Sunday Chat | Palette Lust List

Hey! I hope you've had a really good weekend.
What have I been up to? Well, it feels like my life only consists of tidying, unpacking and sorting these days, even though I moved in over two weeks ago now. I managed to get some blog photos done yesterday morning so I will have some content up over the next week, hooray! I hope you're excited; I'm excited.

Anyway, as usual with my Sunday posts, this is just going to be a chatty no-photo no-fuss ramble, basically. This time, it's about the palettes I'm lusting after right now.

1. Hourglass Holiday 2015 palette

Have you seen this? Holy shit, that's my Christmas list sorted. Everything Hourglass makes is so beautiful. I don't actually own anything of theirs, but it's hard not to trust the millions of reviews which say their products are absolutely top notch. So this palette looks like it has highlights, setting powders, blusher and bronzer. So basically everything. I read a blog post which said this palette would be $79... so £50? That seems a steal considering each powder is around £35. And you get six...? Surely not. If this is a US exclusive, I will cry.

2. Zoeva Cocoa Blends Palette 

This was buzzing around the blogosphere a few months back, and I haven't got over it quite yet. It  really does look amazing, I love the warm browns and the touch of pinky mauve- ness for the autumn season. Plus, it is somehow only £15- a really good deal if the product is as good as everyone is saying!

3, Charlotte Tilbury, The Vintage Vamp Quad

You hear a lot about CT's Dolce Vita, but personally, Vintage Vamp appeals to me a bit more. It's probably those beautiful deep maroons which look absolutely dreamy. I've been hunting for a good quad recently, as I find my collection is significantly lacking in anything between a single and a 16-pan whopper, and I have pondered on these many a time. The only snag is that they cost as much as a Naked Palette, and house significantly less shades. Still, it does look like total quad- perfection...

4. Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette

Chocolate and make-up, my two favourite things, brought together in this beautiful array of eyeshadow goodness. Could it get any better? Basically, no, it can't. The colour selection is this palette is right up my alley, with some buttery mid-tone crease shades, bronzey browns, and hints of purple and red. Amazing. Is it my birthday yet?

So yeah, I hope you enjoyed this, and can sympathise a little with my palette obsession.
Thanks for reading!
Lou x

2 Budget Gloss options

I am having a real lip gloss moment at the moment, which is inconvenient, because most of the world seems obsessed with the matte-est of matte lips. 

I just find gloss really easy to wack on and trust that it won't crack or crumble off in a really really unattractive way, which is my main fear with anything matte.

I also don't really have it in me to buy a high-end lipgloss (except the Clarins Lip Perfecters which are the bomb.com), so I set about finding a couple of bargain-ous highstreet options. These are the two I have been using over the last few weeks, both with a ridiculous price tag, so I thought Id share them with you.

First of all, this is the XXL nude (??) Lipgloss from Essence in the shade Soft Almond. This was something amazing like £1.90 from Wilko's, and I really like the formula, which is more wet gel rather than sticky? If ya know what I mean. Lovely stuff. Lasting power isn't great, but its lipgloss, what do you expect? It's not pigmented either, just adding a gloss of nude to the lips, really easy for every day. I personally think this a great find, and such a bargain. I do remember looking at the other colours and seeing a lot of glitter, so I'm not sure if I'll be going back for seconds, but it depends on the shades.

Lip Boss from Barry M. First of all, I think I love the name? I started off thinking it was a bit stupid, but I think I've warmed to the idea. I also think the packaging is really quite nice, its pretty solid and hefty. The colour looks neon- bright in the tube but it really isn't all that bad.

As you can see here, its more a wash of warm peach. Pretty inoffensive and pretty, probably more suited for summer but oh well. I remember this being £3.50, which is a pretty good deal. The downside to this product is the smell- which is something like really cheap oranges. I really hate it.

Between the two, I would say the Essence one is my favourite, colour and formula wise, and for the price you really cant complain.

Thanks for reading!

Lou x

Nineties Nails

Oh hey! I am back. I have been away moving house, not having wi-fi, and generally doing adult things. BUT. I have returned, and I'm hoping to really crack out some posts over the next few weeks - I have a lot of stuff I want to review.

But first of all, here's a lovely well-lit shot of some really neat nails.
Okay, okay, my camera was running out of battery and I'm a horrible nail- painter but I just wanted to show you this beautiful Barry M Gelly Shine Polish in Coconut. Isn't it creamy deliciousness?
This will definitely look amazing on darker skin tones, and probably is a bit more summer than autumn, but hey, I'm rolling with it.

Anyway, I look forward to cramming some content on here, so look out for it, and I'll speak to you soon!

Thanks for reading,
Lou xo

5 Beauty Things I'm Bad At | Sunday Chat

Soo, obviously I like beauty products. I love make-up and I love skincare, but unfortunately there are other parts of beauty I just can't get excited about, or I just never find time to do. Here is my top five:

1.Styling my hair.
I never ever have time to style my hair. Firstly, I don't know how to. I have two or three "styles" that I can do, but mostly I will leave it down or pull the top half into a bun or a clip. Ya know, standard. I envy those people who manage to straighten or curl, or even just make their hair look good on an everyday basis. How are you people doing this. Sorry guys, I was busy doing my fifteen- step skin care routine, don't mind my crazy bedhead. 

2.Painting my toe nails.
Now I'm not even joking, I have one nail varnish which is my genuine, designated toe colour. And I will never rotate or change that colour. It's a dark red in case youre wondering. And I will never touch up, refresh, or generally sort out my toe colour until I absolutely have to. So most of the time it's a chipped mess and it makes me sad whenever I look at my feet.

3. Fake tanning.
This is something which I really really want to be good at, but I just generally find that I can't really be bothered. It's the smell. And the getting naked, walking around, getting cold, waiting for it to stop being sticky bit. Just inconvenient. 

4. Cutting my sugar intake.
I am the first to moan when my skin is bad, which is all the time really. But I am also the first to eat a cupcake if there is one presented to me. I have the worst, most addictive sweet tooth ever and I love chocolate like a third parent and a first child. And I think even if my skin got astronomically horrible, I would still find it heartbreaking to go a day without a Peanut Butter KitKat. Because. Life.

5.Dying my hair.
Because of a terrifying incident when I was 16 when I got hairdye on my face and ended up in A&E (who am I), I have an irrational fear of dying my hair, even though it has since happened several times and I have been totally fine. I especially fear dying my hair whilst being unsupervised. Luckily, my friend did it for me about a year ago, and I've basically been rocking the grown-out-blonde look since then. Thank fuck that look is sort of okay at the moment, or I'd just look like a mess. I need to sort my shit out and either do it myself or get someone to do it for me.

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed!
Lou x

Splurge.

Oh god, my purse hurts just looking at these photos. I went shopping with a friend and ended up buying this. To be honest, I have only myself to blame, I was in a splurge-y mood, and something had to happen. Somehow, I justified myself out of buying an Hourglass Powder, but then bought this which was only £5 cheaper. Logical. 

If you're a beauty lover, you'll know that this is a Becca Shimmering Skin Perfecter in liquid form. I went for Moonstone, but for a minute almost convinced myself that I wanted Pearl, which is more of a white-based highlight, whereas this is slightly more champagne/ golden.

The price tag makes me wince. No wait, not wince, cry. Hysterically.
But, a girl's gotta shop, and sometimes nothing is more satisfying than a huge, spontaneous splurge on something you totally don't need. (Do you see me justifying this to myself?).
But, this is a cult classic, and something which I don't have in my collection at the moment, unless you count the Revlon Skin Lights (which I don't because it's more bronze-y so it can't highlight my face).

I haven't been able to play with it a huge amount yet, but I've been using it as a regular highlight, and I just love it. It's such a natural wet-looking sheen which just looks beautiful, and so far I'm really impressed. I'm looking forward to playing around with it a little more, maybe mixing it into a foundation to see how that works!

Happy splurging!


Lou x

Brows | Back to Powder

Just when bold brows are phasing out, I get a real taste for them. Typical hey? Since my dark roots now take up about a third of my hair (I'm trying to pull it off as a grown-out-ombre look...it's not working), I can pretty much get away with a dark-ish brow.
My everyday brow preference is for the Soap and Glory Archery Pencil, paired with the L'Oreal Brow Plumper, both in blonde. I find both products quick and easy to use, and they don't budge all day, which is a definite plus.
But, when I have a bit of time for my face, I like to experiment with slightly bolder, better brows. Here I used the Naked2 Basics palette to really sculpt my brows out. Seriously, whatever colour your hair, this palette will have something in it for your brows, as well as being an amazing eyeshadow palette, obviously. I used a mixture of Frisk and Primal to match my shade, and I really like the results. Am I crazy?

My Current Beauty Lust List | Sunday Chat

So... let's be real here. I just finished Uni, and although I do have a real job, I haven't made it to my first pay cheque yet. On top of that, I don't actually have a home yet, so I'm basically not meant to be spending any money at all until I sort my adult life out. (Send help).
To take my mind of all the beautiful make-up goodness which I am dying to get my hands on, I thought I would list it here. Hopefully it will help and I will stop staring at swatches and crying over my (empty) bank account.

1. Zoeva Cocoa Blends Palette
I know this isn't an extravagant purchase at around £15, but I can't justify buying it. It's full of fairly standard bronzes, browns and general neutral goodness, so I really have no need of it.But I still want it really really much. The other problem is that it's probably best to purchase from Beauty Bay, which means I will need to buy another couple of items to qualify for quicker/ free-er delivery options. So what starts of as £15 ends up at £40, and there you see my problem.

2.All of the Charlotte Tilbury
Holy mother. I had not seen much Charlotte Tilbury stuff in the flesh until recently when I ventured into the Selfridge's beauty hall for the first time in my life (I know, what have I been doing?!). But oh my god, I wish I hadn't. I need the eyeshadow quads. And the lipsticks. And the Bronze&Glow. All the powders, creams, masks, everything. It needs to be mine.

3.Tarte Tartlette Palette
Dear god I'm having a real eyeshadow lust moment. I really need this one though, because I lack in the matte department, and this palette really has it all. And it's purple which is my absolute favourite colour of life. So basically, it's perfection.

4. Jo Malone English Pear and Freesia Cologne
(See number 2. to set the scene- e.g, Selfridge's). Basically, I smelt them all, and this one was just amazing. I've really been lusting after a daytime perfume which makes it through the day, and I'm pretty sure this is the one. Fresh, floral, a little sweet but nothing sickly, I want it, I need it. Why is it £85? Holy smokes.

5. Becca Shimmering Skin Perfecter, Champagne Pop
Maybe if everyone and their mothers (and fathers, sisters and brothers) stopped talking about this, I wouldn't want it so much. But they don't, so I do. It's meant to be the highlight of all highlights, and it does look ridiculously amazing. After recently swatching Opal and Moonstone in real life, I think I finally understand the magic of Becca, and being a huge Jaclyn Hill fan, I really do see the magic of Champagne Pop. The sad thing is, I can pretty much be sure that it will never, ever be mine. Sob.

So, I don't know if I feel any better, or if I just feel a bit depressed. Basically I just need to win the lottery.

Thanks for reading!
Lou x