Tis the season for lots of parties, and getting glammed up. This year, my first Christmas party landed right on December 1st, giving me an occasion to get dolled up before eating lots of pigs in blankets. As part of Durham's collegiate system, I now have formals to attend - where we eat scrumptious 3 course meals then dance the night away at our college bar. Tickets were sold out within minutes for the hottest event of the year - the Christmas Formal - and luckily my chums and I were able to bag a table to ourselves.



For such a festive occasion, some super glittery make up was needed. So I thought I'd share this make up look on the blog, as some inspiration for the party season. It's not often I get fancy, and I was so excited to wear something other than cosy jumpers!

I was wearing a dress that I recently bought from New Look, which was mesh, with a black slip underneath, and has flowers embroidered on the front and sleeves. I've chosen this as my Christmas Day dress (its also stretchy so perfect for all the food I'll be eating), but decided to wear it last night as it was a special occasion.

I decided to base my make up around the flowers on the dress - taking inspiration from the greens and pinks of the flowers. I used greens and silvers on my eyes - something which I haven't done in years, but I remembered hearing that green is a good colour to make green eyes pop. I also blended some dark purple on the outer corner of my eye. On my lips, I stuck with a favourite of mine - NYX Matte Siren. A few weeks ago I shared my autumn makeup look, and used another berry NYX lipstick, but this one is a darker shade, and one I tend to wear more in December.

Summer swiftly came and went, and within a couple of days of changing the calendar page, the cold weather had set in. Scarves and boots are the new staple of my wardrobe, as each walk into uni requires trudging through piles of leaves while the wind hits. 

I wanted to start off this post by saying - look at that warm weather, it must be the start of summer! - but I can't. Last week we had snow in Aberdeen, and this week the grey skies over Edinburgh haven't wanted to shift. BUT despite this, I'm still mentally preparing myself for summer, and sorting out my make up bag at the same time. My summer plans are still in the making - I'll be jetting off to Italy to take part in this season of excavation with the Apolline Project, popping down to London to spend time with my brother and sister, and hopefully able to fly off abroad for a break in the sun at some point too. While my exact dates and locations are still up in the air, it doesn't mean I can't start organising my summer beauty products.

Last week I went along to a wee Body Shop event, after mi Edinburgh extended an invite to the community of Edinburgh Bloggers. The 'VIP' Event allowed us to shop with a glass of fizz in hand, munching on some christmas cookies and get to know the stock. They also gave us an offer to get some discounted products, which sent my heart a flutter and my legs into over drive to get around each and every stall.

One of the products that caught my eye was the concealer crayon. Now being a girl who still hasn't perfected a skin care routine (although that is in progress, thanks to The Body Shop again) and has stubborn bags under her eyes - I am always open to trying a new concealer.



I was instantly interested by the look of it. A big, fat crayon that you can actually draw on your face with? The inner child in me squealed with delight! The packaging feel smooth, and all that's needed is a big sharpen so that you can keep getting more and more out of this product. Its like the gift that keeps giving!



The coverage is good. I'll admit that it does feel a little cakey on my under eyes - but I am yet to perfect the quantity needed. It covers blemishes and pesky spots well, although by the end of the day it has rubbed off slightly. Maybe this is due to the amount of time I spend covering my face as I cry over essays at the library.



Overall, I'm impressed with this product. Its been ages since I've used a stick concealer - for a few years Collection Lasting Perfection has been my go-to, but now I feel like I've found a new staple in my make up bag.

It's a little bit more expensive than my normal drug store purchases are - at £9 a pop. However, I feel that this crayon will last for much longer than normal concealers, making it well worth the purchase. And the most probable repurchase after that!

What's In My Autumn Make Up Bag

Love,
Emily
xxx

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• Make up bag - Primark
• Stila Blusher
• Sunkissed Blusher
• Benefit High Beam Highlighter
• Benefit Hoola Bronzer
• Sunkissed Bronzer
• MUA Matte Black Liquid Eyeliner 
• Clinique High Impact Mascara 
• Makeup Revolution Amazing Volume Mascara
• Makeup Revolution Focus and Fix Eyebrow Kit
• Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer

I've decided to add a new & regular style of post to my blog, and that is a little round up of my week, including things that I have been loving in the week as well as what I've been doing.



This week has been a fairly busy one and started with a day of travelling back from Leominster to Aberdeen. Now that I'm home, I've been all about the family time. I'm about to leave next week to go to Italy so want to fit in as much bonding time as possible. Saying that, I've also fit in a couple of nights out with my school friends as well as spending the days following lying on the sofa and trying to control the hangover (please share your secrets - I can't deal with another hangover at the level I was experiencing this week!). Now it's all about the packing and preparation for my trip, I expect next week will be a busy one, with trips to Primark scheduled between child minding and day trips, but want to enjoy as much time with the fam as possible. Including today, which is Father's Day in the UK - so lots of spoiling of my dad will occur as well as a dinner with chips and baked beans included, since it seems he has truly embraced the student lifestyle after completing his first year at uni.

Things I've loved & enjoyed this week

1. Lemon juice - I am making a real effort at drinking more water, but since I'm not a huge lover of plain water I've been adding a slice of lemon to it. As well as the fact my mum bought a huge pack from Costco. and needs some help getting through them all. 
2. Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight - I was given a long list of books to read by my sister and finished this one at the start of the week. Its a really interesting story about a mother investigating the death of her daughter, which had been ruled as suicide. Throughout the book you're constantly questioning everyone's actions as you follow Amelia in the month before her death, and I found it a really intriguing read. 
3. Iconic 2 Palette from Make Up Revolution - my mum bought this for me to do Eleanor's make up for her school dance with, but I've found myself using it this week too, as I really love the browns included in it. 
4. How to work off your Wimbledon favourites - I was contacted by Central London Apartments who shared this infographic with me. Its really interesting to see how much tennis you'd have to play for different treats you eat over summer, and particularly over the Wimbledon period. Have a look for yourself here and see how much you'll have to play. I love this concept, especially as getting bikini body ready is on my mind!
5. Primark Black Cut Out shoes - I featured these the other day as an OOTD ( shameless plug for you to have a look here ). I don't think I've worn another pair of shoes this last week. They are super comfortable and can be styled with anything. They were perfect for all the walking I did in Manchester and Leominster and didn't blister once. 
6. Prison Break - I am obsessed, and have been since I finished uni for the summer. Its such a great series that I can not recommend enough. I seriously missed it while I was off on my travels, and now I'm back I can't wait to watch the last of series 4. If you're looking for a series to watch then this is the one. (And Wentworth Miller is utterly gorgeous).

You may have seen my tweets last weekend (and in the run up to) where I was very excited for the Festival of Museums. This is something I hadn't seen until I was emailed about it inviting me along to an event. Across Scotland museums were holding events to encourage the public to engage with their local history, and get to experience some history / archaeology in action. What with history being my fave thing, I decided to go to two events on the Saturday - Burke's Bones and A Scandal At Surgeon's Hall. 

You may have heard of Burke and Hare before - a very famous pair of murders who sold the bodies of their victims to Dr Knox to perform anatomy on them. It's a super popular tale in Scotland, and especially in Edinburgh where you can visit the streets that the two walked. Since I know a fair amount about the brutal murders that occurred, I was super excited to go along to hear a lecture on Burke and Hare, and a chance to see the Anatomy Museum where Burke's skeleton is still displayed. It was such an interesting talk, and great to visit the museum again to see some of the more squeamish exhibits.



That night I then attended 'A Scandal At Surgeon's Hall'. I was SO excited to go along to this event, and decided to take along my sister and her boyfriend since I hadn't seen them all Easter. The event had everything going for it - a murder mystery, a ceilidh, fortune tellers, magicians and face painting. And best of all we were encouraged to come in costume. We tried of course, but our attempts at Victorian style costumes ended up looking more 1920s, but nonetheless it was great to see 200 people all dressed in Victorian / Steam punk inspired get ups.







One room had the 'crime scene' in it which we had to solve, using clues dotted around the room. We made a pretty good attempt, and came almost close to solving it, after spending about an hour deliberating over different theories of 'who dunnit?'. The decorations were amazing for the room were amazing. So much effort was put into creating the murder scene, with hand drawn medical diagrams and even a dummy staged as a the victim. It was incredible to see the crime scene and it really added to the atmosphere of the night.




The majority of the night was spent upstairs at the ceilidh. The band were amazing and got every one up off their feet dancing. We spent so much time dancing, that unfortunately we missed the fortune teller, which we were gutted about, but we were quick back up on the dance floor!

We did make a stop at the face painting station, and I was in love with the design that the woman painted on my face. They were all so talented, and I was so impressed!




The night unfortunately came to an end at 11 o'clock, and a couple hundred victorian people spilled out onto the streets of Edinburgh. It was such an amazing night, so much fun and not something you get to do often.

As I've said before, history is so important and its great to see the different ways that history can engage the public, especially young children. Make sure you take a trip to your local museum to see what history surrounds you, it is so fascinating. I'm so glad I heard about Festival of Museums, and got to attend some of the events, I can't wait to see what events are held next year.  

Here's the three of our outfits for the night, you can decide how well we did!





Were you in Scotland for Festival of Museums 2015?
Let me know what your favourite thing about history is, I'd love to get chatting with some history buffs!

Love,
Emily
xxx

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Ps: I'm nearing 800 followers on Bloglovin which is just crazy! I'd love it if you'd give me a wee follow and keep updated with all my posts. Thank you, thank you!

We all have things that work and don't work for us. What makes our skin react badly, what way to apply a certain product and what things can help the feel of your skin. !

source

SO this week's post for teen blog series is all about sharing some of those tips we've picked up over the years. And these are my tips on how to make your skin look good WITHOUT spending lots of money on products


Drink plenty of Water! I must admit, I'm not the biggest fan of drinking water, but I have been making a concious effort to try and drink more water. It's so good for your skin; it hydrates your skin which is key for people with dry skin. It also really helps reduce dark circles under your eyes!

Get a good night's sleep! This is so so important, you'll wake up feeling so much better if you go to bed at a decent time. It helps your body and your skin, so instead of staying up watching youtube or 4od (which I am very guilty of) try turning your lights out and getting a full 8-10 hours sleep. You'll find you have so much more energy the next day too!

Be a morning person! Who else hates their alarm when it goes off and all you want to do is curl back down and sleep until you WANT to wake up? YES it's fine to let yourself just sleep in if you're needing it, but only do that every so often! It's so much better if you get up early and make the most of the day. I'm not saying the crack of dawn, but I like to be up about 8 each day and it helps me fully waken up before I start the day's work.

Eat well! Filling up on junk food and fizzy juices will do NOTHING good for your skin. Times of the year, like Christmas, when chocolates and wine are only an arms length away I notice that my skin gets worse. It's so important to try and eat healthily and get your 5-a-day, and you'll notice the difference in your skin!

Banana Skin Face Wash Scrubbing the inside of a banana peel over your face helps to remove all the dirt from the day. AND the peel will usually end up black after getting all the pollution and dirt out that is clogging up your pores. It really helps to clear up your skin and reduce spots.

I hope some of these tips help you! Leave links below with your beauty tips for Teen Blog Series week 8!

Lots of love,
Emily
xxx

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It is week two of the Teen Blog Series, and the topic this week is Best Foundation and Brow Routine For Teens. And this is what I have to say!

Foundation 

It is only recently that I have actually started wearing foundation, and by recently I mean last week. Before, I have always worn tinted moisturiser. I have found that this is a light cover, and very natural looking. However last week I thought I'd try a better (but still very light) cover, just to give myself a base to my makeup. And so for this post, I thought I'd recommend both products that I have used.

I have always thought that a base should be very light, and natural looking. A huge pet hate of mine, and I presume all others, is the foundation line. Of course it can be difficult to find the exact match for your cover but make sure you blend! And I find the best way to avoid the line under the jaw is by pulling the "double chin" look, and blending down my neck. Honestly, it sounds ridiculous but works a treat.




Tinted moisturiser was something my mum actually introduced to my about 3 years ago. Previously I had only worn concealer and I was at the stage when most other girls in my year were branching out with makeup and wearing a little bit more to school. And because I've never really had much problems with my skin, I didn't need the full coverage that foundation offers, leading me to tinted moisturiser. It adds a little colour and hides some blemishes, without coating my skin. At this point I was also very worried that foundation would clog my pores and cause break outs (which I now know is not a problem). I have two tinted moisturisers that I used regularly. Boot's No7 gives a good coverage, however even the lightest colour is too dark for me, so I use this one over the summer months when I have a little more colour to my skin. Regularly, I use Clinique's tinted moisturiser. I couldn't recommend this enough, it stays throughout the day and feels very light on my skin. And they come in lighter shades too for those who are pale like myself, and I find that shade 1 matches my skin tone very well. I found that tinted moisturiser was very natural looking, and so perfect for my school where heavy make up was not allowed. And despite the fact I've got foundation now, I don't doubt that I'll be continuing to wear my tinted moisturiser when my skin doesn't need to much coverage. It is a bit more expensive than other tinted moisturiser, but over the last year I have only gone through 2 of the smaller bottles, and that is with generous usage, so it is definitely worth the extra pennies.



Now, though, I am starting to wear Clinique's foundation. It sits well, and provides a very light but adequate coverage. I see the difference between tinted moisturiser and foundation, and I do prefer the base that foundation gives. It also hasn't caused any break outs, something I was a little paranoid about, and I find it really good at covering those pesky dark circles under my eyes.  I have gone for a fairly expensive one, because I was worried about how my skin (which is very sensitive) would react to a high street one. But a little goes a long way and I can tell that this will last a good few months.

Eyebrows

I'll admit it now. I'm not all that into the strong brow look, I'm much more into a natural curve, not too thick and certainly not over plucked. However I think we all fall victim to over plucking at some point, which is why I find it best to usually just get my mum to pluck mine. Sad I know! But I find it best to let her follow the natural curve of my brow and at least she can see when they are matching. I do sometimes get mine waxed, but I have found this can be expensive and time consuming with the rate eyebrows grow so I just stick to plucking.



On my eye brows I have started using Makeup Revolution's Focus and Fix Eyebrow Kit, which  actually wrote a post about and you can check it out here if you fancy. I think eyebrows are supposed to match with your skin tone and hair colour. Since I am pale and blonde, I use a fairly light brown and tend to steer clear of the dark browns. I do love how a more defined eyebrow changes a face, so I think it's important to use product, whether it pencil (which I won't be able to advise on whatsoever) or powder.

And that is what I have to say about Foundation and Eyebrows!
Check out last week's #Teenblogseries here.

Be sure to share your tips and tricks in the comments, or if you use the same products as me!
And keep up to date with all my posts over on Bloglovin, I reached 200 followers just a couple of days ago which is AMAZING.

Love,
Emily
xxx

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ALOT of bloggers have been raving on about the MakeUp Revolution products, which FINALLY hit the super drug stores last week. And I had to be one of the first to try out the palettes, which I have been lusting after for a while now.

I made my way back to Edinburgh on Saturday just for the night because it was my friend's 19th Birthday and we were going to celebrate. Annoyingly, a lot of people were at home for the holidays, or busy revising for exams, but although there were only a few of us, we all had a great night. I haven't seen my friends for 2 weeks so it was great to see them all again, even if it was a fleeting visit.

The night ended up being a bit of a messy one, as it always does when ring of fire is involved in predrinks, and on Sunday morning I was definitely paying for it; a 9 o'clock train ride was certainly not ideal.

But I thought I'd share my outfit and make-up look for you to see, with a talk through of what make up I've got on.



For my birthday, some younger girls who live on my street and I've known for years very kindly gave me a sunkissed make up kit and I basically based my whole make up look around those eye shadows, which I find I use almost every day. The colours are not overly pigmented, so I find them perfect for an everyday, casual look. A while ago, though, I was watching a Tanya Burr video (which I can't find the exact one) where she said that she was using a bronzer and highlighter for her eye make up. In this kit that I was given is a very gold and shimmery bronzer and highlighter, which I tried to use initially, but on my pale complexion it didn't look good to say the least. So why I saw Tanya's video, I decided to try it out for my eyes, since she said golds were in season. I have found I really like this look and I've worn it on many a night out, but when I was getting ready on Saturday, I tried to change it up a little. This time, I've used the highlighter on the lid, and blended the bronzer above, as usual, but I also blended in the dark brown from the brown pallet into the crease and outer edge of my eye. I then used the cream underneath my eye brow, and somewhat daringly used a lilac from the purple pallet in the corner of my eye upwards. I find pale purples match my skin tone quite well, and I've been told that purples are supposed to bring out green eyes, so I took a risk adding it to this make up look, but I discovered it worked well because it was subtle, but brightened my eye. On my eyes, I also used my Max Factor mascara, a brown eye liner on the outer corners of my under eyes (which I found at the bottom of my make up bag), a white Natural Collection eye liner to the inner corners, which helps to widen your eye (and I feel like my eyes are quite small), as well as black liquid eye liner over the tops of my lid.




As a base on my face, I use Clinique tinted moisturiser, as I don't feel like my skin needs the thicker coverage that foundation gives, in the lightest shade; and touch up my spots and blemishes with collection lasting perfection concealer. Because I have been a little bit stressed this week, as well as eating a lot of unhealthy food, I've found that I have had quite a few spots that need more coverage, and so I used benefit boi-ing concealer on those spots. I used Benefit Dandelion blusher on the apples of my cheeks and on my lips, I've used the sunkissed lip liner, which I then went over with just vaseline to give it a shinier appearance.



And there's my attempt at a make up explaination! Hopefully this was interesting to some people, obviously I am in no way a make up artist, nor do I want to be one or try to be one, but I've recently been asked about my eye shaddow, and I just fancied trying to do a make up post.

What I wore

• Black crop top from Republic (bought last Spring) 
• Pink chequered tight skirt from Internationale
• Skin coloured tights (I forgot to bring black tights as I have all of mine at home with me)
• Black gym type shoes from Primark
• Necklace from Internationale
• Leather coat from Miss Selfridge (bought last winter) 

Emily
xxx