Saturday 28 May 2016

Life Lately #106


Hello lovelies!

Last week, I met up with my girl Ricka & we went for a walk & had a catch up at our local garden centre. It's the perfect location, a short walk from her house, takes us through the fields, across to the café. They do the most delicious cookies as well as proper lunch time meals. It's always so relaxed in there & despite them always being busy, there's plenty of seating, indoor & outdoor.

Ok, so the main update & highlight of this month was last Saturday when two of my best friend's tied the knot! It was the most perfect day, despite the occasional shower of rain. (May weather, so unpredictable..) They got married in the local church & held the reception just down the road. I can't stress how proud I am of both of them, it was such an emotional day. Vlog will be coming soon!

Sunday I was also lucky enough to not have to work, so James & I made the most of the sunshine & went for a long walk with the dogs. Honey gets extremely hot in this weather with her long coat, but she did amazingly well with her little short legs! We also visited James' dad & Maria for Sunday dinner. Was so lovely as we hadn't seen them for over a month & a half.

On Wednesday, my friend Sarah drove to mine for a walk with her year old dog Vinny who is such a crazy character! We took Harvey with us & they both seemed to get on really well.

Thursday I met up with Lorna & we went for tea in our local town. I always love meeting up with her, she has such amazing stories to tell!

& finally, last night the girls & I; Mils, Cathy, Kym & Catherine went to see Busted in London. Oh my god. My teenage self was extremely happy. I have loved James Bourne since I first saw him in the What I Go To School For video! I'd highly recommend going to see them live if you get the chance, they all have so much energy!

How has your week been lovelies? : )

Tuesday 24 May 2016

Revolution - 144 Eyeshadow Palette 2016 Collection

Hello lovelies,

Let's start by me saying, this palette was very difficult to photograph! The amount of shots I had to take to try to capture all the shades took me forever, so these are the good ones of a bad bunch. Saying that, I couldn't be more excited by a palette, but it's not just any palette.. it's a Revolution palette.

I reviewed the Makeup Revolution Palette - Girls On Film back in February & that's when I realised I had a love for this brand. The shades were extremely pigmented so I was very excited to try this palette that I was gifted for Christmas. (Thankyou Ricka!)


What I love most about this palette, is what ever occasion, I can find the shade I want. There's quite a few natural day colours, but also some darker evening shades & then some completely wacky, out-there shades.


All of the colours that I've used so far are highly pigmented & have lasted the duration of the day. I'm a massive fan of just selecting two shades & a bit of mascara & heading out the door & these colours are some of the easiest I've worked with. They all seem to blend so naturally together.


This palette retails for £20 (I think you can get it cheaper in select stores) but it's such good value for money & definitely worth the price tag!


Have you tried any of the Makeup Revolution Palettes? They are quickly becoming one of my favourite brands! : )

Friday 20 May 2016

W7 The Cheeky Trio - Bronzer Blusher Highlighter

Morning lovelies!

I wanted to blog today about this beautiful palette from W7 I picked up last month. I was initially drawn to it because my current makeup routine involves a bronzer, blusher & highlighter from all different palettes & I wanted something that was easier to travel with instead of taking a whole palette just to use one product from it.


First of all, I adore the packaging. (it's pink & gold, what's not to love!?) & it's very easy & light weight to travel with.


I'm going to start with the bronzer. This is quite a dark shade for me so wasn't sure how it would look on my skin, but actually it applies very nicely & isn't too dark. You literally need the smallest amount on your brush, the palette is extremely pigmented.


Onto the blush. I actually adore this colour! Same as the bronzer, you literally only need the tiniest amount on your brush otherwise you end up with bright pink cheeks!


& finally the highlight. I was actually quite disappointed with this. I know I like a strong highlight, but this one was very faint & barely did anything for me. You'd think because the bronzer & blusher are so pigmented, the highlight would be the same but sadly not.

Overall, I'd give this palette a 6/10. Like I say, I wanted it for travelling & just to grab instead of taking more items than I need & it will be great for that, but I'm very disappointed by the highlighter. I think I'll still be smuggling in Sunbeam by Topshop!

Have you tried this palette before? I'd love to hear what you think : )

Sunday 15 May 2016

Life Lately #105


I can't actually believe I'm writing this to be honest, but last weekend, I travelled to Gloucester for the final time. For those of you who are new to my blog, James my boyfriend, has been going to Gloucester university for 3 years & he has almost finished his final year. We've been together for 3 & a half years, so the majority of our relationship has been long distance & has involved either me travelling to Gloucester or him travelling home at weekends & holidays. It felt so strange to know it was my last time on those roads as I've gotten so used to the journey now. The first time I drove there, I was so scared as it was the longest journey I'd ever done, plus it has a long stretch on the motorway, which I'd only ever been on a handful of times before. Saying that, I now actually quite enjoy it & will miss doing it.

We decided to go shopping in town on the Friday & had lunch in Bills. It was so lovely & hot we sat outside with a glass of pink lemonade & ice cream. Heaven! We also managed to complete our holiday shopping for our trip to Corfu with the family next month. I managed to get a suitcase (I do have one but it's not a hard case, so decided that would be more suitable for the flight) & we stocked up on sun cream. I'm actually so excited! 35 days to go!

On the Saturday afternoon we went to a dog show in the local park. James' friend Tom went last year & said there were hundreds of dogs, so of course, we had to go! We made friends with this little black pug who basically followed us around the whole afternoon, along with lots of other adorable dogs.

Last Tuesday I had my hair cut & sorted. I've found going to the hairdressers more regularly does make my hair grow longer quicker & now that I've started having layers out back in, I do need to go more often. I used to have ombre hair & I let it grow out, then I had a form of balayage done (the lady that did it was awful & I hated the way it looked) but now it's grown out a bit I'm not sure what to do .. what do you think?

You might remember last year that a local farmer hired some of our fields to keep his pregnant ewes in & luckily for us, he asked this year if we could look after them again! This was one of the first lambs to be born (I took this photo when he was less than 24 hours old!) & they are the most adorable little things. Because the ewes are so tame & used to humans, we can get really close to them.

It dawned on me last week that Honey, apart from the occasional dip, had never had a proper bath! So, of course, with the weather being as nice as it has been, I jumped at the chance to get her in the tub! I bought some dog shampoo (which I'd actually quite like to review, if that would interest anyone?) & vlogged the experience, much to Honey's excitement. She came out looking like a complete puffball & ran round the house & garden in a complete craze! I'll hopefully get round to editing the vlog soon so you can see!

On Friday, Elisa & I took a trip to Worthing, to meet our friend Gemma who's training to become a professional piercer. I've wanted the top of my ear pierced since I was 18.. 7 years ago.. so I was finally brave enough to do it! Because she is training, it was completely free & I even got the stud thrown in as well. So proud of myself for actually doing it, even though I squeezed Elisa's hand to death & maybe cried a bit.. I'm such a baby!

It was also my bosses last day on Friday, so after lunch in the sunshine, we headed to work for a farewell drink. I don't think it's properly hit me how different work is going to be without him, but I know everything is going to change. I don't want to write too much on here as I know work colleagues have access to my blog, but all I'll say is I'm going to miss him so much & if you are reading this Nigel for any reason.. you are amazing. Thankyou for being a fabulous boss but more importantly, being my friend.

Ah moving on to happier things, just look at this cutie. This is Gemma & Ollie's new puppy Pushka. They picked him up on Wednesday, so he's only been with them less than a week & is already proving to be a tinker, but just look at that face! So adorable. We all went round to Gem & Ollie's house for Gemma's late birthday celebrations on Friday evening, as they were away in Africa on Gem's actual birthday. I went along after work & had a catch up with everybody & of course met Pushka. I can't wait for him to grow up & we can take him on adventures with us!

How has your week been lovelies? : )

Wednesday 11 May 2016

Tanya Burr Lip Gloss - Picnic In The Park & Let's Travel The World

Hello lovelies, 

Back in January I recieved my first lipgloss for my birthday from the Tanya Burr beauty range, called Berry Picking (I reviewed it here if you'd like a read!) & since then, I've picked up two additonal shades called Let's Travel The World, which is a bright red & Picnic In The Park, which is a barbie pink.


So let's start with Let's Travel The World.

Could I be more in love with red? No, no I couldn't. I mentioned in my previous review post that I fell in love with lip glosses again because of Berry Picking & I really think I've found another perfect match. I do adore wearing red on my lips, I think it can complete an outfit & this one is perfect to use over the top of a lipstick or just on its own.



I'm a massive sucker for a pink lip & this one sadly I wasn't so impressed with. I do find it isn't as pigmented as the other two lip glosses, so this one I tend to use as a top coat over a pink lipstick. On it's own, it does fade after an hour or so & also highlights all the cracks in my lips which I can't imagine anyone wants to see!


Overall, Tanya's range of lip glosses I've found to be absolutely amazing value for money & I'm already a massive fan of her nail polishes so I'd definitely recommend trying her range if you haven't already. I'm eyeing up some of the other products to try now too!

Berry Picking / Let's Travel The World / Picnic In The Park

Have you tried any of Tanya Burr's beauty range? What were your thoughts? : )


Friday 6 May 2016

Topshop Highlighter - Sunbeam

Hello lovelies!

I've only recently got into highlighters in the last few months & I'm starting to wonder how I ever survived without them. They can complete a look with just one swish of your brush & give me the most spectacular cheek bones I could ever wish for.

I've added a few to my collection since the beginning of the year but I wanted to share this one with you today from Topshop. I think I must own one nail polish & one lipstick from their range, so it's fair to say I'm not an expert when it comes to their beauty products, but I decided to give this highlighter a go after testing it on my latest shopping trip.


I picked up the shade Sunbeam, which is a beautiful golden colour. I must also comment on the packaging which is what first drew me to the beauty section. I absolutely love the simplicity of the designs, they are so on point right now. 


I tested four highlighters while I was in store & decided this was the prettiest shade for my skin tone. (James also helped by pointing to the most sparkly, multi-coloured one I've ever seen, but we decided I didn't need to look like a fairy in every day life..)


I've been testing this highlighter for a few weeks now & I have to say I'm in love! I adore how shimmery & beautiful it makes my cheeks look, especially when it catches the light. (I included it in my Favourites Post this month, so you can see how much I adore it!)


The main reason I bought this highlighter was because we are going to Corfu in June & I wanted a product that would work with my current skin tone & once I've (hopefully) got a bit of a tan!


I read quite a few reviews that said this product was quite drying on the skin but I haven't found that to be true at all. It's so beautiful & definitely worth the £10 price tag!

Have you tried any of the Topshop makeup? I have the Everything Stick's on my wish list! : )

Monday 2 May 2016

Life Lately #104


Hello lovelies! How are you all?

Being typically British, I couldn't start this post without mentioning the weather.. I'm currently sat here on Bank Holiday Monday (today) writing this & looking out the window at all the rain. How frustrating, just when you think Summer has arrived (we had a beautifully sunny day yesterday) the rain returns. Only good thing is it means cosy days snuggled up inside with your duvet & a movie & you get to see epic sunsets like this!

You might have seen this mug in a previous post, as it featured in my Monthly Favourites. I actually can't wait for the end of this week as I'm off to Gloucester to see James. We're currently doing a 3 week gap so I can't wait to see him!

Last Friday we started off the weekend with Elisa's hen do! This was part 1, a meal at Smith & Western, then we went on to our local cocktail bar for drinks & finally to a small club / bar. We had such a good night!

Saturday afternoon was the hen part 2. We started off pottery painting, which makes you realise how un-artistic you really are, then we went onto afternoon tea. The place we went was called Pretty Things, it the most stunning place with a very unique interior. We had a quiz & then headed to Cathy's for a girl's night in the evening.

Ok, so last Thursday morning, myself & my friend Ricka went for an induction at our local gym. I've never been to the gym before. I kid you not. This was a whole new experience for me & actually, I rather enjoyed it. We had a go on all the machines after being shown how to use them & we're currently on a 7 day free trial, so we get to use the gym as much as we like until this coming Thursday. I found out my friend Boop also has a membership at the same gym, so we were planning to go together yesterday, but she was busy, which meant.. I had to go on my own. The thought of this terrified me (as I'm sure people wo know me would probably guess) but despite that, I drove to the car park, sat in the car for 10 minutes & eventually went in. I only stayed for 20 minutes & did some work on the treadmill & on the leg machines, but I felt so pleased with myself when I came out! I seriously couldn't believe I'd done it! Hopefully I'm going again (on my own) tomorrow morning.. so we'll see how that goes.. wish me luck!

& finally after my massive gym achievement yesterday, I headed straight out the door again with the dogs for a walk. It was the most beautiful day & after 10 minutes of walking with my headphones in, I took them out & just listened to the birds chatting, the wind in the trees & felt the sunshine on my face. It was so nice to be outside, away from technology & the distractions of every day life. I need more days like that.

How was April for you lovelies?
Hope you're enjoying the Bank Holiday Weekend!