My First Time At Cosmo Norwich!

So I had heard nothing but good things about this restaurant and it was on my list of places to go! With it being Bobby's sister's birthday we all went out for a meal to celebrate. I always thought it was a small restaurant with a couple of tables but I was completely amazed when I walked in. You get greeted at a desk and asked for your reservation, then go up some escalators and get greeted again before being taken to your table. I decided to get refillable drinks, meaning I could have as many soft drinks as I wanted. My drink of choice for the evening was fizzy Vimto!

Now I just want to say if you're looking for a really fancy food review you're about to be shocked. I was amazed by all of the food that you could choose from, there was Chinese, Mexican, sushi, various desserts that looked delicious, hot wings,roast dinners, dumplings, pizza and so much more! I am quite the fussy eater, I don't like trying new things and my taste in food is pretty simple. 

I managed to snap a few pictures before everyone got in and ruined all the nice displays so I'll pop them in while I have the chance!

Because of who I am as a person most of the pictures I took were of the desserts because damn they looked good! 

So being in an all you can eat restaurant overwhelmed me for a while and I just couldn't pick what I wanted. As I mentioned before I'm a very fussy person and even the slightest of change to food I like will put me off it. 

For my first plate of food I wanted to go with something simple that I know I would like. 

That meant chicken nuggets and chips with a Yorkshire pudding, mash and gravy. I told you no professional reviews here I mean what can I really say about this meal? The chips were actually really good, nice and chunky, reminded me of the chips I get from the local Chinese. The mash was really smooth but was seasoned with pepper (which I despise) so I didn't manage to finish that. By the time I got round to eating my chicken nuggets they were a bit cold but still really good.

For my second plate I got a little more adventurous and headed to the Chinese buffet section. They had no plain rice or plain noodles so I had to salvage what I could. In the end I managed to get some plain rice (I scooped up as much with no egg in as I could), some plain noodles (same again avoiding the beansprouts and veg) and a couple of prawn crackers. I would've gotten so many more crackers than I did but there weren't many left when I went up to get some and I didn't want to take too many.

The rice was lovely and fluffy, no egg so I fully enjoyed it. The noodles were in a sauce I hadn't tried before so it took some time to get used to but in the end I didn't eat all of them. Crackers are crackers so I don't think i really need to talk about them. 

By this point I was ready to head home, feeling super full and tired I had completely forgotten about all the yummy desserts!! I don't really like a lot of chocolate or cakes so I took a small range of everything really! I also found the ice cream machine where you could do it yourself and put as much on your cone as you wanted. 

This is what I ended up getting. A peanut butter cup, a chocolate and raspberry swiss roll, a chocolate mousse shot, jelly cubes, the ice cream that I did myself and some toffee dessert (I can't quite remember what that was). I later found out that there were bowls for the ice cream, along with other flavours like chocolate and mint. I pretty much had fancy jelly and ice cream for dessert and it was glorious!

Cosmo is probably now my favourite restaurant and I definitely will be going back again. It was just such a great experience for me and I loved every aspect of the serving yourself buffets. Next time I go I aim to try a few more things because there were dishes that looked and smelt amazing I was just too scared to try them on my first time there. Now I know what to expect I can see this being the place I go to whenever I have something to celebrate!

So that's all I can say about my first time there really! Everything was just so great! Bobby's sister really enjoyed her birthday and it was a really nice night out!

I hope you enjoyed reading this, if you did I'll do some more posts on what I get up to :)

- athriftymaria x

My New SUPER CHEAP Makeup Storage!!

So I have finally decided how I want to decorate my room (literally has taken me two and a half years to come to a decision) so that means I need some new bits and pieces including makeup storage!

Everyone seems to absolutely love clear, acrylic (plastic) storage! Whether thats a pen pot, letter holder or specifically designed makeup storage, its hard to find someone who doesn't use one of these products. I am no different here as I already owned a small lipstick holder that is clear and so so perfect which I managed to salvage from a charity shop! I just think they look super simple and allows you to really appreciate your makeup more as you are able to admire all of the beautiful packaging.

So knowing that I wanted to display my makeup in a new different way for the upcoming room revamp, I some how convinced my mum to let me go with her to B&M. I have gotten so many bargains from B&M in the past and I had a gut feeling that I would find something that would be perfect! 

After dragging myself away from the american sweets I found exactly what I needed on the end of and Isle! I ended up getting two different 'organisers' that have made my makeup look so much better!

So this is the first one I picked up! It's called a 'Makeup Organiser' and it was £4.99!

Its approximately 32.5x21x8.5cm and has 15 sections!! For the price I feel like that is amazing! If you look online for a large clear organiser you are usually looking at a lot more that just £5! 

So I got this one with the idea that it would hold all of my eye and face products, and I was pretty spot on with that. After clearing through all of the old stuff that goes unused I was able to fill this up with everything that i have left and it honestly looks so beautiful to me <3

I was actually really worried that it was going to be slightly too wide to fit on my shelve but its actually the perfect size, all of my makeup is now on this shelf looking more beautiful than ever!

The other item I got was classed as a 'Medicine Caddy' and it was only £1.99!!! Bargain I know! So I literally just picked this up with no idea as to what I was going to use it for, I knew I had a lot of loose small products that needed somewhere to go and I just hoped it would work out well.

I actually already threw out the packaging for this so I dont have the measurements but this caddy has 7 sections that I had to fill with something. I like the way that there are little handles in the side of this, it makes it so much easier to pick it up without anything falling out. You can really fit a lot of items in here if you put them in carefully.

You can see that I have really used up all of the available space in this caddy! A grand total of 27 products can fit in here and for only £1.99 I really think this was a great purchase! I honestly feel so much better about my makeup collection now knowing that its all organised and looking pretty! 

I did get one final thing from B&M for my room and for my makeup sponge and that is this huge glass jar with 'Enjoy' written in gold.

This is a super cute large glass jar that was in the kitchen section. It was supposed to be £1 but was on sale for half price which is amazing! I wouldn't mind paying full price for this as its absolutely perfect for my room. 

I'm going to use this jar for all of my makeup sponges, I currently only have one in there and thats one from Real Techniques. I do plan on filling the whole jar so whenever I need a sponge I have plenty!

Thats everything that I got and for a grand total of £7.48 I've managed to completely organise my makeup collection and make it look so much better than before. I can now look at everything and smile knowing that its not getting damaged in a drawer or makeup bag somewhere.

I still plan on getting a lot more makeup so more storage will be needed as my collection grows and hopefully I'll be able to find matching organisers for a super cheap price!

I hope you enjoyed reading about my new makeup storage! I also did a youtube video on everything I got from B&M where you can see them before I started using them:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UjczX-8X3Q&t=3s

If there is anything you want me to write about do let me know, I have a lot planned for this blog I just need the time to write! 

- athriftymaria x

'My Sign' Makeup Revolution London Eyewheel + Lipgloss Review

So for Christmas my sister had gotten me a makeup product that  hadn’t seen before! It was the ‘My Sign’ Eye Wheel  by Makeup Revolution London in the shade Gemini. I was surprised she even remembered my star sign! After looking them up online I found out that there is an Eye Wheel and Lipgloss for each of the 12 star signs. The Eye Wheels are £5 and the Lip Glosses are £3.

This is the Gemini Eye Wheel:

When I looked at the colours I realised that they aren’t really colours that I usually wear, green especially. After swatching them and playing around with them (this was for a YouTube video that I will link at the end) I decided that they weren’t so bad and that I would at least give them another shot! (I know the second swatch looks gold but its actually a metallic green shade)

Each wheel has:

·         An eye primer

·         3 Eyeshadows

·         2 Brow Shades

·         A Highlighter

So on boxing day I went into town to get some bargains in the sale and had to stop by Superdrug to at least check out the other shades. When I got there a lot of the shades were still there which was surprising since every new Makeup Revolution product usually sells out in store pretty fast. After looking at all of the shades I decided to pick up the Taurus Eye Wheel  (it had a lovely gold eyeshadow that I was 

REALLY drawn too) and the Gemini Lipgloss.

This Taurus Eye Wheel I picked because the gold eyeshadow is stunning  (I always tend to wear warm browns, oranges and GOLDS) so this selection of colours was sort of perfect for me really. I actually used some of the brown brow powder to blend in my crease as the darker black colour is a little too overpowering for me.

So all of the swatch pictures were taken in a hurry and I completely forgot to include a swatch of the highlighter and the Gemini Lipgloss so here they are:

The highlighter and the brow powders are the same in each Eye wheel meaning once you have one you’re only really paying for another three eyeshadows! All of the shadows are fairly pigmented and easy to blend in. I haven’t used the primer at all as I tend to use my liquid primer from the same brand. The gloss isn’t tacky or sticky (which is what is despise from a gloss) and is a beautiful colour, only problem is that it transfers quite easily as it doesn’t really dry on your lips.

Overall I really like these products, I would recommend the Taurus Eye Wheel if you want a really nice golden eyeshadow! The Gemini Lipgloss is such a nice colour and not sticky or heavy on the lips at all but does transfer far too easily! If you have any of the My Sign collection then let me know which products you pick!!

I also did a Youtube video on these products, swatching them and doing a full face look with the Gemini products which is linked below!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFlYQRGAobw

Thanks for stopping by today to read my review, I hope this helps you decide which products to pick!

- athriftymaria x

Hello!

Hello, and welcome to my blog!

Many of my upcoming posts will follow the theme of being 'cheap' or me sourcing some super awesome bargains. I love to share when I'm able to get my hands on a great deal, whether that's a lovely vintage dress from a charity shop, or a clearance in the makeup isles you can bet I'm always searching for the next great buy!

While I have the chance I just want to introduce myself, so here's 20 facts about me!

1. I am 18 years old
2. I have a YouTube channel which I am very proud of
3. Most of the makeup in my collection isn't used
4. I have 4 cats and one dog
5. I am really into gaming, I play on Xbox One and soon to be playing on PC
6. I have a clothing rail filled with clothes I don't wear
7. My sister is a younger, more annoying version of me and appears occasionally on my social media
8. I live in the most eastern town in the UK
9. I have 4 piercings (it used to be 5 but I took my lip piercing out)
10. I am very cheap, the least I spend the better
11. Most of my makeup/beauty items have been brought discounted, been given to me for free or have been traded for other things
12. I am terrible at saving so I'm basically broke all of the time
13. I work in a little shop, part time
14. Although I have the biggest bedroom I still don't have enough space in here for all of my junk
15. I have to declutter regularly if not I would be dubbed a hoarder
16. I get called a 'fake gamer girl' because I don't have time to play online as often as I used to and that sucks
17. Despite having a fairly good fashion sense I always look like I stumbled out of a trash bag
18. I have a boyfriend who I've been with for two years now, he's a big part of my life! He helps out with editing for my YouTube videos all of the time, so supportive
19. Charity shops end up taking most of my money as I can get some quality items for a fraction of retail price
20. Poundland is probably my second home, please don't judge it's just fabulous

So I know those facts were probably rather boring but I'm not used to this form of expressing myself, usually I speaking to a camera alone in my room, now I'm typing on the bus trying to think of what to write.

I wanted to keep this short and sweet and let you find out the rest yourself, thanks for stopping by and I hope you visit again :)

- athriftymaria x