My Week in Photos 2

Although I have been very busy working this week and have been all over the place, (back and forth from home to Sheffield!) I have still managed to fit in lots of festiveness! :) Here's my week in pictures!

1. On the train home after work with Celebrations to keep me going!

2. The Nottingham Christmas Market! 

3. A sneak peek of my present wrapping..

4. I made my boyfriend's family cookies and packed them all nice and cute, a good idea if you're on a budget like me!

5. Ready to go out! (Urban Decay eyes and Mac lipstick in Dark Side).

6. Christmas scented Yankee Candles. Yum.

7. Donning my Xmas jumper for work!

8.  New festive nails yayyy. Please last until New Year!!

9. Me and my flat mate ready for town! My Reindeer ears are from Claire's Accessories.

I'm actually impressed at how festive I've been this week! I didn't really realise until I was captioning these.. You may be lucky enough to have another blog post later tonight, as I'm attempting to pull an allnighter to prepare myself for my nightshift tomorrow! Last shift before Christmas eeeek! If you work in retail, I feel your pain!

What have you done that's been festive this week? :) Are you ready for Xmas?!

My Week in Photos

Hey Lovelies :) I've been wanting to start writing "my week in photos" posts for a while now, I'd like to post these weekly; ideally on a Sunday, just as a quick review of my week! Thought they'd also be nice to look back on for me. Also, this way if I'm busy and haven't had time for a proper post I'm still keeping you updated :).

1. Dad finally put the tree up at home!
2. Majorly wrapped up walking home from work after finishing at 11.30pm, hate Christmas shopping hours!!
3. I finally learnt now to do a fish tail braid! Thanks FleurDeForce!
4. My Urban Decay Naked 3 Palette arrived!!! It's an Xmas present so can't use it yet, but there will be a review in the new year!
5. I made my first YouTube video! The Christmas Tag.
6. Catching up with my home friends at an Xmas house party :).

Hope you're all feeling festive, 8 days and 11 hours to go!! (If you live in England) :D

Do any of you do weekly photo updates? If you do, let me know and I'll check them out! :)

November Favourites Vlog

Hi Lovelies!

So I was actually going to write a blog post about my November Favourites, I even took the photos, but then my camera wouldn't connect to my laptop! But I was determined to get the post up as it was a bit late as it was, so I just made a quick vlog instead! Let me know what you think :) The links for the items are below xxx

Boots
Gloves are from New Look but not available online at the moment.
Skirt
Top
Coat
Candle

I've entered the world of YouTube...

Hi Lovelies!
So last night I spontaneously made my first YouTube video! I watched Alfie's (PointlessBlog) Christmas Tag and as I was feeling festive I thought I'd give it a go! I'm still going to be blogging mainly with the odd video here and there, as I don't have the time or equipment to produce quality videos at the moment, but it is something I'd like to do more of in the future :) It's not as easy as it looks, I had a right 'mare editing it! Anyway here it is, my first ever video, let me know what you think and if you've done a Christmas Tag yourself leave the link in the comments and I'll check it out! :)

xxx

Urban Decay De-Slick Makeup Setting Spray Review

Hey Lovelies! 
I have been meaning to write this review for a while now. I purchased Urban Decay's De-Slick Makeup Setting Spray about a year ago now, they had an offer on the XL one so I had to snap it up! I should mention they have since changed the packaging! 

Here's my product:

 Here's the updated version:

As far as I know the ingredients are the same :). 

Urban Decay claims that the spray helps to prevent makeup meltdown, and keeps skin looking matte whilst preventing your makeup from smudging, sliding or fading. I have also tried a travel sample of the all-nighter spray, which claims to last up to 16 hours. The reason why I purchased this one instead of the all-nighter was because in reality I didn't ever think I would need my makeup to last 16 hours! And this one has the added oil control benefit. However although I do think this product does help keep my makeup looking fresh for longer than usual, I think the all-nighter actually works better! These products are definitely an alternative to using hairspray on your face too, which is not good for your skin at all! That could definitely cause pore blockages and breakouts! I definitely recommend this product for long working days or nights out when you want your makeup to last a while, and it does feel very refreshing to spritz on your face! I do think I prefer the all-nighter spray, however both products are good, but the all-nighter just tends to keep my face looking more matte and I don't have to powder as often wearing these products, so if you're skin is quite oily like mine, these will probably help you! The de-slick makeup setting spray is available at House of Fraser here and the all-nighter makeup setting spray is available here. I think these are good value for money at £19.50, you only need a couple of sprays so the product lasts ages! 

Have you ever used any makeup setting sprays? What do you do to keep your makeup in place? Let me know :)

Halloween Looks

Hi Lovelies! Happy Belated Halloween!

So this year I had the opportunity to dress up three times for Halloween (and I love fancy dress) so I decided to have some fun experimenting! The first two looks were for work as we had to dress up, so I couldn't go too scary as I was going to be dealing with customers! I'm just going to briefly explain how I did my looks incase anyone is interested, but I won't explain too in depth or this post would go on forever. If anyone wants to know more though drop me a comment and I'll tell you more :).

First look: Cracked doll

I think cute but creepy pretty much sums up this look. It was quite difficult to create but really fun!! To create the larger eye I basically drew a circle with liquid eyeliner quite far under my lash line, then stuck a small set of false lashes (upside down) on the new lash line and filled in the space with white liner. I did my eyeshadow with pinks and purples and did it quite over the top. I also have false lashes on my upper lash line. To do the "crack" I used black liquid eyeliner again and I blended this lightly using brown eyeshadow which also created a nice shadow. For my hair I added some extensions for extra thickness (although they are shorter than my real hair now!) and I curled and teased it a lot and added the big flower. My outfit is from new look, and I teamed the dress with a pair of biker boots also from New Look!

 Second Look: Spider Princess

 

I wasn't really sure what to name this look! This look was pretty easily, it just required a lot of patience. To create the spider web I drew on the lines with black liquid eyeliner before I applied my eyeshadow. You can use pencil if you're scared you might go wrong but personally I think liquid creates a bolder effect. I then went over the lines with blue sparkly liquid eyeliner (thought it might make my eyes pop more!) and then attatched the little gems using eyelash glue (that was the tricky part). Im also wearing false lashes again. For my hair I pretty much did the same as I did with the first look, but I french braided my fringe and threaded some of those fake cobwebs you can get into it. Outfit is the same as the first look.

Final Look: Vampire Diaries

Sorry about the poor quality of these last pictures, this was my actual halloween night out look, and these photos were very last minute and very rushed!! I'm a massive fan of the Vampire Diaries, so instead of just going for the regular vampire look, I wanted to do the Vampire Diaries! I'd say this look is rather Katherine-ish don't you think?! For my eyes I used black liquid eyeliner again for the "veins" and I blended these in using red lipstick as I wanted them to look more realistic. The fangs are also something I would definitely recommend!! They are by Scarecrow and were amazing! I'd read up on them before and the reviews weren't wrong. You can purchase them on Amazon, although I would say follow the instructions exactly!! My boyfriend's didn't work as well because he wasn't patient enough! I then smeared a load of fake blood on me for dramatic effect and my hair is pretty similar to my other looks, just majorly teased and I sprayed in some glitter too! My leotard is from Missguided and my skirt is from New Look. I also had on a tutu from Amazon to puff it up a bit! I wore the same boots as I mentioned in the other looks (my camera can never fit my shoes in!)

Hope you enjoyed and please let me know your favourite!

What did you guys dress up as this Halloween?

Flirties Eyelash Extensions Review

Hi lovelies!

I haven't blogged in a while, but I've had a good excuse! If you read my last post you will have read how busy I thought I was going to be when I started back to uni, and I underestimated this a lot!! I'll break it down for you:

♥ I've just started third year, we're not only expected to write our dissertation and assignments, but they give us even more work to do in the mean time, basically homework aged 20!

♥ I'm really poor at the moment so I've been trying to work 20 hours a week at work while most of my friends have quit their jobs because they can't manage their work load!

♥ I'm still finding time to go to the gym.

♥ I also have to juggle in visiting my boyfriend who lives two hours away.

Basically whenever I'm not doing work in my free time I feel bad, so right now I feel extremely guilty! Blogging will have to take a back seat for a while, but I refuse to post inadequate, short posts and I am taking lots of pics of anything blog worthy and I'm going to save these and post them when I can! :) As soon as uni has finished, blogging will become a priority again I promise! :)

Anyway, onto the Flirties Eyelash Extensions Review! This is a post I have been wanting to write for a while, however there was one thing it all depended on, and that was waiting for all the extensions to fall out!

I had these Flirties Extensions done at a local beauty salon just before I went to Ibiza. They are semi-permanent eyelashes which are meant to last three weeks. I wanted these because I couldn't be bothered applying false eyelashes every night, having the yucky glue residue hanging around the next day while sunbathing and just wanted lush lashes all the time really! They were quite pricey at £40 for the set, however prices do vary. Although I would be careful of the cheaper procedures as I have heard they can look really bad!

The actual treatment itself was a little strange to be honest! Firstly you had to lay there for over an hour with your eyes closed which I hated, I wanted to see what she was doing! And the smell of the glue stung my eyes and made them water. Apart from that though it was pretty painless just a bit uncomfortable! And when you first try to open them they sort of stick together and the therapist has to separate them which is weird!

The salon recommended for the best, long lasting results to not get them wet for 24 hours (I had to wash my face without getting my eyes wet which was odd!) and then only use oil free makeup remover on them to prevent the glue breaking down. I followed this religiously for the first month or so, but when I actually wanted them to come out I stopped this. I used an Estee Lauder oil free eye makeup remover which you can find here. This one is on the American site as I couldn't find it on the UK site! Mine was my mums which she kindly gave me! However Simple also do an oil free one. You are also advised not to rub the lashes as this can "mess them up" and you are given a little brush to keep them tame! They also advise you don't sleep on your side, but I can't help that and mine were okay!

Anyway, here were the results! 

Sorry about the odd lighting, the pictures were obviously taken on different days! Rocking the bare face look also haha.

I think there is definitely a real difference between the before and after! However the only issue I had was that my left eye seemed to have less false eyelashes on than the right, they definitely looked thicker on the right! I noticed this much more as the weeks went by too as I seemed to have more left on the right side and the left side definitely started to look a bit odd before the right. You can see one stray one out of place in the bottom photo that would not stay in place!! The lashes actually lasted a lot longer than three weeks, although obviously a lot came out and they did not exactly look false anymore but after six weeks some were still attatched to my lashes and they looked a lot longer and thicker and it wasn't until six weeks that I felt the need to wear mascara again. 

The lashes are meant to fall out as your natural lash does because that is what it is bonded too. However the odd one does fall out by itself. What I found that was really annoying was that I could never take off my eye makeup properly. I was afraid to scrub it incase I pulled out any lashes and it hurt if you snagged any! After six weeks though I had had enough. It was difficult to get the mascara off and I just wanted to be able to scrub my whole face again! They were really itching my eyes one night so I just pulled the remaining few out! I wouldn't recommend this though haha! My lashes were quite long and thick anyway, and they looked a little more sparse and shorter when they came out, but I think they are back to normal now! Overall I think if you get decent ones done and care for them correctly they are very good. You can get them infilled regularly too if you want to keep them up, a bit of a luxury for me though!

Have any of you had eyelash extensions? If so what did you think?