Back with a HAUL!

Ok I haven't blogged for ages. sorry. had a personal thing & then concentrating on work & then just didn't really feel it. Plus I stopped purchasing for a while due to budgeting & I got caught up in Instagram.

But enough of the excuses. I did a haul the other day, posted it on Instagram (I am nicolagg over there) then suddenly thought - wow I would like to blog this. So I have.

My haul was a sweet combination of "high end" and "drugstore" - in this case MAC, Nars & Topshop (whose make up collections I am really enjoying of late).

l-r : MAC Shell Pearl Beauty Powder (Year of the Snake Collection), MAC 168 angled contour brush, MAC Summer Sweetheart Lipglass (Archies Girls Collection), Topshop Milkshake Nail Varnish, Topshop Glow, Topshop Blush in Morning Dew and Nars Galapagos.

So some new(ish) things and some oldies but goodies.

MAC: The Shell Pearl beauty powder looks a bit scary but is in fact a perfect peachy gold highlighter which would also work well as an eyeshadow. Lovely. The lipglass is probably the only thing I will haul from Archies Girls - just don't like the cartoonish collections and nothing inspiring there to me. I recently had a full on make over done at the MAC store in Covent Garden and they used a 168 contour to apply liquid foundation. I usually use Studio Tech in the compact but have a few liquid foundations I never use and I really liked the finish with the brush so thought I would give it a go!

Topshop has been a real revelation. The Milkshake varnish is a great dupe for OPI Mod About You (one of my all time fave pinks cremes) and the Glow is a lovely subtle highlighter. Perfect for summer. I really like the creme blushes as they have good staying power especially when applied with a stippling brush and then gone over lightly with a powder blush.

Finally NARS Galapagos. I have been umm'ing and ah'ing about this for a while. I always love NARS colours but the payoff never seems that good - apart from Dogon which is my alltime fave. I have Mekong in the single but I gave in to temptation and purchased this too - a nice coffee brown with a gold sparkle which doesnt really show when applied. Lets see!

Anyway - thats that - I guess I am back!

Until next time .... XOXO

N

MAC HOLIDAY HAUL - GLITTER & ICE

For months I have been so good and hardly bought any products but I crumbled in the face of MAC's holiday collection - Glitter and Ice.

Now - my feelings on MAC's CHRISTMAS (holiday - pah!) collections are always mixed. They bring out a load of products, but not all of great quality. We all know the palette shadows are never quite as good as the single ones. Ditto the mini brush collections - they never quite match up to the single brushes for quality. However - the palettes are great value and great for gifting - especially when they look as cute as these ones!

I purchased the Snowglobe eye shadow palettes in Sultry and Warm. They are super cute - looking exactly like the name would suggest:

loving the white and silver boxes and limited edition white and silver snowglobe palettes!

shake and bake baby!

The Sultry palette contains Lightfully, Trax, Fun, Festive Delight, Black Tied and Shadowy Lady shadows. The Warm palette (which I will be gifting) is made up of Buckwheat, Gaelic Gold, Patina, Magical Mist, Winterscape and Midnight Flurry.

oooh pretty things

close up on Sultry - my personal fave!

I personally like the packaging - yes the dome makes the palette a little more bulky but its the most fun holiday aesthetic I have seen (in my opinion) since Fascinating Ruby (2009). Tartan Tale was VILE. 

So what MAC holiday products have taken YOUR fancy?

Until next time...............XO

Project 10 Pan...an experiment!

...or how Twitter enabled me to accept I had a beauty product problem.

Last week I was having an innocent conversation with @bethglossgalore (a fabulous blogger) on Twitter. We were bemoaning how many products we had and our addiction to purchasing. I casually commented that we needed to do a Project 10 Pan....or in our cases maybe a Project 100 Pan. Somehow this has led to us both now ACTUALLY doing Project 10 Pan.

What on earth is Project 10 Pan I hear you ask!

Over the last couple of years I have watched untold amounts of Youtube videos entitled "Project 10 Pan". At first I was mystified...what was this unknown challenge?! A casual Google later I discovered it was people putting themselves on a purchasing embargo until they had used up 10 items. Wow...how cool I thought. Then I went back to obsessively purchasing more lipglosses from MAC.

Recently it had been brought to my attention that my collection of products MAY have snowballed out of control. I refer the honourable reader to "part" of my make up collection that takes up half of my bedroom shelving:

yes..those plastic MUJI units are FULL of products too....

In addition to this I have an almost ridiculous amount of lipglosses and lipsticks spread across my assortment of handbags...in the spirit of honesty here is the cull from my Louis Vuitton Speedy alone:

yes I know...how many nudes....

And then there are the two full large baskets in my bathroom, the chest of drawers next to my bed full of nail varnish, the nail varnish in my fridge and the giant plastic cupboard of perfumes and body lotions...I am too embarrassed to photo these.. YES I AM AN ADDICT!

well...it seemed like the perfect motivation to do Project 10 Pan with a respected beauty blogger with far more experience than me but with what looked like an equal addiction to purchasing! 

I must say it took me a few days to do the full list of qualifiers for my Project 10 Pan. I ummed and ahhed over various items..mostly because I was ashamed of exactly how much stuff I have that I never use. At what point did I buy TWO Victoria's Secret body bronzers, both medium to deep, and not use either of them for example? But I am willing to own my addictions. So...drumroll...here is the photo of the final line up of products I am putting forward:

I am going to basically hide all my other products and leave these out all the time in an effort to push me to use up as many as possible...10 will be the bare minimum! Wish me luck!

So - has anyone out there successfully completed a Project 10 Pan or would you like to do it with us! feel free to join in or comment!

Until next time.....XO

SLEEK BLUSH PIXIE PINK

I was first alerted to Sleek Blushes by those talented ladies at @Pixiwoos. It was following a tutorial of Nic's that I purchased what has become one of my fave non MAC/NARS blushes: Sleek Rose Gold (aka "better than Nars Orgasm") 

 Sleek Rose Gold

So when I found myself craving a new brighter pink blusher (because MAC's Well Dressed, Pink Swoon, Stereo Rose, Dainty, Ladyblush and Lilicent etc etc etc clearly aren't enough pink for this girl) but not wanting to spend the earth I hightailed it over to Superdrug (with my new points card in hand) to check out Sleek's current wares.

And lo - I hit paydirt. Pixie Pink. Is it pink? Hells yeah. Check it out here in the pan

 Sleek Pixie Pink

alarmingly pink you might say? fear not here it is on my arm (heavy and lighter swatches) :

so - basically a pretty cool pink pink (yeah awesome use of descriptives there Nicola) which gives the perfect "O" glow flush when applied with a light hand, and works well even when I am more tanned. 

The packaging is usual Sleek - minimalist, hard wearing and compact. Perfect for the smallest Louis Vuitton clutch bag. Plus you get a lot of bang for your buck as this is 8g of highly pigmented product that lasts on the skin.

I cannot recommend this product highly enough at a mere  £4.20

Plus it has a cute name! SOLD!

What are your favourite budget Pink blushes? let me know

Until next time........XO