Face Masks and Implosions

Well, I've been a little absent in posts this weekend - it's been hectic. I started my new job on Friday, was busy doing wedding planner duties for my mum and kicked off my dissertation. I will try to post more regularly in future.
I did however, have time for one fun beauty experiment. My boyfriend and I had a night in so I bought a facemask and he bought a facemask and we decided to try them out. My boyfriend is not a facemask person, might I add. He did this so I wouldn't feel ridiculous sitting in front of him covered in gloop.
I used to do this all the time with my mum. On girly days when she was off work and I was off school, we'd pop to Bodycare or Superdrug or Boots and pick up a couple of really cheap facemasks, then sit with them on, eating cake and watching movies. It was one of my favourite things in the world.
So, instead of getting a gorgeous facemask from Lush, my boyfriend and I picked up cheap, 99p Montagne Jeunesse facemasks.
This, for my sensitive skin, turned out to be a mistake. I have ridiculously touchy skin, so this may not hold true for everyone, and I certainly don't remember ever being bothered by cheap facemasks before, so this might be a one off. The mask I used was a blemish masque containing aloe vera and witch hazel. I can't find it on the official website but it smelled very clean and smoothed on well.
You were supposed to keep it on for 10-15 minutes, but I had it on for 5 and my face was burning. After washing it off, my face got a heat rash of some kind. I'm really not blaming the company since my skin reacts to all kinds of strange things and it's just a case of trial and error in most cases, but this was really itchy and uncomfortable.
Here I am with it on, having my photo taken by surprise:

As you can see, I look ridiculous, not to mention uncomfortable. It wouldn't put me off experimenting with different facemaks containing different ingredients, but like an idiot I didn't perform a skin test prior to using it all over my face. So if you have really sensitive skin, I'd recommend doing that first!

In other, non beauty related news, here is what I have also had time to do this week - watch the implosion of a set of tower blocks in my town. It was really bizarre:

More, better posts soon I promise.

S x

Hardly a Haul

Until I start my new job this Friday, I won’t really have the money to spend on a ‘haul’ but I’ll class this as an extremely ‘mini-haul’ for now, even though there are only two purchases.

I’ve needed some new lipsticks for a while – my current collection is two (more on which in another post), so I popped into Boots today to see what I could find. Of course, I gravitated towards cheaper lines.

The first thing I got was a Rimmel Lasting Finish Lipstick in Birthday Suit (250). If you watch Xteener's videos, which I do, she mentions this shade a lot. Since I have pretty small lips I tend to stick to more neutral or pinky shades and this seemed right for me. I hear rumours it's been discontinued, can anyone confirm this? Anyway, it's a creamy, dusky pink-nude that glides on pretty nicely. As far as I can tell it's not too drying and has lasted since I took the photos (a couple of hours ago) without feathering or smudging. I like this colour for everyday - it's simple, classy and subtly glam.

The photo on the left came out a little light but as you can tell from the left this colour is sort of browny pink, but it's not totally opaque, at least not for me. It's got a slight sheen which is good because if it was too matte I'd worry about it looking a little 90s. I also have to say I prefer the new, more sleek and grown-up lipstick packaging. 

The second thing I got was a No7 High Shine Lipgloss SPF 15 in Smile. I really don't buy lipglosses often, but this was so cute that I thought I'd give it a try. It's a very slightly shimmery, high gloss formula. Unfortunately, I find it a little sticky but maybe that's just me and the way I react to lipgloss! The colour I really like anyway. I also like the squared-off wand - I am not a fan of these gimicky teardrop or heart shaped things that come out, this is more like an ordinary lip brush.

It's a very light pink, not too opaque so it just lightly adds colour and a lot of shine. It's a little thick, but to be honest I think this might just be the way I feel about lipgloss in general. Is is just me? Like the Rimmel lipstick, it's a good everyday colour so I will probably wear it again. Although not around my boyfriend - he is not a lipgloss fan (for kissing, not aesthetic reasons!)

In case you are wondering what other makeup etc. I'm wearing in the photos...

My top, out of interest, is Topshop.

Primer - NARS Multi-Protect Primer

Foundation - Make Up Forever HD Foundation in Ivory (I think! The shade isn't on the bottle)

Concealer - NARS Concealer in Honey

Power - Make Up Forever HD Powder

Blush - Laura Mercier Second Skin Cheek Colour in Rose Petal

Eyeshadow - Two colours from the FCUK Oh So Urban Palette (they don't appear to have names)

Eyeliner - Neal's Yard Remedies Eyeliner in Black

Mascara - Rimmel Glam'Eyes Day 2 Night Mascara

Eyebrow Pencil - Rimmel Professional Eyebrow Pencil in Dark Brown

I haven't linked because I'll link to them if I do posts about them. Let me know if I should link these bits in future posts - is it necessary or do you only want it for specific products I'm talking about? 

I seem to gravitate towards specific brands I know, but I promise it's not as bad as it looks. You'll see in future posts I suppose. 

S x

Update: Boots are currently running a 3 for 2 on No 7 cosmetics which I wish I had realised when I'd been in! 

Scents and Sensibility [Part Two]

Part 2 of my perfume series – this one deals with the scents I usually wear in Autumn/Winter. This is all purely preference by the way; I’m not issuing a doctrine by which I feel everyone should live. This is just the way I like to wear my perfumes – you might think I’m stupid and that’s fine.

Anyway, here are the three fragrances I tend to reserve for the colder part of the year.

Scents and Sensibility [Part One]

I own a lot of perfume. At the current count, I have seven different scents – probably too many but I can’t help but keep them all! I have kept them in their boxes too, with the exception of two, which got ruined, and I think that perfume bottles are such cute decoration. Even when the bottles run out I sometimes keep them for ages after because I can’t bear to part with the bottles.

So that I don’t get overwhelmed I tend to divide my perfumes into Spring/Summer and Autumn/Winter scents. Lighter, girlier, more feminine scents for the early seasons, and deeper, sexier perfumes for the colder months. This post is split into two because it’s quite long and picture heavy, just to warn you! Part One deals with my Spring/Summer fragrances. Read on after the jump!

[All shopping links are to Debenhams perfume counter purely because that is where I most often purchase my perfume]

Love Your Body

It took me a long time to get into the habit of treating the rest of my body the same way as my face. I’m not claiming to treat my body like a temple – I don’t eat particularly healthily, have a soft spot for soft drinks and so on… but for a while body products were alien to me. I had a razor and some soap and that was about it.
But then I started to notice dry skin on my elbows, sometimes a little bit of inflamed skin on my legs after shaving and figured it was time to start using more skincare on my body.
I don’t use an awful lot of product on my skin anyway in terms of lotions, moisturizers and so on because I have weirdly sensitive skin that reacts to certain things. .
But there are some things I use on a regular basis, particularly on my legs.
Sorry for the rubbish photo quality but I did this quite late at night!

Soap and Glory Sugar Crush Body Scrub

The packaging of all the Soap and Glory products is so cute! It's one of the things that makes me buy them since I'm a sucker for a nicely thought through brand identity.

This is what the scrub looks like in the pot.

And this is what it looks like on the skin. It rubs in really quickly.

I cannot tell you how much I love this exfoliator. I used to use their Flake Away Spa Body Polish but that seemed far too thick for me and took ages to wash off. This is a much lighter formula, and the smell of lime is gorgeous. It also really does make my legs feel a lot smoother – although I do moisturize right after. I use this every time I shave my legs and a couple other times a week. Probably four times, since I keep hoping it’ll help shift my cellulite.  It is £9.45 but it lasts for a long time.

Soap and Glory Butter Up

Another lovely design. I like these because having nice looking products in your bathroom means they almost become decoration in their own right.

This is what the moisturiser looks like in the packaging -as you can see I've used an awful lot of it!

And this is what it looks like on the skin. It rubs in and absorbs really easily without leaving that sticky clammy feeling I get from some heavier moisturisers. It's also quite pearlescent so it leaves a light glow on your skin.

Another S&G I’m afraid, but I keep both this and the Sugar Crush in my bathroom and use them in conjunction, most of the time.  This smells lovely and orangey, and is very light and sinks in straight away, which I personally love because I hate thick moisturizers that lock in heat. I have a weird body-tempurature-regulating problem anyway so I get too hot very easily. However, and I would stress this, it would seem that you can’t get this moisturizer individually on the website and have to buy it in a pack of three, which is disappointing as it makes it quite expensive and I don’t care much for the smells of the other two.

Philosophy Vanilla Birthday Cake Shampoo, Shower Gel and Bubble Bath

I first got this as a free sample at Sephora in the states when I got 100 Beauty Insider Points (I’ll do a post later on the things I got from Sephora) and loved it. I don’t have one now as I used it all up stateside and have yet to buy a new one. They’re £14 from Boots, which is cheaper than buying them directly from the Philosophy website since international shipping is over $30, so maybe a little bit pricey but it took me 6 months to use up a sample size since a little goes a long way. It’s very foamy and moisturizing, and it does smell like birthday cake!

It seems I love smelling like citrus and cake! What body products can you recommend? Is there anything I’m missing out on in my first forays into bodycare? What can’t you live without?

Sunday Soother

A weekly feature - just something nice, every week, that helps me combat those Sunday blues!
This week: cheese on toast. If there is a better quick comfort food in the world, I don't know it. I like mine lightly buttered and with loads of strong cheddar. 

Don't forget, you can now Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Budget Bling

As I’m sure you will come to notice, I am not the best at accessorizing. Only recently have I begun to truly appreciate how a few well-chosen pieces of jewellery, the right bag, and perhaps a complimentary belt can really pull an outfit together. Add to that the fact that my disposable income is next to nothing, and there’s a problem. When I do have money, I suppose I feel that it’s better spent on something more obvious and visible than a pair of earrings.
I’ve slowly come to accept that this needs to change. An outfit doesn’t look finished until you accessorize properly. That’s not to say that too much jewellery and so on can’t entirely ruin an outfit, but I’m sure I’ll adapt after making some horrendous mistakes.

As it is, my jewellery box, such as it is contains a Ziploc bag of bracelets, a modest clump of tangled necklaces, and a teacup filled with earrings. Not one thing in my (admittedly meagre) collection cost more than £10, unless it was a gift in which case I don’t know what it cost.  I’m building and editing slowly.

As for bags, and here is where I hang my head in shame, I have but one. While I was in the US, I had one battered brown Topshop satchel, a black raffia beach bag that I bought in haste for a trip over Spring Break, and a tiny mock-croc brown handbag from Forever 21. Over the course of my stay, all three fell to pieces from constant overuse and overload (thanks, heavy camera).  During the last fortnight in New York, I snapped up a cream and mustard shoulder bag for $20 in the Topshop sale and so far it’s the only bag I have.

Other accessories – belts, hats, scarves and hairpieces, are few and far between. I have a collection of cheap and vintage ‘silk’ scarves that occasionally tie around my bag or in my hair if I can remember, and most of the belts I own came with the outfit attached. I do aim to try to be better in the future however, when I’m making minimum wage.

For now, my accessories posts will consist of the few things I do own – mostly jewellery. My favourite pieces, all cheap, and then perhaps in later posts the new things I buy. You can tell me where I’m going right, and when I get it hideously wrong.

This is my favourite ring - £8 from ASOS. It points across two fingers but doesn’t get in the way or bind my fingers together. I am afraid it may be a little Lady-Gaga-Lite. It’s currently out of stock on the website.

These are a pair of earrings I bought before I went on Spring Break. I thought they’d look good with a few summery, beachy outfits, but I have worn them since although they are quite large and a little heavier than I expected them to be. They were about $3 in-store, but I can only find the multi-coloured version on the UK website for £2.40.

As I said, there will be more to come as and when I grow and edit out pieces from my jewellery box. Hopefully I’ll do it right.

Are you a great accesorizer? Do you have a piece you just can’t live without? Or are you more like me, learning as you go along through trial and error? 

S.

Nice to Meet You.

When I was thirteen, I bought my first copy of Elle. I remember being astounded at the images inside – women wearing clothes the likes of which I’d never seen before. I hesitate to gush, but everything seemed brighter, more luxurious and more exciting in the world the magazine created.

Seven years on and I’m now a subscriber, with a collection of Elles (and some Vogues, Harpers and Interviews) three times as tall as me. The glossy magazine obsession stems not only from a desire to gaze at beautiful clothes, but also from a love of the articles, the world presented to you as you flip through the pages. I honestly believe in the transporting power of literature – not only of fiction, which as a voracious reader, has resulted in a similarly overwhelming collection of novels – but of non-fiction and well-produced magazines as well. And whilst Vogue, whilst a glamorous read in it’s own right, always seemed slightly out of reach for a girl from small-city Scotland with a depleted bank account, Elle seemed more accessible.

That’s not to say I was able to afford all the glorious (and not-so-glorious) items spread out on it’s pages, but more that I felt I understood the point of view of the magazine, felt that what it offered was someday attainable.

It sparked in me not only a wonderment when it came to the world of fashion, but also a deep desire to travel. Odd, perhaps, not the first place one would think to look for real, honest, travel accounts, and certainly, I wouldn’t choose it as my point of reference. However, fashion is global – with fashion week in several cities, designers from all around the world, the woman Elle represents to me is a globe-trotting, cool, fashionable one with experience and a good head on her shoulders.

I realize that all of this may sound rapturous, and I don’t intend this blog in any way to be a love poem to my favourite magazine, but in understanding the origins of my love for travel and fashion, I hope you’ll understand me a little better too. Maybe you’ll even want to continue reading as I write about beauty, fashion and travelling.

My name is Seonaid, I’m currently 20, I study English and History and recently studied abroad in upstate New York. Some interesting facts about me include that my favourite animals are bees, through constant dying I haven’t seen my natural hair colour since I was thirteen, and I hate tea.

It’s nice to meet you.