Sunday Funday

One of my favourite things about being at home is Sunday mornings, reading The Sunday Times, having a pot of tea instead of a mug and having eggs rather than porridge for breakfast.

Aah so lush. 

Another lovely Sunday activity at home for me is seeing my sister, I don't do this every Sunday but I always see her at least once when I come home from uni. 

Aren't we just the cutest?! 

As well as these home specific treats I did my usual Sunday beauty prep procedures of painting my nails and washing my makeup brushes (I'm still tanned from Spain so no need to crack out the Xen at the moment). 

The colour I'll be sporting for the next few days is Essie Butler Please and it looks like a dark blue here but it is paler and has a tint of lilac in real life. This is also curtesy of my mother's nail polish collection. 

Finally I'll leave you with what I thought was a nice story of my little brother coming into my room telling me he can always tell when I'm home because he has to be careful not to walk into the radiator in the bathroom incase there are makeup brushes drying on there. 

London Outfit/Hourglass Opaque Rouge Lipstick

Today I was in London to sort out a few things for my placement I'm starting this summer. So as well as this I met up with my brother for dinner and had a peruse around where I hope to live next year and a few shops.

I was quite stuck as to what to wear today, I didn't need to look formal as it wasn't an interview, but I obviously didn't want to look scruffy.

In the end I went for jeans, mocosins (which I wasn't wearing in this picture) a blue silk blouse from phase 8, this jacket from Zara and my Mulberry, I was also wearing an orange and blue necklace. Quite smart casual. Though must say I had so many compliments on my jacket! 

Whilst checking out a potential area for flats next year I came across a Space NK (I know I'm looking to move there already!) and swatched one of the Hourglass matte liquid lipstick. It was the most beautiful intense orange I think I've ever seen. However having received a voucher in the post earlier this week from Liberty for £5 off I decided to wait until I visited my favourite shop in the world to pick it up for the little bit less. Though when I got to Liberty they said they were sold out and I was quite close to tears in the middle of the beauty hall! Long sorry short, after a bit of a moody spell on my part my mother and I popped into Space NK in Coven Garden on the way to meet my brother for dinner and she baught it for me to just put the cherry on what had otherwise been a really good day, thanks mum! 

This is it, the Hourglass Opaque Rouge lipstick in Riveara, the photo really doesn't do it justice and I will try and get a snap wearing it before long. 

Home Comforts/Haul

First of all I must once again apologise profoundly for my absence, I've been in Spain for a week and then I came home and to be honest where I'm from is not nearly as interesting as Salou or Cardiff. However there are of course perks to being at home, such as the lack of cooking and cleaning for myself as well as cups of tea in bed. As well as this there is also the added advantage of having my mother's beauty supplies to dig into. 

This electric blue nail varnish has a slight shimmer to it and is absolulty lovely! Neither myself or my mum know where it's from so I'm already looking for an available dupe for it. 

Though my small town has a Boots so tiny I don't know how people cope with it, I managed to pick up a few things on the 3 for 2 offer on makeup. 

Since I got back from Spain where I picked up a bit of colour (yay!) my current everyday foundation makes me look a little orange. I decided to pick this one up as I'd read good things about it and it was the cheapest one I could see. It's Rimmel Match Perfection in 200 Soft Beige. So far so good, but I will need to give it a little more time and testing before I can make a definitive decision on it. 

Another new purchase is Maybeline The Falsies. I picked this up as I've been needing a new mascara for a while and again it's too early to post a judgment, but first impressions are good. 

Finally is a repurchase. This is my everyday lipstick which is Rimmel Moisture Renew in 125 Too Nude or Not Too Nude. Basically I love this as it's a pinky shimmer everyday colour and I've almost gone trough my old one. 

Again I am apologising for my lack of posts as well as for the short, very much lacking in good content post I have done for my return. I pinky promise to start posting regularly again and to start posting something worth reading! 

Pirate Makeup

I finally finished all of my work today! Yaaaay! It was the most incredibly feeling writing that last conclusion this morning, I still can't quite believe I have nothing left to do, I keep feeling like I should be at the library. Anyway enough of the boring stuff, tonight is the last night of term and it just so happens to coincide with my housemate's birthday so naturally we're going out dressed as pirates doing a scavenger hunt around Cardiff.

I thought of share with you the makeup look I've done for tonight because I adore fancy dress makeup! 

Arrg! That's my evil pirate face by the way. 

So on the eyes I've blended some purples and dark browns to create this glittery smokey look. 

I created it using a smokey purple shade from my NARS Fairy's Kiss palette and a brown and gold shade from my MUA palette.

I'm afraid I don't know what the colours are called, and I don't think I've ever featured this palette before, but I enjoy it when I want to differ from my usual MAC neutral shades I reach for this. 

On my lips I've mixed this matte red shade from NARS with this dark purple Illamasqua and finished it off with the Rimmel Appocolips gloss shade in bright red. 

In true Jack Sparrow style I'm wearing a headscarf under my hat, this was another one I inherited from my granny. It's fun being a pirate! 

What I've Been Getting Up To/Products I'm Loving

Again I must apologise for my serious lack of posts, but my life is so extremely dull at the moment so unless you all want updating on the committee report for the planning application for the Circuit of Wales I think you'll be glad I haven't updated. I literally spend my entire day in the library and occasionally get to the gym as a 'treat' to myself. Although my life is dominated by work at the moment (boohoo) there are some things that just need making time for. 

One of these things was my course ball on Sunday night. It made such a lovely change to get properly dressed up as apposed to my usual shorts and converse attire I don for nights out at the union. 

I wore this coral dress that I baught 2 years ago in Coast and have never really worn. It's strapless and has differnt length hemlines all around. I teamed it with some basic nude heels from M&S and simple jewellery, just a pearl bracelet and my usual dangly spike earrings. 

I kept my makeup simple, just winged eyeliner and a matte pink lipstick and I wore my hair in a curly side ponytail. 

On my nails I wore Essie Fiji and I added a layer of glitter (which is always horrific to remove) to my ring finger on each hand. Sorry they are chipped by the way, personally there's nothing I hate more than chipped nails, but this was taken just before I removed them because I remembered I didn't have a photo of them.

As well as my course ball Sunday night another night I had to have off was last night. Yesterday was Welsh varsity, the annual grudge match between Cardiff and Swansea universities. It's a day full of matches between different sports teams from both universities ending in a rugby game at the Millennium Stadium. It's the biggest day of the university calendar and pretty much everyone goes to at least the rugby game in the evening. Unfortunately due to work I couldn't go and watch any of the other sports, but I donned my Tean Cardiff tshirt and I cheered on my university at the home of rugby. 

Obviously I had to add a little glamour to the occasion and I added my Chanel lipstick in Rouge Allure Incandescent. 

Now I'll discuss a couple of things I've been really enjoying using recently, both I had for my birthday. The first of these is a curling wand, it's the Babylis Boutique 2307 BU Soft Waves 34mm Hair Tong. 

It comes with it's own heat protection mat as well as a protective glove. 

It also comes in this little bag for storage purposes. 

After working out what works best for my hair with this, I love it! It takes about 20 minutes so I only do it when I have the time but I've been enjoying doing it as a day to day hairstyle. I find that to cheer myself up when I'm spending those long hours in the library, if I dress nicely and put the effort in with my hair and makeup it does make me feel better. Of course there are days when the alarm goes off and I really just can't be bothered with anything and I end up going to the library in my sweatpants with practically no makeup on and my hair in a bun, of course these are the days I run into my ex or the guy I fancy from my course, so is life eh. 

This is the effect the curling tongs have though and I really like it. The sad face is due to me having been there until 9.30 the night before and being back in uni at 9am that day to give a presentation. Life sucks. 

The other product I've been loving I bought with a gift voucher my mum's friend gave me for my birthday. She clearly knows me well because the wonderful woman got me a boots voucher! I decided I would use it to buy something I'd been reading about and wanted to try. 

Its the Vaseline spray and go moisturiser. I love this product! I used to moisturise most days using body butters from the Body Shop but they just take so long to sink in and I have to wash my hands after application and when your bedroom is on the first floor and all of the sinks are on the ground floor this isn't ideal. This though does what it says on the tin, just spritz it on give it a rub in and you're ready to get dressed. I find it ideal for after showering at the gym as I've realised now the only way I can fit the gym into my day is to go either straight before or after the library, so if I go first thing in the morning I shower there spritz this on and I'm moisturised ready for the day ahead. It comes in three different scents and at £4.99 are definitely worth the investment in my opinion, I want to get the other two so that I can keep one at home, one in my gym bag and one as a spare, perfect! 

NARS Larger Than Life Long-Wear Eyeliner Khao San Road/PerformanceMakeup

Last night I was in a dance performance and we were allowed to do our own makeup, though glitter is highly encouraged. Whilst I was getting ready I received a text from my mum telling she was flicking through this week's Sunday Times Style (bless her she spends a week reading the Sunday Times) and she saw a feature in the beauty section about NARS eyeliners. As previously mentioned I love the NARS Larger Than Life eyeliners and so I grilled her on what India Knight had to say about them, and she recommends for spring the eyeliners particularly the colour Khao San Road!

This is not the first time my mother and I have been 'ahead of the trend', I think we should start writing our own beauty column to be honest! But today's post is not about how beauty savvy my mother and I like to think we are. 

Back to last night, after this frantic exchange of texts I decided to incorporate the eyeliner into my makeup look for the evening. 

I used it to line the top lash line. 

I them used a black eyeliner in the waterline and tight line and a black mascara. 

And then glitter to finish the look. Everyone loves a bit of glitter.