Fragrance Direct

Today I thought I'd do a review on a makeup and beauty website. I'm going to review Fragrance Direct, which I'm sure some of you have heard of. Fragrance direct have up to 70% off  makeup, beauty and fragrance. At first I didn't think it was real because it's so cheap! There's lots of different brands, some more well known than others, but they are all reduced. 

They have a huge range of makeup and fragrance, but they also have skin care, hair products, and little gift sets too, all of which are reduced. 

I've bought lots from Fragrance Direct in the past. I've heard some people say that their order hasn't been packaged properly so the products have been damaged, but I've never had that problem. Sometimes however the thing that I've ordered isn't the thing that turns up! It's only happened a few times but obviously it's a bit annoying! I once ordered a Une mascara and a Bourjois mascara turned up. I wasn't paticularly bothered but it's not great. However, when you're paying so little for stuff I guess a few little mistakes are more forgivable! 

The delivery is pretty quick too- I usually go for the cheaper option at £1.99  and it arrives within a week on the whole, or there is a slightly more expensive option at £2.99 which promises to arrive within 2-4 working days. Lots of shops (I'm looking at you Topshop!) charge quite a lot for their standard delivery so I think Fragrance Direct is very cheap.

I would definitely recommend it to anyone who doesn't mind buying makeup online and likes a good deal!

Let me know your experiences with Fragrace Direct, or if you can recommend any other good websites to buy makeup!

Here are some of the things I've bought from Fragrance Direct in the past.

Helen x

Book of the month

The book I've been enjoying this month is 'A half forgotten song' by Katherine Webb. I have it on my iPad and it's available from the Kindle store for £3.66. You can get it in book form from Amazon for £3.85.

The book is about a man called Zach, an artist who's marriage has ended and who goes to Dorset to find out about Charles Aubrey, an elusive artist. Little is known about  Aubrey, but Zach meets Dimity, whom Aubrey drew and through the stories she tells him, finds out more about Charles. Whilst in Dorset, Zach becomes friends with Hannah, but he becomes worried about what she is becoming involved in. Zach also senses that Dimity is haunted by something, and is curious to understand what.

I absolutely love this book. It gripped me and the ending was completely unexpected. The description was amazing and you could really imagine sitting in Dimity's cottage or exploring the beach with Zach. Unlike in some books, all the characters are very believable and likeable (though Dimity is hard to understand, and like at times) which I think makes it a really enjoyable, and quite easy read.

I would definitely recommend this, and it's a really good price. 

Quick pretty nail colour

I painted my nails yesterday so I thought I'd do a quick post to show you them. 

I painted my nails with a clear base coat and then applied Make Up Academy's Plum Noir which is a lovely rich,as the name suggests, plum colour! I applied two coats of this to get a really intense even colour. I then applied a clear top coat and then used my O.P.I silver glitter polish on the ends of my thumb nails just to make it a bit more interesting. 

Hope you liked this post!

 Helen x

Illamasqua review

I purchased some Illamasqua makeup recently so I thought I'd do a short review on it.I'd never heard of Illamasqua until a couple of months ago so when I saw they had a sale on I thought it was a great way to try out some of their products. Whilst Illamasqua is a lot pricier than the makeup brands I usually buy from, I think you can definitely tell in the quality-the box they came in was really well presented!

I bought the cream foundation, in the shade 210.  I've never tried a cream foundation before and was worried it would be too heavy as I tend to just use a bb cream on a daily basis. I'd say this is a medium coverage foundation, but it definitely didn't feel heavy on my skin-in fact it felt just like my bb cream! 210 looks a little orange in swatch but it's actually the perfect match for me as my skin is quite yellow toned. The Illamasqua website is really helpful as they say what skin tone each foundation colour would suit which is good if you're ordering online to get a good match. I use my Rimmel Stay Matte powder over this foundation and don't have to re-apply it throughout the day which considering I have quite oily skin is really good!This was £5 in the sale and is normally £23.

I also bought a pure pigment in furore. I'm not sure if this is still available as I can't see it on the website. You only need a tiny amount as it's really pigmented. This is a lovely highlighter and I use it on my cheekbones when I feel I need a bit more colour. (i.e most days due to the rubbish English weather!) I can't remember how much this was in the sale but I think it was less than £5. I'm not sure that I would re-purchase this again as I think you could probably get a highlighter that does the same for a lot less. Does anyone have any good ones they'd recommend?

Overall, I would definitely recommend Illamasqua foundation, though I'm not completely sold on the highlighter.

On a separate note, I'm going to try to post on a more regular basis as I've been pretty disorganised recently!

Helen x