My Eyebrow Routine: E.L.F. Eyebrow Kit

Filling in my eyebrows is only something that I have added  to my beauty routine this year. I never understood why people chose to fill in their eyebrows, as eyebrows were never really something that I took that much notice of - or so I thought, but now I have a completely different  view. If you have great eyebrows they will be the first thing I pick out to compliment you on, although it is a bit of an odd compliment, credit where credit is due!

Now, I have tried my fair share of eyebrow pencils, fillers, gels etc. but my all-time favourite product has to be E.L.F.'s eyebrow kit.

This kit contains one eyebrow gel (step 1) and one eyebrow powder (step 2), and only set me back £3.75! I use the double-ended brush that came with the kit, as it performs perfectly for me. I don't like long-handled brushes as I find them harder to control, so the short accompanying brush is perfect for my use.

This is the condition of my natural eyebrows. I have never had them professionally waxed/shaped/threaded (although I'm looking into it), and simply pluck them on a weekly basis with stainless steel tweezers.

This is the same eyebrow after only using the two products inside E.L.F.'s eyebrow kit. In my opinion, I feel that the products provide a lot more shape (depending on how you use the angled gel brush) and make a massive difference colour-wise. The sparse, fine eyebrows are gone, and now give the illusion of thicker brows, without looking artificial. This is achieved from the very fine powder; by gradually building the colour up, you can easily avoid the obviously drawn on look that some people fall prey to. The gel will also keep your brows in place all day - no more stray hairs!

What's your opinion on the E.L.F. eyebrow kit? Do you have a different favourite eyebrow product?

NOTD: Nail Foils and Gloss Tips

I recently made a cheeky purchase from E.L.F. as they released a 30% discount code on their Facebook page for anyone who spent over £20. I didn't *really* need anything, but as is the way when I see any kind of promotion, it's all too easy for me to fill up my basket anyway! One of my purchases was their mattifying nail polish, so I decided to do some experimenting when my package arrived yesterday.

The base of the nail is a nail foil from my Rio Professional Nail Foils kit (see that in detail here), with a layer of the matte polish over the top. To carry on the experimenting, I then painted black polish over the tips, and added my Seche Vite top coat to just those areas to create the gloss/matte contrast.

I also want to say a big thank you to all the beauty bloggers on Twitter (@Dewaaaaaaaaaaaa) that answered my tweets, when I wasn't sure if a top coat would nullify the matte effect (which it does), and helped me to create this look!

My August Haul post will be up very soon featuring this polish!

The Body Shop Hemp Foot Protector: A Review

I bought this product completely on a whim as I had suddenly decided to give my feet a bit of much needed TLC for the first time in 20 years, and I trusted The Body Shop with the fate of my feet's softness. After buying it however, I saw Essie Button raving about it in one of her Empties videos, so this product was solidified in my mind as a good choice!

First off, I feel that I should admit that I didn't actually want to buy this product to begin with. I much preferred the smell of the peppermint foot cream, but my boyfriend's aversion to anything peppermint pushed me towards buying this one. I have to say, the smell isn't entirely inviting, but these are feet we're dealing with - the furthest away a body part could probably get from your nose, so for that sake I can get past the smell. 

The cream is very thick and dense, something I instantly liked. I took to drowning my feet in this product and then putting a pair of fluffy socks on to hold it all in, overnight or over a period of 2 hours or so. I was expecting to have to wait a week or so to see some real results, but I was amazed to notice a difference after just one day; bear in mind that I was applying this cream twice a day, and very generously might I add. There wasn't an overly dramatic change - the clock had not been magically reversed on my  feet's age, but they were already noticeably softer. I shan't go into details about the 'hard skin' and whatnot on feet as lets face it, no one likes to talk in-depth about feet, but let me just tell you, if you're looking for your dream foot cream, this is it.

If you can get past the slightly stale smell of hemp, I cannot recommend this product highly enough. Get it online or in-store for £10 per 100ml. 

10 Day Beauty Challenge: Day 3

Catch up on my posts for Day 1: 10 Secrets here, and Day 2: 9 Likes here, so you're up to date with my 10 Day Beauty Challenge!

When I saw that today's challenge was to write up 8 dislikes, I thought that this could be the first challenging part of this tag! I am quite finickity, and I have a *lot* of pet peeves, but as soon as I'm put on the spot, my mind goes blank. After a lot of thinking, here's what I came up with - not quite 8, but at least more than half way there!

1) Sheer Nail Polish: 

I cannot be the only one to get frustrated by this, in fact from reading all of your lovely blogs, I know I'm not. I have absolutely zero patience for them - if a polish requires 3-4 coats to become opaque then I will not use it. It helps to begin with a matte white base, but if I want to paint my nails in a rush I don't always have time, and end up disappointed by the translucent sheen on my nails. 

2) WIND!

I know this sounds ridiculous, but after I explain myself I feel like a lot of you are going to agree with me (hopefully!). I cannot stand wind. A nice cool breeze is fine, I'm talking about taking my dog for a walk on a hill accompanied by huge gusts of wind. The kind that knots your hair, lifts your skirts and gives you lipgloss hair (when your hair is blown onto your lips, and if you're wearing lip balm/stick/gloss you then get a lovely clump of it in your hair)! 

3) Rimmel:

I've talked about this before in my Gel Liner on a Budget post where I compared Rimmel gel liner to a L'oreal one, with pictoral evidence of why I dislike Rimmel. It is simply just a  personal preference; I have a lot of friends that still use Rimmel and have no problems with them. I find their mascaras to be clumpy, their powders very dry and their liquid foundations very greasy and poorly made. Any previous experience I've had with Rimmel make up products has been bad.

4) Disappointing Freebies:

I know this sounds really ungrateful, as if you get something for free the rule is that you shouldn't generally complain - but why? A lot of the time you can get roped into purchasing something with the promise of a freebie at the end of it, and in the end the freebie you receive is something you have no use for, and is now just taking up valuable space in your house. I've really started to crack down on this disappointing freebies, as I used to accept everything, and then later think "why did I take that? It's just going to go in the bin now!".

5) Dry Shampoo:

I wrote an entire blog post dedicated to this disliked product in June (read it here), and as of now my views remain the same. I have only tried out the Batiste products, so I don't know how well other brands will fair, but as far as Batiste goes I just find that it leaves my hair both feeling and looking worse than before. That post received a lot of mixed reviews, as most people swear by dry shampoo, it's just that one product that I can't get on board with. 

What are your dislikes in the beauty world, or even the world in general?

August Haul: Clynol, The Body Shop, & E.L.F.

In my line of work (that sounds dodgy... My job is completely normal, I promise) I get paid weekly rather than monthly, and I also get cash in hand. Now this is both good and bad for someone like me. On the plus side, as a serial online shopper, I will actually have to drag myself to the bank to deposit my wages in order to spend them online - something I rarely have the time/energy to do, and so my online shopping urges are most often curbed. Also a good thing, it always feels like I'm getting paid! When I'm working 6 days and 40 hours a week, on my one day off I usually just pick up my wages from the previous week, making it seem like all I'm doing is getting money! On the negative side, I now have a lot of cash burning a hole in my pocket, and have taken more to buying in-store, rather than online.

This is the product of me suddenly having more money than usual.

Clynol

Revive Shampoo and Caress Split Ends for dry/damaged hair:

As you can see from the picture, I was sent these products with compliments from Immediate Public Relations. They recently asked their followers on Twitter if any bloggers would be interested in trialling some Clynol haircare products for review purpose. They selected 5 people and I was lucky enough to be one of the recipients! I was very impressed when I opened the package, as both products were sent in full-sized bottles rather than the sample sizes that I expected, and they also tailored the products to my dry/damaged hair type after asking what hair type I was.

The Body Shop

Seaweed Clarifying Toner, Seaweed Pore-Cleansing Facial Exfoliator, Nutriganics Smoothing Night Cream, and Hemp Foot Protector:

I actually only intended to buy another toner when I wandered into the shop, but it turns out that The Body Shop were having a 3 for 2 promotion on all facial and skincare products, so of course I had to indulge myself in that. Now, I ended up with 4 products because I brought up the Hemp Foot Protector to the till and the sales assistant told me that it wasn't included in the deal (sob). I couldn't part with it as my poor feet are in need of some serious TLC, so I just picked up the Seaweed Pore-Cleansing Facial Exfoliator - I was getting it for free so it didn't really matter, right?

E.L.F.

Mineral Booster, Complexion Perfection, Matte Finish Nail Polish, and nail polishes in shades 'Clear', 'White' and 'Smokin' Hot':

Now, again I didn't actually intend to buy any of these products. E.L.F. were recently doing a promotion for their Facebook fans where they released a 30% off code, and I am nothing if not a sucker for promotions. I was in need of all the polishes as my current ones were running low, and I'd heard a lot about the Mineral Booster and Complexion Perfection, so I finally decided to stop reading reviews and actually buy them myself! I will review all products at a later date, but I do have to say that I'm already a bit disappointed with the Mineral Booster and Complexion Perfection as neither product come with any applicator brushes/sponges, so now I'll have to go and buy 2 more. I wasn't expecting expensive accompanying brushes, but as 2 products that can't be applied (easily or efficiently) with fingers, I was expecting *something*.

I will review all these products in-depth later, and most probably individually, so keep your eyes out for these products in future posts!

So You're Starting University?

It's late August, the exams have been taken, the results are in, and some of you have chosen to go to university.  I'm about to be 3 years into a 4 year Bachelor of Science sandwich course, which means this year I am going on work placement to get some experience under my belt before graduating. Now, more about you lot. As someone about to go into my third year of university, I feel like I can shed some light onto what to expect, alongside a bit of helpful advice. 

My car packed up ready to move to halls in 2010!

1) You will meet people!

Whether you have chosen to live in halls or not, there is absolutely no way you can get out of meeting new people. 

- If you've chosen to live in halls you will be living alongside other students - and maybe even course mates. When you're all new, nervous and adjusting to the same environment, it really doesn't take that long to get to know one another. DO NOT hide in your room. Go out and introduce yourself to your flat mates, it may seem terrifying, but they might well be your best friend in a couple of days time!

- If you've decided to commute to uni and think that you'll miss out on some perks of halls, don't worry! Everyone is probably as eager to make friends as you are, so don't ever think you are alone. You'll meet people through your course; sitting next to people in lectures, group work, which brings me quite smoothly onto my next point.

2) Look up societies.

If the drinking culture isn't your thing and you don't quite fancy heading down to the SU to meet some more friends, why not join a few societies? You university will probably hold a Freshers Fair, which showcases everything the uni has to offer in terms of societies, student discounts, and events around campus. Don't miss it! If you think you're into something pretty niche and you wish other people liked it too, the chances are that there will be a society specifically for it, and if not, why not make one? You'll end up meeting people that share that same interest as you!

3) Do your work.

Now this may seem pretty obvious as you've obviously worked your butt off to get into uni, but once there it is scarily easy to forget that you're there to get a degree. Most of the time it's all too easy to get caught up in uni life and meeting new people, that you end up forgetting that you had a deadline. Even if your first year grade doesn't contribute towards your overall degree, that doesn't give you an automatic excuse to slack off. Prospective employers will look at ALL year grades, and will probably question you if you have a considerable dip in your first year percentage. Also included in this point: do your reading. Depending on your lecturers, you will probably get set one reading per week, per module - now this can mean anything up to 7 readings a week, each consisting of anything up to 100 pages each. This may sound horrible, and very easy to put off, but you will certainly regret doing that when it comes to exam period and you have 11 weeks of readings to catch up on before you can even begin to revise them.

4) Never underestimate the power of referencing. 

Once you get to university, you will be suddenly inundated with referencing, something most of you will probably never had to do before. Yes, this is important so make sure you learn the ins and outs of it! At my university, we even had weekly classes just dedicated to teaching us referencing that spanned about 10 weeks, and I needed every minute of those classes! It may sound boring, but put one pesky full-stop or comma in the wrong place in your Reference section of an essay and it could cost you an entire mark!

5) You're not alone.

If your move to university doesn't go quite as planned and you end up hating it, don't start thinking that you're in it alone. Most (if not all) universities will run a mentoring scheme, in which students from the second and third years will be assigned a particular court of residence on campus, and will visit every student in that court each week personally, just for a quick chat to see how you are. If you don't like the sound of that, there will also be something along the lines of a "Wellbeing Centre" where you can receive counselling, advice, or just someone anonymous to chat to. 

6) Don't take it for granted.

I cannot hammer this point in hard enough. Make sure you take the time to just realise how lucky you are to be in this position, and do not miss a moment. Before you know it, the 9 months will have flown by, and you'll be packing up your room in halls, never to return again. You will (most probably) never be in that position again, enjoy the nervousness and butterflies, because it will be over before you know it!

I hope this mini guide was of help to all you lot about to be Freshers, how I wish I was going back into my first year!

FOTD: A Dolled Up Dog Walk

As of late, my working hours have been reduced to part-time to make way for my year-long internship at a school for children with learning disabilities such as Autistic Spectrum Disorder. I am *incredibly* excited for this, and it just so happens that a bi-product of these events is that I now have more time on my hands to blog! I'd been feeling a bit out of the loop lately - coming home at 11pm from a 12 hour shift doesn't exactly put you in the mood to blog, but now on my sunny day off you can't prise me away from my laptop!

I thought I'd ease myself back in with a little face of the day, as I've only done one before. I don't generally wear make up on a daily basis, but every now and then I get the urge, and today was one of those days.

After all that make up, my boyfriend and I just ended up taking my puppy for a walk and running a few errands - going to the bank etc.

Products used: 

Bobbi Brown Colour Corrector in shade 'Peach'.

Maybelline Dream Fresh BB Cream in shade 'medium'.

E.L.F. Eyebrow Kit in shade 'medium'.

L'Oreal Paris Gel Intenza Liner in shade '02: Golden Black'.

Benefit Bad Gal Lash Mascara.
Revlon Matte Powder Blush in shade '002: Blushing Berry'.

Revlon Colour Burst Lip Butter in shade '010: Raspberry Pie'.

I left my hair in it's usual unruly waves, and we were off. I'm back to more frequent and regular blogging now, thank you for being so patient with me!