Chanel Couture SS14 Make up | Tutorial

I've had this idea in my drafts for a while now and decided to actually do a post on it finally. I loved the make up from the Chanel Couture SS14 show, so pretty and quite wearable if you don't mind glitter! I think this would be quite good night out make up, although the glitter is quite a hassle to remove afterwards.

Source

The overall look is very much centered on the eyes, the skin is made to look perfect and matte, with well groomed brows, and as far as I can tell nothing on the lips. I did the eyes first then followed with my normal foundation routine, as you do get quite a lot of glitter fall out with this look.

MAC Fluidline liner in backtrack, DUO false eyelash glue, Accessorize eye glitter

The liner they used on the models is fairly matte black so I went for a gel eyeliner instead of a liquid, you will also need eyelash glue to stick on the glitter and a glitter (they used a chunkier glitter at the show though) suitable for use around the eyes - check the label!

1) Apply a fairly thick line of eyeliner right into the corner of the eye, the flick doesn't need to be too sharp
2) Using a cotton bud dab a line of eyelash glue under the eye, meeting the eyeliner flick
3) Wait for the glue to begin to clear and go tacky, then dab on the glitter using a cotton bud

And finished! THis look is pretty quick and easy to do, you could even substitute different glitter colours to switch things up a bit. Have you guys noticed any fun beauty looks coming off the catwalks recently? xx

L'Oreal False Lash Flutter Mascara | Review

I received this mascara for Christmas, and in my opinion it's pretty good. I had been using the Volume Million Lashes mascara, which although gives more volume than the False Lash Flutter Mascara, I always found flaked towards the end of the day, which False Lash Flutter doesn't.



The wand is also pretty interesting, it has a flared shape (not sure how to describe this), with two rows of longer bristles which are really good at combing through the lashes, and especially catching the outer lashes to give the mascara's namesake 'butterfly effect' lashes. The longer flared bristles don't continue the whole way round the wand though, and there are short stubbly ones that are easier to use when coating the bottom lashes.

Without - one coat - two coats

As you can see I have barely visible lashes, as even though I'm naturally a medium brunette my lashes and eyebrows probably fall into the category of a blonde, so this mascara definitely does the job of opening up my eyes and proving I do ACTUALLY have eyelashes.



This holds up pretty well during the day, no flaking and I haven't noticed any smudging due to being lightly rained on (and it rains a lot in Manchester). 

Top: sans mascara - Bottom: two coats, and right eye used Shu Uemura eyelash curler before application

This mascara doesn't have huge volumising and curling effects on the lashes, but if you use good lash curlers before the applying it (or after, you will get a more noticeable effect but this isn't good for your eyelashes) you will get a more noticeable curl.

In Summary:

Pros: No smudging or flaking, good lengthening, combs through lashes well and little to no clumping
Cons: Not brilliant in terms of volumising and curling, slightly on the pricier end (£10.99)

Overall I would really recommend this mascara, perf as usual from L'Oreal! Quite tempted to try the Miss Manga one next, but have read pretty mixed reviews. What's your favourite mascara? xx

FOTD #25 | Sleek ultra bright mattes palette, sequins and lashes

(End of the night I am tired face)

Sleek contour palette, MAC blot powder, Clinique oil free make up, Bobbi Brown colour corrector, MAC Matte, MAC select moisture cover concealer

Shu Uemura eyelash curlers, Urban Decay primer potion, Accessorize 'with love' palette, Sleek ultra bright mattes palette, MAC Liquidlast, Duo eyelash glue, HD Brows palette, L'oreal false lash flutter effect mascara, Eyelure Girls Aloud Kimberley lashes

Wore this look to go out last Friday, stupidly only got good iphone pics of my make up as was in a massive rush to go to my friend's house and pre drink. Note to self: take pictures of make up BEFORE going out. Anyways, I decided to get more use out of my Sleek ultra bright mattes and use the pinks, which are both very similar in shade. I used the pink shade all over the lid and lash line, and ran a line of the metallic silver from my Accessorize 'with love' palette across the socket. Sorry the Accessorize palette is so dirty, I use it the whole time as my go to palette for nights out, the colours are perfect for a dramatic black and silver eye. Also I am loving my Sleek contour palette, I don't notice a huge difference in person but in pictures of me after using I definitely see that it works to define the cheekbones, narrow the nose etc. Would recommend! xx

The faster the world spins, the shorter the lights will glow | Outfit ft.Freak of Nature and Rings & Tings

Jumper - Freak of Nature via ASOS

Leggings - Topshop

Bangle - c/o Rings&Tings

Earrings - c/o Rings&Tings

Freak of Nature is one of my favourite brands I've recently discovered, both Topshop and ASOS stock it and I literally want everything they produce. A black patent PVC skater dress doesn't necessarily have the most 'everyday wear' look to it but I desperately want one. Anyways I settled for this jumper as a more casual item, I love the punk inspired safety pin print and it's just the right balance of warm yet light material wise for the transitional winter/spring period we're going through. Also how cute are the earrings and bangle from Rings&Tings? Everything on their site is cheap to very reasonably priced, and I think they may use the same stockist as Topshop for jewellery as I've spotted this necklace in Toppers for about £20, but Rings&Tings have it for £6.50. Bargain alert! xx

Romwe prints/patterns | Wishlist

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I haven't bought anything from Romwe since I bought one of their Black Milk dupe galaxy dresses a while back (see here), but I went on their site again recently and there's soo many wishlist-worthy things I had to share. In my opinion their forte is the sheer amount of prints they offer, especially right now they have loads of cute bodycon two pieces sets in, in pizza and galaxy prints for example - so cute! My fav things on the list are the birth of venus sweatshirt and the daisy edged shorts, can see those being perfect for summer. xx

FOTD #24 | Coral lips and crown/halo braid

Eyes: MAC Liquidlast, L'Oreal False Lash Flutter mascara, HD Brows Palette

Face: Clinique Stay-matte oil free make up, Benefit The Porefessional, MAC Matte, MAC select moisturecover concealer, MAC pressed blot powder

Lips: Topshop lips in Ohh La La

This was one of those days were I got up in sufficient time do actually do my liquid eyeliner before uni. However in these pics it looks like I did my cat eye flick terribly, ya know when your eyeliner looks okay but when you look up or smile it looks off? Meh - one of those I think. Anyway I love this lipstick, it's Ohh La La by Topshop, it looks neon orange depending on the light - but it looks quite coral here. You can also dab it on lightly for a coral stain effect. I am loving the crown/halo braid trend going round atm, if you have a lot of hair it's such a cute way to get your hair out of your face, I imagine it'll be super popular in summer too. I probably won't bother with a tutorial on le blog but have a google if you want to know how to do it, there are plenty around! Essentially it's just plaiting your hair like Wednesday Adams and then using kirby grips to pin them to your head - simples. xx

The sky is falling | Outfit

Shirt - Forever 21

T-shirt - Zara

Choker - eBay

Beanie - Primark

Hey guys! Another quickie uni outfit, although I quite like how this one turned out. This is my one and only clothing purchase from Forever 21 and I'm in love with throwing it over everything. The skirt and coat are both cheapie purchases from off brand shops in the Arndale in Manchester, I believe they were both a fiver? A friend actually mistook the coat for a topshop buy when I first bought it, definitely a good compliment for something I got so cheap! This week I've been working on a load of presentations for uni, one is pretty interesting though and involves relating Japanese street styles back to gender equality issues (i.e me spending many hours googling pictures of kogyaru and making cute power points of them). By the way, I've finally got round to publishing my blog's facebook page, so if you have a moment please give it a like HERE. xx

Dinner at Australasia Manchester

For the bf and my anniversary we went to Australasia for dinner and omg it was amazing. I totally recommend the place, but be warned it is not for the student budget! Our bank accounts didn't thank us but our stomachs definitely did - the food is absolutely insane.

The waiter came over and grated us some fresh wasabi / my heavenly pork belly with pineapple curry main

You can either choose to order the standard way: starter, main, dessert or or you can order lots of small dishes. As you might have guessed from the restaurant name, the food served there is based on traditional food from the countries in Australasia. There are lot of really interesting dishes to choose from, especially the huge array of sushi.

Having only tried Yo Sushi/Supermarket sushi before this was the best stuff I'd ever had. My bf had sashimi as his starter and it was incredible, you only get a few pieces but it was imported from some Loch Duart Scotland and amazingly fresh tasting. I opted for the smoked duck dragon roll which was uber yummy, and also had cottage cheese in the very middle which I thought was a bit unusual for sushi? The only problem I had was the chopstick etiquette as the dragon rolls were so big, did try and eat one whole but fyi not an attractive look.

We ended up going for a starter and a main, we were tempted by puddings as well but as I mentioned before, not on a student budget haha. I went for the pork belly and pineapple curry (didn't manage to get a good photo of it though, but see the first pic for the pork) and it was incredible. I may have mentioned before that my family used to breed rare breed pigs so I am used to really good pork (from uber happy pigs) at home, however I think the pork I had at Australasia was the best I've ever had. I only wish I had more of it!

The bf had something way more adventurous than me, I just had to look up the menu to get the full title of it for you guys: 'roasted monkfish with razor clams, chorizo and squid'. And no, I have no idea what those bubbly/foamy bits are but according to him they were tasty bubbles so that's all that matters. Also the black streak on the plate? Not part of the plate, but actually squid ink! Very exciting.

Bag - Primark

Dress - Topshop

Necklace - c/o Rings&Tings

What I wore above, on reflection probably not the best idea to wear clear tights when the rest of me is so pale but didn't want to risk bare legs when it's not quite spring yet. In summary I would definitely recommend visiting Australasia if the occasion calls for a fancy meal, it's in a really nice area of Manchester and right outside Armarni, was lovely to feel glam and unstudenty for the night! Btw this post is not sponsored, I wish ha xx

P.S Bf took most of the photos, he wanted to be credited haha

Nailed it | Solar Eclipse mani and holographic nail decals

Black random halloween fancy dress polish

Models Own x Wah Nails white nail art pen

Topshop Decals

Sally Hansen bottom + top coat

A quick nail post! I'm getting really into the outlining of the nail style but it's so hard to do on yourself! Might try it out on some fake nails when I go back home for easter, which is where most of my nail stash lives. I picked up these nail decals from the accessories sale section in Topshop, how cute are they? I did start out using the moons for this mani but it just ended up looking too overbearing. I quite like the simplicity of this style though, if you don't have any circular decals you could always use a dotting tool/end of a kirby grip to dot a blob of metallic nail polish in the centre of the nail instead. xx

Twisted Transistor | Outfit ft. SammyDress

Shirt - c/o SammyDress

Skirt - Zara

Wore this to uni today, actually could have my coat buttons undone most of the journey there it's so warm in Manchester! There were actually highs of 16 degrees here yesterday, crazy. Although I'm not getting my hopes up as this may be the extent of summer in Manchester this year. Anyways SammyDress very kindly sent me this cute shirt, I got it in a Medium which I reckon is about a size 10, it stretches over the boobs a bit but I have that problem with most shirts and blouses (#bigboobproblems). I absolutely love the wine red colour, I have a wine red snood too some prepare for some matchy matchyness in future outfit posts xx

Hurry-up-student-loan | Wishlist

Topshop shirt // £30

Sheinside cat shirt // $19.25

Missguided trousers // £21.99

Boohoo lace slip dress // £15

L'oreal Extraordinary Oil // £9.99

MAC Heroine // £15

Some things I've been bookmarking recently. I saw the Sheinside t-shirt on someone's blog and obvs if something has sailor moon influences I'll want to buy it! Plus recently my friend straightened my hair for me and used the L'oreal Extraordinary oil in it before styling and OMG  the difference is amazing. Post-hairdressesr worthy hair, and a lot cheaper than Moroccan Oil too! Have you got any things high up your to buy wishlist at the moment? xx

I think I'm paranoid | Outfit

Denim jacket - charity shop

Top - New Look

Velvet leggings - ASOS

Snood - Primark

Boots - Office

Do you ever start taking outfit pictures and look at them afterwards like 'jesus christ well I'm never going to be a model'. This was one those kinda outfit posts. Honestly I am so bad at posing, I don't know how models do it! I either seem to get the 'slightly bemused at the sight of the camera' or 'just taken a taser to the bottom' or 'I don't know what to do with my hands look', sometimes all three at once. Oh well! #bloggerproblems xx

What I've been up to | Instagram #2

New choker / mini lippy haul / claw ring mani / selfie 1 / selfie 2 (totally don't take that many I swear) / end of exams celebratory wine with housemates / glittery accent naul / Yo! Roll / Cucumber maki / post-sushi plate stack / Dorayaki (this stuff is amazing) / how to properly wear a necklace

Nandos for housemate's bday / Valentine's day dinner / chinese takeaway feast / bestie's Topshop sock collection / Maccy Ds / Primark's cute sock selection / got a free mani in Topshop / pastel fountains in Manchester/s picadilly gardens / another selfie / Elly rocking my hello kitty headphones / Primark sock haul / Costa break

Instagram: liquoricepearls

Just a quick insta-update! I have a three day weekend as I have Fridays off uni so going to schedule some posts now, been super busy these past few weekends so this one is going to be quite relaxing in comparison! Going out to a nice restaurant to celebrate bf and my anniversary on Sunday so will take some photos then, prepare for the instagram overflow. My bank balance isn't going to thank me though, hurry up student loan plz. xx