The Black Jumper

The lazy day: Jumper: Forever 21 // Leggings: Topshop // Shoes: Vans // Necklace: Delilah Dust.

The casual coffee: Jumper: Forever 21 // Trousers: Topshop // Shoes: New Look // Bag: Cotton On // Necklace: H&M

The date night: Jumper: Forever 21 // Skirt: Topshop // Top: Topshop // Shoes: New Look // Necklace: H&M // Bag: Miss Selfridge



Ciao x

Beauty: The current top 5 lid-sweepers

It's happened to us all.... slept in a little too late rushing your make up and then you get to eyeshadow....what shade do I pick? Do I have time for shading? Under-eyes? Sometimes it's easier to just sweep one shade over, nice and neutral( even if you aren't in a rush). At the moment  I have 5 go to shades that I love just sweeping across my lid with one easy brush. Simplicity at its finest!

1. MAC - Sable: This is my numero uno shade. I LOVE this, its a frost shade that I pretty go to anytime I am unsure what eyeshadow to wear. It has a rosy coppery tint that goes just about with anything I wear.

2. Urban Decay - Tease: I have this as part of the Naked 2 palette but you can buy it as a single. This was my go to shade before Sable came into my life. Tease for me is my lids but better, its possibly my favourite most natural looking shade. It's a matte shade.

3.Urban Decay - Half baked. This is possibly the only shade that isn't a natural shade. It is my favourite going out shade for a 1920's vibe look. Match this perfectly with a red lip.

4.  Urban Decay - Nooner. Aaah Nooner, UD Naked 3 tease counterpart, as you would expect with the Naked 3 being a rose gold palette this is like a darker pink/coppery version of Tease, it is Matte aussi.

5. MAC - Haux: Possibly MAC equivalent of Tease, a neutral shade that makes you look like you haven't got anything on at all...

What are your favourites?

Ciao x

Beauty -Review: Estee Lauder Pure Color Envy - Rebellious rose.

Quite a long name there! I picked up this beaut at the airport as you can't really say no when products are VAT free and I had my eye on this for a long time. I was toying between Rebellious Rose or Irresistible which was pretty much my lip shade ( but better!). I went for this one as I don't really have a lipstick this shade and I already own a perfect mauve ( Topshop Beatnik). It's pretty much a mauve shade with a rosey pink tint, it's just a lovely pinky shade perfect for spring!

I don't think the first picture gives this justice so I hope the second shows you what a stunning shade this is on the lips ( ignore the weird camera angle...). The formula itself is incredibly smooth and buttery which leaves your lips feeling moisturised. It lasts really well throughout the day - naturally it requires a top up every few hours, I don't think it lasts any different from any of my other lipsticks. The lid has a magnetic close and the packaging is nice a simple.

The range of lipsticks have a very wide variety to suit all kind of lips! The price is £24 which may be a lot for a lipstick but I think with these its worth it. You can feel the good quality while this is on your lips ( And how many of your lipsticks have a magnetic close?!)

have you guys got any of these? Which is your favourite shade?

Ciao x

Beauty: review - Bioderma

So.
The infamous Bioderma.
After going on about how hard it was to get hold of you can imagine my surprise when I am in BOOTS of all places back home and see lots of little bioderma bottles staring back at me.

I was like... BOOTS?!!? SELLS BIODERMA?! WHAT?!
Who knows what is going on but needless to say I snapped me one up straight away. It was 90 Dhs for the 500 ml which works out around £14. It worked a treat with my Peaches and Clean. Although .. you know when your squirting this stuff on a thingy( I'm very technical as you can see) and there is quite a lot so when you press it loads of the liquid comes out? Well. Smarty pants here did that right over her eye. Yes. I accidentally got this stuff in my eye and lets just say it was NOT enjoyable.

We all know Bioderma works, thats why there is so much hype about it... so the real question is:
How does it shape up against the Garnier?

I wiped one side of my face with bioderma and one with the garnier micellar water, both took off make up equally, neither made my skin any redder then usual. In fact looks-wise you couldn't tell which was which. The ONLY difference I found was that the bioderma side of my face was softer. Which really isn't that much of a difference considering I then cleansed and moisturised my face anyway.

So. £14 for 500ml of Bioderma or £5ish for 400ml of Garnier?
I think its say to say I will probably be sticking with the Garnier.
What about you guys?
Ciao bellas x

Berlin Street Style - Angelika Taschen

So... I was walking through waterstones and my eyes fell upon this beaut. Now, people say don't judge a book by its cover but... I pretty much bought this one because of the cover. I had my eye on the Paris street style but when I saw these yellow and red leopard spots I couldn't resist. (I've always been a spots over stripes kinda person)

This book is amazing, its a great read, insightful and the pictures are inspiring. It talks about the general Berlin styles and how they are worn - like how they style the leather jacket. It talks about shopping, clothes, jewellery, home.... everything! I just love the whole style. It talks about styling yourself and your home with pages full of little tips and tricks. If you are planning a trip to Berlin - this book has got you sorted with shops to go to and places to eat or stay.

Angelika has a really lovely writing style that comes off very friendly and the whole book in a way feels personal she gives insight to what she wears and how she decorates her home and her opinions on what is chic and what is a faux pas. She even gives you tips on hosting the perfect party!

Have you guys read this? What did you think? What about the Paris street style?

Ciao x

Beauty - review: Soap & Glory Peaches and clean.

Hey guys,

So I bought this while I was back home to use as a cleanser along with the bioderma water to do a kind of lazy/holiday cleanse. I found the combo really worked well together with some nivea night cream on top.

First of all. THIS SMELLS AMAZING. I think I am in love with the peach smell because I'm obsessed with the peach vinyard shower gels from body shop ( Can someone please explain why this range wasn't made permanent?!) its a nice smooth silky consistency very similar to the body milk consistency.

It claims to be a 3 in 1 wash off: energizing skin, declogging pores and cleansing. I really like this product, it feels really nice on the skin and my skins afterwards felt so soft. My skin stayed clean while I used it though the days where I didn't apply make up some times I would be a little extra lazy and not use this and then my skin went a little cloggy and I got one or two spots but one go with this and it felt back on track. So I think it's pretty fair for them to claim all 3 uses on this.

Another perk is that you can push the lid and twist so that the cap locks which means you don't get any accidental pumps in your suitcase when travelling though you do have to waste some of the product to do this if you didn't do it at the same time as actually cleansing like me. I don't know if other products do that but I haven't really seen it before and was pretty impressed as I have had many a situation where things have leaked in my suitcase.

It's around £8 I think that's really reasonably, the same price as most S&G products and you really don't need much so it is going to last quite a while.

have you guys tried this product? What do you think?

Ciao x

PS testing out a new Macro lens - yay or nay? 

Personal - I'm baaaack.

Hey guys!

So I know I didn't do many posts when away but I didn't really have the time to get any done before I left, I have made a plan for the rest of the month on what I want to blog but just bear with if a few daily posts don't appear. Looking back I really didn't like how my OOTD pictures looked, it was far to rushed and that's really what I want to avoid!! - so I want to spend more time practising taking them. But I am throwing myself straight back in there!! ( except for Vlogs. I really want to spend more time getting better at them so it may be a few weeks before they start to appear and then a while longer for them to become fully regular)

Home was amazing as usual, it's so crazy how inspired and pumped about life I get when I go home, I just feel like I can do anything when I get back to England! Though I ate faaaaar too much and pretty much undid any gym work I had done before. I really want to get back into healthy eating and the gym again so I think after a month I will do a review on how I have been getting on and if I have noticed anything what I have been doing to do that.

Also while I was away I became mildly obsessed with the idea of getting a nose ring! so watch out for that space!! In other exciting new a tattoo artist I am obsessed with finally opened  her books, keep your fingers crossed for me that she likes my idea and will get some more ink on my skin!

Ciao Bellas x

How to: Hair scarf bow tie

Hey everyone!

So I thought I would do a quick and easy how to on tying a scarf round your head, you can use any scarf the one I am using is a light scarf from Topshop, it cost around £18 but I usually use vintage ones.  If its a large squarish shaped scarf like my vintage ones are just place the scarf down and fold it in half so it looks like a traingle and then roll it up!

1. Brush your hair out!

2. Dependant on how you want to style it, I used to always do a kind of ' Rockabilly ' style with a small quiff, you don't need to do this if you don't like it. This is also easier to do with a longer fringe! And I tie my hair up at the back - you can let this loose after.

3. Place the scarf on your head, if you struggle with the scarf moving around a lot, I do because my head is a weird shape, just pin the scarf in at this point.

4.Take the two sides and cross them over at the back and cross them again at the top and tie it up!

Ta-Da, told you it was simple didn't I?

Ciao x

How To: Crimson Lips.

Hello!

So... my first ever... how to! Like I said it is just going to be small things in the how to's so I thought I would start with Crimson lips as my Charlotte Tilbury lipstick came today and I am beyond excited to wear it!

The Lip pencil is called Savage Rose and the lipstick is called Night Crimson - both are extremely soft, I actually didn't expecct the pencil to be as soft as it was which is why the lip line I drew was horrendous! haha!

1. Get some lip balm on those lips!
2. Outline your lip
3. Shade it with the lip pencil
4. chuck on that lipstick!

Ta-Da! Easy as!

Now Charlotte Tilbury make up is a little expensive and I only invested as a treat so if you can't afford to splurge £23 on a lipstick ( and to think my heart used to break when spending £15 on a MAC lipstick!!) I did have a nosy in boots and found Revlon came the closest to a high-street alternative with the colour stay lip liner in plum and the super lustrous lipstick in Black Cherry. - These are just the closest in looks I can't say for feel or quality but the CT duo are just so soft and dewy they don't feel like they are going to dry out at all - even without the pre lip balm added!!  If you wanted to get crimson lips minus the lip liner try topshops: Bewitched or Beguiled. 

What's your favourite crimson shades?

Ciao x

Beauty - First ever Charlotte Tilbury order.

Hey guys,

So this post is going to be about my first ever experience with Charlotte Tilbury make up, I ordered the products on the 26th March and they arrive 3 days later!! Can't complain with that! Now when I opened the box, I'm not going to lie, I was kinda a little obsessed with the packaging... does this happen to anyone else? It was just this gorgeous plummy paper with a letter about my order with all the products and 3 little lipstick samples!

I essentially ordered the Vintage Vamp make up look, thanks too le Happy I have become obsessed with crimson lips!! So initially I was juts going to get the eye palette but couldn't resist the lip pencil and lipstick! All the products are gorgeous I haven't tested out the eye shadows apart from the gold one - which wasn't quite what I was expecting, I expected an all over gold shade like as if I was putting half baked over my eyelid but what it actually is is a gold shimmer - I think thats the best way to describe it, so let's say you have a nice purple eye shadow on but want to add some more excitement? pop a layer of this on top to get a golden sparkle on top of your purple.

The lipstick and lip liner are soooo soft and smooth. Sometimes the topshop or MAC lipsticks don't feel as creamy - that's the best way to describe it, I don't feel as if I HAVE to put lipbalm on underneath with this. I am going to put up a mini-tutorial on crimson lips later on in the week with some more detail on the products.

The lipstick samples were so much fun! you essentially have a little envelop that you pull the tester from peel off the plastic and basically put your lips on it like as if you were blotting them. The colours looked surprisingly good considering I don't usually go for nudes THAT nude, I tend to go for mauve tints and well I knew the blotting wasn't going to go fantastic for the red but I don't think my camera shows off how nice this was its a really bright red though it doesn't look like that on the website.

All in all I am super happy with them! Yes it was £77 in total which IS A LOT for make up but when you think about it, its around £40 quid for a MAC quad anyway and you are getting something different with this, as far as I am aware you can't get a golden shimmer like that with any of the MAC shades. They have definitely put time and effort into each order going out so I am saving up now to buy some more products! I have my eyes on a few of the palettes and an eye khol that has just come out!

Have you guys ordered any of her products?
Which are you favourite?

Ciao bellas x

Beauty - Review: Topshop nail brushes.

Hey guys! 

I have been eyeing up the topshop nail brushes for a long time now because I have been having some serious nail envy, especially on pinterest. The set is £10 and comes with 6 brushes, considering it was £6 just for the dotting one, £10 for the lot is a bargain! They come with a variety of tips to help you get those reaaallly neat thin lines or little dots for flowers.

I tried out doing some kinda chevron patterns on my nails with one of the brushes and it was so easy to use, guaranteed my painting skills need a little work. ( Is that really bad considering I am an artist and pride myself on painting?) I haven't quite figured out when I would use the big fan brush but I am so excited to get some nail how-to's to you all! I saw some cat nails I am desparate to try! 

What are your favourite nail effects? Have you tried these brushes? - What is the fan one for?!

Ciao x