OOTD: Bye Summer!

As sad as it is, summer is actually ending... :( But any excuse for an outfit of the day, huh!

I got most of this outfit when I went shopping in London yesterday to Camden, Covent Garden and Oxford Street, it was really good but now my feet are literally dead! It was a good mix of places to go as there are all the quirky unique things in Camden, high street shops in Oxford Street (even though I spent the whole time in Topshop) and Covent Garden has odd but cool shops! And I did stop off at Stratford Westfield on the way home because I was too lazy to find some of the shops I wanted in Oxford Street! 

But by far, the best part of the day was having lunch at The Whole Foods Market! It was the first time I have actually eaten in there as before all I have done is spend half my day drooling over all the cakes, fruit, salad and uh just everything in there...I'm getting hungry just typing this! 

Jumper: Gilly Hicks

Shorts: Topshop

Frill socks: Topshop

Shoes: Topshop

Bag: Old edition Radley

And I just clipped my hair back like this! :) Thanks for reading, hope you liked it!

OOTD: Topshop

An Outfit of the Day mostly from Topshop...

Crop Top: Topshop

Denim Midi Skirt: Topshop

Frill Top Socks: Topshop

Ankle Boots: Amazon.com

Hair Bow: Made from scrap fabric

Pearl Earrings: Dorothy Perkins

Who doesn't love Topshop, right!?

How to: Protect Coloured Hair

Some quick tips on how to protect your hair colour:

1. Use sulfate-free shampoo

Pretty much every "normal" shampoo contains sulfates (sodium lauryl sulfate) and this chemical is fine for natural hair but it really fades the pigment in coloured hair. So a sulfate-free shampoo protects colour and doesnt contain the chemicals which fade it.

Try: Matrix Biolage Colour Care Shampoo

2. Use a conditioner specifically made for your hair colour

A conditioner made for your hair colour will help to maintain the brightness of your colour.

Try: John Frieda: for red, blonde or brunette

3. Wash your hair in cold water

Not only does cold water make your hair more glossy but it helps to maintain your hair colour too. If you can't bare cold water it is fine as long as it isnt hot, because hot water can break the hair shafts and fade the pigment.

4. Rinse your hair in herbal tea

This one sounds a bit strange but before you wash your hair, rinse it through with a herbal tea that matches the colour of your hair. So for a bright red hair colour use hibiscus tea as it is a vibrant deep pink tea, for blonde hair try chamomile tea and for copper hair use a ginger tea. They help to keep the colour bright.

I've never been too good with looking after my hair colour and it always fades, so I'm going to give all of this a go and hope it works!

V Festival: OOTD

I went to V Festival on Saturday, and it was AMAZING; even despite the questionable liquids being thrown around in the crowds, the atmosphere was so good and I just want to go back right now :') 

Anyway, just thought I'd share my outfit of the day...

~ Top: American Eagle

~ Bandeau: New Look

~ Shorts: Forever 21

~ Flower Headband: PoppyDaisy (stall in Camden)

~ Socks: Primark

~ Wellies: Stolen from my Mum ;) (I think they're originally from Matalan though)

I brought my ducky print raincoat from Primark in case it rained (and it did a bit) literally EVERYONE there was wearing this coat....that's Primark for ya! :')

Oo close ups! Forever21 are having an amazing sale right now -I got those shorts for £4.50! The bandeau was on sale in New Look for £2. The Primark coat was £9 and socks £1.50. And the headband was £3. And I got the top quite a while ago in American Eagle -it was like $30...whatever that is! 

That's it then! And I'll just start counting down to V Fest 2014 right now!

Top 10 under £10

IF TEN BEAUTY PRODUCTS UNDER TEN POUNDS IS WRONG, THEN I DON'T WANNA BE RIGHT! So, here are my faaaaavourite fashion and beauty items at the moment that all cost less than £10...

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10. Forever 21 sunglasses £4.90
I got some pink sunglasses in Forever 21 a little while ago, and they actually have some really nice ones in there at the moment! Here is my Outfit Of The Day showing what I wore my Forever 21 sunglasses with :)

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9 . Primark Dresses £8.00 each
Recently I decided to look in the kids section of Primark for skater dresses and I have bought 2 in the last couple of months. I did an Outfit Of The Day post on one here (a pink floral one) and I bought a blue shimmery one this week. If you're vertically challenged enough (like me) then go for it, the kids dresses are a much better length! You have to wait sometimes for a nice dress, I've looked once or twice and not liked anything but I was quite surprised how nice the two that I bought actually are! Although, I was distracted by the Monster's Inc and Monster's University range they've got in there at the moment...and I was worryingly attracted to the Mike Wasowski backpack.....

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8. Primark Fluffy Socks £2.00 (for two pairs)
My mum got some fluffy socks from Primark for Christmas and I have been jealous ever since because they are sooooo soft and I didn't expect them to be as nice seeing as they're pretty cheap, they even stayed soft after being washed. While I was in there this week I got this pair; which are different to my Mum's ones but they're still really nice because they are made of lots of teeny soft bobbles! Obviously, it is a bit warm for them at the moment, but I can't resist a fluffy sock for winter to stop my tootsies getting chilly!

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7. Gilly Hicks Body Mist £10.00
The last time I bought a Gilly Hicks spray, it only cost £6, and seemed a good alternative to the more expensive Hollister fragrances...but they seem to have put the prices up to £10 now. Either way, I can't deny the amazing (and quite addictive) smell of them!

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6. New Look Punctuation earrings £4.99 (£2.50 on sale)
Since I had my second ear piercing done in March, I have been buying cool mismatching earrings so I can wear all different ones and not look like a walking jumble sale....so these are perfect!

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5. Maybelline Dream Fresh BB Cream £7.99
I haven't stopped raving about this BB Cream so my full review is here. It's definitely a good change from wearing foundation every day!

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4. Barry M Gelly Effect Nail Varnish £3.99
Everyone loves these, and everyone should! I have the red one but definitely would like to try the pastel blue and lilac ones! I don't think my love for Barry M will ever end... :)

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3. Sleek Contour Kit £9.99

For how pale I am, and continue to be even through a major heatwave -it's a miracle for me to find something like this that suits my skin! The contour kit comes in light, medium and dark and the brown contour powder is a nice alternative to using bronzer to contour, because I find most bronzers too shimmery. It also has a highlighting powder; it's subtle but definitely works!

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2. Maybelline Dream Touch Cream Blush in...erm...the pink one (I have no idea what the colour is called!) £6.49
Personally, I find this blush much better than powder ones because it has a shimmer so it looks more healthy and dewy on my skin. This one has been one of my favourites for quite a while!

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1. Kate Moss for Rimmel Lipstick in 01 £5.49
All of the Kate Moss lipsticks are soooo good and I really want to try her new matte range! The colour of this one though is especially nice, so this is definitely my number 1 at the moment! :) My post including this lisptick is here.

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If you liked this post, or if £10 wasn't cheap enough for you extreme couponing folks, then take a look at my top 5 under £5!

Real Techniques Make Up Brushes

A lot beauty gurus, YouTubers and bloggers talk about how good Real Techniques make up brushes are and for a while I've thought that I want a piece of that cake!
So yeah, I gave in and ordered two brushes -I'm weak I know!

But, I'm so happy that I did, they are just as amazing as I expected them to be, and better!
I got the Powder Brush (left) and the Blush Brush (right)

Real Techniques Brushes were developed by Samantha Chapman, a professional make up artist and beauty guru on YouTube. Sam posts tutorial videos on The Real Techniques website, as well as her YouTube channels "Real Techniques" and "Pixiwoo" (a channel she shares with her sister, Nic)

~ Both brushes are easy to use and blend with. I found the Powder Brush especially good, and it is by far the best brush I've ever used
~ With the online tutorials, it's so simple to use them
~ The brushes can multi-task. I originally wanted the Contour Brush but you can't buy that one individually, you have to get it in a set. So, instead I went for the blush brush and it does work for both
~ They are so reasonably priced. Before I looked into getting them, I expected them to cost so much more and I didn't think I would be able to buy any. But I was impressed with their prices!
~ They're really soft and feel amazing on my skin
~ The brushes are the perfect shape as they are hand cut for precision (and the fibres are all synthetic)
~ They pick up just enough product
~ Their flat bottom handle makes them convenient to use as you can balance them on a surface





Real Techniques claim that the brushes will allow you to achieve "pixel perfect results" and they definitely don't disappoint, also it's so easy to do!

Maybelline BB Cream: Review

Like a good postman, I have delivered! And here is the post reviewing my Maybelline Dream Fresh BB Cream that I said I would do in my "What is BB Cream?" post (we're asking all the big questions over here...)

This is the Maybelline Dream Fresh BB Cream in light and it is £7.99 so it is not one of the high end ones

This is the first BB Cream I have ever used so I don't have any other brands or anything to compare this one with, but I can compare it to wearing foundation....

~As you can see in the swatches, it seems almost watery compared to foundation but it actually blends just as well

~It does not give as much coverage as foundation

~It leaves a much more "healthy" and dewy look than foundation

~It feels a lot nicer on my skin than foundation, less heavy/cakey and more light and moisturising but also sort of cleansing as if it doesn't clog your pores like foundation does

So, as you can probably tell, I am a fan! If you need heavy coverage then I wouldn't go for it, but I think it's a nice alternative to foundation during summer!

Top 5 under £5

MY MILKSHAKE BRINGS ALL THE BOYS TO THE YARD, AND THEY'RE LIKE MINES BETTER THAN YOURS, DAMN RIGHT MINES BETTER THAN YOURS, I COULD TEACH YOU BUT I HAVE TO CHARGE.....la la la la la....

But, unfortunately milkshakes do not buy make-up! Soooo, here is my top 5 products that cost less than £5!

Also, check out my cool little jelly bean set that I took my photos in! TASTE THE RAINBOW (wait, is that skittles...?) Well, it is a birthday card from tesco and I folded it in half to use it for my make-up pictures :)

5. E.L.F Blending Eye Brush
£1.50
This is the brush that I always use to apply eye shadow in the crease of my eye and to blend all my eye shadow. It is the best blending brush I've ever used! It picks up just the right amount of powder and blends it perfectly!

4. MUA Eye Shadow Palette 
£2.50
The palette is called "innocence" and the colours are really good (particularly for blue eyes) The powders are really irridescent so they open up the eyes and make them sparkle. Although, I find it hard to pick up a lot of pigment from them, but the colours are lovely.

3. Rimmel Exaggerate Lip Liner
£2.99
The colour of this lip liner is called "Eastend Snob" and this has been one of my favourties for a LONG time! The first time I bought it was 3 years ago, I think. I used to wear it a lot on it's own which does look ok, but recently I have been wearing it under lipstick and it keeps the colour on all day! Also, it sort of mattifies the lipstick colour which I love because I really like matte lipsticks but they're hard to find. The only bad thing is, it snaps very easily which gets annoying!

2. MUA Cover & Conceal
£1.50
I haven't had this very long but so far it has been quite good, I use it under my eyes mainly. It is easy to apply and use but the coverage isn't very high, so I would only buy this if you don't need loads of coverage
and drum roll for 1st place....

1. NYC ExpertLast Lip Colour
£1.99
This is one of my favourite lipsticks, I don't wanna rave about it for too long but basically, it is a great colour, easy to apply, stays on a long time and looks SHAMAZING!


That's my top 5 beauty items under £5, when I was talking about them I didn't focus much on the actual price because they are just genuinely good products -it's just a bonus that they're affordable too!

Thanks for reading, and I hope you liked it! MWAH!