Tuesday 30 July 2013

July Beauty Loves



Mac Lipstick In 'Girl about Town'
I love a bold lip all year round but in summer I sometimes feel that a red lip just isn't right and that's when I reach for this. It's a creamy bright fuschia that is much easier to wear than you would think and I think it's the perfect alternative for my usual lipstick which is Russian Red. It's an amplified finish It has a very light and velvety texture which means I like to layer it with powder to stop it from transferring easily but it also doesn't bleed even when it's extremely hot and so is perfect for summer nights out and as it has blue undertones it has a slight teeth whitening effect and who doesn't want that.
Loreal Elvive Extraordinary Oil
As my morocanoil has started to get low I decided to have a look for another hair oil so that I could alternate between the two and make my morocanoil last longer. I chose this one after reading good reviews of it and for the purpose I bought it for, I was dissapointed. When I leave this on my hair after washing it leaves my hair looking greasy in the midlengths and dry at the ends which is not what I want. However I've found that I really love this as a wash off treatement, I leave it on my hair for ten to fifteen minutes and then wash off and I'm left with soft silky hair. A little goes a long way too, I've actually used it at least 5 imes as a leave in product and three times as a treatment and as you can see from the photo above not a lot has gone. This is why hair oils are such a good investment as they last such a long time.
Jimmy Choo Flash EDP
I've actually had this for a while as Jon bought it me for valentines day however as I was still using my coco madamoiselle I just forgot about it. However since getting my handbag it's been a bit of a novelty to use both at the same time, It's so sad but I love carrying this in my bag and now if I only I had some shoes to match, I'd better get saving up if I want that to happen. It does help that this smells gorgeous too, It has quite a strong floral and quite musky scent which I love as I'm not much of a fan of sickly smelling perfumes.
Bourjois Blush in 'Healthy Mix'
I've actually mentioned this before in another favourites post so I won't say too much about it but I'm still loving it. It hasn't got a strong colour but It's been very helpful over the past few weeks as I haven't been sleeping well and this has played a big part in making me look healthy and half human at least which is always helpful in a morning.
Loreal Expertise Eversleek Absolute Smooth Intense Mask
I've been hearing a lot about this range on various blogs and when we were food shopping a few weeks ago they were all on offer and as my mum was choosing some for herself, I decided to pop this in the trolley for myself to make up the offer, it was a good decision. This is a really lovely hair mask and it really does it's job in making my hair smooth and soft, it seems to be the perfect partner for the extraordinary oil. I also love that this is a very thick mask which means it stays where I put it rather than the usual thin offerings that just slide straight off and wash away, I always feel like the thicker masks are more worth the money.
Real techniques buffing Brush
A few months ago I caved and bought the RT Core Collection and I'm not going to lie, It was mainly for this brush. I used to own the expert face brush until it got stolen (four months and I'm still bitter about this) so I needed a new foundation brush so I took the opportunity. This really helps to make my foundation look good as it buffs (yep) it in to create a really nice finish. I feel like this gives less coverage straight away than the expert face brush or the stipling brush which means it does take longer to get to the finish I like but it is worth the time and effort.
Nails Inc polish in 'Beaumont Street'
Most of the time I'm not a massive fan of matchy, matchy things but I've started to get into it over the past few months so whilst I've been loving the pink lipstick of course I needed nails to match. This is hot pink that is a pretty good match for Girl about Town but it does have less of a blue undertone. I don't mind as I'm probably the only person who cares to notice and it's such a great polish that it doesn't matter to me. As with most Nails Inc polishes it has a great application and is flawless in two coats, it does take a little while to dry but it's not too much of an issue.

What have you been loving this month?

Monday 29 July 2013

A day out in Birmingham








Top Miss Selfridge | Skirt H&M | Shoes Zara

As I mentioned on Friday, my mum and I took a trip to Birmingham to go shopping. I do love to shop and it was lovely to spend a day with her as I don't get to see her nearly as much as I would like. We mainly stayed inside the Bullring, only venturing out to the Mailbox to feed my Mac addiction as the service at the Selfridges counter was awful, I know quite a few people have had bad experiences at Mac but this was the first time I've experienced it and I know that next time I go I know I won't be going back to that one. That's enough of the negativity as everything else about the day was lovely.

In selfridges I got my beautiful handbag, made a cheeky Nars purchase and spent a lot of time wondering around the food court, how cute is that bull. I also got some tasty Macarons, the pistachio one was my favourite followed closely by the blue one on the left which crazily enough was marshmallow fluff. We popped to Pizza Express to eat our weight in pizza and garlic bread and then off to Zara which was just awful, I got the dress from my July Wishlist that I was looking for but I can't wait until their Sale is over, I like my shops tidy. We then went to Waterstones to buy books, which we sat and read whilst drinking tea in Costa, what could be better than that? Before we went to catch our train home we went via the Mailbox and the Mac counter, the service was lovely but she did give me the wrong eyeshadow so now I have two of the same one but that's my fault for not checking.

All in all I had a great day, what's your favourite place to go for a shopping trip?


Sunday 28 July 2013

Sunday Series - Life Lately



This week has been mega busy, I've been working a lot as well as trying to fit in seeing Jon and my friends, shopping with mama and the most exciting part, sorting out a place to rent when I move to Nottingham in September. It's just a room in a shared house at the moment but you have to start somewhere and it's best to start small to give you the motivation to move up in the world, moving out on my own is the first step towards my dream townhouse. It's a weight off of my shoulders and now I can just concentrate on finding a new part time job for when I move and getting all of my things together so If anyone knows of part time vacancies in Nottingham or knows where the best places to go to are then please let me know. I'm so glad that next week is going to be a little quieter and I'll be able to get more things crossed off my to do list.

I did get chance to go shopping in Birmingham on Friday, the highlight being a trip to selfridges ending in me owning my perfect bag. You can read my post here and you can also see my little bag in all of it's colours on the Jimmy Choo site here. I apologise if once you get on there it takes you hours to stop looking, but what better way to spend a few hours than looking at beautiful accessories.

In my free time this week I've actually been sitting down to watch some beauty videos on youtube, It's something I always mean to do but very rarely have the time, so when I come to do it I have a million and one to catch up on. As always I've been loving the Pixiwoo sisters videos, I love how they can both do crazy creative looks but also put together the most beautiful daytime or going out looks. I've also just found Australian Beauty Guru Chloe Morello and I love her makeup tutorials, they are flawless, I tried out this look this week and I loved it, I felt infinitely more glamorous than usual.

I've also become obsessed with Vanilla Chai Tea Latte's this week. Chai isn't really a summer thing but for some reason I've suddenly started wishing for Autumn, I think it's mainly to do with being eager to start my new course but also being surrounded by all of the A/W high street collections that have started to drop at the moment. I've been drinking the Drink me Vanilla Chai both hot (made with hot water) and Ice cold (with soya milk and Ice cubes) and it is nothing short of amazing. It's kind of pushing my caramel latte habit to one side at the moment and that is no mean feat.

Also don't forget you can follow me on bloglovin. It's kind of nice to be able to have all of the posts from all of the blogs I follow all in one place no matter what platform they're using, anything to make life a little simpler.

What have you been enjoying this week? Let me know if you have any favourite bloggers and youtuber's too, I'm always on the lookout for new posts to read and videos to watch.
xx

Saturday 27 July 2013

I've finally found my perfect Handbag and It was meant to be.


If you read my post on my search for a new everyday handbag (if you haven't then you can read it here) the you will know that I have been hunting high and low for my perfect bag. The one I have now was actually on my list but it was the one that I dismissed as the 'never going to happen, way too much money' version. However thanks to my wonderful mama, I'm now the proud owner of the Jimmy Choo 'Rosalie' Bag. 

Isn't it beautiful? This is something that my mum has been trying to buy me for a while now, as soon as she found out there was a bag with my name she decided I was having it, as it's the first time it's ever happened, normally anything with my name has to be specially ordered . The only catch was the price, even now I own it it's eye watering, so when she told me she wanted to buy it for my 21st back in March I promptly refused, It was a lovely gesture but I just couldn't let her do it. So she waited and the other day we went to the Bullring and she oh so casually suggested we look at handbags, this was her plan all the long as she knew that once I had seen it I wouldn't be able to resist it. She has learnt from the best,  my Nan, who was pretty Ninja at making sure she payed for things and next thing I knew I was stood on the escalator back down with my new baby in my hand. It was clearly fate as obviously it's named after (I like to think this, don't tell me I'm wrong) and also it was the last one left, clearly it was always meant to be mine!

This is my first designer anything and I feel so lucky to have it and so grateful to my mum for buying it for me, it's not something I take lightly as we didn't have a lot of money in my childhood and she has worked so hard to change that and I know just how happy and proud she feels to be able to buy me something like this. It's something that I am also going to appreciate and I will look after it as well or probably better than the things that I've worked to buy for myself. Which means that this will be looked after like a child, it isn't allowed on the floor, there will be no leaky or melty things allowed anywhere near it and if anyone marks it I will not be best pleased.

So there you go, I finally have my dream bag and you'll probably be seeing it a lot on here as I'll be using it as my everyday handbag so if you like variety in your handbags then this is not the place for you. I don't mind, it's too pretty not to take everywhere with me.

Have you got an everyday handbag like me or do you like to change it up a little?

xx

Wednesday 24 July 2013

Lush Ultrabland Cleanser - The Review




Lush Ultrabland Cleanser £10.45 for 100g

I'm going to be honest, up until a few weeks ago I hadn't given Lush's Skincare range any thought, aside from a disastrous attempt to use one of their face masks (cupcake in case anyone wants to know) when I was about fourteen, I just walked past them and straight to the bath bombs every time. Who would have thought it would be the blandest product in the whole shop that changed that.I don't normally like to switch up my skincare as it usually spells bad news for me but as I have been struggling with my skin for a little while when I popped into Lush one day on a bath bomb mission I ended up coming out with samples of a few of their cleansers and after giving them all a go this was the clear winner for me.

This is an oil based cleanser which originally sent alarm bells ringing as I've got it into my head that oily skin and oily products just shouldn't mix. However I decided to give it a shot and I'm glad I did as it seems to be exactly what my skin needed. In the tub it's nothing special, just a thick, slightly yellow cream that melts down into an oil on the skin. As for the smell, well, there isn't one. I don't know what I was expecting from a product called Ultrabland but for some reason I thought it was going to smell a little bit less...Bland? I was slightly disappointing by it but that's really my fault as it doesn't make any claims of smelling nice the way other lush products do.

I tend to use a 5p to 10p size amount depending on how much makeup I've been wearing and massage it into my skin before washing off with a flannel, Nothing different there. The big difference has been how soft my skin feels, one of the main issues with my skin is that no matter how clear it looks, it never feels nice or soft but this had changed that, my skin actually feels nice as well as looking healthy.

When it comes down to it this cleanser isn't a miracle cleanser, it won't resurface your skin, make you look ten years younger, make you look like Miranda kerr etc, the way that a lot of expensive cleansers apparently do but it does remove all of my makeup without irritating my skin and causing redness which is the one thing expensive miracle cleansers don't do.

I tend not to write about skincare as I'm not an expert and I know how horrible it is when someone promises a product will work and it just doesn't but if your struggling with sensitive or problem skin and are looking for a lovely gentle cleanser then I think this is worth a try, if you pop into lush they are always happy to offer a free sample and if it doesn't work for you the way it has for me then you can just move on to another. Hopefully you will love it as much as I do, this really has become a staple in my routine and hopefully after I get through this tub in a few months I'll have a few more nice things to say about it.

Have you tried any of the Lush Skincare, If so  what do you like using?
xx

Saturday 20 July 2013

July Wishlist

Necklace Tatty Devine | Heeled Sandals ZaraNecklace River Island | Heeled Sandals River Island | Dress Zara |  Blazer Zara | Bag Zara | Ankle Boots New Look

I say it every month but I can't believe how fast it's gone, July is nearly over and were past halfway through the year, crazy times. The weather's been just as crazy and I think I'm having a bit if a backlash from all this sunshine as I've started wanting A/W clothes that it's way too hot to wear yet, darn you fashion and your too early seasonal collections!

I think it's safe to say that I'm a bit obsessed with shoes this month (well every month) and I've mainly been wishing for high heeled barely there sandals, they just balance on the thin line between comfortable and fashionable and they're so easy to wear. I think we all know about the Zara pair but River Island have some great offerings too, this red pair is making me seriously reconsider my thoughts about me having enough pairs of heels. I've also been on the lookout for a new pair of ankle boots and this new look pair are almost perfect, almost. The only issue and it's a very petty one is that they have silver buckles and not gold, they just wouldn't got with many things that I own and If I'm spending nearly £60 I want to be able to wear them with every outfit.  If you know where I can find a pair like this but with gold hardware then please let me know, I'd really appreciate the tip. Keeping with the shoe theme we have this gorgeous Ruby Slippers Necklace from Tatty Devine, it's just amazing, If I didn't have to pay my rent then I would already own this. I'm obsessed with all shoes, glitter and the Wizard of Oz so it can't get much more perfect than this. I'm also loving statement necklaces at the moment, I've been wearing quite simple outfits and adding a little something with statement jewelry for a while now and this would be a lovely piece to own. It's not too expensive and it's the kind of thing that will look great in summer and would be a good transitional piece for A/W.

Two pieces I'm dying to get my hands on are the Leopard print blazer and this gorgeous red dress which surprise, surprise are from Zara, they know how to make me spend my money. The blazer would be a great jacket for autumn and leopard print is classic so with the right pieces I could style it out season after season.  The dress is something else that I think would be a good investment piece, It's a shame you can't see the back detailing of this dress in the picture but it's stunning. I've actually been thinking about buying this for a few weeks and when I finally made my decision last week to my disappointment it turns out it's sold out, I'm hoping that as it's part of their new collection that they will be restocking it. Another item that I've been going back and forth about buying is this Zara Shopper Bag, If you saw my post a few weeks ago then you'll know that I've been looking for a new black handbag and this is a good option, It looks roomy and practical but still chic at the same time. My only issue is that it looks a little bit too pristine, I tend to buy bags that are a little bit more roughed up as it doesn't annoy me as much if they get any scratches or marks.

What's on your wishlist this month?
xx

Tuesday 9 July 2013

Barry M Nail Gelly Review- Prickly Pear

 Middle photo - In natural lighting | Bottom Photo - Taken with Flash

These polishes caused quite a stir when they were released a few months ago and I saw great reviews on so many blogs that I was tempted to go out and buy every colour. I had to resist though as I have way too many polishes to be using up to justify buying any more, however last week I popped into boots to get a new liquid eyeliner and of course they had a buy one get one half price offer on and so as I needed something to be my half price item I decided to finally buy a bottle. Quite  a few brands have now brought out their own gel effect nail polishes and I can't say I've tried any others but I'm very impressed with this one. I'm actually in two minds as to whether I love or hate these, I love it because it's such a great polish but I hate it as I now want to go out and buy them all and my bank balance can't quite cope with that.

Prickly pear is a blue toned lilac, I was expecting it to be more of a pastel than it actually is but it's more of a mid toned colour so that's slightly disappointing but it's still a gorgeous colour . They claim to be Hi-shine polishes and it certainly lives up to that claim, It has a great glossy finish that stayed shiny as long as I kept it on, nothings worse than when a polish loses it's shine after the first day. The picture above is actually after 3 days of me wearing it and you can't really see it but there's too tiny chips, one on my index finger and one on my middle finger and so far I'm impressed with this result. I'm thinking one if these would be a great polish to take away on holiday if you are going anywhere this year as they are quite long lasting and you can easily paint over the chips if you so wish.

If I didn't have far too many nail polishes already then I would more than likely go out and buy more of these.   At just £3.99 they're a great bargain and they've got quite a good shade range now and the majority are summer colours , I'm hoping they bring out some autumnal colours later on in the year.

Barry M Gelly High Shine Nail Paints are available from Boots, Superdrug and Barry M retailers nationwide.
Have you tried the Gelly nail colours, What do you think about them?

xx