The New Charlotte Tilbury Instant look in a palette

There have been a few new offerings from Charlotte Tilbury and plenty more to come with her new brow and lipstick products still to launch (Sorry bank balance!) I tried to resist buying this one as I have so many palettes already but I knew I would get a lot of use out of this one and to be fair- I don't actually own any of the products inside (I think I've justified it- right?)

I have to say I am not disappointed, I did think this looked small online and in photos but it is much bigger than I imagined with plenty of room to swish your brushes without mixing the products.

In the palette there are: 

3 eye shadow shades (1. Brighten 2. Enhance 3. Smoke), 

2 blushes (3. Swirl 4. Pop) 

a bronzer (4.Bronze) 

and a highlight shade (7. Highlight).

All of the them are super creamy with great pay off. It's great to see a palette than contains everything you could need on the go and I haven't got anything quite like this in my collection.

In the palette:

1. Eye brighten is for use all over the eyelid as a wash of colour

2. Eye enhance adds a lovely glow to the lid in a champagne shade

3. Eye smoke helps to add a smokey element to your eye makeup, perfect to take your day time look into the evening

4. Face bronzer to give you a sun kissed glow and to contour the cheek bones

5. Cheek swish which is a lovely coral/peach shade to be applied to the apples of the cheek for a rosey glow

6. Cheek pop for a more natural pink flush

7. Face highlight to be placed on the tops of your cheekbones, brow bone and the centre of your nose for that lit from within look

The bronzer and highlight are the same as the film star bronze and glow which I own but in the limited edition cream formula. It is hard to tell if the blushers are new for the palette or have previous been sold separately. I think this palette would work very well for light skin tones like me, I'm not  sure if it would work perfectly for everyone's skintone though, particularly those with darker skintones. It is a great a palette, especially if you are looking to try Charlotte Tilbury products but do not want to buy separate eye shadow palettes, blushes, bronzers etc. I'm sure I will get a lot of wear out of this and as always the packaging is sleek and beautiful with a great mirror for on the go/ travelling.

You can pick up the palette here for £49 on Charlotte's website or in store from Selfridges

Thanks for reading

Katherine

xxx

The new Byronaldo burger at Byron

As of Tuesday 17th May 2016 Byron are releasing a limited edition Byronaldo burger. I got to try this in a preview on Monday and I have to say I much prefer it to the last Bunzilla limited edition burger.

The Byronaldo is a 6oz hamburger with crispy bacon, Freddar cheese, Bovril onions, crispy onions, bread- and- butter pickles, mustard, burger sauce all served in a glazed bun.

I really liked the crispy onions- these were a great edition to a burger and the freddar cheese is my favourite cheese that Byron do. I absolutely loved their Freddar dawg burger which came out last August and it would be very hard to beat that but this one comes pretty close.

The meat was cooked medium and the bun had a lovely glaze on the top, my only disappointment was the bread- and butter pickles. I'm not sure what I was expecting but these sounded exciting and they turned out to be pickles in a some melted butter. I asked the waiter about the bread part but he said it was just a name given to them.

I had the burger with sweet potato fries and onion rings which I have every time I visit Byron and they didn't disappoint.

Overall I give it 8/10- very tasty and worth a trip if you are a burger fan like me

Thanks for reading

Katherine

xxx

Clarins boots offer: £10 of advantage points and 3 free mini products!

I wasn't going to do a blogpost on this purchase as I only intended to buy the Clarins Instant light lip comfort oil in Boots but when I reached the Clarins counter I found this offer too good to resist.

If you buy two full size Clarins products you get £10 worth of Boots advantage card points and in store you receive a beach bag and 3 generous sized mini products! 

The lip comfort oil £18

Clarins instant eye makeup remover £20

This made the eye makeup remover only £10 and I got miniatures of the same eye makeup remover (50ml), relaxing bath and shower concentrate (100ml) and the hydra quench cream (30ml)

I already love the eye makeup remover and the hydra quench cream so I am excited to try the bath concentrate which is a very generous size and smells amazing!

If you are looking to repurchase some old favourites or simply want to try some new Clarins products, get yourself to Boots quick! You can see all the products included in the offer here.

Thanks for reading

Katherine

xxx

New: Charlotte Tilbury Legendary Lashes Review (feat: Before and After)

Photo taken from CharlotteTilbury.com

I've been looking forward to testing this new Mascara out from Charlotte Tilbury. I liked the original Mascara that she created but this definitely seemed more up my street. Firstly, the packaging is beautiful as with all Charlotte Tilbury products. I've been using this for around week now and I do really like it. It creates brilliant length and holds a curl well, much better than my Too Faced better than sex mascara.
Personally, I find that all mascaras that I use tend to be better after a couple of months as they seem a little wet to start with. The only negative is that I found it transferred under my eye. Maybe this was because it's been hotter recently and my skin is more oily but if you struggle with mascaras smudging then you might need to use Clinique's bottom lash mascara to prevent this from happening.

As you can see from the before and after, there is a real difference in definition, particularly length but I have to say the volume is pretty good too. I thought the some of photographs on Charlotte's website made it look rather clumpy on the models but it is definitely build-able and you can achieve the look you like, personally I like my lashes to look more separated but with lots of volume and length. I curled my lashes first with the Shuuemera lash curlers and then applied  two coats as I normal do.

I also found this easy to take off as normal with a cleansing water and cotton pad so no scrubbing your eyes which is always a bonus. Well done Charlotte- definitely a hit with me. I can wait until the new brow products launch in June!

Thanks for reading

Katherine

xxx

The perfect summer wedding outfit

Now the weather is FINALLY getting better and we approach Summer, we are getting into wedding season. In June I have a couple of weddings coming up and I've found the perfect dress for the occasion. This dress is part of the Mylene Klass collection for Very.co.uk and has a beautiful crochet design over the top of a pale pink slip underneath. This would suit almost every body shape and looks fantastic on. I really like that the sleeves/ top part of the dress and the bottom are sheer. I have paired this with some heeled pink sandals (very comfy for those long wedding days) and a waterfall jacket for the evening if it gets a little chilly. I am very excited to wear this and thoroughly recommend checking the collection out at Very.co.uk

Item mentioned:

Mylene Klass cut out floral hem dress- Very £90

Heeled sandals- Deichman £19.99

Waterfall jacket- M&S £39.50

Have you found the perfect dress to wear for a wedding? I would love to know about it

Thanks for reading

Katherine

xxx

Quick and easy nail stamping at home

I've really been into nails recently and have been experimenting with lots of different designs and techniques including ombre, glitter fades and nail stamping. It really is easy, doesn't take too long and  the best bit is you can pick up all the tools you need for only £7.86!

The first thing I do when painting my nails is to make sure they are prepped well. This really does make your nail varnish last so much longer. Personally, I use shellac cnd polish (you can read all about how to do shellac nails at home here) as it lasts much longer (around 2 weeks) but I use normal nail polish to do the stamping part in-between the colour and the top coat. For this particular design I used CND Gotcha but you could use any colour you like to do the stamping on. Ciate cupcake queen is also similar. The most important thing is that you make sure your colour is totally dry before stamping.

Equipment I use:
Nail stamping born pretty plates 46-55 (10Pcs £5.80
Nail stamper and scraper (This set also comes with mini plate designs too!) £2.58
Oko peel off liquid tape £2.79


Before stamping your nails, I use the OKO peel off tape around the edge of my nails to create a barrier so that the stamp does not go on my finger.
 This really does save time at the end as you can just wipe it off and your nails are perfect!
After you have painted your nails as normal I used the born pretty plate no.55 to do the design. For this design I chose Essie's bahama mama as it is darker than the Gotcha polish and will stand out. I normally choose much darker colours or very light grey/white. I place a generous amount on the design plate I want so that you can't see the plate through the nail varnish. I then use the scraper to take off the excess polish and swipe it off in one movement. I then take the stamper and press firmly down on the plate so that the design is transferred.
For the perfect finish on the nail, I have found that rolling the stamper from side to side gives a better finish as I curve it to the nail. When I have finished one hand, the design is dry and I place a top coat layer to seal and protect the design.

I would love to see your designs if you try this out, tag me on instagram!

Thanks for reading
Katherine
xxx

Current minimal makeup routine

Today I would like to share with you my current makeup routine. These are all my favourites that I have been using over the last couple of months and reach to on a daily basis.

To prep my skin I use the origins ginzing energy boosting moisturiser and then prime my skin with the too faced hangover primer. If I'm going to be out all day I find this helps my makeup to last longer. Sometimes I do skip this step if I'm feeling lazy!

For my base, I have fallen back in love with the Estee Lauder Enlighten even effect skintone corrector. This is a light weight base that evens out any redness whilst giving you a put together glowy finish. Paired with this I use the Mac studio fix concealer for any blemishes and then I go in with contour. I have been loving this pro sculpting face palette by makeup forever. This is a cream quad which has two contour shades, highlighter and blush. The perfect slim palette that has everything you need. I then add some bronzer. I've been using an old favourite from the Clarins summer collection last year, the aquatic treasures bronzer. Unfortunately this was limited edition so I can't link the product.

Next, going onto eyes. I keep things very simple here by using on product on the lids and that's the Charlotte Tilbury eyes to mesmerise in Bette. These cream eyeshadows are so pretty and last all day without creasing. I then add a layer of the Too faced better than sex mascara to make myself look more awake. You can see a full review with before and after photos here. Finally, I brush through my brows with the benefit gimme brow (Again, you can see this in the mascara post) to keep them in place and to add a few fibres where my brows are sparse from teenage over plucking!!

What are your favourite go to makeup product right now?

Thanks for reading

Katherine

xxx