I was planning on doing a FOTD post but my skin's still awful from the reaction caused by that cucumber cleansing lotion :( so I'm just too self-conscious! I've bought some calendula cream to soothe it, but if anyone has any other suggestions I would be happy to hear them :)
I also bought the Pantene Aqua Light spray to try and tame my hair, it's buy 1 get 1 free on all Pantene products in Boots right now so I picked up two (or rather, my boyfriend dashed to get an extra one after the cashier informed me I'd failed to notice the offer was on...Little Miss Observant, I am not!)
What have you been up to recently? :)

So I'm in the UK at the moment and thought I'd do a quick update on what I've been up to over the last few days! On the ferry over I spotted some Urban Decay products in Duty Free and of course I was mesmerised...somehow in my trance I managed to fork out £16 (about 19 euros) on a small gift set containing my adored HALF BAKED, as well as some Primer Potion, an eyeliner in Bourbon and a glitter eyeliner. My list of things I want to get is steadily growing smaller, yay!
Since I've been here I've also picked up a Boots Essentials Cucumber cleansing lotion, which I initially liked but since using it I've developed lots of small bumps under my skin, not so yay...My skin is ridiculously sensitive though so hopefully this is just a one-off! I also picked up a couple of things from the Superdrug Natural High range, namely the eye cream and a radiance cream. These are 2 for £5 at the moment which is pretty good considering just one usually costs about £4.40! I've yet to really put them to the test but I will review them in a couple of weeks once they've had a chance to work.
Finally, I picked up a gorgeous headband in Accessorize and this beauty in the Jane Norman sale:It's super flattering and hides my tummy (always a bonus), I can't wait to wear it on holiday with my gold gladiator sandals ! I do love simple outfits...
I have a couple of posts planned for when I get back to Luxembourg next week, I shall review my Chanel Inimitable Intense mascara along with Half Baked, because that's the look I've been wearing ever since I acquired the two products. I quite literally have no money right now, but oh well...who needs to eat, right?

(Just kidding!)

This...this beauty is mine!
I recently looked after my siblings (of which there are many) and animals for the weekend while my parents jetted off to Madrid, and to say thank you my mum went out today and bought me this (she admittedly gets a discount as she has one of those store cards, but still!) and I'm already in love. Hands down the best mascara I've used! I'll do a proper review soon as the moment I got my grubby little hands on this I rushed to take all my make-up off and try it out; it is FABULOUS and I shall take before and after photos over the next few days. Is it sad that I'm this excited over make-up? I think not! It is Chanel, after all...
I think I shall just go stare at it for a few hours now...it's so pretty...

<3

I know the title sounds somewhat spoilt-brattish but 'products I desire' just sounds...wrong.

I'll begin with the products I know I can afford and will probably buy when I return to the UK, land of affordable make-up! (Where I grew up, in Luxembourg, make-up is ridiculously expensive...they tried to console us make-up lovers by giving us Sephora, it's true, but how many students can afford to shop there anyway?)

1. Superdrug Natural High Eye Brightening Cream - I've read so many good reviews on this product and as I am 'blessed' (harrumph) with extremely dark circles under my eyes I'm willing to give this a try as soon as I am in the vicinity of a decent Superdrug!

2. Aussie Dual Personality Heat Protection and Leave in Spray - I really don't treat my hair the way it ought to be treated, save for giving it the odd conditioning mask, then subjecting it to extreme heat (I always use a hairdryer, sometimes GHDs) so a heat protection spray would be ideal. Aussie are a brand I have used in the past and I love their 3 Minute Miracle range so I'll be picking this product up as well!

3. Bio-Oil - Unfortunately due to a skin condition I have been left with unsightly spots and scarring on my legs, which is self-esteem-damaging, to say the least! I've heard that Bio-Oil is one of the best treatments for scarring, so I'll be keeping an eye out for this, or I may go for Palmers Moisturizing Body Oil, as a more affordable alternative. You can tell I'm making a ridiculously long shopping list for my trip back to the UK next week!

4. Urban Decay Eyeshadow in Half Baked - My sister has this eyeshadow in a palette which I was allowed to play with the other day...and it was love at first swatch. I have an obsession with all things gold and bronze on my eyes and this is the perfect colour. At the moment I feel guilty spending more than a few pounds on eyeshadow, let alone £12 (!) so this purchase will have to wait till I get a job, or at least until Christmas (how many months away is that again?) but until then, I will have to make do with doing my sister's chores in return for a moment's reconciliation with my new make-up love.

5. Clarins Wonder Perfect Mascara/ Chanel Inimitable Mascara - As I've stated before, I'm still searching for the perfect mascara and I've heard good things about these two. I just have to get past the mental barrier in my head telling me I would be mental to pay around 20 quid for a mascara! I'm more tempted by the Chanel one, I must say, but that could stem from my living-beyond-my-means obsession with all things Chanel.
6. Bare Escentuals Bare Minerals Foundation - Now I'm perfectly happy with my Collection 2000 mineral powder, as it's truly the best powder I've ever used, and at £4.99 it's certainly far more affordable than Bare Minerals! But there's a niggling part of me that's whispering that the Collection 2000 doesn't last all day, and if Collection 2000 is the best one I've used so far, could it be possible that Bare Minerals would be EVEN BETTER? Not blessed with perfect skin, it has become my aim to achieve the illusion of perfect skin, at least, and if Bare Minerals is as good as reviews say it is, would I have finally completed my goal?

7. These shoes! - Not so much a beauty as a fashion buy, but I had the misfortune to come across these gorgeous shoes on the Debenhams website! Now if only I had a spare £70 lying around...

Okay, anyone who has the (mis)fortune to be acquainted with me will know that I am not exactly Nigella in the kitchen...I once made chicken noodle soup which I rechristened into a dish called 'chicken sludge' as it seemed more appropriate (think one massive mass of noodles with the odd carrot or piece of chicken in!)...but even so, it was my lovely cousin Naomi's birthday yesterday so today, in her honour, I decided to attempt making cupcakes, and as you can see, they were a success! (Not a blackened, charred mass of inedible monstrosity). I googled "rainbow cupcakes" to find a recipe which didn't seem too frightening, and came up with this one at cutoutandkeep.net, which I will now proceed to share with you, if you don't wish to click the link :)
You will need:

125 g butter
125 g self-raising flour
125 g caster sugar
2 eggs
Vanilla extract
3 tbsp milk
Food colouring
Cupcake cases
1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees C.
Round up your ingredients.
Beat the sugar and butter together, until fluffy and light coloured.

2. Beat in the eggs one at a time, adding a little flour each time, until you've added it all.

3. Add the vanilla essence, mix.1 tbsp milk, mix.
1 tbsp milk, mix.
1 tbsp milk, mix.

4. Divide between 6 bowls:
Bowl 1- Add half a cap full of red colouring
Bowl 2- Add half a cap full of red and half a cap full of yellow
Bowl 3- Half a cap of yellow
Bowl 4- Half a cap full of greenBowl 5- Half a cap full of blue
Bowl 6- Half a cap full of blue, half a cap full of red.
Mix each colour throroughly (I found orange and indigo needed more mixing than the others)

5. Divide the purple bowl between the 12 cases and smooth to form bottom layer.
Repeat with the other bowls in this order:
Blue
Green
Yellow
Orange
RedPut in the oven for 15-20 mins (I did mine for 18 and they turned out fine!)

6. Decorate to your heart's content! My sister and I used buttercream and edible glitter and the results were interesting, to say the least!

I thought I'd begin my make-up babble by posting about some of the stuff I use on a daily basis. My routine recently has consisted of minimal make-up as it's just been too hot and sticky here (I'm home in Luxembourg over the summer, where it's a few degrees hotter than the UK...melting here!). I usually begin by applying Revlon Colorstay on the the dark circles under my eyes and on any blemishes with a concealer brush, then use Collection 2000 Perfecting Minerals all over my face to combat my extreeeeeme oilyness (chipfat-face = unattractive). Next I use the Bourjois blush, then a swipe of Barry M Dazzle Dust in 44 (Bronze) on my eyelids, then finish it off with a mix of the two mascaras you can see above. I've yet to find my HG mascara, but at the moment I use the Benefit Bad Gal Lash brush with the Max Factor False Lash Effect mascara and it seems to do the job well!
This is the fastest make-up routine I've used to date, it takes about five minutes, depending whether or not I get mascara all over my eyelids and have to do tedious touch-ups! I intend on doing reviews on all these products at some point over the next few weeks, so if you're interested, let me know!
xoxo

Like I'm in a permanent state of nervous excitement. I'm not, I'm just really, really awkward...Maybe I'll start using ellipses instead...Now my writing style just looks shy...yeah I'll go back to exclamation marks, they're more me :p

So the reason I set this blog up (incidentally, it shares a birthday with my cousin Naomi, woo!) is because over the last few months I discovered the world of the beauty blogger, thanks to my sister Nat who is obsessed with make-up, and, at the grand old age of 16, a better make-up artist than I could ever aspire to be! I may get her to make me up and post photos of it if it is successful. But I digress! I have only just discovered how to follow blogs, but I have an enormous amount of bookmarks saved, so I shall post some of my favourites here (because everyone loves a little feedback!)

First of all, the lovely Lea Michele (Rachel Berry in Glee). She's absolutely stunning and has the BEST hair ever. She also tends to look really natural, although she sometimes glams it up with a red lip and/or smoky eyes (the kind I cannot for the life of me recreate myself). Here are some pictures, courtesy of leamichele.tumblr.com!





Isn't she stunning?