My first OOTD! ♥

Heyy beauts,

So I thought it's about time I actually 'manned up' and did an OOTD as I keep seeing other lovely bloggers doing them and wishing I was confident enough too. So I thought I'd start gently with a casual outfit that I'm wearing today. It's my dad's birthday today and he wanted to just have a chilled out day with the family and relax, so I thought I'd go as comfy as possible whilst still looking nice enough to go out for a couple of hours. I opted for a 'never-fail'chunky knit cardigan as they can always be dressed up or down and shoved on over anything and my Topshop skinny jeans as I just love the fit and feel of them-they're definitely my 'go-to' jeans!  I also whipped out my new satchel bag from Next, that I just got from my grandparents for my birthday! I kept my jewelry minimal with just a few rings and bracelets and styled my hair in an big messy bun to go with the simple relaxed look. I do have to say sorry about the brightness of the pictures though, the sun was shining really brightly and pretending to be warm...

Topshop Leigh Supersoft jeans, New Look cream blouse, Next Snood, Primark Knitted Cardigan, Next Satchel,Topshop studded slippers, Topshop rings and bracelet.

So there's my first ever OOTD for my super chilled out, casual day. Now I'm off to enjoy lots of lovely food and wine at a big family meal to wish my dad a happy birthday. I hope you're all having a lovely saturday too and have a lovely lazy sunday tomorrow too like I intend to!  

x

Nail Rock Nail Wraps ♥

Helloo lovelies,

Last night I went to Liverpool for a night out to celebrate a belated birthday for me and an early birthday for my housemate and just for general fun times in a different city than Chester with my lovely uni housemates. We stayed in a lovely apartment that we found for a real bargain and got all dressed up and hit Concert Square. I'd been looking at nail wraps for a while but not really known whether to try them out incase they weren't very good. but considering it was a night out, I thought I'd go for it. I chose the gold and black Cheetah print style as I'm a bit obsessed with animal prints at the moment and got them for £6.50 in Outfit. I LOVE them! They're actually really easy to apply..just choose the one that most fits your nail, place it on and apply pressure around nail to make it stick and file down to the length of your nail and done! Simple. They really glammed up my outfit and looked like I'd gone to lots of time and effort to have them done professionally. I teamed them a couple of gold rings and bracelets from Topshop and Miss Selfridge and was ready to go.  I'm so keen to get different patterns now and I try out different looks! Here's how they looked last night...

I'd definitely recommend them to anyone who wants to try something different with their nails :)

x

Wednesday Wishlist ♥

Heyy girls,

I've never done a 'wishlist' on here before even though I'm always spying up my next purchases and making lists of things I need to buy when I get the chance (or some money) so I thought I'd share with you all what I'm really hoping to get in the next couple of weeks...

From left to right: Marc Jacobs iPhone case - £38 , Urban Decay 'All Nighter - £19, Clinique 3 Step Kit - £20 (introduction size), Estée Lauder Advanced Night Repair serum - £41/30ml, Miss Selfridge heels - £58


I've heard such good things about the Estée Lauder Serum so I think I need to try it out for myself, and I know I already use the Clinique 3 step but it's just not been working for me recently so I want to try out a different skin type and see if that works, as I heard you should change them at different times of the year. The shoes and phone case are just lust items and I think anything that keeps your make up perfect on a night is definitely worth trying so Urban Decay really attracted me with that one! I can't wait to spend my money on some of these bad boys, I feel another splurge coming on...

What's on your wishlists at the moment and what do you think of mine?

x

Saturday Spree ♥

Hey lovelies,

Just wanted to share with you a couple of the lovely things I got from my little Trafford Centre visit this weekend. My boyfriend and I went to spend some christmas giftcards of mine and after 5 and a half hours (much to Dan's pain and disappointment) I came away with a few goodies. My first fave is my Urban Decay 'Naked' palette - I was actually buying this for myself on behalf of my sisters who wanted to get it me for my birthday but didn't get chance, so told me to go buy it at the weekend and I was so torn as to whether to get the original or get the #2 but I just love the gold shades so it was an easy choice in the end. I love the eyeshadow primer it's perfect for big girl nights out when you need your eyeshadow to stay put!

I also got some lovely studded slipper-style shoes from Topshop and a lovely cream lace top which is going to be so wearable, with jeans, leggings and dressed up or down. I also managed to spot a gorgeous coral colour jumper in the sale from £50 to £25 and it's beautiful and so soft I just had to buy it...
I obviously treated myself to another MAC lipstick (no will power) and got the shade 'Hue' just for everyday wear as it's really natural looking.

A few of my goodies minus the tops (they will be featured soon)

Finally I also got treated to a cute little present from Dan who snuck off to Selfridges when I was trying something on in Miss Selfridge even though I was taking all day. He's such a cutie...

I hope you all had lovely weekends and I'll definitely post updates about my new Urban Decay and my new Tops when I start wearing them :)

x

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Manicure me...♥

So yesterday I thought I'd treat myself to a bit of relaxation time after stressing over all of my upcoming deadlines at Uni and have a night off working to just watch some good TV and give myself a nice new manicure to make me feel fresh and pretty again. Doing my nails always helps de-stress me and I just been rocking a dark purple colour so this time I went for a light colour which my friend was using as I thought it would make my hands look girly, yet clean and soft looking. I didn't actually realise before I started using it that it's really just a base coat, but it's in a lovely pastel pink shade so works really well as an all over colour and gets me in the mood for the SS'12 pastel trends! The No7 'base coat' glides on really well and I did two coats just because I felt I wanted it to look a little more pinky, but one coat would have been just as nice if I didn't have time to do both. At around £7 a bottle I suppose it's quite pricey for a base coat but when it applies well and you can use it as both a full colour or a base it's justifiable. Heres how it looks on the nails...

No7 'So Smooth Base Coat' 

What do you do to relax and what are your go to shades?  

x

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Macy's Goodies ♥

Heyy girls,
Just thought I'd do a quick post whilst I'm having a lazy day! Whilst in New York, I visited Macy's (mentioned in my last post here) and as I said I was totally in love with the huge beauty section so I obviously had to treat myself. I needed a few things from Mac so I headed there and thought I'd treat myself to a new lipstick too! I bought the lipstick in 'Speed Dial' after a long decision on which shade! It's so creamy and applies really well to give a neutrally- pink shade on your lips that's perfect for day or night as it's not too bright and like many other Mac lip products it smells delicious! (Sorry about the picture quality - the lighting isn't very good in my Uni room)

 

                                         

Mac - Cremesheen 'Speed Dial'

I was also tempted over to the Benefit stand and was treated to a mini makeover by the lovely sales assistant! I haven't used Benefit in years so I thought I'd take a look at what they were offering. She used the Watt's Up highlighter around my cheek bones and just underneath my eyebrow which looked lovely and finished off my make up, although I controlled myself and didn't buy this as I still have a highlighter to finish before I buy another. She then showed me what I now consider to be a 'miracle' balm called the 'Porefessional' it can be applied under or over make up and it makes your skin feel so SMOOTH and visibly reduces the appearance of pores! I love it! I've used it every day since buying it and it really makes a difference to the look and feel of your skin. :) It's slightly tinted too so you can wear it without make up if you really want to...

Have you ever tried the Benefit Porefessional, and what are your favourite lipsticks? 

x

New York New York ♥

Hello lovelies, 

Firstly, Happy New Year! (when is it socially unacceptable to keep saying that?) I know I'm 9 days late to be spreading new year love, but since this is my first chance since being back on english turf again I hope you all drank far too much and brought 2012 in in style! I'm counting on it being the best year yet as I have SO much to look forward to...I'll reveal more in another post soon :) This post is really about my adventures rather than beauty just to mix things up a little..and apologies for how long it is, just got lots to say after my lack of posts recently...

So if you've been reading my recent posts and tweets you'll be well aware that I've not been able to contain my excitement about going to the Big Apple for the first time to celebrate New Year and my 21st Birthday! Well now I'm home it's safe to say I had an AMAZING time just as expected, and I had the best birthday ever! I was actually gutted to have to come home and back to reality! 

There's so much too talk about so I'll try and keep it brief and point out some of my favourites and MUST SEE's!...

1. Soho for a few hours shopping! You are guaranteed to find some quirky things from the little boutique shops and if you're more of a fan of sticking to what you know, you can always hit Topshop or do the department style shopping in Bloomingdales! Definitely the place to visit for some little one offs that you wouldn't necessarily get at home.
2. Macy's! If for nothing else just the sheer size of the beauty section with all of the gorgeous make up and perfume. Hard not to spend all of your money really especially if the exchange rate is good and you can get things for good prices compared to home. The sales are amazing! An added bonus is that if you show some ID to prove you live outside of America you get an additional 10% off. Winner!
3. Empire State Building just to see the amazing views of the city, definitely a must see whilst you're there, it's just as good as everyone says it is! Some great photo opportunities there too!
4. Times Square! This has to be my favourite place on earth! It's always got so much going on and so busy yet still feels safe to be in. Especially when you stand in front of the billboards and get to see yourself on the big screen - Forever21 have their own billboard dedicated to people seeing themselves on the big screen! Times Square on NYE to bring in 2012 was one of my highlights even though it was essential to be there 6 hours early to get a good spot as there was around 1 million people there sharing the experience!  Wrap up warm though and eat a hearty meal before hand because once you're in, you're in! There are always some great celebrities there to bring in the new year, we had such amazing times watching Lady Gaga, Cee Lo Green, Pitbull and even Justin Beiber! 
5. Central park ice skating Just to make you feel young again and convince yourself you're a pro whilst skating around with people who really take it seriously and know what they're doing! The skyline surrounds you and you can just skate away until your heart's content. Follow this by a lovely relaxing walk around the rest of the park to unwind after the busy sightseeing everywhere else! Lovely times!
6. 5th Avenue Shopping! The Apple shop itself is a tourist attraction being just a glass cube with the shop below! There are some beautiful shops down this street, especially around christmas time when they're all decorated! It's so busy around this time of year though so be prepared to queue, we queued for half an hour to get into Abercrombie and Fitch from the minute it opened. The Hollister shop is another must see as they have a live feed of the surfers in California being displayed on the front of their shop, not something you see everyday! Definitely somewhere you can shop till you drop!

There's so much more that I did - even more of the typical touristy things (Statue of Liberty etc- all has to be done) but I won't write more of an essay, although one more tip is definitely go on a bus tour where you can hop on and hop off, makes sight seeing so much easier and you can cram so much into a day without getting tired! If you haven't already been you should really make it one of your life aims to get out there! Especially around Christmas or New Year to join in with all the festivities and see all of the beaut decorations! It's amazing. Such a great start to 2012!

I also had the best 21st Birthday! I had a lovely meal with my best girls who bought me lots of gorgeous things and I got totally spoilt by my family and boyfriend in New York...I'll do a separate post soon about my beautiful gifts, including my gorgeous Vivienne Westwood Jewellery and my new Mulberry purse and they'll definitely be featured a lot when I start doing OOTD's. My new years resolution is to get my blogging mojo back and get the confidence to start being more adventurous! Wish me luck!

What did you all do for New Year and do you have any new years resolutions? 

x

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