How much is your face worth?

I saw this tag floating about the beauty community, and although i'm a bit scared to see the grand total of how much i spend on my everyday makeup, i thought i'd do it!  Many of you will probably think this is an excessive amount of makeup for one to put on on a daily basis, but... yeah, i can't really think of an excuse to put here. :P  I do feel more confident & just better about myself after i've put some slap on, so i don't mind spending a little bit more money & time on doing so.

The only part of my routine that stays the consistent day-to-day is the 'base' category, with foundation & such.  Other than that, i wear more or less makeup & use different products in the other categories depending on my mood/what i'm doing that day.  The products included in this post are what i use on an average day & they make up a look that i've been wearing often recently.

Hope this is interesting to you ladies, i will now hold my breath while i add up the cost of everything! :O

-

Base

Bare Minerals Prime Time - $21

Benefit Erase Paste - $26

MAC Studio Finish concealer - $16.50

Bare Minerals Original Foundation - $25

Bare Minerals Mineral Veil - $19

 Cheeks

Bare Minerals Warmth All-Over Face Color - $18

Sleek Contour Kit - $10

Clinique Powder Blush in New Clover - free sample size with purchase so i'm not counting it :)

 Eyes

Revlon Brow Fantasy in Dark Blonde -  $6.48

Too Faced Shadow Insurance - $18

Benefit Creaseless Cream Eyeshadow in RSVP - $19

GOSH Quad in Driftwood - £7.99, about $13

GOSH Velvet Touch Eyeliner in Black Ink - free with purchase of the quad :)

Clinique Brush-On Cream Liner in True Black - $15

L'Oreal Voluminous Carbon Black mascara - $5.84

Lips

Carmex - about $1

Maybelline Color Sensational Lipstick in Born With It - $4.97

Total

$218.79

Well, that is slightly appalling isn't it?!  To be fair, each of the products do last quite a while and i believe i get my money's worth out of them... Anyway, it's how i choose to spend my hard-earned cash.  Consumerism ftw. ;)

♥

Crochet & turquoise.

Still feel like a bit of a loon taking pictures of myself!  I think it's just that i feel a little pretentious knowing that i intend to post the photos in a blog post like "ooh, look at my face"... hence the "let's just get this over with" look in my eyes haha.  Why do i do these posts you ask?  Well, i do like seeing other girlies' faces of the day because they show the products 'in action', if you know what i mean.  Like, sure, you can talk about a product all you want, but it's always nice to see it put to use!  I also think it's nice seeing the different combos people come up with.  If i like, say, an eye look i see on someone, i steal the idea & try to incorporate it into my own makeup - i'm sure i'm not the only one who does this... that is the point of these 'face of the day' posts (in my opinion), isn't it? :)

This is basically how i do my makeup on a day-to-day basis, with different eyeshadow combos & such, but they are all essentially the same neutral kind of look!  I also tried out a lip stain that i got from CVS the other day for the first time - not sure what my thoughts are on it yet!  I toned it down a lot so it probably doesn't look like much.

I am in love with the top i wore as well, it a crochet sort of thing that is so breezy, yet still cozy.  I adore the length of the sleeves, and although it kind of hangs in all the wrong places, it's oh, so right!  It came with a tank top, but i just cut it out - much better this way, it was all polyester and cringey.  This was a little thrift store gem i found, but i know crochet is a big trend this season, so similar tops & such are out in stores atm!

I've also been loving little delicate necklaces lately & with the top, i wore this gold chain with a little turquoise stone in it - another thrift store find!

I wore this out to work & then out to a casual dinner at TGI Friday's with my girlies, so i just wore dark wash  skinny jeans on the bottom (rolled up into capris with flats for work & as full length jeans with sandals for dinner).

So here's my face/kind of-outfit.....

Crochet top & necklace - thrifted

Eyes

Barry M Dazzle Dust in Tan

GOSH Quad in Driftwood - medium brown in crease/darker brown in outer corner

Urban Decay e/s in Polyester Bride - highlight

Clinique Gel Liner in Black

L'Oreal Voluminous mascara in Carbon Black

GOSH Velvet Touch Eyeliner in Black Ink

Revlon Brow Fantasy in Dark Blonde

Face

Bare Escentuals Prime Time

MAC Studio Finisher concealer - on blemishes

Benefit Erase Paste - under eyes

Bare Minerals Original Foundation

Bare Minerals Warmth - bronzer

Sleek Contour Kit

Clinique blush in New Clover

Bare Minerals Mineral Veil

Lips

Revlon Just Bitten Lip Stain in Passion (faded a lot)

♥

Necklace storage

Two Christmases ago, my sister gave me an Urban Outfitters gift card and i just used it last week... pathetic, i know!  I'd been looking for a better way to store and display my necklaces for the longest time (they were all tucked away in a drawer before) and i've finally found something i really like.  It's this Birdcage Jewelry Display from Urban Outfitters - there were two colors to choose from, white and gold, but i went with white as it will go with a lot more and i think it looks a bit nicer!  It has fourteen staggered hooks which fit all my necklaces (doubled up, of course ;).  It also has bars going across the top where you can store dangly earrings & such, but i only have two pairs of them so i thought i would leave them with the rest of my earrings. :)

I sound like such a saleslady, but i really do think it goes so well with my room and it's just super adorable. I was a bit appalled that shipping was $10 (which took up half of my gift card amount -_-).  It did arrive at my house quite quickly and unharmed though, so that's a thumb's up from me.  The birdcage storage was $30, which i think is quite reasonable as it is really nice quality & i think i'll use it for years to come.

How do you store your necklaces/jewelry?

♥

London: Days One & Two

I'm going to first apologize for two things - 1) for this is incredibly late, i did leave for my trip on the 20th of April and it is now the 21st of June! and 2) for this post being hideously long!  Please keep in mind i took hundreds of photos each day, so narrowing them all down and deciding which ones to put in each blog post is so difficult.  So people suggested i just put it in a video format, but i just didn't want to do that tbh.

My trip last April to London & Paris was absolutely amazing.  London is my favorite city that i've been to and we were so, SO lucky to have such incredible weather - we're talking no rain (except for a tiny bit one night), temperatures in the 70s/80s Fahrenheit everyday, and the sun shining.  I took my camera out everyday, but i did leave it home when we went out most nights as it is super heavy and bulky.  It was a trip with school so there were about 15+ or so other people and chaperones, but when we had free time, we were really free to roam about the city on our own (in groups of three or more of course), armed with tube passes for the day, maps, and a list of suggested places to check out.  Most of our nights we had free time, but of course we had to be back in our rooms by midnight. ;)  The trip was really worth every penny and i'm absolutely dying to go back.  My heart is in England. ♥

So here are some of the highlights of day one and two.  Obviously i can't include everything and i didn't even take photos of every place we went to or every thing we did, so bear that in mind.

Day one we arrived at our hotel, went on an overview tour of the city and visited Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square, and Piccadilly Circus (we were running a bit late so we didn't get to go to Covent Garden :( ), and went on the Jack the Ripper tour (to try and stay up late as to prevent jet lag).  We also had time to go shopping, i went to King's Mall in Hammersmith, which is when i spent loads at Primark and Superdrug (didn't have time for River Island or anything else :/).  And for dinner that night we had Turkish food, it was okay!

Day two we stopped at St. Paul's Cathedral and Hampton Court Palace, and went on a tour in a coach all around the city, and also saw Chicago the musical which i didn't like too much tbh.  For dinner we had Indian cuisine, super spicy!

Got my passport & ticket all ready to go.

*a day of waiting in the airport/flying/going through six time zones later* Baggage claim at Heathrow!

The beloved Primark, almost fell over seeing it (finally!) in person...  Taking a stroll down King Street.  We got some free time so i had a little stop at King's Mall in Hammersmith which was just one tube stop away on the tube or a five minute walk from our hotel.

A few hours of shopping later.. yep, i bought all of those nail paints in one go (+1 more a few days later :P)

Ravenscourt Park tube station, the one that was closest to our hotel. :)

Had another little stroll over the Queen's Jubilee Bridge.  I'm actually quite scared of bridges so i was quick to get off of this one!  Was quite nice though. :)

Trafalgar Square - probably one of my favorite places we went.  So lovely & full of people!

Second to last photo is a picture inside St. Martin in the Fields, located in Trafalgar Square.

I believe these were taken while we were walking through Leicester Square.  We didn't spend too much time there, but it looked like it has a lot of places to eat at and bars and such!  We were also walking through there around dinner time... haha

A little blurry view from our hotel room.  Hammersmith is so, so lovely in my opinion!

We went on a little drive around the touristy parts of London and saw a lot of things that were set up for the Royal Wedding, which took place literally three days after we left for Paris.  These are a bunch of Union Jack flags strung up if you didn't know that already. ;)

St. Paul's Cathedral - We didn't actually get to go inside as we visited it on Good Friday (you could only go in for the service), but it was such a nice day that chilling out on the steps in front of it was perfectly fine.  It was absolutely massive, the door to go in is probably taller than my house.... ha.  My friends & i also stopped at the little Marks & Spencer Simply Food and got some cookies and a berry drink.

Westminster Abbey - Of course we had to stop by here for a bit.  It was quite cool to see where Will and Kate were to be married. :)

A little shot of Big Ben (with the London Eye showing its face in the corner) from Westminster Abbey.

St. James's Park (which was full of people since the weather was amazing) & the walk to Buckingham Palace.

Buckingham Palace in all its glory!

Fish & chips for lunch!  Hands down one of the best meals i had whilst there, could eat it everyyyyyyy day.  And yes, i finished that plate off, don't worry. ;)

Hampton Court Palace on a lovely, lovely day.

Let me know if you enjoyed this ladies!  I will try my best to keep getting the photos up from the rest of the trip.  Will try to make them a bit more brief. :)

♥

Thrifty Finds

I apologize for the second 'haul'-type post in a row, i just thought i'd share with you all what bargains i've gotten recently!  I've mentioned before that i work at a thrift store that's about five or so minutes away from my house, and when it's a slow night or while i'm cleaning/organizing i like have a little look around.  Lately, we've had a lot of clothes and bits & bobs that have caught my eye, and of course i've ended up picking them up most times! Thankfully, all the prices are super reasonable and i do get a 50% discount on clothes, otherwise i would be breaking the bank!

I urge you ladies to check out your local thrift stores/secondhand shops if you're looking to spice up your wardrobe or room a bit, but don't want to spend too much money. :)

Cross pendant necklace - $1.99, turquoise stone necklace - $3.49, heart crystal necklace - $1.49 

 Brand spankin' new canvas shoes - originally $1.99 per pair, bagged both for $1.99 :)

 Tapestry bag with longer strap - $2.99

 '80s-esque geometric-y skirt - originally $2.99, bought for 50% off

Mirrored, spinny, metal, tray thing (which i have put most of my earrings & brooches on) - $3.99

Candy dish, not sure what i'm going to use this for yet but it's pretty :) - $1.49-1.99ish

♥