Naked 2

Morning all

Hope you all had a great weekend. Mine didn't go to plan with illness still hanging around but it turned out to be a great one. Sometimes lazy ones catching up with people are needed. I spent Friday night at the cinema (if you get a chance go see the Monuments Men. It was awesome!) Then after a lazy morning I finally tried to get over my mixing sweet and savoury foods and tried maple bacon pancakes on Saturday morning (mainly as it's a new food to cross off my list!) I was converted. The first mouthful was weird then it was good!! Saturday evening was spent with my housemate having a girlie evening and Sunday was a blogging, gym, coffee with friends and uni work! 

Anyway onto today's post. When I went to America 18 months ago I picked myself up Naked 2. After telling myself for months it wasn't needed and MUA was just as good and the price wasn't worth it. When I caved I realised how wrong I was! I've debated for a while whether or not to post about. It's been mentioned in posts but I've never reviewed it. But after recently picking up Naked 3 I decided to share my thoughts on Naked 2.

Since I got it 18 months ago I think it's probably been used 5 out 7 days every week. I've hit pan on 3 shadows and 4 others have sizeable dents! It's such an easy palette to use for everyday or for going out.

Firstly packaging. It's beautiful. The metal casing has lasted pretty well. This goes everywhere with me whenever I go away and apart from it few scrathes it's lasting really well. It comes with a great double ended brush that has a blending and shadow brush (which I also use as a liner brush!). The brush is super soft and doesn't shed and is still going strong.

For me there was no contest between Naked and Naked 2. I'm definitely a Naked 2 girl. I think the tones in Naked are too warm for me. Although there are a few I would love.

For a while I was drawn to bootycall and tease and would wear them everyday as they were so easy to wear without having to think. After hitting pan on bootycall I made myself use other colours. I really like foxy now and it creates the perfect base. With my blue eyes I love to wear bronzes and golds as it brings out the blue in them. So half bakes blended out with busted has been a firm favourite too.

The quality of the shadows are amazing. Some do give slight fall out but nothing major. I love the palette contains a matte black. For me this is an essential shadow. I always need a matte black in my collection and this is one with an amazing pigmentation.

Tease is the ultimate crease colour, the perfect matte mid brown. I would be lost without this shadow. It's got so much use. It blends out easily and has a good pigmentation.

YDK is a gorgeous shimmer colour. I love this lately for lazy day make up. I sweep this over the lid and under the lower lashes add mascara and my eyes are done.

When we went to the UD showcase we were shown Eden primer. I used to swear by using UD primer potion everyday but I got lazy. Eden is absolutely amazing and after being reminded the difference it makes I have to start using it again.

From L-R without primer then with Tease, YDK, Half Baked, Blackout.

Here is a post using it to make a gold make up look.

and here is my go to look using tease in the crease.

Now I just need to start using some of the middle colours more. Do you have any of the Naked palettes? I now have Naked 3. The sparkle made me by it!

Love M

xxx

Urban Decay Product Showcase

Morning lovelies!

Hope you're not feeling too delicate this morning, I went out Friday night and came home at 5am and was feeling less than perky yesterday so today is going to be 100% productive!

Starting the day off were writing about our trip into Cardiff Debenhams the other evening where we met the lovely girls at the Urban Decay counter for a few hours of make up chat, playing with products and generally having a fun time. There were only 6 of us there at the meeting which was lovely as although we'd met the majority of the other bloggers (Georgina, Nina and Helen) it was great to meet Shelley too and get to know everyone a little better.

The main focus of the events was Naked 3 which I'm sure all of you have seen and heard about over the past few weeks and it is obviously a gorgeous must have palette for everyone due to its super flattering rose gold shades. However we were also there to check out the new Naked lip glosses, the Naked Skin foundations and loose powder as well as their BB cream, B6 spray and so many others!

It was like a sleepover party with all of your friends bringing their make up around, my hand was covered in swatches and I managed to get it all over me in an attempt to try everything...oops!

The Naked lipglosses were a big hit with both of us, the packaging is gorgeous with the cut out design and the range of colours is pretty good. My favourite one was Streak purely because I'm a coral girl at heart but I can honestly say that every colour is wearable and beautiful! Some are more shimmery than others, some have more colour than others and some are just beautifully nude. M's was Beso which she has already mentioned in a post. She's more of a plum/dark lip colours.

I'm sure you'll be seeing posts from us when we've been using them a lot more as they're so versatile and have so many good ingredients and effects that they warrant their own post!

What I love is when brands make things completely unique, and on a beautiful stand at the corner of the counter was a selection of cupcakes each called a different shade of the Naked lipglosses and I ended up with Walk of Shame....were they trying to say something? Haha. The icing was amazing and if I hadn't have been going for tapas for a friend's birthday I'd have taken home another!

It was great fun to play around with the products and M had her brows done by the lovely Haddie (isn't her blue hair amazing?!). It was lovely to see all of the kits as I'd never seen the brow box before nor the Naked Skin loose powder and I'm fast becoming a loose powder fan!

One of the items I couldn't wait to have a go of was Naked Flushed. I know its been out for a while but I still hadn't had chance to have a go with it and I can certainly tell you it's a beautiful palette!
I often stay at friends and travel at the mo and carrying a bronzer, blusher and highlighter separately can be a pain but this is all in one and perfect for any occasion. The blusher and bronzer are so pigmented you need a tiny amount and the highlighter has been so finely milled that its like a veil on your skin, lots of love for it!

Also on hand were the new Naked pencils, each matching a palette and they're all double ended which is a really great idea. Using their brushes was also a really good opportunity as although I've tried the eyeshadow brushes in the palettes I'd never tried the Optical blurring brush which I've heard so much about and its gorgeous!

Unfortunately as the time our goodie bags were stuck on a palette inside a lorry so we had to go back to collect them the day after. But who cares about the wait the goodie bag was so unbelievably generous that we're both still a bit shocked at the contents!

We were super lucky and we're given 6 full sized products including 2 Naked lipglosses, a Revolution lipstick, 24/7 Glide on Lip Pencil, Naked Flushed palette and their B6 Complexion Prep Spray. Totally overwhelmed!

We both also picked up a few goodies on the night; M bought herself Naked 3 and I bought the 24/7 blending brush and the Naked Basics eye pencil and have been loving the results with them.

I'm sure you'll see posts from both of us in the future with reviews on all the products. We cannot believe how generous they were to us and how much fun the evening was too. Knowing that Ud products are so amazing anyway (we now own 7 of their palettes between us including the whole Naked family) we will guaranteed be back for some more in the future!

Do you love UD? Have you picked up anything from the Naked range? Which is your favourite palette?

Thanks so much to Haddie and Ffion for a wonderful evening, it was a pleasure to meet you both and you've given us some great tips and tricks!

L and M xxx

Fast Face

Hello loves!

I'm sure we've all been there, that moment in the mornings when you're waking up from a dreamy sleep and suddenly BAM you realise that you've got exactly 10 minutes before you have to leave the house.

Ugh those mornings are a terror!

I'm one of those people that has to get up and leave ridiculously early for work every day as I have an hour's drive to work in the morning so most of the time I've made my lunch, set up my breakfast and laid out my clothes ready the night before. For this I have been thankful so many times!

During the dreaded mornings that I conveniently fall back to sleep after my alarm has gone off I admit I do grab a face wipe and slap on whatever moisturiser my hands can reach and that's it for skincare.

As far as make up goes I'm a speedy one for work as it is but here are my top products for a 'fast face'

1) Vichy Dermablend - one of my faves that I've just had to repurchase after panicking about my other foundations just not doing the job.

This blends perfectly with a buffing brush to give flawless skin whatever condition it's in and its my fail safe.

2) Stick concealer - Currently using Revlon's Photoready concealer. Super blendable and easy to just drawn on your face wherever you need it and its so creamy and hydrating. Undereye bags and spots be gone!

I just blend it in with an Expert Face brush and I'm done in 10 seconds.

3) Rimmel Match Perfection Loose Powder - I have the oily T-zone that brings about shine on a daily basis so I always need to set my face regardless of how late I am. A quick swirl of this and I'm good to go.

4) HD Brow Kit - I cannot deal without brows but when in a rush it can be a problem. I use the same brush every day for my brows so its pretty much pre-loaded with product and i just have to run the brush through to make sure that any loose powder isn't colouring them. Any specific shaping is normally missed but if anything this part is what takes me the longest out of my whole face, sharpie brows or wonky brows are a no no!

5) Bourjois Bronzing Powder - Also using a pre-loaded Kabuki brush I apply this to attempt some sculpting of my face. (I do wash my brushes regularly FYI but they do get a little loaded sometimes). This bronzer cannot be overdone on my face so its super easy to slap on and blend in seconds!

6) Mascara - This changes quite often as I'm a germ phobe when it comes to eyes and am very OCD about throwing my mascaras out pronto. Currently using Rimmel Scandaleyes for work as its super easy to use, doesn't clump and coats and separates my lashes easy peasy.

I couldn't quite make it into a 5 minute / 5 product face as others have but I'm pretty sure an extra one won't make too much of a difference!

Do you have many of those dreaded late mornings? What would your face essentials be?

I'll be honest I'm much more likely to slap on some eyeshadow quick to define my eyes and step on it at 80mph to get to work.....but that's probably not an appropriate suggestion for keeping your life in tact is it!

You should definitely forgo the make up and drive within the limits....

L xxx

Fitness Fridays: Protein Balls

Morning lovelies!

It's a horrible dreary grey and rainy day as I type this and I don't know about you but it always makes me want to eat.
I'm really having to curb the snacking on my week off as being at home means I can eat whenever which is different to working in a lab where no food and drink is allowed!

I've been wanting to try some recipes for a while and took the opportunity to try this one, which i think was from Pinterest. It's not really a recipe as such as there weren't any amounts, but it was fun to do all the same.

You need 2 bananas and a whole pile of oats for this. I underestimated the amount of oats needed so basically just bring the bag/container that you keep them in!

You will need to peel and then mash up the bananas in a bowl first, this looks a lot like baby food and I felt like I'd fast forwarded my life by 5/10 years, lets not go there yet eh?!

After this you add the oats until the mixture can be formed into balls. I've no idea how much I needed in the end as I kept needing to add more, the bananas are quite moist fruits aren't they!

At this point, because I knew i wanted to try multiple flavours I separated the mixture into another bowl so I could add some chocolate protein powder to one half.

This resulted in the above photo. Having added chocolate protein powder to one bowl (about 1.5 scoops) and a few spoons of peanut butter to the other half, I then added oats until the mixture would stay when I scooped some into a ball.

These need to go into the oven at 350 degrees for 10/15 mins, so they need to be firm enough to stay in a shape but not too firm so that they dry out. This was my big mistake with the chocolate ones!

I kept adding oats until I thought the consistency was correct but must have added too many, they formed perfect ball shapes to go into the oven but took 5 minutes to go hard and now a day later taste very powdery and you need a large quantity of water to rehydrate yourself! They still taste nice though...

I was quite proud that even I managed to conquer the '2 spoon' technique in getting them to be as round as possible. Some are quite squashed and weird looking but let's just let that go.

The chocolate ones came out looking as above and whilst still warm they were chocolate, gooey and warming, which is a far cry from what they're like now but there we go. Notes for next time; oats slowly increase in size and therefore you don't actually need as many. Don't rush!

The peanut ones are on the right below, they took a lot longer in the over (~20mins) and taste considerably better. I think this is highly likely to do with me not adding as many oats and the butter being a different consistency to the powder. They're definitely the tasty brothers of this particular batch and as a result have been eaten already (most of them whilst warm...who am I to miss out on warm peanutty goodness!)

These were super quick and a lot of fun to make. I feel like I've actually baked cakes and yet all I did was mash fruit and roll it into a ball shape.

There's so many flavours you can try with this, as well as nut butters and the gorgeous chocolate spread, you could add any flavour protein for a hit after the gym, dessicated coconut and fruit and nut or chocolate chips for a treat. I would definitely make these again, I'd be interested to see how long the shelf life is and they lasted 2 days in my house before they were all eaten.

It would be handy if I could make them on weekends for the week and save myself buying bars but I've no idea if this will happen as on Sunday's I'm normally hungover in bed or slogging it out running round a park! Extreme!

What do you think of this super easy recipe? Will you be trying them out?

There's so many flavour options...what would you choose?

If you ran out of original Valentines ideas and your other half is a gym addict, you can always whip these up last minute for a surprise, I'm sure it will make them smile. I mean what gym addict wouldn't want protein filled chocolate balls on their Friday night?!

L xxx