Birthday haul!

                                        Birthday haul!  

Hello lovelies, so it has recently been my birthday and I've been out spending some of my birthday money. For my birthday I only asked for a few things and wanted the rest just money meaning my haul will be things that I actually got for my birthday and things that I bought the following day. Hope you enjoy! :D 

First off, I got a pair of White Doc Martens rip offs. Next to them are my Real Doc Martens in grey which I adore. I had always wanted a pair of Real White Doc Martens but they were so expensive, then I came across a pair of brand new reduced grey ones which was love at first sight and I actually preferred them to white. There was only one pair in the whole shop and when I saw that they were in my size I grabbed them instantly! I didn't even realize that they had grey and never even thought about it! But they look amazing and tie almost any look together perfectly.

As for the white rip offs, they were from another one of my local shoe shops and they too look amazing in any season! 

Next are brushes from the "Real Techniques" Collection by Samantha Chapman from Pixiwoo on Youtube. I got the "Core Collection"(the orange face brushes), the "Starter Set"(the purple eye brushes) and the "Stippling Brush"(the pink brush). These brushes have been madly raved about throughout the internet beauty world and now I know why! They apply your makeup in the quickest, most flawless way and it looks like you have spent ages doing your makeup! These brushes are the secret to perfect makeup guys!

Next is something that I bought and it is really affordable. It is the Cosmopolitan beauty blender. There are many different brands of beauty blenders for instance MAC do one. But this does the job perfectly and why spend lots of money on an expensive one when they are just as good? 

Then I got the Soap & Glory Scent - Sationalism Gift Set from boots. These are lovely sprays to spray on after having a bath or shower. The middle spray is a spray on moisturizing scent and the other two are just body sprays but they smell amazing! 

I got two cable knit hats. The wine coloured one on the left is from Topman and the black coloured one on the right is from primark mans section. These keep your heat so warm! My only issue is that the wine coloured one is quite small(and my head isn't big) and the black one is quite big(and my head isn't small either), other than that they are fantastically stylish for the winter when you have your hair down and messy. 

And lastly just a little something for my room for when i'm in the mood, I purchased a sampler Yankee candle in the scent "Bermuda Beach" just to freshen up my room a little on a day-to-day basis. I sat there frustrated for ages to try and sum up what it smells like and I don't get how I missed it's obvious scent!, it smells just like watermelons and pina colada(two very recognizable scents)!  I purchased 3 other Yankee Samplers for Christmas in my Christmas haul part 1 on my last post, part 2 will be HUGE and coming soon after I re-visit town! :D

I hope you have enjoyed my Birthday haul! It's not the biggest haul but that's purely for the fact that I have been saving and spending a lot on my Christmas haul. Let me what you think of the products! :)

                                                            xx Toodlelou xx

Christmas Haul

Christmas Haul:

I am so exited for Christmas, in my opinion, it's the best time of the year! The beautiful scenery, the blast-from-the past Christmas songs, the warm spicy smells, there's just so much to say that I would literally be here for ever typing, though, one of the best things is the company. Getting to spend the time with the family as a whole and sharing the same Christmas memories is one of the best parts. 

Having said that, I have a big family guys! For me, Christmas usually consists of family members arriving at the worst times when we haven't even got dressed for the day, squeezing 20-30 people round a 10 person table, and having to literally push ALL the furniture aside so that the only space to get a seat at the table is by going under the table itself...yeah, Christmas for me has always been a little hectic, and it's been the same every single year to the point where Christmas is actually becoming a slight dread. As for my boyfriend, he doesn't have a particularly big family, either way, we have both never been able to enjoy Christmas to it's full potential.

So, we came up with the idea to spend Christmas just the two of us together (afterall you do spend christmas with your loved ones) and do our own thing to make it something that we can look forward to every year with lovely memories. Of course we will still go through the chaos of our family Christmas dinners as every year, but in the upcoming to Christmas everyone can make Christmas special in their own ways and that's what I love about it! I want Christmas to be different this year from the others and something that will only get better and better as the years progress. 

                                                                               Image from: armathwaite-hall.com

So now, i've decided to start buying my own Christmas deccies and items and me and my boyfriend plan to go to a meal and many other places to make it just that bit more special. We spend most of the time in my room anyway so we are going to completely transform my room to make it Christmas cosy, snuggle with some Christmas films, have some lovely food and spend the rest of Christmas in the toasty warm just like people should :)

I have several shopping trips planned to get all the Christmas stuff for our Christmas. I mainly just got room accessories today. I'm gonna leave food and bits until last.

Here is my haul so far:

First off I went and had a look in Clinton's as we don't have a Yankee candle store where I live, though there are a few shops that sell them, and I picked up three samplers to look pretty and fill the room with the smell of Christmas!:

  (L-R: Black Cherry, Christmas Eve & Christmas Cookie)

Black Cherry smells very true to the name, there was a "Cherries on snow" candle as well which smelt similar but I definitely preferred the smell to this one as it's a bit sweeter and spicier whereas the other had more of a morello cherry smell about it. Christmas Eve is probably my favorite Yankee candle at the minute!  I was never really a fan of spicy smells and whenever looking for a candle or perfume, I would absolutely 100% go for something really sweet. But this candle for a Christmas candle is actually quite sweet but not too overpowering, and it has a Christmas spices smell to it aswell without the cinnamon(which I am not always too struck on in candles), i'd happily burn it all year round because it's just such a cosy toasty smell that I can't wait to burn on Christmas's eves :D and lastly, Christmas Cookie, this is probably my second favorite at the moment and as i'm sure you can tell, my inner sweet-loving self straight away grabbed it off of the shelf! But without regret, I am so happy I did as it really does smell like freshly baked Christmas cookies. I think I have gained a love for scented candles recently, especially Yankee candles as they smell gorgeous and are very true to the name for most of the time. These candles were all £1.80 each and came to a total of £5.40 which is a bargain for three Yankee candles!! They should last a good deal of time too and they should last me for Christmas! :D

I also picked this candle up from Primark. They had a variety of candles there but this one took my fancy the most. There was one in a red Christmas jar called something "Vanilla" but it just didn't smell very Christmas-y so I just stuck with this one as it actually does smell Christmas-y. I am considering buying  another as they were only £1!! and it smells amazing, it literally somehow smells like a cosy room with a hot fire on a Christmas day in one candle! It has like a burning wood and spices smell to it.. it's just amazing!

Next I bought some lip and nail products, but firstly i'll show you the lip products:

(L-R: Natural collection lipstick in the shade "berry sorbet" -£1.99 from Boots, 

Beauty UK lipstick in the shade "Snob" -£3.49 from Superdrug,

Rimmel London Kate Lipstick in shade number "08" -£5.49 from Superdrug, 

Barry M Lip Lacquer Crayon in the shade "Cherry red" -£4.99 from Superdrug (I has also purchased it in the redder shade called "Scarlet red" but I felt that "Cherry red" went better with my Natural collection lipstick.) 

(L-R: Barry M, Rimmel Kate, Beauty UK & Natural Collection)

I treated myself a bit here and splashed out more than i'd planned, but I am planning to wear them all. I bought the Natural collection lipstick to wear for my meal out with the Barry M Lip Lacquer Crayon over the top and I have been eyeing up this gorgeous dress to buy for the meal when I get my birthday money!(which I will most likely include in a haul), and then I bought the Beauty UK lipstick to wear for our other outings and our Christmas day in with the Rimmel Kate lipstick over the top of that.

Then the nail polishes!:

(L-R: Rimmel London 60 seconds nail polish in shade "285 Style Hunter" -£3.69 from Boots,

Miners Extreme glitter nail polish - 50p from a boot-sale (the shade has been taken off but it is a yellowish-gold glitter, sadly I think it has discontinued), Barry m nail paint in the shade "Raspberry" - £2.99 from Superdrug.

I bought these just to tie together my Christmas looks, I am going to wear the Barry m nail polish for my meal out with the Miners glitter nail polish over the top for that festive feel! and the Rimmel London nail polish to wear for my other outings :)

And lastly, a tree...

And that was it for the first part of my haul for Christmas! I really hope you enjoyed it and there's more coming soon! :) 

                                                     
                                        xox Toodlouu xox

The best tips on how to make your eyes look bigger! (just using makeup)

                 Tips on how to make your eyes look bigger!!                 - Try it and see for yourself! 

Okay so my eyes look a little uneven but thats the makeup talking. The picture was taken quite a while ago on my old camera but I have so much stuff to get through for christmas and my birthday is coming up;) that you guys might just have to make-do with this one for now(also excuse the eyebrows, I was trying to grow them fuller at the time). Also this looks tonnes more effective when zoomed out but it was the only way you could see it zoomed in :) xx


1) First apply a base for your eyeshadow(I use the collection 2000 concealer to hide imperfections on the lids).
2) Apply one eyeshadow colour over the whole lid and up to the brow bone that is 1-2 shades lighter than your normal skin colour(I would recommend an off white for fair ladies like myself).
3) Blend a matte brown/grey colour into the crease and slightly above as we are going to recreate the lid using special tricks).
4) With a small flat brush, close your eyes one at a time and recreate the lid using a a matte cream shadow that is 2-3 shades lighter than skin colour(white for fair ladies, I used NYX jumbo eye pencil in milk), and apply over just the lid but going slightly above your natural crease leaving the highest bit of your earlier created crease available so that it should give the impression of a larger lid and higher crease.
5) Over the cream eyeshadow you applied to create the larger lid, use a Light shimmery eyeshadow(like a highlight) on top to set the cream and avoid putting any shimmers over the crease colour as the matte colour creates the inwards effect making the crease look more cut. Putting shimmer over the matte crease colour will catch the light and make the crease look fake. This is why we use shimmer over the lid because we want the lids to stand out and the crease to appear cut.
6) The eyes need to look precise, so use a black eyeliner and apply to the top tight line and as thinly as possible on the upper lid getting thicker slightly going outwards to give definition  Applying too thin will enclose the eyes whilst apply thinly will give definition like a most bigger eyes have.
7) Apply white or flesh coloured eyeliner on the bottom water line.
8) Apply a soft matte brown/grey eyeshadow under the bottom lash line on the outer 2 thirds.
9) Curl lashes however you prefer. ( A good tip is to apply the thinnest coat of mascara possible before curling, too much could damage the lashes) Then curl your lashes and apply your mascara after wards, this will give you a curl that will last all day
10) Apply neat generous coats of mascara.
11) And lastly define brows to frame the eyes and face.

and Voila! Your eyes will be the biggest you could possibly make them just using makeup! :D Hope this helped!

NEXT TO COME: My birthday haul! :D
Also:
NEXT TO COME:  We wish you a merry christmas! I'll certainly be splashing out a few pennies this year for christmas. Not something I have always had the chance to do, but from now onwards, i'm making sure that Christmas will always be made special! Look out for my festive hauls, recipes and much more! :D 

                                                        Toodlou!! :D xox