Things I've Learned This Week

Hi there!

I always find I've got a lot to say and never enough time to say it; I'm sure you are desperate to hear more from me and my super exciting life and intellectual thoughts. With that in mind I thought I'd start a new series where I can just ramble about things that have been going on, things I've tried not worthy of its own post, things I've tried more than worthy of a post and will probably be mentioned a million times.

It's an insight into my brain, however scary that may be!

1) Nip and Fab is amazing - I cannot get enough and have quite honestly picked up the entire range. Yes really, all of it. Apart from the Deep Cleansing Fix which seems to be sold out all the time, I'll get my hands on it soon! On a side note my skin seems to love everything and as it is cheaper than its' original company Rodial. The dragon's blood range is quite awesome and the glycolic range is too; I could rave but I'll save it for the individual posts!

(in the mean time you should all go out and buy some)

2) Burpees are hard. So very hard. And when you consider them in the form of food they are quite terrifying. 205 burpees for one slice of Dominos Pepperoni pizza? Or 787 burpees for a slice of cheesecake? OH MY. 

Though they definitely do some good to the calorie deficit and fat burning task I've set myself!

3) This from Tresemme was awful. Sorry Tresemme but this coated my hair, made it greasy and in no way helped keep it sleek or whatever else it promised! Bleurgh.

4) Isn't my friend beautiful on her wedding day? How pretty is her dress?! 

5) These were delivered recently, can't wait to play with them as work as I get the time to photograph them! 

6) Is there a person on this earth who doesn't want the new Nars palette??

7) My cravings are being cured by copious amounts of Greek yoghurt and almond butter, particularly in the evenings! Big boost of protein before bed to keep me full.

8) I cannot tell you how excited I am for winter clothes. Boots, jumpers, tights, jeans, leggings, scarves, coats! Also my favourite colours are emerald, burgundy, navy, grey and black so it's the perfect time of year for me. 

What have you been up to the last few weeks? Are you looking forward to winter clothing? Have you been snapping up the new Christmas gift sets and palettes in a frenzy like myself? 

I just got the new Vice 3 palette from Urban Decay delivered and I'm almost a bit gutted that I've made plans to go out for lunch! 

You can check out our Twitter for a few quick pictures that I managed to take :) 

L xxx

Nars Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in Cruella

Happy Friday lovely people!

I've got a lovely quiet(ish) weekend lined up where I'm meeting some old friends for lunch and aside from that it's going to be relaxation and bliss on the cards.....and a whole lot of catching up on tv! This new job has taken up a lot of my time doing extra reading and trying to keep up with my gym and classes so I'm looking forward to catching up with everything else.

A few weeks ago both myself and M nabbed ourselves one of the Space NK Gift With Purchase bundles that I haven't even begun to get through; free stuff is so much fun. But obviously we had to spend £150 to get said gifts and this became my opportunity to snap up some much raved about Nars products. I'd never used any whatsoever before this so had quite a wishlist and proceeded to cross some of them off; I've previously posted about the infamous Orgasm blush - post here - and now you can read my review of the nearly as famous Lip Pencils.

It didn't take much convincing for me to add this to my basket, Anna from VDM who I'm sure you all MUST be aware of always looks gorgeous wearing hers so as we are the same colouring it was a no brainer.

Cruella, as if I could leave it after seeing that name! Brings back all the memories of the oh so glamorous Ms Deville and the colour is perfectly fitting.

It's a matte lip pencil, there is also a satin and a velvet gloss lip pencil range (come back for a future review of a satin pencil also!) and so I snapped up one from each range for comparison purposes....obviously.

The pencils themselves are typical in NARS design with monochrome packaging but have the added advantage of having a coloured base; this would be great when choosing between nude, red, pink etc but may be problematic with differentiating between reds...however I don't own enough of them at this point to worry about that!

The Lip Pencils are super easy to use, I have used liner with this one as I have a similar colour to match it but they haven't bled a single time i've used them so are good enough to use without one. The colour is so pigmented and although the matte did feel quite dry on application compared to other lip products, it didn't actually dry my lips out any further.

Clearly they are easy to use, you just need a larger sharpener to get the pencil in (rumour has it UD's Grindhouse is the best - added to wishlist!) and it's so easy to apply the colour that you could even slick on a layer whilst on the bus - though you'll definitely need to check you are in the lines for a colour this bold!

So how does it look on?

These photos were taken with minimal make up apart from the lip pencil and I love the slightly vampy look!

I love the colour, it's a perfect red and I can see me wearing this a lot in future. Even though these photos were taken in natural day light the colour in reality did seem to be darker than the photos show but nevertheless you can see the finish.

I was really impressed by the wear time of these lip pencils too. I'm sure I went a good 6 hours without the need to reapply and that was through multiple meals/snacking/drinks and I think i reapplied purely for the feeling of knowing there was something on my lips!

I would fully recommend the matte range and am tempted to look at the other colours but must resist for the next month or so.....

The Matte Lip Pencils come in at £18 for 2.4g of product and are available in 21 colours.

Have you tried one of the matte lip pencils? What's your favourite colour? Any recommendations for future NARS purchases??

L xxx

Super Facialist Una Brennan Vitamin C+ Brighten Skin Renew Cleansing Oil

Morning!

I've been raving on twitter for a little while how much I absolutely love Una Brennan's Super Facialist Skin Renew Cleansing Oil. It's everything about it and I just cannot get enough!

Costing £10.99 from Boots, I have always heard great things but for some reason just never got around to buying it. Now I'm annoyed at myself!

Vitamin C is known for its anti ageing and brightening properties and so it's a welcome addition to my routine. Double cleansing is also something that I've become increasingly aware of and so I couldn't wait to start cleansing with an oil first to remove grime and make up and then cleanse my skin properly with my usual cleanser.

As for the contents, here;s what they say:

 Infused with Vitamin C and nourishing Olive, Grapeseed and Rosehip oils, this highly soluble oil transforms itself, upon contact with water, into a light milky texture. Boosted with Rosemary oil, Vitamin E and soothing Cucumber oil it gently dissolves face and eye make-up and removes daily impurities.

Sounds like it might be alright yeah?

I simply pour a few drops of this into my palm and then apply it to my dry face and let it work its magic. It seems to melt off the majority of my make up really easily and even manages to get through the toughest mascara and the boldest of eye liners.

When you've had enough of rubbing it over your face you simply add water and it turns to a milk and can be rinsed off, easy peasy. I then follow this with a cleanser and hope that this is helping to cleanse my skin more deeply and thoroughly.

I cannot go any further without mentioning the smell. If I could drink this, I would and I have found myself sat in the bathroom just sniffing the bottle; I'm a fan of the old citrus scents and this one is fabulous!

Needless to say after using this for a few weeks my skin feels thoroughly cleansed and it hasn't had any negative reactions whatsoever; I'm a firm fan and with Boots often doing 3 for 2 deals on skincare I can certainly see this becoming a firm favourite, especially for £10.99!

Have you tried any of the Superfacialist range? What's your favourite? 

I've used a few things from the range before but this is my favourite so far!

L xxx

101 things is over!

Hey All 

So last week, our 101 things ended! I can't believe how quickly those 1001 days have gone. A lot has changed and after some chats with L I'm going to be taking more of a back seat on the blog. At the moment I just can't find the time to give to blogging as much as I'd like. Last week I started my certificate of competence in work so as well as uni I have a portfolio to now complete as well as working full time and everything else. I will miss blogging as regularly but hopefully stepping back means I can really enjoy blogging again and it will come across in my posts!

So today I though I'd share how I got on with my 101 things.

1. Learn to drive - this didn't happen I have no desire to!

2. Read 5 classic novels (The Best of Everything Rona Jaffe, The picture of Dorian Grey) So only two. That's not great!

3. Get the dream job (either go back to uni or find another) Starting back at University in Sept which should lead to the dream job!!

4. Sell a cake to someone  ( 3 cakes sold last week, huge smile)

5. Visit Paris- I had the opportunity but a lack of leave from work meant I had to turn it down. GUTTED

6. Try 10 new foods (1. Sushi 2.wasabi peas 3. hollandaise sauce, 4. seabass, 5. black pudding 6. kippers, 7. Taramasalata 8. Pate 9. Lava Bread 10. Creme Brulee )

7. Go on a girls holiday

8. Ring to my grandparents more often (ringing them fortnightly, it's hard as neither of them can hear me, now ring on fridays to have a quick chat)

9. Give Star Wars a chance and watch all the films 

10. Start a hobby or exercise class (Half there on this one, I now regularly run, I also do kickboxing and the gym)

11. Volunteer in a homeless shelter

12. Get out of my overdraft -I am technically out of it but paying back the debt regularly

13. Get extensions (my hair never grows past shoulder length :( boo) (they are now fitted and I love them, post found here)

14. Watch 100 new films (1. The Vow, 2. 500 days of summer 3. Avengers 4. The Midnight Meat Train 5. Hard Candy 6. The Lazarous Project 7. Spy Hard 8.Horrible bosses 9. XMen origins 10. Usual Suspects 11. Passengers 12. Basketball 13.The mothman prophecies 14.Nightwatch 15. Flightplan 16.The Mist, 17. Peacock 18. Borat 19. American Pie Reunion 20. 2 days in New York 21. Magic Mike 22. Spiderman 23. Batman 24. Ted 25. Friends With Benefits 26. Twilight 27. Casino Royale 28. Quantum of Solace 29. Skyfall 30. Silver Linings Playbook. 31.LOTR 1 32. LOTR 2 33 LOTR 3 (really wasn't interested in them so don't know the names but I sat through them. 34. Star Wars iv 35. Star Wars v 36. Star Wars vi 37. Avengers Assemble 38. Django Unchained, 39. Wreck it Ralph, 40. Antiviral, 41. The Campaign, 42.Taken 2, 43. Les Mis, 44. Anchorman 2 45. Hunger Games Catching FIre 46. Star Wars 1 47. Star Wars 2 48. Star wars 3 49. The Impossible 50. White house down 51.  I'm sure there is more. I watch them and forget to add them. I gave up adding these to the list! )

15. Get down to 10 stone (Eating healthy and exercising now. Got below it for holiday but haven't maintained)

16. Visit 5 new places in the UK (1. Stratford upon Avon, 2. Brighton 3.Southhampton 4. Lake District 5. Ogmore by Sea

17. Have a BBQ on the beach like old times

18. Have organised storage for my make up and nail varnish (make up now sorted out and stored better but still not how I want it. Post on it here.)

19. Continue blogging

20. Get a new piercing (I got a surface piercing by my tragus)

21. Go to go ape (tree top adventure) - The boy has promised to take me here now!

22. Be a tourist in my own town (go on the red bus) (I have now been to the museum) L and I decided the bus was too exprensive!

23. Purchase a food processor (seems a random one but I love cooking and baking) just haven;t been able to afford one. One day I will.

24. Win a competition (I'm yet to win a competition) (won a necklace from Adorning Ava a competion hosted on http://www.theagoraphobicfashionista.com/, whooo)

25. Purchase a Mulberry (I got myself Mulberry shoes so I'm counting this)

26. Visit the science museum (L and I went in February)

27. Buy a high end foundation (after being thoroughly disappointed by Chanel Perfection Lumiere I purchased Mac Pro long wear and I love it, full review here)

28. Purchase my first item of Mac (eeeek, I love it all already, here is my haul)

29. Own over 100 nail varnishes (With the addition of my Ciate Mini Mani Month I've reached this)

30. Do my third half marathon

31. Actually train for it (the other two I've done with out training and that ended in pain) I trained a bit but let myself down the 8 weeks before!

32. Go to a Roller Disco / Derby 

33. Learn a language

34. Get first aid qualified

35. Donate platelets 10 times (providing I test ok to do it, if not give blood every 3 months) (It turned out my viens weren't suitable for platelet donations but I have given blood as regualry as I can!)

36. Host a Dinner Party

37. Go to 3 weddings (this I can't control but I love weddings) As of June this will be done and I have one in september so technically that's four

38. Be in the audience for a tv show - brother took me to x factor

39. Watch the sunrise on a beach - another one the Other half has promised to take me! Next sunday we should be doing this!

40. Visit a food festival

41. Go to newt beer fest

42. Go to V fest

43. Go to Glastonbury

44. Actually meet up with a friend I've not seen for 4 years (whooo saw her on 18.5.12, will be doing this more)

45. Reach 100 blog followers (whooo we have recently done this withint the past week 5.9.12 so happy to have reached this)

46. Ride a mechanical bull

47. Inspire someone else to do this list

48. Stop biting my nails and get them strong and healthy (By using nail envy for almost a month and painting them less they are definitely better, haven't bit them in ages either. Started biting them again this week (10.8.12) so annoyed at myself)

49. Sell 50 things on ebay (15.2.12 15 items sold, 29.2.12 5 items sold 19.4.12 10 items sold, 1.8.12 sold 8 items, 3.7.13 3 items sold)

50. Go to a gig  I've been to quite a few! It's great to be back listening to music!

51. Make a three course meal for my family 

52. Say yes to 20 things you'd normally say no to (I am really trying to do this and have lately definitely been putting myself out there and going to occasions where I only know one person which usually is the birthday person)

53. Learn the flute

54. Grow a plant from a seed  Whooo grew some herbs!

55. Knit a scarf (yay I completed this and I'm pretty inpressed)

56. Go to a comedy show (went in bristol on 30th June 2012, was really funny)

57. Do 10 outdoor things/ country walks (1. Caerphilly Castle, Caerphilly Mountain, Lake district weekend camping. More walks!)

58. Kiss at the top of the London eye

59. Spend new years eve in a place I've not spent it before and a different place each year (this one is now sadly not able to be completed! Personally I hate New Years Eve and set this to make me enjoy it more which hasn't happened and this year L and I decided to have an quiet night in after spending way too much the weekend before)

60. Attend a midnight première (L and I went to see Twilight)

61. Take a pole dancing class

62. Start saving for a house deposit  (this could be happening. I have the option to buy a house but since breaking up with the Ex and moving into a houseshare I'm now happy living with people so I'm unsure what to do.)

63. Take a sleeper train

64. Go to a national park  Breacon Beacons and the Lake District!

65. Watch wiked - my brother has given me vouchers to make this happen!

66. Watch a live rugby match - I still want to go to the millenium stadium but i have seen some now!

67. Identify 10 constellations

68. Buy a homeless man a meal

69. Drink 10 cocktails I've never tried (1. French Martini 2. Vodka Moonshine 3, Flirtini 4. 10 Feet Tall Grog 5.Summer Fruit Soother, 6.Del Boy, 7.Missippi Mudslide 8. ) 

70. Make a bar area in my house /  flat

71. Take a road trip  Went to the lake district!

72. Bake 10 new things (lemon roulade, profiteroles, pannacotta)

73. Sort out my music collection and regularly add to it. (I'm now using spotify and making playlists all the time.)

74. Watch a ballet

75. Go to a burlesque show

76. Get a fish pedicure   Never again!

77. Create a tumbler and do project 365 (take a photo everyday for a year) (again I've now missed the opportunity to complete this. Maybe I'll start soon and just aim for 6 months) I did 100 happy days! That's enough for me!

78. Go skiing (can be a dry ski slope)

79. Read 50 new books (1. mini shopaholic by sophie kinsella 2. book of the dead by patricia cornwell 3. James Patterson Private London, 4. 50 shades of grey, 5. 50 shades darker, 6. 50 shades freed, 7. the hunger games, 8 catching fire, 9 the mocking jay 10. James Patteron 11th Anniversary 11.We bought a zoo Benjamin Mee, 12. Blue Monday Nicci French, 13. James Patterson Kill Alex Cross, 14. The People Next Door Christopher Ransom, 15.Jamer Patterson Merry Christmas Alex Cross, 16. Salmon fishing in the Yemen Paul Torday, 17. Chris Carter The night Stalker, 18. Chris Carter The Executioner, 19. Silver Linings Playbook David O Russell, 20. The lucky one Nicholas Sparks,21. A Walk to Remember Nicholas Sparks, 22. The Help Kathryn Stockett, 23. Rojer Stelljes The St Paul Conspiracy, 24. Roger Stelljes Deadly Stillwater 25. again not updating this regularly means I've missed out on lots of books. At least 6 more books were read on the exs kindle. I'm back reading regularly which was what I wanted and I forgot to add so many books! )

80. Get engaged (hopefully this will happen as by then I'll be 25 and I would like to be engaged by then ) This is another one now off the list after me and the Ex broke up as it definitely won't be happening in the next 10 months but I'm also happy it won't be. A friend said something to me on her wedding day that really hit home about how much I had settled for something that wasn't right for me. It was hard to hear but she was 100% right. Now I'm doing what makes me happy!

81. Give up alcohol for a month I did this before tough mudder! I'm not sure it made any difference

82. Send 20 handwritten letters to loved ones

83. Make my own skirt

84. Send a shoe box to Africa at Christmas

85. Go without chocolate for a month   I did this in February. I don't think it made any difference 

86. Take an evening class / short course

87. Have a friend choose a complete outfit and you have to buy it

88. Bake 5 celebration cakes ( 5 baked, brothers vw van, mums flower cake and cupcakes and boyfriends hockey jersey, 30th birthday cake and baby shower cake)

89. Send anonymous flowers to someone having a bad day/week

90. Sleep on a beach

91. Make my own wine

92. Go to the driving range This was so fun! I want to do it more!

93. Learn basic household DIY (plumbing etc)

94. Dress up for Halloween and have a party (L and I did dress up and go out but no party!)

95. Go go-karting or zorbing

96. Go on a camping trip  I really actually like comping!

97. Do 5 random acts of kindness (bought a homeless man some food, will be doing more often seeing how grateful he was)

98. See the Northern Lights This is booked!! I'm so excited!!

99. Learn to surf

100. Volunteer abroad

101. Be happy with what I have at the end of this

51 things complete in that time!! Half started and some not attempted!! A lot has changed for me but I'm so much happier now. I have made another bucket list but one without a deadline! Having a list with things to tick off definitely helps!!

Do you have wishlists?

Love M

xxx