Collective Haul | Sales

This weeks post is a post I've been waiting to do for a few weeks, Christmas has been and gone which left me with some Christmas money and many sales to search for. A few days after Christmas my friend Laura and I went on a trip shopping, Laura is also a lovely blogger and I recommend you follow her here! I knew I had some money to play with but didn't initially think to spend much of it. But walking into shops and seeing so many inviting deals and sales drew me in…Therefore the past 3 or 4 weeks have consisted of a lot of shopping and spending. The weekend after I wanted to pick one product up from boots, but the deal of ‘Buy one, get the second half price’ persuaded me to buy the ‘second’ – of course of which I wanted but didn't need! As well as these two trips, Kathryn and I (another blogger who you should follow, to see her blog click here), went shopping too. Once again a large amount of sales caught my eye, I’m sorry but a stand of Topshop half price makeup couldn't be walked away from.

Therefore after weeks of searching and purchasing (I forgot to mention yesterday was another day spent in shops…) I felt the need to do a collective haul and share what sales I had found as well as some good buys  -  also I will be featuring  my ‘Top 3 Buys’ out of everything I have bought in this haul too!

Why not start off with a high note and talk about my top 3 products?

Top 3 Buys...

1    1. This top buy is number 1 of my 3 for a reason and I think it will be an essential in my collection from now on, unless I find something better – but this is Miss Sporty’s Studio Lash incrediBALL mascara. Now when it comes to mascaras I often avoid purchasing a new one and let myself use up my current mascara until it’s basically dry! Now I find it’s because finding a new mascara just isn't an easy task, it’s so hard to get wrong and some can be £10.00 therefore you have to be careful! I once bought a miss sporty mascara and really loved it with a price of only a few pounds. For some reason I haven’t though of repurchasing any of their mascaras since. I now ask myself, why not?! This mascara only came to the price of £2.99 and is now a massive essential as I don’t touch any other mascara and can’t stop using this one. I’m not sure if I will review this or not but in a nutshell I love it and highly recommend you at least try it out!

2    2. My second out of my top three would be something I always wanted to try and it’s the ‘holy grail’ Maybelline Colour Tattoo, which I bought in the well known colour ‘On and On Bronze’. I've always put off buying this for some reason and who know why, the only reason I bought it was because Maybelline were promoting a ‘buy on get second half price’ therefore from being an appropriate £4.99  went down to a bargain of £2.99. All I can say is I use this most days, whether using it alone or underneath as a base it works a treat! I’m definitely considering buying more shades soon.

      3. The final out of my top 3 would be Topshop’s crème blush in ‘Prime Time’, the colour of the blush is a prime (how ironic) example of a ‘hot pink’ definitely not something I would go for on the cheeks. However a stand of HALF PRICE (yes 50% off!) Topshop makeup was definitely a yes for and I can’t normally justify spending that much on a product not purely branded as makeup (as Topshop is initially clothing). But there crème blushes normally stand at a decent £6 but half price to £3, so I couldn't resist and this was no regret of a purchase.

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Now onto the rest…I’d be here for days if described every product in detail therefore the rest will be a short summary.

Rimmel Stay Matte Powder, £3.99 | sadly this product wasn't in the sale, but still at a reasonable price I wasn't going to give it a miss. I’ve repurchased this several times considering I use the product until it breaks (my last one was practically unusable) therefore no hesitation when buying this.

Mac Lustre Lipstick in ‘Plink!’ £15.00 | this was my first Mac purchase and probably not my last; I have quite a large Mac wish list but the price just daunt me. So when it comes to purchasing a high end product (I would class Mac as high end, other wouldn't), I do always research before to make sure I know what I want especially for lipsticks/eye shadow shades – I was pretty happy with this colour, it’s an every day (not that Ii will be wearing it every day) and subtle but pretty lipstick with a shimmery finish.

 

TopShop Lipstick in Saint, £4.00 (half price from £8.00) | As well as the crème blush I couldn't not buy some other half price Topshop makeup. Saint is a pinky-nude and has a creamy finish but I do have to finish this off with a pink gloss as it washes me out slightly.

Natural Collection Lipstick in Raspberry, £1.50 (3 for £5 deal, therefore around £1.50 from £1.99) | Kathryn was buying some natural collection products therefore we did a joint deal which work out well as it gave me a 25% off discount. Raspberry is a lovely rich, almost matte pink which I think will look lovely for spring.

Maybelline Fit Me Concealer in shade shade 15, £5.99 | this I also bought with a Maybelline Baby Lips in Cherry Me (sorry, I forgot to include this in the photo). This was still the same deal that Maybelline had of ‘buy one get second half price’ – therefore giving the baby lips a discount of £1.25 from £2.50. I have also bought the concealer once before and loved its creamy texture, it’s my current ‘go to’ concealer.

Topshop Lip Marker In Berry, £3 (half price from £6) | Autumn has past and winter is coming to an end soon, but why not still wear a deep berry lip? I did find this lip marker/stain was drying on the lips and was hard to apply however I’m in love with the colour.

17 Lipstick in Berry Crush, £1 (sale, but I’m unsure of the original price) | this lip stain Ii prefer to Topshop’s as it comes with a non-tinted balm on the other side to give the lips more moisture, whilst blending in the stain. Berry lips are gorgeous and I love the fact that lip stains like these can be dark/deep coloured but with a smaller amount of pigment, therefore not too harsh.

Natural Collection Mascara in Lash care (see through), £1.99 | I normally use this for my brows to keep them in place and find it’s a simple cheap product that does the job, therefore another needed (well…) repurchase.

Topshop Nail Polish in Daredevil, £3 (half price from £6) | I really want to build a collection of their polishes as the colour range is insane and not to mention I just love Topshop’s packaging. As soon as I saw the rows of half price polishes I automatically knew I needed to buy one. I chose Daredevil as it’s a deep purple with gold specs, it’s a lovely colour and appropriate as I've been searching for a nice winter deep purple.

17 nail polish in silver (an iridescent polish, silver and purple), £0.50 (sale, but unsure of original price) | A nail polish for 50p, why not? It may not be something I usually go for but it could look nice on the nails let hope, but for 50p you can’t really go wrong.

17 lasting fix lipstick in the shade showbiz, £1.00 (from £4.49) | I have been wanting to try out a statement red lipstick for a while and when I saw this for only £1 I couldn't say now. In the bullet it appeared a matte red but once the fresh coating slides of it’s actually a slightly shimmey red with a pink hue. I can’t wait to try this out for an event or evening out!

Hollister Body Lotion in Silver Strand Beach, £2.99 (from £12, 75% off) | I’m very keen on Hollister’s signature scent and when me and Laura spotted they were selling a few lotions and moisturisers with a 75% discount we couldn't not. I normally tell myself £12 is too much when buying Hollister’s body care therefore this deal was perfect.

Hollister’s Hand and Body cream in Solane Beach, again £2.99 (from £12, 75% off) | I had to also pick up the hand and body cream, they all smell too good

Lush Space Girl (£2.25) and twilight (£3,25) bath bombs | Lush rarely have sales on but having some change left over in my purse and a trip to lush didn't leave me empty handed – I can’t wait to have a lush bath as I haven’t had one in ages.

Maybelline Baby Skin primer, £7.99 | a price of £7.99 whilst only receiving a small 22ml product, I thought I would try this out as it’s new in the ‘baby’ range that Maybelline sell. But currently I have mixed feelings on this… there may be a post including this soon.

Thank you for reading this massive haul, I think I will be putting myself on a spending ban from now on. But I hope you enjoyed it and have a lovely week!

~ Happiness is not a destination, it’s a way of life ~

What have you been purchasing recently? 

Sugar Lip Scrub | DIY

This is a DIY I've been meaning to get round to - this tiny jam jar some what inspired me, and having sitting in my room I thought I ought to do something with it. Whether it was just to use it for storing something e.g. food or to actually make something to go inside. I've been wanting to make a lip scrub for a while, as I have made one before (which wasn't the best) and I've actually purchased one from LUSH in the past. But after finally getting round to doing a little DIY, it made me think how easy lip scrubs are to make - never shall I purchase one again! 

This weeks post will therefore be a quick and simple sugar lip scrub DIY!

What You Will Need...

Some of these are definitely optional; the flavouring, colouring and ribbon - just adjust it to your needs!

The first step (this is pretty simple and very quick!), is to measure out around 3 or 3 1/2 teaspoons of sugar (I used white) into a small mixing bowl. I didn't necessarily measure exactly, I just went with what seemed right and it turned out pretty good, so just add as much or as little as you want. I then added some 'Extra Virgin Olive Oil' apparently this works best? I think I added around 1 teaspoon, basically until the consistency was to my needs, considering I was adding some more wet ingredients later. I then went and added the almond extract and was very careful as it is strong, but this gave it such a lovely scent as well as flavour. This next step is actually also optional but I added some Vaseline and lip balm, this gives the scrub moisture so it isn't too drying on the lips. To finish off and give it some colour I added a very small amount of food colouring, optional again but I thought it looked quite nice.

That's it! A really simple DIY that literally takes minute, I then placed it in the cute little jam jar and wrapped some ribbon round it too!

As an alternative or extra ingredient you can actually add honey, this is what I used when I last made some lip scrub but as I’m not fond of honey I didn't use it this time. For all the honey lovers out there, this would be a nice ingredient as honey is anti-bacterial as well as a healing ingredient. I have also heard you can add chilli oil can be used as it stimulated blood flow to the area and therefore can give you fuller, plumper lips. However I didn't use either of these as I didn't want to but maybe you do? 

Hopefully you enjoyed reading this weeks post and maybe you'll give it a try? Thank you for reading and have a lovely week!

As a side note I was thinking of adding a quote at the end of my weekly posts. It may be; inspirational, motivational or just a nice quote that you can read to start you off for the week ahead (as my weekly posts normally commence on Sundays!). These quotes won't be to do with the post just a meaningful quote that means something to me and maybe even you.

Are you doing any 'DIY's' at the moment, if so what are they? 

~ We must travel in the direction of our fear ~ 

"A New Year A New Me" | 2014

From December 31st to January the 1st is just another day, but also a day when a new year begins and lot of people decide to change. People like to change themselves; now this may be what they should do much of e.g. drinking more water, what they should do less off e.g. spending time on their phone, and maybe even changing how they are as a person. Bad habits are also a prime example of what people want to stop doing... mines biting my nails (which isn't going so well, shhh). However some people just aren't bothered and don't see the New Year as a "fresh start". 

I personally love taking advantage of the fact that New Year can be about wiping your slate clean and viewing it as a new beginning. It may be just another day but this is a day when I like to refresh my mind and consider how I have been in the past and what I want to change for the future ahead of me. 

Obviously we all have small habits and therefore resolutions we try follow to prevent them continuing, whether or not we keep to them I think it's good to set goals and motivate yourself. It's also nice looking back a year later to see what you've achieved. 

Normally my posts are beauty related but this one will be more of a 'chatty' post on resolutions and what I'm changing about myself for 2014. 

As most people do, I have some small resolutions I would like to share to begin with...

1) Stop biting my nails and stay out of the habit! Now over Christmas I actually managed to grow them to a decent length (as seen in my last post), to you reading this may be a mere nothing but for me was an achievement. However the New Year began (my resolution to not get back into the habit) however slowly after New Year and getting back into my school routine I found each nail getting short again...oops. Now the reason for this was actually because of school and general nerves/stress, because I find it so much easier to stop during the holidays. But from now on, however long it takes me I will try to stop officially biting them again and NOT to get back into it again. 

2) Get all homework/general work done as soon as I receive it! Now for this there's an exception of revision because I like to revise overtime and not all at once, but I will also need to make sure I’m not leaving revision till last minute too! This way I can spend the rest of my free time relaxed instead of have a day full of procrastination. An addition to this would be stop with general procrastination too, haha!

3) Clean my makeup brushes more! I actually did this the other day but before that... I can’t remember. So yes, that's definitely something I need to work on, again this really links to procrastination, oh dear. 

4)  Keeping up to date in the ‘blogging world’! By this I mean making sure I post at least once a week and if not anything more, as well as finding other blogs out there to read myself - this way I can keep my few readers happy whilst gaining more off them and finding unique blogs to read myself. To then hopefully make some blogging friends along the way! 

5) Eating better as well as drinking more! Eating healthier and keeping hydrated is something not everybody follows perfectly, but really it's all about having a balanced diet. Meaning I need to stop snacking on rubbish and snack on energising healthy food that makes me feel better, as well as drinking more water too. By all means I'm not trying to loose weight (If you're eating healthy to do so, good on you!) but I personally just want to eat healthier; aim to have my 5 a day, Brown bread, rice and pasta as its better than white and especially DRINK MORE! 

So they're my general resolutions and in a nutshell: 1) Stop doing what I shouldn't be. 2) Beat procrastination. 3) Do things I should be doing. 4) Carry on doing what I love doing. 5) Keep healthy and happy!

Now I could have left it there and that would be my post of the week done, however as much as I love making goals and resolutions for the New Year, these resolutions in reality may last as long as I wish to keep following them. But what they won't change much is me as a person. No one is perfect (as ‘cringey’ as that may have sound) but there are elements of myself I want to change, and this doesn't mean small resolutions which I have written above. This means changing my outlook on life and the way I am. 

The first aspect I want to talk about is something that I started thinking about a bit before the New Year, and this was to view my problems as small problems... because in fact in reality they are. Problems are relevant to the person, by this I mean 'something big for someone may be something small for another', this may sound contradicting but if someone I know is having a rough time over something small (small to me) I don't think it's right to say it's small in general, as really what they might be going through could be at the top of their 'problem list' even thought it may be at the bottom of mine and vies versa. But (this is where it may sound contradictory) at the same time I do need to look at something I'm struggling with and some what compare this to the real world and what is really classed as a 'major' problem. Technically I am contradicting myself here, but hopefully you understand what the point is I'm trying to get across - Which would be to take a different outlook on life and stop focusing on myself, when really instead of feeling sorry for myself I should actually take action if I want change.

Following on from that (about taking action), because that would be another aspect I want to remind myself of this year. I need to change what I can’t accept, meaning I can't sit here expecting it all to get better I have to take action and slowly build to reach the goal. However (contradicting slightly once again, haha) there's a saying 'Accept what you cant change and change what you can't accept' which to some people won't make sense, but what it means is; sometimes we have to change if we can't accept something but on the other hand we have to accept it if it can't be changed. Therefore I have to change myself and what I can to do overcome it/take action or if I cant change e.g. somebody else who bothers me, I have to accept that's the way they are. Basically: I need to realise I can change myself and my outlook to make myself happier but changing others isn't easily and trying would be a waste of time. 

Finally, to polish this essay off (sorry...) a final and more personal change would to be more confident and less harsh on myself (thinking more positively about myself). I've kept this post very 'general' so it can be applied to anything, because writing this much about me in particular wouldn't be any use to you reading this. But the one thing that is personal is me being confident and happy with myself, and that I need to realise I can be as confident as I want and fight my nerves because life is what you make it (CHEESY, I know) but sitting there unhappy again won't do anything. So to generalise things, I have to face fears head on and not to care what others think at all! It's very hard to do being a teenager and all but seriously so many doors will open if people just didn't care so much. 

~ The less you care, the less you loose~

(This applies to a lot in life)

So... in comparison to all the other years this year I really wanted: to change, stop caring, start accepting and most of all appreciating. I'm very lucky and I don't think I think about this enough daily. From big to small there are so many elements of what I do have and don't even stop to be grateful of. This could be: Having family, a roof over my head, being able to go to school and have an education (as much as I would rather it be the weekend, I'm actually very lucky). Even the smallest of things, because most Sunday and Saturday mornings I will waste half the day sleeping (very unproductive) when I could be doing something that makes me happy like a hobby. Therefore yesterday morning instead of wasting it in bed I got up early before sunrise and went for a walk around my village, the view was amazing when the sun was rising. Just to get up early and take my camera out to capture the sunrise was an experience and something fun because I'm fond of photography. It’s something I want to start doing (just an early morning walk not to always take pictures) more because it's relaxing and a nice way to start the day. 

So to finish off the post and give it some structure (I'm sorry this post didn't have much, I just started typing for a few hours and didn't stop...) I'm going to share with you a few photos of what I took that morning during sunrise. 

If you read this essay of a post, then well done! It was slightly spontaneous... well very in fact as I didn't even know what I was posting until this morning. But it ended up to be this, a very long post on what I will be aiming for in 2014. Thank you again for reading and I hope you liked this post even though the length was pretty long.

What are you hoping to reach for in 2014?

Winter Nails | Two Looks

The New Year has begun and currently we are already several days into 2014, pretty scary how fast 2013 went. But this weekend I thought I would share a post on nails, and give you a few different looks to may be inspired from. Now don't be fooled it's not nail art as such (even though that was a hobby of mine at one point), but just a few simple nail colours that you may want to purchase with two different looks to be inspired from. The first look being only 1 nail colour, nothing special, just a nail polish that I'm currently pretty fond of. Another being something a little different, I thought I would create a nail look with an accent nail on my ring finger. This isn't something I like so much anymore and was questioning whether to do it but I had a few stunning polishes that would work well so…Why not?

A simple colour which I love...

My cousin Millie and other family had come to stay over for a few nights including New Year’s Eve, therefore Millie and I got quite a lot of time together which was nice. We ended up painting our nails for New Year’s Eve and I did her nails for her. New Year’s Eve has been and gone therefore to do a 'New Year’s nail look/s' would be pointless for anyone to read as it would be up after that date. Therefore I named the post 'Winter Nails' as I think these nails are festive but still look lovely and themed for winter too! 

I painted Millie's nails a lovely iridescent nail colour which changes from a sparkly gold to a shimmery pink, depending on what light hits the nails. I love iridescent polishes because it's almost as if you've got 2 nail polishes in one! Solar is just such a stunning colour, it's not 'in your face' and very easy to apply, as well as it being a lightly coloured polish meaning any mistakes aren't very noticeable, very useful haha! I think Topshop nail polishes come to a price of £6 which is double the price of Barry M's original polish (another make of polish I love). However the Topshop nail polish range is infinite I swear, the range includes hundreds of different colours some of which are very unique just like Solar. 

I think this colour is lovely to wear in winter as well as for festive events, I can't imagine wearing this in summer but as it's just so lovely I might be wearing it all year round! 

Sophisticated nails with sparkle

It may sound a little cheesy but the reason why I subtitled it 'Sophisticated nails with sparkle' is because this nail look could be seen as more mature with grey nail polish but whilst adding sparkles for an accent nail. I was going to just paint my nails grey all over but I wanted to try out something new for new year's eve - taking more risks should be a new year’s resolution for me...Sadly I don't think the way you paint your nails counts though, haha. But as well as trying something new out whether I like it or not (I'm still not so sure), I thought it would be a nice idea to do this so others could try it out whom may like it! 

For the grey colour I applied to all the nails but the ring finger I used OPI's 'French Quarter For Your Thoughts' which is a lovely simple grey, not something I would usually go for but I thought I would try it out, why not? This polish actually came in a set of 4 OPI mini's and it was a lovely set that my mum's friend gave to us, as well as it consisting of this lovely grey shade it the set also includes: 'My Address Is "Hollywood"' (a shimmery summer pink), 'A-taupe The Space Needle' (a dirty brown) and 'Honk If You Love Opi' (which is a lovely deep, almost black, purple). I love the shade names that OPI comes up with their all so different and unique to match their polishes! 

For the accent nail I was definite upon adding some sparkle and I love this colour nails inc. have called 'regents park', it's a gold and silver glittered nail polish but isn't a top coat and after just one coat covers the nails completely. As much as I love this colour I really only rate nails inc. for their colour range because when it comes to chipping nails inc. don't perform well, not from the polishes I have used anyway. Apart from that this nail polish is one of my favourites to use! 

To finish off this look I added this No.7 nail polish (not sure what shade) which was simply a top coat with a decent amount of glitter to partially cover the nail, adding this on top of regents park just gave it even more sparkle!

Thank you for reading this post and I hope it helped or inspired you in some way, happy New Year and good luck for 2014!

What nail polishes have you been loving recently for the current season?