Huddersfield Train Station

Last weekend I went back home to visit my family as this week it was my mums 40th birthday on Tuesday and my own on Wednesday. Since they were on weekdays and I obviously had my lectures, we decided to celebrate them the weekend before. 

Although I claim that my blog is a fashion blog, I never post about any of my outfits and you would have thought that thats all I would post about being a fashion student. Perks of being camera shy, ey! However I did manage to get a few photos, mainly because of what I posted on Instagram, but  promise that one day, I will get better regarding the fashion side of my blog. 

I got this dress from a shop called Catwalk in Huddersfield town which is pretty much a wholesale shop like InTheStyle or Lasula. I had wanted it for so long but every time I went inside, they never had my size until recently. I was overjoyed and took it home straight away. However, its way to classy to wear on a student night out, which is why I knew I had to wear it last weekend or I would never any wear out of it.

Since there are quite a few products featured in this little haul, heres a list of each one and their full names and shades in case anyone is interested in any of them:

- L'Oréal Paris Infallible 24Hr Mattifying Infallible Foundation in 11 Vanilla

- MAC Studio Fix Fluid Foundation in NC15

- Seventeen Define & Conquer Contour Kit in Fair

- Dose of Colors Matte Lipstick in Truffle (probably not genuine)

- MAC Matte Lipsticks in Velvet Teddy and Whirl

- L'Oréal Paris Lip Liner Couture by Color Riche in 630 Beige A Nu and 302 Bois De Rose

- L'Oréal Paris La Palette Nude in 01 Rosé

- ColourPop Super Shock Eyeshadow in La La

When I get some money for special occasions like Christmas or my birthday, the first thing my mind thinks of is makeup. First of all, I repurchased some of my favourites which being a student, I cant always afford. This included MAC's Studio Fix Foundation and Velvet Teddy Lipstick. They are two of my all time favourite MAC products and so whilst I had the money, there was no better time to pick up new ones. The foundation has extremely good coverage and staying power, and just looks so flawless, yet natural, on the skin. Most of my readers will also know that I LOVE nude lips and always opt for them no matter what makeup look I'm going for. Velvet Teddy is definitely one of the best nude lipsticks I have ever tried. It is just the perfect shade! It also has a wonderful creamy consistency which avoids all chances of my lips drying out when I use it. However, this creamy consistency is a nightmare for staying power as it doesn't last as long as my liquid lipsticks, so I can never wear it on a night out without popping to the toilets every so often to top it up, and that is not what I want my priority to be when I'm dancing away in the R&B room. I also decided to try out 'Whirl' which is a shade I have desired for so long. It's another nude but much darker than Velvet Teddy and surprisingly, I have been wearing this one much more.

I then had a little look through the Boots website one day as they were having many post Christmas deals, when I came across one that L'Oréal were having. I cant remember it entirely but I think it was something along the lines of spending above £12 and receiving a free gift, which turned out to be an eyeshadow palette. Although my free gift never arrived with the rest of my products, I'm still so happy with what I bought and I did in fact receive some money back from my order as the deal had finished by the time I had contacted Boots. After Christmas, I had pretty much run out of my foundations and because MAC is rather expensive for everyday use, I wanted to keep that as my foundation for nice occasions, which meant that I needed a new high street foundation for everyday wear. 

A few months back I was using the True Match Foundation and really enjoyed it, so I wanted to test out another from that brand so I could step out of my Rimmel London comfort zone. I have to say, I much prefer this one to the True Match. The coverage is absolutely insane and I don't even feel like I need to build it up that much to get my desired look. The staying power is also incredible and I can definitely go a full day of uni without it budging too much. Its definitely something I will repurchase again! As well as the foundation, I also bought two lip liners as I was never a big lip liner user but they were always something I had wanted to start including in my makeup routine. They are really fantastic for precision and ensuring that you get the perfect lip shape. I find that they are most helpful with liquid lipsticks because they dry up so quickly so its a nightmare to fix a mistake. However, by using lip liners, you already have a template drawn out for you that you just need to fill in with the lipstick. 

Before Christmas, I was obsessed with growing my eyeshadow collection as I became much more experimental with my eyeshadow looks. I still had a little more money I needed to spend in order to get my free gift, and the only other thing I could think of getting that I didn't necessarily need, but thought I needed at the time, was a new eyeshadow palette. I have to admit, I haven't used this as much as I thought I would because I have been completely obsessed with my Revolution HD Pro Eyes & Brows which I wrote about here. Also when I have used it, I've noticed that some of the shades aren't necessarily pigmented which was a little disappointing as I had just begun to fall in love with the brand. The palette is also a lot smaller than I imagined it to be. Although, I'm not going to cancel it out completely because I was able to create some lovely soft, natural looks with it. It's just a shame that they're not as pigmented as I would have liked.

The Seventeen Define & Conquer was a contour palette that I've had my eye on for quite some time now as I have heard some really good things about some of the products in the brand. I'm still not sure how I feel about this product yet but its probably because I haven't used it enough. It definitely doesn't beat my beloved Sleek Face Contour Kit, which has been my number one for years. I was a little disappointed with the highlight shade as I much prefer shimmery highlighters like the one in the Sleek palette. I was a little unsure as to how it would work as a highlight shade if it didn't have shimmer. There also doesn't seem like much of a difference to my complexion when I use it. It acts as more of a small setting powder than anything else. The contour shade is also a little more orange toned compared to my Sleek one which I'm not sure if I am a fan of quite yet as I don't want to walk round looking like an Oompa Lumpa! I will however I will however continue to use it to see if I happen to change my opinion.

I recently discovered a website called Wish.com which is a wholesale website that sells knock off makeup products that are definitely not genuine. Although some people are really against these websites, a friend of mine really rated it for some of her products and because I wasn't browsing through it with the intention of finding a genuine product as I knew none of it would manufactured by the real brands, I wanted to give it the benefit of the doubt because not everyone can afford high end prices and its pretty fantastic when you discover high end dupes. There are definitely dangers when it comes to shopping on these sites and I definitely will not be making a habit of this, but theres a first time for everything right? 

I decided to buy two products which were the Dose Matte Lipstick and ColourPop Super Shock Eyeshadow. Although I knew about them, I've never had any interest in these two brands as I have always been comfortable with the ones I've always used, so I wasn't really bothered that these were fake replicas. To my surprise as I went in not expecting much, I genuinely love both of these products. I haven't stopped wearing the liquid lipstick since it arrived. Truffle is a lovely nude shade which hints of purple which is not something I would usually go for, but recently I've been crazy over it. Its outstanding how good the staying power is which is something you would expect from a matte liquid lipstick. The eyeshadow also has relatively good pigmentation and the metallic copper finish is just absolutely stunning.