Zoella X ColourPop Collaboration - Brunch Date Palette

I am a huge Zoella Fan, I do feel she has been slacking recently with her youtube channel and her Zoella Beauty range but when this collaboration was announced, I knew I needed to try something. I had never used anything from ColourPop before either so this gave me the perfect excuse to try them out!

I have always been concerned about shipping and customs costs when ordering from America so have always avoided it but this collection if ordered within 24hours had free shipping to the UK which was a really nice and well thought out choice from Zoe and the team at ColourPop. This fact is definitely what swayed me into going for it!

I am all about eyeshadow palettes, I have quite the collection already so I knew what item I would be purchasing! 

Lets first talk about the packaging, it's beautiful! The palette is a basic cardboard (reminds me of Zoeva) but has a luxurious matte soft feel and the design is wonderfully whimsical with the waffle design outer packaging and the brunch inspired pink palette. A perfect combination of fun but also grown up. 

It fits perfectly with the design of the rest of the range which I think is so well designed, very unique and aesthetically pleasing!  

I would have loved to get the whole collection but my maternity leave budget meant just the palette for me. It cost roughly £17 including a small fee which I thought was a reasonable price for a collaboration palette.

Inside you have 12 shades, 5 mattes and 7 shimmers/foils. In my opinion there is a good selection of creases shades, natural shimmers and a few pops such as the gorgeous blue and the gorgeous burgundy. It is certainly a palette you can wear everyday but it is entirely possible to make something more fancy out of the shades. It is the perfect take on holiday palette for me, I could easily create a week or twos worth of looks out of this.

Left Top to Right Bottom

Maple Syrup - Sundae Funday - Sunny Side Up - Americano - Brunch Club - Extra Slice

Champagne Toast - Pancakes Please - French Toast - Skinny Latte - Cinnamon Sugar - Mimosa

As you can see, the swatches are impressive! The mattes are very pigmented but also very blendable so it's easy to apply because it is so easy to blend out and keep looking perfect. It really doesn't take a lot of work to get the crease looking great. Brunch club is an intense matte blue, not the most unique of shades but is a nice addition. 

Maple syrup, Americano and Mimosa are the perfect selection of crease shades that will work with most looks and French Toast is the most beautiful burgundy that you could use in the crease but I think would work wonderfully for a smokey eye. Extra slice is a matte with flecks of gold glitter and it is the absolute dream! I can't wait to do a full smokey eye with it.

The shimmers, especially Pancakes Please and Cinnamon Sugar just kill me. They are so incredible beautiful and right up my street! I have used them both so many time since owning this palette so I am sure they are going to become everyday faves. 

There has been a lot of backlash on this palette, people saying the shades are boring but I just don't agree. It is an everyday palette, yes but it is a step above. A step more pigmented, a step more sparkly and you definitely can make it work for a night out too.

Ultimately I am really pleased with my purchase! What does you guys think of the collection and this palette in particular? 

TOP TIP: Like many ColourPop shadows (so ive heard) the shimmers and even the blue are best applied with a finger in order to get full pigmentation. You can use a brush but you get the best look with your finger.

SHOP THE COLLECTION HERE

MUM TAG!

I came across this new Mum Tag on youtube created my Emily Norris (find her here!) and it has been done by many of my fave mum youtubers now which ive really enjoyed watching so I thought I would do it here on my blog! Its so interesting to hear how other mothers find parenthood and their experiences so I hope you enjoy reading mine!

1. Favourite mum hack? Im not sure this counts as a hack really but a baby carrier! Babies clingy? Carrier. Babies tired? Carrier. Need to be hand free? Carrier. Muddy walk? Carrier. Breastfeed on the go? Carrier. I love it.

2. Most embarrassing mum moment? Ermmmm, none? I don't embarrass easily and for some reason Rory is better behaved in public than at home!

3. What part of the day do you love the most? Either seeing his smile first thing in the morning or 7pm when Liam gets home from work and Rory is so excited to see him!

4. What part of the day do you like least? Between 5 and 7pm, Rorys a grump so its just counting down the minutes till Liam gets home.

5. The worst thing someone said to you while pregnant? Again, none. People were really supportive while I was pregnant and I loved every minute of it. 

6. Baby name you didn't agree on? Many! I like unique names and Liam doesn't so much! I can't remember exact names honestly but I remember liking Ryan or Bay for a girl and Liam hated both.

7. Do you co sleep? Absolutely not, its something I really done agree with. I mean, each to their own but I would never do it. I do not think its safe, I think it creates bad habits for baby and I also like to have one place thats just mine!

8. Something you bought but never used? We were really careful not to over buy so there wasn't much that went unused but we never used mittens because they are just pointless and we didn't use the swaddle as Rory is a spread out sleeper!

9. Two hospital must have items? I gave much during a heat wave so my mini fan was a life saver. Also makeup, I know that sounds crazy but to be able to have a shower, fresher myself up and put a little makeup on after birth made me feel human again.

10. Are you a routine mum or a go with the flow mum? and what does bedtime look like? Both! During the day I go with the flow, he feeds when he wants, eats when I do and sleeps whenever he needs too but I done let him sleep after 5.30pm so that he is tired enough for bedtime at 8.30pm. His bedtime routine is always the same, up to bedroom, pjs on, feed in nursing chair while Liam reads out loud, baby lullabies on then bed. 

11. What type of labour did you have and what pain relief? I went into labour naturally at 40+4. I started feeling light contractions on the Friday, the ramped up Saturday night and we headed to hospital at 4am Sunday. He was born Sunday 11.47pm. It was a loooong labour and I had high blood pressure and temperature so it was really difficult, I had an epidural and do not regret it!

12. Have you been mum shamed? No but I wouldn't take any notice if I was. I don't care about other people opinions of my mothering in the slightest. Unless i've asked for it and its constructive!

13. What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced since becoming a mum? In the first 5weeks, breastfeeding was really hard. He cluster feed really badly and I felt really trapped. I couldn’t leave the sofa for 5+ hours a day and often in the evening while Liam was at work so I would sit in the dark watching Netflix with dead feet and starving. I cried over that a lot. Now, it’s sleep. He’s is a terrible sleeper, currently waking 8+ times a night, it’s really hard and people always say it will get better but it never seems too.

14. The best bit of advice you’ve received and the biggest piece of advice you would give a new mum? I think people telling me that it gets better has helped a lot actually because it’s true. Every hurdle will improve eventually and it’s all worth it for your baby. To a new mum I would say don’t pressure yourself into doing too much, you may feel you need to say yes to all the visitors and all the baby groups but you don’t. Take some time to relax with your baby, to sleep, to get used to being a mum rather than putting pressure on yourself to please everyone else.

15. Who’s your mum crush and who do you tag? Charlotte Louise Taylor and Giovanni Fletcher! And I tag BecomingMumsy!

Baby Led or Spoon/Puree Led Weaning?

Weaning is the one thing about parenting that I always worried about, I am not a healthy eater, I am terrified of new foods and different textures. I am also scared of any foods that ripen or go off such as fruits and cream cheese. Basically, I'm a freak and I have been so nervous about passing on my weird habits to my child. I want Rory to have a better relationship with food than I have.

We began spoon fed/puree weaning because we felt that way he would be able to try lots of flavours without having to deal with the choking hazard and the different textures straight away. I decided to make my own purees to both save money and give him the purest ingredients, we started with buying spoons, bowls and puree storage pots for using in the fridge and for freezing. We thankfully already had a NutriBullet to use for blending!

I have found that most fruits and veg just need boiling till soft then blending with a little water until the required consistency and pretty much everything can be frozen. We try to give a veg puree in the evening and a fruit for breakfast because we found that if we gave too much fruit in the evening, the sugar rush kept him up at night! 

Winners so far have been blueberry, carrot, apple and sweet potato (separately not together!)

I think purees have their upsides in that baby actually eats the food instead of throwing it on the carpet, it is less clean up and and easier as you only need to defrost a pre made meal rather than find three nutritious meals to make from scratch each day. We can't just eat the same meal because as I said, I am a terrible eater!

We have tried some thicker foods and finger foods as well, edging towards the baby led side of things.  He likes really small pasta with a homemade veggie sauce as you see him to trying to snatch the bowl in the photo above! 

And he has tried carrot sticks, broccoli florets, toast, pitta and various baby snacks such as rice cakes and puffs which have mostly been a hit except the wet and slimy things. Such as strawberries! 

Watching him turn up his nose at strawberries but gobble up toast happily makes me so anxious. How does he know that strawberries are healthy and toast isn't so much? Why will he eat an Ellas Kitchen Puff but only pick at a carrot?

So, basically we have been doing a bit of both spoon and baby led. Spoon feeding does have its downside which is where the finger foods come in. With just puree alone they don't get to explore the food and make their own choices about what goes in their mouths. I've found that when I do give him solids, he is very apprehensive about it, he often doesn't put it anywhere near his mouth which can be really frustrating when you have spent ages cooking it but I think a little bit of perseverance with baby led will hopefully improve this and change apprehensiveness to curiosity! 

Ultimately, I don't know what is the best route or what will benefit baby most because every baby is different and will want to do things differently. I'm really trying to remember this and stress a little less!

Are you currently weaning? Hows it going?

Or have you in the past and have some tips for the rest of us?