Sara Hassan's Giveaway

Hey girlies, just a quick heads up about a fabulous giveaway over at Sara Hassans blog, click HERE to go to her post and enter! There's 2 Sigma prizes up for grabs.

1st Prize

Make me Up Kit - Aqua

2nd Prize

Synthetic Brush Kit

Pop over and have a look!

♥

Urban Decay Naked Palette Giveaway

******THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED*******

Hey girlies, I have reached 300 followers on my blog and on Friday 13^th May it was my blogs 1^st birthday but due to Blogger being down for the best part of 2 days, I couldn’t put up the post I wanted. Anyway that’s old news!

For this giveaway I have one Urban Decay Naked Palette up for grabs, I also bought one for myself as I’ve wanted it for aaaaages! I won’t go into details about this palette I’m sure you all know what it is and have, like me, read and drooled over loads of blog posts about it. This palette comes with a Primer Potion and a brush.

Rules and Regs

To enter you must be a public follower of The HQ of Beauty, no anonymous entries. Please leave a comment below saying ‘Enter Me’ with your email address so I can contact you should you win (1 entry)

For extra entries:

Follow me on Twitter and tweet about my blog with the link to this post (+1 extra entry)

Add my giveaway to the sidebar of your blog using either of the images above (+1 extra entry)

If you do either of the above entries please let me know in the comments below so I can keep track of who’s entered.

This giveaway closes on Friday 17^th June at 12 noon, the winner will be announced within the hour so please keep an eye out for your email. This giveaway is open Internationally.

I’d just like to say a big thank you to all of you, your comments and support mean a lot to me, I’ve learnt so much over this past year. I love reading new blogs so give me some linkage in your comments below too, I’ll follow you back!

♥♥ Thank you ♥♥

Here’s to another year!! “ching ching”

♥

Primark Mini Haul

Hey gorgeous! Darren ♥ and I went to Primark at the weekend because I wanted some new shoes for work. Darren ♥ walked straight back out saying “F*ck that” LOL! He hates it in there.

Anyway I picked up these gems! I loved both colours so decided I needed both for the summer, probably not for work but I really couldn’t find anything suitable. I wasn’t planning on picking anything else up but couldn’t resist this cute head band. I thought it would look nice with wavy curls for a festival chick sort of look. A post for sometime in the future methinks and also a Babyliss Curling wand will need to be bought!

Black and Orange bead shoes - £8

Tan and Turquoise bead shoes - £8

Flower power headband - £1.50

I love finding the odd piece in Primark, I can’t say it’s ever a joy to shop in there and I think it’s the same across all Primarks? Am I right? Once Darren ♥ and I stepped 2 feet instead

Oxford Street

store looked at each other and walked out, it was manic. Screaming kids, girls fighting over £2 vests and £1 sunglasses. Couples having arguments *shudder* not my idea of a nice relaxing shop!

Darren ♥ bought me InStyle magazine with the free orange Nails Inc polish in, I think it would go lovely with my new black and orange shoes!

You likey my cute buys?  Do any of you own a Curling Wand? Are they any good?

♥

Ho ho ho Green Giant! FOTN

Hey dollz! I loved doing this 'colour’ look; I’ve stayed quite safe up until now, with neutrals and natural FOTD/N’s. At College last week we got to choose two free products that my tutor Karen had been sent from my face cosmetics. I chose a small green palette mainly because I always stick to the same colours and wanted to try something different. 3 words! I. LOVE. IT.!

Flash on

Flash off

Rubbish picture from my phone, battery died on my camera

Face

MAC F&B C3

Benefit Coralista Blush

Benefit Hoola Bronzer

MAC Rhapsody in Two to highlight

MAC MSF in Medium

Eyes

NYX Jumbo pencil in Milk

3 colours from My face cosmetics green palette

Sleek matte black for outer V

Sleek two matte browns for brows

L’Oreal Superliner

Stila Onyx black pencil for waterline

Lips

MAC Stone Lip liner

MAC Hue Lipstick

MAC Prrr Lipglass

The colour payoff was so good from the palette I’m so chuffed I picked up this palette and will be looking out for my face cosmetics in the future.

Have any of you got any my face cosmetics? Where are they available? Am I imagining it or have I seen them in Boots?

♥

Summary

Alright Scwheethearts! First up a big "HIYA" to all my new followers, I will be checking your blogs out over the next few days and follow back. I haven’t done one of these posts for a while now, I think I chose the wrong day to start them really. Mondays are always a bit hectic at work after the weekend and I find I don’t have enough hours in the day to do the post.

1 Slimming World – Last week I went back to Slimming World after having a break for 4 weeks, and I some how managed to lose a pound?!! How? I have no idea; I’ve enjoyed chocolate, KFC and a number of Darren’s ♥ amazing roasts on my month’s holiday. I did carry on with my exercise however so maybe that helped with keeping the lbs off? Anyway “it’s the final countdown, der der der derrrrrr der der der der der”, countdown to my holiday in 4 weeks. Darren ♥ and I booked to go to Bodrum in Turkey for 2 weeks. To get it at it’s cheapest the flight times are disgusting but we’re adults and can handle this kind of thing. So I am really putting my all into Slimming World for the next 4 weeks to see if I can make it into the previous stone. I am currently just hovering above it! Our holiday is all inclusive too so no doubt I will come back with a few extra pounds on. I can’t wait to be lying on that beach star fished with just a strip of material covering my lady garden! Wahooo bring on the brown/stripy/crabstick tan.

This is a picture of my food optimising Full English Breakfast on Sunday morning; this whole meal is 4 syns. 1.5 for each half fat sausage and 1 syn for my brown sauce (just seen in picture). Everything else on my plate is ‘free’, not bad huh. I used Milk for my scram eggs for my 'a' choice and 2 slices of 400g bread for my 'b' choice. I did have a “Phat” roast last night though and couldn’t resist roast spuds and parsnips. #can'tsticktothediet

2. You Tube – The more I watch it the more I want to be involved in it. Something’s are holding me back though. A part of me thinks I’m too old to make videos, there are a lot of younger people out there doing amazing vids and a part of me thinks I’ve left it too late to start and should maybe stick to the blogging. I also know zilch about editing movies, but I’m a fast learner. Do you think there is an age limit on this kind of thing? I also worry that because I’m not a professional people might think I don’t know anything about make up. Hurtful comments don’t really do anything to me to be honest, I think if you don’t like something stop watching, there’s no need for bitchiness.

3. Still loving make up – My collection has grown out of control but I seriously don’t buy anything unless I’m going to use it. Make up can be quite an expensive habit and buying things just because everyone else has it isn’t my bag. I literally use everything I buy but it’s still not enough, I want more ……..MORE!!

4. Primarni – Primark has never been one of my favourite shops mainly because I hate how busy it gets in there (Oxford Street I’m talking about you) but recently I went into my local Primark and bought some lovely shoes and a hair piece thing (post to come) and I am loving them! A while back me, Emma ♥ and the mother in law ♥ went to Lakeside shopping and I had one of the nicest experiences of a Primark yet. I wanted everything on the shelves! I will definitely be heading back over that way in the future. I want some dresses and vests for my holiday.

5. Make up Course – I’m currently enrolled in the Photographic and Catwalk course at the Morley College in North Lambeth which is on a Tuesday night with the lovely Karen Beadle. I’m really enjoying the course and Karen is a fantastic tutor. Please check out her website. The course is on for 4 weeks tomorrow is our last week, the course is £60 and I’ve really enjoyed it. You can find out more information HERE. Doing this course has just made me want to do a proper course more and more. One day…….one day!

Have a good week girlies.

Follow me on Twitter for chit chat, randomness and a few Staceisms thrown in!

@TheHQofBeauty

♥

Beauty Marked eye shadow by MAC

Afternoon girlies! Last week I blogged about my latest eye shadow Beauty Marked by MAC. I had seen it being used a load of times on You Tube and had been eyeing it up to add to my purple collection. I didn’t really know that much about it except it looked like a beautiful purple on the website.

You can just make out the purple sparkle in this picture

Beauty Marked damp on left, dry finger on right, see what I mean about the colour?

I had a comment on the post from someone called Delyteful Speaks who said that Beauty Marked should be used wet. I’m glad I read this before having a go with it because as you can see from the swatches it looks like a bit of a ‘meh’ colour without a damp brush.

I used my small shader brush by QVS that I got from Superdrug ran it under the tap then tapped it on the e/s, it did pick up a lot more colour. I applied the shadow to my eyelids then blended out to the side slightly then using my MAC 266 brush bought this under the eyes. I used Onyx by Stila black pencil inside the waterline, applied some Max Factor False Lash Effect mascara. To highlight under my brow bone I used Vapour by MAC. I also filled in my eyebrow a bit with the two matte browns from the Sleek Storm palette.

On the MAC website this is described as ‘A deep blackened red with a sparkle/twilight effect (Velvet)’ I absolutely love the colour payoff of Beauty Marked, it’s easy to blend with no fallout. Had I not of read/seen the comment about wetting it I would be none the wiser so thank you for that. I will definitely be wearing this out in a couple of weeks for a birthday do we’ve got coming up.

A while back I tried to do this kind of look with just plain black eye shadow, Darren ♥ told me I looked like a goth and said if I was going to wear it to the pub could I walk in 10 mins after him!! Charming!

I think after using this I will be purchasing Fix+ by MAC, sod walking to the bathroom every time, I’ve heard it’s pretty good too

Do any of you own Beauty Marked or Fix+? Any more tips and tricks for me?

Cheers dolls!

♥



A-Z of Me!

Afternoon gorgeous gals! I saw this post over on Charli's blog and couldn't resist having a go, I love these kinda posts.

Age:  31 and not happy about it

Bed Size: Double with Kingsize duvet

Chore you Hate: Cleaning, bore off!

Dogs: Staffs or Yorkies (RIP Tady)

Essential start of your day: Cleanse and Polish!

Favourite Colour: Peachy coraly tones

Gold or Silver: White gold and silver

Height: 5ft 3, haha, shortarse

Instruments I play: None, I’ll hum it and you play it.

Job Title: Document Controller

Kids: None *sad face* I want bubbas!

Live: London

Mum's name: Deborah, Debs, Good ol’ Deb, Oi, Mumma ♥

Nickname: Stace, Stacey Poos, Trace, Tracey, Sir Chunksalot (Thanks Dal ♥)

Pet Peeve: Rude and inconsiderate people, they get my goat everytime! That and people with BO, there’s no need for it.

Quote from a movie: “Goonies never say die”

Right or left handed: Right, I’mmmm aaa littttle shaakkky wiiith mee leeffft.

Siblings: 1 older brother Matthew ♥ 1 younger sister Faye ♥. I’m the middle baby.

Time you wake up: 6am but snooze til 6.30 J

Underwear: It’s big, it’s ugly and I hate shopping for it. End of.

Vegetables you dislike: Not keen on Marrow, but will eat it coz it reminds me of me dear ol’ Nan. “Mmmm lovely Nan” *feeds it to dog under table*

What makes you run late: Make up, I get carried away, could sit there all morning making sure it’s perfect.

X-rays you've had done: Arm, when I was 8, I broke it at Gymnastics and toothy picks.

Yummy food you make: Baked potato skins with spring onion, chilli and chives.

Zoo animal: Red Panda, Darren ♥ dreamt about a red panda the night before we went to London Zoo, they were the first words he muttered when he opened his eyes. "Red Panda". We went all the way to the Zoo and he was sleeping haha! We didn't even get to see one, Dal was well upset.

 Ahhh he's a cutey

I tag everyone that follows me with a blog, I love reading these kind of posts! Link me in your post, spread the word! Bit of fun on a boring Tuesday afternoon

♥

Illamasqua Night-Time Diva Course

Hey girlies, on Friday night I went to my Night-Time Diva course at Illamasqua that my sister ♥ bought me for my birthday. I didn’t own anything by Illamasqua neither had I used any of their products before so to say I was excited was an understatement!

Illamasqua is situated at the bottom of Carnaby Street in London on Beak Street. The course started at 7pm with me getting there about 10 minutes early to have a look around the store. Never have I seen such bright coloured eye shadows before.

I was greeted by Claire who would be taking the class and told me to pop round the corner where some other girls were waiting. I was handed a glass of Champagne then settled into my seat. First up there was a demonstration done by Claire on Emily another lovely lady from the store.

She introduced us to the Skin Sketching pencils showing us how to perfect a smokey eye using just 3 pencils in the colours Vow (nude apricot) Hex (soft biscuit nude) and Interrogate (warm biscuit brown). Claire next showed us how to create the perfect cat eye flick using their Sealing Gel and Eye liner cake. Next it was our turn, Claire and Emily were on hand to help us with our looks and top up our champers!

Here is my look, first up I used Satin Primer and Light Liquid Foundation in Shade 210. We used the same pencils that Claire started off with Vow, Hex and Interrogate but mixed up our eye shadows a bit with Claire choosing which shades she thought would suit us. For me she chose Forgiveness (rich chocolate plum) and Fatal (deep royal purple) both were matte finish and an incredibly soft texture to blend using an Illamasqua blending brush. After creating a base with the pencils I applied Forgiveness in the outer corner with Fatal just inside it then blended out. Next up we had to apply our eye liner which isn’t my favourite bit, I’m still trying to perfect it on myself but find my hooded eyes to be quite tricky. Claire helped me though and we got there in the end even if it was a little wonky (see pic). We used the Sealing Gel with the Eyeliner Cake which was fun, this sealing gel was quite interesting, the girls said it can be used with any powder shadow to create, say a bright blue eye liner flick if you wanted you just had to remove the gel with a bit of tape or maybe just do it in the corner of the shadow. Next we moved onto brows using Incubus (deep charcoal grey) and an angled brush. To highlight under my brow and make it more defined we used the pencil in Vow. For cheeks we used a powder blush in the shade Hussy (described as a bright candy pink), we also contoured using Hollow (cream pigment from Toxic Nature collection). For lips I went for a shade called Corrupt (warm bright pink).

With this course we were allowed one complimentary gift, either a lipstick, lip pencil or a lip gloss. I couldn’t decide on a pencil or lipstick so went with Torture which is a sheer peach lip gloss from the Toxic Nature collection. We also got 25% off anything we bought instore, I decided to go for one of the sketching pencils in the shade Vow and that was it. I was very happy with both products though and was rocking the lip gloss on the Tesco big shop yesterday!

Check the Illamasqua website for the courses HERE. My course was £50 for a 2 hour course (with gift and 25% off) but my sister ♥ got it for £37.50 from Metro paper back in January.

Have a look at the Illamasqua website HERE. I had such a fab night and now wish I took more pictures of inside the ‘studio’ and the products that were in front of me after I had finished. Ahh well….. there’s always next time. I’m quite interested in the Drag Star Superhero course too, another 2 hour course on a Friday night.

Watch this space, I may well turn into a Queen of the Night for my next Illamasqua post!

Do any of you have any Illamasqua products? What’s your fav product?

♥

MAC and Clinique Haul

Hey dollz! On Tuesday I checked my bank balance and saw that I wasn’t as poor as I thought I would be so skipped along London Bridge to House of Fraser with the wind in my hair and a smile on my face!

Without flash

With flash

A sleepy looking moi at 6.55am ZZZzzzzzzzz

I have wanted Ladyblush Blushcreme for aaaaaaages, I saw it on the Goodbyes section on the MAC website and panicked a little that it wouldn’t be in stock but it was. It’s a gorgeous matte pink colour that blends well and gives me a gorgeous dewy look I am loving it! I apply mine with my fingers, dabbing it one with one then blending it out with a clean pinky.

I have about 7-8 lipsticks that I would like I had Hue and Vegas Volt in my hand and decided to go with Hue it's a gorgeous pale pink that looks nothing like the picture on the website. It's a Glaze lippie which I find are quite moisturising.

I also picked up one eyeshadow in the colour Beauty Marked which MAC describe as 'A deep blackened red with a sparkle/twilight effect'. Look out for a FOTD/N featuring this soon. Purple is probably one of my fav colours but I made a mistake and bought Mum ♥ and I Shadowy Lady which is a matte, it's the hardest shadow to blend in the world! If you have it, please help a sista out! How the eff do you blend it? Answers below please

I have Blacktrack fluidline by MAC but it has seriously dried out, I'm finding it quite hard to use now and find I have to stop half way through a stroke to load up again. I bought Clinique brush on cream liner in true black. When I asked the SA for it he said he thought it had been discontinued but found me one. I can't wait to have a go with this! Also how cute is the packaging! This is my first ever Clinqiue product and never knew they came like this. Gorgeous!

That's it for my little haul. I tried so many swatches of lipsticks in MAC. Chatterbox, Costa Chic, Vegas Volt and Impassioned all of which I want!

What are your fav lippies, I'd love to know, I'm sure they'd make it onto my list! haha!

♥

My entry for Sprinkle of Glitter competition

Hey girlies, first up let me just apologise for neglecting my blog a bit these last couple of weeks, I do have some planned posts but like the scatty moo I am, I keep leaving my camera lead at home so can’t transfer the pics to my work lappy.

Anyway, the luuuurvely Louise from Sprinkle of Glitter held a competition to win a set of Sigma brushes, this was my entry for it. I had big big plans in my head for this look but they never come out like I imagined I suppose a bit more practice is needed.

The glitter had started to crease, I had taken so many pictures trying to get it to show up

Eyes

NYX Jumbo Pencil in Milk

Stars and gems from Superdrug/eBay

Matte black eyeshadow from Storm Sleek palette

Barry M Glitter Dust - Silver

Max Factor False Lash Effect Mascara

Ardell False Eyelashes Demi Pixies

EDIT
I forgot to say for the panelling on the sides I used surgical tape to make them extra sharp then filled in the space with NYX Jumbo pencil in Milk

Face

Chanel Pro Lumiere 10

MAC MAF in Medium

Rose Gold Blush by Sleek

MAC Rhapsody in Two to highlight

Lips

ELF Lipgloss

MAC Reflects Red glitter on centre (can’t really see this)

We had to keep the theme ‘Sprinkle of Glitter’ in our heads for our look which could have been anything we wanted. Photographing glitter is tough, I had a load on in these pics but it’s hardly showing. Ahh well, I done my best.

Louise has already announced the winner so I didn't win, still it was fun creating this look. I now wish I had more gems and sparkle to add.

Take a look at the winner, Stefi’s entry HERE 

Did any of you enter too?

♥

Oilatum Natural Repair Face Cream

Hey girlies, I’m sorry for my lack of posts this week. It’s my first week back and I had a load of emails to get through plus an audit today, which I got 100% for btw! *happy dance*

Some of you will already have heard of this cream, it’s taking the beauty community by storm at the minute. I heard of it through Nic of Pixiwoo. It was roughly November time when they first mentioned it on one of their videos and it was around this time that I resembled a puff pastry sheet! I marched to Boots the very next day to get my own and I’ve not looked back since. Like Nic, I too suffer from dry skin on my face and nothing was working for me. A combination of the heating on at home, cold weather outside and a lack of drinking anything but Tea had taken its toll on my skin.

I have since got my Mum ♥ and my sister ♥ hooked on it too, the only downside to it being so popular is that it has been constantly out of stock on the Boots website for months! This product isn’t cheap it retails at £7.65 for a 50ml tube but a little goes a long way, I am now on my 3rd tube.

I use this in the morning under my foundation which I find I don’t have any problems with, some say it’s a little heavy for under foundation but I quite like the slip it gives.

What they say

“Oilatum Natural Repair Face Cream is an innovative new therapy specially formulated to intensively nourish and help repair your skins natural barrier. Oilatum Natural Face Cream is suitable for dry and sensitive skin and is free from fragrances, preservatives and emulsifiers.”

Just a quick tip, do not throw away your tube without cutting it in half like me, when I thought I couldn’t get any more out of it I snipped it in half and got another week!

Long live Oilatum Natural Repair Face Cream! It’s the dogs danglies!

Have any of you jumped on this bandwagon too? What are your thoughts?

♥