For more detailed information about this page, please take a look at my about page. For the purpose of this post, I’ll briefly summarise what I’m doing and what I’m hoping to achieve.

This whole journey began over a year ago now, back in March 2016. I’d been feeling uncomfortable in my own skin for a while, a result of becoming far too comfortable in a relationship. I’m sure some of you can relate! I seriously was lacking motivation to do anything about it though! A few of my friends and family had began dieting via Slimming World and Weight Watchers and I was intrigued; the results really did speak for themselves. I finally began my own Slimming World Journey as a result of my dad setting the date for his wedding. The wedding was scheduled for the 10th September 2016 and they’d asked me to be a bridesmaid. I was SO excited. The last time I was a bridesmaid I was so young I can’t even remember it.

Excitingly, the wedding was being held in Poland and the prospect of visiting a new country was enticing! Shortly after beginning my Slimming World Journey, I created an Slimming World Instagram account as I found it helped me massively, both to keep me inspired and on plan. I also there and then decided that I was going to replenish my makeup collection before we went for the wedding. What better excuse than a wedding! Following the success, support, inspiration and motivation I gained from my SW insta I decided to begin one for @beautyblog_shan as an avenue to produce a digital portfolio and publicly promote my work.

Doing what I love ♥

I am like a magpie. Literally. Anything remotely aesthetically appealing and I’m all over it. Bit of a dangerous character trait to have really with makeup but. I can’t help it! So anyway, this is where my initial love affair with Urban Decay began. House of Fraser had an absolute blinder of an offer on all makeup at the time and it worked. I was completely enticed. From memory, it was spend £50 on makeup and get £10 off. Urban Decay were then also doing their own offer and including a free gift with every purchase. The free gift happened to be a Travel Size ‘All Nighter Setting Spray’ which ended up being something I now can’t live without! I saw this as a great opportunity to get my hands on the Urban Decay Naked Collection. Well, 3 out of 4 of the palettes at the time anyway. Naturally, I placed 3 orders, each one containing one of the Naked, Naked 2 and Naked 3 palettes with a few other items. I also then discovered the ‘Moondust Palette’ which had just launched in the UK so I added that to my basket too, along with the famous Nars concealer in the shade ‘chantilly’; an Urban Decay Vice Lip Liner in ‘Pandemonium’ and several UD moondust eyeshadow individuals.

The Urban Decay Naked Family ♥

From this point, I was hooked. That was all it took, one offer! Next stop was my first order from Cult Beauty when I finally managed to get my hands on the 35K and 35P Morphe palettes. I’d had my eye on the Morphe palettes for a while but as any avid makeup lover will tell you, they’re highly sought after and extremely difficult to get hold of. In February this year I then managed to catch their next restock, getting my hands on the 35O, 35OS, 35OM, 35W and the 35T. I am IN LOVE with these palettes.

Up until Christmas, I picked up bits here and there, beginning a love affair with Benefit Cosmetics, NYX Cosmetics, Morphe, Huda Beauty, Sleek and many more. Christmas brought further additions to my Urban Decay collection including the ‘Full Spectrum’, ‘NAKED smokey’, ‘NAKED Basics’, ‘Naked Basics 2’ & ‘NAKED Ultimate Basics’ palettes. Other features were the Huda Beauty Rose Gold Edition eye palette, Sleek ‘Matte Me’ liquid lipsticks and Lancôme ‘Hypnôse Doll Eyes’ mascara.

Can we just talk about how gorgeous the Huda palette is? I literally can’t even put into words how beautiful it is. The variety of shimmers, foil and matte shades really make this palette stand out from others on the market. I unfortunately missed one of the initial stocks of this on Cult Beauty. Once I had my heart set on it for Christmas and found out that they wouldn’t be restocking until January at the earliest I was devastated. But, me being me, I simply had to have it. As soon as I caught onto the fact that Harrods were due to stock it in the UK, I made them the focal point of my mission to get my hands on this gem. I was in London last November with the girls for the weekend and naively thought it would be as easy as paying Harrods a visit and picking one up. Boy was I wrong. Of course it was out of stock. Absolutely devastating. Anyway, upon my return home I then decided to phone the Huda Counter at Harrods every day for over a week as I’d gotten wind that they were due a restock before Xmas. After a 40 minute spell of hold music, I was finally able to order one over the phone before the shelves were stocked and put on sale to the public. I know this may seem slightly obsessive behaviour to some but thankfully Matt entertained the idea and helped me phoning Harrods at any opportunity for an update! But I just had to have it, that’s all I can say. Not getting it for Christmas just wasn’t an option! At £56 it is a tad steep for a 18 pan palette (not including the £12 delivery fee Harrods charge…) but I can honestly say I think the quality of the product alone is worth the price. Huda herself is a massive inspiration to me, she’s so humbled by her success and doesn’t seem phased at all, she just takes it all in her stride. I’m a massive fan of her YouTube channel and loveeee how interactive she is with her fans.

Moving into 2017, I’d set myself a mini New Years resolution: to try new things. In makeup terms, this meant branching out from my comfort zone and trying new products, new brands, new stores. Naturally, living in the UK, Beauty Bay and Cult Beauty both seemed like good options. Cult Beauty I’d already used to get hold of the Morphe palettes so I knew their service was good, so why not? I’d also soon spotted Beauty Chamber were Official UK stockists of Morphe so I knew there was a good chance that between the three website, I’d finally manage to get my hands on some more!

My birthday quickly followed and Matt of course surprised me with amazing presents including a new camera! I’d been looking at camera for a while but wanted something pretty user friendly, bridge style but without the hassle of interchangeable lenses and all the costs that come with it! We managed to find a couple that seemed along the lines of what I was looking for! I received a shiny new Nikon Coolpix B700 for my birthday, along with a few new palettes including the Morphe 35N and 35U, and the Too Faced Sweet Peach, Chocolate Bar, Semi Sweet Chocolate Bar and Chocolate Bon Bons palettes! I also had my first Jeffree Star Cosmetics purchases, the Androgyny Palette and a Skin Frost in ‘Dark Horse’. Lastly, Matt also picked up the Benefit Cheek Parade and Morphe R2 brush. If any of you don’t own the Cheek Parade palette, I’d strongly recommend going out and purchasing it. 5 full size pans including 2 newly launched blush/bronze products (Hoola Lite & Galafornia Blush) all for £45!

Birthday gifts from my love ♥

Matt also unbeknownst to me had actually bought me the new Style Pro brush cleaner that I’d mentioned to him before Christmas! Girls/Guys, this is an actual life saver. It makes that dread filled task of cleaning your brushes SO much easier as it also dries them for you as well. If any of you want to know more about it, I know it was available at Boots and Very.co.uk!

After my birthday, naturally I had lots of new bits to play with and photograph, as does every beauty blogger when they purchase or receive new makeup bits! Towards the end of April, I noticed that Cult Beauty were doing a competition on Instagram called #showusyourkit – basically they wanted entries submitted from all their customers of their make up kits! I decided why the hell not, and set aside some time one afternoon to get everything out and place it on the floor. Little did I realise or appreciate at the time, how long this would take and how big my makeup collection had actually become! Below was my photo entry, with my Morphe palettes lined up proudly in the centre. I was shocked to wake up one morning before work about 2 weeks later and realise I’d been chosen as one of the 5 winners! Each winner would receive a £100 gift card to spend at Cult Beauty. I’ve never been so excited in my life, poor Matt nearly had a heart attack at 5.30am when I woke him up with my squealing.

My winning #showusyourkit Cult Beauty competition entry ♥

Huda Beauty 3D Highlight Palettes in ‘Golden Sands’ and ‘Pink Sands’ and Samantha Lashes + Anastasia Beverly Hills highlighter A23 brush ♥

So that’s really where we’re at. Since April my collection has probably doubled in size, I definitely wouldn’t be able to take another full collection photo without hiring out some warehouse space just to lay it all out! It definitely wouldn’t fit in our living room that’s for sure!

Please keep an eye for further posts as I begin to start dissecting my collection, reviewing in individual products and brands.

Thanks for reading guys!