Summer Ball

Dress & Necklace - Topshop. Shoes - H&M

So if you're following me on instagram (@emmerliejay) you would have seen a few cheeky pictures of this dress before I went out last night. It was our uni Summer Ball last night, with loads of acts including Toploader and Wrench32. I only bought the dress yesterday morning though, I'm not exactly the most organised person haha so it was a bit of a last minute purchase!

Today I'm catching up on weekend TV I've missed and doing some more work on the dreaded dissertation. What's everyone else up to today? x

P.S. Chat to me on Twitter :)

Leather Skirt

Top - Topshop, Skirt - H&M, Shoes - H&M, Necklace - Primark

I finally managed to get my hands on a pleated leather skirt without paying ridiculous amounts! This is thanks to my homegirl K-Fed, aka Katy from Caught up in Cake. She saw this skirt in the H&M sale and tweeted about it, then she kindly bought it for me and posted it! How nice is that?! Genuine lovely human being :)

So thanks to Katy, this skirt is now mineeee :) and I love it. I like the look of the lace and leather together, but the top is slightly too short to wear with it I think, it keeps pinging out as you can see in the second picture! Annoying but oh well, I'll just have to buy some more things to go with it.

Sorry I subjected you to my white pastey legs, they haven't really seen the light of day much yet this year. They're also covered in cuts and bruises from a night out - I'm not quite sure what happened there.

I found a dress for the summer ball tonight - it's from Topshop and I love it :) I'm sure some pictures of tonight will appear on here at some point. I just hope it stops raining! 

How would you wear this skirt? Hope you all have a lovely weekend :)

x

update:

sorry photobooth quality image

I just wanted to post something not so beauty related on this rainy Friday night, to kinda get out of the rut. I feel like all I've posted recently is nails and beauty products. I know there hasn't actually been that many, but it's been too many in a row for me and I don't want to be purely a beauty blogger. So here is my face!

I've just been out for a curry and it was alright, not the best curry ever, but alright. Last weekend's was better. Being from Birmingham I am a bit of a curry lover... okay a lot of a curry lover. I've got a busy day tomorrow, it's my summer ball in the evening and I don't even know what I'm going to wear so I need to pop to town and see what's on offer! Then I need to do more diss...

My dissertation is due a week on Tuesday and I will admit, I am slightly worried about getting it done. My tutor is awful and takes forever to reply to emails (when I say forever, over a week!) so I doubt she'll be able to check over it before I hand it in. Oh well, it's just like a massive essay... I can do essays by myself so I'll be fine! (I'm definitely just trying to convince myself I'm fine haha). As long as I pass my diss I'll be fine, I'm pretty sure I'm headed for a solid 2:1. I do feel like I might have jinxed it by writing that.

ANYWAY, let's ignore the stress of diss. There's an outfit post planned for tomorrow :) yay. How is everyone else, got any nice plans for the weekend? x

P.s - my boyfriend now has a blog and he only has 2 followers, if you know of any male bloggers (or anyone really) who might be interested in following him please point them in his direction. You can find him here.

P.P.S - follow me on instagram if you have it, my username is @emmerliejay

x

Montagne Jeunesse Skin Heroes

RRP: £1.49*

Please note, bottom right picture is for entertainment purposes only - don't take me too seriously.

Montagne Jeunesse kindly sent me these face masks to try. There's five masks in the Skin Heroes range; 'T-zone peel off', 'de-clog pores' (nose strips), 'break out mask', 'shine control' and finally 'dry skin mask'. All products in the range are suitable for vegetarians and aim to use natural ingredients (yay!) :)

I decided to test out the dry skin mask first. There's two parts to the mask, a regular face mask and an additional moisturiser. The mask claims to be a 'creamy souffle' full of antioxidant fruits like raspberry, blueberry and red grape. It smells so fruity and yum, I honestly wanted to eat it. I did think it smelt of peaches though, not sure where I got that from because they're not in the ingredients.

The mask was really thick and creamy which made it easy to apply, there was loads in the pouch too. I don't think I have a particularly small face or anything, but I struggled to use it all. You might even get two uses out of it if you really felt like it! 

After I'd left the mask on for 20 minutes, I washed it off. It was pretty well dried on by this point, so took quite a while to wash it all away. Once it was all off my skin felt so refreshed and smooth! I then went on to use the moisturiser. It was really thick again and took around 15 minutes to completely soak into my skin, this isn't ideal if you're in a rush, but then you've decided to use a face mask at an inappropriate time so that's your own fault! It smelt nearly as good as the mask too! 

Overall, the mask has left my skin feeling really smooth and soft, definitely made a difference on my dry patches! I'm looking forward to trying out the nose strips next too (cue more amusing photos).

You can buy the Skin Heroes range from the Montagne Jeunesse website where postage is only 50p (or free if you spend £7.50), or in ASDA stores :)

x

Ps. sorry my blog has been very beauty-focused recently, the combination of loads of uni work and the awful weather has meant that I haven't worn or done anything very exciting in a while! My diss is due in in two weeks though, then freeedom! And more balanced posts :) x

Gold by Giles nail varnish review:

Gold by Giles / New Look - RRP: £2.99 each *

I was recently sent this selection of Gold by Giles nail varnishes to let you lovely lot know what I think about them :) Gold by Giles is a collaboration between Giles Deacon and New Look, with a range of beauty products - nail varnishes, blushers, nail wraps, lip glosses and more. Check out the rest of the range through the link above.

Packaging: I think these bottles look really good quality for their price, the matte black lid mixed with the simple, elegant logo looks classy. They're square bottles too which makes the slightly OCD side of me happy, they'll stack up nice and neatly in my nail varnish box! The bottles don't have colour names though, which isn't a massive deal, but I like being able to mention a name when blogging rather than just saying 'the red one'.

Application: For a £2.99 nail varnish the coverage was surprisingly good! One coat was almost opaque, but in the end I went with two coats for good luck. The consistency of the nail varnish was quite runny, this meant that it did tend to pool up and spill over my cuticles a bit. However this was easily solved with an ear bud and some nail varnish remover once I was finished. 

Finished result: The nail varnish took barely any time to dry, which I love! I've mentioned before that I'm impatient and I hate waiting round for nail varnish to dry, so this is a feature I really value. The finish of the nail varnish is ridiculously shiny, I love it. I'm not wearing a top coat in the images above, the gloss is just from the nail varnish! I haven't been wearing the varnish long enough to comment on how well it wears, but I will add that in a couple of days :)

Overall: Even without knowing how well it wears, I would definitely buy these nail varnishes for myself! For £2.99 they are an absolute bargain, perfect excuse to try out that colour you've been too scared to buy! As long as you're willing to add another two minutes to the end of your manicure to neaten up the edges.

I tried this dark red (top right in first image) because it's not something I would usually wear, but now I've actually got it on my nails I adore it! Which colour is your favourite? Has anyone tried these or any of the other Giles products? x

Good Things Review - deep pore cleanser & deep clean exfoliator

Cleanser: £4.99 - Exfoliator: £4.99

The Good Things skincare range is especially designed for young skin, using superfruit extracts and doesn't contain any nasties or ingredients derived from, or tested on, animals! The range covers loads of products, from cleansers, to exfoliators, to moisturisers, face masks and body products too. You can buy the range from Boots, Superdrug and Sainsburys.

I bought these two using my Boots advantage card points (I'd managed to save up 1000 wahey). I love the fact these products are vegan friendly and don't contain horrible chemicals, I do worry about how many chemicals we eat and use on our skin! 

Cleanser: This cleanser is completely liquid, like the consistency of water! I wasn't actually expecting this, I thought it would be more of a lotion. I started by trying to take off all my makeup with this on a cotton wool pad, however it took me ages. When you have a face full of foundation it takes a fair few cotton wool pads! I now take my makeup off using normal facewipes, then use this as a toner to remove the last traces of makeup. 

It smells AMAZING! Literally, amazing - so fruity and fresh. It leaves a slight tingle on your skin when it's drying, but not a chemical sting, it just feels like it's working. When I woke up the morning after I'd first used this, my skin was so soft and felt so clear! My usual red areas were definitely calmer and even pores seemed smaller. It definitely does the job right from the first use.

Exfoliator: Again the exfoliator smells just as good as the cleanser. It definitely doesn't smell at all of liquorice, which I was slightly worried about when I bought it because I don't like it! (Also, how do you spell liquorice? My mac is telling me it's the way I've written it... not licorice??) The exfoliator is a gel with small 'micro-beads' that gently remove blackheads. I've only been using this once a day, rather than twice as the packaging suggests, because I don't think it's good to exfoliate too often. Again the exfoliator makes my skin really soft and redness is reduced. There is definitely an effect on blackheads too! I think the exfoliator needs a bit more time to see the true effects though.

I'm going to stop rambling now, but I think these two products are going to become regulars in my skin care routine! There's a mattifying moisturiser that I'd like to complete the collection too!

Has anyone else used these products, or any others from the range? What do you think? x  

OPI Nice Stems Collection

Despite being a bit of a pink, girly girl in my brain, I don't really tend to wear a lot of pink (or many bright colours for that matter), so the pink side of my nail varnish collection was not really up to scratch with the rest! So when this collection popped up on Buypowa for £6.65 (RRP £12.99), I didn't hesitate to snap it up.

'Be a Dahlia won't you' is a bright pink polish, with a light pink and lilac shimmer when it catches the light. It took three coats for it to be fully and evenly opaque. This is a much brighter colour than I would usually wear, but I absolutely love it! Buying sets encourages me to try shades that I wouldn't normally choose, which is great.

'Come to Poppy' is a coral pink pearl varnish. This looked amazing after just one coat, but I added another on top just for good luck. I think this is my favourite of the set, the pearl finish is more subtle than the shimmer of 'Be a Dahlia'.

'Play the Peonies' is a very pale pink pearl varnish. I like how this looks in the first image of my hand, but in real life it seems slightly paler. Because of my pale skin it looks kind of weird, so I'm not sure how much I'll use this one. It also took three coats to be opaque and was hard to get streak-free! In the second image of my hand, I layered 'I Lily love you' over the top and it's a bit less pale now.

Finally, 'I Lily love you' is a translucent pink with tiny pieces and bigger chunks of glitter. In the images I have three coats on. This is quite subtle by itself as there's only a slight hint of pink underneath the glitter. I think this one is going to be great for layering over other shades!

I have heard that OPI mini collections tend to have rubbish brushes, but I didn't seem to have a problem! The brushes were actually a quite good size for my nails and applied well. The polishes were very fast drying but I'll have to wait a few days to see how well they last!

Has anyone else got this set? Which colour is your favourite? x

Eyelashes

top left: natural eyelashes - top right: curled eyelashes

I mentioned the other day that I'd bought some eyelash curlers for the first time in my life. The first image is my natural eyelashes and the second is them after I've used the eyelash curlers. 

I clamp the curlers at the base of my lashes first, then move the curler along and clamp somewhere in the middle too. As you can see in the images, there is some difference between natural and curled, so I do feel like they were worth buying. When I apply my mascara, the curl definitely drops though! Does anyone else find this, or know any secret tips for really curly eyelashes?

In other news, I have two assignments (one 3000 words, one 4000 words) due in on Monday and Wednesday so this weekend is going to be a boring, work filled one :( Then my dissertation is due two weeks after that, wah! But I have got some blog posts lined up so hopefully I won't go too AWOL!

Hope everyone is okay! x
Ps. I'm not naked in this photo, I am actually wearing a pink top, just incase you were worried.

Models Own

Models Own nail varnish in 'Purple Blue'

These are a couple of new things from the weekend. I've never really curled my eye lashes before (I know, shock horror!) so I thought I'd invest in some and Models Own seemed like the best option from Boots! I've definitely noticed a difference when I first curl my eyelashes and apply mascara, but they do seem to drop after a while. It's probably just my eyelashes being annoyingly straight! Does anyone have any eyelash curling tips? 

I also got one of their nail varnishes - 'Purple Blue' from the Beetlejuice collection. I love this colour so much, it was really hard to capture the true colour on camera but it's a deep purple with shimmers of blue, pink, lilac and an almost orange colour. Models Own are also the best drying nail varnishes I've ever used. I'm a nightmare when I've painted my nails, I'm too impatient to sit around for ages and let them dry and end up smudging them everywhere! But this doesn't happen with Models Own, yaaay I can be impatient and get changed/type/whatever I want, just minutes after applying!

I think this might be the start of a Models Own addiction.... uhoh x 

Vintage Sewing Box

I bought this gorgeous vintage lilac sewing box from Catherine (click here for her blog - it's awesome) who runs www.laceandliquorvintage.com. I just wanted to post about it and show it off!

It came packaged beautifully! First of all... pink postage bag!? Amazing. Then pink tissue paper and bubble wrap. Trust me to get excited about the packaging haha.

The sewing box itself is in really good condition, the material inside is perfect! The inside of the lid is padded for storing pins and needles. Such lovely colours too. I can't wait to transfer some of my sewing stuff over into it, at the moment I'm using old GlossyBoxes which are good but nowhere near as cute as this! 

I recommend you go and check out Catherine's blog and shop for more vintage goodness! :) x

Josh's 24th Army Party!

1. Me and the birthday boy, Josh. 

2. The lego brick cake I made. 3. The army tent decorations in the lounge. 4. Battleshots!

5. Me & my attempt at victory rolls. 6. Me and Josh.

7. Me, Josh, Max & Sarah. 

So last night was my boyfriend's 24th birthday party. We surprised him with the theme and decorated the house army-style while he was out at the pub yesterday afternoon! We had camo nets hanging from the ceiling, a full on army tent in the lounge,  tunnels covered in camo netting in the hallway that people had to crawl through and a game of Battleshots! 

I bought an army outfit from a website but it was so low-cut I had to wear a black vest top under it to save the eyes of the general public and my dignity. I didn't want to do the whole normal, slutty army theme so decided to go for more of a 1940s look. I attempted victory rolls for the first time and I think they turned out okay! I love 1940s/50s style and wish I could look like this all the time! I think I might start experimenting with my hair a bit more and do things like this more often.

I'm not feeling hungover at all today, but I just want to eat everything in sight! I've been watching Jamie Oliver's 30 minute meals and just craving more and more foooood! We haven't really got anything good in either :/

What's everyone else been up to this weekend? x

Vintage Jumper

Jumper - Vintage, from a shop in Lincoln (I've forgotten the name)/Jeans - H&M

I bought this jumper on our few days away over easter. It was from such a cool shop, so much good stuff, but we didn't have long as we had to rush back for our train :( I managed to quickly spot this and buy it though! I've got the website written down somewhere, so I'll have to see whether they sell online! Does anyone know of any websites that sell cool vintage clothing online? Leave a comment if you do :)

Sorry about the lack of makeup/weird facial expression/rubbish hair in the photos. I was in a rush earlier so only took two photos... and here they are! Haha I didn't even use my tripod, I just propped my camera up on the microwave.

Tonight I'm going to be making Josh's birthday cake! I'm so excited, I hope it turns out well. I'll post pictures on Sunday if it looks good :D I also had a little bit of a shop in boots today so will post a few new beauty products soon, too.

x

Birdies

Dress - random market stall in Bath

This was what I wore to work today, how cute are the birdies! Apologies for the hair/face, I got caught in the rain on the way home. I was wearing ballet pumps too and my feet got soaked!

Anyway, this is just a quick outfit post. I'm wrapping Josh's birthday presents while he's out tonight, he hits the big two four on Saturday! I can't say what I've got him because he sometimes lurks on my blog (hi Josh) ;) We're also planning a surprise themed party for him, so we're doing some planning/decorating tonight. I'm sure you'll all see pictures of the festivities after the weekend.

Hope everyone's okay and having a fun Thursday! x

Back from Birmingham/Lincoln

Sorry for the lack of posts this week, I've been visiting both mine and Josh's family for easter! We went to Birmingham for a few days to visit my family first, then up to Lincolnshire to see Josh's.

I wore my new Primark dress while I was away, even though it wasn't remotely sunny, I love it! Might have to go and buy it in all the other colours too, for £6 it was a bargain!

Dress & Cardi - both Primark

I love the broderie anglais top but the material is pretty thin (typical primark) so I wore a thin seamless vest top underneath to stop my bra showing through.

While I was away a little parcel dropped through my door... The lovely Bonny from Over Stuffed had sent her half of our Glossy Box swap! I got the Lancome Juicy Tube in my Harrods Glossybox, but I don't wear lipgloss! And Bonny didn't think she'd wear the Burberry Lipstick that she got so we swapped!

Bonny sent me the lipstick with a little note in an envelope, both of which were covered in the cutest little animal stickers ever. These two little guys were my favourites:

How cute are they?! So, I've finally got my long-awaited Burberry lipstick! Yayy :)

Burberry Lip Cover: No. 4 - Rosewood

I hope everyone else had a lovely easter, what did you all get up to? I'm going to spend tonight catching up on all the blog posts I've missed over the last few days... doing lots of uni work!