NYX 24 days of lipsticks

I'll let you in on a little secret: beauty advent calendars are fab, but post-Christmas beauty advent calendars on sale are even better. I've been wanting to get my hands on a NYX lipstick vault (you know the dreamy ones I mean) for just about forever, but who knows when I'll be able to justify spending a buttload of money on one, especially when it'll naturally come with shades that I don't want? 
My sister and I picked up this NYX advent calendar filled with mini lippies just after Christmas, splitting the cost and the lipsticks between us. Now, I won't lie, there are definitely a couple missing from this post, rattling around a handbag or coat pocket somewhere, but here's a roundup of 22 of them. 
From top to bottom, the swatches and lipsticks above are as follows: Butter Lipstick in shade 'Seashell'  Butter Gloss in shade 'Fortune Cookie' Butter Gloss in shade 'Raspberry Tart' Intense Butter Gloss in shade 'Pink Macaron' Butter Gloss in shade 'Sugar Cookie' Lip Lingerie in shade 'Silk Indulge' Matte Lipstick in shade 'Indie Flick' Liquid Suede in shade 'Soft Spoken' Soft Matte Lip Cream in shade 'Buenos Aires' Lip Lingerie in shade 'Seduction' Simply Red Lip Cream in shade 'Leading Lady'

My favourite of these was the palest shade; the butter lipstick. I'm not usually into pinkish nudes, but this one was hella creamy, and actually suited me. My lips have been incredibly chapped recently, so I was definitely in need of something that wouldn't dry them out further, and this fit the bill. I've excluded the Soft Spoken liquid suede lipstick from this because it's my favourite all time lipstick (literally the perfect nude) and it just wouldn't be fair to pit the rest against it.

Aaaand on to part two: Matte Lipstick in shade 'Shocking Pink' Soft Matte Lip Cream in shade 'Paris' Matte Lipstick in shade 'Indie Flick' Intense Butter Lip Gloss in shade 'Tres Leches' Lip lingerie in shade 'Embellishment' Matte lipstick in shade 'Up the Bass' Butter lipstick in shade 'Root Beer Float' Butter lipstick in shade 'Ripe Berry' Soft Matte Lip Cream in shade 'Copenhagen' Simply Vamp Lip Cream in shade 'She Devil' Liquid suede in shade 'Stone Fox'

I had a clear favourite in this half - the 'Indie Flick' matte lipstick. Not only am I a red lip girl through and through, but matte lipsticks just last so much longer, and I needed that for my Crimbo limbo snacking phase. The butter lipsticks are in beautiful shades, and I'm determined to get a lot of use out of them this month by wearing them into work.
All in all, I'm fairly excited to push myself out of my colour range comfort zone and into brighter territories. I'm officially in love with NYX again. 
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My NYX lipstick collection

2016 really was the year of the liquid lipsticks. It seemed like just about every single brand out there brought out a range of them, and the market was awash with masses of new colours, formulas and styles. Goodbye tube lipstick, hello liquid.
Despite the massive influx of new liquid lippies out there, NYX has remained my favourite brand for this particular type of makeup. At the beginning of 2016 I didn't own anything by NYX, but now I'm feeling pretty proud of my little collection. I find that their products are so long-lasting and well-pigmented that no other drugstore alternatives come near to my love for them. An added bonus is that they're also cruelty free. 
From bottom to top, the lipstick shades I have swatched are as follows: Lip Lingerie in Exotic, Liquid Suede in Stone Fox and Soft Matte Lip Creams in Buenos Aires, Morocco, Copenhagen and Moscow. As you can tell, I've gone for a broad range of colours in this little collection. Over the past year I've been experimenting with some fruit inspired makeup looks over on my YouTube, and so 'Moscow' and 'Buenos Aires' were purchased for those. 
Out of all of the types I've tried, the Lip Lingerie range has the greatest staying power on my lips. 'Exotic' is my go-to work liquid lipstick. It's a nude that appears only a little darker than my lips, and doesn't rub off after a cup of tea or two. The Soft Matte Lip Cream in Morocco, however, is my favourite pigment. It's such a bold, coral-y red that I can't get enough of. It makes me feel festive in Winter and bold in Summer. I am in love. 
Do you own any NYX lipsticks?
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My Top 5 Halloween-Worthy Lipsticks

For the entire time that I've been editing these pictures, 'this is Halloween, this is Halloween, HALLOWEEN, HALLOWEEN, Halloween, Halloween' has been circling around my head. 20 points to you if you know where I've got this from *wink face emoji*. 

Halloween is now very nearly upon us, so it's time to get Pumpkin carving and picking out a fancy dress asap. I have no idea whether I'll be in a state to be able to celebrate Halloween this year, so I'm totally living vicariously through all of you and this post. BUT, there is a pretty darn good reason for this - I'm going to finally be moving into a real home on the 28th October, eeeeeek! Enough of that talk, I'll go into everything more once we're moved in, or I might even dedicate a post to it some time in the next 11 days. Let me know if you'd like to hear more about it. Anyway, let's get onto my top 5 lipsticks for Halloween!

1.) NYX Liquid Suede Cream Lipstick in Stone Fox. I actually saw this on Siobhan, aka The Beauty Baker, and decided I have to have it. It's a little more blue toned than I first anticipated, so doesn't come out as a flat gray as I had hoped. But, it is the perfect colour for creating a corpse-y look, or adding a touch of darkness to a witchy Halloween outfit.

2.) MAC Sin. Let's face it, we all knew this was going to be here. This is such a blogger cult favourite for a dark vampy lip, and would definitely suit any sultry vamp costumes out there. This one is a little drying on my lips (boo cracked winter lip skin), so I used my Korres jasmine lip butter first to make it easier to apply. 

3.) NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream in Moscow. I actually bought this one for my blueberry inspired makeup look video. Think Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. This is a lip colour that I think would look perfect if you decided to dress up as the corpse bride (if you haven't seen the film, then go treat yourself asap!). 

4.) NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream in Buenos Aires. Now, this is a little different to the rest. Although it didn't transfer too well onto my lips, it does have a pretty darn good staying power. This is one I would go for if I wanted to be Pumpkin themed, or would be a fab light nude for any kind of ghostly appearance.

5.) NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream in Copenhagen. Until I got the pictures sorted for this post I had no idea how similar this and MAC's Sin are! This is a slightly lighter toned red however, with fewer blue undertones in it. Again, it's the perfect vampy lip, and would be great for daytime as well as the spooky night itself.
I had so much fun picking these lip colours. What would be on your top 5?
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July Favourites, A Life Update + Video

Where did July go?! I sat down, all ready to start filming my video for this month's favourites and was convinced I was about to be summing June up! I'm still not over the fact that we're in August already, even though we're on day 6 now. The one good thing about time moving this fast? It'll soon be Autumn, and I'll have an excuse to have all the baths, snuggle in my dressing gown and be permanently glued to my tea mug. 
So, what did July hold for me and Nourish ME? Well, I had a few sponsored posts this month - in fact the most I've ever had in a month, and I even had to turn down a few opportunities because I didn't want to get oversaturated over here. This seems totally mad, and I'm really hoping that it's a sign of bigger and better things to come in the rest of 2016. 
I finally got a part time job here in Cheltenham, and it's one that (so far at least) is not damaging my mental health progress, and is helping me to get a little more exercise in. It's also been more than a little useful because, you know, getting a secure income is fab when you haven't had one for six months! I'm also finally getting used to living in the countryside, even if we did wake up one morning to an escaped herd of cows just chilling outside our front door.
Now let's get down to my favourites for the month. I'm going to kick start this by talking about my ultimate favourite for July: Vatika's Henna shampoo. This was something that I picked up at Bloggers Ball back in June and had fairly low expectations of. I'm really fussy with shampoos, especially with their scents, and I was a little sceptical about the use of henna in it. BUT, it turned out to be the best shampoo I've used in a long time - my hair has been far less greasy and totally manageable. Plus it smells like apples, which is the most important thing. Obvs. 
My showers have been totally dreamy at the moment because of this and The Body Shop's mango shower gel. Mangoes are a perfect fruit for summer, coming in (in my rankings) at a close third behind strawberries and peaches. Vital info here I know guys. But, it means that when the skies have been grey here in the UK this July I've been able to keep myself smelling like summer. The Body Shop have also done a cheeky simple redesign of their shower gel bottles recently, giving them bold black lids, which I totally love. 
If you've read my summer daily skincare essentials post, then you'll know that I've been upping and altering all aspects of my skincare in the past month or two. The most important addition is possibly my Eau Roma Water from LUSH. This has wormed its way into my favourites after making a comeback in my life for summer. I used to use it about two years ago, and it was one of those things that I just really forgot I liked (does anyone else do this when they finish/lose a product?!), but it's come back with a vengeance.
I've rambled on enough about my newfound love for NYX recently, so I'm not going to bore you with going over that all over again. Just one tip though: go try the soft matte lip cream in Morocco. It is the most divine coral-y red I've ever tried!
And finally we come to a little fun favourite - my tsum tsums! Baymax and Roo are some of my (many) favourite Disney characters, and I was lucky enough that my boyfriend was kind enough to trawl the internet to find them for my birthday. They look so pretty on my shelves, make the perfect blog prop, and the cat absolutely loves to chase/play with them!
Here is my July favourites video, please give it a watch and subscribe!

What were your favourites this month?
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First Ever NYX Haul

Oh MY word guys I think I've fallen in love with a brand. Is that a thing now? Can we do that? Because I picked up some goodies from NYX a couple of weeks ago and I've fallen head over heels for everything. You know when you do a little makeup haul and you end up hating half of the stuff you get? I was kind of expecting that, especially as I can be a bit iffy about going too bold with colours. BUT, NYX have done themselves proud because literally everything I picked up has been amazing.
I know I usually do a bit more of an introduction to my posts before rushing straight in. but honestly I'm so excited about this one that I couldn't resist taking the plunge. I've only just moved to a new town (well I've been here about a month now) and realised that there is a Boots with a MASSIVE NYX stand a five minute drive away from my house. So I had to go and check it out right?! I've been on the hunt for a physical NYX stand for months because I really didn't want to try a new brand out for the first time by buying stuff online. It's really hard to see exactly what you'll be getting that way, and you can't really judge the size of the products etc etc.
So, I gleefully headed off into the depths of Boots to discover a world of beauty. After about an hour of perusal (of course) I had finally decided on my products, and most importantly the shades I wanted! Although I'm super happy with what I picked up, I've definitely caught the NYX bug and I can totally see myself popping back in over the next few weeks to expand my new collection.
First of all, I wanted a good nude. Now, you can probably tell from my pictures that in the end I didn't actually get one (whoops), because I thought from the packaging that the Soft Spoken Liquid Suede Cream Lipstick was lighter than it actually is. Having said that, I would class it as an almost-nude, and for darker skin tones it would be a totally rocking nude. I included two pictures of this in the post because, as you can see, in some lights it looks completely brown, and in others there's a slightly pink hue to it. Ultimately it is brown based, and even reminds me a little of Kylie's range!
Next up I went for some brighter colours. I've been keeping almost wholly to nudes this summer, as I've discovered an unforeseen love for them. But, bright weather needs bright lippy right? I picked up the NYX soft matte lip cream in both Morocco and Copenhagen. Copenhagen is a dark purple liquid lipstick, and is fairly similar in colour to MAC's Sin. However, it comes in at almost 1/3 of the price, and doesn't dry my lips out anywhere near as much: all in all this makes it a winner in my eyes. Morocco is a very orange-toned red and has possibly become my favourite lipstick ever?!?! It's such a gorgeous colour and you can bet I'll be wearing it for the rest of the summer.
All three lip products come in at under £6 and the quality of them makes this an absolute bargain. They've survived the summer heat, a long day at work and eating and drinking without coming off completely. In fact, all I noticed was that the half of my lower lip closest to my mouth (if that makes sense) had lost the colour, but the rest of my lips were a-okay after a good 6+ active hours. These goodies offered me my first glimpse into the world of liquid lipsticks and honestly? I'm not sure I ever want to go back to traditional formulas.
And finally we have a little brow product. Moving to a new town means I don't have access to my old trusted brow queens, and honestly I haven't been able to find a place that I think I can trust yet. So my brows are in a little bit of a state. I picked up NYX's sculpt and highlight brow contour in ash brown/medium beige. I've been using this with my MUA brow kit (to fill in the centre of my brows) and this combination has totally changed my opinion of my brows. Suddenly they seem acceptable to go out in public with and I am so glad to have this extra boost of confidence. 
Have you bought anything from NYX? What would you recommend? Follow me on Bloglovin | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Youtube