New purchases

I believe the American term is a 'beauty haul' but I'm British so I'm just going to sensibly call them purchases.

Had a bit of a spree in House of Fraser yesterday. First up I bought a new Chanel Ombre Essentielle Soft Touch Eyeshadow in 63 Abricot. I saw this colour on a You Tube vid and my interest was piqued, and in the flesh it is even more stunning. I almost didn't buy it because of the price - surely the most expensive single eyeshadows in the market?? But I suspect I'll get a lot of wear out of it. The beauty is that its quite light so can be used for highlighting, blending etc but it also has enough depth to be used as on its own on the lid. I think it will look beautiful with greens and blues too though I'm less keen on the latter.

Next up I headed to the MAC counter with two things in mind - an eyebrow pencil and the 217 blending brush I've heard many raves about on You Tube and Make Up Alley. I'm usually faithful to my Laura Mercier eyebrown pencil in blonde (but nowhere in Croydon stocks Laura Mercier, yet) and had planned to get another pencil, however the MA suggested a powder would work better with my brows, and an eyeshadow at that! Sceptical at first, I tried the MAC charcoal brown eyeshadow with their 266 brush... and the results were spectacular! I had that soft, thick, natural look I've often admired but never been able to achieve with pencils - now I now why! Powder, it's the way forward people. Needless to say I walked away with the eyeshadow, 217 and the 266 brush. I do think MAC make up assistants are among the best - they really know their stuff and what will work, and are very efficient - that's if you can get near them as the counters are always so rammed. I don't actually have a lot of MAC products in my collection as I am a bit of a cosmetics magpie and tend to get distracted by nice shiny luxurious packaging a la Chanel. But maybe I'll explore further....

I also picked up across the road in Allders a Christian Dior Ultra Shine lipstick in Shiniest Meringue, on sale for £10.50. I love these lipsticks - I previously had one in Shiniest Papaya which was one of my favourite lipsticks ever - sadly discontinued. Shiniest Meringue is a subtle 60s pink - great for pairing with a smoky eye I suspect, though would probably work best with skin that has a bit of colour.

I haven't figured out how to upload pics etc but will hopefully have some images of the above in action in the not too distant....