Lush Spa Cardiff: Christmas 2017

Hey All

As you've probably guessed by now if you're regular readers of the blog we love Lush, (here is our lush tag to check out past Lush posts!) so when we got invited to see the Lush Christmas range of course we headed to the store to try out the new bits!

Life Lately

Hey All

Sorry for the lack of posts. I've recently moved house so I'm without internet. That will be changing on Saturday. Can't wait to have it back sorted. I've also managed to catch a cold so feeling a little under the weather. I've got so many posts I've been wanting to write but I thought I'd just do a little catch up post!!

On Monday it was one of my brothers birthday's so I popped home for the evening to see him and catch up. I also made him a cake as I'm now out of shared accommodation I have room for all of my baking stuff. It didn't turn out exactly how I wanted but it wasn't too bad!

L and I have been lucky enough to head to a few events the last week so we will be sharing some bits from these next week. First up we went to see the new products Dior have released for Christmas and then off to Lush. I couldn't resist some purchasing from both places and I've definitely discovered a few amazing new bits!

As I've just moved in with C we're enjoying making our new place feel homely. We've got most bits from Ikea or TK maxx. I still need to grab a few bits. These are the pots we got for the bathroom. I love the colour and look of these and they were a TK maxx bargain. One was £3 and one was £4. An even better but was the fact they are candles so I lit the candles every night till they were gone and then cleaned the jars. Candle pots are so pretty when I couldn't find what I wanted in the bathroom section I thought I'd check there!

 

Now I'm in a new place I'm hoping I can get a pet. I just need to convince C I should get one. This little guy won me over and even convinced C we can go and look together!

After resisting the urge to dye my hair for two months I couldn't wait to get some colour back on it. I really do love my hair purple but it always disappoints me how quickly it fades out. I need to decide what to do with it next. I think I need something more low maintenance for now.

I also had a great whirlwind weekend in London catching up with some of my closest friends from back home. We opted for London so we could see our amazing friend in Mamma Mia. He's sky in it at the moment. The show is awesome and it was amazing to see him on the big stage again!

L, C and I all headed out for Halloween. He was lucky to get stuck with us for the night ;). We originally got tickets for the Splott Warehouse Halloween party but after queueing for over an hour to get in, being squished in the process then being totally disappointed when we got in (you had to then enter a massive queue to get tokens to then queue again to get drinks!!), spending the night queueing in ridiculous queues didn't appeal to us so we headed into town and ended up having an awesome night!

I'm now counting down till C gets back from his latest work trip! The house does feel strange without him there but I'm hoping to change the colour scheme in our bedroom whilst he's away to make it pretty! ha!

It's been a crazy busy few weeks and with Christmas fast approaching it's not slowing down! I'm so excited for Christmas this year though and luckily I'm off to Copenhagen for new year. If you have any travel tips let me know :).

Love M

xxx

Halloween Inspo Day of the Dead

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L, C and I are off to a Halloween Party on Saturday (you can see some of our previous halloween looks here and here) we've not been out for Halloween the last two years so decided it was time. The theme of the party is Day of the Dead. There are so many amazing tutorials for it that I couldn't wait to play. I ordered the Snazaroo Face Paints Ultimate Party Pack from Amazon and you can still get it in time for halloween. This one had a great set of colours and glitter in it so I was sold!

I saw lots of great tutorials so decided to just get stuck in and see what happened! I started with a white base all over. I used a mixture of a sponge and a brush to get as opaque a base as possible. I then set it with a barry m dazzle dust to give it a slightly shimmery finish. I started on the eyes but from looking at the photos I definitely did them too bit so would thin them at the sides and not go above the brows. I'd also like to get big gems around the eyes for the petals. I lined the eyes with black paint and a thin brush then coloured them in. I think I'd probably do the eyes all black and just colour around the edge next time. For the lips I just did the lines as think this looked better.

I like the web on the forehead and hopefully would have more room for it by making the eyes smaller and add a little spider. I contoured the cheeks and face using a black shadow to add depth. I'd be tempted to do this with a colour for halloween and maybe add a flower to the chin and some more swirls. As a practice I'm happy with it though. 

For an outfit I've decided to do a full length dress and corset. I'm probably going to whiten and contour my chest and get some contacts too but happy with my practice!

Are you out for Halloween this year? Have you done day of the dead before?

Love M

xxx

Harry Potter Studios: The Dark Arts Tour

Hey All

Last weekend L and I headed to catch up with uni friends for a Harry Potter themed weekend! Our friend is so crafty and had totally decked her house out and made an amazing Harry Potter Monopoly. As it was Dark Arts special we decided to head to the studios for another tour!

We'd all been before but there are so many things to notice I think every time you go you notice more things. We knew there would be extra things to see as on facebook there were some sneak peaks! We've been lucky enough to get special badges every time L and I have been!

The great hall is amazing and being able to walk through the same doors as all the cast have is amazing! It holds a crazy amount of double decker buses (I want to say 20+ I've forgotten the exact number!)

The hall was laid for the Halloween feast! Originally in the films real food was used but as the days went on resin food was used instead! It all looked so realistic!

There were death eaters around to have photos with! Of course we couldn't miss that opportunity!

The Horcruxes was one of the new exhibits! They were amazing to see. We all wanted the Ravenclaw Diadem!! It was so pretty!

The vanishing cabinet was amazing! The detail in all the set work really is unbelievable.

Imagine having had a part in making all of these, the books, the skulls, the random objects that probably came from an image in someone's head.

Borgin and Burke's was one of my favourite new additions for the Dark Arts exhibition, seeing all of the bits and bobs on display was so interesting

The Dementors were also hung up from the ceiling which was amazing to have them hanging around just like the real thing, very creepy.

Malfoy Manor was also there and was really good to see, the fire flickered in the background and all of the casts wigs and outfits were present on dummies which made the scene come to life.
The muggle teacher Charity Burbage was also hanging from the sky just like the scene at the manor with Voldemort and Nagini, who was also present on the table.

Another amazing thing was the case full of death eater masks, they were so detailed and unique to each person who had had their faces cast.

The death eater masks were beautiful! The detail to the was amazing! Everyone was different and cast from the actors face.

It was like an emotional rollercoaster looking at the new scenes. They even had real snakes for us to touch; the real snake they used for Nagini couldn't be shown as she was shedding her skin but they had some of the smaller ones for us instead which as just as good. The man was really informative and it was very interesting to hear about lots of the other animals he has for films.

Dolores Umbridge is arguably one of the most hated characters of the entire series; but obviously one of the most brilliant too. Her sugary pink sweetness goes way overboard into leaving you with a nasty after taste and her wardrobe and office match this overload!

I've seen pictures of Mary Berry sat here drinking tea from the celebrity opening of the exhibition; she suits it perfectly but in the complete opposite way.

One of my scariest but favourite moments was wandering through Diagon Alley which was totally different to normal. It was eerily quiet and the lights were dimmed; not to mention the terrifying Death Eaters who were wandering around too, look how scary they were!

Last time we went we didn't take photos outside, this time we had a little pose! It's great to have the cars and Privet Drive to have photos in! The night bus is also there which is amazing!

One thing we all loved is the books. Everything was thought about. All the currency was properly minted and you can buy the coins but after they started to disappear on set in later years plastic coins were used! In the books used on set one was written in Runes. Some made sense some didn't and it also had English in so Hermoine could read it. The staff are so knowledgeable and are on hand to give information!

This time we decided to treat ourselves to the butterbeer mugs!! We are both fans but it does get sickly, imagine caramel cream soda and it's similar to that!



We both went to the shop with huge lists but tried to be sensible. We both left with chocolate frogs and Hermione wand pens. L also snapped up a Gryffindor Quidditch Team Captain t-shirt too which has barely left her back since, perfect Sunday wear!


Have you been to the Harry Potter Studios? Will you be going to see the Dark Arts exhibition?
We are already planning our next trip to see it, we cannot get enough!

L xxx