Librarian Work Wear #8

It's not very often I wear trousers for a Librarian Work Wear post! But this is just such a comfy yet smart outfit for work, I love it.

The trousers were a bargain in the January sales from Monsoon. I think they were reduced from £40 to £20. I really like this style of trousers for work, however I don't find them very often in the shops.

This shirt is from White Stuff, and unfortunately it isn't available anymore. Anything with a letter print is awesome in my book though.

The cardigan is my latest Modcloth purchase. Everyone who reads this blog should by now know of my love affair with the Charter School Cardigan that Modcloth offers! I couldn't resist grabbing this gorgeous sage green one!

And of course, the whole outfit wouldn't be complete without my trusty brogues from Clarks. These shoes make me feel like an extra from the Great Gatsby!

Thanks for reading :) xxx

Superdrug Haul

I felt a bit down in the dumps on Friday, so I decided to go and have a little splurge in Superdrug at lunch time!

Following my recent introduction to New York Color, I decided to have a nose at some of their other products.

 

I picked up this lip balm, which has a cute little apple set into the stick, and also has a slight apple scent. This shade is 'Applelicious Pink' and costs £2.49. I also got this top coat. It actually looks really pretty applied on its own, I thought it was quite Halloweeny! The only shade I can seem to find on Superdrugs website is this black one. These are £1.99 each.

Next up is this mascara from Collection. I was mainly sucked in by the awesome packaging and font design on this, but I'm excited to give the mascara a go too! This was £3.99, and is available here.

Finally, I grabbed the new Sleek blusher in Antique. This is such a gorgeous dusky shade, with a slight glitter to it. This was £4.49, but I can't seem to spot it on Superdrugs website. It's available from Sleeks website, here.

And as an added bonus, one of my friends bought a duplicate of this Sally Hansen nail polish, so I've bagged another mint green to play around with! This shade is called 'Jaded', and is available here for £6.99.

Thanks for reading :) xxx

Face of the Day #6

I am pretty excited about the new MUA palettes I received, so obviously there had to be Face of the Day posts about them!

Here I have used a shadow from the Matte palette. These apply in a really smokey way, I think you could really create something crazy dramatic with these. For work though, I just used one of the neutrals to create a natural look.

 

 

 I have also experimented with one the new matte lipsticks. This one is Peachy Keen, I did have to apply some lip balm under this because these are seriously matte (and it's autumn, therefore, super dry lips). I love this peachy colour, it's not my usual style, but I think it's pretty cute for daytime.

Watch out for a Face of the Day post with the new Smokin palette from MUA soon!

Weekly Book Round Up #7

This is the second book in the series that began with The Raven Boys. First up, I've got to just make everyone aware that Maggie Stiefvater is my number one favourite author of all time. I heart her. When she writes, its like magic. Which is awesome because these books involve lots of magic. This series follows a group of friends who attend Aglionby School, and a girl whose entire family (apart from her) are psychics. They team up to help one of the boys (Gansey, that's his surname) in his search for a missing Welsh king. Seriously, it sounds crazy and I'm not describing it very well, but you guys, READ THESE BOOKS. This book mainly focuses on Ronan and the fact that he pulled a raven called Chainsaw out of his dreams. Intrigued?! YOU SHOULD BE.

Nicola's rating: 5/5

 

 

This was a fitting end to what has been a really fun series. These stories are about a girls boarding school, which appears to be normal, but is actually a school for spies. It's basically amazing. Ally Carter is such a fun author to read, the books are genuinely entertaining for adults and young people. This book follows Cammie and her friends on their last adventure, trying to stop the Circle of Cavan from starting World War III. I did find that the ending seemed a bit rushed and manic, but all the loose ends were tied up nicely. I hope that we might see some short stories in the future following Cammie and her friends as they grow up!

 

 

Nicola's rating: 4/5

 

 

 

 

This has been a week of really good books. The Shining Girls really sucked me in, and I managed to devour it in 2 days. This is the story of a time travelling serial killer, and the women whose shine/spark he is determined to snuff out. I didn't find this book to be particularly creepy, and I think its because half of the story is told from the killers perspective. I mainly found it quite disturbing. There is quite a bit of violence towards animals, which I almost find harder to stomach than the violence towards humans, just because there seems to be more cruelty involved. Overall, I found this to be a really intriguing concept and I never found myself becoming bored with the plot. I would definitely recommend if you have a strong stomach!

 

 

Nicola's rating: 5/5

 

 

Whew! Glad I managed to get my 3 books target in this week! I think I'm on 122/150 for my reading target this year, so its going pretty well. Thanks for reading :) xxx



New York Color Pressies!

Recently one of my friends gave me these New York Color items as a thank you present, and she did a pretty good job of picking out my kind of colours (Cheers Pippa!).

These eyeshadows are adorable, they don't seem to be particularly pigmented, but I think they could be built up.  I really like that they come with a handy little applicator. The packaging doesn't seem too sturdy, so I wouldn't say this is something you could just chuck in your handbag as I could see the lids breaking. These eyeshadows are available from Superdrug.

I've also got this lovely nail polish to try out at some point! I've got quite a few polishes in shades similar to this, I clearly just really love greeny blues.

Watch out for this bad boy in a Nails of the Day post soon!

Thanks for reading :) xxx

Librarian Work Wear #7

Now that autumn is fast approaching, I'm starting to get out some of my warmer dresses. I really love the vintage cut of this dress from Folter Clothing. I actually purchased this from Modcloth, as that seems to be my go to place for vintage cut dresses. I love the wrap design on the bust, although it did need stitching up a bit as it was gaping slightly. The polka dots are also a massive hit with me, as we all know!

I've teamed this dress up with a bright yellow cardigan, and bright blue shoes. I feel that autumn doesn't have to be a season of dark colours! The cardigan is one I have already featured, and the shoes were actually my wedding shoes. I also bought these from Modcloth, unfortunately they are no longer available.

 Outtake: This week Bernie wanted to be in my photos! So here's a cute puppy for you all to squee about.

Thanks for reading :) xxx

Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine Nail Paint

Today's feature post is for Barry M's Gelly Hi-Shine Nail Paints. I absolutely love the colours available in this range, and the fruity names they have!

 

From left to right: Pomegranate, Dragon Fruit, Mango,  Blueberry, Guava, and Watermelon

L-R: Pomegranate, Mango, Blueberry, Guava

Top-bottom: Pomegranate, Mango, Blueberry, Watermelon

Dragon Fruit

 These polishes claim to be 'Hi-Shine' and they really are. The pictures show the polishes applied with 2 coats, and no top coat. I love how the colours are so bright after only two coats, I was particularly impressed with the orange, as I've found that neon colours sometimes are nowhere near as bright as they appear in the bottle. I will definitely be trying to get my hands on some more colours in this range, although I've got to try and remember which shades I've already got! I recently bought a second bottle of the Blueberry shade by accident.

These polishes are available from Boots and Superdrug for £3.99 each.

Weekly Book Round Up #6

So I'm more or less up to date Kathy Reichs wise now! Yay! I just have the latest book to read, but thats only just come out so the queue for it at the library is quite long. I found this book to be pretty disturbing in places, more so than Kathy Reichs usually is. This focused around the deaths of three babies though, and the books are usually based around adults. I appreciate the shake up, but it was quite hard to stomach in places. Still well worth a read if this series is your sort of thing, but I still have the same niggles regarding the main characters private life. In the previous book her daughter joined the army, but in this book we don't get any updates on that. There are no further updates regarding her divorce/Pete's wedding either. KEEP US IN THE LOOP KATHY.

Nicola's rating: 3/5



I really enjoyed the Chaos Walking Trilogy and A Monster Calls, so I've wanted to read this for a while, and have only just got around to buying it for my kindle. It's kind of a fairytale/myth with a modern retelling, and it is written fantastically. It tells the story of George, and how he discovers a crane (the bird type, not a building site jobby) in his garden one night. What happens next is all magical and stuff, so I'll leave that to you guys to read about. While I did enjoy how this was written, I felt a bit underwhelmed by the book in general, and its hard to put my finger on why. I feel like it would have helped me to know the actual myth behind the story, but that isn't ever revealed. I just wasn't as impressed as I expected to be. I would still recommend his previous novels though, and I've not sworn him off forever.

Nicola's rating: 2/5

 This is another series that I have been reading for a while, and I have to say, its getting weird. The main character is Betsy, who also happens to be queen of the vampires. So far, a lot of crazy stuff has happened, including Betsy messing with time and ending up in a parallel universe which is starting to get pretty damn confusing. This is the 12th book in the series, and they did start out really good fun, I just think that maybe the crazy needs turning down a notch. 

Nicola's rating: 2/5

Apologies for this being a day late, I've been ill with a cold for the past 2 days, but regular blogging will be starting up shortly :)

Thanks for reading! xxx

September 2013 Glossybox - The London Edition

Well, I am seriously impressed. This months Glossybox has completely bowled me over with it's awesomeness. I've only recently resubscribed, and I got this box with the Glossydots I had previously collected. I can't believe how lucky I've been to get this box for free, and you'll all soon see why!

  

Starting with the items I am least likely to get a lot of use out of, the Eylure Pre-glued Lashes. I've never tried false lashes before, so I'm not really sure when these are going to get used! I might have a go with them at some point, they might be good to save for Halloween!

The Toni & Guy Classic Shine and Gloss Serum is another product that I'm not sure if I'll use. It says to apply to dry hair and I can just see it making my hair a bit sticky. I'll maybe have to give it a go on a weekend when I'm not going anywhere to see how it turns out!

The next product is the Elizabeth Arden Untold fragrance. I love that this comes in a cute little bottle. It will look lovely on my dressing table. I really like the scent, it has a very fresh day time feel to it. Obviously perfume is a very personal thing, but I don't think many people will dislike this.

This is where things start to pick up a bit for me, with the Be a Bombshell Onyx Eyeliner. I've used an eyeliner like this before and it didn't really work very well, so I'm looking forward to trying this one out to see whether its any good! I like that the nib is shaped so that you can really experiment with the thickness of the line, very handy!

And finally, saving the best for last, the HD Brows blusher. This, for me, is amazing. I love the colour and packaging of this blusher, it really is quality. It will definitely get a LOT of use. Very impressed with Glossybox for including an item that costs more than the overall cost of the box as well.

 

Overall, I am so impressed with this months box. The packaging is gorgeous, especially the cute paper inside the box, and the products do not disappoint with their variety, quantity and quality! October's box should be interesting, Glossybox are going to have to work really hard to top this one!

Thanks for reading :) xxx

Librarian Work Wear #6 Pencil Skirt Special!

This post is sort of three Librarian Work Wear posts in one. I bought these three pencil skirts from Ebay a few weeks ago, as they were a total bargain at £6.99 each. The skirts are lined, and really stretchy so you can walk pretty fast in them.

 

I love the variety of colours available, I am currently on a quest to procure a yellow pencil skirt. It's harder than it sounds! They seem to be constantly sold out in my size on Ebay :(

Similar colours are available from this seller, but the colours and sizes tend to run out quickly!

Outtake:

Thanks for reading :) xxx

MUA Haul

So I'm sure everyone has heard all about the new palettes and lipsticks offered by MUA! As soon as I spotted them for sale on thier website I ordered them haha! My bank account is not looking too healthy right now..

First up, the matte palette. I'm not sure whether this will get a lot of use, as I reeeeally love shimmery eye shadows, even for work. However, I am keen to experiment and try these out, as I do like neutral shades. This palette was £4 and is available here.

The smokin palette is GORGEOUS. I love it. I especially love the shimmery green and blue shades, and I can definitely see myself having some fun with these in the future. I'm not whether they might be a bit OTT for work, but the more neutral shimmery shades are right up my street. The only downside to this palette, (in my opinion) is that because MUA has included an eyeliner pencil, there isn't a handy eyeshadow applicator. It's not a big deal though, I'll just have to nip to Superdrug and pick some up! This palette is £6 and is available here.

Finally, I also purchased two of the matte lipsticks. I ordered the Pouty Pink and Peachy Keen shades. I am beginning to wish I'd ordered the Scarlet Siren as well though. Maybe next month! For £1 each, these are total bargain, and even if I don't get much use out of them, I won't be disappointed!

Peachy Keen

Pouty Pink

Look out for a Face of the Day post featuring some of these soon!

Thanks for reading :) xxx