I remember my first burberry trench...

It was beautiful and I wore it to death; I still have it, but now I'm not really in a suitable job to wear it. I can't believe I used to wear it to school! (even if it was the poshest school, where our skirts were measured to make sure they were all the same length and we wore straw boaters in the summer haha ahh memories).

I was perusing the internet as usual when I came across the latest Burberry photoshoot by Mario Testino, starring none other than Romeo Beckham.

  

There's no denying that, even at 10 years old, you can see that young Romeo is probably going to be a bit of a heart breaker when he's older, he's got that cheeky grin going on already.

I'm usually a massive Testino fan, and a massive Christopher Bailey fan as well, but I'm just not sure of this choice. I like the Burberry campaigns with the up and coming beautiful 20-something actors/models who I can stare at until my eyes hurt, and aspire to look like even though I have no chance...not a 10 year old kid. Remember Eddie Redmayne and Cara Delevingne S/S12? Thats more what I'm talking about Burberry!

I guess I still have Charlie France, and rRomeo's cute in a little brother sort of way...

Whats your favorite fashion campaign? What do you think of this one?

x

I never get the chance to paint my nails, as I work with animals, but since it's christmas and I have a couple of weeks off I decided to go for it and be all festive!

I picked up these two nail varnishes from B&M (if you haven't heard of it its basically like a pound shop, everythings really cheap). They were £1.79 each which I think is very good for nail varnishes as usually you can end up spending around £5 per bottle! I've used W7 products before and have found they are actually pretty good; I think I've used a liquid eyeliner by them and and was quite impressed.

So, I used the white as a base and put the glitter on top...kind of snowy and sparkly. The white varnish needed 2 coats to get a good even coverage, but it dried within a minute so it was fairly easy and quick to do. I was really impressed with the glitter; I usually find with glitter nail varnishes you have to put about 5 layers on to get a good amount of glitter, but this only took one coat and the particles looked really good. Its easily removable aswell, (unlike other glitter varnishes!)
I'm not sure that I'll use the white very often, as it reminds me of when people used to pait their nails with tipex at school, but the glitter is great value and will look good over any colour, I'm going to try it with a dark colour next I think!

Does anyone else have special christmas nails?

xxx

I have an ongoing dislike of my hair; when I was a child it was so long I could sit on it. Then some girl at school got a hairbrush tangle in it and I had to have the chop. Age 15 I started experimenting, from blue, to red, to lego hair...eventually I decided to dye my naturally black hair blonde. After a couple of weeks I couldn't cope and shaved it all off; think This is england (but I was way ahead of my time).

Since then I've been growing and growing, 2012 will of been my 5th year of hair growing. I'm "blessed" with insanely thick, wavy hair. I have the equivalent of about 3 peoples hair on my head. It gets frizzy, it doesn't straighten, it gets knotty. I'm just too old for messing with my mane now!

So today, I went for the chop.

(sorry for the crap picture, I don't know how we're meant to tale good photos with the lighting at the moment!)

I've never had a bob before, and it's actually completely different to what I asked for (which was a long wavy bob a la alexa chung), but there's not much I can do now its cut. I don't know how manageable it is going to be either, I mean yes, it looks nice all straight and sleek, but I don't do hairdryers and straighteners, so as soon as I wash this I dread to think how it will turn out!

So yeah, unsure at the moment, but I'm hoping to grow into it. Even if I don't like it theres nothing that I can do anyway!

xxx

So this isn't your normal "OOTD" or "beauty review". This is something of much greater importance. As some of you may or may not know, I work in the animal industry. and have recently been working at the RSPCA.  

They have a serious problem with the amount of cats that they have to take in, this week alone they have taken in 20 cats, and only a few have been rehomed. Literally, they have had to turn their kitchen into a pen, and cats are sleeping in the sink.

This video will show just a little of what's happening.

I've socialised most of these cats and they are all adorable. Why anyone would want to abandon and mistreat them I do not understand.

 These are some of the kittys i've been socialising this week.

Yes it really is my job to play with cats all day. 

Its not all fun though. This poor pigeon was bought in after someone had spray painted it pink. It will now live in captivity for the rest of its life.

 

The RSPCA is a charity, so any donations are also put to great use helping animals. Most individual RSPCA animal homes also have amazon wishlists, so if you can't adopt an animal yourself you can buy gifts and treats for the animals!

OOTD

While in London I managed to pester my boyfriend to take an outfit shot. Sorry I look so tired!

Hat- Crooks&Castles (£14.99); Scarf-Edinburgh Wool Factory (£28); Coat- Topshop (£120); Jumper- Ebay (£12.99); Tshirt- See by Chloe (£125); Bag- Primark (old £8); Jeans- a shop in Greece (€130); Socks- Urban Outfitters (£12); Boots- Topshop (£45); Flowers- Berwick St flower lady courtesy of my bf :).

Just as a little treat, heres me being a tourist (even though I used to live in London!). HP geek forever.

  

xxx

Beth/rest.

So last night I went to see Bon Iver play at Wembley arena. There's not much I can say other than that it was the best concert I've ever seen.

They were supported by London locals The Staves, three sisters from Watford. I'd never heard of them before but I was really impressed. They all had amazing voices and I'll definitely be buying their album. They're starting their own headlining tour later this month. Dates can be found on their website , I strongly recommend going to see them!

The main event was of course Bon Iver. I've loved them for a long long time. I would probably say they're my favorite band (after The Smiths obviously). There are rumours that Justin Vernon has said in recent interviews that Bon Iver will be going on an indefinite hiatus, which I hope isn''t true but that just gave me all the more reason to go, I mean what if this was their last tour?! I also purchased some merch, nothing really tickled my fancy, nothing was very "bon ivery" if that makes sense?! so I stuck to paying £15 (extortionate) for a tote bag.

I did take some photos, but theres nothing I hate more than people who watch a concert through a camera lense. This is as good as it gets I'm afraid!!

Introducing- Dior Grand Bal.

Dior have just released the their christmas 2012 make up collection, called Grand Bal (spellcheck does not like Bal!) Here are some of my favorite picks.

"From his first collections, Christian Dior reinvents the art of going out and transfers the festive and refined elegance of the 18th century ballgowns to his creations. Embracing the fantasy of christmas, the Dior house reinterprets the spirit of grand balls with a contemporary elegance and a cheeky twist.

Fleeting and flamboyant, the christmas 2012 makeup collection is an invitation into the extreme  refinement and utmost sophistication of winter balls for today's princesses."

 

Carnet de Bal Makeup Palette. (£60)

A carnet de bal was originally the dance card that you'd write the name of your dancing partner in, and Dior have made this into a makeup palette containing a platinum and gold eyeshadow, two lip glosses, a black eyeliner and two applicators.

 

I really like the look of this and think the design is really lovely. Such a good idea to use the vintage idea of  carnet de bal as the packaging. Imagine how good this would look in your christmas clutch!

Grand Bal False Lashes- Gold Crystals. (£19)

There a two different pairs of these limited edition false lashes, gold crystals and pearl drops.

They come adorned a strip of silver pearl drops or gold swarovski crystals and are meant to make your eyes take on a mysterious appearance and sparkle with glamour.

 

I think these look beautiful. So glamorous and elegant, like a movie star! I suppose £19 is quite a lot for falsies, but I wouldn't even hesitate buying these!

Diorific Lipstick- Marylin (£25)

This is Diors new interpretation of Diorific. It comes in four shades of red- marylin, diorling, diva and lady and is meant to be long lasting and matte.

I love the look of these, obviously assuming this shade is named after the lady herself, Marylin Monroe.

It just oozes eleglance and class to me. The design of the packaging is so opulent yet simple.  I would die to have this in my collection, so beautiful. It is a reasonable price aswell, not out of my reach!

I would buy the collection if possible it all looks classic and ladylike, definitely going on my christmas list!

 

I always start my christmas shopping really early. I tend to buy one present a month, that way when it comes to getting novembers wage I don't have to spend it all on presents (it usually all gets spent on christmas party dresses!)

My sister in law and her boyfriend have just moved in together at uni, so I wanted to get them a joint present for their flat. 

I saw these amazing scrabble cushions on someone elses blog and had to check them out.

 

 I got one for each of their initials and I think they'll look great on their sofa or bed. 

Customer service over at http://www.madebystaceygray.blogspot.co.uk/  is great, all my questions were answered quickly and professionally and I can't fault this service at all! They came really nicely packaged, tied with string and these little hand-printed cards, which added a lovely touch.

They are only £4.50 each, which is great when you take into consideration these are handmade. If you were to buy these on the high street (or elsewhere on the internet) you're looking at about £25!

I couldn't recommend these enough!

(yes that is hello kitty bedding, i'm not sorry)

x

Today I tried out Sleek Face Contour kit.

I had quite high hopes for this product as I'd read a lot of good things about Sleek on other peoples blogs.

If I'm being completely honest, so far I'm not that impressed. I've watched a lot of youtube tutorials on how to contour properly so I feel like I have an idea of what to do, but this product just didn't seem to achieve alot other than making me look like I had a dirty face. (It reminded me of when you see those girls who are wearing really crap foundation and it makes them look like they need a good wash!)

I also think the colour is abit orangey for me? I chose the medium shade as I don't have pale skin and I don't have dark skin...

I'm going to persevere as I'm hoping I'm just doing something wrong and the products actually amazing! SO I shall report back with any changes in a week or so!

New jewellery!

I've had my ears stretched since I was 15, so about 9 years now (wow that makes me feel old!).

They've been stretched upto about 28mm, which on my tiny ears was ridiculous, and I look back now and wonder what I was thinking! As they were so large they'll never shrink back to normal, so I have to just make do with having these 12mm which are the smallest I can go. 

Everytime I go into a shop I see so many nice little cute earrings but alas, there is no way they'd stay in my saggy ears :(

So i've been on the look out for some attractive plugs. 

I'm rally into crystals/precious stones and their properties so I bought these amazonite plugs.

(sorry for the bad quality picture, the lighting is terrible at the moment!)

It is believed that amazonite creates a balance between masculine and feminine energy and promotes kindness and practicality. It promotes physical stamina and helps to balance your emotions.

I also found these beautys on etsy that i've persuaded my boyfriend to get me as part of my christmas present.

They contain real "lucky" heather and I just love them, they are so pretty!

Does anyone else have their ears stretched?  Where do you buy your pretty jewellery from?

Some recent make up purchases.

I was waiting for payday to be able to buy some new makeup as I was starting to look incredibly boring wearing the same face every day!

Being a poor student for the 6th year now I am always on a tight budget so high end products are out of my reach.

But here are some stuff I managed to pick up that is well within my means!

These look so similar to the Benefit "benetint" cheek and lip stain and "high beam" highlighter. I couldn't resist when I saw them in Bodycare for just £1.99 each instead of Benefits hefty price tag.
I've never used a cheek stain before but I was quite happy with this. At first I was quite heavy handed with it and piled the product on as it didn't seem to be adding much colour and was quite watery. But once blended in it seemed to grow more and more pigmented so I ended up taking it off and starting again. You only need the smallest amount of product and it adds a lovely rosy flush that's perfect for these autumn days.
I've only ever used Mac strobe cream before as a kind of highlighter, and I used it for a couple of days and then completely forgot about it.  I've used this technics highlighter just on the brow bone, the bridge of my nose and the top of my cheekbones and it does add quite a nice sheen, although one of my male friends did comment that I looked "too shiny and weird, like a snail has crawled on your face"...great, snail trail! I do like the highlighter but I can't imagine wearing it during the day, maybe just on special occasions and nights out.
For £1.99 you can't really go wrong with these though!

I am not really a lipstick wearer. The natural colour of my lips is quite nice and I rarely look good with lipstick on, I feel like I look i'm trying terribly hard. But I actually bought three lipsticks this week! the first two were these from MUA at a cost of £1 each! Perfect, if like me, you are just wanting to experiment.
The pale pink one is shade 15 "juicy". I suppose you would say its kind of a nude colour. I quite like the texture and it didn't feel like it was drying my lips out which is what I've found with lipsticks before. There's nothing worse than flaky skin and lipstick in my opinion. It has a hint of sheen but isn't too overpowering and in your face shiny lips. I probably won't wear this very often, as personally, I have quite dark skin, and this gives me a slight look of "concealer lipstick" that seemed to be popular with teenagers a while ago. All in all a good one though.
The second lipstick is shade 10 (it doesn't have a name booo). When I first unwrapped this I was pretty gutted as I could see the gold glitter in it already! I do not mix well with glitter! But once I'd tried it on it wasn't actually bad at all. It wasn't overly shiny girly glitter glitter at all and gave my lips a nice rush of colour. I think this could be a contender as "the" red lipstick for me this christmas (although I am going to buy the Kate Moss 107). Its very moisturising and doesn't make me feel like I have loads of product on my lips. I prefer matte lipsticks but this is easily solved by just patting some loose powder over the top.
I think MUA may be onto a winner with these, who can complain at a £1 aswell?!

The third lipstick I purchased was from Bodycare and is from a range called "Body Collection". it was 99p...so how could I resist?  This one is Shade 17 "crushed rose". First of all, the packaging for this was terrible. It took me a good 5minutes to get the plastic off and it left this horrible grubby mark. uh oh, not a good start. The lipstick itself is quite nice. Not too dry but i had to put quite a lot on to add any noticeable colour. I used this to mix with a dark purple lipstick I have from topshop and it made a nice plum shade.  Not one that I would wear on it's own unless I was going for a natural, barely there look (but if that was the case I just wouldn't wear lipstick?!), but good value as a mixer!


Well, for my first post I don't think this was too bad?! I just ordered the Sleek Makeup face contouring kit, so I'll try do something on that next!

I promise, promise, promise that I am going to start blogging this week. I've just been insanely busy this past year...finishing a fashion degree (anyone who does fashion at uni will know how hard it is), finishing a french degree, graduating, quitting the fashion industry, joining the animal industry, working flat out in a zoo 6 days a week, deciding to go back to college to gain a diploma in animaly stuff...see, so busy!
I will start soon though!

xxx