My monthly favourites | March

Can you believe it's the end of March already?! Here are my favourites from this month.

Marc Jacobs Dot

It's impossible to not love this perfume. Marc Jacobs' perfume range is adorable with its cute bottle designs and lovely fresh scents. I received Dot as a 21st birthday present from my boyfriend last summer, and as you can see, I've been using it sparingly. These perfumes are not ones to use up all in one go! As a result this is not your average every day perfume, mainly used for special occasions or nights out. You can't go wrong with a Marc Jacobs... I also own the original Daisy which is my second bottle of that. Haven't yet tried Honey or the new spring Daisy spritz but it is on the list...

Maybelline Baby Lips

This has been my lip balm saviour. I wear these almost every day without question. My favourite one is the cherry balm, it's cherry scent is something I'm fond of and whilst it doesn't contain an SPF like some of the other Baby Lips, it does give a pretty punch of pink to the lips as well as nicely hydrating them. Perfect for non lipstick days!

MUA Undress Me Too Eye Palette

I LOVE this eye palette. I've never been one to wear a lot of colour on my eyes (apart from that time about 4 years ago when I wore black eyeshadow a lot for a continual smokey look), but this palette is amazing for creating so many natural and neutral looks combining the matte and shimmery shades.

Boots Eye/Face/Lip Palette

This product is an oldie but goodie and has been making its way back into my makeup fold. My mum uses this for the eye colours whereas my use for this is the blushes. There is a nice frosted pink colour included which has been my current blush of choice, it applies very natural and a lot nicer on my skin compared to a Collection blusher which has a tendency to make my cheeks appear blotchy (not a good look!). The pink blush in this all round palette is become a necessity and a product that I feel "completes" my face look.

Soap and Glory "Clean on Me"

Who doesn't enjoy a Soap and Glory product?! This body wash smells so nice, has a nice consistency and only a small amount is needed (the pump on the huge bottle ensures this very well). I got these Soap and Glory gifts in a boxed present for Christmas and am only around 1/3 through the bottle - excellent value for money as this will definitely last for a long time.

Soap and Glory "Sugar Crush"

Wow! What an awesome body scrub. The smell of this is incredible, it includes lime I believe and the scent really hits you, it's quite tangy but fresh at the same time. I use this only once a week in the bath (am more of a shower girl mostly) and it really helps to get rid of any scaly or dry skin. It does say to not use after shaving legs as it can sting - sad to say I can vouch for that!

So there is my March favourites... 

Hope you enjoyed reading! - Camilla xo

Barry M Gelly Hi Shine Nail Paint

Hi all, hope everyone had a nice weekend and first half of the week soaking up the gorgeous Spring sunshine!

Today I'll be writing a post on the Barry M Gelly nail paints that I bought on Friday. After seeing a photo of the pink "Dragon Fruit" shade on The Pale Side of Beauty 's Instagram page last week, I loved it so much that I went out to Superdrug on Friday morning and took advantage of their "2 for £6" offer on all nail paints that were £3.99 individually.

I picked up the "Dragon Fruit" colour which is a gorgeous pink and then stood there for a while umm-ing and ahh-ing over which other bottle to pick out. As it's Spring now I wanted a lighter shade (already own too many darker nail polishes) and was pondering over a light purple or very light blue, but in the end spotted "Lychee" which is a really nice natural "nude" shade.

A natural nail polish is something I'd not previously owned and felt it could look really pretty for every day and very classy, especially as these gelly hi shine paints seem to promise a shiny coat without the need of a top coat to be applied. I opted for Lychee over the weekend since my nails had been painted various bright colours over the course of the week, but also to see how this particular shade would fair on my quite pale skin tone.

I applied a base coat before opting for two coats of this gelly nail paint, mostly because the first coat of Lychee seemed to apply slightly patchy for some bizarre reason. On some blog posts I've read regarding this particular polish, it's been said that three coats are needed for best results, but the two coats used on my own nails makes them look gorgeous. The colour itself is a pretty warm almost "caramel" shade with a hint of taupe to it, which therefore doesn't make it too white as some nude polishes turn out to be.

I've been wearing this nail paint for 3-4 days now without a top coat and so far there's been no chips which is pretty good going! Compared to other nail polishes this really is great quality. I'm very pleased with it. Here is a snap of my nails taken today with Lychee on them so you can see how it's still in place...

For anyone looking for a nice natural nail colour to wear every day or to work, I'd definitely recommend this one. Happy with this purchase and excited to try out the "Dragon Fruit" pink polish next weekend/beginning of next week.

Hope you enjoyed reading! - Camilla xo

Makeup | Face of the Day

Hi all, I thought I'd do a little post today about what I've been wearing on my face throughout today. Most of these makeup products are every day staples which I swear by and others are gorgeous products I use sometimes for something different.

My foundation is L'Oreal Paris True Match liquid foundation in the shade "Golden Ivory". I absolutely love this foundation and don't know where I'd be without it. It's the perfect shade for my skin and really evens out my skin tone. On "good skin days" I'll only apply one layer of this, either with the Real Techniques stippling brush (as seen in the photo) or I'll blend it in with my fingers. Recently there's been a few bad skin days where I've wanted to hide away from the world but for these days I apply two layers to hide blemishes and make sure that the layers are blended nicely to avoid that "cakey layer" effect some foundations give. I then usually just dust over some of my L'Oreal Paris True Match mineral powder foundation in the same shade just to even out the liquid and blend down my neck.

For cheeks this Miss Sporty bronzer has been absolutely lovely, as it includes two shades a light one and a more medium one which I blend together then use to contour/bronze my face to give some more shape/definition as I have a bit of a chipmunk face and not strong cheekbones at all (boo *thumbs down*).

I am a big lover of black eyeliner but as it's spring time and the sun is shining more and more I'm trying to ween myself off of it for a lighter spring day time look. So for my eyes I applied the new MUA Undress Me Too eyeshadow palette which is something not used every day (prior to buying this I used the Benefit Big Beautiful Eyes palette and now am beginning to alternate between the two). The two shadow colours I used today were "Lavish" (a light brown) all over the eye to create a natural base followed by "Obsessed" (a slightly darker brown with some shimmers in it) patted on the outside corner and blended into my socket to build up a slight smokey eye.

Mascara is in the form of a new favourite, which I was given free in a little makeup haul from my lovely dad who picked up a load of Maybelline/L'Oreal makeup for me for free in a staff clearance at his work. It is the Maybelline "Illegal Length" mascara in black and I love it! It gives such a nice "false lash" effect and where my eyelashes are really long anyway, this makes them stand out even more which is amazing. Definitely a new staple in my make up bag!

For my lips today I just used an old favourite Clinique lipstick which is lovely rosey pink colour, as I didn't fancy a bright lip today and wasn't venturing out of the house much.

To set my makeup I've been using the MUA fix setting spray (not sure of its proper name as I've not got it to hand) but it's only £5 for 60ml which is such good value!

So that's my "Face of the day" makeup for today! Hope you enjoyed it. :)

Hope you enjoyed reading! - Camilla xo

Eye shadow | MUA Undress Me Too

The Undress Me Too eye shadow palette is one beauty item I had been eyeing up for a while. Available in Superdrug, this palette is said to be a near dupe for Urban Decay's Naked 2 palette, but at an absolute steal of a price. The Undress Me Too palette has 12 different shadows and is a mixture of mattes and pearls/shimmers to help create a very pretty smokey eye by "mixing soft neutrals and cool greys with stunning gold metallics".

 

As a big fan of neutral eye shadow colours (I already own the Benefit Big Beautiful Eyes set) as well as loving a smokey eye for the evening, this palette seemed an absolute no brainer for me. I had my eye on the original Undress Me palette also, but this one stood out just a tad more so I picked it up last Friday when buying a few little pay day make up treats. Having read some reviews on the Urban Decay Naked palettes I definitely knew I wanted one, or at least one similar, because I could never justify spending £35 plus on some eye shadows, no matter how gorgeous they may be! The high street does some great deals for makeup at very affordable prices so this is definitely why I love to browse places like Superdrug and Boots, especially as there is so much variety of brands in these shops too. This MUA palette is just £4, YES you read that correctly. Four little pounds. How amazing is that?! For 12 different shades to create such versatile looks and almost a carbon copy to Urban Decay's palettes. Everyone is a fan of a dupe if you can find it at a fraction of the price! So obviously, the price was a major plus point in this particular purchase, it was too good to pass up. 

The colours are (L-R) : 

(Top) Naked, Devotion, Shy, Fiery, Lavish, Dreamy

(Bottom) Tranquil, Exposed, Reveal, Wink, Obsessed, Corrupt

As you can see from this next photo, the similarities between the two eye shadow sets...

Whilst they are not 100% identical, MUA has done a pretty decent job at duping the colours here. I'm currently unsure how pigmented each of the shadows are, as I've yet to start experimenting with them (except Lavish which I've used for a nice natural base) but am hoping the colour pay off is good! (As is the case of 'You get what you pay for', many of MUA's products have been found to be pretty decent, so keeping the fingers and toes crossed for these shadows too).

I may have to write up a little review soon reflecting on whether this palette lives up to expectations, but for now I am looking forward to using these colours to create some new pretty looks in the coming weeks - both for day time and night time!

I hope you enjoyed reading! - Camilla xo