Of Love and Lipstick

There are only a few more days until I'm back home in Disney World! I've been super slacking on all my packing and getting my stuff organised. This was supposed to be last weeks post, however, I still was trying to decide on what to bring along with me. I feel like I've got to a good place where I've got makeup to cover all eventualities. 

In honour of my freedom for the winter holidays, I thought I'd do a swatch and review of a palette that I have been finding myself reaching for over the past month and a half. The palette is the old blogger favourite, theBalm Nude 'Tude Palette! I picked this palette up way back near the beginning of this year and just sat on it for a good couple of months. In October, I did a clean out of my makeup collection and decided to make the effort to try it out; to find out whether I'd like it or not.

Incase you didn't know I'm heading back to Florida next month! Going home to Disney World! Even though it will be swelteringly hot, I will be be wearing makeup. I'll be taking lots of photos, as usual, and my skin is not the best au natural. 

Please excuse my patchy uploading schedule, I'm right in the middle of exam season and it's kicking me while I'm down. I should be finished mid- May, which only leaves me two weeks to schedule a couple of posts before I leave for Orlando. But, anyway, monthly favourites time. 

To be honest, I never thought that I would buy this product! I remember when it first came out I thought it was just 'fancy packaged water for your face.' Now, I have been officially converted to the religion that is micellar water.

The second part of this years Halloween series. I kept flip-flopping between having this post focusing on either chocolate-caramel apples (!!) or halloween makeup. I get so much enjoyment out of halloween makeup so that greatly influenced my decision.

I know lots of people have already done their version of this post since summer is nearing it's end, but I still have to go on holiday. I seem to have left my summer holiday until the last possible moment.  As I'm going to Florida, I have been given quite a high luggage allowance, but I plan on bringing back A LOT! This means that I have to be rather scrimping with what goes in as too much will leave little space to bring back. I probably still have too much!

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. 

One of the shining jewels in my makeup collection is this amazing palette, the Urban Decay Vice 3. It is one of the most colourful and versatile palettes that I own, which warrants it it's own blog post!

As I get closer to my Florida holiday, I've started searching for that perfect summer shade. I'm planning on getting acrylics with almond tips, but I still need a pretty colour over that. Rimmel's 'Too Cool to Tango' is a high contender for a place on my perfect summer shades list!

I had a party this month which meant another chance for me to doll myself all up. I find that these occasions are when I most likely am to experiment with new products and looks. This time it was the Rimmel Scandaleyes Eye-shadow Stick in 'Teasing Turquoise'. 

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.

I thought I'd attempt the £20  makeup challenge. I believe that it is an adaption of the American $20 makeup challenge, for us in the Uk. I've seen other bloggers and youtubers convert the $20 to the actual pound equivalent (roughly £13 by the conversion rate), but I think that I wouldn't have as much selective freedom. I wanted to a small variety of brands; not what is just the cheapest. 

Here in Dundee, we were very fortunate to have a MAC counter opened up in our Debenhams beauty hall after the whole Cinderella collection had already been snapped up. Due to that, they received a whole shipment of the collection in on their first day in operation. I was too late to pick up any of the lip products, but managed to get my hands on this which I had also had my eye on.

Benefit are renowned for their boxed powders; every makeup collection that I seem to watch has at least two of the cute little boxes! I originally bought my first Benefit powder many moons ago from Cohorted; prior to their big upgrade. I picked the shade 'Rockateur' as the first for me to try, and hopefully the first of many to come. Rockateur seems to be one of the more popular shades; I think that it is also Benefit's most recent addition to the line.

It's the end of the month, which means that it time for June Favourites! 

Contrary to what my Instagram shows; there are actually days where I do not paint my nails with Disney themes. Sometimes I like to have a more understated and elegant look, which is when I paint this style. It's simple, but looks like it has taken me a fair bit of time to complete!

I nearly walked past this beauty before I realised what it actually was! Formula X is the Sephora brand nail polish, obviously only available at Sephora stores. I could have waited until I went to Florida this August, but it was only £1 which made it cheaper than if bought out of Sephora.

I once again broke my spending ban...oops! I recently developed a small dry patch on the skin just directly under my eye. I hadn't changed any of my normal, everyday products so I thought there was a possibility of it being my Benefit Boi-ing being the troublemaker. I've had it for roughly eight months so it has perhaps seen better days. This led to me deciding to try a new concealer and see if my condition changed.

A new day dawns and with it comes another set of Disney nails.