Avon or I may have a lipstick issue

So, I recently made an order from Avon online, something I never really thought I'd type. When I was younger, ladies in the neighbourhood (weird wording there) used to hold little Avon parties and buy boring looking frosty pink lipstick in plain packaging. Because of this, I tend to associate it with (and excuse me for being blunt here) with older people. With mumsy mummies and ageing middle aged woman.

However, after seeing reviews of products on other posts I decided to give it a go. Plus, it's so cheap! Gotta love a cheap lipstick or two (saying that, I just made a rather expensive Nars order. Oops).

Anyway, here's the loot:

So, I got 3 lipsticks (buy one get two free!) 1 other lipstick (not on offer) and 2 eyeliner pencils which were only about £3 each. Uber cheap, and the dark brown liner is particularly lovely, really dark and pigmented.

I used the dark brown one this morning (actually called blackberry- the gold one is called golden fawn) and it has lasted all day. I used it on my top lash line, which I hardly ever do and need more practise with! Any advice on how to 'do it' properly (ie not get it all over the place) would be appreciated.

Here are the lovely lipstick shades:

This one's called Winter Wine. Really nice and pigmented, yet subtle at the same time. Really like this one, though I expected it to be darker from the name (like a plummy colour perhaps?) and the shade of the bullet itself.

This one's called 'Amethyst'. Again, another shade I am quite impressed with (especially as it was one of the free ones! And they were cheap to start with). It's a little more tangerine that the previous one. I like how all of the colours I ordered are similar, but different, which is more obvious in these photos. May need to consult these when deciding which one to wear in the morning as the colour on the bullet itself isn't always accurate.

Here's 'Pink Sunrise' which is a nudey pink, always a good staple to have. Plus, it doesn't mak me look dead, like some of my other nudes.

This one cost a bit more (at a pricey £3 ;) This is the ultra colour rich lipstick in 'Apricot Mystery'.

In bullet form.

It is very moisturising and feels great on dryish lips like mine. The colour is subtle in my opinion, but likeable.

So, all in all, I am VERY happy with my cheapie Avon order. And I may have a lipstick problem. When will I wear all of these? Well, everyday. And although they are quite similar colours, they are different too in their own beautiful way. Yes, that makes it ok then.

Coming up:

*My Topshop order arrived (and, er, it includes more lipstick). Outfit post.
*Nars order
*Friday retail therapy haul

Will catch up with blogs asap, thanks for all your lovely comments :)

xxx

Loreal Studio Silk and Gloss

My hair isn't usually too difficult to manage- it's straight and pretty fine. However, I do use quite a bit of heat on it when I blow dry and straighten and it can sometimes look a bit flat and lacklustre. I always look at girls with silky glossy hair and get major hair envy. Seriously, how do they get a mirror quality shine with the feel of silk lingerie? HOW?

With the desire for a healthy, shiny mane in mind, I decided to purchase a hair care product other than shampoo and conditioner (yup, this is my first venture out of the bog standard hair products! Maybe that's why my hair isn't as shiny...)

I ended up buying 2 products (the joys of Boots offers). The pink one on the right is the one I'll be looking at today (the other creates beach like natural waves...I'll try that look out when it gets closer to summer).

Loreal Studio Silk and Gloss is especially created for use with hair straighteners. It both protects from the heat and makes your hair smooth and silky to the touch. Lovely! Before straightening your hair, spary a couple of...sprays onto your hair and then straighten. You will hear a bit of a sizzling sound at first (which startled me a bit...my hair's on fire!) but after that it glides really well and leaves your hair soft and silky. The bottle claims that it gives you 24 hour anti-frizz, which for me it does, but my hair isn't too frizzy anyway (though it looks a bit frizzy in this picture-oops). The silky feeling of the hair does last all day though.

A cheeky little online shopping sesh...

I caved in and bought a few things from Le Topshop. In my mind they will make me look cool, man. I can imagine having my hair down, all wavy around my face, with these little round glasses on and the slouchy dress. And not to forget the bright pop of lippy. Right on (going all hippy or crazy...stessed to the max! Can't wait for this week to be over already).

Topshop Lipstick in 'OhLaLa'. Not my 5th Topshop lipstick this year or anything ;)

What do you think?

A Stressy Saturday...

...but these are the nice bits in between.

There's a lot going on at work at the moment (when isn't there?) but it will be particularly stressful on Monday and Tuesday of next week. So today I have been preparing for this procrastinating and thinking of all the things that could go wrong. I don't know about you, but as I've grown older my 'ablilty' to procrastinate has sky rocketed.

Suffice to say, I will be celebrating (hopefully!) next Friday. I will be shopping on Friday (just to treat myself for getting through the week), having family over for dinner on Sunday and generally relaxing a teeny bit (and catching up on lovely bloggeroos of course).

But I need to get through it first  :0

Here's what I wore today. Cut my face out because it looked pretty rough and my hair was still wet! Glam.

*H&M paperclip dress
*Topshop slouchy jumper.

Comfy outfit for a day spent procrastinating and working.

I decided to put on some make up to help me feel more 'awake' which is fitting as I tried a sample of the Rimmel 'Wake Me Up' foundation. I got this free with a magazine, which unfortunately meant that it was far too dark for my skin (another reason why face is not in photo!)

It was in shade 002, sof beige. Shame, I think this could be really nice in a lighter shade.

Bad photo, I know. I wore a pop of eyeshadow too, the Topshop Crayon in 'whisper'. A nice light, shimmery gold shade (and showing of my yellow nails at the same time!-Topshop in Bee's Knees if you're wondering).

Here's a swatch:

Just noticed that I forgot to wipe it off and it's still on my hand. Been here all day and it doesn't budge after a bit of a rub, so it has pretty good staying power!

So there we go. And last but not least, here's what got me through the day (though I didn't end up doing as much work as planned...always the way).

M&S fibre boost salad bar, containing lots of salady things like lentils and beans and a bit of chicken. Ok, a mini-review. Let's start with the little gripes; it was expensive (for an everyday lunch anyway) at £4.50, though I guess you'd pay that amount or more if you ate out in a sandwich bar. It's almost double of what I would usually expect to pay for a sandwich, for example, but even compared to the other salads there, it's about £1 more expensive.

Also the shape is a bit awkward. It's shaped like a 'bar' as the name suggests, but it feels like a bit of the gimmick. Whyyyyyyy? It makes it stand out, yes, but it also makes it rather difficult to mix the salad around and even insert my fork (or was that just me?)

Despite all of this, I would recommend it because the salad was flippin' delicious. It had a good crunch to it (I like a good crunch) and was full of taste and left me feeling full too.

I also had a little finger lick of this:

Actually, I had a fair few licks. Working/procrastinating is going to make me balloon soon!

Still, it was light, airy and tasty, though I prefer what I can only call the 'white' version.

I will try and catch up on comments soon! Also, winner of the giveaway will be announced tomorrow (which is now later today). xx

My First Nars Product!

For Valentines Day my lovely other half S bought me my first ever Nars product. We did tell each other what to get-he'd never even heard of the brand Nars. It might be unromantic, but hey, that's us, cashing in on the commercial event ;) We also had a romantic meal in...Giraffe (the family friendly place) which we both love. Who cares if it's full of screaming kids?

Anyway, back to Nars. I got the eyeshadow duo in the colour 'Isolde' as I was told that it really makes blue eyes stand out. And I wanted my blue eyes to stand out.

It came in a cute dinky little bag, which I have to admit I have put it back in to. Despite using it today, I have cased it back in the packaging and then the little bag! I get like this when a) I have a item that I like and want to look after and b) the packaging is so 'complex' and seemingly thoughful, that the product seems made to live in it. It is almost asking to be neatly wrapped up in it's gloves and scarf equivalent. Does anyone else get like this when they buy a new product? Or am I just weird?

The eyeshadow duo comes in the usual little rubbery packaging, which I think looks sleek and elegant. I sense that it will attract any modicum of dust and (makeup) dirt though, so I'll try to be careful with it.

The colours are just divine. They are both warm brown colours. The first is a little glittery, which I love, and the second has a pinky hue to it.

I wore it today and did take a picture with it on, but the close up made me realise how wonky my face is! My face is not symmetrical, sob sob. So you'll have to make do with a swatch.

 

That picutre took and *age* to upload, and it's not even really added anything to the post! Oh well. I did light swatches as I don't want to use up too much of the product, ha. 

I wore the lighter shade today when I went to visit my grandpa, and the first thing he said was 'Have you got a new eyeshadow on? I like it'. So if even my partly blind grandpa noticed it, then it must look good! 

Sulk

Recently, nail polish and lipstick has been making me just a little bit happy, so I've been buying a fair few of each to cheer me up every week.

Ironically, the one that is providing me with a little bit of happiness today is in shade Sulk by 17.

Ignore my fuzzy hand, I'm not suffering from a deadly skin disease, I just have PVA glue all over me. Something about making Greek vases with newspaper and glue *don't ask*

Anway, it is a lovely metallic sea green colour. It only required one application to get this coverage, and as the polist claims to be 'lasting finish' I'm expecting it to last for a while too. So far, so good!

This may be one of my last 'dark' applications. With the sun showing its face today, I find myself wanting to go back to corals, bright pinks and yellows (yes, yellow nails!)

But for now, I'm happy with my underwater nails :)

Just trying out this bloglovin' thing...

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Does it work? Oui?