Our Velocity

Top - Random shop in Manchester - Jeans - New Look - Boots - Office

Necklace - Primark - Earrings - Primark - Ear Cuff - Topshop

Hi guys! I got back from a quick trip to Italy yesterday, went out there to help out the family I work for with their children for a few days. Even after just 4 days I am exhausted, and covered in mosquito bites (16 in total) and because I was waking up at 7am everyday at the same time as the kids my sleep pattern has adjusted and now I wake up at that time naturally. So annoying! Anyway, I threw this on just to do some errands in my local town; encountered soo many bad pensioner drivers on the way there and had to emergency stop for a Jack Russell merrily walking into the middle of the road, blood pressure = through the roof. Spending the rest of today finishing a Japanese presentation and then tomorrow I'm off to a village dogshow which should be a hoot xx

FOTD #17 | Holographic Barbie

Lipstick - MAC Viva Glam Gaga

I also used some cheapie Primark falsies in this look, forgot to include them in the make up picture! Primark is definitely the place to go for falsies, as long as your eyelash glue is good (Duo is de best) it doesn't matter if the lashes themselves are cheap. For the eyeshadow I used MAC Stovepipe Black to draw a line in the eye socket then blended it thoroughly, I quite like the effect! xx

Blue Hair Inspiration

Recently I've been thinking of changing my hair colour, so I've been looking up some inspiration online. I think now I'm leaning towards a cornflower blue (i.e lilac hue) colour, although that will mean bleaching my hair again. We'll see! xx

MUA Power Pout in Irreplaceable + Lipsticks shade 5 and 2 | Review

After hearing a lot about MUA lipsticks (and the £1 price tag being fairly alluring) I picked up my first two plus a 'Power pout' the other day, here's what I thought!

Top to Bottom - Power Pout in Irreplaceable, Lipsticks in shade 5 and 2

This is a gorgeous medium plum colour with a slight shimmer running through it. I have a billion lipsticks in this plummy shade but this is still a welcome addition, glides on nicely and smells lovely :)

This has been my go to lip product recently, the actual product is a bit off centered in the tube which has left slight ridges in the balm as you can see above - but I'm guessing that's a one off. This power pout is such a gorgeous colour, easy to apply, glossy and seems to last for ages! The only problem I've encountered is that it does transfer easily, I've found some of it resting on my chin just beneath my bottom lip a few times - sexy.

I think I prefer this lipstick to shade 2, it's one of those lipsticks you can swipe on and not really think about it due to the colour being quite light. It's shot through with quite a lot of shimmer which really appeals to the 14 year old in me. I'm keeping this one in my handbag at the moment, it's so pretty!

Have you tried any MUA lip products or lipsticks? At £1 I'm quite keen to build my collection! xx

Applause

Top - Charity Shop - Skirt - Ebay - Bag - Primark - Shoes - ASOS

Mmmkay so I'm trying out a new outfit post layout here, what do you guys think? I feel like my blog has taken a detour into beauty blog territory when it originally started out as a style blog. I want to put more effort into the ~fashon~ side of it as I figure looking back in a year or so as to how my style has changed/evolved would be far more interesting than looking at foundation reviews.

I bought one of these asymetrical style skirts off Ebay and I'm starting to like it more once you get over the mind fuckery of shorts-at-the-back-skirt-at-the-front. These shoes are quickly becoming favs of mine too, the metal detailing on toe strap (and there is some of the inner heel to) is so cute! Plus I can drive in these, normally a shoe with any kind of heel (these are only 1 inchers though) I have to take off to drive in. Creepers especially are a no-no. 

Things to bring to University...that you might not think of

Hey guys I've had this post drafted for a while but as everyone is getting their results today I figured now is the right time to put it up! Hope everyone got into the uni they wanted, and if not don't worry about it. I did deferred entry and took a gap year - which gives you plenty of time to earn money in preparation for starting uni next September :)

Anyway here are some things which might not feature on the usual 'university packing lists' which I recommend bringing. 

• pasta
• rice
• chopped tomatoes
• sauce (pesto/tomato/curry)
• biscuits
• tea bags

Chances are on your first day of uni you'll be stressed from moving in and won't want to do the big first food shop that day. I really recommend visiting Costco if you can and buying multipacks of rice and pasta (you can get giant plastic jugs of rice, mine lasted me the whole first year), and maybe tinned chopped tomatoes and pesto too. 

These multipacks will save you money throughout the year and mean you have a meal to make your first night without going shopping. However if your parents are around, it is worthwhile to try and do the first food shop with them (so they can pay muahaha) as this can be expensive and your loan might not have come in yet. Also tea bags and biscuits are good ice breakers when getting to know new flatmates/hall mates. A cup of tea and a hob knob goes a long way. 

• door stop
• posters
• printer
• washing tabs/colour catchers
• flash spray bleach/dettol

If your room at home is covered in posters (or like me, your uni room was modelled on a Swedish women's prison and had gross breezeblock walls that needed to be covered), definitely bring posters, photos and blu tack to put on the walls. These will make your room more homey and can be a point of conversation. If you go to Tesco photo online and sign up they will give you 60 free prints, and so will a lot of other companies so look out for offers like these to get some free photos for your uni room walls.

I think a lot of people will warn against taking a printer to uni, but honestly I found mine very useful. You don't need an expensive one and unless your course demands pictures in your work you will be mainly printing in black and white. However I do recommend keeping it on the down low that you have a printer or people will constantly ask you to print things for them (although I exchanged printing things for doritos, so you can make this work for you). Having a printer also saves running round campus looking for a computer cluster when you have a deadline. 

A doorstop is useful during freshers as most student room doors are fire safety ones which shut automatically, and it looks more friendly to have your door open as new flatmates move in. Washing powder/liquid tabs are useful to get beforehand as they can get expensive. Also I recommend having some kind of bathroom/surface cleaning product if you have a sink in your room (like I did) or an en suite. I mainly recommend this as I dye my hair a lot and spray bleach was useful to get blue stains out the sink/off the desk. 

I hope this was useful to any potential freshers, please feel free to email me (liquoricepearls@gmail.com) or ask me a question on my tumblr HERE if you have any questions about starting uni. xx

Nailed It | Barry M Gelly + Confetti effect cupcake sprinkle mani

Barry M Gelly in Dragon and Confetti effects in Bubblegum

I am so enamoured with Barry M at the moment. The Gelly collection is amazing (and surprisingly chip resistant), and I picked up one of the confetti effect polishes the other day and they're just as good. Was expecting the confetti polish to be opaque from beauty blog swatches I'd seen but it acts more like a top coat (an interesting way to use it is just on top of bare nails). I paired it with the gelly polish in 'dragon' and it instantly reminded me of cupcake sprinkles. This mani also held up a 9-6 day childminding and only just began to gave way during scrabbling on the floor trying to pick up puzzle pieces. I have my eye on a vamp red they've just brought out too, maybe I need a white bikini to go with it a la del Rey? xx

Update #4 ♥

Sorry I haven't posted for so long/posting has been so sporadic! I have been mega busy recently (which is weird for me, I'm usually quite hermit-like during summer as I live so far out in the countryside). First of all I visited Manchester for a few days, then had friends over, then had my bf staying for a week, then was out with friends again. Luckily I did manage to collect some piccies so I thought I'd do one of those instagram type posts (except I don't have instagram, boo).

1) Night oot make up I forgot to take a good pic of / 2) New cheapie female protagonist games / 3) Working out who is the pastiest (me) / 4) Motel Rocks inspired mani / 5) Can't get enough of Barry M Gelly polishes / 6) My dog being seriously unamused

7) Gorgeous RI flapper style dress, covered in beading and soo heavy! / 8) Train selfie

8) Moar floral nails 9) Messing around with geometric nail art 10) Expanding said nail art 11) Mermaid nails

Right now I'm back to work this week but for now lazy pajama sunday = blogging day xx 

Feminism and Video Games

I thought I'd share with you guys an interesting YouTube series on the representation of women in video games by a channel called Feminist Frequency. The videos (especially the gaming series) are entertaining to watch as not only does the host of the videos provide critique of the gender roles reinforced through video games; but they're also full of clips from the games to illustrate the point and really well produced.

The tropes vs women in video games series specifically focuses on the damsel in distress stereotype, and has some really shocking statistics about how many games actually feature a female protagonist who isn't there as just a plot device to be captured and rescued by the male hero.

 You can see more of Feminist Frequency's videos HERE. I really recommend watching them, as they analyse pop culture from a feminist critical perspective. However as Anita says in the videos, there's nothing wrong with liking these games however it important to analyse what is problematic within them in the way they portray women and gender roles in general. Personally I'm bored of not being able to play as a female character on Black Ops.

To see more of my posts of my posts to do with feminist issues scroll down to my tags on the right hand side and click 'feminism' ^^ xx