University

My apologies for not writing in around three weeks; university has a vice grip around my life. It is with this impending feeling that I will die by way of dissertation that I thought it appropriate to write this on my blog. 

The common next step after college these days tends to be the leap into independence and to go off to university. I was the kind of strange child that always envisioned this to be my future so for me it was inevitable. That being said, it isn't for everyone. Two good friends dropped out in their first year and another has just left after being there for nearly three years. Yes, it's fun and you have the experience of a lifetime but it is also really hard work. You have to do you reading; or you'll be sat in your seminar not knowing what the heck they're talking about. You have to do research on your topic or you will not do well and what is the point in paying the (extortionately high) fees if you're not going to make the most of it. The library will no doubt become your safe haven in times of deadlines and stress; my housemates have been known to sleep there from time to time. Your lecturers will become your saviours when you do eventually build up the courage to go to the dreaded one-to-one talks and they give you advice on your last piece of s@&* work. So with this all in mind, be prepared to work. 

A lot of my work friends are currently unsure whether to apply to university or not and I've been telling them this;

Whilst it's fun and games and you do get a sense of independence it is also really hard work and you do you have to be determined and devoted to getting the best out of your degree for it to be worth it. 

If you decide it's for you; 

1) living on campus was my absolute favourite part of university. Imagine, everyone in your halls being in the same boat as you. You all want a good degree but all want to have a good time. It isn't just about the going out and the getting totally rat-arsed all the time but the flat times where you share meals or watch films together. I lived with 3 international students which really opened my eyes to different cultures. 2 were Chinese and 2 was Spanish and it was great! Your thrown together in the university melting pot and expected to respect each other's areas. I know I have friends for life after meeting them in halls! So my advice, if the option to live on campus is there then take it. 

2) Do not fall into the 'students are so poor' trap. Whilst there are some better off than others, the loan is there to help you. I got a job in my first year simply because I hated waiting for everyone to wake up at the weekends! Petty, I know but I cannot twiddle my thumbs from 10-3pm waiting for a bit of interaction! Getting a job will not only help you gain skills that employers will not insist that you have but it's cold hard cash to aid you in living your lifestyle! 

3) Make the most of it. You're paying a small fortune and it's only three years (4/5 if you're special) so you need to grab the bull by the horns! Join societies, make new friends, go out and make memories (the kind that involve you being escorted out if a club or being sick in the taxi home) enjoy the new city that you're in and relish that you're living the dream!

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and once it's gone, it's gone.

I am more than happy to provide any more information on the uni life! 

Love Mel x 

Review: Smashbox Fade collection palette

In the store that I work in, Smashbox is right next to my counter, which makes it impossible to ignore new items. This time they have an amazing fade to black range featuring 2 eye palettes, 2 lipsticks and 2 smudge eyelines. They're not the usual colours of winter (reds and smokey brown) but deep purple, cherry and khaki! 

Not many customers that I speak to have heard of Smashbox as it's a relatively newer brand to come to Boots but I have been won over by the consistently lovely products that I have tried. Their fig lipstick is one my all time favourites; a wonderful shade of purple/pink. Stemming from the Estée Lauder group, it has a solid background and relationship with brands such as Mac and Bobbi Brown. If you haven't tried anything from Smashbox before, I seriously recommend that you get yourself down to your nearest stockist to try something! 

I caved and bought the purple palette  after having stared longingly at it for what felt like months! In all honesty, it was probably a week or two but after having one of the lovely counter girls sample it on me, I was a woman posessed. The mix of pink, silver, purple and black makes a daring eye which I solidly appreciate in the winter as it makes me feel more cosy. 

The palette - the box is quite difficult to open but that means it's safer in my bag.

The smaller brush is perfect for blending if you use your fingers to add and then the small brush to ease the darkness! 

Eyes - smashbox fade out palette, Benefit They're real mascara

Complexion - Dior cc primer, Dior BB cream, Chanel beige powder, natural collection blusher - pink cloud, Bobbi brown concealer.

Lips - Chanel lipstick in romantic

I'm really happy with this palette, it's a little more daring than what I usually go for as the colours are significantly darker but it's fun to play around! 

Lots of love, Mel x

Winter hair

From about June to Spetember I had taken the plunge and had honey and caramel highlights put through my hair. Whilst I loved that it accentuated my slight tan (going from opaque to talcon powder white) it was expensive, time consuming and an ongoing battle with roots.

Here is my blonde-ish hair 

October rolled round and the weather suddenly plumetted. I bought my annual coat and felt that my hair needed a change. It had gotten long, quite dried out and very matted at the back which made me dread washing it. With the assistance of my friend Nic, who does my hair at a fraction of the cost of other Brighton based salons we took a 2 step action to completely revamp my look.

Step 1 - colour my hair back to a deep chocolate brown and style it to a more appropriate winter shape 

Step 2 - ombre the ends a much brighter blonde.

Here is my hair after step 1 - 

 

I was pretty happy with it - tons of people compliment my fringe! 

It feels better and whilst I had to straighten my fringe most days, it's a lot easier to handle! 

My hair after step 2 - 

The ombré took about an hr to do and my poor ends look a little dry but hey oh I did have bleach on it! 

I have been using Bumble and Bumbles mending masque which has left it silky soft - if your hair has been frazzled by bleach then I cannot recommend this enough.

I do have a bottle of Bleach London's rose coloured temporary dye that I want to try on the ends but I'm letting my hair breath after the trauma that it has been through.

If you're thinking about having ombré, 

I would say go for it. I like the fact that it's not my typical style and colour and it's much more fun than a bloc shade.

Love Mel x

Review: O.P.I original nail envy

As a child, I bit my nails. We're not talking nibbles and a bit of growth here and there but a proper bite down to the cuticle and never letting them get bigger than half a centimeter. I know, disgusting! It is through this self destructive behaviour that I have now found myself with much weaker, shorter and more difficult nails. 

I stopped biting them, eventually, however whenever I grow them past a certain point they split. When I push down on the nails the pressure causes it to completely bend and as a result I cannot seem to grow them very well at all!! It's almost like as soon as they start to get to an acceptable length they want to come off. The edges split and the new growth just tears off!

The problem is, I am a complete nail polish addict and this is a nightmare when in actual fact your nails arn't really long enough to paint and for ages I have desperately sought something to help.

It is with this quest that I stumbled across  the O.P.I. Nail envy. I have been told it's the stuff that only my dreams are made of! Basically you add two coats at the beginning and every other day you apply another coat and as a result this should help your natural nail to grow and strengthen. In an essence, this product acts as extra strength layers so that the nail can develop without fear of it splitting.

So far there are two things that I love about this product! 

1) the coat itself is extremely shiny and when on the nails it makes them look much healthier to the naked eye.

2) the nail brush stretches wide so that the one coat can cover my whole nail! 

So far this has been great and I am only about a week in. Instantly, I couldn't believe that my nails felt stronger and looked great too. Now when I push down on the nail it doesn't bend so easily and actually pops back up and if that is in a week, imagine the possibilities in a month! 

I have complete faith that this will help strengthen my nails.

Ladies, if you want stronger nails then look no further as this is honestly the answer to my prayers! 

Love Mel x

My recent beauty booty

                                    

My recent beauty booty! 

Double discount at work means one thing - Mel goes a little mad. 

I bought 3 simple wipe packets, 4 Mavala nail polishes, an electric tooth brush, 2 Orly nail polishes, O.P.I nail envy, Olay razors, Cutex nail polish remover, Dior BB creme, Dior Gel top coat, Smashbox photo finish primer, Smashbox fade collection palette, Origins Ginzing moisturiser, nurofen, toothpaste and I got a whole host of freebies like miss dior cherie and dior 999 lipstick.

I'll probably go back and buy some more as it is on until Thursday...

I'll blog about a few like the O.P.I. nail envy, Dior BB and Gel coat and the Smashbox products. 

Love Mel x

Review: Chanel sublimage eye cream

Recently, my eyes have been just a tad tired. This has become such an issue that even my boyfriend has noticed and that is never a good thing. Colleagues at work are saying 'late night last night?' or 'you're looking really tired'. Brilliant. Admittedly my skin care routine has been a little, ahem, lax lately and I certainly have not had enough sleep/water. With all of these in mind, the girls at the chanel counter offered me a sample of their most expensive eye cream to date - Chanel's sublimage crème yeux. At an eye-watering £125 a pot, I took a deep breath and decided to give it a go.

By any means I am not a penny pincher when it comes to beauty but lets be honest, £125 a pot is pretty darn hard hitting to my bank balance for an eye cream. So what makes this so special?
Well according to chanel this cream will improve firmness, radiance, skin tone and hydration. As well as that it will reduce the appearance of dark circles and puffiness revealing all of their femininity and radiance. This all sounded pretty darn magical and well at this second I am a desperate woman so I'll take anything. This is all done using their 'enriched vanilla planfolia' which to you and I is quite simply a vanilla orchid extract. This is apparently the be all and end all to the sublimage range, however, upon closer inspection it is pretty low down the list of ingredients so I am not 100% on how much it actually contains.

- sorry for the terrible quality of photo but hopefully you can see that its thick!

I used this cream day and night to increase my chances of a miracle happening. It is a really thick cream, which is something I would rather have as I always find that thinner creams just tend to sit on the top of my skin as it can be quite dry. It also is slightly fragranced, probably from the vanilla but still smells like a generic eye cream. It feels really nice when you put it on, very cold and tingly which is an eye cream essential for me! Another essential is that it doesn't irritate my eyes; make them itchy, watery or red! This hasn't done it yet although when it first goes on my eyes feel like they want to close but that's probably my body going into shock that I'm using an eye cream.

All in all, the ingredients do not look anything particularly fancy or technologically advanced and the cream itself is nothing to write home about but as the saying goes 'the proof is in the pudding' and in a months time when I'll post an after photo it may just be my new favourite product!

Here is the before - hopefully that will all be one shade after a little longer of using it.

Love mel x

A little about me

Hi there!

Make-up : magic ink eyeliner by Benefit, They're real mascara by Benefit, Chanel
Vitalumiere foundation, Dior highlighting powder, Nars orgasm blush, clinique chubby stick in curvy candy! 

My name is Melissa, I am a 21 year old student at the university of Sussex. As well as slaving away at university I am a beauty junkie, proud and skint. Attributing to my weakness I currently work for Benefit cosmetics UK where I am surrounded by a plethora of beauty products which I get embarrassingly excited about! I made this blog to compliment, comment and complain about a variation of products which I hope will help guys and gals decide on what is right for them before the take the plunge and splurge some big bucks.

I have always had a 'problem' with wanting beauty products. I used to steal my mums bits and bobs and try them and was brutally honest from quite a young age and this has definitely progressed into adulthood. Whenever I see a new release, the girls in the beauty hall know that I will be over with questions about what it is, honestly I am a giddy child. As I do work in a rather large store with over 12 premium stands, I tend to get other counters to try things on me and if I like it, then I buy! 

I'll keep you updated on all things beauty - hair, make-up, bath and body. 

I hope that this blog will help you in your next beauty buy!
Feel free to contact me, I love a chat.

Lots of love,
Melissa.