Classycal

I'm totally loving the whole turtle neck trend going on right now, I think it's so simplistic yet classy and can make an outfit look so put together. This turtle neck mini dress is so simple yet I think it looks so done up for something so simple and can be worn dressed up or down. Obviously I'm wearing my beloved cut out boots from Boohoo which I wear with every single outfit ever so I apologize for that!

♥ Turtle Neck Top/Dress - H&M ♥

♥ Scarf - Unknown ♥

♥ Bag - Primark ♥  

♥ Boots - Boohoo ♥

♥ Lipstick - Estee Lauder Signature Lipstick in Toasted Walnut ♥

Love ya, 

Izzy 

x 

  

D.I.Y Clean those brushes!

I've only just started getting into using makeup brushes to apply my makeup and I'm loving it, it makes makeup aplication so much easier and makes my makeup look so much more well applied. However they do get dirty very quick and I really don't want to pay out for an expensive brush cleaner when I can do it another way for a fraction of the price, here's how I do it. 

1 ♥ Obviously have your dirty brushes ready to wash, I have the real technique brushes by Samantha Chapman.  

 2 ♥ Secondly you want to get your hands on some baby shampoo, I'm using Johnsons Baby Shampoo. It has to be baby shampoo because it's light and gentle and won't have any harm chemicals that may effect your brushes. 

3 ♥ Once you have all the things you need run your brushes under warm water, however be sure to only get the ends of the bristles wet as you don't want to effect the glue holding the bristles to your brush. 

 4 ♥ Put a tiny blob of the shampoo onto the ends of your brushes and softly massage it into the ends until it lathers up into a froth and then leave it to soak for about 2 minutes. 

 5 ♥ Once you've let the shampoo soak into the brushes for about 2 minutes rinse all the shampoo off of your brushes and watch all the dirty makeup which was clinging to your brushes go down the drain. It's always important to clean your brushes because you're essentially putting dirty makeup back on to your face and this can cause infections, skin problems, rashes and spots so it's always nice to give your brushes a nice wash from time to time. 

6 ♥ Once all washed leave your brushes to dry, I usually leave them to soak in a towel over night. I also find it easier to wash my brushes at night too so I can leave them to dry properly overnight.

I hope you liked this easy D.I.Y post, you don't have to spend loads on brush cleaners when you can just do it yourself this way and it works just as well! 

Izzy 

x 

2 0 1 3 L O V E S

♥ Hair ♥

Aussie were my savior during 2013, I pretty much went through the whole of the Aussie range, Aussie are definitely my new holy grail hair products.I have stand out favorites though, Aussies "Aussome Volume" hairspray is my new favorite hairspray of all time now, it literally does what it says on the tin and a bonus is that it smells amazing too unlike some hairsprays which literally smell like a tin of gas! Not only does it volumise your hair to the max it makes it feel thick and soft still and not crispy or sticky. Where my hair is curly I feel it defines those curls too, one of my best finds of 2013 in terms of hairsprays. 

Another love from the "Aussome Volume" range were the "Aussome Volume" Shampoo and Conditioners, they smell exactly like the hairspray and do the exact same job but in a liquid form. The first day I used them I woke up the next morning and my hair was full of life and volume and always looked shiny, clean and soft. I was looking for a product that put body back into my hair because it was looking very dull and boring and this definitely did the trick. 

The last Aussie product that I fell in love with was the Aussie 3 minute miracle reconstructor. This is really good if you've got quite dead and dull hair, particularly if you've died or bleached your hair like I have, this 3 minute miracle reconstructor works wonders, it made my hair feel like real hair again! I was using the "Take the Heat" 3 minute miracle to stat with and don't get me wrong it did exactly what it was suppose to and made my hair feel soft, I just think the reconstructer is more suited for my hair and gives my hair everything it needs and more. So take some advice from Aussie "There's more to life than hair but it's a good place to start".

♥ Make-up ♥

For foundation I've been loving the Rimmel Fit Me Foundation, I used this foundation everyday of 2013. It's a low to medium coverage but very buildable. I particularly like this foundation because it lets your skin shine through because of it's lightweight pigments, so it's not a full on matte finish.  

I think I may have found my go to liquid eyeliner too. I'd heard a lot of bloggers hype about the L'Oreal liquid eyeliner so I thought I'd get my hands on one so I opted for the L'Oreal super liner perfect slim and it's literally a revolutionary product in my everyday makeup look. I'll admit it, I am no pro when it comes to liquid eyeliner and for a while now I have been looking for one that's easy to use because that would make my life so much easier, this eyeliner is the one. I find it so easy to use when creating any winged eyeliner look and I think this is definitely due to the slimness and size of the eyeliner, it glides over the eyelid so effortlessly to create that perfect winged eyeliner look. 

My Last makeup favorite of 2013 has to be this mascara, I was never too fussy before with the whole duo volumising and lengthening mascara thing, however I needed a new mascara and I saw Sammi from BeautyCrush raving about this mascara and I trust a lot of what she says so I went out and bought it and its the best mascara decision I have made in a while. I have pretty disgustingly short eyelashes *starts crying* but this product really does work it's magic and it makes me feel like I have a set of false lashes on, it doesn't clump and it separates my lashes and lengthens and adds volume so well. 

  -Lengthening wand-

-Volume Wand- 

 ♥ Fashion ♥

I've always loved denim Jackets and I own quite a few but this one stood out for me in 2013 and I wore it to death, it's from Topshop and for me it's the perfect denim jacket. It's so warm because it's lined with sheepskin (not real sheepskin of course) and goes with pretty much everything.

As far as footwear is concerned apart from my converse these boots have been permanently glued to my feet, they're definite dupes for the Jeffry Campbell Coltraine boots, I wasn't ready to splurge the money on the Coltraines because even though i absolutely adore the whole chunky boot trend I wasn't sure they'd suit me because I have very skinny ankles so I went for the cheaper alternatives, mine are from Boohoo and I love them and this year i'm going to invest in lots of chunky boots! 

 ♥ Random Favorites ♥

T E L E V I S I O N  

I've been really getting my teeth into The Vampire Diaries (excuse the pun) this show has been on TV since 2009 and I've always been meaning to watch it but just never got round to it. I wanted to watch it because I loved Twilight and I've always had this weird fascination with vampires but honestly this craps all over Twilight it's so good! The story lines have me hooked and the cast are all so wonderfully talented, Nina Dobrev is beautiful and I can't choose who I like more Damon or Stefan Salvatore. If you've never seen The Vampire Diaries then you'll have no idea who I'm talking about, if you do watch it then high 5 to you! 

M U S I C 
I have been into a lot of music this year and some amazing albums have been released this year, my favorite album that I have listened to lots this year is LONG.LIVE.A$AP by A$AP Rocky, I just love him and his voice, he was definitely my favorite artist of 2013 some of my favorites of off his album have to be Fashion Killa, Ghetto Symphony and Wild For The Night. 

 ♥ 2013 disappointment  ♥ 
 This product was a bit of a let down really because it had been hyped up quite a lot on a lot of blogs i'd read. It's the Maybeline The Falsies mascara, I doubt it's a terrible mascara it just didn't work with me, it might be because I have very short lashes but it just constantly clumped up and made my lashes feel horrible so this was definitely a makeup no no for me. 

Bring on 2014!
Izzy
x

N.Y.E

♥ My New Years Eve Party Outfit ♥

Happy New Years Eve guys, I can't believe it's almost 2014, cliché but this year has flown by. I am going to a party tonight to celebrate with my friends and this is what I'll be wearing, I hope you all have an amazing New Years Eve!

♥ Face ♥

Foundation - Rimmel Fit Me Foundation

Eyes: Rimmel Glam Eyes Day To Night Mascara

L'oreal Paris Super Liner Perfect Slim

♥ Clothing ♥

Shorts & Braces: Urban Outfitters 

Belt: Topshop

Shoes: Boohoo

Turtle Neck Vest: Ebay 

♥ To Keep Warm ♥ 

Jacket: Topshop

I hope you all have a lovely New Years Eve whatever celebrations you're doing, 

Lots of Love 

Izzy 

x

Don't Worry Be Happy!

So, I went through a very rough time last year where I suffered with depression and to overcome that I had to adjust a lot of things in my life, mainly with focusing on being happy because a year ago I was the least happy person you'd ever met. I'm not going to go to much into detail about my depression but basically it all came from my hatred of college which resulted in me leaving and having time to regain my happiness and get back to the old me again, now I have started at a new college and doing all the things I love and I am very happy there. So, I thought I'd do a post on some of things that made me happy again and the things that I had to stop doing in order to be happy. Now this is not at all saying "you must do these things in order to be happy" they're just the things I did that personally helped me. 

Firstly "delete" all the people that make you unhappy, just like deleting a facebook friend or unfollowing someone on twitter, remove them out of your life because you need to surround yourself with happy positive people to make you happy. If you surround yourself all the time with people that get you down or who are always negative that's going to have an effect on you and change your mood, nobody got time for that! My tip from this is: surround yourself with happy, positive people that love to be around you and vice versa you enjoy being around. 

Secondly, do things that make YOU happy, this was a massive one for me because I was trying to please everyone else and do things that society deem as acceptable. For instance I love Drama, and performing arts and all things like that however I was so low that I thought to myself "these aren't going to get me anywhere in life" despite the fact that I love them and performing makes me the happiest, so I stopped studying all those subjects at college and changed to all the subjects which are seen as "intelligent" however this is when my depression really kicked in, I was unhappy all the time because I hated the subjects with a passion, I had no passion and drive for them and then I started to fail, that's when I realised I need to do the things I love. I'd rather be happy doing something I enjoy than something that, yes, may have a lot of money involved but would make me unhappy. I have now moved college doing all the subjects I love and I am more than happy.

There's a lot of things I needed to stop doing in order to be happy too. Stop trying to impress people, especially people who don't give a s**t about you. At the end of the day no-one is going to genuinely like you for your clothes or your things or the way you look, genuine relationships are formed from the person liking you for who you are, genuine relationships will make you 100% more happier than materialistic relationships and friendships only down to popularity. All in all the only person you should try to impress is yourself. 

STOP, STOP, STOP criticising everything an anyone just because you're not happy with yourself it's like a quote from mean girls  "Calling somebody else fat won't make you any skinnier. Calling someone stupid doesn't make you any smarter"  you need to remove yourself from all that negativity. It's not going to make you any happier in the long run.

Comparing yourself to other people is what a lot of girls go through on a daily basis "she's prettier, skinnier, more funny, more intelligent, has nicer hair than me" it can make you so self conscious. I still compare myself to every other girl and it needs to stop because YOU are YOU and that's not going to change, you can get plastic surgery if you want, hair extensions, lose weight but at the end of the day it's your body and no matter how much you compare yourself to anyone else it's not going to change who you are. Instead of looking in the mirror and pointing out all your imperfections, look in the mirror and mention something you like about yourself. It's all about positivity! 

This last one was definitely the biggest problem for me and still is, dwelling on the past. I used to look at everything wrong that has happened in the past as a bad thing, I regretted things and used to sit there at night thinking about these things "if I had dealt with it like this than that wouldn't have happened" "why did I do that" "why did I let you go" silly things like that. Putting it bluntly, things do happen for a reason and you have to take things that happen in the past as a chance to learn from them and to not do them again. Humans aren't perfect, we're going to get things wrong, doing things wrong and making mistakes is what shapes you into the person you are. The past is training, it doesn't define you! 

I'm still trying to do all these things to make myself happier, it doesn't come easy it takes time and time is key. I hope these tips can help at least one person as they're definitely helping me.

Izzy 

x 

Girls girls girls I just can't say no

I wrote a post the other day on male celebrities who I think dress pretty well so I thought I'd do another post,  however this time on the top five females who I think dress incredibly well and, I guess who I'm inspired by too.
  

1) Vanessa Hudgens 

Only recently have I been loving Vanessa Hudgens' style it's so boho chick and laid back yet still so well put together, she's became a fashion YES recently in my eyes over a lot of other female celebrities out there! I much prefer the grungy, boho-chick, hippy Vanessa Hudgens than the prim and proper photo-ready Vanessa of the high-school musical days. 

2) Jessica Alba 

The amount of class that comes off of Jessica Alba's body is unmeasurable. Classy is her middle name, and like me she's an all black everythang kind of girl. Black clothing is such a statement thing and a long with white one of the classiest colours to wear in my opinion. Not only is Jessica Alba amazingly beautiful she always looks 10/10 with her perfectly simplistic outfits. 

3) Alexa Chung 

Alexa Chung inspires me so much because she always looks so casually beautiful and she doesn't have to cover herself from head to toe in designers to make herself stand out from the rest. She's definitely someone I look at and think "I wish I could dress like you" she is a girl that can pull anything off yet still look drop dead gorgeous. Oh how I envy her. 

4) Perri Edwards 

Not to mention the fact that she's my favourite girl from Little Mix, I just love her quirky-cool dress sense. She has the body to wear anything which I'm extremely jealous of, just give me her whole wardrobe pretty please and I'll die happy.

 5) Fearne Cotton

 Lastly, but definitely not least because I can assure that there are many celebrities in which I'd happily swap wardrobes with is, Fearne Cotton. Once again like Perri I just love her cute, cool and quirky style and everything she wears I fall in love with. She's so casual yet styled up to look very presentable, she always looks so cool and I envy her confidence with the way she dresses so much. 

All five of the girls I mentioned are absolutely beautiful and individual I take inspiration from the way they all dress and they inspire me to dress in all different ways and be confident with the way I dress and where exactly what I want because the only person I should be pleasing is myself. If you're happy with the way you dress than that's all that should matter!

Izzy 

x 

WSMW // What should men wear?

Without sounding shallow I think dress sense on a male is a very important factor because let's be honest first impressions count! The way to my heart really is a man in a suit full with a shirt and tie (bow tie if you're being really picky) why can't men walk around every day in suits any more, Great Gatsby style? Men taking care of themselves is a very attractive feature.

Smart is key for me, a nice smart shirt with a knitted jumper over it does it for me, of if you're going more casual a plain white T and a checked flannel shirt.
There are a lot of men out there who really know how to dress and  my top 5 best dressed male celebrities would have to be:

1) Zac Efron  
Zac Efron, for me, is the best dressed male because he always looks so cool and smart yet so laid back all the time, his dress sense never fails me. I don't think I've ever seen a picture of Zac Efron where I think "fashion no no" he's definitely grown up a lot from his high school musical period! Smarting something casual like a pair of jeans with a smart blazer is always a smooth move from a man because it gives the look that he's not made effort when actually he's probably made a lot (and a very good impression with the women.) I'm loving Zac's smooth style a lot!

 

2) Pharrell Williams 

Pharrell Williams is smooth like melted chocolate with the way he dresses, it's so timeless and sophisticated.Once again, he's following my common theme of smart looking men, so dressing smart must be the way forward for men's fashion right? I love how he's so experimental with his fashion and his intelligence and creativity is not only with music and music producing but in putting together sick looking outfits,  not only is he a musical genius he has an inner style king!

3) David Beckham 
Even though David Beckham is getting on a bit now (38 to be precise) he's definitely still got it when it comes to knowing how to dress, he dresses his age but in a very modern and classy way. It show's even though you get older it doesn't mean you don't have to let yourself go. If you want to be a fashionable "hip" looking dad, I'd take tips from Beckham if I was you. Plus I don't think there's a mum that I know that doesn't fancy the hell out of him!

4)Douglas booth 

Douglas Booth being a Burberry model obviously has style and for me I think I like his classic British look that he pulls off, it's classic and traditional. He makes an outfit that's casual still look so put together and thought out like pairing a blazer with a simple tee and jeans which would be perfect for a casual day out (he could probably get away with that for a date too) his style is very much similar to Zac Efron's for me because he always looks so classy which is a very attractive way to dress.

5) Justin Timberlake
JT for me is the man, he can literally pull of anything, put him in a bin bag and he can probably still make it look so attractive. He often pulls off the whole shirt and braces combo which, may I add is very very attractive, but only a fair few for me can pull that look off, Justin Timberlake could get away with wearing a suit to the supermarket.

Definitely an improvement from this don't you think?

I think you can all see a common theme through all these men, smart is the way forward, all suit and tied up *starts singing "I'll be on my suit n tie shit" and guys, making an effort doesn't make you seem feminine and girly, for me it's an attractive quality...so guys take a look at these men and be inspired, it's a good look. 

Izzy 

x