Zara Lookbook: #SALEHAUL

2014 Post-Christmas sales have been good to me this year. Take a look at how I style different items, I haven't worn any tights but for the winter seasons I will be wearing the outfits with simple black tights. The BEST Zara to shop in for sale items is the Westfields in Stratford (the sale is actually organised, I was so surprised). 

Outfit no.1: 

The sale item from this outfit is the light Salmon loose jumper. It is quite thin so I'd recommend wearing a plain strappy top/tank top whatever you personally call it. This is a simple jumper that I wouldn't have purchased at it's full price of £24.99 but the orange sale tag caught my eye!

Jumper: Zara, £7.99

Shorts: Levi's, £20.00

Boots: Vagabond, £80.00

Outfit no.2:

Both the black top and infamous 'skort' are from the sale collection. This outfit is based on the current 'Monochrome' trend that I haven't rocked enough this winter. You can make this look super girly or grungy as I have with messy hair and imperfect makeup. For jewellery I've kept it minimal with just a watch. The statement piece here is the skort so I didn't want to distract any attention from it. The top, although in my pictures doesn't look anything special, however has a long silver zip on the back which adds some detail to the otherwise extremely plain long sleeved black top. 

Top: Zara, £5.99

Skort: Zara, £9.99

Boots: (Vagabond, again!)

Outfit no.3: 

I love this outfit! It's smart and casual at the same time, extremely preppy and always on trend. The trousers are a neutral brown dog tooth check which has been a popular pattern this winter and is certainly not a new design. I have had my eye on this shirt for a while however always resisted buying it full price since it was just under/or was £39.99 which I can't personally justify for a white shirt you can pick up somewhere else for a lower price. However, as I said, the amazing sale offered it to me at an extremely good price. It drapes around you so it is quite loose which is perfect if I've had a lot to eat (bloated.com/thisshirtdoesthetrick)!

Shirt: Zara, £17.99

Trousers: Zara, £15.99

Shoes: Topshop (SALE), £30

Hat: Rokit, £12

That is all from my recent shopping trip in Zara and I definitely recommend visiting your nearest Zara before the sale runs out (which apparently is in under 2 weeks, hurry!)

Let me know if you guys enjoy these types of blog posts or not, I personally enjoyed it and I have to give a shoutout to my younger brother Roni who took these photos with crap room lighting and iPhone 4s camera (kudos to you my friend!)

That's all for now though,

Love, Lo!

Beauty Haul No. 3: Make up/Hair!

I don't really plan what I'm going to buy, I always have my eye on products because I watch a lot of Youtube videos and read lots of blogs so some of my purchases are pre-thought and some very spontaneous. I have purchased all of these products throughout the course of three weeks, I didn't just go wild in one day, so here's what I got...

Maybelline Colour Tattoo's are extremely hyped about and even that seems like an understatement for their popularity. I have one eye shadow palette which is my every day saviour (by MUA) however I wanted to try paint pots because the concept is quite appealing and personally wanted to test them out myself. They're creamy however personally not as easy to blend than eye shadows which I prefer over these. I'm not a massive fan of the colour range so I only purchased one, this one is called 'Permanent Taupe' and it's a lovely neutral brown which looks great in my crease when blended out (I wear this look almost every day). The price is very good at just £4.99 which is extremely cheap compared to other paint pots I've used which were from Benefit, they were more than double the price and are exactly the same thing.

Leave in conditioner that leaves your hair super soft and smelling nice and fruity! Ticks all the boxes really, it's great and light. I don't like washing my hair then bombarding it with tons of products so I just leave this in till the next time I wash it! It's by Herbal Essences from their 'Bee Strong' collection with Nicole Sichiesinyejkrt :)

So I've had my eye on all of the Real Techniques brushes since the start of watching youtube videos so my collection is slowly expanding. I'm currently trying out brushes and seeing what I like to use them for, this one will actually be used to apply my loose powder because the brush is so big and soft. Sorry the picture isn't so great, it's called 'Blush Brush' by Real Techniques.

My favourite blushes EVER are from Benefit. They're always so perfect and I'm always spoilt for choice when I try to purchase one. This time however, instead of re-purchasing my all time favourite blusher 'Coralista', I wanted to try something new. This time round, I bought 'Sugarbomb' which smells soooo nice (that's not the only reason I got it) and the four colours combined together create the perfect peachy tone that has light undertones making it look like I'm wearing highlighter also. I took advantage of the Christmas discounts and instead of paying the full price of £23.50, I got it for £19.95 (15% off).

As you can see, I've hit the bottom with this one. Second time I've purchased it and it lasted me almost a year which is very impressive! I usually buy them at the airport where I can get duty free shopping so it costs around £19. 

                                                I don't need a powder but I've heard great things about the Rimmel Stay Matte pressed powder so I thought I'd try it out before all my money runs out on sushi (my new addiction). All of my favourite Youtubers use this so I wanted to jump on that band wagon! I'm constantly pleasantly surprised with Rimmel products and since it's coming to the end of the year I have to crown it my favourite make up brand of the year! My top three products for this year from Rimmel were: Kate Moss lipstick collection (which I have previously blogged about), Apocalipcs Lip Laquer and the 24 Hour Lasting Finish Foundation. Perhaps this powder will be an addition to my favourites... we shall see!

Re-purchase alert! Thanks to Fleur De Force's videos a couple of years ago this concealer blessed me with it's existence! Forget all the high end brands with their ridiculous price tags and invest under a fiver for this high coverage, long lasting concealer. I'm quite lucky to have clear skin most of the time, however I do have freckles which some people like but I do not so I use products like this to give me coverage and hide them (only a few of the more noticeable ones, not my entire face :O). This is in fact my 4th time buying this product and I don't think I'll ever stop. My only problem, important word being 'only', is that sometimes, if I've got too much foundation on, this concealer does crease beneath my eyes which is annoying but most of the time for me it means I haven't blended it in properly or like I said, I am wearing way too much foundation underneath it. With a smaller fluffy blush, I always set this concealer with powder just to properly seal it for a long day at Uni or work. 

More Real Techniques brushes! The more I am learning about make up, the more importance I place on the application and not just the products themselves. I decided since I purchased a new powder, I would purchase a powder brush to go with it. The stippling brush though, was for experimental purposes. I wanted to try it out for myself since the buffing brush I'm using currently is leaving brush streaks that take extra blended time in order to get rid of which is time consuming (aint nobody got time to blend!). Also, because Boots is just amazing, it had a deal so I got the stippling brush for about £6 normally it is priced at £11.99. 

I always complain how my skin doesn't look illuminating enough or youthful, I find sometimes just foundation and powder doesn't satisfy me enough so I needed something extra to add some glow all over my face and after doing some online blog reading and Youtube video watching, I came across this  gem (literally). It's MAC's Strobe lotion and I've already tried it out and I love it. It does exactly what I was looking for, giving my face shine and vibrancy. I wear it under my foundation but because my skin is slightly dry I moisturise before using this so my skin looks nice a soft when my make up is finished. I wasn't too keen on the price of this, but I know I will make full use of it on a daily basis, it was just over £20. For night's out, I would mix this with my foundation so my skin really is glowing and looks nice :) The lotion is white/pearly and makes an instant difference to my skin when I apply it. 

FINALLY! I purchased an Urban Decay 'Naked' palette, I have had my eye on them for a long time and after looking at the pictures of the Naked 3 palette I decided I preferred the Naked 1 palette. The colours are amazing, super wearable, easily blendable (is that a word?) and just perfection. Debenhams had a 15% off sale so I managed to get this from £37 to £31 which I was very pleased about. I was actually disappointed with the brush it came with, I don't think I'm going to ever need it. However, as well as the amazing colours, this palette came with a mini eye primer which was much needed and I have heard some great things about it and they're all true, it really does work. My eye shadow doesn't crease and it actually stays perfectly in place until the end of the day which is what every girl wants. 
                                 

MAC Lipsticks: New additions!

My favourite make up product ever has got to be lipsticks! My ultimate lip products are from MAC and Rimmel (Kate Moss collection only) and recently I've purchased these two new colours by MAC called 'Diva' and 'Angel'.

 In the picture below I am wearing 'Diva' which is quite a vampy colour and although it makes me look pale I absolutely love it. The matte finish really makes it look velvet and the longevity of MAC lipsticks never ceases to amaze me. Because I'm now wearing slightly darker colours and more knits, the colour goes perfectly with a lot of my outfits and for my eye make up I keep it very simple, here I have on just brown eye shadow which you can't see very well.

Me wearing 'Diva'

Matching my hair with my lipstick seemed like a bad idea until I tried it... Last weekend I had full pink hair which was incredibly fun and playful however it was just a wash out colour, merely a brief experiment! Different to 'Diva', 'Angel' has a frost finish which is more moisturising and definitely easier to apply as it's quite balmy. Usually for nude lipsticks or light pink lipsticks I would apply a lipgloss on top to add some dynamic to it, but I don't need to do it with 'Angel' since it's quite shiny itself. Although it's clearly a lipstick, I would describe it as a cross between a lip balm, lipstick and lip gloss as it's got the qualities of all three products in one. For all these reasons listed, this is now my favourite 'your lips but better' lipstick. Have I sold you the product yet? Have I? (MAC should hire me for this...-___-)

Dramatic demonstration of 'Angel'

First Haul! Beauty/Make up

Hey guys, so today I took a trip to the shopping centre/mall (w.e you wanna call it) and grabbed a few items... 

1. I finally got colour matched by a professional! I normally just wear cheap Rimmel foundations (don't hate on drugstore) and they've been really great but I thought it was finally time to treat myself to a luxury foundation. The lady at YSL named Clio (hey Clio if you're reading this), was really helpful and we had the same skin types (normal to dry skin) so she was the perfect person to go to for advice! I sampled YSL La Teint Touche Eclat in three types of beige: beige flat, beige gold and beige rose, all in shade no. 30. I went for the beige flat because it complemented my skin tone and features the most.

 Foundation: YSL Touche Eclat (£28.00)

Velvet Goth collection #love

2. I walked past the new Models Own stand in my local mall which opened two day

s ago and had a look around browsing their range and fell in love with their 'Velvet Goth' collection! I purchased the midnight blue colour and couldn't wait to wear it as soon as I got home. I can tell this will be a Winter favourite of mine already. 

Nail polish: Models Own, Velvet Goth Collection in 'Valerian' (£5.00)

3. Third item I purchased and this is largely thanks to my lovely friend/fellow blogger Anila (check out her beauty blog here: http://anilas-armadio.blogspot.co.uk), was the 'Real Techniques' brushes by Samantha Chapman. Since I invested in a good foundation, I justified this purchase as the application of the product is equally as important as the product itself! (Trying to justify your shopping addictions is evidence of guilt). These are great quality brushes, not too fancy, but extremely practical and super cheap as well!

Brushes: Real Techniques (£21.99)

4. I've read great reviews on this product and I'm already a fan of the brand anyway. I needed an affordable moisturiser so I went for this one.

Moisturiser: Simple, Hydrating Light Moisturiser (around the £3 price)

5. My make up collection is slowly expanding while my storage for it all is decreasing. I was in desperate need of a make up bag because I keep losing products. While I was in Boots I saw this Ted Baker one and had to have it! It's spacious, pretty and quite affordable. 

Make up bag: Ted Baker (£10)

6. A few people ask me what mascara I use and there are only two I really love. This is my all time favourite mascara. It's a Rimmel product, super cheap and I've been renewing it for 2-3 years. My second favourite but I didn't buy this time round is, 'They're Real' by Benefit. 

Mascara: Rimmel, Black/Black Volume Flash Mascara (£5.99)

7. I appreciate this one is slightly out of place with Beauty/Make up but I had to put it in! It's a 2014 Calendar with each month containing Banksy's art work. I found it in Paperchase and fell it love. I love calendars because I can visually see dates and have things to look forward to every month. 

Calendar: Paperchase (£10)

Finally my OOTD:

Shirt: H&M
Necklace: Zara
Jumper: Pull and Bear

Navy Skinny Jeans: H&M