Classic Bronze Eyes

Hey loves,

After a very tiring long week at work i'm finally back with another post. I've been constantly reading other posts to make me relax and bring me back to a feeling of zen when I've been home from work.

I've been wanting this NARS eyeshadow duo ever since I've watched Zoella's Autumn Make Up video which she posted about 2 years ago. Since then I've seen so many posts classing it the perfect autumnal eyeshadow, perfect for winter to pair with a berry lip. I don't often like sticking to seasonal trends and only wearing dark lips in the winter time, I like to wear it all year round. 

I have a few NARS products but i've always been very nervous trying them incase they're not as great as some people make them out to be (they're pretty pricey). I recently bought the NARS All Day Luminous Weightless Foundation (which is an absolute mouthful) after wanting to try out NARS Sheer Glow for sooo long! I'll be writing my thoughts on that in a post soon.  I love love love the NARS Velvet Matte Lip Pencils, the shade "bahama" is still my favourite to this day. 

But not long after reading The Makeup Directory's post on "Picking The Perfect Bronzed Eye" I knew I really needed to add it to my collection.

When I recently travelled to London, I stopped off in Liberty to pick up the NARS eyeshadow duo in "Isolde" but much like the website it was out of stock - I was totally gutted but totally not surprised. I then had another look on the website and it was still not in stock. I then did a little google search and found most places I could pick it up from hadn't got it there either. That was until I stumbled across Look Fantastic which had it in stock, I quickly typed in my bank details and bam it was ordered. I was so impressed that I'd ordered it on the Friday and it was already delivered the following Monday without any extra fee's. Although now I cannot find it on Look Fantastic either which I think means its out of stock! cries.

Isolde is the perfect combination of a good orange yet bronze eyeshadow. With its perfect pigmentation and with it being super easy to blend, this makes for a simple task of completing a bronze smokey eye. A lot of people dislike bronze/neutral eye looks as they run into the risk of it looking like you've been punched in the eye. You could have this looking quite natural or you could go the whole hog and smoke it out until your hearts content.

I'm so glad I purchased this duo, with the classic sleek NARS packaging it really stands out in your make up collection.

Have you tried any of the NARS eyeshadow duos?

Lauren x

Anastasia Modern Renaissance Palette

Hey loves,

I've just got back from London after watching the NBA game of the Indiana Pacers vs Denver Nuggets which was amaaaazing. Denver won which happened to be the team I wasn't supporting but all in all it was one of the best nights ever. The atmosphere was incredible, luckily i've been to the States a few times and it honestly felt like I was there. Except, when we stepped out of the O2 Arena, it was freezing cold and heavily snowing so not quite the same.

Whenever I go travelling somewhere I always pack way too heavy with the make up even when i'm there for 1 or 2 nights, I like to have options okay. 

This time though I managed to restrain from packing my entire make up collection and only brought my essentials with me. One of them happening to be my post recent purchase The Anastasia Modern Renaissance Palette - for ages this was out of stock on the Cult Beauty website but I signed up to the waiting list and then received the best email saying it had been restocked, of which I Purchased...Immediately. 

With it being priced at £41 I thought is it really going to be worth it? I have quite a few Anastasia products already in my collection which I adore. I did find myself reading lots and lots of reviews (which I do anyway for most things) before I bought this just to make sure that i'd done all the research I could, even though just looking at it alone I could already tell I was going to love these colours. 

The palette comes with 14 shades - 3 metallic and 11 matte. Every shade compliments the other so you can make hundreds of looks from a natural everyday or a warm bold smokey eye. This palette would most likely be put into the "autumn make up look category" but I wear these sorts of colours all year round so its a win win from me.

Knowing that all of my other Anastasia products are super pigmented, I knew this would be no different. I wasn't expecting for it to be as pigmented as it truly is though, one small tap of your brush picks up so much product that you don't want it to go anywhere near your eye. In the fear of not being able to blend it out and then you're stuck with a patch of super dark product trying to think of how you can pull it off. (this has happened to me, it isn't pretty) After tapping off the excess and praying to the make up gods that you're not about to ruin your entire face which has taken about an hour to perfect. The shadows blend so so beautifully that you sit there and wonder what you were ever concerned about in the first place. I then moved onto the metallic shades, I often have a love hate relationship with these types of shades, they often look beautiful in the pan but when you go to put them on your eye there is no colour pay off. Which means I'm often switching between palettes as there isn't a shimmery/metallic colour which is as pigmented as all the mattes (hence the taking every palette I own away when travelling, see there is some form of reason to it). 

You also get a little  dual ended brush in the palette aswell which I haven't used yet as often brushes that come with palettes tend to be quite crappy. However, one end of the brush is super fluffy and looks like it would blend quite well, some reviews have said that they can use the brush to do their eyeshadow which is a plus I guess. I'm just very loyal to my MAC 217 and Zoeva Soft Definer Brush.

I'm so glad I purchased this palette and will definitely become one of my most used in my collection. My one dislike with this palette is the outside packaging, I love the pink covering and its great that it comes with a mirror which is so handy for travelling. As the outside has a velvet feel to it, I can see it picking up dirt quite quickly and easily and its already become scratched and damaged in my suitcase cries.

Apart from that its so so worth the money. Purchase the palette here - https://www.cultbeauty.co.uk/anastasia-beverly-hills-modern-renaissance-eye-shadow-palette.html 

Lauren x

Welcoming 2017

Hey loves,

Now that 2016 has been and gone in the blink of an eye, I'm now reflecting on what I actually achieved this year and what I want to get out of 2017. 

So with this post i'm going to write a 2017 checklist/bucket list of everything I want to complete this year and hope that I stick to it! (i've always been good at making lists, but only ever complete the odd few things - sigh)

1) Improve my photography - with my dad being a professional photographer I really have an advantage here. In December when I started up my blog again and really started taking an interest in photography my dads eyes lit up! He loves sharing his knowledge and teaching me about one of the things he loves most photography! By letting me use one of his fancy Nikon cameras I want to be as creative as I can and improve!

2) Travel more - It's always so easy to stay in the same place and re-live the same routine, but this year I really want to travel and explore some new places my lovely country has to offer. We already have some places booked in... i'm trying to persuade Callum to book more with me. (fingers crossed)

3) Progress with my job - This year I really want to push myself to go further in my career and really see where it takes me.

4) Actually continue with my hobbies - Towards the end of 2016 I developed quite a few new hobbies. One of them being photography and the other being brush lettering. I love calligraphy and typography, I could watch tutorials and look at pictures of them all day. I've pushed myself and booked onto a course in early January to really teach me all about the basics. I find it so relaxing and I enjoy being creative. 

5) Continue with my blog - I've lost count how many times i've started this blog then deleted, started again and then deleted. I think this is the longest i've gone without throwing in the towel so far? YAY! I've been interested in blogging for about 2 and a half years, i've just never stuck with it. Purely because life got in the way and it always just took a backseat and then I thought why should I bother, no one's reading it anyway? I love love love reading blogs and i've found so many lovely blogs to read in 2016 which have really inspired me to stick with it and carry on doing something that I enjoy. 

6) Be happy - 2016 was a tough year for lots of different reasons and lots of good and crappy things happened. In 2017 my main aim above all else is to be happy and enjoy life. As cliche as it sounds, you only get one? so whilst i'm healthy and able i'm going to do more of what makes me happy and stop caring what other people think! 

What are your goals for 2017?

Lauren X