Urban Decay Gwen Stefani Lipstick and 24/7 Lip Liner in Rock Steady

Hello all!

I'm sure you've all seen the adverts and the hype, I was 100% not exempt from this and of course I had to buy more items from the Gwen Stefani range.
Me and M have both bought the palette, so you can read that review by clicking here.

This post is alllllllllll about the new lipstick and lip liner, I picked up the Rock Steady colour and it has not disappointed!

First of all let's just look at the packaging - not only is it both monochrome and metallics which are my absolute favourites but the geometric patterns are also beautiful!

I am not ashamed to say that I still have all of the boxes, although I will have to get rid of them soon!

Rock Steady is described as a 'deep wine red cream' which is pretty accurate. I turned up at the shop and had no idea which colour I was going to get, it was a busy Saturday and I had 10 minutes.....

I wouldn't say that this was a bad choice by any means, but going by my previous purchases I probably should have picked up a different colour! This basically means I already have my eye on Spiderweb and Wonderland, fingers crossed they will still have some when pay day comes around....and I can justify it.... ;)

Not only am I impressed with the packaging I also love the little details that go into making the products from Urban Decay, like the UD stamp on the lipstick bullet below, it's a nice touch!

The Rock Steady liner was just like all the other liners I have ever bought from UD - amazing pigmentation, super creamy and very easy to apply.

The photos below show my rushed application as soon as I had bought it, I couldn't wait any longer as I was too excited! The first photo shows just the liner:

The photos below show the lipstick, a deep wine red is certainly the correct description and I really like the finish on this lipstick. I think matte lipsticks have their place but the cream type are my favourite!

So what do you think?

Have you picked up anything from the Gwen Stefani range? Do you love UD as much as we do??

Fingers crossed I can pick up the others before they sell out!

L xxx

Things I've Learnt This Week

Hi!

After loving writing my quick posts of 'Things I've Learnt This Week' previously, I've decided to make it a regular feature (ish). Its a great easy way for me to communicate what I've been up to, what I've been trialling and what has interested me. Let me know if you like the new series or if you have any ideas how it could be made better, essentially i love lists and always have too much to say so it's a great way for me to tell you more about my extremely exciting life...!

1) Vice 3. Not much else is necessary to say but the strips either side of the palette have been PERFECTION for work make up. Nude colours in matte and shimmer, it's love.

I love the colours! So much fun to be had in future :)

2) Making big choices can be completely terrifying but can be the best choice you've ever made.
I was terrified to leave my job and give up the career that I'd worked so hard for. I'm lucky that I've found another job in a related field but in a completely different way and so far it has worked out for the best for me.

Sometimes I look back and can't believe how unhappy I was nor how i managed to get the strength to leave a job I'd worked for 8 years to get.
It's funny how things work out but I'm keeping everything crossed that this is all moving in the right direction and 2015 is going to be SUPER

3) Beauty Boxes never lose their appeal! Whichever one is in current favour with the blogging world, there is certainly one to tickle your fancy (ooh err!).

I recently snapped up these two - they really are like unwrapping presents to yourself;







I plan to do reviews on individual products rather than the boxes themselves as they are no longer available.

These were from Latest in Beauty and I can tell you that they have never disappointed me yet. Their Christmas ranges are even better too, £24.95 and there are three separate boxes available for almost every kind of female in your life! Perfect presents for hard to buy for people.

4) It doesn't matter what you're doing on the weekend; if the rugby is on and you're Welsh it's game over for everything else! I'm off to the Wales v Fiji match in the Millenium Stadium tomorrow - excited doesn't cover it! If you're Welsh, you're watching it and i love the family culture around it all. It's nothing like that with football and I much prefer feeling safe in a stadium! fingers crossed we can pull it out the bag this week for a successful family trip out.


5) Drawing spider diagrams and reading text books does not end when you finish uni. I thought it was just me but actually quite a lot of my friends also end up doing extra reading late into the night with a pad of A3 paper and coloured pens to go crazy with the annotations. Just shows you never really stop learning when you leave education!

6) I spent the weekend eating llama, horse, crocodile, ostrich, kangaroo and venison. It was lots of fun and whilst I did have some moral dilemmas I got over them to try new things; the end result was that I loved it all apart from kangaroo so at least I learnt something there!

What do you think of trying new foods? Would you try any of the meats that I did?


Let me know what you've been up to recently :)

L xxx

Christmas Shopping.....For Myself

Let's all be honest here, it's pretty damn hard to go shopping at any time of year without picking something up for yourself let alone at Christmas time.

I'm a very big fan of the 'one for you, two for me' mantra and as I missed out on an advent calendar of any kind (not jealous at all....) I have seemingly bought myself a product for each day instead....now who's winning eh?!

Here's a quick photo montage of things I've picked up, what deals were on, whee you can get them and how much you need it!






The Latest in Beauty box - The Glamour Beauty Edit.

This was £14.95 from here (plus p&p) and worth every penny. With £65 of goodies in this box not only is it a bargain but a lovely gift and if I bought for friends I'd definitely get one as a Secret Santa gift!

They're limited number I think but still available when writing this post :)





Lancome mascara set from Boots was snapped up in a triple points offer as I'm yet to try a premium beauty mascara and thought a set was the perfect opportunity!

The Mane and Tail Conditioner for human and horse hair was a surprise find in Liberty when I went to London (see posts here and here). I've heard a lot and couldn't resist picking it up, it's a yellow colour and smells pretty good all for £7!







I went on a nail spree too....oops!
The Maybelline Color Show Brocades were a random buy but they're so glittery I couldn't resist them on 3 for 2 as well.

Essie are one of my favourite nail brands and their Luxeffects collection hasn't escaped my notice. The pink was bought individually but the blue and silver glitter were bought in a set. Guaranteed a post will be up soon!





Lastly I had a bit of a spree in Origins. The above 2 pictures show products bought at the same time; in John Lewis they had 15% off to match Debenhams prices and luckily for me still had a Morning to Midnight set of Ginzing related goodies for me to try out! At £34 I really couldn't leave it behind after one of the products retailing at £35 so it was super savvy to pick it up at 15% off.

I also picked up their Sensory Therapy in Peace of Mind because my mum uses it for her headaches and I've found it works amazing on me too. This is normally £13 but I got it for just over £10 which for me is much better than taking tablets for headache as I get them regularly with stress.

As I bought 2 products I also received a free goody set which was another reason for going there. They always seem to have deals on at Christmas where you can receive a few products in trial size to test out and this was so cute!





I picked the Best Brighteners as I really want to try the skin illuminating cleanser.

Not only that, my last item was also my final item in my Boots triple points internet order (along with the Lancome mascaras) and was the Merry Moisturisers set.

I'm a huge fan of the Make A Difference range and I know I will use all of the products in this bundle. For £29 from Boots (currently half price) where the moisturiser is normally around £34 you cannot go wrong!

I've definitely overspent this year.........my own present buying has been a little off the charts but let's be honest its only Christmas once a year!

I cannot resist the bargains and have gathered myself a whopping £15ish in Boots points from the triple points and 500 points vouchers. I didn't need most of the products but I'm now in the frame of mind where I will use everything up and I've been getting through my stash quite well recently so fingers crossed I haven't overindulged too much....


Only time and my bank balance/credit card bill will tell!


What have you been buying yourself recently? Have you been snapping up bargains in the Christmas sales?

I can't believe there's this many bargains BEFORE the Boxing Day sales, think I'll have to give my mum instructions to hold me back when that time comes......

L xxx

March Freebies 2! Glamour and Percy & Reed

I tend to buy magazine depending on what they have free with them. L did a post on Marie Claire's monthly freebie that can be found here.

I was instantly draw to this months glamour after seeing it came with a hair mask. I use hair masks  all the time. I have very fine hair that gets damaged easily so I try to use masks weekly on my hair. I will be doing a post on these soon. Which masks do you use?