Happy New Year + Blogging New Years Resolutions

I just wanted to wish all you lovely readers a Happy New Year. I hope you have a great night, and a fabulous 2014. I also wanted to list a few blogging resolutions I am going to make. 

The first is all about schedules.


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I'm not an organized person, but without any kind of schedule or deadlines I just don't do things. I'll start them, but they never get finished until they HAVE to be done. Over the last few months of 2013, this started effecting my blog. I have so many drafts (73 at this moment) and now of them are finished. Some need pictures to added, some need to be written and others just need to be published. 

For 2014, I am vowing to sort myself out. I am going to give myself a blog schedule to keep things up to date and I am not letting this blog go without a post for a month or something silly like that. 

So, to give myself some kind of deadlines I am posting on: 
Monday 
Wednesday
Friday 

I also plan on posting at least once a week over on my book blog which is called A Little Bit if Literature (have a read here).  


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The second resolution is to interact with more bloggers. That includes both over the internet (in comments, on twitter etc.) or in person by going to more meet ups and events. I don't really put myself out there so I am going to change that. It would be nice to make some blogging friends because none of my real friends really get this blog or even know about it. 

 
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The third resolution is to try and improve the quality of my posts. I sometimes don't proof read my posts and I rush to get them up. I don't think about what I'm writing and I really need to. I think by improving the quality of my blog posts I can help my blog grow over the next year.

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Merry Chirstmas #bbloggers

I don't often just take the opportunity to just say one little thing to the people who read my blog. I love sharing my thoughts on things and sharing reviews but today I just wanted to say
 
I hope you all have a fabulous Christmas and New Year. Sorry everything has been a bit slow on my blog for the last few months but I promise for the next year I am going to stick with a schedule. 

Thanks for reading this year, and I hope you enjoy the next year of Some Sparkle and Shine. 

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Wet n Wild Petal Pusher Palette + Mini Blog Sale

The Petal Pusher is a well sort after palette, especially by beauty addicts that find it hard to hold of Wet N Wild. The selection of 8 shadows are all gorgeous hues of purples ranging for very slightly tinted lilac white right up to a dark charcoal with purple shimmers running through it. 




Each shadow is labelled with a position on the eye, although I would use them in other places as well as what Wet N Wild have dictated.  The labels make this palette ideal for beginners who aren't used to creating eye looks, and the price makes it even better for those just starting out. 





The first is white shadow base with really subtle lilac shimmer. It's not the most pigmented of the bunch but is a gorgeous brow bone highlight. 

The lighter eyelid shade is a nice lavender shade with a golden shimmer. 

The crease shade on the left is the lighter of the two but are nice and deep. It's not matte but it's probably one of the most matte shades in the palette. Some might call it satin. There aren't any obvious shimmers or glitter and it works to subtly add colour to the eye. 

The lighter definer shade is an amazing blue purple with sliver glitters. I wouldn't use it to define anything but it looks lovely over the lid. The silver shimmers really pop when you load it up on the lid. 

 



Next up you have a pink/lilac shade, swatched it gives a shimmer to the skin that hints at the purple hue when it hits certain lights.  

The darker of the lid shades is a medium purple with tonnes of golden shimmer specks. The best part about the shade is that the glitter doesn't fall out all over your face and you can still see on the eye.

The darker of the crease shades is an almost exact dupe for MAC beauty marked. the black base is loaded up with pinky purple glitters that just give it a little something special.

The last shade is a black, with a similar depth to the beautymarked dupe. It has some subtle shimmers running through it but when you blend the shade you cannot really see them.  

All of the shades have a nice texture to them, with only one complaint. The white shade is a little chalky but still useable. If you really want to pack on the colour, you can get fall out but if you use a little and build it up it is easy to avoid. 

If you love purple shades, and want to grab a bargain I would highly recommend this. I know it's hard to get hold of here in the UK, but if you can get it  I would grab it. 

With this great review in mind, I'm not one for the purple shades. I tend to stick with greens, browns and charcoal colours so if anyone wants this palette (it's been used about x5) it is yours for £5.50 including postage (within the UK). 

Just email me: sparkleandshineblog@gmail.com if you fancy snapping this up! Thanks for reading

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Vivo Ultimate Base Concealer Kit

The Vivo Ultimate Base Concealer Kit is a kit that is supposed to help you create flawless skin.  It comes in just one shade, contains two "creamy" concealers, one setting powder and a liquid highlighter. The packaging is really simple, but works really well. You have four products in one so the size is actually really nice.

I'm not a huge fan of this, and I'm not surprised to be quite honest. I have never really gotten on with 'creamy concealers'  but I thought this one might change the bad experiences I've had with them. 

It comes in one colour,which isn't the best. It work for me, and I would say I'm about an NC/NW15-20 in MAC but if you are paler or of a darker skin tone, this isn't going to work very well for you. They are both similar in colour but each has a slightly different tone to it, pink and yellow. 

They offer little to no coverage, and even when I managed to build something on my skin it didn't last very long at all. The texture is far from the creamy concealer I was expecting, and is actually very tacky and hard to work with. It doesn't blend easily, and it leaves a horrid feeling on the skin even with powder over the top.

The setting powder is fine. I don’t think you can go wrong with a simple setting powder but I don’t use it because I don’t use the palette at all.

The one redeeming thing in this palette is the gorgeous highlighter that comes with it. It’s a small size, in a cute little black tube, with a doe foot applicator. It’s a beautiful white highlighter with a pinky/peachy iridescent sheen to it. I love it! I chuck this in my bag, and it helps me keep that nice glowy look everyone is after. 

Overall I wouldn't recommend the Vivo Cosmetics Ultimate Base Concealer Kit.  It is cheap (you can purchase it here) but it's not worth that. I would recommend trying something like the Bobbi Brown Creamy Concealer (from £18)  if you want something like that, but I am going to stick with the Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer (£4.19) for blemishes and something like the Maybelline Fit Me Concealer for under my eyes (£5.99)

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Do excuse the terrible pictures here. I had so many technology fails that this is probably about the best I could do.  

Look Beauty Love Your Lips Lip Smoothie

I took the opportunity to pick up the Look Beauty Love Your Lips Lip Smoothie when I saw that the Look Beauty website had a brilliant 50% off everything. I thought it would have been a limited offer but it's still going, so I think the company might just be trying to get rid of their stock before shutting down. 

Anyways, as I said, I picked up the Lip Smoothie in hopes I would find something perfect for my gross lips. They are dry, cracked and flaky all year round but with winter here, they are just a big mess.  

The Lip Smoothie promised to give me ultra soft, kissable lips and with continued use it does. This scrub, used in combination with a intense lip balm like Dr Lipp Nipple Balm for Lips helps soothe my lips and keep them softer and smoother. 

 

 

It took me some getting used too because it really doesn't have much grit to it. I was used to using something like the Lush Lip Scrubs which are mostly all sugar but this scrub has some grit/scruby parts suspended in a liquid that helps condition the lips. At first it doesn't feel like it works as well as the Lush alternative but with a couple of uses I found that, with the help of the conditioning suspension, it works better. 

The scent is nice and minty but not to over powering. It's not really stong and unlike some minty scented things the fragrance doesn't sting my lips when they are chapped. Look claim that the minty scent helps plump the lips, but to be honest, that is just a claim to far for me and I don't see any kind of plumping results.

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Nourish Golden Glow Illuminating Face Shimmer

This post cannot start any other way than me declaring my absolute love for the Nourish Golden Glow Illuminating Face Shimmer. This bottle of golden goodness is one of the best items I've tried in a while and I will be repurchasing it the second it starts running low. 

The Nourish Golden Glow Face Shimmer is a 30ml bottle of a gorgeous golden liquid highlighter that would be beautiful on just about any skin tone. The golden tint to the shade is not to warm or cool, or to rusty like some golden colours can be. The closest comparison I can think of, with regards to the formula, is Soap and Glory Hocus Focus (which happens to be one of my holy grail products). The only difference is the colour of the shimmer that runs through the liquid. The Soap and Glory alternative is pink based making it great for paler, cool skin tones but the golden base of this makes it perfect for nearly all skin tones. 

I use one pump of this mixed in with my foundation or moisturizer to give my usually dull skin a bit more of a radiance, but it can also be used on the high points of the face over your base as a highlighter. Used either way, the product gives the skin a radiant glow without any glitter or obnoxious chunky shimmer. The smooth formulation gives the skin a glow that looks as if it comes from within rather than something that it piled onto the skin to fake a natural glow. 

The bottle is gorgeous, which is just another great thing about this product. The frosted glass is covered with a label that is beautifully decorated and something that someone of any age could appreciate. 

I simply cannot rave about this enough. I works well on my dry skin, but doesn't make my oily nose any worse than before. It looks great used under foundation or mixed in with it and because you need so little of the product the 30ml bottle lasts absolutely ages. You can pick it up here for £14.95, or on Feel Unique where you can get it shipped internationally for free.

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*PR Sample 

A Big Thank You Secret Santa! #londonsecretsantameet

So, last Saturday I attended the London Secret Santa Meet Up that was arranged by the brilliant Clare from A Bit of This and That and Emma from Meet The Millards. 

We had a lovely chat at Tiger Tiger before the group split up and hit up the shops. I was good, being completely skint and all, and didn't spend anything I didn't need to, but I did get a lovely secret santa present (thanks whoever you were). 

Here are some shopping snaps before we head into the pressie pics:


 Chocy Wocky whatever the shop is called is possibly the most beautiful chocolate I've ever seen but FAR to expensive when galaxy tastes as yummy as it does for 65p. 

 
Carnaby Street looks super festive, and the little robins are adorable. Also the statue in the roundabout at Piccadilly Circus was encased in what I think is going to be or was a snow globe.

Now, onto the presents:

It came in a lovely bag and box with a selection of little prezzies inside. I unashamedly ripped them open, suddenly in the Christmas spirit. 



The lush goodies immediately caught my eye and like with any lush product I had to give them a sniff before I even thought about what they were. They both smell gorgeous and both things I would totally purchase myself. The first thing was the Santa lip scrub which is fragranced with a gorgeous cola scent and the second thing was a generous chunk of  Snow Globe. I'm addicted to both already! 

I got a few nail bits as well which I going to further inspire me to cut out the nasty nail biting habit. The Bourjois dotting tool is super cute and I think I might try some kind of Christmas tree nail and use this to create the ornaments on the tree. The two paperchase nail art wraps are gorgeous and I can't wait to try them out. When my nails are in better condition, and I feel like doing something nice with them these will be the first things out of my collection. They are gorgeous design, no fuss and super easy. 

The last two things that I got are a nice minty lip balm from Boots and a hand cream from The Body Ship. The lip balm has a nice minty scent but unlike some it doesn't burn my lips. I'll be keeping on hand to help soothe my lips now winter has set in. This in combo with the Lush scrub are going to save my lips! 

The Body Shop hand cream is brilliant. It does take a little longer to sink in that I would like but the smell and effects of it totally make up for that. The festive little thing smells of Christmas-y cranberry goodness and really leaves my hands feeling nourished.  




I also got a lovely goodie bag from the organizers. The bag contained a great ornament from Mum's craft. It will have a place next to my book shelf.  Love from Misbehave was included with a nice pair of earrings and a nice discount code. I cannot wait to try the product from Bomb Cosmetics when I get home from Christmas and can finally enjoy a bath rather than a shower. The simply B goodies were a great bonus, and I'm addicted to the lip balm. I cannot wait to try the face scrub from apivita. I've wanted to try them forever, and an apricot face scrub is pretty classic. 






Once again thanks to who ever my Secret Santa was, I wish I knew so I could thank you in person. I would also like to say a big thank you to Clare and Emma for organising the meet up. It was fab to meet you all, and I hope to see you all again sometime soon! 

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Blog Sale December 2013

I hope you enjoy this blog sale! Please let me know in the comments, or via twitter (@sparkleeshinee) or email (sparkleandshineblog@gmail.com) what you would like and I'll get back to you with a price. 

All prices are negotiable so haggle a little if you like. 

This is international as well as for my fellow UK buddies. 

Postage:
It is all dependant on the weight of the items you order, but for UK residents it won't exceed £3. Let me know what you want and I'll get back to you ASAP with the price of the shipping. 

PS: Sorry for the crappy photos. My camera has  broken. Let's hope Santa bring me a new one, or some money to get it fixed!

Clinique Butter Lipstick Palette (Used x2)  £1.50

The Only Way Is Essex Eyeshadow Palette (Used x2-3 each) £1

Illamasqua Blusher in Thrust (Used x3) £8 (SOLD)

Sleek Blusher Palette in Sweet Cheeks (Limited Edition) (Used x2 for each blusher) £4.50 (SOLD)

ELF Cream Blush and Contour Duo (Used x2) £1

Bourjois Bronzing Primer (Used 4-5) £2

Korres Wild Rose Foundation in  WRF2
(Used x1) £3

Max Factor Face Finity Foundation in Light Ivory (Used x2) (No Lid) £2

MAC Pan Refills Eyeshadows: 

All brought in store or directly from MAC Cosmetics online.

Top Row: 

Sketch  (Used x5-6) £5 (Pending)

Club (Used x3-4) £5 (Pending)

Green Smoke (Used x2-3) £5.50

Bottom Row: 

Shale (Used x1-2) £5.50

Romp (Used x3-4) £5

Retrospeck (slight dip) £4

L'Oreal Glam Shine Glossy Stain in Juliet £1.50 (Used x5-6) (Pending)

Urban Decay Super Saturated High Gloss Lip Colour in Theodora £5 (Used x2, never sharpened)

L'Oreal Glam Shine Glossy Stain in Lolita £1.50 (used x6-7) (Pending)

L'Oreal Colour Infallible Eyeshadow in Sassy Marshmallow £1.50 (Used x3) 

MeMeMe Dew Pot in Midnight Mist £2 (Used x2) 

Urban Decay 24/7 Glide On Eye Pencil in Zero (Size you get with palettes)  £3 (Used x2-3. Never sharpened)

Wet N Wild Ultimate Minerals Loose Eyeshadow in 15 Diamonds £1 (Used x2) 

 

Wet N Wild Colour Icon Palette in Comfort Zone £4 (Used x4-5 for each shadow)

Wet N Wild Colour Icon Palette in Petal Pusher  £4 (Used x3-4 for each shadow)

 

Revlon Colour Burst Lip Gloss in Crystal Water £1 (Used x7-8) 

Rimmel Vinyl Gloss in Cosmic £2 (Brand New) 

Barry M Lip Gloss in 9 £1 (Used x2-3)

Barry M Lip Gloss (I think it's Strawberry Milk) £1.50 (Brand New) 

YSL Golden Gloss in 40 £8 (Used x6-8)

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