Tuesday 30 November 2010

Winter Warmers

I am someone who loves snow. But more when I don't need to be anywhere or do anything, i.e. over Christmas is a great time to snow for me. When everything seems to grind to a halt and I have to come home it's a little annoying. Today we were finally hit by the snow that has been threatening us, never appearing and seeming to fall everywere else, and it got us pretty good. I made the effort to get into my work only to do half a day because everything was cancelled. I would also enjoy snow a little more as someone I overheard today said "I wish snow was warm." I do too! I will just enjoy it by looking from my window in the warmth and comfort of my flat. Here's a little snippet of south east London just after sunset.My journey to work can take me anywhere from 40 minutes to an hour since I rely on public transport so when it's chilly I need to find ways to keep myself warm. At the weekend I had a little ponder around TK Maxx for a flask, I went there specifically because I wanted a proper design brand that would keep my drink hot, not just one that looks pretty. Thermos is a godsend as far as I'm concerned. I'm also loving cable knit clothing like this assymetric jumper and tri-flower headband I purchased in New Look. Thermal leggings are from Primark, I usually wear these under something when I'm not indoors. The socks are tube socks for skiing purchased from a sports shop. All in all, I'm pretty toasty. "Warm" smells are a huge hit for me this time of year too. Since around Halloween, I can't get enough of anything cinnamon or gingery smelling. I found this candle in TK Maxx by Our Own Candle Company. TK Maxx is a great place for jar candles like this. They don't sell any Yankee candles, but there's a few brands pretty similar, I particularly like this one because they're made from soya, and I love the tankard design. This one has three scents so I shouldn't get bored of it and it really fragrances my room nicely. This one is priced at £6.99 which isn't bad value for a candle of this quality, and there's lots of other lush scents to choose from.

What are your favourite winter warmers?

Sunday 28 November 2010

Sleek Sparkle Palette

Sleek have released a new limited edition palette that looks very fitting for the run up to Christmas and New Year. I snapped one up as soon as I saw them after missing out on the Bad Girl palette that was full of great smokey colours, similar to the Graphite palette. This one features a lot of darker sultry colours with glitter particles to create some great looks for the party season. Although a lot of the shades are darker toned, theres also a bright pink shade thrown in there and a yellow gold and silver which are shimmery rather than glittery, and of course there's a matte black shade as with pretty much all Sleek palettes.

Palettes are priced at £5.99 in Superdrug and if you go now you can take advantage of the 3 for 2 offer which is available on all cosmetics.

Here's a break down on the colours:

Cranberry: a hot magenta pink with glitter particles.
Dream Maker: a greyish, silver blue with glitter particles.
Galactic: a medium royal blue with glitter particles.
Twinkle: a navy blue with glitter particles.
Starlight: a dark grey with glitter particles.
Noir: a matte black.
Illusion: a dark midnight purple with glitter particles.
Festive: a rich plum purple with glitter particles.
Mistletoe: an emerald green with glitter particles.
Glitz & Glamour: a smokey off black with glitter particles.
Gold Ribbon: a shimmery yellow with a hint of gold.
Tinsel: a shimmery light silver.

Saturday 27 November 2010

Accessorize Make-up

This was unbeknown to me, but I discovered last week that Accessorize now have their own make-up range. I don't know if this available to buy in the Accessorize shop too, but I found it in Superdrug. It had replaced the Elite range of make-up that I rarely purchased anything from and I wandered over to look at this new range, not realising at first it was by Accessorize, it was the pretty packaging that caught my eye first.I felt a little dubious at the fact it was Accessorize, not because I don't like the brand (you know I do!) but because usually I have been disappointed by own-brand makeup by shops that specialise in something completely non-makeup related, I'm thinking Topshop makeup here...
Accessorize makeup pleasantly surprised me though. It looks absolutely beautiful and even if I swatched it and there wasn't much colour pay-off, I probably would have still bought something based on looks alone, shallow as I am. The stand out products for me are the minerals, though I couldn't tell you what else is in the range since these were the only products I really looked at. The solo mineralised eyeshadows were just stunning, very reminiscent of MAC mineralised shadows, with two or three colours running through one another, giving off one shade when you swatch it all together. I thought I'd get a bit more value for my money and purchased a duo mineral shadow though. Again there were a lot of colours that appealed to me, I didn't catch the name but there's a gorgeous jade green light and dark duo. I went for a safe neutral that I can wear every day to start me off with this range and this shade is called High Maintenance (number 3). This is a perfect duo, the colours compliment one another very nicely, there's a lighter shade, which I'd describe as somewhere between MAC's Jest and Nylon, it's a great eye-awakening colour which I'm really in need of this time of year. The darker colour looks lovely worn alongside in the crease, it's a mix of Satin Taupe and Woodwinked, it's nice that even though these are neutral colours, I don't own any dupes for either of them, they are quite unique in their own right. I felt like I need to show you what these products look like swatched, even though this is the worst lighting, I find blogging is difficult in the winter months, I'm never home in the daylight to take decent photographs.

If nothing else, the photographs show you the effect they give your skin even if not an accurate portrayal of the colour. They are comparable to MAC mineralised products, they give the same shimmery, irridescent effect, although I'd say not quite as shimmery or pigmented which I think is a good thing in some people's eyes. I personally love the shimmer, but it's nice to own something a little more toned down. The left shows the High Maintenance duo. The right is the blusher in Pretty Pink. This is undoubtedly one of my favourite blushers I have purchased. The colour appears light and a slightly darker peachy pink with lilac veining. The overall colour on your skin is the lighter peachy pink colour. For some skin tones this might make a better highlighter than a blush, but I love that on my skin it just gives a dewy lift without making me look that done up. I usually go for colours like MAC's Springsheen which when I'm wearing it, is pretty obviously a blusher. It's not as obvious with Pretty Pink unless I layer it. I have been wearing both of these mineralised products together for the whole of this week and I feel like this is a natural looking, "glowy" makeup combination. I'm happy with everything about the product, from quality to price (I can't remember exactly but both products together were under £10) and I will be back for more, perhaps some of the bolder colours. The mineralised bronzers looked equally beautiful but I wouldn't be fooling anyone when it's nearly December, so I'll hold out until late Spring for those.
Have you bought anything from this makeup range?
What are your thoughts?

Thursday 18 November 2010

Accessorize Latest Finds

Accessorize is pretty much my favourite place to buy accessories from. I picked up two pairs of earrings from there recently. A silver pair in this filligree leaf design which is also available in gold and has the matching necklace in both silver and gold. These were priced at £12.
I also got these cute gold bird stud earrings for only £4. I didn't mind paying the bit extra for the leaf ones because I don't wear drop earrings like this everyday, I prefer them for going out. Studs on the other hand tend to get worn out more quickly so £4 is enough to pay for a fashion pair like this.
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