Wednesday 18 January 2012

puravida bracelets

I first heard about these bracelets when Lauren Conrad tweeted about them and of course, I wanted to have a look because I adore her fashion sense. The page she linked people too was the charity page of the website which made me think that Puravida bracelets were purely based on raising money for different charities. However, they are not exactly that but if you read on, you'll find out what exactly they do! I also mentioned these in my post yesterday and said I would be doing a separate post on them, so here you go!

i really loved the stamps on the envelope my bracelets came in and being the clumsy and reckless person i am, i unfortunately ripped one!









So I can't seem to get onto the Puravida website which is really annoying but the link is in one of the above pictures so I'm sure you guys will be able to search for it yourselves.

'Every bracelet purchased helps provide full time jobs for local artisans in costa rica'. Now who doesn't like contributing to charity whilst buying some gorgeous bracelets? As I said before, Lauren Conrad's link took me to the charity bracelet page and unfortunately, most of the bracelets raised money for American charities and whilst that's amazing for them, it would be pretty pointless for me to buy bracelets for charities I don't really have any connection too. However, I kept scrolling down and found the Breast Cancer one (the pink one) and the orange one which raises money for an animal charity (i can't remember exactly which one but it's an American one and i just had to get it because i am completely against animal cruelty and it means a lot to me). These two were $5 dollars each which was completely reasonable to me. But as I was trying to 'checkout', the website told me that the minimum amount I had to spend was $20. Very cheeky if you ask me. Anyway, I was a bit disappointed as I didn't want any other charity bracelets and I didn't realise there were any other types. But after a bit of random clicking and fumbling about, I came across their other bracelets and decided on this blue one. These ones were a bit more expensive ($13) but I really wanted the charity ones so was willing to pay the extra and they come in lots of different colours too. They finally arrived after about a week and for some reason they were kind of 'sticky' when I got them out of the packaging. I think it's just because of the material they are made of and luckily, the sticky-ness has gone now but I was slightly confused by that.

Overall I do recommend checking out the website as the bracelets are really lovely and are for a great cause. I do think it's a bit cheeky/naughty to have a minimum amount of money you can spend though (even if it is a selling technique).

Sorry if this is a short and quick post but I am extremely shattered and can barely keep my eyes open right now. I wasn't going to do a post but I really wanted to get this one done tonight and share with you my finds. I hope you enjoy nonetheless!

Tuesday 17 January 2012

post christmas spending PART 1

For today's post I thought I'd share with you some of the things I bought with my Christmas money. The things in the post were mostly bought with the money I received for Christmas (with one exception which you will understand by the end of the post) and I'm going to do another post on the stuff I bought with some gift vouchers I got once I've spent them (which may take a while because I really can't decide what to spend them on!). 



I've been needing some new underwear for an unbelievably long time so whilst in Marks & Spencers, returning a skirt my grandma got me for Christmas that I, unfortunately, didn't like, I looked in the sale section. I saw these and decided why not spend my gift token (that i got in return for the skirt) on these? Sooo I did! I absolutely adore M&S bras and they're such good quality. The fact that the pants sort of match the bras is completely coincidental. It wasn't done on purpose but it is nice to have relatively matching underwear.
rose bra - £8.00
spotty bra - £7.00
spotty knickers - £5.00 (my receipt actually says i paid 1p for these but i'm sure i didn't...)
rose knickers - £5.00
(all marks & spencer)


I cannot remember the last time I bought a pair of pyjamas which probably tells you how much I needed some new pyjama bottoms. I've wanted some of the 'classic' ones from Jack Wills for a long time but let's be honest, they are ridiculously expensive. I then went on to love a pair from Bedroom Athletics and I did put them on my Christmas list. However, I'm quite glad I didn't get them for Christmas as this pair is just lovely! I haven't worn them yet but they seem very comfortable and I assume that if/when I leave them on my radiator and then wear them to bed, they will keep me so so toasty!
pyjama bottoms - £10.00 (marks & spencer)


How lovely are these? Again, something I needed. I have a pair of fluffy pink bed socks that I have worn quite literally to death and the bottom of them is slowly disintegrating so a new pair was definitely on the cards! There was the choice between these or a bright pink pair but I definitely prefer this colour. I tried them on tonight and I love them! They are very very cosy and I know that I've probably missed most of the cold weather but I shall look forward to wearing them next Christmas!
bed socks - £7.00 (marks & spencer)




Who doesn't love a new purse? Purses and bags are my weakness. My parents always joke that I could open a bag shop, I have that many. But I'm growing a big love for purses. I really like big ones that have lots of compartments so when I saw this one last Wednesday whilst shopping with a friend, I knew it was perfect! It's got a gorgeous design on the front and I love the fact that the coral contrasts with the black. There were many other purses in my local River Island that I could of bought but I restrained myself to just one. This one. I transferred all my cards and change to this new one today and I got such a buzz. It's an unhealthy obsession...
purse - £17.00 (river island)


It was inevitable that I would buy a new bag with my Christmas money. This is the bag that pretty much every blogger has and that is, in fact, where I first saw it. It's a fake Rocco but to be honest, I'm not complaining. A designer bag is something I will probably never have so making do with a fake is fine by me. I absolutely adore the bag and I love wearing it out and about! I'm not going to go into too much detail about it as I want to do a 'What's In My Bag' post soon where I will show the bag in all it's glory!
bag - £30 (an ebay seller. i can't remember which one but there are lots)


Ah, definitely my favourite purchase. I usually get a calendar every Christmas but this one was different. This year I had to buy my own! I ended up leaving it quite late so a lot of the 'good' calendars were gone and I know I'd seen others before Christmas that I probably would have bought but I'm quite glad they weren't there as I found this one. Ever since I was a child, I've been obsessed with Where's Wally?. I have all the books and have completed them all at least once so to have a calendar where each month you have a different picture and different things to find, is exciting! I've already completed the January one as I tried to avoid revision which was not necessarily a good thing as I'm now very excited for February!
calendar - £5.00 (waterstones)



If I follow you and you've ever done a foundation post/review, I will more than likely have commented on it saying how I need a new foundation. BUT NOW I HAVE ONE! Yipeee! I've needed one for god knows how long so I was ecstatic when I finally bought one! The ironic thing is, however, is that I've decided not to wear make up unless I'm doing something important such as a party, a meal, seeing friends etc. So I don't actually need a new foundation. I don't wear it to school or dance or at home (to the misfortune of all those who see me during those times). However, when I do wear it (which has been a total of 2 times this year - how good!), I absolutely adore it! I want to do a proper review on it once I've used it more so look out for that. I'd also just like to point out that I had to go for the lightest shade (02 - Alabaster) which is horrific! I mean I have nothing against pale people, I just can't get over how pale I have gotten. I used to be so tanned and now I'm white and sort of glow. Plus I don't think it helps that I never wear fake tan. Ah well, I shall have to embrace it.
foundation - £15.00 (£10 from my boots gift voucher, £5 from Christmas money)

I also bought some Puravida bracelets with my Christmas money that will be coming in their own post tomorrow which will explain everything about them. And the remainder of my money will be spent on some of the LUSH valentine's goodies. Unfortunately last year I completely missed out on them but I'm hoping to get them nice and early this year to be able to give them a good go!

I'd finally like to say how much I love the new replying system on the comments! I only used the button for the first time today whilst replying to Niina and I loved it! I'm so happy Blogger got it sorted as I really struggled with working out how to reply to people who commented on my posts. And I'd just like to say to whoever has/will commented/comment on posts, thank you! I love reading what people think about what I'm writing and what people think about my blog!

Sunday 15 January 2012

weekly wonderings 001

So I think the word 'wonderings' is a random word I've just made up but I really wanted to do my own sort of 'sunday summary' type post. I've tried to start a little weekly feature before but I failed so I'm really hoping that I keep this post up. Anyway, the basis of it is is that I've started doing this thing on Facebook where I do a picture a day that kind of sums up what I've been up to that day and then at the end of the week I can remember what I did each day. Therefore, I thought I could put those pictures in each of the weekly posts and tell you what I've been up to in the past week and what I'm up to in the coming week. I hope that makes sense? But anyway, on with the post and I hope you enjoy it! A quick thing as well, these pictures are taken on my BlackBerry so are not of the best quality but they're still visible.






I didn't manage to take a picture every day this week but these are the ones I did take:

          a) MONDAY This past week I had my first A level modules and so I spent all Monday evening revising for Psychology. On Tuesday evening it was Biology. I also had General on Tuesday afternoon but that is hardly important, aha. I luckily don't have any exams until Summer except a History mock on the 26th of January but  I'm not too worried about that. 
          b) WEDNESDAY I've sort of neglected my reading for the past month due to revision taking over my priorities. But I am now able to get back on track with my reading list. I currently have an account on Goodreads after being introduced to the website by Blair. It's extremely useful for finding new books and seeing reviews on books you're interested in. So the first book I wanted to read was In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. It's actually the book I'm next going to be looking at in the next meeting of the book group I'm involved in at my school.
          c) THURSDAY On Thursday, I re-kindled my love for the Sex & The City movies and went on to watch them numerous times. They are honestly some of my favourite films and if you haven't seen them, they are an absolute must! If I could have anybody's lifestyle in the world, it would be Carrie Bradshaw's. Obviously, watching these films was much better than doing homework.
          d) FRIDAY If you've read my film review on War Horse then you'll know I went to see it on Friday with my friend Lottie. I can't even wait for the film to come out on DVD as I'm so excited to see it again. War Horse was the first film I've seen in a while at the cinema in a while and I really want to go more often. Actually whilst writing this post, the trailer for the film The Descendants came on and I did see it on Friday so I think when that comes out (the 27th January) I'll definitely go and see that.
          e) SUNDAY I've just spent today catching up on all the TV that I missed watching whilst working towards my exams which was really nice and relaxing. I was supposed to be going to two tap exam classes today but I really couldn't be bothered so I've done some History homework and watched Playing It Straight, New Girl and Shipwrecked

I haven't been up to much else this week except that last night I went over to my friend's house for a chinese and movie night which was really enjoyable. I've also been invited to 2 parties this week (so popular, lawlz), one of which I'm unsure about going to as there are some people there that I don't really like and the other I will most probably go to as I love the people going so we'll see if I can sort myself out and become sociable for a bit. I only found out today but Blogger has finally got a replying system on  blogposts which is wonderful as I used to 'reply' to people's comments on my posts but ended up deleting them as I thought they were slightly pointless because no one could see them so his new system is brilliant!

This week involves:

  1. One of my oldest friend's birthday is tomorrow and I'm planning on getting her a Thomas Sabo charm for her bracelet for her birthday.
  2. Planning on taking a trip into Manchester or to The Trafford Centre this week so I can go and check out the new Valentines Day stuff from Lush. I don't have a boyfriend so it's not like I'll be buying for 'a loved one' but I really like the look of the products this year. If I do purchase some of the stuff, I'll be sure to post about them and let you know how they are.
  3. On Tuesday I'm going to visit my friend Amy in hopsital as she's been really really ill recently, unfortunately. I'd say she's been feeling ill for the past 3 months and this is the second time she's been admitted to hospital which is ridiculous and the doctor's just don't know what they're doing and seem useless. I mean, I admire them but they can't diagnose my friend and it's just outright annoying. I'm hoping she'll be feeling okay on Tuesday and I'm praying she'll soon make a recovery.
  4. I'm also hoping to visit a member of my family (it's a long chain and i'm not sure how i'm related to her) who lives in Leeds either this weekend or next weekend. I really need to get organising it as I'm leaving it so last minute but I'm really looking forward to going as 'the person who I'm going to stay with''s apartment is gorgeous! Plus, I've only ever been to Leeds once for the festival last year so I'm excited to go and properly look around.
Ahh, finished. And two posts in one day! I'm going to go and watch The Reader which is on Channel 4 in a minute if anybody is interested. Whilst watching the advert for it just then I noticed that one of the actors in it was in War Horse (actually one of my favourites) so I can't wait to watch it now! Anyway, I hope everyone's had a lovely weekend and you have a lovely week!

Saturday 14 January 2012

models own products from clothes show live

Hello everyone! I am back in the blogging world after my momentary break. I had my last A level module (until Summer, urgh) on Wednesday morning and I am now free from revision! Ahhh, it feels good! So, my first post (as i have so many to do) is a quick post/small review on the products I managed to pick up when I was at Clothes Show Live last year. If you're interested in what I got up during the day, then you may like to look at this post and I also have a post, here, on all the goodies I got.






I have been wanting this colour for so long. I heard about it years ago, way before Models Own was really well known. Obviously the name completely captured me, 'Beth's Blue' and then seeing the colour, I was satisfied. I never managed to get my hands on a bottle, however, as I didn't visit the website often and obviously, no drug stores stock it. So when I got the chance to buy it at Clothes Show, I jumped at the chance! This was one of the products I was allowed to pick and I'm very happy with it. It's just the most gorgeous pastel blue and in some lights it looks slightly lilac-y.





This is the second nail product I picked. When the 'smash-up' nail polish craze came about I was a bit late on the bandwagon and never got round to purchasing a bottle to try it out. So, this was another great chance for me to try something I'd always wanted to try out! I didn't want to go for the typical black so I thought gold was lovely. I have yet to perfect it but I really do love it and I think it will be nice to use for just an accent nail.



The third product I got to pick was yet another nail one! And of course it was yet another one I've wanted to try out for a while. I've always admired blogger's who create such gorgeous art on their nails and unfortunately, I have a very unsteady hand so I'm hoping that this pen will be perfect for me and maybe one day I can have a go at doing leopard print nails!





So this is the first 'free' product I got in my goodie bag (all of the 'free' ones weren't chosen by me, they were random ones - some i really love and others i'm a bit unsure about). I never used to take care of my nails, I would just take off my old nail varnish and go straight ahead with putting new stuff on and as a result, my nails suffered big time. They were brittle, thin and chipped all the time. But after some tender love and care, they are slowly recovering so this lovely tool will hopefully get my nails back on the road to recovery. I've already been using it quite a bit and have seen a lot of improvement in my nails so I really do think everyone should get something like this!





5. Lipgloss in Red Hot
Now this lipgloss resembles the one I got with the Diet Coke offer (for more information, look at this post) and I will admit that the colours are very similar but when comparing, I found that this one was in fact more sparkly and lighter. The consistency is quite thick and I have a feeling it'll  be very sticky but it's just so red that I don't mind and I can't wait to be able to wear it out!




This is one of the product's I was a little unsure about when I first saw it in my bag. It's a very daring colour and not a lot of my make up goes with it. I'm also not sure I'd be brave enough to wear it. I still don't know when I'd wear it but I'll keep it just in case I need it for things like dance shows or halloween costumes. I didn't find the eyeliner very creamy compared to all the other pencils I have either so I think I'll have to 'wear it in' a little but hopefully I'll get some use out of it.


i don't know why it's gone this way, it's just blogger turning the picture round which is annoying.


I feel the same way about this colour as I do about the orange one. It's not something I'll be wearing very often but I can guarantee something will crop up where I need a neon green eyeliner.




This eyeliner was not something I would pick, personally, but thinking about it now, I could definitely get some use out of it. More use than the neon eye liners anyway. I do actually have 3 glitter liquid eyeliners from Barry M and I love them so having a purple one (i don't have one in this colour) in a pencil form is lovely. I really don't like the consistency, however, as it's quite scratchy (which is probably due to the glitter) and doesn't go on very easily. When I was doing a swatch on my hand it sort of crumbled slightly and came out in bits on my hand. I'm sure that's probably because that was the first time I've used it so it will hopefully get better with use.




Who doesn't need more mascaras? I do actually have a lot of waterproof mascaras but none of them do what this one does. This mascara lengthens and separates all my eyelashes like no other. I've never used a brush like this before. It's very sturdy and the bristles are made of a strong plastic but I really really love it. I used it last night when I went to the cinema and then put another mascara over the top of it and they just looked great together. I couldn't recommend this mascara more and I have a strong feeling, it will soon become one of my favourites.





Oh I do love an eyeshadow. I tend to neglect buying eyeshadows when I'm near make up counters and focus on lipsticks and nail varnishes so getting 4 (yes, four!) eyeshadow products in my goodie bag was a god send! I absolutely love the colour blue but I find it hard to use blue make up easily. I have this blue cream eyeshadow thing (sorry, it's really hard to explain) that I used to use all the time when I was younger but I kind of stopped using it after a while. However, I think this eyeshadow plus the old one would look amazing together!





Another lovely eyeshadow in a really nice, practical colour that I can't wait to use in a smoky eye! The only slight issue is the fact that, like the glitter eyeliner above, it was slightly scratchy and there were a few clumps but I quickly got rid of them by rubbing them gently under my fingers.





I'm not entirely sure how these two colours go together as when I tried to mix them on my fingers they formed a sort of grungy green/grey colour but I'm sure if I have a proper play with it, I'll form something nice. The colours are a khaki green and black and they're matte. They're not very pigmented, as you can see, but they're very soft.





This is definitely one of my favourite products from the goodie bag! It is the most gorgeous eyeshadow duo with two lovely colours - a darker sort of khaki green with gold sparkles and a bronze with silver-y sparkles. I've not tried them together yet but I am so looking forward to the next time I go out so I can try it out. They are also very pigmented which is always a bonus. 





Now this lip balm will go perfectly with the lip gloss I got. I think over the top would be better and I'd definitely use it on its own too. I wouldn't necessarily call it a lip balm but it would definitely constitute for a lip gloss. When on my lips I don't think it's very pigmented but I really do love it.





The final gorgeous item I got was a pink lip balm that actually comes out clear on my skin/lips. It is very sparkly though and not very sticky which I love! I think this would look lovely over the top of a matte lipstick if I didn't want a matte look that time. Oh I just can't wait to use it as it's such a cute colour!

So, 15 products for £10? I definitely think that was a bargain! I also love that I got a range of different types products (i.e. not all eye products or all nail products). I can't wait to get properly using everything and I'm very happy with everything I got. Also, whilst getting links for the post, I have found so many other products that I really want to get so I definitely think everyone should go and check out the Models Own website!

And before I end the post, I wanted to show two more pictures of my lovely little kitty, Toby. He really likes coming and sitting me whilst I take pictures for my posts and I thought you'd like to see my little companion.



A last little thing - I've done a bit of tweaking to my blog layout and now my pictures are much larger so I hope you can see things more clearly now!