Weekend sun and a few little purchases...

I'll start with something typically British by saying 'HOW GLORIOUS IS THE WEATHER AT THE MOMENT?!' Ok, I didn't need to use shouty caps, but it's just so lovely.

Taking advantage of this weathery turn, the bf and I went on one of our weekend walks yesterday, and so here are a few more photos of London (as if there weren't enough already!) and some outfittery snaps.

In front of some Jubilee bunting at the tip of Regent's Street. And a bin, just to add a bit of glamour.

I wore my beloved Anne Greenable floral dress from Topshop. I got this one in the sale, but I loved it so much that I purchased it in blue too, but with a crossover strap instead of strapless, for the full price, which I think was £48. Expensive, I know, but I'll wear it a lot. In fact, I am wearing it as I type, with a blue matching cardi, because I am the queen of cardigans (read: I hate my arms!)

Some more flags and an old police telephone (you open and dial to call the police) which I thought was pretty cool. I opened it and there wasn't a phone, sadly, just an McDonald's packet. Nice.

 Of course the hot day led to getting a frappuccino fix. I got my usual coffee frappuccino light, which was yumalicious, even more yum because it was half price (3-5pm, half price frapps at Starbucks..at least in the uk, and at least for a few more days!)

I also popped into Debenhams and Selfridges and purchased a few goodies.

Firstly, I bought a little wash bag, which I am going to use as a travel make up bag when I go to Naples in the summer (squeee!)  This was around £5 from Debenhams, cheaper than their usual price because of the 25% off sale.

Secondly, I went to Selfridges and headed straight to the Bobbi Brown counter. I was intending to buy the corrector and potentially concealor. I told this to the MUA who hastily swooped on me as soon as I approached the counter (I HATE that. I'd rather look around, thanks). Anyway, she led me off and proceeded to try the whole shebang on me, eye cream, eye makeup remover, correcter, concealor, some other stuff I don't remember. The finished result I was quite please with, but when she told me the combined price of the corrector and concealor, I winced. £40.50. Er, no thanks. I was considering just buying the corrector, but maybe I will do that another time, without an angry MUA telling me what to buy. Sorry about that rant, I just find the process a bit stressful!

Anyway, the point is that in the end I headed over to Mac and purchased this (comparatively) cheap and cheerful concealor (£13.50) in NC15. So far I am happy with it too! Joy :)

I'm off to a First Holy Communion now (family stuff) but will comment when I get back. Hope you're all enjoying ze sun xxx

Candles- Wax Lyrical 'Bath Time'

I do love a good candle. They create a nice, calming atmosphere, giving what I have come to call 'instagram light' (ruined the romance there, eh?!) 'Instagram light' makes everyone's (my) pale body look that bit better, which can be good for, you know, a few things.

Also, think how much more romantic and less clinical they are than modern lighting. Snuggling on the settee, watching a movie, having a bubble bath, pampering yourself. All are better by candlelight. 

Candles, in my opinion, are EVEN better when they are scented.

Last weekend, I spent a fair few hours (well, 20 minutes) sniffing candles and getting a bit high in John Lewis. I finally settled on this one called 'Bath Time' by Wax Lyrical. Quite a cute little name if you ask me. I think it cost around the £7 mark, which isn't too bad.

It smells of cotton/general freshness, but the scent isn't as overpowering as I'd like it to be when you light it. Pleasant enough though. It also burns reallllllly quickly. I don't know what the average burning time for candles is, but I've only had this for a few weeks, and left it burning for a total of apx. 6 hours and I've pretty much used half of it already!

Next I would like to try a Yankee candle. I've been wanting to try one of these for a while now, but I don't have a Clintons near me. Where else can you buy them people? Which scents would you recommend?

Face Mask Time

Yesterday, 3 annoying pimples nastily announced themselves on my chin. Not good. So with this in mind, and feeling like a bit of pampering after a long day, I decided to use my apparently purpose built face mask Anatomicals Farewell the Scarlet Pimpernell, which was a measly £1 from Topshop for a sachet.

I love masks that come in single sachets. They remind me of the girly sleepovers of my teenage years, where we would pamper ourselves with face masks, cucumber for the eyes and lots of gossip. I still have 'sleepovers' with my girl friends now and again, even though I left my teenage years behind a fair while ago. You can't beat them if you ask me.

Anyway, back to the mask:

 

You wanted to see a photo of the scummy packaging didn't you?

Without the scum, it's pretty simple packaging appeals to me. Clear, to the point and pink to boot.

As I'm fond of oversharing, here is a smexy photo of me in modelling the face mask look:

 The mask is a 'deep cleansing mud mask' that is supposed to help absorb excess oil and help 'control spots and blackheads as it tightens the skin'. Ooh, so probably not best for dry skin like mine in theory, but y'know. I thought I'd give it a try. The result, I have to say, isn't too bad either.

I love the thick, creamy texture of the mask, which you get plenty of in the sachet, which allowed me to slather it on luxuriously (£1 luxury, even better). I left it to dry for 15 minutes and voila! My skin was softer, and not even TOO dry. As I suffer from dry skin, I always end up with dry patches no matter what I use anyway, and my skin was fine after using moisturiser, and as I said, softer.

As I only tried it tonight, the spots are still there, but they are less 'angry' than they were before, thank goodness.

For £1, I'm pretty happy with my little muddy package.

Whilst I'm here, I thought I'd show you my cool art tee. I wear this to relax in/for bed by the way. It shows faces in the style of different artists. My fave is the happy, floaty Dali head!

Hope you're all enjoying the sunshine :)

Rimmel Moisture Renew Lipstick-Vintage Pink

A few weeks ago I went crazy in Superdrug. They had a 3 for 2 offer on all products, and I, er, took advantage of it (no mention of being sucked in to spending more money...no. It's all good).

That's how I ended up with this rather pretty lipstick:

 Rimmel moisture renew lipstick in 108 Vintage Pink

 Shade
In the bullet, this looks like the most gorgeous, dusty pink.mauve shade. I love the way it looks on my hand too. Just noooot entirely sure that it suits me.

What do you (honestly) think?

Maybe I'm a tad too pale for this shade? I always get attracted to shades that I find pretty, certain they'll suit me...and then they don't. Duh.

Texture/Finish
As the name suggests, this is a very moisturising lipstick. Perfect for me-me and my dry lips just do not really get on with matte finishes. I have to prep and scrub and moisturise my lips beforehand which, honestly, is a bit of an annoyance when you can simply just whip on a moisturising lippie and let that do the job. I would describe the finish as being similar to the Topshop lipsticks- moisturising, but not shiny or glossy.

I have to say I'm quite a fan of Rimmel lipsticks. They have a huge variety of colours, have a good texture and finish and aren't too expensive either.

I believe that Superdrug are doing another 3 for 2 offer...I'm not going to finish that sentence!

Lovely London

Oh London, you are lovely sometimes, especially when the sun decides to make an appearance.

Now that the rain has stopped (hopefully for a while!) and the bf has finished his PhD, we went on another of our weekend walks. You may be fed up of seeing pictures of London, and if you are, sorry. But if you share the love for my home town then enjoy! Here are a few sneaky peaks of my walk to Regent's Park today.

Sadly, I didn't dress up for the occasion, so no interesting OOTD. In fact, I was ready to go straight to my pilates class, so that's my excuse for looking a tad scruffy.

1. Pretty gates

2. Willow trees! and a few ducks. As you can probably see.

3. People doing a Chinese fan class. At first I thought that this was some sort of yoga class (in the park, very romantic) until they pulled out their fans, peacock like. Looked very cool! 

4. A lovely little deck chair area. Facing a car park, haha. Note the juxtaposition- deck chairs and hooded winter coats; it can work! 

 

5 &6 Pretty gardens and nut eating squirrel! 

We finished off the walk in typical Georgia style...

 

with a trip to Starbucks. I got my usual Coffee Frappuccino light (though I usually feel so cold after that I need a hot coffee. Duh) but my bf purchased the new delicious sounding Mocha Cookie Crumble Frappuccino. So indulgent, so good (I had a few sneaky sips). Try it, but it is probably the equivalent of a fat wedge of cake calorie wise. He never gains weight though, lucky thing. 

I'm going to spend the rest of the weekend reading, swimming, going to pilates class and drinking a glass of wine or two in front of trashy tv. Yumzers. 

How's your weekend faring? Do tell me, I like to know...I'm nosy like that! 

OOTD-Cats

So I had a not very nice experience with a cat the other day. Granted, it was enjoying a peaceful slumber in the sun. Granted, I woke it from this slumber. But I only wanted to stroke it and show it some love. And when I went to stroke it, it hissed at me and scratched me. Twice.

After this, my love for catkind diminished just a bit. But on the way home I saw a quite nice cat (there aren't any REALLY friendly cats on my street, sadly) and my faith was restored a bit.

Anyway, the point to that preamble was that my love for cats still extends enough to me wearing my little cat print dress that I purchased from Camden a while back.

 I wore it with yellow tights, my trusty mustard primark cardigan (I have these in about 4 different colours) and my new Topshop brogues. A colourful outfit for me!

Hope you are enjoying the weekend xx

My 'miracle' moisturiser

In case you don't know, I suffer from dry skin. It gets flaky and when I get out of the bath/swimming pool, it feels like I am wearing a tight mask (nice).

I've tried a fair few moisturisers to combat this, and Liz Earle's moisturising cream for dry skin does a pretty good job. But it is also expensive. I have found an alternative, that is as cheaps as chips and as moisturising as a...er, good moisturiser.

Aqueous cream!

This is like applying water in a cream form. It's mostly made of purified water with a bit of emulsifying wax and white soft paraffin (ew, I hate reading ingredient names, it always puts me off, even if it's not bad). However, this is counteracted by the description of it as an 'emollient moisturiser'. The word emollient is underused in my opinion, which is such a shame. It means soothing and softening, and who doesn't want their skin to feel smooth and soft, eh?

I use it before I go to bed and when I wake up in the morning. The only thing I don't like about this is that when you happen to, say, go for an impromptu run, it appears to make your face sweat more. It's like the seeped in cream creeps out to say hello again. Weird.

Apart from it's moisturising effects, the best thing about this tub is how cheap it is. £2.40 for 500ml. It does the job and it does it well. Think I'm going to be sticking with this forever! It's available in your local pharmacy.