Sunday 30 September 2012

September in Pictures

Hello Lovelies!

So it's now the last day of September, which can only mean one thing...month in pictures time! It's been a bit of a crazy old month with having to move back to Sheffield to start my third year of uni and I feel like I've spent the last two weeks of it with horrible freshers flu but that hasn't stopped me from having lots of fun times, some of which I thought I'd show you in my little monthly montage- 

reunited with my supas lovelies / cheeky MAC purchase / new uni room / sunday brunch / pre pop tarts shenanigans / new wall collage / face mask sexiness (lol) / the most exciting invitation possibly ever / box of skincare goodies 

I feel like I've been a bit out of touch with my blogging through the past couple of weeks of fun and freshers flu, but I'm off home for the week tomorrow to go and see Nickelback (yes I do sometimes listen to music sang by people who aren't One Direction) and to go to the Cosmo Blog Awards (far too exciting!) so I'll have the time to get back on track with it all, yay!

I hope you've all had a lovely month,
Love Meg
x
Wednesday 26 September 2012

Lust Haves and Must Haves: Eye makeup edition

Hello Lovelies!

I thought I'd mix this months lust haves and must haves post up a bit and have it eye make up themed as eye make up is one of those things that's nice to splurge on if you have the money or a good thing to save on if you're watching the old bank balance, so hopefully they'll be something for everyone here...

LUST HAVE- Urban Decay Eyeshadow Palette £35
MUST HAVE- MUA Undressed Palette £4


LUST HAVE- Bobbi Brown Gel Eyeliner £17
MUST HAVE- Collection Gel Liner £4.99



LUST HAVE- Benefit They're Real Mascara £18.50
MUST HAVE- Maybelline Falsies Mascara £7.99


I've been having another snivelly day battling with freshers flu as I've gone about uni, but I'm not going to lay on the sofa feeling sorry for myself tonight as I've got my friend's 21st to go out and celebrate! Hopefully dressing up a bit will make me feel a bit better too, I usually find it does :)

I hope you've all had a good day,
Love Meg
x
Tuesday 25 September 2012

The Perfect Present: Cath Kidston Stone Briar Rose Purse

Hello Lovelies!

So after waking up today with a horrible cold, followed by a very rainy walk to uni, boring lecture and twenty minute wait to get the bus back home I was rather happy to find a parcel with my name written on it laying on the doormat when I got in and even more happy to discover it was the new Cath Kidston purse my boyfriend had kindly bought for me...


The reason he got this for me is a bit complicated, but basically back in the Easter holidays I agreed to go on a lipstick and nail polish buying ban to rein in my crazy unnecessary spending, as my boyfriend promised that if I managed to stick to it until I went back to uni for third year I could choose a present. So amazingly with the help of this superficial incentive I have actually stuck to it (hard to believe, I know) and you may have noticed any new lipsticks or nail polishes I've talked about since Easter have either been old ones I've rediscovered or bought for me by other people. Anyway, the present I chose was a Cath Kidston purse (well technically the type I went for is called a zipped wallet) as my current purse was looking very battered, but as the website and shops I looked in didn't have any designs I liked I turned to Ebay. I'm usually rather wary about buying branded things on there as I've received fake items in the past that the seller said were genuine, but as this purse was new with tags I decided to go for it. I'm so happy I did as it is 100% Cath Kidston and worked out a little cheaper too, here's the seller if you wanted to have a look. The stone briar rose pattern is exactly what I wanted; pretty, a bit vintage and fairly neutral so it will go with any handbag. The actual wallet design is great too as it looks classy on the outside then is very practical on the inside with card slots, a zipped compartment and notes pocket. It also seems to be of very good quality and can be wiped clean which is always handy when something leaks in your bag (I had an awful incident with some tuna pasta last year!). I know from the fact my Cath Kidston make up and magazine bag are still going strong after about three years that I'll use and love this new addition to my handbag for a very long time and I love my boyfriend lots for buying it for me :)

I've already summed up my rather bunged up and frizzy haired sort of day, so I'll just tell you that I'm quite looking forward to just chilling out on the sofa now, drinking lots of tea and getting my reading done (well not quite so much the reading part) to make sure I'm all better and prepared for my friend Cath's 21st night out tomorrow!

I hope you're all having a much drier, less sneezy day!
Love Meg
x
Sunday 23 September 2012

OOTD- The Disco Pant

Hello Lovelies!

So as I mentioned in yesterday's post I went out last night to my favourite club night of pure cheese, Pop Tarts! However, as much as I enjoy singing along to the Spice Girls and doing the macarena, I was actually more excited for the chance to dress up in my new American Apparel disco pants and feel like Sandy in the last scene of Grease...

Blouse- Ebay
Disco Pants- American Apparel  
Heels- New Look

I can't actually get over how much I adore these disco pants and they are so totally worth all the hype they've got in the blogging world! As a girl on a student budget I never thought I'd be able to justify owning a pair of shiny high waisted leggings that cost a huge £70, but even though I didn't personally pay for these as they were a holiday gift from my parents I think they're worth every penny. As well as being amazing quality, multi functional, warm enough for British weather and super comfy, they also fit so perfectly and suck you in like a vacuum pack accentuating curves in all the right places. If you're thinking of getting yourself a pair I'd order down a size though as I'm a UK size 6-8 and would usually have gone for a small, however I need an extra small to make them tight enough at the waist (I do look hilarious when I'm pulling them on though as I've developed a bit of a disco pant dance to get them over my hips). Usually with expensive cult items like this I'd be the girl blogging about the dupe, but I tried on the River Island dupes and was so unimpressed as they were really uncomfortable and unflattering on me, but I'm sure they'll be a good cheap dupe out soon. Onto the actual outfit then, I wanted to keep the look quite classic so I teamed the pants with my new white sheer collared blouse I got from Ebay and a pair of platform court shoes and used the stud detailing on both pieces to make the outfit more interesting and edgy. I'm loving wearing my hair donut on nights out at the moment too as it makes doing my hair very quick and stays in place all night, which is very important to me as there's nothing worse than looking at your new tagged facebook photos and realising your hair had somehow turned into a bushy birds nest. Life's big problems and all that...

Anyway I had such a fun time and got quite a few compliments on my outfit so it was a great way to end freshers week. I didn't get to bed till half 5 in the morning though (check me out being all hardcore haha) so today I'm just having a duvet day in with my housemates catching up on last nights tele before I actually have important things to do again once I start uni tomorrow.

I hope you've all had a lovely weekend!
Love Meg
x
Saturday 22 September 2012

My Makeup: Subtle smoky eye and bright pink lip

Oh hello again!

I don't often do face of the day type posts on my blog (taking photos of my face reminds me too much of those myspace pouting and thinking you were really cool days), but recently I've been thinking that it's a waste if I put effort into my make up just to wipe it all off again, so tonight I'm starting another new feature: My Makeup, starting with a smokey eyed bright lipped look.
Eyes- Maybelline 24HR Colour Tattoo in 'Immortal Charcoal' as a base and Urban Decay 'Blackout' from Naked 2 palette in outer corners / Rimmel Exaggerate Liquid Liner / Next Volumising Mascara 

Lips- Kate Moss Lasting Finish Lipstick in '02'
Base- Have a look at my everyday makeup

I know that I'm breaking a serious beauty rule here as I've gone for statement eyes and lips, but I decided that if I kept the smoky shadow subtle (my eyes can go much darker on a big night out trust me!) and had my lips pink rather than red then I could break the rules and still avoid looking like some sort of Burlesque dancer. I hope so anyway haha. I'd definitely class this as night out make up look though as dark shadow and bright lips together is a bit too much for the daytime. Saying that, I am loving wearing this Kate Moss lipstick at all times at the moment as it's the longest lasting, most pigmented, yet still moisturising lipstick I've ever tried!  Rimmel have really hit the nail on the head with their Kate Moss range and I'm so excited for five new A/W shades being released soon, particularly the nude one. The Maybelline Colour Tattoos  are another thing I love to wear a lot as they are easy to apply, long lasting and make an amazing base for powder eye shadows. I also rather like my hair like this, but it can be quite time consuming curling my hair with ghd's after having to straighten it first and the curls don't always last that long, think I need to invest in the Enrapture totem styler some point soon!

As I said in my previous post I haven't been up to much today apart from lounging on the sofa with my house mates watching rubbish tele, but I am off to my favourite night out later (Pop Tarts, woo!) for my friend's 21st and to end freshers week so expect a bit of a disco pant related dressy outfit post tomorrow :)

Have a great night everyone,
Love Meg
x

Video- Big Collective Summer Haul: Clothes, Makeup & More!

Hello Lovelies!

I feel like I've been a bit out of the blogging loop this week as I've just been enjoying freshers and getting settled into my new house, however I'm not doing anything today except going on a night out later so I'm going to get back into it all of my bloggy stuff, starting with a new video which is a big collective haul featuring all the things I've bought over the last couple of months...



I am going to come back later with a proper face of the day type post, but until then I hope you enjoy the video and have a lovely afternoon!

Love Meg
x
Tuesday 18 September 2012

Chicago haul: American Apparel, Tarte, Fresh & more!

Hello Lovelies!

Some of you might remember me mentioning that my parents left me home alone to go to on holiday to Chicago last week. Well as much as I wanted them to have a good time, I couldn't help but be very excited for the day they were coming home as I had a sneaky suspicion they might be bringing a few American goodies back with them (and because I missed them of course...) and they didn't disappoint as I screamed rather loudly when these beautiful things appeared from out of their suitcase...

American Apparel Disco Pants- I've been lusting after these ever since they first started to appear on the blogasphere and I can't believe I actually own a pair of them now! At the ridiculously expensive price of £70 in the UK I was going to find it hard to justify buying them for myself, but they come in at around £50 in America and I know I'll get so much wear out of them so they really were the perfect present. I tried them out when I went to a house party on Sunday night and found the XS fits me perfectly and is very flattering. There will be lots of outfit photos starring these coming soon I'm sure.

      Tarte Amazonian Clay 12-hour Blush in 'Tipsy'- If you follow viviannadoesmakeup then you might realise she was my inspiration to ask for this little gem of a blusher. Tarte is an American brand that I really wish we had in this country and this blusher is a prime example of why as it's the most gorgeous coral shade and comes in such a cute compact. It was $25 from the infamous Sephora making this my first high end blush and it really does give a gorgeous long lasting flush to the cheeks, but they'll be a full review to follow.

Fresh Brown Sugar Perfume Roller ball- Oh look, another recommendation from Vivianna...I knew that I had to have a perfume roller ball  in my life after she talked about them in a video so I went for Fresh Brown Sugar as I heard it was a beautiful light and fruity scent and it really does smell lush. I'm going to love keeping this in my handbag to keep me smelling nice throughout the day and at only $12 I thought this was quite good value for a high end brand in such classy packaging, if only things were so cheap here!

Rockford Sock Monkey- Onto some funny random presents now with these sock monkeys! My parents visited their friends in a place called Rockford which is where sock monkeys originated from, hence why I now own this cute little monkey I've named Rockford (Inventive I know) and my Dad has the big Mummy monkey. My monkey is going to sit on my desk at uni to keep me cheered up when I'm writing essays or missing home with my PG tips chimp to keep him company, nothing wrong with being a big kid sometimes!


 Pure American Yumminess- Who doesn't love American food? I swear if I lived in America I'd find it quite hard not to just spend all my time eating haha. Anyway my parents got me and my boyfriend all these fun yummy things to share so I look forward to making our way through these when we see each other at weekends.

Sorry for my absence over the weekend, but I've moved back to Sheffield now for my third year at uni and have been having a great time in my shiny new house, seeing my lovely friends and going on spontaneous freshers week nights out. I couldn't actually go out last night as I still felt so ill from the night before (a night of watching series one of the hills under a blanket with therunwayrose happened instead, woop!), but I'm feeling much better today so I've enjoyed starting rehearsals for a charity concert that's happening in a couple of weeks and am looking forward to going out for a friend's birthday drinks tonight :)

I hope you're all having a good week and are enjoying freshers week if you're back at uni!
Love Meg
x   
Friday 14 September 2012

Sleek blush by 3 in 'Lace'

Hello Lovelies!

Today I thought I'd share my thoughts on my latest makeup love, the Sleek blush by 3 in 'Lace'. I've wanted this palette ever since it was released back in February as I thought it was amazing value, perfect for travelling and contained gorgeous shades but one of the downsides of it, as with quite a bit of Sleek makeup, is how hard it is to get hold of. After months of it being non existent on the Sleek stands in Superdrug and out of stock on the internet, a lovely subscriber called Amy emailed me saying it was back in stock on the Sleek website and there was also a discount running. Needless to say I was on it like a car bonnet and a few days later this beautiful blush palette dropped through my letterbox and the best thing is that it was totally worth the wait... 

From left to right: Crochet/Guipure/Chantilly. You can buy this palette for  £10 from sleekmakeup
The Sleek blush by 3 palettes feature three high quality matte/shimmer blushes of differing shades in a classy black compact that includes a big mirror, all for only £10. Amazing product or what? I wanted the 'lace' palette because the blushes in it were peachy pink coral colours, which are just the sort of shades I like to wear. You can see from the swatches just how pigmented all the colours are, yet they're not so pigmented that you're scared to put them on for fear of looking like a clown. I'm normally a cream blush sort of gal as I prefer a dewy finish, but I think these have converted me back to powder as I find them so easy to apply using my ecotools powder brush and they such create a gorgeous natural glow with no hint of the sort of powdery finish that gives me nightmares (I don't actually have nightmares about powdery finishes by the way, my nightmares are about much more serious things like foundation not matching my body haha). They also last all day on my cheeks, but can be easily topped up if you want a blush boost as they're incredibly buildable. My favourite shade is the corally peach 'crochet' as I think it suits my skintone and the sort of lip colours I like to wear like Barry M 147 or Revlon 'Tutti Frutti' lip butter. I don't really need the middle shade 'Guipure' as it's pretty identical to Sleek 'rose gold' (review here-rose-gold) which I already have, but I love the subtle gold shimmer in both of them and fact they're dupes for Nars 'Orgasm' so it's handy to have a shade like that in a palette to save taking my 'rose gold' when I'm travelling. I'd never normally go for a bright pink shade like 'Chantilly' but after trying it I found it wasn't as scary as I thought and I'm now becoming rather partial to a brighter pinker cheek. Wow I am pushing the boat out at the moment. None of the other blush by 3 shades really appeal to me, but I would recommend you go and get this little gem in your life before it disappears again!

Wearing my favourite shade, 'Crochet' 
 I had a very nice time yesterday as I had my friends round all day for a gathering type thing topped off with a yummy Indian takeaway. Today I've been madly cleaning, tidying and packing though as my parents come back from Chicago tomorrow then I'm back to uni on Sunday. Looking forward to seeing all my uni friends and being busy again, but not looking forward to saying goodbye to my boyfriend very much...

Have a lovely night girlies!
Love Meg
x
Wednesday 12 September 2012

Win a MAC lipstick: My 1st Blog Birthday Giveaway!

Hello Lovelies!

I told you yesterday that I would return today with an exciting giveaway and here it is, I am going to buy and give away a MAC lipstick of one lucky lady's choice to celebrate Meg's Budget Boutique becoming one year old today!



As well as celebrating my blog birthday, it's also to say a big thank you for all the support and lovely comments and followers who like reading my clumsy little blog. I never imagined a year ago when I wrote my incredibly cringey first few posts that anyone would care what I had to say about beauty and fashion or that I'd ever stand a chance of getting to the Cosmo Blog Awards, so I'm very excited to see where my budget boutique might go during its second year and meet lots more wonderful people through it. So please do enter this giveaway through the rafflecopter form (it's less complicated than it looks, anyone can log in and the only things you have to do are click the 'join this site' button opposite and tell me which lipstick you want) and try to get lots of entries as I'd love for everyone reading this to be in with a chance of winning. I went for a MAC lipstick as the prize as I'm pretty sure anyone who likes make up has a few different shades on their wish list, I know I do!


I need to sign off quickly today as I'm off to pick up my boyfriend from the station and have a nice night in with him, so I hope you all have a lovely night too!

Love Meg
x

THIS GIVEAWAY HAS NOW ENDED AND THE WINNER HAS BEEN DRAWN! A HUGE CONGRATULATIONS TO AQEELA! 
Tuesday 11 September 2012

Video- Summer Empties!

Oh hello again,

Just a very quick post to let you know I've now uploaded a big summer empties video showing you all the things I've used up over the past few months, would love it if you fancied a watch and a cheeky subscribe!


Hope you're having an amazing night,
Love Meg
x

Hair Happiness: TRESemme Keratin Smooth Range

 Hello Lovelies!

I've got a bit of a haircare review for you today of an amazing new range that I think will give you true hair happiness, TRESemme Keratin Smooth... 

conditioner £4.99 mask £5.99 spray £5.99 Superdrug
This range is based around the idea of keratin treatments, which are semi/permanent hair straightening solutions you usually get in salons. The problem with those is that they can be very expensive and damaging to your hair, so for a girl like me, who's hair looks like an out of control poodle once its blow dried, this new inexpensive and repairing range is an absolute godsend. I'd already heard great things about it from a couple of bloggers so when I saw the whole range was half price in Superdrug (they don't seem to sell it in Boots yet) I knew I had to get it all apart from the shampoo as I always use a purple shampoo to keep brassiness out of my blonde hair. The products promise to restore the keratin in your hair making it salon smooth and manageable. So do they deliver?

Keratin Restoring Conditioner and Deep Treatment Masque- I don't think I've ever used conditioners that give such instant and noticeable results as these do. After the first use of both I saw a huge difference in the smoothness, manageability and condition of my hair, the only difference is that the mask gave better and more noticeable results obviously because it's a deeper treatment that you leave on for 3-5 minutes rather than the 2-3 of the regular conditioner. With my very curly/frizzy hair type I'm never going to find a product that leaves my hair salon smooth after just blow drying, but these certainly help to tone down the frizz and make straightening much easier and more effective. I also seem to have less breakage now so they seem to greatly improve the actual condition of hair as well as the look and feel of it, which is great news if you dye your hair like me. 

Heat Protection Shine Spray- I can never really tell if a certain spray protects my hair more than others, I only know that my hair looks and feels really silky, smooth and shiny after I use this before styling my hair, which is something I really struggle to achieve with my hair type. Another thing that puts this spray above other heat protection products is the fact that it makes your style last so much longer than usual. I've tried quite a few products that actually claim to do this and don't (I'm looking at you John Frieda full repair styling spray!), but this one doesn't even promise it will and yet my straight or curled heat styled hair really stays in place all day when I use this, which is something fleurdeforce said she noticed too.

So overall I can't recommend this range enough really, they're incredible value for money, actually work and I think I may have just found some of my holy grail hair products! There's not been much going on with me again today as work decided to ring me as I was jumping around the living room doing the shred that they wouldn't need me today. So instead I filmed a youtube video which I'm probably going to pop up later and actually sorted out some better plans for the rest of this week! I've also got an exciting giveaway planned for tomorrow so stay tuned for that... 

Have a lovely night, 
Love Meg
x


Monday 10 September 2012

The Fresher Five: My top tips for starting uni!

Hello Lovelies!

I've been thinking about what to say in this post for a while now as it's one I've been really looking forward to writing, probably because whilst I'll normally spend an hour happily rattling on about my latest make up love, I now get to talk about more meaningful life stuff (not taking away the importance of finding your holy grail foundation or perfectly fitting jeans here). So anyway it's a week until I head back to Sheffield to start my third and final year of uni studying English and Theatre, which means that there are also lots of excited and frightened freshers also about to start. I'm not saying that all freshers are frightened, I just know that when my parents were driving me up to a place I didn't know full people I didn't know six hours away from home in a car that looked like it contained the contents of our whole house I was pretty terrified, so I thought I'd share my top five tips for starting and staying at uni, which are mainly the things I wish I'd done...

1. Join a society 

My first tip is 100% the most important one as I can't stress enough how much joining my main society, SUPAS (Sheffield University Performing Arts Society) completely changed my uni life and how much I was enjoying it. I didn't actually join it until second semester as I was too scared too go along to auditions by myself in my first term, but I so wish I had as I think I would have had a much better time. You obviously might not be into musicals as much as I am, but it's the same with whatever society you want to be part of- you'll meet some of your best friends (I'm living with three amazing SUPAS friends this year), be part of incredible experiences that you won't get to do again and have a ridiculous amount of fun on socials. It also gives you something productive to do in all that time your not in lectures (which is most of the time if you do a degree like mine!) and gives you good CV expanding opportunity's, for example I'm Vice President on our society committee this year, which is great as let's face it nearly everyone has a degree these days so you need to do extra bits too. So what you waiting for, get yourself straight to that Freshers fair!

2. Learn to love tea...and chopped tomatoes and porridge and soup

For most people uni is the first time you have to fend for yourself and cook your own food. At first this was a prospect that excited me greatly as I enjoy cooking and quite weirdly, I love food shopping (please tell me I'm not the only one), however when it's your money that your spending on boring bread and you that has to cook dinner after being out all day, food fending isn't something that appeals quite so much. That's why I think it's important to learn to love cheap and easy, but still nutritious food. Of course you could just head straight for the pot noodles, but they're over priced and have the health benefits of cardboard. When I'm at uni I pretty much always drink green tea (obviously you don't have to be a health freak and drink green), as tea is cheap, warm and a great thing to bond over with your new flatmates. My other uni food heroes include sweet chilli sauce, cous cous, veggie 'meat', porridge, soup, salad bags, tuna, mini milks, toast, chopped tomatoes, beans, apples and frozen berries. Communal food shopping and cooking is a great way to make and spend time with friends too :)  

3. Look at your bank balance and budget (Yes I know I need to do this too)

Anyone reading this that knows me personally will say I'm a huge hypocrite for this one, but this is a tip that I aim to actually follow myself  this year as I've learned the hard way how important it is. As I'm sure some of you will know when you're into beauty and fashion it's incredibly hard not to spend all of your student loan the moment it enters your account. However speaking from experience as a girl who has a serious spending addiction despite not having much income and manages to max her overdraft several times a year, budgeting and looking at your bank balance is vital for not getting into tricky money situations. It might seem like you have a lot of money at the start of the semester, but once you've budgeted for food, bills, travel, nights out and the really boring things you've never even thought about buying before like printer paper and loo roll, you might not have a whole lot left to visit the MAC counter with. So I'm going to try a new thing of budgeting and putting aside first, then spending the whole lot I have left on clothes and make up after. Well that's a start isn't it? Oh and just in case your wondering, the photo is supposed to symbolise me checking my bank balance at expensive times, yes I was scraping the barrel for uni photos of me doing that...

4. Find the balance between uni and long distance relationships and friendships

The main thing I was worried about when I set off for uni was how hard it would be for me and my boyfriend to stay together. Back then we were eighteen, had only been together nine months and would be living 140 miles from each other with me in Sheffield and him in London. Well the good news is long distance does work as we've now been together almost three years and the distance now seems like a doddle! Long distance friendships work too as I still have the same great group of girls at home as I did when I left, you just have to keep in touch during term time and make the effort to meet up lots when your back. The only problem is I think you can keep in touch too much (as I demonstrate above by being on a night out and getting caught texting!) and this can take away from your uni experience. It's obviously a very personal thing, but when I'm at uni I see my boyfriend every two to sometimes three weeks and even though the time apart is hard, if we saw each other every weekend then I wouldn't make the most of uni. I think it's the same if your planning to visit home in between the holidays, just remember to make a proper go of it where you are, whilst not forgetting the people you love who aren't there.  

5. Don't work too hard

To be fair I'm pretty sure I'm crashed out from alcohol here and not over working myself, but the point is that  even though you do need to work hard to get a good degree and that is the reason you're there, there's so much more to uni than the work. Particularly in your fresher year, where none of the marks count towards your degree, you don't want to go crazy in the library and miss out on all the fun. I've got quite a few friends who feel like they worked far too hard in their first year and are making up for it now! You also want to make sure you look after yourself and get some good time management going as being ill at uni is rubbish (no mum to give you sympathy and make you lemsips, what's even the point?) and you'll want to get over that freshers flu as quickly as possible! So all in all just enjoy it, but don't worry too much if you don't enjoy it like mad straight away.

There's not much happening with me today which is why I've had the time to write this, just going to have some lunch, feed my cats, do day six of the shred and catch up on the Great British bake off...I clearly need to get back to uni to put some excitement in my life!

I hope you're all having a much more interesting start to your week!
Love Meg
x
Sunday 9 September 2012

A Night at the Paralympics

Hello Lovelies!

If you follow me on twitter or read my last post then you'll know that on Friday night I toddled up to London with my boyfriend to see a night of athletics at the Paralympics. Well it was so incredible that I thought I'd share a little Paralympic outfit/picture heavy (sorry!) post with you...

Crop- Topshop
Shorts- Levi vintage
Loafers- Primark
Belt- New Look
Bag- Zara

Outfit wise I wanted to be patriotic in red, white and blue, but as I was with a boyfriend who wouldn't also want to dress up like a crazy brit I kept it subtle and casual with my new white Topshop crop tee, blue vintage levi shorts and red/coral kate moss lipstick. I also found some of my mum's union jack jewellery and had a couple of flags stashed in my beautiful Zara shopper basket bag so I could wave them around like a loon at every opportunity! I was so surprised and happy that the weather was good enough for me to wear my favourite summer combo of cropped top and high waisted bottoms and looking at the weather today I think I'll be able to wear crops and shorts for a while longer before autumn sets in, lovely stuff. Oh and I also took my new Primark loafers for a test run and they proved to be very comfy and sturdy, yay for bargain Primarini shoes! The actual trip to the park and athletics we watched was amazing, I saw the big names such as Oscar Pistorius and Richard Whitehead race which was so inspirational, finally got to visit the biggest Mcdonald's in the world which I had been far too excited about haha and took part in many audience mexican waves (or as I accidentally called them, american waves). All in all it was an amazing once in a lifetime experience and I'm just so glad we went :)

Have any of you had the chance to go and see it?

I'm home alone with the boyfriend this weekend so I've just been having a lovely unproductive time watching films, eating cookie dough ice cream and sunbathing. Back to the healthy eating and exercise tomorrow I promise...

I hope you've all had a lovely weekend!
Love Meg
x
Friday 7 September 2012

How much is your face worth?

Hello Lovelies!

I saw this 'How much is your face worth?' post on a few of my favourite blogs recently and thought it would be quite a fun and interesting post to do as I never really think about how much money I'm putting on my face everyday. So here is my basic everyday make up look and how much it sets me back...


Rimmel fix and perfect pro primer- £6.99 
Bourjois healthy mix serum (52) - £10.99
Collection lasting perfection concealer (light)-£4.19
Maybelline dream lumi touch under eye concealer (ivory)-£6.99
Rimmel stay matte pressed powder (sandstorm)- £3.99
Bourjous chocolate bronzing powder (51)- £6.99
Maybelline dream touch blush (peach)-£6.49
Benefit high beam- £18.50 (for full bottle)
bareMinerals brow colour (dark blonde/brown)- £11
Rimmel exaggerate liquid liner- £5.29
Next volumising mascara- £5
Vaseline (Creme Brulee)- £2.99
Natural Collection moisture shine lipstick (rose petal)- £1.99
Total- £91.40

To be honest I thought my everyday make up would come out as a little less than that as it doesn't include eye shadow or anything too fancy, but it just goes to show how make up all adds up even when it's mainly drug store and this is without skin care and brushes! Saying that though I am quite proud of my total as I do use a fair few products and I've seen a few of these posts with a couple of hundred pound faces. There's nothing wrong with that of course, I'm just on too much of a budget to have all high end make up so tend to stick to my drugstore favourites for everyday and there are some real gems in there such as the Next mascara, Maybelline blush and Natural collection lipstick that you should try out if you haven't already. 
How much is your face worth?

I had a really fun time yesterday as I went shopping and out for dinner with the girls and then we had a classic girly sleepover drinking Lambrini and embarrassingly watching High School Musical for old times sake (why did no one tell Zach to get a hair cut?). Then tonight I'm off to watch the athletics at the Paralympics with my boyfriend which I'm very excited for! Is it bad that eating at the biggest McDonalds in the world is part of that excitement?

I hope you all have a lovely start to your weekend!
Love Meg
x
Wednesday 5 September 2012

OOTD- studs and crosses

Hello Lovelies,

This week I've been loving two things, yes you guessed it- studs and crosses! Summer florals seem like a distant memory as I'm now filling my autumn wardrobe with edgy studs, spikes, skulls and crosses (as you can also see in this outfit: skull-and-crossbones) and even though the sky has decided to prolong the summer weather I'm an impatient person and wanted to wear two of my new purchases today...

Top- New Look
Skirt- New Look
Shoes- Primark
Bracelets- Usual
Earrings- River Island
Lipstick- Kate Moss '02' 
I can't tell you how excited I was to find this top in New Look yesterday for only a tenner! Bargain or what?! It's not even like the cross is just printed on, it's actually made of gold studs and I just know I'm going to wear it all the time as it's the shape and fit I like and will look great dressed up or down. The spiked slippers were another ridiculous bargain as if you've seen my westfields-haul then you'll know I found them in Primark also for a only ten pound. They're a bit different to what I'd usually wear but it's always nice to wear something a bit outside of your usual style and I think I'll be wearing them to pieces from now on. I put them with my trusty black bodycon skirt to make the look a bit smarter and because it's so hot today and finished it all off with big messy sea salted hair, cross earrings, black bracelets and as my outfit was quite simple, a bit of a smoky eyed bright lipped make up look.

I've not really done anything of interest today apart from day 3 of the 30 day shred, followed by dressing up like this and taking photos of it haha but I am going to see my boyfriend once he finishes work tonight and when I get back I'll be home alone as my parents are leaving me to go to Chicago, alright for some eh...

I hope you've all had a much more interesting day!
Love Meg
x
Tuesday 4 September 2012

Products worth the hype: Bioderma Crealine H2O

Hello Lovelies!

When your an avid blog follower or beauty lover it's near impossible not to get caught up in the hype that surrounds certain products. However, there's nothing worse than giving into the hype and then feeling disappointed in what you've just spent your pay cheque on, particularly if you're on a budget. So I'm starting another feature today which will be about what in my opinion is worth the hype and also what isn't, starting with everyone's favourite french make up remover, Bioderma Crealine H2O.


If you don't already know Bioderma is the leading product of the new micellar solutions, which look, feel and smell like water, yet remove all make up and cleanse the face effectively. I only recently caved in and bought this product, but after only one use I was completely in love with it (if you can be in love with a make up remover). Even though it feels like you are just wiping water over your face it manages to remove every single last scrap of make up in 2-3 soaked cotton pads and doesn't leave any residue, whereas before I'd still be getting make up off after a face wipe, cleansing lotion and toner! Even though most days I would still follow using this by cleansing, toning and moisturising, I don't find it so necessary now as Bioderma leaves my face feeling cleansed and full of moisture all on it's own. It's also perfect for removing eye make up as not only does it get even waterproof mascara off, it also feels totally comfortable on the eyes and sensitive skin. The only downside to this product is that it's not available in the UK yet and you have to buy it on ebay or from French pharmacies (well, someone might make a lot of trips to Paris!), however I got mine for a very reasonable £10 plus £2 p+p on ebay and the micellar waters sold here from brands like La Roch Posay and Vichy cost the same for half the amount anyway and I also think the 500ml bottle will last me a very long time. So yes, I've totally fallen for this little beauty of a product and I think it's 100% worth the hype, oh and the nice pink detail on the bottle only increases my love for it...

I've had a very nice day lunching with the girls (I may have also purchased some cheeky studded items, but more on those later) and now I'm going to have a night in ogling  watching Mr Efron in 'The Lucky One' with some sort of naughty food. Doesn't get much better than that!

Have a lovely night,
Love Meg
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