Lately...

...enjoying cupcakes and putting up Christmas decorations

...making paper snowflakes and buying sparkling shoes

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Waitrose Pure Gentle Eye Make-up Remover

This is my current eye make-up remover of choice, I've used it since I was about 15 and my mum would buy it for me from Waitrose (she still does as I don't have one near at uni). I forgot about it for a few years until I recently discovered a half used bottle, tried it out and remembered how brilliant it is at taking off my make-up.

I always use an eye make-up remover before I take off the rest of my make-up, it makes my evening routine so much quicker and it's kinder to my eyes. I've tried out a lot in the past year and this beats them all, even etat pur's micellar cleansing water. It's gently on my eyes, but strong enough to take off all of my eye make up with one cotton pad and a few sweeps across the eyes.

It's also only £1.94 from your local Waitrose -  bargain!

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What's in my bag?

These are my daily essentials that I cart around. I think I do quite well really, I have a lot packed in quite a small space and on the most part it's quite organised.

1. Phone: I have a Samsung Galaxy Ace and I do like it. It isn't an iPhone but for the price it really does the job, and I think when I upgrade I'll be sticking with Samsung.
2. Headphones: for walking somewhere on my own.
3. Hair Accessories: I always like to have a stash of bobby pins and hair ties incase I need to put my hair up. Also keeping bobby pins on a piece of card means that I don't lose them in the bottom of my bag.
4. Mints: always handy.
5. Lip Balm: nothing beats Blistex relief cream, it keeps my lips nourished for the longest and stops them cracking and drying out.
6. Tissues: essential for cold weather.
7. Mini Hair Brush: this tiny brush is perfect for on the go and makes my hair shine.
8. Hand Cream: I got this Flowerbomb body cream with a perfume gift set for my birthday. It smells gorgeous and keeps my hands soft.
9. Pen: I always have a few pens in my bag as I take it to lectures. This one is from Accessorize.
10. Lucky Purse: This is a little odd, it's a purse that I keep little bits and bobs I've collected inside that I consider 'lucky'. This includes a piece of rose quartz, mini signalling lantern, a bean from Starbucks, a Guatemalan worry doll, Ariel Barbie's shoe, a 20 pence piece from New Years eve 2011/12 and a fortune cookie slip (see below).
11. Small Change Purse: I have three different purses, each with a different purpose to keep myself organised. In this one I keep my lose change. (both little purses are from Accessorize)
12. Card Purse: In this little leather Topshop wallet I keep notes and my four essential cards: debit card, student card, provisional licence and (perhaps the most important) my boots card.
13. Cards & Vouchers Purse: In this bigger purse from River Island, I keep my non essential cards and my vouchers.
14. Rail Card: And finally my (expired) Rail Card, no student should be without one.

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Max Factor Fantasy Fire Nail Polish

I bought this mini nail varnish on a whim last week when I was feeling moody and noticed that boots had buy one get one half price on almost everything. So I snapped up two mini max factor nail polishes for £6 (is there a better way for a girl to pick her self up? I dont think so).

As far as the formula goes I was pretty impressed. Both this polish and 'Red Bronze' the second shade I bought, apply cleanly, dry quickly and leave you with hard shiny nails. However the colour wasn't what I was expecting.

This polish looks pretty amazing. It has about a bagillion-zillion (very technical term) different colours that shine through and looks just gorgeous in the bottle. I was however a little disappointed when I applied it. As you can see in the photo above it does not look the same as it does in the bottles. In the bottle the formula looks like a vibrant purple with sparkling pink and red tones running through it but when I carefully painted on two coats, it came out with all kinds of tones, mainly a deep shimmering red but with flashes of copper, blue and even a khaki green. While I'm not indifferent to having a cacophony of colours on my nails I'm not sure that I like the effect. On the one hand it the constantly different colours are really impressive and remind me of seeing colours in oil, but I'm not sure that all the colours compliment each other and I  think that I would prefer the striking purple colour that I expected.

However hope is not lost,  I think that I might be able to achieve a colour closer to the bottle with a different base. In the photograph I used one coat of Sally Hansen's 'Navy Baby' which is a very deep blue but I think if I used a lighter purple then I'd get nicer tones. Fee from Make up Savvy shows how you can achieve different effects with different bases here.

Overall this is an interesting polish, it' applies well and the colour is unique and variable and I think that a lot of people would love the versatility of this. I just wish that the bottle was bigger!

Max Factor Mini nail Polishes are £3.99 from Boots.

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This week I've been...

This week I've been a little like an unofficial half term for me. There isn't a half term or reading week at my university, but I have missed a few of my lectures this week and have slipped into bad habits of late nights and later mornings (I didn't get into my bed until 5am on Wednesday night/Thursday morning).

I haven't just been skiving off though, I've been eating cupcakes and cookies, reading, I had my first ever eye test, we went to see Skyfall (brilliant), of course I dressed up and partied into the early hours on Wednesday, and I've been enjoying the Autumn days thoroughly when the sun shines.

I also bought some shortcrust pastry and mincemeat so I'll be baking some Christmas treats as soon as I get the chance - after all it's November now so I think Christmas excitement is allowed!

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