Marching Out ...

Three days into the fresh month of April and I'm reflecting on the previous month, my gosh, it was a whirlwind! It was filled with both stress and enjoyment, highs and lows; but most importantly, memories!

I'm going to cheat a little here by starting with the 29th February. The leap year certainly brought me some luck (hopefully I won't have to wait another four years for further luck). I managed to pass my driving test on this date which has to be one of my proudest achievements yet! Wow was I relieved to finally be able to stop having driving lessons and to actually be able to drive on my own. I passed second time (apparently all the best drivers do, so I'll take that) and I was thrilled. My 'learning to drive experience' was a very odd one. I was far from lucky. I started learning to drive in 2014, this driving instructor was a grumpy old man and I found myself cancelling lessons. I then had periods of time off from learning to drive and by periods of time I'm talking 8 months without a lesson - yes ok I slacked, my bad. I then had to find another instructor. I trusted my pal's recommendation (big mistakeooo) and the guy I then had was very touchy and weird, to say the least. So upon passing my test I was just excited to not have a creep grab my legs and stare at me intensely whilst I changed gear! (how did this dude find my ditzy attempt at driving so, appealing?)

Then within the actual month of March, my anxiety hit a high and I had to leave a job due to stupid panic attacks - yippee. 

 I'm a second year law student and I had my Public Law exam to sit, which, on reflection (touch wood) was okay, well, as okay as a three hour exam can be. Since then I've had a little bit of time off and have let myself have a great time before final semester kicks my ass! 

 My parents went away on holiday so I had various friends come stay over, went out clubbing (a lot) and I allowed myself to be happy. To me this happiness came in all sorts of flavours, some were  Jäger flavoured, some tasted of my Nanny Joan's chicken dinner - its all about balance. But all jokes aside, I really have found this last month has shown me all the little forms of happiness. 

Heres my list of five happy's this month:

1. Spending time with my grandparents

2. Sleeping in and not feeling guilty

3. Going to my best friend's house, applying face masks and fooling around

4. Getting dressed up, applying pretty makeup and going out 

5. Being offered my very first mini pupilage (this will mean nothing if you don't study law, but essentially work experience with a barrister's chambers!) 

Although there were intense and very stressful moments last month, I'm learning to not focus on these moments or allow them to push out my happy memories, but to spend time remembering the happy times. This is something I need to do much more and hopefully allow myself to lead as much of a positive life as possible. Don't allow yourself to moan about a day of rain and forget about the week of sunshine. 

As I begin the next two modules of my degree I plan to spend time being a focused, organised and positive person! How was your March? I hope April is a good month for all!!

Thank you for reading, Hayley x

Bank Holiday Beauty

Hey, hi, welcome! I know this post is a couple of days late however I've been recovering from a boozy bank holiday! Whoopsie. (Always drink responsibly)
 With bank holiday comes the peer pressure from your friends to get absolutely wasted and of course they just make you put on a nice, dress blast music and force those jager bombs down your throat - not self inflicted at all!
 A lot of people hit the town as early as thursday through til monday however myself and my pals went out on Saturday and Sunday.  We had a more causal pub type setting on the Saturday and went clubbing on the Sunday. We made tons of new, funny memories and danced the weekend away!

Being an utter makeup maniac, my favourite part is planning the face of the evening, the curial lashes or no lashes decision. What lipstick will I wear? Smokey or subtle? You know the drill.

On Saturday I opted for wavy hair, a slightly smokey eye paired with a nude lip and light contour. I didn't actually get a selfie that night so I've had to crop out my friends from this picture but hopefully you can see the type of look I was going for.

For this look, I used Esteè Lauder double wear foundation (I reviewed this foundation here http://writeaboutbeauty.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/estee-hoarder.html ) with Collection concealer to highlight my under eyes and T zone. I then used the Sleek brow kit on my eyebrows and used the eyeshadow from this duo set in the crease of my eyes and blended it out. For liquid eyeliner I glided Collections black liquid eyeliner pen along my lash line of my upper lids. I then grabbed the colossal mascara from Maybelline and blinked on the wand a few times before applying Eyelure eyelashes in number 080. Under my eyes I used an angled brush and took the brown eyeshadow as previously mentioned and swept it along the lash line. On my cheeks I used Benefit's Hoola bronzer to contour in the hollows with M.A.C's blusher in peaches on the apples. I then went over the top of my cheek bones and under eye with M.A.C's soft and gentle mineralise skin finish. For lipstick I used Essense lipliner in nude and an Essence nude lipstick. 

Sunday was more of a full on heavy make up look as we were going clubbing so it was much more suitable, and I love any excuse to go wild with my make up brushes!

Eyes closed makeup.

I can only apologise again for the poor quality of the photograph but here I went for much more of a voluminous hair look with bigger girls and a fuller face of makeup

I used pretty much the same products here, I just applied them differently. This is a great skill to acquire as it stops you spending a ton of money on lots of products, as in most cases you can switch up your makeup look by the heaviness in which you apply. The differences I made here include mixing the double wear foundation with Rimmel Match Perfection in the shade 103 true ivory. The mixture of the two products created a much more glowy and thicker consistency. I set the foundation with Rimmel's Stay Matte powder in 003, when using powder be sure to only use a light dusting of it so that you don't take away the glow of the foundation. 

For my eyes I used an unbranded eye shadow palette it just says "colour couture" on the front (sorry for the lack of detail, this palette was a gift and I'm not sure where it was from). However you can use any brand so long as it includes dark browns, greys and blacks. I didn't use a base colour, just the foundation I'd put on my face; I went straight in with a crease brush from Real Techniques with a dark brown, I then applied dark grey tones. Once they had blended I took a black with the same brush and stroke it into the outer corners of my eyelids. Once that blended, I took a lighter brown and blended slightly above where I had previously applied. This method creates the shadowed look and allows the eyeshadow to appear much better put together than the appearance of chalky unblended eyeshadow. If you accidentally use too much light brown and lose the darkness of the black in the corner just slowly and lightly apply a little more black on the outer corners (be careful when using black eyeshadow, it can be make or break!)

I then used the Collection black liquid eyeliner and created a winged cat eye look and applied the same false lashes. This time I popped a little mascara on before the lashes as well as after.

The contour on my face was using the same products as before I just applied more bronzer and a little more blusher. 

Finally, for the nude lip, I used that same essence nude liner but used a mixture of nude lipsticks. By using different shades of the same colour you can create shadows with the darkest colour and highlight with the lightest colour.

Eyes open makeup

And they are my bank holiday beauty looks! What did you get up to over the Easter break/ bank holiday? I hope this is useful to some of you who struggle when deciding what look to go for. My top tip would be; when going for darker, dramatic eye looks, always go for a nude lip! If you are opting for a subtle eye look, go for a bright or dark lip.

Thanks for reading, Hayley x

What do you want to be?

For as long as I can remember, this is the most commonly asked question to exist. I can remember being a little girl with piggy tails and cute dresses, and the biggest concern I had would be what to name my new dolls (this took a lot of thought and consideration, usually based on my favourite Spice Girl/Girls Aloud member or princess), what I wanted for my dinner and trying to run around care free without falling and grazing my knees (although the worst part was always when you landed on your hands and they scraped along the pavement whilst you flew).
 Even at such a tender, vulnerable age, family and teachers would say "What do you want to do when you're older, Hayley? What do you want to be?" and the imaginative little soul I was would conjure up responses like "A singer!" as I jumped around belting out either a 60's love ballad, any of Cher's album (Believe and If I could turn back time being firm faves) or Lady Marmalade - I had a VERY varied taste of music. But whatever the genre, I loved the idea of performance and telling a story through song.
 Then when I would be asked again, and again, and again, over the years I had decided I was going to be a teacher, a dancer, an author, a hairdresser, a princess, a tennis player (I remember being adamant about this one and I haven't a clue where it came from, I was far from sporty), and the list went on and on. Back then, being so young and sweet, not feeling restricted and being around other children who were going to be spiderman, a footballer or a ballerina were the best days of my life. When no one would say "you can't do that", "oh that's a bit tricky Hayley".
 But then as we grow, and as we age, this question is asked more frequently but the responses you get in return get more and more critical. Now I'm not for one minute saying to become spiderman and physically live the day to day life of a fictional character is realistic but even careers you hear in day to day conversation, people tell you are impossible.
 For the last four or five years, I've wanted to be a barrister, this has been the aim. I had confident, clear visualisations of myself in a court room as a strong advocate and achieving justice for people. I studied law at A-Level and I'm currently in my second year of my law degree at the University of Law. In fact, I have an exam in two days time and really ought to be going over my revision notes instead of rambling on a blog. However my recent frame of mind and revision mode gave some sort of epiphany. I realised that over my journey of university my confidence has been on a downward spiral and at its lowest, I found myself saying "I can't do that" more times than I ever have in my life.   Law is a competitive field and I've met some wonderful people along the way, but also some
not-so-wonderful people who influence their negative mindset upon their peers, to a point where I began to believe these people. I've never been afraid of a challenge and it saddens me to notice my downfall of dedication recently.
 The point I'm trying to make here is, regardless of whether I still want to be a barrister, or a writer, or even a hairdresser, the question "What do you want to be" and the answers we give back become more and more apprehensive as we grow up. I know myself I have lied to people with my answers because I'm worried what response I might get, because I might sound too ambitious and need to be more realistic. Or I've felt a need to say a certain career because of the pressure of the necessity to be successful.
So rather than concentrating on what I wanted to be, I'm working on who I want to be. Because no matter what career path I end up taking, how much money I earn, or how many knock backs I receive, I want to be the kind of person that encourages others to achieve their goals. I've experienced the words and looks off negative people, and allowed them to effect my mindset and I know that I never want to do that to somebody else. I know that I want to be a friendly, approachable and loving person. I know that I want to see the world, care for my family and make memories with my friends. I want to spread positivity amongst people, become as charitable as I can, help the less fortunate. I have so many little goals which aren't feasible through what grades I ascertain or determined by the job I choose.

I'm aware this is a long, ramble of a blog so a huge round of applause to anyone who read all of this, but I needed to write down these thoughts somewhere!

Thanks for reading, Hayley x

The Crêperie

Happy weekend to you all! My friend and I started our weekend off with a trip to a cute little crêperie that we'd had our eye on for while. It's safe to say they went down an absolute treat! 

The Pear Tree Creperie Swinfen

Cheese and tomato galette

Goats cheese, tomato coulee and walnut galette

The restaurant itself was super adorable and definitely had the french atmosphere going on. When it came to deciding whether to go for sweet or savoury, we opted for the savoury galette as appose to the sweet crepe (however this was a tough choice as nutella was all over that sweet menu). It was a lovely place and I will definitely be returning in future! Its always nice to try new foods. What's your favourite type of food?

Thanks for reading,

Hayley xx

Get The Look: How To Get Bigger Lips Without Botox

I'd first of all like to apologise for neglecting my blog for the past few weeks, hopefully this post will make up for it and I hope these tips are helpful!

Lipstick trends have excelled over the years, the matte lip look commenced in the 1930's, which of course was rather the life changer for all women and still to this day prevails most other lip looks. Of course we also have the 1950's to thank for creating the first long lasting lip stick (life saver). The most iconic of which was the deep red tones popularised by Marilyn Monroe, whose trends still live on to this day. The 1980's brought us the head turning electric bright purple and pink toned lipsticks emphasised on idols such as Madonna. The 1990's were the first to show us the idea of creating an illusion of bigger lips by using a darker lip liner and filling in with a lighter lipstick - Spice Girl fans, you remember this one!

Marilyn Monroe - Original trendsetter and beauty icon

Angelina Jolie - Queen of the pout, beauty goddess.

Kylie Jenner - Most recent powerful pout.

 So it is safe to say that the ever-changing world of make up and beauty has seen its fair share of crazily colourful, gobsmackingly glossy and naked nudes in its time. 2016 is no exception, thanks to Kylie Jenner setting the trend of fuller pouty lips, the make up world is pout-ragous! 

 Of course our celebrity idols have the money to pay for botox on their pretty little faces, but if you're anything like me, rather a wuss when even thinking about a needle or just don't have the money to pay for fillers; I have the trick for you!

 (DISCLAIMER: This is not saying that girls with smaller lips are any less beautiful than those with fuller lips, I just enjoy creating new looks and emphasising the lip is something I think looks truly beautiful.)

Lips before any product is on

I have rather full lips to begin with however this doesn't matter, any size lip should benefit from a few tips and tricks I have learnt over the years. You want to start off with nothing on your lips, wipe off any foundation that may be there from finishing the rest of you make up and ensure there is not product or dry skin - this will prevent any matte products from clinging onto the dry areas.

M.A.C Studio Finish Concealer in NW15

The first step is to apply concealer all over the lips, don't go too over board, it is only a base to take away the red/pink pigment from your lips. This will then even out with the rest of your skin tone and allow us to create whatever shape we would like. I use the M.A.C Studio Finish concealer as it is the perfect consistency. If you use a more liquid based concealer you may find yourself going over the top on application of the product, a better tip would be to use a creamier concealer and apply with your own brush.

Lips with just concealer

Once you have applied concealer, choose a lipliner only slightly darker than the colour of the lipstick you are using, if it is a very dark shade of lipstick you will be using then the same colour liner would be suitable too. 

Lips with Essence Soft Berry lipliner 

Line around the lips, just slightly outside of your actual lip line, however don't draw too far away or else you're going to look like a crazy clown and nobody wants that! Shade in the outer corners with the liner and soften the pressure you apply as you draw into the middle of the lip. You don't need to worry about being neat on the shading as you're going to cover it, but the idea of creating darker areas on the outside and lighter on the inside will shape a plump pout. At this stage you're going to look a tad silly but you should already notice a pout forming and the lips looking larger.

Lips filled in with M.A.C lipstick in Brave

You then need to fill in the rest of your lip with your chosen lipstick. A good tip for durability is to actually colour in the lips with your lipliner and then apply lipstick as it will ensure that your lipstick stays on and doesn't budge. However, for beginners I would stick to these steps as the outline will give you guidance for where to apply the lipstick and still have the shadowed effect. Once you have applied your lipstick you may notice an obvious difference in the colour of lip liner and lipstick, just use your finger to gently blend the two together so that they still look real, the idea is that you're creating an illusion that you really have big lips - not that you've obviously overdrawn them!

Final lip look after adding highlighter into the middle of the lips

The final step which will bring it all together is to add a highlighter into the middle of both lips. You'll only need a very little amount, I just dabbed my index finger into the highlighter which comes in the Sleek contour kit and patted it into the middle of my lips and along my cupids bow (the lines between your nose and top lip). Any highlighter will suffice as long as it isn't a liquid highlighter as this will remove the lipstick and won't work at all.  You can play around with this as much as you like, you can add more liner at the end if you want more emphasis or use your finger to blend if they're too bold. It is all about your own preference. The key trick to remember, as with any form of contouring is apply the darker shades outside and highlight in the middle.

Before

After

I hope this routine can help those of you who are lusting over luscious lips! Why let a surgeon prod at your body when you can do it for yourself pain free?! If you do recreate this look be sure to let me know, I'd love to see!

Thanks for reading,

 Hayley x

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