Packing light: The essentials

To celebrate the end of my exams, my family and I went away for the night to the Yorkshire Dales. Since we were only going for the night, I didn't take my usual make up bag and just took a few things. 

I used a little floral bag which a friend got me. It's laminated, so can be cleaned easily. Since my skin is pretty good at the moment, I skipped out on the foundation and just took my Collection 2000 concealer to cover any redness, and my Rimmel concealer to use under my eyes. I then used my Elizabeth Arden mascara ( I love this mascara-I'll do a review on it later) and my Une blush to give a light colour to my cheeks. For my lips, I took my Neal's Yard lip gloss in Goji Berry. This has a lovely, very subtle colour, and isn't too sticky.

I'd normally take more, but only having room for a small number of products was actually really helpful, as it helped me realise what my favourite items were, and that actually, I don't need foundation, eye shadow etc.

What would you pack if you could only take 5 products?

Helen x

NOTD: Pretty Pastels

                                

To cheer me up on a grey, rainy day I painted my nails this lovely pretty light blue by Barry M. It's one of the polishes in their gel range, so gives a glossier, plumper effect. I then used some silver 'gems' from the Topshop nail art set I picked up recently (it was only a £1-I couldn't resist) and placed these on my nails, just to make them look more interesting. I think the silver and blue look really good together, so I'll be using this combination again! I finished up with a coat of the Barry M top coat.

                               

                               

Helen x

The end is in sight

An apology-again! 

I only have three more GCSEs left, and in one week I'll be free! I've got quite a busy summer but I'll try to blog as much as I can, because I really miss it 

April books of the month and an apology

Firstly, I'd like to apologise for my absence from the blogging world. I'm in year 11 and we are steadily approaching the exam season. I have 19 exams to revise for, so I have been very busy and haven't had an awful lot of time to blog recently. It's really annoying as I have quite a few posts lined up but just no time to write them! I'm going to do my beauty bargain of the month and my books of the month and then a couple more posts spread out over the month. After that though, I'll be in the middle of exams so I'm afraid I'll just have to fit blogging in whenever I have a bit of same time. 

Anyway, on to my books of the month.

This month my favourite books are by the same author, whom I hadn't heard about till recently. 

My first book is Behind the scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson. This is £4.99 from Amazon. 

This book is about Ruby Lennox and her life. It's quite hard to go into a lot of detail about the plot,because essentially, it is a very well written book about Ruby and her bizzare, yet very relatable family. In some parts it is in the present tense and I parts, the footnotes, it is about her forebearers. At times it is very funny and at times very dark, but always written in a very unique, readable way. 

The second book is Life after Life, by Kate Atkinson, available from £4 on amazon. I have always been fascinated by what happens after we die. I'm not religious, and don't believe in the idea of there being a place called Heaven, as such, but I'd like to think that something happen after we die. I'm not sure what that something is, but I'm always interested to read about it.  A Buddhist once came into my primary school and spoke of what she believed and how she had a friend who died and came back as another friends son: I remember being fascinated by the idea we can be reincarnated and live again and again. But Buddhist ideas aside, what if we could live multiple times, till we got it right, or at least until we made it as good as we possibly could? Would you even want to? This idea is what Atkinson explores in this very moving, very clever book. Ursula Todd is born on a dark, snowy night and dies repeatedly in the book, so that she can be born again and try to rectify the mistakes that were made in her last go. It seems like a confusing concept but actually it works very well as each 'life' is clearly defined. 

I loved this book, and I'm sure it will be one I re-read again and again. 

Helen x 

Turning 16: Afternoon tea and presents

April is one of my favourite months. The days are getting longer, it's just beginning to get warmer (this is the UK, after all) and there's lots of lambs in the fields. It also happens to be my birthday month. 

This year I decided I wanted to have afternoon tea at Betty's. I wasn't sure what else I wanted to do with my day, I just wanted afternoon tea (it's quite possibly my favourite meal.) We went decided to go to the York branch as it's so pretty there and not far on the train. First, we went for some food as we needed something to keep us going before our afternoon tea. Then we went for a river cruise down the River Ouse. It lasted for about an hour and was a really nice way to see more of the city.

Then we went to Betty's where we devoured our afternoon teas. I love Betty's-it's so old fashioned and cute. The waitresses are lovely (I want to work there just to get one of the beautiful embroidered blouses they wear) and the food is excellent. The raspberry macaroons were particularly nice, though the scones were pretty good too.

After that, we made our way home where I opened all the lovely presents my family and friends got me. I'd asked for some red Hunters as I've always wanted some, so I was very happy to recieve some.

When shopping, I spotted a beautiful bag in TX Maxx and really, really wanted it, but couldn't afford it, so my parents very kindly said they'd pay for half of it for my birthday. If it's possible to be in love with a bag, I am. It has two sections, loads of pockets and compartments and has both a short and long strap so it's really practical as well as a lovely thing to sit and stroke (the leather is so soft)

I also got this gorgeous watch from Urban Outfitters from my friends. Now I have it, I can't work out how I managed without a watch for so long. It goes so well with everything and just makes outfits a bit more interesting. 

I also got some bath stuff, a scrapbook, some very cute post it notes and lots of chocolate from my friends.
I've mentioned in a previous post my love of the Archers, a radio drama, and so I was very excited when I opened my presents from my sister and found she'd given me an archers CD, with episodes from the 60's and 70's.  She also gave me three Maybelline nail polishes, which I'll do a review of later.

I received some lovely presents, but more importantly,I had a really lovely day with my family, and later with my friends.

Helen x

Body Shop Skin Care

I've never had a real Skincare regime before, but after getting fed up of imperfections and oily skin I decided to look at buying some new skincare. I've always liked The Body Shop products and so decided to try out some of their skincare.

I've never had a real Skincare regime before, but after getting fed up of imperfections and oily skin I decided to look at buying some new skincare. I've always liked The Body Shop products and so decided to try out some of their skincare.

I bought two products from their Anti-Blemish range and one from their Oil-Control range. The tea tree is said to 'give clearer skin from one week' It also contains Tamanu Oil extract 'which is reputed to help generate new tissue and improve the healing process for skin.' I bought the toner and face mask from this range.

I'm not sure whether it's just the batch I got, but some of the toner separates out and settles at the bottom, so I have to knock it to dislodge it from the bottom of the bottle. Other than though, I really like this. It smells lovely, but the scent of tea tree isn't too overpowering. It leaves my skin feeling very clean and refreshed, but doesn't strip my skin and leave it feeling tight and dry, as some toners can. This is though I got it when there was a 40% off offer going on, which I believe there is at the moment....

I also bought their face mask. The Body shop says 'this instantly cooling face mask cleanses, soothes and refreshes the skin.' I use this once a week and I'm really enjoying it. Before buying this, I just used to use the cheap one use masks from superdrug on a very irregular basis.They always took around 15 minutes to dry, but after 10 minutes I'd be sitting on my hands to avoid scratching my face constantly as they just got so itchy. I could never see any results either. The great thing about this mask is that it doesn't dry so it never gets to that uncomfortable stage. I've been using this once a week and can definitely see the results. 

The last thing I bought was from the Seaweed range. It is the Seaweed purifying facial cleanser. It's £8. I like this but I'm not sure that I would buy it again. It's quite expensive for a cleanser that I don't love. I think my skin has got less oily but I think I may try out some other products from this range before repurchasing this.

Now my skincare regime is a lot more organised, my skin is looking a lot better. 

I definitely recommend The Body Shop skincare!

Helen x

NOTD:Quick and easy

I've been really enjoying bright, spring like colours on my nails at the moment. This week I'm wearing MUA's pretty baby pink (I don't know the actual shade name or number-sorry) To make it a bit different I used my nail art set to draw a pink line a third of the way into my nail. I then used my Barry M clear polish over the top. 

Helen x