Uni Life and fashion haul

hello ladies, i'm SO sorry i've been neglecting you!

i have been so busy with moving to uni and settling in that i've barely had time to even think about blogging, and i had no internet untill last week!

anyway, since i am now living in london, one of the world's shopping capitals, i have been getting down to some serious retail therapy!!

one of my favourite things i bought was a beautiful floorsweeper dress from H&M @ selfridges, but when i tried to photograph it it looks horrible, so i might save it for when i wear it and do an OOTD.

this is an overview of everything i got, the dress is the black bit at the top of the photo!

all of this apart from the dress and the Uggs were purchased at the new westfield stratford city mall, which is conveniently located just 10 minutes away from where i have my lectures!!

so, starting with the shoes, i got these lovely chelsea boots from topshop. they were £62 i believe but i used my student discount, making them a little cheaper. they don't look very new, but i did intentionally scuff them up a bit beofre i wore them, they look much better distresed! they had a little bit of distressing to them already, with the dark patches around the toes, but i much prefer them like this. irritatingly i am going to have to return them as the elastic is coming away already, but when i get my new pair hey should hopefully last a long time, as they are really leather and seem to be nice quality.

i have been needing a new pair of uggs since about January when mine got a hole in the toe. i have been considering getting the 'ultra' style for a while, as they have a rugged sole and toecap, and they do look like they will last a lot longer than classics, which is what i've always had before, but have never had one pair for longer than a year! i finally bit the bullet and bought these from office, at the grand price of £265. i nearly cried with shock but they SHOULD last a lot longer than my old ones.

moving on from shoes onto the clothes!

the first place we hit was Oxford street so i'll show you what i got in Selfridges first, which is the dress, please excuse the photos!

its got a structured top with underwire and then ribbons that look like bones but arent in the bodice, and then flows out to a long chiffon skirt. i promise it's not as grannyish as it looks here!

after Oxford street we headed to westrfield (the next day), where i had trouble breathing in the enormous Forever 21 they have there, i was so excited! as far as i know F21 is only in london and Birmingham, but if you dont have one in your city, they are online, but i would definitely reccomend trekking to a store if you are ever in the vicinity.   if you dont know about F21 it's basically America's answer to primark. the prices arent quite as low as primark, more like H&M, but the clothes are lovely, much nicer than most primark finds, and whereas in primark there is the odd sensational piece, in F21 everything is nice, and there arent really any items that you would look at and walk quickly away from!

so from the top, working left to right, i got a blueish slightly green hued lace top, which i absolutely love. it looks beautiful over a pink vest top. i actually bought this because of FleurDeForce, who featured it in one of her youtube videos, so if you want to see someone wearing it then head over there.

next thing down is my absolute bargain piece which was a genuine suede jacket which was a steal at £42. it looks so nice with the sleeves pushed up thrown over basically anything

next thing over is my mustar jeans which were another bargain at £18! mustard is set to be a key colour for autumn and i abolutely love them, they have basically replaced my blue jeans, and while i first thought they would be difficult to pair with stuff, they go with everything.

next up is a lace jacket which i' not sure about, and i may actaully give to one of my sisters. its peachy and pretty but the waterfall front i feel adds pounds to me and i haven't yet worn it, and the tags are still attached.

lastly is a cropped orange striped jumper which i absolutely love, it looks so pretty work off the shoulder and is perfect for autumn.

i also picked up 2 rings from new look, which i think are just gorgeous, i love big rings but i always worry they make my fingers look fat, so i hardly ever buy them. i really liked these ones though so i just went for it.

the stone is actually purple, but it looks black in the picture.

the very last thing i got was nail polish. in the new westfield is a beautybase store which has discounted perfume and makeup, and when i saw that they had LA colours polishes for 99p, i just had to get some, and then i later went back another day to buy more!

i've been really impressed with the formula of these, and i'm sure it wont be long before i'm tempted to go in and buy more!!

hope you all enjoyed this haul lovelies, and i hope my sporadic posting hasn't been too annoying for you!!

love, lucy xx

explaining my absence and FOTD

hey lovely ladies!!

as previously mentioned i have been away travelling which is why my beauty blog hasn't seen any action at all for the past 2 months, but i'm back now and i plan to be blogging as usual, though there may be some slight interruptions as i'm starting uni next week, so there will be plenty to distract me! i wanted to share with you a couple of photo's from my trip and also (just to make it beuaty related!) to do a quick EOTD as well. i pruchased the MUA pro heaven and earth palette after seeing it on Fleur's blog, and i used it to create this look. it really is a beautiful palette and she was comparing it to the naked palette which i dont own so i can't comment but it is certainly very nice.

as always i had trouble photographing this look but i did my best, so please be kind about it! i am planning to get some help with my photography (ie, get someone to take pictures of my face for me) when i go to uni, but when i'm at home there is never anyone around to help me, so i have to try and take pictures on my own. product photography isnt a problem for me, but for F/EOTD's i really need someone to shoot for me.

face: barry m foundation cream in white, bobbi brown foundation in porcelain, ruby and millie blush stick (sorry i dont know the shade!!)

eyes: MUA pro heaven and earth palette, max factor liquid effect pencil in black, max factor false lash effect mascara fusion in black

lips: collection 2000 cream puff lip creme in Angel delight

just to finish, i want to show you some snaps of my trip! i was volunteering in a school, so working with kids every day, but i did take a little bit of time out to go on a gorilla safari and white water rafting on the nile!!

this is one of my best gorilla shots. we were standing only about 3 metres from this guy, and he was a big silverback male. gorilla tracking was the most amazing thing i've ever done, and so worth the effort of getting there!



this picture was taken at summer camp when the summer holidays had started. it's illegal to educate the children in the holidays so we were restricted to purely fun activities, which included face painting!!

i hope you've all had great summers, have YOU been away anywhere?

love, lucy xxx