A Day Out To Bicester Village

Last weekend we drove down to Bicester Village, which those of you who aren't familiar with is a outlet shopping centre in Oxford, England. Its always such a treat for us going to Bicester village as there are so many designer brands to indulge in, and take a peek around!

I love the whole vibe of the village, with rows and rows of small boutiques all decorated so nicely making me want to step in regardless of purchasing something or not. To start with the weather was pretty dull and rainy on the day but then slowly we had some sun coming through thankfully! 

After spending many hours roaming around the beautiful decorated shops, we did make a few sneaky purchases that we simply fell in love with. And as you can tell from the pictures, there was a whole lot of bag shopping involved (we do love our bags). We will try and do a post dedicated to a haul, so make sure to keep a look out on the blog.

Some of my favourite shops included Burbery, Michael Kors and DKNY and so many others but I would probably bore you out the long list of names! 

For lunch we had the good old Pret Manger which is always a favourite food spot of ours  - I love their cold pressed juices which are so refreshing. The best part had to be dessert, just thinking about it is making me want more! We brought chocolate covered donuts from the donut stand which were so warm and moist with the chocolate adding the mouth-watering taste. If you ever find yourself at Bicester village, you need to try the donuts.

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Sleek Ultra Matte 2 Eyeshadow Palette

When it comes to budget buy eyeshadows, Sleek are the ones to turn to. This Sleek Ultra Matt 2 Eyeshadow Palette is one of the first proper eyeshadow palettes we brought and its taken quite a while getting round to featuring it on the blog, as its one of those which we keep forgetting to talk about along with others on our long list of blog titles. This palette consists of 12 super matt eyeshadows which are up there with some of the high end brands when it comes to good pigmentation. I believe there is an Ultra matte 1 palette also which includes more brighter neon shades, however I prefer the Ultra matt 2 palette as it contains darker shades which we both get more wear out of.

When is comes to lasting power, these eyeshadows have no problem in staying put throughout the whole day. There are so many times where I've applied my eyeshadow in the morning and still had it intact all the way till late evening which is pretty impressive if you ask me. The colour range in this palette is beautiful, from deep blues and purples to soft browns and nudes, overall you get a pretty good spectrum of colours to work with - perfect to create a classic smoky eye look! And you know when it comes to a good smoky eye, its all about the blending - these shadows are very easily blendable without any of that annoying fallout.

Some of my favourite shades in the entire palette are paper bag which is a dark brown matt shade perfect for the outer corner of the eye along with flesh all over the lid as an even base to start with. Pillow talk is a great highlight shades for the inner corner and under the brow bone which I like to use on minimal makeup days as it doesn't contain any glitter. When it comes to the more deeper shades in the palette, the shade ink has to be on the favourites list along with maple which are just stunning!

As you can probably see, we've been using this palette a lot since we brought it and yes unfortunately the mirror was broken when we purchased it but putting that aside, this palette gets a definite thumbs up!

Sleek Ultra Matt 2 Eyeshadow Palette here £7.99

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The Hand Cream For Very Dry Hands

You know its clearly winter when your skin is fighting to stay hydrated, this includes my hands which pretty much end up feeling so rough they almost resemblance the texture of sandpaper - horrible I know. Having been through so many different hand creams, it seemed as though layering moisturiser after moisturiser was simply not ably to combat my seriously dry hands - this was not until the La Roche Posay Lipikar hand cream came in to my life - this stuff came to the rescue in my time of need.

With other hand creams I found my hands to go back to their dry dehydrated state after just minutes of applying it, even after resulting to desperate measures as in trying to make my own sugar and honey scrub, my hands were simply not having it. However with the La Roche Posay hand cream, literally just after one use, my hands were noticeably much softer and the majority of my dry skin had cleared - now this is just after the first use! (Its a miracle!)

This product has such a light texture, leaving your skin feeling so soft and moisturised without leaving behind that greasy, sticky feeling on your hands. It also penetrates very readily, instead of just sitting on top of the skin like most other hand creams I've come across. I can officially say this is the one product which has impressed us both!

If your hands need some rescuing, then I would highly recommend giving this product a go!

La Roche Posay Lipikar Hand Cream At Boots - £4.50

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The Empties #1: Products Worth Repurchasing

I've always enjoyed reading a good post or watching youtube videos on product empties. Weird as it sounds, there's something quite satisfying watching products being used up to the very last drop - just shows how good the product is! So we thought we would round up a few of our products which have been completely used up and have made it on to our repurchase list.

Chanel Perfection Lumiere - If you read our previous post, you'll know this foundation is one of our all time favourites and without no question just has to be repurchased - in fact we already have our back up purchased! Not going into too much detail as you can read more about it here, this foundation really is the all-rounder, giving medium coverage with a natural flawless finish. I find this foundation perfect to use all year round as its not drying or too dewy, but just the perfect semi-matt finish. Although it looks like its not empty - trust me, this thing isn't pumping out anymore product!

Max Factor False Lash Effect Mascara -  Again another one of our favourites we've mentioned before on the blog (here), this is a mascara which gives some serious volume to your lashes! We literally can not get enough of it and whats even better is that its affordable to purchase at the drugstore. Definitely worth the repurchase.

Dermalogica Precleanse - Not having tried an oil based cleanser before, this was a pretty new product to get used to and I have to say, its definitely hands down the best thing that has happened to us when it comes to taking off makeup! It breaks down makeup so easily without leaving a greasy layer afterwards. Make-up wipes have officially been replaced. This is a product we just have to repurchase without any doubt. We'll have a more in depth review on this cleanser on the blog soon!

Garnier Caffeine Anti-drk Circles Eye Roll on - This product has officially rolled out its last bit of concealer and its time for that all important repurchase. What appeals the most about this concealer is the consistency, being so light weight, it almost feel undetectable on the skin, whilst still giving reasonable amount of coverage under the eyes. We both love using this on a daily basis (read more about it here).

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Our All Time Favourite Foundation

From all the foundations we have tried, there is no doubt that the Chanel Perfection Lumiere tops the charts for us. This year we did discover the Giorgio Armani luminous silk foundation which is still absolutely amazing but the perfection lumiere just has that extra special 'something', which is why it remains to this day, the unbeatable reigning champion in our eyes.

Lets start with the coverage - this foundation gives a medium coverage, with potential to be full, as it definitely has that buildable factor. I find it covers redness in my skin really well (partiulalry on those rough skin days) and manages to even out the skin tone effortlessly. I love the finish this foundation leaves which is a sort of semi-matt - not too dewy and not completely matt either, just the perfect balance which is wearable on a daily basis.

Moving on to application, the Chanel Perfection Lumiere has no trouble easily gliding onto the skin, and meshing with your own complexion giving a very 'skin' like finish. The real techniques buffing brush works a dream in applying this foundation - one pump gives a nice even layer over the face, however if we're after that extra bit of coverage, we like use the real techniques expert face brush, which leaves skin looking close to flawless! When it comes to staying power, this foundation has got your back. I've worn it at times early in the morning and it has lasted me all day, without any touchups.

Packaging wise you can't go wrong with Chanel - you have your glass bottle with a pump which I know some foundations don't come with and can be a real nightmare! Also Chanel products never fail to smell good, including this foundation, it just smells so nice! - added bonus right?

Now to the downside, with the £36 price tag, it certainly doesn't come cheap when to comes to foundations. But seeing as it is one of our favourite foundations it is definitely worth the investment.
(We wear it in the shade 50 beige)

You can purchase it HERE

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Perfect Red Lip Combo

If you asked us at the start of 2014 to wear a bold red lip, the answer would have been a straight no! However things have definitely changed since then - we've been experimenting with more colours recently and feeling much more comfortable in them. Rocking a bold red lip can take a lot of confidence for some people and this was definitely the case for us, but this year we have officially fallen in love with the classic red lip which gives such a statement look to your makeup. If you're struggling to find a stay-proof red lip colour, then this post may just have the answer.

There are so many shades and formulas of red lip colours out there, but the killer combo which never fails, is the Mac Ruby woo lipstick along with the the Max Factor lip pencil in red rush. Mac's Ruby woo is a super matt, red lipstick with a blue undertone - it has an amazing colour which I feel will suit a lot of skin tones. I like to use the Max factor lip pencil first, all over the lip to create a sort of stain and then apply ruby woo on top - both of these together are fool proof and seriously does not budge all day! What are your favourite lip colour combination you like to use?

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Givenchy's Little Black Box

Say hello to one of the cutest black boxes from Givenchy. This is the Givenchy mini prismes set which is a travel friendly box carrying makeup essentials which you can use on the go. Now I know this isn't a newly released product but seriously this box of beauty goodness has won us over and deserves a place in the spotlight. I'm just a huge lover of miniature sized products, their perfect for travelling and the perfect size for being handbag friendly, this little box however takes it to whole new level. Its more like a mini chest of drawers which contains mini sizes of some of Givenchy's luxurious beauty products - a face powder, blush and eyeshadow quad - can it get any cuter than that?

The face powder - Le Prisme Visage Mat This powder consists of four different shades which is genius as it blends to give the perfect colour and shade for my skin and leaves a beautiful matt finish, without making the skin look dull or flat.  

The blush - Le Prisme Blush quad in vintage pink Sticking with the four shaded powder theme, this blush has had had a lot of love throughout the autumn season. It has a combination of soft pinks to deep pinks which blends to give an amazing autumnal colour. Sometimes I like to concentrate more on the deeper pinks to give a richer colour or the softer pink for a more natural flush. You really get the best of both with this blush. 

The eyeshadow - Le Prisme Yeux Quator in Purple Show A stunning eyeshadow quad in mini version - just wow! I love all the shades in this quad which gives a lovely satin eye look when used as a combination. The shades aren't too shimmery or matt either, just perfectly lies in between. The formula is very smooth and easy to apply with pretty good pigmentation. 

Also can't forget the mini brushes applicators that come along with it, although we prefer to use our own brushes. This would make a perfect gift for beauty lovers!

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