Day trip to Birmingham and the Mailbox

Birmingham and I have a love hate relationship, I love it when I have money to spend on shopping, but I despise it when my pockets empty and I'm having to drag myself window shopping because that's all Birmingham has to offer for me. Also the train journey there has never been enjoyable, as the train service there has always served a tray of only 3 carriages, 3! So about 60 passengers would be crammed into 3 carriages for a 2hour journey. Luckily this time I got there early so it was still reasonably quiet. This was too good to be true, there must have been a compromise with fate, and there was.

In exchange of having plenty of seats to choose from, I parked myself comfortably at a table seat, but mid journey a couple got on and demanded this man who was in their seat to give it up, as the seat was 'reserved' for them on their ticket despite the fact that there was about 5 other empty seats they could have chosen. I suppose it would have been necessary to do so if there weren't any seats, but there was plenty, how annoying. This bewildered man got up and duh duh duh the can of Strongbow showed its face, and as he strolled the aisle he spotted the empty seat next to me in the corner...and well, I had to to offer it him didn't I? So I endured an hour next to a speculated drunk that made everyone quite uncomfortable when he started laughing at other passengers jokes.

As it approached smaller stations around Brum the carriage was packed, it got to the point that I couldn’t hold my head up high without seeming like I'm staring at a passenger. I don't think I've grasped onto train etiquette, I never know where to look when the window area is vacant with heads in the way.

I didn't have much money to go all out but I managed to pick up a pair of black wedged ankle boots from River Island that would suit well with all outfits, plus I needed new shoes immediately as I picked up a pair of old wrecked pumps that morning in a rush.

The shoes wasn't the only treat, the bf and I headed down to the Mailbox for dinner. It was the first time I'd been and was pleasantly surprised at how chic it was. Very modern inside, hosting Hugo Boss, Aquascutum and Bang Olufsen. The restaurant patio and balcony area was a dream, and the sun was still beating down which created a picturesque setting.

 

 

I can't wait till I grow my Lob

I'm loving the new summer hair trend this year, the Lob. Its about time that people has acknowlegded the awkward shoulder length hair as being quite trendy. Its not long nor short and its usually a make or break stage, you either endure its annoying length or give it the chop. In the past few months I've given up each time and restored it to my Sanford bob. For once this year I'm looking forward to growing it out into a lob. It helps that at the moment I'm loving Ferne Cotton and worshipping her style, but also the A listers such as Jennifer Aniston has opted for the Lob.

Illamasqua The Final Act Of Self Expression after Death

Who are Illamasqua? What is The Final Act?

Illamasqua was founded in 2008 possessing one moto: self expression for the inner person hiding in all of us, that acts as a statement of confidence and self ownership. This year from July Illamasqua have teamed up with Londons prestigous Leverton &  Sons family funeral directors, to create one of the most innovative and slightly morbid funeral rituals.

"Illamasqua is the product of a heady mix of influences. Its roots stem from the dark and illicit 1920s club scene, and combine a rich heritage in the manufacture of make-up for film and theatre. It also takes inspiration from members of the ‘alternative scenes’ for whom self-expression is paramount. Alternative cultures have always dared to be dramatic. They have an emotional attachment to making up. It’s an expression of their darker side, a release for their alter ego."

Illamasqua encourages people to self-express and embrace their alter ego in every way. Why should this be any different when you pass away?

What Illamasqua aims to do with this collaboration is to give beauty lovers one final act and chance to indulge in a glamourous look before entering the passage to afterlife. The more common tributes to celebrate a passing is normally a choice of the finest coffins or  beautiful flowers, so why should the final expression be missed out? Afterall the celebration of life commences personality and individuality.

A professional make up artist will be arranged to provide excellent and professional quaility service.  To Achieve the ultimate statement services start from £450, and will only be available in London areas. The Final Act of Self-Expression service can be booked as part of a pre-arranged funeral plan by calling Leverton & Sons on 020 7387 6575.

At first this service recieved a morbid reaction from me, but from looking more into it and seeing Illamasqua integrity it doesn't seem that creepy anymore. I think this is quite a indulgent and exclusive service that may deem unnecessary and vein to some people, but I know of some eastern asian cultures that already offers this expression's service in burial rituals; so its a step ahead that Illamasqua has spotted this gap in the market and using it to cash in the bucks with their make up.

I believe in magic

When I think of magic I think of cheesy card tricks, same old 'sawing' the girl in half blah blah blah BORING. Its entertaining for about a minute and then I forget about it, nothings really stayed with me. I'm really skeptical because all the tricks are done using certain techniques and the trick of the eye, there is no such thing as magic same as saying Candyman in the mirror, you want to believe in it but its a lie. So, when I had friend over last night she was raving about some guy called Dynamo from Bradford, who has a new show on TV and has performed for A list celebrities. At first I was thinking it can't be that great, but when I checked him out on Youtube I honestly had chills going down my spine.





I just don't get it. Someone please tell me what the hell went on with the Tinie Tempah cd trick

My 2 favourite eyeliners MAC Fluidline vs Bourjois Liner Feutre

MAC Fluidline vs Bourjois Liner

Bourjois is underrated. I never really paid attention to Bourjois until a friend recommended me to check it out before I turned to MAC for a new liquid eyeliner. Hate putting a price on cosmetics but me being a student, I'm on the cheaper ones towards the end of the semester; Bourjois is cheaper with the Liner Feutre costing £5.99 and MAC Fluidline £13. I guess to me it was just one of those brands hiding in the shadows of the more expensive range. This didn't fail to suprise me though, and has lasted longer than the MAC Fluidline which I've stood by for so long. This just proves to show that the brand isn't all that important.

This 'feltip' like liner has a great fine tip to get those neat lines in, which I find easier to achieve rather than using an eyeliner brush. I'm really happy with this product as it doesn't smudge as much throughout the day unlike pencils.

The MAC Blitz & Glitz is great for nights out as it settles really well on top of eye shadow, whereas Liner Feutre ends up fading by the end of the night, plus it doesn't shade over eyelash glue booo. The greatest downfall to this product is that it dries out really quickly. I was using this religiously till I took a break from it to go back to the pencil, when I finally came back around to it not long after, the surface had hardened and dried up. It hadn't dried up previously because I was using it everyday, so when it isn't managed daily it goes dry. I can still use it now, but I would have to remove the top layer, but even then its not that pleasant to apply. Therefore it loses brownie points on that basis.

If you're a fan of liquid eyeliner than give Liner Feutre a chance, its ace to achieve Kate Mosses Dior Addict look. Who'd thought drawing on your eyelids could be so fun :|

Whats your favourite eyeliner?

Looks like Will has a handful during a visit to Canadian school

I love Wills and Kate, but I couldn't resist being immature about this and had to share. Surely this made you lol.

 

Daisy is confusing me

Post holiday skin means I'm constantly moisterizing to fight dry skin, and I don't particularly want to smell like cocoa butter all day everyday especially when I've got a driving lesson in a small confined car, he'll think I brought him a small chocolate suprise of something. Now I don't want to overload myself with perfume to block out my cocoa goodness when I'm in the car because it'll be over powering (you know what I mean when someone gets in a car and aftershave/perfume is really saturating the air because the car is small) so I've resorted to using the the lotion from perfume gift sets. Works a treat, I'm moisterized and I'm smelling good.

I recently got the Marc Jacobs Daisy perfume and lotion which is so refreshing and long lasting. I love its fresh, sweet and floral scent, in one word it just spells pretty. Call me stupid but the lotion bottle top confused me. Its got a bizzare screw top that I haven't came across before. So I'm fiddling with it for 5mins till I realised that you turn the cap like you would open, and squeeze the lotion out of the hole instead of traditionally opening the cap.

Was it worth the headache? I think so :) Its a quick fix to use perfume lotions, I'm not using it before bed everynight becuase its quite expensive and its a bit of a waste. Now I can avoid getting the gas mask out when my perfume is over powering a smalll space.

This week's nom noms

I'm back in Leicester taking a few hours break from Jersey Shore and I'm hungry, so we're shopping around for somewhere decent priced to eat out and we stumble across Black Rock Grill. Not only was it £25 for two 3 course meals but its really unique. I ordered a tuna steak and what they do is they serve the steak on a black slate and you the customer cook it to how you like it right in front of you e.g if you like it rare then you flip the steak a few times and you put it on a side plate.

At first I was quite iffy and uncomfortable at a piping hot slate as a plate, but that eased off as soon as I tasted it. It unlike steaks from restaurants as its not losing heat when its served from the kitchen, because its cooked in front of you its nice and hot with all its juices and its not uncomfortable hot either. I can't complain about how my steak is served because I'm in control of cooking it, so no pointing fingers when its over done or undercooked. Its supposedly meant to reduce kitchen cost and the concept drives people back. This place is awesome and pulls plenty of customers in as you can smell the aroma from outside mmmm.

Secondly, its all about Milka ChocoMinis. I've only started liking Milka chocolate as I'm a predominate Cadburys only girl. But this new line of cookies is so yummy. Its on offer at the moment so I snapped a pack up whilst I was in my 'munchies' supermarket mode where I find anything and everything is delish.

There goes my food ramble.

Its Jersey Shore Mania Here.

Recently Geordie Shore finished and straight away I was itching for a new reality show to kill time with, so I turned to the dark side and began my marathon of Jersey Shore. After a mammoth 3 and a half days I've finished all 3 series BOOM. Some say programmes like this makes you dumb, but I honestly find it addictive and so entertaining. If you don't have any drama in your life then I wouldn't recommend this, because I sure felt involved in every episode shouting 'bitch' at the screen.

So what have I learnt from this during my hiding these past 3 days?

T-shirt Time- every man needs t-shirt time to smelling fresh before a night out. Wearing your t-shirt during pre drinks is a no-no because when you head out you're no longer fresh. So just moments before heading out the t-shirt comes on. This is ridiculous but it makes sense though.

Guido/Guidette-I had no idea what this meant until I went on urban dictionary, I was like 'greedo'? But its the tag given to the working class Italians who love to tan, go to the gym and is a 'juicehead'.

Juice Head/juice monkey/meat head- A guido kitted out with big muscles.

Grenade- *drum rolls* this is by far my favourite word. An expression to indicate a person is ugly. Jersey Shore has some of the most comical characters and these guys aren't shy of telling girls to their face that they are a grenade.

D.T.F- Down to fuck

G.T.L-Gym Tanning Laundry, and this is acronym the guys used not the girls!

Catch all 3 series on Jersey Shore <-here.
Season 4 is in production and I can't wait....

My skin is crawling...

Creep creepcreep. Nuff said this is weird. This looks more like a memorial picture with its black and white portrait in a bed of flowers. Whats with this? It looks like a stalker has made this.

Its all going cat's eye

During Wimbledon I noticed that the vintage cat's eye style glasses were back in game. This retro number is hitting the fashion runway with this summer, with a number of celebrities sporting a pair. No wonder guests at Wimbledon were sure to catch on and have them ready especially to catch the mens matches.

I love this style and it looks fun!  Why not combine this into an ourfit to get that sophisticated and hip look. Arguable it can appear slightly naff, but with everyone wearing them from Jessica Alba to Scarlett Johansson then you're spot on trend this summer.



Alternatively reigning king of sunglasses Ray Bans are still extremely popular, but there are also the TOMS collection which is identical to Ray Bans, providing additional colors AND with every purchase it goes to eyecare for those who are less fortunate.





 

I'm not dirty, those are my tan lines!

I was in a different country but my lifestyle hadn't changed, differences being that there was a beach on my door step. I love Wimbledon and couldn't bare missing a game, an extremely sad truth but I was prepared to sit in the hotel and watch Wimbledon rather than lying on the beach. Nonetheless I did get myself down there when the women's matches were on.

My day to day activities might not have altered but my skincare certainly did. Shamefully I avoided moisterizer the entire time, why? I simply didn't need it. I have combination skin and I didn't have problems with dry skin on my cheeks or excessive oily T-zone and thats all down to the help of Clarins Water Comfort One Step Cleanser. Seriously this product is awesome, one the best cleansers I've had that I could compare with the SKII cleasner.

Why do I love it so much? Firstly it smells gorgeous and it fended off dry skin so well that I was applying it on flakey skin on my arms that was dried out from sun bathing and the heat. This isn't just only a on-the-go product to cleanse the face with after a session from the gym, flight on an airplane, or out and about in the busy city, but a lock to keep the moister in. I used it as a toner rather than a cleanser because I personally like to wash my face with water, but that usually makes my skin feel really tight and dry, awful to apply moisterizer onto but this illiminated that tightness.

My regime that is simple and worked was: 1) wash my face with Lancome Clarifying Cleanser Pearly Foam (£19 Boots) 2) with a cotton pad apply Clarins peach water and give it a few minutes for the skin to absorb (£14 Debenhams) 3) apply Clarins factor 30 Sun Wrinkle Control Cream (£17.50 Debenhams)

The peach water is absolutely lush and gave my skin a smooth touch, great to apply makeup straight on as its so so moisterizing. This product for me banishes other toners, I hope to continue  using this in the winter, which in time will test whether it can fight off wintery complexions. For now I'm nearly past the half way mark in just 2 weeks (100ml) as I apply generously, the only flaw is that I hadn't discovered this sooner.

I say this would be ideal for travelling, especially long haul flights. I used to just use face wipes that didn't do much for moisterizing but this is refreshing. I give it 5/5 stars fo' sho'.