Blogging Buddies

totally random picture I know, I just liked it :)

Hello there ladies (and gents, if you're out there?!), a bit of a personal post today, I'll try not to harp on for too long though, I promise.

When I first started blogging, I was pretty much what I'd call a 'blogger recluse'. I would read other peoples blogs, but I was a little too shy to comment, thinking that these girls were so confident and such 'big bloggers', so why would they care what little old me, a nobody in the vast sea of bloggers, would have to say? At the time, I had no idea how completely and utterly wrong I was. I hated putting photos of myself up on my blog, it made me feel really self-concious ( I still don't love that, but I do it cos I know we're a nosey old bunch). And, I didn't really tell people about my blog. Heck I only found a 'follow' button about 2 months ago. I had certainly never discovered the wonders of the blogging community on Twitter.
I had a couple of months where I took a complete break from my blog, I went through a pretty rough time in my life after my mum passed away and just didn't feel like pretending everything in my life was good on my blog. When I made the decision to come back to it, I thought I'd try and do things differently this time, become more involved, and make more of an effort, be myself more, I made it into more of a project (thank you to my lovely boyfriend who encouraged me to do so). I promised myself I'd have the courage to say hello to some of my favourite bloggers, and just see what happened.
The friendliness of the blogging community pretty much blew me away. The girls who I thought looked scary and intimidating, where so chatty and helpful, and just normal girls.

Let me tell you now, I'm so glad that I came back to my blog. For so many reasons. One of the main reason being all the new pals I've made, I've met such a lovely bunch of buddies through blogging now. Down to earth, genuine girls, who I consider to be real friends now. Girls who say it like it is, and are totally supportive. Some of you I speak to pretty much every day, even more than I speak to friends I've had for years. It's pretty strange for me to consider people who I've never actually met in real life proper friends, but I do, I do :)

This might sound a little strange to some of you, but I feel like blogging has really helped with my self-confidence too. Yes, I'm still super nervous being on camera (my you-tube videos are edited like a bitch), and I'm not the biggest fan of having my photo taken (I'm so freaking awkward), but all the lovely comments and tweets you leave on my posts really make me feel good about myself, and make me WANT to write and take photos. Basically, you little lot inspire me. You make me want to write about beauty and life, and see all the good things in life (god, that sounds super cheesey).

If you're reading this and you've just starting out blogging, I can't recommend more to get involved on the bloggers chat on Twitter. If you don't know what this is, (or if like me, you just don't have a clue) basically, every Sunday and Wednesday evenings, all the beauty bloggers get together to discuss topics on Twitter using the hashtag #bbloggers (beauty bloggers).
I honestly really look forward to the #bbloggers chat, I haven't missed one in ages, and it's such a great way to find new blogs, get inspired, and meet other bloggers who have the same interests as you. Nothing better than snuggling up with a cup of tea, wooly blanket and the blogger chat!
Last night after the actual #bbloggers chat, (which was about bloggers block and what you do to inspire you) a few other ladies and I ended up nattering until gone midnight (I had a 6am wake up too, woops). We just had such a good and honest conversation, and got on so well, we decided to arrange our first ever #bbloggers meet up. I have to say, I can't wait to meet some of you in person! I've got a feeling we're going to have the best time! And if any of you are ever in London, do let me know, don't be shy :)
　
So I guess the purpose of this post is to say if you blog, and you haven't come to say hi before, please do! Its such a great little community, so positive friendly and welcoming. Oh look, I've managed to ramble on. I'll stop now.

Have you made friends through blogging? What do you love most about blogging? Do you join in on #bbloggers chats?

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 :)