Going travelling...

    I've wanted to go travelling for a long, LONG time. About 5 years ago I did Camp America and loved it but I always thought I would have done more by now. I'm happy to finally be able to say that this is about to happen and I am getting very excited!   Back in January me and my boyfriend ventured over to STA travel in Glasgow to have a meeting about where we anted to go. We spoke with them for about an hour and left with a deposit down on the trip of a life time. We've recently been back to confirm all our arrangements and with only a few days left of work it's all starting to get very real. STA have been brilliant with us. I know some people may prefer to do things by themselves but I love the security you have by booking through a company, it's nice to know that if we have any problems we can always get in touch with them.   We're starting our trip in Asia and then will be moving to Australia. We have a year's working holiday visa for Oz and I really want to try and see as much of it as possible while I'm there. To be honest that's my plan or the whole trip, I just want to go and do everything and everywhere!   Things on my blog my change quite a bit while I'm away. I know that makeup and skin care won't be a massive priority for me while I'm fruit picking (that's what people do when they go travelling isn't it?) I am excited to see what Australia and Thailand has to offer in products and will definitely keep you posted if I find any wonder products but expect lots of travel posts and beautiful pictures intended to make you jealous! (Just kidding....sort of) Things will stay the same until then and I have lots of exciting things coming up so make sure to keep checking back.   Hope you enjoyed today's post, exciting times ahead!

Sexy Mother Pucker revival

 

 

Soap and Glory's sexy mother pucker lip glosses are a little bit iconic. I feel like most people have tried them even if it is just to feel a little bit naughty when people ask what your wearing. They have recently been re-formulated. As much as I loved the original glosses, they were a little bit on the sticky side but the new version promises to have solved this problem so I was excited to try them.  

  I picked up two colours to try. The first was Plumsup. This is, as you might have guessed, a plum shade. It's very sheer on the lips so doesn't give too much colour but is very wearable and will be great for through Autumn. It looks very shimmery in the tube which I thought might put me off but you really can't see it once it's been applied.      

I also picked up rose and shine which is a paler pink. This one has more colour pay off  and has no shimmer so the effect is quite different from Plumsup. I like this one a lot too but think it might not be something I reach for every day as I don't always suit paler shades and need to wear it with the right look.

 

The glosses are aimed to plump the lips so they really tingle when they're applied, I know some people can find this a little bit uncomfortable but I really don't mind it. I don't know if they actually plump the lips and if they do it's definitely not by a lot but I still love how they look ans as promised they really aren't as sticky!

Autumn makeup look with some old favourites

 

 

 

 

 

 

Autumn is well and truly here and I love it. I love Autumn makeup too, I think it's the best time for makeup too. Autumn colours are amazing with warm, rusty and gold shades. I love glowy skin all year round but especially when it starts to get colder as skin can often start to look dull. I decided to have a look through my stash to see what I already had to create an every day Autumn look.  

Skin:

 

-Maxfactor skin luminizer foundation

-Mac blush in buff

-Elf highlighter

 

 

Eyes:

-Coastal scents 88 warm palette (the shades don't have names so I can't say which ones, sorry!)

-Bourjois 1 seconde volume mascara

-Miss sporty dark brown eye pencil

-Maybelline eyebrow satin in dark brown

 

Lips:

-Rimmel exagerate lip liner in Addiction

-Maybelline colour drama in Nude perfection

 

Masks

Whenever I really want to treat my skin I always reach for a mask. There's masks for all kinds of problems and I find it's the best way to quickly fix the problem. I wanted to share a few favourites with you.  

  The Bliss Tripple oxygen mask is what I always reach for if my skin is feeling a bit dull. It applies as a gel and then foams up on the skin, as it bursts it gives the skin a boost of oxygen that helps to rejuvenate the skin. It really tingles as it bursts too! It works in a bout 5 minutes as once the foams burst on the skin it's done its job and you can just rinse off any excess. My skin always feels great after this.  

  The Elemis exotic cream moisturising mask is what I always reach for if my skin is feeling particularly thirsty. I find the best way to use this is applying it before bed on top of my normal night cream. If my skin is really dehydrated it just drinks it up and I just rinse off what ever's left in the morning. It's amazing for getting rid of any pesky dehydration lines that have started to creep up on me.  

The Body Shop warming mineral mask is my favourite for deep cleansing if my skins feeling a little bit....grubby? It's very very thick which can be a little bit of a pain to apply but once it's on it heats up and feels amazing. It's great for helping to clear up any congestion or break outs in my skin.   So there we have it. I hope you enjoyed this post and a few pictures of my looking ridiculous! Let me know if you've tried any of these masks or any others that you love!

Thisrty skin saviours

    Sadly the warmer weather has left us and the cooler weather has started to creep in. I absolutely love this time of year but the change in weather can often dry my skin out which means taking a little bit of extra care. I've loved Soap and Glory for a long time. They have amazing body scrubs and moisturisers. For the Summer months I love the sugar crush scent as it is really fruity and zingy but when it starts to cool down I reach for the Breakfast scrub and Smoothie star body milk. They smell so good you could eat them!!    

The Breakfast scrub has just enough grit to feel like your getting rid of all the dead skin but doesn't feel too harsh like a lot of scrubs do. It has oats, almond and honey extracts and smells like maple syrup. I massage it into my skin using some exfoliating gloves and then rinse it off. I use this about twice a week and my skin always feels incredible after.    

I always follow up with the Smoothie star body milk after I've scrubbed, this helps to hydrate all the new skin. I use this every day in between to. It smells really similar to the Breakfast scrub which helps to make it last on the skin. It has a lovely consistency which doesn't feel too watery or too heavy. It really leaves my skin feeling soft and hydrated all day too.   Always make sure you read the packaging on Soap and Glory products. They make little jokes in the directions which I love!

Solid shampoo and conditioner

 

I'd heard about the Shampoo and conditioner bars from lush lots of times before and it wasn't something I'd ever thought about trying. For whatever reason I decided to pick one up recently and so far have really been ejoying it. I have the Honey I washed my hair shampoo bar. I'd tried the honey I washed the kids soap before and it's probably my faveourite scent from Lush. It's like sweet, honey, oaty goodness, why wouldnt't I want that in my hair! The guy in the shop told me it would last 60 washes, which is amazing!   It feels like using a bar of soap on your hair, you simply lather it up in your hands and massage it into your hair. It feels sqeaky clean after which I didn't like at first but thats's where the conditioner comes in. I have the Jungle conditioner bar which is scumtiously fruity and fresh. You use this in exactly the same way except focusing it on the ends of the hair. These paired together make my hair feel amazing. I trust Lush as a brand too because they use good quality, natuarl, anaimal friendly products. I'm pleased that I can use there products in more ways now.   Let me know if you used either of these products before and what other lush products I should try.

So I went on TV...

So remember that list of new year's resolutions I had, well I am doing pretty well at ticking them off. The thing I thought that would be most difficult was my random idea to go on a quiz show. It actually turned out to be surprisingly easy! Back in January I had planned to apply to as many quiz shows as I could but didn't really expect to hear anything back. I'd only got round to applying for a few before getting a very exciting voice mail off Two Tribes asking me to call back as they were interested in my application. Eeeek!   I called back the next day trying to sound as interesting and charming as possible! I also had to do a little practise quiz on the phone. I was awful, I literally got every question wrong and thought that would definitely be the end of my quizzing days but a few days later I got an email asking to arrange a skype audition. They would usually do a bigger audition with lots of people at this point but I was a little bit late in applying so got to do it over skype instead, a massive advantage in my opinion. I was really nervous for the skype audition, I hate speaking to people on skype any way and I knew there was going to be a second quiz too. I wore a bright top and tried to be really confident and chatty, the guy I spoke to was lovely which definitely helped. We had a nice chat about general things and then had another quiz, this one was a little bit better, there was definitely a question about Alton Towers that I got very excited about! After that I had to wait to see if I was short listed and then would have to wait after that to find out if I had got on the show. I got an email to say I'd been short listed shortly after but had to wait for quite a while after that to hear anything more. I just assumed I hadn't got any further but a few days after I heard back with the good news! Wahoo!!   I was asked to bring 5 outfits with me, the colour guidelines were very particular too. We had to arrive with our hair done but no makeup as we would get that done there. It was filmed at Elstree studios which are just out side of London so I travelled down the night before and stayed over. I read my quiz book all the way down and tried to cram as much knowledge into my head as I possibly could, not sure it did much good though.   The actual day of recording was quite long. We had an early start and quite a lot of waiting around but it was all very exciting. The other people on my episode were really nice and interesting, most of them had been on other quiz shows as well so knew what kind of thing to expect. Our outfits were sent to wardrobe, they chose what we would be wearing from what we had brought. We then got taken down to makeup which was great fun, they used air-brushing which I hadn't ever had done before.   When it came to go down to the show I was feeling really nervous but everyone who worked on the show were so nice. Richard Osman introduced himself before we started and he was so nice and friendly, we were told that he gets just as nervous as us before each show so not to worry. To be honest I was pretty rubbish during the quiz, I did know a few answers but got A LOT wrong. I managed to last a few rounds though which was more than I expected. I won't give too much away as you an still watch the show on iplayer (I'm episode 48) but i think it's all really funny and it was such a great experience.   One thing I have noticed is how many people have told me how rubbish I look on the episode. Since it aired I have been told I look short, fat, have too much make up, not enough make up, don't suit my hair and don't suit my lipstick. All these things have been said really casually like it wasn't insulting. It definitely is. Like most people, I criticise the way I look any way and definitely don't love what I look like either but it's something else to be told it by lots of other people, not cool guys! I would never normally say anything negative on here but it's something that's been bothering me. It's also made me realise how hard it must be for people who are constantly in the spot light!   I absolutely loved the whole experience and would definitely do another show if I was given the chance. I think I would probably do some more swatting up next time!!