(Another!) Beauty Box Swap

Hey there! It's been a long time since I posted I know. I've been poorly and in and out of hospital the last month or so so that's why there has been silence from me for a while! I'm happy to say that I'm now back and raring to go with regular posting again!

So during my lack of posting, I was asked by the lovely Georgie from Bean's Beauty Blog to do a swap with her. 

I never pass up the opportunity to do a swap with another blogger so of course I said yes! And Georgie being the lovely person that she is asked me if there was anything in particular that I wanted to try out so I told her that we cant get MUA products here in Ireland so she very kindly said that she would get me some of their stuff to try out!

 I received my box from Georgie last week when I was feeling very poorly and sorry for myself and it really lifted my spirits and I'm so happy with everything I was sent, Georgie did an excellent job! I sent my package off to Georgie a few days ago, and I'm looking forward to seeing what she thinks of it! 

Anyway! here's what you want to see! The goodies! :)

   

My box contained some really great things as you can see! Georgie sent me two face masks which I'm starting to have a collection of these days funnily enough! She gave me a cucumber cooling mask and a tropical self heating one which I used last night and I have to say it was really good, and my skin is so hydrated and feeling so soft today :) 

The part I'm most excited about is the two MUA palettes! Georgie picked out two perfect ones for me the Undress Me Too palette and the Ever After Matte palette. Both are gorgeous and exactly the kind of palettes that I would pick out myself. I've been using the Undress Me Too palette everyday since I got it and I love it, its very similar to Naked 2. I haven't played around with the Matte palette yet but I'm going to break it out soon and I'm hoping its going to be as good as it looks.

Georgie also sent me two MUA blushers one called Cupcake which is a really lovely peachy pink shade and Marshmallow which is a super bright looking pink! I haven't used them yet but from swatching them they seem great and feel really buttery in texture.

There is also an MUA Mosaic Bronzer in the box too, but unfortunately it arrived broken so I haven't been able to use it, if anyone knows how to fix broken powders let me know because I'm really keen to fix it so I can use it as it looks really nice.

One of the last few items that Georgie sent to me are MUA's Hide & Conceal Concealer which is a traditional twist up lipstick style concealer. I haven't got on too well with these kind of concealers before but I have to say I'm finding this one to be working well for me and it blends nicely too which has always been a problem for me with these kind of concealers but its working well and I'm really liking it so far. 

Georgie also included a Miss Sporty Eyeshadow Duo which is really nice actually. We get Miss Sporty here but they're not really a brand I've tried much from and I have to say this little duo is pretty nice and works well so it's made me want to try more from them.

The last item I received is the Up All Night Mascara and I think it's from One Directions line with MUA but I'm not sure so hopefully someone can confirm that for me? I haven't opened it yet as I don't want it to dry out while I'm trying to use up other opened mascaras but I really cant wait to get into this. From what I've seen on other blogs it seems right up my street - a volumising mascara that has something to do with One Direction - that can't be any better in my eyes! ha ha!

I think Georgie did such a great job and she picked out things that I really love and have been enjoying using so much that I can see a lot of these products - especially the palettes making their way into my daily make up routine. If there's anything I recived that you'd like to see a full post on let me know and i'll be happy to do it for you.

So thank you so much to Georgie for asking me to do this swap! If you're not familiar with her blog you should pop over and have a look, she's such a lovely person and her blog is great and well worth a read!

Hope you're all well and i'll be back to regular posting over the next week! 

Secret Valentine Beauty Box Swap

You might have seen me mention a few times that a while back I signed up to take part in a Secret Valentine swap that was set up by Victoria from Vickie Blogs and Laura from Tease Flutter Pout, if you're not familiar with their blogs check them out, they're two lovely girls and they both have really great blogs that are well worth a read!

For the swap, we were all assigned someone to buy for. We were each given all of our person's links to find out more about them and put together a box for them based on what we thought they would like and the swap is also Valentine's themed which I thought was lovely as it gave us a chance to throw in a few nice extra bits for our person! The idea of the swap is also to keep our identity a secret from the person we were buying for - which makes things even more fun! I loved putting a box together for the blogger I was assigned and I really can't wait to see what she thinks about it!

It was also great to receive my Secret Valentine's box! It arrived nearly 3 weeks ago and I decided that I wasn't going to open it until Valentine's day - which is today! It's been so difficult to not tear into the package and it has been teasing me so much!

My Secret Valentine wrapped the whole box in wrapping paper with hearts on it which was such a nice touch! It did however make it even harder to not tear into it! 

So this morning when I woke up I immediately grabbed the package and ripped it open! I have to say that I am so happy with everything in the box! My Secret Valentine has done a fantastic job and I'm so happy with everything, also the card is just so cute and perfect, even down to the message on the inside where they mentioned knowing that I have springer spaniels! Which made me think the sender did their homework, or that I may have had a conversation with them about my dogs because I remember talking to a few people on twitter about my dogs - either way that's some really good detective work! I also really liked the little heart shaped chocolates that were in the box too - they were really good! :) 

Let's have a look at what my lovely Secret Valentine sent me!

I couldn't be happier with what I was sent! In my box I received 2 Skin Wisdom face masks one is a peel off smoothing and brightening mask and the other a thermal mask. This is a brand that I'm not familiar with and also this couldn't be better timing to be given face masks as my skin has gone crazy, so I'm excited to try those!

I also got two soaps in my box and they're both lovely there's a heart shaped one from the body shop it doesn't say what the scent is but to me it smells of honey - I could be wrong! The other is A Dr.Bronner Hemp Rose Soap. It's fair trade and has organic oils, it smells fantastic and I'm looking forward to trying it out!

I also got a mini soap and glory Clean On Me Shower gel which I've been wanting to try forever but never wanted to purchase the full size in case I didn't like it so this is so great that its included!

There was a Vivo Colourwash Lipgloss in the shade Raring to go which is a lovely sheer watermelon shade of gloss. There were also 2 lip balms in my box one is a Honey balm which has really cute floral packaging with a bunny embossed on the lid. The other is an amazing smelling chocolate lip butter from The Bubbles & Butters company - it smells exactly like chocolate and I cant stop smelling it!

There was a mini L'Occitane foot cream and a really cute pair of socks with hearts on them, they're really soft and I cant wait to put them on - I love socks! ha ha

My final 2 items that I received are a Hello Kitty Magic flannel. I'm guessing that when you put it into water that it expands into a face cloth! I love little things like that and it was a really nice thing to include!

The last thing I got is my favourite out of everything I received! It's the Barry M Smokin' Hot Shadow & Blush Palette! I had my eye on these when they came out first but unfortunately my local boots doesn't stock them they only stock Barry M Nail polishes, so I was super happy to see this palette in my package! There's 6 shadows and a blush in the palette and it looks so lovely, cant wait to play around with it over the next few days!

I'm delighted with everything that I received and my Secret Valentine did such a good job putting it all together! I have lots of new stuff to try and not to mention most of what I received is from brands that I'm not familiar with so it's great to get to try new things! Thanks so much to my Secret Valentine! You did a fantastic job and your card and gifts put a big smile on my face today! :)

I'm so happy that I took part in this swap and I'm looking forward to reading everyone else's posts! If I get the chance to take part in something like this again I will, it has been so much fun!

Before I go I want to wish you all a Happy Valentines Day! Hope you're all being spoilt and having a great day! 

  

Beauty Box Swap

I have always loved reading beauty swap posts, they are probably one of my favourite type of blog posts to read. Recently I came across an Autumn Beauty Swap that was set up by Kat from Tales Of A Pale Face, who was looking for bloggers to pair together for a beauty swap. 

Not having a clue about how to go about arranging a swap myself, I signed up, and I'm so happy I did!

I was paired with the lovely Katrina, from Carousel Diary, who couldn't have been anymore of a better match to me for a swap if I had found her myself. 

We sent each other a few e-mails, letting each other know our likes and dislikes, and we also set a budget and decided to throw in a few of our own favourite items into the swap for each other to try out.

Katrina seemed to have pretty much the same tastes as me when it comes to beauty products, so I really enjoyed picking out things to send her, and hope she's enjoying them as much as I am enjoying hers

Her parcel had actually been sat at home for a few days before I could get to rip it open as I was away and it was killing me that it was there and  wasn't! So needless to say I dove straight into it when I got my hands on it yesterday!

L-R: Wet 'n' Wild Eyeliner/Brow pencils, Avene Ystheal+ eye cream, Bourjois mini polisher and file, Constance Carroll eyeshadow in 71, Wet 'n' Wild H20 Proof Mascara, Wet 'n' Wild Cover All concealer, Wet 'n' Wild Liquid Foundation

I'm so happy with everything Katrina sent me! 

There's a ton of Wet 'n' Wild products here for me to try which I'm so happy about as I've always wanted to try them out and we can't get their stuff here. 

I was also pleased that Katrina included the Avene eye cream in here as I'm quite obsessed with finding one that I like lately! 

The foundation and concealer are a little too dark for me for every day wear, but I'm sure they'll work when I have fake tan on and I actually ran out of a darker foundation for that purpose a while back!

I also got a lovely little note and a necklace too! :)

I've really loved doing this swap, and would love to do more in the future, so if anyone would ever like to do a swap with me get in touch!