Bourjois Goodies!

I've had this selection of goodies sitting around for a while, because I bought them just before I got sick. Boots were running a promotion with Bourjois which offered a free make up set worth £29 if you spent £15 on Bourjois make up. I've never owned any Bourjois stuff before, despite lusting after the adorable little pots of blusher and eye shadow, so I decided to get stuck in!

 

 



I picked up the Color Boost lip crayon in Plum Russian and one of the cute little blushers in Jasper Rose. The blush is a lovely peachy pink, which works well with my pale skin. I love the little brush that comes with it! Very cute. Also, I'm not sure if it's just me but this blush seemed to be lightly scented. Sort of vanilla-y?



And because I'm currently obsessed with lip crayons and berry shades (along with everyone else this winter!) I had to grab this! It's more glossy than I thought it would be, and the colour is gorgeous. Very wearable for daytime and into the evening. I didn't notice that this had any particular flavour, and I've not tried it out enough to get a feel for how moisturising it is.

Swatches!

 

 

Onto the freebies! The set included a Smoky Eyes mini palette, 3D effect lip gloss, a mascara and a nail polish. Altogether, these are meant to give you the ultimate glam holiday look. I haven't tried them all on together, but I've given them a go individually.

 

 

I was intrigued by the gloss, as I was expecting it to have the standard rounded applicator, but it actually has a tiny brush. I'm not sure how I feel about the brush really. It does help to get the gloss precisely where you want it for outlining, but it also smears the gloss when you apply it onto the inner part of your lips. It's incredibly pigmented though, and I could definitely see myself using it at christmas parties.

 

 

 

 

This trio of eye shadows is great. It definitely does what it says on the tin! I was really surprised when swatching these to see just how smoky they really are. My favourite shade out of the three is probably the middle one, and I'm quite keen to experiment with all of these for the ultimate smoky eye!

 

 

 

I've got to admit, I was apprehensive about this mascara. When I saw the size of the brush, I thought I was going to have trouble. I don't know why I can't get on with the bigger brushes, I just always seem to stab myself in the eye more frequently! But I was pleasantly surprised. The mascara applies quite well, and definitely gave my lashes some added volume. I'm not quite sure it's replaced my beloved Lancome though!

And finally, this lovely red polish! I'm hoping to crack this open for a nails of the day post in the next couple of weeks, so keep your eyes peeled for that. You can't beat red nails at christmas!

 

 

 

Did you take up Boots on this offer? Do you like Bourjois make up?

E.L.F. Haul #2

This haul has taken me twice as long to post, because I received the wrong order! Luckily, E.L.F.'s customer service people were very helpful and helped me receive the correct stuff. This was all ordered during their recent 50% off weekend. 

Apologies for the awful light!

I picked up four new Jumbo Eyeshadow Sticks. I love these, the colours are fantastic, and the formula is so creamy and easy to apply. 

After swatching these, my favourite is currently Bali Bound. I love that shimmery green, beautiful! Like a Boss is way more blue than I thought it would be, I think I could end up looking pretty eighties. Turkish Coffee is a great neutral brown, with some lovely shimmer to it, and Check Me Out is a gorgeous purple. I'm really looking forward to trying these out! You can get the Jumbo Eyeshadow Sticks here for £2.50 each.

I also picked up another Jumbo Lip Gloss Stick. This is Sangria Starters, and I thought it would be quite a nice autumny colour, but it's actually quite natural looking. I was hoping for a darker pigmentation really. You can get the Jumbo Lip Gloss Sticks here for £2.50 each.

Finally, I nabbed this cute little beauty book. This contains 48 eyeshadows, and comes with a mirror and an applicator. Normally this is £8, but I got it for a bargainous £4. The eyeshadows in this are pretty tiny, but there are so many of them, and they all seem really pigmented. It also means that the book is the perfect size for chucking in your handbag on a night out. 

I've swatched a selection of the eyeshadows so you can see the kind of colours in this palette. It mainly contains neutral shades, but the other festive palette available features a wider selection of the more colourful shadows. 

As you can see, we've got browns, greys, greens, and even some shimmery golds. The festive palettes are available here.

 

Weekly Book Round Up #17

 

 

Gail Carriger's books are so much fun! She writes victorian steampunk novels with vampires and werewolves thrown in, and if you haven't read her first series, 'The Parasol Protectorate', then you should. This is her second series, which is YA. It's set in a young ladies finishing school, that also happens to be training them to be spies. It's set in the same universe as her other series, but you don't need to have read that to get into this. I love these books, they're so easy to read and get lost in! I did find that this one was a bit slower getting started than I was expecting, but I can't wait to see what Sophronia gets up to in the next installment!

 

 

Nicola's rating: 3.5/5

 

 

 

 

 





This is a spin-off series from the best-selling 'Vampire Academy' books (the first of which is currently being made into a film).  These books follow Adrian, Jill and Sydney as they try to keep Jill under the radar from assassins. For those of you who love Adrian and Sydney as a couple, there will be plenty to keep you going in this book! I enjoyed the lovey-doveyness, but at the same time was constantly waiting for the bad stuff to happen. We've been left with a massive cliffhanger though, and the next one isn't out until next year. BOOHISSBOO.

 

 

Nicola's rating: 3/5



I am so glad to have finished this series. I haven't hated it exactly, but it just became kind of boring towards the end. Daire has to face up to the evil Richter family without her grandmother or Dace. The book takes a loooong time to build up the big finale, which was irritating, and then the finale itself just wasn't all that exciting. I'm not sure whether I'll read anything else from this author. She's not a terrible writer but her books are always lean more towards the spiritual than the supernatural, which is more my kind of thing. I guess I'll wait and see what she comes up with next!

 

 

Nicola's rating: 2/5

 

Ahh Stephanie Plum. This is comfort reading at its finest. Stephanie Plum is a bounty hunter in Trenton, New Jersey. She's spectacularly crap at her job, but this always results in hilarious hijinks. This is the 20th book in the series, but they are short books. As long as you're not expecting much in the way of plot development and you're happy to just go with the crazy (in this one there's a giraffe on the loose), these books are great fun. I'm not sure how much longer the series will carry on, but as long as people keep reading them, I'm sure Janet Evanovich will keep writing them!


Nicola's rating: 4/5