Falling In Love All Over Again

Throughout exam season  I did not take one look at makeup but now that all of that is behind me, I'm back trying out new stuff to report back on and having fun with makeup again. Throughout the last week or so, I have found myself reaching for some old favourites that I had completely forgotten and I wanted to share them with you as I feel like the products you always go back to are some of the best.

The Too Faced Sweet Peach Lip Gloss in Papa Don't Peach, oh my, I have fallen in love with it all over again. It had been a long time since I had reached for this but one evening when I was stuck on a lip colour, I applied this and was just stunned by how beautiful it was. As much as I love the shade itself which is a warm, orange nude, it is the formula I love. It applies like a lip balm but the finish is so wet looking and gorgeous. I could go as far as to say that it is my favourite gloss formula just because it is so comfortable and you don't even realise you are wearing it, yet it still looks amazing.

I love the Too Faced Sweet Peach Palette but I constantly neglect it and I have no idea why, I guess it just isn't a daily palette for me but now that summer is here, I have been gravitating towards this palette for its warm tones. The matte shades, in particular, stand out to me as they blend beautifully but that is not to say that the shimmer shades aren't beautiful because they are, especially that pink shade which is just stunning all over the lid. I have created a few looks with this recently and I have loved how each one of them has turned out. It is definitely a more expensive palette but for some unique summer shades, I'd highly recommend it, plus it is delicious.

I am currently in a phase of feeling a bit 'meh' about primers, none of them I'm really loving and half of them are nearly finished so I'm just trying to use them up, but the Urban Decay Self Adjusting Primer is the exception. Once again, I pulled this out of my draw the other day and loved how it applied. I have spoken about this primer before but basically, it applies like an exfoliant almost and as you blend the primer into the skin, there are pigments that smooth out your skin and basically make you look airbrushed, it's amazing. As well as this, it does mattify the skin, which for summer, is definitely needed as my skin can get super oily in the heat. Anyways, this primer has just been great for me recently and I will definitely be using it throughout the summer.

I have had a love-hate relationship with the Urban Decay Naked Face Palette in Native, but currently, I am loving it right now. The main reason I love it is for the bronzer because it has a subtle shimmer to it which I find gives the perfect glow for summer. The blusher and highlighter I use less but they are still very pretty and I do still use them occasionally. I do love how this is an all in one face compact as I think it is perfect for travel. Urban Decay is definitely in my good books right now and I will continue to try out their products until they prove me otherwise.

As for brows, I have been avoiding using my power duo because it is running out and I am not ready to finish it yet so instead I have been back using my Anastasia Dip Brow Pomade in Taupe. I find that, especially with the warmer weather, a pomade lasts a little bit longer than a powder because of its gel-like texture. This colour Taupe, by ABH, is also my perfect brow shade so it adds definition to my brows but keeps them looking natural. I definitely think that I will be using this more often, especially when I go on holiday.

The final product I have is a lip liner that I bought when I first started wearing makeup and when I just starting to blog. MUA Lip Liner in Caramel Nougat has always been a super affordable lip liner on the market and I could honestly never stop saying enough good things about this product. It had been a little neglected in my makeup collection recently but over the past week or so I have started using it again, and I think I am due for a new one soon. I love this lip liner because you have a lot of control as the formula is creamy but it doesn't slide everywhere so you can still get a sharp line. The colour is also the perfect nude shade, it's not too warm or cool, it is the perfect pale nude shade and I find that I can go over this with any gloss or lipstick and it will look amazing. If you have never tried this lip liner, I really think you should, it is so affordable and I think that the shade would look good on anyone.

I hope you liked this little update on some products that I have rediscovered. Do let me know in the comments if you have fallen back in love with any old favourites.

Grace xx

The Day Dress Edit

Like I said in my most recent post which just explained my current state, fashion is something I want to cover more on my blog. That brings us onto this post which is hopefully the first of many. Also, I am trying to experiment with ways I can take my pictures for these outfit posts so let me know what you think of this layout. 

I wanted to share with you one of my favourite outfits for summer this year. In the UK right now, the weather has been incredible and it is only supposed to be getting better so my jeans and jumpers have been put away and I have started venturing out into skirts and shorts. After shopping for some new summer outfits, I knew that I would have to share with you this dress.

This dress is a mini bodycon dress with a black and white floral print. It has short sleeves and the length is really lovely because it isn't super short so it is super comfortable to wear without feeling like you are flashing everyone. I think that this dress is the perfect casual day dress for this sunny weather and it is actually from Primark so sadly I can't link it but it was under £10 so it is such a steal.

When styling a bodycon dress, I like to pair it with an oversized jacket just so that I feel like not everything is clinging to me. This one, in particular, is a distressed denim jacket from Hollister. I find denim jackets to be such a staple in summer because they are not as thick as winter coats but they are still good to layer for the day in case the weather takes a turn. I also love this fit as I feel like because it is not structured, it keeps the outfit quite casual looking. 

Even though you can't see the shoes, I would wear this outfit with a pair of white trainers or pumps just so that it is super comfortable and casual. I also think that white shoes are such a staple and especially with the white detail in the dress, the white shoes would really enhance the print.

I am really sorry I couldn't find the links to any of the items, but I have linked below similar. Hopefully, you liked this post, I am always open to your feedback as I am still experimenting with these fashion posts.

Grace xx

Links:

similar dress - https://www.prettylittlething.com/monochrome-stripe-short-sleeve-bodycon-dress.html

similar jacket - https://www.forever21.com/uk/shop/catalog/product/LOVE21/outerwear_jean-jackets/2000258999/03

I'm back...

So I am going to do the best I can at keeping this post very unedited as I think a genuine response is the least I could do for my absence.

I assume that most of you know that I am in my final year of high school, or at least I was until yesterday, and that means that I have been sitting my final exams over the past six weeks. As much as I could blame my whole social media absence on exams, that wouldn't be completely honest but I will probably talk about that later in this post. As for this post, I feel as though I needed to write about where I've been just to keep all of you up to date and for you to see where I am at the moment in terms of my blog and what I hope for the future.

The last few posts of mine were actually pre-written and so the last time I had written a blog post was probably in January and so I am a bit out of practice. As exam season was approaching at the start of the year, I knew where my priorities lied because as much as I love blogging, my education and doing the best to my ability was something I did not want to give up. Since about the end of January, the start of February I had started revising on a regular basis but it was not until March that I realized that my blog really did need to take a back seat. Anyway, fast forward a little bit, my proper exams started in May and I finish them yesterday so it has been a very long and intensive process, to say the least. 

In case you do want to know about my exams and how they went, to say it briefly, I am content with how they went only because I couldn't have worked any harder and so I know that whatever I get is a genuine representation of my education throughout high school. I can always talk about exams in more detail if that is something you want but I won't do it in this post just because I want to keep this post brief.

During exam season, especially when I was revising in the build-up to my first few weeks, I just stopped blogging, I spotted planning, taking pictures and writing altogether. Surprisingly, to start off with, I didn't miss blogging. I felt as though a break was needed and that exams would take over. For me, sometimes it was just nice not to think about social media or blogging as I find it to be quite an intensive process but that doesn't disguise the fact that I still love it. Anyways, it got to halfway through exams and I had a week off, throughout that week I kept having urges to write for my blog. Although I didn't, that 'wanting to blog' feeling is what made me realize that my break was coming to an end and that I did want to come back. I would be lying if I said I had never thought about leaving my blog because I have had it for three and a half years and people change and develop so that thought has always been there. However, that week off made me realize that I really did still want to blog because as much as I needed that break, I also felt like I needed to come back as soon as I felt ready.

Saying that there are some things I want to change. Looking back, I feel like one of the reasons I didn't want to blog was because I wasn't fully into what I was writing about. I love makeup and it will always be something I will want to share, but it started to feel like a chore, weekly reviews and pouring my heart and soul into a tutorial that looking back, I feel as though a lot of people didn't actually read, so I do want to change up my blog a bit. I want to keep my blog as something that is true to myself and something that represents me and everything I love, and although makeup is still a big part of that, I only want to post about it when I really really want to. As well as makeup, I also love fashion. In case you didn't know, I am actually studying fashion next year as my form of education for two years and so I want to share that side of me also on my blog. I have tried fashion before but it always started drifting away because of little things like pictures and actually writing about it. This time though, I really want to experiment and I want to stick to it. I understand that some of my readers might not like fashion or other topics I want to cover on my blog but since that start of the year, I have just realised that I am going to do this blog for myself and I am going to block out the numbers and stats as well as I can because sometimes it is disheartening to see a post you loved to create but for me, this is still a hobby and I want to like what I create.

Anyway, if you have read all of this then I am definitely impressed and I thank you for sticking with me, it really does mean a lot to me. Hopefully, you are excited for what is to come and that you accept my decision and hopefully there will be a post from me soon. I don't really know what it's going to be, but we will see.

Thank you!

Grace xx