April Favourites!

So today I woke up with every intention to film my favourites video today but I guess my body had other plans. I've got a horrible cold and my voice was sore and I looked all washed out so I decided to write a blog post from my bed instead. 

So to kick off my favourites is this skincare product.

This is the Simple Smoothing Facial Scrub and I've been using this so much recently that I've ran out. I have dry skin around my nose and this has been a god send for me, it works really well, and yeah it doesn't smell the best (abit artificial) but for me I don't really mind. I'll definitely be getting more of this this month.

Next is a hair product.

This is the Tresemme Instant Fresh Dry Shampoo.   I got this from my first ever Glossybox and I was pleasantly surprised. And I hate to admit it but I've used this a lot this month. It's been an extremely busy month and sometimes I haven't had time to even wash my hair but this is my saviour. I've used some pretty bad dry shampoos over my time but this one is great. It does get rid of grease whilst I'm in college, it smells nice and this bottle is small and so it fits nicely in handbags.

The next thing is another hair product,

This is the Body Shop Ginger Anti-Dandruff Shampoo. The flakes in the hair around my face was starting to look too noticeable and even after I'd tried Head and Shoulders it still wasn't getting any better and I found it hard to go out without a hat on. So I researched into this and couldn't find a bad thing about it. So I bought it and I still can't find anything wrong with it! I know some people don't like the smell of ginger and I thought I wouldn't like it but it's not over powering and your hair doesn't smell like ginger the next day either. I cannot recommend this enough if you have a flaky scalp!

My next product is a lip product.

This is the Rimmel London Color Rush Balm in the colour Keep Mauving. This was new this month because I wanted a change in colour and even though this looks quite brown it actually isn't.

It's actually a really nice pink colour but it's not very bright. It's so hydrating and the colour stays on my lips all day. I'm really impressed with this and I really want some more in different colours.

(They also smell like Mini Eggs!!)

My next thing is a BB cream.

This is the Rimmel London BB Cream Matte in Light. I've been wearing this a lot this month because I couldn't really be bothered with my foundation. This is apparently much better for your skin and I've had less breakouts because it's so light. The problem is that because I haven't seen the sun for a while here this colour is a bit too dark for me, even though it's Light. So if you have really pale skin I wouldn't suggest this because there isn't much choice in different shades.

My next is an eyeshadow.

This is the L'Oreal Paris Color Appeal Platinum in Raw Copper. I've only recently started wearing this colour and now it's my go to colour. I think I've been wearing it more because I think it looks amazing on green eyes and I think it matches the colour of my tips pretty well. I don't know if they still sell this product/colour so I've just linked whatever I can find.

My next thing is a nail polish.

This is the Revlon Top Speed Nail Varnish in Cloud. I think I got this in a set for Christmas which is why I can't find it in Boots or Superdrug. But this is a really pretty blue/grey and I think it suits the pastel trend at the moment so I've been wearing it a lot of my nails this month.

And lastly is a highlighter.

This is the Mememe Beat the Blues Highlighter in Pearl Pink that I got from my Glossybox. I'd had my eye on this for ages and I'm so happy that I got it in my box! It glides on so easily and it's such a lovely shimmer. The perfect liquid highlighter for me!

And they're all my April Favourites! What are some of yours?

Thanks for reading,

Stay Happy!

Sarah

Week 3: Brights VS Neutrals

Welcome to the 3rd week of the #BloggersDoItBetter Challenge! This week's topic is Bloggers do Bright and Neutral better, and I'll have to be honest I panicked a lot at this because I had no idea to write about. I don't really think of things as bright or neutral but now I've thought about it I have things that are similar but in different colours. So this week is going to be Bright VS Neutral with some of my things.

The first one is lipsticks. This was difficult for me because I really LOVE a bright lip, I think it makes the whole look come together. I also usually wear monochrome clothes so a bright lip adds a great pop of colour to an outfit. So it was hard to choose between my favourite bright lip but at the minute it's the Maybelline Color Sensational in the colour Shocking Coral. 

It's such an amazing colour and I'm never usually into pinks but this is more of a coral colour so I thought I'd give it a go. It's also really pigmented, the swatch is only one stripe of the lipstick and it stays on for ages (it's actually really hard to get off!)

So the VS Neutral product is also a Maybelline Colorsensational Popstick in the colour Tropical Pink. The colours look really similar but this one is actually see through when you look at it. I go on about this lipstick so much but it's because it's more of a tint than anything else which is why I think it's more neutral than the one above.

As you can see from this swatch it's barely even there but it leaves a really nice hint of pink on your lips. I wear this a lot more casually rather than on a night out but it does last ages.

The next item is heels. I've only really recently become slightly obsessed with heels but it wasn't too difficult to find a bright and a neutral.

These bright red shoes are probably my favourite heels ever. They weren't expensive at all and the colour is so stunning. They're also the comfiest heels I've ever had because the platform is so big that your foot isn't actually bent that much. These also match most of the monochrome clothes that I wear on a night out.

And then I found these heels tucked away in my wardrobe. I think I got given these as a hand me down but they're originally from Miss Selfridge. Even though it doesn't look it, these are pretty tall but they're still really comfy. They're a lovely nude colour with cute little bows on the front.

The last thing I found were these swing tops. For the bright one I used a top that I've bought recently from Select. It was only £6 and the material is a really thin top in mint green. I'm completely obsessed with this colour for spring and this is probably one of the brightest pieces of clothing that I own. I'm so pleased with this purchase.

And compared to this I found a similar style top but this one is black velvet instead. I've worn this top so many times because it's so easy to pair with everything and it's easy to wear casually or on a night out. It was so inexpensive and worth the price for all the times I've worn it and it's become a staple piece in my wardrobe.

So those are my Bright VS Neutral products. I've realised that you will always need the neutrals in your wardrobe to match all the bright things you buy and vice versa. I can't wait to have more bright pieces of clothes though for spring and summer because I feel I don't have enough. I'll have to venture out to orange, pink and maybe even yellow!

Do you prefer brights or neutrals?

Thanks for reading,

Stay Happy

Sarah

Where have I been?!

Gaaah it's been almost two weeks! I'm really sorry for the lack of posting but this is the final stretch for college and I've been revising for all my exams. 

I also had four different deadlines this week for coursework so I've been stressing out a lot more than usually and any spare time I did get I spent sleeping. 

I will definitely do a post about what I've been doing soon because my deadlines are over and obviously tomorrow is the Bloggers Do It Better Challenge so stay tuned for that!

Anyways I'll check back in VERY soon!

Stay Happy

Sarah

Bloggers do Bargains Better!

So this week on the #bloggersdoitbetter group the topic is bargains!

If you read my blog regularly then you'll know that I absolutely LOVE bargains. Now-a-days I'll only buy something expensive if I really love it, instead I buy dupes or cheaper things because I'm a student with hardly any money. 

I was hoping to show some of my recent bargains but I haven't had time to go shopping at all recently so I decided I'm going to show you my favourite shoe bargains of all time!

Firstly these shoes. These shoes are such a great dupe for real Dr Martens. They look like the shoes, except the obvious yellow threading around the sole and the little tag at the back. But everyone knows how expensive real Dr Martens are so when I found these ones in Select for £18 I knew I had to get them! (I also bought a maroon pair...) I think they look just as good and you don't have to break the bank to get some. They're also extremely durable and have lasted me all winter.

My next bargain is my favourite of all time. These shoes were off eBay after I'd done some rooting and they are a dupe to the real Juju Jelly shoes that are everywhere right now. The real Juju Jellies are about £28 from Topshop and New Look but I got these ones for only £13! They look exactly the same as the real ones except the logos on the side and heel. But when you're wearing them, it's hard to notice. So if you don't want to spend loads of money on some jelly shoes then these are perfect for you!

And lastly these shoes aren't really a dupe, more of a bargain. I got them in the winter sale at Tescos (a British supermarket) where they were supposed to be £22 but in the sale they were only £7! They're just simple black platform shoes with a little ankle strap but they're really trendy and also really comfortable.

As you can see I own a lot of black shoes! I think I need some colour soon for summer!

Anyone else think that shoe bargains are just the best?!

Thanks for reading,

Stay Happy

Sarah

OOTD- Daring to do Orange

So I went out for an 18th the other night and although this was the only picture I got of my full outfit I thought I'd share with you what I wore anyways! You also get a glimpse of my new hair!

So as for my clothes I wore this new skirt from Forever Twentyone which is just a thin grey long skirt, with a slit up the side. I'd wanted one of these forever and I eventually found this one, in the sale! And I knew I had to buy it. So this skirt was only £5.99!

The top I got off holiday and it's just a simple lace cropped top, and the back is see through lace as well. I can't remember the name of the shop because it was Spanish but I've seen these kinds of cropped tops in a lot of places anyways! I remember that it wasn't expensive though.

And my shoes are one of the biggest bargains too! I went in the Winter sale to Tescos for a mooch and found these gorgeous platform heels with a thin ankle strap and fell in love immediately. They were originally supposed to be £22 but in the sale they were only £7! It was insane so I grabbed them immediately (also last size 6). It was fate. 

I went very minimal with accessories, only wearing a gold bracelet and ring, and a black suede clutch bag with gold detail.

So for my pop of colour I went extremely out of my comfort zone and tried the orange trend. I've never tried orange before because I didn't think it would suit me but as I've just dip dyed my hair orange, I thought I would carry on the theme! For my hair colour I dyed it with the L'Oreal Paris Ombre kit (I'll do a video about it soon) and because I already had dyed red hair, instead of going blonde, my hair just went orange, but I still really love it! For this outfit I just curled my hair and hair sprayed it slightly just so it was still soft and I could run my fingers through it for a messy look.

As for my nails I used a false set, trimmed the edges so they were quite long and rounded and then painted them the night before the party. This is so they can dry overnight and then I can put them on when I'm ready as they were longer than my normal nails and would've gotten in the way. 

Then I painted most of my nails with the Barry M Block Orange and my index finger with the Flormar Matte Black. I loved the vibrant orange contrasted against the matte black and will definitely wear these nails again.

As for make-up I was really disappointed that I didn't get a picture of my full face of make-up because I really went out of my comfort zone with it. I normally just do a plain silver and black smokey eye with red/dark lips for a night out but this time I did something completely different.

First important item is my foundation. I used the Revlon Colorstay foundation in the colour Buff and used my new Real Techniques expert face brush to apply. This foundation is a little too pale for my skin so I use quite a lot of bronzer too. But I've fallen in love with this brush completely, well worth the price!

And this is where the change came in. I don't think I've ever worn a colour like this on my eyes before. I'm not sure why because this eye shadow is pretty old now so I've had it for a while but I've just never got round to it. This picture is with the flash on and you can see it's kind of a gold/copper colour and it's the L'Oreal Paris Color Appeal Platinum in the colour Raw Copper. I used a slightly wet brush to apply this eyeshadow, for one to stop it going down on my cheek but it also gave me a much brighter colour. I then used the darkest black shadow I have and created a shadow in the crease of my eye and blended it out to make my eyes more sultry and darker. I love this colour on my eyes and will definitely be using it more!

Next I used the Maybelline gel eyeliner to line my upper lash line and used the L'Oreal Paris Superliner Brow Artist to fill my brows in slightly. With my lashes, because I was using fake ones, I curled my normal lashes then put the fake ones on, and brushed both of them together. I then used my Maybelline Falsies to coat them both once and I used it on my lower lashes.

These are the lashes I used. They're from eBay and they were only about £2-3 for ten pairs from Taiwan and I needed some simple natural looking lashes and these certainly do the job! They're so easy to apply, and it feels like you hardly have anything on your lids. And they do look really natural, so for the price they're a real bargain!

And lastly the most daring change I've ever gone through is this lipstick/butter. I really wanted an orange lipstick but wasn't sure whether it would suit me so I just decided to go for quite a subtle one to begin with. This is the Revlon Colorburst Lip Butter in the colour 015 Tutti Frutti. Not only have I always loved the packaging of these lip butters but the colour is amazing. It's quite a subtle orange I think but it can be layered to make it brighter. It feels nice on your lips, doesn't taste horrible like some butters do, and it doesn't make your lips feel greasy which is the case sometimes. I had to keep re-applying it throughout the night but that was expected I guess. Overall I'm really happy with this product!

And this was my outfit for the night. I had a great time, I just wish I'd taken more pictures, so in future I will hopefully be able to take pictures of close-ups to make these posts better.

Have you tried the orange trend before? If so what did you wear?

Thanks for reading!

Stay Happy

Sarah

#bloggersdoitbetter Week 1!

So finally it's the first week of the #bloggersdoitbetter Challenge! I've been so excited to finally write about it. If you don't know what it is check out my earlier post about it here!

So basically the challenge is to write a post that's out of your comfort zone to broaden your post and be more creative. And this weeks theme is Spring! I was so excited about this weeks theme because you can really do anything with it, food, fashion, beauty, lifestyle, memories etc.

But being me, I chose food!

I've never done a food post before so this weekend I decided to make Spring/Easter inspired cupcakes and I'm going to tell you how I made them!

Recipe:

Cupcakes

150ml Vegetable Oil

2 Eggs

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

75g Unrefined Caster Sugar

150g Self-raising Flour

Buttercream

140g Unsalted Butter

250g Icing Sugar

1-2 tbsp Milk

few drops of food colouring

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 170C or gas mark 3 and line a muffin tray with 10-12 paper cases.

(I used twelve :))

These adorable spring cases were £1.22 from Asda and the colours are so cute!

2. Next whisk together the oil, eggs, and vanilla extract until well blended. ( You could use a hand whisk or electric whisk)

It should look like this (at least mine did!)

3. Then add the sugar and flour and whisk until well blended.

And mine ended up like this. I thought it was quite thick for cake mix but it worked anyways!

4. Then spoon it into the cases and put in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. If you want to check if they're cooked properly then insert the tip of a knife/skewer through the middle and if it comes out clean then it's cooked!

5. Next for the butter cream. Put the butter into a bowl and beat until soft.

6. Then add half the sugar and beat until smooth.

7. And then add the remaining icing sugar and if you want the butter cream to be smoother just add a tbsp of milk and mix it all together.

8. Add a few drops of the food colouring and mix together.

(we made a spring green colour, and it was supposed to be pink but turned out orange :( ooops but it's still quite a spring colour!)

9. And then either spread your butter cream over the top of the cupcakes or if you have a piping bag then you could use that. If you don't have a piping bag then you could make your own like we did!

We just got a normal sandwich bag or freezer bag and then put all of the icing in and squeezed it into one corner. We then snipped off a tiny bit of the corner so the icing could come out. 

You then just squeeze and swirl the icing around her cakes! (it does get a bit messy!)

10. And lastly just decorate your cakes with whatever you want! For ours we used Mini Eggs to plop on the top to give it a cute Spring look. You could use chocolate eggs, flakes, or sprinkles to make these look even more delicious.

The final product!!

( I also added some cheeky sprinkles on there)

Anyways I'm quite chuffed with how these turned out, and they were really easy to make. They're also pretty delicious!! 

I also quite enjoyed writing this post, I might do more food posts in the future!

Anyways thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed this little recipe of something I love to do in my spare time.

Also keep posted so you know how to make these fabulous cupcakes (I couldn't just make one batch now could I? ;))

Stay Happy!

Sarah

New Videos :)

I'm a proper trooper with two videos in less than a week! I think...

Anyways my first one is a simple Lush and Primark Haul with a few things thrown in here>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrplfEI-KSA

And my second one is a list of all of my Summer Bucketlist, even though it's only April you have no idea how excited I am! >> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8HrM11XR2Q

I also have a special gift...kind of...

If you've never heard of a website called 8 Tracks before then where have you been!? 

8 Tracks is a music website where you can listen to and make your own playlists with practically any songs you want. It's perfect to just plug in and listen too, and I've discovered so many amazing songs and bands that I didn't know about! You can also get an app for your iPhone and hopefully Android :)

So I made my own playlist of all my favourite summer songs right now that I thought I would share with you guys if it's sunny where you live and you're in a good mood. In includes pop/indie songs and I listen to it all the time. Also whilst your over there you can make your own account and save playlists you like, and comment on them. You can also make your own to listen to whenever you want!

So you can check my playlist out here>> wanderlust

Hope you liked it!!

Stay Happy

Sarah