Happy Christmas with Zoella's Hot Chocolate

Happy Christmas!

The big day is finally here and I am only just getting into bed after finishing all of the preparations (not last minute at all I promise!)
The presents are all wrapped and under the tree, my stocking is hanging on the door and we have enough bucks fizz and food to feed the entire street in the fridge.
That's what Christmas is normally about right? Eating and drinking as much as humanly possible...yum!
Earlier this evening on Christmas Eve I decided to get super creative and make the chocolate and orange hot chocolate which I saw on the lovely Zoella's youtube channel.

I can confirm that it officially tastes AMAZING and was a big hit with my family too.
The actual orange mug was also a really cute touch and enhanced the flavour nicely.
Perfect ending to my day :)

I want to wish you all a wonderful day spending time with your families, which is most definitely the best part of Christmas (apart from the over indulging of course!)

Make-up of the Day

If you have read my previous post you would have seen that I have been indulging in a few beauty goodies for myself recently. One of my favourites purchases was 'Up the Amp' lipstick by MAC.

After lusting over this in store I wasn't sure whether it was too purple in tone for me at first, but I asked a few other lovely bloggers for their opinion and decided to go for it. I totally was not disappointed! It smoothes on the lips really well and so far seems to have really good lasting power.

The colour is a rich berry shade with hints of purple, great for winter and Christmas parties!

I thought that I would share with you how the colour looks on me and how I paired the rest of my make-up with it.

I decided to go for a simple but thick black liner with a flick and lashings of mascara. I had no eyeshadow on as I wanted the lipstick to be the main focus.
I wore a plain white t-shirt with this look too which I think worked really well together.
Let me know what you all think....I love this!

Beauty Haul

At the end of last week I went for a little stroll on my lunch break and discovered something truly amazing but also pretty darn dangerous. Two words...Space NK. Two exciting words that will now inevitably cause a large dent in my bank balance.

To make matters worse the Debenhams store near my work have also just expanded their beauty department and now have a large shiny new section just for MAC cosmetics.

The window display taunts me every evening as I walk home!

Needless to say, I have been doing some shopping this last week (ahem..a lot!)

Here's what I picked up:

Sarah Chapman Overnight Facial

Bobbi Brown Shimmer Brick Eye Palette

Oribe Dry Texturizing Spray

MAC Veluxe Pearlfusion Shadow in Pinkluxe

MAC Satin Taupe eyeshadow

MAC LoveLorn lipstick

MAC Up The Amp lipstick

The Weekend Post

Today has been a good day. A very busy one filled with christmas shopping, blow dries, strolls along the south bank and eating (a lot may I add!)

I woke up and made a decision that I was going to be productive. I have so far spent hours looking up present ideas for my family and friends online, but never once stepped into a real life shop to actually buy any, which would be useful really seeing as Christmas is creeping up pretty fast...exciting but scary!

I was determined, I had made a list and nothing was going to stop me. After a quick check in at Starbucks for an orange hot chocolate (so yummy!) I began.

After a successful few purchases my next stop was the hair salon. Now, this is something that I never normally do, but I went and had a cheeky blow dry. I genuinely love styling my own hair and playing around with it but today I just fancied it. Do you ever wake up and have an urge like that? I have to admit though, having worked in salons before I find it hard to just relax and totally enjoy the experience. For some reason I resort back to my days of being an apprentice and subconsciously look for jobs to do and almost help the other stylists....bizarre I know!

Trying a winter hat out shopping

My favourite part of the day came next though. Five of my best friends from back home who I went to school with came up to London..yay! We had planned to go to Winter Wonderland but when we arrived there was a queue about 45 minutes long to get in, is it just me or is this strange? I have never had to queue up before to get in!

Having limited time we instead decided to take a walk to see some Christmas lights and then head to the market stalls along the South Bank. It was really lovely to catch up with them all and such a nice evening with beautiful clear skies and gorgeous views across the Thames.

I'm now back at my flat watching the X Factor and feeling ridiculously full after my chocolate waffle....was so worth it though!

Little Christmas scenes in the windows of Fortnum and Mason. Adorable!

German sausages filled with bacon and melted cheese..hmmmm

Death by chocolate waffle

The girls :)

Christmas Finger Tips

George Street

Maida Vale 3D Glitter

It really is the simple things in life that please me.

When I was little I used to get so super duper excited about things that I sometimes made myself sick...literally sick!

This was mainly around birthdays, christmas and trips up to London if I remember correctly.

Last night however, it was the discovery of a perfect nail polish combination. Don't get me wrong...the above all still do it for me but seeing as I now live in London I have calmed down a little towards the outings here. It would be very tiring if every time I stepped outside my door I realised I was in the city and couldn't control my excitement...my life wouldn't be too productive!

Anyway...these are the nails that caused me to do a little happy dance...

I started by applying two coats of Nails Inc. polish in George Street, which is a lovely natural pinky-taupe. I often find neutral shades to be too yellow based for my skin tone but I love this one!

The magical part came next. Nails Inc. have a range of special effects polishes and this one is called Maida Vale and is one of their 3D glitter colours. It contains a mixture of small and larger pieces of glitter in a silvery blue shade. I applied this over the top and it literally looks like a sparkly, wintery snow globe on your finger tips!

Ideal for any upcoming christmas parties, I will most likely be rocking this for mine next week.

I keep catching sight of them and smiling....like I said it's the small things :)

Winter Hats vs. Fringes

Me aged 3 with my fringe!

For my whole life I have been the owner of a full fringe or 'bangs' as you call them in America.

Why do we not use this word? It's awesome!

It has become part of my image and almost a comfort blanket to me, as it is all I know.

I did ballet for many years and the tight bun with slicked back, gelled hair that we had to wear for our exams still haunts me to this day...I definitely suit a fringe, not so much without!

From my experience I believe that everyone can suit one. In fact, it can be extremely flattering, softening harder features and hiding a multitude of sins (who needs botox when you can just have a quick snip aye!)

However...my fringe and I do sometimes have a love hate relationship.

Some mornings, purely to upset me, it decides to adopt the personality of a teenager and turn all kinky and rebellious on me. It does the complete opposite of what I want and us girls know that a bad hair day equals a bad day full stop. I wonder if fringes in America behave themselves more because they have a way cooler name? Hmmm...

Another frustration for me is hats. I love a good winter bobble hat or a beanie, love the way they look on the model in the picture, love they way they look so warm and cosy....but on me the dream isn't a reality.

I like my fringe to be long and quite heavy but the minute it is flattened under a hat I then cannot see, which isn't too ideal. The wispy ends poking out make me look super silly and when parted slightly I look like a member of a 90's boyband!

I am forever optimistic though and am still on the hunt for that perfect hat that compliments my outfit rather than ruins it...wish me luck!

Here are few hats that I have been lusting over from Accessorize this year...just to torture myself further.

                                                                       

It's Advent....Christmas is on it's way

Last years tree

The little robin red breast, a tiny bird with a huge responsibility.

In the lead up to Christmas you may see him gracing your garden looking for seeds but the real reason he is there is a secret that I have known for years.

Father Christmas understandably gets incredibly busy running his workshop, making all of the toys and managing the elves and he cannot be seen flying his sleigh before Christmas Eve. However it is important for him to keep up to date with his naughty or nice list.

This is where the robin comes in....inconspicuous and nimble, he, thought Santa, would be the perfect accomplice to report back.

As well as collecting all of the children's lists, he is subtly watching how they are behaving to see if any adjustments need to be made in the famous book.

This is the story that I was told and believed when I was little...and a wonderful, magical one at that I think. It sprung to mind this week as I was walking to work. Wrapped up warm, listening to my music as usual I suddenly was drawn to one particular Victorian house.

On the window ledge sat a beautiful little robin, holding a small twig in his beak and he was looking right at me. Right on cue....checking in on me :)

I'm sure that each family has its own traditions and stories, but thought I would share one of my memories with you as today is the beginning of Advent. As I've got older I am realising that it's these little things that make it special.

The imagination is pretty amazing don't you think!

P.S. From today you are officially allowed to eat chocolate every day for a whole month....there is surely no better reason to be excited! 

Slightly irrelevant but here's a cute picture of my dog in a little Christmas jumper...I got excited!

Turning Rebellious for Winter

I am very much a girly girl and love a pretty pastel or bright neon colour in a nail polish (or anything else for that matter) ... I probably have every shade of pink there is!

I have also never been one of those girls who needs to match all their jewellery, shoes and nails to their outfits when they go out. I enjoy being a little more experimental and am quite partial to a clashing colour or a contrasting piece.

So as Autumn/Winter approaches I always tend to fight against the natural progression into darker tones, holding onto summer memories for as long as possible I think.

However, this week whilst removing my current polish with my Nail Inc. Express Nail Polish Remover (which is awesome by the way- and note the bottle is pink too- lush!) I decided to be adventurous.

Welcome Rebel by Leighton Denny. A beautifully rich and dramatic deep purple, with lovely shine and a slight shimmer on closer inspection. I shall definitely be wearing this with my party outfits for the christmas period and I think it would look just as great in the day paired with some cosy neutral toned winter jumpers as a contrast.

Who knows I may even go crazy and actually match a look for once and wear my Rebel lipstick by MAC too....not exactly the same shades I know but boy I love that lipstick and it's matching names at least :)

Un-planned matching with my Lola Rose scarf!