WHAT'S IN MY BAG

Whilst sorting out things to put in my new H&M bag I realised that I haven't ever really written a 'whats in my bag' post. They're one of my favourite posts to read and so I thought it would be a good idea to take some snaps while packing my new bag. It also made me realise that I really needed to go shopping to buy some handbag essentials like hand cream and a proper purse, I've ordered this pretty gold and black purse from New Look but I still need to find a good hand cream - would love any suggestions please!

Over the past couple of years I've slowly decreased the size of my handbag and really cut back on the amount of things I carry around with me. I like to keep my bag light and clutter free so apart from the essentials I try to only carry things that I need.

I normally carry a book with me in my bag but since ruining my copy of Pride and Prejudice (as I always rummage around for things and end up crumpling the pages) I now just carry a book if I need one. I'm currently reading Rivers of London which tells the tale of a detective constable/trainee wizard.

I finally tracked down this mint version of the Paperchase Noto 2015 diary last weekend, I've used a page per day diary for the past couple of years now and I love reading back through them to see what I was up to in previous years. Luckily this diary fastens shut and so I can pop it in my bag without having to worry about ruining the pages. 

Now that I own some Nars lip pencils I'm excited to be able to compare them to the Maybelline color drama lipsticks. I've added the shade 'keep it classy' to my bag to test it out this week and to see how they compare. I also like to have a glitter nail polish tucked away in my bag for an accent nail or for quick application if I have bare nails. I find that a layer of Essie A Cut Above glitter nail polish can look really pretty and it dries quite quickly if I need to apply a quick coat when I'm out. Lastly I sorted through my 5 lip balms that were in my old bag and chose the Smiths Rosebud Salve lip balm to put in my new bag, it contains rose oil and is healing as well as moisturising and so perfect for winter. I've also started carrying around my Denman hairbrush as whenever I wear a scarf my hair somehow works its way into such a tangled mess beneath it.

My current perfume of choice is Vera Wang Lovestruck. It's a sweet, slightly floral scent with vanilla, musk, mandarin and pink guava. It really smells lovely and so I have placed it in my new bag to make sure I wear it more often.

Lastly, for a snack on the go I've popped some left over Christmas chocolate in my bag, we still have quite a lot left and so I'm trying to finish it up so I can finally start a healthier eating routine next week.

What's currently in your bag?

FIVE THINGS I'VE BEEN READING THIS WEEK

1. Blogs: Recently on these cold, blustery winter evenings I've been enjoying catching up on my favourite blogs with a hot cinnamon tea. There are so many wonderful blog posts around at the moment, three I've loved this week are: Rosie's inspiring post about resolutions (#IAmEnough), Rebecca's An honest post about friendships and Cat's beautiful and inspirational Flat tour part 1.

2. Books: As part of my 2015 goals, I've been trying to take time to read a lot more this year. Along with re-reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, I'm also currently reading Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch which has been described as a Harry Potter meets Sherlock style book. It tells the story of a detective constable/trainee wizard, I'm only a couple of chapters in but I'm enjoying it so far.

3. Smoothie Recipes: In keeping with my new years resolutions and in trying to adopt a more healthy lifestyle I've been reading some new smoothie recipes to use in my Nutribullet. I found this healthy salted caramel cookie dough smoothie (with dates, vanilla and frozen bananas) on pinterest and Megan from briarroseblog has been posting some amazing recipes on instagram including a 'cheeky carrot cake smoothie' and a 'laudree inspired raspberry and rose smoothie'.

4. Pottermore: During the festivities over christmas I didn't get any time to stop and read J.K Rowlings 12 days of Christmas on Pottermore. I've been catching up on the 12 new writing pieces that she's uploaded and I'm absolutely loving them.

5. Beauty Websites: As mentioned in my previous five things I've been reading this week post, I love reading Vogue beauty to keep up to date with the latest beauty trends. I've also recently discovered Into the Gloss which is another great website for beauty inspiration.

What have you been reading this week?

MALM DRESSING TABLE DETAILS

Having a dressing table is quite a new thing for me, usually I would just sit crossed legged on the floor, surrounded by products and have to get up to rummage through my Alex drawers if I ever wanted to switch up my make up. 

I got the Ikea Malm dressing table for Christmas and I'm already in love. It's such a pretty area which really inspires me and makes reaching for and applying my make up a dream. Also, i've been using a lot more of my make up since having my Malm dressing table and so have made some great rediscoveries. 

Although it's nowhere near perfected, I already love the way its coming together. I've been spending my evenings watching make up storage videos and reading dressing table blog posts to gather some idea's for mine.

I used Nouvelle Daily's post to DIY some storage inserts, it makes the drawer look so neat and organised. So far I've sorted through all of my eyeshadows, lipsticks and blushers to pull out my favourites before organising them into the drawer inserts and the acrylic storage on top. 

I sprayed the legs on my mirror a rose gold colour to personalise it slightly, I really love having golden touches and this fits in perfectly with the look I'm trying to achieve. Lastly I arranged my Real techniques, MAC, No7 and bdellium tools brushes into a muji acrylic desk pot and organised the sections into powder brushes, face brushes and eyeshadow/highlighting brushes so that I can reach them easily for daily use. 

I still have a long way to go but I'm happy with how it's starting to all come together. I've got my eye on some Muji acrylic storage to sit on top and I want to get some rifle paper cards or instagram print outs to stick up for inspiration and to brighten things up a little.

What do you think of my dressing table set up so far?

NARS DIGITAL WORLD LIP PENCIL COFFRET

Nars is one of my favourite make up brands and after being so impressed with the quality, pigmentation and texture of their blushers and eyeshadows I've been wanting to branch out and try a few more Nars products, especially Nars lip pencils.

I thought that the Nars Digital World Lip Pencil Coffret would be a great way to test out a few of the different Nars lip pencil finishes and shades, It's pretty good value for money at £32 for five shades and includes the beautiful acrylic box that they are contained in. The lip pencils are smaller in size than the normal 2.4g £18 pencils, these weigh in at 1.7g-1.8g making each pencil in this set £6.40 each, even though these pencils would normally work out at around £13.

Nars Digital World Lip pencil coffret contains five travel sized lip pencils - three are satin lip pencils and two velvet matte lip pencils. The bold shades are stunning and although initially I was concerned that the nude shades wouldn't suit my skintone, they look really pretty as a sheer wash of colour on the lips.

The shades included in the set (in swatched order above) are:

Nars Satin Lip Pencil in Yu - A beautiful blue toned shocking fuchsia pink.

Nars Satin Lip Pencil in Torres Del Paine - A pretty peach coral.

Nars Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in Iberico - A bold orange red.

Nars Satin Lip Pencil in Descanso - A peach-pink nude.

Nars Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in Cruella - A blue toned scarlet red.

These Nars Lip pencils all have great pigmentation, last well on the lips and are a nice formula. The only downside is that you have to sharpen these pencils which will waste some of the product.

All in all these Nars lip pencils didn't disappoint, I have my eye on Nars base products next!

THINGS THAT MADE ME HAPPY THIS WEEK #7

Monday: Starting this week a-fresh and getting back into a normal routine. Waking up early, drinking more water and organising absolutely everything.

Tuesday: A day spent admiring my new fresh pink tulips and enjoying homemade vegetable wholewheat ramen (which I managed to take a quick photo of before I polished off the whole lot!).

Wednesday: An early morning pink sunrise and late night exciting purchases! I finally took the plunge and ordered a Roberts radio. I chose the cream/gold revival mini which I absolutely love the look of and will hopefully fit in perfectly with our little flat. Alex discovered a box of old audio book tapes recently (full of J.R.R.Tolkien and Philip Pullman) so not only will I be able to listen to more music but we can plug in our old portable tape player and spend the evenings listening to audio books together.

Thursday: Enjoying a cosy, rainy, gloomy winters day and baking vanilla cinnamon rice pudding topped off with a sprinkle of grated nutmeg. The house smelled incredible!

Friday: I'm planning on spending the afternoon stationary shopping, I hopefully want to find a new 2015 diary and i'm on the look out for a few postcards and some pretty washi tape!

What has made you happy this week?

CHAMPAGNE PLEASE

Champagne eyeshadow is my absolute favourite colour of eyeshadow to wear. I like to use a flat shader brush to pat on a shimmery wash of colour all over my lids before adding winged liner and plenty of mascara for my everyday make up look. These are some of my favourite champagne eyeshadows:

MAC Soft & Gentle Mineralize SkinFinish: After highlighting, I like to dust this light golden champagne highlighter over my lids for a pretty, natural shimmer. I love to use this if i'm in a hurry as I just use any excess product on my brush after I've finished highlighting to sweep over my lids. See swatches here.

Loreal 206 Little beige dress: This buttery pressed pigment is a beautiful light champagne with a hint of peachy pink shimmer running through it. It's long lasting on my eyes and looks great in the inner corners and as a brow bone highlight as well as applied over the lids. See swatches here.

Bobbi Brown Shimmer Wash Eyeshadow in Champagne: This is a really sheer eyeshadow that leaves a light shimmery champagne wash of colour over your eyes. It's very sheer and so is great for days when you want a more natural make up look.

Bobbi Brown Metallic Eyeshadow in Champagne Quartz: This beautiful eyeshadow is a lot more pigmented than the shimmer wash eyeshadows and feels more buttery in texture. It's a beautiful peach champagne eyeshadow and one of my favourite eyeshadows.

MAC Bare Study Paint Pot: This cream eyeshadow is so easy to apply with your ring finger and gives a long lasting, light golden pink champagne wash of colour over your eyes. It brings a lot of light to the eye area and lasts all day on me without smudging or creasing.

MAC Naked Pigment: This beige, champagne colour pigment is actually really similar to my skintone and so I love wearing it to bring another dimension and a hint of shimmer to my eyes. MAC pigments last absolutely ages as you only need such a small amount and although it's quite a neutral colour the iridescent gold shimmer gives it a lovely glow. See me wearing it here.

Which are your favourite champagne eyeshadows? Any I should add to my wishlist?

WINTER BLUSHERS

As it's been getting colder I've been changing my make up and adding frosty pastels and rich winter tones to my make up routine. These are the blushers that I've added to my make up bag for winter:

Nars Dolce Vita: This deep, rose red blush is extremely pigmented and gives my cheeks a pretty rosy glow. You only need the smallest amount of this blusher to give you long lasting berry cheeks. I've been loving wearing Nars Dolce Vita with MAC all that glitters on my eyes, winged liner and Revlon Lip balm in crush on my lips and the combination is so pretty and great for Winter.

MAC Well Dressed: For the days when I want something a bit more subtle on my cheeks I opt for MAC well dressed. I love wearing frosty pastels in winter and this powdery cool pale pink blush really works well with a pastel bobble hat, shimmery champagne eyeshadow and MAC Soft & Gentle highlighter.

Sleek Blush by 3 in Sugar*: This contains three highly pigmented blushers that are perfect for Winter. The berry red shade is similar to Nars Dolce Vita, but with brighter red tones. The middle shade applies as a deep wine with copper tones running through it, it's such a beautiful shade that reminds me of a deeper version of my all time favourite blush, Sleek rose gold. The warm matte orange shade has peach undertones and looks so pretty with shimmery eyes and subtle pink lips.

Which blushers have you been wearing this Winter?