Treat Yourself Or Someone Else - Too Faced Best Year Ever 2018 Make Up Set*

I know it doesn't always look like based on the amount of hauls that I post but in 2017 I really tried to cut down my spending, and in particular I've tried to cut down the amount of money that I spend on make up. Even with regularly trimming my stash, and passing on products to friends and family, my make up stash is starting to become a little bit unmanageable, I'm starting to forget what I have, and I'm eventually coming to the rather obvious conclusion that I have way too much make up for just one face.

Sometimes though you see something and as shallow as it sounds you can't imagine your life without it! Get a grip Louise I hear you cry, and yes you're probably right there are much more important things in life than make up, sometimes though you have to indulge in that whim, throw sense out of the window and buy something that you know will make you happy even if it's just for a few moments in time.

I know a lot of bloggers feel the need to justify what they buy, and most of the time I'm not one of them, but this is one of those purchases that I guess I had to justify to myself. The reason why I took the plunge and bought this item was quite a simple one, well as well as looking gorgeous that it, I just don't own a lot of Too Faced make up, and I really don't know why. Like Benefit and Urban Decay it appeals to my quirky side but for too long it gone largely unowned and unloved in LouLouLand. Don't get me wrong I regularly lust after their Chocolate Bar palettes and their cheek colours, and I've received the odd thing in beauty boxes and as gifts but I've never been tempted enough to make a purchase, however a few weeks ago all of that changed.

I must admit that it was love at first sight when I saw their 2017 Holiday releases, I loved everything but I was ultimately torn between two sets, the Pretty Little Planner Make Up Gift Set which was slightly cheaper at £34 and the set that I eventually went for The Best Year Ever 2018 Make Up Set which was slightly more expensive at £46.

Before I talk about the kit itself though lets talk about the box, okay if you haven't done your Christmas shopping yet I either think you're very strange, or incredibly brave, I am not a last minute shopper but if you are this would make a lovely gift, the outer box is gorgeous and very festive. In a gorgeous metallic gold it features stamps or maybe advent calendar doors all with cute little festive cartoon images on them, including puppies in antlers! If you think the box is cute though then wait till you see what is inside!

Open up the box and you're greeted by a beautiful metallic gold make up bag, which fastens with a gold tasselled zip. Printed on the front of the bag which is rather ironic, given the first paragraph of this post, are the words "I have way more makeup at home"and the Too Faced heart logo. The reverse of the bag is in a pink and gold diagonal design, and the diagonal design is also carried through to the bag lining which is in a black and white fabric. This bag certainly isn't an after thought, it's good quality it's a good size, and it would make a nice gift in it's own right.

As beautiful, useful and giftable as the bag is though,  it is really about what's inside and there is lot to look at.

The first thing thing that you can see in the picture is a little piece of paper, The Too Faced Best Year Ever How To Glamour Guide, which shows you 4 festive looks that you can create from the products within the kit and it also gives you a little bit of information about the product that you can see below

This kit contains a deluxe, 4.8g size of the famous Too Faced Better Than Sex Mascara. Despite already having a mini waterproof version in my unused mascara stash, I haven't actually tried this yet, but it's definitely something that I'll be talking about on the the blog in the new year. I've heard some good things about this mascara and I'm really looking forward to trying it.

The Best Year Ever is described as a make up set and that's exactly what it is. Inside the bag you get three magnetic fastening, sturdy cardboard make up palettes, each one contains a 1 x 5.39g face colour, and a combination of 6 metallic, shimmery or matte eye shadows, each weighing in at 1.14g. All of the shades in all of the palettes work together so if you wanted to treat yourself or give away the whole set to one person then they will have a lot of make up to play with, with a mascara, 18 eye shadows and 3 cheek colours,  however if you're counting the pennies you could very easily give each of the palettes away separately without even wrapping them up as each one features a To and From section printed on the back

All of the palettes are themed, and to the best of my knowledge all of the shades inside are limited editions as they all have holiday, Christmas, party and winter themed names.

The first palette is the pink palette which is covered in hearts, is unsurprisingly named "I Believe In Pink" and contains 6 neutral toned eye shadows and one blusher.

The eyeshadow shades from left to right are Snowgirl, Mink Pink, Pink Rink, Pink Christmas, Spoiled Rotten and Wish For It.

The blusher Pink Poinsettia looks like quite a bright pink in the palette, and whilst it's bright it's still very wearable and it blends down nicely and gives you that perfect I've been out in the fresh air colour.

The next palette "Natural Beauty" is pale blue in colour and features a cute cloud, rainbow and unicorn design.

Like the previous palette the shadows are in mainly neutral tones, with a couple of metallics and shimmers thrown in for good measure. Instead of the blusher though in the palette you get a bronzing powder.

The shadows from left to right are Angelic, 5 Golden Rings, Oh, Deer! Pretty Pecan, Sleigh My Name, and BAETHOVEN.

This palette comes with a bronzer, and it's nice one, it's called Warm My Heart and it's a slightly shimmery, copper toned, bronze.

The final palette is black and features a metallic champagne bottle, champagne glass and bubbles design.

Although this palette is definitely geared towards a more party look, it still contains a similar combination of neutral toned matte, metallic, and shimmery shadows, and the cheek colour in this case is a highlighter shade.

The eyeshadow shades from left to right are Lucky Star, Cozy Cashmere, Tipsy, Oh What Fun, Sleighhh Girl and No Peeking.

The highlighter in this palette Dashing Through The Glow, is a gorgeous pale golden, champagne colour, with lots of shimmer, and sheen.

I'm not going to lie I haven't managed to use all of the products on my face yet but I have to say I have been pretty impressed by the ones that I have used. All of the shadows are soft, and have an almost creamy feel, and as you see from the pictures the pigmentation is superb. Some of the matte shades, especially the paler ones are a little chalky, but they feel velvety soft and the pigmentation is still decent. My favourites shades so far are Tipsy, Sleighhh Girl, and  Sleigh My Name - I love a bit of shimmer! and I'm also loving wearing the two cheek shades, Pink Poinsettia and Dashing Through The Glow together, you get a bit of in idea of what they look like in the picture below and I'm also loving using Dashing Through The Glow as under brow highlight.

Christmas gift sets from make up brands are nothing new but they can vary dramatically in quality. On a lot of occasions even the highest and most prestige brands can release Christmas gifts and sets that don't live up to their usual high standards but congratulations Too Faced this one is a winner! There is not a single duff item in the set, the make up bag is perfect, the mascara is one of their best sellers, and the neutral, and super wearable shadows are smooth, pigmented and blendable, you honestly couldn't ask for anything else from a make up gift set, except for maybe a lippy, a mirror and a brush but that would just be greedy, this isn't the cheapest of kits but in my opinion it's worth it either as a Merry Christmas to yourself or as a super last minute gift or 5. The Too Faced Best Year Ever Make Up Set retails at £46 from selected Debenhams stores and if you can wait till after Christmas it's still available online, and who knows it might even be reduced in a day or so x The set has definitely ignited a bit of a Too Faced love in so if you have any Too Faced recommendations other than the KVD x Too Faced Better Together Cheek And Lip Set, which I already have then I'd love to hear them.

*Paid For In Part By An Intu Gift Card 

My Benefit Cosmetics Brow Experience* And A Haul

As much as I love make up and own way too much of it I have to admit I'm often pretty lazy when it comes to applying it. If I can skip a step or a product then I probably will. Wearing glasses as I do, my eyes are usually pretty well hidden so I don't always see the point in wearing eyeliner, or false lashes and up until recently my brows received nothing more than the a cursory glance and a quick comb.

Yes, I attacked them with the tweezers and occasionally I used a brow gel or a pencil, but by and large I just let them be. There are a lot of trends though in make up and one of the hottest trends of the moment is a perfectly groomed eyebrow, I dutifully bought a few extra brow products but I just didn't "get it" thanks to Benefit Cosmetics though now I do get it and I understand the difference that a good brow can make to your face, even if you do wear glasses like I do.

A few months ago now I was lucky enough to be invited along to the Benefit Cosmetics counter in Debenhams, in Newcastle.to take a look at their new brow collection, and to have a complimentary brow treatment.

Founded in San Francisco in 1976, Benefit consider themselves as brow experts, and last year they waxed and groomed over a million sets of brows in the UK alone. Basically they know what they're doing and despite feeling a little nervous about the idea of hot wax, I knew that I was safe in their very friendly and capable hands.

Unlike a lot of companies and salons, Benefit treat every customer as an individual they don't use any stencils, instead they use a special brow mapping tool, and years of experience to create the perfect brow shape, for your face and for your lifestyle. I'm pretty useless at names but the lovely one of their make up artists mapped my brows and then told where I'd been going wrong! Well basically everywhere! My own brows were sparse, totally over plucked and I'd  pretty much lost my natural shape and my brow tails! What can I say? skinny brows were a trend at the time but thankfully Benefit had to products and the expertise to help me create my own wow brows.

I then had a chance to look at some of the products in the new Benefit Brow collection before she expertly showed me how to apply some of the products to create various brow looks, depending on different aspects of my lifestyle and what look I was going for. The difference was already phenomenal but the best was yet to come.

It seemed a shame to wipe all that make up off but that's exactly what Dean, the counters brow specialist did. My make up was wiped off, and I then had to fill in a form and then it was shaping time. Dean was really friendly and again gave me some advice regarding my brow shape, and what I could do to improve it, he then waxed and perfected my current brow shape and got rid of the strays and stragglers. As a regular tweezer I'm now a warm wax convert, it hurt way less, and the finish and crispness was way better than anything that I could ever achieve with tweezers! It's around £14.50 for a basic brow wax but for me it now a necessity not a luxury!

Unlike a lot of companies Benefit don't let you go home with sore looking brows, Dean applied a soothing after wax solution, before covering the slight redness with Benefit's famous Boing Concealer, and then filling my brows in with various products to make my brows look magazine cover ready.

At last I get it! get your shape right,and fill in the gaps in your brows, and it really can look as though you've had a face lift. My face looked lifted, my eyes looked wider, and I just looked more polished and alive. I haven't managed any good photos unfortunately but there are a couple of before and afters on my Instagram page but it's safe to say that I'm now a Benefit brow convert. I've followed Dean's advice to the letter and I haven't put a pair of tweezers near my eyes since, I've had Benefit waxes every month for the past three months now and along with using some of the Benefit  brow products I can really see the difference in the shape and growth of my brows, and from someone who barely owned a brow product, I now have a large collection based on the look that I'm going for and how long I have to do my make up.

The lovely Benefit counter staff recommend quite a few products in the range, and whilst I would ultimately love to own the entire brow collection, I just bought some of the initial products that they recommended and I can always add to my stash later.

The first product that I bought Browvo is probably my favourite product from the new line and it was recommended to me as my must have. Browvo is a conditioning eyebrow primer, that is crammed full of vitamins and minerals, and conditioners including soy protein and keratin. Packaged in their new space age, silver packaging, Browvo comes in a twist up style applicator with a soft, nodule, spike, covered head, twist it up, and simply apply the gel to clean, dry brows. You can either use this gel at night to help to thicken the brow hairs, and encourage growth, or you can use it as a conditioning treatment and as a primer under the rest of your brow products. I have to say I'm loving this one, it's already made an appearance in my July / August Favourites video (coming soon), and I really think it's helped to improve both the growth rate and the thickness of my brow hairs. Benefit Browvo Conditioning Eyebrow Primer retails at £21.50

The next product that was recommended to me was the Precisely My Brow Pencil in shade 4, which is one of Benefit's medium shades. In the new brow collection all of the coloured products bar Gimme Brow comes in 6 shades, ranging from the palest of the pale, to jet black  and I was matched to shade 4. Precisely My Brow is a twist up brow pencil, with a spoolie on the end that doesn't need sharpening. This pencil is one of the most natural products in the line, and  creates very fine almost hair like strokes, making it  ideal for filling in gaps in your brows in a natural way. Precisely My Brow Pencil retails at £18.50.

If the natural look isn't for you, then the Goof Proof brow pencil is probably more your cup of tea. Again I got this in shade 4 and like the Precisely pencil is a non sharpening twist up pencil, with a spoolie on the end. This pencil though is a look thicker and it an almost diamond shaped tip. Use the tip and you can create hair like strokes and use it flat and you can fill in much larger areas. Goof Proof Eyebrow Pencil also retails at £18.50

As I say there are a few other things I would like to add to my own personal Benefit brow collection, but they will have to wait, in the meantime though I did manage to pick up a few Benefit brow items free with some magazine, including one of the things that I really wanted try, Ready Set Brow.

Although they were only minis, I ended up buying two magazines to get two, This is basically just a clear brow gel that you can either wear on it own, or you can use it to set and extend the wear of your other brow products. I've tried this a few times and again I'm a convert and I'll definitely be buying the full size.It's great for flattening out those stray and spiky hairs and for setting other products without leaving your brows rock solid and stiff.

Next up Gimme Brow, and like Browzings this is a product that already existed in the Benefit inventory but it's been brought right up to date and repackaged in the new silver, futuristic packaging. It now comes in an extra shade, so you can choose from 1, Light, 3, Medium and 5 Deep. I'm a 4 and I've been told that I would probably now be a 3 in Gimme Brow, but this Glamour freebie only came in 1 and 5 so I decided to try the Deep shade for a different look.

Another magazine was also giving away mini Goof Proof's but again they didn't have the full colour selection so I ended going for 2. It's a touch light for me but I'm think I might be able to use it like the new 3D Brow Tones, to add some highlights and depth to my brows.

No longer am I the girl with just a couple of brow products with this little lot and some stuff that I've bought and acquired I'm now well sorted when it comes to brow products. If you would like any individual reviews of any of these products then please let me and you can also let me know if you'd like to see any reviews of these classic Benefit products.

I'm a sucker for a mini, and these travel sizes were placed next to the tills in Boots and they just fell into my basket! You could choose from 4 mini products and you got a few clear cosmetics bag. I went for a few old favourites and something new.

Benetint was one of Benefit's first ever products and it remains one of their most popular and for good reason. On first appearance it looks like nail polish but this rosy red, rose scented liquid can be used as either a lip stain or as a cheek colour, I also chose a mini 4ml size of High Beam. High Beam was the first ever Benefit product that I owned, I loved Victoria Beckham's sharp iridescent cheekbones, and this was supposedly the product that she used all those year ago,  and it's something that I still use and love today. I just pop a tiny bit of this pale pink, shimmery highlighting cream onto my cheek bones and onto my brow bone and I'm good to go. I also got a 4ml bottle of Posie Tint, Posie Tint is one of the newer editions but it's something else that I love, again it resembles nail polish but it add a flash of creamy pink to both your lips and your cheeks and you should know by now that I'm partial to a bit of pink.

The final product that I got is something that I haven't actually seen in the full size. Benefit's Boing 02 / Eye Bright Duo, which combines two of Benefit's most popular complexion products Boing Concealer and Eye Bright in the one compact. I'm normally shade 1 in Boing which I love and that also features in my July / August favourites but this is shade 2 which is a little bit darker. It should still work for me though when I have a tan or I could always use it for contouring. I really bought it though for the Eye Bright which is something that I haven't used in this format, I've used the pencil which is great for getting rid of darkness around the eye area but this is the cream version which I haven't actually seen elsewhere before and I'm looking forward to trying.

I've always loved Benefit Cosmetics but after being introduced to their new brow collection and their brow services, I'm even more of a convert than I was before, and I would definitely recommend that you give them a go, if you want to try out some of the latest and most innovative brow products on the market. You can find out a little bit more about my brow experience and find out a little bit more about the products I bought in the accompanying You Tube video which you can watch via this link or below.



I actually have a few more Benefit Cosmetics hauls to come including a sale haul post, and a combined haul and review post on some of their newest products. I'm going to you guessing for a little while but this picture below might give you a few hints :)

Thanks for reading and if you have any questions on any of the products or things that I've talked about in this post, or if you would like any full reviews then please leave me a comment and I'll get back to you xx

*The Brow Mapping And First Wax Was Complimentary But I've Paid For Every Subsequent Wax And All Of The Products Featured Myself

Time For Watches With Van Peterson 925 At Debenhams*

Many, many moons ago, when I was younger, richer and healthier, I considered myself to be a bit of a designer diva. Everything that I bought had to have the right label and I was obsessed with having the right handbag, the right pair of shoes and the right watch. I was probably a bit shallow back in those days but as circumstances have changed so have I. Nowadays I consider myself to be a bit more of a bargainista - I'm always looking out for the best buys and the best prices and 9 time out of 10, I don't like spending more money than I have to . 

Despite my new bargainista lifestyle it is still possible to buy items with a designer label for less by buying from a brands diffusion line. One off high street and designer collaborations are now common place but Debenhams is one high street store that's take this idea of a collaboration one step further.

Walk into any Debenhams store, nationwide and you can find exclusive items from the Designers At Debenhams range from the likes of Henry Holland, Julien MacDonald, Betty Jackson and Jasper Conran, As well as clothing you can find home accessories, handbags and jewellery.

A few weeks ago now I was contacted by the lovely people at Debenhams offering me a little pressie from the Designers At Debenhams range to celebrate Random Acts Of Kindness Week. There were a couple of options to choose from including some fabulous Betty Jackson Black jewellery pieces but I decided to go for a watch.

The watch that I chose was from a Designers At Debenhams brand Van Peterson 925. Founded by Eric Van Peterson and his wife Lin over 30 years ago, Van Peterson is a high end, designer jewellery brand favoured by the the likes of Charlize Theron, Poppy Delevigne and Annie Lennox. Understandably though their pieces aren't cheap. Their  prices reflect the precious stones and metals that they use as well as their individual and one off designs. Thankfully though for those of us with a more moderate budget Eric Van Peterson has teamed up with Debenhams to produce a more affordable range of jewellery pieces and watches.

Like you would expect with any designer lead item, the packaging was perfection. My watch came beautifully packaged in a black and silver box, complete with a black ribbon bow, and the Van Peterson logo in silver and black. It really does look like a present and anyone receiving it would know that was something special inside.

Nestled around a black velour cushion was my watch. This is the Van Peterson Mini Branded Bezel Watch.

In silver tone, it has the traditional gate link strap, with the Van Peterson logo on the clasp.

The watch face is made from a gorgeous iridescent mother of pearl, and it features the Van Peterson logo in silver, silver tone hands, and each of the numbers are represented by a square crystal surrounded by silver.

The watch features a silver tone bezel, which features the words Van Peterson all the way around.

Fit wise this watch is a little bit loose on me but I actually like it like that. I love layering up my watch with bracelets and bangles so I actually don't mind the slackness or the fact that I can wear it further up my arm. Unfortunately you can't alter the strap on this watch yourself but there is some information within the box where you can get the strap altered for just £5.50 + postage.

I have to say I don't think any of my photographs actually do this beautiful watch justice. The silver tone is very, very shiny, and the mother of pearl face flashes with the most amazing rainbow shades.

I think that this is an ideal watch to take you from day to night. It has quite a traditional, masculine, utilitarian shape but the addition of the crystals and the mother of pearl on the dial give it a bit more of a glamorous look. 

I'm absolutely in love with this watch and whilst I would be the first to say that I'm not a regular watch wearer, I've worn this non stop since I received it, and I've had so many lovely comments on it already.

This Van Peterson Mini Branded Bezel Watch retails at £70 but unfortunately it's out of stock online

at the moment. If you're looking for a watch either for yourself or as a Mothers Day gift though, Debenhams have a large range of watches to choose from no matter what your budget. You can find watches from some of their Designers At Debenhams brands including  Jasper Conran, John Rocha, Van Peterson and Floozie by Frost French, as well as timepieces from well known brands such as DKNY, Skagen, Fossil and Guess.

Are you a fan of high street and designer collaborations? I'd love to hear your thoughts x 

(*Sample)

I've Got The Royal Wedding Nailed

After my little look at some of the more bizarre Royal Wedding Merchandise it's not surprise that the beauty industry has got involved, with special kits and products from brands such as Neals Yard, Batiste, Elemis, Nails Rocks, Essie and Leighton Denny I didn't take much persuasion to get out my purse but what did I buy?
Well in two words nail varnish - OPI's Britannia Collection to be honest was just a bit of a re-release of older shades some of which I already own including Dating A Royal.

So I skipped it, and I also skipped the Leighton Denny and Essie Royal themed kits, but I did buy a Butter London polish. Butter London has a few London and Monarchy named polishes including HRH, Tea With The Queen and All Hail The Queen, but the star for me is No More Waity, Katie

Made to the usual Butter London formula which is free from formaldehyde, toluene and DBP, No More Waity, Katie is a limited edition nail polish designed by Butter London and inspired by Kate Middleton to celebrate the biggest wedding of the year. Described as a greige with a lilac glitter, in reality is a kind of dirty lilac with a purple sparkle

The first coat was a streaky mess a very, very sheer lilac with the odd splodge of glitter, coat 2 was better but these pics are taken with 3 coats - I love the colour but the application was a nightmare, it was streaky and super splodgy - not good lovely colour but an awful formulation, such a shame. Butter London No More Waity, Katie is a limited edition polish with retails at around £15.00 from Butter London stockists including Power Rooms and Debenhams.

Next up the biggie -  British company Nails Inc seem to have gone Royal Wedding daft with limited edition crystal cap polishes and a gift set of 4 limited edition polishes. I couldn't resist the gift set and purchased it with one of my Diet Coke vouchers so I got it for £20 as opposed to £25 but the full set should retail for £44 if you could buy them separately (as Louise tries to justify her purchase as a bargain ;)

Packaged in a gorgeous cream and gold box with a gold ribbon, all of the polishes in the Royal Polish Collection, are limited edition and feature gold lids instead of the usual silver. The blue, red and gold polishes are all named after famous Royal locations including castles and religious establishments.

First up Sandringham, named after the Queens Norfolk residence - a gorgeous metallic shimmery red -exactly the same colour as my mums new car :)

It's a little darker than it showing here the bottle shot is probably the most accurate but it's a proper rich regal red ;). With just one coat I got perfect coverage with this one - if your after a good rich red this is definitely the one x

The second polish in the collection is named after the wedding venue Westminster Abbey

OMG this is easily my favourite colour of the 4! Described as a liquid gold shimmer, it is basically a liquid gold, with tiny sparkles in it. For being a sparkle / glitter it applied really easily this is two coats here but you probably could have got away with just one the coverage was so good

It's is much, much nicer than it looks here you really can't see the true sparkle and liquid gold appearance.

My one issue was that like a lot of glitters and sparkles it was soooo hard to remove, but that doesn't bother me in the slightest, this is a gorgeous colour that I really didn't want to remove :)

Next up Balmoral, named after the Queen's Scottish residence :)

This is perhaps the strangest colour in the collection, all the others are metallics, and sparkles, but this is just a true mannequin hands nude beige colour.

The first coat applied a little bit streaky as creams often do but the second seemed to even it out. Not the most eye catching colour but probably the most wearable of the four.

 

The final colour in the set is probably the one that first drew me in - Windsor - described by Nails as a deep metallic navy - a true regal colour if ever there was one

The bottle pictures indeed do make it look a deep shimery navy blue, but in some lights it can also look more like an indigo shade with a touch of purple to it

In real life it probably looks darker than it does here, but again to be honest one coat would have done I only did two because of my poor painting skills -these pictures are taken without the flash

This picture is taken with the flash you can see much more of the flashes that appear in real life

This I have to say is a gorgeous colour, giving my love for blue nail polishes it was a welcome addition to this kit, do I already own something similar to this, yeah probably but that has never stopped me before:)

All in all I think this was a pretty decent set all the colours are wearable and the quality seems to be there too. I know this is a limited edition kit but a few places still seem to have it including, ASOS, Debenhams, QVC and of course Nails Inc themselves and I think it's pretty good value for £25 espeically since I got it for £20:)

I hope you have all enjoyed Royal Wedding Day - I have to say I've only watched a little bit to see the frocks and hats mainly and boy haven't there been some shockers - Fergie's girls and Miriam Clegg mainly! Although I wish them well as I would any couple on their wedding day I still find it hard to feel any sort of emotion towards a couple who I don't know so my glances at the screen have been fleeting I must say, but the TV networks loss has been you gain as well as blog post drafting I have a few You Tube vids ready to go up too - I hope you all enjoy the rest of the day and the saying what goes around comes around is a true one - this ring was my grans alas not real sapphires and diamonds but not too different in style to Catherine's I think?

I hope you've found this post useful/interesting I have a renewed respect for nail bloggers after all the painting and removing :) Any questions give me a yell xxx