Bomb Cosmetics - Pearls a Zinger Bath Tulip.

Hi guys so yesterday after scrubbing my kitchen, tidying my living room, losing my phone for 2 hours and then finding it in the bin, I thought it was time for a bath bomb. Actually I NEEDED a bath bomb! And luckily for me Santa had brought me a stash of them for Christmas. This particular bath bomb came from a cosmetics goody box which my mum had made for me.

 

It has lots of wonderful things in it and I thought that I would review them one by one for you. This is one of my most favourite presents which I received for Christmas. The box is amazing, I will definitely be using this to house my jewellery collection in the near future. I also love that that bottom was filled with crepe paper and little Christmas tree confetti. This box means the world to me because so much thought has gone in to it, it is filled with time, attention and love. 

 

My mum is an avid reader of my blog which makes me really happy, and she has been waiting for this review to come out since New Years day. She explained to me that she bought this specific bomb because of my Body Shop shower gels post in which I professed to being “a self confessed guru of orange smells” and she wanted to find out how this performed. So what can I tell you and her? 

 

Well this bomb was definitely Orange. The smell was strong and sweet, if not a little man made, and dare I say, a tiny bit soapy, but I'm sure I can over look that as the scent lasted all day, actually I can still smell it when I go in to my bathroom now. That may be due to that fact that on the website it states “Remember to only allow a portion of your Tulip to dissolve and remove it from the bath to save the rest for later”. I unfortunately read this a little too late and I used the whole thing in one go, but let me tell you I would do the same again because it was a pretty nice bath! 

 

As you can see from the picture my bomb is shaped like a cup cake which makes me happier than you can imagine. I like to think that the red dots on it are jelly beans and the caramel coloured flakes are fudge. Even unwrapping this bomb felt amazing, I love that fact that it looks good enough to eat.

 

Once I put the bomb in the bath it took age to dissolve (I now know why), it easily took 20 mins, I had time to take pictures of it, put a face mask on, write some of my review and then read for about 10mins. During this time the bomb merrily bobbed around my bath water leaving a milky/oil residue in it's wake, which left my skin feeling super silky and hydrated and appeals to my lazier side as I didn't have to moisturise after. 

 

This bomb was £2.99 and I have to tell you I think it was definitely worth the money! I will be checking out some more of the products the Bomb Cosmetics has to offer in the future but will this company be taking over my love of Lush? Well!? Maybe I can have it as well as. 

Stacey x x 

Illamasqua Nail Polish – Elope.

Hay guys today I wanted to show you my first Illamasqua nail polish which is very special because not only was it a Christmas present, but it was also picked by hubby him self with no outside influences for help. Now this sounds like it is out of the ordinary and a big feat for the hubster but actually its not, he is very good at presents and has no qualms about going to a beauty counter and having a look round. So when I asked for his thoughts behind this nail polish his answer was that green suits me. Well you cant say fairer than that and once I popped this polish on I have to say the boy's not wrong.

I really, really like this polish. It went on smooth, it lasted ages without chipping, it wasn't too thick or thin and the colour was ace! I will defiantly be trying more of these polishes and maybe a few other brands as well in the future, maybe the boy has successfully broken the Nails Inc obsession, watch this space to find out. 

 

See you soon.

Stacey x x

Urban Decay 24/7 Eyeliner Pencils and Amsterdam

Hay guys first of all Happy Snow Day!!! It has in fact snowed in certain areas of the UK today and as I am writing this I am travelling down a white M62 on my way home from Amsterdam. Me, hubby and the rents have enjoyed a mini cruise to the city if sin for the weekend and surprisingly enough it had snowed there as well. I don’t know what it is about the UK but when we have a little flurry of the white stuff everything comes to a standstill, unlike our Dutch cousins who were still riding around on their peddle bikes and being generally lovely people.  

Now just for the record, while in Amsterdam I did not partake in any Space: cakes, cookies, brownies, porridge, burger, or any other delicacy involving any contraband substances. However I may have taken a peek in a few lady windows................................ well you have to do some touristy things ;0)

And even with all the eye popping distractions that Amsterdam has to offer I still managed a make up look and a new product review for you guys, I know, ever the professional! So for this look I wanted something quite natural as it was day time. I also wanted something that would last all day with minimal touch ups and something with SPF in it, as although it was -5 the sun was out in force.

And here it is.

Products.

Base: Bare Minerals Foundation in Fair, Mineral Veil

Cheeks: MAC Phloof (highlight), Bare Minerals Warmth (contour), MAC Style (blusher)

Eyes: MAC Phloof (brow highlight), Urban Decay 24/7 Radium (eye liner), MAC spiked (brow colour), Collection 2000 Colour Lash Clear (brow set), MAC Prep and prime (lash primer), Max Factor False Lash Effect Black/Brown (mascara)

Lips: Avon Lip Plump (balm), Sleek Pout Polish Electro Peach (colour)

Nails: Nails Inc Baker Street

Brushes: MAC 224, Bare Mineral Kabuki and Flawless Face brush, and the blusher brush looks like an old Avon one but who knows. 

 

As you can see from the picture my hair is now a pinky/purple colour. I do like to change things up a little from time to time. 

Now to the review and we have the wonderful M-I-L to thank for this one as she kindly bought these for my birthday. So for those of you that don't know, on ship they usually have a duty free shop selling the usual, perfumes, cosmetics, alcohol ect and this where my Urban Decay eye liners came from. I was quite surprised to see Urban Decay in duty free as I have have never seen it in any others before, but there it was. There was only a small selection and I am not even sure that they were any cheaper than on the hight street (these were £17.50), but what I did notice was that they stocked a few products that I haven't seen before, these being one of them.

Urban Decay 24/7 travel size Electric eye liner includes 5 different colours:

Perversion - Black

Ransom - Purple

Woodstock - Pink

Radium - Blue

Junkie - Green

and profess "cream, skip-proof, waterproof" goodness from these little beauties and I have to admit, they are not wrong! I wore Radium on my upper lids for about 12hrs with no smudging, no movement and no transfer of colour. It glided on in one swipe with fantastic colour pay off so there was no need to go over any area. This eyeliner wasnt cakey, nor did it peel or flake over time. And it came off just as easy as it went on with an oil free make up remover leaving no residue. I have only swatched the rest of the colours so I cant speak for all at the moment but from what I have seen I'm really excited to play with the rest to see if they live up to Radium's high standards. 

Has anyone else tried these eye pencils? What do you guys think of them? 

Stacey x x

Anew Lips by Avon.

Hi guys just a quick post to let you in on one of my most favourite brands of the moment for lips. Those of you from the UK should by rights know who Avon are. You may or may not have a brochure pushed through your letter box every so often or know some one in the area who is an Avon rep, it is an institution. I my self have a colleague who sells Avon and who, and I have no idea why, when I shout “Ding dong Avon calling” at him, doesn't seem to like it?

Now what I would like to show you today are two lip products from the Anew range. The Anew range is Avons specialist anti-ageing range covering ages from 30+ to 60+ and they include products such as cleansers, moisturisers, serums, eye creams etc. Now I cant rave about this range enough, I already use the Thermafirm Face Lifting Cream as my night moisturiser, I know I'm not 30 yet but literally 30 is knocking on my door and I'm a firm believer of prevention rather then cure, once those wrinkles get here nothing less than a face lift is going to make them go away!

So about 6 months ago I had been on the hunt for a new lip balm, I have tried loads of lip balms over the years and I am really picky about the criteria. It needs to have SPF in it because I am massive on sun protection. It has to have no colour because looking like a cricketer is not a good look for me and it actually has to have a formula that moisturises my lips. I know that sounds really weird because if it doesn't moisturise what's the point. I know its crazy but some lip balms I have tried actually make my lips more dry and cracked! What is that about?! With this in mind and the success I had had with the Thermafirm cream, I decided to give the Anew Beauty Lip Plumping Conditioner a go. Avon says, “Restore a youthful looking appearance and see plumper, fuller lips. With double the retinol to boost collagen renewal.” Which, complete with SPF15 sounded like my kind of product. Anew Lip Plump (which is what I'm calling it for short) normally retails at £9 but those of you that have purchased from Avon will know that everything in their brochure is on offer at some point so I paid £5 for mine. 

 

Just for the record generally I am a sceptical person when it comes to product claims because 90% of the time they are unfounded, so my realistic hopes for this product was just for it to moisturise my lips and keep the sun from hurting them, but what I received was so much more. I still can not believe what an effect this product has had on my lips! About a year ago I can remember noticing my top lip was slightly smaller and more creased than my bottom lip. Now I don't know if the rest of the world had noticed this but it was noticeable to me, especially when I wore high colour lipsticks, but in literally a few weeks of using this lip treatment I noticed my lips were smoother, a little bigger and they had evened in size. I cant actually believe I'm telling you this now because I have never seen a product, EVER that has worked as well as this on me. I was and still am truly amazed! Now lets get the disclaimer out of the way, this product has honestly worked on me and I can see my self repurchasing this for ever (so Avon you better not discontinue this) but I cant guarantee this will work for you. I haven't done a controlled scientific study with this product, I have just used it on little old me but if you want to give it a try you know my feelings on it.

As stated above I do have 2 products to show you today and this is the second. Still from the same range this is the Anew Beauty Youth Awakening Lipstick-Satin Finish. This has all the same properties as Anew Lip Plump but just with colour like a lipstick. I chose the colour Sugary Pink because I wanted something with just a hint of colour that I didn't need a lip liner or lip brush to put it on. This colour is a cross between a pink and a peach and as it is a satin finish it is frosty. All the lipsticks in the Youth Awakening range are a satin finish so they are all going to have a bit of shimmer in them. I have to admit that even thought this lipstick is lovely I would have preferred to have a choice between mat and satin. I am a big mat lipstick fan so I think that would have been slightly better for me. Never the less I will still be using this lipstick as my day time go to lipstick, with all the Collagen and Retinol goodness in it how could I say no? 

 

Speak soon.

Stacey x x

Tattoo and apologies.

HI guys sorry its me apologising again. You may or may not have noticed that I have been missing from your blogging lives for some time now. I have to admit this time I have been busy. Between spending festive time with 3 sets of family, my gorgeous friends, hubby working the whole of December and my self cramming in as much January over time as possible, I've hardly had time to even check my Facebook let alone muster enough sense out of my addled brain to compose a post. However this is all set to change. I have so much to show you that Santa has gifted me with (because I have been an exceptionally good girl), that hubby has been franticly taking pictures of everything so I can begin to try them out for you.

The first thing I would like to show you is a kind of Christmas present to my self and I honestly think it is the single best thing I have ever bought in my life, including my wedding shoes, and I LOVE shoes and weddings! In fact there are quite a few thing on my love list and tattoos are definatly one of them. Ever since I can remember I have been fascinated by them. My dad was in the army and he has quite a few tattoos covering his arms and other more intimate parts of his body that I shall not name, so I have grown up with them being the norm. Also when I met my husband he already had a growing collection of body art that has steadily expanded each year.

So nearly 11 years ago, just after my 17^th birthday I decided that it was time to have my first tattoo. I obviously discussed this with the mother figure first and she stated that she didn't have any issues with this, she actually thought that there was no way that I would go through with it (even back then I was notorious for my lack of pain thresh hold). So off I trundled to Blackpool with my best friend and sister in tow and endured 40mins of tattoo pain. I exited feeling light-headed, £40 lighter in my pocket and generally very pleased with my self. Now just for the record you have to be 18 years old to get a tattoo in the UK and I am in no way condoning getting a tattoo before the legal age, actually I have now had my first tattoo covered up. Unfortunately I am going to dole out some cliché advise as well. Think long and hard about the type of tattoo, where you want it, who you want to get it done by etc. This is no time for an impulse buy. Its not like those Topshop hot pants you thought you could get away with wearing because Lady GaGa did! You can not take this back.

So..... I hear you ask, why did it take 11 years to partake in another tattoo experience? Well I was taking my own advice. I researched. I researched different styles, tattooists, artwork ect to decide what I really wanted. And during that decade tattooing changed incredibly.

The best change for me is the rise of the Custom Shop. This is where you take your ideas, research, scrap pieces of paper or just your mind and your tattooist will draw you something up, and as if by magic you dreams will become reality. Which is exactly what happened to me. My fantastic tattooist is Dan Morris of Red Sea Tattoo which is situated on Oxford Road in Manchester. Red sea Tattoo was recommended to me by a work colleague who's own amazing tattoos were done there. So I had a look on line at their work and went in to the shop for a consultation. I have to admit, before I go any further that my whole experience with Dan and Red Sea has been amazing! They made me feel comfortable, relaxed and confident that the result would be what I wanted....and no im not getting any discount for expressing this praise lol. My consultation with Dan took about 20 mins and in this time I showed him my research (I had quite a bit) and he wowed me with his knowledge of pin ups and old school. He then mapped out my back with a Sharpie line drawing of some ideas which he took pictures of, we discussed colour, positioning, costing and aproximate time, and then I ws sent on my merry way with my first appointment date.

On the date I made sure I took Dan's advice and had a good nights sleep and had something to eat about an hour before my appointmet. I then spent the rest of the waiting time trying in vein to stop my heart from birsting out of my chest with nerves. My first appointment was 3 hours long and my tattooed colleague had given me some advice before hand to get through it, and I quote

“Think of the worst pain in the world and you will breeze through it”

Did this advice work? Well, see for your self.

This is the tattoo straight after the first sitting. As you can see I have had all the outline done and Dan has coloured the flowers which is where my first tattoo has been covered over. Once my tattoo was wrapped up and I was on my way home I felt invincible and may have professed that I was now “the tattoo master” to my mum. This however was the complete opposite of 2 hours early when I expressed that I wanted to die ;0) Well I have always had a flair for the dramatic.

4 weeks later I was in again to get the job done. This time I had 2 and a half hours in the chair and I was much more relaxed this time. During each of my sittings Dan was chatty, funny and just plain lovely! And here it is, the finished product.. 

 

To me it is honestly the most amazing, beautiful thing in the world. I still cant get over the fact that my crazy, disjointed ideas have been transformed in to a work of art that will be mine for ever. I cant give enough praise and thanks to Dan who is undoubtedly the most incredible artist.

Now this would not be a beauty blog if we didn't talk about some products so here is what I have now dubbed “the tattoo beauty regime”. What I'm not going to do is give you advice on how to look after your tattoo, I am just going to say what I did. This is because there are so many different opinions on this subject on the internet from people much more qualified to give advice than me. So from the time I came out of the tattooist until my tattoo stopped peeling I used Bepanthen (baby bum cream) about 3-4 times a day to stop it from drying out. Once it had stopped peeling I then used Vaseline Essential Moisture twice a day for about a week. As for keeping my tattoo clean, for the first few days I washed it twice a day just with water, and from then on I washed it twice a day with Johnsons Head to Toe baby wash. Wow didn't realise it before but it sounds like I have a lot of baby products.........mother do not get any ideas! The only thing I would like to advise about looking after a new tattoo is don't scrub, pick or scratch and of course get some after care advice from your tattooist.

So I have left Dan's details below for anyone thinking about taking the plunge and all that's left to say is 'happy beautifying your body with art'.

Stacey x x

Dan's blog http://danmorristattoo.blogspot.com/

Red Sea Tattoo website http://redseatattoo.co.uk/

Christmas Look. Red/Green/Gold.

Hi guys sorry I have been MIA for what seems like for ever. Its been ever so slightly busy in this neck of the woods but that is no excuse for shirking my blogging responsibilities!! Neither is feeling like death, which I woke up at 5 O clock this morning feeling like. So having dragged my sorry state out of bed at 6am, after whimpering and sniffing in hubby's ear for an hour (hubby was still asleep!), I then proceeded to; festivise my living room (it is now complete with tree, tinsel and many a sparkly bauble), chat to the mother-figure for half an hour (always sure to get sympathy in abundance there), watched 3 Shrek films and Christmas Madagascar. And now here I am. Drinking hot Vimto (which may or may not be hubby's) and eating a Smarties xmas penguin (bought by the mother-in-law, because secretly she thinks I'm the best daughter-in-law in the world!). Soldering on, like a trooper, for the team, and if any persons would like to shower me with sympathy I'll take that for the team too ;0).

So it's been a long time in coming but I have for you today the first of the Christmas looks that go with “Inspiration for Christmas Photo Shoot”. This is the Red/Green/Gold look. The first picture is the main picture taken from the shoot. In each of the shoots we wanted to depict a different way to celebrate Christmas. This picture was about celebrating the fun of Christmas, letting your childish side out and relishing in the magic of Christmas. All 3 shoots follow the same layout, one full length picture, one close up and one of feet (in shoes of course, for those of you that have an aversion to naked feet).

This photo shoot was really nice and relaxing. The photos were taken in my house and yes I did put my tree up especially for this, as well as sewing coloured bells and stars on the the dress to make it look more festive.

Now I tried a couple of looks out for this shoot in advance as I was trying to work in both the Red, Green and Gold in to one eye look and still make it wearable. I tried graduated eyes, I tried glitter liner in all the colours, I tried it with mat colours, shimmery, sparkly but all to no avail. Everything I tried either looked too crazy (I like crazy but it's not too wearable) or just plain BAD. So I decided to do what any professional would do and assess the situation on the day ;0).

Luckily for me my model, the beautiful Jenny was, if I could be so bold as to say, STUNNING! She had the most gorgeous young skin and a truly angelic look. So multi-coloured craziness went straight out the window and wholesome young fun was the theme of the day.

For the skin I evened out skin tone with a little Graftobian HD foundation and some ELF HD powder. For the cheeks I slightly contoured with NYX light brown (no name) powder, highlighting with MAC Phloof (my go to highlighter) and a wash of colour on the cheeks using NYX blusher in Peach. For lips I conditioned with Carmex Classic lip balm and gave the lips a just bitten look with Sleek Tinted Lip Colour in Electro Peach.

Even though I wasn't going crazy with colour this look was still all about the eyes. I used Too Faced shadow insurance as a base and then used a NYX gold glitter gel from the eyelashes to two thirds of the way up the eyelid. This gave a wash of gold glitter that you could see when she blinked. As well as this I also used a green glitter liquid eye liner. from Claire's Accessories across the lash line to give a fun, funky edge to the look. Topped of with some Maybelline Great Lash blackest black mascara and some mussed up curled hair and voilà. Fun, funky, not too crazy make up, using glitter (my favouritest thing in the whole wide world) that can be worn pretty much anywhere.

If you are a glitter lover like me or you would just like to try some thing new, glitter eye liners are a really good investment. You can get them in pencils, gels, liquids. You can get them from the big cosmetics houses like MAC, Stila, and Too Faced, all the way down to Claire's Accessories and MUA for Superdrug. The beauty of this look is you can go all out with a big retro kitten flicks or tone it down with dots of sparkle right on the lash line, which means it can be adapted to suit anyone. And lets be honest, who doesn't like a little sparkle at Christmas.

Hope you have enjoyed guys and I'll see you soon.

Stacey x x

China Glaze – Little Drummer Boy.

Hi guys it feels like I have been on a nail painting frenzy these past few weeks. We have had Glastonbury, this and I have a new polish from China Glaze to show you as well. This may not sound a lot for those nail enthusiasts out there, but for me to paint my nails two week on the trot is generally unheard of.

So I have to admit this creation was a little off the cuff, it came about as I was taking the Glastonbury nail polish off and it was taking too long, so in my haste I may have left some on and just painted over it. Now I do not condone this action in any way and I blame a momentary lapse in “therapist” brain function but as this turned out quite nice I thought I would show it you ;0)

 

I started with A and E base coat by Nails Inc as my nails were a little battered from wrestling the glitter most of the way off. I then used two coats of China Glaze Little Drummer Boy which I bought last year in their Christmas collection. And for the top coat I used China Glaze Fast Forward, which is my go to quick dry top coat. 

 

Now I was just going to leave my nails like this but the more I looked at them the more I realised that the nail polish, although a gorgeous shade of blue, was a little too dark on its own for my Casper white hands. So instead of taking them off, and trying yet again to get the remnants of the glitter polish off I decided to jazz them up a little. As you can see I painted lines from one corner of the nail to the opposite corner using sliver and blue holographic nail art pens, and on each starting corner I added a clear nail art rhinestone. All in all I thought the outcome was very festive.

Just in case any one wants to buy anything that I have used, I get my Nails Inc from either; Debenhams, Selfridges, ASOS and sometimes if I'm lucky (or when my mum has searched) TKMaxx. I get all my China Glaze from the only place that I know of that sells it in my area which is Sally's/Salon Services. For those of you that don't know who Sally's are, they are a hair and beauty professional wholesalers but they do have some shops that sell to the public as well so check out there website here to see if there is a store near you. And for my nail art pens and rhinestones Ebay is the way forward, they have everything you can imagine for nail art design.

So I hope you have enjoyed this post and and get adding a little festivities to you nails.

Stacey x x