Eid Gift Guide Part 1 | Beauty Edition

Hello everyone, I hope you're all doing fantastically. As it will be Eid in approximately two weeks I thought it was an appropriate time to post a little gift guide or two for you all! Although these are titled with Eid they are great ideas for any occasion, be it birthdays or anniversarys, so I hope they're useful to all my readers. Gift giving is a Sunnah therefore is highly encouraged, plus we all like getting gifts so why not shade the love? ^_^ Life is too short not to spread a bit of happiness. This guide will be for the ladies, so your sisters, mothers, aunties, cousins and friends. I have linked everything I'm mentioning so have a click and check it out for yourself, also I've tried to get the best prices and any special offers on too.

The fist category is of course beauty (high-end)  so lets begin...

The Ultimate Eid gift you could give a sister this month has to be the Blame it on NARS cheeks palette! (£45) It’s a little bit pricey but if you have the budget for it, or wish to combine it for their Eid and birthday present, believe me any woman would be thrilled to own it. The first cheek palette
which does not contain any of their iconic shades, including Laguna - because I’m sure we all have at least one of those! It has Casino which is the ideal bronzer for medium/dark skintones a deeper highlight shade (satalite of love) as well as two limited edition blusher shades AND A MINI ITA BRUSH! Yes I do blame it on the NARS, cause mine arrived in the post today and I am overall very impressed. Whether for yourself or a loved one this is seriously one of the best gift anyone could give that's make-up related.


I would always recommend Too Faced for their eyeshadow palettes, they are creamy and pigmented, plus the colours work together really well. I love both the Chocolate Bar (£39 normally £45) and the Natural Eyes (£32) palettes. Similarly I think anything from The Balm cosmetics always makes for a wonderful gift, the packaging is adorable and the products are well worth the price, with exceptional quality. The California driver licence palette (£16.50) is one of my favourites, it’s about the size of a debit card so it's super travel friendly and it contains brilliant shades - I treated myself to this when I passed my driving test and it’s like a little keepsake from that milestone, so if any of your loved ones are planning on doing their test this could be the perfect little encouragement hehe.


I think makeup brushes always make for wonderful gifts because anyone who wears makeup needs brushes, especially those who think they don't. Brushes can change a girl's life for real. The  Zoeva Rose Gold Brush Kits (£56.95) are so beautiful and the quality is on par with all the top brush brands. I don’t personally own it but I know it would be an amazing gift which would last a long time too! Also each brush technically costs £7 each which is generally cheaper than buying it individually plus you get a study clutch to keep them safe in.  If Zoeva isn’t in your budget I really recommend picking up one or two of the Real Techniques brush kits which are great value for money. My personal favourite is Real Techniques Sam’s picks (£29.99)- reviewed here which contains 90% of brushes anyone could need. Also the iconic Beautyblender (£13.95 normally £16.00) - to those who have not tried this, you may think it is just a sponge, but no, no no no no it’s not. This is the queen of tools for makeup application, you’ll find it hard to get a more flawless application with any other brush and I truly believe every woman needs at least one in her collection.

Anything Charlotte Tilbury looks swoonworthy, but it’s quite a high end brand, so I recommend picking up some of her Lip Cheats (£16) to give as gifts because they're somewhat affordable, at least in comparison to other high-end gifts. Pillow talk and Iconic Nude are the two that catch my eye.

Okay now on to the drugstore/highstreet and more budget alternatives because I know some of you are thinking...errr Iqra, the above is great and all but I'm a student and I do not have the budget for giving those out at gifts! Don't worry guys... I did try to spread out the cost from around £16+ but fear not, the below are cheaper yet still good quality makeup gifts that would make awesome presents!

I love the Barry M Chisel Cheeks Contour Kit (£6.49) which I reviewed here and I think its perfect for anyone starting out in contouring, or anyone who's looking for an affordable kit! It truly is a gem from the drugstore and affordable enough to buy a couple and spread the chiselled love tehe. Eyeshadow palettes always make great gifts and from the high-street I think Sleek Palettes (£7.99) and Makeup Revolution (£4-£8) have the absolute BEST quality that you could get for a budget price. Especially the I heart chocolate palette reviewed here which  is a great dupe to the chocolate bar one mentioned above! Barry M also make awesome Nail polishes (£3-£4) with so many shades and formulas to choose from and buying a trio with perhaps a neutral shade, bright shade and a dark shade would make a really nice gift. Sleek are also fantastic for blushers, have a browse of their blush-by-3s and single ones too! Very affordable compared to high-end, but without compromising on the quality so I'm certain Sleek items would be highly appreciated!

I wouldn't recommend buying anyone foundations and concealers, because they're very easy to get  wrong due to the different undertones and finishes, but I think lip products make great gifts. Some of the best you can get are the Rimmel Lipliners (£3-£4), Rimmel Lipsticks (£5-6) and Sleek Matte Me's (£5) they're affordable, generally comfortable to wear and come in a decent range of colours. Also with each of these brands, boots has little special offers such as free gifts when you spend over £10 or buy one get one half price making it the idea time to stock up for yourself and for gifts!

I always have a browse of the ASOS Beauty section because they normally have sales on and they also sell great little gift sets too. A good example is of this REN Glow and Go (£12) which has the 1 minute facial mask mask and the Glycolactic Radiance Mask, both of which work well with all skintypes and are from a brand that contains no parabens and are made from as natural ingredients as possible.

Another good idea is picking up a makeup bag and then filling it with a couple of things mentioned above. I think this is one of the best gifts you can give a girl - it's somewhat personalised gift and so useful too!

That is part 1 of my gift guide - all the beauty bits that I think your female family members and friends would love to receive! Keep an eye out for part 2 and 3 coming up later today!

Thank-you for reading ♥

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Eid Gift Guide Part 1 | Beauty Edition

Hello everyone, I hope you're all doing fantastically. As it will be Eid in approximately two weeks I thought it was an appropriate time to post a little gift guide or two for you all! Although these are titled with Eid they are great ideas for any occasion, be it birthdays or anniversarys, so I hope they're useful to all my readers. Gift giving is a Sunnah therefore is highly encouraged, plus we all like getting gifts so why not shade the love? ^_^ Life is too short not to spread a bit of happiness. This guide will be for the ladies, so your sisters, mothers, aunties, cousins and friends. I have linked everything I'm mentioning so have a click and check it out for yourself, also I've tried to get the best prices and any special offers on too.

The fist category is of course beauty (high-end)  so lets begin...

The Ultimate Eid gift you could give a sister this month has to be the Blame it on NARS cheeks palette! (£45) It’s a little bit pricey but if you have the budget for it, or wish to combine it for their Eid and birthday present, believe me any woman would be thrilled to own it. The first cheek palette
which does not contain any of their iconic shades, including Laguna - because I’m sure we all have at least one of those! It has Casino which is the ideal bronzer for medium/dark skintones a deeper highlight shade (satalite of love) as well as two limited edition blusher shades AND A MINI ITA BRUSH! Yes I do blame it on the NARS, cause mine arrived in the post today and I am overall very impressed. Whether for yourself or a loved one this is seriously one of the best gift anyone could give that's make-up related.

Review | Lord & Berry ASOS Exclusive Lip Colour Set

I recently picked up this set from ASOS and seeing as it’s even cheaper now (£11) I thought it would be a suitable time to review it ^_^
*EDIT: Just read that these are RRP £7.50 each!! SO THIS IS AN AMAZING BARGAIN*

Lord & Berry is a makeup brand that I’ve only seen on the internet, but I was drawn to it’s cute sleek packaging. I’ve also really started enjoying using lip-liners, either as an all over the lip matte or just to define my lips. Its a step a lot of people tend to skip, but can make a lot of difference.

I only own two or three lip liners from Rimmel, so this set is a great introduction to the brand aswell as a range of colours I hadn’t previously owned. I’m especially happy with the lightest and darkest shade, because a good neutral lip liner is invaluable and for a darker lip, lining and defining the lips is essential.

Prior to trying these out, I had the expectation that they would be a little drying as obviously they’re a pencil product. I’ve tried a cheap lipliner from Natural Collection which left much to be desired, and the Rimmel ones are lovely but lack a wide range of shades. So I was expecting a decent pigmentation, at least slightly creamy/easy to apply and also long lasting. They’re labelled ‘Kissproof’ and ‘waterproof’ so these expectations weren’t much to ask for.

My favourite, and the one that will undoubtedly get the most use blush is a beautiful neutral pink colour that matches my ‘go-to’ lip colour of choice perfectly. I tend to favour the nudish-pinks and this liner defines my lips beautifully, even when just wearing a gloss (this Barry M one or Bobbi Brown one). A little trick I’ve picked up is instead of applying this all around the lips, just line the top (cupid bow) and bottom middle part. This will make them appear fuller as it emphasises the fullest part of the lips. Blossom is a mauveish-bluish pink and again lovely for a slightly darker pink lip. I don’t have a great deal to say about it other than it’s a welcome addition to my sparse lipliner collection. Sienna is a red with a tinge of orange mixed into it. It’s a nice enough colour, not anything particularly special but I’m sure it’ll come in handy when doing a red lip. Finally my second favourite Black Red which is more of a purple and matches PERFECTLY with Rimmel’s lasting perfection lipstick in 04 (the vampy one). I think with any bold/dark lip a liner is essential and I can’t express how perfectly these two go together. Not that I’ll be reaching for this often, but it was an awkward bold colour to find the perfect liner for, so happy Lord&Berry have provided that for me ^_^

They're smooth and easy to apply. Not the MOST creamy but defo worth their combined price!

You can find the lipliner set here.

Do you have any favourite liners? Please share them below I’d love to read your favourites!

Review | Lord & Berry ASOS Exclusive Lip Colour Set

I recently picked up this set from ASOS and seeing as it’s even cheaper now (£11) I thought it would be a suitable time to review it ^_^
*EDIT: Just read that these are RRP £7.50 each!! SO THIS IS AN AMAZING BARGAIN*

ASOS Haul December ‘13

Hello lovelies! First of all I wanted to say a BIG thank you for all your support! I’m at 150 bloglovin followers and just over 100 Facebook likes and don’t even get me started on all the love I get from IG <3 You guys are so kind, and it means so so much to see all your support *huggles*

Ok enough of the mushy stuff, so this was a little haul I did around two weeks ago when I was up to my eyelashes in stress from assignments and exams, and ASOS kindly had a 20% of EVERYTHING sale going on. Of course I hit up the beauty section first because my philosophy with high end makeup (and actually most makeup) is if you get it in the sale, it’s a good enough deal to justify. Plus high-end makeup is more of an investment blah-de-blah I say the same things every time I talk about it, you all get my drift ^.^

I also really thought about what I NEED (something I’m trying to do a lot more!!) SO ON TO THE HAUL:

Although I have already picked up some black boots this year (link here) which I DO like, I wanted some more that were a little more edgy, and hopefully more comfortable. Like I’ve mentioned before I am already pretty tall (5’6.5) so I don’t love to wear heels..but when I saw these ASOS Revolution Ankle Boots I just couldn’t say no to the 20% off. They are £35 at full price, and I figured if I didn’t like them I could always return them for free.

The heel is 5cm, and it’s more of a wedge then a ‘heel’ so they are SOO comfortable to wear. To the point where I can actually run in these without wanting to chop my feet off. They are the most practical boots I’ve owned, I love how they look great with max skirts, and all types of jeans. I picked up another pair of boots because in England, we have cold weather until April time, and even then it’s pretty chilly, so boots aren’t a 2/3 month thing only, they’re pretty versatile! The Revolution ankle boots are edgy yet still smart. I really like how they make my feet look smaller than they actually are, and how I can tighten them up around the ankle, something which is a lot harder to achieve with the New Look boots. The wedge part is made out of some sort of foamy material, I’m not sure how clear that is in the middle photo, but I have to admit I was pretty dubious when I saw them at first. However this material makes them spongy and comfy. It’s a mix between military, chique and casual and although they won’t be everyone’s cuppa tea I have fallen in love!

Next up was the purchase I was (and am) most excited about, the NARS Guy Bourdin Blush in the shade Coeur Battant.

I couldn’t justify picking up the 6 blush/bronzer palette because it came up to nearly £50 which actually is a bargain considering each NARS blusher is around £21, but none of those shades STOOD out to me, and so I didn’t rush online to order it. (Lets not forget that I'm a student so spending nearly half a hundred quid on blushers when I already have a small and growing collection was totally unjustified ._.) 

Coeur Battant however is something special, limited edition and pigmented like you wouldn't believe it is a blue-toned magenta colour which is so unique, yet so flattering on my medium skin tone. It would look fabulous on darker skin tones too, however the paler gals would need to go with a VERY light hand when applying this. Much to my irritation the camera just wouldn’t pick up the true shade of this, however if anyone wants a more in-depth review then I will try again in the early hours of the morning to captur it’s beauty! The packaging of the box is very ‘louboutin-esque’ and I was slightly disappointed that the actual packaging of the blusher wasn’t similar haha

It actually has more of a purple/blue hue to it than the camera has captured and NARS are the high-end equivalent of Sleek, so although it looks frightening in the pan, on the cheeks it’s a different story. I adore this blush so much, and 20% was just the perfect excuse to treat myself to a Limited Edition piece! I know this is sold out on ASOS, but I’m sure it’s available at NARS counters so do have a swatch and see this for yourself ^_^

I was on the hunt for a new purse, seeing as my old one from Primark (which has served me well might I add) was finally beginning to look a little battered. I went for another ASOS own brand and picked up this cute envelope style.

I ADORE the gold detailing on this, and how soft the material is! It’s also a lot lighter than my old one, which does help when you're commuting several times a week. I don’t like overly blinged out purses/bags so this simple style, with a tiny bit of special to it was perfect! It costs £10, but I got it for £8 and hopefully this’ll last me as long as my old one did. Inside there are 12 card spaces, and I find all my cards fit in fine. The change pocket thing is a LITTLE bit smaller and trickier to use than I would have liked, but it does that job and stops me cramming a bunch of receipts, vouchers and other paper that I probably won’t look at again!

Last of all we have the cutest little mirror ever. Cath Kidston is known for her feminine prints, but this has got to be my absolute favourite of them all. It costs £3, and I really needed a small compact mirror for my makeup bag, but unfortunately I dropped this when taking a photo and it now has two cracks in it! What bad luck. It really should have been sturdier, or at least have had a cover so I can’t say I recommend this…still useable but, a big shame that its cracked.

And that concludes my haul! I saved a fair amount and love love love 3/4 of my purchases! What have you been splurging on this month?

ASOS Haul December ‘13

Hello lovelies! First of all I wanted to say a BIG thank you for all your support! I’m at 150 bloglovin followers and just over 100 Facebook likes and don’t even get me started on all the love I get from IG <3 You guys are so kind, and it means so so much to see all your support *huggles*