Mid-term “pick-me-up”

This weekend I headed back home for a little break from University. My final term assignments were handed in on Friday, and the next few start again on Monday so i thought I deserved to run away for a few days. One thing that University has taught me is how much I love my home. Being a military girl, we always moved around when I was a child so I really appreciate having a base to return too with a group of amazing friends and a lovely job.

On Saturday I had a wonder around town, my first shopping trip since before Christmas at least! Being so close to the end of my time reliant on Student Loans, meant that I decided to ignore my bank account and just enjoy pottering around. Here are a few of the things I purchased.

The first thing I picked up was another Topshop nail polish. Since purchasing the other three colours in my John Lewis order, I have fell in love with the range. Usually I get irritated with chipped nail polish only a few hours after it being applied, but this stays put for a good 2-3 days before showing any signs of wear and tear. I wanted to build up a more neutral collection of polishes, due to my soon advancement into the more professional working world. I found the image above on tumblr (find me; kelz002.tumblr.com) and loved the shade the make-up artist was wearing so I attempted to get as close to this as possible and I love the outcome. The shade I am wearing is called “Milkshake”!!

Secondly I picked up this beautiful ring from Accessorize. My mum was horrified that I was willing to spend £14.00 on it, however I wear a ring every single day so I think it worth the money. Other people may spend £20.00 on a necklace they only wear once or twice a year. I adored the sparkle in this as it hit the light and alongside the neutral pink nail polish I felt very elegant! At the counter my mum was also kind enough to pick up the sparkly shoe key ring on the right for me. £5.00 and a beautiful addition to my rather dull key collection at the moment!

Next was a trip to Boots where I wanted to pick up two make-up products that Beauty Gurus on YouTube have always raved about. First was the Maybelline Falsies Mascara, something I had heard only heard high reviews upon. I will admit that on only first application I can see why it is a favourite and the length it gave me was incredible. Secondly I purchased the Loreal SuperLiner in black. I had previously picked up their “Superliner Perfect Slim” pen, thinking this was the one many had spoken about but I really did not like the product. I kept ending up with a black smudged line just underneath my brow bone, where the product would not stay put. However after realising I had bought the wrong product, this thicker gel definitely stays on and creates the perfect cats-eye. Due to it being “3 for 2 mix-and-match” in boots, I also picked up the Real Techniques foundation brush. Once again I had noticed all of the YouTubers used these brushes, and I had always applied my foundation with my fingers so I wanted to give this a go. It is a beautiful brush and with the deal it meant I got the eyeliner for free as well.

Finally I picked up this beautiful handbag. I loved the colour as light blue is my primary shade when it comes to clothing. It suits me perfectly and going into summer I am looking for more candy colours, similar to this blue and the candy pink nail polish. This was £35.00 also from accessorise, I little bit pricey but I couldn’t resist. Now unfortunately it will stay at home until I return from graduation to be able to use it! But I shall continue to think about it over the next few weeks I am sure ;)

I hope you all had a lovely weekend like I did. I am now going to jump in the car and drive back to University for the last time! :)

Thank you for all your lovely comments.

Lots of Love

Miss B xxx

How to feel good naked

Hello everyone,
I wanted to share this video I found with you today as it was something that really made me smile. I don’t know how many of my readers are interested in keeping fit and eating the correct foods, but it is something that has become a really big part of my life. Back in 2011 I was classed as obese on the BMI scale, and since then have spent the most of three years making a permanent life style change. I can now say that I am no longer classed as obese, I eat a nutritional diet and I work out six times a week (with the occasional chocolate binge…). This change from my old ways of continuously ordering take-out and never exercising is a great achievement for me.

However one thing that I have particularly struggled with through this lifestyle change, is the scales not moving. After an initial drop of 38lbs, I am still 14lbs away from what I initially set as my healthy goal weight when I started my journey in May 2011. Yet the scale has not dropped since September 2012. Working out every day and eating right I became more and more disheartened. It doesn’t matter how many times someone says to you “but you look fine now” or “maybe that is the weight your body is supposed to be”. It can still become very upsetting to not reach your final goal when you have come so far.
Until this Summer when I suddenly received many comments along the lines of “wow you’ve lost more weight!?”. When in fact the scale still hadn’t dropped by even one pound. The more and more comments like this I began to receive the more I also noticed my clothes were becoming much looser. Whilst I was not loosing weight on the scale, I was evidently loosing inches. I have recently started a new workout plan and I am refusing to let myself get on the scale and am simply focusing on inches. During the Alpha phase of the Shaun T25 workout I have lost a total of 7 inches….with no idea how much I weigh.

But this video simply summarised everything that I had felt over the last year and a half of working out but feeling like a failure. It really put a smile on my face and I wanted to share it. Even if it only helps one girl who stumbles across this blog post one random day in ten years time it will be worth it if it helps them accept the scale earlier than I did.

How to feel good naked.

I hope you have all had a good weekend.
Lots of Love
Miss B  xxxx

Topshop make-up haul – Blush & Eyeshadow

The next product I purchased was the cream blush in the colour “Flush”. I am a relatively new girl to experimenting with blusher. When I worked at The Body Shop I always wore their “Baked Blush 01” as it blended into a gold shimmer. However this was more of an accidental find as we were allowed to use the make-up stand to try different colours on ourselves so we could tell customers our true opinion. Once I stopped working there, I never really bothered with blush again. Until I discovered the Beauty YouTubers and they made me realised what I was missing out on. I purchased the “Sleek Rose Gold” blush last week due to its rave reviews, and this Topshop colour is now only the third in my collection.

Due to my lack of experience in the blush department, I will admit I panicked when i first opened the packaging. It seemed a lot brighter than what had been advertised online and images of bright pink clown cheeks appeared in my mind. I also have never used a cream blush before, always preferring a powder finish due to my very dry skin. I don’t really need anything else that could become “caked” on top of my moisturiser, primer and foundation.

However once applied to the skin the original “wow” colour faded and it became a beautiful tinted finish. I think I will probably wear this one in the summer due to the gold hints in it, it reminds me of beaches and suntans! In the winter I am looking for more of a “just walked in from the cold flush”! This one reminds me very much of the sleek one I originally purchased. My blusher hunt will continue…!
With my next product I also took a risk, as I have never purchased eye shadow online. I much prefer to try the testers in store to test the pigment, build up and general feel of the product. However because I had heard such good things about the range and this product had an online five-star customer rating I followed through.





















I just want to add at this stage just how much I love the Topshop packaging. The design is so feminine and exciting to open up. The little dots on top of the polishes and palettes add up to the smallest details but make a real difference. Everyone I know comments on it.
I had two eye shadow palettes to choose from on the John Lewis website, one which created a more smokey eye look with darker blues and greys, and this one called “Orion.” I have a number of smokey eye palettes and am trying to experiment with deeper colours in the winter as I have never been very confident with darker eye shadow. For this reason the two lighter colours in this were perfect for me and the gorgeous red/burgundy colour allowed me to add the deeper side with a blending brush if I wished. Something that has been recommended to me due to my blue eyes and brown hair.


I adore these shades and the pigment and build up of them were perfect. I have yet to wear them for a long time during the day to test their staying-power, however I plan on uploading a “Topshop make-up Look” with them once I have had a bit more of a play. But so far I am very impressed.
Hope you all have a wonderful day.
Miss B xxx

Topshop Make-up Haul – Nail Polish

So in the midst of procrastination I had a little snoop through online shopping. I am currently spending every daylight minute working on my undergraduate dissertation and numerous amounts of group work projects. All I can say is that final year is really really hard! However eight more weeks of term, a couple of exams and in July I will hopefully be wearing that sparkling (theoretically) graduation hat!
For one of my projects on Strategic Management, we are focusing on the competitive strategy of John Lewis. For those of my international readers, John Lewis is one of the largest department stores within the UK which sells a variety of high-quality brands. Whilst researching through the company reports this somehow turned into me spending a large amount of money on the John Lewis Beauty website. That counts as research right?
So I thought I would share my “little” collection of beauty buys. I had £30.00 worth of vouchers for John Lewis from my 21^st Birthday, so I decided to try to get as many things as possible for this amount rather than one more expensive product. I wasn’t aware that John Lewis stocked the Topshop Beauty collection, a range which I have heard many positive things about across the Blogosphere and YouTubers including FleurdeForce and Zoella. My total cost came to £60.00, including £30.00 worth of vouchers, so I was very proud of my relatively cheap beauty pick-me-up to knock down my mid-term blues!

I have an unusual confession to make in the UK fashion world, but I am not the biggest fan of Topshop in general. Due to being a student I have tried to stay away from the stores due to the more pricier clothing ranges they offer. Also my fashion style is how I would like to describe as “classic” with black and white palettes, diamonds and red lipsticks. Topshop collections including space leggings and t-shirts with cats across them are rather out of my comfort zone, although very well pulled off by my housemate! However so far I have been very impressed by the make-up items I purchased.
When my little parcel arrived I was so excited! The first thing I wanted to try out was the nail polish colours as I had heard how well they apply and do not chip. I bought one matt pink colour called “Daydream” and two monochrome colours called “Beam” and “Crystal Clouds”.


I have been wearing the pink monochrome “Beam” for the past three days and I love the gorgeous shine. So far no chips, which is impressive compared to the other nail colours I have tried recently. I seem to have a problem with fairy liquid in the washing up bowl taking off my polish! But so far no problem in this department and I have had many comments about how pretty my nails look. I am really looking forward to wearing the matt pastel pink during the summer months with skirts and sandals on the beach! The monochrome colours were £6.00 each and the matt colour £5.00. More than I usually spend on the “Barry M” colours which I usually get two for £5.00 but because they haven’t budged I believe the extra cost is worth the difference.

That is all you are getting from me today! I am going to upload each day this week with a review on each of the product in my box of goodies. That way I have tested the product during the day and it will also get me into the routine of blogging and this will hopefully continue as I spend most evenings drinking tea and watching telly after a long day of studying! So I will enjoy updating you all a little bit more.
Lots of Love
Miss B xxx