Buttons &Bulldogs...

...Week in instagram pics #2...

*Yorkie buttons are the best, and big enough to write messages on!!

*Miley moo dishing out the sly eye and looking freaking adorable!

*Boiler breakdown saw me and Ben escaping our ice box of a flat and staying the night at Bobs.

*A blast from the past photo shoot, a Gypsy themed editorial...sooo Autumnul I love these pictures!
*The quote of my life!
*Bob getting his farmer boy groove on.
*'Xmassed up' Bobs bedroom.
*Psycho selfie!
*Chloe Croft London silk French Bulldog cushion a surprise pressie from Bob <3 (link)

I hope you have all had a great week!
Happpppppppyyyyyyy Friday!!
xxx

Drugstore basics- How do I choose the right foundation?

I'm presuming that if you have landed on this post then you are among the many women that walk into drug stores across the land and feel overwhelmed by the vast selection of cosmetics on offer, it is overwhelming, the cosmetics industry is super massive and growing all the time sometimes it would be nice, like most things in this day and age (ooooooh how old does that make me sound?? eek!) if things would pause, let us take a breather and catch up with it all. That's not going to happen though so I'll talk more generally about foundation, a tricky one to get right at the best of times, but throw in different finishes, formula's and a bunch of letters and numbers, it can be enough to make your head explode.Too dramatic??

Things to bear in mind when shopping for foundation.

These 4 things will work as your basic guide to picking an everyday foundation.

If you wanted a foundation for a specific occasion or one that will give you a specific quality to your skin then you would look at different factors, this is just the basic knowledge you need to be equipt with to begin.

1.Your skin tone- fair, medium,dark.

So that you know which section of the colour spectrum you should be looking at to begin with.Of course there are many variations within each tone...

2.Your undertone- cool, warm or neutral

  So that you pick a foundation with the correct base colour for your undertone

(The quickest way to check this is to look at the veins on your wrist if they are blue then you have a cool undertone, you have a warm undertone if they are more green, and if there is neither more green or blue then you have a neutral undertone.)

For example you could have fair skin but a warm undertone so you would want a pale colour foundation that is yellow based rather than pink.Those of us with neutral undertones should pick colours that have a balance of the two.

Just as a side note even if you have a cool undertone do steer clear of foundations that are overly pink based (fortunatley there aren't too many now a days!) as they never blend into the skin enough to leave a natural finish.

Test shades on your jawline in as natural a light as you can you will want to pick out the shade that best blends with your chest/shoulder colour.If you are stuck deciding between 2 shades pick out the lighter shade as you can always darken it with bronzer.

3.Your skin type normal, dry, oily or combination.

So that you pick a foundation with the formula and finish that is most beneficial to you regarding the application, longevity and overall look of the foundation you choose.

Generally, foundations aren't labelled up to specify which skin types they are most suitable for. Revlon colour stay shades do come in normal/dry and combination/oily however I can't think of another drugstore brand that specifically state skin type suitability on their foundation bottles.

4.Coverage 

This is personal preference all the way!

Ones to check out!

Normal-dry skin types

 Bourjois Healthy mix serum £10.99

Bourjois Healthy mix £9.99

Rimmel wake me up £8.99

Maybelline fit me! £7.99

Oily/combination 

Loreal True match (great shade range) £9.99

Revlon colourstay £12.49

Rimmel match perfection £6.99

Garnier nutritionist BB oil free miracle skin perfector £6.66

Bourjois 1,2,3 perfect £10.99

I really hope I explained this clearly and this was helpful to some of you!

Do tell me your drug store faves!!

xxx

Seventeen Stay pout lipstick

Saintly

Its complicated

Top- Its complicated
Bottom- Saintly

Stay pout is a new addition to Boots' Seventeen range, I went out and unintentionally stumbled upon them a couple of weeks ago then bought the two because I already had one thing in my basket and it was 3 for 2 across all make-up (still is!) you know the drill... 

Stupidly of me and not something I would recommend to anyone (I don't for one minute think that you would) I bought both of these without swatching them. Why?? Well um there were no testers out on the stand I liked the stickers underneath and had way too much faith...yes I should know better.

Cut to a very disappointed me sat in the car with two very frosty (least favourite lipstick finish ever)

pinks instead of the beautiful nude and raspberry shades I had hoped for.

So I sound like I'm having a right bitch about these, I'm not I just think it's funny to share what a dumb ass I was in my shade selecting process. So for the purpose of giving you a bit of a review I have been trying them out.

Firstly the pigmentation is great, so it's a good start! They are a long wearing formula so I was expecting them to be more on the matte side and possibly quite drying, not the case here, they apply really smoothly and feel so moisturising, the Shea butter in them lends a hand to this which is great at this time of year when dry lips are rife! As I mentioned before going off on a standard tangent, the formula is long wearing Seventeen don't claim  X number of hours but I've found they last a good 7 hours, wearing off evenly into a subtle stain which I like.

Altogether a really good lipstick for the price (£4.59) I'm definitely going to check out the other shades, there's 15 in total so the chances are if there are some testers out that I'll find some I like ;) 

xxx

Festive inspiration- 5 Xmas mini beauty sets (under £20)

You can't go wrong with a good mini kit as a stocking stuffer at Christmas, they're just a great way to try out new products without committing your cash and brilliant as stocking stuffers what with them being all small and that. 

I check out asos every year for these mini beauty kits around Christmas. Wow how sponsered does that sound?? Its not FYI. I just like it ok. ;) There's actually a surprising amount of great stocking fillers for under £20 so I've picked out my top 5 with a little bit of something for everyone's beauty tastes in mind.

1.Benefit limited edition "how to look the best at everything" make-up kit £15-18 (depending on shade) link
2.REN mini's gift set £15 link
3.Percy and Reed Va-va-voom volume mini zip lock bag £15 link
4.nails inc Best dressed nails mini polish collection £16 link
5.Benefit b.right 6 piece skincare set £12.50 link

xxx

Something & Nothing....

...a week in instagram...

1.Shopped- Barry M Matte nail paints...yes!
2.Wore the shade "crush" and loved it!
3.Liked my outfit then failed at being able to take a picture without blinding myself!
4.Who's bored of seeing Costa coffee pics?
5.Found my favourite picture of my boyfriend in my phone-*instagrammed* shh though he'll get a big head!
6.Bunnies rockin geek glasses!
7.Winter spice bleach? who buys this? Me evidently...
8.Sunrise out of my living room window while enjoying my (mini gingerbreadman-less) coffee.
9. Autumn nails wrapped up with these 5 mini OPI polishes.

I hope you have all had a great week!

Happy Friday!

xxx