Best Christmas Present Ever: Mulberry Bayswater

I can't believe I'm typing this, but for Christmas this year my sister and I got a Mulberry Bayswater!! On Christmas morning (7am to be exact), my Mum & Dad told us they had gotten us an extra special present as we had both graduated form Uni this year. We sat on the couch and closed our eyes while my Mum went to get the presents, we had no idea what it could be. We felt a massive weight on our knees and as soon as we opened our eyes and saw the 'Mulberry' logo we started screaming and hugging eachother before we had even opened the bag! Inside were two amazing Bayswater's, I got the Oak and Rebekah got the Black.

I think I've been asking for this bag every birthday/Christmas since I was 16, it was my dream bag and I never, ever thought I'd own one. The Bayswater is Mulberry's most iconic bag, it's such a timeless style and colour so i'll be able to use it forever! It features a Postman's lock closure and has two internal slip pockets and an internal zip pocket as you can see in the photos above. The interior is lined with gorgeous suede and as soon as you open it, you can smell the amazing leather. It also has belted sides that can be adjusted to give it more room inside.

This is the most amazing item I have ever owned, thank you so much Mum and Dad!! The last photo is of me and my sister wearing our Christmas jumpers and holding our gorgeous new bags, definitely my favourite.
Hope everyone had an amazing Christmas and got spoiled!

Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas everyone! I can't believe it's Christmas Eve already, this years flew in. I thought I'd share some photos of some of the Christmas decorations I have around my house. Tonight I'm spending the night with my mum and sister having a pamper and a wee glass of bubbly. We've got our rollers in, Christmas Eve pyjamas on (we get new ones every Christmas Eve, its tradition) and we're watching loads of Christmas films. I'm painting my toes with my gorgeous Rimmel precious stones nail polish and sticking on my amazing Santa fake nails Fantastic, Fun, Fashion sent me! I'm so excited for tomorrow, especially my dinner. I hope everyone has an amazing day tomorrow and Santa's good to you all!

New Year's Eve Dresses

Since everyone's probably got their Christmas dresses sorted, I thought I'd do a post on some of my favourite picks for New Years Eve. I chose dresses for every budget and that will flatter all different shapes, so there should be something for everyone.

• French Connection - While browsing the French Connection website, I came across this gorgeous gold bodycon dress - very Herve Leger! The stretch-knit sculpts the body and shows off your curves. It's such a festive colour and it's in the sale!

• River Island - I've actually tried this dress on in the store and I loved it! A maxi dress always makes such a statement at a party and the gold detail gives it more of an edge. I also think £45 is a very reasonable price for a River Island dress.

• New Look - Nothing says NYE Party like some sparkle. This embellished dress is perfect for the party season and is such a bargain at £30. Wear your hair up to show off that gorgeous decolletage - don't forget to add some highlighter to your collar bones!

• Miss Selfridge - You can never go wrong with an LBD. The prom style is so flattering and the feathers and sequins add a little something special to it. A bit on the pricey side, but its worth it!

• Topshop - If you're not sure of what style to go for, lace is so classic and elegant. Add a berry lip and you'll be good to go!

I hope this has given you some ideas, I think my favourite has to be the Miss Selfridge feather prom dress. Have you found your perfect New Year's Eve dress yet?

Festive Makeup Look

Sorry I haven't been blogging as much as I usually do, I've not had much time recently. Since I've got a day off today I decided to do a post on a festive makeup look that's perfect for any parties you've got over Christmas and New Year. I decided to go for sparkly, smoky eyes and a classic red lip - such a festive combo!

Products I used:

Face

Giorgio Armani Lumious Silk Foundation

Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer

Rimmel Stay Matte Powder

Chanel Tan De Soleil

NARS Orgasm Blush

Dior Amber Diamond

Eyes

Benefit Brow Zings

Chanel Illusion D'Ombre - Illusoire 

MAC Silver Pigment

MAC Carbon

Barry M Silver Glitter Dust

Maybelline Gel Liner

MAC Feline Kohl Liner

Benefit They're Real! Mascara

Eylure 140 False Lashes

Lips

MAC Lip Liner Brick

MAC Russian Red Lipstick

I hope you like the look I created! What makeup will you be wearing over the party season?

The Christmas Tag

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I've seen this tag on a couple of blogs recently and have really enjoyed reading them. Since I'm not feeling very Christmassy at the moment, I thought i'd do it to get me in the mood!

1. What is your favourite thing about Christmas?
My favourite thing about Christmas is Christmas day, all my family get together and go to my Gran and Grampa's for dinner. It's so nice having all the family together at once, there's usually about 14 of us all round the table!

2. What is your favourite makeup look for the festive season?
I love the usual bright red lips at Christmas time, its so festive! However, recently I tried a smoky eye makeup look Tanya Burr did a tutorial on using MAC's Club and Cranberry eye shadows and I absolutely loved it, its my new favourite! You can watch the tutorial here.

3. Real or fake tree?
This year we have a fake tree, but we've had a real tree before and I prefer them because they're more traditional. The only downside is that they're a bit of a pain when all the needles fall everywhere!

4. Giving or receiving presents?
Giving! I love Christmas shopping for my family and friends and seeing how excited they get when they open their gifts. Receiving gifts isn't too bad either though ;)

5. Do you open your presents in the morning or evening?
I open presents from my mum, dad & sister in the morning and I usually get dragged out of bed at 7am because my mum's so excited!! Then later on, after dinner we open presents from the rest of the family when we're all together.

6. Handmade or bought Christmas cards?
 I'm not really a fan of cards, but homemade ones are much more thoughtful. I'm so bad - I don't give out Christmas cards to anyone!

7. What is your favourite Christmas film?
Since I was a wee girl my favourite Christmas film has always been Miracle on 34th Street, I still think that's the real Santa in it.

8. What is your favourite Christmas food?
There's so many Christmas food's I like! I love anything that has brie and cranberry on it and on Christmas Day my Grampa makes an amazing paté that I love eating with Cranberry sauce. Ok, I'd say Cranberry sauce is my favourite Christmas food!

I tag everyone! If you do/have done this tag please link me it below :)

How To: My Weekend Hair

A few people have been asking me how I do my hair for a night out and if I could do a blog post on it, so I've finally decided to do it. It was quite hard to show you in photos but if there's any questions just ask in the comments - it's actually really simple!

What I use:

• Velcro rollers
• Clip in hair extensions
• Dust it/Plumping Powder
• GHD straighteners 
• Denman backcombing brush
• Volumising Hairspray

Step 1: I start by sectioning my hair and putting in velcro rollers and if I have time I'll put them all over my head but if I'm in a rush I'll just put them at my crown to add volume. I then heat them up with the hair dryer and spray in some hairspray to set it. I usually do my makeup and things while my rollers are in then take them out about an hour (ish) later.

Step 2: Once I take my rollers out, I start clipping in my extensions. I have 10 pieces so I just start from the bottom and clip 2 in each layer of hair. My hair is only a couple of inches shorter than my extensions and I mainly use them to add thickness to it as it's quite thin.

Step 3: Once my extensions are in I curl them using my GHD straighteners. You can also use curling tongs but I feel like my curls last longer using straighteners, they tend to fall out if I use tongs. My extensions are usually still curly from the last time so sometimes I don't need to do much to them.

Step 4: Once my hair is all curled, I like to add some Osis Dust It or TRESemme Plumping Powder to my crown as it helps give my hair volume and also helps the backcombing stay in.

Step 5: I use my Denman backcombing brush (which is amazing) to backcomb my hair at the crown in sections. I then smooth my hair over the top of the backcombing to hide the birds nest!! 

Step 6: I finish off my hair with loads of hairspray to hold it in place then use my hands to mess it up a bit.

So there you go, that's how I do my hair when I'm going out and as you can see it's actually really easy. Hope this post helped the girls that asked how I do my hair :)

Rimmel Precious Stones: Diamond Dust

Today I decided to play about with my Mum's DSLR she uses for work and also her Christmas decorations (she's definitely going to notice I touched the tree) and do a pretty, Christmassy post.

At Christmas time my favourite nail polish to wear is definitely glitter, its so festive! I have so many glitter nail polishes in my collection but could never seem to find one that was opaque enough to wear on it's own, until I discovered the Rimmel Precious Stones collection.

Precious Stones comes in two colours; Diamond Dust and Ruby Crush. I decided to go for Diamond Dust as I think it would go with more outfits during the party season. Rimmel describes this as a 'high coverage glitter nail polish' and I definitely agree it has high coverage. I only needed two coats for it to become completely opaque - amazing! I usually use glitter polish as a top coat as it takes so many layers to build it up, but this has really surprised me. It dries to a matte finish which doesn't bother me as I always put a shiny top coat over my nail polish anyway.

Precious Stones is a bargain at £3.99 and can be bought in Boots or Superdrug. It's definitely my new favourite glitter polish and I'll be picking up Ruby Crush asap.

Have you tried these nail polishes?

Weekend Face: Before & After

I wasn't sure if I was brave enough to do this post but I thought I would suck it up and show you what I look like before (so bad) and after I do my makeup for a night out - excuse the rollers!! In the first photo I've got no makeup or fake tan on at all, then there's the after photo which shows you how much a little bit a lot of makeup can transform you.

Face

St Moriz Dark Tan

Armani Luminous Silk Foundation

Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer

Chanel Tan De Soleil (Universal Bronzer)

Rimmel Stay Matte Powder

NARS Orgasm Blush

Dior Amber Diamond Highlighter

Eyes

Benefit Brow Zings

Urban Decay Primer Potion

MAC Club Shadow

MAC Cranberry Shadow

MUA Heaven & Earth Palette

MAC Feline Kohl Liner 

Benefit They're Real! Mascara

Eylure 140 Lashes

Lips

MAC Angel

So there you go, it takes a lot of makeup for me to look decent for a night out, but it's totally worth it!! I had two Christmas nights out this weekend so I thought I'd also share some photos...

                                      Dress: Topshop                                        Dress: New Look
                                      Belt: New Look                                       Shoes: Kurt Geiger
                                      Shoes: New Look                                    Jewellery: Oasis

Hope everyone had a good weekend!

My Top 5 Favourite Makeup Brushes

I have 17 different makeup brushes that I use and I love them all, but I thought I'd narrow it down to my top 5 and tell you why they're my favourites...

1. Blush - The Real Techniques Blush brush is so soft and amazing for applying my bronzer and blusher. The tapered end is perfect for contouring with my bronzer as well as applying blusher to the apples of my cheeks. Sometimes I even use it to top up my powder on my T-Zone as it's easier to carry around than the Powder brush. It also picks up just the right amount of product.

2. Buffing - The Real Techniques Buffing Brush comes in the Core Collection set. I also have the Expert Face Brush and the Stippling Brush but this is definitely my favourite for applying my liquid foundation even though it's meant for cream/powder. Out of all 3 of the brushes, this one leaves me with the most flawless finish with good coverage. I do sometimes use the others but this is the one I reach for the most to create the perfect base.

3. Contour - The Contour brush is also part of the Real Techniques Core Collection. As you can see the RT Brushes are definitely my favourite. I use this brush for applying my powder highlighter to my cheekbones, brow bones and sometimes down the center of my nose. I usually find it hard to find the right size of brush to apply my highligher but this is perfect. Oh and all RT Brushes are synthetic which makes them really easy to wash.

4. Blending - I bought this eye shadow blending brush when I was studying Makeup Artistry in college and I don't remember where I got it from at all, it was definitely a website that my tutor recommended though. I love this for blending out my shadow when I'm doing a smokey eye, it's horrible when you see people with a harsh line. I've had it for years and it's stayed in such good condition. I definitely recommend investing in a good quality blending brush as it helps create a gorgeous smokey eye. I don't know what I'd do without this!

5. Angled - This angled brush came in my brush kit when I worked for New CID Cosmetics. I use this to apply my Benefit Brow Zings powder. You do get a similar one with Brow Zings but the handle's really short, this one is much easier to hold and because it's angled, it's so easy to get the right shape when filling in my brows.

So that's my 5 favourite makeup brushes, what are your favourites?

What's On My Bedside Table

I saw this post on p0larmilk (go check out Rebecca's blog, it's great) earlier and thought it was a really interesting and different post to do. As I said, I'm struggling to take photos of products late at night due to lack of light, but I think these ones look good with the camera flash.

Right now this is what's on my bedside table, although it's usually much messier than this with a few empty crisp packets or makeup covered cotton pads. I love having a candle lit in my room at night, it helps me relax after being at work and this one has an apple scent so it makes my whole room smell nice. I also have flowers which is rare for me but I love having them in my room, they're so pretty and a lovely touch.

I like to have a moisturiser and lip butter close to me, especially now that it's winter and my skin is getting drier. Right now I'm loving Nivea! I'm using the Caramel Cream lip butter - it smells amazing and the Pure & Natural moisturiser. I actually only picked this up because I couldn't afford my usual Clarins Daily Energiser but it seems to be doing the job just as well and I have no complaints. I apply them both before I go to sleep so it's handy to have them on my beside.

I also always have a magazine or book on it for some bed time reading and two of my favourite magazines are Elle and Grazia. I love that Grazia is more of a high end weekly and Elle is just my all time favourite, I have a huge collection of them.

You've probably spotted my Harry Potter Slytherin mug too. I'm obsessed with Harry Potter (I know, such a geek) and I've always got this mug on my bedside filled with either Tea or Coffee depending on the time of day.

What do you think of this post? I think everyone should do it, I'd love to read them.

The Beauty Blogger Tag

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I've been struggling to write posts lately because I haven't had time to take photographs so I saw this Tag on Sarah's blog and thought it was a really interesting and fun tag to do - here it goes...

Why did you start blogging and how long have you been blogging for?

I've only been blogging since April and decided to start after coming across the beauty blogging world on twitter. I'm a Makeup Artist and love everything to do with beauty so I wanted to start a blog to share my thoughts and findings with people who felt the same way as me.

Whose blog did you fall in love with first?

Belles Boutique - I came across Laura's blog while on twitter one day, completely fell in love with it and started reading it daily. She definitely inspired me to start my own and I'm still a regular reader!

Most important part about doing a blog post?

The most important part for me is getting perfect photographs. If I can't get my photos just the way I want them then I won't continue to write the post until I get them right. Spelling and grammar is also pretty important, but blurry/out of focus photographs are one thing that puts me off a blog.


What kind of camera do you use?

I don't use anything special, I just use a Hitachi HDC-I409EP. I really want a DSLR but I can't afford it so I just make the most of my little digital camera. I make sure to use natural light and no flash for my photographs and also use white paper/card as a background to make them nice and bright.

What was the first blogosphere hyped product you bought and was it worth the hype?

I'd say it has to be a Revlon Lip Butter. Not long after I started blogging these were popping up everywhere with great reviews so I had to pick one up. To be honest, it was not worth the hype to me! At first I loved it but after a while it melted and began to snap and looked pretty messy, every time I tried to use it it would get everywhere. This happened with both the lip butters I bought so it put me off them and I've not used them since.

What are your 5 favourite things about blogging and being a beauty blogger?

1. All the lovely blogger friends I've made and speak to every day, it's great to talk to people who understand my addiction with beauty products.
2. It looks great on the 'Hobbies' section of my CV because before I blogged I never really had anything interesting to write in that section apart from 'socialising'. I also think it gives me an edge when going for an interview and definitely think it helped me get my new job.
3. My makeup collection is bigger and better than ever now because I like to keep up with all the beauty hypes and trends.
4. When people tell me they read my blog and that they've found products they love because of my reviews - sometimes I still can't believe people actually read my blog.
5. Discovering products and brands that I would never have came across before.

Have you changed anything since becoming a beauty blogger?

My skincare routine is much better now that I've started blogging, I cleanse, tone and moisturise twice daily now and take much better care of my skin. I also take more risks with my makeup - before I'd never wear a dark berry lip but these days I don't feel right without my lipstick on.


What advice would you give to a blogger just starting out?

It takes hard work, time and dedication to make your blog successful and if you stick it out, it will definitely happen. Also have fun with it, it shouldn't be a chore. 

You're favourite eyeshadow palette?

Right now it's the MUA Heaven & Earth palette which is great for every day and for nights out. I really want the Urban Decay Naked palette's though.

The best beauty deal?

When Boots has it's 3 for 2 on - I just love it!

Make up regrets?

When I was about 14/15 my makeup was terrible. Glitter eye liner, eyebrows not filled in and gallons of clear lipgloss - yuck!


Name your top 5 beauty brands?

1. MAC
2. NARS
3. Rimmel
4. Benefit
5. Chanel

Recommend your top 5 beauty products?

1. Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream
2. NARS Laguna Bronzer
3. Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer
4. MAC Angel Lipstick
5. Dior Show Mascara

I tag all of you!!