Stay Sane - the School Diaries

Hey guys,
In two days, I will have been back at school for exactly a month. And let me tell you, I am starting to feel it. The endless highlighting, summarising, revision, essays and lugging of books has my body and my brain aching.

It's leaving me wondering how in the world I'm going to get through the next ten months. So I've put together a system to help ease the pain:

• Travel mugs. If you don't have one - you need one. Not only does leaving the house with a warm cup of lovin' leave you feeling cared-for and toasty, but they are the perfect breakfast-on-the-go solution (and we all know how much I love those). Smoothies, nutrition shakes, even hot porridge can get slopped into these puppies about 30 seconds before you're out the door. Pack a spoon, and you're off!
• Water bottles. If you love the polar bears you'll grab yourself a re-fillable one. I never realised the impact of hydration - it's such a pain to keep drinking it all the time. But even if you only gulp down 50cl during the school day (that's an average Volvic water bottle size), the difference in how much more alert and - wait for it - cleaner you feel is shocking.
• Post-it notes. The best study tool I've found. Post-it. Everything. Pretty colours, too. The vibrancy helps keep the creative side of your brain awake when you're working, and you can colour-code topics or levels of difficultly. PLUS, you can write yourself funny little notes. Or is that one just me?
• Highlighters. See "Post-it notes" for details. Sooooo worth the extra time it takes to get your reading done. I like to go back over my notes at the end of the class and spend five minutes highlighting stuff I'm likely to forget.
• Emergency kit. You could get one from a website like Glitzy-Glam.com, or you could DIY-it. I keep a baby dry-shampoo, mascara, eyeliner, tweezers, nail file, concealer and tinted lip-salve in my gold Bobbi Brown travel pouch. Which I can't photograph for you because my camera has gone AWOL. Gahhhhh
• A finishing touch. Not necessary, but still nice. I scented a mahoosive wad of note paper at the end of the summer, and it makes me happy every time I get my writing pad out.

My guilty pleasure - it's a highlighter... and Post-its!

I hope this helps some of you! Are there any tips of your own you feel like sharing? Heaven knows, I need all the help I can get.

And now, my History essay is calling (screeching, actually - it's due tomorrow).

Wish me luck xx

Opening image courtesy of: http://cdnaccountancy.com/images/small/000002999139.jpg

Post-it pen image courtesy of: http://www.3mselect.co.uk/images/PRODUCT/medium/1847.jpg

Make mornings easier...

Okay, I'm not this bad...

Hey everyone,
This is a new tip I've been waiting to share, but I'm a bit hesitant as it comes with the risk of sounding like I have wayyyy too much free time. Firstly, thats farrrr from the case (like my multiple letters), and I've found that putting just a few hours into this will really speed you up in the long run. So, here goes:


Colour organise your wardrobe.


Don't laugh. Oh, it is so easy, it is heaven. I'm one of those people that functions better in a clean, tidy environment but, somehow, I can't seem to keep all my stuff in one place. For the last couple of months, I've been developing various organisation systems and they really help. When everything has a place, all you've gotta do is keep it there - and everything stays nice!
Being tidy saves you so much time and considering I move at the pace of a wounded sloth in the mornings, I need all the time I can get. Since I organised my wardrobe my colour (all my reds, blues, greens, yellows, whites hanging in there own little groupings), it takes me an average of five minutes - TOPS - to pick out what I'm wearing for the day. It goes one of two ways:

1. "I feel like wearing purple today," *turns to the left* "Ahh, how handy, here's all my purple clothing in one little section for me to choose from."
2. "I feel like wearing this skirt. But what should I piece it with? Ahh, here are all the co-ordinating colour palettes, so I can choose anything from here and look adorable in three seconds flat."

Plus, it's a good opportunity for a clear-out and when all your things are organised, you can make a shopping list of things you actually need. Honestly, it is the easiest thing in the world. Even if I'm wearing a t-shirt, jumper and jeans, it doesn't end up looking like I got dressed in the dark. And believe me, I've had those days. It's easy as pie - choose several colour groups that you wear the most and organise them first. Then look at the rest of your clothing and decide what group each item best fits. You can't go wrong.

Enjoy!

Opening Image: http://www.ohfransson.com/.a/6a00e54ed037198833011168640424970c-500wi
Closing Image: http://cdn3.ioffer.com/img/item/163/914/849/AUrUM0cN6rOBuho.jpg

Rugged Booties

Hey everyone

My new best friends

Just a little style post for you all on how to polish your worker-style boots. I bought these babies from Primark at the start of the season and they've become my go-to boot for the winter. They're also a very close match for All-Saint's biker boots so if you're not keen on shelling out £100+ (I wasn't), these are brilliant!


On to the topic of today's post - keeping them looking fabulous. I never used to take particular care with previous pairs of boots - I mean, it's called distressed leather for a reason, right? Wrong. Puddles, tripping up and cold weather left my boots looking oh-so-cool for the first month or so, but they were dead before the buds started to bloom.
I searched high and low for my Primark friends, and I plan on wearing them for more than one season - so I've worked out a way to preserve them but keep that busted-up feel. You'll need:

1. Wax-look shoe polish. I used Kiwi's Instant Wax shine in Brown. When choosing your colour, make sure it is either a perfect match or no more than a shade darker than the shoes.
2. Golf-shoe brush. Or any other shoe brush with veryyyy stiff bristles.
3. Shoe trees.
4. A polish cloth.
5. Weather-proofing spray.

Make sure the boots are clean to start with (and please note that this will not work on suede or nubuck shoes). Stick in your shoe trees - these will allow you to get an even finish. Working in small sections, slather the polish on and using quick, medium strokes, buff it in with your shoe brush. Once the whole boot is covered leave it for about an hour, so that the polish is 100% dry to the touch. Gently rub over your boots with the cloth - go easy as you're only trying to remove excess colour, not shine 'em up. Lastly, cover the whole boot with a generous amount of weather-proofing spray.

Carry out this process about once a month and it will cover scuffs, soften your boots and lengthen their lifespan, whilst helping your boots look worn-in and rough and tumble.

Hope this helped! Until next time

x

Opening photo courtesy of rottenottersthoughts.blogspot.com. Boot border photo courtesy of alisonstein.net

G-e-n-i-u-s... Urban Nails!!

Hey kiddies :)

I cannot wait to share this with you! I can't think of a good enough introduction to this post, so I'm just going to jump straight in:

My favourite eyeshadow in the world is Urban Decay 'X'. It's the first 'grown-up' eyeshadow I used back when I was thirteen and starting to play with makeup. X is a beautiful gold shimmer colour with hints of rose and - I kid you not - looks like your own personal sunset on your lids. As with all Urban Decay shadows, it is pigmented so that you know you're getting your money's worth, but the colour is buildable to suit the occasion. In short - I LOVE it.

The shadow was discontinued where I live but on my last visit to the States I managed to get my hands on some. You can't imagine how heartbroken I was when, unpacking at home, it fell out of my makeup bag and was crushed to smithereens. I tried using it as a pigment, but it just wasn't the same. And that's where this post comes in - 

Clearing out my old nail polishes, I realised I had to do something with my thirty-million clear varnishes. So I thought hey, what have I got to lose? I wasn't using my poor X anyway. I MADE MY VERY OWN URBAN DECAY NAIL POLISH!

Left - one coat. Right - two coats.

You can do this with any old eyeshadow or pigment (if you don't have any you want to use, buy a cheap shadow from a brand like ELF - 'Periwinkle' is gorgeous and beautifully pigmented). All you need is some clear varnish, a small plastic funnel (you can make your own by rolling some paper or card) and a little spoon.

I made sure to give my shadow pot a good bashing before I started to break up any clumps and help me get all the powder. Unscrewing the polish cap, I held the funnel at the top of the bottle and just tipped the powder in. Close, *shake shake shake* and you're done!

The result is gorgeous - and because X is a shimmer, I can wear two coats as a colour or just use it as a top coat on a darker shade. This trick does work best with matte shadows as the colours come out stronger in a varnish, though.

Final last words? Give the bottle a good swirl before you apply to make sure, in the words of Elvis Presley, it's "all shook up (uhh-uh, yeah yeah)"

Love love love

xx

Lip-STICK

Hey guys,
I've never really been big on lip products - Vaseline, maybe a pink lipgloss and that about sums it up. Recently I've gotten into lipsticks, and they're my new fetish :-) Here's a list of my favourite lip smackers and a very handy tip:

• Vaseline Lip Therapy Rosy Lips - not reeeeally a lipstick, but this stuff is AMAZING. It conditions, soothes, tints and it smells like FLOWERS. Although the product looks really dark and thick, it comes out with a perfect pretty rose-pink tint. Get it. Love it.

• Bobbi Brown Coral Lip Quad - lightweight, reasonable pigmented glosses. The pinkest shade gives a healthy, girlie glow to lips; the nudes are season-perfect and the golden colour? OH. MY GOODNESS. Has there ever been ANYTHING cooler?

• Clinique Different Lipstick in Sweet Honey - not nearly as brown as it photographs. It's a dark pink with hints of gold and a slight shimmer/sheen to it. This darkens my lips when I want more than just my Vaseline but don't want to go all-out burgundy. The best part? This is the only lipstick I've found that doesn't leave that heavy, I-am-wearing-a-kilo-of-lipstick sensation on my lips, yet it still manages to moisturise and is beautifully pigmented. How do they do it?

• NARS lipstick in Scarlet Empress - hsjdbfbhvslkbubdvjksjbvsnovn. There aren't words to describe how this product excites me. It is the perfect rouge noir/burgundy/plum colour that I've been searching for for weeks. I wanted something that would be showy-showy for nights, but that I could still wear during the day with brown mascara and an otherwise bare face. I'd been inspired by the look Jessica Lowndes wore in an issue of InStyle magazine. I wanted something a little more beetroot... and I found it! If I had to name a fault, it would be that this is not as heavily pigmented as I would like, but this does mean it's okay to wear in the day. I will just have to use more of it if I were going out.

Jessica Lowndes

... and on to the tip! One of the most frustrating things about lip colour, especially if you are wearing a darker shade, is how patchy and icky it looks as it starts to wear off. So how do you prevent this? It's all in the application:

1. When brushing your teeth, gently rub your lips with your toothbrush to remove dead skin and flakes. To amp up the exfoliating power, add a pinch of granulated sugar to your toothbrush.
2. Massage in a colourless lip salve for about 30 seconds before gently wiping off. If you leave the balm on, you can go ahead and give up on your lipstick having any staying power.
3. Line your lips with a creme lip liner that is either a close or perfect match to your lipstick. Then fill in your lips.
4. Using a lip brush (never to be undervalued) paint the colour from the tube onto your lips. You can blot and repeat but at this point I get lazy and to be honest, you don't really need it.
5. To touch up, you can just reapply straight from the tube!

Have you guys tried this? Did you like it? Are there any other tips you have on making lip colour last? I'd love to know!

Until next time,

x

We're live!!

Hey guys
LIVE ON YOUTUBE! The lighting and camera angle aren't the most flattering so I've got to play around with different setups to find something that works. But it's there!
It's a quick tutorial on the makeup Anne Hathaway wore in the September issue of Marie-Claire - soft pinks and golds with smokey black lashes.





Do have a look and leave a comment :)
'Cause in the end, it's all for you guys