It's a nautical world...

I love a stripe, and when I saw this in H&M the other day (see previous post) I was too excited! Perfect length for work, and I wore it today with Primark tights, Primark tan loaders that you may have noticed I'm getting a bit obsessed with, and a little sleeveless navy button-up collar top.

Apologies for my hair in this, it's FLAT! (rush for work)

Anyway only a quick one today...I'm off to Debenhams tomorrow for a bit of a Mac haul now I've been payed :)

Hope everyone's enjoying the four day week!!

Shoes glorious shoes...

This is going to be a fairly quick one because it's fair to say I'm suffering pretty badly from last night! I went out with some of he girls to celebrate Steph moving home for good after her four years of uni, and it got pretty messy! (it gets a bit picture heavy at the bottom of this post, sorry!)

I had work yesterday at Office and went a bit mad with my purchases!!

I got yet another pair of hightop converse, I'm developing a bit of an addiction!

I also got a pair of shoes in the sale that, I'll be honest, I hadn't really taken a lot of notice of when we had them in first time around but as soon as I saw them in the sale, I HAD to buy them!!

I had a 45% discount to use up and as soon as I'd seen these burnt orange numbers, I knew I probably wouldn't be able to live without them. Here's a quick picture, but take a look at all my pics below from last night to see them in all their glory....

I wore: shirt from New Look that I bought earlier in the week, high waisted denim shorts from Miss Selfridge, new shoes from office. 

Steph wore a navy one shouldered dress from ASOS and metallic sandals from Evans.

Kellie wore a black strapless jumpsuit from H&M, and wedges from New Look.

Just a few snaps from last night..... (and please don't ask what we were drinking, I know it looked toxic and I can assure you it tasted toxic too....)

Let's free fall and see where we land.....

Today I'm just obsessed with this song...

Anyway this is a pretty picture heavy one sorry guys, just to show you what I've been spending my pennies on.

These are actually from New Look and the were reduced to £2! They're really similar to Barry M dazzle dust pots, the colours are great and stay on great without creasing or the glitter falling off onto my cheeks!

This was a bargain down to £8 from New Look, I might wear it out tomorrow night tucked into high waisted denim shorts when I go out with the girls!

Another bargain from New Look, this was £8 as well and it's so cute with the little pockets on the front.

I really needed a plain short cardigan to go over a black and white maxi dress I've got for work, and of course it had to be corral! £12.99 H&M.

I've never really been much of a floral dress fan but I love the elasticating on this one, and it will look cute with tan loafer's when the sun decided to come out! £14.99 H&M

This is easily my favourite purchase, a jersey playsuit with elasticated waist, I really want to wear this for work tomorrow with some black leggings and my white hightop converse! Such a bargain for £9.99 from H&M.

This is just a little skirt for work, £7.99 from H&M, and I've got a button up collared sleeveless shirt that will look quite cute tucked in.

I just picked this up for the size, perfect for my handbag! It's a floral smelling body spray, it's not a very strong smell but it's good for topping up through the day.

I've got nearly all of their range of the £1.99 bangles and bracelets from there, and I usually wear them all at once stacked up my arm. I've got these in black but I loved the snakeskin detail so got both new colours!

These were in the sale in New Look (two were buy one get one free and two were down to £1) because I'm trying to grow my hair so need something to make it look fun when it's up!

I picked a couple of cheap makeup brushes up in Kerrie Anne's as well, I'm still experimenting guys but I'm sure I'll find some I like soon!

I could NOT believe these when I was stood waiting to pay for my brushes, as these are usually £2.99 a set. And these are £5.99 for FIVE sets! They're all slightly different as well which is nice.

Dorothy Perkins had a great sale on their jewellery and after a rummage around I found these three for the total of £8.

Ooooh and the most exciting thing about today...I'm finally back to being a Black Cherry-head, and I had my nails done; some nice short square gel nails. 

I went out last night with Chris to see some of his friends singing in a bar in town, was a really nice evening and it was the end of my alcohol detox which I thoroughly enjoyed. I wore my black jumpsuit with tan loafers and tan waist belt, and a cropped denim jacket over the top...here's a few snaps before I went out...

I hope everyones got lots of lovely plans for the bank holiday weekend!!

Loves xx

Mini elf haul...

I’m in a ridiculously good mood today for a number of reasons:

1)    only one more day left of work then it’s a long weekend (even though I’m working in Office on Sunday but that doesn’t count!)

2)    One of my besties is back from uni for good tomorrow and I can’t wait to have her back in my life!

3)    The combination of 1) and 2) obviously lead to number three being a very big drunken re-union on Sunday night which I am gagging for I won’t lie. And this also means that…

4)    It’s not long until I can break my detox. OK I won’t break it completely, I’ll still eat healthily and not binge on sweets but it does mean that HELLO ROSE you’re back in my life. And oh, how I’ve missed you (yes I really am a bit of a wino)

5)    I finally got my nail appointment booked for Saturday thanks to a cancelation at the salon, so I’m going to have lovely gel nails for the outing on Sunday.

And finally 6) My second ever Elf order came in the post today and I’m really pleased with it. I want quite a lot of things off the site at the moment that aren’t available but I’m eagerly awaiting the email off them telling me they’ve got them and I can go purchase!!

I did, however, purchase a few lovely bit’s that I could not be happier with!

I firstly got a couple of brushes from their basic range and their studio line. I’ve always been a bit wary of makeup brushes, sceptical of what to use and how. I’ve always gone for the classic blusher brush and an eyeshadow brush but that’s usually been my limit, but with the affordable range that ELF do, I’ve felt the need to experiment a bit more with my tools of the trade.

First off I got (thank the lord) a smudging brush. This will save my poor mum having to buy cotton wool buds quite as often, as that’s what I’ve always used for my makeup in the past. I’m a big fan of the Smoulder eyeliner from Mac as it smudges easily but gives a lovely dark finish, so I can’t wait to try smudging it with my new brush tomorrow morning!

I also got a stipple brush from their studio range which I’m excited about. I’m a bit useless with foundation, after using a powder base with a sponge applicator for the past 4 years I’m now on to Mac studio fix which (of course) is a liquid. I’m terrible with my fingers because it just ends up going everywhere, and I was a bit disappointed when I purchased the Mac foundation brush for about £26 with this foundation, as it isn’t really that amazing. After reading a lot of peoples post talking about stipple brushes I thought I’d give this a go! Does any one else use one of these to apply their foundation??

As for the makeup, I went for two more eye products, the shimmer eyeliner in gunmetal, and the lifter and filler double ended eyebrow pencil in ivory/medium. 

(shimmer eyeliner in gunmetal) 

I love love love this eyebrow pencil, I think it’s fab being so thick so you get great coverage, and I might even buy it in the darker shade to get a more dramatic coverage for night time. This is one of my favourite elf products I’ve bought so far and I’d really recommend it!

Anyway until the lip pencil and the mineral eyeshadow in nude comes in, I’m pretty satisfied on my elf purchases for a while!

Is everyone looking forward to the bank holiday weekend yet?

Big, bigger, biggest....

Yet another volumizing success. Schwarzkopf volumizing powder was an absolute godsend this morning when I woke up with freshly washed (read; FLAT) hair. I hate hate hate my hair when it’s just been washed, I prefer it the day after when it’s not so soft and floppy. Anyway I got up this morning and very careful poured a bit into my hand as instructed, rubbed my hands together then ran my hands through my hair. I had to do this three times because I was putting so little on at a time for fear of looking like I had some dandruff type problems.

The results were exactly what I wanted. Nothing to dramating and huge as my past experience with the Batiste XXL Volume spray, or with my usual back-comb the hell out of it and set it with Tresemme Freeze Hold hairspray, but then I was only going to sit at my desk all day anyway. It gave it just enough structure to not be all over the place, a bit of lift at the root, but wasn’t too sticky so I’ll still be able to do something half decent with my hair over the next couple of days (yes that’s right, I only wash my hair about twice a week….)

Anyway enough of that, I’ve also done my May favourites in another little video for you so take a look….

I do apologise though, I could have gone on for hours because this is my first of these types of posts so I have a silly amount of favourite things, I promise my next one won’t be so jam packed, I just couldn’t narrow it down to just a few!

Curly Sue....?

First of all I'd like to say a huge huge thank you to all my lovely comments on my first YouTube video, and I got like 6 subscribers within about half an hour which was lovely!

So anyway I popped into my local Superdrug today and it was having a makeover which was very exciting!! There's all new makeup stands and it looks like the perfume area is having an overhaul, but it was still a bit of a mess. Can't wait to see the finished article. The mess didn't stop me spending money though....

Even looking at this picture is upsetting me. I've heard so many good things about curling wands, and there's so so SO many pictures on people's blogs of their hair when they've said they've used one to create their look. So I popped down to Superdrug and bought the Remington Pearl Wand (heard so many good things about this one!) and let me tell you it has stressed the HELL out of me :(

I cannot get it to work, my hair just looks frizzy and afro-like (much like my natural hair actually!) I even sat and watched youtube tutorials for an hour and I still can't manage it. And as for trying it on my hair extensions....well that was a disaster. I resemble Curly Sue from the 90's film actually.

So anyway there were actually a couple of more successful items from today's trip....

I literally stood in the hair dye isle for about 15 minutes, with plum in one hand and black cherry in the other. Then I put down plum and picked up a lighter red colour. Then I just gave up and stuck with Black Cherry which I've used for the past 6 months. The way I see it....if it ain't broke, don't fix it! I'll probably dye it on Saturday before the big night out on Sunday!

I've finally done it, and spent £12 on a hair brush. The Tangle Teaser is an absolute godsend, I used it on my towel dried hair after my shower, and on dry (and very knotted) extensions, and when usually I'd have a brush full of hair, I didn't when I used this. I think it needs a few more tries to see if it really was worth the money but so far, I think this is an absolute beaut brush, it might even make my extensions last a bit longer!

Again, another thing I'm pretty excited about....volumizing powder. I haven't tried it yet but I went for a cheaper one just in case I hated it. I'll do a quick review on this when I've used it.

I've been on the look out for a bronzer like this for ages and have been toying with the idea of the Fake Bake bronzing block, until I spotted this. It's a dupe for the Fake Bake bronzer, but for a smidgin of the price. I can't remember exactly but it was around the £5 mark. It's from the Famous collection by Sue Moxley and they had about 5 variations of it. This one is Shade One in Golden Rose. The colour is so shimmery and even though the bronze strips are quite dark, the pinks in it lighten it up and make it really easy to wear. 

I decided I need to collect some more eyshadows as I'm a bit boring on that front. I got the Beauty UK number 4 pallet, and I have to say I'm a bit scared. I mean...it's got green in it...!!! I only EVER use gold or brown, and the occasional pink, so this is breaking me in gently. 

I'm really trying to get away from black or dark purple nail colours which I usually wear, especially with summer coming. As soon as I saw this colour from the limited edition Gosh range I decided this was the way for me to go. It's 001 in Lavender and the first Gosh nail varnish I've ever bought so can't wait to try it out!!

Another Beauty UK treat, their lipstick in Candy. Love this colour, but I'll leave it there for now on this as I'm going to do a post about my lipstick collection soon. 

And lastly, I took advantage of the two for £4.99 offer on Collection 2000 and got another two of my absolute favourite lip glosses I've ever used. I'm not usually a lipgloss fan, I tend to just use a balm alongside a lipstick, or just a clear lipgloss over the top of a lipstick to make it less obvious. These are from their Lock 'n' Hold collection which claim to last for up to 6 hours. I don't know about that, but they taste incredible, and stay on for ages, even when I'm sipping my vodka lemonade and lime on a night out. These two are in (l) break dance and (r) rock steady. Break dance is actually really surprising for a lipgloss, the colour is a REALLY strong coral even without wearing it with lipstick. Big big recommendation for these.