Avon | Ultra Colour Lipstick & Extra-Lasting Plump and Stay Lip Colour.

Hello loves,

First of all I want to apologise for my lack of posts and activeness on social media lately. I had my birthday (which you can read about here) then I fell ill and had zero motivation to live let alone blog and then to top it off I had no wifi for 2 weeks, nightmare! But I'm back and here to rant and rave to my heart's desire.

I want to talk about my two favourite lip products of the moment which are both from Avon. Now I know I have spoken about them before but it's honestly because it's only recently I have appreciated their brand properly and I'm now obsessed!

The first one is this gorgeous purple lip colour I'm sporting. Now I think I've mentioned this in one of my earlier posts that I was on the hunt for the perfect pigmented purple shade and luck was obviously on my side this day because I found this Ultra Colour Lipstick in their clearance brochure for the bargain price of £2.00, saving £5.50! I was sold. It's in the shade Vixen and it's that beautiful warm toned plum colour I've been searching for. Paired with their Ultra Glimmerstick Lip Liner in Deep Plum, I literally wear this everywhere, everyday whether it's to the shops, work or a night out I can't get enough. I think it even warms up my face too because I am very fair skinned even with make-up on.

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The second lip combo I am adoring is a relatively new product. It's the Plump and Stay Lip Colour in Plumful from their Extra-Lasting collection. Now you'd be lying if you haven't been through the phase of dreaming of Kylie Jenner lips without the harmful side effects and surgery so I thought I'd give it a go to see if my lips actually plump out. My lips are a "normal" shape and size but I did see a difference when I applied it. It's a 2 in 1 design with the liquid lipstick on one side and the gloss on the other. I don't know exactly what is in the gloss but when you apply it in the centre of your lips it gives that tingling sensation which is a bit of a strange feeling but it doesn't last long. It also claims it lasts 8 hours so here are the results.

11AM | 5PM | 9PM

So I had it on all through my shift without any re-applying and eventhough the colour slightly faded the glossiness and pout remained. The texture is slightly tacky and sticky so if your not a fan of that this wouldn't really be for you but I do really adore this and my lips do look different which is fun. I paired it with the Ultra Glimmerstick Lip Liner in Pink Cashmere to give it that bit more definition and I got the both for £8.00 in one of the brochure offers but you can purchase the Glimmersticks for £6.00 RRP and the Plump and Stay for £8.50 RRP. But like I said every brochure has an offer so always keep an eye out, currently this look is only £5.00!

One final note, Avon have just launched their Matte lipsticks claiming they are "More Matte Than MAC" and I cannot wait to get my hands on one. I have a tester but really need to do the comparison for myself and for a fraction of the price of a MAC lipstick at only £5.50 RRP!

Anyway, have a lush day darlings.

Katie x

{disclaimer: i am not an Avon rep and all these views and opinions are entirely my own}

Album Review; Mikey Bromley - This One's For You

Now if you know me, follow me on Twitter or anything like that you should know I support artists that are just coming out of their creative shells rather than the likes of Justin Bieber and One Direction {who are still both amazing and I sing their songs 24/7} but also this is why it's tricky for me to be like "I'm a fan" because I don't feel like a fan of them, I was a fan of The Wanted, a fan of Little Mix but this to me is different and less cringy so I stick to the word "support". 

Anyway also if you have followed me for some time you will know I stuck by a little band called Only The Young, prior, during and after their X Factor experience {they came 7th in 2014} but they have since called it a day and this is where this guy comes into equation; Mikey Bromley.

The 21 year old from Carlisle is heavily influenced by the likes of Mcfly {Tom Fletcher especially} Jason Mraz, James Bay, Joe Brooks {where he has even covered his song Superman to be a part of album} and so many other guitar-based artists which really reflects through his album; This One's For You. 

There are 9 tracks; Miss J, Safe & Sound, Next Stop The Universe, Snake In A Mercedes, Run Away, Coca Cola, Laugh Smile Kiss, Girl On Girl and Superman.

Whilst they all stick with the same genre and guitar, each one has their own uniqueness to tell them apart, not to mention the smart yet simplistic lyrics which is key if you want your audience to be singing Miss J through an 8 hour shift! {thanks Bromley!}

As soon as you press play you go on his emotional journey from an encounter with a teacher to falling in love with a lesbian {i know ..?} but strangely the set list does tie in quite nicely together to make an easy-listening, chill album that you can either stick your earphones in and blast out or have it on in the background whilst doing housework. {this is from experience I have been known to dance around with the Hoover} 

The one thing I love the most about this, is he's finally 100% himself and comfortable in what he is doing and it really shows, I actually saw him on Wednesday and he's never looked so relaxed and happy. I'm so proud of him.

So if any of what I have said appeals to you then This One's For You! {I'm sorry I couldn't resist}

It is available to download NOW on Spotify and iTunes or if you pop into your local HMV you will be sure to find it if albums are more your thing. Help this lad out to get the recognition he deserves. 

Love you all,

Katie x

21st Birthweek | My Trip To Dublin

Hello my loves,

So as you may or may not have known, I turned 21 on Wednesday (3rd Feb) and to celebrate I went to Dublin for 4 days as part of my birthweek, and let me tell you now, it is the most beautiful, relaxed city I have ever been to. I took quite a few pictures so I thought it would be nice to share with you what I got up to whilst I was there and maybe even give you a few ideas if you ever decide to go.

Day 1:

Our journey began very early on Monday morning so we could travel to Bristol Airport and everything ran smoothly and we got there with plenty time to spare. Little did we know we spoke too soon. Basically because our good friend Hurricane Henry was in the midst of blowing all over Dublin our flight was delayed. What a nightmare, I just wanted to get there. BUT he must have known it was my birthday as we were only delayed by half a hour. FINALLY WE'RE IN DUBLIN. Yeah .. that was short-lived excitement when we got lost and ended up roaming the streets of Dublin trying to find our back alley hotel! It doesn't help being in a different country with no data so we had to find Wifi to figure out exactly where we were every 10 minutes. But eventually after 12 hours of travelling we were in our hotel finally able to relax. Just down the road we had a giant Spar shop, which to be honest I don't really rate in the UK but it seems Dublin corner shops are slightly different. They serve hot food, have seats to eat in, they have a deli counter and a coffee shop as well as convenience items, this was our go-to place all week! Amazing.

Day 2:

Our first full day in Dublin, we planned to go to on a City Tour of Dublin but first of course, food! In our trusty Spar shop we purchased a breakfast roll, something the Irish highly recommend. It's basically boiled egg, hashbrown, sausage, black/white pudding, bacon and whatever else you might want to add and it's just 3 Euro! Bargain and it filled us up most of the day! We then went onto O'Connell Street to find the City Tour bus. There are 3 Hop On-Hop Off buses to choose from; Red, Green and Yellow. Some can be pricey but the Yellow bus CityScape is currently on offer for 10 Euro each for a 2 hour and 35 minute tour and I highly recommend it!! The journey is enjoyable and the commentator is warm and friendly and very Irish, and luckily the sun decided to make an appearance along the way! Also with a CityScape ticket you can get discount off other attractions including the Guinness Storehouse and you also get offers such as 2 for 1 Meals and a free glass of Guinness in a pub.

Guinness StoreHouse

Dublin's smallest pub. Capacity: 25 

Oscar Wilde statue

Ha'penney Bridge

Kilmainham Jail

The Spire or "Stiffy By The Liffey"

Aviva Stadium

Also, we came across the amusing trend of heels on electrical wires!

The city is surrounded by beautiful Georgian buildings and parks it is definitely worth a tour to see everything!

We ended the day with some Retail Therapy and a few drinks to bring in my birthday!

Day 3:

It's our last day in Dublin, (boohoo!!) but it's my birthday, 21 to be exact yaaaay! Yesterday we were informed that every first Wednesday of each month access to Dublin Castle and Kilmainham Jail is completely free saving at least 20 Euro so it is well worth knowing about so obviously today we took advantage of it and went to Dublin Castle which was right down the road from us. I recommend having a Guided Tour as apposed to a Self-Guided because you also get access to the remains of the Gun Powder Tower, the Records Tower and the chapel which is pretty amazing to see. Then you see the inside of the castle with the multiple rooms, absolutely majestic.

We then came back to my hotel and there was a bottle of Presecco delivered to my room, how cute of them! But we decided to save it until after we went to dinner with my two Irish friends Soph and Megan who I haven't seen in almost 5 years. It was so lovely to have a catch-up and eat Eddie Rockets (Irish version of Ed's Easy Diner) and boy it was goooood! Then we went for a wander to Grafton Street and Stephen's Green Shopping Centre which looks incredible.

I can't do a post without mentioning Twitter so I'd like to thank everyone for their birthday messages and my favourite part is the balloons that come up on my profile, so adorable!

And that's about it. I know this is a bit lengthy so thank you for sticking through this post, and thank you for taking the time to read all my posts. So happy. Here's to the rest of my 2016!! 

Love you lots

Katie x

Road To Fitness; Day 1 to 5

Hello, loves.

So this is a little different post I know but I wanted to test this out to see if this type of thing would be popular and fun to write. I'm in no way fit or even entertaining but a little daily diary account of my progession might help boost me slightly. 

Day 1
Good morning, I've been up since 7am. It's my day off am i crazy?  People say exercising early, keeps you energised for the rest of the day and also it's out of the way without thinking about it. So, today is my first attempt at Charlotte Crosby's 3 Minute Belly Blitz and to cut out the crap, wish me luck!

Wow .. I underestimated how tough this was going to be, out of breath at the warm-up and heavily sweating after 2 or 3 rounds. Man, my stamina is dreadful! It's high intensity training so 12 rounds of 3 minute workouts but let me tell you, something is working, I feel every muscle tensing with every move. Something tells me I'm going to be in paaaain tomorrow! But I did enjoy it far more than expected, because it's different you're not stuck learning a routine for 3 hours. I'll definitely be continuing!

Food Of The Day:
Breakfast: Weetabix, milk and an orange.
Lunch: M&S Prawn Layer Salad, Count On Us Salt and Malt Vinegar and a banana.
Dinner: Sausage, Mash and Beans.
Snacks: 2x Oatcakes, 4x Ginger Snaps.

Day 2
So, I have the pleasure of my mother watching me workout today and I'm not sure if it encouraged me or not. However, it did almost inspire her to join in, obviously from the comfort of her own sofa, but working out together surely will boost my motivation right?
I had a break at the beginning today, to be fair my leg and stomach muscles were aching and I've discovered how weak my ankles really are when doing the more difficult moves but I hope this means it's working.

Food Of The Day:
Breakfast: Scrambled Egg On Toast
Lunch: M&S Tuna sweetcorn Pasta Salad, Banana
Snack: Galaxy Ripple {come on I needed a chocolate fix to get through my shift}

Day 3
I am suffering, like seriously bad. My legs and stomach and arms are achy, are like jelly and I'm very annoyed with myself that I couldn't do the workout as well. I was stopping and starting, I did it half-hearted ugh. I'm feeling cheat day to recover. 

On the bright side I got my Euros for my trip to Dublin today aaah only 5 Days!!

Food Of The Day:
Breakfast: Weetabix with milk
Lunch: Iceland Chicken and Bacon Pasta
Dinner: Fish and Chips

Day 4
I'm up and thankfully so much more energised and ready for this workout. I got warm so quickly today but other than water breaks whilst explaining each round I didn't stop! I battled through it all. My ankles are still super weak but I felt so chuffed with myself like my stamina is improving so it must be working and I even tried the dreaded surf press-up. (If you have this dvd you know what I mean) I can't wait to do it again tomorrow, I'm on such a high. I sound so silly wow.

Food Of The Day:
Breakfast: Weetabix with milk
Lunch: M&S Prawn Layer Salad, Count On Us Salt and Vinegar Crisp, Count On Us Chocolate Mousse
Snacks: 4 x Oatcakes, 2 x mini flapjack bites 

Day 5
I am feeling tired. I think it may all be catching up with me but this is my final day of workout until after my birthday and I wanted to do well. I got shattered quite quickly but then afterwards I was okay, I wasn't 100% like yesterday but I am starting to feel better about myself and that's what this is all about for me and it's worth the exhaustion and achyness! It's really bothering me that my ankles are the main thing hindering me though else I'd be able to keep up perfectly I think. So I need to find a solution to this.

Breakfast: Weetabix with milk
Lunch: Iceland Chicken and Bacon Pasta
Dinner/Supper: Chicken and Spiced Potatoes

Snacks: Banana, Count On Us Chocolate Mousse.

I'm going on hiatus from this workout and from blogging as I'm going to Dublin on Monday to celebrate my 21st (it's on Wednesday!) but when I'm back I hope to do a post all about my trip, I'm so so excited! Then of course back to the workout and healthy eating.

Love you loads.

Katie x

Time For Some Fitspiration

I honestly applaud people who can genuinely just get up on the 1st of January and have the motivation to lose weight and detox their body from Christmas. For me, it's not that easy. I mean c'mon, how can you suddenly start eating healthy when there's still a dozen leftovers like selection boxes and Quality Street tins laying about waiting to be eaten?? But it's coming to the end of January and there is no yummy indulgent distractions left so now really is the perfect time to feel better about myself.

I must admit it is pretty difficult for me to eat normally as I work evenings so I have to eat my meals before 4pm and I work weekends until 8pm but I'm determined to work out something that will actually help me. It's not as such losing weight, I'm a size 10/12 but I haven't exercised properly for a long time since I stopped dancing so it's more about toning up and feeling confident. Also, I feel sluggish, have zero energy alot of the time and my digestive system has really been giving me grief lately. So it's time for a change and a detox so i feel healthier as well as look better.

I picked up a few glossy mags and went onto Womens Fitness website to give me an idea of where to start and these are a few tips I've picked up to help get me going that may be useful to you too;

- You should drink at least 8 glasses of water a day to hydrate your body's cells. This will prevent bloating and even improve your skin health. Also if you drink water before or after a meal it speeds up your metabolism.

- Take a probiotic supplement to help your digestive system. Of course this is completely optional but I think my body is telling me I need some kind of TLC.

- So apparently lemon and ginger are natural weight loss aids that also speed up your metabolism, take care of your stomach and claims to be the ultimate weight loss booster.

- I've got my hands on Charlotte Crosby's 3 Minute Belly Blitz. Hopefully this will be the exercise motivation I need as gyms terrify me!!

- If you are feeling peckish, snack on some pistachio nuts, apparently they are full of protein and healthy fats that prevent you from that sudden urge to binge eat!

- Reading every single "LOOK AT ME NOW" article there is a running trend of poached eggs, porridge, salmon, chicken and green veg in their daily intake. These are definitely the staple buys I will be purchasing.

- If all else fails; get a tan! Just because the weather is rubbish doesn't mean you can't glow. It actually makes you look slimmer but also feel that extra bit confident instead of being that miserable milk bottle in the corner.

I'm starting off small, and not expecting incredible results but I think by actually blogging about this will give me the motivation to succeed and maybe even write down what I eat daily. I found when I did Weight Watchers actually writing down my meals helped me keep track and by writing it publically obviously I don't want to put down that I ate a whole chocolate cake so it gives me the mindset to be good and eat sensibly.

Just a small catch though, I probably won't start this full-on until I'm back from Dublin after my birthday so if you do see me on Twitter or Instagram eating that chocolate cake, please don't yell at me!!

Lots of love

Katie x

Online Friends.

Hello m'loves.

So, this post today is something very close to my heart aswell as i'm sure thousands of you out there; Online Friends.

Who remembers when they were younger before "proper" social media was invented we were taught not to talk to strangers, not to speak to anyone you don't know online etc. (although i must admit the awful days of "chat rooms" there were a few, lets say "interesting" individuals you came across.) but like everything technology has evolved! Facebook was invented to reconnect with your friends and family but the Holy Grail that is Twitter was basically created to interact with people you didn't know.

Think about it, Celebrities and aspiring musicians/artists/actors etc use Twitter as their primary source of gaining new fans to grow their following and success. To be honest, it's quite impossible to even remember life before it. How did we find out the latest gossip so fast? What did we use to vent? How did we know about events etc? It's very scary how pretty much everyone on this planet relies on the internet nowadays. And of course, by following your favourite people you're going to interact with other new strangers who share your interest from all over the world. For something potentially so dangerous, it's actually pretty amazing. 

Over the years I have been lucky enough to find friends across the globe from when i was a fan of The Wanted {y'know the other boyband that wasn't One Direction .. Glad You Came?} well with their growing success came growing fans and I was in this little bubble with so many my age who wouldn't judge me unlike my "real life" friends and we would gossip, laugh, cry together until the early hours of the morning, gushing about our love. 

Honestly, when I first got Twitter I never expected to be able to grow such a deep connection with someone over a computer and I have had many friends that have come and gone but each time was truly special and if you had the opportunity to meet, it would be the most emotional time you could experience. Thanks to everyone I've met online, I've had the chance to travel some of England, Ireland and Wales. I've gained experience and memories so to those who frown upon it, those who constantly undermined me and judged me for liking "a poxy band" it was the best decision of my life.

And here I am today. I may not be crazy over a boyband anymore or in any kind of fandom but at almost 21, I'm still meeting and befriending people everyday. With different lifestyles, different backgrounds it's so fascinating to me and right now I have Dublin to look forward to where I will see Soph who I met in 2011, I'm going on adventures with Charlotte {who lives near me BUT WE MET ON TWITTER} and my two current closest friends Jay and Sam who I met online, and we are all uncomfortably close to the point we share everything. 

And even more exciting news; I GOT TO MEET JAY YESTERDAY.

 

Never underestimate the power of the internet.

My word of advice is; Speak to Strangers! (But obviously be aware of creepy people lurking around.)

Love you all lots!

P.s. My photoshop is back up and running so I'm playing around with header ideas for each post, what do you think?

Katie x

REVIEW: Younique Moodstruck 3D Fiber Lashes +

Today is going to be a beauty rave my loves since I haven't done one in a long time.

Have you ever wanted long lashes but absolutely loathe applying fake lashes? Then I highly recommend this product.

Younique Moodstruck 3D Fiber Lashes + claims it increases your lashes by up to 400% with its micro-fibers and it couldn't be more true.

See I was lucky enough to be blessed with long lashes anyway so I was a bit sceptical as to whether it would be any good for me but it really does give that false lash effect and volumises amazingly. 

AND it's so easy to use;

First you apply your normal every day mascara onto your lashes, then you coat on the Transplanting Gel and then apply the 3D micro fibers straight away to create that lengthy look. It can be a messy job and you can repeat this step however many times you desire but just get a clean mascara brush and comb your lashes to remove the excess and seperate your lashes.

It originally is a bit on the pricey side if you purchase from the Younique website for £23 but you can get it for an absolute bargain price from £4.99 (sometimes cheaper if you bid!) on Ebay and it's the actual legitimate product.

If that doesn't persuade you, what will?

Katie x