Illamasqua Haul

Hello lovely people! Sorry I've been MIA for the past week, I've been working loads and been coming home drained and not up for blogging, just some sleep! Anyway I'm back with a vengeance and have an amazing Illamasqua haul to show you.
For my overseas readers, Illamasqua is a British brand launched in 2008 based on the dramatic makeup of the 1920's Berlin cabaret scene. There are some amazing products and collections, bold and shocking. I love their makeup so when I saw they were having a sale I was super excited and jumped online. For a high-end brand their sale prices are actually very good, around 70% off. Let's have a look what came in the post!

GOODIES!

How stunning! This is their Cream Eyeshadow in Wail, a muted grey-pink colour. I'm always a bit cautious of cream eyeshadows incase they crease badly but these have a really good reputation so I thought I'd go for it. I really like this colour, I want to try a couple of smoky eye looks with this as I think they would work really well.

The texture is very smooth, almost like a lip balm consistency rather than a cream, but it dried well on my arm, matt but somehow not a flat colour. I want some other colours now!

This is their medium pencil, a multi-tasking product which can be used on eyes, lips anywhere you like really! I went for Torment, a gorgeous raspberry-red colour, which I will use as a lip pencil as I'm no way brave enough to use it on my eyes!!

My skin looks so pale here! Might need to go for a Snow White pale skin and red lip look! I don't ever use lip liners but I hate my lipsticks feathering so now might be the time to start, and I love this shade, it's a warm shade, very romantic.

My last buy is their Light Liquid Foundation in shade LF120 which is one of the lightest shades but with pink undertones, which isn't exactly my skin tone as I'm more neutral but they didn't have any other options around my colour. However this actually matches very well.

Read the back! It's little touches like this that draw me to this brand, the packaging, the ethos and the fact that we finally have a British brand to rival the likes of Bobbi Brown and MAC makes me happy. Also, they have the S.O.P.H.I.E products and a short film dedicated to the memory of Sophie Lancaster, a British teenager who was beaten to death for her style (gothic). If you have a chance, watch the film as it's very beautiful.

It is a very light formulation as the name suggests, easily blended and doesn't feel oily under my fingers, although I can see from the ingredients it does contain Avocado oil. So I'll need to see how my skin gets on with this. If you like their Facebook page, you can get a code for 15% off, and it works on sale items. Delivery to the UK is only £3.50. They do deliver worldwide but advise that it can take up to a month! It's worth the wait, I promise.

Have you ever owned any Illamasqua products? Did I choose the best products or what would you have picked? Hope you are all well :)

Montagne Jeunesse Face Mask Haul

I love shopping for beauty products in the supermarket as they usually have some pretty good deals on and it's nice to get a little treat with your food shopping! I have been using Montagne Jeunesse masks for years, they are so affordable and you can have the feeling of a facial in your own home. So when I was in Asda the other day (massive supermarket like Walmart for my American friends), they had these all on a roll-back price of 75p and I was over the moon and picked up a couple. The first ones I got were the white chocolate mask and the passion peel-off masks. I loved them so much I went back for more!

I couldn't find my passion peel-off one again but the white chocolate one, I LOVE white chocolate so snapped it up in a heartbeat. I kind of went for three pairs of masks, let's take a little look!

Let's get fruity!!! I love fruity scents, especially Raspberry, so this first fruit smoothie with Mango and Raspberry and Mango. If you haven't used any of these masks before they are really highly scented so if you don't like strong smelling things avoid them. If you do, like me, it's lovely to sit in a sweet or fruity smelling cloud letting them work their magic! I haven't tried one I haven't liked yet, which is more than I can say for more expensive face masks (Lush I'm looking at you). Also can you beat Strawberry and Whipped Cream in any situation (not THAT kind of situation for those with dirty minds)? It's the perfect combo. I've not tried a souffle one of these before that I remember, I'm hoping it's lighter and maybe frothy.

I class these two as the life-savers! They are mud packs to sort out blemishes and oiliness, which I am very prone to. Generally before any big night out or time I might want to look my best, up will pop the godzilla of all spots which will refuse to leave my face without a fight. That's when you need to crack out the big guns, and these are in this category. I've used the one on the left before and I can honestly say it does work. I put it on at night, washed it off after 15 mins then in the morning my skin was visibly clearer.

Chocoholic, moi? Never! Actually I'm more of a savoury person than a sweet one, but I make the exception for goodies like these. As I mentioned before, this is the second time I have bought the White Chocolate one, it smells AMAZING <3 like white chocolate buttons, and I want to eat it! It also leaves your skin feeling so soft, but I'm just in love with the smell to be honest! I actually have the Hot Chocolate mask on right now and had to open the door for the postman. I actually called through the door before I opened it "I have a face mask on so don't get a fright!" HAHA! He didn't look remotely bothered when he saw me even though I look like I'm trying to make some kind of a racist statement by blacking up, and just said "Ah it happens all the time". I'd love to be a postman you must see some sights! Ah well. It's one of those self-heating masks which I really like, even if it does nothing for your skin, it feels like it is and it also smells delish. For the record, I am not racist!! Lol but I do look ridiculous with a dark brown face, regardless of how jealous I am of some of my dusky friends' skin tones I cannot pull it off!! Back to albino for me :(

So, ladies, get yourself down to ASDA or onto their website and get your very own home spa treat! Over and out xxx

Back to reality!

How rubbish is coming back from holiday?? We were only away four days but it felt like so much longer which was lovely :) I was in Manchester with my boyfriend Richard, we went to see Jerry Seinfeld one night and Paul Merton the next so made it into a little trip. I've only been to Manchester for work before so it was really nice to go for pleasure and we got amazing weather, it was sunny 80% of the time, if a little windy, I even had to go buy flip flops as I had "cleverly" packed light and just taken Uggs for the day time! Much delicious food was consumed and a *ahem* few cocktails also. Mangotini anyone??

Richard is good at researching places before we visit, so we went to Mr Toms Victorian Chophouse for food, The Room and the Alchemist for cocktails and a couple of other nice little places like Jack Spratt's for lunch. We also discovered Barburrito which is the most amazing chilled-out Mexican food, come to Edinburgh Barburrito!! Here's a gratuitous pic of the two of us in the Alchemist with our test-tubey shots. Everything is done like a chemistry experiment and one of my cocktails was wood-smoked with a bunsen burner in front of me!

Obviously, there are loads of shops and shopping centres in Manchester, so I managed to sneak in some purchases, including the much longed-for Indian Ocean by Models Own woohoo! The Harvey Nichols in Manchester was a little disappointing compared to ours in Edinburgh, but the Selfridges is AMAZING! Richard had to leave me alone at the MAC dept, chatting away to the MUA as I tend to get a little engrossed haha. But anyway, we did experience some culture at the war museum, which was amazing but sad and thought provoking (understandably). We both turned into quivering wrecks when we decided to visit the viewing platform as the lift was very shaky and seemed like it was going to drop at any minute! Here is me looking small in a big cartoon room and Richard trying to look manly next to a tank LOL.

Enough culture, onto the haul! I was pretty restrained actually for me, only one Mac purchase which was good (sort of). So we have two candles which smelled yummy, Morange Mac Lipstick, Models Own Lilac Dream and Indian Ocean, pretty good huh? 

Ooh pretty things! I also got a couple of Primark items, but nothing else really jumped out at me, which is typical but good for my bank balance. I wore the Mac lipstick in our night out so see the top pics, but here are a couple of close-ups for a better idea. Now I don't need to tell you how good Mac lipsticks are, how creamy they are and how nice they smell, but I can tell you this is such a gorgeous yet wearable colour!! If you want to get brave and branch out, I seriously recommend this shade.

Well, that's my wee update sorry for being quiet while I've been away and this very pic-heavy post!! Glad to be home safe and sound but can't wait to go away again! Are any of you away on a city break soon? xx