Cheap, Quick & Easy Festive Nails

If, like me, you don't have the time - or lets be honest, the budget- to get your nails done properly, here's an easy, painless way to get festive nails quickly.
If you've been to my blog before, you'll know I am a huge HUGE Barry M nail paint fan, especially these new Quick Dry ones. There's a load of different colours to choose from, and you could  do this look with any of them. I chose this deep purple because it's my faavey colour, it's called Slip Stream, and like all the colours, you only need one coat for an opaque colour.
As well as a lovely, rich colour like this, adding a coat of glitter onto one nail adds a festive twist which doesn't require the same level of effort when it comes to removal as ten glittery nails.
In the picture, I've actually used a silver glitter from the brand 17, but Barry M do loads of lovely ones, like this shimmer called Duchess.
Definitely use a quick drying, thick topcoat like Seche Vite, to make sure your festive nails last as long as possible :)

Thanks for reading!
Lou

Easy eye look | Make up Revolution

Just a quick one today - to show you how I used this palette from Make up Revolution (Romantic Smoked) to do a really easy everyday look.


I started with the matte taupe in the middle of the palette, and applied it to my crease, with a wash of the third shimmery colour all over the lid - it's a really lovely almost - peach. I then added some of the bright white shimmer to the centre and inner corner of my lids and finished the look with the shimmery purple smudged along my lashline and pulled into a messy flick.


I have always really loved Make Up Revolution eyeshadows, I find that they wear really well and blend together nicely. This palette is a bit different with a few fun colours, but you can definitely use it to create such a simple look - just like this one.



If you haven't already, I would definitely recommend having a look at the shadow palettes from MuR - this one was only £4 and I've got so much use out of it!

Thanks for reading :)

Lou

MAC Angel



It took me absolutely forever to choose a new MAC lipstick the other week-  I was playing around with Angel and Snob for SO long, it got a little ridiculous, so I grabbed for Angel.

I have to say, I regret that choice. Although Snob is a matte formula, which I rarely wear, Angel is very hard to wear. It's a Frost finish, which means it is slightly iridescent, and for some reason it really  sinks into the lines in my lips and requires some serious exfoliation/ moisturising prep beforehand.

I haven't worn it much, and probably won't, as every time I do I'm disappointed. In the future I think I will stick to Satin finishes like my beloved Brave.

Over and out, thanks for reading :)

Lou 

Sunday Chat | Top 5 foods

Hi there!
How's it going?
Welcome to any newcomers, and welcome back to any familiar eyes landing on this page today.


This Sunday chat is going to be a little  different, because it's all about FOOD (& drink), and all the things I am loving putting in my mouth (ooer) at the moment. Without further a go, let's get going-


1. Salted popcorn with anything chocolate-y.
I found out about this whilst watching one of Lily Pebbles videos over on youtube - I think it was a vlog - and she mentioned that her cinema snack of choice is a mixture of salted popcorn and Minstrels. I had a think about it and decided it sounded blimmin' marvellous, so I gave it a go, and it's ah-mazing. So far I've tried it with minstrels, giant buttons and currently I'm sitting here munching on popcorn and peanut M&Ms. So wrong yet so right on so many levels.


2. Sweet Potatoes
Holy jesus, I love sweet potatoes. And, for all you worker bees out there, they make truly fantastic desk- lunches for the office. No offensive smell, minimal warm up time, and good with practically anything - or nothing - on top. I tend to do a mass sweet potato bake- off, say on a Monday night, cook around 4, and then have them  the following two days at work. Word of warning- don't try to go any more than two days, they go a bit minging, I think two is the tops.


3. Flavoured sparkling water.
Where has this been my whole life? Whilst browsing my local Tesco corner shop looking for squash, I noticed that sparkling water is 4 for £1.50 which I thought was a perfectly cracking deal, so I did it, and I've never looked back. Squash is a thing of the past.


4. The green houmous.
Regular houmous bores me a little, so I've done a fair bit of experimenting with the other offerings - again at Tesco - at my local store, and have discovered a true love for their broad bean, asparagus and mint dip, it is truly delightful.


5. Rivita.
What the bloody hell was I doing before Rivita was in my life? I'll tell you what, just nothing. Rivita is just genius, I have mine at work with soup, with an avocado, with the green deep, with peanut butter.  Whatever there is, you can bet your monkey's uncle it will be smashing with your rivita.




Well, I feel like that got a little out of hand but there we are. Food is amazing, I love food.




Thanks for reading, come back soon :)


Lou

Essence Lip Liners | Review & Swatches

If you love a good lip liner, and especially if you're on a budget, look no further.

These are the £1 (yes one English pound) each, and I have four here to show you.

Here's a lovely close up of my dry lips. From top left we have Satin Mauve, In The Nude, Honey Berry & Soft Berry.

Satin Mauve has quickly become an every day staple for me, it's just a really mauvey (hence the name, duh), soft pink, and works really nicely alone, over a lip balm or with a lipstick over top.

In The Nude is quite an orange - based nude, which I don't think is particularly flattering by itself on my skin as I have quite yellow undertones.

Honey Berry is a bright, blue-based pink/berry. I love this colour, and I think it will be so lovely in the Spring/Summer

Soft Berry is more of a brown based pinky/berry, which I love, and is really nice for this time of year.

I know the photos aren't the best, as I did them this morning, in my onesie with no other make up on, and dry, horrible lips.

But, I absolutely promise you that they are totally lovely, longwearing and obviously, very cheap.

Would definitely recommend :)

Thanks for reading!

Lou x



2 Budget Liquid Blushes

Oh hi!

Now I know a lot of people aren't very keen on cream blushes but bear (bare?) with me here, these two are worth a couple of minutes of your time.

As you can see from the swatches above, these are two completely different products, both in colour and consistency, and I love them both. 

If you are a cream blush fan- or even if you're not, but you're still a teeny bit curious- these are a couple of really good options at really low prices.

Firstly, we have the Make Up Revolution 'Vivid Blush Lacquer'  in Rush  which is this really really bright barbie pink here in the foreground. This is a very different product, and the blush actually gets squeezed out of the tube via a foundation- like pump. The consistency is fairly thick, quite moussey, but really easy to blend out - and you definitely need to blend this product as the pigment is really strong.

The second product is by Rimmel, it's their Stay Blushed Liquid Cheek Tint in 005 Apricot Glow. Compared to the MUR offering, this is a much thinner, more watery consistancy, much like a cream cleanser or something like that. Again, this is fairly pigmented, but easy to blend into the skin. I would say out of the two, this one may be slightly easier to blend.

Both products come in under £3 (I think I paid £1.50 for the MUR and £2.50 for the Rimmel), and wear-time is good on both.

I hope this was useful to all you cream blush novices out there - I know these are really summer-y colours but I have actually yet to find a winter-y shade of cream blush. Any reco's would be appreciated :)

Thanks for reading, over and out!

Lou xxx

H&M Lipstick | Review

So if you haven't heard the buzz about H&M Beauty...where have you been?
My local store has recently started stocking what I assume is the whole line which is really impressive - everything from eyeshadow to lipstains, brushes, cream blushes and nail varnishes.

I've had a good swatchy swatch and spent a very fair amount of time mooching around the testers, striping them up my arm. In the end, the lipsticks intrigued me the most, and there were so many amazing colours. If they weren't eight pound a pop I would definitely have got a fair few -not that I'm complaining, but normally when a drugstore lipstick is up there in price it normally comes with a 3 for 2 deal (eg. L'Oreal), which persuades me to buy more.

Aaanyway, after much deliberation I went for this shade, Brunette Ambition, a straight up mauve-y brown, unlike anything I own, but still neutral enough to wear during the day.

Even those these are really creamy, they wear for a good amount of time and wear off gracefully rather than flaking or patching.

I would definitely recommend the H&M lipsticks, and I will for sure be having a look at the other shades.

Thanks for reading :)

Lou