LDN

oh hi! some smartarse pointed out today that i haven't updated in over a week, this is true but like everyone else with a blog IT IS NOT MY LIFE. i don't get paid to do this, i don't get free things sent to me and sometimes i just have other things to do. anyway, that being said i do genuinely appreciate that people want to read/see what i have to say and notice when i don't blog but there's absolutely no need to be rude about it!

ONWARDS AND UPWARDS! i went to london at the weekend and ate the best grilled halloumi cheese & roasted vegetable sandwich EVER. was also very shocked to find out one of my friends who shall rename nameless had never tried halloumi cheese. WHAT. the cat in the picture came in through an open window, ate loads of food, cuddled up on the sofa to watch x factor and promptly got kicked out. he was cute but made my eyeballs itch and as a general rule i pretty much hate cats. sorry world.

i did have a really nice weekend though, despite spending a good few hours with seb the big drama queen who instead of showing me around took me to a&e! absolute charmer. can't complain too much though because shortly after that drama i had some kind of panic attack in topshop and he looked after me quite nicely. i hate topshop.

spent the evening making cocktails and celebrating my pretend birthday! there was presents and cupcakes and candles and lots of rum. we ventured out to some club in brick lane which was pretty sleazy but sleazy means free drinks sooooo.. swings and roundabouts i guess. apparently this place was cheap for london, £4.50 single vodka&coke? erm how about £2.50 for a TREBLE vodka&coke in newcastle? no wonder northerners are always wankered.

the rest of the weekend was spent eating peanut butter frozen yoghurt and napping, basically. had the pleasure of sitting next to some crazy lady on the train home who started to write a story about me and then moved seats as though it was me who was insane. she did get off at darlington though so probably explains it all really.

this is a really long post about nothing. HELLO!

hiya

h&m dress

asos peter pan collar

primark belt

look at me on a roll posting what i'm wearing these days! nothing exciting really but my makeup is even more dull lately so um.. not the most flattering of dresses i know, makes my boobs look huge and my hips even huger but it's comfortable and i think the colour is super pretty. it's a bit boring on its own so i added my trusty peter pan collar to make it a little less blah. my hair only looks ridiculous because i was trying to show off the collar, honest! she says sitting with her hair now in plaits.

don't really have a lot else to say today! going to see the inbetweeners film this evening and to drink a few cheeky cocktails no doubt. has anyone seen it yet? i hope it's as funny as i'm anticipating!

geek chic

primark lace cape

dorothy perkins high waisted shorts

two day old topknot, my own

yesterday holly and i went on a super early morning cinema date to finally see harry potter! we're so late to the party but i thought it was pretty good. the saddest part for me was the lily and snape thing.. 'always'. CRY! after eating popcorn and drinking ice blasts at 10am we popped into primark to have a little looksee and i found this sheer cape. it's exactly the same as the new look one i posted about in this post except it was ten pounds cheaper! primark also have a coral/rust kind of colour one too, but it's not as bright as the new look one. still nice though!

whilst in primark we found these excellent monkey onesies in the mens section, i really wanted to buy one but they were so long! in hollys words "they're made for tall boys and you're a short girl." i tweeted a picture and you can see it just wasn't meant to be. if you're a tall boy or even a tall girl i urge you to buy it so i can live through you. IT HAS A TAIL AND EARS AND EVERYTHING.

anyway.. today louie came on a family day out to the coast, we stopped off at beauty and the pooch to buy a new harness and coat for him. the coat is a delayed birthday present from my dad, i've been looking everywhere for one for him but he has a huge chest and short body so it's kind of difficult! i totally recommend beauty and the pooch if you're in the north east though, they have an excellent range in different sizes and the staff are so so lovely.

OH and i think this is the first time i've posted pictures of me wearing glasses on here, i assure you i'm not one of those people that wear geek glasses for the hell of it though. they do actually help me see! i don't need to wear them much, but i've had this super headache of doom the past two days and wearing glasses makes me feel less dizzy.

cut a caper-ever hip-bazza 147

a few weeks ago i had a little twitter disagreement with bazza m, which resulted in him offering to send me some nice things to make me happy. not long after a little barry m shaped package arrived for me! how exciting, right?!

147 lip paint, peach melba nail paint, bold black pencil liner

before he sent my package he asked what kind of things i liked, and if there was anything i wanted to try. i couldn't think of anything at the time so i just said i liked neutrals and i was a fan of the nail and lip paints so i was super glad to receive these colours! i actually bought blue moon a few weeks ago and contemplated buying peach melba also but decided not to for some reason. i've heard quite a lot about the 147 being a dupe for mac ever hip, and ever hip being a dupe for cut a caper.. so..

cut a caper, ever hip, 147

i think the lightening must have been rubbish here because they're photographing really red - they're definitely very coral! i'd say ever hip and cut a caper are basically the same colour but different finishes but the 147 whilst is lovely, isn't quite the same. it's a bit peachier and i don't know if it's just me but i find the lip paints a little harder to wear - they do seem to emphasise dry areas.

cut a caper, ever hip, barry m 147

i think these photos show the colours much more accurately than the lipsticks side by side. you can see the peachiness in the 147 a lot more, and the pink in the mac ones show up more on me.. which i do think suits me better. if you prefer orange/peach corals then the 147 will be perfect for you, if you prefer pinker corals then i'd recommend cut a caper and i'd say ever hip is somewhere in between. unfortunately the mac lipsticks are limited edition but if you can find them anywhere definitely pick them up! i think my favourite is ever hip, mainly because it's a cremesheen where as cut a caper is a lustre and doesn't last as long!

who knew there were so many shades of coral though?! whats your favourite coral lipstick?

boudoir prive box.

i wasn't going to write this post mainly because there's going to be millions of them and millions of opinions flying around and also because of the whole "if you haven't got anything nice to say" thing. but.. whatever. if you follow me on twitter you'll probably already know that i'm really disappointed with the boudoir prive box and i've already cancelled my subscription. HERE'S WHY!

it came in a really lovely pink box and was packaged beautifully with ribbon and a hand written note, totally can't fault the service. and this is the contents.. now i don't entirely know what i was expecting, and to be honest i kind of forgot i even ordered it, so i haven't really been following any of their facebook clues or anything like that. i just think for a first box it could have been so much better.

jane iredale purelash extender and conditioner (the tiny thing with the gold lid), two samples of etat libre d'orange perfume, barbor hsr lifting extra firming cream, olavie antioxidant body butter, sachajuan hair repair, bloom green tea & white tea duo

the only decent thing really is the sachajuan hair repair, it's 100ml which retails for £11 anyway, so i'm not too bothered about the rest being a bit rubbish.. other than the fact boudoir prive claim to provide "five to six deluxe-sized samples" in every box.. and i don't know about you but i don't think two perfume samples which i could pick up in boots myself for free are anything special. (and it smells revolting, if anyone was wondering) the purelash extender sounds really interesting to me but i don't see how i'm going to be able to see if i like it or if it even works with the minuscule sample they've provided.

the babor cream although it's packaged in a decent sized box it is actually tiny too- conveniently they haven't said how much product it actually is though. but.. it's not a lot and by no means deluxe-sized. it does retail at £82 for 50ml so it's not really a surprise you don't get a lot. but erm, i think i'm going to give this to my mum anyway since it's an anti wrinkle cream, not really what i need at twenty three.

....and the tea. i literally don't even know what to say about that. when i opened it i was half drunk half hungover and had to question my sanity. did i really just receive tea in a 'beauty box'? REALLY? "keep your concentration levels high and your stress levels low throughout the day with these two delicious teas from blooms tea treatment collection" - COME ON. SERIOUSLY? what a load of rubbish.

but yeah, seriously disappointed with this. really interested in hearing other peoples opinions too, can anyone really be impressed with this?!

btw, i hate tea.

england, i love you, but you're breaking my heart

h&m 14.99, new look 19.99, h&m 14.99

feels a bit weird blogging about things i've bought when england is in such a mess but it's raining and i'm in newcastle so there's not a lot else i can do. i do hope everyone is okay though, one of my bezzies was evacuated from her flat in clapham because of all the riots and i was very close to having some sort of anxiety attack with worry. she's okay though, thankfully.

i've conveniently placed a coral top in between two dresses which are indeed exactly the same colour. i can't help it, mustard is my favourite! i couldn't decide which i liked best so i got both, i hate it when that happens. the coral top is really cute and has lace over the shoulders, it's also very very sheer. i sent a picture of me trying it on to lucy and it's pretty funny because it's basically all BRA AND BOOBS. not entirely sure how i'm going to wear it yet, i think it'd look stupid with something underneath so i might just embrace the sheerness. release the beasts.

i forgot to mention how happy i was that my lame post about louies birthday went down so well! thankyou all for the lovely comments, they made him (me) very happy! he was spoilt and got lots of new toys, doggy aftershave and doggy chocolate. my dads going to buy him a raincoat as soon as i find one! it's difficult to find one because he has such a big chest for being so small.

oh also i'm going to pick someone for the mua heaven and earth palette from this post tomorrow so you still have time to drop me a comment if you want it!

my loss, your gain

in my last post i mentioned how i thought the mua heaven and earth palette was 'alright' but truth be told i'm just not getting on with it. so instead of it going unloved in my already overflowing makeup bag i'm offering to pass it onto one of you ladies. i know a lot of other bloggers think this is amazing and love it - so maybe you will to! obviously i've swatched a few colours with a (clean) brush but if that doesn't bother you and you would like to give it a new home, just leave me a comment and a way of contacting you (twitter/email). if more than one person wants it i'll pick someone at random using random.org next week sometime!

there aren't any rules or anything, you don't even have to be a follower of my blog and you can live anywhere in the woooorld.

TROUT POUT PAINT

mua heaven and earth palette

sleek pout paints pinkini, peachy keen, milkshake

starting with the mua palette, i must admit i was super dubious about this. i've tried a few of the £1 eyeshadows and despite everyone saying they're amazing i think they're crap. i think the fact this was the last one in my local superdrug is what convinced me to buy it.. (i don't understand my logic either) anyway so far so good. it's in no way comparable to the urban decay naked palette but it's alright. teamed with a primer they seem to last well, they're easy to blend together and there's little fall out. really can't complain for £4. actually yeah i can, there's no matte shades. BUMMER.

pinkini, milkshake, peachy keen

now i did get pretty excited when i heard about the sleek pout paints but i wasn't sure how practical they'd be. i did intend on just buying one but they're on offer 3 for 2 so i thought BUGGER IT and got 3. i spent ages trying to decide which colours to pick because luckily for me my local superdrug had all of them in stock.. i figured these colours would be most wearable without mixing because really.. who has the time or patience to mix new lip colours every morning? not me.

i've seen a lot of swatches and mixes on other blogs but none really of how they look on so i thought i'd spam you with my face because it's all well and good looking at the colours on someones arm but i think it makes a huge difference seeing how they actually look once applied. speaking of application i know most people who've reviewed these have said how vital it is to use a lip brush but i used my finger because i'm mega lazy and got on just fine. if you're careful and apply gently i see no need for a brush at all but personal preference and all that.

this is pinkini and my favourite. it reminds me of impassioned by mac but a little deeper. i wasn't expecting to like this as much as i do but it's WONDERFUL. even though this is the brightest colour i bought i've found it to be the most wearable. i've managed to wear this without applying lip balm and i don't know why, but it doesn't seem as drying to me. yeah, fave.

this is peachy keen and the one i was most excited about. i can't say i'm a massive fan of this colour on me to be honest. i think it might work best mixed with the white but like i said.. can't be bothered with the mixing. when i bought these i didn't intend to mix, i just wanted to wear the colours as they come. this one is also really unforgiving on the lips - shows up every tiny imperfection and thus requires balm or a little gloss even. the main thing i love about the pout paints is how the finish looks like a lipstick, so it doesn't really appeal to me to have to add a balm.

finally milkshake. i've applied this really lightly in the picture so it's more like a lip stain, as you can see from my swatch though it does (like all of the pout paints) have super pigment power and can be built up to that colour really easily. in fact it's harder to use these as a stain because you really do only need the tiniest amount for the full effect. milkshake was my last choice when picking which colours i want, and i'm so glad i got it. it's such a beautiful colour!

what do you think of the pout paints? any recommendations for the mua range? i've been bitterly disappointed by the single eyeshadows but maybe i'm picking the wrong ones!

PUG BIRTHDAY!

today is a very special day! it's louie pugs first birthday. i think, unless you have a pet you're completely in love with the idea of celebrating an animals birthday will be a weird one. to me and my fellow crazy-pet-ladies i'm sure it's upmost normal. especially his FIRST birthday. that means he's been in this huge world for an entire year!

i'm not sure if it's just because i have one or not, but i've noticed a lot more love for pugs lately. lots of shops seem to be have pug shaped designed t-shirts (primark, topshop, internationale, republic to name a few!) and lots of people want to own them. (the t-shirts, and the actual dog) i obviously think it's amazing and if i could i'd have a million more pugs in my life.

that's not to say being a pugmother is easy. he's incredibly demanding, he is pretty much a baby. i can't move without him following me and if i stand still for long enough he sits on my foot! even when i shower he grabs a toy, follows me upstairs and lays on the bathroom floor until i get out. he can be super naughty at times - he ate my mums diamond earring a few weeks ago, whoops. but... it's just impossible to be angry at him. look at his little face.

reading victorias post about how her pugs lily and lola came into her life made me cry a little bit. before i got louie i registered to the pug welfare and rescue waiting list to adopt a pug, i think at the time the waiting list was way over a year long.. i haven't heard anything since. i know a lot of people have massive problems with breeding dogs and paying lots of money for them when so many other dogs need rescuing but i think once you have your heart set on a particular breed you just have to go with it.

one thing i will say though is that i in no way condone backyard breeders or puppy farms. i did a lot of research into local breeders and couldn't find one i was happy with at all.. there's a lot of shady people out there. i was about to give up hope when my friend told me her pug had only gone and got himself a girlfriend! she lives opposite me, so louie and his dad play together a lot. they're so sweet together, apart from the occasional hump they get on like a house on fire. his dad brought over a birthday card for him earlier, and louie sent him a fathers day one! they have the same 'bark', their tails curl in the same way and they even sleep in the same position.. b'awwwh.

i totally did not intend to write so much about my dog. SORRY. basically HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOUIE!