Another Manchester Haul

Last weekend me and Sam went off to one of our favourite places, Manchester to celebrate our 5 year anniversary. I can't explain what it is that I love about Manchester but to me it's like a London version 2. It has every shop you need and a great place for live music, just the perfect place to live in my opinion.

We spent the whole Saturday at the Intu Trafford Centre, a shopping centre I've always wanted to visit which is voted 2nd in the UK's top shopping centre's I believe. I decided to treat myself a bit as I've worked a lot of extra hours this past month so my first place to visit was of course Selfridges. I wish I had one in my town because of all the luxury brands that I can go visit, so for trips like these I like to have in mind products I've been dying to try for instance this Charlotte Tilbury Colour Chameleon in the shade Champagne Diamonds has been on my wishlist this autumn which you can read here.

I then went into Superdrug to actually get the new Sleek highlighting palette but to my expectations it was sold out as like many newly released Sleek products. I remembered these dupes for Charlotte Tilbury's Eye's To Memorise pots by Maybelline and as I'm after long lasting quick easy eyeshadows at the moment I thought this nice Colour Tattoo 24hr Cream Gel Eyeshadow pot in the shade 65 Pink Gold would be perfect for everyday wear, as this is a metallic colour which adds a soft sheen to the lids and not so in your face shimmery.

I needed to pick up a few CD's so I went over to HMV to buy Tom Chaplin's 'The Wave' an album which I have been waiting for, for like forever, I'm really enjoying it so far and would just like to put it out there that no, Keane has not split up! also, there was an offer on so I'd thought I'd pick up Tom Odel's 'Wrong Crowd' as he is always my A/W listen in the car when it starts getting cold - so I got my two Tom CDs.

I'm running low on my Garnier Micellar Water and planned that my next cleanser to try is The Body Shop Chamomile Sumptuous Cleanser, I liked the sound of a butter removing my makeup as it sounds more gentle and is suitable for sensitive skin. As there was a buy one get one-half price offer on that I couldn't refuse. I thought it was best to pick up something from the tea tree oil range as I've been having a few breakouts lately which could be from a sample Lush moisturiser I'm using or those damn hormones. I picked up this Tea Tree Night Lotion as it's best to let spots go down whilst you sleep and I could do with the extra help.

I also went to Hollister and bought a white zip-up hoodie lined with fur which I just live in now, you can see this here and another one to my collection, a light denim pinafore dress from New Look here because I also just live in dungarees/pinnys now.

After all that shopping we headed back to the room to get changed and head out for some dinner at Coast to Coast which Sam then kindly gifted me this Pandora Eternity ring which was so sweet of him. On Sunday we played mini adventure golf in the Trafford Centre which Sam won before heading home.

If you're interested in reading about my other Manchester beauty haul then you can find it here.

Manchester Beauty Haul

So if you read my post on thursday you will all be aware I went to Manchester last week, to find out what I got up to then have a read here. I saved up some money and some gift vouchers which I received for my birthday/christmas and went to shops/make up counters which I can't visit often as we don't have them in Nottingham.

First of all the new release of Sleek's Cream Contour Kits have just been released so I quickly headed to superdrug to buy one as they aren't in Boots yet and these were selling out fast. I will be doing a full review of this after a few weeks but from first impressions these are really creamy and easy to apply but I just need to get the hang of contouring as this is all very new to me.

I had some points spare on my Boots advantage card so I had a wander, eyeing up all the counters and thought I needed to change to a lighter base ready for the warmer months so I went to Estee Lauder as I love their double wear foundation and liked the look of this BB cream as it contains SPF 30 so I wanted to give this a try and I love it, so happy with my choice. One thing I did know that the Manchester Boots did have was a NYX stand and I couldn't wait to visit as I can order NYX from Boots online but I like to do swatches of products so I went straight to the Lips section which was the most crowded and did a bit of swatching and came out with these two soft creme matte liquid lipsticks in the shades 06 Instanbul & 05 Antwerp

I bought a few clothing items with my vouchers, from Topshop I finally got round to buying this yellow raincoat which you can get here. I think this would be great for festivals and our unpredicted weather as we are going through April showers so it's become very handy right now. From New Look I bought this beautiful pale blue chiffon pleated midi skirt which you can view here. I thought this would be nice to wear on my holidays and in the summer when we get a heatwave hopefully.

I also treated myself to a bit of jewellery with this beautiful rose gold Pandora ring here. I like to wear this on it's own but it can be worn with other rings as a stacker.

Next I went into Selfridges which I wish I could visit often as they have a Charlotte Tilbury stand, I would of bought something but I was running low on money at this point so I thought I'd finally bite the bullet and buy something from Nars. I didn't want another lip product but I would like to try the velvet matte lip pencils at some point but I wanted to buy a new concealer and the lady helped me match the shade to my skin tone 'light' and by first impression I fell in love, it's creamy, high coverage and blended nicely I was very happy with my purchase. This is going to become a favourite of mine I just know it.

I'll be heading back to Manchester in June so no doubt I'll be back into some of these shops again.

A Colourpop Haul

If you're a beauty blogger and haven't heard of Colourpop by now then where have you been!? Let me introduce to you this amazing US brand which sadly doesn't ship to the UK (but you can still get your hands on it, read on) they are very affordable and are very popular with their lip products & pigmentation. They are always releasing new shades/products which sell out very quickly and are very on trend with releases too, such as the new Metallic Liquid Lipsticks.

In July Colourpop did an international shipping day, of course, I jumped on board with this straight away as I've always wanted to give this brand a try, plus I already had a wish list going on in my head.

After a long wait 2-3 weeks later my order finally got delivered, but unfortunately, I got a customs charge which I later found out you can avoid this by using a mailing service such as Shippo. There're loads of different companies if you Google them but how these work are you ship them to a US address and this then gets sent to your UK address.

I got this gorgeous deep brown shade called Limbo from the Ultra Matte Liquid Lipstick range because I thought of the fall when I saw this, I can't wait to be wearing dark colours on my lips and this shade is very daring for me. I always feel so confident when I'm wearing a strong bold lip. I'm sure this will pop up in a favourite for A/W themed posts in the future.

I haven't heard much raving about these highlighters but this shade is called Lunch Money which is a natural pearly golden shade suitable for every day which is what I wanted. You could probably get away with wearing this as an eyeshadow as it's buildable.

 Another shade from the Ultra Matte Lip Range is the shade First Class, it's a bright orangey red and it looks stunning, perfect for summer. I wore this on a night out and the staying power is incredible. This wasn't too drying on the lips and I found this very comfortable but I will need to test these more before I give you my thoughts.

I was watching some YT videos on Colourpop products, mainly for swatches and a girl recommended buying the lip pencil with the Lippie Stix's so you get a precise shape and I picked up the shade Button. When you apply this you will notice it's slightly a darker shade than the Lippie Stix which looks nice to wear on its own actually.

 The eyeshadows are also something I've always wanted to try too. They come in individual little white pots so I made sure I picked a shade I will wear to death and that was this beautiful rose gold/copper colour in the shade La La because I love to wear shimmery coppers on my lids. This is gonna be another favourite in the fall season I reckon too.

Lastly we have the Lippie Stix in the shade Button which is a pinky nude colour perfect for everyday wear with a satin finish, I wasn't sure If I was going to like these so that's why I only played it safe and picked up a natural colour, but If I was going to order again I would definitely pick up some more shades.

The eyeshadow shade in Hanky Panky which is a cool toned taupe colour, again another colour I can't get enough of. I thought this would work well on its own or paired with La La as a nice transition shade.

L to R: Lunch Money, La La, Hanky Panky, Button Pencil, Button Lippie Stix, First Class & Limbo

That's it for my Colourpop haul, if you have any other shades or products that you recommend from this brand then please do tell me about them in the comments as I will be making another order in the future.

What's your favourite Colourpop products? Have you tried this brand before?

A Nyx Haul

FINALLY!! we have a NYX stand in my local boots!! Yes I got so excited when this happened as I used to order NYX stuff online so now I'm happy I can roam freely to actually browse and swatch before I buy. So I picked up a little basket and went crazy basically dragging Sam around going'Oh bloggers say this is good!' as I already had a 'to try' list in my head. As mentioned this isn't the first time I've tried NYX as I used to order stuff from Boots online so I've tried and would recommend the Lip Cremes and HD Eyeshadow Primer this stuff is amazing and only £3. 

By the time this post was being written I have actually tried some of these products so I can give a bit of a review from first impression but If all goes well I'll be writing a detailed review on products mentioned.

For the face there are so many items I do want to try like highlighters, powders etc, but I needed a new drugstore concealer and I've heard good things about this HD concealer, this can be used under the eyes but it does cling to dry patches and lately I've been getting dry eyes so it didn't look great but it does have high coverage for blemishes and covers redness I would even go as far as saying it's as good as the collection one.

For the lips, I picked up quite a few lip products as they are the best. A soft matte lip creme in the shade Morocco which is a gorgeous orangey red shade perfect for summer time, a lingerie liquid lipstick in the shade Ruffle Trim which is a browny pinkish colour, a liquid suede cream in the shade Tea & Cookies, a slide on lip pencil in the shade Red Tape as I seem to have lost my red lip pencil.

For the eyes, I've always wanted to give there brow products a go as brow products are really popular right now so I picked up this tame & frame tinted brow pomade in the shade 02 Chocolate and the micro brow pencil in the shade 03 Auburn which comes with a spoolie on one end and a really fine pencil on the other, this is used for precise shaping giving that natural look but unfortunately I knew I should've followed my gut instinct and got this in shade 2 as this just comes out way to orange which my brows aren't but with light enough strokes and a brow gel I can make this work, I think I'll still pick this up in a different shade though. I've always wanted to try out the vivid brights eyeliner in the shade petal which is a purple colour, I think this will be my summer eye look with these eyeliners.

I'll be reporting back with posts about how I get on with these so look out for these.

What's your favourite NYX picks? I'd love to try more from this brand