Lasting finish by Kate: Nude collection

Last month Kate Moss and Rimmel London launched their new Lasting Finish Nudes collection. So, embracing the nude lip that has been featured so heavily in the AW catwalk shows, I decided to give the collection a go.

The collection consists of five nude shades that promise up to 8 hours of coverage and are designed to give a bare lip look to any skin tone. However the shades also look fantastic mixed and matched with different skin tones.

I decided to go for two very different shades; 42, the shade recommended for my skin tone by the 'make-up specialist' in store, and shade 48, the darkest in the collection.

Shade 42, shown above is a pink/peach shade but not quite nude I'm comparison to my skin. Sorry 'make-up specialist' you were wrong.

Although it is a gorgeous colour, I can't really wear it as a nude because my skin is several shades lighter than the lipstick. However I do plan on investing in shade 40, the palest in the collection, in the hopes it will work better with my skin tone.

Shade 48 is a deep brown and looked really nice in contrast to my pale skin and I can imagine it'll make a beautiful nude for people with darker skin tones.

So by this point I've decided the shades are pretty awesome, but what about the 'long lasting' colour promised by Rimmel? They claim their product will last for up to 8 hours, but does it really do what it says on the tin?

Well yeah pretty much. Shade 42 lasted me a full day at work (7 hours) and then a full night of drinking after a quick re-application on the train. The colour did start to dull slightly after about five hours but was still visible without having to reapply.

Shade 48 was even more durable than 42, it lasted a full day of work and only had to be reapplied after I'd eaten, 8 hours after the first application! 

Overall I am a fan! I also got two Rimmel lipsticks from Kate's regular collections in shades 3 and 38. Both colours are, again, nudes - I'm a nude fan don't judge me!

Shade 3 is a beige/pink colour whereas 38 is more of a coral/creamy pink shade. Both lippys are also lasting finish and each lasted about 6 hour before I had to go over them.

Overall I absolutely adore my new lipsticks and would seriously recommend them to anyone looking for the perfect Autumn shade!

Have you tried any of the nudes collection? What did you think of the shades I picked? Let me know in a comment below!

5 easy ways to organise your life

I know how hard it is to juggle all the important aspects of life; work, uni, relationships, family all whilst trying to maintain a healthy social life. My lecturer used to call it ‘spinning plates’, trying to focus on one part of your life without neglecting the others really does seem impossible sometimes, especially when you have deadlines to meet!

So good old me has compiled 5 easy steps that you can take to organise your time better! These steps probably won’t solve all your problems, but hopefully they might make your lives a little easier and maybe, just maybe, they might give you a little more me time!

Step one: Write things down! I can’t even begin to tell you how important this is if you want even the smallest amount of order in your life! Get yourself an organiser, like mine shown above, and write down important dates!

Start with important things like deadlines and work hours and school/college/uni times, then add specific time slots to complete your work in – aim for times that you’ll be alone or in the environment you work best in. Then go for the personally important things like social events and time with your loved ones. Finally in the spare space you have left over add your much needed ‘me’ time – get some face masks and wine and chill girl – you deserve it!

Step two: Stick to your schedule! Just writing stuff down isn’t enough!  You need to make your schedule and stick to it. Sure it seems impossible to complete all your deadlines in the time allocated but if you organise your time wisely and stick to your plan you will pull it off! – I believe in you!

Step three: Keep your work space clear! If you want to be organised you need to try and remove any distractions that could lead to procrastination. Make sure your work space is clear and that any unnecessary clutter is put in its rightful home! A clear desk equals a clear mind people!

As well as your desk make sure your room/home is de-cluttered regularly. It’ll help you focus and again will help you avoid procrastination. Also if you clear out your unused belongings you can sell them on ebay and maybe earn a bit of money!

Step four: Work hard! You will not achieve anything unless you work your ass off! You need to work hard to maintain organisation and success. Work hard when doing your uni or school work, commit to your job. Hard work pays off and if you complete work earlier than expected it opens up space on your planner for ‘me’ time!

Step five: Don’t be too hard on yourself! This could be the most important step of all time, yes you need to schedule and work hard, but don’t be mad at yourself when you slip up. Sure you’ll miss a meeting, sometimes you’ll forget to call your great-aunt to thank her for the slippers she crocheted you and yeah you might even have to work over a ‘me’ time session because you forgot you had homework for the next day!

But you can’t hate yourself for messing up! We’re all human and we make mistakes and that’s fine, just make sure one mistake doesn’t lead to you giving up on your new schedule altogether! Get back into it and go easy on yourself!

I hope these steps will help you organise your time better and hopefully help you de-stress a little! Let me know how you organise your time, or let me know what you think of my steps, in a comment below!

Jamie's Italian

I am a food super-fan. You only need to take one glance at my Instagram to realise I’m a hard-core foodie (seriously though I do not recommend looking at my Insta if you’re on a diet, its burger central at the moment).

As well as the eating part, I quite enjoy the cooking part also. I absolutely love cooking shows and am a celebrity chef fan girl, of which my absolute favourite is Jamie Oliver. Seriously though his 15 minute meals rock my world.

So you can imagine my excitement when Josh told me he’d booked us a table at Jamie’s Italian in Liverpool! We were booked in for an evening meal after my graduation and I genuinely don’t know what I was more excited about; my graduation or eating at one of my idols restaurants!

The restaurant itself looks modern Swiss meets classic lumberjack inside, with wooden walls, recycled metal tables and so many waiters sporting lumberjack beards that I began to wonder whether it was through choice or if it was a compulsory part of the uniform at Jamie’s.

Our waiter, who sported a particularly bushy beard, was really friendly and chatty and took time to discuss the menu and cocktails with us despite the restaurant being jam packed.

After much deliberation I decided on the crab and avocado bruschetta for a starter and Josh chose the crispy squid – we’re both big seafood lovers.

The white and brown crab meat came served on a bed of crunchy fennel. This was piled high atop the crisp bruschetta and avocado spread then drizzled with yogurt and chilli. The taste was absolutely sensational, I love crab and the chefs cooked and prepared theirs perfectly!

Josh’s squid came lightly battered, fried with chilli, parsley and garlic. I didn't try the squid but considering he managed to demolish it in about five seconds I think its safe we assume it was good! I did however try the garlic and lemon mayo that it was served with which was beautiful.

For my main course I chose the ‘famous prawn linguine’ which was prawns fried with garlic, fennel, tomatoes, chilli, saffron and lemony rocket served up with fresh linguine pasta – made fresh in the restaurant that day. The dish was cooked to perfection and was an extremely generous serving considering I choose to have the ‘small’ portion.

Josh’s main was the crispy Italian-spiced duck leg, which was slow roasted and served with a watercress, lentil, orange and fennel salad topped with a fresh pomegranate and orange dressing. I ended up getting everything but the duck and orange scraped onto my plate as, in Joshua’s own words, he ‘doesn't eat anything green’.

Despite the restaurants attempt to poison him with salad, Josh loved his main course, the duck was cooked perfectly and the salad was beautiful, even if it was sloppy seconds!

We also ordered a side of garlicky green beans between us which are served with spicy Sicilian sauce and pecorino. They were beautiful but pretty spicy so do not order if you don’t like hot foods!

By dessert we were pretty much full but couldn't resist ordering off the beautiful menu! I opted for lighter option of strawberries soaked in elderflower and lemon, served with baby basil, poppy seed crisps and frozen yogurt.

Josh, true to form, went for the not so light option of the ‘molten chocolate praline pudding’, which I just about had time to photograph before it was gone it three swift bites!

Overall the meal was amazing, the atmosphere was great, the service was spot on and the prices were really reasonable! Five stars to Jamie’s!

Have you ever been to Jamie’s Italian? What did you think of it? Let me know in a comment below!

One hell of a month

To say July was one hell of a month is perhaps an understatement. It has been a crazy, amazing emotional roller coaster that has hopefully set me on a path to my dream future.

It all started on the 29^th of June, I woke with a jump, shaking with my heart doing approximately 10 million beats per second (slight exaggeration has been used). It was results day and I’d just jumped out of a nightmare that I’d failed my degree, been forced to pay my £50,000 of debt upfront and had then been disowned by my entire family…it sounds crazy but I know all you other students know the kind of nightmare I’m talking about!

I threw myself out of bed and ran to my laptop to view my results, as they loaded I remember feeling insanely sick and wanting to throw my laptop out the window. As my transcript finally popped up on the computer I burst into tears – I was graduating Uni with a 2:1 BA Honours degree!

Thus began the start of my most successful month to date. Following my results I graduated on Monday the 13^th of July in Liverpool, I’ll be doing a separate post on graduation soon. It was one of the most amazing and exciting days of my life and I can't wait to tell you all about it! Then guess what happened - the day after I was offered a job interview.

That Thursday I travelled to Lancaster for my job interview with Netplay TV and, following a casual chat with my potential employers, I felt pretty confident on my return journey. About an hour after I got home I received a phone call from Netplay to say they wanted to offer me the job! Obviously I accepted!

I started the following week and have been there for about three weeks now! It’s such a great job and it’s so good to be working in a city again!

To top off all my amazing news I celebrated my 21^st birthday last week with all my friends and family, we had a garden party with afternoon tea and then a BBQ and cocktails later on in the day. I was spoilt rotten and got pretty drunk – a successful 21^st celebration if you ask me!

So hopefully my crazy month offers some excuse as to why I haven’t blogged much throughout July! It’s been one hell of a month indeed! I should be back to blogging as usual this coming week as I get used to commuting and working full time again!

I hope all your months were as successful, let me know what you got up to in July in a comment below!