It's Giveaway Time - CLOSED

It's time for the post that you've all been waiting for ! Computer problems, illness and various other trials and tribulations meant a pretty big delay to the LouLouLand Christmas / New Year giveaway but I'm OK, online, and raring to go :) I'm giving away two prize packs on my blog all bought by me :)- both of these packs do include Christmas sweeties but I have checked the sell by dates and there fine ;), so what else can you win

Prize No. 1

A Cath Kidston Style Book Bag

MUA Make Academy Pro Immaculate Collection Eyeshadow Palette
MUA Blusher - Shade 1
Maybelline MNY Eyeshadow 148A (a gorgeous silvery grey)
MUA Out There Plumping Lipgloss - Pink Sugar
MUA Nail Polish Duo - Shades 2 & 8
2True Limited Edition Crystal Nail Polishes in Shades 1 & 2
Maybelline MNY Nail Polish 126A
Bag Of Chocolate Coins

Prize No.2

 Label By Boutique Cream and Black Panda Hat

Avon 6 in 1 Eye Palette - Neutral Eyes

2True True Colour Blush - Shade 1

MUA Mascara Shade 5 

Boots 17 Magnetized Nail Polish Grey

MUA Nail Duo - can't see the numbers but pink and coral

Johnsons 24 Hour Moisture Extra Rich Body Wash 50ml

Johnsons 24 Hour Moisture Extra Rich Body Lotion 50ml

Johnsons Pink Shower Scrunchie

Chocolate Snowman Shapes

Giveaway Rules

You must be a follower of my blog

Leave me a comment telling me one thing your looking forward to in 2012 :)

Please leave me your email address or blog address so I can contact you 

2 winners will be picked from all the comments received using random.org - the first number drawn will win 

Prize 1, the second number will win Prize 2 

The giveaway is open internationally 

This giveaway will close at 9pm UK time on Sunday 5th February 

I'm also holding a little giveaway on my You Tube channel, watch the video below, and subscribe to my channel for a chance to win a Hello Kitty Liberty Smokey Eyes Kit

What are you waiting for? get entering for 3 chances to win x Good Luck x

Dorothy Perkins, Avon Goodies, A Mini Review And An Update

Morning Everyone - I hope your nice and warm where you are it's freezing today! I just want to say a huge thank you to everyone who messaged me on twitter or on Facebook yesterday. Mummy Lou had her operation late on Monday afternoon so I was feeling more than a little bit stressed especially when she was sound asleep every time I called the ward - needless to say I'll be lucky if I've had 4 hours sleep! Anyway she rang me this morning and the operation has gone well, she had a bit of reaction to the pethidine which explains the sleepiness, but she's had some breakfast and she's feeling much better - phew I feel a lot more relaxed now I've spoken to her!
Now on to more cheerful things - haulage! I mentioned in Saturday's haul post that I'd placed a little Dorothy Perkins order - well it came yesterday and there I was expecting to send half of it back, but do you know what typically I liked everything that I ordered, so I've ended up keeping it all - whoops!

Dandelion Print Shrug £7.00 was £24.00

Animal Print Shrug £7.00 was £24.00

Black Floral Print Shrug £5.00 was £24.00!!!

New York Design T-Shirt - £16.00 Full Price - Booo

Indigo Jeggings - £23.00 - Also Full Price

Stone Cat Print Scarf -£7.00 - Full Price

Close Up Of Print 

Tan Star Clasp Belt - £6.00

So yeah I spent £75 including P&P but look what I saved ;) I don't have any excuses really - I'm a big fat fail when it comes to spending diets aren't I !! It could have been worse but my lovely mum was kind enough to pay for my Avon before she went into hospital - I only got 2 things including the True Colour 6 in 1 Neutral Eye Palette, I got this for £6.50 instead of the usual £10.50 so it was definitely worth picking up. It comes in  super sleek black shiny packaging which is of course fingerprint prone!

The palette features a large sized mirror, and 6 neutral eye shades, 2 matte and 4 with shimmer

The shadows have a lovely soft, buttery texture, and the pigmentation isn't too bad. Typically though the two matte shades (the two far left colours) aren't as pigmented as the shimmers why is that always the case?

I'm not sure I would pay £10.50 for this palette, It's nice but I don't think it's any better than the MUA Heaven and Earth palette which is cheaper and contains more shades (keep checking back to see a full overview of the MUA Professional range), but if neutrals really are your thing, then look out for special offers rather than buying it at full price. If you want to get your hands on one of these Avon palettes though don't forget to check back tomorrow I might have purchased one as a part of my giveaway ;)

Despite the lack of nails of the days with them, I'm really liking Avon nail polishes at the moment and I took the ordered one of the new Spring colours

This is Blue Escape, as you know I love blue nail polish, this one is a tiny bit darker than it's showing here and it has a tiny bit of shimmer in it. It's a proper ocean blue, love it :)

So that was my ickle OK big haul as per usual if you have any questions or you would like any reviews please let me know, and I'll see you tomorrow with my long awaited New Year giveaway x 

Tell My What's The Flavour

Well the first week of my diet is officially over and I've managed to lose a massive 7lbs !! Yup the meal replacement shakes are doing their job. The thing I like about the Slim Fast programme is that you can have a little snack everyday up till the value of 200 calories, the first part of the week I was good and ate lots of fruit and raw veg, the second half of the week however was a different story - my snacks were crisps! still a little bit of what you fancy does you good ;) What flavour crisps did I have? well strangely enough I don't really know.

I was kindly sent 6 bags of yummy crisps from the lovely people at Walkers. This week sees the start of a super exciting competition called What's The Flavour?, and the launch of three new varieties of Walkers Crisps.

No your eyes aren't deceiving you, the new varieties are actually called Mystery Flavour A, B, and C. It may seem a strange idea buying crisps when you don't know what flavour they are but it's well worth a risk, all the flavours were yummy, and not only that but if you identify the flavour correctly you could win £50,000!!

Believe me this isn't as easy as it sounds but me and Mummy Lou had good fun trying to pick out all the different aspects of each flavour, Mystery Flavour C was a bit spicy and my personal favourite while Mummy Lou preferred B which had a definite dairy hint.

Walkers Mystery Flavours are available in single bags,and  in a Mystery Flavours 6 pack. You can also get Mystery Flavour A in special Cheese and Onion 6 packs, Mystery Flavour B in special Ready Salted 6 packs, and Mystery Flavour C in special Salt N Vinegar 6 packs. For more information on the competition and to enter check out the Walkers website or their Facebook page . Any questions please leave me a comment xx

(Walkers Mystery Flavours Were Provide By Walkers For Review / Promotional Purposes)

Nails Of The Day Or For Five Minutes - You Decide!

OK it's not often I start a nails of the day post by saying that I really dislike the nails polish but I have to say this one in my opinion just doesn't work on me and it didn't even last 24 hours before I changed it :(

Leighton Denny Babydoll popped up in one of last years beauty boxes, forgive me that I don't know which one but I think I subscribe to most of them (I'm too scared to cancel one in case I miss something amazing, sad eh!) On receipt of the box I was really pleased it was there I'm normally a fan of his polishes but this one shall we say was a bit of nightmare

I always have an issue with pale pinks like this, Barry M'S Pale Pink and Strawberry Ice Cream just didn't work for me, in the bottle I love this shade but on my nails it just makes me look ill. Added to that it's a cream polish, I always think they need extra work and careful application and this one was no different, it streaked, some nails needed 2 coats, and some needed 3

Maybe it's a summer colour, maybe it's not one for short nails, I don't know but sadly I don't think it's a colour I'm going to reach for often so I'm passing it on to someone who might love it more. My mum thinks it looks nice albeit from a distance , we don't see our hands in the distance though do we, hmm - what do you think of Babydoll?

Hospital Related Hauling - L'Oreal, Soap & Glory, Peacocks and More

I've done it again haven't I - I've done a bit of a disappearing act over the last few days - sorry! I had a medical appointment yesterday which to be honest I wasn't looking forward typically I am none the wiser, I have to have some more tests and go back in 3 months, my consultant was lovely which was a bonus and we had a nice chat about yoga, tai chi and lots of other things, I even might dig out old Yoga For Fatigue DVD and give it a go, when I got over the horrid aches and pains I have today :( So yes my stress levels have been a bit high this week and stress means one of two things to me, I eat or I shop, seeing as I just started my diet on Monday I decided on some retail therapy. Yes I know Bad LouLou breaking my spending ban already but unless I go out alone and brave public transport I'm not going to have much of an opportunity to go shopping for the next 3 months whilst my mum recovers from her operation. That's my justification and I'm sticking to it ;)
Anyways what did I buy? well in the huge Soap and Glory gift set that I got for Christmas, there was a voucher for 300 extra advantage card points when you spent £10 or more on Soap & Glory make up, I've looked at the range before and I have to say it's never really wowed me, but I had another look and I picked this up

I have to say I'm not a fan of the cardboard packaging but Glow All Out is a gorgeous, peach pink toned face and body highlight / luminizing powder

It has a lovely smooth texture and the colour is beautiful - After seeing the swatches of Blonde MSF from the MAC Naturally collection I've came to the conclusion that this beauty is close enough not to warrant a purchase - result ! The only thing is I'm liking this so much I may have to take another look at the Soap & Glory make up line -eek never mind there is actually a free Soap & Glory Mascara in the next issue of Elle magazine which will hopefully satisfy my purchasing urges

Next in Boots I had a look at 75% sale items and I have to say I was disappointed, there was nothing much left  bar make your own photo calenders, but they did have a few fragrances in the sale section including  Harjajuku Lovers Wicked Style in Love - I love the Harajuku Lovers fragrances and I'd wanted this one for a while - it was only £10 for 30ml which was a real bargain

Oh and if your in Boots and your buying Diet Coke, as well as the Benefit voucher, you might also get one of these

I was under the impression that this promotion was long gone but they had a box full of them under the counter - The colour I chose was LG014 Golden Nude x
Next up Superdrug, I only went in for cotton wool pads but you know how it goes ;) First up these - yup Kiss fake nails

I'm trying out a new nail strengthening product at the moment but if it fails I'm running out of things to try, so these are my back up plan - I'm not a huge fan of fake nails but as needs must, we'll see x I also picked up a nail buffer too, the nail surface on some of my nails is awful especially where my nails have peeled :(

I also picked up a few things from BeautyUK to go towards my Budget Beauty Series

I'd seen these polishes on the the Beauty UK site but I'd never actually seen them in store, you get six polishes for £4.99 this set is called Midnight Minx :)

I also picked up another one of the Beauty UK lipsticks this time in shade 7 In The Buff - swatches and reviews will be in my Budget Beauty Series post on Beauty UK x

Always on the lookout for a bargain I also picked another one of the L'Oreal Infallible eyeshadows this time in the shade 027 Goldmine - these are on offer in both Boots and Superdrug for just £3.99 at the moment so your saving £3.00! well it would have been wrong not to ;)

Finally I went into Peacocks, I was so sad to hear that they went into administration this week but I can't say I'm surprised, their prices have been creeping up for sometime now, still I really hope they find a buyer, all the staff in my local stores are always so nice and chatty. I went to say what was left in the sale stock after my skirt bargain the other day to be honest though the clothes had been well ravaged I did pick up a few jewellery bits including these stacking ring sets

and these chandelier earrings - love them :)

I also got a few none sale items, as there was 20% off everything in store, including some undies and this cute tunic style top with belt

So that was my in store haulage - I did get a nail polish from ebay which came today - Color Club 927 Perfect Mol-Ten

Isn't it gorgeous I can't wait to apply it - a gorgeous duo chrome in silver and green shot through with pink loveliness

So that was my stress related haul - I may have some Avon coming, and I may have made a Dorothy Perkins order, yeah I'm one big fat fail :( On the plus side I've started ebaying again so all is not lost :) If you have any questions or if you would like to see any of these items in more detail or reviewed please leave me a comment and I'll see you tomorrow with a nails of the day post x

Nails Of The Day - Biker Chic?

I have to be honest and say I've had awful problems with my nails over the last month, splitting, peeling, breaking, you name it, it happened . At last though there appears to be some light at the end of the tunnel, a new cuticle products seems to be helping with the hang nails (review coming soon!), and my nails at last seem to be growing again. I'm going to be trying out a new nail strengthener product soon for you, but in the meantime I'm just happy I've got something to paint.
When your nails are super short, the majority of people seem to either stop painting their nails all together, or they paint them in a nice pale neutral, I have to admit I'm guilty of both, but do you know what? a dark colour on super short nails can look amazing, case in point MAC's Biker Blue

This is a beautiful colour a super dark navy with lots of blue sparkles, apologies for all the different lighting in these pictures, it was just so hard to capture the sparkle on camera. Oh and this is two coats x

Finally a slightly out of focus picture which I've included because it makes the sparkle look amazing

I personally love this colour and I think it looks great on short nails, what do you think of Biker Blue?