Monthly Update: April 2016

Zaap Thai Street Food, Nottingham.
April 2016 was the month I finally committed to a new direction for my blog. You may have noticed a few changes in the way my blog looks. Even more noticeably, I have decided to change the name of my blog to 'Where in the World?' to reflect the new travel and lifestyle angle my blog will be taking. That is not to say my blog will no longer feature beauty posts, as of course that is still one of my passions. 
I'm currently in the process of planning a few travel trips which you will hear about in the coming weeks. One involves me, my boyfriend and a little red Peugeot trailing around central Europe. Another, involves a year-long tour of Asia, which I have previously mentioned. The details of my year living in Ningbo, China are almost finalized, and yesterday I selected my living accommodation! It's costing a whopping £980 for a year of private living, extortionate I know! Planning my entry in to Asia has been a little more difficult, and pricey. As many of you will know, China is not the easiest country to enter, particularly for long-term trips.   Some of you may be unaware, but the reason I will be living in Asia is because I currently study Mandarin and International relations here in the UK. The university year is almost over, I just have 3 weeks of exams left to go! As such, the past couple have weeks have involved pretending to revise while my flatmates and I gallivant around Nottingham city center in the rain at all hours gorging on Thai food, heckling at varsity hockey matches and playing paintball. It's odd knowing that I probably won't see some of the best friends I've made at university after this year is over. While I'm off to China, others are off to Malaysia, Canada and Belgium. 
I hope April has treated you all well, I would love to know about how your month went in the comments.

Where Have I Been? Life Update

The last time I spoke to you all it was Summer 2015 and I hadn't even started university yet. Fast forward and I'm preparing to leave my first year at the University of Nottingham studying Chinese and International Relations and organising my plans for Summer 2016. I have to say, this one should be much more exciting. I plan on doing a road trip of Europe with my lovely boyfriend, which I will be sure to document on this blog.  You may notice over the next few weeks my blog layout will once again change. Potentially the biggest change will be the renaming of my blog. I plan on gearing my blog more towards lifestyle and travel in the future - largely because at age 19 I'm not nearly as fascinated by lipstick and mascara as I was at 14 years old. My new blog name and layout will reflect the change in direction of my writing. If you guys have any suggestions of things you'd like to see, do let me know! I've relaunched my email address and Twitter and will be open to correspondance once again! Rachael x

UPDATE | Results Day, Uni, Moving Forward

Helloooo lovely bloggers. I've got to say it still feels pretty weird writing blog posts again, like a blast from the past! As you might tell by the tone of this post its been a really good results day, at least its been a much more positive experience than last year! If you remember my results post from last year you might remember that I wasnt entirely happy with my AABCD at AS Level. And if you dont remember my last results day post, you certainly wont remember that I was studying French, Spanish, Politics, Economics and General Studies. Well fast forward a year and the Economics has long gone, and I've managed to resit my way to a B in French, an A in Spanish, an A in Politics and an A in General Studies. Thankfully I surpassed my university offer to study Chinese and International Relations at Nottingham which is where you'll find me in a months time! I'm super excited for whatever uni life will bring, although pretty disappointed I have the leave the 3-month Summer bubble and actually do some work for once. Congratulations to my fellow A Level-ers, and good luck to my GCSE student followers for next Thursday! I'd love to know your plans for the future!

A Belated Blog Birthday!

You may have to excuse the fact this post is in fact over a month late, but as you may have noticed I haven't necessarily been all that present throughout exam season. However, as in A Is For Ayla tradition, I'm writing once again to thank everyone who reads my blog. Whether you've stuck around for the whole 4 years, or just joined last week, thank you so much for all your lovely comments and inspiration, theres plenty more to come!

FOTD: Party

(Please excuse the physcopathic eyes)

Foundation - Bourjois Healthy Mix in 'Vanilla'

Concealer - Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection in 'Light' & 'Medium'

Powder - L'oreal True Match

Contour - Bourjois Delice De Poudre in 52

Blush - MUA Shade 3

Mascara - Maybelline Falsies

Eyeshadow - Revlon 'Adventurous' Palette

Eyebrow Pencil - No7 in 'Brown'

Lipstick - Natural Collection 'Sorbet'

This is just a simple makeup look I wore to a party on Friday. The party was casual so I decided not to play up the eyes. Instead I went for my everyday eye with a tiny bit of brown run through the crease, the same brown I used to soften up my brows. As for lips and cheeks, this has become my favourite combo, the shades compliment eachother perfectly! It's slightly brighter than I would wear for an everyday as usually I'm all about the contour, It was nice to go all girly and pink for a night.