Laura Mercier Custom Artist Portfolio – £85 *

The idea of this set is to create a sort of artists kit with your favourite products – all the Laura Mercier powders slot in to these custom kits (above) which makes it perfect for travelling as you can easily build a small set of four shadows and a blusher 0r mix and match if you prefer. It’s not like the MAC palettes where once they’re in, they ain’t coming out without losing half of the eyeshadow, these are so easy to pop in and out.
Within the Portfolio carry case itself, there’s lots of room for your makeup collection – the organiser has two removable mesh bags that can be used for carrying your blushers or shadows, a pocket for brushes on both sides and the custom colour palette, above. Also included in the set are four eyeshadows (Pale Pink, Granite, Morning Dew and Sea Storm), a blusher (Rose Petal), a Lip Glace in Pink Prep and finally, an Eye Pencil in Stone Slate in a cute travel size.

I’m forever on the move and no matter how hard I try, it’s impossible to pack my makeup lightly so I expect this will see some use. Of course, it’s more practical for makeup artists as the portfolio is pretty large and has a hard shell but I expect if you’re anything like me, it will come in handy.

What do you think of the pretty and practical set?

One of my favourite places to shop for beauty bits is of course, Cult Beauty – a website where every product has been recommended by an industry expert, tried and tested and revealed to be the cream of the crop. You can pop just about anything in to your basket and you will be impressed – this is often how I find some of my favourite products.

The first thing I bought was actually a repurchase, the CND Stickey Base Coat – I’ve used this in the past and adored it. I went back to OPI Nail Envy when I finished it, which in my opinion isn’t as great as everyone makes out, and so I’m looking forward to trying this again. I expect I’ll be fallin’ in love all over again – it’s a product that is always winning the InStyle Best Beauty Buys and it really works to keep nail polishes chip-free and perfect for as long as possible.

I also added a new mask to my stash, the Aesop Parsley Seed Facial Masque – another product that is always receiving rave reviews, I saw this on Annabel‘s blog a few times and as I’ve finished a few clay masks lately I was in need of something to sort my skin when in need as it’s perfect for drawing out impurities and keeping awkward skin in check.
This was the only skincare I bought, apart from a couple of samples you choose at checkout, I chose the Aesop Parsley Seed Serum as I’ve tried this before and loved it and also the much-loved Embryolisse Lair-Creme Concentrate, which I already adore!

My other purchases included the Kevyn Aucoin Sensual Skin Primer, to add to my growing primer drawer. I absolutely adore KA products, they never disappoint and I expect I’ll be loving this too – it’s great for smoothing and keeping makeup in place, while allowing skin to breathe.
As my KA brow pencil wasn’t very well-designed but overall the best brow product I’ve tried, I added a similar one to my cart – the Anastasia Brow Wiz, it’s really fine and creates hair-like strokes so my brows look as natural as possible. It’s a fair bit cheaper than the KA Precision Brow Pencil I tried so here’s hoping it’s my new go-to!

Lastly, I expanded my Sachajuan stash – my hair absolutely adores this brand after first trying them around a year ago when they were in the Boudoir Prive boxes (before they became Joliebox and Birchbox) and I discovered the Hair Repair conditioner which smells like heaven and leaves my hair feeling incredible. I’ve been waiting for the Sachajuan Ocean Mist to come back in to stock for ages (after deliberating over buying it for so long!) and I already love it! I’ve been spraying it in my hair after swimming and leaving it to dry naturally – it’s the closest thing I’ll get to having waves and curls in my hair and I’m thankful for this.

What do you think of my picks?

This time last week we ventured to the Dunkeld Hilton hotel to review this lovely little Scottish country-house hotel, which was (as you’d expect) incredibly Scottish and surrounded by beautiful scenery. We got the train up from Glasgow, which wasn’t too far and it was actually pretty warm and sunny when we arrived. Dunkeld is one of the prettiest places ever, I got so many snaps of the hotel grounds because it was just too lovely to ignore. You can see more on my Instagram feed.

After dropping our bags at the room and having a little bounce on the bed (just as I thought: comfy), we went for a walk around the river – there’s quite a few country paths to take and we strolled around for a little while. You can imagine how delighted I was to find this little area with carved seating and some cute cartoon mushrooms, it was a little bit like a fairytale! When we got tired and hungry, we retreated to our room for a lie-down before dinner.
The meal was in the beautiful Garden Restaurant and consisted of three incredible courses, starting with pork belly and black pudding and then moving on to slow cooked beef and raspberry parfait with honeycomb. I was seriously, seriously full after this – it was truly delicious! Then it was time for bed, we bought a film to watch on the TV which was good fun.

In the morning we got up and dressed and headed down to breakfast which was a huge buffet again in the Garden Restaurant. We were seated in the morning sun which was lovely, and helped ourselves to a big plate of breakfast – this is my favourite meal of the day and there’s so much to choose from.
It was such a great visit, we had a lovely walk around Dunkeld afterwards and checked out the local shops and vintage stores before heading to the train station. I fell a little bit in love with this area of Scotland and I just know I’ll be heading back again. Thanks to Hilton Hotels for having us – it was a lovely weekend and it was such a perfect opportunity to get away and escape from the city!

They’ve also kindly offered a £100 voucher to one of my readers, so you too can rediscover Hilton. Just enter below and I’ll randomly select a winner this time next week (the competition will close at midnight on 27th May 2013). Just enter below – I added a few extra options for more entries, you can just do one if you wish! Good luck!

I’ve added quite a few products in to my haircare and styling routines lately, mainly because my fringe needs a cut so I’m having to style it a little differently. I usually use a few styling products and leave my hair to dry naturally, this can make it a little frizzy sometimes if I don’t do it properly but after adding KMS Tame Frizz * in (coming soon), I never have issues. This is a lovely new product from the brand, it smells simply delicious and feels so lovely on my hair – not heavy or greasy but smooth and sleek.

Moving on to skincare, I’ve dished out too old favourites – I seriously cannot get enough of these two and I recommend you give them a whirl! First up is my much-adored REN Resurfacing AHA Concentrate, a light exfoliating treatment that helps to make skin look and feel like new. This has really helped with the texture of my skin, it does so much in helping to smooth over texture and minimise pores. I can’t believe how much this little bottle has changed my life – I’ve been using it for over a year and I still have over half the bottle to go, too.
Another one of my great skincare loves is this Clarins Daily Energizer Cream, a lovely day moisturiser that hydrates my skin while giving it an incredible glow. I like how healthy my skin looks afterwards and I think it goes a long way in helping to minimise uneven tone and any blemishes.

I have dug out NARS Luster Blush this week as it’s such a nice simple, no-fuss peach with a gold shimmer that complements my complexion nicely. It’s one of my favourite NARS blushers (up there with Deep Throat) and a refreshing change to my usual pinks and corals. Also in my most loved and reached for stash this week is the Hourglass Arch Brow Sculpting Pencil – it’s not the best brow pencil I’ve tried (RIP Kevyn Aucoin Precision Brow Pencil, you were my one and only but not built to last). I will still keep hunting for a better pencil but this is nice in the meantime.

What are your picks this week?

Lilies from Jordan; snacks; Space NK Gift With Purchase; a clean dressing area; Dunkeld stay; my favourite place; Jordan; lunch at Riverhill Cafe in Glasgow; matching pyjamas and shirt; new NEOM Enchantment candle; veet fun & my outfit yesterday.

I’ve been feeling a little under the weather lately – I think I need a good dose of vitamin D but as per, Glasgow is rainy and horrible. I had to go have an eye test today because my eyes are so sore and I have a migraine but nothing is up – good news but I wish this headache would beat it!

So lately I’ve been up to my usual tricks – eating, sleeping and editing Nouvelle. We went to Dunkeld last week for a Hilton stay so I’ll pop up a post about that soon (there’s also a giveaway) – it’s such an amazing place, everything is so pretty and I found this little table and chairs carved out of wood with some cute fairytale mushrooms. Adorable!

This week I’ve been trying to eat well and work out – so far I’ve lost 2kg but I can’t really see a difference. I have such a small frame that even a single lb shows so much. Summer is always the time that everyone is trying to skip out on bread so at least I don’t feel alone! I tried doing the 5:2 diet but I just wanted to keep going with eating healthy so I’ve been trying to just generally eat good instead.

If you’re in Glasgow, you need to head to the Riverhill Cafe near central, it’s so good for a little bite to eat and their coffees are amazing (as are the sandwiches – had to walk all the way up to the wholefoods at Charing Cross to work half of that beef brisket sandwich off!).

Lots of new posts on Nouvelle too, of course. I hope everyone is enjoying reading it. Happy saturday x

Urban Decay have a beautiful range of products new in for Summer, I spotted a few ‘Kate’ shades in the bunch so naturally, I was rather excited to get my paws in to these goodies. Urban Decay are a brand that are quite hit and miss with me, sometimes I absolutely adore their products and shades and other times, I’m just not keen at all.

Their eye products do generally get my heart beating, the shades are beautiful (if a little too glittery) and as I love the minimal, easy to wear look I can usually find a fair few that suit me. The first product I tried from the range was one of the newer Urban Decay 24/7 Glide On Shadow Pencils in Mushroom (£14), a lovely cool taupe eyeshadow stick which is rich in colour and almost matte. This is seriously durable, very pigmented and not sticky on the lids (something I hate yet find with most shadow sticks). It’s definitely one of the better eyeshadow sticks I’ve tried!

Also within the range are the Urban Decay 24/7 Glide On Eye Pencils, the finer, liner equivalent of the aforementioned shadow pencils. In true Urban Decay style, these all have questionable names that we giggle at and choose to ignore (makes them memorable, huh) but so far I’ve been loving Corrupt (a rich chocolate brown), Scorch (a shimmery copper) and Roach (another chocolate brown) – all typical colours for me but I do love a bit of brown pencil smudged in to my bottom lashes for a more defined yet wearable eye so these have been getting a lot of use. They stay creamy for a little while so you can blend in, but they do dry pretty quickly. And once they dry, that’s it – they ain’t going nowhere. Invest in an industrial strength makeup remover pronto.

Last of all, and possibly my favourite of the bunch, the Urban Decay Build Your Own Palette in Rebound (£8) I absolutely adore the idea of these, I have one already and I think they are such a good idea, either for yourself or as a gift. Each of the palettes comes with one neutral shade, in this one it’s the lovely Easy Baked and you fill it up with your own shades. The three I have here are the Urban Decay Moondust shadows in  (clockwise from top right) Space Cowboy, Moonspoon and Intergalactic. These shadows are incredibly shimmery, I adore the colours, I adore looking at them but I think they may be a little shimmery for my liking. I am working myself up to give them a whirl, but Easy Baked is just beautiful – a soft honeycomb that flatters my skin tone and has just the right amount of glittery goodness.

A lovely range of shades and products from Urban Decay – I love the texture of the pencils and I think these are very much suited to me. As always, the quality is beautiful and I think there’s something for everyone here. What do you think of the pieces?

Press samples