KIKO Colour Impact Eyeshadow Palette - Lounge Warm Tones

My love affair with KIKO started in Rome back in July and although I've had access to the brand via the website I much prefer swatching and testing the product out in the shop. On my recent shop to Westfields Stratford I headed straight to the KIKO store and indulged in a few cheeky purchases. 

I have seen this palette crop up on a number of blogs and I fell in love with one colour in particular, but I'm getting ahead of myself. It was half price - £8.40 and it was mine.

Let's start with the packaging. It's not good. In fact I personally hate it. It just does not to the product underneath justice.

Ahhh just look at that. 2 matte shades, 1 satin and 3 shimmer/glitter shades. All work nicely together giving lots of options for day and night time looks.

The three stand out shades are the mattes/satin colours especially the plum/burgundy. It is stunning. I tend to stay away from most shimmers and I'm not a massive fan of the light gold and pink shades but I do like the brown shimmer especially mixed in with Urban Decay's Darkhorse for a glittery smokey eye. 

All the colours are incredibly pigmented and feel like butter on your fingers. There's very little fallout from the matte shades but quite a lot on the glitters - especially the gold. I would advise using a eyeshadow primer for these as they do not have the longest staying power but at the price they are you can't complain.

I think this is the perfect Autmun/Winter palate and if these shades aren't to your liking there are 3 other palettes with different colours. I am really happy with my little bargain and I'm sure some of you will love this too. Find it here.

What I got for Christmas 2013.

 I love reading everyone's Christmas present posts as I am super nosy and thought if you are nosy to then you will enjoy this post. Every year my family and friends are super generous and if any of you read this - thank you for my lovely gifts & I love you lots!

These are the bits I got in my stocking. Every year my Dad says we are too old for one but Mum always sneakily does us one anyways! It's a tradition to always have toiletry bits and chocolate coins. We got a few pairs of funny socks too but I put them on straight away on Christmas morning! I got a few of my favourite sweets & a lovely OPI set. 

 I think everyone knows my obsession with candles and I got of my all time favourites - Salted Caramel. 

Mum & Dad treated me to one of my favourite perfumes Paco Rabanne's Lady Million as well as some Liz Earle goodies. Mum's a huge fan of No7 skincare and got me an eye cream to try out as I haven't used an eye cream before! I also got a gorgeous plum colour Essie nail polish which is already on my tootsies.

The standard stocking up on Soap & Glory products for the year. It's my favourite body care brand and I haven't found a product I don't like yet so it's always a winner to receive.

I'm a keen cook and baker so was lucky to get a couple of new cook books with some baking equipment to help. F.Y.I I have made the Salted Caramel cupcakes in the Hummingbird Bakery book and they are amazing.

One of my sister's presents to me was the beautiful diary from paper chase which will keep my blogging in check in 2014 hopefully. I also got the Great Gatsby which is my favourite film this year!

I sometimes have to travel quite far for work and I drive to visit friends a lot so this Sat Nav will come in super handy to save me getting stressed in busy cities!

Ahh….Pyjamas. I love getting pj's for Christmas and my Mum knows me super well to get me the gingerbread ones, they are so snug. Nan & Grandad got me the Eeyore onesie which we swiftly got into.

I was super lucky to get a bit of money to put towards a new camera for blogging; I just can't decide what to get at the best price as I am not that tech savvy.

The best part was definitely spending the whole day with my family which probably only happens once every few months due to our hectic schedules. I am super excited for Sunday when the rest of my family arrives and we have a second Christmas day!

Christmas 2013

The annual festive socks!

Mum opening a present from me & my sister.

Dad making me take photo evidence that these are his socks and I can't steal them!

Breakfast of Salmon, eggs & toast. With snowballs naturally.

Lots and lots of bubbly!

Drool here.

Watching the soaps in my Eeyore onesie with a baileys 

Epic Monopoly Game that went on for over 2 hours! I lost.

New Gingerbread PJ's & Baileys Hot Chocolate before bed.

Here's a few pictures of how I spent my Christmas Day. It mainly consisted of eating, drinking, laughing and being lazy. I woke up at 7am being the big kid I am & at half 8 had enough and tried to get the rest of them up. My Nan stayed the night before so we opened our stockings & presents downstairs before getting dressed and waiting for our other grandparents to come over.

Once they arrived there were more presents and laughs before we sat down to lunch. Which was a beaut. After settling down around 5pm to watch some good old Christmas TV we played a few games of cranium. The grandparents went to bed/home and Mum, Dad, Keira, her Boyfriend Phil and I all sat and played a rather competitive game of Monopoly. At 1am I retired to my room with a baileys hot chocolate and tried to watch a programme. I must have been asleep 5 minutes into whatever I put on because Mum turned my TV, lamp and blew out my candle for me.

I got so many lovely presents from my friends and family and loved seeing the faces on my family. I don't go back to work until the 2nd and have more family arriving this Sunday to stay for a few days which means lots of games and maybe a few more presents! I like breaking up the holidays because it gives me more to look forward too!

I think I am going to do a "What I got for Christmas" type post tomorrow but I may just pick a couple of my favourite things. There won't be any evidence of any food pressies as I spent Boxing Day eating so much crap out of my stocking!

London Christmas Trip Part 2

Around 5pm on Saturday we continued our adventure over at Southbank. There was a Christmas market which handed out free cheese samples (winner). Me and Emma were big kids and went on the carousel, naturally.

South Bank is probably my favourite part of London, there's always something going on. We found a hidden little vintage fair with independent designers which was super cute but a bit too expensive for my liking. We wandered inside the centre and found a brass band playing; they were playing Kanye West and Rihanna tracks which was so awesome. Happy hour at Las Iguanas was needed to rest our little tired feet.

Our final stop was Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park. Hog Roasts, Steins of lager and roasted nuts made for a fabulous supper and we had a good old sing song in the beer tent town. It was all in all the most festive of days.

Sunday was much more relaxed with a trip to Stratford's Westfield. A nice bit of Sushi and a huge salted caramel pink berry was consumed followed by a little mooch & shop. 

How was everyone's Christmas? Mine was brilliant; I've been rather poorly lately and it was nice to just be at home and be looked after for the day. I'll share some pictures tomorrow.

London Christmas Trip Part 1

To get into the most festive of spirits my friend Emma and I packed up the car, blasted the Xmas tunes and headed to London late Friday evening to see our friend Andy. I thought I would take you along with me because I am kind like that. We headed to a local pub in Tottenham with his housemate and had a few ciders before calling it a night. We had a big day planned for Saturday...

First stop as you can guess was the Natural History Museum for a bit of culture; Andy hadn't been since he was 4 and I love a good bit of learning. 

My favourite exhibitions are the Earth's Treasure where there's all the sparkly gems and crystals and the dinosaurs - everyone seemed to be there! 

A quick pit stop at Harrods for a bite to eat (a mozzarella, pesto and parma ham roll for myself) we headed towards Oxford Street and Soho to got to some fabric shops as Emma needed some samples. There were quite a lot of cool vintage style shops too! I loved the game above where you ping the wooden pigs through the hole and the first one to get them all through wins. Not going to lie I was awesome at it.

Part Two will be up on Boxing Day!

Have a wonderful day tomorrow, eat, drink & be merry!