The Prettiest Spring Lipsticks from Clarins

Spring Collections are now being released all over the place in the makeup world and it's all a little bit exciting. One of the most exciting releases for me (self confessed lipstick junkie) are the latest shades from the Clarins Joli Rouge Brilliant collection. When the Joli Rouge range was re-launched back in August / September last year you may have seen my New Joli Rouge Lipstick post where I reviewed a selection of the re-vamped lippies; Honestly I think thats when I originally fell in love with the Joli Rouge range. Forget MAC Creamsheen,  Joli Rouge are the ultimate buttery and nourishing lipsticks out there and I have to say they are always at the top of my go-to list now! The Spring colours are literally so pretty. When I think of Spring I always think of corals and peaches and pastel colours and Clarins have definitely incorporated the perfect shades into this collection. I am a complete heart-eyed emoji mess over these 5 colours and cannot wait to finish writing up this post so that I can get using these out in real life! 

The Joli Rouge lipsticks are filled with Mango Oil to give the lips an instant soft, smooth and nourished feel and their new Shine Booster + complex gives a luminous sheen and makes them that little bit glossier. They're honestly the nicest lipsticks that I have ever tried and the look that they give on the lips is just so nice. I'm usually more of a matte girl but these give the prettiest sheen without having to wear lipgloss and I am totally in love with them! The shades themselves are super pretty too; my personal favourite is number 30, Soft Berry as it is the perfect 'your lips but better' nude with a slightly deeper pink finish and I have been wearing it every day since these were popped through my door! I'm also a massive fan of 13, Cherry which is a really wearable pinky/red and 27, Hot Fuchsia which is a little more daring but something I can definitely see myself wearing on a night out in the spring! 

This time around Clarins have also released a new Instant Light Lip Perfecting Base which is basically a primer for your lips, something that I have longed for, for quite some time now. The Acacia gum botanical pears (try saying that five times fast) smooths out wrinkles and keep the lips full of moisture along with the Jojoba, Sunflower and Mimosa was complex. This base has been something that since I've received I have used every time that I've worn lipstick; I'm a massive sucker for anything that keeps my lips smooth and crack-free and this base has shown some great results from using it so far. At £18 it is a bit on the pricey side, but I've tried a so-called lip primer from Topshop before for £5 and it definitely did not give such great results as this. It might not be at the top of everybody's 'must buy' list but if you've got the money to spend and your lips are in desperate need of a little extra loving then this product is the one for you!

Have you tried Clarins Joli Rouge lipsticks before? Will you be picking up any of these Brilliant new shades?

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*This post may contain PR Samples*

Jamie Oliver's Bloomin' Brilliant Brownies

If there's one thing I love more than Chocolate Brownies... nope actually I'm going to stop that sentence right there because I don't think there is anything I love more than brownies. Brownies are literally life and these brownies are the best I've tried in a long time, even if I do say so myself! This recipe of Jamie Oliver's is one that I have tried a couple of times now and I just wanted to share it with you all as it is probably my favourite one out there!

For this Recipe you will need:

250g Unsalted Butter

200g Dark Chocolate

80g Cocoa Powder

65g Plain Flour

350g Caster Sugar

1tsp Baking Powder

4 Large Eggs

To make these gorgeous brownies, you will need to:

Make sure you Pre-Heat your oven to 180ºC 

Melt your butter and Dark Chocolate in a glass bowl over boiling water

Mix together your Flour, Cocoa Powder, Caster Sugar and Baking Powder 

Add your Butter and Chocolate Mixture to the Dry Mixture and fold in

Add the 4 eggs and beat together until mixture is smooth and creamy

Put into a square / rectangular deep baking tray and bake for 25 minutes!

For the full recipe and method please visit JamieOliver.com - I absolutely love warming these up and eating them with cold Vanilla Ice Cream, the contrast in temperature and the flavours together are delicious! 

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Drugstore Makeup Look Ft Collection

 I have been trying to up my contour game for quiet some time now. A couple of months ago I paid to go on a 'Makeup Masterclass' in a studio in Manchester and for three hours I learnt the Do's and Don't's of bronzing and highlighting until you couldn't see me for makeup. Practicing with different makeup is now one of my favourite past times and so when this bundle of Collection goodies arrived for me I was very excited. I've only ever heard good things about Collection and being a massive fan of the Lasting Perfection Concealer myself I almost couldn't wait to photograph these before I had a play around. I want to start first about talking about my favourite of the three palettes, the gorgeous Blush & Glow Palette*. I have quite rapidly fallen in love with this quad and the bronzer is now my everyday go-to, it's quiet possibly a little too dark for me so I've got to be light handed with it, but when I have a tan this will definitely be the perfect shade. I've loved working with it and love how easy the powder is to blend especially into my liquid foundations as I often find that a lot of other powders can turn out cakey. The highlighter in this quad is also another utter gem, it's perfectly shimmery and picks up the light really nicely along my cheekbones and down the bridge of my nose. It's actually pretty similar to my fave MAC highlighter and I really like the fact that it comes in a palette with the bronzer and two blushes, perfect for travelling!

The Conceal and Light Like a Pro Palette* is something that I like a lot more than I thought I would. I've always been a bit sceptical when it came to concealer palettes but this one is better than I ever thought it would be. The different shades of nude concealer work really well to cover my blemishes and the colour correcting shades are an absolute Godsend to disguise my late nights and red patches! I've admitted it a lot in the past by saying that I 100% am a massive makeup snob but honestly these concealers are actually pretty damn good. I take back what I've ever said about cheaper makeup not being of as good a quality, well done Collection, you've changed my mind!

Last but not least I was also generously sent the Face The Day Palette* an all-in-one palette that is perfect if you're going on an over night stay somewhere. Not only does this palette include a Bronzer, Highlighter and Blusher but it also plays host to four gorgeously nude eye shadows. Although I wouldn't say the lighter shades are the most pigmented out there, they are really lovely to blend and build up. The darker brown shade really steals the show for me in this palette though and is perfect for adding some smokey attitude to a simple eye look. I love the look that I created for the photos above and even though this palette isn't  bursting with diversity it definitely is the ideal palette for easy packing on trips away. You've got everything in one place and can create a dramatic eye as well as an understated taupe base. I also love that these eye shadows are shimmery; Shimmer is such a go-to for me when I want an easy eye as I think it can add more definition to an entire look than a matte shadow can. I really like this palette and for £6.99 you can't really go wrong! 

I've been majorly impressed by these palettes from Collection and really want to get my hands on some more pieces now to see how the rest of the line compares. I think this is definitely a bit of a learning curve for me as clearly more affordable makeup is clearly just as good as the high end stuff - or at least in the case of Collection Cosmetics it is! 

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Stackable Necklaces from Happiness Boutique

One thing that I am not good at is wearing jewellery. I either forget about it or honestly just cannot be bothered when it comes to figuring out which necklace / bracelet to wear with each outfit. However recently I've decided that I need to stop being so bloody lazy when it comets my beauty / fashion regimes! So jewellery is now something that I'm making myself make more of an effort with and three pieces that I have been loving are the these 'Like a Feather' necklaces from Happiness Boutique! I really love these pieces and love that on the website they actually come as a set. Originally when I chose these I though that they would be connected and be one statement piece but I really love that their individual that you can stack or wear separately. They're a really great quality and are so inexpensive for what they are! I'd never heard of Happiness Boutique before, but will definitely be peeking back at their site soon to see what other great bits they have! I've kindly been given a discount code for my readers of: BekyLou for 10% off any order over 19€ so make sure you go an take a peek too! They offer free worldwide shipping which is an added bonus and also have a customer reward programme which means you have the chance to earn free jewellery gifts for signing up to their website and through earning points through each purchase you make!  My discount code is only valid until 2nd Feb so make sure you get searching soon!

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*this post may contain PR samples*

2016 Look Ahead & A Bit of An Honest One

Happy new year! Can you believe that it's already 2016? And can you believe that you've probably ready that exact statement 100's times by now? Sorry I'm so late to the party! I have taken a bit of a longer break for the holidays than I had planned to. For a while I felt like I was on top of everything that had happened in the second half of last year but apparently I hadn't. It's taken a very long time for things to hit me and when they did I really didn't like it. Quiet honestly, without this sounding too much like a therapy session, I've been a bit of a mess. I lost one of my closest friends in 2015 and within two weeks of that happening I moved away from my family and his family and moved to Manchester with my Boyfriend. I did okay and I thought I was happy but underneath it seems like I was just hiding my true feelings. Losing Scott has hit me harder than I ever thought it would. Not only was he one of my oldest and closest friends, but he was like a brother to me and had been for the whole 18 years that I'd known him. The Christmas break gave me a lot of time to be with all of the people that I left behind and gave me a lot of time to be a slob, sleep in to when I wanted and not focus on my blog or work and all of the emotions that 'should' have hit me in the beginning suddenly hit me all at once. Now I'm sat on my bed two weeks on from Christmas and in all honesty I'm still a bit lost. I haven't even wanted to write any blog posts up until now which is definitely not like me.

A lot of things happened in 2015 that I don't want to forget about but I don't quiet want to remember all of them either. 2016, I've decided, is going to be my year and I am going to completely write off this crappy start that I'm having and start afresh. Again. This year there is nothing that I want more than to enhance my blog even more. My blog has gone from strength to strength in 2015 and I can't wait to keep that up in 2016. It' the one thing in my life that has been constant for the last 2 and a half years and is definitely something I'd like to hopefully turn into a career one day. But for now that's not really viable so that's just been motivating me even more to keep going and to do the best that I can at BekyLou!

One of the main things that I'm looking forward to in 2016 is DISNEY WORLD. As you can see from above, Jordan bought me a freaking gigantic Minnie Mouse cuddly toy and he actually bought himself the Mickey version too and they have literally gotten me so excited for Florida it's crazy. I can't wait to get away for two weeks and just be the biggest kid ever. I'm quite lucky in the fact that Jordan is just as excited as I am, we both really wanted to go to Disney and Universal and so to be able to have actually agreed on it and booked it already is just so cool and I am so excited, can you tell that I'm so excited? It's the biggest thing that I've actually saved for and been able to afford and I can't wait to get out there, get on the rollercoasters and go shopping in the Florida Malls! I honestly thing the rollercoaster and rides are the things I'm most looking forward to though. I'm a massive adrenaline junkie and love everything crazy like that.

Speaking of crazy, I'm also really looking forward to doing my second Skydive of 2016. Yep, you heard me correctly, my second! I recently jumped out of a plane for charity in memory of Scottie and I tell you now it was the most incredible experience I've ever done. It definitely takes being an adrenaline junkie to a whole new level and I cannot wait to do it again. There's something about plummeting through the air at 125mph and then floating above the earth over looking everything that is just so peaceful. Honestly if I could do it every time I felt stressed or fed up then it would be at the top of my de-stress list. I can't even truly describe the feeling of being that far up in the sky floating down, it's the most amazing thing and I am so proud that not only I achieved it and managed to raise so much money for Wiltshire Air Ambulance (around £1500 myself and £10,000 in our group) but also that I enjoyed it. I say 'no' to doing things so often that I miss out on so many opportunities and I'm so glad that Scottie's girlfriend managed to twist my arm on this one. I will never forget it and cannot wait to get back in the harness and do it again. I must be mental!

2016 is also the year that I hope to enhance my wardrobe, compared to the other two things that I'm most looking forward to this one is a little lower down on the 'omg this will be incredible' list but it's something that I've really wanted to step up for quite some time. I'm hoping that by getting back into my gym routine and toning up, I'll feel more comfortable in more stylish and fashionable clothing. I'm also hoping that will mean more fashion posts on BekyLou, something that I really tried to do last year but am even more determined to include this year!

I'm sorry that this has been such a rambly post, but I think that sometimes you need to have a good old blurt out on your blog - saying that I do hope this is one of very few of 2016! It's actually taken me around a week to fully put this post together!  What are you looking forward to this year? I'd love to know what mental things you'll be up to!

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New Ole Henriksen Skincare Favourites

Today's post (if you haven't already guessed by the title) is an Ole Henriksen Skincare post and I have to say that when these items popped through the door I was very excited! I've never tried anything from Ole Henriksen before and so obviously I started trailing these out straight away. I have had such problematic skin recently that it's literally not even funny and only two things have been sorting it out lately. The first is one of the products above,  the Ole Henriksen Empower Foaming Milk Cleanser* (£20) which I have been using every morning and evening for the past couple of weeks. Initially I used this on its own, massaging it into my skin with my fingers but I really like having a good deep scrub when my face is feeling this gross so I then started using my Magnitone Barefaced with this and I have absolutely loved the results. I'm not usually a fan of milky cleansers but this one definitely stood out from the others that I've tried purely for the fact that it foams up as it removes the dirt from my face. It's also always nice to see the results as your makeup literally melts off and you don't have that awkward moment where you have to rub your eyes so much half your eyelashes fall out! I mean, that hasn't actually happened to me, but there are sometimes one or two lash casualties. Either way, this cleanser is definitely one to beat!

The Ole Henriksen Empower Moisturiser* (£38) is the second product that has been really helping my skin get back to it's normal self recently. My skin has not only been spot central but it's also been unusually dry and I have no idea why; I've found massaging this stuff into it after cleansing has definitely been helping. It's so lovely and light but still has the perfect amount of moisture in it to keep my skin hydrated. I honestly think that this is one of my new favourite moisturisers and can't recommend it enough, even though it is a little on the pricey side, for 50ml it's not all that bad if you love your brands and want a moisturiser that actually leaves your face feeling re-hydrtaed and not just a little bit sticky.

Lastly on my list of Ole Henriksen products to try is the Empower Hydrating Hand Crème* (£12) which I honestly wasn't a fan of to begin with as it seemed quite sticky but after a couple of applications and using a little less each time (which by the way is probably the logical idea instead of then having to rub it all over your legs to get off the excess - I know, I'm a genius) it quickly became a must-use. It's been so so good to my hands and is something that I've needed to incorporate into my skincare for quite some time now so I'm glad that this was so very kindly delivered to me as it's up there with the best that I've tried.

You can get all of these products on BeautyExpert.com  along with lots of other Ole Henriksen items!

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The Saviour that is Cocoa Brown Instant Bronzing Gel

I am a self-proclaimed self hater of fake tanning. I love the look, but the process and dancing around trying to reach that one spot on my back for ages is just not my thing. Which of course explains why most of the time I stay pale and I try my best to rock it, but honestly there's nothing more that I love than an easy tan. I've tried a couple in the past (you can read my 'New Found Love for Instant Tans' post to find out what I thought of them) but I have to admit that even those don't come close to the love that I have for this beautiful new product from Cocoa Brown. As you may know, I've reviewed products from Marissa Carter's CB range a couple of times now but I have to say this release has definitely been my favourite so far. The Instant Tan Bronzing Gel in Matte* has literally been a saviour to me over the festive period and I know it will be over Summer too!

This Bronzing Gel comes in two shades, Matte and Shimmer and for me I thought that Matte would be the best option. I'm definitely more of a subtle tan girl and that is exactly what this gel does. I have been applying this to my legs for nights out and to my shoulders, arms and chest area for when I want to take some blog photos (sneaky huh?). It's the easiest faff-free tan ever and doesn't even streak easily in the rain (perfectly demonstrated on NYE). I love that I can wash it off when I'm ready and I don't have to scrub myself silly in the hope that it will fade. What can I say? I'm a sucker for the easy life and when it comes to beauty, that's not always an option. The colour pay off is perfect, natural and not streaky at all. It's also super easy to apply with Cocoa Brown's new Delux Double Sided Velvet Mitt* which I have to say is also the nicest and most luxurious mitt I've ever used. The tan literally glides on and blends so well. I really like that this is a gel formulation; it's got a great consistency and is really easy to blend and did I mention it gives a great natural look? I am in love with this Instant Tan and have to say hats off to Marissa Carter once again because this is another Cocoa Brown hit! I can't wait to get some more of this in my life and to try the Shimmer version too!

You can pick up all of the Cocoa Brown range including the new Bronzing Gels at Cloud10Beauty!

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