Recent Purchases!

Hello again lovelies!

I kept my promise, I'm back with a real blog post!

I've been treating myself to a few bits and pieces recently - naughty, and I thought I should show you what I've been buying!

Firstly, for my birthday my lovely mum got me a MAC quad palette - I didn't want the 15 palette because I have an OCD that I would need it to be finished, and I don't have the dolla to fill it! She bought me Twinx and Coppering to go in, I also had Brown Down which I depotted and popped into the palette.. So there was 1 space left and I chose All That Glitters! The palette is now complete and I'm so happy with it!! The colours are so autumnal and work perfectly together!

Top to Bottom: All That Glitters, Coppering, Twinx & Brown Down.

We'll stick with the MAC theme.. I seen my lovelyyy bestie Becca with the Objects of Affection Pigment and Glitters... So, obviously I went and bought them too. I did restrain though and only buy one set, even though I wanted them all.. I got the Rose set, and they are BEAUTIFUL. I've worn them loads all ready and I can't wait to break them out approx everyday over Christmas, tis the season for glittery eyelids afterall isn't it? Obsessed with them, and I love the packaging!

Bottom to Top: Whisper Pink, Tan, Rose, Reigning Riches & Heritage Rouge. 

Next company I'm back to being in love with is Urban Decay - Urban Decay were my first foray into high end makeup and I still love their Palettes - I have quite a few, but I've not tended to buy from them for quite a while.. A few months ago on www.cohorted.co.uk I seen their Perversion and Subversion mascara and primer duo and I was in the market for a new mascara so I bought them.. and HOLY MOLY. This is my favourite duo ever, it actually GIVES ME EYELASHES THAT YOU CAN SEE. My eyelashes are quite long but their straight so they usually look pretty crap, but this duo changes things. So much that I actually went and bought a full size of Subversion (the cohorted deal gives you a mini one) and it's so worth it!

The duo is actually still available on cohorted until Sunday evening and it only costs £10.80.. The full size mascara is £17 alone so it's definitely worth a purchase! Plus it's free delivery.. GO GET IT ASAP https://cohorted.co.uk/cohort/perversion-mascara-deluxe-set-783

Finally, the last recent purchase was also from Urban Decay.. The brand is fully back on my radar! I was really intrigued to try out their lippies but none of them were screaming out to me as the ONE I really wanted.. So for Christmas, they happened to bring out 6 minis in a set called the Full Frontal Lipstick Stash.. So I bought them! You get 6 mini lipsticks and then a full size of their 247/ glide on lip pencil in Ozone (which is invisible, so kind of like a lip primer!). The colours are great and they have such good lasting power! I'm seriously impressed. Also they are adorable! Definitely worth checking Debenhams our for this little Christmas present because it would be a great stocking filler! It's £29 for it all! 

Bottom to Top: Ladyflower, Crush, Illicit, F-Bomb, Gash & Liar

Hope you liked seeing what I've bought recently!

Have you bought any of these things?

Let me know what you think of them if you have!

Until next time.

xxx

Best Beauty Offers!

Hi again!
Sorry for posting twice in one day but my phone is dead and therefore I can't play the Kim Kardashian game anymore for a while, and by chance I've stumbled across some amazing beauty products on offer while I've perused the internet!
I thought it would be better to post them incase these offers are ending soon!!

1. Benefit 'The Real Steel' - £17.50 - £15.75***

You get a full-size They're Real Mascara (which is usually £19.50 alone), a mini version of their new They're Real Push Up Liner, and a sample of the They're Real Remover. This is an amazing bargain, especially good if you've never tried the They're Real section of Benefit and wanna give it a go! I love They're Real, it's such a good mascara and really does make your lashes look amazing. I tried the Push Up Liner in a Benefit store and hated it, it smudged on my eyes! But a lot of people are raving about it, so if you wanna try it, you might as well for a bargain price!! 

*****IF YOU USE THE CODE 'HOT10' YOU WILL GET ANOTHER 10% OFF IT AS WELL - £15.75!!! OFFER VALID UNTIL 8AM 4TH AUGUST 2014 (BST)*****

2. Illamasqua Paranormal Palette - £15.00

I love this palette, I don't have it but I've searched so many makeup looks using it, I've lusted for so long! The colours are gorgeous and perfect for any season, such a good mix! And when it's reduced from £34.00 to £15.00 it's a total bloody bargain!

3. L'Oreal Infallible Lip Duo Compact - £3.49

I have one of these Duo's and I love it, you apply your colour and let it dry for one minute, and then you apply the moisturising balm on top of it, it's perfect - and plus, that lip colour ain't going anywhere! These retail for £11, and yes I paid it *shh* but it is so worth it, so for £3.49, you should just buy 'em all!

4. No7 Illuminated Make-up Mirror - £19.99

Yes, it's a light up mirror. I know it's nothing particularly exciting, and yes it's probably cheaper on certain online retailers named after rainforests, but this is only £19.99 and it's down from 50 quid. Plus when you buy from boots you get advantage points so in theory you're actually giving yourself MORE money to spend at Boots. Logic yeaaaaaaaaaah!

5. Illamasqua Lipstick in 'Magnetism'

I love Illamasqua's lipsticks, I think they're amazing.. The consistency, the colours, the smell (mildly smell like Krispy Kreme doughnuts!!) but the one thing I don't love is the price, £18.50 is expensive, like megaaaa. So whenever the lipsticks get reduced in the sale, angels from the heavens above rejoice and send happiness into the world. Magnetism is a beautiful colour and for £10.00, well it would just be rude not to.

Hope these offers help in case you were thinking about buying any of these products.

I've been waiting for that No7 mirror to come down for ages, so I think I'll definitely be purchasing!

If you've stumbled upon any other offers, please let me know in the comments or tweet me @RachelVennard :) 

Thanks for reading!xxx

Estée Lauder Haul.

Eveninggggg guys!

So as I've probably mentioned before I like to do surveys online to try and get myself some money saved up to allow me to shop without the guilt (usually I don't get much of that either though!). Not so long ago I hit my £20 target on Valued Opinions and decided my store of choice would be Boots for my next haul! Estée Lauder was the counter I hit, and I can't deny, I hit it hard. 

I've heard a lot about the Doublewear Stay-In-Place Foundation, some things good, and some not so good - and I wanted to try it for myself! So I bought it to try it out for myself and I am IMPRESSED! The Estée Lauder counter assistant was really helpful choosing my shade and tried 3 different shades on me to see which would suit me best and I settled with Pure Beige! The foundation goes on so easily and really blends in well, and it really does last SO long, it's probably as close to a foundation tattoo that you can get at the minute. I wore it to Parklife all weekend and it didn't budge - even in the rain! It retails at £28.50, which is expensive, but I only plan to use it for nights out and events that I'm gonna be braving the elements in, such as a festival! It is far too heavy for everyday use, your skin would never need that kind of coverage on a daily basis! But for special occasions, this will be the first foundation I reach for! I love the packaging as well, so classy and elegant! It doesn't have a pump but I just pour a little onto my hand and it doesn't run away thanks to it's thick consistency!

Doublewear Stay-In-Place Foundation in 'Pure Beige'

The other product I purchased was the Pure Colour Envy Sculpting Lipstick in the shade 'Dominant'. It's the creamiest consistency and it literally glides on to your lips like a dream. I generally don't like creamy lipsticks because they don't last very long on my lips, but this lipstick is different. It's a bright vibrant pink that's not going ANYWHERE. I kept it on all day, and that included eating and drinking - and it looked just as good when I got home as when I left the house that morning! It's expensive, I can't lie, it retails at £24. It's the most expensive lipstick I've ever bought but I don't regret it, the price tag is really reflected in the quality of the product and it's staying power. The packaging is obviously included in the price, and it's a beautiful sleek design with a magnetic close. I'm wearing Dominant in the picture below! Swatches will be further on!

Pure Colour Envy Sculpting Lipstick in 'Dominant'

Yet another shameless selfie to show off a product ;-)

 I always think it's important to remember with buying in Boots you do get Boots points which you can save up for other purchases! So at least you do get some reward for shopping in store! When I went to Boots, I only intended to purchase Doublewear, but there was a gift with purchase (GWP) on if you bought two things, and I'm a sucker for a gift with purchase! This gift with purchase was valued at over £90 so I think it justified my extra spending!

I received a gorgeous teal and navy tile print makeup bag, a Lipstick, a Moisturiser, a Mini Advanced Night Repair, a 4 piece Eyeshadow Palette, a Mascara, an Eyeliner and a Nail Polish. This was my first purchase of any Estée Lauder cosmetics, and getting the GWP really introduced me to a lot of new things I maybe wouldn't have been willing to purchase! I'm not going to go into toooo much detail, because basically I love everything and this post would be 4 hours of reading long!!

Advanced Night Repair and Daywear Moisturiser

Pure Colour Nail Lacquer in 'Blue Blood' 

Pure Colour Lipstick in 'Bois de Rose' 

L - 'Bois de Rose' & R - 'Dominant'

4 piece Eyeshadow Palette - I don't know the names I'm sorry! :( 

Unfortunately I'm a major crap blogger and forgot to take pictures of both the Eyeliner and Mascara and I'm in Northern Ireland and they're in Manchester! Thankfully I know what they are so you can check the full size out online! I received the Pure Colour Intense Kajal Eyeliner in 'Blackened Black' - which really is super black and goes on so creamily, no tugging at your eyes! Sumptuous Extreme Lash Multiplying Volume Mascara in 'Extreme Black' - I love the brush of this mascara, It's now very much included in my mascara routine, and it's so black! I love black eyeliners and black mascara and Estée Lauder definitely supplies that! 

I'm super impressed with everything that I bought, and it all feels glorious on my skin, I'm absolutely crap that I don't have the names for the eyeshadows! I will be able to get them when I get back to Manchester so if you would like to know, feel free to tweet me at @RachelVennard or send me an email at vennardr@hotmail.co.uk and I can fill you in!

Have you tried any Estée Lauder products?

What do you think of them and the brands?

Let me know!
Rachel xx

My first Glossybox experience - part one!

Hi! Hello! Bonjour! Hola!

It's the 7th of September and today it is officially COLD! Say goodbye to summer clothes and prepare for an influx of autumn clothes, umbrellas and random animal hats and scarves over the next few weeks!

I've been reading about Glossybox for so long and always wanted to try it, bu for a poor student £9.99 per box (plus p&p) was a bit of too much commitment! Glossybox had been running an offer that you could purchase 2 boxes for £12.00! I thought this was a bargain and went for it! 

I received the Glossybox 2nd birthday box for May and the Seaside Splash box which was released for July 2013!

I'll talk about the boxes in two separate posts! First the 2nd Birthday box!

There were 5 products with 2 other small additions in the box!

The products were:

1. Headline Colors Nail Polish - 'Gunmetal'

2. Jelly Pong Pong Fairy Lashes Mascara

3. Awapuhi Wild Ginger Shine Spray

4. Collection Fast Stroke Eyeliner - 'Black 1'

5. Beautiful Movements Cosmetics Prime & Create Mixing Medium

There was also a packet of Glossybox mini nailfiles and a Green & Blacks chocolate! 

This nail polish is fullsize and costs £9 per 10ml! It looks gorgeous in the bottle but it looks even better on the nails! You are advised to apply two coats of polish to the nails, the first to apply the polish to the nails, and the second to provide a glossy top coat! I followed this advise and didn't even need a topcoat on top to make it shiny! This polish has UV absorbers to reduce chipping and flaking of the polish! From this I'm really impressed with Headline Colors and would be interested in trying another colour from them! The colours on their website (here!) look really vibrant and glossy!

Jelly Pong Pong's Fairy Lashes was the next present to be discovered! This has an RRP of £15 and there was a full size sample in the box! This mascara is said to be "non-clumping, lengthening and volumising".. I would agree that the mascara is non-clumping but I didn't really thing it did much for my lashes! In fairness to the product I have a mascara combination that really works for me at the minute so it probably was a little disadvantaged! Mind you the mascara is £15 for a tube, I'd rather splash out a few extra pounds and repurchase Benefit's They're Real or Lancome Drama mascara!!

Awaphui Wild Ginger is a brand I've never heard of before so it was good that the box would introduce you to products you maybe wouldn't have found before!! This Shine Spray retails £18.95 per 125ml can, and thats what you received in the box! 

The ingredients of this product are meant to condition and illuminate hair! It provides shine to hair and also protects your lovely locks from daily wear and tear! When I opened the box I presumed I wouldn't use it as my hair is generally quite silky and shine, but when I read into it I thought it would be good to give it a go as my hair needs a bit more protection since I began my transition to blonde! It smells like hairspray infused with ginger (which I suppose is obvious from the brands name!!) but it's quite refreshing on your hair because it makes it smell fresh! I don't know if I would repurchase as my hair routine is pretty simple but I'll certainly make sure I use up the can!

I was glad to see the Collection eyeliner in the box, I love their products and its always nice to see what eyeliner works best for you to create the cat eye look! This eyeliner has a really fine nib and a long handle which I love on a liquid eyeliner! It's a really black black which is great especially considering the liner is only £2.99! Happy with this product and I'm definitely gonna use it up! There's a blue version as well which I'm now tempted to try... ;-)

The product in the middle of this photo is a strange one! It's a clear Aloe Vera multi-use gel that can be used to create cream blushes, liquid eyeliners and help that last drop of foundation go a little bit further! I have to be honest I haven't really tried to use this yet! I'm a little afraid of it but I do plan to use it to turn some of my favourite eye shadows into eyeliners! My best friend is a make-up artist so this might go her direction as she'll probably have more of a clue what to use it for! You received a fullsize version of this gel which retails for £20 per 20g. It's pricey in my opinion!

The wee square of dark chocolate was a nice treat as well ;-)

I've been really impressed with my first Glossybox experience and my review of the Seaside Splash box will be up during the week! It's got some goodies hiding in there too so come and check it out!
Unfortunately this 2 for £12 offer is now over but I still think Glossyboxes are a nice wee investment! £10 a month (+ p&p) to get a present delivered to yourself for products that equate to waaaay more than £10! I'm thinking of asking for a years subscription for my birthday! :-)

Talk soon lovelies! xxx

Freebies time!!

Holaaaaaaaa! It's official, our summer is over! Long gone are the temperatures in the 20's and back come the torrential downpours you think you'd only find in monsoon season in a rainforest! It's depressing, I've got all my summer clothes out and now I've got nowhere to wear them :-(

But when the weathers bad, what better to cheer you up than some freebies!!

My favourite Facebook page at the minute is an absolute brilliant one called '10 Ways To Have More Money As A Student Without Working'!! It's a site run by some brilliant smart and savvy guys that have an eye out for freebies, price glitches and special offers! You can sign up to their Facebook just by pressing the little thumbs up button, sign up to their e-mail updates HERE! or follow them on Twitter! I'd advise signing up to the e-mail updates, there's no spam and it means you get every single little bit of data they post, because sometimes Facebook can delay the posts and it means you miss out on the offers!

My two favourite freebies I've claimed from 10 Ways recently are a Chanel mascara and 2 FULL SIZE Cetaphil products! Neither of these are cheap, especially when you maybe just wanna try something out! So it's definitely worth while checking them out to see what goodies you can find!

These are two great products from Cetaphil's Restoraderm line! I got a body wash and a moisturiser! They're formulated for sensitive skin which I think is great because it means everyone can use them! They are both fragrance free and the moisturiser is preservative free as well - super if you like to keep things natural! I'm totally chuffed with both of these products and really wanna try out some more Cetaphil products now!!

I got a lovely little sample of Le Volume De Chanel Mascara and I loveeee it! I always manage to get addicted to new mascara, and they tend to have a big pricetag! I love the brush on this mascara, it's a plastic brush with lots of little bristles that mean you can catch every lash! The fullsize version is £24 though so I'm gonna have to think long and hard before I run out to purchase this!

 For some reason all this months magazine's are firing out absolutely brilliant freebies as well! It's just made me more tempted into buying them! Marie Claire (rrp £3.90) have a mini Ciate Caviar Nail Polish set and it's absolutely gorgeousss!! The set is made up of a mini version of   Cookies and Cream and the caviar beads in 'Shooting Star' which is a mix of gold, pearl and iridescent coloured beads! It's so pretty! I never would have purchased it myself, but after trying Ciate's polishes I'd definitely be more likely to try now! They're a gorgeous consistency which goes onto the nail flawlessly and only requires a few coats to become opaque! Even without the beads Cookies and Cream is a beautiful nude that's gonna be suitable for all year round!

   Glamour, which is on offer at £1(!!!) has a choice of 5 Model Co products to choose from, all of which are worth either £15 or £16! To me that just makes sense and therefore I had to buy all the options I could find! I got a nude gloss, a nude lip pencil and a black eyeliner! All of which are lovely! The pencils are lovely and creamy and don't tug on your skin and the gloss has the nicest taste ever! It tastes (and smells) like the whistle lollipops you used to get when you were small! So nostalgic! They also have a mascara and a red lip gloss, and I'm definitely gonna try to find them before the magazine goes off the shelves! £5 for £78 worth of product is brilliant! High 5 Glamour!!

 Other magazines have freebies too! I've seen makeup bags possibly in Company, a pair of nice sunglasses in another and a Leighton Denny polish floating about too in Harper's Bazaar! I couldn't find a colour I liked but if I do I think I'll be picking one up! The magazines are definitely using these products as loss-leaders to shift sales and hopefully recreate return purchases! But if they keep up the good work I know I'll definitely keep buying! I apologise for the crappy picture quality because they're so small, Blogger and me were having a rough patch because he wouldn't co-operate! Hopefully we'll have sorted out our differences by next time..

Until then my lovelies <3
xxxx

Quick FOTD!

Getting a call from your mother at 8.30am to say you've to take your little brother to the doctors for half9 is not the best start to any day, especially after a bad nights sleep! My priorities were to stay in bed as long as possible and sacrificing any chance of looking nicely made up! 

With only 10 mins to get ready, I stuck on a little concealer on my blemishes (which there are a lot of recently!!) and under my eyes to hide any dark circles! I filled in my eyebrows with just the powder of Benefit's Browzings to save time! A few coats of Rimmel London's Endless Lash Accelerator and a coating of MUA's Power Pout I'm 'Crazy in Love' on my lips! 

My hair was a mess, the only downside to short hair is that when you wake up it generally resembles a crow's nest, so I stuck on a beanie.. A comfy tee and a black skater shirt (because it's still warm in Northern Ireland!) and I was ready to go!!

Not the greatest look but easy for running about being Big Sis Taxi's and doing any messages that I had.. How grown up do I sound?? ;-) it actually felt nice to let my skin breathe in the nice weather without layers of makeup clogging up my skin!

Do you have any quick-fix makeup tricks? Let me know in the comments, or drop me a tweet @RachelVennard :-) I'd love to hear from you! 

Until next time! Mwahhhh xx

My Make-Up Storage!

Hi again!!! It's been a week since Radio 1's One Big Weekend.. I have festival blues (major sad face) and I'm potentially dying from a combination of the flu/kidney infection and a throat infection.. I think this is my body's way of saying I need to take it a little bit easier after such a big weekend!!

This is just a little post about how I store my makeup! I don't have a HUGE collection, but compared to this time last year my makeup collection has about quadrupled in size! I was the girl that had one of everything and didn't use blush, primer, powder or much lipstick... So I'm basically a completely different person now :)

Most of these items are bargains from 'Pound World' in The Quays shopping centre in Newry!!

These are two little stacked drawers which I have blu-tacked together to keep them together! They were £1 each.. Total bargain!! Each set has 2 drawers each.. I have mine separated into... 

1. Base Products
2. Face Products
3. Eye Products 
4. Lip Products

They don't hold alll of the makeup I own but the majority of it! Any extra gets stored in the drawer under my mirror and I check it about once a week to see if there's anything else I fancy swapping :)

                                                             

I keep my smaller brushes (eyeshadow brushes, lip brushes and concealer brushes) in the little flower watering can.. Another £1 steal from Pound World! My bigger brushes, like my Real Techniques buffing brush and expert face brush, alongside my brow gel and tweezers stay in my mum's beautiful crystal vase! I think this was potentially a wedding gift and probably very expensive so I'm kind of looking for something less valuable to keep my bigger brushes in! Too afraid of breaking this!

My lipsticks get kept in my newest purchase! This is a 24 lipstick holder I found on eBay! You can buy it here! It's a bargain at £2.99! It comes from Hong Kong so there could potentially be long delivery times but mine was pretty speedy!! The only problem is I now feel the urge to fill the rest of the slots, and truth be told I do NOT need anymore lipsticks!

Finally, after seeing some inspiration from the lovely Faye on her nail polish storage I decided I wanted some glass containers! I have two of these huge jars and you'll never guess how much I paid for them.. £1 each :) All of my nail varnishes nearly fit into one, that's how big they are! Mind you I've newly discovered Barry M's Gelly Hi Shine Nail Paints (yes I know I'm late to that party) so my 2nd jar will probably fill up soon!!

Hope this maybe gave you a little help with ideas for how to store your makeup!

Chat soon!

Rachel, x.  

Benefit goodies!

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Hello again!

Where has the sun gone? Last week we had a few gorgeous days.  And now there's been rain, hail and even SNOW in some places? So much for global warming.. Lets rename it global cooling!

Anyyhooooo...

When I was on the boat from Stranraer to Belfast last week, the weather was awful and then boat was a rocky ride home! They announced over the PA system that in the shop they had Benefit makeup for sale, so to try and rid myself of sea-sickness and possibly due to tiredness I went and had a little splurge!

I'd been wanting to repurchase a few Benefit items for a while but due to low money levels I was waiting to find them at a good deal! Turns out shops on the boats appear to be a bit like buying items in duty-free, meaning there's no tax to be paid on them... YAY FOR NO TAX! I treated myself to two items, the two I'd been wanting the most! And here they are! 

I bought Benefit's "They're Real!" mascara and "The Porefessional" primer! They were both at a pretty good price so I thought why not? If you can't treat yourself who is ever going to ;-) 

My mum bought me "They're Real" after a few (read: a lot) hints for Christmas and I loved it! I have super short, super stumpy lashes that refuse to become volumised or curl, but thanks to this amazing mascara I actually look like I have nice eyelashes! Amazing! I saved £2.50 off this onboard, which is pretty good to me! This mascara does dry up quite quickly, my previous one dried up in April, so I had about 4 months use.. It seems short but after all you are meant to change your mascara every 3 months to stop bacteria.. So it's short shelf life probably makes the product way more hygenic!! 

My second choice was Benefits number 1 selling primer in the UK, "The Porefessional". I got a sample of this a year ago when I bought "That Gal" from ASOS and threw it away at the back of my spares drawer! I stumbled across it about October time and fell in love!! The mini sample nearly did me 6 months because you need so little! So I'm expecting this full sized version to stretch for a looooooong time! To buy this product now it will actually cost you £24.50, so I made a saving of almost £5! That's a big amount in the world of high end beauty! I love it's silicon consistency, really helps to minimise my pores, and my foundation goes on like a dream over it! Thank you ASOS for introducing this to my life!

These are my first ever high end makeup repurchases which is a pretty big deal to me! I was never brand loyal before, but after stumbling across these two beauties I think they'll definitely be a makeup bag staple!! 

What are your favourite Benefit products? Let me know in the comments! 

Or leave me links to any other blogs, I'd love to take a read and find out how to improve mine! I'm only learning! 

Also, can anybody help me with my GFC button? It doesn't seem to work :-( 

Chat soon dearies! Lets hope the weathers picked up a bit by then :-)

Rachel xxx