May Favourites

The normal monthly 'wish list' has given away to a 'favourites'... there's not much that i'm particularly lusting over and plenty that i'm loving so it made sense!

Hope everyone is feeling fab and had an amazing weekend, especially if you enjoyed Eurovision in all its weird and wonderfullness like I did! 

'Girl Meets Pearl'- Benefit Cosmetics.

You can find this product briefly mentioned in my What's In My Makeup Bag post and since then i'm completely fallen in love with it again. I mix it with my foundation for a fresh faced 'dewy' look and use it to pretend I have cheekbones!

'The Help'- Kathryn Stockett.

As you can probably see by the falling apart cover, I adore this book. This book makes me laugh, cry and 'holla' as Minny would say, all simultaneously.  If you haven't already read this inspirational book about Skeeter, Aibileen and Minny, all women living in Mississippi during the 60's, and their pure courage and strength I highly recommend it. The film with Emma Stone is also beautifully done, unlike some book-to-film stories, the message (and most of the original script) is used. I started reading this book again after not reading it for about a month and I immediately remembered why it's my favourite book.

Cocoa Butter Formula- Palmers

I'm a little bit late to the Palmers party but still a fan! I've been using The Body Shop's Cocoa Butter for years so didn't really need another cocoa butter in my life. However, after been given this butter by my mum i've found it perfect for using on my face every night and on my hands as it states. The butter is quite thick as it's concentrated by this makes it perfect for my dry skin!

Dove's Gradual Tan

I bought this tan recently from Superdrug when it was on offer. Well actually, what I mean is, I went specifically into my town centre for this tan. I love this tan. I've used St. Moriz, Johnsons, Rimmel and other gradual and pure fake tan's but I always come back to this one. It's deliciously moisturizing  creates a lovely tan and doesn't streak. I even love the smell which doesn't smell like fake tan, but does have its own unique smell. I used this tan daily for 3 weeks before my high school prom (3 years ago) and received so many compliments about my tan and how 'natural' it looked. If you're unsure about which tan to buy, or change to, Dove has definitely been voted the UK's favourite for a reason!

Underwear- Matalan & George @ ASDA
I went a liiitttle bit underwear crazy last week and got myself well and truly stocked up! The bra's are a mix of George (the patterned one at the back and the blue zig zag two pack) and Matalan (the rest inc. pants) and they were all between £6-£8 with the two pack from ASDA coming in at £9. They're all such good quality for such a low price and I believe there's nothing better than buying new underwear to make yourself feel better!

Finally....

Queenie the KA

Everyone meet my newest family member! I've been learning to drive on and off for about 2 years and after recently throwing myself back into lessons and booking my theory I decided the next step was to get myself an incentive to pass- so here she is! I've really struggled with learning to drive. I'm impatient and find it quite boring and expensive the thought of being able to drive myself around in Queenie and not be stuck waiting for unreliable buses is definitely giving me the push I need!

Have you found any month favourites? I'd love to hear about them!

G xxx

May Haul!

Hello again everyone!

Hope everyone is well and surviving the horrible weather. Where has summer gone?! I'm currently car hunting (to give me an incentive to pass my test in the distant, far away future!) which is very exciting but also very worrying with the amount i've been spending on clothes and underwear recently! Ooops! So here goes: My May Haul!

 

Bird Print Sheer Tunic/Tea Dress- Barbara Hulanicki @ George @ ASDA- £16

I loved this dress as soon as I saw it. It's a gorgeous tea dress and so Holly Willoughby! I was baffled why, when I tried it on, although it was dress length it was see through. It's incredibly sheer but I loved it regardless and with a long vest and tights it managable. However, when my mum tried it on we realised why it was so sheer- it's meant to be a tunic! On me it comes just above the knee (dress length) but on normal sized humans, it's a long top. I still couldn't love it more and i'm actually quite happy my near dwarfism has resulted in a gorgeous dress for me!

Camisole- G21 @ George @ ASDA- £5

I seem to have bought a lot from ASDA this haul which wasn't intentional! Their summer clothes are gorgeous and so reasonably priced this year they're definitely worth checking out. I just bought this simple top to wear with shorts and skirts in summer and to layer up in colder weathers because I loved the purple and orange colours. I'm a self confessed 'colour-phobe' so the fact there's still a lot of black on this top means i'm not out of my comfort zone too much!

Floral Bomber Jacket- George @ ASDA- £16

I know, I know. I literally have no idea why I bought this jacket. I don't know what i'm going to wear the red floral print with, when i'm going to wear a satin bomber jacket or what the hell I was thinking but I love it! I seem to buy one really ridiculous, outrageous thing a year and I think this is this years contender. It's so soft and girly-yet-fashionable that I just couldn't resist!

Fringed kaftan top- Matalan- £12

I actually bought a similar, longer cover up from Primark in my last haul (see here) but since then me and my mum went halves on these ridiculous sheer trousers and needed a long top to wear with them. I'm a sucker for fringing and knew that with the 'long top' length, they would be ideal for covering up my bum on a night! 

Nude Blazer- Matalan- £10

I work at Matalan so I knew before most that these blazers were going to go down from £25 to £10. I therefore felt incredibly smug when they sold out online in 10 minutes but I got mine!  I have no idea what i'm going to wear the blazer with but I adore it so i'm sure to put it to use. The colour, the material and the fit are all amazing. I did also try on the white blazer but I looked a little bit too "Gareth Gates in the Unchained Melody video" (honestly) so I stuck with the nude. I felt so lucky to get this blazer and have been fighting to keep it out of my mum's wardrobe since I brought it home!

FINALLY! (sorry for the long haul- there's still a saucy haul to come tomorrow too!)

Hollister 'Embarcadero' Bikini- Via eBay- Price Unknown

I tried this Hollister bikini on when I went to Meadowhall's student Lock-In with Capital FM (read about that here) but couldn't really afford it (the full set was £48) so left, bought 24 Krispy Kreme doughnuts instead (girl logic) and tried to get my head around the possibility of actually, maybe saving up (eeek!). When I got home and told Mummy Cwood-Lloyd she suggested eBay. At first I was horrified. Buy a bikini off the internet? From another person?!?! But a quick search found plenty of unworn bikinis with hygiene strips and tags all still attached. My wonderful, long suffering boyfriend kindly offered to buy me the bikini as an early birthday present and I was delighted with it when it arrived- I love it!

Ok... done! Sorry for the length of this one, I promise to make my hauls more frequent and therefore less 'wordy' but I tend to buy lots at once so this may hard! Have you had a haul recently? What have you been buying? I'd love to see them, as always!

G xxx

(Ps, Happy Birthday to my gorgeous boyfriend who has turned 19 the day I wrote this! Lots of love to my favourite old man!)

What's In My Makeup Bag?

Hi world!

Today's post is going to be: 'What's In My Makeup Bag'

I have a few haul posts (my 'spending ban' is clearly going well!) coming up but i've been wanting to do a Makeup Bag post for ages so I finally got around to posting mine!

The Bag:

This is my 'travel' makeup bag. I have a love heart shaped wicker box from Matalan (for some reason my laptop wouldn't upload the image) and a plain white plastic box full of makeup but this cute 'POREfessional' Benefit bag is roomy and the stripes are so cute!

The Prep:

I then prep with the moisturizing prep then Triple Performance Facial Emulsion from Benefit's  b.right Radiant Skincare range (from this kit!). The products are light enough to use daily which I love. 

The Everyday: 

From left:

No7. 'Stay Perfect' Foundation (review here), Benefit's The POREfessional, LUSH's Light Pink Colour Supplement (used as base/primer), Benefit's Big Beautiful Eyes (used for my eyebrows I couldn't find a post mentioning them but I'm sure I have done!), Benefit's Brow Zings Kit, The Body Shop's Born Lippy Strawberry Lip Balm, Kate Mos Rimmel Lipstick (Shade 101) (review here), Benefit's go tropiCORAL kit (only the tropi-podwer) (review here), Benefit's BADgal Mascara (my favourite mascara in the world!), Lipsmackers Cherry Coca Cola (nb: I bought this for £1 in primark. obviously Primark don't have a website so I had to make do!)

The Less Used:

From Left: Benefit's Girl Meets Pearl, Benefit's 'Smokin' Eyes Kit', Max Factor's '2000 Calorie Mascara', Benefit's 'Hello Flawless' Pressed Powder, Some Kind-a Gorgeous Liquid Compact, Benefit's 'Stay Don't Stray' (review here), Benefit's 'Miss Popularity' (now discontinued but still available at House of Fraser)

I'm actually amazed by how much make up I wear daily (8 items if I include my moisturizer and a concealer & powder) and might have to consider cutting down! Have you done your own WIMMB post? Do you love any of my featured products? 

G xxx

When I Grow Up...

Another life style post from me, a little bit different from normal..

When I dropped out of university last October I did it because I firmly knew I had made the wrong choice and also, because I thought I knew what I wanted to do instead. Now, though, I find myself wondering, would I have so firmly dropped out if I knew, six months later, I would still be working part time in a clothes shop and trying to decide what to do with my life? I honestly cannot give myself a straight answer.

I dropped out with plans to reenroll at a university closer to home and study journalism. This fell through. I was stuck between wanting to persue a career in fashion or journalism with no alternatives and when I looked at the journalism courses, they just weren't me. My dream job would be to be the Style Editor for Heat magazine. I love their informal style of writing, the cheekiness of the magazine and the fact fashion isn't taken too seriously. I struggle to see fashion as anything other than fun. I think seasons and trends should be taken however you want, not how a high brow magazine tells you and yes, you can get low budget fashion. Because us girls whose budgets don't stretch to Armani can still know our fashion. I didn't want to study journalism and be told how to write. I am confident in my writing style and would fight anyone that tried to change it plus once I looked into things like broaadsheet journalism, journalism laws and lots of other serious and very un-me things I knew I would struggle to be myself on this course. Imagine being interogated by a well respected, serious journalism and announcing that I want to work at Heat magazine while my fellow students dreamed of the Telegraph and other high brow outlets. I know this is probably my paranoia and I would have loved the chance to expand my journalism knowledge but it just didn't appeal to me.

So now, six months after leaving Lincoln, I find myself determined to move on. I considered going into retail- managment, styling, personal shopping, etc and as much as I would love to do this for a living, I don't know if it would give me the same satifation that having my article published in a magazine would. I dream of being on the back page in Look Magazinewhere they showcase all sorts of people in fashion, including journalists. (If you've never seen it, it's looks like this):

and doing something i'd enjoy whilst making my family hopefully super proud. 

I seem to have developed a new, more fierce determination to suceed and as the most stubborn and head strong person I know, i'm hoping this can only be a good thing. I don't often share my inner most thoughts on my blog, prefering to keep it quite light but I know a lot of bloggers do this in the hope that it will become experience for a future career in journalism and I felt like sharing my story. Dropping out of uni wasn't easy and I completely don't expect finding a job in fashion journalism to be either but while I have my determination, the support of my wonderful family and a goal in mind, i'm hoping i'll be able to suceed. I have my sights fixed on being a fashion journalism and watch out Heat magazine because i'm coming for you! 

Follow your dreams, world. Life's too short!

G xxx

Sue Moxley- 'Famous' Palette Review

Today's post is going to be another beauty review- i'm trying to branch out in terms of my blogging capabilities and not just blog about fashion all the time, no matter how tempting that is! I was given these two Sue Moxley palettes by a friend of my mum's who managed to get them via her job in advertising (which explains the 'tester' stickers on them) so although I didn't pay for them, I wasn't given them to reivew or anything like that.

First up, i've seen so many positive reviews of these products I actually considered not writing my review because, on contary, I really really do not like these products. They remind me of the Benefit palletes in terms of colours- Shooting Star is very 'smokey eyes' and Cafe Culture is similar to my beloved Big Beautiful Eyes but for me, thats where the similarities end. I have to agree with other posts that say these palette's are incredibly pigmented. The colours are so strong and you have to be very careful when applying because one swipe equals a lot of product on the eyes. I prefer an eye product I can build up gradually- like Benefit- to vary the depth of the colour whereas I found these palettes went on strong and that was that. Then, once they were applied, I found them difficult to blend together and definitely not ideal for a sutble day time look. 

Also, i'm not sure how to word this, but the eyeshadow sort of melted? I found after a meal out, when I used the Shooting Stars kit, the black eyeshadow was all underneath my eyes and on my cheeks. This was not what I wanted or expected and I was seriously dissapointed. I hardly use any eyeshadow so I know it wasn't because I used too much and I had used SDS (see review here) so I could not understand why this was. I'm not sure I was using the eyeshadows wrong (if thats possible!), if the eyeshadows just didn't work for me or if i'm simply too much of a Benefit girl now and rate all products against their high standard. Whatever it was, I won't be reperchasing these products and wouldnt recommend them. 

'Shooting Star'

'Cafe Culture'

Have you tried the Sue Moxley pallettes? What did you think? 

G xx