How would you pack for 7 weeks?

Bit of a different post for you today so I hope you like it, it's a bit more personal and sort of a 'What's in my handbag?' post.

If you didn't know already, I'm currently away in America completing a uni course for a few weeks and so far I'm having an amazing time!

I've come here on my own which was initially quite scary and I obviously had no idea what to pack or what I'd need to bring.

Clothes wise I had a limited amount to choose as I needed certain things for my course like hiking boots, waterproofs and hoodies which obviously weigh quite a lot.

Match that with needing bedding, towels and my laptop, camera etc and I wasn't left with much room to play with!

I apologise in advance for the photos....the lighting is awful and I've ended up editing most of them so they look instagram style and not half as bad as before! The grey desk and cream painted brick walls don't exactly make good background either ha! I did what I could with what I have.

I decided to pick up some shower gel, shampoo, conditioner and body moisturiser when I got here as I could buy big bottles of each and throw them out before I left, so that was a large portion of toiletries taken care of.

However I did need to bring travel wash, a mini first aid kit, sun cream (SPF 15 and 30, and 30 for my face), after sun, bug repellant...etc etc that you normally would take on holiday with you as I wasn't sure what I could get my hands on when there:

As you can see, this really was not leaving me much room in my suitcase particularly with the 23Kg limit so I had to be really strict with what I brought.

For clothes after the things that I had to bring I brought with me a selection of vests and shorts, 2 pairs of jeans, 2 thin hoodies, 1 cardigan, 4 dresses and 1 pair of 3/4 denim shorts.

I also packed 2 sets of gym clothes, my swim suit, 2 bikinis and a substantial amount of underwear as I didn't want to run out before finding the laundry room!

(These clothes are really boring so I haven't bothered with photos of these)

Shoes wise I brought my hiking boots, running trainers, 1 pair of brogues, 1 pair of flip flops and a pair of black gladiator style sandals for going out:

I felt I did rather well on this front as you can mix and match any of it, I've never packed so well in my life!

Accessories wise I packed 2 necklaces and a bracelet, 1 obi belt and I had either my rucksack or my black leather bag for outings:

The main problem for me, as I'm sure it is with most of you, is products.....

Where on earth do I start?!

I had no idea what to do, and ended up starting with make up as I knew what I needed for every day use and could go from there.

Here's what I brought altogether:

Base products

Lipsticks

Essentials!

Brushes

Sleek Ultra Matte V2 and MUA Heaven and Earth

Blush and other eye and brow products.

I gave in and couldn't leave without some nail varnish, but I restricted myself to a top coat, base coat and 4 colours:

A nude pink, coral, gold shimmer and glittery red.

Skincare was another problem for me, I love it and could have easily filled my suitcase with it particularly as I've been investing in it quite a bit recently.

But I was as strict as I could have been and here's what I brought with me:

Liz Earle, Vichy, Etat Pur and Origins.

To keep me entertained on the plane I also brought a number of samples with me to play with and test which was great fun and I loved the cooling feeling of the eye gel on the plane!

Do you think I did well??

I'm quite proud of myself, though I feel rather guilty for all the products I've left at home that I clearly can live without.

It's spurred me on to use more up when I get back, which is a good thing as I actually only have £40 left in my account until I get a job....eek!

What products can't you live without? Have you managed to be super savvy with your products for holidays etc?

Next up I'm going to make a post on what I'm missing so far...being away from home for 6.5 weeks on your own isn't easy and there's certain things I'm missing more than others!

L xxx

Review: Origins Eye Doctor

I mentioned a while ago (here) that I've been having a few problems with my eyes, particularly with wearing lenses and them generally watering and running down my face and ruining my make up.

My optician told me it could be to do with allergies but as it was December when this started it was unlikely, so ever since I've been wearing my glasses as much as possible and putting drops in so they don't get too dry.

(I've been told it was down to me wearing my lenses for a ridiculous amount of hours per day whilst trying to do a full time Masters and full time job, listen to what they say when they remind you to have a 'contacts free day. because I'm paying for it now!)

Because of this I've been taking care of my eyes a lot more than I used to, I know everyone wants to look good and have amazing skin but you only get one pair of eyes so this has been priority numero uno for me for a while!

After buying the Origins No Puffery Eye Gel and absolutely loving it, I went back for another purchase, this time their Eye Doctor eye cream:

Review: Bourjois Mineral Radiance Pressed Powder

I've written this post many times, and blogger seem to want to delete it.

So instead of attempting to remember what I wrote before, my review will be brief as I can't keep writing about the same product for the post to disappear!

Recently I've been using my Mac Pressed Powder which is awesome, but I've hit the pan so damn fast that I can't justify buying it all the time.

So the Mac remains in my make up bag for when I go out or when I feel like I'm having a crappy day and need cheering up...

For general day to day wear, I thought I'd try this, Bourjois Mineral Radiance Pressed Powder:

It's a third of the price of the Mac pressed powder and seems to be lasting 5 times longer!

This seems to be a very good random buy on my part, as I was at the end of my tether and bought the first pressed powder I saw haha.

This has a very strong floral powdery scent, which was a little weird to me

It reminds me of old people, which in itself isn't a bad thing, just surprising as I didn't expect it

It comes with a powder puff inside which I don't generally use when I apply my make up first thing, but keep there in case of emergencies when I'm out and about.

It also has a mirror inside, which I suppose is a standard thing.

This product isn't the same quality as the Mac pressed powder, but it isn't far off and for a third of the price it is definitely worth it.

It did last me a long time during the day but my skin is so oily that it needs to be repowdered throughout the day anyway, I've come to terms with this!

Their colour range is pretty good also, and although I wasn't sure which one to go for, when my skin has it's weird days of being super pale and then being a more human colour this powder seems to work.

I've also tested it out at the gym which I find is always a good test.

I applied it in the morning as usual and then in the afternoon after working in the lab went to the gym and it kept my make up in place even with all of the sweating.

(I know you're supposed to take your make up off when you gym but I just can't do it, I feel far too naked and my skin just isn't good enough)

So there we have it, if you love Mac but can't afford the price tag all the time, save it for special occasions and I'm sure this one will fulfill your needs in between :)

Have you tried any other pressed powders?

I couldn't really find many on the market so am interested to know!

L xxx

Review: Maybelline Illegal Length

I haven't bought a mascara from Maybelline in a long while, but I seem to be on a mascara shopathon at the moment as I have loads!

This week's review is on Maybelline's Illegal Length mascara which I bought in Blackest Black.

One thing I like about Maybelline's mascara is that they all come in packages, meaning nobody has opened it and messed around with it before you have.

This is always a massive bonus as who wants a mascara that someone else has put on their eyes?! Sharing a mascara wand shares more bacteria than sharing a toothbrush does, always remember that!

I firstly was drawn to the sleek and super cool curvy packaging, I have plenty of curves myself and this looks really cool as it still stands up and is a welcome break from the bog standard casing.

I also love pink so go Maybelline for stamping the name on with a girl's favourite colour!

I've had this since it came out and have been wearing it for the past few weeks.

My eyelashes if you haven't read a post from me before are luckily very long, however they're poker straight and won't curl whatever you do with them.

I find lengthening and volumising mascaras work best as I never have any joy with curling ones, if you have any suggestions feel free to comment below with them as I'm always up for trying new ones!

What I didn't realise about this mascara was that it contains fibres, silly I know, I obviously bought it purely based on the name and the packaging which I'm sure we've all probably done before.

So the fibres were a surprise for me however they were also a bit hit and miss.

I SWEAR some of the fibres in mine were actual bits of fluff!

I actually pulled them off the mascara brush and they were centimetres long not millimetres, what is that about?!

If you look closely you can see on the brush that some of the fibres are rather large, and as I wear contact lenses this isn't normally the kind of mascara I go for.

Having said that, I did quite like it as a day to day mascara, it did increase the length of my lashes and thicken them out a bit with the fibres but it wasn't anything that I would 100% rave over and I'd probably want something with more impact for going out in the night.

Overall I liked the packaging, the name and the price but felt this was you average day to day mascara that didn't live up to it's name, my lashes were in no way illegal in length!

What mascaras do you use? Are there any new ones out that I should try?

L xxx