FESTIVE REDS

I love wearing red in December, there's something so festive about painting your nails with a sparkly red nail polish or wearing a bold red lipstick. Here's a few of my favourites:

Lips

L'Oreal Color Riche Exclusives Lipstick in Blake: I love Blake Lively, she has such amazing taste and this sophisticated matte cool toned red fits in perfectly with her style. The formula feels slightly more powdery than I normally like in a lipstick but it contains jojoba oil and so keeps lips soft. It's long lasting and a stunning pure matte red.

Sleek Matte Me in Rioja Red*: Supposedly a dupe for the Hourglass Opaque Rouge lipsticks this liquid lipstick is long lasting, super pigmented and really affordable. It dries to a pretty, velvet matte finish and is a beautiful true red. This can be tricky to apply but once dry on the lips it stays put for hours. It's one of longest lasting lipstick's that I've tried and so it is perfect for Christmas parties.

Rimmel Apocalips in Big Bang: This is a creamy, bold red that leaves a satin sheen finish on the lips. I have to prep my lips well before using this as it shows up any imperfections but then it looks so pretty on the lips, is long lasting and fades to a stain. I've written a full review here.

Nails

Nails Inc Tate: A beautiful sophisticated cherry red nail polish which is great if you want something festive without the glitter. Opaque in 1-2 coats Nails Inc nail polish has a great formula that lasts well on my nails.

Barry M Ruby Slippers Red Glitter: Great for fingers or toes this classic glittery red nail polish is a staple for me at Christmas. This is my favourite ruby glittery red nail polish to wear on Christmas day.

Essie Leading Lady: This is a deep red nail polish with flecks of raspberry micro glitter running through it. It's a stunning nail polish and great to wear for the lead up to Christmas.

Which are your favourites?

A FESTIVE TOUCH

After seeing the Coca Cola advert on tv last weekend I've decided to completely embrace the fact that its now nearly Christmas. Michael Buble has been playing in the background whilst I've been baking festive treats and slowly adding festive touches to my make up routine. Heres a few things that Ive added to my make up bag:

thebalm Mary Lou Manizer: This highly pigmented champagne highlighter adds a beautiful glow to your skin. You only need such a small amount brushed over your cheekbones, on your brow bone and on the inner corners of your eye to give a beautiful shimmer that's so lovely for the festive season.

Bobbi Brown Shimmer Wash Eyeshadow in Champagne: I bought this eyeshadow a while ago as I read that the Make-up artist used this on Katherine in the Vampire Diaries. I'm already so in love with season 6 and so pulled this out to wear. This eyeshadow is a pretty shimmery champagne colour which is quite sheer so I like to wear this as part of a brown smokey eye, or just on its own for a shimmery wash of colour over the lids if I'm wearing a bold red lip.

Mac RiRiwoo lipstick: Very similar to MAC Ruby Woo, this cool toned matte red is the perfect winter lipstick. I wore this last year in my festive decorating video, it's long lasting and gets me so excited for Christmas when I wear it!

L'Oreal Mono eyeshadow in 205 Sable Lame. This stunning shimmery light gold eyeshadow gives a touch of festiveness to my make up and lasts well on my eyes. These L'Oreal eyeshadows are so buttery and pigmented, see a full review and swatches here.

MAC Mineralize Blush in Gleeful: Aptly named, this wine coloured blush is perfect for the colder months. You only need such a small amount for it to add a long lasting beautiful rosy red glow to your cheeks.

Nails inc Chelsea Square: I'm already breaking out the glitter nail polish and Nails Inc Chelsea square is such a pretty rose gold glitter that is great for the run up to Christmas.

Are you excited about Christmas already?

BONFIRE NIGHT NAILS

I've been a bit wary of bonfire night ever since a rogue firework burnt its way through the audience when I was younger. The booming explosions echoing through the skies and the thick smog that's left behind means that I always approach fireworks night with an air of caution. This year, behind the safety of our balcony, we plan to watch the glittering skies whilst eating foil wrapped baked potatoes loaded with butter, salt and cracked black pepper.

I've painted my nails in honour of the occasion with Maxfactor Prussian Blue and glittered tips for the fireworks. For the tips I chose five of my favourite glitter nail polishes - On my index finger is Models Own Southern Lights which is a stunning lilac holographic glitter, on my middle finger Barry M Magenta Glitter, my ring finger Barry M Blue Glitter and Nails inc Electric Avenue on my little finger. I painted the glitters onto the tips of my nails before sealing them with Sally Hansen Insta Dri. I really love this effect and feel like its perfect for fireworks night!

What are your plans this bonfire night?

HALLOWEEK DAY #3 HALLOWEEN PUMPKIN NAILS

For the past two years I've created a Halloween nail art design. This year, I've been loving decorating my home with little pumpkins and drinking pumpkin spice hot chocolates so much that I decided to create a little pumpkin nail art tutorial. I thought that I would have a go at dabbling in the world of youtube and make a video tutorial this year. I'm still getting used to the filming and editing but I really hope you like it!

Products used: 

Nails Inc Savile Row Nail polish
Soigne Permission Nail Polish
Sally Hansen Haute Chocolate Nail polish
Max Factor Cactus Green Nail Polish
Sally Hansen Insta Dri Top coat
Nail Dotting Tool

What do you think of these pumpkin nails?

DATE NIGHT MAKE UP

Me and Alex rarely go on date nights, instead if we want to spend time together then we normally put our jammies on, make some chocolate covered popcorn and watch films, play lego games on his Xbox the or bake! When we do go out on a date night I like to make a bit of an effort, using luxurious items and some of my favourite products:

For my nails I love wearing Nails Inc Tate as it's such a lovely dark cherry red, it gives a touch of sophistication and lasts well on my nails.

For blusher, I'm normally drawn to Nars Orgasm. Probably one of the most well known blushers in the blogosphere, it's such a pretty golden peachy pink that gives a lovely flush of colour to your cheeks.

My favourite lipstick at the moment is Revlon Sultry Samba which is a bright cool toned matte pink. I like to pat a small amount of this onto my lips and rub it in to make a stain so that it's long lasting and a bit more subtle on the lips.

For highlighter I love MAC Soft & Gentle, it's probably my all time favourite champagne highlighter. It gives such a beautiful glow and you only need a small amount brushed on the top of your cheekbones and on the brow bone to really make your skin look luminous and glowing.

I always reach for MAC eyeshadows to wear on evenings out and I love to use my MAC Quad when I want to create a subtle date night look. I use Naked Lunch all over the eyelid and then Sable blended into the outer corner and under the eye to give a subtle smokey eye. The plum pearl in sable really helps to bring out the brown in my eyes whilst Naked lunch (a pretty champagne pink) really helps to brighten and open my eyes.

I then add some winged liner, my accessorize statement necklace and I'm ready to go!

What are your favourite date night products?

THREE REDS

Whenever I can't decide on a colour to wear on my nails, I choose red. I prefer darker shades of reds as I feel they add a touch of sophistication, these are my three current favourites.

'The Bright Red' - Rita Ora for Rimmel in 'Raw as night'* is the perfect fire engine red. Touch dry in 60 seconds and opaque in just one swipe, this is perfect for on the go, no fuss nails. I own a few other 60 second colours and I love the formula, I can never be bothered to wait for my nails to dry and these are great if you need to do your nails in a hurry!

'The Sophisticated Red' - Nails inc Tate nail polish is a classic dark red. It looks great with gold midi rings and is a great transitional colour from Summer to Autumn.

'The Shimmery Red' - 17's fast finish nail polish in 'Garnet' is a deep warm shimmery red. It has just enough shimmer to show on the nails but it's subtle enough not to look sparkly. I normally wear this on my toes as it's a little streaky to apply but it dries quickly on the nails.

xx

NYE Purple Make up

Eye Make up: MUA Peal eyeshadow shade 9 all over lid, MAC nocturnelle in crease, Dark blue from sleek storm pallete in crease, Barry M glitterdust, prestige white eyeliner, UD Naked pallete side car, Loreal Carbon gloss liner, maybelline the one mascara. - Im working on a tutorial for this look so hopefully will be up soon.

Happy new year!

Although I spent NYE in my PJ's at home lol, I wanted to create a make up look that could be worn on NYE :)

I've decided to completely embrace this new year & make resolutions for the first time!
Theres something about new years that gives you an excuse to have a 'fresh start' - start a gym, stop letting something get to you, take up a new hobbie or take a leap of faith! 
I've always been stubborn and thought 'My new years resolution is to not have any resolutions' as I thought that I would change/diet/excercise/de-stress when needed.
This year however I feel completely different. I feel like I want goals to spur me on, I want to get out of ruts, I want to jump on my cross trainer to burn off the christmas indulgence lol!
I'm really excited for this year as hopefully there will be lots of good changes, I'm feeling really positive eek! Thank you everyone for taking the time to read my blog this past year, I hope everyone had a lovely new years xx
 
A few of my resolutions:
Blog more!!
Exercise at least 3 times a week - crosstrainer & zumba
Start a Youtube channel?  
Study Make up
Read lots of new books!
Relax, dont let things get to me so much
Be more confident.
Buy some sigma brushes

What are yours? x

NYE NOTD

Happy New Years Eve!!

Thought I would post a quick NOTD, Nails Inc - Park lane is a lovely lilac glitter.

I'll be posting my NYE make up soon, I'm not actually going out tonight though, im in my PJ's already lol, drinking hot chocolate with a full face of sparkly make up! Im planning to make a Veggie roast soon (Quorn roast, roast pots and veggies), toast the new years at midnight with my bf and then go to bed haha! 

I hope everyone has a lovely new year! x