Sinful Colors Haul

Hi Guys,

I hope you all had a good weekend. Mine was good, I didn't do anything on Saturday, just tried to recover from my illness, and then yesterday my Dad and I took my 6 year old brother and my son to the fair in town. Caleb had a great time and we got a waffle and two lots of ice cream!

Tonight I have a little haul to show you. Some of you may have noticed that Boots have started stocking Sinful Colors. They are a brand I have wanted to try for a while, so as soon as I caught wind of it, I made a list of ones I wanted and went to Boots to have a look, here's what I bought. They didn't have a lot of the ones I wanted, but they had some, and I picked up some extras that I liked the look of.

Here they are grouped into threes so you can see them better...

Pastels: Cinderella, Snow Me White, Easy Going

Cinderella is a princessy blue with pink shimmer, Snow Me White is my new favourite white creme, opaque in two coats, and Easy Going is a really wearable baby pink creme with a great formula! Tomorrow I'll be showing a nail art look featuring these three...

Pinks: 24/7, Daredevil, Forget Now

24/7 is a very bright neon pink with a touch of white in the base, it's not like Bubblegum from Models Own, it's a lot lighter. Daredevil is a bright pink with a magenta shimmer and Forget Now is a bright pink with pink (and the odd purple/blue) glass flecks. I can't comment on the formula because I haven't used them yet.

Purples and Vampy: Verbena, Winterberry and Rich in Heart

Verbena is a purple and it is slightly darker than a pastel, I have this on my toes right now and it's beautiful. Winterberry is a purple/grey with silver shimmer and Rich in Heart is a dark red shimmer, it strikes me as similar to Every Month is Oktoberfest by OPI, but I don't have that to compare!

So what do you think of my picks? Have you picked up any of these from Boots? 

And for all of my American readers, any Sinful Colors polishes that I should look out for? 

I picked up these at Boots for £1.99 each. I've heard that this could be just an introductory price, so I don't know how much they'll end up costing... I think they're only $1.99 in America, so I hope they don't end up being too much, I hate being ripped off here when I know things are cheaper in America, it drives me mental!

See you tomorrow!

MUA Pro-Base Complexion Kit in Ivory

Hi Guys,

I can't believe I'm managing my third post this week! You can tell I'm relaxing and not that busy... Literally I haven't left the house in two days! I have a really sore throat today believe it or not, and there was me thinking I could get through one trip to Holland without being ill! 

Tonight I have a MUA Complexion kit to show you. I love MUA, they're my favourite budget friendly makeup brands, and I usually buy from them if I want to try a new product.

This is the Pro-Base Complexion Kit in Ivory, which is the lightest colour.

Inside, you will find a large pan of foundation, and smaller ones of concealer and a pink toned highlighter, as well as a foundation sponge and a little brush. It has a mirror on the centre part of the lid, the bit that is covered by the silver card in the picture above, and that you can kind of see in the photo below.

Let me just take this time to mention the new white and silver packaging. I love it! At first I thought it looked a bit cheap compared to the black, but it has really grown on me, it looks quite high end to me, and it's nice to have a bit of white inside my makeup bag, because I feel like everything I own is black!

Here are the products swatched on my arm (not blended):

And here is how everything looked on my skin. I primed my skin first with the MUA Undress Your Skin Primer. Then I used the sponge to apply the foundation first, and then the concealer under my eyes and on the inside of my nose. Lastly I used the brush to apply some of the highlighter onto my tops of my cheekbones.

I'm not wearing any eye makeup here so the focus isn't taken off the skin! I hate myself without eyeliner!

As far as this product goes, I liked it. I didn't love it... The colour match was good for my skin even though the shade was Ivory, so I don't know how people with fair skin could use it. My skin is very pale, but olive, not rosy toned, so I think this could show up orange on fairer skin tones. 

The formulation of the foundation was nice, it went on smoothly, and it was a light/medium coverage that is buildable if you want it to be. The concealer was great for my red bits on the inside of my nose but didn't completely cover the grey bags under my eyes. 

As far as wear goes, by the end of the day most of the makeup was gone, but this is a cream to powder foundation, so I expected it. My skin leans more towards the dry side, so if I want to wear any kind of powdery product, I need to reapply it throughout the day.

All in all, this was a decent product. Not the best, but by no means the worst, and for £6, it's ideal to throw in your bag. It's nice if you don't want a heavy coverage (if we ever get a summer - this will be ideal) and the mirror in the lid makes it perfect for any touch ups during the day.

I bought this from my local Superdrug for £6, but you can also get it here on the MUA site for the same price. MUA have got a 3 for 2 running on their website at the moment, so you might want to check out their other products too!

Five Favourites: APRIL!

Hey Guys,

I am so delayed with this post, but around the start of this month was a super stressful time for me, and that's when I usually end up writing it...

I'm actually sat at my laptop now while Caleb is sleeping. I find that it's better for me to post during the day, bevause

1. Staying at my Mum's:

My Mum walking her dogs, they are mental, especially the one
on the left! No point her being on the lead, she won't leave my
Mum's side!

I spent the whole month of April staying at my Mum's house. Since I moved back up to Norfolk, I feel like I hardly see her anymore. It was nice to have a few weeks there, Caleb loves being there, and to spend some time together.

2. Hart of Dixie:

This month I decided to watch Hart of Dixie, and I am hooked! I downloaded every episode I could get and watched it all within a week, so I ended up catching up and having to watch one a week the old fashioned way! And then it finished last week, I can't wait for season three! For the record, I'm team Zade!

3. Family Visits:

I made these at Easter for all of my family...  Five giant ones for the adults and about
30 smaller ones for everyone, including the babies, Caleb loved them!

My little brother had his Easter holidays while I was at my Mum's and I hadn't seen him since Christmas, he's up in Manchester studying nursing so I don't see much of him. My older brother also came down for a few days with his fiancee and my nephew, so we were all together! I had to move out of the house and into a hotel because there weren't enough beds, but it was nice to have some space to myself for a couple of days.

4. Derren Brown:

So exciting!

For a long time I've been obsessed with Derren Brown! What he does just amazes me! Anyway, a while ago I bought tickets for my boyfriend and I was disappointed in the seats I could get. I had been stalking the site for months waiting for tickets to go on sale for Norwich, then I gave up. One day I decided to check again and they had gone on sale 10 days before! I got the best seats I could, but I wanted to be nearer the front. Anyway, we're going on June 12th and I'm really excited BUT... In April he released a bunch of new dates in London and I'm going again in July with my brother and...

WE GOT FRONT ROW! My brother loves Derren Brown too so it's going to be amazing. I don't mind going twice, plus it'll be a night out in London!

5. Getting Ready For Summer:

Walking at the beach at Stokes Bay

Towards the end of April the weather started to get a bit better. By better I mean about 20 degrees, but I'll take what I can get! It was nice to at least consider buying some summer clothes! Although I think I'm going to have to get a holiday in soon if I want to see the sun, I can't imagine we'll be getting a good summer in England this year!

This month was a little bit uneventful, but in a good way. Sometimes I have so much going on, travelling and everything, so it's nice to be in one place for a little while with not much happening, I got to have some family time and that was what I needed!

I'll be back on Thursday with a nails or beauty post, I haven't decided yet, I have a bunch of photos on my camera to look at first! So I'll see you then!

My Week In Pictures #3

Hi Guys,

So... This has been a bit of a break. And guess what? I'm in Holland! Recently it seems like I'm not in one place for more than two weeks and that means that blogging has been taking a back seat in favour of being less stressed and more stable! 

I thought that my first post after this break should be a My Week in Pictures post before I do last month's Five Favourites, so you guys know what I've been up to! So here we go! 

My Dad came and stayed for a week at my house with my littlest brother and his mum. It was pretty packed in my house with a hyper 6 and a half year old and a 19 month old competing for attention but it was nice to have everyone staying to keep me company!

We did a few things, like the Sealife Centre and shopping, and the weather was ok-ish, we had a couple of really nice days, and then we all came back over to Holland together.

As you probably know, I only passed my driving test in September, so it was kind of a big deal me driving all the way over here and on the other side of the road! I wasn't nervous though because I rode a moped for four years in Spain on the right, but as soon as I came out of the ferry port I nearly went straight onto the left!

Lovely hot weather, I was loving it!

My boyfriend FINALLY (after well over two years of
nagging) let me get a new Hoover. He had his last one since
before we met and it was heavy and the wheel kept coming
off... So hello Henry!

Being a passenger for the first time in ages! My Dad's car is a
left hand drive from Holland. It was nice to be driven for a change!

The Sealife Centre - I love this place, I need to go
to more aquariums... Bigger and better ones!

I finally made the investment - Estee Lauder Double
Wear in Ecru

Yuck, early morning getting up for Holland. I'm so not an
early morning person, we were meant to be leaving at 6:30 but
of course I was running half an hour late... 

Beautiful Dutch tulips!

This road symbolises Holland to me, I remember it from when I
was 14 visiting my Dad and seeing all the wind turbines on this road
going to a from the airport!

I leave the gloomy English weather to find this on my Dad's terrace
this morning, I hate rain... Typical!

So this is my Week in Pictures and what I've been up to! Tomorrow I should have my Five Favourites up for April, even though it was a bit of a meh month! And then after that I have some nails and makeup posts planned. And I have my camera to take pictures of things I might potentially buy here. I brought some polish with me to swatch if I have time, but if today is anything to go by, Caleb thinks that he should only have a half an hour nap instead of his usual two hours, so I probably won't have time! 

See you tomorrow!

Models Own Ice Neons: Luis Lemon

Hi Guys,

I can't believe how late it is. I've been so busy today! I went into town to print off some photos and came back with a load of Sinful Colors polishes. I'll be doing a haul post next week on those, I got some nice ones! I also sorted out all of the photos I needed for my son's record book and the little photo album we bought for him at Disneyland. I don't know what it is, but I feel so accomplished when I've organised photos! 

Anyway, tonight I have the last Models Own Ice Neon post of the series. I saved the best until last! To me, this is the showstopper of the collection, I just wish I could have captured it better in the photos!

Luis Lemon is a shockingly bright yellow. Literally the colour of a yellow highlighter. This is the polish that sold me the collection to be honest, when I think neons I think of yellow highlighters, they were my favourites at school, and so I couldn't wait to get this! This is a re-release, and one I wanted in the sale but it was sold out. I wanted all three neons that were re-released in the Ice Neon collection, so I'm so glad I have them. I know a lot of people were annoyed that the colours weren't new, but I was so pleased! 

I used one coat of Luis Lemon over a white base.

This was the brightest of the collection, the most neon, and I think that made it harder to capture on camera. In the pictures it looks like a classic lemon yellow, it was a lot brighter.

Natural light

Flash

This polish dries to a satin matte finish as you can see in the flash picture. It's so pretty and makes my hands look so tanned! I can't wait to wear it again when I actually have a tan!

So that's it, all my swatches of the Ice Neon collection. I must say this was not a disappointment. I love neons, my boyfriend isn't keen on them, but they're really summery so who cares! 

You can pick this up at selected Boots stores and online, as well as the Models Own website for £5.

Which one is your favourite?