Saturday 31 December 2011

My favourite products of 2011

I don't usually do favourites posts, but I figured I would do a quick round up on the products I've loved this year.


Eyemakeup:



Naturally, the Naked palette has been my most reached for product so far, because it's so versatile! Aside from that, my staples have become my Too Faced Natural Eye palette and the Mac Paint Pot in Painterly which is a fantastic base that sometimes doubles as a concealer. The No7 brush is amazing and I'm so glad I got it as it really does blend exceptionally well and is my most used brush.

Lips:

The Sleek Pout Paints have basically made most of my other lippies redundant - again so versatile and I adore mixing the colours and my first MAC lipstick in Speak Louder, a pressie from my sister, is a gorgeous pink colour that I just adore using.

Cheeks:

 So as for cheeks, this L'Oreal blush has been used so much by me this year I've hit the pan! The Fenberry blush shouldn't really count but I haven't stopped using it since I got it and it will definitely become a staple in my makeup bag.


 Skincare:



Finally, this Clinique moisture surge  gel is great and basically the only skincare thing I use consistently.

So that's it from me tonight and I wish you all a very happy new year!

Small haul! + FOTD

I went shopping today with my best friend as I wanted to check out this shop I've heard a lot about called HEMA. First of all, a friend told me a while ago that their makeup brushes were amazing but I never went to the shop. Then I saw these brushes on Jenny's blog and enquired as to where she got them - HEMA being the answer.

And so I went along today and found lots of brushes that looked really good...dirt cheap!



The eyeliner cost 4,50 € as did the grey brush, I think and the other two cost 2,95€ each! Amazing prices, especially in Luxembourg (UKers may not bat an eyelid seeing as they have amazingly cheap stuff like Primark but for Luxland this is incredibly cheap)
I haven't tried them yet but look forward to!



So as for the FOTD, I've been trying out my Fred Farrugia cream eyeshadow...still not sure and I have used my Sleek berry collection kohl pencil, which I LOVE even if it might make me look tired, I love the way the red contrasts with my blue eyes :)



New Year's Tag!

So I'm feeling a bit bored as I can't update with proper posts yet as my camera needs to charge so I decided to find a tag about New Year's to do instead of just randomly waffling about my year.

1. What did you do in 2011 that you'd never done before?
Not only did I go to Paris for two weeks all by myself, I had my first summer job (films don't count) and had my theatre debut. I thoroughly enjoyed being on stage and I've finally found a hobby that I'm actually good at (without sounding vain).

A picture from our dress rehearsal!

2. What countries did you visit?
I visited the usual countries this year, although I'm not sure travelling through Belgium would count, but aside from that I visited Cologne in Germany, Paris and England. Paris was my definite highlight as it was such a fantastic experience.
Me in Paris at the Sacre-Coeur (with the lovely backdrop of Paris behind me)

3. What moments from 2011 will remain etched upon your memory?
Having a night out (that didn't go exactly to plan) in Paris. It was so much fun being with a bunch of new people in a new city and this night just stuck with me.

4. Where did most of your money go?
Funnily enough, probably on makeup! After all, this is the year I bought the Naked palette and my MAC paintpot.

5. What song will always remind you of 2011?
So many, but for the moment I would say  Slow Moving Millie's version of Please, please, please, let me get what I want as the John Lewis advert was so cute and I've listened to the song a lot lately.

6. What do you wish you'd done more of?
To be honest, probably blogging...I've really neglected my blog so far. 


7. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Spent time worrying about 'friends' and all that crap.


8. How will you be spending New Year's Eve?
 At home with my family, I don't really celebrate it much.

9. Did you fall in love in 2011?
I haven't fallen in love, but I did have a pretty massive crush on a guy that didn't work out. 


10. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
It's not so much hate, rather I've fallen out with a girl I thought I was really close with (according to her, apparantly not) and who just all of a sudden decided to spend a lot more time with other people, which was hurtful and I decided to sever ties as it's not worth wasting time on ungenuine friendships.

11. What did you want and get?
I desperately wanted to improve my languages somewhat so that I wouldn't fail this new year and with a bit of perseverance, I have improved but I still have a long road ahead of me! Aside from that, I got myself a lovely new camera so that I can get some lovely memories in high resolution .


12. What did you want and not get?
As silly as it sounds, I wanted a boyfriend, yet still the (for the time being) perfect guy eludes me!


13. What was your favorite film(s) of this year?
Naturally, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2. I sobbed like a baby the four times I went to watch this! Aside from that, I really enjoyed X-Men: First Class.

14. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
On my birthday -17th-, I went to the graveyard, as has become tradition since 2007, and then had cake with my family and best friend and then went to go see Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides  with my two best friends.

my birthday cake!

15. Who was the best new person/people you met?
 Hmm...this is a bit of a hard one, but I guess it's between Steffi, who's now a classmate of mine for the next three years and a great person to sit next to in English, History, Biology and Physics (I think that's all)  and with whom I can always discuss things like blogging or memes ;) Otherwise, it would be Samiha, the resident party girl or Sophie, with whom I lived in Paris and whom I miss incredibly :(

16. Did you learn anything?
How to swear in Russian!

17. Who did you spend Valentines with?
Nobody.

18. Do you live in the same place you did at the beginning of the year?
Yep

19. Did you change your hair?
 Yes, I got a fringe and frequently hvoer between having it loose or pinned up.

20. Any weddings in 2011?
 Yeah, my two very close friends Kate and Will got married. It was a humble affair, very small ;) My cousin got married the day before the Royal Wedding (not intentionally) but I was unable to go.


21. Any babies in 2011?
 Don't believe so

22. So overall was it a good year?
 It had its ups and downs, I'll be honest, but I think I lived more this year, as stupid as that sound. I definitely had a few new experiences.

23. Were you naughty or nice?
 Nice, obviouuuusly.

24. What's your New Year's Resolution?
Improve my german and lose weight!


I hope you guys liked this and please feel free to do the tag and give me your links! I think I WILL tag a few people in this , so Min and Dani and Stephie have now been tagged!

Friday 30 December 2011

it seems I've finally come back...

...after being MIA for what seems like eternity!

There really is only so many times that I can apologise for my absence and so I say it again, I'm so incredibly sorry for abandoning my blog!
School has been overwhelming, far more so than I expected and due to me gaining more extracurricular activities (I'm not tutoring three little swedish girls on saturdays) and studying a lot more, I've been getting less time to myself and consequently, less time to blog.

I know, it's been the holidays for a few weeks now, why haven't I blogged then? Well, I rushed off to London as soon as school finished to get a visa sorted out for a trip to India and then with the Christmas rush and wanting to spend time with my family, my blog got shunted to the side again.

But now I have dragged myself up to the attic, where my computer resides, and have prepared a blog post. I have a few more in mind, but I won't promise anything as I know damn well I can't keep them.

So in the wake of christmas, what else would I blog about aside from my new possessions, naturally of the beauty variety.

 So here are the beauty related presents that I got, I plan on doing some indepth reviews on them individually, I might get the time tomorrow to do so as being the sad sorry sod I am, I don't have any plans for NYE.

So I got a Filthy Gorgeous magnetic nail varnish from my two sisters (click and click funny that, they both have their names incorporated into their blog names, interesting..), a Sephora body glitter lotion thing from Minnie (first link there), an ELF eyeshadow palette from my cousin Naomi (first elf product, yay!!) and the Sleek berry collection.

I'm pretty pleased with the haul, even if it's small, it's a bunch of stuff I like as opposed to lots of things I wouldn't be mad about.

Now aside from makeup, I did get some other stuff that I figured I'd mention.


As you can see, I got several books and DVDS and a perfume from assorted people. The two books are fantastic reads -yes I've finished them both- , I would recommend Runelight (and the first one, Runemarks) by Joanne Harris chaudement especially if you are interested in learning about Norse mythology whilst reading a fantastic story. Inheritance was the final book of the Eragon series and I loved it despite the ending not being what I expected. The QI General Ignorance book shows how much of a QI geek I am and, according to my sister, a Ted (HIMYM, as he looks spouting facts. like me).

As for the DVDs, Harry Potter goes with saying, X-Men stars my current celebrity crush, Michael Fassbender, and is an amazing movie (and has lots of eye candy!). Then you have the Jason Manford dvd that I have yet to watch!



Here we have my main present from my parents, a gorgeous Dorothy Perkins satchel! I don't usually splurge on bags, but felt the need to get this one as I desperately need a new everyday bag.


Here's a pic of me with my bag and my cardie, which you can't see very well, which was also an xmas pressie.

Hope you all like this post and again, please forgive me for being absent all this time! xxx