Smokey Eye FOTD with Nars & Illamasqua

Today, i thought i would play around with some of my new shadows...

In real life, this looks really dark and smokey, the flash has bleached it out alot. So, i guess you could either wear this in the daytime or the evening. :)


Face
♥ Mac select cover up concealer on blemishes
♥ GOSH touch up concealer in no. 2 under eyes
♥ Benefit erase paste in no 1 in corners of eyes to brighten
♥ Bare Escentuals mineral foundation in Medium Beige, using the Body Shop Kabuki for application
♥ Bare Escentuals "Faux Tan" to contour & bronze using Mac's 109 brush
♥ Mac MSF in Porcelain Pink using 109 brush


Eyes
♥ Mac's Blackground paint pot as a base, only on outer corners of the eyes.
♥ Nars Pleasures Of Paris palette col. Abyssinia in inner corner of eyes
♥ Nars PofP col. Fez in center of the eyes
♥ Nars Mekong single shadow in outer corners and blended under the eyes.
♥ Mac Retrospeck as brow highlight
♥ Loreal Voluminous mascara
♥ 2True waterproof eyeliner along top lashline

[Fed up of photos turning out rubbish]

Lips
♥ Illamasqua Obey Lipstick
♥ Mac Baby Sparks Dazzleglass on top


I had so much trouble with taking a photo of myself today. I just hated all of them & almost gave up.
In this very last photo it's my "URGH I GIVE UP" face :)
and in another i think i look pretty fed up.
I like this look, but none of my cameras really gave it ANY justice. I used 3!
I used my webcam last, just so you could see it zoomed out a little bit, and with my hair :)
& i actually prefer the webcam shots albeit a little yellow...

I lovelovelove these nars shadows. They look amazing on.
♥

Hair History.

It has become apparant that alot of you are very interested in my hair & how fast it took to grow and how i keep it in good condition (although i still stand by the fact it isn't..)

I have recieved alot of emails asking me those questions, so i thought i would do a blogpost on my hair history...colours, styles & cuts...no matter how embarassing ;)

I appologise in advance for the really cringey posey photos. haha. You can pretend you don't have any in your photo collection but I know you'd be lying!

Okay, so, starting from the very beginning...

This is me aged 1. I have quite thin mousey brown hair..and not much of it. :) A few months after this, my hair went very blonde..no photos of that on my computer though.



Think i was about 2 and a bit in both this photo and the one below. As you can see, i developed some serious frizz and ringlets, and they were blonde. This was the stage in my life where i formed a phobia of having my hair washed or brushed. I absolutely hated it and kicked up such a fuss when my mum told me she was going to brush it. I have a video of that somewhere haha.

Why did my mum dress me like a little boy...

Think i was around 4 here and was about to start school. The ringlets have dropped and my hair is coming through alot darker..but still blonde at the ends. :)

This was on holiday with my brother and cousens when i was 6 or 7. I had a bob cut, and fringe put in. Urgh, looking back i cant believe i liked this hair cut. I had it like this up until about year 6 (10/11) when i decided to let my hair grow longer...and i didnt get it cut for years... *gasp*

This is about the second year of secondary school. My hair is mid-length and still its natural colour, i have a side swept fringe, but before this i did have a center parting...

This photo made me laugh. I dyed it darker, and cut in a proper boxy fringe, it was still kindof long but i had mega choppy layers put in around my face...hmm...who votes that a box fringe does not suit me? *raises hand*After that, when i was 16, i cut off all the stringy long bits of hair and went mega short, with loads and loads of layers...about a week after this photo...i dreaded cutting my hair short and wanted it back to long...although i did love the volume i created by having all the short layers. How damn posey is this photo...cripes. haha

When they layers started growing out...not long after the photo above..i dyed it a weird reddy colour..this is known an my "ginger" phase...imagine how bad it was when the colour started coming out and the sun hit it...yikes.

This was after a holiday, im nice and tanned and my hair had been trimmed a little and the dye had gone..and the sun had brightened it up a bit. The last three photos were all around the same time. Obviously i was feeling incredibly insecure with my shorter hair.

This is my 17th birthday, hair is alot longer, layers are longer and i dyed it a darker brown. I really like my hair dark, but im so pale i dont know if i can pull it off so well. I also got a random blonde streak put through underneath on one side...you can kindof see it. Look how young Jack looks...haha. bless him.

Aged 18/19, and my hair is ALOT longer as well as my fringe. This is my natural hair colour again, besides the blonde streak..which is making its tiny appearance on the right near the bottom. haha I quite liked my long fringe but it was hard work to style and very rarely sat right.

This is earlier this year, i had my hair cut, had it semi-permanently dyed darker and some highlights put through the front.

This was a few weeks ago, hair is MUCH longer, layers are longer and i have trimmed my fringe a fair few times since the photo above. Highlights are still visible but the semi permanent dye has gone and its now my natural hair colour. :) I definitely love my hair the most how it is now.
When it's left to dry naturally though, it does resemble the first few pictures. I get ringlets and waves. :)

Its really weird seeing the photo of me at the top of this post and then the last one..haha that's properly weirded me out.

My advice to any of you trying to grow you're hair is to keep it protected from any heat...as this does damage the ends and will give you major split ends, thus major breakage will occur.
& to only get TRIMS. If you go crazy and keep taking too much hair off (unless you want a mega change or your hair is in really bad condition) then it will never grow. I never had my hair cut much in the space of time i had it cut short. I would just trim the ends myself every few months.
Although, if you are really bad at cutting hair, i wouldnt advise you do that haha.

So there you go, if you have any other questions, leave them below :)

♥

100th Post - Awards

Eee, this is my 100th post, so in honour of that. Have some awards...

I was given 2 pretty awards recently.
The first was from the ever so gorgeous, Stef
Please check out her amazing blog. I love it. She has so much amazing makeup and her blogposts are SO informative. She knows all there is to know about Mac, including the finishes and colour combos. She is also so bubbly and friendly.


How cute is that award?
There were no rules around this one. :)

The second award was given to me by the adorable Sarah (haha i still call you Lou though) & also the gorgeous Jennifer & lovely Kate


The rules around this one were to give 10 random facts about me,
Hmm..
Here goes:

1. Ever since I was about 10 i have LOVED Ant & Dec. For those of you who may not know who they are, they are presenters in the UK. I find their slapstick sense of humour hilarious & reckon theyre quite cute. haha I was going to keep this one a secret but i wanted some reasurrance from those of you who secretly love them too...anyone?... :)

2. I suffer from Panick Attacks, It's not a nice fact about me, but i really want them to be made more aware. I still believe nobody i know truley understands them. Even Jack doesnt, which isn't very reasurring. I've had them since i was around 14 years old. I don't know why i get them, or when i'll get them. But i constantly live in fear of them. They haven't been as bad lately, which is promising as im hoping to just grow out of them. :) If you have any further questions about panick attacks or are curious, try google or leave me a comment.

3. I'm the fussiest eater you will ever come across. I stick to the foods i know and love, and i'm very unadventurous when it comes to food. I really want to go travelling but i know i'd starve as i'd hate everything. I really wish i wasn't so fussy, but i am. Some foods i dont like...chinese, indian, garlic, onions, mushrooms, any form of meat from the bone, any type of fish, noodles, peppers, chilli, kidney beans, any form of quiche, sun dried tomatos (ABSOLUTE YUCK)...my gosh i could go on and on..

4. I get travel nausea. Cannot stand boats, or cars for long journeys. Planes are okay, as long as i can't feel any turbulance. I get queasy on a ferry across a tiny stretch of sea...Jack laughs at me as the boat hardly rocks at all. I'm probabaly just being a complete drama queen and imagining it. haha

5. I am secretly quite a nifty little singer. I don't mean that in a big headed way, im certainly no Beyonce Knowles or Whitney Houston. But, i do not let ANYONE hear me. The only time i will belt my little heart out is if im alone in my house. I think my dad overheard me in my room once and has never shuttup about it. He keeps urging me to sing in front of people or audition for something but i am WAY too shy. I really wish i wasnt, and i could just whip a tune out. aha

6. I'm really sentimental. I keep everything. Not junk, but tickets, photos, small souveniers & i stick it all into a diary i've had since i was 10. I dont write in it daily, but i write important things, or things on my mind, people that are peeing me off, people i love, things i've done, things i've remembered. I have 2 padlocks on this diary as it's SO private. I wouldn't let a soul read it these days. Obviously when i was younger it was just filled with people i fancied and events at school like being asked out for the first time & things boys had said to chat me up. It's so funny reading it back, and the petty arguments me and friends used to have. I'm so glad i've kept this diary, and im hoping i can keep it going for a long time, i still have about half the book left :)

7. I'm tiny. For those of you who havent ever met me...(and if you have i'm pretty sure your first words were "oh my gosh...you're tiny") then yes, i am small. I'm more "petite" as i'd say im in proportion. My dads fairly small and was a skinny bean pole when he was younger, my mum is tiny and my brother is tiny. We're like the borrowers. haha. Jack is also always holding up my feet and laughing at how small they are..and my longest finger is still smaller than his little finger.

8. I'm a chronic sleep talker. I also used to sleep walk when i was younger but i dont do that anymore thank god. I have mega long conversations to Jack on the phone, and will wake up thinking he never called me, when in fact i just talked to him when i've been sleeping. We've even had arguments before where i have sworn he's never called me, and have to resort to checking my call log, only to find he did in fact ring. Alot of people, My brother, Jack and my Dad included, like to take advantage of the fact i talk utter garbage in my sleep, by purposely asking me ridiculous questions, to get ridiculous answers back. :) Luckily we have no camera footage..yet.

9. I sometimes talk in a little girl voice. It's actually what got Jacks attention in sixth form. Don't ask why, but when me and my friends were being stupid, we'd put on little girl voices, and we'd often forget we were actually in public and that people could hear us. Jack overheard one of our silly conversations, sounding like 4 year old girls, and thought it was cute. haha. I wonder if he'd be with me if he wasnt eavesdropping ;)

10. Funnily enough, i couldnt think of fact number 10, i turned to Jack for some help. And he said that I come out with the worst one liners... I once said that Brazil was in Spain, during a conversation I implied that Tudors had telephones and during a conversation about seagulls asked if they laid eggs. :) I think im lacking slightly in the common sense department. If he can think of anything else, im sure he'll post in the comments below. haha. Those were just a few he remembered. :)

And i tag each and every one of my lovely followers to do this too if you feel like it :)
Thanks so much girlies for awarding me

♥

Grease Is The Word.

If you follow me on twitter or listened to me complaining about my hair at the Body Shop event (haha sorry), then you will know that i have had major issues with it being greasy as soon as i'd washed it.

This did happen on the morning of the Body Shop event, much to my dismay...

It just wouldn't stop being greasy.

I tried...

• Changing Shampoo & Conditioner
• Not using any Conditioner
• Batisting it out...that didnt work. No amount of dry shampoo would lift it.
• Not using any products before blowdrying

and yes, you guessed it...none of the above worked.

Here are some GLORIOUS photos of my lovely greasy head.
You may vom if needs be.
I know i dont like seeing people with greasy hair haha



These photos were taken literally 2 minutes after blowdrying.
Sorry if the photos were crap...its hard taking a photo of the top of your head.
The greasyness is in the crown and some in the fringe.

My hair has been SO limp, even backcombing didnt achieve any volume.

So ladies..the diagnosis is...
Product Build Up
*grrr*

My mum always used to tell me about product build up, and i'd be like
"yeh yeh, but thats what you shampoo you're hair for"
O_o

I seriously would have given up all hope and bought some expensive hair treatment or gone to the hairdressers if it hadn't have been for Arlene (Dressjunkie)
She advised me to get the Boots product build up shampoo & linked me to her REVIEW.
Please read it, its waaay better than mine :)
She had the same problem and voilaa, this little beauty of a product sorted it all out.

It was £2.93 in Boots & looks like this...


I dont often see many hair products that offer to remove build up product, and actually, when i was scouring the shelves for this..i saw nothing that claimed to do the same thing.

I have just done the test & washed my hair twice with the shampoo & nothing else.
No conditioner, no serums or lotions before or after blowdrying.
*gasp*

The results are far better than i expected.
I dont have any grease in my hair, it feels SO soft and sleek. It actually feels as though i've had my hair washed and blowdryed in a salon.

I seriously cannot thank Arlene enough.
and remember girls, don't ever underestimate the "own brands"
♥

O.P.I : Mod About You

A few people asked what nailpolish i was wearing last week at the Body Shop Bloggers event.
I was wearing this gorgeous milky pale pink, which i purchased after Laura (Lollipop26) had raved about it.
It's a really feminine colour but i also love the fact it makes your feel more tanned than you actually are! haha

The shade is called "Mod About You"

♥

The Pleasures of Paris.

I have never been to Paris.

shock horror.
In fact, i've never been to france...how weird is that?
Everyone's been to France!

Anyway, I don't personally know the Pleasures of Paris, but when scouring the Nars counter last week in Selfridges, i fell in love with the Palette "Pleasures of Paris"


It is gorgeous.
I've looked at Nars palettes before & theres always one or two colours i know i would never wear.
But when i saw this one, i loved every single colour.
I restrained myself last week, but when i saw i had more money in my bank than i thought i did, and after i'd been working so hard for my dad, i thought i'd treat myself yesterday in Space NK.

*grins*


Colours in Palette:

Top Row L-R: Nepal, Violetta & Demon Lover
Bottom Row L-R: Fez, Abyssinia & Cordura

Swatches in natural light:

L-R: Nepal, Violetta, Demon Lover, Fez, Abyssinia & Cordura

As i've said before, Nars shadows are such good quality. I do prefer them to mac.
The swatches above were done with one swipe.
I also noticed that the matte shades are so creamy to touch. They're not cream shadows, but the consistency is so smooth.

I heart this palette

P.s. It's also Limited Edition, so grab it while you can ladies. The Lady in Space NK said it had been flying off the shelves and was really popular.
♥

Time For A Change...

This is an interiors post, bit different but i hope you like it.
I don't know if any of you are aware i am very much into interiors aswell as fashion & beauty.
I redecorate my room LOADS.
Since being in this house i have redecorated my room about 5 times.
I get bored i guess, and my creative side takes over.
In my head i have visions of what i want my bedroom to look like.
It's been requested a number of times for me to do a room tour, and i really was considering doing it, but now im just not happy with my bedroom and would rather show you after i have transformed it.
In all honesty, it's not finished from the last time haha
I get so far then give up, im not the only one right?

At the moment, the colour scheme is black, cream & gold.
I have cream walls, a feature wallpaper wall, floral black and cream bedsheets, black acryllic chandelier and black and cream accessories.
But im finding the black a bit harsh.
My room is quite small, and so the lighter and brighter everything is, the better.

These are some images i've sourced from google of how im aiming to redecorate my room.

I absolutely adore shabby chic, I dont think it gets old or goes out of fashion.

My mums room has been shabby chic forever, as well as other room in our house.

So, this is going to be my little project, and im excited.
I already picked up some bargainus items to go in my room today at the bootsale.
Seriously ladies, if you are considering redecorating and going all shabby chic & vintage, the best place to pick up accessories and decorations is a bootsale.
Will post more about those later :)

Hope you found this somewhat interesting, i wanted all my inspiration in one place so i can go back and look at it.

And if you have a gorgeous shabby chic bedroom, feel free to leave tips and tricks :)

♥

London Purchases - Illamasqua & Nars

Before the Body Shop Event, we "popped" into Selfridges...

I only bought a few things, I was being a good girl :)

Of course i had to check out the Illamasqua counter, I really wanted to try one of their eyeshadows as i've heard great things about them & obviously i couldn't help purchasing another lipstick as i love the one i bought previously & wanted another for my collection. (This one was actually on my wishlist!)

The Lipstick is called "Liar" & It's a gorgeous pastel pink, very opaque but is one of a few with tiny shimmery particles in it rather than being matte.
Holly tried this one on & we both fell in love with it.
I cannot wait to wear this, I really love Illamasqua lipsticks, the lasting power is seriously good.
The other one i purchased (Obey) i wore in my latest FOTN, and i had to scrub it off my lips before bed..AND in the morning. I was thouroughly impressed.
Im not too sure if the shimmery ones will have the same effect but we shall soon see.

The eyeshadow is called Tango..and again, among all the hundreds of mattes they have, is a shimmer.
I love my shimmers clearly.
It's a gorgeous reddy brown, and i actually dont think i own anything like it. I have browns, but none with a red/orange undertone.
The pigmentation i would say is similar to Mac's, although i actually think that Illamasqua shadows last longer on the eye. :)

Next was the Nars counter.
I don't know if you've had a chance to look at the new collection but there are a few gems in there.
One being this shadow...

It's called Mekong, and it a deep brown, with tiny gold specks.
It looks a little purpley in the photos, i don't know why but it's not showing it in all it's beauty.
I was trying so hard to get it to show up the right colour...dang!
One thing i love about Nars shadows, is the pigmentation
They are by far the most pigmented shadows i have ever used.
one swipe and it's there in all it's glory.
They also last AGES.
I swiped this on my hand the other day (before urchasing) and even after i'd scrubbed at my hand, there was still a little mark there at the end of the day.
I havent used many of the lighter Nars shadow shades, so i cant say whether they are as pigmented as the darker ones, but from swatching at the counter many times before, i have never been dissapointed.

Look out for these products in some FOTD's in upcoming posts.
These are all far too pretty to let them go un-demonstrated.

Anything else in this Nars Collection you think is worth the buck?
I loved the look of the duo..but one shadow was very glittery (of the chunky nature).
& theres a palette i have my beady little eye on.

♥

The Body Shop Bloggers Event

Hello!

I'm so sorry i haven't blogged much lately. I have been a little uninspired recently & have also been helping my dad out most days at his job :)

So, as most of you will have probably already seen, there was a beauty blogger event in London yesterday for The Body Shop.
I was lucky enough to be invited along with around 30 more gorgeous girlies.
The day started off with me meeting Holly (Hollymae20) & Sophie (Beautymarked19) & we then headed over to Selfridges for a bit of retail therapy before the event started.
I will blog about what i bought in a seperate post. :)
In selfridges we met with more gorgeous girlies and we wandered around for a bit.
The event was in a bar/restaurant called "Sketch"
It was amazing inside. I was like a child at the zoo. haha
The toilets..as you will see...were absolutely amaaaazing. Never before have i been so excited to use the toilets in a public place.
If you haven't ever been to Sketch, i highly reccommend you do. I'd love to go back with some friends and have some drinky poo's there.

When we went inside we were greeted with champagne, cute scones, cakes, cucumber sandwiches and fruit.
The set up was sooo cute, and alot of the girlies were oggling at the waiters.
Ryan Phillipe (lookalike) in particular ;)
At the beginning of the event, we were talked through the new products, including the hand cream which is in aid of EPCAT, who are actively working to stop child trafficking & sexual exploitation of children & young people around the UK.
We were also shown (and demonstrated by Chase Ashton on the adorable Laura) the new makeup range for Autumn.
After that we were divided into two groups.
Both groups in turn got to take a trip to The Body Shop shop, and get a sample of anything you wanted and have a look around. After that, we went back and had a talk through the new perfume (which i'd recieved a sample of through the post & absolutely loved) and so we found out all about how they made it, what was in it, the ideas behind the name & we saw an advert that was put together, which was so cute :)

After the event, A majority of the girls went for something to eat, although a few of us (Holly, Sophie & Gemma) weren't hungry so we went to do a bit more shopping
(stopping off at the apple store before - if you haven't seen the video of us on youtube yet...please do. haha It's on Gemma's channel)
before heading to a bar/club for some cocktails & a plate of tasty nachos just before heading home at 8pm.
I SO nearly missed my train. The man shut the door behind me, and blew his whistle.
I had to stand almost the whole way home...the train was absolutely packed.

The event was so well thought out and the venue was utterly amazing, but it definitely wouldnt have been any of that if all the girlies weren't there. Everyone is SO lovely & you truely just get along like you've known eachother for years. I really wish these events were over a few days as you just dont get the chance to speak properly with everyone, and i always feel so guilty afterwards thinking of people i didnt speak to properly.
The time just goes far too quickly, think it's because we're having so much fun :)
I seriously laughed so much.
Thankyou all for a fab day.

Here are some photo's of the day...
[Dont forget to enlarge for close up]

[This photo is courtesy of the lovely Natalie Kitcher - one of the organiser's of the event. She did a fab job of organising everyone & making the day a success. To see more of the photo's she took of the event, click HERE]

Yes guys...There are decorations in Selfridges already!



Gemma's cupcake got squished :(


The Goody Bag Contents...

Prior to the event, we all filled in a questionnaire to determine what skin type we were. I have combination skin at the moment, so my results came up with the seaweed range. Everyone had their skintype products in their goodybag. :)
I used some of these today and i am really loving the results so far.

These are GORGEOUS. So pigmented. I skipped on "Natural Flare" mineralized shadow from the colour craft collection in Mac and the shadow in bottom right really reminded me of it, It's so pretty :)

11 Lipsticks! And i love and would wear every single colour. The formulation is quite sheer, but easily buildable.

These eyepencils are so creamy and pigmented. I cannot wait to use these, my favourites so far are the purple & silvery blue.

Eeeee, I'm so excited to try it all out. So far i can say im loving everything i've tried.
Especially the perfume, it's gorgeous.
I shall be doing full reviews on everything you see here after i have tested them further :)
and i shall be doing some FOTD's too.

If you're wanting to try/test out anything from the Body Shop, there's a promotion on the website from now until the 28th September, where if you pop anything from the new Autumn collection into your online basket, you will recieve 10% off your whole order.
Type in: FACEOFF10 at the checkout

:)
What a long post, haha, sorry if you got bored. I hope you didnt.
It was really so much fun, and i can't wait until the next few events ;)

♥