December Favourites

2016 may be so last year but before we get too focused on the excitement of the new year, it is time to go back and look at my favourites from the month of December. From a month of constant festivities, expect a lot of glitter…

Starting with the more sparkly additions in my stash lately that have been the front of my makeup routine in December, Mac pigments are always my favourite products to bring out for any sort of party season! I am always super excited about the limited edition Mac holiday pigment sets that are released each year and this year was no different. this time around I picked up the Bronze set. The set includes three pigments and one glitter in a range of gorgeous bronze-y shades. They create such an impact on the eyes and have such a gorgeous finish. My favourites are Stardream, and Handsome Prince. For Christmas, I also I added to my pigment collection with the addition of Kitschmas which is totally different to anything else I own. It is a gorgeous pearly shimmering pink! Only a recent addition but still one I am already loving!

Continuing with eye makeup, there has also been a new mascara love recently! To help achieve thick voluminous lashes perfect for the party season, Charlotte Tilbury Legendary Lashes has proved to be a winner. This mascara is responsible for creating a full on look of thickened and lengthened lashes! The only issue with this mascara is that as the formula is pretty wet it does smudge easy which is a pain but the impact it creates makes it worth it!

To create the ultimate party look, I can’t be without a good highlight. Becca is my go-to highlighter brand and I knew before trying the Moonstone Shimmering Skin Perfector that I would love it and of course I did! I love liquid highlighters as they create such a gorgeous natural but glowy look. This shade works perfectly too with my pale skin!

On to lip products, I was super excited to see that Jeffree Star is now stocked on Beauty Bay making it really accessible in the UK! I picked up two of the liquid lipsticks in the shades Doll Parts and Gemini. The two shades are so gorgeous and super wearable, Doll Parts in particular is a shade I’ve wanted for so long. The formula is also easy and comfortable to wear! The shade range for the collection is impressive so these definitely won’t be my last liquid lipsticks from the brand!

Lastly, I mentioned this in my Beauty discoveries from 2016 post here, which already says a lot about this product! It is of course the By Terry Baume De Rose Lip Gloss. I wanted to try this for the longest time and I am now so happy I have. It is such a lovely moisturising balm with a pretty light pink sheen. The perfect no-makeup makeup!

What beauty products have you been loving lately?

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Life Lately #12

Merry Christmas! I hope everyone had an amazing Christmas! It is crazy to think it’s been and gone already but I still count the time being as the Christmas period and of course we all still have New Years to look forward to! So on that note, Happy New Year when it comes as this will be my last post of 2016! How crazy!

Life

This month has been pretty crazy, and not just because of the build up to Christmas. I finished my semester at uni which of course meant exams. I spent the first half of December in exam mode which as you can imagine wasn’t the most exciting way to spend the start of the festive month! Obviously though the feeling of getting exams out the way and looking forward to Christmas was indeed very exciting! Annoyingly enough however after my exams past I felt in such a rush and ever so busy with work and preparing for Christmas that I never really felt as chilled as I imagined it would be. Nevertheless with it all cooled down now, I have been enjoying simply doing nothing over the last few days with lots of chocolate and cheesecake and finally catching up on TV that I’ve missed over the past month! I am very much excited to keep that going for the next few weeks before it’s back to uni again!

Blogging 

Of course with the busyness of the past month, I’ve not had a lot of time to spend on my blog. I’ve also felt a little uninspired too lately and I’ve been feeling like I’ve been in such a rush to come up with ideas, never mind write the posts. I took the decision before to cut my blog posts from three posts a week to two which has helped so much! However with a lack of inspiration, I feel pressured by myself to meet my two a week post schedule and it’s obviously no good when I have a lack of ideas and no one wants rushed poor quality blog posts. So to help get myself out of this rut, I have decided to get rid of my ‘Tuesday/Friday’ schedule and instead just post whenever. It isn’t the most ideal especially for my usual organised self but it does mean that I can post when I really want to with posts that I have put all my efforts into and that I really want to post instead of just random rushed posts that are published just to meet my schedule. This doesn’t mean that I will hardly post, there probably will be less posts but I am still going to be active on here and posting as often as I can. I read many other blogs which I love who post randomly without a set schedule so hopefully that won’t bother anyone too much!

On the other hand, I have been pretty active on Instagram this month! I did make a little goal for myself to post every day until Christmas and whilst I did miss a couple of days I did pretty well and it was good to finally get back on to the platform. It was also fun to share some extra stuff too so you can check out all my latest posts here.

Catch up with December posts: Nars Sarah Moon Collection, Things to do this Christmas, Christmas Party Makeup, Winter Skincare Essentials and 2016 Favourites Part 1 & Part 2

How did you spend your Christmas?

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The Christmas Party Makeup

It’s the season of red lips and glitter, my favourite! I had a Christmas party last weekend so thought I was the perfect excuse to show some of my top picks for the party season. Expect the standard cliché red lips, glitter and lots of highlighter!

In terms of base, I like to go for something I can trust to be long wearing and provide the coverage! Of course I opted for my trusty Nars Sheer Glow along with my usual concealer combo of the Nars Radiant Creamy Concealer and Mac Prep + Prime highlighter in Light Boost. To top it off, I applied a light layer of the Chanel Les Beiges powder to keep things in place!

To add more warmth to my skin, I bronzed up with the Too Faced Sweethearts bronzer which I love! I then added more definition with the Kevin Aucoin sculpting powder and topped it off with a lot of the Becca Shimmering Skin Perfector Pressed highlighter in Pearl because if you can’t have go overboard with highlighter at Christmas, when can you!?

For eyes, the Mac pigments came out to play! I picked up the Bronze set from holiday collection, using the a combination of both Stardream and Handsome Prince. Of course I added some liner using my favourite Kat Von D Tattoo Liner. I finished my eyes with the Make Up For Ever Smoky Extravagant mascara.

Finally, I obviously finished with some red lips for the ultimate Christmas party look using Mac Russian Red.

What are your party picks?

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Things To Do This Christmas

This time of year is my favourite, not just because of the big day itself on the 25th but also the excitement of the run up til Christmas when there is just so much going on! Whilst I may not be concerned on all things festive just yet with exams on the horizon (just a few more days to go til its all over!!), I do love spending time doing Christmas-y things. So I have made a list of some of my favourite things to do around this time of year, both big and small to help get you in the festive spirit!

• Make a Christmas play-list with all your favourite Christmas songs (I personally cannot wait to do this!)
• Do some Christmas baking, mince pies or maybe some gingerbread men?
• Try out a Christmas drink from a coffee shop, I personally love the Starbucks Gingerbread Latte and Frappuccino!
• Tackle the Christmas shopping!
• Visit a Christmas market!
• Treat yourself to a limited edition holiday beauty product! (I love the Nars products!)
• Burn your favourite Christmas candle, I love The White Company Winter candle!
• Decorate your home!
• Stock up on Christmas Lush goodies (see my picks here!)
• Have a Christmas movie night!
• Get all the glitter out cause… IT’S CHRISTMAS!

What do you like to do at this time of year?

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Life Lately #11

Happy Black Friday everyone and hope all you US gals and guys had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I swear over the last couple of years Black Friday has transformed from being a one day event to a whole weekend to now an entire week of sales, crazy! So having said that, I have already made a couple of splurges, treat yo self and all that! However I did the smart thing and am trying to stick to items that have been on my wishlist for a while rather than impulse buying! So I have already bought a couple of things from All Saints with their amazing 30% off offer and also I picked up a couple of items from my Holiday Beauty Wishlist on ASOS! I also hope to get my Christmas shopping done or most of it by Monday by taking advantage of all the discounts available!

Life 

Other than crazy amounts of shopping, I have also been finishing up on uni work with my last couple of weeks of the semester. That of course means exams are looming so my December will be pretty hectic with studying towards that so my festive excitement may have to take a back step for the time being! Hopefully my blogging schedule won’t be affected but I can’t predict the future so apologies in advance if I do miss a post!It’s crazy to think that December is starting next week and is of course the last month of 2016, how insane! I am super excited though to get all festive and in the Christmas spirit!

In other news, as you can see above I did a little phone upgrade to the iPhone 7. I wasn’t ridiculously fussed over the new model but I am very much a loyal iPhone user so it was natural progression. I got the rose gold shade, obviously, and it is super beautiful! In my opinion, not much different from the 6 model but the design is super pretty although the whole no headphone jack situation is rather frustrating!

Blogging 

One of my goals for this month was to get back into Instagram! Whilst I left it a little late I have been back on! So my return to Instagram is official! To make it even more official, I thought I would do a little instagram challenge and post everyday from the 1st December until the 24th. Like Insta-mas rather than blogmas, nice! So of course don’t forget to follow me to catch my other content here (styledbylaurenblog).

TV/Music 

In terms of TV, I haven’t been watching much! In the UK, I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here is back on TV so I’ve dedicating my evenings to that! I am definitely a wimp when it comes to bugs and that kind of thing but I love the show! Also, I have started watching the Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt which stars Ellie Kemper who of course played Erin in The Office. I am only a few episodes into the first season however it is already such an easy pleasant watch!

In terms of music, I haven’t quite got into the Christmas tunes yet (speaking of which I have surprisingly not heard much anyway!). There has been quite a few catchy songs released at the moment that I am really enjoying. I am really liking the debut tune from Noah Cyrus and also the song Rockbye is super catchy and always played on the radio! I’ve been a fan of Gabrielle Aplin for a while so was nice to hear her new release which is rather different but again ridiculously catchy, love it! To break away from listening to the same pop songs again and again, I started listening to Catfish and the Bottlemen who I am already obsessed with! Their album ‘The Ride’ is just too good!

Catch up with November posts: Nars Lip Pencil collection, Urban Decay Ultimate Basics Palette, The Repurchase List, How to get Inspired in Blogging Again, Lush Christmas Haul and Holiday Beauty Wishlist.

How have you spent your November?

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The Holiday Beauty Wishlist

Whilst this time of year is super exciting for buying gifts for your close ones and all the festive treats, it is also nice to give yourself a little treat! Being a beauty lover, I get so hyped for the holiday season as all the holiday Christmas collections and gift sets are released! That means little sets which can help save extra pennies in your pocket and also new limited edition collections. Of course you can’t beat festive beauty with sparkly gold eye-shadows and red lip products! With loads of new releases and gift sets available, I thought I would share what is on my list to pick up this year which may also give you a little hint for yourself or if you are picking up a gift for a makeup enthusiast!

Last year, I picked up a mini set from Becca containing two of their popular highlighters in the Opal shade. This year they have brought it back in the same format with a mini liquid highlighter and mini powder version however this time around it is in the Moonstone shade which I have never tried. As you may know I am a huge fan of the Becca highlighters so this little set retailing for £20 is such a steal and I can’t wait to try out this beautiful shade!

I’ve always wanted to try the cult By Terry Baume De Rose lip balm but it is a pricey purchase! However luckily they have released a special festive edition in a lip gloss form. Retailing at £20 it is pricey but still a fraction of the original price and gives you a little trial of the ever so popular balm!

Moving on to Nars, one of my favourite beauty brands who always deliver such a great range over the festive period. This year was no different! The collection this year focuses around Sarah Moon and her photography work which features on the packaging. Whilst there is a great set of gift sets available, I am all about the colour collection. I have two products on my list, the first being this gorgeous matte nude lipstick which looks like my perfect shade! The other is an eyeshadow duo in the shade Quai Des Brumes which features two gorgeous shades with a shimmery lavender-grey and a charcoal grey with specks of shimmer. The two duos available are both gorgeous although I do prefer this one for its smoky look!

Lastly, Jouer have released a trio of their popular liquid lipsticks in three winter appropriate shades! Retailing at £31.50, this trio is near enough buy one get one free and offers three beautiful colours! There is a gorgeous cranberry red, a pink-y nude and an intense shimmery burgundy which I would love to try out! This set will have your winter lip wardrobe sorted and for that reason I may just have to pick this up!

What’s on your holiday beauty wishlist?

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A Lush Christmas Haul

When it gets to this time of year it is basically obligatory to have a little Lush haul, right!? With the arrival of the Halloween and Christmas collection, I am just all over Lush and need pretty much everything! I’ve already used up my Halloween treats but I did have to return to make a few Christmas collection purchases! At this time of year when the weather is miserable outside all I want is to be inside and all cosy and what better than a few Lush goodies!

If you’ve been around this blog at this time of year before then you may know my love for Lush Snow Fairy. Funnily enough I stocked up so much from last year that my supply has lasted the entire year and I am still using them up! So I definitely didn’t need to pick up another bottle however with the addition of the Body Conditioner to the range, I just had to add a little Snow Fairy to my basket. Like the shower gel, this is a wash off product but a more moisturising version packed with cocoa butter, mango butter and avocado butter. The scent is also much softer and subtler than the shower gel so definitely worth a try if the shower gel is too much for you. It is such a beautiful product, a dreamy scent and texture! I may have to stock up on this one this year…

One of my favourite things to pick up from Lush is a bubble bar. As they can be broken up and used over several baths, they work out much better value for money compared to bath bombs. I picked up two from the Christmas collection this year. The first is the Ruby Red Slippers bubble bar which is obviously inspired by the Wizard of Oz. It had a beautiful floral rosy scent and is just adorable! The last item is such a must have, the Snowie Bubble Bar which plays homage to the late legend David Bowie. I mean come on how could you not want this! As well as being uber cute and a nice little nod to Bowie, it also has an lovely uplifting and refreshing scent from the addition of grapefruit oil. Definitely the (dare I say it) starman of the collection!

Have you purchased anything from the collection?

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