My Mac Palettes

Since I was young, I've always been interested in make up and beauty bits, but I think that was probably because I suffered with pretty bad skin! So I guess, anything skincare/beauty related was of interest to me as I was always looking for ways to improve it. After my skin grew out of it's teenage state, it's only been during the past couple of years that I've actually ventured into other areas of the beauty world and so far I've reeeeeeally enjoyed it! You'd think, by doing a sociology degree I'd be more aware of the fact that we now live in a consumer culture, and that advertisements are there to encourage this... but it doesn't seem to have affected my spending/buying habits, unfortunately haha! Sometimes, it can be seen as a bit "shallow" to spend a lot of money on beauty products, but for me, money that some people spend on going out drinking or other activities, is spent on shopping for little things that I've been lusting after! sad as that may seem? haha : ) Anyway... so I guess some people may ask... why mac?

 

For me, mac is a really nice "in-between" from drugstore and high-end make up. The shop itself is really nicely laid out which makes it so exciting to go in! And, for any fellow YouTube viewers out there, I find it really helpful to watch make up tutorials so I can copy them if I'm going somewhere special... most of which, are based around a lot of mac products : ) Also, in regards to their eye shadows, aside from the fact they have cute little names, they are really easy to blend and seem to be lasting longer than I thought considering their size!

 

In this blogpost I will share the beginnings of my little collection of mac eye shadows, and highlight which ones I particularly love to use! There isn't very many right now, but I think collecting them is part of the fun... hopefully santa will bring me some more! : ) So far, I have two palettes, one of which for everyday and one to fill with some 'special' ones. I think palettes are a really nice way of storing eye shadows as it's easy to clearly see them all and which ones look nice together. Also, they're slightly cheaper to buy in the pan without the single cases!

 

 

These 5 colours are the ones I have so far in my big palette... all of which I've been so so pleased with! My favourite combination so far as been plumage to line my lash line (less harsh alternative to black, which I've found is really nice for blue eyes) with brule all over my eyelid and mulch in the crease. I realise that might be hard to follow as I haven't photographed a step by step tutorial but I think the colours are really nice together, however you use them : ) Satin taupe is probably my favourite colour of the bunch, and again that looks really nice with sketch in the crease... especially for anyone else out there with purple hair!? haha ...

This is my everyday palette, and just to quickly point out that I tried my best to get the right lighting so that they show up true to colour, but naked lunch is much more shimmery in real life! I can only describe it as a champagne pink colour, that's pretty pale with a bit of shimmer... in other words... gorgeous! I think I love all of these equally, especially for Autumn time! My most used eye shadow in this palette, is blanc type as I use it all over my eye lid just about every day as it's great for a really "fresh" "awake" look!

 

Now for a couple of quick extras...

 

 

These are the brushes I like to use to apply the eye shadows, the reel techniques ones came in a pack for around £20 which I think is really handy...

 

This is a very recent discovery! I seen mac's pro-long wear collection and in that, were paint pots which are little pots of creamy eye shadow that are often used as a base to make the make up stay put... this colour is "painterly" which is basically a nude. I have quite pale skin but it matches mine almost exactly, so I use it to erase all the little purple veins on my eye lid and to keep my powder eye shadows in place... it really works too! : )

 

So I hope that little insight into my eye shadow collection helped anyone who was looking for some new colours, or gave anyone inspiration to start up their own palette! If anyone has any recommendations I'd love to hear them : )

 

Bath Time!

During the cold Autumn/Winter nights, one of my favourite pick-me-ups is having a really relaxing pamper evening! Starting with a nice hot bubble bath feels sooo lovely, especially when it's raining or snowing outside... cosiest feeling ever! So, in this (short) blogpost, I thought I'd share some my favourite products that really help your skin feel beautiful, despite the cold weather that's intent on drying it out! Now, the reason why I named this one, bath time treats is because a few these are more luxury items that are great as Christmas gifts etc... a couple of them are a little on the pricey side so for me they're not ones I use all the time, just on the odd special occasion where I need some extra 'feel good' boost!

 

 

 

Just a quick moment to say --- yay! lush have brought out their Christmas collection!! --- and this is one of their new bubble bars called Candy Mountain, which is half the reason why I picked it up as Matthew was with me and he reminded me of the film Wreck it Ralph (which I love!) ... the other half of the reason for which I bought this one is for the smell! Most lush products smell great but this one in particular is just so girly, kind of similar to their signature scent 'Snow Fairy' which is also back in stock! It has little speckles of glitter on it as well which makes it feel really special :) I also picked up a few more bath bits from their Christmas range so I might have to write another blog post once I've tried them :) is it sad to be getting Christmasy in October? maybe so haha...

 

 

 

Now for my favourite of the bunch! This is NEOM's Real Luxury: Organic Body Scrub which is described as their 'hero product'... As a brand, NEOM produce such beautiful scents (especially in their candles and reed diffusers) and this is no exception, it smells so lovely... I wish I was good at describing scents, but I'm hopeless so I'll just say that it smells very spa-like! I got this as a birthday present from my mum and now she seems to have taken a liking to it so it will be living in my bathroom from now on, out of reach haha. It's really easy to use, you just dig some out with your hands and rub it into your skin from your feet upwards before washing it off to reveal such GORGEOUS feeling skin. Honestly, I don't think my skin has ever felt as soft as it feels after using this! I'm not sure if you can see in the picture, but there's a layer of oils which work with the scrub so it's not as harsh and it leaves your skin feeling really moisturised, which is great in this time of year!

 

 

Next, is L'occitane's (so glad I only have to spell this and not pronounce it!) shower oil which, I'm not sure if they do in different scents, but this one is almond oil just in case. I've had this for a while now and I've been trying to use it sparingly as it's just so great! Unlike a lot of shower oils, this one does actually lather up a little when it's applied to wet skin, which makes it feel so luxurious to use... it's also really nice before using fake tan!

 

 

Being someone who's not particularly ventured into the world of face masks, I haven't really tried very many at all, so I was pretty surprised to find one that I enjoyed using so much that it would feature in this blog post! This is Una Brennan's Intense Moisture Mask and just to illustrate how moisturising it actually is, I haven't had to use any moisturiser all night :) This is very rare as usually the steam from a bath makes my face feel so dry that it gets a little itchy, so to find a face mask that does 2 jobs in 1 is great!

 

So, that's it for my bath time essentials... which feels really short compared to the length of pamper-time I spend haha... but most of my favourite beauty products for this time of year lie with moisturisers and make up so I'm sure there will be a few more recommendations from those fields coming up soon! :)

 

 

University... Week One

Having gone through one of the biggest changes of my life so far, moving to University, I thought I'd share my experience and any tips I have while they're fresh in my mind! I'll start by outlining that I'm not the most outgoing of people. Not because I'm unsociable or lack confidence, just because I'm not great at dealing with change. So, like most people becoming University students, I had a tonne of worries! One of which in particular, was really bothering me and just in case anybody else out there happens to feel the same way, I will share how it all turned out...

Well, I've never really enjoyed "clubbing" or the nightlife scene at all. I used to get really upset about it because, as a young person, everybody goes out at night! Especially Uni students. For a while, I didn't think too much about it, apart from avoiding nights out. Until, during a (fantastic) girls holiday, it all came to a head and I came to the conclusion that I'd developed anxiety... triggered mostly by nightclubs. My younger brother, Andrew, has Autism and has suffered with severe anxiety his whole life, but I never thought that might be what was causing the problem for me. I used to feel sick, my heart would race and everything would just feel really overwhelming. Some people believe that you must not let anxiety stop you from doing things, but the fact is, I'm just not ready to deal with it in that way. It's not affecting many areas of my life, just the one, so I decided to take control and rather than forcing myself into the nightlife, I decided to socialise in other ways that suit me. All my friends became really supportive of it and continued to invite me to do other things I enjoyed like going out for dinner or shopping etc. However, my real worries came from wondering whether meeting people at University would prove to be difficult, as I wasn't interested in clubbing.

After spending my first couple of weeks at University, I can now say that none of my worries came true :) During one of the seminars, we all spent some time getting to know each other and I found that I wasn't alone and that other people weren't big partiers either. I also found that when I told people I wouldn't be joining in on the clubbing fresher's events, no one reacted badly and made me feel embarrassed, they were all really nice about it :) So, all in all I couldn't have hoped for it to go better... I hope this helps if anybody is going through the same worries as I was! :)

 

Now, with all the deep stuff aside... time to move on to more practical advice on applying, what to buy and moving into University accommodation :)

 

APPLYING...

 

• Create a 'University' folder in your inbox to keep all your emails from UCAS and others in, so you always know where to find them, quickly and easily!

 

• Keep note of deadlines! Seems pretty obvious, but I managed to let a few minor ones slip through the net which left me in a more difficult situation. In particular, find out the date that accommodation is open to apply to, for each University you apply to specifically. Then, on that date, you can be ready to apply straight away to make sure you get the right accommodation for you, as it fills up very quickly!

 

• Write a personal statement to be proud of! I actually cried when I wrote mine haha, it was very personal, and with the help of a teacher from college, I felt confident sending it off.

 

• Keep all the letters you get in the post to do with University in a folder so they're all together in case you need to present them.

 

• Go and see the University! I only live about 40 minutes away from my chosen campus, but I still managed to avoid a visit until the day before I moved in! When me and my family seen the place, we all felt a burst of confidence as it exceeded all expectations, I loved it!

 

• Join Facebook groups! Before starting in September/October, Matthew advised that I join some Facebook groups for the University and start making some friends. This proved to be such a good thing to do as I had already met some people so I felt a lot less lonely.

 

MY UNI ROOM...

 

 

 

 

I chose to stay in a studio room, which sounds much more glamorous than it is haha. It has an en suite and a small kitchen area so it's a little more independent than a shared flat. I was really pleased when I seen the room as it's got everything I'd need... although I will say that there isn't a great deal of storage space. So, if you're a girl like me and seem to have generated a lot of 'stuff ' ... hopefully these little tips will prove useful!

1. Go to IKEA!

 

 

 Shopping for University can be a big expense, so taking a trip to IKEA is great for saving some pennies! I picked up a pack of 6 small pop up storage boxes in white, to store make up and skincare easily. The little plant pot in the picture above, stores my make up brushes and I think it was about £2. My favourite item shown in the picture is the 2 step desk organiser which I've forgotten the name of, but it's come in so handy! It's almost an extension of desk space... which I will make much better use of when I start getting a lot more paperwork but for now it holds my perfumes and some little decorative bits :)

 

 

 

 

They also do really nice bedding that's really cheap! This is a double bed set for £15... and as you can see by the little grin on his face it's lovely and comefy haha!

 

 

 

2. Surround yourself with "homey" stuff

 

 

 

 

* I also packed lots of DVDs in the two white boxes, they're from ikea and they're £2 *

 

 

3. Go to poundland... they're really good for cups and plates etc! (£1 each)

 

 

 

 4. Bring a doorstop, extension lead and coat hangers!

 

5. To avoid using up the limited storage space, use things with hanging hooks that can hang on walls or in the wardrobe. This one is from Cath Kidston in the sale at £19... they still sell them at regular price and they're so useful!

 

 

6. Fairy lights or soft nightlights are really nice if you need to relax after a long day...

 

 

7. Go to Primark... as close to the end of September as possible as their sales start on basic home ware stuff (most students have already moved in).. I picked up some towels and bedding for under £20...

 EXTRAS

 

Zara : Office girl £49.99

 

 

Get lots of "easy food" for when you can't be bothered to cook!

 

 

 You'll get tones of free stuff! ^^^ So be excited and be sure to use up vouchers asap.....

 

 

 

So, as well as being a little document of feelings during my first weeks of uni for me to look back on, I hope that was a little inspiration to anyone out there who's got uni preparations on their mind! After writing this and thinking about how the past few weeks have gone, I've been really pleased with the outcome. It's a really proud feeling when hard work pays off and you end up at a great University, studying for a degree you enjoy! So best of luck to any future freshers! Hope this was a useful little insight into the first parts of student life! :)

50 Facts About Me

 

Over the past few months, I've felt more "me" than ever before! I'm not sure whether that's come from moving off to University or just growing up... either way, it's a feeling of becoming your own person, and it makes me feel really positive about the future! From this, I decided to write a blogpost, with 50 facts about me...

 

 

1. I'm naturally blonde

 

2. My favourite food of all time, is mashed potato! (preferably with gravy)

 

3. The Walking Dead is my favourite TV programme (followed by Downton Abbey haha)

 

4. I love baking!

 

5. I worry way too much... but I'm working on that!

 

6. I'm definitely an Autumn/Winter girl

 

7. I'm extremely sentimental!

 

8. I guess this follows from the previous one... I love photographs! Love taking them, love looking at them and love keeping them in nice albums or frames

 

9. I used to be so much less confident than I am now, really enjoying this new found confidence!

 

10. I'm so rubbish with directions

 

11. I love milk! Especially brought up to drink in bed

 

12. I'm quite a creative person

 

13. I'd consider IKEA to be one of the most exciting places to go... ever! (saddo?)

 

14. Quite the cliché... My boyfriend Matthew is my very best friend :)

 

15. I'm a total softie (unfortunately) ... being a little less sensitive is something I need to work hard at

 

16. I love watching Bridget Jones

 

17. I don't like coffee

 

18. I have a little brother, Andrew who's over one foot taller than me!

 

19. My "fashion" was always very plain (leggings and a t-shirt) until recently where I've begun to dress a little more adventurous

 

20. Sometimes I wish that my mum could be reborn as my friend, she's the best... literally

 

21. London Grammar and Ellie Goulding are probably my favourite artists (there's something about Bob Marley too!)

 

22. Miss Dior is my favourite perfume

 

23. Me and Matthew are total opposites, but deep down, we've found a tone of similarities

 

24. When I was 5, I moved to South Africa for 2 years

 

25. I couldn't be more proud of my dad

 

26. I get overwhelmed and anxious in a few particular situations

 

27. I love the smell of petrol (wierdooo)

 

28. My entire family are Scottish and... slightly more interesting fact... I subconsciously switch my accent between English and Scottish depending on who I'm with

 

29. Psychology is my favourite educational subject, closely followed with my degree choice... sociology... both of which I actually love learning about

 

30. I used to have my nose pierced

 

31. For the first 5 years of my life, my gran looked after me while my parents went out to work... we watched art attack, made puppets out of empty toilet rolls with string and pasta, coloured by numbers, did lots of baking, painted gnomes and all things wonderful... she's still like a second mum in my life

 

32. As well as being a sociable person, I enjoy my own space

 

33. I'd love to travel, when the time is right

 

34. I love spontaneity, but I hate surprises (unless they're flowers)... there is a difference! 

 

35. I think soft lighting such as fairy lights and candles are so beautiful

 

36. To me, romance is important... but real friendship is more so

 

37. I prefer to read from a real book, rather than a web edition on a screen

 

38. I love giving meaningful gifts to people

 

39. Coco pops are my favourite cereal... and boy do I love cereal!

 

40. I love nude nail colours and eye shadows, with bright lip colours

 

41. I'm an utterly terrible singer... but that doesn't stop me singing Matthew awake each morning hehe!

 

42. Disney is definitely one of my favourite creations! Love the films, the stories, the characters... and Disneyland!

 

43. I can't watch horror films! They freak me out beyond measures

 

44. I'm growing my hair... as long as possible haha

 

45. A good cup of tea sometimes gives me goosebumps!

 

46. I wore braces for 9 months

 

47. Urban Outfitters, Zara and Primark have been my favourite clothes shops this year

 

48. Breakfast is my favourite meal of the day

 

49. On holiday, I love to swim around in a rubber ring!

 

50. I'm quite enjoying writing blog posts :)