Collection 2000 Extreme Felt Tip Liner

Due to wearing glasses sometimes I've never really worn liner because as my fellow specksy ladies will know it can easily leave you looking like you've been smashed in the face with a brick. However after having saw everyone with their perfect winged liner I maaaaay have got slightly jealous and decided just to give it a whirl, even if it was in the comfort of my own home! I picked the collection 2000 extreme liner as I'd heard great reviews and it's only £2.99 so even If I decided I hated it, it wouldn't be that much of a waste. Anyway on to the important part - I absolutley hate it, not because of the way it looks on me but because of the consistencey, the drying time, the longevity, EVERYTHING! As you can see from the swatch it's really really quite weird and dry and icky, I can't help but wonder If I got a faulty product If I'm honest. Needless to say I wouldn't buy it again!

Although I did get on better with their teal variant... (coming soon!)

A/W Fashion Picks!

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7

The fact all of these items follow the same colour themes is actually making me cringe right now. It's probably no surprise to you that I'm loving black, neon yellow and turqoise this season. You'll probably sit wondering why the hell I'm in to neon yellow and turquoise for Winter - lets face it theyre not your typical fall colours! Throughout all of this year I've been craving everything neon yellow and next year the 'colour of the year' is set to be a sort of jade green / turquoise, so I'm buying in early! I never go for light wash jeans, or trousers in general but for some reason they really called out to me. Plus I'm obsessed with the coloured dress! I think the stripes give off a 'Sports Luxe' kinda vibe which no doubt will come back in as the new year comes around.

Favourite 5: Bloggers

I've followed Bethany for the longest time, her blog is everything pretty, girly and fashionable. She posts about both beauty and fashion with a little bit of lifestyle thrown in. If ever there was something to make you go and hurry along to Beth's blog, her Cath Kidston inspired notd would sure be it. I recommend you go check her blog out if you love hauls, reviews and having a good giggle at personal stories!

If there was one blog full of beautiful things and beautiful people Asian Beautifier would be it. I love Sonali's blog because she doesn't offer her followers just the standard swatches of generic makeup and clothing, she offers advice on well being and areas of beauty many people miss because they're not glamorous enough'. I'd recommend you visit her blog if you love anything to do with makeup, tips and tricks and giveaways.

'Lux Life' really is the ultimate lifestyle blog. From photos of her favourite places to eat in London, to the fabulous parties and her recent charity ventures - Catherine's blog is a great source of inspiration. Her posts from when she travelled around the US are a particularly great read! I recommend you go check out her blog if your interested in any aspect of City life whether its the bars, clubs, uni's or where to go get pampered!

Again I'm a relatively new follower of Kristine's and yet her blog has fast become on of my favourites. Her style is pretty much exactly like mine, which means I find myself stalking her blog at every given opportunity haha! She's sophisticated and dressy yet modern, and seems a lovely person too! I'd recommend you go and check her blog out if you love lots of OOTD's and frequent posters!

Sophie is pretty new to blogger, although her blog has gone straight up to be one of my favourites. She posts about everything you could ever want in a blog ...and more! Her posts are always so positive, so much so it makes you feel happy and almost 'uplifted' when you read. I'd recommend you go check out her blog if you love a good mixture of everything from fashion, beauty and the following the everyday life of a British teen!

As always leave your links below and I'll take a peek

  perhaps you'll become one of my favourites?

Easy Jewellery Storage

I recently picked up two of these jars in IKEA. At first I really wasn't sure what to put in to them, but knew that for £1.30 each they were too useful and definitely too cheap to pass up. I then remembered that I'd been searching for a cloche to put my bracelets in. You have no idea how difficult appropriately sized, fully glass cloche's are to source, so eventually when it twigged these too were glass, rounded, and appropriately sized I decided to pop some of my more well loved jewellery in, It looks ...effective? The fact they're glass means they'll go with any colour scheme in any room. I haven't found anything else to put in the other, so I've just filled it with some blackberry scented potpourri I also bought at IKEA for £1 until I find something else.

What are your favourite ways to store jewellery?

Fave 5: Nail Polishes

Accessorize Illusion Nail Polish in 'Bronze' - It's duotone appearance makes it perfect for evening!

No7 Stay Perfect Nail Polish in 'Vivid Violet' - A recent love, goes with so many outfits!

Essie Nail Polish in 'Ballet Slippers' - My favourite french manicure shade!

Nails Inc Nail Polish in 'Chester Square' - A deep red perfect for A/W!

Mac Factor Nail Polish in 'Diva Violet' - A gorgeous unique shade, my all time favourite!

(click links for notd's)



What are your favourite nail shades?

Stila Lipglaze Trio in 'Warm'

The product is a clicker pen, quite like we see in products such as the Touche Eclat by YSL, clearly the design choice was picked because it was the more modern type, and not because it functioned well. It's difficult to distribute a good amount of product, meaning a considerable amount is wasted. The formula of the gloss (which i'll get on to later) also makes the brush tip pretty disgusting. The brush is also a poor design choice, as it's so small and stiff it streaks across the lips meaning you have to go in with a further makeup brush to distribute it correctly or face getting your fingers sticky with glitter. It's nothing like the brush we see in the No7 High Shine Lipglosses, where application is easy!

The 'Warm' trio is made up of 3 shades -

'creme bouquet' - a creamy pale peach with gold and pink shimmer

'apricot' - a pink-toned peach with slight pink/purple shimmer

'chocolate' - a creamy red toned brown

One thing I love about the Stila lipglazes is that the scents of the products are individual to their name. The Apricot one actually smells of apricot, the chocolate - chocolate, and the creme bouquet well.. a creme bouquet whatever that is! The smell doesn't stick around for too long, but it's a nice added novelty. But that's where my love for these glosses end. They don't add shine unless you apply the thickest layer of product (as in swatches) on to the lips, which lets face it is pretty impossible to tolerate for more than 5 minutes. Creme bouquet is a little too shimmery for my liking, almost like one of those cheap lipglosses you got as a child. The brown one is pretty unusual really, It doesn't come out brown (which im sure is a good thing because honestly I've never seen anybody pull off brown lips) it applies almost red on the lips, which can be nice for fall. Apricot is probably the most wearable.

(L-R Creme Bouquet, Apricot, Chocolate)

The formula of the glosses is also pretty shoddy. These are litterally THE stickiest glosses I've ever owned. This makes them really quite uncomfortable to wear. In terms or longevity, I got 3-4 hours of solid wear from these glosses, which I think is one of the benefits of a sticky gloss, it really does 'cling' to your clips despite eating and drinking. Although, regardless of this I certainly wouldn't purchase any more of these.

Have you tried Stila lipglazes? What are your thoughts?

Fave 5: Haircare / Haircare Routine

Whenever I'm with my friends, they tell me the first thing they noticed about me was my hair. Not gonna lie, my hair is my absolute pride and joy! When I was younger my Mom thought it would be 'cute' to give me and my sister matching bobs that curled around our ears. I get a lot of questions on how I grew my hair so long is such a short period of time (18 inches in 3 years with regular trimming) so I figured I'd share my haircare routine with you all!

I completley forgot to take any photos of my hair for the purpose of this post. So I've thrown together a few photos I had sitting in files (mainly from when I've had my hair cut, coloured or styled and my friends wanted to see photos) As you can see I almost never wear it straight, my hairs naturally really wavy so within 5 minutes of straightening the front has already curled naturally, it's just pointless damaging of my hair.

It's always important to change up your shampoo and conditioner, just like you would with skincare. A recent favourite of mine is the Daniel Galvin Jr range which can be pretty difficult to source, although Waitrose always stocks it. It has a love it or hate it lavender scents and leaves hair with that 'squeaky clean' feeling! I featured this in my favourites, you can read more about it here!

I picked this up along with the shampoo just for the hell of it. It's a pretty normal conditioner, slightly better than Tresemme's alternatives and I wouldn't rate it as highly as their shampoo but nonetheless it has a nice smell, leaves the hair soft and light, and definitely improves the texture of hair when compared with using no conditioner at all. 

This is a fairly recent purchase. I picked it up after seeing adverts on tv, I was planning on purchasing one of the Body Shop's Beautifying Oils but opted for this instead. I'm lead to believe it's formulated for coloured hair, however I can't see it hurting my hair for not being coloured. The oil doesn't add a great deal of shine, but a lovely soft and tangle free texture which is a rareity with wavy, curly hair. I find this oil different to most, the scent is subtle, it leaves the hair feeling weightless rather than heavy and most of all doesn't give that common greasy appearance you see when using some hair oils. I featured this in a favourites post, click here to see!

  

I'll be honest, I'm really not fussy when it comes to heat protecant, for a long while I didn't even bother using it.  I generally just switch between Tresemme and Schwarzkopf, although prefer the scent of this one. To me it doesn't add the nicest texture to my hair, although I'd rather put this on than frazzle the only thing that makes me get up in a morning (bit extreme). It makes my hair feel a bit 'weighty' which I'm not really a fan of.

  

  

Dry shampoo for most people is only used when you can't be bothered washing your hair, for me it's a dry shampoo, plumper, texturizer and finishing product all in one! I love the 'fluffy' 'swishy' look as I think it looks great with wavy hair, this is absolutely essential for that look! You actually don't understand how enthusiastic I'm feeling sat here writing this, face like a Cheshire cat I tell you!  I'd dieeeee if I didn't have this in my life, I use it every single day! I should probably mention the fact I've tried every single dry shampoo on the market (I'm that obsessed) and I'd say the best are probably Batiste 'Cherry' in 3rd place, Tresemme 'green-one' (?!) in 2nd place and Batiste 'Blush' in 1st place.

On top of specialized hair products, I've also taken multiple supliments for years (because of an existing medical condition, not purely for vanity or general welbeing) including Evening Primrose Oil, Vitamin B, Zinc, Iron and some other stuff (I forget) which probably has had some effect on hair growth and condition.

What are your favourite products for healthy, happy hair?

Primark Winter 2012 Lookbook (2)

It doesn't feel like 2 minutes since I was posting the Primark A/W 12 lookbook, but that was 8 weeks ago can you believe?! I posted that thinking that would be it for the season as most brands typically release only 2 lookbooks - S/S & A/W. However Primark have released a seperate Winter lookbook only weeks after their Autumn. I've had these files sat around for a while, hoping and praying that by not publishing them I would hold off the awful Winter weather - seems to have done the job from a Northern perspective!

This lookbook is much more dressy, I guess in time for the Christmas and New Year parties that will be coming around soon. I love that they've gone more down the Baroque route for these shots, it's one of my favourite trends and one you really can't wear in Summer. Perhaps would have loved a bit of boucle in there, although I know they have some in-store as I bought this gorgeous jacket in my last Primark haul. All in all I'm not 100% crazy about the styling or a few of the pieces, but I love the nude sequinned and tulle/baroque skater dresses, and the model choice too!

How do you feel about the upcoming seasons Lookbook?



The Beauty Trends And Hype Products Of A/W 12

One thing I will 100% be investing in to is 'dot liners'. Basically the idea behind them is the 3 'prongs' work just like any other felt liner however the shape fits perfectly around your lashes, meaning you can get super close to the lash line for a more natural look. Rather than sweeping across the lash line as you would with any other liner, with this you simply dot all the way along, pressing harder for a thicker more dramatic effect. Clarins were first to bring out this new tech, however it soon sold out and as always has found its way in to the drugstore through Bourjois, who call it their 'intuitive liner'

A trend I can't wait for is khaki green, especially on the eyes, blended in to a dark smokey eye for adding dimension to your makeup, and also on the lower lash line for an everyday look. For those who don't think they could pull it off, khaki on the nails is perfect! Chanel's 'Khaki Vert' nail polish is a great shade for A/W! For those who want the shade of the season on a budget, why not try out MUA's Shade 20 Pearl Eyeshadow?

Bold brows always seem to make a comeback this time every year, last year it was all about the brushing up, this year it's all about have naturally shaped but heavily defined brows. No, this doesn't mean drawing them on with the darkest eyebrow pencil you can find. Experiment with tone and colour this season using dye kits specially formulated on the face such as the Colorsport 30 Day Eyelash Dye. Keep the shape natural and enhance depth using powders or cakes, again experimenting with shades.

Theres no doubt this isn't one for the faint hearted. Whether it's the graphic bold liner of Anna Sui, The thick blue lashes of Stella McCartney or the smudgey eyeshadow of Monique Lhuillier, electric blue eyes are definitely coming back.Wow I never thought I'd say that! Wear it with neutral colours on the skin, lips and outfit and your ready to go! Try Illamasqua's Powder Eyeshadow in 'Victim'

I brand I Imagine we'll all go crazy for is CK One, the new line of cosmetics by Calvin Klein. Now many people say it's a whole new line and CK have never released cosmetics before, although I swear I've seen some stuff lying around in Tkmaxx before? Either way there are some lovely pieces to look forward too, their quads are bright enough to rival Illamasqua, their lipsticks gorgeous and their packaging ...slightly more minimalist?

Primark Haul

Ultra Soft Super Skinny Jeans in 'Raspberry, Taupe and Olive' £11   /   Black Boucle Jacket - £19   /   Black Long-Sleeved Stretchy Top - £3.50   /   Sheer Cream Pocket Shirt - £6   /   Nude Bag - £6 £3

I Popped off to Primark in Blackpool while I was there for the Illuminations last week, needless to say I won't return until im 45, aged and completley unnattractive to all the paedophiles that seem to lurk on the Prom at South Beach. I picked up a few bits, I went in purely to pick up the boucle jacket as their usually so expencive, £19 seemed to good to be true. Admittedly the quality isn't as good as most but It's relatively thick, warm and washes well. Along the way I picked up a few little bits that caught my eye. I was somehow pursuaded to buy 3 pairs of jeans despite not owning 1 single pair of trousers other than leggings and got an absolute steal with the bag! Although simple, I'm now obsessed with the long sleeve stretchy shirt, the fit is amazing and it'd be good for the gym, definitely going to pick up some more of those! 

Favourite Five: Lipglosses

I've seen tons of posts simillar to this, and I always find them fun to read so I figured I'd do my own, starting with lipglosses! I'm not really a picky person when it comes to lipgloss, but I don't wear it as often as I should. Having said that I find it acceptable to spend ridiculous amounts of money on a ridiculous amount of products I dont use.

Buxom Lipgloss in 'Destiny' - A pretty red coral with gold shimmer!

No7 Highshine Lipgloss in 'Happy' - Sheer pink with a gorgeous taste!

Avon Glazewear Lipgloss in 'Pink Radiance' - Deep blue toned pink, great illusion gloss!

Stila Lipglaze in 'Chocolate' - Good for a sheer pop of redish colour, smells just like chocolate too!

Maybelline Lipgloss in 'Stellar Berry' - A nice going out colour and great for A/W!

(click on links for the review on my blog!)

Whats in my school bag 2012-13 / Back to school haul!

It's that time of year my friends! September is officially here and so is school unfortunately! I go back on the 4th, so all my bits and pieces have been bought. I'm a fan of Whats In My School Bag posts like this so I thought it would be interesting to do my own. I'm going in to year 11 which means I'm full of exams, revision classes and of then of course the most sad part, leaving all my friends behind. However the year should hopefully have some high points - prom, all the crazy partys, great results at the end (fingers crossed!) and moving on to somewhere new.

This year I've gone for a Cath Kidston for my bag. In yr11 our uniform is completley black (minus the shirt, which is white) and with no makeup, jewellery, just basically blerghhhh. The bag was actually the cheapest I've had throughout all of school, a steal at £18! I've got two project books that I'm carrying through from last years courses, a basic ruler (we have to have multiples of all of our equiptment), index cards from WHSmith (aprox £2.20), the scientific calculator is carried over from my stats course last year, the small brown case I use as a pencil case but was actually a makeup bag from Marks and Spencers (aprox £5) and then of course my makeup bag, which was £2 at Primark. 'Whats in my school makeup bag' coming tomorrow!

And now on to the main part! All of this comes from WHSmith except the highlighters, which I bought for exam season last year from Asda for £1, they're not great but they'll do. The purple ruler is foldable and so fits in a pencil case perfectly. Rubbers and sharpeners are pretty basic, I can't imagine they were more than £2.50 full price (there was a huge 3 for 2 offer on most own brand items). The Staedtler 'Ice Coloured' pens are great for highlighting odd words or notes in revision books, they were £3.95. The Staedtler pack of 10 pencils was just short of £6 and my backup pens by Papermate the same. I have 'backup' pens as I write in cartridge ink at my school, however in exams were told we must have both to avoid smudging on longer papers like English where we have to write quickly, and Maths & Stats so our numericals are clear. My cartridge pen (which annoyingly only comes in blue ink, something were not allowed to use!) is again WHSmith own brand, which is the only one I can use. Much better than any Parkers, MB's or Cartiers I've used. The pen itself was £3.99. I bought the 60 pack of cartridges in black, they cost £3.19 - much cheaper than packs of individual pens!

And just to add in right at the end, just in case any of you were curious as to what shoes I'll be wearing this year I picked this pretty pair up from the dreaded amongst most teenagers: Clarks. They were £25 if I'm correct.

Are you looking forward to this school year? What does yours involve?

Update #3

ooooh its like inception!

Apologies for skipping a few days of posting, had a busy weekend! So to make up for the lack of publishing I figured I'd do you all a more personal post as I know they go down well!

I firstly wanna thank (my Oscars speech already?!) all the lovely ladies who guest posted for me last month, the posts all went down a storm and all featured within the top 8 posts of last month! I owe you guys a huge thank you too! I've had so many new followers recently and broke a few records when it comes to my blogger stats. I can be a little obsessive about the stats tool if I'm honest, so you made me a very happy girly! Unfortunate that the old interface is going soon, I hate the new one!:(

Also, I think I'm finally almost there with my new layout, I know it's a stark contrast from my old more 'monochrome' 'simplistic' layout, but I think I like it! I've had lots of nice comments from you guys about it but I'm always open to any improvements or criticism you guys have to make it any better!

And I finally got my results back! Not all of them are here, like Spanish etc. But these are my first year results so although these count to my GCSE, they're not my final grades. These are purely just the exams I took in Y10. Although as some of you may know I took a fast track Stats course so after getting a B in my CAU and an A* (which everyone was amazed at - I'm not the brightest light on the Christmas tree when it comes to math) in my exam I came out with a full A GCSE, which so far gives me two full qualifications - yay? Just in case you were curious as to what subjects I sat and whatnot I've listed them below, They were all Edexcel apart from the English which is AQA.

Religion - A*

Geography - A*

English Language - A

English Literature - A*

Physics - B

Statistics - A*+B=A

Pretty good huh? I'm trying not to get too confident as there's still a lot of exams to go! Were you guys pleased with any results you got over the Summer?

Blackpool Illuminations

I haven't been to the illuminations in so many years! Spending my Saturday night mixing with 3,000 of the Norths finest drinkers and what must have been 40% of the entire engaged population of Lancashire isn't my idea of perfection. Although it wasn't that bad, unlike my photos which were shockingggg! It ain't easy trying to take photos on pavements where you can't stop walking or some burly old man's gonna tell you to "gerr out of the way love!" Ah how I love Blackpool - the home of all things tacky, diamonted and bright. Although having said that I find no issue with taking the hour drive to Blackpool just for hot fresh doughnuts mmmm!

Whats in my school makeup bag!

Like I said yesterday in my 'Whats in my school bag' post my school are crazy strict on uniform, and that includes makeup. For that reason any makeup I wear has to be extremely subtle, hence the lack of foundation, eyeliner and bright makeup in my cosmetics bag. The actual bag itself is from Primark and cost £2, I'm not usually one for animal print of any sort, but I thought the cute dalmation print was too cute not to pick up. It's a good size and believe it or not it fits all of this in!

So on to the actual contents of the bag. I'll start with the 'essentials' a standard basic hairbrush, black Primark hair ties, clips and pins (mini bulldogs and bobbys are Primark, flower is Accessorize, studded is Boots) and tissues (which I'm not fussy about, these are 'medicated' so should be good for Winter) are all things I carry with me all the time and really can't leave the house without.

Some other bits and bobs I like to have with me are a nail file (pink diamontes - how could I not?) which is from a local boutique store, a mirror which I got with some St Tropez purchases a while ago, any kind of chewing gum, a mini hand gel I found lying around, my favourite cherry blossom hand cream from L'Occitane, Natural Collection 'Vanilla' and Impulse 'New York' body sprays I'm trying to use up, and a mini sampler of Givenchy's 'Play' I like to carry around with me for whenever I hang out with friends houses after school and I'm feeling worst for wear.

As for makeup, I only carry a few bits and pieces for touch ups during the day. A mini 30 day sampler of the Bare Minerals Hydrating Mineral Veil I reviewed here along with the teeny compact brush it came with to keep my skin looking matte all day, aswell as my favourite concealer by Collection 2000. I also carry a little sample of Benefit's Posie Tint that I got free with some Benefit purchases the other week, I don't get on with liquid makeup but I always have it with me just incase I'm in desperate need of some brightening. I also have a L'Oreal True Match pressed powder that I'm trying to use up quickly before October when I go on holiday as it's already slightly too light for me now, let alone in October! My school is incredibly incredibly strict on nail polish (were talking getting sent home for wearing it?!-.-) although I'm a wierdo and need to wear nail polish to stop me biting of my nails again so I carry a super light sheer colour with me, I can't tell which one it is, either Ballet Slippers or Muchi Muchi by Essie. As you can see by the photo I'm all about lips. I carry a Nivea lipbalm in 'Soft Rose' because omg it smells exactly like Playdoh I'm addicted hahah! I also take my Korres Lipbutter in Quince that I reviewed here, and my favourite lipgloss ever - Bare Escentuals Buxom in 'Destiny'. I think I've managed to include everything!

What are your essential items for a day at school or work?