2017

I'm only like...two months late to the party. Yet again life and all of it's little (and not so little) issues has got in the way of my regular blogging!

But a quick update. I'm still Ginger. I have a new job and I was given the all clear for my suspected melanoma on my foot! It actually took quite a long time to get the all clear confirmation, considering my op was November 3rd, I received the latter on new years eve, which frankly I was really happy about! Who wouldn't want to start the new year with a clean slate! 

Anyway, I now have a new full time, salary paid job at a well known beauty and hair distributor...that't NOT Sally's, and I freaking love it! 

Also in other exciting quick update news, i'm finally having my fertility issues addressed, (i'll do a separate post about that) I'm getting a new tattoo in a couple of days so i'll finally be able to updtate my tattoo blog. and The Man and I are talking about doing a vow renewal! But as more of like a wiccan/pagan/'viking esq hand fastening ceremony. I have no idea when, and Secretly I am kind of hoping he'll re-propose first. But this year will be the ideal year to do it as it's our 10 year anniversary of meeting, and our 5 year wedding anniversary. 

So exciting things to come. I'll do an updated post about my hair and products I've been converted to aswell, if you haven't already head over to my Instagram @sway_moonchild 

Love and Light. xoxo

Make Up Revolution Haul (Tam Beauty)

Hello Beautiful Faces!
My blog posting was on such a roll, but life and tech issues are a plague upon the modern blogger!
Excuses aside...
I am a qualified make up artist. I'm allowed to have an unhealthy obsession with make up, but unlike other artists I have a low budget, no savings, I live pay to pay and sometimes cant afford to buy food... so when I do have spare money I don't really want to be spending ridiculous amounts on designer and trend make up. But I still want the outcome...and all I can say is THANK GOD FOR MAKE UP REVOLUTION.
I'm utterly in love. Its well priced, drugstore make up with the pay-off of a high quality brand, the added benefit of having vast amounts online, in store and being cruelty free too! BOOM

Over the past 5 months I've been picking up the odd item here and there so I thought i'd share them with you guys! I also created a couple of Halloween looks using these items AND I even did swatches of the lipsticks for you beauts! As usual links and current prices at time of posting are all below photos.

As much as I adore all their products I have to say the lipsticks have to be my favorite of them all.

(Left to Right)

Ultra Amplification Lipstick Shade; "Deepen" £3.00

Iconic Pro Lipstick Shade; "Liberty Matte" £2.49

Iconic Matte Shade; "Chauffeur" £3.00

Rose Gold Shade; "Private Members Club" £3.00

Rose Gold Shade; "Chauffeur" £3.00

Swatches (left to right) 

Chauffeur Matte, Chauffeur Rose gold, Private members club, Liberty Matte and Deepen.

 My first purchase was the Chauffeur in Rose gold, and I'm not going to lie, it was because of the packaging. My magpie mode engaged, I had £3 and a "F*ck it" moment. Then that lead into the pinky and berry shades, then the darkest berry matte and then Chauffeur in Matte because...well sometimes a girl needs a matte shade.

I also bought some of their Salvation liquid Lacquer- which I shall openly admit is not as good. It's a bit drying, if you eat with it on it seems to go powdery and its STAINS. I bought the shades "Velvet Vamp", "Velvet Reble" and "Velvet Black Heart", another disappointing part of this was Vamp and Black heart are identical shades. If i took the stickers off the packaging I wouldnt be able to tell them apart except in opacity. They also take a really long time to dry! 

and then stained for hours after...

They can all be found HERE and are all £3.00

 Next is Palettes. I have 3 eye shadow Palettes and one blush Palette and every morning it is always an annoying choice between them all as I usually want to wear all of them. But they all cater to my inner unicorn as much as my inner goth.

Mermaids Vs Unicorns £4.00
The colour pay off on this isnt as intense as you may think first off but it is totally worth the extra effort to drag across another layer. Shades are easily bendable and all of them pretty much work with one another. There are a few shades with added glitter just to appease that inner unicorn!

Dia De Los Muertos £6.00

This was actually my first ever Make up Revolution item and it's now about a year old. I bought it because at the time I had just coloured my hair bright green and I wanted the brights to contrast with my hair. Its well used and still not touched pan!

                                   
                                      

Flawless Matte £8.00
This is for my inner goth and grunge days. Every single shade in this palette is highly pigmented, and some even come out a lot darker than they are in their pans. I am very pale so do take into consideration that any colours will appear more pigmented on a blank canvas. But I truly Adore this palette. (there's now a flawless matte 2)

Ultra Blush Palette Golden Sugar £6.00 

I use this every day. I use the bottom right, non shine brown for contouring, the 3rd top for my blush and the white for highlight. And when i'm doing bridal make up i use bottom row and second in for blush as it has a pigment to it that also acts as a highlight and the soft rose colour works on all skin types and is amazing on every bride. 

Odds: Individual eye shadows and highlight.
Make up Revolution Eye shadow £1.00 each!!! There are loads of colours to chose from I have "Insomnia, Purple Heaven and Good Life"

Vivid Baked Highlighter "Pink Lights" £3.00

(Pink lights is no longer available on there website so I linked a coral highlight called "Rose Gold Lights")

And finally Awesome Double Flick eyeliner £3.50

(if you ever see my amazing cat-eye I usually wear daily on my Instagram, THIS is what I used)

If you've made it this far down the post here are some bonus Halloween pics using Make up Revolution products!

XoXo

Green/ Mermaid Hair.

That's right people. I have kept a hair colour for longer than 2 months. ARE YOU NOT IMPRESSED.

Admittedly it's changed from the La Riche, Directions "Teal" to a new combo of colours...
allow me to show you...

If you go to my first green hair post HERE. You'll see the original colour my sister created. Now we're here;

I have used a combo of Alpine green/ Apple Green / Spring Green, but I have recently ordered some Midnight Blue to add to the combo to begin adding more blue tones throughout to make it an awesome mermaid extravaganza.

I'm actually totally in love with my hair like this. I have seen a few people in recent weeks try and re-create it but mines still better. Im also avoiding bleaching it like i used to because 1) As we discovered before green is just the worst colour to remove...and 2) it's actually quite unique to have right now, although "mermaid" and "sea" hair is on the rise on Instagram.

I have to top it up once every 2-3 weeks so i find its always changing colour too, which is doubly awesome.

I buy all of my dyes from Salon sellers on Ebay for around £3 a pot. Although recently I have noticed the prices creeping up to around £3.50. 

Original directions website is HERE

or for inspiration from the Directions Instagram go HERE

(this is not sponsored) 

Mini Lush Haul

Lush lush LUSSSHHHH

I've had a love affair with lush for well over 10 years now. Their stuff just gets better and better, but i do find i prefer visiting their smaller branches as their staff are easier to communicate with, and i find it easier to explain that although they're trained to talk to customers and make them feel welcome and explain products, it sets off my Anxiety and makes me want to leave. Obviously not their fault, but does mean i dont really go into larger or busier stores which means when i do get to go into my nearest store (over an hour away) i feel like a little kid at Christmas. 

As you can see i didn't get much, but i got what i wanted. I think you'll be able to tell there's a "sweet" theme too...haha...get it...no...? ...anyway.... 

Cast in order of apperance:

Mmmelting Marshmallow Melt. £2.00 

One of my all time favorite scents, in a small pocket of moisturisng goodness. 

Rock Star Soap. £3.50per/kg

Yet more sweet candy scented goodness. If you love all their snowfairy range you need this soap in your life to get you through the harsh summer months.

Fluffy Egg. £2.95

Bath bomb, snow fairy scented, full of candy flowers...makes you feel like a candy princess...do you need more!?

Unicorn Horn £2.95

I cant link this, because the mythical being it is, it's no longer on their website. Looks like i got one just in time. My first ever Unicorn horn, and i have to say it's not as sweet as i'd hoped or expected but i still love the scent and how soft it makes my skin feel. 

xoxo

Lindy Bop Review

   I have a new love, it's in the form of a website and their amazing dresses and clothing items. 
   This post/ review is not sponsored, I discovered the site completely by accident and I bought 3 dresses in their (up to) 70% off sale they had on boxing day/ for January.

   First off with Christmas money on boxing day after the Lush sale fail. (see previous post for that horror!) I wanted to make myself feel better so I perused the Lindy Bob Website and found a beautiful 50's style every-day dress In the style "Tara" in Midnight blue.

    Original Price was £34.00 (roughly) and it was reduced to £21.99 with free p&p. It arrived within a couple of days and I was so excited to put it on... and i do love it...BUT...because i'm short (5ft2") and I'm quite large busted I had to order it in a size 20 and it was way to long and too big... obviously i wore it regardless as the excess fabric just made the skirt bit feel even more fabulous.

    And the only other gripe i had with this dress was that the under-bust seam had loose threads that kept getting caught in the size zip that made it hard to do up...but it's easily fixable....as for the length, I may keep it at this length as it is the shortest of all the dresses I bought and I do quite like the length.
    But for the price and the overall quality is just amazing. I love it and have worn it a few times complete with proper 1950's underwear which I have posted over on my Instagram @Sway_pinup. This Midnight Blue "Tara" dress isn't available anymore as far as I can find and there's only a few odd sizes in other fabrics which I will link HERE. 

 And the other "midnight blue" alternatives I have linked HERE. 

   Next was a beautiful Tartan or Plaid dress that my Husband convinced me to buy in the style "Grace". Being part Scottish I feel a tad bit patriotic in this... but also a bit stereotypical haha all I need is a Deep-fried mars bar.
   As you can see this dress is long, too long on me. It's designed to be just below the knee, but its more mid-to almost ankle length on me. If its filled out with a petticoat it'll take up some of the length but I will need to re-hem it and take it up a good few inches. Again I had to get this in a size 20 to accommodate my Jubblies, but it actually fits quite well around the waist too. The zip is quite long and at the back, which for me is impossible to do up or undo alone...so I actually thread a piece of lace or ribbon through the zip so I can pull the zip up myself, obviously once done up I then take the lace off but here's a picture just as a useful hint for ladies with similar issues.

 This dress was £30 Reduced to £17.99. Again with free p&p and arrived in 2-3 days. There's loads of fabric, but the fabric does feel a bit thin. Excellent for spring though. It looks great on and I don't feel like i'm showing off too much boob. This style in this tartan is no longer available but I have linked other Tartan Dresses HERE. And other colour/fabric options for the "Grace"style of dress HERE.

   Last but not least is the best of them all...although first off let me say that originally I bought "Violetta" in a nude/ Champaign colour with black Polka dots.
   It was stunning and only £9.99 but I bought it in  a size 18 instead of a 20 as I wanted it to be more fitted on the waist...and it was but it didn't do up around the bust at all. Usually in shops like Primark and New Look I'm a size 16 and 18 in some non-stretch tops, so I thought i'd get away with it, but  I ended up having to return the dress and I exchanged it for a slinky wiggle dress my husband also chose in the style "Raven". I bought it in Red and it is also available in Black and Purple too and I think they are all in the sale still. The Red was reduced from £29.99 to just £8.99 WHICH IS INSANE so I ended up actually getting a refund of £1 too, but the Purple and Black colours in the same style are only reduced to £17.99 HERE.
   The dress however, as I again had to size up, is too big on the bottom half. I have included images of it with me holding the extra fabric so you can see what it will look like once i have altered it. I also again need to take the length up by about 3/4".

    As you can see on the left it fits lovely around the boobs but on the right I've pulled all the spare fabric back so you can see what it'll look like when I've taken off about 2". Proper fitting clothes really do make all the difference in your clothes ladies!
 
    Over all i'm so happy with the items. I guess the alterations for me aren't such a big deal as I am used to having to alter my clothing because of my figure. Larger boobs and a small waist are a bless and a a curse. The Raven dress makes me feel redicilously fab and its my favorite of all of the dresses so far, but i expect there will be more purchases. The have literally just got in all of their new spring lines and spring fabrics and they are drool-worthy. I find the majority of the things i've bought were well-made, fast p&p and their returns policy is easy to work and understand and quick, they keep you up to date and e-mail you and you can track your order via their website if you sign up. They have loads of offers on all the time, amazing clearance prices and adorable matching mother-daughter dresses, and do womens sizes 6-26!!! I think it's safe to say they get a huge thumbs up from this hour-glass short-ass.

XOXO