The Boy Next Door

Recently I've been doing a lot of reading so I haven't been watching too many films. But last night I took the time to watch The Boy Next Door. 

My sister and I have wanted to see this film ever since I saw the trailer. To be honest I'm not a big fan of JLo as an actress however, the film looked to be the kind of 'edge of seat' thriller that I like and the guy (Ryan Guzman) is hot... Lol.
The film started off pretty good and there was a good build up to the main story line. The acting was better than I had expected, but it still wasn't the best. I was really beginning to enjoy the film. The secrets, the delusion, the blackmail, etc. And then all of a sudden when it all went belly up. I expected more blackmailing and a bit more of 'thrill' but it never came.
Towards the end of the film he turned from a stalker to a full blown psycho! This just escalated to quickly in my opinion. To be honest I personally was disappointed with the ending.
Also some of the scenes in this movie are a bit OTT. The sex scenes were borderline "50 Shades Of Grey", and the gory scenes at the end were very graphic in parts. It was very shocking as I wasn't expecting it to be that kind of film. So if you are thinking of watching it here's your heads up!

I wouldn't rule out watching it again, but not entirely sure if I would recommend it. Although if you want to give it a watch and form your own opinion please feel free to share it with me.

xx

Inside My Makeup Bag

I know there is a lot of 'Beauty Bloggers' out there and people have their own ideas about makeup brands, but I just wanted to do a post of the products I use. I am not one for 'high end' makeup I use your everyday Boots/Superdrug high street makeup. Its affordable and in my opinion the products I use are just as good as some of the more expensive ranges.

FACE

I use L'Oreal True Match foundation in the shade 'N5' or 'Sand'. It is £9.99 in Boots, although I managed to get my last ones on offer, 2 for £15. Also Boots run their 3 for 2 offers every so often. Good to keep an eye out for them.

Its a liquid foundation that comes in a 30ml pump bottle. I use a foundation brush to apply it and the brush I use I bought for £1 so it wasn't expensive either. I think it goes onto my skin easily and it covers well. Also as its name states it comes in 20 different shades so finding your true match should be easily done. I know that it was for me.

For my bronzer I have using MUA Bronzer in Shade 2. MUA Cosmetics is only available in Superdrug stores and this bronzer is only £1! No that is not a special offer. As this post goes on you will be seeing a lot more MUA products and when you see the prices you will understand why I love them so much! I only use a small amount of bronzer on my face as I don't use blusher so I don't want to have big brown cheeks. Even so, this bronzer lasts for AGES! As you can see from my picture the writing has worn of the packaging I've had it that long. Bargain buy.

Then we have my highlighter. This is again MUA. It is called Undress Your Skin. It is a highlighting powder new to the MUA range. They have two shades in this 'Pink Shimmer' and 'Iridescent Gold'. I bought the 'Iridescent Gold'. As it is new I only purchased this recently so I have only worn it a few times, but so far I really really like it. It is applied so effortlessly and I think it sits really well. It does have a bit of a shimmer to it but not in a childish glittery way and for £3 it is another bargain buy. 

Finally to finish off my face section of my makeup bag I have MUA Matte Perfect Loose Powder. This is only £2.50 for a 15g tub and it is Translucent. I LOVE this stuff. It is great for setting your makeup in place and I love that its translucent. I have never liked having a powder that I have had to pick a shade because I find it sometimes took the look of my foundation. This goes on so perfectly and because its 'Matte Perfect' it has what they call shine control. It really does take away any annoying shiny parts of your face. For me its my nose. Plus you don't need to use a lot of this so the tub will last for a very long time. 

EYES

I'll start with my two eyeshadow palettes. Both of these are MUA Cosmetics palettes. The first is the 'Glitter Ball' palette (Black) and the other 'Romantic Efflorescence' palette (White). There is 12 colours in each palette and each colour has their own name printed on the back of the packaging which I think is a nice touch as most eyeshadow palettes just come as they are. These are £4 each which again is very cheap for an eye palette and they are long lasting good quality. I don't have a favorite out of these two. I normally mix and match some of the colours from each palette when I am doing a smokey eye. Although I do tend to use 'Romantic Efflorescence' shades for a more daytime look and the the bolder 'Glitter Ball' shades for nights out. 

For my liquid eyeliner I recently have been using '2True Effortless Eye Liner' and it is 'Shade 1' which is Black. It is only £1.99 in Superdrug stores. Personally I don't know what to make of this product. For me it is certainly not effortless, but I don't know if that is due to the eyeliner itself or the fact that I am maybe not very good at putting it on. I find that sometimes I have to go over it again cause I can see lighter bits and this usually results in me making a mess of it especially when doing winged liner. But once I have it done it is amazing! It doesn't smudge, it stays put. Maybe if I master applying it I might like it a lot more but for £1.99 it is good value.

I then use a pencil eyeliner for my waterline and lower lash line. I use 'MUA' pencil eyeliner in 'Jet Black'. This is only £1 and again it's a great quality product. It stays on all day and the lid of the pencil has a built in sharpener! What more could you want!

I have been looking high and low for my perfect mascara. I've tried numerous ones from 'Avon' and cheaper ones from the likes of 'Miss Sporty'. Then I came across this, 'Barry M Showgirl'. I buy the 'Extra Lengthening' one and it only costs £4.99 in both Boots and Superdrug, not expensive at all. So far I love it. My lashes do look noticeably longer and I will definitely be sticking to this mascara.

Now for the brows! I have a friend who is a makeup artist that recommended this product to me, it is 'MUA Pro-Brow'. I use the 'Fair - Mid' shades. Love, love, love it! As you can see from the front of the packaging it has four sections. Two shades of brown eyebrow makeup, a highlighter and wax. I tell everyone about this product. It costs £3.50! And I think it is the best high street eyebrow makeup there is! It is a proper little kit. Inside is the Pro-brow makeup, mini tweezers, application brush and mirror on the underside of the lid! Honestly I have stocked up on this, definitely one of my "must haves".

LIPS

I have a small collection of lip liners. I only bought ones that I needed to go with the lipsticks that I use. The three 'MUA' ones I have are 'Brooding Plum', 'Pink Me Up' and 'Berry Wine' (which they class as an eyeliner). These are £1 each and like the eyeliners have a sharpener on the lid. Handy. The brown one I have is 'Cinnamon' from 'Natural Collection'. I bought this in Boots for £1.99 and out of them all I use this one the most as I would normally wear nude shades.  To be honest I would recommend them all. They do the job and work well with the lip colours I own.


This lipstick is from 'Victoria Jackson' and unfortunately you need to purchase any of her products online. If you buy from her website (http://www.vjcosmetics.com/ ) it is all in American currency, but you can get some products on ebay. This was a present and it came with a whole set of lipsticks, eyeshadows, blusher, mascara and a set of brushes, so I can't tell you how much it would cost or the shades of any of the lipsticks. But this pinky shade I keep with me as it was my favorite out of them all.


Back to 'MUA Cosmetics' for my everyday, daytime lipsticks. These are from their 'Matte' range and the two I have here are 'Totally Nude' (lighter shade) and 'Fancy Fawn' (darker shade). I really do like these. I'm a bit of a sucker for the matte look. Out of the two I have to say I prefer the 'Fancy Fawn'. I find the 'Totally Nude' a bit light for me, although I have seen it on others and it does look lovely. I will definitely buy more of these and they are also £1 each. You really can't complain.



Now, its time for the mothership! This is 'MUA Luxe Velvet Lip Lacquer' and they are £3 each. The reason I call these the mothership is because they have changed my lipstick choices forever! BEST BUY EVER! It is sooooo matte, I love it! I just want to shout about it from the rooftops. The colours available are so vibrant and very nice shades. The four I have pictured here are: (in order) 'Tranquility', 'Dare', 'Reckless' and 'Halcyon'. I'm in love with all of these colours! I can't even find the words to describe how pleased I am to have these in my life!
Want to know more? Read my full review of this lip lacquer! >> CLICK HERE <<

xx

Second Life

Just finished reading Second Life by SJ Watson. If you read my previous post about the book The Girl On The Train you will already know I like to read mysteries with twists and turns that unfold.

I saw this book in Waterstones and as it was in the Crime, Thrillers & Mystery section I decided to make the purchase. It sounded interesting. "Shes living two lives. She might loose both." I could just tell this was going to be a book full of secrets waiting to unravel, and I was right! 

Reading this straight after reading The Girl On The Train I found some similarities in the characters. At times I felt as though I was reading about the same people, I was picturing the same people in my head but in a different situation. There were also some similarities in the story itself. Things like the violence/abuse, the blackmail and addiction (trying not to give too much away). Don't get me wrong though the story line itself is different and I thoroughly enjoyed the book. I loved how nothing was as it seemed. Just when I thought I had it figured out the more pages I turned unveiled something which made me rethink. It is another book I didn't want to put down. I just wanted to read chapter after chapter. Even the characters you can relate to. Its written from Julia's point of view and there are certain parts that I know people will have experienced themselves for example, she has a teenage son. I'm sure many parents can relate to some of the issues. There is also some other parts of the story that anyone can relate to. Even someone of my age. But I can't tell you any more than that. You will have to read it for yourself. No spoilers here.

One thing I would say is a bad point is how SJ Watson ended the story. It just kind of stopped in the middle of something (again trying not to give anything away). It was left at a 'Did she? Didn't she?' situation and the reader is just left to use their own imagination and decide for themselves. Some people might like these abrupt endings but personally I don't. I like answers. I want to know. 

If, like me, you are into these kind of stories I do recommend this book.

Also if you click the link above it will take you to my review of The Girl On The Train. 

xx

My New Lip Find

I was out treating myself to some new make up products the other day and one thing on my list was some new lippy.
Personally I love the matte look and I have a small collection of matte lipsticks (most of them are from MUA cosmetics). I am always searching for a lipstick that stays on and that is cheap. This is why I have bought a few things from MUA cosmetics. Their make up products start from £1! And I know people get put off by this as they automatically assume the products are of cheap quality but I love the quality of their stuff. If you were to empty out my make up bag more than half the items in there are MUA cosmetics.
But anyway...
I came across this new "MUA Luxe Velvet Lip Lacquer".
It comes in like a lip gloss bottle with lip gloss applicator. When you first open it and apply, it looks like lip gloss and at first it feels kind of similar to gloss but after a few seconds it drys matte. It is amazing! Is thick so you don't need to apply loads and the pigment in the colour is on point. Most importantly, it does not budge! There isn't a huge range of colours, I think they have about 10 maybe but the colours they do have in it are really nice.
The picture below is just a quick picture off the internet to show you all what it looks like. There are more colours available.

MUA cosmetics can be bought online at: http://www.muastore.co.uk/

Or

You can get MUA cosmetics on the high street, only in Superdrug stores. 

As well as this lip lacquer they do have a range of matte lipsticks which I also like to buy. The matte lipsticks are £1 and this lip lacquer is only £3. Mega bargin. 

I personally like the shades "Tranquility", "Halcyon" and "Serene". I'm really into my 'nude' shades at the moment but I am going to be adding "Reckless" and "Dare" to my collection soon as I like a bold colour for a 'going out' look. 

Below is the packaging the lip lacquer comes in. Just so you all know what to look out for. It doesn't look cheap so no one need know you only spent £3! Our little secret ;) 

xx

The Girl On The Train

Now and again in the afternoon when I am not doing anything sometimes I watch Loose Women after This Morning. Last week the Loose Women panel announced they were going to start a book club and every month one of them is going to pick a book for everyone to read and review. They have encouraged everyone to get involved and post their thoughts on Facebook and Twitter using #loosebooks. First up, Coleen Nolan chose the book The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins.

I haven't read anything in a while. I'm pretty sure the last books I read were the Fifty Shades books. So I was keen to go out and buy this book.

As you can see from the covers of the book it has been given very good reviews, and I can confirm these are accurate. I love thrillers with a lot of twists and turns. I like to be kept guessing and wondering, trying to figure out the clues while the story unfolds. This book definitely lived up to those expectations. There was so much mystery! I just couldn't put the book down, longing to know what was going to be discovered next. One minute I was reading the first line, the next I was on page one hundred and something. Really did hold my attention.

I don't want to go into a big review of the whole story as that would have to contain some spoiler alerts and everyone should read it for themselves and hopefully get the same gripping feeling I got from the story. It really is a brilliant read and I will definitely be keeping my eye out for anything to come from Paula Hawkins.

Highly recommended! I might even read it all over again... 

xx

Clown

Finally I got round to watching the film clown last night. My sister and I love our horror films, so since we were having a girly night in we decided to cross another one off the list.

I seen the trailer for the film when it was first released and my initial thoughts were "that looks like a film that could give me nightmares!"
It starts off straight into the story which I like. I hate the kind of horror films that have people going about their daily lives for the first hour of the film and it takes forever to get to the good 'scary' bits.

I did like the story line and I had high hopes for the film. Personally I didn't find it as scary as I thought, most horrors don't frighten me anyway and I don't have a huge phobia of clowns, but still I wasn't disappointed. There were a few moments where I found myself on the edge of my seat saying to myself "Oh no!" Hes going to do this and hes going to do that.

We (my sister and me) both agreed that we would watch it again. I would recommend this film to everyone unless you have a serious fear of clowns or are under the age of like 15 because you will not sleep!

"A loving father finds a clown suit for his son's birthday party, only to realize the suit is part of an evil curse that turns its wearer into a killer."

xx

Hair Bleaching

Recently I came across a young girl who wanted to change her hair colour from being a very dark brown to a lighter copper colour. To do this she was aware her hair had to be pre-lightened using hair bleach and to avoid paying a small fortune to get this done properly she decided she was going to try and do this herself. She just assumed that it is applied the same way as hair colour and she was using google for answers. I cannot stress enough how WRONG this is!

First of all hair bleach or pre-lightener is not applied the same as hair colour. It is mixed with a higher percentage of peroxide and should NEVER be applied to the scalp. Secondly it needs to be monitored closely as it can cause breakage and damage to the hair so this will need to be done by a professional who knows what to look out for. And as far as google is concerned, well I am sure everyone knows by now not to believe everything you read on the internet. While some of the information might be correct, sometimes the answers you get are posted by people who think they know but have no experience or qualifications. I know a lot of people, especially young girls, like to use home dyes to colour their hair rather than pay a hairdresser but PLEASE if you or anyone you know is planning on bleaching their hair make sure you or they go to a professional!

NEVER EVER TRY THIS YOURSELF!!


When hair bleaching goes wrong:

xx