Rachel Ellen: review
Showing posts with label review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label review. Show all posts

Thursday, 23 March 2017

Sleek Make-Up Review

Today, I wanted to write about a couple of make up bits that I've had for a little while and think they are well worth the money. They are both by the brand Sleek which I'd never had any products from them before so it was exciting to try!

First, the Sleek highlighter palette in solstice. So many bloggers have spoken about this palette and it does live up to expectation. It was a little more than I expected, at £10 it seems pricey for a cheap brand, but you do get 4 colours.

Superdrug website describes the product as "This versatile face and body highlighting palette suits all skin tones and includes two baked powders, one luxurious cream formula and one silky shimmer powder."

The two baked powders are my favourite, I always get compliments when I use the purple one, although it is a bit strong and glittery. I like to save it for evening wear now. 

The cream one is really nice for under your eyebrows. I've had this palette for a few months now and used it plenty, but look at the products, they don't look like I've touched them! I couldn't imagine this EVER running out.

The other product is the Matte Me lip cream in the shade Shabby Chic



It's a really pretty mauve shade and was only £5, it's super matte and long lasting, but is incredibly drying. Anyone with particularly dry lips shouldn't try this.


I made a video of the lip cream on, please ignore the state of my lips, but this is over a lip balm and still quite drying and tacky, but minimal printing.




Sleek does seem to be a good affordable brand and I'm really pleased with my purchases!

Have you ever bought anything from Sleek? What do you think of their products?

Thanks for reading,

Rachel xx

Saturday, 20 February 2016

Book Reviews

Here's a new one for me, a book review (well three - kind of). Normally when I read book reviews on blogs they're all super positive but unfortunately I'm going to do things a little differently! (no surprises there then!) I had some clever idea to make the title of this post a combination of the three books I was going to review, "Us Bone Clocks on the Train", it was a lot less clever than I originally thought so now you get a boring title.

The Girl On The Train - Paul Hawkins


 I bet every book lover has read this or at least heard of this by now, I'd wanted to read this for a while since finishing Gone Girl as I'd heard so many people mention it in line with that book. And as it is being made into a film I thought I would actually read the book before watching the film (because that's what we all want really!)

I've never been a fan of reviews being big plot descriptions - they end up giving too much away. But here's a brief idea. The main character is Rachel (I didn't even know before I read the book!) and she gets on a train every day (I even impress myself with my descriptive skills) She's filled with heartbreak, an ex-husband, a drinking problem and various other issues that develop through the book. She's a very relatable character, which makes for a good narrative voice. The book is well written, believable relatable characters (mostly, some seem a little far-fetched but hey it's a novel we like a bit of that!), and doesn't give away too much or too little. There is a murder in the book and honestly, even though I like to see myself as quite savvy, I really didn't guess it until quite late on! I read the book in like 2 days, I was hooked so quickly!

Definitely recommend, and it's not massively long!
4/5 (a four because it's not writing genius but god it was good!)


 Us - David Nicholls


Monday, 12 May 2014

Obligatory McBusted Post
SPOILER WARNING!!! 

If you are going to see McBusted soon don't look at this blog post, let yourself have the beauty of a surprise!

I went to see them on Saturday (10th) of May, the middle of three consecutive Manchester Phones 4 U arena shows.



What I loved about this McBusted concert was that it wasn't just the music, it was a whole show, from Dougie's inflatable balls to floating triple breasts, Matt's wedding dress, the T-shirt guns and a topless Harry you were entertained the whole way through. They had VTs of the Busted press conference, Hillbilly McBusted, Tom's wedding speech they had an "Intergalactical frisbee" :


Short clip of Star Girl.

Following the first VT of the Busted split, they had a short Back To The Future Spoof, then bangs and fire and there a Delorean on stage, Mcfly fly out of the floor and Matt and James leave the Delorean. Needless to say I've never been so excited (Yes I am 20, yes I felt about 10!)


They even had a Jackson 5 cover and Danny, Matt and James had a little dance routine which you can just about see in this video:
On this show they did, what they told us was the first time at a show, the human pyramid:

There were certain songs I wish they'd played, but of course after a show like that I can't really complain

I think it's safe to say this is one of the most talked about tours in the UK this year, whether you like it or not I bet you've spoken about it!


(Triple-breasted women, you get it?)

There's a very fulfilled 8 year old me, and an even happier 20 year old! I think the pre-show picture shows enough


As for the "To Be Continued" at the end, I have to say I'm super excited.

Thanks for reading

Rachel xx

Sunday, 9 March 2014

Hungry Horse
Last night me and my boyfriend (Andrew) went to the Gypsy Queen in Sheffield which is a Hungry Horse pub. I've been to the Hungry Horse chain restaurants in a few different places, (Northampton, North Wales and the Gypsy Queen once before) and I'm never disappointed. For the price I find them very good quality and very good portion sizes, if like me and Andrew you fancy a challenge the "Big Plate Specials" are definitely what you want. He ordered the Ultimate Big Sizzler (£13.99) and I ordered the Big Bombay Banquet (7.99) with Chicken Tikka Masala as the curry. The Big Sizzler was a little more expensive due to the amount of meat!

 Mine included: pilau rice, chips, naan bread, poppadoms, tomato & onion salad, mango chutney, yoghurt & mint dip, onion bhaji, samosa, pakora and a spring roll.
Andrew's had a 5oz* rump steak, chipotle chicken skewer plus half a rack of BBQ ribs and southern fried chicken goujons and chips. It should also have peppers, onions, grilled tomato, corn on the cob and onion rings but Andrew's super fussy.

How after all that we squeezed in a dessert I'll never know, but we couldn't resist! Warm Chocolate Fudge Cake was amazing but we could barely move afterwards. There are loads of desserts to die for as well as the Fudge cake.

They also do a lunch and breakfast menu, I haven't tried either but I would love to as they look so tasty.

Hungry Horse is one of my favourite chain of restaurants, in my opinion miles better than Wetherspoons. And there is one opening in Rochdale tomorrow, which is quite close to me at home, I can tell where I'll be spending my summer!

Thanks for reading

(a very fat and full) Rachel xx

Monday, 24 February 2014

Don't Slap Pandas
I recently ordered from a website called Redbubble, a t-shirt with print on as a present. Ordering from new websites always makes me nervous and I was getting worried when it was nearly two weeks without as much of a sign of the parcel. I should have been more patient as the t-shirt was coming all the way from America! The t-shirt arrived but was totally distracted by the label attached on with a little tiny peg (ok first I was distracted by the peg as it was so cute!)


Yes that does say "DON'T SLAP PANDAS" some important advice from the company that sent this shirt. "constructed in America by happy people in matching socks" I just find the time and effort gone into this label adorable, and as sad as it is just makes me want to order from them again! I love little bits of cute effort.

I'm getting closer and closer to the end of my month without chocolate, I'm so proud of myself. I've not had a single cheat day. My no crisps started a day late, so Saturday's my first day off chocolate ban and Sunday's my first day off my no crisps ban. 


I'll give a full update at the weekend about how I've done as I'm at the last hurdle now and still have time to fail!

thanks for reading and remember don't slap pandas!

Rachel xx

Tuesday, 18 February 2014

Cosmo - Easy Way to Fatten Up!
As I was walking through Sheffield on Sunday we walked past a group of people one of which said "oh and there, that place is an all you can eat Chinese" Me and my boyfriend's ears perked up, of course. All you can eat is a major guilty pleasure of ours! So of course we took ourselves there that evening. 



The place we went to was a place called Cosmo, http://www.cosmo-restaurants.co.uk/ which is quite newly opened in Sheffield but they have branches in other cities, but it is not just a Chinese all you can eat, it includes Indian, Mexican, Italian, English and more similar set up to Red Hot World Buffet. After waiting for 45 minutes for a table as it was super busy (we didn't mind too much as it is bottomless soft drinks which is very unusual for an all you can eat!) and the decor is clean and very appealing! We finally sat down and tucked into our food. 

There was a lovely selection which we were faced with, the main problem being where to start first. I did find a few of the meat dishes fatty or boney which was disappointing but there was still plenty of choice. At £13.99 for an evening it is not a place to go if you are not willing to eat a lot but you can definitely get your moneys worth. I would choose Red Hot World Buffet over this place, but as there is not one in Sheffield it is a very good alternative! I found the staff very friendly and helpful which only adds to the experience of the place.

I would rate this place a 7/10- due to the quality of the meat
My boyfriend has said 8/10 so a little more generous.

Thanks for reading,

Rachel xx 





Friday, 7 February 2014

Cavalier Youth
Today's blog will be about the newest album I have purchased, yes actually bought as a hard copy, not modern iTunes download or illegal download! How old fashioned Cavalier Youth by You Me At Six.



Everyone has that band, that no matter what they'll always love and mine is You Me At Six, so on the day of release I went straight to HMV and bought it! I was a little worried as the first release off the album "Lived a Lie" wasn't my favourite song by them but I am definitely impressed with the album as a whole. You can definitely hear a more grown up feel to the album in comparison to older albums. As for the album cover I love it, the colours in the sky are gorgeous!

My top three songs from this album are:
1. Be Who You Are (so so wish it was longer though!)
2. Carpe Diem
3. Love Me Like You Used To

My only criticism of You Me At Six has always been the length of their albums and songs! I've been wanting a longer album from them forever!

Although I bet they'll all change each day that I listen to it! I know You Me At Six aren't a band to everybody's taste but this album is all I've listened to since I bought it so felt it was appropriate to blog about too!

Thanks for reading
Rachel xx

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