Nottingham Make-Up Haul

Last week we decided to go to Nottingham and I bought a few bits & pieces, mostly make-up. I've been meaning to write this post sooner but I've been super busy getting ready for the stall.

Anyway, onto the goodies :)

Primark watch pendant necklace - £4.00

The first item was an amazing find in Primark. I absolutely love pendant watches, and this one is only £4.00. I have a really nice one I bought from River Island a while ago, but this one's great for casual wear.

Paul & Joe Lip Gloss G in shade 02 (found in TK Maxx) £6.99

I was so excited to find this lipgloss in TK Maxx, I've always wanted to try some Paul & Joe products, and the packaging is just the cutest. The tube has a raised floral detail and a beautiful pearly pink lid, the box is also pretty sweet as you can see from the photo. The lipgloss itself is in a beautiful light nude sparkly shade (as shown in swatch below).

Paul & Joe Lipgloss Swatch

Clarins Single Eye Colour Eyeshadow in Icy Turquoise (found in TK Maxx) £5.99

I fell in love with the colour of this eyeshadow, it's a beautiful shimmery deep blue (as shown in swatch below). They also had one called Pink Frost, which looked like a pale shimmery pink with light flecks of golden glitter, I was tempted to get it but I do have a similar colour so I was good ;)

I think the colour is quite pigmented and strong, stronger than I was expecting actually. I was just curious to test out some Clarins make-up, so far I'm pretty pleased.

Clarins 'Icy Turquoise' Swatch

I was pretty excited about picking up the next items.

Nars Blush in Deep Throat (bought from Space NK) £20.50

I've been wanting to own a Nars blush since reading so many amazing reviews and seeing so many swatches, but the price tag has always put me off. After having a good look at the testers in the Space NK store in Nottingham, I decided that Deep Throat looked like the best blush for me. I thought that Orgasm was quite orangey and a bit too pearly for me. And I could also understand why people say that Super Orgasm is too glittery, it really is! I could never pull that one off.

I also checked out the lipglosses, and I was rather disappointed. Alot of people really love them, but I really dislike make-up products that have that certain smell, I can't really think of a word to describe it. I love products that are either scentless, or have a lovely vanilla/almond undertone.

Here's a swatch of Deep Throat:

Nars Blush - Deep Throat

It's a bit of a rubbish swatch, but that was just a light application. You really don't need much of this for impact. I imagine I'll have mine for ages and ages. It has to be my favourite blush, ever.

I also invested in a couple of MAC Lipsticks:

L-R: MAC Cremesheen in Creme Cup + Speed Dial - £13.50 each

I've wanted to try MAC lipsticks for a long time, but I'm not really a lipstick person generally, so I figured I'd buy them and never use them. How wrong I was. I absolutely LOVE Creme Cup, I've used it almost every day since I bought it. I'm applying a thin amount of it and using a bit of my Vaseline Cocoa pot on top for a bit of extra gloss. Speed Dial is the nicest pink, but the smallest amount is super bright, so I have used that one less. As mentioned above, I hate badly scented products, but these lipsticks are heaven to me because they smell of vanilla :D

While in the MAC store, I browsed the eyeshadows as well as the lipsticks. I think my favourite eyeshadows are Satin Taupe, Expensive Pink and Patina.

Anyway, here is a swatch of Creme Cup & Speed Dial:

Top: Creme Cup

Bottom: Speed Dial

Wow, this is a pretty long post!

Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend so far. I have tomorrow off work (yay!) so I'm looking forward to a day of jewellery making and preparing for the stall.

Today I got myself some fimo clay with the intention of making cupcake charms. The results were.... rather bad, but I did remember to take pictures, so I'll share that crafty project with you in my next post :)

Love,

Fiona x

Pretty Etsy Finds - Vintage Twist

Just a small collection of goodies with a vintage-esque theme from Etsy.com today :)

Memory Wire Beaded Bracelet - Ocean Garden

By Jacarandadesigns

This beautiful bracelet has sat in my favourites for ages, it's so pretty and autumnal :)

Click to view.

Shabby Pink Rosette Necklace

By Sophine Giam

I've featured a pair of her earrings before, her jewellery really is stunning, focusing on vintage looks.

Click to view.

Lilac Floral Cameo Necklace

By MaruMaru

MaruMaru offer plenty of gorgeous necklaces and earrings that are made with cameos, they even have some adorable owl printed lockets that are super cute :)

Click to view.

Spring Romance Handmade Lampwork & Crystal Beaded Earrings

By The Pink Martini

When I saw these, I was in awe, they are so cute! It looks like a flower covered lampwork bead, which must have taken forever to craft. They're really pretty for spring, and they're also on sale :)

Click to view.

Sparkle Twig Bracelet - Brass, Olive Green

By Sweet Findings 4 U

This is also another autumnal find, I love this particular colouring, but there are lots more different colours in their shop.

Click to view.

Scallop Swing Locket

By Dreams By The Sea

One word; cute!

Click to view.

Love Letters Vintage Envelope Locket Necklace

By Bumbershoot Designs

I love envelope pendant necklaces, but I never seem to find one that I really love. This one is really lovely though, the envelope looks worn a little, and the flower to the side really adds something to it.

Click to view.

What are your fave pieces? :)

Love,

Fiona x

Shopping Finds

I'm getting really lazy on the blogging front, I do apologise..

I'm also taking what seems like a small break from making jewellery, and infact, I've been thinking about the possibilities of branching out into other fields of handmade goodness. It's just ideas I'm toying with for now.

I thought I'd come and show my new purchases lately. I'm on a general shopping ban, but I have sold alot recently, so I've treated myself to a few bits.

Aside some basics, here's what I've bought the past week.

Adorable bird necklace (I think it was £1.50) from Primark

Sparkly bow necklace (£1.00 in the sale) also from Primark

I really don't need anymore jewellery, seriously. But I fell in love with this little bird, it makes the perfect little pendant and I can wear it in work too. The red was an initial put off on the bow pendant, but actually I reckon it would look awesome with a striped nautical style top I've got :) well, I'm hoping so. But for £1, I couldn't leave it behind ;)

Bird nest earrings (£5.00, half price) from Topshop

The boyfriend insists I'll never wear these, because they're quite long and dangly, but they're so cute! I tried one on and found it surprisingly comfortable, so I reckon I will wear these at some point soon.

Heart keyring (£6.00) from Accessorize

Sterling Silver lilac super sparkly studs (£5.40) from Accessorize

There's no way this beautiful creamy enamel heart will survive on my keys, so I'm going to use it as a bag charm. The studs are just so gorgeous, the colour is so pretty, and I don't tend to have many real silver studs anymore, I find they're really handy as there's no issue of tarnishing.

Rimmel Moisture Renew Lipstick in Latino (I paid around £4.00 for it in Superdrug, yay for sales!)

Rimmel 60 Seconds Polish in Sky High (around £3-4, also from Superdrug)

I've been wanting to try one of the Rimmel 'Moisture Renew' lipsticks for ages, but I'm not necessarily big on lipsticks, so I couldn't justify spending £6 or so on one. But when I popped into Superdrug they were around £2 off, so I picked up this gorgeous pinky colour. And this is the first lipstick I've owned in years :P The nailpolish is a pretty deep blue/green shade, I've been looking for a shade like that for some time.

Floral cotton skirt (£5.00) from Primark

This skirt is so cute! I saw it and instantly fell in love. It has button detail down the front too. I wore it out the other day with a plain blue t-shirt, matching the blue floral bits, and my long owl necklace. It's currently in stores as far as I can see, and for £5 it's a real bargain.

Where appropriate, I've provided links to things incase you fancy anything you see here.

Hope everyone's having a lovely monday!

Love,

Fiona x

Primark Jewellery Finds

While I was in Cardiff for the week I did a small amount of shopping. I popped into Primark for a browse around, and got these lovely beauties.



The earrings were £2 for the set of six, bargain! I got them because I loved the pink roses and the little floral cameos, but I'm sure I'll get round to wearing the others too. I also bought the huge floral ring, it really is huge, one of the biggest rings I own. I think it was £2.50 but I can't remember. It's not adjustable but I picked up a size large for fitting on my middle finger. I think that's the only finger that could pull off such a giant! And lastly, I got the gorgeous sparkly elasticated bracelet, I adored the purple rondelles and loved the cluster look. I'm pretty sure this one was £2.00.

I've got so many things that would go with these items, so I was very impressed :)

What are your latest Primark jewellery purchases? :)

Love,

Fiona x

York Designer Outlet & Fabulous Freebie

On saturday, my wonderful boyfriend created a surprise trip for us.

I had no idea where we were going, I just knew it was 1 hour 30 minutes away. I was like a kid on a daytrip, asking if it was places like Leeds, or Manchester that we were going to. He was getting a laugh out of me guessing so much.

Anywho, he took us to the York Designer Outlet, I was so happy & surprised as I'd mentioned wanting to go to the York CCO (cosmetic company outlet).

Back in the day, I remember filling my bed full of make-up and taking a photo of it, alot of it was 'Caboodles' (remember those?) and things that looked and smelled like candy. Oh those were the days. But generally, I'm not a huge make-up person, I don't know good from bad in many cases, but I do dislike this. I'd love to treat myself to the 'posh stuff' and know exactly how to apply it, but I'd be scouring YouTube looking for tutorials :D

But I will admit, I do like MAC make-up, although I can't usually justify the price tag ;)

I was amazed by the CCO, it sold alot of different products, all under the Estee Lauder 'umbrella', including lots of things I'd never heard of before. But my main attraction was the MAC section.

There were plenty of single eyeshadows in various shades, I think they were £8.25. There were also a few duo 'suite' eyeshadows, which I think were also £8.25. There were about 5 different pigments, and about 4 glittered pigments. There were a few dazzleglass lipglosses, a couple of lip gelee tubes. That's what I can remember anyway :)

I spent around £70 on eye and lip goodies, which I will show you :)

Eyeshadow Duo in 'Devil May Care'

Eyeshadow Suite in 'Rose Suites'

Dazzleglass in 'Internationalist'

Lipgelee in 'Slicked Pink'

'Circa Plum', 'Rose' and 'Mutiny' Pigments

I would have tried out some of their face range but the colours there were very dark shades, would've made me look like a plonker ;)

While I was there, I also bought a lovely cardi from Gap, and a birdy print floral top from Next (£4!). We generally got some kitchenware and some Lindt (which seemed to magically disappear saturday night :P)
But it made a great day out for us, especially alot of the male based shops selling suits and shirts. We got home very sleepy and spent the evening watching tv :)

In other news, I also wanted to comment on the News Of The World freebie that's been running for a couple of weeks now. You do need 2 tokens, and I think there's only three chances, but if you do have the tokens lying around, it's worth getting this methinks.

Fabulous, the magazine inside the paper, is doing a Models Own make-up kit for the cost of two papers, which is £2. I went to pick up a kit the other night, and I was pleasantly surprised. It comes with professional-looking tweezers, eyelash curlers, a mascara, a liquid eyeliner and an eyeshadow duo. I haven't tested any of them yet, but I'll let you know what they're like as I try them :)

Here's a picture of what you get inside.

For £2, it's quite alright :) loves bargains!

I've got loads of Sparklerose Designs' newer pieces to write about yet, that'll be in the next post :)

Love,
Fiona x

Shopping & Jewellery Find

I decided to get myself a bit of retail therapy yesterday. I would take pictures of my finds but I need some batteries :D

I got a lovely floral dress and burgundy wedge heels from New Look (both £5 each!), I got a couple of things in Accessorize 70% off, and I got myself some new underwear :D it was generally a successful trip.

I was very keen to browse the jewellery rails, as I usually am. It makes great research, to see what's popular, what's 'in' at the moment.

♥ I saw extra long pendant necklaces, with really small pendants. I'm not entirely sure I like this look.
♥ I noticed loads of xlarge rings, especially the ones with two rings in one.
♥ I saw plenty of charm necklaces, these still seem to be very much in fashion.
♥ I also noticed plenty of hippy-esque bracelets, which seems almost unusual to me given the time of year.

I did treat myself to two rings: one lilac rhinestone hat, and a coral rose. Apart from that, I was very good :D

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Anywho, the other thing I was keen to write about, my find from the other night :)

I came across an online shop called WendyHouse, "the home of lovely and unusual things". Of course this intrigued me, so I had a little shop around, and wow, very lovely :D

They sell a range of jewellery and hair accessories, focusing mostly on jewellery though. Here's some of my faves.

Joy Pendant - £9.00

This would look gorgeous adding some detail to a simple outfit.

Click to view.

One Flew Over Earrings - £7.00

These earrings are so cute & effective, and I love the blue & gold colouring.

Click to view.

Hey Sailor! Bracelet - £7.00

This cute charm bracelet appeals to my nautical side :)

Click to view.

Gothic Rose Earrings - £5.50

The red have currently sold out but the black are still available

They would look lovely with that little black dress

Click to view.

Don't forget to enter the giveaway! Deadline is 18th january, so there's a little while yet :)

Love,

Fiona x

Supplies

I headed into town to pick up some supplies, as well as ordering some online. I'm getting most of them delivered to my Dad's house, I'm due to go visit there in a week or so, hurray :D

So far I've picked up:

+ Some antique copper findings
+ Some gorgeously sparkly chinese crystal beads
+ Plenty of pretty glass beads
+ Eiffel tower charms

And a few more things I'll be surprised about when the postman delivers them, lol..

I realise this blog is looking rather boring, unfortunately I don't have any graphic design programs on my laptop.. hmm..

Love,
Fiona x