2014...Bring it on!

I hate the whole 'New Year, New Me' thing that goes around all of the social networks on New Years eve, and I'm not one for making resolutions, mainly because I always break them.

However, 2014 is the year I am going to get myself organised, in every sense. 

• I already am a big list maker, and I live by to-do lists, but this year I'm going to sort out how I keep them. at the moment I keep them all on scrap pieces of paper and on random notes on my phone, but I'm going to try and keep them all in one notebook, or on a to-do list app so I know exactly what I have to do and what I have completed. No more hunting for my lists! 
• I've also only recently learned how to make a calendar sync on my phone, laptop and tablet, so now I'll be able to have the same information on everything, and I won't have to keep checking my updates. Brilliant!
• Last August I was in TK Maxx with mum, and I spotted something I have wanted for ages, well reduced. A beautiful Orange Filofax. As a self-confessed stationery addict, and someone who loves Colour, it was right up my street. Plus it will only aid my resolution to get organised. 
• I want to get myself into a good daily routine. With university timetables, and a Part-time job where I work random shifts, it can be easy to have lots of late nights and early mornings and not leave a lot of time to get stuff done outside of these hours. I also Procrastinate. A LOT. I want to set myself a waking up time so I will get up at the same time everyday, and try and make sure I get enough sleep!
• My room is in severe need of sorting out. There is no system to where I store or keep things, so getting ready is often a massive stress! I like these clear makeup storage sets because they look good and sleek, while still serving their purpose. My interior design board on Pinterest is filling up nicely.
• Currently still living between Ireland and Sunderland means I have lots of clothes I have abandoned and no longer wear, I'm going to have a wardrobe clear out and sell it all on ebay. This also means I'll have that extra bit of money to save.
• Saving is something else I want to get serious about. I have bought one of those money tins which you can only open with a tin opener so I won't be able to dip in and out of my savings when I need something extra. If I can't justify it, I won't buy it!
• My poor little blog has been abandoned with all the other commitments I have, so I want to spend my free days writing up several post and scheduling them, and I want to properly commit time to making this blog amazing. My first step has been looking at books on blogging to download to my kindle once my loan comes in, I'm looking forward to this step and I can't wait to make this work.

I am coming to the end of my university life, and I'm applying for jobs and trying to plan out what I'm going to do when I finish. I know that getting organised now is really going to help me in the long run when I am (Hopefully!) working.

What are your New Years Resolutions? Happy 2014 to all of you!

My Fave Five!

Soap and Glory 'Scrub of your life'// Percy and Reed Finishing Polish// Vera Wang 'Princess'// Benefit 'Big Beautiful Eyes' Palette// Topshop Cream Highlighters

I love beauty Products, but I don't often do beauty posts, so I decided to do a post on My five favourite beauty products at the moment.

1. Soap & Glory 'Scrub of Your Life' Body Scrub

I have a literal addiction to Soap & Glory scrubs, as I feel they are the best ones on very dry skin. I do suffer from extremely dry skin, and this one makes my skin amazingly soft and smooth. It comes with the signature Soap & Glory scent as well, which is definitely a bonus.

2. Percy & Reed 'Quite Frankly Flawless Finishing Polish'

I got this free with Glamour Magazine a few months ago, relegated it to the bottom of my beauty box, and totally forgot about it until I moved back home. I am now totally and officially in love with it. Is it possible to marry a hair product? because I need this to be in my life forever! (and I'll have the hottest wedding hair ever!) It is perfect for helping to control those annoying stray hairs, without making my hair look too neat, as I prefer to wear it slightly messy.

3. Vera Wang 'Princess'

This perfume is so summery and floral, that I have been wearing it constantly in the recent bout of sunshine. I bought it in the airport as a little present for finishing 2nd year of uni, and because Princess is my and my friends pet name for each other, and I won't see her for three months, so it cheers me up seeing it everyday. It is also a cute addition to my perfume shelf as the bottle is gorgeous.

4. Benefit 'Big Beautiful Eyes' Palette

This eye palette is in my everyday makeup routine, and definitely one of my makeup staples. it contains three eyeshadows, a base shadow, a shadow for contouring, and a liner shadow, in different shades of brown and nude, in order to highlight your eyes. It also comes with Benefits 'Boi-ing' Concealer, which I will be purchasing as a full product once I finish this, as I have yet to find another concealer which covers my under eye bags as well as it does.

5. Topshop Cream Highlighters

I never used highlighters, and didn't really know much about how to use them or what they did, as I never noticed much difference with or without them, but this is a product I got given on my last day at Company Magazine, and since then I have used these most days, and I can see the difference they make to the outlines of my face. I wish the packaging was as cute as other Topshop makeup, but at least these are a quality product, and not just based around the packaging.

                                    

Clinique Chubby Sticks

 I talked about buying one of these products for AGES! I never actually got round to it, but at christmas, I got one as a present and it lived up to everything I thought it would be! I really like how moisturising they are, and I think the colour is really well pigmented.


For anyone who isn't too familiar with these products, the packaging describes them as "Moisturising Lip colour balm" and the Clinique website says: 
"Chubby Stick Moisturizing Lip Colour Balm is a lip treatment with sheer colour that relieves dry, cracked lips and provides immediate moisturisation. The unique pencil-style applicator provides easy to apply sheer soft lip colour and rolls up for ease of use. "


I completely agree with all of Cliniques comments, these are a dream! I like them for the daytime, because sometimes lipstick is just too much, but lip gloss is not enough, and these are the perfect middle ground as far as I'm concerned.


I have very dry skin, and this does affect my lips, and they often are too cracked for me to wear lipstick, but because these act as a balm, I can wear them anytime I like, and I don't have to worry about it cracking on my lips. 

The only shade I currently own is called 'Fuller Fig', and isn't as scary as it sounds or first looks. It looks slightly brown when you first see it, but when you put it on it goes a nice shade, which I can't really explain and is apparently impossible to capture on camera, especially in badly lit uni housing! But take my word for it, it is really nice!


Clinique have recently released their latest shades for summer, and I am already eyeing up most of them, mainly because I cannot wait for an excuse to wear summer shades. If the weather fails to appear, my clothes and makeup shall just have to bring summer to Ireland on their own!

Like glitter's raining on me...

Rimmel: I ♥ Lasting Finish in 500 Disco Ball - £2.99 Superdrug

Usually I am a self confessed glitter hater! if its on clothes I will not wear it! (However I am partial to the odd tacky glittery shoe!)
However, Glitter nail polish I LOVE! This Rimmel colour (500 Disco Ball) was exactly what I needed to update my winter nail shades into spring worthy nails, it just manages to make things happier!
its not an opaque glitter, but I still do not think it needs a base colour, its looks really cute on its own.

I'm slightly afraid that it makes my nails look equivalent to that of a 7 year old girls, but I dont care! Wearing it out clubbing tonight and I'm already a bit overexcited by how cool it'll look when the lights hit it. Need a Life!

Summery Nails

Continuing on from yesterdays summery themed post I painted my Nails Summery Colours. Couldnt decide on a pattern or nail art, so settled on alternating colours.

Nails in BarryM Bright Pink and Mushroom.

Topshop Makeup Shopping Spree.

Lipstick in 'Innocent'-Lipstick and eyeliner- Bag- Swatches- Cute box.

Took a little trip into Newcastle on Sunday with Melody for a days shopping, and then a cheeky little Nando's of course!
While browsing in Topshop I had a look at the makeup stand, after having heard very good reviews of it from lots of people. I wanted some new Lipstick and Some brown Eyeliner, and bought an eyeliner Kohl in 'Saddle', and a lipstick in 'Innocent'.
I find Topshop to be overpriced a lot of the time, so naturally was expecting the makeup to follow suit, however, was pleasantly surprised to find that they are all extremely reasonably priced, with the Lipstick costing  £8.00 and the Eyeliner costing £4.00
I love this lipstick. I was a bit unsure of the colour at first, and felt it was a bit bright as it comes out very pink when its on, and slightly reminded me of a Barbie, but I warmed to it and now I absolutely love it. Its very moisturising, and doesn't dry out your lips, and the pigmentation is good.
The eyeliner I also love, its not as brown as I was hoping for, but more of a bronze colour, but I still like the colour, it applies nicely, and smudges really well.
The packaging of Topshop makeup is so cute, and I love how simple it is, yet it still manages to look quirky. it does mark really easily though, just had the lipstick in bag at uni for two hours and already marks on it. Oh well, I am just clumsy like that!

Soap & Glory "thick & fast" mascara: Review

I am a massive fan of Soap & Glory Products and I have been using their Products for a long time, I swear by their body scrubs and they make my all-time favourite Lip-gloss. Therefore, when my March issue of ELLE came through my letterbox and it contained a free soap and glory mascara I was very excited to try it out.

First major thing I love about it is the brush. I really dislike the rubber brushes on most new mascaras, and I tend to stay well clear of them, so when I realised this was one of the mascara brushes I love using I got a bit over excited (Lame, I know!)

I love the consistency of the mascara, it is runny enough that you are able to apply several coats easily, but yet, It doesnt cause my eyelashes to clump together. It is a lovely deep black and I have no negative points about the mascara itself.

However, I did find the packaging disappointing as I love looking at soap & glory packaging because I find it quirky and nice to look at, but this is a small packaging so not much room for any of the usual stuff on it I suppose.

Usually retails at £10 but free with March issue of Elle. I would definitely pay £10 for this though!

What's in my Makeup Bag?

Feel like I've ignored the blog a little this last few days, but I've had assingments to for uni and all the usual things that eat up time! But anyway, now I'm back and decided to post about whats in makeup bag. This is generally the makeup I wear most days.

This is my makeup bag, its Betsey Johnson and I got it as a christmas gift a few years ago. I think its really pretty, and its also the perfect size for holding my makeup, but still being able to fit in my handbag.

A shot of the inside. apologies for the messy state! SO the first two products are MAC Skin Base Visage -£18.00 and the foundation I use which is MAC Studio fix fluid in NC15 - £19.50 (Yes very pale I know!) I find that MAC gives me the best coverage, although my skin does not require much coverage, but I also feel they hold the best range of shades and that this particular shade is the best I've found for my skin tone.

17 Hide & Chic Eye brightening concealer in light beige- £4.99
17 was never a brand I would've thought of buying, but when I got this for free during freshers week, I realised that this concealer is very good, and  nearly perfect match to my foundation, luckily I do not need to use concealer much on my skin, mostly under my eyes, but that this is a very good concealer.

Rimmel Day2Night Mascara in 001 black - £5.99
Maybelline Great Lash Mascara in Blackest black - £4.99
I like mascara, and these are two of my favourites, I have lots of others but these are the two I took home with me from university. The Rimmel mascara is a lot better than I expected it to be before I tried it, and the Maybelline Mascara is one I've been using pretty much since I started wearing makeup. Creature of habit when it comes to beauty!

Barry M Kohl Pencil -£2.99
Rimmel glam-eyes eyeliner- £5.29
Models Own Pro eyeliner- £6.00
This makes it look like I use lots of Eyeliner when i actually dont. I do use the kohl pencil a lot, but i rarely use liquid eyeliner, as I cannot for the life of me put it on. I have tried and tried and practised for ages, but I just can't do it.The rimmel was free when I bought mascara, while the Models own one came from a goody bag I got at the clothes show in December.  I use the brown eyeshadow and the Rimmel eyebrow pencil to fill in my invisible eyebrows. such a curse being fair sometimes!

Esteé Lauder signature Lipstick in 126 Nectarine -£19.00
MAC Lustre Lipstick in A81 Ladybug -£13.50
Having only recently started wearing Lipstick, I have discovered that Red lipstick suits me, and so its now the colour of choice for me. The Esteé Lauder lipstick, i find very drying on my Lips and also Im not overly fond of the colour as it is a little shimmery for my liking. However, the MAC lipstick is my favourite and i love the solid plain colour and the texture of it. It wears very well, and needs very little re-applications.

No7 Blusher in Soft Damson- £9.50
Rimmel Match Perfection Compact in True Ivory -£6.99
I really like this blusher, as it clearly needs replacing soon, and I feel the shade suits me well and its really well pigmented. This compact is what i take in my clutch on nights out as it mattifies my skin, and stops me looking shiny in photos.

Lastly, I know it isn't in my makeup bag but these are the eyshadows I use. This is Urban Decay Volume 2 and I got it as i gift for Christmas two years ago, and its still going strong. I like some colours better than others as is common with palletes. The colour thats nearly done is Sellout and I find it makes a nice base colour for everyday, and the blue shades remain untouched as I don't really like Blue eye shadow.

I'm going to promise to try and post more, but sometimes uni work will have piled up on me. Im going on a shopping spree next week so I will post all the things I bought.