NEW FAVOURITE CANDLE... FROM TESCO!

I've noticed that Tesco, and in particular, their Home section seems to have had a revamp as of late. And it's looking mighty fine!
I'm a big candle lover. I love getting in bed in the evening with some candles lit and Netflix on the tv. I noticed a few new candle scents on the Home shelves in Tesco and one in particular really tickled my fancy...

THE GREATEST TOPCOAT... EVER?!

1. Bold claim?
2. A boring thing to blog about?

What could be so amazing about a colourless varnish you put on your nails? Well listen here...

I've been pretty loyal to Sally Hansen's Insta-dri for a few years but started falling out of love with it. It started getting too gloopy too quickly and wasn't going on the nail nicely any more.
Top coats are great for making your nail varnish last longer and making them super shiny (or matte if you prefer). You can get a good few days longer without chipping with a decent top coat.

Recently I placed an order with Nails Inc and there was a little problem when the order arrived and trying to get contact with them to sort it out. Eventually they sorted everything and they sent an item that was missing and they also included a complimentary full size of their Kensington Caviar Top Coat.

THE BACKUPS

What are you talking about, Louise?

Well, the backups are products that I'm so scared of running out of unexpectedly that I need to have another on standby for that moment so I never have to be without.
There's nothing worse that squeezing out the last bit of cleanser and realising you haven't bought a new one yet AND you can't get to the shop for another few days. Stress. That is stressful.

Here are what I always have on standby...

EMPTIES #2

Sorry it's been a while... again. I was just going to take a week off but then I got really poorly and I've been knocked back most of the month. I'm feeling loads better now though so back in the game!
Also, thank you to everyone who entered my giveaway. The winner has been contacted now so sorry if you didn't win. Hopefully there can be more in the future.

On to today's post though and I've accumulated a number of used up products since the first time I did this in December so without further ado...

2014 FAVOURITES

I don't tend to do monthly favourites but I do enjoy seeing everyones end of year favourites. I've put together my favourite things from beauty and skincare to films and music so let's do this!

EYEBROWS: SLEEK VS BENEFIT

Eyebrows. The last year or two the beauty world has gone eyebrow crazy. With the influence of the likes of Cara Delevingne, eyebrows are back to being big and full which is wonderful for me as mine have always been quite bushy!

With the help of the lovely Benefit girls, they tamed my eyebrows into a lovely shape that I love. Luckily I never did the whole "plucking until there was just the thinnest possible line of hair" so they just needed a little tidying. Benefit, being the self confessed Brow Queens, do amazing brow products for defining, shaping and setting the brows and a few of which I have tried and have been using for a long time. And then I discovered a new release from Sleek a few months back.
Let's see how they compare...

UNSUNG HEROES: SUPERDRUG VITAMIN E HOT CLOTH CLEANSER

Next up in the series is from Superdrug's Hot Cloth Cleanser from their Vitamin E range. The previous posts can be found here.

A POWDER BETTER THAN MAC?!

Quite a bold statement to make, especially to some? I've been using MACs Mineralised Skin Finish Natural for a couple of years and it is beautiful. It does what it says on the tin - gives a natural finish to the make up as well as setting it and keeping it in place all day.

My latest compact recently came to the end of its life and it was going to be a while before I could get to a MAC counter so I decided to find a cheaper alternative. Enter Bourjois Healthy Balance Powder.

REVIEW: SALI HUGHES "PRETTY HONEST" BOOK

I know everyone on the beauty blogging scene has already raved the new beauty book by Sali Hughes but I thought I'd thrown in my two cents...

Sali Hughes is a beauty journalist who has a weekend column in The Guardian (which is also very good and you should definitely have a read) and Pretty Honest is her first book.

FAVOURITE WINTER NAILS

Yesterday I posted my top 5 lip colours so today is the time to give a run down of my favourite winter nail shades. I'm a huge lover of dark nails all year round. My inner Wednesday Addams wants black nails at all times but I've had people in the past judge me for that in Summer... pssh! So it seems to be deemed more acceptable when it's cold to have dark nails. I tried to make this a top 5 but I cheated and did 6. I just couldn't decide.

FAVOURITE WINTER LIPSTICKS

It's no secret how much I love lipstick and bright, bold colours at that. (Though, I admitted my nude lip love affair last week...) I do wear dark and berry reds pretty much all year but in the colder months it just feels right. Here are my top 5 lipsticks I reach for in the Winter...

REVIEW: URBAN DECAY NAKED ON THE RUN PALETTE

I've got an excited review today for you in the shape of the new Urban Decay Naked On The Run Palette.

Urban Decay are notorious for doing incredible eyeshadow palette and the Naked range has a cult following - and with good reason. My first dip into the Naked world was with the Naked Basics a year or so back. It's got 6 shades that all work beautifully together and it's very travel sized friendly. I then saw the Naked 3, fell in love and hit "buy now" without thinking about anything. So very glad I did. I've never owned the Naked 1 or 2 but I love this palette. The packaging is beautiful and the shades even more so. A year after it's release and I'm still as in love with it.

The latest Naked launch is the On The Run palette and as with Naked 3, I saw a photo, went to the website and added it to the shopping cart so fast that I wasn't even sure what I did...

EMPTY PRODUCTS #1

Today it's time for my first ever empty products rundown. I've collected these over the last couple of months and then when I was planning these December posts I thought I may as well throw this in now!

I like empty posts and knowing if they would be repurchased as that's definitely more likely to convince me to go out and pick it up too. So here is what I've used up recently...

UNSUNG HEROES: L'ORÉAL TRUE MATCH FOUNDATION

I'm kicking off my blogging every day in December (I need an acronym or something for this? BEDD? Don't think that works..!) with a new Unsung Heroes post. You can heck out the rest here but my Unsung Heroes are products that I use all the time and completely love nd would recommend to anyone, but I haven't actually really raved them on here before.

Today is the turn of my favourite discovery of 2014... L'Oréal True Match Foundation.

REVIEW: PIXI GLOW TONIC

I have recently repurchased the Pixi Glow Tonic so I feel like I've definitely been using it long enough to share my thoughts...

I think knowing that I've repurchased this product shows that I am going to be giving this a good review and join in to the hype that already surrounds it.

REVIEW: AVON "NOT SO NEUTRAL" PALETTE

Ever since I was a lot younger I have been flicking through the Avon catalogue. Mum would always have one and I'd be obsessed with going through all the perfume pages and rubbing my wrists on the pages. And mum used to let me buy a face mask every so often from it and I probably thought I was the bees knees.

I still love having a look through the Avon when mum brings it home (her friend at work is a rep!). They have really great products and really affordable too. Their eyeshadow primer is my absolute favourite. I think it's £7 when it's full price but it always seems to have some kind of discount - I think mine was £4!

The other month I was dawn to the 8-in-1 Eyeshadow Palette in "Not So Neutral". It was £8 for 8 eyeshadows - bargain! - and the most perfect colours for me.

Avon can be a little off putting as you can only go off online or in a catalogue. You can't swatch so you have to hope for the best really. But I am in love with this palette..! Read on for the lowdown!

FOTD: PURE RED LIPS

I wore this makeup to my sister's birthday meal last week. I was going to upload in the week but then I got poorly and I ended up going out yesterday so today will do, I'm sure!

I recently bought one of the new L'Oréal red lipsticks and I'm absolutely loving it so here it is in action..!

BIRCHBOX: SEPTEMBER 2014

I've been subscribed to Birchbox for about half a year or so and one month I think I'll unsubscribe because it's been a bit disappointing but then I get a really good box the next month and feel I should hold off another month just in case...

September's offering landed on the doorstep a few days ago and its contents are bloody brilliant.

LET'S TALK CONCEALERS

I short while ago I did a post called "Let's Talk Cleansers" and last year I did a similar post on eyeliner so today it's the turn of the concealers...

BEAUTY ENABLERS

I love beauty bloggers. I love reading their opinions, seeing new launches and swatches and how they look after their skin and apply makeup. I'm in nowhere near the standard of some of those guys, this is just a bit of fun for me. But those beauty bloggers are the biggest enablers around - so I guess, blogging is essentially doing it's job!

My Bloglovin and YouTube subscription list is full of the people who only have to say one good thing in a very short amount of time and I'm straight down the shops. So here's my pick of  Beauty Blogger Enabled Purchases...