Review: Urban Decay's NAKED Basics palette

Whilst visiting Manchester to meet up with a friend, I had some time to kill and found myself stumbling into the Debenhams make up section filled with counter after counter of beautiful products that  for the majority of the time I like to stand and cry at because I can't afford much. I was feeling ever so slightly giddy yesterday however and I convinced myself to buy Urban Decay's NAKED Basics palette which came to £20 which for six beautiful shadows I suppose isn't too bad. I've been wanting to try out the UD products for such a long time as beauty blogger after beauty blogger rave about them and the temptation got too much!

The palette itself is beautifully packaged and I adore that there are both matte colours for your base and crease, and shimmery shadows for the corners of your eyes to brighten and dust across your brow bone and over the top of you shadow to give it a little more glamour. One of the things I love most about these shadows is that they don't seem to drop like a lot of others do meaning that I don't feel the constant need to touch up or check that I don't look like the complete wreck I once did! haha, she jokes...or does she? And I'm now tempted to break out and buy one of the larger palettes at a later date.

To create the look above, I used 'Naked 2' as a base and using a blending brush I slowly applied 'Faint' to the outer corner of my lid and through my crease. Once satisfied with the same blending brush I used 'Crave' to slightly darken that outer corner, making sure I was blending thoroughly all the time. To the inner corners of my eye to brighten the look I used 'Venus' to add a subtle sparkle, and 'Foxy' to my brow bone. Using a clean blending brush I checked over to make sure I had no harsh edges.

To finish the look I applied my Collection liquid eyeliner in black to my waterline and top lid, Maybelline's 'Falsies Volum'Express' in brown and the Rimmel professional brow pencil in hazel, MAC's finishing powder in 'Soft and Gentle' and last but not least my Coloursensational lipstick in '150, Stellar Pink'.

Book Review: Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

“Set over the course of one school year in 1986, ELEANOR AND PARK is the story of two star-crossed misfits – smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try. When Eleanor meets Park, you’ll remember your own first love – and just how hard it pulled you under."

This is one of the first books in a little while that I’ve been able to sit down and simply read cover to cover without feeling like I need to take a break,  or reached that point in the early hours where my brain whispers “I think you ought to sleep now" -no. This book had me from the second I read "XTC was no good for drowning out the morons at the back of the bus", because quite honestly I know this exact feeling. 

Eleanor & Park, though a romantic fiction, hit me differently the way other books have. This novel shows struggles, pain, the essence of true love and the reality of falling in love with someone who is perhaps a little broken. I also appreciate the way it does not try to pretend that everything turns to sunshine and rainbows when you fall in love, it explains how that real outside world will always come back for you whether you try and run from it or not.

Interestingly, the book is written from both characters points of view helping me as the reader to understand the reasoning behind the others actions, something that I think we can often find difficult in our own relationships. 

This book simply filled me up. It made me smile, it most definitely made me cry, and I definitely was able to take something away from it. Thank you Rainbow Rowell for an absolutely stunning read.

10/10.