The Weekend Makeup Bag

Hello,
Being away from uni I get very home sick so I like to go home every other weekend to see my family and friends. I always find it hard to decide which make up to take with me as I don't want suitcase full and I also don't want to miss anything. As I am heading home this weekend I thought I would share what I am taking.

First things first, foundation. I had the Rimmel Match Perfection foundation a while a go, I recently bought it again as I remember how much I loved it. It really is a cheap foundation perfect for everyday. I'm only taking this foundation as I have no plan to go on a night out or anywhere fancy so I wont need my MAC one but this will do if I change my mind! I wear this foundation in the colour 100 Ivory.

Of course I am taking my Rimmel Stay Matte powder in transparent and Collection Concealer in Fair. These are both staple, must have products for me and I don't know what I would do with out them!

I recently bought the NYX blush in taupe as I herd it was a good contour colour for fair skin. I haven't tried it properly yet but I will let you know how I get on with it!

For a highlighter I am bringing my mini Benefit High Beam*. I got this in the 'Do the Bright Thing' set. I'm still a little bit undecided on this but I guess it does the job.

For eyes I decided to keep it simple with my Urban Decay Naked Basics palette*. I have fallen in love with this pallet, using it nearly everyday and its so small its perfect for travel! It only has 6 shades but allows you to create a variety of looks from day to night!

My favourite pencil eye liners are the Rimmel Scandal Eyes Kohl pencils. I'm taking mine in Nude for the day and Black in case I fancy being a bit more dramatic!

Mascara has to be Soap & Glory's Thick & Fast*. I had this mascara before and it never fails to disappoint. One layer gives subtle lashes with great definition but it can be built up to look more and more dramatic.

Recently filling in my eyebrows has become a must. I usually use an eye shadow (I always usually hate pencils) but this one from Gallery Colours in Blondie works really well for me.

Last but not least lipstick! I chose two colours, MUA Matte lipstick in Wild Berry and Revlon Matte lipstick in Real Red. 

I'm pretty chuffed with how I have managed to narrow it down to just this but I am worried I'm missing something (I always forget something).

Thanks for reading!

Any products marked* were gifted to me.

Update | Break From Blogging

Hello,

So I took a little break from blogging over Christmas time. I didn't manage to finish blogmas but I had a lot of things to sort out and just wanted to spend Christmas with my family and friends so I didn't have much time left over. 

I thought I would share a few photos from the time I have been gone as a little kick start back into blogging. First thing was my brothers graduation, he finished his masters degree and I was such a proud sister watching him graduate. We celebrated my brothers graduation (and my birthday!) with a meal at Handmade burger co. It was the first time I have been there and it was quite nice (but a little bit over priced). Then there was Christmas. I had a lovely day having dinner with my family, my boyfriend came round and we went for christmas tea at my aunties. My boyfriend got me a Michael Kors watch which was very naughty of him and well out of our set budget (but I do absolutely love it). Sleeking of him we had our first year anniversary  and celebrated by going to TGI Fridays eating way too much food spending the rest of the night laying about nursing our fudge brownie food babies. I moved back to uni and had a lot of things to sort out, I'm hoping to transfer to a uni closer to home next year and UCAS is a lot more complicated than I remember from last year.

Over all I'm glad I took some time away and had a really good Christmas break. I have a lot of posts planned so keep watch! If you did anything exciting over Christmas/new year I'd love to hear about it!

Hope you are having a great start to 2014!

Baking | Nutella Christmas Muffins

Nutella has got to be one of my favorite things. I love baking with it so I thought I would give Nutella muffins a try! Since it's Christmas I decided to decorate them like little Christmas puddings. (My boyfriend doesn't like Christmas pudding/cake so he loved these!)

Ingredients

I forgot to put the Nutella in the photo... Oops!

• Self raising flour - 1.5 cups 
• Sugar - 0.5 cups 
• Butter - 0.5 cups
• Nutella - 0.5 cups
• Milk - 1 cup
• 2 Medium Eggs
• Dark chocolate - 1 bar cut  into little pieces (or you can buy chocolate chips!)
• Ready to roll icing
• Gel food colours (they need to be gel food colours as they will not affect the icing consistency)
• Muffin Tins
• Cake/muffin cases (I found this mixture made around 20 cupcake size muffins, I cooked them in 2  batches but if you use muffin cases you should get 12 from this mixture.

Method

• Preheat oven to Gas Mark 6 
• Line muffin tins with cake cases
• Mix together butter and sugar
• Stir in Eggs one at a time
• Stir in milk and nutella
• Mix until smooth
• Mix in flour little by little
• Stir in chocolate chunks

Mixture should look a little like this

• Put mixture into cake cases.
• Bake for around 15 min
• Leave to cool on wire rack

• Once cool roll out icing thinly and cut 'drippy icing' shapes (see picture)

• Use a dot of nutella to stick the shapes to each cake
• Split some left over icing into two balls
• Use the gel food coloring to make one ball green and one ball red. (this might get a bit messy so use some icing sugar to stop your hands getting to sticky)

• shape the green ball in to holly leaf shapes
• Stick two leaves to each cake with a dot of nutella
• Roll red icing into small balls
• Stick two or 3 to each cake as the holly berries
• Enjoy your Christmas pudding nutella muffins!

Do you have any Christmasy Baking ideas?
Will you be trying these?

Blogmas Day 12 | MUA Matte Lipstick Wild Berry

I love the MUA £1 lipsticks and my favorite lipstick formula is matte. So imagine my delight when I wander into Superdrug and find MUA have added matte formulas into their collection. There was only 3 colours left in the shop, but out of the ones there this one really stood out to me. It looks very scary, a kind of deep purple/burgundy colour. When its on the lips its a really nice purpley red. I really like it! I'm a bit disappointed it doesn't come out as dark as it looks but i guess that's a good thing for wear ability. (This lipstick is very wearable, day and night!). The formula isn't to drying and its not as 'matte' as my other matte lipsticks but it gives a really nice look. Just make sure you moisturise and exfoliate your lips before wearing it or it will cling to any dry parts.

For £1 I cant recomend it enough and can't wait to try the other colours in the range!

You can find them in super drug or on the MUA store!
Have you tried the new Matte Lipsticks from MUA?
LEt me know what you think! :)

Blogmas Day 11 | Seventeen Doll'd Up Mascara

Sorry for not blogging yesterday, I was not feeling well and didn't have the energy to blog. I'm back today and feeling much better! 

This Is definitely one of my favorite mascaras I have tried. I didn't like it at all when I first tried it and so it was put away for a little while. I got it out one day after the mascara I was using ran out and I'm so glad i decided to give it another go! 

I'm not usually fan a of the plastic brushes but something about this one doesn't bother me at all. It's straight on one side then curved on the other meaning it's great for getting at lover lashes and into the corners. It gives my eyelashes a fair bit of volume and is really lengthening! I don't really care to much for lengthening normally as  my lashes are naturally long but this is just amazing! I get really good compliments from people when I wear this mascara and even get asked if I have eyelash extensions! It gives a really nice effect after just one coat but can be built up for a really nice dramatic look! 

This mascara is only £6.29 which really is a bargain! You can find it in boots stores and on their website.

Have you tried this mascara?
Whats your favorite mascara?
Let me know!

Blogmas Day 9 | My Spot Fighting Bargin Picks

It's the time of year when a lot of parties are going on and so is the last time you want a nasty breakout! I suffer from acne on my face and body (gross I know) and have tried a lot of stuff over the years to try and combat it. The stuff from the doctors never seemed to for for me, or it left me with horribly dry and painful skin. I don't have a very big budget being a student so I can't try most of the wonder products I read about in blogs. I know a lot of people suffer, like me, and also don't have that kind of budget. I thought I'd share my favorites with a lower price tag.

Boots Tea Tree & Witch Hazel Foaming Face Wash

This for me is the best thing I have ever tried for combating those pesky spots. I use it daily in the shower. It works best if you use it twice a day. Often foaming face washes 'defoam' once you put them on your face but this one stays foamy until you rinse it away. It feels really gentle on the skin but really does the job! Using this clears my spots within a few days and helps prevent bad breakouts. I use this on the parts of my body prone to acne (mainly my back) and it works wonders there too! It's really cheap at just £3.59. 

Boots Tea Tree & Witch Hazel Back Spray

When I saw this I instantly wanted to try it. I have never seen products targeted at acne on the body before and this range seem to be bringing out other body products too. This is a spray which makes treating bacne really quite easy as normally I cant reach there very well.. Spray it on at least twice a day and let it do its job! It's also really refreshing when you spray it on. Again really cheap at £4.99

Quick Fix Facials Anti-Blemish Mud Mask

Now I have herd a lot about how mud masks are great for spot prone skin. I wouldn't call this a wonder product however with regular use (about once or twice a week depending on how oily your skin is) helps prevent bad breakouts and calm breakouts that you do have. Face masks can be expensive but this tube is just £4.99 and you can get around 10 face masks out of it. 

No7 Beautiful Skin Cleansing Brush

Admittedly this isn't very cheap however, compared to other cleansing face brushes this is a steal! I use it once or twice a week and my face feels so clean after! I use it with any face soap I have to hand and I love it. It took a while for my skin to get used to it, my skin is very sensitive, but making sure there's plenty of face wash on my face and keeping the brush wet I don't have a problem. It's not necessarily a spot treatment, but when trying to fight spots its essential you make sure your face is really clean and completely  rid of makeup. It also exfoliates the skin which really helps with healing spots. It's fairly expensive at £24.95 but compared to similar things (I have seen them sell for around £200) Its a really good deal. Plus Boots often have £5 off vouchers which you can use to get the price down a bit. I have had mine since they first launched and its still going strong from the same batteries, and a few drops, so definitely a sound investment!

You can find all these products at Boots!

Have you tried any of these products?
Whats your top spot fighting product?
Let me know!

Blogmas Days 8 | Diorskin NudeTan

I think that this is probably more of a summer product to write about. However, since I use it daily I thought I would write about it now!

I have this in the shade 001 Aurora. I'm not sure the true purpose of this product however, I use it as a bronzer/contour/make my face look more alive type of product. It looks really shimmery in the pan but it deffinatley doesnt look this shimmery when its on, I wear it pretty much every day and the shimmer is not a problem for me. There are two lighter, slightly pinky, quarters and two darker, more brown, quarters, I swirl my brush around all the colours to mix them up then put in the contour of my cheeks and blend upwards. I then take whats left on the brush and put it under my jawline and over my forehead. I feel this makes me look more healthy, especially when all the colour in my face is hidden with foundation. Maybe that's why its called Healthy Glow Enhancing Powder?! 

Another thing I love about this product is the packaging is stunning!

It comes in this silver compact which is just beautiful (however very prone to finger marks). It also has a large mirror which I never use but I guess is good for on the go makeup. This is definitely a luxury product, then again I wouldn't expect less from Dior. 

Overall I absolutely love this product! However would I repurchase it? Probably not, for the one and only fact... The price! It is around £37.  

Have you tried this?
What are you're Dior makeup recommendations?