Seeing Spots

I think only two of these are officially matt but they all look fairly matt to me. There was a 342 offer which is the reason I got 3 and I couldn't decide on the right colour for me.

I don't feel like I need much colour correction on my eye lids and they don't look like you can see veins on them, but that could be because I can't wear my glasses while I apply makeup.


The colours I went for are:

Créme de Rose - Top Left
Créme de Nude - Top Right
Permanent Taupe - Bottom

I've had these for a few weeks now and my most used is the Créme de Nude. I'm using it mainly as a primer and it works really well, if I apply it and leave it for a little while before applying other shadow and I like it on it's own with liquid eyeliner on my lash line.

I really want to be use all three of these and not just have them in my collection. In fact I'm going to go and dig them out and add at least one to my weekly make up basket as I haven't done one for a fortnight.

However if things are a bit more serious that needing someone online to chat with and have a little time out there is a host of help available out their and you are not alone, you don't have to muddle through. If you need help please reach out to one of the helplines below.

My current YouTube collaboration, Makeup Through the Ages is on a little Christmas break until 8th January, when we will all be back with our 1960's looks. In the mean time Simply Be got in contact with ideas for a post on how underwear has changed over the past few decades and how trends come and go.

In our current decade we are really lucky has we have such choice and can take trends and elements from past decades in makeup, underwear, fashion and life to get the best of everything.

Like a lot of people these days when I decide to research things I'm most likely to take to Pinterest more than anywhere else. I've been on a pinning mission and looked at vintage underwear sytles.

We've come a long way from the Victorian corsets all the way round to corsets being back in for a lot of people.


The 1920's was still very much about corsets and girdles but looking at this advert which I came across on Vintage Dancer shows a slightly more relaxed version of what I'd imagined to still be very restrictive. I feel like underwear was becoming more practical for women in this era.

Looking through the decades shapes and styles seem to vary only slightly for a few decades and while I'm sure there were some massive advances in manufacturing and fabrics styles and colour are fairly static. Lets call it classic and you can still buy similar items today. I spotted this on the Simply Be website.

NATURANA ZIP FRONT WHITE CORSELETTE

Simply Yours

 I was hoping to take some pictures but lighting and time haven't allowed it. I honestly can't fault either set and I can't decide between a favourite. Both are well made and comfortable. I love the fun print and style of each set.

Anna Scholtz

There were a couple of favourites that I wanted that are now coated not just sprinkled in glitter, the rose jam bubbleroon to name just one. I'm going to go back and get a bottle of the shower gel / bubble bath. I also forgot to pick up a bottle of snow fairy.

Yuzu & Coco Bubbleroon

I tried to pick up new things to try and I find it really hard to distinguish different smells when I'm in store as everything is so highly fragranced. A couple of the assistants were trying to get me to describe the smell of the Yuzu and coco bubbleroon and I couldn't put my finger on any specific smell. Now I'm home i've given it a good long sniff (as you do) and it as a distinctively baked good smell, not quite pasty but not quite cake. It does smell good and I'm looking forward to trying this.
 

Jason and the Argan Oil Shampoo bar

After the disastrous choice I made with the shampoo bars the last time I bought one (the orange one, it was horrible and crumbled and did nothing for my hair) I was reluctant to buy another. Also we have at least 6 bottles of shampoo on the go in the bathroom. I had a bit of a wait for the till and was stood near the shampoo bars and The Jason and the Argan Oil one has a Rose Jam like scent, which I was hoping would make up for all the  glitter on the bubbleroon. I haven't tried this but I'm excited to try it.

Butterbear

On to a Christmas favourite and I know the Butterball is around all year but Butterbear is a perfect size, I love that he is white and how moisturising he is. He is also adorable and a bargain at £1.99. I really do prefer the all white, no bits, not glitter, no mess simplicity of this bath bomb.

Ickle baby bot

If there is one things that I have repurchased the most from Lush this year it has to be the Ickle baby bot bath bomb, for me this is great value at £1.99 and a product I can easily justify and afford. It smells amazing and does really relax me. I love that it's available all year round.

So White Bath Bomb

My final product was a bit of a gamble, I'm not sure I like the smell but it's pure whiteness appealed to me. I believe this is colourful inside and I will be testing it out as soon as this post is written. I do think the standard sized bath bombs are a bit too big and over priced. I wish they all had the option of the smaller size. I know you can cut them down but I really don't want to go through that effort if I can't break them in half with my hands.

It seems like months ago since Katt suggested doing another #PSBloggers Secret Santa. My parcel arrived the first week of December but I wasn't feeling great so I put it in my cupboard for a few days. I did do the opening on camera so if you want to see my reaction please check out my YouTube video.

I was feeling really crappy all week, I've not felt well. I'd been getting wound up my things I'd seen online and I decided opening the Secret Santa gift was just the thing I needed.


I did guess half of what was in the package, as in a notebook and a chunky pen, but i didn't imagine it would be Hello Kitty.

I couldn't have chosen better myself, I love HK and stationery so this is a perfect gift for me.

A huge thank you to Sarah from Plus Size & Proud  for being my Santa

As well as the complimentary drinks they brought round some sampling platters of the food, from the food we tried the spicy prawns and the pulled pork sliders were a massive hit and peanut butter brownies alone are worth a visit.

I've just been looking at the menu and I think I'd like to try almost everything on it and hope to arrange to go back with the girls for taco's and cocktails.

While we were their we got invited to have a turn of the tombola and I won £40 in We are COW Vouchers, I've spent plenty of time window shopping at their old store when it was in Piccadilly gardens. I hadn't twigged they were one and the same on the night.  I need to find time to go in and spend the vouchers. I've spotted a couple of handbags on the website so I've got high hopes for finding something I love in store.

I did also record a few clips of the night and talk about the contents of the goodie bag we were given on the way out.

A massive thank you to the team for making us feel welcome and putting on a really great night.

I would recommend booking a table, we got there about 2pm and the cafe was packed, I'd booked for 2.30pm but they were happy for us to go in early and a couple in front of us asked for a table and had to wait 25 mins.


One of the lovely things is that the afternoon tea's come out on individual platters and it was really well presented.

Another nice touch for me was the sandwich flavours, they were plain and simple, cream cheese and cucumber, poached salmon, egg mayo as well as chicken and stuffing.


The top tier was made up of a prosecco jelly, scone with butter, jam & clotted cream, a mini Victoria sponge cake and a mini fruit tart.

I wanted to get this perfume last year when I went to Tenerife and didn't end up buying it for one reason or another and this is making me think back to that holiday and the good times we had.

I really like that they got me things that I love they got me things I love.

The zip on my current make up bag is about to break any second and if you follow me on Pinterest you'll know I have a board dedicated to the Letter S so this really appeals to me. It's from Matalan, they also got me Prosecco which is my wine of choice and my most Favouriest (not a word i'm sure) chocolates.

I feel really lucky to work with the people I do and I'm very grateful for my gifts.

We had an agenda on the back of your IT Passes, which said food sampling or similar followed by talks and a panel.

The food sampling was a full Christmas dinner, with appropriate wines per course. I think that surprised all of us.

We started with individual Prawn Cocktails which is my favourite and pate which is a close second favourite. Everything was really good and I think I might buy some of the individual prawn cocktails to take for my lunches at work.


For the main course we had a the first Christmas dinner of the season. Everything was really tasty. It even had a couple of chunks of Salmon on the plate which was a bit unusual but it worked. Between the main course and pudding they brought out a platter of snacks including dimsum, pin wheel sausage rolls and one of the nicest things I've ever tried which was cocktail sausages which were glazed and were topped with popping candy crackling. Amazing.


Between each course the product developers gave us a little but of info about the products and I think the puddings developers got the biggest cheer of the night. I'm not sure if it was because the food was on the table already or because we all really love cake!

The winner for me was the little pot, I'm not quite sure what it was but it tasted great. 
We ended the night with a panel Q&A, some microwave mug cake recipes and they had put on cheese and biscuits incase they hadn't fed us enough already!!



The Cooperative event this year was more than I ever expected, they surprised us all in a good way. I wish I'd spoken to more people as I know people I wanted to meet where there but I didn't get a chance to say hello.

A huge thank you to The Coop, who not only fed and watered us sent us on our way with a goodie bag, which I will mention in an up coming post.