New Years Eve Make Up

I thought I'd do one last post to round up 2014 seeing as it's been such a great year! Normally I upload on a Tuesday but I wanted to finish on New Years Eve with a little tutorial of the make up I have been loving these past few weeks when going to Christmas parties etc! I've been using my Urban Decay Naked Palette on the eyes mainly using the golden tones to create a really strong eye look and then leaving the rest of the face fairly neutral.

Before doing the eye make up I used Collection's Lasting Perfection Concealer in 'Medium 3' just in the spots I needed, Soap and Glory's Kick Ass Concealer Under the eyes and to highlight, then Soap and Glory's Archery Brow to shape my eyebrows. I then finished this off with MAC Studio Fix Powder and a bit of Benefit 'Rockateur' Blush and primed my eyelids with Urban Decay's Primer Potion. All brushes used in this were also from Real Techniques, I honestly do love their brushes! Here's a little step to step on the eyes...

Step 1. Using a 'Deluxe Crease' Brush wipe the shade 'Natural' all over the eyes to even out the eyelid and give a bit of a base for the eyeshadow.
Step 2. Using a 'Base Shadow' Brush push 'Half Baked' all over the mobile lid and blend in (make sure to tap off the brush as you can get some fall down with these)

Step 3. Using an 'Accent' Brush bring 'Half Baked' into the very inner corner of your eye and slightly underneath. This can be done quite strongly into the corner, I find it gives an amazing highlight, just be careful not to get it in your eye!
Step 4. Back to the 'Base Shadow' Brush, lightly mix the shades 'Buck' and 'Naked' and blend into the crease lightly just to smooth the outer edge.

Step 5. Using an 'Brow' Brush, get any dark brown eyeshadow and very slightly use this to line the outer corner of the lash line, only going to about the middle of the eye. (I also tight-lined with Soap and Glory's 'Supercat' eyeliner but you can skip this step!)
Step 6. Finally finish off with lashing's of mascara or you could add false eyelashes if you wish!

Have you been wearing any make up staples this season? Let me know what you think of this look!

And finally, just to say thanks for reading and Happy New Year! See you in 2015!

Great Christmas Discounts

Even though this time of year I always say that I'm going to be super organised and buy presents well in advance, there always seems to be something that I forget/miss and I end up running around trying to find something good! This year though, there are a few great Christmas discount codes out for these last few weeks that are great for those who have left their Christmas shopping to the last minute. Here's a little run down of a few I think are well worth checking out...

1. Boots

With £10 off orders of £90/£100, £5 off Fragrance orders of £50 and Free Next Day Delivery along with their 3 for 2 on Christmas Gifts, there's so much you could choose from to finish your Christmas Shopping by the Weekend! 

2. Look Fantastic

At the moment, Look Fantastic are doing a great 20% off of First Orders but also have some great offers on such as 15% off selected brands and 15% off £50 orders with Free Next Day Delivery. Definitely worth checking out for those beauty lovers presents!

3. Debenhams

Offering a free £5 voucher when you order online and use Click and Collect in store, you save both on delivery and get a voucher to spend in the New Year, double bonus! Also an offering of Free Next Day Delivery on orders over £30, great for getting a range of gifts with all the different things Debenhams has to offer!

4. Buyagift

For the less conventional present, Buyagift have some great offerings and a great £10 off orders over £20/£50 etc, you can hopefully find something for even the hardest person to buy for.

5. The Fragrance Shop

An extra 15% off online/instore is being offered at the moment, great again for those beauty lovers and they do some lovely gift sets this time of year!

6. New Look

Also offering a great discount for £10 off orders of £50, you can normally get free Click and Collect Delivery with this as well which is great if you don't want to pay for postage! They do some great sets for presents as well as their normal accessories range etc that I think make lovely gifts!

These are just a few great discounts out at the moment for last minute shopping, there's loads more out there though! I normally check www.vouchercodes.co.uk as they have pretty much all of the most up to date codes and some great exclusives!

 What great discounts have you found this year?

Soap and Glory Skincare Series - 4 - Puffy Eye Attack Turbo-Boost Hydragel

My fourth product I've looked at this past month or so as part of my Soap and Glory Skincare review series is the 'Puffy Eye Attack Turbo-Boost Hydragel'. This is an eye cream that is supposed to help with dark circles under the eyes and puffiness. 

With first use, I found that this made my eyes sting slightly but I seem to have found that with first use of a lot of the Soap and Glory products and that it goes away by the second use. I noticed results however almost immediately! Within a couple of days I did see a slight difference in brightness and a slight reduce in the puffiness under my eyes! (I'm not great at sleeping so my under eye circles are quite bad!)

I use this both in the morning and evening after I apply my moisturiser and dab a tiny amount in all under my eye up to the inner corner and all the way to the bottom of my dark circles with my ring finger - this is the best finger to use as it doesn't pull on the skin at all! I also found that this was nice and moisturising for under my eyes when putting on concealer. Before using this I found that under my eyes was really dry and my concealer didn't sit so well and this has really helped to stop that!

I've used this for over a month now and really like it! I skipped using it a couple of evenings to see if I could notice any difference and again it was almost immediate! The next morning my dark circles were a lot worse and I struggled to cover them!

The tub for this is 14ml so it's really nice and compact and you only use a tiny dab so this will definitely last ages and I definitely recommend it a try! 

Have you tried any new skincare products lately you've loved?

(Also if anyone has any recommendations I'd love to hear them, I seem to be having a tough time with my skin at the moment - breakouts, make up not lasting, pigmentation issues - so I'd love to know if anyone's tried anything they would recommend for a girl with combination skin!)