My heart is full of ......

In March my life was turned upside down and my heart broken by someone I had given 8 years of my life to. I can honestly say it was a seriously dark time for me and for many weeks after I tried my hardest to get my life back to how it was but the fight was not worth it and in the end I decided I didn't need to try and stay in an unhappy relationship to be happy and in May I finally gave up and let go.

Currently me and the kids still share a house with my ex but next week I have a big meeting to attend and my heart is full of hope that we can get our fresh start. I have so many plans for our future and I can honestly say I am happier now than I have been for a long long time.

Once the kids and I have our new place I truly believe that me and my little family will be happy and will thrive together and will be so close and happy. My children are my all and I will work hard to provide them the best that I can give.

So just remember, if life seems tough and seems to throw rubbish your way. Always keep hope in your heart and please, do not blame me if you barf on your keyboard right now. I am enjoying my 'strong woman' soppy moment ha!

Night out eyes

I was meant to go out on Saturday night drinking and dancing, but two of my friends were unwell so it was called off, I know, sad face right? :(

But the night before I knew this, I was bored and alone so I decided to try out a couple of eye looks for the next evening, one of which I spotted on a fab make-up website

This fab bright, spring night out eye! 

For this eye I used MUA Pearl shadow shade 6 over the lid and used a damp brush in Shade 9 as a liner, I used a silver Light Show liner by Bare Minerals on the inner corner of my eye and Bare Minerals Curl and Lengthen mascara to finish off

This was my other option, a smoky eye using a beautiful blue palette. For this look I used all 4 colours from the Blue/Grey Shimmer Cubes from the Body Shop, the second lightest shade was used all over the lid up to just under the brow, then the lightest blue all over the lid and into the crease, the darkest blue dampened with my trusty brush and used to line top and bottom and the lightest shade was used to highlight under my brow and the inner corner of my eye. 

Finished off with a line of blackest eyeliner and smudged with the sponge end and all topped off with a big and volumising mascara which is not as good as my trusty Bare Minerals!

What is your go to night out make-up look?

NOTD - GOSH Holographic

I have decided to revisit and redo some of my old polish posts, sorting out pictures for my Facebook page I was quite horrified by the awful pictures and not so good polish application ha!

First up is my one and only true holo polish, this WILL be rectified when I move and am settled!



While I do love this polish, I have seen holo's that are simply breathtaking!



Although for £5 (plus the £1 Fix Base Coat I needed for it) mean this is a bargain compared to the other holo's, but then the cheaper price is levelled out with a pretty rubbish application, it takes about 3 coats to even out bald spots.



This macro shot really brings out the holo!



Unlike some, I do use a topcoat for this, or it just comes right off the nails! But although it is initially dulled by the topcoat, it does actually go back to full holo when the topcoat is dry!



Er, yeah, that is about all I can tell you about this polish since its almost impossible to find, whoops!

A Word To The Wise....

My first foray into make-up began as a 13 year old, numerous presents from a non make-up wearing mum bought me lots of pretty palettes and lovely colours to play with an learn to apply.
This sparked an interest that has never left me and I still get a thrill when buying new cosmetics. As a teen I favoured Collection 2000, Rimmel and Natural Collection, cheap and affordable with pocket money.

As I got older so did the cosmetics, favouring Max Factor, L'Oreal and Revlon. Payday was spent perusing the aisles in Boots for new buys, and my heaving make-up collection grew and grew.

Since my late twenties I discovered the beauty counters, and well, that was that! My heart was smitten by the quality, pigmentation, quality and the lasting effect of these wonderful wonders.

I still use so called drugstore brands but my cosmetics selection is about 80% high end now.

Trouble is with the rise in these great brands has also sparked a rise in more sinister practices - Fakes!
Fakes are 10 a penny, so many high end brands have fakes, the most prevalent being MAC, Benefit and OPI.

They may seem a bargain but OPI pride themselves on being 3 free, which means no formaldehyde, no toluene and no DBP (dibutly phthlatate) but how do you know the fakes don't contain these?

What about the fakes you put on your face? Many of these are found to have dangerous levels of lead in them, now think of where you put these, near your eyes and on your lips. Is it really worth the risks?

If something on ebay for instance looks too good to be true it probably is, or a market is selling so called high end brands for cheap as chips prices the let your head question why it is so cheap? Chances are it is a big fat fake!

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4411397/Conwoman-Leanne-Wertheim-makes-25000-selling-poisonous-slap.html

NOTD - Leighton Denny Coral Reef

This is another shade from the 2012 Spring/Summer collection by Leighton Denny, coral is the ultimate summer shade especially with a tan!

As you can see there is a silver shimmer in the bottle and in my pictures taken in the sun you can see bits of shimmer but its not noticable in the shade.

This went on smoothly in 2 coats and was super glossy, although I used a topcoat for added protection

Not sure if my middle nail has visible shimmer or reflection from my window!

In the shade this seems to shift to a slightly warmer toned coral, although not too warm for my skin thankfully as some corals just make me have lobster fingers!

Desperately tried to get a macro of the shimmer here, think I failed on that one ha!

If our joyous British summer actually gives us some sun at some point I may revisit this polish and try and get some proper shots in the sun rather than just light through my window on a slightly dull day!

Coral Reef is available from Leighton Denny and as a cheap as chips set on QVC

Find your foundation shade.......

in any brand at the click of a button!

Yes really! Have you been coloured matched at a counter or found the perfect drug store colour? Want to take advantage of online shops and discounts but unsure on the colour to go for?

Well try this brilliant new website http://findation.com/

You basically add two matches, or more if you have them, and the website finds matches from all sorts of brands, and the brand list is increasing all the time!

I think this website is a fabulous idea! I am not keen on visiting counters after a not so good experience at a Boots No 7 counter! Would have been great if I had wanted to resemble a banana, tasty!

This tells you how much a colour matches, so while there may not be an exact match in a brand it gives you what kind of percentage the match is, which is actually quite accurate! It gave me one example I had tried in a colour I was told would match and didn't, this was given a 53% chance of being a match. 

This website is still in the new stages and brands are being added regularly, but you can also add your own faithful brand if it isn't listed.

I will definitely be using this site in the future, especially when make-up websites have special offers that are too good to resist!

Hope you find this website as helpful as I do!

NOTD - OPI I Have A Herring Problem

Today's nail is described on the OPI site as a shimmering green-blue, but to me this is a grey-blue!

I do love it though, I was a bit unsure when seeing it in the bottle as it looked far more grey in real life and I have never been one for the grey or greige trend but this was much more blue based and the fine silver shimmer won me over!

The colour suits my skin tone perfectly but not sure how it would fair with warmer toned ladies!

Application was a breeze, apart from having only a mini bottle meant mini brush and as my favourite thing about OPI is the pro-wide brush, I find small. thin brushes a bit hard to work with, hence the bald spot on my ring finger!

In the shade you can really see the grey tone to this polish

I actually really like this polish and only tried it on a whim as I didn't think it would suit me or that I would actually like it!

I Have A Herring Problem is part of the Holland collection for Spring/Summer 2012 and is available from Lena White