Birthday Makeup 'Haul'!

Incase I haven't mentioned it already (lol, I definitely already have, a lot of times) - it was my 22nd Birthday last week! And, seeing as this year I actually very luckily received a few bits of Makeup, plus I bought a few products myself on my actual Birthday too, when I went shopping at Lakeside - I thought I'd bundle them all up and share them all with you lovely lot!

From my parents, I was very lucky to be able to pick some bits of Makeup out. They weren't sure what I wanted, I was very sure either, so instead I chose some things out on good ol' Beauty Bay that I'd been eyeing up and they gave me the money - which I am of course very appreciate of! First off, I chose out the BPerfect X Stacey Marie Carnival Eyeshadow Palette. I have been eyeing up this for a while, ever since it first came out last year really. Though I have so many amazing drugstore/affordable eyeshadow palettes that I love, I have been eager to dip my toe into high-end/expensive palettes for ages now and I feel like this is the perfect one to do it with! A wide shade range that you can do so many different looks with and a colour scheme that I really don't have in my collection already - and from what I can see, isn't directly 'dupeable' in more affordable brands! I've seen it used in so many tutorials and featured in so many reviews - all of which have been amazingly positive, which only increased my interest even more! All of the reviews online at Beauty Bay are pretty amazing too and I think it's one of their Best Sellers too, so in the end it was kinda inevitable that I picked this up as part of my present. It must be pretty damn good, right? Inside, you get two highlighters and a grand total of 24 eyeshadows - in a good mix of mattes and shimmers and ranging from neutrals to bright, vibrant pops of colour! At first, when looking at this, I saw it as the perfect colourful palette, but actually when looking more in-detail you can easily do both cool and warm-toned neutral looks with it too - so I think this is going to be a pretty versatile palette in my collection!

Then, I kind of wanted to choose some different things to go alongside the palette - rather than just more eyeshadows - and instantly, I remembered OFRA Highlighters. They're by the far the more high-end brand that I hear about most when it comes to all things glowy - so I thought I'd finally give them a go! Like I said before with the palette, I have so many amazing affordable/drugstore highlighters that I love and do such a good job, but I have always been interested in trying something more expensive and 'luxury' - so that's exactly what I did! I chose the shade 'Glazed Donut', an icy, pearlescent colour - which is actually a NikkieTutorials collaboration - as it looked to be pretty ideal for my paler skin tone and I can't wait to give it a try. Just from looking at it, it looks pretty insane and gorgeous, so here's hoping that it delivers on the skin too! Then, finally to fill the budget I decided to pick up another of the Jeffree Star Cosmetics Velour Liquid Lipsticks. You may remember that I picked up a couple of these to try for the first time when Beauty Bay did their Bagging Rights/Black Friday Sale last year and having really enjoyed them, I thought I'd choose another to give a go! I was tempted by another nude shade, but in the end I thought 'F It' and decided to pick up a more bold, bright, colourful hue. I really wanted a colour that I'd gravitate towards and want to use a lot this time of year and for me, in terms of bolder colours in Spring/Summer - it's all about the pinks. I love a bright, Barbie-esque pink lip in the warmer months and so, I decided to pick up the shade 'Prom Night' - which really is exactly just that. A bright, bold, electric pink that's not too blue or cool-toned and still has a nice, flattering warmth to it. I can't wait to get using this a tonne over Spring/Summer!

Then, as I placed a pretty big order, I managed to accumulate quite a lot of points on my TRIBE Loyalty account on Beauty Bay! And I saw that in exchange the amount of points I had, I could claim a free palette by Beauty Bay themselves - so I obviously did just that! I chose the EYN Fiery 9 Colour Palette as I saw it had pretty good reviews online and I mean - you can never go wrong with some good, warm-toned neutrals, right? I'd actually been wanting to try out Beauty Bay's own brand eyeshadow palettes for a while now, so what better chance than when I can pick up a palette of theirs for 'free'? Especially as this should have cost me £8, when I technically only had to exchange 500 points (a.k.a. £5!) Bargain! With a mix of mattes and shimmers and a nice range of warm, fiery colours - especially as it's such a smaller palette - I'm super excited to give this a try...

So, now we move onto everything I bought myself, makeup-wise, on my actual Birthday! I was originally planning on just featuring my makeup-related presents bought by others in here, but after returning from Lakeside and realising I bought a few makeup goodies myself - I thought this post was the best opportunity to give them a mention! I bought these all in a store called Beauty Base - which is like a makeup/beauty outlet. I've only been in there twice before, in London and when we went shopping on my Birthday in Lakeside and I feel like I enjoyed it even more on my Birthday. This store, for some reason, seemed to have an even bigger Makeup section - which I, of course, really enjoyed rummaging through! First off, I came across the Technic The Glitz Liquid Glitter Eyeshadows - which I've heard so many good things about. Some claim them to be pretty comparable to the infamous Stila Glitter and Glows and they come in at a fraction of the price - so I just had to give one a go. Eventually, I decided on the colour that I think I've heard the most glowing reviews about, the yellow-y gold - which is called 'Gold', would you believe it - and I'm so excited to give it a whirl! Then, from there, I spotted a stand for L.A. Girl. An American-based brand which I think you can buy online at Beauty Bay, but I've never seen anywhere in-store - I thought it was the perfect chance to pick something up. And it just had to be the Pro Conceal HD Concealer. Another infamous product that I've always wanted to try and thought, why not now? I went for what I could see was the lightest shade available - 'Fairest' - which I'm hoping will be a good shade match for me. I'm usually one of the lightest shades in a shade range the the ones above this looked way too dark - so fingers crossed! Then, last but certainly by no means least - I have a few nail polishes that caught my eye. They're all from L.A. Colors - another brand I have heard of before, but have never seen anywhere instore in the UK - and they're all so pretty too! I chose the Unicorn Sparkle Nail Polish in 'Candy Cloud', Color Craze Nail Polish in 'Cocktail' and the Metal Nail Polish in 'Crystal Pink' - all very gorgeous colours that I just cannot wait to get lacquering onto my nails, asap! Definitely keep your eyes peeled for some Polish Pick posts featuring them coming soon...