Petrifying, I know

I vowed to never ever dress up as a classic unimaginative cat, unless it was full leopard fur, tail, all the bells and whistles! However this wonky whiskered weirdo is my halloween costume for this year. I absolutely love dressing up and eating chocolate halloweens festivities but not yet knowing anybody over in my new country, I'm going to be a bit of a loser today. I couldn't be completely halloween naked though, so say hello to my little friend. 

I will of course be attending a neighbours little party which will allow me to show off my ability to eat an abnormal amount of sweets without throwing up. I'm also hoping to get a pumpkin to make sure 2 years of GCSE art doesn't go unnoticed. This year will also be a big year as i'm going to brave eating a toffee apple for the first time since I was in year 3. MAJOR BIG THING OK. Due to a dreaded concrete step that ruined my life when I tripped up it and smashed 5 (adult, may I add) teeth to smithereens. Step:1 - Christie:0

I know that looks like a huge array of nail varnishes for just a simple cat, but kittys are complex creatures that need a lot of detail... Topshop black Nail Art pen to outline the ears, Maybelline Colour Show in Chalk Dust for the two little eyes, Butter LONDON's The Full Monty (previously blogged) for the base, Sally Hansens Midnight in NY for the face, L.A colours white french manicure for some (messed up) whiskers and 17 Lasting finish in fairy cake for the nose! 

The lazy day 101

I think it's absolutely essential to have a lazy day every once in a while. A day of films, tea, staying in bed, food, blogging, staying in bed, reading, dancing around and .. staying in bed? So this is just a little post of what I feel the perfect lazy day consists of. 

Lazy days aside, if you're spending any day without waking up and having a cup of tea... you're doing it wrong. Strong, british, two sugars, preferably in a quirky mug. Perfection. I then go straight back to bed with my tea and check instagram, facebook, twitter, tumblr, pinterest, bloglovin', youtube and email ... which usually takes me to bed time. Night x (just kidding, but it takes a good hour)

After that it's my favourite time of the day, breakfast!! I always like eating mine outside in the company of annoying dog, Duke. Living in Arizona it's sooooo hot all of the time and I ♥ rain, so autumn and winter mornings are the only time I can enjoy being outside without melting into a puddle. Pancakes or eggs will always win over anything else, but only on the weekend. For week days I always have whole grain (honeyish, berryish or oat clusterish) cereal or porridge with a banana. There's a useless fact for you to take away from this.

  

Then it's time for a little blogging and reading. Currently mixing up Elle's November issue and Revenge Wears Prada: The Devil Returns by Lauren Weisberger. Unless you've been living under a rock you'll know that this is the sequel to The Devil Wears Prada, FABULOUS film. I'm also loving the Pumpkin Pecan Waffles travel sized candle from Bath and Body Works. I love love love when the Autumn/Winter scents hit the shelves from any candle company. 

I really enjoy cooking and baking and tend to always make something on lazy days. If you're from Britain then you know what i'm talking about when I say 'Aah Bisto.' My mum literally jumped for joy when she found it at our favourite shop, The World Market. I've got to say that Bisto really does kick all American gravy in the pie hole, so I decided to make a good old homely English cottage pie for dinner tonight. Yuuuuum

A lazy day would not be complete without a movie night in. My all time favourite is Love actually and I usually watch it at least once a week, even more towards christmas time #noshame?.. Now it's time to spend the rest of my evening on the comfiest sofa in the history of sofas, complete with a stack of movies, pyjamas and like the dedicated Brit I am ... tea and biscuits.

Empties, to repurchase, or not to repurchase?

WOW, just wow. You know that magnum advert where the woman bites into her ice cream, then it suddenly re-appears like she never ate any in the first place? These products felt like that. In some cases that's amazing because i've loved the product, but in other cases it's just been like ahhhhh WHEN WILL THIS END. But without further ado, I give you my empties.  

Bobbi Brown Everything Mascara This mascara is pretty self explanatory. And Everything it did, curls, defines, lengthens, blackens, takes your eyes for a dinner date, does your washing. Simply amazing and without a doubt my favourite high end mascara (so far) I wouldn't hesitate to repurchase this, however there are a few more that I wouldn't mind trying out as well ... so ... we'll see. 

Oooops another mascara Benefit They're Real! I bought the travel sized version because I was already very happy with my current mascara (Bobbi Browns) but I wanted to see what the hype was about. Honestly, I kind of see it, yes it was lengthening and sort of looked like false lashes, but I just didn't love it as much as I was hoping. I found that the brush made my lashes stick together and NEVER under ANY circumstance do you want spider lashes. Ew. I also found that because it was so hard to wash off, it ripped out a few of my lashes in the process *sigh*

Organix Moroccan Argon Oil I hate giving a product a completely bad review, but... I hated it. Ok, maybe that was a little harsh, I didn't 'hate' them as such. I was so excited to try these because of how good Moroccan oil is for the hair and I was in desperate need of some hair therapy. Having my expectations set so high I was very let down when the results were so far from what I hoped. After washing my hair for a few weeks with this shampoo and conditioner I found it so much more dry and damaged that before. I'm sure that a lot of people love this, but for me it's a no no.

Burt's Bees Acne Solutions Purifying Gel Burt and I didn't really get off to the best start. My skin used to be terrible so I bought this product along with about a truck load of other acne treatments to try and fix my pizza face. My skin just couldn't handle it and got so much worse so I stuck this acne wash to the back of my shelf and deemed it useless. Once I let my skin clear slightly without bombarding it with products, I went back to this and i'm honestly so glad I did. It completely cleared up the rest of my major acne without disturbing my skin at all. DEFINITELY repurchasing. 

Teleshopping adds are so fricken annoying unless it's 3am but in this case it's allowed. The Sheer Cover concealer is so creamy and has amazing coverage, I was able to use the light for under my eyes and a mixture of the light and medium for blemishes. If Bobbi Browns creamy concealer wasn't on my 'I really really really need this' list, and I could purchase the sheer cover concealer separately from the rest of the pack AND in a shop I wouldn't hesitate to repurchase, but that simply isn't the case. Many apologies. 

Sally Hansen Complete Manicure in 230 Nude Now was my go to whenever I wanted a no-nail-varnish varnish look last year. I really like the Sally Hansen varnishes because I find that they last so long without chipping and keep a smooth gleaming finish on the nail long after it's dried. I most probably won't repurchase this shade just because it's been and gone and i'm ready to move on, but as for Sally... I will stay faithful.

All I really need to say is that this is my second full sized bottle of Not Your Mothers Sea Salt Spray It stood out so much compared to other sea salt texturing sprays because it didn't dry my hair out at all which I've found is almost impossible with my hair! I'm not going to buy another one just yet, not because I didn't like the product, but because now that it's Autumn/Winter time I don't want that beachy hair look anymore and would prefer something smoother.

So there you have it!! God knows when my next empties will be, but I will promise you now i'll be posting a LOT more from now on!

At Long Last...

OK SO HERE'S THE THING...
I have finally got myself a job over here in the US, meaning #1 I should be a happier more positive person ASAP now I have something to do and a way of making friends. And #2 I HAVE MONEY TO BUY STUFF AND BLOG ABOUT IT AT LAST!!! Which I'm so excited about as for the last few months I started my blog at the completely wrong time because I wasn't able to go out and try all of the products I desperately wanted to. I haven't yet started, but I figured that soon enough I'll be getting a steady pay cheque so I can maybe do a tiny little 3 product pre-shop/congrats on getting a job shop.

Tea. Sounds boring, right? Sounds stereotypically British but I don't care. The English really do take the easy access and cheap prices of tea and chocolate digestives for granted. And Americans just don't understand what a normal biscuit is. No it's not a bloody cookie or a scone, and no you don't eat them with gravy that's utterly ridiculous. And as for tea, i'm not dissing iced tea or a fruity flavoured tea, they're all well and good but it's just not the same as cosying up with a cup of tea every evening and reading/blogging/whatever. 

I could never really justify Butter London's prices. $15 for a nail varnish just seemed a little steep. But i've been stuck in a nail rut recently of plain pastel colours or black so it was a good excuse to treat myself with a new one. I wanted to go for a colour that was out of my comfort zone but also good for the approaching festive season and what better than gold? After seeing Full Monty from Butter it really was love at first sight, I knew I could probably find a cheaper dupe but it was destined to be a let down next to Butters sophisticated and perfectly shimmering design and colour. 
All in all i'm glad that I spend that little bit extra. The colour is gorgeous, the consistency made it easy to apply, and it's survived a week without any signs of chips AND bleach and cleaning the house was involved??!?!?! CRAZY I KNOW. I am now, an upper class nailette. 

If Lea Michele's flawless locks don't make you want it, I don't know what will. Recently my hair has not been happy. It seemed like every product I used, however highly hyped about, was a let down. I actually set out to buy the L'Oreal EverCrème shampoo and conditioner which is a sulfate-free hair care system (I won't pretend to know the full extent of what that means) But then they bought out a new advanced hair care line. 

There are five different products each specifying in a certain concern. I went for  the Total Repair Restoring range NOT just because it's in the front of the advertisement clearly over powering the rest, but because it seems to have the best of all 5 worlds, promising to rebuild fibres, strengthen, and restore vitality, silkiness and shine. 
Which it abso-fricken-lutely did. I'm so glad that I tried this because it's given my hair exactly what it needed, just after the first wash I noticed a difference. My hair has been coloured a lot so hard to work with and a pain the butt to brush so the conditioner really helps, I know that thats it's job, but I found other conditioners barely made an impact. 

Thumbs up all round!