September/October Favourites 🍂

I haven't written a blogpost in the longest time so in that time I have been trying out a whole load of different things and have accumulated quite a few firm favourites. As you'll know if you read my last post, I have recently started a new job so I now work full time as a Paralegal Apprentice so I am now earning quite a lot more than I used to which means I have more funds to treat myself to new things to try and feature on the blog.  I may do a post soon with a little life update and letting you know how I'm getting on in my new job if that's something you would be interested in.

The first favourite is not photographed but was used to take the photographs. At the end of August my iPhone 6S Plus conked out on me (luckily my contract was up so I could get a new phone at any time without it costing an arm and a leg) so I upgraded to the 7 Plus. Whilst I am a little miffed that I didn't wait a few more weeks until the 8 came out, I am still pretty chuffed with this one. The portrait mode is my favourite for taking up close shots with a blurred background and the photos all look so professional, and it's so handy being able to just take photos with my phone so I don't have to lug my huge camera around.

Onto makeup favourites, I have a few products I have been loving that the beauty community have completely lost their sh*t over. First of all we have the MorpheXJaclynHill Palette which is unfortunately out of stock at the minute (I normally tweet every time it comes back in stock so make sure you follow me on Twitter if you are wanting to get your hands on this). The colours as you can see are amazing, you have everything in this palette that you could possibly need and the formula is also out of this world as you would expect from Morphe. This is the only palette I have used since I got it as I can literally create any look with it, and I have also used it to travel as it has everything I could possibly need for whichever look I wanted to create. The packaging and presentation is stunning and the contents are amazing so I would definitely recommend this, and whilst it is a little pricier than your average Morphe palette retailing at £37, it is still an absolute steal for 35 eyeshadows. It works out to be £1.05 per eyeshadow which is insane considering your average Makeup Geek pan is around £6 and the Morphe quality is more than on par with Makeup Geek and you get it all in one sleek palette.

The next favourites seem to be everyones favourites at the minute and this range has taken the world by storm. The Fenty Beauty Foundation, Primer and Killawatt Freestyle Highlighting Duo in Lightning Dust and Fire Crystal have become staples in my makeup collection this month. I also have the Gloss Bomb Universal Lip Luminizer but I don't feel like I reach for this as much, purely because I work full time and walk for about 15 minutes to my office and with this weather, the hair in lipgloss thing is too much for me to handle so I opt for a more matte stress free lip during the winter months. However, I do really like the formula and the shade is perfect so I can see myself getting a lot more use out of this during the warmer months. The primer is unlike anything I've ever tried before, the texture feels like a rich moisturiser and it glides on to the skin, smoothing everything out and giving your skin a boost of hydration ready for foundation. I wouldn't say the primer was a must with the foundation as the foundation is amazing in itself and I had the foundation for a few weeks before I got the primer, but I would say the primer compliments the foundation beautifully and definitely helps with the finish and longevity of the foundation. I also think I would continue to use this primer with other foundations as it creates the perfect canvas for makeup to sit on top of. The foundation has been a real hit with everyone on the internet with the unique formula and extensive shade range. With 40 shades to choose from you're guaranteed to find your perfect match and the formula is unlike anything I've ever used before. I normally steer clear from matte foundations as I find they just look cakey and cling to all of my dry patches, but this one is completely different. The coverage is amazing and it blends and builds beautifully, and then it sets to an almost matte finish which I like to just give a dusting of powder to and it leaves my skin looking like porcelain but it still looks like skin. It is the most natural looking foundation I have ever tried and I am obsessed with it! Plus the packaging is very luxurious and minimalistic and for £26 I thought this was a bargain for a high-end foundation when you consider that Nars charge around the £35 mark. Lastly we have the highlight which is not served justice in the above photos.  The pigment is insane and it is such a perfect shade on my very pale complexion. One side is more of a natural glow which is more than noticeable but is more of a sheen and the other side is very sparkly and is pretty blinding on the skin. I like to use the more natural one where I would normally highlight and then I take the extra sparkly one just on the very very high points of my cheeks and the tip of my nose for a little bit of extra glow. The pigment is insane and the formula is amazing, very buttery and glides on to the skin and blends out nicely. I also don't feel like the sparkly one is too chunky or glittery either, it's the perfect full-on highlight. These retail at £26 which I think is a bargain for 2 highlights and I think I will be purchasing another shade for when I'm fake tanned too!

Next up we have the Superdrug Vitamin E Hydrating Mist. My friend Charleigh is a makeup artist (her work is amazing, check out her instagram here) and she had heard that this was a dupe of MAC Fix+ which as you probably know is a little on the pricey side. This was £2.99 so I decided it would be crazy not to give it a go, plus it was on buy one get a second half price so we got them for about £2.25 each. I like this way more than Fix+, it smells of coconuts which is amazing, it is ten times more hydrating on the skin and it leaves my makeup with the most beautiful dewy and flawless finish. I spray it before primer, after primer and then when I've finished my whole face and it's amazing and for £2.99 I can go crazy with it and use as much as I like whereas Fix+ is expensive so I have to be very careful with it so if you are a Fix+ kind of gal then give this little beauty a go.

Another recommendation from Charleigh that has become a firm staple in my makeup collection is the MAC 221 brush which is conveniently out of stock at the moment. Charleigh has 2 of these and I borrowed one whilst we were away together and I became quickly obsessed and used it religiously before I finally caved and bought my own. They are pretty pricey but I haven't been able to find another brush similar for a more affordable price, I am still on the hunt. It's such a universal brush, Charleigh will literally use it for an entire eye look because it's just the perfect size to get a really precise and defined crease and the fluffiness means it does all the blending work for you and is just a dream to use. I will update this post with a link when it is back in stock for anyone who is interested.

Lastly we have a product which I am in the process of writing a whole post on so I won't ramble on about them too much but the Bourjois Rouge Velvet the Lipstick's have been by far my most used lip products over the past few months. I was lucky enough to get sent the entire collection by Influenster in a VoxBox (I will tell you all about Influenster and how it works in my full review) so I have been putting them to the test over the past few months. The formula is unlike no other, they go on like a regular lipstick but dry like a liquid lipstick and don't budge. There are 12 shades in the range so there is plenty to suit everyone but my 3 favourite are 01 Hey Nude!, 10 Magni-Fig (the berry plum color) and 11 Berry Formidable (the deep red). I will do a swatch of every single shade in the collection in a post coming soon so keep your eyes peeled for that.

That is everything I have been loving over the past few months that I have been MIA. I have started to make more time to work on my blog as I have really been missing it so hopefully I will be able to post a little more regularly! Keep your eyes peeled for some more exciting content very soon!

Emily xx

Anastasia Modern Renaissance Palette | First Impressions

Top Row: Tempera, Golden Ochre, Vermeer, Buon Fresco, Antique Bronze, Love letter, Cyprus Umber

Bottom Row: Raw Sienna, Burnt Orange, Primavera, Red Ochre, Venetian Red, Warm Taupe, Realgar

If you follow me on social media, particularly Instagram you will know that I have recently bagged myself the Anastasia Modern Renaissance Palette. It's honestly the most photogenic palette ever and I've been filling your insta feeds with various snaps of this beauty from all angles! I ran a little poll on Twitter and it seems that lots of you were interested in a First Impressions, so thats exactly what this very long and rambly post is going to be. 

I ordered this puppy from Beauty Bay which is by far my favourite online retailer for all of my beauty needs. I ordered this at 7pm on Friday 25th August which was the beginning of the bank holiday weekend, and it arrived on the Sunday morning, so the shipping was fast and also free as this palette cost quite a bit more than £15. It came perfectly packaged and protected which is just as well as no one was home when the parcel arrived and the delivery man threw it over my back gate into a wasps nest, as you can imagine, salvaging this beauty was a bit of a struggle so I sent my boyfriend in to do the job for me.

Starting off with my very first impressions opening the box. The packaging is beautiful, a pretty mauve velvet with gold and white embossed lettering in a slimline, travel friendly size. Whilst the packaging is very aesthetically pleasing, I'm not sure that it's overly practical. Not only is is made from cardboard so it feels cheap and is very delicate, but the outer packaging is velvet which gets dirty with the slightest of touches and I just know will end up completely wrecked as this palette has become a firm staple in my collection. For the price you pay for it (a whopping £41) I think the packaging could do with some re-evaluation, and whilst you may be thinking that the product inside should be the main focus, packaging contributes a lot to the overall quality of the product. Overall I wouldn't say that its overly travel-friendly if you're the sort of person that likes to keep your makeup looking pristine like me, however if you're not bothered about the appearance of your palette then the slimline and compact size complete with a decent mirror and a brush is perfect to take around with you wherever you go. As much as I am dying to use this palette in my kit to use on clients as the shades are stunning, I'm not sure I can bear to see it get ruined just yet so I think I will keep this beauty for just my enjoyment for a while. This palette does come with a brush, one end is more of a flat shader and the other is a fluffy blender. I think the flat shader side is really good and I've been using that one quite frequently but the fluffy blender side is very rough and does not blend the shadows out very well at all, it just leaves me with a stingy eye and muddy, patchy looking eyeshadow so it doesn't really float my boat.

Onto the exciting bit, the eyeshadows themselves! There are 14 shades in this palette which I believe were inspired by paintings, I'm assuming by the name from the Renaissance period. A lot of them are very warm which is right up my street, as you know I swear by the Morphe 35O palette so the second I laid eyes on this when it was released, I knew I needed it in my life. I was also desperate to try the pinks as I had seen so many stunning looks on Instagram with those sorts of shades, I wanted in on the action. The shades are as follows:

Tempera - an off white cream matte, perfect for subtle highlights or setting your base

Golden Ochre - a golden yellow light transition shade

Vermeer - a frosted pink shimmer, amazing for highlighting

Buon Fresco - a very unique lilac/grey shade, perfect as a transition for the pinks

Antique Bronze - a purple brown satin shade, which would look stunning in a smokey eye for brown or green eyes.

Love Letter - a stunning raspberry pink matte

Cyprus Umber - a deep cool toned brown with a hint of plum

Raw Sienna - a neutral light brown matte, perfect as a transition or as a crease shade

Burnt Orange - a stunning pale warm orange matte, perfect as a transition for a really warm look

Primavera - a beautiful pale gold shimmer

Red Ochre - a typical brick red matte

Venetian Red - a deep cranberry satin with a hint of blue iridescence (though this doesnt show up on the skin)

Warm Taupe - a cool toned grey/brown matte

Realgar - the perfect rusty orange matte

The swatches don't pick up quite as true to colour on camera, after experimenting with various lighting and backgrounds this is as close I could get to how they look in real life so I would recommend looking up some more swatches so you can get a really good idea of what the shades look like. The formula of these shades could be controversial, I personally love it but it may not be for everyone. The pigment of these shadows is INSANE, and I mean INSANE. All of the swatches you see pictured above were a dab of my finger into the pan, barely touching them, honestly they are ridiculous. I find to get the best finish you need to apply a small amount, tap off the excess and then apply and build otherwise they can be a little tricky to blend if you apply too much of the darker colours, but I'm willing to work for them as they are so beautiful. As much as this sounds like a proper blogger cliché, they are really buttery they literally feel so soft and creamy to the touch, they're unlike anything I've ever tried before. Once I had got the hang of it and got used to the insane pigmentation, they were a dream to work with and I never want to stop using it. The only issue I do have is the slightest touch of the shadows gives you a huge amount of kickback and fallout, which means all of product gets wasted which is slightly soul destroying when you've spent £41 on it and its just wasting away before your eyes. When these photos were taken I had used the palette only once on my eyes and I had swatched it once, yet it looks like it has been used constantly for months which is a little disappointing, however it is nothing like the sort of thing I've seen with people wrestling with the Subculture Palette. The trick is to barely touch the eyeshadows, that way you get the perfect amount of product and minimise the wastage.

All in all, I think this palette is stunning, however it is very expensive and is definitely a princess product. However, if you want to treat yourself to something more luxury then I highly recommend this! I will have another post coming in a few days time, showing you a few looks that I have done with this palette so you can see it in action, make sure you follow me on Bloglovin' and Social Media to be notified of when that goes live! What are your thoughts on this palette?

Emily xx

UPDATE | My New Job!

Remember me? I came back and then disappeared again, but again I have good reason! A lot has happened over the past month and I am very excited to update you all on whats been happening.

So as you probably know as I mentioned it in my previous post, I finished college in June so now is the time to establish what I am going to do in the next stage of my life. I knew I never wanted to go to Uni and I was desperate to take the apprenticeship. It wasn't until I embarked on my very long, stressful and gruelling job search that I realised just how scarce apprenticeships are in the legal profession. However, after a month of 24/7 job hunting, going for god knows how many interviews and picking up the phone to recruiters every 5 minutes, I am delighted to announce that I have landed myself MY DREAM JOB! As of 4th September, I will be a Paralegal Apprentice for an amazing Law Firm! I won't mention the company as of yet as I'm not sure how they would feel about it being publicised on my blog, though they are fully aware of what I do and are very impressed by it and greatly support it. Those of you close to me will know the firm and will know that this is the job I desperately wanted. When I got the call to say they'd like to have me in for an interview I was ecstatic and the second I walked into the office and started getting to know some of the staff I knew this was the job for me, so you can imagine how buzzed I was when I got the phone call to say I had been successful.

I am hoping now my job hunt is over I can dedicate more time into blogging, I know I have been very absent over the past year but I have so many ideas floating round in my head that I am just dying to make happen. I also really want to start a legal blog, I'm not sure I'll be writing legal articles on this blog purely due to the fact you're all here for beauty and fashion and I appreciate everyone doesn't get the same buzz about Law as I do so I think I will set up a new blog purely dedicated to that but I will keep you updated here in case any of you are interested.

I am so excited to start this new chapter in my life and I am delighted to be able to take you all with me. Be sure to follow me on all social media (all linked in the side bar) to keep up to date with my day to day life when I'm not on the blog.

Thank you for sticking around and I'll hopefully be able to bring you some more exciting content very soon!

Emily xx

Why I Disappeared from Blogging

I've been trying to write this post for about a week now but our wifi has been all over the place so I have been unable to. As you probably will have noticed, I've been MIA again and that is purely down to having zero time to blog. If you follow me on social media you will know that I have just finished my A-levels and have left college - I honestly do not know where those two years have gone! What with being in college 5 days a week and trying to do 3 particularly hard A-levels as well as having a part time job and also doing makeup on the side, plus trying to make time to see my friends and my boyfriend and have a social life, blogging very much took a back seat. However, now college and exams are over I have found myself with a lot of time on my hands and I am desperate to get back into blogging.
I'm currently in bed ill with a stomach bug which is doing my head in so I need something to occupy my brain, so I am finally getting round to relaunching my blog and I am currently researching and brain storming for some future posts. At the minute, I am pretty busy with working and it's also prom season so I am doing trials and makeups left right and centre, as well as having two big weddings coming up which is helping me to earn some extra money and also taking up a lot of my time. Due to this, I don't want to commit myself to a blog schedule so for a while everything will be a bit random until I establish some sort of routine. I will just be posting as and when I have free time and I will be keeping you updated on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram with what I'm doing so make sure you're following me on all of those to keep up to date! You can also follow me on my makeup Instagram here to see all of the makeup looks I've been creating on myself and my beautiful clients, and if you are Bristol based or willing to travel, don't hesitate to contact me to book your makeover!
I think that is all I have to update you on for now, thank you to all of my loyal followers who have stuck around all this time, and normal service shall resume as of today!

Emily xx

The Sunday Edit #95

I really wish this little quote was true, today is going to be a very busy day and hopefully I'll be as productive as I need to be!  This week I went back to college and was thrown straight back into the deep end with tests and assignments literally coming out of my ears. Two very exciting things happened this week, the first being that I hit 1000 followers on Instagram which I think I may have mentioned in my post that went up on Wednesday. This has been a goal for quite a while and I finally reached it which I was quite chuffed with, if you don't already follow me on Instagram then my username is its_little_em and you can also click on the button in the top right hand corner of my blog! I also met up with a really old friend of mine who moved to Australia 7 years ago, she came over to visit her family for christmas and we got a chance to meet up which was so nice, it's crazy how much we have all changed in the 7 years that we have been apart.

Today is going to have to be pretty productive, I have a bunch of blog photos I want to take so I am prepared for the next 2 weeks of posts because I have no time any other day, I also want to get a fair amount of Accounting Revision done for the test I have on Tuesday and I'm also going to start bullet journalling today. I've seen loads of photos and people raving about bullet journalling on Instagram and Pinterest and I decided that I wanted in on the action as well. I did a whole bunch of research yesterday, planned out some of the stuff I wanted to put in there and how I wanted it to look and I ordered my journal and some supplies on Amazon. I'm currently waiting on the Amazon Prime delivery man to bring me my goodies so I can start on it straight away. Maybe once I've tweaked the system a bit and established one that works for me I'll do a whole post dedicated to bullet journalling. I'm sure once I get started and it starts coming together my Instagram feed will be flooded with pretty pictures of my journal pages. I think this will help me so much with managing everything, being able to plan and track everything all in one place is going to be so useful, and also making it look pretty and spending time on it should be quite therapeutic and relaxing. Like I said, I'll do a full post on what bullet journalling is and how it works, as well as my favourite supplies and how I've made it work for me once I get started. If you're interested in starting bullet journalling and want some inspiration, I've made a Pinterest board here if you want to go and have a look. I've repinned loads of other peoples work and hopefully I can add some of my own into it once it's all up and running.

There's not been a lot to really talk about this week so I've just been spewing randomness out as it pops into my head! I hope you have all had an amazing week and I'll be back on Wednesday with my What I got for Christmas post!

Emily xx

Update & 2016 Reflection

I'll first start this post with saying Happy New Year and a belated Merry Christmas! I have been absent for just over a month now because I have been run off my feet with college work, and working two retail jobs over the christmas period has meant when I wasn't in college I was working pretty much non-stop.  Over the month I have been absent I've turned 18, worked a ridiculous amount of hours and then before I knew it, christmas had arrived! I'm planning on putting up a what I got for christmas post next week so I will tell you all about my christmas then, but I got some really lovely gifts and had a really nice day. This is the first night throughout the whole christmas holidays that I have actually had a break and been able to write a post, every day leading up to christmas I was either  at work or doing some christmas preparations, and then every day after christmas I was working so I finally have a little break to get some work done.

2016 has been a funny year, it's had a lot of downs but also a few ups. I'm trying not to dwell on the downs so I am just focussing on the good things that have happened this year. I was just looking over my new years resolutions and goals from last year and I am so pleased with myself that I managed to achieve all of them this year (apart from drinking more water and eating more healthily which I failed at epically). I passed my theory test and my driving test and I managed to save up and buy the car of my dreams which I think is probably the best thing that happened to me this year. My life changed completely on 11th June when I picked up my little fiat 500 Humphrey, I was finally free and felt so much more independent and grown up, it is by far one of my biggest achievements. I also passed all of my AS exams with really good grades, I was particularly pleased with my A in Law because I want a career in the legal profession so getting that A really pushed me even more to do as well as I can this year.  I also got a job with some of the best people ever, I honestly work with the most amazing people and I am so grateful to have my Next family in my life. I have had some very rough patches this year and I've been so grateful to be able to go to work and always know that there is someone there to cheer me up. I also got an interview for a legal apprenticeship with an amazing law firm, which I am so happy about because this is the first step in setting myself up for a successful career doing something that I am hugely passionate about, literally ask anyone who knows me and they'll tell you I'm a complete Law freak! I have also met the most amazing bunch of girls since being involved with grlpowr, it has helped me so much this year to network with other bloggers and to help grow my blog even more and I couldn't be more grateful for their support. I always know that I have the grlpowr group to turn to no matter what happens and they're always willing to help me out when I need them. I have had a busy year so blogging has taken a back seat for a lot of the year, but I have been so proud with the content that I have created this year even though there hasn't been a vast quantity of it.  I love having my blog as a hobby and an outlet for my rambles but I'm very pleased to have worked with more brands this year and got involved with so many amazing projects and also taken part in some sponsorships which has helped develop my passion into something that I can proudly call my business.  As I am writing this, I have just hit 1000 followers on Instagram which is a huge milestone and I also hit 1000 on Twitter last month which I am so chuffed about. 2017 is already off to an amazing start and I really want this to be the year that my blog gets a lot more love and attention because I feel so proud watching it blossom and grow. Focussing on all the amazing things I have achieved this year makes 2016 seem not quite as bad, hopefully 2017 will be just as prosperous and successful.

My aim for 2017 is to get 2 blogposts up a week, over the past month I have really missed reading your comments and interacting with you all.  I want to devote more time to doing things I love and things that make me happy and stop being such a workaholic. My aim is to have a post up every Wednesday and then have my Sunday Edit posts up on a Sunday because they seem to always go down well and it gives you a chance to keep up with what I'm up to. 2017 is going to be the year where I stop wasting precious time, I want to use every spare minute to do something productive. If 2016 has taught me anything, its that time is precious. I want to make memories with people that matter that I will treasure forever, and spend every moment bettering myself or working towards something. No more wasting time sat in bed for hours on end watching pug videos on Facebook, get up and do something with your life woman! I'm definitely going to be more harsh on myself this year but in a good way, I really want to work hard and get the best A-level grades that I can, as well as making sure I spend time doing things that I really enjoy. I haven't made any resolutions as such, just goals to make sure 2017 is the best I can make it.

Enough rambling from me, time to wrap this up before I go off on a massive tangent and sit here typing away for another hour. I wish you all a very happy and healthy 2017 and hope it brings you all the amazing things that you deserve! If you have any resolutions or goals for 2017 then let me know, I love knowing what other people are striving to achieve! Keep an eye out for my Sunday Edit which you might have guessed will be up on Sunday!

Emily xx