Pre-Xmas beauty buys

I'm so excited to tell you that my Urban Decay Naked Palette arrived - yay!! Disappointingly i had to reorder from Boots as it was sold out at Debenhams despite them taking my order, not good customer service guys. Anyway Boots can deliver to your store free of charge and don't forget the points. I think this is possibly the most beautiful palette i own, all the colours are amazing and i love the combination of the different eyeshadow textures from shimmer to matte, perfect for day and night. I was so excited to use the palette that the following day i decided to experiment for work, but i didn't really give myself enough time and went a little crazy with the shimmer shadows that i ended redoing my eye makeup 4 times, not happy as I've wasted the primer already. I got a little frustrated so haven't got an EOTD to post but rest assured the primer i absolutely love and can't believe it's not been in my life before - this is one product that is going to become a staple of my daily make-up routine bye-bye creased eyeshadow, hello smouldering smokey eyes! I used the primer under an Avon smokey grey combo and it lasted all day, so no need for lunchtime touch-ups, although after the morning i had i was still trying to remove the amount of glitter drop-out i had all over my face from playing around with the shimmers - best left for night i think.

Urban Decay Naked Eyeshadow Palette



From L-R; Virgin, Sin, Naked, Sidecar, Buck, Half Baked, Smog, Darkhorse, Toasted, Hustle, Creep, Gunmetal.

I won't bore you with the same spiel as everyone else or the swatches as there are plenty already out there in the blog world and on eBay, but my opinion is i prefer the darker shades, my personal favourites are Darkhorse, Smog, Hustle, Creep and Gunmetal. I sometimes find bronze and golds hard to work with because of my olive skin tone so I'll be looking for some tutorials on YouTube for some tips, if anyone has any for me to try please feel free to share.

Now I've mentioned before i work in a health spa and unfortunately for my bank account we have a beauty shop (and a generous 25% discount) which just so happens to have had their latest delivery of Christmas gift sets. These usually sell out fast and with over 100 therapists at work i need to get in there first. The gift sets are amazing value for money and make great gifts for the family. My mum is always partial to an Elemis Pro-Collagen Quartz set!

I picked up some Spa Find (sometimes referred to as Finders) sets, which is a natural mineral skincare brand. Their products include Dead Sea Minerals and organic plant extracts great for re-hydrating the skin. They don't contain prabens or genetically modified organisms (GMO's) and are hypo-allergenic and importantly not tested on animals, thumbs up! Spa Find is extremely good for people who suffer from dry skin conditions such as eczema or psoriasis as their products are really gentle on the skin including their mineral exfo which is a fave of mine, also they can be used by people with an external nut allergy. I should be on commission hehe!

I got two gift sets, the first is the Lovely Glow Spa Luxury Exfoliation Set which costs £25 but worth £45 (lucky me, i get a 10% staff discount).

Spa Find Lovely Glow gift set



A peek of what's inside...

Included is:
- Radiance Anti-Ageing Cranberry Salt Brushing 500g
- Heavenly Hydration Mineralizing Bath Shower Gel 15ml
- Heavenly Hydration Mineralizing Body Lotion 15ml
- Heavenly Hydration Hand Care Cream 15ml
- Luxury Spa Candle ( smells de-lish!)

The second set is the Lovely Body & Hair Spa Body & Hair Set for deep nourishment £35 worth £92.

Spa Find Lovely Body & Hair gift set

Spa Find inside sneak peek

This set is bloody brilliant if i do say so as the products are FULL SIZE!!!
Included:
- Heavenly Hydration Mineralizing Body Lotion 400ml
- Heavenly Hydration Mineralizing Bath Shower Gel 400ml
- Heavenly Hydration Mineralizing Shampoo 400ml
- Heavenly Hydration Mineralizing Conditioning Scalp and Body Mud 500ml
- Heavenly Hydration Salt Brushing 50g
- Luxury Pumpkin Wash Puff

I bought both body sets but there are others available including face and hands. I do have duplicates of the products so i will be putting all the sample sizes in a gift set for Xmas for someone. The only downside to the sets is the packaging its a little cheap and tacky, a bit Superdrug, but I'll probably keep the smaller red bag for my ever-expanding cosmetics. Both gift sets come with  "Home Spa Regime" with instructions on how and when to use the products. Can you guess what I'll be doing tonight?

Please find the link below of details of all their gift sets for Christmas 2010,
http://www.spafindskincare.com/tradeonly/latestnews_2007.htm. It doesn't look like they've got the sets I've bought available to buy online but try emailing for stockists.


A quick NOTD to finish, i've painted my nails using the freebie Ciate nail polish from this month's Marie Claire in Dangerous Affair 013.



Ciate Dangerous Affair 013 without flash

Ciate Dangerous Affair 013 with flash


I can report it is day 2 and after a full day's work including typing there are no signs of chipping so so far so good. I did mention before that there is a 15% discount off Ciate on the box but there is also a 25% discount offered in the magazine p.131.

I wanted your opinion on FrontCover make-up from Boots, there deal of the week is a FrontCover To Go gift set complete with 20 removeable eyeshadows and interchangeable compact reduced from £35 to £16. Is it worth it and is the range any good? http://www.boots.com/en/Front-Cover-To-Go-Eye-Collection_1115227/?cm_mmc_o=HFzbkCjCWwclkwffwyCjCioviviCjC_zEEwyv&?cm_mmc_o=HFzbkCjCWwclkwffwyCjCioviviCjC%20C%20
They look ok and the price is good, it only runs until Thursday so i would love to hear from anyone on this please. To buy or not to buy?!

Much love xx