BLOGMAS DAY 8- MY INSTAGRAM YEAR

Monday 8th December 2014

17 sleeps till Christmas

I thought today I'd share my year of 2014, through the medium of my Instagram posts. Enjoy. 

April: I turned 17- this is my Game of Thrones themed cake, complete with severed heads on spikes.

 March/April/May/One of those: Easter

August: Casual view from the window of our Barcelona holiday appartment, no biggie, COMPLETE MASSIVE BIGGIE LOOK HOW INCREDIBLE THAT IS

August: Reading Festival- seeing three of my favourites bands near the front. Dead. 

October: I had an operation.

November: the poppies at the Tower of London were incredible, London is a beautiful place at night

November: Thanksgiving with the American friends. This may not look like much but it's the most incredible thing I have ever eaten and I crave corn bread daily. 

BLOGMAS DAY 7- DO YOU WANT TO BUILD A SNOWMAN?

Sunday 7th December 2014

18 sleeps till Christmas

I have created a crafty (see what I did there) idea to decorate your home/room/shelf/cupboard/bathroom/garden (not recommended) this Christmas, using either things you already own, or things you can get for dirt cheap. Enjoy.

You Will Need:
-Cotton wool balls
-Black felt
-Orange felt
-Fabric/PVA glue (or glue dots- a genius invention)
-Scissors

To Make:
1. Glue two cotton wool balls together.

2. Cut out five small circles of black felt- two or the eyes and two for the buttons.
3. Glue two of the circles to your snowman's face, and two down his front.

4. Cut out a triangle from the orange felt and glue on.
5. Leave to dry. Simples.

BLOGMAS DAY 6- NIGELLA LAWSON'S BROWNIES

Saturday 6th December 2014

19 sleeps till Christmas

I take no credit whatsoever for this recipe, but it's an oldie and a goodie and it never fails to impress. These are Nigella Lawson's 'Everyday Brownies' from her book, 'Kitchen'.

You Will Need:
-150g unsalted butter
-300g light brown sugar (Nigella specifies 'muscovado')
-75g cocoa powder
-1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
-1 pinch of salt
-4 eggs
-1 tsp vanilla extract
-150g milk chocolate

To Make:
-Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius, and grease a deep, square baking tray.
-Melt the butter over a gentle heat.
-Once the butter is melted, add the sugar and stir until blended with the melted butter.
-Sift together the cocoa powder, flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt. Mix in with the butter and sugar, and remove from the heat.
-Whisk the eggs with the vanilla extract, and mix with the rest of the mixture.
-Chop the chocolate into chunks, and mix into the mixutre.
-Line the baking tray with foil, and pour the mixture in.
-Cook for 20-25 minutes. The inside should be gooey when cooked.
-Once out of the oven, leave to cool.

BLOGMAS DAY 5- BERRY PICKING

Friday 5th December 2014

20 sleeps till Christmas

Berry colours are definitely my thing, I absolutely love them the most over any other annual makeup trend and they are guaranteed to always look good. Berries are the perfect autumn/winter colours and I feel so in my element right now.

I'd just like to say that I find it super hard to photograph lipsticks properly and therefore I haven't done the individual pictures here, however I do think the packaging of the three lipsticks show the true colours pretty accurately. I am reusing many of yesterday's pictures, though technically yesterday stole them from today.

Lips:
-Accessorize lipstick in 'Infatuated'; my first ever lipstick and where the love of berry stemmed from. It's creamy and quite messy but oh so beautiful.
-Topshop lipstick in 'Beguiled'; I'd had my eye on this one for quite some time. It's quite similar to the Accessorize one but it's more matte, it's beautiful and no where near as dark as it looks in the tube.
-Rimmel Kate Moss Matte Lipstick in 107;  a cult favourite and one of my personal favourites that I actually like to wear all year round. This is a more red toned lipstick rather than purple like the other two mentioned above.

-Vaseline Limited Edition in 'Paint the Town'; similar to Rimmel 107 in that it is more of a red colour (though it comes out as a sheer dark pinkish red), especially fitting here as it smells like berries.

-Body Shop Born Lippy in 'Plum'; this comes out sheer but it has the most incredible smell in the world and I would smell it all day everyday if I could.

-Body Shop Born Lippy in 'Passion Berry'; another sheer purple balm, but much stickier and a lot less creamy than the other Born Lippy (this one is in a pot whereas the other is in stick-form).

Face:
-Sleek blusher in 'Flushed'; I feel that blushers in this colour are difficult to pull off without looking like you've been slapped in the face, and so far I haven't quite mastered that. It's more pinky than it appears in the picture.

Eyes:
-Maybelline Colour Tattoo in 'Metallic Pomegranate'; like dark blushers, it can be hard to wear darker purple/red eyeshadows without looking like you've been hit in the eye. This colour is so beautiful I'm determined to make it work.

-Sleek palette in 'Oh So Special'; I've mentioned this palette way too much recently but it has the most eprfect selection of colours that are suitable all year round. Obviously not all of this palette is berry coloured, but I'd like to specifically mention the shades 'Gateau', 'Celebrate' and 'Glitz'. These colours all have the plus point of being glittery and therefore perfect for the winter party season.

Nails:
-Barry M Gelly polish in 'Plum'; if we do a throwback to last year, this was THE colour of autumn/winter 2013, I don't think it left my nails once. I love love love the Barry M Gelly range as there's such a diverse set of polishes in every colour and they truthfully don't chip. Pictured below.

-Barry M polish in 'Berry Cosmo'; such a beautiful colour that I have banged on quite a lot about recently but well deserves it. Pictured below.

-Ancient Miss Sporty nail varnish with an unknown name; it's berry, it's pretty, it's more purple than it appears on photo.

-Essie 'Bahama Mama'; I'd wanted this for ages and I won't go into much detail about it because that's coming up later this month but it's so beautiful I think I'm in love.

BLOGMAS DAY 4- WINTER ESSENTIALS

Thursday 4th December 2014

21 sleeps till Christmas

As I did a 'Summer Essentials' post back in July I thought it was only fitting that I do a 'Winter Essentials' one as well...

1. Nails
I did a separate post on nails in July but I've decided to keep it all in one here as the majority of the colours seen here are featured in my 'Berry Colours' post. Winter is my favourite time of the year for beauty as it is finally acceptable to crack out all the dark colours again this year, my favourites being black, navy blue, grey, dark red, berry purples and dark purples. This line-up below is just the most beautiful thing I think I have ever seen.

Left-Right: Essie 'Chinchilly', Essie 'Bahama Mama', Essie 'After School Boy Blazer', Barry M Gelly 'Plum', Barry M 'Berry Cosmo'

2. Eyes
It is also more acceptable to go all-out with dark eye makeup in the winter, black eyeliner and mascara being the way to go. Dark colours are normally my favourite, though with eyes I quite often end up looking like I'v been punched in the face if I'm not careful. One of the best things about winter is that it suddenly becomes acceptable to wear glitter products on your eyes like a child, with the excuse of 'getting into the Christmas spirit', I love it.

Maybelline Colour Tattoo in 'Metallic Pomegranate'

Sleek i-divine eyeshadow palette in 'Oh So Special'

3. Lips
Lips are my forte in the winter, I spend the entirety of summer buzzing with the excitement of being able to wear purple lipstick again. Yet again this is also featured in my 'Berry Colours' post so I won't go into too much detail here, but dark purple lips are my most favourite things ever and my time is finally here.

Left-Right: Rimmel Kate Moss matte lipstick in '107', Topshop lipstick in 'Beguiled', Accessorize lipstick in 'Infatuated'

4. Face
I get skin like a lizard all winter so a good moisturiser is key for me; throughout all the many, many years of having to obsessively moisturise my face, the only moisturiser I have ever used is the Neutrogena one and I don't think I will ever change it. This is, without a doubt, the best moisturiser in the world and deserves every bit of praise.

In the winter I also tend to wear slightly more face makeup (but nothing too heavy as I'm not a fan of heavy face makeup) as it's the cold winds that strip my skin of all moisture, and plus you look paler in the winter and I want to get some signs of actual life into my face. Along the same lines as this is blusher, I know the cold air and wind gives you some colour in your face but 'bright, raw red' is not the colour I am looking for. I have the Sleek blusher in 'Flushed', which looks quite red-toned in the picture, but in reality is a dark-pink/berry colour. I also have my eye on the much more subtle and summery Sleek blusher in 'Coral'.

Sleek blush in 'Flushed'

5. Bath
Lush Christmas range. Need I say any more?

6. Clothing
Mustard and tartan and chunky knits. Yaaaaaas.

7. Accessorises
I  made a whole post on scarves last week, so I won't go into detail here, but I will include a picture of my favourite scarf of 2014. This tartan beauty is from New Look and retails at the grand price of £9.99. I am in love.

Scarf- New Look
Cropped Jumper- Boohoo
Skirt- Miss Selfridge

BLOGMAS DAY 3- DECEMBER PLAYLIST

Wednesday 3rd December 2014

22 sleeps till Christmas

There's not all that much new music that I've been listening to recently, so I thought I'd do a combination of that and my favourite Christmas music. Now is a good time to discuss the new version of Band Aid, to be honest I personally really didn't like this one. On the whole I think it's a great idea and a great thing, but in my eyes no version will ever beat the original, which has some really beautiful voices on it.

All I Want for Christmas is a Bass Trombone- A Brassy Christmas
My family are big brass nuts and we stand by the theory that all songs are made better with brass. I've literally had this song stuck in my head since last December and there's been many an awkward situation of singing it out loud to myself by accident.

Hark the Herald Angels Sing- Busted
Yes, you heard me correctly, this is a real thing. And it's surprisingly really good. It just makes me so happy that this exists. Thank you Busted and the universe.

The Fairytale of New York- The Pogues
This is a classic in that it has very little to do with Christmas, and masses to do with two people insulting each other. And boy are there some beautiful insults in there. I challenge anyone to listen to this song without screaming along to "And the boys of the NYPD choir were singing 'Galway Bay'" with as much passion as they possible can.

Step Into Christmas- Elton John
A realisation of last Christmas was that this is one of my favourites. Elton John is always great, and this is such an upbeat, fantastic song, typical to the rest of his music.

Wonderful Christmastime- Paul McCartney
You've either got to love Paul McCartney's song or John Lennon's, I love Paul McCartney's. Both the Christmas songs by ex-Beatles are the first two songs on my Christmas album and for me they basically represent everything about Christmas. I'm getting very sentimental over here.

I Believe in Father Christas- Greg Lake
I think this is my new favourite Christmas song of 2014. It's an underrated one but is really quite beautiful.

5 Seconds of Summer
Guilty pleasure here, but I've really got back into 5SOS lately. Particular shoutout to 'She Looks so Perfect', 'Try Hard', 'Don't Stop' and 'Good Girls'.

BLOGMAS DAY 2- EVERYDAY MAKEUP

Tuesday 2nd December 2014

23 sleeps till Christmas

I'm pretty sure I did an 'Everyday Makeup' post last December, but an update is always needed. 

Face:

Both of my everyday face products are new ones that I have discovered during the year and that I have banged on a lot about. The Collection Lasting Perfection concealer is a cult favourite, but it well deserves the hype. It's undobtedly the best concealer I've used (I have the Shade 1) and it lasts a very long time on the skin.
My other favourite face product is the Rimmel Stay Matte Powder in Translucent, I think it's the best product for everyday wear as it's not at all noticeable and it just adds that little something to your skin without looking over the top or shiny. It's one of those products where I feel good about my skin when I wear it. 

Eyes:

As per usual, I have my never-changing, never-ending Body Shop eyeliner. I've also featured a (disgustingly old) No7 mascara, but it's not something I wear everyday because I'm simply too lazy.

In terms of eyeshadow, I don't wear it everyday but when I do I like to go for the more natural pale pinks, as being blonde and fair I think pale pinks look really pretty and not too in-your-face for everyday wear (this is why I'm dying for Urban Decay's Naked 3 palette). My go-to pink eyeshadows are Body Shop's Colour Crush eyeshadow in 'Pink Crush', Maybelline 24 Hour Colour Tattoo in 'Pink Gold', and the shade 'Gateau' from the Sleek 'Oh So Special' palette.

Lips:
(I haven't included lipstick here as it's not something that I wear everyday.) I've said it multiple times before but I'll say it again, Body Shop are one of the best places out there for lip balms, I have never had a complaint or problem with one of their products, and I personally think that they're worth the slightly higher price tag for the highstreet.
Three lipbalms out of the four here are from Body Shop. I have the 'Ginger Sparkle' lip balm from last year's Christmas range as it's the perfect flavour for the winter, and the 'Glazed Apple' lip balm from this year's Christmas range (more to come on that). I also have a plum Born Lippy which smells incredible, and it just something nice and purpe-tinted and the perfect colour for the winter.
My last lip balm is the EOS raspberry and pomegranate one which smells so good and is just a really good balm.