New L'Oreal Purchases

While browsing the beauty aisles of Boots we came across some L'Oreal products that had pride of place at the helm of the L'Oreal display. We had not noticed them before and Boots were offering 3 for 2 on L'Oreal products so, of course, we wanted to try them all! The products in question were the Color Riche La Palette Nude Beige, False Lash Sculpt Mascara and the Superliner Black 'n' Sculpt Eyeliner.

Lets start with the best! We LOVE the False Lash Sculpt Mascara! It is advertised as the mascara to tight line at the root, volumise at the core and fan-out at the tip...and it does! The first thing you will notice is the rather unusual wand. It is similar to the L'Oreal False Lash Flutter Mascara in that it fans out at one end and has a comb/brush but the Sculpt Mascara somehow manages to frame your eyes with product during application negating the need for a separate eyeliner. Perfect for those lazy days or for a quick application before you run out of the door! It also gives fantastic length and separation. Great if you have lashes that are short or straight. I can see this mascara being a staple in our make up collection for a long time to come! The worlds fussiest mascara wearers are impressed!

Bourjois Air Mat Foundation - Review

We are always excited to try a new drugstore, affordable foundation and as Bourjois have some of our favourite drugstore products we were very keen to try out their new Air Mat Foundation. We picked it up in two shades 01 Rose Ivory and 02 Vanilla.


Bourjois Air Mat Foundation L-R 01 Rose Ivory and 02 Vanilla

As we are a fan of lighter coverage base products for a day time look (tinted moisturisers etc) we weren't sure we would get on with this foundation! The word Mat scared us a little due to our current obsession with glowy highlighted skin. However we were very wrong! It comes in a squeezy tube so no mess and no waste and its easy to control how much product you need. 

Youtube!

We are so excited to launch our very own YouTube Channel!

YouTube is something we have been working towards for a few months now we were very keen to try it out but it's quite an intimidating step! After such positive feedback from you guys about our Blog we figured why not!

The videos we have ready to upload are Vlogs we filmed on our Orlando holiday last year obviously we hope to get better at filming and editing with time but we would love for you to subscribe!

The very first video is documenting our Travel day and a quick Room Tour of the Lake Buena Vista Resort and Spa in Orlando! Hope you enjoy!

Please let us know what videos you want to see us film!

Love
 

Elle and Mimi

Writing a Joint Blog - Q&A TAG

We were tagged by sisters Jasmine and Kirsty from the blog Soeurs de Luxe to take part in their new Q&A Tag - Writing a Joint Blog and we were delighted to do it! Look out for links below to some other blogging duos we have tagged! Enjoy!

Tasty Vegan Banana Bread

Today we wanted to share with you one of our favourite baked treats. We are not vegan and are not intending to adopt a vegan diet any time soon. We do, however, have family members who are vegan and one who is allergic to dairy. As a mother and daughter we have always loved to bake together and its a shame if our friends and family cannot enjoy our cakes and desserts. This prompted us to perfect a vegan recipe for banana bread or banana loaf (depending on where you are from!) as it is one of our favourite things to whip up quickly and to use up those bananas that have seen better days!

Ciate Olivia Palermo Collection

When shopping the sales in TK Maxx we chanced upon some of the Olivia Palermo Collection by Ciate and couldn't help ourselves! We had previously eyed up the nail polish collection but at £17 for one polish we held off and decided not to make a purchase. Thank goodness we didn't as the price in TK Maxx was slashed to just £5.99! Our TK Maxx only carried the one shade, a pretty pink/nude called Off Duty Nude. It comes in a beautiful presentation box and would make a perfect gift. The formula is quite clear initially but you can build the opacity with 3 coats and it applies nice and evenly. It lasted around 4 days  with a top coat before chipping. This polish is still retailing for £17 in many stores so if you are able to get your hands on it in your local TK Maxx you have bagged a bargain!

Ciate Olivia Palermo Collection
Smoked Out Liner in Fig, Nail Polish in Off Duty Nude

My Wedding Day Makeup

One thing I was certain of as soon as we started to plan the wedding was that I did not want to pay someone to do my hair and make up for the big day. I realised quickly that I just wanted to look like me and the best way to achieve that was to be my own makeup artist. Although this is something I felt strongly about I was almost embarrassed when people asked "So who is doing your hair and make up?" (a commonly asked question of a bride to be) and I had to tell them I was doing my own! They all seemed shocked as if there is no way a bride can do her own make up?!?

2016 Here We Come!

We apologise that we have been somewhat missing in action lately! However we have just experienced our busiest ever holiday season as we not only had Christmas to contend with we also managed to fit in Mimi's wedding too! Phew! 

We have had a super busy few weeks finishing up the wedding and Christmas preparations and getting ready to welcome to north east England wedding guests from the UK and USA (from as far afield as California, Savannah, Ohio, Florida, London, Eastbourne and more) As soon as Christmas Day was out we were busy readying ourselves for the big day on 29th December. After the big day we spent New Year's Eve at home resting and recharging out batteries! 

We are now enjoying a couple of days off before getting back to work next week. Over the next few days we are going to concentrate on planning our blog posts for the start of 2016 and we have some exciting new content to come which we hope you will all enjoy. 

When we decided to start a Mother and Daughter blog we really wanted to do something together that would be fun and that we could share when we are no longer living in the same country. As a mother and daughter we are the best of friends and as Mimi is going to be relocating from the UK to the USA we will miss spending time together. Our joint blog is a way for us to stay connected and continue to work together on different posts and projects in spite of the distance between us. 

We are very excited for the future of ElleandMimi.com and have lots of ideas and plans for 2016! As well as beauty we are excited to bring you some wedding related posts as well as travel and lifestyle content too. Our blog is very new (officially launched in August 2015) but we have been delighted with the lovely feedback we have recieved so far. 

We hope very much that you will join us for the next part of our journey as we continue to develop and grow our site. 

We wish you all a wonderful, healthy, happy and successful 2016 and would like to leave you with a picture from Mimi's beautiful wedding day. Thank you again for your support and much love for the new year.

Elle and Mimi x

 

Mimi and Elle