Of Love and Lipstick

Autumn is fast approaching, I believe September 22nd is the official seasonal change. I've decided to be proactive with my Autumnal makeup update. I went to my one stop makeup shop, aka the makeup heaven that is Tk Maxx, and they had just received a huge Illamasqua shipment. My reach into Illamsasqau has been quite limited, mainly their amazing nail varnishes, and I could not wait to get my hands on some new products.

Celebrate Body Lotion There has been such a cold snap hovering over Scotland right now, and my skin has certainly been feeling it. Celebrate has been helping a lot right now. It's not too strongly fragranced, but is super-moisturising.

Recently I have been trying out an at-home gel nails system, so I've not been playing around with my nails nearly as much as I used to. I removed my gel nails a couple of days ago, and thought I'd take a couple of day to try out new nail polishes.

My current favourite nail varnish. I've been using it to combat the winter blues, as such. The weather here, in my part of Scotland, has been dismal. Rain, Rain, Rain! The temperatures are getting so cold, I wonder sometimes if it is acceptable to just hibernate until spring. This colour acts as a little pick me up to keep me happy until the weather gets better.

One of the things I enjoy so muc h about blogging is trying new things. It helps me to see different products and find new favourites that I might otherwise overlook. Primer are one area of my collection that I feel has been severely unattended to in my collection; I have been quite comfortable with my favourites that I have stopped considering any others. I have only got silicone based primers in my makeup collection, such as Benefit Porefessional and bareMinerals Prime Time. I find that those types of primers are what work best of my skin as it have lots of enlarged pores. They give my skin a smoother finish, as well as helping my makeup to last a whole lot longer. I could say that silicone primers are my favourites, but how could I judge if they were the only ones I tried?  This led me to purchasing the Illamasqua Satin Primer during my recent order on their website. 

I was browsing the online sales on last week, picking up bits and bobs for my holiday, when I got bit by the 'makeup bug'. The only known cure is to splurge on products you don't need, but want to have. I would be the first to admit that I have a problem with regards to my shopping habit; although it makes me happy. If I hadn't 'stumbled' across the Illamasqua website and this lovely shade that's on my nails now.

I have had this little ditty in my possession for a couple of months now, and I love it so much that I just had to share it. It's become my everyday shade when I can't be bothered to make anymore effort than is actually necessary.

With a heatwave expected in Scotland this week, I though I'd take the chance to talk about some of my summer essentials that become my absolute staple products. 

One of the three Illamasqua polishes that I picked up at TK Maxx for crazy cheap; like £3.99 cheap. How could I possibly say no! It is a super gorgeous colour, both in the bottle and on the nails. It's a deep violet colour with a strong blue undertone to it. I wish that the photo showed the true colour; it appears far more blue than it actually is. It is so unique to any other polish I own as it has a rubber effect finish to it. It is almost matte but still has a very faint, subtle shine to it.

I  had such incredible luck at the weekend. I usually like to visit my local Tk Maxx at least once a month, just to check up on any bargains and such. For the past month though, I had been resisting the urge. Well, on Friday the call became too strong and I had a small pop in (small in that I never ventured farther than the beauty area). What I saw there shocked me to the very core of my beauty blogging being.