Celebrations | Birthday & 50th Anniversary

Hey everyone, 

So yesterday was my Mum's birthday and usually I wouldn't bother to share what I got her for her birthday but as these are beauty related and they may be products I talk about in the future, I'm going to show you what I got her.


So during week I knew it was coming up to my Mum's birthday and I hadn't got her no presents, I took a trip into town one night and got some things that I thought she might like.

First of all, this body lotion. I've seen this before and the packaging did attract me to it and then I smelt it and I just was to eat it!

I think it smells a bit like sherbet but it claims to be Passion Fruit flavour, either way it's great and I kinda bought this for myself but pretended it was for Mum's birthday...

Next, I picked up this eyebrow palette. Whenever my Mum goes out, she always asks me to do her eyebrows. I bought her this one of her own which I think will become handy.

I'm quite a fan of how sleek the packaging looks and I like it a lot. Packaging is a big deal for me, if it doesn't look very appealing, I'll hesitate to try it.

My Mum has fair hair, so I got this palette in the shade 'Blondie' - this is my reason not to be able to use this because they may be too light.

And finally, I picked up a pair of false eyelashes. We are having a meal/celebration today which means she can wear them for that today.

So one last little bit before I go, it was also my Nan & Grandads 50th Wedding Anniversary which is quite special. My nan had this bracelet for my grandad, personally engraved with the date they got married '26.09.64' and I think it is a very cute, and sentimental gift.

That's all for today, I have some ideas swimming around in my head so as soon as I can sort out how I am going to go about them, I will get them on here! 

Hope you have enjoyed this, if any of these products mentioned turn out to be any good, I'll blog about them and you'll find out!

Thanks for reading!

See you soon

Aoife

Top 3 | Lipsticks

Hello everyone,

If I said I'd had this post prepared, I'd be lying. That's why you're getting it a day late but nevertheless, it's here.

Now I'm not one for high end beauty products, I much prefer finding the drugstore equivalent to what I'm looking for, and that's what I have for you today. My top 3 lipsticks that I wear the most.

Collection Gothic Glam 'Revenge', 2True Glossywear Lipstick '10' & Collection Lasting Colour 'Vintage Rose'.

This is the Collection Lasting Colour in the shade Vintage Rose. 

This is the most natural/nude shade that I have and I love it. When I don't wear much makeup or I just want my makeup to look quite natural, I like wearing this one because it's nice and simple.

I also like the packaging of the Collection Lipsticks.

It is a lot lighter than it looks in these photos but you can see that it's a pale pinky brown shade which is fairly natural for my skin tone.

This is the 2True Glossywear Lipstick in shade number 10. 

I've never had anything by 2True before but I quite like this lipstick. 

It is not very pigmented so it is quite pale but I like wearing it when I want to have a bit of colour but nothing too over-the-top.

The packaging is really simple, it has a clear circle on the top of the lid that you can see into.

I would say this photo is quite accurate to how it looks in real life but it doesn't come out this dark. As you can tell it is misshaped because I've used it a lot, but Vintage Rose has been a favourite lately.

This is the Collection Gothic Glam in the shade Revenge. And as you can see it doesn't look as 'Gothic' as you'd imagine. I am quite disappointed at how red this is on these photos because it's a lot darker than this is as you can tell from the colour swatches.

I really love dark lipstick and I feel like it's better on my lips that bright and bold colours, they're just not good on me.

This will probably be used a lot in Autumn and I think it's a really good Autumn/Winter colour.

Same lovely packaging as the previous Collection lipstick but this has a gold pattern.

I love Collection lipsticks and this one is definitely very pigmented, you only need to put this one quite gently and you have a really dark colour.

I hope you have enjoyed this post, little bit different from the usual but I thought this would be good to share, sorry to the male readers who couldn't care less about lipstick.

If you're looking for a nice, pigmented, drugstore lipstick, I'd recommend the Collection ones, they're usually around £3 which is great to experiment with what colours you like and seeing what suits you. Thankfully the ones I have, I like how they look on me and I will continue to wear Collection until it disappoints.

Thanks for reading.

See you soon

Aoife

P.s. I've made changed to the contacts page, different contact email so go and check that out and follow me on my social media - connellaoife on everything. 

August Favourites

Hello everybody,

I feel like I've only just uploaded my July Favourites and now were nearly a week into September which means August Favourites, so that's what I have for you today.
I feel like there isn't loads to share this month but I have a few things I want to rave about. Despite having a not-so-bright August, the sun has been out a lot more and so I decided as this is the August Favourites which is summer, we'd take this outside and do some photographs.

First of all, this eyeshadow palette. I got this in H&M last month, not expecting much but I liked how many different colours it had in it, and I am really impressed. It does what I want it to do and I'm really happy with it.

Much to my disappointment, the shades don't have names, just numbers which bothers me but nevertheless, I like the palette and I like that it has Metallic, Shimmer and Matte shades.

You many be able to tell from the little rough parts where I've had my brush, the nude shades are my favourite, particularly the middle strip of browns and I'm quite a fan of the first row of brown/nude shades too.

I like the two brown matte shades with the golden/nude shimmer shade together and I wear that combination quite often.

Next, is this absolute God send. This is the Collection Extreme 24 Hour Felt Tip Eyeliner and I will rave about this until I have nothing more to say.

For me, gel eyeliner, liquid eyeliner, pencil eyeliner are all a nightmare to put on and I just can't deal with the mess I make of using anything other than felt tip.

I had the No7 Felt Tip eyeliner and I used it up and it ran out so I went on the hunt for it to replace it, the Superdrug store I went to didn't have one so I thought I'd try this and boy am I pleased!

If you struggle to apply eyeliner in the forms previously mentioned, you have GOT to try this. You won't settle for anything other than Felt Tip after it.

Also can we just discuss how the No7 Stay Precise Felt Tip Eyeliner is £8, and the Collection Extreme 24 Hour Felt Tip Eyeliner is £2.99.  I'll be honest, '24 Hour' is questionable, but I don't need to wear it for 24 hours, so I'm not complaining.

Next, this Sue Devitt Eye Intensifier Pencil in the shade Tanzania has been a favourite this month. I like how it is quite subtle and it is a nice natural colour. It's also really easy to wear and depending on how strongly you put it on, it goes with most things.

One end has the coloured pen end and the other is like a little rubber spongey end to blend it out with.

I've had this No7 Cleansing Lotion for a while and I've never given it the love it deserves. I've been using this a lot recently and I love it. You may also be able to see that I'm running very low and may need to replace it soon. I use this every night to clean my face and it's also very useful for taking make up off.

Look who's back! 

I wanted to recommend the whole album, but I decided I'd just give you my song of the month. I downloaded the full album and I just love it so much, but 'Like I Can' has been a personal favourite this month.

I don't even know if this has been a really short favourites or quite a long one but that's all I have for this month's favourites. I hope you have enjoyed this and you may take something from it. I'd recommend you take everything from it because they are all worth it.

See You Soon

Aoife

College Gift Box

Hello everyone,

Today's post is gonna be a bit more of a personal one but you may still enjoy it because it contains lots of stationary pieces that I like.

So I'm at the stage in my life right now where I'm going into my final 2 years of education. I'm staying at the school I'm currently in to study my a-levels but Kayleigh is going off to college. Now, it hasn't properly hit me yet that she is going somewhere else, but I think it will when I go back and she's not there.
For those of you who don't know, Kayleigh is my best friend and she's been mentioned in posts before, so this is a pretty big change for us.

I wanted to do something nice for her and I didn't think a letter would be quite enough to say Good Luck & See You Soon, so after a long time of brainstorming some ideas I thought of something I really liked and I have finished preparing it now.

What I've decided to do is to put together a box of pieces of stationary that Kayleigh can take to college with her, just some essentials that I thought she may need.

So this is the inside of the box, it's just a plain white box that I bought from Ikea (and constructed myself, might I add.)

I am happy with the way it's come together, it's better than I imagined...I didn't really have an idea in my head what it would be like to be honest.

I bought this notebook which I think she will like. It's quite a good size so it should fit whatever size bag she is going to take. I thought that maybe she won't use school exercise books any more so she can take notes for her subjects in here. 

Then I bought some pens. Now, we have a black, blue, red & green biro and then we have some that are a bit more exciting. There's a light blue, pink, light green & purple. I thought these would be good for colour coding things instead of going crazy with vibrant highlighters, which I know she likes to do.....it bothers me....sorry Kayleigh...

And also some pink/purple pencils - I'm going to say pink because pink & green ended up being my colour scheme.

Then some other essential pieces of stationary. Sticking to my colour scheme, a pink rubber, a green flexible ruler, a green stapler - which is an absolute nuisance because it keeps being temperamental and popping open. There's also a sharpener and a correction pen because we all need them in our lives. 

I also found some of these mini highlighters featuring a questionable purple one....I would imagine that would be to dark to highlight something but anyway, I thought these would be a good size to fit in her pencil case or whatever she decides to use.

Lastly, some post-it notes. Aren't these cute, I think she will be quite impressed with these speech bubbles, I was impressed anyway and I like that they're different sizes too.

So that's all that I've included in my box, I need to get this too her before I upload this so I don't spoil it. I hope she likes it and most importantly I hope it is all useful for her, except that bloody stapler that's useful for no-one! I've also included a letter but that's not going to be shared.

Kayleigh, if you're reading this - which I presume you will do - I hope you have an amazing time in college and you achieve everything you want and are happy and successful in everything you do. Unfortunately, you haven't got rid of me completely, I'll still be here, you just wont have to deal with me everyday. I wish you the best of luck and lots of love.

See You Soon

Aoife

Current Playlist

Hey everyone,

So I thought I'd share some songs that I've been loving lately. I usually over play songs and just listen to albums but lately I've introduced myself to some new music and as I have a Samsung phone, I've explored the music on the play store to find some songs to listen to.

I haven't done these in any particular order, just in the order I wrote them down in my phone. I love most of these songs and I feel like it's going to be a regular thing throughout this post for me to say "I love this song" so just prepared yourself for that.

All About That Bass - Meghan Trainor

This song was released in June this year and it is her debut single. I have discovered it 2 months later and I LOVE IT. I love her voice, I love the beat of the song & I love how sassy the lyrics are. Also, how amazing is that single cover. 

It's a really fun, feel good song and it has a great message.

If I Go - Ella Eyre

This was released in July this year so it is still a fairly new song. I have heard it before on the radio but I've never properly listened to it so I thought I would, yet again, another brilliant decision, well done Aoife.

I love her voice and how powerful she sounds. I feel like it's one of those songs that I can sing and release my inner popstar and just go for it.

Bang Bang - Jessie J, Ariana Grande & Nicki Minaj

So when I first heard this song I was a bit unimpressed so I let the hype calm down a bit and I thought okay, I'll give this a chance. Now I like it. Nicki Minaj's part is my favourite, if I'm honest, I think I'm put of by how screechy it is, Jessie J and Ariana Grande both have quite high pitched, screechy voices and my ears don't like that. Nonetheless, it's been on my current playlist.

I'm Not The Only One - Sam Smith

Mr Smith has done it again, released yet another amazing single.

I am a big Sam Smith fan, I wouldn't usually consider myself I big fan but when I think about it, I do love his voice and his songs and I've watched interviews and videos of him so I think I'm a secret fan. 

Anyway, this is a lovely chill out, slow song and I recommend you give it a listen or a download. 

Before I move on, can we just discuss how this was released in the USA before it is in the UK even though Sam Smith himself is from the UK. You American lot get everything first!!!! 

Good Thing - Sam Smith

Oh look at that, another Sam Smith song.

This is another slow one and I like the message behind it too, it's sad one but the songs a good 'un. Give it a listen. In fact, probably just listen to the whole album. 

I'm doing it, I'm going to recommend the whole album.

In The Lonely Hour - Sam Smith's debut studio album, go and listen to it, buy it, download it, I don't care what you do, you won't regret it. We all know 'Stay With Me' & 'Money On My Mind' and how successful they were, go and see the rest. See..? Listen.

Cool Kids - Echosmith

This song is so good, I have the normal version and the acoustic version.

It's not new, it was released last year, but I still love it and no doubt you will too. I don't have a preferred version, listen to either, or both. 

It has quite a timeless message about wanting to be like the cool kids and fit and one that can be quite relatable to some people.

Tonight (We Live Forever) - Union J

I'm not a Union J fan but everytime they bring a single out I always love it. and this one, I LOVE. I love feel good songs with good beats and this is one of them.

The videos a good 'un too, I like it a lot.

Glow - Ella Henderson

I love Ella Henderson's voice. I think she is so amazing. 

Glow is her second single but hasn't yet been released, although the video has so you can go and watch that on youtube.

I absolutely loved Ghost when that was released and I still do but I loved it so much that I was mildly disappointed by Glow, I do still like it and recommend that you listen to it but for me, it doesn't compare to Ghost.

Only Love Can Hurt Like This - Paloma Faith

Oh how I love Paloma Faith. This song was released in May this year and I've listened to it a few times but never actually downloaded it, so I did, and I have no regrets, she lives up to the expectations and I love this song a lot.

If you haven't heard it yet then go and listen to it, or watch the video, and then you'll see what I mean.

Young Volcanoes - Connor Ball (cover)

So Connor from The Vamps covered Fall Out Boy's 'Young Volcanoes' while over in America. I forgot about this song until I rediscovered it when Connor covered it (that rhymed) and I remembered how much I loved it. I've played this song about 5 times everyday since Wednesday.

It's one of them songs that you can't help but sing & dance to and I love Connor's acoustic version of it. If you want to watch/listen to this cover you can do so on The Vamps' Youtube Channel or by clicking here.

So there you go! 10 songs that make up my Current Playlist.
It feels like this has taken me forever to finish writing - let's pretend I didn't play each song as I wrote about it and got carried away dancing and singing instead of writing....

I've have really enjoyed writing today's post and I hope you've enjoyed reading it, maybe I'll do more things like this in the future, we'll see.

Thanks for reading and if you listen to any of my song choices, enjoy 'em & you're welcome.

See you soon

Aoife

Meet Gladys

Hey Everyone,

Finally I can introduce you to Gladys. I bought her 3 weeks ago and vowed to make her beautiful, I think I did a damn good job because she is. It's taken some time and a lot of work but I love her so much and I'm so happy to share her with you.

 Don't panic! If you looked at these photos and thought "That doesn't look very good..."

That's how she looked when I bought her. These are the 'Before' pictures if you like...

And this is her now! How cute is she!!!!

She's now a lovely cream colour and all the rust has gone!

I managed to save some of the vintage stickers on the frame which I think are amazing because they are Japanese.

There's also some old Japanese graffiti on the mud guard of the front wheel which I wanted to keep because I like the way that looks too.

There's also this really cool light on the front which is a dynamo light, this means that it powers the light as you pedal it which doesn't require any batteries and has an unlimited amount of power which is great.

I hope you love her as much as I do too, I've been waiting for some dry weather to photograph her and get this post up and it finally came!

Hope you've enjoyed looking at her!

See you soon

Aoife