Monthly Favorites: May

Have quite a few favorites this month; this is probably because i have been spending way too much on cosmetics & hair products lately... i apologize, bank account.  I also haven't done one of these monthly favorites posts in a while, and that's probably for the same sort of reason, in months past i haven't splurged on anything really as i had been saving up for my trip.  (A little sidenote as i got a question about this on my last post: yes i will be doing a post on my trip eventually, it will just take a while to put together!  Sorry if you're a bit annoyed with me...)

This month i've been using a lot of products i got whilst in London, as well as two i got back here in the States.  If you are also from the US and are wondering where you can purchase brands like Barry M and Sleek Makeup that aren't available here, i suggest Googling them and going to the brands' official websites.  The shipping costs may be a bit horrendous, but in some cases i do think it is worth it!  On to what i've been loving in the past month. :)

♥ GOSH Eyeshadow Quad in Driftwood & Barry M Dazzle Dust in Tan.

The first time i tried this GOSH palette, i was actually really disappointed as the colors all tended to look the same on my eyes and it just didn't stand out to me at all, but now i've been using this most everyday!  I've found a combination of products to use in tandem with this palette to make a really lovely makeup look.  I use Benefit's RSVP as a base, then apply the Barry M Dazzle Dust in Tan all over the lid & slightly into the crease.  I then apply the medium brown shade (top, right) into the crease, the dark brown (bottom, left) into the outer v, and the highlight shade (top, left) in the inner corner and brow bone.

The Dazzle Dust in Tan is very similar to the famous MAC eyeshadow in All That Glitters, but you definitely get more product for your money with the Dazzle Dust!  This shadow is so versatile and i think it would look so lovely on just about every skin tone.

 ♥ Maybelline Color Sensational Lipstick in Born With It.

The Color Sensational lipsticks are hands down my favorite lipsticks i've ever tried - yes, i even prefer these over MAC! *shock horror*  The formula, the color payoff, the longevity, everything is just spot on!  Well done Maybelline.  This shade in particular is a fairly new addition to my collection.  It's a super lovely nudey-pink shade, and leaves a bit of a sheen to the lips.  It's one of those lippies that would definitely be described as a "my lips, but better" shades.  It's so perfect and wearable, i think i will repurchase this until Maybelline stops making these (and probably even after...they shouldn't stop making these anyway! ;)

 ♥ Sleek Contour Kit in Light, Too Faced Shadow Insurance in Candlelight, and GOSH Velvet Touch Eyeliner in Black Ink.

I talked about all three of these products in my "Gosh & Sleek Loving" post, so if you want to read my little review on these products, deffo have a looksie.  Thought they were worth mentioning again in this post. :)

(left to right: 264 Pink Iridescent Glitter, 309 Strawberry Ice Cream, 318 Peach Melba, 304 Mint Green)

♥ Barry M Nail Paints.

I have been absolutely loving the Barry M Nail Paints i got (yes, i did get nine... *slap on the wrist*).  I had a laugh at all the comments from some of you saying you literally giggled when you saw how many i bought, haha... i'm so pathetic, i know!  The four above are the ones i have already tried (besides the Nail Effects one) and have been looooooving.  These nail paints have made me actually enjoy painting my nails, they dry so quickly and the colors are so fun!

Swatches (top to bottom): Too Faced Shadow Insurance in Candlelight, Maybelline Color Sensational Lipstick in Born With It (is lighter irl!), and GOSH Velvet Touch Eyeliner in Black Ink

♥ Charles Worthington Rough & Tough Front Row Salt Spray.

I've done a post on this showing how i style my hair using this product, which you can read here. :)

♥ Tangle Teezer - Original.

In my London haul post, i said i didn't really know my thoughts on this product, but after a bit more use i've grown to love it.  It's one of those products that you don't really realize how good it is until you've stopped using it.  For instance, i'd been using this for about two weeks and thought it was nothing special, but then i decided to use my regular paddle hair brush.  The regular hair brush made it incredibly painful to detangle my hair and it ended up just ripping my hair out, really!  Since then, i've been using the Tangle Teezer - on wet and dry hair.  I love this and would recommend it to anyone whose hair gets all mangled like mine.  Such a hair and pain saver!

♥

What I've Been Up To...

Just a quick little post for you all, but wanted to get something for you lovely ladies.  I thought i'd share what i've been up to lately and what's been keeping me from blogging.  It is quite a long post, but you know me - i tend to ramble a bit.  Please bear with the fact that these were all taken with the camera on my phone, have just been too lazy to take photos on my Canon!  Yes, i know i just got it a few months ago, but i'm just too lazy i suppose! ♥

♥ Animal print top from H&M - i have been loving H&M lately!

♥ A little OOTD.  Can you tell i've been obsessed with that floaty floral top?  It's from New Look. <3 Bracelet, Primark; floaty sheer top on top, H&M; jeans, Old Navy.

♥ I had a little incident with my straightner... so the straightner i brought to London with me kind of blew up (voltage fail!), so when i came home i had to buy a new one.  I bought basically the cheapest one i could find that looked okay and since it was sans auto-shut off, this is what happened!  It burnt my carpet.  Lovely.  Needless to say that straightner went back and i got one with auto-shut off.  It's better anyway. :)

♥ Strawberry Pop-tarts om nom.

♥ Crazy hair ftw.

♥ Saw this shirt in the men's section at work and it made me laugh for some reason... don't even know who those men are!  Must've been overly tired...

♥ My sister's graduation from college.  So proud of her. :)  Didn't even get half the people in the audience in the photo!  Insane.

♥ Workkkkkkkkk.  I went through the sections of the store, went through every single item to find the ones with pink tags, took the items off their hangers, and put them in a cart.  We donate these items (the ones we don't sell in a certain amount of time) to charity. :)

♥ Feeling like a badass in my New Look varsity jacket... haha, don't judge me. ;P

&heart; Went to Six Flags with school.  I do love my roller coasters!  The one in the photo is part of Superman: Ultimate Flight, which is brillllliant.

♥ So, i forgot to put on sunscreen the day i went to Six Flags and as i result, i got some pretty sexy tanlines  bad sunburn. D:

♥ See, this is why i don't wear geek glasses!  Just had to pick them up when i was in Primark though. ;)

♥ The lighting in my house is quite lovely at times, especially in this part of the year. :)

♥ We have this thing at work where all the employees make a Barbie version of themselves, so that's what's on the wall to the left of me!  Our shop is known as that "place with all the Barbies on the walls", so it's just a cute little thing that we do.  Yes, it's a bit odd, but i don't even notice all the Barbies anymore.. haha.

♥ To go along with the story above, this is mine!  Yes, she is too tan and her hair is a bit too lustrous, but it was impossible to find a Barbie with my color hair, blue eyes, and pale skin.

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Other little bits and bobs:

♥ Have been lacking the motivation to blog as of late.  I really want to actually, i'm just usually too lazy to take photos of the products/whatever i want to blog about, upload them to the computer, etc etc.  Will hopefully get around to blogging more once school ends!

♥ Bought tickets to see Bon Iver in July!  Justin Vernon is actually from my home state and i have some cousins up north where he's from. :)  It's just so cool to me that he's from my neck of the woods.  He seems so relatable and humble since he embraces where he's from and keeps that "small town" feeling in his music and.. yeah.  I'm a dork.  His music his beautiful as well, definitely check Bon Iver out if you haven't already. <3

♥ School ends on the 10th for me (that's the final day of exams) so that's been wrapping up.  Have so much to catch up on and so much to get done, i'm kind of drowning in my work, but the stress and anxiety hasn't hit me yet... Bring on the three month break, please!  Can't believe my peers & me will be seniors next year - the "top dogs" in high school, as it were. ;)  Haha.  WE'RE SO OLD.  As much as i hate high school, i kind of don't want to leave and move on with my life...

♥ Have been loving these Youtube ladies: Alexandra, Hannah, Zoe, and Barbara.

♥

Denim, waves, & floral print.

I find myself going through phases of liking my hair a certain way, or wearing a certain color or pattern excessively (such as black...ahem), etc. and i'm going through one of these phases at the mo!  I've really been loving denim jackets, beachy/wavy hair, and floral prints (in case you didn't catch the hint from the title of this post ;).  All three of these current faves are orientated around spring/summer, so i think these will be loves of mine for a while...

1. Denim jackets: The jacket i'm wearing in the photos in this post is from the beloved Primark.  It's crazy how many outfits you can put this over - dresses, dressier tops, more casual tops, the list goes onnnnnn.  It makes me feel a bit more put together and i don't know about you, but i just feel a bit 'cooler' wearing a jean jacket... maybe i'm just a dork. ;)  Many people may say you shouldn't wear denim-on-denim, but i think as long as you're not trying to match the washes of the denim, it's fine (as i display below with the jacket in question and some dark-wash skinny jeans).

Denim jackets are perfect for the spring and summer since they're light, but still provide a bit of warmth and coverage, and are versatile. :)

2. Beachy/wavy hair: I believe this current love of mine was sparked by the purchasing of Charles Worthington's Front Row Rough & Tough Salt Spray, which i got in Boots whilst in London.  It helps add a bit of texture to your hair and helps to bring out my natural waves.  My hair routine as of late has been as follows: shower at night, brush hair out with Tangle Teezer (that bright pink thing in the photo below), fishtail braid my hair, spritz it with hairspray and let it dry a bit overnight.  The next morning, i then take the braid out and it's still a bit damp, so i ruffle it a bit & scrunch it with my hands as well.  I spray the Salt Spray all over and with a diffuser, i blow dry my hair, scrunching more with my hands as i go.  Once it's dry, i hairspray it and if i want, i'll use my straightener to curl a few pieces of my hair.  I then finish off with a bit of Umberto Giannini's Backcomb in a Bottle. :)

Since i don't wash my hair everyday, i simply brush out my hair again with the Tangle Teezer before i go to bed (my hair still maintains a bit of the waves) and put my hair back in the fishtail braid to sleep.  Sometimes i add a bit more of the Salt Spray in the following morning and scrunch it, if not i just hairspray it and put more Backcomb in a Bottle in.

3. Floral print: I don't think i'll never not like myself a bit of floral print to be honest.  It makes me feel so girly and there are so many different ways to wear it... speaking of, i am really craving some floral shorts and floral sneakers at the moment, they would be so perfect for the summer!  The top i'm wearing in the photo above is another piece i got from London and it's from New Look.  It's so flowy, sheer, and gorgeous.  I'm obsessed.

What are you currently loving?

♥

Prom Night

I remember in the fifth grade i counted down the years until i could go to prom.  It made me feel so old at the time - i remember thinking "just six more years and we'll all be high schoolers and go to prom".  Now that the event has come and gone (it was on Saturday night-Sunday morning), it seems time just went by way too quickly.  It's funny how prom seemed like the biggest deal back in the day, and now that i'm actually at the age where i can go to things like prom and such, it's not that big of a deal anymore.  It seems overrated even.  That might just be my take on it, since a ton of people from school were sharing how super duper excited they were about the night on Facebook.  Maybe i'm just a party pooper?

We all met up at my house to put on our dresses and take pictures before the dance, where the limo driver met us as well.  Yes we hired a limo driver to haul us around for the night!  Are we cool or what?  Four people in a ten-person-capacity limousine.  It was quite the squeeze (that was sarcasm, obv haha).  We decided to go with a smaller group (sans dates) because we all just find it more fun, and with more people comes more drama in our opinion.

With my lovely mother ♥

I went with a fairly simple dress in a bolder color.  It was actually the first one i tried on and was so relieved that it was long enough (maybe too long as everyone, including me, was stepping on it!).  For my hair, i tried to compliment the dress as much as possible, but keeping it casual as well, so i just did a messy side bun on the opposite side of where the asymmetrical strap was, with little twists on both sides of my part.

For my makeup, i tried to do a bit of an Adele-inspired look.  She always looks so flawless and classic with her makeup - it's simple, but a bit dramatic at the same time, which i think is perfect for prom (or everyday if you're like me) and went really well with the dress and hair.  So for the look, i did some contouring & highlight of the cheeks, dark black liquid winged eyeliner, a shimmery lid with a defined crease, false lashes, white eyeliner on the waterline, and a nudey-pink lip.

Everyone usually gets their hair, makeup, and nails done professionally, but i don't trust other people with trying to make me look good for events like prom!  I'm also a bit skint atm haha.

Ooh la la!  Inside the limo.

Didn't take any pictures at the actual venue where our prom was held, but we went to this really classy Roman-inspired place, ate some delicious steak with prom king & queen, and tried to dance without looking like slags and without sweating too much.  Lovely image, no?  Wish people would actually dance and not ahem... do whatever you want to call how the kids are 'expressing themselves' these days.  I have to say the icing on the cake was when they played Friday by Rebecca Black - some hardcore dance moves and stellar singing ensued.

After prom, the prom committee every year organizes a 'post-prom' at the Y, which is basically a lock in that goes on from 12:30-3:30 AM, where everyone still has their makeup & hair done, but changes into sweats.  There's a ton of food, inflatable obstacle course, and fun times to be had.  The best part was the hypnotist though!  Can't even begin to describe that... People were genuinely hypnotized and it was the strangest, yet most hilarious thing i have ever seen.  Maybe next year i'll be able to actually be hypnotized, my brain wouldn't shut off & let me fall into the trance...

Another photo in the limo / A picture of the airbrush tattoos my friends and me got at post-prom!  Mine is the ace of spades card.

After post-prom, my friends and i came back to my house, where we stayed in the hot tub until the sun started to rise and then we passed out in the basement for a little bit.

Overall, it was quite a fun night!  Wish i could've let go a bit more and gotten into the whole 'prom experience'.

♥

Jewelry storage bits & bobs.

Working at my local thrift store has it's perks: getting a 50% discount on already super cheap stuff and being constantly surrounded by clothes, accessories, and stuff for around the house.  We were having a really slow night last night so i decided to look around for some bits & pieces i could use to help organize my jewelry better.  I've been having countless problems with the way i store my jewelry lately, it's so unorganized, everything gets tangled or lost, it's hard to look for something you want, etc.  Although i haven't completely solved this problem, i purchased two things to help sort it out a bit.

The first thing i found was this shallow, little box.  It has a grippy sort of bottom to it, which really helps the earrings stay in place.  It is a bit small to fit all of my earrings, but it fits a majority of the studs and is actually really handy when i'm in a hurry in the morning.  I believe this was only about 99c, but as i mentioned before i get a 50% off discount, so this was definitely an absolute bargain!

The second and last thing i bought was this dainty, little dish that i use as a ring-tray-sorta-thing.  I like to display my jewelry, not just because it makes my room a bit prettier, but because it is soo much easier than having to go through drawers & such to pick out what you want to wear for the day.  It goes with my room as well, so yeah. :)

How do you ladies store your jewelry?  Any tips would be much appreciated. <3

♥

Bagology

I've seen a few posts on this already, but i thought i would share with you all my own 'bagology' reading.

I'd never heard of such a thing before Hayden from Sudocrem emailed me a couple weeks ago.  Bagology is the process of understanding someone's personality & character traits simply by the contents of his or her bag.  I've always loved watching and reading the "what's in my bag?" videos and blog posts, so reading some of the analyses of some lovely ladies' bags has been intriguing!  Obviously i was quite interested in hearing an analysis of my own bag, so i posted a photo of my bag & its contents on their Facebook page and awaited my reading. :)

Bag: H&M

Contents, top to bottom, left to right: wallet, Clinique pressed powder

Forever 21 sunglasses, hand sanitizer, pen, water bottle, Victoria's Secret "Kissing in Paris" in a travel size bottle

Lolita (current read :), iPod, phone, eyelash curlers

Kleenex, Barry M Lip Gloss Wand in Strawberry Milkshake, MAC lipstick in Creme Cup

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"Good evening Laura - I had to read your bag tonight as I love your bag and just wish I could identify the brand!  Into your reading... For you at the moment I sense that planning is key!  You seem to be logical, organised and someone who enjoys having a level of control in life.  It feels like you are someone who loves to set goals, or life plans.  You seem to be kind and tactful as a person.  You also have a quiet power in your nature.  Maybe this lies in your pragmatic 'no nonsense' 'fix it' attitude?  Or maybe you simply enjoy being 'hands on' when you see you can be useful.  I think it is good for you to spend time hanging out with people who have similar interests, hobbies, values or outlook.  I think you are someone who is a 'self starter' and can 'pick yourself up' and refresh when you need to.  Finally, the words courage and beauty spring from your bag.  These seem to be important aspects of life for you.  I imagine you enjoy lovely landscapes, outdoor walks or furniture!  Finally, I think it is important for you to have loyal friends and supporters around you and to be able to feel that the loyalty is real, almost something to touch.  I have found your bag quite unusual and the reading is a little different from others I've done.  Thank you!  It was a pleasure for me.  Debbie@handbagtherapy.com"

Overall, i thought this was actually quite accurate!  Especially the bit about enjoying lovely landscapes, outdoor walks, and furniture and the part about the need to have loyal friends & supporters around me and that it needs to be shown.  I hate to admit, but the 'no nonsense' attitude is kind of something i have...i try not to be so snappy/bitchy about it though!  About setting goals & being organized, i love doing things like making to-do lists and such (yes, i'm a dork) and i at least attempt to be organized, so that's pretty accurate as well.

If you're interested in having your own 'bagology' reading done, i definitely recommend it!  All you have to do is 'like' SudocremTube on Facebook (link here), snap a photo of your bag & its contents and post it on their wall, then await your reading.  Simples.  They're holding this little bagology reading until the end of the month so you still have a bit of time.

Thanks so much Hayden for letting me know about this and Debbie for doing all the readings!  You're both lovely. :)

♥

Gosh & Sleek Loving.

Haven't done one of these 'face of the day' type of posts in a while, i'm sure you can see why. ;)  I feel a bit vain posting pictures of my mug up for the people of the internet to see to be honest, haha.  I figured i'd do one anyway to show some of the products i got from my trip actually put to use.

I've absolutely been loving the Gosh eyeliner and Sleek Contour Kit, they are both new staples in my collection.  The Gosh liner totally tops Urban Decay's famous 24/7 one in Zero like it's nobody's business.  If you can get your hands on it, definitely try it out!  And the contour kit was a total bargain, don't think i'll be able to live without it from now on!  Makes the skin look gaaaaaawgeous and hasn't broken me out, which many drugstore products seem to do *knocks on wood*.

The Two Faced 'Illuminating' Shadow Insurance in Candlelight is totally new to me, i hadn't heard of it until my sister gave it to me (i think she got it as a 500 point perk at Sephora).  I really do quite like it though!  It's not as opaque as the Urban Decay primers are (ie. Sin), which i actually prefer.  It's just as good as the original staying-power-wise and it does brighten up the eye area to help make it look like you actually got your 8+ hours of beauty sleep - hence the 'illuminating' bit - without making it look like you have packed a ton of product on your eyes (like i have below haha ;).  Mac's Shroom looks amazing over it btw. :)

Hope you're not too offended by this little 'mug face of the day'!

Said Sleek Contour Kit & Gosh Eyeliner

Eyes

Too Faced Shadow Insurance in Candlelight

Mac Shroom e/s all over lid and inner corner & brow bone highlight

Mac Satin Taupe e/s in crease

Barry M Dazzle Dust in Chocolate in the outer corner

L'Oreal Linear Intense in Black - winged out with a bit of Urban Decay's Oilslick e/s on top to set

Gosh Velvet Touch Eyeliner in Blank Ink

Clinique High Impact mascara

Face

Benefit Erase Paste under eyes

Mac Studio Finish concealer on blemishes

Bare Minerals Original Foundation

Sleek Contour Kit in Light

Clinique Pressed Powder blush in New Clover

Bare Minerals Mineral Veil to set

Lips

Carmex :)

Hair & outfit

Will do a little post on the hair at some point. :)

top - New Look, earrings - Primark

♥

Outfit: 5/6/11

Hello again. ;)  The other day i actually felt up to taking photos of what i wore to show you all (i usually just can't be bothered, they never turn out, something is always wrong in them to me :P).  Most of the pieces i'm wearing are things i bought while in London and from my new favorite store, Primark, nonetheless.  I tweeted about this the other day, but they NEED an online store.  I don't know what i'll do for clothes now that i'm Primarni obsessed!

I promise you i'll try to get that haul up with everything i got, i really want to show you guys!  I filmed a vloggy-type video with me talking about the trip, but it's so long and i don't know if that's something you'd all be interested in watching, but i'll edit it down when i have the time and see how i feel.

Onto the clothes!

dress - New Look

cardigan, floral & tribal bracelets, earrings, and ring - all Primark

silver cuff bracelet - Tudor bracelet from Shakespeare's Birthplace gift shop

watch - Anne Klein

nails - Barry M 318 Peach Melba

One of my go-to outfit combos is a dress and leggings, with a cardigan layered over top.  It's an easy way to be comfortable, yet still look put-together at the same time.  This specific cardigan has to be my absolute favorite that i own!  It got it two sizes too big (as it was the only size left really, besides like size six, which i suppose was fate!) than i am, which i quite like as it has a more casual look i suppose.  I usually wear my trusty black Old Navy cardigan, which i am slowly but surely getting sick of, but i've been into color and lighter fabrics this spring/summer, so this light grey is perfect.  It's also not to heavy and thick to wear during the warmer months.  I'm in love!

I really LOVE this dress as well.  I went kind of flower-crazy in New Look and bought three floral dresses and floral top... but they are all so lovely!  I think i've found my new favorite style of dress as well, with the waist defined where it is.  I used to think i couldn't wear this style of dress, but i've gotten a few comments from people irl that the cut is super flattering on me, quite a self-esteem boost & not a compliment i'm used to getting!

I wanted to wear my trusty fringe sandals with this outfit, but i had a bit of an accident that involved half of the nail on my big toe being ripped off (lovely image there, no?), and this problem cannot be solved with nail polish!  So i ended up wearing black flats with it, which i thought added a bit of a damper to the outfit, but the rest of the outfit looked quite nice i thought. :)

Hope you all have an amazing weekend & Mother's Day (if you live in America :)!

♥

Feeling Peachy

Feeling rather down from jet-lag and a long & stressful day of work, i decided to utilize one of my new Barry M Nail Paints that i bought while in London.  (I had such a laugh at the comments & tweets i got on my huge Barry M spree!  Love you guys :).  I opted for the shade 318 Peach Melba, which was love at first sight really!

It's a creamy, pinky-peach color and almost comes off as fluorescent (without being in-your-face neon).  It makes me smile whenever i look at it (sad i know), such a perfect color for spring and summer!  I quite like the formula as it dries fairly quickly - i get stir crazy if my nail polish takes too long to dry - but it did go on a bit streaky.  It took three coats to get to an opacity i liked, but i didn't mind too much honestly since again, it didn't take forever to dry!
I'm quite impressed with the staying power as well.  I painted my nails Saturday afternoon and it's now Tuesday.. usually my nails would be crazy chipped & peeling by now, but Peach Melba's not budging. :)

This first little dive into Barry M Nail Paints left me feeling very satisfied.  I mean, imagine purchasing £27+ worth of nail polish and hating the formula of it or something!  That would be one big *facepalm* indeed.


Sorry about the delay on my London posts (clothes/accessories haul & photos from my trip) everyone.  As i believe i said before, it would be impossible to take photos of all the clothes, so i'm going to try & film a video, but finding the time & privacy to do so may be a bit challenging!  And i took over 1000 photos during my trip so going through them & choosing which ones to post (not to mention watermarking them) will take a while!  Will try to get on that asap though. ;)

♥