Stila In The Light Palette

Now then, you're probably thinking 'where the heck have you been it's been ages' etc etc. In response to that little voice in your head, I've been on a bit of a blogging break and I took some unplanned time off to rest and recuperate. It feels great to be back though. During the short period of time I've been away it was my birthday and for my birthday I was very kindly treated to the Stila In The Light Eyeshadow Palette *drools*. It is quite possibly the most beautiful palette I've ever seen and after a whole year of lusting after it, I finally got it. I know I know, I'm insanely late onto the bandwagon, so late in fact I think the bandwagon may have left and is now potentially on the moon.

As with most Stila products, the packaging is very minimalistic. It's constructed of (very) sturdy cardboard and is held closed by a strong magnet which is great as I find that some eyeshadow palettes have very weak magnets holding them shut which then results in eyeshadow getting everywhere, Barry M I'm pointing the finger at you. Inside there is a large mirror and a little quote by Sarah Lucero which I think is a lovely touch. It's not everyday your eyeshadow palette has a cute little quote inside. It also comes with a little book filled with eye looks you can create with the shadows in this palette.

I did a bad thing and used this palette before photographing it, ooops.

The Stila In The Light Palette features 10, 0.49oz (in non number terms, that is quite big) eyeshadows that you can use wet or dry. Very unlike the Urban Decay Palettes that focus on either warm or cool toned eyeshadows, this palette provides the best of both worlds. If you didn't start singing the Hannah Montana song there you're lying. Another upside to this palette is that there are 3 different finishes, frost, glitter and matte. What more could you want? Or need?

L-R; Bare, Kitten, Bliss, Sunset, Sandstone.

L-R; Bubbly, Gilded Gold, Luster, Night Sky, Ebony.

As I'm sure you can see from the above swatches, all the eyeshadows in this palette are insanely pigmented. I cannot fault a single shade. If you wish, you can intensify the colour pay-off even more by using the shadows wet. The eyeshadows are buttery, soft, and they blend like an absolute dream. I did find there to be a minuscule amount of product fallout when I applied the glitter shadows to my eyes but it was nothing major and nothing that a cotton bud or two can't fix. On my rather oily eyelids, without a primer these eyeshadows last a good 5-6 hours before they begin to crease but with a primer I can get a good 8 hours wear out of them. 

The palette also comes with a full sized Smudge Stick Waterproof Eye Liner in Damsel, a deep, matte brown shade. The eyeliner is retractable so there is no need to have to scrabble about in your makeup drawers for a sharpener every time you need to use it, which I think is great. It smudges out very easily and once it sets, it sets and it's there to stay until you wash it off. I can get a good 8 hours wear out of this on my top lashline and around 5 hours on my waterline. I have insanely watery eyes so this is very very impressive for me. I'm usually lucky to get an hours wear out of eyeliners, any other watery eyed girls out there find this too? 

This is hands down one of the nicest palettes I have ever come across and now that I have this, I don't feel the need to buy any of the Urban Decay Naked palettes at all. Yes I really just said that. It's perfect for every occasion; work/school, parties, meals, basically just everything. The pigmentation gets a good old 5 stars from me and I genuinely could not recommend this palette any more if I tried. This palette is only £25 and considering the eyeliner is worth £19 on it's own, this is a palette that you can't say no too. It's available from Feel Unique, Stila (obviously) and Asos. 

I will be back to my usual posting times as of today so I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and I'll see you all on Wednesday.

A Baa-rilliant Day Out

Please pardon the cheesy title, I thought I was being funny, I clearly have a bad sense of humour. The other week it was my younger sisters birthday and as a little treat, my mum and dad took her, a few friends and myself for a day out to a nearby farm. It was a really good day and although it was raining a little bit, I still thoroughly enjoyed myself. This is quite a picture heavy post but they're all animal photos so it's acceptable (I think). I do apologise that some of these photo's are a bit blurry, it's hard getting sheep and cows to co-operate and stand still for photos.

This photo makes me laugh every single time I look at it. It was so close to my camera lens I was scared it was going to eat it, but it was worth risking my lens for this photo.

 This is another one of the photos that just cracks me up every time. This cow definitely wasn't camera shy..

My super zoom comes in very handy sometimes. I managed to take this very close up, terrifying photo of a goose. I hate them, but I'm pretty proud of this photo.

I never in my life has seen something so hideous. 

Do you not just want to take this lamb home and cuddle it forever? IT'S SO CUTE.

Here I am, making friends with a sheep called Barbara. You can't say I'm not sociable.

It was a day filled with fun and laughter and I couldn't have asked for a better day. It was good just getting out of the house, away from the internet and spending quality time with my favourite people. 

On another note, I know I've had a lot of lifestyle posts going up recently but I've had end of year exams to study for and I haven't had much time to take new photos for new posts. I hope you can forgive me. I should be back to posting twice weekly as of next week, fingers crossed.

Skincare Hauling

So I may have gone a bit skincare crazy in Superdrug and Boots, oops. I actually bought more skincare than I did makeup which is something that NEVER happens, but I can see it happening more regularly now, uh oh.

Superdrug was riddled with skincare deals. Everywhere I looked there were deals and if I had the money, I would have bought a lot more than I did. The first 2 items I picked up were from Superdrug's Tea Tree Skincare range. There was a 2 for £4 offer on and considering both of the products I bought were worth £3 each, I couldn't say no, could I?

I desperately needed a new tea tree oil but the Superdrug I was in didn't have any pure tea tree oil in stock so I picked up the 'Blended Oil' which is targeted at fighting spots, whereas pure tea tree oil is just marketed as an antiseptic. I also picked up some of the Tea Tree Nose Strips as I was also in desperate need of new pore strips and I've used ones similar to these before and they've worked really well.

The next two items I picked up were two of the Superdrug own brand face masks. I already own the Detoxifying mud mask (review here) and as I love it so much I thought I'd pick up the Witch Hazel Purifying Mask. There was a 2 for £3 deal on so I also got the Cucumber Peel Off Mask, but I have no reasoning as to why I bought it, I just wanted to make the most of the deal. That's the normal thing to do, right?

Surprise surprise, I bought another Witch Blemish Stick. It's my holy grail skincare product and I think this is my 10th or 11th one that I've bought and I'm never ever without one. Need I say more? Although if you'd like to read more on it then you can read my review here.

Finally I picked up the 'Good Things Miracle Mattifier Moisturiser'. I did a bad thing and bought this because the packaging looked nice. Ooops. But I did also like the claims it was making, so it's not all bad. I've been needing a new daytime moisturiser and as I have been burdened with the oiliest skin known to man, the promise of mattifying my skin was very appealing, very appealing indeed. I will be doing a full review of this product in the next few weeks so keep your eyes peeled. 
I think I have enough skincare to last me a good few years now but buying skincare is rather addictive. 

On another note I'd like to apologise for my lack of posts recently. It's that time of year again where we have all our end of year exams and blogging has had to take a bit of a back seat for a few weeks. But fear not, fear not, I will be back posting twice weekly as of next week *cheers*. 

I hope you all have a lovely week and school or work isn't too stressful.  
(PS, thankyou all so much for 400 Bloglovin followers and 100 GFC followers, it means the world! *internet hug*)