New Years Eve Beauty Hacks with Diet Coke & L'Oreal Paris

Did you know that a bottle of Diet Coke could help you transform your make-up look for that all important party on New Years Eve? All you need is a 500ml bottle of Diet Coke and a L'Oreal Paris Super Liner Blackbuster Intense.

Line it up

To transform your daytime eyeliner into a bold evening look, simply peel the label off your bottle of Diet Coke and turn the label upside down and with your eyeliner, mimic the dramatic black ribbon underneath the logo. 

Perfectly winged eyeliner is a great way to glam up your Christmas party eyes, and it can be frustrating when it goes o ff track. To avoid any mishaps, grab your liner and simply make four small dashes along the lash line. Then carefully connect the dashes and allow to dry. Or for the perfect flick hold your Coke lid in place at the corner of your eye where you want the flick to sit and using a slim eyeliner tip trace along. The result: a smooth and subtle curved wing tip.

Plump Your Lips Up

Did you know you can make your lips look larger just by using lipstick and a Diet Coke bottle? Apply your chosen shade all over your lips, then choose a shade in the same colour family but slightly lighter. Use the bottle lid to mark where the centre third of your lips is - that’s where you need to apply the lighter shade of lippie.

Voila, a gorgeous, full festive pout.

Clever concealer

Believe it or not, you can use lipstick as an under eye concealer to neutralise dark circles - just the thing if you're partying hard this festive season. Make sure you pick the right colour to suit your skin tone – try a peachy or pinky hue if you have fair skin and an orangey-red for darker complexions. 

Apply the lipstick under the eye, let it set for about a minute and then apply your usual concealer.

GET EXPERIMENTAL WITH YOUR MANI

Embrace texture
Textured nails can take your mani to the next level if you need them party-ready, but some looks require super steady hands to pull o . You can achieve a sophisticated textured look with one tool you’d never dream of: your Diet Coke bottle lid. Huh? Simply apply a base level of polish and let it touch dry. 

Then lightly brush another polish into the ridges on the side of the bottle lid. Once you have done this, it’s time to get creative. You can create track marks by pressing down on the nail (try creating a track mark down the middle of your nail) or rolling the lid across the nail.

Freeze-dry your mani

Nail polish dries more quickly in cool temperatures and you can freeze-dry your polish in place in just 5 minutes. Before painting your nails, fill a bowl with ice cold water (ice cubes included). 

Once you’ve painted your nails, let them air dry for 2 minutes before submerging them in the icy water for 3 minutes. Voila, your nails will be ready for their next outing.

So there you have it.  Have you tried any of these Beauty Hacks or do you have any of your own to share?

Winter Wonderland with My Purrfect Gift Box

The Christmas My Purrfect Gift Box landed on the doorstep with a thump a few weeks ago and it is safe to say I had three cats all wondering what was for them inside the box.

Opening up the box inside there are gifts and treats to remind us all of the festive season.

The first item I pulled out of the box was a knitted beanie, but not just any beanie, it is a pale pink cat ear beanie with sequins and is so soft and smooth to the touch and is incredibly cute.

It retails for just £13 in here.

The second item is a Cat Shelf Sitter which has been handmade by Rose Cottage Pillows in the USA These adorable cats are in a red snowflake print and are adorned with satin bow, bell and cute button tail. 

Mine sits next to the cat urn I have for Asbo and it is a really lovely touch.  Priced at £15 you can find them and others in this Etsy Store.

I love the cute and quirky card cards which are the third item in the box. They come adorned with pictures of cats with bright green envelopes making them perfect for sending a quick note.

These cards can be found here in the Bubblecat Etsy Store and are priced at £12.

This Woolen Kitten Charm comes next and it is currently sat on my Christmas Tree but can be used to decorate your handbag, phone or anything with a zipper on.

Handmade using wool and felt, they retail at £4 and can be found in the Etsy Store InfiniteFluffs.

The final gift for the adults is this absolutely stunning customised 925 sterling silver cat necklace which has a pretty snowflake also on the chain.  I love the delicate detail of the cat and how well it sits when wearing.

You can find this necklace in the gift shop of My Purrfect Gift Box for just £15 and it is a perfect gift for any cat lover.

Included within these boxes are also treats for your furballs and this is where the excitement usually occurs with my three.  The first item out of the box was a felted Gingerbread Man which was heavily scented with catnip and it did cause a bit of a fight until Dude was the eventual winner.

Next came a snowflake collar from Cool Cat Collars and it has Silver sparkle snowflakes on an white background and is fitted with a breakaway safety buckle and a bell. Priced at just £6.99 you can find these collars right here.

The final item out of the box comes a tub of natural cat food from Meowing Heads. Gone Fishin' as it is named is fish & chicken complete cat food has been gently steamed to keep its delicate fishy flavours locked in. Unsurprisingly it was very popular with my three cats who between then devoured it.

Once again, this is another amazing Purrfect Box and with something for everyone, we have a very happy household. If you like the look of these products, there is a shop to treat yourself or your little ball of fur right here.

If you have never come across this box before then here is a little background as to how and where the idea came from. Kim and Juan Kniveton the founders of My Purrfect Gift Box are dedicated cat lovers, so much so they moved back from the USA to the Isle of Man to set up and run their own idyllic countryside retreat for cats - Boodee Beg Boarding Cattery, something I dream of doing (if I ever win the lottery). With their onsite gift shop not doing as well as they had hoped, Kim and Juan decided to start My Purffect Box and each month they choose to focus on a different cat charity, rescue centre or shelter and highlight the work they do through their social media sites and through information that comes in each box. They then donate 5% of all our profits from that month's box to that chosen charity of the month.

*this post contains PR samples unless indicated otherwise

Kind Natured - The New Naturals

Kind Natured is a brand that believes in keeping it natural, the feel good formulations stick to a carefully edited list of non-toxic, eco-friendly and thoughtfully selected plant extracts to deliver a therapeutic pampering exercise and a totally guilt free one at that.

I have been using some products from the new tropically inspired Kind Nature Bodycare range Shea and Macadamia plus Coconut and Monoi and basically they smells absolutely blooming amazing! Described as being delicately scented, these products are designed to leave your skin and body feeling absolutely amazing from touch to scent.

The first item is the Deeply Nourishing Shea and Macadamia Creamy Body Scrub which is for very dry skin. A creamy and rich exfoliant which uses crush olive seeds to renew even the scaliest of skin, so there is hope for my lizard calves yet.  On the skin, the crushed seeds do a really great job at removing the dead and dry skin without being too overly abrasive and the scent is just really lovely.  Priced at just £4.99 for a 200ml tube, this is very much value for money.

In the same Shea and Macadamia scent is a Deeply Nourishing Body Lotion and again the scent is just fantastic. The use of both Shea Butter and Macadamia Nut Oil are absolute heaven for dry and parched skin as they deeply moisturise, nourish and hydrate. A 250ml tube is priced at £5.99.

If Coconut is a scent for you then the Kind Natured have products for you.  The two products I have been using is a body lotion and a hand cream.

The Coconut and Monoi Hand cream is infused with Shea, Grapeseed Oil and Coconut Oil to keep your cuticles nourished and your hands soft, smooth and hydrated.  What I love about this hand cream aside from the smell is that the formula is non-greasy when applied and it absorbs relatively quickly.  A 100ml tube costs just £4.99.

The Moistuising Body Lotion which is also Coconut and Monoi has the same scent as the hand cream.  As a cream it is really lightweight, non-greasy and once it sinks in it leaves behind velvety soft and smooth skin to the touch and again scented delightfully.  A 250ml tube is priced at £5.99.

The Kind Natured brand has a plethora of products available in Boots - here you will find Shampoos, Conditioners, lip-balms, sugar scrubs, body washes and bath soaks in an array of scents, so if the two I have shared with you are not your thing, then there is plenty of other choices to be had.

*this post contains PR samples unless indicated otherwise

You Beauty Box Collaboration with Feelunique

For the month of December You Beauty have collaborated with Feelunique to bring forward a Party Prep box. The products to choose from this month ranged from the affordable to the niche with everything in between. 

For once, I found it really hard to decide what I wanted to try because the list to choose from contained some of my absolute favourite products such as Jurliques Rosewater Balancing Mist. However, I decided to select three products I had not tried but have looked at on FeelUnique quite a few times.

The December Treats in the box there is a 15% off code which always comes in handy and as ive got some things on my basket, I may be checking out sooner rather than later. The next item is a Narciso EDT sample and it is described as being a mixture of elegance of woods meets the delicate femininity of a white flowers bouquet. 

It is quite a musky floral with a hint of a woody note fragrance which I liked on first spritz, im just not too sure it is for me.

The first item to go into my box comes from The Vintage Cosmetics Company in the form of a Powder Brush and something you can never have too many of and something I needed for my work makeup brush set. 

Described as being a multipurpose brush, with its super soft, synthetic bristles helps to apply your chosen coverage, whether that be foundation, powder, or a touch of bronze, it’s sure to leave you with a flawless natural canvass. This brush has an RRP £16.

Moa Fortifying Green Bath Potion - This is a product I have been wanting to try for ages, so I was delighted to see it on my shortlist of choices. Described as being a single ‘shot’ of award winning Fortifying Bath Potion. 

This therapeutic herbal blend is perfect after a tiring day; de-stress and relieve aches and pains with this concentrated, revitalising bath oil. With relaxing, refreshing peppermint, detoxifying fennel, cleansing fir needle, sweet birch to ease achy muscles and yarrow to soothe. This is just a 10ml sample which is enough for one bath and it has an RRP of around £2.75.

Foreo Night Cleanser - I have the day cleanser so am excited to try the evening version. Described as being a product which detoxifies and soothes, the night cleanser melts from a gel formula into velvety milk fused with the power of meteorite for gentle deep cleansing that removes impurities, makeup and pollutants with precision.

Offering a sensorial experience for a divine night-time ritual, it leaves the skin supple, smooth and luminous. This is a full size product at 100ml and has an RRP £30.

So there you have the December You Beauty Box and I think there is an interesting mixture of products and I am happy with my choices at £8.95. What do you think?

*this post contains PR samples unless indicated otherwise