Hello, October

I've actually lost count of how many times that I've mentioned how autumn is my favourite season yet never gone into detail as to why I love it so much. Crispy leaves are not the be-all of Autumn; there's the crunchy leaves, layering of clothes, candles & not to forget all of the festivities. It's the season for Halloween & Bonfire Night (two of my favourite holidays!) & the only time where you can wear a dress one day followed by a coat the next - if you live in England and experience our weather, that is.

I've began to track the 'Autumn' tag on Tumblr which I check pretty much everyday & it gets me so excited for what's to come. The weather is cold enough to wear coats but not too cold that you get frostbite every time you leave the house, the leaves change to that gorgeous shade of red that you only see for a few weeks a year & even the endless supplies of hot chocolate that might as well come straight from the tap. Is it strange that this is my favourite time of year for drinks at Starbucks & Costa? The black forest gateaux hot chocolate from Costa is one of my all-time favourite drinks & one me and my dad pick up every year. Yum.

Curling up with a good book with a purring kitten asleep on your lap whilst listening to the rain is possibly one of my favourite things, & also where I feel the most content - even more so now that it's more acceptable to.  It's even better when a good book is replace with an episode or two of The Great British Bake Off but I'll continue to profess my love for that another day. I sometimes think that I'm the only person who loves the rain (and also the smell of it). It clears my mind, refreshes everything & also makes me giggle when Meenie plays out just after the showers - she walks around and shakes her paws mid-step. So funny!

Mid-rain/thunderstorm is also the time when I love to write blog posts - perfect for the weather in England right now. It's currently the middle of Autumn & I'm curled up on the sofa with a blanket & hot chocolate catching up on some blog posts. I'm not one to complain; although the drizzly weather ends up soaking me from head-to-toe every time I step outside, the noise of raindrops on my window make it all the worthwhile. Rainy days give the perfect excuse to have lazy days. When it rains, the blankets & Netflix come out & the pyjamas are on. Orange Is The New Black is my preference but now that I finished all two seasons in a matter of weeks, I'll have to settle for something else. Clueless, Pretty Woman, Mean Girls maybe? Rainy days = lazy days!

5 Things: Defining Your Personal Style

One thing I find hardest about the whole fashion dilemma is defining your personal style. I honestly think that you're never too early to change the direction of how you want to style/dress yourself, whether that be in your teens or 50's. Let's face it, your personal style will gradually change throughout your life (would you still wear the fourteen year old-you's hot pants in your seventies? I doubt it, but whatever floats your boat!) but you always need a rough idea of where to start, and that's usually the toughest. The transition from being dressed in patent kickers by your mum to actually dressing yourself can be so confusing and even as a sixteen year old, I never know where to start. I've conjured up a little checklist to defining your personal style with tips that've helped me and that are so much fun to do.

1. Know your shape & which cuts and colours flatter you. How many times have you seen a gorgeous jumper on someone walking in the street, you finally hunt it down and it looks ridiculous on you? It's all down to trial & error and what flatters your body shape. On myself I steer clear of shorter dresses, strapless t-shirts and anything brightly coloured. I'm a minimalist at heart!

2. Do your research. Of course, we're talking about the genius that is Pinterest for this step. Start by creating your account & dedicate a board solely to fashion. The only rule is that you need to pin what you'd actually wear. If you're really into your fashion and enjoy looking at other people's style to be inspired, create another board but don't mix the two! By pinning the things you'd wear, you're more likely to reference back to it when you're out shopping. Personally, my board mainly consists of denim & monochrome

3. Justify. Can you really afford £100 on a new shirt? I doubt it. By all means purchase investment pieces, but make sure you can seriously justify them so you don't regret them further down the line.

4. Clear out regularly. Personal style is ever-changing. Would you really wear the bootcut jeans you wore out ten years ago? Nope - clear it out! Sort your clothes into three piles - keep, maybe and throw. The 'keep' pile contains items you've worn within the past 3 months and you couldn't live without, ie. the classic plain white tee or a pair of skinny jeans. The 'maybe' pile is items you haven't worn in the past 3 months but you can still find a use for. This is mainly the pile for special occasion clothes like wedding guest dresses. The 'throw' pile is everything you haven't worn for at least 6 months and you'll never find a use for them. When it comes to the clear out, you need to be harsh. None of this "I'll find a use for it! It's too nice to throw away!" rubbish. You probably won't find a use for it and you don't technically have to throw it away. Sell it or give it to family and friends, then you have a bit more cash & wardrobe space to buy more - it's a win-win situation!

5. Enjoy it! Experimenting with fashion is one of my favourite things to do and sometimes, some of the best results come from the ideas you never expected. If you buy something without trying it on first, you bring it home & don't like it - sell it! Nobody's holding you to it! No matter how much you bought it for or what style it is, it will suit someone's body shape/budget perfectly.

What are your best fashion tips?

Ebay Brushes

Ebay and makeup related items are two things that are not to be mixed. After reading a true horror story about a woman buying a Benefit mascara from eBay and it turning out to be black paint and leaving her blind, I'd always steered clear. I've been looking everywhere for some cheap and cheerful eye brushes and though to myself 'a little look on eBay won't harm anybody'. What harm can brushes do, after all?

The first set of brushes I saw was this set of 5 gold eye brushes. For £1.79 and free shipping you can get a lovely set of five quality makeup brushes, so they were in my checkout cart straight away. They took a while to arrive, what with them being shipped half way across the globe, but I couldn't be happier with them! The set contains fairly similar brush shapes with a long handle and I've found a use for all five, from concealer blending to lash line smudging. They're all such good quality and the only thing I'm not keen on is the density of the bristles, but I can deal with that if they're just over 35p each!

If you're looking into buying the infamous MAC 217 brush, don't bother. There's so many amazing dupes from Crown, Sigma, Zoeva and even eBay that I couldn't justify the extortionate price tag. 217 dupes are rife across eBay, meaning it's so easy to find a dupe. I ordered this one for just 99p and it just makes my eye shadow blending life so much easier and stress free. I love it that much that I've even ordered two more, just in case. Again, this is an amazing quality brush and surprisingly, even passed the cleaning process! None of the bristles shed and it kept it's shape perfectly.

What are your favourite makeup brushes?

September Favourites

September is always a good makeup month; it's the transition from Summer to Autumn, meaning the lipsticks can be cracked out & it's beginning to become acceptable to be as pale as I am. Bold lips are out in full force in September and it's pretty noticeable when you count at least 6 people sporting some sort of bold lip when you venture into town. This is the time of year when I have a huge makeup clear out & pick out some key items that I'll be attempting to pull off over the Autumn/Winter months. This is so much fun for me as Fall is my favourite time for makeup!

The first favourite of this month is the NARS Sheer Glow foundation. Where would I be without this? I don't even want to contemplate the answer. Although this is a pretty heavy duty foundation and covers everything from spots to under eye circles, it still feels weightless on the skin. Amazing, right? Another product I've been using on my face is the MAC eye shadow in Omega. Us pale-skinned girls can find contouring a difficult lesson and I've almost abandoned hope altogether until I came across this. The grey tones in this eyeshadow are great for carving out some cheekbones as opposed to bronzier shades as they don't look muddy on the skin. How many times have you seen mud-like smeared marks across the cheekbones? Not a good look!

For my eyes I've been loving the Mally eyeliner. This is actually my mums but after using it on a whim in this tutorial, I've been using it ever since. I usually steer clear of liner in the waterline as it irritates my eyes and makes them appear much smaller, but this one is a revelation. It's so easy to smudge out - amazing if you're doing a smokey lower lash line! - doesn't irritate my eyes whatsoever and doesn't smudge all over the area around your eye.... Bonus! My brows have been going through a rough time lately; they live by the term 'eyebrows are sisters, not twins' yet look like long lost cousins. To reshape them into something slightly similar I've been using the Soap and Glory Brow Archery, a product I only discovered at the start of the month. I've been loving how natural and defined it makes my uneven brows look and has quickly become a staple in my makeup bag.

My makeup motto for this month (other than the drama with brows) has been "lips and lashes". I love how a full lash set goes so nicely with a bold lip, so that's what I've been sporting this month. For lashes I use a generous coating of the Rimmel Wonderfull mascara and the most exciting part, it contains Argan Oil. Crazy right? I have no idea how or why it works, but it does. It's an amazing mascara. Russian Red from MAC has been on my lips constantly after I found it under my bed and is my all-time, classic, staple red lip. It's matte, teeth-whitening and easy to apply. What more could a girl want?

What've you been loving this month?