Winter is not my favourite season. Snow, rain, clouds and Halloween are some of my least favourite things- anything cold and/or scary is not top on my favourites list. Which is primarily why I need a brand new wardrobe to counteract all these negative aspects of the season; brand new mittens and hats seem to make the dark, cold months that little bit more bearable. These two are from New Look, both around £5 and are just adorable. The mittens have fur on the insides and are softer than actual kittens paws. Bobble hats are by far my favourite winter accessory, and hat hair aside I think these are the perfect extra to any winter outfit.

The piece de resistance of my winter wardrobe is my brand new leather jack from Topshop, £58. Although a little on the pricey side this investment will hopefully last me a good few winters to come. The fur is to die for soft and is cosey and snuggly enough for when it drops below 0 degrees.

Overall I am super pleased with all my new winter buys, but please, please, hurry up summer!

t'is the season

My lovely friend Tamara has been at her photography again and these are the results! I did the makeup in the styles of spring, summer, autumn and winter, with varying jewellery in the style of the photographer Eric Traoré. I absolutely love how these images have come out, its so nice to actually have some decent photography on the blog rather than my crappy old digital snaps! My favourite is most definitely autumn with warn tones, red lipstick and leopard print; what's not to love?!

Tamara has a photography blog here, and her last photography was detailed in one of my older posts here.

primarni

Primark's winter collection 2012 is all over the blogs and youtube at the moment. With Primark haul's everywhere you look, I could not wait to have a look around my local and scoop up a few bargains along the way...

Brown Shoes - £15, Blue Shoes - £10, Purple Skirt - £8, Shirt - £12

I brought not one, but two pairs of ankle boots on my trip as I had realised that my trusty black army boots where near falling to pieces and my -ahem- 'cowgirl' boots really were not fit to be seen out of the house. That seriously called for a new pair of shoes, or two! The brown pair are perfect for everyday wear; sturdy and have a little gold accent which is lovely for matching up jewellery. But the navy blue pair really caught my eye, lace up suedes, bedazzled with gold studs, perfect for stabbing people who accidentally stand on your feet... just not so perfect for rain... or snow.

I also had a quick look around the clothing section, fully prepared not to succumb to any big woolly jumpers, but ended up buying school clothes. The purple peplum skirt is a lovely addition to my already heavy skirt collection, and I could not resist the collar on the shirt, it's leather with intricate little flowers carved out!

So that's my Parmarni buying done for another month, hopefully! 

my holy grail products 1.0

The term 'holy grail' has been thrown around Beautylishious frequently in the past without a care. I have professed multiple items to be absolutely and utterly perfect products such as GOSH Darling lipstick and the mascara I frequently raved about in my earlier years; Max Factor False Lash Effect. While both of these were top favourites back in the day, as Beautylishious has grown older and my makeup experience is a little more extensive I have a whole new range of products which have been firm favourites for a very long time. And so commences my new mini-series of my holy grail items in the spotlight...

Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat is literally my saving grace during my weekly nail painting ritual. It cuts down nail drying time from about 30 minutes of being terrified of smudging, or god forbid, imprinting on my nails, to a task of just 3 minutes. And you can even paint this over already wet nails! I have continually been complimented on my nails while wearing this, with the top comment being 'are those gels?' because the finish it leaves is so shiny and perfect it looks far from a home manicure! And as for chipping, well don't expect absolute miracles as it performs as any normal topcoat does; with just this on my nails I get about 3 days with no chip wear. However, my secret nail recipe includes a base coat of any old clear polish, two coats of colour and then one coat of regular top coat (I use Barry M usually) and a swipe of this on top to speed dry them. Seems excessive, but trust me, perfect nails will be yours for around 5 days, if not more!

I will hopefully be back soon with some more of my 'holy grail' products, but in the mean time, what are yours?!

espanol

Me; Cowprint Playsuit - H&M, White Dress - River Island, Grey Shirt - Zara, Blue Skirt - H&M

My sister; Blue Crop Top - Topshop, White Playsuit - Republic, Bodycon Dress - River Island

I went on holiday to Cala D'or, Majorca last week, and oooo, was it pretty or was it pretty? The weather was beautiful for the first few days, until a huge storm came and stole the sun for a while... rude, I know. My family has been to Cala D'or a total of 7 times over the years and everytime it is absolutely lovely, and I will most deifnately be returning in the future! I hoped you liked the few random pictures from my travels...

all summer long

New Look                                            Primark                                           H&M

I'm sunning myself in Spain at the moment and one essential I will never, ever, ever be without in the summer are my beloved sunglasses. Not only will they protect the eyes from UV rays but they also prevent squinting,  vis-à-vis they prevent premature wrinkles... its never too early!

These are three of my favourites, I am thinking of investing in some Raybans at some point but at the moment cheap and cheerful will certainly do me, considering how easily they are broken! Although I very much doubt England will be getting any more sun once I get back from Espanol!

Hope you have a lovely week! 

sixth form wardrobe 3.0

Skirt - Zara  Blouse - Primark

Dress - Primark  Necklace - H&M

Trousers - H&M  Top - Primark  Blazer - Primark

Blouse - Ralph Lauren  Skirt - Primark

Dress - Primark  Belt - Primark  Cardigan - Ralph Lauren

This is the third edition of my sixth form look book type posts, just as I'm going into my last year- upper sixth! It is freakishly scary that in just a year I will hopefully be off to university and officially out of school. I got my A-level results last week and they went well, so fingers crossed this year will be... easier? I can but hope!

The outfits above are a few bits I have gathered over the summer to add to the multitude of clothes that I already have in my 'school cupboard'. My school has a dress code of business dress for its upper years but of course, as with every school, the boundaries are pushed to the limits! Our colour code is supposedly black, white, navy and burgundy although purples and neon yellows have been spied multiple times around the site! I actually think I only own one skirt which is below 3 inches above the knee; our standard school skirt length... whoops!

I absolutely adore my peplum Primark dress which was a bargainous ten pounds, although it is a absolute task to get it on and off- a lot of wriggling and someone around to pull if off if always helpful! My favourite of all my new clothes has to be the grey Zara skirt, which I got on sale for £12... £12 I tell you! I love the asymmetrical hemline and pleats, and it is sooo soo so soft! Obsessed! Pretty much all of my school clothes are from either H&M or Primark with me being the cheap skate that I am, although the occasional splash of Ralph Lauren often sneaks in as my lovely big sister works there!

Hope you all had a good summer, I'm off to Spain on Monday to catch some rays before school starts back up again...

Check out sixth form wardrobe 1.0 and 2.0!

Mascara-rama

L'oreal Telescopic Waterproof is by far the best mascara I have ever used. Fact.

I was first introduced to the wonder-product through Vivianna's blog, who full on raves about it in pretty much every tutorial or makeup post she has ever done! My only hesitation in buying this was that as it is a waterproof mascara, it was going to inevitably be a bitch to remove at night, and blimey was I right. This stuff does not budge, transfer or flake whatsoever throughout the day on me, but in the evening it puts up a tremendous fight when I'm trying to scrub it off my lashes. After fighting a long and difficult battle using many different eye makeup removers I have finally found one up to the challenge with Clinique Take The Day Off Eye-Makeup Remover which seems to do the trick when removing the stubborn build up on my lashes.

All waterproof problems aside, this is literally the only mascara I have ever found to hold curl perfectly through a 12 hour long day! I have the straightest, most lack luster lashes that you might be able to find, and usually, even after the longest curling session with my Shu Uemura Eyelash Curlers, as soon as I apply a coat of non-waterproof mascara they lay completely flat and just look a little sad and meh. Until I found this. Telescopic leaves them perfectly in the position I created with my eye lash curlers throughout the whole day, and my lashes look exactly the same at 8pm in the evening as when I applied it fresh in the morning at 8am. Truly amazing stuff. Dare I say a holy grail product for me!?

I am a complete and utter waterproof mascara convert it seems, and I think I may have to trial a few more to see if any can actually contest this one. Doubtful maybe? Anyway I would love to hear your waterproof favourites if you have any!

As always, have a fantastic week!

PS- I did a guest post on Sabrina's blog at A Little Obsessed here, if you want to have a read! It features a lot of pictures of me in denim doing my best awkward poses, enjoy!

arm candy

Peace - Matalan  Multicoloured - Boots  Turquoise, Orange and Brown - Primark

These are my must have bracelets which frequent my wrists most often. In Summer it doesn't feel right to leave the house without a trove of multicoloured bracelets on my arm to brighten up an outfit and these are the ones I reach for the most. I am always looking around for new, unique jewellery, so let me know where you find you bracelets, rings etc!

Have fun in the sun!

flakies

Nubar Nail Lacquer is a new discovery for me on the nail front this year! It is a light reflective top coat incorporating tiny flecks of glitter, which put over any nail colour will glimmer and shine into rainbow dimensions. I paired it above with a Fearne Cotton polish from Boot's Christmas collection last year; a deep navy with iridescent flecks, so the glitter is on all levels for maximum sparkle. The Fearne polish is absolute beautiful on its own but paired with the Nubar top coat it is just something else, I haven't been able to keep my eyes off my nails all week!

They almost look like a galaxy or the stars at night- with all the beauty of nail art but with no work whatsoever! And paired with a slick of Seche Vite top coat to finish my nails have stayed perfect for 4 days, hopefully more! 

I picked up my Nubar polish from Feel Unique here although sadly the Fearne polishes are only available at Christmas- boooo!

Are you a fan of the 'flaking' polish trend, and what's your favourite brand for it?!

festique

Leggings - George Tank Top - New Look Fringe Top - New Look Gladiator Sandals - New Look Necklace - Primark Rings - Primark Bracelets - Boots

Dress - George Wellies - Amazon Necklace - Boots 

Festival season is just around the corner so it is most definitely time to crack out the wellies and sunnies for some live music, even if the sun is still refusing to rear its head. I'm going to V Festival in August - bring on Snow Patrol!!! - and George at ASDA offered to send me a couple of items to base my festival look on!

The Aztec print leggings are fast becoming a staple in my everyday life, not just my festival wardrobe as they are so damn comfy to wander around in! I paired them with my brand new New Look sandals which I am obsessed with, they are the perfect summer sandals!

I also received this lovely Aztec print dress, which has the most beautiful tie up back to show just the right amount of skin! It was a little too long for my giant legs so I took it up slightly at the hemline and paired it with some wellies, as it is inevitable your going to be slipping and sliding around in the mud for the majority of the festival weekend!

I hope you all have a fantastic time at any festival you are going to, or just an amazing summer!

George at ASDA clothing is available here!