October Favourites

Hi everyone!

I'm now back from what was a fantastic week in Spain! A huge post about what I got up to then will be on it's way soon, in fact there are a few ideas I've lined up for the month. However, I always love to kick off a new month with the reflection of what I was loving over the past month! October was probably the worst month this year for me minus holiday what with a lot of family stuff going on, but hey this is all about the good stuff. So it's good to be back, and without further ado...

So, this should all look very familiar, as these three items were recently featured in my Pre-Holiday Shopping Spree post. But nevertheless, these were the items of clothing in particular that I just can't get enough right now! The gorgeous figure-hugging dress on the left there was £13.99 from Primark, the boots £19.99 from New Look and the jumper £14.99 from Select! Go check out that post if you want to read more thoroughly about these and the other bargains I picked up. But yeah the unpredictable weather made it hard to pack, so I took outfits appropriate for all seasons just in case. Spain luckily provided us with GORGEOUS weather give or take one or two days of rain, and these pieces right here provided me with some great things to wear on these nights out!

These were the more beauty orientated things I was loving this month! On the left there is the Clinique 'to go' make-up travel kit, which includes the Superpowder Double Face Powder in Matte Beige and the Long Last Lipstick - Blushing Nude Soft Shine. I picked this up from the Duty Free store in the airport - gotta love tax free stuff! I cannot remember how much it was individually, but I purchased it along with the item on the right of the photo - the Clarins 'Make-Up Compact Palette' including four shades of eyeshadow and lipgloss. The two of them together did not come cheap even with tax deducted - as it was 71 euros for the two! Still, I went the whole holiday spending about 20 euros so I had loads of spending money left over, so I thought why not. The lipstick is a lovely shade of nude and I love that it comes with a mirror, as does the Clarins Palette - I am all over the very autumnal shades of eyeshadow right now. Ooh and the product in the middle! Well I got that a few days before holiday from Next! My mum had £4 left-over and said I could spend it, so I looked through all of their own-brand make-up and came across the Next Kiss Me Quick - 2 lip balm flavours, vanilla and strawberry set! I was in dire need of some lip balm anyway and why not for £4! It may not be EOS but it is a perfectly good lip balm - the strawberry one in particular smells and 'tastes' lovely! My first ever Next make-up purchase, and it was well worth it, especially for that price!

These were two little bits that I picked up in Spain and have been absolutely loving! They both came from the same shop, I believe it was called Miss-teeq or something along those lines (FYI, I have no idea if it's named after Alesha Dixon's girlgroup!). The owl necklace on the left was 11.50 euros and I adore it right now - it effortlessly goes with so many of my clothes, looks very autumnal and is just SO cute! I've been wanting a new long necklace for ages so I had to get this! I was also on the hunt for some new sunglasses and settled on those ones on the right that were 8.99 euros. They were wonderful for the daily beach trips, unfortunately it's a shame that they'll now be untouched until summer knowing British weather!

These were the more entertainment-based things I've been all over this month! Firstly, I am hooked on the live shows of the X Factor UK! Right now my favourites are Only the Young (as pictured on the laptop screen) with their constant dynamic and infectious performances. Even in Spain, I managed to keep up to date so it was a shame to see them NEARLY sent home, but luckily they're through again, yay! Have any of you been watching it? If so, who are you backing? Aside from X Factor the other two were the main sources of entertainment on holiday! We stayed in my great grandma's flat which has no wifi (how did we use to do it?) so the Now That's What I Call Music Quiz 2 (a present for my 17th birthday) was often a fun and competitive way to spend time when in the flat! Maroon 5's album was also the only CD we brought along so it was absolutely hammered, but I'm quite liking it! 'It Was Always You' is the stunning highlight for me.

~SONGS~

I thought I might as well bring this bit back, too! Here were some songs I've been loving this month:

Sheridan Smith - Anyone Who Had a Heart (From 'Cilla')

Wankelmut ft. Emma Louise - My Head Is a Jungle (MK Remix)

alt-J - Every Other Freckle

Sam Smith - I'm Not the Only One

Ten Walls - Walking With Elephants

George Ezra - Blame It On Me

G.R.L - Ugly Heart

Ariana Grande ft. The Weeknd - Love Me Harder

The Magician ft. Years & Years - Sunlight

Olly Murs ft. Travie McCoy - Wrapped Up

Clean Bandit ft. Jess Glynne - Real Love

Jessie Ware - Say You Love Me

Kendrick Lamar - i 

Calvin Harris ft. John Newman - Blame

Childish Gambino - 3005

Ella Eyre - Comeback

Sigma ft. Paloma Faith - Changing

Hozier - Take Me to Church 

David Guetta ft. Sam Martin - Lovers On the Sun

Iggy Azalea ft. Rita Ora - Black Widow

Shift K3y - I Know

Meghan Trainor - All About That Bass

Chris Malinchak ft. MNEK - Happiness

Bondax - All I See

Galantis - You

Robin Schulz ft. Jasmine Thompson - Sun Goes Down 

Watermät - Bullit

Krishane ft. Melissa Steel - Drunk and Incapable

Labrinth - Let It Be 

The Vamps ft. Shawn Mendes - Oh Cecilia (Breaking My Heart)

Jack Walton - The Way Out

Eminem ft. Sia - Guts Over Fear

Tinashe - All Hands on Deck

Detour City - Merlin (Everybody Knows)

Tinashe ft. Schoolboy Q - 2 On

I See Monstas - Circles

Ella Henderson - Glow

Calvin Harris - Slow Acid

Cheryl - I Don't Care

So yeah that's all for now! Expect a couple of posts very soon. I hope you enjoyed this, it's been a lot of fun to put together as always! I hope you guys had a fab Halloween! Feel free to link your own October favourites as always. Were there any of these items or songs that you were liking too?

Thank you for reading,

Jade xx

Pre-holiday Shopping Spree!

Hi everyone!

I hope you've all been good. Events in my life have been all over the place as of late, but there is one thing I am really looking forward to that's coming up - going on holiday to Spain next weekend for 8 days! I didn't have a holiday in the summer, so it's great that I do get the chance in October! Anyway, I was in town today so it was a great opportunity for some holiday clothing purchases! Of course Spain is usually hot but we're going in October which is a tad unpredictable... so I got things from a jumper to a dress! New Look, Select and Primark were the stores I decided to visit. So, without further ado...

Primark was first up! I had a bit of a browse before falling in love with this dress! The picture doesn't really do it much justice, I had to get a small size because with dresses and jumpers in particular, they usually swamp me. But I assure you, in real life it looked great on and off! It is the Atmosphere ivory print scuba skater dress and it costed me £13.99. Oh Primark how I love your prices. The patterns and colouring are fantastic and it is SO figure hugging, one of my favourite dress purchases of recent times.

Next was Select, another shop with very affordable prices (yes, this pattern has already emerged). Firstly, I spotted the white sleeveless eyelash jumper for £11.99 and fell in love! Even if more of a winter colour, I'm really into fluffy white clothing at the moment after purchasing a Mickey Mouse jumper a couple of months ago. It's SO comfortable and warm, and I liked the fact that it was sleeveless - meaning that with the unpredictable weather right now, who knows if it'll be hot or cold - I have no sleeves for the former, or a thick material if the latter case. I was also DELIGHTED to find the Stone baroque embellished jumper for £14.99! I'd been dying to find a jumper this colour and this was the best one I came across in the store! Once again so comfortable, and also meaning I can ditch a necklace when wearing, due to the statement array of beads and sequins sewed on the front, gorgeous!

Lastly was a trip to old faithful New Look! Originally I'd spotted a t-shirt I'd wanted (a black version of a pink collar sleeveless shirt that I already own) but annoyingly it wasn't in my size! Oh well, I still managed to find a couple of other things to wear for night-time on holiday! First up I found the black grid check leggings for £12.99. Leggings is a department in my wardrobe that is pretty lacklustre, and due to an obsession with monochrome, these minimalistic but lovely leggings were the ones I ended up with! I also knew that I definitely needed a new pair of shoes. It was a tricky task though, particularly being surrounded by scarily high heels that would be laughable if I even attempted to walk in them. So I eventually settled on these - Teens Black Metal Trim Strap Wedge Shoe Boots for just £19.99! Wedges are just IDEAL for someone like me who needs a bit of height but isn't the biggest fan of skyscraper heels. These ones are quite comfortable and I adore the design. 

So, that's all this time! I cannot wait for the pure escapism and joy of holiday (although it does mean missing a Halloween house party - why must plans always clash!) and now I have a few more items to take with me to Spain. I will so be making the most of their culture donning New Look clothing and eating at McDonalds... oops. But yeah so so excited! Hope you guys enjoyed this, any recent clothing purchases of your own? or any of mine that you're quite liking? Thank you for reading as always!

Jade xx

p.s. no blog post this week due to being in Spain so will do two within the two days I get back if that is okay!

Pain and Gratitude

Hi guys.

So, I was planning on making this week's blog post about either 'Impending thoughts on Uni' or 'What's on My Phone' but then I was hit with some unexpected news yesterday, and it didn't feel right to dedicate this week's post to anything else.

Unfortunately, my great grandad passed away yesterday. Not only was it devastating, but also confusing as on my seventeen years on the planet, not once have I experienced a death in the family. The worst thing about this is that it came so suddenly - I only knew the extent of what he was going through since the day before, so not one part of me was expecting to find out this news when I got home from what had been a reasonably good day at school.

I'm not all that familiar with the grieving process, so I don't quite know how to cope, I feel guilty for not thinking about it for a minute, yet slump back into sadness when I do think about it for too long. Yet it's watching my dad cry also who properly grew up with him that gets me the worst.

Anyway, how on earth does one grieve? I don't quite know what to do because it doesn't even feel real. I guess what is best to do is summed up with the quote above that I'm particularly fond of, to look back with gratitude. He made it to 91 years which is an extraordinary lifetime, and he was an extremely generous and hilarious man. I love the fact that he had an extensive record collection too, I'd look in awe when looking around. I'm blessed to have had him in my life, and will always remember how genuinely grateful he was just for the call when phoning him up on my birthday. I only ever have fond memories of him in my lifetime.

Jade xx 

September Favourites

Hi everyone!

Apologies for a bit of a delay with this post as I usually do monthly favourites promptly for the next day, but I've been off school ill for most of the week (great start to the month..!) and usually I like to stick to deadlines, so with the deadline already gone I was getting a bit sloppy. However, I then decided I might as well do it this morning! Apologies for a lack of beauty things here, I've mostly been sticking to my usuals as I haven't purchased an awful lot this month. So, here we go:

So first up are these two clothing-related items! I posted a couple of weeks ago about my New Look haul that I ended up doing while in my hometown Watford for my dad's 40th, and these were the two items that I've really been loving and just generally making the most out of this month! So, on the left is the Heritage Check Blazer which had the price tag of £34.99 and I've absolutely been loving it, very handy as it's beginning to get colder during the Autumnal period. On the right are the pastel blue pumps which were considerably cheaper at £7.99. I'm a sucker for pastel colours and they're so comfortable, also!

Next up I thought I'd do a bit of a section of my favourite Most Marvellous purchases/generally retro things. On the left there is a Tomato Soup mug that I found in a charity shop and it looks so unique and bright amongst the other clutter on my desk! I've been using it to store my favourite nail polishes/other small items like my Benefit They're Real eyeliner. So yes I'm loving that! Next to that is the rather vintage packaging from Soap & Glory! This is the Drama Clean 5 in 1 Micellar Cleansing Water which I picked up for £6.00 in Boots. After seeing bloggers raving about cleansing water I decided to try it out for myself and it worked like a charm - not only removing my make-up but excess dirt in the skin too, great stuff with uber cute packaging. Lastly there on the right is the candle I purchased at local retro/generally cute stuff shop Most Marvellous. It's a Hot Chocolate scented Charming candle that was also £6.00 and looks so lovely on my desk.

So this is the more haircare stuff! As a girl who dries and straightens her hair regularly due to having naturally curly/frizzy hair, a heat protection product is obviously a must. However, I usually use a spray, but this month I've been using this instead, which doubles up as a serum. It's the Vo5 heat protect serum which promises to create shine and control frizz, as well as of course protecting hair which is essential. Apparently Vo5 is also the U.K's number 1 Styling Brand so that's a bonus! This is the 50ml version which is £4.19 from Boots and I'd highly recommend! Also on the right there is a hair doughnut which I've experimented with a bit this month after loving the way Linda from Eastenders does her hair, so you wrap your hair around it and it produces a doughnut shape. A couple of clips later to hold it in place, and it actually worked! You can get them dead cheap, I think it was only £1.

Next here is a new necklace I decided to purchase from Most Marvellous for £5.00! I absolutely love the design of the necklace what with the bronze chain and circle with the glass dome around the image of a purple/blue pattern. There was a selection of others with quite flowery ones (a bit TOO granny even for me!!) and really random ones like Captain Africa (Yep, not America) and this was my favourite so now I have another necklace to add to my rather small collection.

Last up is the entertainment I've been loving this month! First up was the sublime three-part drama series called 'Cilla' that was on ITV. It re-created the first couple of years of Cilla Black's career taking off, with Sheridan Smith OWNING the title role. Her rendition of 'Anyone Who Had a Heart' is stellar, even better than the original - I've played it so many times! I'm gutted that it's already over (finished on Monday) but luckily ITV are bringing it out on DVD so I'll definitely be getting that! In the picture next to that is the book 'John Paul, George, Ringo & me - the Real Beatles story' that a music teacher at school has let me borrow after knowing how much I love them. It's not like every other book about them though, it's written by Tony Barrow who was their PR man up until 1968, so he saw all the action in the early days and I'm hooked so far - he's a brilliant writer. There on the right is the F.R.I.E.N.D.S season 1 DVD which I've been watching a lot this month - it was particularly welcomed while I was ill! They all look so much younger and were such different characters in the beginning, although still loveable and packed with top-quality humour since day 1.

So that's it for this month, I hope you guys enjoyed my favourites! Feel free to comment your own below and I'll happily check them out. 

Jade xx

Retro Finds

Hi guys!

I hope you're all having a brilliant weekend so far! Last weekend was busy with my family arranging the Silverstone plans well in advance, so today was more of a chilled out day, and I took this opportunity to go for a bit of a shop! In an attempt to add a bit more of a vintage feel to coincide with my record player and all, I found myself buying quite a few retro bits and pieces, and thought I might as well share! So, here we go:

Ooh as of late I've been DYING to purchase more Soap & Glory products so first up today was to look in Boots and straight away I spotted their stuff! I noticed the more cosmetic gift sets at the front, and then round the corner was the skincare stuff! It was a toss up between the wipes or this but of course I went for this! It's the Soap & Glory Drama Clean 5 in 1 micellar cleansing water which I picked up for £6.00, one of the cheaper items in the collection. I haven't actually used cleansing water before, but it does promise to be very efficient at removing just about everything when taking off your make-up, so I thought I'd give it a go. Their packaging is absolutely GORGEOUS by the way with the pretty pink and the vintage lady!

Okay this is probably not something I'd usually get! However, when in a charity shop this morning I weirdly felt obliged to get it! I thought it would be a unique little thing to put on my desk and use as storage for small things, plus I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a tomato soup lover. Something different but very much welcome into my already extremely cluttered room!

Ooh okay so here is where most of the rest  of my purchases came from! One of my best friends was telling me about this retro shop in my town called 'Most Marvellous' and it was honestly one of the coolest places I've ever been to! There were SO many rooms honestly so much cool stuff to choose from, I wanted to buy everything in there! They also had a cafe too but I spent so long looking at everything that there wasn't enough time to go there. I might go again next week including cafe and plan a blogpost entirely on it! Anyway, I thought this candle looked SO cute in the jar, it is a Hot Chocolate scented Charming Candle and it was just too lovely not to get! It was £6.00 I believe.

They had SO many amazing tin products in Most Marvellous and I couldn't decide which one to get for ages, until I discovered a downstairs section! I soon snapped this vintage style coca-cola tin complete with retro lady and classic 'Home refreshment' title. They had a really similar poster as well that I wanted but I restrained myself as I didn't want to splurge too much in one day! It was dead cheap at about £2.95 and it'll be a great addition to my desk, I'll probably use it to store coins or something.

I was chuffed to find out that they had SO much merchandise here featuring my favourite band! I particularly wanted a teapot with them on - it was so cool, in the shape of an apple and all! However, most of it was far too expensive for my price range, so I settled on this laminated old school film poster of their debut movie 'A Hard Days Night'. It was only £2.00 so I thought why not! 

Last but not least, I decided that I wanted to purchase some of the MANY cards that they had so I could make a retro collage on my wall. These images were far more high quality than what I'd get by printing images on the internet so I thought why not. Of course I went for The Beatles again, but then I also decided to get ones of two of my favourite classic golden age actresses - Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe! The collage is already looking fab on my wall, and at £2.95 I once again thought why not!

So yes thanks so much to one of my best friends Sam for recommending this shop to me as it was love at first sight, if you're ever in Northampton you must check it out! Are there any items that I got that you're particularly fond of from Most Marvellous? or maybe you're also a Soap & Glory fan - any products of theirs that you'd recommend? Thank you for reading as always!

Jade xx 

LADS day out - Silverstone and QPR

Hi guys!

So one thing you should know about me is that nowadays I am NOT sporty whatsoever, and my friends can confirm that I am even known to get out of breath when walking to school. However, I am more impartial to days out that involve observing sport! I thought I'd share my day out with you yesterday as there's a fair amount to talk about and there was PLENTY of photo opportunities. It was definitely a lads day out as such!

So first up was Silverstone! It was only a 20 minute drive away so not too far at all. My dad would be partaking in a thrill drive day that they had! It wasn't his first time, but this time he was far more nervous as he'd never done one of these thrill drives in a proper F1 type car! We waited around for a bit whilst my dad got registered. I had a huge soup craving as well and the cafe had everything but, sigh. We passed the time by listening to music, and me and my brother recreated the photo we'd taken at Silverstone four years prior!

2010 

2014

So, we most definitely do not look like our twelve and thirteen year old selves, and my brother still pulls stupid faces in photos! Oh, and headphones are still intact. 

Anyway, the time had soon come and my dad and everyone else also taking part were readily getting in their cars and putting on the helmet that gives you guaranteed hat hair! It was really cool watching him drive at such a speed and waving at us each lap! He made it look so easy, although later admitted he nearly span off twice! Still, I didn't notice. One other driver wasn't quite so lucky as he did spin off. He turned out fine, just a bit shaken. Although apparently he had asked for a refund for the memory stick that films your drive but the people there were NOT impressed with this as he had caused around £5k of damage to the car! Still, at least he was okay and we'd had fun, despite the cold sweater weather!

That pic above is definitely my favourite from the day, me and my mum there with my dad pre-drive! The laddish day did not end after the drive, however. As QPR supporters, we decided to go down the pub and watch the QPR vs Stoke match down there, all in full kit! Luckily we did not get booed, haha. 2-2 the score was, so all in all not too bad a result.

Yay for family fun! Oh also, how could I not have enjoyed it when I had THIS to eat (not this exact one, I forgot to take a pic, but this was from a previous time, exact same meal though!). Chicken Tikka Masala is too good.

A brilliant weekend all in all, sport can be enjoyable sometimes! Hope you guys enjoyed, have you had a good weekend?

Jade xx

Sleek Make-UP True Colour (Plush) Lipstick REVIEW

Hi guys!

So the people over at producttesting.uk.com (spoke to a lovely woman named Sally over email) sent me a lipstick through the post which arrived today! I was VERY excited as I unwrapped the product as I am a HUGE lipstick lover - it's my favourite make-up product, as well as eyeliner of course. It felt so weird to actually be sent something so early on in my blogging life but such an amazing feeling at that! So I'll tell you my honest thoughts as always and more about who sent it to me later, but first here is what I received:

So, the initial thought was "huh? what is this?" because the packaging was so small! I wasn't quite sure what it was, let alone a full-sized 3.5g lipstick! Haha that was a surprise to say the least, but a very welcome surprise! The packaging is very unusual and deceiving in size, but looks very sophisticated and do I dare say... sleek! From the cover I was expecting this to be quite a vampy purple or something, so it was a bit of a surprise when applying that it came out a very much pink colour! Still, I'm so used to vampy lipsticks that it was a refreshing change. I was also interested to try out a Sleek product as I actually hadn't heard of them beforehand!

So the good stuff first - the lipstick is very pigmented and lasts a while! It's also brilliant that it contains Vitamin E as well which protects the lips from premature ageing. The colour is also extremely pretty! However, I think my main issue is that when applied, said colour simply wasn't for me. I think my skin tone just didn't quite work with this colour. Maybe it's because I'm used to more dark lip colours. I also found the application process more tough than it probably should've been - it required a lot of work to fill in the lips - so I wouldn't recommend this for people with dry lips. As I said though, the colour itself is VERY pretty if you can pull it off. I think if I were to ever venture out into more Sleek make-UP, then I'd just try and go for a different colour that didn't feel so strange against my skin tone.

If you want to try it out yourself then they retail for £4.99, I have seen them in Superdrug particularly.

So yes thank you very much to Producttesting.uk.com. 

If you want to check them out then this is what you need to know:

Beauty Product Testing

Twitter

Facebook

So yeah that's all for today! Hope you enjoyed this review. Excuse how hideous I was looking here - the rain took it's toll on my hair and smudging all my make up. Have you tried any Sleek make-UP products?

Jade xx