£100 Asos outfit - the challenge

Hello again! I don't know about you but these posts have been popping up all over my dashboard recently and of course I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. Well, when I realised that discount coder were holding this challenge consisting of creating an outfit from Asos for £100, no discount codes allowed to win an £100 Asos voucher I took a hop, skip and a jump over to Asos and spent hours and hours scrolling through all of the pages of wonderfulness. This was so fun but way harder than I first thought, I'm guessing no discount codes means no sale items, I'm hoping it does or my little virtual shopping bag could of been filled with way more for £100! 

I decided to go for something on the girly side for this outfit as I have realised that my wardrobe is definitely lacking in the pastel/lace/girliness department. I'm a total girly girl but I don't really have a 'style', I have all sorts in that wardrobe of mine, everything but a nice selection of girliness, don't get me wrong I do love a lot of my clothes! Anyway, I did have a gorgeous watch which complimented this outfit perfectly but even without the nail polish and bag my price reached a grand total of £101 with the watch *sob*. I am totally in love with the flatforms and due to this challenge I now have an Asos wishlist the length of my arm, I don't buy online very often but there are some gorgeous pieces! As for me, this is my last day of being 16, scary stuff! I remember when I was younger I used to always cry on the night before my birthday because I didn't want to get old haha. I'm off for an Italians tomorrow, drinks on Saturday and then the girls have something planned for me for Tuesday, fun fun fun.

What would you have in your £100 Asos challenge? 

Thanks for reading. Love,

Rachael xx

My makeup story

Hello you lovely people, I hope none of you have had any nasty Apirl fools jokes played on you today, If you have, please share. I remember this tag from ages ago but just re discovered it on a few blogs I was scrolling through recently and thought it would be fun, I've always been someone to enjoy filling out a good questionnaire or survey once in a while. I'm strange like that, someone tell me they're the same. Anyways, lets gets chatting about the wonderful thing that is makeup. If you haven't already done this, please do! 

1. How old were you when you started wearing makeup?

I was always a little girly girl, I remember receiving makeup in my groovy chick magazine that I was subscribed too and I even got given a bratz train case full of pretty children's makeup which I was over the moon with. I think this was when I was about 9 or 10, I loved sitting playing with it all and doing my friends makeup, looking back, my skills probably weren't that great and I do feel sorry for them having had to wear the crazy coloured eye shadow I applied, blue eye shadow anyone? I know that I was 12 when I started with the foundation and all that skin clogging goodness, my mam actually first applied it to me when I was getting ready for a birthday party and I obviously loved how it looked because I have wore it ever since. At first, I would get comments from the 'popular' girls telling me I should try something lighter from natural collection and my teacher would tell me it looked like I had slapped it on with a shovel, yet I didn't listen and still thought I looked good, oh dear.

2. How did you get into makeup?

It's actually scary how bad my memory is, I think it was probably just watching my mam apply it, witnessing the older kids wearing it and seeing the two makeup looks it would show in every issue of one of my subscription magazines, it was either groovy chick or pop idol party. Did anyone else want to subscribe to every magazine when they were younger? Of course the free makeup from those magazines led me to experimenting and like I mentioned, it was actually my mother bear who decided to give me my first taste of foundation, I still remember it being Rimmel's lasting finish in the old packaging. I think if your a girly girl like I was you just grow into it and well, when the online beauty community enters your life that is when the obsession begins.

3. What are some of your favorite brands?

This is a tough one. I have been a true drug store girl since my love for makeup began, I think the only higher end brands I have tried are MAC and Benefit and I do love them but I also love anything from Rimmel, Maybelline and L'oreal to natural collection etc. Obviously some products are a bit of a let down but I really don't think I dislike any brand as a whole to be honest.

4. What does makeup mean to you?

I'm going to be massively cliche here and say that makeup is added confidence. When our flaws are concealed and our features are accentuated we do believe we look better than what we started off with leading us to feeling good. I must admit i'm not one to venture out in public without makeup on my face, suppose it is sad really, everyone should feel comfortable without makeup and around my family, friends and boyfriend i'm fine but for those other times that is where makeup steps in to give me that little bit of confidence. It's also a really fun thing too though, definitely my favourite part of the whole getting ready process!

5. If you could only wear 4 products on your face what would they be?

My choices may be the most obvious but I think I would go for foundation for an even skin tone and coverage, mascara to enhance my eyes, blush for a pretty flush so I don't look dead and probably a lip balm so my lips look nice and healthy. 

6. What is your favorite thing about makeup?

Of course I love the confidence it can bring, but I also love how fun it can be and how it can create a community like this. Experimenting with all sorts of pretty colours, intriguing products and various techniques to create many unique looks is all part of the fun process. Although I am most definitely not blessed with an artistic streak I do love how a face is like a blank canvas for an artist and the things that can be created really are amazing! Totally wish I was a creative person.

7. What do you think about drugstore makeup vs high end makeup?

The majority of my makeup is drugstore, it is nice to treat yourself to something high end once in a while though. It does give you a much better feeling lets admit it and makes you feel that little bit more sophisticated, but then everyone loves a bargain and all the added 3 for 2's and exciting vouchers at the drugstore can make you as equally excited as you would be buying high end. Such a complicated thing, overall I do think I will remain a drugstore girl as most of the products are great quality for a small price so you can't go wrong compared to silly prices that high end brands think it's OK to charge. Nothing wrong with treating yourself once in a while though is there girls.

8. What is one tip of advice you can give to a beginner? 

I would say don't give into the temptation of slapping too much on your face, you will regret it once your skin starts giving you payback. Keep it natural and when your moving on to foundation, which by the way, don't go for it unless you really feel like you need it, please make sure you carefully choose the right shade, avoid the orangeness people! Also, take advantage of the brilliant advice available on YouTube, if YouTube didn't exist I do fear to think how my makeup would be looking. I definitely cheated there as that is more than one, forgive me?

9. What is one makeup trend you never understood?

Hmm, this was a tough one, even leading me to googling 'bad makeup trends'. Shows how much I know about makeup trends doesn't it haha, two very obvious ones popped up on my screen: lip liner mis-match and mega thin brows, or on the other hand, I was never a fan of super thick in your face brows either. I don't understand how people can look in the mirror and think they look great when their lips are a completely different shade to their lip liner or when their brows look like their either disappearing into the face or taking over the world, baffles me it does. Woops, that was also more than one, oh well.

Mega thin brows, lip liner mis-match and super thick in your face brows.

10. What do you think about the beauty community?

I could go on and on about how great I think it is, I have learnt so much. However it definitely should be taken with a pinch of salt, so many people label it as selfish and superficial which I totally understand but it's just a fun hobby that should be taken lightly. We do still think about all of the other non materialistic things in our lives more than the materialistic aspects. With that said, the blogging community is noticeably a much nicer environment than the YouTube life, I really do admire most youtubers and there are some lovely girls who I totally trust and love to watch but then there is the side to it with certain youtubers becoming unreliable, using the internet to gain money and hate seems to be a much larger, unnecessary thing on youtube. On the other hand, I can't believe how lovely everyone is on here! The nice comments really do make my day. I love how it is like a separate little world for girls to get lost in and where our love of all things girly can be shared. 

I hope you enjoyed this post, I know I enjoyed writing it! What's your makeup story? Thanks for reading. Love, 

Rachael xx

Project perfect

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Girls are under so much pressure to look 'perfect' nowadays, but what is perfect? Who came up with this perfect image? How did it come about? To me, perfect is being happy with who you are and the way you look, that is all that matters. However, most girls, including myself, sadly consider perfect to be this crazy image that only exists due to the invention of photo editing software and the influence of the media who for some reason have taken advantage of this obsession with perfection only to take over the minds of us girls in a way no one would have hoped for. With me having only left the manipulating world that is high school in September I have experienced first hand the controlling and saddening ways of this issue hastily sneaking its way into the minds of young girls without them being aware until they sit down and have a good think. Which in reality, none of us do unless the inspirational people in our world come to the rescue to attempt to cure our possessed minds. In this case i'm talking about the one and only Gok Wan, helping us love our bodies no matter what shape or size. You may or may not have heard about his new mission; to cure the hatred many teens have for their bodies in his new series Gok's Teens: The Naked Truth. As soon as I seen this advertised I hit the record button as it really is something I feel strongly about and knew Gok, who was bullied as a youngster would do a good job - and he did. Inspired by this program the lovely Amy came up with an amazing new project to help further; project perfect, created to help everyone focus on what we do like about ourselves instead of us looking in the mirror and picking out every minor thing that we dislike which in reality are things that people do not notice or things that others love about us and most importantly, they are what makes us unique. Why would we want to look like everyone else? And no, people are not going to 'think you love yourself', they are going to respect and be inspired by you. So what does project perfect consist of:

1. Post a photo that you like of yourself and say in a couple of sentences why you like it.

2. State some things that you DON'T like about yourself but say why others may love to be like that.

3. State 3 things that you DO like about yourself.

1. A photo of myself that I like and why:

Not too sure why this is coming out so bad quality but I like how natural I look on here from my hair to my makeup. Me and the camera seem to have such a hatred towards each other, I am always left looking unlike myself and rather strange on photos but here I have to say, I do look more 'normal'.

2. 3 things that I DON'T like about myself but why others may love to be like this:

• My hair: although I made a trip to the hairdressers yesterday to get it sorted resulting in me being slightly happier with my locks right now they are still horribly thin and flat. However, many people struggle with their super thick hair so would maybe appreciate it if it was thinner. 

• My body: as a whole it isn't something i'm happy with as I would love to be more toned, I know that i'm the only one that can do anything about that though. I often appear to be of an OK shape whilst clothed in my usual state, aimed at avoiding any show of my nasty body bits. People don't know about the wobbly bits hiding beneath which make me feel like shit. I do know that people struggle to put weight on though. 

• My skin tone: I am super ghostly white and my overall skin tone is rather uneven with many veins showing through, especially on my chest. I would love to be more tanned. However, I really dislike fake tan and some people do find this typical 'english rose' type skin beautiful so I probably should embrace it.

3. 3 things that I DO like about myself: 

• My arms: they have always kind of just been there, I do like them but have never really focused on them as they are not something I dislike, I don't mind having them on show. 

• My nails: I have always been lucky with my nails and often get compliments on them, they are super strong and healthy, if one was to snap it would grow back quickly. 

• My teeth: Ok so I may not exactly like them yet but I am coming to the end of my time with braces, hopefully a few more trips to the orthodontist and I will have a lovely straight smile as they are almost there and I can see a massive improvement from 16 months ago when they were first put on and I absolutely HATED my teeth. I'm so happy with how far they have come and can't wait to show off my non-wonky non-metal smile. 

I will admit I did find this difficult, finding just 3 things I like about myself wasn't easy, but this is because we are silly enough to not take notice of the positives. If you are currently sitting there thinking 'I don't like anything about myself' like I was just have a good think and you WILL find 3, or maybe even more things that you like about your looks. Just like I did, and it will make you smile. Although we would all love too make this problem disappear, it is pretty impossible to alter the media which is sadly making billions in turn for many of our population loathing themselves, however, small things such as the show and this project can make a difference. Thanks Amy for helping us all appreciate ourselves a little more, hopefully many of you will do this and begin to think more positively about the way you look. Remember, you are beautiful no matter what. There is no such thing as a perfect image or no rule as to what you should look like. You are unique. Thanks for reading. Love,
Rachael xx