December Lust List

I don't know if December's Lust List technically doubles up as a Christmas wish list but hey ho here we go...

• Chanel Rouge Coco Shine in Boy (I know, very generic choice of colour but it really was the one that suited me best!)
• Smashbox Photo Finish Primer (I've wanted to try this for an age but not got round to it yet)
• Real Techniques Starter Set of brushes
• ANY Zoya nail polish (I still don't own one!)

Well maybe I'm not as spoilt as I first thought. I think that's a relatively small 'Lust List'!
Speaking of the Zoya polishes, I usually buy all my nail polish at this ebay shop: Top Nail Shop but they don't stock them. Does anyone have any good recommendations for buying Zoya polishes in the United Kingdom?

Red Lips

With Christmas rapidly approaching, it's time for the party season to begin. Nothing says 'Christmas Party' to me more than bold, red lips but I find myself torn on which shade to pick. (Which is hardly surprising given my obsession with all lip products. Read about the ridiculous amount I carry in my bag here.)


I recently went from Brunette to light Blonde, then from light Blonde I have gone to, and settled on, a sandy, caramel blonde. But truth be told, I still think of myself as a brunette so find it tricky picking out the right Red lipstick. I've grown fond of a dark berry colour called Digna, which was part of the limited edition Marcel Wanders line from Mac last Christmas. It's very vampy and very glam, the perfect red lip for a mulled wine filled evening. I also feel like Mac's Lady Danger seems to be a universal colour. It suited me as a brunette and still looks great with my lighter locks. Lady Danger is not for the shy and retiring type however, and has a hint of Orange to it, but I love it.

Digna

Lady Danger

Whilst we're on the topic of lips I'm quite intrigued by Violent Lips. I definitely want to hunt them down and give them a try. Does anyone know where you can buy them in England?

Company Magazine Freebie

"Discount is my second favourite word... Freebie is my first!"


Did anyone else catch this gem of a line on Desperate Scousewives last night? (I think this may well be my new guilty pleasure).
This comes straight to mind when I think of magazines and their freebies. They certainly do the job on me, and always lure me into buying a magazine that I might not usually look twice at. That's not to say I wouldn't look twice at Company magazine, but it certainly made me want to buy it right there and then.


December's issue comes with a full sized sample of Build it, Lash it Mascara (Which I'm presuming is the name of the brand, since it doesn't mention a brand name anywhere else on the packaging or in the magazine). First impressions were along the lines of 'hmm... I've tried one of these kinds of mascara's before but I'll give it a go.' Then I opened the packaging and it turns out that, a) The 'handle' in the middle of both wands is cracked and b) the wand on the 'Lash it' side actually fell out of the handle when I unscrewed it.

 Packaging as a whole

 Pretty metallic base coat

 Writing already scratching off after using once

Will this crack mean the mascara dries out straight away?

Packaging aside, the 'Build it' base coat side didn't seem to be applying anything to my lashes. However, the 'Lash it' side was fabulous. I'm not sure how long it will be before it dries up but it went on a dream. My lashes have stayed curled throughout the day and as far as and smudging or transferring goes... So far so good.


I'm definitely giving this mascara the benefit of the doubt. I'm sure cheaper packaging was used for the freebie version, or at least I hope that is the case. Also I'm not sure branding was particularly clear and I can't say I'd know where to buy it, but it has at least grabbed my attention.


Did anyone else try this?

Rainbow Connection

Good evening lovelies.
I know I have raved about OPI's Rainbow Connection but I have yet to give you a NOTD.
So this is exactly what this is!
It took me about 3 coats to create this 'solid' glitter affect and I had to use 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat, as I'm a stickler for smooth nails. Does anyone else have that strange, almost fear of nails catching on their clothes, be it a chipped nail or glitter polish? It is literally like nails down a chalkboard to me.


Without further ado I give you... Rainbow Connection...

Isn't it beautiful? I feel very Christmassy with this polish on and have been given plenty of compliments, which we all know is the sign of a good nail polish.

What nail polish is making you feel Christmassy? I am, as always, on the lookout for more!

Homemade Face Mask

Well haven't I been a rubbish blogger recently. I've been having some serious computer troubles, namely that I have too much crap clogging my beautiful MacBook Pro. So after a good few hours of de-clogging my computer, I decided to de-clog my face with a homemade face mask.

It's always nice to know exactly what you're putting on your face and with a homemade face mask this is obviously a guarantee.

I made a banana and honey face mask which really is as simple as it sounds. I mixed one mashed banana with a teaspoon of honey, est voila! It's a bit of an awkward texture to apply but that's all part of the fun.

My skin felt smooth and tightened after, and I even have leftovers in the fridge for seconds.

Does anyone else have any good home made face mask recipes?

November Lust List

Before I start with my 'Lust List' I wanted to start with a little hair, for want of a better word rave. I watched AndreasChoice's Youtube tutorial on Semi-Heatless pin curls and was very eager to give it a try. I was convinced it just wouldn't work with my hair since my hair never even holds heat produced curls. I'm unfortunate in that my hair is very fine but I have lots of it, which means weight... Which means it really fights against being curled. I suppose I should be grateful since it pretty much air-dries straight but this is no fun when I fancy tousled curls.

Anyway in short I followed the tutorial and it worked! I was amazed and really loved the results so thank you Andrea I have found a great way to get curls with no heat which is exactly what I needed after my Babyliss curling wand disaster. For those who don't know, back in June my Babyliss conical wand burnt a chunk of my hair off on a low heat setting. I have to add that Babyliss were absolutely wonderful with dealing with my complaint and they replaced my faulty wand, so I have no complaints there.

See below for the hair tutorial. I actually enjoy the whole process of pinning the curls, it feels so retro like painting on a nice Red lipstick.

Right on with the 'Lust List'

• Pixi Ultimate Beauty Kit - Everything you could possibly want in one place.
• Selfridges All I Want This Christmas Beauty Advent Calendar - Get a daily beauty treat AND save calories... Shame it's sold out. Boo hoo!
• Dior Velvet Eyes - Perfect for eyeliner addicts without a steady hand, and gorgeous for dramatic Christmas party eyes.
• The Saturdays Magnetism Nail Lacquer - The new nail trend. I tried to get this in Superdrug but they didn't have the magnets which come separately. Desperate to get my mitts on some.

Until next time lovers...

(P.s. Everyone go and subscribe to Andreas channel here NOW... She's fab!)

Le Freak C'est Chic

Normally I would run from fragrance promoters and avoid them like the plague... But today I gave Freak the benefit of the doubt.It might have possibly been down to pity (the poor lass had been shoehorned into a rather unflattering pleather all in one) but I accepted her offer and tried the perfume.

The perfume in question is by the rather theatrical cosmetics company Illamasqua, and boy am I glad I tried it out. It's pretty much my perfect fragrance which, since finishing my last bottle of Narciso Rodriguez I have been on the hunt for.

I am very particular about fragrance but can never describe what it is I actually like, given that I am not very gifted in the 'Describe a smell' department. The only word I can use to describe what I like is 'creamy' which doesn't really help anyone. I like a musky perfume, yet hate spicy musk or vanilla musk... See not picky at all! It's easier for me to identify what I don't like but Narciso Rodriguez was sheer perfection to me and the good old cheapy Moschino Chic and Cheap was also a close second.

Babble aside Freak is a lovely soft, sweet smell with deep velvety smoth aroma's to it. The lady at the counter sprayed it on a tester card for me and at first I wasn't sold but once it was dried I couldn't stop smelling it. I went for dinner with a friend and kept having to get the card out for a sniff... It was love!

I went back to the counter after dinner to spray it on myself, as we all know perfumes can smell completely different on different people. This perfume is one of those fragrances that lingers and you keep getting a little whiff of every so often which is what I personally look for in a perfume. I love the thought of walking past people and them just catching a hint of the fragrance, but not so much it's overpowering, and Freak certainly does this.

And did I mention the bottle? It will look gorgeous on anyone's dressing table. It has the corner missing so it sits on a slant and has the cutest silver snail 'crawling' up the bottle.

Definitely a new favourite and 100% on the Christmas list.

A Quickie!

Just a quick post which I suppose is a mini haul!I found out on Saturday that I had been a 'victim' of identity fraud. Which to you or I just means some chav nicked my card details and bought pizza and phone credit... Yes really!

So I did what anyone else would do, I indulged in a small spot of retail therapy.

I ended up in Superdrug hunting out a steal and was sucked in by Revlon's Facets of Fuchia. I'm sporting it as I type and it's so pretty. It's definitely an eye catcher, I've had many compliments and I've only had it on 2 days.

My second purchase was something I've toyed with for a while. I've seen the felt tip lip stains advertised and they never appealed to me. However with the recent gusty winds I have given up on gloss and sticky lipsticks as we all know they are enemies! I found one by NYC for a mere £2.99 so thought if give it a go.

I hate to say it but I'm not very impressed. I'm not sure if I picked up a dud but it seems as if it's dried out, which seems odd having only used it twice. Also unless I have picked the wrong shade it doesn't seem to have much colour pay off. I'm not going to judge on that though since I have quite highly pigmented lips. I will definitely have to try another shade before I make a proper judgement!

A new item for my lust list I've decided is the new magnetic nail polishes. I'm very intrigued by these so will definitely be giving them a little test run. Anyone have any brand reccomendations?

bloglovin'

Not sure I really understand bloglovin' yet... But I thought I'd at least sign up.

That really is as exciting as this post gets! :)

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Winter Warmers

I've said it before, I'm not a winter kind of girl. Given the choice I would bed down and hibernate all winter, like some of our wiser mammal friends. I hate the shorter days, I hate the way the weather affects my skin and lips and I HATE having to wear a coat. BAH HUMBUG!

But noone can deny that winter time (specifically Christmas) is when the prettiest of limited edition beauty treasures arrive. Sparkling, shining and ready to lure you into believing you NEED it in your Christmas stocking.

And noone could offer a finer example than China Glaze with their "Let It Snow" collection. Twinkle Lights being the stand colour for me, although interestingly similar to Rainbow Connection from the OPI Muppets collection. From what I can see from pictures, Rainbow Connection has larger pieces of glitter which could possibly make a solid glitter nail slightly easier to achieve. I also like the look of Poinsettia from the "Let It Snow" collection since I've got a new found obsession with bright or blood reds (Or "Slapper Red" as my Aunty likes to call it).

Shu Uemura also offered a very short teaser video of their "Wong Kar Wai Holiday 2011" Collection. All the gold glitter makes me feel all Christmassy...



The collection is said to contain 2 different sets of limited edition lashes along with a glitter mascara and various other sparklies!

So have I made myself clear on this post?... My name is Ruth and I have a glitter addiction!

Untangled

I finally got a Tangle Teezer.
I've been thinking of getting one of these ever since I went blonde and combs stopped enjoying going through my wet hair. Anyone with chemically treated hair will understand me on this one, it's like fighting a losing battle. Except this little bad boy fights that battle for you.

I could bore you with the blurb on the packaging, but quite frankly why bother when I can tell you... It's bloody great!

I don't know how it works but it doesn't pull your hair at all, even when it's wet and knotty. Its palm-shaped design makes it easy to use, and it comes in different colours and designs.

As you can see I was drawn straight to the pink, and boy is it Pink!

Maybe I'll get the pocket sized one next, to throw in my bag with my 12 lip products! :)

Sparkles

As the cold, dark nights roll in I'm starting to give in to winter. I did put up a bit of a fight at first, as did the weather (anyone not from the UK we had sunshine and 29c weather last weekend). I think what might have pushed me over the edge was All I Want For Christmas turning up on my iPod when I had it on shuffle. I'm not gonna lie, I left it on and had a little christmassy jig!

Anyway, so with winter comes glitter and sparkly things and as a magpie, these are two things I am drawn to. I only accidentally dropped in at Sally's Beauty supplies and spied the new China Glaze "Metro" collection. I have to say I found the collection quite underwhelming except "CG In The City" which I had to have. It's a glitter polish which seems to be mainly silver but I think I see some purple glitter in it as well.

I also saw in the bargain bin they had OPI "The Colour To Watch" from last Autumn's Swiss Collection and I thought the two would go so well together... So that's only what i've bloomin' well gone and done!

(L-R- China Glaze "CG In The City", OPI "The Colour To Watch")



(The two together...)

From the swatches I've seen I would definitely say "CG In The City" needs something under it as it's quite thin and doesn't seem to be a polish you can build into a solid glitter.
Hope you like it :)

What's in my bag?...Lip products!!

I've seen plenty of "whats in my bag" blogs and vlogs recently and thought, 'if the contents of my bag weren't so boring, I might be tempted to join in the fun'.

When I had a little peek to see just how boring it was, I was horrified at just how many lipsticks and lipglosses I had in there. It was somewhat of a reunion for me with some of the lipsticks in there so all in all it was worth it.

I'm almost ashamed to admit I had 12 lip products in my bag! (see below)



(L-R, top row- Sleek Sheen Lipstick "Coral Reef", No.17 Mirror Shine Lipstick "Bee Hive", Mac "Viva Glam GaGa", Mac "Ever Hip, Mac Pro Longwear "Love Forever!", Revlon Lipgloss "Peach Petal", Bare Escentuals Buxom Lips "Eva", Lancome lipgloss "024", Collection 2000 Cream Puff "Cotton Candy", Pop lipgloss, no idea what colour as writing has all rubbed off!.
Bottom Row - Burt's Bees Radience Lip Shimmer and a trusty tin of Aloe Vaseline)

Hey, a girl has to have a choice!

Am I the only one who hoards lipsticks in my handbag?

Raising an eyebrow...

...Or lowering them since according to my HD Brow technician, my eyebrows are too high!

Yes I tried HD Brows which I'd been toying with the idea of for some time. It wasn't until, one morning going about my daily mass deletion of Groupon emails, I saw an offer for the procedure for £15. I couldn't resist and snapped it up, then started to panic about letting my brows grow wild and free.

I'm a bit of a perfectionist with my eyebrows and would be completely lost without Benefit's Brow-Zing, but it doesn't have quite the same effect when you're starting to resemble Wolverine. I went to my appointment on Tuesday after having a patch test done on Saturday (apparently the tint is different to standard tint and manages to dye even the fine downey hairs...).
I have to say I wasn't too impressed to be left waiting for half an hour listening to a beautician talk about topping up her electrcity meter. Anyway that aside the lady who did my brows called me in and seemed really nice. She asked what the 'problem' was with my brows which threw me a little. I wasn't aware this treatment was only for people with problem brows? So I quickly thought on the spot and offered that maybe they were a little high. I certainly didn't expect her to respond with, 'Absolutely they are WAY too high, who on earth shaped them for you?' Umm that would be me aged 13!

She then took a ruler and eyebrow pencil to my face and made loads of measurements and drew all over my face. She handed me the mirror to show me just how 'messed up' my eyebrows really were! Well ok I will admit, it was a little shocking. My left eyebrow is a centimetre higher than my right, but I stand by my point that I wouldn't walk around with measurements all over my face so who would ever know? And anyway maybe I like it that way? It's a cheeky raised eyebrow look... just permenantly!

So after she shamed my poor little brows she took to them with the tint, waxing, plucking, threading and finally pencilled them in.
Now, maybe I'm just used to having anorexic brows but I was definitely not prepared for the chubsters she'd drawn on me. She went through where she'd pencilled in and how that was where I needed to grow my brows out, and to avoid plucking there, but I was in shock!

I rushed home (and after taking a comedy photo for my sister) scrubbed off all the pencil and did them just how I like it. I would definitely say though, my brows looked a million times better and the tint did seem to stand out a lot more than standard tint. I have to admit, I'm not sure this was much more than a good shape and tint. Maybe it's because as she said I, 'don't have much to work with' and maybe this is something for someone with no shape to their brows, or quite thick brows?

That aside I do have before and after pics to share and even one of her comedy pencilling (2mm below my brows and in a different shade!)

Before (With Brow-Zing)



Before (Without Brow-Zing)



After, with her crazy pencilling



After, without anything



And finally...
After treatment, with Brow-Zing, just how I like them! :)

In search of Peridot... (Or the next best thing)

Thursday I had a serious case of 'Nail Envy'!
Someone came into work with what could only be Peridot on her nails. Now the fact that I didn't even have to ask her what colour or brand her nail polish was, says something about Peridot... It's definitely unique.

When I first saw swatches I was convinced it was a 'Bogey Green' and definitely not my cup of tea, but then on seeing it in the flesh I have found myself frantically searching for it.
Since this sudden change of tune I have searched high and low and it seems to be sold out... EVERYWHERE and I'm far too stubborn to buy it online and pay P&P.

So I set to work to find a good dupe, which I thought would be fairly difficult given that the colour is so unique.
However, a quick look on Google and I find there is a brilliant dupe by Sephora called "Diving in Malaysia" (pictured below).

It's just a shame there is no Sephora in the UK!

So I suppose that just means that until they get more Peridot in stock I will continue on this lonely dupe hunt.

Smoke and Mirrors

I have to say I just checked out the Zoya Smoke and Mirrors collection and it's making my mouth water.

Linked here.

I think the stand outs for me have to be, Jem and Neeka.

I actually don't have any Zoya polishes in my collection so I feel like this would be a good time to change that.

It would be rude not to!

Giving in to OCD

OCD is an old friend of mine, we go way back. It seems that I'm just always looking for ways to organise things, which doesn't exactly go hand in hand with my love of hoarding.

Coming from a family of hoarders, I learnt from the best but I've decided enough is enough! Now is as good a time as any to start chucking half used, dried up mascara's, shoes that have gone unworn for over a year and some questionable fancy dress outfits lurking under the bed.

Of course the only thing a clear out means is there is now extra space to fill with nice shiny new things.

Must... Fight... Temptation!

One of these new shiny things is something I can't get enough of at the moment. Now I do realise I'm very behind in this but I've only just got round to trying Liz Earle's Cleanse and Polish. I think I put it off for so long after a close friend who used to work in skin care gave it a rather lacklustre review. The same cannot however, be said for my skin! My skin LOVES this and so do I. I'm yet to find anything bad to say about it but I absolutely adore the way it has helped my skin in transitioning from sunny(ish) Summer to blustery chilly Autumn. The Eucalyptus essential oils in this cleanser leave a really nice fresh feeling which is personally what I like from a cleanser. The blurb promises the product will "help reveal clean, soft and radiant skin", and I for one can vouch for this.

Another product I've been extremely slow on the uptake with (and so slow I'm almost ashamed to admit this) is Gel Eyeliner. Those that know me will know my love for a strong dark cat eye which almost makes it even more unbelievable that I hadn't tried it. The thing is, I've always been a liquid liner kind of girl and I just couldn't bear to part with it...

However... I decided to bite the bullet and try with a drug store brand, for fear of loathing the product so much I had the guilt of spending a bomb on it hanging over my head. So off I tottered to Boots to pick up the Maybelline Eyestudio Lasting Drama Gel Liner, the only one that sprung to mind since the awkward ad campaign featuring T4's Jameela Jamil *Shudder* Well I suppose if anything it's an advert remembered for it's irritation factor, joining the likes of "Go Compare" and "Comparethemarket.com"!

Cheesy ad aside I fell in love with the gel liner and the old faithful Rimmel liquid liner is now crying in the corner of my make up bag. So all in all two excellent new shiny things to fill all the gaps.