Battle of The Boxes #2

Arrival Date -

BirchBox: 11th February

Glossy Box: 13th February

First Look -

BirchBox:

Glossy Box:

Contents -

BirchBox:

UrbanVeda; Radiance exfoliating facial polish. A gentle exfoliator packed with super fruits for radiant, youthful complexion.  

Gilchrist + Soames; The London Collection Shower Gel, £13.75. a paraben-free formula with red tea, grape seed and milk thistle to refresh and hydrate the skin. 

Life Style Extra; Green and Blacks Dark 70% chocolate. I hate dark chocolate but it was a goos gesture!. 

I am looking forward to trying this out. Hopefully it'll be better than the other mug soups i have tasted.

Beauty Protector; Protect and Oil £16.00. This nourishing hair oil battles UV rays, heat and breakage. Definitely looking forward to seeing this!

Leighton Denny; Nail colour, £11.00. High performance polishes in our favourite stylish shades. Well I get my nails done for me so I never need nail polishes. Nice colour though.

Eyeko; Skinny Liquid Eyeliner £12.00. A fool proof Liquid liner to help you create an Alexa Chung style feline flick in a flash.

Flicks are really hard to do so hopefully this will be very helpful.

Glossy Box:

Nougat London; Sparking Body shimmer, £14.00. Add radiance to your skincare regime with sparking body shimmer. This body lotion with mallow extract, vitamin E and wheatgerm enriched oil will leave your skin luxuriously perfumed with a hint of sparkle. 
Dislike body shimmers so I won't be using this.  
Edora Eyelashes; Eyelashes, £3.90. Every cosmetic connoisseur will adore these simple and beautiful high quality lashes by Eldora. Their extensive range means there's a style to suit everyone.
I don't tend to wear lashes very often so will be a while before I can make any judgement on these.Ciate London; Pain Pot, £9.00. Do you want stunningly sophisticated looking nails? Look no further than Ciate paint pot. These lovingly chosen and high performance formulas provide you with an effortless nail colour. 
Again I have acrylic nails, so nail polish is totally wasted on me. Giovanna Eco Chic; I don't even feel the need to talk about these, foil packets are not worthy of any mention. 
Maybelline New York; Coloursensational stripped nudes lipstick, £4.99. Look good in the nude with Maybellines colour sensational stripped nuse lipstick. This new formula provides full bold coverage for kissable lips.
Well this colour definitely isn't going to suit me but i'll try it while I'm at home one day to see what the formula is like.



Overall Impression:
Birchbox wins. Goodbye GlossyBox. 

February Favourites

So it's that time again where I tell you what I have been loving this month.
It's been a crazy month so there isn't a lot but all of these things have been used throughout this month, with the exception of one.

Throne of Glass: If you have read this book, where have you been? If you're like me and you're a late bloomer what are you thinking about it? For me this book throws in everything that I want from a story/novel; a strong female lead, fantasy, fighting and a bit of romance for a good show. I'm absolutely love this book and I cannot get enough of it. Definitely be purchasing the next book as soon as I get paid!

The Mortal Instruments:City of Bones: Well I really wanted to see this in the cinema and never got a chance, when I saw this on amazon for £10 I couldn't help myself at this lovely bargain! Great Film! Go watch if you havent!

Jimmy Choo Purfume: This has been a favourite of mine for about a year now. I absolutely love this scent, just don't spray too much of it, getting this in your mouth is not a good thing to do. Its a mixture of a fruity smell but its also sophisticated enough that you could wear it day or night. It's njot a strong perfume but if you spray too much people will notice. 

Bourjois Trio Eyeshadow - 05 Rose Vintage: This is the perfect trio for a daytime look. Just adds the subtleness of colour that you need without making it too full on. I use the lighter two, you could always use the third if you wanted to take it to a night time look as well. All rounder in my book.

Rimmel Colour Rush Lip Balm Crayon - 220 Rumer Has It: Abolutely loving these lip crayons. They are so easy to apply and they stay on for a good few hours. I usually only have to re-apply after I've eaten and the colour is still there when I get home from work. Also, have you smelt these? Divine!

Eyeko London Skinny Mini Liquid Eyeliner: This Came in my BirchBox (Post coming soon) and I have been using this ever since I got it. Move any other liquid liner you have over and give this one a try. It's staying power is amazing and although some of the ones I own say they are smudge proof, they aren't but with this one, I havent seen a black mark where it wasn't supposed to be. 

The Balm Down Boy Blush: Now I've seen LOADS of bloggers talking about Frat Boy so I thought I would give one of the others a try and I wasn't disappointed at all. This gives me the perfect pink tint on my cheeks and even with my natural flush this still looks like a good blush while its on! One thing I will say is, there is NO need to be generous with this, it is so pigmented the first time I used it I looked liked I had emptied the contents of the blush onto my face, be careful bellas!

Stila Pallette: I have been lusting after this for a while and I am so glad I bought it. The colours are super beautiful and so pigmented. The perfect pallette for travelling if you're a nude/natural girl. 

New Phone Case: Now this can't be classed as a favourite because I only got this yesterday but I love it. An old friend of mine treated me to this beautiful phone case as a belated birthday present. If you follow me on instagram you've probably seen the design, if not take a look here. 

That's my favourites, what are some of yours?

Tiny Talk #3

Hi Guys,
So finally my good friend has written another post hurrah! Take a look at Lovely Chubly's post here on Feeling Lost.

This pulled at a few heart string for me because I myself am feeling a little lost at the moment. I have never been one to "know" exactly what I want. I chose my GCSE subjects not knowing what I wanted to study, ending up hating a few subjects, I chose my college course on what my grades from school showed, ending up loving that, and then I went to university and everything went downhill from there. Enough of that. 

Im here to tell you it's okay to feel a little lost sometimes, hell all the time. We go to school thinking we have all the time in the world and then when we are 14/15 we are expected to choose subjects based on what we want to do for the rest of our lives. Now we all have childhood dreams, mine was to be a dancer, but how many people out there can honestly say they are doing the job they thought they would do when they were a child? Not a lot I can tell you. Sure there are the lucky few, but they are few and far between!

I've always found writing lists help in these situations. So you know what you don't like, well write it down so you can find something that isn't like that. Look everywhere and anywhere, use any asset you have whether that be a person and that person is only known to you because of someone else you know, use them to your advantage. These days its a lot more about who you know than what you know, as long as you have experience. If you don't have experience, try volunteering or ask a parent/sibling/friend if you can shadow them at work just so you can say you had some experience in the working world. 

Lately I've felt like I've been stuck in a rut and couldn't get out, but you know what I did? I accepted it and decided to write down steps to achieving what I want and I will be ticking them off as I go. 

Well that's just another little ramble from me that I hope you enjoyed. By the time this is posted I will hopefully be fast asleep, (the beauties of timed posts). If you have any issues you want me to talk about please leave a comment below and I will be sure to touch upon them soon!

Review | United We Spy - Ally Carter | Spoilers!

So I thought I would try my hand at writing reviews on the recent books I've been reading. I apologise in advance for the shortness and untidiness of this! Hope you can all forgive me.

United we spy is the sixth book in the Gallager Acadamy series about a young girl who goes to spy school and get's into all sorts of trouble. This book follows on from Out of Sight, Out of Time where she wakes up having lost her memory to find out people are after her. 

In United We Spy, Cammie unravels another plot by the circle only this time its much bigger and a lot more dangerous. Her Mother, her best friend Bex and herself come back from Cambridge after seeing the man they were trying to protect be shot by Camme's boyfriends mother, her and her friends decide they need to save their friend Preston. People of the inner circle are dying and Prestons father is one of them. While they're trying to rescue Preston, he and his father get caught by the task force trying to prevent the deaths of the inner circle members, little do they know their leader is a full blown Circle member.

I absolutely loved this book. The action and plot twists kept me so interested I ended up reading the whole book in just 5 hours. It was brilliant. The way its written is so though out and very well put together. It's also a great story for any lover of the spy world. A brilliant end to a well thought out series. If you love action and romance with a bit of a twist then this series is for you. It might be from the Young Adult section but there really is no age limit on books, nor should there be. Let me know if you read it and what you think!

Finding Inspiration

I've always found finding topics or things to write about really difficult. It takes me ages to come up with an idea and if I don't write it down I normally end up forgetting it. Lately I've taken to writing things down when things like that happens, if you look in my diary there will no doubt be heading for blogpost written in it, and if you go through my phone there will be hundreds of notes where I've thought about something and written it down. But what is it that inspires us? Well the reality is it could be anything, so I thought I would share with you a couple things I've found recently that have caught my eye and inspired me in some form or another.

Firstly I found this song, now I have mentioned this song before; Poet by Bastille. It completely relaxes my mind and lets it flow. The lyrics make me think about people and the music makes me think about other ideas. I tend to listen to this in the morning. 

A friend once told me, to get ideas, we need to read ideas. The more you read the more you know so I bought eleven books. They're all different but similar at the same time. Here's a few books that I bought. Have you bought any recently?

Another thing I find inspires me is TV and Film. I mean there are so many ideas out there old, new, not yet created it's so easy to find something that makes you think about something better. 

People. People inspire me because we are all different and all have different things and lately, while I am at work, I find myself people watching and the things they do, inspire ideas. Random though they be, I just write down whatever comes to my mind and expand on it when I find I have the time. 

Well that's my little ramble for the day. What inspires you? Let me know!

The Weekly Update #8

Bought Tickets to Alton Towers | Did you know? | This will be the second book I start reading this week! Yes Second!

Pub Dinner with the bestie - Pigeon breast for starter, then I had the Fishcake and my friend had a Chicken Burger. 

Bought 11 books... my bad | Better late then never birthday presents | Saw Cuban Fury, it was awesome!

Must Watch of the Week: I have started watching Bones from the beginning again. Also cried AGAIN at Lost Girl, too many people are dying it's so sad!

Product of the Week: Bonjella. I have the most horrendous ulscer at the moment and this stuff is a godsend, after it stops stinging of course. 

Youtube Video of the Week: If you want to have a laugh watch Marcus Butler's new video here.

Naughty Thing of the Week: Definitely the fact I haven't bogged in ages. Hopefully this week, I won't be so busy and I can catch up with all the posts I wanted to do and get back into my normal routine!

Song of the Week: Clean Bandit - Rather Be.

Food this Week: My roast dinner! I haven't eaten pork in a while and I don't know why because its incredible. What's your favourite meat? 

Wishing For: Inspiration.

The Lazy Girls Make-Up

Many of us wish that there were simple answers to beauty, and in my opinion there is. Be confident, love yourself and it doesn't matter how much make up you wear. I am massively lazy (I know shocking) I wish I was more toned, didn't have amazingly red cheeks and un symmetrical eyes but lately I have been trying to find quick fixes to my problem. I don't like getting up in the mornings, as I said lazy, but I also hate doing anything in the mornings, especially make-up. Somedays i rarely bother. Work doesn't need my fresh beautiful face, therefore why should I make an effort? There is no-one to impress and when you work hard, and wear glasses, make-up just doesn't fit. So I use the least amount possible, I use products I do not have to re-apply and I don't wear foundation to work because my glasses leave marks on my nose, no girl needs that mess. 

On a normal day, I will wake up, lie in bed and play on my phone and then attempt to get up and get dressed. I may be an early riser but getting out of bed and being awake in bed are totally different things. This is why I shower before I go to bed, every evening a nice relaxing hot shower, perfect. Then comes the beauty stuff, I think I use about 6 things; moisturiser, conceler, eye liner, liquid liner, mascara and lippy. Okay, seven. Here's what I use -

With my naturally dark eyebrows and rosy cheeks, that's all I need. Do you have a lazy make-up day? Let me know what you guys use!

The Weekly Update #7

 
Yummy Food this week. Who knew bombers would be such a hit at work!

 


My Friday consisted of Chips and Gravey with the newest episode of Bones. *spoiler* THEY FINALLY GOT MARRIED!!!

Visited my Friends at Uni, one of them had an incense thingy... Do you even know what these are? It just smelt of burning but the smokiness was pretty cool!

 

We had food at wetherspoons, all day breakfast is just amazing, no words needed. Got to visit my favourite milkshake/coffee place. Go get yourself a Donatella if you're ever in Plymouth!

Must Watch of the Week:  Power Rangers movie, it's a classic. 

Product of the Week: Wake me up conceler from Rimmel, has hidden my spots nicely all weekend!

Wishing For: My Books to arrive, I'm a nerd!

My Beauty Lifesavers

Charles Worthingtons Volume Bounce Mousse: This literally is the best thing ever. You know when you straighten your hair and it just goes flat, well rub a pea size of this into your fingers, pump it into your hair and wait. You'll have voluptuous straight hair after about 2 minutes. It's great. No more flat limp or lifeless hair for me!

Vicks VapoRub: Okay, I can hear you all going, vaporub? What? Well have you ever had a cold, and then once its gone you still have the stage where your nose hasn't quite decided it wants to let go of it and blocks every now and again? Yeah, well when this happens to me, I use this. Now here's the weird bit, before I go to sleep, I rub this on the soles of my feet. Crazy right? I have never slept so soundly and breath easy before! Mother's tip this is. Be grateful I shared this infamous knowledge with you! I'll definitely be passing this down to my children!

Argan Oil: This is from savers. Not only was it £1 it works just as well as the branded ones. Literally take one drop massage it into the ends of my hair and it's soft to touch and has a shine even the sun would envy! 

ZamBuk: I don't think I will ever get tired of boasting about this product. I think my lips would literally fall off if my nan hadn't told my mum about this. Yes, it's another one of those generation things that seems to get passed down but it works. This year the winter has been very harsh to my skin and my lips are more dried and cracked than ever. Apply this generously all over the lips, yes be a bit messy with this, you want it all over, before you go to sleep and when you wake up, kissably smooth lips that aren't nastily cracked. You can also use it on other things like cuts (once slightly healed or it might sting a little) and sore noses, its something I swear by.

LED Torch: I use this to find those hairs on my eyebrows that I can feel but not see. Be warned though, a light this powerful will show you things you don't want to see. You'll look at be like, "oh god, can everyone see that" but you'll be able to sort it and everything will be fine, cause no-one will ever hold a torch to your face!

Sudocrem: I never seem to use products as they were designed. I use this for those spots that just won't seem to go away or turned up to say hi a day or two before you're supposed to go out for something big. Slap this on before bed and it will be half the size in the morning, a lot easier to cover with conceler!

These are the things I can't live without, what about you?

Birch Box Review

Tommy Guns; Fig,Plum&Marshmallow Conditioner, £5.50. Gurantee a frizz-free 2014 with this calming sumptuous conditioner. Leave in for 1-3 minutes. 

The Good: This Smells amazing and always leaves me hair feeling soft, light and is always easily styled after using this. 

The Bad: After using this for about three washes I found my hair didn't like it and it kind of had what felt like a film over it. Nasty. 

Noble Isle; Willow Song Bath & Shower Gel, £20.00. Start your day the right way with a formula the evokes the fresh green of the British Countryside.

The Good: I absolutely love this. The smell is divine and it stays with you for a little while but not too long that it gets stale. I've been using it on my chest which is nice as when I get out it lingers on my neck. 

The Bad: Not a big enough sample, I want more. 

Vasanti; Detox Nutrient Rich Purifying Facial Cleaner, £18.00. Wash away toxins (not to mention every last trace of foundation) with this fresh cleanser.

The Good: Get's off every scrap of make-up you put on your face, I never have anything left when I wipe a cotton pad over the top with my toner. 

The Bad: I personally didn't like the feel of it.  It felt too creamy after wiping it all off and I felt like the toner I applied after didn't do anything but remove the feeling off my face.

Premae; Anatomy Nutrients Instant Renewal Body Oil, £9.50. Moisture, tone and detoxify skin with this natural, allergy tested body oil. Apply to clean skin after bath or shower to nourish and rehydrate.

The Good: Once applied skin feels smooth and renewed after a couple hours.

The Bad: I do not like Oils but I decided to give this a try. I only used this once because I hated how it felt. It definitely left my skin feeling greasy for about an hour after use. 

 

Benefit; The POREfessional, £24.50. An award winning primer that magically erases pores and leaves skin velvety.

The Good: This silky smooth finish stops any lines from forming on the face after you've applied your foundation.

The Bad: With the current condition of my skin it didn't really work and went all flakey. Do not use if your skin is really dry!!

The Weekly Update #6

We had some sun, after a week of rain | Went to the Hair dressers | Getting a little too nerdy and keep watching Power Rangers

Tried to take some pictures for an outfit post, didn't really work though | Pretty pattern on my new top | I have literally the weirdest friends... Don't even know how to explain it. 

Must Watch of the Week: Literally make sure I stay awake for tonights episode of Musketeers on BBC One, its definitely a must see for me.  

Song of the Week: Poet by Bastille. It's inspired me to write my book again. Although I am suffering from Writers Block. 

Product of the Week: Bourjois Happy Light Foundation. Perfect for any day where you don't want to wear too much makeup!

Youtube Video of the Week: Drugstore Dupes. Who doesn't love good products that don't break the bank - watch it here. 

Wishing For: Something for my unruly skin. It's so dry!

Didn't really do much this week. Next weekend should be way more fun!

Tiny Talk #2

This week it is all about Old Acquaintances.

Staying true to my new years resolution I am trying to make an effort with the a few people I have grown apart from in the last few years. There are many people you meet and grow apart from, for many reasons, but not a day goes by where I don't think about a  select few. Most of them probably don't give a second thought towards me but I would still like to make the effort because at least then I know I tried. 

I've met so many people in my life and now I look at my social media pages and I'm like I really miss them, I attempt to talk to them and it seems like we have drifted so far apart now we don't even know what to say to each other. We just have small talk. 

I noticed this the other day when I was thinking about my visit to Plymouth. I went to university there and there are few people who I still think about and would like to see but when I tried talking to a few of them it was like I was a stranger again. Time tore and choices tore us apart, I haven't seen any of them in two years so seeing as many of them as possible would be great.

My tip on this, if you want to rekindle the relationship with friends or old acquaintances, don't get lazy. I admit, it's never fun to always be the one to start a conversation but if you want it you have to work for it!



That's just a small note from me, without LovelyChubly to guide me I feel a little lost. I'm such a sheep. Have a good weekend!

Favourite Three

Admitting this isn't one of my own ideas wounds me a little because its just a great way to get to know someone. I read this article in PixieWoo's TWO magazine and I loved it so decided to do my own. Here's the one from the magazine if you haven't seen it:

Places:
1. Austrailia; Although this is just a fantasy, I can't wait till i finally manage to make it over there. 
2. Kenya; If you have ever stood on top of a mountain and looked down you will understand, the view of this place is incredible. 
3. Florida, I've only been once but it was the most fun place I have ever been, and I will go again in my lifetime. 

Books:
1. The Single Woman; If you ever need a pick me up, from any situation, get your hands on this, you will feel inspired and motivated.
2. I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I Would Have To Kill You, such a good read, the whole series is just amazing, for girls all ages! I mean who doesn't love a secret spy school. 
3. The Hunger Games; The Mockingjay. Possibly the only book to ever make me cry.

Films:
1. Pirates of the Caribbean. All time favourite, just keeps my attention for the whole film and I never get tired of it. 
2. The Mummy; Such a classic film, love a bit of history with a twist. 
3. The Mask of Zorro; A classic storyline that everyone in the family will love. 

Music:
1. Loca - Shakira; Possibly one of the best songs I have ever heard, I love it. 
2. Fearless - Taylor Swift; Been my favourite song since I first found out about Taylot Swift.
3. Poet - Bastille. This has made me think about my ex more than ever, but if he hadn't done all the bad things, along with the good, I wouldn't be who I am today and this blog wouldn't exist. 

Make-up Products:
1. Expert Face Brush by Real Techniques. Without this I wouldn't have the flawless look I get 
2. Estee Lauder Signature Lipstick in Red; What's a girl without a red lippy?
3. Maybelline FIT me conceler; perfect for a lazy make-up day

Cinema Review

Happy Tuesday.

I've found myself at the cinema a lot in the past two weeks and not only is there SO many new films coming out that I want to go and see, I seem to have the opposite opinion of everyone else when I come out the film. 

The Wolf of Wall Street
Now this caused quite a stir between me and my friends. They loved it, I thought it was okay. It is a good film and parts of it are funny. I am glad I have seen but I wouldnt see it again. Just an opinion that I am completely entitled to as are you. I'm not saying this film was rubbish or in any way bad, it just wasn't a film I wish to see again as it didn't thrill me. It wasn't one of those films I come out of and go, oh my for is that the time, or wow about. I'm usually really simple to please anything that does what it says on the tin and wows me is usually the little things. This film just fell a little short for me. 


Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
This again was another film I was just like "eh". I was really excited to watch this film because I love action and secret agents and fighting etc but this, this story line was just so dull all the good bits weren't that good. Everyone (well everyone I know) loves a good spy movie but I just feel this one didn't meet the mark. 

I'll try and watch a few more films and hopefully enjoy them so I have more to write about. 

Until Next Time,

The Weekly Update #5

Got massively wet feet, tip: don't wear dolly shoes in the rain | swotches of my two new lip products | Jack Ryan at the cinema with my favourite drink

Make up for my night out | High School Musical Two in the Taxi; WIN | This tasted amazing, pasta in a pesto sauce with courgette and mozzarella 

 Pretty Wall paper in the restaurant | Favourite dessert ever, lemon tart with vanilla custard | My newest purchase thanks to Wonderful You aka Megs

My friend built an Iron Man suit!! | Cat decided to bring me a present | This brush has changed my make-up routine! Flawless finish with everything.


Must Watch of the Week: Lost Girl. Shed many a tear at episode 11 of series four. Cried like a baby, was very tuggy at the heart strings. 

Song of the Week: Another song Feat. Rihanna. Go and get your hands on Shakira's  new single Can't Remember to Forget You. To me it sounds like a mix of Reggae and R&B, which just makes me want to dance, which you should already know I love and therefore understand why I love this song! Go Get It!!

Wishing For: My goodies to arrive so I can write a blog haul post! Would also like to find somewhere to buy Nars products, I feel I need to try a few of them as people keep raving about it!

That's my week in a nutshell;