January favourites

These are some products/things that I have been loving in January...

Collection Lasting perfection concealer 

I bought this a few weeks ago and I am obsessed with it; every time I have worn makeup, this has been my preferred concealer. I wear the lightest shade and it blends really well. The coverage is very good too, as it covers any blemishes all day long. You can probably tell that it has been well loved by the state of the bottle - this product is definitely worth the hype!

Bobbi Brown No Smudge Mascara

I have had this for a couple of months and it is still going strong. This is a favourite because, throughout the month of January, I have been visiting the gym once a week and doing other sporting activities whilst wearing this product. With other similar products, I find that I get black marks underneath my eyes and in my crease because I (unfortunately!) have oily eyelids. However, this mascara lives up to it's name as a 'No Smudge Mascara'.

Topshop White Matte Nail Polish

Matte nails have been a recent trend and I saw a girl post on Instragram her white matte nails; after seeing that I really wanted to try it out. I had never owned a Topshop nail polish but, from wearing this one, I think they are well formulated. You have to do two coats as it's matte but that's okay because I tend to do that with regular polishes. I really love the way it looks on my nails and I am tempted to purchase more matte colours.

Aveeno Hand Cream

I never really wore hand cream until I discovered this. I saw that my mum was wearing it and I asked to try it out, from then onwards I have carried this around in my bag. Admittedly, I don't like the smell but it is so moisturising   that I overlook the scent. It goes into your skin easily and you don't end up with greasy hands. This picture is of the sample size but I do have the full one. It's really worth a try! 

Tanya Burr's Afternoon Tea Lipgloss

As I watch Youtubers, I heard about Tanya Burr's lips and nails range and wanted to try it out. I did buy this last year but I have been especially wearing this in the month of January. It smells like strawberry laces and it is in a really pretty colour - mine is 'Afternoon Tea'. I put a nude lipstick underneath and this on top, as it gives it a lovely shine. In the near future, I would like to try one of her nail polishes. 

Topshop Concealer Brush

For my concealer, I was using my 'Expert face Brush by Real Techniques'. I still love it but I now use that for foundation and BB cream. This brush doesn't leave hairs on my face, as many of my previous ones did and I find that it is the perfect size and shape for my face. 

Notebook

I love this little notebook - I am now using it to plan posts. All my ideas go in there and it's a cute notebook that fits into my bag nicely. 

Random Favourites

My top 3 most listened to songs, this month, are:

Blank Space - Taylor Swift

Blue Jeans (remastered) - Lana Del Ray

In the End - Linkin Park

I have finished Gone Girl this month and it was an amazing read. I'm waiting for the film to come out on DVD to see how it compares! If you would like a in-depth review, feel free to comment.

Netflix has been on a lot this month because I am currently obsessed with Pretty Little Liars. It is so good! I'm only on series 1 but I want to catch up to the new series. 

What have you been loving recently?

xox 

DIY notebook

Today I have a bit of a DIY for you. I bought a plain A4 notebook for school and I thought that I would customise it to make it more colourful. Normally, I am the worst at creative projects but I am actually really happy with the turn out of this. My friend and I found two different styles of wrapping paper and cut out horizontal stripes in both patterns. We then stuck them on alternatively and made sure they were the same size. The stripes were too long for the page so we wrapped them round onto the back. Finally we cut out a love heart sticky label and wrote revision on it as I will use this for that. These are photos of the process and how it eventually turned out...

xox

Collective haul

This is a collection of things that I have purchased over the past few weeks, I didn't buy it all on one trip, it was over several :)

Primark - £4

I really wanted another pair of pyjama shorts, as I only had one that fitted. These are really cute with the red checkered pattern.

Primark - £1.80

Just a basic grey t-shirt, I didn't have one and I thought that it would go with a lot.

Urban Outfitters - £25

I picked this up in the sale, it was reduced from £40. It is a playsuit and I think it will look nice with tights on cooler days or just by itself when it's a bit warmer. 

New Look - £6.99
This is a crop top and I bought it to go with high-waisted things!

New Look - £14.99

I love this kimono because it is a thicker material so it keeps you warmer than the other one I have. It has pretty detailing on the sleeves/bottom and it (again!) will go with many outfits.

Non-clothing items (from left to right)

Rimmel exaggerate eye liner in waterproof - £5.29 (from Superdrug)

I was running out of my old eye liner so I decided to purchase another one. I've never tried this out before but it swatched well.

Collection lasting perfection concealer - £4.19 (from Superdrug)

Lots of people have raved about this concealer and I wanted to try this out. So far, I am loving it. 

Sweet vanilla and coconut candle - £0.80 (from Primark)

As I love the smell of vanilla, I picked this up to smell it and it found its way into my basket. For 80p I couldn't resist!  

Rimmel wake me up concealer - £5.49 (from Superdrug)

I had also heard a lot about this and I wanted to try it out, as an under eye concealer because it has slight shimmers in it. 

If you would like any reviews of these products, leave me a comment.

xox

Naked 3 palette review

I know there are so many blog posts on this palette but I'd like to share my view on it. Sometime last year, I bought this and, at the time, I also purchased a 24/7 liner which I really like. I was never really too much of a fan of eyeshadows because I have oily eyelids and the shades tend to slip off after a couple of hours. However, the palette came with testers for the primer potions that Urban Decay sell and they worked wonders on my eyeshadow.

Urban Decay Primer Potions

The palette has really lovely colours mainly pinky tones but a couple are darker. I tend to mix them up to create a pinky smokey eye - if that makes sense?! These colours are so well formulated and have a good pigmentation. For me, if I wear an primer potion underneath, they stay on all day. I have to admit that I don't wear this palette all the time but, when I do, the shades look lovely on my eyes. I think some people may be a bit weary of trying out a palette with a lot of pink because sometimes you can end up with a colour that makes your eye look a bit funny. This palette, in my experience, seriously doesn't have any shades like that.

My favourites from the palette:

Strange

This works really well in the inner corner of your eye to brighten up your eyes, I mainly just wear it there.

Limit

This isn't as shimmery as the others but it is a very pretty pink which I wear all over my lid.

Nooner 

It's the same as Limit in the sense that it isn't shimmery but it is slightly darker and I love wearing it in my crease.

Blackheart

This is for a more evening look as it is dark and sparkly, I love this shade by itself but also I wear it in the outer corners to do my 'pinky smokey eye'. 

From left to right: Strange Limit, Nooner, Blackheart

All opinions are honest and 100% my own
 xox

How I stay organised

Before I get to the main focus of the post, I'd like to explain my decision of theming my blog around 'lifestyle, reviews and beauty'. Makinglifeacamera is about a saying (as I've explained in previous posts) that I try to live my life by. One of the points is focusing on what's important, now I understand that by claiming this blog to be somewhat beauty related, it may be implying that I think makeup is what you should be focusing on - far from it, in my case. Yes, I enjoy experimenting with different products and trying out new looks but I believe that everyone is beautiful without makeup. What I'm trying to say is that the beauty aspect of my blog will be mainly reviews, not me telling you that it is important to wear. 

I like to think of myself as quite organised but that's not always the case. Around my room, I have many notepads and planners that help me stay on top of things, however, sometimes I'm unsure of how to use them efficiently. This year, I've devised a way to do so...

This is only Monday-Wednesday on my planner but I do have all the days of the week on it. I definitely use this the most - every Sunday evening I sit down at my desk and plan the next week out. At the end of each day, I tick off what I've done and if I haven't completed something, I move it over to the next day. Something like this is so useful for staying organised because you have everything written on it. You can buy things like this anywhere but mine's from Paperchase and I really like the design of it. I use this all the time and at the end of the day, it feels good to tick everything off as you feel like you have accomplished something that day. In case you are wondering the asterisks is on Wednesday, I use this symbol to remind me to post blogs entries. In one of the following pictures, you can see where I keep this planner on my desk.

I'm sorry about the picture quality of this, it was dark when I took the photo so I had to bring the exposure up. Anyway, this is my notepad - again it is from Paperchase. I use this to write down to-do's that I just think of on the spot and haven't written on my main planner. Also, I find this is good to write down in brief what you would like to do over a couple of days - something you would like to accomplish, for instance: do some baking or write a blog post. I try to colour code this:

Red: Places I need to go/something active
Blue: Mainly work or a task
Green: Something fun that I would like to do
Purple: Blog related 

I love sharpies; I find them really useful to colour code, brighten up notes and they are permanent which is great! What also draws me towards sharpies is they look good and sleek. 

I can't cope if my room is really messy, I much prefer to have everything in its place. Keeping your work space organised really helps you stay on top of things.  I just have a clear plan so I know what I need to do or where I'm going that day. 

My calendar so far hasn't got much writing on it. I tend to use this for knowing the date and planning into the future more. For example, I am doing the Duke of Edinburgh award and I use my calendar to know what dates I have done my activities. 

xox

Focusing on what's important in 2015

I realise that this quite late for this kind of post. Again, another title based upon the saying that starts with 'Life is like a camera...'. I'm not treating these as new year's resolutions, I have already done a blog post explaining mine, the following list is really too general to be like that. The 10 points are important to me and I want to make sure I focus on doing these things this year...

1) Spending more time with my friends and family. I would like to make more of an effort to meet up with people and host more get-togethers.

2) Planning a good science club, that I will be running with my friends, this year as part of a STEM award. 

3) Being myself and not worrying about anyone else's perception of me.

4) Trying more varied food, as I have become quite fussy with food which I'm not proud of! 

5) Keeping up with the sporting activities that I do currently. 

6) Getting my head down by doing lots of work and revision for my upcoming exams.

7) Learning new baking recipes because recently I have lost some interest in baking but I hopefully I can get back into it. 

8) Taking time to relax and read more books - meaning, not spending hours upon hours on Youtube and Netflix!

9) Updating my blog regularly as I really enjoy writing and planning posts.

10) Enjoying and making good memories for 2015! <3

xox

French inspired room decor

I love french styled decor and I have tried to represent this in my room. Below  are some pictures which I think incorporates this style. This may be useful if you are looking to redo you room or maybe you just want to see the way I've decorated mine?!

I realise that it's not September (as shown on the calendar) but I thought I'd just turn it to that, for the photo, because the picture is of Paris.

 xox

Capturing the good times: October 2014

As this blog is based around the idea of life being like a camera, I've decided to have phrases from the saying, 'Life is like a camera, capture the good times, focus on what's important, develop from the negatives and if things don't work out, take another shot' featuring in some posts. So today's title, 'Capturing the good times: October 2014' is my first of (maybe) a series of similar things. I am thinking about doing a 'Focusing on what's important' post in the next few weeks and I may include other parts of the saying in other entries. 

Back to October 2014, in my half term break, I went on an amazing holiday with my family. We were originally stuck choosing where we wanted to visit, as I wanted to go back to Paris but we weren't really sure. So we booked a series of train journeys to different places in Europe. The holiday started off in Paris, after that we travelled from there to Lake Lucerne (Switzerland) which was beautiful - the scenery was absolutely breathtaking. From Lake Lucerne, we caught a train to Venice, then to Florence and eventually Rome. One of the many reasons why I enjoyed the holiday was that I experienced new cultures and had the opportunity to speak different languages - even though I am really bad at Italian! I am not trying to show off about my holiday, I just wanted to share a 'good time' that I had last year. Below are some photos from the trip...

Sacre Coeur - My favourite place in Paris <3

View from the Sacre Coeur

A zoomed in view from the Sacre Coeur - thought it was fitting!

Flowers in a French market 

Notre Dame - Our lady 

Pretty scene in Switzerland

Photograph from the boat in Lake Lucerne

The Bridge of Sighs in Venice

There are many scenes like this in Venice!

Michelangelo's David - Florence

The Ponte Vecchio in Florence at night

The Colosseum - Rome

The Pantheon - Rome

xox

Annie and Paddington review

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Over the christmas holidays, I visited the cinema twice. I have wanted to watch both of these films for a long time as I have seen the series for Paddington and the original Annie film. Considering the age of the other viewers in the cinema, I was one of the oldest but these two films reminded me of my childhood. Annie was my favourite childhood film and I still sing and quote the song lyrics - much to my family and friend's annoyance! As for Paddington, I love the series and used to constantly watch it. I also now have a brown, fluffy dog which somehow I related Paddington too, whilst watching the film. 

Annie

Annie was an amazing film, not a disappointment to my beloved original; it really lived up to that! Personally, I enjoyed the fact that it was up-to-date because it had references to social networks such as: Twitter and Instagram. Most of the original songs were altered slightly to fit in with the adaptation and there were some new songs with a more hip-hop feel to them. The actors and actresses were perfect for the story, I especially loved Cameron Diaz as Miss Hannigan. In the film, I would have liked to see more of a role of Sandy - the dog Annie adopts. The song 'Sandy' is one of my favourites and it wasn't featured. Yes, the dog is still in the film but, in my opinion, I think it should have had a bigger role. Besides that, I can't fault the movie, it was really enjoyable to watch and I left smiling, with the songs fresh in my mind. To be honest, I think I was singing them on the way home and my voice is pitchy, at the best of times! 

Paddington

The Paddington film started off with a background story to the rest of the movie. At the end, you find out why this is so relevant. I also like how it stayed true to the series and featured Marmalade a lot, even when Paddington was with the family in London. The film shows the innocence of Paddington, which comes across as sweet when he states that there are 42 different ways to say 'It's raining'. Little things like this and the fact that he greets passengers on the station make you really warm to his character. The other characters were played well, there is the stereotypical family that included some familiar faces from other films. I sat through about 20 minutes trying to figure out who the little boy was and I realised that I'd seen him in The Impossible. I always do that when watching new movies. I accidentally lose concentration from the film momentarily. Anyway, there was also Nicole Kidman who played Millicent and Hugh Bonneville who was Mr. Brown. The story line was easy to follow and it was a family-friendly adventure - a definate feel-good film! 

All opinions are honest and 100% my own.

xox