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There is a lot going on in my life at the moment. Despite a love of writing I remain rather bad at writing about myself, but the things happening to me at the moment are important things that I will want to remember forever. Last October my fiancé proposed to me in LA and it was magical and only one month after I had enrolled on my LLM course in London. Now I am halfway through studying my masters, planning my wedding and deciding on my next adventure: studying the legal practice course. That's hectic for me!

So I am going to endeavour to keep you up to date about this. I want to vlog, but if I can't stomach that then blogging is the next best thing!

You Beauty Discovery Box May 2014

I've been really tempted by beauty boxes for a while now. I always love getting sample size products in gift-boxes and magazines, but I was put off by the lack of choice given to you by other boxes. Also the price. For some reason going over £10 and paying P&P was always a bit of a deal breaker for me. Jumping around blogs I stumbled upon the You Beauty Discovery Box and thought I'd give it a try. There's two things which are different about this box: you can choose the two products you are sent; and it's £6.95! They also send you some packet samples and a healthy snack so for me it was a no brainer. 

The best part is whilst you have to sign up for a monthly sub you can also cancel whenever you want meaning that you can cancel, wait for the next month and then decide if you want to spend another £6.95 depending on what products are available. One downside however is that some of the products you can choose from go out of stock so it's best to order earlier in the month.

Click read more to see which products I received in my box! :)

Mini Haul Part II

Here is the continuation of my first haul post to round up some more products I purchased recently!

Benefit Boi-ing Concealer (£17.50)

Ok so I actually owned a sample of Benefit's Boi-ing concealer for a while in their How to Look the Best at Everything collection. It is pretty much the only concealer I own and I normally dab some under my eyes and on the odd blemish before applying power. It is pretty solid as a concealer, lasts long and blends in to my skin tone (I'm shade 01). To be honest I loved my sample a lot more than I do the actual full-sized product; I think when I only had so little I put a lot less on and I've noticed it has a tendency to create creases under my eyes even despite my best efforts not to use too much!

Clinique Long Lasting Lipstick in All Heart (£17)

I was very lucky to receive this Clinique lipstick using an offer code when I last ordered with them. I must admit I don't normally wear lipstick (I have quite dry lips and always seem to rub it off!) so this colour was rather bright for me. However I was pleasantly surprised by how it looked on. It applies a little lighter than it looks and doesn't look horribly unnatural. It says long lasting and it does last longer than my other lipsticks, but unfortunately I still find it disappears before the end of the day - often when I drink wine… perhaps I need to practice my technique - until I've got that down I won't be shelling out!

Smashbox Wondervision Eye Set (£35)

This one is cheating: I bought this set a while back in America as a spur-of-the-moment kind of thing (pretty packaging!) and only just opened it so I'm including these products. The set includes the Cosmic Eyeshadow Palette, Full Exposure Mascara and Limitless Waterproof Eyeliner in Onyx (not pictured oops!). Let me begin with my favourite: the eyeliner! I never quite grew out of that heavy layer of dark eye-liner phase from my teens. I think it's because I wear glasses pretty much all the time and so really my eyes often don't show up well without a heavy dose of eyeliner. This eyeliner is amazing, I didn't realise until actually looking on the website that I had to sharpen it and thought that you only got the tip to use and would still recommend it! (I'm so used to those ones which wind out). It applies really smoothly without irritation and most importantly stays put for a long time which is important because my L'Oreal alternative would give me panda eyes by the end of the day.

I have been using the Mascara to compliment the eyeliner and it is also becoming a favourite!! The brush is really thick and separates the lashes well to apply an even coat. I rarely every get any clumping and it makes my eyelashes look long. Once again it lasts long and is durable where other mascaras would irritate my eyes and cause me to rub them.

Finally I adore this eyeshadow palette and it was the main draw in buying the pack - I just thought it looked awesome. Sadly it is only available in this set and appears to be out of stock on the Smashbox website. I love doing a smokey-eye with a light colour in the corner and a darker colour blended over the lid. This set was perfect for that! I am always scared of matching blue shadow with blue eyes (and pink lips) but this is a really complimentary set and it blends nicely. I like to use these shadows for evenings out, but there is definitely room in the matte shades to create a neutral look for day-wear too.

If you can get your hands on this set I 100% recommend it. The products in it are worth somewhere in the £50+ range and the limited edition silver packaging is a nice touch! Otherwise I already have my eye on their Try it Kit which looks cost-effective for anyone wanting to try out their range.