Mother's Day Gifts from Artistry - Indigo Skies Colour Collection Make-Up

If you are looking for a gift for your mum this Mother's Day, cosmetics can be a good choice.  I'd definitely enjoy receiving some lovely new make-up, especially as some of the things in my make-up bag are older than my children!  The huge range of beauty brands available means there are lots of choices to suit every taste and budget.  

For great quality products,  Artistry, which is one of the world's top five skincare brands, offers beauty products created to push the boundaries, using beneficial ingredients and advanced technologies. New from Artistry comes the Indigo Skies Colour Collection of cosmetics, designed by makeup artist Rick DiCecca. The limited edition Indigo Skies Colour Collection is inspired by the springtime, in a soft colour palette ranging from pale blues to rich indigos to shimmering beiges.

Featuring seven products including the Indigo Skies Eye Crayon Trio (£43.05), Signature Eyes Volume Mascara (£23.80) and Signature Colour lipsticks or Sheer Finish lipsticks (£19.95) the Indigo Skies Colour Collection will give women the freedom to create a bespoke seasonal look.  I was sent the eye crayons and a lipstick to review.

The Eye Crayons can be used as both eyeshadows and liners to shade, define and highlight the eyes. The crayons are sleek and black with a twist up function. They have a long-lasting, lightweight formula and glide on smoothly, drying to a smooth, powdery finish. The three shades are Indigo, Sky Blue and Desert Sand.  The brighter crayons can be used as accent colours for a bold look, whereas the Desert Sand crayon is very natural, perfect for an everyday look.

The Signature Colour Lipstick and Sheer Lipsticks are formulated with plush pigments and contain hydrating ingredients to coat and condition lips. Available in Sandstone, Rose Quartz and Coral Sunrise, the Signature Colour lipsticks colour lips with high-pigment hues, whilst the Sheer range gives  a high-gloss hint of colour.

I love the Sandstone coloured Sheer Lipstick, which is a nude shade with an orangey undertone and a shimmery finish. Lovely for everyday wear, it can also be dressed up, making it a very versatile lipstick.  It feels very moisturising on the lips and the subtle colour lasted well.

Also available is the Signature Eyes Volume Mascara™ in indigo blue is a revolutionary, colour-intense FullFx formula mascara, which claims to increase volume by up to 600%.  It contains conditioners to smooth, gloss and enrich lashes.

The Artistry range includes make-up, skincare products and accessories.

Find out more from the Artistry product portfolio.

Mother's Day Gift Ideas - plus get a FREE Truprint photo card #millionmumssmile

This year, Mother's Day is on Sunday March 15th.  It's a great excuse for celebrating motherhood and saying thank you to our mums (not that we should ever need an excuse for doing that!) 

Truprint have challenged me to make some personalised Mother's Day gifts for my mum and my mother-in-law.  I decided that it would be lovely to use some old photographs from our family albums to create some nostalgic gifts for the mums in my life. 

I love old photographs.  Each one is rich with memories, evoking emotions from days gone by. Although the quality may not be as good as photographs nowadays, the images themselves are simply wonderful.  Losing a little bit of clarity when they are used in photo gifts adds a retro charm, reminding us of fond moments from the past when things seemed so much simpler.

Mother's Day for me, is a time to celebrate the relationship that I have with my mum.  I loved looking through old pictures from my own childhood, finding photos of my mum as a young woman with myself and my sisters.  Snaps from holidays, days out, family parties and even pictures from photo booths depicted moments from our shared past, which I knew would make an incredible photo gift, charged with love and emotion and steeped with happy memories.

My mum is a proud silver surfer, using the computer that we gave her to stay in touch with the grandchildren and to surf the net.  So the ideal gift for her was a new mouse mat.  Creating a collage design on the mouse mat allowed me to use eight photographs dated from the early 70's through to the mid 80's in both black and white and colour.

I added a caption onto the mouse mat "Always my Mum...Forever my friend" which sums up our relationship perfectly.  I was able to play with colours and fonts, but decided to keep the colour scheme simple, so as not to distract from the wonderful old photos I had chosen to use.

A matching notebook, featuring some of the same photographs used in the mousemat, completes her gift.  The note book can be filled with plain or lined paper and is ring bound. I love how a practical gift can still be so personal and hold so many wonderful family memories.  I hope she is going to love both of her photo gifts.

For a more up to date gift, I also created a collage mug featuring 15 recent photographs of the grandchildren.  I picked photos of my kids that showed their personalities and the relationships between them to give a fun rather than a formal effect.  It's bright, busy and makes you smile...just like our family life!

For my mother-in-law, I made some gifts using a set of photo booth photos of her and my father-in-law taken at the beginning of their fifty year relationship back in the 60's!  They are just such brilliant photographs that tell a story of young love. My MIL's shy and wistful smile and my FIL's sudden attack of the giggles is beautifully captured.  So my gift to my other mum this year is to immortalise this moment from her romance that lead to her marriage and becoming a mum to my own wonderful husband and his sister.

I chose to make an 8 x 10 collage photo panel and an 11oz mug.  I am so delighted with the results. Using the black surrounds on both gifts fits with the black and white photo booth effect.  The photo panel is made of high gloss acrylic and has an integral stand in the back for easy display.  It looks classy and is a great way to preserve photographic images as pieces of art for the home.

Notebook  £6.99, Collage mug £7.99, Collage 10 x 8 photo panel  £17.99, Collage Mouse mat  £6.99.

Claim a FREE Mother's Day card in Truprint's Mum in a Million campaign

Truprint would like to make a million mums smile by giving away 1 million personalised Mother's Day cards. Visit www.truprint.co.uk/mday15, create a card for your mum and simply use the code MUMINAMILLION at the checkout to claim your free card.

T&Cs

Awards one free 7x5 folded card

Standard P&P charges apply (99p)

Ship to recipient not available

Complete with envelope

Code is One time use only

Strictly one code use per household

I have worked in collaboration with Truprint on this post but have retained all editorial control.

Win £50 to spend on toxicfox.com's Mother's Day collection

This Mother's Day, toxicfox.co.uk have a great competition running.  It runs from February 18th to March 1st and there are 4 chances to win  a £50 voucher to spend on their Mother’s Day collection – one per social network (Google+, Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest).

To enter all you need to do is go to the http://www.toxicfox.co.uk/gifts-occasion/mothers-day-gifts browse around the fabulous Mother’s Day Gifts and Ideas, pick your favourite present and share it on your social channel of choice. To ensure toxicfox.co.uk can see your entry please use the hashtag: #toxicfox

My favourite Mother's Day Gift from toxicfox.co.uk is the Queen of the Kitchen chopping board, perfect for cooking up a storm in the kitchen.  It's made of quality bamboo and is engraved for a personal touch.  It's £29.99 and measures 45 x 23 cm.

For full terms and conditions please visit http://www.toxicfox.co.uk/terms-and-conditions

Even if you are not a lucky, you can get a discount by using this 10% voucher code to use on the Mother's Day collection: TFMother

Voucher code t & cs: Can’t be used in conjunction with any other offer. Valid until the 15th of March so plenty of time to pick up that perfect mother's day gift.