3 Recent Reads

Before we go into three recent reads, I'd like to give two quick apologies: 

1. I'm sorry I haven't gotten a chance to type up a blogpost in the past few days, I am trying to get this blog into a regular schedule and I'm sure we'll get there eventually.
2.  I'm also sorry about the photo on this post, I'm not happy with it but there's no daylight left to take another one by and I wanted to put this up today.

Now, as the three books I've read most recently have been so different, and as I enjoyed them all thoroughly, I thought I'd do some mini book reviews for you today. 

Marley and Me- John Grogan

I'd be surprised if you weren't familiar with the movie that was based on this book, but I didn't realise until I came across this worn out copy in a charity shop that it was based on a book at all. The book is a non-fiction reflection of, as the cover of my copy puts it 'life and love with the world's worst dog'. As an animal lover I enjoyed both the book and the film but preferred the book as it had a lot more personality and I would not consider it a sad book where I would consider it a sad film. As is often the case with film adaptations, I don't think the mood of the book really came out in the film.

Clockwork Angel- Cassandra Clare

This was the first in a series of 3, which I'm going to review as a whole. It has many of the qualities you might expect to find in Young Adult novels, its fun, addictive and romantic as well as being far from excellently written and faintly irritating. I believe I read the whole series in not much more than a week, particularly enjoying the setting of Victorian London and all the magic of the world the protagonist finds herself in. This is a great escapist novel and my main gripe upon finishing the series was that the first two novels were rather starved of romance while the third was almost sickeningly overflowing with it.

I Capture the Castle- Dodie Smith

This is a slower read than either of the others mentioned. It follows the life of a 17 year old girl in the 1930's English countryside. It is a love story, but not a romantic one. Enough happens in it that even I, who have a tendency to give up on a book as soon as I become bored, read it to the end but not enough to take the focus away from the personality of the protagonist and the slow, simple mood of the novel. This is beautifully written and evoked a love of the countryside in me, every time I put it down I was full of the romance of the setting and wondering if there was any tumbling down castles up for sale nearby. 

I would love to know what you've been reading recently, my next post will be up ASAP.

Happy Halloween!!

Eva xx

The Best of the Cheapest: Blushes

 Top to bottom: Rimmel Stay Blushed (Sunkissed Cherry), Natural Collection Blushed Cheeks (Peach Melba), MUA Blusher (Bon Bon), 17 Blush Powder (China Pink)

When you’re on a budget its always good to buy the best thing you can get for the lowest price. With make up, it can be a bit hit and miss with some excellent quality, incredibly cheap products and also a few rubbish, ridiculously priced ones. So I thought I’d look at some of the very cheapest make up products and let you know what I’d recommend, starting with blushes.

Natural Collection blushed cheeks- £1.99

This blush in the shade Peach Melba seems to be something almost everyone owns and for good reason. It has a great formula and is a lovely subtle peach colour. Not as pigmented as the others in this list, but I’ve never felt it wasn’t pigmented enough. I like to wear this as part of a natural make up look or to keep the focus on dramatic eye make up.

Seventeen blush powder- £3.49

In China Pink, this is the only blush in this list with any shimmer in it as generally I prefer matte blushes. However, the shimmer is very slight and subtle and its a very pretty pink shade, again different from the peaches I usually opt for, I love the way this looks though, and its very good quality.

MUA Blusher- £1

Incredibly cheap and with a lovely smooth, pigmented formula. My favourite shade is Bon Bon. I honestly have nothing negative to say about these blushes and I also hear good things about the cream versions of these blushes, which I believe cost £2.50, though I am yet to try them.

Rimmel London Stay Blushed!- £4.49

Okay so this one is a little more expensive but as it’s my favourite blush at the moment I couldn't resist including it. This is in a smooth liquid formula and you only need a tiny amount as its so pigmented. The shade Sunkissed Cherry is a lovely peach colour and it lasts all day, what more could you want?

See you Thursday!

Eva x

12 Things to do on a Bad Day

So today I just woke up feeling awful, and didn’t feel like writing up a blog post. But having promised myself I would post at least every other day for a while, I decided I’d write something relevant to the situation. We all have bad days and I think the best thing to do, if at all possible, is to forget about whatever is stressing you out for a little while and spend as much time as you can spare doing something for yourself. Sometimes its therapeutic to sit around in your PJs eating ice cream, sometimes you feel better when you go out, or spend some time with your favourite people. Here’s a little list of things I do to make myself feel better on a bad day:

1. Take the dog for a walk somewhere pretty.
2. Take yourself for a walk somewhere pretty.
3. Have a bath- use that bath bomb you were saving (or is it just me who saves their favourite bath bombs for bad days?)
4. Eat your favourite food, eat lots of it.
5. Spend time with friends or family, watch movies, play board games, distract yourself with good company.
6. Go to your favourite coffee shop.
7. Make yourself the most elaborate hot chocolate you can find a recipe for.
8. Spend ages doing really amazing make up regardless of what you are doing with the rest of your day.
9. Bring your duvet to the living room and watch your favourite film or TV show.
10. Cuddle your pets.
11. Re-read a favourite book (I usually find romantic ones the most comforting)
12. Go shopping- buy yourself something you definitely don't need.

Anyway, I hope none of you had a bad day today, I'd love to know what you do to cheer yourself up when you do though. See you Tuesday!
Eva x

Curling Your Curl Hating Lashes

My lashes are pale, straight and point determinedly downwards. After years of curling them only to have the curl fall out almost immediately, I’ve searched more blog posts and youtube videos than I could count trying to figure out what I was doing wrong. This list of curling tips is basically a collection of the tips I learnt from my search. I think the key here is experimentation, everyone has very different eyelashes and very different ideas of how they want them to look so you have to play about with it a bit and find out what works for you.

The right mascara

In the UK at least, mascara is ridiculously expensive. Worse than that, you can’t test it and its hard to tell from reviews whether or not you would like it. For these reasons I hate buying mascara and I didn’t want to spend a lot of money looking for something that would hold the curl. I ended up with Maybelline Great Lash in the waterproof formula, its cheap, well reviewed and waterproof which is what everyone said would hold a curl. This works well for me (apart from being almost impossible to remove) and it definitely holds the curl where non-waterproof mascaras did not. However, for many people using a non-waterproof mascara holds the curl fine and you're also less likely to find a horrible and sticky or irremovable formula in a non-waterproof mascara.

The right method

The two methods I most commonly hear of are simply holding your lash curler down for a few seconds, or the working your way up the lash method, holding the curler down and then releasing it and moving it slightly further up the lash before repeating. For my particularly stubborn lashes, neither does any good. I have to get the curler as close to the root as I can get it (bear in mind this is not very close to the root at all) and hold it in place for a good deal of time, I’d say about 15 seconds. I have to curl it until it looks ridiculous and my lashes are pointing straight up and touching my eyebrows because it will then fall back into a good curl.

The right eyelash curler

This is the step I don’t know much about, my cheap eyelash curler (I can't even remember where it's from) has served me well enough and I don’t see how the curler you use could have much impact on how long the curl lasts. However, mine is a bit annoying to use and I’ve been wondering whether to invest in the shu uemura eyelash curler which seems to be the most highly recommended. Thoughts?

Autumn Favourites

We’re already more than half way through everyone’s favourite season. The jumpers are out, the leaves are falling and, thanks to my six year old sister, our house has been lovingly strewn with conkers. So, in between halloween preparations and attempts to drink as many Pumpkin Spice Lattes as is possibly excusable before the end of the season, I thought I’d run through a few beauty-type things I’ve been enjoying this past month and a half. Rimmel Kate Lasting Finish Matte Lipstick I bought the Rimmel Kate Moss matte lipstick in 107 fairly recently, and its the first one of the Rimmel Kate Moss lipsticks I’ve owned, a bit late to that party, I know, but apart from being a little drying, it really has lived up to it’s reputation. The colour is gorgeous both when used lightly (quite a bright pink) and when built up a little more when it looks a lovely deep plum-red colour. I love a matte lip product because they don't tend to need reapplying every 5 minutes, I give this 7.5/10 for staying power and it tends to fade in a nice, non patchy way. MUA Ever After Palette My MUA ever after palette, which I’ve done a full review of here, has probably been used more in the last month than it has in the past 10 months I've owned it put together. Using it for everything from contouring to filling in brows to creating a subtle contoured eye look to go with statement autumnal lip colours in deep red or plum. While I’m not giving it full marks for pigmentation, you really can do a lot with it for under £5. Maybelline Color Tattoo Cream Eyeshadow Maybelline colour tattoo cream eyeshadows are an all year round favourite to be honest. They're very pretty, last well and are really quick and easy to apply. 'On and on bronze' is my favourite shade, its super pigmented, super long lasting and looks twice as good as a powder eyeshadow would even without using an extortionately priced eyeshadow primer. The shade 'Metallic pomegranate' is a more recent purchase and its a very autumnal deep plum colour. Its not quite as pigmented or long lasting as on and on bronze but still does pretty well on both accounts. It is quite red toned so I'd avoid it if you're not into the whole reddish eye make up thing (there's definitely a solid 'it just makes your eyes look sore and tired' argument) but I think thi very pretty- particularly because of the contrasting gold shimmer running through it. Revlon Colorstay Foundation Last but not least, I'm starting to go back to thicker, cold weather foundations and have been using Revlon colorstay more often than anything else. It's a rare and beautiful thing when a drugstore foundation is actually pale enough for my skin tone (NW10 in mac) and this, in the shade '110 Ivory' is a really good match. It also lasts really well and gives a good coverage whilst still blending in to the skin well and not looking too cakey. I also love the natural finish it gives, its not matte or dewy but at just the right place in between. My one complaint, having bought the 'normal-dry' version of this foundation when my skin was going through a dry phase, is that for a foundation aimed at dry skin it clings horribly to dry patches, so if you have dry skin it may not be your best option.

How Else To Use Your MUA Matte Eyeshadow Palette

I’ve been reaching for this all matte palette from MUA (available at superdrug) more and more often recently. The pigmentation and general quality of the eyeshadow is about what you’d expect for £4- nothing spectacular, its not awful but if thats what you're looking for, I'd recommend spending a little more on a sleek palette (I believe they have a couple of all matte ones). Some shades are quite chalky and the lighter ones aren't pigmented enough to show up well when used as eyeshadow. However, this has been a favourite of mine for its multi-purpose functionality more than anything, making it a good bet if you’re on a budget. Here are 4 ways I've been using this palette recently: 

1. I use either the pale pink (taffeta) or pale yellow (butter) shade to colour correct under eye circles whilst also setting concealer, I tend to favour the pink but I couldn't tell you why, both work well and do not show up as yellow or pink on the skin when used this way.
2. The taupe shade (fade) works well as a contour shade for me as I'm so pale (NW10 in mac), its not too warm toned or pigmented enough to easily look over done and its in a nice big square pan so you can just about get a big enough brush in it.
3. I also use the shade ‘chino’ to fill in my brows sometimes, its nice and subtle and works well with my light brown/ a bit ginger eyebrows which is a plus as most pencils tend to look too obvious as they never seem to be a close enough colour.
4. I use mainly the brown shades as eyeshadow, particularly 'fade', 'penny' and 'chino.' With a decent eyeshadow primer (I’m currently using too faced shadow insurance) these work quite nicely as subtle matte eyeshadows, I've been using them for a simple contoured look on my eyes while I’m wearing a dark autumnal lip colour.

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