Mani Monday!

Just a quick post for this morning! Tape mani's stress me out to no end, but I love them, it's a love-hate thing, what can I say. This one is a little messy but I love the colour combination and the concept even if the execution was a little impatient! The nude base is Superdrug's B. Complete in 164 Desert - the formula on this one dries so slowly you will definitely need a quick dry top coat handy! I used Seche Vite. The peachy colour is the gorgeous Essie Peach Daiquiri, and pink is Style Hunter, again from Essie. I am lovinggg these shades at the moment, I can't get enough of Essie right now and their corals and pinks. Peach Daiquiri is half gone and I've owned it about two months... whoops.

P.S. Please excuse my wrinkly granny hands!

L'oreal Paris bits and pieces!

So last week my foundation ran out (sob) after scraping the bottle with an old eyeshadow brush it was about time I let the poor thing rest in peace. I was using the much raved about Bourjois Healthy Mix foundation, and had both the original and the serum formulas (shade 52 and 53 respectively, if you were interested!) As much as I liked these, I'd been using them for quite some time and thought it was perfect timing for me to give something else a shot. I've been staring longingly at the Maybelline Superstay Better Skin foundation for weeks now, but the Big Boots in Manchester (to give it it's full title...) only ever had one tester in! I've also been debating the Revlon Colourstay foundation, but the lack of a pump realllyyy puts me off. To cut a long story short, I went over to the L'Oreal counter. I don't know if it's the same in all larger Boots stores, but in Manchester the L'Oreal counter is usually manned by a (somewhat) helpful "expert". So, despite the lack of testers there as well, I set my heart on the True Match Foundation. I've seen several reviews, videos and blog posts claiming this is good for oilier skin types so I got the lovely lady to try and match a shade to my skin.

I was a little scared to see her instantly head towards the medium shades, as I would definitely class myself as fair skinned. My Dad's Scottish genetic influence is great for withstanding cold but not so fab for my skin tone. After asking if I prefer my foundation to match my skin or to be darker (?!?!) she picked out two shades and swatched them on my jaw and I was forced to choose between two that I really thought were a touch darker than I need. However, being a little shy and afraid of confrontation I just went with the sallower (is that a word?) shade that didn't look so orange on my face. She then kindly made up my whole face with the foundation, a little powder and a touch of blush. If you're interested, we went with W3 Golden Beige. Who knew I was Golden or Beige anything?!

Swatches from left to right: highlighter, bronzer, bb powder, true match foundation.

After a few days use I'm getting used to the colour, although I think it is definitely a touch too tan for my skin tone, maybe some St Tropez will help with that. And I'm starting to like the colour and life it gives my complexion. I look a lot more ill when I remove it. I assume that's a good thing? Anyway, as I'm sure you know it never goes quite so simply as popping in for one thing and buying only that one item. Especially when there's a Boots 3 for 2... Not only was it 3 for 2 on L'Oreal face make up (as I was told after I'd spent ten minutes swatching lip stains on the back of my hand...) But if you spent £20 on L'Oreal you got this snazzy little Eau de Soleil free. Why not!

The BB Powder I was pretty skeptical on, I bought Light, as I generally prefer translucent powder. But wow. This stuff does actually give a different finish to that which I am used to from a setting powder. It kind of blurs imperfections and almost photoshops your skin. This sounds crazy right? The packaging claims to be a "velvet skin beautifier, 5 in 1. Mimics the texture and finish of velevety nude skin." And it does! My only problem with this is it doesn't last as long as I'd like. Whether this is due to my primer, foundation, powder or combination of them, it does need touching up after a few hours. But having had oily-combination skin all my life I'm used to a powder touch up at lunch time.

I also picked up the Glam Bronze bronzer and highlighter duo. They only had the one shade Blonde Harmony. But given how fair I am I really think anything darker would be ridiculous on my skin. The highlighter doesn't have much effect, I think. At least it hasn't edged out my Benefit Watt's Up. I picked this up as my Hoola Bronzer is basically gone, and I wanted something a little cheaper to replace it. I'm still getting the hang off contouring, but this is making my life so much easier. It blends easily to a natural finish (once I realised a lighter hand applies and blends so much easier) and it's worth it for the bronzer alone. They do have a bronzer only compact, and I'm not really sure why I chose this, but I did. So there.

All in all I would definitely recommend the foundation, powder and bronzer. There is a great range of shades in the foundation and it does blend in well to match your skin tone. The powder gives a lovely finish, even if it doesn't last the 8 hours it claims... If you have any recommendations, advice or have had any experience with these products please let me know!

Empties Video!

Hi Guys!
So as promised here is my first Youtube video and it is my Empties video! It does drag on a little bit for which I will apologise, but I had a lot of products I had been saving to go in this video. In hindsight maybe I should have split it into two videos but now we know for next time! Or maybe next time I should just do the video sooner...

So here it is, hope you like it!

Products mentioned:
Sally Hansen Insta Dri top coat
OPI Original Nail Envy
Seche Restore
Clinique Moisture Surge CC Cream
L'Oreal Paris Skin Perfection Serum
L'Oreal Paris Skin Perfection Micellar Water £3.33 in Boots / £.3.99 or 2 for £5 Superdrug
Clean and Clear Morning Energy Facial Wash Asda £2
Lush Catastrophe Cosmetic Fresh Face Mask
Radox Nourish Shower Cream
Radox Uplifting Hand Wash
No7 Cleansing Body Polish
Soap and Glory Smoothie Star Breakfast Scrub
Soap and Glory Sugar Crush Body Buttercream
Schwarzkopf got2b Oil-licious Styling Oil
Dove Refresh and Care Dry Shampoo

P.S. I knowwww I need to focus on the camera more and stop staring at my knees and stop the umming and ahhing but it's my first time filming myself talking to myself so be nice (;

P.P.S. sorry about the lighting/colouring! I sat in front of the window on an unexpectedly sunny day and we haven't got our new blinds up yet!

Lemon Drizzle and Banana Bread!

Hi Guys!
Sorry it's been a while since my first post, I've got a few things that I need to write up/edit and I've spent the last couple of days in the world of Shadowhunters! I loooove reading and first got into The Mortal Instruments a few years ago - around when the fourth book came out - and the sixth and final book was released this week and I just finished it last night! After pre-ordering it back in February I have been waiting (and dreading!) for the City of Heavenly Fire so impatiently! And now there is a hole in my heart that can only be filled in Autumn 2015 when the next series comes out! I am so excited! Anyway, this is relevant (kind of, bear with me) because I thought it was getting released on Tuesday, but it turns out it was Wednesday! So on Tuesday I was a little disappointed, so I baked!

I felt like something a little lighter and healthier than my typical go-to baking recipes (cupcakes, muffins, cookies, chocolatey goodness) so I decided to go for a Lemon Drizzle cake, and try out Banana bread. I'm not a huge fan of bananas (read: I hate them) but my boyfriend likes bananas and I like the idea of putting them in a cake, so I figured I'd try it and if I hated it then Ryan would probably eat it! (He did, the good boy)I used a couple of recipes from the good old BBC. I literally just googled the cakes I wanted and picked the first couple I saw, which is what I usually do! Sometimes I'll flick through a few and see which is easiest/quickest/has the fewest ingredients. This time I found Lemon Drizzle cake from BBC Good Food and Banana bread also from the BBC. We have most of the ingredients for basic cake mix lurking in our cupboards so I just popped down to Aldi for some fruits and extra caster sugar and then set about baking!

I found these recipes pretty easy to follow, and the cake, at least the Lemon Drizzle, were really nice! I popped some chocolate chips in the banana bread to make it a little more interesting. I also used this technique from Clean Green Simple to quickly ripen the bananas in the oven and it worked pretty well. My bananas were already quite ripe as I purposefully picked some that weren't so green and fresh, so I didn't measure the time, I just kind of left them until there were black all over. (Read: I forgot about them and noticed they were leaking a bit so promptly took them out of the oven.)

I wasn't so keen on the Banana bread, so Ryan ended up taking some into work because it ended up a pretty big batch! The Lemon Drizzle did get a little burnt on the top and sides - hence why I have shaved some off in the picture. I think the problem was that our loaf tin was too deep and narrow rather than wide and shallow, so when the outside was cooked nicely the inside was still not quite done so I had to compromise! Also because it was made of silicone, the Banana bread kind of forced the walls of the case to warp and it came it a lot wider and flatter than it probably should have! Hence the biscotti-shaped slices! So a few issues but the cake still tastes good! I'll have to get a proper loaf tin for next time.

Hope you enjoyed this post and I'll hopefully have an "Empties" video up for you later today or tomorrow!

Welcome!

Hi everyone!

I've been thinking about starting up my own blog for a while now after reading and following others. The main thing holding me up was that it is currently exam time! However since I had my final (fingers crossed) uni exam this morning, here I am! So here is my first blog post, and I thought I'd just let you get to know me and what I hope to achieve with this blog to start off with!

WHO

My name is Talia, I'm twenty three years old, just finishing off a four year BSc in Animal Behaviour. I'm originally from Surrey, but I moved to Manchester for university in 2010, met my boyfriend here and we're now living together with our two little babies - a Border x Fell terrier, Jess, and a Patterdale terrier, Max. I'm currently unemployed and looking for placement in a Veterinary surgery so that I can start training to become a vet nurse in September, and also hunting for a part time job to bring in some pennies!

WHAT

I have ALWAYS had so many opinions about everything. Probably too many! So what better place to air those views and opinions than on the internet with all you lovely people! I imagine this will be a mostly beauty/lifestyle blog, just giving opinions on products I've used/loved/hated/yearn for. I also (obviously) love animals, as well as cooking, creative crap and reading so I'm sure you'll get the odd random posts thrown in there as well! I feel like I'm using way too many exclamation points, wow, must be super excited about this blog!

WHY

My obsession with beauty products really started on my gap year when I got my first "grown up" full time job and suddenly had disposable income and could afford premium beauty products I'd lusted after through school and sixth form years. And then I went to uni, and I'm sure many students can sympathise with the lower budget you have to contend with! In my third year (of a four year course) I got a part time job which meant I didn't have to save all my money for food and I could have (some) nice things again! And then I became obsessed with nail polish. Nails may have reopened the door for me but beauty has never been far from my heart, so now I'm a real grown up (about time at 23!) graduating from university (we hope) and starting out on the rest of my life and that is where my blog begins.

I feel like this post has gone on long enough and you all now know more than you ever needed to know about me. I hope my blog provides some useful information/entertainment/ridiculous anecdotes and you enjoy reading with me!