sale spends

hello everyone!

now i don't know about you, but i couldn't wait to get sale shopping this year, and if any of you read my last post then you'll know i even did a cheeky bit of online shopping on none other than Christmas day! but the vouchers and money in my purse were burning a hole so yesterday just called for an impromptu visit to Westfield! cue a picture heavy post and a very battered bank account, but a very happy Sophie!

first up, primark! i had a £20 voucher to spend, but if i'm honest, i don't really like Westfield's Primark and i actually found it pretty hard to spend which is very unusual for me. in the end i settled on this leather look backpack as i've been after a backpack for a while now to go with my coat which has leather look sleeves so this was perfect for just £9. i also snapped up the little travel card holder for just a pound as i've got myself an internship up in London this summer so need something to keep my Oyster card safe - and who doesn't love a Cath Kidston inspired floral print!? the studded shoes i wasn't so sure on and was torn between these and some wellies which were very Melissa by Vivienne Westwood-esque with little studs round the ankle, but they just weren't as comfy. plus, i don't really have an shoes appropriate for winter other than converse and boots so these will make a nice change, plus they were just £10.

i also had an arcadia giftcard so was completely undecided where to spend it until i walked into Miss Selfridge and they had this dress which i must have been lusting over for at least a month now? the last one was my size aswell and there had also been another £4 knocked off the sale price since i'd last looked at it so of course it was fate! once i'd knocked off my student discount i had to pay just £6.20 on top of the giftcard for a dress that should have been £49. now i just need the occasion to wear it - i'm in love with the detailing on the back, too.

Forever 21 is probably my favourite shop at Westfield, so I will always pop in if i'm nearby. I only snapped up a few bits yesterday from the jewellery and accessories floor. admittedly, i don't normally spend more than a couple of pounds on a make-up bag, but this one was too pretty to leave behind. i think it cost about £6.60 once student discount was applied and i will easily fill this to the brim once my MUA and e.l.f. orders arrive! anyone who knows me will know i'm a sucker for rings, but i have such skinny, bony fingers that ring shopping on the high street can be a nightmare sometimes, but forever 21 have saved the day by sizing their rings properly. i actally snapped up 4 packs, 2 full price and 2 in the sale, and it's so nice to have rings that actually fit properly! the two sale packs (which i think were the silver) were just £1.99 each, and the two gold packs were both less than £3.50 each.

this is possibly my favourite purchase of the day and officially my new favourite bra! i had a credit note for M&S from some returned gifts so treated myself to this beauty. i had to pay a little towards it but how could i not?!

the next few purchases are from a few days ago, but i'll tag them onto the end of this post anyway...

the cardigan was reduced to £9 in the kids section in New Look, and i have an obsession with slouchy knits right now so i couldn't leave it behind. the knickers were just £2 each in the topshop sale, and in superdrug i bought MUA's starry night palette for NYW smokey eyes, and some lipcote aswell as i've been wanting to try that out for a while!

i've also had my pressies from my boyfriend since then and i am in love with them all so i thought i'd share those aswell! the jumper and top are both from ASOS which I'd asked for and I was super impressed with his boy initiative with the perfume - James wasn't quite so impressed with me buying myself some in the sale before he gave me this, but now i have a lifetimes supply! i'll definitely be treating myself to a lush bath aswell with the Molton Brown goodies!

got a little Marc Jacobs family going on here!

and that's me all spent out and officially poor! if any of you have posted about your sale spends, leave the links in the comments below, i love reading posts like these! 

merry christmas!

merry christmas guys, i hope you all had a fab day and all got spoilt rotten?! what did everyone get? 

this is just a quick filler sort-of post of some of my favourite gifts and some sale purchases (yes, already!) to show you all the goodies i've recieved/treated myself to!

boots // 'love' room decoration // cath kidston mini bag // fashionary book // louise gray for topshop lipstick // jewellery // gift cards // yankee candle car air fresheners in coconut bay.

sewing machine // studded clutch // mcfly autobiography // jelly tots // barry m // gloves // cable knit socks

now i don't know about anyone else, but i jumped on the selfridges beauty sale hype this year, but the 6am launch on christmas day put me off a bit. turns out i'm a big child at heart and was up at that ridiculous time of the morning being excited. just aswell, because i got my hands on a huge bargain and bought a little christmas present to myself (along with all the clothes i bought for myself whilst christmas shopping - ahem). i'm addicted to marc jacobs dot, but could only afford a little bottle in the past so rarely used it, but lord praise selfridges for a half price gift set. i got the 100ml bottle, shower gel and body lotion for only £33. there was so much perfume in the sale that if you have a favourite i'd definitely check out the selfridges sale site to see if yours is on there - Daisy was only £23! it says the beauty sale doesn't start until tomorrow, so i'm not sure if christmas day was a flash sale, but keep your eye out. 

i also put in some MUA and e.l.f orders yesterday because Santa, goddam him, didn't bring me the real techniques brushes i asked for so i settled for the e.l.f brushes and of course ended up with more make-up than i ever needed. plus, MUA are offering over £20 worth of free make-up by Famous Makeup with a £12 spend which i easily notched up...  i'll be reviewing these pieces in the near future, so keep an eye on the blog.

e.l.f stippling brush, powder brush, blush brush, eyeshadow brush, baked blush, face powder and  sharpener. 

MUA lip boom, fixing spray and eyeshadow palette.

going to be keeping my eye out for the heaven & earth and starry nights palettes instore too! i was going to try the e.l.f fixing spray over the MUA one, but none of the reviews i read were that great so i'll be giving MUA a go instead.

Has anyone else found any sales bargains yet? I'll be hitting town over the next few days to spend the rest of my pennies and would love to hear what you've found.

Enjoy

Walking In A Winter Wonderland

hello lovelies!

how is everyone? can't believe it's Christmas Eve already, it's definitely snuck up on us this year. i can try to deny this fact as much as i like but i am such a child when it comes to christmas and i know i won't be getting much sleep tonight - what is wrong with me!? i can't wait to start sale shopping either, i'll definitely be scouring the online sales on boxing day!

anyway, to get a little more into the festive spirit i jumped at the chance of some free Winter Wonderland tickets when I was offered some from the lovely people over at www.bgo.com (disclaimer - i am not promoting the concept of gambling). I've really wanted to go down to Hyde Park for this for about 3 years now but never seemed to get round to it so I couldn't wait. I chose tickets for the Magical Ice Kingdom so on Saturday night I headed off to London with James...

after trekking all the way round Winter Wonderland to finally get to the Ice Kingdom, being able to jump the queue did cheer us up a little bit, but i definitely underestimated how cold it would be inside - on the plus side, outside felt really warm after! i think its crazy that all the sculptures inside are made of ice & snow, these pictures really don't do justice to how detailed some of the pieces are! and just a little tip... you will end up with a very cold and wet bum if you go down a slide made of ice. there's loads of opportunities for photos and bits and pieces, but people were queueing and we were a little bit impatient if i'm honest, the picture of the horse underneath had an ice carriage for pictures. 

i wouldn't call it much of a 'Kingdom' if i'm honest, we easily finished it in about 20 minutes and it's just in a big tent, and I doubt you could stretch it out for more than an hour as a whole family once you'd taken pictures and the what not. i would have been a little bit disappointed if i'd forked out for tickets (i think they're about £8 each), but as a freebie it was great to be able to go and have a look around. 

the rest of Winter Wonderland is amazing aswell and there is no way you could go and not come away feeling festive. We weren't there for long (our tickets were for 9pm and it closes at 10), so we didn't have a chance to look around the market but there were a few bits and pieces that caught my eye as we were wandering around - i officially want a christmas jumper! there's plenty of rides aswell, although the £6 each to get on put us off so we settled for some crepes instead. 

i wish we could have stayed a little longer or gone up earlier (god damn hangovers) as i could easily have spent hours looking at all the little stalls, but i don't think James would have appreciated that... should probably have prepared ourselves for the crazy prices to do all the additional bits and pieces aswell, but i for one will be going back next year and taking some more pennies with me and checking out the carousel bar - yes, a carousel bar, amazing!!!

has anyone else been up to winter wonderland? what did you think or get up to?

Merry Christmas! 

Ciate Caviar Inspired Nails - Budget Version

evening girls!

today's post is a nail post (again, i'm sorry - my polish collection is just too big nowadays) but this is a little more nail arty for me. i think the first Ciate caviar kit that caught my attention was the jubilee inspired one that launched in the summertime, but on a student budget there was no way I could afford the £18 for the kit, so i got into ebay mode and came across a cheap alternative. this was honestly months ago, and the little pots of caviar beads sat in my nail box for months and never got used. i even went on and purchased the MUA nail constellations when they launched, even though i already had perfectly good beads...

anyway, to get to the point, i thought i'd try out my original purchases this week for an internship interview this week with a beauty PR company (which i got, yippee!) and oh my, i wish i'd tried them out sooner. not only is this method cheaper than the MUA constellations/Ciate kits, it made a hell of a lot less mess aswell, something with I ended up doing with my MUA kit. 

You will need:

Base/Top Coat

Nail polish colour of your choice

Pot of caviar beads

i purchased my beads from this seller here who has loads of colour choices for just over £1, and i also just came across sparklynails.co.uk who also sell the pots too for just £1.50.

Step 1 - Apply base coat

Step 2 - Apply nail polish as usual with the desired amount of layers and leave to dry.

Step 3 - To apply the beads, apply an additional layer of nail polish and dab your nail into the pot of beads. wiggle around if necessary to cover the whole nail or use a small tool to fill in any gaps. Leave to dry.

Step 4 - Apply a top coat to help give the beads extra staying power. 

i took these photos after a couple of days of wear and as you can see, the beads have stayed put pretty well. this is such an easy and affordable way to achieve an alternative nail art look. the little pots are so much easier for application aswell as you can pop the nail straight in without any overspill and little beads rolling all over the shop - MUA's option of pouring the beads onto the nail or into another container is just a little too much hassle, especially with wet nails.

has anyone else tried out cheaper Ciate caviar options too? I'd love to see your alternatives!

Enjoy

Benefit ChaCha Tint

swatched and blended.

this was a freebie with one of the magazines a month or so ago (i bought so many, that I honestly can't remember what it was, but i'll hazard a guess that it was Cosmopolitan?) and i pretty much picked it up as i already have mini's of most of the other Benefit tints. ideally i was after the sun beam freebie, but i left it late to snap this up so couldn't find it anywhere and settled for this one. 

i haven't really used this all that much... it's a hell of a lot more orange than i thought it would be. i've used it twice on my cheeks, but i don't think this colour will be going anywhere near my lips anytime soon. the first time i used it i applied a strip to each cheek and then blended with my fingertips, but by the time i'd got to blending, it has left a horrible orange stain where i'd swatched it, and i'm hoping you can see this in one of the pictures above. i've since learned to just dab a little to my fingertip and blend into my cheeks this way so avoid the stanining.

i think i need to try working with this a little more to find out how it best works for me as i wouldn't say i've got on with it all that well so far. 

did anyone else pick up this freebie or have any tips for application?

my clothing sale is still going on here too, don't forget to check it out, all sizes 6-8 from Miss Selfridge, H&M, New Look etc, all barely worn. 

My pick of the Primark SS13 collection.

hello guys, hows everyones Thursdays going? i will admit, i've been very lazy today - i've wrapped my last few christmas presents, and finished off personalising a gift for a friend, but apart from this i've done nothing! but a cheeky little tweet from Look Magazine did catch my eye - the first look at Primarks SS13 collection. as a student, i will say that primark are a bit of a guilty pleasure and i will rarely leave without having purchased something - their jewellery collection has been fab lately. so after browsing the collection, i thought i'd post my top picks here. these are the pieces that i thought were the best out of the collection - and to be honest, some of the collection is quite outdated and i think the trends will have passed by the time they hit store, but i admire primark for their efforts to keep up with the bigger high street brands!

first up is this little crop top, and for just £2.50 this is an absolute steal. i hope they do this in a whole range of colours aswell, i'll definitely be stocking up to team with high waisted maxis!

i love this crochet crop too! it has such a boho feel to it, and makes it easy to instantly dress up a plain maxi skirt, or to wear over a maxi dress. £12.

these are one of the pieces that i think may have passed their time by SS13, but I still love them! £12 is a really good price compared to the prices that were on the high street this year for similar pieces.

If i had an office job, i would be snapping this up right away for £10. the subtle patterning makes a boring suit instantly more of a fashion forward piece.

I think these are great office wear pieces too - a fashionable twist on the classic suit pair. personally, i'd pair this with the plain white cropped vest for interviews and meetings, i'm in love! the biker is £25, and the skirt is £14, so a bargain for a two-piece set.

i really can't decide on the colour of this, the description says aqua so it must be the lightest shade ever, but it does make it a slightly safer option than a white dress for the summer months! again, i love the embroidery on the top half. i'd keep this as a party piece for summer barbeques/weddings, especially for just £15.

i just don't suit the midi dress, i'm the total wrong height, but they're such a simple piece and easy wardrobe staples. this ones just £7, so perfect if you're new to the midi dress trend and just want to try it out.

print lust alert! i am in love with the print of this, and the feminine silhouette compliments it perfectly. why are none of my friends getting married this summer?! i have plenty of dress options but no events, sob. this one is also a steal for just £20.

if you want to check out the full collection preview, then just click here. let me know what your favourite pieces are, or how you'd style up my picks.

also, don't forget to check out the clothing sale i'm holding on the blog, the link to all the pieces is here.

Enjoy