The Primark Polish

Since the boy has decided it's time for me to tighten the purse strings a little, I've had to think  a little outside the box (read; Selfridges beauty hall) when it comes to getting my beauty fix. This week has seen me delve into the beauty section that my friend Melisa would cringe if she new about. Namely (deep breath) Primark and Poundland.

And actually, I found a few gems, one of them being this cute nail polish set from Primark. At £2 for four polishes, I was expecting lumpy, gooey, streaky, petrol scented shite, to be quite frank, but to say I was pleasantly surprised would be an understatement.

Firstly, I really like the colours, there's a glitter polish, made up of little turquoise glitter, with a few bigger chunks thrown in for good measure, which you can layer up for full coverage, or top off another colour with one coat, for just a hint of sparkle. The other three colours nicely fill a blue/green gap in my collection. There's one purple toned, lilac blue, a true greeny mint, and a lovely cornflower blue. All four colour go together really well, if you fancy mixing it up a bit, and it's the perfect set for someone who is a little less knowledgeable when it comes to polish pushing.

As far as formula goes, for fifty pence a polish, it's nothing to turn your nose up at. Less streaky than any Barry M offering I've tried, and looks great after two coats, they're pretty damn good.

Just goes to show, you don't have to spend a fortune to get good products. I won't be giving up my Essie, Butter London or Chanel anytime soon though.

Have you tried anything from the beauty section in Primark?

The Weekly Roundup #14

Beautiful flowers growing on my road / Baking cupcakes / My Mummy and I seeking refuge from gigantic spiders, on top of the linen box, locked in her en-suite, in matching jamas / Cake pop making! / My cupcakes looking pretty! / My favourite cake pop combo! / Time for the birthday cake! / Champagne toast / The birthday boy!

A late afternoon beach walk / Please throw my ball! / A cheeky evening treat / Back in Burger & Cocktail / Yummy American treat! / It's finally back in stock! / A girly catch up with Melisa in Vapiano! My favourite summer drink / Steak dinner with the parents!

Firstly, my apologies for being the worlds worst blogger the past couple of weeks. I don't really have much of an excuse, except I've been swamped with work, my deadline's in just over a week, and there's been a few family things going on, in the last month we've had a birth, death and an 80th birthday, so it was really important to me that I get home and spend some quality time with my family.

Since being back in London, some exciting stuff has been going on! My boyfriend and I have decided to move in together next year, and got an offer accepted on a flat, so we'll be living together in our lovely new flat in August! Scary stuff! I have also landed myself a new job, which I'm pretty excited about! But I'll tell you more about that next week...

On the beauty front, it's been all about quick and easy therapy this week, since I've been running around like a headless chicken. I've been loving the essentials like Bioderma, and my This Works toner, which make makeup removal an utter dream. Also a massive shout out for my one and only, Lush's Catastrophe Cosmetic face mask, which totally got rid of a nasty chin break out the night before my job interview! Phew! In the makeup department, it's a foundation combo I've been loving! Warmer weather has left me reaching for my Revlon Nearly Naked foundation, mixed fifty fifty with my MAC Studio Sculpt, for the perfect mix of high coverage and dewy skin. The MAC Studio Sculpt foundation is a bit of a weird one, I find that if I wear it alone it can cause my skin to break out, but if I mix it with other foundations, it works quite lovely.

On a slightly more somber note, it's been a bit of a scary week in the news. The combination of the death of Drummer Lee Rigby in Woolwich, two men being removed from a plane on suspicion of trying to hijack it, the M6 being closed due to a 'suspicious vehicle', and the scare at London Bridge tube station has left me a little on edge. It's a big, scary old world out there, and I hope you are all staying safe. My thoughts also go out to the hurricane and flash flood victims out in America, the devastation caused is truly horrible. You can donate money to help the victims here.

I hope you've all had good weeks, I promise to get back into the swing of things soon! In the meantime, I hope you are all well, and stay safe. x

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How To Look Sort Of Average In Under Ten Minutes.

We all have those days where we wake up late, and have something important going on in the day where we need to look semi-decent. This happens to me far too often, so recently, I've had to perfect the art of looking average, in as little time as possible. 

When it comes to speed, I try to use as few products as possible, so immediately I eliminate primers, contours, highlighters and lipsticks, because it just takes too much time. So this means I start at foundation. My current foundation mix is Revlon's Nearly Naked mixed 50/50 with MAC Studio Sculpt. The Nearly Naked provides the dewy, fresh, natural looking skin, whilst Studio Sculpt bumps up the coverage. When I'm in a rush I just smear this across my face with my fingers, and then quickly buff it out with the Real Techniques buffing brush. If I need an extra coverage on any unwanted visitors then I look no further than the MAC Studio Finish concealer. It's my all time favourite concealer for blemishes, but if I'm in a hurry, I'll use this under my eyes too. I then dust Bourjois Healthy Balance Powder over my face with the RT Powder brush, to set my makeup and give a little extra coverage. 

Then on to brows, I'm currently loving this brow palette from the Along Came Betty range available from Tesco, it's a great dupe for the Benefit Brow-Zings, and it's only about six pounds. I use the little brush that comes with it to fill in the middle part with powder, and then set the whole thing with the pigmented wax that comes with it, before brushing them out with the little spoolie that comes with it to make them look more natural. I really think that doing your brows is one of the easiest ways to make it look like you have made an effort, even though it doesn't take too long.

Onto eyes, my fail-safe speedy look means smearing my MAC Paint Pot in Painterly over the lid, with a smudge of NARS Galapagos (top right in the palette) in the corners, to add a little definition. I finish off the eyes with a swipe of Rimmel Scandaleyes kohl in Nude in my waterline to make me look awake, and YSL Shocking Volume Mascara on the lashes, my favourite mascara ever.

Finally, a wash of Benefit Sugarbomb on the cheeks for a fresh, natural looking flush, and a slick of a tinted lip balm, my current favourite is the Korres Lip Butter in Pomegranate.

I've got this whole process down to about six minutes now, so it's perfect for on the go. Soon, I'll be able to do it without a mirror!

I normally finish this off with a spritz of dry shampoo in the hair, and a big scarf.

What are your most reliable products?

P.S. Thank you to my boyfriend's flatmate, Alex Penfold, for divulging from his usual car-based photography, and taking this picture and editing it for me, since I was camera and laptopless. You can go back to your cars now. If you like that sorta thing, you can check out his awesome photography here.

I'm Coming Home

Apologies for abandoning the blog this weekend guys, it was time for a little R&R in Bournemouth, a little family time, and a walk or two with my ball obsessed Cockapoo. This weekend has had me relishing the thought of my uni hand in (not long now, thank god) so I can escape to peace and quiet for a while.

Before I moved to London, I spent a lot of time on trains, travelling to and from college (I went to Brockenhurst college, which is right in the middle of the New Forest, where there are more funeral homes than convenience stores, and you had to push a donkey out of the way just to get into your classrooms) and I really begrudged the time I spent on the train every day, it would take around forty minutes, which is too long to do nothing, but not long enough to do anything.

Since moving to London, trains are an all too real part of everyday life now. Whilst I still begrudge time spent on the Underground, I really quite enjoy my trips home now, since it's time where I have to just sit still, which I don't do often anymore.

So when I'm headed Waterloo bound, I have a careful think about what I throw in my handbag. Sometimes, it'll be a piece of work that I've been putting off for a while, but sometimes, when I don't have anything of importance to do, I'll have a little me time.

If I know I'm heading home, at the beginning of the month, I'll put a couple of magazines aside for me to massacre on the train. I used to keep my magazines pristine, but now they get creased, scrawled on, and pages ripped out of. It's all par for the course as a Journalism student! Whilst I love nothing more than to curl up with a good book at home, travelling is all about space economising, so I tend to just throw in my iPad (I've recently upgraded from my tired old original iPad to a mini, best money I ever spent! And I spend a lot!) so I can read a book, or watch something, I'm working my way through a few cheesy American comedies as we speak. I also take all my uni notes on this, so I can work from this too!

Some people find it really weird that I have an iPod as well as an iPhone, but I couldn't live without it! I now don't store any music on my phone, it saves my battery life like nobody's business, plus, it's so pretty! I have this on hand wherever I go, and use long train journeys to listen to my favourite albums all in one go. 

My notepad goes with me too, I like to make a ton of lists and do all my blog planning the old fashioned way, with pretty coloured pens. I'm a child really.

I love to use train time to paint my nails, since I usually can't sit still long enough for them to dry, it's the only time I don't end up with smudged nails! 

And last but not least a bottle of water and a packet of sweets. Has anyone else noticed how extortionate food is on the train?

The Weekly Round Up #13

Singlehandedly keeping Lola's in business / The excitement of finding Criss Cuts are back in McDonalds / Barbecue time! / The best of summer! / A Berry Hibiscus Refresha to reward a hard day's shopping / Pretty cakes! / Nails and rings! / A cheeky Dominos / My favourite Lola's.

Koppaburg in Ikea for £1.35! / Sad times, my very last use of the Let The Good Times Roll Lush cleanser that has now been discontinued. / Homemade Wagamamas! / Being a film crew with the boyf / Shakes in Burger & Cocktail / Melisa being interviewed at the Gorkana networking event / Got my hair styled at Rush / New pens for a stationery addict!

Pretty flowers from my lovely boyfriend. / My favourite summer lipstick / Loving my new Topshop Jeans and Fred Perry sneakers / Train was delayed, so nail painting happened! / Finally starting to look like spring! / A long anticipated bath! / Scary sheet masks! / Cuddles with my kitty / Don't think she's moving off my bed so I can sleep anytime soon!

The more observant amongst you may have noticed that there was no weekly roundup last week. This was mostly because I felt like I didn't really have enough to tell you to dedicate a whole post to it, and also, I didn't want these to start getting boring, so I think, unless I have a particularly wild week, I'm going to start making these a two-weekly thing.

So what's new? Well I'm writing this post from the comfort of my kitchen back home, enjoying a weekend in Bournemouth. It's been a week of family events, so I decided to head back home for som good ol' quality time with the family. This also means I get to have bubble baths, cuddles with my cat and dogs, and not worry about the food bill, so it's all good.  

It's been a busy couple of weeks with uni work, I'll be so glad to get it all out of the way! I really enjoyed the Gorkana Networking event at Rush salon on Piccadilly on Tuesday, where I was treated to champers, a little hairstyling, and a well-stocked goodie bag after! 

This week I've fallen back in love with my NARS And God Created The Woman palette, and I've been using it every day. I think because it was limited edition and fairly pricey (I personally still think it was really good value) I was hesitant to use it, but at the end of the day, there's no point buying these things if you don't enjoy them. I love this palette so much, it's great for everyday smokey looks, and a darker, evening look, but it's small and easy to travel with. 

I've also been loving my new Lush face scrub, Ocean Salt. It's not quite as good as my Let The Good Times Roll, but it's not bad! It's cream based but with coarse sea salt too, so it hydrates your skin at the same time as getting rid of the dead skin, and leaves your skin crazy soft!

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