My Travel Beauty Essentials

Hey Guys! As ye know I love makeup... a lot, so you can imagine how hard it was for me to narrow down my makeup to everything that I need to bring with me to France for four months. Even though I did in fact narrow it down, I still think that I managed to pick a lot of things to bring because I'm going for quite a long time and didn't know what kind of things I would need. So I narrowed it down to two brush belts of Real Techniques brushes, two eye shadow palettes and a fairly big makeup bag of all the other makeup I need and a few of my favourite Sigma brushes.

I know this looks like quite a lot but you have to remember that this has to do me for four months, If I was only going for a couple of days or a week or something I wouldn't take half as much.

The first must have that I needed to take was makeup brushes, I picked the Real Techniques starter set, the core collection, stippling brush and blush brush. I also decided to take the Sigma F30 large powder brush (for powder and bronzer), the Sigma E40 tapered blending brush (because it's good for blending out my eye shadow and creating a smokey eye), the Sigma E30 pencil brush ( to use when highlighting my inner corner or to bring the shadow under the eye) and the Sigma E65 small angle brush which is my favourite brush for eye liner. If I was only going away for a couple of days I would only bring the RT starter set, stippling brush and blush brush like I did when I went to Paris in May.

The next essentials I picked were face products. I chose the moisturiser Bright Here, Bright Now from Soap and Glory to make my skin look more radiant. I chose Benefit's The Porefessional as my primer, Rimmel's Wake Me Up foundation and Bourjois' Délice de Soleil Bronzing Powder. I then decided to bring loads of concealers (I don't know why), which were Soap and Glory's Trick or Treatment, a limited edition Mac Hello Kitty one, Rimmel's Wake Me Up one and Benefit's Erase Paste. I didn't add any powder because my Rimmel Stay Matte powder fell and shattered so I might just buy one over there.

The next few things I chose were eye makeup. I first chose a few brow products like a Sigma shadow to fill them in (It's called Scarlett but it's a lightish brown colour), a pair of tweezers and some Catrice brow gel. Then some eyelash curlers and They're Real mascara, followed by a number of different colour eyeliner pencils, an Essence eyeliner pen and Essence gel liner in black. I also decided to bring a tube of Urban Decay's Primer Potion to make my eye shadow last longer.

Next onto the eye shadows that the primer is making last longer :P I'm taking the Urban Decay Naked and Naked 2 palettes because they are great for everyday eye shadows, which is what I think I need mostly for college classes and day trips and things, but there are also some darker colours for night time. I decided to leave my Mac 15 eye shadow palette at home because I didn't want to risk losing it or shattering any of the eye shadows while travelling but it gives me a good excuse to use my Naked palettes a bit more again.

I decided to bring only two blushes which are my favourite two, Sugarbomb and Coralista which I'm just thinking now are both very summery blushes *adds 17's Blush in the colour First Kiss to bag :P I'm sure I'll still wear the Benefit ones anyway because I love them.

I chose to bring a lot of lip products because I usually choose a lipstick by however I feel on the day. I thought that bringing a lip balm would be a good idea for winter in case my lips get chapped. Then I chose number 7's Classic Rose, L'Oréal Caresse Lipstick (101 tempting lilac), Soap and Glory's The Missing Pink, Mac's Viva Glam V, Mac's Shy Girl and an Essence Lip Liner in the colour red blush (to go with Viva Glam V). I though those were a wide range of lip colours for every occasion and mood. It has now occurred to me that I should have taken the pictures with the lipsticks open and the colours showing but for some reason I didn't think of it when I took them and now they're all packed away. I will probably do some kind of lipstick post in the future anyway so you can see them or just update this when I get to France. I also decided to bring another lipstick last minute and added it to my handbag because I was watching Keeping Up With The Kardashians and Khloé was wearing a gorgeous bright orangey/red lip which reminded me of my No 7's gay geranium. (which I original didn't pack because I thought I wouldn't be bold enough to wear it and that it mightn't look that nice anyway)

UPDATE: L-R Classic Rose, Tempting Lilac, The Missing Pink, Viva Glam V, Shy Girl and Gay Geranium.

Lastly, I chose to bring some nail varnishes. I chose Bourjois' So Laque Nail Varnish in the colour Beige Glamour, Not SO Bora Bora-ing Pink from O.P.I., Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine Nail Paint in Blue Plum and another Bourjois So Laque but in the colour Abricot Ouaté. I just like them all and use them fairly often so chose them to bring.

So that was my travel beauty essentials :) Hope you liked this post. It's now 3 in the morning because I was working today, trying to pack and was exhausted when I came home from work so it's a couple of hours later than I intended it to be posted but I prefer to write at night anyway :) The next time I post I'll probably be in France, and hopefully it will be in the next few days once I get my internet sorted and everything. Good Night xx

Ombre??

Hey Guys! So I told you the other day that I was going to ombre my hair and that I was pretty scared about how it was going to turn out. Well I needn't have, my friend Katie did it for me on Friday and I love it!! I used the Jerome Russell Bblonde Highlighting Kit and it was pretty easy to do. You have to use a bleach to ombre your hair, to strip away the colour, and if you use just blonde dye it won't work, it will probably just turn out ginger so make sure whatever your using has bleach in it. Katie is not a hairdresser or anything like that but I don't think it would have came out any better at a hairdressers.

 I know that a lot of people ombre their hair themselves but I think that it's a lot easier if you can get someone to do the back because it's hard to see if it's coming out even. If you are going to do it yourself, I'd suggest having a mirror in front of you and another behind you so that you can see how the back is coming out as your doing it, or just divide your hair in half, pull it to the front, put the bleach in and check how it looks from the back in a mirror before you let if set. I would also recommend that you wear old clothes because the bleach can stain them.

In my random haul earlier this week, I bought two boxes of the Jerome Russell Bblonde Highlighting Kits because I thought that I mightn't have enough dye but I had more than enough in just one. It was pretty simple to use by just following the instructions. You mix the powdered bleach included with the little bottle of peroxide using the brush provided. You then have this blue mixture.

I didn't want my hair to just go from brown to blonde, but wanted more of a fade effect so we decided to do the real bottom of my hair first so that would be more blonde then the rest. We put that on and waited about five minutes, going over some of it again as we waited. We brushed it through with a tangle teezer so that the dye didn't miss any hairs and so that it wouldn't end in a straight line (you could use any hair brush). We then put more of the dye up further and brushed that through and the by the time that was done, we went up a little bit further. A lot of people start their ombre just under their chin but we only went up to about my shoulders.

My hair with most of the bleach on. You can see the blonde developing.

Because we could see the blonde developing in my hair we could tell when it looked like it was ready so I could wash it out. When it was near the colour I wanted, we went over the ends with bleach and then wrap them in tin foil to make that hair blonder.

We left the bleach in for a total of about 35 mins (from start to finish) before I washed it out with the conditioning shampoo supplied, when it was wet it looked quite brassy so I then washed it again with Lee Stafford purple shampoo before conditioning it with my Soap and Glory's Glad Hair Day Intensive Conditioner. Purple shampoo is used to take the brassy/yellowy tones out of your hair. I left the Soap and Glory conditioner in for about ten minutes while me and Katie had some tea because bleach can dry out your hair a lot, so it's good to condition it for as long as you can. We then washed it out and styled my hair....and here are the results:

                                                                          BEFORE:

                                                                             AFTER:

Don't worry, it doesn't look as yellow in real life as it does in the pictures :P Hope you liked this post :) Did you ever ombre your hair? How did it come out? Also, what do you guys think of my hair? Do you like it or did you prefer it before I dyed it? Don't be afraid to be honest, I'm sure I won't get offended haha. Leave a comment below :)

Making The Positives Cancel Out The Negatives

Hey Guys! So Today's post is about the making the positives cancel out the negatives. As ye probably already know, I am going to study in France for 4 months and I'll admit that I have been quite stressed about it. Don't get me wrong, I have being excited about going to France next week, but for a while I was mostly focusing on the negatives like having to give up my job and not being able to understand French, whereas I should have been focusing on the positives like all the fun I'm going to have over there. I couldn't really help it as I tend to be bit of a worrier and worry about everything. I tend to think of every bad thing that can possibly happen and worry about it. Leaving your life and going to another country to live for four months is really scary and I'm still pretty scared about not being able to understand anyone, but there is a lot to look forward to that cancels it out. Although I'm leaving my family and friends, it's only for four months and then I'll see them again. So here are 5 things I'm gonna miss about home, but also, 5 things that I'm looking forward to in France :)

5 Things I will miss about home:
1. My Family and Friends
2. Work and all my work friends
3. My Pets
4. My Car and driving around with my music up and the windows down :)
5. My Guitar

5 things I'm looking forward to in France:
1. Going to Paris for my 21st
2. Getting to do cool subjects like Japanese
3. Spending 4 months with two of my best friends
4. Getting to live in student accommodation and having to do everything for myself.
5. Hopefully becoming fluent in French

So If there is any thing that you want to do but are too scared, just think of all the good things that will come of it and try not worry so much about it. Just think that you will worry about it when it happens because a lot of things we worry about don't have any solution and worrying just stresses you out.

Hope you liked this post :) I not going to be doing a Friday Favourite this week because I have a post for today, tomorrow and Sunday before I leave on Monday and didn't really have room for it or time to do it but I will have one next week. I just wanna let ye know also, that I will be continuing my blog over in France and when I return so don't think that I'm leaving the blogging world too. I will be here for a while yet :)

NOTD: Minion Nails by Lauren at Mega Beauty

Hey Guys! I saw this really cool tutorial for minion nails from Despicable Me on Lauren's Blog Mega Beauty and thought they would be so cool to try out. Click here to see her tutorial on how to do them and make sure to follow her blog, it has a lot of other cool nail art tutorials and great product reviews. My nails didn't come out that good and are a bit messy because I just used the normal nail varnish brushes but these nails are just too cute!

Random Haul

Hey Guys! Today's post is a collective haul from the other day, I know I said that I wasn't going to spend any more money until I go to France but I did need some more clothes to bring over with me and I have hardly spent any money this month so I  decided to treat myself before I go :P

The First place I went was Zara, where I got two really cool printed t-shirts and two pairs of denim jeggings, which were cheap enough, just to wear casual to college with a pair of high top trainers and probabaly a hoody depending on the weather.

Zara: €19,95        Buy here

Zara : € 22,95          Buy Here

Zara: €19,95         Buy Here

Zara: €22,95              Buy Here

I then went to River Island and saw these gorgeous high tops for €40. I have bought two pairs of high tops in River Island before and I live in them so I knew that they were worth the money. I also got these really cute pair of moustache earrings for €2.

River Island: €40            Buy Here

River Island : €2                  Buy Here

I  got these really cute super hero socks in pennys for €2,50. They kind of remind me of the old batman t.v show from the 60s that I used to watch every Saturday morning when I was a kid (not in the 60s :P)

Pennys €2,50            Can't buy online

Next I went to Awear and saw this really cool letterman jacket style hoody that I just fell in love with. It's really warm too so I think it will be great for the winter months.

Awear: €35      Not on the Website

Finally, I got 2 Bblonde highlighting kits and a purple shampoo in Boots because I am planning to ombre my hair this week. I've wanted to ombre my hair for a while now and finally decided to bite the bullet and do it. I decided to do it myself because it's very expensive to get it done at a hairdressers. I did a lot of research on how to do it yourself by watching a lot of youtube videos and reading a lot of blog posts about it. I decided to get the Bblonde highlighting kit over The L'Oréal wild ombre kit because I read a lot more positive reviews about it online, and my hair is dark brown and this one seems to make dark hair a lot blonder than the L'oréal one which makes your hair more coppery. This is also the kit that Zoella and Louise from Sprinkle of Glitter used and I love how their hair came out.

1 Bblonde Highlighting Kit : €8.99
Lee Stafford Bleach Blondes Purple Shampoo: €8.49
Buy Here and Here

I got two of the Bblonde Highlighting Kits because I heard that their isn't that much in them and my hair is quite long and thick. I got the purple shampoo to take all the brassy tones out of my hair after I dye it and to keep the colour from fading. I'm kind of scared about doing this because I've never dyed my hair before but my my friend Katie is coming over on Friday to help me do it and for some moral support :P I'm hoping to do a blog post about it Saturday evening but it could be a bit later in the week because I'm working all weekend and I have a lot of packing to do. I'm planning a lot of other blog posts for this week though including "My Travel Beauty Essentials" so make sure to check back to see them or follow my blog to get updates of when I write a new post :)

Hope you liked this post :) Did you ever ombre your Hair? How did it turn out? Also, please let me know of any bad hair dyeing experiences that you've had because I'd love to know what not to do :P

Leave a comment below :)