'90s grunge chokers

(photo one) 1 // 2 // 3
(photo two) 4 // 5 // 6
(photo three) 7 // 8

all off ebay, and if you're paying more than 99p for any of this stuff in UO or whatever then you're doing it wrong.

seriously though, these are the only necklaces i ever wear and as such i've built up a little collection. favourites have to be the amethyst crystal (it doesn't come with a leather cord or anything but i'm cool with interchanging them) and the velvet one with chains and a moon symbol - it's handmade in the uk (and the seller threw in a free necklace chain, how cute), plus the only others i could find in this design were on etsy for ten quid, no thanks.

also check out this, this (on the top of my wishlist!!), this, this, this aaaand this if you're into what you see here.

look @ this cool rock (and my nails)

opi it's my year // £11

orly liquid vinyl // £1.99

i'm quite good at half-assed nail art i think
this is two coats of the black nail polish + one of opi's it's my year (which they should've called amethyst bc it's seriously the exact same colour as one) on the index finger. also how cool is that rock i mean cmon guys (love a good geode)

three little miracles

glamglow youthmud // £49.99
rosehip oil // £6.99
bepanthen // £5.49

you've probably heard of glamglow by now, yes? their products are a bank-breaking mix of stupidly expensive and stupidly good, and the youthmud is my favourite of the few i've tried. it's an exfoliating mask (you leave it on for ten minutes before scrubbing it off) and speaking as a gal with dry, flaky, disgusting skin, it does the job of making me feel less disgusting brilliantly. the results aren't long-term in any way, but i always reach for this for a quick fix.

as for rosehip oil, pleaaaaaaaase don't buy the overpriced branded bullshit, it's all the same one ingredient (i've been buying essential oils for years and i trust this seller on ebay). i've been using a few drops at night as a serum underneath moisturiser, and i've noticed similar results to what the likes of the estee lauder advanced night repair and other £60+ serums do - y'know the whole thing where you glance at the mirror in the morning and you're taken aback by how good your skin looks? less blemishes, less dry patches etc etc, just overall better. word on the street is that it also works well for ageing skin and minor burns, and ohmygod it's just so cheap.

the bepanthen probably looks a lil out of place but lemme explain: i've been using this stuff for years as a lip balm, and it only hit me last week how much i rely on it - some piece of shit stole my handbag at TITP with my phone, money, a rly rare film camera (gutteddd) and bepanthen in it and my lips were a fucking state for the next two days, no other lip balm could do the job. as one of our neighbours pitched near us at the campsite put it (he was known as wee dougie by his mates): this is pish, ah'm aff hame
(but seriously, it's a good lip balm)

cohorted // july 2015

cohorted // £19.99

inside the box: nails inc matte nail polish in gatwick, st tropez gradual tan firming plus lotion, diego dalla palma snow white & the huntsman palette and a 50ml gucci flora body lotion.

as a general rule, i don't bother with beauty boxes. they're almost always underwhelming - but then cohorted showed up and i was interested. four high-end products in a one-off box and, as a complete label whore, i loved what i saw in all previous month's boxes. super high expectations here.

 HOWEVER

guess this month they've decided to cut corners - the nail inc polish is in pre-rebrand packaging, and the palette is a tie-in with a film that came out in 2012 (aaaand i already have one that i've never used & am selling off in my blog sale, yikes). the body lotion looks like the type you get in a gift set along with a perfume, and although it smells better than most, it doesn't deliver much actual moisture. luckily the one product i'm completely happy with receiving, the st tropez gradual tan, pretty much covers the price of the beauty box on its own if it weren't available for half the price online. do i sound bitter?

*sorry if i sound pretty (probably unjustifiably) pissed off , i promise i'm really nice in person

space princess

base: bourjois healthy mix serum foundation, mac mineralize concealer, nyx blush in taupe

eyes: l'oreal brow artiste, stila in the light palette, wet n wild comfort zone palette, daniel sandler eye delight in ice, lancome le crayon kohl in noir, maybelline eye studio lasting drama gel eyeliner, benefit they're real mascara & some demi wispy falsies

lips: mac lip liner in soar, bare minerals marvelous moxie lipgloss in a-lister

choker is from here

wish i had the guts to go out the house looking like this on a day to day basis, halloween i am ready 4 u

lomography 001

i'm super into film cameras and getting a good shot with one makes me v proud so i thought i'd share (hope u don't mind). these were taken late last year in southern france with 35mm film and some old agfa camera i picked up at a bric a brac store in brighton for £7. ryanair flight was like twenty quid too, well chuffed.

*sorry if you're just here for the lipstick reviews

"hair heroes" sounds a bit overambitious i think

feelunique hair heroes beauty box // £20.70

ok so when i first heard about the redken diamond oil i got really excited (i go crazy over fucking oil now what's wrong with me) because it's silicone free. the feeble reasoning here is that moroccan oil etc make yo hair feel good by coating it in silicone, which washes off in the shower and doe shit all in the long term whereas this redken stuff which had a real try-hard as its bottle designer might actually strengthen my hair. i can't accurately explain how damaged my hair is using mere words (screaming would convey it better), so i need this to work. and buying this beauty box was loads cheaper than buying the product alone so here we are.

also in the box is a 75ml philip kingsley elasticiser (i'm not even gonna go into any further detail on this because i'm already sick to death of hearing about it) and a tangle teezer. gotta say i'm glad to see the back of my old hairbrush, i'd always gone for the primark paddle brushes until i decided that my hair deserved something more upmarket so i bought some awful denman brush that felt like it was snapping my hairs - and the handle broke off after using it twice. not gonna have that problem here cause the tangle teezer doesn't even HAVE a handle. suck it denman

literally everything in this haul was on sale

i'm really stingy but i really like buying things so if it's a bit cheaper that's a good enough excuse for me.

in my mind hollister exclusively sells branded hoodies and sweatpants, but this gorgeous monochrome leaf print tshirt caught my eye despite the brand name. it's cut in a way that looks almost like a men's tshirt but is slightly more flattering, and also smells like the hollister store (not complaining). i found another tshirt with a similar print in h&m, but in a very different cut - it's long sleeved, with a very low scoop neck (you could probably wear it off the shoulder) and when tucked in looks like a bodysuit.

i stocked up my crop top collection with a few new pieces from pretty little thing, consisting of a plain white racer neck, a flowy low-cut black striped one and my favourite, a black high neck top with cut-out shoulders. other essentials include a grey men's v-neck tshirt (for that whole baggy i-just-slept-with-your-boyfriend-and-am-wearing-his-shirt vibe that is in reality more of a i'm-a-mess-don't-look-at-me type of deal) and this beautiful set of rings (i'm really into the whole 12 semi-precious rings on each finger trend, but at around £15 each i can't afford it so this set is perfect), both from primark.

if you follow my instagram (read: you should follow my instagram) then you'll see that i had a little weekend getaway in london, and victoria's secret was #1 on my hit list. love a good bra, me.
i picked up this beautiful beautiful beautiful holographic silver gym bag and another set of rings from aldo as well as popping into lush's oxford street store to see what all the fuss was about. not gonna lie, it somewhat overwhelmed me, and with five minutes until it closed i grabbed one (non-exclusive, urgh) thing that had been on my wishlist for a while, the shine so bright hair balm.

also went a bit crazy with shoes - usually i limit myself to one or two pairs per season, but that didn't happen this time er... oops
 i've been lusting after the white slip-on perforated vans for a while, but when i saw this holographic pair on office's ebay outlet i though they'd be as good a substitute as any. both the black t-bar shoes and sandals are from missguided, the sandals are primarily for when i can't be bothered to pull on wellies to go to the loo at five in the morning at festivals but i'll probably end up wearing them all summer long. love em.