A Newbie to Bloglovin..

Follow my blog with bloglovin

I took the leap a little earlier and decided to create a Bloglovin account as a friend at Uni mentioned it was what she personally used to manage all of her favourite reads.. I just hope this will be another way in which you can enjoy my past, present & future ramblings! 

Much loveee xx

Embracing New Products; Simple Sunday FOTD...

Evening girlies.. 

It's been a while since I last posted a FOTD, so after getting ready for work this morning and having some rare spare time before I have to hop in the car to get to work, I thought I'd take a few snaps and show you how I'm currently doing my makeup and what products I'm using on a day to day basis. 

Cue the cheesy photos...

[Jumper - H&M & Scarf - Zara]

I've recently been spritzing my skin with MAC's Fix+ before I apply my foundation. This leaves my skin hydrated, glowy and allows the foundation to be blended in really effectively. For me personally I am yet to find a moisturiser which sits 'right' on my skin yet underneath my foundation, they all seem to just sit there and not sink in which means when I apply the foundation I get a cakey, unnatural finish.

On another note, a couple of new products I'm really getting some use out of are; firstly the new Sleek blush in 'Rose Gold', a beautiful corally pink with a gold shimmery undertone and secondly the 'Her Own Devices' beauty powder from MAC from the Cruella line of the Venomous Villains collection. I've been using the latter almost as a setting powder to finish off my foundation rather than my natural MSF, just for a change.

On my eyes I've been keeping it fairly simple. Today I was working 11-4pm and then straight out for a glass or two of wine with everyone from work so I wanted something which would see me through. I used UDPP to prime my eyes, yes I keep trying this out, but no it has still not managed to convert me from my beloved MAC Paintpots.. Am I missing something? Shadow wise I simply used Urban Decay's Virgin all over the lid and then swept a touch of 'Smog' through the crease. You may have noticed I have lined my upper lash line. I personally LOVE this look on other people, but I could never manage to get the line thin enough to not look over dramatic, but yet smooth. However, I have 100% solved this problem with the new 'Precision Ink' liner from the new Art of Darkness collection from Illamasqua. This liner is seriously amazing, I may in fact do a separate post on this as I'm in love! 

Finally, I kept my lip simple with one of favourites from MAC, the very nude and very wearable 'Myself'..

What new products have you lovelies been wearing & embracing this week? 

Lots of love 

Xxx

Flawless Fingertips... I ♥ Nailene

If I'm totally honest, I have a rather strong penchant for luxurious, luscious nails! I of course have dabbled in acrylics, but my natural nails are just so super soft, flimsy and fine that they just aren't really a great option for me, plus the expense of getting infills just mounts up continually. 

I do however indulge in press-on/stick-on nails on a rather regular basis, i.e. I'm never without! Nailene has always been my brand of choice and I was lucky enough to be sent a few sets of their nails a while back to try out. 

Within the package sent was two sets of their 'So Natural' short, square French Manicure style nails, usually my nails of choice and hence they're not shown here as they're all used up! I was also lucky enough to be sent two sets of their new 'Couture' nail sets & a set of nail art stickers. 

I find the nails from Nailene such good value for money and really easy to apply. I always make sure that I've prepared the nail surface sufficiently; removed all traces of polish and then used an emery board to lightly buff over the surface to create a 'rough' base to apply the glue and then eventually the nail it's self. I also always make sure to push back my cuticles to get a seamless application and to make them look as natural as possible. 

When not wearing the French Manicure style nails, I opt for the simple full cover nails in 'Active Square' which you can buy in a set of 200. I usually pick these up from my local Asda store for a mere £7.48 and the box of 200 seems to last forever! Nailene themselves have different types of glue; gel or regular. I myself prefer the regular glue which is shown in the above photo. After I've fully prepared the nail, applied them & painted them I easily get over a weeks wear out of them before I get any which are loose or 'growing out'. 

These are my most recent application; a set from the box of 200 and coated with the coveted Barry M nail paint in 'Dusky Mauve' the polish which has been labelled the Chanel Paradoxal dupe. To me, after seeing swatches of Paradoxal and a tester pot in Newcastle airport, I don't think its THAT good of a dupe, I feel it needs more of a shimmery undertone, in this photo particularly it appears quite flat.

So what about you ladies? Are you an ardent lover of acrylics or do you prefer DIY application?

Lovess xx

Rings on Her Fingers & Curls in Her Hair...

So after last night's post where I was asking all of you lovelies for your advice regarding conical wands, I thought I'd actually post up a picture showing you how my hair now looks in it's new & possibly? improved style...

So here it is!

What do you make of it?.. This is it loosely styled with my GHD's and sprinkled with a little Schwarzkopf Osis Dust It powder for some volume. 

After all of your advice I had a good rummage and I actually found a set of Babyliss ceramic tongs which I must have been given last Christmas and totally forgot about. I'm going to try using these next before I go out and make another 'hair appliance' purchase.

I also decided to have a little try out of my tri-pod earlier and despite every room in my house having the worst ever lighting, I took these silly photos below...

All of these amazing rings were purchased whilst I was away on holiday, they were absolute bargains considering they are silver plated, with the most expensive one being €6! I adore them all and think they look fab all worn together in bulk :)

You'll obviously be able to see the bottom two photos have been edited.. I've been trying out some 'actions' in Photoshop so don't mind me! Just trying to be a little creative :) 

Hope you're all well

Lovess xx

Advice Needed: Conical Wands..

Hey girls :) 

Those of you who follow me on Twitter may have seen the Blackberry snapshot of me trialling a centre parting. Now I am never one for being overly, actually, at all adventurous with my hair after a horrifying experience at a well known High Street salon left me with 1" long layers which took, as you can imagine well over a year to grow out to a 'normal' length. 

I've spent the last few years growing my hair and having the same boring old trim and long tousled side styled fringe. However, I felt the time was right for a small change. After sporting a side parting for many moons, I'd recently been thinking of opting for a centre parting a l a Mary Kate & Ashley Olsen with the beachy, relaxed waves.

So after wearing my hair in a centre parting for the majority of the weekend I'm pretty pleased with what it actually looks like and I've had a few comments from people saying they like it also. The only thing that is nagging at me about it is the constant curling of the front sections of hair to make them wave outwards to effectively frame my face. My current GHD's are around 5 years old, remarkable but true and so aren't exactly in the best shape (..I feel like my hair is burning every time I use them!)

Basically I was wondering what all of your opinions are on conical wands? The principal seems so great; uniformed in size, but messy tousled hair which can be as styled or 'unstyled' as you so wish.. I've never actually used one before, but have obviously seen mixed reviews from different people. So here's where you can help! Let me know your thoughts on conical wands, do you have one? Do you use it to create this kind of look? 

Thanks girls! xx

A Thousand Million Apologies & My 22nd Birthday..

Hey my lovelies...

Just wanted to stick up a quick post to say sorry for being such an awful, awful blogger this past week!

It's been my first week back at University and starting my third and final year has been a lot more stressful than I originally thought. The workload which we've been given is just crazy and by Christmas, among other modules we have to create a full magazine concept, carryout photoshoots relating to our magazine and then finally write all of the articles which will go into it. For our final hand-in we also have to have it digitally printed as a magazine 'sampler'. It all sounds so exciting at the moment, but we just have a long way to go to get everything finished and pulled together. 

Aside from University things, I celebrated my 22nd Birthday on Tuesday. Although I spent the day at work, my lovely boyfriend took me for a gorgeous meal on the evening and I was well and truly spoilt by both him and all of my family and friends. 

As far as my Blog is concerned, I have so many posts planned, I just need to find the time to be able to get the shots I need and actually write them up. Over the next week keep an eye out for a Birthday Goodies post and then maybe a MAC post so I can show you the few bits I picks up from the new Venomous Villains collection.

So yeah, sorry for the insanely boring, long & wordy post, but I just wanted to let you all know that I haven't disappeared and I will hopefully be back with some posts for you this weekend, if not, then next week :) 

Love as always xx

Welcome to the good life... Holiday Snaps Part Uno! ♥

As many of you already know, due to my being back on Twitter, I am sadly back from my amazing holiday to Tenerife with the other half.. However, this does mean I am back to all of you lovelies and so I can't really complain tooo much!

We had such a fab time, had beautifully hot weather & I have to say rather over indulged in some retail therapy!.. What can I say, the Zara over there is just too good to pass up heheh!

I thought, since we ended up taking so many photos I'd do a couple of sporadic posts with general photos, outfit posts and the such within them.

♥

A quick snap after doing my makeup.. Still with wet hair!  - My Naked palette was well loved during the whole week :)

Simple day time outfit of some Hilfiger denim shorts, a chunky tan leather belt [not seen], a plain black bandeau top & an over sized vest from H&M

Our gorgeous hotel pool at night - It was always nice to get some drinks and some and chill out round the pool of an evening, when we didn't have anything else planned.. Still so warm and so peaceful..

The 'obligatory' mirror shot! Who doesn't have them hehe .. One evening's attire, consisting of an All Saints dress and knitted waistcoat

Finally, here's the boy! We had managed to put away a fair few glasses of wine by this point, so excuse the dazed expressions hehe!

I hope you've enjoyed taking a peek at the first selection of my holiday photos, I'll more than likely put a few more up in the next day or so :) 

Hope you're all fabulous & getting your wardrobes and beauty regimes ready for the fast onset of the British Winter :( 

Lovess xx