OOTD Dogtooth Work Dress

Hey all it's hump day!! I have an exam tomorrow so I'm not all that happy to be half way through the week!!

Here is my second OOTD post. This is a work outfit. I'm very lucky in the fact I can wear what I like to work within reason. 

I'm trying not to overly wash my hair still. It seems in much better condition if I let it go three days. This does mean if I haven't gone swimming by the third day I tend to put it up. For that you can't beat a bun ring (I've done a tutorial on that here) I like to accessorise mine with Dainty Rose Glitter Bows (you can pick them up here) I've mentioned Dainty Roses lots on this blog. I have bought a lot from Lisa. 

On my lips I decided to wear Mac Angel. (review here). I've forgot about it a lot lately and want to start wearing it more again.

I love loading up bangles. L is much better at arranging them than me. They are so easy to wear and I like to load up on jewellery if I have a simple dress.

Rings are definitely my thing when it comes to jewellery. I have loads. I rarely leave the house without them. I love this one. It does tend to hurt my finger a bit after a while though. It looks go so it's worth it. A quick search on eBay found these which are similar. Two stacked up would give the effect.

I love these. I've wanted leopard print pumps for a while. I picked them up from Tesco last summer. They could do with replacing so I'm eyeing up these. I'm loving the bow on these.

I love to add a pop of colour to plain outfits and this two toned green double wrap belt is perfect for that. It adds shape too. I picked this up from ASOS a while a go. You can get a green skinny belt here for £5. It looks a similar colour.

The dress is form next and a favourite work dress of mine. I love the cowl neckline which makes it suitable for work. It's a great length too and I can ware it bare legged in summer. I also go to Next the day after the sale starts and stock up on work dresses. They tend to have a few I like and have great prints. 

They also fit great. I've mentioned a few times my curvy bottom half. It can make dress shopping hard, my waist is an 8 and my hips can be upto a 12. I find next dresses generally fit in an 8 and are more roomy on the bottom half.

Where do you go for work wear? Can you wear what you like?

Love M

xxx

Swansea Benefit Boutique

Last week I was Lucky enough to be invited to the opening of the Benefit Boutique in Swansea. Swansea Debenhams is the counter that sells the most products beating even Oxford Street so the opening of the Boutique came.

I was so excited to go. I've been lucky enough to meet some of the Benefit ladies before so couldn't wait to head down. The Boutique is situated within the Swansea Debenhams. On arrival we were greeted by Alyson and Joanne. We went through to the last room in the boutique. Everything is decorated all girly and pink. It's so cute all the way through and the attention to detail is great.

When we entered the make up room all the attention to detail was clear. The chairs had the Benefit ladies heads printed on, the walls had information about the founders (Jean and Jane) and the back wall had a great selection of Benefit Make up. There were even pink glittery welsh cakes!! YUM

The room can be hired out for 10pp for things like hen dos, birthday's or even girly catch ups. You then get the £10 redeemable against purchases so it's technically free and one of the great Swansea Benebabes will come and demonstrate the products and make up.

While there we got a tour of the waxing room and tanning room. The boutique offers two different types of waxing, the hot wax and the strip wax. Hot wax (the amazing blue coloured one, being demonstrated on Jenny from The Pulse Of Fashion, I'm in love with her trousers!!!) is used on the bikini and the strip wax everywhere else. Hot wax is more expensive but it's better for the bikini area. I loved the waxing area and was so impressed with Julie (expert waxer!!) that I've booked to go down in a few weeks.

They also offer spray tans using fake bake! This is in my top 3 fake tans. I love a good spray tan especially for nights out.

We  were also shown the new colour collection and allowed to play with it. There are some great colour lip glosses, hello an amazing coral one and new creaseless creams and eye shadows. The eyeshadows are £15.50 and are absolutely huge and the lip glosses are £14.50 and not sticky! The packaging for these are so cute!!

The colour range is so stunning with neutral colours and a few pastels thrown in. I'm loving always a bridesmaid ( a stunning lilac creaseless cream) and kiss me I'm tipsy (a beautiful brown longwear powder shadow). I will definitely be hinting for some of these for my birthday. 

We were also hinted at some of the new sets coming out. I will definitely be purchasing some of these I'm sure. I'm absolutely loving Benefit make up lately.

As we left we were lucky enough to be given Porefessional, BrowZings and They're Real. Thanks so much to the ladies, as L couldn't join me at the event and I know she is lusting after BrowZings and They're Real and I have both I donated those to her. I personally now love Porefessional but only find it works with certain foundations and due to how thick it is I try not to wear it too much.

Thanks so much for showing us round Alyson and Joanne. Hopefully see you soon.

Also Temptation Telephone ends tomorrow. Who else is dying to know what it is the ladies were sworn to secrecy and couldn't tell us anything.

And a quick FOTD from the Event. I'm wearing Mac Prolong Wear NW20 (review), Benefit Porefessional, Benefit Erase Paste (review), Naked 2 (foxy and tease), Benefit BrowZings (review), Collection Liqid Liner, Lancome Hypnose Doll Lashes, Benefit Dandelion Blush (review), Liz Earle Healthy Glow (review) and Avon Perfect Kiss Lipstick Racy Red (review).

Love M

xxx

New Challenge: Project 10 Pan

After the success of the spending ban and finally starting to see my stash reduce every so slightly (more skin care products as you'll see in my empties post coming up soon) I've decided to something that will help reduce my make up collection more.

I tend to love a product use it loads then save the last of it for 'special' occasions, this leaves me with loads of half used products.

Project 10 Pan is an idea I saw on YouTube sometime last year. Sorry if it was your video I can't remember who's it was. I'm sure lots of bloggers have done it previously.

Basically the rules are simple. Use up 10 products completely before you can buy more!!

For me there will be no excuses. I have plenty of stuff and if I run out of something I have enough other stuff in my collection that I can find an alternative for it.

I will do a mid point update when I've used up 5 things and a hopefully a post to say I've completed it.

With this for me there will be no cheating. No buying make up because I have points or vouchers, no Avon (my mum is a rep and gets me lots that way, she spoils me). No nothing. I'm really hoping I complete it by my Birthday. 

I'll be starting this on May 1st. Let me know if you fancy joining me and I'll add you're blog links to the bottom of this post :).

Hopefully this will be successful and I'll actually get through some of my products.

Maybe I'll end up with all different everyday products in here!

Love M

xxx

Credit Card Chaos

Morning Ladies!

How are you all liking my title up there??

It was my sneaky attempt at trying to do a spending ban without saying the words as they set my alarm bells ringing...

My last attempt at a ban ended with me whacking the credit card out in Cosmetics Company Outlet and purchasing a range of Origins, Ojon, Smashbox and Mac products in a beauty product frenzy.

I have since not stopped for breath and have bought a vast array of products including Urban Decay palettes, Laura Mercier products, Nail varnishes, Clothes, brushes, Mac palettes and let's not forget shoes and bags.

In truth, I need to stop my spending and start trying to pay off my credit card bill (with this month's pay!) and save to pay off my overdraft.

I know some of you will probably be a little horrified that at 25 I'm still in my overdraft, living at home, using a credit card etc etc.

Bear with me here. I recently finished a Masters (in December) and have only just started having monthly pay cheques again so the first few were a bit of a novelty and helped pay for Christmas.....basically I blew them.

But that's ok. Now I need to get my ass into gear and pay off the overdraft that helped me live for 2 years of my course which will probably take me some time. I've paid a quarter off so far but I can do better than this.

Primarily I will need to stop using my credit card. This has already gone to my mum for fear of another frenzy working its way into my life.

I officially stopped spending last Monday (15th) but am trying not to think about it and so haven't mentioned it yet.

My plan was to go cold turkey for a month without any spending and then allow myself to buy things after that on a necessary basis.

This will not include any form of beauty products however, they are blanket banned for the immediate future due to the severe lack of space in my bedroom.

I might take pictures for an update of the Beauty Rehab posts but lets just put it this way, 4 drawers, a cupboard, half a wardrobe and 2 suitcases of products later and there ain't much room to spare let me tell you!

So the rules of the ban:

1) No spending for a month

2) After the month is up I can buy clothing and similar items but absolutely no products

3) No beauty products AT ALL

4) Outings including food and drink do not count as otherwise I'd be quite a sad little hermit (I rarely go out so this will not be an issue for overspending)

5) If there comes a time when my resolves is low, it's ok for me to spend my hard earned Debenhams and Boots points, but no more than the amount on each card. This will also incur some sort of penalty, another month maybe? Eeeeek.

With that in mind I also bring you my first wishlist:

1) Mac eyeshadows to bulk out my new palette (post soon!) including Cranberry and some nudes

2) Antipodes Manuka Face Mask - so many rave reviews, so annoyed I didn't get this before the ban

3) Some other form of trainer - Converse or Supras or Nikes, I want you, I need you.

We will see how this grows and changes over the next few weeks.

How did your spenidng bans go? Do you have any tips or hints for helping me not spend for a month?

I think I can do it....it's just bargains that I can't resist!

L xxx