For a very long time I have loved Too Faced makeup. I don't have bundles of it because I simply can't afford to; but there is something about their eye shadow pallets that grabs me. It's worth every single penny. I purchased the chocolate pallet when I was 16. It was the first piece of higher end makeup I bought and I have used it regularly since. Considering the fact that I have used it that much, I can speak for the quality of these products because hardly any of it is gone. The pallet still looks fairly new and hardly used despite the fact I've used it more than any other pallet since I bought it 2 years ago.
So, when the Sweet Peach pallet was released last year, I desperately wanted it. I have never wanted anything more. I think I talked about it to every person I know, going on and on about how much I wanted it. When I left my job a few weeks ago, I decided to buy myself a little present with the last of my wages, so I ordered the pallet.
I'm going to be honest here, getting it was a bit of a nightmare. The Too Faced website states free shipping. When you check out of the website, it says you're not paying anything for shipping. But then a week later I got an email with my shipping conformation saying that I was paying over £18 for shipping and a further £9 for tax. I was pretty confused so I tried to cancel my order but they said it was too late. It took several emails and complaints until I was refunded only £16. So when it says free shipping, apparently they can still take however much money they want and they don't seem to think that's unacceptable!
So it was a shame, my favourite brand let me down a little bit. I would say, if you're from the UK and ordering Too Faced makeup, order from a department store like Selfridges or Debenhams, not directly from their website.
The quality of this pallet made up for this ordeal a little though, I have to say.
It smells like peaches. I'm not the biggest fan of artificial fruit scents so I don't love the smell of this pallet that much; but some people seem to really like it! The colours are absolutely stunning. I think this is the only pallet I own in which I would use every single colour. I have dabbled with the majority of the shades now and I have been able to create some really different looks. I have managed to create a soft, nude look which is my comfort eye makeup. But also, I have been able to create some really pretty, pink looks. I feel like a fairy princess using this pallet. It's perfect for the spring time, it goes really well with summery outfits.
As always, the pigmentation is incredible! Too Faced have mastered the pigmentation of eye shadows perfectly. That, in conjunction with how incredibly these blend just make their pallets the best value for money. It's totally worth the higher price.
I'm glad a bought the pallet. I'm already getting so much use out of it and it was worth the shipping nightmare. While it's put me off buying from Too Faced directly, I am definitely looking to expand my collection. I desperately want to try their new Natural Love Eye Shadow Collection but I can't quite justify £52 at the minute.
I received two free samples with my order which I haven't had chance to try out yet; I may do a second post in a few weeks reviewing those. Let me know if you've used the sweet peach pallet and what you thought of it. Also let me know what your favourite eye shadow pallets are in general because I am always looking for new pallets to try. Thanks for reading, see you here next week!
I am in no way a skin care expert. If I'm completely honest, I can be really lazy with my skin care and so recently I've been looking for products that are quick, easy to use and on a budget. I don't use any expensive face masks, I don't have pricey cleansers or anything like that and my skin is fairly clear on a weekly basis. I had one awful breakout last summer which really prompted me to take better care of my skin and I haven't really had any problems since. I thought I would share with you how I care for my skin and what products I love using. Also, if you have any products you can recommend to me to enhance my skin care routine then please feel free to leave them in the comments section and I will check them out!
Daily:
In the mornings I simply wash my face with warm water and a wash flannel. If my skin feels extra oily then I sometimes use a face wash but usually it's just water. I then moisturise the face using my Simply Pure hydrating serum. This stuff is amazing if you have combination skin like I do. My skin is oily in places but it also gets really dried out if I'm wearing foundation regularly so a lot of cream based moisturisers can be too heavy for my skin. I love this product so much. It absorbs instantly so I can use it and then immediately move onto my makeup. It's also cruelty free which is amazing. I'm trying to use/promote more cruelty free products because, in my opinion, animal testing is completely needless in this day and age! I didn't realise this when I purchased it so it was an extra bonus on top of how great the product is.
When it comes to removing makeup, I never use makeup wipes! I've heard terrible things about what they do to your skin. I have makeup wipes to remove eye makeup but I hardly ever use them. I prefer to take my makeup off with micellar water. At the minute, I'm using the Garnier micellar water for combination and sensitive skin. I actually prefer Simple's micellar water; however, this is a much bigger bottle for the same kind of price so it's much better value and more specific to skin types. I just use a few cotton wool pads and a generous amount of the water and my makeup is off in less than a minute.
I then like to wash my face thoroughly using the Garnier Pure active 3 in 1 Wash, Scrub & Face Mask. This is my holy grail skin care product. I actually don't know how I lived without it. In the evenings, I just use it as a quick face wash because my skin has already been cleansed with the Micellar water. This just leaves my skin feeling super soft and gives me a bit of confidence that all of my makeup is gone and my skin is clean.
Weekly:
Once a week I use the same 3 in 1 wash but this time, I'll use it as a mask. I let the product dry on my face similar to how I would use a clay mask. Then I use the rough side of a bathing sponge to scrub the mask off after about 20 minutes. This really cleanses my skin and also works as an exfoliate because the products contains Pumice Volcanic Rock which is a natural exfoliant.
As far as I am aware, there is no cruelty free symbol on Garnier products; however, Simply Pure also do a really great face wash but it doesn't have the same natural ingredients and benefits as the Garnier one. It works as a temporary alternative. I'm on the lookout for a better cruelty free product; once I find one, I'll let you know!
Every other week I also use a black suction mask which is supposed to remove blackheads. I haven't seen massive results with this in terms of blackheads, but it does seem to remove dead skin and leave my face feeling really soft so I use it every now and again. It's not something I'll be repurchasing when I run out of it though so it's not a vital part of my skin care routine.
Body:
In terms of looking after the rest of my skin, I absolutely swear by Palmers coco-butter range. Not only is this brand also cruelty free but they're really good value in terms of the price and the quality of the product! I use their hand cream and body moisturiser as well as their fake tan moisturiser in the spring/summer time!
Palmers was also amazing for caring for my tattoo when that was healing so I've been using it religiously for months! It's such a great brand.
Thanks for reading! See you next week:)
It's common and accepted for people to shun my generation for our exploration of social media. We spend too long on our phones and not enough time 'living.'
I have to say, I switch off whenever anyone begins on that rant: the one about 'kids today,' because, of course there are negative impacts. Everything has negative impacts if you remain transfixed on them. Today I want to write about why I love specific social media platforms and why I believe they enhance my daily life.
I am a writer and a blogger. I am always looking for things to capture either in a picture for my blog or my Instagram or something that I could write about later. A lot of people would say I waste my time photographing what book I'm reading or what outfit I love wearing; but what would you rather I do instead? Stop documenting my everyday life and start 'living in the moment?' Because the way I see it, I'm more aware of 'the moment.' I'm capturing the moment and I have the selected moments online where I can look back on them any time I want.
I have been watching the Michalak vlogging channel on YouTube for just over 3 years now. I not only adore their gorgeous editing and motivational lifestyle, but I love what they stand for. Not making money or gathering fame, but documenting every day life.
If you'd rather carry on Keeping Up with the Kardashians then that's fine, but I'd rather fill my free time with real people living their real lives and consequently set myself goals that are achievable and don't involve lip fillers and cosmetic surgery.
I think I have been ridiculed a fair amount by my family and friends for my use of instagram and my blog.
People fail to understand why I post what I do, why I review every book I read or why I dedicated an entire blog post to getting a new coat.
I'll tell you why...
It's because I love taking pictures.
And I love writing.
And I post it all online because I love having an archive on my phone where I can scroll down and see exactly what my life looked like a year ago. I can see what book I was reading, how I was doing my makeup, what top I loved to wear, what earrings were my favourite. It's all right there within seconds.
And I've found that some people love seeing it. I love doing it so it works for me. It's not about showing off or trying to be famous. For me it's all about self expression.
If you dislike social media; that's fine!
If you love social media; that's fine.
If your passion is writing on paper and taking Polaroid pictures for the wall then that's amazing. If you want to express that online then I would encourage you to! Because what our generation has created is a way to take whatever you love and make a career of it online as well as creating an archive of memories.
We're not wasting our lives; we're documenting them. The same way you may have documented yours in an old photo album that's sunken into a shelf collecting dust.
On this note, I have been thinking a lot over the past couple of months about creating another YouTube channel. My channel is currently exclusively a music channel. In the future, I would love to make a second channel and invest some money into decent equipment. This channel would be similar to the content you see on my Instagram and blog; mainly book related with a few fashion and beauty bits thrown in. Let me know if that's something you would be interested in following and watching!
Thanks for reading. See you next Sunday!
I feel as though February came and went and I missed it. 28 days isn't nearly enough to fit life into and I haven't read nearly as much as I planned to! This month has been filled with some stressful events and I wish I'd been able to escape more into my books; alas, I'm back again with a smaller book collection but there are some incredible ones here so I hope you can find something that makes you want to pick up a story.
The reason my collection is shorter this month is that I began February with half of A Discovery Of Witches to finish. Having already wrote about this last month, I won't go on for too long; however, I have a better understanding of the book now having finished it. I love the idea of it and I admire how much research was put into it regarding the alchemy etc. The thing that lets it down is that there's very little attention paid to the main events in the story line. I'm not sure if it's an intentional use of bathos, but it seems as though every time things start to build up, it just drops. The friend who lent me the book gave me the second one today and said she was really disappointed with it, but I'm not one who can leave a series unfinished so I'll give it a go.
The second book I read last month absolutely broke me. We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler tells such a beautiful story of family and ethics. I have never been one to cry at a book. I tend to always be aware of the fictional element to a novel; but this had me choking up in the college cafe.This was recommended to me by a friend in my Creative Writing group and I was gripped from the first few pages. I finished it in under a week and was so moved. I can't explain much about it without ruining the effect but any one who loves twists would love this book! It's so good and is guaranteed to move anybody who loves someone.
I have a lot to read for college and so I tend to have to schedule my reading each month to make sure I get everything in. Seeing as I had spent so long reading my own selections, I figured it was time to get started on the pile of Sharon Penman books I have to read for History. Time and Chance is a fictional account of the events that are known as the dispute between Henry II and Thomas Beckett. Chilling stuff...
It is actually really interesting; however, in my opinion, this book was not. Sorry Sharon. I didn't really get much from it that I didn't already know or couldn't have revised in about an hour, as opposed to two weeks worth of reading. Regardless, I pride myself on being able to read anything and I did get through it. It made me feel better about the fact that I will probably fail A Level History.
To reward myself, I decided to get into some Angela Carter seeing as my Creative Writing coursework is based on her short story collection The Bloody Chamber. I was drawn to The Magic Toyshop because the title reminded me of the Enid Blyton Amelia Jane collection which I used to read when I was little. Really, this is nothing like that. It's a stunning, coming of age novel with a few twisted elements. It was shocking and beautifully written. I absolutely adore her writing and while this is the kind of story I can see a lot of people not enjoying, I really did. The cover also reminded me of The Night Circus which I desperately want to read again.
I'm sorry that I don't have more to share this month but I am planning a lot of reading for March already.
