Chance...

I'll admit it, personally I hate reading perfume reviews, but I couldn't resist quickly sharing my favourite Winter smell. Chance by Chanel. This morning I decided to switch from my summer perfume, and spritz this beauty on. (Sorry about the photo quality, it's well loved, I've lost the lid and the bottle is scratched from being thrown in my handbag all the time. Atleast you can tell I really love it.)

It's funny isn't it how a smell can instantly remind you of a season? This makes me think of crisp Winter mornings, wrapping up in a big fur coat. Cosey nights in, with a glass of red, hot water bottle and a wooly blanket. The great thing about this perfume, is that you can literally spray in the morning, and it lasts all day. It's such a full, rich smell. I do think it's an aquired taste though, so make sure you test it out first if you're thinking of ordering it.

Today, the ladies and I decided to go for express steaks and a glass of red at lunchtime. I'm not gonna lie, returned to the desk a little tipsy. I ate far too much of this cake too, probably the best chocolate cake I've ever tasted. It has Dime Bars all crushed up on top and a layer of toffee in the middle. YUM. If only I could bake something this good!

Anyway, seeing as it's payday, I thought you might be interested in a little Chanel treat :) Do you change your perfume in the winter? What's your favourite Winter perfume? x



L'Oreal Sublime Bronze Self-Tanning Gel

I know in my last YouTube video about how I self tan, I said that I didn’t really see the point in face tan products. I've always just used my regular St Tropez Mousse. That was before I discovered this little beaut, completely by accident.

My boyfriend came to bed with this on his face one night, and I was all like 'ooooh your faaaace smells nice'. Turns out, it was Sublime Bronze. (Check him out, sneakily tanning before bed!)
Crazy because as we all know, normally tans don’t smell great. I'm so funny about the scents of things too, I hate using products that smell too strong and perfumed, particularly on my face.
So, believe it or not, I actually pinched this one night from my boyfriends’ side of the bathroom sink, and kinda fell for it!

I really like the colour this developes into, it's so natural and not orange in the slightest. It's a gorgeous, gorgeous constitancy, a gel formula so feels really cool and refreshing to apply. It's really moisturizing too, if you wanted to use it before you apply your make-up in the morning it would totally work. I've been applying it before bed, and I have to say, it's impossible to get streaks or look patchy. Fool-proof.
This would be perfect to try if you are quite pale, or scared about trying out fake tan for the first time, because it's not too dramatic, but still noticable. I think it's definitely worth checking out.

It's really good if you can’t be bothered to tan your whole body and just want a bit of colour of your face, and it really perked me up. It's so strange, it's such a small change, but a couple of the girls I work with noticed the difference it made to how my skin looked. One thing I really liked about this tan, was the fact that you can apply it with your hands. The gel washes straight off, so no need to use a mitt, and nor orange hands, wooo! I also really like the fact that it's in a squeezy tube, and you can see exactly how much tan you have left, which most of the time, is not the case with pump bottles.

I'm not sure how many 'body' applications you would get out of this, as I have just started using it on my face, but I will say, a little goes a long way on my face, so if I just used it for my face, it would last a long time. It's pretty purse friendly too, at about £13 a bottle.I would reccomend applying once every 4(ish) days, I did apply for a couple of days running, but I turned out to be a little darker than I wanted.

Have you ever tried L'Oreal Sublime Bronze face and body? What fake tan would you reccomend to use on your face?

Photo Diary#6 Like A Wall of Stars, We are Ripe To Fall

Drinking a Monmouth Coffee| Poppies chips | Cute little vintage sweety shop | Ronnie Scotts Jazz Bar | The view from Paramount

Hey my lovelies, after the #bbloggers chat on Twitter this Sunday night, lot of people where saying how they liked reading photo posts and more personal posts. These are my personal favourite to read and write too, so here we are :)
I'll admit, this weekend did start off as a bit of a disaster, I booked my boyfriend in to do white water rafting at the olympic course, but we missed our train by about 30 seconds... so we couldn't go. Boo.
Luckily we were at Liverpool Street Station, so we ended up just having a little mooch around Spitafields market. We both tried bubble tea for the first time, which is by the way, a delicious little novelty. Obviously we ended up having a couple of drinks too, followed by chips from my favourite chip shop in London.
You'll have to excuse my face in this photo, I've been pretty under the weather the past few days, swollen glands and the sniffles. So I look pretty red and ill! But the Monmouth coffee helped! If you're a coffee addict and you ever end up in London, make sure you track down a Monmouth coffee, they are seriously the best!
On Sunday it was pouring down in London, so we headed to Ronnie Scotts Jazz Bar in Soho and curled up with a bottle of red wine to listen to their lunchtime swing band. I honestly could have fallen asleep, it's such relaxing low lighting, that in combination with the music and wine...
After the jazz finished, it was still horrible outside, so we ended up in Paramount. I think it's the 32nd floor where you can go for drinks and dinner, the view is incredible, and looks even more spectacular at night time.

What did you all get up to this weekend?

The New Oxford Street Primark

If you follow me on Twitter, you'll know I ventured to the new Oxford Street Primark on Thursday on my lunchbreak.
I'm not meaning to sound like a total snob here, (and I don't mean to offend any of you who regularly shop in Primark) but I don't do Primark.
I just find it really stressful, I get really hot when shops are too busy, and then I get stressed, and then I have to leave because all I do is think about how hot and stressed I am. Weird I know.
 Also, I'd usually rather buy just one nice thing in Topshop, rather than a few things somewhere cheaper that wont last as long.
I'm not really one for digging around in shops, I like to walk in and be able to see everything and Primark is usually quite messy. So, I'm not going to lie, I was feeling totally skeptical about it and thought I'd pretty much run away crying/having a panic attack.

But, to my complete and utter surprise I loved it. It was tidy, size ordered, not overly crowded and HUGE. The selection of clothes, shoes and accessories were absolutely great. They have loads of Topshop and Zara copycats. I saw so many gorgeous shirts, dresses, shoes, coats, bags... I could go on & on. I think if you select things carefully in Primark then mix them with pieces from other shops, you can get away with it not looking like it's from Primark at all, agree?

I have totally been converted. But shhhh.

I got these cute little faux suade loafers for £6 and these spotty tights were only £2.50. Let's face it, I could just about get a pair of tights in Topshop for that price. I know they wont last for very long, but for 'throw-away' fashion, and a sneaky pre-payday treat, I think they're absolute gems.
I've always been so jealous seeing other bloggers showing the little beauts they got in Primark, and now I have one around the corner, I'll become one of you :)

Anyway, I hope I've inspired some of you to go shopping, hehe. Do you shop in Primark? Have you found any gems? Will you be visiting the new Oxford street Primark?

Red Bikini

I wish the title of this post meant me in a red bikini, sunning it up somewhere tropical. Sadly not...

By now, you must all know I'm a complete nail varnish whore. My favourite shade literally changes weekly. This week, it's Red Bikini by Revlon. I got this in my goody bag from the Millie Mackintosh eyelash party, and I absolutely couldn't be more in love with it.

It's a bright red with an orange tone to it. I know it's not really what we would call an 'Autumnal shade', but it's my new obsession. Red/Orange never goes out, right?

I actually really rate Revlon for nail varnishes now, they come in a generous sized pot and have a great formula.

Will you be trying 'Red Bikini?' What's your favourite nail varnish at the moment?

Millies Lashes Goody Bag

Hey darlings, how have your days been?

I'm just snuggled at my desk with a hot water bottle, feeling a little bit under the weather, boohoo.

I've got my book to keep me company, I finally gave in to everyone who recommended 'I heart New York', partly because I found out the main character starts a blog (geek alert, I know). Okay, I'll admit, I'm absolutely LOVING it. I would definitely class it as a 'trashy poolside read', but everyone has their guilty pleasures right?!

If you read my last post, you'll know I attended the launch party for Millie Mackintoshs' eyelash collection  for Nouveau.
It was such a lovely selection of beauty bits I got given in the goody bag, I couldn't resist sharing with you, especially as I'm very likely to review a few of these products. I couldn't wait to try out Revlon 'Red Bikini' nail varnish and the Revlon lipgloss, I'm actually wearing them together and they really suit each other :)

I actually got given 2 of goody bags, would any of you like to win a similar one in a giveaway? I don't want to seem like a filthy little peasant giving away something that I was given, I just think it's such a lovely selection of products. I've been really enjoying using them over the past couple of nights, I thought you might too. So let me know if you think I should :)

Millie Mackintosh Lashes- The Launch Party

Millie and I (I'm having a fan girl moment), with Pro Green, and Rosie.

Last night I was a very lucky lady and attended the lovely Millie Mackintosh's launch party for her Nouveau eyelash collection at The Sanctum Hotel.
It was quite a small and intimate event on the roof terrace, with a few of her Made In Chelsea pals including Jamie (who was lovely), Rosie, Louise and Caggie.
I did get a little excited when I saw Professor Green pull up in his Mercedes, and managed to grab hold of him for a photo, like the complete dork that I am. I am very aware that I'm looking a little stunned and like I have a bald patch in all the photos though :(

We had a couple of G&T's, and snacked on mini burgers, mini fish and chips and pork pies (this was pretty random, who knew Millie was a fan of pork pies?!). There was a little beauty area where you could have Millies' Lashes applied, I picked the Mayfair Lashes .
I have to say they looked absolutely gorgeous, noticible but subtle; obviously Millie was going to get it right though! I would definitely wear these in the daytime.
I'm wearing them in the photographs, though I'm not sure if you can see very well?! They're made from real hair and are super duper light, you can barely notice you're wearing them. Anyhoo, I'll do a full review on those in another post when I've tried a couple of other pairs too.

When we left I was given a gorgeous little goody bag, I'll do a separate post on this as there's some really lovely bits in there including more lashes (the Soho Lashes which I really wanted, woop) and Killer Colours nail polish. I think they deserve a post all to themselves, yes?

If any of you are interested you can buy Millies Lashes here for only £8.99, and you can also get hold of them in Sefridges too.
Will you be trying Millies' lashes? Which lashes do you normally use?

Youtube#4 How to Apply Fake Tan Tutorial | St Tropez

Hey guys,

just thought I'd post up my next video for you incase you miss it on Youtube.

I know it's coming up for Winter now, but personally I still like to be bronzed. I know hardly anyone will notice in the Autumn and Winter, but I just feel better with a bit of tan on. Is it just me or do any of you do that too?!

A few beauty bloggers have recommended Xen Tan, I've actually never tried it, and my St Tropez is about to run out, so I think I'll go for that next. Have you ever used St Tropez Products? What kind of fake tan would you recommend to me?

I'm meeting and filming with the gorgeous Milly Mackintosh tomorrow night, one of my girl crushes, woo! So let me know if there's anything you'd like me to ask her in my video.

Couture

Hey darlings! I hope you are all having a lovely weekend so far? 

I've realised that I hardly ever blog at the weekends, so I thought I'd say hello today to make a change. I'm not sure if I'll end up doing a photo diary this week, it's been a hectic weekend where we didn't really take photos. Friday night we went to the new gastro pub in Clapham called 'The Jam Tree'. There's one in Chelsea too, they do little cocktails that come with jars of jam that you add to sweeten them up, how cute? Yesterday involved taking my dog to the groomers, and we did and Ikea trip too, (I finally tried these meatballs everyone goes on about) so you see, nothing overly exciting to photograph I'm afraid!

I filmed my tanning routine video today, possibly the most awkward video I've made yet (and that's saying something).  I'm looking forward to speaking to some of you tonight in the #bbloggers chat, come say hi if you like, I'm at @HannahMaggs22.

Anyhoo, shall we talk lipstick? Meet my new favourite autumnal shade, Couture by Dainty doll.

If you follow my blog, you might remember I reviewed another Dainty Doll lipstick shade 
here. I really rate these lipsticks, I know at £12.50 a pop each they do fall under the more expensive high street brand, but they are simply gorgeous and definitely worth it. 
When I first applied this, I was a little bit like 'wooooah, it's dark'. I thought it looked a bit gothy. But the longer I had it on, the more it grew on me. Yes, it's a little dramatic, but it's such a beautiful rich shade. I think I'll even be wearing it to the office at some point this week. I just think it's a really gorgeous colour for Autumn and Winter wardrobes. If you can't quite make out the colour, I'm wearing it in the video I've just filmed.

The pigmentation is yet again, incredible. The staying power is awesome, even after you've been eating or drinking. It doesn't stain your lips after removal like some darker shades of lipstick tend to do. As I said before, Dainty Doll are my favourite formula when it comes to lipsticks, they are just so creamy and intensely moisturising. I know Dainty Doll isn't a brand many of you are familiar with, but I'd definitely recommend trying them.

Do you like dark dramatic lipstick shades, or are you too scared to wear them? What's your favourite Autumn lipstick?

It's time to let go, of everything we used to know

I'll admit it, I'm normally a huge snob when it comes to make-up brands. These eyeliners are probably the cheapest make-up items I have EVER purchased.
I've only recently been attempting to learn how to do liquid eyeliner (I know, I know, it's only taken me a whole 23 years). It always just seemed like more effort and trickier than pencil. 
It definitely gives a more clean, precise line than pencils, and doesn't tend to go smudgy either, so I suppose it depends what kind of look you are going for. I decided as my make-up course is creeping closer and closer (woop), I should probably try it out.

I bought the MUA liquid liner in shade 5 for £1. It's brilliant if like me, you are practicing how to use a liquid eyeliner, it means you won't be wasting a good quality liner.
The tip of the liner is really fine, which means you can get a really precise line, this is very tricky when you are used to using pencil though!
The first time I used this liner, the quality was great, I got a clean line and it was really jet black, very dramatic. It bloomin' well hurts if you get it in your eye though, so try not to overload the brush. 
After the first use, I found it went a little watery, and needs 2 or 3 layers to get a good line. Don't use any more than this though, otherwise it can get a little clumpy looking. The staying power isn't great, so I wouldn't recommend if you need to wear it for a long period of time as it can start wearing off and looking a little patchy , and if you try and fill it in, it begins to look clumpy. I really like the post though, it looks like a little ink well, how cute! For £1, to experiment with, I would say you can't really go wrong.

I've also only just started bothering to use white liner on my waterline too, I'm such a bad beauty blogger! I don't use this everyday, just if I'm having one of those days where I'm a little tried or hungover, and I want to look more awake. It really opens up your eye and makes you look brighter.
Although it's a really soft pencil and doesn't drag, I find I have to do a couple of lines before it shows up properly, the pigmentation isn't te best. Same again with the staying power too, you will need to top up every 3-4 hours really. I really like the fact that it comes with a little sharpener on the end. I don't know about you, but I can never seem to find my sharpener when I need it. So to have one on the lid is just pure genius in my opinion, and for £1!

I don't think I would purchase these eyeliners again, purely because of the poor staying power, I don't like wearing products that I have to keep touching up. As I said though, they are good to use if you are learning how to do eyeliner, as you wont be using up a more expensive one. Or if your in you teens and are just wearing them to school. They'd be great too if you'd forgotten your eyeliner that day and just wanted a cheap one temporarily!

Have you tried the Mua eyeliners before? Which eyeliners would you reccomend to me?
Oh, sorry for the lack of face with eyeliner on... every photo I took I looked like a greasy, tired mess. Currently cracking open the wine.

Beautiful images#2 Life is a dream, we're all walking in our sleep

(all images pinched from tublr and we heart it)

Sometimes, when it's one of 'those days' you just need a bit of a pick me up. I've been feeling a meh this week, for one reason or another. One of the things I like to do to cheer myself up, is stick on my favourite album and look at some pretty pictures. It sounds silly, but it works wonders, I'm telling you now! I'm literally addicted to We Heart It and Tumblr at the moment! I thought this little selection was quite Autumnal (is that even a word?!), and made me feel like snuggling up under a knitted blanket with a nice cup of coffee. This is my second post like this now, can you tell I'm obsessed with pancakes and messy hair?!

What do you do to cheer yourself up? Are you addicted to We Heart it and Tumblr like me?

All that we can do, is smile

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that one of the reasons why my face has been a little absent from my blog was the current state of my skin.
I think a lot of it was to do with the fact that I've recently come of the pill, which tends to help with outbreaks. It's calmed down a little now, but I'm still getting random little whiteheads and outbreaks, I'm sure this is supposed to have stopped by now, I'm nearly 24!
Lots of you have told me I have lovely skin, but you should know that I wear a ton of make up, I can't leave the house without concealer and foundation. I even wear make-up when I go running. Without it, my confidence is ziltch. nada. zero. I even hate taking my make up off infront of my boyfriend every night, and going make-up free for the beach on holiday. If I went to my office tomorrow with no make-up on, no one would even recognize me.
So I've decided to try and take a few steps in the right direction to try and improve my skin, I'm so sick of it affecting my mood, I really want to change my attitude towards it. I'm going to try and drink a litre and a half of water every day, eat healthier and change my skincare routine (which basically consists of face-wipes at the moment, I know you'll all tell me off for this).
I bought this Clinique '1,2,3 Step' cleanse, tone and moisturize set. I bought the starter pack which was £20 just to see if it agrees with me. I've been using it for 2 weeks now, I'm not really sure if it's made a massive difference to my skin if I'm honest. I don't know if I'll go for the full size bottles yet, I don't really like the smell of the cleanser and moisturizer is pretty hard to get out of the bottle. I don't know why they put it in a hard plastic bottle, surely a squeezy tube makes more sense?! 
Do any of you have confidence issues with your skin? What products have you tried that have helped? Have you tried Clinique 1,2,3 Step?

Photo Diary#5 Let's just get out of town?

I suppose we wont get many more weekends as gorgeous as this one?! I hope you all lapped it up and made the most of it? I certainly did, this weekend has definitely been one of my favourites this year, it was pretty much perfect. 

Friday night Stef and I stayed at home with some drinks and did some geeking out on my blog.

Saturday we hopped on the Vespa and scooted up to Camden for some impulsive inking. Ouch. I'm not sure if I'll share this on my blog yet, tattoos are a pretty personal thing, aren't they? No doubt I'm sure you'll see it at somepoint anyway, particularly in my videos.
We got a bottle of wine and a mini picnic of ham rolls and cherry bakewells, and scooted to somewhere called Hill Gate Gardens, in Hapstead. It's just next to the Heath, but quite hidden away down a little pathway. The gardens are beautiful, it's such a peaceful little spot, you would never know it was in the heart of London. We sat under a humungous old tree, which I instantly loved as it had billions of carvings in it.

On Sunday we decided to take a little trip out of London for the day to a village next to Guilford called Godlaming. It was quite a long drive so we stopped off in Richmond for breakfast in a little Tea cafe. We drove through all the country lanes, and it was so nice to get out of the city.

When we arrived we sat in a little open-front restaurant and had yet another bottle of wine. Whilst wondering from the restraunt to the pub to sample the local cider, we came accross some morris dancers who basically dragged me into the photo with them. I love morris dancers, I know that's totally geeky, I think it's the Devon child inside me.

We took a little stroll through the church grounds down to the park, where there was a band playing on the bandstand and families picnicing everywhere.Godlaming is the cutest place, it's so quaint, idealic and twee. 

Before the trip home, we took a little drive up to The Charterhouse, which is a private school. It really blew me away, it's such beautiful building and grounds are totally stunning. I think it's crazy that people go to school there, I hope they realise how lucky they are, it would be somewhere I'd want to get married!

I literally didn't want to leave Godlaming, it was so perfect. 

I got that Sunday evening feeling in my tummy, you know, where you just don't want to go to school the next day?!  

I was going to film my tanning video when we got home but I was totally zonked! All I could manage was the #bbloggers chat on Twitter, and even that was a push. I did get a mention in the summary though, which was really sweet.

Wow, I seem to have harped on for a while, I guess I'm in a chatty mood, sorry!

What did you all get up to this weekend? Where you out in the sun?