The best weekends are ones spent with the girls. I went to York to visit my best friends and we had so much fun. Strawberry daiquiris and pretending to be rap goddesses when Nicki Minaj comes on is our jam. I wore this super cute party dress from Motel, perfect for getting dressed up and sipping cocktails in the glamorous York bars. My faux fur coat collection is forever expanding but I just couldn't resist this bargain in the Boohoo sale.
Can we all just have a little moment for Missguided?! I'm pretty sure I have a browse of their new-in section every single day. Co-ords were my favourite trend last year and I don't plan on leaving them out of 2015. I spotted this one at the press day a few months back at the press day and fell in l o v e so had to get my hands on it! Its mostly sold out now, but check the links above in the mornings because sometimes they get returns! I've got my eye on this cosy roll neck two piece and this badass fishnet one. Bye student loan, it was nice knowing you...
The Olsens will forever be my icons. Swathed in layers of black fabric, ripped jeans, too many accessories and that effortless bohemian grunge aesthetic, the Olsens just get it right. I wish I was an Olsen twin... Don't we all?
I wore this outfit for a day of shopping and Thai food with my favourite London girl, Lizzie. I made a pact to only surround myself with people who don't bring me down this year and Lizzie is definitely one of those kinds of girls. Once you cut the energy vampires out of your life, you feel like you can do anything. Hanging out with Lizzie has reminded me of how I felt when I was interning in fashion in London last summer and made me realise how I need to get that motivation back. I'm a firm believer in the laws of attraction and that we make our own realities. I guess it's time to start practising what I preach...
This outfit is all from Pretty Little Thing, I had a rampage of their website last week and bought so many pretty things. Definitely one of my new favourite websites! The t-shirt is only a fiver, too. Bargain.
Heading into Boots is a beauty lover's obstacle course. You know the drill: cotton pads, micellar water, deodorant, out. Does it ever happen? Nope. My lipstick collection is ever expanding so an offer on the recently released Maybelline Colour Drama Lip Pencils was too hard to resist. A few of my favourite bloggers had reviewed them as perfect budget dupes for the NARS Velvet Matte Lip Pencils, and at £4.99 each, I thought I might as well give them a whirl. Although I've never tried the NARS ones myself (£18 is just too steep for me - yikes), I'm super impressed with Maybelline's budget version. I have fallen in love with these pencils which are without a doubt my favourite drug store release of 2014. I've tried my fair share of lip crayons to only find disappointment, either too waxy and drying, or too watery and glossy. But these little crayons pack amazing pigmentation, have an easy to apply creamy formula and stick around throughout the day. For 4.99, what more could you want?! The colour range in Boots has plenty of colours to choose from. The reds have stolen my heart and I've been wearing them constantly; Red Essential is a beautiful and classic blue-toned red, whilst Light it Up is more orange toned. Nude Perfection is a great everyday shade and makes the perfect budget purchase for a Kylie Jenner nude lip. I've got my eye on the pink shades and can definitely see my collection of these pencils growing!
Being a beauty blogger, it's hard to ignore the latest additions to the beauty world. Bloggers are the biggest enablers when it comes to buying products, especially ones that generate hype in the beauty bloggersphere. When it comes to giving into the hype, I hold up my hands and say, I'm guilty as charged. But after years of reading blogs, I've finally learned that it's really not always worth splurging on the latest NARS release and subsequently living off beans on toast for the next few weeks. Ok, that isn't necessarily true, seeing as I don't really give a hoot about going over my budget as long as I get to do it in a pretty MAC lipstick. But let's be realistic, guys, as much as we love beauty, some products simply aren't worth the hype. The Christmas period is the perfect time to clear out samples I don't really use (I take is as an opportunity to give back to all of the people I've made squat with a camera) and rummage through my stash, reflecting on the products that really got my little beauty blogger heart fluttering this year. Here's the low-down...
THE BASE: 2014 was an amazing year for Benefit releases. Love them or hate them, Benefit sure know how to market a product, and I was lucky enough to work closely with them last year. One of the products that really impressed me was Benefit Bigger than BB Cream* (full review here). 2014 saw in a heap of failed BB creams, but this one by Benefit which isn't quite a foundation or a BB cream is perfect for girls looking for a lighter coverage. The main thing I loved about this was the liquid to powder formula which gave a flawless matte finish. Whilst the NARS Tinted Moisturiserhas been a cult favourite amongst beauty bloggers, the Bigger than BB is much better suited to oiler-skined gals, as it doesn't require frequent powder applications throughout out the day. Another major bonus of this product is the 35 SPF, making it the perfect summer base. Moving onto foundation, the NARS Sheer Glow was a dominating product, and one of my most popular reviews to date (read here). This was the product that saw lots of bloggers stepping away from the MAC Studio Fix in favour for Sheer Glow, a foundation which promised a dewy coverage but a less cakey finish. If you're looking for a flawless high end foundation that's much lighter on the skin than foundations like Studio Fix, then Sheer Glow is for you. To round up my top base products, I couldn't leave out the infamous NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer, a beauty blogger's staple. This is without a doubt my all time favourite concealing product, flawless coverage that illuminates whilst concealing, and doesn't crease beneath the eyes. What more can you want in a concealer?!
THE CHEEKS: Another Benefit release that I had to mention was theMajorette* blush, whilst Benefit brought out various new tint products in 2014, it was Majorette which really stole my heart. This cream blush looks beautiful when stippled onto the cheeks and stays put all day. I love this most for a subtle orange glow that I don't have to worry about reapplying, unlike powder blushes, which have a tendency to go patchy. This product is also designed act as a 'booster blush'; think a primer for your favourite blushes. With Hervana sweeped over the top, Majorette has been my favourite cheek combo this year. If theNARS Virtual Domination Palette didn't land under your tree this Christmas, then you better get writing santa some serious hate mail. I was lucky to receive this beautiful palette for Christmas, consisting of all of the NARS' top blushes, including the Laguna bronzer. This is any blush fanatic's dream palette and one that takes a special space on my dressing table. Finally, the last cheek product that really lived up to the hype is one I recently reviewed here, the Mary Lou-Manizer. This is such a great budget highlight, I love the buttery texture and champagne colour.
THE EYES: For eyes this year, for me it was all about building up my first MAC Pro Palette which I really need to blog. But another release I've loved is the Naked Basics. I didn't get the hype about this at first as I've never really been one for boring, neutral colours. Buying this completely changed my mind, it's such a versatile everyday palette and the matte shades are perfect for blending out smokier looks.
THE LIPS: Unless you missed the Kylie Jenner hysteria, Velvet Teddy has been the lipstick flying off MAC counters this year to get that plump, nude lip. I've been a huge fan of this shade and find it works on a range of skin tones, really making it a perfect nude. But it was the lower-end brands which really ticked the boxes for lip releases last year. The Maybelline Colour Drama lip pencils are some of the best that I've ever come across in terms of pigmentation and staying power, making them an amazing dupe for the NARS lip pencils. Another lip release that I can't miss out is the Bourjois Rouge Edition range, even though these aren't the easiest to reply, the velvet finish these lipsticks give really is beautiful.
TOOLS AND SCENTS: Marc Jacobs has a special place in my heart when it comes to perfume, I wasn't sold on the Daisy Dream at first but I now prefer it to the original. It's slightly more grown up than Daisy, so it's a nice change after wearing it constantly for two years, and how pretty is the bottle?! As for tools, I fell absolutely in love with the Zoeva Rose Gold Brush Kit was an absolute dressing table essential that I'll be reviewing in full soon. It's a great basic kit and I've loved it so much that I'm thinking of investing in the eye kit, too. I even love their version of MAC's 217 blending brush to the original!
Did you love any of these? What products lived up to the hype for you in 2014?
My coat obsession will never die. If there's anything that makes winter a little less depressing, it's statement coats. I hate it when you love your outfit but have to cover it up in a jacket, so lately I've been making my outfits all about my coat. Ultimate lazy dressing! This one from Missguided has pretty much sold out but I've still got my eye on their faux fur range, especially this pink one in the sale. So cute!
Hey loves! Looking in my wardrobe yesterday, it suddenly occurred to me that I have blogged ALL of my clothes. Yep, all of them. If that isn't a sign that I'm desperately in need of a wardrobe update, then I don't know what is. So I thought I'd share with you my key pieces for the next few months. A lot of these pieces are reduced, which don't show up in the app above's hover price, so make sure you click through to have a look!
Let me introduce you to my new baby. If you've been reading my blog for a while now, then you'll know that I'm a huge Vivienne Westwood fan. I was incredibly lucky to have Santa bring me this beautiful, baby pink addition to my Vivienne Westwood collection. Vivienne Westwood has a special place in my heart. When I was a teenager, I was a goth, red-haired, anti-everything kind of girl. I was may more interested in counting down the next day to a gig than any designer my friends were interested in. Don't get me wrong, self-expression was always important to me, and believe me, my Doc Martens and bat girl dresses had a lot to say. Flash back to a school trip in Paris and the girls in my year being too scared to go into Louis Vuitton because they'd heard that security kicked you out if you didn't look rich enough to buy anything. I stomped in, and I didn't get kicked out, maybe security just weren't sure what to do with me. But the expense, the luxury, the lavishness, it was all wasted on me -- I couldn't have cared less if I tried. Stupid people, who could possibly care that much about a bag? It took me a long time to fall in love with fashion, but cutting P.E and reading a book on Vivienne Westwood changed my little world. McQueen, Meadham Kirchoff, Westwood, they're all brands which have changed my relationship with fashion, with art, with the way I view the world, but ultimately myself. Now I know the power in a bag that makes you feel that you can take on the world, just like my steel-toe capped boots used to. Would goth girl Lydia be horrified to see her 20 year old self wearing a pink designer handbag? Of course. But that's the fun in self-expression, my inner goth girl is poking fun at fashion. She's still there, the cynicism is still there, it's all a joke, really. It's good to keep in touch with our teenage selves. I'll never lose sight of her. Anecdotes aside, let's talk about fashion. I've been loving chunky roll neck sweaters lately, I just can't get enough of them. I'm always cold, so a cosy jumper with this amazing Missguided fur coat thrown over is my perfect winter outfit. I dug out my Zara leather shorts which have been gathering dust in my closet this winter but I've been dying to wear them with my thigh-high boots. I think they look pretty bad-ass, but only if you're bad-ass enough to bare the cold.
What do you think of this outfit? Do you have any special fashion memories, or designer pieces you love?
Happy 2015! This is a slightly late post, but here's what I wore for New Year's Eve. This glamorous sequin dress from AX Paris isn't something I'd normally go for, but on a night where I want to go all out, it's perfect! 2014 wasn't an easy year for me, and I'm glad to see the end of it. When I reflect over the past year, there's been the highs like interning in London and winning the Company Magazine blogger awards, right down to some serious lows. I have a lot of things I want to achieve and I'm determined to keep up a healthy and happy lifestyle and mind this year. Interning, blogging, starting the gym, keeping up a plant based lifestyle and finally graduating... Let's nail it, 2015.
What did you wear on New Year's Eve? What are your resolutions?
