As a self proclaimed makeup lover, I think it's fair to say that I own just a few too many palettes. The Naked palettes from Urban Decay have always been a favourite since their very first release, but it was only this year that a drugstore dupe started lashing out products to rival their high end competitors. Of course I'm talking about Makeup Revolution. Whilst they've also offered dupes for products from brands like Too Faced and Lorac, I wanted to focus on my comparison between their shadows and Urban Decay's. With that said, I don't actually own one of the MR Iconic Palettes, the dupes for UD, but I do own a couple others...and surely the formula has to be the same, right?!
After seeing Zoe's recent video about her new beauty products, I knew instantly that I needed them in my life. I've loved the previous products that I've purchased from her collection before and somehow just the news of this one excited me more than the rest - I think it's because some of the products are a little more unique than those in other collections, and ones that I can see myself using on a more regular basis.
I'm sure that the odd one of you is aware that I actually have my own YouTube channel, and for those of you who aren't...I have my own YouTube channel!! As I've previously held giveaways on my blog before I wanted to spice things up a little bit and hold one on YouTube instead, so when I heard that Zoe was coming out with her new range, I also knew that I needed to pick up some of the products for you as well!
So I headed over to Superdrug, and after many, many visits (we're talking a lot here) and scouring each store for the newly released products, I finally managed to pick up all the ones I wanted for myself, as well as this giveaway.
Everything that I purchased for myself I also purchased for one of you too! These products are the hand cream, soap and solid fragrance and I'm so excited to use them for myself! I also decided to pick up the collar makeup bag - possibly the cutest makeup bag I ever did see. But as I'm not in desperate need for a new makeup bag anytime soon, this ones for you guys!
If you would like to hear a first impressions/review of these products and more info on the giveaway, make sure to watch my video below!
The Rules!
- This giveaway is INTERNATIONAL!
- You must have parental/guardian permission if under the age of 18.
- The winner will be chosen at random.
- To enter this giveaway you must be subscribed to my YouTube channel and leave a comment in the video saying which product you're most looking forward to try from the new collection. No extra entries required!
- Only 1 entry per person. People who comment multiple times will not be counted - trying to keep this as fair as possible for everyone.
- The winner will be contacted through their preferred method. Leave your Twitter or Instagram username if you would prefer to be contacted this way. Everyone else will be agreeing to be contacted through YouTube direct message.
- The giveaway will end on Saturday the 31st of October with the winner to be chosen and contacted the following day.
- The winner will have 4 days to reply or a new winner will be chosen.
As you may or may not know, I was recently contacted by the haircare brand Maple Holistics. A few weeks ago they allowed me to hold a giveaway for my readers (which is now closed) to win a shampoo and conditioner set. They also allowed me to pick out a shampoo and conditioner of my choice to try. In both instances I picked the Argan Shampoo* and the Silk 18 Conditioner*. Why you may ask? They simply had a lot of very good reviews.
For those of you who are not aware of the company, I'm going to give you a quick break-down of them. Maple Holistics are a beauty brand who specialise mainly in shampoos and conditioners in the USA, although they do sell bath, body and skincare products too. The great thing about this company is the fact that their products are made from all natural ingredients and they're cruelty free too - something I appreciate so much more nowadays! And if you're unhappy with your purchase they'll either give you a full refund or you'll have the option to choose another product to try out instead - it doesn't get much better than that!
Reading that title, I'm sure that you will most likely be completely unaware as to what I'm actually talking about; in fact you may think I've gone completely crazy. But I haven't. In fact I was contacted by the people over at Madison Reed, a hair care company who specialise in permanent colour, asking whether I would like to write a post about my views on their Hair-o-Scope - apparently the traits of each zodiac sign says something about your hair too!
You can check out Madison Reed's hair dye advisor page HERE! You'll be able to find out what tones will work well for you by taking a short quiz!
Although I'm not necessarily someone who believes in everything to do with astrology, as I'd never quite heard of anything like this before, I was pretty intrigued. So I thought why not give it a go...this could somehow be true and may even tell me something about my hair I never knew. So I sent my zodiac sign over to them and they responded with my own Hair-o-Scope. From that I then needed to make decisions as to whether I agreed or disagreed with the assumptions.
Now that it's officially Autumn (boohoo), it's now time to start pulling out those warmer clothes. I seemed to blink and summer went by...that's how fast it was for me. And although Autumn and Winter are my least favourite seasons in term of weather, I absolutely love Autumn fashion - there's just something special to me about colours like khaki and maroon, and now I can finally pull them out on a daily basis.
So as it's the start of September I decided to wrap up in a chunky jumper and give you an insight into my first Autumn outfit!
Recently I was contacted by the people over at Maple Holistics. Not only were they offering to send me some products to review but they're also letting me give some away to one of my readers!
Although I'd never heard of the company before, I did a little research and was quite impressed by what I found. Maple Holistics is a US beauty brand, specialising in haircare, along with skincare and bath and body care. All their products are made from natural ingredients and are cruelty free too!
As part of the #summerofgiveaways campaign sponsored by edumuch.com, Maple Holistics are allowing me to giveaway one of their shampoos and conditioners to you! I personally chose the Argan Shampoo and Silk 18 Conditioner, as after looking online these seemed to be the most popular options among their customers; gaining so many great reviews.
And although I generally like to giveaway products that I have already tried and love myself, this could potentially give one of you the opportunity to discover some amazing new products!
I'm super excited to receive my products shortly and will be posting reviews of them a couple of weeks later!
The rules:
Only UK, USA & Canada please!
18 or older or have parental persmission.
You must enter using the Rafflecopter form below.
You must follow me on one form of social media to unlock the rest of the entries.
A winner will be selected at random using Rafflecopter.
The winner will be contacted via email. If the winner does not respond within 4 days, I will pick a new winner.
I will ask for your postal address which will be forwarded to Maple Holistics along with your email address.
The prize will be sent from Maple Holistics, not myself
This giveaway will end on Sunday the 6th of September!
Now there's no denying that my makeup collection has grown quite considerably over these last couple of years, but there's one thing that's really missing from my collection, and that's high end makeup! I do own pieces here and there, especially as I'm a big fan of brands like Urban Decay and Too Faced but overall I really haven't tried that much in terms of high end. It's not necessarily a bad thing; I think a lot of drugstore products can do what high end products do (or even better at times) at just a fraction of the price. But there's just something special about having these high end products in your collection and I've now decided that I need to start trying more out!
So I've compiled a little wishlist with the top products that I would really love to try!
So why am I telling you all of this? Well in celebration of the opening of this exhibition, the lovely people over at Farfetch decided to contact myself and a selection of other bloggers in regards to a competition that they are currently holding. Although I will admit that the majority of the products that are sold on their site are just a little out of my price range, I do find myself scrolling through pages and pages of the site, just in admiration for the clothes. So when Farfetch contacted me, I jumped at the chance to enter!
Since I got the Urban Decay eyeshadow primer last year, I have easily become obsessed with the stuff. I honestly have no idea how I lived so long without primer in my life...this stuff is magic! When I was recently on holiday in the US I soon came across an e.l.f. stand, and having heard some positive things about their products, I knew that I wanted to pick up some for myself. One thing in particular that stood out was their Shadow Lock eyeshadow primer; something I'd heard many people raving about, and at only $1 I had nothing to lose!
Since they have a similar nude, creamy formula, I wanted to see how it actually compared to the Urban Decay eyeshadow primer? If I end up liking this, maybe it could replace my much more expensive obsession!
A couple of weeks ago you may have seen a post on my channel all about the places I've travelled to on the east coast of the USA (check it out here). Now I've decided to tell you all about my travels on the west coast of the country. It's been almost 3 years since I went to the west coast but it was such a significant trip for me and made me realise my love for travel, particularly within the US. This may be quite a long post as I've visited many amazing places, but I hope you enjoy and feel free to skip to any sections you may enjoy more!
I've recently realised that I've seriously neglected my blog. It wasn't my intention but I've really been focussing on my YouTube channel and the content I'm creating over there as that was what I initially wanted to create. But I'm hopefully back, and today I'm here with the start of a mini travel series!
A couple months ago I was fortunate enough to head over to the east cost of the USA and travel through 9 different states, plus Canada as well! I have really caught the travelling bug since going to the west coast three years ago and thought I would share with you some of the places I've travelled to, along with my honest thoughts on them all. This time I'm talking about the some of the states I travelled to this year (located within the north east of the country), as well as Florida. The next travel post will be focussed on the four states I've been to on the west coast and everything I got up to there a couple years ago!
Before I get into the main part of this post I first want to start off by apologising for the lack of posts on this blog recently. It's not that I no longer have a love for blogging, it's simply that other things have gotten in the way. And I know that that can be a common excuse but when you're having to juggle university with many assignments due in a short time frame, a part-time job, and more recently my YouTube channel, blogging can be a little hard for me to do. And for me since I only had the courage to start a YouTube channel only 4 months ago, something I'd wanted to do for years, I really wanted to focus on working on that as I enjoy it so much.
Anyway I basically want to say that although there has been a limit in the number of posts on this blog, I most certainly have not forgotten about it. Due to the fact that my date for assignments to be handed in looming (literally, I have one week today), and then straight after that I'm on holiday, the posts on this channel may be quite limited for another month, but once I'm back it should hopefully be back to my usual two posts a week! My long summer is really going to be focussed on improving both the quality and content of my blog posts and YouTube channel!
In the meantime, as I was saying that I'm really focussing quite a lot of my time on my YouTube channel, I still wanted to write a post to inform you as to what is going on over there! As I am going on holiday in barely any time I have decided to put up a sort of "travel series" on my channel, featuring some videos like "What's in my Makeup Bag", "What I'm Packing", but more importantly "What's in my Carry On", the video you can view right now!! I am also planning on vlogging my holiday (to the US & Canada) to share my experiences with anyone who may be interested, although I cannot see these being uploaded until after my holiday.
So yes, as previously mentioned, you can already watch the first video in my little travel series! I've chosen to take my cute striped backpack from Urban Outfitters on the plane with me as it carries so much stuff and is just so, so practical! Make sure to watch the video down below to see what I'm going to be packing in my carry on, and let me know what you usually pack in yours!!
New videos are uploaded every Friday (and occasional Monday) on my channel, so make sure to Subscribe if you would like to be notified of new ones - it's free!
Once again, I am extremely sorry for the lack of posts, however once back from holiday they will resume as normal...after all I will have roughly 4 months off before I need to go back to university!
When talking to the majority of my friends, I realise how many people my age do not understand the importance of saving money. At the end of the day your money is your money and you can do whatever the hell you want with it, but I was certainly brought up believing that saving money is extremely important and should not be wasted every chance you get. In fact I've been saving since the day I was born. Although a lot of people around my age may not start thinking about buying a house or even a car until a fair few years down the line, it's definitely beneficial to think about these things in advance, as the more savings you have now, the easier purchasing these things in the future will be.
If you're someone who struggles with the concept of saving money, hopefully you'll find at least some of my tips at least slightly helpful!
Over the last few years it's safe to say that makeup brands have branched out from the usual lipsticks and lip glosses into many other alternatives such as lip crayons and lip laquers. Over I'd say the past year, something that I've seen many more brands releasing are their own "liquid lipsticks", and being the lip product obsessed girl I am, I obviously knew I had to try some. Two that most certainly caught my attention were the L'Oreal L'Extraordinaire liquid lipsticks and the Maybelline Colorsensational Elixir's, which are also marketed as liquid lipsticks too!
There's no denying that I am one of the biggest Pretty Little Liars fan out there. After watching the first episode over 4 years ago I was hooked. I was lucky enough to visit the set almost 3 years ago (there's a photo of me at Rosewood High School with my sister further down) and my obsession grew further...I also saw Keegan Allen (Toby) in the flesh!!
For some strange reason I haven't yet done the PLL tag, but have seen it floating around the web for a while and have since intended to do it. As everyone now seems to be obsessed with the show since it went on Netflix, I feel that it's a good time to finally do this tag as most people can now relate to this.
It's safe to say that I'm well over the cold, rainy Winter weather, and am so happy that Spring is finally upon us. Although like many places around the world, it's still pretty cold here in England, the sun has finally been shining a lot more, getting me into that Spring-y mood. Although for me Spring generally means wearing a lot of ditsy floral prints, this year I've really been lusting after some other items to help me through these next few months, many which obviously don't appear to be typical Spring clothing items!
With Fleur De Force being one of the most successful beauty and fashion bloggers/YouTuber's, it seemed inevitable that someday she would come out with her own book. Well now it has finally happened. I'm sure you all keep up to date with Fleur on a regular basis and have been anticipating the release of her new book, so today I thought I would share with you my first impressions and thoughts on The Glam Guide.
So after saying to myself that I was going to be good this month and spend absolutely no money on unnecessary clothes and makeup, I can safely say that this has pretty much gone tits up...
Sometimes when I have a little time to spare whilst at uni, I always somehow seem to end up in Boots, Superdrug or some clothing store, and then my purse just magically appears whilst I'm waiting at the checkouts with too much stuff in my hands...how does this always happen?!
I have been picking up both beauty and fashion items, however in this post I'm simply going to just show you the makeup products I picked up - if you want to see what fashion items I picked up, make sure to watch my new haul video at the end! Before getting started, I'd also like to apologise for the lack in posts this week. I've had a lot to deal with these past two weeks, but now as I have some spare time, I'm here again!!
As Winter is drawing to end (even though it's still freezing here in the UK), I thought now would be the perfect time to show you one of my biggest obsessions this season...COATS! I have created a video on my YouTube channel to show you each of my coats, but I also thought it would be a great idea to write a little blog post to tell you about each and every coat in a little bit of detail.
For the longest time, I have been struggling a lot with the condition of my hair - I have a lot of it, and keeping it healthy is a struggle. I personally have quite normal hair, however my roots tend to get quite oily, and the only product which seems to work for me is a shampoo and conditioner which costs in the region of about £25! Now I honestly can't be spending this much on these products, and whilst it does offer some support with my greasy hair, I'm always on the lookout for new products that can do the job, at a much more purse friendly price. This is where Faith in Nature comes in.
I know I've said before that I really struggled finding anything to purchase in the Christmas/January sales, but now I can take that back and safely say that I am completely spent out! After a few trips to multiple shopping centres and a cheeky online order, I need to stop spending money for quite some time now!
Up until a few months back, I was someone who believed that eyeshadow primer was an unnecessary step to a makeup routine. After all I couldn't be bothered to use a product on my eyes that wouldn't be visible when applied and could "so-called" keep my eyeshadow on all day. And for me I considered the prices of the most raved about primers to be too high for my budget.
Then rewind to around October time, when my opinion on all of this changed completely. Previously I would only wear eyeshadow on special occasions or night outs, but I then started wearing it on pretty much a daily basis. I found that roughly 4 hours after I'd applied my eyeshadow, it had creased so much that all you could pretty much see on my eyelids was a little brown line...not attractive in the slightest! And by this point I knew that I'd need to try a primer.
It's quite hard to believe that I'm actually saying this, but today is my blog's 1st birthday! Yes, that's right. I've been blogging for exactly one year today! I think it's fair to say that I'm so proud of everything that I've achieved so far, and can only hope everything continues to improve from here!
As you may or may not know, I actually very recently started making YouTube videos. This is in fact only my second video to date! As I currently love watching them myself, I decided to film a What's In My (University) Bag so any of you similarly nosey people can have a little look yourself!
I definitely carry around a lot of different items with my on a typical university day, from my purse to some slightly unexpected items. I was even discovering new things in there - just goes to show how organised I actually am!
I hope you'll be able to take a few minutes out of your day to take a little look, and please leave your YouTube links down below (or in the video comments) and I'll be sure to check it out! I'm also looking into purchasing a better camera for my videos, so fingers crossed the quality will be much better very, very soon (as I don't have 1080p on my camera right now).
I hope you enjoy my What's in my Bag video! I can assure you that my next blog post will be unrelated to my YouTube, however I'm sure that you can understand this is simply one of the best ways to tell everyone about my new channel! Please let me know what you think!
Yes, you heard it right! I've finally plucked up the courage and created my first ever YouTube video. YouTube has been something that I've been really wanting to do for almost 3 years now and for so long I just haven't had the confidence to do so. Blogging has helped so much and, well today was the day that my confidence arrived!
I know that compared to the majority of Youtubers, what I've filmed is in no way amazing, but like a blog, YouTube is a learning curve and I expect only to improve as time goes on. I can remember exactly what my blog was like almost a year ago, and to think I've managed to get it to this point is incredible. I can only hope that I can improve as much within YouTube! I've been planning on buying a camera that will be more suited for filming (as well as blogging), as I'm currently stealing my parents camera which is the best option I have right now! Obviously the quality isn't incredible so please leave me any suggestions on suitable cameras!
I'm also aware that occasionally at times when bloggers start YouTube channels, they tend to abandon their blog. My blog is 100% my first priority right now, and I can assure that (as long as I'm not stressed with 700 pieces of coursework), I will be posting at least twice a week. With YouTube, I'd also like to post roughly 2 times each week, however I understand that sometimes I may not have the time to to do so. Therefore I'll aim for two each week, but if I can only post once, it'll have to suffice...I don't think I'm going to have a strict posting regime.
Anyways for my first video I decided to film my 2014 fashion favourites. I know it's a little late, but I blogged about my 2014 beauty favourites, and personally just found it too hard to take pictures of fashion items for such a post, so I thought it would be a perfect first video for my channel! I'm already looking forward to filming more videos very soon, hopefully getting others involved as well!
There's only one video uploaded so far, but expect more very soon, and I would be extremely appreciative if you'd take just a few minutes out of your day to watch my video (link below). If you'd like to possibly give me some feedback on how to improve, that would be incredible :)
I hope you enjoy! Suggestions for future videos would also be appreciated! Thank you!
I have to say that this year I was extremely disappointed with the Christmas sales. Usually I'm placing multiple orders online and clearing the racks in stores, but this year I only purchased one clothing item. I did however find this beaut of a set from Elizabeth Arden in Debenhams. Now, usually I do consider Elizabeth Arden to be aimed more towards the older woman rather than myself, however as this All Day Chic Collection was priced at just £50 instead of the £300 price tag, I couldn't pass up the opportunity. After all, it's high end makeup for a bargain price. Similar to pre-Christmas, they are selling these for £50 online as long as you purchase two Elizabeth Arden products, along with Boots, however I would check in stores if you're interested, as I didn't need to purchase any other products. Now for what's actually in the box!
It's safe to say that last year was a good year for me in terms of discovering new beauty products. My interest for makeup only really started a couple years ago and since then I've collected just a little bit of makeup...most of which I discovered in 2014. I purchased so many great things this past year, however have picked some of my personal stand-out makeup products to share with you, many which I use on a almost daily basis!
*I know that it’s still a while away, but for those of you
celebrating your prom this year; it’s never too early to start thinking about that
perfect dress. It’s hard to believe that it’s so long ago, but I can remember
starting to search for prom dresses in January, exactly 4 years ago, and it’s a
whole lot better to be prepared.
Recently, I was contacted by Lisa over at Aviva Dress asking if I’d like to talk about their online dress shop, and I can honestly say that I was pleasantly surprised by what I found. Below you'll be able to see a selection of some of my favourite prom dresses off their site, hopefully helping out you girls with your prom fast approaching!
Yes, I'm a day late, but as I was at work the entire day, I didn't really have any time to blog. I hope you all had a lovely New Years; I celebrated ringing in the new year surrounded by my family, how about yourself?
Today, I'm going to reflect upon some of my biggest achievements and favourite things I did during 2014, as well as talking about some of those that I want to do during this upcoming year. These won't necessarily be New Year's resolutions, as I've never really been into making resolutions, but they'll be some sort of guidance as what I want to do/achieve in 2015.
