polar FT4 Watch
2014 is gonna be the year that I get properly fit. I know I say that every year but I actually have time to go to the gym now that Chloe's at preschool. I'll be able to do the 30 Day Shred without having a toddler trying to sit on me or pick up my hand weights! I was using my Fitbit to track my calorie burn but it broke a few months ago. So for my main present this year I asked for a Polar watch. They're a lot more accurate because they measure your heart rate. I know a lot of people rave about these so I figured it'd be a good piece of fitness equipment to get. Can't wait to get back to doing regular exercise & lose all those pesky Christmas pounds.



Smythson Places To Remember Notebook
My mum also bought me this Smythson notebook for writing down places to visit. It'll be good to take on holiday to note down all the shops & restaurants I want to go to. I remember making a mega list when we went to New York. If only we could go back again!



Nail Art Bits & Shimmer Sprays
My sister bought me some sparkly Maybelline nail polishes & Barry M nail art pens. I'm excited to try out the nail polish corrector pen because I always mess up my nails. I really like these shimmer powder sprays she got me from The Body Shop too. They puff out a fine pink glitter that you can use on your face, hair & body and have a slightly sweet scent.



Boux Avenue Lingerie
I literally always ask my boyfriend for lingerie and Boux Avenue's stuff is just the best. Everything in there is so comfortable & flattering. He got me this gorgeous hot pink underwear set & I really love what he chose. I'm still tempted to raid their sale though!



Flamingo Candles
I'm obsessed with their Cheesecake Crunch candle so I made sure I popped a few more onto my Christmas list. I got Toasted Almonds & Plum Crumble, Tropical Coconut Milk & Honey and Pink Lemonade. They all smell insanely good and they're made from soy wax so you get a nice clean burn with these.



The Legend Of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
My pink 3DS XL is probably the best thing I've bought this year. I play on it constantly! The Legend Of Zelda series is one of my favourites so I really wanted A Link Between Worlds. It's a sequel to A Link To The Past on the SNES and it's such a good game. Link gets turned into a painting so you gain the ability to move flat along walls. It definitely makes the game mechanics more interesting & I've really enjoyed playing it so far.



Urban Decay Naked 3 Palette & MAC Goodies
I got money & gift vouchers from most of my relatives so with those I simply had to buy myself the Naked 3 Palette. I love pink eyeshadows so I thought this was a great set to buy. Plus I needed to complete my Naked Palette family of course ;) I also made a cheeky MAC order where I got Groundwork Paint Pot and a 214 brush. The shape of the 214 is really cool & perfect for smudging colour under your lashline. I got a sample tube of Strobe Cream with my order which is another product I love.







Epic Space.NK Haul
All of this was a Christmas gift to myself. Sometimes you just gotta treat yo'self! I wouldn't have spent so much but Space.NK had an amazing offer last month where if you spent £150 you got a goodie bag with loads of stuff in it including a Diptyque candle & a £50 gift voucher. Way too good to pass up, right? I decided to buy a fullsize bottle of the Hourglass Veil Mineral Primer, their Arch Eyebrow Pencil and another one of the Ambient Lighting Powders in Diffused Light. I also got the Diptyque Mimosa room spray because it smells incredible. With the £50 voucher in the goodie bag I bought the By Terry Hyaluronic Hydra Powder, Oribe Maximista Thickening Spray and some of the Bumble & Bumble Thickening products. Everything else here was in the goodie bag. The only thing I let myself play with before Christmas was the Hourglass Arch Eyebrow Pencil which took a lot of willpower. I love it all though, I'm in beauty product heaven right now. I've had to ban myself from Space.NK because this was really really naughty!

I'm so grateful for everything I received this year. I got some really lovely bits & bobs. It's more important to give than receive when you're a parent though. It was far more satisfying watching Chloe open all her new toys & seeing the joy on her face. Kids really make Christmas special again. I hope you all had a brilliant Christmas & got some nice presents too. Feel free to link me to your posts because I love seeing what other people got for Christmas!

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