• My life through a lens #3 •

1. Receiving lovely parcels makes me happy |

2. selfie'ing |

3. nothing better than a little Netflix & popcorn! |

4. lazy Sunday afternoons with a book and nail polish.

5. my baby cousin and I - family is everything |

6. photographing for a budget make up brush post |

7. center parcs + starbucks = :) |

8. a cheeky Kiko haul.

9. my holy grail scent - Diptyque Philosykos |

10. our first hour pet, the gorgeous little Brody |

11. #alipaday in the month of September |

12. coffee and movies with a festive feel.

13. new lipsticks make Monday's so much better |

14. food and friends ♥ |

15. I bought a few jumpers... |

16. a London Girls Night Get Ready With Me.

A peek into what I've been instagramming lately
 over on danielascribbs :)

Daniela xo

• benefit Cheeky Sweet Spot Palette // review •

benefit's latest offering comes in the form of their first 

ever box blush palette, complete with 6 blushes 

and their stunning cream highlighter.

benefit own the show when it comes to Christmas palettes and I find myself glued to the Boots website every single year, drawn to the pretty packaging and amazing deals that the brand has to offer. Everyone goes mad for the box blushes so I think that benefit have taken that on board and come up with a very clever idea. For £29.50 you get 6 of the best-selling box blushes and a little opal cream highlighter, which is really beautiful and one I wear all year round. The tin is sweet, I intend to keep it when I've finished the blushes and it definitely makes a stand on your dressing table! As always, the Christmas gift set range from benefit is very beautiful and great value for money, so I definitely recommend popping this on your Christmas list if you're a blush lover - I'd be a very happy girl if I found Cheeky Sweet Spot Gift Set in my stocking!

As for the product itself, I already own Hoola and Sugarbomb and absolutely love them, but I've never tried the others and it's very handy to have them all in one palette. I used to be a bronzer kinda gal but recently I've been leaning more towards blush, so this palette is perfect for me and I can't wait to have a real play with them all. I love that there are a mixture of pink, peach and mauve shades, so I can imagine it'd suit all skin tones and make up looks, and also different times of the year - I think I'd get more wear out of Coralista and Bella Bamba in the Summer months, and Rockateur and Sugarbomb in the colder months - although who's to say you have to categorise blush for different times of the year?! (I just prefer peach colours with a tan!) I have already used Rockateur and Dandelion so I can vouch for the fact that they are extremely pigmented and last a very long time on the cheeks. I also love the little brush you get with the palette - very similar to the NARS contour brush (which will cost you the Earth). So, to conclude, I'm a very happy bunny and will be rocking a different cheek for nearly every day of the week - I have to give my skin a break on a Sunday which is face mask day!

Have you tried any of the box blushes?

Do you have your eye on any of the other benefit gift sets?

Daniela xo

• The London Haul Part 2 // Skincare & Beauty •

When I was in London, Kiko was definitely on my 'must visit' list. I'd been to Kiko in Naples a few years ago (before it got really big in the UK) and I couldn't wait to get my hands on some more products.

So I did! And I've also included some Elemis* products in this haul, as I received some pretty wonderful skincare bits. Part 2 of the haul is mainly skincare and make up, which I'm sure you'll agree is just as exciting (if not more) as homeware and perfume. You can click here to read part 1 of my London haul (I just love making things nice and easy for you!)

I absolutely adore cleansing balms. I love my MOA cleansing balm, my One Love Organics cleansing balm, Ultrabland from LUSH - all incredible. Balms just make taking make up off so much easier and fuss free! So when I received the Elemis Pro Collagen Cleansing Balm* I was so excited to give it a whirl. I can confirm I am thoroughly enjoying using it, and a review will be up soon. I also received the Exotic Cream Moisturising Mask* and the Pro Collagen Oxygenating Night Cream* but I haven't yet had a chance to test them out. The Frangipani Monoi Shower Cream* smells seriously divine - I'm not usually one for floral-y scents, but it smells quite sweet and I really like that in shower gels. The scent lingers on my skin for ages after I've got out of the shower, and the consistency of the product is really creamy and moisturising. Love! Lastly is the Frangipani Monoi Body Cream*, which again, smells incredible. I'm not usually one for body cream, so I just put this on my arms and décolletage and the scent is so powerful, it's lovely. So a big tick from me, on all products!

Next up is Kiko - undoubtedly the brand of the moment. Everyone is talking about it, reviewing the products, making endless orders, and it's easy to see why. I picked up the stunning Luscious Cream Creamy Lipstick in 500 Shell Rose, a beautiful nude pink, not dissimilar to MAC's Creme Cup. It's a beautiful shade and exactly what I was missing in my collection. Another lipstick I picked up is the Smart Lipstick in 912 Crimson Red which is basically exactly what it says on the tin. A crimson red. It's a very rich, pigmented colour that I think will look fantastic with a small cat eye flick and big lashes around this time of year! I was also curious to try the Water Eyeshadow in 200 Champagne, which can be used wet or dry. I've tried and failed to use eyeshadows wet before, resulting in ruining them, so I think an eyeshadow that is meant to be used wet will solve the problem! The colour is a really beautiful, pigmented champagne, with a rose gold and gold shine when the shadow catches the light. It's really very pretty. Lastly, I was drawn to the Supreme Eyeshadow in 01 Posh Crystal Rose. I've used this product already, multiple times, and oh my gosh it is truly stunning and unlike any product I've seen before. The eyeshadow comes in a little pot and is in a smooth but firm cream form - very hard to explain, but worth paying a trip to Kiko for. The shade is a very light champagne and the glitters in the eyeshadow are very noticeable but not offensive, and I wear this eyeshadow to school pretty much every day now. It's so so lovely and the formula is incredible - you need one swipe, the pigmentation is brilliant, and it doesn't crease all day. I really recommend this product and it definitely feels like it's worth more than £11.

I hope you enjoyed my two-part haul!

No more shopping for a while now... promise.

Have you been buying anything recently?

Daniela xo

• The London Haul Part 1 // Skincare, Homeware, Beauty •

I went shopping, I went shopping...

(in my head I sang that to Beyonce's 'I been drinkin, I been drinkin...' no? Just me, then.)

Ohh I just bloody love spending my money before I've even been paid, apparently! So I plodded all around London, stopped off in a few beaut shops and treated myself. So much so that I've decided to split this into two hauls. You know it's bad when you have to split hauls over two posts.

Liberty was first up, and I picked up the cult product Pixi Glow Tonic. I'd read reviews on the product, some good, and some that absolutely bashed it, but I'm a person who is intrigued easily so I decided to go for it. I'm so excited to try a liquid exfoliator as I've only ever used manual ones, and this one promises to reveal glowy looking skin. I'm planning on using it in the evening before bed so my serum goes on smoother and in deeper, having more of a chance to work overnight. I'll keep you posted on this as I can imagine I'll want to throw in my own two pennies!

I've wanted Diptyque Philosykos Eau de Parfum for absolute donkeys years (two years) but I've always thought the price tag was a little steep - at £85, I wasn't going to reach into my purse lightly. However, since recently starting my first full time job, I just thought 'sod it'. So I walked into Space NK, marched straight up to it and took it to the till as quick as possible (so I didn't have a chance to think about the price and change my mind). I certainly don't regret it. This is my favourite smell in the whole world, with no exaggeration, and I can't even look at any other perfume in the same way again. The scent is very figgy, earthy, sort of unisex/masculine and it sticks around all day. I do tend to spritz 5 or 6 sprays as I love to smell the perfume all day long, so I can imagine I'll run out of it in a few months but I don't care - I will always repurchase this product, I absolutely love it.

Since hearing amazing things from Lily Pebbles about & other stories, I made it my mission to find my way there. As H&M's sister shop, I had high expectations, and when I walked into the shop I was a little bit excited. The layout of the shop is quite minimalist and clean, everything on the shelves looks so pretty and the shop smells amazing. They sell everything from clothing, homeware, make up and more which is totally my jam as I love shops that sell an array of different products. I somehow found myself in the homeware section (seriously when will I stop buying home things?!) and was instantly drawn to the lovely hand soaps. They look so vintage and I'm a real sucker for packaging. More importantly, though, is the scent of the soaps. I picked up Moroccan Tea, Fig Fiction and Breville Bakery. They smell incredible, so strong and amazing. The scent lingers on your hands after you've washed them and my hands feel smooth (and not dry!!) after using the soap. I really love these and for £4 each, I'm pretty chuffed with the price, as you only need the teeniest amount for them to lather up. I'll have to place an order when I run out of them as it's a little crazy to make the trip to London just for hand soaps... right? Is it? I don't know. I'm considering it.

I hope you enjoyed this post!

Have you picked anything up recently?

Daniela xo

• The Budget Make Up Brush Set •

I'm a make up brush hoarder and I seem to have built up quite a collection! This is, however, an expensive habit so I decided to go on the hunt for the perfect affordable brush set...

So after a long and tiresome search for products and reviews, I turned to eBay. I watched YouTube reviews and read blogs and it seemed that eBay was the place to go for brushes. I found this white and gold set (the black and gold set look remarkably similar to the Real Techniques brush set...) and I have to say that they do look rather professional, and do not reflect what I paid for them at all. You can get them in an array of different colours and you can buy them in sets or individually.

I decided to go for both the face and eye brush set as I think they each deserve their own blog post, but what struck me the most was the genuine quality of the brushes. They are dense, not dissimilar to the Real Techniques Buffing Brush and Expert Face Brush, they're all a little different (some are tapered, some are flat, some are domed) and they all have a chunky handle so they're easy to grip and handle. The face brushes are large, as you can see, so it takes me no time at all to apply my base in the morning. I've used liquid and cream foundations with them and they work brilliantly at buffing them into the skin and they give such a lovely finish. The brushes don't allow the foundation to cake up and you can go for either a natural finish or use the brushes to apply another layer of foundation for a more flawless finish - this does, however, obviously depend on the coverage that the foundation is able to give. The brushes wash beautifully, but take a while to dry as they are so dense, and the bristles still feel so soft on the skin even after a total of 8 washes thus far. The only downside is that they do shed a little bit, but I've had them for about 2 months and they're still packed full of bristles. I'm genuinely so impressed with the brushes and have been opting for them over my more expensive brushes as they feel gorgeous, work really well and are so cheap!! So, to put you out of your misery, these eBay brushes were £5.37 including postage, which is absolutely incredible considering the quality! They arrived in just over a week so the postage time wasn't too long which I was so chuffed about. I would say, though, that you should wash them before you use them for the first time as they do smell a bit plastic-y but that's only if you're sensitive to scents like I am.

If you'd like a post on the eye brushes, let me know. I used them in my latest get ready with me post, which was an Autumnal gold and burgundy look!

Have you found any budget make up brushes?

What are your favourites?

PS. Be sure to enter my giveaway - it ends soon! :)

Daniela xo