Black and Gold

The party season has arrived! There is no better way to update your make-up look, than just to inject a bit of a sparkle, and the easiest place to do this? the windows to the soul! (aka: your eyes). This look is something you can do to add a bit of glamour to you usual make up, without being to 'out there'.  I used maybelline colour tattoo in eternal gold to line along my lower lash line, this created a base for my gold eye shadows. I then took the true gold colour from this bargainous Collection work the colour palette, aptly named Champagne Fizz, and traced back over the colour tattoo. This boosted the pigmentation and the staying power, perfect for those all night parties. I then took the khaki-gold colour on the left and traced that just on the outer corner, to add a bit more depth. My top lash line received a very thin wisp of eye liner followed by lashings of mascara, and we're done! I wore this look during the day and didn't find it too much at all, though I think this could easily be amped up and smoked out for a more dramatic evening look.

Christmas give away! LUSH and 2 surprise make up items.

So when I hit 50 followers I promised a little something... and here is my first Christmas give away guys!! The theme for this is a 'Christmas party' kinda thing. As you can see you will receive a LUSH bath melt, this is a lovely cinnamon-y orange scented (slightly angry looking) snow man which, thanks to the Cocoa and Shea butter within, leaves you feeling soft and supple when melted into your bath. No moisturiser needed, party prep done! You will also receive 2 surprise (because everyone loves surprise Christmas presents right?) make up prizes, that will be perfect for giving you the A/W party look. Just enter via rafflecopter below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Enummi skincare review.

Not too long ago I was contacted by the lovely Heather on twitter to see if I was interested in trying out some Enummi skincare samples. The website describes the products as 'featuring powerful glycolic acid and select nature-inspired technologies' which will give you a fresh look, fast. Before I get on to the products I am just going to say a quick word about the samples, they were a nice generous size but I just really did not like the packaging, I found it quite wasteful an fiddly, would have much preferred little bottles or tubes.

I will start by saying that at the end of using these products my skin did look brighter and healthier, with my spots healing quicker. So although I may not of loved some of the products individually they did a lot of good for my skin combined. SO here is a quick little run down of what I received;

Gentle facial cleanser: This cleanser felt nice to use, but did not remove all my make up. Even when I used bioderma before hand, I still found traces on my toner pad. That's a big no no for me, which is a shame as I did find the actual cleanser nice to use. It would perhaps be better suited for people who wear quite light make up, or do a proper double cleanse every evening. 

Refreshing toner: Toner is not normally a step I use, however I used this to ensure that all traces of my make up was gone. It did leave me with a lovely refreshing feeling and I felt like the rest of my skincare could do it's work more effectively.

Life C Energising Serum: This was easily my favourite product of the lot, it had a gorgeous citrus-y scent and the clear gel dried to a super soft, velvet-matte finish. As the name suggests it contains vitamin C which is fab at improving the tone and brightening your skin.

Protective Day Moisturiser: This was a lovely light moisturiser that sank in quickly and had the added bonus of spf 15 (super important)! because it sank in quickly and wasn't too greasy I had no problem applying my make up on top and really enjoyed using this.

Restoring eye cream: This is perhaps the one product I didn't give a fair trial, I recently had a terrible reaction to an eye cream so was very wary of putting something else on. I patted this gingerly around the contour of my eye and immediately felt a bit of an odd sensation. Nothing major, to most people it would probably be considered as 'the product working' however, I was not about to risk another reaction, so missed of this step from then on.

Night recovery cream: When applied before bed this light weight cream sinks in enough so that you are not sticking to your pillow cases, but you can still feel it working it's magic on top of your skin.  I found this lovely and moisturising on my skin. 

So there we go! Although it doesn't sound like I was really raving about anything, aside from the serum, these products really did do lovely stuff for my skin! 

What caught my eye...

all images sourced from tumblr

Instant trend setter.

Sometimes girls, all you need is a chunky necklace to feel good. I can be wearing a sweatshirt and jeans, looking pretty boring and blah. However, put on a statement necklace and I feel like a trend setting queen. I don't know what it is, but you should try it out! Here is one of my picks for the day time, a spiky number from topshop

NARS velvet matte lip pencil in Sex Machine

Lovely colour? check! Gorgeous formula? Check! Rude name and purse-weeping (for a student) price tag? Double check! It could only be Nars of course, more specifically, the velvet matte lip pencil in Sex machine. I have posted about this before so won't ramble on, but recently I have fallen in love with this all over again. The formula is so soft and creamy, not drying on the lips at all. The pencil shape makes it easy to fill your lips in with no mistakes and it is a lovely colour for the day time with just a smudge of eye liner, or for the evening with super smokey peepers! I seriously want all of the colours. 

The Top of The Teas

Once upon a time, as I have was having my morning coffee, I thought there is absolutely no way I will ever be converted to tea. That is still true for builders tea, but any kind of fruity, flavourful combinations? Yes please! I find drinking tea is really helping me with my weight loss/diet change too, I will now have a warming cuppa over snacking, I am upping my liquid intake. I also have the added benefits of green tea and metabolism boosting ingredients like ginger, and detoxing ones like lemon! Here is the round up of what I am currently sipping!

Twinings Green tea with Cranberry

I always hear about the benefits of green tea but could never really drink it, until I discovered the Twinings infusions! They still taste green tea-y but with a nice something extra, in this case cranberries (nice and festive!) I love the juicy freshness of this tea, I find it perfect for a midday pick me up or my first morning cuppa, especially now this cold weather is kicking in!

Twinings Green tea with Ginger (link to similar)

For some reason I can't find this particular tea on the website! However this is the same concept as before, but with a spicy kick of ginger, which has metabolism boosting properties may I add! I love this combination to rev me up in the morning, or help me feel less sluggish after stuffing my face!

Heath and Heather Apple and Cinnamon

This is a brand I hadn't heard of before, but Holland and Barretts were having their 1 penny sale so I thought I would give them a go. I love this flavour, it is part of the invigorating range but I actually find I quite calming and soothing. I love drinking this aromatic blend in the evening to help me wind down.

Heath and Heather Ginger and lemon

This is a very invigorating, zesty and spicy blend. Like the ginger green tea I use this to wake me up and aid me when feeling sluggish, I definitely recommend picking something up from this brand if any of the flavours catch your eye, especially in the penny sale!

What are your favourite flavoured tea combos to drink?