IMATS Haul!

I finally made it to IMATS!  I have been wanting to go for the past 3 years but this year we actually put the plan into action and got it all organised.  I went with my friend Louise (confusing, yes) and we flew down to Luton on Friday afternoon and stayed over in a Premier Inn on the same street as Kensington Olympia, then the next morning we headed along to IMATS!

I think I was actually quite controlled with my spending!  My budget was £60 and from adding it up below (not including the concealer) I only went over it by about a tenner which isn't too bad!

Nars Make Up Artist Palette £12.50 - OH MY GOD isn't the price insane???
Nars Eyeshadow Trio in Calanque £10 - Such pretty colours and again, BARGAIN!
OCC Concealer in Y0 £10 - My friend asked me to pick this up for her, but now I want one, dammit!
Make Up Blending Sponge £3.25 - Worth a try for that price! Just need to work out how to use it now...
Bdellium Tool 975 £10
Bdellium Tools 776 £5 - Mac 217 replacement perhaps?!
Bdellium Tools 777 £5
NYX Nude Matte Shadow in Kiss The Day (light one) £3 - I hardly have any matte shades so I picked these two neutrals up
NYX Nude Matte Shadow in Tryst (dark one) £3
NYX Eyeshadow in Toffee Shimmer £3.50
NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Dark Brown £3.50 - I have Milk so I wanted a dark one to use as a base
NYX Eye Pencil in Sapphire £2.50
NYX Eye Pencil in Purple £2.50
Inglot Translucent Loose Powder in Shade 217 £7 - I've been looking for a yellow setting powder for a while now!

<3

My Everyday Makeup!

I made this video for my youtube channel but it's also quite appropriate for on here too as I haven't done a post like this before.

Products used:
Soap & Glory Glow Job
No7 Luminate Radiance Serum (not CF)
MUA Pro Conceal & Brighten Kit in Porcelain
Bourjois Volume Glamour Mascara
Liz Earle Brow Pencil in Dark
Bourjois Little Round Pot Blusher
ELF Translucent Mattifying Powder

<3

Empties #9

It seems like ages since I did an empties post!  Although I only have photos of 4 items I am also including a Lush product which I finished but threw away the wrapper for when I opened it months ago...  Finishing up two Mac products was a good achievement too!

Wild Warm Sensual Body Butter

Thoughts:  This was my first PR product, along with some soap which I still have.  I liked it but the scent was a bit unusual, kind of spicy!  I wouldn't buy this again simply because of the price, others are slightly cheaper but still a bit out of my price range for body butters.  £16.75 here.

Cruelty-free?: Yes.

Repurchase?: No, it's a bit too expensive.

Clarins Hydra-Matte Lotion

Thoughts:  I bought this ages ago and didn't use it for a while but I started using it as a morning moisturiser in an attempt to use it up faster.  It's quite nice and light for oily/combination skin. 

Cruelty-free?: No.

Repurchase?: No.

Lush Sugar Scrub

Thoughts:  I used to love this product and swear by it but the last few ones I've bought haven't had the same consistency and seem to have horrible solid lumps of sugar which won't break down.  I've still got one left so we'll see how that goes but I'm just a bit fed up with them now.  £2.75 here.

Cruelty-free?: Yes.

Repurchase?: No.

Mac Blotting Powder in Medium

Thoughts:  You might be a bit confused that the packaging doesn't match up to the product name but this is because when I bought my MSF I switched the packaging so that I could have a mirror compact.  So my MSF is in the Blotting Powder packaging...  It all made sense at the time!  This was fine, just a normal powder really!  I think I went for the MSF next time for a bit more coverage but less cakiness which I'd imagine you'd get with too much of this one.

Cruelty-free?: No.

Repurchase?: No.

Mac Studio Finish Concealer in NW20

Thoughts:  This lasted me about 2 years!  It was really impressive actually, I was very sad when I finished it as I knew I couldn't repurchase.  I would just use this under my eyes and it worked quite well, the colour was good.

Cruelty-free?: No.

Repurchase?: No.

<3

1920s Themed Murder Mystery

On Saturday night I went to one of my close friends Emma's Hen Do, there was also a day part to it but unfortunately I was working so I just met everyone else later on.  The evening section was a Murder Mystery set in the 1920s so we all hard to dress up accordingly.  There were 4 actors, a 3 course meal and lots of audience interaction, so all in all it was a good night!  I finished work just after 4 so I had plenty of time to get ready - I planned to go all out with the dressing up!  I thought I would share with you my clothes and make up from the night:

Make Up

Eyes Lightest shade from Sleek Storm palette all over lid up to brows, Urban Decay Gunmetal in the crease and Creep in the very outer crease.  On lower lash line Creep, Gunmetal then Sleek shade going from outside to inner corner.  Black eyeliner on waterline & black mascara on upper & lower lashes.

Brows Liz Earle Brow Pencil in Dark

Base  Illamasqua Skin Base in Shade 02 & Bourjois Healthy Mix in Shade 51

Concealer MUA Pro Conceal & Brighten Kit

Powder ELF Translucent Setting Powder

Cheeks Nars Lovejoy Blusher

Lips Topshop Inhibition

Costume

Flapper Dress Fancy Dress website from years ago 

Beads Found in an old jewellery box!

Coat Vero Moda

Hat Dickens & Jones

Shoes Next

~

I actually had heated rollers in for a good hour would you believe - my hair hates me!!  Luckily I didn't have to buy anything for this as I already owned everything!  I hope you enjoyed this more lifestyle themed post, I wish I had a better photo of my make up.  I am going to be having a blog sale within the next week, just swithering whether to put it up before or after IMATS, hmm, we shall see!

<3

Simple Creamy Pasta

In case you don't know, I love pasta!  I eat it far too much and I've started buying gluten-free packs so it's healthier!  I usually have it for my lunch if I'm quite hungry and need something more filling.  I quite often make cheesy pasta which you can find the recipe for here, but it's a bit more time consuming so I've started making this really quick and tasty one.  It's a bit vague because I just make it up every time so hopefully you get the gist!  This serves one.

it tastes better than it looks!

Ingredients:

• 80-100g pasta shapes
• 2-3tbsp of mayonnaise - enough to coat the pasta
• 0.5-1tsp of mustard (I tend to use Dijon)
• Some grated cheese - as much as you like!
• Handful of cherry tomatoes, halved

Method:

Boil the pasta as you would normally then drain and return to the pot.

Add in the mayo and mustard, stir until the pasta is coated.

Add in the cheese over a low heat and let it melt.

Finally, add in the tomatoes and serve!

Other suggestions:

You could eat this cold, so prepare it the night before to have for lunch the next day.  

You can add in any other vegetables if you want, just sauté them in a pan while the pasta in cooking then add in at the end.

Add frozen peas or sweetcorn 2 minutes before the pasta is ready.

~

So that's it!  If you have any easy pasta recipes then please leave me links below!

<3

Paperbacks & Beauty Facts: Pet Vlog!

This week we are introducing you to all our pets!!

<3

Nail Varnish Challenge #14

#14 worn on index finger! 

#15 worn on all fingers except index

These two colours are from the Clubworks (Superdrug) set I got at Christmas.  They are both so similar, no idea why they didn't make them a little bit more different!  The one on the left is more purple, and the right one has a bit more red through it - it reminds me of a watermelon sort of colour for some reason!  I used that one on my index fingers and the left-hand side one on the rest of my fingers, it looks a lot more purple in real life... stupid camera!! At first glance, and especially in the photos, it looks like I have just the one colour on all of my nails.  They dry to a semi-matte finish but they become really nice and shiny with a coat of Seche Vite on top.

I'm finding it hard to decide whether to keep any or both of these... hmm! 

<3

I've added this rubbishy photo of chipped nails from my phone to give a more realistic representation of the colour!! 

Travel Essential? 7" Android Allwinner Tablet

MoneySupermarket are running a project called Inspect A Gadget to discover the best cheap gadgets for taking away on holiday with you.  They selected the top 5 items which were: a portable DVD player, MP3 player, Kobo Mini eReader, Android Tablet and an HD camcorder.  I chose the tablet to try out as I either have or wouldn't use any of the other things.

The tablet is a 7" Allwinner A13 with touch screen, and is available in various different colours but I chose the white one.  The operating system is Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (love the name!) and has a 512 MB RAM and 4 GB hard drive.  It also comes with a charger and a USB cable for connecting it to the computer.  I haven't tried this yet, I'm not entirely sure what I would use it for!  Maybe for transferring files or documents onto it, in the manual it says that it supports office applications like Word and Excel.

It only seems to be available from Amazon here.  The RRP is £60 but it is now down to £36!  I am not used to reviewing techy items to I am just going to make a list of pros and cons!

Pros

• Price - so cheap, even full price at £60 is great!
• Size - nice and neat, not too big or too small.
• Wifi
• Range of Apps - Google Play store, similar to The Apple App Store.
• Comes with a pen - good for typing and when I get sore fingers from too much touch screen! 
• Accessories - earphone jack, HDMI output interface (DC-5V), TF card slot (microSD card), mini USB, DC adapter for charging.
• Built-in Flash Player.
• Easy to use but comes with small instruction booklet.

Cons

• Battery life - 3 hours
• Speed - I found it slower than what I'm used to, but this could be internet or the tablet itself, or a mixture of both!
• Poor quality front facing camera
• Sometimes the touch screen doesn't respond immediately, particularly around the edges and I have to use the pen instead.
• Never used this operating system before (although will be very straightforward for those with an Android phone!)
• Hard to read in direct sunlight/bright light

I have downloaded quite a few free apps so far:

• Kindle - great for travelling, I already have a Kindle so very handy.
• YouTube
• Daily Yoga
• Instagram - just for browsing, I probably won't be taking any photos with the tablet!
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Candy Crush - so much easier than playing it on my iPhone!
• BBC iPlayer
• Babbel - an app for learning French!

Overall I am really pleased with this little tablet!  I do generally prefer Apple operating systems as I am so used to them but for such a tiny price I am willing to make that sacrifice!  MoneySupermarket supplied me with the money to pay for this tablet but I would have happily paid for it with my own money.  I am away 3 times this year, ahhh so excited, so it will definitely be coming with me on at least one of my holidays!

<3

EDIT 7/6/13: I took it to Spain with me and it discharged and wouldn't charge up.  When I got home I managed to get it back on via the USB connection to my computer but it isn't holding charge at all.  As soon as it gets unplugged it dies.  I have contacted the company who make it and will update here how I get on!  I'm very sad!!