Shopaholic

Oh my God, I can't stop shopping. After vowing to give it a rest after Thursday's Topshop spree, Friday lead to straight to Fulham where I charity-shopped some more. Oops! Who needs a fur coat in May? Me, apparently. We stumbled across a Cancer Research with a half price sale, so it was only £12.50.

To be honest I'll probably get some wear out of it if the weather doesn't brighten up soon.

Fur coat - Cancer Research, Fulham; £12.50

Blouse - British Heart Foundation, Fulham; £2.80

Getting into the neon nails and nude lips look, I bought this set of bright polishes from Primark for just £2. The lipsticks, which don't look like this in real life and will feature in a beauty post very soon, are Sleek, 'Baby Doll' and Barry M in '147'. Another upcoming beauty post will feature No. 7's Revitalising Hand Saviour - perfect for anyone with dry skin on their hands and fingers.

BareMinerals Make-Under

I've been rubbish the past few weeks, I know. But look at all the treats I'm back with.
Last week I went for a make-under at Bare Escentuals and today all this arrived in the post from the lovely Anna. She sent everything they used during my 'make-under' and sent it over for my BBM BareMinerals review (link to come).

Get Started Complexion Kit - £49; Purely Nourishing Moisturizer: Normal to Dry Skin - £27; Flawless Definition Mascara - £16; 'Pretty Amazing' Lipcolor in 'Free Will' - £15; BareMinerals 'Ready' Blush - £22; bareMinerals 'Ready' Eyeshadow 2.0 - £19; Liner Shadow in 'Graphite' - £14; Brow Color in 'Auburn' - £11

I usually use liquid foundations, either MAC Studio Fix Fluid or Rimmel Wake Me Up. bareMinerals use a 3-step powder process for foundation, with 1 SPF 15 foundation, 'Warmth All Over' face colour and a Mineral Veil top powder, and I was worried that I wouldn't get the coverage I needed but I was wrong.

The powders are very light and you can barely even feel them on your face, but with the help of the face primer, the powder warms to your face and looks just like thicker, pore-blocking foundations.

This Get Started kit even includes three brushes and a Get Started booklet and DVD.

bareMinerals use only the best ingredients to ensure that their products contain nothing that your skin doesn't need. This innovative formula means that their makeup actually doubles up as skincare, and is so pure you can sleep in it.

Weird face and I'm growing out my eyebrows, so excuse them! But this is my full face of bareMinerals makeup - you can see how good the coverage is. I'm so impressed that a powder foundation could match my usual liquids but feel so light and even be good for my skin.

This eyeshadow compact in '2.0' is a great shade range for day and night as the pink is a great, shimmery base colour whilst the gold can be applied as heavily as you desire, depending on the occasion. The pink blush works the same, with a thin coverage for day wear, which can be thickened for a more dramatic evening look.

Powder brow colour isn't something I'd ever tried before but when combined with my usual pencil, it really defines the shape of the brow and blends in perfectly to add to the shape.

I've also never bought in to the gel eyeliner thing. bareMinerals shadow Liner can be applied dry for a smokey look, or, with a couple of drops of water, transforms into a smooth, easy to apply liquid liner. Genius!

I'm often dubious when it comes to mascara brushes as I like a lot of volume and I find thinner brushes don't tend to have such a good effect. However this Flawless Definition mascara has a smaller wand but still darkens, thickens and lengthens each lash as well as separating them for extra definition.

One of my favourite things was this Purely Nourishing Moisturiser. Worth £27, it's the best moisturiser I've used in a long time. I've been looking for a new morning moisturiser for a while, and now my search is over!

This Pretty Amazing lip gloss in 'Free Will' is another favourite, as I've always been sceptical about lip glosses, which stick to my hair and generally make a mess, and nudes which I worry will wash out my colour. 'Free Will' lives up to its 'Pretty Amazing' name. It's a gorgeous colour and despite looking, feeling and applying like a lipgloss, dries and sticks as a perfect nude, lipstick style colour.

And just to top it all off; How cute is all of this packaging?!

This Week's Top Buys #4

Lots of bargains this week from the car boot sale, but that's not all! On Monday I visited Kingston Market, as I do most weeks, and picked up a mint green jumper, a summery cream cardi and a couple of maxi skirts in powder pink and leopard print for just £12. My wardrobe isn't quite summery enough yet and since I can't deny my love for knitwear, I've switched to more seasonal styles instead of chunky knits.

Excuse Hello Kitty in the background!

I saw the monochrome 'peace sign' vest in the window of a tacky-looking shop on Whitechapel High Street. Full of cheap items that would fit in well at the Eastender's market, I still managed to strike gold as the vest and leopard print bralet (which has a Boohoo.com label) were £3 each!

Continuing from last week's jewellery love, I picked up yet more half price goodies in Miss Selfridge! I've been looking for a good body harness for a while as I'm not quite brave enough to throw myself in at the deep end with the bondage/horse riding ones with the leather straps.

As cool as they are, it just ain't me! I love that this one, originally £16.5, isn't too heavy but has the cool pyramid studs which can be worn on the front or back. In the warmer weather I'll team it with a black boob tube, or have it peeking out under a loose crop top. That's if I get myself back down to the gym in time!

I also got these cute leopard print cross earrings and yet another ear cuff (this one's gold, crappy iPhone quality made it silver) for £3.25 each.

But probably my favourite buy of the week was, shock horror, not clothing! I've been meaning to check out this Lush Lip Scrub for weeks and finally made the trip yesterday whilst on the King's Road. 

The need to drop some cash was clearly oozing from me as the sales girl immediately pounced on my vulnerability and showed me their new Gorilla Perfumes. They're available in full sized bottles (£23), atomizers (£11) and solid sticks (£6).

I was immediately sold as the girl showed me a scent called 'Vanillary', which smells like cakes and - selling point - you can even rub into your hair! It's jojoba oil-based so nourishes hair rather than drying it out!

After following me around and trying to sell me everything in sight I managed to conjure up some will power and explained that all I really wanted was some lip scrub. she confirmed what all bloggers seem to have said: Mint Julips is the way to go.

Also available in Bubblegum and Vanilla Chocolate, Mint Julips is the least sweet and, due to the peppermint oil, leaves a lingering fresh feeling on your lips as well as leaving them silky smooth.

So it's official: I am now a Lush addict!

Happy shopping! xo

Dye Time!

When I get a second away from work of every kind - bar, writing, uni - I'm dying my hair. My roots are growing and the colour has gone dull. I tend to do it every 3 months: January, April, July and October. I feel that by that time my hair has been left long enough to prevent damaging from overuse of dye, and the colour hasn't gone too too much, although I do have roots.

For the past year I've been using this L'oréal dye in "Mango Intense Copper." They've changed the packaging since my last buy and it's looking much better. But after a year of ginge, I want to mix it up a bit.

I love all the pastel colours going around at the moment, but they always seem to suit blondes best. This causes an issue for me as I refuse to go blonde for many reasons. Mainly because I don't want to kill my hair with bleach and I think it would look horrendous with my complexion. Nothing against all the blondes out there!

I've been liking the look of the Crazy Colour dyes but since a reliable source told me not to go there, I've turned to Directions. I love their range of eye catching colours but I just can't decide what to go with!

Torn between pastel pink, neon yellow, lavender and bright purple, it could take a while for me to decide as I've already had a mixed response from the people I've asked.

Any ideas?! Leave a comment with your opinion and in a few days I'll post with my decision, and hopefully some photos of my brand new look!

Have a good weekend!

xo

Foundations

I've been having such a nightmare with my skin lately. It seems like two nights forgetting to take my makeup off has caused loads of little blemishes all over my cheeks and they're so hard to hide. Not at all worth my makeup removal laziness!

These are the three I've been using recently:

               

Mac Studio Fix Fluid is always going to be my number one. It keeps my face looking fresh, clear and unshiney for a whole day, and night if I need it, but at £20 I can't always afford to invest, and have needed to seek out back up for those poor times when my Mac runs dry. Right now is one of those times.

So during a trip to Superdrug I found a huge box of discounted Gosh make up. I'd never really used Gosh other than a few nail varnishes and lipsticks, but thought that a £10 foundation reduced to £4 was a pretty good bargain and snapped it up.

Do NOT make the same mistake as me! This Lift Me Up foundation, which supposedly has some face-lifting chemical in it, isn't even worth £4 so I pity anyone who has paid the full £10! Obviously this kind of a review is totally subjective so perhaps there are girls out there who swear by this, but for me it just smudged away from itself as I blended it in, went patchy under my powder and clung to dry bits of skin despite excessive moisturising, and only lasted a few hours before I needed to reapply it.

I couldn't live with this until it ran out! So I invested in Rimmel's Wake Me Up foundation, having read some pretty good reviews, and finally! My perfect Mac substitute. At £8.99 it is around half the price but worth much more!

Wake Me Up keeps my face looking fresh all day with hardly any wear and just one pump is enough to cover my whole face with the perfect amount of foundation. This is definitely what I'm going to be sticking with for the forseeable future as my Mac replacement.

Inspiration, Finally

I honestly think my life would be complete if I saw the Northern lights. It has to be the most incredible and beautiful piece of nature to exist. This has nothing to do with anything that I do, but somehow it's made me feel inspired, at last!

Coming from the country, which I was bored of by the age of 5, nature has never really moved anything in me, but this is unreal. 

Someone take me to Iceland!

Skin Products: Silica Complex & Garnier Soft Essentials

I bought Silica Complex in Holland & Barratt's penny sale about 6 weeks ago. The instructions say to take on a day with a meal (and I've learned the lesson from ignoring that - Hello day-long nausea) and most articles I'd read mentioned a 90 day course although the bottle contains 20 capsules.

It's not particularly cheap at £12, but when you get another bottle for a penny I guess it doesn't seem so bad!

This year I suffered badly from winter skin and changed my products to Garnier's Soft Essentials Rose Water range to reduce blotching and dry patches. Whilst this helped, I thought, why not take Silica Complex as well? It's designed to improve and maintain strong and healthy hair, skin and nails, and God knows I need help with all of those things!

So I expected not to see much of a result until 90 days had passes, which is a long time to wait, but I guess that's how supplements worked. But for the past week or two I've been pretty lax with my dosage and wow! What a difference it has made.

I've never had much of an issue with my skin, but since taking around 2 pills a week rather than 2 a day all my old patchiness has come back, and after one night of forgetting to remove my foundation I woke up with a monster of a spot on my cheek.

I can only put this down to my relaxing on the Silica front as nothing else has changed. It's the first time I've ever really bothered with supplements and I'm realising how effective they really are!

Introducing: More Nails! Primark's Leopard Print False Nails.

So my beautician friend has recently started doing Shellac nails. After doing my research and watching multiple videos I decided that it probably is the right thing for me - the manicures last 14 days, my home-done ones last 2!

But first... My real nails need to sort themselves out! Shellac is a gel nail varnish which, when put under UV light, hardens and makes your nails look beautiful. However they do not extend the length of your natural nail.

So, whilst I wait for my naturals to grow, I've decided to hide them under these beauties.

They look like foils, but no! They're false stick-on nails... And not just any stick-ons at that... They're £1 stick-ons from Primark! After months of investing in £8 fakes from Boots every week I eventually decided to try out Primark's bargain set, and honestly - they're just as good, if not better!

These feel like they are stuck so securely to my nail and, to be honest, for £1, I don't care if they fall off after one day! Broadway nails have similar pairs for around £10 which in my experience only tended to last about 2-3 days, so if these last the same, I've got a bargain for 10% of the price!

Another thing I love about Primark stick-on false nails is that not only do they come with glue included (which can not be said for many of the premium brands) but, since they're so cheap, I feel happy to file off the French top and paint them for a more natural look.

So be sure to pop down and get some of these gorgeous leopard print numbers! I stocked up on 5 packs to prepare myself against the hoards of girls soon to catch on to this beauty bargain.
Primark's Ooh La La nails are also available in red, gold, silver or French tip.

Also be sure to check out @HollyAbeauty for amazing beauty treatments around Surrey and London.

Creme of Nature Argan/Moroccan Oil Range Review

Today I decided to invest in a whole new range of hair products. For years I've been using the same shampoos, conditioners, products... And having woken up super early just to attend a lecture I didn't need to be in, I felt the need to give today some purpose.

To start of with, how cute is my new hairbrush?! Having become quite attached to my old paddle brush (despite it being almost bare), it was hard to say goodbye. So to make it that little bit easier, it needed to be replaced with the cutest brush I could find, and this ladybird print brush by Head Jog (102) is just perfect!

A local shop sells a lot of black hair products and is always a great place to find new things to make my hair look pretty! The other day I spied some new argan oil treatments and, since I don't quite buy into the branded Moroccan Oil products being any better than other brands I've used - let's face it, argan oil is argan oil, whether it cost £4 or £25 - I decided to do some research.

I'd never heard of Creme of Nature before but upon Googling it, I found it to be quite a known brand, especially in the States. So I rushed back and bought the shampoo, conditioner and oil, all for only £12!

Click HERE for more info on Creme of Nature.

I started off with the shampoo, mixing in a small amount of moisturising oil and leaving for a minute before rinsing out. I then applied a mask of conditioner and left it for 10 minutes. When I rinsed out the conditioner my hair felt like silk. Any knots had gone and it felt so soft and sleek that I thought I might not have washed it out properly!

I towel dried my hair then applied more of the moisturising oil before blow drying. I didn't need to use my usual leave-in conditioner as a detangler as my hair was so silky from the conditioning mask.

So far, I was so impressed by Creme of Nature that, as I blow dried my hair, I was considering going straight back to the shop to stock up!

But it seemed it was too good to be true. I had read reviews which said Creme of Nature had left hair feeling dry, but since it was mainly used on black hair I thought I might not have these issues. Unfortunately, I did. Despite looking sleek and shiny, my hair felt hard and stiff. A bonus for me was that it made it quite easy to style and did give it volume, which in my world is somewhat of a miracle!

However I found that adding more moisturising oil to dried hair helped soften it slightly and, whilst I was not quite as pleased with the products as I had first expected to be, I would probably still recommend them as a good hair treatment every now and then.

Overall I'd give it 6/10. I will probably use Creme of Nature's argan oil range every other time I wash my hair, as I found the shampoo and oil effective, but the conditioner was what caused the dryness.

Welcome!

Hi there! I'm Ella.

That there is me.

As a undergraduate in Journalism and Creative Writing, I thought it was about time I started up a blog. But I don't want to make it too limited. Here you will be able to find all the latest in the world of me, which focuses mainly on health and beauty, fashion, and the odd opinion of miscellaneous topics that my mind conjures up.
As this is my first post, here are 10 things you need to know about me.

• I have a passion for anything vintage, especially if it's floral or lacy.
• I am a writer of all kinds, from journalism and reviews to literature and poetry.
• eBay obsessed - selling and buying. As a student, thrift is my thing!
• Cosmetics addict. I'm always trying out new products and will be leaving my opinions for you here!
• My look changes every day - I'll be keeping you updated during the better times, whether you like it or not!
• Obsessive list-maker.
• Forever trying to grow my nails.
• Cheese lover.
• Unintentional collector of coats. Specifically fur (faux, of course).
• Recent iPhone convert.