LANCÔME GOLDEN FRENZY |

Bea-uty Review...

When it comes to eye shadow, I like to keep things simple. Everyday, I wear black gel liner on my eye lid and a quick flash of mascara - occasionally I go all out and attempt a winged line too. So when I received the Lancôme Christmas Beauty Box, I wasn't too excited to see that it contained a palette. However, the packaging is gorgeously girlie with gold-silver glitter covering the top of package; which made me even more inquisitive to what was inside.

Lacome Golden Frenzy top

Base

Inside, are 5 eye shadows to create a look with; an all over base, lid, crease, highlighter and liner...

Top: base
Left: lid
Centre: crease
Right: Highlighter
Bottom: liner

First of all I need to outline the fact of fall down. I don't think ever tried eye shadows which once applied, looks like I've repeated the look on my cheek. The glitter in the shadows is fairly large and there is a lot of it, meaning that even once I've had a good clean up and applied concealer under my eyes, there's still flecks of glitter all over my face (which is my pet hate).

Swatches: base, lid and crease

Swatches: highlighter and liner

Saying that, if you can deal with a little sparkle on your face, you can indulge in 5 luxurious shades. The base is like white fairy dust and extremely pretty next to the tear duct, but not so glamorous under the eye brow - later leading to sparkly eyebrows.

All 5 shades applied  

The lid shade is probably my favourite, it's a gold shade with orange tones and again, more glitter. I think it looks lovely on brown eyes as it brings out the rich colour, next to the crease shade which is more of a matte medium brown.  This warm shade is very buildable in the crease and helps add definition and structure to the socket.

The highlighter is questionable. When I think of highlighters I wouldn't expect this dark shade - a deep brown with rainbow glitter flecks. So I used this right in the outside corner of my eye to help keep the look smoky which actually worked really well. As for the last shade, it is a black shadow which is for liner; I would usually use a liquid or gel liner but by using this shadow, a softer look was created. I carried this down under the eye as well, just below the water line.

Also, I read that Kim Kardashian used this pallet on her wedding day... Not sure if that is a bonus for you or puts you off buying the product!? Anyway, besides the freaky amount of glitter used, the shades create a glamorous smoky eye which is great for parties and evenings out.

B x


If you liked this post (or not, positive criticism is always welcome!) please follow or comment below; I love reading comments and would like to hear your view of either the product, or this post - as its my first beauty review. Also, if you have requests for posts that would be appreciated! Thank you x


*all products have been purchased either by self or bought for me by a family member or friend; all opinions are my own and I will give my 100% honest thoughts on the products mentioned.

Music changed my life |

A controversial topic to get my little blog up and started (and to also avoid any current English coursework which I owe to my lecturer).

I for one, only really discovered my taste of music a year ago. You may be thinking, geez, that's a little late for a 17 year old to find out what they enjoy listening to on a daily basis? And well, you're right my friends! Music is a huge part of my life - with a family completely and utterly absorbed in the stuff, I was a little late to jump on the bandwagon. Up until last year, I was quite happy listening to Reggie Yeates on a Sunday evening, telling me who the rest of the UK were downloading that week. I was partial to a bit of The Script and Nicki Minaj, (although I always questioned the lyrics, "you a stupid hoe"). And then I was introduced, by a new friend at the time, to Nirvana.

Oh yes, I was thrown right in there into this massive black hole of lyrics about sex, drugs and women - and it began to grow on me. Now don't get me wrong, it wasn't that I had never heard of Kurt Cobain before, my brothers used to belt out the tunes from Nevermind every evening after school, its just that I was never that interested in that time of my life. And I think, looking back, it was because I never thought outside of the box. I was used to living my perfectly normal life in Cornwall, with  my normal friends, my normal clothes that I bought from the 2 shops I have in my local town (meaning everyone wore the same clothes) and my normal radio 1 music...Normal? I am speaking in the sense that to me, this was what I was absorbed in and how I thought I should be.

I listened to the album Bleach, I can hand on heart say that I actually think it changed my life. Lets quickly move away from the deep, soppy, over the top moment I was having there - rare for me. The lyrics spoke to me, alongside the melody and the whole story behind Cobain and why he made music. I quickly became obsessed with the band, to the point that I shut myself off from everything just to listen to them. I would turn my phone onto aeroplane mode so that nobody could contact me, I would come home from college at lunch times to listen to music in the calm of my own bedroom, I bleached the back - yes, just the back, of my hair blonde, I threw out all my old clothes and replaced them with black jeans, flannel shirts and converse. My appearance also took a beating as I transformed from a girl who never wore any make up, to a semi-emo wearing thick black eye make up and a permanent red lip. While I was there, I thought why not go the whole hog, and got my nose pierced and may I say, WITHOUT my parents permission (ooo, rebel).

You may be reading this thinking "wow, extreme impact from listening to one CD", and yes, but this whole new transformation was the version of 'me' that I wanted to be. I was fed of us conforming to the social norms of what society said I should look like and what I should listen to - at the age of 17, I had put my foot down and said NO MORE, all because of the way I had interpreted an album.

After realising that all my friends were drifting away from me as I voluntarily shut my self off, I explained to them that this is who I wanted to be from now on- not that my personality had changed, just the way I saw life. Being good friends, they seemed to accept it...well, I assume they did as we are still friends now. To this day they dont know who Kurt Cobain is though, and make remarks when I insist on playing Unplugged Live from New York in my car, but that's rock and roll...right?

I sort of "faded" out of this phase, the word faded being highlighted as Nirvana are still my favourite band and I refuse to listen to pop-culture music or shop in New Look. My appearance is also a more mellow version of what I changed it too, but I found my own style and way I like to present myself and now I just go with that.

Wow...this seems to have changed from a post about music to a post about how music changed my life, same thing though really isn't it? Music does change lives, and I think that if I hadn't listened to that one guy who handed me that Bleach album and insisted that I gave Nirvana a chance, I would still be living my mundane life inside the controlled body of somebody, that I didn't actually want to be.

So to that person, thank you.
And to Nirvana, thank you too - you beautiful people.

Welcome!

If you are reading this it means you have stumbled across my little blog and for that, I love you! I thought I would start my very first blog post with small Q and A so you can start to get to know me, and why I have begin this journey into the blogging community...

1. Why have you creating your own blog?
I have been reading blogs for about 2 years now and have always wanted to get involved but have been a bit scared nobody will be interested in reading what I have to say. However, after creating a few draft blogs and not having the courage to post them, I finally have. I enjoy writing and want to share what I write, even if I only have a small number of readers; and today I had the thought, if something makes you happy, why not?

2. Who are you? 
My name is Bea and I live in the UK by the seaside in the South West. I like clothes, books and music - your average teenage girl I guess.

3. What is la vie de bea? 
This is my very own and personal blog where I will be writing articles on anything interesting in my life, anything involving fashion, art, beauty, books, music..basically anything that makes me go 'ooooo'.

I hope this little Q and A gives you an insight into what may be to come, please come back if this kind of thing sounds like your cup of tea!

Merccci,

Bea x