Lazy Sunday

So I have now got a lot more free time on my hands to do things I want. I thought I would do a post on a few of my favourite books, TV shows, YouTube channels etc. As the British weather has been so lovely recently (lets hope it lasts!) I have been doing a lot of reading outside while enjoying the sun. While starting my A2's.

Books
The Island by Victoria Hislop
This book is so beautifully written, it is about a young girl who lives in England and knows that she has Greek relatives, but doesn't know anything about them. So she goes to Greece to discover her mums past and finds out that there is a leper colony called Spingalonga off where her mum used to live. She discovers all about her families history with the colony and thee stigma that leprosy had at the time. It sounds very serious, which it is but it is actually kind of a love story and it is quite easy to read.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
I am not that far into this book as I have only just started it but so far I am gripped with the story, it is about a young girl who's parents have died so she goes to live with her uncle and his family. She is picked on by one of her cousins who hits her and throws books at her head until one day she fights back and knocks him down, as her punishment she is sent to the red room where her father died. She faints and hallucinates that she sees his ghost. I am currently reading this for my English Literature A2, but I think it is one of those classics that still has some importance today.

YouTube
Beauty- Essie Button
I am actually obsessed with her channel she does review on products, make up looks, her daily routines and my personal favourites her brand focus videos. She really draws you in so you feel like you are watching a friend and so many of my purchases have been inspired by things she has reviewed. She is just one of those YouTubers that you watch and want everything she talks about.

Vlogs- Essie Button Vlogs
Okay I guess you can see kind of a them here! Anyway Essie has been vlogging nearly everyday in June, she calls it Vlune. I really enjoy at the end of the day sitting down to watch her Aslan and Reggie's adventures and what they have been doing that day. Basically I am just really nosey and enjoy seeing what other people do in the day.

Random- Matthew Santoro
Everyone will know one of those people who has loads of random facts that the just blurt out at the strangest of moments, well that it me! I just really like knowing weird things that other people may not know. Anyway if you are like me you will love this guy. My favourite video is his 10 freakiest coincidences in history watch it your mind will be blown I promise you!

TV/ films
Never Been Kissed
This film is just one of those classics that I can't stop watching, I genuinely watch it at least once a week with out fail! Drew Barrymore is so fantastic in it and it is just so funny and heart-warming at the same time.

Warm Bodies
I watched this with my friends on my best friends birthday, and it was really funny. Afterwards me and Eleanor were like we want Zombie Nicholas Hoult to be our boyfriend. That sounds really strange, but you just have to watch it.

Game of Thrones
Oh the old classic I started watching this after my friend Izzy told me I had to. It is not usually a programme I would go for because of the gore. It is so gripping and I look forward to it every Monday.

Lots of Love
Harriet xxxx

Celebration make up

So today I finally finished my AS level exams (whoop whoop!), and I decided to do a kind of celebratory make up look as I haven't been wearing any make up for the last 4 weeks while I have been on study leave. This is my go to "glamorous" look that I do when I need to look nice yet have not very much time, the most time consuming thing for me is my eye shadow as I take forever to blend it, so this is an eye shadow free look. So with this look the bold lips do all the talking (ha get it!). 

Face
L'Oreal Lumi Magique foundation in Rose Pearl. I have a love hate relationship with this foundation as some days I put it on and I am like "Why don't I use this all the time I love it", then on other days I will put it on and it wont sit right or it will go all patchy round my nose. I think the trick is to spend a bit more time buffing it into the skin to making sure it stays looking good, to do this I use my ever trusty Real Techniques Expert Face Brush. I would say this foundation has a medium coverage, and is best left with as minimal powder on a possible so that the dewy finish isn't lost. 

L'Oreal The Touche Magique True Match concealer. I use this under my eyes and down the bridge of my nose to highlight and cover redness.

Sleek Face Form Palette in Light. I use this to contour and bronze up my face, so it gives the illusion that I have been  in the sun when actually I have been stuck inside revising. 

MAC mineralise skin finish in Adored. This is from the Tropical Taboo collection that MAC brought out last year, I use it for a highlight on the tops of my cheek bones so if you were going to duplicate this look any mineralise skin finish would do as MAC are bringing them out all the time. Another one I like is Soft and Gentle from MAC. 

Rimmel Stay Matte Powder in Peach Glow. I used this to set my make up so it stays in place. 

Eyes
L'Oreal Telescopic mascara. I am not too struck on this mascara I think its good, but its nothing like my favourite MAC extended play lash mascara. I thought it may be similar to it, but its not really (the search for a dupe continues).

Rimmel Scandal Eyes eye liner in Nude. This eye liner is so soft and works for an instant eye refresher when maybe you haven't had the best night sleep. I put it all over my bottom water line.

Avon Grey eyeliner. I use this to tight line my eyes to make my lashes look thicker. 

Lips
I used my favourite ever red which is RiRi Woo from MAC and it is a retro matte formula. I know this one was limited edition, but I have heard that it is very similar to Ruby Woo also by MAC. I also thought I would include a Revlon Lip Butter in Candy Apple just if you want a red lip that can be worn sheer, and has more of a shine to it. 

If you guys have finished your exam I hope they all went well, and if you are still doing them GOOD LUCK! 

Lots of Love 
Harriet xxxx

Outfit post, One Direction concert

Well this is uncharted territory! I have never done an outfit post before. Mainly because I don't really see myself as fashionable or "stylish", but I thought that I would give it a go. This is the outfit I am wearing to go see One Direction! I am so excited. Now I know that they are not every ones cup of tea, but personally I love them, plus Five Seconds of Summer are opening for them and I have been obsessed with them since I first heard the song "heartbreak girl" about a year ago. I have been to see them before with my friends and I promised my little sister that I would take her next time they were doing a concert. 

I wanted something that would be kind of dressy yet comfy to travel in, so I am wearing my patterned trousers from Dorothy Perkins which are so soft I feel like I am wearing pyjamas! My top is from New Look and was originally £14.99 but when we got to the till it was £5 off, don't you just love it when that happens. Also as my converse are completely wrecked after me  having them for 5 years so I am wearing my new Superga trainers which are insanely white so I think I am going to have to dirty them up a bit. I really like Superga trainers as I have quite wide feet and my little toe can sometimes rub on the side of converse (which if you know what I mean if one of the most painful places to get blisters), but I don't have that problem with these as I feel that they are quite wide.

As for my hair and make up, I just french plaited my hair and did my make up the same as I did in this post. 

All of these items were purchased recently so they should still be in the shops. I think I may start doing a few more outfit posts, what do you think?

Lots of love 

Harriet xxx 

How to waterfall braid

I love learning new hair styles and trying them out on people. I have been seeing this hair style cropping up everywhere and I think it looks so beautiful! It is actually quite simple to do as well. It would be great for weddings, proms, parties, festivals and just about any event you can think off. It works best on second or third day hair as this gives the hair texture and helps keep the braid in place.

I have not yet mastered it on myself, so I have been doing this hair style on my little sister. 
First brush the hair through, I use a Tangle Teezer as it helps with knots. Then I sprayed it with Tony and Guy sea salt spray to add even more texture. 

Then starting at the temple start with three pieces of hair, then do a normal plait towards you until it is about an inch long ( this depends on how long your hair is, my sister has a lot of hair do if yours is shorter maybe do it a few centimetres long)

Then drop the piece of the far right, and from underneath pick up another strip of hair to replace the one you drop.

Add a small strip of hair to the piece on the far left and then do the plait as normal crossing the sections until the piece on the far left is on the far right. 

Then drop this and repeat the steps.

When you get the the bottom of the hair you can either plait it normally or go all the way across your head. 

I hope these instructions are easy to follow, and that you enjoy this post. 

Lots of love 

Harriet xxxx

Baking for people who can't bake:Granola bars

Hello so as you can tell from the title of this post I will be attempting to do some baking, stress the word attempting. I have always loved the idea of being a good cook, but lets just say after various fails I just gave up on the idea. Having said that these Granola Bars are so easy to make I bet my dog could make them!

The ingredients you will need are:
225g of porridge oats
75g of black treacle
75g of soft brown sugar
2 table spoons of peanut butter

150g of butter
and a handful of what ever fruits or nuts you want to add, as I have an intense hatred of dead fruit I added brazil nuts and macadamia nuts.

1. First pre heat the oven to 180C Gas mark 5.
2. Then grease a baking tray with butter, just so they don't stick too much.
3. Melt the butter, sugar, treacle in a pan making sure you don't let the mixture boil or the sugar burn, I recommend a low heat for this!
4. Then stir in the oats and the fruit or nuts of  your choice.
5. The add the peanut butter.
6. Stir until it is all combined.
7. Press into a baking tray until it is at the desired thickness, I didn't cover my whole tray as I wanted them to be quite thick.
8. Then bake for 25 min.
9. Wait for them to cool and then cut them up into bars or squares or whatever shape your heart desires.
10. Enjoy!

Another great thing about this recipe is there is minimal washing up! See I really have thought about it.

See that wasn't so difficult, I hope you enjoy them!
Lots of love
Harriet xxxx

Sleek au naturel palette

I am just going to hold my hands up and say that I Harriet am addicted to neutral eye shadows. I can't help it! It's like a comfort blanket, you know that you will look good in them and not end up walking out the house looking like a weird rainbow. I have tried experimenting with different colours, but I get as far as my front door the rush up stairs to take them off. So surprise surprise here is another neutral eye shadow review.... 

This is the Sleek i-Divine au naturel palette. It's just so beautiful! Now this palette retails at £7.99 which isn't bad considering that you get 12 eye shadows! What I will say is that pigmentation isn't that consistent across all of the eye shadows, but having said that I am yet to find a high street eye shadow palette that doesn't have at least one dud. All of the colours are wearable and last really well through the day. Trust me I was scrubbing my arm trying the get the swatches off. I also found that they didn't crease to badly, I saw the first signs of creasing at around 4 hours wear which isn't to bad as I have notoriously oily peepers! 

They are very buttery and smooth which makes them easy to blend. I think it would be really good for taking on holiday as it is thin and you have all the colours you need. You also don't have to think about which colours go well together as they all compliment each other. Something else which I like and think is quite rare from the high street is that this palette actually contains some decent mattes, which is always a bonus in my books. The packaging is not the best, I won't lie. It is like most sleek packaging it is matte black and shows up finger prints, dust and dirt. This is something that really irritates me, but for £7.99 I won't really complain. 

Over all its a good little palette. The colours are all stunning, but none of them really blew me away! 

What do you think?

Lots of love

Harriet

xxxx

Beach Toes Nail Varnish

Hello,
I just want to do a disclaimer before I start this post, I am not being sponsored by the company to talk about this product it was purchased with my own money. Also I am not a chemist, so if I have missed bits out I am really sorry.

Phew now that that's over you must be wondering what the heck this post is going to be about. You know how it with nail polish you are always slightly cautious until you try them out. You have those questions running through your head "will it go opaque?", "will it last" or "will I put the colour on my nails and look like a corpse" this are all very important questions I ask myself when buying a nail polish.

The brand is an Australian brand called "Beach Toes"  by "Sambora" (even though I assure you it is not just reserved for your toes). The range of colours were actually out of this world they have metallic ones, pastels, neons, shimmery ones and basically every colour under the sun. Also they all have cute names which sometimes is the selling point of a nail varnish for me (Oh the shame).

I picked up a gorgeous red with gold/red flecks of glitter running through it called "Devilish Intent". Think Dorothy's ruby red slippers in a bottle. It cost £9.50.  I was intrigued by what the lady said about them so I did some research.

The ethos for the brand is that it is a Australian cosmetic brand that makes UV stabilised nail polishes that are formulated for intense beach activity e.g. surfing. On Kosmetic Kaleidoscope I take claims like that very seriously so I decided to road test it. I spend a day running my hands through the sand, scuffing my toes and I can say that no chips what so ever! The formulation is also pretty good as it went fully opaques in two coats. The bottle is nothing spectacular, but I can look past that!

Here is the bit that really intrigued me on the website it said they are toluene, DBP, camphor, formaldehyde and formaldehyde resin free. Now having not done chemistry since year 10 I had no clue what any of these words meant.
so hear is what I found out...

Toluene-is a water insoluble liquid with a smell of paint thinners that can if inhaled has the potential to cause severe neurological harm.1
DBP-The use of this in cosmetics e.g. nail polishes has been banned in the European Union. 2
Formaldehyde- Has been described as being a human carcinogen and exposure is a significant consideration for human health.3               
This really got me thinking, now I am not saying throw away all your nail varnishes, but what I think I am going to do is paint my nails less and do it in a well ventilated area. I have been seriously impressed with these nail varnishes and I can actually go as far as saying it is the best nail varnish I have every tried and I can't wait to get more!

If you have any other non-toxic nail varnish recommendations I would love to hear them!
Lots of Love
Harriet xxx

1  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toluene
2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dibutyl_phthalate
3 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formaldehyde
Link to the Sambora website http://www.sambora.com.au/about.html