A Small Distraction

Friday, 19 June 2015

Style Stalk: Nina

These posts are one of my favourite to write at the moment! I have so many style icons that it's difficult to pick only one, but for this post I decided on Nina Dobrev, probably best known as Elena in The Vampire Diaries (which I actually don't really like that much).

I literally LOVE this playsuit - it's so classic and timeless! I have a party coming up that I need an outfit for, and I wish so badly that this was hanging in my closet to wear. The intricacy of the pattern compliments the simplicity of the colour scheme and the way it cinches at the waist means that is flattering for the figure - a feature that I think is hard to come by with this kind of outfit.

I'm a sucker for cute outfits, and this one definitely falls into that category - that hair bow is to die for (on a related note, Nina is 100% hair goals). I'm usually not a fan of over the knee dresses, but I really like the old fashioned vintage style that this outfit has going on.

The boots I could live without to be perfectly honest, but I covet those shorts so badly! The design screams summer, and the contrast between the floral pattern and the stripy shirt works really well. I also love the sunglasses!

Can you tell I'm slightly obsessed with playsuits at the moment? (I don't own any because its one thing I can't ever pull off, but I like them on everybody else.) I feel like this is an ideal outfit for a summer wedding, the white with gold accents and the strappy sandals. I wish my hair looked as good as that when I put it into a ponytail - I'm telling you, hair GOALS.

I try to inject colour into my wardrobe, but more often than not I wimp out and go for the usual combination of blacks and greys. This dress however, I would definitely choose over my black jeans-white top go-to get up. I like how the colours are toned down by the black blazer and accessories, and those boots are so so gorgeous! This is probably my favourite of the outfits - if only I went to events that warranted style like this (pretty sure I would get laughed out of town if I wore this on a Saturday Wagamama trip).

Who are your style icons?

Stay beautiful!

Emily xoxo

Nars Wishlist

Out of all the pricier make up brands out there, Nars has to be my all time favourite. I covet pretty much all of their lip products, and after trying the 'Laguna' bronzer, I am well under the way to being converted to a Nars lover. I thought I'd combine a wishlist of the products I'm most desperate to try, and believe me, it was hard to narrow it down!

Nars Lipgloss in the shade 'Sweet Revenge' which is a shimmery grapefruit colour and looks perfect for summer date nights. I wish this was in my price range so so much.

The 'Sheer Glow' foundation which a LOT of people seem to rave about these days. I'm a sucker for foundations that I haven't tried, and would love to add this to my collection.

The 'Eyeliner Stylo' - I'm having a minor crisis lately in the form that I can't seem to find an eyeliner that I actually enjoy using. This eyeliner seems like it would do the trick, has anyone tried this? And if so, is it worth the hype? I would go for the shade 'Carpates' because I'm a wimp and I could never stray from the traditional black eyeliner.

The 'Soft Touch' Eyeshadow pencil in the shade 'HollywoodLand' - pale gold colour well suited to summertime. This would be an ideal shade to take on holiday, to work with tanned (fingers crossed) skin and wear out to dinner. I love products like this, that make applying eyeshadow quick and simple.

The Nars 'Body Glow' daily oil, to fit in with the holiday theme. This shimmery oil would make a tan look even better, and who doesn't want to appear at least a little bit sparkly on a day to day basis?

The Highlighting Powder in the colour 'Albatross'. You do not even understand how long I have been searching for a highlighting powder that I actually like, and I think (big statement here) that I might have found the one. Has anyone purchased this product, and if you have, what did you think? I've never really been interested in blush, but I kind of adore bronzers and highlighters.

What's your favourite of the pricier make up brands?
Stay beautiful!
Emily xoxo

Empties #1

Hi guys!
Today I thought I'd start a series of 'empties' posts, because lately I've been saving the containers of products that I've finished in order to write about them. There's quite a mix of products in here, and some that I am sad to see go.

Firstly I've finished the Organix 'Cherry Blossom Ginseng' shampoo, which is one of the best shampoos that I have ever used, and if I see it in Boots next time I go, I might just repurchase. I talked of my love for Organix shampoos in this post if you'd like to read more.

I've moved on to what must be my 2313th repurchase of the Rimmer 'Clear Complexion' translucent powder. Fun fact: this was the first make up product I ever bought myself, and I've never once looked back! I also sadly finished my Fudge Urban Dry Shampoo, which smells delicious and works wonders for slightly greasy hair (ew, did she really just say that?!)

Next I finished my No7 'Beautiful Skin' day cream, which is a great product - I would 100% repurchase if I had the money, as this is slightly pricey for a drugstore buy. It's a perfect base for foundation I find, and decreases the damaging effects of make up on the face.

My Maybelline 'Great Lash' mascara has come to its end, but to be honest this doesn't sadden me too much at all. Maybelline mascaras are my absolute favourite, but this one was a bit of a disappointment - I just didn't think my eyelashes looked anything special after using it. If you want to try an excellent Maybelline mascara however, you could read my post about their newest release.

Lastly, I've finished this bottle of Taylor Swift's 'Wonderstruck Enchanted' perfume. I can't remember where I got this from to be quite honest, but I've loved it anyway and even though it isn't my favourite Taylor perfume in the collection (Wonderstruck) it's got me quite a few compliments over the months!

Okay, so that concludes my first ever empties post! I hope you enjoyed reading, what products have you been finishing lately, and would you repurchase?

Emily xoxo

It's Finally Here!

Thank God England has upped its game and given us a few summery days (even if it ends tomorrow, I am still eternally grateful). To celebrate the warm weather I wore a true summer style to college and I thought I'd upload a few photos of it. Excuse the extremely messy hair, it was hot and I couldn't gather the strength to redo it after school.

Denim Skirt - Urban Outfitters

Shirt - Brandy Melville

Necklace - New Look

Sneakers - Peacocks

Anklet - Primark

Sunglasses - Cotton On

Has Summer arrived where you live?

Emily xoxo

What's on my iPhone?

Hey guys!
Today I'm doing something I can't believe I haven't done before...the ultimately predictable 'What's on my iPhone' blogpost. I have the iPhone 5s in the gold colour and I love it to death - when I find myself without it I completely panic.

My case is pretty simple, transparent plastic with some four leaved clovers - as you could probably guess, the case is from Urban Outfitters (please help, my addiction is real.)

My phone background is a photo of me and two of my closest friends at my Dad's 50th party - I like this photo a whole lot.

And finally the bit you've all been waiting for (not), my apps! Aside from the first page of obvious apps like 'photos' and 'calculator' I only have one page of apps that I've downloaded by choice.

My Vodafone - To keep track of how much data I have left before the next month. Funny story, before I got this app I was going over my bill every month by as much as £60 (Mum wasn't impressed to say the least).
Instagram - LOVE. You can follow me if you wish, my username is emilylaura_13.
Snapchat - Score: 28000, name: emilylaura_13
Twitter - My Twitter is @alittleblogger3 and I tweet constantly about random and blog related nonsense.
Facetime - Because sometimes, you just need a little time with other peoples faces. Okay, backtrack, that sounded creepy and weird.
Barclays Banking - So I know how much my UO obsession has destroyed my bank balance.
Soundcloud - I don't really use this at all to be honest, I should probably delete it!
Youtube - For obvious reasons! My faves are Sunbeamsjess, AspynOvard, FashionRocksMySocks, SienaMirabella, and Zoella.
Netflix - because who wouldn't be infatuated with the ability to watch TV on the go?
Bloglovin' - To keep up with all you lovely folks!
Blogger - For last minute spell checks when I wake up panicking in the middle of the night that my grammar for tomorrow's post may be off.
Pinterest - I don't use this that much - except to find photos for my 'style stalk' posts, but sometimes I do get the urge to search 'food' and look at the images of gloriousness.
Afterlight - The app I use to edit my photos for instagram. I particularly like the feature that enables you to create a white border around the photo.
Vinted - I did a post all about this app, which you can view here.
Spotify - This was the best purchase I ever made, I love it! The amount of music you get for such a little fee is amazing, and I like the fact that you can listen to your music even without wifi when you're on the go.
Gmail - Pretty self explanatory.
Unidays - If you're a student, get this app. So many offers and discounts, and for stores that are genuinely useful (Spotify premium is half price, and there is a handy dandy discount for, you guessed it, Urban Outfitters!)
DSappli - This is just an app I need to play music through my speakers, not much more to it than that!
Dubsmash - Oh my God. This is one of my favourite apps, and if you check out my instagram (emilylaura_13) I have one posted on my page that might make you laugh (probably at me, not with me).
Kik - Finally I have a messenger app, purely so I can participate in important group chats.

And that's it! I hope you enjoyed this post and are having a fabulous day, stay beautiful!

Emily xoxo

Tiny Epiphanies

Hi guys!
Today's post is a little bit strange, but I thought it could make quite an interesting read. Lately, I feel like I've been discovering basic facts and tips that I never knew (it might just be because I'm a bit dense, but whatever) and I wanted to compile them into a list and possibly pass on these mini epiphanies to some of you.

You know how in one place its raining, and then you travel three minutes in the car and its no longer raining? This has puzzled me for years, and someone pointed it out to me the other day that there isn't a specific boundary line like I originally thought, the boundaries are the edge of the clouds. I know you're probably sat there thinking that I'm stupid for not knowing this, but hey ho, I thought that fact was super interesting.
On a text/iMessage chat on iPhones, you can swipe across the screen to see the time that each message was sent - I didn't really you could see each and every time, how exciting!
Every time I try to cook a fried egg I fail so badly at it. I never realised that you had to cook the top of the egg, I kind of imagined that it would just cook all the way through from the bottom up. One way to cook the top of the egg is to flip it, but I hate that because then the egg isn't really very runny. A life hack (as told by my Mother Dearest) is that you can spoon the hot oil over the top of the egg to lightly cook it just enough.
If you're in Boots and you get to the check out and realise that you've forgotten the all important Boots points card, they can load the points onto your receipt so that next time when you visit, the receipt can be used to load the past points onto your card - ensuring that you never lose valuable points!
Okay, until I learned this one I was royally creeped out. Do you ever receive an emoji-ridden message from a friend and a random alien emoji appears? There is an actual alien amoji, and then there's this weird alien-in-a-box type image that shows up when you least expect it. This first happened to me at 2am, when I was alone in my bed in the dark, and I freaked out and assumed I was the chosen one for an extra-terrestrial adventure. Turns out I'm not, and that the alien emoji appears on your screen if you haven't performed the latest system update for your iPhone.

So there you go, random life hacks brought to you by yours truly!
I hope your day is extra sparkly,
Emily xoxo