January Haul Featuring eBay, Essie, e.l.f. and More

It's the end of the month and what does that mean? haul time of course :) I've already showed you my sale haul (click here to check it out )but I have bought a few other things mainly with Christmas money.

We'll start off with ebay - I've made a few purchases from ebay this month, including a few things for my room, first up this cute wooden door sign :)

This was just £3.22 including postage. It's great quality and I think its really sweet.

I am a huge fan of twitter (you can find me here xx) and recently one of my followers tweeted a picture of a fab piece of jewellery storage. Hers came from QVC, but I couldn't find one on there, so I thought have a look on ebay, and boy am I glad I did.

I managed to get this black dress storage for only £2.97 including postage. Much cheaper than QVC I'm sure. You simply hang it on a coat hanger, and one side contains clear pockets to pop your jewellery or whatever in and the reverse side contains a mixture of fixed loops, and loops with a velcro fastening so you can store bracelets and necklaces.

I'm not a 100% sure what I'm going to use this for at the moment, I do need some more storage for fashion jewellery but at the same time the clear pockets are the perfect size for eyeshadows, I'll have a think about this and let you know what I decide.

I also picked up one jewellery item this month, this super cute flower and gem bracelet which was just 99p including postage.

My final ebay purchase of the month was something that I purchased the day after I finished Project 10 Pan and something from my extensive wishlist.

Milani Illuminating Face Powder in 03 Beauty's Touch is described as a blush, highlighter and bronzer in one, but I would probably described it as a highlight / shimmery blush. It a lovely shimmery peachy, pink shade when all the shades are swirled together.

I'm a sucker for cute packaging and product designs so I've wanted this for ages, and I chuffed that it's actually a really nice product. I paid £9.23 including postage.

Next up Avon, I just got a few bits including the Avon Natural Care And Repair Shampoo With Chamomile And Aloe Vera, I really didn't need another shampoo but this was on special and it smells amazing, so fresh and a tiny bit fruity.

I also got a bottle of the Skin So Soft Silky Moisture Tissue Oil

This is specifically formulated for stretch marks, and since I'm embarking on a weight loss journey I thought that this might be a good investment. I've got a review of a similar but more expensive product to go up in the next few days and I'm definitely going to do a review of this one too, to see how it compares.

My final Avon purchase was this cute silver tone bracelet, I have a similar one in sterling silver  which was a gift from a friend and I wear it lots so I couldn't resist this one with the crystal hearts.

My next two purchase came from blog sales - there seems to be a lot of these around at the moment :) I picked up a full sized new Becca Beach Tint in Watermelon from a blog sale.

You can use this on lips and cheeks for a water resistant colour. This looks pretty bright but it actually blends out to a sheer pink red shade, which tastes exactly like watermelon.

I also got a sample sized tube of the Perricone No Foundation, Foundation from another blog sale. 

This was something that I'd wanted to try for sometime. It looks quite scary initially, but it does seem to blend down and match the skin quite well. I haven't tried it on my face yet but I'll keep you posted x

Almost at the beginning of the month I popped into one of my favourite shops, The Original Factory Shop, I picked up 3 Essie nail polishes for just £3 each - from left to right - 314A Blue Rhapsody, 215A Nothing Else Metals, and 216A Penny Talk.

I have placed a few online orders this month but due to some absolutely hideous weather not much of it has came bar this eyes lips face - e.l.f. order, that took an extra 10 days to come. It only came today so I haven't had a chance to have a proper look at it yet. I'll do a post probably next week for you with some swatches and some first impressions but in the mean time I picked up a Mineral Lipstick in Barely Bitten, an HD Blush in Headliner, a Nail Polish in Golden Goddess and a Studio Small Stipple Brush.

As you can probably gather I've gone way over my monthly limit - here are the figures of shame!!

e.l.f. - £18.91
Flower Bracelet - ebay - 99p
Black Dress Storage - ebay - £2.97
Avon Order - £9.98
Perricone No Foundation Sample - Blog Sale - £2.00
Milani Illuminating Face Powder - 03 Beauty's Touch - ebay - £9.23
Hanging Door Sign - ebay - £3.22
Becca Beach Tint - Blog Sale - £3.50
H&M Haul - £20.99
3 x Essie Nail Polishes - The Original Factoy Shop - £9.00
Next Sale Haul - £21.00
Boots Sale Haul - £51.00
Stila Convertible Color - Lillium - Beauty Bay - £12.80
Total - £165.59
£125.59 Over

Okay that is pretty bad but in fairness I did get a fair bit of Christmas money this year, especially from my fabulous godparents, and I also sold quite a bit on ebay this month..I'm still waiting for a couple of orders from a england, and MUA (rolls eyes!) and I've still got some money and some gift cards from New Look, and Boots to spend, so I can already see myself spending a bit of money in February. Never the less though I am going to try and be good I've opened a new saving account and I'm determined to try and save some money this year, so hauls on this scale are certainly a thing of the past - fingers crossed anyways. Have you bought anything good in January - let me know your best buys in the comments xx

A Budget Palette Of The Month - VIVO Baked Shimmer Palette - Chocolate Box

It time for the first post in my new Palette Of The Month series, and the one I've decided to start with is a real budget friendly option from VIVO Cosmetics. The palette from VIVO that's probably had the most hype is the Unprotected palette, one of the many Naked palette dupes, Thanks to Father Christmas I do now own that palette so it will be featuring in this series at some point, but the one I want to talk about today is an often ignored gem - the VIVO Baked Shimmer Palette.

These palette come in 3 different variant each containing a baked blusher and 4 coordinating baked eyeshadows. The one I have is Chocolate Box. The packaging is nothing exciting just plain glossy black with clear sections so you can see the colours.It contains a small mirror, and a sponge applicator, which as you know I'm not a fan off, so I either bin them or use them for paper crafting.

Okay so the packaging is practical but not earth shattering, the shades inside though in my opinion are with shouting about.

First up you get the most gorgeous baked, blusher which weighs in at 2.5g. In the Chocolate Box palette it is a gorgeous shimmery, peachy pink with a bit of coral in it. There is some bronze veining running through it but that doesn't really effect the colour.

and as requested here's a little face shot so hopefully you can get an idea what it looks like on.

You really don't need much, as it's very soft and very pigmented, It looks a bit scary in the pan but this is a great blush and a great inclusion in the palette. I would actually buy this blush on it own at the price of the whole palette. There is no need because alongside the blush you get four 1g baked eyeshadows.

From the name of the palette Chocolate Box you would expect all the colours in the palette to be brown based well you would be wrong, whilst a lot of the shades contain brown tones or veining in their pretty planet like appearance the finished effects are different and maybe not what you would expect. Shade 1 is a coppery, bronze shade with gold and chocolate veining, Shade 2 is a pewter, silvery grey with white, and dark brown veining, Shade 3 is a brown, cream, and gold mix, and Shade 4 is white, silver grey, and pink.

The swatches above give you an idea of just how pigmented these colours are when their used dry, but one of the best things about baked shadows is that you can use them wet without damaging the shadows. I've swatched them wet so you can see what an amazing almost metallic paint effect that you can achieve. Obviously this does make the shadows more crease prone but the effect is worth it.

Now I've noticed a few calls lately for people who actually want to see make up on your actual face so I've done some eyes pics for you. Obviously you can use the colours altogether to create an eye look (there is a diagram on the back of the palette to get you started) but I thought the best thing to do was to show you individual shades both wet and dry - there are lots of pics here so enjoy x

Shade 1 - Dry

Shade 1 - Wet

Shade 2 - Dry 

Shade 2 -Wet

Shade 3 - Dry 

Shade 3 - Wet

Shade 4 -  Dry

Shade 4 - Wet

I'm sorry for the bad lighting in some of these pictures but I hope you can get an idea of just how gorgeous these shadows actually are. The pigmentation and texture is superb, and the price is a steal. Any criticisms? well if you don't like shimmer this palette isn't for you, and maybe Shades 1 and 3 are just a bit too similar but that doesn't bother me at all in fact I prefer shimmer to matte any day. I used this palette at least 3 times a week for the past month and a half and I have to say I love it and I'm so pleased that I bought it, and its a definite inclusion in my upcoming Products I'm Loving Right Now video. If you fancy trying out this Chocolate Box palette or any of the other options VIVO Baked Shimmer Palettes are currently half price and are only £3 each on the VIVO website I'm not sure if this offer is available in Tesco store's but even at £6 this palette in my opinion is a steal. What do you think of this palette ? and do you have any VIVO recommendations? let me know in the comments x

Foodie Friday - Food Review Of The Month

Because of the overload of juicing posts I haven't done a foodie friday post for a few weeks now, so I thought I'd do one today, basically summing up some of the things that I've eaten over the last month :).
I thought I'd start the month the way that I started the year off on New Years Eve with some Mexican themed foods, a dish of nachos with home made salsa and lots of cheese

and some of my favourite Mexican cornbread (check out my favourite recipe here)

At the start of the month I also had the opportunity to try out the amazing M&S Rhubarb and Custard Sparkling Drink. I'd heard so much on twitter about this and I eventually managed to pick up a bottle of this before Christmas. It tastes amazing and exactly like the sweeties :)

I also made this pretty epic cheesecake, from the queen that is Nigella and her Italian style recipe book, Nigellissima.

It's basically a Ferrero Rocher in a cheese cake, I used gluten free digestives and hazelnuts for the base, and the filling is made from cream cheese and nutella, topped with toasted hazelnuts - this amazing and sooooo easy to make.

After this high calorie start I started my Juice Detox - which meant a week of water, fresh fruit and vegetable juices, and fresh tea infusions, here are a selection of my "meals"

and here are some of my favourite infusions, fresh lemon and lime - yum!

I've tried to be good for the rest of the month, but thanks to the weather I've needed comfort foods and I've eaten a lot of soups, casseroles and salads, including this yummy Greek style salad,

this Broccoli, Curly Kale and Stiliton Soup,

home made vegetable and soy chunk curry,

and home made veggie sausage casserole and mash - This was one of  my childhood favourites and it tastes just as a nice with vegetarian sausages.

and finally some pesto pasta, just some gluten free pasta spirals mixed togther with some sweetcorn, spring onion, olives, cheese and of course pesto yum!

and a cheeky vodka and orange juice - whoops!

Have you eaten anything interesting or particularly yummy this month? Let me know in the comments x