Easy Sunday: Easter 2013 in Hertfordshire

Hello my lovlies!

Hope you're having a wonderful Easter holiday :)

This yes I spent most of it at my sister's in Hertfordshire. 

Jake and I went there yesterday after noon and got home late afternoon today.

I took some pictures as we went bowling yesterday and we took the girls to the park this morning, it was so lovely to see them that it made me miss them even more when we got home.

Here's the pictures from bowling :)

Pic 1: my shoes were really strange and disheveled! 

2: Sneaky picture of Jake and I.

3: A rather blurry picture of the score board, my brother in law and their youngest girl ended up coming joint first! Even though I got two strikes! 

4. Me and the littlest girl, with Jake photobombing! This was before she got me to go on a tiny enclosed simulator thing which was not good for the claustrophobia, aha. The things us aunties do, eh! 

Pic 1: Jake, my sister and I hid the Easter eggs when the girls were in bed. This was too much fun! Jake found some of the most obscure places.. I.e in the door latch bit! 

2 & 3: We did crafts with the girls so I made a one eyed Easter chick and Jake attempted a chick which ended up looking more like an octopus! 

4: Us 4 at the park (Including a random bit of mad hair!) They had us running around the whole time which was pretty good as it was freezing! 

I hope you had as much fun for your Easter Bank holiday as we did, and got lots of chocolate too! 

Until next time

xoxo.

Boots & Superdrug: Mini 'Drugstore' Haul #2

Hello my lovlies! 

Today I have for you a little 'drugstore' haul for you. 

I bought the TRESemmé hair products from Superdrug and the other bits from Boots.

I decided to buy these as I'm running out of my current Aussie hair products and I feel like I still haven't found my favourite yet. Having coloured blonde hair which is very fine, it's slightly dry and damaged, despite using barely any heat on it, and when I do, it's completely frazzles it, making me regret going near my hair with anything hot! And that's despite me using a heat protectant oil, and a spray in one too. :(

 I've seen a few good things about these products to I'm excited to try these. TRESemmé is currently half price in Superdrug so I got these all for £7.85 instead of £15.97 

which is a right result!

I got these bad boys in Boots as there is currently a 3 for 2 going on. The Collection 2000 concealer is a repurchase, I bought the Rimmel Scandal Eyes waterproof pencil in Nude because I saw it in a haul on Beauty Crush's channel (click for the haul video here) and the Revlon Colourburst Lip Butter in Strawberry Shortcake, on a bit of a whim really! I've been looking at them for a long time and seen so much hype for ages so I couldn't resist any longer! 

I bought all these for £12.18 instead of £16.17 which is a bargain too! 

I love buying new products when they're offers on in case they aren't my cup of tea, so then I don't get too disappointed. :)

If you'd like to see any reviews/swatches then do let me know!

Until next time

xoxo.

Makeup Monday: 7 Deadly Sins of Beauty Challenge

Hello my lovlies! 

This week I've joined in with the 'Makeup Monday' posts.

I first heard of it last week on Nina's blog, and thought it was a fab idea!

This week is the 7 Deadly Sins of Beauty challenge, so lets get started.

1. GREED: What is your most inexpensive beauty item? What is your most expensive?

I don't really own any high end makeup, only drugstore so the products I tend to buy aren't particularly expensive anyway. I think my E.L.F Essential Line lipsticks would be my most inexpensive as I bought these when they had the 50% off so I ended up getting them for 75p each. Even their full price of £1.50 is cheap as chips! 

My most expensive beauty item is probably my Lady Gaga perfume I got for Christmas from my parents, after wanting it for so long! Although I'm not sure if it counts, as I didn't pay for it myself! 

Other than that it would probably be, wow this is hard! Probably my RCMA Sample Foundation palette that I paid about £48 for from online.. I then had to pay even more because of the handling fee Royal Mail charged me! 

2. WRATH: What beauty products do you have a love/hate relationship with?

Probably lipstick and lipgloss. I just don't think it suits me and my smallish lips but buy it anyway because I love the look of certain colours! I can't really get on with lipgloss because I hate the sticky feeling most of them give and I don't think I look right with shiny lips? I think I also just don't like drawing attention to my mouth, aha! I am slowly trying to get into using them with Sexy Mother Plucker lipgloss I got from my Best of All bag I got around Christmas time.

3. GLUTTONY: What are your most delicious beauty products?

Well, in terms of delicious smells, I'm so in love with Soap & Glory at the minute! 

So combine that I will have to go with my A Great Kisser lip balm in Vanilla Bean, from Soap & Glory. Vanilla is my most favourite smell in the whole wide world. Plus it really moisturises my lips too so that makes my lips delicious too, doesn't it? My bubblegum lip scrub from Lush is a close second though, tasty!

4. SLOTH: What beauty product do you neglect, due to laziness?

Moisturising my body and shaving my legs! So embarrassing really! The shaving legs part anyway... I need to get back into waxing them methinks! As for moisturising.. I have such lovely smelling ones but once I get out of the bath I just want to get into my jim jams and sleep! 

5. PRIDE: What beauty product gives you the most self confidence?

Foundation! My complexion isn't really that bad.. But I don't have the confidence to go out with anything on it! I had to when I had a random reaction to a hair product and it felt pretty liberating but quickly went back to wearing foundation again when I could. I'm currently in love with Revlon Colourstay for normal/dry skin. I think I'll go back to Bourjois Healthy Mix in the summer though.

6. LUST: What beauty products do you want the most?

At the minute, Illamasqua's cream pigment in Hollow, I keep seeing people wearing it as a contour which makes me want it more and more! 

7. ENVY: What items would you most like to receive as a gift?

More Fame by Lady Gaga :) or perfume in general! I never buy it for myself because I can't convince myself to spend to much on it. I'm about half way on my bottle of Fame, I don't want it to end! :( 

Click the picture to go onto the Agape Love Designs to see her 7 Deadly Sins post, and to see others who have taken part in Makeup Monday today. :)

I hope you enjoyed the post. I think Makeup Monday is a great way to find more blogs! 

Until next time

xoxo.

Dirty Works: Pore-fect Face Scrub Review

Hello my lovlies!

Today I have for you a review on the Pore-fect Face Scrub by Dirty Works.

I have been using this for a good few months now, and it really is amazing! 

'Reveal the inner beauty with this softening and smoothing facial scrub. Bursting with fruit extracts, it will tingle your senses with excitement and leave you skin refreshed and ready for further action! Let the magic get to work to help perfect the texture of your skin and leave it in extraordinarily smooth. The top beauty treat for skin radiance!'

I use this about twice a week (as that's what they recommend) either in the bath or in the shower, whilst I leave my conditioner in for a bit. You only need a little bit and when I wash it off I tend to use a clean face flannel. 

The menthol in it really awakens your face especially in the morning, and makes your face feel sort of rejuvenated? It's amazing.

I believe it's really helped with the typical bad skin during 'that time of the month' and even though there's menthol and quite a strong fruity scent, it doesn't affect my sensitive skin.

I find that I definitely need to use a moisturiser after using it as it's pretty astringent and makes my face feel a little tight..Which I don't mind, because obviously it means it's working! 

    However even though it does make my skin feel tight, it also makes it feel soft and new, so that's good too!

Will I repurchase this again? 

Definitely! Even though I wouldn't mind trying other products, I can still see this being my 'go to' scrub. This has left me eager to try some more from the Dirty Works range too!

I think I bought it when it was on offer.. It was so long ago I cant even remember! But for £4.99 it's normal price it's a steal.

You can find it here on their website or here on the Sainsbury's website, it's is currently 33% off at £3.32! 

It also appears that the packaging is now blue!? I should probably go to my local Sainsbury's and have a look! 

Don't forget to follow me on Bloglovin' incase we loose GFC :(
& Apologies for the darkness of the pictures! The weather was awful, must remember to take new ones! 

Until next time

xoxoxo.

Easy Sunday: New Hobby?

Hello my lovlies :)

First off, happy St. Patrick's day! 

Hope you all are having a fabulous day and getting very merry!

We don't personally celebrate it in the Stevens' household.

In fact my parents don't celebrate much! Boooorrrring, ahahaa.

Today I thought I'd show you my sort of new hobby, knitting! 

Wow that cast on looks awful! The wool had been knitted before on my knitting attempt last year and made it kind of bleurgh.. That's my excuse anyway! Ahaha.

I know you are now probably thinking I just as boring! But I find it really sort of calming and therapeutic. It's taken me ages to get into it, my first square took me about 3 months on and off to complete, but I finally completed it last night :) 

I had tried sometime last year to get  into it but it just wasn't working. This year when the 'Knit & Stitch' magazine came out Jake's aunt bought me the first mag which came with a dvd which made it so much easier to understand! Admittedly I still need to practice loads, and I can only do the knit stitch as of yet.. But hopefully I will persevere with it and be a knitting whizz! 

(I only ever got the first mag, could never find any of the others and gave up in the end!)

However this is very unlikely because if you know me at all I like to learn lots of new things and get totally obsessed with it for a few months then drop it and learn a new thing.. It's awfully annoying! 

I often go through the same thing with baking too! I am just about to bake some cookies. :) 

Eventually if I do persevere I will make a ginormous patch work blanket and be very proud of myself! 

Do you have and hobbies?  I would love to know :)

Until next time! 

xoxox.

Goodbye to GFC? :(

Hello my lovlies! 

As you may, or may not know, Google/Blogger are apparently getting rid of Google Reader and Google Friend Connect.

You may be thinking.. So what does that mean to me?

Well, if means you will no longer get updated when me, and other bloggers post things, which is a bit unfortunate really. 

One way to get round this is by using Blog Lovin' instead, and using them as your sort of reading list. It's very simple to use! So please, please click my 'Follow me on Bloglovin' button over there --->

Or you can click here! 

It would be awful to loose any of you! 

See you tomorrow ;) 

xoxo.

PS. If you are unhappy about all this too, there is an online petition which you can sign here.

Nivea: Express Hydration Primer For Dry & Sensitive Skin First Impressions

Hello my lovlies! 

Today I have for you a 'First Impressions' post on the Nivea Daily Essentials Express Hydration Primer for Dry & Sensitive Skin. Try saying that 3x fast! Blimey! 

I chose this formula because even though I have combination skin, I tend to get troublesome dry patches, anywhere on my face really, and I have reaaaaally sensitive skin so I have to be careful what I put on my face, or skin in general really.

It comes in a glass jar, which gives it a more expensive feel, although the klutz in  me is scared of smashing it! 

Thumbs up for the foil top! So you know if someones been contaminating it before you've bought it and to help keep it fresh. 

I wasn't expecting this consistency, it's sort of gel-like but doesn't feel siliconey.

I've used this twice so far, and I'm really impressed so far, it says it's fast absorbing which it is! It takes no time at all. I don't feel as though I'm lacking moisture either if that makes sense? It's scent is very strong despite it being for sensitive skin which surprised me, but it hasn't caused any irritation as of yet.

Very impressed so far, if you want me to do a full depth review then comment below and I'll do it once I've used it for a month or so :) 

Until next time! 

xoxo.

Time for a change! Reason behind new Blog URL.

Hello my lovlies!

I'm so happy to tell you I have finally changed my blog url. 

It was formerly 'marybeautybits' which I wasn't totally happy with.

I think it was the only name I could think of many moons ago, and I felt it was a bit restricting to only beauty related content, when I have quite a few other interests now.

Of course the blog will still be mostly beauty because that is a huuuuge part of my life, but I would also like to do things about baking, and perhaps fashion.
Perhaps with a name I like better I'll be encouraged to blog more ;)

In a nut shell I feel like my blog can grow more with a better name. 
Have a pretty picture of a pretty butterfly :D

Picture from weheartit.com

The reason for Mudgekins?

Since I can remember, my sister used to call me 'Mary Mudgekins' or 'Mudge' for short. I'm not totally sure why, and unfortunately she's in a better place now so I can't ask her either, but it's sort of for her, in a strange sort of way! It's much better than the nickname my dads nickname for me which is 'Maggot'!.

Also, my twitter name is Mudgekins too and I need to get back into twitter, and at least it sort of ties things together.

I'm much happier with this name, and I hope you all are too. 

Lots of love 

xoxoxo.

Disney Villains Designer Collection: Eyeshadow Palette First Impressions.

Hello my lovlies :)

Today I have for you a little first impressions post of the Disney Villains Designer Collection eyeshadow palette. These are the pictures I first took with my new camera, so apologies! ;)

As you can see the packaging is amazing! I'm in love with it, although it looks so beautiful I'm scared to ruin it!

I don't know if you can tell from this picture but the shades are, Cruella De Vil (Black), Evil Queen (Purple), Maleficent (Green), Mother Gothel (Orange), Queen of Hearts (Gold), Ursula (just in the picture but Silver-Blue.)

It also comes with a black eyeliner, pretty average quality though.

A better look at the inside packaging.

Left to Right; Cruella De Vil, Evil Queen, Maleficent, Mother Gothel, Queen of Hearts and Ursula.

Swatches taken in daylight, with a quick swipe of colour to make it fair.

Cruella De Vil:  Black with flecks of gold / silver glitter. The least pigmented out of all the them, but easily buildable.
Evil Queen: Plum purple slightly shimmery shade with silver glitter too. Also needs building, beautiful shade, nonetheless. 
Maleficent: Forest green shimmer shade, great colour pay off.
Mother Gothel: Burnt orange, amazing shimmer, again fab colour pay off.
Queen of Hearts: Bronze with slight golden shimmer, pay of is brill.
Ursula: Stunning Bluey Silver in love with this colour! Shimmery too and super pigmented, love love love!

So glad I saw this palette randomly in the Disney store in the sale, (along with some cute Mickey Mouse tea lights that are too precious to use!) instead of the palette being £18, I paid £5.39. I can't actually believe it! 
I am so pleased, and can't wait to make some looks with it!
I am unsure if you can still get this, so apologies! :( 
 Until next time
xoxox
PS Here is couple of photos of the amazingly cute tea lights that should of been £5 but I paid just £1.49! I wish I had bout 2 lots then I could use one and keep the others :P

Essie: 795 Love & Acceptance Nail Polish Swatch & Mini Review

Hello my lovlies!

Today I have for you my first ever Essie Polish!

This shade is 795 Love & Acceptance which is a lovely pastel lilac shade from the 2012 Wedding Collection.

I am so impressed with the formula! It dries quickly and you can get it opaque with 2 generous coats, I like to use 3 just be sure though :) 

I am actually in love with this polish, it's definitely my go-to at the minute. I also like to team it up with silver glitter on my ring fingers, but that's for another post!

This is one of the other buys I got from the Chatham Outlet Centre (I also bought NYX Jumbo Pencils post here) I think this was around £6.99 or 3 for £18? I only bought one to test out but I'm definitely sold now and can't wait to get more! 

Do you recommend any shades? I would love to know! 

Until next time

xoxo.

Easy Sunday/Monday: TV Audience for Jo Brand's Great Wall of Comedy

Hello my lovelies!

Sorry this post is a couple of days late, however I had a rather exciting day yesterday so I thought it would be better to do my 'Easy Sunday' post on that! 

I applied for tickets to be in the audience for 'Jo Brand's Great Wall of Comedy' in about late February, and then thought of nothing of it.

I then got an email on Sunday for a reminder about the show being filmed the next day, I hadn't even seen the ticket email! So I searched through and it turned I had actually got the tickets.

Our Wristbands :)

So yesterday, my dad, mum, Jake and I took a trip to Maidstone Studios, which is about half hour to an hour from my house depending on traffic.

It was all really exciting get directed to car park 3 and then being security checked and being taking into a small-ish tent and getting our wristbands. With these sorts of things it's best to get in early because they allocate tickets to more people in case people don't turn up. We got there half an hour early and we were in the 60's. They had to try and fit 200 people in this tent which was a little close for comfort! 

Inside the little tent thing :)

We then had to wait for about half and hour, and then in number groups we got called out about third, after the people with orange wristbands, and then the 50 and under wristbands, and then us the 60 and under wristbands. This was all rather mad because people were pushing their way when there was absolutely no need to and I got separated from our little group :(

The studio was actually rather small, and we got seated on the far right. When everyone was is the man says about there being a last chance to go to the toilet so then it's all a mad rush, again!

They had a 'warm up man' to chat to us all before the recording started and of course, because Jake decided not to be parted from his beanie he was pointed out and then I had to talk too! Everyone had to say hi to me it was rather fun :D 

When Jo Brand came on she told a few jokes before she sat down on set, and then Barry Cryer, Tony Robinson, Hugh Dennis and Rebecca Front came on, and Tony Robinsons gave out sweets from set to the front row, jealous! 

The recording was a good laugh, and at the end where they had to do a few retakes was even funnier, especially when they had to shoot bits for the advert and Hugh Dennis and Tony Robinson had to wave into separate cameras, and they kept misbehaving! At one point Tony Robinson actually took his trousers down and moonied! I was crying with laughter!

It was a great day out and I would definitely go again. As Maidstone Studios are our closest and it's easy to get to I reaaaally want to go again! 

I applied for tickets here at SRO Audiences, but there are a couple more websites you can apply for tickets at too.

Have you ever been in a TV audience? I'd love to know! 

xoxo.