Stila creme bouquet perfume and new Stila launches

What seems like a very long time ago now (because it was) I went along to a lovely Stila event where we got to hear and see expert celebrity makeup artists talk about and demonstrate the latest Stila products.  We also got a preview of what Stila has in store for Christmas.  It was a lovely event, but unfortunately I was really ill and not feeling at all switched on, so I ended up leaving early without taking the photos I wanted to.  Small violins away please, because I still got to try out the lovely Stila creme bouquet fragrance*.  Although I couldn't smell anything all all at the time, I can now enjoy this perfume in its full glory!

It's a predominantly vanilla scent mixed with a variety of lovely florals (lily of the valley and pink lilac), so it's totally true to its name - Creme Bouquet.  It's quite a strong scent but it's also delicate at the same time - definitely a romantic sort of smell I think, and something I would happily wear every day in spring and summer.  

Creme Bouquet is a classic Stila perfume which has been around for several years, but it's now been relaunched with a new look.  I really like the way the colours come in through the back of the glass bottle - really simple but effective.  The perfume costs £29.50 for 50ml and you can pick it up direct from Stila here.

Although I wasn't really feeling like all my lights were switched on, I did manage to stick around for the demonstration of Stila's new Stay all Day foundation and concealer.  I love the concept of this product - the foundation comes with a matching concealer which is stored in the lid of the bottle together with a mirror.  Plus it comes with a foundation brush.  Pretty fool proof.  Everyone was really impressed by these.  You can have a look at the colour range here and each foundation costs £29.50.

The other thing which really caught my eye (but not my camera lens sadly) is the one step correcting base.  I think I'm just a bit of a sucker for all of those pretty swirly colours, but I do love a good primer and I have a lot of redness on my face, so this is going on my wish list.  One step correcting base - £24.

I'm glad Stila's back, I love what they have going on right now.

*PR sample

Etat Pur skin care for early and deep wrinkles

As you know I'm a bit into my wrinkle prevention, so I jumped at the chance to try out two products from Etat Pur - A03 and A05.  One is designed to protect against early wrinkles, so I thought this one would be perfect for using around my eyes, wheras the other is for deep wrinkles - I'm scowling at you frown lines.

The A03 active is made with pure green tea and it contains powerful antioxidants 100 times more effective than vitamin C.  As well as preventing wrinkles and loss of firmness in the skin, it also soothes and protects against environmental damage.  This has been great as an eye product and I've also used it around the laughter lines too.  It's a really liquid product so it's very easy to apply and it sinks straight in to the skin without leaving any film or residue so I can happily use this in the morning before applying make-up.  

A05 is for deep wrinkles, like my big stubborn frown line.  Apparently these types of wrinkles are caused by a loss of tissue density (not because I pull too many grumpy faces then?), free radical attacks and general skin ageing.  The A05  active contains Resveratrol which is a powerful anti-ageing molecule which naturally occurs in fruits such as grapes.  It stimulates and prolongs the lifespan of skin cells to target the deeper wrinkles, and as another benefit, it also regulates skin oiliness too - perfect for my forehead area.  This is not as much of a lightweight product as the A03, it's a little thicker and a more opaque colour.  It works well for the forehead area and I tend to use about three little pumps of the tube each time.  

These  actives are really easy to use and are convenient for travelling too as they're in compact bottles / tubes. To get the product out you press on the bottom and a little blob of product gets dispensed.  I have found it a little bit more difficult to do as the product has run out a bit, so I can imagine I'll be taking the thing apart to get the last drops of the product out so as not to waste any!

These are pretty reasonable priced too compared to most anti-ageing skin care - A03 Green Tea is £9.40 and A05 Resvertarol is £12.80 and you can get them from www.etatpur.co.uk

*PR sample

Help me with my USA shopping list!

So I might have mentioned about a hundred or so times that I'm going to Vegas!  It's now only a week away and I'm beyond excited.  I've gone into crazy Monica Gellar planning mode buying guide books and maps and writing itineraries I'll probably never stick to, so naturally I'm now also thinking about what I'll buy when I'm there.  As soon as I sat down to write this I got a bit of a mind blank and instantly forgot all of the things I'd been craving from USA hauls lately, but these are the things that I can think of right now.

1 - Tarte blush 2 - Ciaté  velvet manicure  3 - Too Faced makeup  

4 - Michael Kors rose gold baguette bezel watch  5 - China Glaze polishes  

6 - Bath and Body Works Slatkin & Co candles

Everyone who goes to the US seems to come back with one of the tarte blushes, so I'm pretty sure I need one too.  The velvet manicure is something a friend who went to the US a couple of weeks ago told me about, so I want to see it up close but I'm not sure if I'll buy it or not - I think it's something you could probably DIY with a few bits from eBay anyway!  I always tend to buy something from Too Faced whenever I go to the states as I really like their stuff and we only get very limited ranges here, plus of course it's a lot cheaper in the US.

My main holiday purchase is likely to be the beautiful Michael Kors rose gold baguette-bezel watch.  It's just dreamy right?  I've been wanting an MK watch for ages but held off as I already have my Marc Jacobs one and clearly can't be wearing two watches at once (and no I'm not going to put one on my ankle ala Joey Essex) but as this would be so much cheaper on holiday, I think I might give in.  I don't know which China Glaze polishes I want, but I'll be sure to pick some up if I can as I usually have to order these from US ebay anyway as they're hard to come by here.  Finally I'm going to pick up a few things in Bath and Body Works.  It's a store I've been into a few times before but I never buy anything because candles and body lotions can be so heavy.  I have some extra luggage allowance booked this year though, so there will be no holding back!

So that's all I could think of that I'm craving from across the pond.  Surely I've missed out loads of really obvious must haves right?  Let me know what else you think I should add to my shopping list please :)

Little updates

The next Little Updates post you'll see after this one will be wall to wall Vegas annoyance, but for now, here's what I've been up to around my usual UK haunts.

 

 

1,2,3 - First trip to Wahacca - we liked
4 - peanut butter ice cream amazingness near Charring Cross

 

 

1,2 - we went to see Derren Brown - Svengali - it was mystifying and very cool
3 - my homemade strawberry daiquiris
4 - fairy tea party for my friend Zara's birthday - party gifts!

 

 

1 - fairy tea party cake pops
2 - hello kitty bubbles!
3 - princess pooch
4 - bubble times at the fairy princess tea party

 

 

1 - my friend James got married!
2 - Me and Heather in the church
3 - there was a fire engine for posing
4 - the firemen weren't as hot as you imagine :(

 

 

1 - addicted to lamb shish
2 - pink gin for the win
3 - a lovely choccy surprise from Ted Baker
4 - sunshine eating in my garden 

 

 

 

Super fun nail art night!

 
 

1 - hanging outside in the sunshine all day
2 - and all night
3 - world's ugliest barbecued meal
4 - I make my homemade mojitos by the pint!

 
 

1 - a very early breakfast on my way to Edinburgh
2 - Fox socks!
3 - the green stuff arrived for Vegas
4 - planning for my holiday in my cookie monster pjs

This time next week I'll be boarding my plane to Vegas - squeeeeeeal!  I have a post coming up tomorrow on my haul wishlist - I'm getting such a mind blank and need some help remembering all of the fun beauty things I can pick up in the US drugstores.

I have some lovely guest posts to keep you entertained while I'm away.  My boyfriend was really surprised that I didn't want to blog while I was there, but really I want to be enjoying every second in Vegas and I'm sure I'll be blogging about it for months after when I get back.  I will be instagramming though, when there's wifi.  I looked up how much it was to get 3G on O2 while I'm away and it's £6 per day with a data cap, no thanks!  I'm sure there will be plenty of places with wifi so that I can regularly spam your instagram timelines with all of the random goings on on the Strip :) 

Don't forget to enter my Enrapture totem styler giveaway which closes tomorrow - enter here.

Have a lovely bank holiday weekend people x

Nail art night in with the girls

Inspired by the 15 day nail challenge, on Saturday two of my besties and I pooled our nail polish resources and sat down with some nibbles and pink gin for a few happy hours playing around with nail art.  I thought I'd share what we came up with...

What do you think?  I loved the floral nails we hand painted and the multi-coloured dots over black.  I also had my first proper go at Konad stamping and we tried a little bit of aztec / tribal nails too.  Some of the designs I tried took so long I was glad I was only doing one nail!

I can't possibly attempt to list all of the polishes we used here, but if there's any one in particular you like the look of let me know in the comments and I shall figure out what it was.  

Girls' nail art night in may just be my new favourite Saturday night pastime :)