Getting Crafty With Cheerz

I am such a sucker for anything cute and stationary related. I have about a thousand photo albums and organisers just because I love decorating things with washi tape and nice colour pens (it's my weakness). So when Cheerz asked if I wanted to try out something from their range I was so excited! Cheerz specialise in printing photos and making them look really cool and personal, their website is super easy to use and they also have an app so you can just select what photos you want to print and it's done. Check out their range of products here as they do soo many! I decided to try out the Boîte à Photos, which is 40 prints (on square paper with a little border) a bag full of little pegs, some cute string, washi tape and some photo corners. They come in a fancy little box, which makes them lovely to give as presents or to keep everything together.

The Ultimate Liz Earle Hamper

Something VERY exciting happened lately. Something that literally never, ever happens to me... I won a competition! I hadn't won anything since I won a Christmas hamper in my primary school when I was about 8, so this was a massive shock to me and I couldn't believe it. Last month Feelunique held a 12 hours of giving competition where there were amazing prizes up for grabs every hour from 9am - 9pm. They had loads of really exciting prizes on there, but I really wanted to win the Liz Earle hamper worth £229 - which is exactly what I won! I absolutely love the Cleanse & Polish and had used it religiously for ages until I ran out a couple of months ago, but thought i'd hang on until i'd used the rest of my current cleanser to purchase another one, but now I don't need to! Woo!

December GlossyBox 'The Rose Gold Edit'

Recently, I decided to sign myself up for Glossybox and Birchbox (you can read all about my first Birchbox here). This was my first ever Glossybox and I was soo excited to receive it, more so than the Birchbox, i'm not really sure why! And oh my god it's beautiful, and rose gold! This month was a collaboration with beauty blogger Really Ree, who included some of her favourite products in the box. It's quite hard for me to fall in love with a product enough to buy the full size, and so I love the idea of these boxes to try out loads of different products, most of which I wouldn't usually go for. My room seems to be flooded with samples at the moment, especially as i've nearly finished my feelunique advent calendar (which I am LOVING at the moment!) but it means I get to continually try out new things - yay! Anyway, here is a look at what I received in my first box...

Zoeva Rose Gold Complete Eye Kit

The 'Zoeva Rose Gold Complete Eye Kit' is something that I had been lusting over for a very very very long time. I'd needed to get some new eye brushes for ages but never really knew where to start and couldn't afford to fork out fortunes on MAC brushes (as much as i'd like to) so when I saw the Zoeva ones for a really reasonable price AND in rose gold, I knew I had found the ones! So many bloggers have raved about this set, comparing them to many MAC brushes but for a fraction of the price, so I wanted to try them out for myself to see if they were worth the hype!

Unicorn Lurvvv

At the moment I am obsessed with unicorns. A lot of the reason for this is because so many shops are selling such cute and pretty unicorn related products at the moment, but also because i'm a 6 year old girl at heart and am also a complete sucker for anything pink or fluffy. For my birthday as you might have seen from my previous post, I got a lot of pink presents and amongst them were all of these adorable unicorn bits and bobs! I got a lot of this from my friend Gaby who made me the cutest little unicorn hamper (thanks boo).  So if you're like me and love unicorns and pink, you will love all of this!

A Very Pink 21st

It was my 21st not long ago (anyone who follows me on twitter will know as my countdown started very far in advance!) and so I thought I would share with you some of the lovely presents that I got. The presents show how well everyone knows me, as 99% of it was PINK! I spent the week in Falmouth which is where my boyfriend goes to uni, and it was so nice to get away from everything for the week - it really makes your birthday seem more special when you're not at home I think. Although the weather was quite crappy, and well, very English, I had an amazing time just chilling and watching lots of films and season 6 of Rupaul's drag race which I am now obsessed with - they look increeeedible! And also consumed an unhealthy amount of chicken, pizza and chocolate, but you're meant to be fat on your birthday - right?

November Birchbox

I barely ever get any post or deliveries through my door as I tend to do a lot of my shopping in shops rather than online. This means that I get VERY excited whenever I get any sort of letter at all - I get a bit too excited when my boots vouchers come. It's sad I know. I used to love getting my graze box sent to me every fortnight, but I soon stopped those as all 4 boxes were gone within 5 minutes of the postman coming! Anyway, I thought that I would sign up to a beauty box so that I have something to look forward to every month. I'd been really keen to sign up to one of these boxes for over a year now but just never got round to it, I had been ooo-ing and aah-ing between the Birchbox and the Glossybox for ages and then just thought that I would try them both out, which means TWO deliveries a month - how exciting!

Feelunique Beauty Advent Calendar 2015

A beauty advent calendar is something that i'd wanted to get for the past couple of years, but always left it too last minute and opted for the Lindt option instead (which is just as good). But this year I was determined to try one of them out. My heart was set on getting the Benefit one as last year it looked incredible, but this year they changed it from 25 days to 12 days, and when I saw the contents I realised that I had 99% of the deluxe samples that came in it and so I thought I would look for another brand that I didn't have. After a lot of searching I came across the feelunique calendar - it's 12 days, buuut after having a very quick look on the back at a few things that come in it (without looking at everything!) I thought that this looked like a really good calendar to try with some really great brands, and for £30 I didn't think it was too bad.

MAC Velvet Teddy Lipstick

As everyone will know, Kylie Jenner's lips have been a massive topic over the past year. The internet has been flooded with lip tutorials to try and achieve her iconic, big, full lips and so it will come as no surprise that when it was revealed that she wears 'Velvet Teddy' by MAC, the lipstick was sold out for months, and it was almost impossible to get hold of. But the lipstick is back in stock now and has been for a while I think... And so I decided to try it out! I usually tend to just stick to subtle pinks or bright reds (and not a lot in between) but lately I've been experimenting with different colours so that I don't end up buying 10 of the same colour lipsticks just from different brands. Does anyone else do that? I find a colour I like and then every time I see it I think 'ooo that's nice, i'm gonna get that!' Get home, and then realise I have 10 the same already haha. Anyway back to the lipstick...

NARS Blush in Deep Throat

As i've mentioned a million times before on my blog, blushes are something that my make up collection has always seriously been lacking. But being a NARS lover, I thought that it was time to buy one of their blushes to expand my collection, and so I went for 'Deep Throat' which is a classic loved by so many bloggers. Being quite pale, I wanted something quite sheer that wouldn't make me look like a doll, but that would add enough colour to not make me look washed out, and this blush seems perfect for that. It's a pinky/peach colour that is subtle enough to be paired beautifully with a dramatic lip or eyes, yet leaves the skin looking glowing.

Mini Stationary/Homeware Haul

Not too long ago I got myself a new, big white desk which I absolutely love. I'd been meaning to get a desk for such a long time, but was too lazy to move my room around, clear stuff out etc etc. But, I finally got down to ikea and bought myself a very big white desk, with 2 drawers on the front which is perfect for make up storage. Not long after that, I FINALLY got myself a Mac, which I had been intending to buy for a very long time, however every time I got close to buying it something would happen meaning that I would be skint again for another month (for example Ralph's trip to the vets costing £998) which is not ideal. But anyway, rambling on.. I decided that I needed to pimp my desk out a bit, and so I got very carried away with all colourful/chevron and geometric shaped things that I could find in ikea in attempt to give my room some life! So here are some stationary/home bits and bobs that I bought whilst in Ikea,Tiger and a couple of other shops...

MAC Irresistibly Charming Glitters and Pigments in Gold

If you read my blog, you will know that last week I attended the MAC 'Magic Of The Night' launch event where I got to see all of the beautiful new products from the range, along with some demos and sparkly biscuits! (If you didn't see it, you can read it here) As much I wanted to buy one of everything from the range, I decided to buy the Irresistibly Charming Glitters and Pigments in Gold, which is a kit full of the most beautiful, sparkly gold pigments ever in a cute little case - perfect for Christmas!

Put The 'High' Back Into Your Highlights

A few weeks ago Boots launched a new 'Colour Excellence' range, sadly I couldn't attend the launch event but luckily still got to try the products out. Colour Excellence's aim is to 'maximise colour definition for sharper, longer-lasting highlights' by removing the environmental build up and styling products absorbed in your hair (basically getting all the crap out!) Coloured hair, especially highlights absorb more conditioner than the rest of your hair, and so these products focus completely on removing them.

MAC 'Magic Of The Night' Launch Event

Earlier in the week, MAC in Brighton had an event to celebrate the launch of their new 'Magic of The Night' collection and so I went along to perv on all of the new products! It was a really chilled and fun evening, with the prettiest glittery cookies ever, drinks and make up demos featuring the new range. The packaging is soo pretty, it's a metalic purple/blue theme and most things come in cute boxes with this design. They also re-released some of their current lipsticks, such as 'Please Me' and 'All Fired Up' in this limited edition packaging which looks so cute. I wanted to buy everything! It's all sooo pretty. But I won't ramble on too much about it, I will let you see for yourself how beautiful it all is! So here's some of the photos I took from the event - (they're not the greatest quality as they were just taken on my phone)

October Favourites

I actually can't believe that another month has gone by. It felt like it was Summer last week, and already we're in the count down to Christmas (well I am anyway!) November is definitely my favourite month, not only because it's my Birthday, but because I love the cold evenings, dark nights, big jumpers and all of the Christmas shopping and cute chocolates in the shops! But anyway, here's a few things that I have been loving throughout October... Some of them you're probably fed up of hearing about as I go on about them a lot on my blog, and so apologies for that! I've discovered and fallen in love with so many products this month that I can see being a staple in my routine for months to come...

What's In My Handbag: Autumn

I always love reading 'what's in my handbag' posts. Mainly because I love being nosey and being able to see what people carry around with them! I don't think i've ever written one before so I thought I would show you what's inside my handbag most of the time throughout the Autumn. I do take more around with me in my bag then I probably should, but they're essentials, I promise...

Wish List: The Autumn Edit*

I love making wish lists, like I mentioned in my last one it's such a good excuse to browse the internet for ages searching for beautiful things! My Birthday/Christmas wish list which I posted a couple of weeks a go was quite general and included just a lot of random cute things, so I decided to create a list focused on more Autumnal products. Everything from this list can be purchased from Beautyspin.co.uk, which is an amazing website that I came across not long ago, that sells nearly every brand you can think of, but at a discounted price! It has a great range of products and I would definitely recommend that you check them out!

Perfect Tutorials For Busy Lifestyles

I love watching make up tutorials online, I could spend hours and hours searching YouTube for different make up looks, and when I have the time I love to try them out. But sometimes I don't have time to sit and watch a long tutorial and would rather watch a short and sweet video that I can try out a lot quicker. Recently I came across the Mrs Rodial channel on YouTube, which was created by the founder of Rodial skincare Maria Hatzistefanis. It's full of quick and easy make up tutorials (like 2 minutes long) which is perrrrrfect if you don't always have the time and want a bit of quick inspiration if you're going out. It also has loads of skin care tutorials, celebrity videos, how-to videos and interviews with Maria Hatzistefanis. All of the products used are by Rodial, but it's really easy to follow the tutorials with similar make up that you have!

Every Day Soft Cut Crease Look

When I first started getting more into make up, I always used to look at peoples amazing eye make up and when I would try it on myself it would NEVER look the same. Largely because the looks I was trying to create were on people that had an amazing cut crease, and I had no idea at all what one of those was haha, I didn't know how to do one and I didn't really think that eye shapes could be that different! Discovering that I have quite hooded eyes, I used to get really frustrated when it came to doing nice eye make up looks as my crease is so hidden and would never look like how I planned, but i've been experimenting quite a lot lately with different cut crease looks that suit my eye shape and trying to find a natural and subtle look that can be worn every day, and I've been wearing this pinky/purple cut crease look quite a lot lately. (And it's not too time consuming either, woo!)

Putting 'Pro:Voke Touch of Silver' to the test

A couple of months ago I had a balayage effect done on my hair, i'd tried so many of the 'ombre' home kits in the past and ended up with frazzled,  yellow hair so I thought that it would time to stop with the DIYs and go and have it done professionally! I found that even after I had it done at a salon, my ends still looked quite brassy and yellow and not the creamy-blonde colour I had hoped for. About 6 weeks after having the balayage done, my hair had become soo brassy and yellow! The hairdresser did warn me that the sun would have this effect on it, but I decided to try out 'at home' toners and see if the Pro:Voke Touch of Silver range would work and help me get the creamy-blonde colour that I wanted so bad! I decided to try this range for 3 weeks and see if I could notice a difference, before I went back to the hair dressers to have more colour/toner put through it.

Birthday/Christmas Wish List

With Christmas just around the corner (and my 21st Birthday just a little bit before) I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to make a wish list of all the things that I've been eyeing up lately! I do just want to say, that in no way am I expecting to get all of this stuff for my Birthday.. this was purely an excuse to spend a night searching on the internet for pretty things that I would like to own! I really enjoy looking through other people's wish lists and seeing what people are loving and finding products that I had never heard of before (and then adding them to my wish list, it's kind of dangerous!). I also find wish lists really helpful for ideas on presents to buy people when you're not really sure what to get. I hope you enjoy mine - it's accidentally very pink!

Autumn Make Up

I love Autumn. I love the colours, the weather and the fact that I can start wearing big jumpers again! I always tend to apply my make up heavier in the Autumn/Winter as well, especially when it comes to my eye make up. And the darker lipsticks start to make more of an appearance! As i've mentioned in a lot of my posts recently, I am loving gold/bronze eyeshadows at the moment and I think that these colours suit the Autumnal mood even more, so I will definitely been carrying on with over using my beloved 'half baked' from the original Naked palette!

Smashbox 'Shape Matters' 3-in-1 Contour Kit

When an email came through from Boots saying that Smashbox had brought out a new contour kit AND that it was going to be half price for the first week, I couldn't resist! I've never really tried that many products from Smashbox before, but had been eye-ing up their contour and eyebrow kits for a while. So when I saw that this kit had their best-selling contour kit, eyebrow kit and 9 beautiful eyeshadows all in one, I thought that it was the perfect opportunity to try Smashbox out!

*Crying face*

We found out that Ralph had bladder stones back in May and the vet said that he wouldn't make it another the week and had no hopes for him whatsoever. But when he got home from the vets, after a few days he seemed back to his old self again and seemed very happy, running around everyone and eating loads of spinach - the vet said it was a miracle! But after months of being his normal self, about 10 days ago Ralph took a turn for the worst and got very ill again, we took him to the vets and they told us that his bladder stone had moved and got bigger. Sadly he didn't make it through the night last Friday :( Anyone that knows me will know how obsessed I was with him (and Henry) and it broke my heart to say goodbye to my fluffy little guinea! Henry seems really confused that Ralph isn't with him anymore and it's soo upsetting, but it means I get to give him extra cuddles! I've put a toy cow in his cage with him to try and 'keep him company' and sometimes he drags it into bed with him and sleeps with it, it's the cutest thing ever! 

Paul Mitchell Awapuhi 'Wild Ginger' Range

I never used to put much thought into what shampoo and conditioner I used for my hair. I used to just grab what ever was cheap in Superdrug, see if it smelt nice and get on with it. But recently, I’ve been choosing my hair care products more carefully, in particular ones that are suited for curly/frizzy/dry hair to see if I could notice a difference.

Take Me Back!

I've been slacking a bit on my blog lately, well on all social media really! I've been really busy with work, my boyfriend and my friends moving back to uni so I haven't had a day to myself to do anything for a while. But I finally got my new computer (woo) so will be able to start blogging more without relying on my iPad and phone, which are really hard and time consuming to blog on!

Pretty In Pink with Zaful

dress 1 -  dress 2 - dress 3 - dress 4 - dress 5 - dress 6*

Anyone that knows me will know that I'm a massive sucker for anything pink - if I could wear pink 24/7 I would! So, as the sun is actually making an appearance in England at the moment I thought I would make a wish list of some beautiful pink dresses from Zaful, which is a lovely site full of gorgeous clothes, with amazing price tags!

Hello Happy - Small 5 Changes

Okay, so this is a bit of a different post today. Like many people, I have quite bad anxiety and often go through stages where I feel quite down, insecure and not myself. A lot of times I would find myself very stressed, and uncontrollably worry about so many things! Lately, I feel as though I have become a lot happier and my anxiety has improved so much, due to some small changes i've made. I thought that I would share with you some things that I have been focusing on lately that really have made an impact and made me a lot happier!

Late For Work!

In an ideal world, we would all wake up bright and early every day and have hours to get ready for work/school to make sure that we look our best. But unfortunately (well for me anyway) most days I press the 'snooze' button at least 3 times, and leave myself not very much time to get ready at all...

NARS 'Christopher Kane' Parallel Universe Eyeshadow Duo

So, perfection does exist - and it comes in the form of pink lilac and soft violet eyeshadow duo... I fell in love with this eyeshadow duo from the moment I saw it in Space.NK last month. I left the shop with my hand absolutely covered in sparkly purple shades as I couldn't stop trying it on!

Anastasia Beverly Hills DIPBROW Pomade

The Anastasia Beverly Hills DIPBROW Pomade is something that I had been really excited to try for a long time. After using powder and pencil on my eyebrows for years, I definitely thought that it was time to try something different...

July Favourites

I found choosing my favourites this month really difficult as I have been loving so many different things lately, i've also tried quite a few different things this month, some which I have fallen in love with, but here are a few of my favourites...

Battle Of The Foundations: MAC vs Nars

MAC 'Studio Fix Fluid' and Nars 'Sheer Glow' foundations are always being raved about. I feel like they're 2 of the most popular foundations around at the moment and after trying them both I can see why. I really didn't know which one to go for when I was trying to choose my next foundation, but now that i've tried them both I know which one will be a staple in my make up collection...

St.Tropez Gradual Tan In Shower Lotion

When I first saw this, I thought it was too good to be true. I've never really been a 'fake-tanner', nearly every time I have used it something has gone wrong, whether that's just turning completely orange, streaks and patches, or the fact that I just can't be bothered with the whole being sticky and waiting around for it to dry! (Lazy I know)...

MeMeMe Cosmetics: First Impression

Recently I got the chance to try out some products from MeMeMe Cosmetics. I had never tried anything by them before so was really excited to try them out...

Everyday Skin Care Routine - Day & Night

My skin care routine is always changing, I always find new products that I want to try out, but I thought i'd share with you the current products that I am loving for my skin at the moment...

MAC 'Heroine' Lipstick

Looking through my lipstick collection I realized that I only really buy reds and pale pinks, I think probably because these are seen as quite 'safe' colours and I know that if i'm going out that I can just grab one and know that it will go with most make up looks and outfits. I definitely thought it was time to spice things up a bit! I'd seen people wearing purples and blues quite a lot and thought they looked amazing, but wasn't too sure if I could pull it off. I'd heard a lot of hype about MAC's 'Heroine' lipstick and when I saw that it was available to buy again, I jumped at the chance to try it out!

FOTD - Wedding Look

Last weekend I went to my cousins lovely wedding in Devon. I love having an excuse to get dressed up and try something different with my make up, so I thought i'd share with you the look I went for. Annoyingly, my camera died after I took the photos of the make up I used so I had to take the rest with my phone, so excuse the poor quality!

Loving the pout a bit too much in this I think!

MAC Mineralize Skinfish 'Soft and Gentle'

For a while I was obsessed with the Sleek Contour Kit, I loved the matte bronzer but was more in love with the highlighter. I ran out not long ago, but decided to try something different instead of repurchasing. I'd heard a lot about the Mac Mineralize Skin Finish in 'Soft and Gentle' and thought that it looked so pretty so I decided to give it a go!

Amsterdam!

Hello everyone!

Last week I got back from the most amazing holiday to Amsterdam with my boyfriend George. We'd had it booked since about October so i've been sooo excited now for such a long time. It was my first time there so I wasn't really sure what to expect, but ohhh my god I love it there so much and didn't want to come home! Here are some of my photos from the trip and some of the things that we did :)! I did take about 700 photos but I wont bore you that much! 

Eyebrow Miracle: RapidBrow Enhancing Serum

Hello!

I have been soo excited to write this blog post, but have had to wait at least 6 weeks as I wanted to get the full potential of this product.

I don't even know where to start with this! As some of you may know, I had next to nothing eyebrow-wise after years and years of over plucking. I would use various products every day to fill them in and make them look as though I atleast had something there! I was getting quite fed up of having so little hair there, so decided to start looking around for products that could help enhance the growth - I didn't want to spend too much as I wasn't too sure if anything would work (I thought that my years of over plucking would have ruined my eyebrows forever!)

One Year On

First of all, I can't believe it's been a whole year since I have blogged anything! I loved doing it, and writing about the products I love and what I've been doing etc, but have just had such a hectic past year I felt like I just didn't have time to blog as there was always something new. I do really want to start blogging again and feel like now I have got to a point where it would be easier to do so, and I'm excited to get it going again! I thought I'd give you all a little insight as to what my year has been like..