Brighton for the Weekend

After having living in London for nearly a year and a half, I've definitely started to notice myself becoming a bit immune to the amazing places that I live near. When I visited the south bank recently I realised how little I actually get out and see the city I live in, and also to further that along, how little I've taken advantage of the brilliant travel links that living in London also provides. As I've recently met someone who is just as keen on travelling out of London, it wasn't long before we'd planned a little weekend away together. After several hassles with out sorting out accommodation (our Air BnB cancelled on us two days before we were due to go!), we booked into an actual B&B, took a much later train to Brighton than originally planned, and managed to survive the journey in one piece.

After arriving we had a little walk around, walked along the beach (I had to see the sea, I just miss it too much!), visited a few pubs and then found an amazing Mexican restaurant that served some seriously lovely cocktails while we were waiting for a table. Annoyingly the weather was pretty rubbish, and the only bag that I had wasn't exactly waterproof so I couldn't take my camera with me around on the Saturday, hence the disappointing lack of photos of anything.

On the Sunday it was more of the same, just some casual walking around along the pier and to see the Pavillion in daylight (after only seeing it late at night on our walk back to the hotel). It was just really quite nice to get out of London and away from university and all the stress that's currently waiting around every corner with revision and  coursework deadlines starting to sneak closer and closer. Even though I had a bit of a stress on the Sunday and we had to dash back to London so I could meet up with a friend to go and see Marina & the Diamonds, it was still such a lovely weekend. It is so underrated to just escape stuff for the weekend, and with exams coming up this was probably one of the last times we're gonna get to properly spend time with each other for quite a while.

Brighton itself is also the loveliest place, I just wish I could have spent more time just walking around enjoying it on the Sunday instead of stressing out like I did. The Lanes look like the coolest place, with lots of little cafes offering all sorts of foods, especially of the vegan and vegetarian variety. We're already talking of going back, we've just got to find somewhere in our busy schedules to fit it in!

Thanks for reading! 

PS... Velvet Matte Lipstick Crayons

So you know, during a casual walk through Plymouth Primark I wandered into the make up section and started avidly swatching things onto the back of my hand. I've heard some pretty decent things about the Primark make up range, branded PS..., and so I decided to grab some of these lipstick crayons as they were only £2 each!! I went for the colours Nude, Wine, Deep Purple and Brown, all rather inventively named.

The packaging is rather standard, nothing to really write home about it but it's still quite nice. I'm not too sure how one would go about sharpening the pencil to access more of the lipstick, but I assume it can be done. The gold lettering on the side makes it look a bit more classy than it actually is, and all things considered this doesn't really look like it costs £2, so I wouldn't be ashamed of whipping it out and using it in a public bathroom.

The colours are gorgeous on all four shades that I purchased, and they apply really easily which is a massive plus in my books. They are very very similar to Clinique chubby sticks, with maybe a slightly more opaque and matte finish to the final look. The colours look basically the same on the lips as they do in the swatch above. They do transfer quite easily (as my bf found out pretty quick) and so you do have to re-apply after a while, and they are also pretty drying, but I've only tried them in Winter when dry lips are notoriously bad anyway.

I would definitely recommend investing in a few of these, especially if you're looking to expand the amount of colours you have on a budget! Thanks for reading!

Megan

Shore Projects Watches

I love watches as much as the next person, but for many years I just didn't own one. I'd had plenty when I was younger, but they had either been broken, or I'd just plain given up on wearing them and they'd been left to have the battery run out. Now that I'm meant to be more adult, I thought it was about time that I really considered treating myself to a professional looking watch to make myself look like I'm more in control of my life then I actually am.

Therefore, when trailing through other blogs and instagrams I happened across Shore Projects, a company that not also desings gorgeous watches, but watches that can be customised, I kind of fell in love. You can choose any watch face that you want from the various 'Phases', and all the watches themselves are named after seaside towns of the UK, hence the 'shore' of their name. I really liked this touch a lot, especially coming from a seaside area myself. You can then combine your choice of watch with nearly 30 straps, and they are updating their site with more pretty constantly! (if you check out their front page there is a teaser for some new wool straps which look gorgeous!)

I absolutely adore my watch, and there hasn't been a day since I bought it that it hasn't been fixed to my wrist. I bought Poole, as it seemed the most adaptable to any way that I wished to wear it, however I've recently been drooling over Lulworth and Salcombe for the little pops of colour they could add. Everything about these watches is gorgeous, to the little details on the face, the gorgeous packaging, everything. Each strap comes in its' own little box with a small bag, which you can see in the picture above. When I had some problems with my order, I also got a reply super quickly and the team were so helpful, so I'm so thankful for that too!

I currently have 5 straps, as I bought a gift box that came with four (now seems to only come with three I'm afraid!), and also got a free one for my birthday in the lovely birthday present scheme that they do. I have three leather straps, as I thought they would be the most versatile and professional looking for when I use it at work, I then bought a silicon strap in orange for use when I'm on field work, and lastly I bought a light blue canvas one too! All the straps are so well made, and to change between them is ridiculously easy. As you can see in the photo below, the leather ones definitely show the wear a lot more, but I really like that kind of used look that leather gets, so it's a plus for me!

I would definitely recommend giving them a follow on their instagram also, as it shows the different combinations you can make using the straps and watches.

Thanks for reading

Megan x

LimeCrime Velvetines Trio

I said there was going to be more LimeCrime, and here we are. This was the second item that I ordered over the christmas period, and probably the one that I had the most hesitation with ordering. Firstly: I kinda just went for this, as I wanted two of the colours, but this was definitely the most cost efficient method of buying velvetines. Secondly: I've seen so many videos on youtube that don't exactly cast the velvetines in a good light (eg colours being off, them only being 1/2 full of liquid), so I was really worried that I would have these problems and then have a logistical nightmare trying to return them back to America.

However, as you can see, they arrived perfectly, wrapped beautifully (they also came in a gloriously floral box like the Venus Palettes), and all the colours were as vivid and wonderful as they appear on LimeCrime's website. Phew. So, the colours that were in this trio were Peacock (a blue-green), Beet It (deep wine) and Buffy (a buff nude, ironically). Let's talk formula wise first, and lemme say, I'm a really big fan about everything to do with it. It goes on really creamy, and then dries so that when it comes into contact with anything (food, hair, etc) it does not budge. The absolute dream. It also isn't drying, which is really impressive. I'm such a massive fan of liquid lipsticks, so this really didn't disappoint at all.

Colourwise, all three colours did not disapoint at all. I was so very apprehensive about Peacock as it's not something I would usually give a go but after actually wearing it around inside a few times it's really grown on me. Buffy is an absolute stunner for every day, and I wore it to uni on the first day back and felt so cool the whole time. Beet It is currently the one with the least amount of wear, but I can guarantee on nights out there won't be much else that I'll reach for first.

I'm definitely quite a lot in love with these, and I'm gonna jump at the chance to order some more when I save up some money. What do you guys think? Would you buy some or are there some other liquid lipsticks that you would choose?

Thanks for reading!

Megan x

New Hair

Hey everyone!!

I am back in London and I've just finished my first day back at university as I write this! It's been pretty stressful moving back and having to settle back into living in a shared house, especially as we've had to buy tickets for a field trip to Spain, but I digress...

Last week I went to Toni & Guy in Plymouth, and got my whole hair done, including a cut, which I haven't had done in definitely far too long... My roots were also in a dire need of some attention and basically everything just felt like it needed some real TLC. I went in and just asked for my roots to be bleached, and also to try and get it to a similar level of colour as what I already had on the rest of my hair. So, here's some before pictures....

I mean clearly in these photos I am being posey af, but the main point I want to make here is a) the roots and how kinda awful they were (this was probably about a month before I even got it done so imagine like 1 month more of it...) and b) how long it was. Remarkably, these photos actually make my hair look okay, but in reality it was very fine at the ends, with lots and lots of split ends all over the place. It looked nice occasionally, but often it was so dry and damaged. When I went to the hairdressers, I just asked them to cut enough off that it would be healthy, and in the next photo we can see that it was quite a substantial amount.

This is actually the only high-res photo I have of this (sorry!!) but as you can see it looks so so so much better shorter, it looks thicker and just has a lot more life to it. I'm so happy with the colour as it doesn't even look like I've had a touch up on the roots. There's a few bands of some coppery colours but I'm hoping after a few weeks of using silver shampoo they will all start to fade. I'm honestly just so happy with it and I feel much more content now that I know I haven't got some awful split ends going on. I love rocking a bit of a unnatural colour, and this kinda ticks all the boxes of still being reasonable, yet being different enough you don't see many other people with it.

I hope you all like my new hair too, I know it's not a massive change, but sometimes that's all that's needed to completely change your mindset about your hair, and that's really what's happened here.

Thank you so much for reading!

LimeCrime - The Venus Palette

Firstly, lemme apologise for these not so perfectly shot photos, as I definitely thought the light was better but alas, the Cornish winter light has not been kind so this was the best I could do! Secondly, I feel a bit apprehensive showing this brand as there is such controversy surrounding them, especially at the beginning of 2015. However, given the amount of time that had passed since then, and how cheap the palettes were in the bundle (also free UK shipping) I thought, why not? So yes, welcome to the first of 3 posts I thought I'd write about what I got, the next two will be up in the next couple of days when I get around to swatching the other products. Oh, to not be a lazy student.

Firstly, let's talk packaging and how I found LimeCrime to be in general. Honestly, I found them to be completely fine. I checked out with PayPal just to be safe, and that was that, the parcel then took about a week to get here, which was incredibly impressive considering it was ordered over the Christmas period and it had to get over the Atlantic ocean to get here first. It also arrived in the cutest little boxes which you can see in the background a few of the photos. This one I've actually turned inside too as when you get it it's all white, then you open it and suddenly it's this beautiful flowery inside. It then came wrapped in yellow tissue paper and bubble wrap so I was very impressed by this. Both palettes were also wrapped up separately to each other too. I definitely feel like a lot of effort when in this to ensure it arrived to me safely, which I was really impressed with.

Now onto the actual product, and everything about it. Firstly, let me just put it right out there now that the packaging is absolutely gorgeous. The case is almost like a hard back book covering, and even has LimeCrime written on the spine so you could even store it that way and it would look nice. I was also really surprised by how robust it feels too, and obviously do I need to talk about the design on the front? Clearly it is totally beautiful. The mirror inside is also of useful size for once too, which is great. I mean, I never really use the inside mirrors but I appreciate the thought of it being a useable size.

The eye shadows themselves are nicely spaced out, meaning I don't end up with tonnes of one colour mixed in with another (does this happen to anyone else??). The names are all written in gold writing too, which matches the cover which is a nice touch. The colours are all pretty decently pigmented, and there is a nice variation within the colours while still sticking to the 'grunge' theme of the palette. The darker shades like Venus and Muse are probably my favourites, as the lighter matte shades were just a little bit harder to get the colour pay off I wanted but as you can see in the picture below it's still pretty impressive! The two shimmer shades are also really interesting, as they are quite multi-faceted and photos just couldn't really do them justice.

All things considered I am really happy that I impulsed bought this the way I did, as I don't really have any other shades like this at all and I'm super excited to give some of these a go when I finally emerge from my house and start using make up again (ahahaha....).

Shades from left to right -Venus, Shell, Aura, Creation, Icon, Rebirth, Divine and Muse

Keep a look out for some more posts on what I got from LimeCrime and maybe a make up using the palettes too. Thanks for reading.

Megan

Benefit Ultra Plush Lip Gloss

The other week when Iszy and I were walking through Debenhams in a desperate attempt to find me some last minute shoes for our Christmas ball, we were stopped by a few of the Benefit ladies who kindly offered us a free make over. Obviously these make overs aren't exactly free, as we then felt almost obliged to buy products but hey, the make up the did for us was absolutely phenomenal, and that evening we then went to see Disclosure so we clearly looked the best out of everyone there. Pic below of what I looked like on that night, soz for the awful phone selfie quality but damn look at how good i look in that.

Anyway, thought I'd focus on something that I then bought after all this, and that is the lipgloss that they used on me during the make over. I bought it for a few reasons, mainly because I actually don't have any lip glosses at all, as I'm not particularly a massive fan of the whole hair sticking to your face kind of thing (which hasn't happened with this yet!!) and also because this smells so good it's like a cookie and cake and so many sweet things all wrapped up together it's absolutely gorgeous. Also the packaging is absolutely gorgeous, but really what do we expect when we're buying from Benefit anyway. The shade I purchased is called Fauxmance.

Colourwise, this lip gloss is a kind of dusky pink, so it's not the most obvious lip colour in the world but as you can see in the top picture it's really shiny and that was a good 2 hours after I'd had it applied and it was still going strong so I was quite impressed. It feels really nice on the lips too so it's something I can see myself just throwing on if I'm doing some casual make up. I honestly really thought I'd regret buying it and never use it but it's actually so lovely. Maybe I will be tempted away from my matte lipsticks.... who knows.

Thanks for reading!

Megan