Rose Smokes.

I felt like playing around with rose gold, purple and pink tones today and this is the look I somehow created. I only used two palettes, Huda Beauty Rose Gold and Urban Decay Naked Heat, of course all the products I've used for my entire will be listed below. I'm going to take you through how I did my eyes, step by step. I also used tape for this look to create the sharp, crisp edges, you don't have too, you can clean it up after with a makeup wipe or leave it blown out and extra smokey. I recently dark my hair slightly dark as well, so I'm currently enjoying playing around with different shades that compliment my darker hair. 

To prep my eyes for eyeshadow I always use some form of concealer to cover the entire lid to brow area. Today I used the Freedom HD Longwear Concealer in the white shade, I find that the white provides such a clean, bright base for my shadows, I usually set this with translucent powder or a white eyeshadow. For my crease shade I've used Flamingo as shown above. I buffed this through the crease right down to my inner corner using a fluffy crease brush. This is a gorgeous warm, vibrant pink shade that looks amazing in the crease with a smokey look like this. I applied a few layers of this colour and really built it up. 

I'm using the shade Ashes from the Naked Heat palette next, this is going in the outer corner of the eye and alongside the tape. This is a stunning deep plum toned purple that goes super well with the pink tones we've already used. For this shade I used a denser crease brush that allows me to pick up a lot of product and place it where I want it to stay. Once I've got this colour on, I went back in with the brush I used for the pink and blend it out towards the outer portion of my crease and along the tape. 

Now for the lid, I wanted to use one of the pressed glitter shades from the palette to bring the look together nicely. First I applied a tiny bit more of my white concealer just on the lid and blended it out with a flat brush to ever so slightly cut the crease, again I set it with my translucent powder. I decided on the shade Fling, a slightly deeper rose shade. I used a flat brush and my finger to press on as much shadow as I could over where I applied the concealer. Once again, I then took the pink one final time and blended it through the crease, down to the inner corner. 

Products I used:

Benefit Hello Flawless Liquid Foundation 

Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer 

Freedom HD Longwear Concealer - White

RCMA No Colour Powder

NYX Contour Kit 

Hourglass Ambient Lighting Blush - Radiant Magenta

Jeffree Star Cosmetics Skin Frost - Ice Cold 

Benefit Roller Lash Mascara 

Huda Beauty Textured Rose Gold Palette

Urban Decay Naked Heat Palette

MAC Lip Liner - Subculture 

Jeffree Star Cosmetics Velour Liquid Lipstick - Mannequin 

Hope you liked this look I've created today, please let me know your thoughts in the comments below! I'll be posting more photos of this look and others over on my Instagram. ♡

My Thoughts On; Tanya's Christmas.

Tanya Burr is someone I've watched on YouTube for years now, I love her makeup, baking and vlog style videos. I've always supported her makeup line as well, she consistently brings out great products. Of course I love baking myself so I instantly bought her book 'Tanya Bakes', so I was really happy to find out that she was releasing another book. The book is described as a 'Beautiful Celebration of Christmas', crammed with festive recipes and craft projects. Just like 'Tanya Bakes', the photography in this book is beautifully done, I really do adore the layout of her books. The hardback version of Tanya's Christmas is only £16.99 on the Waterstones website. This book would make such a lovely Christmas or birthday (close to Christmas) present. I preordered my copy super early and managed to get myself a signed copy which I was super happy about, its the little things that make a difference! The book can also be bought as a Kindle version for those of you who don't want to purchase the physical copy. I had a quick look on Amazon and 99% of the reviews are 5 stars, I'm really glad that so many people are enjoying this lovely book.

The cover features a collage of photos of what to expect inside the book, mainly yummy food, crafts and her adorable dog Martha. I love the fonts, layout and colour schemes used, the cover is simple but super cute and inviting. The book consists of 7 chapters; Embrace Your Inner Elf, Deck The Halls, Christmas Gifting, Lets Party, Christmas Baking, The Main Event and Happy New Year. The end of the book features an Index and Acknowledgements section. Of course I was immediately drawn to the baking section because I'm a sucker for sweet food and baked goods and thankfully it didn't let me down, I love her baking recipes. The opening feature 'The Christmas Spirit' is a lovely letter from Tanya to really set the mood for the entire book, expressing her love for the festive season. Photos from some of her childhood Christmas's are just one of many things that make this book feel really special, there's even some of her drawings from when she was younger in the book.

My favourite chapter of course is chapter 5, Christmas Baking. As I mentioned earlier, I adore baking, it's been a passion of mine since I was really young and I love trying new recipes. I was so excited to recreate the sweet treats featured as I found so many amazing recipes from her previous book. The simple but delicious Chocolate Dipped Shortbread, Brownie Traybake and Gingerbread Cupcakes immediately caught my eye, I love the super effective combinations she creates with her recipes. I'll hopefully post on my Instagram really soon displaying a yummy bake I've made using this book. Of course as well she features how to make the perfect Christmas lunch/dinner along with a variety of cocktails. The other chapters are of course also super cute, It's like Tanya's very own personal Pinterest collection in book form. Every idea is just another way to create special memories with your friends and family, from finding the perfect gift to decorating your home, this book covers everything.

If you're a fan of Tanya, looking for a cute Christmas gift or just simply love this festive time of the year, I honestly couldn't recommend this book enough. She's clearly worked so hard to create this masterpiece and it really shows, from the personal photos she's chosen to the effort gone into each chapter, it really shows. Whether its getting crafty or baking delicious treats, I'll be non-stop reaching for this book over the next few weeks leading up to Christmas. If you've created/made anything from Tanya's Christmas I'd love to know what and how it went or just your opinions on the book. I personally love it, It has a warm and cosy feel throughout and is full of inspiring ideas to embrace the festive season. I really do hope that she releases more books in the future, so far they've all been great. Well done Tanya for an excellent book, I love it! ♡

Textured Shadows Palette - Rose Gold Edition.

The Huda Beauty Rose Gold Palette has been one of the most sought after makeup products since 2016 and I finally got my hands on it (better late than never). I read online that with the release of her new Desert Dusk Palette, the Rose Gold Edition was being discontinued. I knew that if I didn't buy it before it before it was gone, I'd most likely regret it so I ended up purchasing it at a recent trip to Sephora in Las Vegas. The palette consists of 18 powder shadows; six '3D metals', two 'chromatic pressed pearls' and 10 'saturated mattes'. The shades are warm toned, earthy and absolutely stunning, she really did choose an excellent selection of colours. The palette definitely has mixed reviews but I always had high expectations for it. I expected pigmented, blendable and buttery mattes and shimmer shades that oozed with glitter. I've used the palette a couple of times now and had a play around with different shades so I'll give you my overall thoughts and impression today!

I really do like the packaging, its simple, sleek and lightweight feeling. It displays the shadows perfectly allowing the focus to be on the shades themselves rather than an overly dramatic packaging design. The cardboard case that slips over the palette itself features a similar design to her lash packaging with the gold eyelid accents. I do feel that the packaging could be more sturdy, I'm someone who loves the feel of heavy, luxurious packaging like a lot of people are. With this I'd be really worried to drop it as theres only a thin piece of plastic protecting the shadows from breaking and maybe not as travel friendly as other palettes for that high price. Overall I do really like the packaging, the classy colour scheme and the overall design.

The shades themselves are stunning. After the release of the Anastasia Modern Renaissance I've really loved pink/red tones and this palette has a gorgeous selection of them. Having blue eyes, I love experimenting with warm tones that compliment my eyes. I was immediately drawn to Henna, Sandalwood and Maneater for my go to crease/transition shades. I first tried the shade Rose Gold just with a dry brush to apply it to the lid but didn't get much colour payoff. The next time I tried the shimmer shades I used a setting spray to dampen my brush and managed to get more of the shade onto the lid. Overall I wasn't as impressed with the shimmer shades as I could have been, the mattes I really liked and worked really well in the crease. As gorgeous as the variety of shades are, I did have high expectations for the pigmentation and they unfortunately didn't meet them the first few times I've tried the palette. I'm hoping the more I use it and play around with techniques to apply the different textures the more I'll like the palette.

I'll definitely post a look using this soon to either here or my YouTube channel. I've seen so many great looks already using it so I'm hoping to create something stunning myself using my favourite shades. I'd love to know your thoughts on the palette, whether you enjoyed the shades or didn't get on with them, as there are so many mixed reviews. Let me know your thoughts on the palette in the comments below, I'd love to know! The palette is still available on Cult Beauty for £56 x

HOTEL REVIEW; THE LINQ HOTEL & CASINO, LAS VEGAS.

If you're planning a vacation to Las Vegas, prepare to be overwhelmed with the choice of hotels the Vegas Strip has to offer. The hotels are all so unique, their designs', themes' and of course the cost to stay there. Vegas is a holiday where I don't see anyone really staying in the hotel room for a lot of the trip, It's more somewhere to just wash and sleep. This is a factor to consider when choosing a hotel. I'd already been to Vegas once before, last year and I stayed at the Venetian. It's an absolutely breathtaking hotel, Italian themed and super classy but does comes at a high price. So today I'm going to share with you my thoughts on a slightly more budget friendly hotel, The Linq.

The Linq is a Caesars Entertainment owned, 2640 room hotel and casino. It's situated in the centre of the strip, between Harrahs and Flamingo and directly opposite Caesars Palace. Its a short 2 minute walk from the Harrahs Monorail Station which can take you directly right down to MGM Grand or the opposite way towards the Stratosphere. If you don't mind walking then its only a short 15 minute stroll to the Bellagio Fountains and Paris Eiffel Tower. We had a 3 day monorail pass so we made good use of that, but when it expired we ended up walking a lot, as far as the Luxor and Tropicana. The monorail and bus is always there if you're not a big fan of walking, especially in the heat, but with plenty of ice cold drinks its 100% doable, the trick is more to walk through the hotels rather than outside on the sidewalk.

The hotel is super modern and clean, there is free Wifi throughout and plenty to offer. The pool is for
21 & overs only so if you're travelling with children, you may want to consider staying somewhere else otherwise the alternative would be paying to use another hotels pool. It's definitely more of a party pool with the music being super loud and can get very crowded at times but overall we both really liked the pool area. We were lucky enough to get upgraded before we'd even checked in, so we were pleased to find a King room with a Strip View had been added to our booking on arrival. The room featured a king size bed, large flat screen tv, modern bathroom with a huge shower and of course a great view. The only downside to our room was the fact that we had several bars on the strip directly below our window who blasted their music until gone 2am every night. Other than that we both loved the room and the hotel in general. Excuse the mess in the room photos, of course I had to take them whilst we were getting ready to check out! (the last photo was the view from our room, try to ignore the dirty window!).

We decided to book our holiday through Thomas Cook, after choosing to fly from Manchester, they turned out to be the least expensive company. We booked it as a package holiday, flights and hotel and then received a discount for booking it in-store rather than online. We booked ours at the branch in Bluewater and they were all really helpful in there. We'd both never flown with Thomas Cook before but overall had a great experience both flying there and on return and are already considering them for our next US trip. Both flights were on time, we actually landed into Vegas half an hour early which was great. We had a lovely representative greet us at the airport, who gave us a pack with all their information in it incase we needed anything. We then decided to give the Lyft app a try rather than paying $30+ for a regular taxi to the hotel. We ended up paying only $12 and were so impressed with the service and how well it worked, we ended up using it again at the end of the trip back to the airport.

Overall we had a great week's stay here and would stay there again without a doubt and would recommend it for sure. I don't think we'll be going back to Vegas for a couple of years now as we've got so many other places on our list to visit next. If you're looking for a more affordable company that still provides great service for a package holiday then have a browse on Thomas Cook's website.
The Linq was a great hotel choice, its modern, clean and in a perfect location for everything. It's right next to The Linq Prominade with the High Roller Observation Wheel and tons of restaurants and bars. Will it be the hotel for your next Vegas trip? I'd love to know if you've stayed there or any other Vegas Strip hotel and your thoughts! x