Thursday 29 May 2014

Summer blushin'

From left, Crochet, Guipure and Chantilly.


Hello all - before I get started I must quickly apologise for being a bad blogger of late, I haven't blogged in just over a week and I have felt a little bit guilty about it but it's been a combination of me being extremely busy at work, accompanied with having an uninspired blogger blip - blogger's block, we've all had this from time to time, right?

Anyway, enough of my rambling and onto my latest post, Summer blushin'... The title probably gives away the fact that I'm having a 'I love Grease phase' and also the fact that I'm wanting to tell you all about a blush palette that's sure to get you in the mood for summer. It's not quite June yet but this palette really has me looking ahead to the summer months.

Sleek's Blush by 3 Palette in Lace (RRP £9.99) is a thing of orange-toned beauty. Yep, orange. Totally out of my comfort zone but I'm totally fine with it.

The palette contains, as you'd expect, three shades. These include: 
  • Crochet: a matte orange
  • Guipure: a warm, coral-toned pink with a metallic gold shimmer
  • Chantilly: a matte, reddy coral



My favourite shade in the palette is Crochet, which comes as a total surprise to me, as I tend to stick to pretty pinks or shimmery corals. My love for this orange shade comes as a complete shock, especially as I'm so fair skinned but surprisingly it suits me, it totally warms up my complexion and teamed with a subtle contour, adds definition to my cheekbones.

Guipure is also a winner but that's because it's one of those pinky coral shades that I would usually go for. In fact, I think it's the exact same blush that's in Sleek's Face Form Contouring and Blush Palette.

Chantilly is the only shade I'm not 100 per cent sold on... yet. On first application I looked like I'd been slapped, not good! It needed a great deal of blending out before I looked okay again. I plan to try this with my Real Techniques Stippling Blush, which should hopefully do the trick. *fingers crossed*

Despite my fair complexion I feel this palette actually works well for me, and as I've mentioned does wonders in warming up my pale face, so I have no doubt that this trio will look fabulous on darker skin tones.

As I've previously mentioned on the blog, Sleek's Blush offerings are up there with the best of them, the selection of colours is superb, the pigmentation and lasting power is excellent, and accompanied with the small price tag, they're a total winner and this palette is no exception.

What beauty products are getting you in the mood for summer?


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Monday 19 May 2014

Beauty products that didn't live up to the hype



This post may come as a bit of a shock to some of you today, as I'm not bigging up products that I love like I usually do. Instead I'm going to give you the rundown on a few products that have disappointed me somewhat in recent months.

Before I get started, I just want to make it clear, that I'm not saying these products are dreadful, they just didn't work for me... Some of you are going to read this post and think: "NAOMI, WHAT THE HELL?!" because most of these products are adored by a multitude of beauty lovers and have a cult folloing but sadly they just didn't cut the mustard for me... That doesn't mean they won't work for you, everyone's different and I enjoy reading these types of posts, I find it interesting to discover what other bloggers just didn't "get on with". 

Right enough rambling, here goes:

NARS Blush in Orgasm - £21.50

Yep, your eyes aren't deceiving you people. This is probably the most talked about shade of blush around, it's "that blush with the funny name". NARS blushes are renowned for being just, well fantastic, and trust me it's not a bad blush by any stretch of the imagination. The formula is good, it lasts throughout the day, and Orgasm is a lovely peachy, golden pink shade but there's 501 cheaper alternatives out there. My favourite dupe being the blush in Sleek's Face Form Contouring and Blush Palette. That nifty trio contains a contour, highlight and blush, and the blush is VERY similar to Orgasm. The only difference being it's accompanied by the contour and highlight, and the overall product costs £9.99. Sorry NARS... Sleek wins it here for me this time.

Maybelline Brow Drama Sculpting Mascara in Medium Brown - £4.99

After reading many a glowing review on this product, I thought I'd give it a go myself and boy, was I disappointed with this. I've read many posts where the reviewer claims it gives them a natural looking brow, I sadly cannot vouch for this. The strange ball brush just would not allow the product to apply neatly to my brows, it just made them look messy and odd. It's a no from me...

Eyeko Skinny Liquid Eyeliner in Black - £12

I had a sample of this free with a magazine a few months back and I was SO excited to give this a whirl, especially as it's renowned for being the liquid eyeliner behind Alexa Chung's famous cat flick and who doesn't love that look? I had such high hopes prior to using this but sadly I found that it smudged terribly. Instead of the cat flick, I got the panda flick... Not a good look! I'm just thanking the liquid eyeliner Gods for Stila's Stay All Day Waterproof Liquid Eyeliner!

Maybelline Baby Lips Balm in Pink Punch - £2.99

Following its Stateside success, the UK launch of this product was a highly anticipated one. I couldn't wait to get my hands on these lip balms, being a total lip balm fiend. Once they landed in the UK I purchased Pink Punch and Mint Fresh. I love Mint Fresh, it's one of my all-time favourite lip balms, I love any mint flavoured lip products anyway but the formula is just so hydrating. However, Pink Punch does not feel like the same hydrating product to me, it dries my lips out terribly and I also don't like the hint of colour that this has. Mint Fresh applies clear, while Pink Punch goes on like a sort of bright pinky colour but sheer too, which is fine but perhaps it should be a more muted pink if it's a sheer lip product. In my opinion, Pink Punch can't decide whether it's a balm or a tint... Disappointing but thank goodness it was dirt cheap or I'd feel a lot worse about it.

Benefit They're Real Mascara - £19.50

*gulp* I'm nervous about including this in the post but well... The UK's best selling mascara just didn't do it for me okay?! I'm sorry! Every beauty lover and their mother (poet and I didn't know it ;)) loves this mascara, and honestly I wanted to love this mascara so badly but I just don't... I find it so heavy on my lashes, so much so that it makes me feel uncomfortable and when I've had this on, I've felt paranoid of it smudging. The lash look that I tend go for is one that has the right mix of length and volume, but more so on the length side. This sadly has too little length for me, and far too much volume. I'm glad I've finally got this off my chest!

I hope you've enjoyed reading this post, it's good to mix things up a little every now and then, and it's a post I've contemplated doing for some time now. Like I said, just because a product doesn't work for me, doesn't mean the same applies for you, I just thought it may interest you to know what products I just haven't taken to. I'd love to find out what hyped up products didn't really float your bloat, let me know!


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Saturday 17 May 2014

Pore blimey, you can't beat a good freebie!



You can't beat a good magazine freebie every now and then, and this month Elle Magazine have really pulled out all the stops as they are giving away a free sample of the POREfessional Pro Balm by Benefit.

This freebie could not have come at a better time for me as I'm currently running out of my full sized POREfessional and despite being a total POREfessional devotee, at £24.50 for 22ml, I'd been putting off parting with my hard earned pennies, so Elle's "pricey for a magazine" £4 price tag really didn't sound so bad in comparison to that.

The magazine sample offering's size is 7.5ml which I think is pretty good, and will last me around two months.

This is one of the most talked about products in the beauty blogging world, it's a real "marmite" product - you either love it or hate it, as stated I'm a total devotee, I love it.

But why do I love it you ask? Well, first and foremost, it's described as a "silky, lightweight balm for translucent pore coverage and smoother-than-smooth skin", and I can confirm it does a sterling job in "blurring" the appearance of my slightly enlarged pores around my nose, which I think is largely due to it being a silicone primer.

(FYI - Silicone primers provide a smooth base for your foundation, as the silicone fills in any pores and fine lines.)

As well as that, it's not heavy on the skin at all and applies ever so smoothly. This can be used over or under your foundation. I always use it under, as it smooths out my skin tone, giving me a flawless base, that helps my make-up to last all day/night.

When I first used this, I was a little taken aback as it does have a slight beige-y colour to it but fear not, as that disappears once you've blended it in.

For me this product does everything that it claims to do, and I do feel it warrants the hype that surrounds it.

I highly suggest you head over to your nearest newsagent and pick up this month's copy of Elle, if you haven't tried the POREfessional yet - this product should be on every beauty lover's list of products they must try!

I may even buy another copy of Elle for this...

I would love to hear what primers you swear by, as I'm in need of some suggestions. Thanks for reading!



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Monday 12 May 2014

Having a moment with... Barry M's Hi Shine Gel Effect Nail Paints

My nails in Sugar Apple .


My nails in Lychee *swoon*.



Looking down at my brightly painted nails today something occurred to me... I'm having a real moment with Barry M's Hi Shine Gel Effect Nail Paints.

Last week I wore one of last year's shades, Lychee for a number of days. Anyone that knows me/reads my blog, knows my love of this beautiful nude-grey shade. It's incredibly versatile, it goes with just about anything. It's a practical daytime shade but it also adds that little something to a 'night out' outfit.

Moving on from the colour, I must now praise the formula because I've got to say it's up there with the best of them. In two coats, you get glossy nails that remain chip-free for at least four days.

After enjoying wearing Lychee again and resisting the new spring shades for SO long (well March BUT two months is a long time and hell of a lot of willpower for a beauty blogger *wink emote*), I decided to treat myself to one so I went for Sugar Apple, a bright yet muted (does that make sense?), pastel turquoise mint.

I've been wearing it since Saturday and it's still chip-free and looking lovely. I've now got my sights set on another spring shade, Huckleberry, which is a pale baby blue. I believe the summer shades are now out too, however I am yet to see those in the "flesh".

Barry M's Hi Shine Gel Effect Nail Paints can be purchased via all the usual outlets, such as Boots and Superdrug, and at £3.99 a pop, you can't really go wrong can you?



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Tuesday 6 May 2014

Cafe Radio's Tapas night



Brace yourselves people, for this is my second post in under a month that doesn’t involve me harking on about the contents of your local Boots!

A few weeks back, my friends and I fancied a girls night involving lots of good food, accompanied by a tipple, so we decided to poke our heads around Café Radio's door in Oswestry and it just so happened it was tapas night!

Café Radio is a fab, little place - by day serving an excellent cup of coffee and good food, however every Friday and Saturday night, the café holds a tapas night from 6.30pm to 10pm, when you can bring your own tipple, which you have to pay a small charge for doing so.

For some time now I’d heard many a good review on their tapas nights but never quite got round to trying it out for myself and I’ve got to say I wish I’d have sampled their tapas sooner!

I believe the tapas menu changes every week – correct me if I’m wrong…

There was a decent selection of tapas on offer, for the mains in particular you are spoilt for choice!

We opted for the Olives and Catalan Toast as our starter. You can’t really go wrong with Olives, so of course they were good. However, the Catalan Toast was the highlight for me. It reminded me of bruschetta. It was delicious, there was just the right amount of tomatoe-y topping, and it was extremely flavoursome.

Olives.


The Catalan Toast - apologies for the poor picture!


For our main, we went for the Bavette Steak, which was beautiful! It wasn’t tough at all. By that point, Clare had had a tipple (or three) and she summed it up just perfectly: “It’s just SO MOIST!” – Clare reminded Jade and I of this several times throughout the meal. 

To accompany our steaks, we had the Patatas al Povre, which is a tasty dish of thinly sliced, fried potatoes with a few chillis. 

Our mains - the Bavette Steaks and the Patatas al Povre.


Despite well and truly filling our boots, noticing that Chocolate Pots with salt and olive oil was a dessert option, we simply could not turn it down.

Chocolate Pots with salt and olive oil.

Don’t get me wrong, dessert was delicious and the salt and olive oil added an excellent kick to it but for me there was simply too much, which meant it bordered on being a quite sickly, so I unfortunately couldn’t finish it. If it was a smaller portion, it would’ve been perfect!

As well as there being plenty of good food to choose from on the menu, I must also add that the overall atmosphere of the place is lovely, and extremely relaxed. The staff are very attentive and friendly. They were happy to chat and answer any of our queries.

Despite us being lucky and getting a table at the last minute, I would suggest booking prior to the night to avoid missing out.

I think overall the tapas (starters, main and dessert) costed around £20 per person, which I think is excellent value for money.

I could not recommend Radio’s tapas nights enough and I intend to return in the very near future.

Thanks for reading! Let me know if you decide to try out Radio’s tapas night for yourself based on my recommendation!


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Saturday 3 May 2014

April favourites



Despite April probably being the busiest month of the year so far, it was definitely my favourite month of 2014 yet. Lots of hard work was done but there were a couple of lovely birthdays celebrated, my best friend, Craig has gone to work in Mallorca for six months, despite feeling sad that he's gone, I'm thrilled that he's having a wonderful time over there, oh and there's been plenty of blog progress, including a lovely little revamp - thanks to the boyfriend for that. Oh and I'm sorry to be a total fangirl BUT... *cough* the wonderful Essie Button shared my blog with her 76k+ Twitter followers *cough* - she enjoyed my Essie Button made me... post! Win!

So yep, April was pretty good but now I shall hush up and crack on with my most loved and reached for beauty products of the past month, and I've got to say, it's quite a luxurious list. Here goes:


Urban Decay Naked 3 Palette - £37

If I could use any iPhone Emoji to sum up my feelings on this palette, it would be the 'heart-eyes' one, you know the one! I've had this little treasure of a palette for just over a month now and I adore it. Throughout April I reached for this palette on a number of occasions to create some lovely night time looks. One look I enjoyed creating in particular, was a subtle shimmery eye teamed with some winged liquid eyeliner. This look finished off my outfit at one of my best friend's 21st birthday Gatsby party perfectly. The shades I used to create this look were Dust - an extremely shimmery, peachy pink with A LOT of glitter, Buzz - a glittery, satin rose, and Nooner - a matte taupe. I wore Nooner all over the lid and finished the look off with the shimmery, glittery shades and of course, the winged liner. (Apologies for not having any pictures of this eye look!) I know this is a favourites post but I do have one gripe with one shade in this palette and oddly enough, the shade is Dust - that I have just mentioned. There is far too much fall out in Dust! Other than that, it's a stunning palette.



Ciate Paint Pot in Pocket Money - £9

This was another beauty product that finished off the Gatsby party look. It's a beautiful nude shade, that's somewhat pinkier than your typical nude nail polish. It's an extremely elegant shade and the formula is lovely. It lasted me a good four to five days without any highly noticeable chipping. This is a little pinkier than Nooner, in the Naked 3 Palette. Being a sucker for pretty packaging, I must say the bottle is presented beautifully with a lovely black ribbon to finish it off. Trés elegant.


Chanel Rouge Allure Velvet Luminous Matte Lipstick in 33 La Distinguée - £26

This is not just an April favourite, this is a lifetime and a day favourite. I reached for this little beauty a number of times in April and as always, it finished off any look, day or night, gorgeously. La Distinguée is a moderately dusty pink with a very subtle hint of peach. It's beautiful and my all time favourite lipstick shade. This isn't a Gatsby party themed post I swear, but teaming this with the Naked 3 Palette and Ciate's Pocket Money was just a dusty pink dream! Despite its matte formula, I don't find this drying at all. Look out for a post dedicated to this lipstick in future because as you can tell I adore it. 


Stila Stay All Day Waterproof Liquid Eyeliner - £13

This product featured in my Essie Button made me... post. I've worn a winged eye a number of times this month and I've absolutely loved it. The pen makes the detestable liquid eyeliner application process somewhat less detestable for me - big praise indeed! As I've previously said, it's the perfect black liquid eyeliner for me and it does not budge all day/evening.


La Roche-Posay Effaclar Duo + Plus - £15.50 *

Its predecessor featured in my February favourites and since using the revamped version over the past month, I'm smitten. This product reduces any redness that comes after any skin outbreaks and I've found its actually improved the overall redness of my skin, which has given me the confidence to go a number of days foundation-free during April! See here for a full review of this.



Have a fab May and lovely Bank Holiday weekend all - I'm off to watch McBusted tonight in Birmingham, so I'm a tad excited to say the least! Thanks for reading!


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