The Makeup: Everyday Eyes

When it comes to eye makeup, I tend to go all out or not at all. Since I was 14 my makeup routine has been completely based around some serious lazy girl liner - varying in thickness and style over the years (with some crazy gothic cat eyes at the age off 15) - teamed with lashings of maxfactor mascara. There's very little room for new products in this routine, as most of my current eye makeup products have reached HG satus.

There's one thing I do tend to play around with, and that is my base/primer for pre liner eyelids, if I have a long day ahead I like to give my liner as much staying power as possible. I've tried a few different products including the Urban Decay Primer Potion, but so far I've found nothing works quite like the Bobbi Brown Creamy Concealer in Sand. This stuff is the furthest from creamy when used on my skin, but for blemishes and using as a base it actually works very well and keeps everything in place for a little bit longer.

For my everyday eyeliner I will never be without the Collection Fast Stroke Liquid Liner in the stash. Cheap and cheerful, with a good matte finish and decent lasting power - why would you stray? Everyone applies their liner differently, but I like to start with the middle and work out to the end of the flick, and then back in. It's never perfect but I'll be dammed if i'm going to wake up 15 minutes earlier each day in order to get it just right - ceebs.

You can give me a new mascara any day but I'll still always come back to Maxfacor whether I use the Masterpiece Macara or False Lash Effect ... or the waterproof counter part of FLE you see above, I just lurveeee full thick lashes.

My 15 year old self and her scene kid cat eyeliner may be well and truly in the past, but I have a feeling my love for liquid liner will always live on - have you ever seen a 90 year old woman wearing eyeliner? Might be worth checking back here in 70 years time...

The Edit: The Beauty Ark

Any beauty fanatic will probably fess up to rarely purchasing something more than once, an onslaught of new products each month means you're constantly trying out new things and no matter how much you love something - it just doesn't make sense to have that extra moisturiser in the stash. But every so often you find yourself needing that concealer in a lighter shade or having to have that extra BB cream to keep at your boyfriends house. One in your handbag, one on your desk, before you know it you're sprouting doubles (or triples) and even in some cases repurchasing two by two. I've rounded up my share of the doubles below and have deemed all of them completely necessary...

Dr Jart BB Cream: I purchased this back in September and Boots have been completely to blame for it's early repurchase as they reduce this every so often to a meer £11, and so in the interest of my finances I just had to have two.

Larura Mercier Tinted Moisturiser: I wore this religiously last summer in the shade "Fawn" and after a good four months of being shoved to the back of the stash, I felt like cracking this out back in february -  bad idea, my tan had well and truly faded and I just looked like I belonged in a bad remake of charlie and the chocolate factory. So I took a walk to Space NK and Tinted Moisturiser #2 in "Bisque" was added to the stash alongside it's big sis.

Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer: I've lost count of the amount of these I've repurchased, and ever since discovering it back in 2011, I've always had at least two on the go. One in shade 3 and one in 2. Standard.

Origins Plantscription Concealer: I own this in no less than THREE shades. You heard me, three. Shades one, two and three have been purchased over the past six months to keep my ever paling skin from going without this.

Bioderma: Because you just have to stock up don't you? Unless you visit France regularly, you'll be familiar with carrying multi packs of the stuff home with you. No, it doesn't take your makeup off in one sweep like people people claim, but it is amazingly gentle and great for taking off heavy makeup before you cleanse.

Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair: In the past year I've repurchased this twice and as of last month a tiny new travel addition has been added to the family. A free sample from spending too much money at Estee Lauder counter, this little one is amazing for travel as the opening is wide enough to refill once you've used it up.

Avene Thermal Water Spray: Now Boots are completely to blame for this one yet again, after coming across a two for £10 offer, but I'm completely okay with this as they suit my lazy girl morning cleanse just fine. I also use it post cleanse before drying my face to neutralise any nasties in our harsh southern water. Can you tell I've been sucked in by the most recent videos on Into The Gloss?

So no regrets on the doubles part, yet. I have yet to figure out how I'm going to justify this to the other half when we move in together later this summer - our flat may resemble something of a beauty Ark...

*Edit* - This is josh speaking, send halp, am currently drowning in moisturising creams and thermal sprays (literally a £5 bottle of water with a spray shoved in the top). Also, for some unknown reason I seem to be spending what might be my last minutes on this good earth in a room full of coupled animals. The lions have eaten the penguins and are now terribly sick. The elephants have made a disgraceful mess in the corner, which was unfortunately the last place I remember seeing the hamsters. They seemed to have suffered a worse fate than I. If this reaches someone, please tell my mum of my fate. She would want to know the truth.

My boyfriend ladies and gentlemen...

The Sunday Post: Time Out

This weekend Hello October was officially on a time out. Aside from the odd tweet or instagram photo (proving to my mum I was still alive). There has not been a blog post - nor any form of blog prep - in sight for the last 48 hours. Up until midday today when I took my usual weekend seat infront of my camera for my weekly video of course - this weeks video in the making is a hair care routine and today is the one day my hair would just not play ball, making for a less than easy experience.

I digress, the weekend kicked off with the Great Escape, Burger Brothers (a new take away burger shop situated on north road - dreamy) and Star Treck, followed by a generous dose of photobooth fun with a side of fries and a milkshake on Saturday. I also picked up a new pair of the vintage-esk sunglasses in Snoopers Paradise for a whopping £5 - big thumbs up there - now I have two pairs to scratch up!

So what's on the cards for my Sunday afternoon? Unfortunately nothing as fun as the past few days - I have a ton of editing to get on with and presentation preparation for work tomorrow - urgh... accepting internship applications over at H.O headquarters asap!

Link Lovin'

After Real Patisserie had not one but TWO cancellations this week (free bread and croissants - score), I discovered my love of almond croissants and after seeing Love and Oil's recipe for Strawberry Almond Scones - I think I need to indulge in some more almond goodness.

After my most recent Estee Lauder purchase and Anna's post on Smokey Eyes for Shadow Scmucks, I was feeling spendy and needed to invest in some new bronzey shades ASAP. A Debenhams order may have taken place. Mission Accomplished.

Don't forget - If you like my blog - I'd hope if you got this far that you would - you can vote for me in the Cosmo blog awards by clicking HERE. I fit under the category of Best Established Beauty Blog as H.O has been going for more than a year now - this is a big old category in terms of nominees, but even having a couple of votes would be awesome! 

The Makeup: Kevyn Aucoin Sculpting Powder

Kevyn Aucoin Sculpting Powder - Space NK

The Kevyn Aucoin sculpting powder will forever go down as one of my most used Christmas presents (minus the GHDs for my age 13 self that are still chugging along to this very day). Tied with a bow amongst mounds of Space NK packaging, I couldn't wait to crack it open and get to work on my uncontoured little face!

As they say the rest is history, I've pretty much used it every day since to give a little more definition to my cheekbones. The powder is very cool toned and once applied it creates a natural shadow, perfect for faking cheekbones.

Depending on how subtle I want my contouring to be I alternate between two brushes; the & Other Stories powder brush and the Real Techniques multi tasking brush. The powder gives a much lighter shadow, so if you're new to contouring then this type of brush would be a safe bet. On the other hand the shape of the multi tasking brush gives you a thinner application side on - the exact size of the groves of my cheekbones - and then blends like a dream when used in circular motions.

Faking cheekbones - yeup, totally guilty. The secrets out girlies...

The Skincare Edit: A Spare 20 Minutes

So picture this: your nine hour days at work are followed by one of four things; blog work, events, gigs or being stuck on trains. This leaves you with very little spare time for yourself once you actually reach the front door each evening. Sound familiar? I thought so. But tonight I've worked out I should be home early enough to have a spare 20 minutes to myself. Dreamy...

When moments like this arise the first thing I like to check out are my eyebrows. They can be a little bit wild, and without care I can end up looking like the monobrowed baby from the Simpsons. So I'll be taking five minutes to look over them and pluck out any little hooligans that find it funny to sprout half way between my brows and my eyelids!

When it comes to body moisturisers, they normally fall into the category of "an added luxury". But tonight I'll be getting some use out of the Nip and Fab mango body butter - a sickly sweet smell and super thick consistency in one tiny tub. I've never used this one before, so I'll let you know how I get on!

I'll also be giving the Apivita Express Gold with Prickly Pear Mask* it's second round, you can read more on it by clicking the link, but it's basically a hydrating and radiance boosting mask with 92% natural ingridients. Does it actually prickle? No, one of my lovely subscribers below let me know it was the name of a type of pear! Who knew...

Whilst my face is covered in questionable looking white goop, I'll be popping a generous serving of the Nuxe Reve De Miel on my lips, with the Fresh Sugar Lip polish over the top for super smooth lips.

So with my face and lips fully covered, I'll spend my last five minutes flicking through my to do list, prepping myself for the day to follow, and dreaming of my next day off...

*PR Sample

The Style Post: Spring to Summer Transitions

I have a confession for you all today, I have worn the above black A-line top from Cos at least twice a week since its purchase back in April. I picked it up in the sale for a wee £25 and haven't looked back. It's the perfect transitional piece from spring to summer as it's light weight but still keeps me snug as an all black outfit attracts sunlight.

Paired with my Topshop bowler hat that has barely left my head (it's featured in my past two videos - as has the top) and black boots of choice, I do run the risk of looking a little satanic. I joke, but just to make sure the outfit has a little pop of colour I've been lugging my possessions around in my most recent Zara handbag purchase (the perfect summer bag!) and sporting Topshop Gone Fishing nail polish.

For accessories, I've been getting a lot of use out of my Urban Outfitters sunglasses and River Island rings. The rings have not left my fingers as they complement almost any nail polish and just look rather cute!

So come rain or shine, these items are my "go to's" that don't leave me feeling out of place or inappropriately dressed. I'm also wearing the majority of them today - surprise, surprise... Style Posts could start getting a tad predictable over here if I'm not careful!

The Video: Top Five Blushes!

The top five series is having a comeback moment this week after completely vanishing off my radar for a while. Now the new camera has moved in and we're all acquainted I couldn't wait to get filming, and after last weeks post on the Aerin Multi Colour for lips and cheeks, I couldn't think of a better video to film. So take a seat and prepare yourself for what could potentially be the most predictable top five blush video out there!

All the info is in the description box on my channel so take a little click through to have a scroll over that. I also promise to wear something different in my next video - you'll all be sick of the sight of that hat soon enough!

P.S Incase you missed it yesterday, you can vote for Hello October in the Cosmo Blog Awards under the category of Best Established Beauty Blog through this link HERE! I've already entered all my favourites and have my fingers firmly crossed for them!

The Sunday Post: My Second Other Half

I love my boyfriend dearly, but long before he arrived on the scene I actually already had my "other half" - not quite how you'd think - my best friend Megan literally fits the cringe worthy term of BFF. I've known her since she was born (being a whopping 6 months older an' all) and although we are quite literally polar opposites - if we were words we'd be a nice little pair of complementary atonyms - we just click. Yesterday I saw Megan for the first time in TWO WEEKS. Crazy. She recently moved in with her "second other half" and now lives an hour away from me. This is a huge difference considering we've lived round the corner from each other for the past 21 years. Our crazy work schedules had kept us appart but magically this week our days off collided and catch up lunch at the Beach Deck in Eastbourne was on the cards.

We had a nice long catch up over pizza and burgers, before demolishing a warm chocolate brownie with ice cream. If you're in the area and fancy a bite to eat this place serves up a breakfast, lunch and dinner menu and sports gorgeous see views and a beautiful interior - even down to the detail of your receipt being served in a shell with a beach rock paper weight. What would I recommend from our lunch? The brownie wasn't the best I've had (still good though) but the sweet potato fries were right up my street - they also serve mussels and fries - one of my all time favourite dishes!

After a manic week, a big catch up with my female sole mate was more than needed and a girly sleep over at her new place is definitely on the cards. She has also promised to let me have a snoop, camera in hand, around the girl side of their new room once she's all settled in. Home made candles and MAC brushes in abundance - tell me i'm not the only one getting excited for that feature?

Life updates aside, I missed out on my Sunday links last week as I was in a rush, so really I have two weeks of links to catch up on! I'm thinking of doing an updated favourite blogs post soon though so hopefully that will make up for it...

Link Lovin'

After an incredibly stressful few weeks, my anxiety is at an all time high. So Kate's post on her Pre Sleep Winding Down Pamper was welcomed onto my blog lovin' feed with open arms. Everything mentioned has been added to the wish list - standing by and awaiting payday.

Into The Gloss sits on my bookmark bar on my browser alongside What's in My Handbag and The Coveteur and is quite possibly my favourite daily read - well, one of them anyway. This week their feature on combining matte and glossy black nails had my full attention. An attempt at these will be commencing shortly - i'll come back later this week if all goes accordingly.

A blog that very rarely gets a mention on here, but is another of my all time favourite style blogs, is Kayture. Whether i'm looking for style or high end makeup inspiration this is one of my go to's. The photography is just stunning, as is Kristina herself, and she's recently delved into the world of bangs - or fringes to you and me - I have major hair (and face) envy. This week I've been gawping at her photos in front of the Eifel Tower - this little lady does Parisian style that I could only dream of pulling off!

I've saved the best for last with this one - A Beautiful Mess (one of my favourite websites dating back to when I first started my blog) are launching their first app! Due to be out in the next few weeks as long as everything goes to plan, the app can be used to add illustrations and frames in true ABM style to your instagram or blog photos. I will have to restrain myself from letting the app take over all blog photos!

Before I go, I thought i'd talk Cosmo blog awards! If you like my blog - I'd hope if you got this far that you would - you can vote for me in the Cosmo blog awards by clicking HERE. I fit under the category of Best Established Beauty Blog as H.O has been going for more than a year now - this is a big old category in terms of nominees, but even having a couple of votes would be awesome! 

Hope you all had a lovely weekend!