Monday 27 February 2012

MAC Matte Gel

I bought the MAC Matte gel to use as a primer a while ago now, and it's coming to the end of it's life so I thought I'd give you my two cents on it...



































First of all, if you don't like primers that feel very siliconey - stay well clear of this. It just looks like a clear gel (very similar to a lot of silicone based primers). I use this over my moisturiser and under my foundation.


























When applied, skin instantly looks matte and feels super smooth and velvety. It helps concealer and foundation glide on and blend seamlessly. I also noticed that once I had put my foundation on my pores did seem visibly smaller - not invisible mind, but definitely considerably smaller. Does it make my make up last longer? I have very oily skin, and this does seem to keep shine at bay for much longer than if I weren't to wear it. Paired with a long lasting foundation my make up does stay pretty much all day - but probably only an extra couple of hours than if I weren't to wear it.

Would I repurchase? In all honesty, I don't think I would. It's very similar to the GOSH Velvet Touch foundation primer and the Elf Mineral primer, which are of course, much cheaper. And with the GOSH primer you get loaaads of product. It's a good primer to try out if you've got very oily skin and large pores but I don't think it's worth the money and it did seem to run out quite quickly.

You can buy it for £14.00 on the MAC website or in stores, you get 25ml of product.

Have you tried this primer? What are you primer recommendations?
NATALIE, XO

Wednesday 22 February 2012

Fail-safe French

Recently, I've been struggling to decide what colour I should wear on my nails, a big problem in a girl's life, right? I think it's because where I live, it's been quite sunny but the temperatures have still been freezing cold. So the sun makes me want to lacquer my nails with bright turquoise and yellows but the chill makes me want to hold on to my Models Own Concrete Mixer or deep berry shades. The answer?






















French tips! It's been ages since I've donned a French manicure and I forgot how much I loved it. It makes you feel so elegant and chic. I did it myself at a fraction of the price you would pay at a salon. I used three really, really cheap products but it lasted a good 5 days without any chips at all!

























For the base I used 'Carribean Coconut', a peachy nude shade from the All About Nails range that can be found at Tesco's for a tiny 99p! I used three coats of this although you could probably just use two. It was quite streaky on the first coat but I think that's true of any pale/pastel colour no matter what the brand. I then used the Collection 2000 Manicure in French White on the tips. This can be found in most drugstores for £2.99. I then used the Elf clear nail polish as a topcoat and voila!

What nail polish(es) do you always fallback on when you don't know what to wear?
NATALIE, XO

Friday 17 February 2012

I shopped!


Primark Striped Skater dress, £10.00
This doesn't look like much on the hanger, and it didn't in the shop either. But I was on a hunt for a dress for a night out and I already had an armful of things to try on, so I thought I might as well. It fits like an absolute dream! It's so flattering and is possibly one of my favourite dresses. For a tenner is was such a bargain.

























H&M Little White Tee t-shirt, £7.99
I just think this is mega cute and casual and so easy to just chuck over some jeans - with shorts in the summer. H&M never fails for great basics.















H&M Knit cardigan, £14.99
Again, doesn't look amazing on the hanger but falls so nicely on the body. I really love this waffle sort of knit... not something you see all the time. It's a really nice light beige/taupey colour with I think will look amazing in Spring/Summer.


New Look Colour Block Purse, £14.99
My purse is falling apart and I was in need of a new one. Problem is, I am so fussy with purses, the layout has to be perfect. I love the layout of the inside of this and I think it's classic looking and I won't get bored of it. It's really soft too! I think the clasp ruins it a bit though and I thought this was quite pricey for a bog standard purse??

























New Look Coral Pleat dress (AX Paris), £25.99
I mentioned earlier that I was on the hunt for a new dress for a night out, and this was the winner! My work's Christmas party was at the end of January (I know, I know... Christmas??). But this is what I wore and I loved it. The coral colour is ahhhmazing.

























Topshop Leigh Super Soft Skinny jeans, £38.00
I finally caved in and bought some Leigh jeans from Topshop. I'd been umming and ahhing over them for a while, they get rave reviews so I decided to try them on. I can confirm that they are superrr comfortable and are very tight (not too tight on the waist though). They don't go baggy around the news after a few wears and I haven't seen any fading, *yet*. Definitely want more colours now :/













Topshop Crochet Striped vest, £16.00
This is going to be so great for the summer, I love the crochet. It's very sheer though, but I think in the Summer you can easily get away with it. Have my eye on the coral coloured one as well!

























Topshop Cross t-shirt, £22.00
To be honest, I love over sized, motif tee's so this really fit the bill. I got mine in a M but it is really big, so I'd recommend going down a size - I think I'm going to go an exchange it. Love it for casual wear.


























Topshop Slouchy jumpers, £26.00 each
I tried both of these colours on and I just couldn't decide between the two - so with some encouragement from my friend Jess (never going shopping with that girl), I bought both. They look really good on, I think the grey is my favourite because I love the speckling. These are really thin so don't get them expecting a nice cosy, warm winter jumper. But this means it will carry you through into Spring/Summer too! This is how I justified it anyway haha.

So that's my monster haul! Makes me feel a bit ill looking at it all together lol. But I didn't go out and do all this shopping in a week or two - it's actually all been collected since Christmas.
NATALIE, XO

Sunday 12 February 2012

Week In Photos




Most of the country had inches of snow, we had pathetic cm's. Was still pretty excited having to scrape snow off my windscreen though! - McQueen rip off scarf from Primark - LUSH butterball bath - Cute sleeping bunny that I desperately wanted to take home at the pet shop - Visits to the Mother's house always means cuddles with the kitties! - New Quirks biscuits, nothing to write home about if I'm honest - Cheese on toast is my guilty pleasure - I MADE A PAVLOVA AND IT'S DELICIOUS! - Currently lounging in my new Primark pyjama playsuit. Love the blue flowers!

Lots of photo's tonight! Jeez, sorry about that!
 NATALIE, XO

Saturday 11 February 2012

Yes, more boots..

I don't know exactly when it started, but when Winter started worming it's way in I seemed to acquire an obssession with boots. This was completely out of character because I've never been a girl who's shoe-obssessed. Especially not boots. I think I probably owned two pairs - but now the collection has grown quite considerably. Here are the two latest additions...

























New Look Black Wedge Zip Shoe Boot, £19.99
I had a work's-do at the end of January and I was on the lookout for a new pair of going out shoes. Preferably ones that will go with anything and everything, I don't go out that often so it's pointless for me to buy electric blue shoes etc. (even though they're amazing). Of course, New Look was my first choice and it didn't let me down.

They are a suede-like material which I love, a wedge and platform which makes for easy walking, and a gorgeous gold zip down the side. Amazing. I love the way these boots are cut too - sometimes shoe boots can cut my legs off at a really unflattering place because I'm quite short. But because these dip at the front it doesn't make your legs look stumpy. And omg, THESE ARE COMFORTABLE. I wore these from 8pm-4.30/5.00am, and spent the majority of that time dancing and I didn't need to take them off once!
























New Look Buckle Flat Ankle boots, £27.99
I've always looked at these on the New Look website, but never seen them out in the store near me. But when I did, I loved them just as much. I love the slouchy 'suede' part, I love the 'leather' heel and strap. I'm just in love with these boots. They feel really good quality. I did have to get a size 4 though because the size 5 did seem to run quite large. I think these will look good with tanned legs and denim shorts in the summer too!

Lets hope this is the end of my boot obsession. What's an obsession you thought you'd never have?
NATALIE, XO

Tuesday 7 February 2012

Week In Photos






























































Walk by a river near me - Broken mirror, 7 years bad luck! - Diet Coke spillage - Vita Coco - Demolished Milk Tray - Amazing brunch at a greasy spoon - Old fashioned sweet shop that stole my heart <3

Sorry it's two days late! This week was pretty chill, but nice :) The beginning part of the week we had loads of sun where I live so I took a little stroll by a river near me, and although there was loads of sun the temperature was about 0.5. The sun still made me happy though! Also broke a huge mirror - good luck *no pun intended* I'm not superstitious ;) But perhaps I should seeing as though it was followed by spilling an entire an of diet coke onto my lap. Two massive fails in a week? Amazing. I always hear people talking about coconut water so I decided to see what all the fuss was about! (still haven't drank it). Milk Tray and fry up brunch have taken a large amount of my calories this week. My Mum was disgusted that I got hash browns AND chips, lol. And OMG look at this sweet shop! It was incredible, they had jars upon jars behind the till and I ended up coming out with more than a few bags!

I hope every ones week (well, last week) was great. I know it snowed a lot at the weekend in a lot of the UK - the snow forgot about us though :( I was kind of glad because I wasn't at all prepared for snow haha. AND YAY FOR THIS BEING MY 500TH POST!
NATALIE, XO

Friday 3 February 2012

Illamasqua Precision Ink

Illamasqua is a brand that I've always eyed from afar, but never really bought into. Partly because I like beauty products on a budget and partly because it's quite difficult to come across in my area. After Christmas though, there was a 10% off code floating around so I thought I'd bite the bullet and order two items I'd been lusting over, one of them being the liquid eyeliner, Precision Ink in the colour 'Abyss'.






















The packaging is very sleek and minimal, something that I personally really like. I'd heard so many rave reviews about this eyeliner and I was using Rimmel Glam Eyes (which I hated) so I thought I'd try out my first 'high end' eyeliner. It retails for £17.00 which is really quite ridiculous for an eyeliner, but I was clearly still in a festive mood at the time, lol.












































The applicator is very felt-tip penesque and quite similar to L'Oreals Super Liner, which is one of my favourites, although the nib doesn't bend like Super Liner, it's stiff and doesn't have any movement. It's amazingly pigmented, I can't fault it on that. But it is extremely glossy, so if you don't like a glossy eyeliner stay well clear of this. Super Liner is quite glossy but this is so much glossier. I also find it quite hard to get a very thin line/sharp wing with this nib.














So here the eyeliner is in action. Yeah sure it looks fine - like any other liquid eyeliner right? But do I like it? In all honesty, no, not really. It's too glossy for what I like and I find the applicator quite hard to work with, I think it needs a bit more flexibility. It is a very wet formula, but it tends to get on your lashes whilst you're applying it and clumps them together making mascara application a bit of a faff. It's one of the most pigmented eyeliners I've used, but it does take a bit of going over - because it's so wet it tends to be a bit watery and streaks a tad, so you need to go over this twice. The longevity is actually unbelievable... this will last you the whole day, no doubt. I've been on a night out and forgotten to take my make up off and in the morning this was still in place *slap on the wrist*. Removing it is a bit strange though... when you take it off (I use a baby wipe) it comes off in the same as eyelash glue - in weird sort of strips. Anyone else had this?

I wouldn't repurchase this, and I would recommend L'Oreal Super Liner over this. BUT if it's a very glossy, very black, stay-in-place-forever eyeliner that you're after this might be worth a whirl!
NATALIE, XO