My Favourite Memories of 2014

I thought if start the new year by taking a look back at 2014 and some of my favourite memories.  These were captured on my trusty old iphone camera which is never far from my side.

In March Darren and I were lucky enough to spend a weekend in Stranraer at the amazing Corswall Lighthouse.  It was in this totally remote setting with no phone signal or wifi (eeek!).  It was so lovely just to spend some couple time together and enjoy exploring the beautiful surroundings.  We even hopped on the ferry across to Belfast for the day where it poured down with rain the whole day!  I even tried my hand at vlogging - check it out here 

In April we moved out of our little one-bedroom apartment.  This picture makes me laugh - we were trying to carry as much stuff as we could because we had 5 flights of stairs to walk up and down!  We moved into a slightly bigger place with a spare bedroom...and only one flight of stairs!

Not long after we moved, Darren's parents came up from Gloustershire for a visit.  We took them to see The Kelpies, two massive sculptures of horses built beside the Forth and Clyde Canal.  It was such a beautiful evening and they looked stunning in the fading light.

In May I picked up my wedding dress and this was me trying it on for the first time!  I fell in love with the dress when I initially tried it on in a size 12, but wasn't quite expecting the extra amount of fabric on the skirt once it was sized up to my correct size.  Regardless of this, I still loved it and it really started to feel like I was getting married!

In June, I volunteered as a Steward for the Commonwealth Games Baton Relay as it made it's way towards Glasgow.  It was such a great day - everyone was buzzing!  

In July it was time for my Hen Do!  My bridesmaids excelled themselves organising it.  We stayed in a beautiful apartment in the Duchally Estate in Gleneagles with it's own balcony.  As you may be able to tell from the picture, one evening we had a Country theme and everyone got right in the spirit!  It was a brilliant night which ended with a show and tell where everyone brought something and shared a story about me and them, it was amazing!  During the day we chilled out at the spa, played rounders, ate brilliant food and at night we all got glammed up and headed to Gleneagles Hotel for a meal - perfect weekend which I will treasure.

In August I got married!  I struggle to put into words exactly what the day meant to me.  Our ceremony was outside in my aunts garden and the sun shone as we said our vows.  Darren looked so handsome in his kilt, even though he isn't Scottish is was a lovely guesture for him to wear it for my benefit.  Later on everyone filled the dance floor and I literally danced the night away.  It was our perfect day.

In October, we jetted off on our honeymoon!  Our was a bit non-traditional as instead of two weeks by the beach we headed off for a road trip of Southern USA!  We started in Atlanta, Georgia before heading to Talladega in Alabama to watch the NASCAR.  Then we went to Memphis, where we explored Graceland, Sun Studios and drank way too many cocktails on Beale Street!  We then headed to Nashville.  Now if you ever have the opportunity to visit, do it! It is an amazing place.  We even took in an NFL game at LP Field which, although I don't understand the game, was a great experience.  We stayed at an Airbnb in East Nashville which was an annex to a bigger house.  It was super cosy and our hosts baked us fresh cookies every morning.  Our next stop on the road trip was Pigeon Forge which is famous for being the birthplace of Dolly Parton!  She has her theme park there, appropriately named Dollywood.  It was such a pretty setting, up in the mountains with all the autumn leaves.  On our way back, we had 24 hours to spend in New York City. We had agreed on the places we wanted to fit in - The 9/11 Memorial, Times Square and Empire State Building.  We also saw Taylor Swift perform at Times Square!  We were both completely knackered when we got back home, but we have so many happy memories and experiences to look back on it was totally worth it!

So there we have it.  2014.  I'm kinda sad to see the back of this year so it was bittersweet wishing my husband a Happy New Year as the clock struck midnight.  I can't wait to see what adventures 2015 will bring!

Glam Candy Blogger Event & Reader Offer!

A couple of weeks ago I was invited along to find out more about the Glam Candy Make Up School at the beautiful Papillon Salon in the heart of Glasgow.  We met the Managing Director of the company, Hayley, who was just lovely and shared the story behind the company.  Glam Candy offer various masterclasses and well as more professional courses for those keen to get into the industry.  Alongside the professional course, they also offer an agency service for new artists.  I think this is such a spot-on idea as I would imagine it's tough to get bookings until they become more established.

We were introduced to Carol and Nikki from the Pro Artist Team.  Nikki showed us how to achieve a couple of looks; a beautiful neutral smokey eye and a Christmas party-appropriate purple sparkly look.  Nikki really knew her stuff, especially when she started pulling out her palettes - it was a blur of Lorac, Hourglass and Anastasia Beverly Hills! I got a bit giddy at that point and before I knew it I was in the make up chair and Nikki was teaching me how to achieve the perfect eyeliner flick and smoking up my eye look with the Lorac Mega Pro palette!

We were kindly gifted a brush set and I have been really enjoying playing with them all.  In particular I have been enjoying using the fan brush, which I have been using both to contour and highlight as it seems to both concentrate the product and blend at the same time.  I also love the little spooley brush for taming my brows and the small shader brush for smoking out my liner on the lower lash line.  The angled brush is soft and fluffy and is ideal for crease work.

They have given me a cheeky little discount code for all my readers too! Click on over to Glam Candy now to snap up the deal, whether it's for someone else or for yourself...self-gifting is totally justified at Christmas!

They have also kindly invited me along to one of their Masterclasses in the new year, which I'm really looking forward to. I'll keep you all posted on what I learn!

Glowy FOTD featuring Bobbi Brown Shimmer Brick

Well, well, well...Summer has officially arrived and when it comes to make-up that means a lighter base, an extra dusting of bronzer and anything I can find to give me face that dimensional, glowy effect.

The rise in temperature conveniently coincided with the Bobbi Brown Shimmer Brick in Rose landing on my doorstep!  These little shimmer bombs have cult status amongst us beauty geeks and are a cornerstone of the Bobbi Brown brand.

Ain't she a little beauty?  After my initial 'ooohing' and 'ahhhing', I realised that I wasn't actually sure how to use this.  Was it a blush? A highlighter? Or some kind of in-between?  Luckily, a Google image search taught me that it can in fact be a blush or a highlighter.  I did apply it as a blush but unfortunately I think my skin is a bit too dark at the moment and the pink glow doesn't really show enough for me to be satisfied, so if you are NC25 or lighter this might work better for you.  However as a highlighter it gives a smooth, glowing finish.  I used it in all my regular highlighter areas; tops of cheekbones, down centre of nose, cupids bow and centre of my chin and I must say it is really natural and not harsh in the slightest.

Here is a photo of it in action.  I think this really shows how natural and healthy it looks.  Of course, as with any product, if you swirl this on like there's no tomorrow it's going to start to look very obvious, so go easy ladies and build it up.

I also used the Shimmer Brick on my eyes with a little bit of brown in the crease, so this product can be a right little multi-tasker and ideal for holidays.

You can find the Bobbi Brown Shimmer Brick, along with plenty of other Bobbi Brown products as part of their mahoosive selection of beauty products, on the QVC website.

June Favourites

I don't normally post about monthly favourites, but there have been a few products I have really been diggin' this month, so I fired up the camera and blabbed on about them!

You can check out the video below, or click here to see my YouTube Channel.

Bye Bye Google Friend Connect

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

I'm sure you'll all be sick of hearing this, but I thought I'd pop this quick post up anyway for anyone who wasn't aware that as of 1st July, Google Friend Connect will be no more.  GFC is the little box on the right hand side of my blog, the one with all the little smiley faces of my lovely followers.  Somehow Google thought it would be a good idea to get rid of this...yeah, good one Google!

So, after we have all shaken our fists angrily at Google for taking it away, you can follow me on Bloglovin, which is a great alternative.  I haven't personally made much use of Bloglovin up until now, but I'm going to move my blog reading list over there later - eeek..wish me luck!  Hopefully you'll want to take the time to follow me over there!

See you on the flip side!

Heather x

Fake Tan Essentials

I thought I would share with you my current fake-tanning routine.  I have had my own fair share of disasters in this area, you know the ones..oompa-loompa tan, orange palms - need I go on?  So now that I have found something that works and is relatively inexpensive to boot, I had to tell you about it.

Exfoliation really is key to achieving the best faux-tan result.  I have wasted a lot of money tried many different exfoliators but generally I find them not scrubby enough.  A blob of cream with 2 scrubby beads in it just aint gonna cut it.  So around a year ago I picked up these Soap and Glory Exfoliating Gloves and I have never looked back.  Pop these on whilst in the shower, get them wet, use your shower cream of choice and scrub away.  Now, these kinda remind me of a brillo pad for the body as they are very scrubby, but I am a fan of that as it really seems to boost the circulation and, most importantly, get rid of any flaky skin or dry areas.  Plus, you can just throw these in the washing machine and they'll last for ages.  

Next up I have a self tan mitt.  The person who designed this ingenious bit of kit seriously needs to give themselves a pat on the back.  It is basically a piece of thin foam, backed with plastic, so that when you use this to apply your tan, you don't end up with the dreaded orange palms - genius!  You can pick these up for a couple of pounds in Primark.

My tan of choice recently has been the Karora Self Tan Mist in Dark.  I was sent this to try a while back and I am really enjoying using it.  It has a fine mist spray which doesn't dump all the product in the one area.  I usually spray this on and then buff it in with my mitt, just to make sure it's even and well-blended.  It dries quickly too so that's a bonus - no standing flapping your arms about (just me?).  I usually fake tan before bed, and then shower off any residue in the morning, so I'm not sure how long the tan takes to develop.  However it leaves an even, natural colour on my skin.

Somehow, it looks like my hand is a totally different colour in both the before and after pictures, but I think it's just the angle it's at.

Karora have their own website, however as they are an Irish company I'm not sure if they ship to the UK.  They also have a range of products on the Cloud10 Beauty website.  Karora have produced this handy application video, which you can check out here.

Bronzed Make Up

I have this theory.  My theory is that Scotland is edging ever closer to the North Pole.  Take today as an example  beautiful sunny skies peppered with light fluffy clouds.  I stepped out of the house with short sleeves, not entirely inappropriate given this it's almost June, and almost got frostbite by the time I walked to the care.  Well I say walk, but I was in a fully-blown sprint when I realised how cold it was.  Seriously weather, if you could just crank up the temperature by a few degrees, i'd really appreciate it.
So I have decided that if the actual sun isn't going to actually stick around long enough to give me a bit of colour, then I might as well crack out the fake tan, and give myself a Summer-appropriate face of make-up.

I used the last few drops of my Ideal Flawless foundation by Avon, which feels really lightweight yet gives a decent amount of coverage.  I skipped bronzer, and popped on MAC Mineralise Blush in Warm Soul.  This blush and tanned skin go together beautifully to give a healthy natural flush, plus it has a slightly sheeny finish without being garish (*ahem* Sleek Rose Gold *ahem*).  I dusted a little No 7 Vital Enlightening Highlighting Powder over the tops of my cheekbones, down the bridge of my nose and on my cupid's bow to amp up the glow factor.  This product was limited edition, but it's a pretty standard off-white pearly shade.

I found my MUA Heaven and Earth palette hanging around in the back of my make-up drawer and created a fuss-free bronze-y eye, before lining my eyes with Loreal Perfect Slim Liner and applying lashings (get it??) of Loreal Mega Volume Collagen Mascara.  To finish off I applied Revlon Lip Butter in Crème Brule, which gives a hint of shine and colour, but without being heavy or sticky.
So, if you've got a bit of warm sun where you are; a: get out there and enjoy it and b: I'm totally and unashamedly jealous.
And if I see a polar bear I'll let you know.