Max Factor Freebie with a quick EOTD

Hey girlies, sorry for my lack of posts, I am on my hols right now so having a little break from blogging everyday. Darren ♥ and I popped into our local town on Thursday mainly because we wanted to pick up a couple of films and I wanted to have a quick look around Boots and Superdrug. I saw nothing in Boots that I wanted, I was after a new Max Factor Mascara and they had sold out. They had a deal on ‘3 for 2’ across all make up brands. I went into Superdrug and Max Factor had a deal on buy certain MF products and get their Smoky Eye Effect eyeshadow worth £7.99 absolutely free.

Swatched on their own they remind me of All that Glitters and Twinks by MAC so I carried out a little EOTD using my new MF product and the MAC eyeshadows All that Glitters and Twinks. I really liked the results, I think this product from MF would be really good as a base for eyeshadows however on it’s own it’s a little here nor there. I applied them straight from the tube itself but found it needed blending, so i used a MAC 217. Then I applied All that Glitters ontop of the palest colour and Twinks ontop of the darkest colour, after I had done this I really liked the outcome.

I picked up the nudey looking shade, it was called Bronze Haze. I picked this colour mainly because the blue, green and purple shades didn’t really appeal to me. When I got this product home I realised I had more than enough eyeshadow in the exact same colour. I really need to step outside my comfort zone and try different colours.

Click on image to enlarge

Have any of you managed to pick one of these up? What do you think of them?

♥

FOTN - Molten Metal by Sleek

Hey girlies, what a wonderful bank holiday weekend we had, although it’s not quite over for me. Darren and I ♥ are on our hols til 3rd May and have been the laziest people in London I’m sure! We ventured out to Lakeside yesterday and I was spoilt rotten, we had a lovely meal at La Tasca then came home, I had a Nana nap for 2 hours!

Anyway, here’s a quick FOTN that I knocked up a couple of nights ago to celebrate my birthday, Easter Sunday is just the best day to have your birthday on!

Eyes

Bad Girl eye pencil by Benefit as a base for the outer corner

MAC e/s Satin Taupe over the top of Bad Girl

Molten Metal eyshadow by Sleek

MAC Blacktrack fluidline

Ardell Demi Wispies false lashes

Face

MAC Face and Body in C3

Rose Gold blush by Sleek (♥ it!)

MAC MSF in Medium

Lips

Lipstick by GOSH – Darling

Lipgloss Prrr by MAC

If you haven't got Molten Metal yet you must! It really is a gorgeous product, to read my post on Molten Metal Liquid Eyeshadow click HERE

If you are back at work this week, it’s a short one! Will any of you be watching the Royal Wedding?

Take care my lovelies

♥

Monday Summary and Easter Giveaway Winner!

Hey girlies, Happy Easter to you all! I’m back once again with a Monday Summary.

1. Slimming World – I spoke to my Consultant on Thursday last week and asked for 4 weeks holiday, just to have a break from it and go back full of beans again and hopefully not have put on too much weight! I really don’t want to give up altogether so thought having a break would be a good idea.

2. My Birthday – This year it fell on Easter Sunday, so Darren ♥ and I went out on Saturday afternoon to meet some friends at the pub, we left about 3.30pm and thought we would be back by about 8pm. 10.30pm we fell through the door straight into bed and stayed there til about 11am the next morning. We both felt a bit rough for my birthday but knew we didn’t have much planned. In the evening we popped round his Mum and Dad’s and had a fat Chinese. It was so nice.

3. Holiday – Darren ♥ and I both finished work on Thursday for 11 days and really thought about going on holiday for a week whilst we were off but decided against it due to the weather being so nice now and the price of it!

4 Giveaway winner Lucy from Beauty and the Blogger won my Easter giveaway so Congratulations to her I have sent you an email and will send your prizes out within the next few days.

5 Coldsore – This morning I woke up to a split lip and thought nothing of it but during the course of today it started to get sore and had a bump like effect to it. I drove to Tesco with 10 minutes to spare before closing to have it confirmed that it was the start of a coldsore! I am gutted, this is only my second one ever and had to get it on my week off. I had a couple of FOTD/Ns to do but can’t with this thing on my face. Hopefully it will clear up by the end of the week and I might be able to do a look.

That’s it for my summary this week, I have a few posts already planned out for this week so lookout for them. I hope you have a lovely week my beauts and enjoy the Royal Wedding if you watch it on TV. I know I will be watching.

♥

Barry M Lipstick No 151

Hey dolls! I bought this Barry M Lipstick a couple of weeks ago, I loved the colour of it in the shop and in my mind I was comparing it to Vegas Volt by MAC. I’m sure it was a dupe for it in the shop even though I don’t own Vegas Volt myself so can’t compare it. I think because I want VV so much I wanted it to be a dupe - ha!

Anyway this lippie is bright, really bright. As usual with me I don’t have a lip liner to match so my application is a little wobbly around the edges but I can live with that. Darren ♥ hates it, he says bright lipstick looks cheap and reminds him of Kat “I am your Muvver!” Slater (programme called EastEnders for my readers across the pond).

I’ve used it in 2 ways, 1, Vaseline first then lipstick applied thinly for a subtle look 2 full on coral/orange power. I like both looks.

The lipstick itself doesn't say if it's a sheen, satin or cream. I found it to be quite drying and did need to put vaseline on before both applications. I bought this in Superdrug for £3.99. 

What do you think? Too bright? Would you dare to where it?

♥

In Her Makeup Bag Giveaway – Sigma F80 Flat Top Kabuki

Hey girlies, I thought I better let my followers know that Steph over at In Her Makeup Bag is hosting a giveaway where you can be the lucky winner of a Sigma F80 Flat Top Kabuki.

Pop over to her blog and enter the giveaway, it could be your lucky day!

This giveaway finishes on 20th May 2011, that's one whole month!

♥

FOTN - Blockwork Inspired

Hey dollz, I’m not really sure where I was going with this but it was fun to do, I wanted to do something a bit more dramatic. Can’t say I would wear it out the flat, maybe to a goth night it would be cool. Darren ♥ said I looked scary! :o)

Face

MAC Face and Body C3

Bourjois Delice de Poudre bronzer (♥’s it)

MAC Rhapsody in Two to highlight

MAC MSF in Medium lightly dusted down the centre

MAC Blacktrack Fluidline

Eyes

NYX Jumbo Pencil in Milk (for a base under the pink)

Urban Decay 24/7 Liner in Zero (as a base under the black)

Barry M DD no #85 Neon Pink

Sleek Storm palette matte black

Max Factor False Lash Effect Mascara

Lips

Sleek Storm palette matte black mixed with vaseline

Barry M DD #85 Neon Pink dabbed in centre of lips

This was so much fun to do but it’s not very wearable. I've realised I love playing with colour and I’m still thinking about getting a 120 palette, but not sure which one to get.

 

Do any of you like playing with colour too? It’s a nice change from the normal smokey eye.

♥

Haul – Lakeside incl DP’s, Schuh and Boux Avenue – Shexy!!

Hey girlies, on Saturday me and the mother and sister in laws to be went to Lakeside shopping and had a marvellous day out.

Here’s my stash, sorry this post is a bit picture heavy! Please take no notice of my dodgy posing! I'm not used to all this modelling doo dar!

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.2.

.3.

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 .5.

.6.

.7.

1. Fitted shirt from Dorothy Perkins

2. Fitted shirt from Dorothy Perkins (1 & 2 were 2 for £25)

3. Pussy Bow shirt from New Look £22.50 (I think)

4. Blouse from Dorothy Perkins - £29.50

5. My gorgeous shoes from Schuh - £58. These shoes are very generous with their sizing, I had to get a 3 instead of a 4! I'm never a 3!

6. Boux Avenue Lingerie - ♥ it!

7. Bourjois Delice de Poudre bronzer £6 - the lovely Jess from Darling Heart told us about this and I couldn't agree more with everything she said, it's just so nice.

Items 1,2 and 4 should have come to £54.50 but Darren's ♥ Mum ♥ works in BHS and had this magical card that got me 25% off so they came to £40.87! What a saving eh! I will be taking this card with me on future shopping trips!

I will do a seperate post for my Boux Avenue order.

I am so in love with the Bourjois bronzer I just need some proper brushes to use it with. I love a bit of contouring!

♥

Monday Summary - Don't forget to enter my giveaway!

Hey girls, here’s the latest instalment from my weekly summaries.

1 Slimming World – Last week I put on 2 pound at SW which I was expecting so I’m not that bothered about it. On the Isle of Wight the weekend before me and Darren ♥ consumed so much crap, here’s a run down. KFC (after weigh in = I will never learn), Friday – Burger King for lunch Curry for dinner. Saturday – Full English Breakfast, Fish and Chips for dinner, Sunday Bacon Sandwich and chips, Roast dinner with all the trimmings. I felt horrible after eating all that, so from Monday til I got weighed I was extra good eating just salads/jacket pots etc but the damage had already been done. I’m not giving up this SW malarkey and will continue till I get a bit closer to my goal. I always give up then put it all back on.

2 Lakeside – Me, Emma ♥ (sister in law) and Kim ♥ (mother in law) went to Lakeside on Saturday as me and Emma ♥ had a treatment booked at the Dove Spa at 1.30pm. Emma ♥ treated me to it for my birthday. We had a back massage, then was covered in mud from head to toe, then had a facial with a scalp massage, washed the mud off in the shower then was moisturised. We got this package from Travel Zoo for about £59pp it should have come to well over £100, it was such a good deal. We’ve done this kind of thing before and I have to say I enjoyed my last treatment better than this one. But it was still nice all the same. I spent a small fortune over Lakeside but I’m so happy with everything I bought. I will be doing a separate haul post for that so look out for it.

3 Twitter – I’m becoming addicted to Twitter, I now have 56 followers and I’m loving it. There’s never a dull moment on there and it’s a good way of keeping in touch with everyone.

4 Blog Inspiration – I finally managed to have a play with make up this weekend and managed some day time photos for one of the looks. I’m happy with the daytime look the other one is more of an experiment, I didn’t really know what I was doing but it was fun to see where it was taking me. I kind of like it too a little bit of block work! Look out for the post.

5 The fringe is growing on me, it seems to be behaving itself more these days, maybe where it’s got a bit longer, I’m not sure but it could be a keeper.

♥ Don't forget to enter my giveaway ♥

Have a good week girlies.

Follow me on Twitter for chit chat, randomness and a few Staceisms thrown in!

@TheHQofBeauty

♥

Easter Giveaway

Hello my little Chickadees! How are thee?? I just wanted to do a little Easter Giveaway on my blog for no other reason than it’s Easter and I bloomin’ love you lot!

It is my blogs first birthday next month so I will be doing something a bit bigger then.

These prizes are from LUSH

1 x Oaty Donkey

1 x Fluffy Egg

1 x Happy Chick

Also thrown in are some Mini Eggs and Cadbury’s Crème Eggs. I will probably have to repurchase these as I’m not sure they will last a week in my possession!

Rules and Regs (ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzz)

You must be a public follower of The HQ of Beauty

Leave me a comment below telling me your favourite product at the moment and your email address so that I can contact you.

For Eggs-tra entries (see what I did there?! Lol)

Tweet about my giveaway ‘@TheHQofBeauty is doing a giveaway http://thehqofbeauty.blogspot.com’/ (2 entries)

Blog about my giveaway and link to my blog (3 entries)

If you do Tweet and blog about my giveaway please let me know in the comments below so I don’t miss anything!

This giveaway is open to the UK and Ireland only, because of the nature of the products I’m not sure they would make it in one piece overseas and we can’t have that can we!

I will choose a winner myself. Thanks to everyone for all your kind comments and of course for following my blog. It really does mean alot to me.

This giveaway closes at Midnight on 24th April (my birthday)

Good Luck

Stacey

♥

Monday Summary – A big Helloooo to my new followers

Hey girls, I’m back from my mini break with a summary for ya’ll! I’ve been reading up on all your blogs this morning, beats working anyday! I’ve noticed whilst I was away I’ve picked up some lovely new followers.

♥ Welcome to The HQ of Beauty ♥

1 Slimming World – I put on half a pound at Slimming World on Thursday which I thought wasn’t that bad considering I hadn’t really done the diet properly for 2 weeks. It could have been a lot worse. I’ve probably done more damage in this weekend than I did in them 2 weeks. I’m still thinking about having a little diet break, maybe til after my birthday at the end of April then come back to it with a fresh head and possibly a few pounds heavier! Mmmmm, having a break could be dangerous too! Oh what to do!. Maybe Weight Watchers is calling me back? I think I just need to get my head round it again because I know Slimming World works. I’ve been going since November last year and still haven’t got to my 1 stone award. It’s like throwing money down the drain!

2 Isle of Wight – Darren ♥ and I went away for the weekend on Friday afternoon and had a lovely few days on the Isle of Wight, if you’ve been following my blog from the beginning then you will remember that I was brought up down there and most of my friends and family still live there. We couldn’t have picked a better weekend weather wise it was beautiful. On the Friday we met my Mum ♥ at our favourite curry house in Shanklin for a lovely meal. Saturday I went out with some of my oldest friends and had such a laugh. I was suffering a bit yesterday but it was so worth it. Sunday was spent down the beach with my brother and nephews, then Darren ♥, Mum ♥ and me went for a lovely roast dinner before we had to get the ferry home.

3 The fringe – I still hate it, in every picture taken on Saturday night it doesn’t look right and I just can’t wait to grow it back out. What was I thinking!

4 Nails – A few weeks back at the Vitality Show we got goodie bags with a load of stuff in, in one of these bags I got a Sally Hansen Miracle grow nail polish which can be used as a basecoat or just on it’s own. This stuff really is miracle stuff my nails are healthy, strong and aren’t breaking/chipping etc as much as they used to. I’m really getting into nail art too!

5 Fake Tan – yesterday and Saturday saw the unveiling of my white/blue/chicken skin legs and I have to say they nearly put me off me fish and chips! I've kept them covered since October last year. Now it’s getting warmer I think it’s time to start looking after them a bit more. I managed to paint my toe nails before we left, so at least that was done. Lookout for a post soon about my epic fail at fake tanning with Xen-Tan! That’ll make you laugh!

Image from Google Images

I really don't want to end up like this!

Have a good week girlies.

♥

Cute Money Pot

Hey girls, just a quick post before I finish work, how cute is this money pot? I bought it from Clinton Cards for £10, I think it has a certain Cath Kidston look about it, it's one of those pots that you have to smash to get in to. I really don't want to smash it!

Our dream = House, Kids and Puppy

Close up of the design, it's gorgeous!

Darren ♥ and I are on our third one of these. Hoorahh for saving!

Have a lovely weekend girlies, I'm away for the weekend so won't be blogging/commenting after tonight fingers crossed the weather is nice for us

For daily updates, stupidness and chat follow me on Twitter @TheHQofBeauty

♥

EOTD - Blue with a shot of pink!

Hey girlies, the is a new section called EOTD’s on The HQ of Beauty, I can’t really call this a ‘Face of the Day/Night’ post because I just done the norm with the face, usual foundation and powder routine and a slick of Boy Bait lipgloss by MAC.

Eyes

NYX Jumbo Pencil in Milk

Barry M Dazzle Dust in Baby Blue #20

Barry M Dazzle Dust in Neon Pink #85

Max Factor False Lash Effect

MAC Blacktrack

 

For this look I applied NYX Milk all over the lid using my finger to blend it in and a 217 by MAC, then applied BMDD #20 all over the lid, blending into the crease and out slightly. I then applied Milk pencil on my waterline and tapped a bit of the BMDD in #85 on top of it being careful to not actually touch my eye with the product.

I think the pink on the waterline really changes the colour of my eyes, I probably wouldn’t wear it out like this but it was a fun, quick look to do whilst Darren ♥ was sleeping! ZZZzzzzzz

I'm looking into getting some sort of bigger palette, maybe a 120 palette with loads of colours in. Do any of you have these? Are they worth buying?

♥

Flower Power vs Fried Eggs

This is my attempt at a design by Stacie over at Kawaii Nail Art, I tried it first last week using a pin, then a Kirby grip pulled apart bit it wasn’t quite working. I bought a white nail art pen from Claire’s for about £4 and that seemed to work better. I also used a cocktail stick, I’m right handed so was dreading trying to do my right hand with my left but you know what I think that hand turned out better!

I’ve had a couple of compliments at work so it’s all good. I’m on my second day wearing this design and it’s only flaking slightly on my index fingers. My nails are growing too!

This is an ugly picture! lol

I’m really getting into this nail art malarkey now. If you haven’t checked Stacie out then please do, she’s really good. Another favourite is Leanne over at Do Not Refreeze.

Not bad for a first attempt, some do look like fried eggs though!

Walton Street by Nails Inc (pink) Miss Sporty (yellow), White by Konad. Seche Vite top coat.

♥

Monday Summary - This fringe has to go!

Hey girls, I missed my Monday Summary post last week due to the fact I was the busiest person in London with an audit at work, except my hard work was for nothing, the auditor didn’t even sit with me and go through my work! I was so annoyed, I missed vital blog posting for nothing! Anyway I’m back now!

1 Slimming World – Boring! I’ve really lost my way with it now, I got so close to my stone award too! Last Thursday I phoned and asked for a holiday week then the week before our consultant didn’t turn up so we couldn’t get weighed. This is what happens with me every time I start a new diet, I lose a bit to begin with then I just get bored. The weekends are my worst areas, Monday to Thursday I stick to the plan, give or take the odd chocolate but from Friday night it’s like I’m on a mission to eat crap for 3 days. I’m thinking more and more about joining Weight Watchers too. I done WW 8 years ago and lost 13 pounds (at the time I only had a stone to lose). I loved it, they have changed the points system too, I’m tempted to give it a go, it might give me the push I need. What do you think? Nic over at Miss War Paint has done amazing on WW and Gem from gemsmaquillage.

2 The Vitality Show – I went to this with Faye ♥, Emma ♥, Laura ♥ and Emma’s friend Helen. I was a little bit disappointed this year that a couple of my fav exhibitors from the previous year weren’t there. Nails Inc and Crown brushes, I was gutted about Crown not being there, I was after some new cheap brushes. We had a lovely day, picked up some great freebies and then went to TGI’s at Piccadilly for dinner. This was the night of the riots in London, we had a riot going on right outside the restaurant, they set fire to wood and plastic right outside the door. I didn’t really enjoy my food because of it, the rioters had face masks on like Patrick Swayze in Pointbreak. By the time our meal finished they had moved on.

3 I made a big mistake of getting a fringe cut in and now I hate it, it’s been about 3 years since I had one and back then I really liked it. Maybe this will just take some getting used to but, it’s completely changed the shape of my face and on Saturday night they all said it suited me but I looked different. Which I suppose was what I wanted but I’m not happy with this one. Although one of my colleagues today said it makes me look younger! "Back of the net!" Lol

I don't think I'm a fringe person *sad face*

4 Floating Lotus Canary Wharf – On Saturday night Darren ♥ and I went for a Chinese meal with his Sister ♥ and her new fella. It was delish! Have any of you been to the Floating Lotus? Or Lotus Floating as the website says, it doesn’t sound right. The service was super quick and we had a really nice meal.

5 Nail designs, I’ve been admiring nail art blogs this past week and found some good ones. I bought a white nail art pen from Claire’s and had a go myself. I didn’t do bad for a first go, post will be up tomorrow.

That’s it this week for the summary, not much going on with me at the minute to be honest, hope you have a good week my beauts!

♥