Feeling Miserable - What To Do?

I am totallty loaded with a head cold and feeling very sorry for myself.  I am currently on a week's leave from work and was really looking forward to it but now I'm sick and feeling miserable!  Just my luck:(  I am not a very good patient either so my poor husband has to listen to me complaining about being sick a lot.

So how did I cheer myself up this morning?

Firstly, as my lips are feeling sore, dry and chapped (the blocked up nose makes mouth breathing a necessity and my lips are suffering for it) I applied my favourite intense lip treatment.

This stuff is lovely for lots of things but is especially amazing on very dry lips.  I then applied the leftover bit on my finger to my cuticles.  Waste not want not!

I had to pay a visit to the local market to stock up on some healthy goodies so I bought plenty of oranges so that I can get a good dose of vitamin C.  I then had to go to the bank which is in the shopping centre, right opposite a chemist with an Estee Lauder counter.  I thought it would be a good idea to go in and ask for a sample of Double Wear foundation as I have never tried it and think it's about time I did:)  So the assistant gave me 2 shades to try - Fresco and Ecru.

I just love that Estee Lauder let you try their foundation in this way before you buy.  It's pure genious.  I then spotted a gift set containing a mascara, Advanced Night Repair Eye cream and a small bottle of their Eye Makeup Remover.  All for the price of the mascara (£19) and it's a full sized mascara.  The other 2 are sample sizes but are generous sample sizes.  Well I thought this was too good a bargain to miss.  I love their mascara, Advanced Night Repair Eye and the Eye makeup remover so I couldn't lose could I?

As you can see I chose the Double Wear mascara.  I love it but I have only ever had the small version of it that comes in the Gifts With Purchase.  I'm looking forward to having a full sized one on the go.  The lady also gave me a sample of perfume.  It's Estee Lauder Sensuous Noir.  It's quite a heavy fragrance and maybe not good for daytime use but it would be good for night time use. 

It comes in a little tiny spray too which is so cute and so much better to be able to spray it on rather than fighting with a small lid that comes right off.

Perfect for carrying in my handbag:)

Finally to round the morning off I needed a caffeine fix, so I headed to Costa for a large latte.

Yum!!

So that's me cheered up marginally and now I have some new goodies to play with.  I hope you are all well xx

I Have Finally Given In To The Whole Depotting Thingy

I have never before been interested in depotting my Mac eyeshadows but tonight something snapped inside me and I had a little go at depotting!  I'm pleased to announce that there were no casualties and it was much easier than I expected.  I might even do more (well lets not get too carried away lol).

I only buy Mac eyeshadows in pan form now but I still have loads of eyeshadows in the pots from my early purchases.  The reason that I have decided now to depot is the fact that my potted eyeshadows (or at least most of them) get very little or no love whatsover.  So my thoughts are that if I have them in a palette then at least they will be loved like they should:)

So here are my first 4 babies:

They are from top left: Shadowy Lady, Femme-Fi, Expensive Pink and Smut.  As you can see they definitely do deserve some love:)

I'm going to attempt to Back to Mac the pots tomorrow.  I'm not sure about the whole not being able to B2M pots without the pans in them.  Anyone who knows for sure please let me know:)  I'll chance my arm and hope for a nice MUA.  I've always got hope lol

I've also got an empty foundation and an empty Strobe Lotion to return.  Wish me luck!!

The End Of The Body Shop As We Know It?

As anyone who has read my previous posts on The Body Shop will know I am a huge fan of their products.  They take me back to really happy times in my life from the time it first opened in Belfast and my friend got a job in it to the time I lived in Brighton and was able to do a Body Shop tour in their place just up the coast in Bognor and all the great times inbetween and since.

So you can imagine my dismay when I saw this in my local shopping centre:

The actual Body Shop shop had closed and this replaced it.  A very sorry excuse for The Body Shop.  It obviously stocks a lot less than the shop did and the makeup section is non existant.  Pathetic really and I find it extremely sad.  It depresses me every time I walk past it.  The worst part though is the fact that it is only like this until Christmas and then it will be GONE!!  The staff who have worked there for years are to lose their jobs.  An unfortunate reminder of the times we now live in.  I really feel for those girls, some of whom have been there for a long time.  They have to spend their final days as Body Shop employees sitting in the middle of a shopping centre.  The chairs look really uncomfortable and if they are there on their own at any time how do they manage a toilet break?!  Just to make their last days in this job even more depressing they have to completely stock this stall in the mornings and then completely unstock it at closing time so that it looks like this:

Seing it like this depresses me even more:(  Of course we will still have an actual Body Shop shop to go to in Belfast (at least I think I do but it may have been reduced to a similar stall type thingy) but it's just not the same.  I loved having a browse before I did my weekly groceries and if I needed anything it was literally a 5 minute drive away.  I loved the  smell of the shop and the friendliness of the girls. 

There is also the online side of the Body Shop where I will still be able to buy stuff but it's so much more difficult to try anything new if you can't see it.  I feel that is a very important aspect of The Body Shop that really shouldn't be lost. 

I'm sure Anita Roddick would be turning in her grave to see what's become of the actual shops. 

Do you still have a local Body Shop?  Would you be sad to see it go or am I alone here?

YouTube Guru and Blogger Rant

Recently I have been becoming increasingly annoyed by the amount of YT gurus and bloggers who post "reviews" of products that they have literally just opened.  I don't know about you, but I believe a review should be about a product that you have used for a while.  It's impossible to get all the good and bad points simply from opening the product.  These types of posts/videos should be more appropriately titled as "unboxing" or something similar because that is basically what they are.  I clicked on a product review video this morning and as soon as I realised that it was really just a product promotion video for products that had been sent to them I quickly stopped the video and went to do something less boring instead.

Whilst I am on the subject, another pet hate of mine is YouTubers and Bloggers who don't reply to any comments you make.  Even worse, some Bloggers in particular, don't reply to ANY comments made on their posts.  I feel this is incredibably rude and extremely big headed of them not to interact with their viewers/readers.  After all, without the viewers/readers then what is the point?   Viewers/readers and their loyalty to the YouTuber/Blogger shouldn't go completely unnoticed.  Granted, some gurus receive a large amount of comments and can't physically answer them all, but bloggers in general receive a lot less and I don't think there is any excuse for not replying to people on a blog. 

Perhaps I am expecting too much of Gurus/Bloggers.  Is a little display of good manners to much to ask?  What do you think?

Z Palette

I have seen these before on Pixiwoo videos and have always managed to resist.  However, on the last Products of the Week video I saw these again and decided I needed one in my life.  So I actually bought 2.  I got the small one and the big one, both in zebra print. 

For some reason Blogger is showing the picture on its side even though it was the right way up before.  Grrrr!

Anyway you get the idea.  I wanted one of these mainly because it means I can store blusher and eyeshadow together and make them much more accessable in the mornings when I'm getting ready.  I find the Mac blusher palettes too large and consequently I don't use my pan blushers but tend to reach for the ones I have still in the pot.  So, in a way, this will help me to be able to use up more of my makeup.  Score!!

The palettes themselves are incredibably sturdy and the lid closes very securely on them.  I have filled my small one and will leave the larger one for a while yet.  I'll probably put more blushers in the large one ao that I can get at even more items in the same palette.

So here is a picture of the palette opened.  Again Blogger has published it with a different orientation than it had ariginally.

The shadows are:

Top Row:
Omega
Vanilla
Patina

The 2 shadows below Omega are:
Twinks
Satin Taupe

and the blusher is Well Dressed.

The Omega, Twinks and Satin Taupe are all brand new and I couldn't wait to get them in their new home:)

Finally here is a picture of the large palette on its side.  I still have the wrapper on it as I'm playing with the smaller one first:)

The small one cost £12.95 and the large one was £18.55.  I suppose these are expensive and I hope they turn out to be worth the money.  I know I could take my Mac palettes apart to achieve my aim of being able to store blusher and eyeshadow in the same palette but where's the fun in that?  I want to have something that does the job and is nice to look at.  The Z Palette ticks both these boxes.

I bought them from Makeup Provisions and I have to say their service was incredible.  I only ordered these yesterday and they arrived today!!  That is amazing in my opinion.  The postage was rather steep at £9 but they were sent via Royal Mail Special Delivery which I think costs £5 plus the normal postage.  So taking that into account it's not too steep after all.  You get what you pay for at the end of the day!

20% Off At ELF Until Sunday

Just thought I'd share this festive treat with you.  ELF is great at it's regular price but not to be missed at 20% off!!

Click here and use the codes above:)

Enjoy!!

Bargain of the Week

Today as I was walking through my local shopping centre my attention was drawn to the sign below:

Marks and Spencer have, as their offer of the week, half price on all Tess Daly products.  I thought it would be rude not to try a few items.  I have looked longingly at these products before and thought they are slightly too pricey.  Perfect opportunity now, at half price, to give them a whirl.  So I purchased the following 2 items:

Daly Face Glow and Daly Body Glow.  Each of these normally cost £9.50 each so today I got both of these for £9.50.  A much more civilized price!!

And here is the Daly Face Glow swatched on my hand and also pictured open. It looks like a lovely highlighter and I can't wait to give it a proper trial.

Next up we have the Daly Body Glow rubbed onto my hand and also pictured open.  It gives a lovely glow to the skin and would be perfect for any upcoming Christmas parties.  Oh and it smells amazing too!!

Finally I used a Boots No 7 £5 voucher to buy a No 7 Eye Makeup Remover.  I have never used this before and I love using these vouchers to try out new stuff.  With the voucher this only cost me £2.75.  Bargain!!