Week 3: Favourite Winter Scent

Hola Dalimoos,

Sorry I am late with this week's post, work has been super busy and I have a sick little boy at the moment and I just haven't found the time to sit down and write this post until now!!!!

Anyway without further ado lets get on with what my favourite winter scent is...

When thinking about favourite scents, perfumes didn't actually come to mind.  I cannot wear very heavy scents as I am sensitive to smells so tend to have the same perfumes all year round...A perfume collection?  another blog post possibly?!

Anyway I digress...

However, there are a few scents that make me happy in winter:

My first one is the Cinnamon smell and other winter spices.  You cannot think of winter without thinking of these scents.  I love anything cinnamon, food or scents.  

I especially love burning candles with cinnamon spice scent.  

Home sweet Home by yankee candle is
one of my favourites

Airwick Purple Blackberry Fig scent is
a really nice warm/sweet smell

Recently I went to TK Maxx and bought two new candles both from the Sebnin range: 

1.  Christmas Trees.  This is a really spicy yummy scent.  it definitely has cinnamon and other spices, its a milder version of Home sweet Home and I cannot wait to burn this one. 

2.  Christmas Stocking.  This says it is a holly and berry smell.  it definitely is a outdoorsy smell and is musky with a sweetness to it...Since typing this my daughter smelt it and informed me she thought it smelt like snow...haha

 

Mint Chocolate is also a big favourite.  I went to Winter Wonderland the weekend just gone and had an After Eight crepe...O.M.G...it was so amazing and felt so warming especially as it was freezing.  The mint taste/smell is so comforting...

 

But my all time favourite winter smell has to be the smell of burning wood fire or coal fire, especially when you are outside walking on a crisp cold evening and you can smell the chimney smoke.  I live in London so I don't get to smell that smell often but when I visit family in Ireland or out of London then that is the smell I love the most.

There is nothing more winter than that.

I hope you enjoyed my take on the Favourite Scent week...until next week

Ciao for now xxx



*Note:  The two candles from TKMaxx are photographs I have taken personally.  The other images are images I found on google image and may be subject to copyright.

10 under £10

Hola Dalimoos,

So there is a tag people are doing on Youtube of 10 make up pieces for under £10 each.  As I don't do Youtube I thought I would translate this to a blog post.  I have also decided to stick with the products I have started using day to day.

1. Foundation:

So to start off you need a base.

I am not your full coverage type of person on a day to day basis and rarely wear foundation.  For the purpose of this post I thought I should really look out for a foundation as most people do wear foundation on a daily basis.

So I found the new kid on the block:  L'Oreal Nude Magique Eau de Teint.  It is being advertised as "lighter than water" and your perfect nude.

I have to say I am surprised how much I like this foundation.  It is very light and you do not feel like you are wearing foundation at all.  You apply it like you would perfume, shaking the bottle and putting a small bit on your finger and blending into your face.  It sinks in completely and just evens your skin tone out nicely.  If you like full coverage foundations then this is not the foundation for you.   This has converted me to wearing foundation everyday as it is so light.  I love this stuff.

You can buy this from Boots £9.99.

2. Concealer:

There is only one concealer that I would recommend and this is the one that I have been using for such a long time and repurchase it time and time again and that is the Collection Lasting Perfection.  

This is such a great concealer and is full coverage and lasts ages.

You can buy it from superdrug for £4.19

3. Dark Circles  

I have been using Seventeen Phwoarr in both fair and medium to conceal dark under eyes.  I recently did a review *here* and would highly recommend.

You can get these from Boots £5.49

4. Highlighting

To compliment the concealing with the Phwoarr you could also use a highlight pen like L'Oreal Lumi Magique, this helps brighten the eyes further but you could also use this for your brow bone and cupids bow or any other places you like to highlight.

You can buy this from Boots - £8.49

5. Finishing Powder:

To set your concealer and foundation try Maybelline Fit Me Powder Flawless.  This is a very fine powder and does not apply powdery and gives extra coverage if needed.  I find I do not need to retouch when I am using this.  Great for the price.

You can buy this from Boots - £5.99

6. Blusher:

I didn't know whether to choose a powder or a cream blush as personally I have never really been one for cream blush that was until I tried this one and completely feel in love with it.  This is the Bourjois Blush Exclusif, this blush is a cream to powder blush and sells itself as containing a self-reacting PH reactive pigment which means the blush is individual to each person as it gives a personalised pink colour depending on your PH.  I use my Real Technique stippling brush to apply.  It really is a wonder product.  It gives me the right amount of flush and I find that it changes shade depending on my body temperature throughout the day.  Love it!!

you can buy this from Superdrug: £7.99

7. Bronzer

I felt there could really only be one bronzer for this post and that was the Bourjois Delice de Poudre Bronzing Powder.  This has tiny flecks of gold but it is still pretty matte and I use this as contour too.  It is packaged as chocolate bar and smells of chocolate too.

You can buy from boots for £6.99

8. Eyes

Whilst making my list of things I wanted to talk about  I was torn again between powder or cream and this eyeshadow won hands down.  Maybelline 24 hr color tattoos in on and on bronze for me is a great day to day eyeshadow one sweep over your eyes and your done or you can use it as a base for a more deeper night look.  They do not crease on me and last all day.  Definitely worth the price tag!

You can buy from: Boots for £4.99

9. Mascara

When it come to mascaras I like/have so many it was hard to choose.  I decided to go with one I have repurchased on more than one occasion.  This is the MaxFactor eye brightening mascara and the one I use is the blue eye version.  This mascara separates the lashes really nice and adds some length.  It doesn't really add volume but that is ok for day to day!  It is supposed to make your eyes stand out.  I am not sure it does but I do like how my lashes/eyes look when I have this mascara on.

You can buy it from: Superdrug £6.99

10. Lip product

Last but not least is the lips!  I decided to go with a product that is easy to use and there is no faffing around with and you could apply it on the go with no mirror.  This is the Revlon Just Bitten Kissable in Lovesick.  These are creamy like a balm with a great colour pay off.

You can buy this from: Superdrug for £7.99  

So this is my 10 under £10.  I hope you like my take on it.

Until next time

Ciao for now xx

Week 2: Favourite Winter Accessories

Hola Dalimoo's 

So this is the second week of #theWinterProject and this week is favourite winter accessories.

This week is an easy one for me as there is only one accessory I look forward to when the weather turns cold and that is scarfs.  Ok so I am cheating a bit as I love scarfs in general and will wear them anytime of the year but the winter months it is a definite staple!!

shameless selfie

I have so many scarfs it borders obsessive!  So I will show you just a few of my favourites:

Espirit - given to me by my friend last year

I love the "old school" wrap around scarfs, the ones I like best are the really long ones as it wraps and wraps - the longer the better as these are just so cosey!

Snood I bought from New Look a couple of years ago

The inifinity scarf or as we in the UK call them a Snood. What can I say about these?  They are a never ending ring of scarf..!!

My two different size pashminas - L: Next last year
R: Orange pashmina from ebay

Pashminas.  Ok so my obsession are actually with these types of scarfs.  I have them in all sizes and colours.  You can get them extremely big where they look like a blanket or a "normal" size and you can wrap them round your shoulders or the outside of your coat or just like a normal scarf.  These are so versetile.

I have other types too, silk, sequin, mesh, square shaped....anyway I don't want to bore you to death about my scarf collection so I shall leave it here.

So this is my winter accessory what is yours?

Until next time my lovelies

Ciao for now xxx

E.L.F 50% off goodies

Hola Dalimoos,

Recently E.L.F had a 50% sale and the last time they had a 50% sale they sold out of the things I wanted, I got lucky this time and bought a few things.  I could have gone crazy but I did really well and very proud of myself haha!

To start off, I bought two contouring blush and bronzing duos.  I have heard really good reviews about these and wanted to give them a try myself.

St Lucia:

This is such a pretty peach colour blush.  Both the bronzer and blush are quite matte with very little shimmer to it.

Antigua:

This is a highly pigmented baby doll pink blush with quite chunky glitter in it.  The bronze has also got slight shimmer to it and is darker than the bronzer in St Lucia.  I am hoping when the blush is blended the glitter isn't so obvious!

I got a couple of extra goodies too, I am in the market for another eyelash curler...a girl can never have too many you know!  I also got two make up brushes .

L: Eyeshadow "C" Brush
M: Blending Eye Brush
R: Eyelash curlers and extra pads

There are a few more things I am eyeing up on their website at the moment and I think I will wait until they have another money off deal before purchasing!!

Have you tried ELF have you any recommendations of items I could purchase next?

Anyway my lovelies

Until next time...

Ciao for now xx

Week 1: Favourite winter nail polish

Hola Dalimoos,

This is the first instalment of the #TheWinterProject and this week its nail polish.

As you know I love nail polish.  My favourite season is Autumn/Winter as I love the dark colours.  It was really hard to pick just one nail polish for this post so I have picked 4 and a bonus one from Glamour Magazine.

The following colours are my go to nail polishes and it is they epitomise winter to me:

Nail Polish 1:

Barry M Raspberry.  This is a lovely deep Raspberry colour and is a great colour for this season as wines and berries are the trend for AW13.

Nail Polish 2:

Another Barry M nail polish, this time it is in Red/Black.  I absolutely love this colour it is such a nice deep dark red.  It is a pretty vampy colour and a great colour for Halloween.

Nail Polish 3

This is Luxedo by Essie.  This an extremely dark purple that in some lights it looks almost black.

Nail Polish 4

A completely different colour considering the first three polishs.  This is Green Machine by elf.  I think it looks like a forest green colour a nice mix of not too dark or too light.

All the polishes mentioned  only take 2 coats of polish to become opaque.

As mentioned I am throwing in a bonus nail polish and it has to be the freebie nail polish that was in Glamour Magazine.  Kate Spade by Nails Inc in Big Apple Red.  It is the prettiest red.  When I look at this red I think of double decker buses or the Royal Mail post boxes.  It is definitely a Christmas colour.

Anyway my lovelies I hope you enjoyed my favourites and I look forward to hearing what your favourites are....

Until next time

Ciao for now xx

#TheWinterProject

Hola Dalimoo,

After the success of Steph's (Stephsinsidevoice) #theSOProject, Kellie from Bold95Beauty came up with the idea of #TheWinterProject.  This a series of blogposts with a winter theme, go check her original post about it *here*

I love these sort of posts as you will all have an idea of what I will be putting up on weekly basis.  It is going to cover 7 weeks, the first week starting Tuesday 12 November.  Below is what it will all cover.

Week 1:  12 November - Favourite Winter nail varnish
Week 2:  19 November - Favourite Winter accessory
Week 3:  26 November - Favourite Winter scent

Christmas is coming!

Week 4: 3 December - Christmas gift ideas: beauty/fashion theme for both him and her
Week 5: 10 December - Favourite Christmas accessory
Week 6: 17 December - Favourite products for a Christmas make up look

Christmas is HERE:

Week 7: 24 December - Christmas OOTD

I am looking forward to these posts and I hope you enjoy reading them.

Until next time my lovelies...

ciao for now xx

The Beauty Blog Tag

Hola Dalimoo's,

I wanted to do a tag post and came across Beauty Broadcast's post and thought I this was a nice one to do.  If you like this post, I tag you and please comment below so I can read them.

Ok lets get on with it...

1. Is your hair naturally curly or straight?

My hair is course (frizzy tendencies) and naturally straight but it does have a slight kink, fine but a lot of it!  I am not a lover of my hair to be honest!

2.  Do you dye it yourself or go to a salon?

I get bored very easily and I go from having a few highlights to full on bright blonde to very dark or red!  So I only get a hairdresser to colour my hair if I am having highlights otherwise it would bankrupt me!

3. Do you wear the same style everyday, or do you change it?

I have my go to hair style which is just messy bun with my fringe gripped back.  I do have a ton of tools and experiment every so often and when I am in the mood I will rock a different hairstyle to work or at the weekend!  I very rarely have my hair down though I don't think I suit my hair down especially when it gets a bit longer, I always feel I look like I have that puppy dog ear look....(think poodle ears - without the curls - a lot of hair!)

4. Do you do your own mani/pedi or go to a salon?

Before I had kids I used to have acrylics and I used to get them done every two weeks and have my toes down once a month.  Now that I have kids, I don't wear acrylics and I have now got a passion for nail art and varnishes so I tend to do my own nails and toes, the only thing I miss about acrylics is the fact they never chipped and chipping is my biggest bug bare when doing your own Mani!!!!

5. How often do you change your nail polish?

Depends on my mood!  If you saw my nails now you would be disgusted.  I have no nail varnish on three nails the rest are chipped so bad but I am just not in the mood to do nails at the moment.  But other times I could change my polish every other day and my nails will look all pretty and nice...

6. Do you polish your toes in the winter or just the summer?

I polish my toe nails in all seasons.  I tend to change the nail polish up if I have a big night planned as I could be wearing open toe shoes! The nice thing about having polish on your toes is they never chip so they can look really good for a month before I need to think about replacing the colour.

7. How long does it take for you to put on makeup?

You would think having two kids I would have mastered this to minutes but no it can take me a good 20 minutes to do my make up.  On a night out it can take longer - heh don't judge this girl's face needs a miracle to be facing the world!

8. What do you do first? Face or eyes?

I have always done my face first.  Since really getting in to beauty and all things make up I have noticed MUAs tend to do the eyes first.  I don't feel comfortable doing it this way, probably because its the way I have always done it so I just stick with what I know.

9. Do you collect makeup or just buy what you need when you need it?

I dunno how to answer this one to be honest.  I wouldn't say I am a collector of make up because my collection compared to others is pretty small but my collection compared to my friends is pretty large!  I do buy things I don't really need just to try it out and I also buy things because I have run out and I need them.  So I suppose it is a mixture of both.

10. How often do you wear false eyelashes?

Back in the day I used to wear them every Friday/Saturday night (am I making myself sound old?) but these days I cannot be bothered with the faffing around!  I have found a good combo of mascaras that give me the same effect.

11. Do you do a full face of makeup everyday?

NO!  I have never been a lover of a full face of make up on a day to day basis, as I like to feel made up on a night out, and if you are wearing all that make up during the week then come the weekend you will need to plaster it on more to feel different....don't you think?

I tend to use concealer, powder, blusher/bronzer, may be a sweep of colour on my eye and mascara day to day.

12. Do you wear makeup when you're home alone or with family?

Depends.  I usually give myself at least one day off from wearing make up to let my skin breath but if I have guests at home then I would put a little something on.  I can look ill/tired without make up.

13. Will you leave the house without makeup?

Yes.  BUT I will put either my sunglasses on or my reading glasses on this helps hide the tired looking eyes and the dark circles which can  make me look tired or ill.

14. How many high-end products do you have?

Not many to be honest.  I have got more than I had say five years ago but if I can find a highstreet dupe then I would always go for the cheaper option.  But if money was no object I probably would be a high end whore...what can I say I am fickle...

15. Do you plan your OOTD every night or decide when you're getting dressed?

If this question is based on every day life, then I tend to just look in my wardrobe and see what doesn't need ironing.  On a night out I tend to work it out in advance as there is nothing worse than choosing on the night for you not to feel comfortable it would just ruin the night.

16. How often do you change your handbag?

Very often.  Like I said I am very fickle and I get bored very easily so I like to change it up all the time.  The one I have at the moment is a "inspired" Longchamp tote bag, it holds everything including the kitchen sink.

17. What time do you wake up and go to sleep?

I have to get up every morning at 6am for work so I try to get to bed for around 10pm but recently it is more 11pm.

18. How often or when do you workout?

Not often enough to be honest.  I am not a fan of gyms so when I am in the mood for exercise I do it at home.  I have a kettle bell which I really love (when I use it!)

19. Left handed or right handed?

Right.  But I can write with my left if I am ever needed to!

20. How tall are you?

5ft2 (with 30in leg!)....sorry had to throw that out there haha

21. Do you speak any foreign languages?

No.  I wish I did.

22. How many pets do you have?

If you count fish as pets then yeah we have 4 - two Black Mores, one Redcap and one Fancy.

23. How often are you on Blogger?

I am on Blogger most days, bloglovin every day.

24. Do you read comments posted on blogs?

Yeah!  I am nosey like that.

25. Do you keep a list of products to try as you see other posts?

Yep, I suppose that is why I never have any money as the list doesn't stay a list for long!

26. How did you come up with your blog name?

I dunno I-  I just thought of Forrest Gump and his quote and made it my own!

27. What kind of camera do you use for your photographs?

I use my iPhone for my pictures.  I haven't had anyone complain about my pictures and I think you can get some really great pictures from your phone.

28. How often do you clean your house?

What a random question!  The person who originally thought of these questions were obviously OCD!  I tidy everyday but deep clean once a week!  Is that dirty? I dunno...

29. What's your favorite colour?

Red and Black together. 

30. Do you swear?

Yep. I am afraid I have a potty mouth!

31. What are you doing with the rest of your day?

Looking after my sick son!  Gonna make dinner, take my daughter to swim club, order a sainsbury's shop and purchase some Xmas presents!

Until next time my lovelies

Ciao for now xx

Seventeen Phwoarr Paint

Hola Dalimoo's,

On one of my recent online shops with Superdrug I came across these eye concealers from Seventeen.

Being a mum of a 2 year old and a 6 year old and having a full time job you.  You can imagine how busy life can be and there are a lot of late nights or interrupted sleep so I have trouble with dark circles and puffiness!  

I have been using  Pixi Eye Brightener for a really long time and I am extremely happy with it but you know me - like many of you - I can't help but try new things, you never know what you wonder product you may find.

Left:  Fair
Right: Medium

These concealers are quite thick consistency and are pretty full coverage.  I use the smallest amount and work it under my eye and on my lids.  I have both the fair and medium shades.  I use fair to brighten my under eye and lid and then use the medium to make my eyes look more like my skin tone! 

I do use fingers but I prefer using the real techniques dome shadow brush it is the perfect size and shape.

These concealers are really great and I am finding that I am gravitating towards this more than my pixi and loving the results it is giving me.  I have not personally found any creasing or cakeyness but I do only use the smallest amount as it goes a long way.

Just to make it clear this product is great for disguising the darkness but does nothing for the puffiness but that is just another battle for me to fight!!!

Anyway my lovelies I would highly recommend this for your dark circles I really think they work.

Until next time

Ciao for now x

Deep cleaning make up brushes

Hola Dalimoo's

So following on from last week #theSOproject I thought I would do a post on how I deep clean my make up brushes.

I only tend to deep clean them once a month, whether this is the correct thing or not I don't care as they are used on my face only so not worried about it too much, plus I have to make time to clean my brushes as they can take anything from 45 minutes to 2 hours and when you are a full time worker and a mum of two finding the time is the problem!! But I do however spot clean practically every day (if that is any constellation!!).  

What I use to wash them with:

There many products on the market designed to wash your brushes but I personally like using baby shampoo it's soft and gently on the bristles.  The one I am using a the moment is simple baby and it does the job for me.

How I wash my brushes:

I like to wet the brush first, put some shampoo in the palm of my hand then swirl the brush in my palm until it produces aids.  TIP:  never get the ferrel wet this causes the glue to disintegrate and comes away from the handle.

Excuse the bubbles on the ferrel this is what happens
when you take a picture one handed!

You will start seeing the make up coming off your hand.  You then rinse and apply some more shampoo if needed.

*disclaimer* excuse the background
not the nicest of shots!

I then use a towel to dry the excess water (by squeezing the towel), I then use the towel to reshape my brushes.

You should never place the brushes upwards to dry this again can cause water to leak into the ferrel.  I dry mine two ways:

First Way:

I use my real technique cases, folding them in half and using the toggle to keep it in place and hold the brushes upside down this way the water is not running in to the glue.

Second Way:

I place them on their side on a clean dry towel.  I normally put them under the radiator to dry off or on a flat surface.

So my lovelies this is how I wash mine and what I use.  

Hope you enjoyed the post and found it helpful.  Until next time...

Ciao for now xx