Urban Decay Oz Palette: Theodora

I'm sure the world of bloggers own at least one Urban Decay palette (I own 4...) and the Oz palettes will be no exception.

When these bad boys came out I obviously needed one of them And by one I obviously meant both (!)



I was lucky enough to get the Theodora palette as one of my presents from my parents for my birthday.
I was massively excited and knew that I obviously needed to purchase the Glinda palette with my remaining birthday money to complete the collection.
A post on this will be coming up soon I can assure you!

The box contains the palette itself, a Super Saturated Lip Stick in the most beautiful red and also an instruction card which details how to create Theodora's face, played by the beautiful Mila Kunis.

Anything magical generally catches my eye, particularly all of these adaptations of childhood fairy tales.
I loved Hansel and Gretel, Alice in Wonderland and Snow White and the Huntsman!

I love the outer packaging for this, the dark and stormy colours with some celestial clouds look mystical and take me back to my childhood, who doesn't want to be a princess??
I love even more that theres a goody and baddy, a palette for all your moods and possible eye make up creations!

As for inside the palette:

There are a range of nude single colours and then two separate duo colours containing and black and a gold, and two varying sage green shades.
In the centre is also one of their 24/7 black pencil eyeliners which was a surprise for me as I only knew about the palette and lip pencil initially!

Here are the colours again in natural light. I do love the arrangement but part of me wonders why there isn't a space for the pencil too. It would be so much easier if you could carry them all together in one case and know that you have a look sorted if necessary.

You can see the palette and the corresponding names on the back of the original box in the above photo.

Names like Beware and Bewitch always make me want them more, they sound much more mysterious don't you think??



Having tried 'lip sticks' like the Revlon Just Bitten lip stains I was dubious about the pencil type lip stick but it actually is just that; lipstick in the shape of a pencil.

It's so soft and glides right onto lips with great colour pay off, it's really soft and moisturising too and I can see me getting a lot of wear from it.

You can see the colour when applied to my lips in the photo below. It's a great 'true' red and will suit all skin tones. You can easily draw the colour on using the pencil and the lipstick isn't hard on your skin at all like others are.

In fact the only issue I can find with this lip product is that it may even be too soft, as the pencil has in fact gone flat after a few uses and I'm a bit stumped as to how to get it back again. Sure, i could sharpen it.....but I'd have to buy a new one to accommodate its larger size and then I'm not sure it would sharpen well as it's so soft?! Dilemma!


So here are a few photos I've taken with my make up done using the Theodora palette on various occasions.
I've used the Super Saturated High Gloss Lip Color Theodora lipstick both times for the sake of continuity and all the eye shadows are from the Theodora palette!

The above three were completed using the duo eyeshadow called Jealous, along with Broken as a base and inner eye shade and West for the outer corner and crease.

The three pictures below all show the look created with Broken again as a base and inner eye colour, Beware and Bewitch as the main shades and West again in the crease:

I love how they're both so wearable and the red lip colour makes my teeth so white!

This is a great palette for those just starting out as the nudes and browns can be worn by anyone and the black/gold and green duo shadows are great ones to experiment with. They're staple colours in anyones make up wardrobe and i order you to buy this!

For £35 you get 6 shadows (8 really!), an eyeliner and a lip color making each item a bargainous £3.50.
They're also limited edition so don't miss out on these!

Which Urban Decay palette is your favourite?? Glinda will be coming up in a review soon!

L xxx

Real Techniques: 3 for 2!

I am super excited to share some personal news with you all....
Over the past 2/3 years I've been hunting for a job related to my degrees and have applied for around 300 in total which is quite peachy really (rage)
I am so unbelievably happy though because out of the blue I have finally got myself the most amazing job, its pretty decent pay and will give me all of the experience that I'm looking for to move forward for the future.

If I'm with them for a while they are also willing to pay for me to do a PhD which is almost unheard of in this current climate!
So I fully plan on celebrating this weekend with a few drinks, starting with Thursday night with M woop!

Anyway....back to the review :)



As always when a 3 for 2 deal is on in Boots I cannot resist picking up some new RT brushes as I'm sure most of you would do the same.

I have had my eye on the eye make up brush set for a while but haven't got round to getting it as I want to get the most of my money and can never find something that is the same value.

So to make up for this I picked up a shading brush, setting brush (one of M's favourites) and foundation brush.
No matter how many eye and face brushes I pick up I never seem to have enough!

I love that these brushes are colour coded depending on their function, it makes them so much easier to find in my fairly large make up bag, especially at 6.30am!

I tend to grab as many of the brushes as I can in the morning and attempt to lay them out in some sort of colour order and then i can see what I have to work with as I normally do it in 10 minutes so speed is key!

The shading brush is definitely a worthy purchase, I am always running low on eye brushes due to the fact I use so many different colour throughout the week and don't wash them until the weekends. This means that any light colours are normally overshadowed by the darker ones and as I have my favourite brushes don't rotate them anywhere near as much as I should!

The shading brush fits perfectly on my eye lid to cover it, fill in the crease and highlight at the inside of the eye. For evening looks it can be used to apply colour underneath too but I find this too heavy for day time normally.
It's super easy to use and a pleasure to paint my face on with, it makes blending easy and I'd quite happily buy a couple more of these!

The setting brush was suggested to me by M who absolutely raves about it. To be honest, initially I didn't see how it was much different from the contour brush which I already owned but now i can see how wrong I was!
This brush is so fluffy and soft and makes applying powder around your eyes and nose (particularly to set concealer) very easy and precise so it ensures your base stays on in all the right places.
I wouldn't say this brush was a necessity....purely because if you're patient enough you can use other brushes but to complete a collection it definitely has it's place and for the make up obsessed I'd get your hands on it!

Lastly the foundation brush was initially a massive disappointment.
I'd bought it to add to my collection of face brushes which as we all know get used up pretty fast and its such a chore to clean them regularly!

I had high hopes as I love the expert face and buffing brush.

Unfortunately this happened....

We all know that one of the best factors about Real Techniques brushes is the fact that they don't malt.One of my pet hates is applying my make up and having bits of hair all over my face from brushes.

They're annoying and almost always take forever to pick off your face and most often take off some make up too, so I was gutted when the hairs came out of the brush in clumps.

However after tweeting a picture of this to the Real Techniques account I was told to fill out their online form with details and the photo and within days a replacement had been sent to me.

I couldn't believe the outstanding customer service that they provided and not only did they replace the brush super fast, they emailed to let me know every step of the way and included a free kabuki brush as a way of an apology:

I couldn't believe how generous they were and although I sing their praises quite a bit, now they are so high up in my estimations that its going to take quite a lot to top them!!

I've been using the kabuki brush the past week or so and will do a separate post on this to do it justice!

What do you think of Real Techniques brushes? Which are your favourite?

Have you received some amazing customer service recently??

Gold stars all around for RT!!!

L xxx

OOTD Dogtooth Work Dress

Hey all it's hump day!! I have an exam tomorrow so I'm not all that happy to be half way through the week!!

Here is my second OOTD post. This is a work outfit. I'm very lucky in the fact I can wear what I like to work within reason. 

I'm trying not to overly wash my hair still. It seems in much better condition if I let it go three days. This does mean if I haven't gone swimming by the third day I tend to put it up. For that you can't beat a bun ring (I've done a tutorial on that here) I like to accessorise mine with Dainty Rose Glitter Bows (you can pick them up here) I've mentioned Dainty Roses lots on this blog. I have bought a lot from Lisa. 

On my lips I decided to wear Mac Angel. (review here). I've forgot about it a lot lately and want to start wearing it more again.

I love loading up bangles. L is much better at arranging them than me. They are so easy to wear and I like to load up on jewellery if I have a simple dress.

Rings are definitely my thing when it comes to jewellery. I have loads. I rarely leave the house without them. I love this one. It does tend to hurt my finger a bit after a while though. It looks go so it's worth it. A quick search on eBay found these which are similar. Two stacked up would give the effect.

I love these. I've wanted leopard print pumps for a while. I picked them up from Tesco last summer. They could do with replacing so I'm eyeing up these. I'm loving the bow on these.

I love to add a pop of colour to plain outfits and this two toned green double wrap belt is perfect for that. It adds shape too. I picked this up from ASOS a while a go. You can get a green skinny belt here for £5. It looks a similar colour.

The dress is form next and a favourite work dress of mine. I love the cowl neckline which makes it suitable for work. It's a great length too and I can ware it bare legged in summer. I also go to Next the day after the sale starts and stock up on work dresses. They tend to have a few I like and have great prints. 

They also fit great. I've mentioned a few times my curvy bottom half. It can make dress shopping hard, my waist is an 8 and my hips can be upto a 12. I find next dresses generally fit in an 8 and are more roomy on the bottom half.

Where do you go for work wear? Can you wear what you like?

Love M

xxx

Swansea Benefit Boutique

Last week I was Lucky enough to be invited to the opening of the Benefit Boutique in Swansea. Swansea Debenhams is the counter that sells the most products beating even Oxford Street so the opening of the Boutique came.

I was so excited to go. I've been lucky enough to meet some of the Benefit ladies before so couldn't wait to head down. The Boutique is situated within the Swansea Debenhams. On arrival we were greeted by Alyson and Joanne. We went through to the last room in the boutique. Everything is decorated all girly and pink. It's so cute all the way through and the attention to detail is great.

When we entered the make up room all the attention to detail was clear. The chairs had the Benefit ladies heads printed on, the walls had information about the founders (Jean and Jane) and the back wall had a great selection of Benefit Make up. There were even pink glittery welsh cakes!! YUM

The room can be hired out for 10pp for things like hen dos, birthday's or even girly catch ups. You then get the £10 redeemable against purchases so it's technically free and one of the great Swansea Benebabes will come and demonstrate the products and make up.

While there we got a tour of the waxing room and tanning room. The boutique offers two different types of waxing, the hot wax and the strip wax. Hot wax (the amazing blue coloured one, being demonstrated on Jenny from The Pulse Of Fashion, I'm in love with her trousers!!!) is used on the bikini and the strip wax everywhere else. Hot wax is more expensive but it's better for the bikini area. I loved the waxing area and was so impressed with Julie (expert waxer!!) that I've booked to go down in a few weeks.

They also offer spray tans using fake bake! This is in my top 3 fake tans. I love a good spray tan especially for nights out.

We  were also shown the new colour collection and allowed to play with it. There are some great colour lip glosses, hello an amazing coral one and new creaseless creams and eye shadows. The eyeshadows are £15.50 and are absolutely huge and the lip glosses are £14.50 and not sticky! The packaging for these are so cute!!

The colour range is so stunning with neutral colours and a few pastels thrown in. I'm loving always a bridesmaid ( a stunning lilac creaseless cream) and kiss me I'm tipsy (a beautiful brown longwear powder shadow). I will definitely be hinting for some of these for my birthday. 

We were also hinted at some of the new sets coming out. I will definitely be purchasing some of these I'm sure. I'm absolutely loving Benefit make up lately.

As we left we were lucky enough to be given Porefessional, BrowZings and They're Real. Thanks so much to the ladies, as L couldn't join me at the event and I know she is lusting after BrowZings and They're Real and I have both I donated those to her. I personally now love Porefessional but only find it works with certain foundations and due to how thick it is I try not to wear it too much.

Thanks so much for showing us round Alyson and Joanne. Hopefully see you soon.

Also Temptation Telephone ends tomorrow. Who else is dying to know what it is the ladies were sworn to secrecy and couldn't tell us anything.

And a quick FOTD from the Event. I'm wearing Mac Prolong Wear NW20 (review), Benefit Porefessional, Benefit Erase Paste (review), Naked 2 (foxy and tease), Benefit BrowZings (review), Collection Liqid Liner, Lancome Hypnose Doll Lashes, Benefit Dandelion Blush (review), Liz Earle Healthy Glow (review) and Avon Perfect Kiss Lipstick Racy Red (review).

Love M

xxx