August 28, 2013

August Favourites


Hello Readers.

As you may know already, I am about to go on holiday to Zante very soon. I leave on Friday the 30th and won't be back until the 6th of September. I am currently working on trying to get as many posts written up as I can beforehand so that hopefully if I have internet access, I'll be able to post them whilst I'm away. I am going to try and do holiday OOTD posts also, however I'm not too sure if that'll be done whilst I'm away or just when I'm back. It depends on the internet situation and whatever is easiest for me. So as it's coming up to the end of the month, I thought it would be a good idea to do my August Favourites post. Now this month I haven't really been using a great deal of different products, I'm still thoroughly enjoying using the products I featured in my last monthly favourites post, especially my GOSH BB Cream which I am just in love with! However a few (and I mean a few) new favourite products have made their way into my everyday makeup bag so I thought I'd do a post anyway.


So my first favourite product of this month is a blush, and this is Benefit's Dandelion blush. As you can see from the images above I don't actually own the full size version of this product, just a small sample size which comes in the "Feelin' Dandy" Cheek and Lip Kit. My mum very kindly bought me this kit almost a year ago whilst we were at the airport about to go to Spain.

I've recently been enjoying wearing quite a minimal make-up look and this blush is perfect for just that. Dandelion is a very light, subtle pink colour which does have a very, very fine shimmer in the pan however I don't notice any of this transferring onto my face. The colour is such a natural and healthy looking shade of pink that it just compliments the skin quite nicely. I personally am not a massive fan of pinky blushes as I don't often like how they look on me, however I make an exception for this one as it's so subtle and pretty. It adds a nice natural looking flush of colour without looking like you even have makeup on. It also blends in very easily! This little kit retails for about £23 which is incredibly expensive but I do think it's worth it as you get to try 4 Benefit products for what is usually the price for about 1.


The next product in my August Favourites is this Coconut scented body spray which I picked up from The Body Shop almost 2 weeks ago now. I featured it in a mini haul so if you're interested in reading that then just click here. Since picking it up, it has fast become a favourite scent of mine despite the fact that I wasn't actually meant to start using it until I was on holiday. There's not really a great deal I can say about this product as to put it simply, it's just a coconut scented spray. I love the smell of coconut and think it just smells so lovely and summery! The scent lasts quite long on my skin which is great as there's nothing more annoying then when you spray some perfume and it's gone within half the day. You get 30ml of product in this bottle which isn't too bad but for £8, I do think it's kind of expensive. However I'd gladly pay for it as it just smells so lovely.
 


Next up in this months favourites is this Simple Kind To Skin, Hydrating Light Moisturiser. I bought this a while back instead of picking up my usual Simple Rich Replenishing one, as I wanted something a bit lighter during the summer months. This has worked wonders on my skin and I really do swear by any Simple Kind To Skin Moisturiser. They hydrate my skin wonderfully and absorb really quickly. They also never leave my skin feeling greasy or oily after I've used them! This retails for around £3 - £4 however you can often find Simple skin care products on offer at Superdrug so keep an eye out!


My last and final favourite product from the month of August has been this Collection "Work The Colour" Eyeshadow Pencil in the shade Vanilla Sky 1. I featured this in a Haul post from July which you can see by clicking here. As you can see from the description on the product, this is a velvety, blendable eyeshadow pencil. I picked this up on a whim and I'm glad I did as this has became my favourite product to use as a inner corner highlight. It's the perfect colour and consistency for this purpose. It blends very easily and is also waterproof which is a god send as my eyes are so watery and I am forever rubbing the inner corner of my eyes and taking off whatever make-up happens to be there. However this product stays put, no matter how much I ended up rubbing my eyes during the day. I really do like this and wish to pick up some more shades in the future, and at the retail price of £3.19 I don't see why not!

That's all for my August Favourites post. I hope you've enjoyed it!

Let me know what you think of any of these products below?

Hope you're all well!

Paige.
 

August 23, 2013

AW13 Trend; Plaid.


Hello Readers!

I've been browsing clothing websites recently as I've been keen to look at next seasons stock and I've noticed that Punk styling is going to be in style for these colder months so expect to see studs, chunky ankle boots of course, Plaid. I don't know if anyone else has noticed but there's been a fair few pieces of plaid items popping up here and there on clothing sites. Remember last year when everyone and their mum had a tartan scarf? Well it looks like this trend will be making a return for AW13. Here I've put together a collage of some of my favourite plaid items that I've spotted online recently.  
*None of these pictures were taken by me*

August 22, 2013

The Liebster Award.


Hello Readers!

Today I will be doing a different sort of post so I hope you don't mind too much. Whilst waiting for my extremely lazy boyfriend to get out of bed this morning, I decided to kill some time by checking my blog and seeing if I had any new activity on there. I noticed a new comment on my New Look Autumn Preview post which caught my attention. The comment was from the lovely Keziah, saying that she had nominated me for a Liebster Award - which was extremely kind of her and I am so grateful!



 


Now for those of you who have not heard of the "Liebster Award" before, it's basically a tag which helps to get bloggers who have under 200 followers, noticed. I think this is an amazing idea as there are so many bloggers out there that it can be quite hard to get yourself established and to really put your name out there. This tag just gives you the chance to have your blog seen by more people and maybe even gain you some new followers. 
 
This of course is an amazing idea because at the end of the day, you're putting content out there which you want to share with people!


Now as all tags do, there are some rules. I've seen a few different rules floating around for this tag however these were the ones that were on the blog which I was originally tagged on. They are as follows;
  1. Link back and recognize the blogger who nominated me.
  2. Answer the 11 questions that have been given to me by the nominator.
  3. Nominate 11 other bloggers for this award – they must have less than 200 followers!
  4. Create 11 questions for my nominees to answer
  5. Let my nominees know they have been nominated by going to their blog and notifying them.
 
So the questions that Keziah created for her nominations to answer, are;
  1. If you could swap wardrobes with any celebrity who would it be?
    I think I'd have to say Suki Waterhouse. I think she's got great style and I absolutely love the two piece suits that she's been photographed in. I'd love to have something like that in my wardrobe!
  2. What is your favourite time that you have seen a band live?I'm not really sure, I've seen quite a few bands live due to the fact that I've been to about 4 festivals within the last few years. I really don't think I could pick a favourite time!
  3. If you had £1000 would you rather spend it on clothes or beauty?
    Clothes, easily!
  4. What's your ideal holiday?
    My ideal holiday would be just somewhere where it's hot, there's a pool, a good poolside bar and some good restaurants! I'm really not fussy when it comes to my holidays.  
  5. If you could have one handbag, what would it be?
    I'd quite like a Cambridge Satchel actually! Although they are extremely expensive.
  6. What are your 3 favourite shops?
    Topshop, River Island and Primark!
  7. If you could live in any other time period what would you choose and why?
    I honestly don't know, I think I'm quite happy with the time period I'm in now!
  8. What was the first record you bought?
    Record as in CD? I think it was probably Pink - Missundaztood. How embarrassing!
  9. If you could only buy one makeup brand for the rest of your life what would it be?
    I'd have to say Rimmel because on the whole, most of their products are quite good. They have a good range of stuff so I could probably make do with just that brand alone.
  10. If you could change anything about yourself what would it be?
    Ooh tough one. I would probably say my hair as it's often the thing that I'm most unhappy with. It's thick, wavy and frizzy and just so hard to work with! I can never do anything with it and it just frustrates me to no end.
  11. What beauty product have you been most disappointed with?
    Nars blush in the shade Deepthroat. It looked so beautiful and there was so much hype about it however the pigmentation is so bad. On top of all that it was expensive too so I was super disappointed with that.


    Now as part of the rules I have to create my own questions for my Nominations to answer so my questions are ;

    1. What inspired you to start blogging?
    2. How did you come up with your blog name?
    3. Are you more of a fashion person or a beauty person?
    4. Foundation or BB Cream? Which do you prefer?
    5. If you could hang out with one youtuber / blogger who would it be?
    6. Who is your fashion icon?
    7. What is your favourite food?
    8. Nights out or nights in? Which do you prefer?
    9. What's you favourite clothing brand?
    10. What was the last film you saw in cinema?
    11. What is your favourite make-up brand?

    The people I nominate are;

    1. Kayla - Kaylaloveskosmetics
    2. Niamh - NiamhEtc
    3. Katie - Whatkatieedidnext
    4. Sharon - IEatFashion
    5. Amber - LovelyNotions
    6. Amy - AMelissaB
    7. Ella - EllaTebbutt
    8. Georgia - GeorgiaRosex
    9. Evangeline - EvangelineYoung
    10. Millie - Fl0ralKittens 
    11. Fiona - Lilyavenuee




    Sorry if I've tagged anyone who's already been tagged previously!

    I look forward to seeing any responses.

    Hope you're all well.

    Paige.







     
 
 

 




August 21, 2013

OOTD #12


Hello Readers!
 
Today I will be sharing with you an outfit of the day post. Forgive me for not posting the last three days or so, I've not been feeling very well so therefore I haven't really been bothering with make-up or clothes so I didn't really know what to do a post on. I woke up today feeling really motivated to make an effort with my appearance today. Sometimes I just shove on a pair of jeans and a top and that's the extent of my outfit, however today I felt like being quite girly so this is what I ended up wearing!




I am a big fan of the monochrome trend and always find myself dressing this way. I don't know why but these are just the colours I feel most comfortable in. I really need to set myself the challenge of dressing more colourful. Maybe when I go on holiday to Zante next week I might find myself embracing colour a bit more? Speaking of my holiday, I was actually thinking of doing some outfit posts whilst I'm there. I don't know if I'd actually be able to get internet access to post them whilst I was away but as long as I take pictures for them would you be interested in seeing holiday outfit of the days / evenings when I get back? Let me know! I think I'll probably end up doing that anyway..

So as I said I felt like being girly today I decided to put on this beautiful little monochrome tapestry print skater skirt that I got from ASOS a few months back. This skirt was somewhere between the £9 - £11 mark so it was quite cheap. I'm not sure if it's still available but I have a feeling it won't be anymore. I then decided to pair it with this light black jumper from H&M which I've had for about 2 years now and I've honestly had so much wear out of this it's unreal. Definitely one of my most used staple pieces in my wardrobe. I then decided to put on these little New Look black peter pan boots (I call them this because they're quite pointed) and some white frilly socks. Then to top it all off I added my black bowler hat because it is a godsend to me. It allows me to be super lazy with my hair so I try and plan as many outfits around it as possible.

Outfit:
Black Jumper - H&M
Monochrome Tapestry Print Skater Skirt - ASOS
Black Peter Pan Boots - New Look
White Frilly Socks - Topshop
Black Bowler Hat - Amazon




That's all for my OOTD post today, I hope you enjoyed!

I hope you're all well.

Paige.




August 17, 2013

Mini Haul #4


Hello Everyone!

Today I went up town to start picking up some bits for my very last minute holiday to Zante which is less than 2 weeks away now. I went up town with the idea of picking up a new bikini and some plain denim shorts, however as my holiday is so late into the year there wasn't a lot of summer stock left and the bikini section in each store was really slim pickings. A lot of the bikini's were so tragic and when I found one that I liked the top would be the right size but the bottoms would be a 16. So needless to say I ended up just buying random stuff instead and this has resulted in a mini haul for you guys!
 
 

So somehow I ended up wandering into Superdrug and this resulted in this Maybelline 24 Hour Colour Tattoo being purchased. I picked this up in 05 Eternal Gold and as you can see from the pictures it's this beautiful muted, creamy gold colour. There is another gold shade in the Colour Tattoo range and I believe it's called 25K Gold, and that is an extremely bright gold colour so if you're into really pigmented gold shades then I would recommend you try that. I went for this one as I just really loved the colour, it's not too scary and I think it can be used to create a lot of classy evening looks. I already have the shade on and on bronze and I feel like these two would work really well together. I did have a look for the metallic pomegranate shade however they didn't stock that one in my Superdrug so that's one for the make-up wishlist. I picked this up for about £4.99.




The next thing I picked up was Collection 2000's Fix Me Up Lasting Make-up Fixer. I've already used up a bottle of this and I quite like it. I use this mostly on nights out as on a normal everyday basis I don't wear much make-up. I just spray my face with about 3 pumps of this and I feel like it helps to set my make-up and I would say it also helps to keep it on regardless of how many hours I've spent stomping away on the dance floor. I picked this up for also about £4.99.
 
Next I popped into The Body Shop on the hunt for a coconut scented body spray. My friend Hannah wears this and it smells absolutely fabulous. It's literally like a holiday in a bottle. Just the scent of it reminds me of suntan lotion and pina colados. I think this will be a lovely scent to wear on the evenings of my holiday when we go out for dinner etc so I'm very excited to start using this. This was around the £8 mark which is very expensive for only 30 ml of spay, however my boyfriend Chris, kindly bought me this so thank you very much to him!
 


Next I popped into New Look where I picked up this beautiful white Cami vest. I've been really into these as they've been massively on trend for the Summer, however I never really picked one up for some reason despite wanting one. I found this one in New Look today and absolutely fell in love with it. This looks so well made and feels such good quality and only cost £9.99 which is a really good price! The ones I was originally looking at in Topshop were around the £20 mark which just seems so silly for a little vest. I definitely want to invest in a few more of these in lots of different shades! So practical and stylish.
 

The final thing I picked up was this Black off the shoulder peplum top which I picked up from Primark for only £6! I've been eyeing up this top for ages and finally picked it up today. It's such a good staple piece to have in your wardrobe and can easily go from day to night. I absolutely adore this and think it'll be a lovely piece to wear out for dinner whilst I'm on holiday.


That's all for this mini haul, I hope you don't mind as it did seem quite short.
I think there will be another mini haul coming up some time soon as I still need to pick up a bikini and I'm sure I'll end up picking up other stuff also.

Hope you're all well!

Paige.

 

August 16, 2013

New Look Autumn Preview.



Hello Readers!

So I was just browsing the internet today when I randomly stumbled on New Look's website. I came across a section called "Autumn Preview" where some pieces from their A/W 13 range are currently on display. Now I used to love New Look when I was a young teen, however at 16 I discovered Topshop and that quickly replaced New Look as my favourite store. New Look's stock
never really impressed me however they've really stepped up their game now! I'm always able to find quite a few things that I want from their site now and their A/W 13 range looks to be no exception. Here I've created an outfit from some pieces featured in next seasons stock.  
 
Black Double Buckle Metal Tip Leather Boots - £69.99

What do you think of some of the pieces from New Look's A/W 13 range?
Let me know in the comments!

Hope you're all well.

Paige.
 
 


August 14, 2013

OOTD #11


Hello Readers!

So I was looking through my blog last night when I realised that it's been so long since I last did an outfit of the day post. I really love doing these posts, they're easy to make and in general I just seem to find them more interesting as overall I'd say I'm more of a fashion person than a beauty person, although I seriously do love both!
 
Tonight I'm going out for yet another Date Night with my boyfriend and I decided that it would be the perfect opportunity for me to wear a new dress that I recently picked up from Primark. We're going out to Nando's and then we're going to see Kick Ass 2 which I am so excited to see! It's quite a casual date night so I thought this dress would be the perfect thing to wear as it's not too dressy yet it's still really pretty and appropriate for a casual evening. To help keep this dress casual I paired it with a small tan belt around the waist, a brown satchel and little brown loafers.

I picked this dress up last week from Primark after seeing it featured in a haul by The Happy Wallflower. It's a beautiful little forest green dress with an unusual cream shaped pattern all over it. This dress only cost £8 which is a bargain and I can already tell I'm going to get so much wear out of it.



 

Outfit:
Dress - Primark
Loafers - New Look
Satchel - Miss Selfridge
Belt - Primark

That's all for today's post. I hope you enjoy!

I hope everyone is well!

Paige.







August 11, 2013

Androgynous Photoshoot.

 
Hello Readers!

It's been a while since I last posted anything on here so please forgive me for being so lazy! I shall try and sort myself out and hopefully get back to posting a bit more regularly. I did two photoshoots this week, one a portrait shoot and the other a fashion one so I thought I'd share with you some images from my fashion shoot I did this week as I was really excited by the concept and the overall outcome.

I planned this photoshoot to have a very androgynous theme. I chose a female model and decided the best way to style her would be with slicked back hair, a tailored suit, minimal makeup yet really defined bone structure. I created a mood board when I first began creating the shoot idea, which I shall include so you can see exactly what it was that I was aiming to create.


So now I'll show you some of the images from my shoot! All of these images were taken and edited by myself.
 
 
 

Styling: Myself
Photography and Retouching: Myself
Hair and Make-up: Hannah
Model: Hannah
Location: Kirby Hall
 
That's all for today's post! Let me know what you think of these pictures.
Sorry for this really short post, I hope you don't mind too much!

Hope you're all well.

Paige.




August 05, 2013

Products I Regret Buying #1 - MAC Pro Longwear Concealer

 
 
Hello Everyone!

Today I will be doing the first post in a series called "Products I Regret Buying". I decided to start doing a few of these posts as there's a fair few products I have that I really regret picking up and I thought this could be potentially useful for anyone who's interested in picking up these products themselves and may want to hear the potential cons that they experience with said product.

The product I will be talking about today is MAC's Pro Longwear Concealer.
I don't really have a great deal of MAC makeup so this is the only MAC product that I've been disappointed by. Well the only product that I've been disappointed by that I still have. I was also let down by the MAC Zoom Lash Mascara but that's a different story so I won't go into that! Before I get started I'd just like to say that these are my honest opinions of this product, these are things which I have experienced and not enjoyed. If this product works for you then that's good, but unfortunately it didn't work for me so please don't be offended if you happen to love this product.




I picked this product up on a whim whilst in America 2 years ago. I went into the store and felt pretty overwhelmed by everything so when I was approached by one of the girls who worked in there I sort of blurted out that I wanted a concealer. I somehow ended up being convinced to purchase this one and it wasn't until I got back in the UK that I realised how much of a bad purchase this was. I think this cost me about $18, I'm not sure how much it is here so you'd have to check that yourself. I was matched up to the shade NC20 which as I said, I didn't even question until I was back in the UK.


First of all, the most disappointing thing about this product is the colour I was matched up to. This is far too dark for me and I have no idea what the girl was thinking matching me to this shade. I caught no colour whatsoever on my face whilst I was out in America so I don't see how I was possibly matched up with this colour. I am an incredibly pale person, think porcelain. In fact my foundation colour is light porcelain!
Below I've included shots of my foundation which is the correct shade for my skintone, right next to the concealer so you can see just how crazy the comparison in the 2 shades actually is.
 


 


This product is far too dark for me and there is no way on earth I could possibly get this to work for me unless I was to begin tanning but I don't do that so this is effectively useless and a waste of money! Aside from the product being the completely wrong shade, I also find the packaging to be really ill thought out. MAC did create this product with a pump however you have absolutely no control over how much product this pump squirts out and it always squeezes out too much product so you end up with far too much concealer for one person to use. Sometimes if you're extremely careful you can squeeze out just the right amount however majority of the time it just squirts out far too much product. Another design fault with the pump is that because it squirts out too much product you always get an excess of concealer just on the opening of the pump which then manages to smear all around the pump and on the inside of the lid so the packaging looks incredibly messy.
 
 
I find this concealer to be quite liquidy and it's very easy to blend HOWEVER if you are the type of person who applies blobs of concealer on all your flaws, dark circles, red areas of skin and then blends, you will have problems with this concealer as despite being a very liquidy formulation it dries extremely fast! For example, if I put a blob of this under each eye and then went on to apply blobs of it over some imperfections, when it came to blending the concealer under my eyes it would have began to have dried and then it became really hard to blend. By the time I moved on to blending the concealer that was on any spots or red areas, it would have dried completely and would not budge.

Another thing I don't like about this product is that I just don't think it provides that great a coverage, especially underneath my eyes. As it's quite liquid based, I find that it goes on quite sheer and light so it really doesn't cover up a lot of the darkness underneath my eyes. I also find that this unfortunately seems to crease underneath my eyes quite badly. Not as bad as the Sleek Concealer and Corrector Palette which I have previously reviewed on my blog, however it still collects in the slight lines I have underneath my eyes and that's not something I expect from a brand that is quite expensive and is considered more high end.

Overall I just really did not like this product and will definitely not be repurchasing this. So far I'm yet to find a concealer that will rival the infamous Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer which I have used religiously since I was about 15 years old.

That's all for todays post, I hope you enjoyed.

Let me know what your thoughts on this product are, does it work for you? Or do you find yourself in agreement with my opinions? I'd love to hear!

Hope you're all well.

Paige.





August 03, 2013

The Boyfriend Tag.


Hello Readers.

Today I will be finally sharing with you, my version of The Boyfriend Tag. I actually filmed this with my boyfriend Chris, a few days ago and have only just been able to upload it now. I've never sat in front of a camera and filmed myself talking before so as you can probably tell I was super uncomfortable doing it! The beginning is so awkward so please excuse that, I just had no idea what to say. Me and Chris have been together for quite some time now, about 2 and a half years and we're actually moving in together in September! So there could potentially be a little home ware haul coming up some time this month if any of you would be interested in seeing that?

We googled the boyfriend tag and these are the questions that came up, I'm not sure if they're exactly the right ones but hopefully these will do! Once again, sorry about the super awkward opening or lack of opening to be more precise. I also know that this camera angle is highly unflattering so hopefully next time I film a video I bare this in mind. Also, t
he sound is a little quiet so just to warn you that you may need to turn the volume up quite a bit.




I hope you enjoy this video!

Let me know what you think of it in the comments and if we should maybe do some more.
I'd love to hear some feedback.

Hope you're all well.

Paige.

August 01, 2013

July Favourites

 
 
Hello Readers!
 
Today I will be doing my July Favourites post. I will just say now that I haven't featured many products in this favourites post as It's been so hot and I just haven't been using that many products or wearing that much make-up for that matter. However when I have been wearing make-up, these are the products that I've been reaching for and have been enjoying using during this incredibly hot weather we're having. In my favourites this month, I have a lipstick, a blush, a face contour kit and a BB cream. So enough chatting and on with the post!
 




Okay so the first item I want to talk about in my July Favourites is this blush from the Dainty Doll range. This is a powder blush in the shade 001 Hippy Shake. I bought this blush many months back but never really used it because it's a odd dusky pinky, lilac colour with quite a bit of shimmer in it which I originally thought would look horrendous on my face. However after recently using it in a photoshoot on a model, I really liked the way it looked on her skin and I decided to start using it myself. This blush is a very light colour and therefore requires a little bit of building up however once it's on it's a lovely subtle flush of colour which looks very healthy on the skin. It's not a colour for everyone however, as Dainty Doll cosmetics are for pale skinned girls like myself. I picked this up from Fragrance Direct for £1.99.





 
The next product that I've been loving this month is Sleeks Face Contour Kit in Light. I picked this up back in April whilst I was in London and I have not regretted it in the slightest! This product is rather hyped up but it's definitely worth the hype. This handy little kit contains a matte bronzer on the left and a beautiful highlight on the right. The bronzer is buildable so you can control the intensity of the contouring and is also very easy to blend so if you've applied too much or have been a bit too heavy handed it can be fixed. The highlight is a lovely pearly iridescent shade which I actually prefer over Benefit's High Beam. Like the bronzer this is buildable, however it can be a little bit chalky but other than I adore it! The highlighter creates the perfect subtle healthy glow which is great for this time of year. I love this little kit and have been using it so much during the warmer weather for that perfect bronzed, glowy summer look.




Next product that I have been enjoying throughout July is this Gosh BB Cream in the shade Sand. I've done a blog review on this product before, so if any of you are interested in reading a more in depth description of this product then you can do so by clicking here.
This is the first BB cream I've ever used and it's honestly so good. I picked this up on a whim as I was really drawn to it for some reason. I picked up the lightest shade which is Sand and I doubted this would suit my skintone as sand is usually quite a dark beige shade in most foundations. However this suits my skintone perfectly! Not only that but it provides a really good coverage for a BB cream. It's light on the skin however it does do a good job covering any blemishes or discolouration. This is has been a lovely product to wear during the warmer weather as I feel comfortable with the coverage it gives and the way it feels on my skin.





The final product in my July Favourites round up is this lipstick by Maybelline. This is the Maybelline Colour Sensational Lipstick in the shade Citrus Slice. I picked this up a while back from Fragrance Direct when I first started my obsession with orange lipsticks. When this arrived I was extremely disappointed with it as it's extremely sheer and has almost no colour payoff whatsoever, it's pretty much just a lip balm. However I've recently come to really love this product as it is such a nice, moisturising lip product. It's comfortable to wear and creates the most beautiful glossy shine on your lips. It's been nice wearing something so moisturising on my lips during this really hot weather we're having.


I hope you enjoy this post!
Let me know what you're favourite products have been for the month of July.

Hope you're all well.

Paige.