Eema's Thoughts & Ramblings

Hello 2012!

2012-01-23T12:51:00.000-08:00

Yes, I know, it is a little ways into the year already...but I have been somewhat missing lately, and it's still January after all!

I thought, I might give you an update via, my (kinda) new year resolutions, and see how we go from there. The reason I say, "kinda" is I had a view to complete some of these as a resolution for the year, and some before my birthday in June, a demi year resolution if you will! The reason my birthday has factored in, unlike pretty much all past years ever, is that 2012 is a big one...the year I wave my roaring twenties goodbye, and skip into my flirty thirties. Quarter-life crisis much? No, not really in fact, but, it's still a big one, I thought it would be nice to set myself one or two goals, so I truly start my thirties as I mean to go on. So, without further ado....my "Demi Year Goals"

(apologies if some appear mundane and boring, but I thought it would be good to record them all in one place, then I can't back out...even from the humdrum ones!)

Hopefully, like all good targets, these should all be SMART. As I work in education, I can't help but adopt some incredibly annoying mnemonics (you should ask me how we get the kids to spell diarrhoea correctly sometime....we're a right hoot we are!)

For the unitiated, SMART goals all should be... (for me anyway, definitions do vary somewhat)

Specific

Measurable

Attainable

Relevant

Time-bound

The woolier a goal is, the quicker I will shirk out of it....by golly, i'm a shirker at heart, and a big fat procrastinator while i'm at it....I need a bit of specificity in my life.

Health

These are all to be completed by the end of June.

Lose a stone in weight. Pretty standard new year goal, hopefully will be checked off sooner rather than later...I think i'll do a separate post for those who are interested, I won't weight-loss bore you here.
Take a daily vitamin supplement. Boring I know, but I have started this goal sporadically over the years, and never, ever, stick to it. I hope this year is a sticky one! This will be an ongoing one, I shouldn't stop this in June. I need to include this for a couple of reasons, i'm not hoping to create just a bit more expensive pee, but I do believe I am genuinely deficient in one or two areas. I am definitely Vitamin D lacking... my GP has told me this, but I never got round to fixing it really. This is the problem with being such a pale freckly as myself, I do not get natural Vitamin D from the sun, because I am ridiculously anal about sun protection, and generally stay out of the sun wherever possible, I have been told by a consultant dermatologist that in no uncertain terms I should be doing this....hence faux Vitamin D. For the second part, I have a comedy immune system, especially since the glandular fever/mono debacle of 2010. I find it particularly hard to stay well, especially as i'm surrounded by a bunch of teenagers with less than perfect hygiene, and grubby pawing mitts on a daily basis. I was off sick four times last term. I need to boost my limping immune system by whatever means possible. Really, I don't know why I didn't think of this before.
Get Fit(ish) for 2012. Yeah, I know, wooliest wool. I plan to SMART this up in a couple of ways. Apart from the losing weight, and the generally eating a bit better business, I intend to SMART this by running 5k by the time I am 30. Now, I have done a few charity 5k runs over the years, but I have certainly not run continuously. I figure, that if I am running 5ks, then I am considerably fitter than I probably ever have been. I plan to achieve this in one focussed way...via iPhone app. Basically, these days, i'm finding things so much easier to do via my smartphone....no idea why. My weight-loss programme is via my iPhone, so i may aswell get fit from an app too! The app I have chosen is called Get Running, which promises to get you from couch to 5k in nine weeks. From the reviews i've read, it seems to be pretty good, and hopefully will work for me too. Theoretically, I don't need to start this one until April to fit this in before my birthday, but realistically, I'm waiting for it to get a tiny bit lighter in the evenings, and just a touch warmer too. Hopefully I will start this around the time of my February half term...I'll keep you posted. Anyone else tried an app to get fit? Did it work? In the mean-time, I am power walking (well just walking as fast as I can really!) from my school to my bus stop every day, which is about 20-25 minutes, and i'm not rewarding myself with a Greggs pasty when I get to the bus stop (which I was doing pretty much everyday up until December....oh ok, it was two pasties. Yes, everyday.) The other goal I want to achieve under this banner, is to walk a half marathon. This is a charity event organised by my local hospice every year, and is an incredibly worthwhile cause. It is an overnight 13 mile walk at the end of June, and i'm really excited to take part this year for the first time. As i'm a pretty good walker anyway, and i'll obvs be running 5ks by this point anyway, this should be totes easy right? In all seriousness, I like having quite a tangible goal to be working towards too.

Right, that's the health bidness, onto the scant rest

Mind, (body, sorted) & Spirit

These ones are more for 2012 as a whole

Read at least 25 books this year, averaging at two a month, and one extra for luck...this gives me time to catch up should I flunk a month. One of my friends is reading, or re-reading all of the books on the BBC 100 Best Reads list. There is no way I could achieve that, so I have gone with the significantly more achievable target of 25, and general titles too....preferably ones I already own!
Buy less (physical) books. OK, this seems to contradict item 1, but trust me, I have plenty of unread books for several people doing this target to be going on with. I have even done the unthinkable, and got rid of a load of books that I haven't actually read yet. I deemed that it was highly unlikely that I will ever read them, and I should perhaps focus on the ones that I am likely to read, so i gave them to friends, or charity shopped them. Did you note that I said physical books? Well, i'm still allowed to buy some books on my Kindle...they don't take up any actual space you see. This should help with item 4.
Keep a book journal. This will keep track of items 1 and 2, and it also will be quite nice to see what I have achieved by the end of the year.
De-clutter. I need to get rid of A LOT of stuff. I have too much of everything. I have made a start, but I need to do more. This one is going to be difficult to quantify I accept, but, if i'm honest, I will know by December, if I have genuinely achieved this one or not. This will be helped by item 2, and hopefully 1, if I end up passing on some of the books I read.
Buy less crap. This will also help item 4, but really, I do spend too much money on not a lot. I need to make do more. This will also be aided by item 1 on the Health list, as will become clear in the separate post I will do on the topic. Again, not an easy one to quantify, I'll have to review how successful I am at the end of the year I guess.
And a bit of a random one, that sorta doesn't fit, but i'm putting it in this section anyway. As I am still at present, a single lady, If I haven't met anyone lovely by the end of June, then I will join a dating website. This is not to say that i'm not completely cool with being single; I enjoy it immensely, and I do love my life, sometimes I think you need to make things happen. In ten years time, if i'm making a list of goals before I turn 40, I want to know that if i'm still single, then it is through choice, and that no-one has made me want to trade in my, admittedly amazing, single life, not from not putting myself out there way back when, and giving myself opportunities. So there.

Well there you go. My 2012 in one blog post (plus the Olympics, and all that jazz...I have tickets for three events btw...so excited!!)

What do you guys think? Thoughts or suggestions on my little 2012 project?

Monday Questionnaire; 3rd October 2011

2011-10-03T13:04:00.000-07:00

Evenin' All!

How is it October? We're properly on the home straight to Christmas now aren't we? I even picked up my first Christmas catalogue today....i'm already considering what to ask Santa for this year.

Well, I haven't done one of these posts in a while so I thought I would. I'd really love to read anyone else's questionnaires, should you care to do one; leave me a comment below or leave me a link to your blog, I promise to check it out.

So, let's get cracking!

1.) Mood:

Happy, but sleepy. I've got quite a lot done today, but I have to work late tomorrow, so I had better hit the hay soon!

2.) What is your favourite genre of music?

Tricky, tricky! No, I can't do it...i'm embarrassingly eclectic; all the way from rock or indie to musical theatre and pop. No, it's all about my mood,I don't have a favourite!

3.) What is your favourite ice cream flavor?

Easy; mint choc chip. Yum!

4.) Current nail polish:

OPI Dutch Tulips....one of my faves.

5.) Have you ever prank called someone?

Yes, when I was a teenager...we rang the local newspaper/corner shop and asked them if they had Dr. Pepper in a can, when they confirmed this, we shouted, "WELL LET HIM OUT THEN!" Lame, I know.

6.) Outfit of the Day:

At work (in a school) so nothing remotely exciting; white t shirt, black pencil skirt, tan ballet pumps, and a black jersey blazer.

7.) What is your favorite thing about autumn? Least favorite thing?

I'm such a kid....crunching the fallen leaves when they're really crunchy. Today was a particularly leaf crunchy day.

Least favourite? Skidding on wet leaves, and usually ending up on my arse. This happens a lot.

8.) What time do you usually go to sleep at night?

No matter what time I try to go to bed, it always ends up as about midnight. No idea why. This is why i'm always so tired, and fall asleep on buses!

9.) What was your favourite toy as a kid?

Either my Sindy doll, or my sprirograph. I'd spend hours on that thing! Anyone else have one of those?

10.) Weekly goals:

To bake an awesome chocolate cake for a pot luck supper i'm going to on Friday, and not end up having to buy one because I left it too late.

To be in bed before midnight every (school) night this week (i'll prob fail on that one even tonight....no idea why!)

There we are!

How about you? The questions are below if you want to copy and paste and have a go yourself.

Happy Autumn one and all!

Em xx

1.) Mood:
2.) What is your favorite genre of music?
3.) What is your favorite ice cream flavor?
4.) Current nail polish:
5.) Have you ever prank called someone?
6.) Outfit of the Day:
7.) What is your favorite thing about autumn? Least favorite thing?
8.) What time do you usually go to sleep at night?
9.) What was your favorite toy as a kid?
10.) Weekly goals:

These are a few of my favourite things....for Autumn

2011-09-25T10:01:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone!

Here is a little rundown of a few of my favourite things for this season.

I hope you enjoy!

What are your favourite things? Let me know in the comments below.

Em xx

Boots Nail Polish Haul...Magnetized! (or magnetised!)

2011-09-24T12:34:00.000-07:00

Why Hello There!

Didn't I say that I would be back? Et voila! Just a quick post; in the grand tradition of Saturdays, I had a little mooch around the shops, and picked up one or two things.

I purposely went to Boots to check out their new Magnetized nail polishes (it bothers me that they have spelled it with a 'z' anyone else bothered by this, or am I a crazy person?)

I saw from the Boots 17 twitter feed that they launched in selected stores this week, so kept my fingers crossed that they were in my local store, which obviously they were. Note: my local branch is a pretty large one, so I did have high hopes that they would have them, but most stores aren't that big, so they may not have them in your local store just yet.

Oddly, they weren't merchandised with the rest of the 17 products, but had a temporary stand on their own well away from the 17 gondola, so it's worth having a little look-see around if you can't spot them immediately.

They come in four shades; green, blue, lilac, and grey. I picked up the "lilac" and the "grey" as they seemed the most work-friendly shades for me. As you can see from the picture below, the colour names are not the most thoughtfully chosen. Grey (centre) does actually appear as more of a pewter/gunmetal type grey in real life than the greeny tone it has in the picture, and the "lilac" (right) is not lilac. It is in fact a mauvey-purple. I'm really excited to try these both out....i'll let you know how I get on. Oh, and in case you're not really sure what the whole magnetised nail polish thing is about, i've popped in a demo video from Boots at the end of this post, which explains it far better than I can in words!

As all the 17 cosmetics are on a 3 for 2 offer at the moment, with a lot of other cosmetics, I of course, had to round this duo out into a trio. Having been recently impressed by the Bourjois So Laque in Rose Lounge (yes I had a bit of Kate Middleton wannabeitis for a bit there) I plumped for Bleu Mystérieux which is a gorgeous navy...perfect for autumn/winter.

All in all, my nails will be very happy this weekend.

What are your nail polish picks for autumn, and have you tried out any of the magnetised polishes out there yet? I'd be keen to hear your thoughts...drop me an ickle comment below!

Happy weekend one and all,

Em x

Would You Like to Know What's In My Bag?

2011-09-24T11:27:00.000-07:00

You do?! Well you are in luck my friend. I have just filmed an updated, the massively replicated, "What's in my Bag/Purse?" video.

You may have noticed that i've not been around much lately....or at all in fact. Life got a little bit in the way i'm afraid, but, I hope to get back into the blogging/vlogging side of things, and I thought that this might be a nice way of easing myself in, so here we are....enjoy!

You should be hearing more from me soon, but in the meantime please leave me a comment below saying hello, or letting me know what you'd like to hear from me in the coming weeks and months.

Laters Taters!

Em x

My Weekend

2010-11-21T12:35:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone,
I hope you all have had a lovely weekend...I, rather oddly have had a really busy weekend...I'll let you know what i've been up to...

Saturday
My friend and I spent the morning at the Fashion & Textiles Museum in Southwark, where we were booked into a clutch bag making workshop, where we were taught how to make an envelope style bag. The fruits of my labours are below...

Not the greatest effort ever, but time was rather pressing, and now i've learned the technique, I'm definitely going to be making more....just need to find some fabric I like, and also quite interested in adapting the pattern to make something a device sleeve for soemthing like an iPad or my future Kindle (please Santa!!)
I really enjoyed this workshop an would definitely do another again sometime.
After a leisurely lunch we headed up to the Southbank and I'd seen that the German Christmas Market would be opening up there this weekend. We perused all the stalls of fantastical ornaments and cute gifts and well and truly felt the Christmas Spirit, but truth be told I insisted we went there for one reason only....
The Gluhwein (AKA as mulled wine to the unitiated)
I was one happy customer as I love this stuff, and it was particularly welcome as we were freezing out backsides off, but the gluhwein quickly warmed us up! Anyone else out there love mulled wine as much as I do?
As a side note....I obviously have a particularly immature sense of humour, as the name of the company that produced the urn type things the wine is kept hot in, really quite tickled me....so much so that I felt the need to record it photographically:
Yes, I am that juvenile...onto

Sunday

One of my friends from uni is turning the grand old age of 29 tomorrow, so we all met up for lunch today...I recorded a little OOTD for my YouTube channel

As we met a little early, we had a little wander around Covent Garden, where some of us paused for cupcakes, and I freaked out while we were dive-bombed by an army of pigeons (i'm not exaggerating when I say that they were the most vicious pigeons i've ever seen...and I am from London...i've seen a lot of pigeons)
This is little L, the daughter of one of my friends by the way...she enjoyed her tiny cupcake.

Our reservation was at the newly opened Hawksmoor on Langley St...
The original Hawksmoor in Spitalfields was voted the Best Sunday Lunch 2010 by The Observer, so I was understandably excited
Here is my Beef with all the trimmings...
Yum yum! I would also muchly recommend the beef dripping chips as they were a particularly tasty side.
At the beginning of the meal Little L spied my marmalade cocktail and was trying to drink it, as I must admit my drink did look far more interesting than her carton of juice, so the lovely waitress arranged for Lexie to have her own "cocktail" or tarted up milkshake to you and I. That was a really nice touch and kept the little one quiet for a while!
All the wait staff I have to say were really lovely and helpful. Our waitress even offered to show Little L around the restaurant when she got a little restless.

Little L seemed to be quite occupied with mummy's phone though. You can't probably see from the picture but she is properly using that iPhone...I know adults that are flummoxed by iPhones, but these young 'ums seem to take to technology earlier and earlier!!

All the excitement did get a little too much for some of us eventually though...

All in all...a fab lunch, very nice cocktails, great company and a thoroughly lovely day!

What did you get up to this weekend?

Emma x

17 Questions...find out many random things about me!

2010-11-19T13:22:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone!
I hope you are all well, and having a very good start to the weekend. I saw this Tag going round YouTube and thought that I would give it a go...

Here are the 17 questions promised:

1. How did you get your youtube user name?

2. If you could change your name to anything, what would it be and why? 

3. If you could go back in time and give your younger self advice, what would it be and why? 

4. How old were you when you first learned to blow a bubblegum bubble? 

5. What did you want to be when you were little?

6. What do you order at starbucks? 

7. What's the hardest you ever laughed?

8. If you could play any musical instrument, which would it be and why?  

9. What's your favorite thing to do when your upset?

10. What's your favorite movie? 

11. What's one food you can not live without? 

12. What's your favorite dessert? 

13. Favorite pizza topping? 

14. Would you rather have the superpower to read minds, or the superpower to be invisible?

15. What did you do for your last birthday?

16. If you had one personal "selfish" wish, what would it be and why? 

17. What does OMGHHKP mean to you?

I am a massive waffler...so in order to laod this onto YouTube I had to split it into three...mucho apologies! I considered re-recording it, but then I wasn't sure i'd still even be able to fit it into one acceptable length even if I did re-do it. Rather than bin it I thought I'd upload it anyway...so here we are!

I'd love to see anyone else's responses to this tag as it is a real "get to know me better" one...so please feel free to film a video or do this as a blog post....if you do, please leave me the link below....i'd love to watch/read it!

As always, lots of love!

Em xx

Bargaintastic Haulin'

2010-11-18T14:48:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone!

Check out some bits I scored at Poundland and Primark, and a special offer item I picked up at Boots....

Thanks for watching!

Emma xx

Monday Questionnaire 15th Novemeber 2010 (a bit late)

2010-11-15T16:24:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone!
I'm back with another Monday Questionnaire kindly supplied by the lovely Amarixe....but due to the time difference, haven't managed to squeeze this one in on Monday UK time....is still Monday somewhere in the world though right?!

1) Mood
A bit tired...Dad's party (the one i've been banging on about) was on Saturday, and i'm not yet fully recovered...has been a rather intense weekend and preceding week!

2) What month is your birthday?
I'm a June baby, which I like as is 6 months before Christmas...the gift receiving is evenly distributed throughout the year!

3) Outfit?
Casual...dark blue skinny jeans and a white t shirt.

4) Would you rather have the ability to fly or be invisible?
Ooh, a tricky one! I think I would like to fly, as i'm quite impatient re travelling times, if I could fly I could be eveywhere quicker...yes that would be a win for me! Just think...could pop up to Edinburgh, or nip to Paris for some croissants, then Madrid for some tapas....ooh the possibilities!!

5) Current nail polish?
None : ( had so much lifting and carrying and folding up of tables and chairs to to on Saturday, decided to go sans nail polish...will have to rectify that soon!

6) Do you have any pets?
No, we had a cat called Jet until she died when I was 14, we've never replaced her....maybe when i'm all grown up with a family of my own i'll get another pet (so that will be the 12th of never then right?) Bonus points to anyone who can guess why we called her Jet....and no, we're not remotely original.

7) What is your favourite board game?
Ooh! used to play so many board games when I was growing up...I love them! Would have to be a tie between Trivial Pursuit and Monopoly, although I love Game of Life too...that needs an honourable mention!

8) Do you have any allergies?
I started to get a bit of hay fever when I hit my twenties, but that's about it....not very serious

9) What holiday makeup collection (if any) are you most excited about this year?
I'm not really feeling the love for any in particular this year, although I have been eyeing up the MAC brush sets

10) Weekly Goals?
To see my friend and her gorgeous bubba, and go to The Waffle House for...you've guessed it...some delicious waffles and awesome milkshake
To attend and successfully make a clutch bag at this workshop thing i'm booked into on Saturday
And lastly but not leastly, to have an awesome Sunday lunch with my university friends, one of which will be bringing her two week old bubba
So much gorgeousness in one week! How will I survive?

There you go lovelies. I'd love it if you gave this a go too, whatever day of the week you get to it...the questions are below, and if you do, please send me a link!

Lots of Monday (if a little late) love,
Emma xx

1.) Mood:
2.) What month is your birthday?
3.) Current outfit?
4.) Would you rather have the ability to fly or be invisible?
5.) Current nail polish?
6.) Do you have any pets?
7.) What is your favorite board game?
8.) Do you have any allergies?
9.) What holiday makeup collection (if any) are you most excited about this year?
10.) Weekly goals:

FOTD Dad's 60th Birthday Party

2010-11-15T15:22:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone,
I hope you all had a good weekend, what did you get up to? My dad turned 60, so we had a party for him. It went really well and everyone had a good time, although my mum dropped me in it at the last second, and I had to do a little speech off the cuff, on behalf of the whole family....always fun!! Anyway, if you want to see what I wore, scroll down to the bottom, as I have a OOTD video down there, but for my face...it looked as thus...

I was careful to give more of a strong base then usual, so primed my eye and under eye with Benefit Stay Don't Stray, had Revlon Photoready as my foundation (can you see the sparkles?!) then No7 Instant Radiance, and Benefit It Stick as concealer. I used Benefit posietint as a blush and a stain on my lips, and then Me Me Me Beat the Blues as a highlighter on my cheek and brow bones. This is just basically a rip off of Benefit Moon Beam, and I actually really like it...obviously significantly cheaper... winner for me me me! (apologies for that tres dodgy pun)

For my eyes, I just had MAC Satintaupe all over the lid and Bourjois Blanc Diaphane in the inner corners to highlight. Winged out Eyeliner using Collection 2000 Extreme felt tip eyeliner....this is so foolproof, I have to say that I am a big fan of this stuff! BadGal Lash for my mascara...not sure it's worth the money, but is definitely a great volumising mascara.
Lips...I obviously had the posie tint as a bit of a base, but then I used Revlon Cherries in the Snow lippie as a stain, and I have to say, that I really liked the whole combo of winged out liner and a strong lip....definitely something I will be using for the upcoming party season...lovely!

Anyhoo....check out my OOTD video below, and I'll hopefully be checking in with you all again very soon,

Lots of love,

Em xx

Clothing Haul for Autumn/Winter

2010-11-10T09:49:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone,

Here is a haul video for some clothing bits and pieces i've picked up recently

What do you think?

Emma x

Monday Questionnaire 8th November 2010

2010-11-08T13:27:00.000-08:00

Hello there!
Here I am with another Monday questionnaire that I have "borrowed" from the lovely Amarixe's blog. I quite like these, in a weird way...you end up blogging about things you'd never come up with on your own, and share little anecdotes or things about yourself which let all of you beautiful people get to know me a little better.

1) Mood:
Upbeat & energised. This time last week I had handed in my notice at my current job...I did not have a new one. That was a bit of a scary leap of faith...but as of last Friday I have a new one, which I will be starting in a few weeks. Phew! I'm really excited to have a new challenge; it's a good bookend to what has been a bit of a rubbish year for me, and will be a positive start to 2011.

2) What shampoo and conditioner are you currently using?
As part of my project infinity pan, i'm using up all the bits and pieces I have before i'm allowed to buy new things....I had so much shampoo and conditioner that I have not had to buy any in almost 2 years! I'm very nearly there though, and on my "I Want" list is the new Liz Earle haircare. I am currently using up a full-size freebie that I got from the Clothes Show earlier in the year...Head & Shoulders. Not something I would have picked up in store, as I have never had an issue with dandruff fortunately, but I have to say that it smells amazing. I keep getting whiffs of my hair, even quite a while after i've washed it, and it really does smell good...probably will not warrant a purchase from myself when I use it up, as I really have my heart set on Liz Earle, but if long lasting smell and anti dandruff are things that interest you, then is worth checking out.

3) Current nail polish?
As I showed you in the blog post just before this one: OPI Bubble Bath

4) Do you ski/snowboard/[insert other snow activity here] in the winter?
I try to avoid slipping over in the ice, and stay warm...they're my usual winter activities, apart from going to more parties due to the festive season. I have been skiing once, and it was certainly an experience...it was all a bit of a last minute decision to go...I was staying in a friend of a friend's chalet in France with six men that I had never met before, plus my friend (who is a girl I should add) also, I may have mentioned before that I am extremely malco-ordinated. I fall over a lot, and am not in the least graceful or swan-like. It is for this reason that I had never envisioned myself skiing for fear of my life. Fortunately, the seven people that I did stay in this random chalet in France with were all doctors, and felt a bit more confident in my chances of not dying in a foreign country. I was not very good at the skiing, but a lot better than I thought I would be....but it was the food and let's say the "apres-ski" that were the winners for me on this holiday. A completely out of character fortnight for me, but quite a hilarious and memorable one to say the least...maybe i'll tell you more about it sometime?!

5) What is your favourite perfume?
Emporio Armani She currently, but once that is used up I am open to another....perhaps the Benefit Laugh with me Lee-Lee? I keep spraying that on myself whenever I peruse the Benefit counter.

6) Outfit?
I am one sexy momma...I am currently wearing black tracksuit bottoms and a blue hoodie. I think it's quite ironic that all my so-called "sportswear" are worn when I am at my most sedentary. I never employ them for a remotely related sports type activity, unless it involves watching it on the TV of course!

7) Did you ever have braces?
I did indeedy...train tracks on both top and bottom for over a year, including those really sexy and attractive elastic bands to correct an underbite....just what you want in those really awkward early teen years. Followed by a year of a retainer, then a year of the retainer just at night. Oh lord the pain of braces. They hurt so much, I'd quite often lie on my bed and cry they hurt so much. But yes, they were worth it in the end. And thanks to the good old NHS (for all you non-uk peeps out there) I didn't pay a penny for it....I don't get the big hoo-ha in the US about nationalised health care. No the NHS is not perfect, but I count myself bloody lucky that I live in this country and that I have access to some of the best healthcare in the world and it is freeeee. And no, I don't get the US stereotype of Brits with bad teeth. I got orthodontics, like I said, for free. Some people have bad teeth yes, but I find it far more ugly that people can die from lack of healthcare in what is purported to be the most powerful and rich country in the world. If you get sick in the UK you get treated...regardless of how rich you are. Ok, little political rant over!!

8) If you could have any career, which would you choose?
Er, to be a lady of leisure of course! If I really had to work, then to be an incredibly successful actress...none of that starving actress or hard work to get there though...i'd just want to work with amazing scripts and the beautiful men. Or, to be a successful novelist. Again...i'd want to go straight to the success bit...I don't think I have enough discipline to write well though. I could probably write badly quite successfully though....can anyone say Stephanie Meyer? I think to knowingly write badly would probably break my heart though...i'd have to have no knowledge of how bad I was or I'd rather have a crappy job!

9) Do you wear red lips in the fall/winter months?
No would be the short answer, although from the influence of the t'interweb this year, I shall be giving them a bash this winter...the results of which you will probably see on this blog!

10) Weekly goals:
To keep as upbeat and energised as possible and to maximise this by generally getting stuff done that I usually procrastinate over. Oh and to see my friend in a musical production of Our House in our local theatre, and if I can manage it, to go and see one of my best friends from uni again...she had a baby boy last Tuesday, and he is the most gorgeous little thing ever. His name is Casper, and I love him! I posted a little video of him to my YouTube channel. I'll pop it into the bottom of this post if you want to coo over him too. Gorgeous boy...i'd like to get a little newborn baby fix if I can.
I forgot the most important things! My nan is 92 tomorrow...I need to wish her a happy birthday, and my Papa is 60 on Sunday. We are having a party for him on Saturday of which there are about 100 people coming and I know only about 20 of them... my dad has loads of friends! I will have to play hostess and most likely give a speech...there's a lot of arranging and organising to be done, and is all a bit stressful, but I hope he has a really good night.

Anyway, I've prattled on for far too long. I'd love to hear your answers to these questions, and for ease, i've posted them again below. Either put them in comments or put them on your blog and post the link below...I love reading new blogs, please share!

Chat soon!
Ems xx

1.) Mood:
2.) What shampoo and conditioner are you currently using?
3.) Current nail polish:
4.) Do you ski/snowboard/[insert other snow activity here] in the winter?
5.) What is your favorite perfume?
6.) Outfit:
7.) Did you ever have braces?
8.) If you could have any career, which would you choose?
9.) Do you wear red lips in the fall/winter months?
10.) Weekly goals:

NOTD OPI Bubble Bath

2010-11-08T13:06:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone,
I haven't done one of these in a while, although I have been painting my nails...I just haven't been capturing them for NOTD posts. This is an OPI Classic; Bubble Bath which is a very pale pink.

It is a very sheer shade, but I prefer to make it a more opaque colour by applying 3 or 4 coats...you need to make those coats very thin and allow plenty of drying time in between to achieve this...it's not a quick throw on manicure, it is a bit more labour intensive. It gives a very shiny finish which I like, and it is "office friendly". I think the overall result is very lady-like, and I think is perfect for an everyday look. What do you think? What's your favourite OPI shade?

Em xx

FOTD/OOTN Dinner with Friends

2010-11-08T08:11:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone,

I hope you all had a good weekend, and if you are in the UK you had mucho fun at the various bonfire/firework related events. Shockingly for me, one who is usually single minded in seeing fireworks in an extremely childlike manner, I didn't actually attend any firework displays this year. I did hang out a friend's window to watch a very small firework display after my local shopping centre turned on the Christmas lights (this was preceded by quite a dismal Glee tribute act...I swear, I could have done better!) so I didn't miss out entirely, although I did have visions of myself falling out of the window onto the high street and facing my comedy death (I am convinced I am going to die in some kind of comedic fashion, does that make me morbid, even though it has to include a comedy element?) Anyway, I passed up firework fun in lieu of a dinner with some girlfriends. If you've read some of my other blog posts, you may probably be aware I haven't been one for much social engagements in 2010 (roll on 2011....it's gonna be party central here!!) so makes a bit of a change for me....also, I got a new job on Friday, so felt the need for a mini celebration!
Right, so that was a reeeeally long way of me saying, that I went out for dinner with some friends on Saturday night...if you scroll down to the bottom, you can see what I wore, but for the face , I looked as thus:

Face:
Revlon Photoready, with Benefit Stay Don't Stray as an eye primer, and No7 Instant Radiance as an under-eye concealer, and Benefit It Stick to conceal a couple of lovely blemishes. I tried to stay powder free on Saturday night...I think in the colder weather skin looks a bit better on the dewy side rather than powdered...what do you guys think?
I haven't used it in a while, as I've been tempted by other toys, but I used my Benefit PosieTint...both on my lips and my cheeks...love this stuff; suits my complexion much more than Benetint, and my old favourite Benefit High Beam on my cheeks and brow bone.

For my eyes, I kept it simple with Satintaupe by MAC all over my lid, and Blanc Diaphane by Bourjois as a highlight on the inner corner. I lined my upper lid with Collection 2000 Felt Tip Liner in black. This is the first time i've used this, and aswell as being the cheapest felt tip liner i've used, it's also the best; very easy to use, i'll definitely be playing with this more often.
And at last, I cracked it open...my Benefit BadGal Lash, first signs are good, but I think I need to experiment more to give my full opinion.
Lastly, in addition to the PosieTint, I used Benefit gloss in who are you wearing? which helped me achieve a pink lip.

Overall quite a simple, but just a little bit more polished than a day look for me. Also...the make-up stayed put right until I took it off before bed...always a bonus!

Take a look at my outfit below;

Thanks for reading! What did you get up to at the weekend?

Em xx

Secret Post Club: Edition the Fouth, Octobre

2010-10-28T15:28:00.000-07:00

Another month has flown, another Secret Post Club parcel sent, another received. For this month, I received a lovely little bundle from Kerry who has a blog called And Then All I Thought About Was You. Kerry is an Avon Sales Leader, so quite appropriately sent me a few bits from the range.

Glazewear Extreme Lip Gloss in Pale Pink Shine
Perfect Wear Everlasting Shadow Stick in Classic Grey
Nailwear Pro in Viva Pink (a hot pink)

The lip gloss, as you might expect, is a pale pink with a shimmer. I've been wearing this for the last few days. It's very nice on it's own, but I have been wearing it over a lip stain for a stronger colour too. As lip glosses go it's pretty nice...not gloopy or sticky and stays around for a fair amount of time. The shadow stick is grey with a shimmer shot through. I haven't used it yet, but I plan to use it as a cream base to a smokey eye for a greater intensity of colour. And last but not least is the nail varnish, I have ones from this range in another couple of colours, but I don't have a hot pink like this in my collection at the moment, well until now! Such a cheery colour....perfect for toes I think! I'm very happy with my new pretty things...thank you so much Kerry for picking these out for me! I'll have fun playing with these.

Do you want to join in with the Secret Post Club? You can find out more here Did you join in the post club this month? Let me know in the comments below...I love finding out what other people got...or better still, post a link to your blog, so I can have a look see there too!

Emma xx

Monday Questionnaire 25th October 2010

2010-10-25T13:58:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone,

Here is an idea that I have unashamedly stolen from Amarixe's blog; it seemed like a quick, fun and easy post to do for a Monday evening, so here we are!

1. Mood
Sleepy. Not often that I don't feel sleepy these days, leftovers from my glandular fever/mono earlier in the year.

2. What was the highlight of your weekend?
Undoubtedly, the baptism of my friend's baby. He's the little guy I made the birth sampler for (if you want to see the post about it, click here) He's the son of one of my best friends in the world and he was baptised in my church which made it a little bit more special for me (his mum is the only one of my friends whose family has always gone to the same church that I did...in fact, years after we actually became friends I found a photo of me in the church garden wearing my first communion dress, and there I was standing next to her brother posing for photos. Little did we know that 21 years later he would be the godfather and I would be doing a reading at the same baptism, we didn't really know eachother back then) Was really nice to catch up with some friends I hadn't seen in ages. However, yet again I found myself at an event where there was literally only two single people at the entire thing, me being one of them. Oddly enough, it is the second time this year me and the same girl were the only singletons at an event, the first being someone entirely unrelated to Sunday's baptism's wedding. Have we really reached that age? It's certainly all marriage and babies around my neck of the woods at least! The cake was truly amazing though...instant sugar coma!

3. What did you dream last night?
Oddly enough, that myself and SWalkerMakeUp were sitting at my dining room table putting on make up. I obviously watch far too much YouTube videos. No offence against Sara, but I have absolutely no idea why I would dream specifically about her; she's not my favourite YouTuber (I just like her a normal amount) Maybe because she shares the same exact name as my next door neighbour? I dunno. I have weird dreams, often that I'm in tv programmes, both that i'm living amongst the actual characters of say, Neighbours, i.e. they are not fictional characters, and I live on Ramsay Street, or, I am an actress and have recently been employed as a regular cast member for CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Strange. Very Strange. Am I a complete weirdo, or do you guys have something similar going on when you're in the land of nod?

4. Current nail polish
I've just taken off Revlon Cherries in the Snow...I was very matchy matchy at the christening and had the same shade on my nails and my lips....first time ever i've done that.

5. Outfit
My P.Js. I like to be comfy!

6.) Have you/are you planning on seeing Saw 3D?
Erm, i've seen about two more of the Saw movies than was worth it (I only think the first one was worth it really!) Don't really intend to waste any more of my cashish on the franchise. Next movie I do intend to see is The Social Network, and then Harry Potter 3D in November....yay!!

7. What are you being for Halloween?
This is more of an American thing really...in that case I shall be Emma, as I am most other days of the year. As a true Brit i'm saving myslef for Guy Fawkes night, and shall be ooohing and ahhhhing with the best of them at a firework display.

8. Song you are loving:
Creep by Scala & Kolacny Brothers. It's a cover of the song by Radiohead by an all female Belgian choir. It's the song from The Social Network trailer and I love it.

9. What did you have for breakfast today?
I was bad and had an apple turnover....not breakfast food I know, but it was right there.

10. Weekly goals:
I need to complete a couple of job applications fo sho. That's all i'm committing to at this point. I'm lazy lazy, very lazy.

There you are. If you fancy doing this questionnaire...even if it is Tuesday by the time you get round to it, please do! For convenience I have listed the questions again below...if you do this on myour blog please post the link in the comments, I'd love to have a nose at yours, or just answer the questions in a comment!

Em xx

1.) Mood:
2.) What was the highlight of your weekend?
3.) What did you dream last night?
4.) Current nail polish:
5.) Outfit:
6.) Have you/are you planning on seeing Saw 3D?
7.) What are you being for Halloween?
8.) Song you are loving:
9.) What did you eat for breakfast today?
10.) Weekly goals:

Wedding Outfit OOTD/FOTD

2010-10-18T12:45:00.001-07:00

Hi Everyone!
I recently blogged about what I wore on a hen night/bachelorette party and the actual wedding was the weekend just past. As we all know girls get really pre-occupied by outfits for such occasions I thought I would share with you what I chose to wear, and perhaps give you some ideas.
Being a guest at a wedding can be an expensive business once you factor in the gift, a suitable outfit, travel, accommodation if necessary, and then depending on what kind of wedding/venue it is, food for the day and drinks. My big tip would be to get organised and plan in advance if you can, when you panic buy, you tend to spend way more that you were planning to in the first place. At the end of this post you will find a video I uploaded onto YouTube showing my outfit, and the accessories I wore...the sound is dreadful, a fact I did not find out until the next day, so I hope you can forgive me. You'll want to whack the sound up as far as you can, both on YouTube and on your computer. The salient points i'll include here, but you'll get an idea of what I wore better than in the photos, even if you can't hear me!
I was on the lookout for a dress as soon as I got the invite a few months back as I knew I really couldn't spend a lot of money. I felt a bit silly buying a dress so far ahead of time, but it did pay off in the end, as it was just right, and I didn't see another that I liked more in the whiole time since, I know, because I went panic buying with my friend two days before the event for her dress, and she spent way more than she was hoping, and still wasn't 100% happy with what she got. My little number was a duck egg blue, with a chiffron overlay and slip underneath, with a pleated skirt and a black satin bow waist. This set me back the princely sum of £13 from Primark. While I did get this a few months ago, I did see a load in my local Primark only last week (during the panic buying spree) so if you like it, there's a chance you'll still be able to get it, I think they must have had a new delievery, as i'm sure they weren't there a few weeks back. They also have it in a creamy colour with the black bow detail too.
I was incredibly happy, as I don't think I would have found anything I liked as much for the same price. What you will see from the video is that the slip attached to the dress is very see-through. It may seem old-ladyish of me, but I have my own slips for such a purpose, one in black, and one in white. Sexy they are not, but I find that I use them a lot more than I thought I would...as I tend to look out for a bargain, and these garments are quite frequently made from a lot sheerer material than they would be, had i chosen something similar but twice the price from another shop. My old-lady slips have preserved my modesty on probably hundreds of occasions. I would recommend having these in your underwear drawer just in case, as it's often not until i'm right about to leave the house, that I realise that my outfit is completely transparent and I need to employ their services. You can pick them up in places like M&S or BHS. They may seem a bit expensive for what they are, but they have definitely saved me a ton of money (and preserved my dignity) in the long-run.
The bonus of picking an outfit well in advance, meant that I was careful to choose something I already knew I could accessorise, unlike my friend, who having found something she did like, ended up having to buy a pair of shoes and a bag to match at the last minute. More cash that I could not afford to spend. The black satin bow detail on this was the winner for me. I already had a black satin clutch bag with a bow detail from Accesorize that I bought for another wedding a couple years back, and we all usually have a couple of nice pairs of black shoes. I wore a pair of black suede peeptoe shoes from Red or Dead (I bought these on ebay earlier this year for another wedding). As it's October I also had to consider the weather...I already have a fairly dressy black coat, and a pashmina style scarf/wrap I acquired for a couple of quid from Primark. I made the choice to go with bare legs, I was blummin' freezing, but it was bearable, I probably wouldn't have made the same choice had the wedding been in December. Having a set of basic but nice accessories in black made it a helluva lot easier to outlay the £13 for a dress and be done with it. I would recommend having a capsule of similar accessories which can be matched with a new cheap dress for a completely new look, if like me, money is a bit too tight to mention! Incidentally, i've already bought a black strapless dress from Primark for my Dad's 60th birthday party in November. It cost me £17, and all the same accessories will be used again for that...different dress, different make-up, world of difference!

Onto my face;

We were invited to the church service at 1pm, and then the evening reception at 7pm. We would have to entertain ourselves for the intervening hours, and find somewhere to eat for lunch. As the venue was the other side of London, we needed to leave at 10.30am, so my make up would have to be able to last all day, with minimal touch ups. As it turned out, my friend put in the post code for the reception into the sat nav first off, so we had to rush to the church when we realised the mistake; we didn't have time for make up checks before the service, so the day was a real test for my make-up. I decided to go for a fairly minimal, but pretty look, so it could last, and not be too heavy for the earlier portion of the day. Had we just gone to the evening reception, I may have gone for heavier eye make-up.

Base
I used a primer, as I do have an oily T Zone and wanted to prevent shine, for this I used L'Oreal Anti-Shine Mattifying primer. The key with this is not to apply too much all in one go, you can always put on a bit more if need be. I used Revlon Photoready foundation, and these lasted me pretty well for the whole day despite all the running around. I brought my MAC MSF Natural with me, but only had to powder once in the evening, so the primer/foundation combo worked well.
Fortunately I was having a good skin day, so no blemishes. I used Benefit Stay Don't Stray as a primer for my under-eye concealer, and as an eyeshadow primer. My trusty No7 Natural Radiance Highlighter is my go-to concealer when I need to trust the results, and I set these with Benefit Powderflage. I didn't need to touch these up later thankfully!
For blush I used Benefit Dandelion boxed powder. Out of all my blushers, this gives me the most natural flush for my complexion; just what I was going for. Also, the blush itself, as with all the Benfit boxed powders was great to take with me, as it includes it's own little brush...I only needed to touch up once in the day.

Eyes
I wanted to keep this as minimal as possible, so I only used one eyeshadow; Eucalyptus by NYX, which is a silvery taupe colour. I went a little bit more dramatic with my eyeliner and used Bobbi Brown Long Wear Gel Eye-liner in Black Ink. This was the aspect of my make-up that I was most worried about, as I haven't really used this much yet, but it did what it said on the little jar, and did last. It did smudge a tiny bit, but I kept some cotton-buds/q tips in my bag and was able to easily tidy it up, It really was very minimal damage though, I was very happy with it overall, and will be going for this liner look again in the near future.
Mascara was a freebie that I'm trying to use up; Boots 17 Maximum Volume. I really like this mascara, It does volumise and doesn't clump. I really like the brush, which is soft, and is tapered so you can catch the small inner corner lashes, but go a lot more to town on the longer outer corner ones. I may potentially buy this one when it runs out!

Lips
I used the Covergirl Outlast Lipstain in sassy mauve, and Benefit who are you wearing? gloss over the top...this produced a berry pink lip...I was happy!

All in all, I was very happy how my make-up lasted, and in general a very lovely day was had by all. I've included a pic of myself, a couple of my friends and the beautiful bride below...this was taken at about 10.30pm so a full 12 hours after I left the house, we're looking pretty well I think!
Have you got any weddings coming up? What are your tips for surviving the party season outfit wise without bankrupting yourself?

I Library Thinged...

2010-10-17T13:29:00.000-07:00

A short while ago I discovered quite a cool website; Library Thing
I've used it to catalogue all my books....in case you didn't know already, I have quite a few of those. Reading is one of my favourite things, and after my brother texted me asking if I had a certain book, me categorically stating that I have never read it, and do not own it, then later finding it on one of my bookshelves, I realised I needed a proper list of all of my books. I clearly have no idea what books I do have. Library Thing also lets me "tag" books, so that I can categorise them, and quickly look up different subjects...like "Art & Architecture" "Food & Drink" and i've even created a category for books on vampires....of which I have nine...oh life in a post-Twilight world! It took me a little while, but i've now listed all the books I can get my hands on, and now can even access this list remotely...no more supplying false information as to what is in the Library of Emma.
I thought I'd share with you guys a few things I have learned about my collection

I own (at least) 401 books. This doesn't account for quite a large number of novels I have in storage....need to dig them out and list them. I also have quite a few books leant out to various people...a number of which I can't even remember who, and what they actually have...oops. 401 for a girl of 28 years is quite a lot right? That's also with me weeding out a lot of books...i've gotten rid of a lot over the years. The 401 represents books that I kinda do want to keep. Maybe I have a bit of a problem?
I have 71 books in my "to read" pile. I have even constructed a bedside table type structure out of some of them. This is probably the most worrying thing about my seeming book addiction. I probably should stop buying books.
I have 25 cook books. Again, a worrying statistic, this is largely because I do not cook. I like looking at pictures of food okay? I pretty much love all things about food, I think about it a lot, so I suppose it does follow that I have quite a few books on it. I can bake somewhat though, so all is not lost I suppose....sadly a girl cannot live on cake alone, no matter how much she may wish to. I must tell you guys about my chocolate cake sometime. Yum.
I have 107 non-fiction books. For a girl who when asked will say she's not really that into non-fiction, it seems that said girl is somewhat delusional.
I own 13 Booker Prize winning novels. Hmmm. swayed by literary prizes much? And yes, "The Finkler Question" is on my "books to buy" list....maybe when it's out in paperback though!
14 out of the 401 books I own i've listed as favourites. Those books have gotta be really good right?!
I own 47 books that can be categorised as Children's or Young Adult literature. I often like these books more than my grown up ones. Immature? Moi? Never!!

In summary....I have a lot of books. Resolutions going forward...

Try to buy less books.
Read some of the books on my to be read pile
Be more diligent in recording the books I read...for while I own 401 books, I have actually read significantly more.
Try and recover some of the books i've leant out around the universe....especially my Hummingbird Bakery cook book. Me want some cupcakes.
Adopt the Dewey Decimal System. (That was a joke...but if I carry on this way I may have to by the time i'm 50...bearing in mind most of my books have been accrued in the last 10 years. I do scare myself sometimes.)

So there you go...I've installed a Library Thing widget onto this page (have a look down towards the bottom) so if you want to have a virtual poke around my bookshelves then you're more than welcome, alternatively, you can check out my Library Thing profile here.
Have I inspred any of you to Library Thing? Or will you be giving me the number of my local Bibliophilics Anonymous chapter? Is there even such a thing?! I'll admit it now though;

My name is Emma, and I am a Bibliophile.

Hen Night OOTN

2010-10-15T09:29:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone! Sorry i've been away for a little while. I thought you might want to see what I wore to a recent hen night (or bachelorette party for you non UK types!)
I've done a video which should be at the bottom of the post. I filmed this back in September but totally forgot about it, but it's the actual wedding this Saturday which i'm really looking forward to, hence why I remembered! If I get my act together enough tomorrow morning, I'll do another OOTD before we go on our little road trip down to the wedding...we shall see.

So...for my eyes I used my new NYX eyeshadow, kindly sent to me by Erin, in Eucalyptus, with a very little Perversion by Urban Decay in the outer corner and just under the eye. I used No7 Smokey Eye Liner (which I love...super easy smokey effect!)in black to line my upper lid, and that's pretty much it...quite simple and easy, but I loved the finished look, I felt quite sexy and "done" in the make up sense of course! Anyways, the whole look and outfit I felt very good...a successful night out outfit/make up look, that I shall be repeating methinks! What do you guys think?

A Lush Christmas; My Wishlist

2010-10-06T05:51:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone...yes, yes, I know what you're thinking...Christmas?! I've barely got over Summer and you're talking about Christmas? But as I sit here, actually wrapped in a blanket, and having recently dug out my hats and gloves and upped the tog count on my duvet, England is feeling decidely autumnal if not bordering on wintry. All of the above start making one think about Christmas, and if like me, the pennies are tight this year, then you're also thinking about Christmas gifts and how best to spread the cost. I personally like to get my gift buying out of the way absurdly early; if it gets to mid-November and i'm not 100% finished I start getting mild panic attacks. Am I alone? How late do you leave your festive gift purchasing? With all this in mind, I was quite happy to see an email drop into my inbox earlier this week letting me know that Lush have launched their Christmas range. I may have come fairly late to the Lush party, but having only dabbled in the past, I became a fully fledged Lush-a-holic around the January sales time this year, so this really, is my very first Lush Christmas. Awww, Emma's first Lush Christmas....how sweet! What should I do to celebrate? Why, shop of course!! I am happy to report that I am slowly (very slowly) getting there, in terms of my Project Infinity. There are some product groups that i'm finally depleting, and I will finally be allowed to make myself some new (but hopefully more considered) purchases. These will include several Lush permanent line items. Presently these include Ocean Salt (couldn't be more excited to re-purchase this, possibly my holy-grail exfoliator?!) Each Peach Massage Bar (smells so good!) and potentially Lemony Flutter (just about to finish this up, blog post to follow soon!) my Lush shopping trip will also be including one or two of the Christmas line. I've carefully perused the website and watched the product demos on Lush's very own YouTube channel (you should check it out here) and have narrowed down my Christmas wishlist. Now as with all Lush products, they may look amazing online, and you may watch hundreds of YouTube videos extolling a products virtues, but sometimes when you smell them in person, you really have no idea what all the fuss was about...this is mainly for the bath and shower products of course, I've found the consensus to be generally reliable when it comes to Lush skincare so far. I state this, as unlike a lot of bloggers/vloggers out there, Snow Fairy will not be making an appearance in my Xmas Wishlist. I'm not a fan of those super sweet sugary Lush scents....the same goes for Rockstar; I just don't get it...far far far too sickly sweet for me. Can I just say on that note...Flying Fox. Who likes this? I was nearly sick in my mouth when I smelled this. I find it completely gag-worthy. All i'm saying....Lush smells, sooooo subjective. Me...i'm pretty easily pleased by any of the Lush citrussy scents, far more my bag!! You will spot a theme with the Lush products that i'm a fan of...citrus! That was all a massive preamble to my Lush Christmas Wishlist and my personal highlights from the range, so here we go.... Btw, all the items i've chosen happen to be Vegan...big bonus if that is something you care about, i'd recommend Lush for their ethos, and their large selection of vegan products.
Satsumo Santa Bath Ballistic £2.90 each
Isn't he gorgeous? A big fat orange Santa...who smells of mandarin & bergamot and turns your bath water orange, what's not to love? I think this will make a pretty awesome stocking filler, and may I suggest he maybe a pretty good incentive to all those soap-shy kids out there?

Christmas Eve Bubble Bar £2.60 each
I think this one is more for the grown-ups, but I would still be incredibly happy to find this in the bottom of my stocking on Christmas morning. I really like the Lush Bubble Bars, there's something really indulgent about a bath full of bubblies....i'm such a kid! This one is supposed to be soothing with scents of jasmine and ylang ylang, and will also turn the water blue...again, this pleases me, like I said I am a child. One thing particularly intriguing about this bubble bar, is that it contains Irish moss powder. This is supposed to form a gel-like substance which is apparently soothing. This will give me a bubbly blue jelly bath? I'm sold!
Glogg Shower Gel £3.90/100g or £7.75/250g
(Does anyone know how to the double dot umlaut thing on Blogger? It bothers me that I wasn't able to put the umlaut on there....apologies)
Surprise! Not a citrussy item...this one is a mulled wine shower gel which smells of brandy, cinnamon & clove. Yum yum! I'm a big fan of gluhwein...happy memories of the Edinburgh German Weinactsmarkt... below zero temperatures, hats, gloves, night-time ferris wheel rides and hot mulled wine....happy place....
Basically, this very much sounds like Christmas in a bottle...one concern though...will I actually smell of red wine and brandy if I use this? May not create a great impression at work if I do. Now, I am a fan of the occasional cocktail, but I don't want to come across as giant alky. Thoughts on a postcard please? Still think this is worth a punt though...if only for use at the weekends!!

Sugar Plum Fairy Sugar Scrub £1.95
I'm using the regular green Sugar Scrub at the moment and really like it...this is the Christmas version, with moisturising plum kernal oil....sounds good to me

So there you go, my little shortlist. What do you think? What Lush items are you lusting after this Christmas? Lush has also produced a great line of the pre-boxed and wrapped gifts which I think I might be exploiting this year aswell...including one actually called Secret Santa which feature Satsumo Santa himself for only a fiver....very canny for all those Secret Santa gifts we all seem to have to buy every year...I think I had three Secret Santa gifts to buy last year, including one for a girl in my office I'd never actually spoken to before, this would have been a pretty good solution at the time!

FYI, I am in no way being compensated by Lush for this post (or any of my posts for that matter) As i said before, i'm just a bit of a Lush-a-holic!!

Em xx

Secret Post Club: Edition the Third

2010-10-02T14:20:00.000-07:00

This is the lovely parcel I received this month from Sara, who has a blog called Walking With Angels. What she sent was really thoughtful, and it's obvious she has been reading my blog, so thank you Sara, I really love them!
The first thing I noticed was a lovely sugary sweet smell emanating from the parcel, the source of which are Cookies & Cream Bath Marbles by Kay's Kreations. I haven't used them yet, as I want to savour them, so if i'm giving myself a pampering evening face pack and all, I think I will be employing these lovely treats.
Secondly Sara sent me a pack of notecards, which are really pretty. I have a bit of a "thing" for stationery, and I have quite a stash of notecards, but I am always happy to add to the collection. I think it's so much nicer to receive a handwritten note or card as a thank you than just a text or email, so I try to send out notes/notecards as much as possible. There's something slightly charming and old-fashioned about it don'tcha think? Or perhaps I have ideas beyond my station, where I would be a lady who spends her mornings maintaining her correspondence, before "visiting" in the afternoons, or taking luncheons or teas. Let's face it, If I were alive back in times where the latter were in vogue, then I'd be lucky if I were the one serving the tea rather than drinking it!! A girl can dream though I guess.

I'm very happy with what has been sent by September's secret post elf, and looking forward to October. I hope you all had a good October. If you were in the Secret Post Club, what did you get? I love reading all of the monthly blog posts!!

Meet you back here end of October?
Love Em xx

Canada/US Swap

2010-10-02T10:13:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone! First up, let me apologise for being away for so long...unfortunately i've not been very well, please forgive me? I have lots of posts planned, so hopefully I can make it up to you?!
Onto the subject of this blog post....

Over on YouTube a lovely lady called Erin has a beauty channel called MsSmallTownBeauty.
I'm a big fan of her videos, which are really helpful and informative. Having commented on a few of her videos and chatted a bit on Twitter (if you'd like to follow Erin, her Twitter is @SmallTownBeauty) Erin, and I began messaging eachother, and as she's from Canada, and i'm obviously British, we decided to do a swap, where we send eachother some goodies that we can't get in our own countries. If you'd like to see what I sent Erin, then you can check out the video she made here.

Sadly, Mr. Postman/the lads at UK Customs didn't think that I needed the parcel remotely near the time Erin posted it, so it took two months for it to find me (most of that it was actually in the UK oddly enough...ho hum) which is why i'm posting this such a long time after Erin received her parcel!

Take a look at the lovely things she sent me. I'll also be posting a video showing all of this on my YouTube channel. Scroll to the end of this post, and if i've done it correctly, it should be there.

Erin, picked out such lovely things, and i'm incredibly happy with all of the bits and pieces she sent,
First up Covergirl Lash Blast Volume. You can't get Covergirl in the UK, but i've heard such good things about these mascaras, that I asked Erin if she could pick one up for me. I'm so eager to try it, but it's still safely in it's packaging for now, as I have about four other mascaras on the go currently, and thought it would be best to wait until i've used those up before cracking this one open....i'll let you know what I think of it when I do get round to it though!
Nextly, I asked Erin if she could check out Victoria's Secret for me. Again, i'd heard lots of good things about their scents and wanted to try one. Victoria's Secret have announced their plans to open up their first UK store on New Bond Street, but according to Vogue, this won't be until 2012 (sad face) this is just a little bit too long to wait, so Erin sent me a body mist in Pink with a Splash...which I love love love! Quite a sweet girly scent, but still quite zingy and fresh...yum!
Erin also sent me some earrings from Forever 21, which I gather is a bit like Primark. My favourites are the diamante bow studs, they're really pretty, and i've been wearing them loads recently.
I also received a matte bronzer by NYC in Sunny.
This is a lighter shade than the other bronzer I own (Hoola by Benefit) which is probably a good thing, as I do find Hoola perhaps a little too dark for my skin tone, and difficult for me to look like I haven't streaked mud on my face!

She also included three brushes by Canadian brand Quo, an eyeliner, a crease and a crease shader brush, all three of which are super useful, Thanks Erin!!

I've made swatches of everything else and listed them below (please click on any picture to enlarge it)

Going from left to right:
2 NYX eyeshadows in Eucalyptus (a taupey silvery grey) and Ultimatum (a shimmery peach neutral)
Again, NYX is a brand i'm really interested in, as is difficult to get in the UK. I already have a couple of nail polishes, pigments and my personal faves a few of the Jumbo Eye Pencils.
An Annabelle Smudge Eye Pencil in Atomic Surf, which has a blender on one end. In the picture i've shown it smudged out and not smudged.
This is such a great colour. I've used it a couple of times with a neutral eye just to add a pop of colour (yes I know "pop" is such an over-used word in the world of beauty vlogging/blogging, but I can't think of another word or phrase to convey the same meaning, suggestions on a postcard please?) I'll do a FOTD with it at some point if you're interested?
2 Annabelle eye shadow pigments in Myth (a shimmery cool brown, a bit like MAC Satin Taupe) and Prism (an irridescent white with a lilac shimmer) This will be great used over a stronger colour to add shimmer.
I'm building up quite a nice little pigment collection now!!
A Quo Trio in Blue Grotto
I've yet to use this, but it's on my must do list!

Above are swatches of the Covergirl trio in Shimmering Sands, I've seen this mentioned quite a few times in the online beauty community, so i'm really excited that Erin included this in my parcel...makes a very easy neutral eye, me likey.

I also asked Erin if she could pick up a Covergirl Outlast lip stain, as she posted a comparison video on lip stains, which was really helpful (you can check it out here) She sent me it in Sassy Mauve.
The far left swatch is the stain blended, and second left is the stain applied "neat" as it were.
It's just like a marker pen for your lips...this helps me achieve a really easy berry lip...perfect for autumn!
Lastly, but not leastly, I received 2 NYC Blushable Creme Sticks in (l-r) Berry New Yorker, which as the name implies, is a light berry colour; it gives a really natural flush. Secondly in Plaza Pink which is more of a dolly pink in colour; really pretty. Both have some shimmer through them, but it's more pronounced in the Pink Plaza, perhaps be a little more light handed with this one!
FYI for the picture I swiped, and blended, so you can see it blended out...I wouldn't recommend applying this too strongly, otherwise you'll look like Aunt Sally.
I don't own any other cream blushes, so these are very welcome. They give quite a natural look on their own, and are easy to use, but can be applied beneath powder blush for a stronger colour.

All in all, I'm very very happy with this little haul. I was so excited to receive this, and try out all my new things. Thank you so much Erin, everything is great and so thoughtfully chosen! If you haven't checked her channel out already, I would thoroughly recommend you do!

Do you have any of the products I mention? What's your favourite? And if you live in the UK/Europe what is on your wishlist from the US/Canada, or if you're from the other side of the pond, is there anything that you're craving from the UK/Europe?

Models Own Haul & NOTD Purple Grey

2010-09-03T05:27:00.000-07:00

Greetings Lovelies, so along with the world and her husband, last week I bought some Models Own products for the first time, obviously completely enabled by the 50% off promotion from their Facebook page. I kept it too a rather modest haul; I have far too much nail polish as it is! I had often eyed up the Models Own nail varnish in my local Boots store ever since a stand materialised there a few months ago, and had keenly read other blogs which had included them in thei NOTD posts. I hadn't jumped until now as the £5 price tag put me off...were they really special enough to justify almost two Barry M polishes? I was always impressed by their wide choice of colours though. Therefore, when I saw this promotion...it was too good to pass up. Each item would ordinarily be £5 each, but I managed to pick up four for a bargaintastic tenner.
There were lots of colours to choose from, but I focussed mainly on the cream colours as I don't think shimmery or glittery shades really suit me. I opted for Purple Grey and Misty Grey as they will be perfect for the new Autumn/Winter season, moving away from the corals and brighter pinks i've been wearing over the summer. I haven't tried out the Misty Grey yet, but chose it as it is a shade lighter than the Barry M Grey I already own, which is indeed quite a close dupe to the Models Own Grey Day (I was really impressed that Models Own actually have six greys in their collection...you should check it out if the whole grey/greige/nude colours are in your wheelhouse). I rushed to try out the Purple Grey shade as soon as I got it last week, please excuse the slightly dodgy paint job!The polish applied nicely, and was largely opaque in just one coat, but I always go for two whenever I paint my nails, so that is what the photo shows. About the brush, I would recommend being careful as I noticed that a few seconds after you remove the brush from the bottle (and are often mid-nail) you get a massive blob that runs down the brush, and that messed a couple of my nails up during application. Once I got the knack of making sure the blob was gone when I dipped the brush back in the bottle, everything went smoothly. The polish reamined chip-free for a couple of days, which as i've mentioned before, is good for me as i'm rubbish at not chipping my nails...i'm always so rough on them! I'm happy, I will be wearing this shade again, and I think the colour is really flattering for my skintone.
The big plus about both of the colours that I chose is that they are both office appropriate...a big change from the bright colours I prefer to wear in the summer months, and a bonus to not have to take off my nail polish for going to work.
I also selected a couple of powder eyeshadows to add to my slowly growing collecetion. Again there is a massive colour choice here along with a few matte colours. I stuck to a couple of fairly safe options rather than going for anything too crazy; Bronze & Metallic Olive. I thought these would compliment my eye colour quite well. I haven't properly tried these out yet, but In did have a little play with the Bronze. the pictures below show are just the Bronze powder on it's own:

As an aside, note how I have blonde roots to my lashes? It's just at the base...the rest of lash is dark...weird. Anyone else have that? I need to be a bit more careful applying mascara!! I quite like this colour on me, although my mother did make a "goth" comment when she saw me wearing this. I think best employed for a more of a dramatic look perhaps. I need to have a little play with the olive colour soon...it's not a colour I use much, but i'm interested to see what I can do with it!
So there you go, my first little Models Own haul. What do you think of their range? Are there any colours you have your eye on?

Em xx

Top 100 Books

2010-09-02T14:35:00.000-07:00

I saw this, and I thought it was quite interesting, so I thought I'd share it with you guys.
In 2003 the BBC conducted a survey asking the public to nominate their favourite books, the following list shows the top 100 books as chosen by the public (I have to say i'm disappointed that some of the public chose some of these as their favourite books ever...really? Maybe some of these were the only book they have read....I don't know!!)
Anyway, apparently the BBC say that most people will have only read 6 of these books...I thought i'd see how I measure up.

Below is the list of books; I have bolded the books I have read and italicised the ones that I have started, but never finished. I also underlined one that I own, but haven't got round to reading yet

1.The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher

51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie

So there you are...in total I believe that means I have read 31, and started but not finished 4 of them. The only one of those I really intend on finishing is His Dark Materials, as I've read the first two books of the trilogy, and am working on the third. The rest, I fear, are abandoned forever. I suppose unless I have a kid, and they beg me to read them The Hobbit or something, but i'd have to love them a lot. I picked that up when I was about 9 years old, and knocked it on the head back then. Even after having watched all the LOTR films and having much respect for JRR Tolkien as a Professor of Middle English (a subject which I found interesting, but considerably challenging, and was happy when I could drop it after two years compulsory study at university) I don't really fancy picking up any of those books to read in my leisure time thanks!

I can't believe that the average person would have read only 6 of those books....a lot of those books I imagine people would have read at school anyway, even if they read no other books for the rest of their lives!

For reference, I marked the titles in blue that I wouldn't mind reading at some point in the future...the others i'm really not that bothered about.

Not sure what I make of the list in general to be honest. I can see why a lot of the books are on the list, even if they're not my personal taste, and I wonder how many would change in years to come, as quite a lot are relatively recent and/or have had major film franchises made in the last decade....would Twilight appear on the list if it were re-done now for example? I think that would probably be a yes....those Twi-Hards get everywhere! I wonder if books like Harry Potter will stand the test of time? I do rate them personally, although is not part of my ultimate all-time favourites.

Speaking of which, I'll let you know what five books would make my list...I'm not rating them 1-5, but if I had to pick only one, which is a tricky task I tell you, It would be the first one. The others are more equal in my eyes.

Persuasion by Jane Austen
Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen
Atonement by Ian McEwan
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Yes Man by Danny Wallace

So what do you guys think? Anyone care to list how many of the Top 100 books they have read on their blog? Feel free to copy and paste the list, or simply let me know in the comments below what are your all time favourite books...what do you think is the one key book missing from the above list? I'll be intersted to see what other people rate as their favourite books, as books are indeed one of my favourite things!

Emma xx

Secret Post Club: Edition the Second

2010-09-02T11:42:00.000-07:00

Bonjour Mon Amis! Here is my second Secret Post Club post, as you may have already worked out, if you're incredibly observant (and saw the title of this post) If you want to see what I got last month, then you can check it out here, but for the month of August I received a parcel from the very lovely Amanda over at Uniquely Snowflake. I was so happy when I opened up the little package, and Amanda, if you're reading this I have to say how grateful I am; everything is just perfect, I love them all!! I'll just let you know the things that she picked out for me
Firstly, a beading kit to make your own bracelet. Blue is my favourite colour, and i'm going to have so much fun making this. I do like the occasional craft project, and this is very easily managed....it's not going to drag out for months (like the scarf i'm attempting to knit...maybe I should get back on that in time for winter?!)
Next, A big chocolate button...nuff said. Frankly, i'm surprised that it has lasted this long. Now that it has been photographed I suspect it will not be long for this world...i'll make a good home for it in my tummy. Will go perfectly with a nice cup of tea. Yummmmmm.
Thirdly, Amanda has obvioulsy picked up from my blog that I am a Lush lover, so this Ultimate Shine Shampoo Bar was a perfect choice for me...big thank yous!
Fourthly, I have this very nice emery board. This is a good thing, as I have noticed that my main emery board has become a bit worse for wear, from basically...too much wear. It comes in a really pretty sleeve and has a really lovely beady tail, so it is pretty aswell as functional FTW!
Fifthly and lastly, but not leastly is this really beautiful floral beaded hair slide:
What makes it more special, is that it was made by Amanda herself. It's just so pretty! Amanda also has a website where she sells some of her creations, so if you like the hair clip, you should definitely check out her website over at www.maisielu.com
I don't know about you, but I like having something that is a little bit more original, and that not every fourth person and her dog is wearing. I now have to think of an appropriate hairstyle/outfit to show off my new hair accessory!
Again Amanda, thanks so much for all the little gifts. They are all incredibly thoughtful, you've made me happy, which is definitely a good thing in a month where I've been quite poorly. You most definitely cheered me up!

Isn't getting treats in the post wonderful? If you, like me, enjoy random monthly treats, then you can find out how to join the Secret Post Club here
I'll meet you back here in about a month with my September Secret Parcel!

Emma xx

Boots Mini Haul

2010-08-24T06:11:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone, I thought i'd share with you all a mini haul that I picked up in Boots recently. As you can probably tell from my most recent NOTD post, I've become a fan of the Revlon Nail Enamels, so when I saw a promo in Boots for 2 for £8 (full price £6.29 each) I decided to expand my collection a little. The results are Gray Suede (as you could probably summise, on the left) which isn't actually Grey, but in the greigey beige family; grey not spelled the English way though, so i'm discounting the "Gray" altogether and concentrating on the "Suede" bit of the name. It's a bit suedey-chomois leather looking really, so is sort of appropriate. This is an "office friendly" shade, so looking forward to trying this one out soon. Secondly, I went for a Revlon classic, Cherries in the Snow, which is actually a bit more pink than it appears in the picture. I have been eyeing this colour up for a long while, but have previously not thought it different enough to purchase at full price...but that's what special offers are for right? I've already put this one on my toes (couldn't wait!) and it is perfect for going into Autumn/Fall. Just like Tropical Temptation, it was super easy to apply, a really good formulation, pretty much opaque in one coat, but I always go for two coats on my toes (plus base and top coat of course) for durability regardless. I'll definitely try this on my fingers very soon, probably all ready for an evening out. I love it when my fingers and toes match, makes me feel all "pulled together" like when I match my underwear (not that everyone sees that I assure you, but makes me feel special all the same!) or when I co-ordinate my purse, bag and shoes. I'd recommend popping down to your local Boots if you, like me, are a fan of the Revlon nail polishes, or you'd like to give them a try. Boots currently have a promo running where if you spend £5 on anything, you'll get a voucher for £5 off No7 or Ruby & Millie. With a voucher burning a whole in my wallet, and knowledge that the No7 Autumn Limited Edition range has just hit down in stores I went in for a little look-see before these sell out, as I know other items had done fairly quickly from other LE collections. From other bloggers, i'd seen that this range has garnered largely positive reviews, and they largely agree, that the stand-out product seems to be the Smoky Eyeliner. The reviews don't seem to disappoint. Very quick swatches are pictured below; I would tend to agree with other bloggers and reviewers, who call for this to be made available in other colours. I think it would indeed translate well into other shades. It looks like a liquid eyeliner bottle, but it is in fact a powder, which is applied with a thin sponge applicator tip, in a similar fashion to it's liquid counterpart. You can use it to apply a thick line, or with a brush, as the name suggests, smudge it out, for a more smokey look. I've only had a little play with it so far, but i'm happy with the results, and happily confirm that it is easy to apply. I'm dreadfully inept at applying liquid liner, so that is really saying something. The only negative I should mention, is that during my little play, I did notice a little fall out onto my cheeks. I'd recommend that if you purchase this, that you're just mindful of this, and hold up a tissue or something during application. This is available in larger Boots stores at £9.50 (I did notice that a medium sized store near me, by no means a small branch, didn't have the Autumn collection at all, just the new Exceptional Definition Mascara. If you're going to make a special trip, I'd perhaps recommend calling ahead to check that they're a stockist) I would be quick if I were you though, as I suspect that this item will sell out quite quickly, like the Natural Radiance Highlighter from the Spring Collection, that was raved about, but that I wasn't lucky enough to get my hands on. Also, with my voucher, I was able to pick this up for £4.50. Quite bargainous don'tcha think? Now is probably a good time to check out this collection if you want to, and take advantage of the discount. Do any of you have your eye on any of the No7 Limited Edition Autumn Collection? Emma x

NOTD Revlon Tropical Temptation

2010-08-24T05:01:00.000-07:00

Hola! I haven't done one of these in a while...i've not been very fastidious with polish on my nails recently, although i'm a huge stickler for my toes...through the summer, these are always painted. Basically, if they're not painted, no way are they going near a sandal or an open toe. I'd rather swelter in proper shoes than have my unpainted toe nails on display; no exceptions. Does that make me weird? I'm not a fan of looking at other people's grody toenails, therefore, i'm oddly scrupulous when it comes to my own. I somehow end up looking at other people's feet, particularly on places like the tube, (again, I know i'm weird) and I would not want anyone looking at my feet, and judging me accordingly, Sorry peeps...it's just one of my "things". Anyway, as well kept as they are, i'm sure you wouldn't appreciate pictures of my feet displaying my nail polish collection, and as i've not really painted my nails (and kept it on for more than a day) I haven't produced any recent NOTD posts. Tropical Temptation is a colour that i've used a few times on my toes, and I love it. Corals are just great for the summer, and this is actually quite a soft colour, rather than with a harsh orange tone that some coral shades have. This actually complements quite a lot of things i've been wearing this season, and the colour just makes me feel *happy* which is always a winner. The photo above was taken just after application, with base coat, two coats and a top coat. The formulation, as i've found with most other Revlon polishes, is really easy to work with. Not too thick and gloopy, but opaque enough in two coats. Just for reference, this bottle is actually 2-3 months old, and you can see from the bottle that i've used quite a bit, however, the polish remains easy to use, unlike some, which apply nicely for the first application then are all gloopy for any subsequent uses. This one seems largely unaffected by it's previous use. The photo below is after about three days wear; As you can see, no longer as perfect as it was, but only slightly chipping on a couple of the nails; still pretty good. I am not easy on my nails, which is a big reason why no nail polishes have made it to a nail of the day recently, I damage them fairly easily because i'm quite rough on my hands, so it is a testament to this polish that it's stayed on this far. I took it off at the three day point for work purposes, as it's not the most "office friendly" shade, but in honesty I could have got a couple more days wear out of these before i'd have been forced to take it off. All in all...Emma, she likey. It is a great summer shade, especially for toes. I'm just sad I probably won't be able to wear it much more this year, now the season are changing, and I generally prefer to move into a more autumnal palette. I just hope this bottle is still good next spring! If not, which is fair enough, there is a good chance i'll re-purchase. The good news also is, that at 14ml, the Revlon Nail Enamels are a generous size (compared to Barry M Nail Paints at 10ml for example) so it is unlikely they'll run out, unless you use a ton of it of course!

FOTD Third Play With My New Urban Decay Book of Shadows 3

2010-08-24T04:20:00.000-07:00

Hi Guys, i'm back with another FOTD from the Urban Decay Book of Shadows 3. I lost momentum a little over the last few days as i've been poorly (when haven't I been poorly this year?) so have been wearing zero makeup, but I did this before my latest wee setback, so here we are. This is more of a natural look, which is my favourite so far. This one is going to be rolled out quite frequently I strongly suspect! It is also the most simple and easy one, which greatly adds in it's favour! Products used: That Gal, Stay Don't Stray, Powderflage all by Benefit, all as per usual. MAC Mineralised Skin Finish Natural, very lightly; just to take away shine where needed Dandelion boxed powder by Benefit. This is by far my most favourite of the boxed powders (I own six) It's perfect for my skin tone, and gives me a really natural flush. It is a warm toned pink, with a little shimmer, it also smells heavenly. I've been using this for absolutely ages and looks hardly used, but will be a definite re-purchase when I hit pan. Primark Ta Ta For Now concealer pen. I used this to conceal my dark circles, which as you may know, is my biggest priority when it comes to make up as far as i'm concerned. If I could only do one thing make up wise, it would be hands down concealing my dark circles. I think i'm gonna do a separate post on this little £2.50 number, but i'll say right now that it will be a positive one. What's your absolute must, most basic make up staple? BADgal Plum, and Great Lash mascara combo...as i've exalted previously It's not pictured, but on my lips is one of The Body Shop Lip Butters that i've mentioned before...I don't thinked I rubbed it in well enough prior the photo tbh. For my eyes, I just used two shadows this time; Suspect (medium bronze with a cooler undertone) as an all over lid colour. I also put a small amount under the inner half of my eye. Smog (medium-dark bronze) on the outer corner and through the crease. I also put this under my eye, on the outer half, merging into the Suspect already there. As ever, blend blend blend. I used a very very little of the Zero 24/7 Glide On eye pencil as a liner on my lid, just to darken up the base of my lashes slightly (as I have a touch of the ginger about me, my lashes are oddly very fair at the root, then grow darker, so this helps my mascara along) This is more what i'm likely to wear on a day to day basis, but to be honest, on a night out too...probably with a bit more eyeliner though. This is really quick, easy and universal. A colour combo I would recommend. This makes Emma a happy girl! xx

FOTD Second Play With My New Book of Shadows 3

2010-08-20T12:36:00.000-07:00

Hi Guys, so here I am with my second look from the Urban Decay Book of Shadows 3, I went for a bit of a green look today...

Onto what I used; On my eyes I used Money all over the lid. It is a sea-foamy green, that is shot through with glitter, however it's not as uber glittery as I was scared it might me, more of a gentle sparkle, still definitely ok for daytime. I also brought this down around the inner corner of my eye and undermeath. I also think that this might be a really pretty shade to use on it's own. It seemed to really bring out the blue in my eyes.
On the outer corner, and down under the eye I used Loaded, which is a really lovely dark forest green. I love this colour, i'm definitely going to employ it in a dark smokey look for a night out sometime.
Lastly I used a little of Uzi on the inner corner to brighten.

For the rest of my face; That Gal primer, Stay Don't Stray Eye Primer, Erase Paste as a concealer and Powderflage to set, all by Benefit. I used Georgia boxed powder by Benefit all over. This is a peach powder with a very fine shimmer, that acts as a bit of a "beauty powder"
I used High Beam by Benefit as a highlight on my cheekbones. As you can see, this is a very "loved" bottle...good that I have a back-up bottle already!
As yesterday's post, I used BADgal plum on my upper lashes and Maybelline Great Lash on my lower lashes. I was really surprised by the third photo here...the BADgal is making my lashes look really long. I'm very excited to use my new BADgal Lash in black....i'm waiting til i've used up a couple other black mascaras I have already.
On my lips I used Boots 17 Mirror Shine Lipstick in Peace. I know it looks scary in the photo, but it's actually very sheer; in the photo below, the top swatch shows one swipe, and the bottom several. A very easily wearable daytime lippie, with a sheen to it and moisturising too.

Thanks for reading. Do you use "colour" in your daytime looks, or do you tend to keep it neutral?
Tomorrow...probably another look using my new toy!

Em xx

FOTD First Play With My New Book of Shadows III

2010-08-19T05:12:00.000-07:00

Hello Beautiful Readers! After yesterday's excitement at receiving my new Urban Decay Book of Shadows I thought today was the day that I should start playing with it, so I got up a bit early and began to experiment! Here is what I ended up with; If you'd like to know what I used, then please read on!

For my face, I kept it the same as what i've been using most recently:
That Gal Brightning Face Primer all over, Stay Don't Stray Primer, under my eye and over the eyelid, Erase Paste as my under-eye concealer, set with Powderflage, and Dandelion boxed powder for Blush; all by Benefit
MAC Mineralised Skin Finish Natural very lightly dusted all over, mainly on my T Zone
and Boots 17 Mirror Shine Lipstick in Belle on my lips funnily enough (I really like this lippy; is very sheer, but moisturising. Adds a bit of colour without being too overpowering, and is a great "handbag lipstick" which you can put on without using a mirror...great for touch ups throughout the day)
Now, for my eyes, which is obviously the focus of this post;
I predominantly used 3 of the shadows, which I think compliment eachother really well.
I used Bordello (warm shimmery pink) all over my lid,
Last Call (a shimmery grape type colour) in the outer corner and through the crease,
Rockstar (a shimmery aubergine/eggplant) a little in the outer corner, and under the eye,
....then, blend blend blend!
I also used a very little of Uzi (shimmery white/silver with glitter) on the inner corner to brighten.

I also used the 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in Zero (black) to finely line the upper lid, and I also used it to tight line, which incidentally is nice and easy with this pencil, as it is so soft.

After curling my lashes I used Benefit BADgal Plum on my upper lashes and Maybelline Great Lash on my lower lashes. If you think this stange, I found this is the way to make BADgal Plum work for me... If I attempt to use the BADgal Plum on my lower lashes it some how makes my eyes look super red and irritated, and also like I might be getting some kind of eye infection. This is obviously not a look I am going for. Also, as the brush is so large (great for volume on the upper lashes btw) it is very difficult to coat the lower lashes without getting loads on the skin under your eye, which is then unusually difficult to remove withouth disturbing a lot of your make up. It is for these reasons that I only used BADgal Plum for a couple of times before consigning it to the drawer. However, one day I randomly used the Maybelline for the lower lashes and found it was a winner! This works for the following reasons;
1. Black on the lower lashes even with Plum on the upper seems to completely take away the irritated/infected look...excellent!
2. The Great Lash brush is actually a diddy ickle brush in comparison to a lot of mascaras, hence perfect for lower lashes without getting loads of mascara on the skin.
3. I don't really like Great Lash as a mascara all over...it was consigned to the drawer for this reason, but, with BADgal Plum on top and Great Lash on the bottom...they are perfect partners; their bad points offset each other to make one effect that i'm very happy with. Apologies...that was a bit of a lengthy tangent, but I wanted to explain my reason for the combo...what do you guys think? Do any of you have any random mascara combinations?

So, there you go...my first look with my new Book of Shadows palette. In general, this is a bit more heavy than I would typically go for a day look, but I think it works, and could easily be ramped up to a more dramatic look, with a bit more Rockstar, perhaps a touch of Perversion (dark matte charcoal) and a bit more eyeliner, or perhaps a liquid or gel eyeliner with a feline flick....hmm definitely one in the bank for laters I think! This would also look awesome on someone with green eyes. What colour combos would you choose from the new Book of Shadows for a daytime look? (photos of the full palette here)

Thanks for reading!
Mucho Love
Em xx

Urban Decay Book of Shadows Volume III 3 UD NYC

2010-08-18T03:38:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone! I received a very exciting parcel in the post this morning....the Urban Decay Book of Shadows Volume III! From what I understand, this isn't available in the US yet, so i'm not sure why i've been able to get it....but I have, and you can too; from the Debenhams website for the princely sum of 30 of your British Pounds....while stocks last of course!
I've recorded a YouTube video...link will be below, but here are some photos which might show you the colours a little better. Are any of you planning on picking up this palette?

You can't see in the photo, but there are little LED lights on the Brooklyn Bridge (I hope i got that right? Did I?) and behind a couple of the buildings....very cute & twinkly!

It includes a mini Primer Potion and full size 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencils in Zero (black) and Ransom (metallic purple) these are super soft and very easy to use on the waterline.
The palette includes 16 colours, including 7 new shades. I know one big issue people have with Urban Decay shadows is the amount of chunky glitter...there are only 5 shadows in this palette which have the glitter shot through them, the rest are shimmery and often metallic looking. Perversion, is actually a matte charcoal grey colour.

Overall I would have to say i'm pretty pleased with this palette. There are neutrals which you can work with on a day to day basis, but just enough colour to add onto your basic neutral to make them interesting...or you can go for a full-on colourful eye, or a smokey with more colour to it. I'm really inspired now...can't wait to start playing!!

Emma xx

August Haul

2010-08-18T03:07:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone! These are are few things that i've picked up recently, and i'm pretty pleased with my little haul! I've put a video on my YouTube channel of these which i'll link below, but just wanted to give a clearer view of swatches etc. I'm very excited to play more with my new goodies!!
Barry M Nail Paints in Bright Purple & Mushroom
My first Bobbi Brown purchase (from QVC of all places!) all of these bits were £30, which in stores would just cover the gel eyeliners, the brush on it's own is £20...bargain in my book!
Long-Wear Gel Eyeliners in Black Ink and Espresso Ink (that's black and dark brown)
Mini Extreme Party Mascara in Black
Ultra Fime Eyeliner brush
I'm keen to get some more Bobbi Brown...what would you guys recommend as Bobbi Brown essentials? Also, do any of you buy from QVC? I was surprised at the range of beauty brands they had...maybe making some more purchases in the future!

Last but not least, from a blog sale, I got my first ever NARS item, in the shape of the Essential Eye Palette...very exciting! Swatches below;
Top row L-R
Unconditional Love (this is actually a cream eyeshadow... the rest are powder)
Night Star (this is shot through with glitter)
Galapagos (shot through with gold glitter)
Bottom row L-R
Nepal (shimmery)
Onidine (shimmery)
Thunderball (Matte dark green)

I think this pallette will give a great neutral eye, but then can be jazzed up for a night-time or more smokey look...expect some FOTD posts centred round this palette!!

Emma xx

I'm a Lucky, Lucky Girl!

2010-08-16T04:58:00.001-07:00

At the weekend, I had a long overdue catch up with my friend @littlepieces who also has a blog, which you should check out here and we exchanged birthday gifts, as hers is next week, and mine was in June, but we haven't seen eachother since then. We had a lovely lunch in Pizza Express, then a little mooch around the John Lewis beauty department eyeing up all the Essie and OPI polishes, followed by a whiz around Boots & Superdrug, and I introduced her to Lush...I know....heaven! I was good and didn't break my Project 10 Pan to Infinity rules, even though I was sorely tempted....can't say the same for @littlepieces though....she did leave with a little bag of goodies....I hope she lets me know how she gets on with them!! A pretty good afternoon's work really! As she got me such lovely and thoughtful gifts, I thought I'd share with you guys what she got me...as I said, I'm a lucky girl!
She noticed that a little while back I tweeted that my local Superdrug didn't stock any of their new MUA range, but I was keen to try it out, so she picked me up a little selection from her Superdrug, that did stock them (we have since spotted, that my Superdrug now has an MUA stand of their own...so i'm guessing it has now been rolled out to more stores....worth checking out if you haven't seen it in your local Superdrug before) MUA or MakeUp Academy, is a fairly new Superdrug own range, which all items are sold at £1 each, ranging from eye shadows, eye dusts, mascaras, to nail varnishes and lipsticks. You can view their full range online here. There is a picture with swatches of all the eye shadows below, if you'd like a better look, and their names. I haven't had a chance to play with any of my new goodies yet, but i'm definitely excited to see how they stand up next to more expensive eye shadows. From first impressions, I really like the colours; they swatch well, and they seem quite pigmented. The ones I have are quite shimmery and are really pretty. I should note that the first one in both pictures looks more blue than it actually is...it is actually more of a purple, but shot through with a blue shimmer. It seems the camera only picked up the blue shimmer in the flash, rather than the purple. One thing I will say about the MUA range is that the colours are only numbered which is a little bit annoying. How hard would it have been to give them names, not just numbers? The reason being, it makes it hard to remember what you have already if you go into store to buy more...names stick in my head rather than numbers when it comes to colours. Does anyone else think the same, or am I alone in my mild annoyance?
The remaining three eyeshadows are all loose powders, which is interesting, as I didn't have any other loose powder eyeshadows in my collection....now I have three! The first is another MUA, this time an eye dust; snappily named Shade 5, which is a bronzey brown. I'm going to have to adjust to using a loose eye shadow powder, perhaps with either light application, or using a damp brush, both to help mimimise fall-out, and create a more intense colour. The last two eyeshadows are both by NYX, again a brand i tweeted about, as we can't get them in the UK, so @littlepieces very thoughtfully ordered some bits and pieces via a website for me to try. These are Chrome eyeshadows, and thankfully they have names of Nymph & Mink. Both are shimmery golden colours, where Mink has a lot more yellow, and Nymph, a lot more red in it. Again I'm excied to try both of these out very soon!

(L-R: MUA Shade 10, MUA Shade 13, MUA Shade 14, MUA Eye Dust Shade 5, NYX 12 Nymph, NYX 13 Mink)
Remaining on NYX, @littlepieces picked me up a couple of nail polishes, as she quite aptly summised that I love nail polish, and I also they both have a shimmer through them. First up is a turquoisey colour shot through with a gold shimmer named Juliette, and then there is also a corally pink with a silver shimmer named Salsa, I haven't tried either of these out yet, So i'll have to give you an update of how i get on with these. Last but by no means least is Barry M in Grey. I actually had this polish years and years ago, before Barry M became readily available in Superdrug or Boots, and I bought it from ASOS after seeing it in a magazine. The grey works well as a neutral nail, amongst a sea of muddy browns and greiges that are everywhere currently (but that I still obviously wear!) After several years my original bottle is now obviously deceased, so i'm happy to have a replacement...especially after I recently saw a grey by Nails Inc, depressingly called The Thames, but at £10.50. From what I could tell it is no different to the good ole £2.95 Barry M.

I'm so excited to play with my new goodies, and am grateful to @littlepieces who so carefully picked these bits out for me. Have any of you already tried the MUA range at Superdrug? or have you got a favourite Barry M nail paint? Failing that...any tips for a loose eyeshadow beginner? I think it's going to be a bit of a messy learning curve to start off with!

Emma xx

Project 365: 7 Days in Pictures FAIL

2010-08-15T14:19:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone, I hope that you're all dandy!
The lovely Anita over at Explaining it All :) blog has started on an ambitious project, to capture her life in photos for the next year, which means one photo each day for the next 365 days. She challenged the readers of her blog and subscribers of her YouTube channel to do the same. Always keen to try something new, I thought i'd give it a go, but ever the pragmatist thought better to start small rather than sign on for the full 365 days straight off. My first goal was 7 days, with a view to extending to 30, but aswell as a pragmatist i'm also largely usesless, therefore, I didn't actually make it to my first goal. I missed day 6, and didn't even realise this until after day 8. I am indeed a failure.
Anyway here are the first and last eight photos of my Project 365. This is (kind of) the week that was:

Day 1: Cuppa in Starbucks

I do love a good cup of tea....unfortunately I have a peculiar aversion to coffee. It would make my life so much easier if I didn't, but there you go. The taste of coffee makes me gag, I've got to a point now where I can tolerate the smell of real coffee, but the smell of instant coffee turns my stomach...I sometimes have to leave the room if someone is drinking it :( Anyway...is always a tea for me, but I still like the appeal of a coffee shop, even if I can't drink the coffee. Is nice to get away for a couple of hours, with a cup of tea and a pastry to catch up on YouTube video subsriptions and read the most recent blog posts...gotta love a WiFi hotspot! Also, I love the Starbucks mugs. My cousin collects them... the limited edition Christmas mugs are always a good bet for a Christmas gift for her. There are also a couple of good independent coffee shops near where I live which I also like to frequent....a nice place to meet up with my friend who's recently had a baby...we've replaced nights out in cocktail bars, for afternoons in coffee shops where my friend unloads, and I coo over her gorgeous little man, lovely nonetheless.

Day 2: YouTube & TV

This is the same quite a lot of evenings to be honest....my laptop is worth it's weight in gold I tell ya!

Day 3: Crimpy Hair

In between all the excitement of YouTube and TV Shows I decided randomly to braid my hair, and then sleep in it...here are the results, which I talk about in greater detail on my most recent FOTD post.

Day 4: Corned Beef Hash
Hash indeed! I have been left all on my ownsome...and I seem to have reverted to being a student when it comes to my culinary expertise...in fact, I don't think I ever evolved past the student phase when it comes to my cooking...or rather improvisation with whatever ingredients are in the fridge at the time...the results of which are this hash with corned beef, and a slightly burnt fried egg on top. It's all glamour at my house.

Day 5: Cook Books

After yesterday's beauty of a dinner, I'm trying to gain some inspiration by perusing a few of my cook books....I have tons of them. I somehow believe that the more I own, the better my cooking will be...by osmosis perhaps? I love reading about food, just not so great on translating what's on the page onto the plate....one can dream I suppose!

Day 7: (failed on Day 6) DVD Overload

So, I failed to capture day 6 in a photo, so let's proceed straight to day 7, where I found myself bored, and ending up perusing the DVDs in my brother's room, and was also given permission to use his blu-ray player (for the first time ever!) He has so many more DVDs than I had realised, and more improtantly the second season of True Blood, which I had not seen yet, but I love! I spent a very pleasant evening watching this and have transferred whole heartedly from Team Bill to Team Eric. He is one extremely hot Viking. I apologise to all the Twi-Hards out there, but True Blood so kicks Twilight's arse. True Blood makes the boys in Twilight look like a bunch of pansies!! I do like Twilight, don't get me wrong, it's just that True Blood is like Twilight for grown-ups, I am not a teenage girl therefore my heart lies with Eric the Vampire i'm afraid!!
For the record, the photo above depicts only a small selection of my brother's DVDs....these are stacked all the way from the floor to the ceiling by the way, and this isn't even half of them. Definitely gonna have a little browse in here in the future...it's like having my own little DVD shop...except I don't have to pay, excepting via the occasional cup of tea here and there!

Day 8: Nail Organisation

I can't remember where I saw them, on some random YouTube video no doubt, but these nail tester wheels seemed like a really good idea, so I can properly get to grips with my ever growing nail polish collection...i'll do a proper blog post on them, but here is my pale pinks and nudes wheel....also helps when the polish sometimes dries a slightly different colour to how it looks in the bottle, will hopefully make it easier for me to choose the nail polish I want. I spent an evening basically pianting pieces of plastic with nail varnish. I properly stank the house out with this activity...ho hum!

Day 9: SPIDER!!

Here is what greeted me when I went to take a shower....a monster!! Sad cow that I am, I felt I needed to record the size of said monster so I helpfully placed my razor for scale purposes. Thankfully, while I don't really want to handle arachnids, I'm ok with removing them via the cup and card method. Did give me a start when I saw him though. I showed this photo to my brother when he got home from work, to which he said 'Oh yeah, I saw that in there this morning...left it where it was.' Yeah, thanks bro! That was real nice of ya.

So there you go. I hope you've enjoyed this little slice of the excitement of my life!
What have you been up to this week?

FOTD Casual Saturday

2010-08-07T15:06:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone, I hope you're all fine and dandy!
I haven't done a face of the day post in a while, so thought I'd do one today. Nothing special on the agenda today, as the blog title suggests, just a casual Saturday; running a few errands and a little shopping. Firstly I should mention the hair; bored while watching TV last night I put my hair into about 10 plaits/braids....I looked a treat I tell you! Anyway, I slept in them, and the "crimpy" hair was the result. I haven't done this in years...my mum used to put my hair in plaits on "bath nights" and i'd have my hair crimped thus regularly when I was at primary school...it was the 80s!! (or very early 1990's) I didn't mind my hair like this today...I think the headband helped, probably won't make a habit of it though, and only for the weekends. Do any of you still crimp your hair in this way? Onto my boat race (that's cockney rhyming slang for face for anyone who is uninitiated btw! My dad is full of the stuff, and have grown up hearing quite a lot of it....off for a ruby up the apple and pears, probably will be on my todd though, unless I get someone on the dog & bone...then back home for some 'oly ghost...Lol!)
Here are the products I used;

On me boat race
That Gal Primer all over & a little Coralista blush on my cheeks; both by Benefit.
Quite a light day, so didn't want to go for a heavy make up all over...obviously wearing my regular base of a moisturiser with an SPF and an eye cream

Eyes
Stay Don't Stray Primer as a base under my eyes, and on my eyelids, and Erase Paste as an undereye concealer. I set this with a little Powderflage...all these products by Benefit...a lot of Benefit today!
For eyeshadow; All that glitters all over my lid, and Sable in the outer corner and through the crease; both by MAC
I tight lined my eyes today with my Sleek Kajal liner in black. I have been tight lining a lot recently...because my relatively new Sleek Kajal is soft and easy to use this way, and I like how it gives you darker looking lashes without it looking like you're wearing eyeliner.
For mascara I used Avon Astonishing Lengths. This was a free with purchase item, which i'm just using as my No7 Intense Volume has now dried up. It's OK, I would not say astonishing lenghths are generated by this mascara, but it's fine for everyday wear, and separates my lashes quite nicely. As mascaras need to be thrown away after only a few months, I thought best to get some use out of this, before I carck open my brand new BadGal Lash in black, which i'm obviously quite excited about!
For brows I used an elf eyebrow kit in light, to tidy up my eyebrows a bit. I think this is basically a version of the Benefit Brow-Zings; a little coloured wax and powder with a double-ended brush to tame.

Lips
Nothing ground-breaking and very simple; as i'd done a bit more on my eyes and was such a casual day, I just used a bit of The Body Shop's lip butter in papaya. I'm loving the lip butters at the moment. I have just used up the Yes Yes Yes Oui Oui Oui, which i'll do a separate blog post on. The papaya pot lives by my bed, and the sweet lemon one lives in my handbag, I use them all the time, and love them so.

Here are a few more pics of me today. Thanks so much for reading, I hope you're all having a good weekend. What do you wear for make up on casual Saturdays?

Em xx

Olay Total Effects Radiance Enhancing Cream Wash

2010-08-04T03:32:00.000-07:00

Hello, my lovely and obviously very attractive readers! I offer another item up for my project 10 pan/infinity. I have been working on this for a while, and already had a back up, which i'm working on now. I picked these up a while ago when Boots were giving out vouchers at the till for £5 off an item in the Olay range, and I also believe other brands like Dr. Nick Lowe, L'Oreal and other slightly more premium skincare brands. Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, I went on a quest to find the cheapest item from one of these ranges to use my voucher on...as per usual, most items were significantly more than £5 and I probably wouldn't pick them up even with the money off, but after much perusal, I spotted this cream wash from Olay which was at about the £5.80 mark, (from memory, but was definitely less than £6) and as I was just about to run out of the facial wash I was using at that time, I snapped this up....bargain at 80p! Obviously at the till I got another one of those vouchers, but decided to give the product a try before spending another 80p. After a couple of uses, I approved, so went and spent that hard earned 80p on another one before the voucher expired. These vouchers pop up from time to time at Boots...worth keeping an eye out for them! So the cream wash, is well creamy! My skin feels really good after i've used it, not at all tight or dry like I do with some other cleansers i've used, it cleans my face really well, and the smell is just lovely. I can't really describe what the smell is, it is kinda sweet and fruity smelling, but seriously good...I'd be happy to use this if just for the very nice smell! It has "exfoliating micro beads" but I really don't think it effective as an exfoliator, I definitely would still use a face scrub or scrublet/exfoliating pad type accessory separately to exfoliate my face. Having said that, this felt quite gentle on my skin and I happily use it twice daily with absolutely no problems (apart from days when I was using a face scrub or face mask which I do once or twice a week in general) It lasted me absolutely ages and I was extremely happy with it. Would I re-purchase? Definitely. If I get another one of those £5 Olay vouchers I will be snapping this up again in an instant, but when my project infinity is complete (I have a couple more trial size face washes to use up) I think there is a very strong possibility that I will buy this again, even at full price. Less than six quid for a facial wash that i'm happy to use twice daily, leaves my skin feeling clean but not tight, and has an awesome smell, is a winner in my book! Have you tried any of the other Olay facial skincare products? Do you have any favourites to recommend?

Emma xx

Lush Massage Bar; Each Peach & Two's a Pear

2010-08-03T02:42:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone, I hope you're all keeping well! Today's review is for one of the Lush Massage Bars, more specifically Each Peach & Two's a Pear. If you're not familiar with the massage bar concept, basically it is a bar, not dissimilar looking to a soap, that is largely made from shea & cocoa butter, that when warmed up, or massaged onto skin melts slightly, leaving a layer of the product over the skin. The Each Peach bar also contains avocado butter, and mango butter, which I understand is softer than cocoa or shea butter, and more moisturising. Alternatively, as opposed to using this for massage, it is also wonderful as a solid moisturiser, which is what I used it for.
Unlike the name might suggest, it smells neither of peaches nor pears, but is super citrussy...but a sweet citrussy. This might have something to do with it containing essential oils of lime, mandarin, orange and grapefruit...just a guess! It smells seriously good, I love it, and it does hang around, so you smell of it for many hours afterwards....lovely.
It moisturises really well, but what I will say, is this is not one you can use after a shower, then get dressed and ready to go out...the butter on your skin takes a while to sink in, and you'd no doubt get it all over your clothes and they would stick to you etc etc...not the best idea! This is much better to use in the evening, or before bed, when you're only putting your jim jams on, and not venturing out. This might be a big issue for some people, but as I tend to have baths or showers just before bed this worked really well for me. I used it in place of a more regular style body lotion/moisturiser (one that I might be using if I were showering before going out, so that I could wear clothes straight after!) I rubbed the bar over my arms, legs and body, and rubbed in the oil that remains. You'll find that you will need to more evenly distribute the oil, as more is left on the warmer bits of your body, for example, I have found that my shoulders and the tops of my arms are a lot warmer than the rest of my arms so I start there to warm the bar up a bit then work down. It should also be mentioned that the ease of use of this bar is affected by the weather, more specifically, the ambient temperature. When it is colder it takes a bit longer to work the bar into your skin...and is good to start off on the warmer bits of your body to warm the bar up, and conversely, when it is hot, it is far easier to use, but can get liquidy very quickly if you're not careful. You will definitely need some kind of receptacle in order to rest the bar when it gets a bit too slippy, and store it in between uses. For this I used the conveniently shaped tin sold by Lush:
This tin is available for £2.95 and is made for such a purpose. It is also free if you buy two massage bars, which I did, so this is where my massage bar consequently lives. Equally some kind of small tupperware style container would be perfect for this. If you plan to keep your massage bar in your bathroom, then the tin may not be the best choice for you, as it will start to rust if kept in a damp atmosphere, but if like me, you keep it your bedroom, then the tin is great. Also a great solution if you wish to travel with it...you would not want to put this loose in a bag, or where it is in contact with other things, unless of course you do want bits of massage bar all over them!! Is also appealing, as this is sold as a "naked" product, so after you're done, there is no bottle to throw away, or more hopefully recycle, just the re-useable tin.
Overall, I really loved my bar of Each Peach, and was really gutted when I finished mine up. I'm currently working on the other massage bar I bought; Fever, but i'm not loving it as much as I did Each Peach. Will I re-purchase? As soon as my Fever is done, then I most definitely will. Have any of you tried any of the Lush massage bars? What's your favourite?

On a separate note, but still Lush related, I had these two little trial sizes of the Imperialis and Skin Drink moisturiser which I used up as part of my project infinity. The moisturisers weren't for me, but the empty tins are each redeemable for £1 off the corresponding full sized moisturiser. Is anyone in the UK interested in trying one of these out, or is it in fact your moisturiser of choice? If so, i'm happy to send on the little tin to you for you to cash in at your local Lush...leave a comment below with your email address and i'll be in contact re popping one of these in the post to you.

That's all for now beautiful people, y'all take care now!

Ems xx

The Body Shop Tantalising Lip Butter; YES YES YES! OUI OUI OUI!

2010-08-03T02:39:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone, so I have mentioned this a few times both on this blog and on my YouTube videos, so I thought it was about time that I did an actual blog post on it...I'm going through a bit of an obsession with these at the moment... I have the Sweet Lemon, Papaya and the Pink Grapefruit, but this is the one I love the most. It's the best lip balm type product i've used in a long time, super moisturising, smells & tastes lovely. It's made from dragon fruit extract. Now I didn't really know what a dragon fruit was, so one quick google later, here is a dragon fruit:
Now that I have seen it, I can confirm that I have seen these before, usually as decoration on buffet platters tbh, but I have never tasted one, so I cannot confirm how much the lip balm tastes like an actual dragon fruit, but I can confirm that I like it muchly.
I didn't originally pick this up in store, but the very helpful sales assistant at the till mentioned it, as it is one of their charity products, and i'm unbelievably glad that she did. (On the subject, I do have to say that I have always had good experiences with the sales assistants in The Body Shop, they are always very knowledgable and helpful, which is actually very unusual in retail these day...so props to The Body Shop in that respect...keep up the good work!) The proceeds from this item go to the Staying Alive Foundation, in association with MTV, to raise awareness in HIV and AIDs, so it's for a good cause too, which is always a bonus i'm sure you'll agree.
I'm not sure how long these will be in stores, but I'm definitely going to be picking up another one of these the next time that i'm in a Body Shop. Basically I love it.

What are your favourite lip balms? I've already been recommended the M&S lip butters, which I will definitely be trying out, but I have a feeling that The Body Shop lip butters are going to be my "go to" lip balms for quite a while yet.

Emma x

Lush Happy Hippy Shower Gel

2010-08-03T01:43:00.000-07:00

Here is another small offering to the project 10 pan/infinity gods! The Happy Hippy Shower Gel from Lush which as you can see from the picture is a grapefruit hair and body gel. (please forgive me for the hair that seems to have crept into image...mucho apologies!) I can't testify if this is any good on hair, as I never used it for this purpose, just a straight up shower gel. I always see that on shower gels....does anyone ever actually use them for your hair, or is this more suitable if you're a boy, have really short hair and are happy with a multi purpose type product? My hair is much more needy than that!! Let me just say....a lot happier with this than I was with the Shower Jelly....I'm actually much more of a Lush lover than a hater, so the Jelly was obviously an abhoration. The scent is just lovely....quite obviously smells very strongly of grapefruit, so if you no likey, then this really isn't one for you. Fortunately I am a fan of these citrus type smells so this was a winner for me! I actually got this for free after Christmas in a goody bag with purchase, but this ain't no dinky trial size, although it is a nice travel friendly size bottle of 100g (£2.80 in stores) This would be good for a holiday, but I have to say, this ickle bottle lasted me blummin' ages, like ages and ages, it was epic, I really thought it would never finish....so would most definitely last you for a two week holiday, and I imagine you'd still have plenty left on your return. It's zesty fragrance is very uplifting, and definitely a good option to start your day, or reinvigorate you after a long day on the beach, before hitting a restaurant or some bars. Now onto the slightly strange....the consistency of this is....different. It's uber thick, a lot more thick than any other showere gel I've used before, and if I had to describe it i'd say the consistency reminds me of lemon curd. Yes I know that sounds strange, but if I had a choice, I prefer that to super runny...I was not losing vast amounts down the plug hole as I used...probably part of the reason why the bottle lasted me so long, it was very efficient! However, this is also the slight downfall of the product; the dispenser lid had quite a small hole, which didn't take kindly to having something as thick as lemon curd squeezed through it....I'm guessing this is why lemon curd comes in jars rather than in squeezy bottles! This was ok with a full bottle, but as I used more, I found it difficult to get it out of the bottle....then I realised you could simply unsrew the cap, and then squeeze out of the actual bottle neck. Duh. It took me quite a long time to work this out, and by a long time, I mean several showers. There I was fighting with it, when all I had to do was unscrew the cap....idiot. Now I'm not suggesting that any of you are as stupid as me, but just be prepared to unscrew the cap if you were to purchase yourself. The cap is easily unscrewed and replaced FYI...it is not glued like some bottles annoyingly are, cos if you're like me, you try and get every last available drop out of everything you use!. On the whole really I liked this one. Would I re-purchase? Probably....but of course Lush has so many other shower gels for me to try first!! I'm working on Tramp at the moment....review on that will be forthcoming, but I would be happy if I saw Happy Hippy in a Lush gift set to give to one of my beautiful friends....which I am liable to do when I'm lacking in further inspiration when buying gifts for them! What I will say also aswell, is this is quite a unisex friendly shower gel. What I mean, is that while I wouldn't buy this specifically for a male friend/boyfriend type person, unless they had some particular predeliction for grapefruit of course, I think would absolutely fine for them to "borrow" it if they were a guest in your shower for whatever reason! Not super girly, just fresh & fruity, and hey, maybe they could use it on their hair too?! Happy Days.
Essentially, Happy Hippy makes me happy. What other Lush products make you happy?

Em xx

L'Oreal Renewal Lash Serum; Update & Review

2010-07-23T04:13:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone, so I first blogged about this back in April (here) and I have been applying this most nights since then. and below are the results....please excuse the no make up shots!

BEFORE

AFTER

Hmmm. Well, there isn't a huge amount of difference. The length looks the same, and I think in the after the lashes look a bit more even and filled out, there are no discernible gaps, and they feel like they're in quite good condition. I think there has been a bit of an improvement overall. My lashes weren't in terrible condition to start off with so perhaps there would have been a bigger difference had they been.
This was easy to adapt into my routine, I didn't use this during the day as i found the lashes get a bit sticky...not ideal under mascara! At night i'd just whack a little of this on after i'd put on my eye cream. I've been using this for about 3 months now, and the tube is just beginning to run out...that's probably about right in terms of hygiene i'd say. You probably would want to treat this like a mascara and chuck it out after about 3 months anyway. This would obviously have run out a bit faster if i'd been using is morning and night.
One small point, be careful not to get too close to the lash line with this, as I have poked myself on more than one occasion...probably more due to the fact i'm doing this last thing at night without my glasses or contacts on/in but it does hurt...just be a little bit cautious!
Other bloggers have commented that the gel goes all yucky and funny coloured after a bit of use. My tube and wand currently are below

As you can see, still fairly clean. I think a little bit of common sense comes into play here. You will notice that mascara traces do come off on the wand as you use this. This was quite good in telling me when i hadn't taken my make-up off properly and also if my eye make-up remover was working...my eyelashes looked free of mascara, but they obvioulsy were not! Instead of putting the wand back in the tube, if mascara had come off on it, I simply either ran it under the tap for a few seconds then dried it off, or wiped it with a baby/facial wipe. Keeping the wand clean, generally keeps the gel inside clean too....simples! I didn't want to go so far as disinfecting the actual wand, as i would be putting it near my eye the next day, and i figured an occasional rinse was better than i do with my mascara wand anyway right?! So I have no complaints really on that front.

Overall, will I re-purchase? I possibly will. If i notice my eyelashes starting to go the way of the pear again, this is quite readily available, affordable and easy to use. For the time being I'll finish up this tube then leave my lashes alone for a while. If they then start falling out, i'll know what was keeping them in! I'll give you an update as to how my lashes are getting on sans serum a little way down the road.

What do you guys think? Have you used this before? Also if you have any questions, please let me know in the comments below,

Thanks again,

Emma xx

Project Infinity: Using Up Those Samples!

2010-07-21T18:53:00.000-07:00

This (hopefully quick) post is just to let you guys know i'm still plugging away at Project Infinity. As per the rules (which I posted here) I am to use up all samples and trial sizes that fall under the category skin, body or hair care. I have already used up a few trial sized bottles of moisturiser along the way, but i'm still going. I happened upon a stash of random sachets that I seem to have accrued a couple of weeks back, a small selection of which the picture above illustrates. I'm not really sure what I was saving these for, which I suppose is partly the point of the project...to get rid of all the randomness. So I have started using these up. I'm happy to report, that from the picture above, I believe only one of the sachets is still in existance. As it stands, I have about four in total of all the sachets of randomness left. Pretty good I think, am slowly getting there. Regarding the project as a whole, I still have a small mountain to climb. I would not be at all surprised if I have not finished the project by the end of 2010. Probably not a bad thing, as a previous post (here) explains that in my current condition, my earning potential for 2010 has been severely damaged by circumstances beyond my control (for the record, Statutory Sick Pay sucks) I probably shouldn't be spending my money on moisturisers and shampoos, when I have plenty enough to be going on with. I'll continue to deliver mini reviews as I go along. In the meantime, below is a picture of me, that illustrates absolutely nothing. I stole my brother's hat and took an odd posey picture. I don't really know why.
What do you guys do with the random samples/sachets that we all seem to acquire from magazines and various sporadic places? Do you bin them, or do you try them out straight away? Do you save them up like I do, for reasons I cannot articulate, or can you articulate reasons why you might hoarde them?

Yours Forever Project Infinity-ing

Em x

Secret Post Club; Edition the First

2010-07-21T17:39:00.000-07:00

I don't know about you, but I love getting post....not the rubbishy bills or junk mail variety of course, but letters, cards, handwritten notes, and of course things you may have swapped or ordered, which in my case largely consists of books, DVDs, and pretty make-up and beauty type objects. When I was a lot younger; i'm talking aged 11-16, I used to have lots of pen pals, who I had "collected" from various summer holidays, and spent an intense week or fortnight getting to know eachother, vowing to be friends for life. One of these penpals lived in Ireland and we pretty much corresponded throughout our entire adolescence. I poured out my heart on those pages, and told her my innermost thoughts (which let's face it, were usually about boys, and who I couldn't admit to fancying to my school friends, as they might actually tell said boy, and complete mortification would ensue) In return she told me all of her secrets (again, usually about boys). Sadly as we both got older, our letter writing dried up, I believe around the time we both discovered nightclubs, and illegal drinking, and would be having drunken snogs in dark corners with previously mentioned boys. I corresponded with some of my friends from school if we were separated for a summer, and then again, when I started university at 18, I wrote letters to several of my school friends...however this again had largely dried up by the time we reached second year, and we were drinking even more (legally this time) at the student union, and we were probably still snogging those boys, but this time in dark corners of the union, or in our halls of residence/student houses. Letter writing was replaced by text messaging or mass emails, which has continued to this day, and of course, several years later by facebook. I mean I don't even get paper invitations to anything these days either, is all done by email or the good ole facebook event invite. I even got invited to a wedding via facebook a couple of years back. I'm happy to report that on the whole I have largely received paper invites via Royal Mail for the rest of the weddings I have attended... but the occasion of the fb wedding invite does pretty much sum up the way the world has gone in terms of the "art of letter writing" or generally receiving good things in the mail. This makes the rare times I get something in the post, usually at birthdays, Christmas, or for those special events like Weddings, super special.
This brings me onto the actual point of my post...The Secret Post Club. As the name suggests, it's kinda like a secret santa, but where fellow bloggers are allocated a name from the club members, and each of those people buys/makes/passes on a gift to that blogger, and this is repeated every month (should you wish to participate in that month's swap). When you are given your blogger name, you are encouraged to look at their blog, and twitter, if they have one, and work out what you think might be the perfect gift for them. This way you not only hopefully get a personalised surprise from your "secret poster" but you get to find a new blog to read that you might not have spotted before, and everyone gets to share the love...generally a very lovely thing! You can then check out the blog of the person who sent you your gift too...so that's two new blogs you've been opened up to yourself, and if you blog about your gift, you open up their blogs to everyone who reads your blog too....spreading the postal joy all round! I see it as a perfect combination of old school correspondence and contemporary digital media...this makes Emma a happy bunny!
I cannot for the life of me remember how I happened upon this wonderful idea, but I believe it was mentioned on a blog I was randomly perusing, then I followed the breadcrumbs until I had learned all about it, and signed myself up. If i've managed it correctly (which will be blummin' lucky if I have) If you click on the pretty Secret Post Club tag at the top, you will be whisked away to the lovely Heather's blog, who is "chief elf" when it comes to the Secret Post Club. There you will find the details of how it works, and how to sign up, if I have anyway tempted you with this little post.

Anyhoo, this month, I was given Megan of The Lady Who Lunches Blog to post my gift to, which I hope she liked. I really liked Megan's blog, which I probably would never have happened upon, had it not been for the Post Club, but i'm now a follower, and am looking forward to reading about how she adjusts back to life in the States. I'd recommend checking out her blog yourself.
I received a lovely parcel from Becky over at beckywilloughby.blogspot.com who writes a blog about being a single mum. Here are the lovely things she sent me

Books! Yay! Firstly Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant. This was in the TV Book Club earlier this year (is anyone else watching this? it's on More 4/Channel 4 and they're currently doing the Summer Book Club) This is set in 16th Century Italy in a convent. During this time in Italy wedding dowries were so expensive, that it was often cheaper to ship your daughter off to the convent and have her become a nun....regardless of what she wanted of course! I think this will be an interesting read.
Secondly A Gathering Light by Jennifer Donnelly. This is set in 1906 in the mountains of New York (state of course!) and is a bit of a murder mystery/coming of age story told from the point of view of 17 year old Mattie. I think this is technically a children's book, but one of those good ones, that appeals to adults too (obviously aimed at older children, not little ones!) I love these kind of books though...I don't think there should be any snobbery when it comes to children's literature at all. I love the Celia Rees books which I think are probably quite similar to this novel, and of course the Harry Potters of this world. I've read a couple of the Percy Jackson series recently. While not as good as Harry Potter, and quite a rip off of them in a lot of respects (in my opinion of course....there are quite a number of formulaic elements that even Rick Riordan must agree owe a lot to the Harry Potter series) they were still quite entertaining. Best part about these children's books, is that you can get through them quickly....bonus!!
I shall enjoy reading those. Becky also sent a couple of scented candles, which was lovely....gotta love a scented candle haven't you?! So all in all, very happy with my post club gift...Thank you Becky!!

Right, so there you are....my first Secret Post Club blog post...I hope there shall be many more!
Comment below if you guys have any questions, i'll do my best to answer!

Til next time,

Em xx

Take One Dress....

2010-07-21T13:35:00.001-07:00

So this is the dress I refer to;

I picked it up in the Primark sale for £5. It's coral with plasticky looking gold buttons, and has a nautical look about it, I thought nautical & coral for summer....bonus! Plus I think this shade is actually quite flattering for my skin tone. Trouble was, I really hated those buttons...there's a better picture below (the bottom button obvs!) and trust me, it looks far tackier in real life, very very plastic. I have a feeling that these are what landed this otherwise quite nice dress in the sale...soo I thought, couldn't I just put on buttons I liked better? One fiver handed over, and a trip to the John Lewis haberdashery department later I came away with these mother of pearl buttons for 20p each....much prettier & far less tacky. Also they "neutralise" the dress, so i'm not limited to just gold accessories with this, I can now go silver or black too (there are other colours you could use obviously, but those are my most likely accessory combos personally)

15 minutes of snipping and sewing later, and I was left with the results below....the camera is flashing off the buttons here slightly, obviously much more subtle in real life!

I now have a dress that i'm far more likely to wear, and a greater range of shoes and accessories that I can use with it. Pretty happy with my very minimal handiwork all in all! Plus also, that now this dress, although from good ole Primani, is unique to me, customised by Emma.

What are your thoughts on customising old clothes, or things you find in the sale to update them or make them wearable? I know I didn't change anything too radically here, and was a very quick, easy and cheap update, but I think makes quite a bit of a difference. Do you do this kind of thing quite routinely, and how far do you go in your pursuits of customisation/upcycling?

Em x

A Little Bit of a Different Blog Post

2010-07-12T12:22:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone, as the title to this post suggests, this post is going to be a little bit different, and a little bit more personal than the slightly more fluffy (but admittedly lovely) little world of beauty and make up. As I have mentioned in a post before I got glandular fever (also known as mono, or mononucleosis to any non-Brits out there) in January, and have been suffering from the after effects of it ever since. From what I understand, this seems to affect different people, well differently; some seem to have glandular fever, but have a bit of flu symptoms, and are back up and running within a couple of weeks. However, now I have a greater awareness of it, it seems that the world and his wife has had it, and it has caused massive problems...i'm now forever hearing about sports personalities who have been properly put out of action by the dreaded mono...along with a bloke who lives down my street who said it took him 18 months to get over. In my case, apart from the nasty flu symptoms, and one particularly scary day when I was convinced that my throat was actually closing up, and was struggling to breathe, my main problem was the rash I got from incorrectly prescribed anti-biotics. This manifested in a particularly attractive manner where my face got so red and swollen, that my face actually started going purple....followed by my entire body being covered by said rash....hot I was not....apart from actually physically hot of course...the heat coming off my skin was enough to heat a family home all of it's own accord....I swear, boy scouts could have toasted their marshmallows off me (although that wouldn't have been terribly hygienic, and I would have scared the poor boys with my beetroot head, and put them off women for life) This excruciating rash (so hot and painful it was actually uncomfortable to wear clothes) lasted for about two weeks...then I moved onto the next delightful stage where I was sleeping for about 20 hours a day. Slowly (very slowly) and with the help of some pills, I managed to get my sleep patterns back to being (mostly) awake during the day. I think my family were probably quite pleased that the falling asleep randomly stopped....seriously....mid conversation sometimes, i'd be chatting away, then next second whoever I conversing with would look back and i'd be properly and soundly asleep, also mid-task....most frequently while eating, yes like overtired toddlers do! After the initial comedy value of this, i'm sure that got quite annoying for the people around me. Falling asleep on the bathroom floor at work was probably was a low point. This was actually after fainting first, so suffice to say, I caused a bit of drama in the office that particular day.
Anyway, it's 7 months down the road and i'm still not better. I've seen a consultant and i've been provisionally diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/ME, although several doctor friends of mine have said that it's perfectly possible that my symptoms are just from the glandular fever. We shall see. Best prognosis, I may feel a world of difference this time next year, or I could be like this or something like this for the rest of my life...I may need to adapt and reconsider a few things but trying my best to stay positive, making the best of things that I can...things could be much worse right?
Basically, I have to be super careful about what I do, everything, and I mean everything I do, consumes my energy, and I have a seriously limited supply. Case in point...a couple weekends back, one of my best friends from my university days was having a flat-warming party. My dad very kindly drove me into London to her new flat (what? I'm spoiled!) I spent approximately 3-4 hours there, felt I was going to fall asleep, left, 10 minute walk to the station, 10 minute tube ride to mainline train station, 20 minute train ride home (I was sitting for all the train journies) and my lovely papa picked me up from the train station. I was home by about 7pm, and slept for the rest of the evening. That little escapade put me in bed for two days. Sucks right? I would not have thought twice about doing 5 times that amount of activity in a day before as per most 28 year olds I suspect! Anyway, i'm taking baby steps...gradually building up my activity, and basically putting most if not all social activity on ice until i'm a bit stronger. Just getting out of the house and spending (part-time hours to start) a day at work is enough at the moment. What I feel pretty much every day is an all encompassing tiredness that gets progressively worse throughout the day, and I feel constantly achy and heavy. I really think there should be better adjectives than tired and achy though to be honest, as this is probably why people look at me like i'm making it up...trouble is, I don't look like i'm sufferening, apart from a little tired sometimes, I look like i'm ok...apart from the fact i've lost weight since this whole thing started. I'll try and explain the "achy" if I can... imagine how you feel when you're coming down with a bad cold/flu, when you feel achy all over, leaden and it basically hurts to move, and then think about if you've had a really intense exercise class, or run 5k or something similar, and then how crap and painful/achy you feel the day after. Combine the two, multiply it by about two or three, and that's about how I feel most days....and those are the good days. It's difficult to explain when it's a effort to do anything, and even if you're feeling quite good, and try and do a little more than you should (i'm talking moving a couple of boxes for an example) that you might knock youself out for the rest of the day, or the following couple days...and not be able to get out of bed/sleep almost constantly. My life is a balance of me working out what I think I can do, then actually doing significantly less than what I think I can do....if I stick to that, I can just about muddle through!

Anyways....congratulations if you've made it this far in the epic blog post, thank you for sticking with me this far! This has been a very long way of explaining why i've been so rubbish at updating this blog. I'm sorry guys! I'll try my best to be a bit better in the future. The good things about some of my main loves in this world, is that they are quite sedentary activities....namely reading all my lovely books, and playing with lots of pretty make up. Is just difficult to find the energy to blog about these things sometimes. But as I said before, i'm seriously restricting my foray out into the actual world at the moment....so maybe I'll increase my time in this little virtual world!
I'm continuling to do research to see if there is anyway I can help myself, on my little road to hopefully feeling normal again. I'm interested, if you've stuck with me to the end of this post, have you ever suffered from glandular fever/mono? If so what was your experience? and did you find anything to help yourself? Or do you know anyone who has any helpful thoughts or tips?
Thank you one and all for reading! Hope I haven't bored you all too much. I hope that you're all well!
Em xx

Clothes Show Live Haul

2010-06-30T03:31:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone! I went to the Clothes Show Live at Earls Court in London on Saturday, for a completely girly day filled with fashion, make up, beauty products and quite a lot of half naked male models. There was an actual clothes show presented by George & Larry Lamb which had a really good production value; a mix of both regular runway/catwalk stuff and dance numbers! There were also a mob of teenage girls that started screaming everytime a male model came out with any amount of flesh showing....made me feel like the oldest one in the room!!
The main reason for the day was, of course, the shopping. A lot of exhibitors were showing their wares, and it was a great opprtunity to pick up discounts, slightly more unique pieces, and freebies. So let's get on with the haul!

Below are the items I "bought" let's say...these are the things were there were no particular bulk deals, or goodie bags involved

Benefit Coralista; I was very restrained at the Benefit counter...this is the item I came for and the only one I left with, they had a 15% discount which was obviously a big bonus!
OPI Polishes: these are usually about £10 here in the UK :( so when I saw a stand offering a whole array at 3 for £20 I jumped...not a huge discount, but better than a slap in the face! The colours I chose l-r were Ate Berries in the Canaries/Bubble Bath/Dutch Tulips
Scottie Dog Earrings: from a company called Strawberry Bunny which had some really cute pieces, I left it at these cute little studs for two quid, but I might pop along to their actual shop sometime in the future.
Pink Polka Dot Dress: This was from a company called Trollied Dolly and their stand was filled with super cute vintage style pint dresses....this is so my style, I could have walked away with any number of the dresses...they were all what I term "Emma Dresses" and whenever I see something like this in a shop i'm immdeiately drawn to it...and my friends know exactly what i'm talking about....they know an Emma dress when they see one! This little gem was a bargain at only a tenner. It's quite a simple shape, with a boat neck and a bow side tie, but it's the colour that does it for me. I'll have to include it in an OOTD for you guys sometime!

Onto Sleek; They had quite a big stand, offering make overs, and matching your foundation shade...there was a massive queue for that though so I went straight for the make up! This is a pre-made goodie bag for £10, mine included:
Original Sleek Palette
Pout Polish in Electro Peach
Glo Bronzer in Bronze Baby....a shimmer brick style bronzer
5 pack of make up brushes
False Eyelashes
& an Oyster Card Holder (travelcard for London Underground/Tube for the unitiated!)
I'm excited to try my new goodies out!

Now, Montagne Jeunesse...
You may have seen these face packs in Superdrug and the like....they are usually £1 a pop...or more, but they were offering these for 50p each, or you could buy a goodie bag for £3 with assorted items or 2 goodie bags for a fiver. I went for the 2! As you can see I got a ton on product, from the more usual face packs to hair masks, leg masks (?!) and wash out hair colour. I have never tried any of these products out before, but think I will have many pampering treats from this little lot....I'll let you know how I find them as I go if you like? Have any of you tried the Montagne Jeunesse products before?

Also, I realise I have big-time cheated on my project 10 pan with that last one....but I got swept up in the excitement of the day! I would not get an opportunity like this to try these out on this scale otherwise....i'm also almost done on two things of face packs I have. I'll put reviews of these up soon, and i'm not allowed to use these until they are done. I hope you'll let me off on my indiscretion for the one-off special circumstances! I'm not booked up to see any of these shows in the future...promise!

Onto more of the freebies!!

This is a small selection of the things I was given on the day.....quite a lot of it was food, that did not make it's way back except in my belly! and there were also random sachets and several packs of feminine hygeine products that I figured you probably didn't need to see photos of. There was a goodie bag that everyone got on the way out, but the other ones were if you buy one of the magazines....usually for £1 or £2 you got the goody bag free. I got a few make up bits and pieces. And full size shampoos and condtioners. I do realise a lot of this is now added to my pit of project 10 pan. I will have to use up all these sachets and samples before i'm allowed to buy new stuff....not sure if that's a good or bad thing? Will save me some cash in the long run hopefully! I also got a full sized Batiste Dry Shampoo....I love this stuff! such a good thing for in between hair wash days, and when I'm running super late and need a quick freshen up. If you haven't used this before, I would thoroughly recommend!

So there we are! If you're interested I have a video on my YouTube channel which you can see here I go into greater detail on a few of the things i've mentioned.

Right you beautiful people....i'm off to play with my shiny, pretty new things!

Love Em xx

Let The River Run TAG

2010-06-29T14:54:00.000-07:00

I was tagged by the very lovely Elle to do this, and so your wish is my command!
This could also be known as the iPod Shuffle game...basically put your songs on shuffle and list the song title as answers to the questions below...some are quite prophetic, scarily accurate, and some downright hirarious. No cheating!! Why not give it a go?

I should say, that I have been quite fortunate with the shuffle fairies for the answers below....let's say that I have a very "eclectic" taste in music and most of the songs on there are pretty damn embarrassing...I won't go into details as to what could be more embarassing than the Glee or the Hairspray soundtrack....but as the shuffle fairies have been kind to me I don't have to reveal the most embarrassing gems that are on there!! Enjoy x

RULES:

1. Put your MP3 player/ iPod/ iTunes on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. You must write the song name down, no matter how silly it sounds

If someone says ‘is this OK?’ you say: White Diamonds: Friendly Fires

How would you describe yourself? Everybody Knows You Cried Last Night: The Fratellis....yeah, at my face.

What do you like in a guy/girl? 3 Words: Cheryl Cole....literally the only Chezza track out of all the songs on there...what are the chances?!

How do you feel today? Ex Lover: Friendly Fires

What is your life’s purpose? Live High: Jason Mraz

What is your motto? It Kills Me: Jason Mraz

What do your friends think of you? She’s Got You High: Mumm-Ra (500 Days of Summer Soundtrack)……lol!!

What do your parents think of you? Baby (You’ve Got What It Takes): Michael Buble……double lol!!

What do you think about very often? Sam’s Town: The Killers

What do you think of the person you like? The Airplane Song: Scouting For Girls…..ooh a kinda love song…that was lucky! “she never told me she was leaving…”… Yeah sounds about right!!

What is your life story? Lifeboats: Snow Patrol….Why? Because I always seem to be sinking perhaps? Or because I need to be saved? Hmmm

What do you want to be when you grow up? I Love: Athlete……“I love everybody here / Life is beautiful for sure / Cos I love everybody here”…. They’re really nice lyrics….that’s a good thing to be when I finally grow up…loving everyone!!

What do you think when you see the person you like? Poker Face: ashamedly so…..Glee Cast Version……what? Ok I pretty much love Glee….you might as well know that now!…this version is sung by Idina Menzel (who is an absolute legend) and Lea Michele….I love this version. Don’t care if you think I’m a loser!! ….and oddly a pretty accurate description of how I act when I like someone….like I don’t like them…or at least I try to, sometimes I lose my cool!! Lol!!

What will you dance to at your wedding? Chasing Cars: Snow Patrol…..yeah if I want to slit my wrists at my wedding….no, is actually a really lovely song and sort of appropriate, is sorta all about all encompassing love after all….is just used by LOTS of TV shows, usually in their finales when something dramatic is happening, like someone dying, and I like the big girl I am, am usually in floods of tears, so I associate this song with being sad…probably not what you’re going for on the happiest day of your life!!

What will they play at your funeral? Smile: again, ashamedly so…Glee Cast…not the Lily Allen version…..OMG how awful would I have to be for my friends family to play this at my funeral? Or worse, how horrible would I be to be saying that I would be smiling and laughing at them all crying whilst looking on (probably up from hell if that’s the case) while they’re at my funeral?!!

What it your hobby/interest? A Story of Boy Meets Girl: Mychael Danna & Rob Simonsen (500 Days of Summer Soundtrack)….kinda not a song but the opening narration to the film… “you should know up front…this is not a love story” …again hobby…cruising for boys? Possibly accurate…it not ending up as a love story? Wildly accurate!!

What is your biggest fear? Ladies Choice: Zac Efron (Hairspray Soundtrack)…..Lol! I love musicals BTW…Ladies Choice as biggest fear? Perhaps getting rejected by my choice, yes!!

What is your biggest secret? How To Be Dead: Snow Patrol…..that’s a bit depressing

What do you think of your friends? Doginabag: The Fratellis…..Could that answer have been any more perfect? My friends are all dogs. Lol!!! (no seriously, they are not, they are all beautiful, wonderful human beans….they’d have to be to put up with me at least!)

What will you post this as? Let River Run: Carly Simon…..frickin’ awesome song!! It won the Oscar for Best Song for the film Working Girl don’tcha know?!….gotta love a bit of 80s….i’m certainly loving (ironically) those huge shoulder pads!!

P.S. Just for fun I clicked the next song to see what the title of this post could have been…..it was F**k You by Lily Allen. Aren’t you glad I didn’t put this as the title to this post?!!

So there you go....this was a really fun Tag, therefore, I Tag You!!
In particular, I tag the following:
Sarah thetrunkmoves
Anita FYI Explains
And last but not least Natural Goodies....hope you guys can do it!

Love as always, Em xxx

OOTD Outfits of the Day (Plural)

2010-06-21T08:01:00.000-07:00

Hello Beautiful People!
If you're remotely interested, i've been updating my YouTube channel with OOTDs recently, I quite like these videos, as they're quick and easy to do, and give you guys a bit of an insight to what my everyday style is, and what I look like when I actually leave the house, rather than what I look like when i'm playing in my room!

Yesterday I went to a friend's housewarming party and wore a bit of a summer casual outfit. If you want to see what I wore click here. I'm loving the skirt I wore, and the necklace is one of my faves

On Friday was the football, and also quite a casual day Chez Ems, this is quite typical of what I wear most days...i'm very much a jeans girl!

I love the more summery weather, because I can wear summery dresses like this one. I'm really liking this style of dress, where it looks like a skirt and a top...v easy to wear!

Let me know if any of you guys are posting OOTDs, as I really love seeing what other people are wearing...I like seeing "real" people, so much better than seeing what "un-real" people are wearing on the tv and in magazines!!

Hope you're having a good day watching the World Cup/Wimbledon/Whatever you're doing!!
Em xx

Crafty Bits; Birth Sampler

2010-06-21T07:37:00.000-07:00

Hi Y'all! I hope that you're all fine & dandy! This is most definitely not a beauty related post. I thought some of you might be interested to see the other things I get up to. I really enjoy making stuff...I don't do it very often, but I have been known to make my own cards and stuff like that, this is usually for special occasions as I don't have a very efficient set up, and not a lot of time either. One of my best friends recently had a baby and he is gorgeous! To mark the occasion Auntie Em (for that is how I am known at her house now...no longer Emma, we have all become defined by the baby!) decided to make a cross stitch sampler for the family to keep. Just to give you an idea of scale, this fit an 8x10 inch frame. It took me frickin' ages to complete, and I went wrong so many times, but I think it turned out ok in the end. Mummy & Daddy were really pleased with it (well they told me they were anyway...they could have been lying!!) and i'm glad I was able to give them something personal along with all the regular sleepsuits and cuddly toys they were deluged with. If you guys are cool with it I might occasionally go off on a tangent from the regular beauty route and let you know some of my other activities?

Have you guys made anything special for friends or family? I always like giving personal gifts for special people on special occasions, we might be able to share some good ideas?!

Love you guys,

Auntie Em xx

Project Infinity: Recent Boots & Lush

2010-06-18T10:43:00.000-07:00

So while I've been absent (sorry about that!) I've used a couple more products up from Boots & Lush....here are my thoughts!!

Lush Shower Jelly in Strawberry Santa
This is the only one of the shower jellies that I have tried from Lush, but I'd have to say based on this one, I won't be purchasing anymore. I got this as a freebie after Christmas from their what's in the box promo, where this was in one of the sets I picked up for free with another purchase. I probably would have been disappointed if I'd have paid for this.
Obviously it is a limited edition product, but I suppose it is possible they'll be bringing it back this Xmas. Firstly the smell; you can see from the photo that they describe it as vanilla & coconut scented. I would have to say that the overriding fragrance for me was cinammon, not vanilla or coconut. This is great if you like cinammon, unfortunately for me I really don't....it smells just like the red Aftershock drink (if you're old enough to drink alcoholic beverages you might have done some shots of this!) and I have had a few too many bad experiences with said alcoholic drink which doesn't make me think of a pleasant shower experience!
Then for the consistency...it is like a jelly, that much I can confirm, however is this the best format for a shower product? I would disagree. It is hard to get hold of to actually rub onto your skin, and I have ended up losing massive lumps of it down the plug-hole in the process...not very efficient! I also tried working this into a shower puff. This did yield better results, but even then was still a bit tricky and it didn't lather up very well. On the whole a bit more stressful than I would like...call me a traditionalist, but I am much happier with a more regular shower gel...far more fool proof!!
In conclusion, I'm not really sure of the point of these shower jellies, I won't be purchasing in the future. Have any of you had any different experiences with this to me?

Boots Vitamin E 2 in 1 Cleansing Lotion

The reason I bought this was I had run out of eye make-up remover, and saw this, thought 2 in 1...bonus!! Now, are you familiar with the phrase jack of all trades and master of none? I think that this is a pretty good way to sum up this product. As an eye make up remover it is ok at a push. It didn't remove my eye liner, and only the feeblest of my mascaras...the more volumising, and shall we say troublesome ones to remove, went nowhere with this. As a general face cleanser it did a better job than on my eyes, but was only ok. I used this to remove my face make-up when i'd come in from work, but knowing I'd be washing my face later again anyway...it would still leave some trace of make-up behind. It also left my face feeling quite tight after use. I have learned a valuable lesson from this...buy properly dedicated eye make-up removers, don't be fooled by no 2 in 1 claims! This is fairly cheap, and would possibly buy this again if it was on promo or in an emergency but I would say that would be fairly unlikely. Have you tried any of the rest of the Vitamin E range? I also have the SPF15 moisture lotion...i'm working on that one, i'll let you know my thoughts when it bites the dust!

That's all from me for now, I hope you all have lovely weekends!
Em xx

Birthday FOTD/OOTN plus Before & After TAG

2010-06-17T14:17:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry i've been away for so long guys...combination of busy and quite unwell :(
In the meantime I have become a year older (hazard a guess to how old I now am?) So have decided to combine my FOTD/OOTN with a tag from Sarah (thetrunkmoves) to show how I look like with a naked face Vs the finished made up article...scary! So here goes....

Naked!!
Made-up!
Right...for the most of it FOTD using the following

Revlon Photoready Foundation in 04 Nude
No7 Illuminating Concealer Pen
Benefit Powderflage
Benefit Sugarbomb
Urban Decay Sustainable Shadow Box...using YDK and Twice Baked to achieve a bronzey eye
Rimmel Flash Eyeliner
Eyeko Big Eyes Mascara
MAC Lipstick in Ever Hip,

And that is pretty much it....I was happy with the way I turned out

My Outfit

I really liked this outfit...turned out to be really hot on the day, so got away with no cardigan/jacket, and could be properly summery...yay!

FYI We went to a cocktail bar in SoHo London...so cute in there, they even served cocktails in teapots prohibition styleee! Outfit consisted of;

Oasis Black Racer Back Jersey Top with Satin Trim
Primark Mini "bubble-style" skirt with coral rose print
Ollie & Nic Black Quilted cross body bag
Office Black Suede Cut-Out Platform Sandals (really comfy despite their big heel!)

And to finish, a couple of photos of me on the night....sadly I didn't get a full outfit shot...i'll do better next time!!

Thanks for reading...i'll try and be better with my blog posts going forward!

Em xx

FOTD Green Smokey Eye

2010-05-13T06:07:00.001-07:00

This is my attempt at a green smokey eye...although I blended quite a lot of it out, but it shows up a lot more green in real life than in the photo. The products I used are below;

Most of the products I used for my face/base I listed in my previous FOTD post so I won't go into detail with them here...everything I used is in the photo though.

The things that differ are as follows:

Benefit Powderflage: I actually used this for my previous FOTD but forgot to include it. I use the mini fan brush included with it to dust a little of this under my eye, over my concealer and foundation. It sets them, and helps reflect the light a little too...bonus!

17 Blush & Glow: This is from my mini haul, the blush is actually super pigmented, I put way too much on at first and had to buff most of it away, but I really like it. It is super shimmery, so if you're not a fan of shimmer, then this isn't for you. I used the highlighter across the top of my cheekbones and a little on my brow.

Eyes

Storm Palette by Sleek: I really like this palette, and is really good quality for the price of this palette. I used 4 of the colours; the champagne shimmery shade (top row, 2nd in from the left) the matte brown (bottom row, 2nd in from the right) matte black (bottom row, far right) and the dark shimmery green (bottom row, 3rd from the left). I used the champagne shade across the lid and on the inner corner. The brown on the outer corner and through the crease, and the dark green on the outer third, and along the bottom of my eye, and then blend, blend, blend. The black I used to line the upper lid and made a little flick. I used a couple of coats of my Bourjois mascara.

Benefit Eye Bright: This is a very pale pink pencil and is a very soft formulation. I used this to line my water-line...I find it really brightens the eye, especially if you're using darker eye make-up.

Lips

ELF mineral lipstick in runway pink: This is a really nice shade of pale pink, and the finish is quite matte. This can be a little drying so you would need to use a lip balm under.

Natural Collection Lip Gloss in Vanilla: Clear gloss..nice & simple!

There you are. I've never tried this look before, but really like it, I think I shall try it again. I suspect I'll be playing a bit more with this palette in the future. Do you have any of the Sleek palettes? What's you fave way of using them?

Hope you're all having a good day! Emma x

NOTD Nails Inc Paris

2010-05-13T04:46:00.000-07:00

I was too excited from my Diet Coke freebie not to try it immediately, and here are the results. In short, I really love the colour, i'm glad I chose this one. I think it's really versatile and dare I say it...classy. I also think it's quite flattering with my paleness! I do really like the formulation and application....much better than the nails inc in candy that I got free this month with InStyle magazine. A couple of days in and I have one little chip...not too bad considering i'm never very easy on my hands and generally do chip my nail varnish through my own fault very regularly...happy with my freebie! So much so, that I went and got the London shade from Boots yesterday, which I suspect will feature in a NOTD post v soon. I must admit i'm not as excited about the London shade, so don't want to strip Paris off my nails just yet to give it a try...might wait to see how long this lasts.
Have you tried any of the Diet Coke/Nails Inc varnishes?

Mini Boots Haul

2010-05-11T23:29:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone! So, I did a little bit of shopping yesterday...only a tiny little I promise! I am always terribly tempted when there is a promo on the 17 collection, as you only usually have to spend about a fiver to get the free stuff...this time it is £6...inflation heh? The freebie was a really cute tin which says "Nautical but Nice"...which i'm oddly really happy with, I love mini storage...I think this would be really good to store lipsticks, or jewellery, or hair ties...ok...way too excited about the tin... Inside the tin, you get a nail varnish in knockout red, an eye shadow in Viva la Diva, which is a shimmery teal colour, and a mini eye liner in azure, which kinda matches the eye shadow. I'm generally always really happy with the 17 nail varnishes, i'm sure i'll be using this with the right outfit! I tried out the eyeliner last night, and I really like it. It looks really good with my blue eyes, I think I might use this as a pop of colour with a relatively neutral eye. Not sure when i'll use the shadow, but is a really nice colour, i'll see what I can do!
In order to qualify for the freebie, I bought two things; An eyebrow pencil in dark brown (£2.59) and a Blush & Glow in peaches & cream (£3.69). What I like about the eyebrow pencil is that it is quite hard, and unlike others i've tried, doesn't have a really red base; although there is a lot of red in my hair...my eyebrows are pretty much a plain dark brown, and look totally weird with a red based brown pencil through them, happy so far! The Blush & Glow is a blush/highlighter duo, and it is is also available in a strawberry swirl colour. I've heard good things about this, and opted to go for the peaches & cream, as it is quite a shimmery coral colour, which I think fits in well with the coral treand this summer, and reminds me a lot of Coralista by Benefit, but for almost a tenth of the price! The strawberry swirl FYI, is a lot more pink. As I already have a lot more pink toned blushes, I decided to plump for the peach one, I'm really looking forward to trying this one out!
Lastly, as you have no doubt read in everybody else's blogs, there is currently a promo on in Boots where if you buy 2 bottles of Diet Coke (£1.18 each FYI!) you get a free Nails Inc polish from a choice of four. I got the Paris shade. As a single Nails Inc polish is usually £10.50 this is a pretty good deal...I think there is a strong possibility I'll be going back and getting another in the London shade, which is a bit of a greigey pink colour. The other two (New York & Milan) are a hot pink and a red which I kinda have dupes for already, so I might leave it at that. I got a free Nails Inc polish with In Style this month in a candy pink colour, and was not happy with the formulation at all...was terribly gloopy and dificult to apply, but this Paris one seems to be pretty good, so i'm happy!

So there you are...although I waffled significantly, and there seemed to be a lot of things, I only really bought two things...see, tiny little, like I promised!
Hope you all have a good day, i'm off to buy some more diet coke from Boots.
Em x

FOTD My First One!

2010-05-11T15:23:00.001-07:00

So here we are...my first "face of the day" post. Although today was quite casual, and I didn't do anything special except do a wee bit of shopping, I used a new product for the very first time, so thought I would record the results...I think i'm quite happy with the way it turned out. The products I used are below

Base/Face

L'oreal Studio Secrets Anti-Shine Mattifying Primer: I used this on my t-zone as my skin gets quite oliy there, and this helps to stop me getting all shiny after a couple hours

Benefit Stay Don't Stray: I've been using this loads since I got it, mainly because it not only acts as an eye primer, but primes my under eye, and partially conceals my darkly dark under-eye circles (the thing I would say that i'm most paranoid about with regards to my face)

Benefit Erase Paste: I need to conceal those under-eye circles damn it!

Revlon PhotoReady: I had been applying this with a brush, but I've taken to using my fingers...and I think this actually works a bit better for me, seems to blend better and give a better finish when I do it this way

MAC Mineralise Skin Finish: I dust this all over to set my foundation, paying particular attention to my nose & forehead...helping to prevent the shine factor!

Benefit Thrrrob: This is one of their boxed blushes, a bit more of a blue based pink than Dandelion, with a shimmer, and smells divine!

Eyes/Brows

Stila Smoky Eye Palette: This is a recent purchase and my first time of using it, also my first Stila product! The top is holographic, which is why the picture of it may look a little weird. It is a "talking palette" so you press a button inside, and a little voice tells you how you should be applying the various shadows to achieve a smoky eye...i'm not making this up I swear, is quite funny, but I suppose helpful if you're a beginner! It has 4 shadows; a champagney base colour, a pewtery lid colour, a very dark grey for the crease, and a black for liner. Both the crease and liner colour are matte, and the base/lid colours are shimmery. I found these quite easy to work with, and could probably use these in a few different ways to achieve different looks...also really chuffed with the matte black...was really easy to use as a liner, I have a feeling that I maybe using this shade the most. Generally quite happy with the palette, and as was only about £5-£6 from here, I think is quite a bargain!

Bourjois Blanc Diaphane Eye Shadow: A white shimmer. I absolutely love this! I used this on the inner corner of my eye, and as a brow highlight. I find myself reaching for this most days. I would highly recommend this product

Bourjois Ultra Care Mascara: After curling my lashes I applied a coat of this. I've done a full video review of this here so I won't go into too much detail. This is coming to the end of it's life now,but i'm thinking that I probably will re-purchase this at some point, as is really easy to use as an everyday mascara.

Natural Collection Clear Mascara: I use this a brow gel, and I find is a really quick & easy way to groom my brows...and it was only £1.99 I didn't really want to spend a lot of money of a specific product when this does the job for a fraction of the cost! I would say that I tend to blot a lot of the product off the wand onto a tissue before I use it, as otherwise would be too much. You might think that's a little bit of a waste, but I've been using this for absolutely ages, and it cost less than 2 quid in the first place so i'm not really bothered about that!

Lips

The Body Shop Lipstick in 42 Dusk Pink: A really neutral shade, easy to wear, smells nice and is quite moisturising.

Avon Twist & Glide Lipgloss in Caramel.This has one of those clear flappy rubber applicators, which are quite easy to use as you twist the product up from the bottom. A neutral shade, with a touch of shimmer.

So there you go...I might do some more of these type of posts in the future. What do you think? Please let me know if you'd like me to do a specific review of any of the products I mention, or if you have any questions.

Thanks for reading all about my face!

Love Em x

April Ins & Outs

2010-05-02T09:47:00.000-07:00

It's May? How the hell did that happen? This is my favourite time of year. Lots of birthdays coming up...including mine! (at the beginning of June) The weather is getting (a bit) better, I can wear prettier clothes...yay! So goodbye April, Hello May!

Firstly my Ins

I am loving my MAC Palette; as you can see I only have six colours, but i'm planning muchly to build my collection. I'm focussing on neutrals at the moment, but really look forward to putting on my make-up so I can try out different combinations with these.

Next is Bourjois Blanc Diaphane this was such a good purchase! I use this almost everyday. It's a white shimmery eyeshadow, and is most perfect on the inner corner of the eye, it really brightens my eyes making me look so much more awake...which is a terribly good thing as physically at least, I have not been terribly awake this month. I also use it as a highlight on my brow bones, and occasionally across the top of my cheek bones, basically I love it!

The Body Shop Lip Butters are something that I have been using lots of during April. My favourite is the Yes Yes Yes Oui Oui Oui, which smells amazing, and is super moisturising. These have been getting my lips back into good condition so the few lipsticks that I own and have been experimenting with recently, look so much better with my moisturised lips.

Spring Clothes i'm especially happy about this one, as spring & summer clothes are so much prettier. As we have had some vaguely warmer weather here it was time that my legs put in an appearance...dresses and skirts are some of my favourite things, I feel so much more pretty and confident when I wear them, so warmer wather equals opportunity to wear dresses/skirts equals a happier me!

And inevitably, although not so many Outs;

Due to the warmer weather the boots that I have been practically living in, are officially out. I hate being cold, so my black slouchy boots that I have been wearing over skinny jeans, and are oh so comfy were absolutely perfect, along with my fUggs, how I loved them. But even more than the cold, I hate being hot, therefore the better weather means buh-bye boots, hello my lovely silver leather glads that go with everything! Or at the very least i've been wearing my Office ballet pumps...a lot. This also necessitates me to paint my toes so they look pretty in my glads...I love pretty painted toes!!

Also out is me buying lots of skincare stuff; this makes me sad, as i do love buying things, but as I am still on my project 10 pan/infinity then it is against the rules. hopefully by the end of May i'll be able to buy a few more bits and pieces!

So that's all that especially comes to mind right now. I hope you all are enjoying the month of May, what are your favourites at the moment?

YouTube Contest

2010-04-23T05:16:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone, just wanted to let you know that i've launched a contest on my YouTube channel, just in case you wanted to check it out....prizes are from Lush! Click on the link below

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syIjrBUQejE

Thanks everyone! Em x

Lush Ocean Salt

2010-04-21T11:04:00.000-07:00

This is another small offering to my project, but I thought that it deserved it's own blog post. I got this as a free sample (which i've pictured, to show the size of the sample pot) which i'm glad, as I might not have picked it up otherwise. This little pot lasted me a lot longer than I thought it would. I imagined two or three times, but it lasted me about 7 times, and I was quite over-generous with the application, it could have lasted a lot longer, so a little does go a long way! I really liked the smell: the main ingredients are (shock!) Salt, Grapefruit, Lime & Vodka, so yes it does smell like you're putting a margarita on your face...as big cocktail fan, this makes me quite happy!

The first time I applied, I was a little concerned at the size of the grains of salt, it seemed to all fall off my face as I applied.... I think this was because I put way too much on; my tip from future applications would be to wet your face, then apply a little at a time to the different sections of your face. This way, you find that you need a lot less, as you can spread these little patches around, and exfoliate your whole face. Then just gently rinse off, then pat your face dry.

With all the salt, citrus and alcohol you'd think that this would be quite drying, but this is really not the case, my skin felt clean, but not dry at all afterwards. I noticed an immediate difference, my skin felt really clear and noticably softer, I loved it! I think this would be too strong or astringent as a daily thing, but good once or twice a week. For the record my skin is like this...normal on my cheeks, but with a more of an oily t-zone. This works well for me, but may not be suitable for people with more dry skin. I'd definitely recommend asking for a sample so you can try it out for yourself.

I will be most definitely buying this when I finish up the project. For the time being I have two more exfoliating scrub type products to use up first :( sad face, but I will feel super excited and deserving when I do get to buy it!!

More Empty Bottles!

2010-04-21T09:11:00.000-07:00

Hooray! A few more finished tubes/tubs/bottles...sadly they are all quite small/sample sizes, but they needed to be used up!! Cutex Hand Cream nice smell, good consistency, easily absorbed, non-greasy. I bought this largely because it was a cute handbag size, that was the major plus for me, and it lasted a really long time. Would I re-purchase? Yes, but mainly because of it's size.
The Body Shop Aloe Calming Toner & Calming Facial Cleanser were included in the gift set I mentioned before which had the eye make-up remover. The toner did a good job of removing the last traces of grease/make-up etc, was gentle, and my skin felt clean afterwards...tick! I possibly would buy this one, and liked this a lot better than the Tea Tree toner that I also reviewed in this blog...much more suited to my skin type now. I have my eye on the Vitamin E toner however, and am pretty convinced I will be purchasing this when this little project of mine is over! Currently working on another full-size toner I have...not loving it...just trying to get through it so I can buy something new! Hopefully review on that coming soon. The cleanser was also good, but quite thick, I found it quite difficult to get the product out of the bottle. Once I did, I found it to be non-drying and good at removing my make-up. Would I re-purchase? Potentially, again...i'm eyeing up the Vitamin E cleanser..roll on the rest of the project!!
No7 Protect & Perfect Serum I must admit that I was a little bit confused by the idea of serums...a step before your moisturiser? I didn't really get it, but having read more on the subject, and having spotted a few lines recently i'm suddenly more interested in anti-ageing. This particular serum has had a lot of press, so i was aware of it when I got it in one of those No7 freebie sets. It was definitely worth a try. I liked the way this felt on my skin, but at only 5ml in this sample I think there wasn't enough for me to identify any effects, therefore the jury is out. I am definitely more interested in serums now however, both to reduce the fine lines that I have already, and as a preventative measure for future ones. This is a bit of a scary new territory for me, at nearly 28, I suppose I am at the age, but I am often told I look at lot younger than I am, I want to preserve that as long as possible! This blog may look at me finding my feet in the world of anti-ageing in the future...stay tuned! I have purchased another serum to try in the meantime; a Boots Botanics one, really looking forward to trying it out. I possibly will buy this No7 serum in the future....much more likely if it is on promo though!
No7 Age Rewind Night Cream & Day Cream were both in a No7 freebie set, I don't think they are age appropriate for me, but gave them a try anyway. The night cream was very rich, and a little really does go a long way. I didn't feel I could use this every night, if I was having a relatively good skin day I used it, but I felt was too heavy for times when i was experiencing a bit of a breakout. Probably wouldn't re-purchase as a full size. The day cream was far too heavy for me too use during the day, obviously for more mature skins, but waste not want not...I used it as a cream for my hands before I went to bed, left a bit of a residue, but not unpleasant for a night-time hand cream. If you have any of these little tubs you don't want to use on your face I would recommend that you use them up in this way...better that then them lying around gathering dust! On the subject of these tubs, I know that they are only sample sizes, but they was quite awkward to get the product out of them.
Origins Liquid Moisture with White Tea I didn't really get this, is it supposed to be a toner or a moisturiser? It wasn't moisturising enough to be a moisturiser, and seemed a bit to oily to be a toner. Hmmm, I used it a bit like a serum as a step between toner and moisturiser and applied it with cotton wool. Didn't really notice a difference, was quite happy to have used it up. On the whole I really like Origins products, but I won't be purchasing a full-size of this.

So there you go, these bits will go in the recycling now, glad that i've used them up! Looking forward to using up my next few bits and pieces, and when I can start buying (some much more considered) items as I need to. I'm getting quite a sense of achievement from this project...I would recommend others perhaps trying to do something similar. Anyone else out there on a project 10 pan, or perhaps considering doing one?

NOTD Revlon Lilac Pastelle

2010-04-17T06:43:00.000-07:00

Excuse the slightly rubbish finish...it looks better in reality (damn that camera flash) This is the second time i've worn this colour, I really like it! Super easy to wear and not offensive for work or stuff like that, unlike Minted which is probably not suited for work. Lilac Pastelle & Minted (pictured below) are the new colours from Revlon for Spring/Summer 2010 and i'm absolutely loving pastels at the moment, so fab for Spring! I got them from Superdrug on the 2 for £8 promo. I've never tried any Revlon polish before, but will definitely be going back as they're such good quality...I have my eye on Cherries in the Snow. Do you have any Revlon polishes? What are your favourites? I think I like Minted more than the Lilac Pastelle, but it's a bit more difficult to wear a lot. For the record, I had to give three coats to get it to bottle colour, but I think Minted only needed two. Happy Spring nails to each of you!

Natural Collection Lipsticks: Update!

2010-04-17T06:26:00.000-07:00

I thought i'd just give a quick update on the Natural Collection lipsticks from Boots that I blogged about yesterday...I managed to break two of the lipsticks when I was trying them out: WARNING! do not screw the lipstick too far out of the tube when applying!
Fortunately I live less than a minute walk from my local Boots so I exchanged them. This caused the cashier mucho problems. The couple of times i've tried to exchange/return something in Boots it has always been quite painful, I don't know if the till is difficult to work with, or if the people I seem to end up going to are somewhat challenged, but it's not an experience I'd like to repeat too often, and it takes far far longer than it should...I would say carefully watch what you've been charged/refunded to make sure they do it correctly! (For the record; I did work in various shops for many years, so I am in no way snobbish when it comes to shop assistants, I just expect to be served as well as I would have served customers back in the day!)
Anyway, thought i'd just share the information...I don't want to recommend something and others be disappointed...you do to a certain extent, get what you pay for!!

Love Em x

L'Oreal Renewal Lash Serum

2010-04-16T11:52:00.000-07:00

With my £2 L'Oreal cosmetics voucher in hand, I knew exactly what I wanted to purchase, as I've picked it up and put it back again at least five times now. I'd first seen this mentioned by Lollipop26, and have followed her progress on her blog.

I've been using the Bourjois Volume Glamour Ultra Care Mascara most recently for which I have recorded a YouTube review

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDqFo7ZrYKs

This has done the job of getting my eyelashes back into fairly good condition, but it is now coming to the end of it's little life, and I didn't want to re-purchase straight away as I have a fair few other mascaras that I should probably be using up first, but I don't want to de-rail any progress i've made in strengthening my lashes so far. As you're probably aware, some eyelash treatments on the market are fairly expensive, to say the least, but the L'Oreal at £10.99 (£8.99 with my little voucher) seems like a fairly good option for the more cost-conscious among us...i.e cheap & cheerful ole me!

Therefore, on this premise, I propose a wee experiment. This evening, once i've taken off all my make up, I shall take a photo to record Day Zero of the experiment, and starting this evening, shall start using the product as religiously as i can.

I've seen in some comments/YouTube videos, that there is some confusion on how this product should be used, but helpfully, it seems that L'Oreal have added some instructions to their website as shown below

From what i've read, this product may not perform very well under mascara, but I will try it, and I can definitely do the night time application. I shall do my best to accurately record my progress, and if any, results...check back to see my progress!

Has anyone else tried this product already? What are your experiences? Or let me know if there are any other eyelash treatments you have tried, as it seems this could possibly be a new obsession (that's all I need!)

Have a lovely evening and weekend fellow bloggers!

Em xx

Mini Boots Haul; Lipsticks

2010-04-16T11:09:00.000-07:00

Oh the dangers of prescription filling! There I was innocently going to Boots to fill said prescription, then they tell you that it's going to take about 10 minutes...what else is a girl to do but peruse the make-up aisle to kill the time?

My new found interest in lipstick drew me to completely cover my hand in lipstick swatches, and I finally landed in front of the Natural Collection stand. Dazzledust25 in her blog http://www.makeupandbeauty.ie/ mentioned that she really liked the Natural Collection lipsticks, and she specifically mentioned a couple of colours that were her favourites...since then, whenever i've been in a Boots, i've had a quick look to see if I could find them; they've always been out of stock....until today...result! At £1.99 a piece, double result...until I saw the 3 for £5 promo on all Natural Collection cosmetics....of course I had to get a third!

Here are the results

Left-right... Raspberry, Rose Petal & Apple Blossom. FYI they are all Moisture Shine lip colours, and it was the latter two that Amy mentioned in her blog.

I'm looking forward to trying these out and seeing how 3 for a fiver lipsticks hold up! Has anyone else tried the Natural Collection lip colours? Or what are your drugstore fave lippies....I'm really excited to try some more!

P.S. As I spent £5 in store I got a voucher at the till for £2 off L'oreal or Revlon cosmetics until 20th April....this lead directly to a L'oreal purchase minutes later, which will be the subject of my next blog post. I told you filling prescriptions was dangerous!

Body Shop Haul

2010-04-16T06:47:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone! As i'm not allowed to be buying any skin/body/haircare products, I seem to be making lots of I WANT! lists but am doing less shopping...which is a good thing. I have a few more little bits and pieces that i've been using up, so i'll do a blog post update on my project infinity shortly.

In the meantime, I picked up a couple of little bits from The Body Shop, and as always was tempted to buy more than I went in for! I have a Love Your Body card which means I get 10% of my purchases, and get a stamp everytime I go in...after 4 stamps you get £5 to spend in store, and after 8 you get £10...then also in the month of your birthday you get £5 to spend aswell (I think you can use it online too...for the 10% discount I think) The card costs £5 initially, but if you do shop in The Body Shop fairly regularly you will make your money back...probably worth it!

What I went in for, was the Facial Buffer pad (£3). I'd seen a recommendation from another blogger/YouTuber hollyYMBB and thought i'd give it a try...i've only used it twice so far, I'll let you know how I get on! It's basically an exfoliating pad that you use in circular motions on your face with your regular cleanser. Holly raved about it, so i'm hopeful will be a winner for me too! I know that it is a skincare related item, but it's to help me work with the cleansers I already have, and under the rules, I don't have another one of this item...so I don't think it counts as a rule-break. The only thing i'm marginally concerned about is the life span of it. When do you think I should throw it away and replace with another? I don't want it to get all minging....i'm planning to pour a little boiling water from the kettle over it, perhaps once a week, to help kill any bacteria that may have taken up residence in it. Please leave a comment below telling me when you think I should be replacing it....and if you already have this, how are you finding it?

It is at this point I was dragged in by the current promo on cosmetics which is 3for2...this also includes brushes...so I went for this really cute and super-soft blusher brush (£11.50) but it has a lid...I plan to use it for my MAC MSF Natural for touch ups during the day. The lid makes it perfect to pop in my handbag; very pleased with this.

I decided to go for a couple of lipsticks to make up the 3for2 (£8 each)

The really lovely sales assistant helped me pick out two colours, as i'm still finding my feet in the world of lipsticks. There was also this really helpful leaflet which showed all the colours together, and divided them into generally suiting warm or cool undertones. It's also quite helpful to see all the colours on one page as looking at a counter full of lipsticks can be quite overwhelming. Firstly I went for a neutral 42 Dusk Pink and then a pink from the warm selection 48 Soft Peony...which I have to say I am loving!! I think I may even be tempted to be a bit braver with the pinks....eeek! I'm going to try the lipsticks out a bit more, then maybe come back with a review....happy so far though! The very lovely sales assistant also did give me a little sample of the Cherry Body Lotion, which smells heavenly! Not cheating; she gave it to me unsolicited and for free!

So there you go, my mini haul. I'm in a bit of a Body Shop phase at the moment...what are your Body Shop faves? Go on...tempt me with things i'm not allowed to buy at the moment...I'm suspecting a few will be making it onto my I WANT! list.

TAG: Three Things

2010-04-13T15:31:00.000-07:00

I'm a little bit between project infinity posts so thought I'd go with a tag post....I've seen this on a couple of people's blogs; most recently Elle's blog http://ellastraciabella.blogspot.com/
I thought i'd give it a go!

Three Names I Go By (other than Emma of course, which is by proper name)
1. Em/Ems: The classic shortening/abbreviation
2. Eema: This started as a bit of a joke many many years ago where I was trying to make the point that you can't choose how you pronounce your name...it is what it is, for example the surname "Bucket" being pronounced "Bouquet" a la that slightly rubbish TV show Keeping Up Appearances, therefore, I could not choose that my name be pronounced "Eema"....Emma is just Emma...but obviously Eema stuck, and have kind of adopted it as usernames for stuff...as shockingly, Emma has already been taken...madness I know!
3. Smith/Smithy/Smiffy: Primarily used by some blokes I know....their way of showing affection I suppose, and various people I have known since I was like 4, or from during times where there have been more than one Emma around, (which has actually been for most of my life...further complicated by one of my best friends at uni who is also called Emma Smith...confusing right?) i'm generally cursed by having an exceedingly common name...never have a problem with people spelling my name though!

Three Jobs I Have Had:
1: Shop Assistant: Various shops over various years
2: Teaching Assistant/Unqualified Teacher: Very rewarding, but you need to have a proper vocation if you want to go through the whole qualification career thing...and I couldn't really live off the wage
3: Buying Assistant: for a retailer

Three Places I Have Lived:
1: East London: Where I was born and lived for the first two years of my life...born in the same hospital as David Beckham (not at the same time obviously, and yes, i'm totally classy I know!)
2: Hertfordshire: Where we moved to when I was two, where I grew up, and where I live now
3: Surrey: I lived there for three years while I was at Uni; although it was still technically University of London.
No, I have not lived outside the M25....hmm, not sure if i'm bothered by that, although the M25 does enclose a pretty fabulous city, and I'm quite happy and proud to be from there, and to have always been close enough to take full advantage of all the capital has to offer...so no, I don't think i'm that bothered to have never lived outside the M25, and it's not as if I have never left, or never will....that would be narrow-minded and weird!

Three Favourite Drinks
1: Tea: I largely do not function if I do not have at least one or two cups a day, and also get a caffeine withdrawal headache without it....problematic I know, and not good, but ho hum....tis my only addiction, and tea is not really that bad for you....tis full of antioxidants y'know!
2: Apple Juice: Love the stuff, could drink gallons of it, although I tend to dilute it with water, a bit random I know
3: Mojitos: Ooh I do love a good cocktail, Mojitos especially. I find that they're very hard to get right...I judge a bar heavily on their ability to produce a decent one. The only bar in my home town that served a truly good one has closed down :( sad face, and has been transformed into "two floors of adult entertainment" very aptly named "Beavers" (I felt slightly violated when I spotted that charming addition to the high st.) Fortunately I don't have to venture too far to find another decent bar that serves Mojitos...and am spoilt for choice in London.

Three TV Shows I Watch:
1: Glee: I'm a total Gleek....starts back on Monday....very excited!
2: Four Weddings: Totally amazing guilty pleasure TV. Potted summary; four brides each go to eachother's weddings and score eachother on venue, dress, food, overall experience. The winner receives a luxury honeymoon: cue really weird brides and their even weirder weddings and unadulterated bitchiness...amazing!
3: How I Met Your Mother: The Friends for my generation....obviously not as good, but the peeps in this are of a similar age to me, I like! And of course I want to know, who will marry Ted and become the eponymous "mother"

Three Places I Have Been:
Okay, gonna choose the fave 3 places I have visited, I have obviously been to more than these three places in my 27 years...I have been to each of these places more than once...so I really do like them...In no particular order
1: Albufeira, Portugal; Like I said, i'm a classy bird, and in all honesty 2 of the best girly holidays i've been on, good times, good friends, fantastic seafood
2: Barcelona; such a beautiful city, so much culture, so much to see, you gotta love Gaudi!
3: Edinburgh; A complete gothic beauty, I could go back here endlessly
Honourable mention goes to the West Coast of Ireland; one of my best friends in the world moved out there onto her boyfriend's (now fiance) farm. I go over at least once a year, and I love it there....so beautiful, and I am a bit of an Irish girl in blood if nothing else...although don't think I could live out there permanently; lovely, but not enough people, and the people that are there know all your business....a little out of my comfort zone! I do like a little anonymity I have to say.

Three Places I'd Like To Go:
1: New York; apparrently it's a concrete jungle where dreams are made?
2: Italy; so much to see do and eat there!
3: Belfast/Northern Ireland; The only country in the UK I am yet to visit....I like to keep my goals realistic...a girl has to keep it real you know?
There are obviously many many many more things I'd like to do and see, but these are the three I would most like to go to in hand with what I think i'm likely to do

Three People Who Text Me Regularly
1: My lovely, and hugely pregnant friend Vicky (the originator of the Eema nickname)
2: A guy who is trying to persuade me to go out with him
3: My mum

Three Favourite Old TV Shows
1: Sex & The City; Love it...spent most of my third year of Uni watching the first four seasons on videotape! I in fact did completely watch this right from the very beginning on TV, back when hardly anyone used to watch it, and it was on at like 11pm on Channel 4, and when I was probably far too young to be watching it....my parents totally didn't know what stuff I was watching in my room!
2: My So Called Life; I heart Jordan Catellano!
3: Friends; yes I probably still do watch at least one episode a day when it's on...what can I say, it's a classic, so easy to endlessy watch, although I could probably recite it word for word!

Three Favourite Dishes
What? I can't choose three...how about all food except carrots, parsnips and jellied eels? No? Okay.....at a push
1: My Dad's Irish Stew; So good I will happily eat a massive bowl of leftovers the next day
2: Nandos Chicken; peri peri peri peri peri peri peri peri peri peri peri peri
3: Soup; a lot of kinds. I'm slightly obsessed

Three Make-Up Products I Couldn't Live Without
Hmm, tricky....
1: Under-eye concealer; T'otherwise I look like a panda, damn you dark circles!
2: Moisturiser, tinted with SPF; am a bit of an SPF junkie
3: Mascara

Three Things I'm Looking Forward To
1: Glee back next Monday....yay!
2: Not feeling tired all the fricking time. I would not recommend glandular fever to a friend.
3: Cocktails with my lovely lady friends in London Town in a couple of weeks

Three People I'm Tagging
If you're reading this:
1: You,
2: You,
3: And you....over there...yes you!
I tag you!

If you do do this tag....let me know in the comments below, or tweet me. I shall read and follow you...like a stalker, no, not really. I will follow you in the normal way...via your blog/twitter

Have fun! Ems xx

First Thoughts; Revlon Photoready Foundation

2010-04-05T13:39:00.000-07:00

So....I caved, I cracked, YouTube made me do it! I bought the new Revlon Photoready foundation. It's 3 quid off in Boots at the moment, so rather than dilly dallying, I thought i'd jump now and take advantage of the introductory discount. I only got it on Friday, so obviously have only used it a few times, and will give a proper review once I've had an opportunity to use it for longer, but in the meantime, here are my first thoughts;

I'd seen/read a few reviews mentioning the glitter. I thought, "oh calm down, it's probably only a little bit of shimmer" but I was frankly quite scared by the amount of glitter all over my face. Then I calmed down, and pulled myself together. When I put on my make up I have a light shining directly at my face...however, this does not ordinarily happen in the outside world, therefore, I have concluded so far that the glitter is not noticeable t'otherwise. In fact, I think that perhaps it is the glitter, that is supposed to reflect the light in low lighting. We'll see how I get on in more situations.

Is quite a light formulation; it doesn't feel to heavy, and gives pretty good coverage.

I like the pump dispenser; clean & easy

SPF20...I'm super anal about sun protection...this is a big plus in it's favour as far as i'm concerned.

Okay, so those are my initial impressions...i'll let you know how I get on ultimately.

love Emma x

March Ins & Outs

2010-04-05T10:51:00.000-07:00

Okay, a little bit late, but not offensively so I hope!
This is my first bash at an "Ins & Outs" hopefully will try and keep this up as the months roll by.

Firstly the OUTS

Buying new body/skin/hair care stuff
Please see my Project Infinity posts below; boo hoo!

Pyjamas
Okay, so I still wear them to bed, but after a fairly terrible start to 2010 i'm no longer wearing them for most of the day too. I got glandular fever towards the end of January, and felt like death warmed up for most of February. For the latter part of Feb, and the first half of March I no longer had the actual glandular fever, but had been left with post-viral fatigue, which left me wanting to sleep between 16-20 hours every day...hence the pyjamas, and as you can imagine, fairly inhibiting to me leading a normal life. For the last part of March i'm doing a lot better thanks, and in the last couple of weeks i've managed to get up in the morning, and stay up until a respectable bedtime hour. I could cry with happiness! (I had a small set back on Saturday afternoon where I was awake one minute then the next I had passed out only to awake slightly confused 4 hours later...but Saturday wasn't in March, and was my own fault for doing a bit too much on Friday so doesn't count here) The good news is that I no longer have the slight tendency towards insomnia which I used to have before. I've been hearing lots of horror stories that this could stay with me for many years to come yet...but fingers crossed I continue to get slowly better.

Enough of me wittering on about my "problems" Now for the INS

Pastel Nail Polishes
I'm loving these! So cool to have my nails the colours of all things springtime and Easter eggs...it's very cheering! Have a couple of different lilacs, a couple of shades of pale green, pale pink and a peach...i've been changing them out every few days... I love having pretty nails! This is a spring trend I'm very happy to adopt, and is very easy/cheap to achieve, which is always a rather large tick in the book of Emma!

Bronze Toned Eyeshadows
I recently purchsed the Urban Decay Sustainable Shadow Box (think I need to do a YT haul/review vid on this) and have been totally loving a combo of YDK, Half Baked & Twice Baked. I feel a fool for not clocking before that bronze shades really make blue eyes pop, but v happy I have found out now. I'm usually a default dark grey/blacks smokey eye kinda gal for a night out, but have been working this look, and wearing a slightly toned down version for day too. I've had a few comments on how nice my eyes look, which is unusual and very lovely to hear, so will continuing to wear this look for the time being...that and it's v easy to do too!

Cross-Body Bags
Over the last couple of years I have very much been using over-sized handbags, probably much to the detriment of my posture/back, as they become self fulfilling prophecies, and no matter how large the bag, I seem to completely fill them. Probably as a contribution from my invalid beginnings to 2010, and my very special talent for falling asleep at the drop of a hat, I have been trying to make myself less tired in general, and decided not to lug all my usual crap around with me, and have resurrected a satchel style handbag I bought years ago (Also noticed some stachel style bags in several fashion magazines recently) and have been extemely happy to find, that not only is the weight a lot more evenly distributed, but that I have a lot more easy access to my things...far less annoying rummaging around at till points etc. based on this I have also been using a cross body bag for evenings out too....I love my clutch bags, but find the x-body style a lot less of a juggling act, I included my most recent purchase (which I love) in a recent YT haul vid (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJA1cqQLfWs) soo pretty, yet practical...Emma, she say yes!

Alright, that's enough for now, meet you back here roughly this time next month?

Em x