A Late September Haul And A Giveaway

I know you love these posts so you won't mind that this one is a little bit late but it's September haul time :)  As per usual I'm all over the place and I seem to be doing everything out of sync - yesterday's post contained an item from Octobers haul so that should have been up today, and my September haul should have been up yesterday. Typical me though everything that could go wrong did - thank you useless You Tube video! but yeah, September haul.

I'll start of with clothes - I only bought 3 items but they will all work with lots of things that I already have in my wardrobe, There is nothing worse than buying an item of clothing and realising that you have nothing to go with it.

First up is this floral, western style shirt that came from La Redoute. I love the colours and the almost tropical design, and the red piping detail down the front, around the collar, and on the cuffs. I think this will look great with a pair of jeans or even a pair of smart black trousers or a skirt.

Sticking with the floral theme, I also got this tunic from Matalan. It has a super bright floral pattern on the front section, which is made of a textured, weave fabric. 

The sleeves and the back of the top are in a plain black, soft fabric. It's in the long length style and will be great for wearing or jeggings, leggings or skinny jeans. This is the top that I'm wearing in the You Tube video below x 

There seems to be a lot of texture around at the moment in fashion, and I added a little bit more with this purchase from H&M.

This fab, black skirt is slightly a-line in shape, and comes in a almost dotty, raised textured fabric. I love the weight off this skirt and I can't wait to team it with black opaques and either my Clarks brogues or some knee high boots.

Most of my H&M orders seem to be going back at the moment, clothes wise anyways but I did keep a few other things from Septembers orders including this trinket box!

It's a pineapple! What's not to love? It's made of an almost distressed mirrored glass. t''s a little bit bigger than I thought it would be so I'm trying to find somewhere to put it at the moment, but I love it, it's so kitsch and sparkly.

Speaking of slightly kitsch - how adorable is this blusher? It reminds me a little bit of the Physicians Formula Beauty Booster blushers that I've been lusting after for years.

It's embossed with all different colour hearts in shades of hot pink, orange, coral, and a pale, shimmery pink / nude. The pigmentation is pretty decent but I'm too in love with the design to swatch it properly lol. It also comes with a mirror and a little brush underneath the compact.

Apart from clothes, home things and beauty the other two H&M items that I bought last month were both jewellery pieces. First I got this pack of three acrylic bracelets, a faceted faux jade, a faceted faux black onyx and a faux cognac amber strand. The colours in these are quite autumnal and they'll work really nicely with some pieces I already have.

I also ordered these earrings which I couldn't resist. I love daisies at the best of times and these remind me a lot of the daisies on the Marc Jacobs Daisy bottles.

That purchase lead to these two buys from ebay - a coordinating necklace in black 

and in white

Unfortunately I broke one of the daisies on the black strand but they were pretty easy to remove, and it's just made the necklace a little bit shorter. I already have some white earrings also from ebay so now I have two matching sets. The necklaces were just 99p each from this seller.

I only made one other ebay jewellery purchase but more on that later. The only other jewellery purchases in September came at the Candy Rocks Jewellery event. You can see the two necklaces I bought both above and below. You can read all about the event and see my buys in more detail here

Although I didn't buy any more jewellery I did buy one other thing from ebay - a make up brush.

These Real Techniques dupes are all over ebay, and whilst I can't compare them to the originals they're usually pretty decent for the price. This is just a basic fluffy eye brush. It feels very soft and it was just 99p including postage from this seller.

You know me I love my bargains, and recently I popped into a local branch of Semichem to look at the make up. They didn't have a lot in but my eyes were drawn to a small Yankee Simply Home display. This is basically Yankee Candles diffusion line, the fragrances aren't usually quite as strong and the candles don't usually last as long but they're a bit cheaper so it doesn't really matter. 

I've been using my melt warmers quite a bit lately so I decided to try one of their melts in the Bartlett Pear fragrance. The smell from this is amazing, it's like a combination of sun warmed, freshly cut apples and pears, great for this time of year, when we're all craving apple crumbles and the like.

Speaking of yummy smells I also placed another Avon order in September x I needed another shower gel like a hole in the head but the scratch and sniff section smelled so good I couldn't resist

Avon Senses Romantic Garden Of Eden smells amazing, it's a combination of exotic fruits and fresh basil and it really does smell good enough to eat.

I also picked up yet another nail varnish from Avon, this time in the Speed Dry formulation and in the colour Shipwreck. Shipwreck is the most amazingly, vibrant, citrussy lime colour, shot through with tonal glitter and sparkle. I know a lot of people don't like green nail polish but it's one of my favourite colour families, and I especially love colours like this on dull, wintry days.

My major beauty purchases in September came from a combination of both Boots and Superdrug. I had a couple of opportunities to pursue some of the bigger branches and I took full advantage. After spying the new L'Oreal Color Riche L'Ombre Pure Eyeshadows on a few blogs and instagram feed I have to say I was tempted, and I ended up picking up two shades.

On the right is 502 Lumiere / Quartz Flume and on the left is 601 Cameleon / Soliel Levant.

I really don't know why they seem to have two different names but I've used them both here to avoid confusion. Not only are these shadows beautiful to look at but they also have an amazing almost multi faceted finish. 502 is a deep metallic brown with a touch of shimmer, the pigmentation is super, and the tiniest amount is needed. 601 was the first shade that I saw but it took a little bit of finding. Again with an embossed design, it looks like a silvery taupe in the pan but in fact it's shot through with an almost 3D iridescent effect in shades of pink and green, that looks amazing but which is so hard to capture on camera. Cameleon is definitely the right name for it, as it not only changes in the light but it can also transform any other eyeshadow colour just by layering a bit over the top. I've been wearing these two shades together to give an iridescent effect smokey eye.

My final 3 purchases in September all came from Maybelline, and they were all lip products. I'm really considering a lip product no buy I seem to have bought so many lately, but they're have been so many new releases lately that I've just had to indulge. First up a gloss, I've majorly fell out of love with glosses over the last 6 month to a year, but it just felt the right time to rediscover them.

Whilst having a glossy finish and texture, Maybelline Color Elixir Lip Lacquer in 105 Petal Plush does actually have a fair bit of pigmentation. I haven't managed to take a swatch picture for you but it's a really wearable, pale neutral pink. It love the ergonomically shaped sponge applicator and I like the non sticky feel on my lips. The one thing I'm not sure of is the taste, it's a tiny bit too perfumed for me.

As well as the gloss I also picked up a couple of the Maybelline Color Drama Intense Velvet Lip Pencils in 140 Minimalist and in 130 Love My Pink.

I'm not going to say anything about these really because I've got a full review to come x

The final thing that I bought myself was a magazine, and the September / October issue of Cosmopolitan came with a free mini Orly nail lacquer. There were four shades to choose from and I went for the colour Luxe, a lovely sparkly gold.

So that was it for what I bought, but last month I was lucky enough to be gifted a couple of things from both my mum and from a fellow blogger. You're probably sick of hearing it but for a few weeks in September I was pretty poorly, well in an attempt to cheer me up my lovely Mummy ordered me the Tarte Tartlette 101 Collection from QVC. I believe that this kit was a special or a one off but most of the products are in the permanent line so I'll be reviewing all of the items in the near future.

The little Tarte make up purse contained a full sized limited edition design of their foundation buffing brush, a full sized Amazonian Clay 12 Hour Full Coverage Foundation in Light Sand, a full sized Amazonian Butter Lipstick in Plummy Rose, a 7ml bottle of their famous Maracuja Oil and a mini Lights, Camera, Lashes Mascara. I'm so excited to have a little play and I'm especially excited to try the Maracuja Oil which is supposed to be fab for open pores and uneven skin tone. Thanks Mummy Lou x

Huge thanks also go out to the lovely Maria from Venus Loves Virgo. She posted some pictures on her instagram of some the collaboration between Disney and elf - Eyes Lips Face. Why oh why was this collection US only? We love elf and Disney here too! Anyways Maria kindle sent me an item from the Snow White Collection.

The Fairest Of Them All Face Collection, contains a cute mini face brush, and blush / highlighter and bronzer duo, with a Snow White design on the lid.

I'm actually really impressed with the face product, the shades are super soft and pigmented. I don't think a plain version of this product exists on the UK website but I'm sure the shades will exist in another format, either way I would thoroughly recommend. Thanks Maria and I promise something will be winging it's way across the Atlantic shortly for you xx

So that was my very long and drawn out, September haul. If you would like to, and I'd love you to, please watch the accompanying You Tube video, here or below x  Thanks for reading and if you have any questions or comments on anything that I've bought please let me know xx



No! Wait! You've forgotten something I hear you cry, no I haven't really but the title of this post did mention a giveaway didn't it? Well during my last giveaway I reached 500 Bloglovin Followers, a figure that thanks to you guys I've now surpassed, and I because of that I felt that I should give back to you guys a bit and do another little giveaway. It's just an ickle one this time that features a couple of things, I've already mentioned in this post and a little something extra.

  The something extra is something that I ordered from ebay for me, alas I've chunky hands so it didn't fit. It's the sweetest bronze, gold tone bangle with the words "Dreams Come True If You Really Want Them To...."

It's really sweet but it doesn't fit my man hands so I thought I'd give it away :) You can also win a brand new white version of my daisy necklace and a new and sealed H&M heart blusher. All you need to do is fill in the Rafflecopter form below before the 8th November 2014. The prizes are just little so I'm okay with posting abroad.

a Rafflecopter giveaway



Thanks again for following, and reading and Good Luck xx

Getting Sparkly With Candy Rocks Jewellery

I love jewellery and I love blogger events, and this week I had the opportunity to combine the two courtesy of a local North East based company Candy Rocks Jewellery.

So on Thursday night along with several other lovely bloggers, I headed to The Town Wall, a pub not to far away from the Central Station in Newcastle city centre. The event took place in the Secret Cinema Room, an intimate, and cosy below ground room, with a bar and lined with sofas, and tables and chairs. 

Upon arrival we were greeted with sparkly fruity, drinks from one of the event sponsors, Glo Worm, who produce a range of fruity, caffinated drinks, that are ideal for use as mixers, we had the raspberry one which I would thoroughly recommend! 

The main purpose of the event was to showcase Candy Rocks, newest range of jewellery. Unlike a lot of jewellery brands they just focus on necklaces, and in particular statement necklace. Huge, statement pieces are everywhere at the moment and as you've probably already realised I'm a big fan, so this really was a match made in heaven. 

Excuse the ridiculous amount of pictures but I can honestly say I wanted everything, they had everything from huge, heavy sparkly in your face pieces, to slightly more delicate brights, with just a touch of sparkle.

After having a chance to have a look at some of the pieces, and a welcome from Lisa, it was time to kick back and have some fun. Some of the girls from local salon Glitz N Glamour Hair And Beauty, were on hand to show off their hairdressing skills and quite a few ladies got their hair done -  Chloe from New Girl In Toon, had some gorgeous curls and waves put in

and Becca from Polka Dot Notebook Blog, had the most fabulous up do done, it was stunning, and would be a perfect bridal do .

Talk about sods law though I'd only had my hair done on the Thursday morning so it seemed a bit pointless to get it done after I'd already paid for a blow dry, after seeing Becca's though I was really tempted to change my mind.

As well as having sweeties and lollipops on the tables, we were also treated to some vanilla cheesecake shots courtesy of local company Simply Cheesecake, they were so nice and I'm ashamed to say I ate the crumb too, they weren't that big honestly ;)

After the cheesecakes it was quiz time, I don't think we did particularly well on my table but it was a good laugh. We also had the opportunity to name and win a necklace and of course there was the raffle.

There was a small charge for the event but all the proceeds went to a fabulous charity Head Start For Babies, which raises awareness of plagiocephaly and brachycephaly. A raffle ticket was included in the ticket price, but once everyone saw the prizes, we nearly all bought more. The fabulous prizes included items from Tare, Marc Jacobs Beauty, Benefit and more.  I wasn't lucky enough to win anything this time but lots of ladies went away with some lovely goodies x 

10% of all jewellery sales on the night were also donated to the charity so it would have been wrong not to pick a few things up. It was so hard to choose, and I'm still longing for one of my rejects but I'm really happy with the two necklaces that I got. They are both in exactly the same design but in a different colour. These are probably the most delicate pieces that they had, but that doesn't make them any the less statement or eye catching.

I love the gunmetal chain and setting on both of these necklaces, it's really unusual and not something that you see a lot in jewellery. The first necklace is almost orange / red in colour, and is scattered through with sparkly crystals.

The second necklace is almost rainbow / neon in colour, and contains lots of multi coloured acrylic stones, and crystals again set in the gunmetal effect finish. This is much brighter than it's showing here, my camera has really washed this one out. 

All of there jewellery would be great for evening wear, or even for a special occasion, but I also think that they would work with a shirt, t-shirt or something plain. I love how people seem to style necklaces like this, even with a plain white, t-shirt and pair of jeans, you can create a stunning, individual look in minutes.

Like all good events the lovely people at Candy Rocks made sure that we didn't leave empty handed. We each got a lovely goodie bag crammed full of sweeties, beauty samples, and more Glo Worm drinks. The samples were largely from US and high end brands, and I was lucky enough to get some Make Up Forever, NARS, and Peter Thomas Roth goodies to play with. You'll definitely see some of these bits popping up in a new series I have starting soon on the blog Sample Saturday x 

As well as the goodie bags, we could also chose a necklace to take home, there were four different options to choose from and I went for this one.

It was very different to anything else that I bought, and again I love the gunmetal chain and setting, and I love the combination of the purple/ lilac, the yellow and the pale blue, with the almost champagne coloured crystal. Again the colours are a bit more vibrant irl x 

I would like to say a huge thank you to the ladies at Candy Rocks, and everyone else involved for having me. I had a really nice evening, and got to indulge in one my favourite things, no not cheesecake - jewellery! You can find out more about Candy Rocks, and purchase from either their facebook page, or their instagram page and you can also find them on twitter. If you like something though go for it, the pieces are often available in quite limited quantities. Are you a fan of the statement necklace? Leave me a comment and let me know x