L'Oreal Paris Brow Artist Genius Kit | Beauty

L'Oreal Paris Brow Artist Genius Kit - £9.99

Flicking through my blog over the past few weeks I have noticed something. I don't have much content. Long gone a time where I would write a review on one product, and one product alone. Since the flat lay epidemic, you rarely get a blog post where a single product is being spoken about. These days, its all about the comparison posts, or posts that are talking about 5 different products at once. I miss the bulk of my blog being single product reviews, I mean, you just have to look at my past 5 blog posts to see that I've turned in to conforming to the blogger flat lay norm and I don't like that.

Whenever I come home to my parents I always have a peek through my mums makeup stash. She buys a lot of makeup. She has several skin conditions which mean a lot of products don't work for her, but she is forever trying out new ones in search of the best. My mum was what I could only describe as an 'over plucker'. She has amazing brows naturally but she couldn't go a day without touching them. She regularly came with me to my waxing appointments and would say to my brow lady 'ahhh I wish I could get mine done', however with her not being able to go a day without plucking, the brow lady wouldn't have much to work with. She bit her tongue and grew the brows. She now has them waxed, and I doubt she would ever go back! She also enjoys a brow product or two and we all know these are my fave, so when I saw this new L'Oreal kit in my mums stash I knew I needed to try it.

I must admit, L'Oreal, just like brands similar (Max Factor, Rimmel etc) aren't brands I tend to use often. I'm all about the real cheap but amazing makeup, and never pay over the odds for it. Even this eyebrow kit coming in at under £10, I would think twice paying out that kind of money when I know MUA do a dupe for £3 (HAH, cheapskate).

The little brow duo comes with a wax, powder, mini tweezers and a brush/spoolie and it is the worst brow product I've ever used. Just throwing that out there. I'm not even sure why I dislike it so much, I can't quite put my finger on it but I wouldn't even recommend it to somebody that doesn't even do their brows. Its just really not very pigmented, the wax is very stiff making it pretty hard to get any product on to the brush and the powder is very light too. 

I am a massive eyebrow kit lover and I love trying new ones but this one sadly doesn't tick any of my boxes and for £10 I can think of brow kits I'd much rather spend my money on, sadly. 

Have you tried this brow kit? What did you think?! 

Daisy xxx

February YooHoo Mail Box & GIVEAWAY!! | Lifestyle

yoohoohq.co.uk

I can't quite believe that it is nearly the end of February and I'm only now posting this. About 4 or 5 months ago I posted on here a very quick and brief post about a new venture that my mum was going on. Yoohoo mail was something my mum had talked about doing for ages. She is a very talented graphic designer with her own business, however she has always had a very strong passion for stationery of all kinds and came up with this idea, a monthly subscription box filled with different stationery items. I really should do monthly reviews on these gorgeous boxes (bad daughter, and blogger) but I just either don't have the time or life crops up as per. 

Our house is now Yoohoo Mail HQ, designing, packing and distributing (and this month, some of your boxes may have been packed by my own hands!) as it has really taken off over the past few months, you can clearly see why.

This month is my favourite box that my mum has done. Don't get me wrong, I love everything she does and I always admire her talent. She is seriously good at what she does and I think the photo above just proves that. She puts a lot of time in to designing each item, then printing and packing them. This month box contains prints, cards, stickers and postcards however every box is always different.

You can either sign up to one month or three, and she also has little prints and various other items to buy in the shop. All prints are printed to a very good quality and standard and are always very current! Now time for the exciting part...

I will be giving away a few boxes (I'm not sure how many, I need to sweet talk mum...). Usual rules apply but please let me know if you want to know more about T&C's. It will only be open for a few days so get entering!! You will be contacted through either email or Twitter so please make sure you put the info in.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Daisy xxx

Brows 101 | Beauty

Ah, brows. The part of my face that gets the most comments, both good and bad. To be honest, I can't believe its taken me this long to post this but as it stands I'm pretty happy with my brow 'routine' and I get soooo many comments regarding the products I use and any tips I have so here is my brows 101.

Choose the product you want to use

There really is so much choice these days with brow products, we have pencils, crayons, pomades, powders, wax and gels just to mention a few. I buy quite a few brow products and I have tried a variety of techniques. As I like a heavy dark brow I find pencils don't work, full stop. They don't give me the look I like to achieve. I went through a huge phase of using crayons, and I would still go back to using them even now. Pomade was a no go. I found it way too sticky and heavy, and you couldn't do much with it (as in, once it was on the brow you couldn't do anything). Ever since I've been 'doing' my brows I've always gone back to using a wax & powder duo. I've been through various palettes both high end and drugstore but I really love this Makeup Rev one.

Get yourself a good pair of tweezers

Sadly for me I have dark body hair and it grows back quickly everywhere, especially my brows. I honestly could do with getting my brows waxed every week but I just couldn't justify paying every week for it, nor would I have the time, so I try to go every 4-5 weeks. Sometimes longer, sometimes less it just depends.. But I would recommend getting a good pair of tweezers to keep tidy between appointments. I sometimes have hairs grow back the day after I've had my brows waxed so I always try and keep them sort of tidy until I get to a point where I just can't anymore.

Find a technique that works for you

I draw my brows on. There, I said it. I don't think I'm alone in saying that and even so, I still have the way I like to do my brows. One of my friends uses a pencil and does very light brush strokes, another simply brushes a bit of powder through with a brush and is done. It really doesn't matter. Some have heavy brows (like me) and some don't bother doing anything. It's up to you.

Using a light and soft hand

My biggest tip would be to use a light hand when doing your eyebrows. It's easy to go in heavy handed and then not be able to reverse it so I'd recommend using a light hand and use light brush strokes to create the look of hairs.

What are your brow tips? I would love to hear them!

Easy Contouring Palettes | Beauty

Contouring. The big 'c' bomb that divides all beauty lovers out there. Powder or cream? Fluffy brush or beauty blender? It's something every guru has different tips for and everyone will tell you different. The honest truth is, every persons face is different. Every persons skin is also different. Contouring is never the same for any two people. But these two little palettes will definitely help you out.

Sleek - Face Form in Medium

Firstly, this little palette of joy. I bought this last year from Cohorted. I think it's only about a tenner  but I got it for about £9 and it was face changing. Literally. It's very buildable, the matte brown colour can either be used very lightly or built to a deep contour depending what you fancy. The bronzer is gorgeous if you want a wash of colour but you can also build it to a lovely contour too, if a shimmery contour is what you want. And the highlighter, ah, the best part of this palette. If a disco ball is the look you want you've got the right tool.

Makeup Revolution - Sculpt & Contour Kit
I recently bought this for my best friend who is just getting in to makeup. I used it on her and went out to buy it the next day. I'm not sure if there is shades, if there is I have quite a fair one as the contour is quite light and ashy, but it can be built to be darker however I love using this for more natural, every day contour. The blusher is very comparable to Sleek Rose Gold, which I hear is an exact dupe for Nars Orgasm. A gorgeous pink with tonnes of gold shimmer running through, again can be used lightly depending on how pink you want your cheeks. Finally, the highlighter, the reason I always run back to this palette. I will admit you do need to blend the highlighter once you've put it on as it can be quite harsh but it really is an amazing highlight shade which I adore.

I'm still such a newbie at highlight & contouring but these palettes I find amazing, especially if you don't know what you're doing! Have you tried either of these? Do you have recommendations?

Daisy xxx

Pancake & Waffle Shack @ Barton Mills | Lifestyle

Yesterday, I had the day off & K finishes work at 12pm so we were looking for something to do. After googling 'things to do in Suffolk' and only castles, beaches or museums coming up, we were stuck. It needed to be cheap/free, so of course our first idea was head out for a meal! Do you hear my sarcasm? We decided to try out the Pancake & Waffle Shack, which I think I'm right in saying opened late last year. According to Google, it is 10 miles away from where I live so we made the short drive to see what all the fuss was about. 

I must be honest, I wasn't expecting much after hearing very mixed reviews about it. I've heard that there are always queues coming out the door, service is slow and not to bother going there. Then again, I have also heard very good things! So of course I had to check it out for myself.

Upon arriving, we couldn't see anybody inside so we thought we had come at the perfect time! Inside, it's much smaller than I thought but the decor is amazing. I'm not sure I'd say it's american diner themed, but I really enjoyed looking around at all the different posters and bits on the walls. The lights were amazing, and it's left me searching on Pinterest on how to do it myself!

As we went in, we were greeted and taken straight to a table. It was empty! There was only one other group in there, so our order was taken almost immediately. Other tables that came in after us seemed to be getting their food before us but I assumed this was because I ordered chips (yep, fussy eater over here!) and not pancakes/waffles.

K ordered a Milky Bar milkshake and I, of course ordered an Oreo milk shake. It was nice. Like, really nice. But it was just a simple milkshake which I could make with my blender in the kitchen. K also enjoyed his and I would say they were worth the money. I think we only paid about £3 for each of them.

I didn't bother photographing my boring chips, but for £2.50 you got tonnes and I only managed to eat about a quarter of them! If I'm honest, I wasn't very hungry but the fact K ordered 'Banella' (Banana & Nutella pancakes!) I felt like I should probably order something. K only managed to eat about a quarter of his pancakes too, he said they were 'lovely, but very very sickly'. 

So, would I return? I wouldn't be in a hurry to go back. This is purely because I only went for a milkshake, which as I said before I could make in my own kitchen. I imagine for pancake & waffle lovers this place is heaven on earth! I'd be interested to know what the waffles are like too.

Rating? 3/5.

Have you tried this restaurant? Do you have any places like this near you?

Daisy xxx

An introduction to Too Faced... | Beauty

I'm not the type of person to ask for much for Christmas. For me, it's all about surprises. Now I'm at an age where I can afford to save and buy anything that I want, that's exactly what I tend to do, which leaves birthdays/Christmas pretty tricky for anyone asking me what I want. I love not knowing what I'll be receiving and that really is part of the fun for me - hence why I don't ask for much.

I had sent mum several links to different beauty bits and pieces I wanted, including a few bits from Too Faced. As my mum went away at the start of December, all her Christmas shopping was finished in November which meant I had even more of a surprise because I had forgotten everything I had mentioned to her - yey! Of course I didn't get everything (yup, I'm still upset I didn't get Mary Lou) but I did get some amazing bits.

Too Faced isn't really a brand I hear much about. Don't get me wrong, I hear people talk about it but not as much as Mac & Urban Decay. I had a tiny sample of Too Faced - Better Than Sex mascara last year which I was honestly obsessed with. I used it every day, even when it was dried out I still tried to make it work. I was stupidly upset when I had to come to terms with the fact it was all gone and I probably should just throw it away. 

For some reason, I've just never repurchased it. It's one of those things I never want to buy myself. It's £19, it's quite large and a big part of the price tag is the packaging. It's very heavy and sturdy, not plastic and it's kind of embossed, all fancy like.  I pay £10 for my HG mascara, so I don't see why I can't get my brain around spending an extra £10 on a mascara that I genuinely, really do love. I'd happily go and spend that £10 on sweets and crisps!! I think the fact I could only order it online put me off too, my local Debenhams has now got a Too Faced stand which makes it even more desirable to me! Bring on payday.

Another Too Faced item I was eager to try was the Melted Lipstick. Now, I (didn't even realise I'd) sent my mum the shade 'Peaony', that was just the shade option online. When I opened it, it certainly took me by surprise. A bright, barbie pink lipstick? Would I ever choose one of those? Most certainly not! We all know my hate for barbie pink lippys. Mum had assumed this was the shade I wanted as I sent it to her... oooopsie. However, you'll be pleased to hear I wore it on Christmas day and really did like it. If you don't smother it on, it's more of a pink nude making it easier to get away with wearing. Phew! I will certainly be getting some more though - although am I the only one wishing there was some muted colours in there? They are all fluorescent colours! Darn.

Have you tried anything from Too Faced? What should I try next?

Daisy xx