Barry M Natural Glow Palette | Shadows & Primer

I was gifted this gorgeous little Barry M eyeshadow palette for Christmas. I adore neutral colours as they are so easy to wear; a subtle, natural look for daytime or a heavy, deep combination of colours for the evening. This palette features three matte shades and three shimmer shades so there is a lovely range of colours and textures in there. 

I am so excited to use the third shade, which is a beautiful, matte almost-plum colour. I think it would look gorgeous in the crease, possibly as a transition shade. I also think the fourth shade - a shimmery champagne colour with a slight gold undertone - would look stunning as a highlight!

Personally, I would use the three matte shades for a daytime look and the shimmery colours for a nighttime look as I think the last three eyeshadows are much deeper and the shimmer makes them seem so much more glamorous!

As for the pigmentation, when I swatched the colours, I had to swatch them a couple of times for them to really show and, as you can see by the photograph, the first matte shade doesn't show up on my arm so I'm not too sure how that will apply. The darker shades were slightly more pigmented but they didn't really amaze me. However, as they aren't that pigmented - but they are buildable - this palette would be perfect for beginners who are only just starting to dabble in eyeshadows because it would be much easier to gradually build up the colours and I suspect they will be very easy to blend!

I haven't tried the primer out on my eyes yet, but I did do a slight swatch and it feels very creamy so it will be nice to apply as a base. I'm not sure if it will make the eyeshadows appear more pigmented, but if not, I can always use my usual Elf eyelid primer in the future.

I think this palette is very sleek and professional looking - the packaging reminds me of the Naked basics palettes. As it comes with a primer, it will be super handy for travelling as I wouldn't need to take a separate eyeshadow primer or any loose shadows. I can't wait to try the eyeshadows out!

What's your opinion of this palette if you own it? If you don't, would you go out and buy it?

My Hair Care Routine!

I filmed my hair care routine today! I don't have a specific routine as such, but I explained what products I've been using, the ones I've been enjoying and the ones I'm not such a fan of. I really need some suggestions of different hair products as I really want my hair to become healthier, so if you know of any good products for damaged hair please let me know in the comments. 

Also, I was thinking of filming a truth or dare type video so please leave me some questions or dares!

October Favourites! | 2014

It feels like I haven't blogged in so long... I've been so busy with school - what with Spanish assessments and tons of Drama work. Today, I finished my ten hour drama exam! In total, we did six hours of acting and four hours of writing notes and beginning our portfolios (which we mainly get marked on). Obviously this was spread over two school days so I missed two days worth of lessons - aka, heaven. Drama is my favourite lesson so it literally didn't even feel like an exam and I was genuinely excited for it. I could do Drama all day every day for the rest of the school year, until I leave!

Anyway, lets talk about my favourites for this month. My November favourites that I posted last year is one of my most popular blog posts so I thought I might as well do an October favourites for 2014, if that's what you guys like the most. I haven't got too many 'physical' favourites (products etc); most of my favourites for this month are TV programmes and music.

Clothing!

I have literally been obsessing over my low white Converse throughout the last part of the month of October. My boyfriend actually bought me these for my birthday - which was on the 21st - and I am so grateful for them! I've been wanting them for so long and, once I got them, I wore them with everything. They're so easy to pair with outfits because they are so simple but they're really difficult to keep clean - I have to get the baby wipes out every time I wear them! At first they gave me super bad blisters but now they're becoming so comfortable and ahhh, I'm in love. :)

I've had these trainers for so long but I absolutely adore them. They're called Nike Satire trainers and as I have small feet, I can still buy Junior trainers from JD so these were only £30! I'm not sure if they do them in adult sizes because I can't seem to find anything like that on their website. Also, I can't find the same colour of these on the JD website either so they might've stopped doing them in these colours? However, like I said, I love these trainers so much and I tend to wear these with jeans and jumpers. They are one of the comfiest pairs of shoes I own! I wish I'd got them in all black because I think they would match more outfits but I do like having them in grey and mint because it livens up an outfit a little, especially if I want the main focus to be the shoes. I am such a trainer person - I find it difficult to find boots and pumps that I really like - so these are perfect for me.

Makeup!

I used to use this foundation all the time when I was around thirteen or fourteen but I stopped using it for a while because of the colour range. I use 100 ivory and it can be quite orange - I'm extremely pale so it's difficult to find foundations that match my skin tone but still make me look decent and doesn't make me look like I'm half dead. I can only really make this foundation work when I've got fake tan on, which is a lot of the time so it's not too difficult to use. I just need to say though that I love this foundation (apart from the fact it makes me look like an oompa-loompa). It has a good, full coverage and it really does last for a very long time. I'm not too sure about 25 hours as I tend to not leave makeup on my face for that long but it always stays put throughout the day and doesn't go patchy - which I've found with a couple of different foundations. It can feel quite heavy on the skin as it's so thick but as it has such a high coverage, a little can go a long way. If you'd like a seperate review on this, I'd be happy to do it!

Music!

I recently jumped on the Spotify bandwagon and my, oh my, why did I not download it sooner? It's the perfect platform to listen to a wide range of music - for free! Recently, I've been loving 5 Seconds of Summer's album - of course - and, in particular, the song Long Way Home. I don't know why but that song does something to me; it's so perfect. 

I've also been enjoying Ariana Grande's My Everything album. I have to say, I'm not a fan of some of the songs but I really like the majority of them and I've listened to a couple so many times, I'm actually sick of them now! I just think Ariana is perfect and her voice is mind-blowing. It's honestly such a great album.

Finally, I've been listening to Fantasy by Alina Baraz non-stop recently. It's such a relaxing, easy to listen to song and it's perfect to put on while I'm working as I'm someone who easily gets distracted by music so I prefer to work in silence, but this song is so soft so it creates the perfect amount of background noise!

Youtubers!

I've been watching Sophie Foster's videos for weeks now and she is literally the best! I love her style and she's so real in her videos - you can tell that she isn't putting an act on, like a lot of Youtubers tend to do. She's so funny - I follow her on Snapchat and the things she sends out are hilarious! She's one of those people who you wish you could meet and you think that if you did meet you'd click really well and you'd have so much fun! Is that weird? Maybe... I don't know. :)

I discovered Emily's channel through glitteralittle and I'm so glad I did. I'm in love with her videos; they're always so interesting and they don't last for half an hour, they're always short but sweet. I love to keep up to date with her vlog channel - I think vlogs are so fun, even if the person isn't doing anything particularly interesting. She just seems like such a lovely, funny person and oh my goodness, she's gorgeous too!

 I only discovered Rclbeauty101 about half way through October and literally binge-watched her videos. They're so unique and funny; she doesn't do the usual run-of-the-mill beauty tutorials or hauls every other video. Also, when she advertises products in her video, she doesn't do a long review, she subtly incorporates them into the video. For example, instead of stopping the video and speaking about Audible.com for a good five minutes (like a lot of Youtubers do), she'll show herself using it instead for a short amount of time.  I just feel like this is so much more effective than someone droning on about the product and how much they like it.

Television!

I recently re-watched Skins (series 3 and 4, aka the best generation) and afterwards I had nothing to watch so I started watching Gossip Girl because I heard a few people raving about it a while ago but never got round to watching it. I'm near the end of the first season and I'm hooked already! I absolutely adore Dan, I think he's the cutest but I think Serena takes him for granted sometimes... Again, I'm still on the first series so I'm not sure what unfolds in the later seasons so no spoilers please! I love Blair as well, she can be such a bitch but there are times when I really empathise with her and I just want to give her a hug. I can't wait to carry on watching but as I've been so busy with coursework in general, I haven't gotten round to it!

Other Favourites!

On the 15th October, my drama group and I went to watch the Blood Brothers musical at the Hippodrome in Birmingham. As I live in Nottingham, the journey took a while but I didn't mind it because my drama class is so amazing, I get on with everyone so well and we have such a laugh together!

We started reading the play in September and did bits of drama work on it but then we finally got to see it in the theatre! Our exam (which we did yesterday and today) was based on the themes and issues which are shown in the play and actually going to watch it helped so much, especially as, in parts of the exam, I had to act like Mickey when he was seven years old. Watching Sean Jones do such an amazing job, pretending to be a young child, really inspired me so I was much better portraying Mickey than I was when we first started studying the play. At first, I was so stiff and played with my hair a lot but today, I jumped around, pretended to shoot people, fell on the floor, mimed spitting and wiping it off my own face...I loved it! 

The play is absolutely fantastic and I would love to go somewhere like Manchester next year to see it again. I've been watching parts of the play from a couple of years ago - I watched the ending again on Youtube last night and I was in floods of tears, just like I was when I watched it at the theatre. There's so much tension throughout the play and I just think it's a must-see, whether you study it for drama or not. I can't express how much I enjoyed watching it - I wish I could go and watch it every day!

That's all my favourites from this month! Leave a comment letting me know what your favourite things from the month of October were. :)

SNEAK PEEK OF MY FIRST YOUTUBE VIDEO???

Hello everyooooone!
EXCITING NEWS: I'm currently filming my first ever Youtube video! Ahhh, I'm super excited but also so scared because I don't know how it's going to go down. It's a lookbook consisting of my four favourite outfits to wear in Autumn. I've only filmed two outfits yet (apart from the top from the first outfit) and I've already edited them because I'm so excited. I should get the next couple of outfits filmed this week - which is quite difficult seeing as it gets dark early so the sun might've gone by the time I'm home, but I'm going to try and get it right.
I CAN'T CONTAIN MY EXCITEMENT.
I've always been so wary to upload a video because of people from school and what they might think of it but I don't really care as much anymore. :)
It would mean the world to me if you could subscribe to my Youtube channel so you're notified when my video goes up: makelovepretty or follow my Twitter to keep up to date with me: theperksofgee
I really hope you enjoy this little sneak peek (sorry for the ringing sound at the end) and I really can't wait to upload the finished video!

A Sneak Peek into My Art Sketchbook!

The front of my sketchbook is decorated with Charlie & Lola and Ben & Holly's Little Kingdom stickers.

An elephant I drew - I used watercolours to paint the ears. This is on the title page.

One of my favourite pages - my lyrics & quotes page, full of meaningful quotes with small drawings.

I used a ripped up piece from an envelope to write where the quote came from - in this case, it came from the song Youth.

Another elephant I drew - complete with tribal patterns and painted with watercolours (inspired by Marion Bolognesi)

A collage of makeup products etc with information on the history of cosmetics! This was so fun to make. 

A page dedicated to fashion sketches.

A drawing of Alice from Alice in Wonderland - outlined with coloured pencils.

Envelope with a piece of paper (painted using watercolours) stuck to it on my Alice in Wonderland page. 

I wrote quotes from Alice in Wonderland on pieces of paper and included original pictures of some of the characters. 

One of my artist research pages: Marion Bolognesi. I used watercolours to mimic her style of painting.

I took Art as one of my options for GCSE and these are some photographs from my Identity (Me, Myself & I) project. My book isn't exactly how I want it because I'm still working on it, but the photos include just a few examples of my favourite pages/the pages I'm most proud of. Sometimes I regret taking Art because there is so much work that goes into it - especially the whole coursework side to it - but most of the time I really enjoy it and I love flicking through my sketchbook and looking at the paintings I did last year. It's only really enjoyable for me when I'm feeling very creative - which isn't too often, I hate to admit. However, once I feel like painting and I sit down and work solidly, I'm usually pleased with the end result. I've still got lots of work to do yet but I still thought I would give you a little sneak peak. If you'd like to see my sketchbook in more depth, I'd be happy to do more blog posts or possibly film a video of myself speaking about each page and why I decided to do what I did! I hope I've given you some inspiration if you take Art as a GCSE or maybe you just like seeing what other people do when they're feeling creative - I know I do!

Mind Maps! | Revision & Study Tips

Creating a mind map is my favourite way to revise because I find it's easier to find the key information which means it's much easier to remember. I mainly make mind maps for history because there is tons of information that can be quite daunting once you start revising! My favourite way of setting out a mind map is to write the topic in the centre of the paper and draw a bubble around it - so it stands out and it's quicker to pinpoint exactly what you are revising. I tend to use felt tips pens - mainly because I like everything to be colourful but also because it's easier to memorise certain information, if you write it out in different colours. Once I've written the topic in the centre, I do a few arrows coming off the bubble (I usually do all the arrows in the same colour) and then I pick a sub-title, which I can have various arrows branching off of. Then, I write down the appropriate information and I always write the key words in a different colour - in this case, all the key words are written in pink. Normally, I use A4 paper to draw mind maps on but for topics which require a lot of information that needs to be remembered, I used big pieces of paper like the one above. I'm not sure what size this is but I got it from my teacher at school so I'm sure if you ask around, someone will be able to give you some.

Before I create a mind map, I always make sure I know exactly what I need to put on it. My history teacher gave me a big booklet with all the information - on the history of medicine - that I will need. The first thing I did was to go through the booklet and highlight the key information. This made it much easier and simpler to record the things I need to remember. It was also a good way to test myself as I highlighted the information and then tried to recall it on the mind map, without looking at all the information in the book.

Another way to record information is by using a 'target sheet'. This was given to me by my teacher but you could also create one yourself (on something like Microsoft Word) by drawing different sized circles and placing them on top of each other. The target sheet I completed included information on Galen and why he was important. This is quite a common topic in the History exam. The question is in the middle and in the next circle, I wrote a point: one thing that he did - he proved things about the human body. In the circle after that, I explained the point: he proved the brain controlled speech. In the empty space, I wrote extra information which could be used to pick up extra marks. By creating a target sheet, it helps to plan out answers and now I know exactly what I need to write to get full marks. I coloured each segment in a different colour so it appears more interesting - I get attracted to colour so I find revising more enjoyable whereas if the page was plain, I wouldn't look at it as often.

Click on any of these links below and they will take you to my other Revision & Study Tips posts:

❤ Tip One: Getting Started! ❤

❤ Tip Two: Stationery! ❤

❤ Tip Three: Revision Books! ❤

❤ Tip Four: Mindmaps! ❤

❤ Tip Five: Organization! ❤

Trip to Town! | OOTD

 I went to town today and I did a bit of shopping - despite already placing two orders online a couple of days ago... Today wasn't that cold so I didn't feel the need to wear my big coat from Topshop (which I am going to be doing a blogpost on very soon!) so a simple jumper kept me warm enough. I want to branch out more when it comes to outfits as myself and a jeans-and-tshirt combination have a very strong relationship but I feel like I never step out of my comfort zone often enough. That's why I decided to wear a very casual skater skirt. I paired this outfit with some boots I recently bought. Fun fact - I was going to send these boots back because they're nothing like I usually wear so I talked myself into thinking they aren't my style. I hate to admit it but the main reason I was going to take these back was because I was too worried about what people would think, especially because everyone is used to seeing me in trainers and flat shoes. However, today I felt brave and so I decided to wear them and I actually really like them; I think they are very suitable for the current season and so easy to wear. My feet did start to get quite sore though after walking around all day!

My jumper is from H&M: HERE - I really recommend these jumpers, I practically live in them!
My skirt is from H&M: HERE
My boots are from New Look: I couldn't find them anywhere on the website but they are called "black leather-look knitted cuff lace up boots"
My elephant necklace was gifted to me by my best friend for my birthday.
My flower necklace was gifted to me by my boyfriend.
All my Pandora charms were gifted to me by my family and my boyfriend.
My nose ring is from Ice Nine.

I kept my makeup fairly simple on my eyes. I used my Naked 3 palette: Strange all over my eyelid and brow bone, Dust in the inner corners and inner half of my eyelids and Limit through my crease. I used the L'Oreal Super Liner Blackbuster eyeliner - I wouldn't normally use this because it creates too thick of a line for my liking but I've ran out of my Elf liquid liner, which is actually my holy grail eyeliner. Pray for Georgia! I applied Benefit's Bad Gal Lash and Soap & Glory: Thick & Fast mascara to my upper eyelashes and Rimmel Lash Accelerator Endless mascara to my bottom lashes. I smudged a small amount of a W7 eyeliner pencil on my lower lashline to make my eyes stand out more.

If you'd like more fashion/outfit based blog posts, don't forget to leave a comment! Hope everyone has had a good day. :)

Thoughts on Youtube Videos?

Hi everyone!

I'm so sorry I haven't blogged in a while, things have been so busy - I thought I'd have plenty of time to blog but I've been trying to focus on school work and I've also been to see some of my friends. It was my 16th birthday yesterday (21st October) so I was super busy all day, but I did manage to get a few pictures of my outfit and makeup.
However, I do have some exciting blog posts coming up - the last few posts of my Revision & Study Tips series, how I style a skater skirt, autumn/fall appropriate outfits, what I wore on my birthday and a few other bits and pieces. If you have anything you'd like to see, please leave me a comment.

I've been thinking a lot about making Youtube videos but I've always been too scared to actually film and upload one, mainly because I'm worried about what people at school will say. I was going to wait until I leave school next year to start making them but what's the point? I'm trying to care less and do things I actually want to do. I want to become a much more confident person, especially before I go to college. I was thinking of filming a tag or a haul and uploading it but I want to get your opinion. Would you be interested?

If so, and if you want to, you can subscribe to my Youtube channel here and leave me some video requests!

The Book I'm Currently Reading | October

Hi everyone, I have some good news and some bad news.
The bad news is, I recently went back to school so I haven't had lots of time to write blog posts as I've been trying to catch up on work I've missed. However, the good news is that I'm now off for two weeks for half term and my birthday is on Tuesday. I have lots of coursework to do and I need to prepare for my Spanish assessment that I'm doing once I go back but besides that, I have tons of time to blog - and read!

I've always loved reading, ever since I was little. Before my Great Pops passed away, I would go and see him quite regularly and I'd always have a book with me. Even when he started to get quite ill, he never failed to ask me what book I was reading.
A couple of weeks ago, I bought One Hundred Names by Cecelia Ahern. I think Carrie Hope Fletcher featured one of her books in a video so once I saw this one on the shelves, I immediately wanted to buy it and see if it was any good. I've only recently started reading (I'm on Chapter 5) and I can confirm that she is a brilliant writer. The book is in third person - I normally tend to read books written in the first person - but Cecelia Ahern manages to capture emotion and portray the way the main character is feeling fantastically well.

Kitty Logan has lost her way...
As a journalist, she's spent the past few years chasing the big scoops - no matter the consequences. When she makes a terrible mistake, she finds herself mired in scandal, her career implodes and even her personal relationships are tested to the limit.
At a loss, Kitty finds distraction in a list of one hundred names her late mentor and boss, Constance, has left her. Kitty's been given one final chance, the most important assignment of her life - to write the story behind the one hundred names as a tribute piece to Constance. As she tracks down the people on the list and tries to work out what connects them, Kitty meets some extraordinary people.
Can these strangers' stories help her finally understand her own?

The thing that drew me to this book (apart from Carrie mentioning the author) was the beautiful front cover - the scoring gives the appearance of a typical tree trunk, with deep lines and circles which are commonly found on wood. The gold writing stands out against the blue heart, which I think gives a nice effect.
I've been trying to find a different style of book to the ones I usually read - cliché romances or mystery books. This one seems perfect and I'm really enjoying it so far. The characters are really interesting and I'm really looking forward to finding out more about the one hundred people that Kitty is going to meet further on in the story.

I also took a snap of each of my cats - Alvin and Tigger - as Alvin is in the background of some of the photographs of the book and I couldn't leave Tigger out!
Please let me know what you think of this blog post as I'm hoping to do one every month and let you guys know what books I enjoy.

What book are you currently reading?

Revision Books! | Revision & Study Tips

I used to find revision books really boring but my dad bought me tons of books from Ebay and Amazon and they've actually really been helping me, especially when I do my homework.
The books I have are:
❤ CGP GCSE Chemistry
❤ CGP GCSE Physics
❤ CPG GCSE Biology
❤ CPG GCSE Additional Science - Higher
❤ Collins Revision GCSE AQA English Language (essentials)
❤ Edexcel GCSE English Language and Literature (workbook) - Higher
❤ Edexcel GCSE Spanish - Higher
❤ Barron's 501 Spanish Verbs (perfect for if you take Spanish)
❤ Edexcel GCSE Mathematics A Linear Student Book - Higher
❤ Edexcel GCSE Mathematics A Linear Practice Book - Higher
❤ Collins Spanish Dictionary

The only subjects that I take that I don't have any revision books for are Art and Drama (because they are more practical subjects) and History (because I have a revision workbook my teacher gave me with everything I need in it).

I didn't take triple science (where you take Chemistry, Physics and Biology as seperate lessons and have to do more exams) but I did take additional (we do one of the Sciences for a certain amount of time and then swap round and do another one - for example, we'll do Biology for half a term and then move on to Chemistry) so I only really needed the Additional Science book but the others have more information in and they are easier to refer to when I am doing homework or revision for a certain Science subject. All the Science books are really helpful though and all the key words on each page are written in a different colour and underlined which I find helps keep the information in my mind. As you can see in this photograph, I always write key words in a different coloured pen when I'm doing revision or I use a highlighter and highlight the key words in my school books.

The Mathematics Student Book is literally the most helpful thing in the world! We used to use this book in lessons a lot and it gives you lots of clear information and also supplies you with questions so you can practice for exams. Alongside this, I also use the Practice Book which has lots of different questions in but it doesn't cover as many topics as the big book does.
My old Maths teacher gave us a sheet with a list of topics which are featured in the exam every year and a list of topics which might show up which is really useful because now I only revise the topics which I need to, otherwise I would've been trying to cover everything in the book!

I have these small Post-Its in four different colours which come out of the small containers really easily. I use these to mark out the pages which I need to revise from so I can easily flip to certain pages. I use the yellow ones for the essential topics and the purple ones for the topics which won't definitely show up (so I revise the pages with the yellow stickers on first and more thoroughly). These would work really well in other revision books, just to mark out the pages with information on that you maybe struggle to remember or understand completely. My mum actually bought me these Post-Its so I'm not entirely sure where you can get them from but I bet places like Wilko or Staples have them. I really like using them because they are so colourful and tiny so they don't clutter the top of the book. The top part is a solid colour and the bottom half is clear and sticky, so when it's in a book, you can't really see the bottom part so even if you stick it over information, the writing still shows through. One thing I will say though is that they aren't very easy to write on so I didn't write on the ones I stuck into my Maths book which can be quite annoying because I can't go straight to the page that I need.

Like I said before, you can buy these books from Ebay and Amazon for fairly cheap, respectable prices and, when you don't need the books anymore (after exams), you can sell them again and get your money back! Pass my GCSEs and get my money back? Yes please! ;)

Click on any of these links below and they will take you to my other Revision & Study Tips posts:

❤ Tip One: Getting Started! ❤

❤ Tip Two: Stationery! ❤

❤ Tip Three: Revision Books! ❤

❤ Tip Four: Mindmaps! ❤

❤ Tip Five: Organization! ❤