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