Me & Zena Flash Sale TONIGHT!

Just a quickie to tell you that between 11pm and midnight tonight, Me & Zena are halving their prices when you use the code 'witching hour'!! Yep, 50% off everything! Minimum spend is a tenner.

My faveys:

Leopard - £9.50

Bunny - £12.50

Telephone ring - £14.50

Anchor - £7.00

Woop!! Enjoy! :)

<3

The Happiness Path

"Holiness is the only path to happiness."
~Nancy Leigh DeMoss

Safety & Happiness

"Safety and happiness can only come from individuals, classes, and nations being honest and fair and kind to each other." ~C.S. Lewis

Halloween DIY: Zombie Makeup Tutorial

Thought I'd share a zombie makeup tutorial with you guys in case anyone was looking for an easy last minute Halloween look! 

I added some little doll lips as I want to be a creepy zombie doll for Halloween. Aka, any excuse to wear my Topshop lace dress... I will be wearing this look to work on Monday and then onto a party! 

Products used: Estee Lauder double wear foundation, HD Brows palette, Eylure lashes, Maybelline Gel Eyeliner, Benefit lip plump, Topshop lipstick in Brighton Rocks. 

I found that although it looked right in the mirror during the tutorial, it didn't photograph too well as I don't have any decent makeup brushes to blend with! I would also add even more dark eyeshadow under the eyes. I also forgot to add a bit of mascara on the bottom lashes. Slightly annoying, but I guess zombie makeup is allowed to be a bit all over the place!

Hope some of you find it useful! 

Have any of you been to anything Halloweeny over the weekend? And what are your plans for tomorrow? I want to hear about your costumes!

x

PS - If anyone's looking for some Halloween nail art inspiration, a visit to fuckyeahnailart and fuckyeahprettynails is a must. 

On The Naughty Step: L'Oreal Sublime Mousse

My hair is not naturally this dark browny-black shade, it's mousey brown. So every month or two, I need to top up my roots. I usually use Schwarzkopf Live Colour XXL in Bittersweet Chocolate, but after seeing this mousse dye on offer, I decided to take a punt on something a bit firmer that I'm less likely to slosh all over the bathroom and/or myself. 

I bought the pure darkest brown shade and got started. You pour some liquid into another bottle of liquid and attach the mousse pump. You then roll the bottle to mix it up. Shaking is strictly forbidden! 

APPLICATION

Despite my best rolling efforts, the mousse was still a bit liquid for my liking... On a plus side, it was definitely less messy than the usual squeezy nozzle bottles. Back to the negative side now, as this dye ITCHED like WOAH. Proper burning. And you had to leave it for 30 mins, which is quite a while compared to many dyes. 

REMOVAL

When I could finally remove the dye, I was excited to try the 'conditioning balm' it came with. I rinsed out the dye and started applying it when I realised my hair resembled straw. It felt completely dry and ravaged. The conditioner didn't improve this much at all and it was a struggle to get a brush through it afterwards. Optimistic to the point of foolishness, I saw my new bone-dry hair as a nifty way to skip washing it for a few days extra as it won't get greasy so easily... 

RESULTS

It took a couple of days for me to notice but my roots were actually not at all dark enough. Fair enough the Live Colour dye I'm used to does come out very dark, but I don't expect my roots to look gingery blonde in natural light... You can see what I mean ever so slightly in this photo I took the other day: 

I just didn't expect to still have light roots straight after dyeing! Playing devils advocate, my hair IS pretty much black so maybe I should've opted for the black shade, but the fact is it doesn't match the colour on the box due to the gingery tones in the dye. And a bit of research has shown me that a lot of people have had similar issues with this dye. Exhibit A and B. 

VERDICT

This product left my hair overly dry and underly dyed!  AVOID. It may be L'Oreal but it's not worth it.

---

Have any of you tried this dye? On the subject of dye-sasters, are there any other brands you'd put on the naughty step? Do share, so we can avoid quite literally chucking our money down the drain! 

<3

How To Wait On God

"Waiting for God is not laziness. Waiting for God is not going to sleep. Waiting for God is not the abandonment of effort. Waiting for God means, first, activity under command; second, readiness for any new command that may come; third, the ability to do nothing until the command is given." ~G.Campbell Morgan

What's Our Christian Responsibility?

"Once we know the Word of God, we have a responsibility to be obedient to it." ~Joyce Meyer

What Wonderful Company Is Marriage

"There is no more lovely, friendly or charming relationship, communion or company, than a good marriage." ~Martin Luther

Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice

Models Own are releasing a new duo-chrome nail polish collection on 1st November, which they're entitling Beetlejuice! I was already semi sold as I do love that film, but after seeing this photo of the collection I found here, I am in love! 

That shade on the left is delightfully fugly, and some of the others remind me of the Mac Venomous Villains collection, but somehow look even better. I am so excited to try these out, but am dreading trying to photograph them... Better clear my memory card in advance!! 

Ooh, update: have just been informed on Twitter of British Beauty Blogger's review of them, photographs included! They look gorgeous! Less bright than in the above photo, but still such interesting shades. Did I just review someone else's review..? This is all getting a bit Inception! 

Going off now to wax my eyebrows and freak out about the fact I'm filming with the SuperScrimpers crew in London tomorrow. Aargh! So nervous! WHY must they be filming in HD at the precise moment my chin has decided to sprout a huge spot. Eurgh. Maybe if I angle my head right (ie: directly down at the floor) it won't be as noticeable...

Wish me luck... :|

<3

PS - I know lots of you enjoy some Youtube lolz so feast your eyes on my latest obsession... I dare you to keep a straight face.

If Today Were Your Last

"If today were your last, would you do what you're doing? Or would you love more, give more, forgive more? Then do so! Forgive and give as if it were your last opportunity. Love like there's no tomorrow, and if tomorrow comes, love again." ~Max Lucado

Whom Should We Love?

"Whom should we love, if not Him who loved us, and gave himself for us?" ~Augustus Toplady

Be A Rock Star with Black XS!

I've always loved a perfume with a rock 'n' roll attitude, and Paco Rabanne's Black XS has been up there on my love-list since my days as a teenage Christmas temp on the perfume counter at Debenhams! Whilst my own rock 'n' roll edges may have softened somewhat over the years (piercings, gigs and vodka have been replaced by nail art, early nights and coffee), Black XS is still embracing its inner rockstar in a big way - and allowing you to do so too.

Paco Rabanne has partnered up with Universal Music in creating a unique musical platform, Be A Rockstar. The Be A Rockstar website,www.be-a-rockstar.com, offers exclusive music content and one of the largest catalogues of artists in the world. Universal Music France will even be giving access to some backstage moments with its artists.

The website also allows users instant access to exclusive interviews and live performances, featuring some of the music industry's coolest cats, including Cold War Kids and Two Door Cinema Club. This nine part series - the Black XS OFF Shows - will be aired on www.be-a-rockstar.com as well as the Black XS YouTube channel towards the end of this year, so keep your eyes peeled.

More excitingly, the website also offers users the chance to step into the shoes of a rockstar themselves - simply upload a photo of yourself and be amazed and enthralled by the Be A Rockstar Experience... Seriously, if you have a few minutes I really recommend trying it out. It had Alex and I in stitches, and we are usually the first to call a cringebomb when we see one! So if you like to giggle (and ROCK, obvz), trust me on this one. Go to www.be-a-rockstar.com/uk/experience to try it out.

Here are some pics of the website in action and Two Door Cinema Club being all cute and interviewy:

Let me know if you have a go on the rock star experience, and what you think of the interviews and Black XS OFF shows! 

<3

For more info on the brand or the partnership, visit www.pacorabanne.com or the Black XS Facebook page here.

Sponsored Post

We Found Love

I've been obsessing over Rihanna's new video lately. Besides being an emotional roller coaster, it's a true style feast, with lots of This is England references (although I do frown upon the glorification of drugs and cigs, I must be honest! Children watch this stuff.)

I paid homage to Rihanna in my own little way today and got drugged off my tits rolled my jeans up and resurrected my DM boots!

Top - H&M, Necklace - c/o Me & Zena, Jeans - H&M, specs - Gok Wan at Specsavers

I bought the jeans the other day for £9.99 in H&M! Bargain! I adore them. They're a smidge tight on the thigh and DO make my bum look big, but for the sake of a totally guilt free purchase, I don't care!

<3

The Hope Of Glory

"Lord, give us a hunger for others that they might also be the rich possessors of the hope of Glory, Amen." ~T.C. Horton & Charles Hurlburt
(Colossians 1:27)

The Greatest Day

"The greatest day in your life and mine is when we take total responsibility for our attitudes. That's the day we truly grow up." ~John C. Maxwell

Prayer Is The Window

"Prayer is the window that God has placed in the walls of our world. Leave it shut and the world is a cold, dark house. But throw back the curtains and see His light. Open the window and hear His voice. Open the window of prayer and invoke the presence of God in your world."
~Max Lucado

Notable Divorce Myths

"Divorce Myths:1. When love has gone out a marriage, it is better to get divorced. 2. It is better for the children for the unhappy couple to divorce than to raise their children in the atmosphere of an unhappy marriage. 3. Divorce is the lesser of two evils. 4. You owe it to yourself. 5. Everyone's entitled to one mistake. 6. God led me to this divorce." ~R.C. Sproul

Lazy Day

I had an unexpected day off today after some filming with Channel 4 for the new series of SuperScrimpers was rescheduled. So, besides Roxy eating a mouse before my very eyes (what has city life has done to my little princess?!), I've had a nice chilled out day featuring an afternoon nap and trying out my new  t-shirt dress kindly sent to me by Lazy Oaf.

Lazy Oaf are a super cool brand specialising in quirky graphic tees, accessories and those creepers, all designed in-house. Here are some of my favourites from the website:

The item I chose was, naturally, the big cat tee dress:

(Jacket - charity shop, boots - Topshop)

(Lipstick - Snob by Mac)

This dress is so and different to anything I've seen and is an awesome new addition my cat clothing collection! I think this will look super cute with tights, heels and lashes during the festive party season! 

Also, I got my hurr cut yesterday. It was sooo floppy and overgrown, it was doing my head in. I feel like a new woman, albeit one with a slightly chillier head. 

<3

A New Definition Of Success

"Success is a collection of relationships. Remember, one cannot multiply. Whatever you are willing to settle for determines the quality of your future." ~Dr. Mike Murdock

What's Love Got To Do With It?

"Perfect love will never want the preeminence in everything, it will never want to take the place of another, it will always be willing to take the back seat."
~Smith Wigglesworth

Glossybox vs Boudoir Prive

True to form, here are my hideously delayed fashionably late opinions on GlossyBox and Boudoir Privé (both freebz).

GlossyBox

2 x Dead Sea Spa Magik: Salt Brushing

Neal and Wolf: Glow Super Shine Spray

HD Brows: Eye & Brow Palette in Vamp

Green People: Fruitful Nights

Plum by Mary Greenwell perfume sample

When I opened my first GlossyBox, I was surprised by the size of the 'samples' inside. Most of the products were either full-sized or luxury sample size. The perfume sample was meh, both in scent and size, but made up for by the presence of my new beauty regime staple, the HD Brows palette (retailing at £19.95). I always darken my brows to match my hair, and this looks a lot more natural than pencilling them on. The gorgeous matte shades also double up as eyeshadow, which I've done on a few occasions. The hair spray (RRP £11.95) works really well without weighing hair down and has a gorgeous scent.  The salt scrub is quite good but leaves skin a bit greasy after use. I haven't used the Green People night cream as I'm awful at getting into a routine with these things so will never see the benefit anyway. On a slight downer, when I was opening the exquisitely packaged box I noticed that the products inside had a layer of dust on them! Maybe they were left out on a shelf before sending or the box was left open for a while. All was forgiven once I'd started rooting through the box and trying the products out, though!

(Giving my friend Jen a drunken brow makeover..!)

Bottom line: WOW factor 10! A hell of a lot of great quality products for the £12.95 monthly price (let alone for free, in my case!) Really pleased with my GlossyBox!

Boudoir Privé

L'Agent Provocateur perfume sample

Macadamia Hair oil

Colbert MD: Eye Cream

Cargo: Eye pencil in Aqua

Zoya: Nail polish in Tao

Tropic: Body Polish

The products in this (adorably packaged) box were noticeably smaller than the ones in the GlossyBox. Again, bog standard perfume samples being used as filler, but as it wasn't one of the main 5 products, I shall let it go! My favourite product is the Zoya nail polish, which is a shimmery gun metal grey and is nice and opaque. The Colbert MD Eye Cream retails at £90 for 15ml, which makes this 5ml sample worth £30 - yowzer! I gave it to my mum who suffers from extreme puffy eyes, but this reacted with them and made her eyes really red so perhaps it isn't for sensitive skin. I haven't really used it myself because I'm too scared I'll get hooked on it and have to sell Roxy to the circus to fund my habit. I don't really used coloured eye pencil so this will be going to one of my pals for crimbo! The body polish smells phenomenal. I haven't tried it yet, but it's worth noting it's the company owned by Susan Ma from The Apprentice! Finally, the hair oil is another item that will be going onto a loving new home this christmas, as my fine locks don't require it! 

Bottom line: More luxurious and niche brands than its competitors, but you don't get as many mls for your money (£10 a month).

~

Final thought on beauty boxes in general (any excuse to continue using this jazzy bold font): I think these are a super exciting concept, but do need to be tailored to the individual customers' needs if they are to be a long-term success. If I had paid £10 and received something that was totally wrong for my skin/hair type, I'd be peeved. I think GlossyBox do get you fill in some details along these lines so you do get what you want, but as I just received a sample, I didn't get to try this aspect out so I'm not sure about that. 

So what do you make of this beauty box lark? Have you tried any of the others out there? I want to hear about your faves - spill the beauty beans!

<3

The Uncommon Life

"An uncommon life is decided by what you are willing to overcome." ~Dr. Mike Murdock

Photo: Steve Jobs, Apple Founder, Pub.Domain

Brokenness Is What I Long For

"Brokenness is the stripping of self-reliance and independence from God. The broken person has no confidence in his own righteousness or his own works, but he is cast in total dependence upon the grace of God working in and through him." ~Nancy Leigh DeMoss

Forgive Situations & Objects

"You may even need to forgive a situation or an object--the post office, bank, a certain store that may have cheated you, a car that always gave you trouble, etc. Get rid of all poison that comes from bitterness, resentment and unforgiveness." ~Joyce Meyer

God's Goal For My Life

"God's ultimate goal for your life on earth is not comfort, but character development." ~Pastor Rick Warren

Fly Into The Future

"Leave the broken, irreversible past in God's hands, and step out into the invincible future with Him."
~Oswald Chambers

Midweek Musings

Love me, love my onesie

It's been my saviour while I've been poorly. It's kept me toasty warm and cosy and obviously has all the cool-points that come with essentially dressing as a cat. Definitely improved my morale! If you don't live near Primarni, you need to be snapping one of their infamous onesies up on eBay because they are, in my eyes, this season's most important trend. 

(Yes I know I look facially frightful. This was at the height of my illness!)

Lust list

Clocked this beauty at work today... £34 though? Sob! Such a gorgeous dress. Perfect length... perfect shape, perfect grey marl. Bring on uniform discount! Two weeks on Friday, you shall be mine! I have officially just jinxed the dress and will clearly look like a sack of potatoes in it. 

Mr Postman

I received this fantastic leopard necklace as a gift from Me & Zena in the post. It's bigger than I expected but in a very good way. A more chic take on the leopard trend than my usual efforts (nails/leggings etc!)

(Wearing a distressed black tee c/o Clothing At Tesco)

(Little Roxy on my lap, trying to reclaim my attention from my new, more blingy feline friend! Soz cat, you lose!)

Nails o' the week:

I painted some falsies the other day when I was ill and bored out of my brains! I was using a bunch of amazing Models Own nail varnishes they sent me as part of a master plan I shall be revealing soon... I've probably already said too much! 

(these are the ones I use, trimmed and filed down a lot!) 

My middle nail popped off almost into my dinner at Prezzo tonight which was pretty hilarious! The perils of false nails! 

Kareen Brown

The gorgeous and stylish winner of the competition I hosted with Me & Zena! The specs, the florals, the studded belt, the glitter nails... J'adore your style, Kareen!! You can see all of the runners-up over on Me & Zena's blog. It was so hard to choose the runners-up and I appreciated so much that so many people took the time to enter a competition that required more participation than commenting 'enta me plz, xx lol'. There were nearly 100 entries in the end, I think. Just wish we'd had 100 prizes to give! Thanks to all who entered <3

Misc.

Watching/listening to the heart wrenching tones of Big Deal. It's not my usual taste but their songs sound so... beautifully sad, I'm just captivated. Lots of style inspiration in their video, too. 

Have you ever had a dream? I think we could all learn something from this little guy's ability to fail so epically but come through it smiling proudly at the end. The glass is always half full. I think about this video when I'm walking down the street or serving customers at work and it makes me spontaneously erupt into laughter each time... It's so awkward but I can't help it!

Hmmm, anything else to mention? Not much. Working until Saturday now, then my gorgeous Brighton buddy Danielle is coming to stay at the weekend! Excitement! 

<3