Halloween Costa Musical Bingo

First of all, I'm so sorry for the lack of photos or the awful quality, Halloween is a spooky time and therefore this is a dark event! I'll have to direct you towards a post about the event here for you to see more. You can partly see me in one of the photos on that post.  I headed along to the Victoria alone, but luckily I saw Chris getting out the car as I was getting out of mine so we both stood downstairs, being the first to arrive we didn't really know where to go. We found the room upstairs, and it felt so spooky in there - we barely needed the Halloween decorations. Soon after other bloggers began to arrive and we were given our first round bingo card and four poker chips in exchange for drinks. I thought that was a nice touch!  I wasn't quite sure what to expect for the musical bingo, but it was interesting to play. There were three rounds, and on each bingo card there were 9 songs which we marked off when we heard them. Other than that it's pretty much like regular bingo! I honestly didn't know what half the songs were until the last round, but that made it even funnier. It was hilarious to watch the challenges after more than one person won at once. This included chubby bunny, a twerk-off and also a challenge where the girls had to slide an after eight into their mouth from their forehead - I couldn't have done it! The majority of the bloggers went along in fancy dress, and there were some amazing ones, I thought Hannah definitely deserved to win the best make up, Just look at this! I enjoyed the evening and meeting new bloggers. Thank you to Joe Blogger's Network for inviting me.
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FABB Birmingham

Last Sunday, I attended a FABB event. FABB stands for fashion and beauty bloggers, so is a perfect event for many bloggers to attend! It was held at Alfie Birds in the Custard Factory, which is a lovely unique venue. I hadn't really seen much on FABB events before so I wasn't really sure what to expect - I was super excited nevertheless. Thank you to Tor and Ray for organising it all, I had so much fun! It cost £10 for the ticket and it was so worth that, more than that even. I didn't actually take too many photos as my arms were being weighed down by goody bags!
I got there at about 1:30pm, and headed up the stairs with the rest of the lovely bloggers to collect our wristbands and goody bags. Then we went up more stairs to meet the brands, waiting for us over two floors. The first stand I headed to was Style Edit, who had some lovely bags and shoes on their table, along with those gorgeous mini cupcakes (Ellie kindly acted as hand model with mine in my photo!). I then had a look at the Charmed Ivy table, where they had laid out some beautiful jewellery. I always admire their jewellery online, and I actually ended up buying the Healing Crystal Pendant and Hamsa Hand Necklace which you can see in the middle row on my photo. I picked up a card from the Mallzee table to enter their competition to win a holiday - so fingers crossed for that one! The next table along from Charmed Ivy was Me Me Me Cosmetics. I'd heard of the brand and some of their products before so I was excited to hear more! I was also given an amazing jam packed goody bag from them so I'll be writing my opinions on the contents soon. The last stall on the first floor was Crystal Clear Skincare, who have been going for 20 years and Victoria Beckham and Kate Middleton have had facials from them, which was interesting to find out! 
On the floor above, I was greeted with a Toni & Guy magazine with vouchers, and got told I could get complimentary hairstyling from their stand, but it was such a popular stand I didn't get chance. The next stand along was one of my favourites. It was Style Skin, and I fell in love with one of their black faux fur coats! The whole stand was absolutely gorgeous.They kindly gave each blogger that signed up a goody bag which had a gorgeous bracelet from Adorning Ava inside. The next stand caught my eye from the skincare company Bee Good. Their products are all natural, which made me even more interested in trying their products. I had a lovely talk with them and smell of the products and got given a lip balm to try, and a biscuit (which was delicious). Then I moved on to the Anovia table where we had a talk and smell of the products, and was given a goody bag with a shampoo, shower gel, leg tan and an ever so useful BB Cream! The Bodhi and Birch stand was interesting, with the founder Elijah Choo spraying the Rosa Rosa toner in his mouth! The products were amazing and I'd love to try more, I came away with a sample of the Camomile Sky Bath & Shower Therapy. I've got to say, the next table I visited, Stageline, was the most interesting one of all. There was fake blood and body paint in all different colours. I loved hearing about what they do and make. They gave us a lovely goody bag containing an eye liner, lip gloss, sample sachets of their products and fake blood! I was ever so excited about the fake blood. The last table I visited was the Stylfile table and up until the new products came out, I think I owned every single one. I got 4 products for £10 which I think isn't too bad for how much the RRP of each of them is.
After talking to each and every brand, me and another blogger, Hannah, headed downstairs for a well deserved drink. It was so refreshing to have a nice glass of coke away from the heat that surrounded upstairs! Looking around Alfie Birds whilst sitting down it looked like a lovely place to go to and blog, while possibly having a bite to eat. The pizza's looked absolutely delicious, and I'm not even really a fan of pizza! I'd love to go back there.
Thank you to all the brands that provided goodies for us: Anovia, Bee Good, Bodhi and Birch, Crystal Clear, MeMeMe, Stageline, Style Skin, Toni and Guy, Air Motion, Andrew Barton, Batiste, Benefit, Crabtree and Evelyn, Crown Brush, Dermologica, Dream Dots, Hello, Hi Impact Brows, Leo Bancroft, Macadamia Hair, Motel Rocks, Nair, Neal and Wolf, Nspa, Public Desire, Signature Fragrances, Skinny Boo, Trend Two, Viva Liberata/NKD Skin Tan & thank you so much again to Tor and Ray for all the hard work you put in to make this event amazing for us.

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Tips for New Students!

1. Be organised! We all know how hard it is to be organised when you're a student. You want to have fun with your friends, you want to relax and leave your work behind. It's unrealistic to leave everything to pile up, there's no way we'd get back on top of it. Therefore it is best to keep your notes and everything education related organised from the get-go. That way you can have more fun and when it comes to finding your notes, you won't get as stressed!
2. Enjoy being a student! This ties in with the above tip. If you keep organised, you can enjoy being a student. This means going out, having fun with your friends, boyfriend/girlfriend and enjoying being young. As a student if you're living away the only responsibility you have is yourself and it's best to enjoy it while it lasts! It's also great if you're at uni to enjoy going out in the first few months before you're tied down with all the work leading up to exams.
3. Budget your money! There's nothing worse than not being able to afford something as a student. It happens to all of us, and there's nothing we can do about it except budgeting. At the start of your week or month decide how much exactly you are going to spend on everything. Obviously food is the most important, and being a student it's easy to get carried away by buying snacks and ordering takeaways. To be honest if I was at uni I'd feel the same - but then you think I can spend my money on food from the supermarket and cook it myself, and then I'll still have money for something else I want to buy! It would also be good to budget for nights out. I do this by taking the most I want to spend out with me in cash and then you don't spend more than you expected to! You can also save money as a student with an NUS Extra Card - this has helped me massively.
This is my entry for the Curry's New Student Hacks competition, which you can enter here.
What would your tips be for a new student?
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Strictly Come Dancing Bloggers Tag

I saw this Strictly Come Dancing bloggers tag, created by Natasha and Rochelle at Next Route Style and thought it would be really fun to do, so here goes! I tag everyone reading this.

1. What would be your outfit choice? (colour, style, etc)
It would have to be a short, flapper style dress in red.

2. To compliment your chosen outfit, how would you like your make up?

Lovely glittery eyes, bronzed skin and classic red lipstick.

3. You have the chance to have your dream hair (style, colour, length, extension, up, down etc) what would yours be?

I would have to have it in long curls and it would have to have blonde highlights!

4. What would be more important to you - your make-up being flawless or your hair being perfectly styled?

My make up being flawless. When you're dancing around your hair won't stay in place anyway!

5. What would be your favourite dance style? (e.g. American Smooth, Salsa, Samba, Foxtrot, Quickstep, Charleston, Rumba, Tango, Paso Doble, Waltz, Jive etc)

My favourite dance style would probably be the Salsa or Show-dance.

6. What would be your song choice to dance to? I Wanna Dance With Somebody - Whitney Houston.

7. Who’s your favourite judge?

I would probably say Len, but I don't really have a reason haha I just prefer him to the other judges.

8. It's themed week – who or what would you like to dress up as?

I'd love a Disney week so I could have an outfit inspired by Ariel!

9. Behind the scenes, you get to meet the talented hair and make up designer, Lisa Armstrong. You can ask her one question, what would it be?

How long does it take you to do hair and make-up on one female contestant?!

10. Who would you like to win? Pixie Lott. She is amazing!
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My Favourite Christmas Memories

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I don't know where my complete love and obsession with Christmas came from, I just remember it always being with me. Christmas is my favourite time of year and I think it's absolutely magical. My Christmas experiences have been the same most years, and my excitement for Christmas still hasn't dulled even though I'm now an 'adult'. 
I can remember ever since I was little the build up to Christmas. I loved decorating the tree with my whole family, while dancing around to Christmas songs playing on the record player. From when the tree was up, that was when it really felt like Christmas. I love going to visit all of my family, or them coming to visit us before Christmas to exchange gifts, enjoy mince pies or a pre Christmas roast dinner. 
My Nan used to stay at our house for the whole Christmas period, and every Christmas morning she'd tell me she had heard Santa on the roof in the middle of the night - you can imagine my excitement as a child! I would be so excited and want everyone to get out of bed and come downstairs to see what Santa had brought. Once we were downstairs, a tradition of ours was for the Christmas chocolate biscuits to come out whilst my Mom was putting the turkey in the oven before we opened our presents. We all had our specific places to sit in the living room when we opened our presents, where everyone's piles would be moved to in the morning. After opening presents, waiting for dinner I remember playing with my new toys and being so excited for the food. I love roast dinners, they are my favourite, and getting a huge one on Christmas Day has to be the best! I'd eat all my dinner then be excited for my Vienetta for pudding. After clearing the table, we almost always watched a Christmas film, which I remember being Little Women or Miracle on 34th Street, two of my favourites.
I love Christmas traditions and I can't possibly see a time where Christmas won't be the most exciting thing for me.
This is my entry for the Transun competition, where you can win a day trip to Lapland! You can enter here.
What are your favourite Christmas memories?
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MAC Girl About Town

MAC Girl About Town - £15.50

I am a secret lover of hot pink lipsticks, I must own a fair few alongside my classic reds. I had seen many reviews of Girl About Town, and loved swatches so I decided I had to buy it. Girl About Town was my summer staple for lipstick, on the more bright and daring days. I love the Amplified Creme formula of this lipstick, it feels so creamy to apply and doesn't dry your lips out whatsoever. I don't even feel like I need to apply a lip balm before this as it is so creamy. I've found with this lipstick that it stays on a lot longer than other moisturising lipsticks, it stays on through eating and drinking for hours, like a regular MAC lipstick!

Girl About Town has blue undertones, which makes your teeth look whiter than they are. This is an absolute bonus, you could be adorning those pearly whites just by popping on a lipstick. Amazing. If you're looking for the perfect bright pink to be a staple in your lipstick collection, this is definitely the one to go for.

The packaging is amazing as always - I love how it is sleek and black and slightly glittery. If I had a massive collection I bet it would look gorgeous all of the MAC lipsticks lined up together! I can't help but think I should add a fair few more to my collection...

What is your favourite MAC lipstick?

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Topshop Night Out

Playsuit - Topshop (Alternative colour)

Wedges - Boohoo

There's nothing more amazing than instantly finding an outfit to wear on a night out, without going through the classic 'I don't know what to wear'! When I walked into Topshop one day a few months ago, I saw this and picked it up for that weekend. I think that's the quickest I've ever decided on an outfit! I have actually worn this on a night out but didn't take photos as I don't tend to get ready until about 9/10pm and by then it's way too dark to take a good photo. I love how comfortable this playsuit is to wear, I could easily lounge around in it. It's a good all-rounder playsuit really as you can dress it down with converse and dress it up with heels or wedges. I think it's a nice change from wearing a dress or skirt out, and I like the fact you won't flash everyone if you were to sit down. The only con is practically having to take it off when you go to the toilet - not fun!

Have you ever worn a playsuit on a night out?

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Time for Change | iPhone Case

Mr Nutcase Ultra Lightweight Slimline Case* - £14.95

I got my first Mr Nutcase case back in April, for my iPhone 4. Since then I've had a new iPhone 5S therefore my phone case no longer fit, and it was time for a change! I chose a different design this time, to include bigger photos. Photos are a huge part of my life, they have been ever since I was tiny so it's lovely to have some of my favourite photos with me constantly on the back of my phone. I think the Mr Nutcase cases are such good value for money, you can barely get a nice non-personalised case for your phone for under £15!

For my case, I picked out quite a lot of photos of me and my boyfriend, as I thought it'd be cute to have one photo on there from every year we've been together! I also have a few photos with friends, which is especially nice when you don't get to see them too often. I've also got one of my favourite photos of me and my Dad on my case, along with one of me and my Mom. I included a photo of Green Day from when I saw them at Leeds, and photos with celebrities and YouTubers. I think it's a nice way to look back on memories everyday.

Have you tried a personalised phone case?

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Flamingo Dress

Dress - Jennifer Lilly Designs Shoes - Next
I feel ever so bad doing a fashion post when nothing included is available to buy, I'm sorry! I picked this dress up from the Clothes Show Live at the NEC back in 2012. It caught my eye in the Jennifer Lilly stall, and I stood there basically hinting to my Mom. She kindly bought it for me, and I hardly wore it in that first year, but this year I have been wearing it a fair bit. It's a lovely dress to just throw on and go out in, it looks perfectly summery and I love how patterned it is. I also love it because Flamingoes are one of my favourite animals. Another thing I absolutely love about this dress is the fact that there aren't that many in the world due to them being handmade, which means you won't have any of those awkward moments wearing the same dress as somebody else. On those chilly summer evenings I would throw my denim jacket on over this, which makes the dress pop even more.
Do you love animal clothing?

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Benefit The Porefessional

This product has been a love of mine for around a year now, but yet only about a month ago I finally bought the full size. I mean, what was the point when I had loads of sample sizes and they last for ages! I caved and bought this after an eyebrow wax at Benefit after having my make up done, it gave me an excuse to buy it.
Because I have combination skin, I suffer with large pores on my nose and across my cheeks. When this claimed it would minimise the look of pores, I thought 'yeah right!'. How wrong I was. It genuinely does minimise the look of pores, so much so, that I can wear this just with powder and feel completely comfortable about my skin. My pores are one of the main reasons I wear foundation. I use this alongside my MAC Prep & Prime Skin, I only use this on my nose and cheeks where I feel I have the most problems with oil and my pores. With The Porefessional on my nose, I've noticed make up stays a lot longer whereas it would normally fall off quite early on in the day. I love the feel of it on my skin, it provides such a smooth base for make up.
The packaging of all Benefit products look lovely, this is in quite a long squeezy tube and I think it's well worth the money. You only use the tiniest amount of product each time, so you can tell it's going to last you quite a fair amount of time. 
I can see why this is a beauty product widely loved in the blogging community, I don't always believe the hype but this has definitely lived up to the hype that has surrounded it for so long!
Have you tried The Porefessional? What did you think?
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In the Jungle

Playsuit - Lipsy (No longer available) Skate Shoes - Topshop
I titled this post 'In the Jungle' as I think my playsuit and my shoes both look very jungle themed! I love the wide range of patterns in the playsuit, from leopard print to beautiful bright flowers. I wore this outfit quite a bit throughout the summer, the main time being to Summer in the City. I think playsuits are just so easy to wear, and perfect for all seasons, depending on the patterns and styles of them. I paired the playsuit with my Topshop Skate shoes (as always) as what else would the playsuit go best with?! I've had quite a few compliments on my playsuit when I've been wearing it. I love it because it is just so comfortable, and throughout summer when it got cold I just threw on my denim jacket over the top and it was an easy styled outfit.
What do you love most about playsuits?

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Debenhams AW14 Style Challenge

This is my entry for the Debenhams AW14 Style Challenge

Look One

Green Lace Art Deco Shift Dress - Dark Green Textured Reefer Jacket - Large Winged Tote Bag - Pointed Toe Court Shoes

Look Two

Bloom Floral Shirt - Super Skinny Jeans - Twist Lock Pocket Shoulder Bag - High Court Shoes I love Autumn and Winter, and fashion so it was only right that I took part in this challenge. I created two looks, one for me, and one for another blogger. I'm nominating Jess from Dungarees & Donuts, I hope you have fun creating your looks! I went with the Winter Greens trend, as I fell in love with some of the clothes under the trend.  Look One is for me and is the more dressy, party type look for Autumn and Winter. The main part of the look is The Collection Green Lace Art Deco Shift Dress. I just love the retro pattern on this dress, and thought it would be the perfect item of clothing to base the rest of my look around. I think it would go lovely with The Collection Dark Green Textured Reefer Jacket, for an arrival and departure from a lovely Autumn Winter party! Normally I would style this with a clutch bag, but I went for the Star by Julien Macdonald Designer Green Large Winged Tote Bag as you could also take this outfit from a day at work to night. Lastly I chose the Red Herring Black Lizard Print High Pointed Toe Court Shoes as they looked smart and stylish, especially with the dress. Look Two is for Jess and is the more smart casual look for Autumn and Winter. The main part of this look is the Betty Jackson. Black Designer Dark Grey Bloom Floral Shirt which I think is absolutely gorgeous! It is the perfect Autumn Winter staple for any woman's wardrobe. This would go great with the Holly Superskinny Green High Rise Jeans to dress down the outfit slightly to make it more casual. To make it more smart-casual I added in the Faith Black Mock Croc High Court Shoes as they would dress up the outfit completely, it would be the perfect outfit to wear to a meal or a party where it isn't formal dress. Lastly, I chose the J by Jasper Conran Designer Black Leather Twist Lock Pocket Shoulder Bag as it tops off the outfit and pairs it together so well. Remember you can enter the competition up until the 9th of October. Have fun entering!
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