Life in letters tag!

All the way back in February, I was tagged by Amy from Blending Beauty to do this tag! I didn't have time to do it as work started piling up around the time I was tagged so now I have time, I'm doing it! 

A - Archaeology. I'm hopefully studying this subject at University come September/October and it's so interesting!

B - Books. I'm an avid reader and spend quite a lot of my spare time reading when I'm not blogging!

C - Clothes. I love fashion and always try to look my best when I leave the house no matter where I am!

D - Diabetic. I have diabetes and have lived with it since I was 11. It's pretty much become a part of every day life now instead of a big problem but I still hope they find a cure eventually as it can be really annoying and hard to deal with at some points!

E - Eyes. My favourite part of my body. They're a really lovely bright green that sometimes look different depending on lighting which is awesome!

F - Food. I'm such a big eater and I love food, not always the healthy options either! I hope to improve what I eat once I get to Uni though!

G - Greek. I want to learn Ancient Greek when I'm at Uni and I've already started trying to get familiar with the alphabet!

H - History. My favourite subject of all time. Ancient History is easily my favourite and I'm hoping to study it as a joint degree with Archaeology next year!

I - Inspiration. I find it everywhere in quotes, books, nature, people around me and loads of other things I see!

J - Jessica. My name! 

K - Kip. I struggled the most with this one...I do love a good nap though! Got to love British slang for creating words like kip!

L - Lipstick. I have a huge collection (over 50...) and I love them all! I love the way a bold colour can bring life to an outfit and add something special to it. I wrote about how I feel about lipstick here!

M - Music. I honestly couldn't live without music. It's such a great way for people to connect and concerts bring people together because of their shared love for a band/artist which I find amazing!

N - Nail Polish. Another thing I have tonnes of. I love the look of nail polish and I find that it's actually a good way to relax as you can't have a shaking hand at all when you are applying - it was a really good calming technique for me during exams!

O - Optimist. I try to be positive and look at things in a good light for the most part!

P - Piano. I played since I was about 6 up until 2 years ago when GCSEs forced me to quit. I hope I can take it back up again some day as I loved it!

Q - Quizzes. I'm obsessed with doing the online quizzes that come up on Facebook!

R - Reading. The University I'm hopefully going to next year!

S - Sweets. I have such a sweet tooth and love to try sweets from different places! English with probably always be my favourite, though the Haribo options in different countries are amazing and always so good, it makes me jealous!

T - Travelling. I love going to new places and I hope that choosing a career in Archaeology leads to visiting lots of historical sights all around the country and world!

U - University. Where I hope to be going in September. I really want to go and I honestly have no idea what I'm going to do if I don't get in - I'll know on 14th August which is terrifying!

V - Volkswagen Up. My car! I passed my test on 5th March and I love driving it!

W - Winter. One of my favourite seasons apart from Autumn!

X - Xmas. There aren't many X words that I like...but Christmas is one of my favourite times of the year!

Y - YouTube. I love being able to find whatever song I want and then be able to watch a stupid cat video 2 seconds later if I feel like it, Youtube is great!

Z - Zodiac. I love looking at astrology stuff as I find it really interesting. I don't believe it, I just like seeing what sort of things the websites say about each different sign and why!

I don't think I'm going to tag anyone in particular this time, but if you want to do this for fun then I say go for it and I tag you! Hope you have fun doing your own!
Jess xx

Lipstick Love!

For topic 11 of the blogger challenge,  we have to write about collections. As I already did a post about my nail polish collection for a previous topic, I decided to do a top 5 for my other make up collection; lipsticks! 

I have over 50 lip products so it's quite difficult to decide on my favourites but I think I've managed to cut them down to a top 5 pinks and others!

The Pinks

Left to right: MUA Luxe Velvet Lacquer in Funk, Revlon Super Lustrous Lipstick in Pink in the Afternoon, Rimmel Lasting Finish Matte Lipstick by Kate Moss in 101,
Chanel Coco Rouge in 62 Irrésistible, Sleek Matte Me in Petal.

I mostly wear pink lipstick as it suits me really well, looks good all year round and goes with a majority of my outfits.
For a few months earlier this year, I became obsessed with light pink lipsticks and found the holy grail when I discovered Revlon's Pink in the Afternoon. It's creamy and has the nicest colour that in my opinion is a perfect light pink lipstick.
Rimmel's Kate Moss Matte lipstick is also a brilliant pale pink but is matte instead. This line is easily one of my favourites and this shade doesn't disappoint. This lipstick is equal with the Revlon for colour I think, maybe even slightly better, but is a bit less natural due to it being matte.
Funk is another matte lipstick but it's a liquid lipstick which means it applies with an applicator. This makes it a little trickier to apply but I love this colour and the look it gives - for £3 it creates a gorgeous lip and the colour doesn't budge for ages compared to usual lipsticks which is a major plus! This is the best lipstick I have for staying power out of the 10 I am showing by far, possibly in my entire collection! I just wish they did a bigger range of colours!
Petal is a newer discovery and is really gorgeous; I've worn it so many times already! It's another matte liquid lipstick and I would say it is most similar to Rimmel's 101 in colour, maybe a little darker. This one was easier to remove than the MUA but the extra price is still worth it as Sleek have a better colour range.
The Chanel lipstick is honestly my most loved lipstick as it's my first proper high end lipstick (MAC not being counted...I mean over £15). Mum bought it as an end of exams present when we last went to London as a family. It has a shimmer to it and is slightly darker than the other pinks but is so wearable and I tend to just put it on as I'm about to leave when I can't choose a colour to wear as it goes with everything! It also has a faint smell of rose which is absolutely heavenly, it reminds me of my macarons! It also lasts for a long time despite not being matte. I really want to save up and get some more of these lipsticks as they're so pretty and the colour range available is just incredible!

Left to right: Funk, Pink in the Afternoon, 101, 62 Irrésistible, Petal.

The Others

I decided that I had far too many favourites (and pinks!) To do just one top 5, so these are my favourites out of my other lipstick shades that I own!

Sorry for the slightly out of focus photos - the lighting was really iffy so I eventually gave up and picked the best out of a really bad bunch!

Left to right: Soap and Glory Sexy Mother Pucker gloss stick in Raplumzel, Miners The Matte Factor in Deep Red,
Rimmel Lasting Finish Matte Lipstick in 107, The Body Shop Born Lippy stick Lip Balm in Plum,
MAC Amplified in Dark Deed.

The darker colours I own are mostly for Autumn and Winter as they go better with my outfits during that time. However, sometimes I feel like cracking out a red lip in Summer to mix things up a bit and I wear either Rimmel's Matte Lipstick in 107 or Miners' matte liquid lipstick in Deep Red as they're both great colours with long wear times. 107 is a darker red while Deep Red is closer to a dark pink despite the name. However, both are great and even though the swatches aren't brilliant, they are really lovely and matte. The Rimmel is my favourite of the two as it smells amazing and feels better on the lips. The Miners is still good and smells sweeter, like vanilla cupcakes but is trickier to apply as it requires an applicator, like the MUA and Sleek colours.

The Soap and Glory gloss stick is such a gorgeous colour that, despite being glossy, lasts for quite a while and looks amazing while giving off great colour. I have this in a pink that I got with a set around Christmas but I prefer this as the colour is super pretty.

The body shop lip balm is tinted so I counted it here as I've been wearing it a lot recently because it's so moisturising! The colour it gives off is obviously subtle but it's really pretty and gives a nice wash of colour. It also smells amazing - I think it's quite similar to the Maybelline Baby Lips and I think this one is more comfortable on the lips apart from Cherry Me, which is still a firm favourite. 

Dark Deed was bought for me as part of a pack this Christmas and I absolutely love it. It's the darkest lipstick I own so it's not brought out often because it's quite difficult to wear but when I do, it's perfect. It doesn't last as long as I would like but I have a lip liner that came with it to solve that problem. 

Left to right: Raplumzel, Deep red, 107, Plum and Dark Deed.

Hope you guys enjoyed this post, I know I enjoyed really looking through my lipstick collection and choosing my favourites. Let me know some of your favourites and what you think of these! 

Jess xx

"I’ve always thought of lipstick as my version of a superhero’s cape.You put it on and you feel like you could do anything!"

I saw the picture below on cocosteaparty's Instagram earlier and I followed the link to her interview with Lipstick Queen's founder, Poppy King. 

Picture from cocosteaparty on Instagram

I've been wanting to try this brand for a while but haven't really had any chance to buy any products as A) I haven't seen them in any shops I've been in to recently and B) They aren't exactly cheap for a lipstick. 

However, after reading this interview, I'm definitely going to make sure I at least look at the brand if I do see them as Poppy seems to understand that lipstick for some people is something they use to feel special and even powerful in everyday situations and that a good lipstick can completely transform a look and increase confidence. I love seeing passionate people doing what they love so I'll happily support her by buying one of her lipsticks!

I think the quote I've used from the interview as my title definitely sums up what wearing lipstick is to me - it isn't completely necessary but it does help to just give me an extra boost as I know it can improve appearance in seconds and definitely gives me that confidence I sometimes need! I would probably even say that if I had to only choose one beauty product, it would be a lipstick. When I'm feeling lazy, I tend to only wear mascara and lipstick when I go out as it can still look fairly put together. 

I also love the fact that Poppy says that she's inspired by all different types of art and media, even history and culture which I find awesome and really interesting myself! The world around us can be so inspiring and it's quite interesting to see how it can even inspire cosmetics. I know I get inspired to take photos or write posts from what I see, read or hear every day so it's awesome to see that same inspiration being used to create a product that is aimed to "show women the true power of lipstick" as she says. 

I think my favourites that I've found from the brand so far are:

Lipstick Queen Saint in Rose - £20

Lipstick Queen Sinner in Natural - £20

Lipstick Queen Chinatown in Pink Bluff - £22

I have a bit of a thing for neutral pink colours at the moment as I find them so wearable and pretty if you get the right shade! I don't think there's any point in spending a lot of money on a lipstick if you won't wear it because you got it in a bright colour that you can't wear often - you're not showing it off then! I'd rather have a special lipstick that I can wear everyday as something a bit more fancy instead of keeping it in my drawer collecting dust.

Have any of you guys tried a Lipstick Queen lipstick? What do you think of them?

Jess xx

It's an American brand so Lipstick Queen only seems to be available in John Lewis and Space NK Apothecary in the UK.

A day out with an OOTD!

I MAY have forgotten to do a post for topic 7 of the Blogger Challenge so I've tried to incorporate it into this topic post as for my outfit post, I went to Reading as a revision break and had a friend take the photos there!

Topic 7 was to do a post about a day we've had and Topic 8 is to do a post about a Spring OOTD.

We had a walk around Waterstones which is always an amazing thing, I love bookshops!

We also went to Krispy Kreme and I had a Raspberry Chocolate Truffle doughnut! It was amazing!

I bought Paris by Edward Rutherfurd in Waterstones, a Revlon Colorburst Matte Balm in Elusive from Boots and MUA lipsticks in shades 2, 3 and 8 from Superdrug!

Left to right: Revlon Colorburst Matte Balm in Elusive, MUA lipstick shade 2, 

MUA lipstick shade 3, MUA lipstick shade 8.

I had a really good day and it was a lot of fun to just hang around and relax instead of revising!

I thought that I would show an outfit that didn't include jeans so I decided to wear one of my favourite dresses! It was one of those odd days where it's sunny and warm one minute but bitterly cold the next, hence the sunglasses and boots and tights in one outfit!

Dress: H! by Henry Holland at Debenhams

Tights: M&S

Boots: Next

Sunglasses: Ted Baker

Lipstick: Rimmel Kate Mattel Lipstick in 008

Hope you guys enjoyed this mix up of topic posts! I've never done outfit posts because I've never been able to find someone to take photos for me so thanks Rob!

Jess xx

Challenge post 6

A bonus photo...what happens when I fail at keeping my balance!

Instagram snapshots #5

I haven't done one of these since the beginning of last month so I apologise for that! I have a good selection of snapshots for you this time around though! 

Absolutely brilliant book.

They actually are heavenly!

Costa date!

MY CAR! Absolutely brilliant 18th!

Beautiful silver trowel necklace, I'm so lucky :)

My minion birthday cake!

It's nice to treat myself sometimes.

My current favourite lipstick!

Because I like my make up and hair for once!

Captain America was so good!

Perfect revision snacks!

Hope you guys enjoyed this!

Jess xx 

Instagram snapshots #4

Revlon Super Lustrous Lipstick in Pink in the Afternoon review.

I think I've found an even better pink than the Rimmel Kate Lipstick in 008 I was raving about in February...

I picked up Revlon's Super Lustrous in Pink in the Afternoon a while back and spent my Boots points on it - I'm so glad I did as I love it! It's a gorgeous soft, almost baby pink that suits my skin tone perfectly and is almost the same colour as my Rimmel lipstick but is less ashy and brightens my face a bit more. It's super creamy and soft, doesn't dry my lips out and stays on for a good few hours without needing to be reapplied, so no less than my usual lipsticks from other brands. 

This is my first Rimmel lipstick and I really love it - the other colours in the range are so pretty and the packaging is simple but works really well. I especially like the clear top as it makes it a lot easier to look at the colours and pick the one you want!

It's basically a 'my lips but better' colour again (I think I'm having a neutral lipstick phase) but is more flattering than the Rimmel 008. It also has a slight shine which makes it look quite natural and pretty! It's my most worn lipstick over the last month or so and I can safely say it's staying in my bag as a regular!
I've also read somewhere that it's inspired by the colour Audrey Hepburn's character Holly wears in Breakfast at Tiffany's which makes me rather happy - I love Audrey's style!
Available from Boots for £7.49
Do you guys have any from this range? What other colours should I try?
Jess xx

I'm 18!

I'm really sorry for not blogging much recently, the last four days have been filled with my birthday celebrations so all of my free time has been taken up by homework to make sure I could do all of the awesome things over the last few days!

On Wednesday, me and my college friends went to Pizza Express for a birthday meal as everyone gets Wednesday afternoons off college. It was a lot of fun and it was nice to do something with them that didn't include school! We had a really nice meal and I even got a mini chocolate cake with a candle on! I got my presents early from them as I don't see most of them around college apart from my friends who are in my lessons. 

Lots of chocolate!

Beautiful purse with a mirror in the back, a pen,
desk organiser and animal rubbers!

I now have enough chocolate to last me until Halloween, let alone Easter! I love the little French purse so much because it's just so me! French themed and with stripes?! Yes please. I also love the pen and organiser, definitely helps for Uni in September! I really don't want to use the rubbers though, they're way too cute!

My birthday was on the Thursday and it was an amazing day! I woke up and had to get done quicker so I could open my presents - I GOT A CAR!!! It's also insured with Compare the Market so I got a meerkat toy with it which now sits in my car! I got baby Oleg and  he comes with the most adorable grub! My parents said I would get my car at the weekend but I came home from college and it was sitting on the driveway! My car is a red VW Up and I've decided to call him Perry! I've been out in him quite a bit considering I only got him on Thursday and I love him - he's really great to drive and has a lot of room considering he is actually only a 3 door car!

I love my car so much! And the bow on top!

Oleg, his grub and his bed!

I got money from quite a few family members but my grandma got me a couple of really pretty bracelets that I can't wait to wear. My auntie and uncle got me a gorgeous silver trowel necklace which came in a brilliant little box that is so clever as it looks like a special (small) finds box! It's possibly one of the prettiest and well thought out pieces of jewellery I've ever been given!

The bottom bracelet was given to me by a friend on Wednesday.

I'm in love.

My mum's friend also made me 24 minion cupcakes which are chocolate and taste amazing! After we got back from our meal out, I also got given a minion lemon birthday cake which looks and tastes just as good!

These are the cutest little cakes ever!

I can't believe how talented my mum's friend is!

On Saturday, I had some old friends over for a movie day as I didn't want to involve alcohol and we couldn't afford a big party. It was a lot of fun and we ended up watching Pacific Rim, Despicable Me 2 and part of Monty Python's Life Of Brian. I love catching up with my old friends as I don't see them much any more due to work which is sad, but we act like we only saw each other yesterday when we do see each other again!

The Fault in Our Stars poster, it's so gorgeous!
From Julia.

Loki sticker also from Julia!

Weeping Angel and TARDIS biscuits also from Julia!

Julia is basically the girl who gets me tonnes of fan stuff and it's always the best! I love it all so much!

Bourjois little round pot intense eyeshadow in 08, Maybelline jade high heel mascara in brown,
Maybelline illegal length mascara in black, Dainty Doll eyeshadow in 002 Treat Her Like A Lady,
Maybelline colorsensational lipstick in 380 Sweet Bordeaux,
Maybelline colorsensational lipstick in 720 Drive Me Nuts.
From Lisa.

Left to right: Sweet Bordeaux, Drive Me Nuts, Bourjois eyeshadow in 08,
Dainty Doll eyeshadow in 002 Treat Her Like A Lady.

I'll probably review all of these at some point but so far I'm loving them!

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-glass by Lewis Carroll and
The Collected novels of The Bronte Sisters. Also got a really cute badge that says 'I read therefore I am'.
From Krissi.

Box of really cute goodies from Katie!

For when you're out and about and have the moments of inspiration for a blog post,
new outfit whatever it is, you can put it in this!

To get the creative juices flowing I guess you could say, or maybe just because
TASTY SWEETS!

This is a memory jar.  Any good memories from the day, write them down on the block then fold up
and put in the jar. Only at New Years eve can you look through all your memories from the year.
It's a good way to remember all the positive stuff and that maybe the smallest of things can be the best!

My old friends have obviously known me longer than most people outside of my family and their presents are all so thoughtful and basically cover every part of my life that I consider important and fun outside of people I know! I really love them and can't wait to use them all!

Kate also sent me a present which was super sweet of her - it's a scarf and mirror! I love them both - the green of the scarf is actually one of my favourite colours so I'm so happy! Thank you Kate!

Overall, it's been an amazing birthday and thank you to everyone who has been involved to make it a really special 18th! I'm so so lucky and it's probably been the best birthday yet! 

Jess xx

A day with Kate take 3!

Half term is always a good time to meet up with people so once again, me and Kate decided to go to Guildford to get some time away from working and the stress of A levels on Friday.

I'd been saving up for this trip for quite a while so I actually got to buy some stuff which I'm happy about! 

Essie's Chinchilly, Rimmel stay matte pressed powder in Silky Beige,
Maybelline Baby Skin, MUA lipstick in Shade 6, Sleek blusher in Suede.

A lot of this has been on my make up wish list for a while so I was really happy to get it all! Ever since I bought Essie's Bahama Mama, I regretted not picking up the duo pack with Chinchilly too as they looked so perfect together. I'm so happy I now have both now! 

Everyone raves about the powder and blusher I picked up and they both seem really nice so far! The blusher is quite subtle so I'll have to see what I can do with it - I'll do a proper review once I've used it a bit properly! 

After buying a MUA lipstick (shade 10 I think...) a while back, I decided to pick up another as it was only £1 and this was the last one left of Shade 6 with the plastic wrapping still on! Its such a pretty pink and I love it so much! The quality of these lipsticks is really good for the price!

I'm probably going to end up taking Baby Skin back as I tried it on my face when I got home and it made my face go really red and basically did nothing to my make up! As it was £7.99, I'm going to try and get a refund from Boots on Monday when I go back to college so I can use the money somewhere else!

I was so happy to finally pick up The Rosie Project, I've been wanting it for ages! I've read the first few chapters (maybe the first 10...) and I'm loving it so far, it's really entertaining and very hard to put down! I can't wait to do a full review! I also picked up Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell as I've heard that it's really good! 

Being true to the traditions of Guildford, I also picked up some sweet treats from the American sweet shop but most of them were meant for my whole family and aren't in the picture. I did figure out that popcorn and candy corn are an amazing combination though!

Me and Kate had such a great day catching up and visiting old shop favourites, it was a great way to take a break from doing my work! 

Jess xx