Halloween in Cambridge

This is kind of a random Librarian Work Wear/Face of the Day/Photography bundle. Obviously I wanted to wear something Halloween and work appropriate, so I went for this dress from my trusty Modcloth. Apologies for the blurry photos, the light has been pretty awful for photos today!

The cardigan is also a Modcloth special! The tights are from Primark, and the shoes are from Clarks.

I have loads of these necklaces from a seller on Etsy, who unfortunately doesn't make them anymore. They're made from resin and are too cute! I thought Elphaba might fancy a trip out on Halloween.

Make up wise, I went for one of the golden shadows from my new Sleek Vintage Romance palette, and the Antique blush. I later teamed it up with the Wild Berry matte lipstick from MUA, but didn't get any photos! I did however, get some lovely autumnal photos from around Cambridge today, so enjoy!

Nails of the Day #3

As promised, here are my nails modelling the gorgeous New York Color nail polish that was gifted to me by Pippa!

The picture shows the polish after two coats and a top coat. It dries quicker than most nail polishes I own, which I was quite impressed by. I'm never really sure whether to believe these claims about super quick drying times.

I'd love to try some of the other colours in this range, and for £1.79 each, why not?!

Bloglovin

I've recently signed up to bloglovin! There's so many ways to get your blog seen, but I've not been convinced about Twitter yet. If you're interested, click the linky link :)

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Wedding Details #2

Today, Wedding Details is all about FAVOURS. I struggled for such a long time to think up what kind of favours I wanted, or whether to have them at all! Our wedding was on quite a strict budget, and I really found it quite difficult to think about whether the favours would need extra packaging, on top of having to buy the favours themselves. STRESS.

Eventually, we ended up with a variety of favours. I bought seed bombs from this shop on Etsy, (which most people have planted and apparently, not a lot has happened). These were set out at each table setting. I also decided that instead of floral centrepieces, we would use some of our own glasses (similar to these) for decoration. I bought LOADS of straws from this shop on Etsy, in green and blue as that was our colour theme (our favourite colours). I then bought pinwheels from this shop. These were all set out in the glasses on each table so that people could help themselves. There was a slight disaster with the pinwheels. I ordered 25 green and 25 blue, and ended up with 25 pink instead of green! This was only 4 days before the wedding, but luckily I had a friend who was a complete star and helped me to remove the pink card and replace it with green in time for the wedding. The owner of the shop was also extremely apologetic and refunded me for the pink pinwheels.

I also purchased a set of photobooth props from this shop. I wasn't really sure how these would be used because we couldn't afford to hire a proper photobooth, and there wasn't really room at our venue to set one up. Luckily, our photographer came up with the idea of just handing them out at the reception, which made for some great photos! These weren't really intended to be favours, but they were great fun for people to play around with and broke the ice a little bit!

I also had to rethink our exit for after the ceremony, as our venue didn't allow confetti. I didn't really like the idea of rose petals, so instead I bought bubbles. These turned out to be a great idea, they look lovely in the pictures we had taken straight after the ceremony, and they were pretty cheap too. I ordered mine here.

Thanks for reading :) xxx

Sleek Vintage Romance Palette

I absolutely heart this palette soooo much! As soon as I spotted this doing the rounds on various blogs, I knew I had to have it!

 

Just look at it. Gorgeous purpley shimmery shades mixed with beautiful golds, as well as a few dark shimmery shades and a silver too. As soon as I got this in the post I wanted to start swatching it straight away, but I've had to wait for the weekend so that I can really take my time and do it justice!

This is the top row of the palette. Look at the shimmer! Romance in Rome and Propose in Prague look quite matte but they do have bits of glitter in, and Pretty in Paris didn't show up very well because it's so silvery, but I kind of love that. I like a delicate silver more than anything too grey and heavy.

 

I haven't messed with the light in either of these images, because I wanted the true colours of these shadows to really show. Marry in Monte Carlo and Honeymoon in Hollywood are my favourites in this row. The other shades are all gorgeous too, and I really can see myself getting loads of use out of this palette!


No doubt I shall be getting some Face of the Day posts done with this soon! If you want one of these gorgeous palettes for yourself, they are available here for £7.99.

Face of the Day #10

I've been experimenting a bit more with various eyeliners that I've rediscovered recently, and one of my absolute favourites is this one from Stila. I think I received this ages ago in a Glossybox, and its just been sitting around on my dressing table for ages. The shade is Moray, and its a lovely green with tiny golden sparkles.

Here I've teamed it with the blue shade from the MUA matte pallette, and one of my Revlon Lip Butters (Raspberry Pie) for a lovely autumnal look.

(I look really cranky here because the light was weird and I couldn't get my camera to focus :\)

I'm definitely going to be adding some more of Stila's smudge sticks to my Christmas wishlist! Thanks for reading :) xxx

Weekly Book Round Up #11

Last Friday was pay day and I ran out of things to read before that, so I decided to download some of the free classics onto my Kindle. I've not read any Jane Austen before, so this might be a bit of an odd review. I found the main character, Emma, to be pretty irritating. She thinks of herself as a bit of a matchmaker after successfully marrying off her governess, and decides to try and set her friend Harriet up with someone. Obviously, it all goes wrong, Harriet gets proposed to by a farmer and Emma persaudes her to turn him down, sets her up with a vicar, except the vicar is more interested in Emma, then Harriet falls in love with Mr Knightley and as soon as Emma finds that out, she decides that she loves him too. It's completely mental. The story is fun, but Emma is so snobbish in places, and some of the other characters really annoyed me as well. I don't think this has put me off reading more Jane Austen and similar classics though, I think it's good to have a go at trying different genres and authors.

Nicola's rating: 2.5/5

 

 

I'm finally up to date with Kathy Reichs! Yay! This is the latest Temperance Brennan novel, and I've been expecting some kind of resolution regarding the Pete (sort of ex-husband) and Andy (on and off boyfriend) situation. So it's two weeks until Pete's wedding to Summer, and Temperance finally hands over the signed divorce papers, and I'm thinking "Yay! Now she can focus on Andy" and then BOOM. At the end of the novel (SPOILERS IMMINENT) HE CALLS OFF THE FREAKING WEDDING. And we're left wondering whether Pete filed the divorce papers or not. By this point I am getting pretty irritated. And also, (MORE SPOILERS) we receive the tragic news that Andy's estranged daughter Lily has died from a heroin overdose. Good god. And that's just the romantic plot, never mind the whole forensic anthropology thing. This story focuses on human trafficking, and the war in Afghanistan. Obviously Temperance gets a reason to go out and visit her daughter (who is now in the marines) and solve some crimey stuff at the same time. Really I felt like this was a bit of a let down. I found the storyline to be quite boring in places, which is usually not a problem I have with these novels. There were moments of excitement/anxiety, but mainly in reference to her cat. At one point, you're almost led to believe that the bad guys have done away with him as a way of intimidating Tempe, but it turns out she just shut him in the wardrobe (facepalm).

 

 

Nicola's rating: 3/5

 

 

Only two books read this week, I'm on 132 out of 150 which is making me feel a bit less confident about achieving my goal. I've only got 9 more weeks to read 18 books, eek :\ 

E.L.F. Haul

Since liking E.L.F. on Facebook, I've noticed that they've been having quite a few flash sales with codes for free shipping or 50% off everything. I managed to nab some goodies during the 50% off everything weekend deal, and I'm pretty pleased with what I've got!

Big box of goodies!

I'm going to start with the lip products! I might have gone a little bit crazy with these...

 I love the look of these liquid lipsticks! The texture is sort of like a gloss, but quite creamy. I made a bit of a mess swatching these, as they're the kind that needs twisting to get the product, so inevitably I twisted too many times and ended up with lipstick everywhere. 

 

 

 

The jumbo lip gloss sticks are quite fun too. They apply as a sort of tinted gloss, but they're really buildable too. I had to use a few strokes to get these swatches as bright as this. I also bought the Super Glossy Lip Shines which smell fantastic, and the Mineral Moisturizing Lip Tint which applies in a really cute pale pink shade.

 

I managed to not go as crazy with eye products, although I still got quite a few.

This is a swatch of the eyeshadow, it's a bit more matte than I thought it would be, but I still really like the shades together. I'm interested to see how these last without a primer!

I think the jumbo eyeshadow sticks are probably my favourite item from this haul! I love the shimmery shades, and I'm really tempted to buy the rest of the range now! I think these will need a primer, because they're so creamy. I've also got a swatch of the mineral eye liner in Ash. I wanted to get the coffee brown shade but unfortunately it was sold out, so I nabbed this instead. I'm pretty happy with it. It doesn't seem like it needs a heavy hand application-wise. I also bought the Lash Extending Mascara to try out.

And finally, I managed to limit myself to just two blushers!

Headliner is a liquid blush, which is not my usual choice. I tend to prefer powders. I think I will only need a tiny amount of this, its really pigmented, and quite creamy. The All Over Cover Stick in Pink Lemonade is meant to used as an all purpose product, but I think I will mainly use it as a blush. This is a kind of solid cream blush, and it's a really gorgeous dusky pink. I'm looking forward to breaking this out in the next couple of days!

In other news, the blog should be getting a shiny new layout soon! Keep your eyes peeled :)

Librarian Work Wear #10

I've recently bought myself a new dress from Modcloth. I haven't been buying things from them as much recently because of customs prices being so high and being poor after paying for a wedding. But I spotted this dress on the site about 3 weeks ago and just had to order it!

This is the A Pebble's Throw Dress. I absolutely love the gorgeous blue detailing.

I've teamed it up with the Charter School Cardigan  in Honey, the Shoeful of Sugar heels, and my new tights from Primark.

These tights are brilliant. It's a shame they're so thin though! I'm really worried about snagging them.

I think this is probably my favourite Librarian Work Wear post yet! Now I'm off to go and look at some more dresses...

Face of the Day #9

Hi guys! I've finally gotten around to properly trying out the NYC eye shadows that I was gifted recently. This shade is Tribeca Teal, and it's pretty lovely! This lasted most of the day without a primer, so I was pretty impressed. These shadows are available from Superdrug, but I can't spot this shade on their website.

 I also used my HD Brows blusher, MUA Lash Boom mascara, and MUA Matte lipstick in Pouty Pink.

Thanks for reading :) xxx

Weekly Book Round Up #10

I can only blame the husband for dragging me into this. He read the books, and then got me into the TV series, and now I've decided to start reading this series of massive books. Having said that, I really enjoyed this book. I loved following all of the different characters stories, and I loved the more in-depth story that you just don't get with the TV series. In places I found it to be quite similar to Tolkien in that there is obviously a lot of history that isn't fully explained or explored, but its definitely there. Perhaps all will be revealed in a spin off-type thing. Although looking at the release dates for the next books in series, it'll be a long time coming. For those who haven't read/heard of/seen Game of Thrones before, it follows different families (houses) and individuals as they try to grab for more power, or retain their hold on it. It's really quite difficult to describe, but if fantasy is your bag, then you should have read this already. I can't wait to get started on the next one!


Nicola's rating: 5/5

 

 

I believe this is the last of the Fairwick Chronicles trilogy. This follows Callie (the gatekeeper) as she tries to fight the nephilim out of Fairwick by travelling back to Scotland in the 17th century to find the angel stone. She is also struggling to deal with the loss of her incubus lover. In a way this reminded me of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series (well worth a read, by the way), except on a much smaller scale and involving fairies and demons. I've found this series to be a bit of fun, the books aren't particularly well written, but since discovering these I have gotten into some of Carol Goodman's other books. If you're looking for a bit of escapism, then this should do the trick. Also, this was very seasonally appropriate, which I always appreciate.

 

Nicola's rating: 3/5

 

  

 

 

 

Well. Gillian Flynn has managed to disturb me yet again. This story follows Libby Day, whose mother and two younger sisters were murdered when she was a child. Her older brother was convicted for the crime and is in jail for life. BUT DID HE DO IT?! I had so many different ideas over who I'd thought did the deed, and I was wrong on all counts. Gillian Flynn certainly knows how to keep a reader guessing. Again, I'd recommend this to anyone who loves crime/thrillers, but this is really not for the faint hearted. We're talking ritualistic cattle slaughter and the murders of a woman and two small children. It's pretty grim. I had to really struggle with what to rate it, as I was really grossed out and disgusted, but also couldn't stop reading because I wanted to know what really happened. In the end I settled on a four star rating, as I couldn't fault her story telling, but just felt a bit too icked to give a five! 

 

Nicola's rating: 4/5

 

 

I'm on 130 out of 150 now! Still on track for my target :)  

Glossybox October 2013

The theme for October's Glossybox is Dark Romance. I've been looking forward to this box, hoping for something slightly halloweeny, so here are my thoughts upon first receiving the box!

Vita Liberata Latte Illuminating Skin Finish

This is supposed to be a slightly bronzing body balm. They have provided two sachets, but I'm not entirely sure that this will be enough. Also I'm always naturally a bit wary about bronzing products. I like being pale!

Harmony Moisturising Smoothie Serum

This is a moisturiser that can also be used as a primer. I've just rubbed some onto my hand and it seems to sink into the skin quite nicely, and it's left it really soft. It's got quite a nice scent too, so I can definitely see myself using this.

Monu Illuminating Primer

Another primer! This has a thicker consistency than the Harmony one, and I'm not sure I like the smell as much. It hasn't absorbed as nicely either. I might need to experiment with this one a bit more!

Unica Kiss it Better Cream

This is a cream for sensitive or dry skin. I think I would get some use out of this if I suffered from dry skin, but I don't. Also, it's got quite an unusual smell. Sort of fruity, but with something else added that makes it kind of funky (not in a good way).

MeMeMe Cherub's Blush

The one item in this box that fits with the theme. This sort of product only needs a tiny amount applying, so no doubt this will last for ages, and I've not tried a liquid tint before so I'm quite intrigued by this.

Overall, I'm a bit disappointed. I rely on Glossybox for new make up products that I can review throughout the month, and the October box has sadly fallen short! I will try and use the primers to see what I think, but they're not as fun to review, and I'm also disappointed that the box didn't really live up to the theme. I can see what they've tried to do, providing products to save your skin during the autumn, but make that the theme! Don't try and make it sort of halloweeny and romantic, everyone knows dry skin is anything but. Hopefully November's box will be a bit more fun!