Long Lost Me..

Happy Valentines Day!

               Metallic Glitter Nails                       Subtle Highlights

           Nars Laguna (Waiting for the smash!) Working with tigers for a film project

 Great Naked Palette Dupe, Sleek idivine!        Girly Night :)

  Essie Bikini So Teeny

        New editions to my Essie stash                               

                                                

 Debating having my hair chopped to this length!?

   

          New Pandora Charms        Fave Mascara, Benefit They're Real

Hey guys! Hope you are well! I feel like this is becoming a regular thing, but my blog has once again had to be nudged to the side due to the piles and piles of University work I have on at the moment, and with it being my final year, its really all I am focusing on. Of course I miss being able to talk about beauty all day, and I love logging onto my little blog every now and then and seeing such sweet comments from you guys, so thank you for that, and for bearing with me through these past hectic months! :) Anyway, I thought id just leave you with a look through some of my recent instagram pics! Hopefully this will make up a teeny bit for being so rubbish at checking in. Enjoy, and we will speak soon once the load has gone down a little!

As always, feel free to leave any comments down below, or any suggestions on future posts you would like to see!

Lots of love

New Hair!

Before

After

Hey lovelies! Firstly I apologise if this post seems all over the place, as I am bloggin' from my ipad, which I actually have never done before so its taking a little getting used to! For a while now I have been getting a bit bored of my hair. I know we all want what we don't have, but I found as my hair was getting longer and longer, my natural shade of brown was making it look a bit flat, so I decided it was time for a small change.
 I have totally done this the wrong way round, and usually people go for a darker colour during the winter months, and a light shade for the summer, but I just needed something new. When I was younger, I used to have blonde highlights put through my hair, but to save money I decided to go back to my natural, dark brown colour. For the past five years I have kept that dark brown so I felt it was definiely time for a change. I had been looking  up pictures of caramel highlights on celebs for a while, and found a few photographs for inspirational colours which I really liked (Cheryl Cole highlights, Jlo, Zoe Hardman etc). I took these photos to the hairdressers and explained I wanted a half head of foils to give me some subtle caramel/light brown highlights, with maybe a touch of dark blonde. As my hair was so dark, the caramel colour wouldn't have taken to my hair, so first I had to have half a head of foils with bleach. This was super scary for me as I had been the same dark brown colour for so long, and had just got my long locks into a good condition from having so much heat damage over the years, (not to mention the horrors stories I have had with home dye kits containing bleach!). The hairdresser let the bleach sit, then once it was washed out, coated my hair in toner to get rid of any orange of brassy tones. She then put a light brown hair dye all over the top, which left me with these subtle highlights. I really like the result, by putting light brown all over my head has left me with several different colour tones through my hair which I think makes it a lot more natural than if I was to just have blonde highlights! Iv found that just by adding these highlights it has created more body to my hair and has definitely livened it up, whilst still looking subtle and not too big of a change. Although I am even thinking about going back and getting some more put through and to go even lighter, which I neverrr thought I would do as I was always so fond of my dark brown!

I also thought I would share a product I picked up, the John Frieda ......purple shampoo, a toning shampoo which states to get rid of any brassy tones in highlighted hair. Iv used this a couple of times and honestly as my highlights are so fresh I doubt it has made much difference, but after a little while when they begin to fade a little I hope this will bring them back to life. I have also heard good things about the Touch of Silver shampoo, so I will definitely give that a try, or let me know if you have any recommendations!

Hope you are all well, I will be back soon will some Christmassy/winter related posts :)

Nail Polish Collection & Storage!

 Left to Right, Top to Bottom: Sally Hansen Insta Dri // No.7 Pinky Pure // No.7 Snowflake // Models Own Jade Stone // Models Own Champagne // Models Own Buff Pink // Models Own Thunder and Lightening // Models Own Hedkandi Hedonist // Models Own Pink Punch // Models Own Nude Beige // Models Own True Blue // Models Own Lemon Meringue // Models Own Hedkandi Ibiza Mix // Essie Good To Go Mini Top Coat // OPI Crown Me Already // China Glaze Lorelei's Tiara // Essie Fiji // Essie Mademoiselle // Essie Looking For Love // Essie Loophole // Essie Shift Power // Essie Antique Rose // Essie Scarlett O'Hara // Essie Bahama Mama // Essie Risky Buisness

Left to Right, Top to Bottom: No. 7 Silver Glitter // Primark Glo Baby Glo // Primark Glo Baby Glo // Revlon Gold Coin // No.7 Hot To Trot // No.7 Vivid Violet // No.7 Damson Dream // No.7 Totally Teal // No.7 Sing The Blues // Barry M Rose Quartz Glitter // Barry M Silver Glitter // Barry M Black Multi Glitter // Barry M Pink Silver Glitter // Barry M Mint Green // Barry M Blue Moon // Barry M Peach Melba // Leighton Denny Babydoll // Orly Mini Ruby // Look Nail Pop Bling // ELF Mint Cream // ELF Gum Pink // ELF Champagne // Rimmel Hot & Spicy // Rimmel White Orchid // Rimmel Urban Princess // Ciate Paint Pot Mojito // Deborah Lippmann Razzle Dazzle

Hey ladies! If you have been following my blog for a while, you may know I am a huge nail polish fan. I am one of those people who co ordinates my nail polish with everything, outfits, bags, makeup, I love to match my nails up, add a complete contrast or pop of colour to any outfit. I find that painting my nails is the finishing touch to getting ready, and if I for some reason have two changes of clothes in one day, I will still change my nail polish twice depending on what colour I need! (Sad I know!)

Today I thought I would share my nail polish collection with you. I have instagrammed a picture to twitter before, but I thought I would go into a bit more detail for those who asked questions. For some my collection may be a lot, and for others it may be a small amount, but for me its just about right (although I do believe you can never have too many!) and manageable  and also means I actually wear what I own. 

I keep my polish on two acrylic storage stands, these can be picked up on amazon for around £10 each and are a great way of storing your little bottles of goodness. In terms of how many bottles they hold, it honestly depends on the shape and size of the bottles you own. One of my stands right now holds 24 and the other 26, so it really varies on what brands you own, obviously if you store the larger bottles (Opi, Models Own etc) you will fit less than if you were to store smaller ones. I love these as not only does it keep them neat and organised, it also allows them to stand upright and means you are able to see what colours you have. They also play a great part in decor for my dressing room. I like to keep them in order of brand rather than colour, as I find this means I can fit a few more on as the same brand of bottle seems to snug tightly against another. 

As you can see I have started to over flow my stands as my collection grows, although the way the stands are built it allows for another row to run along the front. This definitely gives me an excuse to start buying some more polishes, so let me know your favourite brands and colour recommendations in the comments! (I wonder if any of you Glossybox fans can spot the Glossy polishes!?)

Hope you enjoyed this post, let me know if there is any other storage posts you would like to see! I have my acrylic makeup storage post here and jewellery storage here, so please feel free to check those out! I am super excited that Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 2 has been released and can't wait to see it, although i'm not sure I am ready for it all to end! Are any of you Twilight fans?

Speak soon, 

Lots of love,

Happy Birthday To Me!

Lush Bath Bomb & Snow Fairy- My all time fave,so yummy! Love the limited edition packaging // Soap&Glory A Great Kisser Lip Balm- smells like peach, need I say more!? // Topshop gift voucher- They know me too well // Essie Bahama Mama- Gorgeous winter polish

 London Rebel Nude Wedges

Nude studded ballet flats

Asos oversized ring

The Perfume Studio- Perfume making set, excited to try this!

 Babyliss Volume Waves- I have wanted these for ages but I have so many curling tongs, I couldn't bring myself to buy another pair. I used these for the night out and I abso LOVE them, they give gorgeous body with a subtle wave. Review to come soon!

Mark Hill Blow Dry Brush- Although it doesn't look it, this brush is huuuge! and perfect for creating volume when blow drying. My hair also took half the amount of time to dry with it being so large. 

Drunken awkward posing-oh dear!

Fireworks night makeup- pinky red lip from 17 :)

Hey everyone! Remember me!? ;) Hope you have all been well. I have been crazy busy cracking on with my final year of uni, but last weekend I had a well deserved break as it was my birthday! On Saturday I turned (the rather boring age of) 22. Last year for my 21st, I went all out and had a big party, but with this year not being so much of a 'big' age step, I decided to keep it a bit more low key and celebrate with my nearest and dearest. 

On the Saturday morning I woke up and was greeted with breakfast in bed from my lovely boyfriend. I then excitedly unwrapped some presents from both him and my family all of which I loved! I then got even more excited as I went off to meet two of my besties who were travelling up from home, before heading back to mine for more catching up and prepping for the night ahead. We then went off to the train station to pick up another one of my very good friends from home. We spent the rest of the day chatting and eating pizza before starting to get ready for the evening.

One of my favourite parts of a night out is definitely getting ready, I love pampering and dolling myself up. I had been having a dilemma for weeks over what I wanted to wear and ordered far too many options from Missguided and Asos only to send the majority of them back. I ended up with two options, a black and white striped peplum dress, and a black peplum top which I would pair with a maroon coloured lace skirt. I decided to go with the maroon skirt and peplum top, as I felt it was more winter inspired. Once ready, a few other girl friends came over and we had a giggle over a glass (or 10..) of bubbly. We actually didn't even head out till about 12:45am, so you can imagine how late a night it was! I had a fab night out, (and one too many sambuca shots) and danced the night away, to the point where one of my heels actually fell off my shoe- oops! 

On the Sunday, a few of us went to get a yummy carvery to nurse the hangover, which did the job perfectly. And on the Monday was fireworks night, so we wrapped up warm and went to an event nearby and got fish and chips on the harbour whilst watching the fireworks which was fun. I had a wonderful birthday weekend and it was really nice to spend time with good friends and all have a catch up. Anyhoo, I thought I would get this post up to share a few of the beauty related pressies that I got with you, hope you enjoy :)

Eyebrow Routine!

Hey beauts! I was recently contacted by a lovely girl who asked if I would do a tutorial on my eyebrows. I was really touched that anyone would actually want to know how I do them to be honest, as I have never thought of mine being anything special! Although I am happy with the way they are, I think we all want what we don't have and I am forever lusting over gorgeous, natural, full brows! I have definitely had some brow disasters through the years (I wish I had photo's to show you all!) and when I was in my early teens, the trend was to have super skinny mini eyebrows, so of course I took to the tweezers and went pluck crazy, leaving me with brows the thickness of a pen line which I regret so much, as looking back at childhood photo's I had very full (although some what bushy and a bit messy) brows. Thankfully, after a little while, and some embarrassing looks later, they did grow back, though I never got my full brows back. On a positive note though, I do feel like the brows I now have suit my face shape and they are super easy to do and maintain so I guess you win some, you lose some! 

Anyway, on to what I do. I am pretty lucky in that my brows do tend to pretty much maintain their shape on their own, although I do give them some help. Firstly, plucking. I don't tend to pluck too often, as I can be a little heavy handed, so about once a week is fine for me (to be honest as my brow hair is so used to being removed it grows back pretty sparsely anyway) and I just pluck the underneath following the shape of my brow bone. To keep the tops in shape, I take a pair of small scissors, nail scissors are good but I find cuticle trimmers to be the best as they have a curved edge which means you arn't left with a really blunt cut across the hairs. I just used these to neaten up the front and trim down any that are too long. 

When filling in my brows, I start off combing them through with an eyebrow comb, mine is from No.7 and came from a set I got at Christmas, but you can pick these up super cheap else where. 

I then use my HD Brows Palette in the colour 'Bombshell'. I got this in my Glossybox last year and have been using it everyday since (I have recently got a back up but even after 12+ months of using it everyday, I still have some left!). Now I believe the Bombshell palette is actually meant for blondes, but even though I am a brunette, I find a mix of the 'Ash Blonde' and 'Medium Blonde' to be absolutely perfect for my colouring. They do look pretty light in the pan, but actually work really nicely to give a natural filled in look, and I find going any darker too harsh for me. For me, I much prefer using a powder to a pencil. I think in my brows it looks a lot more natural, and with the inner shape being quite squared off, a pencil is just too much. 

(Quick Tip: The Gosh Eyebrow Set is a great, inexpensive dupe for the HD Brows palette!)

I use a Royal & Langnickel Silk Pro C490 brush to fill them in. This is basically a small angled brush which some people may find this brush too small but I find it great for creating little lines in the brows to mimic real hairs rather than filling them in very bluntly. I also find it is the perfect size for creating the arch in my brow and pulling it down without leaving it looking fake. When filling in the front of my brows, I tend to turn the brush on its side and apply in the opposite direction to the hair growth, I just find this leaves it look natural and not filled in. After applying the powder, I give it another brush through with the brow comb again, just to get rid of any harshness. 

I will some times then set my brows (usually only if I am going on a night out or have a very long day ahead) with a brow gel, I like the one by Mac but Elf has a great cheaper alternative which I think works just as well! And that's it really! My brows are definitely not perfect but I hope at least someone finds this helpful!

I know it is difficult to do tutorials like this in a blog post, but I hope it makes sense! If you have any more questions feel free to pop them below! Do you have a favourite brow product? Do you fill in your brows or just leave them natural?