Barratts Hi Top Trainers!

Blink Studded High Top Trainers RRP £65*

When I saw on Twitter that Barratts were offering bloggers a chance to review some of their hi top trainers I just couldn't say no. I've wanted some hi tops for a while but have yet to purchase some converses as I'm unsure whether I would actually like them or not (and I've heard from some people that they can really hurt your feet!).

So I browsed on their site of all the hi tops they were offering and finally came to a decision on these babies! And let me tell you there were a lot to choose from.

I chose the Blink Studded High Top Trainers* which unfortunately aren't available on the site anymore. I'm not sure if they are just sold out or gone forever but I know they are available from other sites and also there are a load more different hi tops on the Barratts site. I picked these as we all know studs are very on trend at the moment and the second I saw these I knew I wanted them. They were available in this brown colour and also in black. They arrived very quick and that was with standard delivery! I love the added detail of the studs and it's nice that they aren't all over the shoe as I feel that may be too much. On the inside of the shoe is blank and with a zip fastening.

When I first tried them on when they arrived they felt quite tight and I thought for a second I may have gotten the wrong size and may need the next size up. I have heard with converses that most people buy the next size up (or is it next size down?). But luckily once I had undone and loosened the laces I felt they fit rather comfortably.

I usually like to wear these with leggings and a baggy jumper and some long socks. I am definitely in love with these and wear them whenever I can. These were a bargain at only £18.75 down from the original price of £65!!!  I already have my eye on some more from Barratts so if you fancy grabbing a pair then go visit the site and select from the large variety of Hi Tops available.

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A Bloggers Night Out At The Lanes Health & Beauty

Last night I got myself ready, donned a nice frock, applied some slap on my face and made my way into Brighton to meet up with some of the lovely beauty bloggers for a evening of pampering at The Lanes Health & Beauty salon. I first met up with Sophie from SophieRoseHearts and Rosie from Everything's Rosie and as we wondered about and finally found the salon we were a tad early but we were invited inside to the amazing salon by owner Julie Coates who couldn't be more warm and welcoming if she tried. We were offered pink champagne and mini cupcakes as me and Sophie sat down to have our nails done whilst Rosie was whisked off to get a quick lesson on how to apply strip lashes. We were taught so many simple things to help get the perfect polish applied like how to file to get the perfect shape, how to pick the right polish colour and other things like you should never do your nails after a bath/shower as your nails expand so once you've painted your nails they shrink back and that's when you get chipping and just a not very nice manicure.

Soon enough more lovely beauty bloggers turned up and the place was buzzing. Everyone talking and swapping what they do for a living (besides beauty blogging!) and then it was time for my mini lesson in applying strip lashes. Now I don't know about you but I can always seem to do one eye but the other just goes to poo. I got loads of tips and tricks on how to do it and the best type of lashes for my eyes.

The salon itself is so gorgeous. All themed around 4 famous hollywood women with each treatment room being named after them. I'm kicking myself now as I didn't actually take any photos of the treatments rooms but let me just say they looked so relaxing I can't wait to book myself in for some treatments.
To see what they offer and prices etc why not go visit the website The Lanes Health and Beauty and see what you fancy. I'm definitely interested in HD Brows and definitely want to go back and get my nails done regularly.

Also if you don't already you should definitely go follow the other lovely beauty girls who also have amazing blogs...

Sophie
Laura
Lauren
Lilla
Rosie
Suzie

And finally A big thank you to Lisa for organising the event and to Julie (the delightful owner) for holding the event in her amazing salon.

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Brighton Benefit #FakeUp Bloggers Event

Today I am bringing you guys an exciting post. It's taken me a while to find some time to write this but I'm so happy I've found this spare time to let you all know about my experience of my very first bloggers event.

So many bloggers events are held up in London which although is only a train ride away..

1. Is quite an expensive train ride

and

2. Are usually on when I'm working.

So when I heard that Benefit were coming to Brighton I simply couldn't miss out! I had started to contact some other local bloggers (to my surprise I didn't realize how many local bloggers there were!) and soon enough I was excited to be meeting some lovely girls.

I met up with Laura from LolaAndBehold before hand which was lovely as I had no clue where I was going.

The event was held upstairs in a lovely bar called 'The Mesmerist' and the decor theme was that of an old school detective pad. With benefit fake up pillows (which I'm sure a fair few of us wanted to take home) displayed across the chairs and old typewriters and magnifying glasses on the tables, I knew I was going to have an amazing time. I met some more lovely bloggers when we arrived like Sophie from SophieRoseHearts, Rosie from Everything's Rosie, Lilla from Lilla Loves and someone who I've been following for a while Lauren from BelleDuBrighton. To start us off we had a little briefing of what the night was going to entail and then the lovely Lisa Potter-Dixon (I was a tad starstruck after watching her on QVC all the time!) she gave us the info on the newest product from Benefit their 'Fake Up' hydrating concealer. She then demonstrated how to apply the concealer in the best possible way.

We were then shown other products such a 'Fine One One' and 'Hello Flawless'. Both of which have been on my wishlist for a while now. We then were colour matched in the 'Hello Flawless' as we were told that we would each be receiving one in out goodie bag.

Sophie from SophieRoseHearts getting colour matched

After everyone had been matched we had a little pop quiz and to my surprise I actually won, I never win anything. I was kindly given one of their new eyeshadow palettes which I will have a review of up shortly. Some gorgeous food and drink were served as well. We got a little hooked on the sweet potato fries and the drink was a lovely vodka fruity cocktail.

In our goodie bag we were kindly gifted all 3 shades of their new 'Fake Up' concealer which is released on the 30th March and will cost £18.50. I will have a separate post on these. We were also given the 'Hello Flawless' powder foundation.

I didn't take many photos and I totally regret it too. The next event I will definitely be getting snappy happy!

I had a lovely time and can't wait to meet up with all the lovely girls again. I'm sorry I haven't mentioned everyone in this post but if you was there and I've missed you out please leave a comment below!

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NOTD | Glitter Manicure

In my previous nail post I showed you that I had painted my nails with Rimmel 'Aye, Aye Sailor' which is a gorgeous deep blue. I don't know about you guys, sometimes I love the colour of my polish but can get a bit bored but don't want to actually change my polish. Queue flicking through Instagram when I came across a picture on Lo Bosworths account. In case your not aware who she is, if you watched 'Laguna Beach' or 'The Hills' or know of Lauren Conrad (and lets face it who in the beauty community doesn't) then Lo is her best friend and appeared in both programs. Anyway back to my point, she had posted a picture of her manicure in which she had glitter tips. Unlike hers I had no fine glitter to hand so I found my next best alternative, my new glitter polish from Poundland in 'Gold'. Now I know they aren't perfect but it was a rushed job and it was my first attempt. What do you think?

My only disappointment was that it was really difficult to get the actual glitter onto my nail. Most the time I managed to get a whole gloop of clear polish and very little glitter. If anyone has any suggestions on any better polishes which would be easier to use, please leave a comment below so I can try it out.

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Pancakes With A Sweet Twist

Happy Sunday Lovelies

I've got so many blog posts in the pipe line which I can't wait for you lot to see including one on my first ever Bbloggers event I went to which was held for the first time in my little hometown of Brighton. I met some lovely ladies and I was actually quite amazed how many local bbloggers there were near me! But more on that later. Today's post is a little different. As I mentioned before I'm trying to branch out my little beauty blog into the wonderful world of fashion and lifestyle. So to help me along with it today I thought I would show you what I had for breakfast.... Pancakes with a twist.

When I woke up this morning my sister had made a pancake mix and had left me some. I didn't fancy plain pancakes and I remembered that I had some Peanut Butter M&M's left over and only the day before had someone on my facebook posted a picture of their M&M pancakes. So that's what I did and omg were they AH-MAZE-ING.

They were the best pancakes I've ever tasted. The M&Ms had all melted and were so soft.

Have you ever experimented with pancakes?

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NOTD | Back To Black

Okay so they aren't black as per say but I couldn't think of a better title for this post. As much as I am loving the pastel nails I felt like I wanted a bit of a change. Maybe it's to do with the major snow we had last night and today but I wanted to go for a dark colour. I showed this polish in my last post (My Nail Polish Haul) so decided on this midnight blue colour.

I always use my OPI Nail Envy as my base coat. This was 2/3 coats and finished off with my Rimmel top coat. I love this polish for the pure fact at how fast it dries. As I've mentioned before the only thing I hate about doing my nails is the waiting about for them to dry properly so I don't get that sheet print on them when I go to bed! So the fact that these polishes are touch dry in 60 seconds is a god send!

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Nail Polish Haul

Hey Lovelies

So first off I want to apologize for the lack of posts this past week. I was suffering bad with a constant toothache so found out I have a tooth infection and have hardly been able to eat. This has resulted in me having little to no energy and not really felt up to sitting at a laptop thinking of things to write. Anyway I am on anti-biotics and feeling 100 times better so I'm back!

Today I thought I'd show you a little haul of Nail polishes I bought the other day.

So first off in Boots I had a voucher for my Advantage card that if I spent £20 I would get 200 bonus points. I don't think I have mentioned on my blog yet that my plan for this year is to not spend any of my advantage card points and build them up throughout the year and then come December I will treat myself to something nice. I know a lot of you beauty bloggers did this last year and I was very jealous of some of the goodies you got!

So I wanted to buy the No7 Cleansing Water (A post on that will be up soon) so I needed to find other goodies to make it up to £20. Along with a new mascara I thought I would purchase some new polishes.

I was after the Spring colours from BarryM since they were released and everywhere has been sold out so I had to grab some when I had the chance. I picked up the ever so famous 'Greenberry' and the lovely coral shade 'Papaya'.

I also had a browse of the Rimmel 60 seconds polishes as one of my pet peeves with painting my nails is waiting for them to dry so I love these polishes as they do what they say on the tin, touch dry in 60 seconds. I picked up '440 Sun Downer' I think this shade will be perfect for summer and I don't own an orange this bright. I also got '850 Aye, Aye, Sailor'. Even though were getting into Spring (Well besides the snow we had today!) I still love to sport a dark shade every now and again.

I then popped into Poundland and whilst browsing the tiny beauty section I came across these 2 glitter polishes from Chit Chat in 'Gold' and 'Violet'. I've seen these on some blogs so was interested in them and who can turn down glitter polishes for £1!

What colour polishes have you been into lately?

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Skincare Review - Skinetica

Skinetica Anti-Blemish Skin Treatment*

Recently I've been suffering with my skin and blemishes and if you've read a couple of my past posts I've mentioned my problems in them. I've had a influx of blemishes, when I feel like I'm getting rid of one another one will pop up to say hello. I had tried multiple of potions and lotions before being contacted by the lovely people over at Skinetica and asked if I wanted to try out their Anti-Blemish Skin Treatment.

I'm not going to pretend like I understand all the science behind this product and what's in it which helps reduce the blemishes etc but if you do want to read more into it there's a heap load of info over on their FAQ page. 

I've been using this for about two and a half weeks and although I have seen a slight difference in my skin I'm not sure if I'm won over. Don't get me wrong I have thoroughly enjoyed using this product and am convinced it works but I'll tell you where my faults lie with it.

When I started using it I used it all over my face as I was suffering from blemishes all over and after a week I noticed a difference on my smaller less visible blemishes. But for bigger, more inflamed blemishes I didn't really see much of a change.

So I would definitely recommend this product to anyone suffering from minor blemishes and will continue to use this but I think for my bigger bad boys I will continue to use my Origins Spot Remover (I wrote a blog post here on my review of it.)

I can't guarantee that this will help you with your blemishes but it's definitely worth giving it a shot, especially since you can request a sample size on their site.

A full size 100ml bottle is available for £9.99 and that includes postage and packaging so from a price point of view it's definitely a bargain.

It can be purchased from their website.

Have you tried this out yet?

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Biotherm SKIN.ERGETIC Range

Biotherm SKIN.ERGETIC Anti Fatigue Day Cream - £30*

Biotherm SKIN.ERGETIC Anti Fatigue Night Cream - £30*

Biotherm SKIN.ERGETIC Concentrate Samples - Full Size £35*

I was contacted by the lovely girls from my Biotherm counter in my local Boots and asked if there were any products I would like to try out and review for them. Obviously I said yes as I have tried samples of Biotherm skincare before and loved it.

I chose to try the SKIN.ERGETIC range which is anti-fatigue concentrate and cream which helps to reduce the appearance and visible signs of fatigue and stress so that the skin will look and feel radiant.

There are three products available in this range with five fruit and vegetable extracts which are beneficial to your skin. This range is free of parabens, mineral oils and synthetic colorant.

SKIN.ERGETIC Concentrate - 50ml - £35*

The three main ingredients in this concentrate are- Broccoli, Soy Protein & Botanical cells from Apples. This stuff smells amazing and feels amazing when applied to the skin.

Biotherm have created this concentrate so that we are 100% sure it's fresh from the second we want to use it. The concentrate contains extracts of broccoli that have been freeze dried to a powder so that you mix the powder into the formula before it is ready to be used. This ensures that the concentrate will work to its full potential from the moment you start using it. It lasts for 3 months for the concentrate to work at it's potential  and you can even write the date you mixed and activated the formula on the bottle in the space provided.

SKIN.ERGETIC Day Cream - 50ml - £30*

SKIN.ERGETIC Night Cream - 50ml - £30*

The day cream is available in two formulas. A cream gel for normal/combination skin types and a rich cream for dry skin types. The ingredients in the day cream are- Botanicals cells from apples and soy protein, Lycopene from tomatoes, Polyphenols from grapes and pomegranates and Neohesperidins from Seville oranges. I have never tried a cream which not only feels amazing on my skin but omg the smell is to die for. It's one of those products that smells so good you want to physically eat it (even though I know it wouldn't taste good!). Applying this cream leaves your skin feeling plumped with moisture, features appearing rested and it's been tested on sensitive skin.

The night cream is only available in the one formula for all skin types. It created with five tea and seed extracts. The three main ingredients are extracts of tea and ruscus and a lipid extract from buckwheat wax. I never used to be one to use a night cream and thought it never really mattered but after using this for a couple of weeks, I definitely kick myself for not using a night cream sooner. Just like the day cream and concentrate this feels and smells amazing but the scent doesn't linger on the skin after applied which is something I always look for in creams/serums. Results upon waking is the skin appears more radiant and the facial features appear rested and smoother and I can definitely say this is true. Again it has been tested on sensitive skin.

After using all three of these products for a couple of weeks I can definitely see and feel a difference in my skin. I used to get quite dry skin on my cheeks and my t-zone and chin was more on the oily side but my skin feels so balanced and even since using these products and would definitely recommend you lot to at least try these products. See if you can get a sample from a counter to try these amazing products.

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My Favourite Fashion Pieces

Happy Sunday!

You may have read my last post where I told you I was having some technical issues with my laptop so I wasn't sure how often I was going to be able to post. Well we somehow fixed it for now so I'm going to get as many posts written up and scheduled as I can so if the laptop breaks again I'll be a little bit more prepared. Anyway onto today's post...

I thought I'd do a bit of a different post for my blog. I want to expand my blog so it's not just a beauty blog but a beauty, fashion and lifestyle. I'm on my journey of doing this as I've done cooking posts in the past so what next... Fashion! I've done a OOTD post and hope to do more in the future but I find my style quite boring but let me know if you do want to see more. Today I'm going to show you my favourite fashion items I've been loving.

H&M Jumper

I spoke about this jumper in my very first OOTD post here. It's from H&M and I first saw it on Sophies from SophieIsMadeUp Instagram and fell in love with it straight away. I went straight out and purchased it and so glad I did. I've always found H&M a bit of a tricky place to shop as being a bigger curvy girl I've often found they don't always go big enough to fit comfortably. So to my surprise this not only fitted but was a tad baggy making it so comfortable to wear!

Primark Skater Dress

So the story behind the reason for the purchase of this dress was my best friend was getting her little baby girl christened and to be honest I had only ever been to a christening when I was little so I had no idea what to wear. My friend kind of told me roughly what most people wore to these kind of events. So when I went shopping I saw a few different dresses I really like but what made me get this particular one was that I didn't previously own anything of this gorgeous blue colour. It also came with a skinny black belt. I also love that it slightly covers my shoulders.

Primark Jacket

Now I'm really late on the bandwagon with this purchase but all the same so excited. This is probably my favourite purchase for a long time. I've seen so many versions of these jackets from sequins to leather to denim. I really wanted the khaki jacket with sequin sleeves but didn't know how much use I would get out of it as it would look lovely for evenings out but didn't know about on a day to day basis. Then I saw this baby in Primark for £25, great I thought but at the time I didn't have any money. So a couple of weeks later when I got paid I looked high and low but couldn't find it anywhere. Then I finally got my hands on it and I love it so much. It's such a good quality item for Primark and I'm so glad I got it.

What have been your favourite fashion pieces lately?

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