MAC Lipstick Loves-guide to colours and finishes

I fancied talking about another one of my favourite things in life after dining out and drinking.

Lipsticks♥♥ My favourite brand for lipsticks is without doubt MAC.

A main reason for this is because they state they are a brand that celebrates diversity and individuality.– “we are for All Ages, All Races, All Sexes.” This is displayed perfectly through their far reaching range of colours, elegant or outrageous. They just seem to know exactly what they’re doing and are often ahead of the times with their unique creations. They always produce such chic and great quality make up that’s created with love, to encourage everybody to express themselves differently and be individual.

When I was younger and especially when I was a student, I did think MAC was a brand that I’d only be able to afford once/twice a year or put on my birthday and Christmas lists. However, now I’m working, although I don’t want to purchase too often, I have managed to build up a good collection of their make up. I want to review specifically in this post about their lipsticks.

♦Lipsticks– £16.50 this price has recently increased. Actually, that’s one grievance I have with MAC as I often notice their prices rise quite frequently. They have over 200 shades in their lipstick range with some very daring and dramatic colours and an array of formulas. I seem to have collected many of the nudes and this is EXACTLY the thought that goes through my head every time I’m stood by the lipstick counter…

I would definitely recommend trying the lipsticks on before you purchase or at least see what they look like on another person as it’s very difficult to tell the true shades from the colour charts on the website.

So I thought I’d show you my ‘nudes’ collection and try on the colours for you. In MAC foundation terms, I am a NC20. I think I’ve carelessly misplaced a few of my lipsticks, so here are the ones I currently can locate. I hope you find this helpful and please do let me know other colours you think I might like. ♥ here goes…

Escaping rooms & Gusto-Leeds

Saturday 1st April, not just April Fools Day, but also the day my family decided to try ‘Escape the Room’ in Leeds.

This was a Christmas present that was kindly bought for my family and my boyfriend (Mum Renu, Dad Andy, Brother Hamish and Boyfriend Ted) and we were so excited to see what this was going to entail. I’d read on the website that it is a fun and interactive activity that encourages team work and good communication. Before we arrived, I believed that between us we held a number of useful skills that may help us succeed. Strength and agility-Ted and Hamish, Logic-Me, Creativity and patience-Mum, and the one that always thinks he’s right-my dad. (not a useful skill but funny/annoying to witness).

So, we decided to give it a go. We were taking part in the “Classroom” challenge and I honestly can’t envisage how you could escape if you weren’t given any help or pointers. I won’t give anything away, but the aim of the game is to try and piece together all the clues and simultaneously work as a team. I think the biggest achievement is managing to escape’ whilst still talking to each other, and not have had a full blown argument. Luckily, this didn’t happen to us on this occasion. But I can imagine if you had a room full of competitive people (dad), it might make you dislike the whole experience being locked in a room full of impatient people.

However, I would definitely recommend this a fun, team-building activity. Another tip for you though -don’t turn up like my brother did after 3 pints, as you just run round like a mad men and all logic and agility goes out the window.

We escaped 3 seconds after the timer, but that’s basically a win when you have a tipsy person in your group. AWW look at us so happy and still friends. ⇓⇓

Then me and Ted decided to head into town as we were fancying a night out in Leeds after all that hard work…

Ted had booked us a meal at Gusto in Leeds. It’s located on Greek St, which recently has become a buzzing hub of restaurants and new bars such as The Liquorist and the Alchemist.

When we first arrived at the restaurant, the decor immediately caught my eye. The modern lighting and atmosphere exuded such a romantic yet glamorous vibe. It felt like you could be eating outside as the tables in the restaurant were enveloped by trees covered in fairy lights.

I would really love one of these in my dining room when I’m a homeowner to be honest. I didn’t touch them to see if they were real however they definitely make the dining experience feel very unique and ‘Al-fresco esque.’

We were seated in really comfy leather booths with marble tables which reminded me of those films where you see people in New York going for after work cocktails. Classy right?

 However the only matter of contention I do have was that you were sat very close to the people next to you. I could hear the couple to my right’s full conversation and I could even see how much they paid when they got their bill! (Yes I shouldn’t be looking but you get how close we were don’t you?)

Starter- we shared a caprese salad and a rosemary and sea salt garlic pizza. Caprese-can’t fault it, it’s quite hard to get this wrong unless the cheese has gone off and tastes fizzy (I have experienced this before). But, the garlic bread was so thin, it was more like garlic crisps. I don’t like deep pan pizzas but this delicate, featherweight bread was something I wasn’t expecting and the picture doesn’t capture just how crisp it really was. Also you can see from the picture that on each slice there must have been a whole garlic clove visible AND garlic oil.

Therefore we agreed we’d head straight to Tesco Express after the meal for a pack each of ‘Extra strong Airwaves’ (needed.)

♥Teds Main- Roast Chicken Breast with creamed leeks, tomato and caper dressing with fried gnocchi. Ted had no complaints (he rarely does about food as he is not a fussy eater at all.) He did say he made the perfect choice before a night out as it wasn’t too heavy. Or in an alcoholics terms-you can get drunk more quickly.

WINNING!

♥My Main- Fillet of Pork Saltimbocca with mashed potato and marsala sauce. Saltimbocca means wrapped in sage and parma ham and I was pleasantly surprised that the Pork wasn’t dry at all. It was a lovely balance of sweet yet light flavours. So nice in fact that I saw it on the Marks and Spencer’s Dine in and opted for it just two days later. My main was also the perfect size as I did think about ordering pasta but thought that might soak up too much of the dancing juice. TACTICS…

I’d learnt from my previous idiotic mistakes from my visit to Piccolinos in Sheffield, not to drink Vodka in a ‘fancy’ restaurant. So we avoided all alcohol (can you believe it?!) until desert when we ordered two espresso martini’s. This was the perfect drink to re-awaken your senses after a meal and to get you ready for the night out. I didn’t manage to get a picture (sorry) as it was gone in about 30 seconds.

We left the restaurant feeling more than satisfied and my purse hadn’t been hit too hard either! Off we went to Call lane for a night full of Vodka Red Bulls and RnB.

A fabulous Saturday from start to end. What more could you want?

Overall Ratings for Gusto Leeds– Atmosphere 8/10. Food 8.10 Value for money 7.5/10

Thank you for reading and hopefully see you again soon!

♥♥♥

Sheffield-The Return

This was the 3rd time I’ve visited Sheffield this year. After graduating in July 2014, it’s quite obvious I’ve had withdrawal symptoms and no not just because I still haven’t stumbled across Alex Turner down West Street.

Sheffield is known for its steel production and being a history graduate, I should be able to tell you some well known steel producers from the 1800’s should I not?… NO. Can we all just clarify that just because I studied history, it doesn’t mean I know everything that’s ever happened ever ever ever.

with my ‘steelers’

for example… this issue comes up frequently at pubs quizzes.

“Who invented the umbrella?”
“Come on, you should know this, you do History”
◊OH MY GOD DO YOU EVEN KNOW HOW BIG HISTORY IS?!◊

rant over.

The thing that sticks in my mind when I think of the good ol’ Uni days is the MASSIVE hills. Wikipedia describes Sheff as ‘geographically diverse’ but that’s just a posh and polite way of saying the hills are a bloody joke if, like me, you got lil legs.

See, they don’t even touch the ground when sitting on the average park bench.

What Sheffield isn’t particularly well known for is its food, unless it’s a cheeky chicken burger from Adnans at 3am (you know what I’m saying Liv?)

But then again, please bear in mind, I am just talking from a student’s perspective and let me tell you, we weren’t exactly on the look out for the most ostentatious and ornate restaurants.

So as this is mainly a blog where I want to review food and drinks, be it fancy or familiar, as well as talking about general things that happen in my social life, I thought I’d go to a restaurant and suss things out…

Right calm down, cause I’m only off to bloody Piccolino’s but why wouldn’t the average Josephine want to visit there?  I’m going with my mate Liv (on the right in the last pic, she also did history at Sheffield with me) & our table’s booked for 7.30pm.

But first, we arrived at the hotel-Travelodge Sheffield (we’re girls on a budget this weekend if you haven’t already worked that one out, or at least that was our intention). They asked us in the Sheffield Travelodge if we’d be wanting room service. How about sending up a larger room?

Fantastic Feasts & Where To Find Them-what am I up to?

Hi all, can I please start by saying a huge thank you for clicking the link that I no doubt will have sent you and asked you to ‘check out.’

a bit about me♦

My name is Anushka Minshull. I like to tell myself that I’m the only person with this name, possibly in the world. The amount of people who ask me to spell it, pronounce it, or start singing Kate Bush ‘Babushka?’ at me, I’m like ‘well clearly you’ve never heard a name quite like that before have you?♥♥♥

That’s me ^^

I live in Yorkshire, and if you know me, you know I bloody love talking about (gravy) being Northern.

So I’m here, ‘blogging’ and hopefully in the future vlogging, because I enjoy writing and taking snaps. Also who doesn’t appreciate going out drinking and for meals?

CHEERS TO THAT.