Friday 31 May 2013

May in Pictures

Hello Lovelies,

Sorry for being a bit absent on the blog this week and month in general, but I've been madly trying to balance finishing my degree with enjoying all the end of year nights out and getting ready for my holiday (I know, student life is so tough). But anyway, as it's now the end of May I thought I'd show you some of the highlights from my very mixed month...

  double drinks / my habitat for the past week / milkshake addiction / ice cream with the boyf / 'the rolling tone's ball performance / cheese-tastic eurovison night / Shredding the beach bod / pretty student garden / too much tequila

What are your May highlights?

As I had two big essays in this week I've come back to Kent today to spend the sunny weekend with my boyfriend. He's off to Ibiza next week so it's nice to spend some chill out time together. I literally cannot wait for all my work to finish on Wednesday though, I plan on acting like it's freshers week all over again!

 I hope you've all had a lovely month!
Love Meg
x
Sunday 26 May 2013

My guy housemate does my makeup!

Hello Lovelies!

I've got a bit of a funny post for you today to show you my latest youtube video where my lovely housemate Nick (who appeared as Mr April here) attempts to give me a gorgeous night out make up look, it's definitely worth a watch...


Please don't forget to subscribe to my channel if you enjoy it :) It's only a little post from me today as I need to finish a first draft of an essay before we have friends round for a curry tonight so I best get writing, boooo... Have a lovely evening!

Love Meg
x
Saturday 25 May 2013

The Budget Beach Body: Summer Savers Haul

Hey girls! 

So today while the majority of the country made the most of the sunshine lounging in the garden and having the first BBQ's of the year, I was stuck inside in my pj's writing an English essay on identity constructs. Jealous? Didn't think so...but anyway to cheer me up a bit and join in with the sun I thought I'd do a summery themed post about the three amazing products I picked up from Savers last week to give me a beach body on a budget...


Radox 'Island Indulgence' Shower Smoothie £1
I never thought I would get so excited over a shower gel, but this Radox Shower Smoothie has proved me very wrong. It contains real fruit like passion fruit, papaya and aronia berries which makes it smell incredible and also real fruit seeds which act as a gentle exfoliant. It lathers up so thick and creamily too that it's a pleasure to use and at a meagre pound you cannot go wrong! My summery smelling skin has arrived.
Soap and Glory Slim Wear Firming Balm £2.99
There's no point in your skin smelling good if you're not going to wack out those shorts and brave the bare legs, so I always use a firming lotion on my thighs so I can feel extra confident when doing this. The Soap and Glory firming lotions are really expensive in Boots so I was incredibly happy when I saw this for only £2.99 on the shelves of Savers. The smell is a bit odd and minty, but it claims to be a 'puff draining peptide balms that firms, contours, smooths and reduces the appearance of cellulite' so as long as this banishes any orange peel skin in time for my bikini wearing holiday week I couldn't care less about the scent!
St. Moriz Medium Self Tanning Mouse £2.99
A firm favourite of mine for over a year now and a staple when it comes to summer skin (sadly we live in the UK and cannot not rely upon the sun to give us a natural tan during those summer months!). This mouse is so easy to use when applied with a mitt and washed off in the morning. It also gives you a gorgeous natural olive toned tan that lasts for just under a week and has actually been fading evening lately too. St. Tropez who?

What products do you use to get summer skin?

As the start of this post suggests I'm still living in end of uni exam time hell, but I did my final performance exam yesterday and went out for a nice Wagamama's afterwards so I'm still having fun and really feel like I'm on the home stretch now. It's also only three weeks till I go to Spain with my friends so it's a good job I completed day 10 of the 30 day shred today, moving up to level 2 tomorrow which is a first!

I hope you've all had a lovely day!
Love Meg
x
Monday 20 May 2013

The New Product: Bourjois Cream Blush in 'Healthy Glow'

Hello Lovelies!

Unless you've been hiding under a makeupless rock for the past month and I really hope you haven't, then you'll have heard about the new much hyped release from Bourjois (literally they are on fire with their new products at the moment!) which are the Bourjois cream blushes. When I first heard about these I got a tad overexcited as I just adore cream products, particularly of the blush variety, so the day of release I was standing in Boots like a crazy woman ready to spend my hard earned boots points on what is in my opinion the stand out shade, 'Healthy Glow'. 

Bourjous Cream Blushes are £7.99  from Boots
The packaging alone is enough to make you want to buy this product, as it's a super cute take on the iconic Bourjois little round pot blush that is celebrating its 150 years and I love how the compact is colour coded to match the shade inside and also contains a little mirror. I did like the other three shades available which were  'nude velvet' (light pink), 'rose tender' (rosy pink) and 'sweet cherry' (dark pink), but as I hardly ever reach for make up that doesn't have a peach or coral tone I had to go for 'Healthy Glow', the most gorgeous orange toned apricot colour that is pretty perfect in my opinion. The product has a cream to powder consistency so is really easy to work with and blends seamlessly into the cheeks using my Real Techniques stippling brush although I imagine it would also work well just using fingers. Unlike the little round pot blushes, the pigmentation of these is amazing and once the product is applied it gives you such a gorgeous dewy glow that really brightens the face and lasts all day. So as you can probably tell I can't recommend this blush enough and really cannot wait to wear it over the summer months teamed with a nice natural tan (we can dream can't we). At £7.99 the price tag is reasonable enough too, but you can grab this for £6.99 at Boots right now or head to Superdrug and get one as part of the 3 for 2 offer they have on. Any excuse to buy more unnecessary make up.

Have you given into the hype and bought a Bourjois cream blush yet?

I've just been in rehearsals for our theatre practical today where I spent most of my time dressed as a Princess rolling around in cake and jam. I do love my degree sometimes. In other news I'm gradually progressing through the shred and need to do day 5 tonight as holiday body panic has hit, literally dreaming of the moment I'm on a beach drinking cocktails rather than in the library writing essays...

I hope you're all having a much more exciting time!
Love Meg
x
Friday 17 May 2013

Topshop products without the price tag: Primark dupes

Hello Lovelies!

As a budget beauty blogger I'm always trying to hunt down affordable drugstore dupes for high end make up brands, however it occurred to me recently I should start doing this with clothes too. So yesterday before I spent my pounds in Topshop, I hunted down almost exact dupes of the staple items I wanted in Primark for only pennies!

The Topshop staples...


And the Primark dupes...

1. The Crop Top
Topshop £10 / Primark £3

2. The Neppy Tee
Topshop £12 / Primark £4

3. The Ankle Socks
Topshop £3.50 / Primark £1.50

4. The Boyfriend Tee
Topshop £12 / Primark £3.50

I was literally so happy to find all of these things as I'd been eyeing them up in Topshop for so long but got pretty much all the Primark things for the price of one Topshop item! They may not be of the exact same quality but for a strapped for cash student who likes to wear things that are likely to be out of fashion by next week these good dupes are perfect and I'll be able to create so many different outfits with them, so what are you waiting for... get down to Primarni!

Have you found any dupes in Primark lately?

Today has been another uni work filled 12 hours, but I'm off for dinner with my housemates tonight and tomorrow I'm hosting a Eurovision party (literally love a good European musical cheese fest) so at least I have some exciting things to get me through this final third year push! I hope you all have a lovely start to your weekend :)

Love Meg
Wednesday 15 May 2013

You shall go to the ball: Outfit of the night

Hey Girls!

Sorry I've been so rubbish at posting so far this week but my life seems to have turned into an endless string of nights out, well I've had three big nights out in the past five days which combined with hang overs makes them feel pretty endless! My first night out was our end of year uni ball to which I wore a gorgeous blue strapless Topshop dress borrowed from my lovely friend Alex, so today I thought I'd show you how I styled it as well as some photos of what my friends wore... 

Dress- Rare at Topshop
Heels- New Look
Bracelet- Tiffany
Earrings- Dorothy Perkins
Nails- Nails inc 'Knightsbridge'
Lips- Rimmel Apocalips in 'Stellar'

There's not really much to say as I've included lots of photos to do the talking, but I'm literally in love with this dress and really wish it was mine! I usually avoid strapless clothing at all costs as I'm fairly well endowed in the chest department and have horrible visions of my boobs popping out on the dance floor, however one trip to good old M&S and the purchase of a nice supportive strapless bra later, I feel ready to brave this style. The colour is also something I don't usually go for but I feel like cobalt blue makes such a nice statement, the dress design and accessories can be kept nice and simple. In fact I pretty much just paired it with my Tiffany bracelet, bright coral nails and lips (got to love a bit of colour clash) and middle parted curls. I also really enjoyed my tan courtesy of St. Moritz dark mouse, but would really like to get a natural one soon...hint hint British weather...I thought my friends all looked amazing too and can hopefully give you some dress inspiration for any end of year proms and balls you have coming up!

What dresses are you wearing to end of year events?

Again, I'm sorry for being so absent this week but I have been having rather a lot of wine and dance induced fun! It's all quietening down a bit from today though as everyone gets on with exams and essays, although I've got nice Walking Dead and Apprentice plans now, can't beat a nice bit of geeky tele time.

I hope you're all having a lovely week!
Love Meg
Friday 10 May 2013

Top Five Anti-Spot Products for Clear Skin

If there is one thing that gets a girl down, it's a huge spot popping up in the middle of your forehead just before a big night out. Or a blemish that literally won't go away for weeks on end. Or breaking out everywhere just before you want to go bare faced on holiday. Or...anyway you get the picture that spots are a huge inconvenience and have a really negative impact on a girls confidence, which is why I thought this post on my top five anti-blemish products to give you clear skin was so important...



I'm fairly lucky with my skin, I've never suffered from acne and do manage to leave the house wearing just a light BB cream (sometimes anyway...), but at the same time I don't have a perfect complexion either and ill timed pimples and spot scars have left me reaching for copious amounts of concealer rather a lot over the years. However, I do think I've found a good range of products now to prevent spots, fight spots and give the skin an all round glow and at the moment my skin is better than it has been for ages (touching lots of wood). If you want to find out more about these products then please do give my youtube video a watch where I talk all about them and subscribe here if you enjoy it!

What products do you use for fighting off the spots?

I'm feeling a bit fragile today as I had my end of year uni ball last night which was so much fun. They'll be some nice dressy outfit photos for you soon, but for now I'm going to go and upload all the gross drunken ones to facebook. Have a lovely night ladies!

Love Meg
x
Wednesday 8 May 2013

Revlon Nearly Naked Foundation

Hey Girls!

Once upon a time I only had one lonely bottle of foundation rolling around in my make up bag and would wait till I'd used it up until I bought another one, but these days I prefer to have a nice collection to choose from. Whilst this may not be great for my bank balance, I do think you need different coverage and finishes for different days and times of year so when Revlon released their Nearly Naked foundation I knew I needed it to fill the 'natural and light spring foundation' shaped void in my collection...


On paper I was incredibly excited about this foundation. Firstly, it's from Revlon and their Colorstay and Photoready foundations are beauty blogger favourites, secondly I love a nice light base for this time of year and finally it comes in at a reasonable £8.99. When I went to buy it from Boots first impressions were good too as I liked the sleek and simple packaging and glass bottle and there seemed to be a good range of shades. Sadly when I swatched the shades I struggled to find my perfect match as most of them seemed to be too dark or too pink toned and no one wants to look like a burnt salmon! In the end I settled for the second darkest shade '120 Vanilla' as even though it's on the paler side for me, it's a good match when I have no tan on and will be a good shade to mix darker foundations with.

Application is initially a bit messy as the bottle doesn't come with a pump. Oh Revlon please give us pumps, it makes things so much easier! No pump aside, this applies like a dream as my Real Techniques Expert Face brush blends it seamlessly, but I imagine this would work well just using fingers too. The product has a very light liquidly consistency similar to the Bourjois Healthy Mix, which I really enjoy, but with this blendability and lightness comes incredibly light coverage. I'd say it offers a little bit more coverage than a tinted moisturiser or BB cream but quite a bit less than a usual foundation, so you need to be having a good skin day to wear this or be prepared to use more concealer than usual.

The finish is the most 'skin like' I've ever come across, it's so natural it's almost undetectable which is great for girls who don't like to look too made up. Personally I was hoping it would be a little more glowy, but it is a great medium between a matte and dewy finish. As you can expect with such a light foundation the longevity isn't the best and you'd probably need to top this up about 4 hours into a long day but it's fine if you're just in the house or popping out. So overall you can probably tell I have quite mixed views on this foundation, I did contemplate giving it to my friend Rosie who has amazing skin and really doesn't need a proper foundation, but I decided to hang onto it for days when I'm not doing much and also for non tanned times as it's the lightest foundation I own. Definitely one to try if you love a very natural look.

Have you tried 'Nearly Naked'?

After a lovely bank holiday with the boy I'm back to reality now as I've got lots of essays and performances to do before I finish my degree and go on holiday. It's not all bad though as I have the English ball tomorrow night so I'm very excited to dress up and do lots of dancing (and drinking)!

Have a lovely night girlies!
Love Meg
x
Monday 6 May 2013

The Cosmo Blog Awards 2013

Hello Lovelies!

I'm going to keep this post short and sweet as I'm sure you'll be hearing lots about these awards on the blogasphere soon, but basically if you enjoy reading my blog and watching my videos I'd really love for you to vote for me in the Cosmo Blog Awards 2013! I was lucky enough to be shortlisted for best newcomer last year and this time I'm eligible for the 'Best Established Beauty Blog' award so to nominate me all you need to do is enter my blog url, www.megsbudgetboutique.blogspot.co.uk, in the blog awards form which I've linked below so
please click here to vote! 


 Good luck to everyone else hoping to be nominated and a huge thank you to anyone who does go and type in my blog address, I'll be voting for all my favourites before the closing date which is June 3rd! I hope you've all had a lovely bank holiday too, I spent mine having a picnic in the park which was such a nice way to start the week :) 

Love Meg
Sunday 5 May 2013

Mini Meadow-Haul

Hey Girls!

If you read my last post then you'll know I'm currently spending this sunny bank holiday with my boyfriend in Sheffield. Well, on Thursday it wasn't quite so sunny so we decided to do a spot of shopping at Meadowhall (Does the title make more sense now?). I didn't go crazy as I'm trying to save for all of my end of year balls and holiday in June, but I was very happy with the cute things I did pick up...


Primark Dolly Socks- Earlier this year I went a bit crazy for the Topshop versions of these and paid more than I usually would for socks because I couldn't find them anywhere else, but now good old Primark have come to the rescue with these amazing £1.50 dupes! I particularly love the grey and white lace ones as they'll look so cute with brogues or pumps and skater skirts this Spring.
Lush Popcorn Lip Scrub- This was definitely a blogasphere inspired purchase as I've heard so much about these lush lip scrubs from fellow beauty bloggers. As always I was determined not to be sucked into the hype, then I actually smelled the pot and couldn't put it down. It smells and tastes like the most amazing butter popcorn and leaves my lips smooth and supple, a perfect solution to dry, flaky lips.
Primark Floral Pyjama Shorts- Now we've actually got some sunshine in our lives and my student house doesn't feel like an ice cube, I can finally leave my fleecy pj bottoms and bed socks behind in return for something a little more summery like these really pretty shorts. They cover my bum, will be great on holiday and were only £4. Oh I do love Primarni!
Topshop Lip Crayon in 'Coy'- This product has been on my wishlist since early last year, but last summer I decided to buy 'Whimsical' instead as it was a similar colour but in usual lipstick form. However when I was in Topshop on Thursday I swatched this again and just couldn't resist how bright and summery it was, almost a neon coral that I knew I'd wear so much I had to have it. They've rebranded these products from lip sticks to lip crayons recently so I'll let you know how they compare.

Have you done any bank holiday shopping?

As I said before I've been having a lovely time with my boyfriend after a whole month of not seeing him. As well as shopping we've also had some lovely meals out, watched Iron Man 3 (got to love a bit of geeky pleasure comic book action) at the cinema and arranged picnic plans in the park for the 20 degree day we've been promised tomorrow so fingers crossed that can actually happen!

I hope you're all having a lovely May holiday!
Love Meg
x
Thursday 2 May 2013

The May Wishlist

Hey Girls!

As I write this I'm sitting on the sofa looking at the sun shining in the garden and the tulips on our coffee table, needless to say I finally feel as though spring has sprung! This seemed like a good time to do my May wishlist as I feel it is now appropriate to covet pretty things for spring and summer, so 
this month I want...

1. Kevin Aucoin The Celestial Powder...
because I want to look like a glowing Made in Chelsea girl
2. MOTO Acid Denim Flippy Dress...
because I think this would look super cute all year round layered up or on its own.
3.Bourjois Cream Blush 02...
because I'm a cream and peach blush addict and these are released this month.
4. New Look Aztec Crop Top...
because I am also addicted to crop tops and it's finally warm enough to get my tummy out.
5. Topshop Coy Lip Stick...
because it's been on my wishlist since last summer and I'm going to Topshop tomorrow.

What's on your May Wishlist?

As well as being happy because it's so sunny, I'm also a very happy bunny because my big uni presentation went well today and my boyfriend is coming to stay in Sheffield with me tonight for the bank holiday! I haven't seen him for a whole month because of how busy we've both been and I've missed him insane amounts so I really cannot wait...

I hope you've all had a happy start to May too!
Love Meg
x
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