Wednesday 25 March 2015

Dublin 2015

Hey guys, so me and Connor took a well deserved weekend break to the City of Dublin! My oh My what a beautiful city.

I can honestly say it was a brilliant break away for us, we explored the city both shopping and touring infamous sights. May I say we even dabbled in some Irish Drinking and considering I don't drink Lager and Ale, I tried my best to take a sip of Guinness.... Never again!

Just thought I would share some photos from our trip and show you the places we visited. If any of you have any recommendations for Ireland then we are glad to say we are going back a little bit later on in the year... Belfast maybe.

The Trip:

So we arrived late Friday afternoon, due to the rubbish weather causing delays. Although the flight was only 30 mins and we didn't stay too far from the airport. Connor is a huge rugby fan and of course booked our stay at Crooke Park Hotel. Which may I add was fantastic, it faced Crooke park itself and we received brilliant service from the hotel and the staff.
We took ourselves out to Temple Bar and lets just say I don't remember getting back to the hotel... but what I do know is I broke my glasses that night! The only pair I had on the trip with me!

Saturday day we took ourselves to St Johns Shopping square, it was certainly an eye opener, but we spent most of Saturday day shopping and dabbling in and out of authentic Irish pubs. Lets just say Saturday night entailed quite a bit of drinking. We were lucky enough to experience Tradfest weekend, loads of Irish music and live bands!!!

Thought I'd leave you with some pictures of our trip...




Thanks for reading...



Wednesday 25 February 2015

Fresh Start...

Oh my gosh! How long has it been since I last wrote a post? Theres been a few changes in my life over the past 8 months, some which have surprised me and others which have changed me.

I would like to take this time to apologies for my absence to my readers, but I am back and fully fueled to make 2015 my year of blogging!

Where do I start... How about the new relationship in my life. Things went a little down hill in the middle of last year, something which I dont want to open up to about. But things took a turn for the best at the end of 2014, when I met my amazing other half! Things have been perfect the past 4 months. I would honestly say I am a changed person, Im happy all the time, and quite frankly back to my normal self.

Other things to note that I have taken up a new lease of life in the world of Fitness and Healthy Eating. Its time to kick my back side into arse, and turn myself into a healthy size.

I thought I would keep this quite short and sweet and just let you know that Im easing myself back into blogging with 1 post a week. These posts will be a mixture of health and life style, makeup, clothing and basic reviews. Hey! You never know you might even come across some photos of weekends away me and my beaut have planned!

Thanks for sticking with me and following me.



Thursday 22 May 2014

OOTD: Purple, Floral prints and Michael Kors

Hey guys, I feel like I havent been on in a while... its been 2 months. Ive been so busy with university and moving and stuff. But now I am back, back for the summer with an outfit of the day.

The sun was shining so idecided to pull out my sunglasses, my favourite boots and of course a dior lipstick and enjoyed the sun with my friends.





Sunglasses - Michael Kors £99 | Cami - Dorothy Perkins £12 |
Pants - H&M £28 | Cut out Boots - River Island £45




Thursday 15 May 2014

My Hair Story - Present

Hi guys, so currently I am transforming my hair... pretty drastically may I add.

My hair is naturally light brown, well strawberry blonde, and I dye my hair dark brown. I have done ever since I was about 12, because I was teased in school the usual "ginger" taunts. This is something I deeply regret doing, as my hair when it grows through at the roots is not the same colour it used to be, but hey our hair changes with age. My hair used to be naturally curly, tight curls which then dropped with the amount of times I used heat tools on my hair, and now it has a very loose wave in the ends.

So my family and friends, know me as a person whose a fan of the dark brown hair dye bottle.
I have made some crazy decisions regarding my hair in the past couple of years and I am going to show you some of them.

So in 2010 I decided to chop my hair off completely. Those who know me, know that I am not a fan of the hairdresser's scissors because of a this bad hair mistake I made a couple of years ago, when I decided I wanted my hair chopping to my ears!! Cringe

May 2010

Skipping forward to 2013..Last year, I then decided to dip dye my hair when the trend was in, So it was dark at the roots and a golden brown on the ends, this was something I quickly regretted because of the state and condition it left my hair in.

Here is a photo of my dip dyed locks...

After the dip dye completely ruined my hair, I decided to go back to the dark brown and had the chop. Yes a couple of inches to remove most of the dip dye from my hair.
Back to the aftermath of the dip dye, I then decided Last July (2013) that I wanted a couple of highlights put through my hair to lighten it for the summer... These highlights were more light brown and caramel toned. Something which in time lightened my hair through the sunshine, and put my hair back into good condition.

Marbella - August 2013
Although, come the end of November (2013) I then decided I wanted to go back dark! I change my hair more than I change my underwear... No i am joking. But I do like to switch it up quite a bit. So I did quite well in all I lasted Dark brown until March 2014... that is long for me I mean 5 months and only a couple of root touch ups, Dare I say I praised myself.
Christmas 2013
But wait for it, Yes after watching the process of Khloe Kardashian and her sisters, Kylie and Kim change their hair repeatedly from dark to blonde, I decided I wanted a slice of the Kardashian lifestyle and changed my hair.
I do not recommend this transformation to be done yourself at home, as you will witness photos of how my hair went. Because I literally decided one Saturday that I wanted to lighten my extremely dark brown hair to a more golden toned blonde, I took myself off to Boots and bought some box dyes. I purchased the 2 L'oreal Ombre Kits numbers 1 and number 2 mixed them both and took to attacking my hair. Trying to create the whole dark roots and golden locks I brushed it from mid quarter of my roots... and let me tell you this is what I would of called a disaster.

I would never recommend trying to recreate this hairstyle from home, unless you are a trained hairdresser!
Khloe Kardashian

So anyway, after the whole ginger situation which looked like this...

I then decided to bite the bullet and contact my hairdresser to sort out my mess! What a joy when she told me she could fit me in the following day. Because my hair was so badly damaged through the 2 box dyes, and it was a golden orange colour she could not get my hair as light as I wanted. But instead put through a dark matte brown shade on my roots, and extra blonde toner through parts of the length to create the dark to light contrast.

This is how my hair looks at the moment; darker on top and lighter towards the ends.



However, I am booked to go back to the hairdressers in 4 weeks time to have the white blonde put through the ends, and therefore will have achieved my desired hair.. fingers crossed. I will keep you updated with my hair progress soon.





Tuesday 25 March 2014

Mini Haul

Hey guys im back with another haul! I know ive been gone for a while, but there will be a post explaining why by the end of this week. I just thought i would come back with a beauty haul first.

If you follow me on twitter and instagram then you will know that I have just got back from a holiday in Egypt and treated myself to a few beauty goodies at duty free (who can't resist duty free shopping?)



I thought I would be quite restrained because recently I have told myself not to buy anymore makeup because I simply have too much and hardly use the products I own. So in my eyes 3 products was not that bad...

(1) Mac Mineralize Blush - Dainty £20 I unintentionally bought this product, I was after a darker pink shade a little bit dark and less shimmery than my Nars Orgasm, but the woman showed me this on my skin and i instantly fell in love and knew I needed this for summer. The light pink shimmery blush i thought would wash me out, because of my pale skin but actually did the complete opposite and put some colour into my cheeks. This retails for £20 buying direct from Mac and I think I paid £17 at the airport.




(2) Benefit - They're Real Mascara £19.50 This mascara was on my list, I previously owned this and didn't think very highly of it, those of you who regularly read my blog will know my opinion. However, My sister convinced me to give this another go, I mean if the whole of the nation voted it the number 1 mascara then how come I don't get on with it? The thing that annoyed me last time was that I found it hard to remove, but now that I have changed up my makeup remover I actually find it quite easier. I bought this for £16.50 and by the rate of things this is now becoming one of my fave mascaras, I don't quite think anything will beat my Rimmel lash accelerator mascara though!



(3) YSL Rouge Volupte Shine - shade 11 £24 Ok so this is now my second YSL lipstick and I am slowly but surely falling in love and find myself wanting to own every single shade. I went for shade 11 because I have been after a brown shimmer toned nude, pink nudes wash me out too much (perks of pale skin). But this brown tone really suits my lips, its subtle and a great summer day time shade. I don't often wear nudes but I have really been loving it at the moment, especially with the sun shining, it has an aqua glistening finish which is something i really like about this lipstick. Thumbs up to YSL for this shade, i shall be making a new purchase very soon.



Hope you enjoyed, if you have any questions or comments then feel free to leave them below!
Love ya



Thursday 6 March 2014

Motivational Weight Loss

Hi guys, so lately my blogs been changing and evolving along with me. I started slimming world a couple of months ago, and have been posting a couple of recipes. A few months back I did a post about finding the real me, and how insecure I felt about myself. This time im doing a positive post and looking back on the start of my journey and how far I have come.

So I started the gym, and slimming world, changing my eating habits and working out has helped my body to change.

The photo on the left was taken almost 12 months ago, 8 months before I started my journey. I was really insecure about the way I looked and hated photos. The image on the right was taken just over 2 months ago (new years eve) and I am proud and more confident in the way I look, and don't mind being in photos.

For me it wasn't so much about losing weight because I was 'overweight' it was about helping myself to gain more confidence in my body, and losing weight is just one of the ways I can achieve my confidence boost.

I know that I have a long way to go to reach my 'target' weight at slimming world but I hope with my families support and the motivation from myself I can achieve my target, as well as achieving confidence within my body.

I hope you guys don't mind if I keep you updated with a couple posts throughout my journey. If anybody has any questions then feel free to message me regarding slimming world or anything in general.

If any of you have any questions regarding my current gym routine, or simply find yourself needing some motivation to stay on the wagon then feel free to contact me on here or by email at smansell94@gmail.com

Many thanks, Love


Monday 20 January 2014

Mac Palette


Hi Guys, there hasn't been a beauty post in a while but with it being a new year, I've decided to come back to the Blogging world, and my first beauty post back will be my Mac Palette.



Over Christmas I received the 15 eye shadow palette, along with a couple of eye shadows I have accumulated on my way. This post will do a run through of the shadows which are currently in my Mac Palette. It's not full yet but it is getting there.

Lost the stickers of the left bottom 2 shades, didn't apply when depotting. Guessed the shadows to my best knowledge :)

So my palette is a large pro palette with the 15 shadow inserts; the large palette retails for £14 and the shadow inserts retail for £6.50. The eye shadows depending on what form retail from £10 (if you buy them in pan) or £12.50 if you buy them in the pot. You can depot the shadows yourself, or its better to buy them in pan with the magnets already applied and then just pop it in the palette.

Starting from the top row L-R:

1st Row:
All that glitters;
Mystery; Satin Finish
Naked Lunch; Frost Finish
Satin Taupe; Frost finish
Woodwinked; Veluxe Pearl Finish

2nd Row:
Star Violet; Veluxe Pearl Finish
Mylar; Satin Finish
Texture; Velvet Finish
Black Tied; Velvet Finish

3rd Row:
Steamy; Frost Finish
Electra; Frost Finish
Aquadisiac; Lustre Finish