Tarte Cosmetics 12 Hour Survival....

I was recently sent a rather lovely box from Tarte Cosmetics, asking me to take on their 12 hour challenge. The range of their products they had sent claim to last for 12 hours, and they wanted me to put this to the test.

The box of goodies couldn't have come at a better time, as later that day I was off to join singing sensation Harvey on tour with Little Mix as his makeup artist. Long days - lots of travelling and busy evenings, surrounded by some super-glamourous people (yes Little Mix, I'm talking about you!) definitely call for good quality, long lasting makeup - so I was eager to give it a go.

The first thing that struck me was how gorgeous the packaging is. The Amazonian Clay blush is so well thought out - a mirror in the lid, a striking pattern on the actual product, and then, one quick swoosh, and you can pop the pan out of the palette to add to your Z-palette which can be very useful for space-saving in your kit, or even at home.

The colour I received was Flush - a pretty dolly-pink which is really rich in pigment, and true to it's name, gives you a nice healthy looking flush to the cheeks.

What I loved about the eye products is that they come with a brush, and not a crappy little applicator you want to chuck the minute you first touch it... an actual, amazing, proper brush! The Brow Mousse comes with a double ended bamboo brush which has a spoolie at one end to comb your lashes into place, then an eyebrow brush to distribute the product into it. The brush is thin so if you like to draw a line at the base of your brow, this is the perfect size to do it with for a natural finish.

I tried out the Brow Mousse in Medium Brown, which I think is a little on the dark side for me, but it still works. It was my first experience of working with a brow mousse, and I absolutely love it. In fact, I've worn this at every available opportunity since I first tried it. It's a whipped, airy texture, and leaves your brows looking so much more 'done', without looking un natural.

The Waterproof Eyeliner also comes with a double ended brush - one fine brush for using the liner as as standard liner, and another slightly thicker, small domed flat brush for using the liner in a more smokey way, or to apply it all over your lid. The liner feels like a cream product on application, but sets and dries leaving a gorgeous finish. I used the bronze which is a lovely shade just the right amount of metallicness to it.

The Lights Camera Lashes mascara is like nothing else I've ever tried. It gives you the blackest, most defined lashes I have ever seen. Full of drama in just one coat - it's amazing. I imagine it would clump if you used it for lots of coats, but I've been doing about 3 coats and it's changed my lashes for the better. I will definitely, definitely be re-buying this!

So.... as it happens, I ended up travelling overnight up to Blackpool and had about two hours sleep all night. I don't know about you, but when I have minimal sleep, my make up always seems to fall off my face, so this makeup definitely had something else to contend with! Once I had arrived we had a bit of time to kill before the show - so we headed to Blackpool Pleasure Beach. I had made the decision not to go on any rides, but it seems Harvey had other ideas (although The Mouse roller coaster was as scary as I'd go.... that thing is SCARY!). It was a day full of fresh air, giggles and screaming.... and the make up was staying put! We made a quick stop then off to that evenings venue ready for soundcheck and to get him ready....

The photo on the left was taken at 7am, the photo on the right at 7pm..... apart from reapplying lip gloss, and powdering my face - I didn't need to touch anything else! The eyeliner (which I had worn as a shadow) had creased slightly, but nothing too unsightly. The blush hadn't faded, and my brows and lashes were looking fab (even if I did say so myself!)

I am completely head over heels in love with some of my new discoveries, and can't wait for the new Tarte show to start on QVC tomorrow so I can see more of their products in action!

You can check out more of the range that's available in the UK on the QVC Beauty website

Nivea Stress Protect Challenge

Nivea have put me to the challenge to test out their new Stress Protect deodorant. They asked me to wear the deodorant, bake a cake which they provided me the recipe for, and post up how well the deodorant did when I got stressed out making the cake. Simple. Or so I thought!

Apparently your body produces a different kind of sweat when you are stressed, than when you get hot and sweaty, it even smells different - so their new anti-perspirant combats that by giving you 85% protection against the sweat itself, as well as a lovely smell to mask any stress-sweat odors and Avocado oil to moisturise your underarms. 

I make cakes quite often, and when I saw the email, wondered just how stressful making a cake could be - my cockiness was mistake number one. For this was no ordinary sponge cake that I was used to chucking together - this was a "White chocolate, lemon and macadamia Genoise layer cake". It involves making a white chocolate mousse, a Genoise cake, a lemon syrup and then macadamia praline - yes it's as complicated as it sounds! 

Mistake number two was allowing my 3 year old daughter to 'help', and I use 'help' in the losest form of the word. 

Mistake number three was not reading through the whole of the recipe before starting, as midway through we had to abandon the cake and go to my mums to borrow a food processor. 

While I had thought baking a cake quickly would be a nice way to fill half an hour on a snowy day this wasn't the case - it took me hours! My daughters nursery was cancelled due to snow which meant I had a "help"er for the whole day. My son's school then called to say I had to pick him up from school early due to the severe weather, so once again the cake was abandoned, my car would do nothing but slide, and I ended up walking - which ended up taking an hour there and back. 

The cake had cooled by the time we returned, and I began layering the cake and assembling the four layers together with mousse and syrup. I covered the cake in the white chocolate mousse and then made a start on the macadamia praline, which was my undoing.  

I had done quite well, under the circumstances, until then. The kids were asking to make a snowman.... but I just wanted to get the cake done, it had gone on long enough. I sat them down in front of the tv promising I'd be 5 minutes and then we could go and do one - and in my rush, again, didn't look at the recipe properly. This time it was a big fail. There was no popping round to my mums to solve it with a magic machine. 

Instead of melting the sugar and then adding the nuts, I put them both in the saucepan at the same time. The sugar wouldn't melt. I had to stir it despite the recipe explicitly telling me not to. I ended up having to melt another lot of sugar and adding this nut and sugary mess to it - even then it didn't work properly. Pouring it out onto a tray to set was a joke - it came out in one solid lump! I had to press it down, and where it should have set in 10 minutes, 10 minutes in the fridge and an hour at room temperature did nothing of the sort. The food processor seemed to turn it into a liquid again rather than the crumb I was expecting. I had no more macadamias to start that part again, and by this point I had had enough. I admitted defeat and stuck some of the macadamia mush onto the cake.

The cakes are being judged by Holly Bell from the Great British Bake Off, the winner getting a Nivea hamper. I honestly thought I may be in with a chance at one point, but now I realise I am firmly out! Holly, please don't even look at my cake! 

Although it looked quite a mess it tasted yummy and I was very pleased with myself on my first Genoise cake, and first time maying a 4 layered cake. The nutty part was a little sickly due to my over-sugaring, but the cake itself was delicious, and very sophisticated tasting.

As far as a cake not being stressful to make - believe me, it can be! I started in snowy pre-lunch daylight, and ended at dark dinnertime. The Stress Protect did well - my boyfriend arrived at mine to catch my sniffing my armpits - which rounded off a rather stressful day nicely! There was no sign of any whiffs coming from my direction though which was one less thing to have to worry about! 

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