Heres to 2015

Hey my lovelies!!

Happy New Year!!

So as I sit here on New Years Day writing this, waiting on the roast beef cooking (yes its 12.30 lol) my mind wanders to this time last year, Passionsandpreening blog and youtube hadn’t been born and I had all this passion for beauty, fashion and life and nowhere to put it, in steps a Twitter competition from the wonderful Dave Lackie, check him out @davelackie he was running a competition for the Rhianna MAC range of makeup, and I was lucky enough to win it, we got chatting and we talked about blogging etc, and something clicked inside of me. Then came the questions, how would I do it, could I do it, would anyone want to read it? Self doubt faded and excitement set in. I started to reseach and decided I would go for it!

Passionsandpreening was born and on the 6^th August I wrote my first little post, just a little intro about me, but wow the buzz I got from it!! From there on in I wrote steadily and I always wondered about having a youtube channel. I have watched many great beauty gurus over the years, and wondered could I do videos?

 So I thought I would start with a few vlogs, something more informal, on 1^st November my wee youtube channel came to life, and I started with weekly vlogs, till December when I started the famous Vlogmas! From then I have started channel videos, and 2015 will bring weekly videos, vlogs and blog posts!

Unfortunately I only got out and about doing it for the first 12 days of vlogmas as we had a serious car crash, the car bless wee Pete had to be put to sleep, Scott my husband, Tom his friend and I all got out ok, but I firmly believe my mummy was looking over us that night, even the ambulance and police said we shouldn’t have got out so lucky. So that was definitely a low point of the year, but there have been many highs, my best friend Nicola got married to the amazing Alex and we all enjoyed a beautiful day, surrounded by all our friends.

To my amazing friends, our core group, Joanne, Monica, Lou, Nikki, Angie, Elaine, Norma, louise, Kim,Tom,(and all the partners etc) I will never thank you enough for everything you guys have done for us not only since the crash but all year, it took me 28 years to find this special group of friends and I am never letting youse go, so you are stuck with scott and I, I pray 2015 is amazing for you all, all for different reasons, but know I will be there through it all standing by your side.

I am so blessed to have an amazing husband who is literally my hero now, ( cheers hun for pulling me outta the car) he has stood by me through all my illness and never once complained. I thank God each day for him, as I know I can be a moany pain! So Scott if you are reading this, words will never thank you enough! Heres to 2015 being our year!

To my wonderful daddy, you have become my rock, I turn to you in my sad and happy times, and mummy would be so proud of how we have pulled together to get through her passing.

Mummy, another year goes by without you, cant believe it will be 4 in March 2015, days it feels like years ago that I last hugged you, and others it feels like yesterday I felt your warm embrace, I know you are in a better place now with no more heart attacks etc, anyone who knew my mum would say she was a fighter and fought everything head on. As I wrote on your plaque, everything I am I owe to you.

So as 2015 begins, my goals are to get healthier, aim for my fertility treatment weight goal, and grow my blog and youtube, oh and pass my degree would be nice!!

So I will sign off now, to do some more study, and find a gift for scott and mine 7 year wedding anniversary on the 4^th January!!

Lots of love to each and every one of you, lets make 2015 a year to remember!!!!



What I got for Christmas 2014

Hey my lovelies

So I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, and you all got lots of nice things, but let's take a moment to remember the real meaning of Christmas, it's not all about the presents and the turkey dinner, it is about spending time with family, friends and loved ones and making memories that last a lot longer than a lipstick will.

Just want to get this out of the way, as I know it’s the done thing on blogs and youtube, this post is not bragging or showing off, I have wonderful friends and family who know me very well indeed, and the gifts from my husband, most I asked for and some he bought himself, but we buy gifts from June onwards and save hard, so we treat ourselves! Why not I say.

On to what you really came here to see! I will split it up into skincare, make up and other bits!

SKINCARE

Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish

I was running out of my amazing Liz Earle cleanse and polish, if any of you are looking for a gentle but good cleanser that really gets everything off, I can really recommend this, I can see why it has the cult status it has. Christmas night was great, getting the make up and cleansed with this!!

My skin has become combination now, if you have read my previous posts on any skincare items you will see that most of the time my skin can get very dry, I have been putting this down to medication but for some reason I have reverted back to the crazy oily t zone, so I really had to look for something else. I am a firm believer if you spend your money on keeping your skin good then you can get away with cheaper makeup.

Origins Products

 I have heard a lot about Origins as a brand and I went and talked with the girl in my local store. We decided on the following for my skin:

10 minute rescue mask

She said this would help balance out my skin and I will admit the first time I used it after a thorough cleanse, my skin felt wonderful and soft and I definitely saw a difference

Modern Friction Gentle Exfoliator

She said that I needed something gentle as I had combo skin and redness etc, she suggested this and I used it the other night and it has an oaty texture which I was unsure of, but the results were great

Clear Improvement Charcoal Mask

This was actually a free gift because Scott had spent over a certain amount of money, so that was a bonus, she said this would be good for only my tzone, I haven’t tried this out yet, but I have heard lots of great reports about it, so looking forward to trying it this week

MAKE UP

As you all know I started a MAC palette not that long ago, I want a range of neutrals and smokey eye colours, if any of you have any cult faves let me know!

I already had wedge and all that glitters, and wanted a base shimmery colour, a matte brown and a grey shimmer for a smokey eye. I ended up getting shroom, sable and knight divine. Shroom got battered a bit in the car accident we had, you can check my youtube channel out for updates on that, so I was annoyed it had a little mark on it,

I had been lusting after the MAC Soft and Gentle Skinfinish for ages after it had been used on me after trying foundations in store one day, its very very pretty and when I tried it on I liked it, but it is definitely something that you need a light hand for, I would never think of putting it over my whole face, I just used it for highlighting.

I saw the holiday collection brush sets online in MAC and really wanted one, but at the price I thought would it be worth it, so when we were in Belfast shopping I looked at it and the brushes yes are small but very usable, scott kindly got this for me, and it is so pretty, I got the duo fibre face brushes as it was mainly the 187 I was after, The bag they come in is stunning! I am going to use it as a pencil case for uni next year, as in all honesty all my make up brushes aint gonna fit!

Make Up Revolution has become a favourite with me, and their pallets are fab, great buttery eyeshadows and little or no fallout, and at between £4 and £6 sure you couldn’t beat it! I picked up the acid brights and the iconic 3 which is a dupe for the naked 3 and is a great dupe at that!. The acid brights is amazing and would be great for a pop of colour on a night out

Real Techniques are wonderful and I am sure you all know by now there is a new bold metals collection coming soon so I am sure we will all be lusting after those. Nic brought out a Nics Picks set in a gorgeous chrome and black colour, these were on offer for £20 in superdrug and I think they still are so pop over and buy them while they are cheap. It has 5 brushes 2 face and 3 eyes, they are the duo fibre ones and I haven’t properly used them all yet but they feel fab!

OTHER GIFTS

My daddy got me a new camera, I picked the sony a5000 as I wanted something of a dslr quality but in a compact size, I cant rave about this enough, its sleek enough to look compact but it has great features.

My hubby knows I adore yankee candles and he got me my favourite clean cotton one, this was my mummys favourite so I always burn it and it just gives me a nice feeling. He also bought me a couple of little mini jars to go with my burner.

I love Disney films and Scott got me frozen and malficent, even scott has said frozen is good, I caught him singing let it go in the kitchen last night!!

My faith is very important to me and Scott surprised me with this beautiful frame with the verse “Love Never Fails” It actually made me tear up because of everything we have been through, he has stood by me through all my illness and has been my rock, and literally pulled me out of the car after the accident a couple of weeks ago. Scott isn’t a massive believer but for him to buy me that was very special and priceless to me.

My friends got me some stunning gifts including bobbi brown eye pallete, an owl handbag, vouchers for Debenhams, charm for my bracelet, scarves etc, but I will tease you and say you can see more of these on my youtube video which will go up tomorrow.

So that’s it folks Christmas 2014 is over. I hope you all had an amazing one!!  Cant believe its nearly 2015, my wee blog has been going since August and my channel for just over 2 months, there is a long way to go and I am always learning, but to have amazing support from all you guys is wonderful!!

Lots of love to you all

Next weeks post will be based around New Year and everything in between!! If you have any suggestions for posts or videos just yell and I will add them to the list

Ali xxxx



Happy Christmas Everyone!!

Hey my lovelies!!!

Hope you have all had a wonderful day.

Just wanted to pop on and say hey!

Hope Santa came and spoilt you all rotten, I was pretty spoiled, but I will do some posts about the products etc in the New Year.

Cant believe I have had my blog from August, I am loving the feeling of having my little space on the net to say what I want without judgement, i am sure you all feel the same!

This is just a short post tonight because I think I hear another turkey sandwich calling my name!

This Christmas has been a strange one for me, If you follow me on twitter or youtube you will know i was involved in a serious car accident Saturday 13th december, but we were all very lucky to get out, the car on the other hand it wasnt so lucky. It has made me think very long about what is important etc, and Christmas is always about the birth of Jesus and family, but dont get me wrong its nice to get some treats lol!

Okay so I feel I could sit and ramble all day, but I wont bore you all, heres to an amazing 2015 for us all.

My schedule for posting etc will be as follows from now on

Weekly Vlog uploaded on a sunday

Weekly main video uploaded on a Saturday

Weekly blog post on a Friday

If you guys have any suggestions as to what you would like to see me write about or do videos on, i am open to suggestions!

Signing off now

NIght guys

Love you all

If you dont follow me on my other social media sites, hit the wee buttons and come say hello!!

xxxx

Decleor Aroma Cleanse Exfoliating Cream Review

Hey My Lovelies

Hope you are all super well.

This is one of these posts that i had to do, no doubt about it, i have found my holy grail exfoliator!!

I was talking with a friend about exfoliators and was discussing how my skin reacts very easily to exfoliants and he asked had I ever tried a cream exfoliator. He offered to send me a sample to try, so this is not a paid review or anything, he works in the beauty industry and was able to send me something to try, this was even before my blog started! But now I feel that this product warrants a full review!

My skin is very dry in patches but with an oily tzone, so I am always happy to see if I can find the perfect exfoliator for me, without having to harshly rub at my face. I always wondered how a cream could exfoliate well, but I was without a doubt proved wrong! This has massive pros and cons, but for me personally the result it gives outweighs the cons.

The bottle is the gorgeous yellow colour famous with the brand, and it comes in a 50ml squeezy tube. Its so cute and easy to use.

 The cream itself is pretty thick and I was initially concerned about how much I would need to cover my face, I dispersed a little and started on my cheeks and soon realised that it spread well. You have to get a nice amount on your face to give a good exfoliation, so on my first attempt I think I put too little on as it was patchy in areas as it started to dry. I started to gently rub my face in circular motions and was amazed and horrified at the same time as to how much dry skin came off. I thought I exfoliated well, how wrong was I!!  The negative I will say is that in areas like my chin and nose I felt that I had to rub pretty hard to get it off, which concerned me. When it was all off, the areas that I had rubbed harder were definitely redder and more sensitive, but a good slather of intensive moisturiser sorted that out! This without any shadow of a doubt is the best exfoliator I have used on my face. Even my husband said my skin looked very fresh after it, so it must be doing something right for him to notice! I have been using this over 3 months now and I am as happy with it today as I was the first time I used it.

Without a doubt I would recommend this to anyone who has issues with sensitivity, but one thing I would say is ensure you gently rub it; a gentle circular motion is all that’s needed. Then afterwards make sure you moisturise well to keep your skin in tip top shape.

Has anyone else tried this product, or do you guys have any of suggestions? Let me know

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Ali x