New Year, No Resolutions

With it being a new year, what better time to find some inspiration and start writing again! And I thought my first post should be something related to having a new start, but it's almost strange that I've decided to start this new year off with no resolutions set in stone.
I thought this year I would change things up and not decide on any resolutions because they never seem to stick anyway! And I just thought that I'd put less stress on myself by making silly little changes and if anything does actually change it's just a bonus! But I think, just by sitting here writing this post, something is changing. 
So, if any of you feel like you're putting to much pressure on yourself by setting yourself unrealistic resolutions, who cares if you break them? I think that any time of year can be for a change, and you don't need a 'new year, new me' mind set! But start by taking baby steps, because things don't just happen over night, and don't make yourself feel bad for things not falling into place as quickly as you think they should.
I know this is a short post but I thought I'd start off with something simple to get myself back into it, and I hope you enjoy reading this! Have any of you set resolutions, or not set any like me? Let me know!

Sleepless Netflix Nights

Most of us have made the mistake of paying for our Netflix accounts and then wondering why our sleeping patterns are so messed up... Am I right? I think so! With that in mind, I thought I would share with you all, the shows that tend to keep my at night, and see if I can convert any Netflix virgins, into the land of sleepless nights! 

When I first started my Netflix account, I was absolutely obsessed with the show Greek and as much as I would recommend it to everyone, it leads to disappointment when you realise that only half the episodes are on there! I have since debated whether to buy the rest on DVD just because I was that hooked and I know need to know how it all ends! So this one, is a an almost decide your fate (whether you want to upset or spend money!)

Mr. Selfridge is a show that came back for its third series early this year, and since I hadn't fully caught up with the previous series, I took to trusty Netflix, and watched the second series. And I might add that it only took me about two weeks... I love this show, and I have taken quite a liking to Harry Selfridge himself, I don't even know why?! 

As well as TV series, I do watch a few films on there, and one that I've been obsessing over (watching non stop) is 10 Things I Hate About You which I hadn't actually watched before using Netflix, but this film made my love for Heath Ledger grow a little more!

My current love is 90210, and I honestly believe it doesn't matter how many times I watch this show, it will never get old! I admit it's a show that isn't to everyone's liking but I really enjoy watching the over dramatised life of Beverly Hills teens, I mean a girl can dream of living a lifestyle like that, right? 

Do any of you watch these films/series, or have your own recommendations? 

Abigail

xo

Five Things // 3

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I dream of having my own place, with a lovely desk space like this, and somewhere to store all my beauty products, but for now, my bedroom will just have to do!

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I think I've vowed to myself that if I could look like anyone in the world, it would probably be this woman right here, she is gorgeous, this is the part where I go all heart eyes emoji!

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I keep seeing so many new pairs of ripped jeans that I want and it's getting to the point where I may do some diy on my old pairs! 

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I've been really struggling lately wth everything and I just don't know why but quotes like this make me think I can carry on and reach my goals! 

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Hair envy went out of the window when I saw this photo on Pinterest! I can only wish my hair was that long! 

The MAC Eyeshadow Quad for Beginners

As a self confessed eyeshadow junkie, it's probably only right that I let you know what I consider to be my top eyeshadows from MAC, for the neutral lovers and beginners at least!

All these shadows have been picked so that they can be put into a quad and all used for make up looks, whether it's very natural for everyday or smoked out for a night time look. There is a shadow that can be used all over the lid, one on the crease, one to smoke it out (lightly or heavily) and one for a brow bone highlight!

To begin with I picked Naked Lunch, which is beautiful shimmery pink shade, but don't be put off by it being a pink shade because its more of a minimal pink that when blended with other shades, really doesn't look pink at all! But its a shade that can be used in a complex look or can just be used on its own, which is something that I do quite regularly just because the shimmer makes the shade seem a lot more on the lid, than just the one shade! 

A colour that is coveted by many and is pretty much a staple for your MAC collection is the shade Charcoal Brown which is for some reason the perfect brown, its cool toned, almost muted and just seems to work perfectly in the crease for pretty much any neutral eyeshadow look! And as a crease sahde should be, this is a matte shade and as a matte lover, I can't get enough of this shade!

We then have the shade Vanilla which I use as a highlight shade in the inner corner and on the brow bone, and this is simply because the shade is a very light peachy come ivory shade which holds a lot of reflect which when used a highlight looks very flattering as it tends to catch the light and reflect - as it should! But I also find that when I use a highlighting shade I want something that isn't overly shimmery or glittery especially for everyday use and this shade certainly isn't!

And finally the shade that I use for lightly or heavily smoking out the look is Bronze which is a golden brown, that holds a gold bronze shimmer and again isn't an overly shimmery shade so you can pack it onto the outer part of the lid and add it into the crease without it looking like too much! It's also a nice shade that can be added in with shades like Amber Lights if you feel like branching out from the neutral shades!

Since writing this post, I have fallen in love with the shade Sable, which was mentioned in the previous post, and this shade has been sat in palette for quite a while, and is one that I have been wearing all over the lid because it comes across as more than one colour on the lid! A shade that I'd highly recommend!

Do you have any favourite shades from MAC, or any shades that you've tried and didn't really like? If you own a quad, what shades do you have housed in there?

What's On My iPhone?

wallpaper from here

I’m yet another one of those people who has my phone attached to me as often as possible, and this means that I’m usually using some sort of app and so I thought I would share a few of my most used apps with you lovely people!

Like pretty much everyone else, I have the typical social media apps that include Twitter, Facebook and Instagram which seem to be the three main ones. But I do also have the Tumblr and Pinerest apps which I have to admit that I do use these every day! I just think that having the apps for these social media sites is a lot easier than using the web and so I’d say that these are the most used apps on m phone for sure!

I also have my main photo editing app, Afterlight, which is pretty much the only app that I use to edit my photos and this is because this is the one app that has everything you’d want all in one place! For an app that was 99p, it was worth it and I can definitely say that I’ve got my use out of it!

Another app that I use at least once a day is Spotify, and I do pay for premium membership with it, but even if you don’t, you can still use this app! This app holds all the music you could want all in one place and it also means you can listen to music without having to buy it or having it take up storage space on your phone which is a benefit!

The last three apps that I also use frequently are Wattpad and I like this app because I read a lot and it’s sometimes nice to read works from aspiring writers rather than published books! I also use both Blogger and Bloglovin (surprise, surprise) and though I do use these a lot, I wish that the Blogger app wasn’t as limited because I find that I don’t tend to use this over the web version!

YouTube Influences

Looking for some YouTube beauty inspiration? You've come to the right place! I feel like I spend most of my spare time watching YouTube videos and for the most part they are based around beauty and so I thought I would share with you some of my favourites!

Shaaanxo

Probably my absolute favourite on YouTube and I can honestly say that I do wait for her uploads each week but not only is she a beautiful person under all the make up but her tutorials are seriously out of this world and she does looks to suit everyone which is great! You should also check her out because her dogs are the cutest!

KathleenLights

I’m so glad I found Kathleen on YouTube because her videos are not only great for their content but as a person, she is so funny that you can't help but love her videos! If you're looking for some good eye make up tutorials, this is the place to go!

Amelia Liana

If you go and watch her videos, look out for Duke the super cute dog! Not only this but I love Amelia’s video because she tries to use a lot of products that are more affordable for younger audiences which is a great thing! 

HelloOctober

Another YouTuber with a lovely dog – is this a trend? On a serious note though, I love that her style is so simplistic whether it be the fashion or the beauty, and her tutorials are so easy to follow and for the most part, she uses products that are affordable for most!

Tanya Burr

Tanya was one of the first people I started watching on YouTube and I have to admit that she's probably half the reason I started getting so into make up in the first place and I always find that her tutorials are the easiest to follow because she makes everything seem so simple!

ViviannaDoesMakeup

Anna is one of the YouTuber’s that I admire for the simple fact that even though she can do her make up extremely well, she isn't afraid to admit that winged eyeliner isn’t her thing, and that there are simpler ways to make simple eyeshadow look complex! 

Zoella

I look up to Zoe in many different ways, not only for fashion and beauty but also for her personality and the way that she can over come things even when her anxiety gets in the way! But she's a joy to watch, and I always look forward to her Sunday video!

A Neutral Love

To celebrate the new year, I made a new beauty purchase because whilst many were out spending the last night of the year surrounded by music and alcohol, I spent mine surrounded with fast food aka at work! So why not make an online purchase? I decided that after weeks of having the Too Faced Chocolate Bar palette sat in my basket, I would finally take the plunge and buy it, and along with this I also decided to try out a palette by Zoeva, and decided on the Naturally Yours palette which is another neutral palette.. Can you see a trend?

Too Faced is a brand that I have become a lot more aware about during 2014 and I think that this is because it is a brand that blew up in the bloggersphere for whatever reasons but I am so glad I finally took the plunge and made a purchase because I will definitely be buying more from this brand! After reading a lot of reviews about the Chocolate Bar palette, and having it sat in an online basket for ages, I thought the ‘why not?’ This is such a beautiful palette and for those of you who don't know already, yes it smells like chocolate so what more could want?! What I like about this palette is that much like the Naked palettes there's a mix of shimmer and matte shades but due to this palette housing three more shades there is two larger shades for highlighting and also a pop of colour in the palette in terms of the pink, blue and cranberry shades! 

Zoeva is a brand that also made a grand appearance last year in terms of their brushes and I must admit, for the eyes, their brushes are all I seem to use now! But I really wanted to branch into the makeup side of this brand and thought I would do so with a palette.. No surprises over here! But on serious note, if you haven't tried anything from the brand, do so right now because you're missing out! The first thing to note about this palette is that there is a matte white and a matte black which in my opinion is great because I'm someone who prefers matte shades but a white and black always come in handy! And then there are eight neutral shades, some shimmer and some matte and the size of these eyeshadows is larger than the average and so for £15 you really are getting your money's worth with this!

The one major difference with these palettes is their packaging and this is because the Zoeva palette is housed by cardboard with a beautiful pattern on and it and although it is cardboard there is a magnetic closing with this so its not the worst packaging in the world but you can tell that the Too Faced have spent more on theirs! The Chocolate Bar palette is a metal case also with a magnetic closing but this palette is in the shape of a chocolate bar and just feels more expensive and more sturdy in comparison to the Zoeva one.

Both of these palettes have great qualities about them and I would recommend both however the Zoeva palette is a lot more affordable than the Too Faced one so it just depends on what kind of palette you are looking for! I feel that both of these hold a high pigmentation, with Too Faced perhaps being slightly better and more buttery in texture so these are easily blended but the Zoeva eyeshadows are far from difficult to blend and I have been using both of these palettes since they first arrived!

Have any of you tried anything from either of these brands, or wanting to try products from them?

January Favourites

Most of my favourites for this month are either completely new products to my routine or stuff that I have loved throughout 2014 and so I've kept them as part of what I do pretty much every day!

The two new products that I have been using a lot are the Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette which I have been talking about way too much but it's just too good of a plate to not rave about! Although I don't do many ‘evening looks’ this palette can be used for daytime and evening because there is so much colour choice with darker and lighter shades available! And it smells like chocolate when you're using it, what more could you want? And the other is the Nuxe Rêve De Miel which is like heaven for your lips – especially in the cold winter weather! But I just slap some of this on my lips when I need it and just before I go to bed and it lasts so long that I barely feel like I'm thinking about having chapped lips!

I haven't had a particular foundation that I've been going to back to this month as I feel like my skin has been all over the place and I've been using whatever feels best for my skin on the day! But no matter what foundation I've been wearing, you can guarantee that I've been using The Body Shop Instablur primer underneath because this is a primer that managers to smooth over everything and just creates an even base for foundation to be applied on! I've also been using the Honey Bronzer from TBS as well because I'm fairly pale in the summer and so the winter is terrible, I somewhat resemble Caspar the Friendly Ghost and so the lightest shade of this bronzer is nothing too in your face or orange as others would call it! Perfect for all those pale skinned girls out there!

Speaking of being pale, I've also been using the MAC Mineralise Skinfinish Natural as my setting powder because I find that the shade Light is pale enough for me to not have to use a translucent powder as the MSF does give the smallest amount of coverage without altering the colour of my foundation! However if you are more tanned, the same shade is great for an under eye setting powder! 

A skincare product I've been using for a while now is the L’Oreal Skin Perfection Advanced Correcting Serum which is a serum that claims to perfect the look of skin by minissmising the look of pores and hydrating the skin to make it look more youthful. And I can say that I have felt a difference in my skin since using this and I'm now on my second bottle so it can't be half bad! I've always been conscious of my pores and I find that the combination of this and the Instablur primer, I'm not worrying anywhere near as much which I'm happy about!

The last favourite for this month has to be the song Real Love by Clean Bandit and Jess Glynne, and I know this isn't a new song but it's one I have been listening to non stop, I just love Jess’ voice so much!