MAKE UP REVOLUTION HAUL

Well, this post has taken a while to find itself on here but I've just been so distracted by Pretty Little Liars. I know I'm also late on watching that one too, which appears to be a common theme at the moment... hmm. Every evening when I sit down and watch PLL I think I'll get blogging too but I can't draw my eyes away - t's just too good! 

Anyway, onto something else very good. I placed this order a few weeks ago when Make up Revolution had an amazing offer on, which gave you loads of free products with your order and £10 off so I think I only paid just over £20 for all of the above. They actually have a free product similar offer on at the moment so I'm starting to think it's not so bad that this poor post has taken so long to get here. As a make up junkie/hoarder I'm always interested in more make up and especially when it's free! I wasn't expecting too much from the free products, as well they're free but the majority were actually really nice and one of the lipsticks has even made it into my hand bag and has become my go to quick and easy lip colour.  I think it's called 'Never be a Millionaire' and is a sheer beige nude colour. You also got another nude lipstick, a dark red lipstick/gloss which will be nice for winter (is that still a forbidden word atm)? and a pink duo lipstick and gloss. Two eye shadow palettes, one pigment, a primer and a few single eye shadows. It was exciting me enough opening up all of the freebies, so much so that I nearly forgot I had more stuff that I had actually chosen! 

Now onto the products that I actually ordered! When I placed my order it was right when the new contour palette was released so of course I had to buy that.  I only recently nearly caved and bought the Anastasia contour palette so I'm now so glad that I didn't. I had also been eyeing up the two Iconic Pro palettes as they appear to be very good dupes of the Lorac palettes which are just too hard to get in the UK. They are gorgeous and the brushes that come with them actually seem pretty good too. As if I didn't already have too many eye shadows, I also bought the Flawless Mattes palette  as you always need every matte neutral shade in your life. The last item that I ordered was The One Concealer which seems to be a dupe of one of the Benefit concealers that I've been wanting to try for ages. I also had my eye on some of the lipsticks, the concealer palette and some of the blushes but I thought I would behave myself and save those for another time. 

What are your must haves from Make up Revolution, that I can add to my list?

STEPPING OUT OF THE EVERYDAY NEUTRAL COMFORT ZONE

I'm sure I am not the only one who sees all of the new eye shadow releases and continually feels so certain that I just need each and everyone of them, so desperately that my eye lids are just crying out for them... okay a bit too much, but you get the point. I probably have every colour that I could ever need and want in some shape or form in my collection, so really I should be content. Lately I've been noticing that, not surprisingly I don't even get to make use of some of the more daring shades that I own. I stick to neutral browns, maybe the odd taupe 5 days out of the week for work and by the weekend I will either wear no make up or not much at all, still reaching for the very neutrals. I've been trying to use different shades that I don't normally reach for as much, that you can pull off as just a little more daring than neutral, but still don't look out of place for work. Coppering by MAC is one of my all time favourite shadows; I used to blend it with more orange/red shades like Rule and Red Brick by MAC and black shades for a heavier make up look but it also works really well blended with light browns to make it more everyday appropriate. Obviously for photo taking purposes, I have packed on a little more colour than I normally would for work but it's still not crazy. For work days I usually apply Coppering all over the lid and blend something like Texture or Wedge both from MAC into the crease. Any light brown shade would work. I would then usually put a little bit of the light brown shade along my lower lash line and add mascara. I really love the Coppering shades of eyeshadow as they look gorgeous on all eye colours and really make the eye pop, looking really bright and awake. I like to use shades like this or purples when I'm wearing something very plain, neutral or black as it just instantly makes you look more glam. This kind of shade is also great for wearing in the summer and the autumn months. 

Hope you're all having a great weekend so far!

BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION

Last week my boyfriend Jamie celebrated his 22nd birthday, so we decided to go out to dinner at one of our favourite restaurants. The restaurant is pretty much in the middle of nowhere, surrounded only by the countryside, so it's a really beautiful place. I decided to wear this teal colour dress from Forever 21, as it's an easy to wear nice dress, without being either too casual or too dressy. I wore my trusty Zara lace up heels with it. I seem to always wear these heels even though I have lots of others that probably deserve some adventures out too. 

For starters I had the soup, which turned out to be tomato and basil. I was kind of hoping it would be something more interesting but really you can't go wrong with tomato. Jamie had the mackerel pâté, which was really nice too. For the main meal we both had the same, which never normally happens. We both had the Chicken breast wrapped in streaky bacon, pommes Anna, spring greens, au lait jus - A fine example of a copy and paste job, where I would have no idea what any of that was if I hadn't have eaten it! Jamie had cheesecake for dessert, of which I managed to steal one raspberry off of. I'm not the biggest fan of desserts so decided to pass. All of the food on the menu sounded amazing and I did feel that I should have been a little more adventurous but I have had the chicken before and it's just like no other chicken (sorry Nandos)! Next time I think I will opt for something more daring! 

I decided to be a good blogger and attempt to photograph the meals, which was slightly awkward at first and Jamie didn't like the idea of having to wait until I had taken a decent-ish photo before eating. Considering how subtle and quick I was trying to be, it wasn't the worst first attempt!