let me tell you about ...

A few of my favourite things.

You may notice as time goes on in my post I have a few themes that will crop up as I am fairly fanatical about a good few things so I am going to try and give you a top 10 of my favourite things and I will expand on it in the near future.

1. Japan - I love anything Japanese, the art and the culture appeals to me. My main fixations are Geisha, Cosplay, robots, movies (their horror is awesome), kokeshi, tattoos and all the kawaii things they have there lets not forget the closest thing I have to a deity - Hello Kitty. I loved it when I went and can't wait to go back.

2. Butterflies and Dragonflies - I am not sure why but I have always had a fascination for these little blighters mostly because they seem otherworldly to me. Kind of as close to a real fairy as your going to get.

3. Jewellery - I love sparkly things what can I say I'm a magpie. Tiffany & co is my all time favourite and I am lucky enough to have a few of their pieces but I also love Accessorize. I tend to go mostly for silver (not a gold fan) and I love semi precious stones and crystals.

4. Disney - I just love their movies. My favourite characters are Tinkerbell and Tigger and I absolutely love anything to do with Alice in Wonderland (how excited am I about the new movie). I think my favourite movies though are actually Lilo and Stitch, Finding Nemo and Wall.E.

5. Hairbands - god love it my hair is so long that sometimes I struggle to do anything with it therefor hairbands come in extremely useful, I have promised to post photos of my collection and I will.

6. Movies - I am a massive film buff and tend to watch about 3 a week at home and one at the cinema. I like world cinema very much especially asian movies and anime but I tend to watch pretty much everything.

7. Fantasy - I love anything like this Mermaids, Vampire, Fairies, Ghosts and Dragons. I like to believe in things that are not visible to the naked eye I like to think they are there pulling the strings.

8.Animals - Cats, Dogs, Otters, Red Pandas, Fish, Squirrels 'nuff said.

9. Chocolate - yum!

10. Photography - I like taking pictures and I like looking at them. There is something about capturing a moment in time that is just priceless and also something about setting up a shot so it will look just they way you picture it in your head.

So there you go that is a summary of me now I look back in it i see its pretty girly but hey thats what I love.

Tuesday Haul

Well I am a very lucky girl today, not only did my E.L.F splurge arrive but the hubby came to meet me from work and we went to Selfridges to get our Nespresso pods. Whilst walking back through the beauty hall ( I always like to have a little look ) I was over the moon to stumble upon the OPI pop up store to promote the launch of their new Hong Kong collection.

Now I was simply content to get the "Jade is the new black" polish I have been lusting after and I was having a look through the range when the beautiful assistant approached me to ask if I wanted to hear about the offers. Offers? I thought, awww shucks here is my wallet why don't you just rob me now. So anyway the offer was this 3 colours from the range (of your choosing you don't have to take the selection in the box) 1 start to finish full size, 1 hoof stick, 1 mini file, 1 mani/pedi papaya lotion and 1 mani/ped1 papaya scrub.

all for the princely sum of £39.95 (worth £64.25) plus they would paint your nails when you bought the box set of you wanted.

The colours I got were Jade is the new black, Lucky lucky lavender and Meet me on the star ferry. Having had my honeymoon in Hong Kong back in October this set is a nice little reminder for me.

On to the E.L.F splurge. I have been hearing good things about this brand all over the internet mainly because of the price point. The normal cosmetics are £1.50 each and the Studio Line are around £3.50 each. I got

Shielding Hydro-Tint SPF 15 in Ivory

Complexion Perfection powder

Eye Primer and Liner Sealer

Concealer Pencil and Brush in Fair

Corrective Concealer palette

Eye Transformer eyeshadows

Eyeko

look what the lovely people over at Eyeko just sent me. I have been a big fan of their products for a long time as they mix my two favourite things Kawaii and Cosmetics. I signed up to be one of their ambassadors and they sent me this cute gift in the post today.

I will review it for you all tomorrow ( ^o^ )

Let me tell you about ...

So, I am starting a new little feature. These posts will be about all sorts really it may include recent purchases, products I have had for a while, fashion, home remedies and anything else I want to get off my ample chest.

Today let me tell you about Dr Bronner's Magic Soaps

We got these into my section at work a little while ago and they had been holding out on them as they were not sure how they were going to go down with our fairly straight laced clientele. What makes them special whats in them or rather what isn't in them.

INGREDIENTS: Water, Saponified Organic Coconut*, Organic Palm* and Organic Olive* Oils (w/Retained Glycerin), Organic Hemp Oil, Organic Jojoba Oil, Essential Oils**, Citric Acid, Vitamin E

Completely Biodegradable and Vegetable-Based Made with Certified Fair Trade and Organic Oils Multi-Purpose: 18-in-1 Uses No Synthetic Foaming Agents, Thickeners or Preservatives 100% Post-Consumer Recycled (PCR) Cylinder Bottles and Paper Labels Simple, Ecological Formulations Based on Old-World Quality and Expertise #1-Selling Natural Brand of Soaps in North America I got the peppermint one and I have used it tonight to wash my make up brushes and I have to say the amount of gunk that came out with only a couple of drop of this made me a little ashamed I had not cleaned my brushes sooner. It smells divine so if you can get past the crazy packaging (and it is pretty out there) grab yourself some of this stuff, you can even brush your teeth with it!

catching up - recent nails

OPI - DC Cherry Blossom, one of my all time favs. Goes on great and the colour is really intense this was only 2 coats.

Revlon - Midnight Affair, really nice and sparkly but a bit dark. It also chipped really quickly this photo was the morning after I had applied it and it was already chipping. Also did not play nicely with OPI rapid dry top coat and I got lots of bubbles.

OPI - Absolutely Alice - what can I say! just gorgeous goes on like a dream so very sparkly and very very blue. It does eat top coat though and boy when this chips it chips, it had it on for 4 days and I went to peel a price label from a box at work and pretty much the whole thumbnail came off at once lol.

I got all 4 of the Alice polishes so look out for more coming soon.

Nails Inc - Albert and Victoria, got this one free on the front of a magazine and I had totally forgotten how much I like Nails Inc polish this lasted really well this photo was taken after 5 days and as you can see it's only showing a smidge of tip wear.

catching up - recent makeup looks

Ok so the base for these is all the same, it's the Bourjois Mineral Matte Mousse in 81 Ivory, the new Garnier concealer/eye roll on in fair, No7 powder in Translucent, Clarins eyebrows and the benefit 10 bronzer/highlighter.

Eyes

Urban Decay primer potion

lid all over - urban decay Flash

crease - urban decay AC/DC

lid highlight - urban decay Ecstasy

Blending of edges - urban decay Sphinx

under eye liner - outer half urban decay rockstar, inner half urban decay ransom

top lashline liner - dior liquid liner in black

Mascara - Bourjois coup de theatre 2 in 1 in black

Eyes

Urban Decay primer potion

lid all over - urban decay Mildew

crease - urban decay Misdemeanor

lid highlight - urban decay Homegrown

Blending of edges - urban decay Flipside

under eye liner - urban decay Graffiti

top lashline liner - no7 liquid liner in black

Mascara - NYX doll eyes

Eyes

Urban Decay primer potion

lid inner half - Ruby and Mille i powder pen purple (light side)

Outer lid and under eye - Ruby and Millie i powder pen purple (dark side)

under eye liner - urban decay zero

top lashline liner - urban decay heavy metal eyeliner in spandex

Mascara - NYX doll eyes

Eyes

Urban Decay primer potion

lid inner third - urban decay Mildew

lid middle third - urban decay Painkiller

lid outer third - urban decay flash

under eye liner - urban decay zero

top lashline liner - no7 liquid liner in black

Mascara - Maxfactor flash lash effect waterproof in black

Classic face project - Revlon

I did this revlon look last week just never got around to posting it. Revlon is edging towards the top end of the budget beauty ranges but their products are still fairly good value so here is what I used.

Beyond Natural Foundation (shade 210 light/pale) £9.99

Age Defying Concealer (shade 02 light) £7.99

Colourstay Pressed Powder (shade 820 light) £10.49

Matte Powder Blush (shade 001 rose rapture) £7.49

Colorstay Liquid Eyeliner (shade blackest black) £7.99

Double Twist Mascara (black) £8.99

Colourstay Ultimate Lipcolour (shade nude) £8.99

Total Look £61.93

Ok so what can I say about this little lot, the foundation is fairly neat it comes out white and then colours when you blend it. This means that the shade is fantastic but as you can see from my nose the coverage is not. The concealer is just horrible, thick and powdery it is meant to be "age defying" but it just settled into all my fine lines and made my undereyes look really dry. The lipstick is a little dark to be nude on me but the texture is lovely and it lasts ages just like the liner it's a bit of a pain to get a fine line but this stuff just doesn't budge. Blush is beautiful a really delicate colour but the real big let down is their new double twist mascara. Now I only got this as part of a 3 for 2 when I was buying cherries in the snow but god it is an abomination. Clumpy, flakey and gross like mascara used to be a million years ago, I dunno if it is the brush or the formula but it just does not work!