OOTD #016; This Ain't No Home, It's Hardly A House....

sheer shirt; LOVE at topshop shorts; matalan top; new look bag; H&M ring; matalan

Quick OOTD for you all! I'm trying to get the last use out of my summer clothes and adding some tights to take the end of Autumn chill off! I've had a beautiful weekend of shopping and catching up with my high school friends (shamefully impulse buying a "sheriff" badge.... good for a fancy dress party?!) and generally chilling out and planning out my Autumn/Winter wardrobe with the help of Elle Magazine! I had my interview for a job at H&M on friday afternoon at at 5pm friday night they called me back and I GOT THE JOB! Which means I'm now officially employed and my life is back on track :) Apparently H&M have really intense training and I'm doing mine at the H&M in Market Street, if you guys have shopped in Manchester you'll know how busy it can get, so that should be fun?! 

Anyway, tonight I'm looking forward to Dragons Den and ofcourse the #bbloggers chat on twitter at 8. Both clash with each other, so as usual I'll be turning my head madly between the TV and my laptop!

Anyway, hope all you beauts had gorgeous weekends!

xoxoxoxoxo

OOTD #015; She Buys Me Chips and Cheese and I Tell Her That I Love Her, That She's All I Need...

top; H&M, skirt; topshop, bag; H&M, shoes; primark ring; matalan

Hi lovelys!

I'm aware this outfit is a bit marmite, personally I like it. I like the bright pink and marigold combination, usually I'm really subtle with colour blocking but I've been meaning to try these two together since I bought these pieces. I'm so happy brights and colour blocking are here to stay through Autumn/Winter, I've loved all the colour in my wardrobe this summer! I'm already excited about the gorgeous jumpers that are going to hit shops soon! (I know, I know.... it's only august.)

Inspiration from;

Miss Olivia Palermo ofcourse! 

I've never tried any cream-to-powder foundations, because I didn't really think they were something that would suit my dry skin. However when this was advertised for dry/normal skin I had to give it a go, especially as there was a deal where if you bought selected makeup you could get a foundation of your choice for £2! I apply this with a Sigma F80 brush as opposed to the sponge that comes with the foundation, and they work like a dream together. The colour "ivory" is the lightest shade in the range, and fits my skin perfectly. This claims to be a foundation, concealer and powder in one, and I'd pretty much agree on the foundation and concealer part, as you can see from my outfit picture, I have a lot of redness and blemishes on my face aswell as dark circles, but with the foundation (I used NO concealer!) my skin is completely flawless. The only thing I have a problem with is that this ISN'T a cream-to-powder foundation, it never turns to a powder, it just stays as a cream and for that reason I'd say it's not very suitable for oily skin as it does give a dewy finish and would not be long lasting on oily skin. This isn't something I'll be using right now, as it is very high coverage, but this is definitely a shout for anyone wanted a high coverage foundation, I'll be using it for nights out when I want flawless skin and the winter, I usually use a lot less coverage in the summer!

Also I realised yesterday, it's VERY close to exam results time, infact I get my results in about a weeks time as far as I'm aware, so good luck to everybody! I'm not returning to college in September so it's not the end of the world if I don't get decent results, but I put so much hard work in beforehand I'm really hoping I'm pleasantly surprised!

I haven't really posted in the past few days because there was a lot going on England in way of riots, and in all honesty I've spent most of my time watching sky news and seeing the Miss Selfridge I was hoping to get a pair of shoes from this weekend go up in flames, not nice!

Anyway, I hope you all have a gorgeous weekend and hopefully we've seen the end of the riots!

xoxoxoxox

OOTD #013; If The City Never Sleeps, Then That Makes Two...

parka; topshop top; primark skirt; topshop shoes; new look ring; matalan

I've been meaning to do an inspired OOTD for ages! I love this parka for summer, it has a second inside layer with gorgeous fur for the winter but i love it in the summer for rainy days! 

I'm currently job hunting and so I've been doing my job homework and researching various A/W 11 trends to impress various employers with, seeing as I'm looking for a job in a fashion store it's probably the easiest way to impress other than what I choose to wear. I took inspiration from Altuzarra's fall collection, which was inspired by an image of Kate Moss in an evening dress with a parka over the top with then boyfriend Johnny Depp. I've always loved the dress under fur coat look, but this is a new one for me, and I love how it makes an outfit casual with so much ease - and so practical for cold england nights!

Here's the Altuzarra Fall '11 Collection;

Now all I need is some gorgeous boots!

xoxoxoxoxoxox

OOTD #012; Her Kisses May Be A Beautiful Art, But She Don't Really Care About Your Heart...

top - primark shorts - matalan rings - h&m and topshop

This is definitely my favourite way to wear a crop. I don't think I'd EVER be confident enough to get my stomach full on out in the UK, and if I did I'd be so conscious of it the entire time it wouldn't even be worth it. Definitely a fan of crops combined with something high waisted and just letting the smallest part of your waist show though, definitely the most flattering! My nail polish has chipped like a bitch, time to invest in a more expensive top coat than natural collection I think?! I'm having the annual haircut tonight, and I genuinely mean annual, it gets cut once a year before holiday every year. Last year was a massive cut (the hairdressers choice, not mine), so this time around I'm going to much more strict on her and get about an inch and a half off. I'm going on holiday to Tenerife on friday, so you'll obviously see a lack of posts (well, none at all) for the two weeks I'm away. I'm starting the packing tomorrow, because I usually think I have something I don't, go in full panic mode at the last minute that I actually chucked out that pair of really comfy flip flops last year etc, so wednesday afternoon/thursday morning packing allows me the rest of thursday to rush to the shops and buy something if I need to.

I'll probably to a "what's in my travel bag" post before I go, and if I get time, a post of actually packing my suitcase. I'm trying to dramatically downsize, luckily the past few years we've been given extra baggage allowance so I've gone a bit mad, but this year although we've still got the baggage allowance I'm gonna try and keep it light, and then I can pick up lots while I'm away.

I'm thinking about picking up a couple of perfumes in duty free, if you have any recommendations let me know! I'm definitely repurchasing my Miss Dior Cherie, but I fancy trying something else aswell :)

xoxoxoxox

OOTD #010; I Turned My Back, You Were Gone In A Flash..

vest top; topshop shorts; matalan rings; h&m and primark shoes; new look.

I keep trying to do OOTDs but it's always raining these days so have an inside one. I love these shorts that look like a skirt skorts. I've been watching Wimbledon a LOT (not really sure why) and tidying up. The past few days have involved being driven around with one of my friends who's just passed her driving test, becoming obsessed with starting to drive and having a stressful experience in the photobooth getting my provisional photo, and searching for jobs (fun fun fun!). Anyway back to the tidying up, check this crazy organisation out!

Yeah, I really am so bored I've sorted out my dressing table thing out, put my Barry M nail polish into colour order and finally put all my most used rings onto my cat ring thing ;)

Question; Where do you guys store your earrings?!

This is my current method of storage, yep that's right. a clay "bowl" I made when I was about eight years old. It does the job but it doesn't exactly look pretty haha!

I'm going to meet my lovely friend Hannah in town tomorrow, so I'll be testing my self restraint and heading into Boots and Superdrug to buy these bits and bobs, and stick to my spending ban!

Models Own "Disco Ball" Nail Polish

Revlon Just Bitten Lip Stain and Balm in Flame

Max Factor Lasting Lip Tint in Nice 'n' Nude

Natural Collection Tinted Moisturiser in Fair

MUA Pro Palette in Starry Night

So you might be seeing a good old haul tomorrow if I'm successful!

Btw, slightly random one but, does anybody else put a plaster over their finger when their nail breaks and looks really short and ugly?! Please say I'm not the only one!

(apologies for the shit webcam quality!)

Hope you all had a good day lovelys!

xoxoxoxox

Haul & Ramble

I know, I know another haul! But this really is the last one for a while now I'm completely broke! I realised I was missing a few bits for summer so I went out on the search for a few bargains!

I love these "boyfriend" style shorts from H&M from £19.99 and they're probably my favourite purchase. I have loads of tight and high waisted denim shorts, but these are really lose on the legs and waist, and I think these will look amazing with a belt and an oversized top. LOVE them, and H&M have a really good selection of shorts at really affordable prices so I might pick up a different pair before summers over!

I have literally NO coats with hoods, and all my umbrellas seem to be better for show than actually shielding me from rain, so I've been looking a nice mac everywhere! I found this mac from Peacocks for £14.00 and I love it. I can wear it alone or underneath my leather jacket and more to the point, it doesn't make me look like a female version of Roy Cropper!

Now in Matalan I sort of went a little mental on the shorts. I got four pairs £8 each. I love the patterns, and they do genuinely look like skirts at a first glance. I like the fact I don't have to grab these frantically everytime the wind blows like with skirts, shorts are just easier to wear and these are so cute! Can't wait to wear these all on holiday, note my brilliant photography skills putting leopard print shorts on a leopard print background - GOOD ONE.

shorts 1, 2, 3 and 4

This didn't really come up true to colour it's more purple in real life, in the bottle it looks like a complete dupe of the Andrea Fulerton Kate which I've been meaning to buy for a while now. I've wanted to try one of the pro range for ages, and this Matt Purple looks lovely and i'll probably feature it in a nail of the day post soon. I just love the colour and well worth the slightly too expensive in my opinion £8.

Finally these two lipsticks I bought yesterday I am in love with! The top colour, Topshop "On The Town" is a gorgeous lilac colour I've been wearing all day. Considering it's a matte it's not too drying and a lot easier to wear than I'd thought. Really already one of my favourite shades!

Now onto Sleeks "Vixen" which is a lovely classic red colour. I do adore it, but it's not a "unique" colour, infact every lipstick range probably has a similar shade. Nevertheless I do adore it and I love how pigmented this lipstick is for the £3.99 it cost!

Also I'm in love with Rihannas Man Down Video, Major style inpiration from her long plait, her nude lip and dramatic eye, the jamaican vibe, god I could go on for hours! Though it's not to be ignored, though this is a massive tune the video tells the story of Rihanna shooting a man in Graaaand Centraaaal Statioooooon in front of a big olllllll' crowd, which it's later shown is in retaliation of a sexual assault the previous night. This of course has sparked major controversy but I salute Rihanna for bringing to attention issues which people don't really seem to talk about, aswell as Man Down, her collaboration with Eminem; Love The Way You Lie brought attention to domestic violence. And above all that, she makes it into catchy tunes and looks bloody gorgeous the majority of the time without being a size zero. Basically, I'm in love with her. It's a bit obvious, yes?!

and it's FRIDAY! Hope you all have lovely weekends! I've as usual left revision to the complete last minute so I'll be cramming all weekend for Tuesdays exam, God help me! xoxox

Haul; Superdrug, Boots, Savers, Topshop etc..

I seem to be buying more rings and make up than anything at the moment. I went in various charity shops today determined to get something! I don't like this shirt with the sleeves, but I think once they're cut off I can definitely combine it with a bodycon skirt and hopefully make it work, and if it doesn't for £3.50 it's not the end of the world. Though I do think charity shops in my area need to look at their prices, they wanted a fiver for a black and white stripe plain top... from primark! It probably didn't cost that brand new!

I seriously recommend Red magazine this month. I've never actually read the magazine before, but the free gift was too much to resist! For £3.80, you get a free Jemma Kidd Lipgloss which retails at £14.00. There's three shades, a light pink, a coral and a red (the red was made exclusively for Red Magazine). I chose the coral colour, a beautiful shade that goes on fairly sheer yet beautiful on the lips. At that price though, I think I'll be going back for the red!

Currently everything Ruby & Millie is 75% off! I've never really been "wow"ed by the few products I've bought from there, honestly I thought it was all a bit overpriced (£10 for a nail polish?!). But at 75% off, I fancied checking out whether any of the brushes were lying around in my local boots. The whole stand had been cleared of all the good stuff; typical! But I did manage to grab the last foundation brush, reduced from £12 to £3! 

Then using one of those lovely no7 vouchers I decided to go for the No 7 Eyeshadow Blend and Contour brush, a supposed dupe of the MAC 217 which I'd never buy seeing as I refuse to spend £15.00 on an eyeshadow brush. And this is a bargain at £6.75, but even better with a £5 voucher making it a fabulous £1.75!

I had a really keen and generally lovely lady at the till who seemed more happy at my bargains than me haha, and she told me if I could add another 25p then I'd get another five pound voucher, so ofcourse I bought a good old creme egg!

I love this ring! I've been painting my nails pretty bright for spring/summer so I've found it difficult to match them with rings without clashing. I never wear silver so I opted for gold and I really do love the leaf wrap design!

I've been meaning to try Topshop makeup for a while, there's so much I wanted to try and I didn't really know where to start! I love the packaging, and a lot of the time it really is a decider on what product I buy. So as Topshop are having 20% off for students all this week I thought this would be the perfect time.

I wanted a blush, I've been lusting after both Flush and Neon Rose for quite some time, I decided to opt for Flush. These are cream to powder blushes, which I've been preferring recently and even though the colour is REALLY scary (trust me this picture does it no justice, have a look in store), it really does come out a really sheer and beautiful rose colour that does honestly give you a "flush" of colour :P

Then I've been wanting a lilac colour but I just couldn't find "the right one" in drugstore. I really didn't want to fork out on higher end, so when I saw this on the topshop website I was VERY happy! It really is a beautiful colour, a nice lilac called "On The Town" which doesn't look too drying! I'll let you all know, I've never really had a purple lipstick, I think it's a kindof love/hate thing, but hopefully I'll like it.

This ring is probably my favourite purchase of today! I've never really looked at Matalan jewellery, but this double finger anchor ring is lovely! And it was on sale from £5 to £2 so ofcourse I snapped it up! I also bought another ring but it BROKE in my bag so I haven't shown that haha! 

Bought this shower and bath gel from asda purely because it smells AMAZING! I got the small 100ml bottle for a bargain of £1! So if the smell lasts and it really is half decent I'll be buying a bigger bottle!

I've been meaning to buy this QVS "airbrush" brush for ages from Superdrug but honestly I'm not too sure it was worth the £8. I was hoping to use it for foundation but it doesn't seem very dense, it's probably going to be better for blush or bronzer. Kinda disappointed, really don't want to splash out on the MAC 187 :(

I decided to pick up another sleek lipstick, this time "Vixen" a really classic red colour, I probably have about 4 other lipsticks similar to but still ;)

I decided to pick up this blush after seeing it on a couple of blogs, it's such a pretty colour. I've never really gone near the Beauty UK stand, just because it's slightly more expensive than the other "really cheap" brands (MUA, 2True, Natural Collection, Miss Sporty etc) yet the packaging really does look cheap, for example their lipsticks cost the same as sleek and yet I find sleek lipsticks much nicer and the packaging looks a lot better.. which brand I buy from? SLEEK. Despite all this though for £3.99 this baked blush is beautiful. I got the shade "Peaches and Cream", which is a peachy gold colour with hints of coral.

From Savers I picked up this Simple face mask. I love the simple range, and I love face masks, so this was a match made in heaven! Can't wait to try it and see if it lives up to expectations! and for £1 you can't go far wrong!

While I was there I also picked up this hair removal cream. Now I've always hated hair removal cream due to the whole smell thing, I absolutely despise the smell :( However this is meant to have a floral scent, I don't know how true this is or whether the horrible smell will overpower it, but for £1 I figured it was worth giving a go!

And lastly a tin of Vaseline with SPF15 for my lips when I'm on holiday, another bargain at £1! :)

I got this from a charity shop for £1.99 on the kind of idea I'd put something in it. Though now I'm back at home I have literally no idea. I was thinking bobby pins but I would never fill a jar this size with them! Arrrrgh.

Swatches of all the lipsticks/lipglosses/blushes, bare in mind these are heavily swatched, the Topshop blush comes out a lot sheerer than that and baked Beauty UK blush really didn't swatch well at all!

Now to finish the day, I will be watching Britains Got Talent - which I'm afraid to say really is a joke this year, whilst eating some of my favourite sweets from my childhood, NERDS! xoxoxoxo

OOTD #003; Why Is Everything With You So Complicated?

Shorts - Matalan

top - primark

cardigan - miss selfridge

tights - primark

shoes - primark

necklace - topshop

ring - primark

nail polish - models own fuzzy orange

just off to college later and then doing some more revision! I swear revision has taken over my week this past week, as usual I've left revising to the completely last minute and have gone into panic mode over the entire thing. I always try to justify leaving things late "for the adrenaline rush, it's good for you" but er, I think I might have to start revising earlier if I want to get my a levels! I've been looking at different opportunities in careers if i DIDN'T (shock horror) go to uni, and I'm overwhelmed at the jobs I can get without a degree! :) I'll probably do a really boring career post later just to help me more than anyone! Hope you all have a good day! xoxoxox