Urban Decay Electric Palette

Hi everyone!
I hope you're all having a lovely Sunday and not having to rush around buying last minute Christmas presents, which I have to do! I've just had a birthday (I'm now 23.. ahhh!) and I thought i'd write a post about an amazing present I got from Rob - the Urban Decay Electric Palette.

It's so amazing!!! I've wanted this palette for so long, and I think Rob finally got the hint after I dragged him to the UD counter in our local department store for the millionth time to swatch the colours on my hand. I've watched a lot of Youtube tutorials around it, read all the blog posts, so you can understand my excitement. The Electric Palette is a palette of 10 brighter-than-bright eyeshadows in a variety of finishes - matte, satin and shimmer. There are exclusive colours like Freak (neon green) and Chaos (cobalt blue), although each colour is equally incredible (My favourite being Fringe, which I didn't actually use in this look!). Each shade is made with their Pigment Infusion System, resulting in shadows with incredible colour payoff with serious staying power. The palette also comes with an amazing double-ended brush and a huge mirror on the inside of the lid, making application really easy. 

Tada! Here's me, looking seriously creepy. It's hard to know how to pose when you're wearing this sort of make-up! This was my first attempt at some crazy colour combinations from this palette, and I have to say that I am totally in love with it. I used this tutorial by Emma Pickles (my all-time favourite beauty blogger!) although it looks a lot different with my tiny eyelids. I chose to not wing it out because basically I thought it would look really rubbish on me, but i'm amazed with the results.  In hindsight I can see areas for improvement, but overall I am impressed. The colours blended well and you need hardly any product at all to create this vibrant look. I used Jilted, Urban, Freak, Thrash and Revolt, alongside Blackheart and Strange from the UD Naked 2 palette. I mainly used the double-ended brush, although I did use a fluffy brush from Eco Tools for blending. I finished off the look with some Magenta Lip Pencil from MAC, followed by MAC's Heroine lipstick. I don't know how often i'm going to use this palette, although I really want to as the colours are just insane. I'm definitely going to experiment with more YouTube tutorials and try to come up with combinations on my own to try out. So if you loved experimenting with colour or just want a make-up look that's bound to turn heads, the UD Electric Palette is most definitely for you.

Get your hands on the Electric Palette here for £38 or at your local Urban Decay counter. 

Benefit Candy Countdown Advent Calendar

HAPPY 1ST OF DECEMBER!!!!

Can you tell i'm excited? To be honest, i've been counting down since August. After finishing my placement with Good Housekeeping, I was perhaps given the best leaving present any beauty addict could ask for: The Candy Countdown Advent Calendar from Benefit. Everyone who follows this blog will know that I am a massive Benefit fan, and although I probably own 99% of their products, who's going to say no to a fresh set of mini's? With last year's calendar selling out in minutes, I can't tell you how excited I was for December to arrive.

Yes, I am aware that the calendar has now sold out (Apparently they were gone in 34 seconds - whaaaat?!), but I still wanted to put up a post so other Benefit lovers could admire how pretty this product is. I will say now I am really disappointed at the quality of the photos and I apologise for the horrible yellow tinge that I haven't got a clue how to alter in Photoshop. Rob's been really ill and the only time I got to take the photos was in the morning and I didn't want to wake him up to take them (The bedroom is where we get the most light!) so I had to make do with the living room. 

This year's calendar is part of their adorable Sweet Shoppe theme, with the actual calendar resembling a little (Well, I say that, but it's actually ....cm tall!) house. Behind each door is a mini version of some of their hero products, alongside some of their skincare, along side some non beauty bits like hairbands and a doodle pad. It retailed at £60, although they are currently selling on Ebay for well over £100. To be honest, £60 is such a massive bargain as full-sized versions of this product total at ..., and even sets that contain 5 mini's total at £26.50 so with that being said, you're making a £35 saving with 18 products! Amazing. 

The set contains:
 “That gal” | 7.5ml
The POREfessional | 7.5ml
Benetint | 2.5ml
High beam | 2.5ml
Chachatint | 2.5ml
Posietint | 2.5ml
Stay Flawless mini
They’re Real! mini
Ultra plush lip gloss in 'dandelion' mini
Ultra plush lip gloss in 'A-lister' mini
Ultra plush lip gloss in 'fauxmance' mini
BADgal Lash mini
Stay Don’t Stray in 'light/medium' mini
Fakeup in '02 medium' mini
It’s Potent! eye cream mini
Total Moisture facial cream mini
Ooh La Lift mini
Watt’s Up! mini

And some non-beauty goodies: 
Beauty sticky notes
Doodle pad
Heart-shaped paperclips
Pinky, polka-dot hair tie
Elastic hair band with bow charm
Metallic silvery hair tie

For a moment I was slightly disappointed that the whole 24 days isn't packed full of beauty bits, but either way it's still really exciting! One of the other thing's i've noticed is that they've left out some of the bits that I thought were quite special from last year's calendar, like a mini Hoola or perhaps a mini Sugarbomb. 

I won't spoil it for everyone, but I thought i'd just show a picture of what was behind the first door..:

PAPERCLIPSSSSSSS. Slightly anti-climactic, but there you have it.

Basically, this has to be one of the best Christmas presents i've ever gotten.. and it wasn't even intended to be one! Beauty calendars are definitely the way forward. Don't get me wrong, I love having chocolate every day, but nothing beats getting a little of your favourite thing to brighten up a dreary December morning every day for a month! Did anyone manage to get their hands on a beauty calendar, or is there a brand that you want to release one next year? Let me know! :)