End of Year Ball-- Makeup!

Like promised, here's a full blog post dedicated to the makeup I wore to my End of Year Ball. When taking photos of all the products, I realized how much makeup I actually wear. Ooops. On to the makeup.

First of all is the base. I always put on my Soap & Glory BB cream as I feel it just moisturizes my skin and primes it. It also has spf25 in it. Next I used Benefit's Porefessional as it apparently smooths my skin out and make my makeup last longer. My Lacome Miracle Teint is my only high end foundation and is very light and dewy, exactly what you want in the summer.

I used three different concealers as concealing is my favourite part of my makeup. My Collection Lasting Perfection concealer is a blogger favourite so I won't go on about it. I used this mainly for redness around my nose and blemishes. I then used Benefit Erase Paste as it's very brightening. I have a small sample of Benefit's Fake Up so I put that on as well. There's no way I needed all of this on, but it was a special occasion so why not?

To set my makeup I used my Physician Formula colour correcting powder as apparently it covers redness. My ELF HD powder just makes my skin look really nice and smooths it out. I took my Stay Matte Powder and applied it just before I left and it just makes my skin less oily.

I used my Nars blush in the shade 'orgasm' as it's a nice pinky colour with a little shimmer. My Benefit High Beam gave me the glowy skin looked I wanted. I contoured my skin slightly with my Maybelline Dream Touch Concealer and my Benefit Hoola bronzer.

I filled my brows in with my HD Brow Palette in 'Foxy.' I wanted a nude eye so just used my Naked Basics palette from Urban Decay. I created a cat eye flick using an Eyeko felt liner free with this months Glamour Magazine.

I stuck fake lashes on from Primark and then slicked my Benefit They're Real Mascara on over them.

Lastly was my lips. I filled them in first with No7 lip liner, and then went over them with my favourite Collection Lipstick in the shade Queen of Hearts.

This was the final result :)

Do you wear as much makeup as me for special occasions or do I go completely overboard haha?

Getting Healthy!

I wasn't sure whether I should write this blogpost or not as I know weight is a touchy subject for a lot of people. I also found it hard to come up with an appropriate title; something along the lines of 'My weight loss journey' seemed to provoke the wrong meaning for what I was aiming for with this post, as it's not just about me losing weight, it's about getting healthy and changing my lifestyle. I guess I should start at the beginning.

When I started Uni Sept 2011, I weighed 8 and a half stone and was a UK size 10. Everyone's heard about the Fresher 15, right? Well, it's unfortunately it's not a myth. Living by myself for a year, and getting my evening meals provided for by Uni (part of my accommodation deal, I'm not just lazy haha) meant the pounds were slowly creeping on. I'm the first to admit my eating style back then was shocking. I came home every weekend, so for 5 days of the week, I would have a bowl of cereal for breakfast then not eat anything until half 7 at night when I would get either a burger or a baguette, accompanied with a load of chips. Despite my bad diet, I would lose half a stone in 5 days and put it all back on over the weekend when I would binge on Chinese takeaways and Cathedral City cheese (the luxuries us students can't afford ;)

I moved back home for my second year, but my diet didn't get any better. Spending 4 hours a day on a bus to get to and from Hull, meant not only I wasn't getting any exercise, but I would also just shove crap into my bag in the morning when I was rushing, such as crisps or chocolate bars.

The last time I weighed myself, I was ten stone and luckily I'm still a UK size 10 (I don't know how either.) You may be reading this and thinking, well why do I want to lose weight? Especially if I've not even gone up a dress size. I'm going to put this out there now. I DO NOT think I'm fat, so please, no horrible comments telling me I'm complaining about nothing. This is to do with me feeling better about myself and hopefully, giving me some motivation. It's about changing my diet and not feeling bloated and dehydrated after a greasy takeaway (anyone else ever get that?) Also, I'm a big lover of vintage clothing, and own quite a few dresses. Everyone knows vintage is a one off, and I'd be absolutely gutted if the clothes I've worked hard for and looked after no longer fitted me. There's been a few times when I've tried a gorgeous dress on for it not to fit and I've thought that if I weighed what I did three years ago, it would be mine.

People may also know that I'm getting married next year. This is not a motivation for me to lose weight. I hate the idea that all brides should look the same, and be skinny, just for one day in your life. You should only lose weight if you want to, not because some wedding magazine, or some stand at a wedding fair, tells you you have to be a size 8 to be gorgeous on your wedding  day. I think there's so much pressure on brides these days, but I'm going off topic, so I'll stop there haha.

I think I should put it out here that I also have the contraceptive implant, but I do not think it has contributed to my weight gain. I got it done 6 months before I started uni and didn't put any weight on in that time. It may have increased my appetite, I'm not sure. But I don't like putting the blame on contraception. My body would not have been able to cling onto fat, if I didn't shove the fatty stuff into my mouth in the first place.

I joined a gym in Jan, like most people, and sometimes I go three times a week, sometimes once. It depends on how much work I have. I will have a week of healthy eating, loose 4 pounds, then think 'oh great, I've lost 4 pounds, I can treat myself to a takeaway.' But then the treats last all week, and I pile the weight straight back on. Because sometimes, I don't get back from Uni til half 6 at night, I just eat whatever has been cooked in the house, and 9 times out of 10, it isn't healthy food.

The idea of me blogging about this is to hopefully, give me some willpower. I'm going on holiday in three months and would ideally like to be down to nine stone. At the gym I'm at, they have a machine where they tell you your accurate weight, height, BMI and fat percentage. I'm think I will use it once a week and post the results on here, whether I've lost or gained weight. This is a big step for me, as I'm sure it would be for anyone, posting their weekly weight on the internet for strangers to see.

I thought whilst I was doing this, it would give me a chance to try out some of the Slimming Solutions Boot Camp Body Wu Long Tea given to me at a blogging event I recently attended. I have already tried some, and  it doesn't taste bad at all. I will do a more in depth review in a
few days.

Hopefully, I'll find time to go to the gym a bit later on today. In the mean time, if you are reading this, and have any suggestions or recipes, I'd love to hear them :)

Don't forget to follow me on bloglovin if you want to see how I get on.