Thursday 23 January 2014

Heart of gold





Coat: Sheinside
Tartan scarf: H&M
Bag: Russell and Bromley
Dress: New Look*
Necklace: eBay
Boots: Russell and Bromley
Nails: Leighton Denny 'Pillow Talk'
Lipstick: Tom Ford 'Cherry Lush'

I haven't done an outfit post in so long- party because I was waiting for my camera remote to arrive for my new camera and also because I haven't bought new clothes in months so haven't had anything new to photograph! I bought this dress back in November with some vouchers that I was gifted from New Look and I completely forgot I had it until this morning when I found it again in my wardrobe! I'm wearing my favourite Russell and Bromley bag and boots which I seem to wear on pretty much a daily basis!



Tuesday 21 January 2014

Links of London Star Dust Toggle Round bracelet





I received this Star Dust Toggle Round bracelet recently from Links of London. As you can see from the photos, it was packaged so beautifully in a little box tied up with ribbon and as I'm a complete sucker for packaging I thought it was a great finishing touch! I love how it is made of the silver mesh with the Cubic Zirconia disk on it- they really catch the light when you wear it as you can see in the top photos. It has a magnetic closure which makes it very secure and is nice as it doesn't have a bulky clip clasp to close it, making it look more sleek.

I reckon it would look nice if you paired it with other silver bracelets and bangles with a couple of simple rings. My mum always wears silver jewellery and she's eying up this Links of London one to add to her collection but I'm not letting her have it! One of my resolutions for 2014 is to be always dressed to impress by accessorising more as in 2013 I tended to stick to the same necklace and that was all I wore all year. I want to start wearing more delicate jewellery and I have already started doing that by wearing a couple of dainty silver rings on a daily basis and the bracelet is a perfect compliment to this.




Although I was sent the Links of London Start Dust bracelet to include in a blog post, this is not sponsored content and my opinions are 100% honest as always



Sunday 19 January 2014

80s themed day








I was recently sent a huge box from Best British Bloggers in collaboration with Ladbrokes Crazy 80's Video Slot Game full of eighties memorabilia including films, retro sweets and even a neon pink tutu and matching legwarmers! We spent today watching When Harry Met Sally... and Ghostbusters, eating lollies and sherbert fountains, dressing up and playing with Pac-Man and a Rubik's cube!  Seeing as I was born in 1995 I never got to experience any of this first hand when I was younger to recreate the 80s in my living room and just pretend!
It turns out that I'm not very good at the remote control Pac-Man racing game, it's probably for the better that I haven't had a single driving lesson yet as I can't really see that ending too well as I managed to crash my ghost into the wall on many occasions...

Thank you to Carissa, my sister Freya and my Mum for joining in with my little 80s themed day! I think having a 00s themed one would be fun too!





Thank you to Ladbrokes for sending me the 80's pack. I do not endorse gambling in any way but if you are over 18 it is your choice whether you decide to gamble or not. Please gamble responsibly



Wednesday 15 January 2014

My favourite winter lipsticks- Tom Ford, Chanel, Revlon and MAC

Chanel 'la désirée' Tom Ford 'cherry lush' MAC 'rebel' Revlon 'cherries in the snow'
Chanel 'la désirée' Tom Ford 'cherry lush' Revlon 'cherries in the snow' MAC 'rebel'

It's no secret that I love a bright lip so I thought I would share you my top picks of my favourite bright autumn/winter lipsticks. They range in price from £7.49 to £36 so there's something for everyone, depending on your budget. I have chosen Chanel 'la désirée', Tom Ford 'cherry lush', Revlon 'cherries in the snow' and MAC 'rebel' as my favourite four lipsticks for this blog post. They look pretty similar in the swatch photo above but they look much more unique in real life.

I bought Chanel rouge allure 'la désirée' in December and I have worn it so much since. It's a very flattering blue toned dark semi matte red. The formula isn't the longest lasting one and if you don't use a lip balm and lip liner before you put it on I find it can settle in the creases of your lips after a few hours but if you use them first then you should be fine. The colour is gorgeous though and I love the black and gold packaging that it has
£25

Tom Ford 'cherry lush' was a really generous Christmas present from my friend Helen and I'm in love with it. I applied it at 10:30 on Monday with a lip liner and when I got home at 15:30 it still looked pretty much perfect with no touch ups at all- pretty impressive huh? The colour is absolutely gorgeous and the packaging is one of the prettiest and most luxurious things I've ever seen- whipping this out your bag to reapply is sure to turn a few heads!
£36

Revlon 'cherries in the snow' is one of my long time favourites and if you've been a reader of islaay.com for a while you remember that I used to wear it so much. I recently dug it out from my collection to start wearing again and quickly remembered why I loved it so much. It's the perfect mix of red and fuchsia, it's very flattering, has a very creamy formula (Super Lustrous formula) and is long lasting on the lips. Oh and it's a bargain too!
£7.49


Finally is MAC 'rebel' lipstick which I bought in New York in the summer and have been loving all winter. It is a satin formula which is very pigmented, creamy and long lasting on the lips. It looks very purple in the bullet but applied it is more of a fuchsia/purple colour and not quite as scary as it first looks. It is described by mac as a cream plum shade which I guess I would agree with!
£15



What is your favourite lipstick? What do you think of the photos in this blog post?
Please let me know!



Monday 13 January 2014

Nails Inc. 'Baker Street' dupe- Topshop 'Awol'




The last post I did like this on Nails Inc. Porchester Square seemed to go down well do I thought I would do another one for you today! I mentioned in that post that I wanted to try Nails Inc. Baker Street which is a bright electric blue nail polish but when I was having a clear out of some of my nail polishes yesterday I came across the Topshop nail polish in the shade 'Awol' which I had completely forgotten about (sign I have too many polishes maybe...)
Although they aren't completely identical (I'd say 'Awol' is the tiniest bit more pastel than 'Baker Street') it is a very good dupe for it for less than half the price of the Nails Inc. one. The formula is very creamy and is very opaque within two coats. I used it with the Orly Bonder base coat which although this is only the second time I've used it I'm really loving it. As per usual my top coat is Seche Vite and I used the Leighton Denny 'Miracle Drops' to speed up the drying. I got them for Christmas in a Leighton Denny gift set and this was the first time I had used them but so far they have a big thumbs up from me!

This combination is proving to be very good so far- three days on and there are absolutely zero chips!

What do you think of Topshop 'Awol'? Do you think it is a good dupe of Nails Inc. 'Baker Street'? What's your favourite nail polish?

Friday 10 January 2014

My MAC makeup collection


A couple of people on my instagram have recently been asking me to do a Mac collection blog post- I really don't have masses of products from Mac at all but I thought I'd gather them up anyway and show you them all. The products I currently own (minus a couple of blushes that I forgot to photograph) are:

Fix+
217 blending brush
Pink buttercream pearlmatte face powder
Studio fix fluid foundation
Pro Longwear foundation
Studio fix powder
Studio finish concealer
'Knight' eyeshadow
Lipsticks in 'Ruby woo'
                    'Rebel'
                    'Impassioned'
                    'Viva Glam Nicki'
                    'Cremecup'
                    'Hang-up'
'Magnetique' Lipglass


I'm not a fan of all of the products- my favourites though would have to be the 217 blending brush, Studio Finish concealer, and the lipsticks 'Rebel', and 'Impassioned'. To be honest I don't love most of the others, I still do use them but they're not products that I tend to gravitate towards on a daily basis.

I definitely need to try out more of their eyeshadows more so please leave a comment letting me know what your favourites are (golds/bronze/neutral/champagne colours please!)




Thursday 9 January 2014

Apple cupcake easy cake decorating tutorial


When Carissa was round my house the other day we thought we would make some apple cupcakes and film it as a baking tutorial for you which you can watch below or on my YouTube channel

You will need:
Cupcakes
Mini doughnuts
Premade icing
Sugar
Red food colouring
Wine gums

Firstly we mixed the food colouring into the granulated sugar and icing and mixed so they were both red
Then spread a thin layer of icing onto the top of the cakes
Cut a mini doughnut in half and place it face down on top of the cake then cover it with icing
Put the red sugar on top of the icing by using a spoon and patting it on with the back of it
Cut a green and black wine gum in half and push them in the top to make the stalk and leaf
This step is optional but spoon a small section of the cake out and fill the hole with icing. Then cut two small pieces of black wine gum and put them onto the icing to make it look as if a bite has been taken out of the apple

Your easy apple cupcakes should now be finished! Please let us know if you try them and don't forget to watch the tutorial video!




Monday 6 January 2014

My new favourite nail combination using Nails Inc. Porchester Square




I bought Nails Inc. Porchester Square years ago and it has been sat unused in my nail polish collection for so long and hasn't been paid as much attention as it deserves. After seeing Vivianna from Vivianna Does Makeup mention it in her 2013 beauty favourites video I thought I'd get it out and give it another go. I used it with the Orly bonder base coat which I got for Christmas and my favourite Seche Vite top coat which I'm now onto my second bottle of to make it extra glossy and shiny. These photos were taken on the third day of wearing and as you can see there are no chips to be seen and they are still looking very shiny and pristine. 
Porchester square is the perfect nude which Nails Inc. describe as a 'chic muted mushroom' and a colour which I think will be flattering on many skin tones. It retails for £11 but Nails Inc. currently have an offer on where you can get three polishes for £22.


Overall I love Nails Inc. Porchester Square and I will be wearing it a lot more in the future! The really bright cobalt blue called Baker Street is definitely next on my Nails Inc. wishlist, what's your favourite shade?


Sunday 5 January 2014

A Christmas present to myself- Canon 600D and EF 50mm f/1.8 II lens


I spend a lot of time taking photos, whether it's beauty/nail/outfit posts for here on islaay.com, family photos or ones for the A Level photography course I am currently doing at sixth form. After having (and loving) the Canon SX40 for around 18 months I felt it was time to upgrade and buy the Canon 600D. I had a little bit of Christmas money which I put towards it but I paid most of it myself and I'm so happy it's finally mine! It's the first DSLR I've ever owned and although I've only had it for a week I'm definitely in love! I bought it with the standard kit lens and bought the 50mm f/1.8 II lens separately. I'm yet to take any outfit photos with it yet as I'm waiting for the remote which I ordered to arrive as I need it for focusing so I'm looking forward to giving them a go too! I need to do more research into the best settings to use and to learning how to the camera to it's best potential so that I can improve the quality of my photos!


Thursday 2 January 2014

2013 Favourite Beauty products


To follow on from my '2013 in outfits' post I did the other day, I thought I'd share with you some of my favourite makeup and other beauty products of 2013. I have done it as a video which you can watch below and here are the makeup products that I included in the video.

Moroccan Oil
Mac 'Rebel' lipstick
Essie 'Mint Candy Apple' nail polish
Urban Decay primer potion
Chanel 327 'La Désirée' lipstick
Nars 'Orgasm' blush
Mac Studio Finish concealer
Rimmel '005 nude' eyeliner
Mac 217 eyeshadow blending blush

I talk more in detail about the products in my video below so please watch it and let me know what you think! Let me know what your 2013 beauty favourites are please as I love all your recommendations!


Sorry the video is a tiny bit out of focus- I'm waiting for my camera remote to arrive and it will be much easier for me when it does come!