/*--------------MBT Reply Link --------------*/ .MBT-replycomments{ background:#ECEAEA; cursor:pointer; color:#fff; margin:5px 0; float:right; border:none; padding:4px; -moz-border-radius:6px; -webkit-border-radius:6px; border-radius:6px; font:10px sans-serif; } .MBT-replycomments:hover{ background:#E7E7E7; }

Saturday 31 December 2011

My Beauty faves of 2011!

Hey beautiful people. sooo this is the first blog I've made on my new laptop.. yay! ;)

I've decided to do a beauty favourites of 2011,seeing as i don't buy enough makeup to do beauty favourites every month.. And the fact that I've only just started blagging ;) its weird.. feels like I've been a blogger forever!

I narrowed it down,which was pretty traumatic.. to just 10 items. i did start off with my whole makeup collection,but i didn't think that would have been to much use to any of you!


 Here are the items i chose, tbh they're all products that i use almost every single day.. so maybe i was being abit dramatic.. it wasn't That hard to find my faves of 2011..

below will be an individual picture of every product and a short description explaining why i like it :)


No7 Essential moisture Night cream. i use this every night without fail. I've been using this moisturiser for years now and it never fails to impress me. i have ridiculously dry skin,and this leaves it feeling thoroughly moisturised,and even more importantly.. Not tight. i hate that feeling. I used to use this in the morning also,before i found this little gem below... ;)

This was my second purchase from No7, The essential moisture day fluid, and i love it just as much as the first. this isn't as heavy as the Night cream,which is pretty convenient as i wouldn't want to walk out the door looking like a Greece ball. its perfect for putting on before i put on my makeup, it sets into the skin nicely and leaves a good base for foundation. I think both the creams are around the 10 pound range,which isn't too extravagant. but with the No7 £5 vouchers you get from boots they're a bargain!


Continuing on the 'creams' theme,this hand cream from body shop has been my saivour. its the 'Almond hand &nail Butter and is for all skin types. this is the best hand moisturiser (in my opinion) EVER. cant say enough for this hand cream. i am quite the hand cream lover and am garunteed to moisturise my hands atleast once a day before i go to bed,but more often than not i carry a little sample size container of this beauty in my handbag and moisterise throughout the day :).

I believe this is the first and last face powder i have ever tried. i remember walking into boots one day and thinking 'Hmm,lets try a powder'. And so i did. and i haven't felt the need to try any other powders as i love it. its the perfect colour match for me and doesn't make me look cakey. If i feel like I'm having a particularly good skin' day,ill use it on its own, other wise i use it over my foundation,which is....


No7's stay perfect foundation. Can you see a pattern forming here? ;) perfect foundation for me, not too light not too heavy. it blends like a dream and stays on pretty much all day. i cant remember the price of this exactly.. i feel like i should say around 10? but don't quote me on it ;) in summer its a shade lighter than my skin tone but now its winter its perfect. and im in shade number 05 'cream' (from what i can tell from the grubby sticker.)


Next is this bronzer from bourjois. I'm sure you've heard plenty about this product if your a beauty youtube watcher/blogger reader,so i wont say too much. i haven't got anything bad to say about this product what so ever. its the perfect colour bronzer for me,with tiny little shimmers in it that do not show up on the face which i like. plus it looks and (apparently) smells like chocolate, and whats better than makeup,and chocolate put together?!
Britney spears curious has been an all time favourite of mine for quite some time now...well about 2 years which in my books is bloody ages. it comes in a pretty blue glass bottle (picture doesn't do it justice) and smells...well,in my words like 'heaven in a bottel'. I'm absolutely awful at explaining smells,but here's what the key notes are.

The notes of the perfume are; red lychee, golden quince, kiwi, cupcake accord, jasmine petals, white chocolate, orchid, musk, orris root and sensual woods.


Now, i am a huge lipstick enthusiast,so i had a hard time choosing one. theres so many lipsticks for so many different occasions. but i decided to choose the one that could be for any occasion.As you see this lipstick is from mac and its called Speed dial,which is a cremesheen finish. This is perfect for any occasion and when i don't know what lipstick i should put on to go with my makeup etc,this is the one i always end up going for. its the only mac lipstick i have at the moment,so its pretty precious. its very moisturising on the lips and its pretty sheer if applied lightly,but can be built up to a pigmented pinky colour :)


And that,my blogger friends, is the end of my beauty faves of 2011, AND the end on 2011! i hope you all have a happy and healthy new year full of everything you'd wish for.

What did you do for new years eve? did you party hard or was you at home watching the good old new years TV like i normally am? that's what i was going to do this year as well until my best friend called at 9 to ask me round hers for a little new years party,so that's what i ended up doing.. which was amazing so I'm glad i did but I'm ill so ended up coming home at half 1.. which is when I'm writing this. haha.

Happy 2012. best wishes.

Ella martine xxxx




Wednesday 28 December 2011

What I Received for Christmas !


so, I thought i'd make a post on some of my favourite things i got for christmas. i appreciate and love every single thing that was given to me and i am very greatful that my family and friends are so generous. i dont mean to offend anyone by this post,so please keep that in mind!



                                            Anyway!   On to the good stuff ;).
Lots of smellys and perfumes,which i can never have too many of,And The most beautiful looking laptop i have ever seen. (trust me i was compleatly gob smacked when i opened this one up, was not expecting it at all!)




I chose this dress for my dad to Wrap up for me when we were out shopping, i LOVE it. its the kind of piece that can be worn on a night out with heels,Or can be casuled down with tights and boots.

i opened the present with the UGG bag in it last,and litrally screamed with joy haha. i already have a bigger ugg bag that i got last christmas and it is my favourite bag ever. I use that bag almost every single time i go out. so having a similar smaller one is perfect for the times i dont want to use the bigger bag and adds abit of variation. LOVE <3.


going from right to left- 4 brushes by 'body shop',3 brushes by 'bare minerals' and the last 4 brushes by 'spoilt rotten'

One thing that i did ask for, were make up brushes. i've wanted some good quality makeup brushes for quite a while now. I feel you can apply cheaper makeup,but applying it with a good brush can make the makeup look amazing.


Again, i chose these shoes for my mum to wrap, so i knew i was getting these. i love them.With jeans and a jumper they look gorgeous. and whats more,they'r from... PRIMARK?! To me they look like they could be from topshop. plus they'r super comfy.Definatly going to be a 'go-to' shoe for me this winter!




So there you go,They were some of my favourite things i got for christmas this year. i hope none of you take this the wrong way,but i thought i would do a post on this as i ,personally, love reading other peoples.

Oh, and to finish off, Heres some cards i made and gave my fam this year. i've been doing it since i was about 6.. and until i can afford to buy them all amazing presents,they can have something thats taken thought and time to do ;)


I hope you all had a wonderful day,with the people you love, and lots of food ;)

I'd love to know what your favourite thing that you got for christmas was, and your favourite thing that you gave somebody else for christmas was. comment below!

Ella'martine xxxx

Sunday 25 December 2011

A quick MERRY CHRISTMAS.


Merry Christmas everyone! just a quick note to say have a wonderful wonderful day. i have been thoroughly spoilt this Christmas,and i love all of my family and friends so so much and i am so appreciative of all the amazing prezzies!! i will do a Christmas haul/what i got for Christmas before the new year,if you like. unfortunately i am in bed right now,and its 6 in the evening, as i came off my tablets for my kidneys so i could have a Christmas drink, but not being on them has made me feel so ill that iv ended up in bed while everyone else is downstairs playing good old fashioned Christmas board games :( oh well, I'm gonna have a quick nap and hope i wake up feeling a little better,Once again,merry Christmas. I'm sure you all deserve it! tomorrow i will be going round my dads side of the family,which is always a laugh. its like a second little Christmas for us,which I'm not complaining about ;)

Talk to you all soon. have a wonderful day with the people you love.

Ella'martine xxxxxxx

Thursday 22 December 2011

A Theatre trip to see Priscilla!

 

Before you begin to read this post,if your not into musicals,drag queens or glitter, this contains plenty of all three ,so feel free to skip to my next post if things like this don't interest you,not everybody's gonna have the exact same interests as me:)xxx

ONE WORD- Absolutely amazing, best theatre show iv seen, kinda makes me want to be a drag queen (Not sure if that's normal?)
Ok so i might have got a little carried away with that '1 word',but there is honestly no other way to discribe this musical.

So, for my main Christmas present from the mother,we went to see Priscilla,i love the film so my expectations were high,and seeing as I'm somebody who goes to a dance/musical theatre collage,going to the theatre is completely up my street.

We set off to London at about half 1,As we wanted to do some shopping,or more like 'browsing' before the show started at half 2. i only live about a 20 minuet train ride from London, so that was plenty of time for us to dribble at the designer shops before the show began.


                                             

As it began to get dark (which is about 3 o clock in England at the moment ) the Christmas lights became more visible, and they were so pretty. made me feel really Christmasy i must admit! in covent garden they had pinky purple lights down every little street,and there were Christmas songs playing in the shops which was rather lovely.


Now obviously i couldn't take pictures when we were in the theatre ,but it was seriously tempting as the theatre was beautiful and the scenery even before the performance had begun was so detailed. i did,however, get a brochure,which has some beautiful pictures of some of the scenes. so i thought I'd take a picture of them so you can get an idea how visual the scenes and costumes are.

                         



All in All, the cast was brilliant,the costumer were absolutely amazing,they had so much detail and were so colourful( as you would expet ;) and it was defiantly the best theatre production I've seen,and I've seen quite a few..e.g.
  • billy Elliot
  • fame
  • stomp
  • Le miserables
  • nutcracker
  • wicked
And I'm sure there is a few I've missed out.



If you love musicals as much as i do,Then I'm certain you will love this. i don't know one person that's seen this and not loved it!

xxx

Tuesday 20 December 2011

New Additions!

Well hello there you beauty's. guess what i have? some cheeky few additions to my already overflowing wardrobe. yay. :D soo i had a little retail therapy today,i didn't get much, because i don't want to go shopping right before Christmas just in case somebody gets me what I've just bought.. all the serious business will be done after Christmas And my birthday (31st of Jan,write it in your diary ;) with any moneys that i get :P
      but for the time being i got 3 tops to tide me over until i am free to shop,guilt free,once again!



Of course,i started off going straight to primark. and my god it was ridiculously busy in there.. but what do i expect? its 4 days before CHRISTMAS! I'd had my eye on this leopard print blouse for a while, but for some reason i never picked it up to try it on. when i saw my friend wearing it and realised how lovely it looked on, i couldn't pass,after all, its leopard print..and I'm the first to admit i am a devoted leopard print lover ;) I think this blouse looks rather flattering on,and i love how the back is longer than the front so its perfect with leggings. £10 pounds..bargain.



The Next thing that caught my eye(apart from the whole shop..but i couldn't buy it all) in primark was this simple dark grey and light grey striped jumper.. the thing that caught my eye most was purely the simplicity,i love how I'd be able to overload on accessories because the top is just simple. it's actually a really warm jumper,trust me iv found out the hard way. trying on all these winter clothes indoors with the heating full blast really took it out of me! ha ha. i love the high neckline and i am on the lookout for them collar type of necklace That i think would go perfectly with this.



next i went on to Tk maxx,the most stressful but rewarding shop of them all ;) i seriously love the shop and if you have the Patience you can get some seriously good deals.. Annoyingly this picture doesn't do this jumper justice. it just looks like a grey jumper in the pic. but in real life it has a diamond pattern all over which is slightly see through, but its so pretty. this jumper if from a brand called 'sweewe paris' which i have never heard of but every time i picked up something i liked it was that brand.. i think its because the jumpers are so snuggely soft that the feel of it instantly attracts me to them. next time i go to tk maxx i will be keeping an eye out for this brand because i Love the jumper.




Finally i took a trip into sports direct as they were having a majour sale,and i found this extra warm.. hmm,i have no idea what to call it.. Eskimo hat?.. Eskimo hat it is.
i think it was about a tenner which is a bargain,and i will defiantly be wearing this when it snows,which seems like it will be any day now!


feel free to comment and tell me what you think.. and have you done abit of cheeky shopping for yourself before Christmas? or are you being good and patient and waiting until the sales??

Monday 19 December 2011

NAIL FOIL REVIEW!

Nail foils are a growing trend in the beauty community,and They seem to be getting more and more popular by the minuet. seeing as I'm a sucker for anything to do with pretty nails,i couldn't pass this when i saw these at my local pharmacist! as they have become so popular within the last year they're not hard to come across. I've seen them stocked in boots,Superdrug and even if you just type in 'Nail foils' into google there are dozens of online beauty shops where you can purchase them from.
There are tons of different makes that have started producing nail foils,each with they're own different ind of instructions etc. but like i said i passed these in the chemist and i couldn't resist them. two of my favourite things conveniently there in this sleek black packet ...Leopard print.. And Pretty nails.


In Each pack you get a total of 16 nail wraps. which is plenty for both hands even if you go wrong a few times! Another thing you can do to pretty much double the use you get out of these is to cut them in half,using one half of the sticker for one side of your hand and the bit that's left,for the other. (this would only work if you don't have long nails mind you). The instructions were clear,but short.

  •  Peel of the nail foil that fits the shape of your nail best,(i would recommend filling and buffing your nails prior to this,but the instructions did not mention that.)
  • Trim the edges of the nail foil if it is still to big for the width of your nail.
  • place the nail foil onto the desired nail.
  • you can then trim the rest of the foil that is too long for your nail.( do you see what i mean when i say you could use it twice now?)
  • The instructions recommended using heat after the foil is on your nail,so i used a hairdryer to heat up the foil and then smoothed it on firmly.
  • the file of any excess at the end of the nail.


As closely as i followed the instructions given,this was a very lengthy process..which I'm not quite sure was worth the hour and a half i spent on it, in which time i could have been sleeping!After the first few fingers the process began to get pretty tedious, as the foil would crease if you didn't put them on perfectly. a nail file did come with the nail foils,and the instruction tells you to file off any excess at the end. it took me absolutely forever to get the excess off with the file they gave me, and it certainly wasn't as easy as the instructions made out! ha ha.


                                                       Here is the finished product!


Over all i really love the look of these on my nails,but i think it would take less time to draw the leopard print on my nails myself! i would recommend giving them a try and i WILL be testing out other brands,i mean,i might of just been crap at applying them as it was my first time but for me,these nail foils just were not worth the effort.. but never fear,that will not stop my search for the Perfect 5 second miracle 'i've just had my nails professionally done' nail foils.. i assure you!! ;)


Saturday 17 December 2011

OUTFIT OF THE DAY- Casual

what better way to start my new beauty blog off than with an outfit of the day?!  I was doing anything all day today,but had to run out to the shop to get something i desperately needed..chocolate.
I chucked a bunch of random clothes on, but iv gotta admit I'm rather liking this UBER casual outfit. so i thought, why not put up my very first post :P

As you can see above,this outfit is as casual as you can get. and pretty comfy i must admit!
my T-shirt is from Armani exchange way over 15 years ago. the mother gave it to me a few months ago as she hasn't worn it like..ever,so i thought id take advantage :P
As you can see I'm wearing regular old jeans which I've had for about 3 years now,and they are the cheapest and  possibly the comfiest pair of jeans i own

As this is a typical English winter (Bloody freezing),it isn't quite warm enough to go out in a T-shirt and jeans (Duh) so to make the outfit super warm and a lot more suitable for winter i chucked on my faux fur coat from new look last year,and my uggs. this coat is amazingly thick and warm,i love it and basically live in it in the winter. Although when i got it last year there were hardly any stocked new look , and i don't think I've ever seen anyone else with this same coat,which is even better :] My head scarf ear warmer thing is from a stall inside a shopping centre, but they're pretty popular at the moment so you can get them pretty much anywhere!
 I was only going to the shop so i didn't make much effort with my makeup really,i am wearing a powder foundation,blusher,rimmel lipstick,eyeliner and mascara. generally this is the simplest ill go with makeup,or i wont wear it at all.


here is a picture of the products i used on my face, in case anyone wanted to know haha :)



From Right to left. -Rimmel match perfection powder , boujour's blush in rose D'or) Rimmel London moisture renew lipstick in vintage pink , Collection 2000 Super size fat lash mascara & colourtrend eyeliner from Avon