How my friendships have changed in 2014

A personal post today ! I was in the middle of writing another post but got ended up having a good ol' rant, so decided to make this a post of its own ! 

I've learnt a lot this year and one of the biggest things I learned about was friendship, from good ones to bad ones and everything in between. A lot of my friendships have changed this year, I've become closer to some people and more distant with others. I've learned so much about myself through these friendships, it's been quite a tough year but it has shown me who makes an effort to stay in my life and who is ok with just meeting up at Christmas. This has been quite difficult for me to accept but also it's made me appreciate the people who do pick up the phone to call, who do schedule in a little skype call and who do send a text every now and then hoping everything is ok. I think because I've been hurt quite badly by some friendships, I've become very cautious about who I make friends with now. I've become very protective about my happiness. I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing, just something I've never had to do before. Going into 2015 I'll be sure to only make time for those who make time for me instead of wasting energy and time on those who don't deserve my time !

Here are three things I've learned about friendship in 2014 and want to remember in 2015.

Time : Making time for your friends is THE most important thing to maintaining a friendship. It doesn't matter whether it's a big long two hour dinner date, a quick 15 minute skype call or even a simple text to remind them you haven't forgotten them.

Excuses : When you live far away from a friend it's incredibly easy to make excuses. I'm guilty of it myself. The biggest excuse is 'I'm busy'. I despise this excuse. I think it's such a cop out because EVERYONE'S BUSY. Are you really so busy that you can't send a short text every once in a while. It's all about making time and getting your priorities straight. Now I do understand all to well, that sometimes people do get incredibly busy, but if you can't make time for your friends once a fortnight, then is it really worth it ?  

Trust : Simple, but once the trust is gone, it's almost impossible to build it up again. 

Has anybody else had friendships change this year ? Or learned anything from existing friendships ? I'd love to hear in the comments.

Erin x

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Beauty Review : Anti-Blemish Mud Mask

Hello everybody ! Lately my skin has been very prone to breakouts, I'm not really sure why. I've put it down to exam stress and diet but I'm not convinced that they're to blame to be honest. So I was on the hunt for a good mud mask that would hopefully help. As I am a student, I needed it to be affordable too so I headed to Boots and came across this little beauty. I'd seen a few reviews, so bit the bullet and bought it. I think it's around €7 which is very affordable. That evening I cleaned my face, applied the mask and waited for the recommended 10 minutes. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised with the immediate results. The problem area for my skin has always been the T-zone, but the rest of my face looked so much clearer. It was obvious the mask had a great effect. I've used it about four times since and I'm really loving it. I'm so excited to of found an affordable mask that actually works. In relation to the breakouts, I do think the mask is helping. There isn't as much of an immediate result but you can definitely see a difference over time. Also on the packaging it says that it will last for 10 facials but I've used it four times already and there's not much gone at all, I'd say it'll probably last for 15+ facials. I am 100% happy with this product and will more than likely repurchase it !

Have you tried this product ? What mud masks do you use ?

Erin X 

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The Clothes Show Live : The Review

Today I'm going to share all my thoughts on The Clothes Show Live that was on in Birmingham. First of all this was the first proper fashion show/ event and I absolutely loved it. This was an early Christmas present from my lovely mother. Our flight left Ireland at 6.30 which meant we had to be up at 4.30. This was near impossible but we eventually managed to drag ourselves out of bed. When we touched down in Birmingham, we headed straight to our hotel to drop off our bags. We did our make up and headed for the NEC.  

We arrived just before 9 and were super excited to see all the stalls set up with big brands such as Rimmel, Barry M, Topshop and loads more. The first stand we went to was actually Carmex. They had make up artists there doing pop art lips. I happily volunteered to get my lips done, you can see how it turned out in the pictures below. Mam and I got chatting to the MUAs and mam mentioned that I was a blogger, in no time all they had done me up a little goody bag filled with their lastest and greatest products. This was my first ever goody bag as a blogger and I was thrilled as I just LOVE Carmex.

My pop art lips above and my goody bag below

 

Entering the benefit competition !

Entering the Citroen competition and a quick pic with the Glitzy Boys !

Mam been show the Helen E product, and a few extra pics !

Oh I also ran into Stereo Kicks back stage !

What day is complete without a selfie ?

Overall the day was AMAZING. There were fantastic bargains and brilliant brands there. If you'd like to read more on the fashion shows, I've done a post HERE. If you'd like to see my haul, I've done a post HERE. We finished up our day by heading to the German market which was so incredibly cute and I would seriously recommend going ! When we eventually went back to our hotel, we went down to the bar for a glass of wine to finish off the day, when who walks in, only Charlotte from Geordie Shore in her onesie !!! I love Geordie Shore, it's definitely my guilty pleasure. She is absolutely stunning, much prettier than on TV and she's a lot slimmer too. She was really nice and got in a quick pic with me. We were up again bright and early at 4.30 in the morning for our flight home, followed by a 3 hour bus journey, however it was definitely worth it and I'd love to go again !

Thanks for reading ! 

Erin X

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The Clothes Show Live : Zandra Rhodes Fashion Show

Hello everybody ! I attended the Clothes show live last Sunday and saw some of the most wonderful catwalks, one of which was the Zandra Rhodes catwalk. Thanks to Olympus Pen, I had front row seats ! The show itself was brilliant, we were shown some of Zandra's designs throughout the ages, going from the 60's to the 80's all the way up to the present. Zandra Rhodes was there herself and talking us through all of her wonderful designs and where she got her inspiration from. The garments were truly beautiful, I've mentioned my favourites on the pictures. Zandra Rhodes was so lovely and posed for a picture for me !! 

 What do you think ? 

Erin x

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The Clothes Show Live : The Haul

Hello everybody ! Today I'm going to share my haul from The Clothes Show Live. I picked up some really nice little bits and really happy with all of them. Usually when I go on a little shopping spree I end up regretting something when I get home but not this time. I'll apologise in advance for the pictures, it's very stormy and dark here in Ireland so the lighting is pretty crappy, sorry !!

So this is the main bulk of my haul. I ended up buying 3 hats which is really weird for me because I never really wear hats, but I just really liked this blue bowler hat and the grey fedora. Also they were £5 each so how could I leave them behind ? I also picked up the little blue hat that says 'Ain't no wifey'. I just think it's adorable. I picked up a scarf which I absolutely love, some burgundy leggings and a cute t-shirt.

Myself and my mam bought the Mint goody bag. They were £15 each I think,which was such a bargin for the amount of stuff that came inside. You get loads of really handy stuff for nail art which I am loving, lots of gems and sparkles too. You get to choose three nail polishes of your choice, so I chose the red,gold and silver glitter polishes (you'd never of expected that I would go for sparkles would you). The very kind lady serving us gave me an extra one to try too I chose the blue one which I think is just gorgeous.

Inside my Olympus bag there was the most stylish little bag that proved to be super handy throughout the day, I'll explain more about everything with olympus in my next post.

All of this amazing stuff was in my little Carmex goody bag that they so kindly gifted to me. More detail in my next post.

Maybe my best purchase of the day, a set of spectrum brushes for £20. They are seven brushes in the set (all of the black and purple ones) and I was gifted two for free too. They are the softest brushes ever ! I have yet to try them but I'm sure there will be a review about them in the upcoming weeks. Can we just take a second to appreciate the awesome and super clever packaging. The brushes come in a pyramid shaped leather box and seperate into two when you open it. This is genius as it doubles as a brush holder. How clever is that !

If you follow me on Twitter then you'll have seen me contemplating dying my hair purple for quite some time now, so when I came across this purple chalk that you simply rub onto your hair for a temporary dyed effect, I just had to pick it up. Below is a little look at the effect,it's not very obvious as there isn't too much on it.

Next up is glitzy lips. I've seen lots of pictures on Pinterest and the likes with glittery lips, so when I found a little stall that were demonstrating how to do it and selling the products, I just had to give it a try. You get the glue and three colours of your choice for £15 I think, and the guy threw in an extra one for free. I will update you on how the glittery lips work  out over the Christmas.

And lastly but by no means least my Clothes Show Live goody bag. I got a few extra bits in it as I bought Platinum tickets. Inside the bag you get the tshirt shown above, which when I first saw it I thought would be too small for me but it's actually the perfect size. There was also some baileys chocolate, a bottle of water, a little can of juice, a clothes show live magazine, a red nail polish,a sample of garnier moisture match sample, a full size freederm product and a popband hair tie.

I did also buy an incredible burgundy cape that I completely forgot to take a picture of and a little something for my secret santa. All in all, I think I did pretty well ! I'm well chuffed with everything and there were some amazing bargains there.

Have you done any big hauls recently ? Let me know in the comments !

Erin X

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The Clothes Show Live : The Fashion

Hello everybody ! If you follow me on twitter then you'll already know that I attended the Clothes Show Live on Sunday.I had an amazing time and took some great pictures thanks to Olympus Pen giving me a camera to use for the day. This post is dedicated to the amazing fashion shows and beautiful designs. 

WARNING : This post is quite picture heavy !!

This was the first fashion show that I have been to. Thanks to Olympus, I got a VIPP (Very Important Pen Person) pass and got to sit in the front row. This show was all about Emerging Designers. It included collections from Natasha Somerville, Louise Annis, Anna Ross, Pariss Dowe, Eujean Cha, Daisy Jet Thornton,Charlotte Armistead, Grace Weller, Gina Atkinson and James Kelly. As you can see from the pictures above the clothes look AMAZING. My favourite being the Pringles, Heinz and Randoms outfits. I also love the designs with models wearing hats/masks. It makes me think of stylish RubberBandits haha. I adore the textures and colours in James Kelly's collection and overall, I think he was my favourite designer in this particular show.

Next we made our way to the Image Catwalk which was sponsored by Company. This was the Graduate Catwalk but it did not disappoint. A special guest by the name of Jamie Laing (Made in Chelsea) helped host this Catwalk show. He did a quick competition with two girls from the audience and they got goody bags for taking part. The designs yet again were beautiful. I adored the capes in the first picture, the red one reminds me a bit of little red riding hood. My favourite was definitely the multi-coloured coat with the glitter detail in the second picture, I just love anything that sparkles.  I also really liked the white dress, it was very structured and really well made, such creative people. The last collection was beautiful. The head pieces were awesome and the corsets were just incredible !!

 The main event ! The main fashion show was just unbelievable. This was the first big fashion show I've attended and it exceeded all of my expectations !! The show was hosted by Rick Edwards and one of my favourite youtubers Jim Chapman. Amy Childs came out and displayed a few pieces from her collection, Stereo Kicks performed (and were really very good actually) and it was on with the fashion.

It began with a backdrop of NYC and the style was fabulous. The dancers/models were phenomenal. they put on such a stunning show. The themes varied between a frozen/ winter wonderland to bikini/summer, from dark/mysterious to light/fun. I have to say it was exceptionally well put together and just so AMAZING !!! I can't  actually fault it at all which is always a good sign !

Overall the fashion shows that were held throughout the day were pretty darn spectacular. My favourite was of course the main event. I have left out the Zandra Rhodes catwalk and collection because I'm going to dedicate a whole post just to her. I would definitely recommend going to the Clothes Show Live. I can't talk highly enough about it. I had a fantastic time and hopefully will get to go again !!

Did you go to the Clothes Show Live ? What did you think ? 

Erin X 

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A Lifestyle Change | Girl Power Playlist

I love a good girl power playlist. There's nothing more empowering than a woman standing up for herself, so this playlist celebrates some really kick ass women. These songs are written by women for women and will have you feeling the gender pride.

Beyonce - Run the World

Chaka Khan - I'm Every Woman

Shania Twain - Man I Feel Like A Woman

Destiny's Child - Independent Woman

 Alicia Keys - Girl On Fire 

Aretha Franklin - Respect

Katy Perry - Firework

Christina Aguilera - Can't Hold Us Down

Kelly Clarkson - Stronger

Gloria Gaynor - I Will Survive

Britney Spears - My Prerogative

Demi Lovato - Really Don't Care

Meghan Trainor - All About That Bass

The Weather Girls - It's Raining Man

The Scissor Sisters - I'm so excited 

Beyonce - Irreplaceable

Beyonce - Single Ladies

Sara Bareilles - Brave

Katy Perry - Roar

Pink - Raise a Glass

Pink - Perfect 

Pink - Blow me (One Last Kiss)

Lady Gaga - Born This Way

TLC - No Scrubs

Britney Spears - Work Bitch

Spice Girls - Wannabe

This is just a small amount of the amazing female artists who inspire you to work a little harder and push yourself that little bit more !

Which female artists inspire you ? Do you listen to any of the above during your workouts ?

Erin x

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Christmas Playlist

I LOVE Christmas ! Who doesn't ? It's the best time of year. I think it's such a great time because of the atmosphere, it's so magical. What better way to set the atmosphere than with a great Christmas playlist ! The playlist on my Ipod has over 100 songs (okay I agree I might have a problem). But I've narrowed it down the best 20 songs. I hope you enjoy !

1. All I Want For Christmas Is You - Mariah Carey
2. Merry Christmas Everybody - Slade
3. Holly Jolly Christmas - Michael Buble
4. Rocking Around the Christmas Tree - Brenda Lee
5. Santa Clause Is Coming to Town - Bruce Springsteen and Bon Jovi
6. Do They Know It's Christmas - Band Aid
7. Frosty The Snowman -Gene Autry
8. It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas - Dean Martin
9. Santa Baby -  Michael Buble
10. White Christmas -  Bing Crosby
11. Winter Wonderland - Bing Crosby
12. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas - Michael Buble
13. Here Comes Santa Claus - Larry Groce
14. Last Christmas - Wham
15. Let It Snow - Dean Martin
16. We Wish You A Merry Christmas -  Home Alone Soundtrack
17. Fairytale of New York - The Pogues
18. The ENTIRE Michael Buble Christmas album
19. Merry Christmas Everyone - Shakin Stevens
20. Driving Home for Christmas - Chris Rea

So what do you think ? Are any of these on your Christmas playlist ? 

Erin x

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Perfect Christmas Outfit

Hey lovelies ! So with everyone's diaries filling up with seasonal parties, including my own I thought I'd share my perfect Christmas outfit for a night out. I love a bit of sparkle so of course on Christmas nights out I am in my element. I've been eyeing up this dress from Little-Woods Ireland for quite some time now. I think it's so beautiful, it has a gorgeous shape and shows just the right amount of skin. The shoes are from Boohoo and they would go perfectly with the dress ! Because the dress is such a statement, I probably wouldn't wear any jewelry except for a small bracelet similar to this one from Boohoo. As for the bag, I would just keep it really simple as the dress is already so busy, so this one from misguided is ideal. For my makeup I would most likely do a red lip, I always do and I think it's perfect for Christmas. As for my eyes I think I'd add a little bit of sparkle and the Makeup Revolution Iconic 2 palette has all the colours you could possibly need ! 

                                                                    Erin x

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Christmas Wishlist

Why is it that I always have a list as long as my arm during the year of things I want, but when someone asks me what I want for Christmas, my mind goes blank ? So recently I've started making a list of what I want and adding to it every time I think of something new. There are of course loads more things that aren't on this little list that I want but, the following are a mixture of what's on the very top of my Christmas wishlist !

1. Books : There are a couple of books I'm dying to read, and #GIRLBOSS is one of them. I've heard great things about this book and can't wait to get stuck into it.

2. Make Up : I've been eyeing this Real Techniques set for a while now. The brushes I'm using at the moment are coming to the end of their course, so I think this set would be a nice little upgrade.

3. Technology: I really want a decent camera for taking pictures on the blog (and in general). After scouring the web for what seems like a billion hours, I think this Canon Powershot SX170 IS will do the job. I think it's a good camera for my price range so I'm hoping I'll be seeing this baby over the Christmas.

4. A surprise : Every year since I was little I've asked for a surprise, and this year is no different !

5. Fashion : I am obsessed with this crop top and midi skirt from the Nicole X collection with Misguided. I think it's the perfect Christmas outfit and evreyone knows that I can't resist a bit of sparkle !

So that's my little (yet quite expensive) Christmas wishlist. What's on yours ? 

Erin x

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Review - The Body Shop Cleansing Oil

Hello lovelies ! I bought the Camomile Silky cleansing oil from the body shop about a month ago and cannot stop raving about it. I had read so many reviews all praising it, so I gave into the hype and bought it. Well it's the best 17.50 I've ever spent. It's AMAZING ! I've never used a cleansing oil before so I don't have anything to compare it with, but I've never fallen in love with a product so quickly. It's very easy to use and the quickest way in my opinion to remove makeup. You simply pump some onto your hand and rub it into your face, it starts dissolving your makeup immediately. I then use a warm damp cotton cloth to wipe away the makeup. A quick splash of water to my face and Voila ! It doesn't strip your face or leave it in any way oily which  I was very impressed by. I love this product and would give it a 9/10. Love love love this product and couldn't recommend it more !

Have you tried this ? What did you think ?

Erin x

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Christmas Movies

When the weather is cold and the house is decorated in lovely Christmas decorations, there is nothing quite like getting cosy with your family on the sofa, for a great Christmas movie ! There are so many great Christmas movies but here are (in my humble opinion) the best Christmas movies of all time.

1. ELF

2. A Christmas Carol

3. Miracle on 34th Street

4. The Grinch

5. Home Alone

6. Love Actually

7.The Santa Clause

8. Bad Santa

9. Fred Claus

10. Deck the Halls

11. The Polar Express

12. Christmas with the Kranks

13. Mickey's Christmas Carol

14. Santa Buddies

15. Jack Frost 

16. The Holiday

17. Four Christmases

18. Shrek the Halls

19. Frozen

20. Rise of the Guardians

So they are my favourite Christmas movies ! I love watching them, they always make me feel so christmassy and happy. So what are your fave Christmas movies ? 

Erin x

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