Urban Decay x Gwen Stefani Eyeshadow Palette

I wasn’t expecting to love this palette as much as I do, I saw loads of hype about it from US beauty bloggers and I had just decided I needed to try to work with colour a bit more. Of course when choosing any great eyeshadow palette you go with Urban Decay.

I was deciding between this one and the Vice 4 but I chose the Gwen Stefani one because it just seemed to have more pros than the Vice 4 did. I like that it has a few matte browns for blending, it has some great glittery shadows, a couple of bold colours and well Gwen Stefani helped design it so it just felt that bit more special!

Stark and Anaheim are the blending colours I seem to reach for the most in the palette, they are lovely ,slightly cool toned browns. Punk is also a great shadow for deepening up your crease and in the outer v, it’s an unusual burgundy brown that looks great on the eye.

The bright colours are brilliant for a bit more of a statement eye, I’ve used the blue a few times under my eye. I’ve only used it on it’s own but I think it’d look great if I used a white or blue liner as a base underneath. I haven’t tried the other bright colours properly yet but I’m looking forward to having a play around with them.

I will quickly mention that whilst very buttery and pigmented, they do have a small amount of fallout so I like to do my eyes first. It happens mostly with the shimmery/glittery shadows but it's nothing you can't easily fix with a cotton pad.

If you are still thinking of getting this palette then I would definitely recommend it! Even my mum said it looked awesome, I can't wait for the rest of Gwen Stefani's collection to be released. I'm definitely eyeing up the blush palette and some of the lipsticks.

Let me know what you think of the palette or are you going to be getting something from the newer pieces of the collection?

xoxo
V

A Special Christmas

Christmas came around so quickly this year, we had some family health emergency (not me for once), so that kept us busy most weekends leading up to Christmas. So when it came round to it we hadn’t really managed to do the Christmas shopping as we’d of liked.

I told mum not to worry about mine and she suggested we go shopping once things had settled down a bit. As it came about we were in Chester for New Year’s so mum and I decided to get up early and head over to Cheshire Oaks and go into Michael Kors.

We went arrived before opening hours and it was so peaceful and had the whole shop to ourselves. We’d only decided to go so early because my grandparents had seen queues for miles only a few days before.

Choosing a bag was like a dream, I knew I wanted a real leather handbag and I was going to go for something smaller but I wanted my Olympus pen to be able to fit into it so ended up settling for this small tote.

It’s a great bag for me because I can’t do massive handbags as I’m quite petite and I also struggle to hold them for a long period of time. It has great hand straps but luckily also a shoulder strap so I can make use of both my hands.

So thank you so much mum, I’m over the moon with my first proper handbag!

xoxo
V

ps. the family member is now better and that's the best Christmas present we could ask for.

Bee Good Cream Cleanser

Bee Good-Honey and Propolis 2 in 1 Cream Cleanser-£11.50

Here we go then, the first review of 2016, this cleanser was an accidental find but it turns out to be a bit of a gem.
Basically my beauty and skincare stuff didn't get packed in to the car during the Christmas madness, I was looking for the Burt Bees cleanser but Waitrose didn't seem to stock it so I ended up grabbing this instead.

I wasn't expecting big things from this but as I read the box now it does say it doesn't contain any mineral oils, silicone or parabens. These are all ingredients I tend to steer away from because they tend not to suit my dry skin. The price is also great for the amount you get and it does include a cute little muslin cloth.

So onto the actual product, when I first applied this I used way too much, you really do need the smallest amount because it seems to cream up really thickly and to twice the amount. For dry skins this is the bomb! It's so luxurious and creamy making it really lovely to apply to my dry skin to remove every last bit of make up. I'm seriously impressed by this accidental little find and will definitely be using up every last drop. The muslin cloth is a great added bonus too, I'm intrigued to try more products from this brand having never seen it before.

Hello 2016

Here we are in 2016, I know everyone says it, but really where did the year go?!

2015 was a really tough year as I was in hospital for just over a month and then found out I needed a liver transplant. I'm also very reliant on an oxygen tank and struggle with most simple daily tasks, that being said I am glad that we know what is causing my breathlessness and I can't wait for it to be fixed.

Reading blogs and watching youtube has helped keep me going and it has made me determined to stick with my blogging and taking photos.

I know that at any point I may go in for my transplant and I will be in hospital for quite a while, but whilst I wait I might as well work at something I love.

So this year won't be an easy one but I am prepared for what is yet to come and I look forward to being on the road to recovery. Who knows maybe hospital posts will become a thing?

Have a great New Year

xoxo
Verity