Bargain of the month #1

I went out today in the vain hope I'd find a reasonably priced suitcase to take on my hols and came back with this beautiful dress, plus tons of food! Whoops. I had a bit of a panic last night that I had nothing to wear on holiday and literally glued myself to my laptop until midnight trawling Internet fashion websites for inspiration, but it never came. So today when we popped into a Next Outlet by our house I couldn't help but have a little browse and came across this beauty! It is a Lipsy London dress reduced from £65 to ... £22! I didn't even know Lipsy sold through Next, but it was a nice surprise and I will probably be visiting more often. I really like the gold studded detail plus the black and white colouring makes it feel quite edgy for a pretty dress. I'd say the skirt of the dress is Tulip style which is very flattering on my shape plus it has bones to help create a better silhouette - love, love, love it!
As soon as I tried it on (they don't have fitting rooms in store) I knew I had to tell you all about it and thought it'd be good to start a new little feature. Hope you like it and you're having a lovely weekend x

American wishlist

I've not done a wishlist before as I don't tend to lust after items, if I can afford to buy it I will. If I know I can't I'll probably just forget about it as I know I shouldn't be buying! But who knows, this may change now that I am opening myself up to lots of your lovely blogs and seeing so many amazing products.

As I have previously mentioned I'm off to Las Vegas with the boyf soon and I have had a google and have read and watched a few blogs videos to see if there are any 'must haves' when going to America. It has left me feeling veeeeery excited I must say and so I have put together this little wishlist to show you what I'm considering buying when I get our there.

1. Jergens Natural Glow Daily Moisturiser - I saw this on Anna's blog when she went off to Florida and like the sound of it. I've used a couple of gradual tanning moisturisers before but seen as you can't get this one here and I'm always on the lookout for interesting products I might give it a try if I see it around.

2. Tarte Amazonian Clay bronzer in Hotel Heiress - Again I've seen this on a few blogs who have been fortunate enough to purchase some raved about products in the USA. It has been likened to Nars so I'm quite keen on trying this as I like to get a bargain!

3. Neutrogena Healthy Skin Liquid Foundation - As a brand that is not available here in the UK I'd like to have a good snoop at their products. Many bloggers have posted about this one before and as it's a light/medium coverage foundation it'll be good for when I'm out in the humidity of the dessert! And it's such a good price at around £8.

4. I know, I knooow, you can get these here in the UK - I have the Core Collection which I am loving, but after a good research earlier into what to buy I realised you can get these a lot cheaper over there! So I am definitely picking up the Travel Essentials. It's mainly because I want the Multi-Task brush, but I am a little bit in love with their brushes and will probably ask for the rest for birthday and Christmas presents haha!

Do you have any other suggestions as to what to look out for while I'm there? I hope you enjoyed this post, a little different to what I normally do so leave me a comment! x

What's in my basket

I've had this little basket thing for a while now. In my mum and dads house I had the smallest, box room ever so I literally have no where to put stuff. That's where the basket came in handy. I used it to fill with lots of goodies so it was all contained rather than dotted all over the place. I then kind of forgot about it when I moved out and recently went round to bring it back as my stuff is starting to take over here too! haha.

So, I thought I'd do a little post and tell you what's actually inside it... I won't go through every product as there are too many bits and bobs but I hope it's informative and you like!

It is literally a basket full of many many things! Here goes..

No7 Cleansing water & No7 Overnight Radiance Boost: So I've popped my skincare products into here and they are fairly near the top as I obviously use them daily. I've been using the cleansing water for about a month now and I'm not loving it, I much preferred the foaming cleanser so if you're unsure go for that one! The Overnight Radiance Boost I haven't fully got into a habit of using it yet so I can't say too much about this one. Hold tight!

Garnier Ombre Solaire Golden Protect: I picked this up the other week as I'm off on my hols in 3 weeks! (woohooo) It's not going to be a lazy sunbathing holiday so I liked how this particular suntan lotion has luminous pear shimmer as I'd like to think when I'm walking around Vegas I'll look sunkissed rather than just really pale and sticky. We'll see! I always buy around SPF10 too which I know is quite bad but I have quite thick skin which doesn't burn too easily as long as I reapply.

GHD's: Yes the mighty GHDs are in my basket when they're not being used, which to be honest the last year I haven't really used them often. I would say I now straighten or style my hair with these twice a week. I'm trying to be good as I want my hair to grow grow grow!! Once it gets to an acceptable length though I'll probably hate it and chop it into a bob again. Nightmare.

I've got the essentials in here too like cotton wool, deodorant (which at the moment is Dove as they were on offer!) and a couple of body moisturisers.

Trevor Sorbie Beautiful Volume Hairspray: I have two of these cus I love them! It actually smells okay (I'd even say nice) for hairspray and works well to create and keep volume. I also posted about it here.

I've also got a pile of fake tans! Naturally. The one I'm currently using is Garnier Ombre Solaire No streaks bronzer in Medium, I find this so quick and easy to use the night before I want to be a bronze goddess and it dries super quick! The only thing I'm finding at  the moment is that it doesn't seem to like taking to my legs! So I have St. Tropez Bronzing Spray too, which I actually forgot I had until I picked up my basket from mums. I've got about half the bottle left so I'm thinking of trying it again soon as it gave me a really nice natural tan. In the tanning pile is also Rimmel's Sunshimmer instant tan, It's one of those products I think I've used since I was about 18 and started tanning so I probably will never not have one to hand for last minute tanning or amending any streaks! It does smell though so be aware!!

Do you have anywhere like this that you fill up with random products? 

It's Autumn!

As it's really getting into September, with the cold weather and darker nights/mornings it made me look at my  nail polishes and think, oh dear I really need some new ones! I tend to focus more on painting my nails in the Summer, I think it's just habit of wanting to look bright and Summery! So in the Autumn/Winter I tend to just wear black or red when I'm going out. 

I found this little gem in amongst my bright yellows and pinks and had to do my nails straight away! It's Nails Inc and is called Jermyn Street. I think, if I remember rightly, it came free with a magazine yonks ago and I probably wore it once and then put it away. I really like it though! It's such a gorgeous colour for this time of year, brown with a hint of berry tones. So now I'm on the hunt for more Autumnal colours - do you have any suggestions?

Why do I choose drugstore?

After doing the 'how much is your face worth' TAG I realised I own a lot of drugstore products and perhaps that is why my total was lower than pretty much all of the blogs I read. So it got me thinking, why do I choose drugstore over high-end, premium brands?

When I was younger, obviously drugstore is cheaper to buy, it's accessible and you don't get looked up and down when you go into Boots on the weekend. But now that I'm older and, sort of, have the money to splash a bit more on fancy cosmetics why don't I? I think it comes down to the fact that I don't like to experiment a lot and I like to really research into buying something before I do. Don't get me wrong I do own the magnificent YSL concealer but I only bought this because it was recommend by a friend. I also bought Smashbox's Primer because it was recommend by a lady on a beauty counter in America (who didn't work for the brand!) I have to really be sure before I spend my pennies!
I see lots of high-end products raved about on blogs which does make me think 'wow it must be good' but I still can't let myself just go buy it on the off-chance it'll work for me. Drugstore is so much cheaper and so, if it doesn't work, I don't feel that guilty for spending all my hard earned cash on it! Imagine paying £30 odd for Laura Mericer's Tinted Moisturiser than realising, actually, this looks rubbish on me! I think it would put me off for life. Ah!

What makes you buy the brands you buy? Have you ever bought an expensive cosmetic only to find it's awful? Let me know so I can avoid it! (only joking) ;) x

TAG: How much is your face worth

Hello hello. I've seen this TAG going round on a few blogs and I quite liked the idea of it, adding up all the products you put onto your face each day to see how much it costs. I've done it purely on makeup, my skincare and moisturiser etc I've left out of this one but if you choose to do one you can include what you like! So for my everyday kind of makeup which I wear to work, during the day on weekends is ....

Maybelline The Falsies mascara £7.99 

Smashbox Primer £25 

Rimmel Wake Me Up Foundation £5.99 

YSL Touche Eclat £25 

Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection Concealer £4.19 

Rimmel Sunshimmer bronzer £6.12

Max Factor Creme Puff Powder £5.99

Rimmel Professional Eyebrow Pencil £2.99

Total: £83.27

Hmm, I don't think this is that bad! For everyday I do use mostly high street cosmetics and to be honest a lot of it you wouldn't buy every month either. It's the naughty concealer and primer that is pushing the price up though! Wouldn't be without them though!

Have you done this TAG? If so leave your link below. Do you ever wonder how much you spend on your face? x

Second of September...

Can you believe it's September already?! And to make it worse this weekend has gone so fast. I thought I'd just write a little bit of a lifestyle post today as I'm sat here relaxing and reading others blogs! If you want to leave your link below please do as I'd love to have a snoop around.

Yesterday, as it was supposed to be a lovely, sunny day we decided we would take the dog for a walk and then have a mini picnic in the back garden. By we, I mean the boyf and I! We don't take much advantage of the back garden as it needed a lot of work doing to it but now we have a lovely little patch of grass and an ol' pub bench to sit out on. Nice. I baked some cupcakes in the morning and then he made us some sarnies and ... chocolate covered strawberries. I think he didn't think I knew, as he was trying to be secretive and surprise me, but as soon as I'd finished chomping on my sandwich I was then just waiting for the strawberries to arrive. They did not disappoint. He covered them in melted Milka chocolate and picked one out that looked heart shaped for me, gah it sounds terribly cheesy now!

So now I'm slouching on the sofa on here while he attempts to DIY the bathroom. Haven't had a chilled weekend in a while, it feels quite nice especially when it's not so nice outdoors.

What have you been up to this weekend? Please leave me any links below :) x