LIFE UPDATES / ANNOUNCEMENTS

Hey! 

So remember that time I said that now my exams are over and summer is upon me I'm going to post on my blog like no tomorrow? My summer is basically over now and if it wasn't already evident, consistency and this blog are not quite soulmates. Blogs are meant to be like online diaries (right?) so cue a miniature life update:

• I got into my first choice university and I am so happy about it! I should probably insert here a generic "and I'm so excited to start" but that would be a lie. I absolutely shitting myself at the thought of starting university. It's rather nerve-racking to think of all the social situations I'm undoubtedly going to have to encounter but at the same time there's so much riding on my university experience that I just need to suck it up, grow some ladyballs and break a bloody leg. Ah, figures of speech. 

• I turned 18! I had probably the best/most chilled birthday ever- I spent the weekend with my mum and sisters doing old lady activities like going to a spa and the theatre and having afternoon tea and I loved every minute of it. It's two weeks later and I've only had one alcoholic beverage in the entirety of my adulthood. I am so cool, are you jealous?

• I started a YouTube channel! I've been meaning to for MONTHS but getting the courage to do it took longer than anticipated and even when I had finally filmed my first video it took an entire month for me to upload it. Naturally I knew that my first video wouldn't be going viral so I wasn't exactly baring my soul to be judged by the entire internet user-base but I knew I'd be using Twitter to promote my channel like I do with my blog, a ton of people I know irl follow me on there and if I'm being honest the fear of them laughing at me got to me for a bit. I've since realised how pointless it was to think this way because the reality is I love makeup and I love geeking out about it and so if I want to do that, I shouldn't be held back by the thought that people I mostly don't like might not approve. So I did it and I've inserted my first two videos below if you want to check them out and I'd really love it if you'd subscribe if you like them!

As usual a supposedly quick post got rambly real quick but that's me done for now folks, thanks for reading! 

Feel free to follow me on BlogLovin' to keep updated with what's occurring on this blog (my next post will be a rant *insert creepy but seductive devil emoji here*) but for everyday musings by myself feel free to check out my Instagram /Twitter!

Olivia xo 

My Experience of The Brow Game

Around two/three years ago when Cara Delevingne first figuratively blew up, I decided it was time to invest in some eBay £1.99 brow powder and went through some seriously tragic brow days.

Looking back on these dire days dampens my mood profoundly. 

Since, I have decided to never again try hard at being an eyebrow person. To be honest, I was slightly scared into submission because of the horrible influx that emerged consisting of a high demand for beautifully arched flawless brows and girls suddenly being really judgy on what brows were looking like. I'm not going to pretend like I didn't think I was the eyebrow equivalent of an X Factor Judge in the sense that I hoped I could be exempt from the judgement by being able to know good brows from bad but anyways, brows were and still are suddenly a really big deal and getting it right is quite exhausting.

For this reason I had been just getting by with a Rimmel Brow Pencil for like a year and half and though I rarely felt like my eyebrow game was 'fleeky' enough to make others envious, it done the trick. 

However, over the last year or so, I have revamped my one-product eyebrow collection by purchasing the cult classics; the Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Pomade in Chocolate, Brow Wiz in Soft Brown and Clear Brow Gel, the Soap and Glory Brow Archery 2-in- 1 in Hot Chocolate and the L'Oreal Brow Artist Plumper in Medium/Dark.

I'm not going to go full blown review on you because this post is already getting long but the Brow Pomade is something that I find requires practice and precision to not go permanent marker-esque. I'm yet to fully conquer it so I tend to only use it when I'm going out at night or have a load of time to do my makeup. When I do use it, I use a MAC 266, which I invested in for eyebrow's sake. 

The whole two colours in the entire range thing is super shady (I love puns.) of Soap and Glory to do but if the two on offer work for you, you're in for a treat because it's quick and easy to use and hella natural looking. The Anastasia brow wiz is exactly the same in all departments except price so if the Soap and Glory shade range does you wrong, Anastasia has your back!

With regards to setting brows in place, in short, I think the Anastasia Clear Brow Gel removes some product when you apply it which is annoying because it makes them look a bit sparse but it does a great job of locking the product in. On the other hand, the L'oreal Brow Artist Plumper is fantastic (sooo much better than the Maybelline brow drama) and I'm going to try the clear version also in the hopes it does a better job than the Anastasia one for a much lower price.

Brows using the Anastasia Brow Wiz and Clear Brow Gel

These products have really made me feel like I have my life together, simply by doing their thing to my brows. Though my brow game is by no means strong, I would highly recommend the L'Oreal brow artist and Soap and Glory/Anastasia brow wiz for any brow beginners- if you want to avoid the loud and proud brow situation I had going on circa 2013 that is.

And that is the end of story time kids! Follow me on BlogLovin' if you liked this post and feel free to share/comment and all the rest of it. Thanks for reading!

Lots of love,

Olivia xo

My Blogging Hiatus

Hello guys!!

This is just a quick post apologising and explaining my lack of posts of late. 

I am both fortunate and unfortunate enough to be in the position where I blog for fun only. Obviously it is not my job, I have not monetised my blog and I do not have a gazillion readers begging me to post and so as life has got in the way of things lately, fitting time in to Write, Photograph, Post, Promote, Repeat has been tricky. 
It's my last year of Sixth Form/ "High School" so I'm trying my hardest to focus and dedicate myself to getting the grades I need to get into my first choice university which is not proving to be easy- (don't do Chemistry at A-level kids, unless you really have to, it will destroy you). What with my terribly time-consuming YouTube addiction, working part time, reading and keeping up with the ridiculous amounts of TV shows I watch, and believe me I am trying to minimise time spent on all of these, squeezing blogging into the mix is another distraction/guilty pleasure that I do not have time for. (I'm lucky in the sense that I'm not distracted by a social life because I don't have one, gold star for me. Ha ha ha.)

Honestly, I really need to organise and sort my life out and in the mean time that means you will not be seeing frequent posts on my blog until after June 18th when I am free from education for four WHOLE months, such a marvelous prospect! I still love blogging and I'm very excited to finally get some of the ideas I have in my head written and posted :)

I am rambling on as usual so will end the post here. Sidenote:I've noticed that my sentences are really long. What can I say, I'm a talker. 

I apologise for neglecting my blog but if you would like to be notified when I do post again follow me on Bloglovin' and to keep up with my daily musing in the mean time, follow me on Twitter :)

Ciao for now!

Olivia xo

The Liebster Award

Heyyyyy

The time has come! I was nominated to do this award/tag a while ago by Florence from Love From Florence Grace and I had been meaning to (I promise) and when I was nominated again by Dee from Coffee Talk with Dee I got the nudge I needed to actually do it. I feel so grateful to have been nominated because I am far from a well-established blogger in the blogging community or even someone who is consistently involved in it, so thank you so much to Florence and Dee for nominating me!  

Basically, the Liebster Award is 11 questions that someone nominates you to answer and once you answer the questions you’ve been asked, you can set 11 new questions or keep the same ones you answered and nominate more bloggers of your choice. As I’ve been nominated twice, I decided not to bore you with 20+ questions and pick my favourite 11 to answer.

1. How did you decide what you wanted your blog to be about?

At first it seemed easy, beauty and fashion is what I love so it made sense to talk about it but I'm recently becoming more aware of the fact that there are more profound topics that concern me also, other than my favourite shades of lipstick. I guess the key is to talk about what you like!

2. What got you into makeup/beauty?

It was a gradual thing for me. It started with getting my first MAC foundation when I got my makeup done there for my prom and my first MAC lipsticks, which you can read all about here, then Youtube was a massive catalyst. I first watched Shaaanxo and Gabriella from VelvetGh0st's videos religiously and somehow a year later I watch about 3 hours of youtube videos a day (lol), so YouTube is mostly to blame!

3. Have you tried Charlotte Tilbury's products? What do you think?

I have her Colour Chameleon eye pencil in Amber Haze and it's okay but whenever I use it I end up adding more eyeshadow on top of it for more 'oompf' so never see what it wears like alone. I am dying to try the Filmstar Bronze and Glow, Matte Revolution lipsticks and Rock 'n' Kohl eye pencils. However, it's all way too 'upper high end' for my budget but maybe one day I will treat myself. 

4. What's the longest you've gone without wearing any makeup?

Probably the 13/14 years I went before I started wearing it? Is that cheating? No ragrets.

5. What's one part of your daily routine you absolutely can't miss?

Even on my laziest days I have to do at least a basic skincare routine i.e. cleanse, tone, moisturise or I just feel clogged up and eurgh. Also, breakfast.

6. Best book you've read is? 

I'm yet to find my favourite book but Perks of being a Wallflower means a lot to me and We Were Liars by E. Lockhart was the best book I read last year.

7. Salted or sweet popcorn?
Sweet, always!!!!! People who like Salt popcorn baffle and sicken me and don't even get me started on people who enjoy a mixture of the two...

8. Who's your most influential idol and why?

It took a while for me to think of this because I'm not someone who worships Beyonce or Oprah or one person's life work in particular but someone I find very inspirational is Emma Watson. Especially because I'm doing my A-Levels at the moment, I'm kind of getting by living by the motto that if Emma Watson can get three A's whilst being Emma Watson, I have absolutely no excuse. I also love her style, how she's handled being exposed to the public eye from such a young age and used her "fame" to bring to light important issues.

9. If you could do anything, without thinking of factors or consequences, what would you do?
I'd go to special fx makeup school whilst simultaneously traveling the world, learning how to do a backhand spring, finding myself, writing a bucket list, completing said bucket list, studying a law degree, being rich, eradicating world poverty and learning how to drive. Ha.

10. What product have you used that really stands out in your mind? (It can be anything not just beauty).
I bought the Elizabeth Arden 8 Hour Cream last week and it literally amazes me every day. It can be used in a gazillion ways and though I didn't expect it to smell or look like it does, that cannot retract from the fact that it's PHENOMENAL!

11. How did you meet your best friend?

I met her at Brownies/ Girl Guides and she introduced herself in a way that can only be described as Verbal Diarrhea. I was so freaked out that I told my friend I was with that I thought she was really, really weird. Considering I vowed then to avoid her indefinitely, it's hilarious that we still even know each other now!

I nominate the following bloggers to answer these questions:

• Elizabeth from holizblog
• Elish from A Piece of Elish
• Sarah from What Sass Says
• Brooklynn from That Brooklynn Paige
• Rebecca from Blue Eyed Fashion

Thanks for reading!

Olivia xo

EVERY FILM I WATCHED IN 2014!

I am a girl of many lists.

They are my preferred method of running my life and I'm pretty sure I have a list for every thing in my life and/or brain. I watch so many TV shows and films that I lose track and forget what I have and haven't seen and so I decided to make an ongoing list of every film I watch this year as and when. For no particular reason I have decided to post it on my blog too (...I mean, why not?) The list I kept was written sporadically so I've decided to categorise them into the best (I don't believe in favourite films so expect a lot in this section), worst, ones I cannot remember watching and ones I neither loved or loathed. I've added some unsystematically placed side notes in there too for a tad more detail/background to my choice of category. Some of these I'd seen prior to this year but most (shock horror) I actually hadn't seen until this year a̶n̶d̶ ̶I̶ ̶a̶i̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶e̶v̶e̶n̶ ̶m̶a̶d̶.̶ Enjoy!!!

The Best 

• Saving Mr Banks
• Zombieland
• 10 Things I Hate About You 
• Clueless- I was born in '97 but I miss 90's classics as bomb as this.
• Breaking Dawn part 2
• Frozen
• Amazing Spider Man
• White House Down
• Law Abiding Citizen- 10/10 for plot.
• The Next Three Days 
• Knocked Up 
• The Social Network- Andrew Garfield's American accent is flawless.
• Bad neighbours
• This is the End-Seth Rogan's laugh is one of the best things in the world.
• Superbad
• Now You See Me- I am impatiently waiting for the next installment. 2016 is way too far.
• 21 Jump Street
• 21 and Over
• Now is Good- I s̶o̶b̶b̶e̶d̶ cried. 
• The Butler- Also s̶o̶b̶b̶e̶d̶
• Magic Mike 
• Anna Karenina 
• The Lovely Bones- I can't even remember the ending but the premise scared me so much that I legit think about this movie all the time.
• Inception
• A Revolutionary Road
• The Descendants 
• Stuck in Love 
• The Last Song
• Crazy, Stupid Love 
• Wolf of Wall Street- excellent but unfortunately way too long to rewatch.
• American Hustle
• That Awkward Moment 
• Romeo and Juliet (1997)
• Divergent 
• The Fault In Our Stars 
• 12 Years a Slave-I thought there was too many dramatic pauses but it's a very important must-see film. 
• Riot Club- I went in for the hot actors like a shallow hot mess, left surprised by the excellent performances and social commentary of the film.
• Two Night Stand 
• Gone Girl- made me feel like the most mentally stable female ever.
• Love, Rosie- adorable.

The Worst

• What if
• Endless Love- I love me some Rom-Com but this was so cheesy, melodramatic and cliché that it actually made me feel ill.
• Carrie
• Grown ups 2- before this I had never seen a film with no plot in it and I hope to never see one again.
• Romeo and Juliet (2013)
• The Truth About Emmanuel- I love Kaya Scodelario so much but this made me question whether I was watching it on mute. It was so confusing!

The Forgotten Ones- you know when you sit down to watch a movie and spend the duration of it browsing the interweb and your phone? Yeah... 

• Adventureland
• Killers
• The Heat
• How I Live Now-all I remember is vaguely glorified incest..?
• 50/50
• The Spectacular Now
• The Host

The Ones Neither Loved nor Loathed

• Woman in Black
• Palo Alto
• The Inbetweeners 2 
• An Education
• Kick Ass
• Kick Ass 2
• Never Let Me Go
• The Amazing Spiderman 2
• The Other Woman 
• 22 Jump Street
• The Virgin Suicides
• The Giver
• Maze Runner
• If I Stay 
• The Purge 2

So that was a really long and I guess pointless blog post but I enjoyed putting my year-long list to better use than collecting dust on my phone. If you made it this far, I love you! Welcome to 2015 and I hope it treats you kindly :)

Olivia xo

NOT NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS.

Every year when avoiding being that annoying person everyone blocks/mutes on Twitter around New Year's Eve, I find myself making a mental list of expectations/things I plan to do in the approaching new year. I never really communicate the list in full to anyone when New Year's Resolutions conversations arise and this is mainly because I am 100% aware that whatever happens in a given year and whatever lessons I learn will not be discovered intentionally.

 But as everyone knows, the number one rule of life is that if you post something you need to do on the Internet, you have no choice but to get that shit done. So here's my 2015 to do list that I would like to have done by this time next year:

• Get my Skin Care game on point and have a solid regime in the bag.
• Get better at eye makeup.
• Go on Holiday. (I cheated here as I already have one booked for next year but it's always nice to know at least one will be getting done)
• Get my first tattoo.
• Find a comfortable balance between A-Levels, working and blogging.
• Make more blogging friends and put myself out there more with regards to my blog.
• LFW.
• Get skinny or learn to love myself trying. [Sidenote: I am tumblr.]
• Have more pride in my achievements.
• Say yes more but also say no more. Fuck sitting on the fence.

(There's no going back now, it's on the Internet so it's set in stone, wish me luck!)

Happy New Year to anyone who reads my blog and if you don't, I'm sure you're not that bad either so have a good one!

Olivia xo

MY OCTOBER FAVOURITES

Hey guys!

So October is coming to a close and though I feel like I haven't actually been doing much, I've certainly become quite specific about what I'm using/wearing/watching- many a holy grail product has been discovered. I think there's just something about Autumn that makes me yearn for consistency...Alas, here's a round up of what I've been loving this month and why!

MAKEUP 

NARS really hit the spot this month and I am not even exaggerating when I say I've been wearing these two products EVERY day. Apart from one or two occasions when I started to feel bad for not utilising the rest of my makeup collection, this is combo has not left my face.
At first I didn't think of Laguna as that spectacular until I started using it to bronze up post-base application with Zoeva's 127 Luxe Sheer Cheek brush. The results have been so glorious that I've hit pan after two months with Laguna. It really does warm up my skin, it's not too matte nor shimmery and I completely understand why it's earned cult status.
It took a while for me to accept that the shade of Radiant Creamy Concealer I received for my birthday was too dark to brighten up my face but when I had, ASOS conveniently had a 25% student discount moment so I purchased the shade Custard and haven't looked back since. It is everything the name suggests and the uber creamy texture is everything my under eye area could ask for- it's divine!
I mentioned both of these in my birthday make-up haul so if you want to, you can check that post out here.

My fave lip combo of the month has been MAC's Whirl lipliner with Blankety lipstick patted in the centre of the lip. I have it on in my Twitter icon so hit me up on there to see it in action. I will upload a better picture in my next post, which will be my MAC lipstick collection.

PERFUME

I am not a perfume person. My sister is a perfume obsessive and it's something I've never really bothered with. Considering Victoria's Secret Love Spell spray is just shy of £15 why would I spend loads of money on fancy perfume, right? As you can see, being a non-perfume person has turned me into someone who sees all perfume as having Chanel no.5 mature ladylike elegance... Anyway, after being recommended it by a friend and it getting rather comfortable on my wish list for months, I finally picked me up a 50ml bottle of Georgio Armarni Si and it has become my everyday scent. In case you were wondering, I am now loving the fully fledged perfume person life.  

CLOTHES/SHOES

Not much has changed for me clothes wise recently, I have well and truly lost my Fashion Month sartorial enthusiasm and quick, casual outfits are currently the thing for me. To paint a picture for you, I haven't worn a skirt once this month simply because I'm too lazy to wear tights. I feel like I still live in my black Topshop Joni jeans and without fail wear them every week: I think it's time I get a back up pair.

Jumper- Primark
Trousers- H&M

A footwear purchase I made whilst in Manchester were these little black wonders. They are by Truffle and I got them in a shop called Ark in the Arndale centre which I'd never seen before in Londontown but basically it's a hipster-inspired Bank Fashion. They're under the same company so the comparison is rather fitting. These are really comfortable and look amazing with trousers which is something I've found hard to find, in my experience. They were £29.99 which is an absolute steal considering they're kind of Givenchy dupes. (It makes me so sad that I am too poor to avoid dupes indefinitely.)

TV

In the nature of saving the best until last, I welcome you to what I've spent this whole month doing: I AM OBSESSED WITH AMERICAN HORROR STORY.
 I've been recommending it to everyone and their Aunt Mabel and I am completely hooked. I love how each series is wrapped up by the end because episode after episode of angst and dragged out plot points is something I wish was skippable in every series. Despite being someone with no talent or expressed interest in drama/theatre studies, I always notice good acting and the cast of AHS are incredible! My favourite cast members are Evan Peters (unsurprisingly), Jessica Lange and Sarah Paulson and my most-least favorite seasons go Coven, Asylum then Murder House which isn't even accurate because I love them all. I know I'm going to watch these over and over again, I have started to quote it in my everyday life and I am a walking example of this Jenna Marbles' video. In case you were considering watching AHS, there's only 13 episodes a season, the 4th season has just started AND it's Halloween month so why haven't you started yet???

Thanks a bunch for reading, tell me what you're loving this month in the comments or link me to your October Favourites posts!

Olivia xo