Tuesday 14 May 2013

Dainty Doll | Bargain Alert


I'm sure the countless tweets & blog posts have already made you aware of this offer already. But if you've been hiding under a very well placed rock these past few weeks, I'm about to let you in on something that will allow you to give yourself a slight exception to any spending bans you currently have in place, stretch the last few pounds in your bank account before payday and recreate the madness of Christmas sale shopping..It's a good'en. 

Dainty doll is the brain child of band member (and fellow pale gal) Nicola Roberts. The brand was created specifically for paler complexions. 
Despite the brand being around for the last 5 years, and being available online on websites such as Boots & Asos, it's not as easier to get hold of in stores, and seeing as I'm a swatch-before-you-buy kinda girl (especially seeing as the average product is priced at a heafty £13.00), I've never got round to purchasing anything.

And thats where the bargain alert comes in. Fragrance direct is a discounted cosmetic site that I have previously ordered from. It's a serious one to bare in mind when your looking for a bargain buy and I'd definitely recommend you all to save to your favourites. You'll thank me later.
In this case, when I say discounted. I don't just mean a slight reduction  - I'm talking MUA prices here and you could say I got a tad carried away..

I ended up purchasing six blushes all together; 3 powders  & 3 creme.
Looking back it does seem a bit OTT; I only have two cheeks and lets face it I'm not going to be wearing a colour on each! But for £1.99 It was all the justification I needed.

The packaging is very swish and bares some similarity to Nars' rubbery casing.. Not the most practical as far as finger print marks go, but looks great for the first week!
One thing that I did notice was that only the number of each blusher was visible on the back of the case - Not a deal breaker, but it makes it harder to remember which number correlates to which colour, especially if you own more than one shade.
Another thing to add is that you do get an extra 2g of product with the powder blushes compared to the 5g of product with the creme blush. Here's a run down of shades:

All colours have great pigmentation and colour pay off, I literally swiped my hand once to get the following swatches:

(L-R): Billion Dollar Babies, Orange County Girl, Paper Roses
(L-R): Hippy Shake, My Girl, You Are My Sunshine


My favourites are Orange County Girl & You are my sunshine I love the similarity to Nars Orgasm but for a fraction of a price!

I managed to also track down the lipsticks on another website and another post will be up soon.
I think another order with Fragrance Direct is in order.. It's perfect to make little birthday presents or even stocking fillers for Christmas - well it is only 8 months away..

Have you tried any Dainty Doll products?



Thursday 9 May 2013

Amelie's 9 Month Update

This month marks Amelie's 3/4 birthday! I seriously cannot believe Amelie in three months time Amelie will have her first birthday, I know i seem to mention it every month.. but time has flown by.

This month has been an absolute blur for me and I'm still trying to find a happy medium with my work, being the best mama possible. It's been made a thousand times easier that Amelie has taken so well to childcare - the poor thing really does get carted around during the week; I've had to split childcare between Connor's mum (on a Monday), Nursery on Wednesday's & Thursdays and Connor's step-mum (on fridays). My mum works during the week so can't commit to a particular day but she helps contribute some money to Amelie's nursery as a contribution!
It actually works out really well as my mum works near to where I live and is always popping in once she's finished. Everyone is seeing Amelie on a regular basis.

Measurements: She hasn't been measured exactly this month but she now fits into most of her 6-9 month clothing. Which is just in time for the hot weather as she has some lovely summer dresses that she hasn't worn yet. (They were far to big for her when we went to Lanzarote in Feb.)
I think for the most part Amelie will always run 1 size clothing behind her age. 
Amelie is going to be a bridesmaid for the first time this August for one of Connor's good friends, and they've put off getting her dress made for as long as possible to make sure she'll be able to fit in it!

TeethingShe's still only got her two bottom teeth through, although she is showing signs that her top front teeth may be making an appearance very soon. She still has red teeth and is showing most of the signs of teething.
I've also been continuing to use Dentinox at night before she goes to bed. Amelie LOVES it and it seems to be doing a good job at stopping her from crying whenever her teeth flare up.

EatingExcellent. Amelie is now having bigger chunks in her food which makes it so much easier to cook home made meals. She loves her fruit and veggies and there's nothing that I can say she doesn't like.
She's also making huge improvements on her finger food too and loves cut up bananas and grapes. Her favourite 'treat' foods are Heinz Biscotti Biscuits in Apple flavour & Yogurts.

Sleep:Amelie is going to sleep later than previous months but I think this is mostly due to the increase in sunlight. We need to invest in some black out curtains!
She's stopped having as many disturbed nights sleep but when she does wake up which is usually at around 5am it's hard to get her off again!

Nursery:We went to Amelie's 'parents evening' event at her Nursery which was a brilliant chance for Connor to see the carers as he is at work for any pick ups/drop offs.
Amelie's also made friends with a little girl a few weeks older than her and they hold hands when they sit next to each other.

TalkingAmelie is saying 'Da-Da' and 'Ma-Ma' comfortably now, and it seems to be a little more directed at Connor & I. Although I'm not entirely convinced that she knows who is who!
She's also really vocal with music and I'm convinced sometimes that she's trying to sing along. 
We're continuing to read to her every night and I'm sure she's going to be picking up more words in the next few months.

MovingAmelie is so close to crawling! she can get herself into the correct position, It's literally down to her working on her coordination to move forward. It doesn't help that we have wooden floors downstairs (where she spends the majority of her time during the day at home), so It's hard for her to get her grip.
She has found out that she can now roll on her stomach to get to places, which is great for our entertainment.
She's still continuing to dance and 'bop' her head to the side whenever she hears any music or she gets a little excited. She's also worked out how to rock backwards and forwards when she's in the sitting position.
She's continuing to clap and wave at everyone!

Going OutWe really haven't gone anywhere exciting this month. We've got our holiday coming up towards the end of next month as well as our insurances for both cars, and we're desperately trying to save!
It was both my brother's and my father's birthday last month so it was nice to spend some good ol' family time, celebrating both birthdays. I also saw my cousin and her husband and son too, and really enjoyed catching up.
I did go to Beyonce with my mother at the end of last month which was AMAZING. If you ever have the chance to see her live, GO!



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