The Autumn Tag 2014

Hi everyone,

If anyone were to ask me what my favourite season was I would surely say Spring/ Summer time. However the more I think about it, I love Halloween and Bonfire night so much and both of these are in the Autumn time.
I cam across the Autumn tag that Georgina from Makeup Pixi3 had created and thought I would give it a shot.

1.  Ok we're talking coffee's - what's your favourite seasonal drink from Starbucks/Costa/Cafe Nero etc?

I love love love flavoured coffees and my favourite ever would be cinnamon flavoured. I love the Gingerbread latte that I got ( i think from Costa) last year and it had a little gingerbread man biscuit poking out of the cream on the top. So adorable that I took a pic and Instagrammed it! I love caramel lattes too and they remind me of my friend Lucy.

2.  Accessories - what do you opt for, scarf, boots, gloves?

I wear the whole lot in Autumn time. I didn't use to like hats at all but I'm a sucker for cute ones especially with pom-poms on them now. I also get earache if I go out in the cold without one on so I always make sure that I wear one. I wear black boots too mostly and my Skecher snow boots and pink Hunter wellies are a must have. The Skechers have lasted me so long and they're still practically like new. I wore my River Island and Primark ones so much that unfortunately they died and went to dustbin heaven.

3.  Music - what's your favourite music to listen to during Autumn?

The only time I change the music that I listen to is at Christmas time or for summer songs so in Autumn time I'm still in the chart music phase. I adore Meghan Trainor at the moment. Her voice is so distinctive an I love her style.

4.  Perfume - what's your favourite scent for this time of year?

I vary my perfumes depending on what I feel like at the time. The Body Shop chocolate perfume reminds me of cold weather though as I received it last Christmas time and it smells absolutely divine.

5.  Candles - what scents will you be burning this season?

I actually need to get into the whole candle thing. I love my house to smell delicious and the varying scents sound amazing. I wish there was a Bath and Bodyworks over here. Actually I wouldn't have any money left so maybe it's for the best.

6.  What do you love most about Autumn?

I love the whole spookiness of Halloween and watching movies. I love getting a takeaway and snuggling up. I love wearing onesies. I love the Autumn sunshine and the crisp leaves.

7.  Favourite makeup look?

The dolly look which consists of pink lips, blusher, eyeliner and volume mascara.

8.  What are you looking forward to most in Autumn?

I was most looking forward to Halloween which has just been and gone, Bonfire night, preparations for Christmas by buying presents, taking a trip to the Enchanted Forest next Tuesday and visiting my family.

Love Laura xoxo

Thanks Georgina for the lovely tag xx

My Kawaii Wonderland Halloween Lucky Bag Unboxing

Happy Halloween everyone!

I adore Kawaii items and as soon as I saw Kawaii Wonderland were doing a lucky bag for Halloween, I snapped one up. I love the excitement of Halloween and want to watch Addam's family and Hocus Pocus again. You can't beat a bit of nostalgia. When I was little I used to love lucky bags and as I have grown up I'm still the same and love them. I think it's because you don't know what you're receiving so it's a great surprise and like Christmas or Birthday time and I want to relive that feeling throughout the year too. These lucky bags were £10 each plus postage and packaging and it arrived super quick through the post. The Halloween ones have now sold out but soon Shell is launching some Christmas stocking filler ones which I will be trying to get my hands on too before they sell out.

My items were all inside the pink and white stripy paper bag and held together with the adorable Kawaii Wonderland unicorn logo sticker. When I was opening it up I pulled out one item at a time.

Here are all of the items that I received inside my lucky bag.

These are the Halloween items that I received. These bad boys are going to be keeping my feet warm today. The other choices were Frankenstein socks and variations on colours for the clips and badge. Look at the skeleton hair clips. They are creepy. Think I will wear these in my hair today.

How cute is the little spider badge too! She is adorable. If they looked like this in real life, I would keep one as a pet!

I love Cinnamoroll and here Hello Kitty is dressed up in an outfit and I'm going to put these on my keys. 

Rilakkuma is adorable and I received a coffee and chocolate coaster which I'll start using straight away.

I used to have a pen like this and I loved it. You press the little spring down for the colour that you want and write away.

I received Rilakumma stickers which is great as who doesn't love the bear?

Oooo and I love the cat post it notes to stick in notebooks or for remembering pages in a book/ magazine.

Finally I received these sweeties which I think mine were cola flavoured. You get three in a pack and two taste yummy and the third is sour and made me pull a face. I thought I was doing well but then it hit me. It was the last one I ate too!

Overall- I love the lucky bag. My favourite items are the socks and the little cat post its.

Love Laura xoxo

What's in my Kawaii Box for October?

Kawaii Box has got to be my favourite subscription box. It includes a tonne of pink, kawaii, girly goodies which I absolutely love. There's a mixture of stationery, plushies, sweeties and accessories and I love the fact that it's a surprise every month. This is my third box now and I have loved every one of them. My August unboxing is here and September's is here. 

Here are all of the items that were contained in my October box. As you can see there are so many kawaii goodies packed in to the little mailing box.

How adorable is this zip pouch. It features two compartments and will be great to either store some beauty items, stickers, sequins and gems for crafts or stationery pieces.

How adorable are these three characters? The one on the left is a Rilakumma squishee charm, the middle one is my absolute favourite ( a Numuneko mini plush) and the one on the right is a pencil sharpener. 

I love the Hello Kitty pink pen and the cutesie washcloth.

The sweetie bobbles will be used today for putting my hair up for work. I just hope that they don't get tangled up in my curls! This month's candy is this Puccho- grapefruit  which I can't wait to try. Also included is this pink and white panda bear writing set.

The most beautiful stickers ever! Pink and blue pearl (my favourite colours) and cupcake stickers! Just adorable. I need to decorate a jewellery box of some sort with these as they need to be put to use and displayed.

Overall- My favourite items are the Numuneko plush as he is so cute and the cupcake and pearl stickers. I love everything this month as it's a slice of pink heaven in a box.

What's your favourite item?

Love Laura xoxo

#Pledge4plastics Abigail Ahern's Recycled Phone Cover

Pledge4Plastics is a government backed campaign to focus upon recycling more plastic. 5 billion plastic bottles were sent to UK landfill sites last year which is a huge amount so the campaign has been set up to urge people to recycle at least one more plastic bottle per week. 

A new legislation has also been set in Scotland too to charge people for the use of carrier bags. This is to also reduce the amount of plastics in landfill, to save the environment and to encourage people to use bags for life. 

When the recycling bins were introduced it made it a lot easier and accessible for easily sorting out household waste. It now just becomes a natural habit for me to rinse out bottles and pop them in the recycling bin. Lots of other plastics need to be recycled too such as shampoo bottles and empty yoghurt pots. I like the three R's too of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle as lots of craft activities can be made from the materials too rather than just throwing them in the regular dustbin.

Pledge4Plastics teamed up with designer Abigail Ahern to create this bespoke phone cover which shows her recognisable style. Her interior design is absolutely gorgeous.  The case is made out of  80% recycled plastic bottles and features a turtle which holds a place in my heart as if pollution/ waste ends up getting in the seas/ land then it can cause great damage to animals and sea life. The phone case is great quality and shows just one of the endless possibilities that could be created with recycled plastics

These phone covers have been exclusively designed for #Pledge4plastics and to get the chance to get hold of one pledge your support at http://www.pledge4plastics.co.uk/ or by tweeting @pledge4plastics 

Do you recycle?

Love Laura xoxo
*Phone cover was sent to highlight the importance of recycling and for me to write honestly about.

Glossybox October Unboxing

I love this Pop Art edition for Glossybox October and there were four different colours that were sent out. I love this pink coloured one that I received.  Glossy no longer send a magazine or product card out in the box anymore as it is all online now. I think this is great for saving the environment but I've got used to looking at my little card to read about the products contained inside.

I've received my last two boxes since moving promptly and I'm really happy with them but unfortunately still haven't received my August box even after many e-mails and calls. 

Here are the contents of my box this month and I like what's contained inside.

First up is this Yves Rocher, Quelques Notes d'Amour perfume. This perfume is a little too mature for my taste but I'll still wear it for work everyday. It's a decent sized sample so it will last quite a while too.

I received a full sized Ciate Paint Pot in black which is perfect for Halloween or as a sophisticated monochrome look to pair with black and white. 

I received a So Susan Flutter mascara which is full sized too. I love wearing mascara as it really opens my eyes up so it's great that I've received another one to use. I loved Jelly Pong Pong products and this is the same company. I wouldn't necessarily purchase this product after it's run out as it's too expensive.

I'm excited to try this Nuxe mask out. I've got more into face products just recently and probably because I have so many to use up. I like the sound of Creme Fraiche as it sounds good enough to eat.

 This Rimmel BB cream will be handy to use too and it contains SPF 15 which is a great property to be included. The shade may be a little too light for my skin tone though.

Finally I received this Etre Belle lip peel which I don't really feel to keen on using. I don't like the thought of skin peels. Is this just me? Probably because I've never used anything like this before.

I think that's it a high quality selection of products this month and this is one of my favourite box designs to date. I do still enjoy getting a box of beauty products through the post every month as it's exciting.

My favourite products this month are the Nuxe and the mascara.

Love Laura xoxo

Haunting Halloween Shades with BeautyUk

Hi everyone,

Today I have some Beauty Uk make up which would be great shades to use at Halloween. I enjoyed trying out these pieces and I think these would be perfect for a sultry vampire look ie Morticia Addams. I absolutely love that film(s) and I haven't actually seen it in years. Think it's going to be a must see for me this Halloween. 

The pieces that I received above are the *Compact Face Powder in Number 2 , *Black lipstick in the Shade No. 13 Darkness, *Glacier Gloss in shade No 10 'Plum and Have A Go' and finally the new *Eyebrow kit.

The Compact face powder was a dream to use. It has a built in applicator puff and mirror and would be great to take in your handbag. I thought Shade 2 would be too light for me but it was actually a good match. The powder was really easy to sweep across my face and it felt smooth and easy to achieve a subtle cover up. It provides a light coverage and I was pleased with the results. This retails for £3.99.

The '*Darkness' lipstick would be fantastic to use at Halloween. The formulation is wet which makes it very easy to apply and two swipes give you an opaque colour. When tested on the back of my hand it was easy to build up the darkness and there was no dragging or pulling, it just glided on. You get plenty of product in the tube and it has a decent lasting time too. The lipstick is £3.49 which is cheap and cheerful and will last a long time.

This is not a shade that I would have chosen myself in Plum & Have A Go but now that I've swatched it and worn it, I think it's a perfect berry shade for Autumn and Winter time and I really like it. The gloss feels slightly sticky but is great quality and has good lasting power. For £2.99 it's a bargain price and is a versatile shade.

The *Eyebrow kit  is a compact case which includes three shades of powder, wax, tweezers and an angled applicator for £3.99. The wax was smooth to apply and I chose the medium shade of brown to fill in and shape my brows. I've never actually used a kit like this before as I prefer my eyebrows to  be natural but found it easy to use. The powder was simple to apply but you have to have a steady hand and know the desired look that you are aiming for. This kit would be useful for an everyday look or as a Disney villain for Halloween with exaggerated brows. For me I still prefer my natural brows as they stood out too much for my liking. The colour was strong and lasted well but I need a lot more practice at how to actually apply it and look good!

On my lips, I applied the gloss first and then added a little black lipstick and blended.

What are you wearing for Halloween?

Love Laura xoxo

*PR items sent kindly for review.

Autumn Loves