Beauty and Fashion Haul!

Hey guys, today I have another haul post for you all - this time, it's all beauty and fashion related. I got a couple of things on sales and them some things were just items I'd been eyeing for some time and finally decided to get! Let's dive in, shall we? 

Urban Outfitters Scarf - £24.00
Forever21 Cream Gloves - £7.99

It's cold in the UK, really cold. Therefore, scarfs and gloves are pretty much a necessity in this country. This scarf is SO thick and warm, let me tell you! It's also really big so you could probably use it as a kind of shawl / wrap type thing if you wanted to as well!

Moroccanoil Volume Set - £25 @ Selfridges

I picked up this Moroccanoil set after spending some time debating about whether or not to purchase the oil that this set comes with. I'd heard a lot of good things about it but of course, a £25 bottle of oil is a purchase I needed to give some thought. When I spotted this one day in Selfridges for the same price I thought it was a win-win; I get to try the oil and 3 other products from the same brand too! Look out for a review on these items soon.

Vera Wang Princess Gift Set - £20 @ Debenhams

Vera Wang Princess is one my all time favourite scents. It does look a little, childish in terms of packaging the older you get, but I really love the scent and personally think that the smell itself isn't. Although I currently have a big bottle of this already, I spotted this set on sale in Debenhams for £20. The savvy shopper I am, I checked the perfume isle for the 30ml to check it's price and to my surprise, it was £40 on it's own! Therefore, I considered this too good an offer to miss and popped it straight in my basket!

Dr Martens - £110

Ah, I think these beauties speak for themselves - just look at them. I'd spotted this gorgeous pair of Dr Martens a while back and ever since I've been debating with myself whether or not to buy them. Finally, after standing around in the Dr Martens store looking awkward for quite a few minutes, I decided to just bite the bullet and buy them. The outcome? I LOVE them! Come on, LOOK AT THEM.

Okay, yes more shoes. I may have a huge teeny bit of a problem. However, in my defence these were on sale so I think my purchase was quite justified. Okay, so maybe I didn't need them but there were just £20.80 so I think for a pair of Converse, that's hard to walk away from. At least for me, anyway...

Collection Liners - £2.79
Rimmel Exaggerate Liners - £3.99
Rimmel Moisture Renew Liner - £3.99

Recently, I've been noticing that some of my lip products are bleeding a little and are not as long lasting as they could or should be. So, I decided to try out lip liners - which are something I'm not really a huge fan of. I tried to get some 'basic' colours so that I could use them with multiple lipsticks. I also got a clear one that I plan to compare to my clear liner from OCC!

MAC Lipstick in Violetta - £15.00
Urban Decay Lipstick in Anarchy - £15.00

 I picked up two lipstick from MAC and Urban Decay whilst browsing in Debenhams. I'm not crazy on MAC lipstick like I know a lot of people are, but I have a few shades which I think are something special and worth the price. This is one of them, it's a bright, pinky-purple shade that in the tube reminded me of Heroine a little bit - also from MAC. As well as that, I picked up my second Urban Decay lipstick - my first one, from the Pulp Fiction collection had the most the amazing formula and feel on the lips and I knew I wanted to try more.

OCC Lip Tar in Strumpet - £11.95

As you guys probably know, I'm a major OCC Lip Tar fan - I think they're amazing value for money and they're superb quality. I picked up this lovely, Winter appropriate colour from Selfridges and I really like it!

So, that's about it for this haul - I know it was a pretty long one. I hope you enjoyed this post and as always, thank you so much for reading!

Review: OCC Metallic Lip Tar in Technopagan

 Hello! I'm here today bringing you a review - it's going to be of OCC's Lip Tar in the shade 'Technopagan'. I first tried lip tars a few months ago when I purchased the shade 'Hoochie' which is a beautiful, vibrant matte purple (a review of which you read here!). After trying that out, I fell in love with both the concept and use of the product itself and I knew I wanted to try more! After eyeing up this bold shade for a long time, I bit the bullet and got it and I have to say - I'm in love!

Technopagan is a bold blackened purple with a metallic finish. In the light however, it has more of a deep blue sheen with a kind of dark purple lining peaking through. It's on the cool side and has a beautiful shine to it. I'm not stranger the bold colours but this shade is definitely something new for me and that's definitely in a good way. I love alternative lip colours and this particular one definitely fits that category though at the same time I feel it is still strangely wearable (for me, anyway). 

Unsurpringly and as with all other Lip Tars, Technopagan is HIGHLY pigmented and a little bit goes a very long way - believe me! Unlike the others I've tried, the metallic formula seems to be a lot thicker but it still applies smoothly and evenly. It has more of matte kind of finish on the lips and doesn't have a sheen in the lip gloss kind of sense but this is instead due to it's metallic finish. I wouldn't say it feels drying on the lips which is definitely a good thing and in terms of creaminess, it's probably in the middle somewhere. Along the edges of the lips it does kind of fade out to a sort of pink-purple outline which may mean you need to build up the colour a little but it's an effect I happen to really like.

In terms of staying power, this product is a winner! As I've found with the other 2 lip tars I own, the staying power is awesome. I wore this product for a whole day complete with eating, drinking and general chit chat and this guy stayed put. No smudging, no streaking and it still maintained that intense pigment. 

Overall, I'm really impressed with this Lip Tar and I'm absolutely in love with the colour and finish of it. I think this may just be my new favourite lip product right now and I desperately wanna try some more OCC Lip Tar's because they're honestly just that good.

I got my Lip Tar from Love Makeup for £12.00!

Have you tried any of the OCC Lip Tars?! What do you guys think of them? I'd love to know!

What I Got For My Birthday - Beauty.

Hey guys! In this post, I thought I'd share with you some of the gifts I received for my birthday. My birthday was on Sunday and I got some really lovely and thoughtful gifts and I'm so grateful and excited to use them! 

Generally, I'm not one to buy higher end beauty products on a regular basis - I like to ask for them as a gifts or to treat myself with them. That's because I'm a believer that you can get high quality products with a smaller price tag and higher end products are also more difficult to access locally for me. However, their are definitely some amazing higher end items out there really worth the money and so I always have a good think about them and so sometimes I'll treat myself or pick out items as gifts that I've been seriously lusting over or think are worth buying. With all that said, I'm going to show you what I got - and I want to just point out (been said so many times before, I know) that I'm not bragging, just simply sharing. So.. yeah let's get into the post already.

So, firstly I received to lip items from my brother. I gave him a few selections of lip items I'd been really wanting to own and he then chose some of them. He got me MAC's Heroine which is an absolutely gorgeous blue-toned purple. Purple is my favourite colour and I've never really found the perfect shade until I saw this. I wore it for my birthday and I absolutely love it. Bold lipsticks are totally my thing and I know I'll be getting a lot of wear out of this one.

He also got me an OCC Lip Tar in the colour Stalker. I have one other lip tar in the shade Hoochie and I LOVE it. You get so much product (seriously) that the price is totally justified for me. Not only that, the are long lasting and such good quality that I'd pay £11.95 (Cocktail Cosmetics) all day long! This colour is a gloss kind of finish, it's not an in your face gloss though and it's a really lovely true red colour.

I treated myself a little bit of my birthday too and I took a trip to Debenhams and bought myself the Urban Decay Electric palette. I love the UD Naked palettes and after seeing this a few months ago, I've been really wanting to get it. The colour are beautiful and I fell in love after swatching them in store. I was kind of uncertain on getting it, bigger purchases require a lot of thought from me but after swatching and getting a closer look I just kinda had to. The colours are so pigmented and I cannot wait to do a look with this palette as well as reviewing on here - keep an eye out!

I also took a trip to Lush, I find them kind of expensive with certain products but I really enjoy their bath bombs and bath melts. So, I got a few of those - I got the Comforter which is one of my favourites, the Butterball and finally the Candy Bar melt which smells delicious!

The Comforter

Candy Bar

I was gifted the Ray of Sunshine gift box which is also from Lush and it's one I've had quite a few times before. You get four items in this particular box and I love the fresh, citrus scents they all have - so good.

Hair care is kind of a big deal to me, it's a process I actually kind of enjoy and using nice hair products just makes me feel really pampered. BED HEAD by TIGI is a brand I've only used a few times but everything I have ever used I've really enjoyed. They're kind of pricey hence why I don't buy from them frequently but all the stuff I have ever used has always felt and smelt so darn good. The products I got from them for my birthday are no different - they are the Colour Goddess shampoo and condition and they came in this massive 750ml bottle! For a higher-end brand, these came in a decent priced twin gift set and they smell so delicious - seriously, I'm tempted to eat this stuff. This particular range is for colour treated hair and is infused with natural oils so I'm excited to give this a go and see how it does with my hair.

The last thing I got that was beauty related was another hair product. I got a pair of Remington curling tongs which are 19mm in length. I got these specifically with vintage hair styles in mind as this is the perfect sized barrel to do pin curls with and i've been wanting to them for a long time. I'm particularly excited to give these a try because I've got quite a few hairstyles in mind.

That's everything I received that falls into the beauty category. Thank you so much for reading and do let me know if you'd like a review on of these items in particular!

Mini Beauty Haul! OCC, MAC, Sugarpill!

Hey all! I have a little beauty haul for you all today. All of these brands that I'm about to show you are all from America and besides MAC, can't be found in stores (as far as I know) - not easily anyway. I got mine from a great little site called Cocktail Cosmetics - they stock loads of different amazing brands that would otherwise be difficult to get hold of here in the UK - you should check them out! This is my first product from each brand I'm about to talk about and they're sort of on the higher end in terms of money - hence why I haven't bought from them before. Despite this though, I felt like treating myself a little bit and I've really wanted to try some of these products for ages.

The first I got was a MAC lipstick. Of course, we all know about MAC - it's rave about by people all over the world so I was quite confident in making a purchase from theme despite having never tried any of their stuff. I think MAC are probably most well known for their lipsticks, especially the one I purchased: Russian Red. Russian Red is a beautiful deep red shade and it has a matte finish. Considering the prices of MAC lipsticks (£15), I really wanted a shade I knew I'd get a lot of wear out of and I think a red lip is a classic that most women love. 

Next off, I got an OCC Lip Tar - probably the product I'm most excited to try. It's in this absolutely beautiful purple-pink matte shade called Hoochie. One of the reasons I knew I wanted one of these is because you literally have to use the tiniest amount of product to cover your lip. I tested this out myself and I can confirm that is definitely the case - I'm really impressed. I just know this is going to last me a long time AND you get a free mini lip brush with it as well - definitely worth the price. 

Lastly, I purchased a Sugarpill single eyeshadow in the shade 'Tako'. It's more or less a matte white although it does have speckles of shimmer running through it. It's super pigmented and that's one of the main reasons I purchased this as I personally find it difficult to find a decent, pigmented white. Also, I absolutely LOVE the packaging!

And that's it for my haul, I hope you enjoyed! I'll be sure to review these products once I've tried them a few times. Have you tried any of these products?