New York Haul: My Gifts

First of all, this post is very picture heavy so I do apologise for that! Anyway...for the past week my Mum and Sister have been shopping til they drop in New York City while I was left here all alone looking after the pets (only joking, I'm going on holiday next week). They arrived home with their suitcases overflowing with almost the entire contents of the Victoria's Secret store among other goodies and lots of lovely gifts for me - I definitely got spoiled!

First of all from Victoria's Secret I got massive bottle of their perfume Bombshell. I've wanted this perfume for so long but never got round to buying it. It's such a fresh scent with a blend of purple passion fruit, Shangri-la peony and vanilla orchid with top notes of pineapple and strawberry - how amazing does that sound?! It's definitely a fragrance that I could wear daily as well as at night, not to mention the bottle is gorgeous. I also got one of the fragrance mists which I've seen quite a lot of recently in the blogging community, however we don't have a VS in Scotland so I'd never purchased one before. I got the scent Hello Darling which smells of white nectarine and peony, it's so light and fruity and I will definitely be packing this in my suitcase for my holiday. As cute little add-on's I got a fragrance atomizer that I can fill up with my perfume to carry around in my handbag and a gorgeous makeup bag.

From Bloomingdales they picked me up a Little Brown Case from my iPhone which I absolutely love and a Little Beauty Bag. I already have a Little Brown Cosmetics bag but it's a bit small to carry all of my makeup in for travelling, this one is the perfect size.

Now on to the beauty bits... before they even boarded the plane they picked up a few things in duty free as you do. For me they got one of the new Chanel Stylo Eyeshadows in Moon River which is a gorgeous gold shade. I swatched this on my hand and was so excited about it that I was quickly applying it to my lids  - this has to be the most gorgeous eye product that I own (bold statement)! It glides on so smoothly and has such good staying power (it took a cotton pad drenched in Bioderma to get it off). I will definitely be doing a full review on this. I opened my Sephora bag to find the REN Glycolactic Radiance Renewal Mask. If you follow me on Twitter, you will probably have seen me tweeting how much I wanted this mask (clearly my sister did) so I was so excited to receive this. Once I've used it a few times I'll let you know my thoughts on it but it's been hyped up in the blogging world recently. My sister also picked me up a lovely Essie polish in the shade Plumberry which I'm wearing on my nails right now, I love it.

Another few other little things I got were a DASH key ring, some M&M's from M&M World and an over-sized Central Perk t-shirt that I'll be wearing to bed and to lounge around the house.

Thank you so much Mum and Rebekah for bringing me back all these amazing gifts, I feel so lucky. I'm sure you'll see my sisters New York Haul over on her blog very soon!

Summer Haul

Bikinis: All H&M (Clockwise - Top & Bottoms both £3.99, Black Top & Bottoms both £3.99, Ombre Fringe Top £9.99 & Bottoms £7.99)

 Lace Crop Top: New Look £14.99

 Top/Dress: H&M £7.99 Playsuit: New Look £14.99

Clutch Bag: Primark £6, Earring: Primark £2.50, Necklace: Primark £4, Sunglasses: H&M £6.99

 Lauren Conrad Books: Amazon £4-£8

Essie Maximilian Strasse Her: Boots £7.99, Rimmel Wake Me Up Foundation: Boots £8.99

Recently I've picked up a few things for my Summer and for my holiday to Portugal so I thought I'd do a haul post. I'm going away two weeks on Wednesday and have almost got everything I need apart from toiletries (my favourite thing to shop for). The one thing I struggle with is packing lightly, especially when it comes to bikinis! Last year I went to Ibiza for a week and took 8 with me but this year I'm going to narrow it down to 4. I've bought three new bikinis this year and they're all from H&M which is my favourite place to shop for bikinis. They have such a big selection at really reasonable prices (even better that I get my staff discount), I absolutely love the green ombre fringe one that I've seen a few bloggers with which also comes in brown/orange.

I still have a lot of holiday clothes from last year but thought I'd pick up a few new things for night time. I love the lace crop top I picked up in New Look and can't wait to wear it with my high-waisted shorts. I also got a dress from H&M to wear with a gold belt and gladiator sandals and finally my favourite outfit for wearing on holiday - a playsuit. I always take at least 3 playsuits away with me because they're so easy to chuck on and dress up or down.

This year I've been really disappointed with the Summer clothes in Primark, I couldn't find anything that looked nice on and the rare pieces I did like weren't in my size. However, I did manage to get a few accessories and will probably go back for another look. My favourite is the clutch bag, I think it looks much more expensive that £6 and the laser cut out with the neon yellow underneath is gorgeous. I've also been wearing my H&M sunglasses ever day that the suns been out.

I've already got Lauren Conrad's Style book and the LA Candy trilogy so I decided to get the Beauty book and the first two books from The Fame Game trilogy. So far I've been loving reading all the tips in the Beauty book and have a post lined up of a Lauren Conrad inspired makeup look. I meant to save the two novels to read on holiday but I'm already half way through the second one - oops! I love a bit of chick-lit.

Ever since I bought the Rimmel Wake Me Up concealer, I've been dying to try the foundation. So far I'm really liking it but it's slightly too light for me and the darker shade was too pink for my skin. I'll do a full review on it soon. And finally, my most recent purchase Essie Maximilian Strasse Her. This polish is part of the Spring 2013 collection so I wanted to get my hands on it before it was sold out (I might have raked through the drawers below the stands in Boots to find it). It's a cool grey/green shade and I can see myself wearing it a lot this Summer.

So that's some things that I've bought recently and I'll definitely do a post on which skincare and makeup I'll be buying for my holiday. Hope everyone had a good weekend!

What I Got For Christmas

I know I'm a little bit late on doing this post but I've finally found some time! I've already done a post on my main Christmas present which was my Mulberry Bag but I thought I'd show you the other little bits and pieces I got.

Beauty

From my Mum and Dad I got a Phil Smith Blonde Bombshell set which will be great to keep my highlights looking nice and fresh, some dry shampoo and hairspray because I'm always running out, Dirty Works body scrub, a couple of cute little makeup bags to go in my handbag and a Korres plum lip butter. The lip butter was actually on my sisters wish list but I got one too and I'm loving it - will need to do a review on it soon!
My boyfriend got me NARS Laguna bronzer because before Christmas I had hit pan on mine and was moaning it was running out, he actually does listen to me. From my friend Emma I got a gorgeous pink NARS nail polish that I think I'll try out tonight. I also got some TIGI shampoo from my aunt that I can't wait to use.

Jewellery

My main present from my boyfriend was a Pandora bracelet with two charms, one from him and one from his Mum, which was a lovely surprise because I've always wanted one. My aunt got me some earrings and rings, my sister got me a cute little Oasis bracelet and my Mum and Dad got me Oasis earring too.

Books

So as well as my bracelet, bronzer and my trip to Edinburgh, my boyfriend also got me the Cheryl Cole book (spoiled). My Mum and Dad got me the rest of the 'I Heart' book series. I love I Heart New York, I've read it about four times so I'm excited to start reading the rest of them.

Clothes

My Mum got me a couple of tops from New Look, a wine coloured lace one and a black vest with crosses on it - I'm loving crosses at the moment! My sister got me a lovely gold peplum top which I wore on Christmas day.

So that's mostly all of the things I got for Christmas, I was so lucky and extremely spoiled! Have you done one of these posts? If you have please link them to me in the comments :) Hope everyone got spoiled this Christmas and here's to 2013!

Big Beauty Haul

I thought I'd do a post on all the beauty products I've picked up over the last few weeks. I'm not going to go into much detail on some of the products though as I'll be doing full reviews on them soon. As you can see I think I've got a slight shopping problem...

• Real Techniques Core Collection: I've already got a few of the Real Techniques brushes and absolutely love them but the Core Collection has been on my wishlist from the start, mainly because of the Buffing Brush! The set comes with four face brushes; Detailer Brush, Pointed Foundation Brush, Buffing Brush and Contour Brush. I'll be using the Detailer brush for my concealer and the Countour Brush for powder highlighter. I'm not too sure whether or not I'll use the Foundation Brush as I've already got the Stippling Brush and Expert Face Brush for my foundation, however I can't wait to use the Buffing Brush to apply my foundation as I've heard its a favourite and gives you the most flawless finish. Any tips on what to use the Pointed Foundation brush for? This set costs £21.99.

• Armani Luminous Silk Foundation 6,5: When a couple of my friends from my old work tried this foundation and gave it such an amazing review, I decided I needed it. I also heard Kim Kardashian uses it and her skin always looks amazing. When I went to my local Armani counter and asked for it the girl looked at me for about 5 seconds before suggesting I go for the shade 6,5. She tried a bit on my jaw line and it blended in perfectly. This really is the perfect colour for my skin so I was really impressed with how good the girl on the counter was as I don't usually trust them and like to pick my own shade. I've only used this a couple of times and love it so far, I'll be doing a full review on it soon. It is a bit pricey at £34 but I got my friends House of Fraser discount on it.

• Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer Medium 3: I buy a lot of products because my sister has them and has either used them on me or raved about how good they are and this is one of them. I find it hard to find a good concealer and don't usually go for a liquid but I love this. It brightens up my dark circles and hides any blemishes I have. It also lasts all day which is perfect for when I'm at work. It's also a bargain at £4.19.

• Rimmel Stay Matte Powder 001 Transparent: This is another product my sister uses on me and I've also seen Tanya Burr use it a lot in her video tutorials. I always powder my foundation once I've applied it (one thing that's stuck with me from my Makeup Artist training) as it helps it last longer and I tend to get shiny during the day. I was running out of my Chanel Universal translucent powder but couldn't afford to spend £30 on a powder right now so I decided to pick this up. I usually use a loose powder but surprisingly I'm really liking this pressed powder and it doesn't go cakey when I touch it up during the day. Also a bargain at £3.99

• Revlon Grow Luscious Plumping Mascara Blackest Black: Another product I'm not going to go into much detail with as I'll do a full review on it. My sister uses this mascara and I also seen a review of it on Kayleigh's blog. I always use up my mascaras so quickly and wanted to try something different as I usually always go for Dior Show or Benefit They're Real. I've not used it much yet but I'll let you know what I think when I do my review. It only cost £9.99 as well which is a bonus.

• Benefit Brow Zings Dark: I've used my sisters one of this for months now and always love my eyebrows when she's used this on me. My eyebrows are so sparse with no shape if I don't fill them in and I'm such a fan of bold, statement brows so I thought it was about time to buy one of these for myself. Brow Zings costs £22.50 and I'll also be doing a full review on it soon.

• Rimmel Scandaleyes Kohl Eye Pencil 005 Nude:  I've seen this liner on a few beauty blogs recently and decided to pick one up when Boots 3 for 2 was on.  I use this on my waterline and it really brightens up my eyes, especially when I haven't had much sleep. 

• MAC Kohl Eye Pencil Feline: I've always got a black kohl liner in my makeup bag and usually reach for Rimmel Jet Black, but yet again my sister used this product on me and it lasted all night! I love finishing off a smokey eye with a kohl liner and this one's perfect, I can't wait to use it tonight. It's a bit pricey for an eyeliner, it costs around £15 but it's totally worth it. 

• MAC Lipstick Pink Nouveau and Creme D'Nude: I've now purchased my 11th and 12th MAC lipsticks and was thinking about what colours are missing from my collection. I didn't have a light pink or a true nude so decided to go with both of these. These are great everyday colours that can be worn all year round and Creme D'Nude will look great with a dark smokey eye on a night out, I love dark eyes and nude lips! These cost £14 each.

As you can see I've spent far too much money on beauty products lately but I just can't help myself. I think I need to go on a beauty spending ban!