A little hello

I don't update this blog anymore and now only post to everydayemily but I thought I would give you a little update and let you know I've started a YouTube channel.

I've filmed a couple of videos so far, My Travel Makeup Bag and My Favourite Skincare Masks which you can find below. I'd love it if you wanted to take a look and let me know what you think.

Thanks for watching!

Something New

As you may have noticed, it's been pretty quiet on the blog front for months now. Sadly I've found little motivation to keep this blog going. I wanted something new and fresh so I've set up a new blog - Everyday Emily. There are only a few posts up so far but I feel a little more inspired to blog again with a fresh layout. Also my Uni year officially ends on Tuesday so after that I should have plenty of time to post!

I'd love it if you had a look at my new blog and if you like my posts please follow me via bloglovin'. Thank you :)

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DIY: Illuminating Tinted Moisturiser

Products: Nivea Express hydration Primer (for dry skin), No7 Skin Illuminator in Peach, Benefit High Beam, Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer in Fair and Real Techniques foundation brush.

I am not a foundation girl, I never have been. I used to have very good skin throughout my teens, so apart from a brief love affair with Maybelline's Dream Matte mousse, I never really used much. I bought The Body Shop's Extra Virgin Minerals Foundation about a year ago. I did enjoy using it, but most days I forgot/didn't have time to incorporate it into my routine. However I did manage to use it all up, and rather than purchase another, I've been on the lookout for something better.

I like the look of Bourjois Healthy Mix serum, but unfortunately not even the lightest shade matches my skin tone. I really like the look of YSL Le Teint Touche Eclat and I think either B10/BR10 would be a good match for me, but Yves Saint Laurent is a little out of my price range.

I'm still hunting for something that meets my needs - light, illuminating and pale - but in the mean time I've come up with my own concoction for days when I want a little more than a touch of concealer.

On the back of my hand I swatch about three swipes of Collection's Lasting Perfection concealer, then add a dab of Benefit's High Beam, pat on a smidgen of No7 Skin Illuminator in Peach (I've decanted this into a travel put because I hate using the brush!), and finally mix it all together with a drop of Nivea's Express Hydration Primer. This makes a nice tinted moisturiser type base which is brightening and give me a very light coverage. The beauty of this is that you could mix it to whatever coverage you like, swap the primer for your moisturiser if you like, or take out the concealer if you just want an illuminating layer under your usual base.

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Getting ready - soft pinks

A flush of pink with Bourjois Rose frisson, dustings of shadow from Mua's Undressed Palette and a swipe of Rimmel's Scandal eyes in Nude.

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My Naked Shower

 From left to right: Naked Volume Body Building Shampoo, Naked Rescue Intensive Care Conditioner, Love Me Naked Rose Body Wash & Ooh La La Naked Coco De Mer body wash.

I love Naked, as a brand they have really brilliant values - all the bottles are 50-100% already recycled  and fully recyclable plastic, they buy from sustainable sources, cut down their carbon footprint by producing in the UK, and they do not test on animals. The actual products are all great too which is why I seem to be slowly switching every product in my shower to naked!

The first Naked product I picked up was the Coco de Mer body wash when wanted to try a sulphate free shower gel. Firstly this smells amazing, it's light and floral, very feminine and pretty. It's so good that I've gone out and bought the matching body butter and I deeply regret not picking up the bubble bath when it was half off in boots. Despite being sulphate free, this lathers up really well, cleans me and again, smells gorgeous. This is probably my favourite Naked product.

I then went out to try a different scent for some more variety in my shower, and I chose Rose. The scent is natural and not synthetic, it's not overpowering which makes it a subtle alternative to Coco de Mer. I think it lathers up slightly less but still does the job well.

I've noticed since I've been using sulphate free body washes that my skin is less itchy and dry, something I really struggled with before. I thought I should treat my scalp with better care too, so when I noticed that boots were running a £6 for two Naked hair products offer, I snapped up a shampoo and conditioner.

I went for the Body Building Shampoo as I have fine, limp hair. Unfortunately, I was a little unimpressed. This takes a double wash to make my hair feel as clean as I like it and once I'd used it for a few weeks I began to get a greasy build up (yuck) so had to switch back to my trusty Pantene Aqua Light. I do have a very oily scalp (but dry ends) so I imagine that this product would work far better on dry hair - I know that my mum recommends it on her post swim dry hair. I won't repurchase this but I plan to keep on using it alternatively with Aqua Light.

Finally, I picked up the Intensive Care Conditioner which contains shea nut butter and olive and brassicacae oil extract to keep hair nourished and fight frizz. I love this conditioner, it nourishes my hair, and although it hasn't repaired my split ends, I doubt anything other than a good hair cut will do that, and it keeps my hair very soft and hydrated in the mean time. I also like using this as a treatment in my hair the night before I want to wash it.

You can find Naked products in your local Boots. Unfortunately they don't stock half as many of the products as I would like. Naked do facial care products that I would love to try as well as a gorgeous looking leave in conditioner and this thirst quenching moisturiser which haven't yet made it into my local boots. And I'm not quite ready to depart with £4 for delivery from the website.
Naked Body washes retail for just under £4 and shampoo's and conditioners are just over depending on where you buy.

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p.s. Nakeds Coco de Mer body butter is well worth picking up. It's intensely nourishing on dry skin, smells amazing and costs less than a Body Shop body butter.

Weekend Getaway

On Friday afternoon my mum came to pick me up and whisk me away (to Harrogate) for the weekend. We're staying in lovely old house with stone floors and iron fireplaces. It's been freezing cold - so much that I actually put on a pair of jeans, it's the third time I've worn them since I bought them a few months ago - but lovely and sunny and I've enjoyed eating proper food (and cupcakes!).

Sorry for the lack of posts again, I've been pretty busy with deadlines coming up in the next two weeks. But I am planning a few things including a travel make up post.

Floodlights at Fountains Abbey, Grandpa's 90th Birthday cake

Sweet duck with wellies, morning view from my bedroom

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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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