FEBRUARY FAVOURITES

I realise I always say this but apologies for the photo quality! I wanted to have this post up before we actually hit March so I had to race with the amount of daylight left when I got home from work and this was the best I could do. I think I may have to buy myself a new camera, this one is pretty old now.

So another month over and quite a few favourites for it...

Boots Tea Tree Facial Scrub | Sleek Au Naturel Palette | ELF Maximum Coverage Concealer | Topshop Lipstick 'Beguiled' | ELF Blush 'Peachy Keen' | Avon Nailwear Pro 'Romance' | Maybelline 24 Hour Colour Tattoo '40 Permanent Taupe' | Rimmel Apocolips 'Big Bang' | L'Oréal Telescopic Mascara | Maybelline Color Show Nail Varnish 'Latte' | Ecotools Eye Shading Brush

I was dying to get the Au Naturel Palette for so long and finally managed to pick one up and I've been using in pretty much all month. Particularly loving the colours Nubuck, Bark and Regal and also been using Noir a lot instead of liquid liner for a softer look.

I did a review of the ELF concealer which you can read here. Cannot recommend it enough. Cheap and great quality!

The ELF blush is such a pretty colour. I couldn't get any swatches that show up on the camera because it's a very light colour but it has a lovely shimmer to it and I wear it more so as a highlighter or when I'm having a lazy make up day.

My mum gave me the Avon nail varnish and I've never used one of theirs before but I was so impressed with the amount of time this lasted before it started chipping. I used Sally Hansen's Insta-Dri top coat on top which is supposed to be anti-chip but because of work this isn't really the case for my nails. But this really lasted, very impressed!

I picked up the Maybelline Color Show polish after reading Fleur de Force's blog here. I love nude nails and I didn't realise how cheap these polishes were. I'm pretty sure it was £2.99! It does make you seem like you have mannequin fingers but I really like the look. I tried to do the blue tips that Fleur did but I was less successful with that..! I picked up the majorly hyped Colour Tattoo because Maybelline was on buy one get one half price when I got the nail varnish. I got the shade 'Permanent Taupe' because I thought it'd be most neutral. Not sure about the 24 hour part but with primer it lasts me a full 9 hour shift. It's great for blending with other eyeshadows or on its own. Been wearing it alone when I've been rushing to work and with it being more cream based, there's no fallout so I don't even have to tidy up my face; just run out the house so I'm not late!

I think the Tea Tree scrub from Boots own range is my absolute favourite of the month. Can't remember the price but it was very cheap. I was having a bit of a spot nightmare so I panic bought tea tree stuff. Very impressed! It's left my face feeling fresh and smooth and I am just so pleased. I also bought the toner from the same range but I'm trying to force myself to finish my current one before starting that.

The Topshop lipstick is something I've had for going on a year, I think, but I've found myself reaching for it a lot this month. Topshop lipsticks are brilliant. They're pigmented and they last. The colour of this one is very similar to the Kate Moss from Rimmel one in 107 however Beguiled isn't a totally matte shade. I'm wearing it in this post.

The Apocolips featured on most people's favourites last month but with them only coming out the very end of January I didn't think that was long enough to make up my mind. When I bought it I thought it'd be sticky like a lipgloss but it really isn't. You do need to make sure you do some good blotting or you end up with it all over your teeth! The applicator has a dip in it that collects the product which means you get more than enough and don't have to keep sticking it back in the tube to fully do your lips.

The Telescopic mascara... I am in love. I've always been ever faithful to Maybelline Falsies but that hasn't had a look in since buying this. I actually used the Falsies the other day and I don't think I like it anymore! Although the Telescopic doesn't make my lashes seem as thick it feels and look lighter and doesn't go clumpy if I accidentally put on too much. I have bought the False Lash effect version of Telescopic but I will try hold off til I've used this one up. Also, love the packaging. So clever!

Finally, a new brush. I've been wanting a good fluffy blending brush that doesn't cost the earth for ages and I saw the Ecotools in Boots. I love this! Blends everything together so nicely and is really soft. Also washes really well and I've not had any fallout from it either. Tempted to look into more Ecotools now..!

What have you been loving this month?

REVIEW: DAINTY DOLL FOUNDATION

*Swatches further down!*

Since Nicola Roberts, of Girls Aloud fame, launched her full Dainty Doll make up range in 2009, I was very curious about it and really wanted to try it. The make up in the range is specifically aimed at those of us Casper the Friendly Ghost lookalikes. (I have actually had a stranger sing the Casper song at me and he then asked me why I paint my face white. To which I had to tell him that was just my face... Awkward.)
A bottle of the Dainty Doll liquid foundation costs £22 (though it's currently on offer in Boots) which I'm not comfortable with paying if I'm not sure I will actually like the foundation. My current No.7 foundation costs £12.50 and I was matched to it and was happy to spend the money on it. However, there's no Boots that stock Dainty Doll near me so I'd have to buy online and hope!

Anyway, Jade mentioned that she'd found Dainty Doll being sold on Amazon at only a fraction of the price. I had a look and I got a bottle of the liquid foundation for around £5, bargain! I ended up getting the shade 'very light' because the only other options were medium and dark and I thought they'd probably be too dark. However, I looked at swatches of very light and I knew it'd be too light but a fiver for going on high-end make up!

It arrived and as expected it it was far too light. It it basically white and I am pale and I did try it on it's own to see what the finish was like and how it blends etc. The colour made me look transparent!
The formula of the foundation is quite nice and creamy, but not at all runny. I didn't really like how it blended, it took me quite a while despite the packaging saying that it blends easily. The coverage is pretty light too and I prefer a full coverage, or as close as I can get. That being said it does seem to be quite build-able  The foundation is described as 'satin finish' which I agree with especially due the the coverage but I've said a million times on here that I prefer matte looks so I wasn't really getting on at all with this.


Then I remembered about the Rimmel Wake Me Up foundation I bought and sometimes I feel I should have got the shade lighter in it. In this post I'm wearing the Rimmel foundation.
I decided to try mix the two foundations together to see how that turned out...

You can see a massive difference between the two colours! I have the shade 103 True Ivory in the Rimmel and it's quite a nice foundation even though not a matte one and I'd probably repurchase to be honest but I'd definitely get Ivory next time.
Anyway, blended together these two foundations give the perfect colour for me! I am wearing this mix in this post. With them blended together, the Dainty Doll seems to make it slightly more matte because the Rimmel is quite dewy finish and the Rimmel ups the coverage given.

My main foundation is No.7 Beautifully Matte in Cool Vanilla and here's a (really bad, sorry!) photo to compare that to the mix.

Left: Dainty Doll/Rimmel mix | Right: No.7 

Not the greatest photo but the colours are so similar! The No.7 is obviously fully matte and does give me slightly better coverage so it depends how bad my skin is or if I have enough time to spend using two foundations as to which I use at the moment.

Dainty Doll make up is still available on Amazon at dirt cheap prices. I wouldn't buy the foundation again or probably any of the other foundation/powder products to be honest but I am intrigued by the lipsticks and blushes. Someone please cut up my bank card!
Have you tried Dainty Doll make up?

ACADEMY AWARDS 2013 - BEST DRESSED

When it comes to awards season I used to do a top 5 best dressed on pretty much every award show but with lack of time and such I've decided to just do the main one and I'm just going to show you everyone who's outfits I loved, because ranking is always so difficult.

Having said that, I think my absolute favourite was Amanda Seyfried who wore a stunning Alexander McQueen gown.

Love all the detailing, the colour and she has super pretty make up just to top it all off.

Naomi Watts wore Armani with a unique neckline.

Catherine Zeta Jones looked so glam in Zuhair Murad.

Adore Zoe Saldana's Alexis Mabille Couture dress!

Getting a bit of a "space vibe" from Halle Berry's Versace number and I like it.

Probably tied with Amanda from ultimate best dressed actually. Amy Adams wore a stunning Oscar de la Renta dress also with very simple and pretty make up.

Sally Field stood out amongst all the neutral colours in a red Valentino gown. It was actually incredibly similar to Hilary Swank's dress, also by Valentino but I preferred Sally's.

The most beautiful colour worn by Jennifer Garner in Gucci Première.

Love the detailing of Giuliana Rancic's Rafeal Cennamo gown.

Kate Bosworth at the Vanity Fair after party in Giambattista Valli. I am obsessed with this dress. If only I could win the lottery!

The big themes across the Oscar red carpet this year seemed to be nude, embellishment and baroque prints. Make up, on the whole, was very basic and neutral as was hair with a lot of the stars opting for a simple up-do that wasn't hair sprayed solidly into place. I love this! Makes it easy for us common folk to be able to recreate their looks!

Who was your best dressed of the night?

P.S. Just to let you know that there is now a subscribe box underneath the followers in the right hand sidebar. Just pop in your email address and you get a notification whenever I post so you won't ever need to miss one, especially if you don't use Google Friend Connect/Blogger etc!

LONDON FASHION WEEK: A/W 2013

London Fashion Week is over for another season. The Autumn/Winter 2013 collections have been premiered in London over the last 5 days and to be honest, I usually prefer the A/W collections but this time they haven't "grabbed" me as much. Don't get me wrong, the collections I've loved, I have really loved but it was as though I was expecting something spectacular and there wasn't really anything away from the norm, with a couple of exceptions.

However, with that being said, I have a rather long list of my favourites that I tried really hard to whittle down so let's get one with it!

Felder Felder

House of Holland

PPQ

Orla Kiely

Julien Macdonald

David Koma

Temperley London

Topshop Unique

Burberry Prorsum

GILES

So what to expect come Autumn/Winter this year... the usually camel, tan, black and oxblood colours are obviously going to be sticking around. As it's getting towards the festive season, it's not shock sequins and metallics are about.
It also looks like we can expect a lot of leather (and wipe clean PVC by the looks of Topshop) which I got to be honest, I love! I think adding a piece of (faux!) leather can really make an outfit stand out.
I was surprised with the amount of bright colour in a few collections but absolute love it! Especially as they all seemed to incorporate 60's styling. I particularly loved Orla Kiely's collection. So chic, sophisticated and glamorous.
I cannot even being to explain how much I adore the entirety of the Burberry Prorsum collection. One day I will be rich enough to buy it all. If you didn't get to watch the live streaming of it then you should watch it here. I'm not a fan of leopard print usually but Christopher Bailey mixed it into the collection and it works really well and is a good update to the infamous trench coat. The heart print details are so cute as well!
And of course my beloved Henry Holland... How can I not mention House of Holland. I love how they are afraid to stand out and be different. I especially love the little martini glass prints.

As for make up on the catwalks, a huge bulk of it was all very natural and neutral colours. It seemed like the models were made up to look like they were barely wearing any. Lips and nails were often in nudes, cheekbones were high (obviously!), they was lots of contouring going on and brows were left natural. Maybe taking a bit of inspiration from the lovely Cara Delevigne, who had an incredibly busy fashion week popping up in every other collection!

Who had your favourite this season?

NEVER GROW UP

Two outfit posts in two days! Crazy!

I can't believe I haven't shown you this jumper/sweater/top (I don't really know what to class it as) yet. I got it a couple of weeks ago from River Island. River Island is a shop that I sometimes look in but I really don't like the way they merchandise and lay things out. Also, I've not been a huge fan of their clothes recently but I decided to pop in as it was quiet and there wasn't many people around and I'm so glad I did.

Jumper; River Island | Disco pants; Topshop

I can't find it on the River Island website and thinking about it, I've been in a couple of stores since buying it and I've not seen it in any other store. Unless it sold out just that quickly!
I spotted it in the corner and made a beeline for it. It cost £30 which put me off a little as well at first because I didn't know if I would actually get the wear out of it but I went to try it on over the dress I was wearing and thought it looked too cute to put back on the rail.

Please excuse the fitting room mirror photo!

I've already worn it way too much and I'm going to see Disney on Ice (again...) in a few weeks that I'll think I'll have to don it for. I'm clearly always going to be a child at heart.

I know that the majority of the outfit posts I do are of me in disco pants but these are new ones! My Glamorous ones seemed to be thinning a bit and I wasn't liking them that much. Then I saw the Topshop ones and the quality and thickness is a lot better and closer to the American Apparel ones. And already over wearing these ones too...

SHE BANGS

I probably could have come up with a slightly better post title..! Haha! But it was the first thing that came in to my head.

So, a few days a go I only went and got myself a fringe cut in. (You geddit? Bangs is American for 'fringe'! Oh the humour you get on Laddered Tights!)
Now, I've had the same hairstyle for practically my whole life. We are ignore the time when I was around 9 and got a short bob. I have really bad head sore so I don't ever tie my hair up or even brush it all that often. I also have the dreaded cowlick on each side of my head. They used to be really quite bad but I've somehow managed to tame them a little over the last couple of years.
I came home the other day and started playing with my hair and just decided I wanted a fringe and then I realised that it would probably be difficult with said cowlick. I googled for a long time and the next day I ask my hairdressers opinion and she told me to wash my hair just before I left the house and she'd be able to see how it'd go.

Lucky for me, it has been a success!

I'm really please with how it turned out. I'm still at the stage where I keep combing it and constantly checking it looks okay and is sitting right. It just feels so strange having something on my forehead all the time.

Thought I may as well give you a little outfit post whilst the camera was out. I think today's look is very "sleek, chic goth".
I couldn't for the life of my get a decent photo of the collar detail but you can see if better on the photo above.

Shirt; Forever 21 | Skirt; Topshop | Belt; ASOS | Ring; Forever 21 | Earrings; Primark | Nails; Avon Nailwear Pro 'Romance' & Models Own 'Ibiza Mix'

I love this shirt so much. I got it at the weekend when I took a trip down to Birmingham. I think it was £18.75 so pretty decent! Been after a plain black shirt with a collar that wasn't sheer for so long. Would have preferred no collar detailing really but I couldn't find any other and they look easy enough to remove if I get bored of them.
The belt was on my wishlist post that you can see here. It goes with practically everything I own so definitely worth the money.

Make up I'm wearing today:

Dainty Doll foundation 'Very Light' & Rimmel Wake Me Up Foundation '103 True Ivory' (mixed together)
Garnier Roll On
Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer '1 Fair'
No7 Blemish Fix Concealer 'Fair'
Rimmel Stay Matte Powder '001 Transparent'
Benefit Brow-zings 'Dark'
MUA Clear Mascara
MUA Eye Primer
Sleek Au Naturel Palette: 'Nubuck', 'Bark', 'Noir'
L'Oréal Telescopic Mascara 'Black/Noir'
Sleek Contour Kit 'Light'
ELF Blush 'Peachy Keen'
Rimmel Lasting Finish Lip Pencil '063 Black Tulip'
Sleek Matte Lipstick 'Vamp'

I've been off work for the last week so I've been able to watch a lot of London Fashion Week live streams which has been fun. Not as much fun as actually being there, I guess. But alas! There will most likely be a post on Wednesday (hopefully) of my favourite collections. I've already got a decent sized list that I'm trying to whittle down.

REVIEW: ELF MAXIMUM COVERAGE CONCEALER

I bought this concealer from ELF a few weeks ago and I've used to almost everyday since it arrived. I absolutely love it! It's one of the new products they have started stocking this year and costs a teeny £3.75 and is available in 6 shades. You can buy it here!

It's a decent sized tube and you get 20ml of product from it. Sounds like an odd thing to comment on but I really like the nozzle of the tube. The product comes out nicely and you don't end up with wasted concealer.
I got it in the lightest shade, porcelain. I only really use it for under my eyes and occasionally on really bad spots and blemishes. It's quite a thick consistency but not so that it looks cakey which I find the ever popular Collection Lasting Finish to get.
It can crease a little under the eye as the day gets on but so longs you set with a powder I don't really have any issues with it.
I was really impressed with the result of this concealer under the eyes and with it being such a light colour it does brighten up the eye a little too.
It's very easy to blend and build up colour and coverage, too. I usually put a bit on my fingers and wipe under each eye and use my finger to blend a bit and right into the inner corner and then buff it in more with the Real Techniques Buffing Brush.

I'd definitely recommend this concealer. At less than £4 you can't really complain! I love ELF makeup and I'll definitely be repurchasing this.

MAKEUP STORAGE/COLLECTION

This week the storage I ordered for my makeup arrived so I've spent today sorting that out and thought I'd share. Now, compared to almost all the beauty bloggers I followed at the YouTube channels I'm subscribed to, this is literally nothing. However this photo was taken about 5 months ago...

Just excuse the Instagram photo!

I got the desk tidy from Wilkos and for the amount I had it worked quite well. This is what it now looks like...

(I'll apologise now for these photos being worse than they usually are. And also, I realised afterwards that I could have given everything a good clean before photo taking. Let us just ignore that!)

I got the acrylic storage from this eBay listing. It cost around £22 which seems expensive but it was definitely one of the cheapest I've found. I wanted acrylic ones because I've seen so many people with them and they look really sleek and tidy. Mine came in less than 2 weeks and it came from Hong Kong with an expected delivery of a month so super impressed with that. I've seen you can get acrylic drawers that this unit can sit on top of so I may have to look into that if I start buying even more stuff...

So many compartments! It's just perfect for the amount of makeup I have.

Lots of dirty brushes (oops!) and all my lipsticks. Definitely going to need a bigger lipstick container soon. My brushes are mostly ELF Studio ones and I have the odd Real Techniques too.

I've used each compartment of the storage to hold a different type of product. First up is blushers and highlighters...

Top row: Sleek "Sunrise", Sleek Contour Kit

Middle row: Rimmel 3 in 1 Powder blush "004 Winter Glow", Sleek "Rose Gold", ELF "Peachy Keen"

Bottom row: Benefit "High Beam" and "Sun Beam"

I have two of the compartments for eyeshadow. One for singles (and a few miscellaneous things) and one for palettes...

 Top row: Vivo "Bronze Me Up" Trio Palette, ELF "Wild Wheat" Single Eyeshadow

Middle row: ELF Brightening Eye Colour (not sure of the shade), ELF Matte Eyeshadow "Muted Mauve", ELF Cream Eyeliner "Purple", Natural Collection Eyeshadow "White"

Bottom row: Maybelline Gel Eyeliner, MUA Eyeshadow "16 Matt" and "24 Pearl"

Sleek "Au Naturel", MUA "Starry Night", MUA "Undressed", Sleek "Storm" palettes

Then there are four smaller, square shaped compartments that I have products stood in. So, I have eyeliners...

W7 Deluxe Gel Pencil (I don't know what brand this is or where it's from - sorry!), Barry M Liquid Eyeliner, Barry M Wink Black Marker, Bourjois Liner Feutre "11 Noir", Soap & Glory Supercat Eyeliner, Rimmel Special Eyes "161 Black Magic", Sleek Dip-It Eyeliner, Vivo Eyeliner "White", MUA Eye Primer

A lot of these are either quite old and/or I don't even like them so I should really bin them. I only really like the Barry M and Sleek liquid liners. 

I then have a section for concealers (and a nude eyeliner that didn't fit in the other part!)

 No.7 Instant Radiance Concealer, Garnier Roll-On, Rimmel Scandaleyes "005 Nude", Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer "1 Fair", Rimmel Wake Me Up Concealer "010 Ivory"

Then lip liners... and I squeezed the eye lash curlers in there too!

MUA "Pink Me Up", Rimmel Lasting Finish "063 Black Tulip", Rimmel Exaggerate "024 Red Diva", ELF Retractable Lip Brush

Eyelash curlers are some cheap ones I've had for absolute years! Probably from Bodycare or something.

Then I've got mascaras in the final smaller section and it's a teeny bit of a squeeze with the odd shapes of all the tubes...

L'Oréal Telescopic "Noir/Black", Maybelline Falsies "Black Drama", L'Oréal False Lash Telescopic "Magnetic Black", Benefit Bad Gal"

At the back in a smaller compartment than the first lot but bigger then the previous and it just has a few miscellaneous items in there...

 ELF Maximum Coverage Concealer "Porcelain", B.Even Skintone Corrector, Maybelline Dream Matte Mousse "004 Light Porcelain", Natural Collection Corrector Stick

I've got a review up of the ELF concealer which you can read here.

 The last compartment is the biggest one at the front and I keep my base products in here...

Top row: ELF High Definition Powder, Benefit Brow-zings "Dark", Rimmel Stay Matte Powder "001 Transparent"

Bottom row: GOSH Velvet Touch Primer, No.7 Beautifully Matte Foundation "Cool Vanilla", Rimmel Wake Me Up Foundation "103 True Ivory", No.7 Blemish Cover Stick "Fair", Vaseline

Hope you liked this post and it wasn't too ramble-y! Well done if you made it to the end of it!