Outfit Of The Day- Harley Davidson

Jacket- ASOS

T Shirt- Vintage

Shorts- American Apparel

I feel like I haven't done an OOTD in ages! The good news, however, is that the majority of my room has now been repainted and is looking slightly less of a bombsite, although I still need to put shelves up so pretty much everything is living on the floor at the moment.

I was noseying around one of my favourite vintage shops in Brighton yesterday and fell in love my this original Harley Davidson top. Fits perfectly too. Weirdly enough there was a motorbike show not far from where I live so I wore this round proudly. There's an American car show tomorrow so I'm going to combine those pictures together. That being said, the rain has finally rolled in so I don't know how much of it we'll actually see. I also picked up a great jumper and a Led Zep top but it's a mens XL so I'm either going to have to cut it up or take it in.
I also got colour matched in Space NK for NARS Sheer Glow and I am a little bit in love. It has an amazing coverage and finish and it's sitting in my ASOS basket (hello student discount) impatiently but I'm trying to not spend money! Argh decisions! What should I do? Is it worth the money?!

Hope you guys are having a good weekend!

What should I do re NARS Sheer Glow?

xx

Ear Stretching

I mentioned during the Twitter bloggers chat last night that I might do a post on ear stretching. I know this isn't everyone's cup of tea but I thought I would do it for those who did show an interest. This is actually my second time stretching, having had plugs for most of my teenage years. I eventually took them out because I missed wearing earrings but now, I seem to never wear earrings anyway so I thought I might as well go back to plugs as they're very hassle free and I'm all about that.

Stretching isn't recommended if you've just had your ears pierced. You need to have had pierced ears for a good ole while and they have to completely healed. If you're a first timer, you need to start of with a very small stretch, like the one I have in my ear or the metal talon in the first picture which starts at an even smaller point. Metal is best if you have sensitive skin. The rest of my plugs are plastic and you can also get them in glass and wood. The important thing about stretching is that it take time. Skin is stretchy, yes, but you don't want to force it. I know people who have forced them and you just end up with a bloody mess of an ear. Don't do that. You need to regularly wiggle and rotate the stretch through the ear. If it starts to bleed, hurt or burn, stop! Give it a few days rest and start again. I typically go up 2mm at a time and then put a plug in, to give my ears a bit of rest and to allow them to adjust. When you buy plugs, you should get some O rings with them, but if not, just ask. You need these to stop your plugs from falling out.

Stretches and plugs are measured in mm. The white one in my ear goes up to 3mm and the biggest I have goes up to 8mm (the blue stretch). As you can see, you can get solid plugs, see through plugs and tunnels which have a back that screws on to them. There's tons of variety. And if any of you are considering it and are worried about your ears not shrinking back, don't worry.  Before, I went up to an 8mm and mine shrank straight back to normal pierced ears within a matter of weeks. Anything under 1cm is absolutely fine.
Another thing is to keep them clean! Remember when you had your ears first pierced and you get that bit of crusty stuff. Yeah, you'll get that all over again but it's nothing a warm wet Q tip can't sort out. If they start to look inflammed, add sea salt. Once you've gotten up to a bigger size and are wearing plugs regularly, don't forget to clean them then too. Otherwise, they can smell. Quite bad. You have been warned.

So I think that's all of my advice for stretching your ears
Any questions, please either here or on Twitter

xx

MAC Modesty

L-R. MAC Chatterbox, Fanfare, Modesty and Rimmel Spotlight Beige

MAC Modesty is a recent acquirement thanks to the duty free MAC stand in Gatwick North. I was looking for a nice new nude, nothing to pale that would drown me out. They didn't have Blankety, so Modesty caught my eye instead. Modesty is a cremesheen finish and described as a muted nude. I've compared it against my other favourite nude, Spotlight Beige by Rimmel. As you can see, Modesty is a bit more pink-y with a purple undertone than Spotlight Beige which is more peach based. I've also included for reference the differences between those two and other MAC lipsticks- Fanfare (another favourite) and Chatterbox, a strong pink. I really like this colour as it's not too pale for my skin tone. I have Hue by MAC and found that it makes me look a bit anaemic as it's too pale for my colouring and I usually have to warm it up a bit by adding some pink in. As Modesty, as it was described, is a muted nude, I think this lipstick would be equally suited to darker and lighter skin tones. It's very wearable for the daytime and looks equally good for a night out with a bit of extra lipgloss on the top a la Kim Kardashian.

I'm sorry it's been a while since I blogged. I've started on redecorating my room and so it looks like a bit of a bombsite at the moment and all the repainting has been taking up a lot of my time. But it's a learning curve at least. I learnt all about caulk and different sanders- oh the thrills!... I'm about half way done now and then it's just the finishing touches. It's been good having a good clearout. It's so easy to accumulate years of junk without even realising, especially since I've had to move everything out of my student house!

So that's what I've been up to recently!

Hope you guys are enjoying the nice warm weather!

xx

How To Depot MAC Eyeshadows

Today, I thought I would show you how to depot MAC Eyeshadows. At most MAC stores, you have the option of just asking for the eyeshadow pan so they can go straight into a palette but, when I was making the most of the duty free MAC in Gatwick, they told me they only had the ones in the pot. But not to worry, depotting MAC Eyeshadows are relatively easy to do. I'm going to be depotting my favourite of all time, Rice Paper and All That Glitters

The first bit you have to do is probably the fiddliest. The containers have a small groove between the bottom of the pan and the dish that the eyeshadow sits it. Using a sharp, flat knife, you need to carefully pry the two apart. I find it best to loosen the two corners and wiggle my way up. This bit is a bit annoying and it can take a while but persevere and it will pop out.

Next, wrap a bit of aluminium foil round some hair straighteners so you don't get any hot plastic on them and ruin them and let the pan sit on the hot iron for a minute or two so it softens the plastic and the glue. You may have to hold it down so it makes good contact with the heat and if so, please be careful of your fingers!

When the plastic is soft enough, you will be able to press your knife into the bottom of the plastic and push the bottom of the metal pan out. It will be hot so I use tweezers to get the metal pan out.

You will probably be left with a lot of glue residue on the bottom of the metal pan but a cotton wool pad with nail varnish will get it shiny and smooth and ready to sit in your palette.

And that's all it takes! Obviously, as you are using a sharp knife and heat, please be careful. 

Even doing these two, I caught myself on the edge of the straighteners.

Otherwise, this is a handy and straight forward way to depot MAC Eyeshadows

I hope this post was useful!

xx

Egypt

Yes I have returned from Egypt after a lovely and relaxing holiday in Taba, Egypt. I'm thoroughly bronzed with stupid tan lines and have even  come back to nice weather back home! We crashed for a week in the Sofitel Hotel. There wasn't much to do in the local area but I was quite happy swimming in the pool and relaxing with a good book. Both Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn and And The Mountains by Khaled Hosseini who is one of my favourite writers were my companions for the week.

We were planning to go to Jerusalem but the Thomson price didn't include the border fees and taxes coming in and out of Israel so it took the trip a little out of our budget and decided it would be best to make the most of what we could do locally, including my first snorkelling trip on a sail boat. I 'found' Nemo, saw a lionfish (which I didn't know were poisonous) and even managed to spot an octopus lurking in some rocks too. I really wish I had taken an underwater camera.

The weather, as you would expect, was pretty damn hot, but because you're on the coast there's a pretty strong breeze which is an absolute blessing around mid day when it gets up to about 40 degrees. The only downside to the whole trip was a brief upset stomach in the second night and the 3, getting on for 4 hour delay on the way out and a return journey back at half 1 in the morning. Now I'm planning to spend the rest of the day catching up on The Returned, Luther and The White Queen and having a nice long nap.

It's good to be back and I have plenty of blog posts planned!

Hope you guys are good!

xx

Off On Holiday

Yep, I will be away on holiday for the next week

I'm off to Egypt for some much needed sunshine and heat

See you in a bit!

xx