My new look for the New Year.

If you know me personally then you will know that I change my appearance all the time.

I'm constantly changing the colour and style of my hair, what clothes I wear and even make-up styles.

So last week, the day of my works Christmas party, I decided to change my hair completely. 

I had already dyed my hair a deep red colour a few days before, and I have a massive love/hate relationship with my hair being red. I love the colour on my hair and I know its the colour that suits me really well, but maintaining is literally a pain in the arse. 

You have to really keep on top of it, find shampoo's that have little to no sulphates in them, blah blah blah... so I usually tend do go back to brown quite a lot, and then go back to red, back to brown...

so I'm usually buying a lot of hair treatments.

Anyway, back to the point of my post.

I went to my hairdressers and asked for a wedge haircut. 

Its shorter one side of my head than the other, a cute little side fringe and lots of choppy layers to mess up.

I was delighted with the results!

After I had my hair done I thought I would pamper and treat myself to French manicure acrylic nails, which I had never had done before and was amazed at the results, very natural looking.

And I had HD eyebrows done.

 Waxed, plucked and filled in with semi permanent powder.

So I got back home and started getting myself ready for my Christmas party, which was being held at the ICC in Birmingham and the theme was Masquerade Ball, I was really excited for it.

So here is my finished look for the evening:

Dress: Primark £10

Earrings: Asda £5

Bracelets: Primark £1 each

Shoes (not pictured): Evans £25

Make-up.

Face: Benefit Pore-fessional primer £24.50

Maxfactor Whipped Creme Foundation in Natural £9.99

Revlon PhotoReady Cream blush in Pinched £7.99

Benefit High Beam £19.50

Eyes: Revlon ColorStay Liquid Eye Pen £6.99

Avon Luxe Eyeshadow in Nude £10

Benefit They're Real Mascara £19.50

Benefit Eye Bright £15

Lips: Revlon ColorStay Lip liner in Plum £6.29

Revlon ColorStay Ultimate Liquid Lipstick in Brilliant Bordeaux £8.99 

I hope I did okay on my first outfit and make up 'explanation' blog?

I do really like this look for myself, I feel more grown up and little more sophisticated :-) 

I had a great time at my works Christmas party, plenty of drinking and dancing! 

What do you think of my new look?

Do you change your look often, and if so how much?

Leave a comment in the box below :-) 

MUA Luxe Velvet Lip Lacquer in Funk.

Now, we all know I am a huge fan of MUA which is available at all Superdrug stores.

Just recently they have bought out their own Luxe range, which include Velvet Lip Lacquers.

First time I heard about these I was over the moon! I'm a huge fan of 'liquid lipsticks' that give a velvet/matte finish, that lasts.

So last week when I was finishing the last part of my Christmas shopping off, I nipped into Superdrug to pick one up.

The colour I was going for was their Reckless shade, which is a deep red colour, which I thought would be perfect for the festive season.

But unfortunately that colour was not available so I went for something completely different and opted for their 'Funk' shade.

 The packaging is very impressive, it comes in a frosted glass type tube with a matte black lid, which gives you the impression that you're buying a more expensive product.

These retail at £3 each which is quite a bargain.

The colour pay off is absolutely amazing. Funk is a gorgeous dark pink colour with a purplish hint, which is stunning when applied to lips.

I adore this shade and think I will be wearing it a lot in the next few weeks with the events I have planned.

The lacquer glides on lovely, and is very pigmented. Just a word of warning, make sure you apply carefully especially at the edge of your lips as it can be very messy if you go outside the lip line and try to wipe it off, as this product does not budge one bit, once applied.

After I had applied this lacquer I waited a while before I pressed my lips together so I could achieve an even finish.

The results were perfect and I had a lovely stand out pink pout:

I am beyond happy with this product, its everything I expected it to be and I love it.

The formula doesn't dry out my lips but I always make sure that before I apply something as long lasting as this, I exfoliate my lips with a lip scrub (I use Lush's Bubblegum lip scrub) 

And then I apply a conditioning lip balm to soak in and then blot.

When I wore this yesterday, I ate and drank and I took my make up off around 11:30pm and it was as bold on my lips as when I first applied it at midday.

I've read a few reviews where girls have had a problem with removing the lacquer from their lips, but I had no such problem, a few swipes of Boots own cucumber face wipes did the trick for me.

I will eventually buy the rest of the Velvet Lip Lacquer collection, as I'm very keen to try out 'Reckless' and 'Kooky' which is a deep purple colour.

I can find no fault with these lacquers and I can't wait to apply it again, its my new colour crush! 

Massive well done to MUA who again, have created yet another flawless, affordable product.

Have you purchased and tried these Velvet Lip Laquers?

What did you think?

Let me know in the comment box below :-) 

Soap & Glory - Loved & Glossed Set.

A very Merry Christmas to you all!

I hope that you're all having a fantastic time and you all received everything you wanted?

I will be posting my Christmas gift list up very shortly, but first I would like to share with you one of the Christmas sets that Boots and Soap & Glory put on the shelves that I just had to have!

This amazing set retailed at Boots for £16 and contains 3 Sexy Mother-Pucker Gloss Sticks.
These three shades are:
Nudist, A gorgeous nude colour that suits any lip, its kinda like 'your lips but better'

Fuchsia-Ristic, A fuchsia/coral colour that is really pretty.

Plum Jam, A really nice glossy plum colour that's not too dark for lips.

The formula of the gloss sticks are very high quality, they smell amazing, and they're not sticky like other lip glosses. They glide on smoothly and effortlessly and the colour pay off is brilliant, as shown in the swatches below:

I've also taken a photo near natural light so you can see just how glossy these sticks are:

I'm a huge fan of lip crayons and have a few from different cosmetic companies that I love, but not as much as I love these Soap & Glory gloss sticks.
They look just amazing on my lips, they don't dry my lips out, my lips don't stick together and after a few hours after I've eaten or drank something the gloss wears away but leaves behind a lovely stain.

So here are the results on my lips. Now, I've never taken a photo of my lips close up, I get a little paranoid about my two piercing scars, but here goes:

 Nudist: I love this nude shade, its kind of a pinkish/beige colour that goes great with a natural look or with a smokey eye.

 Fuchsia-Ristic: This is such a pretty, delicate colour. As mentioned earlier, its a kind of pinky/coral colour, which I find goes beautifully with just a slick of mascara and a coral blusher.

Plum Jam: My favourite of the three, this is not too dark, but can be easily built up for a glossy plum look that goes lovely with kitten flicks and a few good coats of mascara.

I'm so glad I picked this set up and it came free with two other Soap & Glory gift sets that I bought as presents for people. I bought this set for my lovely sister in law, which is why I've waited until now to review them. I hope she loves them as much as I do!
You can buy these sets here:
Did any of you receive this set for Christmas or just treat yourself?
What are your thoughts on this lovely set?
Let me know in the comments box below :-)

It's that time of year again...

Hi you guys! 

Well it has been a very long time since I last updated All Things Bright & Beautiful, mainly due to illness, work commitments and many other things that have kept me busy that I won't bore you with now, but boy, do I have a load of blog posts lined up for you lovely lot! 

I'm going to keep this post short and sweet until I can get writing properly again.

So, Christmas Day is exactly two weeks away today and I certainly hope you're all in the festive spirit? Putting up your tree and decorations, sipping some mulled wine, scoffing the mince pies, writing the cards, belting out the Chrimbo hits and doing that dreaded present shop... Gah! 

So if you're stuck on what to get someone for Christmas or stuck on what you really want from someone, I am here to help you, along with great help from Boots.

So over the last two months Boots have been reducing their gift sets every week. I've received emails advertising their star buy of the week, gift sets from Sanctuary to Ted Baker, which are great presents at affordable prices.

But this coming Friday the 13th (dun dun dunnnn) Boots are going for the big one.

Hands up if you know what I'm talking about? 

Yes. That's right. It's back.

Soap & Glory's annual gift set The Yule Monty is being reduced from £60 to a jaw dropping £27 for ONE WEEK ONLY. 

I love this set and I have received one for the past two years from my wonderful fiancé.

This year it's a limited edition bag design from British Fashion Designer - Jonathan Saunders. 

The set contains NINE of Soap & Glory's full sized créme de la créme products which are:

Hand Food Hand Cream

Sugar Crush Body Wash

The Righteous Butter Body Butter

Peaches & Clean Deep Purifying Cleanser

Heel Genius Foot Cream 

Butter Yourself Body Lotion

The Scrub Of Your Life Body Buffer

Thick & Fast Super Volume Mascara

and Sexy Mother Pucker Lip Plumper 

This amazing set is only available from this Friday for one week so I suggest all you Soap & Glory lovers like me, get down to your local boots to grab this fantastic bargain, early Friday morning.

Boots do have a massive stock of these come in every year, which they stack up at the tills and by the doors and have assistants asking you if you would like to buy one, but they will sell out quickly so I recommend an early trip out to avoid disappointment. 

I hope you Soap & Glory lovers like me have one of these sets waiting for you underneath the tree on Christmas morning or get to give one as a present, because they really are great gifts.

Will you be going out to get one on Friday morning? Why don't you let me know how you get on by leaving me a comment in my comment box?

Anyway, I'm off for now, but I will be back very soon with more blog posts, I only have 7 more early rises for work before I finish for two weeks and then I will be blogging like crazy!!

Love as always!