Stages Before a Night Out

Well hi there! 

I have recently read the following link: 30 Stages Girls Go Through Before Nights Out.

I am a FIRM believer that getting ready for the night out is normally just as fun as the night out itself. Don't get me wrong, I love being out with my friends, choosing my shots, throwing some of those new moves I've seen on the dancefloor and wobbling my way to a taxi (via a food outlet of course).

BUT I can honestly say that I ADORE the build up to it as well. A lot of friends dislike and even go as far as to hate it (gasp!) but I truly love the whole getting ready experience and I fully recommend the link above for a few lols as I'm SURE you will have definitely come across a few.

As me and M have mahussive plans for this evening now that her exams are finally over I thought it would be fitting to divulge a few of our favourite stages of getting ready for a night out....enjoy!

1) Our night out begins on Mondays. This is when we begin to scrub and apply copious amounts of tanning moisturiser. Living in the ever rainy Wales a real tan is hard to come by and over the years has left us looking paler than MJ so a fair few coats is necessary for us to achieve the glow we desire. We need to apply normally around 3 coats of this just to reach normal human colour so it takes a while.

2) The week long group message as to what to wear, and priorities....what shoes. We've now come to the conclusion that as we are both quite tall ladies that whatever shoes we wear, we're in it together. In heels we can be up to 6'4 when M wears her huuuuuuge Carvelas and so the shoes take the priority in our texts. Admittedly, it's ALWAYS heels!



3) This is normally followed by furious snapchats of dresses and accessories, normally paired with an absolute mountain of clothes in the background where we have both emptied our wardrobes onto our beds to find the desired outfit. Chaos.

4) This is followed by the Thursday tanning session. This is a full application of 'proper tan' followed by a pedicure. If you're going to have to stand naked and watch tv to let your tan dry you might as well do everything all in one go and not be able to walk at the same time.

5) Drinks orders. Sometime during the week thoughts will travel to predrinks. This used to be easy; wine! But unfortunately as I am now allergic to wine (LORD KNOWS how this has happened) vodka is the usual tipple, occasionally mixed up with rum, pimms and basically whatever else we can mix in with cranberry juice and lemonade. This week? I've got my eye on the £10 bottle of Pimms in Morrisons, deal!
We also get our order in for the containers that will come in very handy later on (see further on for an explanation)





6) The day has finally arrived! Normally on a Saturday we both get up and off to the gym to burn an extra set of calories in anticipation for the sugary cocktails and McDonalds meal that we just KNOW we're going to have later. Excited!

7) With the 'hard work' out of the way, it's just the usual shower, scrub, defuzz, moisturise, apply an extra layer of tan, paint our nails and dry our hair. Easy peasy.........probably need a power nap here too and some food. Whoever decided eating was cheating never lasted long on a night out did they?



8) Next stage? Precision application of make up to the face. Da Vinci hasn't got shit on us; it took him days to paint his masterpiece. We've got our faces down to an art within an hour....ish?
This normally cues the debate of eye make up application first or base first.......Answers on a postcard below. M's a lover of eyes first but I'm a firm fan of starting with a flawless base. Many debates have been had, surely by this time we should be able to apply eye make up without getting it all over...no?
Needless to say it looks like Debenhams exploded into Boots wherever we are getting ready; palettes, brushes, bottles and all manner of product goodness EVERYWHERE.


9) Once the face has been finished, the pre drinks begin. Nice and steady to start, getting stronger and crazier by the 3rd, half vodka, quarter rum, a shot of malibu topped up with cranberry anyone?

10) Hair begins. What a nightmare, straightening is so easy but what about the volume! We're big hair people on this blog and volume is everything, curling almost always wins out for me as rollers take forever to wrap up into my thick and long mane. My arms aren't even long enough to reach the ends of my hair at the back!

11) Then the most dangerous and stressful part begins. The lash application. Having the potential to ruin your entire facial make up application this part is tricky and sends your heart into overdrive. Better sit down and have a another drink to calm those nerves.


12) Think you're ready? Extra application of instant tan. JUST IN CASE.

13) Now it's time to actually get your clothes on and make the final decision on your outfit for the night and do one of our favourite things, the Lipstick Lucky Dip.
Place your hand inside your make up bag/hand bag/drawer and wriggle it around until you find a lipstick, save yourself the hassle and use whichever one you find first, that's our motto!


14) It's selfie time. Snapchat, instagram, facebook, twitter. Absolutely nothing can escape when it's selfie time on a night out with us!






15) Finally ready to call a taxi so more drinks are poured and it's time to settle down and relax after the getting ready sesh is over, this time its doubtful there is any mixer in the drinks at all and it sometimes comes accompanied with a shot of red absinthe. This can send the night one of two ways, but its sure to become a firm fave of a photo if you manage to time it just right:

16) The taxi is probably outside. Never EVER forget that last refill of your glass and our personal favourite; universal containers.
Listen up guys and girls, I'm about to divulge the best secret in the business. Get your hands on some 50ml containers and bob's your uncle, you've got yourself a fair few double shots you can easily just slip into a drink in the loos when the bouncers aren't watching. Naughty? Us? We like to think of it as innovative. Many a time we've filled our bras with them, 2 in each side for a beautiful 4 drinks worth. Even better is the Russian Roulette version; containers full of random types of liquor. Flavoured vodkas, rum and a nasty one: the straight absinthe...horror! Whoever get's the nasty one gets first pick the next time.




17) The taxi is definitely outside. Last minute checks; more powder, more hairspray, more perfume, more lipstick. More tan?
Then comes the putting on of shoes before running out the door to the exasperated taxi man waiting outside.






All sounds exhausting doesn't it?!

What do you think? Comparable to your nights out?

Let me know!

L xxx

Life Update

Happy Saturday morning to you all!

I would be ridiculously glad that its the weekend...but instead I have to work Saturday this week as well so I've decided to flash a few photos of my life over the last few weeks instead of a beauty post.

First up? This beauty. Apologies for the shadowed photo, lighting isn't my priority when dealing with my fave LKB and I was so excited that my mum had bought me this!
One of my Christmas presents had to go back as it didn't fit me so instead she bought me this beautiful black patent make up bag. I was very impressed with the quality and how beautiful and shiny it was anyway, (magpie anyone?) but it even came in a dust bag! I've never owned anything posh enough to warrant a dust bag before. Day. Made.

Next up is this beauty, a snap I took whilst stuck in my car on the way to work. What should have been a 45 minute journey ended up taking me 3.5 hours and I even missed a meeting at work...oops.

Nice to see some snow in amongst all the endless rain though!



Me and M had a lush night out the other week with a uni friend who came down for the rugby and then we went out afterwards. I wore a black crepe shift dress with leather panels on from M&S Limited Collection that I bought a few years ago. I've only worn it once before when I first bought it as its quite a tight dress due to the fabric and can even be hard to walk in but I decided there's no point it living in my wardrobe all year round!





Here's the three of us all glammed up and ready for the night!

I also picked up these shoes for the night out as my previous VERY trusty pair of shoes (the usual peep toe black shoe boot style) have finally given up with all the wear and tear!
I decided to replace them with these beautiful cut out shoes boots also from New Look which felt quite comfortable initially....they don't rub which is a relief but just general foot ache!



After that I've spent a lot of time eating the last few weeks. Not all that badly ( I do gym 5 times a week to combat it!) but nevertheless there has been a lot of food. For example:

 

Afternoon tea with M at a spa day we went to, not over the top amount of cakes and some decent sandwiches, yum.

The second picture shows my mums homemade 'sticky chicken' which is 1 or 2 syns on slimming world and honestly makes every problem go away. I promise to write a post about this in future as to be perfectly honest everyone needs this recipe in their lives! Perfect for chicken and salmon, for lunch or tea, for yourself or for a meal with friends its just AMAZING.




Another meal with M was at Nando's. M can get discount and so we often get the platter with the chicken and 2 sides with 2 drinks for a really good price. We do tend to stuff ourselves and however much we want to get salad we always end up getting chips to share too! Oh well.



Aside from all the amazing food I've been trying to get back into the gym. Although i go regularly my running has been suffering considerably because of the weather and persistent traffic I keep getting stuck in. I'm trying to keep it up on weekends but now I've lost my running partner to a dodgy ankle I'm flagging a bit!

I think a few quiet weeks with workouts, good food and a few good books are what I need to recover myself and my bank balance.

I've been having a hard time at work lately and sometimes find it hard to think about anything other than that and my constant lack of money. but I'm trying to be more positive about things and quotes like this one (from my beloved HP!) can help to put a smile on my face.

What have you been up to lately? Do you like my dress that I wore out?
How have you been coping with the awful weather we've been having?

L xxx

Life Update

I have been a rather busy girl lately, so I thought a life update was in order.

I've had one of the best summers of my life so far, it's been non stop and I 100% would do it all over again if I could!
Its included weddings, hen weekends, shopping trips, wild nights out at mansions (ooh errr!) and beach trips.

So I thought I'd share a few snaps whilst having a cup of tea and catching up on Geordie Shore.

Last weekend was a bit of a crazy one, me and M decided we were going to enjoy the bank holiday delights and planned on going out both Saturday and Sunday.

My motto personally is 'go hard or go home'. It normally serves me well but dear god it did not this time.
We started off the night all glammed up and went for the LBD and heels look:

We were both pretty broke as we hadn't been paid yet, so I dragged out the red absinthe that my brother had brought back from a holiday last year.
With it being 80% we both had 1 shot of it and hoped for the best, a decent buzz but no being sick or anything.



All I can say is this was my face for a good hour after the shot:

A fireball of aniseed is not what I find enjoyable and next time I'm broke I will be shotting it with something strong tasting to take it away! Bleeeeurrrgh!

Needless to say as this was the start of the night we had a bit of a mental one. We went to a mansion party and it was absolutely EPIC!
It slept 20 people so as you can imagine it was huge, and it had an indoor pool, hot tub, pool table, cinema and arcade games room amongst others which was amazing. We spent hours opening the doors and finding our way around which was so much fun!

The day after we weren't much use to anyone and after a huge dominos order we ended up in the pub enjoying a peanut butter and chocolate milkshake before turning in, a second night was definitely not on the cards!

The day after I went to meet my family at our caravan for a day at the beach and some jetskiing.
I squeezed myself into my wetsuit and legged it onto the beach.
I love spending days doing this and I even managed to get a slight tan on my shoulders which was awesome.

Afterwards we got back for a bbq and had a massive steak which was LUSH

I've spent all week recovering from that weekend and in work I've been a complete ZOMBIE!
I'm hoping this weekend I'll be able to recover and catch up on my sleep.

My biggest news is that I have actually bought myself a new car today!
It's my first one that's actually mine, I've always shared my mums car (which was lovely of her).

The past few months since I got my new job she's lent it to me completely just so I can get back and forth to work and save up a bit more for my own, but with a time limit!
So I finally found one and went and picked it up today, I was so excited!

As my first car it's definitely my baby and I'm so grateful to my parents for lending me the extra money I needed, hopefully I can pay them back before Christmas and all my debts will be cleared.
It's so beautiful and a its a gorgeous 'tornado red' which sounds just perfect to me!


What have you guys been up to lately? Have you been on the spend or save?

After these few weeks I'm glad to be having a quiet one and hopefully will be able to save a lot over the next few months.
Any tips on saving money and doing things for cheap??

L xxx

Hen Weekend

Hello!

We are both SO excited for the bank holiday weekend. We've made plans for both nights out and also have plans to eat and watch films on the 'hangover' days in between!
I think some serious products will be used over the next few days!

Last weekend we both went to our friends hen weekend near Hungerford which involved some afternoon tea and lots of drinks!



The venue was Oakly Hall, an amazing estate dating back to the 1700s, it was LUSH!
We had the afternoon tea in a library which I absolutely loved, I am book obsessed and dream about having a library one day. 

Even the tables and chairs were really cute and I loved the whole theme!

I wore a beige dress with pink flowers on, nice and girly for the sophisticated setting!

M wore jeans and blue and white spotty top:

As I'm (unfortunately) allergic to champagne I got to have some Pimms whilst everyone else tucked into flutes of the good stuff!

The food was amazing, it was a huge tower of sandwiches, warm scones, profiteroles, tarts and brownies:

I somehow managed to eat loads but only just!
It was amazing and so filling but after our drive I was feeling pretty hungry.

Just look at the jam and cream for the scones! I do love cake, its one of my vices whenever I'm in a bad mood or trying to lose a few pounds....cake always gets me!

For the night out we all got glammed up and went out to a club in Newbury. It was so much fun and great to go somewhere different to our usual places.

Here's a photo of us during the night:

I wore an Olivia Rubin dress that I bought a few years ago for a birthday night out. I teamed it with my black wedges from New Look, bangles from Internacionale, nude bag from River Island and necklace from Topshop.
I curled my hair with a wand which is my favourite way to do my hair and went for classic make up with a nude smokey eye, winged liner and red lips!

M wore a flowery playsuit from New Looks tall range a few years ago with New Look Black Wedges (such comfy shoes), a statement necklace from River Island, with Thomas Sabo bracelets and teamed it with my black leather obi belt from Mango.

It was such a fun night and were hoping to have a great time again this weekend!

The wedding is coming up in September and we cannot wait for it now. We've both got our dresses sorted and we're working hard at the gym to make sure we look our best!
It might be our friends wedding and not our own but that doesn't mean we don't have to make an effort right?!

I can't wait to start getting ready for it and to see her walking down the aisle! She'd made a lot of the decorations for it so it's going to be really personal.

Do you have any friends getting married soon?

L xxx

Reunion Night Out!

Me and M both went out together on Saturday for a reunion...

Needless to say we spent the entire week getting ready (scrubbing, moisturising, tanning....) and possibly spent longer getting ready than we did actually out ha!

Here's what we ended up looking like:

For the first time ever I put rollers in my hair to see if I could get a better bounce to my roots that lasts longer than curling with a wand.

It did give more root lift but unfortunately the curls dropped out pretty quick so had to get my trusty Remington curling wand out for some emergency curling before we left!

Maybe I just need to practice, does anyone have any tips for using heated rollers?

M did the same with her hair and it seems to have stayed a lot better than mine!

I had an orangey red dress from Miss Selfridge on and M had her lush new dress from the Julien MacDonald range in Debenhams 

The photo is a little blurry unfortunately (drunken friends taking pictures!) 

I wore my trusty tan wedges for height and comfort and M had her new heels from Dorothy Perkins which I absolutely love and am so jealous!

Perfect mid heel and a gorgeous leopard print. (and in the sale too if you're quick!)

For our make up we both had on Mac ProLongwear with a bit of Rimmel Wake Me Up for the glowy look.

We both had on heaps of eyeliner (Maybellines Eye Studio Gel Liner) and Mac's MSF in Soft and Gentle which is the first time I've used it and cannot believe how amazing it is!

I will definitely be purchasing that as soon as I get myself a job!

I wore a Kate Moss for Rimmel lipstick in shade 12, an orange red, and M wore my Mac Russian Red.

I always seem to do similar make up on a night out so I'm thinking next time I need to go back to being a bit more adventurous with my eyeshadows and blushers/bronzers.

We had a lush night drinking and dancing and spent the day afterwards catching up on X factor and painting our nails! Perfect weekend :)

How do you like doing your make up for a Saturday night out? Do you enjoy spending time getting ready?

What's your favourite products to use for a night out?

L xxx

Saturday Night In

As I'm currently still writing my dissertation (almost finished woo!) me and M decided to have a girly night in and pig out.

M is the master baker and I pride myself on my ability to eat large amounts of cake, so was SO excited when she suggested she'd make us an Oreo cupcake.

Just look at this!

It was amazing, and covered in Oreo flavoured whipped cream....yum!

We also decided to get a bit creative and have a go at making sushi...I thought it was going to be a bit disastrous but actually it wasn't too bad.

First you boil the rice for 10 minutes and leave to cool for 30 mins before adding the vinegar.

Then you spread it out over the seaweed and place on your fillings before rolling it:

This one is tuna and red peppers and the one below is salmon, cream cheese and red peppers!

This is what they looked like sliced up...the ends were not quite so easy to keep in one piece though!

We think a sharper knife would have made it a bit easier.

Then as always we proceeded to paint our nails and watch X factor (standard Saturday night viewing!)

I borrowed one of M's indigo coloured No7 nail polishes and then applied my new Technic nail polish, the one that's a dupe for OPI Rainbow Connection.

Here's what they turned out like:

One coat above, and two coats below:

I love how glittery it is!! 

Some of you may be thinking that sushi and a bit of cake isn't really a pig out night.

This is a picture of the table where the rest of the food we ate was:

Hahaaaaaa! Cheese, bread, olives, tortilla chips, dips.....yummyyyyyyy!!

I was loving it last night and ate my body weight in food but today I feel hungover as I'm not used to eating fatty stuff with being on a health kick.

Was a great night but I'm currently not appreciating how much I ate!

How do you spend your Saturday nights in? 

M also gave me a mini fashion show as we're having a BIG night out next week, I'm sure there will be a post with our hair/makeup/clothes that we wear!

Do you enjoy these kind of posts?

We love being nosy into other peoples weekend antics!

L and M xxx