NARS 'Virtual Domination' Palette

Ahh, finally I get to post this on my blog! Until very recently NARS and I had never met. Of course, I had lusted over all the populars like 'Sheer Glow' foundation and 'Laguna' bronzer but the nearest counter to where a live is quite a journey. So is MAC actually but thats another issue. I had been thinking for a while that I really need to start wearing blush. I have 100% just been a bronzer and highlight girl for far too long. I just like a contoured cheek bone and a shine on the tops. Enough was enough and I bit the bullet. Christmas is the best time to pick up sets/palettes that have multiple shades of blush in. I knew that I wanted the Benefit 'Cheeky Sweet Spot' already because it is a beauty however when I came across the 'Virtual Domination' palette and I completely fell in love. It is stunning.

Firstly before I go on to mention what beauty the palette holds I have to say that it is amazing value for money. I recieved mine for Christmas which was from Space Nk. It was £45.00 and contains 3 blushers, 1 huge bronzer and 1 highlight. 'Laguna' bronzer is bigger than a full sized bronzer as it is 10g. The bronzers Nars sell are £27.00 pounds alone for a smaller bronzer. With the blushes only being 0.3g less than a full sized blush it means that the total blush in this palette is worth over £67.00 (Wow, I know). Then if you add on the price of the highlight too? All I have left to say is that it is a massive steal and get your hands on one as soon as possible.
Miss Liberty is 4.5g and a super shimmery pearly gold. It's gorgeous for those girls that love a good highlight. I don't really enjoy highlights that have larger chunks of glitter in them usually but I just can't get enough of this one. Sex Fantasy is a blush that NARS have released before. It's described as a lavander pink colour. It shows up beautifully on my skin and so far it is my favourite from the palette. I just think it looks so natural and beautiful. Deep throat must be one of the most talked about, loved and desired NARS blush ever. I have to admit it is beautiful. It is rose gold in colour and I imagine will look so gorgeous on people that have a tanned complexion. Final Cut is a peachy, coral. This in my opinion is the most pigmented of the palette and has the best staying power. I wore it the other day and it stayed on my cheeks from morning to night. I can't deny, I was very impressed. Laguna, how you didn't disapoint me. I've heard people say that you can't use this for contour however I have been and the little flecks on glitter in it are so suptle it doesn't really make a difference. 

The light washed them out, sigh.

 
Let me know your favourite NARS products! I'm keen to buy more!

Kylie Jenner inspired makeup

Just a little post for today. I haven't ever really posted my face on my blog before (scary eek). Today I was really channeling my inner Kylie Jenner. Along with everyone else on this planet, I love the Kardashians and the Jenners. I am not ashamed okay. I love Kylie Jenners makeup so I thoughts I would go ahead and share my re-creation. 

For my base I used NARS Sheer Glow in the colour ' Deauville'. I love the effect this foundation has. I buffed it right into my skin with the buffing brush from Real techniques. While I let my foundation set a little, I went and filled in my brows while aiming for that traditional Kardashian Arch.I then added some Rimmel's 'Brow this way' in the medium shade. I contoured both my cheeks and nose with the Anastasia Beverly Hills Contour Kit. I adore this kit so much. For under my cheek bones and the sides of my nose I used the shade 'Fawn' and down the bridge of my nose and tops of my cheek bones I used 'Banana'. I went for a little more highlighter at the very tops of my cheek bones with a tiny little brush in the form of MAC's Mineralize skin finish in 'Soft and gentle'. I firstly sprayed my brush a little and the touched the highlighter. This way it picks up the most amazing sheer. Ah I love. And for the eyes now. I firstly went through my crease with a little 'Laguna' bronzer from NARS for some definition and then 'Walk of Shame' from my Naked Basics to highlight my brow bone and inner corner. I finely lined my eye with L'oreal super liner with just a little wing. Finally I added a little mascara and then I applied some dramatic flasies. The ones I chose are Kirei lashes in 'Sassy'. I finally finished off the look with my MAC lipstick in 'Velvet Teddy' and thats it. 

1st Birthday giveaway! | Real Techniques and Lush

On the 2nd of january my blog is one year old and I cannot explain how fast it has gone. As a huge ''Thank You!'' to you all I thought I would host a little international giveaway. I've been so excited to host this and anyone is welcome to get involved. I decided to go out and shop for some of my favourite things to giveaway. I knew from the start I wanted to have some real techniques in my giveaway as I looooove them and they're super amazing quality. I chose the Duo-Fiber collection just because they can be used for everything. They're so soft, it makes me happy.  Then I also went for a couple of my favourite lush products too. Didn't we all just got insane for the christmas range this year? Well I'm giving you a last chance to win my favourite pair of things. Firstly I chose for you all the 'Drummers Drumming' reusable bubble bar so you can fill your baths with strawberry mounds of bubbles. Then I picked up some 'Rose Jam' shower Gel. I hope you like and all you have to do is enter below!

My Rules:

- It's open internationally.

- It closes on the 09/01/2015

- 1 winner will be chosen randomly by the generator and will have 2 days to reply to my email to claim the prize!

- I will be checking through the winners entry to make sure that they did the steps that where mandatory e.g followed me on Bloglovin. The rest of the steps aren't mandatory, but give you a better chance of winning the giveaway as you will gain more points!

a Rafflecopter giveaway Thank you for all of your support over the past year!

 

Rocky Road Cookies

Who made Rocky Road cookies? I did! I thought I would just share with you all my recipe and how I did them because they are so super easy to make and they taste amaze! They're just perfect to have in the kitchen around the festive period as little treats.

My first step was to switch up my oven to 200 degreese (Gas Mark 6) and grease my trays I going to cook my cookies on. The ingredience I used were as follows:

• 120g of Butter (unsalted)
• 180g of Plain Flour
• 60g of Cocoa Powder
• half a tsp of Baking Powder
• half a tsp of Salt
• Two medium eggs
• 120g of Caster Sugar
• Two hands full of Marshmallows
• 150g of Chocolate (just pick your fave)

My method I followed was just to firstly blend together the butter and sugar until it was light and fluffy. Then I went ahead and added one egg and some flour, the baking  and repeted this until I had a mixture that was smooth and the flour, salt and baking powder combo was all gone. After that I got out my sieve and added my cocoa powder until I felt as though it was good to go. Finally, I just added my marshmallows and chocolate. When I had my final mixture I split it into twelve equal parts and put six on each tray. I only cooked them for 12 minutes each. They turned out so amazing!

Let me know if you try these out!

An E45 Hand Cream Dream

We all get those annoying dry hands in winter, right? I've never found a hand cream before that I really loved. I've found ones I like, Soap and Glory 'Hand Food' is always a good, safe option. Some hand creams I have tried have not made my hands even feel any different. Some have even made them feel worse. I decided to try next a brand that I know I've trusted previously. E45 are a brand with 60 years of experience that works hard to meet the real demands from our skin. Over the past months of trying the E45 Overnight Repair & Protect hand cream and it's been a life saver. 

This hand cream is stripped right back. It doesn't really smell of much (what it does smell of is pleasant though). It's white in colour and rubs into the hands to leave no greasy palms. I've being enjoying it the most however because of the changes it has made to my winter hands. It really does give long lasting moisture to my chapped hands. It's priced at only £3.99 you can't really go wrong. I apply it every night before I sleep and I wake with softer hands. It contains vitamin B3 and promotes cell regeneration which I don't really know the science of... I'm guessing thats a good thing (I wouldn't do it any justice anyway). I'm definitely going to be trying many for E45 products in the new year.

Do any of you have a favourite hand cream? Leave them below I'm interested!

W7 Cosmetics | Budget Buys

This year has been the year of the budget makeup brands. I'm a lover of an bargin and who isn't now a days?  W7 cosmetics are a brand that can have you looking glam for this christmas with over 100 products for you to choose from! W7 sent me some products to test and trial and I have being nothing but impressed with their quality. I've definitely found some products I will be repurchasing when they run out! 
The first product I discovered In my little package was the mascara 'Asbolute Mascara'*. It's priced at £6.95 and it's an absolute joy.  Now, we cannot all deny it looks like a dupe for 'They're real' from Benefit. There's no denying that it works exactly like it either! However the price difference is outstanding. With Benefit being £12.50 more, I think we know who the real winner is here. With the wands being Identical, it leaves my lashes clump free and long. I'm not going to say too much because I think that the lovely Jordan From Keep Dreaming has summed it up perfectly here.

Next up is the Candy Blush by W7 also. I had never seen these before until recently. I got mine in the shade 'Explosion'*. In the packaging it is a gorgeous coral colour. It applies to the cheeks a soft peachy colour and looks perfect with a bronzed, gold look over this festive period. I do believe I will be getting some good use out of this over summer 2015. Priced at 4.95 you cannot fall off. The little mirror is also handy too.

Matte lips have been all of the rage this year, matte this, matte that. W7 sent over this lovely matte liquid lipstick. It teams up perfectly with their blush 'Explosion'. This one is in the shade 'Rose'* and lasted on me for around 3 hours pretty well before it began to smudge and fade. I must mention, that some matte lipsticks I have owned have made my lips feel dry. This one is more of a matte lip cream if that even makes any sense (they aren't super matte, more semi matte). They glide effortlessy onto the lips and i'm definitely going to try and collect the whole range as they're so handy just to throw in a bag!

Finally on my list it's the lavander corrective concealer*. I've always being curious about these kind of products, green, purple concealers etc. The lilac concealer is the hide away dark circles under the eyes and can be applied to blemishes and also to other dark spots. It works by eliminating the dark tones in your skin and giving you a flawless look. When I first tried this I wasn't expecting them to totally go away, which they dont however it does seem to make a difference. I must admit, adding something lilac to where you wouldn't normally does feel a little weird however it cannot be seen once blended it. I'm really enjoying getting to grips with this product and am going to carry on using it. It's priced at £4.95 and you can check it out on the website here. They also do different colours for different issues such as yellow for evening out your natural skin tone and also green for neutralising blemishes and redness.

Advertising competition

IT'S MY BLOG'S FIRST BIRTHDAY SOON *doing a little dance*. Actually that is not what i'm going to be talking about yet though. My blog recently hit 300 followers. In celebration of that I got my self a new little theme! The lovely Sarah from www.trisarahtopssmiles.co.uk designed it personally for me and I cannot recommend her enough! Months of playing around with my HTML code just was frustrating me. Sarah only charges £15.00 for a fully personal design including all of the features I have right here. She personalised my header and took all of my ideas and made them beautiful. Thank you so much, if you're reading!
Aside from that, I'm also going to celebrate by having a little advertising competiton. If you want to get involved just enter below. I'm giving away five spaces on my blog for a little promoting. The competition ends on the 19th of December just in time for christmas. I'll be leaving the 5 winners up on my blog for a whole month and will be doing a post to tell you a little something about each of them just because I love the little blogging community and i'm feeling the festive spirit. 
As I mentioned earlier in a little outburst at the start of this post it is my blogs birthday soon. I'm going to be hosting a giveaway to celebrate it being one year old on the 2nd of january when I brought it into the world. My only question is though, what would you like to see in my giveaway? Please leave all of your suggestions below because I need your help! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway