Urban Decay Naked Ultra Nourishing Lipgloss in Beso

Evening all!

Sorry for the late post. The weekend and today have just rushed by. I've literally just got home after the gym. I definitely have the fitness bug at the moment so I'm trying to push myself as much as possible while it's still here. 

Hope you all had great weekends!

A few weeks ago L and I went to a showcase for Urban Decay and we were lucky to have these in our goodie bags. Over the last year I've been loving a glossier lip and have been trying to find lip glosses I like. Lately I've been wearing my hair up more so I've been wearing more and more lip glosses so I couldn't wait to try these.

I was instantly drawn to the packaging. How gorgeous is it. I love that it matches the Naked 2 palette and how sleek it looks. The colour at the bottom makes it easy to see what colour it is if you have more than one. It's also stayed scratch few even when it's thrown about in my bag.

When we were swatching away I was instantly drawn to Beso. It's such a gorgeous soft plummy colour and very much a 'me' shade. When I found out that Beso meant kiss in Spanish I loved it even more.

The Urban Decay Naked lip glosses are nourishing on the lips and contain vitamin E, Avocado Oil and Shea butter to keep lips in great condition.

It has a slightly longer applicator so it makes it really easy to apply.

I love that the lip gloss isn't sticky, as nothing puts me off more than when my lips stick together. With the Naked lip glosses they provide a soft wash of colour, high shine, moisture and make my lips look plumper.

Beso has been a firm favourite since I got it. I love it on it's own for a simple daily gloss look or pairing it over dark lipsticks for a bold lip!

I also got liar. I've not worn this one as much as I'm loving Beso more!

Liar is a softer pink shade and nearer my natural lip colour.

I'm a big fan of the texture of the glosses and love how conditioned my lips feel. They are great for everyday wear or for wearing over lipsticks. I do wish the colours were slightly more pigmented as I am a fan of a bold lip.

Have you tried the Naked glosses?

Love M

xxx

Urban Decay Naked Flushed Palette

Hello everyone!

Hope your weekend is shaping up exactly like you wanted!

We've got a review today of a lovely palette from guess who..............well it's obvious really isn't it!
Urban Decay are the palette Kings and Queens and nothing that they've brought out has been even slightly disappointing; we all know about the Naked eyeshadow palettes and a little while ago they brought out the Naked Flushed* palette.

I'm sure you've seen it before as it as been a big hit but just incase you haven't lets just marvel at the beauty of the palette and the packaging.

The box fits in nicely with the Naked packaging theme and the palette itself looks exactly the same as the outer box. It has raised gold lettering on it and it looks simple but effective, which is pretty much how all of the Naked products seem to be.

Inside you can see the three products side by side and there is even a mirror in the lid which is HUGE and I absolutely love this. I have a pet hate with mirrors being so tiny inside palettes when they could fill it, such as this one (this includes the original Naked palette, i hate that it has such a tiny strip inside it!)

Swiped with my fingers you can clearly see how pigmented the powders are, L-R we have the blusher, highlighter and bronzer.

I've been using them daily for the last few weeks and I have to say I do quite like it. The bronzer looked a little orange in the palette to me but on my face it does a good job of contouring my face and making it look like it's got a bit of life and shape about it. I find it hard to go to wrong with it too which is great for my 6am rush!

The highlighter is something I love also, its not as glaringly obvious as MAC's MSF in soft and gentle and its not as gold either. It's very flattering, not at all glittery and you could get away with wearing this day in, day out without fearing of someone thinking your glittering like a disco ball at a serious 9am board meeting. It's very subtle and I often apply it to my cheek bones during the week let alone for a Saturday night out!

The blusher was initially something I struggled with as I must be used to being heavy handed. It is SO pigmented that on my super pale skin I found it hard to control and sometimes looked a little clown ish because I'd put too much on. After I'd rectified this problem and only applied to tiniest bit I can confirm that I had the perfect 'flush' and now I'm using so little I can definitely see that this palette will last me a long time.

I've looked at it from afar many times when walking through my local Debenhams with envious eyes as I've wanted to get my hands on it for a long time! I can say it doesn't disappoint and will be coming on many trips with me in future. The sturdy packaging and three in one palette means its perfect for weekends away and carrying around with you.

Urban Decay...........you've done it again!


L xxx

Hey all

Hope you are having a great weekend! I'm just off to my kickboxing fitness class before pizza and beer with Jenny!

I love all of the Naked Palettes and I love that urban decay are extending on from naked eyeshadows and creating a whole naked line that is so wearable.

I love the idea of having a bronzer, blush and highlighter all in one palette. This has been in my gym make up bag and handbag for the past few weeks. It's so much easier than carrying three products around.

The packaging is practical. Plastic means it's not going to get scratched, dented or broken. I love the huge mirror! I's been great for doing my make up on the bus!

I thought I'd show the product on as some of the colours can look scary in the pan and swatched, as with other urban decay products they offer amazing pigmentation.



Here is my skin with just foundation and powder.



The bronzer colour did concern me in the pan. It does look orange toned but on the skin it offers amazing pigmentation and gives a great contour. You only need the lightest touch. I love how it defines my cheek bones and I always swipe a bit in temples.



If you've read the blog for a while you'll know I'm the biggest fan of Benefit Dandelion. I wear it all the time. It's the softest pink. Lately I've wanted more colour and found Dandelion can be a bit pale. The blush has been perfect for these days. It adds a gorgeous rosy natural glow to the cheeks.



As L said the highlighter is much softer than Soft and Gentle which is a favourite of ours. I love that this is easier to wear for day to day. I'm someone who contours and highlights most days. I find my face can be a bit flat otherwise. (on my eyes is Naked 3! It's a beaut!)

I love how well the three colours go together and how easy they are to wear!

Urban decay are also bringing out the Naked Flushed palette in other colours so keep your eyes peeled for those! It's totally acceptable to own two flushed palettes right as I want the light one too!





This shows off the contour when blended is subtle. At first it looks scary but when blush is applied it gives a soft contour!

Love M

xxx

L'Oreal Skin Perfection 3 in 1 Purifying Micellar Solution

Hello chaps!

Pinch punch first of the month and all that! I'm especially perky this morning knowing I am one step closer to my birthday as it's now my birthday month hooray! I have no plans as of yet so not sure why I'm so excited but it does mean the possibility of presents is close and I've been such a good girl this year....haaaaaaaa.


Anyway onto more important matters: panda eyes.

Nobody likes a human with black rings around their entire eyes, they need to stay with the pandas.
I'm a big fan of the No7 Eye make up remover especially when they have the £5 off vouchers and you can pick it up for a STEAL at £3.

But sometimes.........I'm that lazy that shaking up the oil and water solutions is just too much.

This was when I realised that hastily using up all of my mini Bioderma bottles was not quite such a savvy idea and I knew that, not being able to afford Bioderma at the mo, I needed to find a cheaper alternative and fast.

I'd heard multiple things about this L'oreal Micellar Solution and also of a Garnier one but as this was the first one I saw in Boots it was hastily added to my basket.

It's got quite simple packaging and although its simple it is what I prefer. Perfume bottles can be snazzy and displayed on a desk....make up remover is not quite in the same category!

This claims to be a 3 in 1 product whereby it removes make up, tones and soothes skin all in one swipe of product. It contains no alcohol or perfume and is hypo allergneic so props to L'Oreal for getting all of that sorted.

You can use it as a general make up remover or a toner and apply it using cotton wool pads onto the skin and wiping away the excess. I personally like to remove my make up with a face wipe, cleanse my face, and then remove the final traces of eye make up with this product.

I find that's the least harsh way to get all of the mascara and liner away from my sensitive eyes without scrubbing away at them and making it worse, and also it does remove make up from my lashes which seem to hold onto product for DAYS. Not a good look girls!

As I said the snap top is nice and handy, easy to dispense and actually does stop product from flying everywhere when you knock it off your dressing table (as I do most days).

I've been pretty impressed with the product since I bought it and use it most days to remove eye make up. After a night out I've also used it on a heavily stained red lip and it worked pretty well on that too.

I do still like the No7 oil/water eye make up remover but this has also won a place in my cupboards. I've used this to quickly clean eye make up brushes in between applications too which is always handy, especially with eye liners which you shouldn't leave to dry....

This retails at £4.99 from Boots and is currently on their 3 for 2 hair/skin/body/cosmetics etc etc deal which sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me! Get shopping ladies!

L xxx

Fitness Fridays: Top Tips for Changing your Diet into a Lifestyle (1)

Hello!

A different type of post for today's 'fitness friday' theme. You can see the other posts I've written with this theme so far on this link.

Sometimes when talking to other people about losing weight, eating healthily and trying to get fit there are a lot of things we set ourselves that make it completely unrealistic to achieve which means you fail and more often than not end up going back to square one or worse.

Over the last few years I've slowly changed my diet and lifestyle which is how I believe I've been successful in losing some weight, getting fitter and maintaining it. So I thought today's post might be helpful to list a few things that I've found have made a huge difference and you could maybe try adding a different one each week or try something that you haven't before to try and make a difference.
I'm no fitness coach or nutritionist but I've found these have helped me, and maybe they'll help you too. I've split this up so there's 5 this week and 5 next week so it's not like reading an essay!

1) Never skip breakfast. This is my biggest hate, when people moan they're not losing weight when in reality their body is in slow mode because they didn't kick start it in the morning. Eat a banana if that's the only thing you can do but I'm a person that hates breakfast and I manage to eat it every morning at 6am so no excuses that there's not enough time in the mornings! Make time!
You have to train yourself but start with a piece of fruit and add in a yogurt or toast until you can eat a decent sized breakfast. This won't make you put on weight (as long as its decent food) but will kickstart your metabolism in the morning for the rest of the day.

2) Try and resist a snack in the evenings. The last thing you want to do is be really good all day and then ruin it by attacking the ice cream, crisps or chocolate at 9pm when you've got minimal chance of burning it off so it will be stored as fat. If you've been to the gym late and are having your meal late then that's fair enough, or if you are genuinely hungry try and eat some greek yogurt or something with nutritional value rather than going straight to the sweet cupboard. If you've got a sweet tooth try having a hot chocolate instead, Options do one for 42 calories per cup. Or if in doubt, clean your teeth, it will help to take the taste of sweet foods away.

3) Emotional eating - we've all been there, long hard day at work, stuck in traffic, plans are cancelled because of bad weather and you just feel crappy so you go straight to the cookie jar.
I read a quote once that was something along the lines of 'do not reward yourself with food, you are not a dog'.
I'm pretty sure we all understand that quote, filling yourself with stodgy carbs and high fat will only make you feel worse health wise and you'll feel guilty which will probably mean that you'll also decide to give up and 'try again on Monday'. Diets do not only start on Monday's, appreciate the day has been a useless one and start again in the morning, that's why there is more than one day in the week.

4) Change one meal at a time - by this I mean change breakfast or start eating breakfast, swap your crisps for fruit, chips for vegetables. If you vow to change your diet overnight it will NEVER happen. Give yourself some time to change everything and it will become habit. Change one meal or snack each week and don't forget to have a cheat meal every week so you can have a bit of what you really want without ruining your efforts.

5) Sleep! Apparently a study has shown (cannot find the source sorry) that most repair happens between 10 and 12 midnight so to maximise your body's repair you need to be asleep at this time. Not sure how true that is but we all know that 8 hours a night is the optimum time for sleeping, no longer or you'll feel sluggish and no less or you won't have recovered from the day before. I have to be up early for work anyway so an early night is usually a standard thing, but even if you're in bed earlier relaxing then that's a start.

Hopefully some of these tips will help you, I will be continuing this post next week with the second 5 tips that I've found helpful.

What would your number one tip be for changing a diet into a lifestyle? Are you a breakfast lover or skipper?

L xxx