'How To Look The Best At Everything' | Benefit Gift Set

 

Hello!

Today's post is about a fairly new gift set release from Benefit called 'How To Look The Best At Everything'. I got this as a birthday present from my sister but it retails at £22.50 in most places. It comes in three shade ranges: Light, medium, and dark. Mine is 'light'.

 

In this set is handy little travel/sample sizes of four products that you need to create the perfect complexion:

 

Primer: The Pore-Fessional Pro Balm

These 7.5ml tubes of primer are really handy to slip into a make-up bag without them taking up too much space, a little of this product goes a long way so it'll last a long time and this is such a hyped up product, often named 'the best' primer there is so this set gives people a good chance to try it out and see if it's for them. This was the only product that I had previously tried before receiving this kit and I personally love it! It's silky consistency applies like a dream to the skin and it's fantastic at covering large pores and making the complexion appear more flawless.

 

Foundation: "Hello Flawless" Oxygen Wow Brightening Make-Up

This tiny little 7ml pump tube of foundation is adorable - I love mini versions of things! Despite my set being the 'light' version, this foundation is still a tad too dark for me but I already know that this will come in more than handy to take away on a summer holiday as it will match my slightly more tanned face then and is an ideal amount as I always wear none-minimal make-up when I'm in a hot country so don't need a lot. This would also be good to slip into a hand bag for little touch ups throughout the day - more foundations should be available in small sizes!!
 

Concealer: Boi-ing 01 & 02

Described as an 'industrial strength' concealer, two different shades of this have been provided, I assume so that you can mix your own perfect shade with a combination of the two? But I think that I'll mostly be turned to shade 01 to hide my 'dark circles, boo-boos and broken capillaries'. This isn't as hyped up as Benefit's Erase Paste concealer, but I've found it to be really effective at hiding blemishes - not so much dark circles though because it gets a little bit cakey.
 

Powder: "Hello Flawless" Powder

I've used this powder a couple of times and have really enjoyed it - I'm scared to get attached to it because the full size is pricey! (£24.50!) It applies really smoothly and is quite 'chalky' in consistency but I find this works well for me because I can get oily skin and this helps to combat my shine and sliding make up throughout the day. The coverage is really sheer so this is mainly just a setting powder to help mattify and seal foundation, all adding to the flawless finish of the make-up.

 

 

The packaging of this gift set is absolutely adorable, it comes in an old fashioned book-style box, complete with a little brush, an inbuilt mirror (not pictured) and a little 'tips and tricks' booklet for how to apply each of the products. This was a perfect gift for me and I am certain that it would be a perfect gift for any make-up lovers that you need to treat this Christmas.. or even just yourself if you're fan of cute, miniature sized Benefit products and want to try out some new bits and bobs before buying the full size versions.

 

♥

20th Birthday Presents

 

 

Hello my little lovely jubblies. I'm coming to you with a biiig smile on my face today after having another absolutely amazing weekend and have been spoilt so, so rotton! As some of you may know, it was my birthday on Friday and my nearest and dearest definitely treated me well, the little gems! I've hit the ripe old age of 20 now and have left those wonderful teenage years behind me *sob*, so as I'm an old prune now and this was no milestone age then I was expecting about 3 cards with a tenner shoved inside them and maybe some flowers from my boyfriend.. I didn't really expect to be showered with so many wonderful gifts and be up to my eyeballs in new and exciting things to try!

I feel like a spoilt little princess.

A very grateful, spoilt little princess.

 

Just a little disclaimer that this is no way intended to be any kind of 'bragging' or 'show off' kind of post at all, as it is basically just a haul.. apart from it wasn't me that picked the items out.. or paid for them. I personally like reading these kind of posts that other people do after their birthdays because more often than not they're full to the brim with beauty bits which excite me and also they're great for gift ideas so this could give you some hints and tips if you've not started Christmas shopping yet!

 

When I first caught wind of these advent calendars from Ciate way back in October I had my heart well and truely set on getting one - what could be better than opening a door to a bottle of nail varnish every single morning leading up to Christmas Day?! I puppy dog eyed my mummy if she could get me one as a birthday present and tryed my best to justify the steep price tag with the fact that it contains exclusive shades and and 4 bottles of the ever so famous caviar pearls. She finally said 'yes'.. but then let on to me that they had all sold out before she had chance to order one, allowing me to moan and sulk that I'd missed the chance and she well and truely threw me off the scent that she had snapped one up for me. Little minx. I was jumping for joy when I realised she'd tricked me and I ripped open that yellow Selfridges box and admired my new Ciate Mini Mani Month and all of it's glory with a great big smile on my face. Yay!
 

The Benefit 'How To Look The Best At Everything' gift set pictured above was from my younger sister and contains minis of everything that you need to create the ideal complexion and base with the Pore-fessional primer, Hello Flawless foundation, 2 shades of Boi-ing concealer, and Me Vain? setting powder and it comes in a super cute old fashioned book style packaging - LOVE. The earrings were from my boyfriend's parents and the elephant Pandora charm was from my Grandma. She also gave me some money with strict instructions that I 'must treat myself to something pretty' with it, and treating myself is of course one of my favourite things to do so I don't think I'll find that too hard!

 

Below is a 'Topshop Hottie', i.e. a hot water bottle, that I got from one of the girls that I live with at uni and she said that she picked this one out because it's a wolf.. but when he has his hood up he's a cosy little sheep - aw! Now, I know that the saying 'wolf in sheep's clothing' means something to do with pretending you're something you're not?.. but lets just pretend it's nothing to do with that and it's nothing but a cute little wolf with a fluffy white jumper on! This is adorable and who wouldn't want to receive this as a present?



The little collage above is all the gifts I got from my two best friends at university; how generous? Rachael decorated our house with 'Happy birthday' banners and even got me a little cupcake from Greggs and put a candle in it for me - aw! As if a gorgeous clutch bag from River Island wasn't enough there was a nice purple box absolutely full of little goodies! They definitely satified my beauty cravings as well as my massive sweet tooth! So many sweets haha. Soap and Glory goodies, earrings and a ring, eyelashes, Rihanna perfume, a Skittles candle (mmm) and more!

 

The collage below is presents from my boyfriend. I asked if there was any particular order that I should open them and his only specification was the one that needed to be last.. and it was the socks which confused me why these had to be last until I realised that inside one of the socks was a little Pandora box! It's the white mother of pearl 'Love Me' charm, and he said he didn't want it to be too obvious what it was straight away so tried to disguise what the box would be by putting it inside pair of socks haha! He also got me a Body Shop gift set with scrubs, body butters, soaps and shower gels and moisturisers in and although I've never known what 'Moringa' is before it turns out to be a scent I really like - it's fresh and floral so I'll be saving these for spring and summer, but the coconut body milk has already been put into regular use.

 

I think the biggest surprise was definitely a camera, there was no hints or clues about this one! I don't actually own a camera - I steal my mum's to take my blog pictures and have to take them in bulk too because she uses her camera all the time, but now I have my very own! It has lots of fancy settings on it that I'm not quite sure what I'm doing with yet but I've had a good play about with it and it has good focus on close up pictures which I really like. That's why this post is so photo heavy - I've been trialling my new camera!

 

Andddd on top of all that he also got me some sweets and one of THE best onesies that I have ever seen.. ever! It's from Next and I'd spotted it before and told him that I'd never buy it myself as it's expensive for a onesie - and I wasn't even hinting! Safe to say I want to live in this now for the next few weeks, it so amazingly cosy and warm, and look how well I match my new hot water bottle!!

 

I like sweets more than I like cosmetics and I think people may have figured this out! My teeth are going to fall out after I've worked my way through this great big pile of sweets - mmmm!

 

♥

 



Weekend in Liverpool: Michael McIntyre Live Arena Tour

I hope you all had a very good weekend and are enjoying your week - only 4 weeks til Christmas! Despite being almost 20, I am definitely still like an excited small child around the festive season with my daily countdown and extreme love for all things Christmas related! I had one of the best weekends that I've had in a reaaally long time and have decided to share it with you all, hope you enjoy..

 

For my boyfriend's 19th birthday present (in August!) I booked two tickets to see Michael McIntyre's 'Show Time' arena tour and an overnight stay in the Novotel Hotel in Liverpool city centre. We stayed in the Novotel last year and both absolutely loved it and enjoyed the luxury of a pricey 'executive' hotel room so I thought it would be a nice idea to take a trip down memory lane and stay there again, and also it's best to stick with what you know sometimes - I didn't want to risk picking a hotel that turned out not to be so great so played it safe. The hotel was just as amazing as we both remembered it and is in a prime location; one minute walk from the shopping centre and about five minutes to the Albert Docks and Echo Arena.

 

On the Friday we arrived, checked in and as it was only 4pm thought it would be the ideal time to hit Primark as maybe it would be quieter than Saturday morning and I was right, it was busy still.. but definitely bareable and gave me the chance to peacefully mooch around all three floors and spend a considerable sum of money... :D After treating ourselves to some Krispy Kreme doughnuts and a quick bite to eat we got ready and went to the Echo Arena. I was so excited for this! I tried to explain it to my friends as 'you know if you watch a comedian on telly and it's a bit like 'ha ha that was funny'.. well seeing them live definitely makes it a lot more like 'hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha I can't breathe, oh now I'm crying!' kind of funny and I can safely say that there were lots of laughs, it was a brilliant show. We planned on having a couple of drinks in Concert Square when the show finished but we were both just too tired and all I wanted was to get warm and snuggle up in bed. We wandered back across the docks and through Liverpool One having a peek at the ice skating and just taking in all of the festivity and Christmas decorations - it was a lovely romantic little walk.

Waiting To Be Picked Up | Wheel On Albert Docks | Michael McIntyre | Novotel Bed

The Lovely Lad Himself | City Centre | Christmas Tree | Christmas Lights & Decorations

 

The next day we hit the shops about midday and my bank account took a beating ..oops! I'm not sorry though because I got myself lots of lovely new things and made a start on Christmas shopping. I happily bought myself a pair of new disco pants in navy by Glamorous that I found in Bank with a little bonus of 20% off everything in store that weekend! What wasn't so great was that Tulisa's big chavvy face was slapped on the front of the shopping bag and I had to carry it around all day. Then I spotted Jamie Oliver's Italian restaurant and suggested that we went there for lunch but when we went in they told us it'd be a 45 minute wait and our tummies were rumbling so unfortunately we didn't get to try it out.



 Shopping | Buying Christmas Presents | Decorations in Liverpool One | Jamie Oliver's Italian

Instead of Jamie's Italian we instead went for lunch at Las Iguanas - somewhere that I have wanted to try out for a really long time and it definitely didn't disappoint! I got a beef 'big burrito' and John's was chicken and we shared quesadillas for a starter. The food was aaaabsolutely amazing and I'd happily go again and would now choose it over a Nandos any day. Lunch was my treat so when our waitress brought over the pin/card machine to pay she passed it straight to John and I had to embarass her by taking it back out of his hands right infront of her and opened my purse to get my card out. Don't be so stereotypical - girls can pay too!



John in Las Iguanas | Las Iguanas | Beef 'Big Burrito' | Enjoying My Lunch

 

When we arrived back home on Saturday evening we were each heading off for a night out with our friends as it was the weekend of an annual festival in my home town: The Dickensian Festival, where everybody basically dresses up in old fashioned clothes, drinks mulled wine and eats roasted chestnuts while browsing our own version of Christmas markets. The evening always promises to be a great night out because it's always so busy and I had a really good time with the girls. The next day was a typical Sunday for me with a cooked breakfast.. bacon fried egg and cheese bun - thanks John! A chill out day and then a lovely homemade roast dinner with apple crumble for dessert with John's family later on, finally topped off by watching the final episode of Prison Break and ending up a sobbing mess even though I've seen it before ..but it really is just so touching and emotional!

 

If that's not a good weekend then I don't know what is!

Super loved up and happy!

♥ ♥ ♥

Mum's Birthday Present

 

Hello girls, my post today is just to show you what I got my mum for her birthday last Thursday. I'm doing this because a) her product is beauty based, and b) I often struggle with thinking of gift ideas for people so if you're anything like me and need a little inspiration for any upcoming birthdays or even Christmas then this might help you out.

 

My mum isn't a massive beauty fan, she's nothing like me in the slightest. She hair that is too short to style and because of her natural beauty all she ever needs is a slick of mascara and she's good to go. So jealous! One thing that she is a big fan of is having nicely painted nails and good tan, so, I just got her some very basic and inexpensive beauty bits and pieces, nothing too fancy at all and I hope she'll get good use out of them all. I got her 10 things in all and wrapped them all individually with ribbons and bows and put them in a nicely presented box. Definitely the funnest part of opening presents is the surprise of each one!

 

 

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♥