January Rate Or Hate

It's nearly been a whole month of 2014 but I'm still writing 2013 every time I write the date! It appears that I'm stuck in the past, especially as in this post I'm talking about products I've been using for a while but lets just go with it...

 This months rate or hate -

Quick Fix Facials Anti-Blemish Mask and V05 Plump It Up Dry Backcomb Spray

Rate - 

When I bought this face mask I'd never heard of the brand Quick Fix Facials but I thought I'd give it a try as I was looking for a face mask. The Anti-Blemish Mud Mask is designed for oily and spot prone skin, something I have and it claims to help absorb and control oil production, draw out impurities and tighten pores and treat spots and prevent future blemishes. While it does absorb and control oils and tighten my pores it doesn't do anything to help or prevent my spots but I wasn't expecting it too as I haven't ever found a drugstore product that has!

I leave the mask on until it nearly disappears and then wash it off with some warm water, and it leaves me skin feeling very soft and clean. I'm not sure how many times I've used it so I can't confirm if it lasts for 10 facials but it's lasting me a very long time unlike the face masks from lush which have to kept in the fridge and used within 3 weeks. For just under £5 I'd recommend it if your looking for a budget face mask but don't expect it to work miracles with acne!

Hate - 

As with a lot of my 'Hates' I don't hate this product I just don't love it either and the V05 Dry Backcomb Spray is a prime example of that. This product is designed to give the same volume that you'd get if you backcombed your hair but without the damage that backcombing does. Sadly this product does nothing for my hair and leaves it flat as a pancake, so I end up having to backcomb it anyway. Sad times.

Have you tried any amazing or disappointing products this month?

Eleanor xx

Sunday Nails - As Delicate As A Rose

Some would say that buying fresh roses for my bedroom every week or two is an unnecessary expense but flowers will never seize to intrigue me. Flowers do not only add some much needed colour to my room but they genuinely give me a sense of happiness and sadness as I care for them, water them, watch them bloom and grow before they gracefully die. 

Yes I sound like a freak talking about my love for flowers but there is a reason as the roses that were in my bedroom this week were my inspiration. The pink roses gradually fade away creating a dip dye or ombré effect, which looks so pretty as a nail design! It's easy to create the dip dye by blending away the pink with a sponge (I just use a kitchen sponge) and would be a nice thing to do on valentines day *shudders at the thought of spending yet another valentines alone*.

Does anyone else love roses as much as me or am I obsessed? They're just so pretty! 

Eleanor xx

January Wishlist

It's less than a month till I go to New York so theoretically this wishlist should be the things I want to buy to take to New York, but guess what? It's not! It's just your average wishlist of the things that I want and not necessarily the things I need but yolo (Did I really just write yolo in a blog post? Cringe)!

Missguided Blazer Dress - £34.99
Missguided is an amazing place to buy dresses online as they literally have a style to suit everyone in a wide variety of colours and for reasonable prices. So as I was casually browsing through the dresses I saw this beautiful white blazer dress and fell in love. I love this dress as I think it's really unique and the sort of thing you'd spot a celebrity wearing to an event. It may be a little daring for some with it's plunging neckline but if your looking for a dress that'll may you feel sexy and sophisticated then this is one for you!

Pull and Bear Jeans - £25.99

It may come to a surprise to you that I don't own any denim jeans. Don't get me wrong I've always wanted a nice pair but I've never found the right pair until now! These distressed jeans from Pull and Bear are the right colour and are in between skinny jeans and boyfriend jeans in style. What's even better is that they're a lot cheaper than Topshop or American Apparel  jeans as they're £25.99, which to me is a very reasonable price.

Tanya Burr Lips and Nails
For those of you who do not know Tanya Burr is a beautiful makeup artist, blogger and youtuber, and at the end of this month she is releasing her very own collection of nail varnish and lip glosses. Knowing Tanya, the collection will be full of wearable and cute 
shades that'll suit almost everybody and I'm sure the formulas will be great. The collection will include 12 lip glosses and 10 nail varnishes and will be released on the 30th January on Feel Unique.

Fujifilm Instax Share Smartphone Printer

I am obsessed with polaroids and polaroid cameras but I've never bought myself one because I'm not the most photogenic of people so I have to take a lot of pictures before I get a nice one. So when Fujifilm announced last week that they were releasing a smartphone Polaroid printer I was so excited! The printer allows you to wirelessly print pictures off your smartphone via an app, this means you can print off any picture you like at any time and also allows you to edit your photos with filters. It's such a great idea and I'll definitely be saving up for one when they're released in April.

Missguided PVC Baby Blue Midi Skirt - £19.99
I love this skirt and I just think that it's adorable! Normally I'm quite scared of materials such as PVC because I don't want people to mistake me for a prostitute, but the baby blue makes the PVC seem a lot less scary and more innocent. I think this skirt would look gorgeous for spring paired with a pastel blue crop top, a long coat and some heels a la Kim K style!

What things are on your wishlist this month?

Eleanor xx

Sunday Nails - Louis Vuitton

When I came to paint my nails yesterday I had a disaster; I realised my sister had taken my brown nail varnish back to uni with her. Any normal person would have painted their nails a different colour but I was set on the idea of a Louis Vuitton nail art design to continue with my designer series. Another colour would not do. So instead I experimented with acrylic paint.

I've used acrylic paint before for my nail art but never as a base colour so I was wary of how it would look, but to my delight my venture into the unknown was successful! Yes with a base coat and a top coat acrylic paint looks as good as any other nail polish but only takes a couple of minutes to dry. Of course you can change the finish be altering the topcoat you use, as I wanted a matte effect I used an OPI matte topcoat but if you prefer glossy nails any normal topcoat will be fine.

Overall I love the finished look and it was very simple to create despite my nail varnish drama! Have you ever used acrylic paint instead of a nail varnish?

Eleanor xx

January Haul

This is an official warning if you hate the colour black and jumpers as you will hate this haul as soon we will establish that I have an obsession with black jumpers, well not even just black jumpers but the colour black all round. Yes whenever I'm shopping I will be frequently heard exclaiming "This would look so much better in black" yes I am really ashamed no, I'm not even ashamed anymore that half of my wardrobe is filled with black clothes and a quarter is filled with white clothes. So if you hate monochrome, please avert your eyes, if not enjoy the haul!

I love Timberlands and have wanted a pair of my own for such a long time. I always see pictures of celebrities such as the Kardashians and Rihanna wearing them because they are not only beautiful but practical in the winter weather. So when I went to Clarks Village with my mother just before Christmas we decided to pop into the Timberland outlet shop to see if I could grab a pair.

Junior Timberland Boots £45 (rrp £80)

Womens Classic Timberlands retail in normal shops for £160 with in my opinion is a lot to pay for a pair of boots, in the outlet shop they were selling them for about £80 with is half price and a huge discount but I still knew I could get them cheaper. So being the bargain hunter that I am I asked the sales assistant what size the children's range up to, to my delight she said a size 6! So I asked if they had a pair in a size 5 (my size) and they did so I bought a pair not only for myself but also for my sister! As I bought them from the Children's range they were significantly cheaper at £45 and practically identical to the current season adult boots, bargain!

While mooching round the sales on boxing day I spotted this black sweatshirt in H and M and was immediately attracted to it, probably due to my obsession with black! While it's not a very thick sweatshirt it has this beautiful cut out detail at the top that reminds me of roman architecture which I've always thought was beautiful. The detail also gives the sweatshirt dimension and texture which makes this black jumper a lot more interesting and the perfect transitional piece from winter to spring.

H and M Jumper £7

I've only ever been in Pull And Bear once before and that was when I was on holiday in Portugal, but I instantly loved it and was disappointed we didn't have one in either of my local cities, until now. A few weeks ago a new Pull And Bear store opened in Cabot Circus Bristol and I was delighted, so I picked up a few things including the cropped black jumper. I love the quilting across the front, it has a really amazing structure and looks amazing when it's on!

Pull And Bear Cropped Jumper £9.99

I also got this polo neck jumper which was in the sale reduced to £9.99. It's incredibly warm and will keep my cosy on the streets of New York during February. Despite how it looks in the picture, it's very tight and fitted which I really like. Also it makes me feel really clever and arty when I wear it because for some reason I imagine all smart and creative people wear polo neck jumpers? Maybe it because Steve Jobs always wore them who knows haha!

Pull And Bear Polo Neck Jumper £9.99

Now normally I avoid Primark in the sales but when I was in town last weekend it was unusually quiet so I popped in to have a look around. I spotted this top on a rail saying all items were reduced to £2 and I decided it was to cheap to not buy it. I had been considering buying it full price anyway as it's really versatile and it isn't see through unlike some of Primarks clothes!

Primark Top £2

This little cropped jumper was also on the £2 rail in the sale and I thought that both items would go well together! I also have another jumper in this same material which I wear all the time so I knew that this would get a lot of wear!

Primark Jumper £2

You see what I mean now? It's a serious obsession! But I guess there are worse things to be addicted to like Leonardo DiCaprio drugs. Have you picked up anything in the sales?

Eleanor xx

Sunday Nails - Chanel Bouclé

From what I've heard neutral nails are back in this season with them appearing all over the catwalk at various fashion weeks. But while one colour can look classy and sophisticated it can also be quite boring so I thought I'd include a bit of tweed or bouclé a la Chanel.

Chanel's love affair with tweed began in 1924 when Coco Chanel began a relationship with the then Duke of Westminster and the couple would spend a lot of their time in the Scottish highlands, this inspired Coco to experiment with the traditional woolen fabric that was handwoven by the people living in the highlands. She took the idea back to France with her but her french weavers moaned that it was poor quality and would frequently 'buckle', it was this irregularity that created the signature Chanel bouclé. It's interesting how one of the most iconic fabrics was born from a fault. 

By chance my last two posts have both been very designer inspired so maybe I'll continue it onto a series, who knows? Anyhow I hope you've had a lovely weekend and the first week back at school/college/uni/work/whatever wasn't to painful!

Remember you can still fill out my survey here!

Eleanor xx

Outfit Post - Do You Know Who I Am?

Currently I am right in the middle of my January mocks at Sixth Form meaning that I've had an exam every single day this week (excluding Monday) and have been snowed under with revision. So instead of sitting around on my laptop internet shopping and trying to find items to create a wishlist I decided that I'd post some photo's that I took before New Year of one of my favourite outfits of the moment.

New Look Hat, Warehouse Coat, Primark Jumper, River Island Trousers, TK Maxx Bag and Dune Boots

In my survey the majority of feedback I got revolved around me doing more fashion related posts such as OOTD's, so I am going to try my very best to take some more photo's of my outfits even if it means spending hours outside trying to get the right angle using my tripod. If you hadn't already guessed I don't have anyone to take my photo's let alone a professional camera or photographer please bear this in mind as sometimes they won't be the best quality. 

I've been wearing this outfit none stop because most of the items are new and I just can't help myself because as soon as I get new clothes I have to wear them straight away. It has certainly been the case with these leather trousers as I've found lots of different ways to wear them. I've even got away with wearing them to Sixth Form as I haven't been sent home to change (yet) unlike one poor boy who was wearing shorts last week.

But it's not just because a few of my clothes are new that it's one of my favourites as the whole outfit because it makes me feel a lot confident, sophisticated and older. I don't think it's just me as last week one of the girls my sister works with asked her if I was the older sister, which surprised both of us considering my sisters 18 and I'm only 16! My mum's friend also mistook me for being my sister when we bumped into her in town.

It's strange how an outfit can completely change peoples perception of you but then again that's why I like clothes; you can be whoever you want whenever you want depending on the clothes you're wearing. Have you ever been mistaken for being someone else? A sibling? Perhaps a celebrity? Let me know down below.

Eleanor xx

Sunday Nails - Versace

For my first nail art of 2014 I wanted to do something special, so I decided on a nail art that is inspired by one of my favourite designers: Versace. I originally saw pictures on my tumblr feed of a nail art very similar to this that was inspired by the Versace logo, I loved it and was itching to give it ago myself.

This is quite a difficult nail art in my opinion, purely because of the Greek gorgon Medusa that made the Versace logo so iconic. If you have never heard of the story of Medusa it is basically a greek mythology about an incredibly beautiful women who seduced the Greek god Poseidon, she was punished for this by Athena who turned Medusa into a monster with venomous snakes for hair, and anyone that looked at her would turn into stone. A slightly strange story to inspire the logo of one of top fashion houses in the world but Versace's designs were made to stop people in their tracks.

 

If you are going to attempt this you're going to need a very steady hand, and it also helps if you have quite big nails or you use false nails. But other than that it is just a white nail varnish and a black nail art pen, no fancy techniques or anything. 

On another note I just wanted to thank the people who have already filled in my questionnaire as it's really helpful knowing what you like and dislike my blog, helping me improve it in the long run as you are the people reading my blog after all. If you haven't filled it out yet it will only take you a couple of minutes at most and I will be forever grateful if you do! 

To fill in my survey go to this post.

Eleanor xx

Blog Survey 2014

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world's leading questionnaire tool.

If you could take a minute just to answer this quick survey about my blog it would really help me out! I'll be able to get a clearer idea of what you guys like and dislike about my blog helping me post content which you guys want to see! 

Thanks

Eleanor xx

All Time Favourites (So Far...)

So here we are 2014; congratulations you made it. 

I always find the beginning of the year a nice time to reminisce the past year and use it to build my future, learning from my mistakes whether that be to not wear blue eyeshaddow and red lipstick together or to not do enough exercise. Because of this last year I feel that I've really started to come into my own makeup wise, as I started to try new products and stick with my all time favourites. So I thought I'd share some of them with you...

Urban Decay Eyeshadow Palettes

In the past I've never really been that fussed with eyeshadows as I felt they were an unnecessary step to add into my already long morning routine, but that was before I invested in some good pigmented eyeshadows. The first time I actually bought some Urban Decay eyeshadows was for my sister last Christmas, I'd seen so many reviews of the Urban Decay Naked Palettes I decided to buy my sister the Naked 2 palette. Being the kind sister that she is, she let me use the palette and I was hooked. 

So when my parents went away for the weekend and asked me if I wanted anything as a present I begged them to get me the newly released Naked Basics Palette; I've used it every single day since. Then for Christmas I was lucky enough to be given the Naked 3 palette, and as you've probably guessed I've also used that every day since! Not only the Naked range but all of Urban Decay's Palettes have been incredibly hyped up online so you've probably heard about them millions of times before, so all I can say is that if you haven't tried them, please do, but beware you will never go back to drugstore eyeshadows ever again!

Real Techniques Brushes

When I heard a couple of years ago that Samantha Chapman, one half of YouTube duo Pixiwoo, was releasing a range of makeup brushes I was extremely excited. Pixiwoo are some of my favourite YouTubers and I instantly added their release date into my diary. I first bought the Core Collection and then went onto get the Starter Set. They are the softest brushes I own and I use the buffing brush, contour brush, deluxe crease brush and the base shadow brush every day. They wash incredibly well: drying quickly and holding their shape, I've also never had a problem with shedding unlike some of my more expensive brushes. They're also made of synthetic hair, are cruelty free and are easily available from either Boots or Superdrug,what more could you ask for?

Mac Lipsticks

Mac Lipsticks are the only high end lipsticks that I've tried but I've never felt the need to buy more expensive lipsticks when I've already found some that I like. You can buy perfectly good drugstore lipsticks but they do not have the range of finishes or colours that Mac have, and will probably not last as long either meaning that you have to re-apply more and therefore re-purchase more, making Mac lipsticks a good investment in my eyes. My favourite finishes are amplified and satin but there are finishes to suit everyone such as matte or creme sheen. At £15 they are double the price of your average drugstore lipstick but your not just paying for a name but a great product, plus when you've used up six you can do back to mac and get a free lipstick!

Simple Face Wipes

Lots of people will argue that face wipes are bad for your skin but I personally find they are the best way of taking off my makeup and then I cleanse properly afterwards. Simple's Face Wipes are by far my favourite as they do not irritate my skin unlike other face wipes I've used in the past, they're often on offer so I normally bulk buy them as I am constantly re-purchasing them, as I've used them on and off since I started wearing makeup. 

Stella Eau De Parfum

I don't often change my perfume as I like to keep one scent so when people smell it, it will remind them of me, and Stella is my scent. It's got the right balance of sweetness, floral scents and musk making it not over powering or offensive, which is the reason I think a lot of people like it as I often get compliments when I'm wearing it. It's very distinct and according to the perfume shop it has heart notes of peony, rose, mandarin orange and woodsy notes. Not that I know what half of those things smell like but together they make a very beautiful perfume.

Company Magazine

Before their revamp I'd not read Company Magazine as I thought it was just like every other fashion/beauty magazine out there but since the revamp it's become by far my favourite magazine. Company sticks to the things it does best: fashion but approaches it in a way that's never been done before, appreciating the things that the average girl is into like blogs and YouTube or the latest things in trend, not just in fashion but books, films, social media, you name it, Company are on it. I also love the texture of the paper that makes it stand out from your bog standard glossy magazine. Also earlier this year they featured a picture of my nail art, cool huh?

Of course as I try new things I will find new favourites, but I just wanted to mention one last favourite of mine this year: my blog. I started The Lipstick, The Girl And Her Wardrobe one year ago today and it has been one of the best things I've done in my life. It's helped me become more confident in myself knowing people want to hear what I have to say. It's strange having people in sixth form coming up to me saying that they've read my blog and they think it really good, as when I started it I was conscious of what people would say when they found out but everyone has been supportive and interested. I've still got a long way to go and there are so many things I want to improve this year but I wouldn't have got this far without you reading my blog, so thank you. 

Hope you have a good New Year and 2014 brings you everything you desire.

Eleanor xx