OOTD | 19.02.14

This is the outfit I wore yesterday when I went shopping with my mum. I'm on holiday from college all week, and the weather's been a lot warmer than you'd think it would be for February in the north of England, so I teamed a loosely knitted jumper with some thermal leggings, black ballet pumps and my brown leather satchel to break up the serious amount of black.

I also pulled the collar from a white shirt I own out the top to give it a cute, girly twist. I wore my hair up in a high pony with my fringe out, gold hooped earrings and two gold rings to complete the outfit.

I really love how, despite it being all black, I managed to make it look more stylish than gothic. I think I'll be able to wear this outfit again in different ways, for example with some brightly coloured pumps or a flowery collar; even a different bag would still suit this style. It may even end up being my go-to outfit when I can't decide what to wear first thing in a morning.

What's in my make-up bag | Spring Edition

Even though it's only February and the weather's still absolutely freezing here in England, I've been finding myself getting more and more excited for spring. I've been watching lots of spring make-up tutorials and spying on other people's lookbooks, not to mention all the beauty & style magazines are going spring-crazy, so I've decided to put together a little blog post about the make-up items I think I'll be getting the most use out of in the upcoming season.

 I tend to stick to the same foundation and powder all year round, which is the Maybelline 24hr and Rimmel's Stay Matte, as they're the best for my skin type (oily to combination) and they're cheap considering how fantastic they are. Throughout winter I've been sticking to blusher on the apples of my cheeks, but for spring I'm tempted to start using bronzer again in preparation for the summer! I use the Expert Face Brush for foundation, a stipling brush for powder and a compact powder brush for my bronzer (a bit naughty, but I just prefer it).

 I've been loving winged eyeliner in the last few months, and although I do think I'll be sticking to that throughout spring as well considering it's my go-to eyeliner routine, I'm going to try using softer, more brown shades on my eyes so that my make-up is in-keeping with the more natural style that spring brings with it (browns also compliment my green eyes, which is a bonus). And, as always, I'll be using my Mega Plush mascara from Maybelline because it's my absolute fave.


Despite all the magazines and bloggers raving about how lip glosses are going to be the 'in thing' during the next season, I'm really more of a matte person when it comes to my lips, as glosses just make me feel a bit sticky and gross (there is also a slight chance of me act like the next Kim Kardashian, and nobody wants to see that), so rather than going with lip glosses or sticking with lipstick, I've gone somewhere in the middle with these lovely scented lip balms from Body Shop.

So they are the things I've guessed I'll be wearing the most throughout the loveliness that is spring time, I hope you've enjoyed having a nosy at my choices!

What are going to be your staple make-up products for spring? Are you planning on changing your routine, or sticking to the one you have now?

Getting organised!

I don't know about you guys but whenever I'm stressed it's usually because I'm completely unorganised. I always end up making a mountain out of a molehill, thinking I've got tonnes of work to do for college when in reality the amount I've got to do isn't all that bad; it's doable. I constantly under-estimate the power of a good checklist and the satisfaction that ticking something off on that list brings. 

So, now that I'm getting to the point in my college year where I'm starting to get a stress-on about revision for my summer exams, rather than panicking and thinking something along the lines of 'Oh god I've got so much to do and no time to do it look at that pile of stuff I have to go through for law this is ridiculous I'm going to fail so I'm just going to ignore it and hope it goes away', I've decided that I'm going to boil everything down to a revision checklist for every subject and work through those systematically.

I've already started ticking things off on my literature and sociology lists and my workload is feeling less scary already. It's like getting it down on paper helps to de-clutter my brain and give me more room to think about what needs doing, rather than feeling like it's too much and choosing to avoid it instead. 

In the picture at the top you can see the two notepads I use to jot things down if I need to, folders so that I can separate all the material I have for different subjects, and then dividers so that I can separate the things I've already separated so I can look at it and feel super-duper organised, and a big colourful notebook that I take to college in order to make all my notes in. 

If you're feeling stressed at any point in your life, my advice would be to think about what needs doing and write it down. Then there's no chance of you forgetting something and I promise that once you've listed everything you need to, you'll start wondering exactly what you were so stressed about.

Guilty pleasures

I watched John Tucker Must Die the other day and found that, as I sat down to watch  it, I had to justify it to myself saying 'it's just a guilty pleasure' and it got me thinking about all the other things I've named my 'guilty pleasures' in order to properly enjoy them in the way I want to:

1. Mcfly/Busted (now basically the same thing with the exception of Charlie)

2. Mean Girls

3. Boys with a cute side fringe

4. A cup of tea between my first and second lesson at college

5. A chocolate bar to dip into said tea between first and second lesson

6. Putting cheesy Doritos in my sandwiches

7. Harry Styles' face

8. Any 80s film (particularly those directed by John Hughes)

9. Strictly Come Dancing

10. Any form of potato-based food (especially if cheese is involved somehow)

11. Pop punk

I absolutely love all of these things, and I generally allow them to affect my life on a daily basis (particularly pop punk, I don't think I go a day without pop punk), yet I still insist on calling them my 'guilty pleasures' rather than my 'interests'. Making them out to be something that I enjoy, but don't necessarily enjoy enjoying, means that I can like them without feeling like I've become the complete stereotype of a 21st Century, British teenage girl, because everyone knows that the absolute worst thing you can become is a stereotype. I mean, murderer? Clearly you've got some issues you need to work out. Terrorist? Just a product of religious propaganda. But stereotype?! What on earth were you thinking? You see stereotypes every single day, you know the signs, why didn't you stop it from happening while you could?

Yet the reasons stereotypes exist is because everybody likes to do them: they're fun. And the reason 'guilty pleasures' are called just that is because that's what they are: pleasures. If you take the stigma, the irony and the guilt out of it, then everyone can enjoy them without feeling like they're doing the worst thing in the entire world.

I honestly love every single one of my 'guilty pleasures', and wouldn't be able to go a week without taking part in at least five of them. They're where I get most of my enjoyment from; they make me happy; and I refuse to feel guilty about doing something that makes me feel positive about my life. 

And I invite every single one of you to do the same.

January favourites!

The things that I got the most use out of in January, ranging from fashion and beauty to films and books!

I bought this denim jacket about a week after Christmas, and now I basically live and die in it. It's great to wear to college over the top of a thick woolly jumper, and I usually pair it with this lovely purple/burgundy scarf that I got for Christmas to keep extra warm.

I've been complaining for the past couple of months that the only season-appropriate nail varnish I owned was a red one (and red becomes boring very quickly), and so when I went in town last I decided to pick up a couple of darker colours so I could vary between them. I love the Rimmel nail varnishes because they have great coverage without using too much, and they don't smudge easily like other brands seem to do.

 Hooped earrings have been in fashion for the past couple of months, and when I saw these in Topshop I could resist. I'm always a bit pedantic when it comes to earrings; I can't have them too big or too small or I feel they just look out of place and draw the wrong kind of attention. But these are the perfect size, and help to make me feel a bit more stylish if I think I look a little boring. 

 I've heard lots of people talk about Spector around college for a while and I would always say to myself 'I'll have to listen to them one day', and thankfully that day came a couple of weeks ago when I decided to search for them on Spotify. I've not stopped listening to their album 'Enjoy It While It Lasts' since, and I love the Vaccines-style feel their music has to it.

 Since going back to college after Christmas, I've decided to become more of a list maker in order to reduce my stress levels. As my workload is increasing due my summer exams looming, I decided to start using this diary/planner to write down all I need to do in order to do as well as I possibly can. I find writing things in a list and being able to tick them off as I go makes me feel far more productive and like I've accomplished something. It's great for scribbling down late-night ideas as well!

 The book I've been reading over January is 'The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out Of The Window and Disappeared' by Jonas Jonasson and it is seriously one of the most honest, quirkiest and interesting books I have ever read. It's about a man named Alan who, on his one-hundredth birthday, decides to climb out of the window of the old people's home he's in and disappear (as you can tell from the title). He ends up getting involved in things that nobody should ever get involved in, especially if they're one-hundred-years-old! But as the story continues and the present-day drama starts to unfold, the reader starts to experience flashbacks into the exciting life Alan has lead; finding that he's actually been involved in some of the most defining moments of the 20th Century.

The TV show Brooklyn Nine Nine has started been shown here in the UK on E4, and even though I'm only a few episodes in, I absolutely love it. I think it's hilarious and the characters are so likeable and unique. I've placed it on the same level of comedy as 30 Rock and Perks and Rec, because it has that similar oddness and absurdity to it that I adore in American comedies.




And last but not least, the main thing I have been addicted to this past month is Leena Norms' (justkissmyfrog) VEDJ. Although she mysteriously disappeared towards the end of January, making it not necessarily a VEDJ but pretty damn close, the content quality of the videos has been amazing, so I think we can let her off for running out of steam! I particularly like this one that she uploaded with Sanne from booksandquills about whether wearing make-up can constitute as being superficial, and even in some cases a liar. It just really sums up how I feel towards the whole topic and it's one of the best videos I've seen in a while.