BLOGMAS DAY THIRTY-ONE // Hall of Fame! (Part Two)

Hi guys! It's the final day of Blogmas 2014 and as if that wasn't scary enough, it's also the last day of 2014. Happy New Year to you all, and Happy Hogmanay to those of you in Scotland too! Yesterday's post was a hall of fame for my favourite TV, Music and Books of the year so I'll link that here x. Today's post is the same type of thing, but it's the beauty version! I've included my own photos of all the things I own, but there are some of my favourites that I don't have anymore so they'll be from Google. There's also a little giveaway at the end so stay tuned for that!

Best Concealer

Collection Lasting Perfection 

This is pretty much my favourite concealer ever, I dabbled with the Maybelline Age Rewind spongey one that was fine, but didn't have the same coverage as the Collection one and was more expensive, so why bother with anything else. I love the Collection one, and it's raved about from all corners of the internet, and it's easy to see why!

Best Foundation

L'oreal Lumi Magique

I'm not particularly fussy when it comes to foundation as in general my skin isn't completely awful most of the time. However, on balance, this year I've been using L'oreal an awful lot- and I love this one in particular, it's dewy, and makes your skin glow, which is always brilliant for looking healthier. It's also easy enough to apply as you can pretty much just use your fingers to smooth it across your skin.

Best Liquid Eyeliner

Collection Fast Stroke 

Collection are far and away the best low-priced brand that the high street offers, and their fast stroke eyeliner is another example of their excellence. It is super super black and is really easy to apply, whether or not you are some sort of an eyeliner goddess. Considering this is less than a fiver, which is unbelievably cheap, it's one of the best products on the market!

 Best Powder

Max Factor Creme Puff Powder

I have swapped powders a couple of times this year already, but this is one of my favourites! There's a massive number of shades in the brand and you can easily find one that matches your skin tone. I would say that this applies much better  with a brush than with the weird powder puff thing that they provide! It'd also be amazing if it had a mirror, but hey- nothing's perfect!

Best Lip Products

 Bourjois Liquid Lipstick in Hot Pepper

Liquid lipsticks are one of my favourite new discoveries of this year and the Bourjois versions are some of the best. These apply perfectly, and can go from sheer to opaque easily and are super, super pigmented. 

YSL Lipgloss in Golden Praline and Eva's Nude from L'oreal

I'm a big believer in buying nude or basic colours of high-end lipsticks and glosses, although I didn't originally think I'd get a huge amount of use out of this- it's become my favourite lip combination! The L'oreal nude range is as amazing as it's new Red counterpart, and the Eva's Nude is by far and away my favourite Nude lipstick- this always looks amazing on your lips!

Best Cream-Eyeshadows 

Maybelline Colour Tattoo in 'On and On Bronze' and Max Factor Excess Shimmer in Copper

These two are fairly similar, and have made up my eye makeup for the vast majority of the year. The Maybelline one is simply the most gorgeous colour I've ever used, and as you can see I've used a massive amount of it, and it's only starting to dry out now after 9 months or so of use. Due to it drying out, I thought I'd try the Max Factor version, which is really good too- if a little wetter on the lids! I love a shimmery gold eye and you can't beat these!

Best Eye-Shadows

Mac 'Her Cocoa' Palette

As I mentioned, I would definitely recommend buying nudes and natural colours of high end products, and that's exactly why I picked up this particular limited edition Mac palette for my birthday last year. The gold colour, on the left in the picture above, looks amazing over the cream shadows above and the whole palette is beautiful!

 Best Kohl Eyeliner

Lollipop Eye Kohl

I got this in a Glossybox a couple of months ago and whilst I haven't been a huge user of pencil eyeliners since my slightly emo phase when I was 12, this is brilliant. I use this on my waterline when I'm wearing liquid liner and it also won't budge from your bottom lash line too! I've not heard much about this brand but this is a brilliant product!

Best Brow Product 

More Brows by Model Co

This is another Glossybox pick, and this has done an amazing job of helping me tame my crazy brows! What I tend to do is use this to shape and darken my brows, and then fill in any gaps that become obvious when I have them shaped! It's absolutely tiny and will pick up any tiny hairs you have that tend to fly astray!

There we are, now I have a little give-away for you all. Benefit do some amazing products and their Rock-itude palette is no different. It contains their famous Benetint, their High Beam highlighter, Rockitude blush and their matching lipgloss. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Just follow me on Blogger and comment below on your favourite memory of 2014! This is a little thank you to you all for reading, liking, following and commenting on everything I've done this year. Thanks for joining me on this little blogmas adventure and have an amazing New Year!

BLOGMAS DAY THIRTY // 2014 Hall of Fame! (Part One)

Hey guys! I absolutely can’t believe that it’s the second to last day of the year, 2014 has flown by and if this continues I'm going to be 45 by the time I've finished this post! I sat down last week and noted down all of my favourites from the year, and realised that if I included beauty and all the other categories I wanted to talk about in the one post- it would be far, far too long. Therefore I've decided to split it into two posts over the final two days of the year. Today’s post is my non-beauty hall of fame for the year, which will include music, TV, and books! Let’s have a look;

Music

Catfish and the Bottlemen

A lot of the acts in this category featured in my Music Review of the Year which I’ll link for you guys (part one and two), but I thought I’d detail a couple of lines about my favourite acts anyway. Catfish and the Bottlemen are one of the best new acts of the year and I first started listening to their EPs, which featured three singles from their new album, back in May, June and August of this year- when they were put onto Spotify. Catfish are this amazing hybrid of brilliant lyrics and some of the best Rock music released in the past 10 years. I love them and I'm sure you will too.

Favourite lyric; ‘I remember when we swapped names, and I thought maybe you’d stay and try and outdrink me.’

Ben Howard

I feel like I've spoken at length about my love for Ben Howard already in the past month or so, but he really is simply brilliant and both his first album ‘Every Kingdom’ and his new release ‘I Forget Where We Were’ are genius. He’s lyrically flawless and seeing him live earlier this month made me appreciate just how much I love music.

Favourite lyric; ‘saw the police, screaming something trivial like ‘keep the peace.”

Chvrches

In my opinion, Chvrches are the best thing musically to come out of Scotland in years, and their weird twist of synthpop that someone manages to sound intrinsically folky whilst still allowing them to be unashamedly pop-like and accessible to any mainstream fan, is my favourite thing about them. I've seen them live twice this year and whilst their music is amazing, a special mention has to be given to their lighting director as the light show they put on as they perform is unbelievable too.

Favourite lyrics; “I’ll give you one more chance to say we can change our old ways, and you take what you need. And you don’t need me.”

Taylor Swift

I used to think of Taylor Swift as my guilty pleasure when it came to my music taste, but she is amazing- and as I said in my review of the year, her changing opinions and reactions to the nonsense she gets from the media is as much a part of my love for her as her music. I challenge anybody to find a Taylor Swift song that they can’t listen to and relate too. Now if you excuse me I’ll be shaking it off whilst dancing round my room.

Favourite lyric; ‘Darling, I’m a nightmare dressed like a daydream’

Ed Sheeran

X is another album that has featured heavily in my monthly music favourites of the year, and seeing Ed at the Hydro in Glasgow was undeniably a highlight of my music year. He continues to defy expectations and whilst one man with a guitar on a stage in front of 13,000 people should be underwhelming, if not laughable, he manages to ensure that you are captivated. It’s impressive and shouldn’t be underestimated just because he manages to do it every single time he steps out on stage. After the success of + many believed he wouldn’t be able to follow it up, and that perhaps the novelty of the boy with the guitar might wear off- but I can’t see that happening any time soon.

Favourite lyric; it’s not from his new album but ‘they say I’m up and coming like I’m fucking in an elevator’ is one of the most intelligent lyrics ever.

TV

The Office (US)

If I was to describe my TV of 2014- then the adventures of the employees at Dunder Mifflin Paper Company in Scranton would pretty much sum up everything I have loved about TV this year. I had never seen an episode of the US version of the Office before May this year, but as soon as I started it on Netflix I became hooked. Quite simply, the Jim and Pam relationship is by far and away my favourite pairing in any show, ever. Equally, I think Dwight is an amazing character and the pranks pulled between him and Jim are amazing, and Michael Scott is a comic character that is pretty much unparalleled in his cringey-ness. I actually stopped watching the show 2 episodes before the end so that I wouldn’t have to have finished it, then I managed to convince a friend of mine to watch it at the same time and Christ, I have never felt so emotionally connected to a TV show before. It’s a mammoth task to watch it all, but my god, would I recommend it.

Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones is another show that I became obsessed with this year, and it does genuinely live up to the hype it receives across the globe. Despite such a huge cast, they’ve done an amazing job of editing the books into TV shows that work perfectly and aren’t hard to follow. I am a huge fan of Daenerys  and think that quite frankly this whole nonsense could be sorted if she just sat her ass down on the Iron Throne with her dragons. I also adore Kitt Harrington as Jon Snow, but my favourite character of the lot is Tyrion Lannister, who is played by the flawless Peter Dinklage. SO GOOD.

Suits

I obviously don’t have a favourite type of TV show environment as my three favourites for the year have been set in small town America, medieval style fantasy lands, and the final one, Suits, is set in high powered NYC. Suits relies almost entirely, in my opinion, on the relationships between the characters- particularly between Harvey and Mike, the main two characters. I adore Mike Ross, and basically just want everything to be okay for him in the end. I love seeing the most vulnerable sides of Harvey as much as I enjoy seeing him absolutely destroy someone in court. The show is super intelligent and keeps you hooked even if all they’re doing is solving a pro-bono case. [disclaimer; I’ve been reliably informed by my lawyer cousin that law is literally nothing like Suits, which is highly disappointing.

Books

The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer

If you ever want to read a book that will fuck you up, then I’d recommend TSOTF, which centres around Matt, a young man with schizophrenia who lost his older brother Simon, a downs-syndrome sufferer, on a camping holiday when they were both children. It’s beautifully written and although the narrative, from Matt’s POV, could have been clumsy and a little schizophobic if handled badly- it manages to be insightful, entertaining and heartbreakingly honest. You don’t find out the true events of Simon’s death until the end of the novel but this had me sobbing towards the end. An amazing book.

Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith

On a slightly cheerier note, we head to post-Stalin era Russia. I wish I was kidding but no, my next favourite book of the year was Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith- which centres around an officer of the Russian secret service who ends up on the run from the authorities whilst trying to solve a series of murders of children across the country. I’m doing a rubbish job of explaining it but I promise the plot is not too hard to follow and it’s one of the best thriller crime novels I’ve ever read, and I’m pretty well versed in the genre. Even better- there’s 3 books in the series!

City of Heavenly Fire

I adored the Mortal Instrument series and when the final book, COHF, was released in March/April (I can’t remember..) I downloaded it onto my Mum’s Kindle account so that I could read it straight away. I didn’t realize just how long the book is- it’s larger than the rest of the physical copies of the books in the series, as it’s a good couple of inches wider and taller. It’s also 750 pages long. In all honestly these books aren’t going to win any amazing literary prizes but they are brilliant, and they hold a very special place in my heart. Cassandra Clare capped off the series beautifully and I’m so, so pleased as I seriously feared for the safety of some of my favourite characters when the book was publicised as a bloodbath, but all is well and I’m so glad.

There you have it, my Book, TV and Musical favourites of 2014. What a mammoth post for you all for a Tuesday night. I’ll be back tomorrow with my beauty favourites in what will be my final post of 2014, thank you guys so much for reading and I’ll see you tomorrow!

BLOGMAS DAY TWENTY-NINE // Naked 2 Palette Review

Morning everyone, I hope you're enjoying your Monday! Today's post is a little look at one of my favourite Christmas presents- my Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette. I absolutely love it and whilst it is by no means a new product, I thought I'd show you all what it's like!

The palette comes in a tin with a double ended brush and 12 of Urban Decay's eye-shadows (10 shimmer and 2 matte,) as well as a massive mirror. The quality of the product is amazing and they're literally all gorgeous- but let's take a little look at the individual shadows! 

'Foxy' is a yellow based creamy bisque colour which works really well as both a non-shimmery inner eye highlight, or as a base to stop any darkness or discolouration on your lids! 'Half Baked' is completely gorgeous shimmery gold colour that looks amazing over a cream shadow like Maybelline's Colour Tattoo in On and On Bronze.

  'Booty Call' is a shimmery highlight in a more pink shade that also makes an amazing base for your shadow! 'Chopper' is a copper shimmer colour with a silver glitter in it, and it is totally gorgeous too! I can see this being one of my favourites in this palette! 

'Tease' is a deep mauve shade with purple hints in it, and it's a great crease colour! I also think this would be great as an all over colour for a really simple basic look- it's not overly pigmented but it's a lovely shade none the less. 'Snakebite' is a gorgeous dark brown shimmer shade that would be brilliant for  smokey eye, particularly if you have green or brown eyes. The metallic sheen in the shadow is beautiful and it gives your lids a proper shine! 

'Suspect' is like your perfect neutral shade, and it's a gorgeous champagne colour that would be lovely as both a base or as a stand alone colour. 'Pistol' is a really lovely cross between a grey and a brown shadow, it's not a typical colour and it was new to Urban Decay when they released the palette, so it's a bit special!

'Verve' is another fairly neutral shade, but this one is a little less shimmery than it's neighbours. It's certainly not my favourite in the palette but I have no doubt that I will use it loads despite this! 'YDK' on the other hand, is definitely one of my favourites in the palette, it's a coppery shimmer that's basically a bronze version of half-baked with less fall out. This could well become one of my new go-to eye shadows!

  'Busted' is another gorgeous shimmery colour, but this one is a little darker than the rest. It's a deeper version of snakebite, but is also a great crease shade for a dark eye makeup, or to bring a bit of drama to your usual gold shadow. 'Blackout' is a slightly chalky deep black colour that works amazingly as a liner for both your eyelid, or along your bottom lash line to really make your eye makeup look dramatic.

Here is the palette in all it's glory, along with the double ended applicator and a little peak of the full length mirror along the top. The tin makes it super easy to carry around and also stops it getting grubby, which I know was a big complaint with the first Naked palette.

I know that in the past the palette has come with a lipgloss, but the version I received comes with four 'week long' samples of their eye shadow primer. I'm not sure if each capsule really does contain a weeks worth of product, but this is a cool way of allowing consumers to try your other products regardless. I'm a big fan of anything free!

BLOGMAS DAY TWENTY-EIGHT // December Favourites!

Happy Sunday everyone, I hope you've had a lovely weekend so far and are enjoying a relaxing day in the Wintry weather. I have my December Favourites for you today, which might seem a bit like overkill as I have my 2014 Hall of Fame coming on the 31st but I didn't want December to feel left out as it was a totally great month and I have loads to talk about! 

Real Techniques Buffing and Contour Brush

I picked up the Core Collection from RT at the end of last month and I've completely fallen in love with the buffing brush, which I use with my foundation- and the contouring brush, which I use for bronzer. They're quite pricey for something that many people won't consider an essential, but I have no idea how I applied my make-up before these brushes. I would completely recommend picking up some and I'm sure I'll be buying more in the future! 

Sleek Contour Palette

This was another purchase from the last couple of months and whilst the shade of this palette is actually too dark for my skin, I love using the bronzer to contour my face, and it looks great once it's been blended out. It's damn near impossible to find a truly matte bronzer but this totally fits the bill. The highlighter is a little too golden for my skin tone, but it works amazingly as a 'one product does all' eye shadow, as with this swept over my lids and a little mascara- I'm good to go!

L'oreal Blake's Red 

I've never tried Mac's Ruby Woo- but I am reliably informed that this is very similar to that, which brings me great joy as I absolutely love this lipstick and have Ruby Woo coming in the post in the next couple of days as a late Christmas present to myself. This is a blue toned, slightly powdery red that will NOT dry your lips out- it's the perfect red for me and my love for Blake Lively makes it all the better.

Santa's Scrub by Lush

I had previously picked up the Popcorn version of this scrub in the summer and I absolutely hate it- the sugar/salt taste is not something I love in the slightest. However the limited edition Christmas one that they bring out every year is a lovely cola tasting lip scrub that works amazingly to leave your lips super soft and ready for whatever lipstick you want to apply!

Christmas Decorations

As it's been the festive season for the grand majority of this month, I have had Christmas decorations up- both in my bedroom and around the rest of the house. Despite the sucky weather and the complete lack of light, the twinkly fairy lights and glittery decorations have made everything that little bit easier and nice this month and I wish I could keep them up all the time!

I Forget Where We Were - Ben Howard

This is probably now one of my stand-out albums of 2014 and whilst I was a little unsure about it in the first place, I'm completely in love with it now. My loyalty to Ben Howard's first album 'Every Kingdom' is still strong, but there is no denying how completely gorgeous this album is, with every song being nearly perfect. I actually want to go and see him live again so I can truly appreciate it.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine

I had seen a couple of episodes of this E4 show already before I noticed it had arrived on Netflix a couple of weeks ago. I thought I'd check out the first couple of episodes and lo and behold, within one evening I had watched all 22 episodes of the first series, which is all they've made so far. It's easy going TV, with the effortlessly irritating Jake Peralta as an unconventional cop working for the 99th Precinct in NYC, and the rest of his team. It's easy viewing, with a few genuine relationships within the show and some truly hilarious moments!  

There we go, my last favourites of 2014- what a scary thought! I'll be back tomorrow but until then, enjoy the rest of your weekends! 

BLOGMAS DAY TWENTY-SEVEN // My Year in Music! (part 2)

Hey guys! A very happy Saturday to you all, I hope you've all had lovely days and are enjoying your weekends. I have the second part of my 'Year in Music' for you today- if you didn't catch the first part (Jan-June) I will link that here. Now let's have a look at the last six months of my music picks!

July- Graveyard Whistling // Nothing But Thieves

Nothing But Thieves are one of my top discoveries of the year, after CATB, and whilst they're very much in the fledgling parts of their musical careers, their Graveyard Whistling EP is immense, and is headed up by my favourite song from July- Graveyard Whistling. I totally recommend that you check them out before they inevitably release their debut album and get very famous!

August- Messiah // Prides 

Prides are a Scottish band that I discovered after they played the closing ceremony of the 2014 Commonwealth games, that took place in Glasgow. They're  incredibly catchy and both Messiah, and their new song 'I Should Know You Better' have been favourites of mine throughout the year. As with NBT, I can't wait to hear any upcoming releases these guys have in 2015!

September- Take Me To Church // Hozier

Hozier is another standout new act for this year and his first album is amazing. Take Me To Church was far and away his most successful song. It's incredibly deep, whilst also being very catchy, and in general is just totally gorgeous. I can see Hozier being a huge act in 2015 and I'm really, really excited to see what he does next!

October- Riptide // Vance Joy

This wasn't a new song when I fell in love with it in October, but when I went to stay in a little cottage up North in a place called Fort Augustus, I became totally obsessed with this little song. It was really popular for several months this year and kicked up again not too long ago when Taylor Swift did an amazing Live Lounge cover of it- which I will link here. Vance Joy is another up and coming artist that I'm predicted big things for next year!

November- Style // Taylor Swift

Possibly one of my favourite albums of this year was Tay Swift's 1989, but I actually fell in love with her as a person, even without her new- totally brilliant, album. Her attitude towards the abuse she received for writing songs about her experiences with different guys has changed completely this year and she's started calling people out for their shitty attitudes towards her, which is amazing!

December- Small Things // Ben Howard

I saw Ben live on the 6th of December at Usher Hall in Edinburgh, and I absolutely loved it. I was a little apprehensive about him playing so much from his new album (I Forget Where We Were) but since seeing him I have become completely and utterly obsessed with it. It's the perfect cold weather, cosied up inside album and I have listened to little else this month. I could have picked 'She Treats Me Well,' 'The End of the Affair' or the title track, 'IFWWW' but I have a special soft spot for Small Things- and I can't see myself falling out of love with this album any time soon.

There you have it, I hope you enjoyed reading all about my favourite music this year. Please continue to give me any recommendations you have and I'll see you tomorrow for another Blogmas post!

BLOGMAS DAY TWENTY-SIX // What I Got For Christmas!

Afternoon everyone, I hope you all had an amazing Christmas and are enjoying a lovely relaxing Boxing Day- whether you're watching the football, just home from the Sales or, like me, have only just gotten dressed at 2pm. I had a really nice Christmas Day and I did a little post on it yesterday so I'll link that here x if you'd like to see what my family and I do on the big day!

I thought I'd show you guys some of my favourite presents I got yesterday, and as always I have to disclaimer to say that I'm not showing off- it's merely that every time a birthday or Christmas passes, someone requests a 'What I Got' post- so here I am, providing one for you. I don't know about the rest of the population but I actually love seeing what other people got for Christmas as it's brilliant for gift ideas, whether for others or as a little post-Christmas treat to yourself! I'll link any products I can find online but without further ado, let's have a look at some of my gifts!

Sony DSC-H300 Camera

My 'big present' that I'd asked for this year was a DSLR camera, and Santa delivered just nicely. I'm still completely getting to grips with the camera, but I can already see an improvement in the pictures I have for the blog, and it will be amazing for my trip to South Africa in February as the zoom is amazing! I'm so, so lucky and cannot wait to try this out properly!

Naked 2 Palette

I already knew this was under the tree for me on Christmas as I'd actually bought it with my Gran a couple of weeks ago- but I was still so excited to unwrap it in all of it's prettiness. I'm not going to go into any detail as I have a review post coming up in the next week or so!

 Body Shop Grapefruit Shower Gel

This was a stocking present from my parents, and whilst it's nothing particularly special or impressive- I wanted to include it as this stuff smells absolutely amazing! I used it this morning and even though I have a pretty rubbish cold, I could smell it perfectly and it cheered my morning greatly!

 Nuxe Prodigieuse Oil

This was another present from my parents and it's some really, really cool stuff. As you can see, the Huile Prodigieuse is a glittery oil that looks a little like tanning oils, but is in fact a multi-purpose oil for skin, body and hair! I'm yet to use it on my hair but I used it on my hands last night and it leaves  lovely soft, shimmering skin.

Guardians of the Galaxy DVD 

I mentioned in my Wish List that I would love a copy of the latest Marvel DVD release, and I'm so glad I got it as GOTG was undoubtedly one of my favourite films of 2014, I cannot wait for the sequel but until then I'll be sitting watching this and listening to the unbelievable soundtrack on repeat!

Philip Kerr- If the Dead Rise Not 

I mentioned in my November Favourites that I LOVED Philip Kerr's series of Bernie Gunther mystery/thrillers and my parents bought me the 6th instalment for my Christmas. I'd really highly recommend these books to just about anybody, male or female, adult or young person. Very exciting and I cannot wait to start this one too!

Tom Rob Smith- The Secret Speech 

I reviewed the first book in the Child 44 series by TMS back in October too, and whilst I've had the final book in the trilogy (Agent 6) on my bookshelf since I found it in a independent book store in Mallaig in October, I haven't been able to pick up the second book, which is weirdly hard to come by as it's sold out on Amazon. I can't wait to read this too and rediscover the world of Russian espionage and deceit. 

Scrapbook

I've been looking for a Scrapbook to put all of my pictures and other things like ticket stubs, into for months and another present from Santa was this lovely floral one from Paperchase, which I adore and I cannot wait to fill it with everything I've been storing for the past few years!

Chvrches The Bones of What You Believe CD

I've been wanting to get the physical copy of this album since long before I saw Chvrches in July,and again in November. They're undoubtedly one of the best Scottish bands at the moment and while their distinctive brand of synthpop is not my usual taste, I adore them and hope to see them again in 2015. Until then, I'll be dancing around my room to 'The Mother We Share,' which was recently featured in Marc Jacobs new fragrance advert x.

I hope you guys enjoyed seeing what I got for my Christmas, I hope you all have had a lovely holiday and I will be back tomorrow with the second part of my 2014 Music Favourites!