Review | L'Oreal Superliner Black Lacquer

L'Oreal Superliner Black Lacquer £6.49

Eyeliner is one of my cannot live with out products, I use it pretty much every day although I am trying to tone down how often I use it as it's got to the point that I don't feel like me unless I am wearing it! Anyone else get this too? I needed a new liquid eyeliner before Christmas and got sucked into a 3 for 2 and bought three different liquid liners from L'Oreal Superliner range, the first one I decided to use was the Superliner Black Lacquer. 

The Superliner packaging is quite good, it's an easy brush to hold and would probably be pretty easy for anyone to use. The felt tip nib is flexible and quite spongey, soaking up enough of the liquid to do one eye at a time. Only one 'coat' is needed because of how pigmented the liner is, it's a completely opaque black and has a gorgeous glossy finish. It's almost vinyl like and looks really lovely. 

This would literally be my perfect eyeliner expect it only works for me if I am doing the tiniest line as close to my lashes as possible. Anything more than the tiniest lines and this transfers and smudges all over the place (which has never happened to me before with any other eyeliner)! It feels tacky, heavy and just uncomfortable, it's a really strange feeling to have on your eyelids! I've tested it out a few times with a variety of different eyeliner looks and no matter what I do I end up with it all over the top of my eye lid and 'sticky' feeling eye lids. 

If you like a really thin and tiny line then this might work for you, but if you like a thicker look or to wing out your liner then I would not bother.. Unless you like the proper panda eyes! I will keep persevering as I don't like to admit defeat with a product but it's not looking like a bright future. Here's hoping the rest of the Superliner range is a bit better. 

Please tell me it's not just me having problems with this product! 

Have you tried the L'Oreal Superliner range?

Review | Clinique Nail Enamel in Birthday Suit

 Clinique Nail Enamel in Birthday Suit* £12

Clinique have released a new limited edition collection called the '16 Shades of Beige' including 8 nude nail polishes in their 'A Different Nail Enamel for Sensitive Skins' formula and an 8 shade eyeshadow palette. The nail polishes are designed to closely match different skin tones ranging from pale to dark, just pick the shade most similar to your skin tone for a gorgeous nude look or you can contrast (rather than matching) against your skin tone, which I think is a lovely look too.

Birthday Suit is a peachy beige that I think is a perfect nude polish for me. It's a creamy and subtle shade that blends in nicely into my skin tone, is super classic and makes my nails look longer (an achievement as they are super short!) One coat was enough to get a decent opaque nail but two gives the most lovely glossy and elegant finish. My favourite thing about this polish is it's lasting power, I can get a good five days wear out of this before it starts to slightly chip. For me this is fab as polish can be gone after a day sometimes!
The 8 neutral shades of A Different Nail Enamel will be available for a limited time so go have a look as soon as you can! The polishes cost £12 each from Clinique and in my opinion are worth investing in, especially for a classic shade that you will always love!

What do you think of the collection by Clinique?

*pr sample, review 100% honest as always

A Lush Haul

I'm a bit awol from my blog at the moment, working a full time internship and everything else life brings means I am still trying to find the balance to keep blogging and YouTube update regularly. I am really missing blogging and hopefully this weekend I will have some time to sit down and write lots of lovely posts.

I did just upload a brand new video to my YouTube channel for you all to (hopefully) enjoy! It's full of really lovely stuff from Lush and all about their brand new book 'Danger, Cosmetics To Go!'. It would seriously make my day if you had a watch and subscribed to my channel here.

Review | Benefit Lollitint

Benefit Lollitint* £24.50

When ever Benefit release a new product I end up falling in love, I am a full on Benebabe and have yet to be disappointed by their products. Benefit's first ever product was Benetint (developed first as a nipple tint for an exotic dancer, oooo), and since then a range of other tints have been created in a lovely collection of shades. Lollitint is the newest addition to the line up and I have a feeling it's going to be a hit, I squealed for about an hour when this arrived at my door beautifully packaged with some sweets (that didn't last long)!

I am a sucker for Benefit packaging. It's just gorgeous! Always super cute and fun but still practical. Lollitint's packaging matches the shade of the tint, a beautiful orchid shade which I am pretty sure is the 'colour of 2014'! The bottle is like a big nail varnish, the brush is the perfect size for applying the tint.

Lollitint is described as being a 'candy-orchid' shade, it's the perfect shade for the transition from winter to spring (if it ever comes) and will look gorgeous all through summer. It definitely looks a bit scary when you first swatch it, it's quite lilac toned but still a universal shade that will flatter everyone. I am still pretty scared of blush as I am super pale so using this the first time was an experience! I was totally wrong to be scared as even on my near translucent skin this a stunning shade.

I like to apply Lollitint in three tiny stripes on the cheek before blending in with my Real Techniques Stippling Brush. It has a thin consistency and you have to work one cheek at a time as this dries very quickly, and when it's dry it's not going to budge. Benefit suggest blending Lollitint in with your fingers, but I prefer the brush so I avoid having stained fingers. This has an incredible staying power and bright pink fingers aren't the best look! Lollitint will last beautifully for a good 10 hours, it can be ever so slightly drying so applying this on top of moisturised skin before or after foundation will help to make it last all day. 

I have tried this on lips and am neutral on whether I like it, you need a few blotting and reapplying sessions to get an intense colour. If you have dry lips it clings unless you use a really good balm before and a gloss over the top. I just like to use this as a blush personally, but if you love the candy orchid shade it can be worth the effort for the lips as it is a gorgeous colour. 

My first venture into a cheek and lip stain has been pretty impressive. Benefit haven't let me down and I would really recommend having a look the next time you pass a counter. It's truly a beautiful shade that gives the most lovely glow when blended out and you know it's going to last all day long. 

Lollitint is priced at £24.50 which seems steep, but if you like this sort of product I think it's worth investing in. You need the tiniest amount and it will last you forever!

Have you tried Lollitint?

*pr sample, review 100% honest as always

Giveaway | Win a pair of London Retro Glasses/Sunglasses

Fancy winning a brand new pair of designer glasses or sunglasses? The fab team at My Optique are offering you the chance to win a pair of glasses or sunglasses from the trendy brand London Retro. London Retro have released their new 'Metropolitan' collection, full of vintage inspired shapes that will become an essential part of your wardrobe. All the designs are gorgeous and wearable, I am a big fan of the whole range. There is definitely something for everyone.
I'm not a glasses wearer, but all London Retro frames can be made into sunglasses, so everyone can enter to win a gorgeous prize!

To enter please use the Rafflecopter form below! The giveaway is open internationally until the 2nd of March.
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*giveaway prize provided by My Optique

Valentine's Baking with Baking Mad!

I am not a domestic goddess in any way at all, I wish I was able to whip up a batch of cupcakes or cook a roast dinner but I am awful at all things kitchen related! So when the team at Baking Mad challenged me to make something from their website in time for Valentine's Day I thought it would be an interesting experience to say the least!
Baking Mad is a really lovely website with hundreds of different recipes of super yummy things to make. It's such a great website to look through but might be best to avoid if you are on a diet as you will want to make everything!

It's easy to search the Baking Mad recipes if you know what want to make, you can search by ingredients or recipes that don't include an ingredient. You can also browse through the recipes at well, so if you know you want to make a cheesecake just click that section. All recipes have a skill level (I went for the easiest of them all) a prep & bake time, ingredients with metric lists you can change and serving amounts. It's so beautifully designed and easy to use, it's definitely made me want to try and attempt to bake more often! The recipe is shown step by step, but you can also enter 'Bake Mode' where your screen just shows the step you are on until you click through to the next one.

I decided to attempt the Chocolate Truffle Cookies. If you look at the picture on the website they look amazing and admittedly different to my result. I found it really easy to follow the recipe and the end result was pretty decent by my standards. I did have to make two batches as I got a few things the wrong way round, but the second attempt was a whole lot better. I should have taken them out the oven a couple of minutes earlier though! I was quite impressed by my result as I have set fire to kitchens before (three times).

If you are interested in baking then definitely check out the Baking Mad website, or even if you aren't go and look at the yummy pictures! Are you a baking anything for Valentine's?

*some ingredients were provided by Baking Mad, no other compensation was given (expect the experience of making cookies)

Fragrance Direct Valentine's Make Up Challenge

 With just a couple of days til Valentine's Day, the love and romance is definitely in the air (well for all you loved up people anyway!) The lovely team at Fragrance Direct set me the challenge of creating a Valentine's themed make up look with products from their amazing website. If you haven't been on Fragrance Direct before then you are in for a right treat. Stocking a huge list of brands we all know and love with products at much cheaper prices. I was given a budget of £20 to buy five items to create a look for V Day and I was really happy with what I picked! I also used some of my own make up that I already had to help create the look.

First I used my trusty Estee Lauder Double Wear Foundation, my love for this grows every time I use it. It evens out the skin tone, has a great full coverage and really lasts all day. For concealer I used the Make Up Atelier Palette, this has all you need to cover darkness, blemishes and redness. I used my HD Brows Palette to fill in and create a stronger brow look before moving onto eye make up.

My first pick from Fragrance Direct was the Rimmel Glam Eyes Trio in Lynx*, it has a pearly white shadow, a taupe brown shadow and a mauve/brownish shadow. I love the mix of colours, it's easy to work with and has a guide on the back if you aren't sure how best to use them. I blended the shadows together to create a subtle smokey eye, using the white on the inner corner, the mauve all over the lid and the taupe as a crease colour. For eyeliner I picked the W7 Automatic Felt Eyeliner Pen*, which I have fallen in love with. It's really pigmented and so easy to use. I'm not the best at winged liner but I feel like my attempt isn't that bad with this! My third pick from Fragrance Direct was the Maybelline Colossal Mascara*, this was one of the first mascaras I ever bought and I have now rediscovered my love for it. It gives a whole lot of length and volume.

The W7 Honolulu Bronzer* is an obvious dupe of Benefit's Hoola, it's great for contouring although I need to do a lot of blending because of my super pale skin. For blush I used a small amount of  the Wild Rose Bobbi Brown Shimmer Sticks that my Dad picked for me as a present from a work trip, I'm still trying to get used to blush as I find it a bit scary! I have another new love in the form of the Topshop Glow Highlighter, it's beautiful and I will definitely be featuring it soon in it's own blog post. I am a big fan of the Rimmel Apocalips and was chuffed to see the newest shades from the range on Fragrance Direct as I was looking to complete my collection. Across The Universe* is a beautiful deep red that I think really looks gorgeous. A Valentine's look wouldn't be complete without a red lip!

I was really impressed with the five items I picked up and loved experimenting with the products to put this look together. Fragrance Direct have so many products at incredible prices, I warn you now you will have a big online basket if you start browsing!

A big thanks to Fragrance Direct for getting me involved with this challenge!
What do you think of my Valentine's make up look?

*items marked with '*' were provided by Fragrance Direct to complete the Valentine's Challenge. 

Valentine's Day with H Samuel

 

It's less than a week til Valentine's Day now and my plans are still non existent. I'm not overly fussed about Valentine's, but I do think if you are in a relationship it's lovely to be able to dedicate a day to each other, but every day should still be full of love, romance and all that soppy stuff (Shut up Ellie!) 

The lovely people at H Samuel gifted me a £50 voucher to treat myself to something for Valentine's. I was super grateful for the chance to be able to pick something out from their amazing ranges online. 

I knew one of the things I wanted was the Casio Digital Watch. I had my eye on it since my best friend Amber wore her one whilst we were on holiday together. This is the second watch I own and is completely different to my rose gold Michael Kors. I have completely fallen in love with this watch! It's really light weight and easy to wear, I'm rubbish at putting outfits together and accessorising but this seems to go with everything. I haven't figured out all the settings yet but it has a lot of different functions that I am sure I will get the hang of soon. I really love it, if you're after a simple but gorgeous watch for a great price then this is it!

My second pick was this beautiful leather cord bracelet from Fossil. You all know by now my rose gold addiction is a big one, and I am forever looking for ways to add it to my wardrobe. I love simple pieces of jewellery that can be worn with any outfit and I think this leather bracelet with rose gold beads is perfect. I love wearing it next to the Casio watch. It is packaged in a really lovely tin and drawstring pouch to keep it safe. The quality is incredible and I now have my eye set on a few more Fossil pieces from the H Samuel website.

A huge thank you to H Samuel again for my treats, it's so lovely to get something nice for Valentines as I can't imagine my puppy has got much planned for me! :) I love both pieces and think they look great worn together or separately. 

What do you think of my picks?

*£50 gift card provided by H Samuel and rest of the total paid for by myself

The TMI Tag

I jumped on the band wagon and filmed the TMI Tag for you all to (hopefully) enjoy! If you are a Disney fan you might want to give this a watch for the amazing/awful chat up lines I mention.
If you fancied commenting on the video and subscribing to my YouTube channel, that would be brilliant!
If you've filmed this tag or written it as a blog post please let me know so I can go and be nosey too!

Giveaway | Win £75 of Vouchers with #spreadthelove

As much as I don't want to accept it, Valentines Day is almost upon us. My plans for the day so far consist of a night in with my Nan and pup, don't all rush to flood me with offers of posh dinners out or anything..

To celebrate the season of love and because the people at Intellicig are lovely, I have a bundle of goodies to giveaway to one of you lovely people. Intellicig have launched #spreadthelove to help those trying to help quit smoking and have provided me with the other pack to giveaway. I personally am not a smoker so am not overly clued up on e cigerattes, however I think anything that takes a way the nasty substances must be a good thing. Intellicig kindly gave me a pack too and I already am trying to decide what to spend my Ticketmaster voucher on! The M&S voucher will be spent on my Nan treating her or buying her a lovely meal to celebrate Valentines!

This giveaway is for everyone, smoker or not! You have the chance to win a £35 Tickermaster voucher, a £30 M&S Voucher, an Intellicig and some yummy #spreadthelove sweets.
To be in with a chance of winning just fill in the Rafflecopter form below, and don't forget to #spreadthelove! :) Closes 15th Feb.

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Wishlist | Beauty Steals

Skimlinks Test

I recently discovered a really lovely website called Beauty Steals. Beauty Steals have everything in one place that would easily bankrupt up us bloggers; jewellery, handbags, cosmetics and more! I've had a browse through the website and picked my favourite four pieces to share with you.

I'm absolutely addicted to all things rose gold and am loving this jewellery set. The bracelet and necklace are really sweet and simple, but would make a nice addition to any outfit. I love the pink leather straps, it makes a change from silver and gold! I like small bracelets, especially in summer as they look lovely stacked up with other pieces. Since finding this suede bag I have become obsessed with it. I love it far to much, the chain detailing and contrast with the suede material is gorgeous. It might not be most practical for the rain but I adore it! My last pick had to be a statement necklace, I'm building up a collection at the moment and I can see this black and crystal one fitting in nicely.

Beauty Steals have an offer of 20% for new customers using the code New13 and also have a competition on here wear you can win a lovely scarf.
What do you think of my Beauty Steals picks?

*sponsored post

Review | HD Brows Palette in Foxy

HD Brows Palette in Foxy* £19.95

Eyebrows are by far one of the best parts of a make up routine, I will never not be amazed by how much they can change the way a face looks! As pathetic as it probably sounds, I find it hard to leave the house without doing something to my brows as they are so sparse and thin. The HD Brows Palette is well raved about in the blogosphere so I was super excited to receive a sample at an event last year. I have the shade 'Foxy' for medium hair, there is also Bombshell for fair hair and Vamp for dark hair.

I think Foxy is a palette that would probably suit everyone, for me it's a brilliant set of powders. All the four shades in the palette are matte, so perfect for brows and can of course be used as eyeshadow as well. Shade wise you get a creamy ivory, a black, a warm brown and a dark brown. The warm brown is slightly reddish compared to the dark, which is much more ashy. For me the dark brown is a great match, it leaves my brows looking much thicker but still quite natural. It's probably the best brow powder I've found for me! I tend to use a really small amount of the warm brown blended in to fill those extra sparse areas too if needed.

All the powders are really pigmented and soft. I'm really impressed with the quality. They work really well for brows but are also brilliant as eyeshadows. If you ever need to travel light you could totally get away with just taking this for brows and eyeshadow looks! To do my brows I only need the smallest amount of product, this palette is seriously going to last me forever.

If brows are as important to you as they are too me, then I definitely recommend picking up a HD Brows Palette. It's really versatile and worth the money. Especially if you love a neutral eye look too!
Do you own a HD Brows Palette?

*gift from a press event