The Balm Nude Tude Palette

Hey All

I’m a little bit late posting today but the last few weeks have been hectic. A night out on Saturday and a horrific hangover yesterday meant I’m only now feeling ok. This little beauty I couldn't help picking up on the plane on the way to Iceland. I ended up paying around £16 for it as there was a special deal for £5 off the already duty free price.

I’d heard so much about The Balm I couldn't wait to finally try some products myself. I’m still tempted by Mary Lou minizer but it’s gold appearance puts me off.

The nude tude palette comes with 12 different eyeshadows and they are just under a gram each so you get a decent amount of product.  There are a good variety of colours meaning you can use it for everyday where or to create a smokey eye. It comes with a brush and a primer. The primer I’m yet to try but I am a bit disappointed with the brush. I think quality wise I’m comparing it to the one’s you get in the urban decay palettes which is it nowhere near as good as.

The palette is in a firm cardboard coating and seems to be lasting well so far and has a large mirror so it’s perfect for the days I do my make up on the bus. It closes by a magnet which seems secure. I have the naughty version of the palette so it’s women with the eyeshadows covering parts. I love the cheekiness and the fun designs of The Balm products.

Sassy is a bright shimmery white. For me this will only ever be an inner corner shadow but for that it looks amazing.

Snobby is a soft gold shimmer. Perfect for all over the lid.

Stubborn is a slightly pink tone soft shimmer. This looks great all over the lid and comes out less pink on my skin tone than it appears in pan.

Stand-offish is one of my favourite colours in the palette. It’s a nude very shimmery colour. This looks great all over the lid.

Selfish is a shimmery taupe colour. This looks great for the out v for a light day time smokey eye.

Sultry is a warm matte brown. I love blending this through the crease but sometimes it can go too yellow when blended out.

Sophisticated is dark brown shimmer colour. I love this for in the outer V.

Seductive is a warmer  gold toned brown still with shimmer.

Sexy is a cranberry matte shade. This is one of my favourites and gets a lot of use. I love blending this through the outer edge of a defined crease to warm up a smokey eye. It blends really well.

Silly is a warm medium brown with a goldish shimmer.

Serious is a great matte black. In pan is has some gold glitter.

Sleek is a dark warm matte brown.

I found all the shadows really easy to work with and blend well. I always use a primer for my eyes but have show swatches with and without. The lighter colours haven’t shown up aswell without but do still on the eye better. Overall I’ve been really impressed with the quality of the products and they last all day.

Here’s some looks I’ve created using the palette. I love that you can make warm brown looks but there are colours for cooler looks too.

Here I have seductive all over the lid and silly blended through the outer V. I also have used sultry to define the cream prior to using seductive.

Here I have sexy and serious blended through the crease.

Have you use any of The Balm products?

Love M

xxx

Lush Mother's Day and Spring Event

Hi there!

Last Monday we were lucky enough to be invited to a Lush blogger event, we always love attending these as they're a fun way to get to know all of the products and play around with them, as well as meeting lots of other bloggers too as there is always a big group of us!

The store is always such a happy and colourful place, its a pleasure to visit.

The latest range of Spring and Mother's Day themed products are so beautiful - the golden eggs and the carrots are so adorable! Who isn't drawn to something so glittery as the Golden Egg??




L was massively surprised that she really loved the smell of the Carrot Soap, she would have happily taken home a whole carrot!

The Mother Superior bubble bars were also amazing - how do they make them look so cute with their faces!








We also loved the Instagram frame that they had in store, you just know we were loving this. It's such a great idea for us bloggers who spend so much time on social media!

We also spent some time trying out the new scents that Lush have created, it's so interesting to see how the smell changes on different peoples skin and reacts to create different smells.










We both picked up a few things from the store (as always!) but were lucky enough to come away with a few goodies too.

Yummy Mummy is a gorgeous lilac shower gel, Secret Garden is a super cute bath bomb with flowers in and Golden Egg is just the most gorgeous glittery egg that I can't take my eyes off!

M has already used Secret Garden and here are some quick snaps:

The colours are so pretty! The pink and green are beautiful, you can't go wrong with swirls like these.

Have you been stocking up on the new Spring products from Lush? Which one is your favourite?

L and M xxx

Bumble and Bumble Hairdresser's Invisible Oil Protective Primer

Hey there!

If you've read our recent post about the Smashbox, Ojon and Bumble and Bumble event in Boots then you will also know that we were really impressed with the products we were shown.

I've been working my way through my stash recently but I'd also been looking for a hair product, preferably a spray that could cover the requirements of a heat protector and also a leave in conditioner. Did such a thing exist? Well I found this little beauty on the shelf:

The Bumble and Bumble (Bb) Hairdresser's Invisible Oil Heat/UV Protective Primer was something that stood out to me from the shelf; the neon coral is one of my favourite colours and seeing as it was in a spray form I just couldn't resist!

There are 2 sizes of this product available in store,the 250ml bottle costs £19 and there was a smaller bottle available too. On line it shows up as a 60ml bottle costing £7 but I'm pretty sure in store there was a smaller size for a larger price - it's a little confusing!

The protective primer is sold as a sublime pre-styler for a total transformation of your hair.

The product is infused with six featherlight oils to soften, detangle, defrizz, tame flyaways, ease styling, and protect against breakage, heat and UV all in one go.

That's quite a claim really isn't it?

It's therefore claimed to be for people with dry, coarse or brittle hair - mine is definitely dry so I figured it would be worth a go for me!

You need to apply this to damp hair before styling, using the spray was super easy and it creates a mist rather than dumping a load of product onto your freshly washed hair. As I've mentioned many times on the blog I don't use many hair products aside from hairspray when I curl my hair, I don't find they work well with my hair and give much of a positive effect at all. Some oils have been ok, but can seem to coat my hair rather than actually penetrate it and do some good.

So far though, this one has been an anomaly!

Spraying this on my hair after washing and before drying is such a simple thing but it makes such a big difference. My hair feels so much smoother and in much better condition after only a week's worth of usage.

Even though it's just a spray I can't believe how different this product is from so many others I have tried before it. It's supposedly for dry, coarse or brittle hair. My hair is dry from being so long but it isn't generally coarse or brittle, and it can easily become greasy from applying products to it, no matter how 'lightweight' they claim to be.

This spray has genuinely had such a great effect on my hair that I would definitely consider trying out more products from Bb, I will certainly be making a wishlist in time for my birthday later this month!

Have you tried products from Bumble and bumble? What's your favourite?
Do you prefer spray type products or serums?


L xxx

Fitness Friday: Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Bars

Hi there!

I've been a bit more adventurous with food recently - not that I've been eating weird things but just trying to vary it a bit more than usual.
I've been doing well making eggs with veggies for breakfast and replacing usual carbs with quinoa and cauliflower rice, but snacking is something i need to work on.

I found this recipe on The Daily Hiit blog (link here) and after reading it i knew that I had to try it.

I'm by no means a baker - I am so much better at cooking meals and proper food, when it comes to cakes I am (luckily!) rubbish so don't generally bother.
This recipe however involves no baking whatsoever, its a freezer only type bake - winning.



Here's the main ingredients - almond milk, protein powder, almond meal, coconut oil and peanut butter.
For the topping you need coconut oil and chocolate chips - as well as some kind of chopped or flaked nuts for sprinkling on top.
(For amounts you can read the original recipe, i won't bore you with that!)





Melting the ingredients in a microwave took about 1.5 minutes with regular stirring. I'm always wary of using the microwave to melt things but this didn't seem to cause any issues.

Adding in the dried powders and mixing thoroughly gave a batter type mixture that easily filled the square tin. So far so good, no issues and nothing that i can do wrong:





Next you just have to melt the coconut oil and chocolate chips together to create a super glossy mixture that you just want to dunk marshmallows in!

Pour this on top and you might get something that looks like this:



The instructions then suggest 20 minutes in the freezer.....I would say mine needed more like 2 hours. Not sure why this was but at 20 minutes it was still very gooey like the image below, and after 2 hours it was much more like the bottom image and had set:

Small setting issues aside, these are 100% amazing - if I say so myself.

After I made them on a Sunday around 11am I ended up eating about 4 throughout the day....oops!

I wouldn't recommend it as I felt extremely sick afterwards but OMG you need to make these!!!

I think maybe I'd add a little more almond meal to the mixture next time and it would set better, but these taste so good I don't care that I'll have to eat them out of the fridge.

Do you make your own snacks and bars like these? Do you have any other similar recipes?

I really want to make some more snacks like these - cleaner than shop bought and even more tasty!

L xxx