The Chocolate Collection - Effiena's Handmade Polish

Finding organic, vegan friendly and handmade products can be quite hard in a market that is saturated with a huge range of skincare, makeup and beauty products. After changing up my skincare to a more natural and vegan friendly one, I am constantly on the hunt for more organic alternatives to other beauty items that I use.

After being contacted by Effiena from Effiena's Handmade Polish - and having the opportunity to try out her 'Chocolate Collection' of nail polishes, I'm happy to know I have a vegan-friendly brand that I can turn to when I'm in need of new and beautiful colours!

After finishing college and having an entire summer to discover something new, Effiena decided to try something new: making her own nail polishes. She was no stranger to the nail industry as she had previously done nail art and decided she wanted to do something a bit different. Soon after mixing up several batches of nail polish for herself, her family began to show interest and bought several polishes from her. The next step, of course, was turning this idea into a small business: Effiena's Homemade Polish.

Urban Decay X Gwen Stefani Lipsticks SWATCHES

Hello everyone! 

Last month I bought the amazing new Urban Decay X Gwen Stefani eyeshadow palette - and I am so happy that I did because that palette is absolutely amazing! I've written a previous blog post on the palette, and when you see the eyeshadows you'll understand why I love it! 

With the palette, there was a large sheet with samples of the soon to be released lipsticks from the same range. I'm so happy they included the samples because I feel like this entire collection is up my street! 

My Soap & Glory Lipstick Collection

Hello everyone!

I'm back with a short and sweet review on one of my favourite lipstick brands, Soap & Glory.

I was first exposed to these amazing lipsticks back in 2011, where I'd decided to spend my shiny student loan pennies (I was ruthless during my first year of University) and buy a large helping of Soap & Glory products! Is it the packaging? The smells? The feel of the products... I don't know what it was, but I was absolutely obsessed!

Still to this day, I love Soap & Glory's fragrances and mists, their 'Make Yourself Youthful' serum and most importantly, their makeup.

Lipsticks are products that I can never be tired of. You wear them everyday; whether it's at work, during a party - or even if you just want your lips to be moisturised (don't laugh at me, my mum even does this too!)

NYE MAKEUP: Urban Decay X Gwen Stefani

Hello everyone!

I wanted to quickly share with you all my New Years Eve makeup, as I posted a Get Ready With Me video on YouTube and a lot of people really liked the colour combination. I honestly didn't plan the eyes and lips to match my top, but it all worked out that way.

I used my fabulous new Christmas purchase - the Urban Decay X Gwen Stefani Eyeshadow palette. Previously, I've opted for dupes of the Naked palettes, but there wasn't a palette where I thought: "WOW, I want that!" until I saw this one; the colours in it are so versatile, pigmented and are perfect for those who don't really want to dabble with bright bold colours!

Estee Lauder Christmas Gift Set

On the morning of Christmas Day, Ryan presented me with a large wrapped box in a pretty gift bag - and I had abolsutely no idea what was inside. Well duh, it's a present and I shouldn't know. But I literally had no sort of clue or idea what it was, so I was really surprised and excited to find a luxury Estee Lauder gift set.

New Year, New Start

Wow, as if it's 2016 already?!

I originally didn't want to make a 'New Year' type post as it's already 8th January and it seems a little pointless. But considering the fact that I've not written a blog post since mid-2015 (oops!), I think it's ideal I write something before my next set of posts! 

I have a few things to update you all on:

1) During July 2015, I started my first post-graduate job as a Digital Marketing Assistant for a door manufacturer in Leeds.

2) I decided to leave that same job to focus on my blog, YouTube, social media and freelance jobs.

This has to be the biggest decision I've made in quite a while and a huge risk too! But being in a full time 9-5 job, had to be the biggest eye opener for me as I'd always imagined it to be something a bit more. 

Coming from a creative background of blogging, creating my own content and constantly setting myself goals - it's something that I really missed! And it was something that I felt myself still trying to push out while I was working those 40 hours a week. I still managed to pump out YouTube videos but not so much blog content - and I REALLY apologise! But I'm willing to change that!

So from now on, I'm dedicating my time to creating fantastic blog posts and informative YouTube videos for all you readers and viewers! This will still be a beauty and lifestyle blog - and well, everything else that I feel like I want to blog about too, alongside posting my videos here too with the details!

Now that I've got all of that out of the way, here's a small recap of the last few months! I've also bought a new camera (well my second camera of 2015) and it's blooming amazing. I'll be posting a review on it soon! So here are some photos from the past few months :)