YOU Beauty Christmas Advent Calendar 2014

Who's excited for Christmas? I know I am and my mum surprised me with the 'YOU Beauty' Advent Calendar so now I'm even more excited!

I am sure you have seen lots of beauty advent calendars flying around the blogosphere from the likes of Benefit and Ciaté. However, this one from 'YOU Beauty' is new to the scene and is perfect for us beauty lovers as it features a whole range of our favourite brands; including Essie, Benefit, Laura Mercier, Liz Earl, John Freida and many more.  Each day you open up the door to a new product, ranging from makeup and haircare, to skin care and bath and body products.

I have been very good and left it tucked away so i'm not tempted to have a sneaky peek inside some of the doors, so I am super excited for the 1st of December so I can start to reveal the goodies and try out some new products!

I don't want to spoil it too much by telling you everything that is inside however if you want to find out more take a look here.

Have you got your hands on a beauty advent calendar this year? Which ones do you like the look of?

Sam x

#QuizDressNails Nail Art Competition

Today I'm back with another nail art look especially for the #quizdressnails competition running at the moment! If you don't know about this competition, all you have to do is pick a dress from the Quiz website and create a nail art inspired by that dress. My nail art look was inspired by the 'Blue Tropical Embellished Print Tunic dress' and here they are...

I love the different tones,ombré effects and patterns in the dress and I thought they would make a super fun nail art. 

If you want to be in the chance of winning some Quiz vouchers all you have to do is:

1. Pick a Quiz dress that inspires you
2. Create your nail art design
3. Post a picture of your nails and chosen dress on your blog
4. Follow @beautyuk and @quizclothing on Twitter and tweet your entry using the hashtag #quizdressnails

Competition closes: 30th November so hurry you have just over a week left to enter!

If you enter be sure to let me know in the comments below, I would love to see your design.

Happy Nail Art-ing! Sam x

Cow Print Nail Art Tutorial

I was looking for some nail inspiration the other day, when I stumbled on a very talented nail artist known on Instagram as Sruiq. She did some super cute cow print nails which I just had to have a go at myself and here is the final look...

I began by painting all my nails in a white base, apart from my ring finger which I painted in a nude shade. Next taking a black polish onto a dotting tool I created the cow print and the outline of the cows face. Going in with a light pink shade, I created the cows nose and using the white polish again, I created the ears and face of the cow. Finally I went back in with the black and white polishes to create the cows eyes and once everything was dry polished my nails off with a top coat. 

The nail varnishes I used were Illamasqua 'Boosh' & 'Scorch'; Nails Inc 'Porchester Square' and No17 'Pink Lemonade'.

And there you have your cow nail art! What do you think of this look?

Happy Nail Art-ing!

Sam x

Tanya Burr Cosmetics Lashes: Girls Night Out

As I'm sure most of you know, late last month Tanya Burr added to her cosmetics line by introducing lashes into the mix.

If you know me, you know I am a HUGE fan of lashes so I obviously had to run to Superdrug and pick up a pair! They come in a range of different styles, from super natural day time lashes, individual & corner lashes, as well as volumous evening lashes, all with really cute names. I love a dramatic lash so I went for 'Girls Night Out'.

I love that the band on the lashes is super thin, meaning you don't have to worry if you don't want a thick black liner! You can easily get them close to your natural lashes and they're super comfortable. I also found them really easy to apply!

The glue that comes with the lashes is also amazing; if you have ever tried the Illamasqua lashes, the glue is very very similar. It applies almost with a pearlised glow and dries transparent. The small glue wand/applicator makes it easy to apply to the band and dries quickly so you don't have to worry about the lash moving when you have dropped it into the right place.

Im heading out tonight so I thought I would create a makeup look and show you what they look like on. What I love about these lashes is even though they fill out my natural lash line to create definition and volume, they don't look too heavy and they definitely don't weigh my eyes down! 

Overall I really love the Tanya Burr lashes that I picked up and I will definitely be trying more styles - the 'Date Night' style is the next on my list!! All the styles are priced at £5.99 and I believe you can pick them up from either Superdrug or FeelUnique.

Have you tried these lashes yet or any of the other Tanya Burr Cosmetics products? What are you favourites?

Sam x