January Sale Shopping

 

It's no secret that the January sales are notorious for big deals and bargain finds. Due to overspending in the lead up to Christmas this year I didn't do too much sale shopping this year, but what I did do was buy loads of shoes. (This was whilst I was on a shoe buying ban, oh dear.)

 

 

 

My obsession with shoes is now getting a little out of hand, but once I aw these gorgeous burgundy chunky boots in the New Look sale, I knew that they would be going home with me. I persuaded myself that they were an absolute 'must-have' and I'm so glad I picked them up as I know I would have regretted it otherwise.

 

 

One amazing thing about these boots are that they have a zip on the inside of the shoe, which means that you aren't spending forever and a day unlacing them everytime you want to wear them. The laces are more of a decorative feature and I haven't even tied them whilst I've been wearing them.

Another bonus is that I can actually walk in them without looking and feeling like an idiot and a huge bonus is that I can safely drive in them! (It's always a pain when you have to take a flat pair of shoes to drive in when all you want to do is  wear heels.) These beauties were reduced from £29.99 to £22.49 in the New Look sale, but honestly I would have paid full price for them anyway! They also come in grey too I think.

 

This winter it is safe to say that I have gone a little bit boot crazy. However, I had my eye on these cut out boots from New Look from the moment they were released into stores. I love the cut out detailing on them and that they are a little bit different from other boots and shoes I owned. So imagine my delight when I spotted them in the sale in Cambridge, and I got the for a ridiculous bargain. Originally retailing at £30, I scooped these up for £12! Admittedly, I haven't actually worn them yet and I have no idea if I can sensibly walk in them, but at £12 it was worth it.

 

So, these heels pictured above weren't actually purchased in any type of sale, but as they are so gorgeous I thought I would feature them in this post. After realising that you can never have too many pairs of black heels (or shoes for that matter) I decided to firstly buy this pair to wear to my work's Christmas meal.

I think they look really sophisticated and I love the t-bar styled straps which give me a bit more support and doesn't make me feel like I'm going to fall out of my shoes every two minutes. Also I loved the price of these, only £24.99 from H&M. The only bad thing about the is that they aren't particularly comfortable to wear, but with some gel cushions in I can easily last all night in them.

 

A few years ago I received a pair of dark brown brogues from New Look for Christmas and wore them until there was practically nothing left of them. Since then however I haven't had the chance to repurchase some replacement brown brogues and so whilst buying other shoes in the New Look sale, I came across these. Originally priced at £14.99, they had been marked in the sale at £8 which was a great find for me. Even better, when I got them to the till I was charged £6 and I wasn't complaining! 

 

Finally, I thought I would add two pairs of boots which I was lucky enough to receive for Christmas this year. Above are my ankle boots from Topshop, which I actually got for £45 after they had been reduced from something like £70. These boots are so comfortable and go with pretty much everything and are so easy to slip on and off, they really are great.

 Below are probably my most worn and most loved boots this season. Similarly to the boots above, these ankle boots are black yet have this lovely buckle detailing on them to make them stand out just a little bit more. They are also my most expensive pair of shoes, costing me £60 from River Island. They are so worth the money though, and I think I've been living in them since I unwrapped them on Christmas day!

 

With January coming to an end, the sales are thinning out. However, this means that soon spring and summer clothes will be hitting the stores ready for my favourite time of the year! I can't wait to start shopping for summery clothes, although I will miss wearing my boots!

 

 

First Purchases of 2014 (Makeup Haul)

 

So with Christmas over for another year and having received my bank statement for December (ouch!) it's that time of year where you decide that you really need to save some money after spending so much during the festive season.

Apparently I didn't get that memo and I've been out shopping over the past few weeks and have brought some amazing cosmetics which I'm going to share today.

 

The first thing that I've purchased were these makeup wipes from Superdrug. Recently I've been using some Sainsbury's own branded wipes just because they are cheap and easy to pick up, but I decided I should probably invest in some wipes that are actually designed to be used to take off makeup. These were also a complete bargain at only about £1.50 and although I have never used them before I thought that they would be worth the risk.

 

My obsession with nail polish continues. Barry M have recently released a new collection of matte polishes in a variety of colours. Their new polishes always intrigue me and after buying loads of their standard as well as jelly polishes I just needed to try this one. I picked up the shade 'Vanilla' costing me £3.99 from Superdrug.   

 

As Superdrug were having a 3 for 2 offer on all their Barry M products, it would be rude for me not to buy two more polishes. For my second polish I decided on this gorgeous burgundy shade called 'crush' from the new matte collection, which also retails at £3.99.

 

To complete the three for two offer, I needed to decide on one final polish. On the Barry M stand they had a picture of a model showing off one particular shade. I fell in love with it and decided that this would be the final shade that I would buy. This polish is part of the Hi-Shine jelly collection and is called 'Guava', also priced at £3.99 in Superdrug.

 

I actually brought another nail polish from Barry M a few weeks ago whilst I was shopping in Cambridge and totally forgot about it. At the time Superdrug were doing a 2 for £6 deal on all their nail polishes and so my friend and I got one each. I picked up this shade called 'blackberry' from the jelly range, saving myself 0.99p!

 

Living in a small town means that my local Superdrug doesn't sell any sleek products. After buying a blush and the contour kit online, I was desperate to get my hands on some of their other products, but wanted to be able to see what I was buying first. Luckily Cambridge had a whole stand of Sleek products, and it's fair to say that I went a little crazy.

 

The first thing that I picked up from Sleek was this gorgeous lipstick in the shade 'barely there.' Although I haven't used this product yet it claims to be a highly pigmented non drying and conditioning lipstick, which sounds pretty good to me! Costing only £4.99 it is also a bit cheaper than some of the other drugstore lipsticks out there so thought it would be worth a try.

 

After buying and falling in love with the Sleek blush in the shade 'flamingo' I decided that I would definitely need to expand my collection. With 11 shades in the collection it wasn't easy to pick just one so I brought two on this occasion, but could have easily brought them all! Oops.

 

I decided to go for two more pink shades, but these are no way near as bright as 'flamingo.' The blush pictured above is a lovely dark pink almost red shade with the slightest bit of shimmer in called 'flushed.' I can't wait to start using it and with it being priced at only £4.49 it is a serious bargain in my eyes.

 

The other blush I picked up for £4.49 was the shade in 'rose gold.' I've seen so many other beauty bloggers and vloggers rave about this shade of product and thought it was about time I got my hands on it too. It contains more shimmer than the other two blushes I have, yet will be a welcome addition to my collection.

 

This is where I think I got a little bit over the top and went a bit crazy with the sleek products. But whilst I was there I decided to pick up one of Sleek's eyeshadow palettes.

 

Typically of Sleek, the have kept their gorgeous black packaging for the palette and I'm so excited to try it out. They have a variety of palettes available but I got the 'Au Naturel 601' palette as I thought it would be one that I'd use the most.

 

Although I haven't used this product yet, I am seriously impressed with it at first glance. The colours inside look absolutely gorgeous and I love the mixture of both matte and shimmery shades in there. I also love the fact that each shade has it's own name and that there isn't one colour in the palette that I don't like. Perhaps the biggest bonus is that this cost only £7.99!

 

 

My final purchase over the past few weeks have been some new make-up brushes. I've had my eye on real-techniques brushes for ages and after receiving some for Christmas I decided to expand my collection. This resulted in a trip to Boots!

 

I decided to purchase the core collection, costing me £21.99. Working out at only about £5 a brush, they are seriously good value for money and even the woman in Boots told me that they are amazing!

Featuring a foundation brush, a brush for concealer, powder and contouring, I'm super excited about using these brushes alongside my new and old purchases, although I don't want to get them dirty! Haha.

Wow, it seems as though I've gone a bit overboard recently on products. One day I will learn to resist. (I hope)

A return to blogging and a life update

Ever since I left Sixth Form last summer and entered what many call 'the real world', life has flown by so quickly. It feels as though I've hardly had time to sit down and take in everything that has happened over the past 4 months.
  Christmas and December absolutely flew by, and we're now almost at the end of January 2014. Crazy!
  With everything in my life changing and happening so quickly, it was almost impossible to believe that some important things would be neglected, with this blog being one of them. The ability to sit down and compose posts had vanished, due to both having practically zero time and minimal energy and motivation. To be honest, I was stretched. And exhausted.
   However, these past four months, overall, have been some of the best of my life so far. Yes there have been some stressful moments and moments that I hated and had to physically drag myself out of bed for and moments I wish that I hadn't have said yes, but in the end they have all been worth it.
  In the last part of 2013 alone I achieved so many things, experienced new challenges and also stepped outside my comfort zone just a little bit more. Honestly, I didn't want 2013 to end but it also made me believe that 2014 is going to be a fantastic year.
  So what exactly have I been doing since I left the school I had been at for 7 years in the summer of 2013? Well, after picking up my results the reality of university set in for most people I knew. Preparations began and everyone starting packing, feeling nervous yet excited to start the new part of their lives. For me, there was just something that didn't click. University just didn't seem right for me at that moment and so from there came my first big decision.
  I had always been interested in writing and expressing my thoughts and this was a huge influence in starting this blog, but I was also interested in taking my hobby that little bit further by studying Journalism at University. At the time, I knew that I wanted to focus mainly on Formula One so sports journalism looked to be the way to go, but to keep my options open I decided on applying for the standard course. I had sent my UCAS application very late in January and extremely close to the deadline, yet I still secured 4 offers out of the 5 for places at Huddersfield, Sunderland, UCA in Farnham and one other University. From that I accepted a firm offer from UCA and an insurance from Huddersfield and played the waiting game until my results came through.
  However during this time, although I had picked a course I thought I'd love at a University which was really appealing, doubts were creeping into the back of my mind. Was I really ready to go to University? Student finance was also a big factor in deciding to go to Uni because of the extortionate fees and costs of living.
  Something which was becoming a huge consideration was to take a gap year. So on results day, I took the plunge. My results had confirmed that my place at Uni was secure and from there I could have packed my bags and be 4 months into my degree. However, that afternoon I emailed admissions at the University to break the news that I would not be attending in September. Perhaps one of the scariest decisions I've made and some could say risky, as I had no other plans or job to fall back on.
  However, once the decision was made it was time to start planning my year out. Originally I was going to get a job for the year and then go back to studying, after spending the last part of my gap year travelling.
 At first finding a job was not very successful, and was at times, worrying. I was scared that I'd made a terrible mistake in not going to University, yet I carried on and secured an interview a few weeks later.
  I went to the interview. To be completely honest the interview for the role I applied for wasn't the best, yet I still managed to be considered for a completely different role within the company. After a trial week and a phone call, I learnt that I had secured the full time job I was looking for. That's when my plans changed again.
  I've now been working full time for just under 4 months now and can honestly say I love it. I love my job, the people I work with and there has not been one day I've woken up dreading to go to work. Not going to University has been one of the best decisions I've made and when September comes around again, I won't be going to University. I guess you can say that my gap year lasted around a month and I'm definitely not planning on leaving my job anytime soon. It has given me so many new challenges and opportunities and I've made some brilliant new friends. University isn't the only option after Sixth Form or college, although it may seem that way and if there is anyone considering a break from studying, I would say go for it, you never know what may happen!

Rimmel Lasting Finish by Kate Moss 107 Review

Shade 107: 'Wine'

After purchasing a few of the Kate Moss Rimmel lipsticks recently, I knew that I would be going back for more shades because I have loved wearing them so much. Whilst I was in town a few weeks ago I took the opportunity to buy a shade which I have had my eye on for a while now. 

As I had been impressed with the other Kate Moss lipsticks in the Rimmel collection, I had high expectations for this product and it is safe to say I wasn't disappointed.

Shade 107 or 'Wine' is a beautiful dark red, which is perfect for the time of year. Admittedly I was expecting it to be a bit darker on the lips as it appears to be quite dark in the packaging but nevertheless I have still fallen in love with this product. Although I think it is supposed to be matte, it still has a slight gloss to it which I think is a good thing because it means that the product helps to keep the lips hydrated. Another positive about this lipstick is that it has considerable staying power, I found myself only usually reapplying after eating or drinking. 

The lipstick applies so easily and you are able to build up the colour with a few coats to make your lips really stand out. With this lipstick you don't need to go overboard with the rest of your makeup either, and this could easily be worn to both events and during the evening as well as during the day.

Perhaps one of the biggest positives of this product is the price. Costing only £5.49 it is fantastic value for money and with drugstores regularly having deals on, you can pick these lipsticks up for a bargain price. Even if you don't think this colour is for you, the range has so many different colours to choose from, there is something for everybody!

If you are looking for a new lipstick to signal the arrival of the Autumn/Winter season, I would definitely recommend this little beauty. You will not be disappointed.