Birthday Treats

As I mentioned in my last post, I have now turned the ripe old age of 28...how did I get so old?! I had such lovely presents that I just wanted to share them on here. My family and friends really spoilt me and what was really lovely is that I didn't ask for anything, so these were all surprises <3

Dior Star Foundation

Now normally my Brother gets my present from Tesco the night before my birthday because he has forgotten but this time he came up trumps!

 I had read so many good reviews about the Dior Star foundation and I couldn't wait to try it.

I haven't been using this for long enough to give it a full review but i will say that the coverage is lighter than I expected, but as I don't like heavy foundations that's not a bad thing.

Charlotte Tilbury Colour Chameleon Eyeshadow Pencil in "Champagne Diamonds" for Blue Eyes

Charlotte Tilbury has a corresponding eyeshadow pencil for every eye colour, each designed to emphasise and make your eyes 'pop'. This champagne colour is absolutely beautiful and has some serious glitter packed in it. I love how easy these are to use and they also last all day.

Charlotte Tilbury K.I.S.S.I.N.G Lipstick in "Bitch Perfect"

My first Charlotte Tilbury lipstick, although do you think my friends were trying to tell me something with the name ;) 

MAC Lipstick in "Nouvelle Vogue"

This is a limited edition shade from MAC but if you hurry you can still find it on counters. My friend Chloe is obsessed with this colour and told me it was the perfect day time, neutral pink and I always trust her opinion when it comes to lipsticks!

Whistles Rosmead Foldover Chain Clutch

I have wanted this bag for so long so it was such a lovely surprise to open this on my birthday. I am in love with this bag but I am just petrified about getting it dirty or staining it, because its suede! Does anyone know if you can spray suede bags to protect them like you would shoes?

Whistles Medium Stingray Clutch

Not one but two Whistles bags, I was well and truly spoilt! You have to see this clutch in person because the pictures really don't do it justice. The stingray leather sparkles in the light, you would think that it was embellished. I know this will be my Christmas party bag, its so classic but I love the modern twist with the Stingray effect. I really have never seen anything like it.

Now I may have turned 28 but childlike fan girl tendencies remain as strong as ever, hence the shirtless Alcide from True Blood figure. My current dilemma is should I keep this at home, or take it to work and keep it on my desk, I just cannot decide! Oh and course Sons of Anarchy Season 6!

As I knew my Mum was going to New York in November I did ask her to bring me something back from Sephora as a present but she also surprised me with this beautiful rose gold chain from Monica Vinader. I cant decide whether to keep it plain or buy a pendant to go on it. 

Lastly I got some candles, its a definite sign of getting old when you love to receive a good smelling candle!

Birthday Presents from Sephora

The best thing about my birthday this year was that both my sister and best friend were in the USA around the time, so I waved them off with all my love, well wishes and Sephora birthday present hints! ;) I wish Sephora would come back to the UK, or at least ship here. It's honestly my all time favourite shop, I could spend all day in there!

I thought I would share with you some of the goodies I got, a few things I had asked them to look out for but others were complete surprises!

My sister got me two things from the Sephora Cinderella collection, which was the best surprise as I thought everything would have been a pretty instant sell out! 

I got the perfume rollerball which is called 'So this is Love' which is a lovely girly smell and I love rollerball perfumes to keep in your bag. As well as not having Sephora, why do we not have rollerball perfumes either? Penalised for being English!

I also got the Midnight Hour Eyeshadow Palette

This is a beautiful palette, its one of those make up items I would buy for the packaging alone! I don't think I can bear to throw away the boxes and I love the attention to detail. On the mirror it says "It's the exit he'll remember" Oh Disney why have you ruined me with your impossible to obtain fairytale romance!

My favourite colour is the peachy/beige colour, including this kind of shade with the usual smokey grey colours appeals to me as it makes the whole palette so much more versatile.

I love this nail varnish by Illamasqua. The colour is called Charisma and its a gorgeous metallic red, but not the horrible kind where you can see every brush stroke on your nail!

Illamasqua Intense Lipgloss in Boost

I love Kat Von D, ever since those early days on Miami Ink, I even own every season of LA Ink. I just adore her style, especially her Gothic interior design!

Kat Von D make up is exclusive to Sephora and in my opinion its the best "Celebrity" make up range. Everything from the packaging, to the product names has Kat's style. I have tried a lot of her products and there really are some gems. So I always ask for something from her range if I know someone heading to America!

Kat Von D True Romance Eyeshadow Palette in Starstuck

Now this was one of the things on my list, I saw this on the Sephora website and I loved the colours. I don't do brightly coloured eyeshadow, but I will wear reds and oranges with neutral colours as they really compliment blue eyes and make them stand out. I also don't have any palettes with colours like these at all.

Everlasting Love Liquid Lipstick in Lolita

Another one on my list, I saw Kat post a picture of this on her instagram and had to have it. I don't know the exact colour she was wearing, but I had a guess and went with Lolita. 

This baby does not budge, in fact this swatch stained my arm for quite a few days! I ate, I drank, it stayed on but one of the downsides of this is how drying it is. This feels very dry on the lips I wont lie, but you can wear a lip balm over the top to help combat the dryness.

And lastly from Kat Von D my friend surprised me with her rollerball which has her two signature perfumes, Saint and Sinner

Next up (we are almost there I promise) was a nail varnish that my sister got me last year and I have almost used it up, so I was really hoping to get a replacement.

Its from Sephora by OPI and it has the best name ever

Be-Claus I Said So = My.favourite.ever.red.glitter

These last two things will probably seem very boring if you live in the US, but again more things that we cant get in the UK!

I love EOS lip balms, because there is nothing more disgusting then sticking your finger in your lip balm and getting it all under your nails *bleurgh*

And Maybelline Baby Lips, I have been wanting to try these for so long but you still cant buy them in the UK! Why don't we get the good products hey :'( 

Maybelline Baby Lips Peach Kiss

Finally, I thought I would include this even though its not from America or Sephora but my mum got this for me for my birthday and I have used it everyday since. Its the much hyped Bobbi Brown Bronzer brush. I love it, its the perfect size, density and softness. At the moment I'm using Nars Casino which is a little dark for me now and with the kabuki I was using I was looking a little bit like I had put my make up on in the dark. But with the Bobbi Brown brush, it blends out so smoothly that I no longer have orange stripes for cheeks! Hooray

Birthdays rule! Oh and I went to the V&A Hollywood Costume Exhibition for my Birthday, which I cannot recommend enough. If you are into films, please go and see it. I also had a lovely dinner in Beach Blanket Babylon in Nottinghill (cant go wrong with the burger!) and saw a showing of The Shining at BFI Southbank (Jack Nicholson crushing)

Presents for me :)

So I just turned 24. I'm slowly starting to realise that I'm not 21 anymore. I don't feel grown up enough to be 24! I feel like your mid 20s are in general a really awkward time! But having nice birthday presents always helps take the edge off ;)

So for my birthday I got....

* A framed signed picture of Xander (Nicholas Brendan) from Buffy! Haha this was a surprise present from my best friend and I love it! I am a huge huge Buffy fan, my Buffy box set is my most prized possession!

* Lady Gaga Heartbeat Headphones

* Red Cherry Dr Martins (I have wanted a pair for ages but was worried I might look like a very butch prison inmate! But after seeing Jessica Alba in the same pair I was swayed)

* Lauren Conrad Style Book

* LA Ink Season 3 (I'm a big Kat Von D fan and love her style)

* Thomas Sabo Deer Skull Pendant

* Snow Leopard Furry Hat from River Island

* Hello Kitty Headphones :)

* Flying Lanterns

* MAC Venomous Villains Truth & Light Magically Cool Liquid Powder, Evil Queen Eyeshadow "Vainglorious" Dr Facillier Greasepaint Stick "Slickest Black"

* Me and Zena Vampire Teeth Necklace - LOVE THIS

* Silly bands! (I know time to grow up)

* Nail Rock Pink Leopard stickers

* Harajuku Girls Perfume

* Perfume atomiser for my handbag (As I'm known to carry 4 perfumes around in my bag at a time!)

Wouldn't it be nice to get presents everyday!

Snow White got bit!

I thought I would share with you all some pictures from my birthday. My birthday is the 26th October so as its near Halloween I decided fancy dress was in order! For the theme I combined my 2 loves....Disney and Vampires and no I wasn't turning 15 (I wish) it was my 24th birthday......time to grow up........ NEVER

I went as Snow White, with me I had Cruella De Vil, Captain Hook and Minnie Mouse. The 2nd picture was taken in the chicken shop afterwards! I love this picture really makes me laugh and I think that pretty much sums us up! We went to The Clapham Grand in London for their Halloween Ball. It was a wicked night, slightly disturbing seeing all these people in masks. I felt a bit like Tom Cruise in Eyes Wide Shut except I wasn't feeling as erotic!

With my make up I really wanted to look like a Cullen, I didn't want it to look like I was wearing a face full of white paint because that looks naff, I wanted to look dead. I also wanted to look scary True Blood style soooo a lot of thought went into this make up application.

Now I really have to thank Dusty O Hunter for this. If you don't watch Dusty on YouTube then give yourself a tiny slap round the cheek. I love his videos he's one of those people that you really wish was your friend :) Except he would probably hate me as seems to be a very neat, tidy person and I on the other hand am like a explosion of filth. His videos are very informative, original and you can tell a lot of thought has gone into them. This is now the 2nd Dusty tip I have followed and loved. The first being applying MAC's Liquid Lurex as an eyeshadow! L.O.V.E. Maybe I should start doing everything he says...maybe you should too........

http://www.youtube.com/user/dustyohunter

I'm currently watching Empire Records whilst typing this and I am getting quite distracted by AJ, such a 90s grunge hotty and I'm having Liv Tyler envy! Anyway I digress.

So I was watching Dustys guide to MAC Foundations and he mentioned that MAC's Face & Body came in white, he then did a little demo on how to apply it and it was exactly what I was looking for! As face and body is sheer it doesn't give you that white face paint mask. Sadly this is a MAC Pro item. Soooo off I trotted to the MAC Pro store in London, which is just off Carnaby Street if you're wondering.

I just have to have a tiny rant here. I hate the MAC Pro store. Just because I don't have bright purple eyeshadow over half my face and forehead doesn't mean I know anything about make up.

Anywayyyyys, these are the products I used for my Snow White got bit look:

Face: MAC Face & Body White - MAC Pro

MAC Prep & Prime Translucent Powder - MAC

MAC Eyeshadows in "Copperplate" and "Coquette" to Contour - MAC

Eyes: MAC Eyeshadows in "Brule" and "Coppertone" - MAC

Urban Decay False Lashes "Lure" - Urban Decay (Debenhams £11) Love these!

Maybelline The Falsies Mascara - Maybelline

Colour Vue New Moon Contact Lenses - (Youknowit.com £15.99)

Lips: MAC Lipstick in "Russian Red" - MAC

MAC Eyeshadow in "Carbon" - MAC (To darken and contour my lips)

Fake Gel Blood - Snazaroo (I bought this on ebay for about £4)

I have to say I was really impressed with the colour contacts I used. I have never worn contacts before so I was slightly apprehensive but they were actually really easy to put in and take out. The colour was wicked as well, exactly the Cullen colour I was looking for. These are the Colour Vue brand and I bought mine from www.youknowit.com for £15.99 they have a whole range of Twilight inspired lenses so check them out, cheap prices and fast delivery no complaints there!

Now I am going to bed, its 1.23am and tomorrow/today is Sunday. Why are Sundays so depressing?

* Your mum insists on cooking a Roast Dinner. If its a particularly bad Sunday its going to be a Pork roast dinner too and the carrots will have been boiled for the good part of 3 hours. I hate roasts

* The only thing on TV is Songs of Praise or the Antiques Roadshow.

* Because you're roast dinner was eaten at some stupid time, late afternoon 3pm, you are hungry at about 8pm and end up eating some thing like cheese and crackers or sardines on toast, or anything that's sat in a tin for years. Its such an English thing! On a Sunday England reverts back to the 1900's

* Sunday marks the end of the weekend and is a reminder that I have to go back to my mind numbingly boring office job that I desperately hate.

With that ray of sunshine I'm off, night all ;)