What's in my bag!

After I did my handbag essentials I realised I should have probably just done a what’s in my bag post. So here it is:

My bag is from Faith at Debenhams, and I’m not going to look at the price because it was a present for Christmas off my Mum.

This bag has 3 seperate sections, in the back pocket I keep my essentials in a pink make-up bag which you can see in more detail here.

Inside the front section I keep my notebook and my new Swarovski pen, along with a Telford leaflet and a receipt.

So this just leaves the middle section:

The other handbag essentials:

My keys

My purse (I bought this with gift vouchers yesterday from River Island for £15)

My phone (which rarely stays in my bag.)

This is the uncut version, so I’m going to show you the crap I have acquired so far

Baby lips in cherry me, Blistex lip balm in raspberry lemonade and orange mango blast (that’s 4 lip balms so far!)

A box of paracetamol

My payslip and my friend’s payslip (I’m taking in to her)

A hairbrush and bobble

And my Pandora bracelet in the side pocket

Bare in mind this is a new bag, so I’ve kept it quite neat so far, but we will see how I carry on. 

S xo

Early birthday present!

Yesterday, I went to Tesco with my Mum and she bought me a NEW CAMERA! I'm allowed to use it now, so I'm hoping the quality of my pictures will improve over the next few weeks when I get used to using it.
The camera I picked is the Nikon Coolpix S3500 in red. It has:

• 20 megapixels
• 7x optical zoom
• 4x digital zoom
• 26mm wide angle lens
• 2.7in LCD screen
• 720p high definition video capture
• self timer
• built-in flash

I can't wait to play with my new gadget and figure out how to take more professional pictures!

S xo

Handbag essentials

So, these are the items I find necessary to keep in my bag and lug about with all the stuff I carry, I find that with this kit I'll never be without the items I need:

A pen – because hey, you never know!

Notebook – the blogger/English student/creative writer/obsessive list maker inside me just needs it. This one is from paper chase, my favourite stationary shop.

The rest of essentials I store in this Ralph Lauren Make-up bag (which I got free with the perfume).

Nail file – those horrid moments when your nail breaks, from next (love the glitter, plus I don’t like carrying a glass one)

Bobble – my hair frustrates me very often.

Lip balm – chapped lips. That is all I need to say. I use the Nivea original, I much prefer sticks for in my bag because you don’t need to worry about germs.

Hand sanitizer – this one is from bath and body works, warm vanilla sugar, which I love to fight those nasty germs.

Perfume – roll ons are perfect because they don’t weight loads, and they get the job done. Mine is Ralph Lauren ‘2’ the fruity one.

Wet wipes – Accidents happen ;)

Tissues – You don’t want to ruin your make-up if you get caught crying. It’s nice to be there fore people too.

Sanitary towel – woman issues. Haha.

S xo

University so far..

It’s been good, a hell of journey, I can feel the differences in myself already, it’s been hard living away from my parents and the friends I’ve had since I was 5. At first it seemed like a massive party as everyone always made out it was but once things had settled down, I realised I do actually have to do some work and I also realised how expensive life can be and that I couldn’t afford to go out anymore, ahh well. I know better for next semester, the biggest thing I’ve have to adapt to is definitely budgeting and money. I’ve had to give up spending money on make-up and unnecessary things. Although spending a fortune on Christmas presents didn’t help because I forgot to allow money for this when I budgeted. I may include some gifts ideas after I’ve given them to my friends.

I thought I’d include a few pictures of my Uni life so far.

Playing ring of fire!

Free cotton candy for freshers!

Massive Glow-sticks!

A few drinks in the local pub.. 

Pros

• Meeting new friends
• Living on my own
• Cooking (This surprised me. I've been doing proper meals and everything!)
• Going out (Even though it's only a few bars and clubs)
• Appreciating what's at home.
• Coming home makes Christmas feel so much more exciting and special!
• celebrating my new friends birthdays, we are each others new family 

Cons

• I miss the home comforts (like my bed)
• I've never been this poor!
• I can't budget
• Assignments
• Food shopping can be annoying

In conclusion (when did this get so serious?) I'm looking forward to the rest of the year, and next year hopefully i'll move in with some of my friends! (It'll be like one big sleepover)/

S xo

Face of the day

how cool am I?

This is the make-up I’m wearing today and I’m going for tea with the girls I used to work with, quite casual, just pub grub.

I’m going to add up how much I’ve spent on just my make up for today, not including moisturiser, face wash or any other body products.

Forgot to take a picture of the primer!

Products

Murad skin perfecting primer – free sample from a magazine

Lush Colour Supplement in ‘Light Pink’ – £8.95

Rimmel Stay Matte Powder in ‘001 Transparent’ – £3.99

Bourjois Chocolate Bronzer in ‘shade 51’ – £6.99

Wet n Wild Color Icon Blush in ‘Heather Silk’ – About £3 from USA

This is everything except the primer.

Collections Concealer in ‘Fair 1’ – £4.19

Rimmel Wake me up Instant radiance Shimmer Touch in ‘002 Radiant Rose’ - £1 (pound world)

Rimmel Scandal Eyes lyrca flex mascara in ‘001 Black’ – £6.99 (but got it free when I spent over £10 on Rimmel Products)

No7 eye shadow in shade ‘50 Tender’ – £7.00 (got as a gift, so we won’t count this)

Balmi lip balm in ‘raspberry’ - £4.99

Maybelline Baby Lips in ‘cherry me’ – £2.99

Tools

Real techniques blending sponge – £5.99

Bdellium flat head kabuki ‘957’ - £8.50

Bdellium large eye shadow brush ‘769’ – £4.00

MAC special edition ‘129’ blush brush – full size is £27.00 (so I don’t know really) so let’s say £10

Are you ready?!

Total: £71.58

However when you divide this my cost per wear, then it’s probably pence per day ;) (I prefer to look at it this way because I don’t feel like I’ve wasted so much. And remember, this is my natural make-up, so can you imagine how much my night-out make-up is?

S xo

How to: Clean your brushes on a budget

It is my belief that you can get good makeup on the cheap, however I do believe brushes are worth the investment…I invested in the Bdellium tools, which are eco-friendly bamboo brushes (And to make it fun, mine are green, there are also yellow and pink avaliable). I got mine from Sprinkleofglitter (Louise) and Zoella (Zoe) collaboration shop ‘Louella’ which you can find here.

I bought:

The ‘mineral’ brush kit - £33.95

The ‘foundation’ brush kit - £33.95

The ‘smokey eye’ brush kit - £19.95

Total for 14 brushes is £87.84, I didn’t buy them all at once but this works out at around £6.28 per brush. Now that really isn’t bad for high quality, eco-friendly synthetic brushes.

Because for me, these brushes were an investment, I wanted to find the best way to take care of them because I want them to last a while. So far I have found:

Johnson’s baby shampoo is probably the best, its most cost efficient and is very good for a very deep clean (which is what I’ve just done, cleaning for Christmas and all.)

You can get a big bottle for about £1, or a mini travel size for 89p which is what I bought first and it lasted me months, because I just wanted to try it. I haven’t tried the mac ones, because I don’t want to pay the prices, and I’ve tried the elf one and I didn’t like it. But for £1 why do I want to keep looking, I’m happy with the price, the way it works, and the very pleasant smell which reminds me of babies, and who doesn’t like babies?

All in all, I think we’re onto a winner with baby shampoo and if you find a cheaper one then try it, it might be better? … I’m planning on trying the Simple Baby shampoo next, which you can find for £1 in Home bargains as well.

S xo

Bargain Beauty Buys: EBay

Another great place to find bargains is EBay, once again it has pretty much everything you could ever want…. Do you want to know another little secret? ... I bought my prom dress off EBay!

That's me in the purple!

But today I’m looking at beauty products again, so you have 2 choices, you have the companies, which are Brand New often bought in multi packs, or you’ve got the pre-owned (sometimes used) products, now I’ve been rather lucky with some of the purchases I’ve made, but I’ve also had a few bad experiences too, so it’s not full proof.

The best of what I’ve bought, pre-owned:

Benefit Ultra Shine lip gloss for £5.70 in the shade ‘Who are you wearing?’ I love love LOVE the applicator on this its acrylic stick with a lovely little brush to apply, these generally retail form around £12.50-14.

Not the best images I know but I wanted to show you the applicator, and please excuse my unpainted nails.

But my best buy is by far my Nars artist palette, I paid £22.50 for this bad boy, it had been very lightly switched which in all honesty I don’t really mind because it came will all its packaging even a plastic film sheet between the palette. And this originally retails for around £55. It has the classic 'Orgasm' shade as well as 'Silvana'. It also includes 4 eye shadows and 4 lip colours.

I know they look dusty, its just make up and Nars packaging attracts the worst.

Speaking of the worst, the one bad experience I’ve had is when I tried to buy a soap and glory lip gloss, and I won the auction and paid, but my product didn’t arrive, so I ‘opened a case’ and the seller apologised and said they’d send another, to this day, I am still waiting and I’m not that bothered because it was only about £4 but never the less, I could have bought something else, I might do something about it still. If I ever get around to it.

There is always that doubt on EBay whether it’s genuine, but I’m a risk taker, so I don’t really mind, but if you’d rather not waste the money then I wouldn’t try, but there are some great bargains waiting to be found, don’t fall in the trap either and make sure to check the price of postage and packing.

There are also some fab clothing and accessories I’ve bought off EBay but ill save that for another post.

S xo

Bargain Beauty Buys: Higher End

So my last post was bargain beauty buys, so hey, why not carry on, I'm going to do instalments of these, any time I find a new place to shop I’ll let you know. I still have a few to tell you about so we will see how they go… the last section was more drug-store, this time I’m turning to high end and were to buy it at discount prices, I’m no expert but I’m going to share my secrets with you!

T K Maxx

Let’s talk about my ultimate favourite shop, it sells EVERYTHING! From home ware to clothing, but my much-loved section is the beauty section, they have decent brands like Essie, Stila, This works, and even Revlon. I find the best bargains are in the clearance section (so look for those little red stickers with the discount prices). I’ve picked up a pack of three Deborah Lippmann Nail Varnish’s in the clearance for £5! How amazing is that! They’re usually £12 each! The shades I got are Happy Birthday (which is the most wonderful multi coloured glitter, with chunky and fine glitter speckles), Through the fire (this one made me think of the Hunger Games, but that’s just me being sad, it’s a red with a lovely red shimmer, it’s the perfect Christmas shade, which is when I plan to wear it) and last but certainly not least is one called… wait for it.. SARAH SMILE... (I couldn’t believe it  ... I knew right then I couldn’t leave this trio, this one isn’t very exciting it’s just a muted pink, but it will be great for French Manicures or my nails but better kinda colour (I also think this is from a Sarah Jessica Parker collection or Sex and the City, but either way I NEEDED it)).

I have also bought a Butter London duo, I paid £10 for a nail varnish and a lip gloss, it’s such a beautiful Christmas glitter and would make a lovely gift, Butter London usually retails for about £12 for the polish so essentially you’re getting the lip-gloss for free with £2 off. The shade I got is called West End Wonderland, it’s basically a gold glitter with a bronze colour embedded.

Once again, most nail varnishes come in Trios, I Bought an Essie set for £12 which seems a lot, but for 3 and they’re usually £8 each, in this set I got, Capri (an oxblood red colour), Jag-u-are ( which is a red with gold shimmer) and Miami nice (which is a hot pink with a blue undertone).

And I promise this is the last trio I have bought from here was an Orly one, I received a sample of an Orly polish in my Glossy Box and loved it, which made me want more… So obviously when I came across these in T K Maxx for £8 for all 3 I couldn’t leave them. I have Peachy parrot (which as you can probably guess is a peachy shimmery colour), Le Chateau (this is a very dark green colour, but it lovely in the autumn) and the last is Le Champagne (a pearly white shade).

I now realise after both of these posts I seem like a nail varnish addict, if anyone interested in seeing my collection to prove that I’m really not, let me know.

Come back in a few days to find out about Mac for cheaper and where I got my Naked 2 palette for discount.

 S xo

Bargain Beauty Buys!

I have recently discovered my new favourite place to buy make up. Are you ready? Poundworld! They have some really cool stuff, (do people say cool anymore?) you might have to dig through the rubbish to find it but for a pound per item it’s defiantly worth it. So far I’ve got:

Barry M Lip Gloss - Strawberry Glitter (shade 8) and Orange (shade 6)

Rimmel – Radiant Rose (002) and Shimmering Sands (004)

Sally Hansen – Nail varnish and Nail care

Lacey lilac (270) Pretty in hot pink (310) Buff (486)

Cuticle massage cream, gel cuticle remover and Crackle overcoat in Star Burst (shade 12)

OPI – Nail Varnish

These aren’t the exact ones because they’re wrapped up as one of the gifts for my friends!  

It’s unbelievable that you can get bargains like this I know, so keep your eyes peeled! They also have a rather large selection of Revlon nail varnishes, which I have bought some but they’re wrapped up in my Mum's stocking! ;)

Also, you’ve got to remember to shop the sales, most Boots stores have a clearance section and sometimes they have good deals too, I picked up Revlon colour stay for a pound in Boots in my local Chester store, it was my exact shade! Along with a Miss Sporty Powder for 50p and a Bourjois Concealer for £1.

They have a variety of nail varnishes too, I got a purple miss sporty nail varnish for 50p as well as a mini Orly nail varnish in silver. I got a bunch more different coloured nail varnishes for £1, but I’ve bought some for presents and as its nearly Christmas I can’t show you, it’s out little secret! I also picked up my favourite lip balm from blistex for £1.50 instead of £2.25.

S xo

(P.S. You may aswell call me search the sales Sarah)