YSL Lipstick

Here it is!

One of the beauty-world's most fashionable and stylish lipsticks by Yves Saint Laurent, and I was lucky enough to be treated to one by my darling husband.

At £24.00 this is an extravagant purchase for me, I usually stick to drugstore brands rather than the designer labels, but I've admired this lipstick for such a long time and was desperate to try it out. 

Set in a metal tube with a gold finish, with YSL's name emblazoned on the side, it screams style and sophistication. It reminds me of the lipsticks my mother wore, although they probably only cost a few £'s back then, I knew they were special because my mother hardly ever wore lipstick, it signified a special occasion, which is probably why seeing lipsticks make me giddy!

(I'm rambling)

I chose colour No13, which is brighter than it looks, a gorgeous coral tone!

It glides on beautifully and feels so moisturing, almost oily, on the lips. I was told, by YSL's MUA, that the lipstick is packed with essential oils that promote healing in the lips.

Upon application, I could see why.

The colour was bright and went on smoothly, I was absolutely delighted with it, 

until...

Excellent.

I've paid £24 for a tinted lipbalm.

The colour faded after 20 minutes, slowly disappearing into my lip line, after 30 minutes, it ended up looking like a cheap lip-liner.

I did some poking around and found that a lot of beauty-gurus have complained about YSL's lipsticks doing this, I kicked myself for not researching before purchasing, but for £24 you expect some sort of quality!

I am totally disappointed and I don't think I'll be buying another. They look so beautiful and the lipstick itself sits on my dressers, taking pride of place, purely for aesthetic reasons.

I shouldn't have to pay that sort of money for a lipstick that needs to be re-applied 10+ times a day when I could have bought 4 drugstore lipsticks that have the durability of a stubborn ox, that take a pack of wipes to get off!

So there you have it, in this case, more means less!

Love,

Laura xxx

How To:

 Am I seriously writing this post?

How to cut a fringe?

This is the most straight forward of all of the home-haircare-related projects! Right?

Wrong! At least for me anyway...

No matter how hard I tried I always used to balls up my fringe when I tried to cut it at home, I either cut it too short and with a weird bowl-effect or I cut it lopsided.

After trawling YouTube for ages I found a brilliant method used over and over again, which involves a clever little trick that guarantees a straight, Zooey Deschanel type fringe (I wish) every time.

This is all you need! (and a comb, of course.)

No fancy sheers or razors required, just a super sharp pair of scissors.

1) Brush your fringe forward, plus any other stragglers that you wish to include to bulk out your fringe, if you have thin hair like myself.

2) Once you have your desired amount of 'fringe hair' clamp it together at the point where you want your fringe to end. Always cut your hair dry, if you cut it wet, it'll probably dry about half an inch shorter... and you'll end up looking like the lady from National Accident Helpline.

3) Taking the hair in the opposite hand in which you use to write, twist over and hold it flat against your head.

4) Cut in a straight line, slowly and carefully, just below your fingers. It's always better to leave your fringe slightly longer, so you can correct any mistakes... which are unlikely with this technique!

Look how much I lopped off!

Wash your hair as you usually would and leave to semi-dry in a towel...

To achieve a really thick, glossy fringe, these are the products I will usually reach for!

Umberto Giannini is a firm favourite of mine, I've been using his products for soooo many years and will always ALWAYS put his 'Instant Beauty Leave-In Conditioner' on my hair. It is a lifesaver when it comes to split ends.

Nick Chavez and KMS are two wonderful little volume and thickness boosting products I received in my Birchboxes, I will definitely be buying the full-sized versions of these soon... would you believe that I received KMS's 'Add Volume' in January and there's still loads left? A little goes a long way with luxury products!

After blow drying my hair, here is the finished look!

A dense, glossy fringe that frames the face and hides unruly eyebrows.

This is so easy to do at home, and is a great little trick to add to your at-home beauty regime which saves you lots of pennies!

Let me know if you use this technique, and tell me how you get on!

Love,
Laura xxx

Lazy Baking

I am not, and never will be, a good baker.

I am not a domestic goddess who can whip up cakes and biscuits and muffins that look like they belong in a shop, I'm a good cooker of meals, but not sweet treats!

If I ever get a sudden crazy urge (and the time) to make cakes I usually reach for the old packaged pre-made stuff... you're always guaranteed a good, moist, sponge and pronto!

Betty Crocker is always a reliable old gal to go for, simply follow her instructions of

'add water, oil and eggs'

and you've got yourself some cakes.

 Decorating, however, takes longer... especially if you eat half of your decorations whilst waiting for the sponge mix to cook and cool.

This is what you will need!

I went for an Easter-style theme, lots of brightly coloured eggs and lovely spring wafer Daisies give the cakes a very seasonal look!

I love the new design for Betty Crocker's packaging! It looks so much better than the plain red they were sporting before. I think they're embracing the retro throw-back sort of look, which goes well with my kitchen, so no complaints from me there...

After following what Betty says to do in her instructions (I'm not going to tell you how to read instructions) you're left with a beautiful, spongey cupcake that is as light as air!

The next, and more fun part, is to decorate them! 

Decorating them took FOREVER.

I think I'll only make one type of cake rather than two next time, decorating that many became boring and monotonous after the first four cakes.

I did see quite a lot of my Husband at this point though, who 'helped' by eating half of the Popping Candy.

After roughly about THREE HOURS from start to finish I've concluded that I neither have the time, nor the patience for baking.

Yes, the cakes came out lovely, and I shall enjoy putting on the 5lbs from eating them all, but I much prefer cooking dinners, where measurements are not certain and you can throw caution to the wind.

I shall leave the fancy cakes to the professionals and part with my money that way instead!

Love, 

Laura xxx

App of the Month!

I was Vegan for a year before I fell pregnant with my daughter, for personal reasons (I vomited up everything I ate) I reverted to Vegetarianism, but now I feel myself edging toward Veganism again. 

I miss the way it made me feel, yes a big bar of milky chocolate makes me feel good... whilst I'm eating it, but it's nothing compared to the feelings I got ALL the time from eating fresh and healthy foods...

Especially food that is cruelty-free, but that's a discussion for another day and another blog post.

I spied this app whilst flicking through recipe recommendations on the app store, the hot pink avatar did well to attract my attention, as did the cheery chirpy face of Sarah Kramer holding a bowl of my favourite fruit of all time!

Whats more, it was free, and I do enjoy free things!

The first thing I loved about this app is how neat and well designed it is. 

The bar across the bottom helps you to navigate from the meal you fancied, to specific recipes, videos and any files you wanted to save as your favourites.

There's even a handy little button you can click to add all of the ingredients from a particular recipe into a little shopping list for you that you can take to your supermarket, rather than having to write down and lug around a huge separate list.

The recipes themselves are laid out in such a way that makes reading the a delight. 

Bright, captivating pictures of the dish immediately make me want to lick the screen. This soup looks amazing!

Sarah adds little recorded notes into each recipe, to give extra tips, the lists are clear and even link to separate recipes on how to make your own flavorings, butters etc.

Even if you're not a Vegan, or even a Vegetarian, I encourage you to download this lovely app. It's full of such delicious healthy recipes, that would suit the budget and waist-line of any health conscious soul, or penny-pinching dieter.

I wish I had more time to cook all of these recipes, but I will be slowly making my way through this app, throughout my transition back to Veganism!

Love,

Laura xxx

Birchbox

Last month was the first month I reviewed Birchbox, it was packed full of amazing high-end beauty product samples (that have lasted well into this month). I raved about it so much and really hoped that the next box would be just as good, so I didn't have to eat my words.

It did not dissapoint!

The products in this month's box are based around London Fashion Week, from catwalk makeup to VIP hair products, this box gives you a little taster of the glamour that is LFW.

As usual, the cardboard box arrives in a larger shockingly pink box that always gives my Postie a much needed wake-up boost! I'm enjoying collecting the little pink drawstring bags that the products come in, they are currently being used as homes for all of my cotton wool pads and buds!

The first product is this fluorescent orange packet containing an invigorating nutrient-packed drink to give you a little wake-up shake when you're flagging from all of the walking around you've been doing at LFW... or, if like me, all of the walking you've been doing round Tesco looking for Orzo rice!

The drink is scrummy, it would be hard for me to only drink a small amount of this! 

I was excited to pull this beauty out of the box, I consider a 50ml sample size rather generous! This shower gel smells divine. Upon unscrewing the bottle my eager nose picked up Guava, Almond undertones and Aloe. I can't wait to use this as a pick-me-up in the morning. 

I was so excited (and surprised) to see an eye-lash curler nestled amongst all the products. I have been putting off buying a curler for years, I didn't see the point in using one, they looked scary and I always thought there was an imminent danger of them snapping your eyelashes off.

How wrong I was.

Suddenly, it looks like I'm wearing false lashes and I can see the full benefits of my mascara!

Anything that helps me achieve a professionally blow-dried look is welcome inside my Birchbox! Last month I was given KMS California's volumising spray and I can't rave about it enough. I've been using it every other day and the sample bottle isn't even half empty!

As a new Mum who definitely does not have the time to blow dry my hair with rollers, I will jump at the chance of using a product that helps me achieve that look.

A nice little extra came in the form of Gerda Spillmann's Bio-Fond Cream Make-Up, and it really does feel like cream!

I imagine that this would give you beautiful coverage, the shade is slightly too dark for my fair skin, so I've taken to using it as a contour.

It glides onto the skin with minimal effort and leaves it with a powder-like finish.

Lastly, Vichy's Thermal Spa Water is a refreshing facial spray. It moisturises and sets your makeup and is one of those must-have items for your bag whilst you're on-the-go.

(There's no picture because I accidentally deleted it and by the time I noticed the natural lighting had gone away, so any subsequent photo would have looked sub-par, so here's a link!)

I am thoroughly enjoying my subscription to Birchbox, the £10 a month subscription fee is more than reasonable, I seem to be getting such amazing products and am genuinely giddy with excitement every time I open a new box!

I cannot wait to see what's inside next month's box!

Love,

Laura xxx

OOTD

I was a bit apprehensive about doing this Wintery OOTD post seeing as I had a baby 11 weeks ago and my body-shape has changed dramatically, but then I love this ensemble too much not to blog about it!

I was pregnant from mid-February last year up until the end of November so last year was full of leggings and long tops as well as maxi-dresses, there were so many items of clothing that got put away and forgotten about... Until now!

 I treated myself to these heels about a month ago when I saw them on missguided.co.uk and absolutely love them. I'm pretty apprehensive about wearing them on a night out as I'm not entirely sure if bouncers will be super-happy about me sporting what could be considered a weapon on my feet. The spikes are super-sharp! They're surprisingly comfy as well as being sturdy and well-made!

I'm so pleased that I remembered I had this faux-fur gilet. It's really cozy and warm and super-soft! It goes really well with long sleeved tops, in any colour. 

I bought these jeans just after I found out I was pregnant, thinking that I would stay a size 10 for at least another couple of months!... wrong! I started to show when I was about 8 weeks pregnant, so these never got worn. 

I wore these to a friend's house the other day and it was nice to feel like I was wearing something new!

I love this little Owl ring from Topshop, I don't tend to wear a lot of jewellery but statement rings happen to be my favourite!

On my nails I'm wearing Essie's 'We Can Do It!' which is the lightest pink I've ever seen! Haha!

Even though Winter is drab and boring, your clothes don't have to be. Now that I seem to be slimming down after the birth of my Daughter I'm looking forward to experimenting with layers and my developing style as a new young Mum!

Love,

Laura xxx

Book Review: Lauren Conrad's 'Style'

 I accidentally opened some mail yesterday that turned out to be my Valentine's Day present from my husband!

He gets serious brownie points for picking this out, I love books like this and will quite happily stare at Lauren Conrad's pretty face for an hour or so!

The book is surprisingly bulky and full of beautiful glossy photos of Lauren, clothes, shoes bags makeup etc. I love how it's set out, with its catagories starting with 'Fashion: Building your Wardrobe' and ending with 'Lifestyle: Events and Parties'.

At first I thought the book was going to be full of unattainable expensive designer looks, but it's full of tips of what to do with skinny jeans and basic white t shirts. The clothes that Lauren wears throughout the book a similar to clothes I already have, or pieces I can easily buy in Topshop or Missguided.

There are tips about what shoes go best with what pair of jeans, how to style jewellery to different outfits, even how to dress for your shape or downplay a particular body part you hate.

The section on hair and beauty is a treasure trove of tips, advice, tutorials and hair-spiration that will make you want to try out new looks.

There are several different hairstyle tutorials, all natural looking and easy to obtain. She also teaches you how to achieve perfect blow-dried hair at home.

Lauren has added in a daytime and a nighttime makeup tutorial, as well as skincare tips and advice about what products to use.

This book really is a must have for any girl's bookshelf who is interested in fashion and beauty.

It isn't full of impossible looks that you can only achieve with a paycheck like Lauren's, all the looks are very girl-next-door and Lauren comes across as very knowledgeable and, of course, stylish.

Love, Laura

xxx

Birchbox Jan 2013

Joliebox is now Birchbox!

This is the first month that I've subscribed to Birchbox (having been disappointed quite a few times but Glossybox) and I could not be more pleased with it!

Birchbox runs a £10 a month subscription service that send samples of high-end beauty for you to try, if a particular product tickles your fancy then the full size version is available to buy in their store...sometimes at discounted prices!

One thing that really impressed me is the fact that the packaging is so pretty! I know boxes aren't that exciting but I'm going to keep both, they're pretty and will make for excellent storage!

The first product I pulled out of the box is this absolutely sumptuous lip balm.

It smells like roses and blackcurrant and leaves your lips really moisturised and soft, without feeling sticky. 

Once this runs out I think I'll be re-stocking!

The next product confused me a bit... is that a lipgloss?

Nope, it's actually a cuticle repair gel.

Once I got past the thought that I was applying sticky lipgloss to my nails it actually felt nice, and smelled rather pleasant. 

Lastly, I recieved the most amazing smelling volume hair treatment by KMS California and a firming and hydrating cream by WEI.

Both products look and smell luxurious and has left me feeling that the £10 a month subscruption fee is defintely worth the money.

If that hasn't convinced you then maybe the knowledge that the more you buy, the more Birchbox points you receive, which, in turn, earns you money off!

Love,

Laura xxx

Book Review: Katie Piper

Katie Piper has got to be one of Britain's most inspirational women. For those of you who don't know of her she fell victim to a vicious acid attack arranged by her ex-boyfriend. For most people, this would mark the end of their lives, but for Katie, she turned this terrible scenario around and built up an amazing Foundation that helps people with burns and scars.
Katie has filmed many documentaries about the care she received, her surgeries and the people that are learning to deal with scars, disfigurements and burns.

Katie had also written two books, which have come to be quite profound to me at the moment. I have recently been diagnosed with something that is making healing from my birth and cesarean even tougher, as well as the infections I've picked up from the hospital.

So I implore you, if you are going through a tough time, or just need a bit of cheering up, please read the following amazing and inspirational books.

'Start Your Day With Kate' is her newest book. It is a small, purse-sized book that is full of affirmations, one for each day of the year.

For those that don't know what an affirmation is; it is a small quote, saying or sentence that inspires you, cheers you up, or helps you conquer some sort of goal.

For example, the one my birthday says...

28th April:

'Struggles are part of our lives, they enrich our characters, strengthen our souls,and give us the opportunity to try another way.'

With the occasional summary from Kate, this book is a must-have for positive thinking, without having that tragic self-help book sort of feel about it.

'Thing's Get Better' is all about recovery and healing. If you have had anything bad happen to you in your life from an injury to a loved-one passing on, and you are struggling to cope with your thoughts, then this is the book for you.

Katie writes in a pleasant and understanding manner, she has taken letters and messages from people who have contacted her and has created this book that tells you how to deal with fears, depression and negativity.

Throughout the book she tells her story in an honest way, encouraging her readers that positivity and laughter is the key to healing and the medicine of all physical and mental ails.

I would definitely reccomend both of these books, even if you are the happiest person in the world!

Love, Laura xxx

Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette Review & Smokey Eye Tutorial

I finally bit the bullet and coughed up the cash to pay for the Urban Decay Naked Palette. I have been in two minds about it for months and months but decided that it would be a good investment, especially for the things I want to do in the future.

 Everything about it is just so stylish, the tin it comes in is lovely and surprisingly heavy. It comes with a double-ended brush, one is for the crease of the eyelid and the fluffier one I use to blend in the colours and to give smooth edges.

The pigment of the shadows are thick and a little goes a long way, this is the first time I've been able to achieve any kind of blending of colours, before the eyeshadows I was trying to blend would just mottle into one horrific colour. Now I'm able to get a beautiful ombre effect.

The range of colours are supposed to be basic nudes, darks and golds that you can use as both a day and an evening look. The bronzes and golds are so shimmery and thick, they're just a delight to use!

The Naked palette definitely puts the fun into putting make up on!

I achieved this brown/shimmery/smokey eye look by blending a lot of colours together and layering.

I started by spreading 'Verve' all over my eyelid (I'll add a photo of all of the shades at the end), particularly towards the duct. Next I blended 'Suspec't into the lid, started from the middle of the eye, I dragged it outwards to form a cat-eye effect. On the outer-corner and into the crease of the lid I applied 'Busted' which is a beautiful chocolate colour. In between all of these steps I took a very fluffy brush and gently blended the corners so get a soft look. 

Lastly, I applied a teeny tiny amount of 'Half Baked' over the darker part of the eye, just to get a light shimmery bronze look.

I love the look, and like I said earlier, this is the first time I've been able to achieve it so I'm really glad I bought the palette and would definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to oomph their eyes!

Hubby Christmas!

Men are SO hard to buy for. 

My husband has everything he needs, and anything that he wants usually borders around the ridiculously priced DIY items... which are boring to buy and out of my Christmas budget!

I prefer to buy him lots of little things rather than one big present. Buying for him this year has taken me four days! This isn't due to indecisiveness, it's mainly because whenever I've sat down to buy things Nahla has distracted me!

I thought, whilst she's asleep, that I would write a quick post about what I bought my husband this year. There are so many fun and quirky gifts out there, I was spoilt for choice!

I bought a few different types of these funny post-it notes, there's the Nag Note, the WTF note, the Passive-Agressive note and loads more. Simon's constantly forgetting things that I ask him to do, so I thought these would be a fun way to remind him.

I think this mug says it all... I bought this for him to take to work, I'm sure it'll give his workmates a laugh!

Simon swears like a sailor, it drives me mad. Especially when he randomly swears in a sentence...

'There was this really cute squirrel that I saw on the way to fucking work today.'

I bought this so his swearing makes him sound more like he's a well-travelled gentleman rather than a prat.

My lovely husband is now a father, which means his dancing is no longer cool.

Now that he's a Dad (and is in the process of growing a moustache, which makes me despair) he needs this book. Its full of hilarious pictures of Dads rocking the Hipster look.

Every year I ask him what he wants and he always replies 'Don't worry love, I don't need anything.' So if he inwardly complains about my gift-giving he can ram it.

Merry Christmas to the blokes!