Monday 29 September 2014

Late Summer Favourites Video

So a few months back, my bestie Rachel and I created our own YouTube channel - CollinAndBoo (nicknames we give each other) and we finally got round to a new video!
It'd be great if you could check it out, and if you enjoy it* like and subscribe!
* Also, if you don't, let me know any constructive criticism!


Hope you enjoy it!
Until next time,
Lucy :) xx

Sunday 7 September 2014

Summer blogging fail

Hey guys,
as we can all see my 'summer blogging' took an epic and awful turn and well, didn't happen!
I ended up being extremely busy this summer much to my surprise and I basically forgot to blog. To make things even worse I'm even more of a poor student after buying my first car, so I haven't been able to afford much lately and have lacked any decent ideas for blogging...

But with a new year at college approaching and a determined Lucy, I'm going to persevere through this broke-ness and give myself motivation because blogging is something I enjoy a LOT!
So, starting off with 1 post a week, I will get better at this, and can't wait to share some new posts with everyone...If there's any of you left!

Hope you all had a fab summer and aren't dreading a new school/college/uni year too much.

See you next week!
Lucy
xx

P.S. I've started a YouTube channel with my bestie Rachel, so it'd be great if you could check it out!

Wednesday 2 July 2014

Blogilates Review

For about two years now I've regularly attended Pilates class, and I love it. So when my friend told me about Blogilates Youtube channel and app, I knew I had to get it.


The way the app works is that you choose what point of your body you would like to work on and use the videos surrounding this. At my Pilates class we never use music, so the POP Pilates series of workouts are super different and really good as I find it's easier to repeat the Pilates moves to a familiar song. The way Cassey explains and shows the moves is very helpful and not over-complicated.

The thing I've always loved about Pilates is how inexpensive and simple it is, but how much it works your body, and I was super happy to find that the case, the only thing you need for some workouts are weights (or as Cassey says, a heavy piece of fruit or bottle of water will do). These workouts are definitely more difficult than a lot of the stuff we do at our local fitness centre so it's a great way to tone your muscles if you can't afford a gym membership (the app is actually free, with access to a monthly calender costing 0.99p/month)

Another dynamic that I love about this app is the forums. You can login and read through posts with other Pilate's fans before and after shots, recipe ideas and just tips to keep you motivated. I've found it's a great way to find a sense of community in an otherwise solitary app. All of the Before and Afters are so so inspiring and give you such a push and remind you to keep going with it.


Finally, another great feature of this app as opposed to just Casseys YouTube videos is the recipes section. With things as simple as detox water to healthy breakfasts and desserts, the app does give you an all round kick into healthy eating.


Overall this is one of my favourite things to use when I'm trying to up my fitness, the workouts can take from 5-20 minutes, work you really hard and are super easy to fit into your day. I'd recommend this to anyone who's trying to tone up and get fitter for summer!

If you have any tips for easy healthy eating/exercise I'd love to hear them c:

Thankyou for reading! 
Until next time,
Lucy 
xx

Sunday 22 June 2014

I'm back! Summer make up look.


Hey everyone! It's been months since my last proper post, and I'm so excited to be back. I've missed blogging so so much and now exams are over, I can get back to regular posting!
As Summer in the UK has just about started, I thought I'd show you all a summer look I love to wear.






 During the summer months, I really dislike wearing foundation as it always feels so heavy on my skin. Usually I tend to go without any kind of coverage on my face, but this year I really wanted to try out some BB Creams. So as a base I have used the Rimmel Stay Matte Primer and the Rimmel 9 in 1 BB Cream. It does actually say the BB cream works as a primer, but I've felt that using an extra primer just helps it last a little longer.

I then took Naked Flushed and put bronzer on my cheekbones, sides of my nose and a light coverage on my face to give me a little more colour and help my cheekbones become more prominent. I tend to only use a light dusting of the Flushed blush as it's quite pink and can become very obvious, whereas I prefer blush to be subtle. I then took the highlighter and used in on the tops of my cheek bones and on my nose.
And voila, there's my base! Nothing fancy, just a quick simple bit of contouring.






For my eyes I used the Urban Decay Primer Potion, to make sure my shadow lasted all day and had no creases (not that I've ever had that issue with the Naked palettes). I then used just the powder from the Brow Zings Kit to shape and define my eyebrows (doing the best I could, in need of getting them done again!)
For the actual shadow, I used Half Baked as an all over colour. I love the sparkle and gold of this colour, it's super summery and brings out the blue in my eyes. I then used Trick from Naked 3 from the outer corner to the middle of my eyelid to create a more varied colour. I then used Mugshot from Naked 3 along the crease and in the very outer corner of my lids, and finally the matte colour of Dark Horse as a softer eyeliner, as liquid liner can often run and make my eyes itchy in the heat. 
I put Dark Horse on my lower lash line and put Half Baked over the top to create a soft, shimmery and smoky liner look.
To finish this off I just applied mascara to define and extend my lashes (using my old favourite mascara, it's in like every blog post I've written I think!)



(so I totally forgot to take a picture of my lip gloss and balm up close... Oopth!)
I really like two coloured lips at the moment, so for this I took the Rimmel Colour Burst Balm and put it all over my lips. I adore this colour and find it quite pinky, which is an odd choice for me, as for lip colours I usually stay quite dark or neutral. I adore these balms because they're super pigmented and so so moisturising!
I then used Tanya Burrs lip gloss and put it on the centre of my bottom and top lip, dabbing it on and blending it out, to create a sort of 'gradient' look. Tanya's lipgloss's are also super moisturising and not too sticky.



And that's that! Here's the overall look I created, I hope you like it. I'm super glad to be back and cannot wait to start blogging more again!


Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed this!
Lucy
xx

Sunday 20 April 2014

Life Update/Hiatus

Hi lovelies, 
I know I haven't updated in a while, sadly this is gonna be a short post to update you on why this has been the case. 
As I've mentioned before, I'm in my first year of college. It's getting to exam season, and exam season for me means a lot of stress. As well as all of that I've been trying to juggle learning to drive and working 15 hours + a week, which means I have minimal amounts of spare time. 
I love blogging and I've really enjoyed taking it up as a hobby this year, but I'll be honest - posting regularly takes a lot of time and effort, especially when I'm as picky as I am. At the moment, I'm really struggling to find that effort, especially when all my free time is spent trying to chill out or revise. I mean, I know I could throw together a few crappy, rushed posts about things I really don't care about but I really like spending my time and creating something I'm proud of. 
So, to cut a long story short, I will rarely be posting on here until end of June- beginning of July when I have more time, which really sucks. However, I think I've gotta have my priorities and unfortunately blogging has to stay in the background for now.

I hope you all understand and stick around until I can resume posting regularly again, have a fantastic few months.
Until next time,
Lucy
xxx

Wednesday 26 March 2014

Primark False Nails Review

Over the past few years, Primark and I have developed a very intense love - hate relationship. I've had issues with a lot of products from there, yet others have become absolute favourites. My main gripe with our local store is how messy and disorganised it is, but seeing as it had all been redone in the past few months I thought I'd check it out.
Now I have quite long nails as it is, but I am absolutely terrible with painting them. I get impatient and bored, if I somehow manage to paint and dry them properly, it's almost a guarantee that I'll pick off the varnish. So for a while I was having shellac done, which I personally loved. However as it does, money and lack of time meant I had to stop having it done. 
Last Monday I was just having a little wander around the shop when I spotted the adorable cat false nails (middle bottom of picture) and completely fell in love with them. Half impulse, half 'they're only a pound so if they're naff it's not put me out of pocket' I bought them and rushed home to apply them. I have to admit I didn't have high hopes for the product, thinking they'd maybe last a few hours?
I was pleasantly surprised to find out they had in fact last me over a week. I'll admit, I did have to reglue three or four of them, but seeing as I constantly have to peel off price labels at work and wash up at home, I'm extremely happy with how long they've lasted. It also helps that they didn't look tacky, I think I've had four or five compliments over how good they look, some people even assumed they were salon done!

Today I popped back into town and bought the four more you see in the picture, so I'll be road testing them over the next few weeks. They have tons and tons more absolutely gorgeous patterns and block colours so I'd recommend these massively!

Instagram
Instagram
Thanks for reading!
Lucy
xx



Wednesday 19 March 2014

Boots 3 for 2 Haul!

As most of you probably know, boots once again have their infamous 3 for 2 offer on all beauty and skincare products. n need of a few essentials and also had some spare money to finally buy some products I've been lusting over the past few months.I did only limit myself to 7 products as I'm trying to reduce my spending!

After using the Rimmel Wake Me Up foundation for quite a while I decided I needed a change. Seeing countless bloggers rave about the Rimmel Match Perfection (Light Porcelain - I know, I'm so pale!)persuaded me to buy it and it's absolutely flawless. It gives me amazing coverage, whilst feeling light on my face as if I'm barely wearing foundation. I also think it lasts quite a while. I prefer this to my Wake Me Up foundation because the shade just suits my skin and applies better. 

To go with my new foundation, I decided to finally give in and get the Real Techniques Foundation Brush. It's ten times better than the Avon one I had, the bristles are incredibly soft and the product applies better when using it. Once again real techniques have shown to be a fantastic brand. 

The other Real Techniques brush I picked up was the New Silicon Eye Liner Brush, I recently found a gel eye liner that I loved and I knew I'd binned the brush that came with it, the silicon aspect makes it super easy to clean, and it means the liner just glides on. I've also been using it with the naked palette's with a little water as an eye liner substitute.

I was planning on branching out and trying a new mascara, but in the end I couldn't quite make up my mind and I was running out of time, so I just picked up another Rimmel Lash Accelerator Endless Mascara which I spoke about in my first blog post. 

The last three products I picked up were definitely impulse buys. The Bourjois Colour Boost lip crayon was something I spotted whilst finding a colour for my friend. The shade I bought (Plum Russian) is a beautiful deep, berry colour that is super glossy and smooth on the lips. Granted I do have to apply it a few times a day, but it's super moisturising and gives off the richest colour. I love the 'crayon' style that seems to be around at the moment so I'll definitely be buying more of these! 

Yet another Rimmel product I liked the look of was the Stay Matte Primer. I didn't actually own a primer before now, and I felt like I was missing out on something. When I have time to use this, I do notice that my foundation and powder last for longer, and also that my foundation applies 10x better then just on my bare skin! 

 Finally, I picked up a Gelly Hi-Shine Nail Paint from Barry M in Guava. I just adore the colour of it and felt I was in need of new nail polish, this does actually chip quite easily without a top coat but the gorgeous colour makes up for it!

Have you purchased anything in the massive 3 for 2 offer? If so let me know what products you've loved!
Lucy
xx

Sunday 16 March 2014

Brighton Trip

So, I've written this post about 10 times, but today I am finally going to finish it. On February 19th (I know, this is super late) I went to Brighton, a place that I've fallen in love with over the past few months, as it's so cute I thought I'd share my day with you!



The first stop on our trip was the beloved bric-a-brac shop that's hidden in the lanes. It's one of my favourite places, purely because they sell everything from suits of armour to fur coats to vintage Dalek's and amazing suitcases. The shop itself is huge and made up of tons of different individual sellers displays, it's such a quirky layout and gives the impression of an 'organised mess'. I love how different one corner is from the next- oh and upstairs they have incredible vintage and hand made clothing that is so beautiful (and super expensive, oh the downside of being a poor teenager).


  
Image source
Our next stop was the incredible West Cornwall Pasty Co. . Now, when I found out we were going to Brighton again, I was super excited to find a cute cafe that sold pretty little sandwiches and cakes, not once did I think about Pasties. My god am I glad we did though. They are so tasty, they range from your bog standard (but delicious) cheese & onion, to the slightly more unusual Chicken & Spicy Chorizo (also delicious). and seeing as they cost around £4 and are super filling, it was definitely a good choice!


Just across the road from the pasty shop, there is the cutest little vintage book shop. I adore reading and book stores are one of the few places that help me relax and unwind. So of course, I was in my element here. After like half an hour of marvelling at the awesome selection, we finally picked up a couple of books, I bought a collection of Hans Andersens fairytales that was published in around 1929 and is super pretty.


Whilst on the conversation of literature, Brighton is full of comic book stores, it made our forbidden planet in Southampton look totally inadequate. We found around 3 in walking distance of each other and of course, we then spent ages freaking out                                                   over all the merch and fantastic comics! Oh to be                                                 near a comic book store, the things I could buy...



Red Velvet cupcake from my IG
Before I show you all what I spent all my money on I feel you should all know about the incredible yummy-ness that Angel Food Bakery. It's a gem hidden in the lanes that we found kind of hard to get to, but the cakes make it so worth it! I went there first in October on recommendation from a friend and it was incredible. The cakes are so so delicious, and the icing isn't overly sweet which is fab because it's the thing I hate when it comes to cupcake shops. And the fact that they're like £2 is incredible, but fair warning they are so so moreish.


And last but not least, time to talk about the mini haul that I came back with from the day. 
I think it comes as no surprise to you all that I visited Lush, I'd try to cover and say I only bought like two bath bombs, but I actually bought around six. The Brighton Lush shop is super cute and all of the bath bits looked extra good! In the end I came home with Dreamtime, Ceridwen's Cauldron, Lord Of Misrule (Limited Edition so no link to the site!), Avobath, Blackberry Bath Bomb and Honey Bee. Thank god for budgeting and friends stopping impulse buys, otherwise I'd have come home with only Lush products!

I finally got around to purchasing a new powder. Rimmel Stay Matte Powder is fantastic and so much better then my Maybelline Fit Me powder. As a congratulations for finally moving away from that horrible product, I thought I'd also buy myself a Real Techniques Powder Brush, I can safely say it's flawless. The bristles are super soft and it evenly distributes the powder to give my skin an amazing finish. Since Brighton I may have encouraged a Real Techniques obsession as I've bought two since - but that's for another day...

We somehow ended up near a Debenhams, which is never a good thing because Debenhams means Urban Decay, and Urban Decay means I spend all my money. I've had my eye on the Naked Flushed Palette for a while now and as it was triple points on beauty products, I just had to buy it. I actually wrote a bit about it in my February Favourites Post.

Finally I picked up a couple bargain every day clothing pieces. On the left of the picture you can see the flannel shirt. I absolutely adore it and I wear it quite often with a black skater dress just to give me an extra something to keep a look casual, and for £5 I can't complain. It's super comfortable and is a Mens fit, so super baggy! And then I just picked up a baggy jumper for casual wear, once again for £5. It's nothing special but it's super comfortable and will be perfect for days when I can't really be bothered with my outfit!

I hope you enjoyed this post, sorry if it was a bit long? 
Idk it was hard to write!
Lucy 
xx












Sunday 9 March 2014

Leibster Award!

I checked my inbox today to see that I'd been nominated for a Liebster award by the lovely Emily (theoxfordshopper) , I've seen a lot of bloggers do these but I never thought someone would add me to do it, so thank you!

The Rules
1. You must link back to the blogger who nominated you
2. You have to state 11 facts about yourself
3. You have to answer the 11 questions given to you by the blogger who nominated you
4. You have to nominate 11 other blogs (with under 300 followers) and set 11 questions for them to answer
5. You can't nominate the person who nominate you
6. You have to tell the nominee that they have been nominated by you


11 Facts
1. My main goal in life is to be a Forensic Scientist and it's something I've been interested in since I was Eleven. 
2. My favourite colour is blue, and I tend to always buy and wear blue or black clothes. 
3. I have an intense hatred for banana's that goes beyond a normal dislike for food.
 4. My natural hair colour is brown, I've been dying it red/ginger for five years. 
5. I'm incredibly not organised and I find it very difficult to stick to a routine (hence the lacking posts sorry everyone!) 
6. I adore Welsh and Scottish accents, I could listen to people talk with them for days.
7.Even after quitting gym like 7 years ago, I can still somehow do the splits and am quite flexible.
8. I find it really difficult to write facts out about myself, this has taken me over an hour.
9. I have two dogs (a jack russell & a great dane) and 3 cats.
10. I love Disney and I've seen The Little Mermaid so much I can recite quotes whilst I watch.
11. I have like no hobbies, unless you count reading and blogging.

Questions From Emily
1. Have you ever met any celebrities? I've met a few people I see as celebrities, from bands I like. For example I've met Mayday Parade and Boys Like Girls. And I've also met quite a few authors (Darren Shan, Derek Landy & Terry Pratchett)
2. What's your guilty pleasure? It's gotta be my love for all these incredibly cheesy - One Direction, Glee and cliché romance films.
3. What's the first thing you notice when you meet someone for the first time? Honestly? Their eyes, I'm a big sucker for really pretty eyes and eyelashes.
4. What's something you want to do before you die? I want to travel the world and see as many places and meet as many people as I can.
5. Are you a pessimist or an optimist? A pessimist
6. If you could have a dinner party with 5 people of your choice, dead or alive, who would you choose, and why? Hannah Hart - because I admire her and I feel she'd be really good at the whole interesting dinner conversation, David Attenborough because he's incredible and well, I could meet David Attenborough... Sylvia Plath just for the pure reason that the bell jar is such an incredible book and her poetry is amazing, I'd love to just have a conversation with her. Hank & John Green (they count as 1 they're brothers) because I think they'd have great dinner table conversations, and again I'd like to show my appreciation for them. Lastly, umm Dylan O'Brien because he's a top class cutie and I'd just really like to meet him
7. Favourite fictional character? Ah either Will Herondale from The Infernal Devices, Tris Prior from Divergent, Margo Roth Spiegelman from Paper Towns or Bitterblue from the Graceling series.
8. What's something everyone loves but you hate? Pickled Onions. I eat them by the jar load which is super gross but they're so tasty.
9. Favourite pizza topping? BBQ base, cheese and peperoni.
10. Are you an early bird or a night owl? Definitely a night owl, I don't do early mornings.
11. Winter, spring, summer, or autumn/fall? Spring is definitely my favourite. I love winter temperatures and snow but it makes me so miserable. I always feel like Spring is the beginning of something happy, y'know? Like the light after months of darkness.


Ah even thought that took me so long to write, thankyou for nominating me Emily, it was super fun!
I'm going to nominate the five people I follow that are under 300!
Jordan- jdaisygauntlett.blogspot.co.uk/

My Questions
1. If you could meet one celebrity, who would it be and why?
2. What book has changed the way you look at life?
3. What's one beauty product you couldn't live without?
4. How easy to do you find it to introduce yourself to a new group of people?
5. Top 5 favourite bands?
6. Are you introverted or extroverted?
7. What's your biggest aim for the future?
8. What is your favourite time of year and why?
9. In an argument, are you more likely to apologise or wait for someone to apologise to you?
10. What's your favourite feature?
11. If you could have any animal in the world as a pet, what would it be?

Thankyou for reading, I hope you enjoyed it!
Lucy 
xx

Sunday 2 March 2014

February Favourites

Another month, another favourites list. It seems like yesterday that we were celebrating the new year and now here we are, about to go into March. Is it just me or is this year going even faster than usual?

This month my favourites consist of some brand new products and some old gems that I've rediscovered.
~Also, I'm really sorry these pictures turned out so badly, rubbish camera quality!~

 First up this month is the Molton Brown Skinboost 24 Hour Moisture Mist. I included this in my best and worst skincare and beauty products post last month. I absolutely adore this, it's like a tiny bottle of magic. I use it when my skin feels dry and looks pretty dull, after a few sprays my skin feels hydrated and smooth and looks more 'alive' I guess haha! It's definitely become a staple part of my skincare routine, I just can't believe I had it for so long without realising how amazing it is.

 Next up is a new purchase from this month. It's the Real Techniques Powder Brush (£10.99). I'm probably the only beauty blogger in the universe that has never purchased a Real Techniques brush, so with a tiny bit of money spare from my Brighton shopping trip (post coming soon!) I thought I'd finally give one a go. After getting rid of my horrific Maybelline powder I thought I should buy a decent powder brush to celebrate a better powder. It's safe to say I haven't been disappointed, the brush is super soft yet still blends in the powder really well, and the handle is lightweight so is really easy to use. Overall it is an amazing product and I think I'm definitely going to be buying more from the collection, especially for such a reasonable price.


Another product that happened to appear in my shopping haul from Brighton - The Urban Decay Naked Flush Palette (£22.00). I seem to have developed an obsession with Urban Decay this year, especially their Naked collection. I've never been a girl to be worried about contouring in any shape or form, the furthest I'd go would be a bit of blusher. 
After falling in love with this palette's sleek packaging and the gorgeous shades, I thought it might be worth a go. 
I use this quite often now as the formula for all three products is incredibly smooth and creamy, lasts all day and really does make a difference! I had a slight worry about the shades as I'm extremely pale, but as I've found out you can make the colour as subtle or dramatic as you want (a good feature for a bronzer newbie like me!), I definitely couldn't live without this when it comes to my make up.




And finally, my tv and film favourites of the month! 
So Teen Wolf has been around for a while now, and after constant gif sets and prompts from a friend I decided to start watching it. Safe to say I'm in love. The characters are amazing and the story lines are great (even if they do rip my heart out). I'm two episodes from being caught up and I can say it's one of the best shows I've seen. If you're a fan of the whole ~fantasy~ kinda genre, you should definitely watch it. (Plus Dylan O'brien is just perfection)

Now the big one. CAMP TAKOTAAAAAAAAAAA! When it came out that the trinity were making a film, I think I died slightly. It seemed that February 14th was slowly creeping up and I couldn't contain my excitement. When I finally received the email and watched it, I was in no way disappointed. The perfect mix of fuzzy feels, hilarious one liners and tear-jerking scenes has created one of my favourite movies of all time. I think I've watched it around 30+ times since Valentines Day, oopth?
If you haven't already you should definitely go buy it! (it's only $9.99, which is like what £6? Major bargain.)


I hope everyone had a great February, what are some products that you've been loving?
Until next time!
Lucy 
xx

Wednesday 26 February 2014

Staying Positive

Hey everyone I'm back! I thought today I'd share with you a few ways that I try and stay positive giving the difficulties that have popped up lately.

Unfortunately, I tend to be rather pessimistic and so I have to try my hardest to stay positive, especially when things aren't so easy. Over the years I've discovered ways in which I can stay optimistic, and I thought I'd share a couple here!


Writing
Whenever I feel like I'm struggling in some aspect of my life, I grab my journal and I write. It's never anything structured or grammatically correct, just what I'm feeling. I always feel that once it's down and on paper my feelings are easier to control as I can analyse and figure out what has caused the issues and how I can fix them.
I feel writing is a quite important thing to help me stay optimistic as I can literally read my problems on a tiny piece of paper. That makes them a lot easier to manage than swimming around in my head.


Looking back at memories.
As much as I hate to say it (for the worry of sounding spoilt and selfish) I have days where I feel like I have nothing and I do nothing and just generally feel inadequate. That's when I run to my memory box and pick out the items and albums (like this one). In a busy college/work life it's very easy to forget all you've experienced, so collecting images and little pieces from all the wonderful places you've visited really reminds you of all you have. Not only that but looking back on past photos just brings back the happy memories and puts me in a wonderful mood.


 Reading
I've always been quite a book-ish person and so whenever I feel stressed or upset my first reaction is to grab a book. When I read I tend to go into a completely different zone and immerse myself into the world I'm reading about. I find this a major help to keep me optimistic as after a few hours of reading I feel relaxed, refreshed and ready to take on any problems I've been having. Obviously, If you don't particularly enjoy reading, there's always watching films and youtubers or listening to your favourite music. All of those seem to have a similar effect, reading is just the preferred for me!

Writing Lists
This is one I tend to use when I'm stressed over deadlines more than anything else. When you have multiple jobs that need finishing, it can become overwhelming and scary to begin them all. I've found that writing lists of the things I have to do (from eating lunch to writing an essay) gives me a lot more motivation as being able to tick the boxes and see the jobs decreasing takes a lot of the stress away!
On the topic of multiple jobs that need doing, I try to start with the most difficult so that later on in the day I'm not facing the tough challenges.


I hope you enjoyed reading this and that it's helped in some way (especially with AS Level exams coming up in a few months!)
I'd love to hear how you unwind and stay positive, feel free to comment with some tips!
Until next time
Lucy 
xxx

Friday 21 February 2014

Goodbyes

Just a quick one today, need to do some explaining to y'all. 
This week I've had to say goodbye to someone who's been like a sister to me for two years (without getting into it a lot she's leaving the UK) and it's been a very emotional week for various reasons surrounding that circumstance.
As it's all I've really been focusing on, every time I've sat down to write a new blog post I can't bring myself to write something good. I mean I probably could have written half decent posts about all the things I wanted to write about on my week off, but it wouldn't be great.
So I decided on Monday I was going to leave my blog alone this week and go back to normal either this Sunday or next Wednesday.
Basically, I apologise for the lack of posts but bear with me and all will be back to normal next week!

Lucy
xx

Sunday 16 February 2014

The best (and worst) skin care and beauty products that I own

Everyone has their staple beauty products that they couldn't live without. Unfortunately we all have our beauty products that were more of a miss, so I thought I'd give you a few of my favourite products and also a few that I won't be repurchasing.

The Good

Urban Decay Naked 1 & 3: I know, I go on about these a lot, but they have become staple palettes in my make up look. I adore everything about them, the simple yet gorgeous packaging, the soft brushes and of course the mix of creamy, pigmented matte and shimmer shades. I just adore the fact that most of the shades can go together to create endless looks!

Benefit World Famous Neutrals - Easiest Nudes Ever: I used this in my first ever blog post and I adore it. When I'm in a rush or can't be bothered to figure out what colours I'm going to use from my other palettes, I pick this up. The cream potted shadows are so smooth and don't crease and the powdered shadows are gorgeous colours and also don't crease. I love that this palette is so simple,  if you're feeling extra lazy, there's a step by step guide inside to a great eye look. 

Rimmel Lash Accelerator Endless Mascara: For around half a year now I've wanted to try out Benefits They're Real! Mascara because of how extremely long peoples lashes seemed to be after using it, but I have lost that extreme desire now I've found this mascara. For half the price, my lashes look almost unnaturally thick and long. This was actually an impulse buy because the packaging was so bright, I'm so pleased that I picked it up because I know I'm going to be re-purchasing this again and again.

Quinoderm 10 Cream: This is actually a pharmacy over the counter product. I don't suffer with acne, but when I get a skin breakout I've found it really hard to find a product that gets rid of my spots. This cream does the trick, it reduces the spot with in a day, normally they're gone in 2-3 days. The only thing I'd say about this is it is quite harsh on the skin, If I don't moisturise a lot my skin gets very dry in the areas I've placed the cream. (but I guess it is quite strong as it's used for acne, so what should I expect!) I couldn't live without this cream for bad breakout days. OH! And it's ridiculously cheap! £2.65 for 25g (which lasts me months)

Molton Brown Skinboost 24 Hour Moisture Mist: Unfortunately, you can't get this any more which sucks, but I've still got some of mine left from a previous Christmas set. I use this when I get unusually dry skin, one or two sprays on my face make my skin feel hydrated and healthy, I'm going to be gutted when I use the last of it because it's really helped to keep my skin moisture locked!

And the bad..


Maybelline Fit Me Powder: This is probably my least favourite product in my entire make up collection. I have dry-combination very fair skin and this powder seems to leave me with a shinier face than I had to begin with, if I have a very dry spot it tends to cling to it more and become more clumpy. It also tends to have a pretty poor coverage unless I build it up a lot, and then it doesn't last throughout the day. I cannot wait to purchase a new powder and say goodbye to this product. 

77 Eyeshadow Palette from War Paint: I have to say I didn't expect a lot from this palette. I received it as a Christmas gift and I knew it was a very inexpensive palette. The colours are very chalky and have quite a bad pigmentation to them, so to get the colour you have to apply a very heavy amount of shadow. The colours don't last for an entire day, but for a few hours you can build up an okay eye look, if you remember to remove all the fall out. However, it was very cheap and was one of the first palettes I owned, so for a younger me it did the job. 

Tea Tree Facial Toner: First thing - this product being in 'the bad' is no fault of the actual product. I was told by a Body Shop representative that the tea tree range would be great for my dry-combination skin. As I often got break outs and red patches I agreed and ended up buying most of the range (big mistake). After using this toner a lot I realised it actually dried my skin out terribly (which after research was understandable as this is meant for oily skin.) . The only good thing about this product is the fact it did leave my face very clean and reduced the spots I had. (much unlike the tea tree concealer that made me break out a treat)

Freederm Fast Track Spot Gel: This product did, well nothing. I purchased it for it's miracle '3 hour redness reducing' qualities, but after using it the product had no effect on my skin. The only noticeable difference was a dryness and actually slightly more spots than before. At £5 a pop I wouldn't recommend this for anyone, this was a case of a bad impulse buy!

I hope you liked reading this, comment below with your best and worst beauty and skin products!
Until next time
Lucy 
xx


Friday 14 February 2014

Valentines Day Make Up Look

   My first Friday post, oo how exciting! I'm hoping to add Friday to post days if I can get organised!
This week I thought I'd do a make-up look that would be suitable for valentines day.
I apologise in advance for any low quality photos, the family camera's run out of battery so I've had to use mine.

So first up, here's the list of products I'm gonna be using in this post.
 - Maybelline Fit Me Powder (Nude Beige)   -Powder Blush (No idea where its from, the packaging is faded, all I can make out is 'Shade 12 Rose Jasmine')  

Obviously, the first step here was to create my base. I applied my foundation, powder (which please, please do not purchase it's terrible, I still haven't got round to buying a new one), concealer and then applied the blush along my cheekbones and on the apples of my cheeks. To apply my blush I used The Body Shop Blusher Brush, the fibres are so soft and help to apply the blush really easily.

















Next it's on to the eyes. For this look I've used a few different colours from the Naked 1 and 3 palettes (look out for a post about Naked 3 soon!)

Before I applied any eye shadow, I just put a dab of Urban Decay's Eye shadow Primer Potion on my eyelids (which by the way, is a life safer. Makes the eye shadow last 10x longer and stops creasing for every palette I've used so far)
               For an all over base colour I used burnout from the Naked 3 palette and lightly applied dust over the top for a bit of extra shimmer.
I then took Toasted from the Naked 1 palette and put it in the outer corners and crease of my eyelids. For the inner corners of my eyes I used sin from Naked 1 (sorry it's not pictured!). Finally for my brow bone as a highlighter I used Strange and then just to fill in my brows I used Factory (both from Naked 3).
Remember, you don't need any Naked Palettes to recreate this look, just some pinky eye shadows similar to the ones pictured here!




Finally I took my Scandal Eyes Precision liner and drew(?) wings in the outer corners and then lined my top eyelid as close to the lash line as I could. Then I used my endless accelerator mascara until I was happy with my lash length (you could also use falsies here, my lashes are quite long naturally so I don't bother usually). 
To complete my look I just applied Rimmel's Kate Lasting Finish Lipstick in shade 16 which is a gorgeous pinky yet slightly coral colour that goes perfectly with the eye shadow colours.



VOILA! And there you have it, a pinky, yet not to full on look for Valentines Day! 
Let me know if you liked this, I feel my instructions may have been a tad waffle-y...

Thanks for reading!
Lucy 
xx

Wednesday 12 February 2014

5 Ways To Spend Valentines Day When You're Single

As February 14th gets closer and closer, Valentines day can be a day of dread for some people. Whether you're single by choice or not, sitting in your room watching stupidly romantic Rom Coms can be pretty depressing. So for this year, I thought I'd come up with 5 ways to spend your valentines day if you're not with a romantic partner!

1) Pamper yourself
Cue embarrassing picture of friends and I at some point last year! 
Whether by yourself or with a group of friends, putting on a face mask or giving yourself a manicure is a great way to spend the day. Give your skin some care and take a gorgeous lush bath or treat yourself to a luxurious hair mask. 
I don't know about you but for me, there's nothing more relaxing than spending a day doing your nails, pampering your hair and just spending the day not doing much.

2) Have a movie day with your besties.
This is actually the plan for my valentines day. Inviting a few friends over for a movie day can help you to distract yourself, especially if you're single for the first time in a few years! We're gonna watch camp takota (AH HOW EXCITING IT'S ACTUALLY HAPPENING DJFHG) and a lot of other cheesy RomComs that will ~probably~ leave us all sobbing. 

3) Spend the day shopping

There's nothing better than a little retail therapy, so why not visit your local shopping centre and treat yourself to an amazing new outfit or buy those gorgeous shoes you've been staring at for the past three months. 

4) Take a family member out for lunch

Whether it's a family member you see daily, or someone you haven't seen in months. I always find going for lunch with my Mum or Step-Grandmother is such a nice treat. You can catch up on all the family gossip or just spend a nice few hours talking about life. Plus, I guess you're spending Valentines day with a loved one (unless you don't get on with your family, then maybe this one isn't for you)

5) DO NOTHING!
And by do nothing, I mean pretend it's just a normal day. If you're extremely anti-valentines day then the perfect way to spend it is to forget it exists, start your spring cleaning, spend all day on tumblr, go to work or spend all day vegging about doing absolutely nothing! Just generally go about your day to day life (maybe with some added extra chocolate). 
After all it is only Valentines Day, if you don't get the day off it can't be that important, right?

If you liked this kind of post, please let me know. (its my first one, I'm fairly new to all this)
Thanks for reading!
Lucy 
xx