• 'Standouts' of giveaway prizes that I've won •

Every day this week I've been waiting to hear that post coming through the door; every day this week, I swear the post man is getting later and later. But all on the same day, they came! My giveaway prizes from Barbara (thepersianbabe) and Katie (thelastsouvenir) arrived safe and sound and I don't think I've ever ran down those stairs as quick as I did on Thursday. 

I've been so excited to get this written up; partly because the will power I have shown over the past week to photograph and write this post before I can use any of the products is incredible, and partly because they so pweddy. I just wanted to write a post to show you some of the stand out products that I received as my prizes. A quick and obvious note - I'm in no way bragging at all, I'm extremely grateful for winning these prizes (as Barbara and Katie know), I've had permission to write this post and I just genuinely wanted to share my excitement with you. Hauls and prize posts are some of my favourite types of posts to read, so hopefully you'll enjoy this!

My God, this MAC palette (now would be the time to insert the heart eyed emoji). I literally just can't stop staring at it. When I saw that Barbara was giving this away, my heart skipped a beat and I thought to myself, if I don't win it, I'm buying that bad boy. I received the MAC Warm Neutral Palette with 15 shadows, 4 of them matte, 6 of them with soft shimmers and 5 metallic/satin-finish. I think these are fairly new and are a great way to try some of the MAC eyeshadows without having to choose your own (I spend too long staring at MAC eyeshadows every time I go in that in the end I walk out empty handed as I get so overwhelmed!) I can't wait to play with these and create some new looks; a review will definitely be up on this soon, where I'll share some swatches and thoughts with you.

I'm happy to say that my MAC lipstick collection is slowly growing and when I won a lipstick of my choice (amongst other things) from Katie, it did take me a while to choose one! I don't own any blue toned pinks so I went for MAC Girl About Town - after spending a good 45 minutes of staring at swatches of it, I realised how in love with it I was. It's an amplified creme formula, meaning that the lipstick is super pigmented and after trying it out this afternoon, I can attest for this. The colour is absolutely stunning and as with all MAC lipsticks, I'm very impressed.

Since we're on the MAC train, I may as well carry on! Katie also asked me to choose a MAC eyeshadow and we were discussing which colour would be best as a transitional colour. After an extra 45 minutes of scouring blogs and websites for the best MAC 'soft brown-esque' colour, I decided that Kid was probably my best bet. Along with most other things in this post, a full review of this shade will be coming up where I'll show swatches and all that good stuff. Quick note - the lighting of this photo is different from the others as I had to play around with it to show the colour true to form.

This shade of pink is perfect - not too Barbie but fun and girly, too. I really like the formula of the Nails inc polishes and the colour Brompton Place is gorgeous. Just looking at it makes me all excited for Summer! Another product getting me excited for Summer is Tanya Burr's lipgloss in Just Peachy. I feel like I've been on Tanya's journey with her; when she first announced that she'd be bringing out a line of lip glosses and nail polishes, I knew they'd be amazing and I couldn't wait to try them out. This colour would look stunning over a nude lip or just on its own for more of a natural look. I'll be playing with it this week for sure! Lastly, something I've been lusting over since I've watched every single US YouTuber rave about them, is the Victoria's Secret Fragrance Mist in Forever Pink - Pink Tuberose & Pear. Well put quite simply, it smells like heaven. Sometimes you get those days where you just don't want the heaviness of a perfume but you want to smell fresh, and this product is exactly for those days. It's sweet but light and is quite a young scent, which I like.

Thank you so much to Barbara and Katie, I really appreciate these gifts - they're gorgeous!

Let me know if you've tried any of the above products - I'd love to hear what you think.

Daniela