Sunday, 16 February 2014

By Avellana jewellery




























By Avellana is brand new jewellery business on ASOS Marketplace, selling reasonably priced and really pretty bracelets, earrings and necklaces which are a perfect gift for a friend or just as a present to yourself! Carissa hand makes the packaging- meaning she will customise the message on the front to say your name, a friends name, a special quote or a saying! As they are all simple designs, it makes them wearable with pretty much any outfit; I have been wearing my necklace and bracelet pretty much every day since I got them!

Use the discount code 'BLOGGER25' to save 25% on all purchases from By Avellana. As the prices all range from around £5-£6, this discount makes the jewellery even more affordable!


Don't forget to check out By Avellana on ASOS Marketplace now!




































I was given these items by By Avellana to feature in a blog post on islaay.com , however this does not influence my opinion in this review and it is 100% honest as always

Thursday, 13 February 2014

Collective makeup and beauty haul























I seem to say this every single time I do a haul post, but here we go again- oops I bought too much. This is just some of the makeup and beauty products I have bought recently- as I usually do with hauls I put it in a video for you so it's easier to see the products which I have bought!

You can find the video on my YouTube channel or you can watch it below

Monday, 10 February 2014

A winters walk photos and OOTD




On Sunday myself and my friend Megan went for a little afternoon walk near to where we live as the weather decided to be very sunny for once. I had my camera with me so thought it was the perfect opportunity to take a few photos (thank you to Megan for taking the outfit photos for me!)

Please let me know if you like this sort of blog post, this year I want to do some more outfit photos that aren't just in my back garden so let me know if that is something that you would like to see more of.


Outfit details:

Coat: Zara
Dress: Topshop
Boots: Russell and Bromley
Scarf: House of Fraser
Lipstick: MAC 'Darkside'



Thursday, 6 February 2014

January 2014 Favourites- MAC, Chanel, Tom Ford, NARS, Nuxe and Kiehl's

I haven't done a beauty favourites in a very long time, so I thought I would show you a few of the makeup products I have been loving recently and throughout January.

The most recent purchase of all of these products is my MAC quad palette. I bought the colours Satin Taupe, All That Glitters and Woodwinked- along with the pigment called 'Tan' which I will be pressing to make into another solid eyeshadow to put in the palette. I'll do a YouTube tutorial of how to press a mac pigment into a solid pan eyeshadow soon so look out for that on my YouTube channel!

Since getting this NARS blush back in October, I think I've barely gone a day without wearing it. It's in the shade 'Orgasm' and is the perfect coral/pink shade with a bit of shimmer to it. The formula is gorgeously pigmented and it lasts well on the cheeks all day.

Nuxe Reve de Miel lip balm is another fairly recent purchase of mine. I had got to the point where the Elizabeth Arden 8 Hour Cream which I was previously using, wasn't quite cutting it as an overnight lip moisturiser anymore so I felt it was time to try out a new one. This is a very thick, heavy duty lip balm which has a lovely cocoa butter/citrus scent to it. I have heard that over time it tends to become slightly bitty so I'm hoping that doesn't happen to mine as currently I'm loving it!

As I've been wearing eyeshadow much more recently, I've been really using my MAC 217 brush a lot. It's pretty much my holy grail eyeshadow brush- just the perfect size for blending in the crease of your eye and the bristles are the right balance of being fluffy/rigid to allow your eyeshadow to blend properly.

For a while I fell out of love with the MAC studio finish concealer, however I have recently found a slightly different way to apply it and now I'm back to loving it again! I use it with either the Real Techniques Accent or Detailer brush, then blend it out with a small flat top blending brush (I have a blog post coming up soon with where I bought mine from). I find this method gives the most natural finish as before I found it going slightly cakey and I would always apply too much and not blend it fully.

The Chanel lipstick in 'La Désirée' was a pre Christmas treat to myself. I have mentioned loving it before on my blog and I definitely am still really enjoying using it. It is the perfect long lasting, blue toned deep matte red with such pretty packaging! It's definitely worth the price tag in my opinion.

Khiel's Midnight Recovery Concentrate was a serum which I bought after trying out a sample when I was in New York, earlier last year. I find my skin to look a lot more plump and healthier looking when I use it before bed, the scent is very calming as it smells faintly of lavender and the packaging makes it very easy to use. Khiel's are usually very good with their samples so if you are ever near a counter or a store I would recommend asking a sales assistant more about it and giving it a go.

Finally is the Tom Ford lipstick in the shade 'Cherry Lush' which was a Christmas present from my lovely friend Helen from the blog Beautifully Superfluous. This is probably the most luxurious makeup product I own- you can't really get much better than a Tom Ford lipstick, let's be honest! It has the creamiest, most long lasting formula, the packaging is something which you could only dream of and the colour is just perfect. If I could sum it up in one word, I'd just have to say that it's beautiful.



Tuesday, 4 February 2014

A Day Out in London







On Sunday, myself and Carissa took a little day trip to London for her birthday. We spent the day making good use of the Topshop photobooth, getting our makeup done at the MAC counter in Harrods, eating sushi and Laduree macaroons, wandering around Oxford Street (and spending too much money) and going to Chinatown to celebrate the Chinese New Year. I thought I'd share some of the photos I took with you and I also filmed some clips to make a vlog which you can watch below or on my YouTube channel.

Please let me know if you like this sort of blog post- I go to London on a pretty regular basis and having my new camera means that there's now loads of different things I want to experiment with photographing and filming!