Featured Blogger #8 - March

Featured Blogger timeeeeee! This month I've chosen a slightly more popular blog, something I usually dont do however, I couldn't not feature Lucy from Lucy Rose as it's one of my all-time favourite blogs! Lucy's blog is all about beauty and fashion, its a pink and girly heaven! As always click around the links to visit her blog and have a read of the questions she has kindly answered below!

In less than 50 words tell us a little about yourself and your blog.

Hey ladies! Well my name is Lucy, I am 20 years old and live in the sleepy Lake District. I am obsessed with beauty and fashion, I think I drive my friends mad with it sometimes! Hence my little corner of the bloggersphere, Lucy Rose, is all about beauty and fashion, with a little bit of lifestyle thrown in there now and again!

When and why did you initially start blogging?

I only started blogging a few months ago, October 2012! I got into the blogging malarkey along time before I created my own. First it was YT videos, with the obvious likes of Tanya Burr and Zoella being my own personal gurus on anything beauty related! Through YT I started to come across blogs. I became totally addicted, they damaged my bank balance but I couldn't get enough! However apart from beauty and fashion, I really found so much relief almost in blogging as I found SO many other bloggers who like myself have suffered to the hands of anxiety and panic attacks. It helped me so much knowing there were others out there and reading their stories gave me a lot of hope! Enough to even write my own little post about it! Finally one of my friends from home, Hannah from Cosmetic Crave, twisted my old little arm and gave me the push I needed to join in myself! And I have never looked back since :) So thanks Han!

Do you have any tips or ideas for someone wishing to start a successful blog? 

hmmmm, I guess this depends on what you would class as successful! For me the best thing about it is the enjoyment. As long as you enjoy it and are passionate about what your writing, then people will see it come through and read! I don't think there should be any rules about blogging, so one of my tips would be to ignore any you get told! Its YOUR blog so do what YOU want. A few tips I could think of however would be - communicate with other bloggers, get involved in #bbloggers chat and follow fellow bloggers on twitter! The community is freaking awesome and everyone is so lovely, you end up making so many cyber friends! My fave blogs are the ones who have regular posting, pretty pictures and layouts, and those who interact with others! 

Do you feel you've taken anything out of being part of the blogger community?

YES! SO much! I have become a lot more confident with my anxiety, and feel I can talk so much more open about it now. Bloggers seem to be so much more less judgemental than some girls you even know! I've learnt so much about beauty and fashion too, which is great because I want to learn! You learn so many little tips and cheats, its fab. The best thing to take out of the community is relationships, bloggers are some of the kindest bunch, and I feel I have made some very lovely friends. 

What are your 5 favourite products right now?

Benefit Fake Up Concealer - Can't wait till this is released, your all going to love it! Will definitely be a hit!

Elemis Soothing Apricot Toner - making my skin extra radiant this spring

MAC Lustre Drops in Sunrush - Giving these away on my blog, absolutely amazing, best highlight!

Nars Tinted Moisturiser - Only just got this and I'm in LOVE. thank you Millie mackintosh!

UD Naked Basics Palette - nearly all gone, I use it pretty much every day!

Who are your 5 favourite bloggers right now?

This is SO hard as I have about 100 faves! 

Wonderful You - I have been loving Meg's blog recently, and her YT videos, I have huge hair envy, her hair is absolutely lush!

Couture Girl - Kayleigh's blog has always been one of my faves, there will not be a post on there that I havn't read!

Milkteef - this girl literally kills my bank balance when it comes to Nars!

LLYMLRS - Lily's blog is one of my all time faves, simple yet so full of everything you ever need to know about beauty and fashion!

Charissarae - I met Charissa at the fake up event in Newcastle and got her blog link. I have literally read back through all her posts and she is now a firm fave, she has amazing style and beautiful hair! 

Where can we find you?

blog - lucyrosex.blogspot.co.uk

twitter - @lucyrosegreen

facebook - lucyrosex

Any final words of wisdom?

“The best color in the whole world, is the one that looks good, on you!” -Coco Chanel

Click above to visit Lucy's blog!

A Bit Of Blogger Community Help?

Hi! This is just a quick (and awfully unusual post for A Is For Ayla) post. Basically, Annie from Appletoothpaste is carrying out some surveys for her Masters thesis and needs 60 people to carry out the survey. I'm not sure how many she has at the moment but if you have a few minutes (it took me about 5-10 minutes!) to answer some simple questions on politics. You don't need any background knowledge on politics I should add, all becomes clear when you click the link!

I should stress that if you are to complete a survey, do one of the two links only! I'm not sure why, but Annie has directed you should only choose one!

http://www.smart-survey.co.uk/s/75637SIXIU

http://www.smart-survey.co.uk/s/75632HGISD

P.s if like me you encounter problems seeing the photos, just wait a few seconds for it to show up or click the area where it should be and it'll open in a different link!

Thank You!

Revlon Lipgloss in 'Sizzle' Review & Swatches

Some go through orange phases, I on the other hand buy anything orange, any time of the year. I was pretty excited when I first bought Revlon's Colourburst Lipgloss in the shade 'Sizzle', a highly pigmented bright orange gloss. Admittedly the photos of the tube come up a little more red toned, in reality it is a true tangerine orange, however, its quite reflective of how the lip gloss looks on because when  applied the gloss appears more orange-toned red, rather than red-toned orange. Not gonna lie I was disappointed by this fact as I can never seem to find a true tangerine orange lip, I guess most people are too scared to wear it. Regardless it is a really nice gloss, it's not sticky, has a nice subtle shine and leaves a slight stain on the lips. Wear time is pretty standard, as with most glosses it really depends on what you're doing/eating/drinking. I don't wear it as often as I'd hoped to, however in my opinion its a gloss I really do need in my collection. My favourite way to wear is with neutral makeup and a monochrome outfit or one with a hint of leopard print.

Do you have a go-to shade?



FOTD #2 Smudgy liner and bold lips

 
 

Concealer - Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection

Foundation - Rimmel Match Perfect in 'Ivory'

Powder - Rimmel Stay Matte in 'Sandstorm'

Contour - MUA Shade 1 Bronzer

Brows - Natural Collection Eyeshadow Duo in 'Mocha Latte'

Upper Liner - MUA Eyeshadow in '20'

Lower Liner - Collection 2000 Cream Eyeshadow in 'Gold Rush'

Lipstick - Natural Collection 'Crimson'

I'm really getting in to FOTD posts at the moment, I never realised how quick and easy they are to do, and how much you all like to read them! This is just a quick face as I'm off out tonight and decided I'd do an all-drugstore makeup look. This is a pretty different look for me as usually I'm all about long, defined lashes and tons of contouring but I went lightly with the bronzer and no mascara at all! Yes, I did just say that. More recently I've been enjoying being a bit more of a lady and horrid, smudging mascara at 3am certainly does NOT go with that! If you're wondering why the picture quality changes, I decided to post a picture of the makeup with flash photography as my camera picks finer details up better with flash. This was the only one I had, my friends were trying to make me laugh!

What is your favourite drugstore makeup item?

No7 Cleansing Brush

 

Apologies for image quality, ISO was far too high. Todays review is on the Boots No7 Cleansing Brush which in some peoples eyes can be seen as a dupe for the Clarisonic Mia cleansing brush that is incredibly popular amongst Bloggers. My mum has a Mia and correct me if I'm wrong they're around £120? I got the No7 cleansing brush for a fraction of the cost at £15. The original price was £25 however there were so many left over from the Christmas period there are huge amounts being sold off for cheap. If you're local to Manchester the Trafford Centre has a huge huge amount of these stacked up on sale upstairs, and have done for quite some weeks.

I probably should have done a comparison between this and the Clarisonic come to think of it. On a verbal note I find that the bristles are pretty much the same in texture, the No7 ones are longer however. They are equally as abrasive. The No7 brush comes with two speed settings (not that I noticed until I'd been going at my chin on the high speed, sensitive skin ouch!) I like to apply a cream cleanser (Simple Cleansing Lotion is perf) with a little Soap and Glory Flake Away exfoliant on my nose and chin then go for an all in one method on the slowest setting, speeding it up only on the planes of the forehead where the skin isn't generally sensitive.

I wouldn't say this is too much of a rival for the Clarisonic from what I've seen, however it's a perfect buy for anyone that doesn't already have a Clarisonic and wants to try out a rotating cleansing brush for a fraction of the cost!

Update Time!

Feels like ages since I've done an update post, in fact it feels like ages since I've done a post at all! My blog kinda went on hold for a little while as Spring exam season came back around. I can't say it will get much better for at least another 2 weeks. Regardless, I've decided to do a bit of an update so you can see what I've been up to behind the reviews!

My Project 50 Pan, well what a fail that was. First off, apologies for not doing an update post for 'the halfway mark' I've been too busy to take general blog photos (as you've probably noticed) let alone faffy ones like 'empties' posts. My challenge was supposed to end today but I've given myself an extension (as you do) so it's now the '50 Empties in 75 Days Challenge' hahah! Just incase you were wondering, I managed to collect 38 empties in 50 days, which I guess is still pretty good! I have so much I want to use up I don't wanna give up on using them just because the 50 days are over, hence the extension.

Another apology is due, I know I said I would post the fashion and clothing part of my Huge Birthday Haul but I didn't buy as much as I did with the beauty stuff so I'm gonna hold back a little bit longer and collect a few more bits. I wont wait too long obviously as I know the point in a haul is to see whats in stores at the moment. Look out for that in the near future!

Life wise I've been super super busy. After the holidays (which let me tell you I completely wasted) I got the shock of my life as I was stuck in revision classes every lunch and after school for my Biology Unit 1 exam which went last Friday and my Physics Unit 1 Resit that's coming up on Thursday, needless to say I'm bricking it for both. I've also got a couple of bits and pieces coming up in French, Spanish and Geography as well as taking on a Mandarin course so I'm pretty chocka with not much time to post.

At the moment I'm in the middle of choosing my prom outfit. I've tried on several thousand dresses but unfortunately due to my tiny tiny figure even size 6 swamps me in every style, I can see it becoming a pain. Theres a 90% chance I'll throw a tantrum the night before and tell everyone I'm not going. If any tiny but tall people have recommendations please leave them below, I'm desperatoooo! Makeup and hair wise I'm in 2 minds about whether or not to get an artist to do it for me but I'm so particular (especially about my hair) that I'm scared I'll hate it and have pictures to haunt me for the rest of my life. If anybody has ever had their prom makeup done by a MAC artist I'd love it if you could tweet me (@aisforaylablog) or email me your thoughts on the experience, as I know I've gotta make my mind up quick because they fill up so quickly. What makes it worse is that all of my friends have already booked, bought and shipped over their dresses and accessories while I still don't even know what I'm looking for ...I did find a nice pair of shoes though?

Speaking or hair, I took a turn for the worst and did a Britney recently. Okay maybe I didn't go bald but in my eyes I may as well have done. As you might have seen before I had super long wavy hair down to my waist (bare in mind I'm freakishly tall and lean) but a couple of days ago I got it cut off too just above boob length. Not gonna lie I felt like crying, what made it worse was the next day pretty much every one of my friends did the whole 'WHAT HAVE YOU DONEEE?!?' scene when I walked in to each room.

If you wanna see more of what I'm up to, follow me on Instagram! @rachaelocowell