It's been a while!

I'd been doing so well with this blog, I'm quite impressed and even surprised that I've managed 11 posts! I've started blogs in the past and then given up after 2 or 3 posts. But then I had a pretty awful few  weeks and just haven't been in the mood for blogging. I wasn't well, and ended up in hospital being severely anaemic. I'm much better now, but still in the process of trying to find out what caused it. Was a pretty scary couple of weeks. Then last week, my boyfriend of seven years broke up with me. This blog isn't really the place to go into details about it all, but it came as a huge blow. We'd been going through a rough patch but I genuinely thought we'd come through the other side and things were picking up, but he clearly didn't feel the same and that was that.

It hurt. A LOT. It still does. But I'm trying to keep busy. I'm off work for a week now, and luckily have a lot to keep my mind occupied. I did the Race for Life today, which was brilliant. It was my third time, and the weather had always been lovely for it. I wanted to crawl back under my duvet when I woke up this morning and saw the miserable, grey, rainy weather outside! It rained pretty much the whole way round, and the moment we got back to the car after the event, the sun came out - typical! I've raised £150 for Cancer Research and will certainly be back again next year.

Me and Mam at the Race for Life at silly o'clock this morning!

Then on Tuesday I'm going to see Take That!! I am so so excited, I'm like a kid at Christmas! I'm doing my best not to find out anything about the show,  I'm determined to keep it as much of a surprise as possible! I'm actually really looking forward to seeing Robbie. Wasn't too sure about him rejoining the band at first, and to be honest I'm still not 100% sure he deserves to be back with them. But I'm looking forward to seeing him doing a couple of solo numbers as well as performing with the others again, so bring it on! I'm also having a girlie shopping trip on Wednesday, and a day out with Mam on Friday, and then it's my birthday on Saturday! Hopefully I'll be able to squeeze in a couple of blog posts too!!

So yes, it's been a hard few weeks, and I'm sure the next couple of weeks will be hard too. But I'm determined not to dwell on what's happened. It'll take time, but my family and friend have been brilliant - they're all looking out for me and keeping me busy. I'm sure with them, and this blog I'll be able to move on.

Naughy shoe purchase!

Nine times out of ten, my working week tends to be Friday-Tuesday, meaning Wednesday and Thursday is my "weekend". So after a busy day at work on Friday, I had a serious case of the "Monday Blues" and found myself wandering into Dorothy Perkins once I had finished my shift.

I was only planning on going in for a browse as I've treated myself more than enough this months and I really should be saving more money, but I spotted these cute little pumps and decided I needed them in my life!

To be fair, I kind of did. I threw my old pumps away at the end of last summer, as after constant wear they'd got really tatty. I'd been wearing my trusty flat black sandals while the weather has been warmer, but had nothing for when it's slightly cooler, or when I just fancied a change, other than some rather boring lace-up canvas pumps, but they're not exactly pretty are they?!

They were a little expensive at £23, but I just fell in love with the gorgeous dusky pink colour, and the chiffon bow. They seemed the perfect way to dress up a casual jeans & tee combo. I am a little worried as to how log they'll last, so I'll probably get some cheaper pumps too form Primark, and keep these for when I want something a bit fancier on my feet!

With my purchase I received a VIP voucher which gives 25% off between the 14th and 22nd May, and two 15% off vouchers, which are valid til July... looks like I'll be shopping some more then! ;)

Sarah Xx

Tweet Tweet!

I've finally given in and created myself a Twitter account! I've so far resisted the hype and not bothered to create an account; none of my friends are on it so I never seen the point. However since I've stared blogging, I thought Twitter might be a good way of getting to know other bloggers out there and get more involved in the beauty blogging community.

So if you happen to have stumbled upon my blog, please click on the image above to follow me on Twitter and say hello, before I go crazy talking to myself! ;)



I look forward to tweeting you all soon!

Sarah x

More new storage!

After recently revamping my nail varnish storage, I decided I needed something new to house my ever expanding make-up. For the past few years my make-up has been happily living in these drawers that I got from WH Smiths. They weren't particularly nice looking, but they did the trick and sat nicely on my dressing table. I had a drawer for single eye shadows, one for mascaras, eyeliners and lip products, one the housed my every day stuff, then the large bottom drawer had everything else kind of thrown in. This worked for a while, but as you can see as I acquired more make up, this became less effective!

My trusty make up drawers, and how they ended up looking!

The three smaller drawers were quite shallow, and I kept getting things caught so the drawer wouldn't open properly, and the bottom drawer was a bit too deep, and things tended to get lost, and it just really became a nightmare trying to do my make-up on a morning. And also it had nowhere to store my palettes.

After browsing various blogs and other websites, I found the perfect solution for my delimma. So yet again off I went to good ol' WH Smiths and picked up this little beauty. Well, maybe not so little as it was a pain to carry around, but it's a beauty all the same! They were reduced from £19.99 to a mere £9.99 which is probably what I paid for my old drawers. So many bloggers appear to have done the same thing lately, I can't help but wonder if WH Smiths are aware of our use for what I'm guessing was designed for stationary/office items!

It's fairly large, a little bigger than A4, and as you can see it has three different sized drawers. I'm using the larger one to store my palettes. Next we have single eye shadows, and then a mix of blushers, highlighters, powders and bronzers. The smaller drawers at the top hold foundations/concealers/primers, mascaras and eye liners, then finally lipsticks and lipglosses. Everything is that bit more organised, and hopefully I'll find it easier to grab what I'm looking for, and hopefully things that were stuck at the back of my old drawers will see the light of day and get some use!

There were a few different designs available, including a really cute cup-cake one, but I went for this from their 'Blossom' range as I loved the colour. And my make-shift nail varnish holder has a similar blue/green colour in it so it kind of works quite well. Admittedly the drawers are already quite full so I really should hold off buying too much more make up in the near future. I'm also a little concerned about keeping them clean as they're made from (strong!) cardboard, but for the time being I'm very pleased with my new purchase, thanks to all the bloggers out there for the tip! ;)

Apologies for the unmade bed in the reflection!

Sarah Xx

Debenhams Beaty Club Reminder!

Just really quick reminder about a current promotion Debenhams are running, which I knew nothing about until I was in there yesterday! Basically they have topped up some (if not, all!) Beauty Club cards with an extra £5, as a tie in with the Beauty Club Awards that they ran recently.

I recently ran out of my favourite foundation, Dior Skin Nude and have been putting off replacing it as it is rather expensive at £29.50. But yesterday I decided that it is time to repurchase, and knowing I had £5 already on my Beauty Club card from a Clinique purchase a couple of months ago, I felt a little less guilty about my splurge.

I handed over my card, asking for the £5 to be taken off, to which the sales assistant told me I  actually had £10 on,  meaning I got my foundation for £19.50, which made my day! As she was completing the transaction, I told the assistant that this must be a sign I'm spending too much, as I can't remember where the other £5 came from!  She then told me about the promotion, and how an extra £5 had been added to people's club cards. Sure enough when I got home, I noticed the email I'd been sent about it! Although, I can't help but think I've had an extra stroke of luck; the email says the £5 is only redeemable against products that won in their Beauty Club Awards. Looking at the list of winners, I can't see Dior Skin Nude mentioned anywhere.... shhh! I won't tell if you won't!

£19.50 - Bargain!

I believe the £5 bonus expires on May 14th, so if you've not used yours yet, get yourself to your local Debenhams sharpish so you don't miss out!

Sarah Xx

My Make Up Story: Embracing the Drugstore.

When it comes to buying make-up, I seem to have come almost full circle. I am over my "everything has to be high-end" obsession, and I'm just as happy coming out of my local Boots or Superdrug with a bag full of goodies as I am when I've splurged on something pretty from Benefit.

Benefit's Non-Fiction
the start of my high-end obsession

The first 'high-end' make-up I bought was an old Benefit foundation, called "non-fiction" which has since been discontinued. I don't quite remember what made me buy this, but it was then that my obsession grew. Everything I put on my face HAD to be high-end and I wouldn't even look at drug-store products, let alone try them out. I wasn't really aware of blogs then, but all the YouTube hauls and tutorials that I watched were filled with Mac, Urban Decay and Benefit products. Thing are different now, in fact a lot of blogs I read seem to feature more drug store products than high-end, but back then I thought in order to re-create the looks shown, you had to go out and spend a fortune.

The truth, quite simply is that you don't. At the end of the day, the product won't do all the work for you, you have to 'work' the product. I think this is especially important for people who are just getting into make up. That expensive Mac foundation isn't going to look good if it's caked on, or is the wrong shade, or breaks you out. Whereas if a cheaper, drug-store one doesn't quite work for you, it's not the end of the world as you've not spent £25+ on it.

Some of my current dug-store loves, including Sleek,
Boujois, Max Factor & Collection 2000

I think drugstore make-up is better than ever at the moment. Brand such as Sleek, Barry M and Elf (though that's technically not a drugstore!) have fantastic products at amazing prices, and older brands such as Rimmel, 17 and even Collection 2000 have really revamped their image and are expanding their range all the time and there's always something I want to try out.  Even the packaging is much nicer these days which is always a bonus if like me you're a sucker for anything pretty looking! And  obviously as it's cheaper, it's easier to buy more things and experiment, so when you do want so splash out on something a bit fancier, you know what colours and formulations work with your skin, so you won't be wasting that hard earned cash.

It's okay to splash out once in a while!

I think I've got the balance about right now. Yes I still love my Benefit, and my Urban Decay eyeshadows, but I'm not afraid to go into my local Boots or Superdrug and see what they've got. Boots have a 3 for 2 across all their cosmetics at the moment, and you can mix and match different brands, so it's a good excuse to try out something new. And this way, buying something high end is more of a treat, and let's face it, we all need a little treat once in a while don't we?!


Sarah Xx

Haul: Models Own & Elf!

I've not been too well recently, and in an attempt to cheer myself up, I decided to treat to myself to some Models Own and Elf goodies! I ordered both last Thursday evening, so they took a bit longer than normal due to the Easter bank holidays, but the fact they both turned up together made up for it; I've never had two parcels delivered at the same time before so as you can imagine I was very excited!

We'll start with the Models Own polishes, eight of which I ordered from the Models Ow website. They actually have quite a good deal on there, which I think is permanent. The polishes are all £5 each; (excluding the new 'Smash Up' polishes) buying three polishes saves you £3, and buying five saves you an impressive £7. I bought eight, and used the FACEFAN code from their Facebook page to get another 10% off. So the polishes came to £26, instead of £40! The extra polish in the photos I got this week from Boots, but thought I may as well include it with these.

After much deliberation, I settled on these colours.

Purple Passion and Purple Poppy look very similar in the photo. And they are, put I'd say Purple Passion is a slightly deeper version. Before I'd taken them out of the protective bubble wrap I thought they'd sent me two of the same colour! Purple Poppy is probably my favourite out of the two, and I'd have chosen this over Purple Passion if I was buying them in a shop and therefore could see the similarities. But purple and pink nail polishes are my favourite so having two so similar doesn't really hurt! Plus I've not tested them out yet, so they might look more different when applied!

Blooboo is one of Models Own's newer releases from their Spring/Summer collection It's a lovely pale blue, with just a hint of blue shimmer peeking through. I wasn't overly impressed with the last blue nail polish I bought, which was a Barry M one, but this is slightly paler so thought I'd give it a whirl!

Jade Stone - I've been looking for another mint green polish for a while. I normally love Barry M's nail polishes, but was also disappointed with their infamous Mint Green; I found it quite watery and difficult to apply. Jade Stone is slightly darker which I prefer.

Top Turquoise is more green than it looks in the picture. As the name suggests, it's a lovely bright turquoise. I think this will looks great with a tan (here's hoping for some sun!), and I'm looking forward to trying this out with the 'Crackle' nail polishes that are out at the moment!

Bronze Rage is another new polish in the range. This colour looks gorgeous in the bottle; a very shimmery rust colour with a slight gold sparkle. I've not seen many colours like this and think it'd be perfect for summer evenings.

Mystic Mauve is a gorgeous pinky purpley shimmery polish! I can imagine it may look more silver in some lights, but I think this could be quite a versatile polish and could be worn all year round.

Champagne is, like Mystic Mauve, a 'foil' nail varnish, and similarly I think it'll look gold in some lights, and silver in others. Again a really nice shimmery colour that will work all year round!

Finally, Golden Peach was the one polish not bought online. I got his in Boots, basically so I could take advantage of their current 3 for 2 offer on cosmetics. I'd already placed my online order, but couldn't quite remember what colours I'd ordered! I pretty much grabbed a colour that I knew as different to anything else I'd ordered. Although having said that, I really do like this colour! It's a pale, creamy orange which I wouldn't normally go for, but the subtle gold shimmer makes it really unique colour and I quite like how it's totally different to anything else in my collection.


To finish, here's a little peak at my Elf haul; which I'll blog about next time!

Oh and I just want to say a big thank you to everyone who has followed my blog so far - much appreciated! ;)

New Nail Polish Storage

Over the last few months, I seem to have acquired a large amount of nail varnishes, for me anyway. I work with food, so wearing nail varnish is a no-no for the most part. But recently, if I've had my days off together, I've been making the effort to paint my nails. Partly because I'm off work and therefore am 'allowed' to do so, but also with the weather getting warmer, nail varnishes seem so much more appealing - especially all the pretty summer shades!

I used to just store my polishes on my dressing table, places on top of and around my various palettes. As I bought more polishes, this became impractical and just looked messy. So for the past few months my nail polishes have been stored in a drawer like so:

As you can see, it's pretty boring and hard to find what your looking for! Then, last week, whist having a bit of a clear out I came across a rather pretty box, which I think was from a No7 Christmas gift set a few years ago. The lid is quite deep and has a nice floral pattern on. The front was a little grubby from where a sticky label had once been I guess, but this didn't matter as you'd only see the edges anyway.

I figured that when turned 'upside down' it'd make the perfect little storage box for my polishes, so that they're all contained, yet it's still easy to see where everything is, and looks prettier than just being shoved in a shoe box!

So far, my collection is only about 3 rows deep, so I have plenty of space to expand my collection; starting with the eight Models Own polishes I currently have on order! For now, the rest of the space is taken up with nail polish remover, brush cleaner and other random bits and bobs, which will need re-homing at some point, but for now everything fits in just nicely and it just shows that hoarding random stuff really does pay off!

Review: Babyliss Waving Wand

For years I have been on the lookout for a quick and easy way to curl my hair. I've tried with my trusty GHD's but I've never really been able to fully master the technique. I think this is partly due to the fact my GHD's are the older version, and aren't as 'rounded' as the newer versions are, thus making curling easier. Either way, I've never quite been able to do it. It starts off well, but as I work through more sections of hair, I just seem to get it tangled and my hair ends up... well, burned.

I faired slightly better with curling tongs, but often found I'd get the tell-tale 'kink' from the clamp which as you can imagine is not the best off looks!

However, way back before Christmas, whilst looking through the Boots Christmas catalogue, a new product caught my eye which made adding waves to my hair easier than I could've ever imagined!

The Babyliss waving wand is a relatively new product, that is similar to the conical curling wands that have become popular in recent years. The waving wand demands a similar technique, but the result is more natural, looser waves, perfect for summer I think. This is due to the unique shape of the barrel, which has flat edges, and looks similar to a very small straightening iron.

The styler itself is a lovely deep purple colour and is surprisingly light. The cord is a decent length and also swivels, which makes it even easier to manoeuvre. The ceramic barrel heats up to 200°c in about 30 seconds, but also has 4 lower settings if this is too hot for you; 140°c, 155°c, 170°c and 185°c. A heat resistant glove is also provided. This is especially useful as you get used to the wand, if it wasn't for this I'd have burned my fingers countless times! The glove is relatively thin, but is quite small, which is fine for my small hands but not sure if it'd be as useful for some people. I kind of wish two gloves were provided, as I alternate which hand I hold the wand in, and it's a bit annoying to have to keep taking the glove on and off. Having said that, I used the wand today without the glove and succeeded in not burning myself!

There's also a cool tip at the top of the wand, and it shuts off after 72 minutes which is extremely useful if you ever have that 'Have I left it switched on?!' feeling like I always do!

The technique is easy; simply wrap sections around the wand (minding those fingers!), hold for a few seconds, and voilà! It really is that easy. Use larger sections of hair for a looser wave, or smaller sections for a tighter wave. I tend to do a mixture of large and small seconds, mainly as I'm too lazy to do them evenly, but I think it also makes the over all look more natural. But this is entirely up to you.

I absolutely LOVE this product! I never thought curling my hair would be so easy. Like I said at the start, I've never been able to manage this sort of look with straighteners or conventional tongs, but with the wand I picked it up straight away!
The results last all day with a bit of hairspray, but I find the waves do drop as the day goes on. Although this depends on your hair type and/or what products you used. I'm sure mine would drop less if I used different products, and this is something I'm going to look into.

The Babyliss Waving Wand costs around £30 and is available from Boots, Argos and many online retailers.

Third time lucky!

I've decided to give blogging another go. Again. I know, I know, I do about three posts and then give up and/or forget about it. It is something I want to do though. I love reading other people's blogs, and I do have "blog envy" when I see massive archives of posts dating back a good two years or so. And I'd like to think I can create something like that, and have the dedication to stick to it. So here goes!

So that's me up there, and as you've probably guessed, I'm Sarah. I'm 28 and live in North East England. I look very young for my age, which I'm starting to appreciate, but if I'm honest it's a bit of a pain and kind of embarrassing to be asked for ID when I'm out with friends!

I'm a bit of a make up and beauty product addict, and will rant and rave about my latest finds and faves to anyone who'll listen. So I thought what better place to do just that than on my own blog! I know there's not much here right now, but please bare with me while I find my feet, and feel free to leave a comment, or follow me? Would be great to get to know some of the many beauty bloggers out there!

Sarah Xx