More on my bargain makeup...

On my latest makeup spending spree as well as the Revolution palettes I also picked up a MUA under eye concealer and a Sleek Makeup highlighting kit.

The concealer was only £3.00 it comes in 3 shades. Being super pale I bought the lightest shade 'luminous' as I like to use a shade lighter than my foundation. 

Here is how it looks on my hand...

As you can see it is quite pale. I have tried several under eye high lighters/ concealers including Dior, touché eclait, asda and Rimmel. Dior is my favourite but I would say this is a good budget comparison. I'd buy it over touché eclait or the asda one anyway.

Here you can see it under my eyes on a particularly tired Monday morning. It doesn't cover dark circles but it does brighten up the area.

On the above picture I have used my iconic 3 Revolution Pallete and must say I was really impressed... It lasted all day... Even survived a gym session after work (obviously only to be showered off afterwards)

Along with this I also used my Sleek highlighting kit. At £9.99 this was at the higher end of budget makeup and I was expecting it to be more of a contour kit (obviously I should have checked before buying what was inside) . It is however nice quality... Reminds me somewhat of benefit and their highlighters such as benetint and watts up.

The compact includes some ideas for where to apply each shade (below) which are handy. I followed these but also added a little of the lighter shade to the tear duct area. 

It's a nice little addition to my makeup kit as I don't have many highlighters and is something I would use on clients as well as myself. I feel it definitely made a difference to my makeup today and I felt I looked more radient and awake. 

Revolution Makeup - mermaids vs unicorns

As mentioned in my previous post I treated myself to some new budget makeup from Superdrug at the weekend to experiment with and allow me to play around a bit with different colours. At just £4 each this and the previously discussed iconic 3 were a bargain not to be missed.

As you can see in the photo below the pigmentation is really good, however you do need to apply more than you would with a more expensive brand such as my favourite Urban Decay.

The greens and blues are the 'mermaid' half of the palette and the purple sand darker blues the 'unicorn' . I tend to stick to nudes and neutrals rather than colour but there are times I do fancy wearing a bit of colour so at just £4 this is worth it for experimenting and trying out different looks.

I've only had a quick go of it but in the look below, I applied the first green shade over the whole lid with a flat brush, then used a bullet shaped brush to blend the darker two greens into the outer triangle then finally blended the darker purple shade through the crease with a blending brush. 

The colours go on nicely and blend well but I would like to play around with them more and create dramatic looks with eyeliner and lashes x 

Revolution Makeup-Iconic 3

Having read several blog posts about Revolution Makeup producing some excellent dupes for the Urban Decay eye shadow palates I was made up to discover my local Superdrug has started too stock them. Superdrug (as they often do) had a three for two offer on across all makeup so I had a bit of a splurge and picked up two Revolution Palates (Mermaids Vs Unicorns and Iconic 3), a Sleek Makeup highlighting kit, a MUA under eye concealer and two MUA lipsticks. This post will focus on the Iconic 3 palate though which has been created as a dupe for Urban Decay Naked 3

I am a huge fan of Urban Decay and already own Naked, Naked 2, Smoked and Pulp Fiction. I love them because of their excellent pigmentation, great blendability and range of shades. However they are expensive and I have not been able to justify buying Naked 3 so obviously I was keen to try this dupe.

Looking at the packaging it is no where near as eye catching as the Urban Decay palates but at the end of the day-is attractive packing really that important?

At first glance the shades look extremely similar. Below are what the Revolution shades look like on my skin:

 Unfortunately as I don't own the Naked 3 palate I can't directly compare but what I can say is that they have excellent pigmentation and in relation to my other Urban Decay Palates feel similar in texture and consistency and blend really nicely.

I have had a little play around with them creating my typical day look which I usually create with my Naked 2 Palate (light shade over the whole lid and darker shades blended into crease and outer corner. I used the first shade and second shade mixed together over the lid up to the brow bone and then blended the 6th, 9th and 12th shades into the outer 'triangle'. Its a quick day time look and only takes about 5 minutes and doesn't involve eye liner as I try and avoid eyeliner  as it damages my eye lash extensions and shortens the life of them.

I can certainly say I was really impressed with how easy it was to blend the shades together and they definitely did not feel cheap or chalky. I can't wait to get chance to play around with this palate and also mermaids vs unicorns (which contains colours rather than nudes, bronzes and browns) to create different looks.

Family day out... Apple Jack Adventure Park Review

After a recommendation from a friend I purchased a voucher on Group on for £16.95 ( normal price £29.95) for Apple Jacks in South Warrington. This voucher covers two adults and two children but as a family if one adult and two children it was still cheaper than paying on the door.  

We were fortunate enough to have chosen a really nice spring for our planned visit (although I did check the weather forcast in advance before booking).

Apple Jacks was easy to find... Just off the M6 junction 20 although personally I did use google maps. We arrived at 10.25; give minutes before opening time and there were already a few families queuing. A queue began to quickly form before the doors openned at 10.30 but nothing too excessive.

When we arrived we headed straight for the zip wire and obviously I was delighted to learn adults could also ride this. The ride was well staffed by friendly attendants with close attention to safety and queue etiquette.

Following this we headed for 'the eliminator' which is a kind of bouncy castle arrangement where you stand on an inflatable platform and swing a big punch ball to try and knock off your opponents. Again this attraction was well staffed ensuring that people queued fairly and no one went over their 3 minute time. Once again I was very happy I could join this activity with the kids.

We then decided to give the roller rink a go. My 7 year old found this hard but my 8 year old daughter got the hang of it and I felt like a 13 year old again wizzing round until my kids told me to stop showing off. After all this activity I was ready for a coffee so I grabbed one while the kids went on the inflatable pillow for a bounce. Sadly it was only instant coffee not my favourite costa or Starbucks but I suppose for £1.50 I can't complain! 

I must admit I did have a bit of a bounce on the inflatable pillow before the kids and I headed to the 'drop slide' an inflatable slide which looked like the kind you get in the town centre at school holidays. I asked if I could go on too... Obviously to make sure my 7 year old could manage it and was made up when they said I could. However I didn't realise it was a totally free fall drop! Not wanting to appear a wimp in front of the kids or attendant obviously I had to continue and go down it! What great fun!! 

Other attractions we enjoyed were the adventure playground, archery, tennis ball blasting, haystack mountain and fence maize. Sadly the huge maize maze was under construction but it looks great on the website. 

At the end of our visit we managed to get on the adventure hayride, a tractor and trailor ride around the park which was a good end to the trip! 

All in all it was a great day and the best thing was I joined in and got involved too rather than sitting on my phone or reading like I normally would at parks or play centres.

So here are some recommendations if you decide to visit:

1. Get there early so you can get on stuff before queues build up. Although to be fare there was never much queuing. We went on everything several times and didn't have to wait more than 5 minutes absolute maximum. It's worth getting there early to get a full day though

2.pick a nice day... Or at least a dry one as it is a fully outdoor park.

3. Take a picnic. There is only a small food area and it was predominately burgers, sausage etc with quite slow service 

4. If you are an adult get involved too... Go on everything! It's great fun!

5. Try and book via groupon to save money.

Here is what I loved best about the park 

1. Range of fun attractions for all the family

2. Nice location with plenty of open space

3. Very friendly staff with attention to safety and fair queuing systems 

4. Enough attractions to ensure minimal queuing

5. Once you get in everything is free. 

Here are the downfalls...

1. Rather long rough track to get to the park which isn't great to drive down.

2. Towards end of the day toilets were a bit grubby with rather dubious looking liquid on the floor in some cubicles 

3. Maize maze was not open and looked really good fun

4. Lack of choice in food hall although easy enough to bring a picnic 

So there we go. My first review. Would definitely recomed a visit . Here are some pictures ..

Curly Hair...

I

Having been blessed/cursed with naturally very curly hair I have spent a large amount of time searching for the perfect hair care products. I have tried many different ones from cheap own brand ones to expensive professional products but have always returned to John Frieda. 

While I like a number of his products, the two I cannot live without are Frizz Ease unwind curls and extra strength hair serum 

My routine with these products is pretty easy and simple as with my hair I have found the less I do with it the better it looks in it's curly state. I simply shampoo,  then condition (combing the conditioner through) my hair and then prior to drying I apply about three pumps of serum right through to the ends. I then wrap a towel round my hair while I get dried then simply comb my hair then apply the unwind cream with my fingers... No scrunching, I just run my fingers through with it on. Then I leave it. No hair dryer or anything as the dryer dries my hair right out.

This has been pretty much my hair care routine for the curly look since I stopped wearing it in a French plait or bun in my late teens! 

This is the only picture I could find but that is pretty much my curly look.

I do at times like a change so in order to achieve straight hair I follow the same routine, let my hair dry naturally, apply a heat protecting spray and use my GHDs

I recently purchased a hair extension piece (syn half wig in blondette) from hair rehab London which I like to use to add volume and length. I always clip bits back though and back comb them just a little as my face is quite thin so having it all down drags my face down and makes it look even longer.

Finally a third look I like to do is to use my curling tongs to achieve waves (that's right I straighten only to recurl again). I use some really cheap Nicky Clark Tongs I got off eBay about 7 years ago but they do the job. All I do is curl sections and clip a bit back then put on a ton of hair spray,! 

So these are my three main hair looks. Most of the time however it does get scraped back into a pony tail or bun in between washes! 

To anyone with curly hair... I would certainly recommend these two John Frieda products x

Keep on Running...

In my last post I mentioned that I have started to run on the treadmill at the gym. This is actually going quite well. I am able to now begin with a 5 minute warm up walk on a slight incline and then continue with a run to 5k and have started to add a few bursts of sprinting into the mix. My goal is to run 5k in 30 minutes comfortably. I would also like to build up to 10k but I will have to do this by varying walk/run/walk etc. I am not sure this will be so easy as I find once I go back down to a walk its hard to get running again which is why I simply push myself to run for 5k rather than try for a slower pace but longer distance.

I do however spend at least 20 minutes on the cross trainer in addition to my treadmill workout. I would like to introduce more regular weight based exercises too to develop my muscle tone but I have put on a few pounds over Easter so cardio and fat burning is my priority at the moment.

In addition I have been trying to do Charlotte's belly blast when I can and I am telling you, 'it is hard!'. I like it as it is broken down into three minute routines so you never feel like a routine is dragging on and they go cardio, resistance, cardio etc... The times I have done the DVD five 3 minute work outs have done me right in. Honestly it is harder than 30 minutes running or cross trainer work-not sure how it compares in terms of burning calories though. I have added an app to my phone called 7 minute workout which I try and squeeze in as and when I can as 7 minutes is nothing really.

The weather is improving so I am also going to make a conscious effort to get out more and simply walk more with the kids as at the end of the day walking is a free activity and we are fortunate to live in an area with plenty of parks and decent country side.