My First Foray into NYX

For years I have been trying to get my grubby little mits on NYX, I could never afford the shipping and I completely missed them when I was in New York; but now they have landed in Boots and I couldn't be happier.

My first purchase was the infamous Taupe Blush, a fabulous pale person contour shade. I have been using this for a while, I like the product but I hate the packaging. I have to open it with my tweezers or it pulls off whatever nail varnish I'm wearing at the time! The product inside is a cool toned, almost rosy brown, which has worked well when tasked with thinning out my fat face. I still think I prefer some of my other contours over this, it might be because I haven't found the perfect brush for the product. For the price range it sits in, it is a must for the ghostly pale!

My second trip to the NYX counter has consisted of Soft Matte Lip Cremes and a Liner. The lippies are in the colours Cannes and Stockholm. Cannes is more of a pinky brown and Stockholm is more of a orangey brown shade.

The lippies smell like marshmallows and have a nice, thick consistency. They are ridiculously easy to apply to the lips. On application, the Stockholm shade is almost like terracotta, which is quite harsh on my colouring unless I go heavy on the bronzer. I also bought a liner in the shade Nude Suede Shoes, which is an almost perfect match to Stockholm and will work well with MAC's Velvet Teddy too. The liner is soft, yet when dry does not budge!

Stockholm

The Cannes colour is more pink and easier to wear on paler skin. It has the same consistency as Stockholm and on my skin is probably the easier to wear of the two.

Cannes

So far I am very happy with these products and want to build on my NYX collection. If anyone has any suggestions feel free to leave them below!

Lots of Love,

Hev

xoxox

I Think I've Become One of Them...

With personal posts like this, I'm always very wary of promoting them. It's one thing to write about your life and click post, and it's another to want to actively distribute it and say 'I'm here!'. This post might be one of the first personal posts to ever make it to my 'promote to the hilt list'. Over the past couple of weeks, I think I have actually started to understand the allure of the blogging world.

Now don't get me wrong, I've been following blogs for years and I am well aware of all the perks that seem to come with getting a lot of followers, but I never really saw what was in it for the little guys. You know, the ones like me, who aren't in it to become 'famous' or to get free stuff, but blog as a vent and a hobby. I never really saw what sporadic bloggers like me could gain from actually having a 'schedule', but it has dawned on me that there is quite a bit.

Over the past week I have been investing quite a sizeable amount of my time in my blog. I don't have a monkeys whether it is just because I actually have time, or whether it is because I am starting to see more that I can get out of it. I've even given myself a schedule *gulps* (Tuesday, Thursday and a video Sunday, personal posts whenever, if you were curious which I just know you were).

I have seen quite the change in me. I have been active on my blogs social media (hit me up on Instagram or Twitter if you're so inclined), something I never do because I am so lazy to the point where it is actually pathetic; to taking my own bloody stock photos. Stock photos!!! So that my post like these aren't so god-damn boring and are more eye-catching for people to look at. I've even finally figured out how to use Google Analytics and how to use internet recipes.

I keep wanting to eye roll at myself constantly; but at the same time, I actually feel proud of myself *sicks in mouth*. I'm proud of myself for actually sticking to something for at least a week, for actually bothering to record and edit videos, and for bothering to pull out the nice camera to do stuff instead of just my iPhone. Maybe it's because I found out my other sister Caitlin reads my blog too, Maybe it's because I've sort of learnt how to use semi colons. Who knows? But weirdly I'm enjoying it, and I totally get why people get so sucked into this life.

I'm quite sure I will never be one of those sugar coated bloggers with the perfect feed and the perfect content because well ain't nobody got time for that, but I do hope I continue to interact with other bloggers of my size and a little bit bigger, to help each other and support each other.

I may look back on this post next week or next year and laugh at myself, I might have fallen out of love with blogging, I might be a multi millionaire blogger (we can always dream of the millions can't we?) but I do hope this little period of enthusiasm keeps up, because I really am enjoying myself.

Now I am off to go edit the stock photo for this post. I hate myself.

Lots of Love,

Hev

xoxox

L'Oreal Make Up Haul

You know when you think you can just innocently walk into Boots to get some deodorant and shampoo but end up walking out with an emptier bank balance than you anticipated? Well that's how this haul began. I was left alone by the L'Oreal stand, which just happened to be on 3 for 2...

My purchases were the Lumi Magique Pure Light Primer Base, the Lumi Magique Highlighting Pen in 1 Light and the Infallible Fixing Mist. Two of these products I love, the third has been a huge disappointment.

Lets start with the good stuff shall we?

This is my first foray into the Lumi Magique range and so far I am impressed. The highlighter pen is light enough to match my NC10/15 skin with ease, whilst also doing a great job at brightening my under eye. Playing with the product on my hand now gives a very lightweight texture with some good coverage. I would say the colour verges on the salmony side, great for brightening and colour correcting the under eye. The product lasted flawlessly under my eyes on my most recent evening out for about 8 hours, pretty darn impressive. As with all highlighter pens I would not use this on my spots. This is a product I am really looking forward to continuing to play with!

The Lumi Magique Base gives such good glow *inserts picture here of my glowing like an angel has embraced me*

Having had oily skin all my life I have always steered away from products that give off a glow, but this one is lovely. The product is thin, doesn't give any colour and imparts such a beautiful almost pearly sheen underneath your foundation. The product also made my foundation sit beautifully on my face and helped prolong it's longevity, a complete win in my books!

Having saved the worst until last I will now talk about the fixing spray. I bought this because my Urban Decay Setting Spray ran out on me and I wanted to try this to see how it compared. So I bought it, set the above make up with it, following all instructions and I was left with lots and lots of tiny white powdery blobs all over my face; blobs that i had to dig my nails into to get them off. Safe to say I was not impressed. Since then I have found many other people with this problem, so L'Oreal really need to get to the bottom of this. I've even emailed them about this as I am so disappointed. I love the brand and this has put a serious dampener on them for me.

If you try any of the products please let me know how you get on with them!

Lots of Love,

Hev

xoxox

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

When OCD decides to enter your life, it does so without warning. It just jumps right into your brain, straight into your fears and sits there, mingling and merging with everything you are scared of the most.

I was 11 when I got my first bout of OCD, it happened after someone described some horror film to me and it stuck to my brain like cement. My body had the first of many panic attacks in the middle of an English lesson. My brain was flipped over, never to return to normal again.

It took me a good few years to condense my OCD down to something manageable, something that would only rear its ugly head for about 5 minutes every night; I could say my piece and it would recede, back into its little cupboard inside my brain.

I was 17 when it came back for a second round. It was one of them stupid Facebook pictures that set it off, one of them pathetic "if you look at this you'll die in 7 days" pictures. For any person without my OCD, that wouldn't bother them, but for me, I was convinced I was going to die. That same week, an advert for a horror film along the lines of the film that set my OCD off all them years ago came onto my screen and the OCD gremlin just flowed straight back into all the nuts and cranny's of my brain. I couldn't escape it. I had to sleep with my sister in my room, with the TV on and the lights blaring, most of the time with the door open too. I had my brain in an OCD vice.

It took me a long time to tell my sister what was wrong with me. I used to scream and cry at her not to leave me because if she left me then something would come out and get me. I wore cross earrings and a necklace for a very long time, even getting a cross tattoo to make my brain feel better, and make me feel like I was protected from all the evil out there.

The bout when I was 17 took me by surprise. I was so upset with myself that my brain could let it get that bad again, I thought I had it all figured out with how to suppress it. Clearly I was wrong. The angle that it came back changed, it started to include evil people from the news; if I heard a name I had to match it with someone's name who I knew to be good. I still have to do that now. This time I had found out what was wrong with me, scrupulosity OCD. My brain is obsessed with religion, death and trying not to be possessed. It's very hard to live your life when you permanently think something has got inside you and you're not yourself any more.

Again, I managed to suppress it again, this time with new rituals to keep it at bay. A great day was only thinking about it once or twice a day. Of course I had mild flair ups when stressed or something was going wrong in my personal life (as it so often does) but I managed to keep it at bay. I managed to start sleeping on my own again with only a lamp on, a vast improvement for me.

So why, with all this compression, has it managed to try to trickle back into my life for a third time now? All this week there has been hints of its re-emergence, things that grasp onto my fears have been floating around in my head before I try to sleep. I've just had a lovely evening with two of my friends watching the X-Men trilogy. Lovely, except for during the last film I had my first panic attack for a very long time. My panic attacks don't come with heavy breathing into a paper bag; they come with my entire body tightening, my nerves standing on end with me having to incessantly chant my chants at myself to shut it down, all the while still checking its me in there still. Three hours later I'm still feeling the effects and my brain is going at 10000 miles a minute, trying to come to terms with what has just happened.

For the first time in months I've had to use my rescue remedy and caught myself pinching my skin to see if its me. OCD is hard because you know you're being ridiculous, yet there seems to be no manual override button to stop it, no matter how much you know your brain is playing tricks and games with you.

I can't go back to this life. I've fought so hard to keep it at bay for so long and I don't think I can handle a third bout already. I've always known this gremlin will always be a feature in my life, but I prefer it as a back ground spectator rather than a front row guest. In the morning I'm phoning the doctors and I will try to put this bout to bed before it takes over my life again.

Lots of Love,

Hev

xoxox

The Products You Need to Make Your Makeup Last All Night

Many times I have been on a night out, got far too drunk and woken up with a mouth like sandpaper, but my make up has been perfect. It has taken me some time to figure out the perfect products for making my make up last all night, but I've finally got there, and thought I would share them with you all too.

The first step is priming. Priming is crucial. Priming gives you a great base for make up and also gives guaranteed longevity if applied correctly. If you have very oily skin, a facial primer is brilliant. I used to swear by the Laura Mercier Oil Free Primer when I had very oily skin before the pill. A foundation that suits your skin is also a key step to longevity. I am currently using the Revlon ColorStay Makeup for Normal/Dry skin in Ivory, which is a great, long lasting yellow based pale foundation.

The eyes. I have always had to use a primer, I remember buying my first Sleek palette and it just slipped straight off my eyes because I had not discovered primer by then. When I did, it was with the Urban Decay Primer Potion, the ultimate hands down best primer I have ever used. Make up does not move with this underneath. It is a product I will never be without (so much so I have about 4 bottles in my collection). Another great primer which I tend to use before a night out is MAC's Pro Longwear Paintpot in Soft Ochre. A fabulous yellow based formula, which is creamy then dries to an almost powdery finish. This primer works best with a touch of neutral eye shadow over the top to prevent dragging.

Powder is a brilliant way to lock your make up into place. I am a powder addict and I love the feeling of having a really powdery face (I know I'm a freak). A loose powder is great for all over powdering. If you only want to set certain areas, baking is great for really locking that make up in. I use the M&S powder but I'm pretty sure it's discontinued which is really annoying as it was so cheap!

Finally, setting sprays are your best friend. They come in a variety of finishes and price ranges. I use the Urban Decay All Nighter Setting Spray which I find to be fabulous and helps set my make up in place like concrete.

So there you have it, my top tips and products for making your make up stick to your face like super glue!

Lots of Love,

Hev

xoxox