Intu Metrocentre A/W 2016 Style Garden - #IntuFashion

Although I love the sunshine and the warmth of summer, I think that there is a part of me that secretly loves the darker nights, and the colder weather. Pretty dresses, and florals definitely have a place in my wardrobe but whether it's down to a lack of body confidence or just my personal taste, I just can't wait to start piling on the layers and dressing for the autumn and winter months.

Just because you're dressing for warmth and comfort though, it doesn't mean that you have to be boring, integrate a few on trend pieces into your wardrobe, and you can bring even your oldest jeans up to date in an instant, and face the autumn and winter with a bit more style in your step.

Fashion can be a minefield though, there are so many new trends and items out there that it is difficult to know where to start. This week though I got a bit of a helping hand and some pointers on what fashion and accessory will work for me and you, this autumn and winter season.

On Monday night I headed to one of my favourite place in the world (sad I know!) the Intu Metrocentre, to attend their Autumn / Winter Style Garden Blogger Event. I've attended a few of these events now and I've always enjoyed them and found them really informative, and this event was no different.

Situated in the main town square, outside of House Of Fraser, we were greeted with the same cube, that made it's debut way back in April. This time festooned in autumn leaves, the art installation like cube showcased a series of outfits, from some of the centre's major retailers.

Like last time the cube takes centre stage for this weekends fashion shows, but since this was a special blogger event, we were treated to an extended sitting room layout, featuring tables, throws, cushions and leather sofas from some of the Metrocentre's interior and gift retailers, HandPICKED, and Baytree Interiors, and beautiful vases of flowers from the centre's own florists, The Rebel Flower Company

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As gorgeous as the home wear and the interiors pieces were though, this was a fashion event, and this beautiful scene was scatters with lots of beautiful fashion and accessory pieces, including these boots from Ecco.

There were also bags and accessories from Dorothy Perkins, Cath Kidston, Biba, and this gorgeous bag from Kate Spade.

and this full outfit from the iconic and fabulous Vivienne Wetstwood.

Once we'd had a little look round, and made ourselves comfortable it was time for the one of the highlights of the evening, as Intu Metrocentre's Style Adviser Michaela Dale, took to the stage.

Michaela had trawled the centre and chose some of her key pieces for the Autumn and Winter season. As i said before it's not necessarily about buying a whole new outfit, it's about picking a few pieces that will update your old favourites and bring them right up to date, and that's exactly what Michaela showed us how to do.

I was really please to see a wide variety of size, and budget options represented in the pieces that Michaela had chosen.  There were pieces from Primark, French Connection, Warehouse, Biba at House Of Fraser, and Cath Kidston, and like the dress below she also showcased a few pieces from Simply Be, including a blouse that I've now gone on to purchase.

Michaela had chosen pieces to represent the 5 key trends that she, and the style time have identified for Autumn and Winter 2016, the trends include the pretty self explanatory Animal Print, Midnight Sparkle, Purple Reign and Velvet Dreams and my personal favourite trend Heritage Checks, with it's textures, prints, and earthy colour palette.

We were then treated to a mini fashion show with two beautiful models, showing us how to put together some different looks and interpret the trends.

After a warm round of applause, Michaela and the models then past the baton on to some other speakers from some of House Of Frasers most prestigious brands, including luxury British leather goods brand, Aspinal Of London.

Despite only being founded in 2001, Aspinal of London, is very much viewed a heritage brand, their bags and leather goods, are seen on the arms of celebrities, royalty and pretty much anyone that recognises quality in it's highest form. All of the bags are quite classic, and some of them have an almost vintage look to them, but there is a lot more than meets the eye in most cases. A lot of the bags in the Aspinal range, can be used with something unique to them a tech charger which charges your phones and mobile devices on the go. They aren't just beautiful to look at, they're practical too. My favourite by far is the beautiful croc embossed tote / bowling bag that you can see in the foreground, the perfect size, it comes in a variety of finishes, and you can even get the straps and the bags embossed with your essentials. 

I hope Santa is listening to my rather loud hints but somehow I doubt it ;) It doesn't matter though because Aspinal were kind enough to gift all of the attending blogger with a little piece, which was just enough to make me personally want more.

Packaged in a beautiful bag and box, that just screamed quality, we were lucky enough to receive a beautiful small, black pebble leather zipped pouch, that you can also use as a coin purse.

With a chunky gold zip, and gold embossed branding, the quality is excellent, it's fully lined and it's beautiful. I think I'm going to be using it as a coin purse, and I'm really looking forward to using and pulling a little bit of luxury out of my bag.

Speaking of beauty and luxury we also had a talk from some of the lovely ladies from the House Of Fraser, Thomas Sabo concession. Whilst I was familiar with Thomas Sabo's charm bracelets and charm pieces, on Monday night the ladies introduced up to their Love Bridge / Love Coins range. This range is all about personalisation and customisation. They offer a variety of different chains, a choice of different metals, and a choice of pendants in different shapes and even a choice of pendants with crystal or diamond detailing.  Every one of the pendants in this range can also be engraved, free of charge, with a choice of around 50 different initials, and symbols.

The lovely people at Thomas Sabo were kind enough to give us a gorgeous goodie bag full of treats, including a make up bag, a beautiful velvet jewellery roll, and a sample of their Charm Club Forever fragrance.

If that wasn't enough we were also kindly gifted, a beautiful sterling silver bracelet, with a Love Coin, heart shaped pendant hanging from it.

This bracelet charm can be engraved at the House Of Fraser concession with an initial or symbol of our choice. I love the idea of this so much and for me it's happened at just the right time. Their are so many things to choose from I just need to pick a symbol, that means something to me or that reminds me of someone or something.

After Thomas Sabo we also had a couple of brief talks from some more of House Of Fraser's prestigious concessions including Tom Ford fragrance, and the watch department where we found a little bit more about the Michael Kors Access and the Fossil Q smart watches, which have the functionality of an Apple Watch but with a more stylish appearance.

Finally after the presentations we had a chance to talk to some of the experts, and we had a chance to enjoy some lovely cocktails, mocktails and canapes courtesy of Carluccio's which is one of the newest additions to the centre's must luxurious section, the Platinum Mall.

Then sadly it was time to leave all of the beautiful clothing, accessories and home wear behind and head home. We'd already been spoilt rotten from both Aspinal and Thomas Sabo, but we were also lucky enough to get another good bag which contained a copy of the new Intu Metrocentre magazine, a Yankee Candle from Candle Essence, shoe care products from Ecco, Tom Ford Fragrance samples, truffles and cookies from the lovely people at Carluccio's and a whole host of vouchers.

I really can't thank the team from Intu Metrocentre enough for hosting such an informative and enjoyable evening and of course I can't think Aspinal, Thomas Sabo, and the other brands involved for their time, their knowledge. and their generosity.

Alas this was a blogger only event but don't worry you can still pop down to Intu Metrocentre this weekend to watch some of the Style Garden fashion shows, and to find out a little bit more about the fashion brands and the trends that the centre has to offer, and if you're not luck enough to live up North like I do, then have a look and see what's going on at your local Intu shopping centre. If you have any questions please leave me a comment x Thanks for reading x 

*Blogger Event

An Overdue Collective High End Beauty Haul And Reviews

What can say, apart from welcome to the most overdue haul in history. I think I bought the first item in this haul at the end of April, and ever since then most of these bits have sitting waiting for their moment in the spotlight, so all I can say is I'm sorry for the delay, but as the saying goes better late then never.

I'm going to start with the first thing that I bought nail polish. If you're a nail polish obsessive like me then you will know that the majority of high end, and professional nail polish brands, release limited edition collections several times a year, and earlier this year OPI released their New Orleans collection. Normally I just pick up the odd colour that shouts out to me from each collection but in this case I really couldn't decide which shades that I wanted so I bought them all.

Retailing at around £12.50 a bottle, buying the full collection would have been a bit excessive, thankfully though QVC were selling a limited edition boxed set of all 12 polishes in the 3.75ml mini size. As much as love looking at all of my full sized polished, I have to be honest and say that I do love a mini, you can buy more of them and lets face it how many full sized nail polishes have you actually finished!

In fitting with the city itself, the OPI New Orleans collection is full of bright, vibrant colours with a few classics thrown, think of all of the strands of beads at Mardi Gras and you're about there.  I love my purples and blues and this kit contains some real beauties including I Manicure For Beads, Rich Girls And Po Boys, and Show Us Your Tips. You've also got a bright green in I'm Sooo Swamped, a metallic taupe, in Take A Right On Bourbon, and a whole row of pink, peaches, and corals including the fabulously named She's A Bad Muffuletta!

Unfortunately this kit was a limited edition, so QVC don't seem to stock it any more, but if you have a little look online or check with your nearest OPI stockist, then you might still be able to buy some of these shades in the full size. Obviously I be posting some nails of the days in the weeks and months, so if there is any particular colour that you would like to see first then please let me know x

Over the last few months I've also picked up a few of my nail care essentials including a new bottle of Avoplex Cuticle Oil, and a new Leighton Denny Crystal Nail File. Both of these products are real staples in my nail care routine and if I can't find either of them I get a bit twitchy. I've also been trawling the discount beauty stall in Intu Metrocentre and I've recently picked up a couple of Nails Inc Limited Edition polishes including this pretty floral, Queensgate Gardens, that you can see below

I love my pretties and something that I couldn't resist when it I saw it on QVC in April, was this gorgeous highlighting palette from US brand Tarte.

From their Rainforest Of The Sea collection, the Skin Twinkle Lighting Palette is beautifully packaged and it contains 3 highlighting shades

On the left you have Sunlight, a gorgeous pale golden champagne shimmer. The middle shade is Filtered Light, which rather unusually is a matte shade, it's a sort of pale, creamy sand colour and finally on the right you have Moonlight, which is just a touch warmer is officially described as a rosy pearl.

All of these shades are silky soft and feel almost invisible on the skin.  Hopefully as you can see below even with with the matte shade Filtered Light the pigmentation is excellent.

Although Tarte are having a Today's Special Value day on QVCUK today, this palette doesn't seem to be in stock but I have been told that I might be back in the UK in the Spring, if you can't wait that long though then this palette is still available on the Sephora website and on Tarte's own website which also ships to the UK.

Whilst I still wish that Tarte was one of those brands that we could buy in a bricks and mortar store, I do like the fact that with QVC you always to get such a good deal on brands such as Tarte and Laura Geller. You normally get a bit of a price reduction or you get an extra thrown in. With this particular palette you also received the Rainforest Of The Sea Double Ended Highlighter Brush. In a beautiful metallic ombre design, this synthetic brush features a short, precision brush on one end and on the other end you have a fluffy angled brush. I have a few Tarte brushes in my collection now and they are all soft,  silky and strokeable. Again this particular brush is no longer on the QVC UK website but again it is available on both the Tarte and the Sephora website.

I love pretty things when it comes to make up but there is no point in apply pretty colours if you base isn't right. The last few products in this haul are all about creating that perfect canvas, through your make up base and through your skincare.

All of the product that I'm going to show you now, and all purchases that I was inspired to make after the Spring, Style Garden event and Intu Metrocentre earlier this year (You can read more about the event here). I going to go a bit out of sync though and I'm going to start with a foundation and probably the most expensive foundation that I've ever bought.

I own foundations at all different price points, and to me a higher price doesn't always mean a better product but in this case it is. At the Style Garden event I was lucky enough to have a mini Giorgio Armani Cosmetics makeover, and in an instant I fell in love with the foundation that the make up artist used on me. I debated and debated but eventually that little mink LouLou my alter convinced me to spend £42 of my birthday money on a bottle of foundation. It was a lot of money but I really do love the effect and the wear time on my often oil slick prone skin. This is the Giorgio Armani Designer Lift Foundation in Shade 5. If you would like to see a full review of this foundation then let me know, and I'd be happy to do one for you.

My visit to the intu Style Garden also led to another couple of purchases, and they are purchases that have since became real staples in my skincare routine. After the event I was lucky enough to go for a Kiehls facial and skincare analysis. I thoroughly enjoyed the facial and instead of introducing ever single product that they recommended at once I decided to try two product to tackle one of my problem areas, my pores.

The first product that I got is one that I've used religiously every week since I got it. The Kiehl's Rare Earth Pure Cleansing Masque which retails at around £21.50  for a 125ml tub.

I love a good clay mask, and this one which is crammed full Amazonian white clay, and soothing aloe vera, and oatmeal, leaves the skin feeling super clean, and really, really smooth, and refreshed, and it even seems to help clear up spots and blemishes. I apply it with a mask brush so a little goes a long way, that said I'm already half way down the pot!

After trying out a little sample I also decided to try the corresponding moisturiser, the Kiehl's Rare Earth Pore Minimising Lotion, which retails at around £26 for 75ml. This lightweight moisturising lotion acts and both a moisturiser and as a primer. Like the mask it's full of Amazonian White Clay, which helps to absorb excess oil, and to refine and smooth the skin. It's pretty lightweight and it's definitely not for you, if your skin is on the drier side, but since I'm combining it with night time facial oils, it's been a perfect addition to my spring and summer skincare regime. I love both of these products so much that the moisturiser has already featured in one of my beauty favourites videos.



As well as the products that I bought  I also got quite a few sample sachets to try, including the Midnight Recover Eye, Midnight Recovery Concentrate, Ultra Light Daily UV Defence Sunscreen SPF 50 PA +++, and 3 sachets of the Powerful Strength Line Reducing Concentrate. Kiehl's are very generous with the sample so you might see some of those in a future sample Saturday post.

As per usual I've made a little You Tube so you listen to me prattle on about what I've bought so you can watch it below or via this link x



I still have so much to show you haul wise, the picture below might just give you a taster but all of my future haul post will be combined haul and review post so I can (cue horrible saying!) kill two birds with the one stone! I've got lots of Benefit goodies to show you, including some of their newest releases, I've also got some Jay Manuel products, some Kat Von D, some KIKO, some Charlotte Tilbury, some more OPI products and much, much more to show you over the next few months so make sure you're following for your beauty fix.

In the meantime if you have any questions or comments on anything on this haul, then please leave me a comment x Thanks for reading.

A Small NYX Haul And Some Mini Reviews

I know you US girls that follow me don't always see it, but believe you me, you have some amazing beauty brands at your disposal. I know we have some great home grown and international brands available in the UK but up until recently lot of US based brands just weren't available over here. Thankfully things are getting better and we can now pick up brands such as Tarte, Milani and Kat Von D online, and better still we can now pop into larger Boots stores and get our NYX fix.

I've been buying NYX products online for years now, mainly from the US but also from several more niche, professional make up stores, but buying things online just isn't the same as choosing products in person. I'm lucky enough to live near to two NYX counters, and I've really enjoyed going to the counter, seeing the full range of products, ands watching till my heart is content.

You know what watching leads to though don't you? Yes that's right buying, and since the first counter opened up north way back in May I've bought a few bits and pieces for eyes, lips and cheeks.

There really is so much choice at the counters that it is difficult to know where to start, but after reading numerous blogs I picked up a couple of different lip things, in their butter formulations.

The first thing that I got was one of the Butter Lipsticks in the shade BLS14 Taffy.  This lipstick as the name would suggest feels quite buttery and moisturising, if a little tacky on the lips but it doesn't have an overtly shiny or glossy finish in fact all of the lipsticks in this particular range have a satin finish.

This shade Taffy is a bright, but at the same time, wearable pink. with just a hint of warmth. The pigmentation in this lipstick is excellent, and given the satin finish and the not so greasy feel, the wear time is excellent for the price

If you've watched any of my You Tube videos over the last few months, then you've probably already seen this lipstick on my lips. Since about June time this lipstick has been one of my go to's, it's so easy to wear, and the colours brightens up my face in an instant.

As I say, there are so many shades in the Butter Lipstick that it would impossible not to find something to suit, I'm definitely fancying a few more shades including Gumdrop and Beach BBQ so if you already have those or if you have any other recommendations I'd love to hear your thoughts x The NYX Butter Lipsticks retail at £5.50 for a 4.5g tube from selected Boots stores or online x

The next product that I got was another lip product and another product for NYX's butter line. It was the NYX Butter Gloss in BLG04 Merengue.

Over the years I've had a very love, hate relationship with lip glosses but I'd heard so many good things about the NYX Butter Glosses that I had to give them a try.

Again there are a ridiculous amount of shades to choose from but I decided to try another pink, Merengue. Unlike Taffy this is a much cooler pink, and depending on how you apply it you can either  create a super bright look or a subtler baby pink shade.

This is obviously a gloss so the finish is super shiny, but again in this case the pigmentation is fantastic. The gloss has a yummy, vanilla scent, and unlike a lot of glosses it doesn't feel too sticky and instead it actually feels, smoothing and moisturising on the lips. Apologies that this iPhone photo isn't the best but I hope it gives you some idea of the gloss and the cooler tones of Merengue.

Despite my love / hate relationship with glosses, I think I understand the hype with this formulation, and again i love the colour. NYX Butter Gloss retails at £5 for 8ml of product again from selected Boots stores and online x

NYX isn't all about the lips though and one of the very first products that I ever bought from them was one of their Rouge Cream blushers, I still love them but I hadn't actually tried any of the powder blushers. So after seeing them in the flesh and swatching one of two, I decided to try one of the NYX High Definition Blushers in the shade HDB19 Hamptons.

First of all I want to talk about the packaging. Packaged in what looks like a rounded, black plastic compact, with a clear section so you can see the shade, what you can only just see is the tiny little bow clasp, you know me I love a bow, no matter how small and sometimes it's all about the detail, and for me that's what lifts this all be it very practical packaging to another level.

Open it up though, and what else can I say but wow!! This is probably one of the silkiest, smoothest blushers that I've ever felt. The powder appears to be very finely milled, and it feels silky soft on the skin.

Hamptons is a beautiful coral shade that will probably work on most skin tones, and whilst I've been wearing this on and off throughout the summer, I think it's a shade that will work on me even when my skin is at it's palest.

This blush feels soft and lightweight on the skin and it blends in to both powder and liquid make up with ease, giving the skin a really pretty, warm flush.

Like both of the lip products that I've already mentioned, these blushes come in a whole host of different colours ranging from pinks, to mauve's, corals and browns. Again there really is a colour to suit all skin tones.  The NYX High Definition Blush retails at £5.50 for 4.5g.

The final two items that I bought are both eyeshadows, and believe me I'm no stranger to NYX eyeshadows. I don't have any NYX singles in my collection but I do have a few palettes including one of the Smokey Look Kits and I love them, the quality and pigmentation has always been excellent, and although I really didn't need any more eyeshadows I couldn't resist buying a couple of eyeshadow singles.

NYX do a few different of types of eyeshadow singles, including their Baked shadows and their super cheap Hot Singles, but I decided to try a couple of shadows from their NYX Prismatic Eye Shadow range. Packaged in silver tone, circular plastic compacts, again with the bow clasp detail, these shadows are NYX's metallic and multi dimensional shadows. I love anything metallic and anything sparkly so these shadows are right up my street.

Again there are a wide variety of shades to choose from but I picked up two of the most neutral metallics, this one is PS04 Girl Talk, which is a beautiful pale almost gold, champagne,

and I also got the shade PS10 Bedroom Eyes, which is a beautiful chocolate, bronze, copper shade.

As you can hopefully see from these pictures the pigmentation, and the shimmer, and iridescence is fantastic, they look really pretty when worn alone, and thanks to the super soft texture and lightweight feel, they blend like a dream. If anything though I would probably say that they're a bit too soft. Like any shimmery, or sparkly shadow you get a bit of fall out but what I wasn't expecting was both of the shadows to be completely loose and separated from the pan. You can see a bit more of my rant in the video below but take it from me these shadows are pretty fragile. Thankfully with the help of some rubbing alcohol, some 10p coins and some kitchen paper, I managed to repress them   but that's not really the point. I love these effect and the colour range of these shadows but I really don't think that I while be buying any more. It's a shame really, i love the texture and the softness on my eyes but it's the softness that makes them so unstable :( You never know I may have just picked up a couple that had been bashed about a bit, so if you want to try them for yourself, the NYX Prismatic Eye Shadows retail £5 for 1.24g of product.

By and large I'm pretty pleased with the things that I picked up, the pigmentation and the quality seems to be there, and it's great to be able to buy another not only another US brand but also another cruelty free brand on the British high street. If you're lucky enough to have a NYX counter near you then I'd definitely recommend that you go and have a little look, and even if your not lucky enough to have a stand near you, you can know buy some of the range at Boots online.

Don't forget to check out the accompanying You Tube video below or via this link and if you have any NYX recommendations I'd love to hear them, so leave me a comment below and let me know x