Never-Ending Summer - Birchbox July 2016!

Over the past couple of months, you may have read that my opinions on Birchbox haven't been that great. This month however has changed my mind on cancelling my subscription! July's Birchbox, named Never-Ending Summer, was designed and curated by Millie Mackintosh so I knew instantly that we were in for a treat! 

A couple of months ago we were sent an email from the Birchbox team to choose the box design that we preferred. It was between a blue/green/yellow watercolour design, and then  pink/purple design. Personally I voted for the blue/green/yellow combo as I felt it seemed more summery, but although it didn't win I love this box equally as much! (I also know that I am going to use this to store my pro marker pens for university! 

A bonus thing with this box is that Millie teamed up with Birchbox to design an exclusive LOC lip pencil in shade Bohemian Rose. I love these type of lip products as they are really moisturising, yet so easy to apply! I believe that eventually this product will be available to purchase on the Birchbox website, but for now you can only get it when purchasing this box! 

Another exciting thing about this months box was that we were able to choose which full sized hair product we wanted to receive! I choose the John Freida Anti Frizz Primer. I knew that I wanted to try a humidity/frizz hair product for my trip to the states at the end of the month! So am excited to give this a try! 

I was so excited to see a cute little Nails Inc varnish in the box this month. I love new nail polishes and am alway changing up my colour. The shade I received was a gorgeous duck egg blue in Royal Botanical Gardens. 

Recently, I have really got into being consistent with my skincare. This month I received an Elemis night cream which I had read some really great things about! I was secretly hoping I would be lucky enough to receive the night version that was available in my box so am over the moon! 

Finally, I am excited to try the Hudraluron moisture boosting sheet mask! I have never tried any sheet masks but always hear that they feel nicer on the skin than the normal face masks! If I love it, I know this is something I will be buying more of! 

Ombre : Summer Style OOTD

So the weather has perked up again! Thank goodness, I was beginning to think that summer had come and gone in the space of a day! I am here again with another OOTD in my new favourite place in the garden. I have taken the last couple of blogposts in this exact spot at different times of the day to try and figure out when the best time is to take the pics! I still need to invest in a whole lighting equipment, but for now this is the best I can do!

So, I got this top the other week when shopping the New Look sale. I found it a little unusual and different so obviously I had to get it. I have found it really hard to style though! The colour just doesn't seem to go with my light wash jeans, but perfectly with a white or dark denim pair. (I promise I do wear other jeans than these white ones, but have fallen in love with them over the last couple of weeks!) The jeans are from Marks and Spencers Limited collection believe it or not. I was never really a shopper of Marks and was going to buy a pair of white jeans from Topshop. However these were a pound or two cheaper and just fit so much nicer! They are also not crisp white but more of an off white shade which is perfect for me! 

On my feet I wore my other new sandals from Primark. You know what they say, you can never have enough pairs of Primark sandals. Oh, they don't say that? never mind then!

I hope you enjoyed reading my latest OOTD blogpost! I am loving making them again now I have some more time in my day to dedicate to taking HD pictures! 

Let me know what you think! 

Lots of love, 

Summer Style OOTD

I am loving the fact that summer has finally arrived in the UK! We have had some really hot days recently which makes me so excited for my summer holiday to San Francisco in a  couple of months time. Stupidly last year I made the biggest mistake ever by getting rid of most of my summer clothes. Although that does work in my favour seeing as I have lost a little bit of weight since last year, which means a whole new summer wardrobe for me! I have also finally got out my white jeans which is rare for me as I can't seem to go anywhere without getting something down them! 

For this post I am wearing a couple of new items I purchased for the new summer weather. Every year I visit my local primark as I love the affordable fashion that is available! It doesn't last for ages but it does the job! For example, my sandals are a purchase that I make at the start of the summer every year. These sandals are £3 and are really pretty. I have a feeling I am going to be wearing them a lot over the next couple of months. The shirt was also bought from Primark for £3. It is really simple but I love the detail at the bottom of the shirt which adds a little something to the overall look. I also love the colour yellow paired with yellow at the moment! 

I hope you liked this style of post! I am so glad to be back properly blogging again as I have finished my university course for the summer break! (I know crazy!) I had really missed doing OOTD's in a proper photoshoot way other than Instagram shots. Although when taking pictures for this post I had a nosey neighbour looking over the fence at what I was doing, I guess some people don't understand blogging! 

Let me know what your loving for summer in the comments below! 

Lots of love, 

Summer lipstick favourites!

So it appears that the sun played a trick on all of us in the UK last week by giving us a glimpse into the Summer sunshine! This little 'ray' of hope made me get all excited to wear my more 'summery' makeup looks, which to be honest I have been wearing throughout spring! With that being said I went through all of the shades of lipstick that I have been loving recently and some that I know I am going to continue to wear throughout the Summer season! 

I have had a love hate relationship with these two products. I have always loved the original Lip Kit in Candy from the moment I got it. So much so that I reckon I have worn this pretty much every day since it came in the post. The lipgloss on the other hand is causing me issues! I unfortunately bought the lipgloss on the first release so was in the minority of people who got the dodgy applicator! (which is apparently going to be replaced luckily.) Overall though I love both of these shades. I would say that the Like lipgloss is very similar to Candy in many ways although they don't look like it in the picture above. Both of these products I know I am going to love throughout the Summer. 

These next three lipsticks have certainly been left out a little bit recently. I remember using them all of the time last summer and have only used them once or twice each since. First of all, Creme cup is a gorgeous pastel pale pink colour. It is a perfect natural lip and finishes off a summer look amazingly! Next Angel is another favourite of mine. I have worn this under a couple of other lipsticks recently and love the combo, but also love wearing it on its own. The colour is very similar to Candy (Kylie Cosmetics) however is much easier to apply and doesn't need a liner! Finally I absolutely love this lipstick from the Little Mix collection in shade Jade. This lipstick is about two years old now and I don't think that the collection is still available to purchase, but if your looking for an everyday colour then you need to get this! It also leaves a lovely little shine to the lips. 

For more of a 'pink' route, I have loved wearing the Clinque chubby stick in shade Super Strawberry. I love how the chubby sticks are moisturising yet very pigmented at the same time. It is certainly the lipstick that I have thrown into my gym bag for a quick makeover after swimming. next is the Kiko 02 Smooth Temptation Lipstick. Oh my goodness this product smells amazing, apply's like butter and looks gorgeous on too. I love to apply this over my Angel lipstick! Finally I love using the Elizabeth Arden High Shine Lipgloss in Golden Pearl over any lipstick to give it a little bit of gloss. It has a gold shimmer throughout which makes it shine when the sun catches it perfectly. Although this is certainly one of my evening lip glosses! 

Have you got any favourite lip products that you have been using recently? Is there anything that I missed from my list? 

Let me know in the comments and don't forget to leave your URL so I can return the love! 

Have a lovely rest of your week! 

Lots of Love, 

August Favourites!

So summer is officially over! September has come around so quickly and I can't quite believe that it has come to the time of the month where I share what I have been loving throughout August! This month I was lucky enough to go on a beautiful sunny holiday to Portugal where most of my favourites were used!

Lifestyle

One of the best things about going on holiday and having nothing to do except laying by the pool means that you can get a lot of reading done! I have been a subscriber to Elle magazine for the past 3 years, but I have only just discovered Elle Collections! I got both of these before I went away and thought they both deserved a mention! Elle Collections is a yearly/seasonal issue I believe and there were 3 covers to choose from. I went with Kendall Jenner's cover. (It was between hers and Cara's!) In the magazine comes some cute stickers, you can't go wrong with some stickers now can you!

 The child in me has been loving this creative colouring book for adults. Although I don't really agree with the idea of adding a huge price onto what is technically a colouring book for anybody, but I see the marketing ploy they have done there ;) This was a lifesaver in many situations for me. On the plane it distracted me from feeling anxious, and by the pool it made me feel relaxed. The only downside to this book is how thin the pages are! I am a felt tip gal, and I love a Sharpie!,  but I was really disappointed to see that the pens went through without me having to press hard! Other than that I LOVE this book!

 Technology

This month I have been listening a lot to my iPod, and in particular Paloma Faith. Picking up the Pieces, Only love can hurt like this and Beauty Remains. There is something quite calming about putting the headphones in and listening to such great songs! I have also managed to get my dad as excited/addicted to her music! 

I tend to get most of my reading done when on holiday. It may have something to do with the wifi not being as attainable but my nose is constantly in a book, or in this case my kindle! A couple of years ago when Pretty Little Liars first came on the screens in the uk I spotted the original book versions by Sara Shepard on the shelf and bought it thinking it was the TV adaption. Boy was I wrong! 8 books later and I am hooked, although now I am purchasing the book on my kindle rather than in paperback. It is such a fantastic read and dare I say it much better than watching the television programme! I love the way Sara has written each chapter from the perspective of each girl. I couldn't recommend this book any more!  It really gets you hooked! 

 The summer holiday is always the time where I use my polaroid camera to its full advantage. I always try to take at least one or two pictures each day. My real favourite out of these two is the album that I have discovered to store/show off my pictures. In the past I had been taking the pictures and clipping them on a string and putting them on the window. I found that stupidly they were fading from the sun so looked for an album to store them in. I simply searched 'Fugifilm instax mini album' and found this one. This is the second one I have purchased and I am excited to fill it with lots of memories. I am planning to buy another album for my Disneyland Paris pictures!

Beauty

 There are only a few beauty favourites that I have been loving this month. I tend not to wear makeup on holiday so I don't have a lot to share! I have been loving this Garnier Micellar cleansing water. I am a little late to the game when it comes to this product. I am ashamed to admit it but I love me some simple face wipes. They have always worked well for me and made my face feel refreshed (I don't tend to use a lot of makeup on a day to day basis!). I have been using it with my Body Shop Muslin cloth. This was really cheap and the two seem to work well for me.

I have also been loving using my MAC Lipstick in Pink Plaid with my MAC lipliner in Hip n Happy. I don't really have much to say about this combo except I LOVE IT!

I hope you liked this favourites post! I hope you have a lovely week! 

Lots of love, 

Portugal OOTD 13!

I am now writing this post sat at home in a very cold and windy England. It's safe to say that I am missing sunny Portugal already! We landed yesterday. It was an alright flight, there was little turbulence but other than that it was fine. I was a little disappointed halfway through the flight when I accidentally dropped my I-Phone charger on the floor. I asked around to see if anybody had seen it but nobody owned up to picking it up. Apparently if you drop things they suddenly belong to someone else! It upsets me how dishonest some people can be! Anyway onto this OOTD! 

The day that we left was really rainy and horrible. Thank goodness! It would be horrible to leave on a really nice day that could have been spent sitting by a pool! So for my outfit I decided to go with a pair of shorts from Matalan (So I could get some last minute sun) and a slouchy top from Hollister. I wore my usual Topshop necklace and Ray-Ban vision glasses. My hand luggage bag is my new Parfois handbag. I decided to wear my Topshop trench coat because I knew that I would feel chilly on  the plane. (Which I deffo did!)

I really hope you have enjoyed these OOTD posts over on my blog for the past two weeks! It is probably the most I have blogged in my life, and I really loved doing it! I have also never felt comfortable blogging photos of myself before this trip and that has to do with the acceptance of blogging in my family. As sad as that sounds, I have never told my family about the fact I have been a blogger for the past three years. Not that I was ashamed, but I liked the fact I was able to have a little space of the internet all to myself to write what I wanted without feeling like I was being watched. Over the past year they were beginning to realise something was going on behind closed doors. I went through a very dark time. Anxiety took over my life and I was spending a lot of time shut up in my bedroom. The only time I felt happy was whenever I would take part in blogger chats, or converse on Instagram/Twitter with people. I have come to realise that I just need to do what makes me happy and blogging is deffo one of those things for me! I hope to continue doing this and making a better life for myself! Hope you all have a lovely day! 

Lots of love, 

Top- Hollister

Shorts- Matalan

Coat- Topshop

Shoes- Toms

Necklace- Topshop

Bag- Parfois

Glasses- Ray Ban 

Portugal OOTD 8!

I am really getting into the hang of these OOTD posts! It was such a great decision to get help from my family with taking all of the pictures instead of trying to take them in secret. It also means I am able to get straight and in focus pictures in a shorter amount of time. Result! Anyway, last night was much cooler which allowed me to wear my longer sleeved utility style dress. This was a last minute addition to my suitcase after only realising I had 2 dresses for the evenings. I bought this from H&M a while back and have never really been sure what to wear it with, it doesn't look quite right with tights but it hasn't been warm enough to wear it without them in the UK. I am glad I am able to give it an outing here in Portugal! I wore it with just two little anklets that I bought from the craft fair we visited yesterday. One of the anklets has a couple of bells on them. This is particularly interesting as there is no chance of me getting lost when wearing it! I love the pastel blue colour and thought it was different to my usual choice of pink! The yellow one is without bells, so I reckon I will get more wear out of that one! My brothers girlfriend also bought one so we will be twins! I decided to give my eyes a little breather from my contacts so I wore my usual Ray-Ban glasses and I used my usual green pastel bag from Topshop. Finally my shoes are my New Look Sandals which have broken! The sole is starting to come off which is really frustrating because they are my favourites! I decided to curl my hair again today. Since I had brought my curlers out here, I thought I would actually use them! I only curled the ends so it took no time at all. I think curls look perfect with whatever look!

I hope you are enjoying these OOTD posts. I would be interested to know whether you would like me to continue doing these when I am back in the UK. They would probably not be as frequent but every once in the while? I have really enjoyed putting outfits together so would love to do this!

Hope you all have a lovely day! 

Lots of love, 

Dress- H&M

Glasses- Ray-Ban

Shoes- New Look

Bag- Topshop