Wednesday 29 April 2015

The Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows

Lately has been felt like a whirlwind, time has been moving extremely fast and there hasn't been a moment to just stand still and breathe. In a sense, i love it this way. For example when you are fast forwarding the adverts on Sky and watch them flick past in a flash, that sums up my month.

Spring is in full swing, lambs, flowers and finally a little sunshine.
It's been real nice to catch up with my family and Nathan lately, despite being the people I see almost everyday nothing beats some quality time with the ones closest to you.





















Wednesday 15 April 2015

how to spot a fake.

Lately I signed up for the DePop app to sell a little of my makeup stash as in all honesty, I admit it's quite excessive. With all intentions to sell over buy I hadn't really looked much on the marketplace. I noticed someone selling her Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette, after agreeing and buying it came through my mailbox. I was so excited, as a huge Urban Decay fan and already having Naked 3 I thought it'd be a lovely addition to the collection. 




  1. I opened the tin and noticed a really over chemical scent, worry one.
  2. The product had obviously been used (which isn't here nor there) but the brush was quite wobbly like it had just been glued together with cheap glue, worry two.
  3. As you do when buying eyeshadow is to swatch your favourites. I found the product barely held in any way and was very powdery rather than the usual baked glow from UD products, worry three.




Yesterday I was in France with work, on my lunch hour I nipped into the big shopping centre in Calais and did my usual wonder around sephora and stopped by their Urban Decay stand. There wasn't any staff around so I decided to swatch the same shades on my hand and took a photo of all the colours just to compare and reassure my brain that I hadn't bought something crappy. Comparing the colours side to side it was really obvious. "Foxy" was a neutral pink rather than yellow toned, "Half Baked" was more of a copper brown than the gorgeous gold shade in the real Naked 2. Most of the other colours I have to say were pretty identical, but still not the quality you'd expect.



I know there are Naked dupes on the highstreet, w7 palettes and others to give you the same effect. That's cool that companies offer similar shades for a fraction of the price that everyone can afford. The not cool thing is making branded products with no sign of a "dupe" or that it isn't from that company. Who knows what ingredients are in this? I'm not even talking about animal testing and the other horrors of the cosmetics industry right now, I'm talking about cheap and nasty low of the low chemicals used to make "products" for pennies. I was really excited by this but just feel so let down, it's probably going in the bin. I've always visited counters, shops and the real deal regardless of price because I know its the best. This has been my second fake and believe it or not that one was UD too. A silly eBay find which was removed hours after i'd purchased, then refunded anyway. I had a good dig around and found the fake foundation still in the envelope. The liquid smells like fairy liquid, falls of your skin and generally burns.




Don't buy shit guys!
I know I will never ever buy anything makeup anywhere again.

Here are some of the examples of how you can visibly spot a fake, I hope it helps!


The "Urban Decay" writing being right way up, as my legit naked 3 is upside down.



Can you see the quality of the brush ends compared to a real Urban Decay palette?



1/3 of this photo is a real product, it's actually insane how well they have duplicated Urban's products. Putting whatever ingredients they choose. 


Above is the "baked" consistency I spoke about above. They barely break apart and last forever giving a soft texture unlike below which was flaky at best with hardly any pigmentation.


Thanks for reading, if you have any make up "fakes" stories,
experiences or comments please let me know below.


Monday 13 April 2015

Do you have doubts about life? Are you unsure if it’s worth the trouble? Look at the sky: that is for you. Look at each person’s face as you pass on the street: those faces are for you. And the street itself, and the ground under the street and the ball of fire underneath the ground: all these things are for you. They are as much for you as they are for other people. Remember this when you wake up in the morning and think you have nothing. Stand up and face the east. Now praise the sky and praise the light within each person under the sky. It’s okay to be unsure. But praise, praise, praise.
—  Miranda July, No One Belongs Here More Than You













Game of Thrones: Season Five.


The hype surrounding season five has been bigger than any other season. With the exhibition in London and hype over this season overtaking the books the speculation and anticipation has been phenomenal. As a book reader I've had mixed feelings all around, as you feel like watching the show may ruin hours, days, weeks of reading ridiculously in depth about the world of Westeros. Yet on the other hand physically seeing these scenes happen is like dreams come to life. I know people who are refusing to watch to avoid spoilers yet personally, it's inevitable for me. The first episode was to be shown all around the world at on the same night to help battle piracy, yet not in the UK. Sky has over 900 channels and couldn't show Game of Thrones at the same time as the entire world. Honestly, I feel like this is the main reason behind episodes 1-4 being leaked. It let the UK viewers down. Regardless, I avoided the Internet for basically all of Monday and snuggled up with a hot chocolate and blanket overly excited for what was to come. 

It didn't disappoint. 
As "A Feast For Crows" finished and the axis was flipped with "A Dance With Dragons" as this was in an equal parallel per say. Only eventually overtaking the event timeline for AFFC. Beginning the episode with the Maggy the Frog prophecy was a total Easter egg for ASOIAF fans. You are beginning to see Cersei's inability to adapt and the madness behind the queen. Sansa's "goth phase" shadowing Little Finger. Tyrion arriving in Pentos drowning his sorrows in wine and pushing poo from his crate for Varys to catch whilst travelling the narrow sea. The thing that was remarkably better than the books in the small amount of screen time is Dany in Mereen. Regardless of the brilliant mysterious Targ's the Dany chapters whist she was in Mereen actually made me fall asleep whilst reading. She can't rule, refuses to move on and battles with ruling a city. The portrayal of the Sons of the Harpy, Daario romance really hit the nail on the head. Let's not forget, what have her Dragon's been eating? Miracle grow?? 

The storylines I'm itching to see next are:
- The Dornish. Okay, so they are the marmite of Westeros, you either hate them or secretly love the Dornish. I feel like despite their late entry to the Game they will be huge contenders towards the end game. Yet, the cutting Quentin Martell and Arianne blows. 
- Mellisandre's next game. If you are a R+L=J believer something is going to arise here, it must. Without spoiling the general storyline here this could be a huge reveal and I'm begging it to be happen. Especially with this odd fire goddess from the far lands of Asshai. 
- The next wedding.. We all know it's happening, so is it fArya? Or is Sansa going to appear in disguise to challenge the boltons? Surely little finger isn't that stupid. I don't know, and can't figure this. 

What are your predictions?