Oh hey!

Hi there reader! How are you?

I haven't posted on the blog since the 16th July which makes me a bit sad but I'm having laptop issues as mine has well and truly died on me! But, I don't want you to think I've giving up this blogging business just yet! So I've thought I'd log on via mobile and say hey!

With not having a laptop I haven't logged on as much and haven't been able to track my blog as much as usual, but I hope you enjoyed my last post featuring some make up purchases and the look I put together- have a read and leave me a comment if your haven't already!

I have had a fairly chill day today, got my hair done which if you follow me in twitter or instagram you will have seen! And then I've mainly 'pottered' around the flat. It's come to my attention that in recent years I have most definitely turned into my mother and I now too 'potter'. What is life.

Anyways, if your in the UK and are anything like me, you too will be totally bummed at the state of the 'Summer' weather. I went to a bbq over the weekend and the heavens well and truly opened all night long! Plus I was wearing knee high boots. Lovely boots, gorgeous in fact but NOT IN JULY!! Grrrr.

This leads me to more exciting update, I'm off on holiday next week and I can't flippin' wait!! I'm off to Skiathos another Greek island as I loved Santorini so much earlier in the year. Of course I wrote in post about my trip so scroll on through and check it out. I'm not sure if I'll write about this next trip as it might be a bit samey but let me know if you'd like to hear about it and if I take some awesome photographs then I might share the details! This island is apparently where they filmed Mamma Mia so I think it's going to be a another gorgeous place. Life has been oh so busy since my last holiday that I feel so ready for a break! I literally cannot believe that it's basically August already! Where the hell did the year go? Scarey stuff.

Right I'm going to head off and do some yoga (check the blog for my exercise routine) I just need to finish eating this chocolate chip cookie and get bikini ready once more. Eurgh. Motivation is lacking somewhat! Also side note, I made Vivianna Does Make up's cookie at the weekend and they are amazing! Worth googling and having a go at, super easy to make and they taste amazing!

I hope your having a good week so far, we're almost at the weekend folks keep on trucking! I should be getting a new laptop sometime soon so normal posts can resume yay! But keep in touch, follow me on the old social media and I will speak to you very soon!

Thanks for stopping by! Until next time, Steph :)


Ps. Typing a blog on a phone is hard. Typing a blog on a new phone is even harder!!

NEW MAKE UP PURCHASES

Today I wanted to share my new make up purchases with you lovely reader and show you the look I created. I am not a make up artist but I love learning and playing around with different eye shadows to update my look. Here's my latest make up purchases!

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 I picked up the new Maybelline The Nudes palette which I was really drawn to because the colours are beautiful! The shades range from neutral beige's, bronzes, golds and taupe colours, a very versatile palette and for £9.99 the price is amazing for that many eye shadows! 

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I am not a contouring pro by any stretch. In fact I have been quite reluctant to give contouring a go as there are so many different brands with their own kits and the prices vary so much I didn't know where to even start practicing! However I spotted another little Maybelline gem in the form of the Master Sculpt contour and highlight compact. Again  at £6.99 the price point was perfect for me to start having a play with contouring and I picked up the No7 contour brush to use with this product.

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The third item I bought to complete this look was the Rimmel Kate Moss Lasting Finish lipstick in the shade 38. This is a gorgeous peachy nude, very dewy and a lovely holiday colour. I saw this shade on the lovely Zoella and I thought this would be perfect to compliment the golden bronze of the Maybelline palette.

So here's the look I created with my new make up purchases!

Before! stephanie-fay.blogspot.co.uk

After! stephanie-fay.blogspot.co.uk

Golden eye stephanie-fay.blogspot.co.uk

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I'm really pleased with my first attempt at using these products. The eye shadows are really pigmented and blend well to create smokey eye looks. I think this palette is a great staple product to have whereby you can create daytime make up looks and then add more depth and stronger looks for going out in the evening. I'm going on holiday soon so I will definitely be taking it with me!

As for the contour kit, I think I need to have more of a practice with it but that the beauty of the price. I think once I've got the hang of the new trend then maybe I'd consider the more expensive, professional kits but I have to say I don't think you would gain much more from doing so. The highlighter is lovely and subtle and doesn't leave you looking like a glitter ball.

And I love the lipstick! I think the colour is gorgeous and it actually smells really nice! I ADORE the Rimmel Kate Moss lipsticks anyway, 107 is one of my absolute faves. I think 38 is going to get worn an awful lot! Easy to wear, stays put and nice dewy look. Lovely stuff!

The other products I used for this look were:
Nars Sheer Glow foundation in Santa Fe
No7 Translucent powder
17 Bronzer in medium
Maxfactor creme blush puff blush in 15 seductive pink
Boujois Kohl & contour brown eyeliner
No7 New Dramatic Lift mascara- which I'm obsessed with right now! (blog to come!)
Collection concealer in cool medium
Collection work the colour eyebrow kit- more details here


Overall I'm super happy with my new purchases the finished result and I'm looking forward to playing around with the colours and trying different looks. Have you tried these products? What do you think about the look I created? If you read my previous blog post to this, you'll know how I felt on the day I took these photographs have a read to find out here.  Share your hints and tips, this post has taken a lot of work for me so please leave me a comment, follow the blog and catch me on Twitter! Much love xx

Until next time, Steph :)


This is not a sponsored or paid for post just purely my thoughts and options.

BE KIND TO YOURSELF

Today's post is inspired by my own negativity. I know, I know! Not a good trait to carry round on shoulders which are already weighed down by the what if's, the to-do lists, the hard decisions life throws our way. But sometimes, we're just not a positive bunch. I know I am not always. And that's okay, it's not possible to be all fluffy bunnies and unicorns all the time. Life does not work like that. But the important thing is how we deal with those negative feelings and how they manifest themselves, if we let them, into our outlook and thought processes.


Take this morning for example. I am fairly hormonal right now and I know that at times that can really effect how I feel about myself and others. I looked in the mirror, looked at my hormonal breakouts and told myself "you look horrendous today". I went to pour a drink and split most of it on the counter top and said to myself "you are such an idiot". I spent careful time playing with my new make up, trying different looks and taking photographs for my next blog post and said to myself "you are shit at doing makeup, you look awful, there are no good picture of you". All in all, I had not been very kind to myself. It was at this point that I realised I was hurting my own feelings, not taking care of myself and basically bullying myself by being so hard of little old me.


Since I signed up to 'Yoga with Adriene' in January, I receive weekly emails from Adriene to motivate the journey her Youtube community is on and one phrase in particular from this weeks email really stood out to me and I wanted to share it with you;

"When you say something mindless and hurtful to yourself your whole being listens"

Once I'd stamped on my own confidence the third time, I reminded myself of this quote. I don't want my whole being to listen to this negativity, I don't want to hurt my feelings I just felt down! But I can feel down without doing damage. I am not ugly because I have spots, I am normal. I am not stupid because I split the orange juice, I'm a clumsy and half asleep and should laugh at my lack of early morning coordination! And I'm not shit at make up, I'm learning. As for the photographs? Well, I'll let you be the judge of that of my next post, but looking back at the shots they look quite pretty. Which was the brief!

What I want to tell you dear reader, is to be kind to yourself. Life is full of challenges where we will succeed in spectacular form one minute and fail the very next. Life is tough, it is relentless and ever changing. The only thing you can be sure about in life, is that you will spend your entire life with yourself. You are with yourself 24/7, 365 days a year. And your soul and spirit can only flourish if you except failures as learning curves and give yourself a pat on the back after those girl done good moments. Your whole being is listening, so manifest your thoughts more constructively "if I am not at my best at X, then what do I need to do to get better?' Tell the universe what you want and channel your energy into achieve it. Be kind to yourself and always be true to you. Use this post to refer back to if you need a bit of reminder on how to deal with the bigger picture. Go back to basics. Look after yourself. Tend to you. Love yo' self!! 

Sending hugs to those of you who need it and high fives to those rocking it today.

Don't forget to laugh, to dance, to pull faces and to scream when you need to.You've got a whole life in front of you, make the most of it.

Until next time, Steph :)

 

FIRST IMPRESSIONS- ST TROPEZ IN SHOWER GRADUAL TAN

Hello lovely reader! I hope this post finds you well! I must admit it has taken me a while to get round to writing this post so I apologise for that but hey sometimes life gets in the way!

I first heard about the St Tropez In Shower Gradual Tan at the beginning of the year and I was soooo super excited about this product being launched! I do like a fake tan but I really struggle with summing up the energy to be bothered to apply it, let it dry and then I hate having to sleep in it. Also I am pretty picking about the fake tan products I have used in the past as I really don't like to smell like a biscuit and I have always spent a fair amount of pennies on my product choices.

The premise of this product is literally still blowing my mind as I just cant fathom how the hell it works! But here's the usage run down- shower as normal, turn the water off, apply the tan all over using circular movements, stand for three minutes then turn the water back on and shower it off without using any other product. Again how on earth can it work!!??

So the pros; the thing I like the most about this product is the ease of use. I usually use the Fake Bake one hour tan and that for me was a tanning game changer how this is next level. I really like the fact that it is easily incorporated into your daily routine without having to set aside a load of time to faff about. Three minutes, no need to sleep in it and personally I don't find it too smelly on my skin either! It left my skin nice and soft which was a nice bonus and I haven't had any streaks or patchy bits at all. I also feel that compared to my normal tanning choices this is much better priced. I can imagine people aren't keen on the idea of standing, slightly cold and dripping for three minutes either but personally it didn't bother me at all and I'd much rather do that than sleep in tan and have to shower it off in the morning and then wash the bedding! Call me lazy but hey any beauty product that gives me more time is one I'm all for!

The cons; well the main thing I would say about this product is that when the title says 'gradual tan' it ain't joking! It is very subtle and it does take a few uses to start seeing some bronze skin. I have still got the slight reminisce of Santorini tan left and I felt the product gave this a nice boost but if you are pale skinned you might not find this product is for you as I don't think it would show up enough to be worth the many uses. Even with a slight tan leftover, I needed to use this product at least three showers in a row (not on the same day obviously!) to start to see a difference. Another thing I found with it is that it is quite tricky to know how much product to use and as you apply it to wet skin it does foam slightly and it did make me question where I'd covered everywhere enough. Plus I had to take my kitchen timer into the bathroom to make sure I kept to the three minute development time! And I did find my nails slightly discoloured after using it, I haven't yet found a way to prevent this with the way you have to use this product so if you have any top tips leave me a comment.

My top tips for this product are, as with all fake tan products, exfoliate first and once you have washed the product off take some body scrub and scrub your palms to avoid any tan staining your hands.

So overall I have to say I really do like this product. I think for post holiday tan prolonging it is a great product and I love the ease of use. I think it's a great Summer routine addition and I think if you want to top up an existing tan you will love it but if your a fairer skin you might be a bit disappointed. But I am going to continue to use it and have bought my second bottle so I'm pretty pleased with this product!

Have you tried it yet? What do you think of it?

Have a great day, Steph :)



 This is not a sponsored or paid for post just purely my thoughts and options.

DAILY DOSE OF HAPPINESS

So at the weekend I went shopping and one of the things I bought was a super cute, perfect coffee table kind of book from Urban Outfitters.

It's called Happiness Is..... 500 things to be happy about by Lisa Swerling and Ralph Lazar. On each page there are drawings and captions of things that might make you smile or remind you of something to make you feel, well, happier! I've had a few pretty stressful weeks and I think having this little book is a fun way of having daily reminders about the little things that make life that bit more enjoyable. For example one page simply reads: cheese. Yep I'd adgree with that! Cheese does make me happy! I've taken a few pictures to give you a sense of the book but not enough to ruin it for you if you like that look of it and consider buying your very own coffee table copy!

I really want to move house at the minute and to be honest I'm really having to contain myself as I keep seeing so many gorgeous home bits that I can't buy! I've not even found the house yet so there's a long way to go! But when I picked up this book and started flicking through it, it really did make me smile so I figured it is useful now to go to when I need a bit of a reminder of life's simple, happy things and when I eventually do get a bigger lounge with a coffee table it will be pride of place! I've never really shopped in Urban Outfitters before (shocking I know!!) but I have seen so many house bits I LOVE!!! I haven't even got round to looking at the clothes!

I hope your all having a lovely week so far. It's currently 36 degrees in the UK and I'm sat outside melting away but determined to bring back my Santorini faded tan! I'm still on the lookout for where to go on holiday in August, do you have any suggestions?

Speak soon lovely reader, Steph :)



  This is not a sponsored or paid for post just purely my thoughts and options.