Reaching For The Stars... - make-up, hair, weight loss and everything in between!

Current Favourites...

2012-05-01T19:46:00.000+01:00

Hi Everyone! Long time no see eh? I've missed writing on here actually but these days finding time to sit down and do it seems almost impossible...

I'm having a tough time at the moment so tonight I've got into my pyjamas, put BGT on sky+ (because I don't seem to have time for tv either!), poured an irn bru and whisky (potentially the most scottish beverage in the world) and decided to acquaint myself with you lovely lot again! Lets talk favourites...

Revlon lip butter in 'cupcake' and MAC Dazzleglass in 'baby sparks'

two beautiful products when worn seperately, or layered over each other... i can't get enough of these at the moment!

Silver bracelets, this chunky engraved bangle from Ernest Jones in particular! I'll be writing about this in more detail later this week :)

Batiste Cherry!

I've been waxing lyrical about Batiste on this blog for years and I'm not about to stop! This can be a bit overpowering scent wise if you don't like things to smell sweet but its right up my street and I just love it.

Sure Maximum Protection 'confidence' - lets face it, deodorant isn't glamorous, or even remotely interesting but it is necessary (unless you want to smell like a tramp) and this stuff works. It works so well. I'll admit it takes some getting used to because the product itself is a thick cream but once you're used to it you'll be obsessed. At the moment it's helping me get through 12-16 hour days and I can't fault it at all. Highly recommended to those of you who lead busy lifestyles!

Liz Earle Botanical Shine Treatment. I'm on my fourth tube of this and it never fails to please me. It leaves my hair soft, conditioned and unbelievably shiny and the amazing 'liz earle scent' lingers in my hair for hours. 100% love. I'll repurchase this again and again and again.

Liz Earle Orange Flower Body Wash - this leaves my skin, soft, smooth, clean and smelling absolutely divine. There's a lot of 'mmm you smell nice' and 'ah i love how you smell when you get out of the shower' going on when I use this stuff so I'm a big fan :)

So! Thats a wee round up of the products I can't get enough of at the moment! What are your current favourites? are you loving any of the things i am?

Cat's little 'grown up' series - Insuring your loved ones ♥

2012-04-22T22:03:00.000+01:00

Hello everyone!
So the ‘grown up series’ is in full swing now!
I’m genuinely loving writing it and sharing a few golden nuggets of ‘wisdom’ with you all :)

^Pepsi (my mums dog) and Shiloh (my aunties dog)

I hope you’ve all enjoyed the posts so far, today I’m going to talk to you about Pet Insurance!

Now that you’ve found your lovely home, insured it, saved a few pennies and hopefully moved everyone including your pets (if you have any!) in, it’s time to think about insuring the furrier members of your family in the same way you’ve insured all of your other belongings.

I think pet insurance is something a lot of people forget about or put at the bottom of their to do list but it really is so important, especially if you’re moving your pet to a new area/home... accidents sadly do happen.

^Buddy recovering from being hit by a car and having 3 of his legs broken recently :(

Pet Insurance is something that’s really important to me. My Dad has a chocolate Labrador called Buddy and my Mum has a dog called Pepsi (photo at the top of this post!) and 3 cats Bacardi, Gizmo and Angel.

When Pepsi was a puppy she bumped into a thorn bush when we were walking her through a field and got a thorn lodged into her eyeball (sorry if you’ve squeamish), we rushed her off to the vets where she went straight under the knife and received over £3,000 worth of surgery. Luckily my Mum insures all of her animals and she actually only had to pay the £150 excess for all of the surgery. If Pepsi hadn’t had the surgery she wouldn’t be with us today, and there’s no way we could have paid £3,000 at the time so we were incredibly relieved that we had the insurance in place!

Since then we’ve had various other issues in the family, Buddy got ill after eating a plastic bag (typical Lab!) and Gizmo was attacked by another cat and was very poorly.

Each time my Mum and Dad claimed on the pet insurance and saved thousands and thousands of pounds! Pet insurance has loads of benefits:

• You obviously only pay your excess instead of the full cost of any treatment

• Cover can be tailored to your individual needs or your pets needs

• Pets can normally be insured from 8 weeks old and most plans have no maximum age limit

• You can get advice and support if/when your pet sadly passes away

• Some companies offer multi-pet discount, this is something that saves my mum lots of pennies!

• Standard excess is normally about £50 – that’s not much at all to save your beloved pets life!!!

Sadly I'm not currently allowed any pet’s but want a rabbit, cat and dog in the future and I’ll definitely be insuring them!!

Do you currently have any pets? Have you insured them?

Don’t forget to tell me all about it in the comments and tell me if the ‘grown up’ series has been useful for you so far!!

Guess whos' back!

2012-04-15T19:14:00.001+01:00

Hiyaa!

so glad to be blogging again, so sorry to have left you all for so long!

C x

Cat's little 'grown up' series: Saving for a rainy day!

2012-03-20T20:51:00.001Z

Hello everyone!

It’s been a while since I posted anything for the ‘grown up’ series as I’ve just been really busy and have a lot of 'stuff' going on (life always gets in the way eh?)

I hope you’ve all enjoyed the posts so far, today I’m going to talk to you about ! Now that you’ve found your new home and insured it it’s time to start thinking about putting a few pennies away.

You may be thinking, ‘but why would I need to save any money?’ how about for the following things:

A lovely holiday
New furniture, a posh new TV and general ‘home improvements’
A deposit on a house/for a mortgage
For a new car
In case of an emergency! home insurance is all good and well but it’s worth putting some money away so that you’ll be able to cover your excess should anything happen
An extravagant treat for yourself (that Mulberry handbag you've been eyeing up?)

There are loads of reasons to have savings and you accrue interest on your savings which is essentially free money! This can either be paid monthly or yearly depending on how you want to ‘grow your money’ and anything over 3% at the moment is amazing (recession and economic downturns mean that interest rates get really, really low!). If this is something you don’t know much about, it essentially means that if you save £1000 you will get 3% interest on that money over a year which is £30. That may not seem like a lot of money but remember, the more you save the more money you’ll get in interest! With internet banking becoming the norm these days it’s also good to know that you can save online, making quick and easy transfers from you current account to your savings account and simplifying the whole process!

One of the best things about fixed term savings accounts is that once your money is in them and you’ve agree a time period (1, 2 or 3 years most of the time) you can’t close the account early or access your money so there is no temptation to dip into your savings like you would if they were in a box in your room, or in another standard current account :)

I personally try to put a bit away every month just because in the future Stew and I are looking to own our own house and we need to save up for a deposit and everything :)

It’s definitely scary but I’d rather start preparing for it now! To fail to prepare is to prepare to fail remember!

Do you currently have any savings? Is it something you’ve thought about? Don’t forget to tell me all about it in the comments and tell me if the ‘grown up’ series has been useful for you so far!!

xo

A few recent snaps ♥

2012-03-11T19:43:00.000Z

new hair(extensions)

getting addicted to street fighter... again.

workout o'clock

girls night out

girls night out

colour touch up!

gorgeous view at a pub by a river...

the result of too much whisky

hope you're all ok, i'm going through some really tough times at the moment but don't fret! I'll be back on the blog radar asap!

xo

Blog Sale - lots of cheap dresses! ♥

2012-02-26T13:52:00.001Z

Hello lovlies, as you all know i've been dieting and running etc for a while now and unfortunately when you lose 3 stone, your clothes stop fitting! With that in mind, I've decided to sell a load of my dresses because they're just taking up room in my wardrobe!

I want to keep things simple and cheap so the rules are easy:
*Leave a comment stating which dress you'd like and your email address - I will then email you details.
*ALL payments via paypal. There are absolutely no exceptions to this. The dresses will be sold first come first served and you'll have 24 hours to pay before I just put the dress on eBay :)
*Postage is £2 - £3 per dress, they're all fairly heavy and chunky and will require large postage bags. Postage is listed below with the item!
*I will consider sensible offers on all of the dresses, please put your offer in the comments with your email address and I will email you.

Ok, onto the goods!

Strapless black lace dress from 'Paprika'. This is subtly boned at the top to nip your waist in and has a cute little satin bow on the waist. I wore this once, for less than an hour, to a wedding!

~~Size 14 - £10 (£12 with postage)~~ SOLD

Grey/silver satin and chiffon one shoulder dress from Dorothy Perkins. Again, I wore this once to a wedding. This is so beautiful on but I think it would be a pain to get taken in :( I'm gutted to see it go!

Size 14 - £10 (£12 with postage)

Topshop white and polka dot dress with a gorgeous back detail.

Size 10, NEVER WORN (but will fit a 12-14 as it has a stretchy waist) - £12 (£14 with postage)

Black and grey leopard print dress with elasticated waist. From New Look. You can just see it on the picture but the leopard print skirt is in tiny little layers making it really flattering and a gorgeous shape when it's on.

Size 14, WORN ONCE - £15 (£17 with postage)

New Look floral peplum dress, this is boned at the top so it is really slimming and looks incredible on. I've worn this once to a summer wedding reception party.

Size 14 - £15 (£18 with postage as it's heavy)

Black satin peplum dress from Primark. Worn twice to friends' birthday parties. Really flattering and amazing quality considering it's from primark. lovely chunky, 'heavy' material'.

Size 16 - £10 (£13 with postage - it's heavy!)

Grey work dress from George at Asda. Soft material and really flattering and slimming. worn to the office about three times but it's just too big for me now :(

Size 14 - £10 (£12 with postage)

H+M black long sleeve skater style dress. Gorgeous chunky, heavy material. I've never worn this because when I bought it I bought the wrong size in the first place so now it absolutely drowns me! RRP £29.99.

Size large (14-16) - £17 (£20 with postage)

Cream lace dress from Primark with shoulder pads and gorgeous detailing. never worn - regretting not wearing it when i bought it beacause it's so beautiful!

Size 14 - £10 (£12 with postage)

Topshop white/stripey dress with button up top. Never worn as it was an impulse buy and isn't my style.

Size 10 but will fit a 12-14 as it's quite big - £10 (£12 with postage)

happy buying!!

xo

Giveaway winner - wahanda £50 voucher!

2012-02-26T10:52:00.000Z

Bonjour bloggeroooooonies!

I know, I've been slacking and I'm terrible for it but I've got a lot going on at work and in my personal life so finding the time to blog has been really difficult!

To cut to the chase, the winner of my £50 Wahanda Voucher Giveaway is...

...Chloe!

Well done Chloe, I'll email you the details ASAP :)

Huge love, I'll be back with y'all very, very soon...

Cat xo

A wee treat...

2012-02-20T21:26:00.003Z

is there anything quite as nice as taking your new handbag and purse out of their dust bags and smelling the leather? I'm in love with these :)

(I also got some bits from MAC, O'Neill and Estée Lauder! I'm sure they'll feature on here soon ♥)
xo

Aussie more - a whole week worth!!

2012-02-16T18:25:00.000Z

Monday

Scruffy ponytail/bun thing for work

Tuesday

Centre parting and straightened ends!

Wednesday

Fringe pinned back

Thursday

Accessorised with the monkey hat again!

Friday

Getting it styled big and glam!

Saturday

Wavy ends :)

Sunday

Straight and sleek!

Which style is your favourite?
Thanks for reading! xo

The 'Grown Up' Series: Home Insurance!

2012-02-11T21:54:00.000Z

Hello you lot! I know its been an age but I’m finally back for installment numero deux (first installment here) of the ‘grown up’ series!

Are you excited? Yay me too!

So, you’ve found your beautiful, affordable new home. Now it’s time to think about what to do next!

My top priority was insurance. Fully comprehensive home insurance to be precise.

Insurance in any form is a bit of a mine-field which is why I decided to blog about it and try to clarify things for those of you who feel a bit overloaded with options and information.

First of all, are you shouting ‘but why on earth do i need home insurance?’ at your computer? Let me explain!

• Home insurance can cover you for everything from spilling something on your DVD player, to knocking your TV off the wall. You can also get cover for your home contents, DIY mishaps and day-to-day incidents such as knocking a glass of red wine all over your gorgeous cream carpet whilst completely sober...obviously.

• In the event of a break in – you’re covered (providing your house was properly secured etc) There is nothing better than peace of mind.

• Many providers offer a 24 hour emergency repair helpline. You may like to think ‘it’ll never happen to me’ but bad luck/accidents can happen and you can’t be absolutely sure that someone’s football won’t go through your window late at night in the summer months!

• Pipe damage/seasonal cover for the winter. Believe me when I say, paying to have burst frozen pipes fixed is very, very expensive. Without digging/doing something crazy – you can’t check the conditions of your pipes before you move in. Old pipes are riskier than newer ones and I’d highly recommend having some cover for them, especially as winters are getting worse in the UK (Have I ever mentioned I hate snow? That’s a story for another day...)

• Added bonuses like money towards alternative housing if you need to leave your home for any reason, no claims discounts and even protection against unauthorised use of your credit/debit cards!

Second, ‘How much will it cost me?!’
Home insurance is really affordable, obviously the price is different for everyone so you’d need to get a quote. Mine is no more than I would normally spend on Starbucks in a month...The real question is if you look around you right now, can you afford to replace your valuables should you (god forbid) get burgled? If the answer is no, then get home insurance and get it now. I think about it like car insurance, I would never, ever drive my car uninsured... so why would I live in a home that wasn’t insured? It’s such a small cost every month in comparison to the physical and mental cost of being burgled that there’s really no excuse for not insuring that gorgeous new home you just spent weeks/months searching for, hours viewing and inspecting, and days moving into and making it your own....

And last but not least ‘How do I go about doing this? What question do I need to ask? Oh my gosh my brain is exploding, help me!’

• Decide what company you want to get your insurance with and look into their cover in detail.

• Get a quote and ask lots of questions – ask if the quote REALLY is the best price they can offer you? Is there a way you can make it any cheaper? Does it cover accidental damage? HOW MUCH IS THE EXCESS? – this is a MAJOR question. It’s all good and well if your policy is affordable but if your excess is a huge sum, it’s probably not a great policy for you. Like I explained in my post on finding a home, please don’t be afraid to ask questions. The person is getting paid to do that job and they’ll be happy to answer even the silliest of questions! “what if my cat is sick on the carpet?” “are my fish insured?” “what if I accidentally set fire to the kitchen” etc ;)

• Keep. All. Of. Your. Paperwork. I cannot stress how important this is, if you want to be extra mega uber safe, photocopy the documents. In the unlikely and unfortunate event that you need to make a claim, you’ll need all of your paperwork, reference numbers and official policy documents. Pop all of it in a file and label it clearly as home insurance documents. DON’T put it in a safe place! We all know that safe places are the most easily forgotten places!

Hopefully this all makes sense and you’ve enjoyed reading it. I had tonnes of lovely emails and comments from you all about my last Grown Up Series post and over 10 of you told me you had bookmarked the post for future reference! This means so much to me because as much as I do this for myself, I also do it for you guys and your enjoyment is of paramount priority to me.

Happy insuring!

xoxo

Current Faves ♥

2012-02-05T20:06:00.000Z

Alright you lot?
It's a bit snowy out isn't it? Anyway, whilst I'm all snuggled up inside (in two pairs of leggings, two pairs of socks, two tops, and a cardigan!) I thought I'd tell you all about some of my favourite products at the moment :)

For Skin:

Colladeen Visage Tablets

These are a beauty supplement for the skin, and although lots of people are very sceptical about them... I'm enjoying taking this! I didn't have the lovely old 'hormonal break out' this month and my skin has definitely been looking a lot healthier... It might well be a placebo effect but I don't really care either way! I'm loving having good, healthy looking, radiant skin!

Manuka Doctor Skin Repairing Cream

This is intensely hydrating and fills your skin with nutrients, thus helping to balance and repair your skin. This along with the tablets mentioned above appear to be my perfect combination for fabulous skin! This is genuinely amazing and at £25, it's also really affordable. I've been using the skin treatment serum as well and I love that just as much! Manuka offers an amazing, affordable and most of all extremely effective range of products, I'd strongly recommend you check them out ♥

Evolve Organic Beauty Body Cream

Hydrating, smoothing, relaxing, heaven in a bottle. You can find Evolve products here. If you haven't tried them yet, you're missing out!

Colour Couture BB Cream

You can find this here. It's the best BB cream I've tried so far and it's only a fiver. There's no reason why you shouldn't try it!

For Hair:

Macademia deep repair masque and healing oil treatment. MOVE OVER MOROCCAN OIL. This stuff is uh-may-zing! I leave the mask on for about 10 minutes in the bath then use a teeny bit of the oil before blow drying. My hair has never been smoother or more shiny. You can buy the oil treatment here for £10 (BARGAIN) and the mask here for £16.35.

NutriHair for Women - another supplement I've started taking and I'm sure my hair is growing faster! haha! I know people are really sceptical about this kind of stuff but I think as long as you take it properly and as per instructions, it generally will have an effect of some kind!

For the Shower:

Soap and glory foaming face wash - I love how this makes my skin feel all tingly and cool and clean and lovely. :)

I Love... Juiced Up Blackcurrant shower gel - I know this has been featured on a lot of blogs lately but MY GOOD GOD it's like washing yourself in Ribena/Blackcurrant soothers and I absolutely flippin' love it!!!

Soap and glory pulp friction body scrub - I'm not sure what it is that has made this my all time Holy Grail body scrub! Perhaps it's the non-oily-ness, or the smell, or the fact it foams up, or the way it gently but effectively sloughs off every last trace of dead skin... either way it's amazing and i'll re-purchase again and again.

For Smelling Amazing:

Prada Candy. There aren't even any words. New signature scent. 100% love. ♥.

Thanks for reading! What are your current favourites?

xo

Into triple (oops! quadruple!) figures!

2012-02-04T19:31:00.000Z

Bonjour bloggeroonies!

I've just switched on my laptop and noticed my blog has hit 1,000 followers (you wait, someone will unfollow me now!).
I am absolutely flabbergasted, I've been approaching 1,000 for a really long time but just never thought it would actually happen. The fact that a thousand of you like this little chunk of the internet so much that you 'follow' it just overwhelms me and fills me with joy and happiness.
It's been a long journey and definitely has it's up and downs (at the moment my blogpress app won't work on my iPhone so I can't post all of my Aussie More photos!) but I think I've finally settled into a routine with blogging where I don't feel stressed of pressured, and I write about what I want, when I want to.
I'm super lucky to be offered a few free products/samples every now and then and thats wonderful because it's a little perk, but I don't feel like it's a 'job' you know? I love reading your opinion and comments and it really does mean so much to me that you're all 'here' :)
I've got so many posts and fun giveaways and competitions lined up, I just need my laptop and iPhone to start working properly!
I hope you're all keeping safe and warm in the snow, I'll be posting again really soon once I've got my head around this 'your network is not ready for posting' blogpress issue on my phone. Is anyone else having this problem or have you had this problem before? can anyone help me fix it?
Once again, thank you all so, so much! Huge love to y'all!
xoxo

17 foundation giveaway winners!

2012-01-29T19:26:00.001Z

Bonjour you fabulous bunch!

I've been so unbelievably busy with work and home stuff and exercising (I've taken up yoga and I'm stepping it up big time with my running and resistance/strength training) that my schedule is just rammed! This is the first time I've switched my laptop on all week! It would appear that dedicating my life to fitness and not worrying about the number on the scales is rather time consuming...

Anyway lets get down to it! I'm going to announce the winners of my 17 giveaway :)

So, the winner of the Adapt-itude foundation is...

...Terri!!

The winner of the Photo Flawless foundation in 'Soft Ivory' is...

...Rachel!!

And the winner of the Photo Flawless foundation in 'Natural' is...

...Blue October!!

Congratulations ladies! If you could all email me your postal addresses, I'll get the goodies sent out to you!

xo

GIVEAWAY! Free Spa Treatment (or two!) ♥

2012-01-25T18:46:00.003Z

Hi everyone!

As I'm nearing 1,000 followers now (holy macaroni!) I thought it would be nice to host a giveaway for you all!

Absolutely everyone deserves a little treat every now and then, and how better to treat yourself than to some seeeerious TLC at a Spa :)

So....
I am giving away a £50 Spa Voucher (Courtesy of Wahanda) for one winner to use on any spa treatment available on Wahanda Spa Days!!!

All you have to do to win is go to the Wahanda Spa Days page... have a browse, and tell me which treatment you would book with your voucher and why! It really is that easy :)

I will then choose a winner at random (with random.org) and email them with the details of their £50 spa treatment voucher! Amazing right?

Don't forget to leave your email address so I can contact you!
The giveaway will end next Wednesday the 1st February at Midnight UK time so you have a week to enter!

Happy entering and good luck!
xo

Battle of the eyelash curlers! ♥

2012-01-22T12:51:00.001Z

Bonjour Bloggettes!

Today I've decided to write about something I think is a bit overlooked by the beauty community - eyelash curlers. Sure, we all use them every day and we'd probably feel a bit lost without them but when was the last time you really looked at yours or considered which were best for you?

I got two of the 'best' pairs on the market and thought I'd compare them for you :)

First up, the classic, world famous, even-mentioned-on-the-devil-wears-prada Shu Uemura eyelash curlers.

These retail at £20 and there's a reason they're so famous... they're amazing! They give my eyes a fabulous full flutter and spread my eyelashes out beautifully meaning minimal mascara-wand-wiggling-and-smooshing is required to get a feline flutter!

The actual curler is quite curved so you have to be careful about how you place it on your eye to ensure all of your inner and outer corner lashes are gripped... this has some pro's though because it means the curlers will fit all eye types and shapes :)

Next, the Shiseido eyelash curlers...

These retail at £17.50 and I actually prefer them to the Shu curlers because they're slightly less curved, meaning you have to concentrate less on the placement of the curler over the eye, and can use them a lot quicker! It also means the lashes on the outer corners of my eyes don't get left out (meaning I have to go back and curl again)!

These spread my lashes out really well and curl them just enough for them to be gorgeous and feminine (I can't stand the over curled poking-straight-up look some girls seem to enjoy so much!).

Next time you use your eyelash curlers take a proper look at the shape and curve of them... if you have flatter eyes then you may need to invest in a shiseido pair, and if your eyes are quite round then Shu are the ones for you!

xo

Aussie more - Wash 10!

2012-01-21T22:07:00.001Z

I only went and bloody graduated with First Class Honours didn't I!

xo

17 Cosmetics Giveaway! ♥

2012-01-14T11:28:00.000Z

Hello m'lovelies!

It's a quick and easy one today, I'm giving away 3 brand new 17 foundations because they aren't the right colour for me! I won them in a 17 twitter competition so obviously can't sell them on (I know some bloggers think it's ok to sell freebies/PR samples but I'm not down with that!)

so here goes!

Adapt-itude Skin Match Foundation in 'Fair'

Photo Flawless Foundation in 'Soft Ivory'

Photo Flawless Foundation in 'Natural'

Now, the rules are simple...

1. Follow my blog!
2. Leave a comment stating which foundation you would like to win, your name and your email address. there will be 3 winners!

As is standard practice these days I'll pick the winners on random.org!

If you're feeling nice you can Tweet about this giveaway but I can't stand it when I see giveaways that expect you to do about a thousand things to enter. I just appreciate the fact you follow and read my blog, I don't want anything else from you! ♥

Happy entering and Good Luck everyone!
xo

ooh so you read all the way to the bottom before you commented and you read the post properly? Well done! for an extra entry, tell me what your favourite foundation is in the comment ;) this is more to see who takes the time to actually read the stuff I write instead of just "ooh a freebie! enter me please!" cheeky eh?

Aussie more - wash 9!

2012-01-13T18:30:00.000Z

trying out a sort-of-centre-parting for the first time!

i ended up quite liking it, what do you think?

xo

Learn to snowboard in a day? Ok then! ♥

2012-01-09T22:34:00.000Z

Hey everyone!
So, for Christmas Stew bought me snowboarding lessons! (amongst a bunch of other amazing things)

On Saturday morning we got up bright and early, packed our kit and drove to the Tamworth SnowDome.

The long and short of it is that I fell over, a lot, I hurt myself, a lot, and I made a fool of myself, a lot. But we both loved every second of it, naturally Stew picked it up straight away (what a git!) but I found it a lot more difficult to make my body do what my brain knew it had to do...

By the end of the day I could pretty much get down the slope on my own though, and could sort of turn my board around and stop when I needed to so I was happy with my progress :)

I've stuck a couple of snaps into this post but obviously we didn't take our phones or anything onto the slopes so sorry they're a bit rubbish!

Can you snowboard? I honestly think it's going to be my new hobby so expect to see a few posts about it here and there from now on! I'm already looking for a cute board and my own boots and bindings because in all honesty the hire equipment isn't particularly comfortable...

so there we go! there's another skill to add to my list :)
I ache so much though!

xo

Aussie more - wash eight ♥

2012-01-08T20:19:00.001Z

Straight, sleek, and accessorised with a monkey hat!

xo

Aussie more - wash7!

2012-01-07T00:08:00.001Z

Beachy waves :) I'm learning to snowboard tomorrow! More on that later :) xo Thanks for reading! xo

Aussie more - Wash 6 and an amazing surprise!

2012-01-05T22:19:00.000Z

Hiya! Wash 6!
A very, very scruffy top knot for a lazy day at my mums house!

I was also named as one of "Most Wanted's Top 22 Beauty Experts Under 22" (!!!!)

Words cannot describe how proud I am to be named alongside the likes of Zoe aka Zoella and Jen aka Jennifer-Rosellen. Thank you so much for all of your comments, emails, and support... it really does mean the world to me that people enjoy this teeny weeny chunk of the internet that I 'own' as much as I enjoy it!

Have a lovely evening and thank you again!

Cat xo

Aussie More - Wash number 5!!

2012-01-04T20:09:00.000Z

COLOUR CHANGE!!!!

I'll be posting more about the stages of my colour change soon :)

xo

My make-up favourites for a 5-minute flawless face ♥

2012-01-03T18:38:00.001Z

Bonjour bloggettes! I hope you're all Ok, today I'm going to tell you all about my favourite products to use when I want to look flawless but only have 5 minutes to do my make-up (well, beds are warm and comfy aren't they!)

First I use my Jemma Kidd Light As Air Liquid foundation

Much raved about within the beauty community, I'm sure you've all read about this tube of amazingness before, incredible lightweight formula combined with some serious coverage and I am in love. It's perfect! I can't feel it on my skin at all, and it eliminated every blemish, every pore, and every tiny speck of redness/discolouration. If you don't already have it then I would urge, urge, URGE you to pick some up. It's the best foundation I've ever used! You can get it here for £20 on sale from £25!! Bargain!

I then use my Clarins Instant Light Brush-on Perfector

10x better than its YSL counterpart and a bit cheaper, this disguises all of my sins and makes sure I look wide awake, bright eyed, bushy tailed and absolutely flawless... even at 6am when I'm getting ready for work! You can get it here on sale for £19.35.

Next I apply some Corn Silk Pressed Powder

This is currently my favourite powder and has absolutely knocked my £20+ MAC mineralize skinfinish natural out of the water!! Sarah Walker recently reviewed this here and really I don't think I can say it much better than she has (she's also got much better photos! I just cannot work out how to use Stews new camera!). It leaves my skin matte, flawless, and shine free for absolutely hours but does smell like my Grandma! This is available at Boots and lots of other pharmacies and prices start at £7.40. You can also get a loose version and I'm going to be picking that up asap! :)

The next step is bronzer and blusher! At the moment my favourites are the Colour Couture Bronzer Block and the Stila Convertible Colour in 'Petunia'

The Stila convertible colour is the most perfect pink ever and the cream formula is so pigmented you only need the tiniest dab on your fingers or brush to get a beautiful flush on your cheeks. I absolutely love this and want to buy 'gladiola' next for a gorgeous pop of peach on my cheeks/lips :) you can get it here for £16.

The beautifully packaged Colour Couture bronzing block (that costs just £6!) has all of the colours you need for bronzing and highlighting, I sweep my brush over the bottom 4 colours to bronze my cheekbones and temples, then use an angled face brush to apply the top colour as a highlight to my cheeks. I prefer it to my Bobbi Brown shimmer bricks and it's only £6! amazing :) you can get it in 'pink' or 'bronze' here.

We're almost done! Next I apply mascara and lipgloss...

at the moment my favourites are the 17 Falsifeye mascara (£6.49) layered under MAC studio fix lash (forever my holy grail mascara! £13.50) and the VIVO cosmetics shimmer and shine lipgloss in 'just peachy'.

What are your favourite 5 minute face products?

xo

Aussie More - Wash Number 4!!

2012-01-02T13:30:00.002Z

Huge, messy and wavy! This is so quick and simple but looks really lovely :)

xo