The British Tag

I saw this post on the The Luscious Lane Blog and I have also seen it on You Tube and just thought it was nice first tag video for me to do. I'm from Scotland and although I am so proud of being Scottish I also totally love being British and relate to a lot of things that's are typically British. I hope you enjoy this post it is something a little bit different for me so lets crack on!

1. How many cups of tea do you have a day? + How many sugars?

I generally have maybe one cup a day in the evening with one sweetner and a dash of milk. I am generally a coffee drinking girl but I do love of a cup of tea when I am feeling ill.

2. Favourite part of your roast?

I love cranberry sauce strangely enough. My best friend Rachel and I are OBSESSED and it literally makes or breaks a roast for me. I know I am so strange!

3. Favourite dunking biscuit?

I love those caramel chocolate digestives. They are so moreish and just fab with a cup of tea or coffee. 

4. Favourite quintessentially British pastime?

Not all that sure what counts as a pastime, but I love walks down a cold British beach. Walking on a not so pretty cold and windy beach has got to be a quintessentially British thing to do. I live in Edinburgh right beside Portobello beach and have spent a lot of time at the not so gorgeous but still wonderful beach we have. 

5. Favourite word?

I'm Scottish so we have a lot of our own lingo going on. So my favourite Scottish word is weirdly 'Clarty' which describes something or somebody that is a bit grubby and messy. I just love that word for some strange reason. My favourite British word I think is 'Parched'  which is a very posh word for being incredibly thirsty and I always use it in a funny way when I am dying on a drink.

6. Cockney rhyme slang?

Even though my dad is very much Scottish he used rhyming slang all the time while I was growing up so I know quite a lot of phrases. My faves have to be Jack Jones meaning being on your own and A la Mode for code. 

7. Favourite sweet/ chocolate

I have to say I love malteasers and at Christmas time I love all the tins of sweets you get like Quality Street and Celebrations. Nothing better than curling up on the couch with a big tin and a great film.

8. What would your pub be called?

This is so hard because you have got to have a good name don't you! Maybe something beach related because I would love to have a pub at the shore. So maybe The Beach House or something like that. 

9. No.1 British person

I LOVE the Beckham's so much I can't help it they are just so fab. I also have a huge soft spot for Prince Harry, he is so cheeky and he also the hot royal isn't he!

10. Favourite shop / restaurant

I know this is so predictable but for a shop it has to be Topshop doesn't it! I also love Harvey Nicholls not for clothes obviously but their beauty floor is amazing! Restaurant wise I love Slug and Lettuce as well as Gourmet Burger Kitchen. I also love the amazing local pubs that do Sunday lunch in Edinburgh they are amazing and so quintessentially British.

11. What British song pops into your head? 

The first song that pops into my head is Wannabe by The legendary Spice Girls. Growing up I always listened to All Saints, The Beatles, Oasis and Take That. We are so lucky to have such amazing music home grown in Britain.

12. Marmite.

I'm kind of in the middle I like it but don't love it.

This tag post has been so fun to write up I am so tempted to make up a Scottish version of this tag :)

The Perks of having a magazine obsession | Freebies Galore

Okay so is it just me or are the freebies in magazines getting better and better recently. I feel as though all the big name magazines are in some sort of crazy competition to see who can give out the most high quality, amazing free gifts. I've picked up high end make-up, amazing skin care, sunglasses etc etc and I am absolutely loving it. The only problem is that is seriously enabling my already ridiculous magazine buying problem.

One of the best freebies I have ever seen had to be in Glamour this month. You received either the Clinque high impact mascara, two different pink shades of the chubby stick lip crayons in strawberry or woppin ' watermelon or a mini of their dramatically different moisturising lotion +. I opted to buy 2 magazines and kindly gift one to my friend but not so kindly keeping the two freebies, sorry Chelsea! I went for the lip crayon in strawberry, which is gorgeous by the way and the high impact mascara which gives you a great pumped up thicker lash look. I opted against the moisturiser as I have tried it before and its not for me, but still an amazing freebie if that's the one you went for.

I really hope the magazine world keeps this healthy bit of freebie competition going because it is benefiting me and my make-up stash greatly at the moment. I think I may start a monthly post comparing and collecting all the months best magazine and freebies. Let me know what you guys think and I will enable myself even more with this magazine obsession!

Hair Saviours | How I create messy textured hair

My hair isn't something I have really spoken about on the blog yet. I have naturally fair hair which I have highlighted once every few months as my roots thankfully come in quite light. It is mid to long in length and oily at the roots but frizzy and dry at the ends. Which I tell you can be a nightmare combination. To keep my hair under control and looking nice and healthy I have two holy grail products.

One is an argan oil, I have used quite a few different types but this one by organix is my favourite at the minute. I just spray it on my hair when its wet after a shower and it helps to smooth out and tame my frizzy locks. I also tend to use it on day 2 just to smooth out any frizz and keep it looking nice and sleek. 

When I have blow dried and tamed down my hair, I generally lose a lot of the texture and volume to my hair. I love salt sprays and texturing sprays to give my hair a lift and give it a bit more body. I love this Charles Worthington salt spray it gives my hair a real boost and also gives me that tousled beachy look when I have left my hair to air dry on lazy days. 

Festival Beauty Must Haves | T in the Park 2014

 

Two weekends ago I went to T in the Park in Balado near Kinross for one of my close friends Zowie's Hen Party. We bought a Saturday ticket which meant we had access from 1pm until 1am. It was an amazing day with my friends, we saw Calvin Harris, The 1975, John Newman, Pharrell Williams and Paulo Nutini. The whole day was amazing despite the rain, the atmosphere was amazing and it was such a great day for Zowie!

I was actually going to do this post before I left but had absolutely zero time and was in such a rush (no shock as I am very disorganised at times), but I have realised that it is probably better to do it like this as I now know what my must haves are. I brought a tiny little shoulder bag with me to T, and other than my ticket, purse, phone and camera this is what I feel are the absolute essentials that I used for throughout the day. 

Sunglasses - I brought along my cat eye sunnies I got as a freebie in Tatler. They are animal print and just so pretty and went with my outfit amazingly! Also other than on a style front its important to protect your eyes when you are outside in the sun. 

Hair band & Curbie grips - So I had my hair in a cute little halo braid for T, but as it rained heavily all day and into the night I was so glad I brought these to restyle my hair later on during the day. 

Antibacterial Hand Gel - I brought this along for obvious reasons as things can get a bit messy and its nice to be able to freshen up your hands. 

Waterproof Mascara - So as this festival is in Scotland its kind of inevitable that it is going to rain! When this happened I was very happy I had waterproof mascara on and more to reapply after I looked like a drowned rat. 

Deodarant - It's hot, you are in crowded, tight spaces. Enough said. 

It is also nice to bring along some wet wipes, a waterproof jacket of some sort and sunscreen! 

Here are some of the photos from the amazing day myself the bride and the rest of the hens had at T in the Park.

All the girls together before we left.

The bride, the maid of honour & one of the bridesmaids. 

My Festival hair and make-up.

Cheers!

The Bride!

The Maid of Honour and I

My Work Girls so glad I bumped into them!

When we made security take or photo!

Repurchases | Maybelline ColorSensational Lipstick in Coral Tonic

I thought I would start a very quick little post about products that I love so much I repurchased. I think when you finish a lipstick and then repurchase it, you know its a good one. I love the beautiful coral shade of this Maybelline offering, its perfect for a summer lazy liner look and I have worn it non stop over the last year, as you can see by the very well loved and battered packaging on the right. Its pigmented but not drying and has a lovely slightly glossy finish, the most gorgeous summer lipstick shade. 

Dry Skin Drama #3 | Body Butter

Body butters were something I didn't tend to use very often, because for one I am incredibly lazy and I always just thought they took ages to dry and I would be better just using one of those spray lotions or alternatively nothing. Recently though, I ventured into the Body Shop because I noticed they were having a sale and I obviously had to take a look. I wandered about a bit and noticed some gorgeous and summery scented body butters were on sale for £5.00, THEN the amazing sales assistant Susanna informed me they were doing a fab deal where it was 5 body butters for £15.00. I decided I had to utilise this and stock up on body butters, Susanna also informed the butters last up to 2 years so stocking up was a no brainer.

The first scent that caught my eye, or nose maybe was the Papaya flavour, it smells absolutely amazing I thought it would be perfect for Summer mornings when I want to smell lovely and have silky smooth skin when wearing shorts and things. I actually ended up picking up two of these and gave one to my mum, such a good daughter I am. This scent smells and looks so much like a luxurious Greek yoghurt that sometimes I have to remind myself its not edible, and I tell you friends of mine have said the same. 

I then picked up two of the deluxe edition Cocomania body butters for myself and my best friend who I knew would really appreciate this particular scent. It smells AMAZING and I have been using it a lot in the evening before bed. I love that its cocoa butter based too because there are such a lot of great skin benefits in cocoa and I always feel the difference after using this. 

Finally I picked up the Pomegranate scent which has to be my favourite of the three types I chose.  The smell is absoloutely amazing and I have been reaching for this one the most, I kind of can't believe how hydrated and soft my skin has been since using these butters. I tend to have very dry skin and dry patches on my legs from time to time and since using these butters my skin feels so luxurious and soft. I think for the price these are such great products, they feel expensive and like you are totally indulging your skin. I really can't recommend them enough.  

Make-up Staples | Nude Lipstick & My New Fave

When it comes to nude lipsticks I am pretty particular about what shades suit me. I love Mac Lipstick in Patisserie, Seventeen Lipstick in Beehive and Revlon Lip Butter in Pink Truffle. I am definitely a fan of a pink with a brown undertone nude because it is definitely the most flattering on my pale skin. Anything to light washes me out and looks a bit strange. 

A recent trip into the Body Shop had me stumbling across my new favourite of the nude pinks. As you can see its a gorgeous opague but still with a shimmery gloss within, pink colour. It has a beautiful finish and just finishes of a smokey eye or a winged liner perfectly. I particularly love the colour, its just so pretty and I  think it such a great match to my fair complexion. It is the Body Shop Colour Glide Lip Colour in 07 Rose Pink, if you are blonde and are trying to find a nice pink nude then you are onto a winner with this shade.

L'Oreal Color Riche Mono Eyeshadow Review

I took a slightly naughty and very impromptu wander into Boots after work a couple of days ago to pick up Shampoo and that alone, but ladies (and gents) we all know that for a beauty blogger its impossible not to take a glance at the make-up aisles. While I was innocently walking past the L'Oreal counter I noticed the 3 for 2 offer and decided that I couldn't resist and there was an orange liquid lipstick I had my eye on. Unfortunately the lipstick was out of stock but fortunately I was distracted by these beautiful individual eye shadows.

Everything about the shadows are gorgeous, the packaging is sleek and in typical L'Oreal fashion mirrored which I think gives an expensive and clean look to the product. The colour and formula range was fantastic too, they had three different varieties in Lumiere, Matte and Nude. The Lumiere variety caught my eye straight away with gorgeous embossed detail that gives the shadow that extra wow factor. I also loved the very shimmery nude shade too as I am always look for dupes for the rather pricey Mac individual shadows.

The first colour I picked up was the beautiful golden embossed Lumiere 500 in Gold Mania, it is a beautiful and extremely pigmented bright, orange tinged gold. It is the sort of eye shadow that you can apply lightly during the day for a soft shimmer and then for a dramatic evening look, you can build it up and smoke it out with eye liner. 

Then I picked up the very shimmery Nude 204 in Golden Nude which kind of reminded me of a less pink naked lunch in formula. I have been wearing this colour a lot through day underneath a winged liner and I just think it such a pretty and fresh look. The glitter in this is quite chunky, but I personally like that in a shimmer shadow. 

Finally I was drawn to another of the embossed Lumiere shadows in 502 Quartz Fume. I think this colour is so similar to the Mac colour Satin Taupe which is a firm favourite of mine, so it was so exciting to find such a beautiful dupe.

Budget Summer Makeup - Cream Blusher

When I come into the Summer months I always find myself drastically altering my make-up to cater the changing weather. Foundation are exchanged for tinted moisturiser, all my bronze and gold products make an appearance, as well as my brightest coral and pink lipsticks. I also always end up doing a huge make-up haul so I have some new products for the change in weather. This is mind I have decided to pick out some of my favourite budget cream blushers so that you can get some new make-up but still save your purse strings. 

For the Summer months one of the products I reach for the most is blusher, when I have a bit of a tan I think it is the best thing to give you a gorgeous healthy glow. I especially love a great cream blush in the Summer months, it creates that gorgeous glow across the cheek and just makes your skin look healthy and radiant. 

My first pick is the MUA Blush Perfection Cream Blusher in Lush £2.00. The first thing about this product is of course the amazing price tag, it is so cheap you could buy the entire line, but I did contain myself and decided to just pick up two. Lush is my favourite colour from the two I purchased, it is gorgeous as a sheer colour across the cheek but also look amazing built up a little more to add a pop of colour to an evening look. The formula is also really good and blends into the skin easily with your fingers or using a brush. I do find it needs a little topping up throughout the day and I like to set it with a translucent powder to stop it sliding down my face if its hot. All in all for the amazing price tag this is a great budget product. 

Next is a product that I have used to death recently it is the Revlon Photoready Cream Blush in Flushed 200 £7.99 . I absolutely love the colour of this blush and it is my go to product when I am wearing a winged liner and MAC Girl about Town lipstick. I just love the pink glow it gives your cheeks and I always find it stays put all day on its own. It is quite a sheer colour initially so you do have to build it up but I actually think that is a fairly good quality in a cream product. The price is also great, especially for the quality of the product you get and it blends into the skin so natural it looks like it is just your natural flush.

Finally I have the Max Factor Touch Creamy Blusher in Soft Pink £6.99. Initially I was pretty disappointed at the small pot of product you got and couldn't help but compare it to the Revlon blush I already had. The reason the packaging is so small is because you literally need the tiniest bit of product to do the job, it almost melts into the skin it is such a creamy formula and is subtle but a beautiful touch to the cheeks as well. The blush has a really lovely sheen to it as well and sometime I won't even bother with a highlighter because the blush is good enough and it giving me a glow on my cheek bones.