September Favourites

Once again I've been slacking majorly! 
If you're wondering why then head over to my other/new blog 

http://cancerchronicles15.blogspot.co.uk/

I just wanted to do a quick post to let you know some of the things I've been loving in September- some beauty, some fashion and some lifestyle bits and bobs!
It's a tad all over the place but I hope that's okay! 

So firstly, BEAUTY!

Now I'm a tad late on the wagon with this but... Sleek bronzer- I saw Zoella post about it months ago maybe even last year, but I only got it recently, I got the Sahara shade and it's reaaaaally beaut for contouring! Even just adding a touch of colour to your cheeks if you're not going for a full face! It's not expensive either which is ALWAYS a plus! I can't seem to find a link for you online but I got this from Superdrug and it was under £5!

Next up is MAC translucent powder (yes I know I'm yet again late to the party) 
It is actually my best friend, exactly what I've been looking for- I used to use powders but every powder I had seemed a little orange and just slipped off my face after no time at all, THISSSSSSS just sets my foundations makes it last so much longer and makes me the happiest little bunny ever! It's the perfect consistency it's not really powdery looking, it's not all white making me look more ghostly than I already do it's just- PERFECT! Although I do need to find a new powder brush so if anyone has any recommendations PLEASE let me know!

Next and lastly for beauty is a concealer I recently acquired, from collection, it was under £2 and honestly the best concealer I've ever tried! So I've been using my wake me up concealer for ages and I love it, however, recently it's started to look really orange on my skin and the coverage is just not doing it for me anymore SO I thought this one looked really.... dense. Is that a word I can use? 

Well yeah, it's in lipstick form as I'd say and honestly soooo nice! Such good coverage and it's lasted me up to 6 hours when I just needed to reapply it under my eyes (this may be because my under eyes are really bad from lack of sleep and treatment) 

Little clothes and accessories and bits! 

I got this hat in Selfridges and I looooves it, I literally never wear hats except my trusty wooly hat in the cold cold winter but I saw this and I just fell in love!

I've been trying to find things to wear it with but as it's black it's EASY!

Now I only wear silver jewellery really, and I've been looking for a large faced silver watch for sometime now but they all have really thick chunky straps and it's put me off- THEN I found this watch at the weekend!

I'm obsessed!!

My sister and I then travelled to Richmond Theatre to see Psychic Sally and stopped at a services for some food and a starbucks- my drink of choice was Hazelnut Soya Decaff Latte- SUCH A MOUTHFUL. So delicious and reminds me of winter, scarves and CHRISTMAS!

Whilst at Psychic Sally my sister and I got matching infinity bracelets, they were only £5 each and so special! 

SO, If you've been reading my Cancer Chronicles, you'll know I'm loving Ed Sheeran at the moment and he's been making me pretty chilled and happy and I'm so in love! 

Well I got absolutely no sleep last night and finally drifted off about 7am this morning THEN at 10am I was woken up by a tweet from Gracie saying I'd WON tickets to see Ed in concert next wednesday,honestly, nearly died!

Head over to her blog- 

http://www.graciefrancesca.com/

Or her YouTube channel-

https://www.youtube.com/user/UglyFaceOfBeauty

I think we might be twins, for reals, ugly face of beauty- beautiful disaster....

IT JUST MAKES SENSE.

Also, as I see from her most recent post neither of us like wearing bras! 

HAHA!

That's all for today, MWAH!

Cup of Tea and a Catch Up

Well, Well, I have not blogged since MARCH!

That is madness because it is now August and so much has changed!
Not only that but where on earth is 2014 going?!
We're a mere 4 months away from 2015! 

I'll get right into it and tell you a bit about some of the products I've recently purchased and been enjoying!
Firstly, I managed to grab myself a naked pallette, BUT, I got number 2 not 3- purely because the 3 has more pinks in it and the 2 literally goes from black to white so I can use the really light colours for highlighting and contouring! All the metallic colours are exactly the shades I enjoy!

When I went and got this pallette I needed a few bits anyway but actually ended up spending over £100 on beauty I have a real boots addiction! THANK THE LORD FOR THE BOOTS CARD!

I also got Watts Up! from Benefit, it is my most amazing product 'shine bright like my cheekbones' It glides on so nicely, I don't actually use the buffer on the other end I use my Real Techniks stippling brush just to buff it in on top of my foundation (I'm using MAC studio sculpt foundation at the moment) 

Myself and my best friend keep having these glorious cosy nights in, with chocolate, movies, wine, chats and candles. Every girl needs these nights! 

You can go out all you want gallivanting round town but I truly believe nothing will beat a one on one night with your best friend in the world doing..... nothing.

We buy eachother flowers but we're always at my house so we just keep them here, which is obviously great for me because my room is always bright and flowery now, however, not so great when they die because they all seem to smell like egg when they die now which is not the nicest scent to wake up to!

Talking of scents there's 2 things I smell of at the moment one of which is my newest hair product from Fudge- their 'Urban Fudge Iced Raspberry and Vanilla Hairspray' this is a product I J'adore! It not only smells amazing but it's the first hairspray I've found that holds my hair really well without being all crispy (my shockwaves hairspray is pretty crispy but I still love it for when I need some serious hold on my out of control baby hairs) when I use my 'magic wand' to curl my hair then brush it out I need it to hold *obviously* so I do the old flick my head upside down spray and hair flick back again, for some reason writing that all I could picture myself doing was the bend and snap from Legally Blonde!

This blog has taken me 4 days to write and I've only got this far, I've had a bloody operation in between writing this blog, never has blog writing been so exciting!

Okay so, as I was saying, the other scent I smell of at the moment is a new perfume I got as a present- Armani Si- I know I said before that I wanted to find one perfume and stick to it and one of the ones I have already was going to be THAT perfume but... I totally changed my mind, I think this is going to be the one!

It's a really sweet scent as most of mine are so go careful you WILL walk around smelling like a candy shop!

It's a really long lasting scent- as with my other Armani perfume it stays on cardigans and scarves (you know how I love that I could probably write a whole blog post about how I love that)

 This one was bought in The Perfume Shop but I'm pretty sure you can get it in boots too!

It's about the same price range as my other Armani perfume, they all seem to be around the £40 mark at the moment!

Right- just one more thing- I've been searching for a really good eyeliner FOREVER- I've tried liquid I've tried gel I've tried pencil and nothing seems to work- I'd almost given up with the idea and just thought quite CLEARLY I am not destined to ever rock a cat eye, THEN Zoe did a post about the soap and glory super cat liner and I thought, as a last resort, let's try it.

THANK HEAVENS I DID!

It has become a staple in the Ted Baker- It is in my daily make-up bag and I couldn't be without it, the tip is spectacular- I'll link you to Zoe's video so you can properly see but just know if you just want a really thin line to open your eyes and lengthen your lash line- THIS WILL WORK.

If you want to give yourself a really dramatic cat eye-

THIS WILL WORK.

If you want a simple upper and lower lash line-

THIS WILL WORK.

It's literally incredible.

just- incredible.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvV_lqHXPLc&list=UUWRV5AVOlKJR1Flvgt310Cw

There's a link to Zoe's video- although I bet most of you have already seen it! Cheeky cats.

Well that's it from me for now- I've made a request list that I'll get through whilst I'm bed bound including my daily make up routine and products and a 20 facts about me tag and a few other bits so stay posted! 

Let me know if you've used any of the products I mentioned and please keep sending me pictures of your cosy nights in- you've been giving me fabulous ideas (Thanks Rosy for the grated chocolate idea) 

A Few Favourites/Update

Bonjourno you lovely lot!

So this is not going to be a beauty review or blog post sorry to disapoint, if you only come here for the beauty and you're not interested in my life posts then don't feel you have to read this!

Where to start, I've had a really nice week to be honest, even if there hasn't been much done!

Been spending this last week with all my friends it's been really chilled and nice...

Even if they are all guys and I spent a LOT of time watching The Vampire Diaries

I'm only just starting season 1 as I didn't watch it when it was on TV, I'm really enjoying it though! After finishing Gossip Girl I was left with a hole in my heart there was nothing to fill my spare time with so I searched around and this seemed right up my street. I WAS SO RIGHT! I love it.

On one of the days we took Blue and Dexter for a walk, it was such a lovely day and although the pictures were only on my iPhone I really liked them, it has made me really appreciate living near such a big beautiful forest!

Here's a few photos of the pooches and view from the top of a hill.

Aswell as lovely walks in the sun I suppose I had to do a bit of work so what makes work more appealing than a bit of sushi in the car? NOT MUCH.

I'm really enjoying Hoisin Duck Sushi, it's just a little packet one from Tesco but it fills me up quite nicely, I'm always quite confused as to weather sushi is actually healthy for you or not, but to be honest, I'm not that bothered as it's beautiful tasting!

I RECEIVED AN EARLY EASTER PRESENT!

It was as if all my dreams came true, I am a massive kinder fan, it's my favourite chocolate so to see that they are now selling GIANT kinder eggs as easter eggs with POLLY POCKETS inside well, my internal internet nearly broke! (Just like to mention I've never referred to my insides as the internet before but my good friend Tammie just mentioned it to me on twitter and NOW I'M WRITING IT, she's crazy but so funny- go follow her on twitter if you need a little cheer up, or if you love Robert Knepper! @willowtree81)

Right, where was I? Ahh yes, POLLY POCKETS, I used to have so many when I was younger... I mean the ones like this-

Here's the egg, if you'd like to buy one yourself click the link under the picture and it will take you to the product darlings, aren't I kind?

http://www.tesco.com/groceries/Product/Details/?id=254633962

Now to today, I went to the local VILLAGE to have some lunch at Seashells which was lovely AS USUAL, If you are ever in Hythe, Southampton, I suggest you go there, we got 2 separate Ciabattas and split them (purely because I couldn't chose between two)

One was crayfish and smoked salmon and the other was chargrilled chicken with lemon and garlic mayonnaise, both were lovely and they both came with some fries.

Here is a quick snap of the view from our table (we sat inside because although it was lovely it wasn't QUITE warm enough to sit outside when by the sea)  

Maybe worth mentioning that BEFORE lunch we went for a run/walk in the forest, He walked I ran (sometimes) It made me feel awfully healthy so naturally this evening I had to have some chocolate, phew, that was close.

Right, This was a really random blog post I'm sorry!

It's 00:23 and I should really probably go to sleep as I forgot until now that I have a 12 hour shift at work tomorrow. PANTS.

What sort of things have YOU done this week? I'm nosy. 

Twitter: @charlougray

Instagram: @charlougray

Rimmel BB Cream- REVIEW

This BB cream is one I picked up on a very random trip into Superdrug, I hadn't planned to go in, I planned to go to Starbucks but all the while I was sat in a Starbucks attempting to work there was a Superdrug next door, OF COURSE this enticed me in, completely. But I was SUCH a good girl, even if I do say so myself!
I have been searching around for a good BB cream for quite a while now trying a few and never really falling in love with any... until now!

PROS:
Stays on for a LONG time, applied at 8:30am still going strong 12 hours later
Applies smoothly
Pretty purple on the packaging 
I only use a pea size amount and it covers my whole face
Lovely Matte finish

CONS:
Still a slightly orange colour
Dries my skin out unless I moisturise*

With these cons I've found a way to get around them, *I use a moisturiser before I apply make-up now like a day cream, I'm still trying to find a really nice one of those but my Nivea one works fine at the moment. This means the BB cream can't dry my skin out and it evens out the 'orange' colour, I've found this orange tone with every BB cream I've used but it's never been good enough to try and sort it or put up with it, but it seems this one is!
It's a great drug store BB cream next I'm going to try the Benefit BB Balm.

Do you use a BB cream? Which one and do you love it?

Illamasqua Eye Brow Cake- REVIEW

I have never got something on as much of an impulse as this!

I don't think that even makes sense but I literally had no idea what this product would be like I was just looking for an eyebrow pencil then BOOM saw this it looked so pretty I just got it!

Can't say I'm disappointed either!

• Pros      
• Long Lasting
• Duo Uses
• Beautiful Packaging
• Gorgeous Colour
• Cons
• Bit Pricey

That is literally my only con for this product as I love it, what I meant about the duo uses is you can use it as a dry powder to brush over your brows to add definition and colour in the spars hairs but also if you wet your brush and apply it you can create a more defined brow with pigmented colouring, much like HD Brows really except you do have to reapply the next day HAHA. 

To apply this product I use the Daniel Sandler Brow Filler brush: 

It's really nice because it's perfectly angled and the right about of bristles to make it quite hard which means I'm not flicking the powder everywhere when I use it!

Here is a link for you if you'd like to purchase it- I have it in the shade Gaze because my eyebrows are literally black but obviously you can look through the different shades to see what would be best for you, any questions just ask I'll do my best to answer them for you!

http://www.illamasqua.com/shop/products/eyes/eye-brows/gaze-eye-brow-cake

MUA Lipsticks- REVIEW

MUA Lipsticks, oh my goodness!

Were do I even start?

A good place to start has got to be the price- £1. 

ONE. POUND. 

For a lipstick, that's not sale price that's just how much they are!

I absolutely love these shades that I have (I have a couple more but these are my favourite) 

The lipsticks themselves have beautiful pigments, they last about 2-3 hours for me with eating and drinking etc then I just reapply. They go on really smoothly especially over my LUSH lip scrub- 

This scrub really helps my lips as they're constantly chapped and sore I have no idea why I can use lip balm constantly and it won't heal the overall condition of my lips. My favourite lip products for the condition of my lips are: My LUSH Bubblegum Lip Scrub although sometimes the bubble gum flavour's a bit much because you have to scrub your lips then lick the sugar off... the flavouring is sometimes a bit unexpected like you shouldn't really be doing it, perhaps I need to try different flavours?! If anyone else has this product how have you found it?  

My other favourite product is Baby Lips: The Yellow one! 

This is basically my best friend I recommend it to everyone it's truly amazing! I have it in a few different 'colours' and I've loved them all, none as much as this one though I have to say! 

Just a quick note about the MUA lipsticks before I leave- at the bottom of the lipstick where you see the colour of the lipstick if you unscrew that it's a little tinted lip balm!!!

GENIUS!

Benefit Porefessional- REVIEW

THIS! This product is my saviour, honestly, I have had a real complex about my pores for about 2 years now and at one point I stopped wearing foundation because I felt it showed them up a little too much. 

They are just THERE. 

I cannot get away from them. So anyway cut to me shopping with my best friend we obviously headed to boots it's our first port of call and sometimes our ONLY! 

I was looking for a face wash or cream to minimise the appearance of them and she mentioned this product SO I trusted her and got it!

THANK THE BENEFIT LORDS I DID.

Or thank the best friend lords...

With this product I use like half a pea size daily, however if I'm going to a special summin summin I do tend to add a little more for the extra coverage, got to fill in them holes with the silicone, which I'm fine with! HA! It's such a silky product feels so nice going on and applying my foundation over the top of it is so luxurious! Improves the wear of my foundation too! BONUS! 

 To be honest I don't wear a lot of make-up, it doesn't suit me to wear a lot which is actually REALLY annoying because there so many products I want to buy and try and it just isn't worth it to buy them to purely experiment with at home!

On a daily basis I normally wear...

This is:

• Rimmel Wake Me Up Foundation
• Rimmel Wake Me Up Concealer 
• MUA Powder Highlighter 
• Illamasqua Brow Cake
• Boujois Bronzing Powder
• Benefit Porefessionals
• Benefit They're Real Mascara

To apply these products I use Real Techniques Brushes and the silver brush is a chunky powder brush from Avon, I really like using that for my bronzer as it doesn't cake it on it applies just the right amount I think!

I love wearing baby lips lip balm on my lips too and have millions of lip products I like so I'll do a blog post on them soon, my sister always laughs at how many lip products I have in my bag at one time, let me tell you, it's excessive!