August Favourites 2012!

Hey lovelies! So, it feels like forever since I lasted posted on my blog. For the past week I have been bed bound with food poisoning, which hasn't been nice at all! But 7 days of stomach cramps, migraines, hot and cold chills and sickness and it seems to have sorted itself out. I believe I may have skipped out on last months favourites and i'm not really sure why...but usually I really get the urge to write a favourites post to share all the things I have been loving, so I guess over July, I wasn't really using anything different than the previous month and had gotten into a bit of a routine with the products I was using. If you read my acrylic storage post (here) you will know I invested in some Muji clear storage drawers, which I have become obsessed with and have allowed me to be able to store some of my makeup in view on my dressing table, which means i'm getting a lot more use out of items that had previously been forgotten about. So, over August I have been mixing things up a bit in the makeup department, as thanks to Muji I now have lots of choices within arms reach when getting ready at my dressing table. 

Anyhoo, on to the favourites!

Maybelline Color Tattoo 24hr 'Eternal Gold'. I picked up a few more of these Color Tattoo's and completely forgot to post about them. Eternal Gold is a lovely light yellowish gold that works lovely on its own or as a base on the eye. I have been getting so much use out of this!

Maybelline The Falsies Volum' Express Flared Mascara. I love all the Maybelline mascaras and this was my lastest one to try. The curved wand is sposed to flare your lashes outward using the curved side first, followed by the flat side. I wouldn't say it particularly 'flares' my lashes out but it is a great mascara and gives a lot of length to the lashes. 

Mac Trax Eyeshadow. Trax is a lovely burgundy, brown toned plum with lots of shimmer. It looks so pretty swept all across the eyelid for night time.

All For Eve 'Eve's Balm'. I got this is my August Glossybox and have been loving it. Its a lovely rich balm for even the most dry and chapped skin. This is a multi purpose product and can be used just about anywhere, but I have been using it on my lips and really like it. It has a lovely scent which reminds me a lot of the Figs & Rouge Lip Balm in Rambling Rose.

Mac Cut A Caper Lipstick. This has been a firm favourite ever since I got it! I have a post here that goes into more detail, but it is the most perfect corally pink and I have been wearing it a lot lately (although limited edition means I am having to be a little careful using it!).

Aussie Dual Personality Aussome Texturising + Conditioning Gel Spray. This is basically a texturising spray that contains sea kelp and works wonders on flat hair. I use this when I want some added volume and it really does work. I mostly work it in around my crown and a little bit towards the front of my hair for a gorgeous volumised look. I have been using this loads recently over the past month and I love it (it smells goooorgeous too). Would you be interested in seeing a post all about the Aussie products that I use?

Essie Risky Business. This was actually in my August Nail Polish Favourites post, but I felt I had to include it again. It is a lovely bright corally red, perfect for summer and I love how it looks on the nails and toes. I have been wearing this too many times to tell this month!

Hope you enjoyed my favourites! Let me know in the comments what you have been loving this month.

Favourite Nail Polish: August 2012!

There's something about a freshly polished mani-pedi that gives you that extra boost to your outfit and makes you feel all dolled up. This month I have been switching between two of my new summer faves.

 If you follow me on twitter, you may have seen me tweet about my new find from Barry M. 'Blue Moon' is a very pretty powdery baby blue, which has me constantly looking down at my nails (I am actually wearing it as I write this post!). I am a big fan of the Barry M nail paints anyway and own quite a few, they are so affordable and have a gorgeous range of colours, and this is no exception. It is very similar to Essie's 'Borrowed and Blue' although prehaps a tiny bit darker. The wear of these nails paints isn't always the best, but I have actually been quite impressed with this one. Two coats and a top coat of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri and it has stayed chip free for a few days now. 

My other fave has been Essie's 'Risky Business', a bright- brrright reddish orange, which looks amazing on both finger and toe nails. This is such a statement colour and really pops against the skin. Admittedly, this is sheer and does take a few coats to get that 'colour in the bottle'  shade, but it is so worth it, and as these polishes dry so quickly, its really no bother to me. Beautiful for a night out or summery day, (and looks amazing with gold or tan flip flops!) this has been on my nails a lot this month. 

What has been your favourite nail polish recently? Do you like to perfectly match or clash your fingers and toes? 

August Love List!

Stud Bandeau Bra Top - Miss Selfridge // Black Studded Shoulder Sweatshirt - Own The Runway // Chloe Silk Crepe Jacket Cream - The Outnet // Chanel Nail Polish 535 May // Pale Pink High Waisted Jamie Jeans - Topshop // Pale Blue Denim Tie Front Denim Shirt - Newlook // Nars Cream Blush // Papina Patent Leather and Cork Wedges - Jimmy Choo // YSL Rouge Volupte Perle Lipstick // Pink Blue Ombre Dip Dye Denim Shorts - Lavishalice

Hey guys! I thought I would start making a monthly 'love list' to show you fashion and beauty trends I am loving during the month. Studs have been a huge part of my wardrobe this month and I have become a bit crazy about them (as you may tell in some of my posts recently!) so they were a definite on this love list. The bralet would look gorgeous paired with some denim shorts and the jumper perfect to take through to Autumn/Winter. I have been on the search for the perfect cream blazer for what seems like forever now, but I found this one which is perfect, but completely out of my price range at £554 (on sale from £1,230!!).I am obsessed with denim at the moment, so the shirt and shorts were a must. The ombre effect on the shorts is gorgeous and I love pale/pastel blues and pinks together. Nars are so well known for their lovely blushers, but I am yet to try a cream one! Definitely going to have to pick one up. YSL Rouge Volupte lipsticks and Chanel nail polishes I have been eyeing for a while, but find it had to justify the price. I think payday may persuade me to splurge on these! Pastel pink jeans have been on my wish list for ages now, i'm not quite sure why I have got round to picking any up tbh, but these ones from Topshop are gorrg. And finally the Jimmy Choo's 'siiigh', they really are the perfect summer wedge. A lovely classic nude patent style, with a summer twist with the cork. I also love the peep toe, and think these would suit a lot of outfits! These are a major want, buut at £275, not sure how quickly that will be happening!

What has been on your wish/love list over the past month or so? 

 

DIY Fashion: Going Stud Crazy

Hey everyone! In my last diy studs post, I mentioned I had ordered some gold studs to do some more wardrobe vamping, so I just wanted to make a quick post showing you what I came up with. If you follow me on twitter or instagram, you may have already seen this photo, but I thought I would post about it anyway as I am really happy with how I came out! I had seen the white cross studded vest top on inlovewithfashion for £20 and I thought this design would be super simple to recreate myself at a fraction of the cost. The black vest top I had picked up from Asos a while ago for around £5 (you could use any old vest top or t-shirt), and the studs cost me £1.99 from Ebay (and I still have a bunch left over), so already a big saving, not to mention the saving on time. As vest tops are generally pretty thin, the studs were really easy to push through and I finished this top within half an hour! I think this is a fab way of re-vamping plain old tops and turning it into something special. I am now thinking about cropping this top as I think it would look lovely with a pair of denim shorts, so I will let you know how I get on with that!

Have you been going stud crazy recently? Do you like to have a wardrobe re vamp? 

Top 5: Drugstore Lipsticks!

Hey lovelies! I decided I would start a top 5 series, as I love reading them, so wanted to share some of my top products with you. I am splitting them up into categories and highstreet/drugstore and high end, as it would be way to hard to narrow them all down into a top 5! So today, I am starting with my top 5 drugstore/highstreet lipsticks!

L'Oreal Rouge Caresse 'Impulsive Fuchsia'. I have spoken about these lipsticks before and this has to be my favourite colour from the ones I own. It is a bright fuchsia which is so, so glossy on the lips and leaves a gorgeous finish. I lovvee the packaging, it almost has a high end feel about it and the formulation is lovely! This retails at £7.99, which I think is a great price! My full review of Impulsive Fuchsia can be seen here.

Elf  Lipstick 'Nicely Nude'. This is from the eyeslipsface mineral line and is my favourite highstreet nude. Its that 'my lips but better' in colour and has an almost matte finish when first applied, but when built up gives the slightest gloss finish. It is really pigmented and I think this shade would suit all skin tones aswell as work well with both a dark and nude eye! This lasts for ages on the lips and is a bargain at £5.

Miss Sporty Perfect Colour Lipstick 'Innocence'. I have owned this for ages now and is one of my most worn lipsticks. (as you can see I have nearly finished it!) It is a light, bright, but wearable pink that looks lovely for a night out, or even to add a pop of colour in the day and I love how this works against my dark hair. It has slightly sticky feeling on the lips, but not in a bad way, this means it stays on for a long time. I'm not actually sure if this shade is still available, as I bought this so long ago, but the range is definitely worth checking out as they are only £2.59 each!

Revlon Lip Butter 'Sweet Tart'. These lip butters are very popular and I for one love them. Of the few that I own Sweet Tart is my fave. It is a lovely bright pink with a slight berry under tone, which makes it so wearable. They are very similar in formula to the L'Oreal Rouge Caresse lipsticks, although I would say the Lip Butters are creamier. It is so moisturising and leaves a lovely glossy finish. Lip butters retail for £7.99. 

Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain 'Rendezvous'. Revlon have been bringing out some amazing lip products recently, firstly Lip Butters and then these! So, i'm slightly cheating with this one as it isn't exactly a lipstick, but I love it all the same. Rendezvous is a bright coral colour which I lovee and is the dupe for the Clinique Chubby Sticks. I love the crayon packaging and how it applies. It can be softly worked onto the lips for a sheer wash of colour or built up for a intense bright lip. I have done a full review on this, which you can check out here. The Balm Stains retail for £7.99, although they are on offer in Boots right now for £5.99!

Hope you enjoyed this post! Feel free to leave requests on which top 5 you would like to see next! What are your top 5 lipsticks?

Acrylic Storage!

Hey everyone! Hope you are well! For ages now I have been lusting after the 'perfect' makeup storage and have gone from it being stored in my dressing table, to buying a 'tall boy' mirror chest of drawers, using empty Glossybox's and even diy-ing my own. All of these didn't quiite work for me and I would end up just keeping my daily products out on my dressing table and the rest would be hidden away and never used. I have forever been eyeing up the Kardashian clear cube, but as it is pretty expensive, I wanted to find something a bit more affordable. I have seen the Muji acrylic storage on many blogs before, so after some research (and worrying it wouldn't fit all my makeup) I made the splurge. I ended up getting three sets of the stack-able drawers; two of the 2 drawers- wide and one of the 2 drawers- wide with flip lid, so in total I had 6 drawers, costing around £40 inc p&p. They arrived within a few days and I was super excited to get it all set up. I absolutely LOVE the way my makeup looks in the clear drawers, and how easy it is to get what I need BUT, as I had previously thought, they definitely didn't fit all my makeup, and as the drawers are fairly thin, they were spilling over prettyy quickly. So, I decided what I would do is keep my most used makeup in the acrylic drawers and keep the rest in my tall boy chest, switching it around every now and then. This way, I will get use out of a lot more of my makeup than before, and can sit at my dressing table and easily grab what I need.

The only downside of the Muji drawers is that not all of my foundation bottles will fit, as like I said, the drawers are quite thin. Rimmel Wake Me Up fits perfectly, but Mac Face and Body and my beloved Clinique Superbalanced don't, which is a little annoying. I will definitely be picking up something else to store these in soon, but for now, their home is my diy acrylic storage which I did a post on a little while ago. (You can see that here)

I'm not a big fan of storing my lipsticks lying down, and I have been searching for the perfect lipstick holder for a while with no luck. I had an Amazon voucher that needed spending so I picked up an acrylic nail polish stand, which I had intended on storing some of my nail polish on, but, when setting it up, I realised it would make a lovely temporary place to store my lipsticks! The nail polish rack was delivered super quicker and only cost just under £10 inc p&p. (Here's the link to the nail polish stand) Obviously, this also has limited storage, so I decided to do the same thing as with the Muji drawers and keep my most used lipsticks out on the rack so they are easy to grab, and again switch them up every now and then to get use out of the others that will be put out of sight. 

I am so happy with how these have turned out! So much so that I have already ordered another set of the Muji drawers for extra storage, aswell as an acrylic pot to hold my eyeliners and another nail polish rack!

What do you think of acrylic storage? How do you store your makeup?

DIY Fashion: Studs!

Hey everyone! As we all know, studs have been a massive trend recently, and one that I adoree! I love how studs can make the most simple of outfits more edgy and also, is a super simple look to achieve. So simple in fact that I picked up some studs on Ebay to do a bit of wardrobe diy-ing and stud some items myself. I ordered a few different sizes from different sellers for not more than £2.99 for a small bag. The studs were shipped from China and did take a a couple of weeks to reach me, but I was willing to wait as they were so cheap and I was in no rush! I chose a few pieces from my collection which I felt could do with some sprucing up and became a little stud crazy!

The black heels I picked up from Primark a while ago but havn't really worn them with them being quite plain. I am unsure whether I want to take the silver studs all the way down the heel, or just scatter them around the back of the heel and mix in some smaller, gold studs!? What do you think?

The white clutch I actually got in a charity shop for around £1! When I saw it I knew it would be fab with studs, so I added some along the opening and also glued on a strip of lace for some extra detail // I love the look of studded collars, so I put some smaller ones of the collar of a denim jacket, I love how this works against the denim // I am experimenting taking some studs down the grey crop top from Topshop, I think it will add a little some extra for a night out! // On a side note, will searching Ebay for studs I also picked up this collar cuff which I love! It attaches like an earring so I can wear it on any top. I am definitely going to pick up some more of these, they looks great with a plain white shirt!

What do you think of the stud craze? Have you had a go at DIY studding? If you have, link your post below, I would love to see!

Laura Mercier 'Lips'

Hey everyone! Life has been a little hectic this week, so again my blog has had to take a back seat :( I have been moving flats, which has been pretty stressful! But I am excited for a new chapter in my life and can't wait to show you all my new makeup set up once its finished! I recently picked up some Laura Mercier lip products which I have been loving. 

First up is a lipstick in the colour 'Maple', a deep plummy red, which isn't a colour I tend to gravitate towards a lot as I find it hard to pull off a dark lip, but I really love this colour. It can be applied sheerly to just give a nice wash of colour to the lips, or built up to create a much more intense colour. I havn't used this much yet, as I definitely think it is an 'occasion' lipstick, but I think it would look gorgeous on a night with the hair in a high bun to add a pop of colour and sophistication! 

Next is a lip liner in the shade 'Potpourri', which I have fallen in love with. I have already worn this a lot as it is very versatile! A first glance it looks like a deep brown toned pinky red, but when applied it gives that 'my lips but better' look with a slightly darker tone. The reason I like this so much is because it can be worn alone to give a deeper reddish and more defined look to the lips (which I love, as my skin tone can't pull off a full red), worn underneath a nude toned lipstick, or used with a darker lipstick to give even more intensity. The colour reminds me a lot of Spice lip liner from Mac, and I think it just works perfectly to define the lips.

Lastly I got a Lip Glace in the colour 'Champagne', a pretty pinky nude with flecks of gold shimmer. I am obsessed with this colour. It is so rich looking and has what I describe as a toffee like vanilla scent. The gloss is very pigmented and doesn't take a lot to get the colour onto the lips. It definitely doesn't have that overly 'sticky' formulation, but just enough so as the gloss lasts for a 2 hours or so! These arn't the cheapest of lip gloss's at £18.50, but they have fab staying power and come in beautiful colours!

Laura Mercier products can be picked up on the House Of Fraser website!

Have you got any Laura Mercier lip products? Which are your favourites? Or perhaps you have a different brand/shade to recommend to me, I would love to know!